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.

January 23, 1987

The Hockey News January 23, 1987

Doug King is a six-year-old who is playing his second season of organized hockey. A native of Toledo, Ohio, the 3-foot-10, 42-pound forward now resides in Chagrin Falls, near Cleveland.He plays for the Mite C division team of the Shaker Heights Hockey Association.A first-grade student at University School, Doug played right wing in his rookie season, but is now working hard to earn a spot at center.His favorite National Hockey League team is the Montreal Canadiens and his favorite NHL player is the Canadiens&rsquo; veteran defenseman, Larry Robinson.Doug&rsquo;s team is coached by his father, Douglas King Sr., and Doug Graham.Doug also enjoys woodworking and fishing&mdash;particularly on the French River, near Dokis Bay, Ont.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03354/5253889-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="554" height="1119"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug King</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

PLAYER OF WEEK TITAN JOFA

<h2>TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE&hellip;</h2>1. Name the current NHLer whose father, Ken, was general manager of the CFL&rsquo;s Saskatchewan Roughriders.2. Who set an AHL record with 11 shorthanded goals in 1982-83?3. Name the three Toronto Maple Leafs who were afflicted with food poisoning after eating at a New York deli in November of 1983.4. Which Montreal Canadien hails from Rhinelander, Wise.?5. Which NFL placekicker is a brother in-law of former NHLer Mike Rogers?6. Which former NHL coach holds the AHL single-season assist record?7. Who was the career goal-scoring leader in WHA history?8. Which current NHLer is the only player to ever win back-to-back OHL scoring titles?9. Name the only current NHL head coach to have coached a Calder Cup champion.10.Which IHL team plays its home games at Allen County Memorial Arena?<h2>BONUS QUESTION</h2>1. Rich Preston. 2. Gary McAdam 3. Gary Nylund, Terry Martin and Greg Terrion. 4. Craig Ludwig. 5. Eddie Murray. 6. George (Red) Sullivan (89 assists for Hershey in 1953-54). 7. Marc Tardif (316 goals). 8. Marcel Dionne (1969-70 and 1970-71). 9. Mike Keenan (Rochester, 1982-83). 10. FortWayne. BONUS: Armand (Bep) Guidolin.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04201/5254450-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="576" height="937"><figcaption class="caption-body">BONUS: At 16, this future NHL coach was the youngest man ever to play in the NHL.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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THN HOCKEY TRIVIA

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN Assistant Editor</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01192/5255437-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg" title="C0004-01" width="178" height="147"></div>TORONTO&mdash;Picture this, a water bug in skates on a frozen pond.Small skates, albeit, but skates.Then visualize Russ Courtnall darting across National Hockey League ice surfaces.See any similarity. Well, you should&hellip;because the Toronto Maple Leaf center has emerged as one of the NHL&rsquo;s very best little men.And it&rsquo;s largely the result of his outstanding skating ability.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know of anybody quicker,&rdquo; said Red Wing general manager Jimmy Devellano, two days after watching Courtnall deep-six Detroit with two goals in a 3-1 Toronto victory.That made it nine straight games the team scoring leader had earned at least one point.He extended the streak to 10 with three assists when the Leafs lost to Chicago Blackhawks 6-4, their first loss against Chicago after nine consecutive victories.At the 40-game mark, the 5-foot-10 native of Duncan. B.C., had 19 goals and 28 assists for 47 points&mdash;not far off career highs of 22 goals and 38 goals established last year in his second complete NHL season.Courtnall, 21, has blossomed in 1986-87.He has thrived under a heavy workload, killing penalties and contributing to the power play in addition to taking a regular shift.Coach John Brophy calls Courtnall his most consistent player.&ldquo;He hasn&rsquo;t stopped since training camp,&rdquo; said the first-year coach. &ldquo;And I hope he doesn&rsquo;t stop in the second half. I don&rsquo;t see why it should.&rdquo;If Courtnall doesn&rsquo;t, and continues to score at his first-half pace, the handsome center will wind up with 94 points&mdash;a fair jump from last year&rsquo;s 60.He will also add to a growing fan club, that included even a Los Angeles modelling agency which requested a picture portfolio last year.For now, however, he&rsquo;s content just adding to his point total and that of the improved Maple Leafs.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a talented individual who certainly deserves a fair amount of credit for the Leafs&rsquo; rise,&rdquo; said Devellano.Courtnall has improved substantially since Toronto took him seventh overall in 1983. He started well, accounting for 12 points in just 14 games after playing for Canada at the 1984 Olympics.But the following season, he man aged just 12 goals and 10 assists and many&mdash;believe it or not&mdash;wrote him off at the age of 19.That all changed in an eight-day period last November. Returning from a four-game lay-off with strep throat, Courtnall picked up three assists against the Hawks.Two games passed without incident. And then Courtnall exploded for three goals and three assists in a 9-3 win over Detroit.&ldquo;The turning point was when I got three assists against Chicago,&rdquo; recalled Courtnall, who looked upon the Red Wing roundup of points as proof positive he belonged. &ldquo;That made me feel the three points weren&rsquo;t a fluke.&rdquo;This year, Courtnall has fine-tuned his game, using exceptional skating skills to his advantage more than in the past when he was guilty of skating and then thinking, rather than the other way around.He is also using his Hound linemates&mdash;Gary Leeman and Wendel Clark&mdash;better, and getting more involved. penetrating the fringe and sticking his nose where previously he hadn&rsquo;t.Fifty-two penalty minutes was evidence of that.&ldquo;I think if I play aggressively in a game,&rdquo; said Courtnall, &ldquo;and I get more involved I come up with more loose pucks. I&rsquo;m not going out there trying to be chippy.&rdquo;Courtnall can hardly afford to spend too much time in the penalty box. He is a key member of one of the league&rsquo;s top penalty-killing units.&ldquo;I think he intimidates teams with his speed,&rdquo; said Brophy, who loves to battle man-advantages with his fast forward.Courtnall, combat-ready, had responded with four shorthanded goals.LEAFLETS&mdash;Center Tom Fergus missed his seventh game with a virus that had dumbfounded doctors&hellip;Mirko Frycer, meanwhile, remained side-lined with a knee injury and Dan Daoust had the cast removed from his broken left ankle. Daoust was several weeks away from a return&hellip;Center Peter Ihnacak, recalled from Newmarket in the American League, was playing well. His brother, Miroslav, also called up, had three goals in six games&hellip;Defenseman Todd Gill, who had a great start to his rookie season, was demoted to the AHL. &#9632;

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Speedy Courtnall Has Arrived With Toronto

<h2>Mon. Jan. 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01525/5255020-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="572" height="1526"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02414/5255013-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="558" height="456"></div><h2>Tue. Jan. 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03332/5255006-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="552" height="1082"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04253/5254999-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="554" height="1554"></div><h2>Wed. Jan. 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05178/5254992-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="546" height="1522"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06140/5254985-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="552" height="1560"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01493/5254978-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="582" height="1999"></div><h2>Thu. Jan. 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02341/5254971-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="557" height="1641"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03247/5254964-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="567" height="1795"></div><h2>Fri. Jan. 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04202/5254957-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="560" height="1834"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05165/5254950-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="591" height="693"></div><h2>Sat. Jan. 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06139/5254943-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="576" height="2937"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07123/5254936-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="564" height="3150"></div><h2>Sun. Jan. 11</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-08111/5254929-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="558" height="472"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0999/5254922-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="579" height="2733"></div> &#9632;

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NHL SUMMARIES

It took the darkness of Piestany, Czech., to illuminate much of what is wrong with international hockey.The sorry final minutes of the World Junior Championships were disgraceful enough without what followed&mdash;principally the International Ice Hockey Federation&rsquo;s bungling of the whole affair, both on and off the ice.First came the bench-clearing incident between Canada and the Soviet Union during the final game of the tournament Jan. 4. At stake for the Canadians was a medal&mdash;possibly gold. For the sixth-place Soviets, their wounded pride.Soon after full-scale hostilities broke out during the second period, it was evident that this was going to be treated as no brawl before.That much was clear when the officiating crew left the ice, leaving the entire scene unsupervised while IIHF president Dr. Gunther Sabetzki looked on in horror. Finally, in desperation, some fool turned off the lights&mdash;blackening the ice surface and raising fears for the safety of all players who were busy trying to blacken each other&rsquo;s eyes.Order was eventually restored on the ice but the calm never did make it to the boardroom, where the actions of the IIHF were every bit as emotional and unreasonable as those of the players.It was decided to throw both Canada and the Soviet Union out of the tournament. What the IIHF should have done was admit that it contributed to the fiasco by using an out-dated officiating selection process that risks incompetence in the name of neutrality.What the organization might also have done was follow its own rules&mdash;none of which call for teams being expelled over benchclearing brawls. A maximum of 10 game misconducts per team is what the IIHF rulebook considers appropriate.Sabetzki and the tournament directorate, composed of representatives with vested interests, could hardly dispense true justice. They decided to &ldquo;overrule the rules&rdquo; so abhorrent was the display. But throwing out the teams didn&rsquo;t end the controversy, it only guaranteed its renewal at the IIHF&rsquo;s next meeting in Vienna, where complete implications of the expulsions will be sorted out.As for the participants, neither returned home untarnished. Certainly, the unprovoked slugging of a Soviet coach by Canadian trainer Wally Tatomir and Team Canada&rsquo;s instigation of a pregame scuffle with the United States are not events of which to be proud. Just as the Soviets&rsquo; behaviour and decision to leave the players&rsquo; bench first harmed their reputation.It&rsquo;s embarrassing, too, to see the overreaction in Canada, where both the public and media are hellbent to create heroes and villains.The entire affair was distasteful.Now, it&rsquo;s up to the IIHF to erase the sour aftertaste by taking affirmative action&mdash;namely upgrading officiating, paying attention to the contents of its own rulebook and determining a more equitable means of resolving disputes.Then, and only then, will the black mark be completely erased from the 1987 World Junior Championships. &#9632;

IIHF BUNGLED JUNIOR BRAWL

In next week&rsquo;s Jan. 30th issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, we will take a look at one of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s most prolific and consistent goal scorers&mdash;Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders.This season&mdash;assuming he hits the 50-goal plateau, and that&rsquo;s a good assumption&mdash;will be his 10th consecutive campaign at that esteemed level.Find out what it is that drives the all-star right winger to new heights of excellence and why he is bound to go down in hockey history as one of the game&rsquo;s purest goal scorers.Plus, we&rsquo;ll present an advertising supplement that will feature a complete guide to hockey schools and camps, equipment buying and hockey conditioning.Don&rsquo;t miss all that plus much, much more in next week&rsquo;s Jan. 30th issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011308/5252700-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="348" height="473"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Dryden</figcaption></div>Each year our Al Strachan delivers a knockout punch with his announcement of Team Cementhead.It&rsquo;s determined by calculating the ratio of penalty minutes to points earned. The higher the better, uhh, the worse.Well, we think it&rsquo;s time those who&rsquo;ve chosen niceness over nastiness get some recognition. So, we&rsquo;ve come up with a team of first-rate players who combined productive play with pleasant on-ice demeanors during the first half.The friendly formula is the same as Strachan&rsquo;s surly scale&mdash;points to penalty minutes.Winner of the Marquis of Queensberry fair play award is Philadelphia center Pelle Eklund, who accumulated just one minor penalty to go along with 34 points in 38 games. That works out to a 17-to-1 ratio.Joining him on the forward line are two allstars&mdash;right winger Mike Bossy (47 points, 6 pim, 7.8-to-1) of the Islanders and left winger John Ogrodnick (35, 4, 8.75-to-1) of Detroit.On the blue line, Washington&rsquo;s Larry Murphy comported himself well within the rules with 37 points and just 12 points for a top-shelf defensive mark of 3.1-to-1. Joining him is Philadelphia&rsquo;s Mr. Congeniality, Mark Howe (35, 18, 1.9-to-1).Quebec&rsquo;s Jeff Brown (23, 6, 3.8-to-1) acu-tally rates out the highest but was eliminated by the minor-league exemption clause for spending time in Fredericton. And Montreal&rsquo;s Gaston Gingras (31, 13, 2.4-to-1) also fits in mathematically but there is a minimum standard of defensive competence that must be met.Finally in goal, cerebral Mike Liut of Hartford gets the nod with a 2.91 goals-against average and only two penalty minutes in 27 appearances. Other netminders had yet to be nabbed on any offense, however minor, but Liut&rsquo;s blend of excellence, workload and quotability quotient earned him the honor.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021066/5252693-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="726" height="982"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pelle Eklund</figcaption></div>As for a coach, rest assured John Brophy, Bob Berry and Brian Murray weren&rsquo;t in the running. Jack (Buffalo) Evans was a candidate but our Randy Smith objected.Ted Sator of the Sabres was also considered, in light of Stan Fischler&rsquo;s remarkable revelation that Sator is the only NHL coach who doesn&rsquo;t swear, but Pierre Larouche threatened to cancel his subscription to THE HOCKEY NEWS if we honored his former coach in any way.So, with no one else to turn to we opted for Dave King of Team Canada. Sure, he doesn&rsquo;t coach in the National Hockey League but he does coach a national team. And besides, there may be no nicer guy in hockey.<h2>Czeching The Sticks&mdash;Calgary Stickboy</h2>Now, this is a kid not easily intimidated.Mark Jacina, all of 14 years old, wasn&rsquo;t about to let television dictate his wardrobe during the championship game of the Calgary Cup.Stickboy for the Czechoslovakian national team throughout the tournament, he was faced with an unusual request Jan. 3 just before the Czechoslovakians and Soviets faced off at the Calgary Saddledome.&ldquo;The CTV crew was covering the game and when they&rsquo;d take a shot of the Czech bench, sometimes I was in there and I had my (Pittsburgh) Penguins&rsquo; jersey on,&rdquo; says the Grade 9 student. &ldquo;So before the game, a guy came up to me from CTV and asked me if I could take the Penguins&rsquo; jersey off or if I could close up my jacket.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure if he was joking but I think he was quite serious and I just told him, &lsquo;Forget it.&rsquo; I kept it open all game just to spite them.&rdquo;Jacina was chosen because of his fluency in Czechoslovakian. His parents, Lubomir and Irene, are natives of Liberec, Czech. Five times, Mark has visited his parents&rsquo; homeland.For the teenager, a week spent with the Czechoslovaks was like a sixth excursion&mdash;and one he won&rsquo;t soon forget.The players might not soon forget him, either, if he displayed the same poise behind the bench he did in his very first interview.Bob Pulford, take notes.Fast learning the international game of ice wars, Jacina complained about the apparent preferential treatment accorded Team Canada.&ldquo;I think they were playing a bit of favorites in the tournament,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The only pop they had was Coke and Minute Maid. They didn&rsquo;t have much Minute Maid so they only gave it to the Canadians.&rdquo;He was also unhappy about his team&rsquo;s cramped quarters.But most of all, he was happy just being there. It was pretty heady stuff for the versatile 5-foot-3, 90-pound Calgary city league forward.&ldquo;It was really tense, 3-2 and the faceoff in our end,&rdquo; he recalls of the final game&rsquo;s finish. &ldquo;Everybody was just shaking in their boots&mdash;umm, skates. Even with the coach (Jan Starsi), I could basically see nervousness written over his face.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03695/5252686-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="1493" height="2155"><figcaption class="caption-body">TV TURN DOWNMark Jacina, stickboy for the Czechoslovakian national team at the Calgary Cup, tuned out a television request to cover up his Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; jersey.</figcaption></div>Czechoslovakia hung on for the championship.As for his favorites, well, &ldquo;I gave (Jiri) Hrdina and (Igor) Liba special attention &lsquo;cause they&rsquo;re owned by the Calgary Flames.&rdquo;Cliff Fletcher thanks you.<h2>Extreme Equality&mdash;Norris Division</h2>Equally good or equally bad.Take your choice in the Norris Division, where only four points separated five teams at the midway mark of the season.&ldquo;I think I prefer to be positive about it,&rdquo; says Detroit GM Jimmy Devellano, &ldquo;especially with the trouble our division has had in the past.&rdquo;The positive was that all five teams were competitive. The negative was that none had surpassed the .500 mark.Should Detroit, Toronto, St. Louis, Chicago and Minnesota continue at their mid-season paces, the Norris Division will become the first NHL grouping since 1978-79 to be without a plus-team.Seven years ago, Chicago led the Smythe Division with 73 points over an 80-game schedule.Last season Chicago, St. Louis and Minnesota all finished over .500 but each of the last two years the Norris has been home to the league&rsquo;s worst team.In 1984-85, it was the Leafs with 48 points.In 1985-86, it was the Red Wings with 40 points.Neither team participated in the kind of playoff race shaping up this year. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just happy to be part of it,&rdquo; says Devellano, &ldquo;because we certainly weren&rsquo;t last year. We were so bad we should have been in the American League.&rdquo;There was no room for them there. Adirondack, Detroit&rsquo;s AHL affiliate, occupied the penthouse, winning the Calder Cup.Of course, just how good or bad the Norris will end up this year remains to be seen but at the midway mark, ironically, only injury-racked, last-place Minnesota had scored more goals than it had allowed.&ldquo;It would be hard to believe that nobody will go over .500,&rdquo; says Devellano. &ldquo;If not I think you&rsquo;ll see we&rsquo;ll all be a couple of games under .500. We&rsquo;re all so close. Maybe, we&rsquo;ll all finish over .500.&rdquo;That might be a touch optimistic.Only three times since the NHL increased from two to four divisions in 1974-75 has an entire grouping finished at or above .500. Last year&rsquo;s Adams Division, with a high of 92 (Quebec) and low of 80 (Buffalo), is the most recent.<h2>&lsquo;Being Intimidated&rsquo;&mdash;Art Berglund</h2>Quote of the week:&ldquo;I&rsquo;m tired of our team being intimidated by Canadians&hellip;We&rsquo;ve got to prepare our guys if we&rsquo;re going to interact with Canadians.&rdquo;&mdash;Art Berglund, Team Jr. USA, page 13. &#9632;

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Departments

According To Hoyle

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011331/5252731-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="178" height="136"></div>EDMONTON&mdash;You lose some&hellip;and you win some. Like on Sunday, Jan. 11.First, the loss&hellip;When the Oilers dropped by the Northlands Coliseum for their gameday skate, they discovered much to their chagrin that the Butch Goring experiment was over prior to study under a National Hockey League microsope.The 37-year-old deposed coach of the Boston Bruins had been attempting a playing comeback with Edmonton&rsquo;s American League farm team in Nova Scotia and was due to meet the parent club in Detroit Jan. 12.But he had a sudden change of heart. Instead of joining the Oilers, Goring returned to his home in Boston.&ldquo;I simply don&rsquo;t feel I have it any more,&rdquo; said Goring. &ldquo;I thought I might be able to work myself back to the point where I could contribute, but the feeling just hasn&rsquo;t come back.&rdquo;After Goring scored three goals and five assists in nine AHL games, Edmonton was optimistic the member of four Stanley Cup-winning teams in Long Island could contribute to another in Edmonton.It was widely believed mitigating circumstances played a role in Goring&rsquo;s decision. Those circumstances were, of course, the expulsion of Los Angeles King coach Pat Quinn for signing a contract to be president and general manager of the Vancouver Canucks next year.Goring, who began his NHL career in Los Angeles in 1969, was rated a strong candidate to replace Quinn&mdash;a job being handled by Mike Murphy.Should the events unfold as speculated, it wouldn&rsquo;t be the first time Goring rejected the Oilers in favor of the Kings.Back in 1978 while with the Kings, he was on the verge of inking a World Hockey Association contract at the Coliseum. However, Goring requested one call to then-Kings&rsquo; owner Jack Kent Cooke.Cooke offered Goring a then-unheard-of five-year contract worth $250,000 (U.S.) annually. The Oilers&rsquo; offer was said to be in the area of $150,000 (Cdn.).Goring headed back to L.A. and later joined the Islanders. He concluded his playing career with Boston and after he was fired as the Bruins&rsquo; coach in November, came up with the idea of a comeback in the Oilers&rsquo; organization.And the win&hellip;.Well, that was a 5-3 triumph over the Calgary Flames, to end a five-game losing streak against the team that ended the Oilers&rsquo; two-year Stanley Cup reign.When the contest came to an end, Steve Smith completed a formality&mdash;picking up the game puck before embracing winning goalie Andy Moog.&ldquo;No special reason,&rdquo; winked the goat of last spring&rsquo;s Stanley Cup playoffs. &ldquo;I just wanted to give it to a kid in the hallway.&rdquo;Of all people, Smith should have kept the puck for a couple of reasons&mdash;not only to serve as proof that the Calgary Flames need not haunt him forever for his fatal miscue April 30, but also as a testament for a defense that was largely responsible for tearing a bothersome monkey from the backs of the Oilers.The Oilers received four goals from defensemen, including the winner from Craig Muni midway through the third period.Smith inadvertently knocked the puck into his own net as the Flames won the deciding game 3-2.&ldquo;I think the big thing is we won the individual battles,&rdquo; said Wayne Gretzky, whose two assists gave him an eighth straight 100-point campaign. &ldquo;No matter what the game plan is, no matter what the coaches say, you have to win your individual battles to be successful. In this game we did.&rdquo;IN THE CREASE&mdash;Jeff Beukeboom, Paul Coffey and Randy Gregg were the other blueliners to score against Calgary&hellip;The Oilers lost Marty McSorley for 10 to 14 days after the spunky right winger suffered a wrenched knee in a 5-1 win over St. Louis Jan. 9&hellip;The Oilers headed to Detroit to start a five-game trip with five straight road victories. They&rsquo;d become the only outfit in the NHL with a plus-.500 record on the road (10-9).<div class="sidebar">&lsquo;No matter what the game plan is, no matter what the coaches say, you have to win your individual battles to be successful. In this game we did.&rsquo;&mdash;Gretzky &#9632;</div>

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Goring Gone, So Is Meddlesome Monkey

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>In junior, someone once wrote that Luc Robitaille skated slower than a Zamboni.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what they said all right,&rdquo; said Robitaille, smiling. &ldquo;They always told me I was too slow to play. That&rsquo;s why I worked so hard on my skating in the summer every year, to show them I wasn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Robitaille may never break the sound barrier with his speed afoot, but he&rsquo;s certainly been fast enough for his employers, the Los Angeles Kings.In a year of interesting rookie prospects, the Kings have two of the most developed: Robitaille and center Jimmy Carson.The two have been one-two in rookie scoring since the beginning of the season, reaching the halfway mark light years ahead of their nearest pursuers.The Kings didn&rsquo;t exactly find the pair in a cabbage patch: Robitaille, drafted in the ninth round of the 1984 entry draft, was the Canadian Major Junior League player of the year last year. Carson was the second player chosen in last summer&rsquo;s entry draft. As in all things, however, there are expectations and then there is meeting the expectations.Robitaille and Carson have met the Kings&rsquo; expectations&hellip;and exceeded them.The story of how King star Marcel Dionne virtually adopted the pair is common knowledge by now&mdash;how he moved Robitaille into his own home, how he arranged for Carson to live with his next-door neighbors and how he chauffeured them to and from the Culver City practice rink.Ultimately, however, the relationship has helped all three prosper: Carson and Robitaille because their adjustment proved to be smooth sailing; Dionne because the presence of two eager young players rejuvenated his career.&ldquo;On the ice, I&rsquo;d say we helped him little,&rdquo; said Carson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been doing this for 16 years. He&rsquo;s one of the all-time greats. It&rsquo;s possible we helped him off the ice because we&rsquo;re always talking hockey. It could have given him a lot of exuberance.&rdquo;Robitaille led all rookie scorers with 23 goals and 23 assists in the first half. Carson was right behind with 17 goals and 22 assists. With nine goals and nine assists in 13 games, Carson won the league&rsquo;s rookie-of-the-month award for December.Sometimes, the grind of the NHL&rsquo;schedule can catch up to first-year players&mdash;especially first-year players in Los Angeles&mdash;but both Robitaille and Carson say they can get better in the second half.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s always been my pattern,&rdquo; said Carson. &ldquo;Each level, I&rsquo;ve jumped to, it takes me a while to get adjusted, then I improve a little. I hope it continues.&rdquo;Perhaps the most well-publicized of the rookie candidates so far has been Philadelphia Flyer goaltender Ron Hextall&mdash;for good reason. Hextall was the American League&rsquo;s rookie of the year last year, but with Bob Froese coming off an excellent season and Chico Resch a secure back-up, chances were good that Hextall would serve another year of minorleague apprenticeship.That&rsquo;s not how it worked out. Flyer coach Mike Keenan threw Hextall into the breach in the season opener against Edmonton, and he responded with a win. Hextall just kept on winning and suddenly, Froese became expendable.Midway through the season, Keenan&rsquo;s move was clearly paying dividends. Hextall led the league in wins (22 in 34 appearances). The league-leading Flyers need to win a championship in the next few years, before production from Mark Howe and Tim Kerr begins to fall off. They think Hextall can be the playoff goalie they need to lead them to a Stanley Cup.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011211/5252776-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="716" height="1904"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02891/5252769-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="722" height="1678"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03624/5252762-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="1492" height="1542"><figcaption class="caption-body">Three of the leading candidates for the Calder Trophy this season are scoring sensations, Luc Robitaille, left, and Jimmy Carson, above, plus goaltender Mike Vernon, below.</figcaption></div>Perhaps the most well-known of the rookie candidates, heading into the season, was Calgary Flame goaltender Mike Vernon.Vernon actually played 39 games for the Flames last year, but since 21 came in the playoffs&mdash;he was the single most important reason the Flames eliminated Edmonton in last year&rsquo;s Smythe Division title series&mdash;he qualifies for the Calder Trophy.Ironically, Vernon&rsquo;s aim in his first full season has been to avoid the so-called sophomore jinx.&ldquo;Everybody had their doubts about me,&rdquo; acknowledged Vernon, &ldquo;waiting to see what I&rsquo;d do after the playoffs last year. That kind of ate me up all summer. I was disturbed by it. The only thing I could do was prove them wrong. Hopefully, I&rsquo;ve done that. Hopefully, I&rsquo;ll continue to prove them wrong.&rdquo;Vernon&rsquo;s 19 wins were second only to Hextail&rsquo;s 22. Moreover, Vernon effectively supplanted Reggie Lemelin as the team&rsquo;s No. 1 goaltender. That was a considerable feat, because Lemelin was the league&rsquo;s winningest goaltender over the last two seasons, with 59 victories.Two longer shots in the Calder race are centers Shawn Burr of the Detroit Red Wings and Brian Bradley of the Flames.Burr received a real chance to play when coach Jacques Demers took over the Red Wings and gave Burr the role of checking center.Though he has faced the top offensive players in the league, Burr&rsquo;s defensive play has been excellent. His offense&mdash;12 goals, 11 assists in 38 games&mdash;has been a pleasant surprise.Bradley&rsquo;s bid will be hampered by the fact that he joined the Flames a quarter of the way through the season. In the second quarter, Bradley scored six goals and 13 assists, virtually catching everybody in the rookie scoing race except Robitaille and Carson. However, he may have too much ground to make up to be a serious contender.On the down side, there&rsquo;s Joe Murphy. Murphy, the No. 1 pick in the draft, was supposed to be the one of the favorites. Instead, he&rsquo;ll be hard pressed to win the rookie award in the AHL, where he&rsquo;s spent most of the year.The Red Wings sent Murphy down for disciplinary reasons and kept him down because of mediocre play. In turning the Red Wings into a contender, Demers adopted a hard-line approach, one that&rsquo;s clearly working.Another highly-touted rookie, defenseman Jeff Brown of Quebec Nordiques, was banished to the minors but only temporarily. He was the top scorer among first-year defensemen with 23 points in 31 games.As predicted, the play of the two Czechoslovakian defectors&mdash;Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; defenceman Frantisek Musil and Washington Capitals&rsquo; center Michal Pivonka&mdash;would hinge not on their considerable talents, but on their adjustments to the NHL, which have been difficult.So who will win? Robitaille or Carson? Hex-tall or Vernon?Midway through last season, the Calder was a two-man race&mdash;between Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; right winger Kjell Dahlin and Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; left winger Wendel Clark. Gary Suter of the Flames ended up with the award. Which just goes to show, it ain&rsquo;t over until&hellip;weil, you get the picture. &#9632;

