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.

December 13, 1985

The Hockey News December 13, 1985

<h2>Mon. Nov. 25</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01242/5581368-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="530" height="585"></div><h2>Tue. Nov. 26</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02173/5581361-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="563" height="2646"></div><h2>Wed. Nov. 27</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03135/5581354-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="531" height="289"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-04106/5581347-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="559" height="3613"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0588/5581340-1-eng-US/f0042-052.jpg" title="f0042-05" width="543" height="1988"></div><h2>Thu. Nov. 28</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0679/5581333-1-eng-US/f0042-062.jpg" title="f0042-06" width="533" height="582"></div><h2>Fri. Nov. 29</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0772/5581326-1-eng-US/f0042-072.jpg" title="f0042-07" width="541" height="986"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0865/5581319-1-eng-US/f0042-082.jpg" title="f0042-08" width="553" height="3166"></div><h2>Sat. Nov. 30</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0960/5581312-1-eng-US/f0042-092.jpg" title="f0042-09" width="533" height="379"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1053/5581305-1-eng-US/f0042-102.jpg" title="f0042-10" width="533" height="499"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01244/5581298-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="563" height="3616"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02180/5581291-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="551" height="2115"></div><h2>Sun. Dec. 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03153/5581284-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="556" height="1461"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-04112/5581277-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="545" height="831"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

THN STATISTICS NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville HockeyNEW WESTMINSTER&mdash;The Western League merry-go-rounds have taken two more spins and the latest to lose a coaching grip are Paddy Ginnell and John Chapman. The latest to climb on board for another revolution are Ernie (Punch) McLean and Earl Jessiman.New Westminster Bruins announced Nov. 28 that McLean, who coached the club to two Memorial Cup championships in 1977-78, will assume coaching duties with the struggling Western Division club. Ginnell, brought in to replace Jessiman behind the bench, was fired Nov. 26.In Lethbridge, the Broncos hired Jessiman on Nov. 27th, a week after the Eastern Divison team released Chapman from his dual role as general manager and coach.The 52-year-old McLean hopes to restore some punch in a franchise which has not only slipped in the standings but in attendance figures, too. The Bruins were last in the six-team division with a 4-19 record when the coaching change was made. The club was also drawing crowds of less than 500.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve watched this club the last month and it hurt the pride to see what had happened since the glory days,&rdquo; said McLean, who was offered a lifetime contract by owner Ron Dixon, who declined to elaborate on the deal. &ldquo;From 1970 to &lsquo;80, we only missed the playoffs once, and won two Memorial Cups.&rdquo;When the Bruins were sold in 1980 to Nelson Skalbania, McLean headed north to prospect for gold. The franchise eventually was transferred and is today&rsquo;s Kamloops Blazers. New Westminster was re-admitted into the WHL in the 1983-84 season with the transfer of the Nanaimo Islanders.Now McLean, the miner, hopes to strike gold with a New Westminster team that isn&rsquo;t as bad as its record.McLean said getting good players in a hurry won&rsquo;t be easy. He also realizes today&rsquo;s brand of junior hockey has changed from the days when he preached total team toughness.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have to go mining in the prairies for players,&rdquo; McLean said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have to collect on some lOU&rsquo;s and favors. When I finally get the players 1 want, if I get them, I not only want them to have ability but character. I want us to play a Boston Bruin style, up and down the wings and touching the boards at both ends.&ldquo;I realize the style of hockey has changed because people within the game have changed. I don&rsquo;t even know half the rules anymore. People aren&rsquo;t demanding the same kind of stuff we offered in the &lsquo;70&rsquo;s, but you can still play physical hockey today.&rdquo;McLean, who indicated assistant coach Gary Braun may stay on, is second on the league&rsquo;s all-time coaching list with 509 wins, 343 losses and 84 ties in 14 seasons.He guided the Bruins in Estevan, Sask., from 1966-71. then moved the franchise to New Westminster.In Lethbridge, Jessiman gets another chance to coach a WHL team this season. The 30-year-old Dartmouth, N.S., native was hired in the summer to coach the Bruins but was fired before the season commenced after a contract dispute with Dixon.&ldquo;I have something to prove to some people,&rdquo; said Jessiman, who is taking legal action against Dixon for wrongful dismissal. &ldquo;In New Westminster it left a sour taste in my mouth about the WHL. I didn&rsquo;t get a chance to prove myself.&rdquo;Jessiman spent the last two seasons as coach of the American League&rsquo;s Fredericton Express. Despite guiding Fredericton to a second-place finish last season and a Northern Division title in 1983-84, Jessiman&rsquo;s contract with the Quebec Nordiques was not renewed.Lethbridge owner Dennis Kjeldgaard, said it was Jessiman&rsquo;s track record which made him an obvious choice for the position.Chapman feels like he got the short end of the stick. He contends that in the second year of a three-year contract and rebuilding program, the axe should not have fallen. The Broncos were 10-11-1 at the time of the coaching change.&ldquo;That part was very disappointing,&rdquo; Chapman said. &ldquo;I wanted a three-year contract becuase I wanted to see through what I had built. I wanted to have that kind of commitment from the club.&ldquo;I was surprised. We were six points out of second place at the time and we had won three of our last four games. Kjeldgaard thought we needed a change and the last two or three years we&rsquo;ve had some long-standing differences.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not questioning my abilities. My record speaks for itself,&rdquo; added Chapman, who was in his sixth season with Lethbridge and had guided the Broncos to a WHL championship in the 1982-83 season. &ldquo;It got to a point in time where he (Kjeldgaard) moved or I did. He owns the team, so I&rsquo;m gone.&rdquo;Kjeldgaard said he didn&rsquo;t like what he saw in the Broncos this season.&ldquo;We looked back at last year&rsquo;s record (30-40-2) and it was worst in the history of the club,&rdquo; Kjeldgaard said. &ldquo;We felt basically the club was headed in the same direction as last year and in the third year of a rebuilding program the team wasn&rsquo;t doing what we expected.&rdquo;Chapman may not be out of junior hockey for long. He has admitted to being interested in purchasing a franchise with former Regina Pat coach, Bob Strumm. Strumm was to assume a coaching position with the Ontario League Sudbury Wolves this sesaon, but a dispute with owners led to his summer resignation.WHL WEEK&mdash;The league issued suspensions and a fine following a penalty-box incident Nov. 19 in Kamloops between the Blazers and New Westminster. Craig Berube of Kamloops received-a five-game suspension and $500 fine for being first player to leave the Kamloops penalty box to engage in a fight in the New Westminster penalty box. Jim Kambeitz and Don Schmidt of Kamloops received three games each while R. J. Dundas of New Westminster was assessed a one-game suspension&hellip;Kamloops dealt forwards Trevor Hendry, 18, and Sean Pas, 17, to Moose Jaw for forwards Troy Kennedy and Troy Bakogeorge. both 18. &#9632;

McLean Aims To Restore ‘Punch’ In Bruins

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01637/5580517-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="389" height="549"><figcaption class="caption-body">ALLEN BOURBEAU Harvard</figcaption></div><h2>ECAC</h2>Sophomore center Allen Bourbeau, a 1984 draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, scored five points in two games, including a hat trick to lead Harvard to a 9-2 win over Dartmouth.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02464/5580510-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="386" height="547"><figcaption class="caption-body">G. CRUICKSHANK Providence</figcaption></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>Providence College sophomore center Gord Cruickshank collected six points, including the game winner, as the Friars beat the Michigan Tech Huskies 7-6 and tied them 5-5. He has 13 goals for the season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03314/5580503-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="386" height="548"><figcaption class="caption-body">RON HOOVER W. Michigan</figcaption></div><h2>CCHA</h2>Western Michigan freshman center Ron Hoover picked up seven points as the Broncos swept Ferris State Bulldogs by scores of 9-3 and 9-5. Hoover has eight goals and 11 assists for the season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04197/5580496-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="380" height="546"><figcaption class="caption-body">GARY EMMONS N. Michigan</figcaption></div><h2>WCHA</h2>Northern Michigan junior center Gary Emmons set a WCHA single-game record by scoring six times in a 10-9 loss to the Minnesota Gophers. In the two games against the Gophers, Emmons had 11 points, including eight goals. &#9632;

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Bauer’s COLLEGE PERFORMER OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>OTTAWA&mdash;The Game giveth and the Game taketh away&hellip;The University of Ottawa G-G&rsquo;s were lengthened by the addition of 12-year National Hockey League goalie Michel (Bunny) Larocque to the team&rsquo;s coaching staff.But then the club lost its most valuable player. Jean-Maurice Cool, to the coaching staff of the Quebec League&rsquo;s Hull Olympiques.Michel Boucher, head coach of the third-rankedG-G&rsquo;s (6-2, 11-3 overall), is delighted to have Larocque on his staff and surprised by the magnitude of his involvement in the Quebec University League team.&ldquo;I like him very much,&rsquo;&rsquo; Boucher said. &ldquo;I thought he would go to home games and come to practice once a week. But he is there every day. And it&rsquo;s not because he makes money with us.&ldquo;He started coaching the goalies and every practice he comes to me and says &lsquo;We should be doing this and that&rsquo;. Between him and (assistant coach) Guy Charron, sometimes I just stand there like a football coach.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s very, very intelligent, good in every aspect of the game.&rdquo; Boucher said. &ldquo;He could do the job right now with any major junior team. I think he wants to be a coach.&rdquo;Larocque, 33, a Hull native living in nearby Aylmer, was an original member of the major junior Ottawa 67&rsquo;s and played five years for them.He was selected sixth overall in the 1972 National Hockey League draft by the Montreal Canadiens, with whom he shared in four Stanley Cups and four Vezina Trophies in eight seasons.He also played two years for the Toronto Maple Leafs, one with the Philadelphia Flyers and half a season with the St. Louis Blues before retiring in February of last year from the Blues&rsquo; Peoria farm team in the International League.&ldquo;I thought the idea was pretty good and I get along well with Michel,&rdquo; Larocque said. &ldquo;It is a new experience, getting involved with university hockey. It&rsquo;s a game I&rsquo;ve never seen before.&ldquo;Without the red line, it really opens up the game a lot. I talked with Michel a lot about the defensive aspect of the game. We have a scoring machine and our problem is on defense right now.&rdquo;Larocque said this is his first formal coaching experience.&ldquo;I like working with the goaltenders,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Sometimes when a goaltender has problems, another goaltender can solve them pretty quickly.&ldquo;Marty Abrams is playing most of the games and he&rsquo;s doing pretty well. He had a good junior career (50-8 over two seasons with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Toronto Marlboros).&ldquo;Sometimes his style looks like Daniel Bouchard&rsquo;s. He couldn&rsquo;t make pro right away but has another good shot at it if he works hard.&rdquo;Carl Gervais and Yves Paul provide solid backup support for Abrams.Boucher was rocked by a series of events a couple of days apart.&ldquo;The first rankings came out with us ranked second and the day after that. Jean-Maurice tells me he&rsquo;s going to coach for Hull. An hour later. Sylvain Simard says he&rsquo;s leaving the team because he has to spend more time studying.&ldquo;Abrams is in a car accident and then Paul Smith&rsquo;s father died.&rdquo;Cool, 22, captained the 1982-83 Verdun Junior Canadiens to the Memorial Cup tournament, playing on a line with New York Islanders&rsquo; Pat LaFontaine and Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; Gerard Gallant. He was sixth in QMJHL scoring with 65 goals and 84 assists for 149 points and the line generated 511 points.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the guy that got the (QUHL) title last year.&rdquo; Boucher said. Cool finished tied for fifth in league scoring with eight goals and 23 assists in 20 games.He led the G-G&rsquo;s potent power play and was moved back to strengthen the team&rsquo;s defense.&ldquo;Doesn&rsquo;t it seem funny that with all the hockey coaches around, you would go and hire as an assistant the best hockey player from the other team you share a building with?&rdquo; Boucher said.&ldquo;The decision came from him (Cool),&rdquo; said Olympiques&rsquo; coach Pat Burns. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t force him into it and we didn&rsquo;t want to take him away from the G-G&rsquo;s.&ldquo;I feel a bit bad for the G-G&rsquo;s. But he wants a chance in hockey, and I&rsquo;m ready to give it to him.&rdquo;&ldquo;I went to Hull because I knew Pat needed somebody,&rdquo; said Cool, a second-year criminology student who will continue his studies. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel bad. It was a good opportunity for me. I&rsquo;ve thought about coaching for a long time.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very sad to lose a guy like that, but I think he&rsquo;s going to be a great coach.&rdquo; Boucher said. &ldquo;Simard was a goal scorer from the QMJHL with Chicoutimi and Shawinigan and I know he would have scored game after game but he wants to be a doctor and has to do well in sciences.&rdquo;The G-G&rsquo;s also lost Patrice Brisson to the Olyumpiques earlier in the season. But Boucher hopes to acquire Brisson. Sam Lang, Stephane Richer and Luc Chenier from Hull next season.&ldquo;We have some problems on defense and it&rsquo;s not just with the defensemen. But we still have the best defensive average in the league.&rdquo;Ottawa leads the league, four points ahead of Trois-Rivieres Patriotes and lists six of the league&rsquo;s top eight scorers, headed by former Olympique Jean Poulin (11-9-20) and former Greyhound Pat Lahey (6-14-20). &#9632;

Boucher ‘Cool’ To Loss Of Standout Player

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01841/5581516-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photos by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>INSIDE:&bull; Jets&rsquo; GM Ends His Quest For Marois/9&bull; Oates And Staszak Team Up On Farm/30North Stars Swing Deal For Enigmatic Flyer Center Todd Bergen/22, 27PLUS:&bull; Projecting How NHL Races Will Finish/6&bull; Examining The Jets&rsquo; Woe In Winnipeg/13&bull; Bruin Rookie Bloom Into NHL Scorer/14&bull; Sutter&rsquo;s Hard Work Heart Of Blues/17&bull; Punch McLean Back In New West/37 &#9632;

Cover-01

HUSTLIN’ IN HARTFORD

In next week&rsquo;s Dec. 20th issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, we&rsquo;ll beg the indulgence of Mr. Santa Claus of the North Pole and personally dole out our own list of Christmas gifts we&rsquo;d like to see arrive under the trees of a variety of hockey personalities.In addition to that, we&rsquo;ll present the first of a two-part preview of the International Ice Hockey Federation world junior championships, slated for southern Ontario, Dec. 26-Jan. 4.We&rsquo;ll have an overview of the entire tourney as well as reports on Team Canada and Team USA and a collection of features on the history of the tournament, which has produced so many worldclass players.Plus, we&rsquo;ll have a complete schedule, rosters and statistics package.Don&rsquo;t miss that, plus much, much more in next week&rsquo;s Dec. 20th issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK IN THN

&ldquo;You can lead a horse to water, but you can&rsquo;t put a bathing suit on him.&rdquo;&mdash;Buffalo coach Jim Schoenfeld on his team&rsquo;s poor performance. Story on Page 20. &#9632;

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011386/5578970-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Hartford Whalers&rsquo; hustling right winger Kevin Dineen brings an old-school devotion to the new world of hockey.</figcaption></div>Oldtimers like to kid themselves that hockey is a simple game, that there are no secrets underneath all the visors and fancy shoulder pads, that when the issue has been reduced to winning or losing, it is still the player whose heart beats strongest who will prevail.And before a proponent of today&rsquo;s high-tech hockey can utter, &ldquo;Dang fools, the game has passed them by,&rdquo; someone like Kevin Dineen comes along to prove the oldtimers right.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a throwback, there&rsquo;s no question about that,&rdquo; says Emile Francis of the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; 22-year-old right winger. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a puck hound who won&rsquo;t take no for an answer. He reminds me of (former Boston Bruin) Johnny McKenzie. He&rsquo;s perpetual motion all the way.&rdquo;Dineen hasn&rsquo;t moved mountains since being called up from Binghamton of the American League last Dec. 2, but it&rsquo;s not because he hasn&rsquo;t tried. Through.68 National Hockey League career games over two seasons, he had 33 goals and 23 assists for 56 points, including 27 goals and 21 assists in the last 46. Throw in 131 penalty minutes, and what you&rsquo;ve got is a scorer who can muck or a mucker who can score. Either way, you&rsquo;ve got something everybody wants.&ldquo;Kevin&rsquo;s like a young Brian Sutter,&rdquo; Mike Liut says. &ldquo;And there&rsquo;s no higher compliment because Brian&rsquo;s the standard.&rdquo;Dineen&rsquo;s non-stop doggedness is both his strength and his potential undoing. For the 5-foot-9, 180-pound dynamo to perform at peak efficiency, he must go all out all the time. He&rsquo;s aware that tireless and fearless players sometimes die young, especially smallish, tireless and fearless players, but there&rsquo;s not much he can do about it.&ldquo;The threat of injury scares everybody, but I can&rsquo;t change my style,&rdquo; Dineen says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the only way I&rsquo;m effective. What can I say? It&rsquo;s a physical game.&rdquo;Dineen missed nine games earlier this year when he suffered a sprained left shoulder after colliding awkwardly with Mark Howe of the Philadelphia Flyers. He went into that game at the Spectrum worried about a sore right shoulder.&ldquo;If I had to do it over again, I wouldn&rsquo;t have played because then I could have missed one game instead of nine,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s a tough building to pull the chute in.&rdquo;Dineen played in 11 of Hartford&rsquo;s first 20 games, and had eight goals and seven assists.The Howes may be hockey&rsquo;s first family, but the Dineens are the American Automobile Association&rsquo;s. They&rsquo;ve logged more miles than a middle-aged teamster.&ldquo;When Kevin went for his passport, I couldn&rsquo;t help smiling,&rdquo; said Pat, his mother. &ldquo;They wanted to know about his places of residence. We&rsquo;ve had 28 addresses in a 27-year marriage.&rdquo;Bill Dineen, Kevin&rsquo;s father, has done about all there is to do in hockey. Today he coaches the Adirondack Red Wings of the AHL, but in the past, he has been a player and scout in the NHL and a general manager and coach in the old World Hockey Association. Where Bill went, the family followed&mdash;to Ottawa, Seattle, Denver, Houston, Glastonbury, Ct., and Toronto, among more than a dozen other whistle-stops.With five boys, Shawn, now 27, Peter, 24, Gord, 23, Kevin and Jerry, 18, and one girl, Rose, 23, moving was never a shorthanded affair.&ldquo;Looking back on it, I think my dad&rsquo;s sense of humor was the key,&rdquo; Dineen says. &ldquo;My uncle still tells the story of us leaving Ottawa for Seattle. We had tables and chairs strapped to the top of the station wagon, all the kids were hanging out the windows, and we had a couple of thousand miles to go. There&rsquo;s my dad up front, cackling, &lsquo;Well, off we go again.&rsquo;&rdquo;Shawn, who retired from hockey after four years in the minors earlier this year, runs a sporting goods store in Penticton, B.C., which is home to a hockey school (&ldquo;the biggest in the world,&rdquo; says Kevin) started by his father and former pro player Larry Lund. Peter, now in his sixth minor-league season, is a defenseman for Binghamton, while Gord, with whom Kevin was closest growing up, is on a yo-yo between Springfield and the New York Islanders. Jerry is playing Tier II in B.C., hoping to get a college scholarship. Clearly, all the brains in the family went to Rose. She&rsquo;s a registered nurse in Toronto.Bill Dineen, who played on back-to-back Stanley Cup championship teams with the Detroit Red Wings in the mid 50s, didn&rsquo;t intend for his boys to become rink rats. It just turned out that way.&ldquo;Gord and I always played together,&rdquo; Kevin said. &ldquo;We were forever competing, whether it was in hockey or throwing a baseball. One time when we were like 12 or 13, he really ticked me off. He dulled my skates and I kept falling down. I started firing pucks at him while my dad sharpened my skates. Later, in the game, he had a breakaway, and I went offside on purpose. That&rsquo;s what you call brotherly love.&rdquo;A coach&rsquo;s son is not without certain privileges and Kevin was not above taking full advantage of most of them.&ldquo;We used to go to a millionaire&rsquo;s ranch in Houston and ride motorcycles,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d have weekend skates before and after practice, and get games going. I played keep-away with Terry Ruskowski in Houston and Gordie Howe in Glastonbury. How many kids can say that?&rdquo;There&rsquo;s a tendency to think of Dineen as something of a dead-end kid, a hard knocker who willed himself to the top level, but the truth is, few players have had better training.While his father was moving from coach-GM in Houston to WHA coach in Hartford to NHL scout based in Toronto, Dineen was improving his game.He played high school hockey in Connecticut and then took a major step up to St. Michael&rsquo;s in Toronto, his father&rsquo;s alma mater and a longtime training bed for future NHLers.&ldquo;Leaving Hartford was the best thing that ever happened to Kevin,&rdquo; Bill Dineen says. &ldquo;He needed more and he got it at St. Mike&rsquo;s.&rdquo;Moving on to the University of Denver, Dineen was drafted in the third round (56th overall) in 1982 by, of all people, his father.&ldquo;It was a little awkward,&rdquo; Bill says. &ldquo;There was never any question in my mind that Kevin could play, but it&rsquo;s still a father talking about his son. I had even metioned to Howard Baldwin and Jack Kelley that maybe we should hide Kevin away in some prep school until draft day.&rdquo;Property of the Whalers, Dineen played one more season under Ralph Backstrom at Denver and then made the Canadian Olympic Team.&ldquo;That was the experience he needed.&rdquo; Bill says. &ldquo;The Olympic year brought everything together for him.&rdquo;And convinced Kevin to turn pro.&ldquo;The easy thing to do would have been to go back to school,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I was pretty confused. My dad never pushed me, but he saw what I was going through and told me that hockey-wise, I wasn&rsquo;t going to get any better in college. I knew he was right. I went with his decision&hellip;It was great advice.&rdquo;Last September, Dineen was a late cut at training camp, was shipped to Binghamton and then recalled in early December to stay for what the Whalers hope will be a productive decade or so. At the end of his rookie NHL season, in which he scored 25 goals in 57 games, the fourth highest among rookies, four shorthanded goals and 10 first goals, third in the league behind Bobby Carpenter (13) and Wayne Gretzky (12), Dineen made Team Canada at the World Championships in Prague, and distinguished himself with some typically feisty play.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like I planned it all out, but it has been a step-by-step, year-by-year progression,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Moving from Connecticut to Toronto was almost a cultural shock. In Toronto, they live and die hockey. Kids in school play it at lunch. At St. Mikes, you had to be willing to play it rough, and then in college, with no fighting, you had to learn to control your temper. Dave King, with the Olympics, was so high on fundamentals that even I improved my stickhandling skills. I can still butcher a puck, but I used to be a lot worse.&rdquo;There was a sticky moment in Dineen&rsquo;s natural progression, and it had everything to do with his bloodlines.When Bill Dineen, the Whalers&rsquo; head scout at the time, first caught wind of Francis&rsquo; impending move to Hartford, he unloaded on him, calling Francis &ldquo;the biggest loser who ever came down the pike,&rdquo; among other flattering things. Dineen stayed in Hartford long enough to help orchestrate Francis&rsquo; first draft, but then left for his current position in the Detroit organization.In those days, the idea of Dineen&rsquo;s son one day riding in to save Francis&rsquo; bacon in Hartford somehow seemed remote. The irony of the scenario remains nothing short of staggering.&ldquo;My dad&rsquo;s a straight shooter, but I was in school when all that was going on,&rdquo; Dineen says. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no way that the Cat would hold something like that against me or my dad.&rdquo;And, lo and behold, the Cat hasn&rsquo;t.&ldquo;I never paid any attention to that stuff at all,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;Billy Dineen wasn&rsquo;t fired and he wasn&rsquo;t asked to resign. He could have worked for me but he chose to go by himself. When a new guy comes in, be it in baseball or hockey, he can always clean house. It&rsquo;s never comfortable for the people who are there.&ldquo;I know what Billy was going through. There&rsquo;s a fellow by the name of Mr. Cohen (Alan Cohen, former president of Madison Square Garden, who carried the nickname, &ldquo;Bottom Line&rdquo;) who used to work for the Rangers that I&rsquo;m not too crazy about. I&rsquo;d like to run into that SOB somewhere down the line, I can tell you that.&rdquo;Dineen&rsquo;s career with the Whalers got off to a roaring start. In his first NHL game at the Montreal Forum, Hartford lost 9-3, and Dineen was minus-4.&ldquo;Every time I stepped on the ice, they scored,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We got totally blown out. I thought to myself. &lsquo;Holy Geezus,&rsquo; it can&rsquo;t always be this bad.&rdquo;And it hasn&rsquo;t been, not by a long slapshot.If the respect of one&rsquo;s peers can be used as a measuring stick&mdash;and it can, in every sport, business, profession or pool hall across North America&mdash;Dineen is an emerging star.&ldquo;Kevin&rsquo;s a real gamer,&rdquo; Joel Quenneville says.&ldquo;When you think of Kevin Dineen, you think of 100 percent effort,&rdquo; Ronnie Francis says. &ldquo;He seems to know how to lift us up when we&rsquo;re down, whether it&rsquo;s with a big hit or a big goal.&rdquo;&ldquo;Kevin&rsquo;s had a positive, determined influence on all of us,&rdquo; Liut says..With the trading of Ray Neufeld to Winnipeg for Dave Babych. Dineen has been shifted to the Whalers&rsquo; No. 1 line alongside Francis.&ldquo;This is a great chance for me to show I belong,&rdquo; Dineen says. &ldquo;If I can play with Ronnie, I can establish myself. All I can think of is, don&rsquo;t blow it.&rdquo;Dineen is sure to play a major role in whatever success the Whalers may enjoy this year or in years to come, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re an up-and-coming, young team, and that&rsquo;s no bull,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got talent. We&rsquo;re a few players short, but I still think we can win with this team. I&rsquo;ll tell you one player we could use&mdash;Neufy, as long as we could keep Babych.&rdquo;If an overwhelming desire to excel isn&rsquo;t enough to lift Dineen above the masses, there&rsquo;s always that ever-.present twinkle in his eye.&ldquo;Kevin was a little different from the other children,&rdquo; Pat said. &ldquo;For one thing, he was always getting into mischief, much more so than the others. For another, he always had that twinkle in his eye.&rdquo;Some things never change. For that, in the case of Kevin Dineen, the Whalers remain eternally grateful.Oldtimers, too. &#9632;

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The Twinkle Is In His Eyes, Not His Toes

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div>National Hockey League scouts are either trying to boost the mileage on their frequent flier programs or they&rsquo;re telling the truth.That is, they&rsquo;re saying there won&rsquo;t be many entry draft prospects worth scouting at the World Junior Championships in Hamilton and other southern Ontario cities, Dec. 26-Jan. 4.Wait a minute. Isn&rsquo;t this the premier world-class event involving the best teenaged hockey talent on the globe? And isn&rsquo;t this the first time Canada has played host to the tournament since 1978?The answer is yes on both counts.But the fact remains that NHL scouts will make just as many trips to Europe this winter&mdash;in search of highly-skilled players&mdash;as they normally do.Oh, they&rsquo;ll all be in Hamilton. Of that you can be sure. But they say that any effort at serious work will be limited.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really simple to explain,&rdquo; says Washington Capital director of player personnel Jack Button. &ldquo;Most of the players who will be playing in the world junior championships have already been drafted by NHL teams. Look at it. There are eight teams in the tournament.&ldquo;There isn&rsquo;t much on West Germany or Switzerland that we&rsquo;d be interested in. The Soviets, Czechoslovaks, Swedes and Finns will likely use their oldest, most experienced players, most of whom have already been drafted or well scouted. What does that leave?&rdquo;Canada and the United States.&ldquo;Okay, Canada will be mostly the same as the other countries,&rdquo; adds Button. &ldquo;There are not likely to be many guys in the lineup who haven&rsquo;t been drafted or who we haven&rsquo;t seen a lot of. But the U.S. is a different story. That&rsquo;s the team that&rsquo;ll draw most of our attention.&rdquo;It just so happens that this edition of USA juniors will be staffed by several 17- and 18-year-olds who are already considered potential first-rounders for the 1986 NHL entry draft.And since some of those players&mdash;center Craig Janney, right winger Scott Young and defensemen Brian Leetch and Todd Copeland&mdash;are either col-lege freshmen or still attending high school, the tournament will provide an excellent gauge by which to measure their skills.&ldquo;You look at a kid like Joe Murphy (a Canadian who is a freshman at Michigan State University) and you don&rsquo;t need to measure him against any one,&rdquo; says Button. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the No. 1 pick, no question in anyone&rsquo;s mind.&ldquo;But we&rsquo;ll be looking to get a better reading on the American kids, espe cially the ones in high school. It&rsquo;s tough sometimes (scouting the high schoolers). But when they play in this tournament, they&rsquo;re playing against the best young players in the world. If they show something here, you know they&rsquo;ve got it.&rdquo;That was the case in 1981 when a center named Bob Carpenter from St. John&rsquo;s Prep School in Massachusetts donned the USA uniform at the world championships in West Germany. In a game against Team Canada, Carpenter played head-to-head with Dale Hawer-chuk, the consensus choice as the No. 1 entry draft prospect that year.Six months later, Hawerchuk went No. 1 overall to the Winnipeg Jets and Carpenter was chosen third overall by the Washington Caps.&ldquo;You figured Carpenter was good before the world juniors,&rdquo; Button says, &ldquo;but after seeing him shine against world-class talent and play so well against Hawerchuk, whom everyone was so high on, there was no doubt about it.&rdquo;So with the exception of the draftable Americans and a few others scattered throughout the rosters of the other six teams, most NHL scouts will use the tournament to appraise earlier investments.&ldquo;Everyone will be looking at the players they&rsquo;ve drafted,&rdquo; says Edmonton Oiler director of player personnel Barry Fraser. &ldquo;For example, the Rangers will be looking at (Sweden&rsquo;s) Ulf Dahlen (No. 7 overall in the &lsquo;85 entry draft) and we&rsquo;ll be looking at (Czechoslovak) Tomas Kapusta (104th overall in the &lsquo;85 entry draft).&ldquo;Otherwise, I&rsquo;d pretty much agree (with Button&rsquo;s statements). We&rsquo;ll all be making as many trips to Europe as we usually do.&rdquo;In fact, scouts will make a European sojourn in mid-December to see the best Finns and Swedes born in 1968 (those eligible for the 1986 entry draft) play each other. Then, in February in the Soviet Ukraine, a four-nation tour-ney showcasing the best 1968-born players will draw a lot of attention. Finally, in April in West Germany, scouts will see the under-18 European championships.NOTES&mdash;The Buffalo Sabres are expected to loan center Bo Mikael Andersson (18th overall in the &lsquo;85 entry draft) to Sweden for the world championships. Andersson hasn&rsquo;t played much for the Sabres this season and reports indicate that Sabre general manager Scott Bowman will send him down the road to Hamilton for the tourney. &#9632;

