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

November 15, 1985

The Hockey News November 15, 1985

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01592/5572441-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01558/5572434-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="3109" height="3794"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

THN STATISTICS NHL SCORING

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div><h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011394/5571010-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="572" height="196"></div>TORONTO&mdash;So much for re-Leaf on the road.The Toronto Maple Leafs, desperate for victory, embarked on a three-game western swing in hopes of shaking the lethargy that threatens coach Dan Maloney&rsquo;s future.But playing away from the Maple Leaf Gardens, where Toronto has lost all five of its starts this season, was no remedy for what ails the Leafs.Instead, the club confirmed what was already known&mdash;it is the worst team in the National Hockey League.Consecutive losses to Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton dropped the Leafs&rsquo; record to 1-10 and lengthened their losing streak to eight games.Was there relief in sight as Toronto approached the team record of 10 straight setbacks?New York Islanders were to visit the Gardens for the potential Game No. 9 and then it was off to Detroit for the Norris Division lowdown showdown.Already, pundits are talking about Detroit&rsquo;s three-point lead over the last-place Leafs as insurmountable in the playoff race that still has five months to go.Maloney, for one, was bravely fighting discouragement but reality has a way of touching every man.And after a 7-1 loss to the Oilers, he did not dismiss the possibility of a coaching change.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t heard anything yet but if that&rsquo;s what needs to be done, that&rsquo;s what needs to be done,&rdquo; said Maloney, reported James Christie of the Globe and Mail.In Maloney&rsquo;s first 91 games as head coach&mdash;he replaced Mike Nykoluk at the start of the 1984-85 season&mdash;his record was 21-62-8, for a winning percentage of just below .333.The former NHL player set three of six points as the team&rsquo;s objective for the road trip which began in Vancouver.The plan, however, took a turn for the worse immediately when for the sixth straight time, the Leafs blew a lead and lost to the Canucks 5-3.As has become customary for Toronto, it played well enough for a good portion of the game but not long enough as Vancouver scored two unanswered goals in the final 10 minutes.Add one in Calgary and three more in Edmonton, and the Leafs were outscored 14-1 during the last 10 minutes of contests during the eight-game losing streak.Sound as though a pattern was emerging?In Calgary, it was the Flames winning 4-2 on a fluke goal by Jim Pepliriski against goalie Tim Bernhardt, who started all three western games.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t see it,&rdquo; explained Bernhardt. &ldquo;It hit (defenseman) Gary Nylund and went down and in. That&rsquo;s the story of the season for us. Every game we&rsquo;re in it until the third.&rdquo;Don Edwards, acquired from Calgary during the off-season, didn&rsquo;t get to start at the Saddledome. Nor did he at the Northlands Coliseum, where Wayne Gretzky continued his personal assault on the Leafs.Gretzky&rsquo;s three goals raised his career stats against the Leafs to 29 goals and 29 assists in 21 games.On the first goal he blasted a slapshot over Bernhardt&rsquo;s shoulder. For his second, Gretzky patiently held onto the puck while the disappointing Borje Salming bowled over Bernhardt to give No. 99 an open net.And on the third, defensemen Bob McGill and Nylund all but ignored the most dangerous player in the game&rsquo;s history while he stuffed in a rebound.Confusion in the Leafs&rsquo; end reached its peak in the third period when Glenn Anderson and Raimo Summanen were suddenly face and face to face with Bernhardt in a two-on-oh confrontation.They didn&rsquo;t score on that occasion but moments later Summanen made the score 5-1.If there was any consolation to be drawn from the loss it was that the Leafs didn&rsquo;t blow a lead for the first time in eight games. They just lost the old-fashioned way, trailing for 50 of the 60 minutes.Scoring power or lack thereof remains the Leafs&rsquo; most pressing concern. They managed just six goals in the three road games&mdash;an average of two per game, one less than their season average.The most alarming proof of scoring inadequacies is in the Leafs&rsquo; power-play production, which was rated 20th overall in the league after 11 games. Only (you guessed it) the Detroit Red Wings have been more ineffective.With the man advantage, Toronto scored just six goals in their first 52 opportunities.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to get the power play going,&rdquo; said Maloney. &ldquo;Because specialty teams win and lose you games.&rdquo;Mostly, lose.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021082/5571003-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="584" height="991"><figcaption class="caption-body">Borje Salming, like all his teammates, is off to a bad start this season.</figcaption></div>NOTES&mdash;Assistant coach John Brophy&rsquo;s role has been diminished in recent weeks. He no longer works the bench with Dan Maloney&hellip; Rick Vaive became a father for the first time when Joyce, his wife, gave birth to an eight-pound, nine-ounce boy. He&rsquo;s been named Jeffrey&hellip;The Leafs aren&rsquo;t known for disseminating information to the media but they can&rsquo;t be blamed for a dandy goof-up in one local newspaper&rsquo;s TV guide. In its blurb on the Leaf-Flame game, goalie Allan Bester and center Bill Derlago were listed as Toronto stars. Bester, by the way, now plays for the St. Catharines Saints of the American League. He last won a regular-season game for Toronto on Nov. 19, 1984. And Derlago was traded to the Boston Bruins on Oct. 11 of this year.<h2>CORRECTION</h2>The Cartophilium Pro Team Jackets ad that appeared in both the Nov. 1 and Nov. 8 issues carried the price of a boys nylon jacket as $39.95. This is incorrect. The price should have read $53.95. The Hockey News regrets any inconvenience to the advertiser. &#9632;

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The Bad Get Even Worse As Leafs Keep On Losing

<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, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2. THN reserves the right to edit all submissions.SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, my family made the decision that the Philadelphia Flyers would no longer play against any team from the Soviet Union.In the Oct. 4th issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, Jay Greenberg, in a column entitled &ldquo;Snider Family Puts Politics Ahead Of Hockey&rdquo;, disagreed with our stand and concluded that &ldquo;if you really love the game, you have to overlook the world&rsquo;s faults.&rdquo; Since many TNN readers are now aware of our decision, it is time that they know our reasons for it.The decision was not a political one, it was a moral one. It is immoral to engage in cultural exchanges with the Soviet Union because to do so implies acceptance of the Soviet system and of the people who rule it.To accept that system means to accept tyranny in its most advanced, deliberate form. It means that one must ignore the reality of life within the Soviet Union, one must ignore the Soviet&rsquo;s military drive toward world domination, and one must ignore that country&rsquo;s direct threat to our own peaceful existence.There will, no doubt, be some who will say I have judged the Soviet Union too harshly. How is that possible with a country that enslaves its own people? The Russian citizens have no personal freedoms, no say in their own livelihoods, and no dissenting voice in any aspect of their own existence. Those who speak out are jailed as political prisoners and sentenced more severely than the most hardened criminals.The neighboring countries to the Soviet Union fare just as poorly as Soviet citizens. Not true? Then the Berlin Wall doesn&rsquo;t exist; Lech Walesa is happily leading a dynamic solidarity movement to achieve freedom for Polish workers; and the Soviets have realized their mistake in Afghanistan, apologized to the families of the Afghanis they murdered, and have pulled back within their borders. Of course, the reality in all three countries is that the Soviet Union&rsquo;s actions are barbaric.To engage in cultural exchanges with barbarians is to sanction their barbaric acts. It is tantamount to saying, &ldquo;1 know that they enslave their people, dominate Eastern Europe, invaded Afghanistan, spread revolution to the Caribbean and Central America, have murdered millions of their own citizens over the last 60 years, and even shot down a civilian airliner murdering hundreds of innocent civilians, but what does that have to do with a hockey game?&rdquo; The answer is: Plenty!Our forefathers fled the tyrannies of Europe to found the United States of America, the freest country in the history of the world.My own ancestors fled the pogroms of Russia to seek their freedom in America. Although I cannot singlehandedly change the Soviet Union, I will not bury my head in the sand by giving moral sanctity to the bloodiest dictatorship in the history of the world.Soviet hockey teams do not represent the players on those teams because those players have no private lives or personal freedoms. The teams represent the dictatorship they serve. The Snider family will not welcome that dictatorship nor its representatives to play our hockey team.In conclusion, Jay Greenberg&rsquo;s column should have been entitled: &ldquo;Snider Family Puts Morality Ahead Of Hockey&rdquo;. My family loves the sport but freedom is more important than a hockey game. And this is our way of taking a stand for freedom.Jay Snider,&nbsp; Flyers&rsquo; President,&nbsp; Philadelphia, PA(The two Jays&mdash;Snider and Greenberg&mdash;are not birds of a feather. Nor do they flock together on this issue.)<h2>FANS GET BAD RAP</h2>The letter entitled &ldquo;Fan Fighting Mad Over Fight Film Fanatics&rdquo; insulted fans who enjoy watching a fight, as much as a clean bodycheck or breakaway.In the Aug. 1st. 1984 issue of-THE HOCKEY NEWS, a poll showed 50 per cent of hockey fans believe fighting is part of the game. Why then must those against fighting claim everyone who watches a hockey fight doesn&rsquo;t know the difference between offsides and a zamboni.I can&rsquo;t imagine what a fan against fighting thinks of soccer, auto racing and boxing&mdash;all sports that continue to take human lives.Tony Blanda,&nbsp; Patchogue. NY(They probably think that comparing soccer, auto racing and boxing to hockey is like comparing Guy Lafleur to Chris Nilan.) &#9632;

Flyers’ President Says Stand Morally Motivated

<div class="byline">BY STEVE SIMMONS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011384/5570411-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Minnesota North Star scoring ace Kent Nilsson can indeed shake his a reputation for pulling a disappearing act of his own make a rabbit materialize out of a puff of smoke, but can he in the playoffs?</figcaption></div>Maybe,&rdquo; Kent Nilsson said quietly, &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t worth more.&rdquo;There was no anger in his voice over a long distance line, just a trace of disappointment. Nilsson left a golf course in Sweden on a June afternoon to find he had been virtually handed to the Minnesota North Stars.The National Hockey League&rsquo;s MPP&mdash;Most Paradoxical Player&mdash;was joining the league&rsquo;s most paradoxical team. The Calgary Flames made their Magic Man disappear. They now pay Nilsson $200,000 to play for Minnesota (the North Stars pay the other $ 150.000) and all the Flames received in return were two second-round draft choices.Outwardly, the deal seemed a simple one.The Flames were ridding themselves of a player they had once banked their future on. But the yield never quite matched the investment. The North Stars, parting with some of their future, added another piece to an already perplexing puzzle.A simple deal, right? Wrong.For there is little simple about a center turned right winger named Kent Nilsson. Through three teams, two leagues, eight coaches and his inevitable mixture of brilliance and disappointment, no one has quite been able to figure Nilsson out. In the enigmatic world of Nilsson, the only sure thing is you never know.You never know what it will be, brilliance or bumbling. Originally, he was nicknamed the Magic Man for his ability to perform, but in time it became a nickname of convenience. Now you see him, now you don&rsquo;t.Through seven years of professional hockey, Nilsson has proved to be a source of frustration for his coaches, managers teammates and fans. But also to himself.He wants nothing more than to be accepted, to fit in and be just another player, but his talent prohibits it. Nilsson is a star, without the makeup of a star. He is a pseudo-star, traded for a price journeymen bring.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m the only player in the league who has troubles with consistency,&rdquo; conceded Nilsson, not denying his enigmatic ways.&ldquo;Sure, it&rsquo;s frustrating. Especially when you know you can do more. There are times when it&rsquo;s seemed hopeless, though.&ldquo;Some nights I just don&rsquo;t have it. Some nights nothing works. It happens. I just can&rsquo;t explain it.&rdquo;Explaining Nilsson is almost as difficult as explaining his new team, the North Stars. There has long been little explanation for the performance of either. Both have been capable of incredible highs and similar lows.Both have rarely performed to the expectations of outsiders. Both have long been considered undependable.For every positive there has been a negative.For all Nilsson can do offensively, he is weak defensively. For all he can supply on the power play, the teams he has played on have given up too many shorthanded goals. For all he will do in the regular season, he won&rsquo;t in the playoffs.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard the criticism but I don&rsquo;t let it bother me. I block it out of my mind,&rdquo; said Nilsson. &ldquo;But you play better in some games than others. I have never felt that I haven&rsquo;t given 100 per cent in any game.&rdquo;With the Flames, he was either the reason they won, or the reason they lost. With Nilsson there was never a middle ground, never a happy medium.&ldquo;Maybe there should be an asterisk beside his name&mdash;most bad seasons with 100 points,&rdquo; said North Star general manager Lou Nanne, speaking of his newest prize.&ldquo;Sure he had his deficiencies, but don&rsquo;t kid yourself. If he worked hard every night, they wouldn&rsquo;t have traded him. What is it they say? Only Wayne Gretzky has more talent?&rdquo;Actually, the quote belonged to Gretzky. The Great One once said he wished he had the Magic Man&rsquo;s talent. Those who have coached Nilsson wish he had Gretzky&rsquo;s intensity.His intensity may be questioned, but not his talent. Heading into this season, Nilsson has averaged 1.3 points points a game in six NHL regular seasons. But in the playoffs, he has averaged half-a-point fewer per game.Nilsson has scored at a 42-goal-per-season pace in the regular season, but only at a 10-goal-per-season pace in the playoffs.When he did get points, the Flames won. In games, he scored two or more points the past two seasons, the Flames won 37 games, lost only seven and tied three. And the majority of those losses came against the Stanley Cup-champion Edmonton Oilers.For every theory about Nilsson there is a counter-theory, for he is the prince of unpredictability. It is easy to imply generalities to Nilsson, to say he is only there for the games that count the least, but that, too, is inaccurate.Over the pst two seasons, Nilsson was as productive against Edmonton as he was against Vancouver.This is not a defense of Nilsson, but an explanation of how reputations can be misleading. He is complex, but his reputation is cut and dried.Yet Nilsson has had two productive playoff years, despite the protestations of those who say he&rsquo;s not a playoff player. In the Flames&rsquo; first year in Calgary, before the club had ever won a playoff round, it was Nilsson&rsquo;s play that enabled the Flames to beat the Chicago Black Hawks.In the second round, in a seven-game series against Philadelphia, it was two key plays by Nilsson which enabled the Flames to shock the Flyers and advance to the league semi-finals. Had Nilsson been healthy through the next series, against the North Stars, the Flames might have played off for the Stanley Cup.Instead, the team has come no closer. The closest it has come since was a second-round seventh game with Edmonton, and Nilsson missed those playoffs with an injury.Last April the Flames finally decided that they were better without him, than with him.&ldquo;Our team simply outgrew Kent.&rdquo; said general manager Cliff Fletcher. &ldquo;If the fans wanted to choose between entertaining and winning, we think they want winning.&ldquo;We felt we&rsquo;d gone as far as we could with Kent.&rdquo;So Fletcher sent him as far away as he could&mdash;Minnesota. And now Nilsson is expected to contribute along with Neal Broten and Brian Bellows and Tony McKegney and Tom McCarthy and Dennis Maruk, others who have a reputation for under-achieving.&ldquo;I heard the talk about Minnesota before I came here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I didn&rsquo;t put much stock in it. I figured I should come here and decide for myself.&ldquo;I think there are good players on this team. We&rsquo;ll have a good team, and I think we can win the division. We had some problems at the start of the season, but we&rsquo;re playing better. I think Lome Henning is doing agreatjobof coaching. I really like and respect him. Everything he says is right, I think.&rdquo;Flames&rsquo; captain Doug Risebrough is of the opinion Nilsson will fit in well with the North Stars.&ldquo;I think Minnesota is the ideal team for Kent,&rdquo; said Flames&rsquo; captain Doug Risebrough.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re a team for Kent. They&rsquo;re a team that doesn&rsquo;t depend on one guy to do all the scoring. Kent always wanted the attention spread around.&ldquo;The best year I thought Kent had was the year Lanny McDonald scored 66 goals. The pressure was off him. He doesn&rsquo;t deal well under fire.&ldquo;The expectations of Kent were always higher than the expectations he had of him-self.&rdquo;Nilsson will not lead the North Stars in anything but scoring this season. Nor is he expected to.&ldquo;They haven&rsquo;t told me what they want from me. All they&rsquo;ve told me is (to) stay relaxed,&rdquo; said Nilsson, who led the team in scoring after 11 games with 14 points and the league in power-play goals with five.The North Stars, with eight points, were leading only the hapless Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs in the Norris Division.When asked if he had set any goals for the season, Nilsson said: &ldquo;I have my goals. I want to score 75 goals this year.&rdquo; Then he paused. &ldquo;&hellip;But that includes practice too.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Can He Pull A Rabbit Out Of A Hat?

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01839/5572977-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Illustration by Ted Michener, Photo by Don Dixon)</figcaption></div>INSIDE:&bull; Snider Explains Why Soviets Not Welcome/8&bull; Bonus Baby Staszak Adjusts To AHL Life/30NHL Owners: Just Call Them The Good, The Bad And The Ugly/10PLUS:&bull; How About The Leafs? They Keep On Losing/14&bull; Why Numbers Game Does Not Add Up/16&bull; Irate Agents To Meet To Push Free Agency/20&bull; Bad News: Reinhart&rsquo;s Back On Injured List/24&bull; Bored With Board Ads? You Are Not Alone/28 &#9632;

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MAGIC MAN CAN KENT NILSSON GET HIS ACT TOGETHER IN MINNESOTA?

In next week&rsquo;s Nov. 22nd issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, we&rsquo;ll take an in-depth look at one of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s most popular players&mdash;Calgary Flame captain Lanny McDonald.McDonald, a former member of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Rockies, is in something of a comeback season after spending most of the 1984-85 campaign sidelined with injuries.The question we&rsquo;ll be posing to Lanny is if an old dog, by NHL standards, can learn enough new tricks to keep him vital in what has increasingly become a young man&rsquo;s game.And, with the Flames missing the offense of Kent Nilsson, McDonald&rsquo;s health and performance loom as the biggest keys to their success this season.In addition to that, we&rsquo;ll have our regular assortment of news and views and the best hockey statistics available anywhere.Don&rsquo;t miss it. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK IN THN

&ldquo;figure I&rsquo;ve seen enough hockey because I was always so far behind the play that I got a good look at everything.&rdquo;&mdash;New Jersey&rsquo;s Bob Hoffmeyer, on retiring to become a scout. Story on Page 20. &#9632;

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div>CALGARY&mdash;If variety is the spice of life, then Dave King and his globetrotting players on Canada&rsquo;s National Team are becoming veritable connoisseurs of fine hockey cuisine.And no one is happier than King that his potential 1988 Olympians are experiencing a varied menu.For starters, the Nats opened with an eight-game tour of Finland in August.After that, they quickly moved on to a full-course meal, served at breakneck speed, which included a five-game slate against National Hockey League opposition, not to mention three contests against American League teams and a string of 14 exhibitions against U.S. college opposition.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really been outstanding,&rdquo; says King of the competition his young squad has faced so far.&ldquo;You know, you can tell a hockey player how difficult a task may be or how big the challenge will be, but until he actually gets a taste of what it&rsquo;ll be like, he doesn&rsquo;t fully appreciate or understand the magnitude of it. That&rsquo;s how I would classify our experiences against NHL clubs.&rdquo;For the record, the National Team recorded two wins (Vancouver and Los Angeles) and three losses (Winnipeg, St. Louis and Calgary) against the NHL talent.But more importantly. King says, the players realized the enormity of their ultimate goal&mdash;a medal in the 1988 Winter Olympics at Calgary&mdash;when they experienced first hand the physical strength of NHL pros.&ldquo;Our series with the NHL teams really drove home the point of how important strength is,&rdquo; King says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been stressing that from the first day but until we went up against such physically-imposing players, I&rsquo;m not sure everybody really knew how important it is.&rdquo;Perhaps even more important than that useful lesson was how King was able to use the games as a measuring stick of each player&rsquo;s raw ability, plus the progress of the whole unit.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s face it,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;the teams we&rsquo;ll have to compete with in the Olympics will be as good, and in some cases better, than what we faced in our exhibition games against the NHL.&ldquo;So, from that point of view, I could clearly see where my players are at in terms of development. I saw who can check. Who&rsquo;s strong, who isn&rsquo;t. It was a great benchmark.&rdquo;So, although the National Team&rsquo;s 1985-86 schedule isn&rsquo;t even at the halfway point, King&rsquo;s already getting a firm handle on those players who may or may not have the right stuff for &rsquo;88.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying any final decisions have been made by any means.&rdquo; says King. &ldquo;But some players are giving indications that they&rsquo;re not able to go on at this level. On the other hand, others are showing that they can do it. The cold reality of it all is that a player has to play at least as well as a top-rated major junior player or top-level college player to be able to go to the Olympics.&rdquo;The National Team rounded out its dates with the pros by tying one (Fredericton Express) and losing two (both to Moncton Golden Flames) to AHL teams.By then. King was looking forward to meeting the U.S. college teams.But in its first meeting. Team Canada was whipped 6-4 by the University of North Dakota.After that loss, though, the Nats picked up the pace and recorded four consecutive wins (Minnesota, Northern Michigan twice and Michigan Tech) before facing their last nine college opponents.&ldquo;The speed of the college game is very good.&rdquo; King says, &ldquo;and that type of game was really welcomed by our team.&ldquo;When we played the pros, we were, in effect, practising how to play without the puck. The NHL teams were carrying the play so much that we were thrust into a defensive role &ldquo;When the barnstorming through the U.S. colleges is complete. King&rsquo;s team will enter another integral phase of its development.&ldquo;December will be a very big month for us.&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;because we&rsquo;ll be playing a touring Soviet team in early December and then competing in both the Izvestia and Spengler Cups in Europe.&rdquo;To this point. King&rsquo;s been impressed by a number of his players, not the least of whom is&rsquo;goaltender Alain Raymond, a former member of the Trois Rivieres Draveurs of the Quebec League.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s so gratifying to see him play so well,&rdquo; King says. &ldquo;No matter what level of hockey you play at. you simply have to have good goaltending. So far, Alain&rsquo;s given us more than that. He was absolutely brilliant against the NHL and AHL teams.&rdquo;Other players who have impressed King sufficiently to earn public praise are offensive stars Mike Millar and Cliff Ronning, plus 17-year-old forward Jeff Greenlaw and defenseman Trent Yawney.&ldquo;Greenlaw (expected to be a high first rounder in the 1986 entry draft) is really starting to come on,&rdquo; King says. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s finally starting to realize how much potential he has and what it takes to be a world-class player. He&rsquo;s only 17 and he&rsquo;s starting to dominate some of our games against college competition. That tells you something right there.&rdquo; &#9632;

Varied Menu Gives King’s Kids Great Insight

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011288/5570466-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="585" height="189"></div>DETROIT&mdash;Only the Detroit Red Wings can turn a single victory into such a monumental event.It took them 10 games into the 1985-86 NHL season before they finally won, defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 at Joe Louis Arena.&ldquo;When people have asked me, &lsquo;Gee. what&rsquo;s wrong? Gee, what&rsquo;s the problem?&rsquo; I&rsquo;ve told them all the same thing,&rdquo; said Danny Gare. who scored a pure hat-trick in the first victory.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got five, six rookies in the lineup and some other major changes. I really feel it takes time to bring in new people, even when it&rsquo;s only one or two, and have them fit in. With as many new players as we&rsquo;ve got, it&rsquo;s even more difficult. Hopefully, things will start to jell.&rdquo;The Wings built up to their victory&mdash;listen, nothing comes so easy for this team that they can just win; they have to build up to such things as a victory&mdash;with the return of goaltender Greg Stefan.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;It gets the monkey off our backs. We&rsquo;ve been moving toward it&hellip;And it&rsquo;s nice to see the odd break go our way.&rdquo; &mdash;Barrett</blockquote>Stefan was suspended for the first eight games of the NHL season for his part in a stick-swinging incident in the final playoff game last April against Chicago. He returned in Winnipeg and backstopped the Wings to a 3-1 lead after two periods. The Jets rallied for three goals in a span of 71 seconds in the final period and went on to a 5-3 triumph.&ldquo;The kid (Stefan) stoned us for two periods,&rdquo; said John Ferguson, the Jets&rsquo; general manager.With Stefan back and providing both excellent goaltending and leadership, the Wings&rsquo; spirits were bolstered.&ldquo;It was great goaltending,&rdquo; coach Harry Neale said. &ldquo;We probably didn&rsquo;t deserve the lead but we had it anyway.&rdquo;Jimmy Devellano, the Wings&rsquo; beleaguered general manager, had this to say:&ldquo;No question about it, Stefan was out-standing and held us in. There&rsquo;s no doubt the team plays better in front of Stefan. But we&rsquo;ve still got our good goal scorers not denting the twine at the other end. We corrected one problem, but now it&rsquo;s something else. It&rsquo;s like fixing the windows and having the roof cave in.&rdquo;&ldquo;I just went out and tried to make the first save,&rdquo; Stefan said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to try to do too much. I felt good physically but I was tired in some spots, although I recovered well.&rdquo;Three nights later, the Wings, with Stefan back in goal, recorded victory No. I.In addition to Gare&rsquo;s three goals, rookie Petr Klima turned in the kind of scintillating performance (one goal and two assists) the Wings promised when they lured him from the Czech national team with owner Mike Hitch&rsquo;s Yankee dollars.The Wings came out skating well, got some positive results for their effort and their sagging confidence picked up right away when Gare, the team captain, completed his hat-trick in the first period.&ldquo;It gets the monkey off our backs,&rdquo; said defenseman John Barrett. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been moving toward it. The last few days in practice we seemed to be doing things better together. And it&rsquo;s nice to see the odd break go our way.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of hockey left yet. Let&rsquo;s just hope we&rsquo;ve had our down time for awhile.&rdquo;Another veteran defenseman, Greg Smith, said the problems started in the season opener when the Wings blew a four-goal lead in a 6-6 tie with Minnesota.&ldquo;When something like that happens, you start to question: What did we do wrong? What does it take?&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;But there&rsquo;s been no panic. Harry does keep things loose. The guys were uptight, but not from any pressure anybody put on us. It was pressure from within.&ldquo;Stef not only keeps you in the game, he comes up with the big saves to give you a lift. In the NHL, you&rsquo;ve got to have good goaltending to win. I don&rsquo;t care what team you are.&rdquo;WING WIRE&mdash;Joe Kocur was recalled from Adirondack while Bruce Eakin and Basil McRae were retumed&hellip;Jimmy Devellano said the Wings wouldn&rsquo;t carry three goaltenders. Both Ed Mio and Corrado Micalef have cleared waivers and one will be farmed out&hellip;Rookie defenseman Tim Friday, the best of the college free agents, returned from a knee injury and was tremendous in the losses in Calgary (7-4) and Winnipeg. &#9632;

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First Wings’ Win A Source Of Great Relief

<div class="byline">Frank Orr</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011471/5570521-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="381" height="444"></div>UNDOUBTEDLY, A FEW of the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; opponents are having sleepless nights and developing worry lines, pondering the fact that Glen Sather, the Oilers&rsquo; head honcho&mdash;to call him that is much quicker than listing his official title: President, Alternate Governor, General Manager, Head Coach&mdash;expresses some concerns about the state of his squad.After all, it is a mite difficult to work up much sympathy for a team that has won two consecutive Stanley Cup titles and owns a young roster that should boss the next few seasons in the National Hockey League. But Sather does voice some potential problems for his team, most of which will be laughed off by his opponents, many of whom have the same regard for ol&rsquo; Slats as they do for the income tax collector.Sather wonders about the &ldquo;chemistry&rdquo; on his team and the way it will be changed by the loss of three veteran forwards&mdash;Jaroslav Pouzar, 33, who shifted to Europe this season; Pat Hughes, 30, who was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins and on to the Buffalo Sabres; and Willy Lindstrom, 34, who was claimed by the Penguins in the waiver draft.&ldquo;Our club certainly has the physical ability to carry on, no worries there,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;But you&rsquo;re always concerned about the intangibles, the small things that add together to produce a winner.&ldquo;The three guys we lost were veterans who contributed a great deal of maturity to our team, which is, basically, still young. They&rsquo;re guys who have been down the trail and you know how they&rsquo;ll react in tough spots. That influenced our young players the right way.&rdquo;Sather&rsquo;s view of the NHL waiver draft won&rsquo;t increase his popularity. He definitely doesn&rsquo;t feel that the strong should help the weak.&ldquo;We started from nothing and built our team in the NHL,&rdquo; said Sather. The fact that the Oilers had Wayne Gretzky when they entered the NHL in &rsquo;79 did give them a little rush out of the gate.&ldquo;We worked hard and I don&rsquo;t think the best teams should be handicapped by losing players in the waiver draft. I don&rsquo;t feel that it&rsquo;s the duty of our club or any other team to help the clubs that don&rsquo;t do their jobs the right way.&rdquo;While outside influences have changed the Oiler roster slightly, Sather himself has never allowed the team to stagnate. There have been changes made every season to maintain the right combo on the ice and the proper chemistry off it. In &rsquo;83-84, it was Kevin McClelland. Last season, Mike Krushelnyski and Mark Napier were important additions. This time Raimo Summanen, Esa Tikkanen, Steve Smith, Craig MacTavish and Marty McSorley inject new blood into the team.&ldquo;But we still don&rsquo;t know if the young guys who we&rsquo;ve added will keep the chemistry of the team going the right way,&rdquo; said Sather, sounding like a guy who is trying to think up a couple of problems for himself.The team feeling aspect is one reason why Sather chuckled when he read that the Oilers were trying to dump defenseman Don Jackson last summer.&ldquo;Anyone who said we were looking to move Jackson didn&rsquo;t know a thing about our team,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very important member of our team, both for his solid play on defense, his toughness and the leadership qualities he has, even though he&rsquo;s quiet about it.&rdquo;The length of Sather&rsquo;s titles in the Oiler operation would indicate that he runs a one-man show, a dictatorship operation. However, the secret of Slats&rsquo; success is hiring good people and allowing them to do their jobs. He keeps close tabs on every aspect of the organization but he delegates authority and listens to the people he&rsquo;s hired.Co-coach John Muckier, assistant general manager Bruce MacGregor and director of personnel-chief scout Barry Fraser are joined this season by assistant coach Bob McCammon. All four of those men are capable of being GMs themselves&mdash;wise, hard-working hockey people.McCammon replaced Ted Green, who moved to private business. McCammon has GM and head-coach experience&mdash;he was in charge of Philadelphia Flyers when the roster that went to the final last spring was assembled&mdash;and a great many NHL GMs wouldn&rsquo;t want him around as an assistant coach because they would see him as a threat to their jobs.Sather doesn&rsquo;t think that way.&ldquo;When you lose a good man like Ted Green, you&rsquo;re lucky to find a guy as qualified as McCammon to replace him,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;Bob is an excellent evaluator of talent and we&rsquo;ll be making use of that ability as well as his coaching skills.&rdquo;Doesn&rsquo;t sound like Slats really has much to worry about. &#9632;

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Oilers Sure To Pass ‘Chemistry’ Test

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div><h2>CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021045/5570552-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="572" height="162"></div>CHICAGO&mdash;The Chicago Black Hawks began moving up, but Warren Skorodenski was on the way down.Skoro learned the Hawks&rsquo; new math: three into two won&rsquo;t go.The morning after the Hawks won at Minnesota and moved into first place in the Norris Division. Skorodenski cleared National Hockey League waivers and was sent to the Hawks&rsquo; American League farm club at Halifax, N.S.It was an abrupt end to a three-goaltender system that was never implemented.&ldquo;I was surprised,&rdquo; Skorodenski said after hearing the news. &ldquo;I thought they were going to do something, but I didn&rsquo;t think it would happen this quickly. I knew things like this could happen when I got into it. I guess it&rsquo;s my turn now.&rdquo;Skorodenski had played just one game this season, a 6-3 loss at Montreal Oct. 12 when he faced 45 shots. He had dressed as backup goaltender for only two games after the Oct. 16th arrival of Bob Sauve from Buffalo.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to get him (Skorodenski) playing and keep him sharp,&rdquo; said Hawks&rsquo; coach-general manager Bob Pulford. &ldquo;When he&rsquo;s ready, he can play here. There&rsquo;s no easy way to do something like that. It&rsquo;s tough on both people. But it&rsquo;s got to be done.&rdquo;Skorodenski had not been on the last two road trips. He got the word on the demotion after practice.&ldquo;I was in the office about 15 seconds,&rdquo; Skorodenski said. &ldquo;He said you&rsquo;re going down, and gave me the paper telling me when I would leave and when I would get there.&rdquo;Skorodenski spent four years in the minor leagues after being signed as a free agent in 1979 from Calgary of the Western League. As a rookie backup goaltender to Murray Bannerman last season, he had a 3.22 goals-against average and 11-9-3 record.&ldquo;You never want to take a step back, but there&rsquo;s nothing I can do now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;All I can do is keep playing my best. I hope to be back soon. I want to be back soon.&rdquo;Skorodenski took the Hawks to arbitration over his contract last summer, winning a modest increase in salary and a larger increase in bonus clauses. But he didn&rsquo;t think the arbitration and the demotion were related.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&ldquo;I was in the office about 15 seconds. He said you&rsquo;re going down, and gave me the paper telling me when I would leave and when I would get there.&rdquo; &mdash;Skorodenski</blockquote>&ldquo;Looking at it that way, no, I don&rsquo;t think it had an effect,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And he (Pulford) was trying to get Sauve last year.&rdquo;From the start, Skorodenski appeared to be the odd man out in a three-goaltender system. The move just bore that out.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s not much I can say, I&rsquo;m pretty down in the dumps right now,&rdquo; Skorodenski said. &ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s just another page.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Also sent to Nova Scotia Oct. 31 were left wing Tom McMurchy and defenseman Bruce Cassidy. McMurchy was on emergency recall, but defenseman Keith Brown was ready to return from a broken finger. Cassidy, who has played just one game with the Hawks, spent the previous weekend playing three games at Nova Scotia, returned to Chicago, then was sent down again two days later. &ldquo;We want to get him playing, get him lots of ice time,&rdquo; said Bob Pulford. &ldquo;He has to develop, and we think he will. &ldquo;&hellip;The Hawks won at Minnesota to start a six-game road trip. It was their third straight win on the road (Detroit, New Jersey, Minnesota), to go with a 1-3-1 home record. &#9632;

