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

August 23, 1985

The Hockey News August 21, 1985

It was a weekend of usurpations and crownings, with an ending fit for a King. Or a whole court of Kings.Earlier this summer, the National Hockey League took to the field in the fifth annual Molson Slo-Pitch Tournament, an event staged to raise money for various charities in the Niagara Falls, Ont. region.The Los Angeles Kings triumphed in the tournament, winning six straight games while the defending-champion Toronto Maple Leafs lost in the semi-finals.In two days of competition, 19 NHL teams, a collection of old-timers, plus a squad each of linesmen and referees competed for the tournament championship before large crowds in St. Catharines, Welland and Niagara Falls.The Kings&rsquo; Marcel Dionne&mdash;who played his junior hockey in St. Catharines&mdash;was named the tournament&rsquo;s Most Valuable Player and took home the Minolta Tower Trophy for his efforts. Bill Derlago of the Toronto Maple Leafs was runner-up in MVP voting.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;We come here and have a lot of fun and try to provide entertainment for the fans. But helping charity and talking to the kids is what it&rsquo;s really all about.&rsquo; &mdash;Semenko</blockquote>Jimmy Fox, another King, was the tournament&rsquo;s batting champion&mdash;with an average of .917 in six games&mdash;but still felt that the team&rsquo;s defensive skills captured the series.&ldquo;The defense was there,&rdquo; said Fox. &ldquo;We had a string of 19 consecutive innings in the tourney without giving up a run. The only way we were going to get beat was by the long ball and in the final, I felt we produced the long ball, too. The guys were just great.&rdquo;Bernie Nicholls won the Panasonic Play of the Game Award for his game-winning, two-run homer, which pushed Team USA to an 8-6 win over Team Canada in the all-star game.Another dethroning occurred when Brad Seiwood, a member of the oldtimers squad, won the Pony/Micron Power Hitting Trophy, forcing the abdication of Chicago Black Hawks&rsquo; rookie Ed Olczyk.Olczyk was considered the man to beat in this competition, but Seiwood (who plays both slopitch and fastball in Toronto) prevailed. Seiwood&rsquo;s background on the diamond is indeed impressive&mdash;he once had an opportunity to try out for the Detroit Tigers.Although they ultimately lost, the Detroit Red Wings put in a strong performance throughout the series. The Kings zinged the Wings 12-9 in the final, Los Angeles graciously accepted the victor&rsquo;s coronet, while Detroit was simply crowned.Red Wings&rsquo; goaltender Greg Stefan was named top defensive player.The Kings weren&rsquo;t the only winners in the tournament, though, as about 80,000 witnes sed the three-day tournament. It was a rare treat for hockey fans to meet with some of their favorite players.&ldquo;We come here and have a lot of fun and try to provide entertainment for the fans,&rdquo; said Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; bruiser Dave Semenko. &ldquo;But helping charity and talking to the kids is what it&rsquo;s all about.&rdquo;According to tournament founder and chairman Bob Lavelle, 13,000 to 15,000 people turned out to see the final match between Detroit and the Kings.If it continues to grow, the tournament may have to change its location. In fact, this year, the tourney was played in four different ballparks.&ldquo;Unless some things are changed, yes,&rdquo; said Lavelle. &ldquo;People behind the scenes have to start to realize how big and important this event is now and make an effort to change some things for next year.&rdquo;Although no exact figures are, yet available, tournament organizers believe that approximately $75,000 was raised by the games and donated to local charities and sports organizations.Patty Connolly, who was the coach of the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; entry, said the series is very popular with the players. &ldquo;They come in here even before the (hockey) season is over,&rdquo; she says, &ldquo;and they ask: &lsquo;When&rsquo;s the tournament?&rsquo;&rdquo; &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

Slo-Pitch Triumph Crowning Achievement

&bull; In the August 9 issue of THN (Statistical wrap-up), a number of American Hockey League players were omitted from the final team-by-team scoring. This is due to the fact that the AHL&rsquo;s final team-by-team scoring press release includes only those players actually in the AHL at the end of the season.In the next issue of THN, September 6 cover date, the complete AHL scoring will be published.&bull; In the June 28 issue of THN, answer No. 17 of the Terrific Trivia Contest was wrong. In fact, there is no correct answer among the four choices (Which player wasn&rsquo;t a captain of the California Golden Seals?). Therefore, all ballots were remarked, dismissing question No. 17. Since prizes had already been awarded, those entrants who scored perfect as the result of withdrawing No. 17, were put in a supplemental draw with cash prizes of $500, $250 and $100Those winners will be announced in the September 6 issue of THN. &#9632;

Corrections

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04397/5029225-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg"></div>that the NHL players with the most career goals are: &#9632;

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Did YOU KNOW…

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04900/5029094-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="552" height="696"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ted Green has left the Oilers for a burgeoning computerized skate-sharpening business.</figcaption></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031023/5029101-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="113" height="116"></div>EDMONTON&mdash;Glen Sather made Ted Green an offer he couldn&rsquo;t refuse.An obstinate sort, Green did anyway.All of which underlines how potentially lucrative a revolutionary skate sharpening business Green dabbled in 10 years ago promises to be.For the 45-year-old former defenseman has vacated his assistant coaching post with the Edmonton Oilers to devote all his energy to the budding business interest, Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; GM-coach Sather announced July 22.&ldquo;It hasn&rsquo;t gotten to be a big thing yet, but it&rsquo;s going to be,&rdquo; predicted Green of the computerized, coin-operated skate sharpening gadget. &ldquo;To be able to do justice to that end and also do justice to Glen, Peter (owner Pocklington) and the Oilers just wasn&rsquo;t possible.&rdquo;The decision was hardly a snap judgment.&ldquo;A month ago Glen made me an offer not too many assistant coaches in the NHL would get&mdash;as far as salary and security is concerned,&rdquo; said Green, whose contract with the Oilers expires in August. &ldquo;The Oilers were not an easy bunch to walk away from.&rdquo;Not that he is leaving the team entirely.Green will remain with the Oilers in an undetermined part-time position, doing special assignments as designated by Sather. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be on a consulting basis&mdash;an advisory capacity sort of thing,&rdquo; said Green. &ldquo;Nothing&rsquo;s been spelled out. I&rsquo;m just happy Glen offered me a job with the best team in the NHL.&rdquo;To say Green&rsquo;s been a winner is an understatement.The native of Eriksdale, Man., who grew up in the Winnipeg suburb of St. Boniface, concluded his junior career performing on the Memorial Cup-winning Winnipeg Braves in 1959.He played on a Stanley Cup winner with the 1972 Boston Bruins, along with three Avco Cup champions with the New England Whalers and Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association. He was also part of the final WH A-champion Jets (1979) but injuries forced him to retire halfway through the season.As an assistant coach, Green won a Canada Cup plus a pair of Stanley Cup crowns in four years with the Oilers. Prior to joining the Oilers, he coached the Carmen, Man., intermediate team to the provincial championship.&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he mused, &ldquo;hockey&rsquo;s been good to me.&rdquo;A second-team NHL All-Star in 1969 and runner-up to Bobby Orr in Norris Trophy balloting. Green has rubbed shoulders with the best of them&mdash;Orr and Phil Esposito in Boston, Bobby Hull with the Jets, plus, of course, Gretzky and supporting cast with the Oilers.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what makes leaving so difficult,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I watched a lot of coaches suffer like hell and never win anything. Here I am leaving one of the most exciting teams in the world.&rdquo;Memories, he&rsquo;s had a few&hellip;&ldquo;It was gratifying to, beat the Russians and be on the winning end of one of the greatest games in Canadian hockey history,&rdquo; said Green of the 3-2 Canada Cup overtime semi-final in Calgary. &ldquo;The Stanley Cups were equally as emotional&mdash;especially the first one here after getting beaten so handily (four straight to the New York Islanders the year before).&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been also a thrill for me to watch Paul Coffey develop from an inconsistent player to a Norris Trophy winner and a very mature person. I also look back fondly to the night in Buffalo when Wayne broke Esposito&rsquo;s (single season) goal-scoring record, because I was in Boston when Espo set the record,&rdquo; added Green, who drew an assist on Espo&rsquo;s 76th goal in 1971.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s also (Mark) Messier&rsquo;s 50th goal (in &rsquo;82) when his mouth was as wide open as a barn door. He was skating so fast his feet weren&rsquo;t on the ice and the guys on the other team couldn&rsquo;t catch him.&rdquo;Obviously the low point in Green&rsquo;s career was in 1969, when he was cracked on the head by the late Wayne Maki in an infamous stick-swinging incident in Ottawa. Green missed the entire 1969-70 season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen it that way (lowest point)&rdquo; said Green, who had a plastic plate placed in his head and was forced to learn how to write with his right hand after being a left hander all of his life. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m surprised that here it is 15 years later and people still ask &lsquo;How&rsquo;s your head?&rsquo; I realize that as a player, I was never really the same after the Maki incident&hellip;&rdquo;Hard work was the key to his comeback. &ldquo;To get things back on an even keel I had to stretch and reach down.&rdquo;Green will remain here, where he will open a branch office for what will soon be the nation-wide Universal Skate-Sharpeners, Ltd.&ldquo;Right now.&rdquo; he grinned, &ldquo;my challenge is to make a Stanley Cup winner out of Universal in Edmonton.&rdquo; The decision caught Oiler players completely off guard.&ldquo;Of course I&rsquo;m surprised.&rdquo; replied veteran Oilers&rsquo; defenseman Kevin Lowe, &ldquo;Obviously the skate sharpening thing requires his full attention. It&rsquo;s something he&rsquo;s worked hard at and he wants it to, succeed.&rdquo;</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>Lowe said Green was an honest and a dedicated individual who stressed physical conditioning. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not comparing him to other coaches, but he seldom spoke,&rdquo; said Lowe. &ldquo;When he did, it was generally when we were in a slump, and we listened. He was like E.F. Hutton. The speech came from the heart.&ldquo;Greenie was funny, too. When the season&rsquo;s over, guys say to the coaches and vice-versa, &rsquo;Let&rsquo;s get together in the summer and play golf.&rsquo; But they never do. Greenie would say, &rsquo;No, let&rsquo;s not!&rsquo; Greenie told it the way it was.&rdquo;Sather said he&rsquo;ll be looking for a replacement to join the staff that also includes co-coach John Muckier.Sather admitted it&rsquo;s unlikely he&rsquo;ll move former Hartford head coach Larry Kish from the G.M.-coaching position with Edmonton&rsquo;s American farm in Halifax.&ldquo;It would be hard for Larry to move on such short notice,&rdquo; said Sather. &#9632;

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Green Skates Away From Oilers

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011224/5028963-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="542" height="890"><figcaption class="caption-body">HOMECOMINGPage 22</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021008/5028956-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="540" height="888"><figcaption class="caption-body">MONO MANPage 27</figcaption></div><h2>THE COVER STORY &hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip; Page 3</h2>For many armchair athletes, it&rsquo;s known simply as The Great Debate. Which of North America&rsquo;s four major team sports&mdash;baseball, basketball, football or hockey&mdash;is the domain of the best athletes? A difficult question, to be sure, one which has no definitive answer. But we&rsquo;ve got an Athlete&rsquo;s Perspective on it.To subscribe to THE HOCKEY NEWS or make a change of address to an existing subscription, see Page 28<h2>NHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03748/5028949-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="550" height="962"></div><h2>The Minors</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04520/5028942-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="538" height="152"></div><h2>The Juniors</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05382/5028935-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="532" height="234"></div><h2>Columnists</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06281/5028928-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="532" height="234"></div><h2>Departments</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-07185/5028921-1-eng-US/f0002-072.jpg" title="f0002-07" width="538" height="608"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-0892/5028914-1-eng-US/f0002-082.jpg" title="f0002-08" width="540" height="882"><figcaption class="caption-body">AU REVOIRPage 21</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-0962/5028907-1-eng-US/f0002-092.jpg" title="f0002-09" width="538" height="880"><figcaption class="caption-body">MULLING IT OVERPage 7</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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The Hockey News

In the September 6 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, which will be coming your way in about two weeks, we&rsquo;ll take a look at the biggest story of this offseason&mdash;the Detroit Red Wings.Specifically, we&rsquo;ll be looking at the Wings and their free-spending ways, and how they&rsquo;re striving to improve immediately through the acquisition of free agent talent, such as Warren Young, Adam Oates and Ray Staszak.And we&rsquo;ll also be probing whether Red Wing owner Mike Hitch is the George Steinbrenner of hockey and what the lavish contracts he&rsquo;s offered will do to the NHL salary structure.Plus, we&rsquo;ll have all the news and views from the other 20 NHL cities, as well as the minor pro and junior leagues.Don&rsquo;t miss that, plus much, much more in the September 6 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS.<h2>QUOTE OF THE WEEK</h2>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s beyond me what they&rsquo;re trying to do, and it&rsquo;s beyond 20 other owners.&rdquo;&mdash;Pittsburgh GM Eddie Johnston, commenting on Detroit&rsquo;s free-spending ways. Page 16. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK IN THN

<div class="byline">BY KARL-ERIC REIF</div><h2>Talented Veteran Silent Super Sabre</h2>A milestone was reached February 3rd, 1985 when Gilbert Perreault moved past his boyhood idol, Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; great Jean Beliveau, onto the elite list of the top ten career scorers in National Hockey League history.Yet as has too often been the case throughout his 15-year career, this superlative accomplishment was acknowledged by little fanfare and even less celebration. There was no ceremony to honor the achievement.Perreault has long been a prophet without honor in his own land. An appreciation of this silent superstar is long overdue.Since Day One he has been The Franchise in Buffalo&mdash;the first-ever draft choice of the newly-created Sabres in 1970, he carried the team when they were nothing but a motley crew of expansion-era cast-offs, and when the young club became a contender, it was Perreault who led the way.His skating and playmaking pyrotechnics earned him the Calder Trophy in 1971 and the 1973 Lady Byng.Recognition since then has been scarce, although Perreault has only improved with age. He has led Buffalo in scoring eleven times, including eight of the last nine years, despite missing major portions of four separate seasons through injury.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Perreault has long been a prophet without honor in his own land. An appreciation of this silent superstar is long overdue&hellip;Since Day One he has been The Franchise in Buffalo&mdash;the first-ever draft choice of the Sabres.</blockquote>His scoring ability is even denigrated, though five times he has finished among the league&rsquo;s top nine scorers, and he is poised to pass Guy Lafleur on the all-time list.These achievements are particularly remarkable for having come largely without the benefit of outstanding wingers and on a team which stresses defense at the expense of scoring.But for the brief heyday of the French Connection&mdash;Perreault, Richard Martin and Rene Robert&mdash;in the mid &rsquo;70&rsquo;s, to Perreault has most often fallen the responsibility of shepherding inept kids and flat-footed journeymen.Former N HL defenseman Mike Robitaille, now color man on Sabre broadcasts, said of Perreault&rsquo;s occasional pairing last season with the capable and hustling Mike Foligno, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about time Gilbert had somebody to pass the puck to. not somebody standing next to his check all night&rdquo;.Yet Perreault&rsquo;s scoring figures fail to impress the goal-happy throngs who enjoy the one-dimensional, all-out offense of today&rsquo;s hockey. Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s defense-oriented Buffalo team is an NHL anomaly, playing a constricted, safety-first game that limits their own scoring as much as their opponents&rsquo;.&ldquo;To hit a hundred points,&rdquo; observes Perreault, &ldquo;you have to play a different style&mdash;you address your style to go offensive all the time. You have to take chances&mdash;but then you leave chances for the other team. You make a mistake, and they get an important goal. I try to play as much defense as offense&mdash;that&rsquo;s what we play on this team. &ldquo;Perreault&rsquo;s scoring abilities still overshadow his skills and commitment to defensive play, although for years he&rsquo;s been one of the NHL&rsquo;s best two-way forwards.This sacrifice of personal glory to the design of the team is typical of Perreault&rsquo;s character and his approach to the game, and explains the respect he commands from teammates and opponents, if not from the media and fans.In spite of his genuine modesty, his role as Sabre captain is solidly endorsed. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the biggest leader on this team,&rdquo; said veteran Buffalodefenseman Jerry Korab. &ldquo;He gives 100 percent all the time and he does so many things well&mdash;I think this is the best year (1984-85) I&rsquo;ve ever seen him have.&rdquo;Standard praise from teammates? Wayne Gretzky, interviewed in Playboy, named the very best in the NHL. His choices at forward were Trottier, Bossy&hellip;and Gil Perreault.Perreault&rsquo;s scintillating style&mdash;his wide skating stride, his rinklength dashes with the puck, his stickhandling and passing, the subtle physicality of his defensive work&mdash;are qualities that cannot be expressed in numbers. The work he has done, the magic he has created, the legacy he has left, are staggering.&ldquo;He can still do it all,&rdquo; says Buffalo goaltender Bob Sauve. It&rsquo;s only unfortunate Perreault does it in a situation which prevents his statistics from speaking as eloquently as his skills.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011251/5029025-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="952" height="2396"></div><h2>THE GILBERT PERREAULT RECORD</h2>Born, Victoriaville, Que., November 13, 1950.Center. Shoots left. 6&rsquo;, 200 lbs.Last amateur club: Montreal Junior Canadiens (OHA).(Buffalo&rsquo;s 1st choice and 1st over-all in 1970 Amateur Draft).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021024/5029018-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="988" height="598"></div>a Won Calder Memorial Trophy (1971)b Won Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (1973)c NHL Second All-Star Team (1976, 1977)* Source: National Hockey League Guide 1984-85<h2>Center&rsquo;s Trade-Off Not Helping Team</h2>BY JEFF Z. KLEINThere is no question that, in the first nine or 10 years of his career, Gil Perreault was one of the top five centermen in the NHL. During those years he was usually among the league&rsquo;s top scorers, and he was the main reason the Sabres became a strong team so quickly.But over the last five years, Perreault has become merely a good player. He has scored at a rate of about a point per game&mdash;not bad, but not great. And over these past few years, the Sabres have disappointed everyone annually with their early exits from the playoff picture.Yet, despite all this, some still consider Perreault a superstar. They feel his recent scoring stats are not a fair barometer of his play. But the truth is that those stats are a fair barometer, and not just because he has shifted much of the emphasis in his play to defense, either.True, Perreault has worked hard and succeeded in becoming a better defensive player in recent years. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re a defensive team,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;so you have to adjust your game to the style the team plays.&rdquo;But he&rsquo;s still not an especially wonderful defensive player. Since the &rsquo;82-83 season. Perreault&rsquo;s plus-minus mark stands at plus-19. which isn&rsquo;t bad at all. But of the 14 other Sabres from &rsquo;82-83 who are still with the team, nine have higher plus-minus marks over the same period.<blockquote class="pullQuote">This self-effacing quality is an admirable trait but maybe it&rsquo;s also the reason Perreault and the club he leads have played so far under their potential for so many years. Perreault effaces himself right out of the game.</blockquote>So, if Perreault has exchanged some of his offensive skills for defensive skills, the exchange has not been a good one. He is the team&rsquo;s most talented offensive player; his trade-off has cost the Sabres precious goals, while he has not contributed terribly much to the team&rsquo;s already-strong defense.He can still be every bit as dazzling as he was a decade ago, and on occasion he is&mdash;but all too often he plays tentatively, as though he&rsquo;s afraid to initiate an attack out of fear that it will fail and result in a three-on-two going the other way. He&rsquo;s trading off offense for defense, and it&rsquo;s hurting him and his teammates.But, beyond this trade-off, there is a larger reason behind Perreault&rsquo;s disappointingly unspectacular play: His extraordinarily selfeffacing personality.His modesty is legendary&rsquo;. Has he received the recognition he deserves from the media? &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never looked for attention,&rdquo; he replies.&rdquo; Did he feel slighted when the Sabres didn&rsquo;t accord him some honor for passing Beliveau on the all-time scoring list? &ldquo;No, I really don&rsquo;t care about breaking records,&rdquo; he answers, dismissing the subject.Perreault has never complained publicly about anything, he&rsquo;s never tried to build himself up in the press, and he&rsquo;s never knocked any players on other teams (THN contributing editor Stan Fischler on Perreault: &ldquo;He hasn&rsquo;t said anything interesting in 14 years&rdquo;).This self-effacing quality is an admirable trait but maybe it&rsquo;s also the reason Perreault and the club he leads have played so far under their potential for so many years. Perreault effaces himself right out of the game.So, instead of playing with all the offensive skills he possesses. Perreault selflessly allows himself to be molded by the defensive personality of the team he plays for&mdash;&ldquo;You have to adjust your game to the style the team plays.&rdquo;But scoring goals is as important to a championship team as is preventing goals. As the team&rsquo;s most talented offensive player, Perreault should be marshalling his prodigious skills to lead the Sabre attack. But by submerging his abilities to that of a dour (if effective) defensively-oriented club. Perreault has surrendered himself to below-potential seasons on offense. A leader cannot surrender his skills if he&rsquo;s to be a truly effective leader.Ken Dryden addresed this very issue in his superb book. The Game: &ldquo;The attitude of a team depends so much on its best player. A coach and a manager can be neutralized: a best player has followers, and must be a leader. He must have the character and personality to match his skills. It&rsquo;s why the Flyers won and the Sabres didn&rsquo;t&hellip;&rdquo;Perreault hasn&rsquo;t much time left in his career. He has worked hard to retain his dazzling skills, and his enormous talent is still intact. It remains to be seen whether he&rsquo;ll display the strength of character that will enable him to overcome his modesty and assert himself as a leader on offense. Only then can he have one final shot at the prize which has long eluded him&mdash;the Stanley Cup. &#9632;

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Gilbert Perreault: The Pros And Cons

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021198/5029063-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="381" height="438"><figcaption class="caption-body">Frank Orr</figcaption></div>ONE FACT SHOULD be established before this treatise progresses any farther: The chap manning the keys is not opposed to money and everyone getting as large a chunk of it as the traffic will bear in his particular field. Love might make the world go &lsquo;round but loot certainly greases the wheels.Hockey players should earn as much as they can because of the business&rsquo; fickle nature and the brevity of careers in today&rsquo;s game.But when the more militant members of the National Hockey League Players Association talk of the need for a system of free agency similar to the one in baseball, I agree with the saner owners of NHL teams: Anything close to baseball&rsquo;s free agency system in hockey would be a gigantic blow to the game.&ldquo;I hope the players realize that baseball-style free agency in hockey would probably kill a half a dozen teams very quickly and more than that over the long haul,&rdquo; said one NHL owner, a man who is clearly in the category of &ldquo;sane&rdquo;, a chap who has been able to combine both a love of the game and good business sense in the operation of his team.Believe it or not, those two ingredients are not prominent in enough of the men who own teams in the NHL. There needs to be a balance between them in the way a team&rsquo;s affairs are conducted.If one of those factors dominates, the team usually is in trouble.The NHLPA and the league&rsquo;s owners are conducting negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement and the executive director of the players&rsquo; group. Alan Eagleson, has mentioned &ldquo;strike&rdquo; at the start of the 1986-87 season.Most players would like to see an easing in the restrictive legislation now in use. Free agency really doesn&rsquo;t exist in the NHL. The system, based on a set compensation in draft choices and players for the free agent player who changes teams, has scared off most clubs in signing the few available stars.Okay, a less rigid system could be installed without destruction of the game&rsquo;s fragile base. But a baseball approach would create chaos in a financially unstable industry.For openers, the difference in the value of the Canadian and U.S. dollar would add a dangerous wrinkle to free agency. If they had their choice, how many players on Canadian teams would turn down the chance to join a U.S. club, which would automatically mean a 35 per cent (approximately) raise?But the NHL owner quoted anonymously at his request lists other reasons, both fiscal and idealistic why total free agency in hockey would be a big risk in hockey.&ldquo;The NHL has had a few seasons of moderate stability since the merger with the World Hockey Association (in 1979) and we have reduced the number of clubs that lose money,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But we have a long way to go before all 21 teams are in the black.&ldquo;Free agency would raise our costs again by a large amount, create a problem between Canadian and U.S. teams on the player market and toss us back into a sea of problems.&ldquo;Okay, I&rsquo;ve heard people say that the NHL owners could grant free agency, then make a top-secret agreement that they wouldn&rsquo;t use it. But that would never work. The NHL owners are a disparate group&mdash;some private, some major corporations&mdash;and you can be sure that there would be a few who would never stick to an agreement.&ldquo;They would jump into free agent bidding immediately.&ldquo;I think Eagleson knows all too well that the big danger in free agency wouldn&rsquo;t come from the players but the owners. It would be the same as giving loaded guns to a pack of school kids. His association would have its membership cut in half very quickly. That&rsquo;s why he&rsquo;s smart to go after the other features in a new agreement, such as postcareer help for players.&rdquo;One of Eagleson&rsquo;s thrusts in the new deal is an arrangement of severance pay and education grants to help players cope with the real world.The owner here has another view of what free agency would do to the game that makes great sense.&ldquo;I just can&rsquo;t have any enthusiasm for baseball teams built on free agents becase I feel it&rsquo;s about the same as an African country hiring mercenary soldiers in Europe,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;All it takes to build a team that way is money.&ldquo;Look at the last three teams to hold the Stanley Cup (Montreal Canadiens &rsquo;76 to &rsquo;79, New York Islanders &rsquo;80 to &rsquo;83, Edmonton Oilers &rsquo;84 and &rsquo;85). They were constructed almost exclusively with players claimed in a draft plus a few trades to fill the holes. That means the smart organizations, the ones with good scouts, good management and good coaching development of talent have ruled our league, the way it should be.&ldquo;If a team like the New York Yankees, built around players bought and not developed, won the Cup, it just wouldn&rsquo;t be the same. To me anyway, such a club would have no appeal.&rdquo;<h2>The Hockey News</h2>THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLY Founded in 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenziePUBLISHER James A. DavidsonBUSINESS MANAGER Tony DobranowskiEDITOR IN CHIEF Bob McKenzieEDITORIAL DIRECTOR Charlie HalpinASSISTANT EDITOR Steve DrydenEDITORIAL ASSISTANT Jeff HubbellCONTRIBUTING EDITORS Stan Fischler, Frank OrrADVERTISING SALES MANAGER Randy GreenADVERTISING SERVICES MANAGER Esther SumkaADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVESFor Canadian Consumer Advertising Only Call:CCMC, Cliff Kivell, 287 MacPherson Ave.Toronto, Ontario M4V 1A4 (416) 928-2909SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES MANAGER Patricia BackNEWSSTAND SERVICES MANAGER Esther SumkaCIRCULATION DEPARTMENT Jurate Kaknevicius Rosanne TaninoACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT Tom Moffat Mary CarubiaSPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGERHughes Marketing Hockey News Bookshelf (416) 499-8227ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFFICES85 Scarsdale Rd. Suite 100 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2 (416) 445-5702 EXECUTIVE OFFICE 850 Third Avenue New York, New York 10022NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTORDistributed Nationally by Disticor 101 Duncan Mill Rd., Suite 14 Don Mills, Ont. M3B 1Z3 (416) 449-6430W.C.C. PUBLISHING LTD. PRESIDENT Dean HeineTHE HOCKEY NEWS, (ISSN 0018-3016) is published weekly except monthly June and bimonthly July and August by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd., 85 Scarsdale Road #100. Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2 (416) 445-5702. In U.S. c/o W.C.C. Publishing Corp., 850 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022.40 ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION RATES $24.95 in the U.S.A. $24.95 in Canada. $54.95 in Foreign Countries. Send all Canadian and Foreign subscription orders to THE HOCKEY NEWS, P.O. Box 13055, Postal Station &lsquo;A&rsquo;, Toronto, Ont. M5W 1V7, U.S. subscription requests should be mailed to Box 904, Buffalo. N.Y. 14240. Please allow 4-6 weeks for processing.SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Road # 100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2. Second Class mail Registration No. 1327. All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to Subscription Dept. The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Road #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.IN THE UNITED STATES: Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. U.S. POSTMASTER send address change to: The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y. 14240.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011282/5029056-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="64" height="64"></div>Member of theAudit Bureau of Circulations &#9632;</div>