World Tourney Gives Scouts Xmas Break

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02944/5579025-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Turner&rsquo;s fourth season, when he collected four goals and 24 assists, was his best in the NHL.</figcaption></div>Bob Turner drank more champagne from the Stanley Cup than a glass during the first five years of his National Hockey League career.But it was toasting success from another chalice that provided Turner with his greatest thrill in hockey.The former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; defenseman, who played on five straight championship teams from 1955 to 1960, coached the Regina Pats to the Memorial Cup in 1974.&ldquo;That was definitely a greater thrill for me than winning the Stanley Cup,&rdquo; said Turner, who coached the Western League junior team for 10 seasons. &ldquo;It meant a lot to me to coach young players to a championship like that.&ldquo;And I had some pretty good talent that went on into the NHL. I had Clark Gillies and Greg Joly up front and Ed Staniowski back in goal.&ldquo;And I guess the biggest reason it was such a big thrill to me was the fact that a team from Regina could beat teams in the playoffs from great hockey centers like Toronto and Montreal.&ldquo;It just shows me that we have some pretty good talent from out west as well.&rdquo;Coaching thrills aside, Turner has never forgotten his six seasons with the Canadiens. Those were times he still holds close to his heart.Especially those shared with former defensive partner Doug Harvey, perhaps the finest blueliner in the game&rsquo;s history.&ldquo;Doug was probably one of the nicest guys you would ever want to be associated with,&rdquo; said Turner who lives in Regina. &ldquo;I know how people have perceived him over the years.&ldquo;But Doug was different with us. He kept the team relaxed and knew what to say when it was needed.&ldquo;And despite what I had heard about Doug in recent years, being withdrawn and quiet and all, I met him at a reunion the Canadiens had a couple of years ago to celebrate our five straight Stanley Cup championships.&ldquo;And you want to know something? He still hasn&rsquo;t changed. He was just like he was when he was-playing with us. He&rsquo;s quite a guy.&rdquo;Naturally, one of the most popular subjects of conversation at the reunion was the championship streak and the threat then posed by the New York Islanders.&ldquo;This was at the same time that the (New York) Islanders were going for their fifth consecutive championship,&rdquo; said Turner, 52. &ldquo;We were all in agreement that we didn&rsquo;t want the Islanders to win. We wanted our Canadiens&rsquo; record to stand for awhile longer.&ldquo;That record means a lot for those of us who played on those Canadiens teams.&rdquo;Turner, who also played two years for the Chicago Black Hawks, remem bers well the year the championship cheering stopped.&ldquo;1 guess none of us could believe it when it happened,&rdquo; recalled Turner, who is in the real estate business. &ldquo;After we lost to Chicago in the playoffs I remember the train ride back to Montreal as being one of the longest I&rsquo;ve ever taken. I thought it would never end. It was the type of letdown that you thought you could never experience.&ldquo;We knew because we lost that there would be changes made. So, when I was traded to Chicago (one year later), it wasn&rsquo;t that big a surprise, although it did hurt at the time it happened.&ldquo;Chicago was alright. But there wasn&rsquo;t the pressure to win there was in Montreal. I guess I liked the idea of winning the Stanley Cup in Montreal.&ldquo;It was something I got used to.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Winning NHL Championship Was Fact Of Life For Turner

<div class="byline">By Bruce Hood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011290/5579056-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="363" height="455"></div>Q: At a Winnipeg Jet game early this year, the referee raised his arm to signal a delayed penalty. As the play continued, a player had a breakaway, was tripped and awarded a penalty shot. My question is: Would the first penalty be assessed if the shot went in?Mike Albo,Winnipeg, MBA: No, it would not. The procedure is that the referee puts the penalized player in the penalty box and records the penalty&mdash;and then proceeds with the penalty shot. If the shot is successful, the player comes out of the box. If not, he stays in and serves the minor.Q: I was watching a Hockey Night in Canada telecast and a delayed penalty was called on Buffalo in a game at Vancouver. Vancouver kept possession of the puck and time ran out in the period. My question is: Would the penalty be assessed in the next period?Nessim Abu-Zahra,Windsor, ONA: No, the penalty is recorded at the actual stoppage of play, which in this case would be the 20-minute mark of the period, and would, therefore, terminate two minutes into the next period.Q: Last season, while watching hockey on television, I saw many goals scored by players who were standing in the crease or had one foot in the crease. Yet I can&rsquo;t remember the last time I saw a goal disallowed for that reason. Has this rule been disregarded?Janet Valdez,Oshawa, ONA: If the opposing player is pushed into the crease by a defending player, the goal is allowed. If the puck is already in the crease, an attacking player can then enter the crease and score. Furthermore, if a player has a skate in one side of the crease and a goal is scored from the other side, it isn&rsquo;t likely that the referee is going to disallow the goal&mdash;unless he deemed it had a direct role in the goal being scored.Q: If a team is killing a penalty, and a player breaks his stick, would it be legal to accept the stick from the player in the penalty box?Michael Davidson,Duncan, BCA: No, a player may only receive a replacement stick from his own player&rsquo;s bench. If he gets it from a teammate in the penalty box, he is subject to a minor penalty, and worse still, the player in the penalty box receives a minor penalty, plus a misconduct, if he has thrown it on the ice to his teammate (assuming the referee or linesman sees it!).If you want your questions answered, write to:ASK THE REFEREE16 Martin Street Milton, Ont.L9T 2P9All questions will be considered, but only those published will be answered. Personal responses are not possible. &#9632;

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ASK THE REFEREE

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; George (Red) Sullivan, coach of the New York Rangers, became the first coaching casualty of the year, when he was fired by the club. General manager Emile Francis announced that he would take over as coach.&bull; The International Ice Hockey Federation announced the schedule for the world hockey championships to be played in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia from March 3 to 13, 1966.Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; Hall of Famer and former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; great Newsy Lalonde died of complications caused by a hip injury in Montreal. He was 83.&bull; A $70 fine meted out to every player on the Eastern League&rsquo;s Nashville Dixie Flyers because of poor play in a game against Greensboro, caused a mutiny on the team, and a subsequent refusal to play. EHL President Tom Lockhart suspended the team for five games and fined them $5,200. Team owner Mark Parrish wanted to have the players banned from hockey altogether, but was unable to get the full league backing necessary to do so. &#9632;

THIS WEEK…20 Years Ago

1. Who was the last player selected in the 1985 entry draft?2. Which Western League club has had a player selected in the first round of the entry draft in each of the last three seasons?3. Name the two current NHL players that have had 30-goal seasons with three different clubs?4. Which two active NHLers have a chance to record a 20-goal season with their fourth different club in 1985-86?5. What fomer NHL goaltie was known as &ldquo;The China Wall?&rdquo;6. Who is the shortest active player in the NHL?7. Which two teams have a man serving as both GM and coach.8. Which New York Ranger was bom in Strasskirchen, West Germany?9. What school won the CIAU championship last season?10. How many overtime goals did Gordie Howe score in his NHL career?<h2>This Week&rsquo;s Trivia Answers</h2>1. Paul Maurice. 2. Regina Pats. 3. Lanny McDonald and Wilf Paiement. 4. Lucien DeBlois and Peter McNab. 5. Johnny Bower. 6. Roberto Romano. 7. Edmonton and Chicago. 8. Willie Huber. 9. York University. 10. None. &#9632;

TRIVIA

<div class="byline">By BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03659/5579135-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg"></div>That the oldest NHL teams (average age) are: &#9632;

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Did You Know…

<div class="byline">Frank Orr</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011473/5579166-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="377" height="421"></div>WHEN THE NATIONAL Hockey League worked out its realignment back in 1981 and placed an emphasis on intra-divisional play, the idea was to build up some strong rivalries, which would be good for the gate receipts, and reduce travel costs.There was some criticism of the new arrangement, especially in Toronto, where the Maple Leafs were tossed into the Norris Division, away from traditional rivals. But in the fifth season of the new lineup, all signs are that it is a sizable success.Not only have some excellent rivalries, even ventdettas, developed in most divisions but with each passing year, the divisions take on more characteristics of being individual pint-sized leagues operating within the overall framework.Oh, sure, who wouldn&rsquo;t like to see more games between the strong teams in the various divisions? A large number of games between the Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers wouldn&rsquo;t be hard to take. But outside of the Norris Division, where a.500 record is the promised land, play within the sectors is just dandy.An interesting sidelight to the build-up of the divisional races is the way the various sectors have taken on their own personalities, a large part of it dictated by the top teams.For two or three seasons, for instance, the Smythe Division was a rather puny alignment of teams. The Oilers were in a class by themselves and there was little competition for them. But in a couple of years, that changed drastically.To compete with the Oilers, the highest-scoring team the NHL has had, a strong offense was an absolute necessity. Hard work and good defense might beat the Edmonton club occasionally but in any games when the scoring chances were divided evenly, the Oilers would win the vast majority.Last season, four of the top six attacks in the league were in the Smythe sector and the result was some fast, wide-open entertainment. This time, three of the four highest-scoring teams are Smythe residents.&ldquo;If you can&rsquo;t score a few goals, quite a few, in fact, competing with the Oilers is very difficult,&rdquo; said Calgary Flames&rsquo; coach Bob Johnson. &ldquo;Of course, you try to check them strongly and bump them a little. But if you can&rsquo;t hit on a good percentage of your scoring chances, you&rsquo;ll be in trouble against them.&rdquo;Strong, often bitter rivalries never have been a problem in the Patrick Division but with some improvement showing in the New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins, the Patrick is, potentially, the NHL&rsquo;s best.Because the Flyers have been the league&rsquo;s best team this season after their surprise overall first-place finish in 1984-85, they set the pattern of how the game is played in that section. A rival coach summed up that approach when he said: &ldquo;The Flyers intimidate now with their work ethic. They still can intimidate with their fists, if necessary, but mostly, they dog the puck so incessantly that they wear down many teams.&rdquo;The Flyers also own some first-rate talent&mdash;guys like Tim Kerr, Brian Propp, Ilkka Sinisalo and Mark Howe&mdash;which can execute the payoff plays, especially scoring chances created by the hard work.The Flyer approach is one that the New York Islanders used to win four consecutive Stanley Cup crowns. Washington Capitals have taken a similar route to respectability.This season, after a few years of trying a different approach, the flow-and-motion techniques of Herb Brooks, New York Rangers have gone back to hard work, discipline and grind-it-out.It&rsquo;s more than just coincidence that the Ranger coach now is Ted Sator, an assistant to head man Mike Keenan with the Flyers last season. Sator has a solid background in European hockey and the suspicion was that he could get the best from the players, many of them small and slick, who were assembled to play the Brooks&rsquo; system.Instead, Sator has made big moves in another direction&mdash;the way the Flyers are headed. Small and slick went down the road; work and discipline were invited aboard.&ldquo;We seem to have got all caught up in systems for a couple of years,&rdquo; said Ranger defenseman Tom Laidlaw. &ldquo;Hockey is a simple, grinders&rsquo; game much of the time. Now, our priority is hard work.&rdquo;In short, a game of circles isn&rsquo;t much good against the straight lines of the Flyers. &#9632;

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In Praise Of NHL’s Divisional Setup

<div class="byline">BY JEFF Z. KLEIN AND KARL-ERIC REIF</div><h2>FOR ARGUMENT&rsquo;S SAKE</h2>According to conventional wisdom, the first quarter of a season is virtually meaningless; you can&rsquo;t tell anything about the final standings until New Year&rsquo;s at the earliest.Well, not exactly. It turns out that for many teams, the first quarter sets the pattern for the entire season. Only about half the National Hockey League clubs play much better or worse over the last 60 games than they played over the first 20 games.For the other half of the league&rsquo;s teams, they might just as well multiply their first-quarter point totals by four instead of bothering to play the remaining three-quarters of the schedule.We studied the first-quarter records of all NHL teams for the previous four seasons. and compared them to their records over the final three-quarters for those four campaigns. (We began with the 1981-82 season because that was the first year the present unbalanced schedule was implemented.) The accompanying table shows the results.Washington registered the greatest improvement over their first-quarter record. Their average winning percentage for the first 20 games of the past four seasons was only.412, good for about 16.5 points, but over the last 60 games, their average winning percentage was.614, or about 74 points.On the average, their winning percentage improved by.202 over their firstquarter performances&mdash;the NHL&rsquo;s best for the period examined. New Jersey, Calgary, Vancouver and Buffalo also showed consistent improvement over the last 60 games. Since each of these teams got off to faster-than-usual-starts this season, the next few months look promising for them.On the debit side, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Montreal deteriorated substantially over the final 60 games of each of the last four seasons. And. since each of these teams happened to have started more slowly than usual this year, it looks as though a grim winter is in store for them. The remaining 11 teams showed little significant change over their first-quarter records; their rates of improvement or deterioration do not reach the &ldquo;threshhold of significance.&rdquo;Now to the current season. Below, the first-quarter standings for the &lsquo;85-86 season:<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021047/5579239-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="557" height="452"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03676/5579232-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="560" height="243"></div>Now, let&rsquo;s assume that all 21 teams will perform over the last 60 games of the current schedule at exactly the same average rates of improvements or deterioration as they have done over the last 60-game portions of the past four seasons. In other words, if the teams stay true to form over the last three-quarters, how will the 1985-86 final standings turn out?<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-04434/5579225-1-eng-US/f0006-042.jpg" title="f0006-04" width="1835" height="1258"></div>Observe:<h3>ADAMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02517/5579218-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="554" height="135"></div><h3>PATRICK DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03344/5579211-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="556" height="161"></div><h3>NORRIS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04213/5579204-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="553" height="134"></div><h3>SMYTHE DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-05156/5579197-1-eng-US/f0024-052.jpg" title="f0024-05" width="555" height="136"></div>Of course, these projected final standings are highly hypothetical; they depend upon how closely this season&rsquo;s clubs adhere to their past years&rsquo; performances. But. we think it&rsquo;s highly likely that the Canucks, Rangers, Devils, Sabres, Capitals&mdash;and yes, even the Oilers and Flyers&mdash;will finish far ahead of their &lsquo;8485 pace.And the evidence suggests that the Kings, Jets, Black Hawks. Canadiens and Red Wings will not recover from poor starts and will, in fact, wind up dismally below their finishes for last season. Those clubs have much to worry about. &#9632;

f0006-02

Projecting Races At The Quarter Pole

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03619/5579301-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="552" height="113"></div><h2>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</h2>LANDOVER&mdash;There were many reasons why the Washington Capitals were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with a seven-game unbeaten streak and a record of only two defeats in 15 games.One of the most significant, however, was the emergence of Dave Christian as a consistent scorer.Christian collected seven goals in the seven-game stretch, including two shorthanders in a 5-2 triumph over Edmonton and two at even strength in a 5-3 conquest of Montreal. Over the 15 games, he poured in 13 goals, eight of them on the power play.It was a torrid and welcome turnabout, inasmuch as Christian went through the first seven games of the season without once celebrating a red-light effort.&ldquo;The way things started, it&rsquo;s nice to see some pucks going in the net,&rdquo; Christian said. &ldquo;The funny thing is, I was probably getting better chances when I wasn&rsquo;t scoring. After a while, I didn&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d ever get one in.&rdquo;A defenseman with the gold-medal U.S. Olympic team in 1980 and a center during most of five previous National Hockey League seasons, Christian has been skating at right wing alongside center Bengt Gustafsson much of this campaign.While Gustafsson was setting a club record with assists in nine straight games, Christian was the usual beneficiary.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played with Gus enough to know what he&rsquo;s trying to do,&rdquo; Christian said. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re out with him, you have to learn to be patient. You can&rsquo;t be in a hurry. You have to give him time to handle the puck and make the play.&rdquo;As for the right side, Christian has experienced no more difficulty in making the switch than he did moving to the blue line for Herb Brooks at Lake Placid.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played right wing before, but there is an adjustment,&rdquo; Christian said. &ldquo;It calls for a little more stopping and starting. You don&rsquo;t have the puck as much and you have to show a little more patience. You go up and down, take care of your own end and wait for your chances.&rdquo;In the power-play department, Christian&rsquo;s eight goals placed him in a second-place tie behind league-leader Tim Kerr of the Philadelphia Flyers as Washington maintained a spot in the NHL&rsquo;s top five with a success rate of 26.9 per cent.The way Christian was firing in goals, there seemed no reason why he could not reach 40 or perhaps even 50. But with a previous NHL high of 29 two years ago, he was aiming at a much more modest target.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no reason I can&rsquo;t or shouldn&rsquo;t get 30,&rdquo; Christian said. &ldquo;The more important thing is that the team wins, but if I score 30, I&rsquo;ll be helping the team win.&rdquo;Besides his offensive heroics, Christian was a key member of a penalty-killing unit that ranked No. I in the NHL at 86.3 per cent and had six shorthanded goals to match last year&rsquo;s total.Christian was the team joker when he came here from Winnipeg in 1983. Last season, however, his sense of humor flagged as his point production dipped. He and his wife were in the process of divorce, and he says it hurt him at the work place.&ldquo;It was tough last year,&rdquo; said Christian. &ldquo;As much as you try not to let it affect your play, there&rsquo;s no doubt it did. Now that it&rsquo;s settled, it&rsquo;s easier to keep my mind on the games. When I come to the rink, it&rsquo;s a lot easier to think about hockey. If you ask any of the guys, I think they&rsquo;ll agree I&rsquo;m back to the way I used to be.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;In his second start for Washington. Pete Peeters stopped 31 shots to beat Quebec 3-0. It was the Capitals&rsquo; first shutout in 32 games&hellip;Defenseman Scott Stevens, originally expected to be out a week with a bruised knee, finally returned Nov. 27 after a three-week layoff. That brought the Capitals to full strength for the first time since Rod Langway was injured in Calgary, Oct. 23&hellip;Montreal&rsquo;s visit to Capital Centre was a reverse sweater night, with the Canadiens wearing white and the Capitals, road red. It did not change one trend: Unbeaten in their first 15 trips to Washington, the Canadiens have been winless in the last 12, dating back to Feb. 25, 1979.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011315/5579294-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="560" height="818"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Christian is playing a heavenly brand of hockey for the Caps this year.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0007-03

Caps’ Thanksgiving Truly Christian Occasion

<div class="byline">BY DALE WILSON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02918/5579332-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Laura Stamm, NY Rangers Power Skating Coach, seen here teaching full leg extension increases power in your skating stride.</figcaption></div>On June 29, 1986 Okanagan Hockey Schools begin their 22nd year of bringing the best in hockey instruction to aspiring hockey players.Throughout the previous 21 years of operation, Okanagan Hockey Schools have held true to the commitment of providing quality instruction both on and off the ice while maintaining a positive atmosphere of fun and employment while learning.Okanagan Hockey Schools Penticton location operates eight seven-day sessions beginning on June 29 and concluding on Aug. 23. The Memorial Arena location offers full dormitory facilities with 24-hour adult supervision, a modern dining room which serves three (as much as you can eat) meals daily and a schedule of activities away from the ice surface which inludes fea ture movies, short walks to the beach, trips to the Okanagan Game Farm, Okanagan River Channel rafting as well as a full state of recreational activities.In addition, sessions for those students not wishing to board are available each week with numerous camping and motel facilites available within walking distance to the arena complex and the beautiful Okanagan Lake beach.In 1977, Okanagan Hockey Schools expanded their Penticton operation to the McLaren Park arena complex in a residential section of the city. The Lakeland Okanagan Hockey School has since expanded to offer four seven-day sessions during the month of August. Although this location does not provide boarding facilities, it features a lunch program for all students in attendance.July, 1982 saw a further expan-sion of Okanagan Hockey Schools in the Edmonton, Alta., area. This school presently operates for three weeks in July (6-26) at the Strathcona Recreation Centre.The program at all locations feature:&bull; Two ice sessions daily&bull; Elite bantam and midget sessions Off-ice dryland training&bull; Off-ice skills center&bull; Aerobic exercise class&bull; Special power skating program&bull; Ironman-triathalon competition&bull; Written evaluation for players 8-13 years&bull; Notebooks for players 14-17 years&bull; Lectures and seminars&bull; Fitness testing&bull; Athletic awards competitionAt Okanagan Hockey Schools the emphasis is on the improvement of the young hockey player through high quality hockey instruction. In conjunction with this fine hockey program, there is an environment which is conducive to the development of not only athletic ability but also sportsmanship and attitude. They are schools where hard work and fun are coordinated to bring out the best in each participant. &#9632;

f0007-02

Okanagan In Its 22nd Year Of Operation

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011403/5579363-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div>The International Hockey Weekly Founded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd.85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>The Toronto Syndrome</h2>THE NUMBERS HAVE yet to be tallied up, but it would appear obvious that National Hockey League first-quarter attendance is nothing to brag about.For example, Vancouver certainly isn&rsquo;t faring too well and Toronto is struggling as much off the ice as it is on the ice. There are other examples of NHL cities not drawing as well as they should, but there are some bright spots, too.Nevertheless, it&rsquo;s a good bet that this season&rsquo;s first-quarter numbers won&rsquo;t compare favorably with those of the same period a year ago.Is it the first sign of a bad moon on the rise? Or is it a simple and insignificant aberration in what has been a bright picture of steadily increasing annual attendance?Chances are that it&rsquo;s the latter. It&rsquo;s difficult to say for sure, of course, but there aren&rsquo;t any overwhelming signs that the game is in for a large slide in popularity. Thus, it would be a mistake to react in a knee-jerk fashion and look for disaster where there is none.Still, it gets one to thinking.Some Canadian-based NHL teams with early-season attendance problems point to the success of the Toronto Blue Jays and how baseball&mdash;not hockey&mdash;mania swept the country this past fall. It&rsquo;s a valid theory.But having admitted that the popularity of baseball cut into the NHL&rsquo;s action makes one wonder where it will all end. What if Vancouver gets a Major League baseball team or the National Football League expands into Canada?The point of this speculation is to illustrate the dilemma faced by the NHL, particularly in Canada. While pro hockey continues to, generally speaking, expand its horizons, so too are the other major pro sports.What was once a captive audience for a singular product&mdash;NHL hockey&mdash;has suddenly become a global village where competition for the sports fans&rsquo; dollar abounds. No hockey team can claim to be the only show in town any more. Exposure to all major North American team sports, via television and live, is available to the majority of Canadians.When you consider all that plus the fact that Toronto&rsquo;s and Vancouver&rsquo;s NHL teams are troubled by flagging fan interest, there is reason to believe the NHL&rsquo;s first-quarter attendance picture will not be a spectacular one.Regardless, the bottom line is that for the first time, the NHL has to make an effort to sell itself in Canada. And if it doesn&rsquo;t, then it can anticipate a systematic erosion in popularity.It&rsquo;s already happening in Toronto. &#9632;

f0008-01

The Hockey News

I have followed with interest the various viewpoints presented in THE HOCKEY NEWS on hockey fighting.After reading Stan Fischler&rsquo;s column on memorable hockey fights and hockey fight buffs in the Nov. 15th issue, I would like to relate my favorite hockey &ldquo;fight&rdquo;.It occurred some years ago between Nick Fotiu of the New York Rangers and Pat Ribble of the Atlanta Flames. At one point during the game, the combatants dropped their sticks and gloves and squared off against each other.Since they were evenly matched and neither had an initial leverage advantage, the referee decided to let them go at it. For one-and-a-half minutes they circled around with clenched fists, head fakes and fancy footwork. Not a single punch was thrown. Tiring of this, the referee whistled them both off the ice&mdash;two minutes apiece for delay of game.This comic interlude in an otherwise dull game had me laughing the rest of the night. Imagine two hockey players being allowed to fight and they blew the opportunity to bash each other. And the embarrassed referee had no alternative but to insult them with delay of game penalties.Perhaps, the NHL should study the feasibility of incorporating this kind of humor into the game to supplement dull hockey and useless fights. We could call it the NHL variety show.Wayne Cameron,Denville, NJ(Evidently, heavyweights Fotiu and Ribble both opted for the same strategy&mdash;rope a dope.)<h2>ADVERTISING CRITICIZED</h2>Nothing like being consistent.Only weeks ago, your publication applauded Justine Blainey and her efforts to gain equality for women in the male-dominated hockey world. Yet, your Nov. 22nd issue devoted a whole page to sexist advertising. Nice going.The Daoust advertisement, entitled &ldquo;National 301: The Legend&rdquo; undoubtedly offended and insulted many of your readers. Print and broadcast media must become more responsible and avoid using sex as visual decorations.Instead of selling sex, try selling skates. Sexist advertising does not belong in any publication.<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.A complaint has been filed with Mediawatch, the National Watch on Images of Women in the Media (Mediawatch Inc.).Chris Majta,Nepean, Ont.(There can be no inconsistency between editorial and advertising copy. The two are mutually exclusive.)<h2>SNIDE(R) REMARKS</h2>Were it not so distressing it would be humorous to observe (Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; president) Jay Snider casting stones at the Soviets from the safety of his made-in-America glass house.At a time when Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev are holding conciliatory meetings in an attempt to resolve their differences. Mr. Snider only seems interested in widening the gulf.Surely the road to global understanding and peace must lead us to emphasize our similarities rather than our differences. Our mutual love of hockey is one obvious common bond with the Soviets.Particularly laughable is Mr. Snider&rsquo;s reference to the Soviet Union as the &ldquo;bloodiest dictatorship in the history of the world.&rdquo; I realize young Jay doesn&rsquo;t remember World War II but surely he&rsquo;s not illiterate!Particularly ironic is that as president of the Flyers, the bloodiest franchise in NHL history, Mr. Snider is utilizing virtually dictatorial powers in imposing his personal morals on the hockey fans of Philadelphia and. indeed, the whole world. Come on Mr. Snider, give your fans the freedom of choice.I can&rsquo;t wait for Mr. Snider&rsquo;s next move&hellip;perhaps he&rsquo;ll release Brian Propp because he&rsquo;s a left winger.Bruce Jefferson, Edmonton, Alta.(If indeed, Mr. Snider does live in a house of glass, it&rsquo;s safe to assume it&rsquo;s made of plexiglass.) &#9632;

Shadow Boxing Battle Serves As Comic Relief

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011359/5579418-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="414" height="115"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2>WINNIPEG&mdash;Players who were once his teammates speak highly of Mario Marois.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a quality NHL player,&rdquo; said Dave Silk, who remembers him as a fellow member of the New York Rangers. &ldquo;He keeps his wits about him.&rdquo;More recently, Daniel Bouchard knew him as a key member of the Quebec Nordiques.&ldquo;He was the most important guy on the team, in my opinion,&rdquo; said Bouchard. &ldquo;He played 30 minutes a game and he always kept things straightened out, on and off the ice.&rdquo;Marois, 28, a righthanded-shooting defenseman, was acquired by the Winnipeg Jets, ending John Ferguson&rsquo;s yearlong quest to obtain him.Drafted 62nd overall by the Rangers and Ferguson in 1977, the 5-foot-ll, 190-pound Marois found his niche in Quebec, where he served as the Nordi-ques&rsquo; captain until the time of the trade.Dealt to Quebec was Robert Picard, 28, a veteran of 162 games with the Jets, for whom he might have played the best hockey of his career.&ldquo;1 had heard rumors that Fergie wanted me again,&rdquo; said Marois. &ldquo;But I was shocked when it happened. I was in the (Quebec) dressing room about 4:45 (p.m.) when I was asked to see the coach. A few minutes later, I left the place.&rdquo;Marois is the Jets&rsquo; first righthanded shot defenseman since Moe Mantha, who is now a member of Pittsburgh Penguins.Barry Long, the Winnipeg coach, welcomed the addition of Marois.&ldquo;That trade was a good, solid trade,&rdquo; said Long, leaving a lingering hint of his displeasure with the previous week&rsquo;s deal that sent Dave Babych to the Hartford Whalers for right winger Ray Neufeld.&ldquo;I see nothing but positive feelings from this trade. It&rsquo;s been a while since we had a righthanded-shooting defenseman. He gives us more options.&rdquo;Quebec fans had been making life uncomfortable for Marois.&ldquo;They had to have a scapegoat and they chose him,&rdquo; said Bouchard.Marois is noted as a tough player who can create a little offense, too. He had six goals and 37 assists in 76 games last season.More recently, Marois had one goal and 12 assists in 20 games. He had the team&rsquo;s worst plus-minus figure (minus-10).&ldquo;I knew the guys in Quebec had great respect for him,&rdquo; said Silk, a right winger with the Jets. &ldquo;He was their leader. Whether he&rsquo;ll be our leader here, I can&rsquo;t say.&ldquo;Leadership comes with time.&rdquo;Picard came to the Jets with a reputation for being an irritant. He was everything but. Players liked him, the coaches respected him and the media enjoyed his daily banter.Playing beside Randy Carlyle, who constantly shouted instructions, Picard shone. A year ago, he warranted serious consideration for the Campbell Confer ence mid-season All-Star team.Picard&rsquo;s play deteriorated in the absence of Carlyle and Babych. A thigh injury kept Carlyle out of the lineup.&ldquo;He was trying to make up for the loss of Carlyle and Babych,&rdquo; said Long. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t criticize Pick. His work habits were outstanding.&rdquo;On the bright side has been the play of rookie defenseman Bobby Dollas. His poise and strength helped to ease the situation.&ldquo;He looks like he&rsquo;s been here for years,&rdquo; said Dale Hawerchuk.Marois should take up some of the workload left by Babych&rsquo;s departure.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t played badly this year,&rdquo; said Marois. &ldquo;I started well and now I&rsquo;m ready to help the Jets.&rdquo;BENCH BITS&mdash;Dropping all four games on a recent eastern road swing, the Jets were doing some serious soul searching. &ldquo;We need some direction, a lot better work habits, better discipline and once we put it all together I&rsquo;m sure we can go 15 or 20 games without a defeat, like we did a year ago,&rdquo; said Paul MacLean&hellip;Ray Neufeld found Bengt Lundhohn&rsquo;s old jersey a bit small, so Mario Marois has become heir to No. 22 while Neufeld has taken No. 28, last worn by Mike Lauen&hellip;Neufeld had an abundance of scoring chances in his first four games, but a touch of stone, ill luck and hot goaltenders plagued him&hellip;Dave Ellett has been worked to a frazzle in the absence of Randy Carlyle and the trading of his partner, Dave Babych. &#9632;

