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.

February 8, 1985

The Hockey News February 8, 1985

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>QUEBEC&mdash;After attracting only 1,368 spectators to its All-Star game at the 15,434-seat Colisee in Quebec City, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is investigating ways to rejuvenate its annual showcase.One of the most interesting proposals is a two-game series against the Canadian Olympic team.&ldquo;A very superficial approach has been made to (Olympic coach and general manager) Dave King and he is thinking of playing the Ontario and Western Hockey Leagues as well,&rdquo; said QMJHL president Dr. Guy Morissette.Morissette envisioned games occuring on the Friday and Sunday of a weekend shortly after Christmas.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll know how our stars are going to be and I understand Dave King is going to form his team in August.&rdquo;The QMJHL president said that although his board of governors hasn&rsquo;t discussed the idea yet, the venue likely would be in the area of either Montreal or Ottawa, in which the QMJHL&rsquo;s Hull Olympiques and the Ottawa 67s compete in their respective circuits.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an interesting idea and both sides would benefit,&rdquo; said King, who guided the national junior team to the 1982 world championships. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s very important that they understand our program.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to start contacting players pretty soon and our schedule will be quite flexible in some months,&rdquo; said King, who sees the format as a valuable scouting tool. &ldquo;The decision would be the Olympic Comrqittee&rsquo;s. I understand there is a meeting coming up soon between the Olympic Committee and the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League soon and I hope it comes up for discussion.&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve kicked it around in an informal way,&rdquo; said Ed Chynoweth, president of the CMJHL, an umbrella group for the QMJHL, the OHL and WHL. &ldquo;We intend to meet with Hockey Canada and they&rsquo;ll tell us what they think.&ldquo;One of the ideas behind it is that it gives the junior leagues a way of recouping some money for lost players. It also could give people in some areas a chance to see a different brand of hockey.&ldquo;One fear we would have is if we would be competitive enough if they&rsquo;re using older players and we&rsquo;re using younger players.We&rsquo;re prepared to listen.&rdquo;&ldquo;Our all-star game was a game for the scouts, not the fans,&rdquo; Morissette said, after his league tried a contest between undrafted players in which the LeBel Division beat the Dilio Division 5-3. &ldquo;Everybody was disappointed, including me. We lost a certain amount of credibility when the game between undrafted players from Ontario and Quebec fell through.&rdquo;A two-game All-Star series with the OHL originally had been scheduled featuring games in Quebec City and Kitchener but OHL commissioner Dave Branch said the inaccessibility of Quebec by air made conditions for the OHL team unreasonable.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had 4,000 to 5,000 fans in the past in the Montreal area, even with a big snow storm,&rdquo; Morrisette said. &ldquo;But for years, people have been saying we should go outside of Montreal so we tried it.&rdquo;&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a great situation,&rdquo; said Shawinigan Cararacte coach Ron Lapointe, who was behind the Dilio bench. &ldquo;It was my idea. We had to try something different and we showcased 40 young players. I don&rsquo;t think the format was that bad.&rdquo;WELCOME TO THE QMJHL &ldquo;It was one of those nights, I just hope it was the last one,&rdquo; said Jean-Pierre Comtois following a 12-2 loss to Hull Olympiques in his fourth game behind the Longueuil bench. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

QMJHL All-Star Affair Falls Flat

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-06" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06190/4967897-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL TEAM ROSTERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01531/4967017-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="413" height="518"><figcaption class="caption-body">ADAM OATES RPI</figcaption></div><h2>ECAC</h2>Adam Oates of RPI not only took over the ECAC scoring lead from Harvard&rsquo;s Scott Fusco, but he also collected eight points as the Engineers swept Vermont to win the nod as the ECAC Performer of the Week. Oates scored three times as RPI won 7-3 and 8-2.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02344/4967010-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="418" height="511"><figcaption class="caption-body">CHRIS TERRERI Providence</figcaption></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>Providence goalie Chris Terreri made 85 saves to spark the Friars to a pair of road wins over the Denver Pioneers, 5-4 and 4-2, winning the nod as Hockey East Performer of the Week for the third time this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03226/4967003-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="417" height="512"><figcaption class="caption-body">CRAIG SIMPSON Mich State</figcaption></div><h2>CCHA</h2>Craig Simpson of Michigan State, who is being touted as one of the top picks for the 1985 NHL draft, picked up eight points in the Spartans&rsquo; 11-2 and 9-4 romps over Michigan to get the nod as the CCHA Performer of the Week.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-04158/4966996-1-eng-US/f0027-042.jpg" title="f0027-04" width="419" height="511"><figcaption class="caption-body">JIM ARCHIBALD North Dakota</figcaption></div><h2>WCHA</h2>North Dakota&rsquo;s senio winger Jim Archibald, 1981 draft pick of thi Minnesota North Stars scored eight points to become the WCHA Per former of the Week. Th, Sioux rolled over Michi gan Tech, 8-0 and 4-2.THE BAUER PERFORMERS OF THE WEEK &#9632;

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Bauer FIT FOR PERFORMANCE

(Standings on Mon. Jan. 28)<h2>NORRIS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2423/4968248-1-eng-US/f0038-242.jpg" title="f0038-24" width="523" height="181"></div><h2>SMYTHE DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2521/4968241-1-eng-US/f0038-252.jpg" title="f0038-25" width="525" height="177"></div><h2>ADAMS DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2618/4968234-1-eng-US/f0038-262.jpg" title="f0038-26" width="519" height="179"></div><h2>PATRICK DIVISION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2717/4968227-1-eng-US/f0038-272.jpg" title="f0038-27" width="525" height="210"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Mon. Jan. 21Montreal 1 at Boston 3Pittsburgh 6 at Washington 7St. Louis 6 at Detroit 3Minnesota 2 at Chicago 7Calgary 3 at Vancouver 3 (OT)Los Angeles 7 at Edmontn 8Tue. Jan. 22Montreal 8 at Hartford 5NY Rangers at Buffalo (ppd. snow)Toronto 2 at Quebec 2 (OT)Detroit 5 at NY Islanders 4Wed. Jan. 23New Jersey 3 at Calgary 6Philadelphia 3 at Los Angeles 6Pittsburgh 3 at Minnesota 4Washington 3 at Chicago 2Winnipeg 6 at Vancouver 4Thu. Jan. 24Buffalo 2 at Boston 5Quebec 4 at Montreal 3Toronto 1 at NY Islanders 4Detroit 1 at NY Rangers 3Fri. Jan. 25Buffalo 2 at Quebec 4New Jersey 2 at Edmonton 4Pittsburgh 6 at Calgary 6 (OT)Los Angeles 3 at St. Louis 6Winnipeg 4 at Vancouver 7Sat. Jan. 26Hartford 3 at Boston 2NY Rangers 2 at Montreal 3Washington 5 at NY Islanders 1Pittsburgh 3 at Edmonton 6Chicago 5 at Toronto 2Detroit 4 at Minnesota 4 (OT)Los Angeles 7 at St. Louis 3Vancouver 2 at Calgary 6Sun. Jan. 27Boston 8 at Hartford 4Quebec 2 at Buffalo 3NY Islanders 2 at Washington 5Minnesota 2 at NY Rangers 3Philadelphia 2 at Winnipeg 6Toronto 6 at Chicago 2 &#9632;

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SCOREBOARD

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;It had been poised over his neck for so long that it seemed to many that it would never fall, but on a bitter-cold January morning the axe did descend on Herb Brooks, the man who coached the miraculous 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to a gold medal and more recently was the struggling helmsman of the less-than-miraculous New York Rangers.Firing the entire team was one alternative passed up by Craig Patrick, Brooks&rsquo; assistant back then at Lake Placid who graduated to the general manager job with the Rangers and hired Brooks in 1981 and replaced him on an interim basis on Jan. 21.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got 35 games left to get a playoff position and something had to be done,&rdquo; Patrick explained. &ldquo;In 45 games I haven&rsquo;t been pleased; there are a lot of reasons we&rsquo;re not performing.&rdquo;Which is a nice way of saying that a Rangers&rsquo; season that defies adjectives&mdash;the word &ldquo;shameful&rdquo; just scratches the surface&mdash;was not all Brooks&rsquo; fault, but firing him was one way of hoping it could at least be salvaged somehow.Since his refusal to discuss his plans for 1985-86 until this summer&mdash;a fatal mistake in the eyes of many observers&mdash;Brooks was a &ldquo;lame-duck&rdquo; coach, his denial of that assertion notwithstanding. If he&rsquo;s gone in April or May anyway, what difference does two months make, especially to a team where some players were confounded by his &ldquo;mind-games,&rdquo; others reportedly driven to the point of hatred, and others either too uptight, too apethetic, or too green to play effectively.Make no mistake about it: it was Brooks&rsquo; players, not the media, nor the fans or the Barry Beck &ldquo;coward&rdquo; controversy who ran him out of town. They used the excuses of injuries, the remoteness of Brooks as a perennially dis-approving father-figure, the pressure of pursuing a Stanley Cup that had eluded this team since 1940, the difficulty of absorbing young players and men of diverse cultural backgrounds into the lineup, as justification for a performance that outraged their fans and ultimately had them letting each other down.Brooks did not sneak out of town with his tail between his legs. He took the offensive the day after his dismissal at a carefully-orchestrated appearance at a midtown Manhattan restaurant that had almost as many trappings of a campaign stop as it did of a press conference.Giving his version of just some of the events leading to his dismissal, Brooks left the door open for a return to the National Hockey League&mdash;but not the college ranks&mdash;after a suitable period of reflection.He laid the blame for his firing at the feet of Patrick and Ranger president Jack Krumpe. In so doing he put the puck squarely on those men&rsquo;s sticks in a stretch drive for the fourth and last Pat-rick Division playoff position that means so much to the bottom line of the team&rsquo;s parent monolith, Gulf and Western.&ldquo;Last summer, I offered my resigna tion to Craig Patrick and Jack Krumpe as a matter of certain values and principles which I hold very important in the world of sport,&rdquo; Brooks disclosed in a prepared statement distributed to a score of reporters. &ldquo;My resignation was not accepted and I decided to stay on in the hopes that things would improve.&rdquo;What Brooks referred to was his unful-filled desire to have input on personnel decisions.&ldquo;I would like to have a little bit more&mdash;and I did ask for this&mdash;of a say-so on the people who went up and down in the organization,&rdquo; he explained, adding that he forced the issue in recent meetings with Krumpe and Patrick and &ldquo;it came to a head and the rest is history, I guess.&rdquo;Too smart to throw stones, Brooks left enough unsaid about the inner workings of his former team. But it was clear that his emotions were just beneath the surface, as they had been&mdash;publicly, at least&mdash;all season. It was obvious in the way he carried himself, and between the lines of what he said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011215/4965509-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="574" height="164"></div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2>&ldquo;Hurt? I was a little hurt,&rdquo; he recalled of his final meeting as a coach with his former boss. &ldquo;To say I wasn&rsquo;t hurt would be to say I didn&rsquo;t care. I care a lot about the Rangers; you don&rsquo;t put three and a half years into something and not be hurt, and not feel&hellip;a certain warmth and respect for the team.&rdquo;Brooks spoke haltingly then, as he did when he addressed even stronger feelings, his choice of words reflecting pain and more anger than he was willing to acknowledge explicitly.&ldquo;I have no malice or hatred in my heart, or to wish misfortune on people in the organization,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think the fans in this town deserve the best.&rdquo;Two nights later, Patrick made his debut in his second reign as Ranger coach, the first in 20 games into the 1980-81 season after he fired Shero. He would have liked the pressure-packed unveiling to have come on the road, but snow cancelled the Ranger game in Buffalo the day after Brooks&rsquo; ouster. So the scene was a 3-1 victory over the Red Wings in which the team showed many of the attributes&mdash;physical play, aggressiveness and enthusiasm in a game galvanized by four fights&mdash;that could have saved Brooks&rsquo; job.The tone of the night was set by a nefl theme song from the P.A. system as the team took the ice. &ldquo;Turn it On Again&rdquo; by the band Genesis.But the ability to turn it on can also be interpreted as a self-indictment of the players, as one reporter pointed out to Patrick following the game. After all, these young men are paid to get their jobs done no matter who is the boss.Beck, the team&rsquo;s maligned captain of late, declared that &ldquo;this one was for Herb and now we go on from here.&rdquo;It was a little bit late for that, wouldn&rsquo;t you say? &#9632;

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Brooks Pins Blame On Patrick, Krumpe

In the Feb. 15 issue, we&rsquo;ll profile the National Hockey League all-star game, scheduled for Feb. 12 in Calgary. In addition to announcing the lineups and voting for both the Campbell and Wales Conference teams, we&rsquo;ll have a plethora of other features on the midseason game that brings together the best players in the NHL. Watch for New York Islander scoring ace Mike Bossy on the cover.And, of course, we&rsquo;ll have a complete rundown on every NHL team as well as in-depth coverage of the minor, junior and college leagues.All that plus much, much more.Don&rsquo;t miss it. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK IN THN

&ldquo;Things have gotten so bad, I might have to get back into uniform&ldquo;&ndash;New York Islander coach AI Arbour, comment-ing on 14 of 27 Islander being injured &#9632;

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Scott Bachinski is an 11-year-old left winger for the West Fargo (North Dakota) Warriors Peewee A team.This is his fifth year of organized hockey, including three years on travel teams. Two seasons ago, he was selected captain of his squirt team. Last season, he played up at the peewee B level and this year was voted captain of the peewee A team.In his first 24 games this season, he has 51 goalsand 17 assists.During the summer, Scott attends a number of hockey schools and has received numerous awards. He also plays football and participates in track and field. He is a grade five student at Lewis and Clark School in Fargo, ND.Scott dreams of playing high school hockey and then playing college hockey at the university&rsquo; of North Dakota. His ultimate dream is to play for Team USA in international competition and then go on to a career in the National Hockey League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031018/4965626-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="554" height="878"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Bachinski</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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JOFA

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04897/4965657-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="712" height="982"><figcaption class="caption-body">Larry Robinson played center up until his first year of junior B and then was converted to defense.</figcaption></div>Larry Robinson feels that one of the biggest problems with youth hockey programs today is the number of games youngsters are asked to play.&ldquo;The biggest offenders are the parents,&rdquo; said the veteran Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; defenseman who has played on five Stanley-Cup winning teams. &ldquo;They take great pride in the fact a kid has played 110 or 115 games a year. Then they can&rsquo;t understand that when he reaches 16 years old, he doesn&rsquo;t want to play the game.&ldquo;There is so much emphasis placed on winning rather than just going out and playing the game that a kid just doesn&rsquo;t want to play anymore.&rdquo;Robinson, who is a two-time winner of the James Norris Trophy as the best defenseman in the league as well as the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the most valuable player in the league in 1978, admitted he never had that problem growing up in the youth hockey programs in Russell, Ont., near Ottawa. He never played any organized hockey until he was eight years old, although he skated on the frozen makeshift rinks in his hometown of Marvelville.&ldquo;There was aprogram in Russell, sponsored by the Lions Club,&rdquo; said Robinson, a threetime first-team all-star and second-team all-star twice. &ldquo;We were all drafted into four or five house-league teams and we went to different tournaments in the area.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;There is so much emphasis placed on winning rather than just going out and playing the game.&rsquo;</blockquote>Robinson was playing midget hockey in the area while still of bantam age and went straight from the midget program to junior B in Metcalfe, playing for the Lions Club-sponsored team.&ldquo;I tried out for the (Ottawa) 67s B club but then Brockville gave me a chance for the Central Junior League and I played there for two years,&rdquo; said Robinson, who co-captained Team Canada to the Canada Cup in 1984. &ldquo;My final year of junior, a guy by the name of Punch Scherer came down after one of our playoff games and invited me to play for the Kitchener Rangers.&rdquo;Robinson, who formed one third of the Canadiens&rsquo; great backline in the &rsquo;70s and is helping to tutor another talented corps, wasn&rsquo;t always a defenseman. He played center up until junior B. but in his first year in Brockville they had only two defensemen so he was converted to defense.&ldquo;Dan Dexter was the coach at the time and he asked me if I wanted to play defense,&rdquo; Robinson said. &ldquo;I played it for two seasons there and in Kitchener.&rdquo;And. unlike some youngsters today, Robinson has never felt that he wanted to quit a youth hockey program.&ldquo;I had too much fun playing the game.&rdquo; said the 33-year-old veteran. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the only way I&rsquo;ll continue to play the game.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Minor Hockey Flashback: Larry Robinson

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;The cold snap which hit most of North America in January certainly was not the only chill to hit Montreal.The Canadiens, who streaked into first place in the Adams Division lead in the first half of the season and had a 12-point lead in December, were clinging to a two-point lead as January was drawing to a close.&ldquo;Through the whole year we have had tough games against lower teams,&rdquo; said center Guy Carbonneau. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve lost games to those teams and I think if we want to play in first place, we have to start winning against those teams.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t seem to have any trouble getting up for the big teams, but we have to start doing better against the lower teams.&rdquo;For example, the Canadiens played twice in January against the New Jersey Devils. They lost 5-4 in New Jersey and then were tied 4-4 by the Devils on Montreal ice.From the New Jersey game, the Canadiens went on to lose 3-1 in Boston, win 8-5 in Hartford, and then lose 4-3 to the Quebec Nordiques in Montreal, blowing a lead for the second consecutive home game.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have the big offense most of the teams have got,&rdquo; Carbonneau admitted. &ldquo;We seem to be able to score the goals we need. When we play the lower teams, the guys seem to want to score and that opens the play a little bit.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011273/4965595-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="582" height="170"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s not our game. Our game is to play safe.&rdquo;Yet, there are those who are starting to feel perhaps the Canadiens are trying to play it a little too safe. They allowed the Whalers to dominate them in the third period of a Jan. 17 game in Montreal and were lucky to hang on to a 5-4 victory. Against the Devils, the Canadiens had a 4-3 lead entering the final period but New Jersey kept on pushing them back into their own much like the Nordiques did just five days later.&ldquo;We have been making mistakes that we didn&rsquo;t make in the first 20 or 25 games,&rdquo; Carbonneau said.Carbonneau has struggled recently after getting off to an excellent start. There was some speculation at the start of the season that the Canadiens would call upon Carbonneau to provide more offense this year. He might have been cast in a full offensive role had Swedish center Thomas Rundqvist been able to make the team.&ldquo;I scored 24 goals last year and I don&rsquo;t see why I can&rsquo;t score 30 this year,&rdquo; Carbonneau noted. &ldquo;I was a little upset. I went for 12 games without scoring a goal. I was not sure of myself.&ldquo;The team was still winning but I didn&rsquo;t feel I was involved enough in the the effort for the team. I went to see Jacques Lemaire. He doesn&rsquo;t want me to score 30 goals. He wants me to stop the opposition, the best player on the other side. That&rsquo;s what I am trying to do now.&ldquo;I know I can score goals, but in my mind my defensive play is the most important. I can&rsquo;t take chances. I am sure if the time comes that they want me to score goals, I will be all right.&rdquo;Carbonneau rode the bench in the third period of the Canadiens 3-1 loss in Boston on Jan. 21, but the next night in Hartford, he had two assists in a 8-5 victory over the Whalers.Carbonneau fits in well with Lemaire&rsquo;s team plan. He has become one of the better faceoff men in the league. Similar to every other member of the Canadiens, Carbonneau knows his job.&ldquo;Jacques won&rsquo;t put pressure on gues like me or Chris Nilan or Bob Gainey to score goals,&rdquo; Carbonneau concluded. &ldquo;Guys like Mats (Naslund), Mari (Tremblay) and Bobby Smith are expected to score.&ldquo;We really know what we are supposed to do on the ice and that helps our team a lot.&rdquo;IN PASSING&mdash;Chris Chelios had a mini cast placed on his ailing right ankit and was hoping to able to participate in the Canadiens western swing into couver and Los Angeles. Chelios received a letter from a faith healer who promised he could cure the young defenseman through magnetism&hellip;Little progress is being made in Lucien DeBlois&rsquo; recovery from tom stomach muscles&hellip;Chelios, Mike McPhee, Tom Kurvers and Alfie Turcotte are among a group of Canadien players taking French lessons&hellip;Chris Nilan became the Canadiens&rsquo; all-time penalty leader when he received a triple minor in Hartford on Jan. 22. Maurice (Rocket) Richard held the old mark of 1,285 which Nilan bettered by three minutes.<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.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021189/4965588-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="1188" height="1378"><figcaption class="caption-body">&ldquo;MY DAD IS THE ONE WITH HIS EYES OPEN.&rdquo;</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Habs’ Deep Freeze Coincides With Weather

<div class="byline">By Bob Duff</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011139/4965688-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="406" height="448"></div>Q: My brother and I were talking about all of the related players in the NHL and I said that Mark Messier of Edmonton and John Blum of Boston are related in some way. He insists that they are not. I haven&rsquo;t been able to find out who is right, so you&rsquo;re my last chance.K. Novak Pittsburgh, PAA: You can rest easy. Your brother is wrong. Messier and Blum are indeed related. They are brothers-in-law.Q: Why was there no decision in the 1918-19 Stanley Cup final?Maria Annunziata Long Island, NYA: The Montreal Canadiens of the NHL and Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast League met in Seattle to contest the Stanley Cup championship in the spring of 1919.The North Ameican continent was swept that year by a devastating epidemic of Spanish influenza, which claimed numerous lives. It also would ultimately claim another victim in the Stanley Cup finals.Seattle won the first game of the best-of-five series 7-0. The Habs rebounded to double the Mets 4-2 in game two, but Seattle again routed Montreal by a 7-2 score in the third game. Game four was one of the greatest in Stanley Cup history. The two clubs battled through 100 minutes of goalless hockey before calling the game. It was ruled no contest. The Habs followed with a 4-3 overtime win in game five to even the series at two games apiece.By this time, many Montreal players were very sick. Defenseman Joe Hall was the worst hit, eventually being rushed to hospital. Four others, including star center Edouard (Newsy) Lalonde, were quarantined in their hotel rooms. Owner George Kennedy also grew gravely ill.Hall never recovered and died in the hospital four days later. Kennedy never fully regained his health, finally dying in 1921.The Metropolitans could have clained Lord Stanley&rsquo;s mug by default, but refused to do so. Thus, there was no decision.Q: There has been quite a hassle recently over retiring NHL player&rsquo;s numbers. Could you please run a list of the NHL teams that have no retired jerseys.Paul Baril Earlton. Ont.A: The following teams have no retired uniform numbers: Calgary Flames, Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders and Winnipeg Jets. But look for the Kings and the Islanders, in particular, to retire several numbers in the future. Marcel Dionne is sure to have his sweater hung in the Forum, while the Islanders, who are already issuing numbers in the 40s to some players, have numerous players who should see their numbers retired.If you want your question answered, write to:ASK THE DUFFER115 3rd Avenue South, 316Saskatoon, Sask.Canada, S7K 1L7All letters will be read, but only those published will be answered. Personal responses are not possible. &#9632;

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ASK THE DUFFER

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; Ulf Sterner, 23, became the first European-born and trained player to compete in the National Hockey League when he was called up from the Baltimore Clippers by the New York Rangers. Ironically, the promotion came after a benching by the Clippers.&bull; San Francisco Seals&rsquo; owner Mel Swig unveiled plans for a 15,000-seat arena, believing that the Western Hockey League city would gain an NHL franchise.Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; The East Division beat the West 4-1 in the 23rd NHL All-Star game. Goalie Jacques Plante of the East saved the game from turning into a rout when he came in at the halfway point and didn&rsquo;t allow a goal for the remainder of the game.&bull; NHL president Clarence Campbell opposed compulsory use of helmets by players, claiming that it would be &ldquo;like adding five pounds to a iockev.&rdquo; &#9632;

THIS WEEK…20 Years Ago

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02835/4965750-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="393" height="451"></div>There has been much talk over the past couple of years about Keith Gretzky, younger brother of Wayne of the Edmonton Oilers, eventually turning pro and playing in the National Hockey League.The whole idea brings to mind a similar situation that occurred a generation before when Vic, younger brother of Gordie (Mr. Hockey) Howe, tried to follow in some pretty big footsteps.&ldquo;Being Gordie&rsquo;s brother was great,&rdquo; recalled Vic, who played in parts of three seasons (1950-51, 195355), 33 games to be exact, in the NHL with the New York Rangers. &ldquo;But trying to play like him, well, that what another story.&ldquo;At times there was a great deal of pressure on me. I know I put a lot of pressure on myself.&ldquo;There was never any doubt in my mind that Gordie was a better player than me.&ldquo;But it just seemed that every time I turned around, somebody was always comparing the two of us. It was just something I had to live with.&rdquo;While playing for Saskatchewan in the old Western Hockey League, Vic recalled one time when his coach made a verbal comparison.&ldquo;I had a breakaway and I went in on goal but had some trouble putting the puck past the goalie,&rdquo; said Vic, who played the right wing position like Gordie. &ldquo;I missed the shot.&ldquo;I got back over to the bench and sat down and our coach, Doug Bentley, stepped behind me and said, &lsquo;Gordie wouldn&rsquo;t have missed that shot.&rsquo;&ldquo;So it didn&rsquo;t matter what I did. The comparison would always be there.&rdquo;There was a time in Vic&rsquo;s life when hockey didn&rsquo;t really mean that much to him.&ldquo;Until Gordie turned pro I never really had any thoughts of playing pro hockey,&rdquo; Vic said. &ldquo;But when I went and played junior hockey in Windsor that gave me a chance to see Gordie play more.&ldquo;Being just across the lake from Detroit I would go and see him play a lot. The more I saw him play the more I thought it would be interesting to see how I would do in the NHL.&rdquo;Although he didn&rsquo;t see that much action in the NHL, Vic recalled the biggest thrill of his short career.&ldquo;I scored the biggest goal of my life against (Gordie&rsquo;s team) the Detroit Red Wings,&rdquo; said Vic, who only scored three goals in his brief NHL career.&ldquo;I can remember playing against Gordie a couple of times.&ldquo;I even recall lining up against him and then having to go into the comer against him for a puck. He took it easy on me and didn&rsquo;t give me any of the elbows he was famous for.&rdquo;Today, Vic, a constable for Canadian National Railway in Moncton, N.B., is well aware of the Gretzky brother situation. He certainly knows the kind of feelings that Keith must have.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t envy him at all,&rdquo; said Vic, 55, who resides with his family in Moncton. &ldquo;There is no doubt in my mind that he will be under a lot of pressure if he turns pro.&rdquo;Vic did have one piece of advice for Keith.&ldquo;If I were him I would change my name,&rdquo; said Vic.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03584/4965743-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="1211" height="999"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vic Howe recalled a time when he went into the corner with his older brother Gordie, who was notorious for using his elbows.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Comparisons Were Part Of Being Gordie’s Brother

1. What current NHL netminder was the top goalie in the IHL in 1971-72?2. Name the current NHL coach that once coached San Diego of the old Western Pro league?3. Name the only coaches to have been at the helm of a Stanley Cup and Calder Cup (AHL) champion?4. What team chose Anders Hakans-son next to last in the 1976 entry draft?5. Against which goaltender did Wayne Gretzky score his first NHL goal?6. What two Quebec Nordique forwards are brothers-in-law?7. What NHL team originally drafted Calgary&rsquo;s Carey Wilson?8. When was the last season that all of the NHL&rsquo;s top scorers did not register at least 100 points?9. Who was the first NHL player to register 90 points in a season?10. Against which team did Vancouver record its first NHL win?Answers in next week&rsquo;s issue.<h2>Last Week&rsquo;s Trivia Answers</h2>1. Kevin McCarthy, Troy Loney and Mitch Lamoureux.2. 17.3. Oliver and Earl Seibert.4. Terry Ruskowski.5. Denis Herron.6. Bill Cook, 1932-33.7. Ron Anderson.8. Edmonton Oilers.9. Tommy Anderson, NY Americans, 1941-42.10. Gord Sherven. &#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/f0005-04393/4965805-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg"></div>that the most points in one season by a player who didn&rsquo;t win the NHL scoring title is: &#9632;

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Did You Know…

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div>TORONTO&mdash;Who is Tim Bernhardt? If you check the Toronto Maple Leaf fact book you&rsquo;ll be hard-pressed for an answer because he&rsquo;s not listed, but if you&rsquo;ve seen the Leafs play lately then you&rsquo;ll know Bernhardt is one of the reasons why Toronto is narrowing Detroit&rsquo;s lead in the race for the final playoff position in the Norris Division.Bernhardt, who turned 27 on Jan. 17, is classified as a rookie because before this season he had a record of five losses in five decisions in the National Hockey League. However, in a seven-game stretch between Jan. 13 and Jan. 26. he had a record 5-1-1 and had allowed only 20 goals.Bernhardt, amazingly, was a free agent heading into this season after the Calgary Flames&rsquo; dropped him. Despite a respectable showing at the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; training camp, Bernhardt was released because of an overflow of goalies, so he signed with the Leafs but was destined for St. Catharines where he played last season on loan from the Flames.In December, however, when the Leafs decided that their tandem of 20-year-old goalies, Ken Wregget and Allan Bester, were seeing too many shots for their own good, they abandoned their plans and decided to replace youth with experience.First came Bernhardt, then Rick St. Croix, but ever since the latter&rsquo;s ham-string injury in a game against Boston on Jan. 9, Bernhardt has been the Leafs&rsquo; No. 1 goalie. (Wregget, coincidentally, has been the backup but the fact the Leafs refuse to put his name on the back of his jersey could be an indication of where he&rsquo;s bound once St. Croix returns to-health).Bernhardt is glad to receive the chance to play a consistent string of games&mdash;even if it has more to do with St. Croix&rsquo;s misfortune than his own ability&mdash;but he&rsquo;s not putting any pressure on himself.&ldquo;If you put too much pressure on yourself it may backfire,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just trying to make the most of the opportunity.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011320/4965843-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="583" height="1186"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Korn was one of three Maple Leafs to return from a suspension.</figcaption></div>Bernhardt credits the Leafs&rsquo; two-game road trip in Vancouver and Los Angeles&mdash;after a five-game losing streak at home&mdash;for the Leafs&rsquo; turnaround.&ldquo;Collectively, everyone came together&hellip;everything fell into place,&rdquo; he says.And Bernhardt has been the beneficiary of that. Instead of the Leafs allowing the opposition 40 and sometimes close to 50 shots a game, they&rsquo;ve been paying more attention to defense&mdash;which is what Leaf coach Dan Maloney feels his players must do if they have any hopes of making the playoffs. Bernhardt, in turn, has been making the key first saves.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02959/4965836-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="575" height="191"></div><h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2>However, Bernhardt&rsquo;s strength appears to be his concentration. After losses to the New York Islanders and Chicago, the team was somewhat deflated, but Bernhardt kept his calm. In the return game against the Hawks, the Leafs gave a robust and spirited performance, but Bernhardt, again, maintained his composure. He practises the John Anderson &ldquo;don&rsquo;t let the highs get too high and the lows too low&rdquo; philosophy.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t let the final result affect the overall game,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The bottom line is you have to win.&rdquo;Bernhardt, who along with his wife, Lucy, has been living in a hotel near Maple Leaf Gardens since being recalled from St. Catharines, has been told by the Leafs&rsquo; management to seek out an apartment. It would seem to be a vote of confidence in his favor, but Bernhardt isn&rsquo;t taking any chances.&ldquo;When you get an apartment you expect to stay the rest of the year, but you have to ask them (management) that,&rdquo; says Bernhardt.LEAFLETS&mdash;Jeff Brubaker, Bob McGill and Jim Korn returned after three-game suspensions and Basil McRae, Leigh Verstraete and Bill Stewart were dispatched to St. Catharines. Stewart, however, is refusing to report-&hellip;Leaf owner Harold Ballard is pictured on the front cover of Canada&rsquo;s weekly magazine. Maclean&rsquo;s. The title of the story is Harold Ballard&rsquo;s Slapstick Leafs. Leaf captain Rick Vaive is on the front cover of oal, the official magazine of the National Hockey League, and here quoted, albeit optimistically, as saying the Leafs have a chance of finishing fire in the Norris Division. Vaive&rsquo;s wife, Joyce, is spearheading the Leaf wives&rsquo; cookbook for charity, The Girls Of The Maple Leafs Are Cooking. &#9632;

