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

November 14, 1986

The Hockey News November 14, 1986

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>MADISON&mdash;Wisconsin, like the rest of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, was trying to hang close while they waited for North Dakota Fighting Sioux and Minnesota Golden Gophers to cool off from their red-hot starts.The Badgers were doing a decent job of it, splitting their opening six games, one of those wins coming over Minnesota, which had won its first five games.And through it all, Badger coach Jeff Sauer liked what he saw in the development of his young team, which sports as many as six rookies in the lineup.Wisconsin has had more talented teams, but there&rsquo;s another valued trait this Badger crew has that Sauer admires.&ldquo;This team is much like North Dakota this year in that we have great team effort and attitude,&rdquo; Sauer said. &ldquo;Some of my teams of the last few years were not that way; made up of a lot of individuals who go out and try to better themselves, not the team.&rdquo;To be sure, the Badgers have their share of downright stars, players such as forwards Tony Granato and Paul Ranheim and goalie Mike Richter, last year&rsquo;s WCHA rookie of the year.But it&rsquo;s the guys who wear hardhats and carry lunch pails to work who might make this Badger team a cut above most of the rest.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ll have a pretty good team,&rdquo; Sauer said. &ldquo;And I think the league is very balanced, with not much difference between North Dakota, Minnesota, Northern Michigan and us.&rdquo;Some players who have contributed little in the form of glittering statistics have stepped to the front&mdash;for instance, Steve Tuttle, Pat Ford and Glenn Revak, who make up one of Wisconsin&rsquo;s lines.&ldquo;They haven&rsquo;t had the chance to do much in the past and maybe they were intimidated coming into the WCHA a little,&rdquo; Sauer said. &ldquo;But now they&rsquo;re playing very well for us.&rdquo;And contributing, too. Tuttle&rsquo;s hat trick helped Wisconsin knock Minnesota out of first place in a recent 5-2 Badger victory. A year ago, Tuttle, now a junior, had just two goals in 32 games, Ford just 10 goals and Revak only one. Now the trio, all juniors, form one of Wisconsin&rsquo;s best lines.<h2>WESTERN COLLEGIATE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01610/5196344-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="173" height="130"></div>The stars&mdash;Granato and Ranheim&mdash;are coming off seasons curtailed by injuries. Both missed nine games. Granato did score 25 goals in just 33 games, tops on the club, and Ranheim contributed 17, also in 33 games.Sauer needs big seasons&mdash;and healthy ones&mdash;from both Granato and Ranheim for the Badgers to become a legitimate contender in the WCHA and perhaps nationally as well. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re as good as there is in college hockey today,&rdquo; Sauer said.Wisconsin&rsquo;s goaltending should be consistently good, which is important, since the Badgers often employ three rookies on defense. Richter ranks with the best in the country while Dean Anderson was brilliant in a recent win at Michigan Tech.Freshman center Chris Tancill, the Livonia, Mich, product who was voted the pre-season pick as rookie of the year, is being brought along slowly, centering Wisconsin&rsquo;s fourth line.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a great skater, but he handles the puck well,&rdquo; Sauer said.Wisconsin may prove to be betted than others in the league expected.&ldquo;I think some people underestimated some of the talent we had returning and underestimated some of the recruits we brought in,&rdquo; Sauer said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very pleased with the way we&rsquo;ve come together as a team.&rdquo;Now it&rsquo;s only a matter of waiting for North Dakota and Minnesota to cool their jets, lest the league become a two-team runaway. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Badgers Keep An Eye On Sioux, Gophers

<h2>NOV.</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01792/5195882-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="446" height="2666"></div> &#9632;

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NHL Games To Come

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;While goals are as rare as humble remarks from Glen Sather, the Vancouver Canucks seem to have the defensive part of their game well in hand.After losing Jiri Bubla to retirement last year, it appeared the club would have defensive as well as offensive problems this season. But a couple of factors have helped, not the least of which has been the play of defenseman Michel Petit.While wood must be touched when complimenting Petit&mdash;he&rsquo;s had brushes with consistency before&mdash;it seems safe to say he&rsquo;s playing the finest hockey of his career. As is the case with so many young defenseman, the key to Petit&rsquo;s success is learning to do less.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not trying to rush the puck so much and I&rsquo;m trying to play a lot tougher,&rdquo; said Petit, the 22-year-old right sider from Pont Rouge, Que.&rdquo;But mostly it&rsquo;s because I&rsquo;m playing. I never played before. Now I feel Tom (coach Watt) has confidence in me and I feel I have confidence to play Well.&rdquo;A tremendous physical specimen at 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, Petit has every capabilty one could want from an athlete. The tools got him selected as Vancouver&rsquo;s No. 1 selection in the &rsquo;82 draft (11th overall) but there seems little doubt his road to regularity in the NHL has been long and torturous.On his very first shift, with Roger Neilson coaching the Canucks, Petit coughed up the puck and John Anderson ended up scoring a Toronto goal. Naturally, his rear end was nailed to the end of the bench for that, given Neilson&rsquo;s view of young players in the first place, and from then on life seemed pretty miserable for Petit.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011286/5195089-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="567" height="1252"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Watt, above, is gaining confidence in the play of defenseman Michel Petit.</figcaption></div>And through all his difficulty, the man getting much of the abuse for his draft selection was Harry Neale who, very much to his credit, steadfastly maintained there was no doubt Petit would become an excellent NHL defender. It appears Neale has been right all along, though it took necessity and some hard work from assistant coach Jack Mcllhargey for Watt to develop a liking for Petit&rsquo;s abilities.<h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02956/5195082-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="174" height="129"></div>&ldquo;I have all kinds of confidence in Michel Petit now,&rdquo; said Watt. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t always have that. But this year his play has been excellent. He&rsquo;s not getting caught out of position and he&rsquo;s been aggressive. We&rsquo;ve been very pleased with his play.&rdquo;Petit had also chipped in two goals, though both were in losing causes&mdash;against Philadelphia and Edmonton. He&rsquo;d been the only defender to get a goal, which isn&rsquo;t surprising given the complete lack of offense from the whole team.Two years ago, Petit went through training camp with the coaches trying to make him a center. The experiment didn&rsquo;t last long, and last year he started the season in Fredericton before returning to get very little ice time from Watt. In fact, he went the last month of the year hardly even dressing, including the playoffs against the Oilers, which would have been a valuable learning experience.He was upset with the sitting and expressed some displeasure publicly, but then resigned a contract over the summer calling for three more years in Vancouver. He then came to training camp and was extremely steady. Now, it&rsquo;s simply a matter of keeping it up.&ldquo;Mike (Petit is often called Mike Small, the English translation of his name) has been great so far,&rdquo; says Mcllhargey. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s staying within himself, not getting trapped and shooting the puck quicker from the point with wrist shots. The forwards have really helped our defense too. There haven&rsquo;t been the 2-on-1&rsquo;s and 3-on-2&rsquo;s we gave up last year.&rdquo;Meanwhile Rick Lanz returned to action with a special helmet after a two-week absence due to a broken jaw suffered when hit by Derrick Smith but Stan Smyl remained out with a strained knee suffered in an altercation with Alain Cote in the second game of the season. &#9632;

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‘Mike Small’ Starts To Help Out In Big Way

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div>Reaching milestones are a big part of many hockey players&rsquo; careers.They&rsquo;ll sometimes hang on a couple of extra seasons if they are approaching noteworthy personal achievements. That was not the case, however, with former National Hockey Leaguer Jean Pronovost.Pronovost played 14 seasons in the NHL (I968-82), skating with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Atlanta Flames and Washington Capitals. The record books show that Pronovost retired two games short of his 1,000th regular-season game, nine goals short of 400, 17 assists away from 400 and 26 points from 800. Why so close and then retire?&ldquo;Records never really met that much to me,&rdquo; says Pronovost, a native of Shawinigan Falls, Que. &ldquo;I just played the game because I enjoyed playing hockey.&rdquo;For the better part of his career, Pronovost averaged more than 30 goals per season. During a three-year span with the Penguins (1973-76) he scored 40, 43 and 52 goals. That period marked the high point in Pronovost&rsquo;s career.&ldquo;1 never considered myself a 50-goal scorer,&rdquo; says Pronovost. &ldquo;I always thought of myself as being a good two-way player. I have to give a lot of credit for my great scoring years to my linemates during that time. Syl Apps (Jr.) and Lowell MacDonald.&rdquo;He scored his 50th goal, during the 1975-76 season, on Gilles Gratton of the Boston Bruins.The low point of Pronovost&rsquo;s career came during the 1975 Stanley Cup quarter-final playoffs. Up 3-0 in the best-of-seven series, Pittsburgh lost four straight, including the clincher 10.&ldquo;Chico Resch played outstanding in goal for the Islanders in that last game,&rdquo; says Pronovost, who is the brother of NHL Hall of Famer Marcel Pronovost. &ldquo;1 can still remember the big scoring chance I had with him.&ldquo;I took the shot and hit him, dead center, in his mask. The shot stunned him, but not enough for him to lose his concentration. The rebound came out to me but I missed it.&rdquo;Today, at 40, Pronovost works for Hockey Ministries International in the Montreal suburb of Pt. Claire, Que. He resides with his, wife arid family in nearby Terrasse-Vaudreuil.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03241/5197990-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="563" height="1352"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jean Pronovost</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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50-Goal Man In Pittsburgh

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01812/5198059-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Bruce Bennett; Photo by Don Dixon)</figcaption></div>No, It&rsquo;s Not AI Secord, But It Is An Abdominal Ailment That Hit Chicago&rsquo;s Tough Guy And Many More<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-02500/5198052-1-eng-US/cover-022.jpg" title="Cover-02" width="670" height="552"></div>Injuries Galore: Gord Kluzak&rsquo;s Knee Is Not Mending/4 &#9632;

Cover-01

PUBLIC ENEMY NO.1

In next week&rsquo;s Nov. 21st issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, we&rsquo;ll profile the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; &lsquo;Goal Dust Twins&rsquo;. Rookies Jimmy Carson and Luc Robitaille are making big waves on the West Coast this season and we&rsquo;ll take a look at why.They&rsquo;re both graduates of the Quebec Major Junior League, but that&rsquo;s where the similarities end. Except, of course, for their prowess in this season.In addition to that, we&rsquo;ll also have our By The Numbers feature&mdash;a page of alternative statistics and calculations that should give you some numerical food for thought.Plus, we&rsquo;ll have all the other news and views from all levels of hockey, including our new expanded NHL statistics package that gives you the most complete picture anywhere.Don&rsquo;t miss all that, plus much, much more in next week&rsquo;s Nov. 21st issue of THN. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06283/5194730-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="730" height="412"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05386/5194737-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="163" height="164"></div><h2>CHRYSLER HONORS NO. 99</h2>Chrysler Canada Ad Manager Duncan MacKinnon (center) and regional manager Bob Renaud (right) were in Edmonton on Oct. 17 to fete Oiler star Wayne Gretzky. In a pre-game on-ice ceremony, Gretzky was presented with a 1987 Chrysler New Yorker, in honor of his being named Chrysler-Dodge NHL Player of the Year for 198586. Chrysler is the official sponsor of NHL Players of the Week, Month and Year. &#9632;

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CHRYSLER-DODGE NHL PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Dave MacLean&rsquo;s once-promising hockey career is over. Already.Just a little more than one year after leading the Ontario League in scoring with 64 goals and 90 assists, MacLean is working at a video store and playing hockey for his hometown of Brantford&rsquo;s senior team.These are unlikely circumstances for the 6-foot, 190-pound right winger chosen the OHL&rsquo;s player of the year in 1984-85.A Hartford Whalers&rsquo; fourth-round pick, his future in hockey seemed assured. It was not&mdash;not by a long shot, the kind with which MacLean piled up many of his points.Instead, MacLean&rsquo;s rookie professional season was the beginning of the end.He didn&rsquo;t make the Whalers, floundered in the American League with Binghamton and was surprisingly ineffective with Salt Lake in the International League.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t seem to be able to get himself involved in the games,&rdquo; recalls Larry Pleau, coach of Binghamton. In 23 games, MacLean did not earn as much as a point. The previous year, MacLean collected an average of more than two points per game with Belleville.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011294/5194775-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="499" height="477"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Dryden</figcaption></div>He earned just seven penalty minutes with Binghamton&mdash;all of them in a game watched by Hartford general manager Emile Francis.&ldquo;Like anybody from junior hockey there has to be an adjustment,&rdquo; says Wayne Thomas, coach of Salt Lake. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a pretty big jump and Dave had trouble with the transition. You&rsquo;re expected as a pro to play a total game.&rdquo;It was thought MacLean&rsquo;s superior offensive skills would compensate for his shortcomings. They didn&rsquo;t. He scored nine goals and 14 assists in 41 games.Unable to freewheel as he did in the OHL and unwilling to play physically enough, MacLean found himself this year&mdash;at best &mdash; No. 8 on the Whalers&rsquo; depth chart of right wingers.&ldquo;Instead of playing in the minors for a few years I decided to start on something else,&rdquo; says MacLean, who plans on attending university in nearby Hamilton to become a public school teacher.What happened?&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t know what it is. I ran into injury problems at the start of last year and just never really got untracked. I did&rsquo;t ever put the numbers on the board that I was capable of.&rdquo;Still, Thomas insists that MacLean made progress last year and believes the 21-year-old could have eventually made the NHL had he not opted for a different course.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d hate to second-guess myself,&rdquo; says MacLean. &ldquo;Maybe I could of. (But) the way things looked they didn&rsquo;t look too positive.&rdquo;Had MacLean returned to the IHL, where he was assigned before deciding to retire, he would have joined three more former junior scoring leaders in the IHL.John Goodwin of Peoria (OHL, 1980-81), Jock Callander of Muskegon (Western League, 1981-82) and Tim Salmon of Indianapolis (OHL, 1983-84) are the others.<h2>Keep On Puckin&rsquo; Truckin&rsquo;&mdash;Getting The Lifted Look</h2>And you thought Mario Lemieux had puck sense. Keith Lawrence has not skated in 10 years yet he spends more on pucks than most people would in 10 lifetimes.Mind you the 26-year-old proprietor of Lawrence&rsquo;s Sunoco service station in Lindsay, Ont. (near Peterborough) has a somewhat unconventional use&rsquo; for the pucks.He doesn&rsquo;t buy $ 100 worth of pucks to practise his slapshot. He uses them as a business tool, piling up pucks to lift car and truck bodies off their frames for&mdash;what else&mdash;that uplifting look.Lawrence, for instance, bought 88 pucks for his own show truck, a 1969 Chevy Blazer. &ldquo;I put 44 on each side,&rdquo; says Lawrence, who bolted a combination of hard and sponge (for cushioning purposes) pucks to raise the Blazer body three inches off the frame rather than the customary half inch.The alternative, says Lawrence, was to purchase a body lift kit but economics dictated otherwise. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re $500,&rdquo; he says of the store-bought products, &ldquo;and, believe it or not, they&rsquo;re not as good.&rdquo;Now, that&rsquo;s puck cents.<h2>Time On NHL&rsquo;s Side So Far&mdash;Games Getting Shorter</h2>NHL fans have been getting less for their money this year. But, rest assured, less is definitely more.Games are running shorter this season than they have in four years. That can only be good news for fans who have had to sit around for more than two-and-a-half hours to see 60 minutes of action.After about 70 games this season, the average length of games was 2:25, down more than 10 minutes from last year&rsquo;s 2:36 season-end average. In 1984-85, it was 2:32, 1983-84, 2:29, and 1982-83, 2:28.The NHL was alarmed by the trend toward longer and longer contests.&ldquo;They were headed for a three-hour game,&rdquo; said NHL director of information Gary Meagher, who released the average lengths of games over the past four seasons.Changes have been made. Among the first was eliminating the mandated 18-minute intermission. &ldquo;Last year they just killed us,&rdquo; said Meagher. &ldquo;Some rinks you were looking at 20 before you got it going. That&rsquo;s one of the big things this year&mdash;they&rsquo;re going back to 15 (minutes) and it&rsquo;s being enforced.&rdquo;Some key on-ice changes have also helped. Officials have been diligent in keeping play going by allowing players more leeway in moving the puck in scrums along the boards. They&rsquo;ve also been tough on goalies&mdash;consistently penalizing them for delaying the game if they unnecessarily smother the puck or deliberately shoot it into the seats.The result&mdash;fewer whistles.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021057/5194768-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="2044" height="1952"></div>Jim Gregory, NHL executive director of hockey operations, will be closely monitoring the length of games this season and says 2:25 is a good starting point.But he cautions that early-season games traditionally take less time to play. The end-of-season figures will be of more importance, he says.<h2>Comeback Story Continues&mdash;Hot-Scoring Pat Verbeek</h2>Pat Verbeek&rsquo;s remarkable comeback story became more and more extraordinary with each passing game early this season.Verbeek, whose left thumb was sheared off in a farming accident last summer, scored goals in six straight games to set a New Jersey club record&mdash;two short of Paul Gardner&rsquo;s franchise mark of eight.In May of 1985, following the mishap, there were serious concerns about the future of his hockey career. He&rsquo;d had microsurgery to reattach the thumb but making a return to the NHL would not be easy.Verbeek, speaking soon after the accident, laughingly looked at the bright side. Still smarting from a 15-goal sophomore season&mdash;he scored 20 in his rookie season&mdash;Verbeek chuckled, &ldquo;I hope all the cement poured out of my hand.&rdquo;The righthanded shooter has cement hands no more. The 22-year-old scored 25 goals last year, and with 10 in his first 11 games this year, seems certain to better that mark in 1986-87.A couple of factors have contributed to his success. Playing with Kirk Muller and Aaron Broten hasn&rsquo;t hurt. Neither has narrowing the shaft of his Louisville Slugger.&ldquo;I made the shaft of my stick a little smaller so I could hold onto my stick better,&rdquo; says Verbeek, who had picked up seven of his 10 goals on the power play. &ldquo;(At first) I was losing my stick all the time.&rdquo;Now all he&rsquo;s losing are friends among opposition goaltenders.<h2>&lsquo;Couldn&rsquo;t Score In Practice&rsquo;&mdash;Indianapolis&rsquo; Ron Ullyot</h2>Quote of the week:&ldquo;Last year we couldn&rsquo;t score&hellip;We couldn&rsquo;t even get across the red line on a 3-on-2 in practice.&rdquo;&mdash;Indianapolis coach Ron Ullyot, page 24. &#9632;

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Top Jr. Player Ends Career

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;Over the past three seasons, the Boston Bruins have lost more than or close to 300 man-games to injury per season.&ldquo;Personally,&rdquo; said general manager Harry Sinden last summer, &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s just been bad luck that&rsquo;s been haunting us for a little while. Eventually, we&rsquo;re going to run for it.&rdquo;Well, they haven&rsquo;t yet.Only nine games into the 1986-87 season, the hard-luck team from Boston had lost 28 man-games to injury, most of them by heavyweight defensemen, and the toll was mounting rapidly.The latest additions to the Bruins&rsquo; hospital report were:&bull; Keith Crowder, the team&rsquo;s leading scorer last season with 84 points, suffered a shoulder separation in a 6-0 victory over Calgary, the last game of a successful (4-2) road trip. He&rsquo;ll be gone for about three weeks.&bull; Mike Milbury, the erstwhile assistant coach who came back to help out on defense, underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair tom cartilage in his right knee after the Calgary game. He&rsquo;ll be out three to four weeks.&bull; Gord Kluzak, the big defenseman who missed the first nine games with left knee problems but was expected to be back Nov. 1, was set back when progress in his rehabilitation program apparently stopped. He could face surgery and lose another year of hockey.&ldquo;It won&rsquo;t be Nov. 1,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know when it will be.&rdquo;Kluzak, who was out for the entire 1984-85 season following knee surgery, started skating during the second week in October but the pain in the knee never stopped and Dr. Richard Weiss, the team&rsquo;s medical coordinator, told him to take three days off.&ldquo;If I can&rsquo;t break through the pain by alternating work and rest in the next couple of weeks, the next step would be a shot of cortisone,&rdquo; said Kluzak. &ldquo;If that doesn&rsquo;t work, the only option is surgery.&rdquo;Milbury suffered the injury to his right knee when he fell to the ice in Winnipeg in the first game of the Bruins&rsquo; road trip. He managed to play in the next five games.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s a big deal,&rdquo; said Milbury as he departed for the operating room at Massachusetts General Hospital. &ldquo;I hope that feeling is confirmed.&rdquo;The loss of Milbury and Kluzak (and Michael Thelven with a shoulder separation) left the Bruins with five healthy defensemen&mdash;Ray Bourque, Reed Larson, Paul Boutilier, Mats Thelin and Allen Pederson.Rather than bring up another blueliner from Moncton, coach Butch Goring decided to give Jay Miller, a local boy from Natick but a left winger by trade, a shot at the job.&ldquo;Jay is the kind of player who can be used at forward and he won&rsquo;t hurt you,&rdquo; said Goring. &ldquo;If he can play defense and not hurt you it will make him a great utility player. The loss of Mike hurts us the most in penalty killing and if Jay can do that for us it will be great.&rdquo;<h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011319/5194806-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="171" height="134"></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a role player, said Miller, &ldquo;a fourth-line winger, a seventh defenseman, whatever. I don&rsquo;t get aggravated when I don&rsquo;t play. It was a role I was signed to play, in and out of the lineup. If there&rsquo;s an injury I step in.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not tough for me to come out of the stands and play. I think of all the kids in greater Boston who grew up watching the Bruins and dreaming they&rsquo;d play for the Bruins someday and now they&rsquo;re watching me. I&rsquo;m happy to be in that position.&rdquo;WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN&mdash;Keith Crowder&rsquo;s injury brought a familar name back to Boston&mdash;Nevin Markwart, the free agent who finally resigned with the Bruins Oct. 17 after a long contract hassle. The feisty forward spent a week in Moncton. &ldquo;His style is conducive to stirring up a team,&rdquo; said Butch Goring. &ldquo;He has a knack for banging people. He can hit and play defense but I also want him to make plays and score goals. He has offensive skills. I want to see him use them.&rdquo;&hellip;Highlight of the six-game western swing for the Bruins was a 6-0 whitewash of the Calgary Flames, the first NHL shutout for rookie goalie Bill Ranford. &ldquo;The way he was playing, we could have gone another 60 minutes and not scored,&rdquo; said Flames&rsquo; coach Bob Johnson. &#9632;

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Boston’s Banged-Up B’s Receive More Bad News

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031046/5194837-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="567" height="802"><figcaption class="caption-body">The mercurial Denis Savard has signed a five-year contract with the Hawks.</figcaption></div><h2>CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021226/5194844-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="177" height="135"></div>CHICAGO&mdash;When Denis Savard scored two goals at Winnipeg Oct. 26, he didn&rsquo;t just help the Chicago Blackhawks end a seven-game winless streak.He also became the third-leading scorer in Hawk history, behind all-time greats Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull.With four goals and nine assists for 13 points in the Hawks&rsquo; first 11 games, Savard raised his career total to 643 points. In his seventh season with the Hawks, he passed Dennis Hull (640 points) to take over third place on the club&rsquo;s all-time list.Savard still has a long haul to overtake Mikita and Hull. Mikita, a center for 21 years with the Hawks, is the club&rsquo;s all-time leader with 1,467 points. Hull, a left winger for 15 years, is second with 1,153 points.Savard&rsquo;s 422 career assists also rank him third all-time on the Hawks, behind Mikita (926) and Bobby Hull (549). His 221 career goals rank him seventh, with Pit Martin (243) in sixth place.Savard signed a new five-year contract just before the season opened. He hasn&rsquo;t been too happy with his own production, and he hasn&rsquo;t been happy with the way the Hawks started the season. It was their worst start in 19 years.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re basically the same club we were two years ago,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying we&rsquo;re going to win the Stanley Cup, but we should be contenders.&rdquo;The Hawks were 2-7-2 in their first 11 games, their worst start since going 1-8-2 at the beginning of the 1967-68 season. After winning their opener against the New York Islanders, they won just one of their next 10 games (1-7-2).The Hawks went to the Campbell Conference final two years ago, but lost to Toronto in the opening round of the playoffs last season. They lost at Toronto again in the middle of their seven-game road trip, and their troubles started all over again.&ldquo;When you go on a long trip like this, if you come back at .500&mdash;a game over or even&mdash;it&rsquo;s a good trip,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;Teams that play .500 on the road, then come home and win 15 or 20 games more than they lose at home, they&rsquo;ll have a good year.&rdquo;But the Hawks&rsquo; eighth straight loss to the Leafs wrecked their chances at a good trip. And their loss at Detroit the next night gave them an 0-5-0 record against Norris Division opponents. They were in the Norris Division cellar.&ldquo;When you can&rsquo;t win a game in your own division, you sure have some sorting-out to do,&rdquo; said Hawks co-coach Roger Neilson.Bob Pulford, the Hawks&rsquo; general manager and coach, threatened a lineup shakeup after the Toronto game. He said there were &ldquo;about 10 guys that just went through the motions.&rdquo; But he made only two changes at Detroit, and one of them involved sitting out rookie center Mike Stapleton, who has played infrequently.The slumping Hawks are raising a lot of questions, but they seem to be running out of answers. &#9632;

f0004-03

Slumping Hawks Off To Bad Start

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div>Every year, it seems, there is one injury that tops the National Hockey League medical charts. Last season, for instance, was the Year of the Eye Injury.This season, the eyes have been overtaken by talk of tom, pulled, severed and sore stomach muscles. It has become the malady that has players, trainers, coaches and general managers speculating about its origin and its treatment.&ldquo;You never heard of stomach pulls when I was playing,&rdquo; said Minnesota North Star general manager Lou Nanne, who played 11 years and retired in 1978. &ldquo;Well, maybe there were one or two guys in that time, but nothing like now. It seems like now you have a new one every day.&rdquo;The Year of the Stomach Pull actually began gaining momentum three years ago, when Chicago&rsquo;s Al Secord missed 95 games over two seasons because of stretched muscles. It continued with Calgary&rsquo;s Lanny McDonald, among others, and now the list of victims has grown to include Vancouver&rsquo;s Stu Kulak. Dave Richter and Dan Woodley, Minnesota&rsquo;s Todd Bergen and Hartford&rsquo;s Sylvain Turgeon.Secord, McDonald, and Richter all eventually recovered after rest and recuperation, but it&rsquo;s a long and frustrating process that can take up to two years. Kulak, Woodley and Bergen all required surgery to repair muscle tears and only Kulak is back and playing now, after missing two seasons. Turgeon is still in the never-never land of not knowing when he will be able to play again.All of the above have been lumped into one category, under the heading &ldquo;Stomach Pulls.&rdquo; But each injury is a little different and nobody is quite sure why they are suddenly happening with such frequency.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011197/5194896-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="688" height="1333"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lanny McDonald didn&rsquo;t disappear because of his stomach muscle problem.</figcaption></div>Secord can&rsquo;t trace his injury back to one specific play, but he thinks he was hit in a game against Detroit early in the 1983-84 season. A few games later, he couldn&rsquo;t move. McDonald and Kulak can only remember their stomachs growing sore over a period of a week or so. Bergen, however, can pinpoint when he was injured.&ldquo;It was Jan. 10, 1985,&rdquo; said Bergen, who was playing for Philadelphia at the time. &ldquo;We had a face-off in the Chicago end, Tim Kerr drew it back into my skates and I turned and reached and tried to get a shot off toward the net. I could hear the muscles pop.&rdquo;When they first felt the pain in the groin and the stomach, McDonald, Secord, Kulak and Bergen all figured they had just suffered a minor muscle pull that would go away within a week.&ldquo;At first it didn&rsquo;t seem like a big thing,&rdquo; McDonald said. &ldquo;But it just didn&rsquo;t seem to get any better. What they said would take a week to heal became 10 days and then two weeks and then two months. And even then, after two months, it was way too early. I should have waited longer.&rdquo;Perhaps the biggest problem is the nature of the injury itself.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02879/5194889-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="695" height="1372"><figcaption class="caption-body">Todd Bergen has yet to play for his new team&mdash;the Minnesota North Stars.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t look hurt,&rdquo; Bergen said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t wear a cast, you don&rsquo;t even have a bandage. You look at a big, strong kid who has a broken leg and you know it&rsquo;s going to be eight to 10 weeks. You look at a big, strong kid with tom stomach muscles and it&rsquo;s difficult for GMs and coaches to understand it could take a year or longer. But it does take that long sometimes. There&rsquo;s nothing you can&rsquo;t do without using your stomach muscles, whether it&rsquo;s shooting a puck, getting out of bed, throwing a football or hitting a golf ball.&rdquo;It took Secord, Kulak and Bergen away from the game for at least a year each because it took doctors so long to diagnose the injury. Secord said he visited nine or 10 doctors over a year&rsquo;s time and he tried all sorts of therapy&mdash;whirlpool, ice, electric stimulation. Finally, out of desperation. Secord visited a bone specialist, Chicago osteopath Dr. Robert Kappler.&ldquo;Secord was the first baffling challenge,&rdquo; said Kappler, who has since seen most of hockey&rsquo;s stomach-pull patients. &ldquo;He had been all over and he came to me on his own. He didn&rsquo;t want anybody to know about it. It was our secret.&rdquo;Kappler determined what the problem was: Secord&rsquo;s leg had been pushed up into his hip, which pushed his hip out to the side. The muscles that attach from the hip to the groin were stretched to their maximum so that every time Secord took a full stride, he tore the muscles a little. Kappler manipulated the leg, bringing it back down where it was supposed to be, and recommended stretching exercises to Secord. Secord was back playing within a month.&ldquo;If I knew then what I know now, I would have been back playing within two to three days,&rdquo; Secord said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03614/5194882-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="696" height="1371"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Secord tried everything in a bid to get back in the Chicago lineup.</figcaption></div>Kulak said he&rsquo; visited 13 or 14 doctors, including Kappler. He was given laser therapy and acupuncture, but finally after a year and a half, a tear was found in his stomach. A Vancouver doctor performed surgery in October, 1985 and Kulak was back playing by February. Bergen said his injury was first diagnosed as a ruptured appendix, then as a ruptured kidney.&ldquo;They finally said, &lsquo;Well, we can&rsquo;t find anything, so it must be tom stomach muscles,&rsquo;&rdquo; Bergen said. A special x-ray eventually revealed a hole the size of a quarter in the stomach wall and a Minneapolis doctor inserted a synthetic mesh around the hole to strengthen the muscles.Richter missed parts of the 1983-84 and 8485 seasons with the North Stars because, Kappler said, he simply wore out his stomach muscles.&ldquo;His problem was that he was doing 800 sit-ups a day,&rdquo; Kappler said. &ldquo;The muscle got tired and it quit working.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04406/5194875-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg" title="f0005-04" width="695" height="1351"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sylvain Turgeon has been missing in action all season for the Whalers.</figcaption></div>The injuries may be different from one another, but Kappler said there is one common thread-most of them don&rsquo;t begin in the stomach. Some injuries begin with muscles in the thigh, the groin or the back and the stomach muscles have to work overtime to help compensate for the original injury. Often, the stomach muscles aren&rsquo;t strong enough for the extra work and they end up over-stressed.The question now is why stomachs are breaking down?&ldquo;Maybe it has something to do with all the weight training,&rdquo; said Nanne. &ldquo;Players have just started to get into it the last couple of years, when all this stomach injuries started happening, and maybe they&rsquo;re too bulked up and not flexible enough.&rdquo;Said McDonald: &ldquo;There is so much off-ice conditioning now that maybe the body won&rsquo;t take it all.&rdquo;Kappler says there is no evidence that weights or other conditioning methods are to blame. Neither is there supporting evidence for a theory that was circulating among NHL trainers when stomach pulls first started happening.&ldquo;We thought it might have been some of the new equipment,&rdquo; North Star trainer Doc Rose said. &ldquo;Some guys weren&rsquo;t wearing suspenders (for their pants) anymore and they were taping themselves in so tightly. We thought that might be a reason, but Secord was wearing suspenders and he still got hurt. We just don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;Kappler says he doesn&rsquo;t know either. But he does say that the stomach and groin are the areas most neglected by pro athletes.&ldquo;Pro athletes approach their exercise so aggressively,&rdquo; Kappler said. &ldquo;They want to do a lot of work and do it fast and they tend to focus on the upper extremities&mdash;the pectorals, the triceps&mdash;and the legs and they forget the trunk has to be developed first. They don&rsquo;t pay attention to the integrated total.&rdquo;Perhaps the best result of the rash of stomach injuries is the recognition that it is a problem. Kappler said he doubts that nobody used to have stomach pulls back in the old days. It probably was that they were never diagnosed properly.&ldquo;People are more aware of the problem now, where before players may just have got washed out of their careers,&rdquo; Kappler said.&ldquo;That probably did happen a lot,&rdquo; agreed McDonald. &ldquo;Fortunately, I didn&rsquo;t disappear and neither did the rest of the guys.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-01