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Kings Fit To Be Crowned

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011393/5252807-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="337" height="473"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jay Greenberg</figcaption></div>IN VANCOUVER, YOU go to a hockey game in a taxi. The mountains are your backdrop, windshield wipers are your accompaniment, and a half-empty arena makes you think that if they weren&rsquo;t paying you to be there, you might not be, either.In Edmonton, you ride the LRT. You scan the station walls for a single obscenity and are impressed to find nothing. The ride is as quiet as a Northlands Coliseum crowd. We&rsquo;ve been to louder libraries.In Los Angeles, you bring your shades, get your wheels from Hertz and off you go down Century Boulevard without a care in the world. The hockey game tends to get in the way of a nice trip. &ldquo;Excuse me, Dudley,&rdquo; you say on the way to the press box. &ldquo;Yes, Vanna, the Kings don&rsquo;t look as good as you, but they certainly are improving.&rdquo;You walk right through a shopping mall to go to the game in Hartford, just like you&rsquo;re on your way to play PacMan in the arcade or something. And we have nothing against the hot chestnut vendors outside Maple Leaf Gardens, or that refreshing, minus-265 degree walk through the Met Center parking lot. These things are all very nice, but what we&rsquo;re really trying to say here is that it&rsquo;s not the same as a night at Madison Square Garden.Start spreading the news. I want to wake up in a city where they never sleep and where they always yell &ldquo;bleep.&rdquo; If you can make it through a game in New York, you can make it anywhere. That&rsquo;s &lsquo;cause you gotta want it bad.When you arrive at the Garden, you put one hand over your wallet in your back pocket, curl the other one into a fist, extend your arm, scream, &ldquo;You muthaaaa&rdquo; and fight your way in.No women. No children. No security. Hockey like it oughta be. The pantywaist Garden management insists on live anthem singers? The inmates just drown &lsquo;em out.Kitty Litter, the renowned star of stage and screen, now playing in the off-Broadway production of Let&rsquo;s Take Our Clothes Off, sings the national anthem. Of what country, we still don&rsquo;t know. There are 17,000 patriots screaming so loud, we&rsquo;ve never been able to hear a word of it.&ldquo;Potvin bleeps,&rdquo; scream the representatives from the Women&rsquo;s Christian Temperance Union who have filled the blue seats up near the roof. &ldquo;Dave Brown, eat bleep and die,&rdquo; is unfurled right next to Old Glory.Well, they&rsquo;ve got that creep Potvin pegged, whether the Islanders are playing here tonight or not. And they&rsquo;re right about those lousy, stinking Flyers, too, who have just taken a 1-0 first-period lead to the locker room. A wellheeled gentleman, no doubt a Wall Street analyst by day, leans over the runway as the visiting team passes underneath.&ldquo;Hey Poulin, Lindbergh&rsquo;s Dead. Lindbergh&rsquo;s Dead, Poulin,&rdquo; he yells. The veins in his neck pulse.Ron Hextall, however, is very much alive. And the loyalists turn quickly, screaming, booing, ridiculing the beloved Broadway Blues. It has already been established they don&rsquo;t like the Flyers much. Now they have no use for the Rangers either.It&rsquo;s 4-0 after two&mdash;and, alas, looking very much like the 47th straight year the Rangers won&rsquo;t win the Stanley Cup&mdash;when Tony McKegney scores.Then Walt Poddubny adds another, and James Patrick one more, and the Flyer slimes are cowering. Two fights have already broken out&mdash;not on the ice, but in the stands, where they belong.Alas, the Flyers hold on.&ldquo;Maggots,&rdquo; they are called, and charitably, too, as they leave the ice. &ldquo;Well, the third period was worth it,&rdquo; says a guy with orange hair and a black leather jacket, as he vanishes to wherever he came from. Or did he have black leather hair and an orange jacket? No matter, he&rsquo;ll be here for 47 more years if that&rsquo;s what it takes.The bad news is that this Garden, 20 years old, has a probable date with the wrecking ball. The land is deemed more valuable for high-rise office space and the seats are so far away from the ice nobody can see worth a damn in them anyway, so a new one is going to go up several blocks away. Down the old one will come.I&rsquo;ve got a better idea. Bury the whole thing, and the 17,000 persons in it, in a time capsule. That way, after the Soviet and Canadian juniors go to war again, and Gorbachev orders up the Big One, future civilizations will be able to see how we took our recreation in the ancient times of 1987.In 3500 A.D., the game will be played by robots, just as Ted Sator envisioned, and the Rangers will still be looking for their first Stanley Cup since 1940.Frightening, but interesting. &ldquo;But exactly what vacuums did this Potvin creature create?&rdquo; the conehead muthaaas will want to know. Let the dumb, civilized jerks figure it out for themselves.Some places have class. The Garden has crass. You don&rsquo;t like it, then buzz off, fathead. &#9632;

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Columnists

Some Places Have Class, Garden Has Crass

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021002/5252838-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="179" height="139"></div>CHICAGO&mdash;It took a record-tying performance by Al Secord, but the Chicago Blackhawks finally ended their nine-game losing streak to the Toronto Maple Leafs.Secord became the eighth NHL player&mdash;and fourth Blackhawk&mdash;to score four goals in a period, as the Hawks beat the Leafs 6-4, Jan. 7 at Chicago Stadium. The veteran left winger&rsquo;s second-period outburst helped the Hawks end a streak of losses which included the last three meetings of last season, a humbling three-game sweep by the Leafs in the playoffs, and the first three match-ups this season.Secord, who increased his goal total to 22 for the season, said the Hawks knew the time had come to end the streak.&ldquo;You could see everybody was stewing all day,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Everybody came into the (dressing) room pretty quiet. I knew we were ready.&rdquo;Secord scored his four goals consecutively in a span of 8:24, with the first coming 31 seconds into the period. His were the second-fastest four goals ever scored by one player. Wayne Gretzky scored four in a 1981 game, in a span of 7:58.&ldquo;I could kind of see it coming in the first period,&rdquo; Secord said. &ldquo;I was getting some good chances. Eddie (Olczyk) was setting me up.&rdquo;Olczyk was centering for Secord and right winger Mark LaVarre, who set club records for most assists (four) and points (four) in a game by a rookie.It marked another switch for Secord, who had been playing center for a month. This was his third game back at left wing, after scoring just one goal in 10 games.&ldquo;I know I&rsquo;ve been struggling,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t really been getting the shots.&ldquo;I think at center I thought too much about backchecking. There&rsquo;s so much to worry about, especially the endzone coverage.&rdquo;Secord went back to left wing Jan. 3 at Hartford, with a goal and assist in a Hawk victory. He played that game with Steve Ludzik at center, but a thumb injury to center Troy Murray forced another reshuffling of the Hawks&rsquo; lines. Olczyk moved back to center after stints on both wings.&ldquo;I was surprised that so many times the slot was wide open,&rdquo; Secord said. &ldquo;And the puck was available. Eddie and Mark LaVarre were getting it to me.&rdquo;&ldquo;That second period was like nothing I&rsquo;ve ever seen,&rdquo; Olczyk said. &ldquo;I grew up watching games here (in Chicago), and I&rsquo;ve played games in Moscow, but it was nothing like this. I was on the ice with a guy who scored four goals in eight minutes. Everything he touched went in.&rdquo;&ldquo;Four goals in a period, it&rsquo;s unbelievable,&rdquo; said Hawk goaltender Bob Sauve. &ldquo;Every time he shot, it had a great chance of going in. He&rsquo;s got a great slap shot and a great wrist shot.&rdquo;To Secord, it was equally important that the Hawks pulled within a point of first place in the tight Norris Division.&ldquo;We want a situation where we&rsquo;re a couple of points (ahead) in first place,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This has to carry over.&rdquo;HAWK TALK&mdash;A badly bruised right thumb ended center Troy Murray&rsquo;s streak of 238 consecutive games. Murray played three games with the injury before aggravating it in Hartford&hellip;Al Secord&rsquo;s four goals in 8:24 were a club record. Grant Mulvey scored four in 8:27, in the first period of a 9-5 victory over St. Louis at Chicago Stadium Feb. 3, 1982&hellip;After his big game, Secord needed one point for 400 in his career&hellip;The Hawks surged with eight victories in 11 games, and goaltender Bob Sauve started all 11. &ldquo;Everybody knows this hasn&rsquo;t happened to me too often,&rdquo; said Sauve, who has alternated with another goaltender most of his career. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just trying to make the most of it.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Secord Scores Four, Ends Slump and Jinx

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011241/5252869-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Quinn, expelled from the NHL, says there is more to his signing with the Vancouver Canucks than meets the eye.</figcaption></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Pat Quinn didn&rsquo;t say much, but expressed the confident opinion &ldquo;that I will be exonerated of all wrongful conduct.&rdquo;Meanwhile, Los Angeles King general manager Rogie Vachon felt he couldn&rsquo;t say much &ldquo;until the results of the investigation are in and a final decision has been rendered.&rdquo;Quinn was stunned, the Kings were dazed and the hockey world&mdash;if not the sporting world&mdash;was astounded and maybe a little bit confused.On Jan. 9, in an unprecedented announcement, National Hockey League president John Ziegler ordered the expulsion of Quinn from the NHL &ldquo;pending a complete investigation regarding Quinn&rsquo;s signing of a contract to become general manager of the Vancouver Canucks for the 1987-88 season and accepting money therefore while acting as coach of the Los Angeles Kings.&rdquo;Vachon later released a brief statement of his own, saying that assistant Mike Murphy would take over as head coach &ldquo;until this matter is resolved.&rdquo;Vachon said he was &ldquo;shocked,&rdquo; adding that there would be no further comment until the investigation is complete and Ziegler has rendered a decision.Still later, the Canucks released a statement saying they concluded arrangements with Quinn on Dec. 24, that would make him club president and general manager at a future date, and that they had informed the Kings of this &ldquo;on the next business day.&rdquo;That would have been Dec. 26.In the statement, Canuck officials said, &ldquo;Be assured that the Canucks&rsquo; arrangement with Mr. Quinn&hellip;does not interfere with Pat Quinn&rsquo;s current duties as head coach with the Los Angeles Kings for the remainder of the current hockey season and the playoffs.&rdquo;Two days after Ziegler&rsquo;s order, Canuck owner Frank Griffiths told the Vancouver Sun, &ldquo;There was a signing bonus of $100,000 U.S. It was paid to him after he had advised his employers (that Quinn was committed to Vancouver next season) and not before, and that makes it important to us.&rdquo;Neither Quinn nor his long-time friend and attorney, Morris Chucas, would comment on any specifics of the case.Ziegler turned the investigation over to NHL vice-president and legal counsel Gilbert Stein, who was expected to talk in person to all parties concerned. He was expected to travel to Los Angeles and Vancouver before reporting back to Ziegler.How long would it be before Ziegler&rsquo;s decision? &ldquo;My guess is it will take about a week,&rdquo; Chucas said.Quinn, on the verge of getting his law degree, is in the final season of his three-year coaching contract with the Kings.He guided the club to a 34-32-14 record in 1984-85&mdash;a 23-point improvement over the previous season. The club&rsquo;s record slipped to 23-498 last season, but the Kings had been coming on in recent weeks and were 18-20-4 when Quinn was disciplined.According to sources. Quinn had a clause in his contract that in essence made him a working free agent in either late September or early October.Neither Quinn, Chucas, nor the Kings would comment on the terms of contract.&ldquo;The way the whole thing has come out is not accurate,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m so anxious to get the whole story out. I&rsquo;m hampered in my ability to speak right now because I don&rsquo;t want to put the hearing process in jeopardy.&rdquo;Chucas said basically the same thing. He did say, &ldquo;The facts will show that Pat behaved honorably, intelligently and legally. He used an overabundance of caution to be well above reproach in order to do what he was allowed to do.&rdquo;Of Ziegler&rsquo;s action, Chucas said, &ldquo;Obviously, he thinks he&rsquo;s acting in the best interests of the league. I certainly have no quarrel with that. Nobody has done anything wrong. The conclusion is wrong, and all of the facts will prove that.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very, very unfortunate that a human being can be chopped up like this when he acted so honorably. I have every faith that the league will be honest in its disposition of this case.&rdquo;Ziegler, in his statement, said there was &ldquo;no evidence that Mr. Quinn has done anything other than to do his best to make sure that the Los Angeles Kings win every game they play.&ldquo;There is no doubt that Mr. Quinn honestly believes that this conflict will not handicap him in faithfully performing his duties to the Los Angeles Kings.&ldquo;However, there is a much greater responsibility that must be recognized in these circumstances. Competitive sports, and in particular professional sports, have the highest obligation of trust to each and every one of its patrons to assure the absolute integrity of the competition. This is the heart and soul of the business.&ldquo;This trust must be zealously guarded and protected at all times. This trust obligation includes not only guarding against actual threats to the integrity of the game but equally important, making sure that the perception of the integrity is not tainted in any fashion.&rdquo;It is still not known how, or when, the NHL found out about the deal.On Jan. 9, Murphy heard what he still considered to be a rumor on his car radio, while driving home after the Kings&rsquo; optional practice in Culver City.&ldquo;I think stunned is an overreaction,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m apprehensive, worried about Pat. This is not the way I would like to have become coach at all. As far as I am concerned, it&rsquo;s only temporary. He&rsquo;s still the boss.&rdquo;Kings&rsquo; management spent most of Jan. 9 behind closed doors. Bob Steiner, spokesman for California Sports, Inc.&mdash;the parent company of the Forum, Kings, basketball Lakers and indoor soccer Lazers&mdash;said that Buss met with Quinn, and that together, they spoke with Ziegler by telephone.Except for the brief statement in which Murphy was named coach, the Kings had been mostly silent.Amidst rumors that former King player Butch Goring, fired as coach of the Boston Bruins earlier this season, was going to be appointed the new head coach, Murphy and assistant Phil Myre were running the team.Injured defenseman Larry Playfair helped Murphy behind the bench Jan. 10 in an 8-5 loss to the Sabres, while Myre took notes from the press box.&ldquo;I had no time to make the mental adjustment myself,&rdquo; Murphy said after the game, &ldquo;and the players probably picked it up on the bench.&ldquo;Pat is a very well-respected and well-rounded coach. If you&rsquo;ve been around the guy, you know why. The players probably spend more time with him than with their wives and girlfriends, so naturally it&rsquo;s an emotional thing when the coach is here one moment and gone the next.&ldquo;We were a very close management team and we still are,&rdquo; Murphy went on. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll try to do the best with what we have. I&rsquo;m just trying to take it one day at a time. It&rsquo;s a distraction for the guys, but we all believe things will sort themselves out.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0007-01

Quinn Expulsion An NHL Shocker

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Despite the turmoil that swirled around his team, Los Angeles King coach Mike Murphy said he was confident the players would come through for him.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re a competitive and gritty bunch,&rdquo; said Murphy who replaced Pat Quinn&rsquo;s behind the Kings&rsquo; bench after the latter&rsquo;s expulsion from the National Hockey League. &ldquo;I have all the confidence in the world they&rsquo;ll continue to do well.&rdquo;Murphy was named interim coach after National Hockey League president John Ziegler indefinitely expelled Pat Quinn from the league. An investigation is under way.&ldquo;As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, Pat&rsquo;s still the boss,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m concerned about him. My heart goes out to Pat. I trust him more than I trust the report.&rdquo;There was speculation that Murphy would eventually be replaced as head coach by Butch Goring, the ex-King player and former Boston Bruin coach who abruptly cut short a comeback with the Edmonton Oilers after the Quinn news broke.The Kings were 18-20-4 at the time of Quinn&rsquo;s expulsion, battling the Winnipeg Jets for third place in the Smythe Division.They had missed reaching the .500 mark one night earlier, losing 5-4 in Calgary. At about the same time, it turned out, Vancouver radio station CFUN reported that Quinn would take over as general manager of the Vancouver Canucks next season.Rumors of that report began to filter around the Olympic Saddledome approximately an hour after the game. When asked about what was still considered a rumor, Quinn said that he had been contacted by a reporter (CFUN sports director Tom Larscheid) before the game and that he heard about it during a Calgary radio sports talk show.&ldquo;I have a contractual and moral commitment to the management and players of the Los Angeles Kings,&rdquo; Quinn said.Three weeks earlier, when Quinn was asked about new contract discussions with King GM Rogie Vachon, he said, &ldquo;Quite honestly, I&rsquo;m pondering my future&mdash;the overall picture.&rdquo; He didn&rsquo;t make a big issue out of it.That was on Dec. 16&mdash;eight days before the Canucks said they came to an arrangement with Quinn, that would make him GM and president of the team at a future time.The Kings&rsquo; players were taken by surprise, though Dave (Tiger) Williams&mdash;a former Canuck who spends his summers in the Vancouver area&mdash;later told the South Bay (Torrance, Calif.) Daily Breeze that he knew all along.&ldquo;We just have to concentrate on what we&rsquo;re doing,&rdquo; said veteran King Marcel Dionne after an 8-5 loss to Buffalo&mdash;the team&rsquo;s first game without Quinn. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s going to get worse, reading about it every day. We just have to look at it like the coach got fired and regroup. It&rsquo;s something we had no control over.&rdquo; &#9632;

Murphy Counting On Players To Regroup

I FEEL THAT the media has been portaying the NHL all-star balloting in the wrong light. Rendez-vous &rsquo;87 is simply a vehicle of Marcel Aubut and the Quebec Nordiques to upstage the rest of the league. The balloting indicates the desire of the people of Quebec to see their players (Quebec-born or Quebec-based) in &ldquo;their&rdquo; game.The absence of many of the big-name players in their rightful place in the balloting tells me that the fans outside of Quebec don&rsquo;t really care about Rendez-vous &rsquo;87. It would seem we are tired of being embarrassed by the Soviets in hockey.The NHL all-star game should be left out of this ongoing embarrassment.We all know the reason for this&mdash;the Soviets live to beat our teams. They train all year together and form a national team as cohesive as any regular club while we throw together teams in a vain attempt at trying to beat them.I&rsquo;m not saying we should do away with international games, but we should leave them out of the NHL scheme of things. As for the players, I&rsquo;m sure they would much rather opt for the traditional conference all-star game, where both teams go in under the same conditions. Let&rsquo;s not embarrass the NHL for the sake of Marcel Aubut and Quebec&rsquo;s combined egos.Ken Jamieson, Nepean, ON<h2>CAGE THE TIGER</h2>It&rsquo;s obvious to me that Dave (Tiger) Williams is a frustrated man. Compared to just about anyone else in the league, he doesn&rsquo;t have an ounce of talent. As a result, he thinks he should go out and hand out cheap shots.Hockey is a physical game but players aren&rsquo;t paid to go get an eye knocked out by some second-rate hockey player.Mike Brunicello, Lancaster, PA<h2>RANGERS ALL WRONG</h2>Much to the amusement of friends and acquaintances, I have been an avid fan of the New York Rangers for many frustrating years.It is extremely depressing supporting a team that builds through stop-gap measures, instead of through the draft (like the Oilers, Flyers, Canadiens and even the improving Penguins have done).While these teams introduce three or four future stars every season, maintaining a premier position in the standings, the Rangers draft a few more busts, then use the Band-Aid approach with the likes of Tony McKegney, Walt Poddubny, Kelly Kisio and Lucien DeBlois.A look at the recent Ranger drafts proves the point. Terry Carkner, Dave Gagner, Chris Kontos and Jim Malone are first-rounders who will never be better than fair-to-middling NHLers, while the heralded Ulf Dahlen has given no indication in Sweden that he&rsquo;ll be a star performer for the Blueshirts.Last year&rsquo;s first-rounder, Brian Leetch, is blue-chip by all accounts in THE HOCKEY NEWS, but with the Rangers&rsquo; luck, he&rsquo;ll decide he won&rsquo;t play for coach Tom Webster.It kills me inside to see the Rangers play .500 hockey or less every season and struggle against inept teams like New Jersey and Vancouver. I stare sadly at my Ranger jerseys in the closet and wonder if they will ever win a Stanley Cup or even have a decent regular season.It certainly won&rsquo;t happen unless the Rangers start taking the entry draft seriously. Their performance in that category over the years is the chief reason the Rangers are in the mess they are in now.David Crompton, Amprior, ON &#9632;

International Hockey Fine, But Leave NHL Out Of It

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011327/5252948-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div>Let your voice be beard. 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

FAN FORUM

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021098/5252979-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="393" height="445"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob McKenzie</figcaption></div>EVEN PAT QUINN recognized the irony of it.When Jay Greenberg, of the Philadelphia Daily News and THN, suggested to Quinn that his latest legal wrangle is really just another law school assignment to be completed before the expelled Los Angeles King coach gets his degree, he was heard to emit the tiniest of chuckles.&ldquo;He said he appreciated the lighter-side view,&rdquo; Greenberg related, &ldquo;but that it was no laughing matter.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s got that right. Not for him. Not for the Kings. Not for the Vancouver Canucks. And certainly not for the National Hockey League.When it became apparent that Quinn, under contract for the rest of the season to coach the Kings, had signed a contract and accepted a $100,000 signing bonus to become president and general manager of the Vancouver Canucks next season, he became the first coach in the 70-year history of the NHL to be expelled.Of course, Quinn&rsquo;s ultimate fate will be clarified after the NHL investigation is conducted. It was to commence Jan. 14 and take no more than two weeks.In the meantime, NHL president John Ziegler has made it perfectly clear how he feels about the situation.Expelled until further notice is certainly a strong term: Reports indicate that Ziegler phoned Canucks&rsquo; chairman Frank Griffiths to request that Quinn&rsquo;s GM-president pact be tom up. Griffiths refused.Naturally, we laymen are at a disadvantage.Thus far, Quinn and the Canucks have said very little except they&rsquo;re confident the investigation will prove that no one has acted illegally.Therefore, it&rsquo;s helpful to know what&rsquo;s legal and illegal.Since most of us don&rsquo;t know writ from wrong, though, we are prohibited from offering legal opinions.But since common sense is rarely a deciding factor in what&rsquo;s legal and illegal, there&rsquo;s no reason not to wade in with some common-sense views on the matter.For example, do Quinn and the Canucks really believe the only issue here is whether they acted legally or not?Ziegler, with his wide-ranging powers, especially those dealing with the integrity of the game, doesn&rsquo;t necessarily need a courtroom conviction to take action. Nor should he. After all, part of Ziegler&rsquo;s function is to help head off unwanted and unnecessary litigation through judicious use of his powers.Now, all reports indicate that Quinn is a man of integrity. Certainly, the L.A. Kings, who apparently were aware of their coach&rsquo;s deal with Vancouver, think so. How else can you explain their tolerance of the situation?And while the Canucks&rsquo; ownership/management team may be wallowing in new depths of ineptitude, you have to give them the benefit of the doubt. That is, they, too, were acting with complete integrity and motivated only by the desire to get a capable hockey man to run their show.Having said all that, the whole affair still stinks.It would seem that old maxim about not being able to serve two masters applies here. Especially in the same division.Or, as Ziegler so aptly put it when he announced Quinn&rsquo;s expulsion, the league must not only &ldquo;guard against actual threats to the integrity of the game but&hellip;&rdquo; of equal importance is &ldquo;&hellip;making sure that the perception of integrity is not tainted in any fashion.&rdquo;Unfortunately for Quinn, the Canucks and Kings, that perception has been tainted.One cannot imagine anyone, even the involved parties, disputing that circumstance. After all, Quinn&rsquo;s credibility may be beyond reproach but the next guy who collects $100,000 from one team while working for another may not be that squeaky clean.So whether it was legal or illegal doesn&rsquo;t matter. Therefore, Ziegler would seem to have little choice but to expel Quinn for the remainder of this season, heavily fine both the Canucks and Kings for fostering a situation that is untenable in pro sports and let them start anew next season.At least that is what common sense would seem to dictate.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