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‘Skoro’ Is Hawks’ Odd Goalie Out

<div class="byline">By Bob Duff</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011313/5570583-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="466" height="456"></div>Q. Could you please tell me who was involved in the 1975 trade which saw Marcel Dionne go from Detroit to Los Angeles?Mike Kraska, Prince George, BCA. Dionne was acquired by the Kings along with defenseman Bart Crashley on June 23, 1975. The Wings in turn received defenseman Terry Harper, current Toronto Maple Leaf coach Dan Maloney and Los Angeles second choice in the 1976 NHL entry draft. The Wings later traded this choice to Minnesota and the North Stars used it to select Jimmy Roberts.Q. Could you please tell me which goaltender has the most career shutouts in the playoffs? Also, what is the highest total of shots faced by a goaltender in a regulation game?David Gouldin, Calgary, ABA. Veteran netminder Jacques Plante recorded 14 shutouts in 16 seasons of playoff action with the Montreal Canadiens and St. Louis Blues. Plante also played with the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins, but recorded no playoff shutouts for any of those clubs.On March 4, 1941, the Boston Bruins fired 83 shots at Chicago Black Hawk goalie Sam LoPresti. Boston went on to win that game 3-2. Incidentally, the most shots by both teams in a game is 141, set by the now-defunct New York Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates on Dec. 26, 1925. New York outshot Pittsburgh 73-68 and outscored the Pirates 3-1.Q. Who are the NHL governors?Bill Carr, Sylvania, OHA. The NHL governors are the fellows who make the rules in the league. They work as a committee, making decisions on any and all potential rule changes, such as the introduction of overtime three seasons back. They also have to approve all franchise shifts, ownership changes and the like.Each NHL club has one governor, in most cases the club&rsquo;s owner. Here&rsquo;s a complete listing of the board of governors&mdash;Chairman: William O. Wirtz; Vice-Chairman: Frank A. Griffiths; Secretary: Robert O. Swados. Team Governors&mdash;Boston: James Brennan; Buffalo: Seymour Knox; Calgary: Cliff Fletcher; Chicago: Wirtz; Detroit: Mike Hitch; Edmonton: Peter Pocklington; Hartford: Howard Baldwin; Los Angeles: Jerry Buss; Minnesota: Gordon Gund; Montreal: Ronald Corey; New Jersey: John McMullen; New York Islanders: John O. Pickett; New York Rangers: John H. Krumpe; Philadelphia: Jay Snider; Pittsburgh: Paul Martha; Quebec: Marcel Aubut; St. Louis: Harry Omest; Toronto: Harold Ballard; Vancouver: Griffiths; Washington: Abe Pollin; Winnipeg: Barry Shenkarow.If you want your question answered in the Ask the Duffer column, send the query to:ASK THE DUFFER,125 5th Ave. North, Apt. 1510Saskatoon, Sask.S7K 6A5Personal replies to letters are not possible. &#9632;

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ASK THE DUFFER

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02916/5570614-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Hicke, left, shares a light moment with Red Berenson when both were members of the Montreal Canadiens.</figcaption></div>Forget about the risks in hockey, for Bill Hicke there&rsquo;s no game more dangerous than golf.&ldquo;I was attending my first training camp with the New York Rangers (1965) when it happened,&rdquo; recalled Hicke, who played 13 seasons in the NHL (1959-72) with the Montreal Canadiens, Rangers. Oakland Seals and Pittsburgh Penguins and one season in the WHA (1972-73) with the Edmonton Oilers. &ldquo;I went out with a group of guys and played a round of golf.&ldquo;It was raining at the time. When 1 finished I must have gotten a chill. Later I was sick and couldn&rsquo;t seem to get any better. I found out later that I wasn&rsquo;t being treated for the right thing.&ldquo;Things got so bad that I went into a coma for almost two weeks. When I came out of it I had allergies that I had never had before in my life.&ldquo;One of them was bronchial asthma&rdquo;&mdash;an allergic respiratory disease marked by difficult breathing, chest constriction and severe coughing.While Hicke has generally had the condition under control he almost lost his life to the ailment during the 196768 season with the Seals.&ldquo;Bert Olmstead was our coach at the time and he was a pretty tough one, to say the least,&rdquo; said Hicke, a native of Regina. Sask. &ldquo;And despite all the stories about how bad Olmstead treated players, there was the day that Bert almost killed me, although he didn&rsquo;t realize it at the time.&ldquo;He had been putting us through a pretty tough skate and I was feeling a little tired. I was sitting on the bench when Bert came over and told me to get back on the ice.&ldquo;I told him that I really didn&rsquo;t feel like it and that I wasn&rsquo;t feeling too well. But I don&rsquo;t think he believed me and told me to get out there.&ldquo;So I did. It wasn&rsquo;t too long after that I just collapsed on the ice and was taken to a hospital. I had had another bronchial asthma attack and Bert didn&rsquo;t know it. After a couple of weeks I came out of it and was back in action.&rdquo;<h2>WHERE ARE THEY NOW</h2>Despite facing death a couple of times, Hicke still considers himself fortunate.&ldquo;I think I did pretty well for a guy who was nothing more than a country bumpkin,&rdquo;&rsquo; said Hicke, who was a right winger.&ldquo;To come from where I did to a place like Montreal was like a dream.&ldquo;The Canadiens were such a great team. They had so many stars. The only thing I had against the Canadiens was that I felt I didn&rsquo;t play enough.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s when I learned that I should have kept my mouth shut. But I didn&rsquo;t. I went to (Canadiens&rsquo; general manager) Sam Pollock and told him to play me or trade me.&ldquo;He took care of my wish by trading me to New York.&ldquo;To me that was like going from heaven to hell. The team was fine. It was just the city I didn&rsquo;t like.&rdquo;Today he owns his own business, Kyles Sporting Goods in Regina.Hicke, who scored 168 goals and 234 assists in 729 NHL games, credited his playing career for helping to develop some of his business skills.&ldquo;When I was with the Seals I learned how not to run a business by watching the team&rsquo;s different owners,&rdquo; said Hicke, 47. &ldquo;When Charlie Finley bought the team, I don&rsquo;t think he knew too much about the sport. He was too much into gimmicks and trying to sell the game that way. I think the team could have done better had they had better ownership.&ldquo;I think I learned the most when I went to the WHA. I was elected president of the players&rsquo; association. In just that one year I learned more about the business end of hockey.&ldquo;And that&rsquo;s not too bad for a &lsquo;country bumpkin.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Hicke: A ‘Country Bumpkin’ Who Made Good In Hockey

&bull; NHL president Clarence Campbell ruled that a tampering charge brought against the Toronto Maple Leafs by the Montreal Canadiens was &ldquo;not proven&rdquo;, and therefore, dropped. The Habs had complained that the Leafs tried to pull Quebec Aces&rsquo; coach Bernie (Boom-Booth) Geoffrion out of voluntary retirement by offering him a five-year contract to play in Toronto. While there was no doubt that Geoffrion had been in contact with the Leafs&rsquo; organization, Campbell said that conflict of testimony between witnesses made it impossible to resolve any disputed issue.Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; Detroit&rsquo;s Alex Delvecchio, a 19-year veteran in the National Hockey League, became only the fifth NHLer to score 400 career goals. Delvecchio scored goals 400 and 401 in a 5-3 win over the Boston Bruins.&bull; Red Wing superstar Gordie Howe returned to his traditional spot on right wing after a brief experimental tour on the blue line. I think Gordie did a good job on defense and I think he can be a good defenseman. But we needed scoring,&rdquo; said Detroit coach Ned Harkness. &#9632;

THIS WEEK…20 Years Ago

1. Name the last NHL club to go unbeaten through the playoffs.2. Name the two NHL players who have recorded seven assists in one league game.3. What two NHL players scored hattricks in their first games?4. Which active NHLer had the most career games played going into the 1985-86 campaign?5. Dave (Tiger) Williams leads all active NHL players in career penalty minutes. Who is second?6. Name the only three rookies in NHL history to top 100 points.7. What current netminder allowed Marcel Dionne&rsquo;s 500th career NHL goal?8. Name the Washington Capital who led the NHL in penalty minutes in 1983-84.9. Name the only Edmonton Oiler besides Wayne Gretzky to have scored five goals in one NHL game.10. What former NHL goalie twice recorded 15 shutouts in a single season&rsquo;.&rsquo;<h2>This Week&rsquo;s Trivia Answers</h2>1. Montreal Canadiens, 1959-60. 2. Wayne Gretzky and Billy Taylor. 3. Real Cloutier and Alex Smart. 4. Gilbert Perreault, 1,106. 5. Phil Russell. 6. Mario Lemieux, Peter Stastny, Dale Hawerchuk. 7. Al Jensen. 8. Randy Holt. 9. Pat Hughes. 10. Alex Connell. &#9632;

TRIVIA

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03618/5570693-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg"></div>that the youngest coaches in NHL history are: &#9632;

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Did You Know…

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011401/5570724-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div>The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W. C.C Publishing Ltd85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>The Drug Diatribe</h2>THERE IS NOTHING quite so unbecoming as misplaced self-righteousness. Because it is almost always self-serving.And those were the thoughts that came to mind when National Hockey League president John Ziegler issued an impromptu state-of-the-union address on drugs Oct. 31 in Hartford.Drugs, we were told, have no place in hockey. (This is news?) Drugs, we were told, have not besmirched hockey&rsquo;s image because of the physical demands hockey imposes on its participants. (And football is a stroll through the park? Central Park, maybe.)Furthermore, drug-users were invited to &ldquo;to get the hell out of business. We don&rsquo;t want you.&rdquo; Ziegler said the NHL doesn&rsquo;t want the responsibility of rehabilitating those, if any, who have come to depend on drugs.Fine. If the NHL wants to take a hard line on drugs, then its players are well forewarned of the perils they face if they&rsquo;re caught. But is this stern image an illusion?Twice during his presidency, Ziegler has suspended players for drug convictions. But curiously, not a single player has been suspended for alcohol use or abuse, despite alcohol-related court appearances and convictions of NHL players.Not that we&rsquo;re necessarily recommending league disciplinary action. Those matters may best be dealt with by courts of law.Not a NHL court, mind you, whose idea of justice leads to the punishment of small-time drug offenders with stiffer penalties than those accorded men with Violent pasts and (we fear) futures in the game.Without benefit of scienific data to back up our claims, it seems reasonable to suggest alcohol is a far greater &ldquo;clear and present&rdquo; danger to hockey than &ldquo;drugs&rdquo;.Excessive use of alcohol has long been career-threatening in the NHL, or for that matter in society. More than a few players have had to deal with alcohol problems before getting on with their post-hockey years.At least one ex-NHL player, we know of, drank himself to an early grave.It was under the influence of alcohol that Craig MacTavish of the Edmonton Oilers made a greivous mistake, certain to haunt him for years to come. But he has received our compassion and that of the league. He has not been blackballed. Nor should he be.Yet we are led to believe that is the fate which awaits drug-users. Sound inconsistent? Damn right it does.Let&rsquo;s stop gloating about hockey&rsquo;s squeaky-clean image. &#9632;

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The Hockey News

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011357/5570779-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="582" height="171"></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Three days after general manager Rogie Vachon not-so-gently criticized the troops, threatening to make changes if performances didn&rsquo;t improve, the Los Angeles Kings snapped out of a slumber with an efficient 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders.A coincidence?The win, which followed five straight losses (eight out of nine overall) took place Oct. 29 on Long Island. Exactly one year before, on Oct. 29, 1984, the Kings ended a nine-game winless streak with a 5-3 victory in Winnipeg, the start of a 10-1 run that turned the season around.A coincidence?&ldquo;I hope that&rsquo;s a good sign,&rdquo; Brian MacLellan said. &ldquo;Anybody superstitious? I&rsquo;ll take it.&rdquo;It isn&rsquo;t known if Vachon is superstitious, but he clearly was angry when the Kings looked disorganized and defenseless in the season&rsquo;s first three weeks, giving up 51 goals on the way to a 1-8 start.&ldquo;If we keep losing,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we may not have a choice. We may have to do something. We just can&rsquo;t sit back and lose 12 games in a row. If we lose all the games on this road trip, our season might be over by Christmas.&rdquo;Before the victory over the Islanders&mdash;the Kings&rsquo; first at Nassau Coliseum in four years&mdash;this team seemed to be in need of a great deal of help.Vachon admitted he was seeking a checking center and no doubt would be interested in a veteran who could help stabilize a young defense that was being burned, left, right and every other way.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve talked to about 15 GM&rsquo;s,&rdquo; Vachon said, adding he was interested in New Jersey&rsquo;s Mel Bridgeman. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking for a good, checking center.&rdquo;&ldquo;The problem is we have four centers who are all exactly the same kind. They&rsquo;re either scorers or playmakers,&rdquo; said Vachon, who released checker Bob Miller this summer and then had no one to replace him when free agent Terry Ruskowski signed a three-year contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins.&ldquo;We let Miller go because we felt some of the kids would make us better and we still had Roscoe. Then we wound up starting the season without the two of them,&rdquo; Vachon said.Finally, better efforts from the Kings&rsquo; veterans helped show the way for the 10 first-and second-year men, most of whom had been making a ton of mistakes.&ldquo;My biggest disappointment,&rdquo; Vachon said, has been the play of the veterans. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re supposed to pick up the team. In general, a lot of the veterans haven&rsquo;t played very well and those guys had to carry the team.&ldquo;The more we slide, the more we&rsquo;ll press. Then there are all kinds of rumors, and&hellip;it makes it difficult to play.&rdquo;Inexplicably, the Kings made a complete about face three nights later, slowing down the Islanders with some major-league forechecking, getting solid work in goal from Darren Eliot and even ending an embarrassing O-for-18 slump on the power play with a goal from MacLellan.Can anybody figure this team out?&ldquo;Sports are so amazing,&rdquo; Tiger Williams said. &ldquo;You know how bad St. Louis played in the seventh game of the World Series (losing to Kansas City 110)? That&rsquo;s how bad we were before.&ldquo;And then this. We&rsquo;ve had some periods when we&rsquo;ve played well, but nothing like this. We played well in every area.&rdquo;Said coach Pat Quinn, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a long time coming. There have been times when this team looked like it had never been coached for even a day. Hopefully, we&rsquo;ll take this and grow from it.&rdquo;KING NOTES&mdash;Kings reduced their roster to 21 players by sending three rookies to New Haven&mdash;defenseman Ken Hammond, left winger Dan Brennan and center Dave Gans&hellip;Center Glen Currie, out with a herniated disc, returned to his Montreal home for therapy. Rogie Vachon said Currie could be out for as long as two months. &#9632;

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Los Angeles Turns Calendar Back A Year

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div><h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02981/5570810-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="568" height="178"></div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;When a team struggles, the easy way out is to blame bad luck&mdash;or, more appropriately, the lack of good luck&mdash;for failure.But the Minnesota North Stars have proven it is going to take more than a few lucky breaks to turn the club into a valid contender.It&rsquo;s going to take hard work and tireless attention to detail by the players. By the coaches, that translates into patience and determination, two commodities that Lorne Henning has shown in great abundance.When the North Stars faced the Chicago Black Hawks, their most ferocious rival, for the first time this season, the Stars got their luckiest break of the season&mdash;but it turned the game Chicago&rsquo;s way.The Stars had popped in a quick goal in the first minute, the first of two in the game for a resurgent Brian Bellows. But then the Stars gave up four straight goals to the Black Hawks before rallying for a 4-4 tie entering the third period.At 13:12, the Stars got the break they needed. Bellows centered a pass that Tom McCarthy couldn&rsquo;t handle. Cutting across the slot, McCarthy saw the puck going behind him, dragged his trailing skate to try to block it, and got lucky when the puck deflected off his skate blade into the net.Referee Kerry Fraser said McCarthy did not try to direct the puck in, even though he turned his skate.&ldquo;I saw the puck coming,&rdquo; McCarthy said. &ldquo;I knew I couldn&rsquo;t get my stick on it, but I saw it all the way. I turned my skate, hoping I could deflect it on goal and maybe get a rebound.&rdquo;So the goal stood, Minnesota led 5-4 with 6:48 left, and the Black Hawks argued and fumed. Thus aroused, they didn&rsquo;t give the North Stars much chance to enjoy their lead. Thirty-four seconds later Curt Fraser tied it, and four minutes after that, Denis Savard won it for Chicago 6-5.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t their hard work that won it, so much as our lack of work,&rdquo; said Dave Langevin. The newest North Star, via the waiver draft, came from the Islanders, as did Henning. Neither is willing to accept waivering effort or inattention to detail&mdash;the little things that are automatically done right by good NHL teams.One example was a lackadaisical line change. On one key Chicago scoring play, some Stars had skated almost leisurely to the bench, having worked hard at the offensive end. Their work done, they dawdled going off, even though Chicago was breaking the puck out rapidly.&ldquo;We couldn&rsquo;t get on until they got off,&rdquo; said Langevin, recalling the play.The result was that the Stars were not in place defensively and the Hawks wound up scoring.Henning doesn&rsquo;t point out such specific difficulties, but he works patiently to try to overcome them.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to find that team feeling,&rdquo; Henning said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to learn to play zone to zone and change our thinking. If we play strong in our own end, the rest takes care of itself.&rdquo;STAR DUST&mdash;After the Chicago game, the Stars lost 3-1 to Winnipeg on an open-net finishing goal. For 11 games, the Stars stood 3-6-2. But in the Norris Division, such a sputtering start doesn&rsquo;t create any problems. Through games of Sunday, Nov. 3, no Norris Division team was above the .500 mark. &#9632;

f0009-02

Good Break Was All Bad For Stars

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011442/5570855-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"></div>They range in size, shape and personality from Jay Snider to Harold Ballard. They are as faceless as a Gulf and Western conglomerate or as visible as a Jerry Buss.Some, like Mike Hitch, operate with open checkbooks. Others, like Harry Omest, squeeze nickels. To some of them, hockey is a passion, to others only a line on a ledger book.They own National Hockey League teams. Some have quaffed champagne in May, others&rsquo; throats remain parched. Except for those who also own the arenas in which their teams play, few get rich from hockey.Egos must drive many of them. After all, tax-free municipal bonds would provide a much more sane yield (but what kind of fun are they?).In the smaller markets, many are in the sport largely as civic gestures and prefer to stay in the background. Some move and shake the league. Others have never attended an NHL Board of Governors meeting in their lives.A lot of them are smart enough to let their hockey people make the decisions, others too dumb to know they&rsquo;ve trusted their properties to the wrong man.We don&rsquo;t have the money to buy, so at least we can window shop. Here are the best, the worst and the mediocre of the 21 barons in the the NHL fiefdom:<h2>THE BEST</h2>Seymour and Northrop Knox, Buffalo: A couple of nice guys who have persevered for 15 years. Buffalo is a great hockey town, but in an often-depressed market. Attendance has thus slipped and not just because of the team&rsquo;s inability to get much done in the playoffs.The Knoxs are loyal to their employees and have a healthy long fuse for inevitable appointments. They have let their hockey people run the show, although probably in Punch lach&rsquo;s case, a few years too long. It&rsquo;s interesting that one of the final straws that led to Imlach&rsquo;s firing was his petty bitterness towards a Buffalo beat writer. Obviously, the Knoxs are concerned about the team&rsquo;s public image.When replacing Imlach, they went after the best man available at the time&mdash;Scotty Bowman&mdash;and got him.Scotty, no yes-man, can be difficult to work with. Northrop likes to joke that he gets most of his information about his team by listening to Bowman&rsquo;s radio show.John Pickett, New York Islanders: When the team was saddled with former owner Roy Boe&rsquo;s $45 million debt and faced an almost certain bankruptcy, Pickett, only a one-per cent owner, rode to a magnificent rescue.The Isles were one flush of the toilet away from extinction when Torrey chanced upon Pickett in the washroom that day in 1978. Torrey had the plan, and he talked Pickett into putting up the $2 million he needed. From Pickett&rsquo;s standpoint, that sum was the least of it. He assumed responsibility for $20 million of Boe&rsquo;s total debt.&ldquo;I was very happy not to be the operator,&rdquo; Pickett has said. &ldquo;I was very happy as a fan and to say that 1 was one of the owners. It was an emotional thing, triggered by Bill Torrey.&rdquo;The Stanley Cups started to come two years later. Within six years, the Islanders were turning a profit. And Pickett, through it all, has remained in the background, smart enough to let Torrey run the show.His fun? Watching the games and going to the team&rsquo;s Christmas party. Unfortunately, they don&rsquo;t make many owners like this.Ed Snider, Philadelphia: Though his day-to-day involvement with the team is now minimal, his passion for the Flyers has not diminished. The years have brought a gradual mellowing from the days Snider used to challenge writers to fistfights, but he still bristles at criticism. Nonetheless, the reason the Flyers have the third-best lifetime winning percentage in the NHL starts at the very top.Snider has always questioned the people who work for him. And not always calmly, either. But he has always channeled his impulses where they belong&mdash;through his general manager. It left Keith Allen spending a lot of time wondering what he was going to tell Snider, but obviously he usually had the right answers.Two years ago, Snider turned the club over to his son, Jay. The kid got off to a rocky start&mdash;hey. who&rsquo;s going to like a 26-year-old whose father owns the team?&mdash;but he&rsquo;s a smart kid who is getting better all the time at dealing with people.After backing himself into the corner by pushing Allen upstairs and making the unpopular Bob McCammon both coach and GM, Jay neatly extricated himself a year later by telling McCammon he had to get out from behind the bench. McCammon resigned, Snider squared himself with the fans, and the team&mdash;most of which McCammon had put together&mdash;rolled back to the finals.Marcel Aubut, Quebec: A gracious man who sets a fine table for visiting writers at playoff time. You don&rsquo;t think we can&rsquo;t be bought?Seriously, little by little under Aubut&rsquo;s leadership, the Nordiques are creeping closer to real Stanley Cup contention. That&rsquo;s not easy in the Quebec market, where an operator always has to fill a quota of French players. Everybody else in the league is just trying to get players. Aubut and Maurice Filion, his GM, have the added burden of maintaining the Nords&rsquo; francophone identity.Aubut&rsquo;s influence in league circles is also unmistakable. Many tried for years to push sudden-death overtime. It was the Nordiques who pulled it off.Ron Corey, Montreal: The Canadiens&rsquo; answer to Aubut. Urbane, gracious, very public-relations conscious, he has forced a callous front office to undergo a lobotomy in the last few years.Of course, years without a Stanley Cup, a smattering of empty seats, the presence of the Nordiques up the road and a healthy desire to sell more Molson&rsquo;s had a lot to do with this attitude change. But don&rsquo;t knock it, the Canadiens attacked a festering problem before it became a disaster.When it was obvious Irv Grundman had to go, Corey did it. Like Jay Snider, Corey graded personality and intelligence over experience in hiring one of the club&rsquo;s former heroes as a GM. Two years ago it looked like the Canadiens were in real trouble. Serge Savard has since stabilized them.Gordon and George Gund, Minnesota: The absentee owner carries an ominous connotation, but the Gunds are always there for their team and the Twin Cities community. The North Stars&rsquo; fall from grace has to be killing them, and although their patience with Lou Nanne has been tested lately, they have stuck behind the team.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021098/5570848-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="1534" height="1528"></div><h2>WHO ARE THESE GUYS?</h2>Norman Green, Calgary: The committee that runs the Flames is the most anonymous group of owners in the league. They have given Cliff Fletcher the title of president and let him completely run the show.Commitment to amateur sports and the Canadian Olympic program speaks well on their behalf. But nobody actually speaks of the Flames owners because no one knows who they are.<h2>GOOD AND (SOMETIMES) BAD</h2>Peter Pocklington, Edmonton: He&rsquo;s won and lost several fortunes in his lifetime, but there is no indication that his ups and downs have ever affected the Oilers&rsquo; operation.Pocklington didn&rsquo;t win any fans with that steep increase in playoff ticket prices two years ago, but he realized a mistake and backed down. That&rsquo;s more than some of these egomaniacs would do.The last time he imposed himself on his players was when the Oilers faced a seventh game against Calgary two years ago. Pocklington told the players how much money losing would cost him, and sure enough, like a loan collection agency, the Oilers went out and broke the Flames&rsquo; banks.Peter Puck is said to be on the road to financial recovery now. He lets Glen Sather run the show and proof of his good judgment is two consecutive Stanley Cups. As owners go, the good hockey fans of Edmonton could do a lot worse.Barry Shenkarow, Winnipeg: It got ugly about a year back when Shenkarow tried to break a stifling arena lease with veiled threats to move the team out of town. People forgot that had his group not stepped in 1978 when the well was dry, the World Hockey Association Jets could have folded in mid-season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011313/5570841-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="759" height="1732"></div>It hasn&rsquo;t been easy. Shenkarow has had to fight off a coup attempt by former majority stockholder Michael Gobuty to keep control and watch his dollars in building a team in a very small market. He came up with the dough last summer to keep Dale Hawerchuk with a minimum of haggling and has let John Ferguson build him a real contender. And yes, he also got the new lease.Bill Wirtz, Chicago: It took several years of empty seats for him to understand that a one by three-inch newspaper ad reading &ldquo;Hockey tonight,&rsquo;&rsquo; was not high-powered promotion. Wirtz and the NHL paid dearly for his letting Bobby Hull go to Winnipeg and help establish the WHA.Finally, Bill Wirtz went out and hired Bob Pulford and the Hawks have gradually built a contender. The old joint on West Madison is jumping again.<h2>JUST WANTS TO WIN</h2>Mike Hitch, Detroit: He&rsquo;s got money and he&rsquo;s going to spend it. Unfortunately he&rsquo;s learning that the NHL, unlike baseball, doesn&rsquo;t always work in such absolute terms.When he took over a severely run-down operation, Hitch didn&rsquo;t opt for some good-ol&rsquo;-boy retread who screwed up somewhere else. He hired an up-and-comer who had a lot to do with the Islanders&rsquo; success. If it turns out Hitch was wrong about Jimmy Devellano. so were a lot of people.<h2>KEEPING HIS CLUB AFLOAT</h2>Harry Omest, St. Louis: The Blues are still in St. Louis. They wouldn&rsquo;t be if it weren&rsquo;t for Harry O.But it&rsquo;s a little silly when Omest keeps getting angry everytime someone suggests that he is, well, frugal. There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with that, if he really doesn&rsquo;t have the cash to spend.Omest has been fortunate to have a coach, Jacques Demers, who is loved by his players and who works well with Ron Caron, his hamstrung GM. The Blues aren&rsquo;t exactly building a dynasty, but so far they are hangin in there.<h2>LEARNING THE HARD WAY</h2>Donald Conrad, Hartford: The caretaker of the insurance consortium that keeps the team in Hartford as a public gesture. Ultimately, the responsibility for Larry Pleau&rsquo;s fiascos rest at the top, but the hiring of Emile Francis has at least brought a measure of stabilty.What Conrad really wants is for the Whalers to stop embarrassing him. And some progress towards that end has been made.There are rumors that Conrad and Francis don&rsquo;t always see eye to eye, and that Emile threatened to quit when Conrad suggested that maybe firing coach Jack Evans was a good idea.Conrad is a guy that doesn&rsquo;t take no very easily. Emile had better keep improving his team.Jerry Buss, Los Angeles: It is inexplicable how he could run a winning basketball operation all these years while the hockey team continues to flounder. Finally, about five years too late, he fired former GM George Maguire.Maybe it says something about Buss that instead of going out and getting the best guy available, he opted for someone he knows&mdash;Rogie Vachon&mdash;as a replacement. A lot of people had their doubts about the choice, but the Kings showed real improvement last year. So maybe Buss lucked out.<h2>KEEPERS OF THE RANSOM</h2>Edward DeBartolo Sr., Pittsburgh: To know how to build shopping centers is not to know how to run a hockey team. DeBartolo let the late Baz Bastien run the Penguins into the ground.It&rsquo;s a long road back, but Mario Lemieux gives the Penguins a chance. Rumors abound about a move to Hamilton but as long as DeBartolo runs the Civic Arena for the city, he&rsquo;d rather have a hockey team playing in it. Depending upon your politics, he either held the city up for ransom last summer or was only asking for quite reasonable concessions.After all those years of benign neglect for what could be a dynamite hockey town, DeBartolo was lucky to get the response he did.John McMullen, New Jersey: Believing a hockey team at the Meadowlands would be a mint, he paid dearly for the Colorado Rockies. Now he&rsquo;s finding out how tough a sell a poor team is.McMullen&rsquo;s original season ticket plan, which required the people to mortgage their homes for lifetime tickets, was either incredibly naive or arrogant. The Devils will sell if they start winning, but McMullen&rsquo;s investment was so huge, it&rsquo;ll be years before he can conceive of a profit. Will he hold on?Abe Pollin, Washington: Like DeBartolo, he had the team, and the citizenry had to pay up or else. Pollin has had a happier ending&mdash;by hiring Dave Poile as GM. The Caps not only survived but started to move up in the standings. But his badmouthing of press critics during the crisis was not very smart.<h2>NOT A TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW</h2>Jim Brennan and Godfrey Wood, Boston: Proper Bostonians are the new owners of the Bruins after the sale by Delaware North.The new ownership group should be an improvement over Max and Jeremy Jacobs, the Buffalo millionaires whose only motivation was the bottom line.It will be interesting to see if the Bruins&rsquo; spending policies change. Paul Mooney, who is out, and Harry Sinden, who is still in charge, were the king of ledger-book guys the Jacobs brothers loved.<h2>THE RECLUSE</h2>Jack Krumpe, New York Rangers: Generally as invisible as the congolmerate that has put him charge of Madison Square Garden. Krumpe visits the locker room, chums it up a little with some the team&rsquo;s lesser players, but avoids public comment at all costs.For better or worse, he has made the Rangers. The Craig Patrick show.<h2>LESS THAN PASSING</h2>Frank and Arthur Griffiths, Vancouver: What have they done right? Well, they bought an airplane and sold it for $1.7 million profit. That&rsquo;s about all folks.Years and years of mediocrity have to reflect on the people who do the hiring and pay the bills. A great hockey town like Vancouver now draws less than 10,000 persons to the Pacific Coliseum on many nights. There&rsquo;s no good reason for it, except mismanagement.Harold Ballard, Toronto: The poor old rich man, who wants so badly to have a winner, has never been able to figure out how to do it. The best thing he ever had going for him was Jim Gregory, a decent hockey man who served as a very effective buffer between Ballard&rsquo;s bombast and the real world. With Gregory gone, everything soon fell apart.All the silly things Ballard says are, well, there&rsquo;s a fine line between irreverent and foolish. One supposes you have to know how to take Harold, but the vicious things he has said have taken their toll, too.The absence of any former Leaf heroes still working for the club is telling. We ask again: How could Ballard justify running off a Darryl Sittler?Ballard&rsquo;s dreadful treatment of some people may or may not be important. This is, after all, a business. But the bottom line on Harold&rsquo;s failure is that he has consistently hired the wrong people, reflecting his club&rsquo;s woeful state. &#9632;

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Rating The Men Who Run The 21 National Hockey League Teams