Trying To Stomach The NHL

JIMMY DEVINE, the artist who did the cover of the 1986-87 New York Islanders&rsquo; media guide, reached for just the right effect.Terry Simpson is in the foreground, wearing a practice jacket, appearing sincere and studious as all new coaches should. Al Arbour is in the background wearing a suit and tie, dapper and distinguished&mdash;looking, as any vice-president of player development should.Something old, something new, something orange, ho, ho, and something blue. Nice touch. Maybe it takes a sports writer&rsquo;s cynicism to note that Arbour is poised over Simpson&rsquo;s shoulder.That&rsquo;s not fair, of course, but neither is Simpson&rsquo;s position. Ask Rob McCammon, who followed Fred Shero in Philadelphia, or Bemie Geoffrion, whoreplaced Scotty. Bowman in Montreal. Or any coach for that matter, who has ever taken over a recently-fallen champion that faces a major transition.Expectations are supposed to be realistic. In reality, they almost never are. The Islanders&rsquo; mixed bag of veterams left over from the Stanley Cup years and kids are three years removed from the last of four consecutive Stanley Cups and that will help a little, Arbour&rsquo;s last team Went out of the playoffs miserably, in three straight to Washingtoa, and there are two ways to look at that.One is that there&rsquo;s now nowhere to go but up, which is a comfortable position for a rookie coach. The other is that fans and management, used to so much better, are only going to have so much patience.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011379/5194927-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="349" height="477"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jay Greenberg</figcaption></div>Simpson has several things going for him. One is his junior record at Prince Albert. His team dominated the Saskatchewan Junior League for years, then he converted them into a Western League power in only three seasons.A bright, young face, with a good track record, Simpson eventually would have had his pick of several NHL jobs. The Flyers tried to hire him two years ago for either an assistant&rsquo;s or the Hershey job, but found him reluctant to leave Prince Albert.So when Bill Torrey came wooing a year later, the 43-year-old Simpson found himself more afraid not to take an NHL opportunity, than frightened by it.&ldquo;I was in a very solid position at Prince Albert and very easily could have stayed there the rest of-my career,&rdquo;Simpson said. &ldquo;There was a tot of apprehension taking this Islander job and there still is and there always will he. But I felt it was as good a chance as I wonld have to coach in the NHL.&ldquo;You get success one level, and you wonder how many more years you can go back and do that, because you lose an edge. I wanted to see if I could handle the National Hockey League. If you don&rsquo;t you&rsquo;re always going to wish that you had.&rdquo;Preliminary indications are that Torrey made a good choice Simpson is a teacher, which has become a prerequisite for NHL success and he&rsquo;s how-key, which is the intelligent way to proceed with a club that is still dependent upon its holdover stars. Those player have egos that must be served.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been difficult for them, no question about it,&rdquo; said Simpson. &ldquo;Al was here a tong time. But they&rsquo;ve been very good.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an adjustment, sure,&rdquo; said Bryan Trottier. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s early, everything is pretty positive and I don&rsquo;t want to get into any comparisons.&rdquo;Simpson, known to be understated only to a point&rsquo; did all his, disciplining behind dosed doors in Prince Albert. But as the old joke goes, they&rsquo;ve let him out of the little can, now and he&rsquo;s now under the magnifying glass that is New York.The Islanders have a lot of sorting Out to do Bossy and Trottie are still playting top level, Dennis Potvin still shows against any further fall, but the fact the team has turned over one good young star, Brent Sutter, in the fast six years.Of course years of succes picking at the bottom of the first round, will eventually take their toll. But after years of immacufate (drafting, Torrey arid head scot# Gerry Eliman have hit a dry spell.The team has come up short on defense, which makes the continued dependence on Potvin and Morrow a concern in the long run. Two defensemen picked No. 1 in recent drafts, Gerry Diduck and Duncan MacPherson, have yet to establish themselves. And a third, Paul Boutilier, has already been traded.The top two picks in 1985, Brad Dalgamo and Derek King, are noticeable in their absence. Patrick Flatley, who played so well in the 1985 playoffs after signing off the University of Wisconsin campus, has disappointed the last two seasons. So has Tomas Jonsson, another bright young talent who figured to make the transition less painfully. Both Flatley and Jonsson are off to good starts this year. They are absolute keys.Torrey is too smart to be impatient. If Simpson shows a knack for handling major-Jeague egos, if the Islanders don&rsquo;t Slip below the Rangers, and Devils, the new coach will get time to sort it all out.&ldquo;We&rsquo;retrying to gelt across an atmosphere that this is enjoyable, not like every night they are coming to the salt mines,&rdquo; said Simpson.The farts seem cuciously detached waiting for something better and learning something worse Last week, the Islanders&mdash;were they turning back the clock of looking forward?&mdash;beat the Flyers 2-1. The old guys still had it, the young guys looked promising, and the aid blackboard-message Arbour dutifully put above the opposition lines before every game&mdash;&lsquo;Winning is Fun&rdquo;&mdash;rang true, just like in the good old days.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something to build on,&rdquo; said Simpson. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;re not kidding ourselves. There&rsquo;s a tot of work to be done.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0006-01

NHL Is A Challenge Simpson Couldn’t Pass Up

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>CALGARY&mdash;In essence, Calgary Flames always were an anachronism.Without a pure goal scorer on their roster until Joey Mullen&rsquo;s arrival last February, the Flames nevertheless finished second in the National Hockey League in scoring two years running.Their success was based on scoring by committee. Everybody chipped in with a goal here or a goal there.Recently, however, the committee&rsquo;s been in recess. And the evidence suggests the slump cannot be pinned on a single player.Consider:Lanny McDonald scored two goals in his first game and then one in the next eight.Joel Otto scored one goal in the first game, then none in the next eight.Carey Wilson scored two in the first three games and then none in the next six.Dan Quinn scored two in the first three games, then one in the next six.Colin Patterson scored one in the first game and one in the next eight.Even the players not counted on to score&mdash;Doug Risebrough, Jim Pe-plinski, Steve Bozek and Perry Berezan&mdash;were expected to score more than they have been. Berezan, Risebrough and Bozek have one each. Pe-plinski was looking for his first goal of the season.In analyzing the reason for the team&rsquo;s recent 1-5 run, one thing becomes clear: Not only were the Flames struggling to score on the power play, they were just not scoring goals period.&ldquo;Scary, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo; commented coach Bob Johnson when someone ran down the list for him.Yes, but to Johnson, it wasn&rsquo;t scary enough to warrant a major shuffle.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not alarmed. I&rsquo;m not pushing any panic buttons. Everyone&rsquo;s got a theory now and mine is this: We had a great camp. We had a great carryover from last season. We had a great road trip.&ldquo;Then we came home. Something happened. They hung up those (championship) banners. Ever since then, we haven&rsquo;t been the hungry team we were. We forget what it took to get those banners. It&rsquo;s psychological. I don&rsquo;t even think the guys realize. They think it will be easy.&ldquo;Maybe some losses will wake them up. Maybe they&rsquo;ll remember it wasn&rsquo;t easy. It was hard work every other night for 22 games. We had plenty of overachievers then. Now, we don&rsquo;t have any. But we have some underachievers.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02995/5194958-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="172" height="135"></div>Since pulling down the Smythe Division and Campbell Conference pennants is an impractical solution, Johnson figured the best thing that could happen was for the Flames to forget about last year and turn their attention to this year.Scoring more goals would be a logical starting point. Johnson blamed the dropoff in production on the team&rsquo;s inability to execute. Once during the slump, they went zero-for-20 with the man advantage, finally breaking out of the power-play slump with a pair of goals against Minnesota North Stars. That night, however, they also gave up two shorthanded goals.In the same stretch, they went 170 minutes and 30 seconds without an even-strength goal.&ldquo;Most goals you score are working goals,&rdquo; said Quinn. &ldquo;Working goals aren&rsquo;t execution goals. They&rsquo;re the ones we have to get and they&rsquo;re the ones we&rsquo;re not getting.&rdquo;Quinn also agreed with one prevailing sentiment: The Flames were running into good goaltending, but not necessarily great goaltending. On the contrary, they were making opposing goaltenders look good.&ldquo;You can say the opportunities are there,&rdquo; said Quinn, &ldquo;but opportunities only take you so far. You can only give the goalie so much credit. There are only so many things he can and can&rsquo;t do.&rdquo;&ldquo;Bad things tend to build on themselves more than good things do,&rdquo; said Pepinski. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re losing, no one s concerned about who&rsquo;s playing good, which line is going, if the goaltender made a good save. The bottom line is you lost.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0006-02

Goal-Scoring Drought Gets To The Flames

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN</div>TORONTO&mdash;The Toronto Maple Leafs passed their first acid test of the season.Winless in three straight games, the Leafs were on the brink of the kind of tailspin that has dragged them down so mercilessly in the past.Consecutive losses to Quebec, including a 7-1 pasting, and a 3-3 tie with the New York Rangers, threatened to spoil a marvelous 3-0-2 opening to their season.But instead of collapsing faster than the summit talks, Toronto rebounded for victories over Chicago and Hartford to turn a three-game winless streak into a three-game unbeaten streak.&ldquo;The trick,&rdquo; said coach John Brophy on the eve of Halloween, &ldquo;is that if you&rsquo;re going to stay on top of the division you don&rsquo;t go on any losing streaks.&rdquo;The victory over Hartford, a decisive 6-2 win at the Maple Leaf Gardens, strengthened Toronto&rsquo;s hold on first place in the Norris Division with a 5-2-3 record.These were heady days in Toronto as October closed in on November. The Leafs&rsquo; new-found commitment to sound defense was proving most fruitful.Hartford fired 42 shots at goalie Ken Wregget but few of them were dangerous. Toronto kept the Whalers out of the high percentage slot area, forcing them onto the periphery.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re not going to score too many goals from the comer,&rdquo; said Brophy, who must have welcomed the six-goal surge after seven games of making do with three or less.The Leafs, their goals-against average at 2.92, could afford to be less than prolific in their scoring.Toronto&rsquo;s storm troopers, it seems, had other things on their minds.&ldquo;The forwards are playing perfectly,&rdquo; said Chris Kotsopoulos in deflecting praise directed toward him and his fellow defensemen.&ldquo;Each line is picking up their wings and constantly closing off the boards. They (the opposition) have to come up the middle where the defense can stand up at the blue line.&rdquo;On this night against Hartford, the forwards also contributed offensively&mdash;particularly the Hound Line of Russ Courtnall, Gary Leeman anc Wendel Clark.Courtnall dazzled with one goal anc three assists, Leeman picked up his first two goals of the season (among them a shorthander) and an assist and Clark added one goal and two assists.Two nights earlier, Courtnall set up one goal and scored the winner in a 2-1 victory over Chicago&mdash;Toronto&rsquo;s personal patsies.Including the playoffs, the Leafs had won 11 of 13 games and eight straight against the Hawks.It was after the most recent win that the Toronto media ridiculed the Leafs for boredom beyond reason.Offended by the talk of tedium, Brophy said after the Hartford game, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to entertain any more thoughts about being dull.&rdquo;<h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011228/5194989-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="175" height="144"></div>A curious choice of words. The Leafs&rsquo; entertainment value, after all, was being questioned&mdash;not so much by the paying customers but by the paid media.&ldquo;It might be dull but it&rsquo;s winning hockey,&rdquo; said Kotsopoulos. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s wrong with success?&rdquo;Nothing, according to the fans.Because if the Maple Leafs are a dull, unimaginative and uninteresting hockey club someone neglected to mention that circumstance to the clutch of fans whose screams greet the exiting players after each victory.But for a brief and exhilarating playoff run, the only screams heard last year were those choked out in agony.NOTES&mdash;Toronto had the best penalty-killing unit in the NHL through 10 games with an efficiency rating of 87.3 per cent. The Leafs had also scored three shorthanded goals, including two in two games. John Brophy&rsquo;s team in St. Catharines set an American League record with 26 shorthanded goals last year&hellip;Defenseman Borje Salming was as reliable as ever after returning from his eight-game suspension for admitting to past use of cocaine&hellip;Goalie Allan Bester, called up from Newmarket, played well in his first appearance&mdash;the tie with the Rangers&hellip;Rearguards Bob McGill (ankle), Jim Benning (pulled groin) and right winger Rick Vaive (pinched nerve in neck) were all nursing ailments. &#9632;

f0007-01

Leafs Turn Streak From Winless To Unbeaten

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011313/5195020-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div>FAN FORUMBEING A Los Angeles King fan, I have a problem.I grew up in Baltimore, so I never had a NHL team until seven years ago when I moved to L.A. A friend took me to the NHL All-Star game in &rsquo;81. The Kings&rsquo; entire Triple Crown line started that year. I believe the Kings finished fourth in the total standings that year, only to face a red-hot Ranger team and lose in the playoffs.How the Kings can be so good one year and forget to play defense the next will always amaze me, but win or lose I&rsquo;m still following them. I&rsquo;ve been a season ticket holder since the &rsquo;82-83 season. I&rsquo;ve been fortunate to see Mr. Dionne skate, to see the Kings upset Edmonton (I was at the &ldquo;Miracle on Manchester&rdquo;) and, in general, to enjoy NHL action here in southern California.Which brings me to my point.Stan Fischler is getting consistently more and more obnoxious. Did the man ever compete professionally in hockey? Is his one job for THE HOCKEY NEWS to put down everything? I was most perturbed by his (Oct. 17th) article stating that before expanding, &ldquo;first the league should put a franchise in L.A.&rdquo;Being a Kings&rsquo; fan I feel like a marine: &ldquo;the few, the proud, the L.A. Kings&rsquo; fan&rdquo;, but to be snubbed repeatedly by Fischler and the like, well, I don&rsquo;t like that. There may be only 810,000 of us, but we are here and we care.Sam Kent,Los, Angeles, CA<h2>DEVILISH PREDICTION</h2>FACT: Most of the &ldquo;experts&rdquo; picked the New Jersey Devils to finish last. The others said they would not make the playoffs.OPINION. The Devils will make the playoffs. The Rangers and Islanders will not.Daniel A. Rosenberg,Cedar Knolls, NJ<h2>SINDEN LOSING TOUCH</h2>A few words from a diehard Bruin fan: It is time for Harry Sinden to go bye-bye.Reasons? Same problem Boston has had for over a decade&mdash;poor drafting. With Boston owning Vancouver&rsquo;s first pick next year, the concern is urgent.Clearly the choice of Gord Kluzak over Brian Bellows, or even Gary Nylund, was a mistake. I won&rsquo;t even mention Scott Stevens. And recent choices such as Nevin Markwart and Dave Pasin are questionable. So was this year&rsquo;s choice. A team in need of both size and speed chooses Craig Janney over Jeff Greenlaw?Harry Sinden must be too busy staring at the bottom line. He has lost touch.D.L. Cameron,Hamilton, ON<h2>HIGH ON LOWE</h2>I think you have a basically wonderful magazine but I have one major gripe. Why do you refuse to give Oiler defenseman Kevin Lowe the credit that is due him?All you ever say is that the Edmonton defense is weak (just wait&rsquo; till he decides to retire, then you&rsquo;ll see weak defense). But if that&rsquo;s the case, you&rsquo;ve obviously been out eating cream puffs or something while Kev&rsquo;s on the ice.Everybody says Paul Coffey is so fabulous with his scoring etc., but no one ever mentions that he&rsquo;s like Silly Putty in his own end. Kevin Lowe is the mainstay of the Oilers&rsquo; defense. He is the best shotblocker this side of the goalie and is always there.If he wasn&rsquo;t as friendly to the media as he is, even fewer people would know of him. So please wise up a little and give this guy a break. It&rsquo;s not so easy to be awesome and unknown.Rhonda Connors,Lakeland, FLLet your voice be heard. Send your comments to Fan Forum, THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 2R2. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

f0008-01

Kings’ Fan Fighting Mad At THN Writer Fischler

A SURNAME THAT encompasses almost one-half of the alphabet can be quite a load on I one&rsquo;s shoulders.But when those letters spell out Vanbiesbrouck across the back of a jersey in the Atlantic Coast League, it&rsquo;s that much more a burden.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s just say it takes an awful lot of patience.&rdquo; says Bob Vanbiesbrouck, a defenseman for the Erie Golden Blades. And he isn&rsquo;t talking about the difficulty in getting his name spelled or pronounced correctly.&ldquo;Everyone thinks he&rsquo;s my brother,&rdquo; Bob says of his first cousin. New York Ranger goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck.&ldquo;And to tell the truth, I don&rsquo;t even bother correcting anyone if they say something to me. I mean, it&rsquo;s not worth the time to explain that we&rsquo;re cousins, not brothers.&rdquo;Besides, when the two were growing up, they might as well have been brothers. They lived a block apart in the same Detroit neighborhood, played baseball and hockey with and against each other and only a year separates them in age.&ldquo;We never actually played hockey together,&rdquo; says John, the elder of the two at age 23. &ldquo;But there was one season when we played against each other.&rdquo;And though the two cousins remain close&mdash;Bob was in John&rsquo;s wedding party this pasl summer&mdash;one has taken the high road, the other the low road.It&rsquo;s said that the ACHL isn&rsquo;t the end of the hockey world, but you can damn sure see il from there. It is the lowest rung on the professional ladder.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always kind of looked up to him,&rsquo; says Bob, which has never been truer than it is now, in spite of the fact he&rsquo;s 6-feet, 195 pounds and John is 5-foot-7, 165 pounds.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always tried to help me out, give me advice. We keep in touch.&rdquo;And if there is any green between them, it does not betray Bob. Not at all.&ldquo;Jealous?&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Naw, no way. I know that Johnny Vanbiesbrouck deserves everything he&rsquo;s got.&rdquo;No argument there. Many of those whc watched Johnny V. Good pick up the Vezina Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s top goalie last season maj not know that he launched his career as a bes pectacled 16-year-old goalie who was a free agent walk-on with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario League.After graduating from the Detroit youth program, Bob played in the Great Lakes Junioi League before heading off to Utica, N.Y., site of the ACHL&rsquo;s rookie camp.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021094/5195051-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="396" height="454"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob McKenzie</figcaption></div>That was more than two years ago. Since then, he&rsquo;s become the ACHL iron man, playing in 153 straight games and still counting.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a pretty player. I&rsquo;m more like a Brad Marsh type,&rdquo; he says of a pro career that has generated 10 goals, 77 assists and 376 penalty minutes.&rdquo;Cousin John, in the meantime, has established himself as one of the NHL&rsquo;s premier goaltenders. He signed a new contract in the summer that pays him about $300,000 this season.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve proven myself at this level,&rdquo; says Bob of his future plans. &ldquo;Sure, I dream of playing in the NHL one day, but I&rsquo;ve got to be realistic about it. I&rsquo;d like to think that I could catch on in theThat, of course, is the International League, one more rung up the ladder. Bob has already had a tryout with the Muskegon Lumberjacks but was released.As for what it&rsquo;s like to be a Vanbiesbrouck in the ACHL, it&rsquo;s pretty much what one would expect.&ldquo;Some fans give me a hard time,&rdquo; Bob says. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll yell stuff like &lsquo;Your brother is in New York, what are you doing here?&rsquo; but that stuff doesn&rsquo;t bother me.&rdquo;For now, then, he&rsquo;s content in Erie.&rdquo;&ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t as bad a life as people make it out to be. At some point, you&rsquo;ve got to be aware of the financial considerations, but the guys down here play hockey because they love it.&rdquo;It certainly isn&rsquo;t for the money. Rookies get $ 175 a week, second-year pros $200 and veterans such as Vanbiesbrouck get the princely sum of $250&hellip;plus $35 for every win.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve learned to balance my books,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If I ever get rich, I won&rsquo;t know how to spend it.&rdquo;The Vanbiesbroucks: Same name, same game&mdash;just worlds apart.You can hear THN Editor-in-Chief Bob McKenzie on mid-week Toronto Maple Leaf broadcasts on the Telemedia Maple Leaf radio network. &#9632;

f0008-02

Same Name, Same Game But Worlds Away

When Al MacNeil talks, I listen. Same with George Hughes.Each has an idea designed to make hockey a better game.Apart from having coached a Stanley Cup winner (Canadiens, 1971), MacNeil has a ton of hockey smarts, some of which were used to defeat the Edmonton Oilers last spring.But now the Calgary Flames&rsquo; assistant GM is talking about a subject near and dear to my heart&mdash;the incredibly shrinking hockey rink.&ldquo;The NHL goes back to 1917 and a lot about hockey is different today,&rdquo; says MacNeil, &ldquo;but the one thing that hasn&rsquo;t changed is the size of the hockey rink.&rdquo;So, why is it shrinking?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s shrinking,&rdquo; MacNeil elaborates, &ldquo;because the players have gotten much bigger. They&rsquo;re taller than they ever were and are 15 to 20 pounds heavier. They&rsquo;re more skilled, shoot a lot harder and skate faster than at any time in the past.&rdquo;Which means huge traffic jams in front and behind the net&mdash;not to mention at center ice-are threatening the hockey environment. The rinks are too crowded for truly skillful hockey.&ldquo;The Europeans (who skate on significantly larger ice surfaces) have shown us that a bigger rink makes for a better game,&rdquo; MacNeil adds.&ldquo;A larger rink would help.&rdquo;My solution is to make hockey a five-man, four-skater game.Have a goalie, two defenseman and two forwards with one of the two defensemen acting as a &ldquo;rover.&rdquo;This is not just one-man&rsquo;s looney tune. George Hughes, general manager of Edmonton&rsquo;s Northlands Coliseum, has been talking up five-man, four-skater hockey for some time.&ldquo;The game would be more wide open with four skaters,&rdquo; says Hughes, &ldquo;and the skilled players would be able to play better and not be impeded by those whose sole purpose is to impede. In the end the fan would be the primary beneficiary.&rdquo;MacNeil and Hughes are on the same wavelength; the difference being that Hughes believes a four-skater game is more practical: artistically and economically.&ldquo;Watch a game today,&rdquo; Hughes explains, &ldquo;and you see backcheckers hooking and holding. I like to see talented people allowed to perform without being impeded by people without hockey skills. The game, as it is now, caters to less-skilled players and doesn&rsquo;t place a premium on skating.&rdquo;MacNeil concedes that the NHL would never adopt the European-size rink (200 feet by 100 feet) because the owners wouldn&rsquo;t agree to giving up valuable seating on the sides, nor does he believe the owners ever would approve the four-skater game. With those factors in mind, he has a plan of his own.&ldquo;What I&rsquo;d like to see them do is move the nets five feet closer to center ice. Also, I&rsquo;d eliminate the center red line to allow passing all the way to the far blue line. This would be all to the advantage of the skilled guys.&rdquo;I like MacNeil&rsquo;s thinking. The hooking and grabbing drives me nuts. It plays right into the hands of the goons. Any idea that would help the Gretzkys, Bossys and Lemieuxs should be given serious consideration.But I&rsquo;m convinced that the four-skater idea is even better.As Hughes points out, it will cut 15 per cent off the payroll of each team, a fact that should delight the owners.&ldquo;The skilled players will be all for it,&rdquo; adds Hughes, &ldquo;but those who are recruited mostly for their size will not.&rdquo;No doubt Al Eagleson&rsquo;s NHL Players&rsquo; Association won&rsquo;t be too crazy about it either; not when a hunk of jobs will be lost. Not to worry, says Hughes. New jobs will be created with expansion and the addition of three more teams.&ldquo;At least,&rdquo; concludes Hughes, &ldquo;the NHL should be testing these ideas in pre-season games.&rdquo;As for the conservatives who cannot abide even the slightest tinkering with hockey&rsquo;s system, they should remember that hockey was once a six-skater, seven-man game. It became a six-man game because the ice was too congested with seven a side.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011354/5195120-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="344" height="461"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stan Fischler</figcaption></div>Anyone with 20-20 vision can see that today&rsquo;s 85 x 200-foot rink is too tiny for the hook-and-hold game of the 1980s.The NHL governors, who should be concerned about the incredibly shrinking rink, would do well to listen to Hughes and MacNeil.FRANK CHRISTIE REMEMBEREDIt would be sinful to allow the recent passing of Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; trainer Frank Christie to go by without a couple of tales about the fabulous massage man. One of my favorite Christie stories was about how he broke into the NHL business in the first place.&ldquo;I was born just two blocks from Madison Square Garden,&rdquo; Christie once said. &ldquo;I used to hang around the Garden asking players to take me in. One night Red Dutton, the New York Americans&rsquo; manager, took me in with him. He let me go into the Americans&rsquo; dressing room, and from then on I was around all the time because the fellows took a liking to me.&rdquo;Christie eventually became the Americans&rsquo; stick boy. &ldquo;Each payday the players would each give me three dollars and there was always plenty of tips in between,&rdquo; he said.It once was said that Christie knew the sidewalks like bad breath knows garlic. Certainly, Christie knew the odd bookmaker in his time.&ldquo;Once,&rdquo; Christie allowed, &ldquo;I carried a few bucks to a bookie and the fellas made a strike. But before I could collect, the bookie took a sneak. I was ribbed unmercifully until the players found out for themselves I was telling the truth.&rdquo;Eventually, Christie was promoted to assistant trainer, but when the Americans folded and World War II erupted, he joined the U.S. Army. After the war, he became trainer for the Buffalo Bisons in the American League. When the Sabres were admitted to the National Hockey League, Christie moved up with them and had been a member of the Buffalo organization ever since.While working with the AHL Bisons, Christie honed his practical jokesmanship to a sharp edge. Former minor-leaguer Greg Pilling tells one about the time he tried to mooch some free equipment from Christie and was faked out in return.&ldquo;I pretended that I was going to give the equipment to a bunch of youngsters at some hockey school.&rdquo; Pilling recalls. &ldquo;Once Frankie heard that he said he&rsquo;d be glad to give me all I wanted. We wound up going down to the basement of the rink where there was a huge bag of stuff,&rdquo;Christie said he wanted $50 for the kit and kaboodle.Pilling figured it was a bargain.&ldquo;I thought I was getting a good deal with all that material in there but Frankie got me out of there in nothing flat and I took the bag home. When I opened it up there were plenty of gloves and skates and sweaters&mdash;all of it more than 15 years old.&rdquo;Frankie got his come-uppance later on at training camp in Fort Erie, Ont. Pilling shipped him a load of bricks C.O.D. and Frankie had to pay&ldquo;Christie&rsquo;s manner disguised a heart of gold,&rdquo; writes John Short of the Edmonton Journal, &ldquo;and a wicked sense of humor.&rdquo;Frankie was one of the few remaining survivors of a passing breed; the old-line trainer. Like the armadillo; tough on the outside but soft underneath. &#9632;