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Free Agency A Double-Edged Sword

<div class="byline">By Bob Duff</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011153/5029132-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="398" height="438"></div>Q: I am well aware of Roger Neilson&rsquo;s coaching experience, but has he had any actual playing experience?Fred Thompson,&nbsp;Toronto. Ont.A: According to the Chicago Black Hawks&rsquo; 1984-85 media guide, Neilson joined the coaching ranks of the Ontario Hockey League&rsquo;s Peterborough Petes after playing minor hockey in Toronto. From there he moved through the coaching ranks, to Dallas of the Central League and then to Toronto, Buffalo. Vancouver, Los Angeles and Chicago in the NHL.Q: My father says that during a New York Rangers&rsquo; playoff game some years ago, the Rangers&rsquo; goaltender was injured and had to be repaced by a team official. Is this true? Also, what would happen today if both goaltenders from one team were injured and unable to continue in a NHL game?Chesley Mercor,&nbsp;Shilo, Man.A: Yes, it happened. In game two of the 1928 Stanley Cup final between the Rangers and Montreal Maroons, New York goalie Lome Chabot took a Nels Stewart shot directly in the eye midway through the second period. He could not continue, and Maroons&rsquo; coach Eddie Gerard refused the Rangers permission to use Ottawa&rsquo;s Alex Connell, who was in the crowd at the game. Ranger forward Frank Boucher jokingly suggested to his coach, 44-year-old Lester Patrick, that he take over in goal. Surprisingly, Patrick agreed. He performed brilliantly, stopping 18 shots, and allowing only one goal as Boucher scored in overtime to give New York a 2-1 win. The Rangers went on to win the Cup that year.If both goaltenders were hurt in a current NHL game, the team would be allowed to dress a third goaltender. But he would have to be under contract to that club. If no other goaltenders were available, a player from that team would take over in the nets.Q: Who were the first captains of each of the 1967 expansion teams?J. Gale,Calgary. Alta.A: The captains of the six 1967 expansion clubs were as follows: Oakland Seals&mdash;Bob Baun; Los Angeles Kings&mdash;Bob Wall; Minnesota North Stars&mdash;Bob Woytowich; Philadelphia Flyers&mdash;Lou Angotti; Pittsburgh Penguins&mdash;Ab McDonald; St.Louis Blues&mdash;Al Arbour.If you want your question answered in the Ask the Dutfer column. send the query to:ASK THE DUFFER, 125 5th Ave. North, Apt. 1510 Saskatoon, Sask. S7K 6A5Personal replies to letters are not possible. &#9632;

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ASK THE DUFFER

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this month in hockey:&bull; NHL president Clarence Campbell revealed that the Board of Governors had given its approval to include St. Louis and Los Angeles as franchises for the proposed NHL expansion. &bull; The first International Hockey Hall of Fame was opened in Kingston, 22 years after it was first granted the charter to be built.Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this month in hockey:&bull; Hockey greats Bill Gadsby, Tom Johnson and the late Cecil (Babe) Dye, along with builder Bob Lebel were named to the Hockey Hall of Fame. &bull; International Hockey League commissioner Bill Beagan announced that the IHL would experiment with curved blue lines next season. Beagan said he believed the new system would cut down on offside calls by allowing the wingers to be a stride or two ahead of the puck-carrying center when heading into the defending zone. &#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/f0005-02849/5029194-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="374" height="434"></div>Leo Boivin was nicknamed Fireplug during his playing days in the National Hockey League&mdash;and at 5-foot-7 and 190 pounds it&rsquo;s easy to understand why.Known as one of the NHL&rsquo;s most thunderous body checkers, Boivin never let his small stature hold him back during a 19-year career that included stints with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins and Minnesota North Stars.&ldquo;I just wanted to play so badly that I wasn&rsquo;t going to let anything stop me from getting to the NHL,&rdquo; Boivin said recently. &ldquo;I knew I was short but I didn&rsquo;t let that bother me.&ldquo;Instead, I decided to use my size and weight to my advantage. I became more of a hitter or body checker and got more into the physical part of the game.&ldquo;I really had to work hard to keep my job as well. You have to.remember that I played most of my career in the old six-team league. There were only 120 jobs available during those days and I consider myself fortunate to have played in the league as long as I did under those circumstances.&ldquo;I considered those players of that time 120 of the best in the world. I guess I had to be pretty good to be in such good company.&rdquo;Among those whose company he kept were legendary right wingers Gordie Howe and Maurice (Rocket) Richard.&ldquo;Howe was probably the toughest player I ever had to go up against.&rdquo; recalled Boivin. &ldquo;He was very tough in the corners, especially with his elbows. I always had to watch out when I took Howe in the corner because I might end up with an elbow in the head.&ldquo;But he had a lot of finesse as well. He was smooth when it came to skating and trying to score goals.&ldquo;The Rocket was different. He was a very physical player, especially when it came to goal-scoring. He didn&rsquo;t care how he scored as long as he did. And it didn&rsquo;t matter to him if he went around you or through you, just as long as he could score a goal.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03597/5029187-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="552" height="1420"><figcaption class="caption-body">Leo Boivin wasn&rsquo;t one of the biggest Red Wings, but he was one of the toughest.</figcaption></div>Today, Boivin is a scout for the Hartford Whalers. Despite coaching the Ottawa &rsquo;67s of the Ontario League and two brief tenures with the St. Louis Blues. Boivin has no desire to return to the coaching ranks.&ldquo;I really like what I&rsquo;m doing right now because it gives me the chance to see a lot of kids in the junior ranks play,&rdquo; said Boivin, who still resides in his native Prescott. &ldquo;Coaching just isn&rsquo;t for me.&rdquo;And neither is the Hall of Fame, which many people, especially those from his hometown, feel is an injustice.When he retired Boivin was 10th in games played (1,150 games) and 16th in penalty minutes (1,192).But he never played on a Stanley Cup-winning team. And, worse than that, Boivin played on very few winning teams.Does this concern Boivin?&ldquo;The Hall of Fame is the least of my worries,&rdquo; said Boivin, now 53. &ldquo;It would be a great honor. But I&rsquo;m not going to worry about it.&ldquo;And as for never playing on a Stanley Cup winner, that is a little disappointing because every player dreams of playing on a championship team at one time or another.&ldquo;I played on a few winning teams, but never one that could take it all the way. But, as all sports dictate, somebody has to win and somebody has to lose.&ldquo;I was just glad to have my health when I retired and was still able to get around without pain, unlike some other guys. And, like I said before, I considered myself lucky to have been able to play with 120 of the best. That was good enough for me.&rdquo;<h2>TRIVIA</h2>1. Name the last goaltender to record a shutout in a Stanley Cup final game.2. What former Toronto Maple Leaf goaltender was known by the nickname Ulcers?3. How many of the NHL&rsquo;s all-time career point-scoring leaders played for Detroit Red Wings?4. What goaltender has allowed the most Stanley Cup-winning goals?5. When was the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; last losing season?6. Who is the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; career scoring leader?7. Name the last Toronto Maple Leaf player to be NHL playoff scoring leader?8. Name the only two players to score a Stanley-Cup winning goal in overtime of the 7th final game?9. Name the Czechoslovakian-born player that briefly played for St. Louis in 1969-70?10. Who is the only Pittsburgh Penguin player to score a hat-trick in a Stanley Cup playoff game?Answers in next week&rsquo;s issue.<h2>Last Week&rsquo;s Trivia Answers</h2>1. Ilkka Sinisalo. 2. Kirk McKaskill. 3. DaveGoertz. 4. Montreal Canadiens, 1978-79. 5. Roger Crozier, Detroit, 1966; Glenn Hall, St. Louis, 1968; Reg Leach, Philadelphia, 1976. 6. Mike Bossy. 7. Gordie Howe. 8. Glenn Hall. 9. Walter (Turk) Broda. 10. John Ferguson. &#9632;

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Boivin A Bruising Blueliner In The Days Of Yesteryear

<div class="byline">by Stan Fischler&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011334/5029256-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="368" height="436"></div>Summer is a terrible time for hockey fans. Your mind loads up with questions that I can only answer on an occasional basis. So, to prevent migraines from Montreal to Minnesota. I have prepared a list of pertinent puck questions&mdash;with the usual impertinent answers.Each answer comes equipped with a 12-month, 12,000-mile warranty. Stand by folks and kindly fasten your seat belts. Here we go!WHY IS THE NHL INVESTING HALF-A-MILLION DOLLARS ON OFFICIATING WHEN THE LEAGUE HAS BEEN TELLING US HOW WONDERFUL A JOB THE ZEBRAS HAVE BEEN DOING?ANSWER: Scotty Bowman, following a Buffalo-Quebec playoff game: &ldquo;I hold (referee) Bryan Lewis directly responsible&rdquo; for the loss.Mike O&rsquo;Connell on how referees favor some coaches: &ldquo;Referees are more attentive to general managers who double as coaches.&rdquo;Harry Sinden: &ldquo;We deserve a better quality (refereeing) in the NHL.&rdquo;Harry Ornest: &ldquo;In no other sport do they reward the headhunters as they do in hockey.&rdquo;Unidentified GM of a playoff team: &ldquo;If I did my job as badly as the referees do their&rsquo;s, I wouldn&rsquo;t have a job.&rdquo;Add another 40 tons of complaints to the above and you have the answer. Officiating isn&rsquo;t a problem; it is a MAJOR problem. But maybe they need half-a-billion dollars to cure it.SINCE HERB BROOKS AND THE NORTH STARS BOTH LIVE IN MINNESOTA, WHY DIDN&rsquo;T BROOKS TAKE THE COACHING JOB WHEN LOU NANNE SO GRACIOUSLY OFFERED IT TO HIM?ANSWER: Nanne wasn&rsquo;t the only one who offered a job to Brooks. Every hockey writer, from Charlie Hallman of the St. Paul Pioneer Press to Your&rsquo;s Truly, figured Herbie belonged behind the North Stars&rsquo; bench the way the Statue of Liberty belongs in New York harbor.Brooks says the only thing that kept him from signing with the North Stars was the club&rsquo;s refusal to offer &ldquo;a reasonable signing bonus.&rdquo;I think that&rsquo;s a reasonable answer, along with 44 other answers.An even more reasonable answer is this: Brooks wants to manage and coach, just like Glen Sather does in Edmonton. Herbie knows that Nanne is on thin ice at the Met Center. One more season of fumbling, bumbling and grumbling by the North Stars will be enough to change co-owner George Gund&rsquo;s mind about Nanne. If that happens, all Gund has to do is open his window and bellow, &ldquo;Yoo-hoo, Herbie, we want you! And Brooks&rsquo; wish will be fulfilled.If not, Herbie is still laughing. He&rsquo;s being paid handsomely. He can pick up plenty of money on the lecture circuit until next spring when two or three coaching jobs are sure to surface.And then, as Gene Autry so aptly put it, he&rsquo;s &ldquo;back in the saddle again.&rdquo;IS JIMMY DEVELLANO CRAZY TO SIGN WARREN YOUNG TO A MILLION-DOLLAR CONTRACT WHEN WARREN YOUNG IS 29 AND, MAYBE, VERY LUCKY TO HAVE SCORED 40 GOALS LAST YEAR?ANSWER: No, Jimmy D. isn&rsquo;t crazy, he&rsquo;s lucky to have an owner like Mike Hitch who doesn&rsquo;t care how he spends his money.Jimmy D. knows he won&rsquo;t be GM for long if he doesn&rsquo;t make Mike Hitch happy and one way is to get players who are better than Darryl Sittler. Another way is to make sure that if you do make the playoffs, your team doesn&rsquo;t get blown out by basketball scores. Warren Young will do just fine in Detroit&mdash;providing Jimmy D. gets Mario Lemieux as well.HAS CLIFF FLETCHER LOST HIS MARBLES, ALLOWING A 99-POINT MAN SUCH AS KENT NILSSON TO GO TO THE NORTH STARS FOR NEXT TO NOTHING?ANSWER: Fletcher insists that offers for Nilsson couldn&rsquo;t buy you a box of Cracker Jacks. Bob Johnson suggests that Nilsson thinks the word W-O-R-K actually is spelled F-L-O-A-T. &ldquo;We are going a different route.&rdquo; saysJohnson. &ldquo;The honest effort route.&rdquo;That sounds good until you listen to Lanny McDonald, who knows the Flames belter than he knows Harold Ballard. Let&rsquo;s listen, for a moment, to Lanny: &ldquo;As much as everyone complained that he (Nilsson) wasn&rsquo;t consistent, Kent still produced five 100-point seasons. Where will all those points come from now? I don&rsquo;t know. I&rsquo;m disappointed.&rdquo;Fletcher (who received two second-round draft choices in return for Nilsson) took one hell of a gamble, but it&rsquo;s a bad one. When he shows me how the Flames can compensate for those 99 points. I&rsquo;ll change my mind. I don&rsquo;t think he can.HOW CAN THE WINNIPEG JETS JUSTIFY PAYING DALE HAWERCHUK AN EIGHT-YEAR $3.2-MILLION CONTRACT?ANSWER: Watch the videotape of the Jets-Oilers series and see how well Winnipeg did without Hawerchuk.DID DAVE MALONEY RETIRE PREMATURELY, AT AGE 29, TO BECOME A WALL STREET STOCKBROKER?ANSWER: With Maloney&rsquo;s experience, he could help the New Jersey Devils or Hartford Whalers in 1985-86. His trouble is that he&rsquo;s under contract to the Buffalo Sabres, whose GM Scotty Bowman thought so much of Dave he benched him in the playoffs. That&rsquo;s a compelling reason for quitting. Maloney&rsquo;s salary&mdash;way up there&mdash;is an even more compelling reason for staying. Dave, don&rsquo;t be a dodo. Come back!WHERE DOES JIMMY DEVELLANO COME OFF SIGNING AN UNTRIED COLLEGIAN LIKE ADAM OATES TO A MILLION-DOLLAR CONTRACT?ANSWER: Funny, Steve Yzerman must be wondering the same thing. Perhaps, an old Brooklyn expression will help explain it. We used to say, &ldquo;When one is hard-up, one does anything.&rdquo; The Red Wings are hard-up for good hockey players. They&rsquo;ve also had some very patient fans who have filled Joe Louis Arena for a rather mediocre team. Going after Oates tells the fans that, if nothing else. Jimmy D. is trying. But I&rsquo;d hate to tell you what some of the other owners are saying about him.DID THE RANGERS DO WELL IN SIGNING TED SATOR AS COACH?ANSWER: If they are looking for the second coming of Robert Redford, they did just fine. Sator is the handsomest NHL coach since Bill LaForge.If they are looking for the third coming of Herb Brooks, they did even better. Sator&rsquo;s vocabulary sits somewhere between M.A. and Ph D.Actually, Sator is a superb choice; especially when you consider that the Rangers couldn&rsquo;t get their hands on the man best suited to coach the team&mdash;Herb Brooks.HAS JIMMY DEVELLANO GONE BONKERS, HIRING HARRY NEALE, AN EXPERIENCED GM TO COACH THE RED WINGS. WHEN NEALE COULD EASILY TAKE JIMMY D&rsquo;s JOB AWAY FROM HIM?ANSWER: If Mike Hitch decided to fire Jimmy D, it wouldn&rsquo;t matter whether Attila the Hun was coach, he&rsquo;d fire him and hire a new GM.It so happens that Neale is the closest thing to a Don Cherry who was available. Harry is funny as hell; he&rsquo;s always available to the media; he&rsquo;s a peach of a guy and he&rsquo;s a damn good coach. And if you don&rsquo;t believe it, ask him!WAS THE NHL RULE CHANGE THAT WILL DRASTICALLY CUT THE NUMBER OF 4-ON-4 SKATING SITUATIONS EXPRESSLY DIRECTED AGAINST THE EDMONTON OILERS WHO DO SO WELL ON 4-ON-4&rsquo;s?ANSWER: If the rule had been passed after a spring when the Oilers had not won the Cup, then I would buy the league&rsquo;s alibi. But the evidence that it was expressly aimed at Edmonton&rsquo;s forehead is compelling: (1) The Oilers are deadly during 4-on-4&rsquo;s; (2) Wayne Gretzky is even deadlier during 4-on-4&rsquo;s; (3) 4-on-4&rsquo;s help Edmonton win the Cup; (4) Cliff Fletcher isn&rsquo;t crazy about Glen Sather; (5) Neither is Bob Johnson; (6) Nor a east of thousands.IS DON CHERRY FINISHED AS AN NHL COACH?ANSWER: Is snow white? Is Blue a dog?C&rsquo;mon. You can&rsquo;t tell me that Don Cherry couldn&rsquo;t have done a better job than, say Bill LaForge or Nick Polano.You can&rsquo;t tell me that with a bunch of NHL clubs looking for an experienced coach who also could win games and hype the gate, that Don Cherry couldn&rsquo;t have fit in somewhere&mdash;like Minnesota, Vancouver, yeah, even Boston.When I heard the rumors that Polano might get the axe, I phoned Jimmy D. last spring and said. &ldquo;If you fire Nick, be smart, hire Cherry.&rdquo;If a gambler like Jimmy D. won&rsquo;t hire Don Cherry, nobody will. Geez, it makes me sick.WHY ARE THE BEST PLAYERS ON THE OILERS&mdash;WAYNE GRETZKY, MARK MESSIER, GRANT FUHR. PAUL COFFEY AND KEVIN LOWE&mdash;ALL SINGLE?ANSWER: How the heck should I know? I&rsquo;m married.WOULDN&rsquo;T YOU THINK WAYNE GRETZKY&rsquo;S KID BROTHER. KEITH, WOULD HAVE BEEN PICKED HIGHER THAN 56TH OVERALL IN THE DRAFT?ANSWER: I sure would. What, for example, did the Pittsburgh Penguins have to lose if they had made Keith an earlier pick? Then, when they started hustling for season tix not only would have had a Mario Lemieux to tout but also a Gretzky. And that would have guaranteed that they&rsquo;d peddle 10.000 season tix, the way owner Edward DeBartolo was demanding.IS IT TRUE, AS DON CHERRY CHARGES AND GLEN SATHER HINTS, (SEE BLUELINES) THAT PELLE LINDBERGH QUIT ON THE FLYERS TOWARD THE END OF THE PLAYOFFS BECAUSE HE WAS UPTOHIS GIZZARD WITH GRETZKY?ANSWER: Rubberitis is a disease that has not been fully researched and since neither Cherry nor Sather have ever played goal, neither qualifies as an expert on the effects of puck-swallowing. Lindbergh played a grand total of 83 games last season. No other goalie could make that statement. Not even Warren Skorodenski. I don&rsquo;t buy the Cherry-Sather propaganda but I have to admit that they have raised an intriguing issue.DO YOU GET MAD WHEN PEOPLE WRITE NASTY LETTERS ABOUT YOU TO THE HOCKEY NEWS?ANSWER: Only when they&rsquo;re signed Shirley Fischler.WHO IS WARREN YOUNG? &lsquo;ANSWER: I don&rsquo;t know but I sure wish I had his agent. &#9632;

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Nilsson Deal A Steal For Nanne’s Stars

<h2>HOCKEY NOTEBOOK</h2>The United States Hockey Hall of Fame is opening its doors to three new members&mdash;among them a man who once scored 23 points in one game.Dartmouth great Dick Rondeau, longtime minor leaguer Bob Blake and Hal Trumble, president of the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States, are tentatively scheduled for enshrinement Oct. 5 at the Hall in Eveleth, Minn.Rondeau scored 12 goals and 11 assists in one game against Middlebury during the 1943-44 season. That 23-point outburst is believed to be an all-time record. He led the nation in college scoring in 1941-42 with 45 goals and 32 assists.Blake, a swift skater, played a total of 16 professional seasons&mdash;seven of them on championship teams, including the 1942-43 Buffalo Bisons which he captained.Trumble has guided AHAUS through a tremendous growth period that has seen membership swell from 7,015 teams in 1971 to 11,543 in 1984.The Soviet Union will be without its top player for part of the 1986 World Hockey Championships.Defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov has been handed a three-game suspension by the International Ice Hockey Federation for his part in a bench-clearing brawl between the Soviet Union and United States last spring at the 1985 tournament.Irek Gimaev of the Soviet Union and Tim Thomas of the U. S. have also picked up three-game suspensions for exchanging punches during the fracas, which began when Fetisov sucker-punched American defenseman Jim Johnson.Soviet coach Victor Tikhonov and David Peterson, his U.S. counterpart, have been suspended from the next game involving both teams for failing to control their players.The coaches and players, however, escaped with light sentences compared to that of Swedish referee Kjell Lind, who will not be allowed to work the 1986 championship in Moscow. Lind, according to reports, lost control of the game.A three-year agreement worth a shade under $25 million has given ESPN exclusive cable television broadcast rights to NHL games beginning this season.ESPN plans to televise up to 33 regular-season games, the next three allstar games and the Stanley Cup playoffs.The Edmonton Oilers are reportedly interested in the services of Darryl Sittler both as a player and coach.Sitller, whose contract was bought out by the Detroit Red Wings this summer, could fill a position of playing-assistant coach.An opening on the coaching staff was created when Ted Green left his assistant&rsquo;s position with the club.Sittier, who as a Toronto Maple Leaf scored 10 points in a 1976 game against the Boston Bruins, has career totals of 484 goals and 637 assists.Mike McShane has moved on and Joe Marsh has moved up.McShane recently left his head coaching position at St: Lawrence University to take on a similar position with Providence College.In five years at St. Lawrence, the native of Wakefield, Mass., compiled a record of 93-65-6 for a .585 winning percentage. McShane replaces Steve Stirling who left the Friars after leading them within one goal of a national championship.Marsh, McShane&rsquo;s assistant at SLU since 1983, has been promoted to the head coaching job. He is a native of Lynn, Mass.Out-of-hockey Herb Brooks, the people&rsquo;s choice to coach the Minnesota North Stars, could eventually be the people&rsquo;s choice at the ballot box.Brooks has been asked by Minnesota&rsquo;s Independent-Republican Party to consider running for governor. The former coach of the New York Rangers said he won&rsquo;t rule out the offer.A native son, Brooks was expected to take over as coach of the Minnesota North Stars this summer but couldn&rsquo;t come to terms with GM Lou Nanne who hired Lorne Henning instead.Readers of the Soviet newspaper, Izvestia, have voted Czechoslovakian netminder Jiri Kralik as the &lsquo;European Player of the Year.&rsquo; Kralik was instrumental in Czechoslovakia&rsquo;s championship performance at the world championship this year. &#9632;