<div class="byline">Stan Fischler&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011414/5570886-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="339" height="455"></div>Yes, Dave Semenko, there are X-rated characters in hockey, but you&rsquo;re not one of them.Ah, but Sandy Vigilante, Jr., Steve Ratinetz and Mark Topaz are in the that category. Ask some NHL honchos and they&rsquo;ll say the verdict on them is somewhere to the left of &ldquo;parental guidance only.&rdquo;This trio of hockey film-lovers makes NHL high priests John Ziegler, Brian O&rsquo;Neill and Gil Stein grimace at the very thought of them, and for good reason. They live for hockey fights.Matter of fact, Vigilante, Ratinetz and Topaz are the collective Sylvester Stallone of hockey fighting. They have raised Semenko, Tiger Williams and Behn Wilson to the level of Gretzky, Kurri and Bossy.They are, quite simply, fanatical collectors and traders of hockey fight films. And if you don&rsquo;t believe me, check THE HOCKEY NEWS classifieds.Vigilante alone has more than 1,000&mdash;count &rsquo;em, one thousand&mdash;hockey fights in his collection. Topaz and Ratinetz are not far behind. In their estimation they are film curators. But ask them their idea of good acting and they&rsquo;ll tell you that Dave Schultz deserves an Oscar for belting Dale Rolfe.The NHL thinks they deserve a swift kick in the ashcan&mdash;but we&rsquo;ll get to that later. Let&rsquo;s first find out how a man can find time to put 1,000-plus fights on tape.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been collecting since 1978,&rdquo; says Vigilante, 32, an otherwise pleasant postman from suburban Nutley, New Jersey. &ldquo;But the hobby actually started in 1972.1 liked hockey fights so I began keeping a list of fights in every game.&ldquo;I went to the library to research fights that I didn&rsquo;t see. Then, I put them down, team-by-team, in a book. When video machines came out in 1978 I decided to tape the fights I couldn&rsquo;t see, I even brought a portable TV to games I was watching live so I could watch another game just in case there was a fight. Meanwhile, my machine at home would be taping a Flyers game.&rdquo;Needless to say the machine is still whirring away, recording each eruption of the 1985-86 campaign.&ldquo;So far,&rdquo; says Vigilante, &ldquo;the best fight this season featured Dave Richter of the North Stars and Steve Dykstra of the Sabres. There was some great free-swinging in this one. Richter landed some heavy lefts to Dykstra&rsquo;s head and almost iced him but Dykstra managed to gather himself and make it a close one.&rdquo;Like Vigilante, Ratinetz, a 25-year-old Long Island liquor salesman, insists that he makes not a penny from his collection and merely trades tapes but never sells them. He recalls that the glorification of fighting in hockey magazines inspired his hobby.&ldquo;These magazines had a &lsquo;Top Ten Fighters&rsquo; list or a &lsquo;Ten Dirtiest Players&rsquo; or &lsquo;Meanest Players&rsquo; and I found that intriguing. Occasionally, some of my favorites like Bob Nystrom and Garry Howatt made the list. So, when there was a fight I&rsquo;d pay close attention to see how my players did. That&rsquo;s when I got into it.&rdquo;Like the curator of the Louvre singling out a great work of art, Ratinez&rsquo; isolates one fight above all that gives him a fistic-artistic thrill at the mere thought of it.&ldquo;I was listening to an Islanders-Flyers game on the radio because the telecast was delayed. The fight was between Nystrom and Mel Bridgman with John Sterling doing the announcing. He said it was the most unbelievable hockey fight he&rsquo;d ever seen.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t wait for it to come on TV and when I finally did see it, it was every bit as good as Sterling said it was. Unbelievable.&rdquo;Yet Topaz, a 28-year-old statistician from Rockaway Park, disagrees. As a matter of fact, Topaz doesn&rsquo;t even put it on his list of the &ldquo;All-Time Top Five-Fights&rdquo; which follows with his play-by-play:1. NICK FOTIU, RANGERS VS. JACK MCILHARGEY, VANCOUVER. 1977, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN: &ldquo;Each player threw about 25 punches until the linesmen broke them up.&rdquo;2. CLARK GILLIES, ISLANDERS VS. DANNY GARE, BUFFALO, 1977, NASSAU COLISEUM. &ldquo;This fight was a surprise because Gillies was considered the strongest guy in the league at the time and Gare was six inches shorter. They were toe-to-toe until the linesmen separated them.&rdquo;3. GARRY HOWATT, ISLANDERS VS. DARRYL SITTLER, TORONTO, 1974, MAPLE LEAF GARDENS. &ldquo;It was the second straight fight of the night. Nystrom and Garry Monahan of the Leafs were going at it at one end of the ice with the linesmen and ref giving them all the attention. So, Sittler and Howatt went at it. Both players were so exhausted after the fight that they couldn&rsquo;t even lift their hands, I\t was one of the longest fights I&rsquo;ve ever seen.&rdquo;4. BEHN WILSON, PHILADELPHIA VS. HECTOR MARINI, ISLANDERS, 1980, THE SPECTRUM. &ldquo;This was an exhibition game and was a surprise because Wilson was one of the best fighters in the league and Marini one of the worst. Incredibly, Marini hung in there and won the fight.&rdquo;5. TIGER WILLIAMS, TORONTO, VS. STEVE JENSEN, LOS ANGELES, 1979, THE FORUM (L.A.) &ldquo;Williams started the fight, as he always does. Jensen wasn&rsquo;t a frequent fighter but when he did go, he was pretty good. It was an even fight that finally was broken up by the linesmen.&rdquo;Reading that, several dozen readers no doubt would like to spank Topaz. Other hockey purists consider it offensive to even discuss the likes of Vigilante in mixed company.&ldquo;I find it repugnant,&rdquo; says Vic Morren, a professional hockey analyst who writes about the game and works NHL telecasts. &ldquo;To me it&rsquo;s as offensive to true hockey fans as pushing X-rated films on kids.&rdquo;Morren&rsquo;s is not a lone voice of protest against Vigilanteism.The NHL high command objects to THE HOCKEY NEWS running classified ads promoting the trading of hockey fight films. The Zieglerites figure it gives hockey a lousy image.Yet, hockey fights inspire such fascination that even award-winning NBC-TV broadcaster Marv Albert had no compunction about featuring Ratinetz on his prime-time program.&ldquo;When I put Ratinetz on the air,&rdquo; defends Albert, &ldquo;it doesn&rsquo;t mean that I&rsquo;m expressing a viewpoint in favor of fighting. Ratinetz is a voyeur of hockey fights and, therefore, is a good story. He&rsquo;s interesting and he&rsquo;s out there.&ldquo;As far as the NHL objecting to him, let&rsquo;s put it this way: the NHL doesn&rsquo;t want to stop the fighting. What the NHL (wants to create for the fans) is the possibility that a fight might erupt at any time in any game. They want the feeling that there&rsquo;s a chance a fight will break out.&rdquo;And a lot of folks out there want a chance to look at Steve&rsquo;s tapes. Some of them are players earning a hefty salary in the NHL right now. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t mention any names,&rdquo; Ratinetz cautions, &ldquo;but I trade with some players.&ldquo;One guy, who&rsquo;s an NHL rookie now, never fought until he got to the majors. He saw my ad in THE HOCKEY NEWS and called; said he wanted some fights so he could study them and learn some fighting techniques. These guys see themselves on tape and then they want to see other players.&rdquo;Ratinetz usually meets the players when they visit the New York area. &ldquo;They get me things that I can&rsquo;t get and I get them stuff that they don&rsquo;t have.&ldquo;I trade with all different types&mdash;doctors, lawyers, other professionals all across Canada and the United States.&rdquo;Vigilante and Topaz would charter a dogsled if they thought an eskimo on Baffin Island had a few good fight tapes that were missing from their archives. In 1979 they flew to San Diego to see some games &ldquo;because San Diego had the toughest team ever assembled,&rdquo; and they weren&rsquo;t disappointed when they motored to Toledo to catch the Golddiggers brawling in 1978.&ldquo;Last June,&rdquo; recalls Topaz, &ldquo;we drove to Don Cherry&rsquo;s house near Toronto, figuring we could get some good fight stuff from him but it turned out we had 99 per cent of what he had in his collection.&rdquo;The fight movie network is as sophisticated as any art dealership. Topaz has an agreement with several minor league coaches from whom he receives tapes and will think nothing of driving up to New Haven if he figures there&rsquo;s blood on the moon.Not surprisingly, some subjective folks think Topaz, Vigilante and Ratinetz are nuts.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re probably right,&rdquo; acknowledges Topaz. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s a matter of taste. I wouldn&rsquo;t criticize anyone if he told me he collected goals.&rdquo;Before millions of viewers, Marv Albert put this one to Ratinetz: &ldquo;What do you say to people who say you&rsquo;re a sick guy?&rdquo;Ratinez: &ldquo;Marv, you get paid a lot of money to broadcast boxing on NBC. Well, there&rsquo;s more excitement in a hockey fight than in a lot of the boxing bouts you do.&rdquo;Albert, who also ha&rsquo;s been the Rangers&rsquo; broadcaster for more than a decade, does not endorse the hockey fight archivists but he doesn&rsquo;t denounce them nearly as vigorously as NHL people have done behind closed doors. There also have been rumblings from the league&rsquo;s inner sanctum that legal action will be taken against Ratinetz and colleagues.What the NHL may, in turn, be surprised to learn is that it could very well have a legal battle on its hands. The collectors, as it happens, have lawyers, too.There has been the suggestion, of course, that some hockey fight collectors not only trade the videotapes but&mdash;perish the thought&mdash;actually sell them.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t make any money off this,&rdquo; Vigilante insists. &ldquo;If someone came up to me and offered me a million dollars for all my hockey fights. I&rsquo;d kick &rsquo;em in the ass and tell them to get out of my house.&rdquo;Ratinetz: &ldquo;With me it&rsquo;s strictly trading with people.&rdquo;Topaz: &ldquo;I just like to collect and trade.&rdquo;Like all good collectors, each has his own personal favorites as people. Out of Topaz&rsquo;s vast collection, he selects Randy Holt.&ldquo;What I liked about him was that when the Flyers had the toughest team, he stood up to them the most and with no backing most of the time. When most teams were afraid to go into The Spectrum, he&rsquo;d go in and give them a taste of their own medicine.&rdquo;Whether the NHL can&mdash;or will&mdash;take any action against these conking curators is a moot point. But as long as the league permits brawling, it will turn them on.&ldquo;When I see a hockey fight I go crazy,&rdquo; Vigilante concludes.&ldquo;My blood starts rushing and my heart starts pounding so like you can almost hear it beating through my chest.&rdquo;I wonder if that happens to John Ziegler. &#9632;

f0012-01

Fight Fiends Live For Video Punch-Ups

The National Hockey League intends to maintain its hard line on players who use drugs.NHL president John Ziegler, who has in the past suspended two players for extended periods of time for drug convictions, says there is no place for drugs in hockey.&ldquo;Our policy is very simple. Get the hell out of our business, we don&rsquo;t want you,&rdquo; said Ziegler at a news conference in Hartford to kick off fan balloting for the league&rsquo;s All-Star game Feb. 4.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want you (fans) to pay your money to watch some guy that may have been high on some kind of drug. It&rsquo;s dishonest.&rdquo;Ziegler says he feels no compulsion to institute a drug rehabilitation program as other professional sports have.&ldquo;They can go rehabilitate themselves,&rdquo; said the president. &ldquo;When you make a choice that you&rsquo;re going to take illegal drugs, you&rsquo;re making a voluntary decision that &lsquo;I&rsquo;m going to break the law.&rsquo;&rdquo;Only two players in league history&mdash;former New York Ranger Don Murdoch and Ric Nattress of the St. Louis Blues (then with the Montreal Canadiens)&mdash;have been suspended for drug-related reasons.Simon Nolet has been named interim coach of the Quebec Nordiques in place of Michel Bergeron.Bergeron, the head coach, has been forced from his place behind the bench indefinitely with a viral infection.Goalie Mario Gosselin of the Quebec Nordiques was named the NHL&rsquo;s first player of the month for the 1985-86 season.Gosselin sported a nifty 2.60 goals-against average and 6-1-1 record in eight starts during the month of October. He recorded one shutout.The final concession has been made in the Boston Bruins&rsquo; change of ownership.Delaware North, a Buffalo firm that owned the team and the Boston Garden, delayed sale of both to a Boston group of investors to ensure it will receive guarantees of compensation for concessions should the building be seized by the state or city under eminent domain.That granted, the transaction for a reported $45 million is expected to be finalized as soon as possible.ESPN will televise six NHL games during the month of December.The schedule is as follows (all times EST): Chicago at Edmonton, Sun., Dec. 8, 8 p.m.; Montreal at Philadelphia, Thur., Dec. 12, 7:30 p.m.; Detroit at Chicago, Sun, Dec. 15,8:30 p.m.; Boston at Buffalo, Sun., Dec. 22, 7 p.m.; New York Islanders at Buffalo, Sun., Dec. 29, 7 p.m.; and Philadelphia at Edmonton, Tues., Dec. 31, 9:30 p.m. &#9632;

Drug-Users Not Welcome In NHL: Ziegler

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011328/5570948-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="584" height="172"></div>BUFFALO&mdash;Mike Foligno&rsquo;s scoring streak has come to an end.When the Buffalo Sabres lost to the Flames in Calgary on Oct. 30 it marked the first game this season that right winger Mike Foligno did not earn at least one point.In the previous nine games, Foligno had scored five goals (one a game for five straight contests) and seven assists for 12 points.To most observers the streak consititutes one of the best starts during Foligno&rsquo;s career. But to Foligno it is just another season&mdash;his seventh to be exact.&lsquo;I&rsquo;m very pleased that things are going my way,&rdquo; said Foligno. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think that I&rsquo;m playing at the top of my game yet. I know 1 can play a lot better.&rdquo;Sabres&rsquo; coach Jim Schoenfeld recently re-teamed Foligno with Gil Perreault and Dave Andreychuk. It is a move that Foligno looks upon favorably.&ldquo;What more can you ask for than to be paired up with a couple of guys like this,&rdquo; said Foligno. &ldquo;A couple of years ago we were teamed up and really played well together.&ldquo;We seem to know each other&rsquo;s moves and styles, so it seemed like the natural thing to do, putting us back together again.&rdquo;Schoenfeld seems to agree.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been going very well,&rdquo; said Schoenfeld. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re a concern to the other team when their line is on the ice.&ldquo;Mike is a good, strong shooter. He has good speed to the corners and a good shot to go along with it. Dave can make good passes. And once he&rsquo;s in the slot he&rsquo;s hard to move out.&ldquo;And Perreault speaks for himself. He does it all.&rdquo;Praise is not likely to swell Foligno&rsquo;s head.He knows that he has to stay at the top of his game every shift, every game. If he doesn&rsquo;t, he knows what the consequences will be.&ldquo;Earlier in the season, in our first game, I wasn&rsquo;t having a good game at all,&rdquo; said Foligno. &ldquo;After playing the first period. Schoney sat me down for most of the second.&ldquo;And I haven&rsquo;t forgotten that either. 1 don&rsquo;t want to miss any more shifts this year. Even now if I miss a shift I get worried that I may have done something wrong or am not playing up to what I should be.&rdquo;Foligno said that a reward system recognizes good work.&ldquo;Under Schoney&rsquo;s system of hockey, if you are playing well you will see more ice time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Schoney&rsquo;s playing guys on the penalty killing and power play units if they are having a good game.&ldquo;And what guy on this team, or any other for that matter, doesn&rsquo;t want to play more.&ldquo;And this goes on a game-to-game basis, depending on how well a guy is playing. To me it&rsquo;s a great system to reward guys if they are playing well. And it doesn&rsquo;t put the burden on just a few indivduals in particular situations. Everybody gets a shot at it if they are doing well.&rdquo;SABRE POINTS&mdash;The Sabres&rsquo; loss in Calgary was the first in nine games between the two clubs. The Sabres took an eight-game winning streak into that game&hellip;Rookie goaltender Daren Puppa was recalled by Buffalo from Rochester. While in Rochester, Puppa won all four decisions he was involved with and posted a 2.75 goals-against average. Goalie Mike Craig was returned to the Americans&hellip;Perreault moved into 31st place in career games played (1,108) in Calgary. He advanced to 13th place in career goals with his 485th against the Vancouver Canucks. And Perreault also picked up an assist in the game against Minnesota to place him eighth in career assists (777).<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02963/5570941-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="1223" height="1209"><figcaption class="caption-body">High-flying Mike Foligno of the Sabres scored points in each of his first nine games this season.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0013-01

Buffalo’s Foligno Streaks To A Strong Start

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>With Paul Coffey rapidly emerging as the biggest draw in the NHL after Wayne Gretzky, PC&rsquo;s agent Gus Badali would like nothing better than to renegotiate his client&rsquo;s long-term pact. &ldquo;I originally discussed it last spring at the Stanley Cup party,&rdquo; Badali tells BLUELINES. He huddled a second time with Oilers&rsquo; boss Peter Pocklington but to no avail. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re willing to extend the contract,&rdquo; adds Badali, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;re not happy with the terms, so we&rsquo;ll let it sit for awhile and wait &lsquo;til this year is out.&rdquo; Badali is looking for a super pact that would carry through 1991-92, when Coffey will be 29. In reply to reports that Coffey has been spurred to renegotiation because of jealousy over Ray Bourque&rsquo;s best-in-the-NHL defenseman&rsquo;s contract, Badali retorts, &ldquo;I wanted a new contract for Paul long before Bourque&rsquo;s contract came out.&rdquo;Agent Bill Watters is being spanked in some quarters for potential conflict of interest now that he&rsquo;s a radio commentator for Maple Leaf home games. The New York Post&rsquo;s sports-TV critic Phil Mushnick describes Watters&rsquo; situation as a &ldquo;severe&rdquo; conflict, particularly since Watters represents Toronto ace Rick Vaive. &ldquo;As far as a conflict goes,&rdquo; Watters tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t buy it. If Vaive scores his 50th goal, I&rsquo;m not going to come on the air and say, &lsquo;That should be worth a $20,000 bonus.&rsquo; If I sensed I was in a coflict of interest, I&rsquo;d be the first to admit it.&rdquo; However, Watters allows that he will refrain from individual criticism. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to harpoon the Leafs, the North Stars or anyone. But I have a special knowledge of the players as people and I intend to use it to make the broadcasts entertaining.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Rangers&rsquo; color commentator Phil Esposito, who had been miffed because his expertise was overlooked during the Herb Brooks&rsquo; regime, is now providing his services to rookie coach Ted Sator as an offensive consultant.Nordiques&rsquo; John Anderson sees a distinction between the coaching emotional styles of former leader Dan Maloney and Michel Bergeron. &ldquo;Dan was very uptight in the room,&rdquo; Anderson tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;Michel is just the opposite He&rsquo;s relaxed&mdash;until he gets behind the bench. Then he starts yelling.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Former Nordique Marian Stastny, flourishing in Toronto, says one reason for his change for the better is that that Dan Maloney doesn&rsquo;t treat his players like robots&hellip;Canucks&rsquo; soph Taylor Hall is amused about the fuss made over Vancouver&rsquo;s third-edition uniforms. &ldquo;Frankly,&rdquo; he chuckles, &ldquo;the players couldn&rsquo;t care less.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Several Canucks say they&rsquo;re not impressed with the Jets, figuring that the Flames are a better club&hellip;Alfie Turcotte, the Candiens&rsquo; top draft pick in 1983, beefs that he got a bad rap from the Montreal media. Specifically, Turcotte singled out Le Journal de Montreal for unfairly depicting him as a playboy more interested in off-ice activity than the Canadiens. He suggests that the bad press hastened his slip to the minors. However, one Montreal reporter tells BLUELINES that Turcotte doth protest too much.The former Forum chant to &ldquo;Guy-Guy-Guy&rdquo; has been replaced by &ldquo;Nilan-Nilan-Nilan&rdquo;&hellip;The Bruins&rsquo; Rick Middleton insists there was no reason for Chris Nilan to have slugged him with a butt-end, although the Canadien has been suggesting that he was provoked by Middleton. &ldquo;If this keeps up,&rdquo; says Middleton, &ldquo;someone will get seriously hurt. In all the years I&rsquo;ve been in hockey I&rsquo;ve never seen anything like this (Nilan&rsquo;s cheap shot). There was no cause, no provocation.&rdquo;&hellip;Kings&rsquo; GM Rogie Vachon is feeling heat for losing quietly-valuable Terry Ruskowski and penaltykiller Bob Miller. Insiders say that Ruskowski&rsquo;s problem was his contract. The Kings offered two years at $180,000 but TR wanted three. He got three years at $140,000 per from the Penguins. LA misses Terry&rsquo;s leadership powers. Brent Peterson, whom the Canucks landed for only $10,000 from Buffalo, has been one of Canucks&rsquo; coach Tom Watt&rsquo;s delights. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m setting modest goals for the Canucks,&rdquo; Watt tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;If we can meet them early in the season we should be all right.&rdquo;Interesting NHL scout&rsquo;s report on the Flyers: &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll finish first in the Patrick Divsion but they&rsquo;re not as (intimidating) tough as a lot of people think. Their toughest player, Dave Brown, can be taken. After that, they&rsquo;ve got a lot of guys who bother you, but that&rsquo;s all.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Islanders&rsquo; Patrick Flatley&mdash;a Toronto native&mdash;says his rooting interest in the baseball Blue Jays diminished significantly when the players called a strike. &ldquo;Considering what they&rsquo;re making,&rdquo; says Flatley, &ldquo;the ball players had no business striking.&rdquo; Flatley says he wouldn&rsquo;t support an NHL players&rsquo; walkout either&hellip;The North Stars&rsquo; Dennis Maruk tells about the time this summer he was touring Minnesota trying to sell season tickets. One prospective customer told Maruk he had better ways to spend his company&rsquo;s money. The Tyrone Guthrie (legitimate) Theater, was one example cited. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s boring,&rdquo; Maruk snapped in return. &ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t that bad, were we?&rdquo; To which the customer-to-be nodded, &ldquo;Yeah, you were!&rdquo;&hellip;Michel Goulet is miffed over the way some reporters handled his holdout, claiming they were on his back below and beyond the call of duty, particularly over the issue of his agent manipulating him. &ldquo;He followed my mandate,&rdquo; says Goulet&hellip;NHL is quietly researching the time of games and the length of stoppages after whistles and at faceoffs. Phil Esposito on ref Bob Myers: &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t call any holding at all in the third period.&rdquo; &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011295/5571041-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="575" height="157"></div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;Why would a team leading the National Hockey League with eight wins in 10 starts think it needs more depth at right wing?Why would that same team, which won five straight without Michel Goulet (on strike), Wilf Paiement (strained knee) or Dan Bouchard (benched and then traded to the Jets), feel it lacks depth?The answer to both these questions is insurance, and veteran Wayne Babych fills that policy as far as the Quebec Nordiques are concerned.Babych had dressed for only two of the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; first eight games before being picked up by Quebec for future considerations.In announcing the deal, the Nordiques were adamant in saying that neither a draft choice nor other players are involved.Future considerations most likely translates to a salary deal worked out between Pittsburgh and Quebec.The Nordiques will pay all or part of his salary. But who pays is probably not even important to Babych&mdash;he must be happy just to be playing again.In his first game with Quebec&mdash;when the Nordiques beat Montreal for a second time this season&mdash;Babych saw a fair amount of ice time and even had a violent fight with Mike McPhee of the Canadiens.&ldquo;I think I can play any style the opposition wants and that is probably one of the reasons Quebec came to get me,&rdquo; said Babych.The insurance and extra depth Babych gives Quebec became even more important when Mark Kumpel, Quebec&rsquo;s leading scorer in the first week, suffered a slight wrist fracture, missing at least two games. Wilf Paiement also suffered a kidney injury after missing five games with a sore knee.The Nordiques say they are counting on Babych, a seven-year NHL veteran, to help out because of his experience.&ldquo;He will allow us to work in our rookies (Mike Eagles, for instance) a little more slowly and that will help us overall,&rdquo; says coach Michel Bergeron.Quebec came close to selecting Babych during the intra-league waiver draft just before the start of the regular season. At the time, they asked for a pause, investigated his contract, but decided not to act.A few days before the draft, Babych had played a strong, aggressive game against the Nordiques in a pre-season encounter at Trois-Rivieres.Although his aggressiveness surely impressed Bergeron, his hefty contract did not allow general manager Maurice Filion to draft him. at least not then. Three weeks later, the Nordiques got their man anyhow.&ldquo;I felt a little rusty playing in my first game in Quebec, especially since I had not even skated in three days.&rdquo; said Babych, a last-minute arrival at the Colisee before a fairly calm Montreal-Quebec encounter. Babych had a quick initiation to the Adams Division just a few hours later.The Nordiques are off to their best start ever in the NHL with an 8-1 record, and the team seems ready to make a run at first place in the Adams Division.Their only weakness has been giving up too many goals late in games.The Quebec coaches talk about playing a little too conservatively in the third period and how it sometimes hurts the team.Both Bergeron and assistant coach Simon Nolet, who had to fill in when the former missed three games with a viral infection, talked recently of letting up a little too much in the third period without really knowing why.Goaltender Mario Gosselin, however, says he knows what the problem is&mdash;lack of concentration.Gosselin, playing only his second full season in the NHL, displays the confidence of a veteran when he analyzes his own play.He simply will not let himself be bothered by a poor performance, not that he has had any this season, going undefeated with 6-0-1 in seven starts.&ldquo;When you get ahead three or four goals in the third period, it is always difficult to concentrate,&rdquo; says Gosselin. &ldquo;All I care about is that we win each game, and that I allow fewer goals than the opposition. At the end of the season all that counts is the number of games we won.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0015-01

Babych Gives The Nordiques Added Depth

<div class="byline">Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011183/5571072-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="353" height="476"></div>I HATE NUMBERS. If a shrink could get me on a couch, it wouldn&rsquo;t take him long to get to the roots of my feelings of inadequacy.My dad is an accountant. Ever since I started to bring home C&rsquo;s in algebra, I feel like I have let him down.It wasn&rsquo;t that I didn&rsquo;t understand theories. I did, or at least thought I grasped most of them. But then I&rsquo;d add two plus two and too often get five. I thought I was trying hard, but as a I look back, maybe the motivation wasn&rsquo;t quite there.On the whole I was probably anxious to get on to the good stuff like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Frank Orr. (I read Walden&rsquo;s Pond because I thought it was going to be about hockey.) But math gave me the shakes.That feeling must persist to this day, when I drive my editors crazy by continually forgetting about empty-net goals when I write the final scores. It looked like a one-goal game to me. Deep down, I must figure it should stay that way.All this may explain my exasperation with people who try to use statistics to analyze hockey. &ldquo;Sadistics,&rdquo; said an old college roommate who was grappling with a statistics course. I heartily agreed. I think of that guy often, every Monday, in fact, when the NHL delivers its weekly release.Goals, assists, wins, losses, goals-against average, that&rsquo;s all fine and necessary. Even power-play percentages have their place. But in an effort to be more complete, the league has over the last few years added things like first goals, game-tying goals, game-winning goals and save percentages. I&rsquo;m still waiting for someone to explain the value of these items.This is not baseball, where a batter measures himself individually against a pitcher four or five times a game. This is not football, where they run a play, blow a whistle and measure an exact amount of yardage gained towards the goal line. This is not basketball, where players shoot 20 times a game and you can largely define his worth by how many of them he makes.Hockey is different. It has a flow and too many players whose job isn&rsquo;t to score. And it has nuances that determine a player&rsquo;s worth that are often beyond numbers. A lot of coaches keep things&mdash;faceoffs, giveaways, hits&mdash;that might tie some of the loose ends together, but until they are standardized and made part of the NHL&rsquo;s official statistics, there is no meaningful basis of comparison.Even these well meaning attempts, however, allow for too many X factors. The Philadelphia Flyers, not statisfied that shots on goal are a true measurement of a team&rsquo;s control of a game, keep something they call chances. They draw lines from the goal out to the faceoff circles and count the number of times each game shots are taken in what they call scoring position.That&rsquo;s fine as far as it goes. But shots from the points, after all, sometimes go in, particularly if there is a well-designed screen in front of the goal. Neither can the Flyers count the number of times good opportunities are blown when the player misses the net. The shot that just whizzed by the post was a better chance than the one that went into the goalie&rsquo;s midsection.&ldquo;We figure those things even out,&rdquo; Flyer assistant coach E.J. McGuire says, and usually they do. But stats are supposed to be exact. And these aren&rsquo;t.Thus, our conclusion. Try as they might, hockey&rsquo;s figure filberts are trying to put a round game into square figures. Attempts to expand their focus almost always tell you only the obvious.It&rsquo;s almost comical how zealously the NHL guarded its plus-minus stats all those years. A guy like Emile Francis practically treated them like matters of national security. Yeah, 1 kept them because they didn&rsquo;t want me to have them. It was just about the time that I realized how overrated they are that the league decided to promote them.What do they tell you? The good checkers are barely plus because they don&rsquo;t score as much and because they are always facing the top lines. No matter how good they are, they don&rsquo;t win the Emery Edge award. Wayne Gretzky was plus-98 last year because he scores so damn much, not because he minds his own end better than Doug Jarvis. Glen Cochrane was once plus-51 mostly because he played with Mark Howe.The guys who lead the league in scoring are largely the ones who turn up the most chances. It&rsquo;s not necessarily because they are more accurate around the net. The numbers say Ray Neufeld had a better shooting percentage last year than Marcel Dionne? I&rsquo;ve seen those hands. You can&rsquo;t fool me.First goals? Statistics show how important they are to a team&rsquo;s success. Of course they are. If you have one goal and the other guys have none, you&rsquo;ve got a better chance of winning than they do.What does it all mean? To really know, you&rsquo;ll have to buy a copy of my new book, The Hockey Abstract. Why should that baseball guy, Bill James, have it all to himself?Here are a few excerpts:Wayne Gretzky always scores 70 more points than anyone in the league because he&rsquo;s better than anybody else. Eddy Beers is shooting 100 per cent&mdash;his one shot went in before he got hurt. Our advice to him when he gets back into the lineup is to keep shooting. Eddy, you &lsquo;re hot.The St. Louis Blues were 20-8-4 against Norris foes last year and 17-23-8 against the rest of the league because they play in a lousy division. They won the Norris with 86 points. See how smart lam?Until they come up with a stat that measures a team&rsquo;s ability to get the puck out of its own end, I&rsquo;ll stick with the basics. Goals, assists, goals-against average. It seems pretty simple to me. You score more than they do, you win. &#9632;

f0016-01

Don’t Even Try To Figure Out Numbers Game

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02943/5571103-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="578" height="164"></div>EDMONTON&mdash;Glenn Anderson&rsquo;s fast start has them buzzing around in the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; locker room.Not to mention Edmonton&rsquo;s Cross Cancer Institute.With 11 goals in nine games last month, Anderson has been Edmonton&rsquo;s answer to Mr. October.&ldquo;But October&rsquo;s over now, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo; said Anderson. &ldquo;I just hope to carry it into November&hellip;&rdquo;There are a number of people around this neck of the woods who wouldn&rsquo;t mind one iota if Anderson was to continue his goal-scoring harvest through November, December&hellip;and all the way down the line during the National Hockey League&rsquo;s 1985-86 campaign.After the kamikaze right winger scored two goals, including the winner, in a 6-4 triumph over the New York Islanders on Oct. 16, linemate Mark Messier observed, &ldquo;Glenn is really into it this year.&rdquo;The following day we found out why.Every goal Anderson scores this season will net $1,000 for the Cross Cancer Institute, courtesy of Acklands&mdash;a nationwide machinery manufacturing firm.As of Nov. 4, he had 11 in as many games. And that runs a tidy $11,000. Last spring Acklands sponsored Anderson to the tune of $ 1,000 for each goal he scored during the Stanley Cup playoffs, netting the clinic $10,000.In conjunction with the official opening of the Glenn Anderson/Acklands Pediatric Room No. 9 for outpatients, it was disclosed sponsorship will continue throughout the 1985-86 season.Where did the idea come from in the first place?&ldquo;I was out for dinner at a friend&rsquo;s (John Trueman) place,&rdquo; said Anderson. &ldquo;He suggested something be done. The idea came from the running back in Winnipeg (Willard Reaves) who was giving footballs to (handicapped) kids (after touchdowns). 1 got talking with John&rsquo;s daughters and they said, &lsquo;Why don&rsquo;t you do something for a worthy cause?&rsquo; I figure it&rsquo;s got to be be better than doing high-fives on the ice.&rdquo;Why the cancer fund?&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know which charity to &lsquo;hit&rsquo;,&rdquo; admitted Anderson, who is also the local chairman of Uncles at Large. &ldquo;But I like dealing with children and the cancer thing could be something that goes across Canada. Plus, I&rsquo;ve had some friends of mine lose their lives to it.&rdquo;A suggestion was made to Anderson that he roller-skate across Canada to raise money for cancer research.Being somewhat of a free-spirit, this sort of thing could be right up his alley.&ldquo;It never crossed my mind,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;until a girl mentioned it at lunch. A guy could definitely raise a lot of money for a great cause. It&rsquo;s just that I don&rsquo;t know if I could do it in four months.&rdquo;Who says it would have to be done during one off-season?The matter, he said, is under consideration.&ldquo;It gives me more incentive,&rdquo; said the 25-year-old native of Burnaby, B.C. &ldquo;Subconsciously, 1&rsquo;11 be aware that I&rsquo;m doing something for other people.&rdquo;Anderson was a model of goal-scoring consistency through the early going.In October, he was held off the scoresheet only during a 3-2 triumph over the Boston Bruins. He narrowly missed the comer on Boston goalie Doug Keans, the game&rsquo;s second star, and later neatly sidestepped Bruins&rsquo; all-star defenseman Ray Bourque, only to have Keans make a brilliant save.The Oilers&rsquo; second seasonal loss was a 2-0 setback at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres and Daren Puppa, who was making his NHL debut. The rookie goaltender was outstanding in whitewashing the Oilers, stopping 37 shots&mdash;19 in the third period. Anderson was stopped four times, including twice from close range. He also failed to connect during a 7-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, despite a couple of bona fide chances.Anderson popped a hat-trick Oct. 28 in Calgary with two goals coming 37 seconds apart on a pair of second-period backhands.Anderson isn&rsquo;t a stranger to goal scoring, having collected 212 career tallies in 370 games heading into this season.&ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s concentration,&rdquo; he concluded. &ldquo;When I was in college (Denver University), Marshall Johnston (former coach) told me I had to concentrate more around the net. I guess I am.&rdquo;Not that he&rsquo;s done badly over the past five seasons, but why is he bearing down at this stage?&ldquo;The added incentive has a lot to do with it,&rdquo; he said following the 6-4 triumph over Calgary. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure they&rsquo;re watching back there (Cross Cancer Institute) to see what&rsquo;s going on with production.&rdquo;The project is the second worthwhile charitable undertaking Anderson has been involved in. Back in September his one-day golf tournament&mdash;on a cold, miserable day&mdash;raised $20,000 for Uncles at Large.IN THE CREASE&mdash;Goalie Grant Fuhr suffered a bruised left shoulder against Toronto and will be out a mimimum of one week. Veteran Ron Low, who has been working as a playing assistant coach in Nova Scotia, was summoned as a replacement&hellip;Injuries have also plagued the Oilers&rsquo; defensive corps. Norris Trophy-winner Paul Coffey is coming off a charleyhorse that kept him out of one game. When Coffey returned, Randy Gregg came down with a cartilage problem in his rib cage. He could be out from two to four weeks. Gregg&rsquo;s replacement, Steve Smith, was felled by a strained right shoulder sustained during a fight with Buffalo&rsquo;s Lindy Ruff. Charlie Huddy took a shot on the foot 90 seconds into the Toronto game and was taken for X-rays, which proved negative. &#9632;