f0010-01

Six-Man Hockey Suffers From Gridlock

John Ziegler and Alan Eagleson, it&rsquo;s your move.Now that the game dates have been set for Rendez-vous &rsquo;87, it&rsquo;s up to the National Hockey League president and NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director to name the person(s) who will lead Team NHL against the Soviet Union national team in the two-game series in Quebec City, Feb. 11 and 13.&ldquo;The decision should be made in the next two or three weeks,&rdquo; said NHL director of information Gary Meagher on Oct. 31.&ldquo;The NHL (Ziegler) and NHLPA (Eagleson) will choose a general manager-coach or a general manager who will then select a coach. Whomever they choose will be able to select assistants and staff of his choice.&rdquo;Some names that have been mentioned as obvious candidates include Edmonton GM-coach Glen Sather, former New York Islander coach Al Arbour and defending Stanley Cup-champion coach Jean Perron of the Montreal Canadiens.What is certain is that the games will be played on the Wednesday and Friday of the five-day hiatus from the NHL regular season.That announcement came as something of a surprise since the NHL schedule resumes Feb. 14, one day after the second of the two games.&ldquo;I know there have been some complaints about it,&rdquo; said NHLPA director of operations Sam Simpson. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if the players participating can reasonably be expected to be in the lineup of their NHL team the next night. We&rsquo;ll have to see, but I guess this is (he price you pay because of television.&rdquo;Exactly.&ldquo;The first consideration was TV,&rdquo; said Nordique director of communications Bernard Brisset. &ldquo;We have been negotiating with the two networks (CBC and CTV) and they both agreed that Wednesday and Friday were the best days.&rdquo;Brisset added that a decision on which network would televise the series would be coming &ldquo;within a couple of weeks.&rdquo;As for tickets to Rendez-vous, they&rsquo;ll be difficult to come by.The two-game series is part of the Nordiques&rsquo; season-ticket package, which means 10,500 of the 15,400 available seats are already gone.Brisset estimated that more than 4,000 tickets would be required for distribution to the other 20 member clubs and Rendez-vous&rsquo; corporate sponsors. That leaves approximately 500 for public consumption.<h2>NATS WILL REPRESENT</h2>Canada&rsquo;s federal sports minister Otto Jelinek has won his battle to have Hockey Canada&rsquo;s national team form the core of the Canadian club which will participate in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships in April.<h2>HOCKEY NOTEBOOK</h2>Canada had been sending a team of National Hockey League players who either missed the Stanley Cup playoffs or were knocked out early.That was part of a deal negotiated between Hockey Canada&rsquo;s Alan Eagleson and the IIHF, which paved the way for the Canada Cup tournament.Dave King, coach of Hockey Canada&rsquo;s national team which is preparing for the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, will guide Team Canada&rsquo;s fortunes this April. And, for the most part, with his players.An unspecified number of pro players and/or a coaching assistant may be added, with the final selection in the hands of a committee from Hockey Canada and the CAHA, with recommendations from King, Eagleson and the NHL.<h2>HAPPY HAROLD</h2>Harold Ballard has plenty of reason to be happy these days.The Toronto Maple Leaf owner&rsquo;s team in first place in the Norris Division and he recently learned that the National Hockey League would not take any action against him for his role in the Borje Salming drug case.Leaf defenseman Salming was suspended for the first eight games of this season for an admission of drug use five years ago. Since Ballard had stated publicly that he knew of Salming&rsquo;s actions before the player made them public, the owner left himself open to disciplinary action from the league.But after a league investigation, NHL president John Ziegler decided Ballard&rsquo;s information was based on unsubstantiated rumor and no punitive measures would be taken.Then, Ballard received a windfall from rising Maple Leaf Gardens stock. Ballard, who owns 78 per cent of the stock or 584,491 shares, saw his net worth increase by about $4 million in just one day of trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.<h2>VOTE OF CONFIDENCE</h2>Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; majority owner, Frank Griffiths Sr., has given his management team a vote of confidence.His public statements came in the wake of comments by his 29-year-old son, Arthur, who said he would consider quitting his position as assistant to the chairman if he thought it might help the struggling franchise.The elder Griffiths also expressed confidence in general manager Jack Gordon and coach Tom Watt and denied he is keeping Gordon on until someone better comes along.<h2>DAOUST BREAKS LEG</h2>Toronto Maple Leaf utility forward Dan Daoust underwent surgery on Nov. 2 to repair broken ankle and leg bones and torn ankle ligaments.Daoust, who has been a key member of the Leafs&rsquo; league-leading penalty killing unit, is expected to be out for at least three months and possibly longer. He will be in a cast for six to eights weeks.He suffered the injury during a fight with Detroit Red Wing Gerard Gallant on Nov. I at Maple Leaf Gardens. Gallant threw Daoust to the ice and the Leaf player&rsquo;s leg snapped under the weight of the falling players.Daoust had a goal and two points and was plus-four this season before being injured.<h2>CIAU CORRECTION</h2>It was incorrectly reported in the Oct. 31st issue of THN that the University of Moncton won the first annual University of New Brunswick tournament. In fact, St. Thomas won the tourney championship. &#9632;

Ziegler, Eagleson To Pick All-Star Coach

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;The Los Angeles Kings had just enough left to drag themselves off the jumbo jet that finally carried them home.They even managed to find the houses, apartments and loved ones they had left behind for what seemed like an eternity.Nine days and nights spent in the wild blue yonder, stale hotel rooms and enemy arenas have a way of fogging the memory.&ldquo;Home&hellip;we&rsquo;re finally home,&rdquo; Larry Play-fair said with just a touch of disbelief.It wasn&rsquo;t to be for long. Two and a half days, to be exact. Five games were down on this monstrous road trip&mdash;five losses turned it into a real monster&mdash;but there was still more to come.Following 60 hours of get-reacquainted-with-the-family time, the Kings were on the road again. Dates in Edmonton and Calgary remained before the odyssey would be complete.Life in the Western United States can sure be fun. Look up the words &ldquo;frequent flyers&rdquo; in the dictionary and you&rsquo;ll find a team picture of the Kings, who were to play nine of their first 13 games away from home.&ldquo;The back-to-back games are the worst,&rdquo; said bleary-eyed coach Pat Quinn. &ldquo;But then, teams are even sitting and waiting for us when we get home.&ldquo;We just have to deal with it.&rdquo;Was it any wonder then, that the Kings were on the short end of a 6-2 blowout in Quebec that ended the first segment of their most grueling trip of the season?The Kings had come close in the first four road tests, at least, losing to the New York Rangers (5-4 in overtime), New Jersey Devils (5-3 with an empty-net goal), New York Islanders (4-3) and Montreal Canadiens (6-5) before running on empty against the Nordiques.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Too many games, too many miles&hellip;We tried to reach back and&hellip;there was nothing there.&rsquo; &mdash;Quinn</blockquote>&ldquo;Too many games, too many miles,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d been playing pretty good hockey, but I think all the travel just caught up with us at the end. We tried to reach back and&hellip;there was nothing there.&rdquo;The Quebec loss was particularly frustrating because the Kings played what Quinn called &ldquo;probably the best period we&rsquo;ve ever had in this building.&rdquo;<h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011236/5195175-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="180" height="132"></div>The Kings had a terrific first period, getting 15 shots on goaltender Mario Gosselin, who stopped all but one, then sat back and relaxed the rest of the way as the fresh Nordiques skated freely around the weary Kings.There were no real surprises here. The Kings had blown golden opportunities and/or leads in losing the first four road games and couldn&rsquo;t be expected to do much in the road (temporarily, at least) finale.&ldquo;Just sheer tiredness, I guess,&rdquo; Jay Wells said. &ldquo;The most frustrating thing is that we were in every one of the first four games and didn&rsquo;t come out with anything.&rdquo;Turnovers and blatant giveaways were the culprits. The Kings&rsquo; possession game was killing them.&ldquo;Two of the goals we had set for ourselves this year were to get off to a good start in games and stay close,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been accomplishing both of those, but we&rsquo;ve been handing goals away on a silver platter. That&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;ve got to stop.&rdquo;The power play was another problem. The Kings hit a stretch where they managed to score only twice in 22 opportunities.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to get more out of our power play,&rdquo; Wells said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re getting chances, but we&rsquo;ve got to start stashing a few. We&rsquo;re trying and working hard, but it&rsquo;s tough when you&rsquo;re losing like this. We&rsquo;ve just got to keep working. Things can&rsquo;t keep going the same way.&rdquo;Except for the schedule. The Kings had a one-way ticket to points north and east, it seemed.KINGS NOTES&mdash;Winger Bryan Erickson, who had two of the club&rsquo;s three game-then received an winning goals, missed two games with an ailing left knee that figured to keep him sidelined for some time. Injured in the loss to the Devils, team doctors suspected some kind of cartilage damage. He flew home two days early to get the knee rechecked, then received an anti-inflammatory injection. &ldquo;Hopefully, it&rsquo;ll respond to that.&rdquo; coach Pat Quinn said. &ldquo;Butsy&rsquo;s been one of our better players.&rdquo;&hellip;Tiger Williams missed a game with a sore back&hellip; Rookie Luc Robitaille took over the team goal-scoring lead with eight during a seven-goal outburst in a five-game stretch. &#9632;

f0011-01

Nothing But Losses Mount On Kings’ Road Trip

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;Unlike many clubs which count on a berth in the playoffs and use the regular season to refine their squad while jockeying for post-season home-ice advantage, the regular season is not simply a chess match for the New Jersey Devils. It is a matter of survival.For several players, including a number of familiar veterans, whether the Devils can keep pace for a playoff position will have a large impact on their hockey futures. After a 4-4 start, general manager Max McNab admitted jobs are in the balance this season.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t go on the basis of public threats,&rdquo; said McNab before the Devils upset the Pittsbugh Penguins 8-6 to improve to 5-4 on the strength of a three-goal, three-assist night from Kirk Muller.&ldquo;But everybody knows that we have been patient with a few guys and this is the year of decision on a few of them.&rdquo;Names? McNab would not discuss specific players, but several people within the organization had some ideas.Jan Ludvig, in his fifth season with the Devils, and Anders Carlsson, the 25-year-old left winger from Sweden, are at the top of the list of those being watched closely. Next are a group including defenseman Joe Cirella, forward Perry Anderson and defenseman Uli Hiemer.Logically, veterans Mei Bridgman, Mark Johnson and Aaron Broten seem to be at the crossroads but all three continue to perform at or beyond expectations. Bridgman, at 31, remains an important player and a point producer while Broten, 25 and in his sixth NHL season, has enjoyed a sparkling start to the season. Johnson, 29, has played well as the third center.While observers feel the Devils are bucking the odds of securing a playoff spot because of the tough division they play in, McNab believes it could work to the team&rsquo;s benefit in the long run.<h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02935/5195206-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="175" height="132"></div>&ldquo;If we&rsquo;re ever going to win it all, it&rsquo;s better to be in this division,&rdquo; said McNab. &ldquo;Every night we&rsquo;re getting some tough games. I think divisional play will help us get prepared. We&rsquo;re playing some awfully good teams on a regular basis and that&rsquo;s going to help us mature. I&rsquo;m not saying anything detrimental about the other divisions. Every one is tough. But on a night-after-night basis this old division is really tough.&rdquo;The emergence of the Penguins as a strong contender has further tightened the race.&ldquo;Pittsburgh came out like a rock et,&rdquo; offered McNab. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure that&rsquo;s going to disrupt the thinking of the Islanders, Rangers, Washington and Philly. They&rsquo;re wondering, &lsquo;How good is this club?&rsquo; Everybody is. Not having been there for a while, do the Penguins have the mental toughness to play soundly every night? That&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re trying to learn from some of our guys.&rdquo;Especially the younger players such as Muller, John MacLean, Pat Verbeek, Greg Adams, Bruce Driver and Ken Daneyko.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re optimistic at this point. We&rsquo;re maturing as a team,&rdquo; said McNab. &ldquo;This is maybe the first Devils team that has a chance to improve. When you&rsquo;ve got young guys like Verbeek, MacLean and Muller, they can; still improve their overall game. &#9632;

f0011-02

GM McNab Expecting Devils To Make Strides This Season

THE GENERAL MANAGERof a National Hockey League team was reminiscing the other day on the joys of playing the Montreal Canadiens back in the late 1970s when they ruled the big-league hockey roost very strongly.That edition of the Canadiens was one of the most potent the game has ever seen&mdash;Ken Dryden in goal, the Big Three (Larry Robinson, Serge Savard and Guy Lapointe) on defense, Guy Lafleur, Steve Shutt and an assortment of swift pals up front, all masterminded by Scotty Bowman.&ldquo;We used a rather different approach to advance-scouting the Canadiens,&rdquo; the GM said. &ldquo;Sure, we had the normal reports on their lineup and the approaches they were using but we would monitor the Montreal papers, especially the French language sheets, to get the real line on the team&rsquo;s mood.&ldquo;If no one on the team was sounding off, if everything was peace and contentment with the team and nothing but love was being expressed for Scotty, we figured we might have at least a bit of a chance against them.&ldquo;But, if the Canadiens seemed to be in a big upheaval, if a player or two was quoted as questioning if Bowman had a brain of any size, if another guy was complaining about a lack of ice time and if everything seemed black on the red, white and blue scene, you just knew the Canadiens were ready to roll and you wished you were playing someone else that night.&ldquo;Bowman was a master at getting the players browned off at him and taking it out on the opposition. Even when they were on a hoi streak, he would make a big issue of some minor flaw in their play and hint that doom was just around the comer. That would keep the team on a roll.&ldquo;What&rsquo;s happening in Edmonton now reminds me a little of the old Canadien act.&rdquo;Early this season. Oiler coach-GM-president Glen Sather and one of the team&rsquo;s great stars, defenseman Paul Coffey, the Norris Trophy winner as best backliner in the past two seasons, exchanged a few insults. It&rsquo;s not the first time Slats and Coffey have traded a dart or two.The bickering is based, it seems, on an effort by Sather to inspire Coffey to employ his awesome talent on a more consistent basis, especially early in the season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011328/5195237-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="386" height="434"><figcaption class="caption-body">Frank Orr</figcaption></div>This time, the exchange was quite lively, all of it conducted in the public prints. Sather stated flatly that his superstar defender wasn&rsquo;t playing very well. Coffey countered by suggesting it was a rather low-browed act to get on a player&rsquo;s case early in the season.The setting was right for a clash. The Oilers were hungry for a fast start to the &rsquo;86-87 season after their quick exit from the playoffs last spring, followed closely by drug usage charges. Coffey never has started his seasons quickly; he needs a few weeks to get his formidable engines revved to jet speed.Sather stated that he would like to see Coffey play in October and November the way he does later in the schedule. Coffey fired back that if he had more ice time he would play better. And that when the Oilers win, it&rsquo;s because of a team effort but when they lose, a couple of players get the blame from the head honcho and the knocks about his slow start are something he doesn&rsquo;t especially like.Sather doesn&rsquo;t appear all that upset by Coffey&rsquo;s retort. Slats, himself, never has been one to walk away from a good argument and he undoubtedly admires that quality in others. That places Sather in exclusive company. Can you imagine the fate of a Toronto Maple Leaf or New York Ranger who talked back to his GM the way Coffey has?&ldquo;Slats is using pretty good psychology on Coffey, I think,&rdquo; the other GM said. &ldquo;Coffey is a very proud guy but he wants to work with as little fuss and bother in his life as possible. He is a slow starter every season and he does have a bit of a lazy, lackadaisical streak. Sather is just trying to get him rolling in high gear.&rdquo;Slats hinted that he would have been concerned if Coffey hadn&rsquo;t reacted to the criticism. Slats wants his Oilers angry at everything in the world, if possible. &#9632;

f0012-01

Coffey Criticism Calculated To Inspire All-Star

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Few could argue that this was, in a perverse way, entirely appropriate, that the team which set the pace in the early weeks of the National Hockey League season would also be the first to celebrate Halloween.Nothing new about their get-up, however. The Pittsburgh Penguins spent the days leading up to Halloween posing as a reincarnation of their former inept, disinterested selves.After winning eight of their first nine games, the Penguins closed out October with back-to-back defeats&mdash;including an 8-6 loss to New Jersey at the Civic Arena which was downright macabre.Even so, the Penguins finished October with an 8-3 record, good for 16 points, four more than they had managed in any of their previous 19 Octobers in the National Hockey League.What is most frightening about the Penguins&rsquo; lapse is that they were out-hustled and outhit both in a 5-2 loss in Hartford and a 8-6 nightmare at home against New Jersey.They had a very obvious problem dealing with opponents which went bump in the night&mdash;and in the comers. 2 &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a shame only a handful of guys came to play,&rdquo; left winger Randy Cunney worth said after the game in Hartford. &ldquo;Some guys are letting the others down.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s 80 games, a long season, and you can&rsquo;t win them all,&rdquo; said center - Mario Lemieux, who had at least one point in each of the first 11 games. &ldquo;But you can try to win them all&mdash;and that&rsquo;s not what we did tonight.&rdquo;It could have been worse, though. In fact, just 24 hours later, it was.The Penguins gave New Jersey five goals on seven power plays and goalie Roberto Romano, who won his first E seven starts of the season, stopped only 13 of 21 shots by the Devils.&ldquo;Romano&rsquo;s been the guy we&rsquo;ve 2 counted on in games we had to win,&rdquo; coach Bob Berry said. &ldquo;If you want to second-guess me, it was obviously a wrong move.&rdquo;Even Romano, who had started the game in Hartford, stood firmly among those believed he should have been pulled from the game&mdash;assuming he started at all.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t understand why the coach didn&rsquo;t pull me. He seems to like to leave me in there. I think maybe he should have pulled me after the fourth goal (which game on New Jersey&rsquo;s seventh shot).&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying he should have started (backup Gilles Meloche), but once he saw I wasn&rsquo;t in the game, I don&rsquo;t know what he was waiting for to pull me.&rdquo;<h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021109/5195268-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="173" height="134"></div>Of course, had Berry removed every Penguin who wasn&rsquo;t into the game, the Pittsburgh side of the ice would have been all but deserted.It was of little consolation to the Penguins that they tied a team record with five power-play goals&mdash;three by left winger Kevin LaVallee, who added three assists to equal the franchise record with six points in one game&mdash;since that merely offset New Jersey&rsquo;s power-play production.&ldquo;Our power play was great,&rdquo; Berry said. And their penalty-killing, well, the only way Berry could describe it was to invoke the image of a substance commonly found in stables.And so, the heady moments of their 8-1 start obscured by this most distressing jolt of reality, the Penguins-resigned themselves to pursuing a Patrick Division playoff berth, not an eternal niche in NHL history.&ldquo;We had a very nice start, a very nice upswing, but that&rsquo;s not going to carry on all year,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a matter of time until it comes back around. We&rsquo;re going to have to muck and grind for every single point we get.&rdquo;&ldquo;If you dwell on it, things will only get worse,&rdquo; Romano said.And that is a truly chilling thought.NOTES&mdash;Bob Berry was ejected from the Hartford game with just over four minutes remaining when he questioned the ability, and perhaps the heritage, of referee Mike Noeth&hellip;The loss to New Jersey was Pittsburgh&rsquo;s first in seven home games&hellip; Right winger Mike Blaisdell suffered a separated left shoulder in Hartford and was expected to miss at least two week-s&hellip;The Penguins signed free agent center Alain Lemieux, the brother of Mario who had been playing in Switzerland, and assigned him to their Baltimore farm team. He previously had played for St. Louis and Quebec. &#9632;

f0012-02

Pittsburgh Stumbles After A Sterling Start

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;The question has been asked before: Where would the Minnesota North Stars be without Neal Broten? Now, they&rsquo;ll find out.Broten suffered the first major injury in his six-year professional career Oct. 30 when he crashed head-first into the end boards at Met Center and dislocated his left shoulder. He is expected to miss four to six weeks.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the heart and soul of our team,&rdquo; coach Lorne Henning said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big blow.&rdquo;Broten had taken a pass at center ice early in the third period against Detroit and burst down the left side. Wings&rsquo; defenseman Mike O&rsquo;Connell came from behind, dove and slashed Broten across the gloves and stomach with a two-hander. O&rsquo;Connell then slid into Broten, who lost his balance and slammed into the boards.O&rsquo;Connell received a minor penalty for slashing, but the Stars, who were trailing 2-1 at the time and ended up losing 3-1, couldn&rsquo;t turn the power play into the tying goal. After the game, Henning cried &lsquo;foul&rsquo; over the injury.&ldquo;It obviously was a five-minute major (penalty),&rdquo; Henning said. &ldquo;They took the best player out for six months (sic) and all he (O&rsquo;Connell) gets is a bleeping two-minute penalty. It was a bleeping awful call.&rdquo;&ldquo;I slashed him. I&rsquo;ll admit that, but I think he took a bit of a dive and ended up hurt,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Connell, who has never had more than 75 penalty minutes in one season over his nine-year career.&ldquo;I was just scrambling to catch him. I can&rsquo;t let him go into the net. I have to do what I have to do. If I hurt him with the slash, I didn&rsquo;t mean to. These things happen.&rdquo;Said Detroit coach Jacques Demers: &ldquo;Sure I&rsquo;ll defend my players, but this is one of the least dirty players in the league&hellip;He&rsquo;s no cheap-shot artist. It was just an unfortunate accident. I feel sorry for Broten; he&rsquo;s a great little player and I&rsquo;ve always admired him.&rdquo;North Stars&rsquo; trainer Dick Rose called it a &ldquo;bad dislocation.&rdquo; Muscle spasms prevented doctors from popping the shoulder back into its socket when Broten first arrived at a Minneapolis hospital. He had to be given a general anesthetic before the shoulder could be put into place and he was kept in the hospital overnight.&ldquo;Now I know why he almost never gets injured,&rdquo; said Dr. Don Miller. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got so many muscles; he&rsquo;s built like a rubber band. We had to put him out because his shoulder was knotted up so much if we tried to put it in while he was awake, we would have tom the hell out of it.&rdquo;<h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03745/5195299-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="174" height="132"></div>Broten, who was the Stars&rsquo; MVP two of the last three seasons and was the leading scorer three of the last four, has not missed more than seven games in any of his previous five seasons.He played in all 80 games the last two seasons. He had a career-high 105 points last year and scored three goals and 13 points in the Stars&rsquo; first nine games this year. With him, the Stars were 4-5-1.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s coming off a good start and the team isn&rsquo;t exactly going the best right now,&rdquo; said Dino Ciccarelli, who scored the Stars&rsquo; only goal against Detroit to push his season total to 14. &ldquo;To lose the top player like that hurts more than any other.&rdquo;Henning used center Marc Habs-cheid in an expanded role to fill for Broten in the remaining 15 minutes of the game. Habscheid, Brian Lawton, Kent Nilsson, coming off a two-week absence (groin injury), or maybe Randy Smith, with the Stars&rsquo; Springfield farm club, are candidates to step in and fill Broten&rsquo;s place.Another possibility is center Mark Pavelich, whose rights the Stars acquired from the New York Rangers, but general manager Lou Nanne still has to persuade Pavelich to play again.&ldquo;Anyone we put in there is not Neal Broten,&rdquo; Henning said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not fair to put the burden on anybody. Everybody else will have to pitch in and pick up the slack. Some people are going to have to play a lot better than they&rsquo;ve been playing, that&rsquo;s for sure.&rdquo;STARDUST&mdash;Defenseman Jari Gronstrand missed three games with bruised ribs. Neil Abbott, the agent of left winger Brian Lawton resubmitted his request of a year ago that Lawton be traded. Lawton, who played in just two of the first seven games, started on a line with Neal Broten and Dino Ciccarelli against Calgary Oct. 28 and scored a goal and two assists&hellip;Left winger Mats Hallin is out four to six weeks with stretched knee ligaments&hellip;Bob McCammon, Edmonton&rsquo;s director of player development, took in two North Stars&rsquo; games within a week, one at Washington Oct. 24 and the Detroit game at Met Center. &#9632;

f0012-03

Stars Must Make Do Without Broten

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02918/5195330-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="570" height="840"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Barr, above, has fit in with Ray Ferraro and Dave Tippett on the Whalers.</figcaption></div>HARTFORD&mdash;After three games with the Hartford Whalers, Dave Barr was three-for-three.If only Jim Rice had hit as well.Barr was not solely responsible for the Whalers&rsquo; three victories, of course, but his presence in the lineup helped.The Whalers posted critical back-to-back victories over the staggering Buffalo Sabres, who are threatening to turn the fabled Adams Division playoff race into no race at all, and then netted a 5-2 win over the sizzling Pittsburgh Penguins.Still, Barr&rsquo;s early bottom line was undeniable&mdash;three starts, three wins.&ldquo;St. Louis and Hartford play similar systems, so there wasn&rsquo;t all that much adjusting to do,&rdquo; Barr said.Barr, who is being used as a right winger, came to Hartford from&mdash;where else?&mdash;St. Louis for defenseman Tim Bothwell. Considering that the Whalers only gave up cash to acquire Bothwell from the Blues last year, the acquisition of Barr is something of a bonus.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got good size and he&rsquo;s very steady,&rdquo; coach Jack Evans said.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good up-and-down winger,&rdquo; general manager Emile Francis said. &ldquo;He plays his position well and he&rsquo;s only 25.&rdquo;Bothwell is 31. Besides, the Whalers have many bodies on the blue line, plus two prospects, Sylvain Cote and Brad Shaw, in Binghamton.<h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011253/5195337-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="174" height="129"></div>&ldquo;We dealt from numbers,&rdquo; Francis said.Barr, who is 6-foot-l and 185 pounds, scored a goal in his first game with the Whalers against Buffalo.&ldquo;All I really wanted to do was play good defense while I learned the system,&rdquo; Barr said. &ldquo;I never expected to score.&rdquo;Playing on a line with centerman Ray Ferraro and left winger Dave Tippett, Barr has fit in like a glove.&ldquo;Ray is a good offensive player and Davey plays more of a checking style,&rdquo; Barr said. &ldquo;I think I mesh well with those guys. I think I can get my share of points.&rdquo;Hockey has been quite an adventure for Barr, who wasn&rsquo;t drafted after playing junior hockey in Lethbridge with four of the Sutter brothers.He signed as a free agent with Boston in Sept, 1981, and ended up playing 76 games with Erie, then of the American League. He spent most of the following season with Baltimore of the AHL, and then in Oct., 1983, he was traded by the Bruins to the New York Rangers for Dave Silk.For Barr, that meant 50 games in Tulsa.In March, 1984, the Rangers dealt him, along with cash and a draft pick, to St. Louis for Larry Patey and the rights to Bob Brooke. In two-plus seasons in St. Louis, Barr scored 85 points in 153 games.A reduced role in St. Louis, apparently convinced the Blues that Barr was expendable.The Whalers are happy to take their excess.&ldquo;He should help us,&rdquo; Evans said. &ldquo;I like him.&rdquo;WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash; Dave Barr, in essence, has taken Wayne Babych&rsquo;s spot. Babych was slashed by Quebec&rsquo;s Ken McRae in an exhibition game in Hartford Sept. 24 and underwent knee surgery Sept. 27. Babych, who is supposed to be out until March, said that McRae may not have heard the end of the incident. &ldquo;If I can&rsquo;t play at the NHL level again, I would definitely consider a lawsuit,&rdquo; Babych said. &ldquo;What he did is not part of the game. I know people think losing an eye is very serious, but losing a knee isn&rsquo;t much fun either. If this ends my career and I don&rsquo;t get proper compensation from the league, whether I&rsquo;ll sue anybody, well&hellip;different people have suggested it to me. All I&rsquo;ve done so far is listen.&rdquo; Babych serves as his own agent. &ldquo;The last thing I want to do is quit hockey,&rdquo; he said&hellip;.Ulf Samulesson missed his first game since he joined the Whalers because of the flu&hellip;. Through seven games and a 4-2-1 record, goaltender Mike Liut was 4-1-1. &#9632;