Common Sense Dictates Ousting Of Quinn

<div class="byline">COMPILED BY RICHARD BEALES Copy Editor</div>Ten days after they lost four friends and teammates in a Trans-Canada Highway bus crash, the plucky Swift Current Broncos were back in action.The Western League allowed the Broncos to postpone the four games scheduled between the day of the crash, Dec. 30, and the day the team returned&mdash;Jan. 9, against the Moose Jaw Warriors in Moose Jaw.Though things will never be the same without Trent Kresse, Scott Kruger, Chris Mantyka and Brent Ruff, the players were relieved to be back on the ice again.The Broncos lost a tight 6-5 decision to the Warriors, then dropped a 7-6 overtime game in Regina two nights later.Assistant coach Lome Frey was pleased with the spirit his players showed.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been playing pretty good and hard,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;with a lot of intensity. They&rsquo;ve shown a lot of courage.&rdquo;Two new players&mdash;16-year-old right winger David Aldred of Grand Prairie, Alta., Bronco property, and 17-year-old Blair Atcheynum from the Saskatoon Blades&mdash;were added to the roster.<h2>MONEY-MAKERS</h2>Mama, it may not be such a bad idea to let your sons grow up to be hockey players.Figures released by the National Hockey League Players&rsquo; Association, following a salary survey of its 198687 membership, reveal the average base annual paycheque is $163,727 for Canadian-based players and $155,513 for those playing in the U.S.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011298/5253010-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="584" height="702"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bernie Federko scored his 300th goal and suffered a broken jaw in consecutive games.</figcaption></div>The median salary is much lower, however. Half of the 455 NHLers surveyed made less than $135,000, half more.That&rsquo;s still a fair piece of change, though.Players are paid in the currency of their team&rsquo;s country.Goaltenders, as a group, are the best paid but only marginally better than forwards. U.S.-based goalies make, on average, $167,000&mdash;substantially more than their Canadian counterparts who average $153,077 in the devalued Canadian currency. Together the goalies average $162,886, in mixed Cdn.-U.S. dollars.Canadian forwards check in at $169,967, helped along no doubt by Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s enormous salary in Edmonton. He is one of the four Canadian-based players&mdash;all forwards&mdash;making more than $400,000. In 99&rsquo;s case, make that much more. Five U.S. forwards and two defenseman earn more than $400,000.U.S. forwards earn, on average, $157,433, for a mixed average of $161,265.Defensemen, comparitively speaking, are unappreciated despite the difficulty of their lots in hockey life. Rearguards playing on Canadianbased teams average $155,018, their U.S. counterparts $147,782. The blueliners collectively earn a mixed average of $150,124.<h2>WHO&rsquo;S GOT TICKETS?</h2>The great Rendez-vous ticket squabble is nearing a happy conclusion, assured Quebec Nordique PR officer Bernard Brisset.&ldquo;Right now it&rsquo;s about 99 percent settled,&rdquo; Brisset said, as representatives from the Nordiques and the National Hockey League Players&rsquo; Association continued the fight over availability of quality tickets.NHLPA rep Alan Eagleson said the players were prepared to boycott the two-game series (Feb. 11 and 13) against the Soviet all-stars, unless their friends and family were assured 1,000 seats in the first 20 rows of the Quebec Colisee.The NHLPA was allotted 1,000 seats&mdash;700 in the first 25 rows, Nordique president Marcel Aubut maintained&mdash;while another 400 were set aside for league officials.&ldquo;Propositions have been made for them to get the 1,000 tickets they claimed,&rdquo; Brisset said. &ldquo;The problem is the quality. Our season ticketholders were the first to get tickets and, like anywhere else, the season ticketholders have the best seats.&rdquo;<h2>FEDERKO BREAKS JAW</h2>The St. Louis Blues&rsquo; all-time leading scorer, Bernie Federko, was lost to the team for four to six weeks, after suffering two fractures of the jaw in a 5-1 Blues&rsquo; loss Jan. 9 at Edmonton.Federko, whose 300 goals and 885 career points include 40 in 40 games this year, suffered the injury when he was struck in the face by teammate Mark Hunter&rsquo;s stick.Federko entered the Edmonton game on a personal hot streak, scoring in nine consecutive games. Over the course of the streak, Federko scored three goals&mdash;including his career 300th in a 6-3 win over Hartford Jan. 7&mdash;and nine assists.<h2>SOVIET MIDGETS TOUGH</h2>Three Canadian midget all-star teams found their Soviet counterparts too tough to handle in a recent crossCanada tour.In nine games, the best Canada&rsquo;s three representatives could manage was one tie.The Soviets&rsquo; first three games came against Team Ontario. Though the Central Canadian team played a competitive brand of hockey, the U.S.S.R.&rsquo;s under-17s won all three, 7-4, 6-4 and 7-3.Team Western played the Soviets to a 6-6 draw in their first meeting, then dropped a pair, 7-4 and 8-4. Team Pacific followed with three consecutive defeats&mdash;5-4, 8-4 and 6-2.<h2>BARR TRADED</h2>St. Louis Blues sent center Dave Barr packing in a one-for-one swap with Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 12.In return the Blues received defenseman Randy Ladouceur.Barr, 26, had just two goals and four assists in 32 games with the Blues this season. The Red Wings are Barr&rsquo;s fourth NHL team.He&rsquo;s also played briefly for the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers. The trade reunites Barr with former St. Louis coach Jacques Demer, current coach of the Wings.Ladouceur, also 26, was in his fifth season with the Wings. He had collected three goals, six assists and 70 penalty minutes in 34 games this season. &#9632;

f0009-01

Broncos Pick Up Pieces, Continue Schedule

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011367/5253041-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="335" height="450"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stan Fischler</figcaption></div>If you happen to live in Philadelphia or anywhere within the nation of Pennsylvania, you already know that the Flyers&rsquo; Ron Hextall has won the 1987 CalderTrophy as rookie of the year.You also have been lied to by the Broad Street propaganda ministry. Now for the communique from the NHL Department of Truths:Ron Hextall is not the best rookie of 198687. Ron Hextall is lucky if he is the second-best rookie this year.I&rsquo;m sure you would like to know who are the best rookies, and I&rsquo;m not going to let you down&mdash;unless, of course, you happen to live within shouting distance of the Spectrum.Don&rsquo;t be absurd, you silly Philadelphians, the best rookie doesn&rsquo;t even live within 2,000 miles of the Keystone State. He&rsquo;s in California, of all places. The rookies are&hellip;(1) LUC ROBITAILLE: This 20-year-old left winger is really something. Unlike Hextall. blessed with a loaded team, poor Luc has had to carry the Kings half of the time. And what a job he&rsquo;s done. By the new year, he had scored 23 goals. Put Robitaille on the Flyers and his name becomes Mario Lemieux. (Are you listening, Mr. Hextall?)(2) MIKE VERNON: Apart from the fact that the 23-year-old Vernon is a better goaltender than Hextall, let us not forget that, yes, Vernon qualifies for the Calder Trophy even though he singlehandedly torpedoed the Oilers last spring. Ask Edmontonians why the Oilers lost four straight to the Flames and they&rsquo;ll tell you it wouldn&rsquo;t have happened if Ron Hextall was in the net.(3) RON HEXTALL: The jury is still out on the kid until he proves he can beat the Rangers in the playoffs and survive some pressurecooker games down the stretch. Goaltending maven John Davidson has some doubts about Hextall. &ldquo;He was okay at the start,&rdquo; Davidson explains, &ldquo;but he uses up a lot of nervous energy smacking the goalposts and nonsense like that. That could wear him down later in the season, and then let&rsquo;s see how good he is.&rdquo; Make no mistake; the kid is one of the best rookies&mdash;third best.(4) JIMMY CARSON: When a kid averages almost a point a game through the start of January, you know you&rsquo;ve got a prize-winner here, if not the CalderTrophy winner. Carson suffers from the same media drought that afflicts his buddy Robitaille.(5) JEFF BROWN: Some defensemen require six years to acclimatize themselves to the NHL, but this 6-foot-l, 185-pounder has done it overnight., even though Quebec briefly exiled him to the minors. Of course, nobody but Quebeckers have taken note because it&rsquo;s virtually impossible for a Nordique to get a fair shake from the media outside of La Belle Province. By January, Brown not only had become an impact player but had totalled four goals and 19 assists for 23 points.(6) BOB MASON: Just when it looked like the Washington Capitals&rsquo; goaltender was Joe Sieve, along came Monsieur Mason, who stopped the Caps&rsquo; slide right into the International League. Granted, he&rsquo;s not in the Ken Dryden category, but certainly Mason qualifies for the newly-minted Ron Hextall Trophy. If the Capitals stage a strong second half with Mason in goal, I may have to move this lad right up to third.(7) SHAYNE CORSON: This is one tough player. &ldquo;Away from the puck he does a very good job,&rdquo; say&rsquo;s coach Jean Perron.&#8227; He makes plays and gets involved.&rdquo; His numbers aren&rsquo;t in Robitaille&rsquo;s league but he has the kind of intangibles that make coaches drool.(8) POKEY REDDICK: Nothing against Daniel Berthiaume, but it would be hard to imagine the Jets as a contender without Pokey in the crease. He wasn&rsquo;t supposed to make the team and he certainly didn&rsquo;t look good enough to hang in there so long, but he&rsquo;s kept the Jets from becoming the Canucks and could very well turn out to be the real stuff.(9) BRIAN BENNING: I suspect that one month from now, Jim Benning&rsquo;s kid brother will be the most talked-about rookie of February. &ldquo;Rob Ramage&rsquo;s injury turned out to be a blessing in disguise,&rdquo; says former Blues&rsquo; boss Harry Omest.(10) SHAWN BURR: While it&rsquo;s all well and good to say that Jacques Demers has given the Red Wings respectibility, let&rsquo;s not overlook No. 11 on the Winged Wheelers. Demers hasn&rsquo;t. &ldquo;Shawn has been a key man on our club,&rdquo; says Jacques-be-nimble. &ldquo;He does a lot of things that other rookies don&rsquo;t do.&rdquo;(12) JIM SANDLAK: It&rsquo;s tough enough breaking into the bigs but when you have to do it on the Vancouver Bad Lucks, oivay. Nevertheless, Sandlak has comported himself with more than a little distinction as his commendable plus/minus suggests.(11) KARI TAKKO: The flashy Finn is no flash in the pan&mdash;and if you don&rsquo;t believe it, ask the Rangers, who have faced him twice within the past month and were robbed of games they should have won. Takko is a stand-up stopper who can dazzle you with a split save in uie manner of Hall-of-Famer Chuck Rayner&mdash;the best split man of them all. The kid also has a level head on his shoulders, and looks like the best European prospect since Pelle Lindbergh.<h2>30-SECOND THIRD-DEGREE</h2>Ken Wregget of the Maple Leafs, please take the stand:Q: Why did you become a goalie?WREGGET: Because my dad used to beat me and tie me to the net&mdash;just kidding. I used to play forward and I was doing well. But one of my coaches was in the league ahead of me, and kept throwing me in goal. There were a lot of goalies around and I couldn&rsquo;t figure out why he kept doing that.Then one day I went to a skate sale&mdash;you know, where everybody brings his equipment from the year before. I found a pair of goalie skates for only about $20&mdash;the old leather CCM goal skates which I still have. I dragged my Mom and Dad there and said, &lsquo;Dad, I want to play goalie this year.&rsquo; It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but I think it was something I had always wanted to do. Dad never said anything except, &lsquo;If you want to play goal, that&rsquo;s what you can do.&rsquo; So I got those old skates, and I played goal, and I liked it.Q: Do you have any superstitions?WREGGET: Yes, just about 100,000 little things (laughter). Like the way I tape my stick, where I set my pads in the dressing room&hellip;little things, that if they don&rsquo;t go right, it doesn&rsquo;t really throw me off, but it makes me think a little different. Like in warm-up, Bob McGill was just playing around and shot the puck. It hit me and then bounced out, and he kinda&rsquo; stuck me with his stick. I got all upset at him and swung my stick at him.It&rsquo;s sort of a superstition that I&rsquo;ve got to feel comfortable, and I didn&rsquo;t like him doing that. He knows my superstitions; I used to room with him. I used to watch cartoons the day of a game, while he liked to sleep an extra hour. There I&rsquo;d be, watching cartoons, but he learned to put up with me.Q: Do you find you can&rsquo;t enjoy being a goalie because of the nervousness?WREGGET: When I first came up I used to get upset because we didn&rsquo;t play well. When I didn&rsquo;t play well, we&rsquo;d lose&mdash;and when I did play well, we&rsquo;d lose anyway, but not by as big a margin. So it came to the point where I wasn&rsquo;t enjoying myself and I really started getting nervous. I wasn&rsquo;t relaxed and happy. I got sent down to the minors and got my head in shape. I said to myself, &lsquo;Listen, if I can&rsquo;t enjoy playing, doing what I like&mdash;and I know I love playing hockey&mdash;then it&rsquo;s not worth playing.&rsquo; I definitely wasn&rsquo;t about to quit, but I had to learn to love the game again. I think going down to the minors teaches a lot of guys to get rid of the pressure and learn to love the game again.Q: Who are the top five goalies in the league?WREGGET: Clint Malarchuk, Mike Vernon, Mike Liut, Ron Hextall and Roberto Romano. My idols when I was growing up were probably Ken Dryden and Rogie Vachon. &#9632;

f0010-01

Forget Hextail, Robitaille Is Really No. 1

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021047/5253072-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="176" height="137"></div>QUEBEC&mdash;The Quebec Nordiques, hurting badly at center through injuries and sickness, traded a bit of their future for some help in the present.Nordique general manager Maurice Filion sent his team&rsquo;s fourth-round pick in the 1989 entry draft to Winnipeg, for little-used veteran pivot Bill Derlago.Derlago, a native of Birtle, Man., has learned to keep his bags packed. This is the third in-season deal in two years for him. Early last season, he was sent from Toronto to Boston for Tom Fergus; half a season later, he found himself winging to Winnipeg for defenseman Wade Campbell.&ldquo;We were in urgent need of personnel,&rdquo; said Filion, &ldquo;but we had to be careful. We couldn&rsquo;t give too much in return, simply because we don&rsquo;t have too much in the first place.&rdquo;The Nords needed someone fast.&ldquo;With all the trouble we&rsquo;ve been having in putting the puck in the net,&rdquo; conitinued the GM, &ldquo;an experienced player like Bill Derlago could be part of the solution. He&rsquo;ll give us a little more punch on offense.&rdquo;But Derlago&mdash;a four-time 30-goal scorer in his heyday with Toronto&mdash;has had his troubles in that department of late. At 28 years of age, he should be in his prime. But he has moved around so much he seems to have left his scoring touch on the luggage carousel.A big scorer in junior with the Brandon Wheat Kings, Derlago was Vancouver&rsquo;s first choice, fourth overall, in the 1978 entry draft. After a couple of so-so seasons with the Canucks, he and Rick Vaive were sent to Toronto in 1980, for Jerry Butler and Dave (Tiger) Williams.He developed into a respectable scorer with the Leafs, but dropped off to 31 points in 67 games with three teams last year.The arrival of Dan Maloney in Winnipeg&mdash;Derlago&rsquo;s coach with the Leafs&mdash;was expected to help the center&rsquo;s career. But it didn&rsquo;t work out that way. With Dale Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen, Laurie Boschman and Ron Wilson ahead of him on the depth chart, he didn&rsquo;t get much of a chance to play.Derlago was very enthusiastic about the deal.&ldquo;It couldn&rsquo;t have come at a better time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t playing at all in Winnipeg this year. I dressed for 30 games, but my ice time was very limited.&ldquo;I guess I can&rsquo;t blame anyone in the Jets&rsquo; organization, because the team was playing well and already had four good centermen before I got there last season. Why change a winning combination?&rdquo;Filion assured Derlago of more ice time in Quebec.&ldquo;Sometimes a change of scenery helps a player,&rdquo; the GM said. &ldquo;Bill has moved around a lot in the past year, but he&rsquo;ll get a fair chance to show his stuff in Quebec.&ldquo;He wants to see more action, and he&rsquo;ll get all the ice time he can handle with us. For now, he&rsquo;ll help fill the void left by Dale Hunter&rsquo;s absence&mdash;and when all of our regular guys are back in the lineup, he&rsquo;ll give us all that more depth.&rdquo;Nordique coach Michel Bergeron also expressed his pleasure with the deal.&ldquo;We were asking too much from too few players, especially at center,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Peter Stastny is just starting to get back into shape. Paul Gillis is overused, and we&rsquo;ve just found out that rookie Jason Lafreniere has mononucleosis.In his first night as a Nordique, a 4-4 tie at New Jersey on Jan. 9, Derlago played a regular shift with Michel Goulet and even made a few appearances on the power play.NORDIQUE NOTES&mdash;Both Dale Hunter and Gord Donnelly have had their casts removed, and Donnelly has begun an intensive conditioning program. But Hunter, whose leg injury was more severe, has been taking everything, one step at a time. His leg muscles are still weak, but he is expected back sometime after Rendez-vous &rsquo;87&hellip;Rumors had ex-Nordique and ex-Red Wing Pierre Aubry returning to the Nords, but Aubry couldn&rsquo;t get out of his contract with Chamonix of the French League. &ldquo;He still has about 13 games to play in France,&rdquo; said Quebec GM Maurice Filion. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be back in our organization as soon as his season overseas is finished.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-02

Nords Hope Billy D Can Fill Gap At Center

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011246/5253103-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="180" height="137"></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;Those with an inclination toward paranoia surely could have detected a conspiracy in all of this.There were the Penguins, limping along at a 2-7-2 pace, suddenly denied the services of their most gifted player. Indeed, a man who is nothing less than the foundation of the franchise.Center Mario Lemieux suffered a sprained right knee when his skate became stuck in a rut in the ice as he was checked by Philadelphia center Ron Sutter in the third period of a 6-4 Flyer victory on Dec. 20.It was as if the fates which had bestowed a 7-0 start on the Penguins had decided an entirely different approach was in order, and more than a few observers expected the Penguins to plummet faster than Ronald Reagan&rsquo;s popularity.But with Lemieux&rsquo;s return imminent, the Penguins have managed to survive, if not thrive, in the crucible of the Patrick Division playoff race.&ldquo;I think the games they played without me, they played very well,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;They lost most of the games in the last minute.&rdquo;They were 1-3-3 in their first seven games without him, but two of those losses came in overtime.Along the way, the Penguins managed ties in Montreal&mdash;only their ninth point in 48 games at the Forum&mdash;and Buffalo and against the New York Islanders at the Civic Arena.Then came one of their most inspired&mdash;and inspiring&mdash;victories in recent seasons.The Penguins spotted the Montreal Canadiens a 3-0 lead in the first 5:32 of play, then reeled off six unanswered goals to end a winless streak which had grown to nine games.&ldquo;After the first period, we played as desperately as we have all season,&rdquo; Penguins&rsquo; coach Bob Berry said. &ldquo;And that&rsquo;s the way we have to play.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an unbelievably great feeling to win,&rdquo; said center Craig Simpson, who had two goals against Montreal. &ldquo;This has been building up for so long.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not so much that we got a monkey off our backs. We got a city off our backs.&rdquo;Particularly exasperating was the Penguins&rsquo; inability to hold late leads while Lemieux was out. If games were 55, rather than 60, minutes long, the Penguins might have made a serious move on the first-place Flyers during his absence.But they consistently played with the killer instinct of a sedated bassett hound, a shortcoming which was the most obvious manifestation of Lemieux being able to contribute nothing more than encouragement. There are times when tenacity simply cannot compensate for a shortage of talent.&ldquo;He is a clutch player and we do need him to score the big goals,&rdquo; defenseman Doug Bodger said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what he does best&mdash;get the goals when we need them.&rdquo;There was, however, only a minor crisis of confidence among the Penguins when they learned they would be forced to play without Lemieux for about a month.&ldquo;I think we knew we would make it without him,&rdquo; Bodger said. &ldquo;It was just a matter of working that much harder.&ldquo;Losing Mario was a big blow. We were really disappointed about it, but I think we&rsquo;ve done alright without him. We&rsquo;ve shown we can play without him.&rdquo;Strangely enough, losing Lemieux for so long just might yield untold benefits for the Penguins.While the other 19 players renewed confidence in their abilities, Lemieux received a rest which could be of monumental importance in the closing weeks of the season.In his first two years, Lemieux&rsquo;s energy level&mdash;and production&mdash;have dropped significantly in the final month.&ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;ll come back and have a lot of energy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I get back, I&rsquo;ll be ready for the rest of the season.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Left wing/center Terry Ruskowski was expected to miss a week to 10 days after suffering a sprained left knee against Montreal. The Penguins recalled center Jim McGeough from the Baltimore farm team to replace him&hellip;The Penguins attracted sellouts crowds of 16,0333 14 times&mdash;a franchise record&mdash;in their first 20 home games. &#9632;

f0011-01

Life Without Lemieux Finally Has Rewards

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02942/5253134-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="179" height="136"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;As the final 90 minutes of 1986 ticked away in the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; dressing room, Brian Hayward found himself surrounded in the dressing room.He had just finished a 28-save performance against the Quebec Nordiques, enabling the Canadiens to earn a split of a pre-New Year home-and-home series with a 4-1 win.A few feet away, team captain Bob Gainey coolly analyzed the play of the former Cornell University goaltender acquired by the Canadiens from Winnipeg on Aug. 15, 1986 in exchange for Steve Penney.&ldquo;I think he played spectacularly against Quebec tonight,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t surprised because he has played very, very well in a lot of the games that he has been in nets for us. I would say he was probably as sharp against Quebec as I have seen him, but I was not surprised.&rdquo;Indeed, Hayward may have been the revelation of the first half of the Canadiens&rsquo; 1986-87 season. More and more, he is being thrust into critical situations which most thought would be Patrick Roy&rsquo;s exclusive domain.In the first 40 games of the season, Hayward was 9-5-2 with a 2.83 goals-against average compared with Roy&rsquo;s 10-10-4 and 3.07 goals-against mark.&ldquo;I talked with some people who played against him the year he had the great season in Winnipeg,&rdquo; said Gainey. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a standup goalie and that works well with our club because our defensemen play defensive hockey and they clear rebounds. He stands up and sees the puck, challenges and I think he fits in well with the type of style we play defensively.&rdquo;Hayward&rsquo;s acquisition was made with a minimum of fanfare during the summer. At training camp, there was even talk that Vincent Riendeau would be Roy&rsquo;s understudy. One cynic wrote that perhaps Hayward and Penney would find themselves together in Sherbrooke, the American League farm team shared by the Canadiens and Jets.And while Hayward admitted he wasn&rsquo;t happy with the manner in which he played during the pre-season, he had to be pleased with how business went in the first half.Hayward says that he is performing the same way he did in Winnipeg during the 1984-85 season when he was 33-17-8 with a 3.86 average in the free-wheeling Smythe Division.Last season, things turned sour, which made Hayward expendable in the eyes of Jets&rsquo; general manager John Ferguson. He was 13-28-5 with a 4.79 goals-against mark.&ldquo;There were other factors involved in that,&rdquo; Hayward noted. &ldquo;The team just wasn&rsquo;t as good for one thing. Injuries were probably the most important thing in Winnipeg.&ldquo;Two years ago I think we lost one guy for 11 games. Last year we lost a lot of key people and maybe made a questionable trade, trading away our best defenseman,&rdquo; he said, referring to the deal which saw David Babych go to Hartford for Ray Neufeld.After playing only on a limited basis at season&rsquo;s start, Hayward&rsquo;s workload has increased.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a long season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;All successful teams have to have two goaltenders playing well over the regular season if you are going to end up in a position with the home-ice advantage in the playoffs.&rdquo;Hayward has made people sit up and take notice. He&rsquo;s not flashy or spectacular, just cool and steady&mdash;exactly what managing director Serge Savard wanted.IN PASSING&mdash;Left winger Steve Rooney was dealt to the Winnipeg Jets on Jan. 8. Rooney, the one-time Providence College academic all-American, had been in Sherbrooke since Nov. 13. Montreal received a 1987 third-round draft choice&hellip;Disappointing sophomore Kjell Dahlin, who had been given every chance to snap out of his season-long slump, will be out of action for the next six weeks. The frail Swede suffered knee ligament damage when checked at center ice by Jim Sandlak in the Canucks&rsquo; 3-2 victory at the Forum on Jan. 7&hellip;Defenseman Craig Ludwig&rsquo;s play continued to be closely scrutizined. Ludwig was being criticized for apparent indif-ference&hellip;Chris Chelios missed three games with a groin injury. &#9632;

f0011-02

Hayward’s Role Bigger Than Expected

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE Editor-in-Chief</div>Despite what most have been led to believe, the International Ice Hockey Federation does have rules to deal with bench-clearing brawls.And had they been applied on Jan. 4 at the World Junior Championships in Czechoslovakia, Canada and the Soviet Union not only would have been able to remain in the tournament, but would have finished the game.But IIHF president Dr. Gunther Sabetzki admitted he chose to &ldquo;overrule the rules&rdquo; in his campaign to expel Canada and the Soviet Union after a wild bench-clearing brawl during the second period of the final game of the tournament at Piestany.The expulsion cost Canada a medal, already having assured itself of a bronze before the Soviet game. It was in a good position to get either a silver or a gold. The Soviets, meanwhile, could finish no better than sixth and were trailing 4-2 when the brawl broke out.&ldquo;Yes (there are rules regarding bench-clearing brawls),&rdquo; Sabetzki said in an interview from his home in Dusseldorf, West Germany, &ldquo;but it was not possible to look to the rules.&ldquo;When 50 (actually 40) players are fighting, our rules are overruled. Never have we seen 50 players fighting. In my 50 years of hockey, I have never seen anything like that.&ldquo;The spectators were whistling and chanting, &lsquo;Play hockey, don&rsquo;t fight&rsquo;. It was an extraordinary situation.&ldquo;It was impossible to handle the game in the normal way. You can quote as many rules you want, but the chairman (of the directorate council, which voted 8-1 in favor of expelling Canada and the Soviet Union), had to act. The chairman (Sabetzki, himself) acted in the right manner.&rdquo;Because IIHF rules punish fighting by immediate ejection, the misconception arose that, since every player on the ice was fighting, it would have been impossible to continue the game.IIHF rules suggest otherwise.In fact, a section entitled &ldquo;Leaving the Players&rsquo; or Penalty Bench&rdquo; specifies the following:&bull; The first player to leave the players&rsquo; or penalty bench at any time during an altercation shall be assessed a double minor penalty and game misconduct. If players of both teams leave their respective benches at the same time, the first identifiable player of each team to do so shall be penalized under this rule.&bull; Any player or players, other than the first, who leave the players bench and incur a minor, major or misconduct for his actions shall be automatically assessed a game misconduct, which are not to exceed five, including the misconduct assessed to the first player off the bench.Therefore, the IIHF rules clearly state that any of the 10 skaters on the ice who were fighting would be automatically ejected. Then, when the benches emptied, no more than five more players from each team would have been ejected.In total, no more than 10 players from each team should have been ejected, leaving eight skaters from each side to finish the game.But Sabetzki entered the directorate meeting intent on ending the game and expelling the two teams.The only dissenting vote in the directorate meeting was cast by Canadian Amateur Hockey Association technical director Dennis MacDonald, who was Team Canada&rsquo;s director of operations.But even he admitted, on Canadian national television, that &ldquo;deep in his heart,&rdquo; he agreed with the decision.&ldquo;Dennis tried to convince them (the IIHF directors) to punish the original players on the ice and the first ones off each bench,&rdquo; said CAHA president Murray Costello. &ldquo;But Sabetzki, in his distraught state, obviously knew how he wanted it handled.&rdquo;&ldquo;I thought there might be a rule like, that,&rdquo; said Team Canada coach Bert Templeton when informed of its existence.&ldquo;I never dreamt that they could cancel the game and kick us out of the tournament. As far as I was concerned, it was up to him (Dennis MacDonald) to know that kind of stuff. He should be completely familiar with the rules and regulations. But he was so shook up by the whole thing&hellip;he simply wasn&rsquo;t prepared. He never even met with us before going into that (IIHF) meeting. Then, he came back and said that was it. It&rsquo;s all over.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011341/5253165-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="754" height="1078"><figcaption class="caption-body">IIHF president Dr. Gunther Sabetzki said that in 50 years of hockey he&rsquo;d never seen anything like the Canada-Soviet brawl.</figcaption></div>MacDonald made himself unavailable for comment. He did not return phone calls placed to him by THN.Sabetzki, meanwhile, said it was necessary to invoke stem measures to show the IIHF will not tolerate violent actions.&ldquo;It was very bad publicity for hockey all over the world,&rdquo; Sabetzki said. &ldquo;Parents see what happens&hellip;50 teenage boys fighting&hellip;and they will not allow their children to to be spectators at ice hockey games. It has ruined 10 years of good reputation for ice hockey.&rdquo;Further punitive measures may be taken by the IIHF 11-man council, which will meet in Vienna during the 1987 World Championships in April.IIHF vice-president Gordon Renwick, of Cambridge, Ont., isn&rsquo;t sure what the future holds.&ldquo;Knowing the IIHF and how it works,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;anything can happen.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a little hesitant to comment. For one thing, I wasn&rsquo;t there so I only know what I saw (on TV). It&rsquo;s going to be complicated, though.&rdquo;Renwick said as soon as the IIHF directorate expelled Canada and the Soviet Union, stripping them of their records and statistics, it set a precedent. Soviet officials, commenting on the expulsions in Ottawa, agreed that a bad precedent had been set.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s never happened before so I don&rsquo;t know how it&rsquo;ll be dealt with,&rdquo; said Renwick. &ldquo;Participation in next year&rsquo;s tournament is based on the previous year&rsquo;s record and finish.&rdquo;But Renwick suggested that if any good is to come of the Piestany Punch-up, it may be that the inferior quality of IIHF officiating has been underscored once again.&ldquo;When Canada plays the U.S. in a World Championship game,&rdquo; Renwick said, &ldquo;the Europeans cannot at all understand how the two teams agree to have a Canadian or American official.&ldquo;In North America, we operate on the assumption that referees, regardless of their background, are fair and neutral. That simply isn&rsquo;t the case in Europe.&ldquo;The IIHF is more worried about the perception to the media and fans. So referees aren&rsquo;t selected on ability, they&rsquo;re chosen on the issue of neutrality. Therefore, in an important game involving two hockey powers, you&rsquo;re likely to get an official from one of the smaller countries who may be over his head. It&rsquo;s an ongoing concern. This may help our cause, I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-01