f0016-02

Glenn Anderson Has Special ‘Cross To Bear

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville Hockey<h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011035/5571134-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="592" height="173"></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;When coach Mike Keenan arrived in Philadelphia last year, one of the first things he included within his intricate blueprint for success was a breakdown of the season into 10-game segments.They are the eight pillars upon which the Flyers balance the weight of the 80-game grind; the measuring sticks of success; the check points; and the warning signs which line the Flyers&rsquo; road to April.And after the first 10 games of the 1985-86 season, the Flyers were right on schedule.The first check point was reached at Le Colisee in Quebec where the Flyers thumped the Nordiques 5-3. The win not only lengthened their winning streak to six games, but also gave them an enviable 8-2-0 over for their first segment.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re happy with our first 10 games,&rdquo; said Keenan, &ldquo;I think our record will stand up to anybody&rsquo;s in the league.&rdquo;More than wins and losses, Keenan was also pleased with the style of play which had minimized opposition offenses to just 28 goals in 10 games.The win over Quebec was sandwiched between a 5-4 win against Montreal at the Forum, and a 7-4 decision over Los Angeles at the Spectrum to further extend their winning streak to seven games, and give them a 9-2-0 burst from the start.In addition to their seven-game winning streak, the Flyers also remained the only perfect NHL team on the road. where they have put together a 5-0-0 record, while outscoring their opponents by almost a two-to-one margin, 25-13.Goalie Pelle Lindbergh was in goal for all three games, raising his record to 5-20 with a 3.00 goals-against average. Meanwhile, goalie Bob Froese literally remained the perfect back up, with a 4-00 record and 2.75 average.The three wins were all of a different variety, but all had one common denominator&mdash;the Flyers jumped out to quick leads in each game. It might be more coincidence than strategy, but the Flyers have managed to score the first goal of the game in every one of their first 11 games.In addition, they&rsquo;ve managed to pile up a 20-6 overall first-period advantage, while smothering their opponents by a 9-1 margin in first periods on the road.&ldquo;There may be some statistical background to back up the theory that we&rsquo;re winning games because we&rsquo;re scoring first,&rdquo; said Keenan, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s as important as the fact that we came back twice against the Canadiens.&rdquo;Indeed, there had been some concern about the Flyers&rsquo; ability to come from behind. After all. until the win at Montreal, they had lost both of the games in which they trailed.NOTES&mdash;Right winger Rick Tocchet suffered a freak injury in Montreal where the door to the bench was slammed on the middle finger of his, left hand, forcing him to miss the next two games. Brian Propp&rsquo;s game winner against Montreal was his third of the season. He had a six-game scoring streak (6-7-13) snapped against the Kings&hellip;Tim Kerr&rsquo;s hat-trick put him on a goal-a-game pace (11-4-15). Kerr scored at least one point in each game during the seven-game winning streak (9-2-11). with six goals over the last three games&hellip;Lindsay Carson and Ilkka Sinisalo scored two goals apiece in Quebec when center Pelle Eklund began to show some offensive dazzle&hellip;Both Dave Brown and Ed Hospodar were assessed double game misconducts against the Kings&hellip;The Flyers were 1-for-12 on the power play against Quebec. &#9632;

f0017-01

Philadelphia Takes Off For A Flying Start

<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/f0017-02808/5571165-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="586" height="160"></div>LANDOVER&mdash;The Washington Capitals&rsquo; defensive corps has come to resemble the cast of characters in Agatha Christie&rsquo;s book And Then There Were None.In the third game after Rod Langway&rsquo;s departure with a strained knee ligament, Larry Murphy joined the Capitals&rsquo; captain on the disabled list with a broken bone in his left foot.Like Langway, Murphy was told to be prepared for a three-week wait to get back in lineup. Forced to walk with crutches, he took to swimming in the hope of maintaining some level of fitness.Murphy was hurt midway through his most productive game of the season, as he collected three assists in a 6-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues. He blocked a shot on the unprotected part of his skate, tried to continue in the game and eventually hobbled off to learn the bad news.&ldquo;One of their guys took a shot from the blue line and I stuck my foot out to stop the puck,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;It stung, but I didn&rsquo;t think about it. I skated four or five more shifts before (I knew) something was wrong and I had to leave.&rdquo;With nine points in the Capitals&rsquo; first 10 games, Murphy was off to a fast start offensively and he was one of those who had shown considerable improvement defensively with Langway out of the lineup.&ldquo;Larry played really well on the road and he was skating well against St. Louis, although he tried to do too much on a couple of early plays,&rdquo; said coach Bryan Murray. &ldquo;With Rod out, he was one of the guys who, along with Scott Stevens, played hard and wanted to play well. He wasn&rsquo;t in much trouble and 1 was able to put him with Dwight (Schofield) and keep rotating three units.&rdquo;That luxury disappeared with Murphy&rsquo;s departure. Instead, Murray figured to use Schofield and rookie Yves Beaudoin as spot players, while leaning heavily on two combinations, Stevens with rookie Kevin Hatcher and Peter Andersson with Darren Veitch.Beaudoin, who had been idle with a knee strain, returned to Binghamton&rsquo;s lineup the day after Murphy was hurt and, when he showed he was sound, immediately was summoned to Washington.The Capitals&rsquo; only other minor-league defenders, Timo Blomqvist and Grant Jennings, were out with injuries.General manager David Poile kept his phone active in a bid to acquire help, but the best he could do without having his pocket picked was to obtain Bruce Shoebottom from Los Angeles in a minor-league exchange for right winger Bryan Erickson.He also signed John Hutchings, who had been toiling in the International League, and sent him to Binghamton with Shoebottom.&ldquo;I made a few calls to see what was available, but this is a poor position to be in trying to make a deal,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;To get short-term help, we&rsquo;d have to pay an excessive price.&ldquo;It will probably be two to three weeks before we have both of them back. I don&rsquo;t want to make a long-term sacrifice for a short-term problem, so some of the players we&rsquo;re dressing will have to put in some extra ice time.&ldquo;Of course, if we have any further injury problems, we&rsquo;ll have to consider something else, like signing and calling up one of our junior draftees.&rdquo;Another possibility would be to move Dave Christian back to defense, where he excelled in helping the United States win the Olympic gold medal at Lake Placid in 1980.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind it there,&rdquo; Christian said after a practice at defense before Beaudoin was called up. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one of those things. If they feel they want me to play back there I feel I can play there.&rdquo;Murray indicated such a shift would be a last resort, because &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not the type of guy we want to move back. We need him up front.&rdquo;Murray was philosophical about the injuries, saying, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a positive aspect to the situation, because the injuries allow other people to get extra ice time and work on penalty killing and the power play. In the long run it will help them and us, as long as the injuries end in three weeks and we don&rsquo;t get any more bad ones.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Mike Gartner celebrated his 26th birthday with a hat-trick against the Blues. &#9632;

f0017-02

Washington Defense Battered And Bruised

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03607/5571196-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="584" height="164"></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;When Al Arbour becomes angry he grits his teeth, his eyes narrow and his jawbone tightens. The New York Islanders&rsquo; coach was especially angry after a recent 3-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at Nassau Coliseum.&ldquo;We played a desperate hockey club and they outworked us and they outhit us,&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;We backed down on every inch of the ice.&rdquo;Then he gritted his teeth, his eyes narrowed and his jawbone tightened.&ldquo;I guess we&rsquo;ll have to outfit our team with ballet tights so they can tiptoe around out there,&rdquo; he barked.When Arbour&rsquo;s sarcastic remark was relayed to Bryan Trottier, he gritted his teeth. &ldquo;Al&rsquo;s not too far from wrong,&rdquo; the veteran center said. &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;ll need extra large ones (tights).&rdquo;Denis Potvin, who was celebrating his 32nd birthday, also felt Arbour&rsquo;s criticism was justified.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t been applying ourselves at all,&rdquo; the team captain said. &ldquo;We go out there with the attitude that we might not have to work hard. We think this is &lsquo;81 when we&rsquo;d get a couple of powerplay goals and be ahead early.&ldquo;But we&rsquo;re not getting the power-play goals now and we&rsquo;re not working hard enough to compensate for the fact that every game is a grind out there.&rdquo;Did the Islanders take the hint? Well, not immediately. They opened a home-and-home weekend series against the Washington Capitals at the Capital Centre by losing 5-3.An incident in that game, however, indicated the Islanders were beginning to fight back.Lou Franceschetti, the &ldquo;cop&rdquo; of the Caps, took a run at rookie Dale Henry in the second period.Bob Bourne, who had returned to the lineup that night after missing the Islanders&rsquo; first eight games with tom rib cartilage, risked further injury by dashing to Henry&rsquo;s rescue.Said Bourne: &ldquo;Guys like Franceschetti have been running at us too much. Nobody has done much about it, either. I thought it was time for me to do something. I don&rsquo;t want to play that role, but you have to stand up for your teammates.&rdquo;Twenty-four hours later, the Islanders and the Capitals held a rematch at Nassau Coliseum. &bull;Only 15 seconds after the opening faceoff, Duane Sutter fought Craig Laughlin of the Capitals. That set the tone for the Islanders. And it seemed more than a coincidence when Sutter scored the winning goal in the Isles&rsquo; 5-3 victory.So throw away that order for ballet tights. The Islanders don&rsquo;t need them. Not right now, anyway.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really pleased,&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;In fact, it&rsquo;s the first time I&rsquo;ve been that pleased with the guys since the start of the season. Instead of finding a way to lose, we found a way to win. We did a lot of grinding and kept it up for the whole game.&rdquo;And some of the best grinding was done by Sutter. His sparring match with Laughlin picked up the team and carried a message for the Capitals.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve lost some respect around the league the last couple of years,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;I mean the way other teams have been running at our guys. I don&rsquo;t look for trouble, but enough is enough.&rdquo;Arbour, who admitted he never intended to measure the feisty Sutter for ballet tights, was forced to shift the veteran forward from right to left wing because of a rash of injuries.&ldquo;Duane&rsquo;s been our catalyst,&rdquo; the coach said. &ldquo;He gets involved. He creates things in more ways than one. He plays with enthusiasm and the others follow.&rdquo;Sutter has been doing a fine job upholding the honor of the family while kid brother Brent recovers from a separated shoulder. But Duane doesn&rsquo;t like to brag.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny, but every time I get going and talk about myself, something bad happens,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather keep a low profile.&rdquo;ON THE ISLE&mdash;Randy Boyd, the defenseman obtained from the Chicago Black Hawks in the waiver draft, became the latest casualty. He suffered a broken rib in a collision with Alan Haworth of the Capitals and will be sidelined for about three weeks. &#9632;

f0017-03

Islander Ballet Company Bounces Back For Victory

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011075/5571227-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="573" height="158"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;A year ago, Chris Chelios, Tom Kurvers and Petr Svoboda were the collective toast of the town.They were highly-regarded rookies on a defense that was being given a good deal of credit for a fast start by the Canadiens.What a difference a year makes!With the Canadiens struggling under the .500 level, the defense is on the hot seat and Chelios, Kurvers and Svoboda have come under the closest and crudest scrutiny.It is true there have been nights when all three have struggled, but that does not make them unique on the Canadiens this year.The comments have ranged from people wondering whether Svoboda is strong enough to take the heavy going in the NHL to whether Kurvers will ever be the same player he was since suffering damage to his right eye last October.The strength of Chelios&rsquo; knee, injured last season, has been questioned. He insists there is nothing wrong. Others say there is a lot wrong.There is little doubt that coach Jean Perron is concerned, particularly because the Canadiens have allowed 54 goals in 11 games. The first defenseman to feel the wrath of Jean was Kurvers, who became a designated sitter for the first time in his NHL career when Montreal battled back for a 4-4 tie against Pittsburgh.&ldquo;I told Tom he was the seventh defenseman for this game but that might not be the case next time,&rdquo; Perron said.Kurvers and Chelios, almost a constant defense pairing last season, were split up after the fourth game of this year and never put back together. Since Oct. 19. Kurvers had been playing with Craig Ludwig.&ldquo;I was told to play more physical in my own end.&rdquo; Kurvers said. &ldquo;1 was told to take my man out in my own end better and not let him back in the play. That seems to be the big thing they want me to work on now.&ldquo;Once you are more involved and part of the play, you gain confidence,&rdquo; Kurvers added &ldquo;You do something right, you gain confidence for your next shift. You get that ice time and you get into the flow and you can do a lot more with confidence.&rdquo;Perron derricked Kurvers from the lineup in favor of injury-prone Rick Green, who returned after missing eight games with an ankle injury and was a minus-2 against the Penguins.Prior to the match. Perron had indicated it would be either Svoboda or Kurvers who would sit in the stands upon Green&rsquo;s return and the feeling was that Svoboda would be the choice, partly because he was a minus-3 against the Philadelphia Flyers in a 5-4 loss three nights earlier and had coughed up the puck for the winning goal.Svoboda, who along with Kurvers and Chelios saw power-play duty last season, has seldom been used in the manadvantage situations this season. The young Czechoslovakian complained that his ice time had been cut down and it was having a negative effect on his play.Chelios finally got his first goal of the year in the loss to the Flyers and played perhaps his best game of the season in the tie against the Penguins. A night before the loss to Philadelphia, Chelios was selected as a star in the Canadiens&rsquo; 6-4 loss at Quebec.&ldquo;We keep on having letdowns and we find ourselves getting behind.&rdquo; Chelios said. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t keep playing come-from-behind hockey.&ldquo;We have to play our system as we did last year. Everyone is aware of it. We have to work harder.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just mostly concentration among all the players. I don&rsquo;t think that we should panic. It&rsquo;s early.&ldquo;Were the players out there and we have to do it ourselves. We have to keep working hard and I think things will come together.&rdquo;Chelios has taken the recent criticism of himself and his defenseman playmates in stride, noting there have been nights when the defensemen have been to blame. He admitted there were nights when he has not been aggressive enough.&ldquo;But as for the goals against, it&rsquo;s not just the defense,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It has to be the whole team. It starts out in the other team&rsquo;s end. We have to work as a unit out on the ice, know our positions and concentrate more.&rdquo;The forwards as a group have been little help to the defense and as a result, there have been numerous times when the Montreal defense has been out-manned in the defensive zone and as a result unable to do the things that Perron expects from his defensemen.&ldquo;There are certain things that shouldn&rsquo;t be happening on our team,&rdquo; said team captain Bob Gainey. &ldquo;There are gross mistakes which cost us goals. If we could wipe those things out of our game, it would give us more confidence as a group.&ldquo;We thought we had played a good game against Philadelphia, but we gave up five goals. That means you need six or seven goals to win and that&rsquo;s a lot of goals to ask your team to score.&rdquo;IN PASSING&mdash;Kent Carlson, sent down to Sherbrooke on Oct. 22. suffered a broken nose in a fight Nov. 1. Carlson has been playing left wing with Alfie Turcotte. &#9632;

f0018-01

Last Year’s Toast Of Town Getting Burned

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02585/5571265-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="573" height="168"></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;Tony Tanti stands about seven feet from the goal line, off to the left of the net and begins his drill.He takes a dozen pucks and calmly snaps all of them&mdash;not 11 or 10 or nine&mdash;into the roof of the net. The sound of a puck going into a goal is music to his ears. And when he&rsquo;s on his game, it&rsquo;s music to the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; as well.Tanti is the only pure goal scorer the Canucks have, and some would argue he&rsquo;s the only one they&rsquo;ve ever had. He holds the team record for goals by a player in a season (45) and just recently he scored his 100th career goal in his 200th game, an excellent ratio that may well improve by the time he reaches 200 goals.His seventh and eighth goals this season proved enough to sink the Toronto Maple Leafs in their trip to the Pacific Coliseum. Tanti scored the tying and winning goals as the Canucks came from a 3-2 second-period deficit to win 5-3.Although left off the Campbell Conference all-star ballot this year, he could well lift enough eyebrows by Christmas to warrant a position at right wing.But things didn&rsquo;t always look so rosy for the man they call the Maltese Falcon. Tanti had just one pre-season goal and his lack of production most certainly had coach Tom Watt worried.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01871/5571258-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="603" height="1173"><figcaption class="caption-body">After a poor pre-season Tony Tanti has come on for the Vancouver Canucks.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Tom Watt is the kind of coach who&rsquo;ll tell you directly you&rsquo;re not producing,&rdquo; Tanti said. &ldquo;After our first game, he sat me down and told me he wanted more production. So I started to think about it.&ldquo;I think I was looking too much to make the pretty play, trying to make back passes and fancy plays. But hockey isn&rsquo;t a fancy game. When the opportunities are there, you&rsquo;ve got to take them.&rdquo;Watt was pleased with Tanti&rsquo;s showing against the Leafs.&ldquo;The scorers have to score and it&rsquo;s never a bad play when you shoot the puck on the goal. You never know what&rsquo;s going to happen,&rdquo; said Watt.Encouraging Tanti to shoot is hardly ever necesssary. He has the uncanny ability to hit the net with his shot from anywhere on the ice. It isn&rsquo;t always a blistering drive that scares goalkeepers, but it always forces them to make a save.Tanti&rsquo;s goals against the Leafs were typical. His first came from the spot where you often see him practising putting the puck into the roof of the net. His winner was a fortunate deflection&mdash;the kind that always happen to goal scorers&mdash;of a Petri Skriko shot.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t see the puck at all,&rdquo; Tanti said. &ldquo;I was just standing there and it hit the lace of my skate. I looked behind me and it was in. It didn&rsquo;t hurt me at all, but it would have if it hadn&rsquo;t gone in.&rdquo;Tanti&rsquo;s performance, along with 19 other players, has the Canucks feeling as though they might be able to play well all season, though it is still early in the 198586 campaign.&ldquo;Everyone on this team is confident now. We want to finish second, not just settle for third or fourth,&rdquo; said Tanti, speaking as a member of a second-place club. &ldquo;We know most people picked us to finish last and you can&rsquo;t blame them. We finished 23 points out of a playoff spot last season.&rdquo;The Canucks were a point ahead of the Winnipeg Jets after 11 games, but they hadn&rsquo;t yet met either the Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets or Edmonton Oilers, the teams they&rsquo;ll have to do well against if second place, or a playoff spot for that matter, isn&rsquo;t just a pipe dream.While the jury has 60-odd games to deliberate, the Canucks have decided to send down defenseman Neil Belland, citing the numbers game.Belland, as has been his habit in the role of an extra, played well for the Canucks, but was dislodged from the roster because Glen Cochrane finally returned after serious knee problems. The former Flyer tough guy can&rsquo;t do any of the things Belland can with the puck, but his demeanor (nasty) and size (huge) add an element to the Vancouver lineup that has been sorely lacking for the past few seasons.The tragedy is that Belland, a man who year after year proves he can play in the NHL, is once again back riding the bus in Fredericton of the American League. &#9632;

f0020-02

Tanti’s Scoring Helps Vancouver Revival

<div class="byline">Al Strachan</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04256/5571296-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="406" height="447"></div>HOCKEY AGENTS, who have been generally invisible compared to their high-profile counterparts in some other sports, may soon be coming out of the closet.On Nov. 13, a number of the most influential agents in hockey will get together in Toronto and the long-range result of that meeting could have a tremendous, effect upon the National Hockey League.The meeting was organized by Montreal agent Bob Beale, whose clients include Mike Krushelnyski of the Edmonton Oilers and Hannu Virta and Sean McKenna of the Buffalo Sabres. Beale isn&rsquo;t exactly what you&rsquo;d call a hard-core radical; he simply heard colleague after colleague say that someone should organize a meeting to dicsuss the problems facing all hockey agents. So Beale organized the meeting. &raquo;Alan Eagleson, who was the first real hockey agent and is also the executive director of the NHL Players Association, refuses to attend. He says that in his capacity as an agent, he has no interest in discussing problems with other agents. In his capacity as the prime mover of the NHLPA, says Eagleson, he&rsquo;ll field suggestions from players, not agents.But Eagleson also knows that to show up at that meeting could be embarrassing. As is always the case with people who wield power, there are a number of enemies lurking in the bushes waiting for him to come out in the open. In fact, it is quite possible that the whole meeting could take on a distinctly anti-Eagleson flavor&mdash;whether he&rsquo;s there or not&mdash;and if that happens, the ramifications could be serious, not only for Eagleson but for the league.It must be made clear at this point that no one is threatening such a turn of events. But a number of agents who will be attending the meeting have made the point that the group could form a united front if a leader emerges. And the agents in attendance will represent more than 50 per cent of the players in the NHL.Art Kaminsky, Bill Watters, Don Meehan and Gus Badali are only a few of the agents who have promised to attend and those four alone represent more than half of the players in the league.Suppose the agents who attend the meeting decide that Eagleson is not serving their clients well. They could agree to convince those clients to vote against any package that Eagleson might approve in the upcoming negotiations with the NHL. That could create a difficult situation, not only for Eagleson but for the league.And the possibility of the agents reaching such a concensus is there. The reason that the agents are meeting in late 1985 rather than in 1987 or in 1983 is that the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires after this season. Many agents feel that the NHLPA made too many concessions in the last CBA and they blame Eagleson for that.They want more freedom of movement for their players because that means bidding wars and higher salaries. They usually don&rsquo;t propose full free agency, as in the case of baseball, but they do feel that hockey free agency should be a lot closer to baseball than it is. They point to the fact that players as talented as Paul Coffey have become free agents under the present arrangement but have remained with their old team because other teams knew the compensation would be too high.At the moment, however, no clear-cut leader has emerged from among the agents. Beale was content simply to organize the meeting. Other agents have said that while they&rsquo;re willing to work as part of an organization and to co-operate with it, they don&rsquo;t want a high-profile position because they&rsquo;ve already got plenty to do in their own businesses. There are even some who feel that an organization of agents might not serve the game well unless its role was strictly defined.As a result, the whole thing may fizzle out. The agents may meet, decide that their battles are best fought on an individual basis, and go home.But probably, the end result will be somewhere between fizzling out and militancy. These agents feel they have been suffering for years because the Collective Bargaining Agreement is too conciliatory and they want to make sure&mdash;one way or another&mdash;that the next CBA is much more favorable to their clients.They intend to do so whether they have Eagleson&rsquo;s co-operation or not. &#9632;

f0020-04

With Or Without Eagleson, Agents Aiming For Progress

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03404/5571327-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="582" height="177"></div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;The most critical point of Doug Carpenter&rsquo;s term as New Jersey Devils&rsquo; coach has arrived and both his job and the future of the franchise hang in the balance.Faced with several veteran players he would like to phase out. Carpenter must decide whether he can afford to institute a radical housecleaning and stick with a roster comprised mostly of youngsters.After opening the season with three straight victories, the Devils lost five of their next six games.&ldquo;We have a problem,&rdquo; admitted Carpenter after a 6-4 loss to the Boston Bruins at the Meadowlands Arena. &ldquo;We have extra people and there are some very important decisions to make. We&rsquo;re dealing with the future of the franchise; we&rsquo;re dealing with people&rsquo;s lives.&ldquo;When is it time to start phasing the rookies in or the veterans out? Do we try to win now or is the future the top priority? Which way do you go? What&rsquo;s fair? What&rsquo;s best for the team?&ldquo;The league looks faster already this year. How long are some of the veterans going to be able to perform? You can&rsquo;t afford to just fall flat on your face using all kids. I&rsquo;ve got to win or I won&rsquo;t be here.&rdquo;The retirement of Bob Hoffmeyer on Oct. 26, when the 30-year-old defenseman was named a special assignment scout, helped ease Carpenter&rsquo;s roster problems. However, there are still several veterans in immediate trouble.Phil Russell, 33, is closest to being cut loose. The Devils have not hidden the fact that they would like to trade the 13-season veteran and Russell has privately acknowledged his unhappiness with the treatment he has received.&ldquo;I absolutely understand how Phil would feel,&rdquo; said general manager Max McNab. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not in the business of trying to keep him or anybody out of the league.&rdquo;Captain Mel Bridgman has been on shaky ground since his shift to left wing this season. Bridgman did not dress for two games and may find his playing time cut drastically this season if he is not traded elsewhere.One possibility is Los Angeles, where ex-Philly coach and Bridgman buddy Pat Quinn is operating. Quinn may have interest in Bridgman and the 30-year-old forward would jump at a chance to play in L.A.Chico Resch, the cornerstone of the franchise since it moved to New Jersey, is close to losing his status as the No. I goaltender to rookie Alain Chevrier. Carpenter would like to use a two-goalie system of the 24-year-old Chevrier and 19-year-old Craig Billington but it would take a drastic move to let Resch go during the season.Others on the fence are defensemen Dave Pichette (25) and Bob Lorimer (32).&ldquo;There is no timetable. I was a player once, too,&rdquo; said Carpenter. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want to hurt somebody just because you&rsquo;re in a hurry to sort things out. People are just going to have to be patient and try to understand what we&rsquo;re up against.&rdquo;&ldquo;We have to build a team of young players but that does not mean we don&rsquo;t value our veterans,&rdquo; added McNab. &ldquo;We do value them.&rdquo;The Devils offered Hoffmeyer a scouting position and he accepted. Although Hoffmeyer was sidelined with strained knee ligaments, the injury did not affect his decision.&ldquo;When Max and Doug asked me if I would be interested in the position they told me the decision was mine and that if I wanted to keep playing I could,&rdquo; said Hoffmeyer. &ldquo;This is a new experience for me and I&rsquo;m very excited about it. I figure I&rsquo;ve seen enough hockey because I was always so far behind the play that I got a good look at everything.&ldquo;Sometimes,&rdquo; Hoffmeyer continued, &ldquo;you&rsquo;re told, &lsquo;That&rsquo;s it, you&rsquo;re done.&rsquo; I&rsquo;m happy I had the opportunity to say it myself.&rdquo;Some others may not have that luxury.HOT STUFF&mdash;Mel Bridgman returned to the lineup after his two-game benching and scored two goals against Chicago&hellip;After missing the first seven games, Russell played in two straight-&hellip;With a 4-5 record, the Devils are still ahead of last season&rsquo;s pace when they registered victory No. 5 in the 17th game&hellip;Perry Anderson (bruised right shoulder) is close to returning to action-&hellip;Devils&rsquo; president Bob Butera, who ran and finished in the New York Marathon a second straight year, was quoted as saying: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll win the Stanley Cup in New Jersey&hellip;before the Rangers win it.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-03

Fates Of Players Hang In Balance

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01757/5571358-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="580" height="158"></div>HARTFORD&mdash;Footloose, fancy-free and feisty&mdash;underline feisty&mdash;Ulf Samuelsson has found a home in North America with the Hartford Whalers.&ldquo;I like the lifestyle here,&rdquo; the 20-year-old Swedish defenseman says. &ldquo;A lot.&rdquo;Samuelsson was drafted in the fourth round, 67th overall, in 1982 after impressing then-head scout Bill Dineen with his play as a member of Leksand.He had to complete commitments to his Leksand team and the Swedish Army before joining the NHL.Samuelsson came to Hartford with his father, Bo, at the end of the 1983-84 season and watched the Whalers play five games. He then joined the team last September.He was shipped to Binghamton Nov. 13, and under Larry Pleau&rsquo;s tutelage, made amazing strides in a relatively short time. He was recalled Feb. 5, and has been a dependable defenseman for Hartford ever since.If there&rsquo;s such a thing as a perfect attitude for a hockey player, Samuelsson&rsquo;s got it.Smart guys can find flaws in his game, all right, but no one can accuse Samuelsson of not liking his work.Asked if he had a career goal, Samuelsson laughed, something he does quite often.&ldquo;All I want to do is play as many years as I can,&rdquo; he said.Samuelsson&rsquo;s NHL career is only 50-odd games old. but judging by the way he has performed so far, he has many more ahead of him.&ldquo;The big thing about Ulfie is that he comes to play every night,&rdquo; Joel Quen-neville said. &ldquo;He anticipates well and moves the puck well. He is not your typical European.&rdquo;Every place the Whalers go, people are beginning to ask about Samuelsson.&ldquo;The Swede likes to get involved, huh?&rdquo; former Whaler Ed Hospodar won-dered aloud in Philadelphia.Involved? Samuelsson jumped headfirst into the deep end of the pool the first time he suited up. The idea of wading in has never occurred to him.And the word is beginning to spread: The Swede is armed and dangerous. His 83 penalty minutes in 41 games last year attest to that. Moreover, he can play.Samuelsson shrugs&mdash;he does that quite often, too&mdash;whenever questioned on his penchant for excessive stickwork.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s something I must work on,&rdquo; he says with a grin.Some may actually believe him.One reason that Samuelsson enjoys the lifestyle in North America so much is that he&rsquo;s experienced most of it already.He likes: 1) strawberry ice cream; 2) horse racing; 3) SKOR candy bars; 4) cards; and 5) Swedish fish.Swedish fish?&ldquo;Yeah, they&rsquo;re like gummie bears.&rdquo; he says.Enough already. The hard candies, evidently, are something like sourballs. Only the Swede knows for sure.No one can deny that Samuelsson is fun to have around.Asked what state Chicago was in to settle a friendly bet, Samuelsson replied, &ldquo;Illinois. What did you think I went to school&mdash;just for the lunches?&rdquo;Pressing the bet, Samuelsson was asked what state Pittsburgh was in.&ldquo;Pennsylvania,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Did I get it?&rdquo;Told that he had, Samuelsson said, &ldquo;One of these times they&rsquo;re going to get me.&rdquo;Asked how he came to know so much about American geography, Samuelsson said, &ldquo;I study the atlas at the back of magazines on airplanes.&rdquo;The Swede is one of a kind.He watches television in airport terminals, at 25 cents for 15 minutes, and taps his feet to some happy minstrel that only he can hear. He buys chocolate whenever he feels like it, and smiles continuously. He holds his ground on the ice, and plays the body with noticeable enthusiasm. At one glance, any observer would surmise that here is a truly happy hockey player.&ldquo;How much for a shoeshine?&rdquo; asked Mike Liut, approaching Samuelsson, who was sitting next to a stand.&ldquo;Three dollars,&rdquo; Samuelssson said, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;ll do yours for $2.&rdquo;For Ulf Samuelsson, at 20, these are the days of heaven, and he doesn&rsquo;t intend to miss even one of them. &#9632;

f0022-01

Smiling Samuelsson Fits In With Whalers

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02530/5571389-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="530" height="616"></div>Buffalo Sabre rookie Daren Puppa, making his first NHL start, recorded a 2-0 shutout victory over the Edmonton Oilers to earn THE HOCKEY NEWS-NHL Player-of-the-Week honors for the period ending Nov. 2. Besides recording the shutout, he stopped Wayne Gretzky on three breakaways. &#9632;

f0022-02

Player Of The Week

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01680/5571420-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="590" height="1150"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVID SHAW</figcaption></div>Defenseman David Shaw of the Quebec Nordiques has come a long way in a short time.&ldquo;Last year he had a tough training camp,&rdquo; recalls Nordiques general manager Maurice Filion. &ldquo;We had our doubts, he didn&rsquo;t show us much.&rdquo;So, the Nordiques sent him to Fredericton Express of the American League. The move was a good one. Shaw excelled defensively to earn team rookie-of-the-year honors and another crack at the big team.And this time around the 21-year-old native of St. Thomas, Ont., made the most of an opportunity to play in the National Hockey League.As Filion says, Shaw just played too well to be cut.He&rsquo;s continued his strong performance during the regular season, helping Quebec&rsquo;s overshadowed blueline brigade put together one of the league&rsquo;s better goals-against averages.Partnered with Mario Marois most of the time, Shaw picked up one goal, one assist and 15 penalty minutes in his first 10 games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s doing the job, so we&rsquo;re really pleased,&rdquo; says Filion who drafted Shaw 13th overall in the 1982 NHL entry draft. &#9632;