f0013-02

Barr’s Arrival Coincides With Victory Streak

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-04645/5195368-1-eng-US/f0013-042.jpg" title="f0013-04" width="567" height="927"><figcaption class="caption-body">David Shaw injured his shoulder in a one-sided fight with L.A.&rsquo;s Dean Kennedy.</figcaption></div>QUEBEC&mdash;Michel Goulet, who does his scoring with his hands, not fists, was in the midst of a lively post-game discussion following a fight-marred game between the Quebec Nordiques and Los Angeles Kings.The Nordiques were cruising along to a 6-2 victory when Dale Hunter instigated an altercation with the Kings&rsquo; Bernie Nicholls.&ldquo;(He) had been skating around with his stick in the air all night,&rdquo; Nordiques&rsquo; coach Michel Bergeron would say of Nicholls.Before long Quebec&rsquo;s Robert Picard and L.A.&rsquo;s Larry Playfair were fighting and when Picard was thrown to the ice by Playfair, Quebec rookie Ken Quinney came to the rescue. He was later given a misconduct penalty for being the third man in the fight.Meanwhile, Nordique defenseman David Shaw and Dean Kennedy were waltzing around in their own comer&mdash;and it was clear that Shaw wasn&rsquo;t leading the dance. It was learned later that the young defenseman injured his left shoulder early in the fight and was unable to defend himself very well.Nobody stepped in to help Shaw.Goalie Mario Gosselin was given a misconduct penalty for heatedly urging referee Bob Myers to stop the fight. Goulet, also on the ice at the time, did not intercede.The high-scoring left winger said he didn&rsquo;t get involved because he thought Myers and the linesmen would separate the fighters. He also didn&rsquo;t want to reinjure the finger he broke a month ago.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t start looking for problems when there aren&rsquo;t any,&rdquo; said Bergeron. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a question that shouldn&rsquo;t even be asked. Michel had no business getting involved. You all know he&rsquo;s playing with a broken finger, so don&rsquo;t start any stories.&ldquo;If he had deserted a teammate in need, I would have been the first to accuse him. But in this matter, he took the right decision.&rdquo;When Shaw and Kennedy were finally separated, Shaw was helped off the ice by his teammates and Kennedy was sent to his dressing room by Myers.<h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-03741/5195375-1-eng-US/f0013-032.jpg" title="f0013-03" width="173" height="134"></div>But when the big King got to his bench, a fan threw a glass of beer right into his face. The visiting bench at Le Colisee is protected by glass, but the adjoining passageway to the dressing room isn&rsquo;t.So when Kennedy was drenched, the Kings players started squirting the culprit with their water bottles. Tiger Williams, who wasn&rsquo;t dressed for the game, was standing right behind where the beer thrower was seated. He was eventually asked to leave the area by police.NOTES&mdash;Brent Ashton scored three goals and one assist to lead the win over L.A&hellip;Defenseman Randy Moller, who was playing the best hockey of his career, suffered a broken hand when he was slashed by the Kings&rsquo; Morris Lukowich. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t hit me very hard, but his stick got me right where the padding is the thinnest on my glove,&rdquo; said Moller. The big rearguard was expected to be out for about three weeks. David Shaw&rsquo;s shoulder injury was to be evaluated on a day-to-day basis&hellip;The absence of Moller meant Gilbert Delorme would get to play for the first time this year. &#9632;

f0013-04

Bergeron Defends Superstar Goulet

<h2>TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE&hellip;</h2>1. Who did the Vancouver Canucks choose first (second overall) in the amateur draft when they entered the NHL in 1970?2. What player was loaned by the Minnesota North Stars to Davos of the Swiss League for this season?3. Gordie Howe won four consecutive scoring championships beginning in 1950-51. Who snapped his string in 1954-55?4. Name the only team in the Western League to have had continuous membership in the 20-year history of that league.5. Who was the last first overall pick from an NHL entry draft to be sent to the minor leagues in his rookie season prior to Joe Murphy?6. Who was the last man to captain the Toronto Maple Leafs to the Stanley Cup?7. What team has won two of the last three Western League finals?8. What was the nickname of Toronto&rsquo;s WHA team?9. Who is the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; career shutout leader?10. Which St. Louis Blue hails Foam Lake, Sask.?<h2>BONUS QUESTION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-05526/5195413-1-eng-US/f0013-052.jpg" title="f0013-05" width="518" height="890"><figcaption class="caption-body">BONUS: Name this former U.S. Olympian who played for Minnesota, Calgary and L.A.</figcaption></div><h2>ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-06441/5195406-1-eng-US/f0013-062.jpg" title="f0013-06" width="1064" height="169"></div> &#9632;

f0013-05

CCM HOCKEY TRIVIA

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Just when Seattle seemed to be without an &ldquo;angel&rdquo; for a prospective NHL expansion team, new, positive rumblings are being heard in the Northwest. Seattle (WHL) Thunderbird GM Sheldon Ferguson tells BLUELINES that a serious move is afoot to build a 16,000-seat arena in the city. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re looking at at least three sites,&rdquo; says Ferguson, &ldquo;and the people involved have money.&rdquo; The key personalities are Seattle (NBA) Supersonics&rsquo; owner Barry Ackerley and Thunderbirds&rsquo; boss Earl Hale. &ldquo;We came to Seattle with the idea of getting a NHL franchise,&rdquo; says Hale, a Calgary millionaire owner of a world-wide oil exploration company. According to Ferguson, the NHL would be more willing to support a Seattle expansion bid than one from either Dallas or San Francisco.Leafs&rsquo; Wendel Clark takes issue with Kevin Lowe&rsquo;s charge that Clark &ldquo;sucker-punched&rdquo; Craig MacTavish. an episode to which Lowe gave much space in his Edmonton Sun column. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t sucker-punch him,&rdquo; Clark tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;The incident started out with a five-on-five. We both knew we were going to fight and when I had MacTavish down the fight was over and the ref told us to break it up. So, I got up and then he came at me. He was the one who wanted to go at me. I had to defend myself and I did.&rdquo;&hellip;Those who&rsquo;ve watched Frantisek Musil, Minnesota&rsquo;s Czech rookie, predict he&rsquo;ll bump the Rangers&rsquo; Tomas Sandstrom as &ldquo;Dirtiest Import in the NHL.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011304/5195451-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="349" height="559"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wendel Clark</figcaption></div>Constant complaints about rowdy Ranger tans have inspired Madison Square Garden to forbid booze sales after the second period of NHL games. Nowadays when MSG fans become restless they begin chanting: &ldquo;Sell us beer!&rdquo;&hellip;Jim Pavese on the coaching difference between Jacques Demers and Jacques Martin: &ldquo;Demers is more of a motivator; Martin is more strategic.&rdquo;&hellip;Bill McLaughlin, in the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, writes that he wouldn&rsquo;t be surprised if Butch Goring is the first coaching victim of the season. &ldquo;He and GM Harry Sinden are on short fuses because of some questionable trades in the summer,&rdquo; writes McLaughlin. Boston sources add that the Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots success has created intense pressure on the Bruins to succeed.Wayne Gretzky figures the toughest of his 41 records to break is his mark of 163 assists. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be around a while,&rdquo; ventures The Great One&hellip;Who&rsquo;s the toughest forward to move from the crease area? Whaler defenseman Dana Murzyn singles out the Flyers&rsquo; Tim Kerr with Charlie Simmer of the Bruins as runner-up. Murzyn&rsquo;s coming-of-age, Whalers&rsquo; people figure, was his duking it with Chris Nilan last year. &ldquo;Nilan and Guy Carbonneau kept running me in the comer,&rdquo; he says, &lsquo;They wanted to see if I had anything or if I was just some big goof. Later, I went at it with Nilan. I didn&rsquo;t beat him, but he didn&rsquo;t beat me.&rdquo; &hellip;Habs&rsquo; boss Ron Corey insists there&rsquo;s no discrepancy between his clean-up hockey campaign and the abundance of toughies on his Canadiens. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m like Ronald Reagan,&rdquo; says Corey. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to fight the war, but I want to be ready if I have to.&rdquo;Bruin Tom McCarthy says his rep as a hell-raiser is null and void. &ldquo;When I was younger I probably deserved the bad reputation,&rdquo; says McCarthy, &ldquo;but I didn&rsquo;t think I had to carry it for the rest of my life.&rdquo;&hellip;Kings may re-think October scheduling next season to avoid conflicts with baseball&rsquo;s playoffs and World Series. This fall the club ran head-on against one playoff and two series games on TV. Total cost in lost patronage was an estimated 15,000 fans&hellip;Hall of Famer Ken Dryden completed his two-year stewardship with the Ontario Youth Commission and has taken off for India. When he returns, he&rsquo;ll consider another book project as well as TV work. Dryden penned The Game, a highly-successful book about himself and the Canadiens.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021023/5195444-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="348" height="630"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom McCarthy</figcaption></div>Larry Robinson figures a summer of polo playing kept his legs strong&hellip;Canadien insiders are wondering whether yappy Claude Lemieux will make good on his promise to keep his mouth shut on the ice. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a new man,&rdquo; Lemieux is telling people&hellip;The Pengiuns&rsquo; Dwight Schofield has both nice and not-so-kind things to say about his ex-employers, the Caps. &ldquo;They were accommodating to me as far as finding another team. But they just wanted me there (in Washington) as an idiot. I was very unhappy with that.&rdquo;&hellip;Former Rangers&rsquo; ass&rsquo;t GM Anders Hedberg, who was axed by Phil Esposito, might have been playing for the Jets this year. The Jets&rsquo; John Ferguson considered signing him but ultimately didn&rsquo;t because Hedberg felt his eye injury would have prevented him from playing up to par. &#9632;

f0014-01

Seattle Expansionists Planning New Arena

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>MONTREAL&mdash;This story has been told before.Only the names have been change and not to protect the innocent.It seems that every time the Montreal Canadiens make a trip to the west coast, something happens which is bound to make headlines back home.This time, Guy Carbonneau and Chris Nilan were derricked from the Canadiens&rsquo; lineup shortly before a scheduled game against the Vancouver Canucks.While coach Jean Perron declined an invitation from the media to give the reason for the move, both Carbonneau and Nilan let it be known that they had been late for a curfew two nights before the game against the Canucks.Neither player seemed impressed by the move of the sophomore coach. Indeed, the problem is not going to be an easy one to resolve.Nilan and Carbonneau are considered team leaders, perhaps among the most powerful on the team in the absence of team captain Bob Gainey. Just as important is the fact they are also part of the Canadiens&rsquo; top-checking line, high-quality performers on the ice.The fact the Canadiens were playing the lowly Canucks might have been a blessing in disguise for Perron. The Canucks were ranked 21st in the 21- team National Hockey League and it was expected the Canadiens would beat them.They did, winning 5-3 in a contest marked by a third-period brawl which saw three Canadiens and five Canucks ejected for feuding, fussing and fighting.While all of this was going on, Nilan and Carbonneau stood, watched and apparently fumed.Carbonneau, who takes great pride in his work, had never missed a game before because of a curfew violation. He felt that Perron&rsquo;s move didn&rsquo;t make a lot of sense and told one reporter that the coach would have been better off thinking about the two points before taking such action.Carbonneau is a serious, intense young man. He approaches the game in the same manner and his performance during the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring are the greatest proof of that. The night off in Vancouver will not be forgotten quickly.<h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03720/5195482-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="174" height="132"></div>The center planned a meeting with managing director Serge Savard about the matter and Nilan was also expected to have a chat with Savard, who was originally scheduled to be in Vancouver for the game but wound up in New York instead.Savard, who can usually calm the rough seas around the good ship Canadiens, will have to work overtime to settle this problem.Neither Nilan nor Carbonneau will be easy to placate. Nilan, one of the most popular players with the Montreal fans, is not one of Perron&rsquo;s closest chums and anyone who has watched the Canadiens since the former University of Moncton coach joined the organization two-and-a-half years ago knows that.This is the second time in two visits to Vancouver that Nilan has been involved in a touch of controversy. Last season, he whacked Stephane Richer across the leg after he perceived the latter dogging it in practice. Perron was not impressed by the move and let it be known.IN PASSING&mdash;The absence of Craig Ludwig for the Vancouver game was almost overlooked by the Chris Nilan-Guy Carbonneau issue. Ludwig was also benched in the third period of a 3-3 tie at Boston three days earlier&hellip; Kjell Dahlin was pulled from the lineup for games against Buffalo and Boston at the end of October, just after he signed a new two-year contract. He returned for the game against Vancouver. &#9632;

f0014-03

Habs’ Carbonneau, Nilan Benched For Late Night

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;When the Edmonton Oilers decided to introduce the word &lsquo;defense&rsquo; into their vocabulary, it seems they weren&rsquo;t kidding.After 13 National Hockey League starts, the team goals-against average (3.34) was respectable and a distinct improvement from Edmonton&rsquo;s year-ending 3.84 mark of 1985-86.Grant Fuhr&rsquo;s 2.70 average was positively minute compared to past standards.But, that&rsquo;s only the half of it.The Oilers have been swelling their blue line ranks. First, rookies Craig Muni and Jeff Beukeboom remained with the dethroned Stanley Cup champions at season&rsquo;s outset. Later, Jim Wiemer and Reijo Ruotsalainen were acquired from the New York Rangers in a multi-player deal that sent Don Jackson to the Big Apple.And finally, Randy Gregg emerged from a short-term retirement to sign a one-year contract on Nov. 3.Gregg, The Good Doctor, caught Oilers&rsquo; manager-coach Glen Sather by surprise just prior to training camp when he announced his retirement. The 30-year-oid had second thoughts and negotiations were undertaken.Talks were initiated Oct. 23, the day after the Oilers were beaten 6-3 in Calgary. They&rsquo;d gone unbeaten since, but Sather relishes the idea of having an abundance of defensemen on hand. With Ruotsalainen expected in Edmonton by March and Gregg back, the ranks would swell to 10.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;&hellip;if you&rsquo;re not going good, you had better stick to defense.&rsquo; &mdash;Coffey</blockquote>Gregg won&rsquo;t likely renew his contract with the Oilers when it expires next summer. An Olympian in 1980, he wants to represent Canada in the 1988 Games at Calgary.&ldquo;For me it would certainly be a dream to play in another Olympics,&rdquo; Gregg said before signing. &ldquo;If the circumstances were proper I&rsquo;d love to have that opportunity.&rdquo;National team coach Dave King has expressed a keen interest in Gregg.<h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011102/5195513-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="174" height="131"></div>Further good news from the backline ranks has been the recent resurgence of Norris Trophy-winner Paul Coffey.Involved in a war of words with Sather prior to the home opener following sub-par performances on the road to start the season, Coffey was due to break out. Overdue, in fact.What better situation than to have as an eye-witness Rod Langway, the Washington Capitals&rsquo; secretary of defense from whom Coffey took away the Norris Trophy two years ago.Coffey snapped an eight-game goalless drought, scoring twice and assisting on three others to lead the Oilers past Washington 6-3 on Oct. 29.&ldquo;I never thought much about Langway,&rdquo; smiled Coffey, who could only muster two assists in five previous home-ice starts. &ldquo;But I guess subconsciously the thought is there any time you play against Langway or (Boston&rsquo;s) Ray Bourque or (Chicago&rsquo;s) Doug Wilson. You want to be at your best.&ldquo;I know Wayne, the first few years, loved to play against Dionne,&rdquo; added Coffey. Wayne Gretzky and the L.A. Kings&rsquo; Marcel Dionne each totalled a league-high 137 points in No. 99&rsquo;s rookie NHL campaign.Coffey had experienced problems in both ends of the rink this season, so he opted for better defensive play.&ldquo;When you get on a roll&mdash;and a lot of our guys will tell you this&mdash;you can take chances and they&rsquo;ll go your way,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But if you&rsquo;re not going good, you had better stick to defense and let the offense take care of itself.&rdquo;The victory was Edmonton&rsquo;s first over Washington&mdash;the only opponent to sweep the Oilers last season&mdash;since Nov. 9, 1984 in Landover.&ldquo;My philosophy,&rdquo; said Coffey, &ldquo;is not to worry about the other team. Let&rsquo;s just worry about our team. If we play our best, we&rsquo;re going to beat anybody.&ldquo;Mind you, when you&rsquo;re coming off a year when you were 0-3 to a team, that skunking does weigh on your mind.&rdquo;Two nights later, Coffey added a goal and assisted on two others in a 6-2 victory in Vancouver, solidifying his stature as the NHL&rsquo;s top-scoring defenseman.IN THE CREASE&mdash;With three points in Vancouver and three more two nights later against L.A., Wayne Gretzky upped his career output to 1,373, moving past Johnny Bucyk (1,369) into fifth place on the career list. With 492 goals, No. 99 also passed Norm Ullman (490) and Jean Ratelle for 13th place on the all-time list. Gretzky is fourth in assists, having leap-frogged past Phil Esposito (873). &#9632;

f0016-01

The Doctor Returns To Edmonton Blue Line

BACK WHEN PEOPLE such as Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante were playing hockey, a team had one goaltender. He played every minute of every game and if an injury sent him to the hospital, then he was replaced by whomever was handy, usually the trainer.It&rsquo;s something of an understatement to say that times have changed.Last year, only three teams&mdash;the New York Islanders, the Hartford Whalers and the Edmonton Oilers&mdash;limited themselves to as few as two goalies. Most teams used three or four goalies and the Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils used five.Cumulatively, the NHL teams used no fewer than 72 goalies last year (or, if you want to look at it another way, 68, because four of them played for two teams).What&rsquo;s happening here? Are goalies that bad these days that it takes a squad of them to do the job that one man used to perform adequately?Probably not. The problems that are facing goalies are simply one more indication of how much the game has changed in the past few years.For one thing, the players are bigger, stronger and faster. When goalies played without masks and stopped a puck with their face, they&rsquo;d return to the game after a few stitches. If a shot from someone like Al MacInnis or Doug Wilson hit a goalie on an unprotected head today, someone would have to start making funeral arrangements.A couple of years ago, the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; Richard Brodeur suffered a skull injury when he was hit in the head by a Dan Daoust shot that collapsed his helmet.The faster the shot, the harder it is to stop, and as fewer and fewer of those shots are stopped, the more the coaches turn elsewhere for help.This brings up another point about goaltending. In the previous era, a goalie needed quick hands more than he needed any other attribute. Today, nothing is more important than his skating ability.Because the shots are so hard, human reflexes simply cannot react quickly enough. The only way a goalie can make a save on many occasions, is to put his body between the shooter and the goal. And the better he skates, the more quickly he&rsquo;s able to do that.But there is a lag time between the development of a style change in the upper level and the arrival of youngsters familiar with it. Calgary&rsquo;s Mike Vernon is one of the first of a new breed&mdash;a goalie who skates well enough to play another NHL position.As new goalies come up who can move across the crease with remarkable speed, perhaps the coaches will be happy with a two-man system.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02879/5195544-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="409" height="461"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Strachan</figcaption></div>A quick glove hand today is icing on the cake. Instead of being the determining factor in whether a goalie would get to the NHL, it is now what separates great goalies&mdash;like the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; Grant Fuhr&mdash;from average goalies.The goalies are usually hurt by rule changes as well. Every summer, the National Hockey League looks at ways to increase the offense in the game. They feel, and probably rightly so, that fans come to the game to watch Wayne Gretzky, not Mike Milbury. So most years, they&rsquo;ll find one more way to eliminate a tactic that defenders can use to impede forwards.This summer, they passed the rule which awards an extra penalty to the instigator in a fight. The result of that rule is an increased number of penalties. That leads to an increased number of power plays. And that, in turn, means more goals will be scored.Also, teams don&rsquo;t spend much time working with goalies, but coaches know that power plays are crucial to overall success. They work on them regularly&mdash;every day on some teams.Last year, NHL teams scored 1,716 power-play goals, not only a league record but 113 more than the old record. This year, the record will probably be broken again.When a team scores a lot of goals, a coach usually praises himself. But when a team has a lot of goals scored against it, that same coach blames his goalie. He then decides to give someone else a try.When teams used only one goalie a season, the NHL was a low-scoring league. If you consistently lost 2-1 or 1-0 games, the goalie didn&rsquo;t come in for criticism. But now that run-of-the-mill scores are in the 7-5 range, it&rsquo;s always easy to blame the guy in the net.And most coaches do just that. &#9632;

f0016-02

Goalies Often Scapegoats In Offense-Oriented NHL

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;As his wingers were helping themselves to three points apiece, Dale Hawerchuk was looking for his first and rubbing the coach of Calgary Flames the wrong way.&ldquo;They were picking our people on the power play,&rdquo; complained Badger Bob Johnson. &ldquo;Hawerchuk is the worst. He was taking Carey Wilson. It&rsquo;s a good play but it&rsquo;s also illegal. The referee should call it.&rdquo;Johnson&rsquo;s remarks reflected the frustration he was feeling as the Jets skated off with a 6-2 victory for their second win in six days over the Flames.More importantly, the charge levelled by Johnson illustrates the lengths Hawerchuk is going to win this season.He is Dan Maloney&rsquo;s most gifted player, a source of 100 or more points every season and a teammate willing to shape his game in accordance with the wishes of the coach.It was almost flattering that Hawerchuk, after only his second pointless night of the season, should raise the wrath of an opposing coach over a subtle act he did that helped someone else score.More than ever, he and his teammates have been grilled in the benefits of reducing their opponents&rsquo; scoring chances.Clearly, it is an obsession of Maloney who sees the Jets as a team destined to go far once the players see the strategy working.As captain, Hawerchuk has taken the initiative to lead by example. He has thrown impacting bodychecks, picked up trailers on 2-on-2 breaks, covered the slot and has even challenged the occasional opponent.His production has kept a point-per-game pace which is not untypical of Hawerchuk pre-Christmas.At the nine-game juncture in years past, he had 8-6-14 in 1981,7-6-13 in 1982, 1-3-4 in 1983, 4-11-15 in 1984 and 6-11-17 in 1985. This season he was 4-4-8 after nine games.&ldquo;If Dale doesn&rsquo;t get a point, it&rsquo;s not the end of the world,&rdquo; said general manager John Ferguson. &ldquo;There are others who can pick up the slack. The important thing is, he&rsquo;s playing a stronger game than ever. He is leading us in more ways than before.&rdquo;<h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03682/5195575-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="172" height="131"></div>For once, his linemates have more points than him. Paul MacLean was the team leader at 5-6-11 and Brian Mullen was 5-5-10.Most apparent is the Jets&rsquo; ability to kill penalties effectively this season.In that capacity, Hawerchuk is playing a role, too. The team&rsquo;s penalty killing was ranked in the top two after the league&rsquo;s third week, thanks to the efforts of Randy Carlyle, Mario Marois, Jim Kyte, Tim Watters, Ron Wilson, Laurie Boschman, Gilles Hamel and Hawerchuk, in particular, not to overlook the steady netminding of Eldon (Pokey) Reddick.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a point of pride with us,&rdquo; noted Maloney, watching the Jets&rsquo; goals-against dip to an all-time low of 3.19.A 4-4-1 record after a tough month of October was proof the system was working. And who was setting a better example than Dale Hawerchuk, the complete hockey player.BENCH BITS&mdash;Center Thomas Steen suffered bruised ribs after a check by Joel Otto of Calgary Flames&hellip;Hannu Jarvenpaa suffered a charley horse during an 8-4 loss to Chicago Blackhawks&hellip;Called up from Sherbrooke of the American League was right winger Peter Douris. Summoned, too, was left winger Tom Martin from Adirondack&hellip; Rookie Fredrik Olausson was visited by the Jets&rsquo; barber&hellip; A goal by Randy Carlyle was the 99th of his career&hellip; Bill Derlago had a dislocation of his right knee cap. It was popped back into place by trainer Chuck Badcock&hellip;Steve Penney was being treated for a sprained knee suffered in a practice&hellip;After producing winners in the past three seasons, the $58,000 score-o contest between the second and third periods has been discontinued. Despite attempts to make the hole smaller and move the shooters further back, the prize was always won. &#9632;

f0016-03

Hawerchuk Playing A Complete Game

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;On a night when one all-star finally made his return to the Philadelphia Flyers, another was making noises that he might be better off with another club.The returning all-star was defenseman Brad McCrimmon, who made a temporary settlement in his contract dispute, and the unhappy all-star was goalie Bob Froese, who has found himself playing behind rookie goalie Ron Hextall.Not only was Froese not playing, but he didn&rsquo;t even dress for a 6-3 win over the Quebec Nordiques at the Spectrum, It was the fourth of five consecutive starts for Hextall, and Froese was not at all happy at not being used for more than 10 days.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want this to be read the wrong way,&rdquo; said Froese. &ldquo;I like my teammates, I like the organization, and I love the city, but I&rsquo;ve got to play.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve reached a stage in my career where I&rsquo;ve got to play. If not here, somewhere else. I&rsquo;ve already been a bridesmaid about 10 times, I think it&rsquo;s my turn.&rdquo;Even the Flyer management and ownership could see Froese&rsquo;s point&mdash;but they could also see that Hextall was doing some astounding things in goal.&ldquo;I can understand what Bob Froese is going through,&rdquo; said Flyer general manager Bob Clarke, &ldquo;and I think he does have the ability to be a first-line goalie. He proved it last year.&ldquo;But you&rsquo;ve also got to see our point.&rdquo;The Flyers&rsquo; point of view was expressed by coach Mike Keenan, who said he was using Hextall early to avoid any surprises later on. &ldquo;The decision was made to keep Hextall after training camp,&rdquo; said Keenan. &ldquo;We thought he could play in the NHL, and I&rsquo;ve just accelerated the process. I wanted to find out early if I could rely on him.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s still very early in the season don&rsquo;t forget. Eight games do not make a career.&rdquo;However, Froese is not happy with the situation. According to Keenan Froese has not brought a bad attitude (practice or the locker room, but he certainly isn&rsquo;t going around whistling Dixie.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t demand to be traded,&rsquo; said Froese, &ldquo;but I did have a meeting with Bob Clarke. I told him my point, and he told me his.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01970/5195613-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="558" height="920"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brad McCrimmon returned to the Flyers after signing a one-year contract.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I think saying that I demanded to be traded is a little strong, but I did say I wanted to play&mdash;if not here, somewhere. I guess you can read between the lines.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve proved myself, and I don&rsquo;t think I should have to do it again.&rdquo;Interestingly, it was about the same time a year ago that Froese was making similar requests. He was apparently being placed well behind Pelle Lindbergh on the Flyers depth chart, and he wanted a better deal.<h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02777/5195606-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="174" height="136"></div>There were even reports that the Flyers were close to dealing Froese to the Los Angeles Kings before Lind bergh was killed in an automobile crash. Froese was then called upon to take over the goaltending, and played well enough to finish as runner-up in the voting for the Vezina Trophy, winning as many games as any goalie in the NHL and recording the lowest goals-against average.NOTES&mdash;Brad McCrimmon&rsquo;s deal is only a one-year contract with an estimated worth of $210,000- $220,000. At the end of the season, McCrimmon will become a free agent with compensation. The Flyers must offer him a 15 per cent raise to retain equalization rights, which would be a first- and second-round draft pick&hellip;When McCrimmon came back the Flyers returned defenseman Kerry Huffman to the Guelph Platers&hellip;The Flyers sold out their first seven games at the Spectrum, giving them a streak of 28 consecutive home sellouts in the regular season. &#9632;

f0017-01

McCrimmon Back, Goaltender Froese Out

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03597/5195658-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg"></div><h2>Leonard (Red) Kelly</h2>It is rare to find a National Hockey League player who embraced the qualities of immense natural talent and sportsmanship to the degree that Leonard (Red) Kelly did so in a pro career that spanned 20 seasons.Kelly, a Detroit Red Wing standout, was honored as THE HOCKEY NEWS Player of the Year after the 1952-53 I season, when he also won I the Norris Trophy as the I NHL&rsquo;s top defenseman and I led his club to a Stanley Cup I championship.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-04448/5195651-1-eng-US/f0017-042.jpg" title="f0017-04" width="429" height="675"></div>It was that same season that Kelly won the Lady Byng Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s most gentlemanly player, an award I he won on four occasions and which spoke volumes I about the way he played the game.His meagre total of 327 penalty minutes in 1,316 NHL I regular season games was only slightly more remarkable than his 281 goals and 542 assists for 823 career 1 points, not to mention a total of eight Stanley Cup titles.And when Kelly was traded from Detroit to Toronto in I 1960, he made a flawless transition from Hall of Fame I defenseman to Hall of Fame center. After ending his illustrious career as player, Kelly 1 turned to, among other things, NHL coaching and politics. Whatever the discipline, though, his name is synonymous with &lsquo;class.&rsquo;<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-05344/5195644-1-eng-US/f0017-052.jpg" title="f0017-05" width="116" height="118"></div>TransamencaLife CompaniesTransamerica Life Insurance Company of CanadaTransamenca Occidental Life Insurance Company &#9632;</div>

f0017-03

The Hockey News NHL Player of the Year AWARD!