IIHF Bypassed Its Own Rulebook

<div class="byline">BY BOB McKENZIE Editor-in-Chief</div>If he had to do it all over again, there is one thing Bert Templeton would have liked to do differently during the Piestany Punch-up.And he isn&rsquo;t even sure if it would have changed the outcome of the final game of the World Junior Championships between Canada and the Soviet Union.The game was cancelled before two full periods had been played and both teams were disqualified from the tournament.&ldquo;Ideally,&rdquo; said Team Canada&rsquo;s coach, &ldquo;I would have liked to be able to hold the players back long enough to see exactly what was happening on the ice.&ldquo;Maybe the situation could have been handled without everyone going over the boards. I don&rsquo;t know. All I do know is that if you see one of your players being beaten up by two or three Russians, you&rsquo;ve got to do something about it.&ldquo;I tried to hold the players back. But as soon as those first few Soviets went over the boards, there was no way to stop our guys from going, too. It was an unavoidable situation.&rdquo;As a result, Templeton and his players have been branded everything from heroes to villains. He suggested they may be victims.Assistant coach Pat Bums, whose game plan was to taunt Soviet coach Vladimir Vasiliev, and trainer Wally Tatomir, who admitted to slugging a Soviet coach, might not so easily fit into that category.&ldquo;I have to laugh when I read or hear people talk about this team and how we showed no discipline,&rdquo; Templeton said. &ldquo;We were a very disciplined team. We knew the game against the Soviets was going to be difficult from the point of view that they had nothing to lose and we did.&ldquo;We conditioned ourselves not to take reaction penalties. But never did we think it would come down to a bench-clearing. But it did.&rdquo;The Soviets, themselves, did not blame Canada for the brawl&mdash;instead, concentrating their remarks on the questionable officiating of Norwegian referee Hans Ronning and the emotion of the moment.Templeton said he&rsquo;ll get over being legislated out of the medals, but won&rsquo;t soon forget the lack of support for him and his team from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association.Immediately following the tournament, CAHA technical director Dennis MacDonald, Team Canada&rsquo;s director of operations, placed much of the blame for Canada&rsquo;s disqualification on the Templeton-led coaching staff.&ldquo;It would have been better had Dennis not said anything,&rdquo; said CAHA president Murray Costello. &ldquo;All I can say is that when a member of the CAHA criticizes the coaching staff, he is in effect criticizing himself because the CAHA is ultimately responsible for the selection and approval of the coach.&rdquo;&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the hardest thing to swallow,&rdquo; Templeton said of the CAHA stance. &ldquo;We went over there with a very young team. No one was giving us a chance, but we were in a position to win the gold medal.&ldquo;And what really bugs me is there has never been one word of compliment from the CAHA to the players or coaching staff.&rdquo;In fact, Templeton said MacDonald&rsquo;s only words to the players and him following the debacle were to tell them they were out of the tournament.&ldquo;He told me in the hall that it was all over,&rdquo; Templeton recalled. &ldquo;He (MacDonald) went into the dressing room. He told the players the game was a disgrace, that they were a disgrace to their country and to take off their sweaters, they&rsquo;d been kicked out of the tournament.&rdquo;MacDonald did not return phone calls from THN.The Canada-Soviet brawl wasn&rsquo;t the only incident involving Templeton&rsquo;s team. Earlier in the tourney, there were pre-game fights in the warm-up against Team USA.&ldquo;There were really only two fights,&rdquo; Templeton said of the incident that started when Team Canada goalie Shawn Simpson used his stick to whack U.S. player Bob Corkum for crossing the center red line during warm-up. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t nearly as big a deal as some people made it out to be.&rdquo;But Team USA general manager Art Berglund suggested it was a premeditated intimidation tactic and vowed his program would start conditioning its players to respond more forcefully.&ldquo;Canada had every intention to intimidate us and it worked,&rdquo; said Berglund. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m tired of our team being intimidated by Canada. If we have to, we&rsquo;ll start patrolling the red line in warm-up.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to start preparing our guys if we&rsquo;re going to interact with Canadians. Canada uses intimidation as a great competitive tool.&rdquo; &#9632;

Templeton Calls Brawl ‘Unavoidable’

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>A well-placed NHL source tells BLUELINES that the Knox family would entertain a sales pitch for the Buffalo Sabres. The tipster adds that at least one nibble has been made, but nothing came of it. There&rsquo;s also talk that the Jacobs family would not be adverse to parting with the Bruins&mdash;as long as they can hold on to Boston Garden concessions. Both teams deny sales are in the offing&hellip;Boston mayor Raymond Flynn tells friends privately that he never meant to cause the flap about sending police on Boston Garden ice in the event of a hockey brawl. Mayor Flynn insists that he made his comments &ldquo;off the record&rdquo; but they were overheard &ldquo;and the next thing I knew, the TV cameras were on my lawn.&rdquo; A meeting between the mayor and NHL board of governors chairman Bill Wirtz may be in the offing to hash out the problem.Although he had a parting of the ways with Scott Bowman, Penguin assistant coach Jimmy Roberts tells BLUELINES he&rsquo;s not gloating about Bowman&rsquo;s unemployment. &ldquo;You hate to see anybody lose his job in this game,&rdquo; says Roberts. &ldquo;One of the Sabres&rsquo; problems was that they never finished low enough in the standings to get the very top draft choices. As a result, they never got a &lsquo;franchise&rsquo; player like Mario Lemieux and it&rsquo;s finally caught up to them.&rdquo;&hellip;The Islanders&rsquo; Kelly Hrudey replaced his old-$50 mask with a new $500 job. At first Hrudey planned to continue using the old helmet and birdcage until someone mentioned the price of the new protector. &ldquo;Geez,&rdquo; said Hrudey, &ldquo;then I&rsquo;d better use the new one!&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011317/5253227-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="358" height="616"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kelly Hrudey</figcaption></div>Composer Marvin Hamlisch is a hockey nut and recently showed up at a Madison Square Garden match in a tuxedo&hellip;An NHL fiscal filbert tells BLUELINES that the 1986 player-owner pact has boosted NHL costs more than 15 per cent across the board&hellip;The Montreal Gazette&rsquo;s&nbsp;Tim Burke lists the following, among others, as non-habit-forming ways to beat insomnia: &ldquo;Howie Meeker, an update on the Vancouver Canucks, the latest excuse for the Minnesota North Stars and a night at Maple Leaf Gardens.&rdquo;&hellip;TV star Richard Dean Anderson of the series MacGyver tells BLUELINES it&rsquo;s becoming easier to root for the L.A. Kings. &ldquo;In the past few years,&rdquo; says Anderson, a former hockey player, &ldquo;we&rsquo;d go to the Kings games to see the other teams.&rdquo; Anderson&mdash;whose employer, Paramount Pictures, is owned by Gulf and Western, as are the Rangers&mdash;recently skated with the Blueshirts.THE HOCKEY NEWS founder and longtime publisher Ken McKenzie (no relation to editor Bob McKenzie) now owns the Ontario Golf News, published five times during the golfing season&hellip;Ted Sator is the only NHL coach who doesn&rsquo;t curse&hellip;Those who know Craig Ramsay say it&rsquo;s a mistake to think that he wanted to give up the Sabres&rsquo; coaching job&hellip;The Red Wings&rsquo; Jacques Demers is tickled with the play of veteran Harold Snepsts but admits he loathed the big guy in the past. &ldquo;I started disliking Harold when he was with Minnesota,&rdquo; says Demers. &ldquo;He was the one responsible for us (the Blues) getting beat. He clutched and grabbed and got involved. It distracted people.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021033/5253220-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="364" height="628"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Watt</figcaption></div>Tom Watt&rsquo;s future as the Canucks&rsquo; coach continues to be a live subject in Vancouver. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a Canada Cup ring,&rdquo; says Watt. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a silver medal at the World Championships. I&rsquo;ve been coach of the year in both the NHL and college sport. I know my business.&rdquo; Watt was named top coach for both the Winnipeg Jets and University of Toronto Blues. Vancouver Sun reporter Mike Beamish is among those to feel his wrath. Watt finds himself being pulled two ways by the media. &ldquo;After we lost 8-5 to the Rangers, Dave Hodge said to me, right on the air, &lsquo;Well, you don&rsquo;t seem too upset by the loss.&rsquo; One time I don&rsquo;t get upset and it&rsquo;s a big deal. The other time I get upset and it&rsquo;s a big deal, too. I tell you, I just can&rsquo;t win.&rdquo;Fractious Shayne Corson, coveted by many clubs, is virtually a Canadiens&rsquo; untouchable&hellip;The Kings&rsquo; burdensome cross-country travel is regarded as one of the club&rsquo;s major problems, yet no help is in sight, a fact accepted by coach Pat Quinn. &ldquo;The league says it needs Los Angeles to be a true national league,&rdquo; says Quinn, &ldquo;but will they help (us) out? No way. The league has to rectify what is a serious disadvantage to our team and that&rsquo;s the travel.&rdquo;&hellip;Asked to pick his &lsquo;Dream Flyers Team,&rsquo; GM Bob Clarke names Rick MacLeish, Bill Barber, Reg Leach, Mark Howe and Ed Van Impe. &ldquo;There are a lot of other guys too&mdash;Jimmy Watson, Joe Watson, Barry Ashbee and Bernie Parent in goal.&rdquo; And one other&mdash;Clarke, who won three Hart Trophies as the NHL&rsquo;s most valuable player. &#9632;

f0014-01

Sabres And Bruins Rumored For Sale

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03724/5253258-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="180" height="140"></div>BUFFALO&mdash;Steve Dykstra knew the question was coming.And he was ready for it.&ldquo;I knew I would have to deal with this sooner or later,&rdquo; the big Buffalo Sabre defenseman said when the question&mdash;concerning the accident&mdash;came up.Last August, a vehicle Dykstra was operating near his home in Amherst, N.Y., left the road, flipped over several times and was demolished. Dykstra suffered multiple injuries that left him hospitalized for nearly two weeks and caused him to miss all of training camp, severely retarding a promising National Hockey League career.The crash could easily have killed him.&ldquo;The only thing I can say is that I made a mistake,&rdquo; said Dykstra. &ldquo;The fortunate thing is that I didn&rsquo;t hurt anyone but myself.&rdquo;In the aftermath, Dykstra was charged with driving while intoxicated. It&rsquo;s a charge that has changed his life&mdash;legally, professionally and morally.&ldquo;I like to feel that that is in my past,&rdquo; he said, shortly after the Sabres recalled him from Rochester of the American League. &ldquo;I know I still have to deal with it, but I think of it as a mistake I made in my past. I did something. It was a mistake. I learned from it and I hope others learned from it.&rdquo;A little more than a year ago, Dykstra played himself into a prominent role with the Sabres. He was a freeagent defenseman who had grabbed a regular spot in the Buffalo lineup.Both he and the team got off to a good start and Dykstra was being touted by then-Sabre coach Jim Schoenfeld as the find of training camp.A big, tough guy who could move players and pucks, he was a regular part of the Sabres&rsquo; defensive scheme. At season&rsquo;s end, he was voted the team&rsquo;s rookie of the year.On the surface, it all looked good. The reality, was a very different story. Schoenfeld was fired and Dykstra began a long slow skid that eventually found him taking in games from the press box.&ldquo;The end of the year was certainly a disappointment for me,&rdquo; said the 25-year-old Edmonton native. &ldquo;I wanted to play, I wanted to help the team on the ice, but I sort of dimmed. I can&rsquo;t blame anyone but myself, though.&ldquo;I guess they felt I wasn&rsquo;t playing the way I did at the beginning. Some of that was my fault, but I was a rookie and they picked up some veterans (Brian Engblom and Phil Russell). It was a situation where they wanted experience and I could only offer youth and enthusiasm.&rdquo;Dykstra chose not to dwell on the past. He planned to regain a spot in this year&rsquo;s lineup, but a knee injury and the accident nearly killed his chances.Former Sabre coach Craig Ramsay said he considers Dykstra &ldquo;an experiment&rdquo; who knows what&rsquo;s expected of him. If he performs well, he&rsquo;ll continue to play.Sabre general manager Gerry Meehan echoed Ramsay&rsquo;s thoughts, but made it clear Dykstra would be judged on his contribution to the team and not any off-ice infraction.&ldquo;First of all, he hasn&rsquo;t been convicted of anything,&rdquo; said Meehan, &ldquo;so it would be unfair for us to assume any wrongdoing. I&rsquo;m not going to say it&rsquo;s a cut-and-dried thing, but Steve knows what we expect of him and he&rsquo;s being given a chance to show it.&rdquo;Dykstra said he realizes the Sabres are in no position to extend his playing time based on anything but results, and has prepared himself accordingly.&ldquo;Life is a series of ups and downs,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I have to deal with that situation&hellip;I don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s going to happen next. I really haven&rsquo;t thought about not making it (back) but I&rsquo;m not going to set myself up for a big fall either.&rdquo;SABREPOINTS&mdash;A win at Winnipeg Jan. 7 left the Sabres at 11-24-5 for the first half of the season, but 4-2-1 since Ted Sator replaced Craig Ramsay behind the Buffalo bench&hellip;The Sabres had hoped to move out of last place in the overall standings that same night, but Vancouver&rsquo;s surprise win over the Canadiens at Montreal prevented their escape. &#9632;

f0014-03

Sabre Defenseman Fights To Regain Permanent Job

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011235/5253289-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="178" height="137"></div>LANDOVER&mdash;Mike Ridley made an immediate impact on the Washington Capitals with his hustle, courage, scoring ability, faceoff skills&hellip;and homesickness.Ridley&mdash;obtained from the New York Rangers with Bobby Crawford and Kelly Miller, for Bobby Carpenter and a draft choice&mdash;took the trade hard. He did not eat for two days afterwards, causing a five-pound weight loss and contributing to a lack of energy in his first three appearances.Ridley&rsquo;s second goal as a Capital, in his fourth game, was a spectacular third-period effort that lifted Washington to an important 3-2 victory over Pittsburgh.In that period, he also won 10 of 13 faceoffs to help keep the Penguins off balance. The goal was Ridley&rsquo;s second game-winner of the season and balanced the books a bit, since No. 1 came as a Ranger against Washington.In Ridley&rsquo;s fifth game, a road contest against Philadelphia, he was blasted into the boards by the Flyers&rsquo; Dave Poulin. The second-period hit opened a severe gash over the left eye that required 40 stitches to close.But he was back for the third period and overtime of what concluded as a 2-2 tie, extending Washington&rsquo;s unbeaten streak in regular-season overtime games to 34.&ldquo;Mike showed me a lot coming back after that,&rdquo; said coach Bryan Murray. &ldquo;The doctor said he stopped counting after 30, and the trainers had to cut the padding around Mike&rsquo;s helmet so it would cover the damage without making it worse.&rdquo;Apparently, Ridley is playing his heart out for a mere pittance (by NHL standards) of about $80,000 a year. Just before he was dealt to Washington, he had renegotiated his undersized contract to a figure near $175,000, but the new pact was not finalized.&ldquo;I was within this much of signing,&rdquo; Ridley said, holding his thumb and index finger a millimeter apart. &ldquo;Phil (Esposito) gave his word that in the event of injury or trade, it would be done, anyway. Now he&rsquo;s balking about it.&rdquo;Rob Ingraham, Ridley&rsquo;s agent, said he was still hoping that Esposito would honor the commitment and make up the difference in salary through the 1987-88 season. Washington general manager David Poile, while declining comment on the situation, made it plain that it was not club policy to renegotiate in such circumstances.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a real sticky one,&rdquo; Ingraham said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t deny that there is a problem. There is a contractual problem relating to the trade.&rdquo;Esposito indicated that he considered the matter closed by the trade.&ldquo;I talked to his agent twice about giving Mike a different contract,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;If Mike was still with New York, I probably would have done something. But he&rsquo;s not. He&rsquo;s the property of the Washington Capitals now.&ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t have any new deal with me. On principle, maybe, but not on paper. The guy had two years left. Am I stupid, or what?&rdquo;When the trade was announced, Ingraham and Ridley discussed the possibility of Ridley&rsquo;s refusing to report to the Capitals until terms of the new contract were implemented. However, Ridley vetoed the tactic.&ldquo;My agent had brought up that if I didn&rsquo;t report, it would put pressure on Phil,&rdquo; Ridley said. &ldquo;But I wanted to play. I don&rsquo;t want to sit out. All I want to do is get going and help the team. I don&rsquo;t want to worry about that stuff. It&rsquo;s not David Poile&rsquo;s fault or Washington&rsquo;s fault.&rdquo;During his first three games with Washington, Ridley took short shifts because of an apparent lack of stamina.&ldquo;Sometimes tiredness affects me more than most guys,&rdquo; Ridley said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not my legs. I was second or third in leg strength with the Rangers. A trade mentally affects you, and your legs just don&rsquo;t have the usual jump. But I&rsquo;m hitting my stride now. I&rsquo;ll be okay.&rdquo;CAPSULES&mdash;Center Alan Haworth underwent an arthroscopy Jan. 3 to repair a slight ligament tear in his right knee. He was expected to be out about three weeks&hellip;Left winger Yvon Corriveau, the Capitals&rsquo; No. 1 draft choice of 1985, was assigned to the Toronto Marlboros Jan. 10, after returning from duty with Canada in the World Junior Championships&hellip;Goaltender Al Jensen was demoted to Binghamton for the second time on Jan. 9. Jensen, who cleared waivers with right of recall, said he assumed he was finished as a Capital and asked to be traded&hellip;Center Bob Gould suffered a concussion when he was checked by Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Randy Cunneyworth, and sat out the next game in Philadelphia&hellip;Defenseman Greg Smith returned after a two-month absence, caused by a pinched nerve in his back. &#9632;

f0015-01

Trade From Rangers Cost Ridley Capital

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011113/5253320-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">In Jay Greenberg&rsquo;s wild world of hockey&mdash;circa 1987&mdash;Quebec Nordique center Peter Stastny and Battlin&rsquo; Billy Smith of the New York Islanders will be teammates at Rendez-vous in Quebec.</figcaption></div>Alas, the crystal ball in which we&rsquo;ve put so much faith in the last few years is no more. It fell off the back of a truck during a St. Louis Blues&rsquo; snipe hunt and cracked into a thousand pieces.So what were we to do?First we went to Gerry McNamara, but he was not a wealth of information. We tried Bob Pulford, but he was no help either. &ldquo;The future?&rdquo; said Pully. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still living five years in the past.&rdquo;After a seance to raise the ghost of Jack Gordon produced only X-rays of former Boston Bruins&rsquo; damaged knees, we were at wits&rsquo; end.Luckily, Mike Hitch offered to loan us his palm reader. &ldquo;She&rsquo;s the same girl who tells us what free agents to sign,&rdquo; said Hitch.Here goes:Jan. 19&mdash;The final balloting for the NHL team that will meet the Soviets in Rendez-vous &rsquo;87 is announced: Goaltender&mdash;Clint Malar-chuk, Quebec; Defense-&mdash;Pat Price, Quebec, and Randy Moller, Quebec; Left Wing&mdash;Anton Stastny, Quebec; Center&mdash;Peter Stastny, Quebec; Right Wing&mdash;Mark Kumpel, Quebec; Mayor&mdash;Richard J. Daley, Chicago.Jan. 24&mdash;Scotty Bowman, fired as general manager of the Buffalo Sabres in November, announces he wants to play again and will report to Edmonton&rsquo;s American League team at Nova Scotia to begin conditioning.Feb. 2&mdash;The remainder of the NHL Rendezvous team is announced: Goaltenders&mdash;Billy Smith, Islanders, and Greg Stefan, Detroit; Defensemen&mdash;Brian Curran, New York Islanders, Larry Playfair, Los Angeles, Dwight Schofield. Pittsburgh, Ed Hospodar and Daryl Stanley, Philadelphia, Jim Kyte, Winnipeg. Centers&mdash;Dale Hunter and Paul Gillis, Quebec, Kevin McClelland. Edmonton, Joel Otto, Calgary. Left Wingers&mdash;Basil McRae, Detroit, Torrie Robertson. Hartford, Dave Williams, Los Angeles, Jay Miller, Boston; Right Wingers&mdash;Tim Hunter, Calgary, Willi Plett, Minnesota, Chris Nilan, Montreal, Dave Brown and Rick Tocchet, Philadelphia.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lineup that will emphasize speed and puck control,&rdquo; says Bob Johnson, the co-NHL coach. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t play the Soviets any other way.&rdquo;Feb. 11&mdash;Eighteen members of the Soviet national team are hospitalized following the NHL All-Stars&rsquo; 3-0 victory at a jammed Le Col-isee. &ldquo;Nobody came near me all night,&rdquo; says Peter Stastny, who scored all three NHL goals.The game takes 16 hours and 45 minutes to play. Referee Ron Hoggarth whistles 56 instigator penalties, 53 against the Soviets.&ldquo;We see this series as an opportunity to learn the North American style of play,&rdquo; says Tikhonov. &ldquo;We hope to apply the best of the NHL play to our own.&rdquo; Tikhonov is seen passing out brass knuckles to his remaining players after the game.Feb. 13&mdash;With the Soviets behind, 8-0 early in the second period of Game Two, they leave the ice. It is assumed they are protesting the physical style of play employed by the NHL. &ldquo;Nyet, nyet,&rdquo; says Tikhonov. &ldquo;We found out we are being paid in Canadian dollars.&rdquo;During the interruption, a fight breaks out on the Canadian bench between coaches Jean Perron and Michel Bergeron. They are arrested by members of the Boston police force.The Soviets return after Alan Eagleson delivers stereo equipment to their locker room. &ldquo;God Save the Queen,&rdquo; says Tikhonov after the 16-1 defeat. &ldquo;We came to learn, true, but we leave with Springsteen.&rdquo;Feb. 23&mdash;Defenseman Fred Shero announces he is coming out of retirement to play with the Vancouver Canucks.March 3&mdash;The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that it has obtained an exclusive copy of two pages of Bob Johnson&rsquo;s notepads.One says: &ldquo;I. Kings flooding zone, Reinhart must reverse and use boards. 2. Milk. 3. Bread. 4. Peanut butter.&rdquo;The other reads: &ldquo;She stood naked, a veritable goddess of love, in the moonlight. &lsquo;Take me,&rsquo; she said. Desire overwhelmed him.&rdquo;March 5&mdash;Detroit Red Wings, losers of 16 consecutive home games, draw 17,234 for a match with Minnesota at the Joe Louis Arena. As the North Stars score three third-period goals to win 5-2, the fans chant beat us. &ldquo;Hurt us. Lose for us. It feels so good.&rdquo;March 10&mdash;A flurry of deals marks the trading deadline. The Rangers trade winger Tony McKegney to the Kansas City Scouts. &ldquo;This fulfills my ambition to play for every NHL team that ever was,&rdquo; says McKegney.In other deals, the New Jersey Devils trade Greg Adams to the Washington Capitals for Greg Adams, the Sabres move Gates Orlando to Orlando, Fla., to await an expansion franchise and Ari Haanpaa goes to Los Angeles for two consonants to be named later.One disgruntled player who is not traded, however, is Toronto right wing Mirko Frycer. &ldquo;I have tried to make my feelings known,&rdquo; says Frycer. &ldquo;I do not want to play for the Leafs any longer. I may now have to take elaborate means to get out of here.&rdquo;March 17&mdash;The Red Wings break their home losing streak before a standing-room-only crowd of 26,853 with a 4-2 victory over Boston. The fans boo. &ldquo;They are wonderful fans, but they are so used to losing we have to re-educate them,&rdquo; says Demers. &ldquo;If they support a loser like this, can you imagine what they&rsquo;ll do for a winner?&rdquo;April 5&mdash;Detroit, the Norris Division champion, closes its regular season with its sixth straight victory in front of 3,876 at Joe Louis. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m worried about attendance,&rdquo; says owner Mike Hitch. &ldquo;These people demand a loser. We have to start giving them one again.&rdquo;April 7&mdash;The New York Rangers have finished fifth but will play the Patrick Division-champion Flyers in the first round, anyway. Despite having lost 63 of their last 65 regular-season games against the Flyers and being outscored 335-6, the Rangers are installed as heavy favorites.The Boston Bruins, fourth-place Adams Division finishers, draw Montreal. Despite the fact that the Bruins have not beaten the Canadiens in a playoff series since 1943, Boston appears curiously confident. &ldquo;If we stick to our game plan,&rdquo; says coach Terry O&rsquo;Reilly, &ldquo;we&rsquo;ll win.&rdquo;Calgary, which, bolstered by the play of Al MacNeil, won 12 straight to beat out Edmonton for the Smythe Division championship, will meet Winnipeg. Edmonton meets Los Angeles. The New York Islanders will face Pittsburgh, Hartford&rsquo;s opponent will be determined after coach Jack Evans&rsquo; pre-playoff nap.NHL President John Ziegler says he is too embarrassed to allow Norris Division playoffs this year.April 11&mdash;With the Montreal-Boston series tied 1-1. Bruins&rsquo; GM Harry Sinden fires coach Terry O&rsquo;Reilly and replaces him behind the Boston bench with mayor Raymond Flynn. &ldquo;Discipline is a cliche,&rdquo; says Sinden. &ldquo;What we really need is law and order.&rdquo;When Mats Naslund opens the scoring in Game 3 with a breakaway goal, he is immediately arrested. The Bruins go on to win 4-2.April 12&mdash;The Canadiens are minus Bobby Smith and Larry Robinson, who have been pil-loried at Boston Common. Boston wins again, 6-2.April 15&mdash;Jean Perron is tried and convicted as a witch and the remaining Canadiens are burned at the stake before a joyous capacity Boston Garden crowd. The Bruins have, at last, defeated the Canadiens.April 17&mdash;A goal and two assists by newly-acquired defenseman Keith Allen lifts the Flyers to 4-3 seventh-game victory over the Rangers. It is one of the most astonishing upsets in Stanley Cup history.Winnipeg outlasts Calgary in seven. In a snit, Bob Johnson writes Dear Abby.The Islanders, behind AI Arbour&rsquo;s hat trick, eliminate Pittsburgh. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s enough to make my hair curl,&rdquo; says Ron Duguay.In the other first-round series Quebec defeats Hartford, 73,243 votes to 16,765.April 23&mdash;The Nordiques lead the Bruins 2-0 in their semi-final series and are up 4-0 in the third period of Game 3 in Boston when Coach Raymond Flynn declares the Nordiques illegal aliens. Boston advances to the semi-finals by deportation.April 28&mdash;Winnipeg, behind three goals by Oiler defenseman Steve Smith, sends heavily-favored Edmonton to its second crushing playoff defeat in two years.&ldquo;I did my best,&rdquo; says goalie Grant Fuhr. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to point fingers, but somebody on our team needs glasses.&rdquo;April 30&mdash;With the Flyers and Islanders deadlocked 2-2, Philadelphia mayor Wilson Goode orders his police to surround the Nassau Coliseum with orders to shoot Mikko Makela. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll never take us alive,&rdquo; says Brian Curran. When the Isles return fire, Goode drops a bomb on the building, ending the semi-final series.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m concerned about the growing trend of violence in the game,&rdquo; says NHL president John Ziegler. &ldquo;Two per cent of the mayors are involved in 85 per cent of the incidents. We may need some more rules changes.&rdquo;May 15&mdash;&rdquo;What&rsquo;s that on top of the goals?&rdquo; asks Boston coach Raymond Flynn before Game 7 of the Wales Conference final at the Spectrum. &ldquo;I thought water bottles were illegal.&rdquo;&ldquo;Handcuffs,&rdquo; says Flyer coach Mike Keenan. Ken Linseman is about to put in a Cam Neely rebound to tie the game in the final minute when the Flyers produce a search warrant for the puck. Stolen goods. &ldquo;Neely took it from Ed Hospodar,&rdquo; says Keenan. &ldquo;Lock him up.&rdquo; The Flyers hold on to win 3-2 and advance to the finals to play Winnipeg.May 17&mdash;&rdquo;If you ever want to see your grandmother alive, we&rsquo;ll win,&rdquo; John Ferguson tells Philadelphia goalie Ron Hextall in an anonymous telephone call during the hours before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. Gert Hextall was abducted from her Poplar Point, Man., home the day before.May 25&mdash;Winnipeg wins its first Stanley Cup, defeating Philadelphia in four straight. The Jets outscored the Flyers 108 to 78 in the series. &ldquo;Sure it was hard to play with all the distractions,&rdquo; says Hextall. &ldquo;But you can&rsquo;t use that as an excuse. You gotta&rsquo; give the Jets credit.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0016-01