Collegiate Ace To Join U.S. Hall Of Fame

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02846/5029311-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Bullard and his Penguins&rsquo; teammates will be playing in Pittsburgh for at least one more year.</figcaption></div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011188/5029318-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="116" height="104"></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;The Penguins will play in Pittsburgh for at least one more season.Edward J. DeBartolo, owner of the Penguins and the Pittsburgh Spirit of the Major Indoor Soccer League, says he has reached agreement with local government on a financial release package that will allow him to keep the money-losing teams in town another season and refurbish the Civic Arena, where both clubs play.DeBartolo, a Youngstown, Ohiobased shopping center developer, also says he might be interested in bidding on the Pittsburgh Pirates after major league baseball resolves its labor problems.The &ldquo;memorandum of agreement&rdquo; the DeBartolo Corporation reached with Pittsburgh mayor Richard Caligiuri and Allegheny County Commissioner Tom Forerster must first be approved by city council and the County Commission before DeBartolo signs.But Corporation officials say they expect the votes will be affirmative. The Corporation also leases and runs the Civic Arena from the City and county.&ldquo;We have no reason to think we will not get approval by both those groups,&rdquo; said Paul Martha, vice-president and general counsel of the DeBartolo Corp.The Penguins and Spirit together lost about $5.5 million during the 1984-85 seasons, and DeBartolo threatened to move, sell, or dismantle the teams unless ticket sales increased and governmental relief was provided.But DeBartolo said he would only commit himself to keeping the Penguins and Spirit one more season under the current financial aid package, which provides more than $1 million in direct relief and a minimum $11.4 construction fund to refurbish the arena.&ldquo;By May 15th, 1986, we hope to negotiate with city and county officials a plan that will keep the teams in Pittsburgh for an extended commitment,&rdquo; DeBartolo said. &ldquo;This is subject to abolishment of the (10 per cent) amusement tax and acceptable attendance levels reached by the teams in the 1985-86 season.&ldquo;If we could just break even, we&rsquo;d stay in Pittsburgh sports forever.&rdquo;Caligiuri has refused to abolish the amusement tax until he can come up with an alternate means of raising the same amount of revenue.During the three months DeBartolo was negotiating with Caliguiri and Forerster, the Penguins and Spirit mounted a massive ad campaign to increase season ticket sales. Though the team did not meet DeBartolo&rsquo;s original quotas of 10,000 season tickets each, he was satisfied with the results of the blitz.DeBartolo originally asked that 400,000 tickets be sold for the Penguins by July 15. About 350,000 tickets have reportedly been sold for next season, compared to 400,707 for all of last year.&ldquo;Although we fell short of our announced sales goals, ticket and other forms of support commitments from fans and the corporations of the area give us a tremendous headstart on what projects to be record attendance seasons for the Pens and Spirit,&rdquo; DeBartolo said.Among the construction projects at the arena will be the replacement of ice level seats and the installation of new dasher boards and glass.Penguin general manager Eddie Johnston says the announcement should help the team in its attempts to sign first-round draft choice Craig Simpson.</div><div style="clear: both;"> &#9632;</div>

f0007-02

Pens Remain In Pittsburgh-For Time Being

<div class="byline">BY RON COBB</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-04417/5029349-1-eng-US/f0007-042.jpg" title="f0007-04" width="547" height="695"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Mullen is still awaiting a resolution to his contract standoff with the Blues.</figcaption></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03590/5029356-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="119" height="112"></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;The St. Louis Blues haven&rsquo;t been the most prolific of offensive teams in their two seasons under Jacques Demers, so the coach is naturally wary of heading into the new season without right winger Joe Mullen.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s my biggest concern right now.&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;I just hope everything works out.&rdquo;Whether it will remained a mystery as July turned to August, As a free agent. Mullen and his agent, Larry Rauch, had been free since July I to work out a deal with another NHL team, but the high price of compensation has had a cooling effect on potential takers.From his home in Massachusetts. Mullen said nothing had changed. Frustration was still his summer companion.Meanwhile, Ron Caron, the Blues&rsquo; director of hockey operations, was on a fishing holiday in Quebec and wasn&rsquo;t expected back in St. Louis until the first week of August.&ldquo;Not much talking&rsquo;s been done.&rdquo; Mullen said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just waiting for him to get back.&rdquo;The likely resolution is either a trade or an agreement with the Blues for a new contract, although Mullen said he wasn&rsquo;t ruling out the possibility of leaving the NHL and playing in Europe.&ldquo;Everything&rsquo;s open for now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re not satisfied, there&rsquo;s no sense going somewhere where you won&rsquo;t be happy.&rdquo;Mullen wants a four-year deal for about $1 million. The Blues have offered about $200,000 less than that.&ldquo;As a coach, I&rsquo;d definitely like to have Joe Mullen, but that&rsquo;s beyond my power,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;We have to have players of his calibre in the lineup. But if we make a trade. I&rsquo;m sure Ron will get talent in return.&rdquo;Nevertheless, the thought of losing a 40-goal scorer is unsettling.&ldquo;We play a disciplined game. We were the No. I defensive team in our conference,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve needed goal-scorers, and Joey&rsquo;s very important for us. I may look down the bench some night next season when we need a goal and he won&rsquo;t be there.&rdquo;Neither will the offense provided by center Doug Wickenheiser. at least until late in the season. Although he has shown satisfactory progress in rehabilitating a severe knee injury, Wickenheiser isn&rsquo;t expected to play until February, if at all next season. He suffered the injury here March 13 when he was hit by a ear.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>At home in Regina, Wickenheiser turned down a request for a telephone interview, but his father. Charles, said Doug&rsquo;s knee was coming along nicely. In addition to taking his scheduled treatments, Doug was spending many an afternoon walking a golf course.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going into the season without thinking of Wickenheiser playing at all.&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;If he can come back and play the last 20 games, that would be great. But I&rsquo;m making plans without Wick.&rdquo;That leaves Bernie Federko, Doug Gilmour, Mark Johnson and Dave Barr as the Blues&rsquo; centers, although the Blues reportedly have considered trading Johnson.In terms of depth, another lean year appears to be in the offing. Center Doug Evans and defensemen Lee Norwood and Mike Posavad of International League-champion Peoria will get a close look in training camp, but the possibility exists that the Blues will play a second successive season without a rookie on their roster.&ldquo;It scares you a little bit, but we&rsquo;ll have to rely again on our veterans,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;But you can&rsquo;t knock success. We won the division last season by getting a good effort out of everybody, and I don&rsquo;t know why we can&rsquo;t repeat that work ethic.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0007-04

No Developments In Mullen Affair

The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd 85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>Striking Out</h2>AS THIS ISSUE went to press, the possibility of a strike by Major League baseball players seemed quite certain. Only heroic intervention on the part of baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth appeared to be the answer to avoiding another labor-in-sports dispute.Well, this is hockey&rsquo;s off-season, but one would hope that all the game&rsquo;s movers and shakers&mdash;be they governors, general managers, coaches or players&mdash;would take time out from their summer respite to watch what is happening on the baseball scene.It&rsquo;s a scenario which&mdash;if early sabre rattling from NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director Alan Eagleson (he&rsquo;s mentioning strike in the fall of 1986) and NHL president John Ziegler (he&rsquo;s talking about tightening up free agency) are any indications&mdash;could be repeated in our game.And, of course, Major League baseball&rsquo;s lesson is quite clear&mdash;there must not be a strike of any kind in any professional sport.If the baseball players walk, it will defile the entire 1985 season. Never mind the asterisks that will go down in the record books, it&rsquo;s the disillusionment factor that counts.Not finishing a season or interrupting it with labor strife is tantamount to heresy. It is no different than not finishing a game because the two competing teams can&rsquo;t agree on the ground rules.Obviously, something has gone awry. A strike was meant to be a desperate tool by which the employees can obtain fair and decent living and working conditions. It was supposed to be used after exhausting all other avenues of collective bargaining. Now really, can anyone call the baseball players&rsquo; lot desperate?Which is not to say the players don&rsquo;t have a beef. Or the owners, for that matter. But the bottom line is that professional sports should never compromise what integrity it has left by walking out on the public.Every major league sport, including the NHL, owes it to itself to set up an arbitration system that is to be implemented at the crisis point, when negotiations have been irrevocably damaged. Some sort of committee, representing both sides and engaging an odd number of independent members who are respcted by both management and players, could make the ultimate decision and impose binding arbitration that would keep the players on the playing surface.Strikes must be avoided at all costs. &#9632;

<h2>FAN FORUM</h2>Let your voice be heard! Send your comments to Fan Forum, THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., Canada M3B 2R2.SINCE I PLANNED my vacation around the SloPitch Challenge in Niagara Falls. I was somewhere between Kindersley and Minnedosa when I learned Keith Gretzky had been drafted. That was no surprise&mdash;the surprise was that this kid was still available so late in the third round. I think somewhere not too far down the road we&rsquo;ll all learn just how smart the Sabres were.One only hopes that at some point, during the preseason at least, the two Gretzkys face off against each other.But please, let&rsquo;s not get carried away. It won&rsquo;t be easy for Keith&mdash;or Wayne, for that matter&mdash;if we insist on eternally comparing them. We have to give the younger Gretzky a chance to make his own way, to carve his own career.One need look no further than Bobby and Dennis Hull, Mark and Marty Howe, the Statsnys, etc., to see where the danger lies in such comparisons.Keith Gretzky is going to have a tough enough time, as it is, outskating his big brother&rsquo;s shadow.Liz Craig,Red Deer, Alta.<h2>MAD ABOUT RULE CHANGE</h2>Damn!As if it weren&rsquo;t bad enough that the NHL plays 840 games that mean next to nothing and that the playoffs drag into the summer, the NHL Board of Governors change a rule to avoid 4-on-4&rsquo;s and, of course, 3-on-3&rsquo;s. I&rsquo;m referring to the rule regarding coincidental minors which will now be handled like coincidental majors&mdash;that is 5-on-5.I can&rsquo;t believe the NHL would eliminate one of the most exciting aspects of game &ldquo;to avoid confusion.&rdquo; Did the NHL bother to find out how many fans want the change? I mean, they&rsquo;re the ones who support the game. With the price of tickets these days, how can the NHL justify eliminating such an exciting part of the game?It seems the rule change was instigated by the Flames and directed at the Oilers who have mastered the 4-on-4. Calgary&rsquo;s goons can&rsquo;t keep up to the slick Oilers so their reasons are obvious. But as Flyer coach Mike Keenan said, &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t change a rule just to bring a hockey team back to the pack.&rdquo; This might be the year to take up snow skiing.Larry Karashowsky, Red Deer, Alta.<h2>LEGISLATION RIDICULOUS</h2>As a fan of th Edmonton Oilers, I would like to respond to Frank Orr&rsquo;s THN article &ldquo;Oilers Sore Over No Four on Four&rdquo; (July 12, 1985).The &ldquo;Four on Four&rdquo; has long been a main strength for the Edmonton Oilers, or for that matter any team that can skate reasonably well. The league appears to be punishing the Oilers for outclassing their opposition. The only ones who stand to benefit from this ridiculous piece of legislation are the slower &ldquo;clutch and grab&rdquo; teams. Instead of striving to improve the weaker teams, it seems easier to try and weaken the best team.While other professional sports are actively seeking ways of generating excitement, the NHL, in its infinite wisdom, chooses to do away with one of the more exciting aspects of its game.Here&rsquo;s one Oilers&rsquo; fan who sincerely hopes for a third straight Stanley Cup next spring. The Oilers are an excellent team with the talent and desire to rival the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; and New York Islanders&rsquo; dynasties. Unfortunately, it may never come to pass; the League will likely legislate against it.Tony Frank,Edmonton, Alberta<h2>RIGGIN UGLY CANADIAN</h2>As a subscriber to THE HOCKEY NEWS, I was shocked and dismayed at the infantile comments made by Pat Riggin in a recent issue.So, he does not like Americans and feels Americans are taking Canadian jobs. Ironic isn&rsquo;t it, that he&rsquo;s a Canadian taking American dollars.The majority of the teams in the NHL are located in American cities, a fact that Riggin is probably not aware of. Perhaps Americans should feel Riggin is taking an American job. Taking it further, maybe we should boycott any game Riggin plays in.But, of course, we don&rsquo;t feel that way. Let the player play.I lived in Val D&rsquo;Or in Quebec in the early 1970&rsquo;s while in the American Air Force. We loved it in Vai D&rsquo;Or and met some of the nicest and friendliest people we have ever seen anywhere.But as we Americans have our ugly Americans. Canada has its ugly Canadian&mdash;Mr. Riggin.James D. MacLean,Grand Forks, ND &#9632;

Sabres Smart To Get Gretz

<div class="byline">by Bob McKenzie&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011273/5029435-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="384" height="443"></div>It was just more than a year ago on a warm July day in the lobby of the Westin Hotel in Toronto. A press conference to introduce Team Canada &rsquo;84, which would go on to win the Canada Cup, had just broken up and the players and media were mingling, exchanging pleasantries about the weather and their golf games.An elevator door opened and out walked Ghyslain Luneau, the diminutive hockey writer for the Journal de Montreal, North America&rsquo;s largest French-language daily newspaper. He was carrying a golf bag almost as big as himself.That was no surprise. Most hockey writers, like most hockey players, like nothing better than getting out to play some golf in the offseason. Ghyslain was no exception.What was surprising, though, was the expression on his face. He looked all around him. seeing the stars of the NHL&mdash;Al Secord, Rick Middleton, to name just a couple&mdash;and a few of his media colleagues.&ldquo;Oh no,&rdquo; he said increduously, &ldquo;what have I missed?&rdquo;When he was told about the press conference, he looked as though he&rsquo;d lost his best friend.&ldquo;Imagine that,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;all the best players in the NHL right under the same roof as me and I didn&rsquo;t even know it. I feel terrible&hellip;&rdquo;As it turned out, Luneau just happened to be in Toronto on vacation and he was on his way to play golf at Glen Abbey in Oakville, home of the Canadian Open. It was the kind of trip he took often in the summer, he said, adding that he liked to play the really fine courses.On that summer day, though, his mind wasn&rsquo;t on his golf game. It was thinking of how he possibly could have had the misfortune to be in the same hotel as Team Canada and not even know it.Now, it&rsquo;s a year later and Luneau&rsquo;s friends in hockey&mdash;players, coaches, GMs and, of course, his colleagues in the media&mdash;know what it is like to really lose a good friend.On a July day, Luneau and his cousin, Yvon Piche, were on their way to a golf tournament in the Abitibi region of Quebec. Luneau&rsquo;s car collided head-on with a truck and he was killed. His cousin escaped with minor injuries.That was the obituary awaiting other hockey writers in North America as they returned from their vacations, their golf games. And it still doesn&rsquo;t seem possible that the little 28-year-old, who possessed a boundless sense of energy and enthusiasm, is gone.Most hockey fans in North America have probably never heard of Luneau. That isn&rsquo;t surprising, since he was entrenched in the insular world of French-language Canada.But if hockey in French-Canada is founded upon the star or hero syndrome&mdash;and the worshipping of Gallic greats such as Richard. Beliveau, Lafleur and Lemieux proves it is&mdash;then so, too, is the French-language newspaper industry.And, quite simply, little Ghyslain Luneau was the Guy Lafleur of his trade. He may have loved playing golf, but hockey was his passion, his life.He had covered the Montreal Canadiens for the past five seasons. His trademarks were enthusiasm and diligence, two traits absolutely necessary for the man responsible for filling page after page of hockey news in the Journal de Montreal, a newspaper that publishes more words dealing with our game than any other daily newspaper in the world.His sports editor at the Journal de Montreal. Bertrand Raymond, described Ghyslain as the newspaper&rsquo;s &ldquo;future.&rdquo;Montreal Canadien president Ron Corey remembers Ghyslain calling the Forum &ldquo;three, four times a day&rdquo;&mdash;and those were on his days off.To his assocaites in the media&mdash;hockey writers all across Canada and the United States&mdash;Ghyslain Luneau will simply be remembered as a very good friend who epitomized the phrase, joie de vivre.I know I speak for everyone in our business when I say he will be missed and that our sense of loss is overwhelming. &#9632;

f0008-01

Paying Last Respects To Another Gallic Great

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011310/5029473-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="562" height="886"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Brophy likes what he saw of the Leafs&rsquo; No. 1 draft pick at the national camp.</figcaption></div><h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021011/5029480-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="146" height="148"></div>TORONTO&mdash;As one career nears its conclusion, another nears its introduction.That is the juxtaposition of Borje Salming and Wendel Clark&mdash;yesterday&rsquo;s superstar and hopefully, tomorrow&rsquo;s.News of Salming signing a three-year contract, likely the final pact of his superb career, reached here just as negotiations began in earnest on Clark&rsquo;s first-ever National Hockey League contract.The Toronto Maple Leafs, typically tight-lipped, left it to Bill Houston of the Globe and Mail to reveal Salming had signed a deal with the NHL team.Houston made the surprising discovery by phoning Salming&rsquo;s Swedish agent in Stockholm. Bjorn Wagnsson confirmed the signing but wouldn&rsquo;t elaborate on contract details.Now 34, the six-time all-star defenseman will be active until the age of 37 assuming he lasts the length of the contract.Meanwhile, agent Don Meehan and Toronto GM Gerry McNamara began work on sorting out a contract for Clark, the NHL&rsquo;s top draft choice in June.&ldquo;Any time you deal with a player (drafted) first overall, it&rsquo;s a significant contract.&rdquo; said the Toronto-based agent.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t take anything lightly.&rdquo;Meehan, while reluctant to discuss dollars and cents, indicated the length of the contract won&rsquo;t likely exceed four years.The player himself is leaving all contract talk to his agent.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not the one who&rsquo;s going to be dealing,&rdquo; Clark said at the Canadian national junior team&rsquo;s evaluation camp in Belleville, Ont.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t worry about the money. I don&rsquo;t even think about it. You gotta play there to get it. So, you worry about how you&rsquo;re going to play. And if you play well enough, you&rsquo;ll get it.&rdquo;The Leafs were well represented at the camp where McNamara, coach Dan Maloney and assistant coach John Brophy spent most of the week inspecting Clark and two other prospects&mdash;defenseman Ken Spangler and right winger Derek Laxdal.Clark, a lifelong defenseman whom the Leafs will probably use at left wing, was inconsistent despite leading all defensemen in scoring with two goals and two assists. But in fairness to him, there were a pair of mitigating factors.First and foremost, he was playing on a twisted ankle. And second, he suffered through a bout of nervousness upon arrival of the Leaf delegation.While occasionally flashing signs of talent&mdash;for instance, his big-league shot&mdash;Clark didn&rsquo;t dominate proceedings and was betrayed periodically by defensive shortcomings.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03668/5029466-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="560" height="876"><figcaption class="caption-body">Terry Simpson says Leaf prospect Wendel Clark is talented but still has much to learn.</figcaption></div>Asked to assess Clark&rsquo;s performance at the week-long camp, national coach Terry Simpson said, &ldquo;off and on, I suppose.&ldquo;He needs a lot of work. He needs to learn a lot about the game at either position&mdash;defense or left wing&mdash;and it&rsquo;s going to take some time and patience. But he does have enormous talent.&rdquo;While there is widespread consensus on Clark&rsquo;s ability, there is less agreement on where best he can strut his stuff.Western Hockey League officials, including Simpson who moved him from defense to forward at last year&rsquo;s World Junior Championships, believe he is best-suited to defense.Others think the 5-foot-ll, 195-pounder will make a great left winger. And still others have mentioned him as a potential center.&ldquo;I think they&rsquo;re (the Leafs) leaning towards using him at left wing,&rdquo; speculated Simpson, who played Clark at defense all week. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re prepared to live with him and wait for him to develop a little bit and try to help him along, realizing he is a talented player.&rdquo;Simpson suggested the Kelvington, Sask, native, who won&rsquo;t turn 19 until Oct. 25, might have to play in the NHL this season out of necessity.&ldquo;He needs development. He needs to play against people he can&rsquo;t control as much as he can in junior hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think they&rsquo;JI keep him just for the better competition.&rdquo;Brophy, whose thatch of white hair made him easy to spot at the Quinte Sports Centre in Belleville, said he was pleased with Clark&rsquo;s performance.&ldquo;Obviously, he&rsquo;s got a lot of talent. He&rsquo;s an excellent skater and he&rsquo;s able to shoot the puck&hellip;Anybody with that much talent has less to learn than somebody else.&rdquo; said Brophy.Simpson also assessed the play of Laxdal, who has one more year of junior eligibility with the Brandon Wheat Kings, and Spangler, who has two with the Calgary Wranglers.On Laxdal: &ldquo;I was impressed with Laxdal. He&rsquo;s a big strong guy who shoots the puck well, skates pretty well up and down (his wing). He caught my eye a few times.&rdquo;On Spangler: &ldquo;Spangler has limitations offensively but he did play well behind his own blueline and he played within his own limitations pretty well. I thought he had a pretty decent camp.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;The Leafs have signed right winger Brad Smith, a Detroit farmhand who enjoyed his best-ever professional season during the 1984-85 campaign. He scored 72 points (33 goals) with the Adirondack Red Wings. Smith, 27, has been told he&rsquo;ll be give a shot at making the Leafs&hellip;Two players with an outside chance of making the team are recent free-agent signings Blake Wesley, a defenseman from the Quebec Nordiques and center Gary McAdam, a former New Jersey Devil who played for the Maine Mariners last year&hellip;Wendel Clark and Ken Spangler were blueline partners at the Canadian evaluation camp. &#9632;

f0010-01

Clark Prepares For Debut As A Maple Leaf

IT&rsquo;S HOT HERE in Philadelphia and it&rsquo;s getting on my nerves. I haven&rsquo;t seen a hockey game now in almost eight weeks and that puts me on edge, too.On top of that, my vacation is over and I know my boss is thinking up any number of tortures for me until the Flyers go to camp. It won&rsquo;t rain, the grass is turning brown, my kids are screaming while I&rsquo;m trying to do this and it&rsquo;s only fair to warn you, I&rsquo;m in a real bad mood. I haven&rsquo;t felt this ugly since the Seals ruined all my San Francisco trips by moving to Cleveland.Fortunately, I saved my venom for a day like this. Some things about hockey have been getting on my nerves, and you&rsquo;re going to hear about them now, pal. Whether you like it or not.Huh uh. You turn that page and I&rsquo;m sending my friend Dave Brown after you. So listen up:Wayne Gretzky, you&rsquo;re first. All that complaining you did in June over the rule change about concurrent minor penalties, really starched my shorts.There will still be plenty of four-on-fours. And you&rsquo;ll still earn plenty of goals and assists. Maybe I&rsquo;m the only one who feels this way, but I think the new rule is a good one.Any time a loophole allows a team to benefit by taking a penalty, then I want that rule outta there. And don&rsquo;t tell me that there weren&rsquo;t times the Oilers didn&rsquo;t exploit it.Wayne, you&rsquo;re acting like I do every time my editor tells me space is tight and to keep it short and I know I&rsquo;ve got some great stuff. Hey, if you don&rsquo;t like it, go find another league to break every record in.Now, I&rsquo;m hearing that every owner and GM in the league is crying about the big contracts the Detroit Red Wings are handing out. And all I want to know is, where do I get in line?Big deal. It&rsquo;s about time somebody was overpaid in this game. That way I can bitch about it just like the baseball writers do.Now the whole league is lathered up because some of these guys like Adam Oates slip through the draft and get bigger salaries than established players and first-round draft choices. So I say it&rsquo;s those clowns&rsquo; own damn faults for not drafting a kid like Oates or Ray Staszak when they had the chance.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-04486/5029511-1-eng-US/f0010-042.jpg" title="f0010-04" width="326" height="512"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jay Greenberg</figcaption></div>So what if there&rsquo;s five to eight players who are lucky enough to be able to exploit a restrictive system? That&rsquo;s going to bring hockey down in ruins? Hrummph.Just be happy that it&rsquo;s only a few each year. And that some 18-year-old kid&rsquo;s agent doesn&rsquo;t challenge the whole draft someday and make everybody and his brother a free agent.Enough on that. But I&rsquo;m not finished. I&rsquo;m sick and tired of hearing the St. Louis Blues whine about the draft they didn&rsquo;t get in 1983. They had already traded away their first, third and fourth picks that year. And who&rsquo;s supposed to believe that it&rsquo;s the league that put them behind the 8-ball?Braack. The Blues would have been lucky had they got one sweathog with what was left of their selections in that draft. And two years later they still claim to be making deals to recoup? That&rsquo;s what forced GM Ron Caron to trade away a No. 1 pick to Montreal for Mark Hunter and Michael Dark, a kid the Blues don&rsquo;t even plan to turn pro for another year? Humbug.You listening? I&rsquo;m not done. Alan Eagleson, this one&rsquo;s for you. Are you kidding when you threaten a strike of exhibition games in 1986 if no collective bargaining agreement is reached next summer?That&rsquo;s just great. A hockey strike. In September. In the States. Hell, with the NFL and colleges starting their football seasons and baseball approaching its climax, nobody down here knows they play hockey that time of year, anyway.There, I feel a lot better. Aw, don&rsquo;t take it personally. It&rsquo;s hot here and a guy&rsquo;s gotta let off some steam. &#9632;

f0010-04

Caron, Eagle And No. 99, Stop Your Crying Already!