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>NEW YORK&mdash;It&rsquo;s still early in the season yet but it may be later than some of the New York Rangers think.&ldquo;If we keep this up,&rdquo; Ranger defenseman Willie Huber growled as his team&rsquo;s disastrous 2-5-4 start stretched into November, &ldquo;Phil (general manager Esposito) is going to be doing something drastic.&rdquo;Huber and his Ranger teammates were definitely uptight following a 5-4 overtime loss to Winnipeg on Nov. 2 and many of them felt that the next logical step was a personnel change.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to be traded and I&rsquo;d say that nobody here wants to leave this team,&rdquo; Huber observed, &ldquo;but if he (Esposito) thinks changes need to be made, we&rsquo;ve given him every reason in the world to go ahead.&rdquo;Although it is clear that the Rangers lack the talent of the league&rsquo;s top 10 teams, their passive, uneven play is what has infuriated the rookie GM.&ldquo;He let us have it pretty good.&rdquo; Huber said of Esposito&rsquo;s first locker room visit of the season on Nov. 2. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you exactly what he said but he wasn&rsquo;t happy&hellip;and you can&rsquo;t blame him.<h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011003/5195689-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="173" height="133"></div>&ldquo;He suggested that we&rsquo;d better shape up&hellip;or else,&rdquo; the veteran defenseman reported. &ldquo;I can understand why Ted (coach Sator) and Phil are upset; I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;re coming to play every night, all night. We go in spurts&hellip;and that&rsquo;s not good enough.&rdquo;The Rangers believed that the startling upset success they enjoyed in the playoffs would carry over and help to produce a strong start but it obviously hasn&rsquo;t happened. As a result, the skeptics are suggesting that New York was merely lucky to upset Philadelphia and Washington last spring.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a fluke,&rdquo; Huber insisted. &ldquo;We came together as a team last spring. For some reason, we haven&rsquo;t done that yet. I don&rsquo;t know why, except that maybe we&rsquo;re missing some people.&rdquo;Wilf Paiement (lost in the waiver draft to Buffalo), Reijo Ruotsalainen (playing in Switzerland and traded to Edmonton), Ron Greschner (injured in pre-season), Brian MacLellan (traded to Minnesota), Mike Allison (traded to Toronto) and George McPhee (injured in pre-season) all played significant roles in the Rangers&rsquo; post-season success.Sator also made reference to his team&rsquo;s lack of chemistry and it sounded a lot like a plea for Esposito to bring in some more volatile personalities.&ldquo;We are looking for a dominant personality to come to the forefront, Sator explained, &ldquo;but it hasn&rsquo;t happened.&rdquo;With Lane Lambert (injured in preseason) and McPhee sidelined, Ranger forwards weren&rsquo;t banging bodies consistently enough.&ldquo;Whether it be aggression that we are lacking or whatever,&rdquo; Sator stressed, &ldquo;it seems as soon as we stop bumping, the other team starts taking liberties and we end up looking at the scoreboard.&rdquo;BIG APPLESAUCE&mdash;Phil Esposito didn&rsquo;t want to discuss strategy after New York had fallen to 1-3-4 for its first eight overtime games: &ldquo;Talk to the coach,&rdquo; the GM ordered. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not the coach; I&rsquo;m just the GM. I just get the bleeping players.&rdquo;&hellip;After the Rangers stumbled to a 7-2 loss at St. Louis on Oct. 29, Esposito gave Helene Elliott of Newsday his reaction as a TV-watcher: &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t sleep, it was so bad. I&rsquo;ve never seen such stupidity. I always said I was proud because our players always tried but they didn&rsquo;t&hellip;Ted (Sator) said it was his fault and I agree to a point. They (the players) have to get themselves ready&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-01

Rangers’ Poor Performances Anger Esposito

YOU&rsquo;VE HEARD ALL those tired complaints by now, about how the National Hockey League is operated like a minor-league sport at major-league prices.How its scope is so hopelessly regional that it fails to believe there have been confirmed sightings of intelligent lifeforms south of St. Louis.How its leadership is so reactionary it makes Lyndon Larouche&mdash;no, that&rsquo;s not Pierre&rsquo;s uncle&mdash;seem like a bleeding heart.Picky, picky. Remember, nobody&rsquo;s perfect. With the exception of a few sports writers, of course.But never let it be said the NHL fails to recognize&mdash;and, more importantly, reward&mdash;excellence.It does not torment its most gifted performers like, say, the National Football League does.Why, when the NFL season ends, the league&rsquo;s premier players are sent to the Pro Bowl&mdash;damn catchy name, don&rsquo;t you think?&mdash;in Hawaii.Ugh, Hawaii. Do you know how far that is from the real world? Do you know how painful a winter sunburn can be? Do you know how hard it is to get sand out of your socks?Oh, how those poor boys must suffer.Thank heaven the NHL would never think of inflicting something like that on its best players. It knows what those guys deserve.So in 1984, the NHL All-Stars were dispatched to East Rutherford, N. J., a favorite vacation spot for toxic-waste lovers from around the world.Last year, it was Hartford, where a good time, or at least a new auto insurance policy, was had by all.And now, the ultimate. The All-Star break to make you forget all All-Star breaks. As if you hadn&rsquo;t already.Five&mdash;count &rsquo;em, five&mdash;days of slush, snow and Soviets in Quebec City. A superb choice&hellip;especially if the only other option was five years in a Turkish prison.Give the good folks in Quebec credit. At least they came up with something different. Never mind that the NHL now plays the Soviets more often than Philadelphia plays Edmonton.Remember, the road to hell is paved with good intentions&hellip;along with a few California Golden Seals media guides.So while there&rsquo;s still time to salvage this All-Star break, THE HOCKEY NEWS has seized the chance to perform yet another public service by offering a few alternative attractions sure to capture the fancy of the sporting populace.Maybe, just maybe, the powers-that-be in Quebec will pull the plug on the guys from Red Army&mdash;surely, Ronald Reagan would do whatever he could to help&mdash;Gorky Torpedo and Traktor Factory and consider a few other matchups. Such as:&bull; The NHL All-Stars vs. Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Shiek.Sold on the idea of Us against Them? Why settle for just the Soviets, when you can have an Iranian, too?It would be a great matchup of contrasting styles. The fluidity of the All-Stars against the Shiek&rsquo;s renowned Camel Clutch-and-grab.There would be more than just pride at stake, too. Is there a hockey player alive who wouldn&rsquo;t revel in the opportunity to earn a shot at the World Wrestling Federation tag-team championship?Brine on the Slapshot-Suplex Summit.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02754/5195720-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="375" height="471"><figcaption class="caption-body">Small Thoughts At LargeDave Molinari</figcaption></div>&bull; The New Jersey Devils vs. the staff of Disneyland.A natural pairing that has been festering since Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s vicious slur on Mickey Mouse a few winters ago.Surely, you haven&rsquo;t forgotten. Gretzky, probably suffering from stomach cramps after an evening of belly laughs brought on by a game against New Jersey, described the Devils as a Mickey Mouse operation.Mouse&mdash;it&rsquo;s unprofessional to refer to story subjects by their first name&mdash;was so outraged by Gretzky&rsquo;s remark he was ready to fly to Alberta to confront Gretzky, until he found out you can&rsquo;t get to Edmonton from the United States, according to the whispers of a Magic Kingdom insider.Of course, the Devils would want to bolster their lineup. Maybe add Ken (The Rat) Linseman for those key faceoffs against Minnie (The Person) Mouse. And the Six Sutters to deal with the Seven Dwarfs.Sounds strange, but it just might work.Besides, you should have realized long ago that hockey is more than a little Goofy to begin with.&bull; The Montreal Canadiens vs. the Boston Celtics.What better chance to determine just which sport features the world&rsquo;s greatest athletes?It would answer a lot of questions. Chris Nilan can hit in the comers, but can he shoot from there? Would Larry Bird still be lethal from 20 feet if he had to get the ball past Patrick Roy?And okay, maybe there&rsquo;s a bit of bias here, but I&rsquo;d have to go with the Canadiens. Big. Like, bet the mortgage. Your neighbor&rsquo;s mortgage. Your neighbor&rsquo;s kids.Not that I don&rsquo;t respect the Celtics. Good balance, better talent. I just don&rsquo;t think they can skate well enough to keep up with Montreal.&bull; Wayne Gretzky vs. Noah Webster.Sure, I know what you&rsquo;re thinking. What kind of match-up is this, the world&rsquo;s greatest hockey player against a guy who has been dead for many decades.Admittedly, that&rsquo;s a bit of a drawback. Give Gretzky a big edge in skating, puckhandling and breathing.But think about it. For years, sports writers have been struggling&mdash;usually in vain&mdash;for the proper words to describe Gretzky.Great? Alliterate, maybe, but hardly adequate. Superstar? What, describe Gretzky with the same term used for every 20-goal scorer in junior?So give Gretzky a crack at the guy who put together the dictionary. Maybe he can succeed where the rest of us have failed.Hell, he does everything else, right?Thought you might like to know.Dave Molinari, serious visage aside, is a very funny guy and will be appearing once a month. &#9632;

f0018-02

N.J. Vs. Goofy And Gang: New All-Star Game Concept

<div class="byline">BY DOUG GOULD</div>NEW YORK&mdash;One term that didn&rsquo;t immediately come to mind watching the New York Islanders in regular-season play over the past few years was &ldquo;hustle.&rdquo;That doesn&rsquo;t mean the team that won five of the last nine Patrick Division titles coasted through 80 games each year. It was just that their superior talent made it look so easy, and it appeared they reserved the extra effort and sacrifices for the playoffs.But the most impressive aspect of new coach Terry Simpson&rsquo;s first month has been the way the Islanders have been diving, scrapping and battling. Each night, they have gone out from the opening faceoff until the final buzzer and given crowds the kind of effort they used to provide only when pressed.&ldquo;Not to take anything away from the guys who were here in the past, but the last few years, the thing that&rsquo;s been lacking is the physical play,&rdquo; Bryan Trottier said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s unbelievable now. We&rsquo;re bumpin&rsquo; everybody.&ldquo;Terry said to us, &lsquo;Good defensive play comes from hard work. If you&rsquo;re poor defensively, it&rsquo;s a way of saying you&rsquo;re a lazy SOB.&rsquo; I don&rsquo;t think you can say it any better than that.&rdquo;The Isles were near the top of the league defensively after the season&rsquo;s first nine games, an indication the team has been anything but lazy. They are the second youngest team in the NHL with an average age of 24.4. Only the New Jersey Devils are younger at 24.3. And the enthusiasm of their youngsters is one of the reasons the Isles have that extra jump.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the veterans here have ever been outworked or we wouldn&rsquo;t still be here.&rdquo; Trottier said. &ldquo;But there is that youthful enthusiasm that is sweeping over everybody.&rdquo;<h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03542/5195751-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="174" height="132"></div>There are other factors. Everyone on the team wants to impress the new coach and nothing impresses more than hustle.And there&rsquo;s one other form of motivation: The Isles are aware that vastly improved teams in Pittsburgh and New Jersey are threatening their string of 12 straight playoff appearances. The idea of missing out on the green in spring has put the spring in the Isles this fall.Despite the obvious difference in the Isles&rsquo; style, Trottier didn&rsquo;t want his or the statements of his teammates to give the impression the Isles never worked during the regular season while Al Arbour was holding the whip.&ldquo;Better hockey players made it look easier and the system made it look easier than it really was,&rdquo; Trottier said. &ldquo;We had the jump in those days and we really demolished teams.&rdquo;But there&rsquo;s no question a new spark is there, one which enabled the Isles to build a four-game unbeaten streak, including consecutive victories over the Devils, Kings and Flyers, the latter a near-perfect 2-1 performance, before the Devils snapped the string with a 7-6 overtime decision.The surge was highlighted by the return of Mike Bossy, who played hurt in the season&rsquo;s first two games and missed the next four because of a back problem. It took Bossy two shots and 8:28 of the first period against the Kings (a 4-3 victory) to score his first goal in his quest for 50 or more for a 10th consecutive season.&ldquo;It was a nice feeling and it also came off a nice play,&rdquo; Bossy said after a perfect set-up from Rich Kromm. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;ve been off as long as I have been, it&rsquo;s nice to get one quickly.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-03

Hustle Large Part Of Isle Game Plan

<div class="byline">BY JEFF HUBBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01934/5195782-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="548" height="1788"><figcaption class="caption-body">Johnny McKenzie not only collected penalty minutes, he also collected points.</figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03482/5195789-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="142" height="144"></div>Pie. Johnny McKenzie was given that unique nickname by a fellow player who was tickled by the roundness of his diminutive teammate&rsquo;s face.But although his face may have looked like pie, on the ice his temperament was anything but sweet.He was a well-known troublemaker.&ldquo;I think needier&rsquo;s a good word,&rdquo; says the 48-year-old former right winger and rodeo worker.McKenzie, a native of High River, Alta., spent 21 years in professional hockey with 14 teams in five leagues from 1958-59 to 1978-79.His point production, although not record breaking in nature, was more than respectable&mdash;369 goals and 887 points in the NHL and WHA. He also accumulated 1,634 penalty minutes.McKenzie&rsquo;s value to a team lay not in his scoring ability, but the fire of his play. He antagonized the opposition, and his rambunctious style galvanized his teams into, action. He was a classic &lsquo;team&rsquo; player.And the team that brings back the most memories is the Boston Bruins of 1969-70 and 1971-72&mdash;the years they won the Stanley Cup.&ldquo;The last few years with the Bruins were great, to be with the world champions and such a great bunch of guys. But to have to try to win consecutive Cups was very difficult, very hard.&rdquo;McKenzie left the Bruins behind the year after they won their second Cup of the 1970s, joining Bruin teammate Derek Sanderson, and other NHLers, Andre Lacroix and Bernie Parent among them, with the Philadelphia Blazers of the new WHA. Sanderson went back to Boston after only eight games, but McKenzie stayed with the WHA from its early tumultuous beginnings to its final days.&ldquo;There were some pretty good teams in the WHA,&rdquo; says McKenzie. &ldquo;Look at them now. Edmonton&rsquo;s won two Stanley Cups, and the other teams have all done well. People laughed when they were taken into the NHL, but no one&rsquo;s laughing now.&ldquo;I was never in an Avco Cup final (WHA equivalent of the Stanley Cup),&rdquo; says McKenzie, &ldquo;but when we were in the playoffs, it was the same idea, the same intensity.&ldquo;Because professional athletes are very proud people, it doesn&rsquo;t matter so much what league or level you&rsquo;re at, you want to be the very best that there is. We wanted to be the best in the league. We wanted to be champions.&rdquo;McKenzie played his last three years back in New England with the Hartford Whalers, who later retired his No. 19.Now, McKenzie is a director of a bank he helped found in Boston, the Olympic International.And, once in a while, he plays oldtimer&rsquo;s hockey with some of his former Boston teammates.&ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t play too much any more. It hurts too much,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The body&rsquo;s gone downhill a lot. But I like seeing the old guys again.&ldquo;The main reason I quit was there was just so much practice. It got to be too much. I was sick and tired of it. After all, I was 41 years old.&ldquo;Just recently, I went down and watched a Whalers&rsquo; practice, and saw them go through their drills. And I thought, &lsquo;You know, I did the right thing.&rsquo;&rdquo;</div><div style="clear: both;"> &#9632;</div>

f0019-01

Ex-Boston Bruin Was Fire On Ice

<div class="byline">BY KEN WHITMELL</div>At Production Sport Spec Inc. in Montreal, Marc Verreault sits in his office fully expecting the next phone call to be from one of the greatest hockey players of all time.Verreault arranges games for the Montreal Old Pros and for the last month and a half has been inundated with calls from Maurice (Rocket) Richard.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always asking me when we&rsquo;re going on the road. He says he&rsquo;s got nothing to do at his place,&rdquo; says Verreault. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been with me for 17 years and he just loves it.&rdquo;Richard, the team&rsquo;s travelling referee, is not alone in his feelings.&ldquo;This is a group of NHL players who have been travelling around Canada playing exhibition games,&rdquo; explains Verreault. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a chance for the boys to get together again, go on the road, have fun and please other people.&rdquo;Every year the Montreal Old Pros raise between $150,000 and $200,000 for charity in the 50-or-so games they play. It generally costs an organization between $5,500 and $7,500 to get the Old Pros for a match.Theirs is a formidable lineup&mdash;including former Montreal Canadiens such as Henri Richard and others from around the NHL, among them Norm Ullman and the effervescent Eddie Shack.With that kind of talent on the roster, it&rsquo;s little wonder that the team only loses one or two games a year. &ldquo;We bring our own referee,&rdquo; chuck-les Verreault, &ldquo;we have to win.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02695/5195820-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="544" height="631"><figcaption class="caption-body">Maurice (Rocket) Richard is a referee in the Old Pros&rsquo; games.</figcaption></div>When the host team makes that a little too difficult, a visit from hockey legend Richard generally ensures victory.&ldquo;(Sometimes) we have to go in the dressing room between periods and tell the boys we&rsquo;re here to put on a show and to just follow us,&rdquo; says Verreault. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the Rocket&rsquo;s job, he does that.&rdquo;Most of the teams they visit don&rsquo;t give them any trouble on the scoreboard so the Old Pros put on a show to entertain the fans.&ldquo;We make up our own rules,&rdquo; explained Verrault. &ldquo;If the other team is strong and scores a lot of goals in the first period, we just let them go. When they get to 10 we tell them they have to go back to zero.&ldquo;We also have a football with us, if we need seven points, we&rsquo;ll just score a touchdown.&rdquo;If you&rsquo;re interested in having the Montreal Old Pros come to your community, you can write Marc Verreault at 2322 Sherbrooke St. E., Room2B, Montreal. Que. H2K 1E5. &#9632;

f0019-02

Hockey For The Fun Of It—Old Pro Style

<div class="byline">BY JEFF GORDON</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;For defenseman Ric Nattress, the early season brought page after page of scrapbook plays.On opening night in Los Angeles, he stepped onto the left point on the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; power play and set up Bernie Federko&rsquo;s game-winning goal in a 4-3 victory.Against the Maple Leafs at Toronto, he skated the length of the ice and made a great centering pass to Brian Sutter, who converted it into a 1-1 tie late in the third period.Against the Rangers at home, Nattress assisted on the key score in a 7-2 rout of New York, feeding Doug Wickenheiser for a second-period shorthanded goal that broke the game open.And so on. Nattress made the big offensive plays in the first few weeks of the season and policed the defensive zone equally well. His emergence has truly strengthened the Blues and put his star-crossed career on a new plateau.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got his game at the highest point since he turned pro,&rdquo; Blues&rsquo; general manager Ron Caron said.<h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02538/5195851-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="172" height="135"></div>Caron, the former scouting director of the Canadiens, helped bring Nattress to Montreal in 1980. And it was Caron who gave Nattress his second chance with the Blues last year.Nattress, 24, missed half the 198384 serving an NHL suspension after being caught with marijuana while still playing junior hockey.&ldquo;I was a kid, and I was smoking a joint,&rdquo; Nattress said. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t like I woke up in the morning and had the shakes. I was just smoking marijuana. That was my limit.&rdquo;Nattress spent most of the 1984-85 season playing for Sherbrooke in the American League, after the Canadiens virtually gave up on him. He was going nowhere fast, about to join the legion of journeymen who are forever waiting to get back in the NHL.With the Blues, Nattress is enjoying a rebirth.And he takes that message to various youth groups in the St. Louis area, warning of the perils drugs can bring.&ldquo;1 just relate them my story and tell them the truth,&rdquo; Nattress said. &ldquo;I tell them, &lsquo;You can do what you want. I&rsquo;m just here to try and help you. I play hockey, but I&rsquo;m just Ric Nattress, a human being. I want to tell you it does happen and you can get in trouble. It&rsquo;s a long life, and a lot of things happen to you. You don&rsquo;t need to bring a lot of things on yourself. Things are going to happen to you anyway.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-02

Nattress Brings Good Things Upon Himself

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01588/5195927-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="583" height="582"></div>Aaron Broten selected this week&rsquo;s Chrysler-NHL Player of the WeekCHRYSLER SPONSORS THE NHL PLAYER OF THE WEEK, MONTH AND YEAR AWARDS<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03185/5195920-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="123" height="115"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02331/5195913-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="542" height="829"><figcaption class="caption-body">AARON BROTEN</figcaption></div>NEW YORK&mdash;New Jersey Devils&rsquo; left winger Aaron Broten captured the Chrysler-Dodge Player of the Week Award for the period ending Nov. 2. Broten, who posted consecutive four-point totals in victories over division rivals Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders, registered three goals and five assists for eight points in three games to edge Pittsburgh left winger Kevin LaVallee and Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; defenseman Paul Coffey for the honor.Chrysler-Dodge will donate $500 to the Roseau Jaycee Peewees, the youth hockey organization of Broten&rsquo;s choice. Chrysler-Dodge also sponsors the Player of the Month and the Player of the Year, for which the winner receives the Chrysler Corporation vehicle of his choice.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great honor to be named the Chrysler-Dodge Player of the Week, especially since so many players have helped us get off to such a fantastic start,&rdquo; said Broten. &ldquo;I consider this to be a reflection of how we&rsquo;ve all raised the club&rsquo;s level of play this season.&rdquo;The 25-year-old Broten, a native of Roseau, Minnesota, started the week by scoring the game-winning goal and adding three assists in the Devils&rsquo; 8-6 victory in Pittsburgh (Oct. 29). Broten equaled that four-point output the following night as New Jersey downed the New York Islanders 7-6 in overtime at home (Oct. 30). In the latter, Broten tallied two assists on Devils&rsquo; power-play and shorthanded goals before scoring a goal to tie the game with 1:14 left in regulation and notching the game-winner with 38 seconds remaining in overtime. &#9632;

f0021-01

CHRYSLER-NHL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div>DETROIT&mdash;Jacques Demers is doing it again. Honest. A month into Demers&rsquo; tenure, he has the Detroit Red Wings looking like title contenders. Never mind that the title they&rsquo;re contending for is only the Norris Division.The Red Wings are playing some serious hockey&mdash;how does the NHL&rsquo;s fourth-best goals-against mark sound?&mdash;and having fun at the same time.Detroit, faced with five straight games against Norris Division opponents, responded with a 3-0-1 performance before a 2-0 loss in Toronto. The victory left the Maple Leafs atop the Norris Division, followed by Detroit&hellip;and, no, wise guy, the standings aren&rsquo;t upside-down.The Red Wings pulled even at the .500 mark for the first time in three seasons with a 5-2 victory at home over the Chicago Blackhawks. The next night, in Bloomington, they held off the North Stars, 3-1, for their third straight road victory&mdash;the first time in seven seasons they&rsquo;ve accomplished that feat.Three players groping to find themselves early in the season played key roles in the two games&mdash;goaltender Greg Stefan, left winger John Ogrodnick and right winger Doug Shedden.Stefan, whose demise as the Wings&rsquo; No. 1 goalie was greatly exaggerated, beat both the Blackhawks and North Stars. He turned aside 35 of 36 shots in Minnesota.Ogrodnick, hampered by an ankle sprain, scored his first two goals of the season against Chicago and Shedden, who set up a key goal by Ogrodnick, got his first against the North Stars. Shedden was back after an early-season stint in the minors.<h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01679/5195958-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="173" height="132"></div>&ldquo;When you play hockey like that it&rsquo;s hard to single out one guy, but Stef is the guy,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m proud of Stefan. He stood tall.&rdquo;Stefan gave up two early goals, on only three Chicago shots, and again looked shaky.&ldquo;I had no intention of pulling him,&rdquo; said Demers, who had already used that strategy once. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s easy to say now, but I wasn&rsquo;t going to. After he made that save (on a Doug Wilson drive from the slot), he seemed to be the old Stef.&rdquo;&ldquo;Stef was upset at himself for letting in those two goals,&rdquo; Ogrodnick said. &ldquo;He came back after that. We need the good goaltending. Stef&rsquo;s a good goalie, everybody knows that.&rdquo;Stefan admitted it was a relief to finally get on the winning side of the ledger after an 0-3 start.&ldquo;The first two goals were my fault,&rdquo; Stefan said. &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;No, not this again.&rsquo; You can&rsquo;t do too much about it, but they were my fault. Last year, we would have packed it in and run. This year there&rsquo;s no such thing for this club. It&rsquo;s just good to see the way the guys played in front of me.&rdquo;It was immediately after the game, during the on-ice celebration, that Stefan was rewarded by Demers.&ldquo;Right after the game, he told me I&rsquo;d play against Minnesota,&rdquo; Stefan said. &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;Great.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s something I need to get on a roll.&rdquo;The Wings&rsquo; success has been built on goaltending and defense.&ldquo;The thing that excites me is our goals-against,&rdquo; Demers said.The Wings had given up only 31 goals in their first 11 games, compared to 63 in the same number of games a year ago.Just one example of the extrarordinary checking is the job rookie Shawn Burr and veteran Ric Seiling did on the Blackhawks&rsquo; duo of Denis Savard and Troy Murray. Seiling was converted from his usual right wing spot to center a second checking line.&ldquo;Savard and Murray didn&rsquo;t have a single shot, either of them,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t ever remember that happening before. It was a tremendous effort by those two guys, Burr and Seiling.&rdquo;WINGS WIRE&mdash;No. 1 draft pick Joe Murphy was reassigned to Adirondack in the American League. &ldquo;He needs to play more hockey,&rdquo; Jacques Demers said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll get plenty of ice time in Adirondack.&rdquo; Demers stressed that the move had nothing to do with Murphy&rsquo;s earlier demotion, for disciplinary reasons&hellip;Rookie defenseman Steve Chiasson has been told to find a place to live. He&rsquo;s staying in the NHL. The most valuable player in the Memorial Cup last spring for the champion Guelph Platers, the 6-foot, 200-pound Chiasson has this season of junior eligibility remaining. He is 19. &#9632;

f0022-01

Wings Cut Goals Against In Half From A Year Ago.