National Hockey Lunacy

June 9&mdash;Quebec&rsquo;s Robert Picard is voted the NHL&rsquo;s most valuable player, Michel Bergeron its best coach and Paul Gillis the Vezina Trophy winner. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s not even a goalie,&rdquo; whines Montreal GM Serge Savard. &ldquo;No, but he plays for Quebec,&rdquo; says Bergeron.June 11&mdash;Peter Gilbert and Charles O. Finley are elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Builders Category. Wilson Goode and former Kings&rsquo; General Manager George Maguire are voted into the Destructor&rsquo;s category.July 16&mdash;Rick Middleton is named the new coach of the Boston Bruins, replacing Raymond Flynn. Middleton is the ninth consecutive former Bruins&rsquo; player to step behind their bench. &ldquo;If they were dumb enough to like playing here for what I paid them,&rdquo; said Sinden, &ldquo;then they&rsquo;re dumb enough to take a job that they have absolutely no experience for and get fired.&rdquo;Sept. 3&mdash;Due to a continuing series of bizarre accidents, the St. Louis Blues announce they will be unable to ice a team this year. Two seasons ago, Doug Wickenheiser suffered two damaged knees during a team prank. Last year Jocelyn Lemieux suffered a cut hand at the team Christmas party and Mark Reeds burned himself making popcorn.Now, it has been learned that Greg Paslawski has locked himself into a freezer, Charles Bourgeois had his nose sucked into a vacuum cleaner and Doug Gilmour sewed his hands together while repairing socks. &ldquo;Dam,&rdquo; says Gilmour.&ldquo;Injuries are a part of the game,&rdquo; says coach Jacques Martin. &ldquo;We planned to go ahead and play on until Bernie Federko called. He won&rsquo;t report to camp until he can get the shampoo out of his eyes.&rdquo;Oct. 8&mdash;NHL waiver draft passes with Mirko Frycer still a Leaf. Frycer has just passed the NHL record of 915 consecutive games without dressing, held by former Philadelphia defenseman Frank Bathe. The Leafs honor Frycer with a night. Among his gifts are a Laz-E-Boy rocker.Frycer is not placated. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to make them trade me,&rdquo; he says. He announces he will go on a hunger strike to dramatize his demands.Oct. 19&mdash;Leafs beat Detroit 8-3. Frycer, down to 175-pounds, is placed in the lineup by coach John Brophy due to an injury to Steve Thomas.&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t need food,&rdquo; sneers Brophy. &ldquo;When I played hockey in the Eastern League. I used to eat nails.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy for the opportunity, but I still want out,&rdquo; Frycer tells reporters. &ldquo;By the way, what did they serve in the press room tonight?&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01977/5253351-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="588" height="1235"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mirko Frycer</figcaption></div>Oct. 27&mdash;Frycer&rsquo;s hunger strike has attracted world notice. Fighting between India and Pakistan ends in his honor. Frycer now weighs 135-pounds and sleeps on a bed of nails but remains in Leaf lineup. Asked how he can allow this, general manager Gerry McNamara says: &ldquo;When the crow flies out of the East, and all you buzzards die, I will get even.&ldquo;I would expect you scum to take Frycer&rsquo;s side. By the way, who&rsquo;s Frycer?&rdquo;Nov. 5&mdash;Philadelphia left winger Murray Craven, pointless since the season started, has been suspended by the club.Craven, whose milk allergies were discovered in March, 1986, has ignored doctor&rsquo;s orders to avoid dairy products. He will check into a rehabilitation clinic for treatment.&ldquo;It starts with a little cream in your coffee,&rdquo; says Craven. &ldquo;You think you can handle it, but you&rsquo;re kidding your-self. Next thing I knew, I was sneaking cheese into my room. Soon, I was up to a quart of skim a day.&rdquo;&ldquo;I dress next to Murray every day,&rdquo; says teammate Brian Propp. &ldquo;I suspected something when he&rsquo;d come to practice every day with a moustache. I feel so guilty, I should have confronted him. That&rsquo;s what teammates are sup-posed to be for. What a terrible waste of a career.&rdquo;NHL President John Ziegler schedules a hearing, but its results are a foregone conclusion. &ldquo;The league&rsquo;s policy is, &lsquo;You use milk, then you work someplace else,&rsquo;&rdquo; says Ziegler. &ldquo;Mr. Craven had the choice of drinking beer like everybody else in the league. He made a conscious decision to break the rules and he will pay.&rdquo;Nov. 16&mdash;When Edmonton takes the ice for a game at Maple Leaf Gardens, coach-GM Glen Sather threatens not to play until the water bottles are removed from on top of the net.&ldquo;Those aren&rsquo;t water bottles,&rdquo; says Brophy. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s Frycer&rsquo;s I.V.&rdquo;Dec. 5&mdash;Frycer is down to 65-pounds, but the Leafs refuse to either trade him or take him from the lineup. Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster Dave Hodge asks Frycer in an intermission interview how much longer he can hold out. &ldquo;Uhhhhhhhh,&rdquo; says Frycer.Dec. 15&mdash;Frycer&rsquo;s hunger strike ends when he is hit in the mouth with an Al Maclnnis slapshot. &ldquo;Ummmm,&rdquo; says Mirko. &ldquo;Not bad. Needs salt, though.&rdquo;Dec. 20&mdash;His hunger strike having failed, Frycer unveils a new strategy to get the Leafs to trade him. He skates onto the Maple Leaf Gardens ice wearing a dress.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t discourage individual expression here,&rdquo; says Leaf captain Tom Fergus. &ldquo;But we think it&rsquo;s best that from now on Mirko shower by himself.&rdquo;Dec. 28&mdash;Editor Bob McKenzie announces that THE HOCKEY NEWS will no longer carry Jay Greenberg&rsquo;s crystal ball look at hockey in the coming year.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m tired of paying Greenberg to write this junk,&rdquo; says McKenzie. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the same lousy jokes every damn year.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0017-01

Forcing The Hand That Feeds Frycer

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011012/5253382-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="373" height="433"><figcaption class="caption-body">Frank Orr</figcaption></div>NEVER MET Jeff Z. Klein and Karl-Eric Reif, but they&rsquo;re easy to recognize; I hear each has a decimal point in the middle of his forehead. Or at least, there&rsquo;s a 23.56734 percent chance that they do, by actual computer tally, compiled through 18 years of research. But that&rsquo;s only when playing at full strength. To say nothing of playing with a full deck.There&rsquo;s a rumor that suggests if you press Jeff Z&rsquo;s belly-button, a whirring noise is heard coming from his head and, in a few minutes, a tape covered with numbers ticks slowly out his ear. Stamped on Karl-Eric&rsquo;s back are the words &ldquo;Do not fold, staple or mutilate.&rdquo;Also heard that their breeding reads: By Bill James, out of IBM and NCR. Their idea of a big night out is to go to a Radio Shack and try to pick up a sabremetrician.The other week, in this august journal, they produced a mass of numbers called the &ldquo;perseverance rating&rdquo; for goaltenders. Klein and Reifs explanation made it easy to understand: &ldquo;Perseverance rating is a theoretical statistic which combines one part shots faced per game, and six parts save percentage.&rdquo;Anyone whose old blue line is straight will have no woe understanding that. It&rsquo;s about the same as explaining that bull manure is a reality statistic produced by one part oats eaten per week with six parts alfalfa.These chaps have produced a book called The Klein and Reif Hockey Compendium. It&rsquo;s right there on the shelf where I keep all my favorite sports treasures&mdash;a baseball videotape entitled Great Intentional Walks and Don Cherry&rsquo;s list of super Swedes and fine Finns.The book has more tables than a prison cafeteria, more charts than a year of USA Today, more unusual theories than an Anatoli Tarasov-Badger Bob Johnson coaching clinic. I wasn&rsquo;t able to locate them in the book, but I hear there are computerized, tabulated, catalogued, notarized and established-beyond-a-doubt sections that prove Gordie Howe was a sissy, Mike Bossy has bad hands and Howie Morenz couldn&rsquo;t skate.My favorite section is probably the All-Time Adjusted Plus-Minus Team. Does that mean some players have had important parts removed and now talk with high-pitched voices? Have others had things added? It would be more fun if it were the All-Time Maladjusted Team.I suppose Klein-and-Reif had to arrive sooner or later. Through many years, hockey statistics consisted of goals, assists and penalty minutes. Ron Andrews expanded that during his time as the NHL publicity director, but not to extremes.When the World Hockey Association came along, Frank Polnaszek served notice that the number loonies could be taking over the game. Frank produced a dazzling array of stats, and who knows, Maybe the WHA collapsed from the sheer weight of his numbers. Notably the ones he wrote in red ink.Meanwhile, baseball&mdash;always a game in which the statistics were perhaps more exciting than the play&mdash;produced reams of numbers. Then in the 1970s, Bill James, with his Baseball Abstract books, and assorted other microchippers started to produce books that looked like an annual report from Hell.Baseball writers, a group that doesn&rsquo;t contain the most ambitious of men, anyway, loved the new works because it made their job even easier. It takes little time to produce a story loaded with stats, to write that Otto Schmidlapp has hit more doubles off lefthanded sidearm screwball pitchers on teams east of the Mississippi River on nights when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter is visible, than he has off ambidextrous underhanders on teams that haven&rsquo;t won a pennant since 1975 in afternoon games during months with 31 days.Much easier to do that then to tell the readers something about the people involved in the game. Now, baseball writing reveals far more about numbers than personality.Fortunately, hockey avoided the statistical overload and made sure the people counted for something. But now ol&rsquo; J-Z and K-E are threatening that sanity with their Devastation Scales and Individual Scoring Dominance charts.Fortunately, too, hockey remains a game of emotion and reaction, elements which are impossible to whip up into chart form. Big factors in any game are &ldquo;Who wants to do it the most&rdquo; and &ldquo;Who can knock the other guys on the rear end of their pants the most times?&rdquo;Thus, it&rsquo;s discouraging to hear that J-Z and K-E have some dandies in the works for Compendium II. There&rsquo;s the Wet Pant-Seat Factor, the High-Stick and Slashing Synthesis and 727-DC10-747-Charter-Regular-Prop-Turboprop-Jet Compilation. The latter, which contains the road record of teams when they fly on a particular sort of aircraft, proves conclusively that teams that fly to out-of-town games have a better record than those that hitch-hike. &#9632;

f0018-01

Sorry Number Nuts, That Does Not Compute

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02763/5253413-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="179" height="133"></div>HARTFORD&mdash;A separated right shoulder will keep Joel Quenneville sidelined for at least three months, thereby depriving the Hartford Whalers of their most trustworthy defenseman.&ldquo;I think Joel is one of the best five defensive defenseman in the NHL,&rdquo; said goalie Mike Liut, who may best appreciate Quenneville&rsquo;s often-overlooked talents. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s never played better hockey than this year.&rdquo;Quenneville, the Whalers&rsquo; 28-year-old alternate captain, was injured in a hideous spill at Boston Garden Dec. 18, compliments of a Cam Neely check.&ldquo;I know this is going to sound funny, but if I didn&rsquo;t have a cracked finger, this never would have happened,&rdquo; Quenneville said. &ldquo;I would have been a little stronger on my stick.&rdquo;Injury reports in the NHL are threatening to take creative writing to a higher level.&ldquo;If it wasn&rsquo;t for the finger, I would have held my ground better,&rdquo; Quenneville said. &ldquo;I thought at the end there that Neely might let up, but he didn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Neely&rsquo;s check was clean.Quenneville was operated on the day after the spill at St. Francis al in Hartford. In layman&rsquo;s terms, a pin was placed in his right shoulder. Doctors estimate a recovery period of three months.&ldquo;It may be for the rest of the sea son,&rdquo; coach Jack Evans said.The Whalers found Dave Langevin at Apple Valley High School in sota, of all places, and asked the retired defenseman to consider playing again.At press time, the Whalers were ing satisfactory medical reports on Langevin before offering him a con tract. That&rsquo;s how much they fear the 2 loss of Quenneville.&ldquo;Joel is a tower of strength,&rdquo; Evans said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very important to us. He plays against the other team&rsquo;s top line and is our most important penaltykilling defenseman. He&rsquo;ll be missed. It&rsquo;s up to our other defenseman to fill in.&rdquo;One who has is Scot, recently named alternate captain in Quenneville&rsquo;s stead. However, Quenneville will be sorely missed.&ldquo;Joel takes all the big shifts and makes all the big plays,&rdquo; Liut said. &ldquo;I can think of two games right off the topof my head that we wouldn&rsquo;t have won without him&mdash;at the Island and at Philly. He&rsquo;s one of the game&rsquo;s great pokecheckers. No one, not even guys like Bossy, ever go around him. He&rsquo;s an excellent, excellent defenseman.&rdquo;Liut had a perfect view of Neely&rsquo;s check.&ldquo;Joel was like a puppy sliding on a linoleum floor looking to get his arms out from under him,&rdquo; Liut said. &ldquo;He really was buried into the boards terribly.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s up to the Whalers not to get buried similarly while awaiting the return of one of their genuine leaders and most dependable players.WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash; Right winger Wayne Babych returned in early January after knee surgery in September. Babych has decided not to sue Quebec prospect Ken McRae, who slashed him in the knee during raining camp. &ldquo;That was other people talking,&rdquo; Babych said. &ldquo;I just listened.&rdquo;&hellip;Paul Lawless&rsquo; scored a club-record six points in an 8-3 victory over Toronto Jan. 4. Lawless had two goals and four assists, thereby shattering the team&rsquo;s single-game point total of five, held by many&hellip;Sylvain Turgeon has begun skating with the team and was expected to return around Jan. 17&hellip;Losses at Minnesota (5-2) on New Year&rsquo;s Eve and in Hartford against Chicago (3-2) Jan. 3 marked the first time this year that the Whalers dropped two games in a row. &#9632;

f0018-02

Whalers Must Make Do Without Quenneville

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03547/5253444-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="179" height="138"></div>BOSTON&mdash;For Lyndon Byers, 1987 has already been better than 1986.The Boston Bruins recalled the winger from Moncton of the American League on New Year&rsquo;s Day, just six months after virtually writing off his professional future.&ldquo;Lyndon Byers has been a disappointment to us,&rdquo; Bruin general manager Harry Sinden said in his yearend review of the 1985-86 season. &ldquo;We projected him ahead of Dave Pasin for this year&rsquo;s team.&ldquo;But he had a poor camp. He was overweight and was sent to Moncton. He didn&rsquo;t cut it there and was sent to the International League. Then, he broke his wrist seriously and didn&rsquo;t play the last 40 games of the season.&ldquo;But he&rsquo;s young. He&rsquo;s a big rugged player&mdash;not quite as fast as he would be if he got himself in real good shape&mdash;so we&rsquo;re going to give him one more shot.&rdquo;That one more shot was apparently all the 22-year-old right winger needed.When Keith Crowder was sidelined with a recurrence of a rib injury, Byers&mdash;all but forgotten by Bruin fans&mdash;was brought up to fill his spot.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be with us on a look-see basis,&rdquo; Sinden said cautiously. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s played reasonably well in Moncton. He&rsquo;s played aggressively and right now that&rsquo;s what we need.&rdquo;&ldquo;I had no idea whatsoever that they were going to call me up,&rdquo; said Byers, who had a modest five goals and five assists for the high-flying Golden Flames.&ldquo;They told me after training camp that I would have to re-establish my game in the minors and I&rsquo;ve been down there working hard. That&rsquo;s all I do.&ldquo;This chance is just unbelievable, the way I figure it. I had two feet in the grave, the way things had gone for me before. Now, I&rsquo;ve got a chance to show myself again.&rdquo;Byers, a second-round draft pick of the Bruins in 1982, showed well in his first game back with the big club, a 7-2 victory over New Jersey. He scored the first Boston goal.&ldquo;All I had in mind was not to allow any goals against while I was out there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I figured whatever happened then was a bonus.&rdquo;The New Jersey game was played on Jan. 2. Byers, obviously pleased with the way things were going, was re-minded of what it was like exactly one year before.&ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was in the hospital in Milwaukee with a broken left wrist. My hand was in a cast and I was all drugged up. I was thinking &lsquo;It may be all over.&rsquo; After that, this is great.&rdquo;As a result of his disappointing play with the Bruins (0-2-2 in five games) and Moncton (2-4-6 in 14), and the broken wrist in Milwaukee (0-2-2 in eight), Byers&rsquo; 1985-86 season was just about a total washout.&ldquo;But I&rsquo;ve never quit believing in myself,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My game has been getting better. I want to make a good impression. I want to show the players and the management that I can be part of this organization, that has been so good to me.&ldquo;The Bruins believe in me enough to give me a second chance. It could have been easy for them to write me off.&rdquo;And Byers survived a greater tragedy to earn his second shot in Boston.On Nov. 3, wife Yvonne bore their first child, a boy named Sabre McKinley Byers. He lived only 11 hours, dying of a virus that affected his heart. Lyndon and Yvonne spent two weeks in seclusion at their home in Regina, Sask.&ldquo;Something like this makes you grow up in a hurry,&rdquo; said Byers.WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN&mdash;The great confrontation of 1986-87, pitting Boston politicians against sports violence, continues. City council president Bruce Bolling has proposed an ordi-nance directing the city&rsquo;s police to arrest pro athletes &ldquo;upon the commission of any violent act.&rdquo; This follows mayor Raymond Flynn&rsquo;s threat to lead police on to the ice and slap handcuffs on fisticuffers&hellip;Defenseman Michael Thelven, recovering from surgery on a dislocated right shoulder suffered Oct. 18, is due back Jan. 20 at Quebec.<div class="sidebar">&lsquo;The Bruins believe in me enough to give me a second chance. It could have been easy for them to write me off.&rsquo;&mdash;Byers &#9632;</div>

f0018-03

Bruins’ Byers Gets Another Opportunity

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03487/5253475-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="560" height="816"><figcaption class="caption-body">PETER ZEZEL</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01942/5253489-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="188" height="180"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02701/5253482-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="158" height="156"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;Philadelphia Flyer center Peter Zezel, who led all NHL scorers with three goals and five assists for eight points in four games, captured the Chrysler-Dodge Player of the Week Award for the period ending Jan. 11. Goaltenders Patrick Roy of the Montreal Canadiens and Billy Smith of the New York Islanders and New York Ranger right winger Tomas Sandstrom also received consideration for the award.On Zezel&rsquo;s behalf, ChryslerDodge will donate $500 to HOCKEY CENTRAL, a Philadelphia-based organization that develops and supports youth hockey programs throughout the Delaware Valley. 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;I am honored to have won the Player of the Week Award and to be the first Flyer to win it this season,&rdquo; said Zezel. &ldquo;The success that I&rsquo;ve had so far this season is due in large part to the play of my teammates and the confidence that the coaching staff has shown in me, so I&rsquo;d like to thank them for helping me to win the award.&rdquo;The 21-year-old native of Toronto scored one goal in the Flyers&rsquo; 4-0 win over the New Jersey Devils, Jan. 6; added one goal and two assists in a 6-3 victory versus the Rangers, Jan. 7; registered a shorthanded goal and one assist in a 5-4 win at Boston, Jan. 10; and closed out the week with two assists as the Flyers tied the Washington Capitals 2-2, Jan. 11. &#9632;

f0019-03

Peter Zezel selected this week’s Chrysler-Dodge NHL Player of the Week

<div class="byline">BY DOUG GOULD</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02544/5253520-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="578" height="876"><figcaption class="caption-body">Goalie Bill Smith has not played well this year. Neither has he had any luck.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01803/5253527-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="181" height="141"></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;There will be retirement celebrations in most National Hockey League cities when New York Islander goalie Bill Smith finally hangs up his splintered goaltender&rsquo;s stick.But each time there&rsquo;s an indication it could come soon, Battlin&rsquo; Billy postpones the parties.After weeks of either bad goaltending or bad luck, Smith came up with a 2-1 gem Jan. 9 against the perfect team in the perfect place for him to restore his near-shattered confidence&mdash;the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.One game wasn&rsquo;t going to turn around his troubled season, but when it&rsquo;s a one-goal victory in front of the 17,000-plus fans who despise him most, it was easy for Smith to put it into perspective.&ldquo;I needed this,&rdquo; the 36-year-old goaltender said after making 25 saves and allowing just one power-play goal. &ldquo;Even if it hadn&rsquo;t been a win, I needed a game in which I felt I played well. But the guys were great. They didn&rsquo;t give up the slot all night and that made it a lot easier for me.&rdquo;That was true, but there had been other nights this season when Smith made it harder on himself. His slide, which began with a 6-5 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at Nassau Coliseum on Nov. 29, left him with a 7-9-1 mark and 3.85 goals-against average entering the Ranger game. In that game, he waved at three long unscreened Flyer shots.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how to handle it,&rdquo; he said after the Flyer loss. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s face it. We lost the game because of me, no ifs, buts or maybes. It&rsquo;s up to a goalie to come up with the big saves and I didn&rsquo;t do it.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">Smith calls this his weirdest year ever in the NHL.</blockquote>Although he was 3-4-0 following that loss, he was sharp in only one game. And bad-luck goals were destroying his confidence.&ldquo;Every year you always have a bad stretch, but this definitely is the worst I&rsquo;ve ever gone through,&rdquo; Smith said before the Ranger game. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s probably the weirdest year I&rsquo;ve ever had. You know nobody hates losing more than me, but I don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s happening.&rdquo;&ldquo;He hadn&rsquo;t been giving up bad goals. They were weird goals,&rdquo; fellow goaltender Kelly Hrudey said. &ldquo;Smitty was stung five games in a row by flukey goals. You begin to wonder, &lsquo;How come this is going on?&rsquo;&rdquo;Smith literally took things in his own hands going into the Ranger game. Coach Terry Simpson gave him two days notice that he was going to start (instead of the usual 24 hours or less) and Smith came out aggressively, using his hands and body to knock players off the puck near the net.That night, Smith stayed on his skates instead of flopping and he worked behind the net and controlled rebounds.&ldquo;He was under the gun a little bit,&rdquo; Simpson said as Smith got his first start in four games and his first victory since Dec. 23 (4-3 over Pittsburgh). &ldquo;He kinda showed his true colors.&rdquo;True colors for Battlin&rsquo; Billy usually are black and blue and that&rsquo;s the way he ended up after throwing checks four different times to keep the Rangers away from the puck.&ldquo;I had to get into this game&mdash;to set down a game plan,&rdquo; Smith said of his decision to get more involved. &ldquo;If it worked, great. If it didn&rsquo;t, I&rsquo;m sure I would&rsquo;ve heard about it.&rdquo;The victory for the 15-year veteran put him right back into the Isles&rsquo; goaltending rotation. Hrudey played almost 400 more minutes than Smith over the first half of the season and it became apparent that Simpson had relegated Smith to a No. 2 spot, although the coach kept denying it.&ldquo;A situation like tonight,&rdquo; Simpson said, &ldquo;proves it&rsquo;s not like that.&rdquo;ON THE ISL&rsquo;E&mdash;Brent Sutter&rsquo;s goal against the Rangers was his Seventh game-winning goal, tying him with Peter Zezel for top spot in the league&hellip;Steve Konroyd, the top Islander defenseman with a plus-six rating, missed five straight games with a bruised collarbone&hellip;Isles were 11-62 against Patrick Division teams, but 10-11-1 against other divisions. &#9632;

f0020-02

Billy Battles Back With Big Victory

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-05143/5253558-1-eng-US/f0020-052.jpg" title="f0020-05" width="407" height="464"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Simmons</figcaption></div>ON THE NIGHT the 1986 World Junior Championships ended in Hamilton, the organizers of Team Canada recessed to a hotel bar to toast themselves.They raised a toast to Terry Simpson, the coach they knew wouldn&rsquo;t be back. They didn&rsquo;t know where he was going then&mdash;they just knew he was going. They raised a toast to Canadian hockey. They raised a toast to themselves.The longer the night went on, the looser they became. &ldquo;How are we ever going to replace this guy?&rdquo; someone asked about Simpson as the night grew longer. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t replace him.&rdquo;Then they began. In the drunken darkness of the night, some of junior hockey&rsquo;s finest inebriated minds went team by team, across junior hockey, attempting to find a successor for coach Simpson, who had won gold and silver in two appearances as head coach.&ldquo;Ken Hitchcock?&rdquo; someone said as the names started to be considered.&ldquo;Too fat,&rdquo; someone else answered.&ldquo;What about Doug Sauter?&rdquo;&ldquo;Good coach, but not for international hockey.&rdquo;&ldquo;That takes you through the West.&rdquo;&ldquo;Anybody in Quebec?&rdquo; I will not print the answer to that one.&ldquo;What about Ontario?&rdquo; It was then the name of Bert Templeton came up. And then, as more alcohol was consumed, a great debate began. Was Templeton the man to guide Canada&rsquo;s next entry in the World Junior Championships, succeeding Simpson, Dave King and Brian Kilrea.Some said he was the perfect choice. Others wondered about his history.Ah yes, his history. That&rsquo;s Bert Templeton. Dirty Bert. Battling Bert. Bramalea Bert. The man who coached Philadelphia Flyer style back in the days when the Broad Street Bullies were babies. That Bert Templeton.And little was said about Templeton from the time he was named coach of Team Canada till the day of the incident. The incident. The black stain, as International Ice Hockey Federation president Gunther Sabetzki called it.Personally I thought the black stain was the stripe on the gutless referee&rsquo;s jersey, who walked away and let Canada and the Soviet Union brawl themselves out of the World Junior Championships.But that&rsquo;s another story. This story is about Templeton. A man who is now guilty by association, if not by history.After the Soviets and Canadians brawled, much was said about it. But after the Canadians and Americans had a pre-game scrap, little was said. Afterwards, American general manager Art Berglund said the pre-gamer was pre-meditated by Team Canada.Which was exactly why some who drank in the bar that night in Hamilton were concerned about considering Templeton for such a significant post.Those who have played against Templeton teams know what to expect.Said Paul Reinhart, the former Kitchener Ranger: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if someone should be guilty of their past record of performance. But I do know when I played junior against teams that were coached by Bert, they certainly did have a tendency to be over-zealous in that department. And if that led to what happened, he should be reprimanded for it.&ldquo;When I played against his teams about 10 years ago, he was a more-than-necessary aggressive coach.&ldquo;I have a tough time understanding what happened. In World Championships I&rsquo;ve played in, I&rsquo;ve seen some NHLers who were not very physical or not very tough players because very tough against the Russians and Czechs.&rdquo;Said Dale DeGray, a three-year Ontario League veteran: &ldquo;From the past, knowing what Bert Templeton teams are like, I wasn&rsquo;t surprised it happened. Each coach has his own style&mdash;you always knew what his style was.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-05