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02915/5029549-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="553" height="756"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Watson won the Hobey Baker Award and then joined the Black Hawks&rsquo; organization.</figcaption></div><h2>CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011198/5029556-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="124" height="110"></div>CHICAGO&mdash;The best player in college hockey has become a Chicago Black Hawk.Hobey Baker Award-winner Bill Watson, who scored 49 goals and assisted on 60 for Minnesota-Duluth last season, signed a multi-year contract as expected and will join the team at training camp.Watson, a lefthanded shooter who plays right wing, decided to forego his senior year of eligibility to sign with the Hawks.They drafted him in the fourth round in 1982 after he scored 43 goals and assisted on another 41 in 47 games of Tier II competition with Prince Albert.&ldquo;In our opinion Watson is going to be a good one,&rdquo; said coach-GM Bob Pulford, who was tempted to sign Watson and have him join the team immediately after the NCAA Tournament. But he decided against making a move at that time, fearing it might have an adverse effect on the team chemistry going into the playoffs.&ldquo;We watched his progress for three years, and his skating and intensity really improved,&rdquo; said Pulford. He became a better competitor.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m ready to play in the National Hockey League now,&rdquo; said Watson, who stands 6-feet and weighs 180 pounds. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m a different player than I was three years ago. I wasn&rsquo;t ready to play in the NHL when the Hawks drafted me.&rdquo;Watson was an All-American for the past two seasons.The incumbent right wingers on the Chicago roster are Steve Larmer, Ed Olcyk, Rick Paterson and Ken Yaremchuk. But Olcyk also can play left wing or center and Yaremchuk much prefers center ice.Ten days before announcing that Watson had signed, the Hawks held another press conference to make official what everybody already knew: Bob Pulford will remain in the dual-role of general manager and coach next season.It also was confirmed that Roger Neilson will be the &ldquo;co-coach&rdquo; with expanded responsibilities and Cliff Koroll will remain an assistant coach.&ldquo;If we&rsquo;re successful we&rsquo;ll probably continue with the same set-up,&rdquo; said Pulford, who&rsquo;d prefer not to coach. &ldquo;If not I&rsquo;ll probably fire the coach.&rdquo;Twice in the last four seasons Pulford took over as interim coach in mid-season and led his team to the Stanley Cup semifinals.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>&ldquo;We have quite a commodity in Bob,&rdquo; said Hawk president Bill Wirtz. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re blessed to have a man whom I consider the best coach in the league who also has his front office capabilities. He&rsquo;s the man responsible for the rebirth of hockey in Chicago.&ldquo;We feel we&rsquo;re dealing from strength in our situation. We wouldn&rsquo;t have made a move like this if we didn&rsquo;t think we were strong down the middle or our organization. With people like Jack Davison (assistant GM) and Roger Neilson, we have excellent support for Bob.&rdquo;&ldquo;It was a very difficult decision,&rdquo; according to Pulford. &ldquo;But the one big thing that helped me was being surrounded by top people.&rdquo;HAWK TALK&mdash;The prices of some ticketswill go up for the 1985-86 season. The top box seat price has been raised from $20 to $22 and the second balcony seats will go up from $6 to $7. Mezzanine and first-balcony prices will be $15 and $10, respectively.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-03675/5029542-1-eng-US/f0011-032.jpg" title="f0011-03" width="1174" height="1262"><figcaption class="caption-body">Roger Neilson, atop the boards, and Bob Pulford will again team up behind the bench for Chicago.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0011-02

Collegiate Award-Winner Set To Skate With Hawks

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011284/5029594-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg"></div>Comparing apples and oranges was never this tough. Finding common ground amongst the athletes who play hockey, baseball, football and basketball is about as easy as stopping Wayne Gretzky or trying to hit Dave Stieb or corraling Eric Dickerson or smothering Magic Johnson&hellip;Get the idea?Each of the sports makes such unique demands on its participants. The basics&mdash;running and throwing&mdash;are the essential stuff of baseball, football and basketball. But so much more is involved, blurring the similarities into a montage of differences.Levels of performance from each of the sports can be considered on equal planes but they represent end products&hellip;and it&rsquo;s the processes which intrigue.Must Gretzky be a more remarkable athlete than Dan Marino or Dale Murphy or Larry Bird to achieve in hockey what they accomplish in football, baseball and basketball?Or is he just a sportsman, like Marino, Bird and Murphy, whose strengths and weaknesses are best-suited to his game? No better or worse than the others. Just different.We asked several athletes who have competed at a high level in more than one sport to compare the demands of each.New York Yankees&rsquo; superstar Dave Winfield is one of most versatile men in professional sports today. Not only was he was drafted by the San Diego Padres in baseball, but he was selected by the National Football League&rsquo;s Minnesota Vikings and two professional basketball teams&mdash;Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association and Utah Stars of the American Basketball Association.Washington Capitals&rsquo; Rod Langway went to the University of New Hampshire on a football scholarship but, instead, developed into an all-star National Hockey League defenseman.Jay Triano of Canada&rsquo;s national basketball team played one year of football at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and was drafted by the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. By watching closely the Ontario Hockey League career of Jeff, his brother, and playing the game himself, Triano has insight into a third of the four sports.Winnipeg Blue Bombers&rsquo; receiver Joe Poplawski had an opportunity to play major junior hockey with the Edmonton Oil Kings but wasn&rsquo;t interested and went on to become one of the Canadian Football League&rsquo;s finest receivers.And the California Angels&rsquo; Kirk McCaskill first loved hockey and played in the American Hockey League before opting for major league baseball.Collectively, they provide an Athlete&rsquo;s Perspective.Determining which of the sports boasts the best athletes is impossible. There is no definitive answer. There are only opinions and conjectures dependent upon a person&rsquo;s expectations or definition of an athlete.Certainly, a baseball player needn&rsquo;t attain the same level of physical fitness as a basketball player but he does need to master a series of skills similar in range to hockey. And hockey may not be as physical as football but neither is football as spontaneous as hockey.Winfield, who is perhaps professional sport&rsquo;s quintessential athlete, suggests basketball has the best athletes but adds football and baseball also bring out the best in their players.&ldquo;The most demanding,&rdquo; Winfield intones, &ldquo;is football. The best athletes&mdash;best co-ordinated athletes&mdash;are in basketball and maybe one of the hardest to perform is baseball.&rdquo;Winfield&rsquo;s experience in hockey is somewhat limited&mdash;he last played as an 11-year-old in Minnesota&mdash;but he still says hockey requires the most advanced decision-making skills.&ldquo;Hockey, that unfolds quicker than any of them. That takes split-second decision-making and reactions,&rdquo; says Winfield, whose own talents in those areas are reflected in a lifetime batting average near the .300 mark.Triano agrees with Winfield on two points&mdash;his conclusion that basketball produces the best athletes and hockey demands a mental quickness even more impressive than that of a basketball guard sizing up the action before him.&ldquo;Hockey is so fast,&rdquo; says Triano. the captain of Canada&rsquo;s national team. &ldquo;Everybody is moving at such a fast pace and there are so many more changes of possession of the puck than there are (of the ball) in basketball where the idea is to control the ball as much as you can.&rdquo;Hockey and basketball are hardly the only two sports which demand rapid decision-making. A batter is forced to make a split-second choice each and every time he faces a pitch and football players must also recognize and react in a matter of moments.&ldquo;In professional football, you have to be able to recognize the defense on the split-second,&rdquo; says Poplawski. &ldquo;And then the defense can change&mdash;they can shift or they can change the secondary while the quarterback is calling out the signals.&rdquo;Mental agility involves more than quick thinking for McCaskill, who played with the Sherbrooke Jets during the 1983-84 American Hockey League season. The forward opted out of the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; organization to join the Angels, for whom he is a rookie pitcher.The key for him is to achieve a more relaxed concentration than the frenzied form it often takes in hockey.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;The most demanding is football. The best athletes&mdash;best coordinated athletes&mdash;are in basketball and maybe one of the hardest to perform is baseball.&rsquo;</blockquote>&mdash;Winfield<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Football takes a little more out of you in (terms) of the bumps and bruises. You get people flying around&hellip; trying to hit you as hard as they can.&rsquo;</blockquote>&mdash;Poplawski&ldquo;Especially from a pitcher&rsquo;s point of view,&rdquo; says McCaskill. &ldquo;I like to be intense mentally but physically relaxed. In hockey you get so keyed up and skate your ass off and you&rsquo;re doing some good for the team. If I&rsquo;m on the mound and I&rsquo;m keyed up, I&rsquo;m going to do something wrong mechanically.&rdquo;Baseball is a highly skill-oriented game. It is, after all, a sport which considers a success ratio of 30 per cent acceptable in hitting. If a NHL goalie met with similar success, he would not be long for his profession. Neither would an NBA forward who hit on just 30 per cent of his shots nor an NFL quarterback who completed, on average, just three of 10 passes.But the summer game is not alone in terms of skill demands.&ldquo;I think skill-wise hockey has got to be one of the most demanding athletics there is. I mean you&rsquo;re skating around on knives,&rdquo; says McCaskill, whose father, Ted, had a lengthy career in hockey&rsquo;s minor leagues.That, of course, is what separates hockey from the others. Not only must a professional learn skills specific to his sport but he must also be capable of performing those feats on skates.That, for Langway, who was all-state in both hockey and football, is the reason hockey players must be rated superior athletes.&ldquo;Everybody can run, everybody can throw a football or make themselves strong by lifting weights,&rdquo; says the former quarterback. &ldquo;But you can&rsquo;t make yourself learn how to skate.&rdquo;McCaskill adds, &ldquo;Every other game just contains running or doing something with your feet which everybody can do&hellip;It&rsquo;s amazing how versatile these guys are on their skates.&rdquo;No more so than some guys on their feet.&ldquo;I look at some of the things those basketball players are doing,&rdquo; continues McCaskill. &ldquo;I look at a Michael Jordan, Dr. J. (Julius Erving) or a Magic Johnson. Those guys are amazing athletes.&rdquo;Winfield, who averaged 10.8 points per game and 6.1 rebounds during his senior year at the University of Minnesota, is filled with admiration for the athletes who play basketball: &ldquo;Especially nowadays because the guys are so large and quick and well-conditioned. You have to be so strong, so co-ordinated and in such good shape.&rdquo;Basketball and hockey are perhaps the two fastest growing among the four sports in terms of skill development. While all athletics improve through natural evolutionary processes, basketball and hockey seem to have done so at a greater rate than most others.Hockey, for instance, has all but hit a motherlode with the emergence of previously untapped sources of hockey players now producing first-rate competitors. Americans and Europeans are now playing in record numbers alongside Canadians in the NHL. They have contributed greatly to a remarkable improvement in skill level.None of the four sports is as bruising as football. Its physical nature is irrefutable but there is more to physical demands than simply strength. There is also endurance, flexibility and resiliancy. Most agree that football is the toughest sport but think hockey and basketball are more taxing because of the endurance factor.&ldquo;I would have to say football takes a little more out of you in (terms) of the bumps and bruises a person gets in football,&rdquo; says Poplawski. &ldquo;You get people flying around, they&rsquo;re basically trying to hit you as hard as they can and they&rsquo;re coming at you at full speed.&rdquo;The Edmonton, Alta., native, who played Tier II junior hockey alongside NHLer Wayne Babych (for coach Doug Messier, the father of Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; Mark Messier), gets some argument from Langway on that point.&ldquo;The tolerance of pain, I think, is higher in a hockey player than a football player,&rdquo; he suggests. &ldquo;You know if you get hurt one game, you&rsquo;ve got to go right back out the next night. In football, if you get hurt in a game you&rsquo;ve got a whole week to hopefully get back into shape.&rdquo;Stamina is significant in football and to a lesser degree, baseball, but it&rsquo;s paramount in hockey and basketball, where floortime and icetime is energy-sapping. There are fewer convenient breaks&mdash;as in football where the natural order of the game is one of six- or seven-second bursts&mdash;once the action begins. Sure, hockey players rotate on a regular basis but most shifts last the equivalent of 10 or 11 football plays.Not that football isn&rsquo;t exhausting.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s an awful lot of energy going to be burned up when you&rsquo;re pushing around a 300-pound individual,&rdquo; advises Poplawski, who nonetheless points to the endurance demonstrated by hockey and basketball players as definite pluses in the overall picture.Baseball, of course, has long been the object of scorn from those who have watched portly pitchers stroll around the diamond or heard stories of big-bellied Babe Ruth.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got some guys who look like they&rsquo;re out of shape,&rdquo; admits McCaskill. &ldquo;I used to hear it often from the hockey players. You know, &lsquo;He can&rsquo;t pitch because he&rsquo;s got a hangnail.&rsquo; They (ballplayers in general) catch a lot of heat but I&rsquo;d like to see a lot of those guys try to hit a baseball coming 90 miles an hour.&rdquo;McCaskill, who was born in Kapuskasing, Ont., but grew up mostly in the United States and maintains dual citizenship, labels hockey the most skillful sport but adds a paradoxical rider&mdash;he does not think hockey players are the best athletes.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011210/5029587-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="1992" height="2668"></div>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny. Of all the hockey players I&rsquo;ve known, not many of them are really good athletes in other sports,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;They might be pretty good golfers. But if you look at a guy like Dave Winfield, he could play three or four sports professionally. There are some great athletes in this game (baseball). You&rsquo;ve got some guys who can play basketball and football. I think baseball players are better athletes.&rdquo;And Poplawski, who also picks hockey as the most skillful sport, raises the name of Blue Bombers&rsquo; running back Willard Reaves when talking about which sport produces the best athlete.&ldquo;I would put him up against any hockey player in terms of physical ability,&rdquo; says Poplawski of Reaves, who was named the outstanding player in Canadian football last year. He was to the CFL what Dan Marino was to the NFL.So, there you have it: Five versatile athletes and their opinions about how professional athletes from hockey, basketball, football and baseball stack up against one another.Winfield favors basketball players. So does Triano. Lang-way opts for hockey. McCaskill and Poplawski praise hockey for its skill content but hedge on all-round athleticism.Let&rsquo;s call it a hung jury with us casting the deciding vote between hockey and basketball. Guess which one we support? We&rsquo;ll give you a hint. This isn&rsquo;t THE BASKETBALL NEWS. &#9632;

f0012-01

Here’s An Athletes’ Perspective On Comparing The Games They Play

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>The Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; front office is furious over charges made in BLUELINES by Don Cherry, and hinted at by Glen Sather, that Pelle Lindbergh bailed out of the finals after the Edmonton Oilers bombed him. &ldquo;Cherry has an axe to grind,&rdquo; Flyer public relations director Rodger Gottlieb tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;He was the one who said we wouldn&rsquo;t get past the Rangers because we had &lsquo;A Swede in goal.&rsquo; Those charges (that Lindbergh bailed out) are preposterous.&rdquo; Gottlieb asserts that medical evidence shows that Lindbergh had been originally injured in the semi-finals. &ldquo;He had a partially tom tendon connecting the quadracep to the right kneebone. He risked totally tearing the tendon.&rdquo; Flyers&rsquo; Peter Zezel also fires at Cherry: &ldquo;Pelle didn&rsquo;t quit on us,&rdquo; Zezel tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;We owe it all to him that we got as far as we did. We were satisfied with his performance in the finals.&rdquo; To that. Cherry fires another salvo: &ldquo;Everybody in hockey I&rsquo;ve talked to during the summer says it&rsquo;s true; that Lindbergh did quit. Sather and are no dummies; we know what we&rsquo;re talking about. even predicted it the afternoon that it happened. I told my wife. Rose, Lindbergh won&rsquo;t be in the nets tonight. I knew it!&rdquo; Gottlieb retorts: &ldquo;Cherry never spoke to our doctor. He&rsquo;stotally irresponsible.&rdquo;Rangers&rsquo; captain Barry Beck made waves on New York radio, criticizing GM Craig Patrick&rsquo;s first-round draft selection. Beck believes the Blueshirts should have opted for a player who would have been immediately available instead of Ulf Dahlen, who won&rsquo;t see Madison Square Garden &lsquo;til 1988 at the earliest&hellip;Devils&rsquo; principal owner John McMullen reportedly has the club on the block. One Jersey source tells BLUELINES the losses McMullen has suffered in the NHL and with his Houston Astros have inspired the decision. However, he reportedly wants to retain an interest in the Devs&hellip;Rangers&rsquo; leading scorer Reijo Ruotsalainen is said to be on the block. Rexy holds the distinction of being the most gifted and least co-operative Ranger&hellip;The Soviet Ice Hockey Federation will receive 25 grand (U.S.) for each of the nine exhibitions against NHL teams next winter for a total of $225,000. The series opens in Los Angeles, Dec. 26 and concludes in Pittsburgh, Jan. 11. The only two Canadian cities involved are Calgary (Dec. 29) and Montreal (Dec. 31)&hellip;The NHL&rsquo;s legal tab for the Ralston-Purina trial, which was settled out of court, was close to $2.5 million, according to an inside source&hellip;Kingston, Ont., which houses the International Hockey Hall of Fame, has offered to house the Toronto version of the Hockey Hall of Fame, if the latter is forced to move. Gripes from employees of the Toronto HHF about lack of support from the NHL have been heard recently. Attendance at the Toronto HHF has been a problem.Although the NHL low-keyed its anti-trust settlement with Ralston-Purina, the result is being hailed as a triumph for the league. In fact, some NHL owners quietly wish loop lawyers had gone all the way, routing R-P with the NHL&rsquo;s countersuit. A few older NHL governors tell BLUELINES that several factors tilted the suit irrevocably in the NHL&rsquo;s favor: (1) The positive performance of the Blues. R-P couldn&rsquo;t prove a team couldn&rsquo;t make it in St. Louis when (owner) Harry Ornest came along and proved that it could; (2) Ornest deposition left R-P&rsquo;s lawyers devastated, it was so powerful and persuasive; (3) R-P&rsquo;s top honchos were reluctant to take the heat on the stand. As a result, Ralston accepted the same settlement it could have had two years ago. Some observers figure Ornest saved the NHL $60 million&hellip;A key member of the Black Hawks&rsquo; inner circle has whispered to a friend that Chicago is terribly concerned about its goaltending.Red Wings&rsquo; owner Mike Ilitch is causing his fellow NHL owners to squirm over his George Steinbrennerish spending. &ldquo;What Mike is doing,&rdquo; one biggie tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;is not in the best interests of the Red Wings or the league. &ldquo;&hellip; Rangers have piqued curiosity with word that the club will have a new &ldquo;health monitoring&rdquo; program for players. One aspect includes periodic unscheduled testing for &ldquo;laconic acid levels.Former Black Hawk Dennis Hull&mdash;who has become one of the funniest raconteurs in hockey&mdash;is angling for the athletic directorship at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Hull has been hockey coach at the Illinois Institute of Technology&hellip;U of Illinois-Chicago will build a $2.5 million rink on campus which can also service NHL teams as a practice rink&hellip;Rookie Bruins&rsquo; coach Butch Goring is said to be down on Tom Fergus, which means the disappointing forward is on the block. So far, no takers &hellip;Gord Kluzak, only 21, says he&rsquo;s looking ahead to a career in either politics or broadcasting. While recuperating from his left knee injury, he did well academically at Salem State College. Kluzak says he 11 take a course or two&rdquo; next season&hellip; An incredible $1,550,000 was paid by CBS affiliate WCCO-TV in Minneapolis for TV rights to the Minnesota state high school hockey tournament. By comparison only $100,099 is being paid for TV rights to the state&rsquo;s high school basketball tourney. Last season&rsquo;s ice tourney overwhelmed the opposition in the video market with a 20 rating and 38 per cent share&hellip;Oilers were interested in Nick Fotiu but the boisterous left wing would have had to take a $60,000 cut with the Canadian-American exhange rate if he had opted for the Oilers. &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011263/5029649-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Devil Pat Verbeek plants himself in front of the New York Islanders goal, much to the chagrin of goalie Billy Smith.</figcaption></div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-02994/5029656-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="91" height="90"></div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;The feeling is returning to a thumb which nearly wound up as fertilizer for Pat Verbeek&rsquo;s 200-acre farm near Forest, Ont., and it looks as though the 21-year-old forward&rsquo;s coaching career has been put on hold.Less than three months after his left thumb was severed between the knuckles in a com planting machine back on May 15, Verbeek has regained use of the reattached thumb and is confident that the Sept. 17 opening of training camp will go smoothly.&ldquo;I was all set and ready to start coaching already. I was kind of picturing myself as a coach.&rdquo; said Verbeek, who recently visited doctors in New Jersey and has undergone therapy in London, Ont., since the dramatic six-hour operation which stunned the Devils. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;ll be at training camp, no doubt about it. and by that time there will be no worries. Right now I&rsquo;m only worried about getting a slash when I start playing hockey because it&rsquo;ll break and I won&rsquo;t know about it. I don&rsquo;t have real good feeling in it yet but over the last week the feeling has improved so much it&rsquo;s scary.&rdquo;Scary is an apt description for the entire episode. It was two weeks after the mishap that Verbeek told the Devils of the serious injury. Initially, GM Max McNab was certain he had lost one of his hardest working players.&ldquo;Naturally my first reaction was one of total despair as far as ever seeing Pat play again,&rdquo; said McNab. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s making an amazing comeback. Knowing him, if anyone is going to come back from that type of injury it&rsquo;ll be someone with his internal strength.&rdquo;Verbeek, who never thought of retrieving the thumb from a bag of fertilizer when the accident occurred and thought it was long lost when his dad, Gerry, arrived at Sarnia St. Joseph&rsquo;s Hospital with the thumb 20 minutes after Pat&rsquo;s admission, had faith in surgeon Dr. Brian Evans from the start.The doctor didn&rsquo;t give the procedure much of a chance.&ldquo;He gave it a 25 per cent chance of working.&rdquo; recalled Verbeek. &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;You put it on and it&rsquo;s going to stay on.&rsquo; It was just a feeling I got. A lot of times, even in hockey, your mind is stronger than your body.&rdquo;On the eve of his fourth NHL season, Verbeek revealed that his dad&rsquo;s perseverance saved his thumb.&ldquo;So many things were going through my mind that I never thought to look for the thumb,&rdquo; said Pat. &ldquo;A guy we purchase fertilizer from had dumped the boxes full of fertilizer on the ground and he was smoothing it out, but he was ready to give up on looking. Mom and dad kept persisting and they kept digging for the thumb.&rdquo;Verbeek has been lifting weights and squeezing grips to strengthen the hand, but the primary concerns are how he will handle a stick under game conditions, how the cold temperature will affect the thumb and how much flexibility he will have.&ldquo;I figured by August I could be lifting weights and I was lifting weights before August, so things have come faster than I thought they would,&rdquo; said Verbeek. &ldquo;There is no pain at all, The doctor said to just give it rest, don&rsquo;t be impatient and rush it. It&rsquo;ll be okay. It&rsquo;s just another obstacle you have to overcome, among many during your lifetime.&rdquo;HOT STUFF&mdash;Virtually all of Pat Verbeek&rsquo;s teammates have called to wish him luck and coach Doug Carpenter, who once had a finger seriously severed. spoke to him at the draft in Toronto&hellip;Devils were on the verge of signing free agent Peter McNab, along with finalizing contracts with Rick Meagher and Joe Cirella. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re making good progress as far as Cirella is concerned,&rdquo; said Max McNab. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re optimistic there and we&rsquo;re making good progress on our No. I (defenseman Craig Wolanin)&rdquo;&hellip; Jerry Dailey, formerly director of ticket sales for the basketball N.J. Nets, was signed by the Devils as vice-president of marketing and sales&hellip; Rumors persist that Jan Ludvig will be traded, perhaps to Boston in a deal involving Tom Fergus.</div><div style="clear: both;"> &#9632;</div>

f0014-01

Verbeek’s Rapid Healing A Source Of Good Cheer

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011063/5029687-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pittsburgh Penguin general manager Eddie Johnston said if he was Detroit scoring star John Ogrodnick, shown above, he&rsquo;d be asking for a large raise.</figcaption></div>DETROIT&mdash;Warren Young is in the Red Wings&rsquo; fold, two others have unofficially joined him, and three NHL rivals are ready to bend and staple the Wings for their troubles.Young, who scored 40 goals as a 29-year-old rookie with the Pittsburgh Penguins last season, signed a four-year contract with Detroit worth in excess of $1 million.&ldquo;Forme, at 29, I&rsquo;m not like the rest of them,&rdquo; said Young, who played college hockey at Michigan Tech and was drafted by the California Golden Seals in 1975. &ldquo;I wanted the best offer because I don&rsquo;t know how much longer I&rsquo;ll be playing. I&rsquo;d like to play another 10 years but you never know. This gives me a chance to play and, hopefully, improve.&rdquo;Although the Wings haven&rsquo;t confirmed it, they reportedly have signed two other veteran free agent defensemen&mdash;Mike McEwen (formerly of Washington) and Harold Snepsts (Minnesota). The signing of Young and speculation concerning McEwen and Snepsts led to tampering charges against the Red Wings for contacting the players before the July 1 date.In addition, there were shock waves from the Wings&rsquo; wild spending spree for college and professional free agents, capped by the winning of the Ray Staszak Sweepskates. The University of Illinois-Chicago free-agent grad was reported to have signed a five-year contract for about $1.4 million after being shopped all around the league.Young&rsquo;s former boss, Ed Johnston of the Penguins, said he&rsquo;s one of three general managers who have filed charges with the league against the Red Wings. The others are Lou Nanne of Minnesota and David Poile of Washington.&ldquo;There are 20 owners in this league who are totally teed off by what&rsquo;s happened,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;The Detroit organization has put the NHL (salary structure) completely out of whack.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re definitely pursuing the tampering charges. We have a legitimate complaint against Jimmy Devellano and the Red Wing organization.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not talking about (salaries for) Steve Yzerman or Mario Lemieux here. We&rsquo;re talking about Adam Oates (college free agent from RP1.) I know he got over a million. We bid on him and he (Devellano) knocked it over a million. I know what our team offered and what others offered. Giving Young over $1 million, let him justify that,&rdquo; Johnston continued.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t get me wrong. I&rsquo;m happy for Warren, but when you&rsquo;re paying him twice what you&rsquo;re paying Steve Yzerman and as much as you&rsquo;re paying John Ogrodnick and Ron Duguay, something is wrong in the organization. It&rsquo;s beyond me what they&rsquo;re trying to do, and it&rsquo;s beyond 20 other owners.&rdquo;Johnston was angered by comments attributed to Jim Lites, the Wings&rsquo; executive vice-president, calling Johnston &ldquo;a sour-grapes kind of guy&hellip;he doesn&rsquo;t have the budget or the sense to sign his own players.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m upset,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;Mr. Lites must think Lou Nanne and David Poile are sour-grapes kind of guys because they&rsquo;ve filed, too. Mr. Lites is the only legitimate guy in the NHL? How long has he been in our game? Well, he&rsquo;s on his way to destroying it in two weeks.&rdquo;Lites said he could guarantee that the Wings didn&rsquo;t tamper with Young. &ldquo;We absolutely did not talk to him before July 1,&rdquo; Lites said.However. Nanne said the Red Wings made an offer to Snepsts on June 27.&ldquo;Snepsts called me and asked me to match the Red Wings&rsquo; offer,&rdquo; Nanne said. &ldquo;I said I wouldn&rsquo;t and called Jimmy D. I told him that Snepsts had an offer from the Red Wings, and I knew it. He said they were just interested and hadn&rsquo;t talked to Snepsts. But I told him he had talked to Snepsts&rsquo; agent and that&rsquo;s the same thing.&rdquo;.Added Johnston, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to be sitting in Yzerman&rsquo;s situation, or Ogrod-nick&rsquo;s. If their agents don&rsquo;t go in and ask for $400.000 a year, they&rsquo;re out of their minds. They should be sitting on the doorstep right now. Those college kids arc getting more than Mario Lemieux and John Ogrodnick right now without ever having played a game (in the NHL).&ldquo;And he (Lites) says things about our organization. You see, I don&rsquo;t want to put my owner in a situation where he has to watch Murray Craven and Joe Paterson in the Stanley Cup finals on television and at the same time be buying out Darryl Sittler&rsquo;s contract.&rdquo;The tampering charges will be heard by NHL President John Ziegler. If the Wings are found to be in violation, they could be fined or penalized by a loss of draft choices and/or players.Meanwhile, veteran right winger Brad Smith left the Red Wings to sign as a free agent with Toronto.Smith, 27, departed after four-and-a-half seasons in the organization.A native of Windsor, Smith was a free agent without compensation. He has agreed to a two-year contract (the 1985-86 season, plus an option) with the Maple Leafs. More important, however, was the Leafs&rsquo; assurance that he&rsquo;d be given every opportunity to earn a spot in the NHL next season.&ldquo;I feel privileged to have been a part of the Red Wing organization,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;Unfortunately, my days of playing in Detroit were numbered. They offered a one-year contract and wanted me to go to Glens Falls to play with the kids.&rdquo;The Wings&rsquo; top farm club. Adirondack of the American Hockey League, is located in Glens Falls. N.Y. Smith is a perfect role model for young players. He&rsquo;s dedicated, hard-working, unselfish and a total team player, all ingredients that make him an invaluable veteran player at the minor league level.&ldquo;The Leafs are giving me a chance to play in the NHL.&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the reason why I did it. The people in the Red Wings&rsquo; organization have always treated me well, in a lot of ways. My heart will always be in Detroit, even if I&rsquo;m not.&ldquo;Too bad they didn&rsquo;t have confidence in me as an NHL player. They gave me no hope for playing in the NHL, and that kind of hurt. I had a good season at Adirondack and made a good showing at the end of the season.&rdquo;Smith met with Gerry McNamara, the Toronto general manager, and later with coach Dan Maloney and assistant John Brophy.&ldquo;I was happy about the whole thing when it was over,&rdquo; said Smith. &ldquo;Maloney said that if I go to camp in good shape, I have a very good chance of making the club.&rdquo;&ldquo;No guarantee, just a chance. That&rsquo;s all I want. I think I can play and I want a chance to prove it. That&rsquo;s why I made the move. I&rsquo;ll be leaving a lot of good friends, but it&rsquo;s something I had to do. &#9632;