f0009-01

Jet GM’s Quest For Marois Finally Pays Off

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02983/5579449-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="454" height="117"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;The need for a left defenseman and not contract squabbles was the basis of a trade which sent Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; captain Mario Marois to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for Robert Picard.That was the position of Maurice Fi-lion after the Nordiques&rsquo; general manager dealt away a man with whom he&rsquo;d had contract hassles in recent seasons.&ldquo;Look, the only reason we made the deal was because we desperately needed a defenseman who can play on the left side,&rdquo; said Filion.&ldquo;With the loss of Normand Rochefort we were reduced to using Marois or Randy Moller on the left side instead of on the right, where they belong.&ldquo;It is not even a question of whether one player is that much better than the other overall. The key for us in the deal is that Picard is a natural left defenseman and that is what we needed.&rdquo;Marois was not, shall we say, elated by the trade.That much was obvious the night of the deal when Marois stormed out of Le Colisee after grabbing an armful of sticks and his sweater.&ldquo;I decided to tell Mario that the trade had taken place up front before our Calgary game,&rdquo; said Filion of the game Quebec lost 3-1. &ldquo;Picard was not informed immediately because he was playing that same night in New Jersey.&ldquo;Mario asked me if he was obliged to play or not and I said it was up to him to decide. He has served us well in recent years as team captain but he decided not to play and I respected that decision.&rdquo;Marois is the second team captain traded by Quebec in the last four years.In December of 1981 the Nordiques traded Robbie Ftorek to the New York Rangers but that deal was made because Ftorek had asked to be moved&mdash;Filion was actually doing Ftorek a favor by helping him escape the financial (tax) burdens that go with playing in Quebec.Marois had been hearing trade rumors for years, especially since the start of this season. His plus-minus stats were the worst on the team after 20 games.There were, however, extenuating circumstances. Marois, a righthanded shot, was playing the left side and usually facing the opposition&rsquo;s top scoring line.Marois refused to speak with Quebec reporters in the hours following the trade.but he did speak briefly with a Winnipeg writer.&ldquo;After five years I did not expect to have to leave Quebec,&rdquo; said Marois.&lsquo;&lsquo;The trade came as a big shock even if I realize such things are to be expected in the NHL. I don&rsquo;t know if my contract problems had anything to do with my being traded. All I know is that I must now try and adapt to the situation as best I can.&rdquo;Filion dismissed any notion that the contract squabble was the reason for his moving Marois.&ldquo;Just because Michel Goulet was recently on strike certainly does not mean I am considering a trade for him,&rdquo; said Filion. &ldquo;Negotiations with players do not always develop the way you want. But that is not why we traded Mario.&rdquo;Picard was as shocked as Marois by the trade.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t want to think about it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I hate leaving a team that is struggling and after all the trades I have been involved in I am getting tired of it all. I really did not expect I would be traded at this time of the year.&rdquo;Picard leaves one struggling team to join another. The loss to Calgary by his new team was the fourth straight setback for Quebec. The Nordiques were undefeated in their first seven starts but then slumped to a 3-10-1 record in their next 14 games.If Filion wanted to shake up his team, he did. Marois&rsquo; former teammates were shocked by the trade.Marois was an extremely popular figure with the other players, a capable team leader outside and inside the dressing room.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like losing a part of your family,&rdquo; said goaltender Mario Gosselin.&ldquo;It is really difficult when you lose a close friend,&rdquo; added defenseman Pat Price.Immediately incumbent upon Picard was the task of proving the trade was worthwhile&mdash;a job with which he is very familiar.The Nordiques are Picard&rsquo;s fifth team in eight NHL seasons. &#9632;

f0009-02

Deal Shows Nords’ Leftist Leanings

<div class="byline">Stan Fischler&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011444/5579480-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="326" height="446"></div>&ldquo;The fact remains that any time, or nine out of 10 times, that there&rsquo;s a major problem in a game. Philadelphia is one of the combatants. This has been going on for years.&rdquo;&mdash;Craig Patrick, GM, New York Rangers.&ldquo;A Washington official told me that the Capitals got a goon like Dwight Schofield simply to neutralize Philadelphia&rsquo;s Dave Brown.&mdash;Anonymous NHL employee.Why docs everyone pick on the Philadelphia Flyers?Why can&rsquo;t everyone leave the Broad Street Bullies alone already?Charges, charges, charges. That&rsquo;s all the garbage that&rsquo;s thrown in the faces of the poor denizens of The Spectrum.Well, once and for all. it&rsquo;s time to let the ferocious ones defend themselves.Flyers, the charges are there for all to see. So just don&rsquo;t sit there, answer them, dammit! Answer them!!!Q: Brad Marsh, the term goon&mdash;referring to your Flyers&mdash;has been cropping up again. What about it?BRAD MARSH: &ldquo;First of all, we haven&rsquo;t &ldquo;gooned&rdquo; anybody this year. Look at the penalty minutes. Every team we&rsquo;ve played has been geared up for the Philadelphia Flyers. We&rsquo;re the Stanley Cup finalists&hellip;and a lot of the fights (we&rsquo;ve been in) we haven&rsquo;t started at all. We&rsquo;re basically a skating team and if someone wants to play rough we&rsquo;re going to protect our skaters.&rdquo;Q: What about Washington bringing in Schofield to counteract Dave Brown?BRAD MARSH: &ldquo;That&rsquo;s Washington&rsquo;s problem. We&rsquo;ve got a lot of players who can fight but they also can play hockey. Take Dave Brown. We can put him out in any situation, not just for fighting. We can put him out in the last minute of the game, the last minute of the period for defensive reasons. He&rsquo;s a hockey player. As for the fights, we&rsquo;ve got a lot of young players and they work hard every shift and a lot of times that results in a fight. I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;re doing anything different than we did last year.&rdquo;Q: You won&rsquo;t convince (Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; goalie) Bob Janecyk of that. Last time you played he was beefing about Flyers&rsquo; goonism.BRAD MARSH: &ldquo;Look at the replays. He swung his stick at Peter Zezel first. And it was their guy who jumped in for the third man. In the other fights it was our tough guy fighting their tough guy. In a lot of games, because we win, they make us out to be the bad guy. Or because of the reputation we&rsquo;re the bad guys.&rdquo;Q: The Flyers sure get a lot of penalties. Do you think the refs are watching your club more closely than others?BRAD MARSH: &ldquo;They do with Dave Brown. It seems that every time he&rsquo;s in a fight he gets the extra penalty; which he doesn&rsquo;t deserve.Brownie doesn&rsquo;t want to fight any more. He&rsquo;s proved himself (as a fighter). He&rsquo;s a hockey player now. Look at our penalty minutes and i&rsquo;ll bet you could easily subtract 100 penalties out there and say they were bad calls by the referees.&rdquo;Obviously, we got nowhere with Marsh when it comes to the goon charge. Let&rsquo;s try the smart, not-so-quiet man behind the club, assistant coach E.J. McGuire.Q: Craig Patrick charges that the Flyers are as bad as ever.E.J. McGUIRE: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not concerned to the point that we&rsquo;ll do anything different about it. There&rsquo;s an explanation: Other teams rise to our level when they play us and that extra notch on &lsquo;heir part results in rough play; maybe frustration on the other team&rsquo;s part. Our team responds to that. As for Craig Patrick, he&rsquo;s looking out for the best interests of his team. He&rsquo;s not going to change our approach or our style, particularly against the Rangers.&rdquo;Q: Come, come, E.J. For years the Flyers gooned it against the Rangers.E.J. McGUIRE: &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t feel we can out-muscle the Rangers. We feel we have the type of talent to win every time the ref drops the puck and we prepare in a lot of different ways, but certainly not trying to out-hit them or out-muscle them in a negative sense.&rdquo;Q: How do you feel about Schofield neutralizing Brown?E.J. McGUIRE: &ldquo;Last time we played them Schofield and Rick Tocchet had a fight and that sort of evened off. There&rsquo;s been a lot of fights with us and we&rsquo;ve got to acknowledge that. Statistically, it&rsquo;s a fact. But that will even off toward the end of the year. It&rsquo;s not a strategy by which other teams will beat us.&rdquo;Then, there are more sensitive Flyers such as Ed (Boxcar) Hospodar, the poor man&rsquo;s Dave Semenko (Ed. Note: Hospodar is now an ex-Flyer. having been traded to Minnesota).Q: Goonism as a Flyer philosophy, Ed?ED HOSPODAR: &ldquo;When we play as well as we&rsquo;ve been playing, people want to make accusations about us.&rdquo;Q: What about all those Flyer penalties?ED HOSPODAR: (less cool than a moment earlier) &ldquo;Ah. you&rsquo;re making stuff out of junk. We also&hellip;when we start to&hellip;that&rsquo;s junk. That&rsquo;s garbage&hellip;that&rsquo;s just&hellip;I don&rsquo;t even want to answer that question. I think that&rsquo;s true&hellip;it&rsquo;s so stupid&hellip;I mean&hellip;it&rsquo;s not even worth commenting on. It&rsquo;s a terrible question even to bring that up. The players were talking about it and I think it&rsquo;s foolish. It&rsquo;s a media deal; you want to write a story, so you pick an angle. I wouldn&rsquo;t even want to touch that!&rdquo; (Less cool than a minute after he got hot under the collar.) &ldquo;No, I won&rsquo;t touch that.&rdquo;I&rsquo;ll touch it and I&rsquo;ll tell you everything you need to know about the Flyers.The most important thing to know is that the Wales Conference champs are the most pragmatic team in the NHL. They take the most practical approach to winning. Which is another way of saying: do what you have to do to win and don&rsquo;t even worry your little heads about the rule book.If it means running the enemy goalkeeper, do it. If it means harrassing the enemy superstar after the whistle, do it. If it means an overdose of rule-bending, do it.Why not? Check your NHL history books and you&rsquo;ll find there&rsquo;s ample precedent for the Flyers&rsquo; success.Using virtually the same ambush tactics as the Flyers, the Toronto Maple Leafs won Stanley Cups in 1947, 1948 and 1949. Jim Thomson was Brad Marsh. Bill Barilko was Ed Hospodar. Howie Meeker was Rick Tocchet and Ted Kennedy was Ron Sutter.They bent the law to their purposes, clearly understood that referees see about 75 per cent of all infractions and call only 50 per cent, and happily marauded through the straight Cups. The Flyers did virtually the same thing in 1974 and 1975. In fact there&rsquo;s precious little difference between Fred Shero&rsquo;s Cup winners and Mike Keenan&rsquo;s collection.They both hustle their tooshies off. They both harass you to distraction. They both come up with the big goals, and they&rsquo;re both inspired hockey clubs.&ldquo;We have more leaders than most people think.&rdquo; says captain Dave Poulin.No, they don&rsquo;t have Dave Schultz, but they do have Dave Brown, who is a 1985 version of Schultz, only more controlled, but a pure goonybird nonetheless.So, Craig Patrick is right. The Flyers say &ldquo;Damn the officials, full speed ahead!&rdquo;But the Flyers are right, too. More so, in fact. They win!<h2>TUBBY REMEMBERS</h2>Last month, when goalie Frank Caprice of the Vancouver Canucks was strafed for 13 goals by the Oilers (final score. 13-0) there was one man in Edmonton who was hoping that the Oilers wouldn&rsquo;t run the score to 15-0. And for good reason.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m being selfish.&rdquo; admits Ken (Tubby) McAuley, a member of the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame, &ldquo;but after all a record is a record.&rdquo;It sure is. The record is 15-0&mdash;most one-sided NHL shutout ever&mdash;and Tubby McAuley was the Rangers&rsquo; goalkeeper who permitted all 15 Red Wings goals on that incredible night of Jan. 23, 1944. Tubby remembers the game as if it happened two minutes ago.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you how bad it was,&rdquo; says the 64-year-old McAuley. &ldquo;The Red Wings outplayed us so badly after the game the goal judge gave me the red goal light bulb as a momenta.&rdquo;How bad was it Tubby?&ldquo;The Red Wings were in our zone for so long that at the end of the period there was no need to clean the ice at the other end because our guys never got there.&rdquo;How bad was it Tubby?&ldquo;To be fair about it. we weren&rsquo;t a very good team to begin with (dead last) and we had so many guys out with injuries we had to promote six kids from the amateurs that night. After the game was over I just wanted to quit but, of course, I didn&rsquo;t. Two nights later we played the Maple Leafs and I only got beat 2-1.1 was the first star.&rdquo;How bad was it Tubby?&ldquo;It was an awful shock then, but I love it now. People like you always phone me up when a goalie gets bombed. You never hear of Gordie Howe or Maurice Richard any more, but you always hear about Ken McAuley. Heck. I hope no NHL goalie ever gets beat 15-0. That&rsquo;s my record and I&rsquo;d like it to stand.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-01

Philadelphia Flyer Philosophy Examined

<h2>HOCKEY NOTEBOOK</h2>The disappointing Buffalo Sabres (12-11-1) have failed thus far in a planned bid to revamp their image.First, the Sabres wanted to deemphasize defense in favor of more offense. And second, they wanted to de-emphasize Gil Perreault&rsquo;s central role on the team.Neither objective has been realized.The Sabres, who permitted the fewest number of goals in the National Hockey League last season, have not exactly forsaken defense this year.Buffalo ranked second, along with Washington, as of Dec. 2&mdash;which, of course, is a mark of achievement. But 13 teams had scored more goals per game than Sabres&mdash;just one fewer than last year when they ranked 15th at season&rsquo;s end.Not all has gone as outlined by assistant coach Craig Ramsay earlier this season.&ldquo;We just haven&rsquo;t been able to score enough goals,&rdquo; said Ramsay. &ldquo;We want our team to go on the offense. We&rsquo;ve been maybe too concerned in the past with our defensive play, with the Vezina Trophy. It may have hurt our offense. This year we&rsquo;re not so worried about it.&rdquo;In hopes of allowing for the emergence of a new key player, the Sabres wanted to be in a position to expect less of Perreault this season&mdash;and more of others such as Dave Andreychuk and John Tucker.&ldquo;I think you&rsquo;re foolish to try to have a 35-year-oid hockey player carry a team,&rdquo; remarked general manager Scott Bowman during training camp.Yet, 24 games into the season, Perreault continued to lead the team in scoring with 11 goals and 17 assists.Others in the top five were Mike Foligno (12-9-21), Andreychuk (9-12-21), Gilles Hamel (6-13-19) and Tucker (7-7-14).Apparently, nobody has responded to the challenge of taking over the role of offensive team leader.The rapid-improvement jinx continues to plague NHL teams.Past research has found that teams which make the most progress (in terms of point production) from one year to the next tend to fall back the following season.This year&rsquo;s textbook examples are the Winnipeg Jets and Los Angeles Kings, who both improved by 23 points last year&mdash;most in the league&mdash;only to play surprisingly poorly this year.Sounds like a coach-of-the-year jinx, doesn&rsquo;t it.By the way, do you remember who was runner-up for that honor last year?Barry Long of the Jets.The second annual Beanpot Masters Tournament will feature former Olympian Mike Eruzione.Eruzione, captain of the gold medalwinning USA Olympic team in 1980, joins the gathering of players aged 30 and over who once played for Harvard, Boston University, Boston College and Northeastern.The tournament, which raised $10,000 last year, is in aid of the Jimmy Fund&mdash;the world&rsquo;s first foundation dedicated to research into pediatric cancer.The event will be held Jan. 17-18 at Harvard&rsquo;s Alexander Bright Arena.The 38th annual NHL All-Star game, scheduled for Tues., Feb. 4 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Hartford, is already sold out.&ldquo;This is certainly one of the biggest, if not the biggest, sporting events in the Hartford city history,&rdquo; said Howard Baldwin, chairman and managing general partner of the Hartford Whalers.&ldquo;The fact that we have announced the game as a sellout reflects the magnitude of the game and the support professional hockey enjoys in this area.&ldquo;We could easily have sold 30,000 to 35,000 seats were the coliseum that large.&rdquo;The Veterans Memorial Coliseum holds 15,142. &#9632;

So Far, They’re Just The Same Old Sabres

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011315/5579535-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="397" height="114"></div><h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2>CALGARY&mdash;Slowly and without much advance notice, goaltender Reggie Lemelin is coming around.Not that there was far to go. Lemelin had been pretty good, if not spectacular, for the Calgary Flames in the early going.But this was the man who finished with a 30-12-10 record last year. This was the man who finished second in the Vezina Trophy balloting the year before.The Flames had come to expect more than just &ldquo;pretty good&rdquo; from Lemelin. &ldquo;Really good&rdquo; is more like it. And &ldquo;really good&rdquo; is what Lemelin has been over the last month.In a November to remember, Lemelin put together the longest personal undefeated streak in the league, going eight games without a loss. He finished the month 8-1-3 as the Flames vaulted to fourth overall in the NHL.One bad weekend&mdash;the second weekend of the season when he lost back-to-back games to Boston and Winnipeg&mdash;plus some bad goals even when the team was winning really hurt Lemelin in October.It was never a struggle to get his confidence up but it sure proved difficult to bring his goals against-average down.Clearly, keeping Lemelin healthy and playing well was the key to a successful Flames&rsquo; season. The Flames swept away goaltender Don Edwards in the summer so that Lemelin could be the team&rsquo;s uncontested No. 1 goaltender.Coach Bob Johnson made liberal use of Lemelin through the first third of the season saying: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s No. 1, the other guy (Marc D&rsquo;Amour) is No. 2.&rdquo; Accordingly. Lemelin started 21 of the team&rsquo;s first 24 games.Only when things got out of hand would Johnson go to the bullpen for D&rsquo;Amour. That hasn&rsquo;t happened much lately. As of the first week of December, Lemelin led the league in minutes played (1,239) and in wins (12-6-3).&ldquo;He is on top of his game right now,&rsquo;&rsquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing really well.&rdquo;&ldquo;The way Reg has been playing, whenever you get goaltending like that, you win hockey games,&rdquo; said defenseman Neil Sheehy. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s his job. Hopefully he will continue to come up with the big saves like he has.&rdquo;In recent weeks, much of the team&rsquo;s improved play was the result of its ability to win on the road. Twice last week, the Flames ended lengthy jinxes in opposing buildings, winning in Quebec for the first time since March, 1982 and winning in Madison Square Garden for the first time since December, 1980. For Lemelin, the win at Quebec was especially significant because it was the first ever in his hometown.&ldquo;There are a lot of people who have watched my career here, and wanted me to do well,&rdquo; said Lemelin after the game. &ldquo;Tonight I finally gave them something to remember.&rdquo;Jim Peplinski, one of the team&rsquo;s cocaptains called the team&rsquo;s improved road play &ldquo;part of becoming a winning hockey club.&ldquo;In the past, we would go on the road and think with a break here or a break there we could be.500 on the trip. Now we&rsquo;re thinking with a break here or a break there we can win them all or almost all of them.&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;re getting to the stage where we feel we can win every road game,&rdquo; added Lanny McDonald. &ldquo;When you get in the groove, when you develop that feeling for each other, no one wants to screw up and be the guy who&rsquo;ll cost you the game.&rdquo;The Flames received some good news following their most recent road trips when Paul Reinhart joined them to start practising in earnest for a return to the lineup later in the month.In Johnson&rsquo;s mind, Reinhart will return to the lineup as a forward, even though he made the All-Star team as a defenseman last year.&ldquo;First of all, it&rsquo;s easier to break a player in as a forward and better for his conditioning because he&rsquo;ll skate twice as much in practice,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;It will also be easier on him physically because he won&rsquo;t spend as much time in the corners. When we&rsquo;ve used him up front, he&rsquo;s always played well.&rdquo;Over the course of his six-year career, Reinhart has seen spot duty as a forward. However, he still thinks of himself as a defenseman.Reinhart believes that his back is ready for a return to the lineup but his condition isn&rsquo;t what it should be as yet.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m anxious to give it a try,&rdquo; said Reinhart. &ldquo;As far as the back is concerned, I don&rsquo;t think it would be a risk.&rdquo;&ldquo;He is not ready by my standards, and my standards are very high,&rdquo; said Johnson.IN BRIEF&mdash;The Flames have lost all three of their games to Edmonton Oilers this season. Had they won two of three they would have been tied with the Oilers atop the Smythe division as of Dec. 2. The 5-3 loss to the Oilers in Edmonton represented the 16th consecutive regularseason game that the Flames have failed to win in the Northlands Coliseum (0-124), a source of considerable frustration to the improving Flames. The problem this time was the power play. The Flames were a perfect 10: No goals on 10 chances. Conversely, the Oilers scored the first four times they held the man advantage&hellip;Right winger Tim Hunter missed five games because of a freak injury. Hunter suffered an elbow infection which hospitalized him for three days. Then he had an allergic reaction to &#9632;

f0011-01

Red-Hot Flame Goalie Justifies No. 1 Tag

<div class="byline">BY MICHAEL A. BERGER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021180/5579597-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="435" height="120"></div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2>NEW YORK&mdash;And in the 22nd game, chinks appeared in the New York Rangers&rsquo; armor.Almost as if a switch was thrown, the Rangers, who had performed steadily if unspectacularly through the first quarter of their schedule, suddenly reverted to last year&rsquo;s form.They dropped a 5-2 decision to the Calgary Flames in game No. 22 and. in the first half of a home-and-home set with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Rangers lost 5-4. The score flattered New York.First, the Flames.&ldquo;Our only chance was to use our speed and we were probably guilty of being a little flat.&rdquo; said coach Ted Sator. &ldquo;I think next time I&rsquo;ll take them to see Rocky IV.&rdquo;An apt thought. The Rangers were completely out-muscled by a bigger, stronger Flame team and the effort and character that had distinguished the Ran gers&rsquo; earlier successes was absent without leave.&ldquo;It was an example of what happened to us all through last year.&rdquo; said winger Bob Brooke, who has already scored more goals&mdash;12&mdash;this season than 81 previous National Hockey League games.&ldquo;Calgary forced us and we weren&rsquo;t ready to play,&rdquo; Brooke said. &ldquo;We were just a litle too slow. Yes, it (the game) was an indication of what can happen, but I don&rsquo;t look at it as happening again.&rdquo;Yet. happen again it did.After a 5-2 defeat of the Washington Capitals (keyed by Willie Huber&rsquo;s first goal of the season, a tally that provoked &lsquo;Huber Day&rsquo; in the area&rsquo;s newspapers), the Rangers stormed into Pittsburgh&hellip;and promptly fell behind 4-0.The losses to Pittsburgh and Calgary pointed out chink No. 1: Even if New York plays a consistent grinding game, they lack the size up front to carry out that plan effectively.With Don Maloney and George McPhee out of the lineup and Mike Allison suffering knee troubles. Calgary sent the Rangers bouncing hither and yon.To add some beef. Sator moved defenseman Steve Richmond to left wing, filling the slot vacated by Allison (anyone remember Sator&rsquo;s left wing plans for Richmond following the Rangers preseason brawl with Philadelphia?).John Vanbiesbrouck absorbed that loss, as he did the loss to the Flames. He also beat Washington.Which brings up the subject of chink No. 2: The Rangers&rsquo; No. 2 goaltender or lack thereof. Oh sure, they have Ron Scott on the bench but since Vanbiesbrouck has been in goal for all of the Rangers&rsquo; wins, it can safely be said Scott, and Terry Kleisinger before him. have contributed little.Vanbiesbrouck is a fine goaltender but he can&rsquo;t carry the entire netminding load himself. With a quarter of the season gone, the Rangers must develop a backup to Vanbiesbrouck and quickly.But the Rangers&rsquo; coaching staff seeks something of greater importance.&ldquo;The biggest thing we&rsquo;re trying to establish&mdash;consistency&mdash;has not been realized,&rdquo; Sator said following the Penguin loss. &ldquo;One night we win, the next night we lose.&rdquo;Is that not the ultimate in consistency?One win and one loss equals.500 hockey, the measuring stick so carefully stressed all season by the Ranger coaching staff.Perhaps the attitude that.500 hockey is sufficient is chink No. 3.RANGER RUMBLINGS&mdash;Through 20 games John Vanbiesbrouck led or was near the top of all goaltending statistical categories. Vanbiesbrouck was tied for first in wins and shutouts, third in goals-against average and sixth in save percentage. In the categories where he was not the leader, his competition had played anywhere from two to eight fewer games than he had&hellip;Simo Saarinen has resumed skating and is in New Haven, but no date yet has been set for his return to the Rangers&hellip;Rangers recalled defenseman Tony Feltrin&hellip;Through the 54 loss to the Pens, Barry Beck had missed 10 games with a strained left arm that threatens to hold him out of the lineup further. Chink No. 4? &#9632;

f0012-02

Setbacks Reveal Ranger Problems

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011416/5579566-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="463" height="113"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to tell you how far back he went, but when Glen started his speech, he picked up a black thing and said. &ldquo;This is a puck!&rsquo;&rdquo;&mdash;Bob McCammon, Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; assistant coach, Nov. 28, 1985.EDMONTON&mdash;The time had arrived for Glen Sather to deliver his semi-annual state of the union address.Not only was he inquiring &ldquo;What have you done for me lately?&rdquo; but also &ldquo;What will you be doing for me tomorrow and the next day and the&hellip;&rdquo;Initially, the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; general manager-coach met with his troops concerning a return to the basics. The ensuing practice included a rare on-ice appearance by Sather. And later, gnawing on an unlit cigar, he spoke with a small media contingent.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always abided by the attitude that it doesn&rsquo;t matter what you did yesterday, it&rsquo;s what you&rsquo;re going to do today that counts.&rdquo; Sather said the day after the Oilers had squandered a 4-1 lead and were forced to settle for a 5-5 tie with the Vancouver Canucks.&ldquo;Because we did something successful in the past.&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;doesn&rsquo;t mean we don&rsquo;t have to work hard today. That&rsquo;s why we practise fundamentals. Lately, we&rsquo;ve been sending them back to school, conducting refresher courses.&rdquo;The class of 1984-85 went through similar instructional roll calls in March. At that late stage in the semester, the adolescents were forced to cram diligently for the ultimate honors graduation in May.And. much to the surprise of many who caught them cutting class in March, the cap and gown reward came in the form of a second Stanley Cup.From playing hookey in February and March to straight A&rsquo;s in April and May. that&rsquo;s one hell of a successful gamble&mdash;one Sather doesn&rsquo;t want them to take one more time. Lately, there had been signs school was out once again.At the time Sather summoned class to order, the Oilers were riding a six-game unbeaten streak (4-0-2). They had been inflicted with defeat only twice in 12 previous outings (7-2-3.)On the outside, no problem, right?False. It&rsquo;s never too early to nip this sort of thing in the bud.The Vancouver match was a perfect example.&ldquo;We were flat out-worked after we took the 4-1 lead.&rdquo; said Sather, whose outfit thrashed the Canucks 13-0 on Nov. 8. when he was away scouting in Europe. &ldquo;We made a couple of faux-pas. These arc the things we&rsquo;ve been harping about. We haven&rsquo;t been doing the little things, we haven&rsquo;t been continually hounding the puck, and it has become frustrating.&rdquo;What it boiled down to was the customary work ethic.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like the guy who goes to work every morning with his old work boots.&rdquo; said Sather. &ldquo;Once he puts his dress shoes on he doesn&rsquo;t want to get in the mud anymore.&rdquo;Which is to say the Oilers have been attempting to get by on ability.&ldquo;When you have good individual players.&rdquo; said Sather, &ldquo;sometimes they think they don&rsquo;t have to do things collectively as a team because they have so much natural ability as individuals.&rdquo;The time had come to begin paying attention.&ldquo;The players have to respect the coaches,&rdquo; scowled Sather. &ldquo;I as much as told them that. We expect a certain level of accomplishment every day. I&rsquo;m not sure I expect to get it, but that&rsquo;s what I want.&rdquo;It came down to the bottom line.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve all recognized it at the beginning,&rdquo; said Sather, &ldquo;that if anyone is going to beat us. it&rsquo;s going to be ourselves.&rdquo;How did the lads react to the refresher courses in question?The Oilers ran their unbeaten streak to eight in a row, with a pair of weekend victories over the Hartford Whalers and the Calgary Flames&mdash;both of which came at the Northlands Coliseum.Traditionally, neither team has fared well in Edmonton. The Whalers haven&rsquo;t won here since joining the NHL in 1979 (0-9-2), while the Flames have gone 16 straight (0-12-4) regular-season matches without a victory here.Sather concluded the time had come to lay off the heavy-handed tactics.The Hartford match resulted in an 8-5 shootout.But only goalie Grant Fuhr, rusty following almost a month&rsquo;s layoff with a bruised shoulder, kept the Whalers within sight.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t tell the team, but I thought Grant would probably have a shaky start.&rdquo; said Sather. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve had so much grief lately, I figured they&rsquo;d see their way to overcome it. This was an 8-2 game.&rdquo;Not unlike the proverbial slap in the face with a certain shaving lotion brand, the Oilers needed that.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve had a lot of aggravation the last two weeks,&rdquo; added Sather. &ldquo;They needed something to regain their confidence. It doesn&rsquo;t make any difference how great a player or a team is, there is often a certain amount of self-doubt. Pro athletes are sometimes a little skeptical about their own ability. We had a meeting the other day for the purpose of basically reassuring them.&rdquo;With 13 goals in two games since the fireside chat and no losses in eight starts, the re-introduction to the puck seemed a useful lesson. &#9632;

f0012-01

Oilers Take Much-Needed Refresher Courses

<div class="byline">Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011330/5579628-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="347" height="465"></div>THERE IT IS, in all of its scarlet embarrassment, on page 39 of this year&rsquo;s Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; media guide. The Jets must have hired a soothsayer as a copywriter.&ldquo;Goaltender Brian Hayward once said that the players would revolt if he (Dave Babych) were ever traded.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s not too late for a second printing, but the essential deed is done. Babych is gone, to the Hartford Whalers for winger Ray Neufeld. And the Jets, the fourth-best team in the NHL last year, appear to be staging a bloodless coup against themselves.Not everybody was convinced that they were really that good, but no one could conceive they could be this bad, either. On a four-city eastern swing immediately following the trade, the Jets lost 4-3 at New Jersey. And that was their good game.On consecutive nights in Pittsburgh and Hartford, they went down 8-1. That&rsquo;s hard to do. Then, if there was any hope that the New Jersey game was at least a toe scraping the bottom of the abyss, the next night Winnipeg came to the Spectrum and lost 6-1.It wasn&rsquo;t that close. The shots were 37-15 and even that didn&rsquo;t tell the whole truth. Here is the complete list of Jets who played well: Laurie Boschman. Here is a secondary list of Jets who were at least functional: Tim Watters and Brian Hayward.Winnipeg was without life, without form, without the injured Randy Carlyle. And, maybe directly to the point, without Babych.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s certainly not the Winnipeg Jets of old,&rdquo; coach Barry Long understated. &ldquo;Our flow is gone. I don&rsquo;t know what to tell you. I thought a team like Philadelphia would bring out a challenge in us. And they buried us.&rdquo;Only six weeks ago, Glen Sather was calling the Jets one of the two best teams in the league. The collapse is shocking, sudden, total. &ldquo;If we can put our finger on it, I think we&rsquo;ll be alright,&rdquo; Long said. &ldquo;Right now, though, I&rsquo;m mystified.&rdquo;Oh, but he has his suspicions. And also some thinly-veiled anger towards his general manager, John Ferguson. &ldquo;We played a pretty good game (a 3-1 victory over St. Louis) in the last game before we left home,&rdquo; Long said. &ldquo;But then there was an incident that took place right after the game that caused the game to be forgotten.&rdquo;The &ldquo;incident&rdquo; was the Babych trade. And the bum Long feels is that apparently he was not given a vote in the decision. Certainly, he knew that Ferguson was shopping Babych around, but the actual decision by the GM was made without warning.A second deal, which sent Robert Picard to Quebec for Mario Marios one week later, soothed Long&rsquo;s feelings a little. But the timing of the Babych trade, which came while Carlyle was hurt, was curious. And the resulting nosedive has suddenly left last year&rsquo;s coach-of-the-year runner-up in employment jeopardy.All teams have slumps. But four consecutive losses by the combined score of 26-5 is the kind of collapse that makes a GM&rsquo;s trigger finger twitch. Long&rsquo;s hints of disapproval of the trade have been recorded and read. And Fergie does not have a long and distinguished record as a civil libertarian.Why did the Jets trade Babych? They needed some size on the wings. They also had a Carlyle, an emerging Dave Ellett, a steady Tim Watters and a couple of kids, Bobby Dollas and Peter Taglianetti, whom Ferguson felt were ready to play.There was no question that Babych, the second player taken in the 1980 draft, had not lived up to his promise as a dominant player. But there are a lot of grey areas as to the exact degree of disappointment.Babych made a lot of mistakes. But he was durable, scored 60 points every season and by any measure, was competent. What&rsquo;s more, Hayward&rsquo;s statement reflected how his teammates felt about him.Poor Neufeld, an honest player, a good guy equipped with two hands of stone around the net, has been delivered into a buzzsaw. And the Jets, who only six weeks ago appeared to be mounting a legitimate challenge to Edmonton, have completely fallen apart.&ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t know why this is happening,&rdquo; Ellett said. What he means is, he can&rsquo;t say it.It&rsquo;s almost classic. The GM makes the decision against the coach&rsquo;s wishes. And now the coach&rsquo;s job is in apparent jeapordy.For the gain of plugging a hole, Ferguson has risked a chemistry. The Jets haven&rsquo;t just lost a player, they&rsquo;ve lost faith. The coach has a gun pointed at his head while he disgustedly tries to pick up the pieces.It is not healthy. &#9632;

f0013-01

Are The Jets’ In Midst Of Slump Or Revolt?

