Good Start Needed To Maintain Confidence

HARTFORD—The theme of the Hartford Whalers’ eighth National Hockey League season is “Whalermania, Join In”, and it’s not trumped up either. People are responding. More than 9,100 season tickets, an increase of 2,000-plus over last year, already have been sold. In addition, about 2,500 20-game packages have been sold. When a team roars down the stretch at a 12-3-2 clip just to make the playoffs, then sweeps Quebec 3-0, and beats Montreal in the opener of a seven-game quarter-final series, well. 16-3-2 is bound to turn more than a few heads. “I’ve never seen a team respond better to pressure than ours did in the final couple of months last year,” general manager Emile Francis said. “That was an indication as to what we’ve really got here.” And, from the Whaler faithful’s perspective, here’s…

QMJHL SCHEDULE

BLUELINES

Reports Of Death Greatly Exaggerated The National Hockey League, Professional Hockey Writers’ Association and THE HOCKEY NEWS ended up with egg on their faces as a result of a foul-up concerning the induction of Zotique Lesperance into the media wing of the Hall. The former Montreal newspaperman was officially inducted at the 1986 ceremonies in Vancouver on Sept. 10 even though he was one of six Hall of Fame appointees in 1985. Seems the PWHA informed the league last year that Lesperance was deceased. The NHL, taking the information at face value, didn’t extend him an invitation to the 1985 ceremonies in Toronto and THN, in its coverage of the 1985 induction ceremonies, reported that Lesperance was dead. Zotique, who is alive and well, was then invited to join the other…

Inform And Entertain: That Is Our Mandate

CONSIDER THIS the state-of-the-union address of THE HOCKEY NEWS. This issue marks the beginning of THN’s 40th year of publishing. Evolving from humble origins in 1947, we at THN strive to maintain our modesty and let you, our readers, judge the product we present to you 40 times a year. But since it is the first issue of a new volume, there is no better time than now to outline some of the changes/improvements we’ve made for the coming season. The first thing you may notice is the look. There are alterations, but they’re not radical. We like to think it’s a cleaner, more streamlined paper, designed to be easier and more enjoyable to read. We’ve modernized our graphics, livened up the front page and, hopefully, added a little panache to what, admittedly in the…