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Bernhardt Helping Leafs To Clip Wings

<div class="byline">BY RON COBB</div>Harry Omest was reminiscing about those hectic, early days of August, 1983, when he and Ron Caron were racing against the clock to piece together the St. Louis Blues.Omest had just bought a comatose franchise from the National Hockey League, and the pulse was weak. Caron, not yet hired as director of hockey operations, hid flown into town at his own expense to assist Omest in several urgent matters. At the top of the list was player contracts. In order to protect his rights to a number of players, Omest had to send out the contracts postmarked no later than Aug. 10.Late in the day on Aug. 10, Omest, Caron and two lawyers put the final stamps on the contracts. Caron noted the time: 4:20 p.m. The material was delivered to the post office just before closing time.&ldquo;We had a multitude of things to do,&rdquo; Omest said recently. &ldquo;As I look back, I wonder how we did it.&rdquo;As he spoke, the Blues were tied with Chicago for first place in the Norris Division. Attendance was holding steady at an average of about 13,000. The team was about to leave town for a four-game road trip on which it would charter out of three cities.All things considered, life could be worse for a franchise that nearly was tom apart in a tug of war between St. Louis and Saskatoon two years ago.&ldquo;The attempt by Ralston Purina to dissolve or sell the Blues is nothing but a faded memory,&rdquo; Omest said.Indeed, the success of the Blues under Omest can hardly be viewed as good news for former owner Ralston Purina, the St. Louis-based corporation that sued the NHL for blocking the sale of the team to a Saskatchewan group. The trial date for that suit has been set for June 10 in St. Louis.&ldquo;The most satisfying thing is that we&rsquo;ve established credibility in the NHL and in the community,&rdquo; Omest said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re proud of what we&rsquo;ve accomplished in so short a time. We&rsquo;ve established an organization that has a good feeling.&rdquo;Omest admitted to making a mistake early last season when he cut costs on flights home from Montreal and Hartford. The Blues spent all day zigging and zagging from one connection to another, and when word spread around the league, Omest was branded as a cheapskate.He chafes at the label, not only because of the exaggeration but also the irony. It was precisely because of excessive spending under the previous regime that Ralston Purina lost millions and decided to unload the team.Omest also was accused of casting off players solely because they had big salaries, but hindsight reveals that the moves were justified from a hockey standpoint.&ldquo;I will not let a dollar adversely affect our hockey team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve gone first class, and we&rsquo;ve put the club on sound financial footing. It wasn&rsquo;t that hard. That&rsquo;s my training.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s no master stroke to get rid of players who don&rsquo;t fit in. Doesn&rsquo;t that make sense?&rdquo;General managers around the NHL were eager to help the Blues become solvent in those first fews months.&ldquo;They were knocking on my door,&rdquo; said Caron, &ldquo;and they were ready to relieve me of my problems. They tested us for (Rob) Ramage, (Bernie) Federko, (Brian) Sutter and (Joe) Mullen with big, big, figures. I could have traded Mike Liut 10 times.&ldquo;They probably misunderstood our position. We had to be financially careful, but we didn&rsquo;t have to beg.&rdquo;Caron&rsquo;s biggest challenge, once he had plucked Jacques Demers out of the American Hockey League to be his coach, was to undo some of the damage done by those who had preceded him. Not only did the club have little to show for its &rsquo;81 and &rsquo;82 drafts, but because of Ralston Purina&rsquo;s negligence, the Blues had gone unrepresented at the &rsquo;83 draft.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011174/4965888-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="752" height="952"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02841/4965881-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="755" height="956"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03586/4965874-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="752" height="958"><figcaption class="caption-body">Harry Ornest, the owner of the Blues, has risen above criticisms of being frugal, while director of operations Ron Caron has resisted making desperate trades, and coach Jacques Demers has gained the respect of the players.</figcaption></div>The trade that has been hailed as Caron&rsquo;s best move was made in December 1983, when he sent Perry Turnbull to Montreal for Gilbert Delorme, Doug Wickenheiser and Greg Paslawski. They gave Caron what he needed: youth, added depth and an immediate contribution.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you frankly I had not anticipated so valuable a return,&rdquo; Caron said, &ldquo;at least not until this year.&rdquo;Lack of young players in the system also was a prime consideration in Caron&rsquo;s other big move. Most people refer to that deal as the one last June in which St. Louis received Montreal goaltender Rick Wamsley for the Blues&rsquo; No. 1 draft choice. But a key part of the trade for the Blues was gaining extra picks in the second and third rounds.Caron&rsquo;s improvements notwithstanding, the Blues are regarded around the league as a team of overachievers who bust their tails for Demers. The Blues don&rsquo;t have the talent that Chicago and Minnesota have, but they have competed with those teams on even terms.Demers, who was rewarded last month with a three-year contract extension, believes his players work for him out of a sense of mutual respect.&ldquo;When you have that, you can go a long way,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You have to have complete communication with the players and let them know where they stand. In the &rsquo;80s, athletes dictate if they want a coach around. If they didn&rsquo;t work for me, I could have been fired.&ldquo;The players have a say in who coaches the team. Unless your name is Scotty Bowman or Al Arbour, that&rsquo;s the way it is in hockey.&rdquo;No player produced more consistently for Demers last season the center Bemie Federko, who set career highs with 41 goals and a club-record 107 points. He is ahead of that pace this season, with 55 points in 37 games, and likely will lead the Blues in scoring for a seventh consecutive year.The toughest time for Federko and his teammates had been the six months that followed the announcement in January, 1983 that the team was for sale until Omest completed his purchase. But some of the anxiety carried over into the new season.&ldquo;Anytime you get new ownership or management,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;everybody starts all over again. You have to prove yourself every year, but even more so when you have new management.&ldquo;I think it put a lot of pressure on everybody, and we all worked a little harder.&rdquo;Success, however, is relative for Federko, who can see how far the Blues have to go as clearly as he can see how far they&rsquo;ve come.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve achieved some things,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but we still ended last year with 71 points and we&rsquo;re only. 500 now, so we&rsquo;re not a great team. We still have to go out and work hard every night.&ldquo;Until you win everything, you haven&rsquo;t accomplished that much.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0007-01

Blues Sing Happy Tune In St. Louis

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div>May 18, 1983.That date is etched in the minds of virtually every Saskatonian, for that was the day of reckoning, when the National Hockey League board of governors voted 18-3 against the sale of the St. Louis Blues to a group of Saskatoon investors, headed by Bill Hunter.It&rsquo;s been almost two years since that fateful day, but the people of Saskatoon remember it like it was only yesterday.&ldquo;The only thing I can compare it with would be the day John. F. Kennedy was assassinated, or when Paul Henderson scored to beat the Soviets in 1972,&rdquo; says Dane MacKinnon, a local broadcaster and host of a radio-sports talk show.&ldquo;Everybody in Saskatoon remembers exactly what they were doing when the announcement came that the NHL had rejected us.&ldquo;I think people expected the worst, but they were still disappointed when it finally happened.&rdquo;MacKinnon said that the NHL dream exceeded the city limits of Saskatoon. It was a province-wide affair.&ldquo;Everywhere you went, people were talking hockey,&rdquo; MacKinnon said. &ldquo;Everybody was talking about the NHL.&rdquo;Even the rural area got caught up in the excitement. People began organizing pools to purchase season tickets. In the small town of Spiritwood, some of the locals even went as far as to purchase a bus or transportation to the games.Then the roof fell in.The sudden realization there would be no NHL team in Saskatoon upset many. They demanded the addresses of the various NHL teams, to voice their disapproval. League president John Ziegler became as popular in these parts as a bitterly cold prairie winter.Today, the city&rsquo;s chances of an NHL franchise do not seem any better. One of the major stumbling blocks in 1983 was the lack of a major league facility. Two years later, there&rsquo;s still no new rink.The arena has been a source of great debate in Saskatoon. As recently as mid-December, mayor Cliff Wright announced a proposal by which the city would put aside $10 million towards a new arena. They are counting on the provincial and federal governments to ante up the remainder of the costs of a proposed $18million coliseum.Thus far, the arena plans remain buried in bureaucratic red tape. Recently, Wright was greeted with catcalls and chants of &ldquo;We want a rink,&rdquo; when introduced at a Saskatoon Blades&rsquo; junior game.Indeed, there is unrest in this city about the lack of effort that has been made to improve Saskatoon&rsquo;s NHL chances. But that has not dampened the spirit of the ever-optimistic Hunter, who still sees his NHL dream coming to fruition.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been working very quietly since our first proposal was rejected, putting together a group of backers for a new proposal,&rdquo; says Hunter. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve got to have a rink. I hope there will be a positive announcement in regards to that subject by this spring.&rdquo;What, in reality, are Saskatoon&rsquo;s chances at the moment? Slim, at best, it would seem. The unstable franchises at the beginning of the 1984-85 season have seen their situations solidify. Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, aided by improved teams, have begun to draw more fan support. And the Winnipeg Jets recently signed a new three-year lease with the Winnipeg Arena.That leaves expansion as the next alternative. The NHL certainly does not need any more teams.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want to get involved in another political situation like St. Louis,&rdquo; adds Hunter. &ldquo;But I do know we want a franchise.&rdquo;Toronto Maple Leaf owner Harold Ballard has said he will not die until the Maple Leafs win a Stanley Cup. Bill Hunter confesses the number one goal in life right now is to bring the NHL to Saskatoon. At the moment, it appears both men had better be prepared to live long lives. &#9632;

Saskatoon Remembers May Day

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>It&rsquo;s Sour Hour</h2>IS EVERYBODY HAPPY? Well, if the truth be known, no, they&rsquo;re not.Let&rsquo;s see, the National Hockey League suspends New York Islander goaltender Billy Smith for six games for whacking Chicago&rsquo;s Curt Fraser in the face, resulting in a fractured cheekbone.The immediate response?Billy Smith is mad, says he doesn&rsquo;t deserve anything.Chicago general manager Bob Pulford is mad, says Smith deserves far more.And you can bet that the majority of media&mdash;print and broadcast&mdash;will be mad, saying the NHL&rsquo;s judicial system is a farce.An isolated incident? Not really.The NHL suspends Edmonton&rsquo;s Mark Messier for 10 games for sucker-punching Calgary&rsquo;s Jamie Macoun. Oiler GM and coach Glen Sather is mad, says Messier got hit too hard and that the NHL judicial system is a joke. The Calgary Flames, meanwhile, figure Messier got off too easy. And, of course, the media rips the NHL royally.Take the Brian Propp suspension&mdash;four games for slashing Calgary&rsquo;s Tim Hunter&mdash;and it&rsquo;s a simple matter of substitution and fill in the blanks.Of course, NHL executive vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill takes all the flak because he makes the decisions. The fact of the matter is that O&rsquo;Neill works within guidelines set down by the owners and the collective bargaining agreement.So what&rsquo;s the bottom line?Well, aside from the obvious image problem the league has regarding discipline and the way it metes it out, no one&rsquo;s happy. Not the guy who gets suspended. Not the victim of the crime. Neither general manager. And not the media or fans.What to do?Well, it may sound corny, but it&rsquo;s time for one of the NHL&rsquo;s blue-ribbon panels with representatives from every field of the game. This circus scenario of NHL discipline has gone on long enough.Perhaps the movers and shakers from every level can sit down and come up with some new guidelines that will make everyone reasonably happy.After all, we wouldn&rsquo;t want to see a complete end to the bellyaching. It would be unconstitutional, wouldn&rsquo;t it? &#9632;

The Hockey News

Regarding your referendum on fighting, I can only hope the NHL&rsquo;s board of governors doesn&rsquo;t take it as a mandate.Regardless of what these 61 per cent &ldquo;pro-fight&rdquo; hockey fans think, fisticuffs have no part in the world&rsquo;s fastest (and most exciting) sport. Down here in Florida there is precious little coverage of hockey and it&rsquo;s all image-related.The average sports fan who&rsquo;ll plunk down his dough to watch a comparatively dull Major League baseball game thinks that NHL hockey is little above championship wrestling when it comes to sports value. I was ashamed to say I was a fan of hockey after watching the Montreal-Quebec fiasco in last year&rsquo;s playoffs. Friends of mine who were willing to give the game a chance were disgusted with the violence and delays.If you recall the 1980 Winter Olympics, anyone will tell you that the U.S. gold-medal win in hockey was the most exciting event. The beauty of the game that combines the skills of skating, puckhandling and checking is far more exhilarating than watching two goons beat the hell out of each other while everyone else stands and watches, ice littered with gloves and sticks.What fight can compare to Boss and Trotts on a two-on-one, or the Great One spinning his magic, or Langway and Co. shutting down a five-on-three. Don&rsquo;t give me the &ldquo;pent-up-aggression&rdquo; argument, either. Pro football linemen have one-job only: to hit each other. Rarely are they involved in actual fights, and if they are, it&rsquo;s out of the game and nobody complains.Pro hockey, please clean up your act and show the world your true colors as the best sports game there is. And maybe we can get a franchise down here, too.36Gregory Winters Ft. Lauderdale<h2>FITZGERALD HAS A POINT</h2>As a former fan of Harry Sinden, I have to applaud Joe Fitzgerald&rsquo;s column in the Jan. 11th issue.Not only was Sinden wrong in un-retiring Dit Clapper&rsquo;s number and giving it to Guy Lapointe, but Stan Fischler has to be crazy to think it was a &ldquo;thoughtful gesture&rdquo; on Sinden&rsquo;s behalf. It was stupid and cruel, nothing else.But the final straw is Sinden&rsquo;s refusal to retire Phil Esposito&rsquo;s number seven. Espo was one of the greatest players of all time and his number should be hanging above the Boston Garden Ice, not on Ray Bourque&rsquo;s jersey. Even Bourque said he wouldn&rsquo;t mind giving it up for Esposito. But since Sinden&rsquo;s ego outweighs the wishes of thousands of Esposito&rsquo;s fans, we will probably never see Phil Esposito honored at Boston Garden like Orr, Bucyk and the others.Well, Harry, I hope you&rsquo;re proud of yourself. First Bobby Orr was allowed to get away because of money, you fired Don Cherry next, and now you&rsquo;ve stabbed Clapper and Esposito in the back.What&rsquo;s next, trade Rick Middleton, Ray Bourque and Pete Peeters to the Toronto &ldquo;Make Beliefs?&rdquo; No, you couldn&rsquo;t even be that cruel! Harry, you blew it!Edward Leslie Edmonton. Alta.<h2>DOWN ON SIMMONS</h2>I am writing in response to Steve Simmons&rsquo; column (Jan. 11), What I Did, Didn&rsquo;t Like About Hockey Year &rsquo;84.How could Simmons possibly call Ray Bourque overrated? Bourque was then leading the struggling Boston Bruin team in points. He is, in my opinion, the best all-round defenseman in the NHL.Also, why wasn&rsquo;t the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; Tim Ken-under the Why Didn&rsquo;t They Draft? title. Kerr, who last year notched 54 goals and seems as if he will do as well if not better this year, is a better man to have around that any of Beers, Macoun, Kisio, Skorodenski or Huddy.Most teams would rather have a 50-goal scorer on the right wing than a defensive defenseman. The name of the game is to score goals&mdash;and that&rsquo;s what big Tim Ken-does best, so he should have been drafted before the others. Turn in your typewriter, Mr. Simmons.Brent Pederson Torquay, Sask.<h2>CANUCK FAN GONE CRAZY</h2>Thank you for your recent article, Decline and Fall Of Vancouver. I am a long-suffering Canuck fan who is &ldquo;mad as hell and can&rsquo;t take it any longer.&rdquo;Your authors, Jeff Z. Klein and Karl-Eric Reif, were very kind to have overlooked two major boners: (1) trading Glen Hanlon for four players, none of whom are current Canucks and (2) failing to reclaim Mike Rogers, at no cost, when the WHA teams were asbsorbed into the NHL.It&rsquo;s time to acquire a major-league general manager. Mr. Neale may be Stan Fischler&rsquo;s most quoted comic-GM, but to me he&rsquo;s no joke.Ian Lifchus Matawan, NJ &#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/f0008-011258/4965991-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="398" height="458"></div>On a recent Saturday night broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada, commentators Dave Hodge and Don Cherry were exchanging pleasantries and witticisms when the subject of National Hockey League discipline came up.Specifically, they were discussing Edmonton Oiler Mark Messier&rsquo;s 10-game suspension for unloading on Calgary Flame defenseman Jamie Macoun.In this instance&mdash;a rare one, mind you&mdash;Hodge, the moderate, and Cherry, the redneck, were in complete agreement: Player suspensions just don&rsquo;t seem to be working as a detriment.&ldquo;The guy may be suspended but he&rsquo;s still getting paid by the team under the table,&rdquo; said Cherry, indicating that there is little financial clout being wielded by the league.&ldquo;The regular season doesn&rsquo;t mean that much, to most teams,&rdquo; said Hodge, arguing that 10 regular season games is like getting hit with a cream pie.So if we can assume that when a moderate, such as Hodge, and a right winger, such as Cherry, can&rsquo;t find anything to argue about, then that qualifies as consensus, perhaps a mirror of what the hockey community feels.Based on that assumption, the next question is easy: What can be done to give NHL sentences some gusto?Now, that may not be a tough question to ask, but it&rsquo;s substantially more difficult to answer.Hodge came up with a novel suggestion: Make the guilty players serve their suspensions in the Stanley Cup playoffs, when it really counts.Could you imagine the furor, for example, if Messier had to sit out the Oilers&rsquo; first 10 playoff games? The way they&rsquo;re playing, that would keep him out of action until midway through the conference final.While that suggestion is food for thought, it does have some shortcomings, (i.e. what would the league do to guilty Toronto Maple Leaf players? Forbid them from playing in the Molson-NHL Slow-Pitch tournament in Niagara Falls?).Dazzling Don seemed to more or less agree with Hodge that something had to be done, though he didn&rsquo;t come up with any specific suggestions.Nevertheless, the idea of coming up with new ways of policing the NHL is a good idea, even the league turns down its hearing aid.One which immediately comes to mind is heavier fines. No team likes to fork over dollars to the league, especially if the sums get to be rather large. Only one problem, here, though. The NHL&rsquo;s collective bargaining agreement only allows for a maximum $500 fine against a player.Quite simply, there aren&rsquo;t a lot of choices because (a) the current rules don&rsquo;t permit them, and (b) the dinosaurs out there don&rsquo;t want to change the existing rules.So, the last resort may lie with the players and, in fact, the matter was discussed rather informally by a few members of one NHL club just recently.&ldquo;The guys were talking about the Billy Smith-Curt Fraser incident,&rdquo; said a player agent who was privy to the discussion. &ldquo;One of the guys said if he had been the one chopped by Smith, he&rsquo;d go the Dennis Polonich route. That&rsquo;s scary, but it sure might be effective.&rdquo;In case you&rsquo;ve forgotten, Polonich, then a Detroit Red Wing, received more than $600,000 in damages from Wilf Paiement, now a Quebec Nordique, for a stick-swinging altercation several years ago that left Polonich beaten rather badly.Hockey people have always resisted attempts for outside authority&mdash;be it the police or judge or jury&mdash;to become involved in the game. The sport, it&rsquo;s always been said, can police itself.In these helter-skelter days, one wonders if that&rsquo;s true anymore. Maybe, just maybe, it&rsquo;s going to take some large cash settlements and messy court cases to put a clamp on the NHL crazies.Just remember there are at least a few players out there thinking about that very possibility.And that is scary. &#9632;

f0008-01

Searching For Wavs To Police Our Game

<div class="byline">Frank Orr</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011240/4966046-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="386" height="436"></div>STEVE SHUTT RUNS the risk of a few folks back East saying that a transcontinental flight and change in uniform from the red, white and blue of the Montreal Canadiens to the purple and gold of the Los Angeles Kings has clouded his view of the world.Shutt was traded&mdash;or given, depending on which version of the deal is correct&mdash;to the Kings by the Canadiens early in the season. After a half season in the Smythe Division, Shutt claims that the most entertaining variety of hockey is being played in that sector of the National Hockey League.Note that he didn&rsquo;t say the best hockey, just the most entertaining brand.&ldquo;The emphasis in this division is on speed, led, of course, by the Edmonton Oilers,&rdquo; Shutt said. &ldquo;But Winnipeg Jets have a fast team now and Calgary Flames are one of the best skating teams in the league. We have a fair bit of speed and even the Vancouver Canucks, who have had a few problems this season, have a lot of quickness and finesse.&ldquo;Look at the trouble the Canucks have been for the Oilers this season. If you can&rsquo;t dance a little, you aren&rsquo;t going to have any luck against Edmonton.&rdquo;The statistics back up Shutt&rsquo;s claim about interesting hockey. Four of the top five scoring teams in the league this season are in the Smythe Division. Only the New York Islanders intrude on the Oilers, Flames, Jets and Kings at the top of the offensive list.&ldquo;This definitely is the speed division, and if you don&rsquo;t have it you won&rsquo;t be there,&rdquo; Shutt said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been in a few jet battles this season and it&rsquo;s been fun.&ldquo;Having the Oilers in the Smythe set the standard and the other teams knew they would have to get a few burners if they wanted to keep pace.&rdquo;Thus, Shutt feels the excitement in the NHL has moved west.&ldquo;A few seasons ago, the Adams and Patrick divisions produced the best hockey to watch but not now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The Smythe has the Sjjeed and attack while the Adams has become a division for grind-it-out, defensive teams. Philadelphia Flyers and the Washington Capitals are fighting for the Patrick lead and they&rsquo;re the two best defensive teams.&ldquo;Those two divisions have very effective teams but not very exciting to watch.&rdquo;Shutt feels that the swing to tight, controlled defensive play by the Canadiens was one of the reasons for the demise of him and Guy Lafleur, who retired last month, with the Montreal team.&ldquo;The Flower and I were from a different era when the Canadiens emphasized defense and puck control,&rdquo; Shutt said. &ldquo;Sure, we knew how to check&mdash;the Canadiens all did&mdash;but we were at our best when we fuelled up the old firewagon and stepped on the juice.&ldquo;When the team started to stress defense, they really didn&rsquo;t have a spot for us any more.&rdquo;According to one story, Shutt was given permission by the Canadiens to go to a team that was interested in his services. The Kings were his pick.&ldquo;If I was going to change teams, the Kings were my first choice,&rdquo; Shutt said. &ldquo;That was because of the division they&rsquo;re in and the needs the team had.&rdquo;Despite that, Shutt, who scored 406 goals for the Canadiens, has not been cast in a gunner&rsquo;s role by the Kings. He&rsquo;s been more of a &ldquo;role player&rdquo; for the L.A. crew, working on the third line.&ldquo;What Shutt brought to our team is the influence of a man who&rsquo;s been a big winner and, on a young team, that&rsquo;s an important ingredient,&rdquo; said King coach Pat Quinn. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s raised our level of skill and added a very positive influence.&rdquo;While Shutt has found the Kings&rsquo; travel schedule to be a big change, he enjoys the lack of recognition after a decade in the glare in Montreal.&ldquo;I never realized what a grinding experience it is not to be able to go anywhere without being recognized until I was out of that atmosphere,&rdquo; Shutt said.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve enjoyed being able to leave hockey at the rink and live my life outside of the game without the recognition.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s also failed to find what is supposed to be the non-hockey atmosphere of California with sunshine and beaches.&ldquo;The rink here is the same temperature as the Montreal Forum,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And the beach is really an overrated thing. Very few guys on the team ever go to the beach.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0009-01

Shutt Says The West Is The Best

<div class="byline">BY JEFF Z. KLEIN AND KARL-ERIC REIF</div>It&rsquo;s approaching the All-Star break&mdash;a time to depart for a moment from our usual format, grab a hot-dog and a beer, and present a few random notes on the season so far.LIFE DURING WARTIME&mdash;Today&rsquo;s hockey, by and large, stinks. All you see these days are goals, goals, goals, as though the sport itself were hopped up on bad amphetamines.This year, as in recent seasons, there is an average of 7.85 goals being scored in each National Hockey League game (the 67-year average is only 6.04 goals per game). The only other eras in which there was such ridiculously high scoring was during World War I and II, when players were constantly being shipped overseas to fight.There is no military draft today to serve as an excuse for the present goal-scoring blitz, but in terms of the quality of hockey the fans are getting these days, this is indeed life during wartime.The point is that defense now seems a forgotten art, and the &ldquo;complete two-way player&rdquo; seems a thing of the past. The free-wheeling wunderkinder popu-lating today&rsquo;s NHL rosters are prodigious offensive talents by any standard, but those youngsters considered to be good defensive players are mostly just clutch-and-grab artists who never could have gotten away with such stuff 10 years ago, when defensive play required genuine skills and strategies. When was the last time you saw a good rolling hipcheck in open ice? These are sad times for the sophisticated fan.GO AHEAD, MAKEMY PLAY&mdash;A couple of months ago, we wrote that Corb Denneny won the 1919-20 assistscoring title by the widest margin ever recorded by an NHL player (36.1 per cent), nosing out Bill Cowley&rsquo;s 1940-41 performance by a tiny fraction. Dave Phelps, of Chattanooga, TE, wrote in to tell us we were wrong. Mr. Phelps was right: Denneny and Cowley did indeed finish in a dead heat as the most-dominant single-season playmakers in league history.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02935/4966077-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="537" height="997"></div>FRANKIE GOES TO EVELETH&mdash;A gremlin worked its mischief a few weeks ago on our piece about the best American player of all time. The story incorrectly said that Tom (King) Barras-so needed only one more good season to beat out Frankie Brimsek as the top Amerk goalie in NHL history. One of us was almost lynched on a recenf trip to Brimsek&rsquo;s hometown of Eveleth, MN, as a result of this typo.To set the record straight, Brimsek is by far the best American goalie of all time, Mike Karakas the second best, and Barrasso the third best. One more very good season (such as the one he&rsquo;s how having) would make Barrasso the second best; 10 more great seasons would make him No. 1.THE MUTILATOR&mdash;How has Torrie Robertson managed to collect more than 200 penalty minutes so far this season without getting suspended even once (at least as of this writing)? Robertson is a stick-swinging menace, and Hartford suffers terribly for having him on their roster. In a campaign that has seen such yahoos as Scott Stevens and Paul Baxter reform themselves&mdash;and turn into topnotch players as a result&mdash;the play of Robertson is an especially noisome spectacle.NINE WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE&mdash;Hats off to these players who have performed with such consummate grace and competence for so long without getting much credit for it, and who this year are playing as well as ever: Gilles Meloche, Denis Herron, Craig Ramsay, Brian Propp, Bengt-Ake Gus-tafsson, Tony McKegney, Ivan Bol-direv, Bob Murray and Tim Bothwell.YOU&rsquo;RE ONLY AS YOUNG AS YOU FEEL&mdash;The excellent performance of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s 28-year-old rookie, Warren Young, is one of the happiest developments this season. And another 28-year-old up for his his first full campaign, Mai Davis of Buffalo, was also playing well before being felled by an injury. All this is heady stuff for those of us born in 1956.THE TORONTO MAPLE LAFFS&mdash;A lot of teams have been shamefully disappointing this year: Rangers, North Stars, Red Wings, Black Hawks. But one team in the unique position of being absolutely horrible without surprising anyone is, of course, Toronto, which is sporting one of the worst winning percentage&rsquo;s of all time, and are the absolute worst in Leaf history.AUREL HISTORY&mdash;Anyone who saw 83-year-old Aurel Joliat skating around the Forum at the Canadiens&rsquo; 75th anniversary celebration last month has to agree with us that the man is a national treasure. Even at his age, he can play on our team any day of the week.Now back to business. In the box be-low, the rankings for NHL goalies so far this year in terms of perseverance, our statistic that combines save percentage with the number of shots a goalie faces.A netminder with a. 950 save percentage who faces an average of 30 shots per game would earn a perseverance rating of 1000. So would a goalie with a. 915 save percentage who faces 51 shots per game.Goalies qualify for the list if they&rsquo;ve played in at least one-third of their teams&rsquo; games this season. &#9632;