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02965/5579659-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="484" height="116"></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Bob Errey was the number one draft choice of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the 15th player chosen overall in 1983.Errey scored 53 goals and 47 assists for Peterborough of the Ontario League while playing left wing on a line with center Steve Yzennan during his last season of junior hockey.Yzerman was drafted fourth overall by the Detroit Red Wings and scored 69 goals in his first two seasons in the National League.Errey, however, scored only nine goals in 81 NHL games, all of them coming in his first season. He spent most of last year in Baltimore of the American League, where he was again assigned this year.Pittsburgh fans were wondering if the Penguins had wasted another first-round draft pick.But Errey scored eight goals and seven assists in 18 games in Baltimore, and he was recalled by the Penguins. He immediately was placed on a line centered by another number one draft choice, Mario Lemieux.In his first game, Errey scored two goals 18 seconds apart in the first period and easily could have had more, but for the goaltending of the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; Brian Hayward.&ldquo;Starting early in the game I had a lot of energy,&rdquo; said Errey. &ldquo;Playing with guys like Mario Lemieux and Doug Shedden on the right wing makes things a lot easier.&ldquo;I was surprised when they placed me with Mario. When I was up last year, I didn&rsquo;t get to play with him and at camp I didn&rsquo;t see the left side with him at all. It was a nice change.&ldquo;He wants the puck all the time. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve ever played with a right-handed center in this organization, which means the puck&rsquo;s going to come to the left side a little more.&rdquo;Errey said he had been waiting for a game like that for a long time.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re always trying to show them you deserve to play here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You work hard every shift and things just happened to bounce right.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really sure what the difference is. Maybe just shooting the puck. Once one or two go in, then your confidence rises and you start picking your head up, you start making some plays and you start shooting more. That&rsquo;s the key&mdash;you&rsquo;ve got to shoot to score.&rdquo;Errey, who is a couple of inches shorter than his listed 5-foot-10, says he was disappointed when he was sent to the minors again this season.&ldquo;I worked hard this summer and I wanted to go to camp proving that I earned a spot,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Obviously I didn&rsquo;t. When I was sent down, I took the attitude that I was going to work hard and try to get back up here. Now that I&rsquo;m here, I&rsquo;m going to work equally as hard.&rdquo;&ldquo;The thing about Bobby is he&rsquo;s got a lot of speed,&rdquo; said coach Bob Berry. &ldquo;It seems that he&rsquo;s skating a little bit stronger than he was at training camp. Hope fully, he&rsquo;s matured to the point where he&rsquo;s going to be able to get some goals for us.&rdquo;Errey says he has tried to not let the pressure of being a number one draft choice get the better of him.&ldquo;The first year there was pressure on me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I tried to work hard, and the team seemed to struggle. That made it harder on every individual, not just me.&ldquo;The last two years there hasn&rsquo;t been any pressure at all. I put a little pressure on myself. There&rsquo;s always pressure trying to play in the NHL, but there wasn&rsquo;t any added pressure with being a first-round draft choice.&rdquo;The year Errey was drafted, the Penguins finished last overall, earning them first choice in the entry draft. But they switched drafting positions with Minnesota, which selected Brian Lawton No. 1 overall, in a deal to acquire defenseman Ron Meighan, who retired last season at the age of 21. Errey says no such thoughts have crossed his mind.&ldquo;Not at all,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just 21 years of age. I knew I had a few things to learn. I knew I wanted to learn.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0013-02

Errey Knows Key To Success Is Hard Work

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>While the Maple Leafs continue to get socked with a bad press both in Toronto and internationally&mdash;even Sports Illustrated walloped them&mdash;NHL players&rsquo; union head Al Eagleson has a solution. &ldquo;The first thing that has to be done,&rdquo; tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;is to hire a competent general manager and a new chief scout.&rdquo; Eagleson says there are several ex-Leafs who would fit the Maple Leaf Garden mold like perfectly-meshed gears. &ldquo;Bob Pulford would be an ideal choice (as GM) and George Armstrong as chief scout,&rdquo; says The Eagle. &ldquo;The club could use someone who lived and died for the Leafs, like Bob Baun, on the staff to help ticket sales. What they need are people with proven ability.&rdquo; Eagleson also touts other Leaf alumni, including Dave Keon and Darryl Sittler, who are still revered by Toronto fans. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d hire Sittler as assistant coach and I&rsquo;d do what Serge Savard has done in Montreal&mdash;cultivate good public relations. Right now the media in Toronto is dying to say something positive about the Leafs. Imagine how they&rsquo;d react to people like Sittler, Keon and Baun.&rdquo;Another nasty and potentially serious anti-refs barrage has been fired, this time from Montreal. The charge is that French-Canadian refs (Ron Foumier and Denis Morel) go out of their way to be more difficult with the two NHL teams in French-speaking Quebec, the Canadiens and Nordi-ques. The charge was made by Habs&rsquo; defenseman Petr Svoboda (&ldquo;French guys are always harder on us than English guys.&rdquo;) and supported by others, including at least one Montreal broadcaster. Canadiens&rsquo; coach Jean Perron adds that when the Habs are on the road his Canadiens &ldquo;always get the first penalty of the game&rdquo; as they do, he charges, in the Forum. Oilers&rsquo; boss Glen Sather is no less kind to zebra Don Koharski. who handled the argument-riddled Oilers-Flyers Pelle Lindbergh memorial game. &ldquo;Koharski,&rdquo; says Sather, &ldquo;did everything he could to help out the Philadelphia fans.&rdquo;&hellip;The David Babych-Ray Neufeld trade has a lot of NHLers talking. The Rangers&rsquo; James Patrick says there&rsquo;s no question that Hartford won the deal.New York-based reports that the Rangers would like Joey Mullen from the Blues drew an amused chuckle from St. Louis owner Harry Omest. &ldquo;Joey&rsquo;s playing the best hockey of his life right now,&rdquo; Ornest tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re not going to get him now but they could have gotten him a lot cheaper not that long ago.&rdquo;&hellip;A Behn Wilson-to-the-Rangers deal has also been bruited about on Broadway&hellip;In Montreal they&rsquo;re crediting Hall of Famer Ken Dryden with originally pushing the Canadiens on Swedish ace rookie Kjell Dahlin. Dryden got the tip from Swedish player Tord Lindstrom. Of the hundreds of articles written about Pelle Lindbergh&rsquo;s death, by far the most devastatingly tough was Alan Greenberg&rsquo;s Hartford Courant column, headlined, &ldquo;FACE IT, PELLE JUST GOT FATE.&rdquo; In unusually brutal prose, Greenberg wrote: &ldquo;He (Lindbergh) was a menace to society, just another senseless drunk boozed out of his mind climbing behind the wheel to wreak havoc on the highway.&rdquo; By contrast, columnist Ray Didinger of the Philadelphia Daily News spoke with Philadelphia clinical psychologist Dr. Steven Rosenberg, who works with the Flyers as a motivational therapist. Dr. Rosenberg says Lindbergh did not have a drinking problem. &ldquo;Nothing of the kind,&rdquo; added Dr. Rosenberg. &ldquo;I remember buying Pelle a beer when I visited Sweden last summer. He wouldn&rsquo;t even touch it. He said if you were caught drinking and driving in Sweden, they put you in jail. He didn&rsquo;t want to take any chances. Pelle was not a self-destructive person.&rdquo;Hasty production of the All-Star ballot by the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association has caused a stir in some precincts where seemingly deserving players have been ignored. Vancouver Sun columnist Mike Beamish makes an issue of Canucks&rsquo; right winger Tony Tanti being omitted from the ballot. Beamish quotes Winnipeg Free Press hockey writer Reyn Davis complaining that suggestions he made to the writers association prez Rod Beaton went unnoticed. Beaton counters that Davis&rsquo; input was considered along with all the other Campbell writers he surveyed, from which a consensus was arrived. &ldquo;Certainly, Davis couldn&rsquo;t expect to see the list come out exactly as he suggested,&rdquo; Beaton says. &ldquo;He was only one of many writers to be polled. It was a consensus. Beamish should have known better because he consulted me and I explained the system used to arrive at the players named on the ballot.&rdquo;The Caps&rsquo; Lou Franceschetti is an avid Yankees fan. Asked if he&rsquo;d ever like to play for George Steinbrenner, Lou replies: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d take the money and run!&rdquo;&hellip;Greg Adams is becoming one of the new media favorites in Washington. &ldquo;Last year,&rdquo; chortles Adams, &ldquo;they didn&rsquo;t know my name.&rdquo;&hellip;The Caps&rsquo; Dwight Schofield on fighting: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like it if it was out of the game, but I might not be playing if it was (banned)&rdquo;&hellip;The Nordiques&rsquo; Pat Price tells Montreal Gazette reporter David Johnston that the Nords-Canadiens rivalry is getting out of hand and that someone might get seriously hurt some day. &ldquo;We hate red,&rdquo; says Price, &ldquo;and they hate blue.&rdquo; According to Johnston, Price has a private war going with the Habs&rsquo; Mario Tremblay&hellip;The Nordiques David Shaw has recently become a media darling in Quebec&hellip;The Flames&rsquo; Dan Quinn on teammate Charlie Bourgeois&rsquo; lack of sartorial splendor: &ldquo;Charlie Bourgeois couldn&rsquo;t dress a turkey.&rdquo; &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011396/5579714-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="357" height="118"></div><h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2>BOSTON&mdash;The Boston Bruins traded away their first choice in the 1985 entry draft for Charlie Simmer, which meant that Kraig Nienhuis had a lot to live up to.When he was signed by the Bruins as a free agent off the campus of RPI, home of the NCAA hockey champions, general manager Harry Sinden billed him as the equivalent of a No. 1 draft choice.Now, after 22 games in a Boston uniform, Nienhuis is being touted as a candidate for rookie of the year.He scored his 10th and 11th goals of the season recently, one of them tying the New York Islanders 4-4 at 15:07 of the third period and the other beating the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 with only 29 seconds left in regulation time.All this after he averaged only 10 goals a season during his three years at RPI.So, what&rsquo;s the reason for the dramatic change?&ldquo;It just comes down to a lot more freedom on the ice in the pros, the ability to ad lib,&rdquo; explained Nienhuis. &ldquo;You can innovate a little bit more out there in the pros.&ldquo;In college I was so restricted that it seemed like I was bound by chains all the time. In the pros, there&rsquo;s been no chains at all. It&rsquo;s just free-wheeling.&ldquo;In college, everybody just skates a hundred miles an hour the whole time. Everybody&rsquo;s just flying all over. In pros, it&rsquo;s much more slowed down, much more a thinking game.&rdquo;Nienhuis, a 24-goal-old left winger, is an unusual hockey player in that he did not come up through the ranks as do most North Americans.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t start to take hockey seriously until I was 18,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t play minor hockey at all. I played mostly semi-pro soccer and football until I was 18.&rdquo;He played some hockey, of course. You can&rsquo;t grow up in Samia, Ont., without doing that. But his ice time was confined to recreational and church leagues. Then he happened to attend a Jr. B game in Samia.&ldquo;It was a playoff game late in the spring,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I came in halfway through the first period. It was just exhilarating. The ambience in the building was amazing.(Ambience, if you&rsquo;re unfamiliar with it, is an RPI word meaning atmosphere.)&ldquo;I said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m going to play this game. I&rsquo;m going to get serious about this game.&rsquo; I quit soccer and football and channelled all my energies into hockey.&rdquo;He tried out for the Samia Bees, the hometown Jr. B team, made the squad and played well enbough to win a scholarship at RPI. His coach was Mike Addesa, who taught a disciplined, highly-structured game.&ldquo;I really didn&rsquo;t have any type of style until I got into college,&rdquo; said Nienhuis. &ldquo;Then Mike kind of said, &lsquo;With your physical attributes and your skating ability, you really don&rsquo;t have the finesse or the hands, so we&rsquo;ll make you a checker.&ldquo;That was stamped on my forehead when I came to the pros.&rdquo;When he decided to leave RPI with a year of hockey eligibility remaining, Nienhuis, who was widely ignored in his entry draft year, had offers from 11 NHL teams. He narrowed them down to Minnesota, Montreal, Buffalo and Boston.&ldquo;Then the Bruins flew me down to Boston and I had lunch with Mike Mil-bury and Terry O&rsquo;Reilly,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was really impressed with their attitude. It was going to be a new year, new coaches, a great opportunity for me.&rdquo;The Bruins have been impressed wth Nienhuis&rsquo; attitude, too.A couple of minutes after he scored the tying goal against the Islanders, the rookie winger took a puck flush in his right eye. He went to the dressing room for seven stitches, four above and three below the eye.&ldquo;I was in the medical room and I could hear the game on the radio,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There was no way I could lay in there and let this go on. I was hoping I&rsquo;d come out there and get the overtime goal.&rdquo;He was back on the ice with 3:08 left in the extra period.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been scoring goals and you can&rsquo;t score goals from the dressing room so I imagine that was his attitude,&rdquo; said coach Butch Goring.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the kind of attitude you have to have. Just because you hurt a little bit doesn&rsquo;t mean you have to pack it in.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-01

Freedom Allows Nienhuis To Shed ‘Checker’ Label

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011296/5579745-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="453" height="123"></div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Bob Bassen is living a dream with the New York Islanders.Fresh out of junior hockey, the 20-year-old left winger has already established some interesting &ldquo;firsts&rdquo; while playing for the former Stanley Cup champions.In the Islanders&rsquo; season opener at Los Angeles, Bassen suffered a severe knee injury in the first minute of his first shift of his first National Hockey League game.He was sidelined for three weeks, spent two weeks with Springfield of the American League and then was recalled by the Islanders Nov. 18.The following night, in a game against the Flyers in Philadelphia, Bassen scored his first NHL goal on his first shot.&ldquo;That was quite a thrill,&rdquo; the rookie admitted later.He experienced another thrill recently when he returned to his native city of calgary for the Islanders&rsquo; game against the Flames at the Saddledome and played left wing on a line with Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy.Bassen comes from good hockey stock. He is the son of Hank Bassen, a former NHL goalie who is general manager of the Western League&rsquo;s Calgary Wranglers. The elder Bassen broke into the NHL with Chicago Black Hawks in 1954. He also saw service with the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins before retiring in 1968.&ldquo;Dad played a lot in the minors (with nine different teams) and he told me that nothing compares to playing in the majors,&rdquo; Bob Bassen said. &ldquo;He told me it&rsquo;s one thing to get there and another thing to stay and I should give it my best shot from the beginning.&rdquo;Hank Bassen never encouraged his son to be a goalie.&ldquo;He would have let me if I wanted to (play goal), but he never forced me,&rdquo; Bassen said. &ldquo;We had a rink in our backyard and Dad helped me a lot. He&rsquo;s got a lot of knowledge of the game. After (junior) games we&rsquo;d sit and talk and talk hockey.&rdquo;Bassen played junior hockey for Medicine Hat of the WHL the past two seasons. He was a 29-goal scorer two years ago, but slipped through the entry draft unnoticed.&ldquo;At the time, I was a little down,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I figured I wasn&rsquo;t going anywhere.&rdquo;His father encouraged him not to quit.&ldquo;Dad told me the draft was a funny thing and said if I kept at it I&rsquo;d get my chance.&rdquo;That chance came last year when Bob Bassen was invited to the Islanders&rsquo; training camp. He had an excellent camp. General manager Bill Torrey made him Islander property and shipped him back to Medicine Hat. where he finished his junior career by scoring 32 goals and accumulating 143 penalty minutes.Bassen feels one of the reasons he was ignored in the draft was his lack of size.&ldquo;I only weighed 150 pounds then,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I matured late.&rdquo;He now carries a solid 180 pounds on a 5-foot-10 frame and is extremely aggressive.&ldquo;I always try to take my man out,&rdquo; Bassen said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s my style. Now that I&rsquo;m up here I have to keep it up. I have to work hard and hope. A lot of people might say I don&rsquo;t have a chance of sticking. If I thought that, I wouldn&rsquo;t be here.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Denis Potvin rejoined the Islanders on their three-game western swing after missing four games with an infected ear. He scored a goal in the Isles&rsquo; 4-1 victory over Winnipeg and assisted on a goal by Patrick Flatley in the Isles&rsquo; 4-3 loss to Calgary. The two points gave Potvin a career total of 913 points, two fewer than Bobby Orr&rsquo;s all-time record for a defenseman. With Potvin&rsquo;s return, Ken Leiter was shipped back to Spring-field&hellip;Clark Gillies and Bob Nystrom did not make the western trip. The Islanders completed the three-game joumey with a 1-1-1 record. &#9632;

f0015-01

Determination Is A Trademark For Bassen

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02921/5579776-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="479" height="111"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2>MONTREAL&mdash;The move was made quietly, without a great deal of fanfare.Rookie Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; coach Jean Perron decided to reunite what had been the team&rsquo;s most effective defensive line over the past few seasons, moving Guy Carbonneau back between Bob Gainey and Chris Nilan.The dividends paid off almost immediately.Carbonneau, who had been in a touch of a slump, scored two goals the first night the line was back together.He also earned an important assist, winning a faceoff to set up Nilan for the goal which ignited a four-goal Canadiens&rsquo; comeback and gave Montreal a 5-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.The next night in Montreal. Carbonneau had a pair of goals, including a shorthanded effort and Gainey had a shorthanded goal as the Canadiens clipped the Detroit Red Wings 10-1.&ldquo;I think I got a few more chances when our line was put back together,&rdquo; admitted Carbonneau. &ldquo;I know Bob plays well defensively, so I can take a few more chanses.&ldquo;I was having a tough time scoring before the game in Buffalo. I had the chances, but I just could not put the puck in.&rdquo;Carbonneau&rsquo;s four goals in two nights brought his total to eight on the year. Perron had the crafty center playing with rookie right winger Kjell Dahlin and Ryan Walter for a good chunk of the year, but it seemed that Carbonneau was missing his former linemates.Nilan sat out an eight-game suspension earlier this season, came back Nov. 5 and found himself aligned with rookie center Stephane Richer and left winger Mats Naslund. That experiment ended when Nilan joined Bobby Smith&rsquo;s line just before Richer suffered a sprained ankle on Nov. 18.&ldquo;Having our line back together gives me more confidence and I think it&rsquo;s the same thing for Chris,&rdquo; Carbonneau said.The reunited trio and just about everybody else on the team played disciplined and aggressive hockey in the victory at Buffalo and the home-ice win over Detroit after losing again in Washington earlier in the week.The 5-2 loss to the Capitals stretched Montreal&rsquo;s winless streak at the Capital Centre to 12 games&mdash;seven losses and five ties.Despite dominating Buffalo, the Canadiens were still trailing entering the third period before the Carbonneau-Nilan-Gainey trio worked their magic.&ldquo;We knew that they had a tough practice without pucks the day before the game,&rdquo; Carbonneau explained. &ldquo;All they did was skate. What we did after the first period was keep the pressure on them. We could see that they were tired. We know how they felt, we had the same experience with Bob Berry three years ago.&rdquo;Soetaert was in goal for the victory in Buffalo while Patrick Roy handled the duties in Washington and against the Red Wings.Where was Steve Penney you ask? Right out of the goaltending rotation and he may be for an indefinite period.Roy, the cocky rookie, won six of his last seven starts while veteran Soetaert had a 2-0-2 log after losing his first start of the season on Oct. 30 to Philadelphia.Roy and Soetaert have been playing well, Penney has not and Perron says he has to win hockey games to keep the Canadiens alive in the rather tight Adams Division.IN PASSING&mdash;Larry Robinson reached the 700-point mark with a goal and an assist against the Sabres&hellip;Claude Lemieux may be headed back to the American League&rsquo;s Sherbrooke Canadiens now that Lucien DeBlois is back. DeBlois scored a goal and assisted on another in the 5-3 loss to the Caps&hellip;Tom Kurvers sat out three games in favor of Mike Lalor but Kurvers returned to duty against the Red Wings. The feeling is that it was not Kurvers who should have been in the stands but Petr Svoboda, who is clearly having difficulties&hellip;The Italian community threw a bash to honor rookie left winger Sergio Momesso, the only Montreal native on the Canadiens this season. &#9632;

f0015-02

Habs Reunite Top Defensive Unit

<div class="byline">BY TOM WHEATLEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011184/5579814-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="418" height="115"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2>ST. LOUIS&mdash;It was Monday morning, the start of another work week for the St. Louis Blues.At one end of The Arena ice surface, the Zamboni driver cranked up his machine and started grinding around the rink.At the other end, Brian Sutter did the same with his human ice-defacing machine.Around and around they went, the perfect couple. Day after day, shift after shift, they do the job right.Three days later in Minnesota, Brian Sutter would put on his Bluenote sweater for the 663rd time and break Garry Unger&rsquo;s club record for regular-season games played.But up in The Arena stands that Monday morning. Blues&rsquo; coach Jacques Demers watched Sutter and the Zamboni grinding around the ice.&ldquo;Practice doesn&rsquo;t start until 11 o&rsquo;clock,&rdquo; said Demers, shaking his head. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s here a half-hour before anybody else. That&rsquo;s not trying to impress anybody. That&rsquo;s him.&rdquo;That was also Brian Sutter in 1976, when he came to his first Blues&rsquo; camp as an insecure teenager.&ldquo;He sat in that comer of the room and didn&rsquo;t say boo to anybody,&rdquo; said equipment manager Frankie Bums, the former stick boy who has been with the Blues since day one. &ldquo;He &lsquo;mistered&rsquo; everybody. It was &lsquo;Mr. Plager&rsquo; and &lsquo;Mr. Berenson&rsquo; and &lsquo;Mr Irvine.&rsquo;&ldquo;He was scared to death. Now, they&rsquo;re scared to death of him.&rdquo;&ldquo;It does seem like yesterday,&rdquo; said Sutter. &ldquo;My first year, I didn&rsquo;t play much. I was just happy to be here. We had probably the oldest team in the league, and a lot of guys turned out to be coaches and general managers. I watched them and I listened.&ldquo;It all happened so fast. You sign a contract and come to camp, and I didn&rsquo;t expect to play for two or three years. That&rsquo;s what the papers said. They said I couldn&rsquo;t keep up.&ldquo;But when I got here and I saw what I had to do to stay here, I made sure I did it.&rdquo;And what was that? &ldquo;Play every game like it&rsquo;s my last.&rdquo;He still has that fear of failure.&ldquo;I think the scaredest I am all season is coming to camp,&rdquo; said Sutter. &ldquo;You worry about not being able to keep up.&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s never happened.&rdquo;Actually, it happens every day in skating drills. Sutter leads in huffs and puffs, but he rarely blows anybody down en route to the finish line.&ldquo;No doubt the majority of players can skate better than me. can shoot better than me and can handle the puck better than me,&rdquo; said Sutter. &ldquo;At practice, you skate and you can&rsquo;t keep up with them. But in the games. I know I can keep up with them.&rdquo;Bernie Federko has been watching Sutter keep up for more than 10 years, since they were opponents in the Western League.Federko, himself, only seven games behind Sutter on the Blues&rsquo; all-time list, doesn&rsquo;t buy the line that his close friend lacks ability.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t score 35 or 40 goals a year without talent,&rdquo; snapped Federko.That&rsquo;s why Barclay Plager, then the Blues&rsquo; head coach, named Sutter captain in 1979. The kid was barely 23.&ldquo;1 liked the way he worked hard to improve,&rdquo; said Plager, another of hockey&rsquo;s storied leaders and now Demers&rsquo; assistant coach. &ldquo;We had a young team, and I thought he could grow with the team.&rdquo;That turned out to be the hunch of the decade. It seems so obvious now that Sutter&rsquo;s five younger brothers have followed him into NHL lore.Nobody outdoes Demers in praise of the Blues&rsquo; 5-foot-ll, 180-pound heart specialist.&ldquo;Sudsy&rsquo;s on his way to the Hall of Fame,&rdquo; said Demers. &ldquo;His stats may not end up being equal to some of the guys in the Hall of Fame. But his determination, his pride and his respect of the game are. Brian Sutter is the franchise here.&ldquo;Any time I have a rookie breaking into the NHL, I room him with Sutter.&rdquo;This year&rsquo;s designated rookie was Herb Raglan. Just 18, Raglan has five older sisters but no brothers.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s what an older brother must be like, I guess,&rdquo; said Raglan, son of former NHL defenseman Clare (Rags) Raglan. &ldquo;I call him Gramps or Dad. He&rsquo;s always encouraging everybody all the time.&ldquo;He could be in the worst scoring slump of his career, but if the team wins, he&rsquo;s happy.&rdquo;As for Sutter, passing Unger&rsquo;s mark was just another day at the grist mill: &ldquo;It really doesn&rsquo;t mean a heckuva lot. You still have to fight and work for everthing you&rsquo;ve got.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02944/5579807-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="579" height="755"><figcaption class="caption-body">Captain Brian Sutter is the heart and soul of the St. Louis Blues.</figcaption></div>And he never met a game day he didn&rsquo;t like.&ldquo;First of all, I try to prove to myseln that I&rsquo;m good enough to play,&rdquo; said Sutter. &ldquo;And I enjoy it. Which is going to be harder? Working on the (Sutter family) farm for 15 hours steady, or coming to the rink for two hours a day?&rdquo;So he comes to the rink, earns his keep and has no sympathy for those who don&rsquo;t.&ldquo;Guys will miss a shift or a game and say, &lsquo;The coach doesn&rsquo;t like me,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Sutter, spitting into a waste basket. &ldquo;Well, the coach don&rsquo;t lace up your skates for you.&ldquo;You do.&rdquo;BLUENOTES&mdash;Mark Hunter re-corded his first career hat-trick in a 7-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs&hellip;Bernie Federko helped out on two of Hunter&rsquo;s goal to raise his career assist total to 501. Asked why it took him lO seasons to do what Wayne Gretzky did in five, Federko quipped, &ldquo;Well, if they paid me what he makes, I would have gotten it sooner.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0016-01