f0016-01

Rivals Would Like To See Wings Clipped

<div class="byline">BY ROD BEATON</div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02853/5029718-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="140" height="104"></div>DETROIT&mdash;The Red Wings have signed the world&rsquo;s most expensive-garbage man&mdash;Ray Staszak.&ldquo;Ray was working at a rink this summer dumping the trash cans and cleaning up.&rdquo; said Staszak&rsquo;s attorney, Brian Burke of Boston. &ldquo;He did it to pay for ice time. I told him, No more garbage cans, necessary, Ray.&rdquo;&rsquo;Burke was telling Staszak the contract was complete. Staszak can afford to pay for his ice. If he wants, he can even buy that rink in Bristol. PA, near his Philadelphia home. Staszak has signed for a garbage can full of dollars. The Red Wings kept up their free-spending summer by giving Staszak. 22. a $1.3-million. five-year deal.The package is the largest ever for an NHL rookie. It exceeds the standard set in June by&mdash;who else&mdash;the Red Wings and their $1.1 million deal with Adam Oates.The Red Wings have signed six free agents this summer: Warren Young from Pittsburgh and collegians Dale Krentz, Tim Friday, Chris Cichocki, Oates and Staszak. Furthermore, the signing of NHL free agents Harold Snepts and Michael McEwen should be annonced soon.&ldquo;All these moves should make the franchise more competitive,&rdquo; said Detroit general manager Jim Devellano.Staszak should help considerably in that regard. He&rsquo;s a 6-foot. 200 pound right winger who barrels into comers and to the net, where he&rsquo;s fairly polished. His toughness is undisputed&mdash;even off the ice. He once single-handedly took on three Chicago thugs trying to steal his car and pounded them until they fled.&ldquo;I look upon Ray as a Bob Nystrom type of player,&rdquo; said Devellano.&ldquo;I told my boss (Serge Savard) Staszak can&rsquo;t miss,&rdquo; said Montreal scout Andre Boudrias.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s tough and talented, the kind of winger you have to have.&rdquo; said New Jersey GM Max McNab.McNab was one of 18 GMs to make opening bids. The field was cut to 10 serious bidders and finally to three finalists.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why the price is high,&rdquo; said Devellano. &ldquo;Eighteen teams put in bids. Whoever we beat out put in big bids. A lot of teams thought he could play.Staszak played well at the University of Illinois-Chicago. In 38 games, lie had 37 goals and 35 assists, for 72 points. He was not selected during his years of draft eligibility so he was free to sign with anyone. The Staszak Sweepstakes were on.&ldquo;I had a hard time eliminating teams.&rdquo; said Staszak. &ldquo;They were all class-A organizations.&rdquo;Wings&rsquo; owner Mike Hitch became involved in the negotiations just as he had for Oates. Burke manipulated the bidding until the record pact was secure.&ldquo;I know the contract will get attention but I&rsquo;ll try to go into camp with a low profile.&rdquo; said Staszak.The contract should make that impossible. The influx of new players will help, though, and the veterans might not be a problem. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy for him.&rdquo; said Wings&rsquo; scoring star John Ogrodnick. &ldquo;This is a team that rewards good performances and takes care of its players.&rdquo;Other teams have said the Red Wings are too generous with unproven talent but &ldquo;this will not effect everyone else&rsquo;s negotiations.&rdquo; said Calgary&rsquo;s GM Cliff Fletcher.Montreal scout Doug Robinson saw humor in the situation. &ldquo;Bobby Hull was on the Million Dollar Line in Chicago,&rdquo; said Robinson. &ldquo;Now Young, Oates and Staszak are the Three Million Dollar Line.&rdquo;As for Devellano, he said: &ldquo;We did this with a lot of thought and a lot of planning. It was financially responsible.&rdquo;.Considering the capacity of Joe Louis Arena and the potential growth of Detroit&rsquo;s attendance. Staszak&rsquo;s pact could easily be paid by substantial gains. Those are quite possible if Detroit makes good gains in the standings.&ldquo;The league was so dull this summer, somebody had to do something,&rdquo; said Devellano. &#9632;</div>

f0016-02

Wings Make Staszak Richest NHL Rookie Ever

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03520/5029749-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Maloney has retired from the Sabres in favor of work as a New York stockbroker.</figcaption></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01964/5029756-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="122" height="116"></div>BUFFALO&mdash;When Jim Schoenfeld took over as coach of the Buffalo Sabres back in June he knew that he would experience his share of peaks and valleys.What Schoenfeld didn&rsquo;t know was that in less than two months after taking the job he would experience both a peak and valley only two weeks apart.The peak came when Mikael Andersson. the first player chosen by the Sabres in the 1984 NHL entry draft, was signed to a contract with the team.The valley came a short time later when defenseman Dave Maloney announced that he was retiring as an active player.The announcement didn&rsquo;t come as a surprise to those who have followed Maloney&rsquo;s career. Maloney had stated several times that he wanted to retire by the time he was 30.Maloney, who has played all or parts of 11 seasons and just turned 29, has other reasons for retirement.&ldquo;When I sat out that first playoff game during our series against the (Quebec) Nordiques back in April. I felt that this would be it for me,&rdquo; said Maloney, who came to the Sabres early last season from the New York Rangers in exchange for Steve Patrick.&ldquo;I thought I had played very well during the season and had made some contributions towards the success of the team. But I guess the coach (Scott Bowman) didn&rsquo;t see it that way.&ldquo;I thought that first game was an indication of things to come. So I figured that it was about time to look at my future and my career with Wall Street, which I have been working at now for the past few years.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not bitter about anything. I was treated very well in Buffalo and the Sabres are a very class operation. But nobody from the team has called me about coming back this season.&ldquo;I have talked to Schoney a couple of times about the situation and my future with the team. I didn&rsquo;t expect any guarantees from him.&ldquo;But I had to make the final decision.&rdquo;Schoenfeld doesn&rsquo;t see Maloney&rsquo;s decision as being final.&ldquo;I know that it is a tough decision to make,&rdquo; remarked Schoenfeld. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;s really made a final decision yet.&ldquo;The last time I spoke with him he told me that he was thinking about retiring. But I haven&rsquo;t heard that it&rsquo;s definite. At least not from Dave.&rdquo;Schoenfeld also pointed out Maloney&rsquo;s importance to the team.&ldquo;If Dave doesn&rsquo;t play, I think it will definitely hurt the team,&rdquo; said Schoenfeld. &ldquo;He has excellent leadership qualities, both on the ice and in the locker room.&ldquo;I know that I told him that I couldn&rsquo;t guarantee him a place on the team. But I&rsquo;m not guaranteeing anybody a position. That just wouldn&rsquo;t be fair. We will ice the best 20 players that are available.&ldquo;But I would like to see Dave come back.&rdquo;One player that Schoenfeld will have in training camp is Andersson. Following an impressive training camp with Buffalo last season, Andersson returned to Sweden where he scored 16 goals and 11 assists in 32 games with Vastra Frolunda.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>His skating style is likened to that of recently-retired New York Rangers&rsquo; forward Anders Hedberg. Andersson is considered clever around the net and has a wide selection of shots.Schoenfeld is looking forward to having the 19-year-old left winger in training camp.&ldquo;I only saw him for a brief time last year in training camp,&rdquo; recalled Schoenfeld. &ldquo;But I do know that he is a terrific skater, good shooter and has good hockey sense. All of our scouts feel he can play.&ldquo;I think he will be a good asset to the Sabres. But we&rsquo;ll have to see what happens when he goes up against the big boys.&rdquo;SABRE POINTS&mdash;Jim Pizzutelli, head trainer for the Sabres&rsquo; Rochester Americans farm club since 1981, has been named head trainer of the Sabres. Pizzutelli, 33, replaces longtime Sabres&rsquo; trainer Frank Christie. Christie, 62, who has been with the Sabres since they entered the NHL in 1970, was named the team&rsquo;s executive trainer and coordinator of team travel&hellip;Former Sabre Don Luce was named the team&rsquo;s first director of United States scouting. Luce, 36, rejoined the Sabres last season as a special assignment scout. He will work with the Sabres&rsquo; director of scouting, Rudy Migay. The Sabres bought out Real (Buddy) Cloutier&rsquo;s contract, making him a free agent. &#9632;

f0018-03

Maloney Saw Writing On The Wall (Street)

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02728/5029787-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="386" height="436"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Falls</figcaption></div>ONE OF MY favorite things is college football.I love the autumn afternoons in Ann Arbor and East Lansing and occasionally, driving out to the little leafy town of Olivet, Mich., where they play a brand of small-college football that is beautiful to behold.The president cooks breakfast for you, you sit in the bleachers and cheer for the Rockets and then you have a late-night dinner with friendsof the school. These may be the best days of all.Yet, when the season is over I don&rsquo;t think of college football, and it&rsquo;s the same with pro football, basketball, golf, tennis, horseracing, and skydiving.Hockey is different. Hockey never leaves my mind. Even in the middle of summertime as the com is roasting on the grill and my wife is mixing the iced tea and I&rsquo;m ready to put the steaks on the fire.Hockey is with me all the time, like today, when I picked up my newspaper and learned that ESPN, the sports cable network in my country, will carry 33 NHL games this winter.We&rsquo;re getting one great break after another because now I&rsquo;ve learned that Mickey Redmond, an old favorite, will be handling the color on the Red Wing telecasts, while another local cable channel in Detroit will be broadcasting a dozen or so Windsor Spitfire games from across the river. Another old friend. Spitfires&rsquo; GM Jimmy Rutherford, will be handling the color on those telecasts.I can&rsquo;t wait to hear little Jim because he was the finest and friendliest of all the Red Wings through the 1970&rsquo;s&mdash;a man you knew and admired and could trust. He always spoke the truth, whether or not it served him. and his honesty was a shining light in the Red Wings&rsquo; dressing room. We all went to him after the games because we knew we would be getting it straight, and now we will be getting it straight again.So that&rsquo;s how my winter looks in the summer: One game after another, some live, some on T.V. Even the Flint Generals moving to Saginaw isn&rsquo;t all that upsetting. Flint is only 25 miles from my home and I&rsquo;d sneak up there some night and sit in the stands, as a fan, and watch the IHL games. But Saginaw is a good city, too, and it&rsquo;s less than an hour away and I&rsquo;ll also be sneaking up there.Right now I&rsquo;m looking forward to two things:1. Calling up Harry Neale, the Red Wings&rsquo; new coach, and asking him out to lunch. I don&rsquo;t know the man but all I&rsquo;ve heard and read about him, I get a good feeling.2. Waiting for the opening day of training camp in Port Huron, Mich., on Sept. 17. because there is no finer feeling in the world than to walk into a hockey building after a long, hot summer and feel the cool breezes being stirred by the players as they whirl around the ice. Next to that first whiff of the turkey cooking in the oven when you return home from the Detroit Lions&rsquo; game on Thanksgiving Day, the brace of cold air you feel on the first day of hockey practice may be the best feeling of the whole year.I also think of Bert Olmstead in the corner, Bill Cowley with the puck dancing on the end of his stick, Bobby Orr with his fishing line dipping in the water, the hard look on Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s face, the grin on Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s face, Frankie Brimsek. Trent Frayne sitting behind his typewriter writing about Harold Ballard, Toe Blake&rsquo;s old bar in Montreal, John Ogrodnick playing with his little girl in the back yard, and Danny Gallivan. I always think of Danny Gallivan and hope he&rsquo;s happy. Hockey does this to me like no other sport, not even baseball. &#9632;

f0018-02

Hockey—A Game For Four Seasons

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><h2>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01898/5029818-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="161" height="96"></div>LANDOVER&mdash;Abe Pollin, owner of the Washington Capitals, claimed complete vindication at the outcome of a bitter lawsuit in which Arnold Heft, who holds a one-third interest in the Capital Centre, accused Pollin of improperly diverting money from the financially-sound arena to the struggling Caps and basketball Bullets.Heft had sought to have Pollin ousted as general partner of the Capital Centre, which Pollin built privately on county park land originally leased by Heft, a longtime Pollin associate.Seven weeks after the attorney&rsquo;s final arguments, Circuit Court Judge Albert Blackwell ruled that Pollin had made &ldquo;fair and reasonable&rdquo; adjustments of $860,000 that Heft claimed had been illegally transferred from the Centre to the two teams, all of which Pollin controls. Blackwell ordered Pollin, however, to pay Heft $90,000 in attorney&rsquo;s fees and costs and chided Pollin for handling check transactions between the various entities in a &ldquo;casual manner.&rdquo;Although Blackwell found that $885,000 in disputed checks were the property of the Centre, Pollin claimed the money had been treated as loans and repaid. so it seemed doubtful that Heft would receive any additional compensation as a result of the decision. Heft, obviously unhappy with the outcome, refused to comment on the ruling or a possible appeal.Pollin, a private person, came close to settling the dispute out of court on two occasions and it. was a surprise that he eventually decided to fight it. The result was a trial stretching over 20 days of testimony that brought to light many items previously buried in the partnerships controlling the three entities.&ldquo;I honestly felt more strongly about this case than anything in my business life.&rdquo; said Pollin, who purchased an ad in The Washington Post to thank those who stood by him. &ldquo;The thing I treasure most in life is my reputation. To have someone accuse me of cheating and being dishonest is the worst thing you can do to me. My word has always been my bond.&rdquo;Heft originally owned a 25 per cent share in the Capitals, but gave it up when he declined to meet a cash call in 1976. However, he retained his interest in the Centre and between its opening in December 1973 and Dec. 31, 1984, he received $4,960,001 as his share of the profits, according to testimony.During the trial, the Centre&rsquo;s gross profits to June 30, 1984. were revealed as $21,682,715. Meanwhile, the Capitals were losing $22,825,335 and the Bullets, $4,098,647. Pollin indicated that this imbalance. resulting in large profits for Heft and huge losses for himself, prompted him to fight the suit.&ldquo;Mr. Heft made no investment in the Capital Centre and has not done one day&rsquo;s work in the planning, construction and operation,&rdquo; Pollin said. &ldquo;But apparently, Mr. Heft feels that the Centre&rsquo;s substantial profit should have been intensified.&rdquo;For his part. Heft said he instituted the lawsuit because Pollin was altering the agreements between the Centre and the teams without ever consulting him.&ldquo;At a partner&rsquo;s meeting, he would pat me on the head, give me a check and send me on my way,&rdquo; Heft said.The Capitals&rsquo; vast losses threatened to put them in default many times, it was revealed during the trial. Under the Centre&rsquo;s bond agreement with Equitable Life Assurance Society of America, which provided $20 million for the building&rsquo;s construction, neither the Centre nor either team could owe more than $400,000 at the end of any quarter of any fiscal year. Accordingly, the Centre often was forced to loan the Capitals&rsquo; money the day a quarter began, and the day after the team had &ldquo;repaid&rdquo; previous loans.License agreements affecting Telscreen, sky suites and complimentary tickets were altered in June 1982 and made retroactive two years. That was the $860,000 Heft unsuccessfully sought to have returned to the Centre. According to testimony, the Centre knew it was overcharging the teams but wanted to maintain the situation while attempts were being made to sell the Capitals to groups willing to keep the team in the Centre.David Osnos, the Centre&rsquo;s general counsel, testified that negotiations were under way with groups headed by John McMullen, who eventually purchased the Colorado Rockies, and Howard Baldwin. managing general partner of the Hartford Whaler. Baldwin subsequently denied such interest. &#9632;

f0019-01

Pollin Records A Big Victory In Courtroom

<div class="byline">BY RICH SADOWSKI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02513/5029849-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="553" height="821"><figcaption class="caption-body">Terry Ruskowski takes his hustle and leadership skills to the Pittsburgh Penguins.</figcaption></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01758/5029856-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="176" height="106"></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;The Los Angeles Kings lost much more than 16 goals and 33 assists on July 25 when Terry Ruskowsi bid farewell, signing a two-year (plus an option) contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins.Ruskowski&rsquo;s contributions through the years have always gone deeper than mere statistics.&ldquo;My first reaction,&rdquo; coach Pat Quinn said, &ldquo;is that&hellip;hell, yes, we&rsquo;re going to miss him. He&rsquo;s a top quality person and a hell of a captain who really contributed to the modest success we had last year.&rdquo;Cap&rsquo;n Roscoe&mdash;he has been a team captain throughout his professional career, and has held that post the last two years with the Kings&mdash;played on a termination contract last year, and became a free agent without compensation July 1.&ldquo;I want to re-sign with the Kings. The Kings are my first choice,&rdquo; he said at the time. &ldquo;But this may be the last contract I ever sign and I&rsquo;ve got to get the best deal I can. I&rsquo;m looking for security for my family.&rdquo;The security Ruskowski was seeking was the reason he is now a member of the Penguins. Kings&rsquo; GM Rogie Vachon offered him a one-and-one deal worth in the neighborhood of $170,000 per year; the Penguins&rsquo; Ed Johnston offered a two-and-one deal for about $150,000 per year. Ruskowski was willing to accept the difference in salary for the extra year.Ruskowski will celebrate his 31st birthday in September, and the Kings&mdash;as badly as they wanted to keep him&mdash;were a bit concerned about his age.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m disappointed, but I accept Terry&rsquo;s decision,&rdquo; Vachon said. &ldquo;We felt a two-year contract with a good raise would be sufficient to keep him. That didn&rsquo;t mean we wouldn&rsquo;t give him an extra year later on. I talked to Terry (the night before he signed.) It was a good talk. I thought, and I was a little surprised he signed right away.He&rsquo;s a leader. He has a lot of heart. The kids really looked up to him and there&rsquo;s no doubt this will hurt us for awhile. But I think we have a lot of players with character on this team.&rdquo;Acquired from the Chicago Black Hawks in exchange for a third-round draft pick Oct. 23, 1982, Ruskowski became an immediate favorite with his teammates and Forum fans.Not highly-skilled, the 5-foot-10,180-pound Ruskowski impressed everyone with his hustle, work in the comers and willingness to stand up to bigger opponents.The Los Angeles chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association nominated him for last year&rsquo;s Masterton Trophy.Ruskowski can kill penalties and play all three forward positions. He was used almost exclusively at left wing on a line with Bernie Nicholls and Jim Fox last year, when both had their best NHL seasons.&ldquo;But the biggest part we will miss&hellip;he&rsquo;s a good player and he had a good season&hellip;but his biggest value was his leadership,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;He has the ability to communicate on behalf of his teammates with the coachig staff, and those types are hard to replace.&ldquo;Many times a veteran teaches by example, or verbally, and he was one of those kinds of guys. We still have a few veterans like that and I would like to think someone will be able to fill that void.&rdquo;Ruskowski produced 33 goals, 88 assists and 357 penalty minutes in 226 games as a King, but Johnston was just as interested in the intangible qualities he brings to Pittsburgh.For good reason.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very subjective thing,&rdquo; Quinn said, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;ve always believed that a team will not be successful unless it has, for lack of a better description, team players&mdash;people who have those qualities that don&rsquo;t show up on a scouting report.&ldquo;Terry&rsquo;s been on winning teams, he&rsquo;s a leader, he has been a captain. He sticks his nose in there, and people always recognize those traits. You&rsquo;ve got to have people like Roscoe to win.&ldquo;People like that you get prejudiced toward. You miss people like that.&rdquo;Do the Kings have enough of these people now?&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to think that, in the year-to-year transition of the team, someone will step forward,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;From what I saw last year, the middle group (five and six-year veterans) hasn&rsquo;t shown the type of traits leaders should have. That&rsquo;s what you get concerned about.&ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t to say they are bad people. Maybe a group of four or five guys collectively might be able to rise a notch. That would be beneficial. Nicholls certainly has the qualities to be a leader. He&rsquo;ll jump by that middle group.&rdquo;With the release of checking center Bob Miller this summer, Quinn had planned to use Ruskowski in that role, knowing he could always move him back to &lsquo;Nicholls&rsquo; line, if youngsters such as Lyle Phair or Dan Brennan or Luc Robitaille aren&rsquo;t able to do the job.&ldquo;Now we just have to hope the kids can come through,&rdquo; Quinn said.Said Vachon: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a rebuilding process and we don&rsquo;t want to be tied up with long-term contracts with the older guys. I knew that all along it was a matter of security with Terry. He wanted as much security as he could get. I offered him more money per year, but&hellip;&ldquo;Certainly it&rsquo;s a big loss, but I think we&rsquo;re lucky enough to have enough guys on the team to take over the leadership.&rdquo; KINGS&rsquo; NOTEBOOK&mdash;David Courtney, 28, has been named director of public relations. He replaces Larry Rosoff, who resigned in the spring. Courtney had served as director of public relations for Home Sports Entertainment in Houston, a regional cable sports network for the past two-and-a-half years. Eight years ago, he was a PR assistant for the Kings and NBA Lakers&hellip;The Kings signed Western Michigan University goallender Glenn Healy. The 22-year-old had a 2114-7 record, 3.26 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage last year. &#9632;

f0020-02

The Captain Leaves Behind L.A. Kingdom

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03358/5029887-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="414" height="436"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Simmons</figcaption></div>A HOCKEY PLAYER makes around $100,000 a year, unless his name happens to be Bob Fleming.Then, he makes 100,000 telephone calls, just looking for a job playing the wing. It is again summertime, and the phone calls have once again begun..While a free agent named Ray Staszak travels North America, waiting on the highest bidder to purchase his services, the other side of the blade belongs to a professional veteran named Fleming and all the other Bob Flemings out there who comb hockey&rsquo;s boonies searching for work.Fleming has played three seasons in a professional hockey dungeon known as the International League. All he now wants is another season. Each season has begun for him without a contract, each season has begun with a telephone call and a courtesy invitation to a training camp somewhere.And each summer. Bob Fleming vows he will return for more.He is a winger who doesn&rsquo;t skate quite fast enough for today&rsquo;s game. He is a winger who doesn&rsquo;t shoot quite hard enough for today&rsquo;s game.When they talk of Bob Fleming&rsquo;s hands, they speak of his fists. The majority of his scoring comes from rights and lefts, not slapshots.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a role player,&rdquo; he said. And on every team in every league, there has always been a Bob Fleming.In his own words, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never been that confident of my own ability.&rdquo;But there is a love of his sport that brings him back every year. There is love that makes him wonder every summer why he does what he does. He is not a kid from the poor side of the tracks, using hockey as his way out of the factory. Not long ago, his father was an oil executive in oil-rich Calgary.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been well taken care of,&rdquo; said Fleming, who bounced from Western junior team to junior team before turning pro.The National Hockey League has always been Fleming&rsquo;s dream, but even he is realistic to know there are only so many Warren Youngs out there. The closest Fleming came to the NHL was a free agent tryout with the Flames, more of a courtesy to his junior coach than a credit to his ability.He was in a training camp of contracted players, without a contract. He knew he wasn&rsquo;t long for the Flames.But still, he thinks of the NHL. Everyone in his business does. Especially when he sees so many of his Peoria teammates have been there. Bunny Larocque has four Stanley Cup rings. Denis Cyr was a first-round draft pick.&ldquo;When you go undrafted, you take what you can get,&rdquo; said Fleming. &ldquo;Basically, I&rsquo;ve written off the NHL, but that&rsquo;s not saying I wouldn&rsquo;t love to&hellip;&ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to play an NHL game, just one. It would mean everything to me. I played with a lot of guys who had a taste. All I want is a taste.&ldquo;If I could play just one game, if I could fly my parents in, that would mean everything.&rdquo;But before he can think of the NHL. Fleming must think of the immediate future&mdash;the coming season. He played last season for a championship team in Peoria, where he was known as The Hammer and a crowd favorite.He has called to see if he is welcome back next season. He has not heard back.Last season, he talked Fred Creighton into a tryout with Indianapolis of the IHL. On his way driving from Calgary to Indianapolis, he stopped in Peoria where coach Pat Kelly heard of his plans and suggested he, instead, try out for the Rivermen.Fleming made the team. He had what he considers to be an average year&mdash;14 goals, nine assists and 179 penalty minutes. &ldquo;But I had a good playoff,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I had 10 points in the playoffs.&rdquo;But in this sport, as in any pro sport, the Bob Flemings of the world expect little and ask little in exchange. &ldquo;I never expect anything,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I expect I&rsquo;ll hear from them (Peoria) but I never count on anything.&rdquo;You learn not to even count on what you&rsquo;ve counted on for the past decade. For each of the past 10 summers, Fleming has skated at a conditioning camp run by a minor coach named Wally Kozak. This season, when Fleming phoned to confirm his spot at the camp, he was told he wasn&rsquo;t welcome.&ldquo;They told me they&rsquo;re only accepting guys with contracts,&rdquo; Fleming said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t expect to hear that after paying for 10 years to skate. I couldn&rsquo;t believe it.&rdquo;Perhaps the rejection from a conditioning camp is an omen. Bob Fleming isn&rsquo;t after the bucks, he doesn&rsquo;t play hockey for money.&ldquo;I love the game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I love to play. I still enjoy a good sweat, a good shower, and then you know your day is over.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-03