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div>NEW HAVEN&mdash;While two of his brothers are enjoying careers in the National Hockey League, New Haven defenseman Peter Dineen is still waiting for a NHL general manager to say the magic words.You see, this is Dineen&rsquo;s seventh season of pro hockey, and he&rsquo;s never played a game in the NHL.He&rsquo;s come close, though. In his rookie year with Philadelphia, he broke his leg in the last exhibition game while blocking a shot by Montreal&rsquo;s Serge Savard. When he recovered, he played the entire season with the Maine Mariners.The following year, the Flyers recalled Dineen for a couple of games, but he didn&rsquo;t play.&ldquo;Anybody, whether it be a hockey player or somebody working for a business, wants to reach the highest peak and that&rsquo;s the NHL,&rdquo; said Dineen, the second oldest of Adirondack coach Bill Dineen&rsquo;s five sons. Peter will turn 26 this month.&ldquo;I think everyone is curious whether they can play in the NHL,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;d like the opportunity to see whether I could or not.&rdquo;Two of his younger brothers have secured jobs in the NHL. Kevin, 23, is the fiery sparkplug at right wing for the Hartford Whalers and Gord, 24, is a defenseman for the New York Islanders.And of course, his dad played on two Stanley Cup teams with the Detroit Red Wings in the mid 1950s.Peter&rsquo;s two other brothers also play hockey. Shawn, 28, is a defenseman for Indianapolis in the International League and Jerry is a freshman at Plattsburgh State in New York.&ldquo;Like any older brother, you wish the best for them,&rdquo; Dineen said, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;m sure they feel the same way toward me.&ldquo;Right now, there&rsquo;s no type of competition between any one of the brothers. It&rsquo;s not the type of thing where there is any animosity toward my brothers. We just all hope the best for each other.&rdquo;Dineen said his two NHL brothers never teasingly remind him of their success. But, some other people do.&ldquo;The little kids at hockey school during the summer,&rdquo; Dineen said with a laugh. &ldquo;As kids are, they kind of say what they think. They&rsquo;ll ask why is Kevin up in the NHL and you&rsquo;re not?&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to laugh about it because it&rsquo;s coming from the kids. Kids will be kids. I&rsquo;ve also heard it a couple of times from older people, but it doesn&rsquo;t bother me at all.&rdquo;Good natured off skates, Dineen is a fierce competitor on ice. In all but one season, he&rsquo;s collected at least 100 penalty minutes. While he&rsquo;s spent a lot of time in the penalty box, he&rsquo;s spent more time traveling.After two seasons in the Philadelphia organization, Dineen was traded to Edmonton and played two seasons in Moncton. He was loaned to Hershey during the 1983-84 season and stayed there the following season after signing as a free agent with the Boston Bruins.Last season, Hartford signed him as a free agent and loaned him to Moncton a few weeks before Christmas.A free agent again this summer, Dineen signed with the Los Angeles Kings, who sent him to New Haven.<h2>AHL SOUTH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01615/5195989-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="175" height="130"></div>Like the Whalers, the Kings signed him for his experience. They&rsquo;re hoping he can help their younger prospects in the minors.Dineen is the most experienced defenseman in New Haven and he helped the Nighthawks, 4-4 through eight games, to their best start since 198283.&ldquo;When they sent me down to New Haven, they said there&rsquo;s still a chance we could be calling you throughout the year,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s everyone dream, even if it&rsquo;s for one game. It would be quite a thrill to me.&rdquo;Then, he could swap stories with Kevin and Gord during the summer at the family home in Glens Falls. But if he doesn&rsquo;t reach Los Angeles this season, Dineen knows he&rsquo;s accomplished several things during his career.&ldquo;I know I&rsquo;ve spent a lot more time on the bus than they have,&rdquo; Dineen said of Kevin and Gord. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to have a nickel for every mile I&rsquo;ve traveled on the bus.&ldquo;I think the AHL is the second best league to the NHL, and I&rsquo;ve been fortunate to play for six years. It&rsquo;s not like it was before, where guys played until they were 30 or 32. Now it&rsquo;s more a development league.&rdquo;AROUND THE SOUTH&mdash;The defending South-champion Hershey Bears were in last place with two wins in their first eight games. Hershey, which was overbearing at home last season, played nine of its first 11 games on the road with eight rookies in the lineup&hellip;Two injured Rochester Americans returned to the lineup. Center Claude Verret, who had knee surgery last April, made his debut on Oct. 25 in a 5-1 loss at Baltimore. Verret scored his first goal three nights later at Newmarket. Defenseman Steve Dykstra, sidelined since an automobile accident in August, played sparingly against Nova Scotia on Oct. 28&hellip;The Newmarket Saints had benefited the most from the new tiebreaking shootout. Four of their first seven games went to shootouts, and they won three of them&hellip;Rookie forward Mike Millar was returned to Binghamton after practising a week in Hartford. He had a point in each of the first seven games for the Whalers. &#9632;

f0023-01

Older Dineen Brother Hoping For Chance

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>PORTLAND&mdash;The thought of being the first professional hockey player from Astoria, a section of the borough of Queens in New York City, makes Dan Dorion laugh.It&rsquo;s a half-giggle, half-embarrassed chuckle that the 23- year-old Dorion emits when the subject comes up. The giggle isn&rsquo;t surprising; it could come from any first-year pro player with a promising future. The chuckle, well, that&rsquo;s a different story.&ldquo;Yeah, I guess that&rsquo;s right,&rdquo; says Dorion, the Maine Mariners&rsquo; rookie right winger with the fast hands and the thick New York accent.While Dorion&rsquo;s hockey background certainly isn&rsquo;t unique, it&rsquo;s hardly ordinary. Like Nick Fotiu and Joe Mullen of the Calgary Flames and Brian Mullen of the Winnipeg Jets, Dorion grew up in New York and first played hockey on roller skates. All four later switched to ice skates.Fotiu climbed to the NHL through the old North American League and the World Hockey Association. The Mullen brothers, who grew up in Manhattan, went to college before turning pro.Dorion followed a road similar to the one used by the Mullens, though he never planned it that way. That&rsquo;s where that embarrassed laugh comes in; until two years ago&mdash;some two years after the New Jersey Devils selected him in the 12th round of the 1982 entry draft&mdash;Dorion didn&rsquo;t seriously consider a pro hockey career.The turning point in his career began innocently enough in 1981 when he failed to earn a berth on the U.S. junior national team coached by Lou Vairo. But Vairo liked what he saw in Dorion and recommended him to Frank Anzalone, then the coach of the Austin (Minn.) Mavericks, a junior team in the United States League.&ldquo;They set up a tryout for me in August and I went out there and made the team,&rdquo; Dorion said. &ldquo;I made the decision to stay there. It was great.&rdquo;In Austin, Dorion lived a life different from the one to which he was accustomed. He skated every day, sometimes twice a day, and received professional coaching&mdash;options that weren&rsquo;t available in New York&mdash;and developed quickly. His 52 goals and 96 points in 50 games attracted the attention of college coaches.&ldquo;I never even knew there was college hockey, growing up in New York,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I was in Minnesota I started to read about college hockey and George McPhee (the New York Ranger player who was the college player of the year in 1982). I was just playing good and scoring goals and college coaches were talking to me and my coach about scholarships.&ldquo;I grew up and I didn&rsquo;t have a father (he died when Dorion was a child). My mom raised four kids. I never would have been able to go to college. I thank the Lord that He has guided me. I&rsquo;ve always had a lot of faith. Things have just worked out.&rdquo;<h2>AHL NORTH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02421/5196020-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="174" height="134"></div>Dorion selected Western Michigan University, where he played four years of hockey and earned a degree in communications. Along the way, he developed a reputation for being a dangerous scorer. An All-American scroll and the NCAA scoring title&mdash;42 goals and 104 points in 42 games last season&mdash;are testaments to his ability.Suddenly, the Devils had a 12th-round pick that was a bona fide prospect.Dorion played in a few games with the Devils and Mariners late last year. This season, he was assigned to Maine where veteran coach Tom McVie is in charge of the Devils&rsquo; finishing school.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got the ability to be a good player. He&rsquo;s got great skills,&rdquo; McVie said. &ldquo;As I look at the Devils&rsquo; organization, he might be the purest goal scorer we&rsquo;ve got in the organization. The only thing is getting all of the rest of the game put together so that he can be the pure type of goal scorer. The guy has the things you don&rsquo;t teach. He&rsquo;s got a nose for the net. He&rsquo;s got the good hands.&rdquo;McVie says that at 5-foot-8 and 178 pounds that Dorion is strong enough to play in the NHL. He is an above average skater. But McVie isn&rsquo;t ready to apply the &ldquo;can&rsquo;t-miss&rdquo; label.&ldquo;With some guys you can tell right away. I can&rsquo;t do that yet,&rdquo; McVie said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how good he is yet. I&rsquo;m not sure whether he&rsquo;s going to get it all into one bag.&rdquo;The ingredients for success are there, McVie says. Time and work and experience will take care of the weaknesses.AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash; Detroit Red Wings have suspended injured defenseman Tim Friday for his failure to report for a medical exam and begin a rehabilitation program. Friday, 25, had surgery on his left shoulder in July&hellip;Adirondack goalie Mark Laforest won his second straight player-of-the-week award for winning three games and allowing just four goals. Laforest led the league with a 5-0 record and 1.00 goals-against average&hellip;The Wings received center Joe Murphy, Detroit&rsquo;s first-round pick. Murphy wasn&rsquo;t getting much ice time in Detroit, and Adirondack was short of players. Adirondack also has signed veteran left winger Rod Schutt and is giving veteran Ted Nolan a tryout. Nolan is trying to come back from a back injury&hellip;Fredericton reassigned defenseman Jeff Prendergast to Peoria and forward Wayne Groulx to Muskegon of the IHL&hellip; Boston recalled Nevin Markwart from Moncton to replace injured Keith Crowder. &#9632;

f0023-02

New York Native Aims For New Jersey

<h2>CAROLINA</h2>Goal&mdash;Tom Allen, John Pasquale.Defense&mdash;Bob Hagan, Randy Irving, Bill Nash, Sonny Sodke.Centers&mdash;Mike Albano, Mike Alexander, Scott Knutson.R. Wings&mdash;Michel Lanouette, Allan May, Pau Reisenberger.L Wings&mdash;Jeff Grade, Doug McCarthy, Dan Vlaisavl-jevich.<h2>ERIE</h2>Goal&mdash;Randy Jaycock, David Tagliarini.Defense&mdash;John Holland, Sean Mangan, Darryl Moise, Bob Vanbiesbrouck.Centers&mdash;Steve Mologousis, Scott Robbins, Steve Trethewey.R. Wings&mdash;Dave Barry, Tim Lescarbeau, Pete Ventry.L Wings&mdash;Paul Mancini, Rob Pfoh, Jamie Nadjiawan.<h2>MOHAWK VALLEY</h2>Goal&mdash;Dan Delianedis, Gerry Hourihan.Defense&mdash;Dean Byfuglien, George Finn, Dick Popiel. Centers&mdash;Joe Curran, Jeff Eatough.R. Wings&mdash;Steve Rachwal, Kermit Salfi, Tadd Tuomie.L. Wings&mdash;Mark Blizzard, Erick Graffstrum, Barry Smith.<h2>TROY</h2>Goal&mdash;Stuart Frye, Stuart Gould.Defense&mdash;Curt Cole, Don Herczeg, Andy Martone, Martin Raymond.Centers&mdash;Tom Goar, Steve Plaskon.R. Wing s&mdash;Bill Bieren, Rob Henry.L Wings&mdash;Jak Bestle, Joe DeMitchell, Todd Flanagan, Gaspar Paul.<h2>VIRGINIA</h2>Goal&mdash;Dana DeMole, Cory Goddard.Defense&mdash;Tim Brantner, Craig Johnson, Bob Manning, John Torchetti.Centers&mdash;Scott Currin, Pete DeArmas, Bob Thebeau, Doug Wieck.R. Wings&mdash;Tom Diedrick, Nick Pappas, Serge Roberge.L. Wing s&mdash;Mario Roberge, John Tringale. &#9632;

Atlantic Coast League Team Rosters

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;Coach Ron Ullyot admits young players make mistakes&mdash;but, he hopes, they don&rsquo;t make them forever.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re probably going to have a few more mistakes early in the season because we have a much younger team than last year,&rdquo; the Indianapolis Checkers&rsquo; coach said. &ldquo;We just hope they don&rsquo;t keep making them.Ullyot&rsquo;s club started the 1986-87 International League season with a lineup averaging just over 23 years of age and he watched as his players made some mistakes in the first two games.In the season opener Oct. 17, the Checkers had a 3-1 lead over Fort Wayne but had to rally to win 7-6 in overtime. The next night they lost to Kalamazoo 8-4.And in spite of the fact they won three straight games after that, Ullyot realizes it&rsquo;s still early in the season and he anticipates more youthful miscues before things settle down.Ullyot said he didn&rsquo;t start training camp last month with an eye toward a youth movement.Some players who were mainstays on the squad a year ago are missing from this year&rsquo;s roster. They include winger Mel Hewitt, centers Gerry Minor and Earl Ingarfield, defensemen Pat Ribble and Darren McKay and goaltender Rob Holland.<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02464/5196075-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="151" height="134"></div>&ldquo;Mel missed practice and Gerry was a week late reporting. No coach likes to put up with that,&rdquo; Ullyot said. &ldquo;Darren didn&rsquo;t want to play so he&rsquo;s sitting at home (in Muskegon) and I made a decision that Earl wouldn&rsquo;t be on the club.&rdquo;As a result, Hewitt was acquired by Salt Lake City and Minor joined Muskegon. Holland and Ribble were released earlier. Holland is with Milwaukee and Ribble was traded back to Salt Lake earlier.The Checkers got goaltender Dave Parro from Salt Lake City and, at 29, he&rsquo;s the oldest player for Indianapolis. He also has the only shutout in two seasons for an IHL Checkers club, a 3-0 win over Muskegon Oct. 24.Center Tim Helmer is the youngest player on the team&mdash;he&rsquo;ll be 20 Nov. 6.Ullyot says he has had no problem filling the voids created by the departure of his veterans. &ldquo;We probably have the most pros in the league,&rdquo; he observed. &ldquo;We have 11 players from Minnesota and one from New Jersey.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s better than half the team. He also has 10 players signed as free agents, including defenseman Mike Nepi and wingers Marc Magnan, Paul Skjodt and Bob Lakso, all of whom played in Indy last year. Three others have seen previous action with the Checkers&mdash;defenseman Shawn Dineen and centers Ron Handy and Todd Bjorkstrand.The remaining free agents are Kevin Conway, Tim Salmon and Parro.&ldquo;I think we have a lot better bunch of forwards this year. Their skill level is higher than last season at this point,&rdquo; Ullyot stressed. &ldquo;Sure they&rsquo;re young but they&rsquo;re going to get stronger. Last year we couldn&rsquo;t score&hellip;we couldn&rsquo;t even get across the red line on a 3-on-2 situation in practice. This year the guys are more creative.&rdquo;Over the Checkers&rsquo; first five games, they went 4-1 and averaged a league-leading 4.8 goals a game, well above their average of around three a year ago. &#9632;

f0024-02

Youna Checkers Have Scoring Skills Too

You or someone you know can be part of the TITAN-JOFA Minor Hockey Showcase. Just send a photograph, along with the player&rsquo;s biographical data: name, age, height, weight, position, team, coach&rsquo;s name, school and grade, as well as favorite pro team and player. Mail to: TITAN-JOFA SHOWCASE, do THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2. All entries submitted will be eligible for selection of THN/TITAN-JOFA Minor Hockey Player of the Year. &#9632;

SHOWCASE ENTRIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01661/5196130-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">&lsquo;HE SAYS THE ASPIRIN COMPANIES SHOULD PAY US ROYALTIES.&rsquo;</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0024-01

The Snowbirds

A man ahead of his time.It seems to be the life story of Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; center Craig Simpson.&ldquo;I began playing organized hockey when I was about four and a half or five years old,&rdquo; he recalls. &ldquo;I played on half-ice, where they cut the rink in half and have two games going on either side.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how many games we played, but I ended up being the leading scorer with 30 goals.&rdquo;And so it went with Craig Simpson, who grew up in London, Ont., and played for the Oakridge Optimists. Although he played for Oakridge most of his early hockey career, he didn&rsquo;t usually stay long in any one division.&ldquo;The next year they moved me up a year ahead of myself. So here I was, five and a half, six years old, and playing with guys a year older than me.&rdquo;Again he was the leading scorer on the team. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny. I&rsquo;ve been the youngest player on my team every year. I&rsquo;d just start into a league and then be put a year ahead of myself.&ldquo;Actually, there was one time when I was 13 that I did play with guys my age. I had been playing minor bantam in Oakridge. But then the league in London went AAA midget. We&rsquo;d never had that before. So they wouldn&rsquo;t let me play a year ahead of myself like they usually did and I played with other 13-year-old guys. We played 75 games and I scored 150 goals and 130 assists. I was averaging about four points a game.&ldquo;I guess they thought they&rsquo;d made a mistake. and they put me on the London Diamonds of the Western Ontario Jr. B league. I ended up as the third-leading scorer. I was 14 years old, and the next closest guy on the team was 18. I&rsquo;m used to being the youngest on my team.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t remember if there was anybody else on my team who made it to the NHL. But I do remember playing against Stratford Jr. Bs, when (Chicago Blackhawk winger) Ed Olczyk was a leading scorer in the league. I played against Craig Billington (Maine Mariner goalie) all through my minor hockey days.&ldquo;I decided to go to an American university when I was 16&mdash;I was the youngest-ever hockey player in Michigan State University.&rdquo;Simpson skipped Grade 3, making him a year younger than most other freshmen.Over two years at Michigan State, Simpson scored 45 goals and 96 assists in 45 games. He was chosen second overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1985 entry draft.&ldquo;When I was a kid, I would have to say my favorite player was Darryl Sittler of the Toronto Maple Leafs,&rdquo; says Simpson. &ldquo;I met him once, and got his autograph, although I don&rsquo;t know if he&rsquo;d remember me.&ldquo;Now, when there&rsquo;s kids waiting at the doors for autographs after the games, I try to sign as many as I can. I know what it was like. It&rsquo;s a good feeling, and I think it&rsquo;s very important to do what you can to help the kids out.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04195/5196161-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="672" height="1038"><figcaption class="caption-body">Craig Simpson was the second overall choice of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the I 1985 entry draft.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0024-04

Simpson Slightly Ahead Of His Time

Kori Pearson is an 11-year-old who plays just about any position for the Neepawa, Man., Mohawks.Last season, Kori, a 4-foot-9 inch, 90-pounder who lists center, left wing, defense and goal as his order of positional preferences, had 109 goals, including 23 hat tricks, in a 40- game schedule.Kori is coached by his father, Bob Pearson, and Don Evenson.A grade six student at Hazel M. Kellington School, Kori also played baseball, football and soccer. He is in his second year of judo instruction.His favorite National Hockey League team is the Toronto Maple Leafs and his favorite player is Leaf sophomore forward Wendel Clark.Clark was a guest instructor at a hockey school Kori attended in 1984.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03316/5196192-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="537" height="1122"><figcaption class="caption-body">KORI PEARSON</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0024-03

PLAYER OF WEEK TITAN JOFA

<div class="byline">BY TOM BOGGIE</div>POTSDAM&mdash;Who said Clarkson doesn&rsquo;t have goaltending?Although the graduation of Jamie Falle had supposedly left a huge gap between the pipes for the Golden Knights, sophomore Jason Poirier has plugged the hole quickly, surprising even second-year coach Cap Raeder.Poirier, a 5-foot-8, 165-pound sophomore out of Berlin, N.H., was, at best, Clarkson&rsquo;s number three goalie last season and never played a minute with the varsity.But in his first career start, he pitched a 32-save, 3-0 shutout against Division II powerhouse Rochester Institute of Technology, which has one of the most explosive offenses in the Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference.&ldquo;He played extremely well,&rdquo; said Raeder. &ldquo;He put on quite a show.&rdquo;The shutout was the first since Oct. 29, 1983, when All-American Don Sylvestri made 24 saves in a 3-0 win over RIT.Raeder knew all along that Poirier had the potential to be a very good college goalie. That was the reason he brought him to Clarkson in the first place. &ldquo;I had seen him play in high school and I was very impressed with him,&rdquo; said Raeder. &ldquo;He was very quick, great with his legs and I really liked his approach to the game. He was very scrappy.&rdquo;But with Falle firmly entrenched as the No. 1 goalie last season, Poirier spent the season with the junior varsity. Like many of the ECAC schools, Clarkson&rsquo;s jayvees play a schedule which includes mostly Northeast prep schools. The only problem is that Clarkson&rsquo;s jayvee season ends in December.&ldquo;He was our third goalie last year and our second and third goalies usually play in the jayvee games,&rdquo; said Raeder. &ldquo;The main problem I had was getting him to stay around after the jayvee season ended in December, but he worked out with the varsity every day and it seems to be paying off.&rdquo;Although Poirier got a lot of help from his defense, led by senior Jeff Korchinski, he made some spectacular saves against RIT.<h2>EASTERN COLLEGES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01577/5196223-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="176" height="129"></div>&ldquo;He put on a clinic,&rdquo; Raeder stated. &ldquo;The way he directed his rebounds, the way he was always thinking ahead. He made 32 saves and a half dozen or 10 of those were quality saves. I could see him getting his confidence as the game went on.&rdquo;All he needed was one goal, and that came at 5:11 of the first period when sophomore defenseman Brad James scored on a power play. Junior Rodger Huiatt and sophomore Mike Morrison had the other goals.Clarkson&rsquo;s defense was so dominant that RIT didn&rsquo;t even take a shot on goal until 5:30 remained in the first period and the Tigers also went zero-for-14 in power-play situations.But the key was Poirier, who has won the starting job, at least for the time being.&ldquo;I can see him doing it again,&rdquo; said Raeder of Poirier&rsquo;s performance. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen him do it in practice every day and it carried over to the game. When we started pre-season, the door was wide open, but he came to the front right off. He&rsquo;s played well from the first day he stepped on the ice.&rdquo;Who said Clarkson didn&rsquo;t have goaltending?NOTES&mdash;Injuries continue to pile up. Colgate senior defenseman Scott Reston will miss the first couple of weeks of the season with a badly sprined ankle while coach Terry Slater was still holding his breath over the status of freshman forward Marc Dupere. Dupere, one of Colgate&rsquo;s top recruits, has a back injury and may be lost for the season&hellip;Vermont lost versatile forward Duke Stump for the season because of a shoulder separation&hellip; Senior Terry Butryn, one of the key players for RP1, missed the first weekend of the regular season because of a hand injury. During the summer, he nearly severed one of the fingertips on his right hand during a non-hockey related accident and is still coming back from reconstructive surgery. &#9632;

f0025-01

Knights Hope To Have Goalie Hole Filled

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;It was a ridiculously easy goal. Unguarded near the Providence College net, Greg Pratt leaned forward and redirected the puck. The disc trickled through Ed Walsh&rsquo;s skates and Northeastern University had its first winning goal of the season.It&rsquo;s unlikely that anything else will be quite so easy for Greg Pratt, who&rsquo;s serving as Northeastern&rsquo;s captain this year. The Huskies held on to beat Providence 4-3, thanks to Pratt&rsquo;s tally in the first minute of the third period. But they lost a 3-2 return match the following night in PC s arena, splitting their first weekend of the campaign.Pratt is one of only four seniors on Northeastern&rsquo;s club. It&rsquo;s a team blessed with a potentially good defense, thanks to its experienced rearguards and goalie, but it&rsquo;s also a team that will have to scratch for every one of its goals.Graduation took away most of the big scoring guns from last year&rsquo;s third-place Hockey East team, and the smart money has NU checking in fifth this time.Pratt loves it. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad they&rsquo;re picking us fifth. That&rsquo;s what they said last year, and we finished third&rdquo;<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02378/5196254-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="176" height="133"></div>One week before the season opener, Northeastern was scrimmaging powerful Boston University. Pratt was shrugging off a checker when he felt his right shoulder pop from its socket. Fortunately, it popped right back in again-sparing him the bitter memories of a sophomore year shortened by a knee injury and arthroscopic surgery.In that truncated campaign, Greg scored only three times, but he bounced back for 14 last season. Jay Heinbuck, Rod Isbister, and Stew Emerson were getting all the headlines, however, and few fans noticed Pratt&rsquo;s steady contribution.&ldquo;Nobody&rsquo;s going to score 30 goals on this team,&rdquo; he commented. &ldquo;There are a lot of guys who&rsquo;ll get between 10 and 20, but I don&rsquo;t see any individual breaking out and scoring much more than that.&rdquo;Pratt played high school hockey with wunderkind Brian Lawton, who skipped college hockey altogether, turning down an offer from Providence to join the North Stars. Pratt was All-State two years in high school, and he was NU&rsquo;s rookie of the year in 1983-84 with 10 goals. The next year, the bad luck set in, but since then Pratt has carved out a leadership role for himself.HOCKEY EAST ROUNDUP&mdash; Gord Cruickshank had a goal each night for Providence in the split with NU. In the 3-2 Friar win, freshman goalie Matt Merten stopped 30 shots. The night before, junior Ed Walsh had just 21 saves against the Hounds. Bruce Racine played both games in net for Northeastern&hellip;New Hampshire remained winless, losing 5-2 to Lowell and managing a 5-5 tie in the return match. The Chiefs started out fast, posting a 2-0-1 record&mdash;their best beginning since moving up to Division I play three years ago. Freshman Randy LeBrasseur had a hat trick in the 5-5 tie&hellip; Boston College went to Maine for its season opener and split. The Eagles beat the Black Bears 8-4 the first night behind a pair of goals by junior Dan Shea. But the host team, looking for big improvement in Shawn Walsh&rsquo;s third season as coach, rebounded with a 6-3 win on Saturday. Freshman goalie Scott King, turned aside 39 shots and Bruce Major potted a pair of goals for Maine. &#9632;

f0025-02

Providence Hoping To Avoid Pratt-Fall

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03253/5196313-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="736" height="399"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-04170/5196306-1-eng-US/f0025-042.jpg" title="f0025-04" width="391" height="635"><figcaption class="caption-body">GREG ROTAN. Hampshire HOCKEY EAST</figcaption></div>New Hampshire Wildcats rolled over the Providence Friars twice in Hockey East action with senior goaltender Greg Rota making a total of 76 saves. The Wildcats won by scores of 3-1 and B-4<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-05140/5196299-1-eng-US/f0025-052.jpg" title="f0025-05" width="390" height="632"><figcaption class="caption-body">kyle McDonoughVermont ECAC</figcaption></div>Center Kyle McDonough scored a pair of shorthanded goals to lead the University of Vermont Catamounts to an 8-3 victory over Norwich in the club&rsquo;s initial outing of the new season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-06117/5196292-1-eng-US/f0025-062.jpg" title="f0025-06" width="395" height="634"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAUL YSEBAERTBow. Green CCHA</figcaption></div>Junior center Paul Ysebaert, No. 6 in CCHA scoring last season, got off to a fast start as the Bowling Green center scored three goals and five assists in the Falcon&rsquo;s two-game sweep of Miami of Ohio.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-07108/5196285-1-eng-US/f0025-072.jpg" title="f0025-07" width="396" height="635"><figcaption class="caption-body">JOE WESTN. Michigan WCHA</figcaption></div>Northern Michigan Wildcats swept Michigan Tech by 4-3 and 6-1 scores with senior winger Joe West counting five goals in the two games, including the game winner in overtime of the opener.Bauer FIT FOR PERFORMANCE &#9632;

f0025-03

BAUERS COLLEGE PERFORMER OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BILL CRAWFORD</div>BOWLING GREEN&mdash;Don&rsquo;t look now, but the Cleveland Browns have donned skates and they&rsquo;re tearing up the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.Well, okay, it&rsquo;s not the Cleveland Browns, but if Bowling Green State isn&rsquo;t the most imposing physical hockey team in the college game this season, then woe unto him who toils in a league with a more dominating team.We&rsquo;re talking Howie Long on skates here.And these guys aren&rsquo;t just big; they can play.&ldquo;We have some big people and we have some depth,&rdquo; understates coach Jerry York, whose Falcons won the NCAA title just three years ago. &ldquo;We figure this is our year to make a move (at a national championship again).&rdquo;The Falcons appear to have just about everything required: good goaltending, solid and big defense, good scoring potential and depth up front, size in the comers, experience, excellent coaching and desire.&ldquo;These guys are better than I thought they were,&rdquo; admitted Lake Superior State coack Frank Anzalone after BG dismantled his Lakers in a 7-5, 7-3 sweep at Lake Superior.Ironically, the Falcons are built around diminutive Gary Kruzich, who at 5-foot-5 and 173 pounds, is one of college hockey&rsquo;s top goaltenders. Kruzich was a freshman starter when the Falcons won the crown in 1983-84.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;We have some big people and we have some depth. We figure this is our year to make a move.&rsquo; &mdash;York</blockquote>&ldquo;I think this year&rsquo;s team is comparable to that championship team,&rdquo; he said after the twin wins at Lake Superior. &ldquo;We may have more scoring on this team. Our defensive game is already strong and it&rsquo;s early. I&rsquo;m seeing maybe 25 shots a game and that&rsquo;s not many. Our penalty killing and power play have been great. I think we have the potential to win this league and have a good shot at winning more.&rdquo;Kruzich has personal goals of keeping his goals-against average at less than 3.00 and save percentage at better than .900.&ldquo;Hey, I just want to have the best year I&rsquo;ve had in the four I&rsquo;ve been here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I want to play every game. I want to play at least 30 games for us.&rdquo;Kruzich was picked up by the New York Islanders in the supplemental draft in September. He was thrilled.York and assistants Buddy Powers and Terry Flanagan have spent three years re-assembling the Falcons since the national-title season.On defense, there&rsquo;s big Alan Leggett (6-foot-l, 205 pounds), a sophomore who is so improved, it&rsquo;s hard to believe this is the same guy who played sparingly as a freshman in 1985-86. And he carries a 4.00 average as a biology major to boot.<h2>CENTRAL COLLEGIATE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02424/5196375-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="175" height="133"></div>Then there&rsquo;s even bigger Tom Pratt (6-foot-3, 215), a senior who transferred from St. Lawrence as a junior; Scott Paluch (6-foot-2, 190), a junior for whom the St. Louis Blues say they have plans two years from now; huge Todd Flichel (6-foot-3, 200), a senior who dominates defensively; and multitalented Brian McKee, son of Canadian broadcaster Tom McKee, who provides heralded offensive punch from the blue line and who quarterbacks the Falcon power play.McKee&rsquo;s only 5-foot-ll and 180 pounds.Up front, BG relies on 6-foot-l, 185-pound junior Paul Ysebaert (pronounced Eyes-bart), senior Iain Duncan (6 feet, 200), junior Don Barber (6-foot-3, 210), freshman Nelson Emerson and sophomores Greg Parks and Clarke Pineo for the offensive punch.Guys like Mike Natyshak (6-foot-2, 205), Rob Urban (6-foot-2, 200), Chad Arthur (5-foot-ll, 195) and Marc Potvin (6-foot-3, 205) score goals here and there, but spend most of their time just making life miserable for the opposition. Again, the Falcons are big and they can play&mdash;a combination that&rsquo;s pretty tough to beat, as the CCHA will learn this season.You want depth?Consider that talented junior Briar Meharry is just now trying to break back into the lineup after off-season knee surgery for a softball injury, oi that Mark Lori, a senior with a history of knee troubles, is still out after hurting &ldquo;the other&rdquo; knee.There&rsquo;s no doubt about it&mdash;the Falcons are shooting at another NCAA championship, which would be the second for guys such as Kruzich, Duncan and Flichel, not to mention for this coaching staff and this tiny community in Northern Ohio.The Falcons have goaltending, experience, scoring, depth and certainty size. If they continue to improve, it could be another season to remember.And they haven&rsquo;t forgotten the last one yet. &#9632;