Sutter A ‘Gamer’ Without Peer On Blues

<div class="byline">Al Strachan</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03720/5579845-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="404" height="445"></div>THIS WEEK, a Soviet team is playing exhibition games in Hamilton. In a couple of weeks, also in southern Ontario, the best Soviet juniors will be competing against the rest of the world&rsquo;s top juniors, including those of Canada and the United States.At the same time, two Soviet elite teams&mdash;professional teams if you want to call them what they really are&mdash;will be travelling around the continent, from Los Angeles to Quebec, playing exhibition games against National Hockey League teams.It&rsquo;s too much.There was a time, perhaps 10 or 15 years ago, when the prospect of &ldquo;our&rdquo; teams playing &ldquo;their&rdquo; teams was exciting. In fact, the famous 1972 series between Canada and the U.S.S.R. provided some of the most memorable moments in Canadian hockey. But since then, the majority of games between the Soviets and the North Americans have been, at best, mildly entertaining and, at worst, boring.The World Hockey Association tried to recapture the spontaneous excitement of the 1972 series with a 1974 series but its players weren&rsquo;t good enough. There followed a series of tours by Soviet club teams. In addition, there have been three Canada Cups, a Challenge Cup, two world junior tournaments and the 1980 Olympics.There have been literally hundreds of games between &ldquo;them&rdquo; and &ldquo;us&rdquo; played in North America but how many of them do you remember? Last year&rsquo;s Canada Cup semi-final between Canada and the USSR was magnificent&mdash;perhaps the best game ever. The 3-3 tie between Montreal Canadiens and Central Red Army on Dec. 31 1975 was almost as good. The stunning upset of the Russians at Lake Placid in 1980 was memorable because of the result, but the calibre of hockey wasn&rsquo;t really very high.And now, we&rsquo;re about to get more games between the Soviets and the North Americans.There will be another attempt to recreate the New Year&rsquo;s Eve excitement of 10 years ago with a matchup of the Canadiens and Central Army on Dec. 31. But it&rsquo;s not the same any more. The Canadiens aren&rsquo;t the NHL&rsquo;s best team and Central Army isn&rsquo;t the best team in the Soviet Union.To show how much importance the NHL gives to the proceedings, the Canadiens tried to get the Toronto Maple Leafs to agree to a rescheduling of their Jan. I league game in Toronto. The Leafs refused and the league doesn&rsquo;t care enough about it to intercede.Hockey fans don&rsquo;t seem to care either. Most of them don&rsquo;t even know the Soviet tour is scheduled and those who are told about it generally respond with a shrug.Perhaps it&rsquo;s time to cut back on all these Soviet tours. As both Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; owner Harold Ballard and Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; president Jay Snider have pointed out, the Soviets are well reimbursed for their efforts and to pay the Soviets, whether by buying their hockey or by buying their Ladas, is to support their regime.But with or without the polticial stance, the fact remains that people simply are not interested in exhibition games featuring second-rate matchups.They don&rsquo;t mind seeing the Soviet Union&rsquo;s best players against our best players every few years&mdash;as in the Canada Cup&mdash;and they would probably like to see the Stanley Cup winner play the top Soviet club team, but they&rsquo;re not likely to have the chance now that the Sniders have withdrawn their support for such a meeting.But these matchups of club teams against club teams? Forget it.The fact remains though, that whether we like it or not, the Russians are coming. And they&rsquo;ll be coming again and again over the next few years.It&rsquo;s all part of deal made by the hockey moguls to guarantee these international exchanges at all levels. NHL fans should perhaps look upon it as the price they pay to support amateur hockey. In theory, Olympic and other amateur programs are strengthened by exposure to Soviet competition.Over the years, Alan Eagleson has done an excellent job of promoting these international affairs and now that people have grown tired of them, it wouldn&rsquo;t be fair to place the blame on his shoulders.But perhaps it&rsquo;s time for Eagleson and his helpers to recognize the fact that these games against the Soviets are starting to become tedious. If we must have these tours&mdash;and we must as part of a negotiated long-term process that guarantees Soviet involvement in the Canada Cup&mdash;then something must be done to make them more exciting.Perhaps they need better promotion; perhaps they need a different format such as a mini-tournament in conjunction with a week-long all-star break; perhaps they need to somehow be incorporated into league standings.But they definitely need something. The magic has gone from these games and someone, probably Eagleson, must find a way to bring it back. &#9632;

f0016-03

Meaningless Soviet Games Becoming More Of A Bore

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011077/5579876-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="448" height="115"></div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2>DETROIT&mdash;Harry Neale has been around long enough to know it&rsquo;s bound to happen to all hockey clubs.But it&rsquo;s when and where it happened that bothered the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; coach so much that he responded by delivering what he called &ldquo;a three-day message&rdquo; to the players. It included a two-a-day session, another particularly grueling skate and some heart-to-hearts.It all started when the Wings were pummelled in, of all places, Toronto, losing to the Maple Leafs 9-3. If it sounds bad, listen to Neale:&ldquo;The score was flattering to us, to be truthful.&rdquo;The Leafs and Los Angeles Kings shared the worst record in hockey and the Red Wings managed to lose to both in a 48-hour span. They blew a 4-1 third-period lead against Los Angeles and lost in overtime. At home.But it was nothing like what happened in Toronto. The Leafs gave Detroit a two-goal head start&hellip;and had the Red Wings right where they wanted them.Neale called it &ldquo;embarrassing.&rdquo; General manager Jimmy Devellano opted for &ldquo;pathetic.&rdquo;In the aftermath, Devellano made a promise to activate the minor-league shuttle. The next day, he summoned Claude Loiselle and Lane Lambert from Adirondack of the American League while demoting rookie center Adam Oates.&ldquo;It was a pathetic, very disappointing effort,&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;Our ownership and our coaches deserve better.&rdquo;The ownership, in the person of Mike Illitch, was present for the debacle. Seated at ice level, right beside the Wings&rsquo; bench, he had what was probably an unbearably good view of the game.The next day, Neale assembled the Wings for a Sunday skate, but a different kind of Sunday skate. He worked them hard.And the following day, he had them on the ice twice with off-ice conditioning in between.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t watch an effort like that by so many and condone it,&rdquo; Neale said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve already given them grief verbally. That&rsquo;s already happened, but we need to deliver a three-day message.&ldquo;Call it necessary medicine. It doesn&rsquo;t taste as well as you&rsquo;d like. A game like that is going to happen from time to time. When it happens in the 47th game, you can say the grind set it. But when it happens in the 20th game against (divisional rival) Toronto, there are no excuses.&ldquo;I guess we forget when to pass and when to shoot and when to pick up the odd guy. And we forget when to work.&rdquo;Consider the Red Wings reminded.Against the Red Wings, the Maple Leafs resembled the Edmonton Oilers and 20-year-old center Russ Courtnall looked like a Wayne Gretzky clone. Courtnail feasted at the Wings&rsquo; expense, scoring three goals and three assists.In 15 previous games, he had a goal and seven assists. A few more shifts against the Wings and he would have topped his season total in one game.&ldquo;An embarrassment from start to finish.&rdquo; Neale said. &ldquo;We had a 2-0 lead on a couple of gimme goals, that had nothing to do with the way we played. After the first period when we were still tied (2-2) and shouldn&rsquo;t haven&rsquo;t been. I thought our players would respond. There was no response from anyone.&rdquo;The Maple Leafs scored nine straight goals.Neale rescued goaltender Greg Stefan after two periods in favor of Ed Mio, who hadn&rsquo;t played since Oct. 16. Neale wasn&rsquo;t blaming Stefan for the Leafs&rsquo; seven straight goals. He said it looked like Stefan was on a &ldquo;solo mission.&rdquo; Toronto outshot Detroit 46-21.With the victory, the Leafs, who lost nine straight at one point and had only one win in their first 16 games, crept to within one point of the fourth-place Red Wings in the Norris Division.&ldquo;if we play the way we played and they play the way they played, it won&rsquo;t be one point for long,&rdquo; Neale said.&ldquo;What horrified me most is that I was quite convinced we were ready to come out and square off with them and we weren&rsquo;t.&ldquo;Our work level was completely unsatisfactory. I thought we got over that problem. My only hope is they feel the embarrassment. It&rsquo;s not very often in this game that you feel ashamed of the effort. Tonight was one of those times.&rdquo;Four nights later wasn&rsquo;t as the Wings put together a superb effort in limiting the Buffalo Sabres to just 16 shots along the way to a 4-1 victory.Did that mean two-a-days were here to stay?WINGS WIRE&mdash;Harry Neale went through the roster numerically and had each of the Wings in for a chat. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t worry about hurting anybody&rsquo;s feelings&rdquo;, Neale told the players&hellip;Jimmy Devellano also met privately with some of the players&hellip;Claude Loiselle and Lane Lambert played on a line with their buddy, Gerard Gallant, who got his big. chance earlier in the season and made th most of it to lead the Wings in goals (12) and points (19). &#9632;

f0018-01

Disaster In Toronto Huge Embarrassment

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01996/5579907-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="481" height="114"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;He is no longer excess baggage on the road.Craig Billington, the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; 19-year-old goalie of the future has suddenly become an effective National Hockey League goalie of the present.With impressive victories over the Canucks in Vancouver and the Winnipeg Jets at the Meadowlands Arena in a five-say span. Billington has rapidly elevated himself from spectator to participant as Alain Chevrier&rsquo;s cohort in the nets.Billington (3-0-0) has shocked some hockey people with his rapid rise&mdash;including himself.&ldquo;In some respects, yes, because you don&rsquo;t know how it&rsquo;ll go until you get out there,&rdquo; admitted the Devils&rsquo; second-round draft choice of 1984. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to come into this league, be an All-Star and win the Vezina Trophy. Maybe in five or six years, but not right off the bat.&rdquo;Who knows? Just a few weeks ago there was a question of how much playing time Billington would see this season or whether he even belonged in an NHL sweater this soon.New Jersey&rsquo;s goaltending turnover has been swift. The Devils finished last season with Chico Resch on the threshold of his 37th birthday and Ron Low about to turn 35. Average age of their goalies: 36.Although Resch is still not out of the picture, Chevrier, 24, and Billington have revitalized the position as a duo with an average age of 21.5. Billington and Chevrier accounted for seven of New ersey&rsquo;s first nine victories.-&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think our goaltending situation has changed since Day One,&rdquo; said coach Doug Carpenter. &ldquo;We knew we had to find one person at least to play with Chico. As it turned out, two warranted an extra look-see. Chevrier has certainly opened a few people&rsquo;s eyes and Craig Billington is a young person who is learning what it&rsquo;s like to play goal in the NHL.&rdquo;Credit Carpenter with a successful plan for bringing Billington along slow-While Chevrier was sharing the goalkeeping duties with Resch through the first few weeks of the season, Billington was doing little more than watching.From opening night on Oct. 10 until Nov. 21, Billington started just once (a 5-2 victory over the L.A. Kings on Oct. 26 in his NHL debut) and relieved Chevrier in the third period of a 7-2 blowout in Calgary on Nov. 16.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s here to play when the time arises,&rdquo; offered Carpenter. &ldquo;What he&rsquo;s doing is learning the routine and pattern of the NHL and seeing the shooters in the league I&rsquo;m not going to say whether he&rsquo;ll play more or not. That&rsquo;ll be dictated by time. We&rsquo;re not frozen. There&rsquo;s no clear-cut plan.&rdquo;Carpenter weighed the benefits of keeping Billington as an inactive spectator for long stretches or sending him back to the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario League where he &ldquo;might just be repeating his mistakes.&rdquo;Both the coach and goalie wondered aloud how long a 19-year-old kid could sit without playing before it affected his career?&ldquo;What is the turning point for a goaltender? Nobody knows,&rdquo; said Carpen ter. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing stating that at 19 if a goalie is inactive he gets hurt by it. If he was disappointed or upset not playing I&rsquo;d have to take another look at it. He&rsquo;s not unhappy. He needs to work on handling the puck and I can see him improving already.&rdquo;In Vancouver, he stopped Thomas Gradin three times one-on-one and posted a 6-5 victory. Against the Jets, he shook off Dale Hawerchuk&rsquo;s wobbly game-tying goal with five seconds remaining in the second period and shut down Winnipeg in the final period for a 4-3 triumph.He is gaining his own confidence as well as the confidence of his teammates.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like any job,&rdquo; said Billington. &ldquo;You go in the first time and you&rsquo;re a little nervous at first. You play more games and you get more confidence.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m ready physically. I believe the biggest adjustment is mental. You have to pay your dues. I&rsquo;m not going to step in from junior and play 40 or 50 games in the NHL, but I have to be ready when my turn comes. Doug Keans (of the Boston Bruins) is a perfect example of a guy who played the backup role well. He was patient and when he went in he was ready to play.&rdquo;HOT STUFF&mdash;Jan Ludvig suffered a bruised left fibula in Vancouver&hellip;Joe Cirella&rsquo;s left knee was bruised against Winnipeg on Nov. 26&hellip;The personal battle between veteran defensemen Bob Lorimer and Dave Lewis for goalscoring and total-point honors for the season, which has been going on since they were Islander teammates in 1978, took a dramatic turn when Lorimer scored two goals in Vancouver. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a season&rsquo;s total,&rdquo; said Lorimer, whose career high is five goals for Colorado in 1981-82. He has scored two goals for the Devils in each of the past two seasons. &ldquo;1 had a lot of motivation. Lewis said I&rsquo;d never catch him for goal scoring and assists for a season. That&rsquo;s the first time since junior B I&rsquo;ve scored two goals in one game. That&rsquo;s the first time since junior B I&rsquo;ve scored two goals in one month. What feels best is Lewis can&rsquo;t catch me (in goals) until March. That takes the pressure off.&rdquo; Lorimer was 21-3 for the season while an assist raised Lewis&rsquo; totals to 0-4-4. Lewis has reminded his buddy (the stakes of the bet are steak dinners) of the almost unheard-of total of six goals he scored while splitting time between the Islanders and Kings in 1979-80. &#9632;

f0019-01

Future Could Be Now For Craig Billington

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville Hockey<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01873/5579952-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="380" height="116"></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2>BUFFALO&mdash;Larry Playfair probably said it best.&ldquo;There are times during the season when we are erratic,&rdquo; said the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; defenseman.Those times were definitely upon the Sabres as they struggled through a four-game losing streak.After beating the Quebec Nordiques 7-5 on home-ice Nov. 22, the Sabres lost to the Minnesota North Stars 4-3 three nights later.Losses to Detroit (4-1), Montreal (5-2) and Toronto (3-2 in overtime) followed in quick fashion.That made it six setbacks in eight games for the team expected to be a serious Stanley Cup contender this season. Coach Jim Schoenfeld was not amused.&ldquo;They (the Sabres) are not that type of team that can take another team, no matter how good or bad they may be. lightly,&rdquo; said Schoenfeld. &ldquo;No team in this league can be taken lightly any more.&ldquo;We (the coaches) have tried to warn them when we have played games against teams like Minnesota. We told them to be prepared when we were on our West Coast swing against Vancouver and Calgary (both defeated the Sabres). We gave them the same talk when we played the Leafs.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how long it will take before these guys realize how much it takes to win consistently? You can lead a horse to water, but you can&rsquo;t put a bathing suit on him.&rdquo;Schoenfeld said more effort was needed.&ldquo;They have to push themselves to the limit each game.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They haven&rsquo;t been doing that.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve given away a lot of points so far this season. The sign of a good team is one that will win the big games. But it&rsquo;s a sign of a good team to beat those other teams as well. We haven&rsquo;t gotten to that point of beating everybody yet.&rdquo;Complicating matters for the Sabres was the emergence of trade rumors surrounding Sabres&rsquo; center-defenseman Phil Housley.The rumors began when Housley was benched for the Nordiques&rsquo; game. It was the first time in Housley&rsquo;s Sabre career that he had not suited up for reasons other than injury or suspension.&ldquo;It hurt me to miss one game,&rdquo; said Housley. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m good enough to play regularly. It was the decision of management to sit me out for that game. But it was just one game.&ldquo;I just have to work hard to show them I can play every game. That&rsquo;s all I can do.&rdquo;Housley, who does not play physically enough for many people&rsquo;s liking, said that he had heard the rumors about his being traded to the North Stars in exchange for Brian Bellows.&ldquo;I guess that&rsquo;s something that comes with the game,&rdquo; said Housley. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy here in Buffalo and this is where I want to stay. I think I still have something to prove to the team and the fans about how well I can play.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02587/5579945-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="579" height="776"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sabre defenseman Larry Playfair says the team&rsquo;s big problem is inconsistency.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03406/5579938-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="572" height="773"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center/defenseman Phil Housley has been the subject of trade rumors lately.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0020-01

Slumping Sabres Suffer From Erratic Play

<div class="byline">Rod Beaton</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04257/5579983-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="415" height="429"></div>MAYBE THE MONTREAL Canadiens and the Quebec Nordiques are onto something.Both teams are embroiled in a Beer Wars for the affection of fans in La Belle Province. And part of that battle has been the jockeying to out-Francophone each other.You only have to go back to the entry draft in June when Montreal moved up a few picks in the first round to take Jose Charbonneau of Drummondville in the Quebec League.The Canadiens feared that the Nordiques would beat them to the best French-speaking player available. No one else seems to be in a rush to take French-speaking players.That is their loss.One thing is becoming increasingly evident&mdash;because of that feeling, a lot of good players are slipping back in the draft. There arc bargains out there in the Quebec League.Want evidence? Just look around the NHL.The Canadiens think rookie center Stepahane Richer has the ability to be a superstar. He&rsquo;s big, smooth, and smart. He could be the dominant power center almost every team needs to win. Richer was a second-round pick from Granby, 29th overall.The Canadiens have been getting good production from rookie left winger Sergio Momesso. He&rsquo;s tall and tough and scores on the road, always an attribute. Momesso was a second rounder (27th overall) from Shawinigan.The Canadiens&rsquo; Patrick Roy is their goaltender of the future. Admittedly goalies from any junior league often are drafted late, but Roy is so quick it&rsquo;s hard to believe he wasn&rsquo;t taken from Granby until the third round. 51st overall.The same goes for Quebec&rsquo;s Mario Gosselin. How on earth could the Goose from Shawiningan last until the third round, and 55th overall?The Nordiques also have a potential standout on defense. His name is Steve Finn. He played at Laval, where a big part of his job was moving the puck up to Mario Lemieux, so he had to have been seen and scouted. Somehow Finn lasted until the third round in his draft year.Go down to Boston. The Bruins have been delighted by Alain Cote. They grabbed Cote in the second round in June. How someone of his ability lasted that long is mystifying. Boston has never been afraid to invest in high picks in Quebec players. Their judgment has been vindicated by Normand Leveille, who could have been great. Cote, and of course. Ray Bourque.I&rsquo;ve heard all the propaganda. Quebec is a no-check league, they say. The Quebec players generally lack guts, some say. Quebec players aren&rsquo;t big enough, others say.1&rsquo;1l buy the first point and contest the others. That Quebec is not a grinding league did not do much to arrest Mike Bossy&rsquo;s development. Remember, the knock on him in 1977 was that he didn&rsquo;t play defensively, so such luminaries as Dale McCourt, Jere Gillis. Mike Crombeen. Scott Campbell and the unforgettable Trevor Johanson, were selected ahead of him. Five right wingers were chosen before Bossy went 15th.They never learn. Going into the 1984 draft, scouts from three different NHL teams told me flat out they would not take Mario Lemieux if they had the first pick. They mouthed the same homilies about the Quebec League others mouthed in Bossy&rsquo;s draft year.Why do these biases persist? There are a lot of dina-sours in pro hockey and many take refuge in scouting. This is not to say that there arc not a lot of perceptive scouts young and old. but some are still thinking of the NHL as a six-team league.First, they were slow to wake up to the Europeans.Then, they were slow to wake up to the Americans. And they&rsquo;re still slow to wake up to the Quebecois. Some teams don&rsquo;t want to be bothered. There&rsquo;s a little bit of French spoken in Quebec and few scouts speak that language. Some teams also must not like the expense of haunting rinks in Chicoutimi and Drummondville.Dr. Guy Morissette, president of the Quebec League, suggests language serves as a barrier for scouts.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s discrimination. Most NHL scouts arc English-speaking, and they are shy to introduce themselves to our players and our coaches.&rdquo; says Morissette. &ldquo;Most of our own people cannot speak English. So wc do not market our players well.&rdquo;The Quebec League has created meeting lounges for NHL scouts to meet with the junior coaches. Hopefully that will help.Still, some teams must sincerely believe Quebec League players aren&rsquo;t good enough.Their loss. &#9632;

f0020-04

Quebec Players Overlooked For Far Too Long By NHL

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02532/5580021-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="522" height="114"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Barring any major injuries or catastrophe, the Philadelphia Flyers believe the team they have now assembled represents the collection of players who will challenge for the Stanley Cup next May.And the way they&rsquo;ve been going they certainly look like they&rsquo;ll still be playing in May.The Flyers continued their march at the top of the National Hockey League with a 6-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets, before taking to the road where they beat the North Stars 4-1 and then lost a rematch to the Jets 2-1.The only stop along the way was a brief pause in Minnesota, where one of their last bits of roster tuning was accomplished when the Flyers swapped AWOL center Todd Bergen, 22, and defenseman Ed Hospodar, 26, for burly defenseman Dave Richter, 25, and Swedish forward Bo Berglund, 30, of the North Stars.For the Flyers, the key to the deal was Richter. At 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, the Flyers hope he can erase any potential problem with clearing forwards away from their net.Richter comes to the Flyers with a reputation as a pretty tough fighter&mdash;maybe the toughest in the NHL.&ldquo;He hasn&rsquo;t lost a fight,&rdquo; said North Star general manager Lou Nanne. &ldquo;He might lose one some day, but he&rsquo;s not going to lose many. And with him and Dave Brown, nobody is going to mess with the Flyers.&rdquo;So, if nothing else, both the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals must have been dismayed by the trade. If there was a way for either team to beat the Flyers, it was probably in the area of strength, and Richter should take care of that.Last season, Richter scored two goals and eight assists with 221 penalty minutes. He had just three assists and 29 penalty minutes in 13 games before the trade.&ldquo;He can fight, and obviously we like tough guys,&rdquo; said Flyers&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke, &ldquo;but we think this kid can play. He&rsquo;s a little raw right now, and he&rsquo;ll work on his skating. But our scouts have liked him for a long time. He&rsquo;s the guy we were after.&ldquo;We thought we needed another defenseman. We&rsquo;ve been going with four (Mark Howe, Brad Marsh, Brad McCrimmon and Doug Crossman) and we knew we couldn&rsquo;t keep that up.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01759/5580014-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="586" height="1138"><figcaption class="caption-body">Disgruntled Flyer center I odd Bergen said he would not play in Philadelphia again.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Thomas Eriksson is playing better, and we think he&rsquo;ll play regularly, but we still needed a big guy to be able to play and help out.&rdquo;According to Clarke, the Flyers tried to make a one-for-one deal, swapping Bergen for Richter. However, Clarke says that Nanne demanded that they include Hospodar in the package.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t want to give up Eddie,&rdquo; said Clarke, who is genuinely fond of Hospodar. &ldquo;Eddie was a great team guy, but Lou wouldn&rsquo;t make the deal unless we included Hospodar.&rdquo;The only way this trade is likely to ever take on major importance would be if Bergen came on to score 40 or 50 a season for Minnesota&mdash;something not out of the realm of possibility.Some people might argue that the Flyers gave up Bergen too cheaply, but the fact of the matter was that he simply would not play for Philly coach Mike Keenan.&ldquo;After all this team has been through together, after the Lindbergh tragedy and all,&rdquo; said Clarke, &ldquo;there was no way we could bring Todd back here. He didn&rsquo;t want to play here, anyway.&ldquo;We still think he can play, and he might help the North Stars, but he didn&rsquo;t fit in with us.&rdquo;Bergen scored 11 goals in 14 games with the Flyers last season, and added four more in the playoffs. Despite ail the goals, it was obvious that Bergen&rsquo;s la-dee-da attitude wouldn&rsquo;t wash in Keenan&rsquo;s boot camp.And just before training camp Bergen announced he was going to quit to try to play pro golf. Now, with the snow on the Canadian courses, Bergen has put away the clubs, and, according to Clarke, he has told the North Stars he will report this week.For those who think the Flyers will miss Bergen&rsquo;s goals&mdash;check the statistics and you&rsquo;ll see the Flyers led the league in goals scored through the first 23 games, averaging about five a game.As for the remainder of the trade. Clarke insists that Berglund will not displace any regulars on the team. Berglund came over from Sweden in 1983 as a member of the Quebec Nordiques. He was traded to Minnesota last season, and had scored two goals while playing just three games this season.It appears likely that Berglund will be given a shot at both left and right wings before they decide to ship him to Hershey.And if he shows any spark, he could threaten spots for perhaps Lindsay Carson (who is out with a broken knuckle) or Joe Paterson.In any event, Clarke is happy that he got the guy he wanted (Richter) and got rid of a guy the coach didn&rsquo;t want (Bergen). The trade looks to be the final ingredient in the Flyers&rsquo; 1985-86 formula. &#9632;

f0022-02

Flyers Part With Wayward Forward Bergen

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03317/5580052-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="561" height="820"><figcaption class="caption-body">CUNT MALARCHUK</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01682/5580066-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="194" height="187"></div>Chrysler-Dodge is also the official sponsor of the first-ever NHL All-Star Fan Balloting<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02447/5580059-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="150" height="160"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;Goaltender Clint Malarchuk of Quebec backstopped the Nordiques to consecutive shutouts over the Boston Bruins to edge Edmonton Oiler center Mark Messier for Chrysler-Dodge Player-of-the-Week honors for the period ending Nov. 30.Malarchuk will donate the $500 contribution from the Chrysler Corporation to the youth hockey organization of his choice, the Calgary Buffalos, a midget AAA team coached by his brother. The ChryslerDodge sponsorship also includes a Player-of-the-Month award and a Player-of-the-Year competition, with the Player of the Year winning the Chrysler Corporation vehicle of his choice.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s fantastic,&rdquo; said Malarchuk. &ldquo;What a turn of events in just three days. I&rsquo;ve never had two consecutive shutouts in professional hockey, and the last time it happened was when I played peewee.&rdquo;Malarchuk recorded his first two NHL shutouts and first two victories of the 1985-86 season in games against Adams Division-leading Boston. On Nov. 28, he stopped 33 shots as the Nordiques wort 3-0 at the Boston Garden, handing the Bruins their first defeat on home ice this season. The Grande, Alta., native&rsquo;s encore performance was a 2-0 shutout of the Bruins in Quebec on Nov. 30, in which he turned aside all 27 Bruins&rsquo; shots. During the week, Malarchuk lowered his goals-against-average to 2.80, raised his save percentage to.911 and led the Nordiques into a three-way second-place tie with Montreal and Buffalo, one point behind Boston in the Adams Division race. &#9632;

f0023-03

THE CHRYSLER-DODGE REPORT

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01737/5580097-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="532" height="115"></div><h2>CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS</h2>CHICAGO&mdash;Doug Wilson is one of the most respected point men with one of the hardest shots in the National Hockey League, but he hasn&rsquo;t been filling the scoring columns so far.&ldquo;If I just got paid for scoring goals. I think I&rsquo;d jump off a building at this point,&rdquo; he said.The 28-year-old Wilson, a nine-year veteran, set the Black Hawks&rsquo; club record for defensemen with 39 goals and 85 points in 1981-82, when he also won the Norris Trophy.He established another club record for defensemen with 54 assists last season.But this year, the points have been harder to come by. Wilson scored just two goals&mdash;none on the power play&mdash;and added 12 assists for 14 points in the Hawks&rsquo; first 22 games.It isn&rsquo;t exactly a bad offensive pace, but it&rsquo;s slower than Wilson is used to. And it has been agonizing at times.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe some of the scoring chances I&rsquo;ve missed,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve hit posts. I&rsquo;ve missed empty nets. My confidence is down a bit right now. Sometimes you just need to bounce one in off somebody&rsquo;s rear end. and that will turn everything around.&rdquo;Wilson and the Hawks have been in the process of turning around the entire scheme of things for themselves and. they hope, for the rest of their season.It all started back on Nov. 11, when the Hawks were losing to the New York Rangers in the finale of a six-game road trip.Bob Pulford, the general manager and coach, walked into the dressing room between periods and began changing the club&rsquo;s entire defensive system.Pulford switched from a strict man-toman to what he calls his &ldquo;floating zone,&rdquo; a system he has been using since his first coaching days with the Los Angeles Kings.The Hawks came back to win that game in overtime, and began a stretch of just one loss in eight games (5-1-2), and a five-game unbeaten streak (3-0-2) that carried them into their second longest road trip of the season.There were a few blemishes (a loss at Toronto, a couple of ties at home with Minnesota and Los Angeles), but the Hawks dramatically cut down the shots they were giving up, the goals they were giving up. and the scoring chances they were giving up.&ldquo;I like our system the way it is now,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;The other way, you might think you were doing your job if you stayed with your man all the time, but you really weren&rsquo;t.&ldquo;We were getting caught in too many gray areas. But we&rsquo;ve really cut down the scoring chances. The game we won at Vancouver (5-3, Nov. 20), I think we gave up about nine. And I don&rsquo;t think we gave up any in the third period.&rdquo;They have also stopped giving up power-play goals. In a game at Pittsburgh prior to the Ranger game. Pulford added Denis Savard and Steve Larmer to his penalty-killing unit, giving the Hawks three sets of penalty-killing forwards.In nine games after making the additions, the Hawks&rsquo; penalty killing became a strength instead of a weakness as Chicago killed off 41 of 50 opposition power plays (82 percent efficiency).Included was a five-minute major at Vancouver, when the Hawks gave up just two shots from the point.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re jumping on teams right away now.&rdquo; said Wilson, always a key penalty killer for the Hawks on defense. &ldquo;When you play teams like Edmonton, and they have Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier killing penalties, you tend to back off a bit.&ldquo;Since adding Savvy and Larmer to our penalty killing, I think teams have started backing off a bit against us.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0024-01

Hawks’ Wilson Shoots For More Offense

<div class="byline">Terry Jones</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-06130/5580128-1-eng-US/f0024-062.jpg" title="f0024-06" width="293" height="411"></div>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s got to the point in Edmonton where it&rsquo;s like it used to be in Montreal. When you lose, you leave the rink, hop in the cab. and the cab driver gives you hell. &ldquo;&mdash;Glen Sather.EVEN 2,000 MILES from home they hear it.&ldquo;When you lose two in a row like we did at the start of a road trip last month, you hear &lsquo;What&rsquo;s wrong with the Oilers,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Wayne Gretzky.When you&rsquo;re the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions you can go on a six-game undefeated streak, with none of the games featuring more than a one-goal spread, and you start saying it about yourself: &ldquo;What&rsquo;s wrong with the Oilers?&rdquo;From a distance, it probably looks like the champs have been frolicking through their schedule as usual.Not so. The first two months of the 1985-85 schedule have not been a ton of fun.&ldquo;It really isn&rsquo;t much fun because every night is a struggle,&rdquo; said defenseman Paul Coffey. &ldquo;Everything is coming really hard. We&rsquo;re having our problems. We&rsquo;ve played 22 games and, by our standards, despite the standings, know we&rsquo;ve only played a couple of good ones.&ldquo;Everything is one big struggle. We&rsquo;re under pressure. We&rsquo;re not loose. When we&rsquo;re not loose, we seem to struggle that much more. We&rsquo;re under pressure. We&rsquo;re putting all the pressure on ourselves. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s any one thing. I think we just have to loosen up. We have to stick together and start having fun.&rdquo;Goaltender Andy Moog identified the problem.&ldquo;As far as everyone is concerned so far this year, it&rsquo;s not fun,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Everyone is plugging away. But nothing is happening. We just don&rsquo;t have the flow.&rdquo;Defenseman Lee Fogolin says fun, for the Oilers, &ldquo;is 7-1.&rdquo;But with the exception of a 13-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 8, the Oilers haven&rsquo;t blown anybody out of the rink.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot more fun to win by five or six goals,&rdquo; said Dave Lumley. &ldquo;Since we last played Vancouver and won 13-0, take a look at the scores for the rest of the month. We didn&rsquo;t win a game by more than one goal.&ldquo;The lines don&rsquo;t seem to be clicking like they did last year.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re winning a lot of our games on talent, but as a team, we just don&rsquo;t seem to be jelling.&rdquo;The Oilers claim to be finding out, like the Edmonton Eskimos before them on a five-in-a-row Grey Cup run (in the Canadian Football League) that life gets tougher&mdash;that every team wants you more each year and it gets tougher and tougher to stay sharp.When you play the 80-game exhibition schedule the NHL alleges to be its regular season, there is a temptation for the good teams to ask: &ldquo;Do we really need these two points?&rdquo;Moog says he won&rsquo;t kid anybody about that.&ldquo;Everybody goes through that. The trick is to keep everybody from going through it together. If it&rsquo;s one guy one night, and another guy the next night, with the talent on this team, we can get through it.&rdquo;Moog says it&rsquo;s to the point now where the Oilers are not allowed to be the underdog for even one game out of 80.&ldquo;Nobody expects us to lose, and we never get to play the underdog role. We&rsquo;re expected to play every night.&ldquo;But things are different this year.&rdquo;&ldquo;We found that out on the trip,&rdquo; said Kevin Lowe of a six-game tour to Washington, Philadelphia, Long Island, Manhattan, Quebec and Montreal.&ldquo;Before, because we were the new kids on the block and being from way out west, and because we were young and everything, people kind of liked us.&ldquo;Now people are tired of us winning. We&rsquo;re hearing a lot of snide remarks we never heard before.&ldquo;Kids come around after the pre-game meals and yell &lsquo;You&rsquo;re not going to win this year!&rsquo; It&rsquo;s no big deal. But we&rsquo;ve never heard that sort of stuff before.&rdquo;Gretzky bottom-lined it.&ldquo;What we&rsquo;re going through this year shows how tough it&rsquo;s going to be to win a third Stanley Cup. Hopefully, the way we&rsquo;re going through it, we&rsquo;re showing it&rsquo;s going to be tough to take it away from us.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0024-06

It Doesn’t Get Any Easier For The Edmonton Oilers

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01651/5580166-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="566" height="115"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Pat Quinn had seen this act before. An encouraging sign here, an encouraging sign there and then&hellip;total regression.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been surprised by this team a number of times,&rdquo; he said, referring to a Los Angeles Kings outfit that doesn&rsquo;t know the meaning of the word consistency. &ldquo;They still keep me guessing.&rdquo;But even Quinn was stunned when the Kings followed up a relatively successful three-game road trip (1-1-1) and five-game segment (2-2-1) with a disastrous 9-0 shelling at the hands of the Hartford Whalers at home on Nov. 27.Embarrassing? Quite. The loss was the most decisive in club history at home and tied the team record for the worst defeat anywhere, anytime.The Kings had appeared to hit rock bottom before during this 5-15-2 season, but this&hellip;&ldquo;If you had told me this was going to happen. I would have said, you were nuts,&rdquo; Quinn said later, after cooling down somewhat. &ldquo;A lot of good things had started to happen and&hellip;I&rsquo;m just flabbergasted.&rdquo;The outcome probably was worse than even the score indicated. Hartford scored four times in the first period, twice in the second and added three more goals in the final period.It was so bad that Quinn yanked goalie Darren Eliot before the first period reached the midway point, putting in 23-year-old rookie Glenn Healy, who was on the roster only because Bob Janecyk was serving his five-game suspension.What a spot for Healy, who had been signed as a free agent in June out of Western Michigan University, to make his National Hockey League debut.The way the Kings have been playing, Georges Vezina himself wouldn&rsquo;t make much of a difference.It seemed rather obvious that general manager Rogie Vachon was going to have to do something to shake up the troops, though the Kings apparently already were quite shaken with the continuing trade rumors.&ldquo;There are about 12 people who feel they&rsquo;re going to be traded and they&rsquo;re playing like they&rsquo;ve already given up,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;But despite all the rumors, Rogie has not sent one player to another team. They&rsquo;ve got to deal with those fears. It&rsquo;s part of the business.&ldquo;But they don&rsquo;t seem to have control of those fears at this point. The team is playing like it&rsquo;s in sheer panic.&rdquo;The Kings had experienced defensive problems since the season began, but now even the offense has disappeared. They had been shut out three times already and were averaging only 3.2 goals through the first 22 games.Among those in dreadful scoring slumps were J.P. Kelly (no goals in 19 games), Doug Smith (0-for-14), Brian MacLellan (0-for-12), Lyle Phair (O-for-11) and Anders Hakansson (0-for-9).One move the Kings did make was claiming winger Morris Lukowich on waivers from the Boston Bruins, but more was obviously necessary.Not that the Kings, despite a rash of injuries that had Mark Hardy, Jim Fox and Glen Currie sidelined, didn&rsquo;t seem to have enough potential scoring punch to at least be competitive.But they were so conscious of their defensive shortcomings (a league-high 115 goals allowed in 22 games) that the offense went bye-bye.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t maintain possession of the puck long enough to win,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;The puck has been like a hot potato&mdash;nobody wants it.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02428/5580159-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="594" height="785"><figcaption class="caption-body">A multitude of turnovers, says coach Pat Quinn, has plagued the Kings.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I maintain that the biggest single problem since the outset has been our individual play in the attacking area from the red line into their zone. We&rsquo;ve turned the puck over so many times&hellip;our forwards, our supposed puckhandlers, haven&rsquo;t allowed our young defense the luxury of feeling comfortable.&rdquo;Quinn would like to see his forwards dumping the puck in more often, making the safe play that would enable the Kings to apply some kind of forechecking possible.Keeping the puck in the attacking zone is defense, after all.&ldquo;Last year we weren&rsquo;t hemmed in too often. More often than not we made the smart play, we had five-man puck control,&rdquo; Quinn said.&ldquo;We have to get contact back into our game by throwing the puck in. If you don&rsquo;t put it in their zone, if you don&rsquo;t have them looking at the glass every once in a while, you don&rsquo;t get any hits. Even our hitters have been in limbo because they can&rsquo;t drive to the net until a guy finishes fiddling around with the puck.&rdquo;Until the Kings put an end to that practise, all they&rsquo;ll really be doing is putting an end to a most distressing season.KINGS NOTES&mdash;Defenseman Mark Hardy hoped to make his season debut early in December, but the status of right winger Jim Fox was unclear. He already had missed 12 games with a sore lower back and was experiencing yet more pain after returning to the practice rink. &ldquo;I hope we get some good news there.&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t know what it is.&rdquo;&hellip;The Kings were receiving good production from Bernie Nicholls. Tiger Williams and Dave Taylor, the club&rsquo;s best line with 25 goals and 42 assists&hellip;Marcel Dionne snapped out of his slump with four assists in a 5-4 overtime victory in Detroit&hellip;Problems continued at the Forum, where the Kings were 2-9-1 in their first 12 contests, the worst home record in the league. &#9632;

f0025-01

Quinn Just “Flabbergasted” By Turn Of Events In L.A.