National Team Coach’s Past Big Part Of Current Debate

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03380/5253589-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="584" height="714"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tomas Sandstrom scoredfour goals in an 8-3 Ranger romp over Vancouver.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04249/5253596-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="178" height="138"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;Phil Esposito has been receiving rave reviews for acquiring players such as Bobby Carpenter, Bob Froese and Walt Poddubny&mdash;but his best deal may prove to be one he didn&rsquo;t make.The New York Rangers&rsquo; rookie general manager turned down numerous offers to trade Tommy (The Gun) Sandstrom in early October, then worked overtime to sign him to a new contract when the big right winger announced he was playing out his option.Esposito was afraid Sandstrom might follow the lead of ex-teammate Reijo Ruotsalainen, who bolted for Switzerland rather than re-sign with the Rangers. Ruotsalainen&rsquo;s rights have since been traded to the Edmonton Oilers.&ldquo;I was uneasy about the possibility of another player leaving,&rdquo; the former five-time NHL scoring champ said, &ldquo;but I didn&rsquo;t want to lose Tomas. He has so much potential that it&rsquo;s scary.&rdquo;In his third season as a Ranger, the tall, talented 22-year-old is showing signs of becoming a National Hockey League star&mdash;the kind franchises are built around.The Swedish right winger exploded for four goals, three of them in a span of 9:14 during a five-goal Ranger third period, as New York destroyed Vancouver 8-3 on Jan. 11.&ldquo;If you had to describe a perfect winger,&rdquo; Ranger center Walt Poddubny observed, &ldquo;you&rsquo;d have to say Tom has most of the traits. He&rsquo;s big, he can skate with the best, he has one of the hardest shots I&rsquo;ve seen, he hits&hellip;and he&rsquo;s still just a kid.&rdquo;Poddubny and left winger Jan Erix-on benefitted directly from Sandstrom &lsquo;s big game. The trio collected 10 points on the evening.Sandstrom&rsquo;s career game-high of five points (four goals and one assist) gave him 12 goals and six assists in 10 games, his hottest streak as a Ranger&mdash;just three weeks after coach Tom Webster came close to benching him.Sandsrom skated in practice Dec. 16 wearing a yellow jersey, designating him a &ldquo;fifth-line&rdquo; extra. He was asked what his reaction would be to being left out of the lineup.&ldquo;I would say, &lsquo;What is wrong with the coach?&rsquo;&rdquo; Sandstrom answered, grinning as innocently as possible.A second-round draft choice in 1982, Sandstrom scored 29 goals as a rookie and 25 last season.At the urging of Esposito, Webster and some of his teammates, Sandstrom made an effort to cut down on some of the not-so-sneaky stick work which made him a marked man for much of his first two seasons.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not as bad (with the stick) as people say,&rdquo; Sandstrom protested. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like to take it without giving it back, but I&rsquo;m learning to. It&rsquo;s like they keep telling me: &lsquo;You can&rsquo;t score from the penalty box.&rsquo;&rdquo;BIG APPLESAUCE&mdash;Newly-acquired Bobby Carpenter scored his first goal as a Ranger Jan. 9, in a 2-1 loss to the Islanders. He has gone out of his way to be pleasant and co-operative with media and teammates, showing no signs of being the &ldquo;monster&rdquo; he was reported to be in Washington&hellip;George McPhee, who suffered a shoulder injury in training camp, returned after major surgery to score on a 40-footer against Vancouver in his first game back&hellip;Phil Esposito and Tom Webster praised the continued improvement of rookie defenseman Terry Carkner and rookie right winger Chris Jensen. &#9632;

f0020-03

Tommy Gun Fires Freely At Canucks

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01597/5253627-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="181" height="140"></div>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;Larry DePalma&rsquo;s rookie season in Minnesota has been a learning experience&hellip;at the school of hard knocks.Lesson No. 1 came in training camp, when he learned he &ldquo;has to be obnoxious&rdquo; to play well. A bout with bronchitis sapped the strength he needed to be obnoxious, and DePalma knew after only a few days of camp that he&rsquo;d be bound for the minors.Once recovered, the 21-year-old Detroit native found himself back in the NHL before the season was a month old. The lessons have continued since.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been trying to watch everything, everybody,&rdquo; said DePalma, who played two seasons in the Western League with New Westminster and Saskatoon. &ldquo;I watch Dirk (Graham) and Dino (Ciccarelli) and Willi (Plett); check out what those guys do best, and remember it.&rdquo;One lesson he won&rsquo;t forget came in a game against Quebec just before Christmas. DePalma, a 232-penalty-minute man in Saskatoon last year, had been physically dominant in every league he&rsquo;d ever played in&mdash;until he reached the NHL.This time, DePalma tried to run Quebec defenseman Gilbert Delorme. DePalma had run people all his hockey life, so why should this have been different? The difference was, Delorme saw him coming.&ldquo;He balanced himself,&rdquo; DePalma said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know he was that solid. I didn&rsquo;t spread my legs when I hit him; I figured I&rsquo;d just kind of brush by. But when I hit him, he was just like a rock.&rdquo;The result? DePalma missed two weeks with a separated shoulder.In his second game back, he learned another lesson. It was Jan. 5 in Madison Square Garden when DePalma, whose shoulder was still healing, tried to ram a Ranger&rsquo;s head through the glass. Instead, he hurt the shoulder again.&ldquo;It was stupid,&rdquo; DePalma said. &ldquo;I know I have to be more careful. I just kind of got carried away and I tried to hit the guy real good and I felt this pain.&rdquo;But he didn&rsquo;t take it easy. With the pain gone, he went out the next night against the Islanders and got into two fights, battling Gord Dineen and Brian Curran. The Stars lost 5-3, but coach Lome Henning continued to be impressed with DePalma.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very competitive kid,&rdquo; Henning said. &ldquo;He played a great game. He works hard and he doesn&rsquo;t back down from anybody. He gives us some fire.&rdquo;Not only that, but DePalma has shown signs that he may be able to score. He connected twice in his first game back from Springfield in November, and got his third of the season against the Rangers. He also had five assists, for eight points in his first 20 games.&ldquo;I think a lot of people just think of me as a guy who gets a lot of penalties and who will fight people,&rdquo; said De-Palma, whose mostly-shaved head doesn&rsquo;t help his image as a deranged individual.&ldquo;But I need to put the points up on the board to feel good about myself. I&rsquo;ll always play physical, but I need to contribute, too. Otherwise, I just feel like a tool if I&rsquo;m only out there hitting people.&rdquo;DePalma isn&rsquo;t particularly big (6-foot-1, 195-pounds) for the role he has been filling. But it seems there are two types of aggressors&mdash;the big, strong guy who will take on anyone anywhere, and the goofy guy whom opponents don&rsquo;t want to deal with because they don&rsquo;t know what he&rsquo;ll do next.Put DePalma in the last category.&ldquo;Sometimes, I just snap,&rdquo; said DePalma, a free-agent signing. &ldquo;What happens is, my eyes just turn black. I black out and I don&rsquo;t even know what I did until it&rsquo;s over. I have a bad temper on the ice.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t particularly like that about myself, but I guess it helps sometimes. A lot of people don&rsquo;t know what I&rsquo;ll do next&mdash;if I&rsquo;ll stick &lsquo;em or fight &lsquo;em or just skate away and get them the next shift or the next game.&rdquo;STARDUST&mdash;Right winger Brian Bellows, playing for the first time after missing eight games because of a wrist injury, scored twice&mdash;including the winner&mdash;in a 5-4 overtime victory over Buffalo on Jan. 8. &#9632;

f0021-01

DePalma Learns His Lessons The Hard Way

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02335/5253658-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="181" height="144"></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;As the Philadelphia Flyers passed the midway point of the season, there was apparently no end in sight. Not to the injuries. And not to the victories.On the day they lost their fifth player to injury (Ron Sutter, with lower back problems), the Patrick Division leaders stretched their unbeaten string to five games, tying Washington 2-2 at the Spectrum.Within the course of eight days, the Flyers had completely reversed a four-game losing streak, won three games on the road, and maintained a comfortable 14-point lead on the New York Islanders.And they did all of this without two of last year&rsquo;s top three leading scorers&mdash;Brian Propp and Ilkka Sinisalo&mdash;the police protection of Dave Brown and Daryl Stanley, and, finally Sutter.The Flyers&rsquo; best defensive center suffered a sprain in his lower back while taking a warm-up shot Dec. 30 in Los Angeles. He played four more games, until he could play no more. After scoring a first-period goal in the Flyers&rsquo; tingling 5-4 comeback victory in Boston, Sutter&rsquo;s back spasmed so badly that coach Mike Keenan couldn&rsquo;t use him to help protect a one-goal, third-period lead.Sinisalo and Propp will remain out until mid-February; both have had arthroscopic knee surgery. Brown suffered a cracked rib when he impaled himself on his own stick after scoring a goal and asborbing a trip from New Jersey&rsquo;s Mark Johnson. He should be back by late January. Stanley went out for four to eight weeks, after stretching ligaments in his left ankle in a goalmouth collision with Bobby Carpenter of the New York Rangers.Flyer-haters had waited years to see them so short of muscle. So, apparently. had Washington&rsquo;s John Blum (who took to working over Tim Kerr), and Boston&rsquo;s Jay Miller (who tried to exchange his body for Rick Tocchet&rsquo;s).Philadelphia had been blown out 5-0 in Boston a month ago and was starting this one in similar fashion, when Keenan pulled goalie Ron Hextall after only five minutes. The move was designed to reflect more on his teammates than Hextall, and it worked.Chico Resch, who had appeared in only five games this season while awaiting resolution of the Bob Froese stalemate, had held faith throughout that he would be called upon to do something meaningful for this team. That requirement was met, as the 38-year-old goalie stopped 29 of 31 Boston shots the rest of the way.Down 2-0 against the Caps, the Flyers had exactly 11 shots after 39 minutes. But Mark Howe rammed in a Scott Mellanby rebound on a delayed penalty in the final minute of the second period, and forced a faceoff to the left of Pete Peeters with three seconds remaining.What Keenan did, pulling Hextali for a sixth attacker, was not really risky. The odds of the Caps getting the puck the length of the ice into the empty net in three seconds were infinitesimal. Still, not too many coaches try it. Probably because it never works.&ldquo;There are probably 10 things that have to go exactly right to score on something like that,&rdquo; said Dave Poulin. Among them were Peter Zezel winning the draw cleanly from Gary Sampson, Tim Kerr screening off Gaetan Duchesne from triggerman Mellanby, Mellanby getting a shot away with but an instant to look, and&mdash;last but not least&mdash;Pete Peeters allowing a shot he saw all the way go through his legs. &#9632;

f0021-02

Flyers Shrug Off Series Of Injuries

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02472/5253689-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="582" height="948"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Jets expect Steve Rooney to give them increased strength on the boards.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01672/5253696-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="182" height="142"></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;A big left winger who likes to play the walls has taken the spot of a small center who dread going there.At 24, Steve Rooney is four years younger, 30-pounds heavier and tougher than Bill Derlago, a scorer who didn&rsquo;t score.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s exactly what we&rsquo;ve been needing,&rdquo; said Dan Maloney, the coach of the Winnipeg Jets and a man who felt his team has been too meek on the left side.Derlago was dealt to Quebec Nordiques for a fourth-round draft choice in 1989 while Rooney was acquired from Montreal Canadiens for a third-round pick in 1987.In his defense, Derlago was not often used by the Jets who decided that Dale Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen, Laurie Boschman and Ron Wilson were better centers. He saw as much action on left wing, which wasn&rsquo;t exactly his idea of a good place to spend an evening.&ldquo;We experimented with Derlago on left wing,&rdquo; said general manager John Ferguson. &ldquo;But we paid a price when teams forced us to come up the wall. We had a lack of toughness there.&rdquo;The Canadiens were deep in left wingers with Sergio Momesso, Mike McPhee, Mats Naslund, Bob Gainey and David Maley playing ahead of Rooney.&ldquo;I knew something was going to happen,&rdquo; said Rooney, a native of Canton, Mass. &ldquo;I never knew exactly when, but the Canadiens knew I wanted a chance to play.&rdquo;He&rsquo;ll carry a stick, but the Jets don&rsquo;t expect many goals from him. At best, his goals occur about as often as rain during a Winnipeg winter.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a role player,&rdquo; said Rooney. &ldquo;The NHL has always been a bumping, grinding league. I&rsquo;m a winger, not a center who dances around with the puck in the middle of the ice.&rdquo;Ferguson likes Rooney&rsquo;s background.&ldquo;He grew up on the streets of Boston,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;For a year-and-a-half, I&rsquo;ve been trying to get him. Montreal wasn&rsquo;t trying to trade him, but sometimes you have to wait for the right moment to get him.&rdquo;A year ago, Rooney had only two goals and three assists and 114 minutes in penalties in 38 games with the Habs. He had four goals and 10 assists and 64 penalty minutes in 21 games with Sherbrooke this season.Rooney attended Providence College. He was the Canadiens&rsquo; eighth pick (88th overall) during the 1981 draft.He will wear No. 18&hellip;a number previously worn by Serge Savard, the Canadiens&rsquo; general manager who traded him.The Jets and the Canadiens deal often with each other. Perry Turnbull, Ron Wilson, Robert Picard and Steve Penney were acquired from the Habs. Picard was subsequently sent to Quebec for Mario Marois.BENCH BITS&mdash;The Jets&rsquo; record (19-17-4), after 40 games, has never been better in the seven years since the team&rsquo;s admission to the NHL. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re 14 points ahead of last year&rsquo;s pace, our penalty killing is the league&rsquo;s second best and we&rsquo;ve given up 44 fewer goals in our first 40 games,&rdquo; said coach Dan Maloney. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s progress&rdquo;&hellip;Jim Nill has returned to the Jets&rsquo; lineup after his three-month recovery from knee surgery&hellip;Club doctors want Perry Turnbull to wait two more weeks before his return. He had shoulder surgery in September&hellip;&rdquo;It won&rsquo;t be a lack of size that beats us in the next playoffs,&rdquo; said GM John Ferguson. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s if we ever get beat.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0024-02

Wall Banger Takes Place Of Silent Scorer

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-04201/5253727-1-eng-US/f0024-042.jpg" title="f0024-04" width="389" height="470"><figcaption class="caption-body">Barry Meisel</figcaption></div>ONCE A YEAR or so I get a radical idea for improving the game. Last season I was too embarrassed to admit it publicly, but I figure I&rsquo;ve been almost two years on the beat now, so what the heck&mdash;here goes. The board of governors knows where to find me if they wish to hire me as a consultant.My idea last year was to enclose the rink under a plexiglas bubble. No more stoppages for pucks sailing over the end glass. No more beer or litter on the ice. No more time wasted picking up celebratory hats after hat tricks. No more assistant coaches galloping into the stands after drunks.I thought this would speed up the game. Imagine a sneaky defenseman ricocheting a dump-in off the ceiling to a rushing forward. Talk about firing the puck around the glass.It wouldn&rsquo;t be a round bubble, but a top to the existing rink. The new piece of plexiglas&mdash;don&rsquo;t ask me how much it would cost, I don&rsquo;t know&mdash;would sit on top of the end glass and extend down along the sideboards, where the glass is shorter. Sort of like racquetball on ice.Crazy, huh? Okay, forget it. Too many obstacles. Like, if some fan spray-painted his team&rsquo;s logo on the transparent roof, it&rsquo;d take hours to scrub it off. And if the glass shattered, you&rsquo;d have to cancel the game because where in any arena are you going to store a spare ceiling pane of glass?Ready for my latest? Let&rsquo;s bend the blue lines.Imagine how much better a forechecking and a faster-skating game we&rsquo;d have if the blue line was 60 feet from the net in the middle of the ice, but 50 along the boards. A semi-circle effect.Defensemen could pinch even tighter. Wingers could barrel down the sides of the ice as centermen dumped the puck in. The points would become prime scoring areas. A left winger could be 45 feet from the net, but outside the zone, while his centerman could be 59 feet from the net, but in the zone. Neat.I got this idea at 2 a.m. one night, when the players on my hockey team watched me crawl out of the offensive zone to avoid offsides. I yelled, &ldquo;Why can&rsquo;t the blue line be 20 feet closer? Who&rsquo;s it going to hurt?&rdquo;Makes sense to me.Remember the Madison Square Garden Hockey Pool? Remember how badly my team looked, and how you were all lucky not to have invested $1 in my assessment of hockey talent?Well, let&rsquo;s put it this way: I&rsquo;m only seven goals out of ninth in a 10-team race. Don&rsquo;t laugh, it&rsquo;s my $50.My first-round pick, ninth overall, was Dale Hawerchuk. He&rsquo;s on a 50-goal pace. I got Tony McKegney in the 11 th or 12th round and he had 22 goals at the half. Not bad picking, eh?The only trouble is I&rsquo;ve traded them both. I dealt Hawerchuk in late October for the first pick in the Nov. 12 waiver draft (I took Esa Tikkanen), Michal Pivonka (every team must carry one rookie) and Laurie Boschman.I traded McKegney on Dec. 10, when he had 12 goals, for Mike Gartner, who had six. I was ready to nominate myself for GM of the month. A proven goal-scorer for a guy who figured to slow down?McKegney had 22 last I looked. Gartner had 10. Save your dollars when I come begging next season.The NHL doesn&rsquo;t keep enough statistics.Which center is the best on faceoffs? Which defenseman blocks the most shots? Who delivers the most checks? Who gives the puck away the most? Who steals it better than anybody else?Who&rsquo;s the best shooter on breakaways? What goalie stops them the best? I could go on, but you get the point.Stats start arguments, which create controversy, which generates interest. Each Monday, the NHL sends its leading scorers, penalty-minute leaders and complete goaltending report out over the wires.At the same time, the NBA delivers a weekly stat journal. A couple of days later, the NFL files a weekly encyclopedia.Don&rsquo;t just tell me who leads the NHL in penalty minutes. Tell me who&rsquo;s wielded the most high sticks and who&rsquo;s been in the most fights.Who plays the most? The last few years I&rsquo;ve been hearing that Wayne Gretzky plays 30 to 40 minutes a game, and the reason the Washington Capitals always flop in the playoffs is because Rod Langway plays 45 minutes a game during the regular season and is exhausted.Everybody&rsquo;s got a theory. Nobody bothers to defend it with facts. Hartford is the only one of 21 NHL cities that provides period-by-period statistics on faceoffs, giveaways, shots at goal and shots on goal.Why can&rsquo;t everybody? &#9632;

f0024-04

Never Mind Bending Rules, How ‘Bout The Blue Lines?

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-03324/5253758-1-eng-US/f0024-032.jpg" title="f0024-03" width="182" height="138"></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;It has often been observed around the National Hockey League that when a team is down in the standings halfway through the season, the slightest adversity can lead to the players packing it in during a game.The old Colorado Rockies are the most oft-cited example. Get the first goal on that team and the rest of game was clear sailing. So far, the Vancouver Canucks haven&rsquo;t once quit, although the temptations to do so have been many.At the halfway mark of the schedule, they trailed the Los Angeles Kings by 12 points in pursuit of the final playoff spot in the Smythe Division. Things don&rsquo;t look good.And while proven character players Barry Pederson, Stan Smyl and Rich Sutter have been getting the credit for keeping the Canucks close in almost all their games, it should be spread around. Take the case of Tony Tanti.The Maltese Falcon, as he has come to be known, has not had his best year. With only 14 goals, it appears he&rsquo;ll need a tremendous second half to reach his usual 40-goal season, which has been his production quota over his first three full seasons in the league. But he&rsquo;s working harder now than at any time in his career.&ldquo;If you look around you generally see that all good goal scorers are streak scorers,&rdquo; says Tanti. &ldquo;I think my goals will come. If I get a good streak where say I score 16 goals in 10 games, then I&rsquo;d have 30 and then getting 40 isn&rsquo;t too far away. If at the end of the season you look and I only have 20 goals, then you can say the goals didn&rsquo;t come.&rdquo;Canuck assistant coach Jack Mcl-lahrgey says that Tanti has been pressing a little lately, in part because the whole idea of a slump is new to the Ontario League record-holder for most goals (81) by a rookie.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s probably the first time in his life the goals haven&rsquo;t come and he&rsquo;s naturally frustrated,&rdquo; says Mcllhargey, who laughingly claims he gets his knowledge of goal-scorers from standing around watching them while he played. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s working hard and I expect the goals will come.&rdquo;Tanti was slightly slowed by the fact Patrik Sundstrom had missed the last six games with a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder, an injury that would have required surgury had he been in a throwing sport.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had to adjust my style to the other guys I&rsquo;ve played with but that hasn&rsquo;t been a big problem,&rdquo; says Tanti. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve just been concentrating on the defensive part of my game through this. I want to make sure I&rsquo;m not hurting the team in other areas.&rdquo;Coach Tom Watt clearly hasn&rsquo;t lost any faith in Tanti&rsquo;s ability to score, nor his other contributions.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s an excellent two-way player and he never feels checking is below him like some other goal-scorers do,&rdquo; says Watt. &ldquo;The only time he has any trouble defensively is because he&rsquo;s not a big man and he may get overpowered from time to time. But it&rsquo;s not because he feels defense is beneath him.&rdquo;ICE CHIPS&mdash;The Canucks have lost the services of winger Taylor Hall again. The left winger playing in Fredericton has tom up his left knee, the same one he injured two years ago against the Islanders. It&rsquo;s questionable whether he&rsquo;ll ever make it back to the NHL now&hellip;Glen Cochrane continues his rehabilitation program after back surgery. He was to be re-examined to see if he can resume skating.<div class="sidebar">&lsquo;It&rsquo;s probably the first time in his (Tanti&rsquo;s) life the goals has ven&rsquo;t come.&rsquo;&mdash;Mcllhargey &#9632;</div>

f0024-03

Goal Scorer Tanti Not Scoring Goals

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01587/5253789-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="186" height="144"></div>PORTLAND, Maine&mdash;Left was right for Rich Chernomaz.The Maine Mariners&rsquo; hard-luck winger, long accustomed to playing on the right side, was shifted to the left&mdash;at least, long enough to get back into a scoring groove.All but forgotten after three uneventful seasons in the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; organization, Chernomaz, 23, has regained the form that made him a scoring whiz in the Western League, and a bona fide NHL prospect as the second pick of the Colorado Rockies in the 1981 National Hockey League entry draft.In 37 games with the Mariners this season, Chernomaz had 23 goals&mdash;four of them game-winners&mdash;and 35 points. He led the team in all three categories and stood second in the league in goals to Adirondack&rsquo;s Glenn Merkosky, who had 26.It marked a remarkable change in fortune for the Selkirk, Man., native, who had scored just 146 points in his first three years at Maine, after a terrific final junior campaign (71-53-124) with the Victoria Cougars.A change of position from right to left wing, suggested earlier this season by Maine coach Tom McVie, helped Chernomaz break out of his slump.&ldquo;The move helped, but it&rsquo;s not just that,&rdquo; McVie said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s doing so many things differently. They were the things that made him not a very good player. He always had the shot but he would miss the net. Now, he hits the net all the time. He takes the pass in traffic better. He gives the puck and he goes. And he&rsquo;s always skating.&ldquo;All the things that made him a bad player he&rsquo;s turned around, and have made him a good player. He&rsquo;s just become a very much smarter player. It&rsquo;s like night and day.&rdquo;The change began to take place in October, when McVie found he was loaded at right wing and light at the other side.&ldquo;After the first 10 games this season,&rdquo; Chernomaz said, &ldquo;I was off to my worst start. All I had was three goals. Then Tommy called me into his office. We had five or six guys who were right wingers and only two guys that played left wing. So he wanted me to move to the left wing and I said, &lsquo;Okay, no problem.&rsquo; I played on a line with Tim Lenardon and Doug Brown and I just took off from there. I think in the next 10 games I had seven or eight goals and five assists.&rdquo;Chernomaz continued his hot streak, even though McVie has had played him at all three forward positions to keep him away from checking lines, and to help ease the Mariners&rsquo; injury problems. Still, the switch to the left side opened the door.Once Chernomaz learned how to position himself against the boards, he found that his right-hand shot provided an advantage from the left wing.As he enters the last half of the final season in his four-year contract, Chernomaz knows his future in the game depends on his ability to finish what he&rsquo;s started.&ldquo;When they draft you as a goal scorer,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and you come into the league&mdash;especially the American League&mdash;and you don&rsquo;t do as well as they think (you should), you have to think that they are going to lose a little faith in you.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard a few good things from the organization&mdash;but nothing has come out of it yet, so I don&rsquo;t want to say too much. I just want to keep playing and keep playing well.&rdquo;AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash; Maine experienced its first player moves of consequence on Jan. 5, when forward Al Stewart, defenseman Gordie Mark and goaltender Craig Billington were recalled by New Jersey. The Devils reassigned a pair of rookies, goalie Kirk McLean and forward Anders Carlsson. Goaltender Chris Terreri, the rookie assigned by New Jersey in late December, has played very well for the Mariners&hellip;Adirondack, which fell into its first slump of the season and dropped into second place behind Moncton, added defenseman Shawn Dineen, 28, the oldest son of Wing coach Bill Dineen. He began the season with Indianapolis of the IHL&hellip;Through eight games of his comeback attempt with the Nova Scotia Oilers, Butch Goring had three goals and five assists. &#9632;

f0025-01

The Minors

Winger Sees Future From New Perspective

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02384/5253820-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="184" height="142"></div>BALTIMORE&mdash;Even though the Baltimore Skipjacks have spent most of this season in the American League&rsquo;s Southern Division cellar, veteran goalie Brian Ford insists this won&rsquo;t be a repeat of last season.It would be easy to disagree with Ford, because the Skipjacks appear to have the same problem&mdash;no offense&mdash;as last season, when they finished with the league&rsquo;s worst record.&ldquo;I think last year it was harder to take,&rdquo; Ford said, &ldquo;because you couldn&rsquo;t see any light at the end of the tunnel.&ldquo;This year I really believe we have a good hockey team. We&rsquo;re in last place, but we still believe in each other and I think that&rsquo;s something we didn&rsquo;t have last year. I honestly see good things for this team the last half of the season.&rdquo;The Skipjacks have seen good things from Ford and rookie goalie Steve Guenette the first half of the season. Though their records don&rsquo;t reflect it, Ford and Guenette represented one of the league&rsquo;s most consistent duos.Still, lack of firepower has plagued the Skipjacks.&ldquo;It sure does get frustrating,&rdquo; said Ford, who was 7-7-2 with a 3.19 goals-against average and .890 save percentage in 19 games. &ldquo;I think what it does is put more pressure on me not to let in that one bad goal every night.&ldquo;You have to say to yourself, &lsquo;I can&rsquo;t let anything in.&rsquo; That&rsquo;s how I&rsquo;ve approached it&hellip;After a while, you wonder what you have to do. You can&rsquo;t really point the finger at anybody. It&rsquo;s not fair to blame anyone. You just keep hoping that next time it&rsquo;s going to be better.&rdquo;Things never got better last season.&ldquo;I thought it was probably the poorest year I&rsquo;ve had personally,&rdquo; said Ford, a first-team all star in 1983-84 with the Fredericton Express.But it ended on a good note. He joined Muskegon toward the end of the season and helped the Lumberjacks win the International League&rsquo;s Turner Cup.Guenette, who signed with Pittsburgh last summer as a free agent, was also on a championship team last season, helping Guelph win the Memorial Cup.He&rsquo;s adjusted nicely to the pros. In 22 games, he was 8-11-2 with a 3.20 average and .900 save percentage.&ldquo;Maybe you have a little more pressure than other goalies feel,&rdquo; Guenette said. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re on Adirondack or Moncton you don&rsquo;t have that kind of pressure, because you know your guys can come back.&rdquo;Guenette was treated to a rare offensive comeback on New Year&rsquo;s Eve. Trailing 4-1&rsquo; after two periods, the Skipjacks rallied for three third-period goals before losing in a shootout to Binghamton. Two days before the game, the Penguins bolstered the Skipjacks&rsquo; lineup with Warren Young, Mike Blaisdell, Norm Schmidt and Dwight Schofield.&ldquo;I think last year we invented ways to lose games,&rdquo; Ford said. &ldquo;Losing became too easy for us.&ldquo;Last year, a lot of guys threw their sticks out there and if we got a victory, it was great. But if we lost, it was no big deal.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have that this year. Every game we lose is hard on everyone. No one here wants to lose. We want to win.&rdquo;Ford and Guenette have gotten along well. Coach Gene Ubriaco, however, makes sure they don&rsquo;t get too chummy.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t room together on the road and we don&rsquo;t sit together in the dressing room,&rdquo; Ford said. &ldquo;I think what Gene is trying to do is keep us friends, but make it competitive. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s a bad idea, and it&rsquo;s working.&rdquo;AROUND THE SOUTH&mdash;The Rochester Americans moved into first place with a six-game winning streak. Veteran center Don Lever led the way, with points in eight straight games and 12 of the last 14. Goalie Daren Puppa had won nine of his last 10 starts, with a 1.92 goals-against average during that stretch&hellip;The Springfield Indians ended a team-record eight-game losing streak by beating Moncton, 4-3, on Jan. 2. Two nights later, they snapped an eight-game losing streak on the road by winning at New Haven, 8-3&hellip;The Nighthawks dropped out of the top spot by losing six straight&hellip;High-scoring Hershey left winger Ross Fitzpatrick, a 50-goal scorer last season, will be out four weeks after having arthroscopic knee surgery&hellip;Newmarket center Rich Costello returned to the Saints&rsquo; lineup after missing 33 games with a knee injury. In his return on Jan. 4, Costello had an assist in a 5-2 win over Adirondack. &#9632;