f0009-02

Dead Heats Frankie. The Mutilator And A Few Laffs

<div class="byline">Stan Fischler&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011298/4966108-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="376" height="445"></div>A major hockey literary crisis has hit the United States and Canada as frantic editors on both sides of the border have run out of Wayne Gretzky stories.&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s a problem, imagine that you&rsquo;re a sports editor and your publisher just banged on your door demanding: &ldquo;Where the hell is our Wayne Gretzky story for today?&rdquo;You can&rsquo;t tell him you don&rsquo;t have one; unless you like getting fired. What you do is start thinking of one, two or three fresh Gretzky ideas.But, perish the thought, you can&rsquo;t come up with any because every last Gretzky angle&mdash;from how he removes dandruff to his favorite Aleutian Island spa&mdash;has been explored.Well, almost every one.As a humanitarian gesture to save the jobs of sports editors throughout North America, I hereby offer Fischler&rsquo;s Foolproof Gretzky Feature Idea List, complete with made-forty story line:1. WAYNE GRETZKY SECRETLY WISHES HE WAS BILLY CARROLL: Powerful human interest story. Wayne finally confesses that he&rsquo;s sick and tired of ridiculous questions such as &ldquo;Why haven&rsquo;t you converted to Hinduism?&rdquo; After completing his 8,234,698th interview, Gretz comes clean, admitting that he&rsquo;d rather be Billy Carroll, sitting quietly in the comer, being subjected to approximately one question a season. (Story has several spin-off possibilities: EPISODE II: BILLY CARROLL WISHES HE WAS WAYNE GRETZKY. EPISODE III: PAUL COFFEY WISHES HE WAS KEVIN LOWE. EPISODE IV: GLEN SATHER THINKS HE IS GOD.2. EXPOSE&mdash;WAYNE GRETZKY UNCOVERED AS A LOUSY STICKHANDLER. Fed up with &ldquo;nice-guy&rdquo; Gretzky stories, the public has been thirsting for a scandal piece and, at last, this is it. The inside story is provided by Squealer Lee, proprieter of Wayne&rsquo;s favourite Chinese restaurant, Sum Dum Ref. In an exclusive interview, Lee reveals: &ldquo;I see Glorious Leader do plenty bad job with chop sticks. Kid lose large amount of rice when eating. Very bad stickhandler!&rdquo;3. EXCLUSIVE! GRETZKY BLASTS OLDTIMERS. SAYS HOWE, RICHARD AND HULL COULDN&rsquo;T MAKE IT IN TODAY&rsquo;S NHL. Angrily, Gretz not only lets his critics have it but also socks it to Howe, Richard and Hull. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no way that Vic Howe, Louis Richard or Gary Hull could have made even the third line on the Oilers,&rdquo; snaps The Kid. Headlines follow. It can&rsquo;t miss as long as Gordie Howe, Rocket Richard and Bobby Hull read the fine print.BROOKING NO HERB&mdash;An hour before Herb Brooks was fired, I had just begun writing two possible scenarios for the Ranger coach: (a) &ldquo;The Miracle of 33rd Street&rdquo;&mdash;in which Herb rallies his Rangers and triumphantly leads them to the Stanley Cup, or (b) &ldquo;Mutiny on the Blueshirts&rdquo;&mdash;this time Herb is Captain Bligh and his mutinous malingerers eventually do him in.I don&rsquo;t have to tell you which theme turned out to be the big dramatic hit on Broadway. It was Mutiny all the way.Only a myopic nincompoop would dismiss Brooks as a failure. His ideas were brilliant and anyone who watched a vigorous Ranger team perform against the Islanders last spring would realize that, given a healthy team, Brooks was capable of superior asccomplishment.If anything, Herb might have been too intellectual for the NHL, perhaps too creative for his own good; perhaps even too idealistic, which would explain why he chose not to sign a new contract with the Rangers last summer. That decision, more than anything, set in motion the inevitable rumors that his days in New York were numbered.If it was a mistake on Herb&rsquo;s part, it was an honest one. Frankly, I am pained whenever the NHL loses good people such as Herb Brooks, or Don Cherry. Let&rsquo;s hope that Herb comes back&mdash;somewhere, sometime soon in the NHL.ABOUT BILL SMITH&mdash;Neil Milbert, the HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; Chicago correspondent (and an old friend of mine), got me good and angry the other day when he wrote of an incident involving New York goalie Billy Smith during the Islanders&rsquo; game with the Hawks on Jan. 13. Milbert said: &ldquo;&hellip;Billy Smith lived up to his reputation for treachery.&rdquo;Treachery no. Honesty yes.Bill Smith has made no bones about one very important flaw in the hockey rule book and NHL officiating&mdash;the rules involving the goal crease and protecting a netminder from mindless interference has been egregiously ignored for years.Unlike many other goalies, Smith does not benignly accept a lawless situation on which a 6-foot-2, 200-pound forward sticks his derriere in the goalie&rsquo;s face with impunity.For a decade, refs have allowed this rule-breaking situation to occur so that the offenders escape with impunity. It&rsquo;s dumb bordering on asinine, but because the officiating high command is still playing ostrich it happens again and again.Chico Resch may accept it but Bill Smith won&rsquo;t. What Milbert and the other Smith-knockers overlook is the simple statement he is making by his actions&mdash;goalies need more protection and they&rsquo;re not getting it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve complained to the league for years,&rdquo; says Smith, &ldquo;and nothing happens.&rdquo;The NHL rulemakers, in their finite wisdom, ought to wise up. For starters, they ought to consult the 1934 NHL rulebook. Try page 116, section 12a, &ldquo;INTERFERENCE WITH GOALTENDER.&rdquo; Read carefully, Scotty Morrison, John McCauley and Neil Milbert: &ldquo;If a player on the attacking side, not in possession of the puck, takes up any position at or near the goal of the defending side in such a way as to obscure or interfere with the vision or movements of a goalkeeper while the latter is in the net, the referee shall at once stop the play and order a faceoff. A goal scored while the vision or the movements of a goalkeeper, in his net, are being interfered with by a player of the attacking side shall not be allowed.&rdquo;That, my friends, is the way hockey should be played. The NHL should insure that a goaltender has a chance&mdash;nay, a right&mdash;to see the puck being shot. He has a right to be able to perform his job without interference.The NHL has an obligation to make hockey a better and safer game. It should start by doubling the size of the goal crease and then placing the above rule back in the books in capital letters so that it is strictly enforced.Neither Bill Smith nor Grant Fuhr nor Chico Resch should have to contend with a forward whose chief strategy is to block his view, or maraud through the crease or generally intimidate the goalie.Goalies should be able to see the pucks flying at their heads at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour. Common sense dictates that the league do something about it. Until the NHL acts. Bill Smith is merely taking common sense into his own hands. Neil Milbert, don&rsquo;t confuse treachery with survival.PHILLING UP ON SIMMONS&mdash;If Steve Simmons thinks he&rsquo;s going to intimidate me out of dropping another Phil Esposito line in BLUELINES, as he noted in the Jan. 25 issue, he has another thing coming. Besides which, I take exception to the line &ldquo;&hellip;Esposito wants to make sure his name is mentioned for every available (general manager&rsquo;s) position.&rdquo;Steve, I got news for you: It&rsquo;s people such as you who give Phil Esposito a bad name. No, take that back; not a bad name but the idea that he&rsquo;s shopping all over the continent for a GM&rsquo;s job.The fact is that Espo has his hands full with all the money he&rsquo;s making in New York, at one time doing the Ranger telecasts, running the Phil Esposito Foundation (handling philanthropic operations that the NHL itself should have done decades ago), and getting Al Eagleson angry (which in itself is a humanitarian gesture).Steve, if you think Phil wants to works in the wilds of Western Canada or manage the Canucks in the Orient (isn&rsquo;t that where Britiish Columbia is?), you&rsquo;ve got to be kidding. There are only four cities in the world where Espo would be at home managing: 1. Madison Square Garden, because he&rsquo;s now a bonafide New Yorker; 2. the Meadowlands, because it&rsquo;s just across the river; 3. Boston Garden, because it was his second home and 4. Los Angeles, because there&rsquo;s a little bit of Hollywood in him.Frankly, I don&rsquo;t see Phil managing. Similar to Don Cherry, he&rsquo;s too popular for his own good and he&rsquo;s making too much on the outside to bothered by an NHL job. And furthermore, Mr. Simmons, if you think that&rsquo;ll keep Espo out of BLUELINES, kindly consult this week&rsquo;s column.OFF THE MARK&mdash;When I was a kid breaking into the newspaper business, my first editor, a gentleman named John W. Newton, warned me to beware of &ldquo;the gratuitous kick in the pants.&rdquo; Ever since then, I&rsquo;ve been vigilant about this and generally encounter one good example a year.This year my kick goes to Mark Everson, who covers the Rangers for the New York Post.Everson did a wonderful thing recently. Listing every Ranger, he prepared a report card on each one. The authentic gratuituos kick in the behind was delivered to left winger Nick Fotiu. Everson gave Fotiu an F, otherwise known as the failing grade.This was a stinko thing to do for the following reasons: (a) nobody on the Rangers tries harder or cares more about the team than Nick, (b) his talents, compared to a Pierre Larouche, are limited and (c) he is used sparingly and, above all the Rangers, needs more ice time to get in the groove. Never does he deserve an F.Fotiu has not been any worse than some of his mates and didn&rsquo;t rate the embarrassment Everson bestowed upon him.&ldquo;He (Everson) came over and apologized to me,&rdquo; says Fotiu. &ldquo;A lot of good that does.&rdquo;(Everson tells me he didn&rsquo;t apologize but rather wanted Fotiu to know in advance what he had done.)&ldquo;What he did to Nicky was a low-class move,&rdquo; says James Patrick, &ldquo;because all that Nicky wants is a chance to play. He deserves a lot more for working the best that he can under a bad situation. It&rsquo;s so tough on the guy having to go out there only once in a while.&rdquo;Fotiu&rsquo;s linemate Bob Brooke adds: &ldquo;Giving Nicky an F is unfair because Nicky&rsquo;s contribution to the club goes beyond statistics. An F is a definite downgrading.&rdquo;&ldquo;Nicky&rsquo;s in a category where you can&rsquo;t grade him,&rdquo; explains defenseman Willie Huber. &ldquo;I would definitely rather be playing with him than against him and that says something.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-01

Fischler’s Foolproof Gretzky Feature List

New York Islanders controversial goalie Billy Smith was suspended by the National Hockey League for six games just as this issue was going to press.Smith, the 34-year-old veteran of the Islanders, was suspended by NHL executive vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill for slashing Chicago&rsquo;s Curt Fraser during a game with the Black Hawks on Jan. 13. Fraser suffered a broken cheekbone.It was O&rsquo;Neill&rsquo;s third player suspension in a week. On Jan. 21, he tagged Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; forward Mark Messier for 10 games for cuffing Calgary&rsquo;s Jamie Macoun on Dec. 26 and later assessed Philadelphia&rsquo;s Brian Propp four games for highsticking Calgary&rsquo;s Tim Hunter.O&rsquo;Neill said it could not be proven that Smith used his stick in a deliberate attempt to injure, but that he used it &ldquo;irresponsibly&rdquo; on three occasions, one of them resulting in serious injury.Reactions from both Smith and the Black Hawks were mixed.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t understand the reasoning behind the suspension,&rdquo; Smith told THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; Stan Fis-chler. &ldquo;I thought when we met with O&rsquo;Neill (on Friday), we&rsquo;d cleared it all up.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad he cleared me then, or else I would have been out for two years,&rdquo; Smith added sarcastically. &ldquo;(Steve) Larmer was in my crease three times. Nothing I say will change anyone&rsquo;s mind. I talked for two hours and it didn&rsquo;t do any good.&rdquo;In Chicago, Black Hawk general manager Bob Pulford was incensed.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s ridiculous (the suspension),&rdquo; Pulford told Neil Milbert of the Chicago Tribune. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to talk to him (O&rsquo;Neill) and tell him I think it&rsquo;s ridiculous. The guy (Smith) has a record of doing it before and that&rsquo;s supposed to be considered. Obviously, he (O&rsquo;Neill) didn&rsquo;t consider it.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like when Gordie Howe hit with you elbows, saying he didn&rsquo;t mean it. He&rsquo;s (O&rsquo;Neill) saying he (Smith) didn&rsquo;t mean to do it.&ldquo;I thought Smith would get 10 (games). Jack O&rsquo;Callahan got eight last year and Behn (Wilson) got four.&rdquo;Smith&rsquo;s defense of his action may have played a part in the suspension not equalling that of Messier.&ldquo;Smith was very clear in his defense,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Neill was quoted in News-day on Jan. 26. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s an articulate man.&rdquo;Referee&rsquo;s can now stop play and talk to their linesmen and the goal judge in the event of a disputed goal.The decision was made official on Jan. 27 by director of officiating Scot ty Morrison and assistant director of officiating John McCauley after consultation with the league&rsquo;s officials, and will be included immediately in the &ldquo;mechanical procedure&rdquo; section of the officials&rsquo; handbook.McCauley said the decision did not result following any one incident, and that it &ldquo;had been under serious discussion for a long time.&rdquo; &#9632;

Smith Set Down For Six Games By O’Neill

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>LANDOVER&mdash;At the start of the season, Bryan Murray was concerned that participation in the Canada Cup might prove to be draining, both physically and mentally, for seven of his Washington Capital players whose training camp commenced in erly August.In a couple of cases, an effect has been. noted. As far as Bob Carpenter and Mike Gartner are concerned, however, they left Canada Cup competetion on a high and have never lost that momentum.Carpenter&rsquo;s second consecutive two-goal game, in a 3-2 victory at Chicago on Jan. 23, gave him six goals in four games and 37 over Washington&rsquo;s first 48 contests. That is five more than his previous career high and left him only four away from the National Hockey League record for a U.S. bom player, set last year by Joe Mullen of St. Louis.&ldquo;I feel really good physically and of course mentally I feel great, the way things are going,&rdquo; Carpenter said. &ldquo;At times I&rsquo;ve felt tired, particularly after long trips, but once I get here and rest, I&rsquo;m okay. My weight is 192, which is my highest ever. I usually lose a lot and last year I was down to 183 or 184, but this year it&rsquo;s stuck.&rdquo;Carpenter has not gone more than two games without a goal all season. There have been only nine occasions when neither he nor Gartner produced a goal. The linemates were waging a tight but friendly battle for the team scoring title, (with Gartner (29 goals and 34 assists) clinging to a slight lead over Carpenter (37-24) as of Jan. 24.&ldquo;The Canada Cup has had no effect on me yet, either physically or mentally,&rdquo; said Gartner, the only Capital to play for the gold-medal winning Canadian team. &ldquo;Everything is right on schedule&mdash;my weight&rsquo;s 186, as usual. It always stays right there.&rdquo;Defenseman Rod Langway lost eight pounds in a couple of days, but it was unrelated to the long season. Lang way, troubled by flu on and off the ice since) mid-December, was hit particularly hard before the game in Chicago, although he played anyway.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think anybody in the league would have played in that game,&rdquo; Mur-ray said. &ldquo;Rod wasn&rsquo;t going to play, but I asked him for a few shifts. Obviously, he gave us far more than that.&rdquo;Winger Bryan Erickson, who scored his 15th goal in Chicago, played with Carpenter, Langway and Dave Christian on Team USA. He had been in a scoring slump, but it seemed more attuned to his assignment to the fourth line than to any physical problem.&ldquo;This is all really still new to me,&rdquo; Erickson said. &ldquo;I feel good and even though it looks like I&rsquo;ve had a letdown, I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s it. One thing that helps me is having the most constant weight in the league. I never vary from 169 or 170.&rdquo;Christian had an 11-game scoring streak terminated in Chicago, as he was playing excellent hockey following a slow start that he attributed to the Canada Cup.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011186/4966163-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="583" height="161"></div><h2>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</h2>&ldquo;It was a factor early in the season, not so much physically as mentally,&rdquo; Christian said. &ldquo;But right now I feel as good as ever and I hope the effects are over. I think part of it may be five pounds I picked up lifting weights this summer. I found out I wasn&rsquo;t as quick, but now that I&rsquo;m back to 180 it&rsquo;s made a difference.&rdquo;Two players definitely affected in a negative way by their Canada Cup participation were Swedes Bengt Gustafsson and Peter Andersson. Gustafsson suffered a severe hamstring pull during the tournament and, after aggravating it twice, was ordered to sit out six weeks until he was 100 per cent. Since his return, he has collected three goals and 19 assists in 23 games and feels the enforced rest may prove beneficial down the stretch.&ldquo;Other guys have such a long season, but now that I had that break it should help me,&rdquo; Gustafsson said. &ldquo;I hope it will, because it was no fun sitting and watching all those games. But I feel good and the way the team is winning, it&rsquo;s fine.&rdquo;Andersson, after seeing limited duty on defense and playing a few games at left wing, was assigned to Binghamton for two weeks. He was a major dis-appointment, since he had played so well for the runnerup Swedes that Murray had planned to team him with Langway as the club&rsquo;s top defensive unit. &#9632;

f0011-01

Few Capitals Show Canada Cup Effects

<div class="byline">Joe Falls</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021067/4966225-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="372" height="445"></div>OBSERVATIONS OF A hockey writer:&bull; Naw, I don&rsquo;t agree with Stan Fischler&rsquo;s top 100 players. I don&rsquo;t even agree with his first three. He&rsquo;s got Gordie Howe, Eddie Shore and Red Kelly on top. Gordie, I buy. But I&rsquo;ve got to put Bobby Orr second and Wayne Gretzky third&hellip;and the day is coming when Gretzky may move up even more.&bull; Did Eddie Shore ever smile on the ice? Probably not. From all I heard about the man, he was one of the meanest players in the history of the game. I still like Orlando & Stewart as my all-time backliners.&bull; Did I ever tell you about the greatest one-two-three finish in horesracing history? It happened at the Detroit Race Course in 1953: Fun For Two, I Am Expecting and Sandra&rsquo;s Baby.What&rsquo;s that got to do with hockey? Nothing, except it&rsquo;s too good an item to pass up.&bull; I hope Guy Lafleur is happy.&bull; I can&rsquo;t wait for the all-star game. I don&rsquo;t know if Mike Bossy is on my team or if he&rsquo;s playing for the other guys. Does anybody know? Does anybody care?&bull; It&rsquo;s been fun watching Marcel Dionne mature. He was such a kid for a long time. It&rsquo;s nice to hear him speaking with the voice of experience&mdash;how lucky he is to wake up in the morning and know he can play hockey for a living. He has become a credit to the game.&bull; My all-time secret favorite player was George Armstrong. I loved The Chief.&bull; Whenever I think of Herb Brooks I think of how tough he was on the press at Lake Placid. He never showed us much respect. He treated us like we were part of the enemy, almost as if we were something eveil.I resented him for that because we didn&rsquo;t treat him that way. I&rsquo;m not surprised he had personality problems with the Rangers. Say what you want about Lou Vairo, his successor, but Lou was a thoughtful man at the 1984 Winter Olympics&mdash;a guy who understood the problems of others and tried to help them out. I&rsquo;d like to see him get a shot as a head coach in the NHL one of these days.The good guys should come out on top once in a while.&bull; I had a trip planned to the Boston Garden and the Colisee in Quebec, but had to cancel out due to the flu. Good thing. The Redwings flew a prop job and had to reland after taking off from Quebec City. Next to tie games, I hate takeoffs and landings, especially when the numbers don&rsquo;t come out even.&bull; My new All-Time Power Play Team finds Phil Esposito in the middle, Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull on the wings, and Doug Harvey, Wayne Gretzky, Guy Lafleur, Bobby Orr and Boom Boom Geoffrion back on the point. I know the referees wouldn&rsquo;t allow me to have that many players out there, but wouldn&rsquo;t you love to see them throwing that puck around.&bull; Who are the Russians beating up this winter?&bull; They are going to put Danny Gallivan in the Hall of Fame, aren&rsquo;t they? Do it now, guys, when our man can enjoy it. He earned it with all those great calls with the Canadiens, an earnest and honest man in the broadcasting booth. Mr. Gallivan was nothing but class.&bull; This may sound provincial, but I know of no publicity man like Bill Jamieson of the Red Wings. He works hard, like a lot of them, but he is so honest that he gives you the negative stuff on his team as well as the positive. I&rsquo;m not sure if his bosses appreciate that, or even understand it, but Bill has raised the level of his profession by quite a margin in these last few years. He is a man of unquestioned integrity, they should give him an award.&bull; At this writing, the Red Wings were 19th in the standings and third in attendance. Does that tell you something about the hockey interest in Detroit? Nobody has burned any police cars yet either.&bull; People I would like to meet but I&rsquo;ve never met: Cyclone Taylor, Harold Ballard, Bill Cowley, Rick Middleton, Gerry Cheevers, Peter Stastny and George Armstrong.Kim Novak is next. &#9632;

f0012-02

Orr, Gretzky Rate Higher On My List

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;Things got so bad for the Detroit Red Wings that Nick Polano said he didn&rsquo;t mind the thought of a three-game road trip, something he couldn&rsquo;t have imagined saying a month earlier. And, as the Red Wings&rsquo; winless streak reached a dozen, Polano said, &ldquo;Maybe we need a push.&rdquo;For the uninitiated, if the Red Wings are to survive their January slide to earn a playoff spot in the Norris Division, they&rsquo;ll have to stay ahead of the improving Toronto Maple Leafs.Frankly, the Wings&rsquo; situation isn&rsquo;t that desperate.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011271/4966194-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="581" height="171"></div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2>Yet.Polano proved to be something of a prophet when, on the first game of the road trip, the Wings surprised the New York Islanders 5-4. It was the Wings&rsquo; first victory in 11 games since the New Year. Detroit scored four third-period goals with John Ogrodnick getting the winner with less than three minutes to play&ldquo;It was a long time coming,&rdquo; Polano said. &ldquo;I was beginning to wonder.&rdquo;Until the January slump, the Wings were well above the. 500 mark (10-6-2) at home sweet home and could count on the friendly confines of Joe Louis Arena to yield some victories, Even that has changed. With the Islander victory, the Wings are 4-17-1 on the road, hardly the kind of performance chart to fuel Polano&rsquo;s hopes. Even so, he didn&rsquo;t mind getting on a plane.&ldquo;It might help us to get away from the pressure of playing at home,&rdquo; Polano said after a 6-3 loss to St. Louis at Joe Louis Arena. &ldquo;It helped the Leafs. They started their winning streak on the road. Maybe we can do the same.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s right. Leaving town did not hurt, especially after the events of the St. Louis game.For the first time in Mike Hitch&rsquo;s three years as owner, the Wings were subjected to a display of criticism from the public when four signtoters, their faces covered with bags, paraded through the aisles carrying two signs:&ldquo;Loyal Season Ticket Losers Say: &lsquo;Look out Leafs, here we come.&rdquo;&lsquo;&ldquo;Winger is the best thing on the ice. Sell the Zamboni, buy a coach.&rdquo;Winger is the feathered between-periods entertainer who is quickly moving in on the main act.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re hard-working people,&rdquo; coach Nick Polano said of Red Wing fans. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;d bother us if we played hard. If we can win a couple of games, everybody will get excited&mdash;the players, the fans.&ldquo;The fans are really restless. I can&rsquo;t say I blame them.&rdquo;The Wings suffered back-to-back home losses to Winnipeg (8-5) and St. Louis.After Winnipeg, Polano said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough. We just can&rsquo;t get down (mentally): We have a lot of games to play yet.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not playing automatic or with our natural instincts. The way we&rsquo;re playing right now is just not a lot of fun. We need a win to loosen everybody up. &ldquo;Two nights later, Eddie Mio blamed himself for the loss to St. Louis.&ldquo;I take full responsibility,&rdquo; Mio said. &ldquo;Nobody lost this one&mdash;not the coach, not the forwards, not the defensemen&mdash;but me.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t believe it.&rdquo;Mio went from hero to goat quicker than a Reed Larson slap shot.&ldquo;He looked really sharp in the first period then somebody pulled a switch, I Polano said.The Blues scored three goals in their first three shots in a span of 1:38 of the second period.The goals in question were scored by Rob Ramage and Jim Pavese. Ramage flipped a harmless shot at the Detroit goal and Mio blocked it with his stick. However, as he attempted to sweep it away, he lost control and tried to cover up with his gloved hand. Instead, he pushed it over the goal line.&ldquo;I went to give it to Greg Smith in the comer and took my eye off it,&rdquo; Mio said.Moments later, Pavese skated to the Detroit blue line and snapped a shot toward the Detroit goal that, astonishingly, floated over Mio&rsquo;s right shoulder and into the net for another St. Louis goal.&ldquo;It hit something, the next thing I know it&rsquo;s in the net,&rdquo; Mio said. &ldquo;It had to hit something. I saw the wrist shot (by Pavese) and tried to follow it but lost it. I hate to think somebody can beat me on a wrist shot from the blue line.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m shaken&hellip;but because we lost. Whatever happens to me is fate. I&rsquo;m not going tp sit here and worry about what happens the next day. What I&rsquo;m worried about is that it cost us a game.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t see the second (by Brian Sutter) and fourth goals (by Pavese) but that doesn&rsquo;t matter. I&rsquo;m the final line of defense and I have to make the stops.&rdquo;WING WIRE&mdash;Center Claude Loiselle and left winger Gerard Gallant were called up from Adirondack of the AHL as the Wings tried to shake things up. Sent down were defenseman Milan Chalupa and forward Joe Kocur, both coming off the injured list, for conditioning purposes&hellip;Dwight Foster has missed 25 games and counting but he made a recent road trip and may return soon. &#9632;

f0012-01

Wings Loosen Up Away From Critical Fans

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2>WINNIPEG&mdash;Intuition told Morris Lukowich to expect the worst to happen. And it did.Arriving at Winnipeg Arena for a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the 28-year-old left winger saw what he dreaded most&mdash;a lineup without his name.The shock of knowing he wouldn&rsquo;t be playing for the Winnipeg Jets left him cold. He would like to think he is the same player who has scored 300 goals in his nine-year career, spanning 650 games.But he isn&rsquo;t.The Morris Lukowich of 1984-85 bears no resemblance to the Morris Lukowich who scored 43 goals and assisted on 49 others in 1981-82.Lukowich said a few words to Dave Babych, then headed for the door. He walked past early-bird fans heading for the ice-level seats, climbed the short stairs to the players&rsquo; entrance and left the Arena, stopping to talk to a friend in the parking lot before crawling into his car and driving home to listen to the game on radio.The Jets were not amused. The next day Lukowich was fined $500 for leaving the Arena.&ldquo;This is the first time this has ever happened,&rdquo; said general manager John Ferguson. &ldquo;And it&rsquo;ll be the last. I think he realizes his mistake.&rdquo;Lukowich continues to take a different attitude.&ldquo;I never slammed any doors,&rdquo; he said, disputing a story circulating throughout the city. &ldquo;I just casually walked out. It was a real disappointment.&ldquo;But I wasn&rsquo;t mad. I was semiprepared for it. Sometimes you know that this could be the time that you are the odd man out.&rdquo;Why, then, did he leave the scene?&ldquo;I thought about whether I should stay or leave,&rdquo; hesaid. &ldquo;I thought it would be far more embarrassing to stay, so I went home and listened to the game on the radio.&rdquo;This has been a most disappointing season for Lukowich. Relegated to the fourth line, he has five goals and eight assists in 44 games. Hardly noted for his defensive skills, he is a minus-15.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011197/4966256-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="586" height="172"></div>There is reason to believe that Lukowich has asked the Jets on several occasions to be traded. Attempts to move him have not generated any attractive offers in return. The Jets, especially Ferguson, seem to believe that Lukowich is one of those rare players who can score goals in abundance.However, he is less than popular with some players on the team, notably captain Dale Hawerchuk, and Barry Long, the coach, has grown weary of waiting for him to produce.Lukowich has the most seniority of any player on the team. He joined the Jets in 1978 after two seasons with the Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not mad at Luke,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;I would have been mad if he wasn&rsquo;t mad. What happened is a precedent that will never happen again.&rdquo;Ferguson feels he has something to offer the team.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s 28 years old and he&rsquo;s coming into his prime,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;He should have three or four good years ahead of him.&rdquo;However, the GM agrees with his coaches who contend that three left wingers (Brian Mullen, Perry Turnbull and Doug Smail) are playing ahead of him in a league where teams are basically using three lines.Long seemed to know what Lukowich&rsquo;s reaction would be once he noticed his name off the lineup card.&ldquo;The difficult part for Morris Luko-wich&mdash;who has been such an integral part of the team, such a major goal scorer&mdash;was sitting out,&rdquo; said Long. &ldquo;It was a dramatic step.&rdquo;Lukowich didn&rsquo;t have to be reminded. The $500 dollar fine, he figured, was actually worth $750 after taxes because the fine would have to be declared as income.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a major piece of change,&rdquo; he said.The listener agreed, but failed to be impressed. How do you feel sorry for someone who is being paid $2,500 a game and listens to it on the radio?BENCH BITS&mdash;Tim Watters is ready to return to the Jets&rsquo; lineup after a five-week layoff with a broken wrist. While Watters was gone, the Jets gave up an average of five goals a game, winning only six of the 16 games he missed-&hellip;Chief scout Les Binkley has been working with goaltenders Brian Hawyard and Mark Holden, trying to give them much needed confidence&hellip;Defenseman Wade Campbell was called up from Sherbrooke. &#9632;

f0013-01

Lukowich Pays For Poor Radio Reception

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>CALGARY&mdash;It can be considered more than an aberration.The Calgary Flames, once a mediocre-to-poor hockey club away from its own rink, have now become one of the more competitive road teams in the National Hockey League.The Flames were. 500 for the final 17 road games of last season&hellip;500 for six playoff games and. 500 for the first 20 road games of this season. In fact, they finished the calendar year 1984 with as many road wins as road losses and that trend continued though the first months of 1985.The Flames won in places where they had never&mdash;or rarely&mdash;won before:&bull; Their 4-3 win in Boston on Jan. 17 was their first in five years and only the fourth in the history of the franchise.&bull; Their 8-4 win in Minnesota on Dec. I was their first ever, regular season or playoff, in 12 tries since the team moved to Calgary.&bull; Their 5-2 win in Chicago on Dec. 30 was their second in a row after not having won a game there since 1976.It goes on.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s all in the past,&rdquo; shrugged left winger Richard Kromm. &ldquo;This is a new year and a new team. This team can compete with any other.&rdquo;&ldquo;Why are we better on the road?&rdquo; asked goaltender Reggie Lemelin. &ldquo;First of all, we&rsquo;re a better club. We are improving all the time as our younger players get more experience.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02887/4966287-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="576" height="196"></div><h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2>&ldquo;Two, we&rsquo;re starting to take pride in our road record. We used to give up way more shots. Now, we have the puck more, so the other team doesn&rsquo;t get as many shots. That cuts down the chances against.&ldquo;Three, we&rsquo;re slowly starting to believe that defense will pay off. In the past, if we had a decision to make, offensive or defensive, we always took the offensive decision. Now, we take the defensive decision about half the time. It has to sink in even more, I think, because one guy on a line just can&rsquo;t do it. Everybody has to. Besides, when you play good defense, you get counters and counter-attacks are the best way to score in the NHL.&rdquo;The victory that had everybody talking was the win in Boston. The last time the Flames won there, Lemelin was in Birmingham of the now-defunct Central League, Kromm was playing midget hockey in Detroit and Al MacNeil was behind the Flames&rsquo; bench.Moreover, the victory erased the memory of a 7-1 loss to Philadelphia, a defeat that smacked of the way the Flames used to play on the road. It was something the team wanted in the past real bad.The successful conclusion to the trip was maned however by the loss of right winger Colin Patterson with a knee injury. Patterson was the team&rsquo;s leading goal scorer and leading plus-minus player until he tore the cartilege in his right knee.Doctors removed the cartilege with an arthroscope, but he was lost for a minimum of two weeks.&ldquo;Nobody hit me.&rdquo; said Patterson. &ldquo;I went into the comer and my skate caught and I just went over with all my weight on it.&rdquo;&ldquo;Two weeks, eh?&rdquo; said Johnson, when told of Patterson&rsquo;s status. &ldquo;We play seven games in 11 nights. That&rsquo;s a toughh two weeks for him to miss &ldquo; &#9632;