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01690/5580204-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="485" height="110"></div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2>VANCOUVER&mdash;Almost certain to be on the Christmas card list of Tom Watt this holiday season will be his counterparts in Winnipeg and Los Angeles.Because the way the Vancouver Canucks had been playing. Watt has much to be thankful for in the plight of the Jets and the Kings.If they weren&rsquo;t playing as poorly as they were. Watt&rsquo;s charges would have been in a good deal more trouble than they were.Vancouver had hit the skids.Including a 5-3 loss to the Chicago Black Hawks at home, the Canucks had lost six of their last seven games and their last three at home. Home losses to Pittsburgh. New Jersey and Chicago are not something you want to repeat if you have serious thoughts of making the playoffs in the Smythe Division.&ldquo;Our play in our own end hasn&rsquo;t been what it should be lately,&rdquo; says Watt. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve talked it over and we don&rsquo;t want to play kitty-bar-the-door hockey. &ldquo;Indeed one of the considerations in Vancouver is to get the fans back in the building, something that has proven difficult despite the team&rsquo;s fine start. The Canucks were averaging about 9,000 per game in terms of tickets sold, but often there were fewer people in attendance.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want to be playing like the Edmonton Oilers, we don&rsquo;t have the players for fire-wagon hockey,&rdquo; says Watt. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;d like to think we can score some goals. We&rsquo;d like to think we can play an entertaining brand of hockey.&rdquo;Sure, the Canucks were scoring some goals but almost all of them were coming from one line&mdash;the combination of Patrik Sundstrom. Tony Tanti and Petri Skriko.And as was said in a Vancouver newspaper recently: &ldquo;Last year the fans had to put up with Harry Neale&rsquo;s one-liners. Now it&rsquo;s Tom Watt&rsquo;s one line.&rdquo;Crazy things were happening in terms of scoring droughts.Thomas Gradin had gone 11 games without an assist until he managed one against the Hawks. He had just four goals and not one had hit the back of the net.Brent Peterson hadn&rsquo;t scored since opening night. He was outstanding as a penalty killer and in defensive situations, but he was playing a fair bit and some production was needed.Cam Neely had gone eight games without a goal and he finally scored a beauty against the Hawks and looked as confident as he had all year. But that was only in the first period. Before the night was out, he came together with Ed Olczyk in the corner and suffered a grade one shoulder seperation, which could keep him out of the lineup for 10 days.Skriko, Tanti and Sundstrom, meanwhile, were having a merry time. Only the Hawks, using the line of Troy Murray, Curt Fraser and Keith Brown stopped them&mdash;and that was twice during a seven-day period.Skriko could well have been player of the week&mdash;instead of the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; goalie Andy Moog&mdash;for the period ending Nov. 23. He scored five goals and three assists in three games, one of them a 2-0 loss in Chicago.Sundstrom was not scoring goals in quantity, but playing with Skriko and Tanti, with 15 and 17 goals, respective ly. he needs only to keep making plays to remain among the league leaders in scoring.But as general manager Jack Gordon said, &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter where the goals come from really. But I&rsquo;m from the old school. I think when you score five goals you should win.&rdquo;Scoring five goals and losing is something the Canucks had done twice in 10 days, losing to St. Louis and New Jersey.Indeed, once sixth defensively earlier in the year, the Canucks had fallen to 16th overall in that department, with a 4.14 goals-against average.<h2>The Snowbirds</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02477/5580197-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="1202" height="1209"></div><h2>JOFA Entries</h2>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;

f0026-01

One-Line Scoring Is The New Punch Line

Justin Bremer is a nine-year-old who plays for the Drumheller (Alta.) Atom &lsquo;A&rsquo; rep team coached by Jim Brady.Younger than many of the other players on the team, he is in his second season. Last year, he scored 10 goals and 10 assists last season.So far this season, the diminutive forward&mdash;all 4-foot-4 and 64 pounds of him&mdash;has four goals and two assists, to put him ahead of last year&rsquo;s scoring pace.A Grade 4 student in his hometown of Morrin, Justin has attended several Calgary Flame games at the Olympic Saddledone.But his favorite National Hockey League team is the Edmonton Oilers, the Flames&rsquo; arch-rivals, and his favorite player is Oiler center Mark Messier.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03388/5580235-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="537" height="956"><figcaption class="caption-body">JUSTIN BREMER</figcaption></div>During the summer, Justin attends several hockey schools. &#9632;

f0026-03

PLAYER OF WEEK

What started out as just another way to keep active after the socccer season was over has turned into quite a career for Peter Zezel.The Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; sophomore center first started playing hockey when his father, Peter Zezel, Sr., would flood the family driveway during the winter.But then, hockey was just for kicks. Soccer was his first love. Peter, Sr., had played semiprofessional soccer and his son played the game as soon as he was big enough to kick the ball.&ldquo;When he was three,&rdquo; says Peter, Sr., &ldquo;the kid was so full of energy. He would play soccer all through the summer, but when winter came around, there was nothing.&ldquo;So I would flood our driveway&mdash;we have a very long driveway&mdash;and Peter would play hockey. The boys from school would come over, and they&rsquo;d play for hours.&ldquo;Believe me, I had to change a few windows, and I boarded up some of the windows out back when they were out there.&rdquo;Peter, Jr., who was a member of the North American Soccer League&rsquo;s Toronto Blizzard reserve squad and the Canadian national junior soccer team, remembers his early hockey days well.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04285/5580266-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="712" height="1044"><figcaption class="caption-body">Peter Zezel&rsquo;s first love was soccer, but realized in bantam he had immense hockey talent, too.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;My dad used to take me out on our driveway,&rdquo; says Zezel, &ldquo;and he showed me how to skate. He wasn&rsquo;t the greatest skater in the world, but he was better than me.&rdquo;Zezel soon developed as much devotion for hockey as he did for soccer. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d go call on my friends, and we&rsquo;d be out there until 8 or 9 p.m.,&rdquo; he says (&ldquo;He was out until midnight,&rdquo; counters his father).&ldquo;I&rsquo;d go in and eat dinner. I wouldn&rsquo;t bother taking off my skates. I&rsquo;d just sit on the front step inside the house, have dinner and then scoot back out again.&rdquo;But it wasn&rsquo;t until he was in bantam that Zezel&mdash;in a tournament in Kingston&mdash;felt he had some ability above and beyond the average player.&ldquo;I was on a team coached by Bill Gunther. Andrew McBain was on our team, too. We played against a team from Ottawa, which had Steve Yzerman on it. We played and I didn&rsquo;t do too Badly. It was then that I said to myself, &lsquo;I can play hockey.&rsquo;&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t that much of a goal scorer then. I mean, I got my share and all, but I got a great feeling of accomplishment to set up a play.&rdquo;Wearing the orange, black and white of the Philadelphia Flyers is nothing new to Zezel. In his last year of midget in 1981-82, he played for the Don Mills Flyers in the Metropolitan Toronto Hockey League, (&ldquo;the same colors and everything&rdquo;), where he picked up 43 goals and 51 assists in 40 games.The next two years found him playing junior hockey in Maple Leaf Gardens as a Toronto Marlboro, for whom he accumulated 82 goals and 207 points. He was drafted by the Flyers (41st overall) in 1983.&ldquo;My favorite players when I was kid were Bobby Clarke and Darryl Sittier,&rdquo; says Zezel. &ldquo;I always liked the Flyers, and I remember when the Flyers beat the Soviets (Jan. 11, 1976, 4-1 over Red Army). That was a great game.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0026-04

Road To Success Was Driveway

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01640/5580297-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="528" height="122"></div><h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;The Thanksgiving weekend blizzard will be remembered by those in Minnesota who were buried by two feet of snow.Defenseman Dave Richter will remember because it coincided with his last game as a Minnesota North Star.Soon after the North Stars dropped a 4-1 decision to the Philadelphia Flyers, it was announced Richter and seldom-used right winger Bo Berglund had been dealt to the National Hockey League&rsquo;s top team in exchange for center Todd Bergen and defenseman Ed Hospodar.Richter&rsquo;s appearance against the Flyers, his soon-to-be employees, was typical for the big defenseman. Although a frequent spectator from the press box, invariably he was inserted when heavy traffic was anticipated.The Flyers, of course, are the NHL embodiment of rush-hour traffic.Richter, all 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds of him, will fit in well with the Flyers.Much better, in fact, than he did with the Stars.Coach Lorne Henning likes offensive defensemen. Richter most certainly isn&rsquo;t. Richter, 25, needed game time to stay sharp. Henning wasn&rsquo;t giving it to him.The two had discussed the situation at length a few days earlier.&ldquo;It was no hassle. I told Dave what I wanted, and he said he needed to play more to do those things,&rdquo; Henning said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to give up on him; he&rsquo;s just frustrated.&rdquo;When the Flyer game was over, Richter headed out of the Met Center and into the blowing snow. He got into his car and began warming it up when there was a tap on the window.It was Paul Holmgren, the Flyers&rsquo; assistant coach who played alongside Richter last year with the Stars.Richter said hello, and Holmgren said, &ldquo;See you on the plane tomorrow. You&rsquo;re coming with us.&rdquo;Philadelphia general manager Bob Clarke, behind Holmgren, confirmed the trade that was just minutes old.&ldquo;I was standing there with the snow blowing and the exhaust in my face and the red taillight the only light we could see,&rdquo; said Richter who signed a three-year (plus an option) contract with the Stars over the summer. &ldquo;Clarke said, &lsquo;We&rsquo;re excited about what you can do for us and what we can do for you. Welcome aboard.&rsquo; I was in shock.&rdquo;Richter left with the Flyers, as did Berglund, a 30-year-old Swede who had two goals in three games this season.Bergen, hockey player-turned-prospective golfer, is the key for the Stars. The native of Prince Albert, Sask., forced the Flyers&rsquo; hand earlier this year when he refused to play under coach Mike Keenan again this year.The trade finally answered a question Clarke, himself, posed earlier this season. Asked if he would trade Bergen, Clarke said, &ldquo;Who am I going to trade him for, Lee Trevino?&rdquo;Clarke settled for Richter and Berglund.Hospodar, 26, was included in the package because Nanne insisted on receiving toughness in return for Richter, who is one of the NHL&rsquo;s best fighters.The former Ottawa 67 joined the Stars in St. Louis, where they lost 4-3 despite the first-star heroics of Don Beaupre.Bergen, in the meantime, stayed home and went hunting in Saskatchewan, but the 22-year-old, who scored 11 goals in14 regular-season games last year, was scheduled to join the club for his own mini-training camp.Still, Richter was shocked to be traded, and disappointed to leave. But he was looking forward to the challenge of playing with a Stanley Cup contender.&ldquo;One of the Flyers told me now I&rsquo;m in a tough division, where there&rsquo;s pressure to win every night,&rdquo; Richter said. &ldquo;Well, that&rsquo;s what you lace &lsquo;em up for.&rdquo;STAR DUST&mdash;Lome Henning and Lou Nanne hope Todd Bergen will be able to spark some offense, to take pressure off Neal Broten, who moved up as high as fifth in NHL scoring before being shut down by Philly and St. Louis&hellip;&rdquo;We still need another offensive defenseman,&rdquo; Henning said&hellip;Kent Nilsson came back after a strained back and was used on power plays against the Islanders and Philadelphia&hellip;The North Stars drew just 10,000 spectators to an exciting 4-4 draw with the Islanders. &#9632;

f0027-01

GM Nanne Registers Trade On Richter Scale

<div class="byline">BY LAWRENCE McNAB</div>Okanagan Hockey Schools began bringing quality hockey instruction to aspiring athletes in 1963. From that time on, goaltending has become an area of concentration for the directors.In 1963, Larry Lund and Bill Lougheed, then a goaltender with Denver University Pioneers, began developing the initial goaltending program for Okanagan Hockey Schools.Over the past 21 years, the program has grown through the on-ice instruction and the off-ice input of such accomplished goaltenders as Cesare Maniago, Joe Daley, Rogie Vachon, Andy Moog, Steve Abbott and Murray Bannerman.OHS Goaltending Schools will offer their comprehensive program at all three locations. Sessions will begin on June 30 in Penticton, B.C. Sessions at Penticton&rsquo;s Memorial Arena location run June 29 through Aug. 23. Three seven-day sessions begin in Edmonton, Alta., on July 6 and run through July 26 and beginning on Aug. 4, four sessions of seven days in length will be featured at Penticton&rsquo;s McLaren Park complex.The on-ice and off-ice program offered by OHS Goaltending Schools at all locations will feature:&bull; Three on-ice sessions daily&bull; One off-ice flexibility and goaltenders&rsquo; gymnastics session daily&bull; One off-ice session featuring pitching machines along with specific eye-hand coordination drills daily&bull; One lecture session daily on the technical factors involved in successful goaltending&bull; Videotape analysis daily of the goaltenders&rsquo; basic skills&bull; Aerobic exercise classes stressing conditioning and flexibility&bull; Students will be required to compile a log book of their week&rsquo;s activities and complete workbook questions&bull; Written evaluations for all students&bull; Top &lsquo;goalie&rsquo; competitionBoarding facilities are available through July and August at the Penticton Memorial Arena only. Goalies attending OHS Goaltending Schools in Edmonton and Penticton&rsquo;s McLaren Park location will be day students only.Because of the coordination of the Okanagan Hockey Schools and OHS Goaltending Schools, students will have the unique opportunity to be involved in several scrimmage sessions during their week&rsquo;s stay plus a feature game on the last day at OHS Goaltending Schools.Instructors feature NHL goalies Andy Moog, Grant Fuhr, Murray Bannerman, Clint Malarchuk and L.A. Kings G.M. Rogie Vachon along with numerous U.S. college goaltenders under the direction of Doug Cole (U of Wisconsin-River Falls) and Steve Abbott (U of Western Michigan) as well as numerous major junior A goaltenders.Okanagan Hockey Schools are committed to bringing the best in hockey instruction for all players involved in the game today. &#9632;

1986 OHS Goaltenders’ School Set to Roll

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville HockeyGLENS FALLS&mdash;There was absolutely no hesitation. None whatsoever.&ldquo;I really think I can play in the National Hockey League. Yes. I do,&rdquo; Adam Oates said an hour or so after his first workout with the Adirondack Red Wings. &ldquo;I learned a lot. I feel that if I can adjust to the 80 games I&rsquo;ll be fine.&rdquo;Oates, the former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute star who signed a lucrative multi-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings, was assigned to the American League club on Nov. 24 after producing just one goal and one assist in 17 NHL games with Detroit.He joined Ray Staszak, another rookie free agent with a big contract on the Adirondack roster. Staszak was sent to Adirondack on Oct. 27 after just four games with Detroit.Ironically, Oates and Staszak. playing on a line with left winger Basil McRae, clicked for three first-period goals in Oates&rsquo; first game with Adirondack, a 7-5 victory at home over St. Catharines. Staszak scored two goals and set up Oates for the third. Oates assisted on both of Staszak&rsquo;s goals.The two were the central characters in a spirited bidding war last summer that turned a couple of undrafted college players with impressive credentials into millionaires. Oates signed for a reported $1.3 million after leading RPI to the NCAA title. A couple of weeks later, Staszak put his signature on the biggest contract ever paid to an NHL rookie, worth $1.4 million.But neither player was able to quickly work the miracles expected of them&mdash;to turn Detroit into a winning team&mdash;and eventually were sent to Adirondack.&ldquo;Maybe because I went through the same situation I&rsquo;ll be able to help Adam make the adjustment a little more easily,&rdquo; Staszak said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough when you&rsquo;re coming down. It&rsquo;s disappointing and a bit of a letdown. But you just have to come out and work just as hard as you did up there and not put pressure on yourself. You just have to let things come.&ldquo;The main thing is if you&rsquo;re just going to sit there on the bench it&rsquo;s not going to benefit you at all. For a player coming in, it&rsquo;s a new league and there is a lot to learn. Just sitting on the bench and not getting the ice time that you are used to is not very beneficial.&rdquo;Although he picked up both of his points in Detroit&rsquo;s season-opener, Oates quickly found his playing time cut into smaller and smaller pieces. In the last three games he dressed for, he was used as a checker and a penalty killer. He was scratched from the lineup for Detroit&rsquo;s games with Los Angeles and Toronto in mid-November&mdash;both of which were losses&mdash;and sent to the AHL to get some work.Although he admits to some pressure because he is playing in the same market where he gained fame as a collegian&mdash;Glens Falls is 50 miles from the RPI campus&mdash;Oates believes the demands will be far different from what he faced in Detroit.&ldquo;There is pressure because I haven&rsquo;t been on in so long,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t had a regular shift in 10 or 15 games. I was getting stale. I&rsquo;d like to get my game back together. That kind of pressure.&ldquo;In college, you&rsquo;ve got four practices before every game. You get a lot more communication. I found it was tough to communicate in the pros because of the amount of travel and you&rsquo;ve just got so many things on your plate.&rdquo;During the Detroit training camp, much was made of Oates&rsquo; lack of skating speed. He said at the time that it was the area where he needed the most improvement. But after nearly two months in the NHL, he&rsquo;s not worried about that facet of his game.&ldquo;They are faster. There are a lot of faster guys,&rdquo; Oates said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s such a controlled game that I didn&rsquo;t feel I was out of place. A little bit maybe. I&rsquo;m a little slow out of the gate.&rdquo;The demotion to Adirondack, which had just nine healthy forwards, will provide Oates with plenty of ice time. Besides his regular shift, he&rsquo;s likely to get some work on the team&rsquo;s power-play unit&mdash;something he never did with Detroit&mdash;and an opportunity to kill penalties. It&rsquo;s a second chance, a legitimate chance, to start his pro hockey career.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t change the way I play hockey, I don&rsquo;t feel,&rdquo; Oates said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve just got to get back to playing the way I can play. That&rsquo;s the key.&rdquo;AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash;Fredericton found its form and put together a 4-1-3 string to improve its record to 10-10-3. The Express got a big performance from the line of Alain Lemieux, Jean-Marc Lanthier and Jean-Marc Gaulin in an 8-4 win at home over Sherbrooke. Lanthier led the way with four goals and two assists. Lemieux and Gaulin each earned a goal and four assists&hellip;Adirondack lost two-thirds of its best line in the transaction that brought Adam Oates down from Detroit. Claude Loiselle and Lane Lambert were recalled to the parent team. Lambert had a 14-game point-scoring streak and Loiselle had scored in 12 straight before being brought up&hellip;Forward Andy Brickley, one of Maine&rsquo;s best players in the first quarter of the season, has been bothered by tendonitis in his shoulder&hellip;When the Hershey Bears played at Maine, Bears&rsquo; coach John Paddock, a longtime Mariner, started five former Maine players: Mike Stothers, Daryl Stanley, Len Hachbom, Al Hill and Ray Allison. A sixth former Maine player, goalie Shawn MacKenzie, was the backup. It didn&rsquo;t help, though, as Sam St. Laurent shut out the Bears. &#9632;

Bonus Babies Learn About Life On Farm

<div class="byline">BY DICK BAKER</div>BALTIMORE&mdash;Although in the midst of a seven-game winless streak on what was supposed to be a day for thanksgiving. Baltimore Skipjack coach Gene Ubriaco still had one reason to keep his chin up.Diminutive center Colin Chin, on a 25-game pro tryout, was leading the Skipjacks in scoring.Chin, only 5-foot-8 and 155 pounds, is a bundle of hustle. Overshadowed by best friend and linemate Ray Staszak during his college days at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chin managed to land a pre-season tryout with the parent Pittsburgh Penguins&mdash;and that only because scout Lou Angotti had issued a favorable report during a Staszak mission last season.While the multi-million dollar superboy has struggled in Adirondack, his poor friend has found the scoring touch in Baltimore.&ldquo;We just played Adirondack and I got a chance to talk to him for a couple of hours,&rdquo; said Chin of buddy Ray. &ldquo;I know he&rsquo;s had a tough time getting going this year, but he&rsquo;s starting to come around now. He&rsquo;s been putting a lot of pressure on himself.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a natural&mdash;a real big strong winger. I used to try and set him up last year by doing the passing and I let him do the corner work.&rdquo;Staszak, who scored twice in a 9-1 romp over Baltimore, finished third in his conference in scoring last with 30 goals and 24 assists in only 30 games. Chin was fifth at 17-33-50, also in 30 games. Illinois-Chicago teammate Mike Rucinski, who is tearing up the conference this year, was the other member of the line.Chin and Staszak remain in contact often.&ldquo;I just asked him to be the best man at my wedding,&rdquo; said Chin, who turned 24 last August.A native of Fort Wayne, Chin developed his love for the game thanks to the Fort Wayne Komets back in the days of Eddie Long, Lennie Thomson and Reggie Primeau. What helped was that Chin&rsquo;s godfather. Colin Lister, was a longtime member of the Komet organization.Although it had been widely reported that Chin is the brother of U.S. Olympic figure skater, Tiffany Chin, Baltimore&rsquo;s rising star says there is no relation. In fact, he&rsquo;s never seen her skate.&ldquo;That happened in Pittsburgh, too,&rdquo; said Chin of the incorrect brother-sister stories. &ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s because there aren&rsquo;t many Chins playing hockey and not many Chins in figure skating. People think we must be related.&rdquo;The Skipjacks could probably use more Chins. Baltimore fell to fifth in the South with that sad seven-game streak. The only point came from a home tie with Fredericton.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re just missing that little something,&rdquo; said Chin of the Baltimore slide. &ldquo;This league is a totally different thing from college. A lot of these guys are married and have families, so you don&rsquo;t tend to hang around together as much as players would on a college team. All the guys are friendly. We all get along. There&rsquo;s just a little chemistry that&rsquo;s missing. Once we get that, we&rsquo;ll be okay.&rdquo;DOWN SOUTH&mdash;The Hershey Bears extended their home record to 8-01 with a 4-3 victory over the Fredericton Express, Nov. 27. In that contest, Kevin McCarthy scored his 10th goal. New Haven was bolstered by the assignment of goaltender Glen Hanlon, who had been playing for Adirondack. Hanlon split his first two games with NH, downing Binghamton 5-4 on Nov. 27. Spring field, meanwhile, acquired veteran Islam der-owned netminder Rob Holland from Indianapolis of the International League in exchange for rookie Gary Johnson, an all-star in the Western League last year at Medicine Hat. Johnson has been out all season with a groin injury. The Indians felt the IHL stint would give him a chance to play himself back into shape. Mike Sands remained sidelined with a knee injury and Jon Casey was up with Minnesota. &#9632;

Chin ‘Facing Up’ To Pro Challenge

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville HockeyMUSKEGON&mdash;Good hockey isn&rsquo;t always winning hockey&hellip;or so Rick Ley his Muskegon Lumberjacks discovered recently when they played well over a 1O-game stretch but still lost ground to the Saginaw Generals in the East Division of the International League.&ldquo;We played eight pretty good games,&rdquo; Ley reflected, &ldquo;but we just couldn&rsquo;t put the puck in the net. We lost three games by 2-1 and another 3-2, all tight games. We dominated most of them but just couldn&rsquo;t score.&rdquo;The &lsquo;Jacks finally found the net, he ever. breaking a four-game losing streak with a 7-2 victory over the Toledo Goaldiggers Nov. 23 and following with a 5-4 triumph three days later in Indianapolis.Oddly enough, they didn&rsquo;t exactly dominate the contest in Indy&mdash;they were outshot 42-20 by the Checkers&mdash;but the line of center Jock Callander and wingers Dave Michayluk and Todd Strueby scored all the goals for the winners.&ldquo;We had been trying to be too cute with the puck.&rdquo; Ley said. Against the Checkers, Michayluk and Strueby scored twice each and Callander got the other as skegon climbed past Saginaw back into first place.&ldquo;We should be better with the talent we have,&rdquo; said Ley. &ldquo;Game in and game out, the Callander line is probably the best in the league.&rdquo;Ley lamented the fact the Lumberjacks weren&rsquo;t producing more on the power play, although they rank third best in the IHL with a 20.5 per cent success rate. They are fifth in defending against power plays (18.2).Home ice has been friendly to the emberjacks, who were 6-1 in Muske-but only 5-8 on the road.Goaltender Michel Dufour was ranked third in the league with a 2.94 goals-against average in spite of his 5-7-0 record, and Ley was impressed with rookie Bruce Gilles.Gilles upped his record to 5-2 in the win over Indianapolis. &ldquo;He belongs to Edmonton,&rdquo; Ley pointed out. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s big (6-foot-3, 190 pounds) and he&rsquo;s coming on. Down the line he&rsquo;s going to be a pretty good goalie.&rdquo;Ley also expects help from two newly-assigned players. Rich Zemlak, who played at Muskegon last season, and Tom Thornbury were assigned from Fredericton late in November.The coach was happy with the league governors&rsquo; decision to reinstate the red line.&ldquo;I think it has helped us defensively,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;Our defense can pinch in now without the thought of backing up so quickly and now our forwards are kept back in our zone instead of hanging around mid-ice.&ldquo;And since there are National League prospects in our league, you want them playing by rules they use in the NHL.&rdquo;&ldquo;The East Division race is pretty tight,&rdquo; Ley added.Three points separated four teams in the West.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be that way all season,&rdquo; Ley predicted. &ldquo;Toledo is going to be better and I don&rsquo;t think there are any weak links in the league.&ldquo;You have to play like hell to get any points from Flint (with the fewest points in the league). That&rsquo;s a tribute to the fine job (Doug) McKay has done with the new franchise.&rdquo;Around the league, meanwhile, Mil waukee&rsquo;s Admirals took command in the overall points race after three wins during the week ending Nov. 25. The Admirals led the IHL in goals scored (4.47 per game) and were holding opponents to 2.76 goals a game, also a league best.The IHL observed its 41st anniversary Dec. 5 with a 10-team league (two divisions) and coming off a 1984-85 season during which 1.3 million fans turned out.That&rsquo;s a long way from the four-team league begun in Detroit in 1945 with two teams from Detroit and two others from Windsor. &#9632;

Ley’s Low-Scoring ‘Jacks Short On Goals

<div class="byline">BY PAT LYON</div>ERIE&mdash;Whew.That was the Erie Golden Blades finally taking a breath after racing through nearly one-seventh of their schedule in a mere 11 days.The breakneck pace saw the Blades play nine games in less than two weeks.When you consider that Atlantic Coast League teams play only 64 games, it must have seemed, at times, to the weary players that they would be winding up their season by Christmas.The Blades played five games in five nights, took two nights off and came right back with four more on consecutive nights.&ldquo;At first I didn&rsquo;t think it was going to affect us that much because it was early in the year,&rdquo; said Erie player-coach Ron Hansis. &ldquo;(And) originally it didn&rsquo;t hurt us. We got off to a good start winning our first three games, but then we got in the middle of that five games in five nights and guys started to get hurt, guys got tired, a couple of guys quit the team and it ended up taking a lot out of the team.&rdquo;The Blades&rsquo; record after the exhausting start was 4-5.Two games later, Erie was 5-6 and two points ahead of the Carolina Thunderbirds, who had played four less games.&ldquo;1 really feel we could easily be 10-1 right now,&rdquo; Hansis noted. &ldquo;Carolina really smoked us in the only game that we were out of and we were right in that one until the third period.&rdquo;The Blades also suffered two home losses to Mohawk Valley Comets on overtime shootouts.&ldquo;When you play so many games you can&rsquo;t practice, you can&rsquo;t work on things,&rdquo; said the Erie bench boss. &ldquo;If you do have problems it&rsquo;s hard to correct them.&rdquo;Like most other clubs, the Blades are on the lookout for more bodies to fill a roster that has dwindled to 12 skaters. When they&rsquo;re playing at home, the Blades have had to rely oh their taxi squad as a temporary solution.In recent weeks, rookies Ray Jacques and Peter Barbagallo quit the squad while the team added veteran Sylvain Cote and newcomer Brad McClintock to the roster. McClintock hit for two goals in a 5-3 loss to Mohawk Valley to help Erie end a three-game losing streak.AROUND THE LEAGUE&mdash;Blade rookie Mike Hoar had already scored three shorthanded goals&hellip;Paying a surprise visit and taking in one of Erie&rsquo;s home games was Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; assistant general manager Nick Polano. He led the Blades to three straight championships in the Eastern League&hellip;Mohawk Valley reeled off four straight wins under coach Bill Horton. Dan Lane, who led the league in goals a year ago, was back to his old tricks in a 5-4 overtime shootout triumph against Erie. He scored all five Comet lamplighters&hellip;Virginia goalie Mark Chiamp recorded 43 saves in the Lancers&rsquo; 2-1 victory over Carolina. Chiamp joined the Lancers from Fort Wayne of the IHL&hellip;The Lan cers inked Mark Salvucci and he picked up 73 penalty minutes in three games along with a suspension. Virginia also cut veteran Ron Carter&hellip;The first-year New York Slapshots were forced to play their first nine games on the road while they awaited completion of their new arena, but it hasn&rsquo;t proved too much of a problem. Coach Dave Schultz&rsquo;s club was 4-3 after its first seven games. The team is also looking for an alternate site to play its home games since the Phil Esposito Arena isn&rsquo;t scheduled for completion until late in the season. Dan Potter of New York was selected as player of the week for his five-goal performance in a 9-1 win over Mohawk Valley on November 15&hellip;Andy Ristau scored a hat-trick and Brian Carroll added four points in two recent victories for the Carolina Thunderbirds&hellip;The T-Birds also added Brian Johnson to the roster. Johnson came to the T-Birds after a stint with Indianapolis of the International League. &#9632;

Blades Play 9 Games In 11 Days!