The Dream Remains Elusive For Player Without A Team

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01557/5029918-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="136" height="96"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;For the fifth time since 1979, the Montreal Canadiens have made a coaching change.Two days from the end of July, Jacques Lemaire stepped down as the Canadiens&rsquo; chief of on-ice strategy and Jean Perron became the 20th coach in the 76year history of the hockey club.&ldquo;I was finally convinced that Jacques (didn&rsquo;t want tocome back this year.&rdquo; said managing director Serge Savard. &ldquo;I had to replace him. It&rsquo;s three coaches in three years but there is nothing I can do about it.&ldquo;I think Jean is ready to take over. He&rsquo;s a real hard worker but I would have preferred to have seen Jacques go another year. That&rsquo;s what I asked him to do.&rdquo;However, Lemaire made it perfectly clear to Savard that he&rsquo;d had enough of the pressure-filled head coaching job. He warned Savard before last season got under way that the managing director had better find a replacement. Still, the timing of his resignation caught observers off guard.The Montreal media hordes trooped into the hastily-called news conference without an inkling of what the Canadiens had to announce. For one of the few times, there was no forewarning.Lemaire reluctantly took over the head coaching job from Bob Berry on Feb. 24. 1984. He guided the Canadiens to a berth in the Prince of Wales Conference final, that season after the team had finished with a 35-40-5 record and just made fourth place in the Adams Division.Last season, the Canadiens were first in the Adams, but were knocked off in the divisional final by arch-rival Quebec.&lsquo;What I want to do in life is have a job that I feel comfortable in,&rdquo; said Lemaire, who becomes the Canadiens&rsquo; director of player personnel. &ldquo;I want a job which I&rsquo;m going to enjoy and have satisfaction and be able to go home happy.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve thought about this all summer. I have to go by my own feelings and what I r-want to do. If I went by other people&rsquo;s feelings, I would come back and coach.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think this is a surprise The people that were close to me knew that the job would be there for a limited time. They knew that I could leave any time after a year.&rdquo;Lemaire is confident that Perron, who coached for 10 years at the University of Moncton and won three national university titles, will be able to make the transition from assistant coach to head coach, even though he has only one year of experience in the NHL. He served as Lemaire&rsquo;s assistant last season.Even though the Canadiens had a relatively succesful 1984-85 season, it was not without controversy. First, there was the much-publicized benching of Guy Lafleur in November, which was closely followed by Lafleur&rsquo;s retirement. Many fans still accuse Lemaire of forcing Lafleur into quitting.At a team dinner following the Canadiens&rsquo; elimination from the playoffs, veteran right winger Mario Tremblay engaged in a vehement shouting match with his coach in front of several players and Savard.Yet. Lemaire exits as a popular man with Montreal hockey fans. The news of his departure was greeted with the same dismay as his retirement from the NHL in 1979.Like Lemaire, Perron is a teacher of the game and is only one of two coaches in Canada to hold a Level 6 coaching certificate. The other is Dave King, the Canadian national and Olympic team coach who worked alongside Perron for two years.Perron holds a bachelor of physical education degree from the University of Sherbrooke and masters degree in physical education from Michigan State.&ldquo;Chances of being in this position two years ago were pretty slim,&rdquo; said Perron, who is one of three former Canadian university coaches in charge of an NHL team.Lemaire is going to be a tough act to follow and Perron is aware of that. How he deals with his veteran players will be critical to his success. He must gain their respect early in the season.&ldquo;I feel the players have to play the game with a lot of intensity,&rdquo; Perron added. &ldquo;Jacques taught me a lot in that regard last year.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see how the players react to my style, which is not different from Jacques&rsquo; style.&rdquo;Jacques Laperriere will remain as an assistant coach in the Perron regime and there is a possibility that another assistant will be hired before training camp gets under way Sept. 17. &#9632;</div>

f0021-01

Perron Replaces Lemaire At Habs’ Helm

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;Ghyslain Luneau, considered one of the top hockey writers in North America, is dead.Luneau, who covered the Montreal Canadiens for five seasons, died instantly when the car that he was driving collided head-on with a truck in the Abitibi region of Quebec.A native of the hamlet of Ste. Rose de Poularies. Luneau joined the Journal de Montreal in 1979 and two years later took over the pressure-filled hockey beat at the largest French-language daily in North America.An outgoing individual, Luneau quickly made many friends throughout the National Hockey League and his indefatigable nature established him as one of the best in his trade.&ldquo;Ghyslain was the future at the Journal de Montreal,&rdquo; said sports editor Bertrand Raymond in a column the day after Luneau was killed. &ldquo;Everything seemed so easy for him because he has so much talent.&ldquo;The only thing he couldn&rsquo;t do was harness his energy. He worked every day as though it were his last.&rdquo;Luneau, named Montreal chapter chairman of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, was en route to a golf tournament of which he was a co-honorary president when the accident occurred. His cousin, Yvon Piche, was a passenger in the car but received minor injuries.Among those attending Luneau&rsquo;s funeral were Guy Lafleur and Canadiens&rsquo; president Ronald Corey.&ldquo;Twenty-eight seems so young for someone to die,&rdquo; said Corey. &ldquo;Even when he had a day off, he would telephone the Forum three or four times a day to see if anything was happening.&rdquo; &#9632;

Victim Of Car Crash

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02459/5029973-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Holmgren (17) didn&rsquo;t often find himself on the bottom when he was in the thick of things as a Philadelphia Flyer.</figcaption></div>Louisville HockeyLouisville Hockey<h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01643/5029980-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="150" height="106"></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;It didn&rsquo;t matter what color jersey Paul Holmgren draped over his battered shoulders&mdash;hockey fans in Philly knew he had a Flyers&rsquo; logo etched on his heart.And now, after a short absence in which he finished out his career with the Minnesota North Stars, Holmgren has returned to the Spectrum. The Flyers heralded that return in mid-July when they announced that Holmgren had joined the club as an assistant coach.Holmgren joins E.J. McGuire on coach Mike Keenan&rsquo;s staff in place of Ted Sator, who left the organization to become head coach of the New York Rangers.Up until a week before he signed with the Flyers, Holmgren was clutching onto fading hopes that he could try to play another season for the North Stars. However, the doctors finally convinced the burly right winger that another hit on his right shoulder and he would chance permanent nerve damage.Thus, at 29, Holmgren knew there was no way to escape the inevitable and he decided to stick with his decision to retire.That did not, however, mean leaving the game. Knowing that he was must eventually surrender to his injuries, Holmgren had already discussed coaching possibilities with North Stars&rsquo; GM Lou Nanne.&ldquo;Lou told me he didn&rsquo;t want me to stay in the Minnesota organization in any coaching capacity because of my closeness to the players,&rdquo; said Holmgren.What Nanne did instead was set up an interview for Holmgren with the Indianapolis Checkers of the International League. In the meantime, Holmgren was sending out resumes on his own. One of them landed on the desk on Mike Keenan.Keenan&rsquo;s first choice was Paul Titanic, an assistant coach at the University of Toronto. And it looked as if the Flyers and Titanic had reached an accord when the U of T offered Titanic the head coaching job, prompting him to bow out of the Flyers&rsquo; picture.Keenan went back to the resumes and Holmgren&rsquo;s started to look better.It certainly didn&rsquo;t hurt that Holmgren just happens to be a well-known sidekick and best friend of Robert Earl Clarke, who used to play under the name of Bobby Clarke when he and Holmgren wreaked havoc at the Spectrum.Clarke, of course, is now the club&rsquo;s GM, which makes for a good reference.&ldquo;I endorsed Paul,&rdquo; said Clarke. &ldquo;But Mike Keenan made the decision.&rdquo;To some that might sound like a &lsquo;line&rsquo;, but after watching the free hand Clarke gave Keenan throughout the season, and then considering that Holmgren was not the club&rsquo;s first choice, it&rsquo;s very easy to believe that it was indeed Keenan who most wanted Holmgren.&ldquo;His character, his information about our club, his relationship with some of the players, and the respect he had in the National Hockey League outweighed any factors having to do with his inexperience,&rdquo; said Keenan.&ldquo;The respect our players had for him, I think, overcomes any worries about his being too close to persons he played with.&rdquo;In addition, Holmgren also adds a missing ingredient to the Flyers&rsquo; coaching staff&mdash;he has played in the NHL. Neither Keenan, nor McGuire have any NHL playing experience.Ironically, since his trade to the North Stars in February of 1984 for right wing Paul Guay. Holmgren had never made a return appearance at the Spectrum. There was always an injury or suspension standing in the way.Now, as far as Flyers&rsquo; fans are concerned he&rsquo;s coming back just the way he left&mdash;as a Flyer.NOTES&mdash;The Flyers also had a homecoming of sorts when they signed defenseman Kevin McCarthy to a one-year contract. McCarthy, 28, a first-round pick of the Flyers in 1977, was later traded to Vancouver for Dennis Ververgaert and played sparingly last season with Pittsburgh&hellip;The Flyers still have not reached an agreement with goalie Pelle Lindbergh on terms for a new contract, but GM Bob Clarke has been talking with Linbergh&rsquo;s agent Frank Milne and doesn&rsquo;t foresee any major problems. &#9632;

f0022-02

Coaching Job Homecoming For Holmgren

<div class="byline">BY MICHAEL A. BERGER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-04262/5030011-1-eng-US/f0022-042.jpg" title="f0022-04" width="568" height="922"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rangers&rsquo; GM Craig Patrick has been contemplating the free agent market.</figcaption></div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03354/5030018-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="130" height="118"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;One would think, what with the hiring of a new braintrust and all the attendant front office commotion at the New York Rangers&rsquo; mid-Manhattan offices, that the Broadway Blushirts were finally ready to take a summer vacation.Wrong.Not satisfied with restructuring of just his management team, Rangers&rsquo; GM Craig Patrick has delivered a not-so-subtle message that he is keenly interested in altering New York&rsquo;s on-ice lineup as well.The Rangers are bidding for the services of the Washington Capitals&rsquo; free-agent center Bobby Carpenter.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re very interested in Bobby Carpenter,&rdquo; said Patrick. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve talked with his agent about our interest and explained our financial interests, too.&rdquo;Carpenter, of course, is the only American hockey player to ever score 50 goals in one season (53 last year) and, at 22, is a budding superstar.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very durable player (Carpenter has played in 240 consecutive games&mdash;every game over his NHL career) and he plays aggressively in the comers and in front of the net. He&rsquo;s young, he can score and he has great ability and hockey sense.&rdquo;Should the Rangers sign Carpenter they would have to compensate the Capitals under the terms of an out-of-date free agency agreement.Because Carpenter has played in the NHL for fewer than five years and is not yet 24 years old, the Rangers would have to make an offer of compensation to the Caps who would, in turn, make a counter-demand of compensation.If the two sides could not agree on compensation the matter would be placed before an arbitrator for a binding decision.The issue becomes more complex as offers are bandied about and, according to Patrick, that makes negotiations with players that much more complicated.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re researching both the entire financial aspect and the compensation aspect. The last offer made to a player may have a bearing on compensation due.&rdquo;Carpenter is merely the tip of the free-agent iceberg for the Rangers. New York is taking a hard look al St. Louis Blues&rsquo; Joe Mullen and Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; Doug Shedden&mdash;both of whom are scorers. Defensemen that have caught the Rangers&rsquo; eye include Keith Brown and Behn Wilson of the Chicago Black Hawks and New Jersey Devils&rsquo; Joe Cirella.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying we&rsquo;re interested in all the people on the free-agent list,&rdquo; said Patrick,.&rdquo;but those guys definitely are the top of the list. We&rsquo;re researching them and others as well.&rdquo;The downside of this free agency business, from the signing team&rsquo;s point of view, is the compensation required and the Rangers must be prepared to lose any number of players should they sign Carpenter. Barry Beck and James Patrick are two of the names mentioned most frequently as prospects for compensation.&ldquo;Losing Beck and Patrick would hurt too much,&rdquo; said GM Patrick. &ldquo;We want to make a move that will help us without hurting us.&rdquo;Should he sign, Carpenter would bring needed scoring touch to the league&rsquo;s I4th-ranked offense without neglecting the defensive zone. In fact. Carpenter scored more goals than centers Mike Rogers and Pierre Larouche combined and he would bring durability to a china doll Ranger squad&mdash;only defenseman-forward Reijo Ruotsalainen played 80 games last season.In the meantime, coach Ted Sator has spent his summer vacation getting acquainted with the Ranger players.&ldquo;I want to see where we are. get to know the players and see what they expect,&rdquo; said Sator. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve run across some of the players at hockey schools but right now we want to remove as much stress from the players as possible.&rdquo;Sator has been in consultation with new assistant coaches Jack Birch and Reg Higgs at the Rangers&rsquo; Rye, N.Y, training base.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have these summit meetings and braintrusts throughout the year,&rdquo; said Sator. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been sorting out responsibilities. Reg will be behind the bench and Jack will be upstairs for analysis we can&rsquo;t make at ice level and both will help me in areas of planning and preparation.&rdquo;BLUESHIRT BITS&mdash;Ted Sator married Susanne Bengtsson on July 20. The two will take a working honeymoon in Sweden. Sator will visit all the Ranger players there&hellip;Bob Brooke was also married July 20, in Massachusetts, to Helen Stockton. &#9632;

f0022-04

GM Patrick Considering Capitals’ Star Carpenter

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01581/5030049-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="136" height="112"></div>HARTFORD&mdash;One of these years, the Hartford Whalers will begin their regular-season campaign at home.But not this year.For the seventh straight season, the length of the Whalers&rsquo; life in the National Hockey League, they will open on the road.In the old World Hockey Association, the Whalers (who were financially secure as well as competitive) called many of the shots, especially with Managing General Partner Howard Baldwin seving as the league&rsquo;s president.They opened, basically, where they wanted to begin, at home on a Saturday night against a glamour team.But the Whalers have received no such royal treatment in the NHL. They will begin their 1985-86 campaign Thursday, Oct. 10, against the Sabres in Buffalo. Their home opener arrives two days latter, against the New York Rangers in the first of 16 Saturday night home games.GM-President Emile Francis isn&rsquo;t complaining, mind you. He understands the scheduling game, and in fact, was delighted that the schedule came out as early as it did. If opening on the road is the price one must pay for a series of attractive Saturday night home games, then so be it.&ldquo;Our weekend schedule is really pretty exciting,&rdquo; he said, pointing to six Sunday games and one Friday night game to go along with those 16 Saturdays. That makes 23 weekend games out of 40.&rdquo;&ldquo;Getting offto a good start is imperative if the Whalers are to end their five-year absence from the playoffs. But it won&rsquo;t be easy. Seven of the first 10 games are scheduled for the road. After Buffalo comes games at Quebec, New Jersey, Chicago, Philadelphia, Montreal and Pittsburgh.But there is a flip-side. The Whalers will play 21 of their final 35 games in Hartford, including a rather unusual five-game homestand March 22 to April 1.Beginning well and finishing well, however, hasn&rsquo;t been much of a problem for the club in recent years. Last year the Whalers began with a 6-3-1 run and finished with an uplifting 9-3-2 stretch. That&rsquo;s the good news. In between, they went 15-35-6.Francis figures that it&rsquo;ll take a .500 record for the Whalers to reach the playoffs in the rigorous Adams Division. Last year they finished 30-41-9.But those 30 wins were the most by any NHL Whaler team, and they did manage to win eight season series and tie two others, not bad for a non-playoff club. They tied Boston, 4-4, but only won five other divisional games. Against Buffalo, they were particularly ineffective, posting an 0-5-3 record.They&rsquo;ll be looking to alter that mark quickly, in the season opener Oct. 10. WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash;The highlight of the upcoming season, barring a run at the division title, will be the annual All-Star Game at the Civic Center Feb. 4. The event will be held in conjunction with the 350th anniversary of the city of Hartford&hellip;Approximately 45 players will report to training camp Sept. 16. Regular workouts will begain the next day&hellip;Emile Francis, along with coach Jack Evans and assistant Claude Larose, will be starting their third season as head honchos of the Whalers&hellip; Several players, including Ronnie Francis, Mike Liut, Joel Quenneville, Chris Kotsopoulos. Bobby Crawford. Ray Neufeld and Greg Malone, are entering the option year on their contracts. Negotiations are under way, with Neufeld a potential trouble spot. The Whalers&rsquo; initial offer to the big right winger, who has played more NHL games as Whaler than anyone else and is the sole survivor from the team&rsquo;s first NHL draft, in 1979 was &ldquo;totally unacceptable,&rdquo; according to agent Frank Caputo. &ldquo;You can usually tell by the nature of the first offer if there may be some trouble ahead,&rdquo; Caputo said. &ldquo;If that&rsquo;s their best offer, Ray will sign his option.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s hard to figure why the Whalers would choose to low-ball Neufeld. He&rsquo;s 26 and has played 236 of 240 games over the last three seasons. His goal (27, 27, 26). point (62, 69, 57) and penalty minute (129, 97, 86) totals have been a model of consistency. Plus he has surfaced as a team leader&hellip;Bob Crocker has been promoted to assistant general manager. Crocker has served Francis well in the last two seasons and was rewarded, according to the boss, &ldquo;for a job well done.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

f0023-01

Whalers Open Season On The Road Again

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02440/5030080-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="543" height="706"><figcaption class="caption-body">Marian Stastny&rsquo;s days as a player with the Quebec Nordiques appear to be over.</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01622/5030087-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="120" height="114"></div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;Veteran forward Marian Stastny faces an uncertain future after clearing waivers in early July.The oldest of the three Stastny brothers currently in the National Hockey League&mdash;Peter and Anton are the others&mdash;will not be playing in Quebec this coming season.&ldquo;I talked to his lawyer and it was decided that the best thing for everyone was to let Marian try the free-agent market,&rdquo; Nordiques&rsquo; GM Maurice Filion said at the time. &ldquo;Both parties acted in Marian&rsquo;s best interest. We did not want an unhappy player in Quebec and we wanted to give him every opportunity to catch on with another NHL team.&rdquo;The fact that no NHL team picked up Stastny came as little surprise to anyone. At 32 years old, he is considered past his prime in a league which accents youth.Although Marian dressed for 50 regular season games in &rsquo;84-85, he saw little ice time. He scored only seven times and added 21 assists.Time and again, the Quebec management praised his attitude but coach Michel Bergeron preferred to go with younger players who would give a twoway effort for 60 minutes.Although in a humbling situation, Marian continued to practise with the team and tried to do his best to keep up team spirit. He was never the type of player to complain regularly through the media.Wintertime rumors that suggested Marian would return to Europe to end his career in Germany now deserve consideration. But Marian&rsquo;s admirable attitude, plus the fact brothers Anton and Peter remain with Quebec, might help him maintain his association with the club.Bergeron has said he will name a replacement for assistant coach Guy Lapointe sometime in August and there is also an opening for a coach with the Fredericton Express in the American League.Statsny would prefer to play out the final year of his contract in the NHL but he may have to settle for playing in Europe or a coaching position in Canada.In addition to finding an assistant for Bergeron, Filion will once again have to deal with his goaltending situation. Last spring he promised Clint Malarchuk that he would be in the NHL for &rsquo;85-86. either in Quebec or elsewhere.The threesome of Dan Bouchard, Richard Sevigny and rookie Mario Gosselin worked well last year, but adding Malarchuk to that group is unthinkable. A trade remains a possibility although Bouchard and Malarchuk have little trade value, according to feelers put out by Filion last year.Maybe Bouchard and Stastny will fight it out for the assistant position in Quebec, with the loser ending up in Fredericton. In the meantime, one month till training camp.NORDIC NOTES&mdash;Mario Gosselin, who spent a year with the Canadian Olympic Team, may actually already be starting the option year of a three-year deal he originally signed with Quebec &hellip;Defenseman Blake Wesley was given his unconditional release by Quebec and later signed by the Toronto Maple Leafs&hellip;Coach Michel Bergeron&rsquo;s favorite designated hitter in hockey, namely Jean-Francois Sauve, is without a contract. But compensation guidelines will keep him with Quebec. Once again, he will have to win his place on the team, but Sauve doesn&rsquo;t complain, saying it has always been the same for him at training camp.</div><div style="clear: both;"> &#9632;</div>

f0024-02

Future Of Eldest Stastny Unclear

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03298/5030118-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="134" height="114"></div>CALGARY&mdash;The changes started a few days after the season ended when the Calgary Flames fans learned that they wouldn&rsquo;t have defenseman Kari Eloranta to kick around anymore.The Flames released Eloranta from the option year of his contract so he could play in Europe next season.The higher-profile moves&mdash;especially the trades that sent goaltender Don Edwards and Kent Nilsson packing&mdash;dominated the summer&rsquo;s headlines, but the Flames made other significant changes.Pierre Page, a former Flames&rsquo; assistant, was brought back from the farm to join coach Bob Johnson&rsquo;s staff.Highly-regarded defenseman Gary Suter, a ninth-round draft choice from Wisconsin, signed a professional contract and is given a good chance of making the team next year, replacing Eloranta.Terry Crisp joined the Flames&rsquo; organization as Page&rsquo;s replacement. Crisp will coach Moncton of the American Hockey League and will probably be groomed as Johnson&rsquo;s replacement when the latter decides to retire.Jamie Hislop, an assistant to Johnson last year, retired from the game to pursue a career in teaching. The Flames also bought out the final year of forward Steve Tambellini&rsquo;s contract, making him a free agent without compensation.And although it will take some time to get him&mdash;perhaps as many as three years&mdash;the Flames chose the player they wanted tn the annual entry draft: defenseman Chris Biotti from Newton, Mass.Biotti, who will attend Harvard next year, was rated 20th by Central Scouting, but fifth by the Flames. General Manager Cliff Fletcher, who thought Biotti would be long gone by the time the Flames drafted, was ecstatic and issued some uncharacteristically rave reviews following the draft.&ldquo;He is arguably the best defenseman in the draft.&rdquo; said Fletcher. He has the talent to be a legitimate star. He could be the best draft choice the Flames ever had.&rdquo;Next season&rsquo;s most tangible on-ice change will be the absence of Eloranta. Over the past two years, Eloranta received a number of inquiries from European club teams, but he did not know whether the Flames would release him from his contract.&ldquo;What happened was that whenever a team called, Kari acknowleged to them that he had one year left on his (Flames&rsquo;(contract,&rdquo; said Don Baizley, Eloranta&rsquo;s agent. &ldquo;In effect, he tabled the matter until the year was over because he had no way of knowing whether he could get out of the contract.&ldquo;Cliff Fletcher was good enough to say they wouldn&rsquo;t keep him there against his will.&rdquo;Eloranta was not available for comment. However, Baizley said Eloranta had a choice of offers from Finland, Sweden and Switzerland.&ldquo;I think you have to stress that there&rsquo;s a minimum of bad feelings in this,&rdquo; said Baizley. &ldquo;He (Eloranta) would rather play on a club where his role would be different than it is on the Flames. Remember, the year before he came to Calgary, he was the outstanding player in Sweden. In Europe, he would again assume a premier role with a team.&rdquo;To minimize the red tape involved in releasing Eloranta, the Flames simply offered him a termination contract. Eloranta refused the deal, making him a free agent without compensation.Baizley called the transaction &ldquo;a mechanical exercise.&rdquo;The 29-year-old Eloranta joined the Flames in the summer of 1981 as a highly sought-after free agent. He had major problems adapting to North American hockey, however, and played only 19 games for the Flames before they sent him to the minors. Later. Eloranta was conditionally traded to St. Louis Blues, played 12 games for them, and then was returned to the Flames.Eloranta&rsquo;s best year came during the 1982-83 season, when he played all 80 games and contributed 44 points. The Flames rewarded him with a new two-year contract. Since then, Eloranta has had an up-and-down time of it.&ldquo;We were prepared to honor the final year of his contract and keep him around as insurance,&rdquo; said Fletcher, &ldquo;but there was no problem (releasing him) on our part&mdash;if that&rsquo;s what he wanted to do.&rdquo;As for Hislop, he turned down a chance to coach the Moncton team so that he could try his hand at teaching.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t that I didn&rsquo;t want to go to Moncton,&rdquo; explained Hislop. &ldquo;I just decided that at this point in my life. I wanted to try something else. Maybe 10 years from now, I&rsquo;ll want to get back in the game as an assistant coach, but not now.&ldquo;This is something I&rsquo;ve been thinking about all year long. I enjoyed the year I had here a lot. but if I stayed on as an assistant. I&rsquo;d just be fooling myself. I probably would have made the same decision next year. Now, I&rsquo;m just happy to get on with my life. I&rsquo;m excited about it.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