f0023-01

QUAKER STATE ROOKIE PROFILES

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01735/5571451-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="576" height="162"></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;No one is thinking of jumping off the Louise Street Bridge, but there are signs that the Winnipeg Jets, despite their record, are a sloppy hockey team.Using virtually all of the same players who accumulated 96 points last season, the Jets are giving up goals at an astonishing rate of 4.80 a game, a sure-fire ticket to oblivion.In their first 10 starts, the Jets allowed exactly 10 more goals (48) than they did a year ago over the same period.Yet their record (5-4-1) was one point better than last year&rsquo;s (4-4-2) at a corresponding date in the National Hockey League schedule.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not pushing any panic buttons,&rdquo; said coach Barry Long, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;re not playing well defensively, and that applies to all of us. Some nights we throw caution to the wind.&rdquo;What annoys Long is the team&rsquo;s tendency to drift away from the disciplined style emphasized at each and every practice.&ldquo;Our methods are tried and proven,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Some nights we execute to a &lsquo;T&rsquo;. But it&rsquo;s a matter of repeating what has worked for us.&rdquo;Every NHL team thinks it knows how to win. But the trick is being able to use what works.Very rarely do the Jets lose when Robert Picard or Scott Amiel throws an open-ice hit early in the game. Whether they connect or not. the attempt usually lifts their teammates.A rousing check by Dave Babych is a signal that he has come to play. Then, the adrenalin flows faster.Since the start of the season, Dale Hawerchuk has won the appreciation of his coaches for his defensive play. He has hurried back to spoil 2-on-1 breaks and ruin several 3-on-2&rsquo;s by his opponents.But the number of multiple breaks by the Oilers during a recent 7-3 loss in Edmonton told Long how lax his team has been.&ldquo;They had four 3-on-2&rsquo;s, two 3-on-I &lsquo;sand a 3-on-0, for crying out loud,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We abandoned all defense.&rdquo;Harried by the wave of odd-man breaks was Brian Hayward, a goaltender who doesn&rsquo;t expect more than two or three a game.&ldquo;For whatever reasons, we opened up too much,&rdquo; he said following his team&rsquo;s fourth defeat.A realist. Long knows he would sooner have the five wins than a fancy goals-against average and only four of them.&ldquo;When you consider the calibre of the teams we&rsquo;ve played this month. I&rsquo;ll take our five wins and a tie.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We had to face all but one of the top five-&hellip;Quebec, Calgary twice. Washington, and Edmonton three times. They don&rsquo;t come any tougher.&ldquo;Frankly, I&rsquo;m tired of playing the Oilers once every week.&rdquo;BENCH BITS&mdash;Right winger Ryan Stewart, the Jets&rsquo; first-round draft choice in June, has been summoned from the Kamloops Blazers on an emergency recall basis. His presence on the right side was required because of Dave Silk&rsquo;s broken finger, Jim Nill&rsquo;s dislocated shoulder and Paul MacLean&rsquo;s jammed thumb&hellip;Left winger Doug Smail is out of the lineup with a pulled abductor muscle extending from his groin&hellip;Defense man Dave Ellett reinjured an ankle while taking a shot in Edmonton&hellip;Linemates&rdquo; Laurie Boschman, Perry Turnbull and Scott Arniel have earned at least one point in six consecutive games. Turnbull was hottest, hauling down eight goals and six assists in a six-game stretch&hellip; Dale Hawerchuk has expressed an interest in acquiring the Cornwall Royals, his old junior team. The Royals are for sale&hellip;General manager John Ferguson continues to search the market for another scoring right winger. &#9632;

f0024-01

Winnipeg’s Defensive Problems Exposed

<div class="byline">Rod Beaton</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03343/5571482-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="438" height="448"></div>I KNOW IT&rsquo;S an unpopular position to take, but John A. Ziegler, Jr. is doing something right&mdash;in a big way.There. I&rsquo;ve said it and I&rsquo;m glad.I&rsquo;m referring to Ziegler&rsquo;s stand on the use of illegal drugs by National Hockey League players. It&rsquo;s a hard line and it&rsquo;s a clear line.The NHL takes a lot of shots&mdash;for the fights, for no network TV in the U.S., and for the arrogant and backward ownership of several franchises. The shots are deserved.But the NHL is a jewel in pro sports when it comes to player drug abuse. There have been few incidents and the league has come down hard on the ones that have come to light. I wouldn&rsquo;t try to suggest Don Murdoch and Ric Nattress are the only NHL players to smoke, snort, or at least possess dope in the last decade. I&rsquo;ve heard too many rumors and know too many players to believe that. But just compare the numbers in hockey to football, basketball and baseball&hellip;and there is no comparison.Ziegler reiterated his position at the press conference in Hartford to kick off fan balloting for the NHL all-star game.&ldquo;We say, quite simply, if you use illegal drugs, get the hell out of our game. We don&rsquo;t want you,&rdquo; Ziegler said, emphatically.Right on. No indulgent rehabilitation programs. No Players&rsquo; Association whiners moaning about players&rsquo; rights on this matter. It means no (or at least very few) players will be deceiving themselves, their teammates, and most of all the paying public by giving less than their best because they&rsquo;re high for the game.It should not be forgotten that the NHL is hardly the only game in town.The college season has started. You can see NHL play, the Canada Cup and other international tournaments, the junior leagues, but until you&rsquo;ve seen a good U.S. Division I game, you haven&rsquo;t seen all the best hockey has to offer.There&rsquo;s more hitting in an average college game&mdash;I mean good, jarring, bone-and-board rattling bodychecks than in any five regular-season NHL hockey games.The games tend to be a bit more wide open and certainly less predictable.The atmosphere is different, too. All the girls in the stands seem to look like Brooke Shields or Phoebe Cates. The college bands are right there in the crowd, getting everyone juiced up. At any moment half the crowd might stand up and yell &ldquo;Tastes Great,&rdquo; followed by the other half answering &ldquo;Less Filling&rdquo;.Try to imagine that at Maple Leaf Gardens.And the calibre is first class.Consider this, there are exactly 287 players who have been drafted by an NHL team in U.S. colleges right now.The breakdown: 94 from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, 67 from the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, 59 from the Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference, 56 from Hockey East and 11 from independents.That&rsquo;s a lot of players the NHL has liked, and a lot of proof of college quality. The best proof is at the games. See one if you can.This month the NHL general managers will gather to consider, among other things, a series of proposals to improve media access to players and teams.That might not seem worthy of your time or consideration, but think about the implications.Where do you get your news about the NHL? You watch games on TV or at the arena, sure, but most reporting on TV is powder-puff stuff and seeing a game live doesn&rsquo;t tell you what the players are thinking.You get the real scoop from newspapers and to a lesser degree from local TV and radio sportscasts.That reporting helps create interest in the game and the local franchise. That isn&rsquo;t the aim of the coverage but, is an inevitable side effect unless the franchise is so dismal, honest reporting kills interest (see Toronto for details).Yet many an NHL team acts like it&rsquo;s a great honor to be allowed to cover them. They seem to think reporters should grovel and/or genuflect before entering the dressing room&mdash;the few times they are allowed to enter those hallowed halls.The Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association requested guaranteed locker room access for accredited male and female reporters after all practices, games and game-day skates. It asked that there be no off-limits rooms (currently the rage around the league and widely used by arrogant, aloof or gutless players) except a legitimate trainers&rsquo; room.In short, the PHWA simply asked to do its job without unreasonable restraint set up by NHL dinosaurs. The marketing committee of the NHL governors, understanding the need to properly run and market the league, agrees. The GMs could be the final barrier to sanity in the locker rooms. Let&rsquo;s see if they have entered the 20th century yet. &#9632;

f0024-03

Ziegler Earns High Marks For Stand On Drug Abuse

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02516/5571513-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="573" height="177"></div><h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2>CALGARY&mdash;In September, on the fourth day of training camp, Paul Reinhart was asked&mdash;as a matter of course&mdash;to discuss his sometimes troubling back injury.&ldquo;You know,&rdquo; said Reinhart, sounding as confident as anyone with a herniated disc can sound, &ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t even think about it anymore. That&rsquo;s not to say I don&rsquo;t take care of it, but it doesn&rsquo;t really bother me; It&rsquo;s really good.&rdquo;Spoken too soon, as it turned out.Nine days before the start of the regular season, Reinhart started feeling the twinges again. Five days before the start of the season, Reinhart was feeling more than just twinges.His back was aching. The injury that knocked Reinhart out of the lineup twice and forced him to undergo surgery during the 1983-84 season was&mdash;to put it as precisely as possible&mdash;back again.On the day the season started, the Calgary Flames were once again forced to start the Paul Reinhart watch and it&rsquo;s still going on.So far this season Reinhart hasn&rsquo;t even practised with the Flames, let alone play a game. Whenever the subject of a possible return comes up, the answer is always punctuated by a series of &ldquo;ifs&rdquo;, &ldquo;maybes&rdquo; and &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t knows&rdquo;.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to try to give it some work and see how it responds,&rdquo; said Reinhart recently. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s taken three weeks to get it to the point where I can ride the exercise bicycle. I want to hit the ice relatively soon. I&rsquo;ve had three weeks rest, including one week where 1 didn&rsquo;t do anything. Hopefully, I can be on the ice by&hellip;well, it&rsquo;s hard to say right now when I&rsquo;ll be back on the ice.&rdquo;No one in the organization wanted to add much information to that, but the prospect of Reinhart facing further surgery could not be ruled out by general manager Cliff Fletcher.&ldquo;The problem is everybody&rsquo;s trying to be a doctor,&rdquo; said Fletcher. &ldquo;The situation is this: He&rsquo;s feeling better. He saw the doctor. He has started exercising. We hope that he can be skating soon.&ldquo;If, however, the flaring-up in his back hasn&rsquo;t subsided, if he still has problems, then it might have to be looked at in a different context. Maybe it will mean injecting him again. Maybe it will mean traction. Maybe it will mean surgery.&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s too soon to start writing off his season. He could be playing 10 days from now.&rdquo;The history of Reinhart&rsquo;s back injuries are fairly well documented. Two years ago, doctors administered the chymopapin treatment, which involves injecting an enzyme (based on papaya juice) into the problematic disc, causing it to shrink.Reinhart missed one week last season because of a minor flare-up, but played 75 games altogether and accumulated 69 points. He also played in an all-star game for the first time in his career.Originally, Reinhart thought the latest recurrence was similar to last season&rsquo;s minor problem.&ldquo;But there are certainly signs that I didn&rsquo;t have at all last year relating to pain and nerve pressure,&rdquo; said Reinhart. &ldquo;When I had my first symptons in Vancouver (the last exhibition game of the pre-season), it didn&rsquo;t click in that it could be serious again. I thought it was similar to what I had last year.&rdquo;Without Reinhart, the Flames&rsquo; defensive play has failed to live up the coaching staff&rsquo;s pre-season expectations. So far anyway. Quietly and without much notice. Reinhart had an excellent training camp, playing mostly with rookie Gary Suter. They were to open the season together.Instead Suter is playing regularly with second-year defenseman Neil Sheehy and Reinhart is just waiting and watching the season go by.With Kent Nilsson registering his point-and-a-half a game for the Minnesota North Stars this season, the Flames&rsquo; recipe for improvement this year involved reducing their goals against by 50 over the course of the season.Assistant coach Pierre Page thought if the Flames finished in the league&rsquo;s top five defensively, the team could gain ground in their division. Instead, the team is down in the bottom third of the league defensively.&ldquo;Do we miss him? You bet we do,&rdquo; said coach Bob Johnson of Reinhart&rsquo;s absence. &ldquo;He may be our best powerplay man. He scored 23 goals for us last year, 12 on the power play. He&rsquo;s got great quickness and hockey sense. He and Steve Konroyd always played well together. They had good chemistry.&rdquo;Unlike two years ago, when the Flames&rsquo; defensemen rose to the challenge of replacing Reinhart, the team clearly misses his presence on the ice right now.&ldquo;People always say, &lsquo;you&rsquo;ve got four young defensemen, you&rsquo;re set,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;They forget that there&rsquo;s an area called development or improve-ment. They always assume they&rsquo;re going to get better and it doesn&rsquo;t always happen.&ldquo;In training camp, I rated all our defensemen. (Paul) Reinhart and (Gary) Suter were rated on top. (Neil) Sheehy came on in the end. The other guys haven&rsquo;t picked it up.&ldquo;Remember two years ago when we went with four defensemen&mdash;Konroyd band Reinhart, Macoun and Kari Eloranta. They were pretty good. Now, all of a sudden, you think these are the guys who will steady the game down and provide poise back there and we&rsquo;re missing that. They have to play better.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0024-02

Reinhart Is Back On The Sidelines

<div class="byline">BY MICHAEL A. BERGER</div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01688/5571551-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="582" height="170"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;It would have been a wonderful story to write.Terry Kleisinger, the college goaltender signed by the New York Rangers during training camp, was going to notch his first National Hockey League win. And it was going to be a shutout to boot.Winless in two previous tries, Kleisinger was also going to deliver the Rangers&rsquo; first road win of the season.And so, with the Rangers holding a 4-0 lead over the New Jersey Devils after two minutes of the third period, the storyline seemed set.But Ranger writers should know by now that no story is written after just two periods&mdash;especially not on Saturday nights with impending early deadlines.When New Jersey&rsquo;s Peter McNab scored at 4:48 of the third period, the scribes hustled back to their machines. Out went, &ldquo;Terry Kleisinger posted a shutout in his First NHL win&hellip;&rdquo; and in went &ldquo;Terry Kleisinger&hellip;(blah, blah)&hellip;strong effort (blah. blah)&hellip;Peter McNab scored the lone New Jersey goal.&rdquo;Less than three minutes later, McNab scored again. Change story to &ldquo;McNab scored both Devil goals. &ldquo;But after Mark Osborne scored for the Rangers, giving the New Yorkers a 5-2 lead. Rich Preston and Aaron Broten of the Devils accounted for goals within 75 seconds of each other.Back to the machines.&ldquo;What could have been a dream come true for Terry Kleisinger almost turned into a nightmare as the New York Rangers struggled to edge the Devils 5-4.&rdquo;Wrong again. With the Broten goal (&ldquo;Far too easy a goal for them,&rdquo; according to Ranger coach Ted Sator), exit Terry Kleisinger and enter John Vanbiesbrouck.&ldquo;Goose Gossage came out of the bullpen last night as the Rangers edged&hellip;&rdquo;Alas, Vanbiesbrouck, after 56 minutes as a spectator, allowed Tim Higgins&rsquo; tying goal at 19:28 of the third period. And 50 seconds into overtime Mel Bridgman sent the Devils home as 6-5 winners.&ldquo;The New Jersey Devils shocked the Rangers in overtime on Mel Bridgman&rsquo;s goal&hellip; &ldquo;The onslaught: six goals in 16 minutes, two seconds. The victims: the New York Rangers, especially Terry Kleisinger.&ldquo;No, I don&rsquo;t think I made a mistake playing Terry,&rdquo; Satorsaid. That remains to be seen.With Vanbiesbrouck hot (just one even-strength goal allowed in his last 197 minutes before the Devil game) and with three straight Patrick Division contests coming up, playing Vanbiesbrouck may have been the prudent thing to do.&ldquo;John is healthy. Terry is healthy. The only difference between them is that Terry is playing,&rdquo; Sator said before the game. There is a second difference: Vanbiesbrouck wins.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t point a finger at anybody,&rdquo; Vanbiesbrouck said during the postmortem. &ldquo;This was a group effort.&rdquo;Ah, but the Rangers can and have pointed fingers. Members of the team have wondered aloud&mdash;though not for attribution of course&mdash;just what Terry Kleisinger is doing with the team and, more exactly, why Glen Hanlon is in Adirondack and not New York.Not that they don&rsquo;t like Kleisinger; team members professed sympathy for him after the loss and, to his credit, Kleisinger made himself available to the press after the game.Objectively, the loss is but one after four consecutive wins and both the Rangers and Devils maintained that Kleisinger performed well.Still, though Vanbiesbrouck is the loser of record in the Devil game, Kleisingo has in reality lost three games, all Patrick division contests and all by one goal.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02475/5571544-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="1215" height="1393"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOY, IF MARTY&rsquo;S DOG COULD ONLY SKATE.&rsquo;</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

Kleisinger, Rangers Blow Big Lead To Devils

If you would like to nominate a player for THN-JOFA Minor Showcase Player of the Week, please send a photo, along with a note outlining pertinent information&mdash;name, age, birthplace, current hometown, position, height, weight, team and league name, coach&rsquo;s name, favorite hockey team and player, statistics plus school grade and school name&mdash;to JOFA SHOWCASE, THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2.At the end of the season, all entries will be eligible for THN-JOFA Minor Player of the Year, which includes a trip to Toronto for THN awards banquet, a plaque plus a complete line of JOFA hockey equipment. &#9632;

JOFA Entries

J.T. Dudrow is a nine-year-old who plays for the Eastern Shore Hockey Association Mite &lsquo;A&rsquo; team in the Capital Beltway Hockey League.The native of Washington, D.C., who now lives in Queenston, MD., had never strapped on a pair of skates until a year ago. But he went on to score four goals and 10 assists in his first winter of hockey.During the summer, J.T. attended several hockey schools and power skating clinics, as well as playing in summer leagues in D.C., Virginia and Maryland.The 4-foot-5, 60-pound center, who also plays lacrosse, attends Saint Peter and Paul School in Easton, MD.His coach this year is Neil Miles.J.T.&rsquo;s favorite hockey team is not the Washington Capitals, as one might suspect, but the American League&rsquo;s Baltimore Skipjacks.His favorite player, though, isn&rsquo;t a big surprise. It&rsquo;s Edmonton Oiler superstar Wayne Gretzky.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03386/5571606-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="562" height="932"><figcaption class="caption-body">J.T. DUDROW</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0026-03

PLAYER OF WEEK

Bobby Bodger, Bob-beee Bod-gerrrrr!&rdquo;The chant of fans? No, you won&rsquo;t find a Bobby Bodger playing in the National Hockey League. But you will find a bemused Pittsburgh Penguin having a laugh at the expense of teammate Doug Bodger.&ldquo;I liked Bobby Hull,&rdquo; said Bodger within earshot of a club comedian. &ldquo;I liked his slapshot, and I always wanted to have a slapshot like Bobby Hull.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d go out into the back yard and practice. I had a little sawhorse out there and I&rsquo;d shoot pucks at the sawhorse, and that&rsquo;s how I developed my slapshot.&rdquo;&ldquo;In minor hockey (bantam) they changed the rules and you couldn&rsquo;t raise your stick above your waist for a slapshot, and I was mad about that because I always had the big slapshot. It was a funny thing. I&rsquo;d shoot the puck and everybody would clear out of the way.&rdquo;Bodger, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s second choice (ninth overall) in the 1984 entry draft, learned the other half of his trade&mdash;skating&mdash;with a little help from Grandma.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04284/5571637-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="712" height="1052"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; Doug Bodger scored five goals and 26 assists as an 18-year-old NHL rookie.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I started skating when I was three or four and my Grandma used to hold me by the jacket.&rdquo;Grandma, in a time-tested tradition, used incentives to coax maximum performance from Doug when he took his first tentative strides on the ice.&ldquo;I used to get a dime,&rdquo; he recalled, &ldquo;for every lap I went around without falling down.&rdquo;Bodger, 19, plays a rushing style of defense more than that of the traditional stay-at-home blueliner. In two seasons of junior hockey, Bodger scored 47 goals and 190 points in only 142 games.&ldquo;When I started hockey, I was about five or six years old. We had pup tryouts, and the coach said &lsquo;Everybody turn around and skate backwards and the guys that can skate backwards play defense.&rsquo; So I played defense, and that&rsquo;s how I got to be a defenseman.&ldquo;I defintely was offensive, always. I think I&rsquo;m learning more defense now. As long as the team wins, I&rsquo;m happy.&rdquo;Grandma wasn&rsquo;t the only member of the Bodger family who liked hockey. It was a family affair.&ldquo;We were a big hockey family. My brothers played and I just sort of followed along and I picked it up really well. My goal was always to play in the NHL.&rdquo;Bodger, a native of Chemainus, B.C., soon stood out from the others.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m from a really small town. Our teams were never really that good. We had an average team, we didn&rsquo;t go too far and we were never really competitive. You know, I was playing on my team, and I&rsquo;d get really frustrated out there. I think I developed just on desire and hard work.&ldquo;I think I stood out on our average team and was noticed by a couple of scouts.&ldquo;Craig Redmond (the Kings&rsquo; defenseman from Dawson Creek, B.C.) was one guy I played against from the west coast but not too many guys from our area ever really made it, so it&rsquo;s really an honor to be playing here in the NHL. &ldquo;Having played on mediocre minor teams when he was growing up, Bodger is optimistic about the chances of other youngsters in similar circumstances to make it to the pros. &#9632;

f0026-04

Credit ‘Grandma’ With An Assist

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01638/5571668-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="580" height="164"></div>BOSTON&mdash;One of the thorniest problems facing the Boston Bruins this season&mdash;aside from who owns them (see Page 12)&mdash;is what to do with Dave Pasin, their No. I draft choice in 1984.The 19-year-old right winger, who scored 40, 68 and 64 goals in three seasons with the Prince Albert Raiders of the Western League, has nothing more to Prove as a junior.He&rsquo;s clearly ready to step up a notch to pro hockey, although he may not be up to skating a regular shift with the big club in Boston. A year in Moncton of the American League would probably be best for his development.But, under league rules, the Bruins must keep him in Boston or send him back for his final year of eligibility in Prince Albert. There&rsquo;s nothing in between.<blockquote class="pullQuote">The rap against Pasin revolves around his skating ability.</blockquote>&ldquo;He defintely has to play at a better level,&rsquo;&rsquo; says coach Butch Goring. &ldquo;To send him back to junior would be foolish; we know what he can do at that level. He&rsquo;s got to play with better players. That&rsquo;s how you better yourself.&ldquo;I know when I first turned pro, my skating improved immensely after one year in the American League because the skating was so much better.&ldquo;So I&rsquo;m in no rush to send him back to junior. We&rsquo;ll keep him so we can take a longer look at him as a spot player and see how he feels about things and how much work he needs.&rdquo;Pasin agrees with his coach.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;d learn more as a spot player with the Bruins,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I could probably pick up more practising with the team and playing in spots than picking up bad habits in juniors.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played three years there and I feel I&rsquo;ve proved everything I can prove in junior. The first year we finished last. The second year we were in fifth place. Last year we won the Memorial Cup.&ldquo;The only thing I could learn in junior is working on my checking but then again it wouldn&rsquo;t be the same thing because you play different systems under different coaches.&rdquo;The big rap against Pasin, who is staying with the big club on a day-to-day basis, is that his skating is not of major-league calibre. Everyone concedes that he can put the puck in the net.One of those on his side is Bruins&rsquo; chief scout Bob Tindall.&ldquo;I still think he&rsquo;s capable of playing in the NHL,&rdquo; said Tindall. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve noticed improvement in his skating since his last training camp. I guess skating is always going to be a knock against him but we still believe he has the creative skills, the offensive ability to overcome the skating problems.&rdquo;Pasin worked hard over the summer to overcome those problems.&ldquo;I worked hard on my skating and my defense,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I worked on the roller blades on the cement rink in Prince Albert and I did a bit of weight training.&ldquo;We finished playing for the Memorial Cup in late May and I was already teaching hockey school in July so I didn&rsquo;t have a whole bunch of breaks. It helped not having a long summer to relax.&ldquo;The roller blades made a big difference. It&rsquo;s always hard to train for skating when you&rsquo;re off ice because when you run you use different muscles than when you skate. When you use the roller blades you get used to using the skating muscles.&ldquo;No matter how much you run or bike the first two days of camp your legs are sore anyway. With the roller blades my legs didn&rsquo;t hurt me when I got on the ice.&rdquo;Pasin also had a power skating teacher and teammate Ken Linseman worked with him on his skating during training camp.Despite the hockey limbo he finds himself in, Pasin says he can see the value of the back-to-junior rule.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s sort of a good rule, actually. I guess I&rsquo;m one of the exceptions. I certainly could learn a lot more playing in the American League.&ldquo;But then again if they didn&rsquo;t have the rule they&rsquo;d be sending all their juniors to the American League and there&rsquo;d be borderline 22-year-olds with no place to play.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0027-01

The Pasin Question: Where Should He Play?

<div class="byline">Terry Jones</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03336/5571730-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="300" height="415"></div>NOW THAT&nbsp;boarding is legal in the National Hockey League, how long can it be before they legalize icing?What I mean is, now that half the teams in the NHL are selling advertising on the rink boards, how long can it be before they start selling it on the ice?I can see it now&hellip;The &ldquo;Labatt&rsquo;s Blue line.&rdquo;Or how about the &ldquo;Johnny Walker Red line.&rdquo;Edmonton, Calgary, Hartford, Minnesota, Montreal, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Quebec, St. Louis, Washington and Winnipeg are all into heavy-duty boarding. Can icing be far behind?Actually, the Minnesota North Stars have been &ldquo;icing&rdquo; all along. It would just be a matter of twisting it a bit. Between periods of their games, the North Stars turn out the lights in their building, and provide a full-color advertising slide show on the ice, projected from above.Just take it from there&hellip;What about the goal crease? Can you imagine how much some firm might pay for the goal crease? If board ads are being sold for $20,000 a pair, the goal creases might be worth $50,000. I mean, get out the stopwatch and find out how many minutes of every game a goal crease is on television. It would be in all the highlights and it would be in every still newspaper picture the next day, too.The Labatt&rsquo;s Blue line? Johnny Walker Red line? The Family Circle face-off circle? Reese&rsquo;s Pieces creases? The Miller Goal Lite?And what about the uniforms? If you&rsquo;re selling ads on the boards, why not sell ads on the uniforms, too?Some senior hockey clubs still have uniforms sponsored. On the back of the uniform where &ldquo;Gretzky&rdquo; is today, it could read &ldquo;Club Cafe&rdquo;.The sweater advertising space sale could become the social event of the season. Just copy the Calgary Stampede plan&hellip;Invite, as the Calgary Stampede chuck-wagon race folks do, all the high rollers and big business boys to a cocktail party and auction off advertising space like the cowboys auction off their chuck-wagon canvas space.I mean, if J & L Suppy would pay $23,000 to advertise on the Dallas Dorchester rig for 10 trips around Stampede Park, imagine what you could get for Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s uniform back for more than 100 games around the NHL.If the Calgary Herald would pay $22,500 for their name to ride on the Tommy Glass outfit, think of how much someone would bid for Paul Coffey&rsquo;s back. If 36 chuck-wagons can draw $370,700, how much could you get for an entire Stanley Cup hockey team?But I better stop with the suggestions. Somebody in the NHL willl probably think I&rsquo;m offering a super service here as opposed to simple sarcasm.Advertising on the boards is running rampant in the league, and it says here that fans should be insulted.It&rsquo;s minor league.Go to a big-league baseball park. You won&rsquo;t find advertising on the outfield fence. Go to a minor-league baseball park, you&rsquo;ll find the outfield fences plastered with ads.Ever see an ad on the front page of the New York Times? Same thing.Call it class distinction. All the NHL is doing with this minor-league move is proving once again that the league prefers to go tourist class rather than first class.Even people who profit from the board ads are insulted.&ldquo;If I had my choice, I wouldn&rsquo;t have it,&rdquo; said Edmonton Northlands&rsquo; general manager George Hughes of the ads on the boards in the Northlands Coliseum for Edmonton Oiler games. &ldquo;The average fan is ticked off. He doesn&rsquo;t like it. I don&rsquo;t like it either.&rdquo; &bull;In the Edmonton situation, Northlands gets half the money from board advertising as a result of a clause in the contract, but the right to sell or not to sell the ads is held by the individual NHL teams.The NHL has allowed board advertising for four years now, but it hasn&rsquo;t been until this year that more than half the teams in the league have been doing a big business on the boards.The league came up with new specifications at its June &ldquo;board meeting&rdquo; (pun intended).The league increased the limit from eight ads per side of the ice to 10 ads, but insists no less than two thirds of each advertising panel be the natural white colors of the boards. Black, due to the goaltenders&rsquo; union no doubt, is not allowed to be a dominant color because it would obscure the puck. No ads are allowed behind the net and the board ads have to be easily removable because the TV networks have the right to ask for their removal, although many insist they stay up because the TV advertisers are also board advertisers.There&rsquo;s one other rule they added. Advertising for hard liquor and tobacco is not allowed. The NHL, obviously, has its standards. So the Johnny Walker Red line is out.But the Labatt&rsquo;s Blue line&hellip;Quick. Somebody sell them the space. &#9632;

f0028-03

Rinkside Board Sales Ad Up To An Insulting Annoyance

<div class="byline">BY TOM WHEATLEY</div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01663/5571699-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="548" height="168"></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;The St. Louis Blues, despite a four-game winless streak, have decided to play the hand they dealt themselves during the off-season.Ron Caron, the team&rsquo;s director of hockey operations, said he turned down an offer by general manager Bob Clarke of Philadelphia that would have brought left wingers Joe Paterson and Lindsay Carson to St. Louis.Caron also said he would not follow up inquiries he had made about centers Todd Bergen, the Flyers&rsquo; would-be golf pro, and Montreal&rsquo;s Alfie Turcotte, who was demoted under protest to Sherbrooke of the American League.&ldquo;I would say that these are our players,&rdquo; said coach Jacques Demers of his lineup the day before Caron rejected Clarke&rsquo;s offer for the ever-popular future considerations. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to work with them (to) a 100 per cent maximum and stay behind them.&rsquo;&rsquo;The deal would not have cost the Blues a roster player, said Caron.&ldquo;In modem life, you go and buy with a credit card and pay later,&rdquo; said Caron. &ldquo;In hockey, &lsquo;pay later&rsquo; is a draft choice.&rdquo;The deal would not have involved the Blues&rsquo; first-round pick in next year&rsquo;s entry draft.The club has not had a first-rounder since taking Marty Ruff in 1981.With rookie Darrell May replacing the injured Rick Wamsley, the Blues then went out the next day and lost 6-3 at Washington.That gave them an 0-3-1 record for a seven-day stretch and knocked them out of first place in the low-rent Norris Division.Paterson, who was sent to Hershey recently by the Flyers, and Carson are similar players.They are each 25 years old, stand about 6-foot-2, weigh in at about 200 pounds and are grinder types.The Blues are looking for size up front, especially after their 5-2 home loss to the Islanders.But the Blues also need scoring. They had 26 goals in their first eight games. Right winger Joe Mullen had five goals but only one during the four-game winless streak. Nobody else had more than two over the season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got enough people of the same value (as Paterson and Carson),&rdquo; said Caron. &ldquo;I basically gave a message to the people around the league that I&rsquo;ve stopped looking for a player.&ldquo;I would listen to acquiring a forward that would challenge one of my top five forwards. But I don&rsquo;t want to create too much pressure on the coaching staff to bring in another player.&rdquo;The Blues had seven new faces in their opening day lineup. They had eight in the loss in Game Eight at Washington. Among them were May, playing his first NHL game, and right winger Herb Raglan, an 18-year-old rookie in his second game.As for Bergen, Caron liked his regular-season production of 16 points&mdash;among them 11 goals&mdash;in 14 games and 13 points in 17 playoff games last year.But Caron did not like the 22-year-old&rsquo;s decision to sit out rather than play for Flyer coach Mike Keenan.The talent-soaked Flyers feel no rush to blink before Bergen does.&ldquo;They feel he&rsquo;s running out of money,&rdquo; said Caron.Turcotte was the Canadiens&rsquo; first-rounder in the &lsquo;83 draft that was held after Caron was fired as Montreal&rsquo;s scouting director.Montreal super-scout Claude Ruel said Turcotte came to camp &ldquo;too confident&rdquo; of winning a job.Caron told it differently: &ldquo;Indirectly, they owed some favors to other player for their hard work. So they said to Turcotte, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re going to the minors.&rsquo;&ldquo;I inquired and so forth.&rdquo; said Caron of Turcotte, &ldquo;but my interest is limited.&rdquo;Interest is not limited, though, in the Blues&rsquo; No. 1 pick in next year&rsquo;s bluechip draft.&ldquo;If someone comes in and offers me an arm and a leg, I&rsquo;d listen,&rdquo; said Caron. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not in my plans.&rdquo;BLUENOTES&mdash;Rick Wamsley has not played since raising his record to 2-0 by wining at Calgary in Game Three. First, he suffered a bruised stick hand against the Flames. Then, his wife suffered a miscarriage in the fifth month of pregnancy. The Wamsleys, who have one little girl, had lost their first child to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. While still dealing with the trauma of his wife&rsquo;s miscarriage, Wamsley had minor surgery to remove an abcess and was expected to be out for another seven to 10 days&hellip;There was more tragedy for the Blues when the mother of winger Mark Reeds died after a long bout with cancer. Reeds, who had been excused during camp to visit his mother at her Burlington, Ont. home, missed the losses to the Islanders and the Caps. The night after learning his mother had slipped into a coma, Reeds played and was the first star in a 4-4 tie with Minnesota. He had a goal and two assists. &#9632;