f0026-02

Bowling Green Gets Bigger And Better

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03349/5196427-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="397" height="275"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04263/5196420-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="367" height="550"><figcaption class="caption-body">GREG PUHALSKILaurier OUAA</figcaption></div>Greg Puhalski scored three goals and set up two others to lead the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks to an 8-2 victory over the RMC Redmen-Cadets. Laurier had a perfect record after three games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-05212/5196413-1-eng-US/f0026-052.jpg" title="f0026-05" width="369" height="551"><figcaption class="caption-body">TODD ELIKRegina CWUAA</figcaption></div>Regina Cougar freshman left winger Todd Elik picked up a total of 11 points in the team&rsquo;s two-game split with Brandon. Elik had a hat trick in a 7-3 loss but scored twice in the Cougars&rsquo; 8-6 win.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-06178/5196406-1-eng-US/f0026-062.jpg" title="f0026-06" width="369" height="549"><figcaption class="caption-body">M. DEBENEDICTISMcGill QUAA</figcaption></div>McGill Redmen started the QUAA season with a 10-5 romp over the Concordia Stingers as Mario DeBenedictis led the way. He set u p five goals and turned in a strong two-way effort for the Redmen.Bauer FIT FOR PERFORMANCE &#9632;

f0026-03

BAUER’S UNIVERSITY PERFORMER OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY STEVE GILLILAND</div>FREDERICTON&mdash;As the Atlantic University League began regular-season play, the focal point of interest was a series of off-season changes more than it was the action on the ice.Of nine league entries, six opened the campaign with new coaches. The only schools boasting incumbent head coaches are Mt. Allison Mounties, with veteran Jack Drover entering his 13th year, Prince Edward Island Panthers, with Vince Mulligan back for a fourth season, plus Dalhousie Tigers with Darrel Young back for a second season.Former Masterton Trophy-winner Al MacAdam heads a list of newcomers. The retired National Hockey Leaguer is calling the shots at St. Thomas. He replaces AUHL coach of the year Larry Wood, who returned to a high school teaching position.Other newcomers include Moncton&rsquo;s Len Doucet, who replaces Jacques Noel, the new head coach of Laval Voisins. Jim MacDonald takes over head-coaching duties at St. Francis Xavier, replacing Phonse Gillis, who returns to a teaching position.Tom Coolen at Acadia replaces Don Wells, who is now the school&rsquo;s athletic director. Randy Nesbitt takes over for Lawrence Currie at St. Mary&rsquo;s and Rick Nickelchok is in place of Doug MacLean at UNB.MacLean, an assistant coach with St. Louis Blues, is the latest in an impressive list of former AUHL coaches who have graduated to the NHL. Others are new Detroit assistant coach, Don MacAdam (UNB). Montreal head coach Jean Perron (Moncton), Calgary assistant coach Pierre Page (Dalhousie), Quebec assistant general manager Gilles Leger (St.FX) and former Philadelphia assistant coach Bob Boucher (St Mary&rsquo;s).Meanwhile, the AUHL announced the lineup of players who would be representing Team Atlantic in a game with the Canadian national team Nov. 7 in Moncton N.B.Moncton Blue Eagles and Dalhousie Tigers&mdash;the Atlantic University Athletic Association finalists last year&mdash;dominated selections.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02371/5196465-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="572" height="1042"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joel Brown of Dalhousie was named to the Atlantic squad facing Canada&rsquo;s national team.</figcaption></div>The 25-man roster featured six players each from defending-champion Moncton and runner-up Dalhousie.Last season&rsquo;s semi-finalists&mdash;Prince Edward Island and St. Francis Xavier&mdash;were next in line with four and three players, respectively.Goalies named to Team Atlantic were David Quigley of Moncton, Peter Abric of Dalhousie, Paul Kenney of St. FX. Blueliners were Phil Huckins of St. Thomas, Kevin Skilliter and Steve Fulton of UPEI, Alain St. Arnaud and Alain Richard of Moncton, Joel Brown, Phil Priddle and Brian Melanson of Dalhousie and Brock Newman of Mt. Allison.<h2>CANADIAN UNIVERSITY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01574/5196458-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="174" height="131"></div>Forwards were Francois Sills, Claude Gosselin and Eric Cormier of Moncton, John Bekkers and Dave Purcell of St. FX, Frank Gladiator of St. Mary&rsquo;s, Tim Kaiser of New Brunswick, Craig Jenkins and Ron Carragher of UPEI, Martin Bouliane and Greg Royce of Dalhousie, Todd Annand of Acadia and Kevin Gollan of Mt. Allison.Drover was named Team Atlantic&rsquo;s head coach. Dalhousie&rsquo;s Young was chosen his assistant.The Moncton exhibition game was to mark the return to the site of past glories for two former Blue Eagle stars&mdash;Claude Vilgrain and Benoit Doucet&mdash;who&rsquo;ve become key players for Dave King&rsquo;s national team.NOTES FROM THE COAST&mdash; The AUHL will expand to 10 teams next season when University College of Cape Breton (located in Sydney N.S.), joins the Kelly division. &#9632;

f0027-02

More New Than Old Among Atlantic Bosses

<h2>HOW THEY STAND</h2>CCHA(STANDINGS ON FRI. NOV. 7)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01580/5196608-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="513" height="259"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDFRI. OCT. 31BOWLING GREEN 7 AT MIAMI 6LAKE SUPERIOR 3 AT FERRIS STATE 2MICHIGAN 2 AT ILL-CHICAGO 5MICH. STATE 6 AT W. MICHIGAN 3OHIO STATE 4 AT CLARKSON 5SAT. NOV. 1BOWLING GREEN 6 AT MIAMI 4LAKE SUPERIOR 4 AT FERRIS STATE 3MICHIGAN 3 AT ILL-CHICAGO 13W. MICHIGAN 3 AT MICH. STATE 7OHIO STATE 2 AT CLARKSON 3LEADING SCORERS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02406/5196601-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="509" height="303"></div><h2>WCHA</h2>(STANDINGS ON FRI. NOV. 7)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03289/5196594-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="508" height="234"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDFRI. OCT. 31MICH. TECH 3 AT N. MICHIGAN 4DENVER 5 AT MINNESOTA 9MIN-DULUTH 5 AT COLO. COLL 6WISCONSIN 4 AT NORTH DAKOTA 9SAT. NOV. 1DENVER 1 AT MINNESOTA 3MIN-DULUTH 4 AT COLO. COLL 6WISCONSIN 2 AT NORTH DAKOTA 6N. MICHIGAN 6 AT MICH. TECH 1LEADING SCORERS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04208/5196587-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="512" height="281"></div><h2>ECAC</h2>GAMES COMPLETEDSAT. OCT. 25RIT 0 AT CLARKSON 3FRI. DEC. 31BABSON 3 AT RPI 3OHIO STATE 4 AT CLARKSON 5ST. ANSELM 2 AT ARMY 6SAT. NOV. 1NORWICH 3 AT VERMONT 8OHIO STATE 2 AT CLARKSON 3PLATTSBURGH 6 AT ST. LAWRENCE 9RIT 7 AT RPI 6RYERSON 1 AT COLGATE 4(ALL GAMES NON-CONFERENCE)<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. NOV. 5)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05176/5196580-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="506" height="208"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDWED. OCT. 29NORTHEASTERN 1 AT BOSTON COLLEGE 3NEW HAMPSHIRE 3 AT PROVIDENCE 1FRI. OCT. 31MAINE 3 AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY 2SAT. NOV. 1BOSTON COLLEGE 7 AT NORTHEASTERN 1MAINE 7 AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY 5PROVIDENCE 4 AT NEW HAMPSHIRE 5MERRIMACK 3 AT LOWELL 4LEADING SCORERS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-06152/5196573-1-eng-US/f0028-062.jpg" title="f0028-06" width="509" height="308"></div><h2>CWUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON THU. NOV 1)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-07142/5196566-1-eng-US/f0028-072.jpg" title="f0028-07" width="510" height="231"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDFRI. OCT 31BRANDON 6 AT REGINA 8UBC 2 AT CALGARY 6SASKATCHEWAN 4 AT MANITOBA 6LETHBRIDGE 8 AT ALBERTA 10SAT. NOV. 1BRANDON 7 AT REGINA 5UBC 2 AT CALGARY 12SASKATCHEWAN 3 AT MANITOBA 5LETHBRIDGE 5 AT ALBERTA 10LEADING SCORERS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-08132/5196559-1-eng-US/f0028-082.jpg" title="f0028-08" width="506" height="278"></div><h2>QUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. NOV. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-09125/5196552-1-eng-US/f0028-092.jpg" title="f0028-09" width="507" height="130"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDTHU. OCT. 30OTTAWA 7 AT CONCORDIA 3FRI. OCT. 31CONCORDIA 5 AT McGILL 10BIG FOUR TOURNAMENTMcGILL 2, QUEEN&rsquo;S 0WESTERN 2, TORONTO 1CONSOLATIOM GAMETORONTO 8, QUEEN&rsquo;S 3CHAMPIONSHIP GAMEWESTERN 5, McGILL 3<h2>OUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON THU. NOV. 6)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-10122/5196545-1-eng-US/f0028-102.jpg" title="f0028-10" width="510" height="358"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDFRI. OCT. 31YORK 8 AT GUELPH 5RMC 1 AT WATERLOO 11RYERSON 4 AT BROCK 8TORONTO 1 AT WESTERN 3SAT. NOV. 1QUEEN&rsquo;S 6 AT LAURENTIAN 3RMC 2 AT LAURIER 8GUELPH 7 AT McMASTER 3TORONTO 3 AT WINDSOR 3SUN. NOV. 2QUEEN&rsquo;S 4 AT LAURENTIAN 3&rsquo;WESTERN 0 AT WATERLOO 0YORK 4 AT WINDSOR 1LEADING SCORERS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-11114/5196538-1-eng-US/f0028-112.jpg" title="f0028-11" width="510" height="205"></div><h2>AUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. NOV. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-12110/5196531-1-eng-US/f0028-122.jpg" title="f0028-12" width="508" height="335"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDWED. OCT. 29ST. F. XAVIER 3 AT ACADIA 7MONCTON 6 AT ST. THOMAS 1FRI. OCT. 31DALHOUSIE 4 AT MT. ALLISON 1SAT. NOV. 1ST. F. XAVIER 6 AT UPEI 7ACADIA 8 AT MT. ALLISON 5SUN. NOV. 2ST. MARY&rsquo;S 3 AT UPEI 7ACADIA 3 AT MONCTON 4ST. THOMAS 3 AT UNB 7LEADING SCORERS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-13102/5196524-1-eng-US/f0028-132.jpg" title="f0028-13" width="512" height="252"></div><h2>GAMES TO COME</h2><h3>CCHA CONFERENCE</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1490/5196517-1-eng-US/f0028-142.jpg" title="f0028-14" width="516" height="1376"></div><h3>WCHA CONFERENCE</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1586/5196510-1-eng-US/f0028-152.jpg" title="f0028-15" width="519" height="743"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1669/5196503-1-eng-US/f0028-162.jpg" title="f0028-16" width="536" height="1124"></div><h3>HOCKEY EAST CONFERENCE</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1755/5196496-1-eng-US/f0028-172.jpg" title="f0028-17" width="499" height="1117"></div>Bauer FIT FOR PERFORMANCE &#9632;

f0028-01

Bauer college scoreboard

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02344/5196639-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Coach-GM Larrv Mavety has done plenty of wheeling and dealing to improve the Belleville Bulls in the past. (Photo by Joe DiMaria)</figcaption></div>BELLEVILLE&mdash;Belleville Bulls, second-place finishers in the Leyden Division of the Ontario League the last two seasons, are off to a slow start this 1986-87 campaign.But coach-general manager Larry Mavety is not overly concerned. The Bulls closed October with an unimpressive 3-9 record though Mavety was quick to blame suspensions handed Bryan Marchment and Brian Chapman, two of his top defensemen, as critical reasons for the slow start.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re going to be all right,&rdquo; said a relaxed Mavety. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a couple of moves in mind that I&rsquo;m hoping will help the hockey club.&rdquo;Never one to shy away from the trade winds, Mavety has dealt for the likes of star players Dave MacLean, Steve Linesman, Jason Lafreniere, Dan Gratton and Keith Gretzky during his five years as Belleville&rsquo;s only coach-GM.And earlier this season, he pried speedy center Mike Wolak away from the Kitchener Rangers. Wolak was the Rangers&rsquo; first pick in the 1985 draft.While admitting the trading of players is tough on those involved, Mavety said they are part of hockey.&ldquo;Sure, I&rsquo;ve made my share but I&rsquo;ve got a commitment to Doc (Bulls&rsquo; owner Dr. Bob Vaughn) and the Belleville fans to ice the best team possible.&rdquo;Belleville has missed a playoff only once since coming into the OHL in 1981-82&mdash;its first season. At that, the Bulls set an expansion team record with 24 wins and even though they finished last in the Leyden, they had more points than the Windsor Spitfires, who made the Emms Division playoffs with 48 points, two fewer than Belleville.Last season, the Bulls finished second in the Leyden with 76 points, 16 behind the pace-setting Peterborough Petes. But, Belleville knocked off the Petes in the division final before losing to eventual Memorial Cup-champion Guelph Platers in the league championship series.Graduation, though, has stripped the Bulls of goalies Craig Billington and Mike Bishop, defensemen Mike Vellucci and John Tamer as well as key forwards Lafreniere (49-83-132), Brian MacDonald (37-45-82), Gratton (33-37-70 in just 50 games) and two-way types Marc West and Charlie Moore.Still, Mavety said he expects the Bulls to do fairly well this season.&ldquo;We started slowly before and picked up,&rdquo; he noted. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not all that concerned. We made a run for it last season and are paying for that now but there&rsquo;s no reason we can&rsquo;t be competitive.&rdquo;Life without Billington and Bishop has been tough. Paul Henriques, last year&rsquo;s top rookie goalie, has struggled and unheralded Piero Greco stepped in to win the Bulls&rsquo; first three wins.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been a surprise,&rdquo; Mavety said of the 18-year-old Greco, twice cut by the Sudbury Wolves. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s played well. No problem there.&rdquo;<h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01498/5196646-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="173" height="133"></div>Mavety said he&rsquo;s been satisfied with his offensive production though he feels his defense could stand improvement.&ldquo;The suspensions to Marchment (three games for instigating post-game troubles) and Chapman (10 games for stick swinging) hurt. Hell, they&rsquo;re our top two guys and Marchment is only 17 and Chapman is 18. I wouldn&rsquo;t mind an overage defenseman.&rdquo;While Mavety had hopes of things turning around in Belleville, problems continued to surface further east down Hwy. 401 in Cornwall.Coach Orval Tessier, with the Royals in last place in the Leyden, sent 19-year-old forwards Bruno Lapensee and Dean Guitard home. They were preceded by Pat Malone and Jack Reimer. All were sent packing for disciplinary reasons.&ldquo;I can see light at the end of the tunnel, though I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll be seeing it that clearly this season,&rdquo; said Tessier. &ldquo;If we&rsquo;re going to take our lumps, it might as well be with the younger players.&rdquo;Tessier has had trouble with Craig Duncanson, the curfew-breaking captain who bagged 110 points and 190 penalty minutes a year ago. Just one day after Tessier made him captain, Duncanson was sat out by Tessier for breaking curfew. Duncanson has since been put up for trade.To make matters worse, an off-ice incident has cost Cornwall the use of 19-year-old right winger Brad Belland, who had 10 goals and six assists in the Royals&rsquo; first 10 games. Belland suffered a compound fracture of the jaw during an altercation with a teammate and is lost to the club for at least a month.NOTES&mdash;Two days after Sudbury acquired overage right winger Barry Burkholder from Kingston, the Mississauga native left the club and told Wolves&rsquo; boss Joe Drago he wanted to be traded to a club close to home, preferably the Oshawa Generals&hellip;After an 0-7 start, meanwhile, the Wolves went on a tear, winning four of their next five, the only loss coming in overtime at Kitchener. Rookie goalie Ted Mielczarek was between the pipes for all the victories as the Wolves showed signs of being a playoff club. Mielczarek, was a l0th-round pick this past summer out of Chatham&hellip;One of the most improved players in the league this season is right winger Paul Beraldo of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. The Boston Bruin draftee, who made the Greyhounds as a free agent last season and went on to score 15 goals in 61 games, had 13 in his first 11 this season as the Soo bolted to a 9-2 start. &#9632;

f0029-02

Belleville’s Slow Start Doesn’t Worry Mavety

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03224/5196691-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="543" height="621"><figcaption class="caption-body">SCOTT McCRORYOshawa ONTARIO LEAGUE</figcaption></div>Hockey buffs are probably wondering where Scott McCrory of the Oshawa Generals gets the time and energy for hockey.The Generals&rsquo; center is combining a pre-dental college course with a major junior hockey career and doing nicely at both. He was picked OHL Player of the Week after two three-point games to raise his season total to 24 points in 11 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04157/5196684-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="417" height="620"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARK FITZPATRICKMedicine Hat WESTERN LEAGUE</figcaption></div>The Medicine Hat Tigers were riding a five-game winning streak and much of the credit belonged to goalie Mark Fitzpatrick.The Tigers&rsquo; netminder was chosen WHL Player of the Week following his 2-0 shutout of Regina. In two games he allowed just two goals. The 18-year-old Fitzpatrick, top goaltender in the league last season, had a 4-3 winloss record and 3.42 GAA early in the year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-05136/5196677-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="544" height="624"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEPHAN LEBEAUShawinigan QUEBEC LEAGUE</figcaption></div>Stephan Lebeau is raising eyebrows with strong play again this season in the Quebec League.As a 17-year-old during the 1985-86 season, he collected 146 points for Shawinigan and it appears he&rsquo;s on his way to another big year. After 16 games Lebeau had 38 points and earned the nod as QMJHL Player of the Week after scoring two hat tricks in three games.At the end of the current season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0029-03

MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>CALGARY&mdash;There&rsquo;s some verbal sparring going on over the latest set of Western League rule changes.In one comer you have WHL referee-in-chief Richard Doerksen, whose job it is to keep the peace. In the other you have a member of the old guard who believes too many do&rsquo;s and don&rsquo;t&rsquo;s are making for assembly-line hockey.This season there are a number of rule changes but the two receiving most reaction are the increasing of the size of the goal crease and the marshalling of teams after each period.The first, designed to cut down on goalmouth altercations, has been met with nothing but praise. The second, which calls for one team to sit and wait until the other has left the ice before heading for the dressing room, is getting mixed reaction.Thus, the verbal jabs.&ldquo;That rule where everybody sits on the bench looks like roller derby,&rdquo; said Calgary Wranglers&rsquo; general manager John Chapman. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like it&mdash;it doesn&rsquo;t look good. It&rsquo;s like the teams are totally out of control.&rdquo;Doerksen said there&rsquo;s a good reason for change.&ldquo;The basic intent is if something breaks out, there are only 12 guys on the ice instead of 40,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In the exhibition it took a lot of penalties to enforce it but we&rsquo;ve had very few called on the new rule. We were also concerned about the length of time it took to get players off the ice.&rdquo;What concerns Chapman, who coached the Lethbridge Broncos before the Calgary position, is that the product is better in terms of cleaning up its image but bland in terms of appeal.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m from the old school,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think we lack some color. I don&rsquo;t know, maybe we&rsquo;ve lost some colorful characters.&ldquo;The days of throwing garbage cans are out. People used to like those things. I&rsquo;m not saying it sells tickets but the rinks were full. In Medicine Hat I used to put on some performances. I&rsquo;d throw a garbage can or chase a ref&mdash;you couldn&rsquo;t buy a ticket when we came to town.&ldquo;Do it now and it&rsquo;s a life suspension. You&rsquo;re a rebel, you&rsquo;re branded.&rdquo;While that is an extreme means of selling seats, Chapman said too many rules are taking away from the aggressive nature of the game.&ldquo;Physical hockey, you only see that in the playoffs. In our league I look around and aggression seems to be slipping away.&ldquo;I question the huddle. When you get three or four guys too close to it (fight) they get game misconducts.&ldquo;A lot of teams play like the NHL plays. That&rsquo;s not junior hockey. It&rsquo;s hard working, barnstorming hockey. I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s rule changes but it seems to have changed.<h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01572/5196722-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="173" height="130"></div>&ldquo;The gooning&mdash;that should be thrown out but there&rsquo;s nothing wrong with a good old one-on-one fight and heavy bodychecking, that&rsquo;s hockey.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt the game has changed and it&rsquo;s more skilled than it was five or 10 years ago. But when you see a good tough kid go to the Olympic camp and he&rsquo;s the first guy cut because they keep all the skilled and quick players&hellip;! just think when a guy is 6-foot-3 and not blessed with all the skill but can go up and down his wing. he should be given an opportunity to play.&rdquo;Doerksen can back up the rule changes with proof that penalties resulting from major altercations are on the decline.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want to take the physical part out of the game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But certainly, if we can curb the mass brawling and stick work. The governors have gone for a good deal of change, they&rsquo;ve given us the liberty to implement them.&rdquo;So where does the WHL go from here? Is it time to close the book on further changes or maybe time to even look a little deeper into possible problems?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there are too many rules,&rdquo; said Doerksen. &ldquo;In this sport a lot of different things can happen. Right now we&rsquo;re looking at stick-work&mdash;some players are taking toe much liberty.&ldquo;With so much protection now (face shields became mandatory last season) the sticks are always coming up in somebody else&rsquo;s face.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;re going to look into. As for this year I&rsquo;d say we&rsquo;re happy with the way things have gone.&rdquo;&ldquo;1 guess progress is progress,&rdquo; summed up Chapman. &#9632;

f0030-01

Not All Rule Changes Meet With Approval

<div class="byline">BY DON CAMPBELL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03287/5196753-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="526" height="1044"><figcaption class="caption-body">Laval&rsquo;s Eric Gobeil is getting accustomed to the hitting in hockey again.</figcaption></div>LAVAL&mdash;Had everything gone according to plan, Laval Titan rookie defenseman Eric Gobeil would be getting ready to report to the Florida Instructional Baseball League.Instead, at the age of only 18, Gobeil is attempting to salvage a once-promising hockey career after a full year away from hockey.After a 10-goal, 25-point season with the Richelieu AAA midgets, the Titan made Gobeil its second choice (13th overall) in the 1985 Quebec League midget draft.But a month later, the Pittsburgh Pirates came calling and offered Gobeil, then 17 and a fastball-throwing pitcher with the St-Hubert Diplomats of the Quebec Major Junior AA Baseball League, a professional baseball contract.The Titan did its all to convince him to stay with hockey but Gobeil opted to sign with the Pirates. After spending the 1985-86 season away from the ice, he reported last March to spring training at the Pirates&rsquo; minor-league complex in Bradenton, Fla.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d heard so much about American baseball and everything, I had to find out for myself what it would be like to try and make a go of it,&rdquo; said Gobeil. &ldquo;Laval told me they thought I could be a good hockey player and had a better chance to make it in hockey than in baseball. But, I had to try it.&rdquo;A pinched nerve in his neck on the second day of baseball training camp put Gobeil on the sidelines, but he was back in uniform in time for the June season opener with the Instructional League Bradenton Pirates. He was still at less than 100 per cent.<h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02415/5196760-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="172" height="133"></div>The nerve finally healed but after pitching only three innings, the Pirates decided they&rsquo;d seen enough and sent him home.So much for the baseball career of the pitcher with the 87 mile-per-hour fastball.Gobeil, whose parents now reside in Hartford, immediately returned to Longueuil, where he grew up, and started getting in shape for his first training camp with Laval.&ldquo;I have no regrets,&rdquo; said Gobeil. &ldquo;The Pirates treated me well and I respect them. I saw that to make it in baseball you have to be lucky and me getting hurt&hellip;well, I was unlucky.&ldquo;I was fully healthy when they released me but they didn&rsquo;t give me much of a chance in games to show what I could do. One of the big bosses came down from Pittsburgh and said they had seen enough of me and didn&rsquo;t need me. It&rsquo;s a lot different mentality down there.&ldquo;But I knew if baseball didn&rsquo;t work out I could always come back to hockey.&rdquo;Gobeil found training camp with the Titan difficult and then a shoulder injury only made things worse. But he&rsquo;s healthy again now and had one assist in seven games.Gobeil said the hitting in hockey is the toughest thing to get used to again.Sylvain Courturier, Gobeil&rsquo;s teammate in midget hockey at Richelieu, in baseball at St-Hubert and Laval&rsquo;s No. 1 choice in &rsquo;85, stuck with hockey and was the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; third-round choice last year. Gobeil would like a similar turn to embrace his fortunes.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m doing everything I can to get drafted,&rdquo; said Gobeil. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m hoping I might get another chance in baseball. I&rsquo;ll play junior again in St-Hubert. My arm is still good. But hopefully hockey will go well and I&rsquo;ll stay with it. It was a difficult choice to try baseball but everybody has to make a choice in their life sooner or later. I like both sports and wanted to give baseball a shot.&ldquo;I tried and saw what it was like. I have no regrets.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0030-03