f0013-02

Flames Find Road Victory Formula

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>With Herb Brooks gone from Gotham City, does that mean that Craig Patrick&rsquo;s job is safe as the New York Rangers&rsquo; general manager? Not if you listen to one Blueshirt who opines that he&rsquo;ll have a new boss next season. &ldquo;I think Craig will be moving on to another team after this year,&rdquo; the Ranger says. Phil Esposito, the Rangers&rsquo; color commentator, tells BLUELINES that he&rsquo;s not interested in the New York coaching job. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no way in the world that I want to coach,&rdquo; says Espo. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t afford to coach.&rdquo; Brooks says he bears no malice toward Esposito, who regularly second-guessed him on Ranger telecasts. Brooks says he and Espo are in a business venture together. New York Times reporter Craig Wolff comes up smelling like a rose, having originally broken the Brooks-Barry Beck-coward story and the Madison Square Garden brass contemplating canning Brooks a month ago. A prime factor in Brooks&rsquo; exit is MSG&rsquo;s fear of the Rangers missing a playoff berth and the corporation blowing up to $ 1 million or more in potential revenue if the Rangers get past the first round. Also looking good is UPI columnist Milt Richman, the first to publish a Brooks-to-Minnesota piece. Manhattan media bade Brooks farewell with mixed feelings. Some appreciated his intellect and availability but others deplored Herb&rsquo;s endless penchant for off-the-record comments directed at everyone from Craig Patrick to players to other members of the press. &ldquo;Herb&rsquo;s whole life was off-the-record,&rdquo; one Ranger beat man for a local daily says. &ldquo;If I had.printed half of his off-the-record remarks earlier in the season he would have been gone in no time.&rdquo; But many of the off-the-record cracks seeped back to the players, prompting one Ranger to say: &ldquo;I hate his guts!&rdquo; Also unreported was a visit a Ranger paid to Patrick shortly before Brooks was fired. The skater pleaded with Patrick to trade him, claiming &ldquo;the team is all screwed up and getting worse.&rdquo; Brooks was given a grade of D in a New York Post review of his coaching just before his departure. &ldquo;Maybe,&rdquo; said Brooks, &ldquo;I should have gotten a F.&rdquo;More Brooks-Patrick mud was shoved under the rug than made print. Despite Brooks&rsquo; attempt at a nicey-nice front during his farewell press conference, those privy to the workings of the two insist that an irreparable rift existed between them. One Madison Square Garden insider put it this way: &ldquo;They worked against each other.&rdquo; Another said they got along like &ldquo;fire and water.&rdquo; While Brooks steadfastly refused to name names during his good-bye-New York grilling, the anti-Herb clique on the Rangers was considerable, despite his denials. One insider reports that Beck admitted privately that he had lost respect for Brooks and had given up on the season. Beck&rsquo;s pal, former Ranger Ron Duguay, tells BLUELINES that Brooks&rsquo; problem was &ldquo;he wouldn&rsquo;t talk to you.&rdquo; A current Ranger, who requested anonymity, elaborated: &ldquo;You couldn&rsquo;t get the last word in when you were talking to him. He wouldn&rsquo;t let you. He&rsquo;d go on to something else. How much could you believe in your leader when he didn&rsquo;t believe in you and wouldn&rsquo;t let you give your input? Herb set himself up for the landslide that fell on him. Guys kept wondering what the hell he was doing. He never once sat down with us and said, &lsquo;Guys, I&rsquo;m working with you until the last apple is picked.&rsquo; Although he wasn&rsquo;t canned, assistant coach Carol Vadnais is another victim of the Brooks&rsquo; purge, being shifted to advance scout. The whisper is that Craig Patrick blames Vadnais for rookie James Patrick&rsquo;s disappointing first half-season.NHL insiders gleefully predict that a bidding war between the USA Network and its rival, ESPN, will take place next summer over the next Game of the Week cable contract in the States. USA, whose one-year pact runs out in May, has been getting good rating numbers from the NHL matches and regard it as the premium spot on its marquee. But ESPN also has good reason for wanting the NHL and is expected to make a spirited pitch for the puck product&hellip;Sources within the Devils&rsquo; organization whisper that boss John McMullen erred when he publicly delivered his less-than-discreet look at the club&rsquo;s problems with the Jersey Sports Authority. Meanwhile, a well-placed journalist close to the McMullen enterprise, whispers that the big question involving Dr. McM &ldquo;is his staying power.&rdquo; If McMullen can&rsquo;t hack it down the line, the man most likely to save the day and insure that the Devils forever remain in New Jersey, is Arthur Imperatore, the trucking tycoon who once ran the Colorado Rockies&hellip;In Calgary, there&rsquo;s talk that Flame GM Cliff Fletcher is not doing handsprings over the amount of time his ace Paul Reinhart is spending at one of the latter&rsquo;s businesses, the All-Star Bar and Grill, of which the defenseman is a part owner.The Red Wings&rsquo; phenomenal attendance despite their dreadful record is attributed to superb promotion. Likewise, interest in the Black Hawks has reached the level of Bobby Hull days. The Hawks are sold out for the season. &ldquo;The league,&rdquo; says one NHL official, &ldquo;has gold mines in Chicago and Detroit.&rdquo;&hellip;With Kansas City losing its pro basketball team, the KC market becomes more appealing, hockey-wise. The Blues will play a pre-season game there, hopeful to cultivate it for a television market&hellip;Al-though he&rsquo;s not listed among the top two zebra bosses&mdash;Scotty Morrison and John McCauley are one-two in the hierarchy&mdash;Frank Udvari is said to wield plenty of clout&hellip;From a Smythe Division source comes word that the Rangers have shopped Barry Beck around but &ldquo;want too much for him.&rdquo; &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;Montreal&rsquo;s Chris Nilan crosschecks Boston goalie Pete Peeters to the ice, and Terry O&rsquo;Reilly skates the length of the ice to tackle Nilan. O&rsquo;Reilly gets a 20-stitch cut around his right eye but the Bruins win 3-1.Buffalo&rsquo;s Larry Playfair pounds away at Nevin Markwart&rsquo;s head, and Mike Milbury charges into the fray to help his teammate. Milbury gets a game misconduct but the Bruins win 5-2.Does that indicate what has been wrong with the Boston Bruins as they stumble along in fourth place in the Adams Division? Is that the ingredient of a champion? Pete Peeters thinks it is.&ldquo;Guys were taking too many liberties with us,&rdquo; he said after the Buffalo game. &ldquo;The last two games we&rsquo;ve actually stood up for ourselves.&ldquo;Somebody takes a run at Nevin and Mike Milbury steps in. Terry in the last game. I think Wilf Paiement is going to be in for a treat when he comes in here.&rdquo;Paiement represented at the time a little unfinished business. He had broken Charlie Simmer&rsquo;s jaw with his stick in the previous game, won by Quebec, and the Bruins&rsquo; retaliation had been only token.&ldquo;This is what we need,&rdquo; said Peeters. &ldquo;If somebody does something to you we&rsquo;ve got to stand up and be counted for a change.&ldquo;I think once we get that, we get aggressive and pumped up and ready to go. Everything starts from the aggressive play because you start to gain confidence in the people you&rsquo;re playing with.&ldquo;If somebody takes a cheap shot at me, somebody&rsquo;s going to come in and help me out. I think we were lacking that. I don&rsquo;t know why it comes and goes.&ldquo;The other day we were practising the power play and we were practising forechecking, which is the first time we did it all year. That&rsquo;s an important factor, too.&ldquo;The coaches are coming out and starting to give us instruction. That shows a willingness on their part and we are responding.&rdquo;Peeters called the victory over Canadiens &ldquo;the first good game we&rsquo;ve played in two and a half to three months. This is the way we should play. We were taking the body and completely negating whatever they tried to do.&ldquo;Since the season started we haven&rsquo;t taken the body. I don&rsquo;t mean running people through the boards. But you can&rsquo;t wave your stick at the guy with the puck either.&ldquo;Until tonight these haven&rsquo;t been the Bruins of my first year here.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011249/4966342-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="582" height="188"></div><h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2>Peeters cheerfully confessed that it was he who instigated the fracas with Nilan. He got a 10-minute misconduct for his pains but he figures the larger benefits were worth it.&ldquo;He did it to me in the first period,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He crosschecked me behind the net. I told him I&rsquo;d get him back and he said, &lsquo;Fine, go ahead.&rsquo;&ldquo;So I took the liberty of getting him in the third period. That&rsquo;s when he came back down the ice and we began a conversation. He says, &lsquo;Do that again and I&rsquo;m going to have to hit you.&rsquo; And I say, &lsquo;This is as good a time as any to take two bad minutes and put your team in a bad hole.&rsquo;&ldquo;I just stood there and let him crosscheck me. I wanted to lure him into taking a bad penalty. It&rsquo;s too bad Terry had to take a hit like he did. I didn&rsquo;t mean for him to get nailed.&rdquo;It was O&rsquo;Reilly&rsquo;s first game back after missing seven games with a broken hand, which didn&rsquo;t help him much in the fight with Nilan.&ldquo;I heard the crowd getting excited,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I looked around and there&rsquo;s Nilan squaring off with Pete. I headed down that way. By the time I got to center ice, Nilan had already decked him. I got there as fast as I could and I think I walked into a haymaker.&rdquo;&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to be proud of Terry O&rsquo;Reilly,&rdquo; said coach Gerry Cheevers. &ldquo;Something inspired us against Montreal. I think it was Terry&rsquo;s presence. You can&rsquo;t play the game easy when you watch Terry O&rsquo;Reilly play. It&rsquo;s embar-rassing not to play hard.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it had anything to do with me,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Reilly modestly. &ldquo;The reason was that we were playing Montreal and it was a do-or-die game.&rdquo;Peeters agreed.&ldquo;They bring out the best in us,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

f0014-01

Belligerent Bruins Rally To Teammates’ Defense

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div>BUFFALO&mdash;Sean McKenna is the type of player, if told to, would run through a wall for the good of the Buffalo Sabres.In fact, during a recent game against the Rangers in New York, McKenna nearly went through the boards head-first when New York&rsquo;s Grant Ledyard checked him, forcing the players&rsquo; gate open and leaving McKenna semi-conscious.Fortunately for McKenna, he suffered only soreness around the neck and shoulders and was ready for the next game.&ldquo;There was no doubt I saw a few stars,&rdquo; said McKenna. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t even have the strength to skate.&ldquo;I was just glad to be able to come back so quickly. Our line (center Gilles Hamel and left winger Paul Cyr) has been doing well. We have had a real good stretch of games where we were starting to score some goals and total up some points.&ldquo;I was just glad my injury wasn&rsquo;t any more serious that it was. This wouldn&rsquo;t be the time to miss any games.&rdquo;During a 20-game stretch, McKenna totalled 14 points (seven goals and seven assists); Hamel had eight points (five goals and three assists) in 12 games; Cyr had 14 points (seven goals and seven assists) in 19 games.Not bad for a group of guys that were put together to be used as a third, and sometimes even a fourth, line.&ldquo;It was nice when our line was first put together,&rdquo; said McKenna. &ldquo;It was a nice feeling to be able to go out on the ice and know who you were going to be lined up with.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think some of the opposition took our line seriously until we started to score some goals. Then when you begin scoring goals you begin to gain some attention.&ldquo;That happened in a couple of games. That&rsquo;s when things can get frustrating.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011050/4966380-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="583" height="193"></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2>&ldquo;But we just have to keep working.&rdquo; Hamel agrees with McKenna and maintains they still have to concentrate on defense.&ldquo;Some of the lines we were beginning to face could score so we just couldn&rsquo;t worry about scoring goals ourselves,&rdquo; said Hamel. &ldquo;We had to worry about stopping the opposition.&ldquo;But there was no doubt, we had a good stretch. I just hope that we can have another.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re getting to know each other now and that&rsquo;s important. When you change lines it&rsquo;s tougher to know each other&rsquo;s moves.&rdquo;SABRE POINTS&mdash;The SabreRanger game, originally scheduled for Jan. 22, was postponed due to a snowstorm in Buffalo. The game has been rescheduled for March 27&hellip;Gil Per-reault moved ahead of Bobby Clarke on the NHL all-time scoring list when he scored a goal against the Chicago Black Hawks. The goal gave Perreault 1,211 points. Perreault&rsquo;s club record for assists in consecutive games ended at 11 instead of the previously-reported 10. He was given an assist in a game against Edmonton on Jan. 13&hellip;Tom Barrasso&rsquo;s string of 14 consecutive starts ended when Bob Sauve started the game against Chicago on Jan. 18. It was Sauve&rsquo;s first start since Dec. 16&hellip;Jim Schoenfeld is out indefinitely after re-injuring his foot. &bull;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02842/4966373-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="581" height="652"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sean McKenna was banged up against the Rangers but returned for the next game.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0016-01

Sabre Line Gaining More Respect

<div class="byline">Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03659/4966411-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="374" height="519"></div>I WALKED AN extra two blocks, to the next mailbox down, before I let go of my All-Star ballot. I wanted to savor the moment. Not that you should get the impression that I was just dumping the puck out to center to kill time. Nope, voting an All-Star team is a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. So I addressed the issue squarely.Is Mats Naslund a better left winger than Brian Propp? If you vote for both Scott Stevens and Rod Langway on defense, is it sane that Pat Riggin hasn&rsquo;t had to be as outstanding as Steve Penney? And is that Riggin&rsquo;s fault? Penney&rsquo;s fault? And if Riggin doesn&rsquo;t make the team, is it my fault?But I didn&rsquo;t wimp it up. I examined goals, assists, penalty minutes, plus-minus ratings, uniform colors, dental records, and marital status and confidently marked my ballot.The only reason I had a hard time letting go of it was because I knew from the past that my All-Star experience wasn&rsquo;t going to get any better than this. After the first and second teams are picked, it&rsquo;s all downhill. The coaches fill in the rest of the squad, which is precisely the point at which the All-Star game becomes a Some-Star game.Al Arbour has to pick a Devil and a Whaler. Glen Sather must choose a Canuck. Sometimes you can find a guy on a bad teanfthat really deserves the honor. Sometimes you can&rsquo;t. Robert Picard made it one year. So did Denis Dupere.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want to embarrass anyone,&rdquo; is the reply when you ask anyone from the league why every club must be represented. So the embarrassment, instead, falls on the league. It&rsquo;s supposed to be an All-Star game. That means the best, not tokens.But it&rsquo;s a nice dinner and the players have a good time and the Flames&rsquo; people have been working hard on this for a year. So what kind of a boor am I? Maybe this year the game will be 9-8 instead of 9-3 and something fun will happen.But wait, what&rsquo;s that wheezing sound I hear coming from the direction of Toronto. It must be, of course, Borje Salming&rsquo;s annual sinus attack. Poor guy wants so much to represent his team every year and like clockwork, his respiratory system kicks in just before the All-Star game. Sorry, the Leafs say, Borje can&rsquo;t make it this time. Okay, the hell with them, pick the next best player in the conference and get on it with it. But nooooooooo, Salming must be replaced by a Maple Leaf. If Walt Poddubny can get a babysitter, he can come in his place.Thus, by the time the lights dim and the players are introduced, this is not an All-Star game but a compromise. And maybe because nobody&rsquo;s mad at anyone else, when the puck is dropped, nobody cares.Nobody hits, nobody even gets in the way. The last bodycheck was recorded by Gary Domhoefer in Vancouver in 1977 and the other players looked at him like he was nuts. Winners get $1,000 apiece, losers get $750. For guys who make $100,000 a year or more, $250 is supposed to be an incentive?The only thing worth playing for is the car presented to the most valuable player. And the only way to get the car is keep shooting. Up and down the ice in unbroken strings of three-on-two rushes, the Some-Stars fly. A good time is had by all but the goalies and the fans.Walking by a newsstand the other day, the cover of one of the hockey mags caught my eye. &ldquo;Ten Great All-Star Moments,&rdquo; it read. I burst out laughing.After you get past Wayne Gretzky torching Pelle Lindbergh two years ago, can you name two others? Can you remember who won last year&rsquo;s game?If the All-Star game is worth having, then do it right. Play the Soviets again, like in New York in 1979. The point was not that the NHL lost, but that there was hype, there was drama, there was reason to want to watch the game and a genuine curiousity about how it would come out.Nyet, again? Too much face to lose? Okay, then pick an All-Star team to play the Stanley Cup champions, just like in the old days. A collection of great talents against a team. I can&rsquo;t buy the Campbells and the Wales, but the Oilers with something to prove? Looks good to me.Or take Bob Pulford&rsquo;s idea, a two-day tournament with a team from each division. I like that one. Fans are now identifying with the divisions. The conferences have no meaning at all.Do something, anything, to make it different. I&rsquo;d settle for a penalty shot contest between periods. Match races. An oldtimers&rsquo; game. Sutters and Hunters hitting each other with sticks. Mike Milbury hitting fans with shoes.Alas, the Saddledome will, despite it all, be sold out on Feb. 12. The All-Star game only comes to your city once every 21 years and every fan figures he should see one before he dies.But I&rsquo;ve watched 10 of them now and one more just might kill me. Cause of death? Boredom. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re going, aren&rsquo;t you?&rdquo; my sports editor said.If I must. Wake me. olease. when it&rsquo;s over. &#9632;

f0016-03

Just Wake Me Up After All-Boredom Game Ends

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;The Philadelphia Flyers were in the middle of a week-long stay on the west coast where they were enjoying some surf and sun while awaiting the ruling on Brian Propp&rsquo;s hearing.And when news of the decision finally reached the west coast&mdash;a four-game suspension&mdash;you could have knocked Propp over with something less than the prevailing Pacific Ocean breezes.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe it,&rdquo; said Propp, who suffered the suspension for slashing Calgary&rsquo;s Tim Hunter in a game at the Spectrum on Jan. 13. &ldquo;Hunter had slashed me, and all I did was slash him back across the arm.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t even stop. Heck, he skated right away from me. It shows it right on the film.&ldquo;I figured maybe I&rsquo;d get one game, but I didn&rsquo;t really expect to get any. I don&rsquo;t even know why we went up to Montreal to see him.&rdquo;The &ldquo;him&rdquo; is National Hockey League executive vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill. And it wasn&rsquo;t only Propp who was screaming at what the Flyers perceived as a harsh sentence for the left winger who had missed only two previous games in his six-season career.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really ticked off about this,&rdquo; said Flyer general manager Bob Clarke, who had attended the hearing in Montreal along with Propp and Flyers&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan. &ldquo;The whole meeting was a waste of time. I don&rsquo;t even know why he had us up there. We offered to bring up the film. I don&rsquo;t even think it mattered.&ldquo;I think the ruling is more in line with the Ice Capades rather than the National Hockey League. He (O&rsquo;Neill) gave us some wimpish statement that he was being lenient.&ldquo;Look, Brian (Propp) has never even been up there before. If he gets this many games, I&rsquo;m really curious to see what Billy Smith gets for slashing that Fraser.&rdquo; (Ed note: Smith was given a six-game suspension.)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02750/4966473-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="584" height="164"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2>The Flyers&rsquo; anger was doubled because Propp, always a steady player, had been especially hot during a recent streak with nine goals and 10 assists in 12 games. Also, Mark Howe was recuperating from tom rib cartilege and the Flyers would need Propp&rsquo;s scoring.Sure enough, with Propp suspended and Howe injured, the Flyers lost consecutive games in Los Angeles and Winnipeg (6-3 and 6-2).But it was the loss in L.A. which caused some real shock waves because the Flyers hadn&rsquo;t lost at the Forum since before they were Stanley Cup champions&mdash;a 21-game streak (17-0-4) stretching back to Oct. 20, 1973.By quirk of schedule, the Flyers had arrived in L.A. immediately after a 4-1 win in Minnesota, three days before the game with the Kings. They also remained in L.A. three days after the loss to the Kings in what amounted to more of a Club Med vacation than a road trip.And all that vacation might have caught with them in Winnipeg where the Jets completed a season sweep of the Flyers.&ldquo;We were missing some key people,&rdquo; said Keenan, &ldquo;but also I think our team might have been somewhat out of synch. We&rsquo;ve had a strange schedule.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;The win over the North Stars gave the Flyers a season sweep of the Stars, whom they outscored 16-4 in their three wins&hellip;Defenseman Ed Hospodar rejoined the team after missing 15 games with a broken hand suffered on Dec. 16&hellip;Flyer captain Dave Poulin missed the loss in Winnipeg with the flu. Brad Marsh filled in as captain&hellip;Flyer center Len Hachborn and defensive prospect Daryl Stanley were injured in an automobile accident in Hershey, PA, where they were playing for the Hershey Bears of the American League. Stanley, who totalled his 1975 Corvette, will be out for the season with two dislocated vertebrae in his neck. Hachborn suffered only minor injuries. &#9632;

f0017-02

Propp Sentence Grounds Flyers

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;Mark Napier wasn&rsquo;t quite sure how to take his first shift as an Edmonton Oiler.Decked out in jersey No. 18, Napier skated onto the Northlands Coliseum ice on Jan. 25 early in the Oilers&rsquo; eventual 4-2 National Hockey League triumph over the New Jersey Devils. The normally reserved house of 17,498, described as a &ldquo;library crowd&rdquo; by certain skeptics, began a warm and lengthy applause.&ldquo;That was really surprising,&rdquo; said Napier, who was acquired by the Oilers from Minnesota in a two-for-one deal that sent rookie Gord Sherven and minor leaguer Terry Martin to the North Stars two nights before. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t sure what was going on. At first I figured maybe Wayne (Gretzky) had come on to play the point. It was a good feeling. It made me feel welcome.&rdquo;Napier drew an assist on linemate Glenn Anderson&rsquo;s goal to open the scoring early in the game, and the following night picked up a goal as Edmonton doubled the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-3.&ldquo;It was nice to get it early like that,&rdquo; said Napier of his power-play tip-in that was his initial goal as an Oiler and first since Jan. 9. &ldquo;It was nothing pretty, but it was nice to see it go in. I took a bit of the pressure off and helps the confidence coming to a new team.&rdquo;Which is really what the NHL&rsquo;s most explosive really needed&hellip;more firepower!&ldquo;They liked Sherven and I wanted Napier,&rdquo; said Oiler general managercoach Glen Sather of his first trade in 1984-85. &ldquo;In fact, I tried to get him out of Montreal last season.&rdquo;Instead, North Stars&rsquo; general manager Lou Nanne swung a deal for Napier acquiring the Toronto native along with Keith Acton for Bobby Smith.&ldquo;Napier is probably as classy a guy as we&rsquo;ve ever had here,&rdquo; said Nanne of Napier, who is married to the sister of the Oilers&rsquo; Pat Hughes. &ldquo;The people of Edmonton will like him, but we had to do something.&rdquo;&ldquo;Yeah, it&rsquo;s nice to have a family affair,&rdquo; quipped Sather of his new winger, who was the captain of the Birmingham Bulls at age 19 back in 1976-77&mdash;the year he scored 60 goals in the World Hockey Association.&ldquo;In Montreal, when he played on the so-called checking line, he scored 40 goals,&rdquo; added Sather. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll just make our offense that much more volatile. He&rsquo;s a talented hockey player who would fit right into our style and our system.&rdquo;Once the original shock of his second trade in 15 months wore off, Napier almost jumped for joy on the night of the deal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01925/4966442-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="582" height="159"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2>&ldquo;I was a little shocked, but the more I think about it, the happier I get,&rdquo; he said from his home in Bloomington, MN. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s always tough to get traded, but if you ask anybody in the NHL which team they&rsquo;d want to be traded to, Edmonton would be number one or number two.&rdquo;Napier was also looking forward to again playing on the same team as Hughes. The two were living together in Montreal during the 1978-79 season&mdash;the Canadiens&rsquo; last Stanley Cup year&mdash;when Pat&rsquo;s sister, Janet, came to visit.&ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s his fault I&rsquo;m in the mess I&rsquo;m in now,&rdquo; joked Napier, his wife and mother of a son and daughter within ear-shot.What aspect of the Oilers did he find most appealing?&ldquo;The fact they&rsquo;re the Stanley Cup champions,&rdquo; replied Napier. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s everyone&rsquo;s dream to win a Stanley Cup. I was fortunate enough to be on a Cup winner in Montreal, and I&rsquo;ll have that chance again. The way Edmonton&rsquo;s been playing, there&rsquo;s no reason they can&rsquo;t repeat.&rdquo;Napier sat out his last game as a North Star&mdash;a 4-3 triumph over Pittsburgh&mdash;and was informed of the trade after the game. However, being benched didn&rsquo;t provide him with the hint.&ldquo;When (Glen) Sonmor took over as coach from (Bill) Mahoney, he took me aside and told me he wanted to look at some of the younger guys,&rdquo; said Napier, who had been benched on and off for eight games. &ldquo;I wound up either on the third or fourth line or in the press box.&rdquo;Did that make leaving the North Stars easier?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always tough to leave a place, but I&rsquo;m happy to get out of it,&rdquo; said the 5-foot-10, 184 pounder. &ldquo;Like anyone. I hope to get a fair shake in Edmonton.&ldquo;But I think I&rsquo;d sooner sit in the press box in Edmonton than in Minnesota.&rdquo;Such is hardly the plan the Oilers have for the veteran right winger. Sather&rsquo;s long-term scheme for Napier, who turned 28 on Jan. 28, is to play on the second line with Anderson and Mark Messier, once the latter is done serving a 10-game suspension. Messier will return to the lineup Feb. 6 in Winnipeg.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll help take a little heat off Wayne&rsquo;s line,&rdquo; said Sather of Gretzky&rsquo;s high-scoring unit.&ldquo;Well, that certainly makes it easier to take,&rdquo; quipped Napier. &ldquo;Those two aren&rsquo;t bad hockey players.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s probably no slouch himself. At first glance, the trade read like another Sather theft.&ldquo;When the opportunity strikes,&rdquo; said Sather, &ldquo;vou&rsquo;ve got to go for it.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0017-01

Oilers Lay Down Welcome Mat For Napier

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;If you&rsquo;d bet before the start of the National Hockey League season that the Pittsburgh Penguins would be in a playoff position at the halfway mark, you would have been directed to the nearest psychiatrist.But if you&rsquo;d actually placed that bet, you&rsquo;d have enough to pay the doctor&rsquo;s bill and some left over. The Penguins, who finished last in the NHL the last two seasons, were in fourth place in the Patrick Division as the season moved into its second half.The Penguins completed the first half of the season with a 17-19-4 record and 38 points. Last season after 40 games, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s record was 9-26-5 for 23 points. The team&rsquo;s 15-point improvement this season is the best in the NHL.Pittsburgh finished 16-58-6 for 38 points for the entire season last year.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a nice benchmark for us to get one more win than this team had all last year after the halfway point,&rdquo; said coach Bob Berry, who is in his first year at the Penguin helm. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a tremendous compliment to the players. The second half is going to be harder, so we&rsquo;ll have to get our injured players back and play better.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m extremely happy with the first 40 games,&rdquo; said general manager Eddie Johnston. &ldquo;The big thing is that we&rsquo;ve got a lot of confidence now where our coaches and players feel very, very good about it. Our kids now know that we&rsquo;re in a playoff position. If anybody would have said that at the beginning of the year, that we&rsquo;d be sitting in fourth spot after 40 games, I think it would be hard to believe.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01950/4966504-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="575" height="170"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2>&ldquo;Right now we have more points than we had all of last year, so there&rsquo;s an indication of how much we&rsquo;ve improved. We still have a long way to go, but we&rsquo;re going in the right direction.&rdquo;The players sound as euphoric as the management concerning their first half.&ldquo;The team&rsquo;s playing very well compared to last year,&rdquo; said veteran goalie Denis Herron. &ldquo;We have an equal amount of points from last year and we&rsquo;re just halfway. We still have to improve, but the young players are doing super, working hard and it&rsquo;s very good.&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in pretty good shape,&rsquo; said center John Chabot, who was traded to Pittsburgh earlier in the season from Montreal. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve matched last year&rsquo;s total of points and beat the winning by one already. We&rsquo;re going to be on the plus side already.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve just got to keep working hard like we are right now, and hopefully things will fall into place. If that happens, you don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s going to happen the rest of the season.&rdquo;The player with perhaps the biggest burden this season is Mario Lemieux, the NHL&rsquo;s No. 1 pick in last June&rsquo;s entry draft. Lemieux scored 13 goals and 32 assists in 33 games in the first half of the season while missing seven contests with a knee injury.&ldquo;We almost played. 500, so it&rsquo;s a big improvement from last year,&rdquo; said Lemieux. &ldquo;We just want to keep going and make the playoffs. We have a good team, a young team and we&rsquo;re strong in the nets. I think we have a big shot to make the playoffs.&rdquo;Lemieux admits he didn&rsquo;t think the Penguins had a shot at a playoff spot before the season began.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t have been able to say that before the season because in the division we are in there are a lot of big teams,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But when the season started, we played very well the first five or six games and we started to believe we could make the playoffs.&rdquo;Attendance has increased more than 70,000 this season with the team&rsquo;s improved play, an increase of about 3,500 per game for an average of 10,436. The Penguins were last in the league in attendance last year with an average of 6,839.PENGUIN TRACKS&mdash;Right winger Bruce Crowder returned to the lineup after missing 19 games with a broken toe. Defenseman Joe McDonnell was recalled from Baltimore of the American Hockey League where he scored seven goals and 27 assists in 41 games. He was signed as a free agent after being released by the Edmonton organization. &#9632;

f0018-01

Pens Think Playoff Chances Not So Crazy

<div class="byline">Steve Simmons</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02717/4966535-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="404" height="459"></div>&ldquo;We have several rivalries that border on mayhem.&rdquo;&mdash;Brian O&rsquo;Neill, NHL director of Crime and Punishment, Jan. 11, 1984.&bull; DEC. 26, 1984: Calgary Flames vs. Edmonton Oilers. Mark Messier blindsides Jamie Macoun with a left elbow uppercut. Macoun is knocked out. Later, it&rsquo;s discovered he has suffered a broken cheekbone. &ldquo;I snapped,&rdquo; said Messier, who qualified his cowardice by claiming Macoun attempted to injure him earlier. In the fray, Jim Peplinski was thrown out as third man in a one-sided altercation.&bull; Nov. 15, 1984: Flames vs. Oilers. Benches clear. Punches are thrown in all directions. In all, 208 minutes in penalties are assessed. Both teams and individual players are fined by the league. One player, Edmonton&rsquo;s Dave Semenko, was fined $500 for kneeing Calgary&rsquo;s Steve Konroyd. &ldquo;This is going to continue,&rdquo; said Semenko. &ldquo;This is the way it&rsquo;s going to be,&rdquo; said Calgary&rsquo;s Richard Kromm. &ldquo;Our players get tired of some of their stuff,&rdquo; said Oiler general manager-coach Glen Sather.&bull; Oct. 21,1984: Flames vs. Oilers. Dave Hunter takes a run at Dan Quinn from behind. Quinn is dazed but avoids serious injury. Calgary coach Bob Johnson threatens to send films of the incident to the league, but does not. &ldquo;Maybe Hunter will get six games,&rdquo; Johnson said, referring to a similar suspension Flame captain Doug Risebrough received for a non-similar incident.<h2>Smythe Division Final, 1984</h2>&bull; Game One: Glenn Anderson, a kind man, threatens to poke out Risebrough&rsquo;s eyes. Risebrough doesn&rsquo;t take kindly to such talk. He retaliates by placing his stick strongly in Anderson&rsquo;s face. Anderson bleeds. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you can skate over and hack someone in the face and expect to get away with it,&rdquo; said Sather. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t see how Risebrough&rsquo;s actions warrant a suspension,&rdquo; said Flame GM Cliff Fletcher, who, it turned out, was wrong.&bull; Game Four: Tim Hunter crosschecks Semenko from behind, knocking him into the goalpost and out of the game. Semenko was dazed. The goal post was unhurt. Sather accused the Flames of trying to &ldquo;maim&rdquo; his players. &ldquo;Good for him,&rdquo; said Johnson in response to Sather&rsquo;s maim claim.&bull; Game Six: Ken Linseman (you remember him, the fellow who bit Lee Fogolin&rsquo;s ear) just manages to miss Steve Konroyd&rsquo;s eye with his stick. Konroyd is cut dangerously close to the eye, on the eyelid. The Flames claim Linseman&rsquo;s actions were equal or more severe than Risebrough&rsquo;s. No one else thinks that way. There is only a penalty, no fine, no suspension.&bull; Game Seven: Like a raging bull, Messier charges Mike Eaves from behind in what was a still close game. Eaves falls to the ice and doesn&rsquo;t move. His shoulder was dislocated and his thumb broken. He needed surgery to repair both.Mayhem, Brian O&rsquo;Neill called it. And mayhem it has become.It is quite possible that the Oiler-Flame rivaly has gone past the point of competition. It has become dangerous.There is no innocence in the beginning of this rivalry. It began at the Calgary Corral, when an overzealous idiot in the stands leaned over and smacked Lee Fogolin, then captain of the Oilers, in the eye. Fogolin&rsquo;s vision was blurred. The fan was escorted out of the Corral and later charged.From there, it started. The rivalry has begun.And now it is time to put some perspective back into this. Risebrough, for one, who has participated in the Montreal-Quebec rivalry, says too often the people involved lose perspective of sport. They get caught up in the wave of rivalry. And it is unhealthy.It is time for the league to get more involved. It is time to throw precedent aside and handle each incident with the individuality the game deserves. Because Messier received 10 games for doing essentially what Jimmy Mann did wasn&rsquo;t right. In the context of each game, of each rivalry, the incident must be judged.It should have started with Messier, but did not. It should start now.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like any incidents,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Neill, &ldquo;but you can&rsquo;t just say, &lsquo;Enough is enough.&rsquo;&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t make broad statements that don&rsquo;t make any sense. Teams are paying the penalties, they&rsquo;re losing players, they&rsquo;re not getting away with things.&rdquo;Sometimes Brian O&rsquo;Neill is a man who is hard to take seriously. Mostly, teams and players are getting wrist slaps for their actions.What will it take before a Flame or Oiler is seriously hurt.Of the last 11 games played between the two best teams in the Campbell Conference, seven games have been marred by incidents of one kind or another. Too many penalties have been called. Too much blood has spilled. Too many accusational fingers have been pointed. Too many players have ended up in hospital.To claim it is the fault of one team or the other is too easy. But if there is any pattern here, it is that the Flames play &lsquo;tougher&rsquo; at home than they do on the road. The majority of incidents have occurred in Calgary, where the games are usually closer and more physical.No matter where the infractions take place, it is time for them to end.It is time for the league to get tough with those &ldquo;who snap.&rdquo; Other sports don&rsquo;t put up with it. &#9632;