f0028-01

Caron Turns Down Clarke Trade Overtures

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02468/5571761-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="568" height="178"></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Craig Simpson was the top-rated player eligible for June&rsquo;s National Hockey League entry draft, but he was passed over by the team that had the first selection, the Toronto Maple Leafs.The Pittsburgh Penguins eagerly took Simpson with the second pick.However, he struggled in his first three NHL games, playing sparingly as a fourth-line center, and didn&rsquo;t dress for the next two contests.Simpson had something to prove when the Leafs and the Penguins met for back-to-back games.He had to prove to Toronto it made a mistake when it took Wendel Clark instead of him, and to prove to the Penguins they made the right choice in picking the former Michigan State star.Penguin coach Bob Berry installed Simpson on a line with Terry Ruskowski and Doug Shedden for the first of the two-game series in Toronto. Simpson, despite receiving considerable physical abuse by the Maple Leafs, had the most impressive showing of his young career.&ldquo;He rose to the occasion,&rdquo; Berry said.The second game against Toronto the next night in Pittsburgh, Simpson again played a lot and deflected in his first NHL goal.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a matter of getting a chance to play,&rdquo; said Simpson. &ldquo;It takes a little while and sitting out two games in a row, that&rsquo;s murder. I don&rsquo;t like that, and I didn&rsquo;t want that to happen again.&ldquo;Anyway, maybe it was good for me. Maybe it gave me time to sit down and think and say, &lsquo;Look, this is my chance. I&rsquo;ve got to go for it.&rsquo;&rdquo;Berry agreed that Simpson&rsquo;s sitting out was beneficial.&ldquo;Probably, he&rsquo;s applied himself a little bit more,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;This is a tough league. It&rsquo;s tough no matter where you come from. Coming in at 18 years&rsquo; old from college&hellip;it&rsquo;s a man&rsquo;s league.&rdquo;Simpson said he was conscious that his two best games came against the team that bypassed him in the draft.&ldquo;I have some personal pride,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I want to do well. I want to show, not only the Penguins, that I can play.&ldquo;It was good playing against Toronto because I wanted to show them that, &lsquo;Look, I&rsquo;m a player. They passed me up in the draft, so I had something to prove. I had some pride on the line. I was happy with the way things went. I thought represented myself well.&rdquo;Simpson led the Central Collegiate Hockey Association in scoring last year with 31 goals and 53 assists in 42 games, and he helped the Spartans to the CCHA regular-season and playoff titles.He scored his second NHL goal during his next game on a breakaway against &ldquo;Everytime you get out there you get more and more confidence,&rdquo; Simpson said. &ldquo;I was a little bit surprised when he (Berry) sat me out those couple of games. I know he&rsquo;s got to win games, and I think he was going with some of the more experienced guys.&ldquo;That was kind of hard for me. I&rsquo;m not used to that. I was hoping to get into some games. The first three games, when I didn&rsquo;t play very much, that was tough on me, too.&rdquo;Simpson says there is a big difference between collegiate hockey and the NHL.&ldquo;Everything is faster,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You have to jump a little quicker. You can&rsquo;t take that extra second to think or to get to a guy. You have to be on him right away. That takes a little bit of getting adjusted to.&ldquo;I felt confident that if I get a chance to play in games fairly regularly, I would adjust. I&rsquo;ve proved that to myself over the last couple of games, and that&rsquo;s what I was hoping to do.&rdquo;PENGUIN TRACKS&mdash;The scheduled Jan. 4 home game against the New York Rangers was moved to Nov. 4. The Penguins will play the Moscow Dynamo, one of two Soviet teams playing a 10-game series with NHL clubs, Jan. 4 at the Civic Arena&hellip;Defenseman Norm Schmidt has begun skating after suffering a knee injury which required arthroscopic surgery in training camp. &#9632;

f0028-02

Rookie Simpson Adjusts To NHL

<div class="byline">BY JEFF HUBBELL</div>&ldquo;Detroit goal scored by Gordie Howe. Assist, Bill Gadsby.&rdquo;Sound familiar? Sure, after all. Howe scored tons of goals in 1984. 1984? Wait a minute. Bill Gadsby? Gordie Howe?Don&rsquo;t panic. It&rsquo;s not a time warp. You&rsquo;re not Rip Van Winkle.It&rsquo;s the Can/Am Reach For The Stars tournament, a series developed to give hockey players a chance to skate beside former NHL stars.The-tournament was conceived by Bob Murch and Gary Green, the principle owners of Can/Am. This year it will be held in Lake Placid, N.Y., Nov. 7-12.Following the lead of Baseball Fantasy Camp, which brings together past greats and great fans on the diamond, the two executives came up with a tournament that would offer the recreational hockey player a chance to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s our second year,&rdquo; says Paul Crowley, executive director of Can/Am and coodinator of the tournament. &ldquo;What we do is give the participants a chance to play in the Stanley Cup finals, a chance to feel all the excitement. They are given official jerseys from teams from four of the original six teams.&ldquo;There are 15 to 16 players per team. There are Toronto, Detroit, Boston and Chicago, and if we get more, people we&rsquo;ll expand to the original six.&rdquo;Although it&rsquo;s targeted at the recreational player, the Reach for the Stars Tournament is not cheap ($ 1,650 U.S.). But for those who&rsquo;ve dreamed of playing in the NHL with some of the all-time greats, the event has to rank as one of the best bargains since Thomas Jefferson&rsquo;s Louisiana Purchase.&ldquo;The pros were just great,&rdquo; says Ira Gitler, a New York jazz columnist and freelance hockey writer who skated for Detroit in last year&rsquo;s series. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the ultimate. It&rsquo;s set up like a Stanley Cup tournament, with locker facilities, press coverage. For an amateur player to not have to pack or carry his own bag, well, hey, now that&rsquo;s something.&rdquo;The list of players competing this year is impressive and includes Gordie Howe, Bill Gadsby, Wayne Cashman, Johnny McKenzie, Red Kelly, Frank Mahovlich. Dennis Hull and Stan Mikita. There are a number of other familiar faces, among them referees Red Storey and Bruce Hood, trainer Lefty Wilson, commentator Danny Gallivan and HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; columnist Stan Fischler.&ldquo;It surprised me in that I had no idea that the pros took it so seriously,&rdquo; said Fischler. &ldquo;I suspected the pros would slough it off as a vacation, skate around a bit and sign a few autographs.&ldquo;I was fascinated by the enthusiasm of Gadsby and Howe. They were like big kids. So into it. Everyone took their roles so seriously. The pros acted like pros. The amateurs played like pros. It was a remarkable thing.&ldquo;It was first-class all the way. It made me very sorry I wasn&rsquo;t playing.&rdquo;So many participants had such a good time that many are coming back for a second run at the Cup.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re excited,&rdquo; says Crowley. &ldquo;This year we have about 40 to 50 per cent returnees.&ldquo;About 75 per cent of all participants are Americans.&rdquo;Although the players are there to have a good time, they are often reminded in some not-too-subtle ways that this is a championship tournament.&ldquo;The practices were killing me,&rdquo; says Gitler. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I started playing fairly well until the fourth game.&rdquo; The participants do their share of exercising, including skating practice and aerobics.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01570/5571792-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="572" height="772"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hockey legend Gordie Howe still has plenty of Stanley Cup goals left in him.</figcaption></div>There were other events to occupy the players&rsquo; time. Pre-game meals. Chalk talks. Press conferences. And even a belly dancer. (But that came after practice, during an evening social held for all the participants.)&ldquo;But it was the ambience, the camaraderie, the people,&rdquo; says Gitler. &ldquo;I never saw a team come together so fast. There&rsquo;s no one more down-to-earth than hockey people.&ldquo;We (Detroit) had strong defense&mdash;myself excluded. Gadsby could just gobble up the puck.&rdquo;Last year, Detroit won the Stanley Cup&mdash;or rather, the Can/Am version of the Stanley Cup&mdash;which looks nothing like the real one.&ldquo;But winning the Cup was a great thrill.&rdquo; says Gitler.&ldquo;A bunch of strangers playing as teammates. it&rsquo;s great.&rdquo;One last thing. Making the whole experience as real as possible made one more facet of NHL hockey available to the public&mdash;being traded.&ldquo;This year the Detroit team was over-subscribed,&rdquo; says Gitler, &ldquo;so. I&rsquo;m playing for Boston.&ldquo;There you go,&rdquo; he snorts. &ldquo;You win the Stanley Cup and they trade you.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0029-01

Aiming For The Stars…And Reaching Them

<div class="byline">BY JEFF HUBBELL</div>He&rsquo;s done just about everything one can do in hockey.Le Gros Bill&mdash;Jean Beliveau, the stylish, elegant center who set the standard for class when he played for the Montreal Canadiens in a career that spanned 18 years.Beliveau is still with the club, working as its senior vice-president of corporate affairs.Beliveau became a legend in his own time when he played for the Habs, scoring 507 goals and 1,219 points in 1,125 games, twice winning the Hart Trophy, as well as the Art Ross and Conn Smythe trophies once each. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972.It almost reads like a history book, which is not too surprising, given his team and era. Beliveau was an integral part of the Montreal Canadiens during their finest years&mdash;from 1955-56 to 1959-60&mdash;when they became the only club in NHL history to win five straight Stanley Cups.But despite his longevity in the sport, Beliveau no longer plays hockey&mdash;he just doesn&rsquo;t have time.&ldquo;I played hockey with the oldtimers the first two years after I retired. But I&rsquo;m involved in so many things I missed more than half of the games, and decided that, unfortunately, I just didn&rsquo;t have the time. After being away weekends 20 years, 1 felt it was time to stay home.&rdquo;Does he miss playing?&ldquo;Oh, we all miss it, it&rsquo;s in our blood, but I think you have to make a choice.&rdquo;Beliveau now spends his time working for charitable organizations and various businesses.&ldquo;I work here with the Canadiens, and am also on the board of governors of several companies. I run my own foundation, the Jean Beliveau Fund.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02394/5571823-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="564" height="644"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jean Beliveau was one of hockey&rsquo;s most majestic centermen during his career.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;So, it doesn&rsquo;t leave me too much free time. I&rsquo;m still travelling a lot, attending different events, and that part could be a job in itself.&rdquo;Highly-revered in Quebec, Beliveau is a visible link to the past glories of the Canadiens&mdash;and a great asset to the Habs&rsquo; public relations department.&ldquo;All the requests about the game itself are directed to my office. I help the United Way with their campaign. A lot of visitors. The press. There are a lot of visitors from the European press. So if you add it up to all the other things, that&rsquo;s quite a list.&rdquo;After 18 years of distinguished hockey, there are too many memories for any one to take a prominent spot over another.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very difficult to summarize 18 years with a good and great team,&rdquo; says Beliveau. 54. &ldquo;To summarize that in one memory, it would be the teams we had back in 1955-1960. What a team we had. what a group. Working together to achieve a final goal&mdash;to win the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;And to that we say. thanks for the memories. &#9632;

f0029-02

Big Jean Brought Dignity To Game

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville HockeyGLENS FALLS&mdash;A month ago, Ray Staszak was answering the same questions.How does it feel to be here?What are your goals?How have you been accepted by your teammates?Do you think there will be any problems making adjustments to a new league?What does it feel like to be the highest-paid rookie in the National Hockey League?But a month ago, Staszak was answering those questions at the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; training camp and in various NHL cities. This time, he handled the interviews&mdash;and there were many requests&mdash;as a member of the Adirondack Red Wings during the Wings&rsquo; first extended road trip of the American League season.In the space of a month, Staszak experienced the highs and lows of pro hockey. One of the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; mil-lion-dollar men signe J as free agents during the summer, Staszak was assigned to Adirondack on Oct. 18 after earning just one assist in four NHL games.&ldquo;No, 1 didn&rsquo;t see it coming,&rdquo; Staszak said after an Adirondack workout at the Glens Falls Civic Center. &ldquo;I was disappointed when I heard the news. Hey, you have to accept it.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not the first time a rookie was ever sent down. I&rsquo;ll accept their decision and, hopefully, I&rsquo;ll work as hard as I can and make them change their minds and bring me back up.&rdquo;Through six games with Adirondack, Staszak had just two assists, but Adirondack coach Bill Dineen said that the 200-pound right winger from the University of Illinois-Chicago was making progress.&ldquo;In the last two games (of the road trip) he really came on,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;I thought he played his best two games.&rdquo;The Staszak game is predicated on hitting, bumping and more hitting and bumping.&ldquo;I just think he needs a couple of goals to loosen him up,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s going to be fine. It&rsquo;s just a matter of spending time here, getting his confidence.&rdquo;&ldquo;Things are starting to come along a little bit now,&rdquo; Staszak said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m starting to relax a little more and things are starting to come a little easier&hellip;I just have to keep driving and working harder and, hopefully, things will start falling into place a little more and I&rsquo;ll be up in Detroit soon.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m starting to play a little more like myself now. Before, I was a little tentative. When you step in as a rookie, you really aren&rsquo;t exactly sure what they want you to do or how they want you to perform, especially with so many new players. There are different roles. It takes a while to get used to the rigors of the game and also the rigors off-ice, too, to settling down.&rdquo;Dineen believes that Staszak has handled the demotion very well.&ldquo;He seems to be fine,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a stable kid. He&rsquo;s been under a lot of pressure every place we&rsquo;ve been. Two major (Canadian TV) networks came down to St. Catharines. He had to go through the same thing in Fredericton and the other places. I told him, &lsquo;It&rsquo;s only going to be another week and all of that is going to die down. Just go about your business.&rsquo;&ldquo;He can cope with that. He&rsquo;s mature enough to cope with that.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if you can ever prepare yourself, but it&rsquo;s something that you have to accept and something that you have to try and put in the back of your mind,&rdquo; Staszak said.&ldquo;Naturally, I&rsquo;m going to get quite a bit of attention because of what Detroit did this summer and the different contracts they threw out. I have to put that in the back of my mind and try to go out and play the best hockey I can play, try to make a contribution to the team in helping them win.&rdquo;AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash;AHL President Jack Butterfield suspended Maine forward Archie Henderson for six games for receiving a match penalty in a game at Springfield on Oct. 25. Henderson was tossed from the game for a stick-swinging incident with Springfield&rsquo;s Jim Archibald&hellip;Paul Evans, Maine&rsquo;s career leader in games played, goals, assists and points, will have his number retired before a game with Hershey on Nov. 23&hellip;Larry Floyd broke Maine&rsquo;s team record with six assists in a 9-8 win over St. Catharines&hellip;Veteran goaltender Ron Low dropped a 4-2 decision to Adirondack in his first start for the Nova Scotia Oilers. Forward Mike Moller was assigned to Nova Scotia by the parent Edmonton Oilers&hellip;Joe Kocur was recalled to Detroit after he scored six goals and eight points in nine games with Adirondack. &#9632;

Rich Rookie Staszak Adjusting To Demotion

<div class="byline">BY DICK BAKER</div>ROCHESTER&mdash;They make it seem so easy.While most teams were still trying to get their rosters settled, the Rochester Amerks, who like getting the jump on the rest of the Southern Division so much they do it in leaps and bounds, blasted off to a roaring 7-1-1 start.Nothing unusual.Last year, the Amerks answered the bell with an 11-0 start before an injury to goaltender Jacques Cloutier slowed down their success.Their coach, Jim Schoenfeld, went over to Buffalo with a one-way ticket and the new man, John Van Boxmeer. stayed around for the remainder of the Amerks&rsquo; fourth straight 40-win season.It will likely be five straight.This year&rsquo;s powerhouse has so much depth that Paul Gardner can don the shades and take a semi-vacation, unless, of course, there&rsquo;s need for a couple of clutch goals in a tight-checking game like a recent 2-2 tie with Binghamton.But while all this seems a matter of course for the proud Rochester franchise, Van Boxmeer says this fast getaway comes thanks to blood, sweat and tears.&ldquo;No. it hasn&rsquo;t been easy,&rdquo; he said after the Amerks shocked the home fans in Springfield by routing the Indians 8-1. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been working hard. If we work hard, we&rsquo;ll win.&rdquo;Maybe it was good that the first-place Amerks got that loss out of the way. Who needs the pressure of trying to equal last year&rsquo;s 11-win liftoff?&ldquo;No,&rdquo; barked Van Boxmeer. &ldquo;We wanted to win that game (7-5 loss to New Haven). We outskated them, but it was just one of those things. We want to win every game.&rdquo;One reason the Amerks have been so hot is the performance of right winger Jody Gage. Gage scored four goals for the second time this season in the Springfield game. His other four-goal game was against the Hershey Bears.&ldquo;I was just at the right place at the right time,&rdquo; said Gage, who was in the right place 11 times in the first nine games to lead the league in scoring. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never hit double figures this early in the season before.&rdquo;Gage&rsquo;s first career four-goal game came with the Adirondack Red Wings in Adirondack&rsquo;s first game as an AHL franchise. The outburst was also against Hershey.Gage isn&rsquo;t the only guy lighting up the board. Adam Creighton and Claude Verret were already in double-digit point totals as was Gardner.&ldquo;This team has as much offensive talent as any team I&rsquo;ve ever seen in this league,&rdquo; said Gardner. &ldquo;It helps me. Last year I played a lot of hockey (at Binghamton) and by the end of the year I was really tired. It was frustrating at times. That was part of the deal when I signed this year&mdash;that I would see less ice time.&rdquo;That would normally be good news for the opposition. But take another look around the Rochester room and you&rsquo;ll find Mal Davis (five goals in first six games). Norm Lacombe (point-a-game pace) and veteran defenseman Richie Dunn.The weak spot was supposed to be defense. Dunn and a bunch of rookies, the critics said.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been unbelievable,&rdquo; beamed Van Boxmeer. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe how well these young guys are playing.&rdquo;Van Boxmeer feels the big offense takes some of the pressure off the defense.&ldquo;We have a lot of firepower, so if we give up a goal we know we can get it back. The only mistakes we&rsquo;re making are working mistakes. We can live with a working mistake. I know I made enough of them when I played. And I&rsquo;m still making them as a coach.&rdquo;But before the flag is hoisted:&ldquo;I think the AHL has really improved this year,&rdquo; warned Gage. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be a tough league.&rdquo;Headed by another tough team in RochesterDOWN SOUTH&mdash;Springfield&rsquo;s Neal Coulter, a Wayne Cashman look-alike, is called &ldquo;Cash&rdquo; by his teammates. Coulter, like Cashman, is an excellent defensive forward&hellip;Phil Bourque is back in Baltimore, replaced in Pittsburgh by Joe McDonnel-L AHL prexy Jack Butterfield expressed concern over the early season violence. In the first 52 games, there were 192 major penalties, 21 game misconducts, three match penalties and one bench-clearing brawl. &#9632;

Americans Rocket To A Great Start

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville HockeySALT LAKE CITY&mdash;Salt Lake City&rsquo;s Golden Eagles are off and soaring in the International League and the surprising made to their success is that most of it has come on the road.Heading into the third full week of the new season, the Eagles had played seven games (5-2) but only two of them were played at home, where Salt Lake City split.Their first extended trip to the East resulted in four victories in five games, all of the wins coming between Oct. 23 and Oct. 27.Over that stretch they scored 20 goals and allowed just five as goaltenders Rick Reinz and Mike Vernon registered consecutive shutouts in the last two outings.The veteran Heinz, top goaltender in the league a year ago, blanked defending Turner Cup-champion Peoria Rivermen 3-0 on Oct. 26. The following day Vernon whitewashed Milwaukee by a 3-0 count.Salt Lake stayed at Kalamazoo for the first couple of days of their trip and took a bus to Flint, where they pounded the Spirits 11-3. They rode back to Kalamazoo for a meeting with the K-Wings, and beat the hosts 4-2.Then came stops at Peoria and Milwaukee, where Heinz and Vernon did their things.Scott MacLeod, last season&rsquo;s league scoring leader, collected 11 points&mdash;five of them on goals&mdash;in the first seven games. But that wasn&rsquo;t enough for the team scoring lead or the league lead.Both of those honors belonged to winger Brent Sapergia, who shook off a foot injury suffered on opening night to score at a clip of more than one goal per game.In seven contests he had eight goals, tops in the league, and four assists for 12 points.In the rout over Flint, Sapergia contributed four goals. He was more democratic in the scoring of others, spreading out his production with one first goal, one power-play goal and one game winner.Sapergia accounted for 47 goals and a like number of assists last year.While Salt Lake was averaging nearly five goals a game and giving up just three, the Indianapolis Checkers were considerably less offensive (with only 17 goals in six games) but equally effective in running up a 5-1 record.Indianapolis goalies Mike Zanier and Rob Holland had been superb, allowing but two goals a game. The Eagles and Checkers were tied for first place in the IHL West Division with IO points each.Indy&rsquo;s early-season schedule was the opposite of Salt Lake&rsquo;s.The Checkers opened with five home games in a row before hitting the road for a single game at Flint. They won four of their five home outings and beat the Spirits at Flint.Zanier was 3-0 with a 1.67 goals-against average, and Holland, 2-1 and 2.33. That ranked the Checkers&rsquo; netminders just second and fourth in the league, however. In third place was Vernon, with a 2.00 average.The leading goalie was Milwaukee&rsquo;s Lindsay Middlebrook, who had a 1.01 goals-against average, including a shutout victory. He had won two games and lost one.Kurt Kalweit of Toledo and rookie Don Edwardson of Muskegon were tied for second place in goal-scoring. Kalweit had six goals in six games. And Edwardson, who had a hat-trick earlier in the season, scored six in seven contests.Toledo fell victim to a shootout for the second time this season, although the first came during the exhibition portion of training camp.Saginaw battled the Goaldiggers to a 2-2 deadlock after 60 minutes and neither scored in the five-minute overtime. But the Generals got three goals in the shootout while Toledo failed to score.The Goaldiggers figured in another overtime decision a night later (Oct. 27), when they were beaten 7-6 by Kalamazoo.The shootout, new to the league this season, gives each team five chances (using five different players each) to score when a game is tied at the end of overtime.Teams alternate one-on-one opportunities against the opposing goaltenders. The team with the most goals in the five attempts earns two points for a victory; the loser gets one.A second round is contested if goals are even after the first, and five new shooters are selected. The league hasn&rsquo;t had to go that far yet.According to league commissioner Bud Poile, &ldquo;Unless at least three coaches request to have that rule changed by Nov. 12, it will stay for the remainder of the season.&rdquo;Even if the rule is brought up for a vote, it could remain if those favoring shootouts were to gamer a majority of the votes. &#9632;

One Took High Road, One Took Low Road

<div class="byline">BY PAT LYON</div>ERIE&mdash;Experience helped make this year&rsquo;s Atlantic Coast League rookie camp a grand success.Over 45 players took part in the second annual camp held at Erie&rsquo;s Tullio Convention Center with the five ACHL clubs drafting 34 players. The rookies put their talents on display for the various coaches over a three-day period before the camp concluded with the player draft.Both the Erie Golden Blades and first-year New York Slapshots chose nine players while the Mohawk Valley Comets and Virginia Lancers snared eight players. League-champion Carolina passed on every round, preferring instead to retain last year&rsquo;s rookies.After making a draft choice, that team&rsquo;s rookie roster of last year was left vulnerable for selection. The Thunderbirds chose the opposite path. By protecting its rookies from last year Carolina relinquished all of its draft picks.Commissioner Ray Miron was extremely pleased with the success of the camp even though he was concerned about its fortunes just a short time ago.&ldquo;I was worried a couple weeks ago if we would have enough players in camp, but things turned out a lot better than 1 thought they would,&rdquo; said Miron.The ACHL boss was also surprised by the talent exhibited by the rookies over the three-day stretch.&ldquo;We just had a better crop of players compared to the ones from last year&rsquo;s first camp,&rdquo; explained Miron. &ldquo;The practices were much better and I think the thing I noticed most was the skating. Almost all the players were good skaters.&rdquo;Carolina coach Rick Dudley was in agreement with Miron.&ldquo;I think the camp was definitely stronger overall compared to last year and I think there are a number of kids who will be stars in our league,&rdquo; said Dudley. &ldquo;There was good skating and a lot more aggressive hockey. I think the league is going to be very good this year when you consider the rookies that were in camp and throw in the second-year players.&rdquo;Here are the draft picks of the five clubs:ERIE&mdash;forward Ray Jacques; goalie Adolph Brink; defenseman Mark Parente; center Vince Szalai; right wing Mike Hoar; left wing Barry Smith; center Peter Barbagallo; defenseman Jim Morris; defenseman Deniz Arimigain. The Blades later traded Parente to New York for future considerations.NEW YORK&mdash;center Bob Williams; wing Shawn Murray; defenseman Tom Christiano; forward Mike Fredal; forward Rob David; forward Vinny Pumilio; forward Scott Retten; defenseman Joey Collins; forward Joe Mitchell.VIRGINIA&mdash;defenseman Scott Wiebolt; defenseman Harold Ochs; goalie Keith Houghton; forward John O&rsquo;Sullivan; forward Keith Knight; goalie Don Rinaldi; forward Dave Lambert.MOHAWK VALLEY&mdash;forward Mike Kuzmich; defenseman Dennis Laing; goalie Tony Derose; forward Joe Zambito; forward Dan Abbamo; forward Andrew Skop; defenseman Bob Dunn; forward Ed Currie.CAROLINA&mdash;No draft picks. Returning second-year protected rookies include Bob Hagen, John O&rsquo;Connor; Ed Christian; Mark Huglen; Matt Winnicki; Joe Curran; John Torchetti; Dan Olson; Ray Leblanc.The Blades lost four unprotected second-year players including Don Shaw and Robert Moise to New York and Pete Barrasso and Dave Moffitt to Carolina. New York also acquired Eric Bottilla and Scott Vanderboom; Erie claimed Steve Szydlowski and Ed Cooper; and Carolina grabbed Frank Loconsole and John DePalma.AROUND THE LEAGUE&mdash;Carolina obtained goalie Ray Leblanc from the Slapshots for Dan Potter and three future players. Leblanc was the top rookie goaltender in the league a year ago&hellip;The league won a lawsuit against an insurance company which had guaranteed the $25,000 bond of the defunct Nashville South Stars. Nashville folded in November of 1983&hellip;Director of NHL scouting Jim Gregory was an interested visitor at the rookie camp. &#9632;

ACHL Rookie Draft Rated Success

<div class="byline">BY BILL CRAWFORD</div>SAULT STE. MARIE&mdash;Roger Beedon may never play another series like the one he played here in late October, stopping 84 shots in two nights to all but singlehandedly sweep Lake Superior State 4-2 and 3-2.Then again, maybe the Ohio State freshman really does change clothes in a phone booth, as the Lakers now suspect. Maybe Beedon&rsquo;s destined for a short Central Collegiate Hockey Association career. Maybe he&rsquo;ll be a pro two years down the road.Beedon was one of Ohio State&rsquo;s top recruits before the season started. But the Bucks went with senior Bob Krautzak the first three games and lost them all, two to powerful Michigan State and the first of two at Illinois-Chicago.Then coach Jerry Welsh switched goalies and Beedon backstopped three straight wins, including the two at Lake Superior where the six-footer was bombarded with 92 shots&mdash;including a whopping 50-17 shots margin in Game Two, when the Lakers threw everything they had at him and came up a goal short.Welsh downplayed Beedon&rsquo;s 36-save performance from the previous night prior to Game Two.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t say he was that good.&rdquo; cautioned Welsh. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t do anything we didn&rsquo;t see him do in Sarnia last season and he didn&rsquo;t do anything we didn&rsquo;t already know he could. He&rsquo;s an outstanding young guy, with a great work ethic and all the tools to be a very good goalie.&rdquo;Very good is just what the Marysville, Mich., native was against LSSC. He stopped half a dozen outright breakaways and another 12 or so quality scoring chances. Screen shots, point-blank drives, bullets and change-ups. He covered them all and kept the rebounds to an absolute minimum.&ldquo;He was unbelieveable,&rdquo; offered Laker coach Frank Anzalone, following Game Two. &ldquo;He either had his-best night ever or he&rsquo;s not going to be with them long. He&rsquo;ll turn pro if he can do that all the time.&rdquo;Welsh&rsquo;s team was outshot both nights at LSSC, but took the series and evened its record at 3-3.&ldquo;Ohio State never gets the respect it probably deserves in hockey,&rdquo; he said between games. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if that&rsquo;s due mostly to the (very successful and high-profile) football program or what, but we&rsquo;ve had some very good teams in my time and always struggled to be recognized.&rdquo;Welsh says that the tiny OSU Ice Rink hurts his team&rsquo;s image with other coaches and the media, but he defends his program.&ldquo;We had our best team ever two years ago and all everyone talked about was how we used our small ice suface to suit us,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Our ice is the same size as the Boston Garden. It&rsquo;s no big deal. We won more games on the road that season (1983-84) than we did at home, but nobody mentioned that.&rdquo;Welsh describes his team as &ldquo;young and mistake-prone,&rdquo; this season, but adds that the Buckeyes will improve steadily, as his teams usually do.&ldquo;We have a lot of young guys this season, but they&rsquo;re good players, it&rsquo;s just a matter of learning, or getting their feet wet, so to speak.&rdquo;Welsh is easily the most underrated coach in the CCHA.His teams always come on as the season grinds on. He has some quality players this season in centers Rick Brebant and Dave Beaudin, wingers Joe Tracy, Andy Forcey, Mark Anderson and Jeff Madill and defensemen Mark Shortt and Don Perkins.But then, there&rsquo;s not a tremendous amount of pressure to win in hockey at OSU, either. It&rsquo;s hardly considered a big-ticket sport.But the Buckeye players want for nothing. Welsh points out that his players have everything the rest of the CCHA gets in perks and equipment, may be few extras, such as Buckeye football basketball and a huge campus in central Ohio.&ldquo;This league has real parity,&rdquo; continued Welsh. &ldquo;There are a lot of good teams and it&rsquo;ll be interesting watching it shape up this season. I think we&rsquo;ll be right there again at the end.&rdquo; &#9632;

Beedon Beautiful Against Lake Superior

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>HOUGHTON&mdash;The legend of the late John Maclnnes is casting some large and ominous shadows in this small Upper Peninsula community.There&rsquo;s been no more successful college coach than Maclnnes, who won 555 games in his 26 seasons in charge of the Michigan Tech Huskies. That&rsquo;s more victories than any other NCAA Division I hockey coach in history.Since Maclnnes retired in 1982, two of his former players, first Jim Nahrgang, and now Herb Boxer, have tried to fill Maclnnes&rsquo; large skates.Nahrgang gave it a go for three seasons, culminating in his resignation last spring. That move was prompted, in part, by the flap caused when he pulled his team off the ice during a game at Boston University last season in protest over the officiating.That move ultimately led to officials forfeiting the game to BU and brought much unfavorable publicity to Michigan Tech.So Tech opted for a native of the area to try to restore glory to the once-proud program.For the record, Machines won three NCAA titles and finished second three times while posting a career winning percentage of.646.One of the toughest assignments in any sport is replacing a legend. Whether Boxer, from Hancock. Mich., situated just across the lake from Houghton, is the man to do that remains to be seen.Through seven games this season, including one exhibition loss to Canada&rsquo;s national development team. Tech had won just once and that by a single goal. Included in the losses were 10-2 and 8-1 whippings at home to Northern Michigan and North Dakota, respectively&mdash;two reasons why attendance at Tech games has fallen dramatically.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a long way to go and we realize it,&rdquo; Boxer said. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t get discouraged right now. There&rsquo;s a lot of the season left.&rdquo;Why has Tech fallen on tough times? Coach Gino Gasparini, who resurrected a fallen program himself at North Dakota and brought it to lofty heights, believes in the Cycle Theory.&ldquo;Everything goes in cycles,&rdquo; Gasparini said. &ldquo;For one thing, John Maclnnes was able to get a lot of very good players over the years to come here because of his reputation.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t stay at the top forever. Michigan and Colorado College used to be national powers, too, and now they&rsquo;re working to rebuild their programs,&rdquo; said Gasparini.Then there&rsquo;s the Expansion Theory held by Paul Kerttu, a longtime follower of Michigan Tech hockey and a hockey history buff as well.&ldquo;There are a lot more schools playing college hockey now than when Maclnnes built a power at Tech,&rdquo; Kerttu said. &ldquo;So the talent is spread out more.&ldquo;And let&rsquo;s face it, even though youth hockey in Michigan has made great progress, the good players from the Detroit area either go on to play major junior hockey or they go to Michigan State. They don&rsquo;t go to Michigan Tech. And besides, where do you find another coach like John MacInnes?&rdquo;AROUND THE WCHA&mdash;North Dakota&rsquo;s Bob Joyce, a sophomore winger from Winnipeg, tied a WCHA record when he scored five goals in the 8-1 win over Michigan Tech. Joyce, who rejected an offer to play for Team Canada to remain in college, tied the mark by 10 other players. The last player to score five times in one game was Northern Michigan&rsquo;s Joe West, who did it last season against Colorado College. Joyce actually scored six goals, but one was disallowed when referee Dick Haigh ruled Joyce knocked it in with a high stick&hellip;Two old rivals, Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth, split their first series meeting this season in Duluth when five different players scored to give the Bulldogs a 5-2 win in the second game after Minnesota had won the opener 4-2. &#9632;