f0025-02

Goalies Bailing Out Anemic Skipjacks

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01623/5253851-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">&lsquo;MY FATHER SAYS WE ARE IN A REBUILDING PERIOD.&rsquo;</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02431/5253858-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="155" height="137"></div>FLINT, Mich.&mdash;With 11 points in the first 11 games of the Toledo Goaldiggers&rsquo; 1985-86 season, Kurt Kalweit seemed on target for an outstanding year in the International League.Then, on Nov. 6 in Indianapolis, he went down in a scramble, his leg twisting under the weight of another player. He couldn&rsquo;t get up.&ldquo;I suffered a spiral fracture of the weight-bearing bone, and a hairline fracture in the smaller bone,&rdquo; the 25-year-old left winger recalled. &ldquo;I had broken the leg completely.&rdquo;The 1985-86 season was essentially shot, and some of his doctors couldn&rsquo;t guarantee he would play hockey again.The Boston-area native didn&rsquo;t want to hear that. After all, he&rsquo;d invested a lot in his hockey career.After graduating from New York&rsquo;s Elmira College in 1984, he played a season in Sweden, then attended the New York Rangers&rsquo; camp in 1985.He ended up at Toledo and started impressively. He scored seven goals and four assists in his first 11 games and had netted the game-winner in two of the Goaldiggers&rsquo; four victories.After a lengthy rehabilitation period, he attempted to return late in the season.&ldquo;I tried to come back with nine games left,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think (coach) Peter Mahovlich played me just to keep my spirits up. But it was a futile attempt. I was taped from hip to toe and it didn&rsquo;t help much.&rdquo;After continued rehabilitation during the summer, Kalweit, 25, attended the Quebec camp as a free agent.&ldquo;I had some X-rays taken at Quebec and the guy (team physician Dr. Pierre Beauchemin) was surprised I was walking on the leg.&rdquo;He played a couple of camp games at Fredericton (AHL) and two more at New Haven, before joining the Flint Spirits, under coach Rick Dudley.&ldquo;Rick has given me the opportunity to play and show what I can do,&rdquo; the appreciative left winger said.What he has done is pick up where he left off a year ago.He was scoring better than a point a game before joining the U.S. entry at the Calgary Cup.In 33 outings with the Spirits, Kalweit was second on the team in goals with 23, and third in scoring with 41 points.In his first game back from the Calgary Cup, Kalweit needed just 3:54 to get back on the IHL scoreboard. His first goal of the game started Flint on the way to a 6-5 overtime victory in Indianapolis, where his season ended last year.Dudley, who has made a contender out of the Spirits after a last-place season in 1985-86, said he has been more than happy with Kalweit&rsquo;s recovery.&ldquo;Not only has he scored a lot of points,&rdquo; Dudley said, &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s playing at about a plus-15. That&rsquo;s pretty good at this point in the season.&rdquo;Kalweit said he&rsquo;s satisfied with the way things have been going this season, for both himself and the team.&ldquo;We have a few older guys,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and a good crop of rookies. It&rsquo;s a real good feeling this year. We have three good lines, good depth, and everyone&rsquo;s working hard to win.&rdquo;I-LITES&mdash;Ray LeBlanc became the IHL&rsquo;s winningest goaltender Jan. 4 in Flint&rsquo;s 6-5 overtime victory at Indianapolis. He faced 51 shots but held on to claim his 20th win against nine losses&hellip;Bill Inglis also picked up a noteworthy victory over the holidays. The Kalamazoo coach got his 100th win in three seasons behind the Wings&rsquo; bench, in a 7-3 triumph over Salt Lake City, Dec. 27&hellip;Left winger George Servinis celebrated New Year&rsquo;s Eve with four goals for Indianapolis, but the Checkers lost 7-5 in Fort Wayne, dropping the team into second place in the West Division, behind the Komet-S&hellip;IHL commissioner Bud Poile will meet Jan. 16 and 17 at Salt Lake City, with representatives of possible expansion franchises. San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego and Denver may become part of a West Division with Salt Lake. According to Poile, Denver appears to have the best chance.<h2>The Snowbirds &#9632;</h2>

f0026-01

Flint’s Kalweit Has Leg Up On Opposition

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-04266/5253920-1-eng-US/f0026-042.jpg" title="f0026-04" width="700" height="1083"><figcaption class="caption-body">Randy Gregg, M.D., will complete his residency after his NHL career is over.</figcaption></div>Randy Gregg never had an allencompassing ambition to play in the National Hockey League. Even, now, as a member of the Edmonton Oilers, the NHL is still not the major part of his life.Like any true professional, however, Gregg doesn&rsquo;t play with any less than his best effort. It&rsquo;s just that, off-ice, he has other irons in the fire.Gregg is a physician. He completed a four-year medical program at the University of Alberta in 1979, and interned for a year in Japan. He still needs to complete a four-year residency program, but that won&rsquo;t happen until he leaves the NHL. Right now, he&rsquo;s enjoying the game too much.&ldquo;Something like this (residency) is a very difficult part of your career,&rdquo; Gregg says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not something you can approach part-time.&rdquo;Even though Gregg has played on two Stanley Cup champion teams, winning has simply never been as important to him as participation&mdash;especially at the minor hockey level.&ldquo;Succeeding in professional sports was never a concern of mine,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I always wanted to go out, have fun and participate.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve all experienced people in the game who have only one goal in life&mdash;to make the NHL, but the odds show they&rsquo;re not satisfied. If you look at the thousands of kids who are playing minor hockey, very few make the NHL. The emphasis should be on education.&rdquo;Gregg&rsquo;s own minor hockey was played in Edmonton. He spent about five years on community teams, then moved up to the more competitive elite levels.&ldquo;I was always kind of a regular player,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Though, in most years, I was playing a year or two ahead of my age level.&rdquo;Gregg opted not to play junior hockey. He instead played &lsquo;AA&rsquo; juvenile, then moved to the University of Alberta team.The big (6-foot-4, 215-pounds) defenseman played well enough for the Golden Bears to attract the attention of Canada&rsquo;s 1,980 Olympic hockey program.&ldquo;That was a very fulfilling experience,&rdquo; Gregg says, reflecting on his season with the club that just narrowly missed winning a bronze medal.In fact, it was an important factor in his decision to play in Japan, for the Kikudo Bunnies.&ldquo;I wanted to continue interning,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;and I knew that Japanese teams played a six- to seven-month season. That way, I could come back and intern, and, I could stay amateur and compete in the &rsquo;84 Olympics if I wanted.&rdquo;But, after the Bunnies&rsquo; 1981-82 season, the Oilers came calling. The Olympic program is beckoning again, however. After this season, Gregg plans to quit professional hockey for good and join Dave King&rsquo;s national team. &#9632;

f0026-04

Education Most Important: Gregg

The role of Eddie Westfall changed overnight.The veteran winger was enjoying a satisfying offseason in the summer of 1972, basking in the afterglow of the Boston Bruins&rsquo; second Stanley Cup victory in three years.Then, the New York Islanders came calling. The fledgling team, admitted to the league that year with the Atlanta (now Calgary) Flames, selected Westfall in the expansion draft.The Belleville, Ont., native changed addresses from the penthouse to the outhouse, in one easy move.&ldquo;It was both a hockey shock and a cultural shock,&rdquo; Westfall recalls, &ldquo;going from a conservative, established team in Boston to the new team in New York. There was a new mood, a new environment.&rdquo;And a new losing tradition to overcome, as he and the Bruins had done in the late &rsquo;60s.The Islanders broke all NHL records for futility in 1972-73, winning only 12 and tying six of 78 games on the way to a lastplace finish in the eight-team East Division.Westfall tried to instill the winning spirit he&rsquo;d known in Boston, but found the task difficult.&ldquo;You&rsquo;d try to duplicate it, but you couldn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The chemistry wasn&rsquo;t right. It was scary&mdash;I don&rsquo;t think we had five players who had NHL experience.&rdquo;Westfall also had to overcome his own change in status.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01583/5253951-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="582" height="1171"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ed Westfall scored 625 points in an 18-year NHL career with the Bruins and Islanders.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;In Boston, my real role was that of a supporting actor, if you will,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You can have all the great stars, but you still have to have the supporting cast.&rdquo;With the Bruins, Westfall was a competent supporter of some of the game&rsquo;s greatest stars&mdash;Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk and Gerry Cheevers.On Long Island, he was expected to be a star himself. He rose to the occasion, scoring 22 goals in 1974-75, then equalling his career high of 25 in 1975-76.Eventually, some of the Westfall spirit rubbed off. The Islanders improved year by year until 1979-80&mdash;the season after Westfall retired&mdash;when they won their first of four consecutive Stanley Cups.Was he sorry he missed out on the dynasty?&ldquo;Oh, God, no,&rdquo; he chuckles. &ldquo;I retired because I wanted to. While I was still effective, I wanted to play. But when the head said &lsquo;go&rsquo; and the body said &lsquo;no&rsquo;, the body won out.&rdquo;He didn&rsquo;t want to become a hanger-on. Hockey was always a joy to Westfall, and he wanted to keep it that way.&ldquo;I had a lot of fun,&rdquo; he recalls of his days in the pre-expansion NHL. &ldquo;Players played for a different reason then. With the original six teams, it was as much ego as anything. It was really something to make it, because there were only about 120 players.&rdquo;Westfall says Orr was the greatest, with Bobby Hull and Wayne Gretzky the only others to come close to matching Orr&rsquo;s on-ice creativity. Gordie Howe was blessed with all of the right physical and mental tools, and Phil Esposito &ldquo;could stand and close his eyes and still put it in.&rdquo;Today, at 46, Westfall says he &ldquo;enjoys the game just as much&rdquo; as a color commentator on SportsChannel&rsquo;s television broadcasts of Islander games. &#9632;

f0027-01

Westfall Was Building Block For Islanders’ Cup Winners

The 9,000-plus crowd at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minn., drew a breath of anticipation Jan. 10, as the teams skated on to the ice.There was Bill Goldsworthy, leading a team of superannuated Minnesota North Stars. On the other side skated the Hull brothers, Bobby and Dennis, with Stan Mikita alongside. And there, dwarfed by the ex-NHLers, glided a confident Michael J. Fox.Michael J. Fox? Not the enormously popular Alex on TV&rsquo;s Family Ties? Yes, the star of Back to the Future had returned to his past, exposing his deepdown Canadian roots as a hockey lover.Fox was just one of several Hollywood stars to participate in &ldquo;The Citizen America North Star Classic,&rdquo; the first in a series of three games to feature The Celebrity All-Star HockeyTeam.Other TV and film notables on the club include Richard Dean Anderson of MacGyver, Alan Thicke of Growing Pains and Michael Keaton of Mr. Mom.Anderson, a hockey buff whose love for the sport has seen him request&mdash;and get&mdash;practise time with the New York Rangers, is particularly keen despite his busy schedule.&ldquo;People like Richard Dean Anderson have shown tremendous commitment,&rdquo; says John Bennett Perry, team co-ordinator and cast member of Falcon Crest.Though Perry was instrumental in getting National Hockey League support for the idea of celebrity charity matches, the idea of a celebrity team actually started &ldquo;probably a dozen years ago,&rdquo; he says.Two Canadians in showbiz&mdash;John Barber of Real People and Stu Nahan, a Los Angelesbased sportscaster&mdash;developed the team as a one-game-a-year affair, with the opposition usually a team of NHL officials or L.A. King oldtimers.The team has broadened over the years to the point where, with NHL approval, games will be played this year in Pittsburgh and Hartford, in addition to Minnesota.Its roster has also broadened, to include former stars of NHL and Olympic play.Ex-Chicago Blackhawks Keith Magnuson, the Hull brothers and Mikita were recruited to play in the Minnesota game, as were 1980 Olympic gold-medallists Mike Eruzione and Eric Strobel.The game was won 8-6 by the celebrities&mdash;on the strength of Fox&rsquo;s hat trick&mdash;but that didn&rsquo;t matter. The real winner was the Children&rsquo;s Miracle Network, a local hospital charity, which received an estimated $10,000 to $12,000 from receipts and tie-in promotions.For more information on the Celebrity All-Star Hockey Team, write to Scott Sloman, SHG Promotions Group, 3360 Flair Dr., El Monte, CA 91731, or call (818) 571-6600. &#9632;

Celebrity All-Stars Skate For Charity

<div class="byline">BY BILL CRAWFORD</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02417/5254006-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="583" height="965"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Mason is closing in on the 500th win of his illustrious college coaching career.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01594/5254013-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="181" height="140"></div>EAST LANSING, Mich.&mdash;Michigan State&rsquo;s Ron Mason was on the verge of becoming the youngest 500-game winner in college hockey&rsquo;s coaching fraternity.Mason, who turned 47 on Jan. 14, won the 498th and 499th games, of his career when the Spartans swept Western Michigan 8-6 and 5-4 in a Central Collegiate Hockey Association series, Jan. 9-10.With a win against Illinois-Chicago, during a two-game series Jan. 16-17 in Chicago, Mason would achieve what only four others in college hockey have done.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Mason ranks among the all-time great college hockey coaches.</blockquote>Heading into this season, Mason had a career record of 477-208-21 over 20 years&mdash;six at Lake Superior State, seven at Bowling Green and seven at MSU.That put Mason fifth on the all-time list for victories&mdash;behind the late John Maclnnes of Michigan Tech, who won 555 games; Len Ceglarski, Boston College, 551 through Jan. 12; Jack Riley, Army, 540; John (Snooks) Kelley, Boston College, 501.Only Ceglarski and Mason are still active coaches.Mason was third in winning percentage at season&rsquo;s start, but jumped up a notch in both wins and percentage with MSU&rsquo;s fine start this year.The Spartans stood at 22-4-1 this season. They were entrenched in first place, seeking their second straight CCHA regular-season title.Mason is one of only four coaches to make the NCAA Final Four with two schools, having turned the trick with Bowling Green in 1978 and with the national-champion Spartans twice since joining them in 1979.Despite his enormous success, Mason said he has no desire to coach in the professional ranks.&ldquo;My long-range plans are to work at what I&rsquo;m doing now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I have no plans to go to the NHL, or any where else for that matter. I love it at Michigan State and it&rsquo;s been good for me here.&rdquo;Mason started his coaching career almost as a lark, when he was a 26-year-old physical education doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh.It was 1966, Mason recalled, when he decided he was tired of going to school.&ldquo;I told my wife (Marion) that I wanted to apply for some college coaching jobs,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I had never really coached before, but I wanted to try it. I applied for jobs at Merrimack College and Lake Superior State and I was actually offered both jobs.&ldquo;My master&rsquo;s degree in physical education didn&rsquo;t hurt any. Both schools had small, beginning programs and required teaching along with coaching. I went to Lake Superior, pulled in players from both Northern Ontario and the Sault Ste. Marie areas and we won. We won big.&ldquo;I never regretted the decision, obviously. Coaching has been very good to me and that first job was the key to it all. I&rsquo;ve never considered doing anything else. I just worked from a gut feel for coaching (he played all his life and starred at St. Lawrence University in college hockey).&rdquo;An outstanding recruiter, Mason said he enjoys that part of college coaching, though it is getting tougher.&ldquo;I like to get out and see the talent available, and to meet and talk with the kids and parents,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But recruiting has changed a lot too. It used to be that you could wait until the end of March, or even into April, to nail down recruits for next season.&ldquo;Now, though, they are committing earlier every year and you can&rsquo;t wait to recruit. You have to double your seasonal workload and recruit while coaching and preparing for important league games.&ldquo;The toughest thing about coaching is being a winner consistently, being successful year after year. I wish I could do more recruiting than I do now, but I don&rsquo;t get the chance because of the coaching demands. But at a place like Michigan State, you have the best of everything&mdash;a great coaching staff and plenty of support.&rdquo;And the folks at MSU feel the same way about Mason. &#9632;

f0028-02

The Colleges

Mason Climbing All-Time Ladder

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03300/5254044-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="182" height="134"></div>DENVER&mdash;It&rsquo;s now safe to go out on a limb&mdash;Denver University will not repeat as Western Collegiate Hockey Association champion.That&rsquo;s no surprise, even to coach Ralph Backstrom, who guided his Pioneers to the NCAA&rsquo;s Final Four in 1985-86.But there&rsquo;s a chance that Denver could finish as high as third this season&mdash;which might be as big of an accomplishment as winning the title a year ago, after being picked to finish in the second division.North Dakota and Minnesota have staged a two-team runaway in the league from the start of the season, with the rest of the eight-team league battling to stay around the .500 mark.Upstart Denver climbed slightly above that of late by winning six of seven contests, all but one on the road. That feat opened as many eyes in the league as the two-team runaway.Denver has broken in 10 new players this year, so Backstrom&rsquo;s rebuilding program is apparently paying dividends quicker than everyone but the coach himself expected.&ldquo;Our battle is to finish in the top four,&rdquo; Backstrom said, though Denever&mdash;five games out of first place with 14 games to go&mdash;still had a mathematical chance of finishing on top.&ldquo;A lot of people thought that unattainable for us this year, since we don&rsquo;t have the game-breakers we did last year such as Dwight Mathiasen and Dallas Gaume.&rdquo;What Denver has is a fine assortment of players pulling together.Lacking the big scorers, Denver developed a balanced attack to rise steadily in the league standings. The team came of age with back-to-back road sweeps at Northern Michigan and Wisconsin, two difficult places for visitors to win.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have anybody in the top 20 in league scoring, yet we rank third in the league in goals scored,&rdquo; Backstrom said. &ldquo;So we do have good depth, as shown by the fact we have 13 players with 10 or more points.&rdquo;That depth was especially in evidence in a 10-3 win at Wisconsin, when no Denver player scored more than one goal or two points.Freshman center David Shields led the team with 22 points in league play&mdash;roughly half of the output (43) of WCHA leader Tony Hrkac of North Dakota. Transfer Darryl Seltenreich, and holdovers Jeff Lamb and Bruce Hill are right behind Shields, illustrating Denver&rsquo;s balance.Shields, with 27 points, and goalie Chris Gillies, who redshirted last year, are the best Denver newcomers. Gillies was in goal when Denver ran off a five-game winning streak.Then, after Denver lost on the road to Northeastern, Gillies got a rest. Chris Olson, who hadn&rsquo;t played since Dec. 6, got a rare start. Olson responded with a 30-save shutout in a 3-0 win over Providence.&ldquo;We felt it was time to get him back into the lineup,&rdquo; Backstrom said. &ldquo;We hadn&rsquo;t written him off. And we thought Chris looked a little tired against Northeastern. Though he wasn&rsquo;t playing, Olson kept his spirits up and kept working hard in practice.&rdquo;The Pioneers excel in few departments, except perhaps in goal, where Gillies ranked second with his 3.10 goals-against mark and .904 save percentage.The Pioneers rank dead last in power-play conversions at 15.6 per cent, and have few other statistics worth citing&mdash;except their persistent third-place standing. That alone defies the law of averages, considering the talent Denver lost after the championship season.A favorable schedule may enable the Pioneers to succeed in their drive to finish in the first division, thereby ensuring home ice in the first round of the WCHA playoffs. The Pioneers play eight of their final 14 league games in Colorado, with road trips to only Michigan Tech, North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth remaining. &#9632;

f0028-03

Pioneers Surprise In Rebuilding Season

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-08" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-08134/5254103-1-eng-US/f0028-082.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04216/5254096-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="406" height="530"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEVIN STEVENS BC</figcaption></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>Boston College left winger Kevin Stevens scored five goals in two games as Boston College recorded a two-game sweep over Denver and Colorado.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05178/5254089-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="406" height="528"><figcaption class="caption-body">WAYNE COWLEY Colgate</figcaption></div><h2>ECAC</h2>Goaltender Wayne Cowley was the big man for Colgate as he made a total of 140 saves in the Red Raiders&rsquo; three-game sweep over Cornell, RPI and Vermont.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-06154/5254082-1-eng-US/f0028-062.jpg" title="f0028-06" width="407" height="533"><figcaption class="caption-body">SHELDON GORSKI Ill-Chicago</figcaption></div><h2>CCHA</h2>The Illinois-Chicago Flames took two from Michigan with sophomore winger Sheldon Gorski figuring in six goals while scoring one game-winner.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-07144/5254075-1-eng-US/f0028-072.jpg" title="f0028-07" width="406" height="516"><figcaption class="caption-body">TONY HRKAC North Dakota</figcaption></div><h2>WCHA</h2>Conference scoring leader Tony Hrkac was in on six of the nine goals as North Dakota swept its two-game showdown for first place with Minnesota.<div class="sidebar">BauerFITFOR PERFORMANCE &#9632;</div>

f0028-08

Bauer’s college performer OF The Week

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04160/5254134-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="594" height="870"><figcaption class="caption-body">After graduation from Northeastern, Dave Buda would like a shot with Boston.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01509/5254141-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="181" height="136"></div>BOSTON&mdash;At first, the move didn&rsquo;t seem to make sense. Northeastern University, hurting for experienced centers, moved Dave Buda to right wing before the current Hockey East season.Buda didn&rsquo;t like it. He&rsquo;d been nothing but a center since his boyhood days in Mississauga, Ont. But now, the gangly sophomore admits, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the best thing that could have happened to me.&rdquo;With a team-leading nine goals and three assists in his first 18 games, Buda stood sixth on the Huskies&rsquo; pointscoring list. Offense had been Northeastern&rsquo;s biggest problem since the graduation of fine centers Jay Hein-buck and Rod Isbister. Three of the current team&rsquo;s pivots are freshmen, but Buda has seemed better off at right wing.&ldquo;I wanted Buda to be on the wing where he wouldn&rsquo;t have to handle the puck so much,&rdquo; said veteran coach Fernie Flaman. &ldquo;We have inexperienced forwards, but that&rsquo;s not what&rsquo;s been hurting us. We haven&rsquo;t been scoring many goals, but we&rsquo;ve been killed by making bad passes in our defensive zone at critical times.&rdquo;Buda agreed.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been treating the puck like a hot potato,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Our problems have really been in our own end.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been getting a lot of scoring chances this year that I didn&rsquo;t get before. Kevin Heffernan is my center, and he&rsquo;s a left-handed shot, so he gets the puck to me quite a bit on the right wing.&rdquo;Even though he played every shift last season. Buda garnered just four goals and four assists in 39 games.In recent action, Buda scored a pair of goals to lead NU over Denver 7-4. His second, a power-play blast from the top of the left faceoff circle, was Northeastern&rsquo;s second man-advantage goal of the game, but just its 15th all season. The team&rsquo;s anemic power-play conversion rate (12 per cent) hadn&rsquo;t helped its record; the Huskies had gone 0-6-2 since Nov. 28.Buda and Flaman pointed out, however, that six of those winless contests came on the road. At home again, the Huntington Hounds snapped out of their lethargy. After the Denver game, they downed Colorado College 4-3 in the first weekend of January.The victories kept Northeastern from tumbling into the Hockey East cellar, but they were by no means pretty. In both cases, the Huskies blew comfortable leads and were forced to scramble back.They also got a scare halfway through the third period of the Denver game, when Buda absorbed a check from Bruce Hill and went down in a heap, his knee throbbing. Fortunately, no lasting harm was done; Buda finished the game without missing a shift.Buda said he still harbors a goal of playing professionally.He was picked by the Boston Bruins in the 10th round of the 1985 NHL entry draft, and would like nothing better than to stay right in the Hub after graduation. At 6-foot-4, he&rsquo;s got the size the pros want, and he&rsquo;s fast developing into a pretty good scorer in his new position.&ldquo;I think I have good speed for my size, too,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;The scouts have told me they liked what I&rsquo;ve been doing, and to keep it up.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0029-04

Huskies Have Faith In Buda At Right Wing

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03229/5254172-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="592" height="870"><figcaption class="caption-body">Daniel Lamirande was dropped from McGill Redmen for disciplinary reasons.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02352/5254179-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="184" height="141"></div>OTTAWA&mdash;The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees hockey team will jump from the Quebec University Athletic Association to the Ontario Universities Athletic Assocaition next season, a move that is expected to result in the three remaining QU AA teams competing in Ontario as well.The OUAA unanimously approved U of O&rsquo;s return to competition in Ontario, during its semi-annual meeting at Wilfrid Laurier in Waterloo.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re disappointed Ottawa leaves us like this,&rdquo; said Bernard Gagnon, commissioner of the QUAA&rsquo;s Quebec University Hockey League. &ldquo;Another year would have helped.&rdquo;Other teams in the conference include the McGill Redmen, Concordia Stingers and Quebec-Trois-Rivieres Patriotes.The QUAA had asked Ottawa to postpone the move for a year while it sought another school to take its place, but U of O officials decided the time was right.&ldquo;The vote was really a technicality,&rdquo; said U of O athletic director Carol Turgeon. &ldquo;Another resolution was passed to enter into negotiations with the three remaining Quebec schools to compete in the OUAA next season.&rdquo;Gagnon met with OUAA hockey convenor Dave Copp, Guelph&rsquo;s athletic director, to discuss the future of the remaining QUHL teams.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no place anywhere for a three-team league,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There is a proposition on the table that the three Quebec schools join Ottawa, Queen&rsquo;s and Royal Military College in the east division of a three-division league.&ldquo;The east would play 15 games within the division, and six more against the central division. The top two teams in each division would make the playoffs, along with the next two teams with the best overall records.&ldquo;Then there would be best-of-three quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals, with the league champion and finalist advancing to the CIAU championships.&rdquo;Gagnon said the proposal has been passed on to the three Quebec schools and the response is expected by Jan. 17.The QUHL commissioner countered with a proposal in which the three Quebec schools&mdash;with Ottawa, Queen&rsquo;s, Royal Military College, Ryerson, York and Toronto&mdash;would compete in one division, while the remaining eight Ontario schools play in another.Gagnon said McGill and Concordia appear prepared to compete in Ontario next season, while Trois-Rivieres wants the scholarship issue settled. Quebec schools offer scholarships and want to continue doing so, while the Ontario schools do not.&ldquo;The sooner we know offically, the better it will be for everybody,&rdquo; Gagnon said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an unfortunate situation but it was bound to happen. People have been aware of the problem for a long time and something should have been done.&ldquo;We see next year more or less as a sabbatical year. Everybody&rsquo;s aware of the problem now and a lot of people are talking about it. Possibly Laval or the University of Montreal will return to the league. I think there is recognition of the problem now, from the student body at the University of Montreal.&rdquo;Gagnon said he doesn&rsquo;t think the situation will have an effect upon the remainder of the 1986-87 season.QUHL LINES&mdash;The upheaval doesn&rsquo;t appear to have affected the Gee-Gees on the ice. U of O beat the national B teams of Austria, Holland and France, to win the International Senior Ice Hockey Tournament at St-Gervais and Megeve, France&hellip;Back at home, the 6-3 Gee-Gees opened the new year on the right note, winning 6-5 over previously undefeated and nationally fourth-ranked Trois-Rivieres (7-1-1). Barry Maguire scored the winner 11 seconds into overtime&hellip;Concordia posted a 2-3-1 record during a tour of Czechoslovakia, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 9&hellip;Bernard Gagnon said McGill&rsquo;s Daniel Lamirande, fifth in league scoring at the Christmas break (5-11-16), is no lon-ger with the team because of disciplinary reasons&hellip;Trois-Rivieres goalie Claude Guerard performed strongly with Canada&rsquo;s gold-medal Spengler Cup team. &#9632;

f0029-03

Ottawa Defects To Ontario League

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-08" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0885/5254231-1-eng-US/f0029-082.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-05139/5254224-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="366" height="486"><figcaption class="caption-body">DON MCLAUGHLIN Toronto</figcaption></div><h2>OUAA</h2>Center Don McLaughlin figured in nine of Toronto&rsquo;s goals as the Blues ripped RMC 8-2 and McMaster 5-2 in the resumption of conference play. McLaughlin&rsquo;s outburst gave him 29 points for the season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-06114/5254217-1-eng-US/f0029-062.jpg" title="f0029-06" width="368" height="482"><figcaption class="caption-body">A. SAKUNDIAK Sask.</figcaption></div><h2>CWUAA</h2>The Saskatchewan Huskies got off to a flying start in the second half of the CWUAA schedule as they swept Regina by scores of 9-1 and 7-2 with center Adrian Sakundiak picking up eight points, four of them goals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0796/5254210-1-eng-US/f0029-072.jpg" title="f0029-07" width="364" height="482"><figcaption class="caption-body">BARRY MAGUIRE Ottawa</figcaption></div><h2>OUAA</h2>Barry Maguire scored both the tieing and winning goals as the Ottawa Gee-Gees handed Trois-Rivieres its first loss of the season, 65. Maguire&rsquo;s feat boosted Ottawa&rsquo;s record for the year to 6-3.<div class="sidebar">BauerFITFOR PERFORMANCE &#9632;</div>