f0018-02

Rivalry Of Oilers, Flames Becoming Bloody Battle

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Maybe goal No. 717, the one which will enable Marcel Dionne to catch Phil Esposito for second place on the all-time list, will come under more pleasant circumstances.The Kings&rsquo; 33-year-old center hasn&rsquo;t had much luck in his past three milestone goals, the most recent. No. 611, which moved him past Bobby Hull into sole possession of third place in the National Hockey League books.Dionne had three assists to go along with his big goal, but the performance was ruined when the Kings managed to blow a five-goal lead in a disturbing 8-7 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Jan. 21.Two and a half years ago, when Dionne passed his boyhood idol, Maurice Richard, to move into fifth place with No. 545, the Kings had let a two-goal advantage slip away in a 3-3 tie with Minnesota.The season before that, he reached the 501-mark with a pair of goals in an 8-2 loss to Washington.Naturally, a few nights before passing Hull, Dionne tied him in a 4-3 loss to Toronto.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very proud of this,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but it sure would have been a lot nicer if we had won.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01888/4966566-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="942" height="186"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2>Dionne&rsquo;s goal came after he accepted defenseman Mark Hardy&rsquo;s feed from the left faceoff circle, then moved into the slot before placing a 35-foot shot under the outstretched right leg of Oiler goaltender Andy Moog with 6:43 remaining in the first period.It even gave the Kings a 3-0 lead, although it didn&rsquo;t last.The goal was the 28th in 46 games for Dionne, who will finish with 47 at his present clip, giving him 630 for his career&mdash;87 behind Esposito and 171 behind record-holder Gordie Howe, who collected 801 in 26 seasons.His next goal-scoring milestone, if he chooses to pursue it, will come some time during the 1986-87 season. Dionne has one more year to go on his six-year contract, meaning he&rsquo;ll have to sign another one to catch Esposito, but he gives the impression this will merely be a formality&mdash;as long as the terms are right, of course.&ldquo;Catching Espo&hellip;yes, that would be something,&rdquo; Dionne said. &ldquo;But I really don&rsquo;t think in terms of those things. Even now I think too much emphasis was put on this one (passing Hull). I&rsquo;m more concerned with how things are going with the team.&rdquo;Things weren&rsquo;t going particularly well, even though the fourthplace Kings were still hovering around. 500 and hoping to improve their playoff lot by moving up in the Smythe Division standings.The loss to Edmonton marked the fifth time this season they had lost or tied a game they were leading by three or more goals; the Kings had blown eight valuable points&mdash;and second place in the Smythe&mdash;and coach Pat Quinn and his troops were having a difficult time figuring out why this was happening.Cynics might say the problem was merely inexperience: The Kings had rarely forged such advantages the past couple of nonplayoff seasons, so naturally they wouldn&rsquo;t know how to play with one.&ldquo;Do you think maybe we need a psychologist or hypnotist?&rdquo; captain Terry Ruskowski wondered. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve just got to put an end to this.&rdquo;KING NOTEBOOK&mdash;Center Doug Smith suffered a partially tom medial collateral ligament in his right knee and was expected to be sidelined for at least a month. Surgery wasn&rsquo;t needed, but he was told not to lace up for a minimum of three weeks&hellip;Center Bob Miller one of the Kings&rsquo; best penalty-killers, returned to the lineup after missing nine games with a sprained ankle&hellip;Defenseman Russ Anderson was recalled from New Haven after a short stint in the minors&hellip;With six sellouts in their first 22 home dates, the Kings needed one more to set a club record. &#9632;

f0019-01

Kings Waste Dionne Feat By Losing Again

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERF</div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;Doug Carpenter had a hunch. To add some scoring punch to the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; lineup, he wanted to accomplish three things: Make rookie Kirk Muller a full-time center, give John MacLean the emotional lift he so badly needed, and light a fire under Aaron Broten.On Dec. 15, in a stunning 8-3 victory over the Quebec Nordiques, Carpenter took care of all three problems by assembling a line which just may be the best in the team&rsquo;s history in New Jersey.Muller, who clearly makes the line go with his hustle and overwhelming talents, is enjoying a potential Calder Trophy season. Broten, who has already scored a career-high 17 goals, has quietly established several personal and franchise records. And MacLean, who strug. gled for so long, has turned into a deadly pressure-situation goal scorer for the De vils. MacLean helped defeat the Rangers at New York on Jan. 14 by scoring a goal with 1:17 left in regulation time and then tied the Canadiens in Montreal when he tallied with 1:58 left in the third period. Muller set up both goals.&ldquo;He (Muller) reminds me a little of Bryan Trottier when he first came in,&rdquo; said Dave Lewis. &ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t flashy. He just worked his butt off.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s Muller.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great player already,&rdquo; said assistant coach Lou Vairo. &ldquo;But what amazes me is he gets better every night.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s made that line go,&rdquo; added Carpenter.The chemistry between Muller and MacLean seems to be perfect. MacLean had gone 20 games last season and the first 19 this season without scoring a goal before he broke the drought on Dec. 13. Since skating with Muller he is a different player, taking more offensive chances and moving more fluently than ever before.Their success is probably no accident; Muller and MacLean live together, along with Joe Cirella and Pat Verbeek, in a large Tudor-style home not far from the Meadowlands Arena. The players get along equally as well off the ice as they do on the ice. In addition, Muller and MacLean were teammates even before the Devils tabbed Muller No. 1 in this past NHL draft. They played for two weeks on a line with current Ranger Randy Heath on the Canadian national junior team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02667/4966597-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="572" height="166"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2>The success of Muller and MacLean together was never more evident than in the Ranger and Canadien games. At 18:43 of the third period in New York, Muller dropped the puck for MacLean atop the right faceoff circle and MacLean fired it past John Vanbiesbrouck to give New Jersey a stunning come-from-behind-victory.Five days later, Muller set up both of MacLean&rsquo;s two goals (Nos. eight and nine) against the Canadiens. Muller also assisted on Broten&rsquo;s 17th goal, a second-period score which established an NHL goal-scoring high for Broten.Of course, not to be forgotten is Broten&rsquo;s effective production. He scored an important goal against the Canadiens but his first NHL hat trick went virtually unnoticed the night before as the Devils were mauled 9-6 by the Rangers.Broten, moving closer to his best season (55 points in 1982-83), has established several records this season. On Jan. 5, he assisted on a Muller goal to set a Devil record for consecutive games with at least one point (11). The following night he equalled the franchise mark with at least one point in 17 consecutive games.For eight consecutive games between Dec. 20 and Jan. 5, Broten also collected at least one assist. While those streaks have ended another still survives. He recently played in his franchise-record 175th game in succession.&ldquo;I like to switch to the left wing,&rdquo; said Broten, who has been primarily a center. &ldquo;It seems like you&rsquo;ve got more freedom. I have a chance to go to the holes and that brings more scoring chances. There are also less responsibilities to worry about in your own end.&rdquo;Together, Broten, Muller and MacLean have become New Jersey&rsquo;s hottest line.HOT STUFF&mdash;The Devils&rsquo; tie in Montreal opened a five-city road trip that covered Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles and Philadelphia&hellip;General manager Max McNab was in Europe, ending his stay in Sweden on a scouting trip&hellip;The Devils exercised their option on the contract of 26-year-old goalie Karl Friesen on Jan. 15. The Canadian-born Friesen, now playing for the West German team SportClub Rosenheim, previously signed a multi-year contract with New Jersey on June 8, 1984&hellip;Greg Adams was 2-1-3 in his first three NHL games&hellip;Tim Higgins was reinjured by a cross check from Barry Beck of the Rangers on Jan. 18&hellip;Ron Low, who missed 14 games in a row with a hyper-extended left knee and then back spasms, returned to the lineup. &#9632;

f0019-02

Carpenter Builds Talented Forward Trio

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;You could hardly blame the Maltese Falcon for feeling more like a wingless albatross this season.Tony Tanti&rsquo;s body has been subjected to Murphy&rsquo;s Law, in that what could go wrong often has and he&rsquo;s been on the shelf three times with separate injuries.And after finally getting over chronic and severe nosebleeds, he seemed to be laboring with his skating, as though he&rsquo;d been giving a pint at the Red Cross every day.But Tanti, the Toronto native whose family is from Malta, is going to be scoring goals in the National Hockey League for a good many years to come and while this year has been forgettable, he flashed his great touch around the net in a recent game against Calgary to bring his total to 18 for the year.If the NHL was to have a puckdeflecting contest, the way the National Basketball Association has the slamdunk show, Tanti, the Vancouver Canuck winger, would be up there with the very best.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03471/4966628-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="568" height="166"></div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2>Of his 45 goals last year, he got at least 15 by redirecting shots, though he insists it was under 15 but more than 10. But against the Flames, he used his darting style to score twice in a 3-3 tie with one of the Smythe Division teams they haven&rsquo;t beaten this year.The goals came as a result of a prod from coach and general manager Harry Neale, who decided to take him away from his usual center, Patrik Sundstrom.&ldquo;He moved me to get me motivated, I guess,&rdquo; said Tanti, who found himself on a fourth line with Peter McNab and J.J. Daigneault, the latter having been moved up from defense. &ldquo;It worked for tonight but he can&rsquo;t expect me to score if I&rsquo;m not playing more. The thing is that I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve been playing that badly the last two or three weeks.&rdquo;Neale, in explaining why he moved Tanti, said: &ldquo;Petri Skriko caused part of the problem for me. He&rsquo;s been playing so well lately I had to get him on a regular line.&ldquo;And I&rsquo;ve thought now for a while that Tony and Patrik were waiting for each other to get going. They&rsquo;ve both been in slumps by their standards so I thought I would try and break them up. Their workmanship was far superior. Sunny was strong defensively and Tony had more jump than he&rsquo;s had in a long while.&ldquo;And by the third period, he hadn&rsquo;t played a whole lot and was raring to go.&rdquo;Tanti ended up scoring on the power play with 28 seconds left to tie the game on a backhand from in close.&ldquo;Sure, I was angry I wasn&rsquo;t going to play regularly,&rdquo; said Tanti. &ldquo;I had to prove him wrong. I guess I was getting flak because he thought I wasn&rsquo;t being aggressive enough.&rdquo;The move by Neale was well worth the gamble as neither Tanti nor Sundstrom have statistics commensurate with their abilities. But that has been the case for most of the team this season anyway.The moving of players was prompted by Thomas Gradin&rsquo;s bruised thumb, the result of a rather crude slash from Edmonton Oiler Kevin Lowe. In fact, in a weekend series against the Canucks, the Oilers essentially ran them out of the games. Vancouver severely missed the presence of Ron Delorme, who is lost for the remainder of the season with tom knee ligaments.The Canucks have considered recalling Craig Coxe from Fredericton if the aggressive behavior against them persists. Oilers Dave Semenko and Glenn Anderson were also taking liberties with the Vancouver players, something that would have sent deposed coach Bill LaForge through the roof.The 7-5 win by the Oilers in the second game of the doubleheader ended a four-game Vancouver unbeaten string against the Stanley Cup champions, a little streak that had worked itself into a full-blown jinx by the time most of the media had finished with it.Vancouver might well have beaten the Oilers in their 7-5 loss had they been able to do anything on the power play, which was extremely uneffective.&ldquo;Our poor power play cost us any chance to win,&rdquo; said Neale, of a unit which has slumped to 20th overall. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t understand it because except for Rick (Lanz) we&rsquo;ve got the same guys out there who scored 93 power-play goals for us last year.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0019-03

Canucks’ Maltese Falcon Gets His Wings Clipped

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Al Arbour backed into the trainer&rsquo;s room at the New York Islanders&rsquo; practice rink at Cantiague Park and blinked. It was filled with ailing and aching players.&ldquo;What we need in there is more chairs,&rdquo; the Isles&rsquo; coach said.The team&rsquo;s &ldquo;ill and unavailable&rdquo; list reached a club record 14 out of 27 players when defensemen Gord Lane, Paul Boutilier and Gerald Diduck became flu victims.&ldquo;Things have gotten so bad, I might have to get back into uniform,&rdquo; said the 52-year-old Arbour, a former NHL defenseman. He was only half-joking.To help fill out the roster, general manager Bill Torrey had a shuttle operating between Long Island and the Springfield farm club. Riding the shuttle were Roger Kortko, Alan Kerr, Scott Howson, Vern Smith, Gord Dineen. Ron Handy, Ken Leiter and Mark Hamway.Ironically, shortly after Kortko joined the Islanders he suffered a bruised left ankle.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01748/4966659-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="576" height="190"></div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2>&ldquo;It seems that as soon as we get a couple of guys back, two more guys get injured,&rdquo; Arbour said.Mike Bossy, who had missed three games with a pulled back muscle, returned in time for the first half of a home-and-home weekend set against Washington. But in that same game which the Islanders lost 5-1, Bobby Nystrom and Gordie Lane once again were sidelined. Nystrom suffered a charley horse in his left leg and Lane separated his right shoulder.&ldquo;The only good thing about the injuries is it&rsquo;s giving the kids a chance to play and we have a chance to evaluate them,&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;When we get everybody back, we&rsquo;ll have to make a reassessment.&rdquo;The injuries suffered by Nystrom and Lane increased the Isles&rsquo; infirmary to eight players. The other six on the sidelines were Kortko, Pat LaFontaine, Ken Morrow, Bob Bourne, Stefan Persson and Tomas Jonsson.If the Islanders were entertaining any hope of finishing first in the Patrick Division, it vanished with their two weekend losses to the Capitals.Mike Gartner, whose two third-period goals sealed the Caps&rsquo; 5-2 victory on their home ice, expressed doubts that the Islanders can bounce back.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re still a very good hockey club, but we&rsquo;d have to go on an awful skid and they&rsquo;d have to get real hot to come back from 15 points out,&rdquo; he said.However, Clark Gillies of the Islanders insisted that he and his teammates are still capable of climbing back into the division race.&ldquo;If we can get everybody going, we&rsquo;re still capable of performing good things,&rdquo; the veteran left winger said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not totally convinced that we&rsquo;re finished yet.&rdquo;Arbour is more mystified than ever over the inconsistent play of the former Stanley Cup champions.Following the Saturday loss to the Caps, he said: &ldquo;We had the most fight I and spirit we showed in a long time. If we keep that up, we&rsquo;re not going to lose too many games.&rdquo;It turned into a nightmare weekend for Kelly Hrudey, who gave up early goals in both weekend games and was yanked in the Saturday game after surrendering five goals in two periods.&ldquo;Maybe I didn&rsquo;t get all the help I usually get, but I get paid to make big saves, especially early in the game, and I didn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; he said.ON THE ISLE&mdash;Scott Howson turned his first two shots into goals in his NHL debut against the Red Wings. He extended that string to four goals on four shots before he was finally stopped by the Capitals&hellip;The Caps also ended Bryan Trottier&rsquo;s 11-game point-scoring streak&hellip;Ken Morrow, who underwent knee surgery Oct. 11, has been skating in practice and hopes to return before the end of February. &#9632;

f0020-01

Long Island, Springfield Shuttle Continues

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div>CHICAGO&mdash;Al Secord, the Chicago Black Hawks&rsquo; best left winger since Bobby Hull, has stopped skating.Lloyd Pettit, voice of the Hawks from out of the past and present owner of their Milwaukee farm club, is feeling the effects of Chicago&rsquo;s personnel problems and is starting to cry &ldquo;ouch.&rdquo;The casualties in Chicago and Mil-aukee cofitinue to mount.The latest is Hawk defenseman Keith Brown. He has been out for a week with a strain of the iliotibal band, the vein runing from the hip down the right leg and trainer Skip Thayer is unable to project an estimated time of recovery.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a day to day thing,&rdquo; said Thayer.In addition to Secord, left wingers Darryl Sutter, Curt Fraser and Bob MacMillan are on the disabled list for prolonged periods. Defenseman Dave Feamster may be forced into retirement because of a stress fracture.Meanwhile, Randy Boyd, Milwaukee&rsquo;s best defenseman and a young man with more than 100 games of NHL experience, is recovering from a knee injury, making it impossible for him to answer to the S.O.S. from Chicago.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01548/4966697-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="588" height="824"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Secord&rsquo;s groin injury is not related to last season&rsquo;s abdominal ailment.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02313/4966690-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="576" height="174"></div>But the most important and perplexing injury of all is the groin problem afflicting Secord, who had back-to-back seasons of 44 and 54 goals but since then has played in only 43 games and scored just 11 goals.<h2>CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS</h2>Secord has been out of the lineup since mid-December. He&rsquo;s unwilling to return until he feels he&rsquo;s physically ready to play the way he did when he made his forceful comeback at the end of last season and in the playoffs against Minnesota.Supposedly, this injury is unrelated to last year&rsquo;s abdominal affliction. Secord resumed skating in mid-January, but the groin gave him grief on Jan. 18 and he hasn&rsquo;t been on the ice since.&ldquo;No comment,&rdquo; is the gist of what general manager Bob Pulford and coach Orval Tessier reply when the subject of Secord&rsquo;s injury is broached.In the sports vernacular, &ldquo;no comment&rdquo; usually means &ldquo;bad news.&rdquo;The entire season has been bad news up on the farm in Milwaukee. The Admirals have sunk to last place in the International League after finishing second last year when the Hawks weren&rsquo;t providing the players.&ldquo;I think we may have been overly optimistic at the outset,&rdquo; said owner Pettit, who projected an improvement from 30 per cent to 50 per cent in the quality of his team when the affiliation was announced last summer.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m certainly not pleased. In fact, Jane (his wife) and I are very upset about the way we&rsquo;re going.&rdquo;Considering the circumstances, coach Cliff Koroll is doing an admirable job with the Admirals. But his team has a disabled list as long&rsquo;as Chicago&rsquo;s, and it doesn&rsquo;t have a farm team to turn to. Teams in the International League can dress 15 skaters and two goalies, but the Admirals have been four men short on numerous occasions.The situation is so bad that right winger Tom McMurchy wound up playing six games in six nights, four with Mil-waukee and two for Chicago.HAWK TALK&mdash;Despite their problems, the Hawks were in rare form when they played their only Monday night home game of the season against the arch-rival Minnesota North Stars and won in a 7-2 landslide. Steve Larmer scored two goals and assisted on Denis Savard&rsquo;s goal. Savard added a pair of assists, while Doug Wilson scored one goal and assisted on three. The Chicago scoring parade also included the first NHL goal by Dan Frawley, who was recalled from Milwaukee in December-&hellip;The Hawks have called up Wayne Presley from Kitchener and he played in back-to-back games against Toronto. Chicago won in Toronto and lost at home. &#9632;

f0021-01

Secord’s Iniuru Biggest Mustery For Hawks

<div class="byline">BY P.J. KENNEDY</div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;Quebec Nordique coach Michel Bergeron has high praise for Pat Price.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good experienced defenseman, he knows the game and he&rsquo;s a good team man,&rdquo; Bergeron said.Price, with Bergeron&rsquo;s praise and a new three-year contract, seems to have found a hockey home anchoring the Nords&rsquo; defense and he&rsquo;d love nothing more than to close out his career with Quebec.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to finish my career here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My wife likes it here and&hellip;it&rsquo;s and enjoyble place to play. It&rsquo;s probably the best organization in the league.&rdquo;Price&rsquo;s steady, dependable defensive style fits well into Bergeron&rsquo;s largely offensive attack with the Nordiques.&ldquo;In the tough situations, I mean at the end of the period or end of the game, I know that it, I use Pat that he&rsquo;s ready to play,&rdquo; Bergeron said.Along with captain Mario Marois and newly-acquired Brad Maxwell, Price helps steady the younger defenders who&rsquo;ve developed so well in recent years for the Nords. The way he sees it, his job is &ldquo;to be consistent and to steady the younger defensemen down and help them with their transition into the pros.&rdquo;Bergeron concurs in Price&rsquo;s assessment of his role.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always ready to play a good game, so it&rsquo;s good for the younger players around him,&rdquo; Bergeron said.Two of the younger players most affected by Price are third-year man Randy Moller and rookie Bruce Bell. Both respect Price highly for his on-ice performance as well as for his ability to share his knowledge of the game.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t help but learn a lot from him (whether) sitting on the bench or on the ice,&rdquo; Moller said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s lasted lOyear-s&hellip;in what&rsquo;s become a young man&rsquo;s league, and that speaks for itself. I still talk with him before games over who to watch. I admire him.&rdquo;Bell, who in his initial season has already turned heads with his hockey prowess, also respects Price.&ldquo;Pat helps me out a lot since he plays the left side as I do,&rdquo; Bell said. &ldquo;I look up to him. He&rsquo;s helped&rsquo;me by showing me how to make the easy pass and the way to take the man. He&rsquo;s a good defenseman&hellip;A lot of guys rely on him back there.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01632/4966728-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="568" height="154"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2>At 29, Price looks back on his hockey career and is proudest of his ability to adapt and to continue to grow as a player.&ldquo;The one thing that I&rsquo;m proudest about is my longevity,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The accomplishment rests in the fact that I&rsquo;ve been here 10 years. There have been better players who haven&rsquo;t lasted that long.&rdquo;More than a mere survivor, Price has found a home with the Nordiques where his positive attitude and professional de-meanor on and off the ice can only help his team as it moves toward a Stanley Cup.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good team man and every body here respects him,&rdquo; Bergeron said. &#9632;

f0022-01

Veteran Price Well-Respected By Nords

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div>HARTFORD&mdash;Torrie Robertson was standing in the corridor of the Montreal Forum trying to explain the whys and why nots behind a tough one-goal loss by the Hartford Whalers when Joel Quenneville walked by.&ldquo;How&rsquo;s that guy playing?&rdquo; Robertson said shaking his head. &ldquo;Is he getting his ice time or what? That&rsquo;s Ray Bourque&rsquo;s cousin. Joe L. Bourque.&rdquo;No one will ever confuse Quenneville, a seven-year National Hocey League defenseman with Bourque, but the load he&rsquo;s carried lately for the Whalers&rsquo; banged-up defense isn&rsquo;t much different than the awesome load Bourque carries regularly for Boston.With Chris Kotsopoulos down with a broken bone in his foot, Quenneville has been asked to do double duty, killing penalties as well as taking a regular shift while logging up to 35 minutes per game.&ldquo;This is the most I&rsquo;ve ever played in my career, by far,&rdquo; said the 6-foot, 190 pounder who came to Hartford from Cal-gary in July, 1983, in a deal involving Mickey Volcan. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind it. In fact, I kind of like it.&rdquo;Quenneville, who was drafted 21st overall by Toronto in 1978, has always aspired to be an important player. While some players run away from responsibility, Quenneville embraces it. His best attribute in a limited arsenal is that he is unafraid of failing. He won&rsquo;t hesitate to give it everything he has when asked.Which lately has been often.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02450/4966766-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="566" height="154"></div><h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2>&ldquo;The more I play, the more I get into the flow of the game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The reason I&rsquo;m playing so much is I kill all the penalties, the whole two minutes. The specialty teams are where we win or lose games. That&rsquo;s why I work so hard on my penalty killing. I&rsquo;ve got to play smart.&rdquo;His teammates best understand Quen-neville&rsquo;s contribution.&ldquo;Joel&rsquo;s holding our defense together right now,&rdquo; winger Ray Neufeld said.It hasn&rsquo;t been easy without Kotsopoulos. The traffic in and around the Whalers&rsquo; crease these days has been rush hour all the way.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying hard as a group,&rdquo; Quenneville said. &ldquo;There has been a lot of turnover and as a result we&rsquo;re a little inexperienced. We&rsquo;re working, but we miss Kotsy.&rdquo;The Whalers, if you can believe it, have tried 12 different defensemen this far, but when crunch time arrives, coach Jack Evans has sent out Quenneville and one of 11 others.&ldquo;I try to play with my head more than my legs,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;I know my weak point is my skating, my lack of speed. Let&rsquo;s face it, a lot of my career has been spent in my own end of the rink.&rdquo;Quenneville knows that comparisons with Bourque are far-fetched, but if he&rsquo;s got to be anybody&rsquo;s cousin, then why not Boston&rsquo;s all-star defenseman?&ldquo;Bourque has got to be in some kind of shape,&rdquo; Quenneville said. &ldquo;He not only plays defensively, but he&rsquo;s got the puck the whole game. It&rsquo;s a lot tougher when you have to play offense like he does. Up the ice and back, up and back. It&rsquo;s tough. He does so much skating.&ldquo;I guess that&rsquo;s the difference between Ray Bourque and us plumbers.&rdquo;Quennville, 26, won the Budweiser Cup as the Whalers&rsquo; most valuable defenseman last year. It is a highlight of a career that hasn&rsquo;t had many.&ldquo;Going back to junior, I&rsquo;ve played on some of the worst teams in hockey history,&rdquo; Quenneville said.But a workhorse works. It is the only way he knows.&ldquo;Hockey&rsquo;s not that hard a game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Defense is basically a game of position. My strength, I think, is not getting beat one-on-one, standing up at the line and poke-checking. Those things involve good positioning, timing and not easily surrendering the zone.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the physical part is as important as the mental part. It&rsquo;s the mental game that counts.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03351/4966759-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="572" height="1026"><figcaption class="caption-body">Injuries to his fellow defenseman has forced a heavy workload on veteran Joel Quenneville.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0022-02

Quenneville Carrving Heavy Load

<div class="byline">BY DICK BAKER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01608/4966797-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="580" height="704"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Gatzos didn&rsquo;t lose faith when he was demoted to Muskegon of the International League.</figcaption></div>BALTIMORE&mdash;Only three players on the Baltimore Skipjacks have scored more goals this season than Steve Gatzos.What makes that a big deal is that Gatzos, who once produced 78 goals in junior, has played in only 15 of Baltimore&rsquo;s 44 games. He&rsquo;s only been around since Dec. 17 when he was recalled from Muskegon of the International League following a shocking pre-season demotion.Now The Great Gatzos may not be The Great Gretzky, but in less than five weeks he&rsquo;s registered 11 goals and six assists. He&rsquo;s also earned AHL Player-of-the-Week Honors.Gatzos&rsquo; comeback course didn&rsquo;t begin in Muskegon. It actually started the year before last with an early-season ankle injury at Pittsburgh. This setback was followed by a near-career ending check from Rick Green. The blow literally crushed Gatzo&rsquo;s chest. Doctors couldn&rsquo;t use pins to support the chest because they would&rsquo;ve been inserted dangerously close to the heart.The second disappointment came when Gatzos was dropped from Baltimore&rsquo;s playoff roster on the last day of the season last year. Add this season&rsquo;s training camp demotion to Muskegon and it&rsquo;s a wonder Gatzos wasn&rsquo;t discouraged enough to quit the game altogether.&ldquo;It was tough, mentally,&rdquo; said Gatzos, who graduated from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario League. &ldquo;It was like starting right on the bottom. But the Muskegon coach, Rick Ley, was just a super guy. He made things so easy for me. The owner, Larry Gordon, helped, too. It was a first-class operation and that made a big difference.&ldquo;One of the biggest changes this season has been in my attitude. I&rsquo;m not so hard on myself when things aen&rsquo;t going well. Gene (Ubriaco, Baltimore&rsquo;s coach) has given me every opportunity to play.&rdquo;At Muskegon, Gatzos notched 18 goals in 24 games, giving him a combined total of 29 goals in 39 games. Last year he was 14-19-33 in 48 games with Baltimore and 3-3-6 in 23 games in Pittsburgh.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m supposed to be a goal scorer and I didn&rsquo;t do it in Pittsburgh,&rdquo; said Gatzo.Gatzos knew jobs would be hard to come by when Pittsburgh selected Bruce Crowder and Wayne Babych in the waiver draft.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough when you see a couple of guys taken that play your position,&rdquo; said Gatzos. &ldquo;It was more of a surprise when I did get sent down to Muskegon because I had such a good training camp.&rdquo;DOWN SOUTH&mdash;New Haven coach Nick Beverly took action to stop a sevengame Nighthawk losing streak. First, h^ blasted his charges between periods of an overtime victory against St. Catharines.&ldquo;I did something out of character,&rdquo; said Beverly of his outburst. &ldquo;But w^ had lost seven and we were on our way to an eighth.&rdquo; The next night, team-leading scorer Blaine Stoughton was at the end of the bench as the Nighthawks upended Springfield 4-3 in overtime. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s benched,&rdquo; said Beverly when asked if Stoughton was injured or just not playing, particularly well. &ldquo;So I guess that answers your question about how he&rsquo;s been playing. &ldquo;&hellip;When Binghamton defeated Baltimore 4-1 Jan. 23, it marked the fifth consecutive time the Whalers had downed the Skipjacks. Steve Weeks made 35 saves in the road victory. Then Springfield Indians set an all-time franchise record with a crowd of 7,602 when they defeated the Hershey Bears 5-2 on Jan. 18. The gathering was boosted by the appearance of the San Diego Chicken. The previous high was set on Nov. 17, 1973 when the Spring&rsquo;s field Kings drew a sellout 7,449 for a game with the Boston Braves. The game &bull; was sold out by the advanced billing of Derek Sanderson, who was with the Braves at the time. &#9632;

f0024-01

Gatzos Making Up For Lost Time

<div class="byline">BY PAT LYON</div>WINSTON-SALEM&mdash;Carolina Thunderbird&rsquo;s Dan Olson may be a carpenter in the off-season, but right now he&rsquo;s building quite a reputation as one of the top goaltenders in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League.Olson owned a glittering 18-3 record as of Jan. 24 and is the only goaltender with a goals-against average of less than three for the first-place Thunderbirds. Olson and Pierre Hamel have given the T-Birds strong goaltending and the result is 30 victories in the club&rsquo;s first 40 games.&ldquo;Dan Olson has played consistently well,&rdquo; said coach Rick Dudley. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a talented athlete and cuts down his angles well. He really hasn&rsquo;t had any bad games this season, with the exception of one period in a game against Virginia.&rdquo;A change of equipment along with close instruction have helped his game tremendously.&ldquo;I was playing with bad equipment last year and my new pads helped me stand up better,&rdquo; said Olson, who admits his confidence level is up dramatically. &ldquo;Both Rick Dudley and goaltender coach Jim Warden have also worked closely with me and I owe a lot to them.&rdquo; The 25-year-old Olson now makes Winston-Salem his permanent home, where he also operates a construction business.&ldquo;I really enjoy playing here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I enjoy die city, the people, and especially the weather.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">I really enjoy playing here. I enjoy the city, the people and especially the weather&hellip;&rsquo;</blockquote>Despite his success, Olson isn&rsquo;t hesitant to share the spotlight with his teammates.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve gotten off to a tremendous start because of the coaching,&rdquo; Olson said. &ldquo;Our defense is really playing well. We have a third man coming back to take the man in the slot, and that has really cut down the rebounds and made my job easier.&rdquo;Hamel has spent the last few weeks on the injured list, while recovering from a pulled muscle, but he&rsquo;s proved no slouch in the nets himself. The 31-year-old Hamel owns a 13-1 record and 3.42 goals-against average.Several rookies have also blossomed under Dudley&rsquo;s tutelage, including Ed Christian who has 15 points in his last four games. The BB line of John Tor-chetti, Joe Curran and Matt Winnicki, all of whom are Boston natives, were averaging 10 points per game in each of their last four games.&ldquo;Our conditioning is one reason for much of our success,&rdquo; Dudley said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re a third-period team and over the course of the season have won most of our games in the third period. We&rsquo;ve been very consistent and have a great chemistry on the club. Everybody works well together.&rdquo;AROUND THE LEAGUE&mdash;The Erie Golden Blades won six games in a row and moved into a second-place tie with Pine Bridge. The Blades beat Pine Bridge 7-6 on Jan. 13 in the league&rsquo;s second shootout of the season. Barry Tabobondung&rsquo;s goal in the shootout was the winner. Rookie Peter Barrasso&rsquo;s hat trick helped the Blades to a 4-2 win over Virginia on Jan. 16. Erie goalie Darrell May was named Player of the Week as he approached the 20 wins for the season&hellip;Pine Bridge has cooled off after its fast start with injuries playing a major role and the Bucks playing. 500 hockey in the past few weeks. Dan Potter had a hat trick and Todd Bjorkstrand four assists in a 9-4 win over Mohawk Valley on Jan. 19. Rob Clavette continued to pace the league in scoring with 71 points in 32 games&hellip;Player-coach Rick Suwek will suit up only in emergencies as he has decided to run the club from behind the bench. Only Erie and Pine Bridge continue to use player coaches. Veteran Jim Beaton has returned to help the Stars on defense. Larry Power and Dan Lane each contributed hat tricks in an 8-7 shootout loss to Virginia on Jan. 17. It took Power 57 games to score 28 goals last year, but this year the Star veteran has recorded 29 goals in his first 28 games&hellip;Virginia&rsquo;s Lee Blossom has raced up the league scoring ladder and now ranks second behind Clavette with 69 points. Blossom had a big night in Virgina&rsquo;s 8-7 win on Jan. 17 with three goals and two assists. &#9632;