f0024-03

A Time For Change For The Flames

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div><h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01576/5030149-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="138" height="120"></div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;Lorne Henning is not walking into the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; coaching job wearing blinders, or with his vision obscured by rosecolored glasses.Henning knows Lou Nanne and he&rsquo;s heard the allegations about &ldquo;interference&rdquo; by the GM.He&rsquo;s heard about some of the team&rsquo;s players who have earned a reputation as the National Hockey League&rsquo;s most impressive group of under-achievers.And Henning realizes that there may be only one possible direction for the North Stars to go&mdash;up!&mdash;but that isn&rsquo;t why he took the coaching job.He is eager to develop as a coach, after four years as an New York Islander assistant and one as head coach of the Springfield Indians&rsquo; American League team shared by the Islanders and North Stars.I had the opportunity to become coach at Vancouver,&rdquo; said Henning. &ldquo;But we couldn&rsquo;t agree on a couple of things. At that time. I didn&rsquo;t know if the Minnesota job would be open, but it was in the back of my mind.&ldquo;I would have liked going to Vancouver. because that&rsquo;s where I&rsquo;m from, but when things didn&rsquo;t work out and the Minnesota job was open. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity.&ldquo;With the Islanders, I was a player-assistant coach for one year under Al Arbour, at a time when there weren&rsquo;t many assistant coaches in the league. Then I was assistant the next three years before going to Springfield.&rdquo;The Indians finished below the .500 mark last year but Henning learned from the experience.&ldquo;It was like five years in one,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We had our ups and downs, but we had 146 roster changes during the season. All the teams had some changes, but we had more than anybody else because both the North Stars and the Islanders had so many injury problems that they had a lot of call-ups.&ldquo;With all the coming and going, it was tough to have any repetition in practice. You&rsquo;d wonder why a guy didn&rsquo;t know what to do in a certain drill, then you&rsquo;d realize he hadn&rsquo;t been there before.&rdquo;As for Nanne, who went from Glen Sonmor&rsquo;s enthusiastic coaching to Bill Mahoney&rsquo;s strictly-disciplined defensive style and back to Sonmor&rsquo;s approach in a three-year span. Henning does not anticipate any problems.&ldquo;I dealt with Louie all last year,&rdquo; said Henning. &ldquo;He wants to win, and a lot of people may think of it as interference. He wants to be involved and know what&rsquo;s going on. but that&rsquo;s fine with me.&rdquo;Henning will bring in his good friend. Les Jackson, as one assistant coach, and retain J.P. Parise, with whom he played, as the other. Murray Oliver, Nanne&rsquo;s longtime friend and associate, will move up to an assistant general managing job with Nanne.&ldquo;Les was coach at Brandon for four years, and general manager there the last three,&rdquo; said Henning. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s highly qualified with younger players and is excellent on systems. And I&rsquo;ve known J.P. for a long time. He&rsquo;s got a good attitude and will be a positive influence.&rdquo;Henning learned a lot in the Islanders&rsquo; system, but he has learned a lot from other teams, as well. He expects to install a hybrid system of his own with the North Stars.&ldquo;The Islander system is sound in their own end,&rdquo; said Henning, &ldquo;so we might do some of the same things in the defensive zone.&ldquo;On offense, I&rsquo;m thinking we might do a lot of European things with motion and speed.&ldquo;I definitely want to be able to play both ways. A team has got to be flexible, depending on the opposition. If you can win 1-0. fine. If you can score a lot of goals, fine. And sometimes you have to play tough to win.&ldquo;I plan to work on certain things in our own zone for 10 or 15 minutes each day, and offensively we&rsquo;ll work on flow and movement and forechecking systems. It won&rsquo;t be that complicated.&ldquo;A lot of times, you want to be able to execute three or four systems, depending on what the other team is like.&rdquo;Henning is aware of the North Stars&rsquo; young prospects from coaching at Springfield. He also scouted their training camp last fall and has since watched numerous video tapes.&ldquo;There is a good amount of talent on the team,&rdquo; Henning said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve watched a lot of tapes, and I was certainly not happy with what I saw from some of them.&rdquo;Henning said from what he knows of Paul Holmgren, he is disappointed to see him leave the North Stars for an assistant coaching position with the Philadelphia Flyers. Nanne had said he would not allow Holmgren to be an assistant coach with Minnesota because he was &ldquo;too close to certain players.&rdquo;One player gone from the scene is defenseman Harold Snepsts who, as a free agent without compensation, signed with the Detroit Red Wings in July. Snepsts was on a termination contract after being obtained in trade with the Vancouver Canucks for Al MacAdam. &#9632;</div>

f0026-01

Henning Open-Eyed In Taking Coaching Role

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04258/5030218-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="122" height="121"></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Bill Torrey is an avid golfer, but he hasn&rsquo;t had much time to attack his favorite Long Island course this summer. Instead, the only general manager the Islanders have ever had is busy rebuilding the team.&ldquo;Everybody kept telling me I had to do something.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;So I have.&rdquo;The Isles&rsquo; largest turnover of personnel in recent years began with the release of defenseman Gord Lane soon after the Philadelphia Flyers eliminated the former Stanley Cup champions in the Patrick Division finals in late April. Two months later, Torrey announced the release of right winger Anders Kallur.So five players who were with the Islanders at last year&rsquo;s training camp are no longer with the team. In addition to Lane and Kallur, Billy Carroll and Butch Goring, both claimed on waivers, and Roland Melanson, traded, have also departed.Others may follow that quintet out the door. Torrey said that Bobby Nystrom had agreed to a termination contract. That means the veteran right winger will be invited to training camp for what could be his last season&mdash;if he makes the club.&ldquo;Bobby decided he wants one last kick at the cat,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;I told him we&rsquo;ll see how he does in camp and go from there.&rdquo;Kallur. 33, totaled 101 goals and 110 assists in six seasons with the Islanders and holds the club record with 19 shorthanded goals. He had a high of 36 goals in 1980-81, but appeared only in 51 games last season, collecting 10 goals and eight assists.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really shocked,&rdquo; Kallur said when reached by Pat Calabria of News-day at the player&rsquo;s summer home in Sweden. &ldquo;I was the oldest skater on the team and I knew they wanted to make some space for new people.&rdquo;The end of Kallur&rsquo;s career with the Islanders provided another indication that Al Arbour was able to extract a promise that the club would continue its overhaul in earnest before he agreed to return for his 13th season as coach.Said Torrey: &ldquo;We all have to realize that if we don&rsquo;t start creating room for our younger players, they will feel there&rsquo;s no room for them here, so we must create some daylight. Also, we believe we have enough young players so that some of them will be able to start taking over.&rdquo;There will be a strong influx of youth at the Islanders&rsquo; training camp this year. Torrey has seen to that. He signed two promising Finnish wingers, Mikko Makela and Ari Eerik Haanpaa, to multi-year contracts in early July. Earlier, Torrey announced the signing of left winger Bob Bassen and goalie Gary Johnson, two graduates of the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western League.Makela, 20, was the leading goal scorer (34-25-59) in the Finnish League last season while playing for Ilves. At last year&rsquo;s World Junior Championships, he had 11 goals in seven games and was named to the tournament all-star team at right wing.Haanpaa, 19, missed a good portion of the 1984-85 season with a knee injury. He also played for Ilves and was Makela&rsquo;s linemate on Finland&rsquo;s national team.Both Bassen and Johnson attended the Isles&rsquo; training camp last year as free agents. They had excellent camps and Torrey decided to make them Islander property. They were then returned to Medicine Hat to finish their junior careers.Bassen, 20, is the son of former NHL goalie Hank Bassen. He totaled 32 goals and 82 points in 65 games last season and was a first-team WHL all-star. Johnson, 20, was a second-team WHL all-star after posting a 25-9-0 record with a 3.27 goals-against average at Medicine Hat.ON THE ISLE&mdash;The Islanders will open their 14th NHL season with a three-game road trip. It begins in Los Angeles Oct. 12 and is followed by visits to Vancouver Oct. 14 and Edmonton Oct. 16. The Isles&rsquo; home opener will be against the Rangers Oct. 19&hellip;Two Islander draftees&mdash;Morey Gare of Northern Michigan and Dave Randerson of Bowling Green&mdash;have completed their college careers and have been invited to the Isles&rsquo; training camp. Gare is the younger brother of the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; Danny Gare. &#9632;</div>

f0026-04

Nystrom Returning But Not Kallur

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02404/5030180-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Thomas Gradin will become head coach of the Swedish national team after completion of the 1986-87 NHL season.</figcaption></div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03337/5030187-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="102" height="114"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;Tom Watt is one of the more astute observers of National Hockey League behavior. And as such, the 50-year-old former Jack Adams Trophy winner knows full well what he&rsquo;s getting himself into as new head coach of the Vancouver Canucks.Stressing patience and a desire to improve team speed. Watt signed a three-year contract to guide a club that finished more than 20 points out of the playoffs in a suddenly very competitive Smythe Division.Watt was also given the title of assistant GM to Jack Gordon and his assistant coach will be Jack Mcllhargey, who worked in the same capacity last year under Harry Neale and associate coach Ron Smith.&ldquo;From a coaching standpoint I want to be more tolerant with the talented player who doesn&rsquo;t always produce although you know it&rsquo;s there.&rdquo; said Watt, while claiming he was not referring to the alleged tensions between himself and Dale Hawerchuk in Winnipeg. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve learned from my experience that you have to be more patient with the talented non-performer.&rdquo;That sort of thinking seems tailor-made for the Vancouver situation, where star center Patrik Sundstrom is coming off a dreadful season which began with a wrist injury and ended in a cloudy practice injury that nobody in the media saw.Watt said he was pleased to have Mcllhargey with him for two reasons, one being his experience with the players.&ldquo;Another thing is I&rsquo;ve never played in the NHL myself so it was important for me to have a guy like Jack who gives a dimension to the team that I couldn&rsquo;t give,&rdquo; said Watt, who himself is an outstanding man but Gordon&rsquo;s third choice for the job behind Dave King and Lorne Henning.&ldquo;The key for us is that Tom knows our players and the Smythe Divison very welI,&rdquo; said Gordon. &ldquo;I wanted him as an assistant GM because I felt he should have a little more input into the management end of the team for player movements and decisions.&rdquo;But that is the chief problem facing the Canucks right now.While they have become something of a circus around the league, having approached so many people about joining the organization, they have been doing little or nothing to improve the quality of player on the ice.In fact, with veteran Thomas Gradin having already assured his future by commiting himself to become head coach of Sweden&rsquo;s national team when&rsquo; his Vancouver contract runs out at the end of the 1986-87 season, the club&rsquo;s incredible weakness at center ice has been further undermined.While they won&rsquo;t be losing Gradin for a couple of seasons, they have to be wondering about his commitment to&rdquo;playing when he has already made plans to address the cerebral part of the game.Gradin, 29, is in the midst of a four-year contract with the Canucks which will pay him about $200,000 a season, and he won&rsquo;t be making that sort of money coaching in Sweden.But the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation was obviously anxious to gain his NHL experience in light of the fact Anders Hedberg had already chosen to remain in North American in a management capacity.By signing Gradin to replace Leif Boork in time for the 1988 Olympics, the Swedes have assured themselves they won&rsquo;t lose the polished Gradin to Vancouver management.I feel I will be able to give something back to Swedish hockey,&rdquo; said Gradin.&ldquo;Maybe add something new and add something good because I played so many years in the NHL.&rdquo;In the meantime. Curt Lindstrom and Ingevar Carlsson will handle the Swedish team on an interim basis for two years. Tommy Sandlin, a former national coach, is also being enticed to rejoin the program. He would act as an aid to Gradin during the transition period. &#9632;

f0026-02

Talented Non-Performers Command Patience: Watt

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0027-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02350/5030249-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Bruins&rsquo; Butch Goring will doff his familiar helmet this year to take over as the Boston coach.</figcaption></div><h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01541/5030256-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="104" height="112"></div>BOSTON&mdash;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m confident I could play again,&rdquo; said Mike Milbury, the newly-named assistant coach of the Boston jBruins.&ldquo;But I made the choice to pursue a different career and I&rsquo;m tickled at the thought of it.&rdquo;Milbury was the big surprise in the Bruins&rsquo; coaching shuffle in early May that saw Butch Goring promoted from player to coach and Jean Ratelle dropped from assistant coach to the new post of scouting and working with the local colleges.Just more than a month before the opening of training camp, Milbury&rsquo;s role as a coach is still not clearly defined. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not my desire necessarily to coach from behind the bench.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Butch and I have talked about that. I&rsquo;d like to move around the building to different vantage points when watching the game.&ldquo;I guess watching games from upstairs. looking down on the rink, you get a different perspective, but you&rsquo;re also removed from the game a little. I think you&rsquo;re more involved being on the bench. Maybe I&rsquo;ll be upstairs fora period or two and then downstairs.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of the organizational I things we&rsquo;ll have to work out.&rdquo;&ldquo;One of the roles that has already been worked out with Goring involves physical conditioning and game preparation through video tapes.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m working out a program for our players for off-ice aerobics and circuit training,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been putting together some stuff on physical conditioning, like the Nautilus. Some of the guys are in such great condition I almost didn&rsquo;t want to send them the stuff.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s possible to break the video tapes down line by line so the players can look &ldquo;at themselves in 15 minutes instead of going through a whole game. We can break the tapes down by goalies and defense pairings, too.&ldquo;I plan to stay in shape myself. You never know, down the line I might be called on to strap on the skates. That&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve talked to Harry Sinden about. But I would think if I haven&rsquo;t been called on by December, I&rsquo;d not be needed.&rdquo;Milbury, who turned 33 in June and had been a fulltime Bruin defenseman for nine years, began thinking about retirement early last season.&ldquo;I was getting physically battered.&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;And I was looking for opportunities. As the year wore on I began to think more seriously about them. I decided to weigh my options at the end of the season and see if there was something I could fit into.&rdquo;Milbury even went to see a placement counsellor for &ldquo;interviews, resumes, tests, all the things you do to look for a new job. I thought I was going into advertising or public relations, a real career change.&ldquo;I went to see Harry at the end of the year and told him my plans. He spoke with Butch and we came up with this particular proposal.&rdquo;Milbury is the first local product to coach the Bruins at any level. He was born in Boston and grew up in suburban Walpole. He went to Colgate on a football scholarship, switched to hockey and was signed by the Bruins as a free agent in November, 1974.In his nine years, plus a fraction of a 10th, he played in 664 games, 14th on the all-time Boston list, and was assessed 1,354 penalty minutes, second behind his longtime teammate Terry O&rsquo;Reilly. For one season he held the team&rsquo;s penalty record with 166 minutes.&ldquo;The highlight of my career had to be simply the chance to play in my hometown for my whole career,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;As far as memories go, most of them involve playoff games.&ldquo;The night Terry scored in the second overtime to beat Philadelphia in my first full year in the league is one of my great memories.&ldquo;One of the worst memories is the night Montreal beat us in overtime in that unforgettable seventh game after we got penalized for too many men on the ice.&ldquo;Just having played with Cash (Wayne Cashman), Cheese, (Gerry Cheevers) and Taz (O&rsquo;Reilly) stands out in my mind as great memories.&rdquo;And the future?&ldquo;I certainly don&rsquo;t want to stagnate in one position for the rest of my life,&rdquo; he said the day of his appointment as assistant coach.&ldquo;I hope I will continue to learn and grow.&rdquo; And then he added with a grin, &ldquo;I expect to replace Butch at the end of the year.&rdquo;</div><div style="clear: both;"> &#9632;</div>

f0027-02

Milbury Will Be Prepared Just In Case He’s Needed

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03230/5030287-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="114" height="114"></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Andrew McBain has spent a sick summer sleeping.Afflicted by mononucleosis, as early as March, the 20-year-old member of the Winnipeg Jets was instructed by doctors to refrain from any activity for four-and-a-half months.&ldquo;I felt like a potato.&rdquo; said McBain from his Toronto home, where he bides his time reading and watching television.Fed up with his lot, McBain decided to vent his frustration on a small bucket of golf balls at a driving range one afternoon.&ldquo;My condition was right at its peak,&rdquo; said McBain. &ldquo;I thought I was going to die I was so tired. I couldn&rsquo;t believe how weak I was.&rdquo;Usually an exuberant, sociable sort, who enjoys a good time any time of the day. McBain was obliged to treat his condition with the ultimate in respect, which meant plenty of rest, little exertion and limited social contact.&ldquo;I saw him at the draft meetings in Toronto.&rdquo; said general manager John Ferguson. &ldquo;He looked just terrible. All his coloring was gone.&rdquo;McBain&rsquo;s weight plummeted from a season-opening 206 pounds to 187.&ldquo;Laurie Boschman had mono.&rdquo; said McBain. &ldquo;He said he slept 15 times a day and never ate. Talking to him helped a lot.&rdquo;A first-round draft choice, selected eight overall in 1983, McBain is coming off a disappointing season. He had seven goals and 15 assists in 77 games, finishing at minus-2.The Jets had initiated the Lucien De-Blois-for-Perry Turnbull trade with the Montreal Canadiens, thinking that McBain could establish himself as the team&rsquo;s No. 2 right winger behind Paul Mac Lean.While the team enjoyed its best season In the National Hockey League, the gamble failed. McBain seemed bogged down by his newly-developed upper body. His speed suffered noticeably. And he lacked enthusiasm, which annoyed more than a few people, including team captain Dale Hawerchuk.As the season drew longer. McBain grew worse. He played only the occasional shift on the fourth line.Now the Jets have imformed him that he will be given the opportunity to perform at center ice, a position he played until his final year of junior hockey.&ldquo;I think moving me to center will be great,&rdquo; said McBain. &ldquo;At right wing I feel I have been channeled. I have to stay along the boards, going up and down the ice. At center. I will have the liberty to move around more.&rdquo;In mid-July, doctors informed McBain that he could resume workingout, noting positive signs following blood tests&mdash;namely his appetite returned to its ravaging self.&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t make the mistake of coming to camp at 206 again,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My ideal weight is 195-198. I&rsquo;ll be able to skate better. I couldn&rsquo;t skate any worse than I did last year.&rdquo;McBain has yet to make an impact on the Jets, let alone the NHL. Still, his teammates and management are covinced he has much to offer a club that has an opportunity to establish itself as one the league&rsquo;s best.BENCH BITS&mdash;The highlight of a fishing trip to Northern Ontario was the catch of an 18-pound northern pike by Dale Hawerchuk. Coach Barry Long had the second biggest&mdash;16 pounds&hellip;Brad Berry, a University of North Dakota defenseman and the Jets&rsquo; second-round choice in 1983. is apparantly anxious to turn pro but John Ferguson would prefer to see him remain in school one more year&hellip; Defensemen Roger Ohman and Frederick Olansson have signed long-term contracts with their teams in Sweden. However, both expressed a desire to play professionally in the NHL with the Jets. &ldquo;Long before their contracts are up over there we&rsquo;ll have them here,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll negotiate with the clubs involved and buy them out. Sweden prefers to operate this way. The two players wre selected in the second and fourth rounds, respectivley, in the 1985 draft&hellip;There is every reason to believe the Jets will make a major trade with another NHL team, possibly Vancouver or Washington, before the season starts&hellip; Len Neilson. a center from Regina Pats, has signed a tryout contract with the Jets. The five-foot-eight, 165-pound native of Moose Jaw had 35 goals and 74 assists in 72 games last season. He is 18 years old&hellip;Murray Eaves, Wade Campbell, Jordy Douglas, Paul and Perry Pooley received rings commemorating their American League championship with the Sherbrooke Canadiens.The rings bear the logos of the Canadiens on one side and the Jets&rsquo; on the other. &ldquo;It was the Canadiens&rsquo; doing,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &ldquo;Very classy.&rdquo; &#9632;</div>

f0027-03

Mono Means Sleep-Filled Summer

<div class="byline">BY DICK BAKER</div>Louisville Hockey&reg;Louisville Hockey&reg;NEW HAVEN&mdash;A Pete Rose-type situation is blooming in New Haven.Pesky Robbie Ftorek. hockey&rsquo;s Charlie Hustle, plans to engrave his enthusiasm behind the bench of the New Haven Nighthawks.Ftorek, who replaces Nick Beverley as the American Hockey League team&rsquo;s head coach, won the derby for the highly sought-after post.&ldquo;We went through an extensive list,&rdquo; acknowledged New Haven GM Roy Mlakar. &ldquo;If there&rsquo;s one guy capable of molding two organizations together (N.Y. Rangers and L.A. Kings), it&rsquo;s Ftorek.&ldquo;We needed a motivator and Ftorek is just that. He&rsquo;s the only non-French speaking captain the Quebec Nordiques have ever had.&rdquo;Like Rose, Ftorek knows only one way&mdash;100 per cent at all times. He&rsquo;s already served notice that hustle is expected at all times-including practice.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the type of person who demands effort, he won&rsquo;t take anything less,&rdquo; said Mlakar.Ftorek loves setting goals, but has no use for dividing the season into eight 10-game segments.&ldquo;He was once asked how many games the team should win in a particular 10-game period,&rdquo; recalled Mlakar. &ldquo;His answer was 10. No one should be on the ice with any other feeling. We feel we made the right choice.&rdquo;Only a dozen years ago, Ftorek scored his first NHL goal against Gilles Gilbert of the Boston Bruins. He later became a World Hockey Association superstar. winning the league&rsquo;s MVP award in 1977 after racking up 117 points. Overall, Ftorek put together four 100-point-plus seasons in the WHA before joining Quebec for the 1979-80 season, when he scored 50 points in 51 games.He was traded to the Rangers Dec. 30, 1981. During the 1981-82 playoffs, he tallied seven times in 10 games.At 33, Ftorek played in 48 Ranger games during the 1984-85 season. Although he managed only 19 points in 48 games, his plus-minus was better than 16 teammates.New Haven failed last year to capitalize on a late-season collapse by Springfield in the chase for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Southern Division. The Nighthawks finished fifth with a dismal 31-41-8 mark, including the second worst defensive record in the league (341 goals against). Mlakar is hoping the Nighthawks have a goaltender such as Ron Scott, who suffered through an injury-riddled season a year ago.&ldquo;We know he&rsquo;s a better goaltender than he showed last year,&rdquo; said Mlakar. &ldquo;He was bothered by a chronic groin pull.&rdquo;Scott had a 3.81 goals-against average in 36 games. Teammate Mike Blake had a 4.16 mark in 42 games.Will the addition of Ftorek help the Nighthawks at the gate?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to take time,&rdquo; said Mlakar, &ldquo;we&rsquo;re going to have to show something on the ice first. But the other parts (advertising and marketing) are ahead of any other year.&rdquo;Meanwhile, in Springfield, Fred Creighton has emerged again as the leading candidate to coach the Indians.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01547/5030318-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="549" height="655"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rob Ftorek brings Pete Rose-type enthusiasm to the AHL&rsquo;s New Haven Nighthawks.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0028-01

A Rose By Any Other Name Is Called Ftorek

<div class="byline">BY PAT LYON</div>ERIE&mdash;Just because the Atlantic Coast Hockey League may be a five-team league again this season doesn&rsquo;t mean the future isn&rsquo;t bright.As the fifth-year league prepared for an early August meeting in Winston-Salem, two items were at the top of the agenda. Along with the discussion of a possible new franchise, the board of governors were hoping to convince commissioner Ray Miron to return for another season.Miron&rsquo;s two-year contract with the league expired at the end of July.Hopes for the new franchise&mdash;which would go under the name of New York Rovers&mdash;were based in Staten Island. N.Y. Representatives were attempting to iron out a building lease at the new 5.000-seat Phil Esposito Sports and Entertainment Center.Another group in Hampton, VI., has entered the expansion picture but the group may be a year away from viability.&ldquo;We could have five or six teams, depending on the Hampton situation, but even if we do have only five, the addition of New York will add something in the way of a big-city image.&rdquo; said Miron.Slated to return this season were the regular-season and playoff-champion Carolina Thunderbirds, along with the Erie Golden Blades, Virginia Lancers and Mohawk Valley Stars.The Pine Bridge Bucks&rsquo; franchise was transferred to&rsquo; a group of investors in another city. The group was granted a year&rsquo;s hiatus after which they will return to play in a new and undisclosed location.Miron feels that things are definitely looking up for the league.&ldquo;If we can get by this year with five or six teams it will make the league solid for the future,&rdquo; explained the ACHL boss.&ldquo;We have interest from people in Atlanta, Charlotte, and a year from now, I know we&rsquo;ll have a team in the New England area. Having eight teams a year from now is not unrealistic, things are definitely looking up.&rdquo;The ACHL became a rookie development league last year and because of its success, the format will be followed again this season. Eight rookies will be joined by seven veterans, the same ratio used last season.Plans are being formulated for three regional rookie camps and a main camp which may be held in Erie.AROUND THE LEAGUE&mdash;Everyone connected with the league was saddened by the death of Bob Bales, who was killed in a car crash early this summer. Bales played last season with the Erie Golden Blades&hellip;Former Erie and Mohawk Valley coach Bill Horton is expected to be one of the new owners of the Mohawk Valley&hellip;Virginia was rumored to be seeking the services of former player-coach Frank Perkins of Pine Bridge. &#9632;