<div class="byline">BY BILL CRAWFORD</div>ANN ARBOR&mdash;Red Berenson never promised an overnight success story was being written at the University of Michigan.When he took over the Wolverines, at the start of the 1984-85 season. Berenson promised his team would improve and that, within a reasonable period, he would hope to restore the &ldquo;glory days&rdquo;.Early this season, the story had not yet changed.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re certainly not a great team yet,&rdquo; he. said recently. &ldquo;We are a bit better now than we were at this point last season, but I have been impressed with the calibre of play all around the league so far this season. The hockey is better everywhere.&rdquo;Berenson has a fairly strong offensive team this season, but the Wolves lack consistency.Heading into the sixth weekend of the season, they had six scorers in the top 30 and the league&rsquo;s fifth best power play, but sophomore goalie Tim Makris had a 4.77 goals-against average and freshman backup Bob Lindgren was at 6.69. Makris was in net for a 7-5 loss to Lake Superior State College, while Lindgren played in an 8-3 setback. The Wolverines were 5-7 after 12 games.&ldquo;Defense has been our weak spot.&rdquo; said Berenson, &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s defensive weakness all around, not just the defensemen. It&rsquo;s something that takes time and experience.&rdquo;Michigan is the weakest team in the nine-team CCHA against opposition power plays.But the Wolverines have some talent. About that there is no doubt.They are a team of the future, with a lot of young players in key spots. But the building blocks are in place and. with the university&rsquo;s good name. Berenson&rsquo;s connections and a sizable recruiting budget, there is no reason to believe Michigan won&rsquo;t restore its once-proud hockey program within the next full season or so.Berenson and assistant Mark Miller landed blue-chip defenseman Myles O&rsquo;Connor with this year&rsquo;s class. They also brought in hard-working Todd Brost who. while diminutive, is a hustler and potentially a very good player. Add transfer player Billy Powers, a sopho more, and you&rsquo;ve got a pretty fair recruiting year.Sophomore defenseman Jeff Norton is an outstanding CCHA defenseman, a strong pro prospect. Up front, Michigan boasts high-scoring center Brad Jones, who was third in league scoring after 10 games, with 11 goals and 22 points.Offensively, the Wolverines have potential. Tom Stiles had five goals and 18 points after 10 games, while lanky Brad McCaughey had six goals and 15 points. Powers also had 15 points, but just four goals.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a tad better, perhaps,&rdquo; said Berenson, comparing this season&rsquo;s Wol verines with last year&rsquo;s team. &ldquo;We still make too many mistakes, though. But I can see improvements and promise.&rdquo;If the Wolverines&rsquo; young goaltenders can shore it up and if the defense makes some big strides, M ichigan will be a team to reckon with before this season ends. At home, they are already a very tough team.Through their first 12 games, they were 0-6 in road tests.But they did beat always-tough Michigan State in Ann Arbor, no small feat.CCHA NOTES&mdash;The weekend of Nov. 22-23 was one for the scorers in the league. Troy Thrun of Western Mic gan fired five goals in an 8-4 win or Miami on the 22nd. And Lake Superio Scott Johnson scored three goals tl same night to help the Lakers dor Michigan 7-5. Johnson had four goals the weekend as did teammate Ni Palumbo Jeff Madill of Ohio State three goals to help beat Ferris State-The night previous, Paul Lowden score a hat-trick as Ferris buried OSU 14&hellip;BG had two penalty shots in as ma nights in a two-game series again Michigan State, scoring on one and missing the other. The schools split, with each winning at home. &#9632;

Wolverine Success Story Still Needs Work

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>MADISON&mdash;If success comes from adversity, then chalk up two losses in the win column for the University of Wisconsin.The Badgers opened the 1985-86 Western Collegiate Hockey Association season on a sour note, bowing twice to Western Michigan in a non-conference series in Madison.But since then, the Badgers have turned tigers, winning nine of their next 12 to remain in hot pursuit of WCHA leader Denver University.&ldquo;It was a bad note as far as our fans were concerned to open the season that way,&rdquo; said Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer. &ldquo;But as far as the team was concerned, it was two good games to get us started. It showed us we had to be more prepared to play because Western Michigan worked harder than we did.&rdquo;The Badgers lost their third game-of the season as well and then got hot.&ldquo;After losing three straight, we beat &raquo; Denver 6-2 and from that point on. the confidence has been going strong,&rdquo; said Sauer.So have the Badgers, especially sophomore forward Scott Mellanby, who popped in consecutive hat-tricks as the Badgers routed rival North Dakota in a recent series.&ldquo;I think the key for us is that we&rsquo;re playing well as a team,&rdquo; Sauer said. &ldquo;Mellanby was the dominating name in that series, but a lot of others were just as prominent in their play.&rdquo;Wisconsin is now back on a pace with which it ended the 1984-85 season, when the Badgers closed with a rush, winning 19 of 27 games from Nov. 30 to March 7.And from the Western Michigan series, the Badgers learned one other valuable lesson, according to Sauer Never think too highly of yourself.&ldquo;Now, we&rsquo;re playing very unselfishly,&rdquo; said Sauer. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not playing like a bunch of individuals. And we knew that we had a great deal of depth at forward and that we&rsquo;d get our share of goals. Now we hope to continue to play well defensively.&rdquo;The Badgers may have to do more than that to catch Denver and even hold off Northern Michigan. While Wisconsin, North Dakota, Minnesota and Minnesota-Duluth take turns knocking each other off, meeting four times each, Denver and Northern Michigan face those league powers just twice each.In the long run. it could make the difference in the league race. And it&rsquo;s a big reason why the WCHA will most likely go back to a double round-robin format, in which each team meets every other team in the league four times each, next season.&ldquo;We knew right away that someth like this (the inequity in schedule might sneak up on us,&rdquo; Sauer said.Offensively, Tony Granato has be the leader for the Badgers with a WCHhigh 14 goals in 12 games. He&rsquo;s al chipped in with seven assists for a total-21 points, which puts him fourth in the league in scoring. Dave Maley and Me lanby have been potent punches offer sively as well while Dean Anderson at Mike Richter have been steady in gos though not spectacular.But the way Wisconsin rebounds from early adversity has been spectacul enough.WCHA NOTES&mdash;Minnesota-Dulut lights up when a Hockey East scho pops up on its schedule. The Bulldogs a 15-2-1 against members of Hockey Ea over the last two seasons&hellip;Denver has lost center John McMillan for up to six weeks after surgery was needed to remove a blood clot which formed in his leg&hellip;North Dakota got good news when Chris Jensen, the hard-shooting wing, returned to action after being sidelined for six games with a knee injury. The Sioux also got center Steve Johnson back, though he had a playing cast on his broken hand&hellip;One college hockey poll has Denver, Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth and Northern Michigan, all of the WCHA, ranked as the top four college hockey teams in the country. &#9632;

‘Sauer’ Start Wakes Dozing Badger

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>ORONO&mdash;University of Maine Black Bears&rsquo; coach Shawn Walsh is not one to back off from the truth, no matter how unhappy it might be.&ldquo;Sure, we deserve to be 1-9,&rdquo; admit-fed Walsh 10 games into the Hockey East season. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got so many young kids playing. We&rsquo;re in year two of a rebuilding cycle.&rdquo;Walsh succeeded Jack Semler as UMO coach in April. 1984. That was quite late in the recruiting season, but the former chief assistant to Michigan State&rsquo;s Ron Mason, did the best he could, roping in nine freshmen.One would expect that this year&rsquo;s edition of the Bears would be a sophomore-dominated crew. But after 10 games, fcnly two sophs&mdash;Dave Wensley and Mike McHugh&mdash;had scored any goals. They had combined for five of UMO&rsquo;s 35 tallies. Only four Black Bear sophomores have played in all eight games.Translation? This is really the first year of a Maine makeover. Last season was, at best, a holding action. In fact, a pair of upper-classmen who were lost in the shuffle of last year&rsquo;s 12-29-1 campaign have emerged as team leaders thus far.Senior John McDonald, who collected 21 points overall last season, has 13 all ready to lead the team scoring. &ldquo;It took him a while to get used to me as the new coach,&rdquo; said Walsh. Junior Steve Santini has already equalled his goal total of four from the entire 1984-85 season.Meanwhile, the only sophomores besides Wensley and McHugh to play in all games to date have been Dave Nonis and Todd Studnicka.Two of last season&rsquo;s recruits, Scott Drevitch and Stan Czenczek, transferred out after a year. Junior Jim Purcell did likewise. So, even though Maine is getting some good production from a few Experienced players they are relying on Newcomers once again.Making the biggest splash, as expected. is freshman defenseman Shawn Anderson. He&rsquo;s second to McDonald&rsquo;s team-leading 13 points with three goals and seven assists for 10 points.Anderson anchors Maine&rsquo;s power play, and Walsh said, &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t have a power play without a player like Anderson out there.&rdquo;Up until Maine&rsquo;s twin losses of 7-2 and 6-3 to Minnesota-Duluth, the team had scored an anemic two goals in 38 Mower-play tries. Walsh kept Anderson Win the point but inserted a freshman line of Bruce Major, Bob Corkum. and Chris Cambio against the Bulldogs. They clicked three times in 10 tries, a significant improvement.&ldquo;We have a record just like last year&rsquo;s, but we&rsquo; ve closed the gap tremendously,&rsquo;&rsquo; said Walsh. &ldquo;The Duluth series was typical for us. In the first game, we&rsquo;re down 4-2 after two periods, but they just killed us on power plays. In the second game, McDonald tied the score at 11:06 of the third period Then right after that Brett Hull beats us with a great 35-footer that goes in off the crossbar.&rdquo;The Duluth games were played in Maine&rsquo;s Alfond Arena.Walsh contends that the biggest difference between this year&rsquo;s Maine team and last year&rsquo;s is the performance on the road. The Bears lost 7-5 and 7-6 in OT at Northern Michigan the week before playing Duluth.Last year, according to Walsh, trips out west usually meant one game that remained close for two periods followed by a second game when the opponents feasted on the Bears.Another differernce, finally, is the goaltending. Twenty-year-old freshman Al Loring played both games against Minnesota-Duluth. Slated to take the starting job in pre-season, Loring tore a hamstring in Maine&rsquo;s intra-squad game a few days before the opener. Ray Roy and Jean Lacoste had held the fort during his convalescence, but Loring will play the bulk of games the rest of the way.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been so darn frustrating. It&rsquo;s not so much the number of freshmen we&rsquo;re using as where we&rsquo;re using them. If Eric Weinrich or Jack Capuano happens to be playing the other power-play point along with Anderson, that means we&rsquo;ve got five freshmen out there. How many other power-play units have five freshmen,&rdquo; asked Walsh, rhetorically.If Maine is having its problems getting out of first gear in the Hockey East race, so too are Lowell (2-8-1) and New Hampshire (1-8).&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to be an interesting second-half team,&rdquo; predicted Walsh.NOTES&mdash;When Lowell sophomore Jim Newhouse scored with just 55 seconds left in overtime against Michigan Tech at Houghton, he gave the Chiefs their first road win ever against a WCHA team. Losers in eight games on the road against the west last year, Lowell came back from Tech with a 4-3 win and a 3-3 tie. Senior Dana Demole played goal in both games and made 57 stops&hellip;Boston University also emerged from a series with a win and a tie. They blanked Colorado College 5-0 and tied 3-3. Bob Deraney was in net for both games and picked up his first shutout as a Terrier. &#9632;

Maine Bearing Up Well Despite Bad Start

<div class="byline">BY TOM BOGGIE</div>CANTON&mdash;Clarkson University didn&rsquo;t even have to consult its well-respected engineering department to come up with its latest invention&mdash;the 70-minute hockey game.Through their first four Eastern College Athletic Conference games, the Golden Knights had yet to end a contest in regulation time.They&rsquo;d blown leads, battled back from near-impossible odds, done just about everything imaginable, but the result was always the same&mdash;overtime.Because of those four overtime games, the Golden Knights opened their league season with an odd looking 1-0-3 record. Throw in their overtime non-conference opener against Rochester Institute of Technology and you had five overtimes in seven games.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing ourselves into shape,&rdquo; joked rookie coach Cap Raeder, who succeeded Bill O&rsquo;Flaherty this season. &ldquo;Actually, it&rsquo;s a sign of youth, but the kids have shown a lot of character. They&rsquo;ve played well in the overtimes. In all of those overtimes, either team could have won.&ldquo;We could easily be 4-0 but on the other side, we could be 0-4, too.&rsquo;Raeder should have known he was in for a long season&mdash;literally&mdash;when the Knights opened their season with a 5-4 overtime loss to RIT, the defending-NCAA Division III champion. The Knights, up 2-0 early in that game, had what would have been the game-winning goal disallowed in overtime, and the Tigers scored with 27 seconds left to beat the Knights.After splitting a series with Bowling Green (what, no overtime?), Clarkson began its string of overtime games against Vermont. Vermont led 2-1 in that game before senior wing Charlie Meitner of Whitby, Ont. (more about him later) scored with 4:27 gone in overtime to give the Knights a 3-2 win.The next night, Clarkson gave up a power-play goal with just three-and-a-half minutes left to play to sacrifice what had looked like a sure win for a 1-1 tie with RPI.That habit of giving up the lead proved to be costly in the Knight&rsquo;s third ECAC game of the season, as Clarkson had Cornell on the ropes 3-0, before the Big Red rallied to come away with a 3-3 tie, thanks to a goal by Dave Shippel only 11 seconds from the end of regulation time.But the skate was on the other foot against Colgate, as Clarkson rallied from a 4-2 deficit to post a 4-4 tie, thanks to another clutch goal by Meitner.Meitner has a habit of being in the right place at the right time for the Golden Knights. A proven offensive threat who entered this season with 77 career points (33-44), Meitner had three gamewinning goals (two of them in overtime) to his credit last season.This year, he scored at least one point in each of Clarkson&rsquo;s first seven games and added another game-winner to his career total.&ldquo;Charlie was our second leading scorer last year and we have to get goals from him to be successful,&rdquo; said Raeder. &ldquo;We have to get goals from other people eventually. but right now, we&rsquo;re riding him.&rdquo;Meitner began his career as a center, scoring six goals and six assists as a freshman, but O&rsquo;Flaherty switched him to wing as a sophomore and he&rsquo;s been there ever since. &ldquo;We like him on the wing,&rdquo; said Raeder. &ldquo;He has a great shot and he&rsquo;s a big kid, too.&rdquo;Like so many of the players in the ECAC, Meitner is a free agent. &ldquo;He has a good shot at playing pro, I&rsquo;ll tell you,&rdquo; said Raeder.Although that 1-0-3 league record looks strange, it&rsquo;s allowing Clarkson to keep pace with the rest of the league, even though the Golden Knights&rsquo; offense is struggling.Senior Mike Harvey is still shaking off the effects of last season&rsquo;s knee injury while sophomore Luc Borsato is mired in a sophomore slump.&ldquo;Mike&rsquo;s knee is bothering him a little bit, but he&rsquo;s playing well,&rdquo; said Raeder. &ldquo;But we still need more goals out of him and we need more out of Luc Borsato. We haven&rsquo;t had any goals from him yet. He&rsquo;s played well, but he just hasn&rsquo;t been able to put it in. Once we get those guys going, we&rsquo;ll be better off. Jamie Faile has looked very good in goal. He had great games against RPI and Cornell.&rdquo;ECAC NOTES&mdash;The hottest team in the ECAC over the first three weeks of the season was Vermont. The Catamounts, anchored by junior goalie Tom Draper, started with a 3-1 record, including a 3-1 win over Yale one night after the Elis had beaten up on RPI 8-5. Draper gave up just eight goals in Vermont&rsquo;s first four league games&hellip;Yale&rsquo;s win over RPI broke the Engineers&rsquo; 38-game unbeaten streak. The eight goals was the most scored on RPI since the 1982.-83 season&hellip;RPI senior John Carter scored his 100th career goal against Yale&hellip;Colgate freshman Scott Young picked up his first career goal the easy way, scoring an empty-netter in the Red Raiders&rsquo; 5-2 win over St. Lawrence&hellip;What should have been the year of the goaltender in the ECAC is turning into the year of no defense. In one weekend&rsquo;s worth of action, RPI outslugged Brown 9-6, Cornell beat St. Lawrence 7-6 and Dartmouth traded goals with Army before coming away with a 6-5 win in overtime. As RPI coach Mike Addesa said after the win over Brown, &ldquo;Thank God we got the field goal.&rdquo; &#9632;

Knights Take Their Time Early On

<h2>CCHA</h2>(STANDINGS ON FRI. DEC. 6)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01649/5580715-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="527" height="295"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. NOV. 29MIAMI 2 AT BOWLING GREEN 7MICHIGAN 2 AT OHIO STATE 4MICH. STATE 6 AT ILL-CHICAGO 4W. MICHIGAN 9 AT FERRIS STATE 3SAT. NOV. 30MIAMI 2 AT BOWLING GREEN 4MICHIGAN 5 AT OHIO STATE 6MICH. STATE 2 AT ILL-CHICAGO 3SUN. DEC. 1FERRIS STATE 5 AT W. MICHIGAN 9<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02499/5580708-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="529" height="325"></div><h2>WCHA</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. DEC. 3)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03390/5580701-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="525" height="268"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRL NOV. 29MICH. TECH 6 AT PROVIDENCE 7MINNESOTA 8 AT N. MICHIGAN 4MAINE 4 AT NORTH DAKOTA 5BOSTON UNIV. 6 AT MIN-DULUTH 8NEW HAMPSHIRE 3 AT WISCONSIN 8NORTHEASTERN 4 AT COLO. COLL 5SAT. NOV. 30MICH. TECH 5 AT PROVIDENCE 5MINNESOTA 10 AT N. MICHIGAN 9MAINE 3 AT NORTH DAKOTA 6BOSTON UNIV. 2 AT MIN-DULUTH 2NEW HAMPSHIRE 4 AT WISCONSIN 7NORTHEASTERN 7 AT COLO. COLL 8<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04288/5580694-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="527" height="267"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05227/5580687-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="521" height="92"></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. DEC. 3)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06195/5580680-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="529" height="219"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>SAT. NOV. 23COLORADO COLL 3 AT BOSTON UNIV. 3MIN-DULUTH 6 AT MAINE 3NORTHEASTERN 1 AT DENVER 7BOSTON COLLEGE 5 AT N. MICHIGAN 8LOWELL 3 AT MICHIGAN TECH 3TUE. NOV. 26YALE 6 AT NEW HAMPSHIRE 3BOSTON UNIV. 4 AT HARVARD 4WED. NOV. 27NORTHEASTERN 8 AT AIR FORCE 3FRI. NOV. 29MICH. TECH 6 AT PROVIDENCE 7MAINE 4 AT NORTH DAKOTA 5BOSTON UNIV. 6 AT MIN-DULUTH 8NEW HAMPSHIRE 3 AT WISCONSIN 7NORTHEASTERN 4 AT COLO. COLL 5SAT. NOV. 30MICH. TECH. 5 AT PROVIDENCE 5MAINE 3 AT NORTH DAKOTA 6BOSTON UNIV. 2 AT MIN-DULUTH 2NEW HAMPSHIRE 4 AT WISCONSIN 7NORTHEASTERN 7 AT COLO. COLL 8SUN. DEC. 1DENVER 3 AT BOSTON COLLEGE 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07179/5580673-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="525" height="239"></div><h2>ECAC</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. DEC. 3)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08168/5580666-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="527" height="381"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. NOV. 26BOSTON COLLEGE 4 AT HARVARD 4WILLIAMS 2 AT PRINCETON 6YALE 6 AT NEW HAMPSHIRE 3FRI. NOV. 29HARVARD 9 AT DARTMOUTH 2COLGATE 4 AT RYERSON 4UNION 1 AT PRINCETON 2SAT. NOV. 30MERRIMACK 2 AT BROWN 7COLGATE 3 AT BROCK 6TORONTO 2 AT CORNELL 2 LEADING SCORERS<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-09154/5580659-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="528" height="240"></div><h2>OUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. DEC. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-10149/5580652-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="530" height="413"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>WED. NOV. 27YORK 4 AT WESTERN 6FRL NOV. 29GUELPH 4 AT WATERLOO 6WINDSOR 4 AT YORK 6McMASTER 10 AT BROCK 6SAT. NOV. 30WINDSOR 4 AT LAURIER 9LAURENTIAN 10 AT QUEEN&rsquo;S 3WATERLOO 6 AT McMASTER 3SUN. DEC. 1LAURENTIAN 4 AT QUEEN&rsquo;S 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-11139/5580645-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="531" height="416"></div><h2>CWUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. DEC. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-12135/5580638-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="525" height="264"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. NOV. 29UBC 3 AT CALGARY 7BRANDON 2 AT ALBERTA 4LETHBRIDGE 1 AT SASKATCHEWAN 7MANITOBA 9 AT REGINA 3SAT. NOV. 30UBC 6 AT CALGARY 5BRANDON 3 AT ALBERTA 7LETHBRIDGE 1 AT SASKATCHEWAN 7MANITOBA 5 AT REGINA 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-13125/5580631-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="526" height="385"></div><h2>AUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. DEC. 3)<h3>MACADAM DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-14121/5580624-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="524" height="161"></div><h3>KELLY DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-15116/5580617-1-eng-US/f0034-152.jpg" title="f0034-15" width="527" height="133"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>WED. NOV. 27DALHOUSIE 7 AT ACADIA 4MT. ALLISON 5 AT ST. THOMAS 11FRI. NOV. 29ST. MARY&rsquo;S 2 AT ST. F. XAVIER 5UPEI 6 AT UNB 4SAT. NOV. 30UPEI 5 AT ST. THOMAS 2DALHOUSIE 6 AT ST. F. XAVIER 4ACADIA 9 AT ST. MARY&rsquo;S 2UNB 4 AT MONCTON 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-16114/5580610-1-eng-US/f0034-162.jpg" title="f0034-16" width="526" height="216"></div><h2>QUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. DEC. 3)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-17105/5580603-1-eng-US/f0034-172.jpg" title="f0034-17" width="525" height="164"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. NOV. 29CHICOUTIMI 3 AT T-RIVIERES 8SAT. NOV. 30CHICOUTIMI 3 AT OTTAWA 7T-RIVIERES 7 AT McGILL 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-18100/5580596-1-eng-US/f0034-182.jpg" title="f0034-18" width="528" height="318"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

HOW THEY STAND-GAMES TO COME

TOURNAMENT RESULTSRPI INVITATIONALLake Superior 5, Alaska-Anchorage 3RPI 4, RIT 2ConsolationRIT 10, Alaska-Anchorage 5ChampionshipRPI 3, Lake Superior 2EMPIRE CUPSt. Lawrence 8, Concordia 5Clarkson 5, Lowell 1ConsolationLowell 10, Concordia 4ChampionshipSt. Lawrence 7, Clarkson 4TOURNAMENTS TO COMEGREAT LAKES INVITATIONALJoe Louis Arena, Detroit, MlFri. Dec. 27Mich. State vs Mich. TechSat. Dec. 28RPI vs MichiganSun. Dec. 29Consolation & championship gamesSYRACUSE INVITATIONALWar Memorial Aud. Syracuse, NYFri. Dec. 27RIT vs W. MichiganColgate vs Notre DameSat. Dec. 28Consolation & championship gamesKEY BANK CLASSICOlympic Arena, Lake Placid, NYSat. Dec. 28St. Lawrence vs Bowling GreenClarkson vs TorontoSun. Dec. 29Consolation & championship gamesYORK TOURNAMENTYork Ice Palace, Toronto, ONSat. Dec. 28Ohio State vs Western OntarioAcadia vs YorkSun. Dec. 29Consolation & championship gamesAULD LANG SYNE CLASICThompson Arena, Hanover, NHMon. Dec. 30Vermont vs MaineDartmouth vs BowdoinTue. Dec. 31Consolation & championship gamesBRITISH COLUMBIA TOURNAMENTThunderbird Rink, Vancouver, BCThu-Sat. Jan. 2-4UBC, Cornell, Yale, Japan, Manitoba, Torontocompete in round-robin.MICRON INVITATIONALConcordia Arena, Montreal, PQSat. Jan. 4Union College vs OttawaMoncton vs McGillNo. Arizona vs ConcordiaSun. Jan. 5Ottawa vs MonctonMcGill vs No. ArizonaConcordia vs Union CollegeMon. Jan. 6Two finalists meet for championship.BEANPOT TOURNAMENTBoston Garden, Boston, MAMon. Feb. 3Harvard vs Boston CollegeNortheastern vs Boston UniversityMon. Feb. 10Consolation & championship games &#9632;

COLLEGE TOURNAMENTS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01615/5580808-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="386" height="557"><figcaption class="caption-body">TERRY CROWE Dalhousie</figcaption></div><h2>AUAA</h2>Dalhousie forward Terry Crowe scored four goals, including three in one game, as the Tigers beat Acadia 7-4 and St. Francis Xavier 6-4. Crowe has 19 points in 12 games so far this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02480/5580801-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="391" height="552"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE LINSEMAN Waterloo</figcaption></div><h2>OUAA</h2>Waterloo&rsquo;s Steve Linseman scored two goals and seven assists, giving him a league-leading 18 goals and 35 points, as the Warriors beat Guelph and McMaster to take over first place in the conference.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03384/5580794-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="389" height="555"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARK CHARTIER Saskatchewan</figcaption></div><h2>CWUAA</h2>Saskatchewan&rsquo;s senior center Mark Chartier collected seven points to help the Huskies sweep the Lethbridge Pronghorns by identical 7-1 scores. Chartier leads the Huskies with eight goals and 18 points. &#9632;

f0035-01

Bauer’s University Performer Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>Louisville HockeyLouisville HockeyCORNWALL&mdash;A Royal wedding is over.Sadly, there wasn&rsquo;t even a paragraph on the wire, no special tribute or no farewell bash to say goodbye last month to Gord Wood, the Cornwall Royals&rsquo; chief scout for the past 15 years.Maybe that&rsquo;s the way it is with &ldquo;builders&rdquo;, but Wood and his familiar fedora will be missed around Ontario arenas this winter.There was a time he was the best in the business.Sure, he made mistakes at the draft. Who hasn&rsquo;t? He also took some flack when some of his key draft picks did not report to Cornwall. Which team hasn&rsquo;t had that problem lately?Wood has nothing to prove. He&rsquo;s got three Memorial Cup rings and sent a stream of players to the NHL, among them Dale Hawerchuk.&rsquo;Dan Daoust, Richard Brodeur, John Wensink, Doug Gilmour, Jim Kyte, Rick Paterson and Bob Murray.Wood is home in Kingston with his wife Thelma, hoping to land a fulltime scouting job in the future, but he will be paid by the Royals until the end of the month.Wood said when he heard a rumor that club owner Paul Emard was prepared to sell, he told his employer he wouldn&rsquo;t work for anybody else and would resign if it happened. It was eventually sold in November to 19 local businessmen.&ldquo;I always told Paul I wouldn&rsquo;t work for anybody else in Cornwall,&rdquo; Wood said. &ldquo;I told Paul if you ever sell, would you notify me. My word is my bond.&rdquo;Wood said he received a registered letter Oct. 29 in which Emard confirmed he was entertaining offers to sell the club and thanked Wood for his service and advice.&ldquo;You certainly have been an inspiration to me and I value your friendship immensely,&rdquo; Emard wrote.So have others&hellip;people such as Orval Tessier, Brian Kilrea and Floyd Crawford to name only a few.Crawford, coach of the Royals last year and this season, resigned shortly after he heard Wood was getting the Royal flush.&ldquo;He brought me into the organization and the least I could show was my loyalty to the man,&rdquo; said Crawford, who is now an assistant with the Belleville Bulls. Two of his sons, Bob and Marc, played in Cornwall.Kilrea, who won a Memorial Cup in his final season coaching the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s and has been an assistant with the New York Islanders the past two years, was deeply moved.&ldquo;He was a league man, a team man and people with the loyalty he had for that team don&rsquo;t come along often,&rdquo; Kilrea said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re going to miss him. He and Thelma were down here (on Long Island) for a few days. He still wears that Cornwall tatoo no matter what happened. He was true blue. Whatever he did, he did for Cornwall.&ldquo;In any organization, you have to have men true and blue to you no matter what. He was. He wanted the best players to go there. How can you fault that?&ldquo;They&rsquo;re (Cornwall) going to find out what they&rsquo;ve lost. All he did was put some great kids in Cornwall and make some fans extremely happy over 15 years. How many men are there walking around with three Memorial Cup rings on their fingers?&rdquo;Wood helped the Royals build to their first Memorial Cup, won by Tessier in 1971-72 with players such as Wensink, Brodeur, B. J. MacDonald, Al Sims and Gary McGregor, who scored 100 goals.Wood said the 1977-78 team, with Rick Paterson, Danny Geoffrion, Tim Bernhardt, Graeme Nicholson and Dan Daoust was the best ever but they lost out in the first round of Quebec playoffs to Montreal.Still in the Quebec League, the Royals won back-to-back Memorial Cups in &lsquo;7980 and &lsquo;80-81 with a nucleus of Hawer-chuk, Scott Amiel, Gilmour, Daoust, Fred Arthur, Fred Boimistruck, Dan Frawley, John Kirk and goalie Ron Scott.Naturally, Wood rates the Memorial Cups as his major thrills.&ldquo;Those were great things,&rdquo; Wood said, &ldquo;but the greatest highlight of all had to be defenseman Robert Savard&rsquo;s goal in overtime in the Memorial Cup final with Peterborough Petes at Regina. Here&rsquo;s a guy who hadn&rsquo;t scored five goals since he joined the Royals.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just getting nicely rested on a platform at the end of the rink and he walks between two defensemen and scores. I jumped off the 10-foot platform, over the boards and into Fred Arthur&rsquo;s arms.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think we were going to win that day.&rdquo;Wood was one of the &ldquo;characters&rdquo; around the OHL and enjoyed a good con versation. His colleagues in the scouting fraternity, who enjoyed his company and respected his judgment, used to joke that Gordie arrived at the games a half-hour after his voice.Kilrea was in that group.&ldquo;He was great to be with,&rdquo; said Kilrea. &ldquo;As soon as he walked in, a dull room came alive. He&rsquo;s so comical and has a great sense of humor&hellip;for a guy his age. I like to give a jab, too. Some scouts tell you they wondered if Gordie had eyes in the back of his head because he was always talking.&ldquo;Une night Gordie was on a scouting trip on his way from Cornwall to Ottawa and had the Royals&rsquo; game on the radio. When he started losing the signal, he stopped at a service station to listen to the rest of the game.&ldquo;Gordie was so happy they won in overtime, he decided to get out of his car and call Floyd (Crawford) from a pay phone. You&rsquo;ve got to know Gordie is such an immaculate dresser. He got out to make the call in a new suit and slipped and fell on the ice and mud, messing up his new clothes. Then he went in and complained that somebody should be responsible for not keeping the ice clear and forgot all about the phone call.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s never a grand day in sports when one of its most colorful and productive people leaves the scene.The OHL has lost a good friend in Gord Wood.Hamilton coach Bill LaForge has had yet another brush with the OHL.LaForge and referee Bill Prisniak had an exchange of words on the ice after a recent Guelph victory in overtime and was assessed gross and game misconducts. His assistant coach, Ron Coleman, also received a game misconduct. LaForge was suspended four games and Coleman, two, by the league. Dave Prior, a goaltending consultant for the Steelhawks, was picked to handle the bench in their absence.LaForge was apparently upset that Prisniak didn&rsquo;t send the Platers to their dressing room instead of allowing them to celebrate at center ice.According to a league rule, the Hamilton team can&rsquo;t leave its bench to cross the ice to their dressing room until the Platers vacated the ice and, therefore, had to watch the party.LaForge returns to the Steelhawks&rsquo; Dec. 10 for their first game in the Copps Coliseum against Toronto Marlboros. &#9632;