Olson Shinina For T-Birds In Net

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>PORTLAND&mdash;With an effective first-half performance, Maine goaltender Sam St. Laurent is answering his critics and proving that he can get the job done in the regular season, too.St. Laurent, 25, has been a playoff nero for the Mariners in each of the last two seasons. But the knock on him&mdash;based on a review of the numbers he&rsquo;s produced&mdash;was that he couldn&rsquo;t get his game really untracked until the snow started to melt and the grass around Portland started to turn green.A change of organizations and a strict training program, forced on him by Maine coach Tom McVie this season, have had an emotional and physical impact on the Jonquiere, Que., resident. He has emerged as the top goaltender on the learn, remained in the top five for lowest goals-against average in the league all season, and has already equalled the career-high 14 victories he recorded in 38 appearances last season. The 14th win&mdash;which raised his record to 14-11-3 and lowered his goals-against average to 3.09&mdash;came on Jan. 23 in the Mariners&rsquo; 6-5 victory at Glens Falls over the Adirondack Red Wings. St. Laurent came on in relief of Shawn Mackenzie early in the second period and gave up just one goal. The win, Maine&rsquo;s first of the season at the Glens Falls Civic Center, moved the team into a tie with Adirondack for second place in the Northern Division.St. Laurent acknowledges that the Mariners have a stronger team this season, but points to the off-season deal that sent him from the Philadelphia Flyers to the New Jesey Devils&rsquo; organization as a key element in his improvement. Last season, the Flyers loaned St. Laurent to the Devils to play at Maine.During his five seasons with the Philadelphia organization, St. Laurent played behind such notable young developing goalies as Rick St. Croix, Pelle Lindbergh and Bob Froese. He bounced back and forth between Maine and the Toledo Goaldiggers of the International Hockey League and, two seasons ago, considered retiring.He went home for a week, but returned to Toledo at the urging of former Goaldigger coach Billy Inglis.A year later, he was back in Maine and played a major role in the team&rsquo;s run to the finals of the Calder Cup playoffs. Last season, St. Laurent found the groove in the second half of the season, sparked the Mariners to a third-place finish, and fashioned a league-leading 2.71 goals-against average as the club defeated Adirondack, Nova Scotia and Rochester to win the playoff title.This season he&rsquo;s proving he can be more than just a hot goalie in the playoffs.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s a better goaltender, there&rsquo;s no question about it,&rdquo; said John Paddock, St. Laurent&rsquo;s former teammate and now part of the Maine coaching tandem with McVie. &ldquo;First, I think he has studied the game and took a lot of good things from Jacques Plante when Plante was the Flyers&rsquo; goalie coach. I think he grasped a lot of that and he knows the league and he knows how to play the shooters.&ldquo;The second thing is that Tommy is a stickler for conditioning and he&rsquo;s in better shape then he&rsquo;s ever been in. He&rsquo;s got to play at a certain weight for his quickness, and he&rsquo;s more flexible and just in better shape.&rdquo;AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash;Adirondack gained a tie and two victories in the final four games of their five-game road trip to the Maritimes to improve to 21-20-6 and slip past the Mariners into second. The Wings, who have played the first 50 games of the season shorthanded, lost top scorers Claude Loiselle and Gerard Gallant on recall to Detroit. Those recalls, plus injuries to nine players, left the Wings with 12 skaters&mdash;six forwards and six defensemen against Maine&hellip;Fredericton cleared up some of its problems of having too many players by sending Michel Bolduc, an original Express player, to Muskegon of the IHL a couple of days after Peter Loob was dispatched to the same team. That left the Express with seven defensemen&hellip;Center Newell Brown has signed a contract and will stay with the Express for the rest of the season&hellip;Grant Martin&rsquo;s point streak was ended at 12 games during which he scored nine goals and 20 points&hellip;Edmonton called up defenseman Steve Smith from Nova Scotia, leaving the Oilers with 15 skaters&hellip;Moncton forward Bruce Eakin was named the AHL Player of the Week for scoring five goals and nine points in three games&hellip;The Mariners have been assessed just one bench minor this season&hellip;Veteran Gary MacAdam easily beat Mark LaForest of Adirondack on the first penalty shot attempt of his 10-year career for what proved to be the game-winning goal. LaForest had penalty shots awarded against him twice in one week. He stopped the first one. In both cases, the 22-year-old Adirondack goalie was guilty of the infraction for which the shot was awarded. &#9632;

St. Laurent Playing Like It’s Post Season

<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Charlie Simmer, LW, sidelined with broken jaw. Steve Kasper, C, out with char-leyhorse. Dave Reid, LW, and Brian Curran, D, recalled from Hershey of AHL. Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, RW, back from injury list.BUFFALO&mdash;Jim Schoenfeld, D, sidelined with foot injury.CALGARY&mdash;Colin Patterson, RW, sidelined with torn knee ligaments.CHICAGO&mdash;Tom McMurchy, LW, recalled from Milwaukee of IHL. Wayne Presley, LW, recalled from Kitchener of OHL. Keith Brown, D, sidelined after straining leg. Randy Boyd, D, recovering from leg injury.DETROIT&mdash;Claude Loiselle, C, and Gerard Gallant, LW, recalled from Adirondack of AHL. Milan Chalupa, D, and Joe Kocur, RW, back from injury list and both assigned to Adirondack.EDMONTON&mdash;Gord Sherven, RW, and Terry Martin, LW, traded to Minnesota for Mark Napier, RW. Martin recalled from Nova Scotia of AHL and transferred to Springfield of AHL by North Stars. Larry Melnyk, D, out with twisted knee.HARTFORD&mdash;Steve Weeks, G, and Ray Feqaro, C, recalled from Binghamton of AHL.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Russ Anderson, D, recalled from New Haven of AHL. Bob Miller, C, back from injury list.MINNESOTA&mdash;Dirk Graham, RW, recalled from Springfield of AHL. Craig Hartsburg, D, and Curt Giles, D, returned from injured list. Dave Jensen, D, and Dave Richter, D, returned to Springfield of AHL.MONTREAL&mdash;Claude Lemieux, RW, returned to Verdun of QMJHL. Jeff Teal, LW, returned to Sherbrooke of AHL. Lucien DeBlois, RW, sidelined with torn stomach muscles.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Rick Meagher, RW, out of action with bruised ribs. Michel Bolduc, D, claimed bn waivers from Quebec and assigned to Maine of AHL.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Ken Leiter, D, Scott Howson, C, Vern Smith, D, Ron Handy, LW, and Mark Hamway, RW, all recalled from Springfield of AHL. Anders Kallur, LW, and Mike Bossy, RW, return from injured list. Bob Nystrom, RW, injured with charleyhorse. Gord Lane, D, sidelined with separated shoulder. Roger Kortko, C, sidelined with sprained ankle.NY RANGERS&mdash;Mike Blaisdell, RW, recalled from New Haven of AHL. Willie Huber, D, side-lined with torn knee ligaments.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Brian Propp, LW, out of the lineup for four games after being suspended by the NHL. Darryl Stanley, D, seriously injured in car accident while on assignment to Hershey.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Roger Belanger, RW, sidelined with broken foot. Bruce Crowder, LW, back from injured list.QUEBEC&mdash;Wayne Groulx, C, returned to S.S. Marie of OHL. Yvon Vautour, RW, returned to Fredericton of AHL. Luc Dufour, LW, recalled from Fredericton.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Kevin LaVallee, LW, sidelined with damaged knee. Guy Chouinard, RW, assigned to Peoria of IHL.TORONTO&mdash;Bill Stewart, D, Leigh Verstraete, RW, and Basil McRae, LW, recalled from St. Catharines of AHL as replacements for Jeff Brubaker, LW, Jim Korn, LW, and Bob McGill, D, all of whom were suspended for three games by the NHL.VANCOUVER&mdash;J.J. Daigneault, D, back from injured list. Thomas Gradin, C, sidelined day-to-day with bruinsed thumb. Mike Stevens, C, called up from Kitchener of OHL.WASHINGTON&mdash;Dave Shand, D, sent to Hershey of AHL.WINNIPEG&mdash;Wade Campbell, D, recalled from Sherbrooke of AHL.<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>TOLEDO&mdash;Mark Plantery, D, and Bill Joyce, RW, traded to Flint of IHL for Don Waddell, D, and Jim Aldred, LW. &#9632;

PLAYER TRANSACTIONS

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>PEORIA&mdash;The Peoria Rivermen are the best team on home ice in the International Hockey League this season, and heading into the second half of the season they&rsquo;ll play more games at home than on the road.But despite leading the West Division, coach Pat Kelly isn&rsquo;t claiming the Turner Cup for his team. The reason. quite simply, is the Rivermen&rsquo;s performance on the road.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing well in our own building,&rdquo; Kelly said, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;ve got to pick up more points on the road.&rdquo;Peoria is 16-3-2 at home, but a mediocre 7-11-4 on the road. The biggest stumbling blocks away from home have been Toledo and Milwaukee.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve picked up only one point in six games in those cities,&rdquo; said Kelly.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re 0-2-1 at Milwaukee and 0-3 at Toledo,&rdquo; Kelly added. &ldquo;Flint has won 12 of 12 points in those cities. We just don&rsquo;t seem to be prepared mentally for them when we go in there.&rdquo;Despite their consistency, the Riverman have to keep looking over their shoulders at Fort Wayne.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re going to be tough,&rdquo; Kelly said of the Komets, who are in second place in the West, four behind as of Jan. 20. &ldquo;But there are a lot of tough clubs, five or six, and right now I can&rsquo;t say we&rsquo;re doing any better than any of them.&rdquo;If Peoria has one advantage over the other teams it&rsquo;s balance. The Rivermen are averaging almost four and a half goals a game while limiting their opponents to three and a half.Doug Evans is tied for fifth in IHL scoring, and a five-goal explosion by Mike Prestidge in an 8-2 victory over East Division leader Flint lifted him to eighth in the league.Evans has 14 goals, 35 assists (four in the game that linemate Prestidge got his handful); Prestidge upped his goal total to 25 with that performance and has 22 assists; right winger Dave MacQueen is the second 20-goaI scorer for Peoria. Through Jan. 20 he had 22.But everyone gets into the act for Kelly when the Rivermen have the puck. Evans and Lee Norwood rank third and fourth, respectively, in the league in assists with 35 each, and Denis Cyr is fifth with 33.Veteran Rick Heinz is equally strong in goal. Heinz had the most victories in the league, 19, against 10 losses and three ties, and going into action the week of Jan. 20 he had the second-best goals-against average&mdash;3.24 compared with the 2.97 mark of Kalamazoo&rsquo;s Georges Gagnon.Peoria has consistency, too. The Rivermen have lost three games in a row only once this season and their longest streak without a loss has been eight wins and a tie.The Rivermen were hurt by the loss of Perry Ganchar to parent St. Louis. Gan char was fifth in league scoring and had 25 goals when he was recalled. His tenure with the Blues is uncertain.The Rivermen did receive veteran Guy Chouinard, who picked up three assists in his first two games with Peoria.&ldquo;He hadn&rsquo;t been playing that much with St. Louis,&rdquo; Kelly said, &ldquo;and he&rsquo;s more or less keeping in shape with us. He&rsquo;s an expert on the power play and he should help us in that department.&rdquo;The Riverman don&rsquo;t need a lot of help on their power play. They have scored on 40 of 140 chances, the most power-play goals in the league and the best average&mdash;28.6.Nevertheless, the Rivermen were off and running to get the second half of the season underway. They had a couple of hurdles to overcome: three of their four games the week of Jan. 20 were on the road, two at Flint in a meeting of division leaders.NOTES&mdash;Kalamazoo winger Rob Davies suffered a serious eye injury on Jan. 18 in a 3-1 win at Indianapolis. Davies was injured in a pileup in front of the Indianapolis goal during the second period and it is feared a ruptured eyeball might cost him his career. A team spokesman said Davies is &ldquo;doing fairly well in the hospital and has partial vision in the right eye.&rdquo;&hellip;Salt Lake City, which had 16 consecutive home games through the first week in February, wasn&rsquo;t taking advantage of the situation. The Golden Eagles lost the first five games of their homestand (two to Peoria, three to Indianapolis) and tied the next two (against Fort Wayne). Bobby Francis is back in action for Salt Lake after 21-game break with an injury&hellip;At Fort Wayne. Jay Johnston, Ron Leef Dan Miele all returned to duty&hellip;GiwI Thibaudeau of Hint continues to lead the league in goals with 37 in 41 games. &#9632;

Rivermen Aren’t At Home On The Road

<div class="byline">BY TOM BOGGIE</div>ROY&mdash;While high-scoring forwards Adam Oates and John Carter and goal-older Daren Puppa have been grabbing the majority of the headlines this season, two of the most valuble players on the Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute hockey team have gone relatively unnoticed.Sophomores Terry Butryn and Neil Homberg, who earned the nickname The Smurfs during their freshman year because of their size (both are listed at a generous 5-foot-7 in the RPI press guide) would probably never win a popularity vote by the fans. Butryn and Hemberg aren&rsquo;t flashy goal scorers. Their job is to Ail I penalties and they do it as well as anyone in the East.Going into the final week of January, RPI (17-2) was riding a school-record 14-game winning streak and one of the biggest reasons was their penalty killing. Led by the Smurfs, who scrum, dive, poke and pester when they&rsquo;re on the ice, RPI had given up just 13 power-play goals in 94 chances this season, a sparkling 13.9 per cent.&ldquo;They are just very clean skaters and they have an innate sense,&rdquo; said Engineers&rsquo; coach Mike Addesa about his top penalty killers. &ldquo;They have a great desire to succeed. They are both very unselfish and it leads to a great desire to help the team. They know the team is in an adverse position when they go out on the ice to kill penalties and they waht to do something special.&rdquo;Yet, Butryn and Hemberg rarly receive any recognition for their play. It&rsquo;s a rare night in Houston Field House when they receive a game star, as they do their work in relative obscurity.&ldquo;Almost every night we play, one or both could be selected a game star,&rdquo; said Addesa. &ldquo;In every tounament we&rsquo;ve played, both should have been first team, all-tournament, in my opinion.&ldquo;The people watching hockey are like the people who watch football or basketball,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;They watch the object that has to be projected into something or through something. As a result, penalty killing, which is a defensive strategem instead of an offensive strategem, isn&rsquo;t noticed.&rdquo;Butryn and Hemberg came to RPI from different backgrounds. The fiery, red-headed Butryn is a native of Beams-ville, Ont., where he also lettered in golf and cross country while at Beamsville High School. He went on to play in the Ontario Provincial Junior A League, where he scored 77 points in his final season for the Hamilton Jr. A&rsquo;s.Hemberg, a native of Hingham, MA, prepped at Milton Academy, where he set single-season school scoring records in both hockey (163 points) and soccer (49 goals). Most Milton hockey players wind up in the Ivy League, but Hemberg found his way to Troy.&ldquo;When I recruited them, I told each about the other,&rdquo; Addesa stated. &ldquo;I even showed them pictures of each other. I told them if they came hare and worked hard, we would have the greatest penalty killing in the country. When I finally got them together, they already felt like they knew each other.&rdquo;That bond has helped them on the ice, as they anticipate each other&rsquo;s moves and cover up for each other. It allows the penalty killing unit to operate offensively, rather than defensively, because one knows that he&rsquo;s beaten while pinching in, the other will cover up for him.&ldquo;They love it,&rdquo; said Addesa of the Smurfs penalty-killing responsibilities. &ldquo;You know, both are very good players who did everything for their teams before coming to RPI. They took their regular shifts, skated on power plays, killed penalties. Their coaches used them as often as they could, in all situations.&rdquo;ECAC NOTES&mdash;Cornell moved into a tie with Harvard (both 4-0-1) for the lead in the Ivy League standings with a 5-4 win over Yale. Freshman Joe Nieuwendyk had three goals for the Big Red before being injured in the third period&hellip;Despite the loss to Cornel 1, Yale remained red-hot and ran its record to 13-6-1 with a 7-3 win over Colgate and a stunning 4-1 victory over New Hampshire. Randy Wood had four goals and an assist in the win over the Red Raiders while Scott Relick and Mike Schwalb combined for 21 saves to turn back the Wildcats&hellip;The ECAC has more than held its own in games against Hockey East this season. Following Yale&rsquo;s victory, the ECAC was 2-3-1 against Hockey East. All three of those losses were suffered by three of the ECAC&rsquo;s weaker teams, as Army lost to Lowell and both Vermont and Dartmouth lose to New Hampshire in the Auld Lang Syne Tournament&hellip;Brown saw its five-game winning streak snapped at Cornell&rsquo;s Lynah Rink, as Mark Henderson&rsquo;s goal with 2:31 left to play gave the Big Red a 3-2 win over the Bruins&hellip;Colgate goalie Jeff Cooper picked up an assist in the Red Raiders&rsquo; 5-1 win over Brown the next night&hellip;RPI ran its two year record to 49-8 by sweeping Michigan, 5-1 and 5-2, at Houston Field House. &#9632;

RPI Smurfs Snuff Opposition Power Plays

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>DULUTH&mdash;A year ago, Minnesota-Duluth got a taste of success, winning the Western Collegiate Hockey Association championship for the first time and finishing second in the NCAA tourney.All that did was whet the appetites of the Bulldogs for more of the same as they&rsquo;ve roared out of the cellar of the WCHA early in the season and now are atop the conference for the first time this season.The Bulldogs did it the hard way, too, earning a tie and a win over Minnesota, which has led the WCHA nearly all season. But when the Bulldogs took three out of a possible four points from the Gophers before a screaming crowd in Duluth, suddenly it&rsquo;s an old face in a new position with the Bulldogs back on top.One can&rsquo;t help but compare this year&rsquo;s Bulldog team to the one a year ago which stormed from back in the pack to win the title, but according to coach Mike Ser-tich, that&rsquo;s where the comparison ends.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to compare this team to last year&rsquo;s team,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;This team has its own identity and personality. They do a lot of things similar to last year&rsquo;s team, but maybe with not as much polish. But in other things, we do things better this year.&rdquo;Duluth is getting outstanding play from many of the veterans who took the Bulldogs to their most successful season ever a year ago. Forward Bill Watson, the WCHA scoring champion a year ago, has come on strongly to wrestle the scoring lead away from Minnesota&rsquo;s Pat Micheletti, the season-long leader. Watson, a Chicago Black Hawk draftee, now has 56 points to 53 for Micheletti, whose NHL rights belong to the Minnesota North Stars. No other player in the league is closer than 11 points to those runaway leaders.Sertich still points to a weekend at Boston University in early November as the turning point for the Bulldogs. Duluth went into that series with a 1-3 record, but came away with a tie and a victory over the team picked to win Hockey East. Since then, it&rsquo;s been a steady climb to the top for Duluth, culminating with the big series against state rival Minnesota.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had a resurgence in play from such players as Mark Baron and Tom Herzig and continued fine play from Watson, Rick Kosti and Matt Christensen, players we were counting on heavily,&rdquo; Sertich said. &ldquo;And we&rsquo;re very pleased with the development of our defense. We were very young back there when the season started with three sophomores, a junior and just one senior.&rdquo;There aren&rsquo;t too many freshmen who make a big splash in the WCHA as rookies. One who has is winger Brett Hull, the son of NHL Hall of Famer Bobby Hull. The younger Hull has contributed 13 goals and 14 assists in 24 games, including a tying goal with just 41 seconds left in regulation play in the 6-6 tie with Minnesota.&ldquo;He struggled in the beginning of the season like a typical freshman,&rdquo; Sertich said. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s had some crucial goals for us lately. It&rsquo;s nice to be able to go with a freshman in the waning moments of a game.&ldquo;That says a lot for the ability of the young pople today. It used to be that you never saw a freshman on the ice near the end of the game.&rdquo;It may be tough for anyone to catch the Bulldogs the rest of the way as the schedule certainly appears in their favour. They play six of their final 10 games at home, where they haven&rsquo;t lost in 22 games. And included on Duluth&rsquo;s remaining schedule is two games with Wisconsin, a team Duluth has beaten 10 consecutive times over the last two seasons.WCHA NOTES&mdash;Steve McSwain, a highly-recruited sophomore forward from Anchorage, AL, has left the University of Minnesota hockey team. McSwain contributed three goals and four assists in 13 games&hellip;The Gophers have also lost forward Rick Erdall for at least a week with ligament damage in his knee&hellip;Michigan Tech is one school which has to be happy to be facing a steady diet of WCHA teams the rest of the way. The Huskies are 8-2 against WCHA teams to date after going just 4-9-1 against teams from Hockey East&hellip;Chris Cichocki continues to provide the bulk of Tech&rsquo;s offense with 23 goals and 18 assists in 28 games. No other Michigan Tech player has more than 12 goals&hellip;North Dakota is playing without freshman standout Tony Hrkac, who was given an indefinite suspension by Sioux hockey coach Gino Gasparini for disciplinary reasons&hellip;The Sioux are also minus sophomore forward Perry Nakonechny, who is out with a broken jaw&hellip;Denver&rsquo;s Dallas Gaume has moved into a tie for 10th on the school&rsquo;s all-time scoring list after collecting six assists as the Pioneers split with Wisconsin&hellip;Wisconsin&rsquo;s Paul Houck, after a slow start, is now the Badgers&rsquo; hottest scorer after picking up 10 points in his last four games. Houck is now No. 13 on Wisconsin&rsquo;s all-time scoring list with 160 points in 150 games in his four seasons with the Badgers&hellip;With just four games left to be played, the WCHA holds a commanding 64-38-4 edge on Hockey East in the interlocking schedule matching the two leagues in head-to-head competition for the first time&hellip;Minnesota has gotten an early jump on recruiting with verbal commitments from four Minnesota high school standouts. Tom Chorske of Minneapolis Southwest, Todd Richards of Armstrong, David Espe of White Bear Lake and Marty Nanne of Edina. Nanne is the son of Minnesota North Star general manager Lou Nanne. Chorske, who has 31 goals in 13 games, is expected to be a high first-round draft pick in the NHL draft. &#9632;

Bulldogs Battled Way To The Top

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>DURHAM&mdash;Two paperback copies of the New Testament adorn Charlie Holt&rsquo;s desk in the catacombs of Snively Arena. They don&rsquo;t look well-thumbed, but with the way Holt&rsquo;s University of New Hampshire team has turned its season around, you&rsquo;d swear that he enjoys direct intervention from on high.UNH may well be the best team in Hockey East at the moment. They have gone from a record of 1-13&mdash;a slate that included three forfeit losses for using ineligible player Kirk Lussier&mdash;to a mark of 11-18 and climbing.The turnaround includes 10 wins in their last 12 games. The two losses were single-goal affairs during that stretch. Last week the Wildcats beat powerful Boston College 4-3 in overtime in Chestnut Hill, then followed with a 7-4 homeice win over slumping Northeastern.The Bibles? Holt explains.&ldquo;We had (former NHLer) Jean Pronovost and an associate from his Hockey Ministry speak to our team,&rdquo; Holt said. &ldquo;They were in from Canada and visited seven or eight schools in the area. They met with the kids, showed them a film, and had some talks. I learned then that a couple of kids on the team were already in a Bible study group on campus.&rdquo;Holt recently earned his 400th career coaching victory, and his team&rsquo;s dramatic win at BC delayed by a game the achievement of the coveted. 500 win mark by Eagle coach Len Ceglarski. With the serenity that comes only from vast experience in coaching, Holt explains how his patience and refusal to make wholesale changes led to UNH&rsquo;s rebound.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a collection of good guys on this team that we did mess up a bit,&rdquo; he admitted, referring to himself and his coaching staff. &ldquo;So we&rsquo;ve left the same line combinations together ever since the Minnesota series. We&rsquo;ve been changing little things here and there but nothing big.&rdquo;Holt is one of college hockey&rsquo;s premier theorists. Pressed for elaboration, he cited center zone play, breakout patterns and forechecking as areas where he&rsquo;s been tinkering.&ldquo;We are trying to get more movement and puck control in the neutral zone,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;It disrupts the other team&rsquo;s normal pattern of forechecking. The other side of it is that you can make too many turnovers in the zone.&ldquo;We also tried to be more deliberate on our own forechecking, not losing the men on the other team too early. In our own zone, we changed coverages around because the other teams have been controlling the puck too well on us.&rdquo;Senior goalie Bruce Gillies returned from knee surgery and has been in net for five consecutive wins after missing eight contests. His second game back was a 37-save performance at Minnesota, a 3-2 UNH win that was the first in 33 years by an Eastern team in Williams Arena. Second goalie Greg Rota, pressed into service by Gillies&rsquo; injury, stopped 58 Gopher shots the next night and the Cats lost 4-3.Holt doesn&rsquo;t usually use two goalies, but Rota performed so well that he&rsquo;ll get more than spot duty behind Gillies, the pre-season pick by Hockey East coaches as the league&rsquo;s likely Player of the Year.As five of UNH&rsquo;s losses during the early going were by single goals to other Hockey East teams, they&rsquo;ve never been far from being a good team anyway. The six freshmen who are playing regularly at forward are finally coming around to a bit of poise. The defense corps, featuring &ldquo;three seniors and two juniors, has settled down and stopped turning the puck over.The scoring has evened out, with sophomore linemates Peter Douris and James Richmond sharing the team lead with junior defenseman Peter Herms. All have 29 points. Herms scored the game winner at BC. Douris missed that game with academic problems, but he appealed his eligibility case to school authorities and won.Seniors Dan Muse and Ralph Robinson are just behind this trio in the point parade, but the best news has been the play of rookies Steve Leach and Tim Hanley, among others. They are beginning to earn their keep and have made UNH a complete and dangerous team.With six weeks remaining in the season, Boston College has all but clinched the Hockey East pennant, and Boston University is a comfortable second. Just four points separate the next four teams, so UNH is a great bet to take third or fourth and a home-ice spot for the first playoff round. A month ago, they were so far out of the race that such a suggestion would have been laughable. &#9632;

Holt Has UNH Back On Track

<h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Jan. 28)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01536/4967167-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="537" height="412"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Sun. Jan. 20Buffalo State 3 at Army 6Tue. Jan. 22New Hampshire 1 at Yale 4Wed. Jan. 23Babson 2 at Army 3Fri. Jan. 25RPI 7 at Vermont 3Colgate 5 at Cornell 6Toronto 6 at Clarkson 0St Lawrence 2 at Bowling Green 7Sat. Jan. 26Vermont 2 at RPI 8Brown 2 at Yale 6St Lawrence 5 at Bowling Green 8Hamilton 3 at Army 9Sun. Jan. 27Cornell 5 at Colgate 2Concordia 3 at Clarkson 8<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02376/4967160-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="533" height="206"></div><h2>CCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Feb. 1)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03274/4967153-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="534" height="291"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Fri. Jan. 25Illinois-Chicago 5 at Ferris State 3Lake Superior 7 at Miami 2Michigan 2 at Mich State 11W. Michigan 4 at Ohio State 6St. Lawrence 2 at Bowling Green 7Sat. Jan. 26Illinois-Chicago 5 at Ferris State 3Lake Superior 3 at Miami 5Mich State 9 at Michigan 4W. Michigan 4 at Ohio State 5St. Lawrence 5 at Bowling Green 8<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04202/4967146-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="530" height="260"></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Jan. 30)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05173/4967139-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="533" height="233"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Mon. Jan. 21Boston College 10 at Northeastern 3Tue. Jan. 22Bowdoin 3 at Maine 6New Hampshire 1 at Yale 4Wed. Jan. 23Merrimack 1 at Lowell 7Fri. Jan. 25Wisconsin 8 at New Hampshire 6Providence 5 at Denver 4Sat. Jan. 26Northeastern 3 at Boston Univ. 6Maine 5 at Lowell 4Wisconsin 10 at New Hampshire 5Providence 4 at Denver 2Sun. Jan. 27Maine 3 at Boston College 9<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-06150/4967132-1-eng-US/f0028-062.jpg" title="f0028-06" width="530" height="201"></div><h2>WCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Feb. 1)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-07140/4967125-1-eng-US/f0028-072.jpg" title="f0028-07" width="533" height="267"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Jan. 22Denver 8 at Air Force 1Fri. Jan. 25Colorado College 2 at Minnesota 6Mich. Tech 0 at North Dakota 8N. Michigan 5 at Min-Duluth 4Providence 5 at Denver 4Wisconsin 8 at New Hampshire 6Sat. Jan. 26Colorado College 5 at Minnesota 4Mich Tech 2 at North Dakota 4N. Michigan 1 at Min-Duluth 2Providence 4 at Denver 2Wisconsin 10 at New Hampshire 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-08130/4967118-1-eng-US/f0028-082.jpg" title="f0028-08" width="530" height="175"></div><h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2><h3>DIVISION II EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-09123/4967111-1-eng-US/f0028-092.jpg" title="f0028-09" width="533" height="466"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-10120/4967104-1-eng-US/f0028-102.jpg" title="f0028-10" width="531" height="442"></div><h2>CANADA WEST CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Jan. 28)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-11112/4967097-1-eng-US/f0028-112.jpg" title="f0028-11" width="534" height="180"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Calgary 15. Lethbridge 5Saskatchewan 2, Alberta 1Alberta 4, Saskatchewan 2UBC 7, Calgary 1UBC 4, Calgary 2<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-12108/4967090-1-eng-US/f0028-122.jpg" title="f0028-12" width="531" height="355"></div><h2>ONTARIO CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Jan. 28)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-13100/4967083-1-eng-US/f0028-132.jpg" title="f0028-13" width="536" height="409"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Toronto 5, Queen&rsquo;s 3Western 6, Brock 3Toronto 10, Windsor 4Guelph 6, RMC 2Laurier 8, Queen&rsquo;s 4Laurier 11, RMC 0Toronto 9, Brock 1McMaster 7, Western 5York 10, Laurier 2Windsor 6, McMaster 4Western 4, Guelph 4York 8, McMaster 3Laurier 7, Lauren tian 2Windsor 7, Waterloo 5Brock 6, RMC 6Laurentian 6, Guelph 5Queen&rsquo;s 16, Ryerson 0<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1489/4967076-1-eng-US/f0028-142.jpg" title="f0028-14" width="535" height="297"></div><h2>GREAT PLAINS CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1585/4967069-1-eng-US/f0028-152.jpg" title="f0028-15" width="531" height="151"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Manitoba 10, Regina 7Brandon 11, Lakehead 4Manitoba 3, Regina 3Brandon 14, Lakehead 3Regina 10, Lakehead 7Regina 7, Lakehead 4<h2>ATLANTIC CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1668/4967062-1-eng-US/f0028-162.jpg" title="f0028-16" width="532" height="300"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Dalhousie 7, St. Mary&rsquo;s 5Moncton 11, Dalhousie 2Mount Allison 8, St.Thomas 5 Acadia 3, St. F.Xavier 1 New Brunswick 7, Mount Allison 4St. Mary&rsquo;s 6, St. Thomas 3UPEI 6, Dalhousie 3New Brunswick 5, St. Mary&rsquo;s 4Acadia 6, UPEI 5<h2>QUEBEC CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1754/4967055-1-eng-US/f0028-172.jpg" title="f0028-17" width="530" height="181"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>T-Rivieres 7, Ottawa 4Concordia 6, McGill 3Ottawa 5, Chicoutimi 2T-Rivieres 5, Concordia 4Chicoutimi 6, Ottawa 5<h2>ONTARIO COLLEGES</h2>(Standings on Mon. Jan. 28)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1851/4967048-1-eng-US/f0028-182.jpg" title="f0028-18" width="532" height="263"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Canadore 5, Sheridan 2Centennial 10, Conestoga 4Georgian 9, Humber 3St. Clair 5, Centennial 3Canadore 9, Georgian 8St. Clair 5, Humber 4 &#9632;

f0028-01

HOW THEY STAND

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-19" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1948/4967198-1-eng-US/f0028-192.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0028-19