Boxer In For The Fight Of His Life

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01635/5572012-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="573" height="639"><figcaption class="caption-body">DOUG BROWN Boston College</figcaption></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>Senior right winger Doug Brown collected eight points, including two shorthanded goals, to spark the Boston College Eagles to wins over Northeastern and Maine, giving BC a perfect 3-0 record.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02462/5572005-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="498" height="639"><figcaption class="caption-body">JAMIE WANSBROUGH Bowling Green</figcaption></div><h2>CCHA</h2>Bowling Green right winger Jamie Wansbrough scored three goals and five assists, including his 100th career college goal, in the Falcons&rsquo; 9-5 and 7-4 wins over the Ohio State Buckeyes.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03312/5571998-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="567" height="636"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROB DOYLE Colorado College</figcaption></div><h2>WCHA</h2>Colorado College defenseman Rob Doyle scored nine points, giving him 13 on the season and a share of the league scoring lead, in a two-game sweep of Michigan Tech. &#9632;

f0032-01

Bauer’s COLLEGE ‘performer OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;Now that it&rsquo;s history, last season&rsquo;s run of overtime snake bites might work in favor of Boston College.In six overtime periods last year, BC didn&rsquo;t score once as hot-handed netmin-Wers stymied them time and again to blemish an otherwise impressive 28-15-2 record.Fittingly, the Eagles&rsquo; final loss of the season, a 7-6 setback to Minnesota-Duluth in the consolation game of the NCAA finals, was suffered in overtime.Fortunes might be different during the 1985-86 campaign.The Eagles have been picked by at least one national poll (WEMB&mdash;Orono, Me.) to win this year&rsquo;s national crown. &ldquo;The motivation is great,&rdquo; coach Lenglarski said a few days before BC opened the season with a 2-0 win over the Maine Black Bears on the strength of Scott Gordon&rsquo;s 16-save, shutout performance.&ldquo;The kids thought the way we were playing, we could have won it all last year. We had such a good record against the western teams last season (11-5) that it will be tough to duplicate, but 1 have no qualms about the work ethic on this team.&rdquo;Gordon is one of 10 seniors on the roster. His 3.66 average last year was second best in Hockey East, and he back-shopped the North squad to a gold medal in last summer&rsquo;s National Sport Festival.Three seniors will play regularly on defense in front of him, but according to Ceglarski the biggest difference in that aspect of BC&rsquo;s game will be junior John McLean.McLean played the first half of last year but lost his eligibilty due to academics. BC&rsquo;s defense slumped. The offense was usually clicking so that defenders didn&rsquo;t face constant pressure, but the playoffs approached it was a different story.&ldquo;I think we must have lost five or six overtime games last season, because we didn&rsquo;t have McLean,&rdquo; mused Ceglarski, a 28-year-veteran of college coaching. Actually BC was 0-5-2 in sudden-death play. The previous campaign they were 8-1 in OT&rsquo;s.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to have somebody back there who can control the puck in pressure situations,&rdquo; he said. McLean is one of several candidates working the point on power plays.Last season, the bulk of the point duties went to Dominic Campedelli and Ken Hodge. Campedelli, who played the right point, scored 49 points but skipped his final year of eligibility to turn pro.Hodge, usually stationed at the left point, collected 64 points as a freshman but is now sitting out a semester with academic problems.McLean, senior forwards Doug Brown and Bob Sweeney, and senior defenseman Rob Emery all logged time at the point during the pre-season.Brown and Sweeney had 68 and 64 points, respectively, last year while Scott Harlow, another senior, accounted for 72. Until Hodge makes it back or some others emerge, they&rsquo;ll be the heart of the BC offense.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll miss Dominic back there all year, no question,&rdquo; said the coach. &ldquo;Last year we did really well on our power play (60 goals) and shorthanded (13 goals, six of them by Brown). It shows you what kind of players we have got.&ldquo;In fact, last year was the most consistent team I ever had. I can think of four periods all year when we played badly. We were lucky not to have any serious injuries, too.&rdquo;While BC brought in eight freshmen, four of whom made the initial road trip, Ceglarski can afford to be patient. He figures that it takes until halfway through a college player&rsquo;s sophomore year before he settles down and earns his keep on a regular basis.HOCKEY EAST NOTES&mdash;The first weekend of games saw Northeastern come back from a 3-0 deficit to dump highly-regarded BU 6-3 at the Terriers&rsquo; Walter Brown Arena. Northeastern had not won a game there since its opening in 1972. Senior center Rod Isbister had the Huskies&rsquo; last two goals, and classmate Jay Heinbuck. the league player of the week, assisted on three others. BU&rsquo;s line of Ed Lowney, John Cullen, and Clark Donatelli had all three goals&hellip;Chris Terreri had 29 saves to Greg Rota&rsquo;s 31 in Providence&rsquo;s 5-4 opening win at New Hampshire. Tim Sullivan had the winning goal for the Friars with 9:43 to play-&hellip;Lowell dropped a pair of games to visiting Wisconsin, 5-3 and 6-3. The first game featured 133 minutes in penalties and a pair of goals by Badger Dave Maley. In the rematch, Tom Ryan and Paul Ranheim each scored twice for Wisconsin. &#9632;

Working Overtime Didn’t Agree With Eagles

<div class="byline">BY TOM BOGGIE</div>CANTON&mdash;If the first game of the year is any indication of how the rest of the 1985-86 season will shape up, the defense is not going to rest at St. Lawrence.The Saints&rsquo; defense accounted for four of the team&rsquo;s five goals as St. Lawrence kicked off its season with a 5-4 non-Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference win over the Ottawa Gee-Gees in Joe Marsh&rsquo;s debut behind the bench.It was only fitting that Marsh, who took over the head coaching job when Mike McShane went to Providence, emerged with a win in his debut.After all, the victory came on his 34th birthday.One of St. Lawrence&rsquo;s weak points last season was the absence of offense from its blueline corps. Production revolved around Ray Shero, Benoit Quesnel, Peter Buckeridge and Paul Castron and any points produced by the defense usually came by accident. But that isn&rsquo;t going to be the case this year.&ldquo;We want them to carry the puck,&rdquo; said Marsh. &ldquo;If they get the chance, we want them to take the puck and go with it. We don&rsquo;t have any Bobby Orrs out there, but they&rsquo;re all capable of getting the puck, taking the first couple of steps and going with it.&rdquo;Defenseman Brian McColgan did most of the damage against Ottawa in the wide-open contest, which saw each team penalized 20 times. McColgan had two goals and two assists, a half-season worth of work for a lot of defensemen, and scored the game winner with five minutes left.Hank Lammens, Peter McGeough and rookie Mike Hurlbut also had goals for the Saints. The only forward to save face against Ottawa was sophomore Brad McKee, who contributed a shorthanded goal.&ldquo;On a lot of those goals, the play was contained in our end and we brought the puck back to the point,&rdquo; explained Marsh, &ldquo;and then the defensemen got the shot off. We want them to shoot from out there. If they&rsquo;re driving the puck as hard as they can into a crowd in front, anything can happen.&ldquo;The defense did a real good job,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t get a lot of point production from them last year. They&rsquo;re relatively young, I have three sophomores and three freshmen back there, but there&rsquo;s a lot of potential. They&rsquo;re coming along.&rdquo;While the defense lit a fire under the offense, sophomore goalie Scott Yearwood was his usual steady self. He will be one of the deciding factors between success and failure for the Saints this season, and he definitely made a difference in the opener.Although Yearwood, who also had a hand in the scoring when he assisted on the game-winning goal, let in four goals, he turned Ottawa back when the Saints needed him most. He made a school record 24 saves in the third period alone on his way to a 37-save performance.While Marsh was winning his debut, newcomer Cap Reader wasn&rsquo;t as lucky at Clarkson. Although the Golden Knights rallied from a 4-2 second-period deficit, they came out on the short end of a 5-4 overtime loss to defending Division III national-champion Rochester Institute of Technology.The Knights had what would have been the game-winning goal with 49 seconds left in overtime disallowed and 22 seconds later, Jim Cotie beat Clarkson goalie Jamie Faile to give the Tigers the big win.Faile, one of the best goaltenders in the ECAC, finished the night with 33 saves, and was especially tough in overtime, when he made 12 of those stops. All the goal scoring came from Clarkson&rsquo;s talented senior class, as Bruce Tillotson, a transfer from Ohio State, scored twice, Derek Ray and Mike Harvey, once each.Sophomore Luc Borsato suffered a gash on his face that required stitches when he was slashed in overtime, but the injury won&rsquo;t keep him out of the lineup. &#9632;

Saints’ Defensemen Offend Ottawa

<h2>CCHA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01647/5572217-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="547" height="296"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. NOV. 1FERRIS STATE 5 AT MICH. STATE 5LAKE SUPERIOR 5 AT W. MICHIGAN 3MIAMI 6 AT ILL&mdash;CHICAGO 5OHIO STATE 5 AT BOWLING GREEN 9TEAM CANADA 8 AT MICHIGAN 2SAT. NOV. 2BOWLING GREEN 7 AT OHIO STATE 4LAKE SUPERIOR 3 AT W. MICHIGAN 2MIAMI 3 AT ILL&mdash;CHICAGO 5MICH. STATE 5 AT FERRIS STATE 3TEAM CANADA 6 AT MICHIGAN 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02497/5572210-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="541" height="296"></div><h2>NOVEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03388/5572203-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="527" height="1181"></div><h2>WCHA</h2>(STANDINGS ON FRI. NOV. 8)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04286/5572196-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="538" height="270"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. NOV. 1N. MICHIGAN 4 AT NORTH DAKOTA 5MICH. TECH 1 AT COLO. COLL 6MIN-DULUTH 3 AT WISCONSIN 5DENVER 4 AT MINNESOTA 2SAT. NOV. 2N. MICHIGAN 7 AT NORTH DAKOTA 6MICH. TECH 3 AT COLO. COLL 7MIN-DULUTH 3 AT WISCONSIN 4DENVER 5 AT MINNESOTA 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05225/5572189-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="539" height="354"></div><h2>NOVEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06193/5572182-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="537" height="1169"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07177/5572175-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="547" height="332"></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. NOV. 5)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08166/5572168-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="542" height="214"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. OCT. 29BOSTON UNIV. 4 AT PROVIDENCE 3WED. OCT. 30NORTHEASTERN 2 AT BOSTON COLLEGE 5LOWELL 3 AT NEW HAMPSHIRE 4FRI. NOV. 1MAINE 1 AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY 4SAT. NOV. 2LOWELL 6 AT PROVIDENCE 2MAINE 5 AT NORTHEASTERN 6NEW HAMPSHIRE 3 AT BOSTON COLLEGE 7<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-09152/5572161-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="537" height="347"></div><h2>NOVEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-10147/5572154-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="527" height="883"></div><h2>OUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. NOV. 6)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-11137/5572147-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="542" height="414"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>WED. OCT. 30LAURIER 3 AT WESTERN 1QUEEN&rsquo;S 3 AT RMC 5THU. OCT. 31WATERLOO 3 AT GUELPH 3FRI. NOV. 1MCMASTER 0 AT WINDSOR 5TORONTO 6 AT BROCK 3YORK 5 AT LAURIER 5SAT. NOV. 2WATERLOO 8 AT RYERSON 4BROCK 6 AT GUELPH 13QUEEN&rsquo;S 4 AT WINDSOR 4SUN. NOV. 3QUEEN&rsquo;S 4 AT RYERSON 7RMC 3 AT YORK 7<h2>AUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. NOV. 6)<h3>MACADAM DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-12133/5572140-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="539" height="161"></div><h3>KELLY DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-13123/5572133-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="539" height="134"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. OCT. 25ST. MARY&rsquo;S 4 AT ST. THOMAS 12SAT. OCT. 26ST. MARY&rsquo;S 3 AT UNB 9ACADIA 4 AT UPE114DALHOUSIE 12 AT MT. ALLISON 4ST. F. XAVIER 1 AT ST. THOMAS 8SUN. OCT. 27DALHOUSIE 7 AT MONCTON 10ACADIA 4 AT MT. ALLISON 2ST. F. XAVIER 3 AT UNB 2TUE. OCT. 29UPEI 4 AT MONCTON 9WED. OCT. 30ST. MARY&rsquo;S 3 AT ACADIA 9FRI. NOV. 1UNB 7 AT MT. ALLISON 8ST. MARY&rsquo;S 2 AT UPEI 18SAT. NOV. 2ST. THOMAS 4 AT ST. F. XAVIER 7MONCTON 2 AT ACADIA 3SUN. NOV. 3ST. THOMAS 7 AT ACADIA 4DALHOUSIE 5 AT UPEI 6MONCTON 12 AT ST. MARY&rsquo;S 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-14119/5572126-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="536" height="83"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-15114/5572119-1-eng-US/f0034-152.jpg" title="f0034-15" width="540" height="297"></div><h2>CWUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON FRI. NOV. 8)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-16112/5572112-1-eng-US/f0034-162.jpg" title="f0034-16" width="542" height="268"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>SAT. OCT. 26CALGARY 6 AT UBC 5SASKATCHEWAN 4 AT LETHBRIDGE 3REGINA 5 AT MANITOBA 6ALBERTA 13 AT BRANDON 5 flFRI. NOV. 1LETHBRIDGE 3 AT ALBERTA 11UBC 6 AT REGINA 5SAT. NOV. 2LETHBRIDGE 4 AT ALBERTA 8UBC 4 AT REGINA 3BRANDON 2 AT SASKATCHEWAN 9MANITOBA 4 AT CALGARY 2SUN. NOV. 3BRANDON 2 AT SASKATCHEWAN 6MANITOBA 6 AT CALGARY 4<h3>NON-CONFERENCE</h3>UBC 6, ANCHORAGE-ALASKA 5UBC 5, ANCHORAGE-ALASKA 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-17103/5572105-1-eng-US/f0034-172.jpg" title="f0034-17" width="540" height="327"></div><h2>QUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON THU. NOV. 7)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1898/5572098-1-eng-US/f0034-182.jpg" title="f0034-18" width="536" height="161"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>THU. OCT. 31OTTAWA 13 AT CONCORDIA 3FRI. NOV. 1MCGILL 6 AT T-RIVIERES 5CONCORDIA 6 AT CHICOUTIMI 12OTTAWA 5 AT MCGILL 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1992/5572091-1-eng-US/f0034-192.jpg" title="f0034-19" width="540" height="240"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

HOW THEY STAND-GAMES TO COME

<div class="byline">BY CLAUDE SCILLEY</div>WATERLOO&mdash;When you&rsquo;re a goaltender for the Waterloo Warriors, losers in 50 of 74 conference games over the last three years, the implications are diverse.Personally, there is great potential for development because in the dozen seasons since the Warriors won their last conference championship, they have tended to play much of the game in their own end of the rink. A fellow is bound to get a lot of work.If you look for satisfaction in the team context, however, disappointment is inevitable.That&rsquo;s why Peter Crouse is looking forward to this season, his fourth with Warriors. &ldquo;Things are looking a lot more positive,&rdquo; he said.Crouse&rsquo;s season began with a positive Experience at the National Hockey League training camp of the New York Rangers. Things haven&rsquo;t gone badly since. Waterloo has won two of its first three Ontario Universities Athletic Association games and in its exhibition log is a narrow 3-2 loss to traditionally-strong Laurier.Despite the size of the league, in recent years most clubs remain in playoff contention until the final week of the season.In such a framework, the addition of one or two quality players can enable a team to climb five or six positions in the standings in the space of a season.Waterloo has added just such a player this year&mdash;ex-Belleville Bull Steve Linseman&mdash;and it has given Crouse reason to be optimistic.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to leave with a good team,&rdquo; Crouse said. &ldquo;I think we can deal with the bottom five (teams) and I think we can give the top six a run for their money.&rdquo;If Crouse finds that he&rsquo;s less busy this year than he has been in the past, he won&rsquo;t mind.&ldquo;In the past here, I was getting a lot of action. I&rsquo;d get as many as 70 shots a game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was good to get a lot of shots but Jack (former Waterloo coach Jack Birch) felt that in that situation sometimes you can develop bad habits.&rdquo;While it may be difficult for goaltenders on second-division teams&mdash;twice in the last three years Waterloo has finished 12th in the 13-team conference&mdash;to earn recognition, Crouse has earned respect.League coaches named him to the OUAA second all-star team the past two seasons.This fall, he was one of two OUAA players&mdash;the other was former Laurier defenceman Rob Whistle&mdash;to accompany Birch, who last summer left Waterloo to take an assistant coaching position with the Rangers.Crouse, 22, played in two rookie games against New York Islander rookies and his performance earned him an invitation to try again next year.&ldquo;Before I went I figured it would take a lot to beat out the guys they had but I thought I&rsquo;d stick it out and see what happened.&rdquo; Crouse said. &ldquo;I feel pretty good about the way I played and Jack told me everything had gone well.&ldquo;He said to go back to Waterloo, have a good year and we may bring you up if we need you.&rdquo;New Warriors&rsquo; coach Don McKee likes what he has seen of Crouse.&ldquo;He may see that he&rsquo;s not too far away, if he improves. He&rsquo;s identified areas where he&rsquo;s not too strong and if he improves in those areas he may have a future in professional hockey.&rdquo;There was a possibility, Crouse said, of an assignment to the Rangers&rsquo; American League affiliate in New Haven, but the New York coaching staff wanted him playing regularly in Waterloo.&ldquo;Ted Sator said it was in my best interests to finish school and come back next year,&rdquo; said Crouse, a Waterloo native who is studying geography.Those are encouraging words for Crouse but they also speak well of the state of Canadian university hockey, that major-league coaches apparently believe the level of competition is sufficiently high to sustain the development of a pro prospect.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an accomplishment for us in Waterloo,&rdquo; Crouse said, &ldquo;and it&rsquo;s good for university hockey to have guys like (ex-York player) Don McLaren playing with the Olympic team and doing well.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Steve Linseman had four goals as Waterloo began its season with a 10-2 win over Royal Military College Redmen. Redmen, after winning their own pre-season tournament, have stumbled to an 0-5 start, despite the 12-point efforts of Steve Molaski and 11 points from linemate Jamie Williams&hellip; Dave Bush had two goals and an assist for Ryerson Rams, who upset McMaster Marlins 6-4 on Oct. 20. The win snapped a 32-game conference losing streak for Ryerson, who hadn&rsquo;t won since beating McMaster Jan. 28, 1984. Rams last win before that? Jan. 6, 1984, also against McMaster&hellip;York, 3-0, Laurentian, 3-1, and Laurier, 2-0, have made the most auspicious debuts. Yeomen are showing a balanced attack, getting two-goal efforts from Brian Gray, Brian Small and Greg Rolston in a two-game sweep in Kingston. Laurentian got four points from Rick Koritko in a season-opening sweep of the Guelph Gryphons and Laurier has scored 22 goals in its two games&hellip; Queen&rsquo;s Golden Gaels figure to struggle offensively for awhile as they try to replace three players still in school who did not return to the team. Paul Quinet (not playing for &ldquo;personal reasons&rdquo;), Mike Linseman (who is devoting more time to his studies) and Mike Davies (knee injury) were three of Queen&rsquo;s top four scorers last year. &#9632;

Waterloo Goalie Back From Ranger Camp

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01613/5572286-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="391" height="614"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAT LAHEY Ottawa</figcaption></div><h2>OUAA</h2>Pat Labey of the Ottawa Gee-Gees scored eight points, including three goals, to take over the individual Quebec university league scoring lead as Ottawa beat Concordia, 13-3, and McGill, 5-3.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02478/5572279-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="386" height="613"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEVIN SKILLITER UPEI</figcaption></div><h2>AUAA</h2>Former Cornwall Royal Brian Skilliter scored four goals and six assists to lead Prince Edward Island University to a 3-1-0 record in the Atlantic university conference.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03382/5572272-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="387" height="572"><figcaption class="caption-body">LARRY KORCHINSKI Saskatchewan</figcaption></div><h2>CWUAA</h2>The Saskatchewan Huskies recorded five victories in their first six games, thanks in part to 13 points supplied by Larry Korchinski. &#9632;

f0035-01

Bauer’s university performer OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville HockeyTORONTO&mdash;A Royal wedding in Cornwall is on the rocks and a nasty affair in North Bay settled by the Ontario Supreme Court are dominating the headlines in the Ontario Hockey League.First came word out of Cornwall that coach Floyd Crawford had quit because director of player personnel Gord Wood had been fired amid reports club owner Paul Emard had sold the franchise,That blockbuster was followed by an Ontario Supreme Court ruling that brought to an end a three and a half-year territorial dispute between Andre Rochefort, owner of the now-defunct North Bay Trappers of the Provincial Junior A League, and Reg Quinn who owns the North Bay Centennials.Mr. Justice J.E. Eberle of Toronto ruled in favor of the Trappers and ordered the Centennials to pay more than $66,000 to Rochefort.More on the North Bay situation later.In Cornwall, the status of the franchise remained in limbo. Depending on who was talking, the Royals had either been sold or were in the process of changing ownership.The asking price? According to sources, the club could be purchased for $125,000, if extensive debts are assumed. As for prospective buyers, everybody from Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; superstar Dale Hawerchuk, a former Royals&rsquo; player, to New Jersey Devils&rsquo; coach Doug Carpenter, a former Royals&rsquo; coach, had been mentioned.Both, however, are longshots. A group of local businessmen is more likely. There is also, reportedly, a person (or persons) from outside the city interested in buying and relocating the club.Commissioner Dave Branch said the sale-of any OHL franchise requires approval of the league governors.At press time, Emard denied the club had been sold but admitted it is for sale. Crawford, who had coached the past year and a half, walked out shortly after the story broke about the sale.Back home in Belleville, Crawford said he made his decision after &ldquo;the new owners&rdquo; served notice on Wood, terminating his employment along with that of trainer Steve Ouderkirk.&ldquo;I walked out in sympathy with Gord Wood,&rdquo; Crawford said. &ldquo;He was the guy who brought me into the organization. He was relieved of his position after 15 years and three Memorial Cups. I felt I owed him that loyalty. That was the major reason for my departure from the scene.&ldquo;I was very perplexed by what happened to Gord.&rdquo;Crawford was also unhappy about an evaluation of the organization by scout Bill Smith, who was asked by Emard to prepare the report. In his evaluation, Smith apparently was critical of Crawford for not developing young players.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the furthest from the truth,&rdquo; Crawford insisted. &ldquo;I had been playing my new players.&rdquo;While Crawford was upset about the events in Cornwall, he is anxious to resume coaching.&ldquo;I want to stay in this damn game, it&rsquo;s as simple as that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Right now. I&rsquo;m not proud. I&rsquo;ll take an assistant coaching job anywhere.&rdquo;Assistant coach Tony Zappia has replaced Crawford.The situation in North Bay was much clearer following the court decision and the loss will be more difficult for Quinn to absorb than on-ice setbacks.In his judgment, Quinn was ordered to pay Rochefort $40,000 in general damages for loss of his franchise, $10,000 in punitive damages, interest estimated to be $16,000 and court costs.The dispute dates back to 1982, when Quinn moved his Niagara Falls Flyers to North Bay and renamed them the Centennials. At the time, Rochefort was operating the Trappers and folded his club because he felt he couldn&rsquo;t compete for spectators and revenue.In his suit, Rochefort asked for $200,000 and for the Centennials to leave town. He argued successfully that the Niagara Falls franchise and his Trappers were both members of the Ontario Hockey Association at the time, and that Quinn was in breach of the OHA consitution by moving his club into a junior A territory already held by Rochefort.Quinn said he had &ldquo;no comment&rdquo; on the court ruling.&ldquo;We have up to 30 days to decide on an appeal,&rdquo; said Quinn, who owns a major Canadian Tire Store operation in Toronto.&ldquo;We just want to let it sit. The only comment we&rsquo;ll make is we&rsquo;re very happy to still be able to play hockey in North Bay. The judge saw fit to allow us to continue to play in North Bay, which we are very happy about. We think it&rsquo;s a fine city, a good hockey city and it has good fans who support the team.&rdquo;Quinn recently signed a new three-year lease plus three-year option with the city of North Bay.&ldquo;Justice has finally been done,&rdquo; Rochefort told The North Bay Nugget.Trick or treat?Keith Gretzky and a few other Windsor Spitfires pulled off a Halloween trick on forwards Wilf Payne and Frank Melone, orchestrating a bogus trade with the Soo Greyhounds for Brit Peer.The story goes Gretzky and Co. snuck into the Spits&rsquo; front office when it was vacant and sat down at the Telex machine in coach Tom Webster&rsquo;s office and went to work on the prank.With the official-looking Telex printout in hand, the boys headed back to the dressing room where they posted it; and packed the equipment bags belonging to Payne and Melone.When the pair arrived for afternoon practice, they found their equipment bags outside the dressing room and teammates greeting them with handshakes and wishing them well in the Sault.Quotes of the week:After London hammered Kitchener, Tom Barrett had this offering: &ldquo;London&rsquo;s no different this year. They play 6-foot-9 at home and 5-foot-4 in other buildings.&rdquo; Somebody should jog Barrett&rsquo;s memory. He used the same quote a week or so earlier in North Bay after a loss to the Centennials.Peterborough&rsquo;s Kris King, the OHL penalty leader with 75 minutes, on why he fought Ottawa&rsquo;s Gary Roberts with one second left in a game: &ldquo;Roberts talks to you at faceoffs like he&rsquo;s your best friend, then he runs you as soon as the play begins. Besides, I needed the penalty minutes.&rdquo;Los Angeles coach Pat Quinn on Oshawa&rsquo;s Danny Gratton: &ldquo;He showed up overweight. He tried to put on 25 pounds of muscle but it looked like 25 pounds of Molson&rsquo;s.&rdquo;Floyd Crawford discussing Oshawa Generals&rsquo; new assistant coach Rick Cornacchia: &ldquo;I guess we&rsquo;ll have to break out the brass knuckles when we play Oshawa.&rdquo;General hospital: Hamilton&rsquo;s fine young defenseman Garth Joy is out at least four weeks with a broken foot after sliding into the boards on an icing call&hellip;Windsor rookie Adam Graves suffered a bruised shoulder&hellip;London&rsquo;s Trevor Stienburg (knee) and Kitchener&rsquo;s Dave Latta (shoulder separation) have not played since suffering injuries at the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; training camp.Lets make a deal: Hamilton move Dennis Tester to Toronto for goalie Mike Rosati three games after he was acquired from Peterborough&hellip;London sent rookie Frank Tremblay, a sixth-round pick in 1987 and a player to be named later to North Bay for rookies Don Martin and Ray Gallagher&hellip;Kitchener sent Robin Rubic, their second-round pick a year ago, to Toronto.Stars of the week:London&rsquo;s Kelly Cain, 17, scored three goals and an assist to take the OHA of scoring lead with 24 points&hellip;Soo&rsquo;s Derek King had three goals and two assists in two games after putting on a knee brace supplied by the New York Islanders&hellip;Guelph&rsquo;s Mike Murray scored seven goals in nine games&hellip;Sudbury&rsquo;s Max Middendorf had 10 goals in 11 games and rookie center Ken McRae produced nine&hellip;Kingston&rsquo;s Brian Verbeek scored three times in a win over Toronto to run his total to 13 goals-&hellip;Peterborough&rsquo;s Terry Carkner was invited to try out for Team Canada juniors by Sherry Bassin&hellip;Goalie Kay Whitmore had a 6-0-1 record and league-leading 1.84 goals-against average to lead the OHL. &#9632;

Royals In Turmoil, Centennials In Court

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01586/5572355-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="560" height="570"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRIAN VERBEEK Kingston</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>The Kingston Canadians have their sights set on overhauling the runaway Peterborough Petes and if they continue to pick up the kind of scoring they&rsquo;ve been getting from Brian Verbeek, they just might do it.The 5-foot-10, 195-pound left winger counted seven times in Kingston&rsquo;s three recent lopsided wins to get the nod as OHL Player of the Week and become the league&rsquo;s top goal-scorer with 13 in 12 games.The brother of New Jersey Devils&rsquo; Pat Verbeek, Brian had 32 goals in 68 games last year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02435/5572348-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="560" height="569"><figcaption class="caption-body">DEREK LAXDAL Brandon</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>The Toronto Maple Leafs expect Derek Laxdal will be in the NHL next season once he&rsquo;s finished his junior career with the Brandon Wheat Kings.Laxdal, drafted by Toronto in 1984, had an excellent training camp with the Leafs this year. In his first 11 games back with Brandon, he had 18 points, eight in his last three games to earn selection as the WHL Player of the Week.The 19-year-old, 6-foot-2 right winger scored 61 goals in 69 games last season for a last-place hockey team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03354/5572341-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="557" height="565"><figcaption class="caption-body">PHILIPPE BOZON St. Jean</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>The St. Jean Castors are struggling again this season with a 9-10 record but it hasn&rsquo;t kept Philippe Bozon from becoming a top point producer.The 19-year-old Bozon, who was signed as a free agent by the St. Louis Blues, has quickly moved into 9th place in the scoring race. In a recent three-game stretch, he had nine points to earn QMJHL Player of the Week honors.Bozon has 34 points in 13 games, well ahead of last year&rsquo;s pace when he collected 82 in 67 games fora team that ranked 7th.At the end of the current season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0036-01

MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville HockeySPOKANE&mdash;Too many chiefs and not enough Indians.That&rsquo;s been the bottom line in Spokane. where the Western League Chiefs are struggling on the ice because of problems off it.The Chiefs, transplanted from Kelowna in the off-season where they were known as the Wings, have rehired the man they let go before training camp began. Spokane, expected to be one of the Western Division&rsquo;s threats this season, won just one of its first eight starts.Marc Pezzin, coach and general manager of the club before it moved to the Washington state city, was rehired Oct. 17 in another Spokane front-office shuffle.The second changing of the guard sees Pezzin back as general manager and coach of the Chiefs. Ernie Gare, hired to replace Pezzin behind the bench, stays on as assistant coach and director of player personnel.Al Rollins resigned as general manager when Pezzin was brought back in to lead the charge. Rollins, general manager of the Western International Hockey League Spokane Flyers, was one of the driving forces in bringing major junior hockey back to Spokane.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t expect it (being rehired),&rdquo; Admitted Pezzin. who briefly served as B.C. director of scouting for the Kamloops Blazers before returning to Spokane.&ldquo;In all fairness to Al, he was trying to manage a hockey club and run a restaurant at the same time. He just didn&rsquo;t have enough time to do both.&ldquo;I think the people in Spokane also didn&rsquo;t realize how active our league is and just how serious a business it is. At the junior level things are a lot different than the WIHL&mdash;there are no guarantees. You&rsquo;re dealing with the NHL and drafts. The people here maybe slightly underestimated things.&rdquo;&ldquo;The only way that Ed Chynoweth (league president) would let the team move down here is if there was local ownership and I was involved,&rdquo; said Rollins. &ldquo;I think they (new management) panicked because any time you have eight players out of the lineup it&rsquo;s going to hurt any club. I feel sorry for Ernie&mdash;even Glen Sather couldn&rsquo;t have won with that many guys out.&ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t want my name associated with the team anymore.&rdquo;What Pezzin doesn&rsquo;t underestimate is the job which lies ahead.Problems off the ice haven&rsquo;t helped matters on it. Landis Chaulk, who collected 65 points last season with the Calgary Wranglers, didn&rsquo;t report to Spokane when obtained from the Eastern Division club for veteran forwards Terry Zaporzan and Cam Lazoruk.To make matters worse, 75-point forward Dwaine Hutton was absent at start of the season with pulled stomach musles and returning defenseman Mike Wegleitner opted for Tier II hockey. All three were expected to eventually suit up for the Chiefs.&ldquo;We have a lot of homework to do,&rdquo; said Pezzin. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a sad situation. We have to make moves with players I wouldn&rsquo;t have dreamed of making. If we don&rsquo;t do it now, it will hurt us on and off the ice.&rdquo;The most notable transaction Pezzin made upon his return was shipping veteran defenseman Jeff Sharpies to the Portland Winter Hawks for two veterans, forward Terry Perkins and defenseman Todd Voshell.Sharpies, a division all-star last season, was nursing a fractured wrist at time of the Oct. 22 trade and was expected to be out of action for two to four weeks. Perkins had 71 points last season while Voshell was dealt from Spokane to Portland last season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a deal I wouldn&rsquo;t have made if Jeff had been healthy,&rdquo; Pezzin said. &ldquo;Our situation is that we need bodies.&rdquo;In another deal, Pezzin sent prospect Kevin Green to the Moose Jaw Warriors for 19-year-old veteran rearguard Kelly Kozack and defenseman Denny Pahl, 17.The Chiefs are hurting on defense but, once all hands are on deck, should be okay up front. Jeff Rohlicek, Brent Gilchrist, Grant Delcourt, Rocky Dundas and rookies Judson Innes and Sean Lebrun are other keys to offensive output.If there&rsquo;s a silver lining to the dark clouds hanging over Spokane, it&rsquo;s the fact front-office problems have been solved in October instead of at a later date when the team could be out of playoff contention.&ldquo;There is a lot of time to regroup,&rdquo; said Pezzin. &ldquo;Nobody has taken off like a rocket in our division but 1 expect Portland and Kamloops to be in a horse race for first place. Right now we&rsquo;ll aim fora, playoff spot and if things go okay maybe we&rsquo;ll move up the ladder.&rdquo;Pezzin, who wants to get more into the team ownership picture, said Gare will likely assume full coaching responsibilities next season.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to coach forever and a new coach is not the answer. It was a very uncomfortable situation for Ernie because he didn&rsquo;t have coaching experience at this level and he has to learn how the league works.&rdquo;And what of Pezzin returning behind the bench? Last season he had his Wings put emphasis on the hitting game, especially on home ice. But Pezzin also pul Bill Hogaboam behind the bench down the stretch and the Wings seemed to lose some zip in the playoffs.&ldquo;In Kelowna we had no choice but to play aggressively because of the building,&rdquo; said Pezzin. &ldquo;Now we have an element of skill on the team and a lot of maturity at the 19-year-old level. The club will still be aggressive but we now have some finish, that&rsquo;s something we didn&rsquo;t have before.&rdquo;WHL WEEK&mdash;New Westminster dealt right winger Rod Williams to Brandon for right winger Darwin McPherson and defenseman Perry Fafard. Medicine Hat sent defensemen Pat Beauchesne and Garth Lamb to Moose Jaw for right winger Kurt Lackden. &#9632;