OHL Loses One Of Its Most Colorful Figures

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01588/5580877-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="553" height="581"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEVIN VESCIO North Bay</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>Kevin Vescio of North Bay can look at the 1985-86 Ontario Hockey League season as a step upwards in his offensive production.The 20-year-old Centennials&rsquo; defenseman scored only one goal in 57 games last season. In a recent 7-3 win over Kingston, he counted three times and set up two other goals to earn OHL Player of the Week honors.The six-foot, 190-pound Vescio had nine points in his first 11 games, three of them on goals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02437/5580870-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="561" height="580"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE GOTAAS Prince Albert</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>The Prince Albert Raiders are performing like true champions atop the Western League and one of their offensive stars is center Steve Gotaas.The 18-year-old draft choice of the Pittsburgh Penguins earned eight points&mdash;including a hat-trick&mdash;in three victories to get the nod as WHL Player of the Week.Gotaas had scored 19 times in 24 games for the Raiders and accounted for 41 points to rank among the league&rsquo;s top 20 scorers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03356/5580863-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="558" height="574"><figcaption class="caption-body">SIMON MASSIE Drummondville</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>Simon Massie is writing his own success story with the Drummondville Voltigeurs this season.The 18-year-old right winger, who will be eligible for the NHL draft in June, needed 64 games to score 16 goals last year. After 29 games this year he already had 15 goals and been picked QMJHL Player of the Week.Massie had seven points in three recent games to push his point total to 33 and better his entire 1984-85 production of 31 points. &#9632;

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MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>TROIS-RIVIERES&mdash;The continuing saga of Jean Begin&hellip;Once considered a lightweight coach in the Quebec League, Begin silenced many of his critics when he took over the fourth-place Verdun Junior Canadiens with five games remaining last season and guided them to the Memorial Cup tournament.That performance, no doubt, helped him resurface as the new coach of the Trois-Rivieres Draveurs, replacing Andre (Moose) Dupont, who was relieved of his duties in late November.Begin has compiled a 98-68 record with three teams in as many seasons, including a 27-8 mark in the playoffs.The 41-year-old Quebec City native finished in eighth place with a 30-40 record in his debut with the Hull Olympiques in 1982-83. But then the Olympiques almost pulled off an incredible comeback in the quarter-finals against the first-place Laval Voisins.Down 3-0 and outscored 32-5 in the first three games of the best-of-seven series, Hull rallied to win the next three games and force a deciding contest which it lost 10-8 in Laval.The Voisins must have been impressed because they hired Begin for the 1983-84 campaign. He took the team to the pennant with a 56-14 record and was 12-2 in the playoffs on the way to the league championship and the Memorial Cup tournament.&ldquo;People say &lsquo;you coached Mario Lemieux, it was easy&rsquo; but it was not easy,&rdquo; Begin said.However, there&rsquo;s no question the team missed Lemieux last year. Begin was fired at the end of November after a 9-12 start.His next shot came with Verdun.He was taken on at Christmas as an assistant coach to former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; winger Yvon Lambert and elevated at the end of the schedule with the team struggling.The Junior Canadiens finished the season 3-2 in regular season play under Begin and were 12-2 in the playoffs, winning the league title and advancing to the Memorial Cup tournament.&ldquo;I was disappointed I wasn&rsquo;t asked to come back,&rdquo; said Begin, who bought a restaurant in old Montreal. &ldquo;They said they wanted a fulltime coach. I said I was available from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. every day and weekend.&rdquo;But Begin got a call to come in from the bullpen again from Draveurs&rsquo; general manager Yvon Gendron.&ldquo;They were looking for a coach with experience in the league,&rdquo; Begin said. &ldquo;They wanted to see the team win and to see discipline. I accepted and was coaching the same night against Granby.&rdquo;The new coach signed a one-year contract with an option year and won two of his first three games.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think Andre (Dupont) was the right man,&rdquo; said Real Proulx, the club&rsquo;s owner and president. &ldquo;He was too soft with the guys.&rdquo;Dupont, a Trois-Rivieres native, said injuries played the biggest role in the team&rsquo;s slide.After a 5-1-1 start, the Draveurs dropped to fourth place overall with a 10-11-2 mark and then to eighth at 11-16-2.&ldquo;We had eight players injuredat one time,&rdquo; said Dupont, a National Hockey League defenseman for 15 years.&ldquo;It was really tough to get going. Sometimes we&rsquo;d only have 16 or 17 players dressed and two or three of them would be playing hurt. We lost a lot of games by one goal, a couple in overtime.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a magician,&rdquo; said Dupont, who took the team from 11th to sixth place last year. &ldquo;Things were not going as well as I wanted but it was nothing drastic. The owner is free to make whatever decision he wants to.&rdquo;Two key injuries were to 5-foot-10, 178-pound defenseman Serge Poudrier, the Draveurs&rsquo; captain and quarterback, and center Claude Gagnon, last season&rsquo;s top scorer (48-78126).Dupont said he is interested in coaching elsewhere in the league. &#9632;

Begin Back From Bullpen To Relieve Coach Dupont

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01594/5580963-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01560/5580956-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="3079" height="3782"></div> &#9632;

f0038-01

THN STATISTICS NHL SCORING

<h2>NHL</h2>&mdash;TEAM STANDINGS&mdash;(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/f0040-01281/5581246-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="524" height="162"></div><h3>SMYTHE DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02186/5581239-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="524" height="160"></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/f0040-03136/5581232-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="531" height="163"></div><h3>PATRICK DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04106/5581225-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="529" height="190"></div><h2>POINTS RACE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0588/5581218-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="503" height="582"></div>RESULTS ENDING DEC 1,1985<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0676/5581211-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="539" height="893"></div><h2>AHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. DEC. 3)<h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0768/5581204-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="531" height="238"></div><h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0861/5581197-1-eng-US/f0040-082.jpg" title="f0040-08" width="528" height="207"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>SAT. NOV. 23BALTIMORE 1 AT ADIRONDACK 9FREDERICTON 4 AT BINGHAMTON 2HERSHEY 0 AT MAINE 3MONCTON 5 AT NOVA SCOTIA 6NEW HAVEN 2 AT ST. CATHARINES 4SHERBROOKE 4 AT SPRINGFIELD 3SUN. NOV. 24NOVA SCOTIA 4 AT MONCTON 3BINGHAMTON 4 AT ROCHESTER 9MON. NOV. 25FREDERICTON 3 AT BALTIMORE 3SPRINGFIELD 6 AT SHERBROOKE 3WED. NOV. 27ST. CATHARINES 5 AT ADIRONDACK 7ROCHESTER 3 AT BALTIMORE 1FREDERICTON 3 AT HERSHEY 4SPRINGFIELD 2 AT MAINE 4BINGHAMTON 4 AT NEW HAVEN 5SHERBROOKE 5 AT NOVA SCOTIA 3THU. NOV. 28ST. CATHARINES 4 AT BINGHAMTON 8SHERBROOKE 4 AT FREDERICTON 8FRI. NOV. 29SPRINGFIELD 4 AT NEW HAVEN 7BALTIMORE 3 AT ROCHESTER 4SAT. NOV. 30ROCHESTER 3 AT BINGHAMTON 8NOVA SCOTIA 1 AT FREDERICTON 8ST. CATHARINES 3 AT HERSHEY 5NEW HAVEN 4 AT MAINE 8SHERBROOKE 3 AT MONCTON 5ADIRONDACK 2 AT SPRINGFIELD 3SUN. DEC. 1MAINE 2 AT MONCTON 4FREDERICTON 3 AT NEW HAVEN 4NOVA SCOTIA 5 AT ROCHESTER 3BALTIMORE 5 AT ST. CATHARINES 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0954/5581190-1-eng-US/f0040-092.jpg" title="f0040-09" width="535" height="530"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1054/5581183-1-eng-US/f0040-102.jpg" title="f0040-10" width="553" height="179"></div><h2>IHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. DEC. 4)<h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1152/5581176-1-eng-US/f0040-112.jpg" title="f0040-11" width="524" height="177"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1248/5581169-1-eng-US/f0040-122.jpg" title="f0040-12" width="522" height="206"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>SAT. NOV. 23TOLEDO 2 AT MUSKEGON 7FLINT 2 AT SAGINAW 3FORT WAYNE 2 AT KALAMAZOO 5SALT LAKE 6 AT PEORIA 5SUN. NOV. 24TOLEDO 5 AT PEORIA 4MILWAUKEE 4 AT FLINT 1TUE. NOV. 26SAGINAW 1 AT PEORIA 4MUSKEGON 5 AT INDIANAPOLIS 4THU. NOV. 28FLINT 3 AT FORT WAYNE 7KALAMAZOO 2 AT MUSKEGON 8SALT LAKE 4 AT TOLEDO 3SAGINAW 2 AT INDIANAPOLIS 1FRI. NOV. 29FORT WAYNE 2 AT PEORIA 7SALT LAKE 5 AT FLINT 2MUSKEGON 4 AT KALAMAZOO 2TOLEDO 3 AT MILWAUKEE 7SAT. NOV. 30SALT LAKE 1 AT FORT WAYNE 3MILWAUKEE 2 AT MUSKEGON 6KALAMAZOO 8 AT SAGINAW 7PEORIA 0 AT TOLEDO 1FLINT 4 AT INDIANAPOLIS 7SUN. DEC. 1SAGINAW 2 AT MILWAUKEE 6INDIANAPOLIS 0 AT PEORIA 2<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1346/5581162-1-eng-US/f0040-132.jpg" title="f0040-13" width="531" height="468"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1439/5581155-1-eng-US/f0040-142.jpg" title="f0040-14" width="547" height="177"></div><h2>ACHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. DEC. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1539/5581148-1-eng-US/f0040-152.jpg" title="f0040-15" width="525" height="175"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>SAT. NOV. 23CAROLINA 1 AT VIRGINIA 2ERIE 5 AT MOHAWK VALLEY 3SUN. NOV. 24MOHAWK VALLEY 3 AT CAROLINA 7NEW YORK 9 AT VIRGINIA 5TUE. NOV. 26NEW YORK 6 AT CAROLINA 4WED. NOV. 27VIRGINIA 2 AT MO. VALLEY 5THU. NOV. 28CAROLINA 10 AT ERIE 3MO. VALLEY 0 AT VIRGINIA 4FRI. NOV. 29CAROLINA 4 AT MOHAWK VALLEY 5SAT. NOV. 30NEW YORK 9 AT ERIE 4SUN. DEC. 1ERIE 6 AT VIRGINIA 16NEW YORK 3 AT MOHAWK VALLEY 4<h2>WHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. DEC. 3)<h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1637/5581141-1-eng-US/f0040-162.jpg" title="f0040-16" width="530" height="265"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1734/5581134-1-eng-US/f0040-172.jpg" title="f0040-17" width="524" height="207"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>MON. NOV. 25LETHBRIDGE 2 AT MOOSE JAW 4TUE. NOV. 26SEATTLE 2 AT KAMLOOPS 7CALGARY 7 AT MEDICINE HAT 5BRANDON 5 AT SASKATOON 8NEW WESTMINSTER 6 AT SPOKANE 7REGINA 5 AT VICTORIA 3WED. NOV. 27MEDICINE HAT 10 AT CALGARY 3SASKATOON 4 AT MOOSE JAW 4REGINA 3 AT PORTLAND 6BRANDON 3 AT PRINCE ALBERT 12THU. NOV. 28REGINA 5 AT SEATTLE 4PORTLAND 12 AT SPOKANE 4FRI. NOV. 29SASKATOON 8 AT BRANDON 11KAMLOOPS 5 AT LETHBRIDGE 6NEW WESTMINSTER 3 AT VICTORIA 2SAT. NOV. 30PRINCE ALBERT 4 AT CALGARY 0KAMLOOPS 6 AT MEDICINE HAT 9VICTORIA 4 AT PORTLAND 9REGINA 2 AT SPOKANE 7SUN. DEC. 1KAMLOOPS 4 AT CALGARY 3PRINCE ALBERT 9 AT LETHBRIDGE 8VICTORIA 4 AT NEW WESTMINSTER 2MOOSE JAW 6 AT SASKATOON 8<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1830/5581127-1-eng-US/f0040-182.jpg" title="f0040-18" width="530" height="295"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-1928/5581120-1-eng-US/f0040-192.jpg" title="f0040-19" width="533" height="362"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2027/5581113-1-eng-US/f0040-202.jpg" title="f0040-20" width="552" height="180"></div><h2>OHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. DEC. 4)<h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2126/5581106-1-eng-US/f0040-212.jpg" title="f0040-21" width="533" height="267"></div><h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2226/5581099-1-eng-US/f0040-222.jpg" title="f0040-22" width="535" height="237"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>MON. NOV. 25LONDON 6 AT WINDSOR 3TUE. NOV. 26SUDBURY 5 AT S.S. MARIE 5WED. NOV. 27KITCHENER 2 AT BELLEVILLE 5&rsquo;THU. NOV. 28TORONTO 9 AT CORNWALL 3NORTH BAY 7 AT HAMILTON 4KINGSTON 3 AT PETERBOROUGH 4OSHAWA 4 AT WINDSOR 3FRI. NOV. 29HAMILTON 3 AT KINGSTON 2NORTH BAY 4 AT KITCHENER 5OSHAWA 6 AT LONDON 4TORONTO 2 AT OTTAWA 9WINDSOR 6 AT SUDBURY 5GUELPH 5 AT S.S. MARIE 7SAT. NOV. 30OTTAWA 2 AT BELLEVILLE 6CORNWALL 1 AT PETERBOROUGH 7SUN. DEC. 1PETERBOROUGH 8 AT CORNWALL 2KITCHENER 4 AT NORTH BAY 3KINGSTON 1 AT OSHAWA 3BELLEVILLE 0 AT OTTAWA 6GUELPH 5 AT SUDBURY 4WINDSOR 1 AT S.S. MARIE 3LONDON AT TORONTO (ppd)<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2324/5581092-1-eng-US/f0040-232.jpg" title="f0040-23" width="533" height="499"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2423/5581085-1-eng-US/f0040-242.jpg" title="f0040-24" width="549" height="180"></div><h2>QMJHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. DEC. 2)<h3>ROBERT LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2520/5581078-1-eng-US/f0040-252.jpg" title="f0040-25" width="525" height="178"></div><h3>FRANK DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2618/5581071-1-eng-US/f0040-262.jpg" title="f0040-26" width="526" height="206"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>SUN. NOV. 24GRANBY 5 AT DRUMMONDVILLE 12LAVAL 0 AT HULL 5CHICOUTIMI 2 AT LONGUEUIL 4SHAWINIGAN 7 AT VERDUN 6MON. NOV. 25DRUMMONDVILLE 2 AT LAVAL 1TUE. NOV. 26VERDUN 3 AT HULL 7GRANBY 4 AT ST. JEAN 8LONGUEUIL 2 AT T-RIVIERES 6FRI. NOV. 29DRUMMONDVILLE 7 AT CHICOUTIMI 4LAVAL 4 AT GRANBY 4HULL 6 AT LONGUEUIL 4ST. JEAN 3 AT SHAWINIGAN 8T-RIVIERES 4 AT VERDUN 5SUN. DEC. 1SHAWINIGAN 2 AT DRUMMONDVILLE 4GRANBY 5 AT LONGUEUIL 7CHICOUTIMI 5 AT T-RIVIERES 4ST. JEAN 6 AT VERDUN 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01233/5581064-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="532" height="410"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02152/5581057-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="556" height="183"></div><h2>NEJL</h2>(Standings on Mon. Nov. 24)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-03111/5581050-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="532" height="138"></div><h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0492/5581043-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="533" height="320"></div><h2>OSHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON SAT. NOV. 30)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0580/5581036-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="529" height="214"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FLAMBORO 5, CAMBRIDGE 1GEORGETOWN 5. CHATHAM 2DUNDAS 7, PETROLIA 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0673/5581029-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="531" height="291"></div><h2>USHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. DEC. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0765/5581022-1-eng-US/f0041-072.jpg" title="f0041-07" width="531" height="293"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>MON. NOV. 25ST. PAUL 10 AT THUNDER BAY 5WED. NOV. 27ST. PAUL 2 AT MADISON 4SIOUX CITY 7 AT DES MOINES 4THU. NOV. 28DUBUQUE 4 AT WATERLOO 5FRI. NOV. 29WATERLOO 3 AT SIOUX CITY 7THUNDER BAY 6 AT DES MOINES 4ROCHESTER 6 AT NORTH IOWA 5SAT. NOV. 30DES MOINES 3 AT NORTH IOWA 8MADISON 2 AT ROCHESTER 8ST. PA&Uuml;L AT DUBUQUE (ppd snow)THUNDER BAY 3 AT SIOUX CITY 12SUN. DEC. 1THUNDER BAY 4 AT ROCHESTER 7MADISON 5 AT DUBUQUE 6N. IOWA AT ST. PAUL (ppd snow)<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0853/5581015-1-eng-US/f0041-082.jpg" title="f0041-08" width="532" height="120"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0939/5581008-1-eng-US/f0041-092.jpg" title="f0041-09" width="534" height="180"></div><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/f0040-2717/5581001-1-eng-US/f0040-272.jpg" title="f0040-27" width="1066" height="865"></div><h2>&mdash;TEAMS&rsquo; DIVISIONAL RECORD&mdash;</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-2815/5580994-1-eng-US/f0040-282.jpg" title="f0040-28" width="1066" height="867"></div> &#9632;

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STROH’S SCOREBOARD The official beer sponsor of the NHL

<h2>DECEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-1145/5581399-1-eng-US/f0042-112.jpg" title="f0042-11" width="561" height="2925"></div> &#9632;

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NHL GAMES TO COME

<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Dave Reid, LW, and Ray Bourque, D, back from injury list. INJURED&mdash;Ken Linseman, C, Louis Sleigher, RW, Charlie Simmer, LW, Frank Simonetti, D. Sleigher out with groin pull on day-to-day basis, Linseman, broken hand, sidelined for two more weeks. Simmer, torn knee ligaments, for six and Simonetti for 3-4 months after shoulder surgery.BUFFALO&mdash;Chris Langevin, LW, out for 3 months with knee injury. Ric Seiling, RW, sidelined with shoulder injury.CALGARY&mdash;Paul Reinhart, D, sidelined indefinitely with back spasms, has resumed skating.CHICAGO&mdash;Warren Skorodenski, G, returned to Nova Scotia of AHL. Tom Lysiak, C, back from injury list. INJURED&mdash;Behn Wilson, D, Steve Ludzik, LW, Darryl Sutter, LW. Wilson out on day-to-day basis with viral infection, Ludzik sidelined three more weeks with broken foot and Sutter out two more months after surgery for shoulder separation.DETROIT&mdash;Doug Houda, D, returned to Regina of WHL. Harold Snepsts, D, out two more weeks with knee injury.EDMONTON&mdash;Grant Fuhr, G, and Jari Kurri, RW, returned from injuy list. Randy Gregg, D, out on day-to-day basis with rib injury.HARTFORD&mdash;Jack Brownschidle, D, and Mark Paterson, D, assigned to Binghamton of AHL. Scot Kleinendorst, D, sidelined for 5 more weeks with broken foot. Sylvain Turgeon, LW, back from injury list after missing 3 games with strained groin.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Jim Fox, RW, Mark Hardy, D, and Glen Currie, C, out of lineup with injuries. Fox sidelined for one more week with disc problem. Hardy also out another week after wrist surgery and Currie sidelined indefinitely with back injury.MINNESOTA&mdash;Dave Richter, D, and Bo Berglund, RW, traded to Philadelphia for Todd Bergen, C, and Ed Hospodar, D. Bill Stewart, D, returned to Springfield of AHL. Gord Roberts, D, and Tim Coulis, LW, back from injury list. Tom McCarthy, LW, out indefinitely after being stricken with Bell&rsquo;s Palsy. INJURED&mdash;Kent Nilsson, RW, Steve Payne, LW, Roland Melanson, G, Tom Hirsch, D. Nilsson out on day-to-day basis with viral infection, Payne four more weeks after neck surgery, Melanson also out four more weeks with groin injury. Hirsch out indefinitely since training camp.MONTREAL&mdash;Lucien DeBlois, RW, back from injury list. Steve Rooney, LW, sidelined with ligament damage. Stephane Richer, C, out on day-to-day basis with sprained ankle.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Jan Ludvig, RW, out on day-to-day basis with bruised knee.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Ken Leiter, D, recalled from Springfield of AHL. INJURED&mdash;Randy Boyd, D, back problem, Ari Haanpaa, LW, shoulder injury, Mikko Makela, LW, back injury. All three are out indefinitely.NY RANGERS&mdash;Simo Saarinen, D, back from injury list and assigned to New Haven of AHL for conditioning. Tony Feltrin, D, recalled from New Haven. Glen Hanlon, G, recalled from loan to Adirondack of AHL and reassigned to New Haven. INJURED&mdash;Barry Beck, D, Don Maloney, LW, George McPhee, LW. Maloney out two more weeks with knee injury. Beck, muscle bruise and spasms, out indefinitely. McPhee also out indefinitely with hip pointer.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Mike Stothers, D, and Steve Smith, D, both returned to Hershey of AHL. Joe Paterson, LW, recalled from Hershey. Lindsay Carson, LW, out 10 days with broken knuckle. Rick Tocchet, RW, sidelined for 5 weeks with sprained knee.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Mike Rowe, D, recalled from Baltimore of AHL. Mario Lemieux, C, back from injury list. INJURED&mdash;Gilles Meloche, G, Ville Siren, D, Jim McGeough, C. Meloche and Siren out on day-to-day basis. McGeough sidelined for week with sprained knee.QUEBEC&mdash;Mario Marois, D, traded to Winnipeg for Robert Picard, D. Trevor Stienburg, LW, back from injury list and returned to London of OHL. Gilbert Delorme, D, back from injury list. Normand Rochefort, D, out 4 more weeks after ankle surgery.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Doug Wickenheiser, C, out indefinitely after knee surgery, has resumed skating.TORONTO&mdash;Ken Wregget, G, Brad Smith, RW, and Steve Thomas, LW, recalled from St. Catharines of AHL. Tim Bernhardt, G, out on day-to-day basis with knee injury. Rick Vaive, RW, sidelined with hand injury on day-to-day basis. Wendel Clark, LW, out 3 weeks with broken bone in his foot. Gary McAdam, RW, out 3 weeks with eye injury. INJURED&mdash;Bernhardt, Vaive, Clark, McAdam, Borje Salming, D, Jim Korn, RW, Bill Root, D. Salming out on day-to-day basis with back problem. Korn and Root sidelined indefinitely.VANCOUVER&mdash;Cam Neely, RW, out 10 days with shoulder injury.WASHINGTON&mdash;Scott Stevens, D, and Alan Haworth, RW, both back from injury list.WINNIPEG&mdash;Paul Pooley, C, returned to Sherbrooke of AHL. Bobby Dollas, D, recalled from Sherbrooke. RandyGarlyle, D, sidelined on day-to-day basis with thigh injury.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>BALTIMORE&mdash;Steve Carlson, C, sidelined with back injury. Mitch Lamoureux, C, suspended indefinitely by AHL for stick swinging.NEW HAVEN&mdash;Steve Tuite, D, assigned to Toledo of IHL.SHERBROOKE&mdash;Rejean Cloutier, D, sent to Saginaw of IHL.SPRINGFIELD&mdash;Rob Holland, G, secured from Indianapolis of IHL in exchange for Gary Johnson, G.<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>FORT WAYNE&mdash;Russ Adam, RW, sidelined indefinitely with broken wrist.MILWAUKEE&mdash;Pat Ethier, D, and Garnet McKechney, RW, placed on waivers. Ethier claimed by Toledo. McKechney recalled by Admirals. Craig Homola, LW, placed on 14-day disabled list. &#9632;

TRANSACTIONS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-05" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-05100/5581454-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL GOALTENDING

<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/c0004-01208/5581485-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg" title="C0004-01" width="502" height="142"></div>TORONTO&mdash;Just when you thought it was safe for raised hopes, however modest, they were completely dashed.No, make that obliterated.The Toronto Maple Leafs, fresh from a 9-3 walloping of the Detroit Red Wings, were jolted back to reality on the road to despair.No, make that the roads to St: Louis and Pittsburgh.Where they lost by the combined score of 12-2, managed just 36 shots on goal and threatened to sink out of sight faster than the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.But like the saying goes, what goes down must come up&mdash;or something like that&mdash;so the Leafs raised themselves for a 3-2 overtime victory against Buffalo.And on that upbeat note ended a week of more downs than some football games.It all started with a 5-1 shellacking by the Blues, who made the Leafs look like what they&rsquo;ve been most of the past two seasons&mdash;the worst team in the National Hockey League.The Leafs, minus leading scorer Rick Vaive who missed all of the week&rsquo;s action with a hand injury, managed just 15 shots on goal.And Toronto&rsquo;s most significant shot of the game didn&rsquo;t even reach the net. It stopped short, or more precisely, stopped suddenly at the skate of Wendel Clark who suffered a fractured foot when hit by teammate Chris Kotsopoulos&rsquo; shot.The standout rookie, whose 10 goals were second only to Vaive&rsquo;s 12 on the team, will be out a minimum of three weeks.The following night in Pittsburgh, the Penguins hammered Toronto 7-1&mdash;even without the injured Mario Lemieux.Not content to satisfy themselves with a pathetic performance, some of the Leafs further disgraced themselves by taking gratuitous runs at Pittsburgh&rsquo;s No. 1 draft choice, Craig Simpson.Jeff Brubaker, who had exactly zero points, six shots on goal and 60 penalty minutes after 17 games, led the pre-meditated ambush and was tossed from the game for his actions.He later explained that his jumping Simpson from behind was not retribution for the rookie boarding him earlier in the third period but rather a response to the London, Ont., native&rsquo;s pre-draft suggestion that Toronto was not necessarily his first choice of prospective teams.Furthermore, Gary McAdam suffered a broken bone and 11-stitch cut about his right eye when struck in the face by a Jim Benning flip shot. He was to remain in a Pittsburgh hospital for a week.Brad Smith, playing in his first game after being called up from St. Catharines Saints, scored the Leafs&rsquo; only goal and was the team&rsquo;s best player.His performance was a portent of things to come.Three nights later, Steve Thomas, recalled from St. Catharines for the game, scored two goals&mdash;including the winner in overtime&mdash;-against the slumping Sabres who lost for the fourth straight time.Absent from the lineup were Vaive, Clark, McAdam, Borje Salming (still out with back problems), goalie Tim Bernhardt (twisted knee) and eventually Peter Ihnacak who was hospitalized after being checked headfirst into the endboards during the third period. He was kept overnight for observation.Still, the Leafs won.Three reasons for their one-game success stood out: First, the Sabres played dreadfully much of the way, second, the Leafs responded well to difficult circumstances, and third, Thomas was outstanding in the never-ending three-hour game.&ldquo;Steve Thomas played a helluva game,&rdquo; said coach Dan Maloney. &ldquo;I thought they all played well.&rdquo;Thomas, who was leading the American League in goals (18) when recalled, was grateful for a second chance after surviving just seven games during an early-season audition.&ldquo;I think now I&rsquo;ve got more confidence,&rdquo; said the 22-year-old left winger. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m learning to relax as opposed to before when I was just a bundle of nerves. I just couldn&rsquo;t shake it.&rdquo;On the winning goal, only 26 seconds into the extra period, Thomas picked up an ill-advised pass by Buffalo defenseman Steve Dykstra behind the net, moved out in front all alone and drilled a marvelous backhander past goalie Daren Puppa.Dykstra, appropriately, was the goat.On the night, Dykstra was victimized so many times by Thomas that, for his own good, he should have been admitted for bum treatment before heading home to Buffalo.The rookie rearguard was beaten on Thomas&rsquo; first goal in the third. And then later, with less than three minutes remaining in regulation time, he provided the former Toronto Marlboro, with a breakaway by falling down when faced with a wall of Leafs.Thomas lost the puck on the stickhandle&hellip; but on this night, Thomas could 4 no wrong.All he did by missing that opportunity was arrange for more dramatic circumstances on another.NOTES&mdash;Hard-hitting defenseman Gary Nylund played a strong game against the Sabres&hellip;Mirko Frycer. who scored against Buffalo, had points in 11 of Leafs&rsquo; past 14games&hellip;Peter Ihnacak. released from hospital after his overnight stay, didn&rsquo;t remember much from the Buffalo game. He suffered slight concussion and eight-stitch cut. &#9632;

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December 13, 1985

THN STATISTICS NHL SUMMARIES

McLean Aims To Restore ‘Punch’ In Bruins

Bauer’s COLLEGE PERFORMER OF THE WEEK

Boucher ‘Cool’ To Loss Of Standout Player