Staten Island Is The Apple Of ACHL Eye

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>Louisville Hockey&reg;Louisville Hockey&reg;INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;The players may be on the golf course, but action in the International League has been hectic ever since the Peoria Rivermen put the wraps on the Turner Cup a couple of months ago.There have been some surprises, perhaps, but commissioner Bud Poile will be looking at a nine-team league for the second straight season when the puck is dropped in October.The Generals from Flint, however, will be playing out of Saginaw this year. They will retain the team name and their organizational structure.The team will play its games at Wendler Arena. The former Gears from Saginaw occupied the arena from 1972 to 1983. The Generals were in Flint for 16 seasons.GM-coach Dennis Desrosiers indicated the Generals and the city of Flint just couldn&rsquo;t reach an accord, thus the 40-mile move north to Saginaw.The Generals have also reached a working agreement with the Chicago Black Hawks, according to Desrosiers. &ldquo;We expect to get five or six players from them,&rdquo; he said. The Generals also have affiliations with the Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres.At least three teams will have new coaches.Toledo Goaldiggers were the first to announce a change. GM Jerry Francis admitted he &ldquo;took a gamble&rdquo; in hiring 39-year-old Peter Mahovlich to his first coaching job.But, he added, Mahovlich made a good impression in the first interview between the two. After an NHL career from 1965 to 1981, Mahovlich began doing radio work for the Adirondack Red Wings of the American League and most recently worked with the Madison Square Garden Network as a television commentator.&ldquo;The gamble was a major move for me,&rdquo; admitted Francis. &ldquo;But I was willing to take that gamble because of his name, his contacts and his vast playing experience in the NHL.&rdquo;Francis is counting on a winning team to keep the financially-struggling Goaldiggers alive at the box office.Just a week after Toledo announced its coaching change, the Salt Lake Golden Eagles announced the selection of Wayne Thomas as their coach. Thomas, 37, isn&rsquo;t a newcomer to the coaching ranks. He has spent the last five seasons as an assistant with the New York Rangers.Thomas played eight seasons in the NHL&mdash;including stints with Montreal. Toronto and the Rangers. He becomes the 10th head coach at Salt Lake in 17 seasons. This is the Eagles&rsquo; second year in the IHL.One of his first official acts was to designate Bobby Francis as his assistant. Francis will also continue to play.Indianapolis has gone through the most significant changeover. The Checkers enter their second campaign in the IHL with a new owner, new GM-coach and new arena.Larry Woods, an area financial planner and director of underwriting for an insurance company, assumed ownership of the club from Al Savill and immediately announced he would move the Checkers back downtown and the modem Market Square Arena.The team played at MSA during its first two seasons in Indianapolis as a member of the Central League. It then moved to the State Fairgrounds Coliseum, where the Checkers played their first IHL season.It took Woods just a couple of weeks to name Ron Ullyot as the team&rsquo;s GM-coach. The 39-year-old Ullyot comes to Indianapolis from Fort Wayne where, in four seasons, he coached the Komets to a 173-124-34 record.Ullyot succeeds Fred Creighton as GM. Creighton will be with Springfield of the AHL for the New York Islanders, while Darcy Regier, who started last season as the Checkers&rsquo; coach, will join the Islanders&rsquo; front office.Milwaukee, meanwhile, cut its ties with the Chicago Black Hawks, and GM Phil Wittliff said the Admirals were &ldquo;looking for a second affiliation with the NHL.&rdquo; He signed defenseman Kevin Willison to a contract and expects Dale Yakiwchuk, John Flesch and Blaine Peerless to rejoin the Admirals&rsquo; fold. They were on loan to Kalamazoo last season.A couple of things didn&rsquo;t change in the NHL, though. Both Pat Kelly and Rick Ley of Peoria and Muskegon, respectively will return. They coached their teams to division championships before the Rivermen edged the Lumberjacks in seven games for the Turner Cup.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01469/5030373-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="552" height="784"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Ley is back to guide the Muskegon Lumberjacks in the International League.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0029-01

Gens On The March From Flint To Saginaw

<div class="byline">BY MORRIS DALLA COSTA</div>Louisville Hockey&reg;Louisville Hockey&reg;SUDBURY&mdash;It is the tale of two northern cities.One has operated a successful hockey business both on and off the ice, the other has been beset by problems.And so the tale continues with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, OHL champions, hiring Don MacAdam, 34, as coach and GM of their Ontario Hockey League club.As for the Sudbury Wolves, OHL also-rans, they lost a GM-coach before he even stepped behind the bench.In a stunning twist to the Wolves&rsquo; increasingly ludicrous coaching saga. Bob Strumm became the latest to vacate the Wolves&rsquo; hotseat, telling club managemet he w&rsquo;as giving up the position of GM-coach only a short time after accepting the job.Strumm was hired to replace the fired Andy Spruce at the end of May.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m discouraged and disappointed,&rdquo; said Strumm from his home in Regina. &ldquo;There were certain things that had to be attended to with the Wolves within a certain period of time. We laid down certain guidelines and they weren&rsquo;t followed.&rdquo;One of those guidelines was the signing of a contract.&ldquo;We discussed signing a contract a number of times and I&rsquo;m not the kind of guy that keeps bugging them.&rdquo; said Strumm. &ldquo;I even had a contract drawn up by a friend of mine just to have it around when we talked about it.&ldquo;We never got around to it and I made a decision (to leave) and when I make a decision I usually don&rsquo;t go back on it. This week, they (the Wolves) would have done anything for me but it was too late and a decision had to be made.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m like a generator. When I&rsquo;m going, I go 100 per cent but when I&rsquo;m degenerating&hellip;&rdquo;The signing of a contract was not the only problem Strumm encountered. &ldquo;When I relumed to Sudbury there were some things done which I viewed as an encroachment of my duties.&rdquo;Strumm declined to mention who encroached on what.&ldquo;They have the potential of having a good club and hopefully they will have.&rdquo; said Strumm. &ldquo;I was extremely excited about the move and if certain things had been done, I would be there as coach and general manager.&rdquo;Strumm, 37, resigned as GM of the Western League&rsquo;s Regina Pats. He has a tremendous reputation as a hockey executive and everywhere he has gone, his clubs have been successful. He was GM of Canada&rsquo;s national junior team which won the gold medal at the world tournament in 1982. He would have been ideal for the Wolves&rsquo; job.Gord Ewin, one of the Wolves&rsquo; ownrs, said Strumm &ldquo;decided not to honor his agreement with the team because of personal reasons.&ldquo;We were looking forward to having him. He told us last Friday.and it was a complete surprise to us.&rdquo;The Wolves&rsquo; revolving door begins turning again as the search for a GM-coach begins anew. The Wolves have a month before training camp opens. Ewin said the Wolves will be looking at some of the applicants who applied when Strumm was selected and would be happy to accept any new applications. Wayne Maxner and Marcel Pronovost are, however, considered leading candidates.Strumm&rsquo;s decision was not only mourned by the Wolves but by Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds&rsquo; owner Jim McAuley. The Greyhounds play the Wolves 12 times during the regular season and a competitive team in Sudbury would mean a better drawing card when the teams meet.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really disappointed because he would have helped Sudbury and that would have helped us,&rdquo; said McAuley. &ldquo;Strumm would have been good for the league. He&rsquo;s controversial and when he was with the WHL. he made a lot of good management moves and decisions.&rdquo;The Wolves&rsquo; job may be the last for Strumm in hockey&hellip;at least for awhile.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s time to get back into the real world,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Sometimes sports is the unreal world. I hope to get into the financial end of things, into the investment business. Hopefully. the opportunities are there.&ldquo;Everyone keeps telling me I&rsquo;m at the prime of life as a hockey executive. Well, there were 24 jobs in the National Hockey League last year and I didn&rsquo;t get a phone call about any of them.&ldquo;Obviously, the NHL doesn&rsquo;t think the same as those people do. You can only stay in the minors so long.&rdquo;MacAdam may be in a hot seat of his own.&ldquo;When all the Sault media called me, they said I was stepping into some pretty big shoes,&rdquo; said MacAdam, who replaces coach Terry Crisp and GM Sam McMaster.&ldquo;I told them I can&rsquo;t wait because Terry and Sam did a great job building the Greyhounds into one of the very best junior programs in Canada.&rdquo;Crisp now coaches the Moncton Golden Flames of the American League and McMaster is assistant director of player personnel for the Washington Capitals.MacAdam has been coach of the University of New Brunswick the past eight seasons. He was also an assistant coach with Fredericton Express of the AHL the last four years.He played three years at UNB and single seasons in the defunct Southern and North American Leagues. MacAdam then spent three years playing and poaching in the Netherlands and England. He assisted Dave King with Team Canada last season at the Pravda Cup.MacAdam beat out other applicants such as Gene Ubriaco, Bill Mahoney, Walt McKechnie and Wayne Maxner.&ldquo;I told him even though he was the winner, he was really the loser.&rdquo; said McAuley. &ldquo;Both Terry and Sam did tremendous jobs, but Terry especially could have run for mayor, MP and MPP and won all three.&ldquo;But everything is so positive with him (MacAdam). His attitude is something which helped him in getting picked. He&rsquo;s tremendously organized and a very impressive person. Right now he&rsquo;s in the Maritimes but he&rsquo;ll work his way back to the Soo, visiting draft choices and our players.&rdquo;One other candidate for the job was London Knights&rsquo; coach Don Boyd.&ldquo;I would have liked to have had him,&rdquo; said McAuley, &ldquo;f talked to Howard (Knights&rsquo; owner Howard Darwin) because I heard Don didn&rsquo;t have a contract but Howard told me Don was happy in London and that the two of them had an agreement. An agreement is as good as a contract to me.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01536/5030428-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="552" height="798"><figcaption class="caption-body">The reasons why aren&rsquo;t clear, but Bob Strumm won&rsquo;t be managing the Wolves.</figcaption></div>McAdam realizes he had beat out a lot of prime hockey beef to win the Sault coaching job.&ldquo;I know what you mean when you asked Am I surprised?&rsquo;&rdquo;, McAdam, said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m unknown in a lot of ways but when I took the UNB job. the team had won only one game the year before and we won the league last year. During my eight years we were ranked anywhere from second to fourth (in Canada) consistanly.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0030-01

If Wolves Howl, It’ll Be Without Strumm

BUFFALO&mdash;Mikael Andersson, LW, 1984 draft pick from Vastra Frolunda, Sweden, signed to NHL contract. Dave Maloney, D, announced retirement from hockey.CALGARY&mdash;Don Edwards, G, traded to Toronto for 1985 draft pick. Steve Tambellini, C, becomes free agent without compensation after Flames buy out final year of contract.DETROIT&mdash;Ray Staszak, RW, from Illinois-Chicago, Adam Oates, C, and Tim Friday, D, both from RPI, Chris Cichocki, RW, from Michigan Tech, and Dale Krentz, C, from Michigan State, all signed as free agents. Warren Young, RW, signed four-year contract as free agent from Pittsburgh without compensation. Mike McEwen, D, from Washington, Harold Snepsts, D, from Minnesota, and Geordie Robertson, RW, owned by Buffalo, all signed as free agents. Colin Campbell retired and named assistant coach. Red Wings also announced they had released the following players outright as free agents: Goalie Ken Holland, defensemen John Beukeboom and Tom Cronin, and forwards Dan Bonar, Todd Bidner, Dennis Polonich, Andre St. Laurent, Carmine Vani, Pat Graham and Louis Haman. Wings also disclosed Frantisek Cernik, LW, and Milan Chalupa, D, would not be returning to the team for the 1985-86 season.MINNESOTA&mdash;George Servinis, RW, of RPI signed to NHL contract as free agent. Keith Acton, C. signed to three-year contract. Tim Coulis signed to two-year pact.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Anders Kallur, RW, released as free agent. Ari Haanpaa, RW, 1984 draft pick, and Mikko Makela, RW, 1983 draft pick, both from Ilves, Finland, signed to NHL contracts.NY RANGERS&mdash;Robbie Ftorek, C, retired as active player to become coach of New Haven Nighthawks of AHL.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Kevin McCarthy, D, signed to NHL contract.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Terry Ruskowski, C, signed to multi-year contract after becoming free agent without compensation with Los Angeles Kings. Jim Johnson, D, from Min-Duluth signed as free agent. Penguins announced the following players had been released outright as free agents: Goalie Michel Dion, defensemen Kevin McCarthy, Bryan Maxwell, Greg Fox and Greg Tebbutt, forwards Andy Brickley, Rod Schutt, Tim Tookey and Bruce Boudreau.QUEBEC&mdash;Marian Stastny, RW, released as free agent. Tony Currie, RW, signed as free agent from Edmonton.TORONTO&mdash;Brad Smith, RW, from Detroit, Gary McAdam, C, from New Jersey and Blake Wesley, D, from Quebec, signed as free agents.VANCOUVER&mdash;Moe Lemay, RW, signed to multi-year contract.WASHINGTON&mdash;Yvon Corriveau, LW, 1985 first-round draft pick from Toronto Marlboros, signed to contract. Grant Jennings, D, signed as free agent from Saskatoon of WHL.WINNIPEG&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk, C, signed to eight-year contract.TEAM CANADA&mdash;Alain Raymond, G, from T-Rivieres of QHL and Martin Bouliane, C, from Granby of QHL, agreed to join Canadian Olympic program.<h2>FREE AGENTS</h2>Following players were declared eligible for free agency with compensation by their NHL teams:BOSTON&mdash;John Blum.BUFFALO&mdash;Jacques Cloutier, Randy Cunneyworth and Dirk Rueter.CHICAGO&mdash;Randy Boyd, Keith Brown, Jim Ralph, Warren Skorodenski and Behn Wilson.EDMONTON&mdash;Dave Lumley and Gilles Meloche.HARTFORD&mdash;Mark PatersonLOS ANGELES&mdash;Dean Kennedy.MINNESOTA&mdash;Jon Casey, Dirk Graham and Dave Richter.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Joe Cirella and Rick Meagher.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Scott Howson.NY RANGERS&mdash;Chris Kontos.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Wayne Babych.QUEBEC&mdash;Gord Donnelly and J.F. Sauve.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Joe Mullen.TORONTO&mdash;Walt Poddubny.WASHINGTON&mdash;Bob Carpenter.Following players were declared free agents without compensation:BOSTON&mdash;Peter Dineen, Mike Gillis, Dean Jenkins, Doug Morrison.BUFFALO&mdash;Louis Crawford, Vai James, Jerry Korab, Chris Langevin, Bob Mongrain, Chris Renaud, Mark Renaud, Vince Tremblay.CALGARY&mdash;Bruce Eakin, Tim Hunter, Jim Jackson, Peter Sullivan, Randy Turnbull.CHICAGO&mdash;Darrel Anholt, Craig Homola, Bob MacMillan, Perry Pelensky.DETROIT&mdash;Jody Gage, Bob Manno, Brian Rorabeck, Dave Silk, Ted Speers, Paul Woods.EDMONTON&mdash;Marco Baron, Rejean Cloutier, Pat Conacher, Mike Krensing, Mark Morrison, Bart Yachimec, Mike Zanier.HARTFORD&mdash;Dan Bourbonnais, Mike Crombeen, Ed Staniowski.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Dave Ross.MINNESOTA&mdash;Ron Friest, John Markell, Ken Solheim, Terry Tait, Tim Trimper, Ron Wilson.MONTREAL&mdash;Gaston Gingras, Doug Soetaert.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Michel Bolduc, Tom Gorence, Mike Hardy, Doug McGrath, Glenn Merkosky, Ron Sommer.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Glenn Hicks, Gord Lane.NY RANGERS&mdash;Mike Backman, Cam Connor, Gary DeGrio, Jim Malone, Steve Martinson, Larry Patey.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Miroslav Dvorak, Al Hill, Tim Young.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Ted Bulley, Steve Gatzos, Bob Geale, Tim Tucker, Wally Weir, Bennett Wolf.QUEBEC&mdash;Andre Chartrain, Jim Dobson, Chris Tanguay, Yvon Vautour, Dan Wood.TORONTO&mdash;Dave Farrish, Basil McRae, Fred Perlini, Rocky Saganiuk, Gary Yaremchuk.VANCOUVER&mdash;Rob McClanahan, Peter McNab.WASHINGTON&mdash;Paul Gardner, Mikko Leinonen, Dave Shand.WINNIPEG&mdash;Jordy Douglas.<h2>COACHING CHANGES</h2>CALGARY&mdash;Pierre Page named asst, coach.DETROIT&mdash;Colin Campbell named asst, coach.EDMONTON&mdash;Ted Green leaves asst, coach&rsquo;s position.HERSHEY&mdash;John Paddock named coach, replacing Bill Barber.MONCTON&mdash;Terry Crisp named coach, replacing Pierre Page. Danny Bolduc retired as active player to become asst, coach.MONTREAL&mdash;Jean Perron named head coach after resignation of Jacques Lemaire.NEW HAVEN&mdash;Robbie Ftorek named head coach replacing Nick Beverly.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Paul Holmgren named asst, coach, replacing Ted Sator.SALT LAKE&mdash;Wayne Thomas named head coach. Bobby Francis named player-asst, coach.TOLEDO&mdash;Pete Mahovlich named coach replacing Ted Garvin.VERDUN&mdash;Carol Vadnais replaces Jean Begin as coach. &#9632;

PLAYER TRANSACTIONS

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>Louisville Hockey&reg;Louisville Hockey&reg;NEW WESTMINSTER&mdash;And you think you&rsquo;ve got problems.A year ago assuming a Western Hockey League coaching position with the New Westminster Bruins would have been tempting to say the least. The Bruins were a veteran club with enough size and skill to take a serious run at the Western Division title. They also had a mighty mite named Cliff Ronning at center and mastermind Al Patterson behind the bench.The Bruins placed second in the division and bowed out to the Kamloops Blazers in the division final. But now that Ronning is contemplating a move to the Olympic program. Patterson has accepted a GM and coaching position with the Victoria Cougars and the nucleus of the Bruins may not return, most are predicting the cellar for BruinsAdd the fact New Westminster is expected to be competitive in being granted host berth for the 1986 Memorial Cup in Vancouver&rsquo;s Pacific Coliseum, and it&rsquo;s a situation most would want to avoid.Not Earl Jessiman.The 30-year-old Dartmouth. N S. native looks upon the situation in New Westminster as a true test of his abilities. Although a rookie coach by WHL standards, Jessiman has guided teams to championships at both the university and professional levels.&ldquo;I think the main reason I took the job is that it&rsquo;s a challenge for me,&rdquo; said Jessiman. who spent the last two seasons as coach of the American League&rsquo;s Fredericton Express. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve worked at two levels and I wanted to look into junior as well. I don&rsquo;t know how many my age have coached at all three levels. I have an ambition of getting to the National Hockey League and this will help a great deal.&ldquo;In New Westminster it&rsquo;s better to come in at this situation. If you&rsquo;ve got a strong organization and are expected to finish first that&rsquo;s a tougher situation. We&rsquo;re looking at having an average year. We have to be honest with ourselves&mdash;we&rsquo;re not going to win it all this year. We&rsquo;re going to build for the next few years.&rdquo;Building is something that didn&rsquo;t happen in New Westminster last season.Knowing he had the makings of team which could challenge for division supremacy. Patterson loaded the roster with older players. While it made the Bruins competitive, they knew by putting all their eggs in one basket that they&rsquo;d likely pay the price this season.&ldquo;My intention is to get familiar with guys on the list and guys on other lists, too,&rdquo; said Jessiman, who accepted a one-year contract with an option for a second year. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t approach it any other way and hopefully we&rsquo;ll be respectable&mdash;that&rsquo;s a priority with us.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t load the team down with 19-year-olds and expect to be successful in the long term. Basically, that&rsquo;s what happened here last year. They went with two lines and three defensemen. You can&rsquo;t do that and win. A lot of kids on our list could have played in the league and didn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;The Bruins counted heavily last season on the line of Ronning. Brian Noonan and overage Jim Camazzola. Now that the league has increased the limit on 20-year-old players from two to three. Jessiman said he&rsquo;s interested in Ronning, Noonan and rearguard Jason Meyer filling those positions.Ronning, a 5-foot-8, 168-pound Burnaby, B.C. native, captured MVP, most gentlemanly player and top scoring honors last season.He set a WHL record by collecting 197 points in 70 games. And the seventh-round St. Louis Blues&rsquo; selection broke another mark by scoring goals in 18 consecutive games.Ronning will try to crack the St. Louis lineup and has also shown interest in playing in Europe or with the Olympic program. Some have speculated that if he were to return to the WHL, Ronning would want to be reunited with Patterson in Victoria.Noonan, a 6-foot, 190-pound right winger from Boston, Mass., finished with 116 points last season. He has signed a contract with the Chicago Black Hawks and could play in their system this season.Camazzola, whose overage rights were secured from Kamloops, finished with 48 points in 25 games. In the playoffs the 5-foot-ll. 195-pound Burnaby native had 22 points in 11 games including 10 goals. Camazzola is also the property of Chicago.Meyer anchored the New Westminster defense. The 6-foot, 190-pound rearguard tallied 71 points and has signed a contract with the Buffalo Sabres. His status with New Westminster is up in the air.Other concerns for the Bruins are filling holes left in trades. Forwards Larry Depalma and Craig Berube were dealt in the off-season along with netminder Lance Carlsen. Jessiman expects about 10 players back from last season&rsquo;s 41-192 club.With only a. glance at the roster and a peek at the Queen&rsquo;s Park Arena, it&rsquo;s tough for Jessiman to formulate strategy before camp.&ldquo;I know what kind of coach I am but I&rsquo;ve got to assess the personnel first,&rdquo; said Jessiman. &ldquo;I want a club with size and toughness&mdash;those are the kinds of teams I&rsquo;ve coached. Queen&rsquo;s Park is 15 feet shorter than normal rinks and we play 36 games there. You&rsquo;d better take advantage of that, and we don&rsquo;t want to be run out of our own rink.&rdquo;Jessiman may have felt he was run out of his last coaching position.Despite guiding Fredericton to a second-place showing last season and the Northern Division title in 1983-84, Jessiman&rsquo;s contract was not renewed by the Quebec Nordiques.Prior to that, Jessiman was head coach of Brandon University for two seasons&mdash;advancing to the national playdowns each year.Assisting Jessiman in New Westminster will be Gary Braun, who coached Fort MacMurray of the Tier II Alberta Junior Hockey League in 1984-85.WHL NOTES&mdash;Nine WHL players made Canada&rsquo;s under-18 national team, which faced Team USA in an exhibition series in Colorado Springs, July 22 and 24. Forwards Kevin Kowalchuk of the Saskatoon Blades, Mark Pederson of the Medicine Hat Tigers, Theoren Fleury of the Moose Jaw Warriors, Craig Endean of the Seattle Breakers and Mark Janssens of the Regina Pats; defensemen Doug Hobson of the Prince Albert Raiders, Greg Hawgood of the Kamloops Blazers and Glen Wesley of the Portland Winter Hawks and goaltender Mark Fitzpatrick of Medicine Hat made the squad. Endean and Hobson scored in the series opener, a 7-2 win for Canada.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01488/5030483-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="561" height="952"><figcaption class="caption-body">The New Westminster Bruins would love to have Cliff Ronning back again this year.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0031-01

Bruins’ Jessiman Has Big Job On The Go

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>QUEBEC&mdash;Drag that equipment bag back into the dressing room at five in the morning after a seemingly endless bus ride from the far reaches of the league.Drag your behind to school for a 9 a.m. class.All too familiar a scenario for major junior hockey players. But it&rsquo;s one that&rsquo;s likely to disappear in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.The QMJHL has initiated a program starting this academic year in which junior college teachers will travel to the players and conduct classes to accommodate team schedules.If a coach wants to schedule a practice at noon, no problem. If a team is bound for the Memorial Cup, schooling can be suspended until the playoffs are over.The provincial government liked the idea enough to extend the opportunity to elite athletes in other sports.Dr. Guy Morissette, a Hull orthopedic surgeon, started work on the ambitious project, the first of its kind in Canada. 10 days after becoming the league&rsquo;s president last August.&ldquo;We had some problems registering kids,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The schools wanted them registered by August 20th, and our training camps start around then. Kids were losing one session, whether they made the team or returned home.&rdquo;Morissette said that more than 80 per cent of the league&rsquo;s players attend school, primarily junior college, which is a prerequisite for university in Quebec.This year, they&rsquo;ll all register with the St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu junior college in a league center just south of Montreal. Morissette says he expects more than 160 QMJHL players to be involved. along with about 40 players from the province&rsquo;s triple &lsquo;A&rsquo; league&mdash;a result of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association&rsquo;s decision to add a year to each age group.Morissette said another 25 skiers, weightlifters, speed-skaters and tennis players have contacted the school on their own and more are expected when the various sports federations gear up for the fall.The QMJHL has contributed $80,000 to the $650,000 program and the provincial government is paying the remainder. The league&rsquo;s money will go toward room and board and travel expenses for about 20 teachers.&ldquo;A professor will complete one subject in a league city in five weeks and then move on to the next,&rdquo; said the QMJHL president. &ldquo;The players will receive the standard two-year junior college diploma in three years. It&rsquo;s been taking some players four years and others have been waiting until their hockey careers are over.&rdquo;The St. Jean junior college is working in conjunction with Champlain junior college to provide an English-language program as well. Courses will include French and English, philosophy and mathematics, business administration, and health sciences.&ldquo;The classes can be held in the arena or almost anywhere,&rdquo; Morissette said. &ldquo;St. Jean school has rented a room in the Longueuil Metro (subway station).&rdquo;Remedial and tutorial help also will be available.&rdquo;The motivation behind the program isn&rsquo;t completely altruistic.&ldquo;We want to develop as many excellent hockey players as we can and we want them to get a good education. To me the goals are equal,&rdquo; said Morissette, who was president of the Quebec Ice Hockey Federation for five years and was chairman of the CAHA&rsquo;s restructuring committee.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always been difficult for the players to integrate their sporting and academic commitments because of the demanding requirements of both. This solution allows them the chance to achieve that integration.&rdquo;Meanwhile, the league hopes the program will convince players to compete in the league rather than playing collegiate hockey in Canada and the U.S. It also wants to attract more players from the U.S. and the Maritimes.The league president said the program was kept a secret until it was fully developed to avoid pressure on the government from collegiate hockey.&ldquo;When we invested $80,000 that showed we were serious,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

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August 23, 1985

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