Spokane Gets New, Albeit Familiar, Chief

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>LAVAL&mdash;Although there was only about a month between the demise of the Laval Voisins and the emergence of the Laval Titans at the end of last season, the new franchise has faced most of the obstacles of starting from scratch.&ldquo;We did inherit some good players but we didn&rsquo;t have the proverbial jock strap to our name,&rdquo; said Leo Bedard, director of operations for Laval, which got off to a respectable 9-9 start in the Quebec League.After winning the 1982-83 regular season championship and the league title the following year, the Voisins lost Mario Lemieux to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The team finished in ninth place and out of the playoffs last year with a 28-39-1 record. Attendance fell below 1,000 and owners Claude and Sue Foumel sold the club back to the league.&ldquo;We were negotiating with them up to that time and I think we proved to the league and the city that we had to have a team in Laval,&rdquo; said Titans&rsquo; president Fernand Deveau, a Laval lawyer who organized a group of 13 shareholders to purchase the squad. &ldquo;Laval is the second largest city in Quebec.&rdquo;The center of 275,000 is seperated from Montreal by the Prairie River.Deveau is also president of Laval&rsquo;s midget AAA team and has been involved at that level for the past five years.He went to national midget-champion Lac St-Louis Lions for help operating the major junior club, signing Lions&rsquo; owner Brian McKeown as shareholder and coach Bedard as the team&rsquo;s director of operations.Deveau also recruited John Pagotto of Laval, manager of the hockey division of the Titan company as director and his company as a sponsor. QMJHL vice-president John Horman of Laval left the league&rsquo;s executive to become the team&rsquo;s governor.Laval resident and former junior star Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders was named honorary president.&ldquo;After five years coaching the Lions, I decided to take a sabbatical,&rdquo; said Bedard, who took the club to three Air Canada Cup national championship tournaments in that time, winning the gold medal in 1981 and 1985 and the bronze in 1984.&ldquo;They got in touch with us, saying they would stress education and not work in a meat-market environment. 1 said &lsquo;Yes&rsquo;, but I didn&rsquo;t really know how big a job it was.&rdquo;Bedard was manager of programming and development for a data processing company and suggested a fulltime man was needed. When the team offered him the job about a month ago. he accepted.Jacques Blain, 38, a defenseman with the Quebec Nordiques in the World Hockey Association for two years and its Maine farm team for four more, was enlisted as coach after taking St. Eustache to the Quebec Senior championship.&ldquo;We gambled at the draft and picked Shawn Anderson, Ian Boyce and Scott White from Lac St-Louis,&rdquo; Bedard said. &ldquo;All were rated first-round picks but Laval got them in the scond, fifth and eleventh rounds because of the possibility of their heading south.Defenseman Anderson, Bedard&rsquo;s stepson, decided to go the University of Maine, left winger Boyce to the University of Vermont, and defenseman White to Michigan State.Second-rounder Eric Gobeil, a defenseman, signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates and moved to Florida to pitch in the instructional leagues.&ldquo;Only seven of 19 draftees showed up,&rdquo; Blain said. &ldquo;We had maybe 15 walk-ons and we had to scan the area for Junior B players and cuts from other teams.&rdquo;But not all of the news was bad.Centers Michel Mongeau. 20, and Vincent Damphousse, 18, are back along with defenseman Michel Caron, 20.Mongeau is second in league scoring, with 15 goals and 31 assists for 46 points. Damphousse, a potential NHL first-rounder, is fourth (11-29-40).The Titans have a young defense with Demetrious Stefanopoulos, and Stephane Lavigne, both 17, and Michel Therien and Pierre Langlois, both 18. Langlois played for the OHL&rsquo;s Kitchener Rangers last season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to get the team to play defensively right now but we want to be an all-around team. &ldquo;Deveau hasn&rsquo;t given up on a half-dozen players skating at U.S. colleges.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure we&rsquo;re going to have some of them back by Christmas.&rdquo; &#9632;

Laval Facelift A Titan(ic) Change

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02184/5572738-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="514" height="30"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01279/5572745-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="203" height="192"></div><h2>NHL TEAM STANDINGS</h2>(PCT) PERCENTAGE OF ACTUAL POINTSVERSUS POSSIBLE POINTS<h2>CLARENCE CAMPBELL CONFERENCE</h2><h3>NORRIS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03134/5572731-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="515" height="140"></div><h3>SMYTHE DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04104/5572724-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="514" height="140"></div><h2>PRINCE OF WALES CONFERENCE</h2><h3>ADAMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0586/5572717-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="518" height="137"></div><h3>PATRICK DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0674/5572710-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="514" height="167"></div><h2>RESULTS ENDING NOV. 3, 1985</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0766/5572703-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="557" height="843"></div><h2>AHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. NOV. 4)<h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0859/5572696-1-eng-US/f0040-082.jpg" title="f0040-08" width="537" height="236"></div><h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0952/5572689-1-eng-US/f0040-092.jpg" title="f0040-09" width="536" height="210"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. OCT. 22ADIRONDACK6 AT ST. CATHARINES 5WED. OCT. 23BALTIMORE 3 AT HERSHEY 8ADIRONDACK 3 AT NOVA SCOTIA 4ROCHESTER 5 AT SHERBROOKE 2THU. OCT. 24ADIRONDACK 4 AT FREDERICTON 2FRI. OCT. 25ST. CATHARINES 2 AT BINGHAMTON 8NOVA SCOTIA 3 AT MONCTON 7ROCHESTER 5 AT NEW HAVEN 7MAINE 3 AT SPRINGFIELD 6SAT. OCT. 26ST. CATHARINES 7 AT BALTIMORE 5NOVA SCOTIA 1 AT FREDERICTON 5BINGHAMTON 7 AT HERSHEY 7SHERBROOKE 6 AT MAINE 3ADIRONDACK 2 AT MONCTON 4ROCHESTER 8 AT SPRINGFIELD 1SUN. OCT. 27BALTIMORE 4 AT HERSHEY 5SPRINGFIELD 6 AT NEW HAVEN 3ADIRONDACK 4 AT NOVA SCOTIA 3ROCHESTER 8 AT ST. CATHARINES 6FREDERICTON 3 AT SHERBROOKE 2TUE. OCT. 29MONCTON 6 AT ST. CATHARINES 3WED. OCT. 30SHERBROOKE 3 AT ADIRONDACK 4FREDERICTON 4 AT BALTIMORE 1ROCHESTER 2 AT BINGHAMTON 2NEW HAVEN 2 AT HERSHEY 5ST. CATHARINES 8 AT MAINE 9FRI. NOV. 1FREDERICTON 6 AT BINGHAMTON 3MONCTON 5 AT ROCHESTER 4MAINE 3 AT SHERBROOKE 7ADIRONDACK 5 AT SPRINGFIELD 4SAT. NOV. 2MONCTON 2 AT ADIRONDACK 5NEW HAVEN 4 AT BINGHAMTON 1FREDERICTON 1 AT HERSHEY 3SHERBROOKE 1 AT MAINE 5ST. CATHARINES 6 AT SPRINGFIELD 2SUN. NOV. 3NEW HAVEN 0 AT BALTIMORE 2MONCTON 2 AT NOVA SCOTIA 5FREDERICTON 2 AT ROCHESTER 4BINGHAMTON 4 AT ST. CATHARINES 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1052/5572682-1-eng-US/f0040-102.jpg" title="f0040-10" width="542" height="532"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1150/5572675-1-eng-US/f0040-112.jpg" title="f0040-11" width="557" height="183"></div><h2>IHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. NOV. 5)<h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1246/5572668-1-eng-US/f0040-122.jpg" title="f0040-12" width="537" height="176"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1344/5572661-1-eng-US/f0040-132.jpg" title="f0040-13" width="533" height="209"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. OCT. 25MUSKEGON 2 AT FORT WAYNE 1SALT LAKE 4 AT KALAMAZOOO 2SAGINAW 3 AT TOLEDO 7MILWAUKEE 2 AT INDIANAPOLIS 4PEORIA 6 AT FLINT 1SAT. OCT. 26KALAMAZOO 3 AT FORT WAYNE 5FLINT 4 AT MUSKEGON 14TOLEDO 2 AT SAGINAW 3SALT LAKE 3 AT PEORIA 0SUN. OCT. 27KALAMAZOO 7 AT TOLEDO 6SALT LAKE 2 AT MILWAUKEE 0FORT WAYNE 4 AT PEORIA 2INDIANAPOLIS 3 AT FLINT 2WED. OCT. 30FLINT 3 AT FORT WAYNE 5SAGINAW 1 AT KALAMAZOO 2MUSKEGON 1 AT TOLEDO 4SALT LAKE 3 AT INDIANAPOLIS 6THU. OCT. 31KALAMAZOO 0 AT MILWAUKEE 4FRI. NOV. 1INDIANAPOLIS 0 AT FORT WAYNE 4SALT LAKE 5 AT SAGINAW 8PEORIA 6 AT TOLEDO 0MUSKEGON 6 AT FLINT 5SAT. NOV. 2MILWAUKEE 2 AT FORT WAYNE 3SALT LAKE 2 AT MUSKEGON 4INDIANAPOLIS 2 AT SAGINAW 5KALAMAZOO 3 AT TOLEDO 2PEORIA 1 AT FLINT 5SUN. NOV. 3TOLEDO 3 AT MILWAUKEE 9<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1437/5572654-1-eng-US/f0040-142.jpg" title="f0040-14" width="537" height="410"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1537/5572647-1-eng-US/f0040-152.jpg" title="f0040-15" width="560" height="182"></div><h2>WHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. NOV. 5)<h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1635/5572640-1-eng-US/f0040-162.jpg" title="f0040-16" width="535" height="262"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1732/5572633-1-eng-US/f0040-172.jpg" title="f0040-17" width="539" height="211"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>MON. OCT. 21MOOSE JAW 4 AT PRINCE ALBERRT 4TUE. OCT. 22SEATTLE 0 AT KAMLOOOPS 7LETHBRIDGE 6 AT VICTORIA 2WED. OCT. 23MEDICINE HAT 3 AT MOOSE JAW 5SASKATOON 2 AT PRINCE ALBERT 6BRANDON 2 AT REGINA 5THU. OCT. 24LETHBRIDGE 5 AT NEW WESTMINSTER 4FRI. OCT. 25LETHBRIDGE 5 AT KAMLOOPS 5PRINCE ALBERT 4 AT REGINA 5CALGARY 5 AT SASKATOON 7VICTORIA 4 AT SPOKANE 9SAT. OCT. 26BRANDON 7 AT KAMLOOPS 3MOOSE JAW 3 AT MEDICINE HAT 8VICTORIA 3 AT PORTLAND 4CALGARY 4 AT PRINCE ALBERT 3SEATTLE 7 AT SPOKANE 9SUN. OCT. 27CALGARY 6 AT MOOSE JAW 5BRANDON 4 AT NEW WESTMINSTER 3VICTORIA 4 AT SEATTLE 10TUE. OCT. 29MEDICINE HAT 4 AT CALGARY 3MOOSE JAW 5 AT SASKATOON 7PORTLAND 2 AT SPOKANE 1BRANDON 10 AT VICTORIA 6WED. OCT. 30BRANDON 4 AT PORTLAND 6SASKATOON 4 AT REGINA 5THU. OCT. 31KAMLOOPS 1 AT SPOKANE 4FRI. NOV. 1PRINCE ALBERT 5 AT CALGARY 2MEDICINE HAT 4 AT LETHBRIDGE 2KAMLOOPS 3 AT PORTLAND 9REGINA 4 ATSASKATOON 3BRANDON 2 AT SEATTLE 4SAT. NOV. 2PRINCE ALBERT 3 AT MEDICINE HAT 4SEATTLE 4 AT NEW WESTMINSTER 9BRANDON 8 AT SPOKANE 9SUN. NOV. 3MMOSE JAW 4 AT CALGARY 6PRINCE ALBERT 4 AT LETHBRIDGE 2PORTLAND 8 AT NEW WESTMINSTER 4KAMLOOPS 8 AT SEATTLE 2SPOKANE 1 AT VICTORIA 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1828/5572626-1-eng-US/f0040-182.jpg" title="f0040-18" width="544" height="560"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1926/5572619-1-eng-US/f0040-192.jpg" title="f0040-19" width="561" height="180"></div><h2>OHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. NOV. 5)<h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2025/5572612-1-eng-US/f0040-202.jpg" title="f0040-20" width="539" height="266"></div><h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2124/5572605-1-eng-US/f0040-212.jpg" title="f0040-21" width="539" height="234"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>MON. OCT. 21PETERBOROUGH 4 AT WINDSOR 1TUE. OCT. 22OTTAWA 1 AT KINGSTON 5THU. OCT. 24KITCHENER 5 AT HAMILTON 4WINDSOR 4 AT PETERBOROUGH 4FRI. OCT. 25NORTH BAY 2 AT GUELPH 5CORNWALL 2 AT KINGSTON 8HAMILTON 4 AT KITCHENER 2TORONTO 4 AT OSHAWA 5WINDSOR 4 AT OTTAWA 2LONDON 3 AT SUDBURY 3BELLEVILLE 4 AT S.S. MARIE 6SAT. OCT. 26OTTAWA 4 AT PETERBOROUGH 5OSHAWA 4 AT TORONTO 2SUN. OCT. 27WINDSOR 5 AT CORNWALL 7HAMILTON 6 AT GUELPH 8KITCHENER 3 AT NORTH BAY 8PETERBOROUGH 2 AT OSHAWA 0BELLEVILLE 2 AT SUDBURY 6LONDON 6 A S.S. MARIE 4KINGSTON 9 AT TORONTO 4TUE. OCT. 29KITCHENER 3 AT LONDON 6WED. OCT. 30TORONTO 3 AT BELLEVILLE 3THU. OCT. 31KINGSTON 5 AT CORNWALL 5OSHAWA 1 AT HAMILTON 4S.S. MARIE 3 AT PETERBOROUGH 0SUDBURY 4 AT WINDSOR 5FRI. NOV. 1S.S. MARIE 2 AT KINGSTON 11TORONTO 2 AT KITCHENER 7SUDBURY 6 AT LONDON 3PETERBOROUGH 1 AT NORTH BAY 2GUELPH 4 AT OTTAWA 3SAT. NOV. 2S.S. MARIE 3 AT BELLEVILLE 6CORNWALL 5 AT OSHAWA 7SUN. NOV. 3GUELPH 4 AT CORNWALL 3PETERBOROUGH 2 AT HAMILTON 4WINDSOR 2 AT KITCHENER 3SUDBURY 5 AT NORTH BAY 2LONDON 5 AT OSHAWA 6KINGSTON 3 AT OTTAWA 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2224/5572598-1-eng-US/f0040-222.jpg" title="f0040-22" width="539" height="500"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2322/5572591-1-eng-US/f0040-232.jpg" title="f0040-23" width="555" height="182"></div><h2>ONTARIO SENIOR LEAGUE</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. NOV. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2421/5572584-1-eng-US/f0040-242.jpg" title="f0040-24" width="532" height="215"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>GEORGETOWN 6, FLAMBORO 5PETROLIA 6, CHATHAM 0DUNDAS 6, CAMBRIDGE 3COLLINGWOOD 3, GEORGETOWN 2COLLINGWOOD 7, DUNDAS 5FLAMBORO 7, CHATHAM 2PETROLIA 11, GEORGETOWN 9CAMBRIDGE 7, COLLINGWOOD 6DUNDAS 9, CHATHAM 4CAMBRIDGE 3, GEORGETOWN 1<h2>&mdash;TEAMS&rsquo; HOME-AND-ROAD RECORD&mdash;</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2813/5572577-1-eng-US/f0040-282.jpg" title="f0040-28" width="1086" height="86"></div><h3>NORRIS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2911/5572570-1-eng-US/f0040-292.jpg" title="f0040-29" width="1090" height="200"></div><h3>SMYTHE DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-309/5572563-1-eng-US/f0040-302.jpg" title="f0040-30" width="1094" height="198"></div><h3>ADAMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-318/5572556-1-eng-US/f0040-312.jpg" title="f0040-31" width="1084" height="204"></div><h3>PATRICK DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-327/5572549-1-eng-US/f0040-322.jpg" title="f0040-32" width="1098" height="302"></div><h2>NHL</h2><h3>&mdash;GAME WINNING GOALS&mdash;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2518/5572542-1-eng-US/f0040-252.jpg" title="f0040-25" width="525" height="136"></div><h3>&mdash;FIRST GOALS&mdash;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2616/5572535-1-eng-US/f0040-262.jpg" title="f0040-26" width="497" height="216"></div><h3>&mdash;SHOTS&mdash;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2715/5572528-1-eng-US/f0040-272.jpg" title="f0040-27" width="514" height="212"></div><h2>QMJHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. NOV. 4)<h3>ROBERT LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01231/5572521-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="532" height="175"></div><h3>FRANK DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02150/5572514-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="534" height="205"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>WED. OCT. 23ST. JEAN 5 AT LAVAL 1HULL 4 AT SHAWINIGAN 3THU. OCT. 24LAVAL 3 AT LONGUEUIL 8FRI. OCT. 25VERDUN 3 AT DRUMMONDVILLE 8LONGUEUIL 5 AT GRANBY 8CHICOUTIMI 5 AT SHAWINIGAN 3T-RIVIERES 7 AT ST. JEAN 2SUN. OCT. 27T-RIVIERES 3 AT CHICOUTIMI 14DRUMMONDVILLE 5 AT GRANBY 3ST. JEAN 4 AT HULL 3SHAWINIGAN 2 AT LONGUEUIL 6LAVAL 7 AT VERDUN 12MON. OCT. 28GRANBY 5 AT LAVAL 9WED. OCT. 30DRUMMONDVILLE 4 AT SHAWINIGAN 2CHICOUTIMI 4 AT ST. JEAN 6HULL 8 AT T-RIVIERES 5THI I OCT T1LONGUEUIL 6 AT VERDUN 8FRI. NOV. 1A LONGUEUIL 2 AT CHICOUTIMI 81 AT DRUMMONDVILLE 5HULL 3 AT GRANBY 2LAVAL 5 AT SHAWINIGAN 9VERDUN 3 AT ST. JEAN 9SUN. NOV. 3ST. JEAN 6 AT CHICOUTIMI 5DRUMMONDVILLE 5 AT LONGUEUIL 7T-RIVIERES 6 AT SHAWINIGAN 6GRANBY 2 AT VERDUN 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-03109/5572507-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="535" height="439"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0490/5572500-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="555" height="176"></div><h2>USHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. NOV. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0578/5572493-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="537" height="293"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>THU. OCT. 24NORTH IOWA 3 AT THUNDER BAY 4FRI. OCT. 25IOWA 0 AT THUNDER BAY 10MADISON 5 AT WATERLOO 10SIOUX CITY 10 AT DES MOINES 3ST. PAUL 3 AT ROCHESTER 5AT. OCT. 26ROCHESTER 3 AT DUBUQUE 1DES MOINES 2 AT SIOUX CITY 9WATERLOO 7 AT MADISON 2SUN. OCT. 27DUBUQUE 6 AT MADISON 4NORTH IOWA 2 AT ST. PAUL 7FRI. NOV. 1DUBUQUE 1 AT ST. PAUL 6NORTH IOWA 5 AT ROCHESTER 7MADISON 2 AT SIOUX CITY 5WATERLOO 4 AT DES MOINES 10SAT. NOV. 2WATERLOO 2 AT ROCHESTER 2MADISON 5 AT NORTH IOWA 4DUBUQUE 2 AT THUNDER BAY 4SIOUX CITY 5 AT DES MOINES 3SUN. NOV. 3DUBUQUE 4 AT THUNDER BAY 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0671/5572486-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="546" height="92"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0763/5572479-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="554" height="128"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0851/5572472-1-eng-US/f0041-082.jpg" title="f0041-08" width="545" height="124"></div> &#9632;

f0040-02

CHRYSLER SCOREBOARD

<h2>Mon. Oct. 28</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01240/5572867-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="556" height="854"></div><h2>Tue. Oct. 29</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02171/5572860-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="554" height="2725"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03133/5572853-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="557" height="2805"></div><h2>Wed. Oct. 30</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-04104/5572846-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="551" height="785"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0586/5572839-1-eng-US/f0042-052.jpg" title="f0042-05" width="558" height="2255"></div><h2>Thu. Oct. 31</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0677/5572832-1-eng-US/f0042-062.jpg" title="f0042-06" width="550" height="1339"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0770/5572825-1-eng-US/f0042-072.jpg" title="f0042-07" width="544" height="128"></div><h2>Fri. Nov. 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0863/5572818-1-eng-US/f0042-082.jpg" title="f0042-08" width="554" height="1257"></div><h2>Sat. Nov. 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0958/5572811-1-eng-US/f0042-092.jpg" title="f0042-09" width="543" height="2158"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01242/5572804-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="563" height="3579"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02178/5572797-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="564" height="2389"></div><h2>Sun. Nov. 13</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03151/5572790-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="557" height="2371"></div><h3>&mdash;POWER PLAY GOALS&mdash;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-04110/5572783-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="515" height="251"></div><h3>&mdash;SHOTS&mdash;</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0598/5572776-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="523" height="220"></div> &#9632;

f0042-01

THN STATISTICS NHL SUMMARIES

<h2>NOVEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1051/5572898-1-eng-US/f0042-102.jpg" title="f0042-10" width="572" height="3385"></div> &#9632;

f0042-10

NHL GAMES TO COME

BOSTON&mdash;Dave Reid. LW, recalled from Moncton of AHL. Lyndon Byers, RW. and Dave Donnelly, LW. both assigned to Moncton. Allan Larochello. G. recalled from Milwaukee of IHL and reassigned to Moncton. INJURED&mdash;Louis Sleigher, RW, Mats Thelin. D. Sleigher out one more week with groin pull. Thelin sidelined for two more weeks with broken foot.BUFFALO&mdash;Daren Puppa, G. recalled from Rochester of AHL. Mike Craig, G, returned to Rochester as replacement.CALGARY&mdash;Yves Courteau. RW. recalled from Moncton of AHL Hakan Loob. RW, Doug Risebrough, C, and Eddy Beers, LW, all returned from injuries. Paul Reinhart, 0. sidelined inde finitely with back spasms.CHICAGO&mdash;Warren Skorodenski. G. and Tom McMurchy, RW, sent to Nova Scotia of AHL. Tom Lysiak C, back from injury list. INJURED&mdash;Steve Ludzik. LW. Keith Brown, D. ludzik out 6 weeks with broken toe. Brown on day-to-day basisDETROIT&mdash;Joe Kocur, RW. and Bob Probert. LW. recalled from Adirondack of AHL Corrado Micalcf. G. assigned to Kalamazoo of IHL. Bruce Eakin. C. and Basil McRae, LW. returned to Adirondack Harold Snepsts. D. out of action on day-to-basts with knee injury.EDMONTON&mdash;larry Molnyk. D. recalled from Nova Scotia of AHL. Ron Low, G, assigned to Nova Scotia on loan. Mike Moller. RW. also sent to Nova Scotia. Dave Hunter. RW. back from injury list. Randy Gregg. D. sidelined for 2-4 weeks with rib injury.HARTFORD&mdash;Mark Fusco. D. announced retirement rather than report to Binghamton of AHL Dave McLean. RW. assigned to Binghamton. INJURED&mdash;Greg Malone, C. Kevin Dineen, RW, Scot Kleinendorst, 0, Tim Bothwell, 0 Malone and Dineen out on day-to-day basis, Bothwell indefinitely with illness and Kleinendorst sidelined for 6 weeks with broken foot.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Al Tuer. D. and Phil Sykes, LW, recalled from New Haven of AHL Ken Hammond. D. sent to New Haven. Guy Benoit. D. recalled from New Haven and assigned to Toledo of IHL. INJURED&mdash;Glen Currie. C. Mark Hardy, D. Both sidelined for tour more weeks.MINNESOTA&mdash;Den Mandich. D. Bo Berglund. C. Mats Hallin, RW. and Jim Archibald. RW, all assigned to Springfield of AHL Davo Richter, D. back from injury list. INJURED&mdash;Tim Coulis. LW. Willi Plett. RW. Steve Payne. LW. Tom Hirsch. D. Plett, Payne and Coulis out for another 4-S weeks. Hirsch indefinitely.MONTREAL&mdash;Claude Lemieux, RW. recalled from Shertrooke of AHL on emergency conditions. Ryan Walter, LW. and Rick Green, D, back from injury list. INJURED&mdash;Mario Tremblay, RW, Lucien DeBlois, RW. Tremblay sidelined indefinitely. DeBlois out 6-8 weeks more.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Bob Hoffmeyer. D. retired to become special assignment scout for Devils Tim Higgins, RW. beck from injury list Perry Anderson. LW. out on day-to day basis with shoulder injury.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Dale Henry. LW. and Neal Coulter, RW, recalled from Springfield of AHL. Bob Bassen. C. back from injury and assigned to Springfield for conditioning Clark Gillies. LW, bruised shoulder, out for 7-10 days INJURED&mdash;Gillies. Bob Bourne. LW. Brent Sutter. C. Greg Gilbert. LW. Bob Nystrom. RW. Bourne out on day to-day basis. Sutter and Gilbert two more weeks Nystrom sidelined indefinitely.NY RANGERSBill O&rsquo;Dwyor. C. assigned to New Haven of AHL. INJURED&mdash;James Patrick. D. Tomas Sandstrom. RW. Simo Saarinen. D. Patrick out on day to-day basis with pinched nerve in neck. Sandstrom also on day to-day basis. Saarinen out indefinitely.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Joe Paterson. LW. and Mike Stothers, D. sent to Hershey o&raquo; AHU td Hospodar, D. back from injury list.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Wayne Babych, RW, traded to Quebec for future considerations. Joe McDonnell. 0. recalled from Baltimore of AHL Phil Bourque. 0. and Ted Nolan, LW. sent to Baltimore. INJURED&mdash;Norm Schmidt. 0, Ville Siren. D. Schmidt out on day-to-day bans. Siren sidelined for 4 more weeksQUEBEC&mdash;Jean-Merc Gaulin, RW, sent to Fredericton of AHL. INJURED&mdash;Trevor Stenburg, RW. Mark Kumpel, RW. Normand Rochefort. 0 Kumpel out on day-to-day basis. Rochefort for 2 more weeks. Stienburg indefinitelyST. LOUIS&mdash;Doug Evans. LW. assigned to Peoria of IHL. INJURED&mdash;Rick Wamsley. G. Doug Wiekenheiser. C. Wamsley out 7-10 days after minor surgery. Wiekenheiser indefinitely.VANCOUVER&mdash;Neil Belland. D. sent to Fredericton of AHL. Doug Halward. 0. back from injury list INJURED&mdash;Craig Coxe. C. Ron Delorme. RW Coxe out on day-to-day basis. Delorme indefinitely.WASHINGTON&mdash;Yves Beaudoin. D, recalled from Binghamton of AHL. Bengt Gustafsson, RW, beck from injury list. Bryan Erickson. RW, traded to Los Angoles in exchange for Bruce Shoebottom. D. who was then assigned to Binghamton of AHL INJURED&mdash;Rod Langway, D. Larry Murphy. 0. Langway out three more weeks with strained knee ligaments, and Murphy sidelined three weeks with broken foot.WINNIPEG&mdash;Tom Martin. RW. recalled from Sherbrooke of AHL on emergency conditions Wade Campbel. D, also recalled from Sherbrooke. Ryan Stewart. RW, 1985 draft pick. recalled from Kamloops of WML INJURED&mdash;Jim N.H, RW. Dave Silk. RW. Doug Smail. LW Nilli sidelined indefinitely, Silk and Small out on day-to-day base.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>ADIRONDACK&mdash;Gary Yaremchuk, C, aide lined for 6-8 weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgeryBINGHAMTON&mdash;Signed John Hutchings. O.FREDERICTON&mdash;Joe Colucci. D, released outrightMONCTON&mdash;Pierre Rioux. C, retired from hockey.NOVA SCOTIA&mdash;Dave Michaylyk. LW. assigned to Muskegon of IHL.<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;Garnet McKechnev. RW. sent to Milwaukee of IHL on loan.MILWAUKEE&mdash;Sob La Forest. RW. released Michel Therrien. D. left team to play hockey in Franco. &#9632;

TRANSACTIONS

The first significant step towards defending Canada&rsquo;s world junior championship gold medal will take place on Dec. 9, when the names of 35 players will be announced as invitees to a pre-competition tryout camp.A week after that, the 35 players will join Team Canada head coach Terry Simpson, assistant coach Michel Parizeau, director of operations Dennis McDonald and director of player personnel Sherry Bassin at the minicamp in Hamilton, Ont., headquarters for the annual world-class event that is being staged in Canada for the first time since 1978.From Dec. 17 to 19 inclusive, the players will participate in a daily morning practice and evening scrimmage. After the Dec. 19 scrimmage, the team will be reduced to approximately 25 players, who will continue the two-a-day workouts on Dec. 20 and 21.In an effort to help the coaching staff evaluate the talent, which must be culled to a 20-than roster by the time the tourney gets underway, the team will play a pair of exhibition games&mdash;against the Team Sweden juniors in Kingston on Dec. 22 and against the Team Finland juniors in Peterborough on Dec. 23.On the morning of Dec. 24, the final 20-rnan roster will be announced.The tournament, which was held in Finland a year ago, begins on Dec. 26 and concludes on Jan. 4. A total of 28 games will be played, including eight at the new 18,000 Copps Coliseum in Hamilton.Eight nations&mdash;Canada, United States, Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Sweden, West Germany and Switzerland&mdash;will compete for the title.The world junior championships are held under the umbrella of the International Ice Hockey Federation, which designated Canada as the 1986 host country. The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, in turn, selected Hamilton as the host site. Responsibility for the operation of the tourney is being jointly handled by the CAHA, Canadian Major Junior Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey Association.As a result, the 28 games are being played in 15 different locales.Aside from the eight games in the Copps Coliseum, one more will be played in Hamilton, at the Mountain Arena, while five other cities&mdash;Toronto, London, Kitchener, Oshawa and Brantford&mdash;will get two games each.Nine other communities&mdash;Guelph, Niagara Falls, Newmarket, Oakville, Orillia, St. Catharines, Stratford, Dundas and Georgetown&mdash;will be host to one game apiece.In addition to gold, silver and bronze medals for each player on the top three teams, the IIHF Directorate Awards will be presented for outstanding individual performances&mdash;best goaltender, best forward and best defenseman. The IIHF will also choose first and second all-star teams.Corporate sponsors, such as the Esso Petroleum Co. of Canada, the Labatt Brewing Company and Seiko, will also make an assortment of presentations.Tickets for the eight Copps Coliseum games go on sale Nov. 9. They are priced at eight dollars for the lower tier and six dollars for the upper tier, though package deals are available at a reduced cost. Ticket prices for other centres will range between five and eight dollars.For those fans living within the 416 area code, tickets for the Hamilton games may be ordered by credit card by calling a toll free number, 1-800263-6972. In Hamilton, the number to call is (416) 525-5151 or 521-0371.By mail, fans may order tickets by sending a cheque or money order in care of the Hamilton Steelhawks, Stelco Tower, Suite 910, 100 King St. West, Hamilton, Ont., L8P 1A2.For details concerning ticket sales, schedule of games, hotel reservations and other information, the public can call a special hot-line number (416) 521-9585.The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will nationally televise three games and broadcast a total of four on radio.Don Wittman will handle the television play-by-play duties on: Dec. 29 at 2 p.m. EST (Canada vs. the U.S. at Copps Coliseum); Jan. 2 at 7:30 p.m. (Canada vs. Soviet Union at Copps Coliseum) and Jan. 4 at 2 p.m. (Canada vs. Czechoslovakia at Copps Coliseum). Fred Walker and Gerry Fog ty will share the radio broadcast duties for those three games, plus the contest on Dec. 30 at 7:30 p.m. (Canada vs. Sweden at Copps Coliseum).This will be the fifth consecutive year that Canada will be represented by an all-star team of the country&rsquo;s junior-age players. &#9632;

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November 15, 1985

THN STATISTICS NHL SCORING

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