NCAA DIVISION 1 LEADING SCORERS

<div class="byline">BY GLENN HEALY</div>KALAMAZOO&mdash;Attention all National Hockey League clubs: Send somebody who knows a thing or two about goaltending to see Western Michigan University play as soon as possible. Pay close attention to the guy wearing No. 30 in brown, gold and white. He&rsquo;s 22, un-rafted and, obviously contrary to somebody&rsquo;s opinion, he can play.Glenn Healy is a senior at Western Michigan and he&rsquo;ll graduate this April with a degree in marketing. That&rsquo;s exactly as he planned it when he shunned major junior for a college scholarship four years ago after toiling in his hometown for the tier two Pickering Panthers.&ldquo;I wanted the education and now I&rsquo;ve almost got my degree,&rdquo; he said recently. &ldquo;That was my goal. Now, I can take a shot at pro, if I get the chance, and still have the education there. If I must, I can pick up the briefcase and give it a go. But I&rsquo;d love to play pro. It&rsquo;s every kid&rsquo;s dream where I&rsquo;m from.&rdquo;Why somebody hasn&rsquo;t taken a shot at Healy before now is a mystery.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m almost glad I haven&rsquo;t been drafted,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This way, I&rsquo;m a free agent and it&rsquo;s up to me to show what I can do. If I&rsquo;m good enough, I&rsquo;ll play pro. If I&rsquo;m not&hellip;.&rdquo;Healy is the backbone of Western&rsquo;s second-half resurgence in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.Here&rsquo;s a team that, based on its strong finish in 1983-84, was picked by every prognosticator to finish near the top of the CCHA this season. However, the Broncos read too many of their own press clippings and had trouble getting their heads through the doors of most arenas the first half.However, as with last season, they are coming to life lately, thanks mostly to Healy.The Broncos, you see, have only three seniors and 10 underclassmen. They make big mistakes, even this late in the campaign. Healy is the product (victim, if you will) of his teammates periodic breakdowns.This guy gets left alone more than your ugly sister.Time and again, he is on his own, an opposition winger bearing down unmolested. Breakaways have become commonplace to No. 30.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re young and we make mistakes and I do get left on my own a few times a game, it seems,&rdquo; he laughed. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s how I stay sharp. I&rsquo;m matured now as compared to the past few years. I won&rsquo;t wander as much now and my concentration is really good. I feel good every game.&ldquo;I love the big ones. My main concern is to really challenge the shooter. If a guy is breaking in alone, I just make sure he has no angle. I cut it off, go right at him and force him to deke. If I know he&rsquo;s got no shot, then chances are he&rsquo;s deking. Then it&rsquo;s his speed against mine. When I&rsquo;m concentrating, I&rsquo;m pretty fast.&rdquo;Sound like a typical goalie?You bet.And this guy has the stuff to back it up.On a fourth-place team (as of Jan. 25), Healy had allowed just 74 goals, second fewest in the league to Michigan State&rsquo;s dynamic duo of Norm Foster and Bob Essensa. And Healy is working with a lot less defensive help.His goals-against average is 3.50. His teammates had scored a grand total of 83 goals (in league play), sixth best among nine teams and only one more than the seventh-best total.Healy defends his teammates, particularity those (sometimes) on the blue line.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve gotten better all season and I&rsquo;m getting a lot of help now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Earlier, we were having to cover up more but they&rsquo;ve been great lately. That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re back on track. The mistakes were those of youth and inexperience.&rdquo;Still, he faced six outright breakaways against Lake Superior State several weeks back and stopped all but one. He couldn&rsquo;t be faulted on any of the five goals he surrendered in two games and the Broncos owed him for the split they earned, winning 3-2 and losing by the same score.Healy, similar to most goalies, is a bit bold and brash, certainty not without founded confidence. He&rsquo;s also cat quick, an absolute challenger of shooters and his stickside and glove are in a dead heat at a level somewhere between outstanding and superior.Good skills overall&mdash;for a guy who wasn&rsquo;t drafted. &#9632;

Bronco Goalie Hasn’t Been Caught In Draft

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>KITCHENER&mdash;Brian Bradley says it&rsquo;s better late than never to be an Ontario Hockey League all-star.In his fourth season in the league, the London Knight center and leading scorer for Team Canada in its gold-medal triumph at the world junior championships in Finland, has cracked the allstar lineup for the first time.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just great,&rdquo; the 19-year-old center from Kitchener said after learning of his selection. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the first time for me. There always seemed to be somebody better in the past. It shows how good we are as a team to have so many guys (six) selected. We all worked hard and the coach has done a terrific job.&rdquo;The other Knight players selected for the Emms Division team are Dave Lowry, Jeff Reese, Bob Halkidis, Jim Sandlak and Brian Dobbin. Knight coach Don Boyd will be behind the Emms Division bench for the Feb. 9 game with the Leyden Division in Kitchener.The game will be telecast for the first time on Global.Bradley, a Calgary Flame prospect, drew 33 of a possible 35 points in voting by seven rival Emms Division coaches.In the six-team Leyden Division, the league&rsquo;s leading scorer, Dave MacLean of the Belleville Bulls, led voting with 28 of a possible 30 points.Belleville, Toronto Marlies and Peterborough Petes dominated the Leyden voting, placing five each on the team.Also selected from Belleville were goalie Craig Billington, defenseman Darren Gani and center Dune MacIntyre. Toronto placed rookie goaltender Sean Burke, defenseman Mike Rowe, left winger John Del Col, center Fabian Joseph and right winger Greg Johnston. Peterborough selections were defenseman Terry Carkner and Shawn Evans, center Mark Teevens, right winger Scott Tottle and left winger Randy Burridge.As always, there were a couple of surprise absentees on the teams.Hamilton&rsquo;s Shayne Corson, a star with the Steelhawks and Team Canada, was a victim because he played several positions, splitting his time on left wing, center and defense.Belleville center Steve Linseman, the third-leading scorer in the league with 32 goals and 53 assists when the results were announced, was also overlooked.Both could be late additions.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d have to seriously consider adding him (Linseman),&rdquo; said Belleville&rsquo;s Larry Mavety, who will coach the Leyden team. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s done a lot for our club. It&rsquo;sa shame he&rsquo;s overlooked. There&rsquo;s no question the guys who made it, deserve it, but there are a lot of other guys who are deserving as there are in any league.&ldquo;Unfortunately, you can only pick 17.&rdquo;First-team selections in the Emms Division were goalie Peter Abric of the North Bay Centennials, defensemen Halkidis and Kevin Hatcher of North Bay; Bradley at center; Graeme Bonar of the Soo Greyhounds on right wing and Lowry on left wing.Emms Division defensemen dominated voting.Halkidis led defensemen in a close vote with 28 of a possible 35 points, beating out first-round NHL picks Hatcher, whose rights are owned by the Washington Capitals, who had had 27 votes and the Soo&rsquo;s Jeff Beukeboom of the Edmonton Oilers, who drew 26 votes. Windsor defenseman Todd Gill drew 21 voting points.The top vote-getter among Leyden defense players was Evans, with 17 points.First-team selections in the Leyden Division were Burke in goal; Evans and Gani and Rowe (tie) on defense; Teevens at center; MacLean at right wing and Gary Roberts of the Ottawa 67s on left wing.For Mavety, the only coach the Bulls have had in their four-year OHL existence, it will be his first appearance as an all-star coach.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a firm believer that the players put you there,&rdquo; Mavety said. &ldquo;When your team is doing well, everybody takes notice of you. When the team&rsquo;s not doing well, they don&rsquo;t notice you.&rdquo;The Bulls were surprise leaders in the Leyden Division with a 28-15 record when the voting was released. Mavety has played a large part in the success, making several key deals to compensate for the loss of Al lafrate to the Toronto Maple Leafs and defenseman Mike Vellucci, who was injured in an automobile accident in the off-season.The Belleville coach was happy for his players, especially MacIntyre, an unsung hero who made the second team at center.Mavety won the first &ldquo;showdown&rdquo; with his all-star coaching rival Boyd when the Bulls hammered the Knights 10-2 on Global&rsquo;s Game of the Week. The game was the third in less than 48 hours for the Knights, which contributed to their poor showing.OHL commissioner Dave Branch wasn&rsquo;t impressed with the game which featured several fights and other incidents.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very unhappy,&rdquo; the commissioner snapped the day after the three hour and 10-minute contest.&ldquo;I really believe that we promote our league as a place to develop hockey players. (That game) is no indication that is the case. I feel those games are few and far between. Here we have a chance to market our product and here we have such a distasteful and disgusting show.&rdquo;Branch pulled up short of laying the blame on one team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not in the position to suggest who is to blame or what have you,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There were senseless and needless altercations at almost every stoppage, needless fights and players becoming involved with spectators.&rdquo;North Bay traded the rights to winger Jeff Greenlaw to the Toronto Marlies for goaltender Brian Tessier and a second-round draft pick in the 1985 draft.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01524/4967253-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="566" height="811"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Bradley has been a premier performer for the London Knights all season.</figcaption></div>The trade is subject to league approval, and Greenlaw won&rsquo;t play until next season in Toronto because league bylaws prohibit clubs from trading first-round draft picks in their rookie season. Green-law, the No. 1 rated midget by OHL Central Scouting last spring, had refused to play anywhere but in Toronto and lost a court fight late last year in which he sought to sign with another team. He had been playing this season with the Junior B Falcons in his hometown of St. Catharines.Tessier joined the Centennials immediately. &#9632;

f0030-01

All-Star Choice Took A While For Bradley

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02389/4967298-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="544" height="559"><figcaption class="caption-body">JAMIE McKINLEY Guelph</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>The Guelph Platers are battling every inch of the way to stay clear of the Ontario Hockey League&rsquo;s Emms Division basement and rookie Jamie McKinley has been making a big contribution to their cause in recent games.McKinley, 17, totalled six goals and three assists in Guelph&rsquo;s three last wins to get the nod as OHL Player of the Week.The 6-foot-l, 160-pound center has 27 points in his first year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03269/4967291-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="539" height="554"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRIAN BERTUZZI Kamloops</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>Players such as Brian Bertuzzi aren&rsquo;t among the Western Hockey League&rsquo;s big snipers but the Kamloops center came up big for the Blazers last week.Bertuzzi, a 6-foot-1,185-pound center who was drafted in the fourth round by Vancouver in 1984, collected nine scoring points, including six goals, in three games, to win the selection as the WHL Player of the Week.Bertuzzi has amassed 38 points in 41 games for the leading Blazers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04185/4967284-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="542" height="555"><figcaption class="caption-body">ALAIN RAYMOND Trois-Rivieres</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>Followers of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League point to goalie Alain Raymond as probably the best prospect for the pros.The 19-year-old netminder has been the backbone of the Draveurs, who are not having one of their better years. He has backstopped his team to all of its 21 wins this year and recently came up with his second shutout of the season to gain QHL Player-of-the-Week honors.Raymond is a 1983 draft pick of the Washington Capitals. &#9632;

f0030-02

MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>SHANDON&mdash;When thumbing through the Western Hockey League guide, you&rsquo;ll discover the name Wheat Kings is prevalent where individual and team records are concerned.The Brandon franchise has been synonymous with success, especially from 1975-79 when the Wheat Kings rewrote several regular-season and playoff marks as the likes of Brian Propp, Bill Derlago and Ray Allison went on scoring sprees.Their predecessor was Ron Chipper-field who still holds the WHL mark for career goals at 261. Grad Ray Ferraro put the Wheat Kings&rsquo; stamp in the record book last season for most goals (108), most power-play goals (43) and most hat tricks (15) in one season.As good as times have been for Brandon, the 1984-85 campaign might best be remembered as the one the Wheat Kings struggled to retain respectability rather than earn another spot in the record book.Brandon, beset by injuries, was in last place in the Eastern Division as of Jan. 22 with a 13-28 record. And as can be exacted when any team struggles, rumors of the franchise leaving have moved faser than a Ferraro wrist shot.The rumor is the Wheat Kings will leave Manitoba and take up residence next season in Edmonton, where prominent businessmen Vic Mah has been attempting to lure a major junior franchise into the new 5.000-seat Agricom. Patty Ginnell and a group of Swift Current, Sask., businessmen, already thwarted in attempts to land Kamloops and Seattle franchises, are also looking to house a team. But the word on a move from Brandon is no way.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no truth to that at all,&rdquo; said heat Kings&rsquo; general manager Les Jackson. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m with our board everytime they meet. That (rumor) is news to me.&rdquo;Reg Atkinson, president of the board with Brandon, said there is concern but Relieves there&rsquo;s also genuine interest in keeping major junior hockey in the Manitoba city.&ldquo;The last meeting we talked about whether it (the franchise) was a dead horse or not,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We have a 10-member board and two of the members have a lot of money in it. One person has $25,000 and another $10,000. They&rsquo;re committed to keeping the team here.&rdquo; Mah said he hasn&rsquo;t had any discussions with Brandon officials but is still actively pursuing a franchise.&ldquo;What I know about Brandon is what you know&mdash;they&rsquo;re certainly having a problem with attendance,&rdquo; Mah said. &ldquo;The league hasn&rsquo;t given me much news about franchises and I don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;ll tell me anything until a later date.&ldquo;But we&rsquo;re still working on it (). Everytime I go to an Oilers&rsquo; game in Edmonton people come up to me and ask when the press conference is. I&rsquo;m getting a lot of good publicity from the media. In the next month or so we should have an announcement about selling shares in a franchise which would be a non-profit company.&rdquo;League president Ed Chynoweth said Mah has kept in contact with him, but the Brandon situation hasn&rsquo;t been discussed.&ldquo;They (the Wheat Kings) have assured me they&rsquo;re staying,&rdquo; said Chynoweth. &ldquo;I think the filing again is the team is trying to make the playoffs and everybody there (Brandon) is optimistc that they will.&rdquo;&ldquo;But we (league) have to quit living in fantasy land,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t have soft spots for one franchise or another. Reality has to set in. There&rsquo;s no nice way to deal with these things. The hard, cold facts are you&rsquo;re only going to have success as long as you&rsquo;re supported.&rdquo;The big problem in Brandon, where attendance has fallen to an average of 1,600 per game compared to 2,300 last season, is injuries. The Wheat Kings have had seven regulars out of the lineup for various lengths of time and veteran goaltender Pokey Reddick was lost to the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; farm team in Sherbrooke on a emergency-recall basis for three weeks. The Wheat Kings hit rock bottom when they went on a 13-game losing streak and plummetted to the division basement.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been calling for both Jack&rsquo;s (coach Sangster) and my hide but what can you do?&rdquo; said Jackson. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter what we&rsquo;ve put on the ice. With all the injuries it&rsquo;s been like going to the Kentucky Derby and watching a bunch of mules. the guys we&rsquo;ve had to put out there are too young to be put into a pressure situation.&rdquo;If there&rsquo;s a light at end of the tunnel for Wheat Kings it&rsquo;s that many of the walking wounded have returned in time for a decent run at a playoff spot.Forwards Dave Thomlinson (shoulder), Boyd Lomow (shoulder), Brent Jessiman (blood disorder), Derek Laxdel (broken hand), Trent Ciprick (knee) and defensemen Pat Loyer (shoulder) are back for the stretch drive. Forwards Dan Hart, Dean Sexsmith and Dave Curry are expected to return in February.WHL WEEK&mdash;Cliff Running of New Westminster continued to lead the scoring race with 106 points including a league-leading 52 goals. Dan Hodgson of Prince Albert was second with 93 points. &#9632;

Wheat Kings Deny They’re On The Move

<h2>Mon. Jan. 21 MONTREAL 1, BOSTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01498/4967769-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="554" height="732"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 6, WINNIPEG 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02365/4967762-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="530" height="1072"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 6, DETROIT 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03243/4967755-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="528" height="865"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 2, CHICAGO 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04143/4967748-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="527" height="465"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0591/4967741-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="577" height="553"></div><h2>CALGARY 3, VANCOUVER 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0667/4967734-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="582" height="234"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0755/4967727-1-eng-US/f0032-072.jpg" title="f0032-07" width="569" height="524"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 7, EDMONTON 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0849/4967720-1-eng-US/f0032-082.jpg" title="f0032-08" width="572" height="257"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0939/4967713-1-eng-US/f0032-092.jpg" title="f0032-09" width="576" height="829"></div><h2>Tue. Jan. 22 MONTREAL 8, HARTFORD 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1034/4967706-1-eng-US/f0032-102.jpg" title="f0032-10" width="538" height="706"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01453/4967699-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="569" height="382"></div><h2>TORONTO 2, QUEBEC 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02325/4967692-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="569" height="272"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03234/4967685-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="587" height="558"></div><h2>DETROIT 5. ISLANDERS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04179/4967678-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="596" height="146"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05147/4967671-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="589" height="670"></div><h2>Wed. Jan. 23 NEW JERSEY 3, CALGARY 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06122/4967664-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="549" height="985"></div><h2>PHILAD. 3, LOS ANGELES 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07110/4967657-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="545" height="148"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0891/4967650-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="588" height="648"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 3, MINNESOTA 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0980/4967643-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="580" height="762"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 3, CHICAGO 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1075/4967636-1-eng-US/f0033-102.jpg" title="f0033-10" width="556" height="676"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 6, VANCOUVER 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1172/4967629-1-eng-US/f0033-112.jpg" title="f0033-11" width="566" height="642"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01408/4967622-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="560" height="269"></div><h2>Thu. Jan. 24 BUFFALO 2, BOSTON 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02293/4967615-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="560" height="856"></div><h2>QUEBEC 4, MONTREAL 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03222/4967608-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="534" height="823"></div><h2>TORONTO 1, ISLANDERS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04184/4967601-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="527" height="68"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05159/4967594-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="558" height="594"></div><h2>DETROIT 1, RANGERS 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06136/4967587-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="593" height="814"></div><h2>Fri. Jan. 25 BUFFALO 2, QUEBEC 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07116/4967580-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="585" height="529"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0894/4967573-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="569" height="235"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY 2, EDMONTON 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0981/4967566-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="572" height="702"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 6, CALGARY 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1075/4967559-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="567" height="352"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02376/4967552-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="552" height="735"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 3, ST. LOUIS 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03299/4967545-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="554" height="788"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 4, VANCOUVER 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04230/4967538-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="549" height="992"></div><h2>Sat. Jan. 26 HARTFORD 3, BOSTON 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05163/4967531-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="558" height="538"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06125/4967524-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="578" height="153"></div><h2>RANGERS 2, MONTREAL 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07111/4967517-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="571" height="649"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 5, ISLANDERS 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0894/4967510-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="566" height="792"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH 3, EDMONTON 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0984/4967503-1-eng-US/f0038-092.jpg" title="f0038-09" width="561" height="821"></div><h2>CHICAGO 5, TORONTO 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1080/4967496-1-eng-US/f0038-102.jpg" title="f0038-10" width="581" height="208"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1174/4967489-1-eng-US/f0038-112.jpg" title="f0038-11" width="582" height="535"></div><h2>DETROIT 4, MINNESOTA 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1269/4967482-1-eng-US/f0038-122.jpg" title="f0038-12" width="584" height="819"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES 7, ST. LOUIS 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1360/4967475-1-eng-US/f0038-132.jpg" title="f0038-13" width="573" height="961"></div><h2>VANCOUVER 2, CALGARY 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1454/4967468-1-eng-US/f0038-142.jpg" title="f0038-14" width="580" height="325"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1552/4967461-1-eng-US/f0038-152.jpg" title="f0038-15" width="552" height="420"></div><h2>Sun. Jan. 27 BOSTON 8, HARTFORD 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1648/4967454-1-eng-US/f0038-162.jpg" title="f0038-16" width="548" height="992"></div><h2>QUEBEC 2, BUFFALO 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1744/4967447-1-eng-US/f0038-172.jpg" title="f0038-17" width="552" height="814"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 2, WASHINGTON 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1841/4967440-1-eng-US/f0038-182.jpg" title="f0038-18" width="566" height="848"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1939/4967433-1-eng-US/f0038-192.jpg" title="f0038-19" width="550" height="102"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 2, RANGERS 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2036/4967426-1-eng-US/f0038-202.jpg" title="f0038-20" width="548" height="730"></div><h2>PHILAD. 2, WINNIPEG 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2133/4967419-1-eng-US/f0038-212.jpg" title="f0038-21" width="550" height="68"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01444/4967412-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="555" height="330"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02310/4967405-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="587" height="379"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03222/4967398-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="587" height="289"></div><h2>TORONTO 6, CHICAGO 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04188/4967391-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="592" height="61"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05153/4967384-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="600" height="377"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06129/4967377-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="555" height="380"></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-12" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1271/4967800-1-eng-US/f0033-122.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0033-12

POWER RATINGS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01512/4967866-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"></div><h2>GOALTENDING STATISTICS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01486/4967859-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="568" height="2530"></div><h2>GOALTENDING LEADERS GOALS AGAINST AVERAGE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02387/4967852-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="561" height="184"></div><h2>MOST WINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03305/4967845-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="557" height="328"></div><h2>SAVE PERCENTAGE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04256/4967838-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="554" height="184"></div><h2>MOST SHUTOUTS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05209/4967831-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="557" height="93"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SCORING

<h2>JANUARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07179/4967956-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="532" height="367"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08159/4967949-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="544" height="90"></div><h2>FEBRUARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09151/4967942-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="541" height="269"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10131/4967935-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="536" height="401"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-11119/4967928-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="541" height="415"></div> &#9632;

f0035-07

NHL GAMES TO COME

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE (Standings on Tue. Jan. 29)</h2><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01463/4968127-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="524" height="234"></div><h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02350/4968120-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="521" height="209"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Jan. 22Fredericton 1 at Moncton 9Wed. Jan. 23Maine 6 at Adirondack 5Binghamton 4 at Baltimore 1Hershey 1 at Sherbrooke 5Thu. Jan. 24Hershey 4 at Fredericton 4Moncton 1 at St. Catharines 3Fri. Jan. 25St. Catharines 2 at Baltimore 3Maine 2 at Binghamton 7Sherbrooke 3 at New Haven 5Moncton 2 at Rochester 7Adirondack 1 at Springfield 5Sat. Jan. 26Baltimore 3 at Adirondack 3St. Catharines 3 at Binghamton 6Nova Scotia 4 at Fredericton 2New Haven 0 at Maine 1Hershey 3 at Moncton 3Sherbrooke 4 at Springfield 7Sun. Jan. 27Fredericton 2 at Maine 5Sherbrooke 4 at New Haven 3Hershey 2 at Nova Scotia 3Springfield 2 at Rochester 3Binghamton 7 at St. Catharines 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03276/4968113-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="524" height="381"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Jan. 30)<h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04201/4968106-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="521" height="147"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05160/4968099-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="517" height="204"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Mon. Jan. 21Muskegon 4 at Salt Lake 3Tue. Jan. 22Flint 5 at Toledo 3Milwaukee 4 at Peoria 2Wed. Jan. 23Indianapolis 2 at Kalamazoo 4Muskegon 4 at Salt Lake 2Thu. Jan. 24Peoria 5 at Flint 4Fri. Jan. 25Toledo 4 at Fort Wayne 10Milwaukee 3 at Kalamazoo 4Flint 5 at Indianapolis 2Muskegon 3 at Salt Lake 6Sat Jan. 26Milwaukee 2 at Fort Wayne 7Toledo 3 at Muskegon 6Peoria 3 at Indianapolis 1Sun. Jan. 27Indianapolis 2 at Muskegon 5Peoria 4 at Flint 6Toledo 5 at Kalamazoo 2<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06138/4968092-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="521" height="321"></div><h2>ATLANTIC COAST LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Jan. 29)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07130/4968085-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="524" height="206"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Tue. Jan. 22Mohawk Valley 3 at Carolina 9Thu. Jan. 24Mohawk Valley 7 at Virginia 6Fri. Jan. 25Erie 6 at Mohawk Valley 2Carolina at Pine Pridge (ppd. snow)Sat. Jan. 26Carolina at Erie (ppd. snow)Virginia 3 at Pine Bridge 0Sun. Jan. 27Mohawk Valley 1 at Erie 2Pine Bridge 6 at Virginia 2<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08125/4968078-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="524" height="323"></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Jan. 29)<h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09119/4968071-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="524" height="238"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10116/4968064-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="524" height="263"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Mon. Jon. 21Hamilton 5 at Windsor 7Tue. Jan. 22Ottawa 3 at Kingston 2Wed. Jan. 23Toronto 5 at Belleville 7Thu. Jan. 24Kitchener 7 at Peterborough 4Kingston 2 at Windsor 5North Bay 6 at Hamilton 5Toronto 6 at Cornwall 5London 8 at Guelph 1Fri. Jan. 25North Bay 3 at Kitchener 7Toronto 4 at Ottawa 7Kingston 4 at London 10Windsor 2 at Sudbury 3Guelph 1 at S.S. Marie 11Sat. Jan. 26Peterborough 3 at Belleville 4Cornwall 3 at Oshawa 3Sun. Jan. 27Peterborough 6 at Toronto 5Belleville 7 at Oshawa 12Windsor 3 at North Bay 2Guelph 3 at Sudbury 6London 3 at S.S. Marie 9Kingston 5 et Kitchener 7Cornwall 10 at Ottawa 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11112/4968057-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="528" height="326"></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE (Standings on Tue. Jan. 29)</h2><h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-12108/4968050-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="528" height="260"></div><h3>WESTERN LEAGUE</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-13105/4968043-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="524" height="174"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Mon. Jan. 21Lethbridge 3 at Calgary 5Tue. Jan. 22Kelowna 3 at Victoria 5Seattle 4 at New Westminster 5Moose Jaw 4 at Kamloops 11Medicine Hat 7 at Brandon 2Regina 2 at Saskatoon 6Wed. Jan. 23Moose Jaw 2 at Kelowna 3Prince Albert 5 at Lethbridge 3Thu. Jan. 24Brandon 5 at Calgary 5Fri. Jan. 25Brandon 1 at Lethbridge 12Prince Albert 9 at Kelowna 1Portland 8 at Kamloops 6Moose Jaw 5 at Seattle 11Sat. Jan. 26Brandon 1 at Medicine Hat 6Regina 4 at Calgary 6Prince Albert 7 at Victoria 4Moose Jaw 3 at Portland 4Kamloops 2 at New Westminster 11Sun. Jan. 27Regina 2 at Lethbridge 4Saskatoon 4 at Calgary 10Prince Albert 3 at Seattle 3Moose Jaw 4 at New Westminster 16<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1499/4968036-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="528" height="270"></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE (Standings on Mon. Jan. 28)</h2><h3>LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1598/4968029-1-eng-US/f0036-152.jpg" title="f0036-15" width="526" height="178"></div><h3>DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1695/4968022-1-eng-US/f0036-162.jpg" title="f0036-16" width="526" height="238"></div><h2>GAMES COMPLETED</h2>Mon. Jan. 21Shawinigan 2 at Chicoutimi 3Hull 2 at Laval 5Tue. Jan. 22St. Jean 3 at Longueuil 5Wed. Jan. 23Longueuil 2 at HuH 12Granby 5 at Laval 7Verdun 2 at T-Rivieres 4Fri. Jan. 25Verdun 2 at Chicoutimi 3Granby 2 at Shawinigan 7Drummondville 5 at St. Jean 8Sat. Jan. 26Drummondville 1 at Quebec 6Sun. Jan. 27Shawinigan 3 at Quebec 6T-Rivieres 1 at St. Jean 5Chicoutimi 3 at Verdun 2<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1789/4968015-1-eng-US/f0036-172.jpg" title="f0036-17" width="527" height="238"></div><h2>ONTARIO SENIOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Sun. Jan. 27)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1885/4968008-1-eng-US/f0036-182.jpg" title="f0036-18" width="524" height="265"></div><h2>NEW ENGLAND JUNIOR</h2>(Standings on Wed. Jan. 16)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1983/4968001-1-eng-US/f0036-192.jpg" title="f0036-19" width="527" height="150"></div><h3>INDEPENDENT</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2079/4967994-1-eng-US/f0036-202.jpg" title="f0036-20" width="524" height="91"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2172/4967987-1-eng-US/f0036-212.jpg" title="f0036-21" width="531" height="268"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

MINOR SCOREBOARD

Schedule of CTV&rsquo;s National Hockey League Game of the Week (all times EST):Friday, Feb. 15&mdash;Edmonton at NY Rangers. 7:30 p.m.Friday. Fob. 22&mdash;St. Louis at Buffalo. 7:30 p.m.Friday, March 1&mdash;Minnesota at Detroit, 7:30 p.m.Sunday, March 3&mdash;Vancouver at Hartford, 2 p.m.Friday, March 8&mdash;Philadelphia at Washington, 8 p.m.Friday. March 15&mdash;Winnipeg at Quebec, 7:30 p.m.Friday, March 22&mdash;Montreal at Washington, 8 p.m.Sunday. March 24&mdash;Quebec at Hartford, 2 p.m.Friday, March 28&mdash;Edmonton at Hartford, 7:30 p.m.Playoffs&mdash;To be announced. &#9632;

CTV’s NHL SCHEDULE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2231/4968189-1-eng-US/f0038-222.jpg" title="f0038-22" width="560" height="366"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01474/4968196-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="187" height="187"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-2328/4968182-1-eng-US/f0038-232.jpg" title="f0038-23" width="554" height="364"></div> &#9632;

f0038-22

National League Rookie Leaders

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07113/4968279-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="553" height="1203"></div>The New Jersey Devils are banking on a forward line featuring youngsters John MacLean, Aaron Broten and the team&rsquo;s top draft pick of 1984, Kirk Muller.Muller, taken second overall behind Mario Lemieux, came to the Devils with a good resume, after establishing himself as the top performer with the Guelph Platers of the Ontario Hockey League and adding to that with a good stint as a member of Team Canada at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.At 5-foot-11, 185 pounds, Muller has the size, but, more importantly, he has the skill. He had 52 goals and 60 assists for 112 points in 66 games with the Platers last season, and he&rsquo;s starting to show that offensive ability in the National Hockey League as he gains more confidence. In 47 games, he had 11 goals and 23 assists for 34 points.Muller is seventh in rookie scoring, but by the season&rsquo;s end the Kingston, Ont., native should improve on that. &#9632;

f0039-07

Chrysler Rookie Spotlight

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="M0001-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/m0001-01/4968379-1-eng-US/m0001-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Don Dixon)</figcaption></div>Phil Esposito and a few of the boys who gave Canada its most exciting and dramatic moment in sports history were passing a little time, acting jocular and exchanging a little dressing room humor when the big guy suddenly ex-claimed, &ldquo;Hey, have you ever stopped to think what it would have been like if we&rsquo;d lost to the bleepin&rsquo; Russians?&rdquo;The guys in the room fell quiet for but a moment, when someone shot back, &ldquo;Well, we certainly wouldn&rsquo;t be here today for this reunion, would we?No one wants to remember a loser.&rdquo;Indeed.But on that fateful day in September, 1972, it was Team Canada&rsquo;s Paul Henderson&mdash;not Boris Mikhailov with that sardonic grin&mdash;who scored the winning goal with 34 seconds remaining to give<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/m0004-01/4968372-1-eng-US/m0004-012.jpg" title="M0004-01" width="2295" height="3078"><figcaption class="caption-body">Painting from the Prudential Collection, &ldquo;Great Moments in Canadian Sports&rdquo;</figcaption></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Hey,&rsquo; said Esposito, have you ever stopped to think what it would have been like if we&rsquo;d lost to the bleepin&rsquo; Russians?&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;The way I looked at it,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;was that I had had enough of everything this world could offer. It was a time of inner turmoil. I knew I was missing something and eventually, I realized it was God.&rdquo;When Henderson&rsquo;s hockey career took him to Birmingham, he stayed there after retiring to attend a Christian seminary. He has only recently moved back to Canada, taking up residence in Mississauga, Ont.&ldquo;Only in the last year or so, being back in Canada, has it really sunk in what has happened to me since the &rsquo;72 series. There were many aspects of my fame that I liked and there were many that caused me a great deal of pain. But now, I look back and get this deep feeling of satisfaction.&rdquo;It would be incorrect to assume that every Team Canada &rsquo;72 player came back and overhauled his entire life, like Henderson. Bobby Clarke, for example, figures the long-term personal impact was minimal for most of the players.&ldquo;As emotional as everybody said it was, I don&rsquo;t really believe a lot of us changed personally,&rdquo; said Clarke, the pragmatist who gained his own degree of notoriety for sidelining Soviet star Valeri Kharlamov with a well-placed but vicious two-handed slash across the ankle.&ldquo;It was a great thrill to have been a part of it,&rdquo; added Clarke, who is now general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers. &ldquo;But as far as hockey competitions go, it wasn&rsquo;t a lot different than the Stanley Cup finals. In fact, winning the Stanley Cup (which Clarke did with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1974 and 1975) was very special because it&rsquo;s something you work so hard for so long.&ldquo;In &rsquo;72, we were together for a couple of months, although it was quite a couple of months, no question about that. But in Philly, we&rsquo;d worked years to win the Cup. I guess they&rsquo;re on on the same level.&rdquo;The third member of Canada&rsquo;s top line in the series, Ron Ellis, falls somewhere in between the experiences of Henderson and Clarke. It neither dramatically altered his hfe nor left it the same.&lsquo;I&rsquo;ll never forget what it was like between the second and third periods of the final game and we were down 5-3,&rdquo; said Ellis, who is now in the insurance business in Orangeville, Ont. &ldquo;You would think there would have been a little pamc in the dressing room, but there was this feeling&mdash;it&rsquo;s hard to describe&mdash;like we just knew we were going to win.&ldquo;And after it was over, I remember the incredible joy and elation we felt. On the ice we were very happy, jumping up and down. But the one thing I remember more than anything else was in the dressing room after we&rsquo;d won it. It was dead quiet, completely subdued. No excitement whatsoever. We just didn&rsquo;t have anything left. I didn&rsquo;t move for an entire half hour. I just sat there and it was the strangest feeling of my entire life.&rdquo;And as for any difficulty adjusting to the routine life of the NHL, Ellis encountered none of the problems that plagued, his Toronto Maple Leaf team-mate, Henderson.&ldquo;I just know that nothing in my fife will ever equal the thrill of winning that series,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That doesn&rsquo;t bother me because I feel fortunate that I was able to be a part of it. That&rsquo;s enough for me.&rdquo;There is one aspect of the Summit Series that every player will agree on: the level of emotion reached incredible proportions. Henderson said it totally consumed him, that the combination of the momentous task on the ice plus all the politics and mind games off the ice in Moscow, created a tidal wave that washed over them.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t really say it&rsquo;s a positive thing to subject yourself to,&rdquo; Henderson said. &ldquo;It kept building and building&hellip;it never abated until 34 seconds left in the series. Then we were like racehorses who couldn&rsquo;t come down.&rdquo;And all the while, the players were never really aware how consumed the Canadian public was, how a nation virtually stopped for an afternoon.&ldquo;When we left from Canada for Moscow,&rdquo; Henderson said, &ldquo;we thought we were going to be run out of the country. When we got back, we were the conquering heroes. I think it took everybody (on the team) a while to understand what had happened to the people while we were in Moscow.&rdquo;And so the Jan. 25 reunion was coming to a close and a television reporter was asking Esposito about the prospects of a real reunion, Team Canada &rsquo;72 against Team USSR &rsquo;72, a concept which has been bruited about in the last few months.Esposito paused while pondering the question and finally answered.&ldquo;If it will benefit the players in some way,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;then I guess it&rsquo;s a possibility. The only way I&rsquo;d do it if the proceeds are going back to hockey players, not some promoter.&ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t know&hellip;You know, I still cannot trust the Russians. I know that sounds terrible, but I can&rsquo;t help but think we&rsquo;ll set up this game as a friendly exhibition for fun and they&rsquo;ll be over there with an eight-month training camp and come out and blow us away. Plus, I don&rsquo;t know that I&rsquo;d be too crazy about going back to Moscow, which I imagine would be part of the deal.&rdquo;So much for detente.Whether that project ever sees the light of day, Canadian hockey fans still have the real thing to cherish.It&rsquo;s just like the gift&mdash;a balloon&mdash;Esposito received from an adoring female fan the day before the reunion game at Maple Leaf Gardens. The message on the balloon read: &ldquo;Our Hearts Still Beat For Our Champs Of &rsquo;72.&rdquo;A sold-out house at Maple Leaf Gardens agreed. And what if Team Canada &rsquo;72 had lost?Don&rsquo;t even ask. &#9632;

M0001-01

Where Were You In ’72?