Two-Sport Gobeil Returns To Hockey From Baseball

<h2>STANDINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01520/5197225-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="948" height="849"></div><h2>RESULTS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02359/5197218-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="462" height="925"></div><h2>POINTS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03264/5197211-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="444" height="611"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04196/5197204-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="254" height="269"></div><h2>HOME-ROAD RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05157/5197197-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="941" height="849"></div><h2>DIVISIONAL RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-06126/5197190-1-eng-US/f0031-062.jpg" title="f0031-06" width="935" height="412"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-07109/5197183-1-eng-US/f0031-072.jpg" title="f0031-07" width="945" height="395"></div><h2>TEAM POWER PLAY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0899/5197176-1-eng-US/f0031-082.jpg" title="f0031-08" width="963" height="668"></div><h2>TEAM PENALTY KILLING</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-0985/5197169-1-eng-US/f0031-092.jpg" title="f0031-09" width="957" height="669"></div><h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1072/5197162-1-eng-US/f0031-102.jpg" title="f0031-10" width="961" height="411"></div><h2>INDIVIDUAL LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1160/5197155-1-eng-US/f0031-112.jpg" title="f0031-11" width="974" height="850"></div><h2>DEFENSEMEN SCORING</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1239/5197148-1-eng-US/f0031-122.jpg" title="f0031-12" width="965" height="250"></div><h2>ROOKIE SCORING</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1332/5197141-1-eng-US/f0031-132.jpg" title="f0031-13" width="1284" height="297"></div><h2>ROOKIE LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1429/5197134-1-eng-US/f0031-142.jpg" title="f0031-14" width="1283" height="533"></div><h2>TEAM-BY-TEAM SCORING</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1526/5197127-1-eng-US/f0031-152.jpg" title="f0031-15" width="170" height="134"></div><h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1624/5197120-1-eng-US/f0031-162.jpg" title="f0031-16" width="948" height="673"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1722/5197113-1-eng-US/f0031-172.jpg" title="f0031-17" width="168" height="127"></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1821/5197106-1-eng-US/f0031-182.jpg" title="f0031-18" width="956" height="747"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1918/5197099-1-eng-US/f0031-192.jpg" title="f0031-19" width="169" height="131"></div><h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-2016/5197092-1-eng-US/f0031-202.jpg" title="f0031-20" width="945" height="403"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01549/5197085-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="984" height="248"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02399/5197078-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="176" height="135"></div><h2>CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03266/5197071-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="992" height="668"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04158/5197064-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="176" height="134"></div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-05103/5197057-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="978" height="696"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0679/5197050-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="174" height="133"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0766/5197043-1-eng-US/f0032-072.jpg" title="f0032-07" width="990" height="664"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0859/5197036-1-eng-US/f0032-082.jpg" title="f0032-08" width="175" height="129"></div><h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0949/5197029-1-eng-US/f0032-092.jpg" title="f0032-09" width="980" height="633"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1044/5197022-1-eng-US/f0032-102.jpg" title="f0032-10" width="177" height="130"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1137/5197015-1-eng-US/f0032-112.jpg" title="f0032-11" width="976" height="68"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1236/5197008-1-eng-US/f0032-122.jpg" title="f0032-12" width="984" height="619"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1333/5197001-1-eng-US/f0032-132.jpg" title="f0032-13" width="175" height="132"></div><h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1430/5196994-1-eng-US/f0032-142.jpg" title="f0032-14" width="982" height="695"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1526/5196987-1-eng-US/f0032-152.jpg" title="f0032-15" width="174" height="133"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1626/5196980-1-eng-US/f0032-162.jpg" title="f0032-16" width="987" height="699"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1723/5196973-1-eng-US/f0032-172.jpg" title="f0032-17" width="174" height="132"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1819/5196966-1-eng-US/f0032-182.jpg" title="f0032-18" width="980" height="692"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1915/5196959-1-eng-US/f0032-192.jpg" title="f0032-19" width="175" height="132"></div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-2014/5196952-1-eng-US/f0032-202.jpg" title="f0032-20" width="980" height="322"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-2114/5196945-1-eng-US/f0032-212.jpg" title="f0032-21" width="983" height="330"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-2213/5196938-1-eng-US/f0032-222.jpg" title="f0032-22" width="174" height="134"></div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-2313/5196931-1-eng-US/f0032-232.jpg" title="f0032-23" width="981" height="693"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-2412/5196924-1-eng-US/f0032-242.jpg" title="f0032-24" width="174" height="133"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-259/5196917-1-eng-US/f0032-252.jpg" title="f0032-25" width="981" height="642"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-268/5196910-1-eng-US/f0032-262.jpg" title="f0032-26" width="178" height="134"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-277/5196903-1-eng-US/f0032-272.jpg" title="f0032-27" width="984" height="699"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-285/5196896-1-eng-US/f0032-282.jpg" title="f0032-28" width="173" height="135"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-295/5196889-1-eng-US/f0032-292.jpg" title="f0032-29" width="981" height="697"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01494/5196882-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="174" height="134"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02349/5196875-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="996" height="669"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03250/5196868-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="177" height="146"></div><h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04193/5196861-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="988" height="724"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05160/5196854-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="175" height="131"></div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06134/5196847-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="993" height="648"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07121/5196840-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="176" height="136"></div><h2>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-08101/5196833-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="986" height="114"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0989/5196826-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="987" height="566"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1084/5196819-1-eng-US/f0033-102.jpg" title="f0033-10" width="177" height="136"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1180/5196812-1-eng-US/f0033-112.jpg" title="f0033-11" width="989" height="677"></div><h2>GOALTENDING</h2>ALL GOALS AGAINST A TEAM IN ANY GAME ARE CHARGED TO THE GOALTENDER OF THAT GAME FOR PURPOSES OF AWARDING THE BILL JENNINGS TROPHYWON-LOST-TIED RECORD IS BASED UPON WHICH GOALTENDER WAS PLAYING WHEN THE WINNING OR TYING GOAL WAS SCOREDEMPTY-NET GOALS ARE NOT COUNTED IN PERSONAL AVERAGES BUT ARE INCLUDED IN THE TEAM TOTAL AND THE SHOTISI IS INCLUDEDIN THE GOALTENDER&rsquo;S SHOTS AGAINST (SA) TOTAL (GP) GAMES PLAYED IN (MINI MINUTES PLAYED (AVGI 60 MINUTE AVERAGE (GA) GOALS AGAINST (SA) SHOTS AGAINST (PCT) SAVE PERCENTAGE<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1279/5196805-1-eng-US/f0033-122.jpg" title="f0033-12" width="1038" height="968"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1364/5196798-1-eng-US/f0033-132.jpg" title="f0033-13" width="1025" height="1514"></div><h2>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1457/5196791-1-eng-US/f0033-142.jpg" title="f0033-14" width="994" height="1106"></div> &#9632;

f0031-01

The Hockey News NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Nevin Markwart, LW, recalled from Moncton of AHL.BUFFALO&mdash;Bob Halkidis, D, and Paul Brydges, C, assigned to Rochester of AHL. Uwe Krupp, D, from West Germany, signed to NHL contract and added to active roster.DETROIT&mdash;Doug Shedden, RW, recalled from Adirondack of AHL. Joe Murphy, C, returned to Adirondack.HARTFORD&mdash;Yves Courteau, RW, sent to Binghamton of AHL.MINNESOTA&mdash;Larry DePalma, LW, recalled from Springfield of AHL. Chris Pryor, D, returned to Springfield.MONTREAL&mdash;Kjell Dahlin, RW, and Rick Green, D, signed to new two-year contracts. Dom Campadelli, D, recalled from Sherbrooke of AHL and traded to Philadelphia for Andre Villeneuve, D, who was on assignment at Hershey of AHL. Flyers sent Campadelli to Hershey and Montreal assigned Villeneuve to Sherbrooke.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Roydon Gunn, G, recalled from Springfield of AHL. Kelly Hrudey, G, signed new multi-year contract.NY RANGERS&mdash;Terry Carkner, D, Dave Gagner, C, and Chris Jensen, RW, sent to New Haven of AHL.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Brad McCrimmon, D, ended holdout and signed new one-year contract. Kerry Huffman, D, returned to Guelph of OHL.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Todd Charlesworth, D, returned to Baltimore of AHL. Alain Lemieux, C, signed as free agent from Swiss Hockey League and sent to Baltimore.TORONTO&mdash;Borje Salming, D, returned to lineup after completing eight-game suspension. Bill Root, D, sent to Newmarket of AHL.WINNIPEG&mdash;Peter Douris, RW, recalled from Sherbrooke of AHL. Tom Martin, LW, recalled from Adirondack of AHL. Peter Tag-lianetti, D, assigned to Sherbrooke.<h2>INJURY LIST</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Keith Crowder, RW, separated shoulder, and Mike Milbury, D, arthroscopic knee surgery. Crowder out three weeks, Milbury four. Michael Thelven, D, shoulder surgery, Gord Kluzak, knee surgery, and Louis Sleigher, RW, groin surgery. All sidelined indefinitely.BUFFALO&mdash;Clark Gillies, LW, and Shawn Andersom, D, back in lineup.CALGARY&mdash;Neil Sheehy, D, out indefinitely with dislocated shoulder.CHICAGO&mdash;Behn Wilson, D, sidelined indefinitely while recovering from back surgery.DETROIT&mdash;Steve Chiasson, D, out with bruised calf.HARTFORD&mdash;Sylvain Turgeon, LW, out day-to-day with abdominal muscle strain. Wayne Babych, RW, sidelined for rest of season with torn knee ligaments.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Dave Williams, LW, back injury, and Bryan Erickson, RW, strained knee. Williams out day-to-day, Erickson indefinitely. Phil Sykes, LW, out three more weeks after wrist surgery.MINNESOTA&mdash;Gordie Roberts, D, back in lineup. Kent Nilsson, RW, still out day-to-day with pulled groin. Neal Broten, C, dislocated shoulder, Steve Payne, LW, recovering from knee surgery. Mats Hallin, LW, knee ligament damage, Todd Bergen, C, abdominal surgery, Tom Hirsch, D, shoulder surgery. Payne out one more month, Hallin and Bergen two months, Hirsch and Broten indefinitely.MONTREAL&mdash;Rick Green, D, out day-to-day with cut eyelid. Bob Gainey, LW, sidelined indefinitely with torn knee ligaments.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Chris Terreri, G, out day-to-day with strained knee.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Billy Smith, G, strained back, and Greg Gilbert, LW, broken jaw. Both sidelined indefinitely.NY RANGERS&mdash;Raimo Helminen, C, back in lineup. Walt Poddubny, C, broken finger, out day-to-day. Lane Lambert, hip injury, Ron Greschner, D, broken foot. Bob Crawford, RW, sprained knee, and George McPhee, LW, separated shoulder. All out indefinitely.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Dave Hannan, C, sidelined day-to-day with bruised knee. Mike Blaisdell, RW, out indefinitely with separated shoulder.QUEBEC&mdash;Dave Shaw, D, back in lineup. Randy Moller, D, out three weeks with broken hand.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Bruce Bell, D, and Greg Paslawski, RW, back in lineup. Ed Beers, LW, back surgery, and Kent Carlson, LW, spinal surgery. Beers out indefinitely, Carlson for rest of season.TORONTO&mdash;Bob McGill, D, back in lineup. Dan Daoust, C, broken ankle, Rick Vaive, RW, pinched nerve in his neck, Jim Benning, D, reinjured groin. Vaive and Benning out on day-to-day basis, Daoust sidelined for three months.VANCOUVER&mdash;Rick Lanz, D, and Stan Smyl, RW, back in lineup.WINNIPEG&mdash;Thomas Steen, RW, bruised ribs, Hannu Jarvenpaa, RW, Charley horse, and Steve Penney, G, sprained knee. All out day-to-day. Jim Nill, RW, torn knee ligaments, and Perry Turnbull, LW, shoulder injury. Nill and Turnbull sidelined indefinitely.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>ADIRONDACK&mdash;Rod Schutt, LW, and Ted Nolan, RW, signed as free agents. Tim Friday, D, suspended for failing to report for medical examination after shoulder surgery.FREDERICTON&mdash;Jeff Prendergast, D, assigned to Peoria of IHL. Wayne Groulx, C, sent to Muskegon of IHL.ROCHESTER&mdash;Claude Verret, C, back in lineup after recovering from knee surgery.<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>KALAMAZOO&mdash;Neil Meadmore, RW, ended holdout and signed contract.MILWAUKEE&mdash;Christian Tanguay, RW, retired from hockey. John Hutchings, D, Bruce Cullen, RW, and Marc Damphousse, LW, released outright. George White, RW, signed as free agent. Flo Robidoux, RW, placed on 14-day injury list. &#9632;

TRANSACTIONS

<h2>AHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. NOV. 3)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01563/5197361-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="511" height="461"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDTUE. OCT. 28ROCHESTER 3 AT NEWMARKET 4WED. OCT. 29NOVA SCOTIA 3 AT BALTIMORE 6FREDERICTON 4 AT NEW HAVEN 6THU. OCT. 30NOVA SCOTIA 2 AT BINGHAMTON 5FRI. OCT. 31ROCHESTER 3 AT BALTIMORE 4NEWMARKET 4 AT NEW HAVEN 5FREDERICTON 3 AT SHERBROOKE 2ADIRONDACK 6 AT SPRINGFIELD 4SAT. NOV. 1NOVA SCOTIA 6 AT ADIRONDACK 7ROCHESTER 2 AT BINGHAMTON 1HERSHEY 4 AT FREDERICTON 3SHERBROOKE 3 AT MAINE 1NEW HAVEN 4 AT SPRINGFIELD 3SUN. NOV. 2BINGHAMTON 6 AT BALTIMORE 4FREDERICTON 4 AT MONCTON 3SPRINGFIELD 5 AT NEW HAVEN 4HERSHEY 5 AT NOVA SCOTIA 3NEWMARKET 1 AT ROCHESTER 5ADIRONDACK 2 AT SHERBROOKE 5GAMES TO COMENOVEMBER<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02440/5197354-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="493" height="115"></div>LEADINGSCORERS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03340/5197347-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="509" height="432"></div>TOP GOALTENDERS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04244/5197340-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="532" height="157"></div><h2>IHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON WED. NOV. 5)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05189/5197333-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="513" height="363"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDTUE. OCT. 28SALT LAKE 5 AT PEORIA 4WED. OCT. 29FLINT 6 AT FORT WAYNE 5KALAMAZOO 1 AT MUSKEGON 5PEORIA 3 AT MILWAUKEE 1THU. OCT. 30SAGINAW 3 AT SALT LAKE 4FRI. OCT. 31PEORIA 2 AT KALAMAZOO 4FORT WAYNE 3 AT MILWAUKEE 4SAGINAW 3 AT SALT LAKE 2MUSKEGON 3 AT FLINT 5SAT. NOV. 1INDIANAPOLIS 5 AT FORT WAYNE 6PEORIA 4 AT MUSKEGON 7MILWAUKEE 4 AT KALAMAZOO 2SAGINAW 2 AT FLINT 3SUN. NOV. 2PEORIA 2 AT MILWAUKEE 0FORT WAYNE 5 AT INDIANAPOLIS 4GAMES TO COME<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06162/5197326-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="546" height="885"></div><h2>ACHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON THU. NOV. 6)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07148/5197319-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="507" height="189"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDWED. OCT. 29CAROLINA 7 AT MOHAWK VALLEY 5THU. OCT. 30CAROLINA 5 AT TROY 3FRI. OCT. 31CAROLINA 2 AT ERIE 3MOHAWK VALLEY 4 AT VIRGINIA 9SAT. NOV. 1MOHAWK VALLEY 2 AT VIRGINIA 7LEADING SCORERS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08139/5197312-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="525" height="459"></div><h2>OHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. NOV. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-09126/5197305-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="513" height="490"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDTUE. OCT. 28LONDON 3 AT CORNWALL 4OTTAWA 5 AT KINGSTON 4BELLEVILLE 6 AT SUDBURY 10THU. OCT. 30OSHAWA 5 AT GUELPH 3HAMILTON 2 AT NORTH BAY 8TORONTO 5 AT PETERBOROUGH 3LONDON 0 AT WINDSOR 8FRI OCT 31CORNWALL 4 AT KINGSTON 6ETERBOROUGH 2 AT KITCHENER 2WINDSOR 4 AT LONDON 3GUELPH 6 AT OTTAWA 9HAMILTON 2 AT S.S. MARIE 3SAT. NOV. 1OTTAWA 6 AT BELLEVILLE 4KINGSTON 7 AT KITCHENER 4OSHAWA 3 AT TORONTO 1SUN. NOV. 2GUELPH 2 AT CORNWALL 3KITCHENER 6 AT LONDON 4BELLEVILLE 4 AT NORTH BAY 5PETERBOROUGH 3 AT OSHAWA 5HAMILTON 8 AT SUDBURY 3WINDSOR 4 AT S.S. MARIE 5KINGSTON 7 AT TORONTO 6GAMES TO COME<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-10123/5197298-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="545" height="1170"></div><h2>WHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON TUE. NOV. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-11114/5197291-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="510" height="470"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDTUE. OCT. 28BRANDON 1 AT CALGARY 7MOOSE JAW 5 AT PRINCE ALBERT 6SEATTLE 4 AT VICTORIA 7WED. OCT. 29BRANDON 2 AT MEDICINE HAT 7REGINA 3 AT SASKATOON 7THU. OCT. 30BRANDON 8 AT CALGARY 9VICTORIA 9 AT NEW WESTMINSTER 7FRI. OCT. 31REGINA 7 AT SWIFT CURRENT 6MEDICINE HAT 8 AT MOOSE JAW 7KAMLOOPS 8 AT SEATTLE 5SAT. NOV. 1REGINA 5 AT MEDICINE HAT 6SASKATOON 3 AT PRINCE ALBERT 4KAMLOOPS 5 AT PORTLAND 4SEATTLE 5 AT SPOKANE 8NEW WESTMINSTER 6 AT VICTORIA 5SUN. NOV. 2REGINA 6 AT CALGARY 4PRINCE ALBERT 4 AT SASKATOON 1MOOSE JAW 6 AT BRANDON 0MEDICINE HAT 6 AT SWIFT CURRENT 7SPOKANE 3 AT PORTLAND 5KAMLOOPS 11 AT VICTORIA 1NEW WESTMINSTER 6 AT SEATTLE 11GAMES TO COME<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-12110/5197284-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="548" height="738"></div><h2>QMJHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. NOV. 3)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-13101/5197277-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="513" height="369"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDMON. OCT. 27GRANBY 10 AT LAVAL 5TUE. OCT. 28HULL 2 AT T-RIVIERES 4WED. OCT. 29CHICOUTIMI 3 AT LAVAL 6DRUMMONDVILLE 6 AT LONGUEUIL 5SHAWINIGAN 5 AT ST. JEAN 4FRI OCT 31GRANBY 3 AT CHICOUTIMI 6T-RIVIERES 2 AT DRUMMONDVILLE 3LAVAL 3 AT LONGUEUIL 7VERDUN 5 AT SHAWINIGAN 14HULL 3 AT ST. JEAN 8SUN. NOV. 2LAVAL 4 AT DRUMMONDVILLE 8T-RIVIERES 2 AT LONGUEUIL 5ST. JEAN 6 AT SHAWINIGAN 7GRANBY 10 AT VERDUN 4GAMES TO COME<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1497/5197270-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="546" height="930"></div><h2>USHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON FRI. NOV. 7)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1593/5197263-1-eng-US/f0034-152.jpg" title="f0034-15" width="508" height="289"></div>GAMES COMPLETEDWED. OCT. 29ROCHESTER 4 AT THUNDER BAY 1THU. OCT. 30ROCHESTER 5 AT THUNDER BAY 3FRI. OCT. 31OMAHA 1 AT DUBUQUE 10WATERLOO 6 AT NORTH IOWA 4SAT. NOV. 1WATERLOO 5 AT DES MOINES 7SIOUX CITY 5 AT NORTH IOWA 4ST. PAUL 1 AT DUBUQUE 4OMAHA 2 AT MADISON 8SUN. NOV. 2OMAHA 4 AT ROCHESTER 13MADISON 3 AT ST. PAUL 4LEADING SCORERS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1692/5197256-1-eng-US/f0034-162.jpg" title="f0034-16" width="507" height="233"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

SCOREBOARD

f0035-01

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01441/5197811-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="171" height="174"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02318/5197804-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="171" height="174"></div>The health of Canada&rsquo;s national team is certain to improve next year&mdash;if for no other reason than the expected addition of a doctor to its lineup.Defenseman/doctor Randy Gregg, who has come out of retirement to rejoin the Edmonton Oilers, is intent upon representing Canada at the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary.Gregg, 30, recently signed a one-year contract with the Oilers&mdash;less than two months after retiring from the former Stanley cup champions.The intention is for Gregg to play this year for Edmonton and join the Olympic team in preparation for the February, 1988 tournament.Gregg played for Canada in the 1980 Games at Lake Placid.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m committed to the Olympic program,&rdquo; said Gregg, who added that playing for Canada &gt;again would be the realization of a longtime dream.His addition would be some-thing of a dream come true for national coach-general manager Dave King, too.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;He (Randy Gregg) is a very good quality player. And you&rsquo;d go a long way to get a player like that in your program.&rsquo; &mdash;King</blockquote>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very good quality player,&rdquo; said the coach. &ldquo;And you&rsquo;d go a long way to get a player like that in your program.&rdquo;Gregg, who was captain of the 1980 Canadian team, has a deep appreciation for participating in the Olympics and notes that his return would not be motivated by a desire to improve on upon the sixth-place finish at Lake Placid.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the natural impression of people from the outside,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The only way they can gauge an experience is whether you win or lose. I think you have to gauge an experience a little bit differently.&ldquo;The sixth-place (finish) was disappointing. We thought we could have got into the medal round and vied for a medal. But that doesn&rsquo;t belittle the unbelievable experience the whole team Bad.&rdquo;Gregg has been through a few other unbelievable experiences since then, playing on a pair of Stanley Cup-championship teams in Edmonton to say nothing of skating alongside Wayne Gretzky on a game-in, game-out basis.But he&rsquo;s anxious to once again play for his Country.&ldquo;I suppose the cliche of representing one&rsquo;s country is thought by people to be overblown,&rdquo; said Gregg, &ldquo;but when you&rsquo;re in the middle of Prague at a tournament and the people are cheering for you against the Soviets because you&rsquo;re from Canada, it&rsquo;s a pretty special feeling.&rdquo;Gregg, a member of two Canadian championship teams at University of Alberta, played two seasons in Japan before returning to Canada and joining the Oilers.In four seasons, the defensively-sound Gregg compiled 24 goals and 95 assists for 119 points. His best offensive year was in 1983-84, when the Edmonton native accounted for 13 goals and 27 assists.NOTES&mdash;Final details had not yet been released, but the Canadian national team will be meeting the Moscow Selects in a six- to seven-game tour from Dec. 5 to Dec. 13. Games will be played in the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario&hellip;The nats whipped the Canada West university all-stars 7-1 in a Nov. 2 game. &#9632;

f0037-01

Gregg Plans Return To The National Team

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>BUFFALO&mdash;Is Scott Bowman in trouble?It depends upon whom you talk to and only Scott Bowman was talking.The Buffalo Sabres are off to the worst start in their 17-year history, a 1-7-2 mark, this season.That record has produced nothing but questions for and about the Sabres&rsquo; coach and general manager. Questions that are being asked at the highest level in the organization.Neither Seymour nor Northrup Knox has made himself available for comment yet. Seymour, the team&rsquo;s chairman of the board and chief executive officer, was said to be out of town while Northrup was simply unavailable.The pair, however, did have a presence at the first practice after the Sabres returned home from Montreal, following their fourth consecutive loss on Oct. 29.Jean Knox, Seymour&rsquo;s wife, observed the entire workout. She declined to make public her feelings regarding the poor start, except to say that she was &ldquo;concerned&rdquo; and that her husband was &ldquo;definitely concerned.&rdquo;<h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01514/5197842-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="175" height="133"></div>Bowman, too, said he was concerned, but he also said he was optimistic. He also fielded a variety of questions regarding his future but insisted that he was under no mandate to produce in a certain period of time.Asked if he was under a much-rumored 20-game mandate to turn the Sabres around. Bowman said, &ldquo;No.&rdquo;He also said that he had not yet met with the Knoxes (regarding the losing record) and had not appeared before a recent board of directors meeting.It&rsquo;s believed the board met in the club&rsquo;s executive offices just prior to the back-to-back losses to Adams Division-rival Hartford.The Sabres lost both those games, 5-4 in Buffalo and 3-2 in Hartford. They then went up to Montreal where they played poorly in a 5-2 loss to the Canadiens.The loss to the Canadiens dropped the Sabres to 1-7-2 and kept them in last place overall in the National Hockey League.Through the first 10 games of the season it was the once-proud Sabres who were the only team in the NHL still looking for their second victory.All of which made for some tough times for Bowman.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been in the game 20 years,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you can make a judgment after just 10 games.&rdquo;But that may well be the case.The Knoxes wrestled all summer with the question of whether to keep or dismiss the winningest coach in NHL history. In the end, they sided with Bowman, but they made clear things were expected to change: fast.Northrup Knox said it was imperative that the team get off to a good start and that &ldquo;Scotty knows that.&rdquo;Bowman acknowledged he had hoped as much as anyone that the team would get off to a fast start, but he downplayed the significance of that failure and of Northrop&rsquo;s much-quoted statement.&ldquo;If that were paramount we would have played eight of the first 10 (games) at home or something like that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t comment on something like that anyway. I don&rsquo;t know what or how it was said.&rdquo;Bowman said his biggest concern now was not dealing with constant questions about his future, but with the future direction of the club.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had some serious disappointments, but it&rsquo;s a process in which we&rsquo;ve played 10 games and now we have to put those 10 behind us,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We would have like to have done better, but we have to go on from here.&rsquo; &ldquo;Looking at both sides I&rsquo;d say that if we can get out of this situation (losing) shortly, than we can get out of anything. Calgary last year lost 11 in a row and they ended up in the Stanley Cup final. I&rsquo;m not saying that&rsquo;s going to happen to us, but we have to work our way out of this.&rdquo;Improving Buffalo&rsquo;s defense is a Bowman priority.&ldquo;We kind of had our pockets picked there,&rdquo; said Bowman. &ldquo;He (Hofford) has been an important part of our game plan the last few games and we as a team definitely didn&rsquo;t realize they were going after him. I think those things will come though. We have to learn to build on the little things. That will come in time.&rdquo;The question is: will Bowman be given the time?SABREPOINTS&mdash;The never-cluing Rochester shuttle started up again, with defenseman Bob Halkidis and rookie center Paul Brydges going down to the farm. The pair join winger Norm Lacombe, center Doug Smith, goaltender Darren Puppa and defenseman Steve Dykstra. Scott Bowman was also expected to give veteran defenseman Phil Russell his outright release.Bowman had high praise for newcomer Uwe Krupp. The former West German national team member finally made his NHL debut in the Montreal game and earned the game&rsquo;s third star. The coach-GM also said he is certain that his defense is begining to come around and that he is now working on developing a line that will keep the other team&rsquo;s top scorers in check.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve got a handle on what we&rsquo;ve got to do,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s just a matter of going out and doing it.&rdquo;The Sabres certainly didn&rsquo;t do much of anything against the Canadiens in Montreal.They also seemed determined not to help one another as the Canadiens often took runs at players such as defenseman Jim Hofford and goaltender Tom Barrasso. &#9632;

f0038-01

Pressure On Bowman To Rejuvenate Sabres

<div class="byline">By Bruce Hood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02406/5197873-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="379" height="464"></div>Q: In a playoff game between the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers, a Montreal player took a shot on goal which hit the top crossbar and bounced out of the goal crease. The goal judge put the red light on at the same time the referee (Andy van Hellemond) waved off the goal and did not stop play. I would like to know why play was not stopped. I always thought that when the goal judge put the red light on, the referee had the last word on it, but play was always stopped.Allan Metzer,Freeport, NYA: In the instance you mention, the referee only has to acknowledge the discrepancy between his call and that of the goal judge. This does not necessarily mean the referee must stop play. If the puck didn&rsquo;t enter the net, he can simply wave it off and continue play. At the first stoppage in play, the referee will usually tell the official scorer/timekeeper why it wasn&rsquo;t a goal. An announcement is then made on the public address system.If confusion reigns as the result of a disputed goal and the players stop playing, for example, then the referee does have the option of stopping play and explaining what the ruling is. Basically, the choice is his, but he&rsquo;s not bound to do it one way or the other.Q: Here is a question related to sports from &ldquo;Trivial Pursuit&rdquo;: &ldquo;What sport requires the referee to carry a whistle and a six-foot metal tape measure?&rdquo; The answer, surprisingly, is hockey. But since when does a referee carry a six-foot metal tape measure, and for what reason? I&rsquo;ve been involved in hockey for over 20 years and I&rsquo;ve never heard of, nor seen a referee carrying a tape measure. Would it be to measure the length of a hockey stick? This is the only reason my buddies and I can come up with. Thanks for answering this puzzling question.Dennis J. Poulin,Prince Albert, SKA: In hockey, there is a rule in the book that says the referee must carry a tape measure. It&rsquo;s one of those rules that was put in years ago and has never been updated. When the curve in a hockey stick became such a big part of the game, it became necessary to do more and more stick measurements. One night, when a measurement was called for, no tape measure or stick gauge was available. So the powers that be quickly closed that gap. Today, a stick measuring device is standard equipment for all off-ice officials. It&rsquo;s usually kept in the penalty box. The tape measure is still necessary, though, in case other items have to be measured, such as ice markings, goalie pads, sticks (yes, their lengths) and other equipment.Q: Please help me settle an argument about the legality of the &ldquo;kick shot&rdquo;. I say that it is illegal for a hockey player to attempt a shot or pass by intentionally kicking the blade of his own stick. My friend says that no such shot or pass exists, and if it did exist, it would not be illegal.Steve Ford,St. Paul, MNA: A player can use a kick shot if he so wishes but the rule is that he cannot score a goal from a kick shot. This rule goes back a long way and in all my years in hockey, I have never seen a kick shot used.If you want your questions answered, write to:ASK THE REFEREE16 Martin StreetMilton, Ont.L9T 2P9All questions will be considered, but only those published will he answered-Personal responses are-not possible. &#9632;

f0038-02

ASK THE REFEREE

<div class="byline">BY LARRY HUMBER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01484/5197904-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div><h2>ACROSS:</h2>1. Nickname of Kansas City&rsquo;s short-lived NHL entry (6).4. Relays puck to teammate (6).9. Bodily poise (7).10. He led Canadiens with 274 penalty minutes last season (5).11. Ex-Leaf Thompson (5).12. He coached both the Kings and Rangers, Ron (7).13. Arena occupied by Flames during their time in Atlanta (4).15. Mark and Marty are Gordie&rsquo;s (4).18. Charlie Simmer&rsquo;s home-town, Bay (7).21. He was named the CFL&rsquo;s MVP the year Stan Mikita captured his third Art Ross Trophy (5).23. Where Washington wound up overall last season (5).24. Islanders&rsquo; new coach (7).25. Former Blackhawk Eric Nes-terenko&rsquo;s nickname (6).26. Ex-Isle Kallur (6).<h2>DOWN:</h2>1. &ldquo;Punch&rdquo; Imlach was this club&rsquo;s first coach (6).2. Ken Linseman was one before becoming a Bruin (5).3. He tallied seven times for Flames in last spring&rsquo;s playoffs (7).5. One-time Ranger rearguard Brown (5).6. First name of Whalers&rsquo; leading scorer last season (7).7. Hockey Hall of Famer Hartland Moslon was appointed to this government body in 1955 (6).8. Tom McVie was this club&rsquo;s first coach (4).14. This Toronto club captured the 1975 Memorial Cup (7).15. St. Louis Blues&rsquo; original owner (7).16. Nick Fotiu&rsquo;s birthplace, Island (6).17. Oilers&rsquo; Jari Kurri also excels at this sport (6).19. Pronovost once with Montreal (5).20. Devils&rsquo; home, &mdash; Rutherford, N.J. (4).22. Blues&rsquo; public relations director Mathieu (5).Crossword solution on Page 35 in the Classified Section. &#9632;

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November 14, 1986

Badgers Keep An Eye On Sioux, Gophers

NHL Games To Come

‘Mike Small’ Starts To Help Out In Big Way

50-Goal Man In Pittsburgh