With another round of high-level National Hockey League meetings taking place in Calgary during the All-Star break, 50-year-old president John Ziegler emerges from his relati ve obscurity (as sports commissioners go) to take on the media as well as the hockey lords.The highest-paid NHL president ever at $300,000-plus, Ziegler has weathered several NHL storms, yet remains the butt of criticism both from within and without the league.Dapper, humorous, and rarely riled, Ziegler sat down for an interview with HOCKEY NEWS contributing editor Stan Fischler at the president&rsquo;s Manhattan office overlooking Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. The 5-foot-8, trim executive betrayed some uncharacteristic anger during the interview, particularilv when the issue of criticism from the French-Canadian media was mentioned.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/m0001-02/4968417-1-eng-US/m0001-022.jpg" title="M0001-02" width="489" height="675"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOHN ZIEGLER</figcaption></div>In the following edited transcripts, Ziegler addresses issues that include the economic status of the league, media coverage of hockey, the 80-game season setup and rewarding the di vision winners, not to mention sharp personal barbs from Montreal.THN: How are the economics of the league. The feeling is the revenues are going up. Is that right?ZIEGLER: That&rsquo;s true. I think with a little luck we might be in a position this year where only 20 to 25 per cent of the teams will suffer any losses. There will be many more teams breaking even or making a little money. Nobody is going to make a bonanza in this business. The target or objective of everybody having his chance to break even is much more realistic this year and we&rsquo;re looking forward to more in the future.THN: I was told by one owner that the picture&rsquo;s a lot brighter than that in the sense that there are only four teams with any kind of minus situation&mdash;Pittsburgh, which has a tremendous fiscal backup, St. Louis, Washington and Los Angeles.ZIEGLER: Yes, four (of 21) is 20 per cent. If St. Louis does as it did last year, attendance-wise, I think it has a chance to break even. If it goes into the playoffs it has a chance to make a dollar or two. If L. A. continues to show the kind of attendance increase that it&rsquo;s had, particularily those weekend attendance with sellouts, L.A. can move into a break-even situation. Pittsburgh has a way to go. Detroit has a chance to probably break even. I think the main thing is to have the attendance that they had last year.THN: You&rsquo;ve got teams such as the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs. Shouldn&rsquo;t something be done about the parity situation?ZIEGLER: I look at parity more as a total league than Edmonton versus whatever team may be in last place. That&rsquo;s one aspect as to the differences. But to the others, the rest of the teams in the league, in my humble judgment, are probably closer together than they&rsquo;ve ever been. Trying to adjust a last-place team to a first-place team can&rsquo;t be done by legislation, I think if you tried, it might be unfair and it might be self-defeating as far as incentives.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I just don&rsquo;t have the time to be bothered with people who do not have either the courtesy or the mental ability to do just the simple things.&rsquo;</blockquote>THN: How worried were you when you picked up the paper and saw Vancouver had a record of 4-20 and had to play Edmonton twice?ZIEGLER: Worried in the sense that you wish it could be better. From a long-range standpoint, I don&rsquo;t worry about a franchise like Vancouver because it has such a strong hockey tradition. We know that there is a strong hockey audience out there. They&rsquo;ve gone through coaching changes. They&rsquo;ve had a very difficult personal situation with the tragedy of Jake Milford&rsquo;s death. Harry Neale has had a difficult situation of having to remove a coach that they had a lot of faith in. Why and how it happened, I don&rsquo;t know. Whenever you have those management disruptions, it&rsquo;s usually going to affect the team. We saw it for many years in Detroit. Once you get your management and coaching in a solid position, it&rsquo;s going to be reflected on the ice.THN: Herb Brooks has said that NHL rinks should be European size to make more room. What about that?ZIEGLER: Not yet. As soon as you make more room, you change the game. The game then becomes a bit like basketball. It moves into a zone and then there&rsquo;s movement of the puck around the periphery, like on a power play. The defensemen have to play a box even when they&rsquo;re on a even side and they don&rsquo;t move into the boards to pinch the forwards. You don&rsquo;t have the contact and you don&rsquo;t have the fighting. Secondly, the kind of dollar requirement that this would necessitate would be difficult to get accepted. There would also be a loss of seats, which is an income loss as much as the cost. When I said not yet, I mean that if the growth of the human being continues and the size of the player, our choice may be at some point to either expand the rink or play five aside.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/m0003-01/4968410-1-eng-US/m0003-012.jpg" title="M0003-01" width="652" height="1252"></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;We&rsquo;re going through what I would call a mini-revolution&hellip;&rsquo; &mdash;John Ziegler, Jr.</blockquote>THN: One thing that you have to admit that has to be changed is the perception that the 80-game schedule does not have the meaning that it should have, in that the team that finishes on top is not justly rewarded. Let&rsquo;s say Edmonton finishes on top with the best record and thenit&rsquo;s immediately knocked out of the playoffs. What do they have to show for it? Why not honor these guys who slog through 80 games the way you honor the Cup winner?ZIEGLER: There&rsquo;s something that isn&rsquo;t quite right in my thinking about it, as to saying that if Edmonton, the Islanders or Philadelphia have the most points at the end of the season, therefore, they should be a trophy winner. For this reason, they don&rsquo;t all play the same schedule against the same teams. But your point that there is a perception is more in the eyes of the media than&hellip;THN: Yes, yes.ZIEGLER:&hellip;in the fans that pay to buy the tickets.THN: The media guys influence the fans.ZIEGLER: Well, fortunately, you&rsquo;ve been extremely ineffective in the past five years.THN: Okay.ZIEGLER: And I&rsquo;m happy that you&rsquo;ve been ineffective. However, you may have affected some people from coming that might have otherwise have come.THN: I&rsquo;m not speaking for myself.ZIEGLER: I know.THN: Shouldn&rsquo;t the regular season division leaders get more reward from the NHL?ZIEGLER: I would like to see, if I had the dollars, a reward to the division leaders of a substantial sum of money for finishing first because that&rsquo;s where our emphasis is on&mdash;in the play within the division. That&rsquo;s why I think that in the divisions there should be something that says that you get something for being the best in the 80-game schedule in that division. We&rsquo;ve talked about that. What I would anticipate is that this might be accommodated when we get into working on the collective bargaining agreement because the reward would go to the players, a proportion of it, and that could be integrated to whatever benefits we may be talking about.THN: A piece in Newsday (by Pat Calabria) says the season is virtually a mockery already and suggests a new alignment with three divisions. I&rsquo;m sure you&rsquo;ve heard many suggestions like this. Is there any move to make any kind of change?ZIEGLER: There is no move to make a change in the division alignment that I&rsquo;m aware of. A couple of teams want to put on the table a question of playoff realignment. I&rsquo;m not aware of any great sentiment to change. We&rsquo;ve had five consecutive record-breaking years. The playoffs have been, in per cent of capacity, only rivalled in three years of history, and that was the three last years of the six-team league. From a business standpoint, the fans are there and coming out so why change for change&rsquo;s sake?THN: The French press is angry at you because they don&rsquo;t think you responded enthusiastically or affirmitively to the Guy Lafleur retirement. Burt Raymond says you&rsquo;ve slighted the French Canadians and, in this particular case, Lafleur. He also said, &ldquo;If Wayne Gretzky had retired, he (Ziegler) certainly would have been more responsive. When somebody called, he was at a meeting and he didn&rsquo;t respond. He should have broken off from the meeting and delivered a comment.&rdquo; Why do you think someone would write that?ZIEGLER: Because he&rsquo;s intellectually deficient. He does not have the intelligence to pick up the phone and say here&rsquo;s what I think, what do you think? I just don&rsquo;t have the time to be bothered with people who do not have either the courtesy or the mental ability to do just the simple things. If they had taken 10 minutes to inquire rather than have a knee-jerk reaction because I couldn&rsquo;t take a phone call, they would have found out absolutely the opposite. They even went out and made statements that were totally false and they had to retract them. I just don&rsquo;t have any respect for anybody that won&rsquo;t take the time to find out what the facts are. I will defend their right to do it, however, because if that&rsquo;s what they want to write, then fine.THN: As a guy making a living out of hockey, it bothers me when I open a magazine like Sport and I don&rsquo;t see a piece about hockey. The problem is that it&rsquo;s Gretzky and then who else?<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;The eyes of the camera are no different than the eyes of a referee. Three different cameras will show you three different things&hellip;&rsquo;</blockquote>ZIEGLER: It&rsquo;s not as big of a problem from my perception as it may be to someone else. I would like to see more stories written about hockey. It&rsquo;s always easy to write about Gretzky but if you go to your editor and say, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve got a great story on Mark Pavelich and it will really be a great hockey story,&rdquo; he&rsquo;ll say, &ldquo;Who&rsquo;s he?&rdquo; Also, at the league level we have to be very careful about pushing stories about particular players because you have to be careful about how a team is run. For instance, let&rsquo;s say we get the media to target on the Stastnys. As soon as they start descending on them, I&rsquo;m going to get a phone call from Mr. (Marcel) Aubut or someone (from the Quebec Nordiques) saying they have a tough series ahead and the Stastnys are being interviewed, and so is the coach and the media is interfering. I think the statement of condition is correct; that there are not as many profile pieces on other players as there are on Gretzky. It doesn&rsquo;t have a great impact on our business, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean we shouldn&rsquo;t try to include it.THN: Early in the season, THE HOCKEY NEWS interviewed Alan Eagleson and he ridiculed the governors for fighting and sueing each other. What can we expect in the near future in terms of intra-owner relations?ZIEGLER: We&rsquo;re going through with what I would call a mini-revoultion at this time from business/broadcasting. What&rsquo;s being done is changing a tradition and method of doing TV rights, sales, etc. We&rsquo;re changing 30 years of tradition and history and any time you have a sort of revolution or substantial change you get involved with vested interests, people who believe change isn&rsquo;t there just for change&rsquo;s sake. As a result of that, there&rsquo;s emotion and different judgments as to the best business approach. It is very painful, but I firmly believe that out of this pain and process we&rsquo;re going to emerge a stronger league internally than we&rsquo;ve ever been in the history of the league. And as to how to handle our broadcasting, our objective, hopefully, would be that for the first time in the history of the league, when it comes to TV, borders will not be a major impediment and a division between clubs as far as TV rights go.THN: In my opinion, the league has not vigorously pursued a U.S. network TV contract. What is the status of that? What is your opinion?ZIEGLER: You have an assumption which is very different from mine. Your assumption, I believe, is that it is in the league&rsquo;s best interests to pursue a network contract. In my opinion, and in the judgment of the ownership about five years ago, it would not be. The major networks continue to be built on national ratings. We are not a national sport that commands audiences in the south and the southwest. Now we have a choice. We could keep running our heads against wall and say, &ldquo;Why the hell aren&rsquo;t we on national TV?&rdquo; Or we could do what we did and analyze our strengths. Instead of trying to be like Ford or Chevrolet, with a car in every driveway, we realized that where we are strong, we are very strong. We have a tremendous loyalty in our audience. If someone&rsquo;s favorite hockey team is on, they are going to watch that game even if World War HI breaks out. Our weakness was that once we started taking this product, let&rsquo;s say Minnesota versus Edmonton for example, and told the folks in Biloxi, MI, you ought to watch this. They said, &ldquo;Give me a Laurel and Hardy movie.&rdquo; At the same time, cable was being de-regulated and the prospect of taking advantage of the cable opportunity seemed to present something fairly exciting. If we were on national television, the ability to go on cable could have diminished and you can build a strong cable package on limited access. Hockey had a tremendous appeal for a systems operator or a program pay TV because we reached some of the same people where we were. We planned this about five or six years ago because we knew it was going to take time. We said that we were deliberately going to stay off of newtork TV so that we could exclusively build these packages. So, we have not pursued a national TV contract. We have continued to have a dialogue, because we believe at some point there may be an avenue or window that will be profitable.THN: There have been a number of disputes over goals, particularity one in New York involving a goal credited to the Rangers against the Devils but which the goal judge said never went in. Why doesn&rsquo;t the NHL use videotape replays?ZIEGLER: The eves of the camera are no different than the eyes of the referee. Three different cameras will show three different things, so what have you gained? There&rsquo;s distortion by the lens and distortion by the angle. There&rsquo;s no perfect system, we&rsquo;ll have to deal with the criticism.THN: But in this case the goal judge was in a better position to see the play than the referee CRrvan Lewis. who many members of the media believe was out of position, yet Lewis never even consulted with the goal judge.ZIEGLER: If the referee sees it, he must call it. He&rsquo;s the last decider and we have to accept his decision. That ends it right there. It comes down to whether Lewis was honest. If he believes he saw it, then there you have it. If he saw it, than that&rsquo;s it. He should not consult anyone or he&rsquo;d be breaching his responsibilities.THN: Another criticism is that the linesmen wait too long to break up fights&mdash;long after the wrestling has begun.ZIEGLER: The linesmen do wait because they are instructed to. We used to have them move right in but a lot of them got hurt&mdash;hit by punches or cut by skates. Also, they got to be part of the action, like heroes and we don&rsquo;t want that. &#9632;

M0001-02

The Interview: John Ziegler

<div class="byline">By Mark Whicker</div>The morning skate was what convinced me.Last May, someone says, &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s go see the Islanders at their morning skate.&rdquo;Sure, why not.After all, we&rsquo;re in Edmonton and Game Three of the Stanley Cup finals is scheduled that night. Certainly, this will be a leisurely process. I had visions of Bob Nystrom imitating Toller Cranston.Right. The Islanders conducted a full-blown practice, laden with sweat and slapshots and dirty stuff in the corners. They lost that night but it was no factor. The Oilers had had a morning skate, too.Right then, I realized that hockey is a different breed of cat. Or sled dog. Hockey players never blink at being &bull; asked to perform rituals that dogs&mdash;especially those that wear Major League baseball uniforms&mdash;would yelp at.Working out, the day of a baseball game? Unthinkable. The players&rsquo; union would be in Peter Ueberroth&rsquo;s office by sundown. Room service waiters throughout America rejoice when baseball clubs come to town.There is also the matter of injuries. Medical research keeps finding new ways for baseball players to miss games. It&rsquo;s almost uncanny. Take the rotator cuff, for example. Baseball pitchers&mdash;and now some catchers&mdash;fall like Custer&rsquo;s soldiers with the dreaded rotator cuff.In hockey, they think a rotator cuff is something you put on dad&rsquo;s tractor when the wheat gets high. And they think a hip pointer is another term for a sophisticated retriever. An exhaustive study of all four NHL divisions reveals there are no such things as injuries. At least, that&rsquo;s what the trainers tell us.If Abraham Lincoln had been a hockey player, when he went to see that play on that April night in 1865, the medical report would have been &ldquo;slight headache, questionable.&rdquo;This is not to say that baseball players are chicken and hockey medicine is primitive. Far from it. But while other athletes get snippy when the limo doesn&rsquo;t get there on time, hockey players are happy to pile on the bus. They are the last of the unspoiled. They should be made into monuments.It is not at all untrue that the team that works the hardest is the team that drinks the champagne, but while football, baseball and basketball players have understood and accepted (and, in some case, welcomed) that news, hockey players haven&rsquo;t heard it yet. They still think hustle equals success. That is why a hockey player who turns down his intensity button stands out as brightly as Orval Tessier&rsquo;s scalp at a coal mine.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/m0002-01/4968448-1-eng-US/m0002-012.jpg" title="M0002-01" width="975" height="1405"><figcaption class="caption-body">Have you ever seen a Major League baseball player that looks like this?</figcaption></div>Initially, this led me to believe that most hockey players were nothing more than honest dullards.You&rsquo;d go in there after a win and they&rsquo;d say, &ldquo;Worked harder than they did.&rdquo;A loss? &ldquo;They worked harder than we did.&rdquo;A tie? &ldquo;Well, I guess we both worked pretty hard.&rdquo;Later, it changed. Hockey players have not yet been informed that sportswriters are out to spoil their careers and ruin their lives forever. They don&rsquo;t mind the attention. They are patient and thoughtful and, in some cases, interesting.When asked to analyze why he&rsquo;s a success and Brian Lawton isn&rsquo;t, Bobby Carpenter of the Washington Capitals did not say, &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you ask him?&rdquo;Instead, he explained that he used to come home from prep school every day and cook lunch for himself since his parents were working and then prepared himself for hockey practice. &ldquo;I was independent,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;So I could cope with the NHL lifestyle better. Maybe that&rsquo;s one reason.&rdquo;And when Ed Hospodar of the Philadelphia Flyers was asked to summarize life as a goon, he didn&rsquo;t say, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all in the past,&rdquo; a current favorite among baseball players. Instead, he said, &ldquo;Hey, how else am I going to get on the 11 o&rsquo;clock news?&rdquo;Of course, much of the difference is geographical. You learn to tolerate more things growing up in North Battleford, Sask., than you do in Palos Verdes, Calif., the home of half the National League.Jay Greenberg, a longtime HOCKEY NEWS correspondent who has always answered my deep, complex hockey questions (i.e. &ldquo;Who scored?&rdquo;), was talking one day about the Flyers&rsquo; negotiations with Tim Kerr.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The Flyers might have to go really high to sign him.&rdquo;&ldquo;How high,&rdquo; I ask.&ldquo;From what I hear,&rdquo; Jay says, with a traditionalists&rsquo; frown, &ldquo;maybe $200,000.&rdquo;Well, that&rsquo;s something. In basbeall, Tim Kerr would have to hit all of. 125 to earn that. But then, he&rsquo;d probably hurt his rotator cuff.Mark Whicker is a columnist with the Philadelphia Daily News and, in honor of tough hockey players, wrote this column with a torn rotator cuff. &#9632;

M0002-01

The Difference Between Hockey And Baseball

PAUL STEWART, who once received an eight-game suspension for hitting a referee and logged more than 1,200 penalty minutes in fewer than five seasons of pro hockey, has switched to the side of law and order.The 29-year-old Boston, MA, native is one of seven referees in the National Hockey League training program this season. His busy schedule has included American and International League games as well as Western and Ontario League junior games.&ldquo;Hey, Ronald Reagan is president,&rdquo; said Stewart, who worked as a referee last season in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League. &ldquo;This is a land of equal opportunity. I don&rsquo;t think this is any different than a fellow who fought on one side of the war and turned around and becomes an ally.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/m0002-02/4968479-1-eng-US/m0002-022.jpg" title="M0002-02" width="989" height="1297"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Stewart, known for years as a minor-league policeman, is finally enforcing the law.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I think the people at the bank who see a check from the NHL get the biggest kick out of it, or when I bring my hockey sweater to the cleaners. People are surprised, but they were more surprised when I signed to play in the World Hockey Association and National Hockey League.&rdquo;Stewart, known more for his quick fists than his quick wrists, started his pro career with the Binghamton Broome Dusters in 1975. Toward the end of his second season with the North American Hockey League team, he hit a referee in between periods of a game after being cut by a high stick minutes earlier.Stewart&rsquo;s career also included a two-year stint with the Cincinnati Stingers of the WHA before he accomplished his goal of playing in the NHL. He played 20 games for the Quebec Nordiques during the 1979-80 season and finally got to play an NHL game in Boston Garden&mdash;his boyhood dream.Now he wants to reach the NHL as a referee.&mdash;Paul Abramowitz<h2>Referees Revere The Reverend</h2>NOT ONLY does Rev. James Armstrong, a whistle-tooting priest from Pittsburgh, act as a spiritual advisor to NHL officials, he&rsquo;s a pro hockey publicity man.When the Associated Press carried a story on his relationship withNHL zebras, plus the fact he referees youth hockey himself, it was picked up by papers all across the United States, including such a hockey hotbed as Phoenix. Sport Magazine also got into the act, with a small story on him.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s anything contradictory about a priest being involved in hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There may be violence in hockey, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean that&rsquo;s the purpose of the game. The essence of the game is to put the puck in the net.&rdquo;Amen. &#9632;

M0002-02

On The Side Of Law And Order

Rick Martin couldn&rsquo;t help but stand out.Here it was, the day before the Team Canada &rsquo;72 reunion, and alumni of the summit victory over the Soviet Union were milling about a dressing room at Maple Leaf Gardens, getting ready for a brief scrimmage to wipe away a dozen years&rsquo; worth of cobwebs.A quick glance around the room indicated that a great many pounds and hairs had been gained and shed, respectively, since those heady days of September, 1972, when a hockey-crazed nation went absolutely berserk.And then in walked Martin, like something out of a time capsule. Brown leather jacket, blue jeans, heavy winter work boots, long brown hair and moustache, skates tucked under his arm. If Martin, looking trim, fit and almost boyish, had undergone any significant changes since the days of &rsquo;72&mdash;when he had just come off a 44-goal rookie season with the Buffalo Sabres&mdash;they weren&rsquo;t discernible to the human eye.But Martin stood out for another reason, as did Vic Hadfield. And as would have Gilbert Perreault and Jocelyn Guevremont had they been there.Just call them the Infamous Four, the players who were members of Team Canada &rsquo;72 but, because they weren&rsquo;t playing and weren&rsquo;t about to, left Moscow and returned home to Canada.They were branded, by many, as traitors, quitters and a variety of other derogatory names.If the &rsquo;72 Summit Series evokes images of Phil Esposito&rsquo;s inspired plea to Canadian hockey fans or Paul Henderson&rsquo;s last-minute series-clinching goal, it also dredges up memories of the four players who were seen as abandoning not just a hockey team, but their country.&ldquo;I was wondering how long it would take for someone to bring that up,&rdquo; said Martin, who was lacing on his skates for a brief whirl on the Gardens&rsquo; ice.&ldquo;And you know what? When I first heard about the reunion and was asked to come, I said to myself, &lsquo;Should I go?&rsquo; I thought about it and said, &lsquo;Why not?&rsquo;&ldquo;I knew there would be a lot of guys here that I haven&rsquo;t seen in a long time. Plus, after playing hockey for 11 years of your life and then stopping, you really miss it. It&rsquo;s a chance to relive some old times.&rdquo;Martin, whose National Hockey League career ended prematurely because of a chronic knee injury, also began to wonder about what he and the other three players had done.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of funny, really,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I left Moscow in &rsquo;72 and all the criticism followed, a lot of people said it was because I was young and didn&rsquo;t realize what I was doing.&ldquo;So when I heard about this reunion, the first thing I thought of was what would I do now if I was in a similar situation. And you know what? I wouldn&rsquo;t change anything. If I had to do it all over again, I&rsquo;d doit exactly the same.&ldquo;Actually, I didn&rsquo;t understand what all the fuss was about. The team had plenty of players and we asked the coaches if there was any chance of us getting to play. They told us there wasn&rsquo;t and we were supposed to have their blessing. I really felt that I owed it to the Buffalo Sabres to come home and start preparing for the NHL season. The other guys (Perreault, Hadfield and Guevremont) felt the same way.&ldquo;Then we got home and we&rsquo;re being called traitors and everything else. We thought we left the team on good terms and then we came home to that.&rdquo;Today, Martin keeps busy with his 120-acre farm in Newstead, NY, not far from Buffalo. He lives his life out of the hockey limelight, though all that may change in a year or so, when his lawsuit against the Sabres goes to trial.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been told by the lawyers not to talk about it at all,&rdquo; said Martin, who will seek damages for what he charges was negligence on the part of the NHL club resulting in a premature end to his career.And what a career it was. Buffalo&rsquo;s first choice, fifth overall in 1971 entry draft, he had 384 goals and 317 assists in 685 games. Twice he was a first-team all-star left winger. Twice, he was a second-team all-star.But when Team Canada &rsquo;72 played its reunion game against a team of NHL Oldtimer All-Stars on Jan. 25, let the record show that Rick Martin was not in the lineup.&ldquo;I would if I could,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But the knee just won&rsquo;t take it. There&rsquo;s just no way.&rdquo;And then, more than 12 years after his first plea to the Canadian nation, Phil Esposito makes one more on behalf of the Infamous Four.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s terrible what those guys (Martin, Perreault, Hadfield and Guevremont) have had to put up with over the years,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;They did what they felt was right, and who knows what some of us others would&rsquo;ve done in the same situation. They shouldn&rsquo;t have to carry around that load. It&rsquo;s not fair.&rdquo; &#9632;

If Martin Had To Do It Again. He Wouldn’t Change A Thing

By Perry LefkoPRO: It would be all too easy to say the rich are rich in hockey because they can call a spade a spade while those at the lower end of the scale are cursed because they&rsquo;re not playing with a full deck.In fact, luck has a lot to do with it.Consider the Pittsburgh Penguins, for example. Because they finished last in 1984, they won the rights to Mario Lemieux, who may have saved the franchise from total destruction. The Penguins were lucky to finish last at a time when there was a bonafide superstar ready for the picking, but what would have happened if the Penguins were picking first this season, which is one of the thinnest drafts in years? My bet is they wouldn&rsquo;t last another year.So luck can help out even a poor franchise. Just as luck can work against a poor franchise. Granted, the Toronto Maple Leafs do little to help themselves at times, but imagine what Gary Nylund would be like today had he not sustained two serious injuries to his left knee? Realistically, Nylund had the potential to be just as valuable to the Leafs as Lemieux is to the Penguins.Great teams as well as weak ones can go awry because of mismanagement, but also because of other factors, too. Indeed, it&rsquo;s amazing St. Louis is still oper-&lsquo; ating after the Saskatoon fiasco. The Blues might have I been stripped of their best players via trades had management not held on to its top players, and to top it off the league didn&rsquo;t compensate the team for missing an entire draft. So what can be done? How about franchises loaning players? It&rsquo;s been done in the Canadian Football League and it&rsquo;s achieved a mild degree of success. Teams could put some of their minor-league players in a pool and give the weaker teams a chance to use them for a period of at least a year. Not only would this aid a needy team, it would also promote some players from minor-league obscurity.How about easing the rules for free agency? The NHL&rsquo;s system of taking away a team&rsquo;s draft pick for signing a free agent is crazy. In basketball they&rsquo;ve eliminated, in part, the sky-high salaries of Major League baseball by instituting price ceilings to protect the teams who are not in a major market and offering first rights of refusal to the team in jeopardy of losing the player.It should be remembered that a league is only as strong as its weakest link. Surely, something can be done to help the weak sisters in hockey so they don&rsquo;t turn into chronic losers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/m0007-01/4968534-1-eng-US/m0007-012.jpg" title="M0007-01" width="978" height="1372"><figcaption class="caption-body">Should weak teams, such as the Devils, get some sort of lift from stronger teams?</figcaption></div>REFERENDUM RESULTS (From Jan./85 Magazine)Should NHL Referees Use Video Replays To Assist Them?65% YES 35% NOBy Barry MeiselCON:It has been suggested that for the good of the five teams being kicked around all season by those big, bad playoff-bound franchises, the National Hockey League must make some donation&mdash;an entire draft pick at the end of the first round, for example&mdash;to the unfortunate quintet.The goal is parity. Wait, you had better spell that, P-A-R-O-D-Y.Who is kidding whom? The last I looked, professional sports was a competitive arena in which the strong and smart feasted on the weak and unwise. Success was based on who drafted better, coached better, and played better.Now it seems the very capitalists who get rich or enjoy tax writeoffs on this great game want to turn the NHL into some socialist institution designed to inject life into a few corpses.The feeling is: We can&rsquo;t do it ourselves, so help us. Try selling that to New York Islander general manager Bill Torrey, who in eight years transformed a laughing stock expansion team playing in the shadow of Madison Square Garden into a four-time Stanley Cup champion, winning one more Cup in four years than the rival New York Rangers have won in 58.Or to coach and general manager Glen Sather, whose Edmonton Oilers were pared by the NHL when they moved over from the World Hockey Association but rebuilt principally around Wayne Gretzky and won a Cup in five years.Shall we hold a telethon for those teams whose seasons end in early April? Compassionate fans could pledge their five-year-old sons, hoping they become stars in 13 years.Better still, next year whenever Gretzky skates against a non-playoff team, the NHL could ask him to use a stick with a right-handed curve.Sound preposterous? It&rsquo;s just as ridiculous as a plan that would reward the inert at the expense of the proficient. Even if the NHL were to &ldquo;reward&rdquo; the teams left out of the playoff party with an extra first-round pick, what makes anyone think that would help? The weaker clubs often remain at the bottom because they can&rsquo;t draft.Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Hartford, three perennial doormats, made shrewd trades and used the draft to turn this season into one of progress. They may not make the playoffs, but they&rsquo;ve pointed themselves in the proper direction. Toronto and Vancouver, both cinches to finish last in their divisions, are going to have to do the same. &#9632;

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February 8, 1985

QMJHL All-Star Affair Falls Flat

NHL TEAM ROSTERS

Bauer FIT FOR PERFORMANCE

SCOREBOARD