f0029-08

Bauer’s university Performer OF THE WEEK

<h2>CCHA</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01584/5254374-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="526" height="264"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. JAN. 9FERRIS STATE 4 AT LAKE SUPERIOR 2ILL-CHICAGO 7 AT MICHIGAN 4MIAMI 3 AT BOWLING GREEN 8W. MICHIGAN 6 AT MICH. STATE 8W. ONTARIO 3 AT OHIO STATE X4SAT. JAN. 10FERRIS STATE 2 AT LAKE SUPERIOR 4ILL-CHICAGO 7 AT MICHIGAN 2MIAMI 3 AT BOWLING GREEN 12MICH. STATE 5 AT W. MICHIGAN 4W. ONTARIO 0 AT OHIO STATE 7<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>FRI. JAN. 16BOWLING GREEN AT OHIO STATELAKE SUPERIOR AT MIAMIMICHIGAN AT FERRIS STATEMICH. STATE AT ILL-CHICAGOTORONTO AT W. MICHIGANSAT. JAN. 17LAKE SUPERIOR AT MIAMIMICHIGAN AT FERRIS STATEMICH. STATE AT ILL-CHICAGOOHIO STATE AT BOWLING GREENTORONTO AT W. MICHIGAN<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02424/5254367-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="526" height="295"></div><h2>WCHA</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03291/5254360-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="530" height="238"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>MON. JAN. 5N. MICHIGAN 5 AT NEW HAMPSHIRE 3FRI. JAN. 9BOSTON COLLEGE 8 AT DENVER 6LOWELL 2 AT N. MICHIGAN 3MAINE 9 AT MICH. TECH 3NEW HAMPSHIRE 2 AT COLORADO COLL 7MINNESOTA 2 AT NORTH DAKOTA 5MIN-DULUTH 2 AT WISCONSIN 3SAT. JAN. 10MINNESOTA 2 AT NORTH DAKOTA 4MIN-DULUTH 2 AT WISCONSIN 1BOSTON COLLEGE 9 AT COLORADO COLLEGE 7LOWELL 6 AT MICH. TECH 4MAINE 2 AT N. MICHIGAN 3NEW HAMPSHIRE 2 AT DENVER 7<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>FRI. JAN. 16MINNESOTA AT BOSTON UNIV.MIN-DULUTH AT BOSTON COLL.NORTH DAKOTA AT PROVIDENCEWISCONSIN AT NORTHEASTERNCOLORADO COLL. AT MICH. TECHN. MICHIGAN AT DENVERSAT. JAN. 17COLORADO COLL. AT MICH. TECHN. MICHIGAN AT DENVERMINNESOTA AT NEW HAMPSHIREMIN-DULUTH AT BOSTON UNIV.WISCONSIN AT PROVIDENCESUN. JAN. 18NORTH DAKOTA AT NORTHEASTERN<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04197/5254353-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="530" height="297"></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05132/5254346-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="527" height="211"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>. MON. JAN. 5N. MICHIGAN 5 AT NEW HAMPSHIRE 3WED. JAN. 7BOSTON UNIV 5 AT NORTHEASTERN 4FRI. JAN. 9BOSTON COLL 8 AT DENVER 6LOWELL 2 AT N. MICHIGAN 3NEW HAMPSHIRE 2 AT COLORADO COLL 7MAINE 9 AT MICH. TECH 3SAT. JAN. 10BOSTON COLL 9 AT COLORADO COLL 7LOWELL 6 AT MICH. TECH 4MAINE 2 AT N. MICHIGAN 3NEW HAMPSHIRE 2 AT DENVER 7SUN. JAN. 11NORTHEASTERN 4 AT BOSTON UNIV 4<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>FRI. JAN. 16MIN-DULUTH AT BOSTON COLLMINNESOTA AT BOSTON UNIVMAINE AT LOWELLWISCONSIN AT NORTHEASTERNNORTH DAKOTA AT PROVIDENCESAT. JAN. 17MIN-DULUTH AT BOSTON UNIVMAINE AT LOWELLMINNESOTA AT NEW HAMPSHIREWISCONSIN AT PROVIDENCESUN. JAN. 18NORTH DAKOTA AT NORTHEASTERN<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-06101/5254339-1-eng-US/f0030-062.jpg" title="f0030-06" width="530" height="319"></div><h2>ECAC</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0782/5254332-1-eng-US/f0030-072.jpg" title="f0030-07" width="527" height="346"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. JAN. 6CORNELL 2 AT COLGATE 3FRI. JAN. 9ARMY 0 AT YALE 3COLGATE 4 AT RPI 3CORNELL 4 AT VERMONT 5DARTMOUTH 1 AT CLARKSON 4HARVARD 4 AT ST. LAWRENCE 3PRINCETON 4 AT BROWN 5SAT. JAN. 10ARMY 3 AT BROWN 4COLGATE 5 AT VERMONT 3CORNELL 3 AT RPI 6DARTMOUTH 2 AT ST. LAWRENCE 7HARVARD 4 AT CLARKSON 1PRINCETON 4 AT YALE 3<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>FRI. JAN. 16ARMY AT NOTRE DAMEBROWN AT COLGATEYALE AT CORNELLSAT. JAN. 17ARMY AT NOTRE DAMEBROWN AT CORNELLST. LAWRENCE AT CLARKSONVERMONT AT RPIYALE AT COLGATEWED. JAN. 21COLGATE AT CORNELL<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0873/5254325-1-eng-US/f0030-082.jpg" title="f0030-08" width="532" height="246"></div><h2>OUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0965/5254318-1-eng-US/f0030-092.jpg" title="f0030-09" width="536" height="418"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>WED. JAN. 7RYERSON 3 AT WESTERN 10FRI. JAN. 9RMC 2 AT TORONTO 8QUEEN&rsquo;S 0 AT BROCK 6SAT. JAN. 10QUEEN&rsquo;S 1 AT LAURIER 8WATERLOO 5 AT RYERSON 3RMC 6 AT GUELPH 9TORONTO 5 AT McMASTER 2SUN. JAN. 11BROCK 7 AT RYERSON 9<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>THU. JAN. 15GUELPH AT YORKFRI. JAN. 16LAURIER AT BROCKWINDSOR AT QUEEN&rsquo;SSAT. JAN. 17WINDSOR AT RMCMcMASTER AT LAURIERRYERSON AT LAURENTIANWATERLOO AT QUEEN&rsquo;SYORK AT WESTERNSUN. JAN. 18RYERSON AT LAURENTIANWATERLOO AT RMC<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1056/5254311-1-eng-US/f0030-102.jpg" title="f0030-10" width="536" height="296"></div>RYERSON INVITATIONAL<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. JAN. 2McMASTER 7, RYERSON 3QUEEN&rsquo;S 3, RMC 2LAURENTIAN 7, GUELPH 6SAT. JAN. 3McMASTER 3, QUEEN&rsquo;S 2RMC 7, LAURENTIAN 5CONSOLATION GAMEGUELPH 9, RYERSON 7SUN. JAN. 4CHAMPIONSHIP GAMERMC 6, McMASTER 4(RMC WINS TOURNAMENT)WESTERN HOLIDAY CLASSIC<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. JAN. 2TORONTO 6, MANITOBA 5WATERLOO 5, WESTERN 4SAT. JAN. 3CONSOLATION GAMEWESTERN 3. MANITOBA 2CHAMPIONSHIP GAMEWATERLOO 2, TORONTO 1(WATERLOO WINS CHAMPIONSHIP)<h2>AUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<h3>KELLY DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1150/5254304-1-eng-US/f0030-112.jpg" title="f0030-11" width="530" height="136"></div><h3>MCADAM DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1246/5254297-1-eng-US/f0030-122.jpg" title="f0030-12" width="525" height="163"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. JAN. 9ACADIA 7 AT ST. MARY&rsquo;S 4SAT. JAN. 10ST. THOMAS 6 AT UPEI 3DALHOUSIE 3 AT ST. F. XAVIER 4UNB 4 AT MT. ALLISON 5SUN. JAN. 11ST. THOMAS 4 AT UPEI 5MT. ALUSON AT MONCTON (PPD SNOW)ACADIA AT ST. F. XAVIER (PPD SNOW)DALHOUSIE 15 AT ST. MARY&rsquo;S 7<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1343/5254290-1-eng-US/f0030-132.jpg" title="f0030-13" width="529" height="296"></div><h2>CWUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1440/5254283-1-eng-US/f0030-142.jpg" title="f0030-14" width="531" height="238"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. JAN. 2REGINA 6 AT US INTL 4SAT. JAN. 3REGINA 4 AT US INTL 7(NON-CONFERENCE GAMES)MON. JAN. 5REGINA 5 AT UBC 7TUE. JAN. 6REGINA 3 AT UBC 9FRI. JAN. 9LETHBRIDGE 2 AT CALGARY 8REGINA 1 AT SASKATCHEWAN 9ALBERTA 3 AT UBC 4SAT. JAN. 10CALGARY 7 AT LETHBRIDGE 6REGINA 2 AT SASKATCHRWAN 7BRANDON 1 AT MANITOBA 6ALBERTA 7 AT UBC 2SUN. JAN. 11MANITOBA 9 AT BRANDON 3<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>FRI. JAN. 16LETHBRIDGE AT REGINABRANDON AT CALGARYUBC AT MANITOBASASKATCHEWAN AT ALBERTASAT. JAN. 17LETHBRIDGE AT REGINABRANDON AT CALGARYUBC AT MANITOBASASKATCHEWAN AT ALBERTA<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1540/5254276-1-eng-US/f0030-152.jpg" title="f0030-15" width="526" height="292"></div>DINOSAUR INVITATIONAL<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>SAT. JAN. 3BRANDON 4, CALGARY 3ALBERTA 5, SASKATCHEWAN 3SUN. JAN. 4SASKATCHEWAN 8, CALGARY 4ALBERTA 4, BRANDON 1SUN. JAN. 5SASKATCHEWAN 5, BRANDON 1CALGARY 6, ALBERTA 5(ALBERTA WINS ROUND-ROBIN TOURNAMENT)<h2>QUAA</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1632/5254269-1-eng-US/f0030-162.jpg" title="f0030-16" width="526" height="135"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>WED. JAN. 7T-RIVIERES 5 AT OTTAWA 6FRI. JAN. 9McGILL 1 AT T-RIVIERES 4<h3>GAMES TO COME</h3>WED. JAN. 14CONCORDIA AT OTTAWAFRI. JAN. 16CONCORDIA AT McGILLOTTAWA AT T-RIVIERESTHU. JAN. 22McGILL AT CONCORDIAFRI. JAN. 23OTTAWA AT McGILLCONCORDIA AT T-RIVIERES<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1732/5254262-1-eng-US/f0030-172.jpg" title="f0030-17" width="523" height="319"></div>MICRON TOURNAMENT<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>SUN. JAN. 4MONCTON 4, MT. ROYAL COLLEGE 3LAURIER 6, McGILL 3MON. JAN. 5CONSOLATION GAMEMT. ROYAL COLLEGE 3, McGILL 1CHAMPIONSHIP GAMEMONCTON 9, LAURIER 2(MONCTON WINS TOURNAMENT)<div class="sidebar">Bauer &reg;FITFOR PERFORMANCE &#9632;</div>

f0030-01

Bauer College scorecoard

<div class="byline">BY TOM BOGGIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01532/5254412-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="603" height="937"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Crimson&rsquo;s Tim Barakett has been wielding a hot stick of late for Harvard.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03270/5254419-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="185" height="135"></div>CAMBRIDGE, Mass.&mdash;Combining the grace of Dorothy Hamill and the knockout punch of Rocky Balboa, Harvard is making a mockery of the regular-season Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference race.In the midst of a record-setting season, the Crimson&mdash;ranked first in the nation in at least two polls&mdash;rolled to wins over Vermont and RPI to run its winning streak to 13 games and its league record to 11-0. leaving behind second-place Yale.The victories over Vermont and RPI, considered to be two of the better contenders in the EC AC this season, came at cozy Bright Arena, where Harvard has put together a school-record 23-game unbeaten streak.Those wins were accomplished with two of Harvard&rsquo;s best players, forward Ed Krayer and defenseman Chris Biotti, on loan to the U.S. national team at the World Junior Championships.&ldquo;I think the real key is that we have a little more depth this year,&rdquo; said Harvard coach Bil Cleary after his team disposed of RPI 5-2.Harvard is so deep that the Crimson never felt the absence of Krayer and Biotti. Senior center Rich Haney, generally regarded as one of Harvard&rsquo;s best defensive forwards, replaced Krayer as the second-line center. The line responded with six goals and nine assists in the weekend sweep.Winger Tim Barakett didn&rsquo;t waste any time adjusting to Haney&rsquo;s style, getting a hat trick against Vermont and I two more goals, including the gamewinner, against RPI. That explosion pushed Barakett over the 100-point mark for his career, extending his numbers to 42 goals and 62 assists.Biotti&rsquo;s replacement was freshman Scott McCormack, who had appeared in only three games previously. You couldn&rsquo;t tell that by his performance.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02370/5254405-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="609" height="952"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Mark Benning provides leadership for Harvard on the blue line.</figcaption></div>RPI gave Harvard everything it could muster.Harvard trailed 1-0 after one period, the first time all year it has been behind after 20 minutes. RPI thoroughly disrupted Harvard&rsquo;s smooth skating with a strong forechecking system, limiting the Crimson to just four shots on goal.The Engineers went on to score two power-play goals, against a penaltykilling unit that had allowed just eight in the first 12 games.It still wasn&rsquo;t enough.&ldquo;Our game is skating,&rdquo; said Cleary. &ldquo;We just sat around and watched in the first period. The thing that pleases me is that every time we&rsquo;ve been challenged, we&rsquo;ve met it. We were 1-1 tonight (going into the third period), 3-3 at Cornell, 1-1 at Duluth&mdash;and we met it every time. That&rsquo;s a good sign.&rdquo;There are so many good signs that Harvard could waltz into Joe Louis Arena for the NCAA finals. The outstanding offensive balance, the leadership of defensemen Mark Benning and Randy Taylor, and the great goaltending of John Devin and Dickie McEvoy, all are factors in Harvard&rsquo;s success.&ldquo;Every night gets tougher,&rdquo; Cleary said. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re playing as well as we are. everyone shoots at you and it&rsquo;s tough to win every single shift every night.&rdquo;Harvard will gladly give up a shift or two, but don&rsquo;t count on them to be giving away any games.ECAC NOTES&mdash;Injuries continue to pile up at Vermont. The latest casualty is sophomore defenseman Marc Lebreux, who underwent three hours of surgery for a broken wrist suffered in the Auld Lang Syne Tournament at Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H&hellip;. Mike Pelletier, who broke his arm early in the season, is back in the lineup at St. Lawrence. He had three goals in a 7-4 non-league win over Toronto, and a goal and three assists in an 11-2 rout of Army&hellip;Princeton climbed to fourth in the standings by sweeping Clarkson and St. Lawrence. Senior goalie Dave Shea had 39 saves against Clarkson in a 6-4 win, and another 32 in the 7-2 decision over St. Lawrence, to eam player-of-the-week honors&hellip;Clarkson&rsquo;s offense will benefit from the return of Al Hill, who missed the first semester with a shoulder injury. &#9632;

f0031-01

Harvard Crimson In Clover, Over And Over

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01562/5254488-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="576" height="811"><figcaption class="caption-body">GM Frank Bonello, above, offered Brian Hough the job of Marlie coach.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02409/5254495-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="182" height="140"></div>TORONTO&mdash;It&rsquo;s been quite a season for the Hough family.First, Mike Hough earned a position with the NHL&rsquo;s Quebec Nordiques, after three full seasons with Fredericton Express of the American League.Then, after 25 years of coaching in minor hockey, Mike&rsquo;s dad, Brian, was appointed coach of the Ontario League&rsquo;s Toronto Marlboros.Mike, a former Kitchener Ranger left winger, cracked the Nords&rsquo; lineup the old-fashioned way&mdash;through hard work and perseverance.&ldquo;He certainly didn&rsquo;t make it through talent,&rdquo; laughed the elder Hough, &ldquo;because he doesn&rsquo;t have a great deal. But he&rsquo;s a digger, a grinder, a hard-working kid who has always showed up to play every night.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s always tried to improve himself, and has kept himself in very good shape. I&rsquo;m very proud of what Mike has been able to accomplish with limited ability.&rdquo;And improve the younger Hough has. He never scored more than 17 goals in junior, but had back-to-back 21-goal seasons his last two AHL campaigns.The senior Hough also achieved a goal of sorts, when he was named to head the Marlies after Paul Dennis&rsquo; resignation 15 games into the season. Toronto was 5-10.Hough had never formally applied for a major junior coaching job, but admitted he &ldquo;had often thought of coaching at this level. I guess that desire sort of intensified when Mike left home to play junior at Kitchener.&rdquo;Still, Hough said, he and wife Sue had a few second thoughts before he accepted general manager Frank Bonello&rsquo;s offer of the Marlie job.&ldquo;I was coaching the Marlie midgets and we were undefeated,&rdquo; Hough said, &ldquo;and I really didn&rsquo;t want to leave that team. I had moved with that club from peewee to minor bantam, to bantam and to midget, and had watched them grow from babies to potential juniors.&ldquo;Then, there was the fact that the Marlie juniors were in last place. But in the end, the challenge of the job and the desire to coach at this level were too much to resist.&rdquo;At first, the Marlies showed little improvement following the coaching change, but just before Christmas and into the new year, they reeled off five consecutive victories&mdash;a streak that finally ended with a tough 3-2 loss in Oshawa to the first-place Generals.Hough claimed no magic formula for the revitalization of the Marlies.&ldquo;Bascially, a system was installed and the players were executing it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This is a disciplined bunch of players. They&rsquo;ve learned from the practices&ndash;and have seen the fruits of their labors come through.&rdquo;Still, Hough doesn&rsquo;t kid himself. He said the Marlies aren&rsquo;t deep in talent, and his only goal at this stage is to make the playoffs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03273/5254481-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="572" height="809"><figcaption class="caption-body">One of the veterans who has helped in the Toronto resurgence is Mike Richard.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The way I see it, there are four teams battling for the last three playoff spots&mdash;Kingston, Belleville, Cornwall and us. All I want to do, though, is get in the playoffs. Anything higher will be a bonus. We certainly don&rsquo;t have Memorial Cup aspirations.&rdquo;Hough said four veterans&mdash;forwards Vito Cramarossa, Mike Richard and Tim Armstrong, and defenseman John Blessman&mdash;have aided the resurgence by providing leadership and character.&ldquo;Their intelligence, maturity and will to win have rubbed off on the rest of the players,&rdquo; said Hough. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d be in bad shape without those four.&rdquo;Hough said he preaches the importance of always giving 100 per cent, while developing the attitude and discipline to keep pace with the best teams.&ldquo;There is no substitute for hard work and desire,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Hard work and desire have a way of making things happen.&rdquo;And the Marlies need only look at their coach and his son for proof.NOTEBOOK&mdash;Two club scoring leaders, centers Kelly Cain and Mike Wolak, have been traded for the second time this season. The Kitchener Rangers&mdash;who acquired Cain earlier in the season from the London Knights&mdash;dealt the 5-foot-7 Pittsburgh Penguin draft pick to the Kingston Canadians, for 6-foot-6 left winger Daril Holmes and two draft choices. Meanwhile, the Belleville Bulls, who had obtained Wolak from Kitchener, swapped the speedy pivot to the Windsor Spitfires for center Kent Hulst. Hulst had been traded by Belleville to Windsor last season for Keith Gretzky, who has since been traded to the Hamilton Steelhawks&hellip;Hamilton and the Sudbury Wolves swapped overage players. The Wolves dealt high-scoring left winger Brian Martin to the Steelhawks for goalie Peter Richards&hellip;Toronto forward Brian Merko snapped a personal 64-game scoring drought, dating back to last season when he was with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Merko notched his first goal after 44 games as a Marlie, in a 12-5 win over Sudbury Jan. 3. &#9632;

f0032-01

The Juniors

Patience Paid Off For Hough Pop And Son

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0768/5254547-1-eng-US/f0032-072.jpg" title="f0032-07" width="284" height="294"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04164/5254540-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="358" height="451"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARIO CHITARONI Sudbury</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>The Sudbury Wolves are struggling this season but it isn&rsquo;t keeping Mario Chitaroni from doing his thing.The Wolves&rsquo; left winger was chosen OHL Player of the Week after he connected for eight goals in four games to give Sudbury a lift in its battle to get out of the basement.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-05108/5254533-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="356" height="448"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARK RECCHI Kamloops</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>The Kamloops Blazers are the big gunners in the Western League this season and it&rsquo;s because of players like Marc Recchi.The 18-year-old right winger filled his hat with 15 points, 10 of them assists, in four games to get the nod as WHL Player of the Week. Recchi has 73 points in 38 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0681/5254526-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="361" height="457"><figcaption class="caption-body">PHILIPPE BOZON St-Jean</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>The hockey trail has brought Philippe Bozon back to the Quebec League and St-Jean Castors are elated.Bozon, a 20-year-old, started the year in St. Louis, was shipped to Peoria in the IHL and is now back in St-Jean where he was QMJHL Player of the Week. Bozon had 11 points in 3 games.At the end of the current season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0032-07

MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01500/5254578-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="184" height="137"></div>CALGARY&mdash;Nobody&rsquo;s pushing the panic button just yet, but Brian Ekstrom is getting itchy fingers.Ekstrom, owner of the Western League&rsquo;s Calgary Wranglers, watched his Eastern Division team stumble through the December portion of its schedule.Not only did a prolonged losing streak drop the Wranglers to a tie for fifth place in the eight-team division after 38 games (16-21-1). it also raised familiar questions about the state of the franchise.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s certainly a publicly-stated fact that this is the decision year,&rdquo; said Ekstrom, who took over the team in June, 1984. &ldquo;If (the franchise) doesn&rsquo;t stand on its own feet, we&rsquo;ll look at alternatives before the end of the year.&rdquo;Calgary general manager John Chapman joined coach Wally Kozak behind the bench Dec. 17, in an effort to steer the Wranglers back in the right direction. That may be the best indication of just how crucial the second half of the 1986-87 season is for Calgary.Lethbridge&mdash;which lost its franchise to Swift Current in the off-season&mdash;and Red Deer have been constantly mentioned as new homes for the Wranglers, who must compete for the fan dollar with the NHL Flames, Olympic team, and university and college teams.&ldquo;The simplest thing would be to find another shooter (owner) in Calgary to run the franchise,&rdquo; said Ekstrom. &ldquo;That would be my first choice. I think Calgary needs and should have a junior franchise.&ldquo;The second alternative would be to move the franchise, and third, have someone buy it and move it. Lethbridge, Red Deer, Vic Mah in Edmonton&mdash;those names keep coming up.&rdquo;Certainly, the bottom line isn&rsquo;t pretty. The Wranglers must average 2,500 fans per home game in the 6,495-seat Corral, but crowds continued to hover between 1,300 and 1,800.The best thing would be for the Wranglers to start winning again. The talent is there; the club did get off to a fast start and was in first place.Kozak, who took over as coach with six weeks left last season, said the situation isn&rsquo;t grave but admitted there are cracks in the armor.Injuries have hurt. The return of veteran defensemen Mark Tinordi (hand) and Ken Spangler (charleyhorse) would help a lot, but so would a better attitude.&ldquo;I think the players got comfortable with success,&rdquo; said Kozak, an assistant with the Olympic team before joining the Wranglers. &ldquo;They questioned my coaching style and maybe, with John (Chapman) available, he can see some problems.&ldquo;But I&rsquo;m not surprised, and we were only two-and-a-half games short of my goal at Christmas. I felt we should be .500 then. Even when we were 8-4, I could see faults. I wasn&rsquo;t looking through rose-colored glasses.&ldquo;We can be in the top three&mdash;but when you take players from Calgary and Lethbridge and add new ones, it&rsquo;s going to take time to make a difference.&rdquo;So what of the dual-coaching approach? Do too many cooks spoil the broth, or do many hands make light work? Chapman&rsquo;s methods in Lethbridge were more rigid than Kozak&rsquo;s instructional approach.&ldquo;Some players will look to John for direction and some to me for direction,&rdquo; said Kozak. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re pretty compatible and I&rsquo;ve seen the effort is back to where it was at start of the season.&ldquo;And I&rsquo;m not worried about how long we can coach like this&hellip;What matters to me is success of the team. I&rsquo;m not on an ego trip.&ldquo;The worst part of the schedule is over for us. If we make some changes, and have the players come back for the second half ready to play, I believe we can be in the top three.&rdquo;The Wranglers did make a trade at the Christmas break, sending 19-year-old right winger Sean Krakiwsky to the Spokane Chiefs for future considerations, later revealed to be Curt Lehner, an 18-year-old forward.The Wranglers also dealt center Len Barrie, 18, to Victoria, for defenseman Bill Gregoire, 19.&ldquo;Our goaltending (Chris Churchill and Grant McPhail) at times has been disappointing,&rdquo; Ekstrom said. &ldquo;It has been hotter than a pistol and it&rsquo;s also been deplorable.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0033-01

Wranglers Fighting For Life Of The Franchise

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02353/5254609-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="184" height="139"></div>VERDUN&mdash;Next season has already arrived for the Verdun Jr. Canadiens.Owner of the worst record in major junior hockey at 4-36-0, Verdun general manager-coach Carol Vadnais handed over the club&rsquo;s coaching duties to assistant Richard Liboiron for the rest of the season.&ldquo;I firmly believe we&rsquo;re a better team than our record shows,&rdquo; Vadnais said, &ldquo;and we want to finish the year proper-ly&mdash;but we&rsquo;re keying on next year.&rdquo;Vadnais, who will continue as the club&rsquo;s general manager, said he needs the time to prepare for the Quebec League&rsquo;s 1987 midget draft.&ldquo;The possibility of making the playoffs is very slim,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and there are a lot of (midget) tournaments on now.&rdquo;So what went wrong this year?&ldquo;I think one of my faults may be that I treated the players too much like professionals,&rdquo; the GM said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I had the right approach.&rdquo;Vadnais played 17 National Hockey League seasons with the New York Rangers, Boston, Oakland, Montreal and New Jersey. He was Herb Brooks&rsquo; assistant coach with the Rangers for another two years.&ldquo;The move wasn&rsquo;t because Carol doesn&rsquo;t know a lot about hockey,&rdquo; said Flo Potvin, the QMJHL&rsquo;s chief scout. &ldquo;I was talking to Herb Brooks and he said Vad was good with the players in New York. To me, they have enough talent to win more games than they have.&rdquo;Vadnais put to rest rumors about trades involving 6-foot-2, 200-pound left winger Everett Sanipass, the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; first-round pick in the 1986 NHL entry draft.&ldquo;We never had any intention of trading Everett but everybody was calling about him,&rdquo; Vadnais said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve talked to (Chicago coach-GM) Bob Pulford; Everett will finish the season with us and go back to Chicago next year.&rdquo;Liboiron confirmed the interest of other teams.&ldquo;Granby, Drummondville, Shawi-nigan, I think about just every team called about Sanipass,&rdquo; the Canadiens&rsquo; interim bench boss said.The Granby Bisons, with the best record in major junior hockey at 37-62, were particularly interested in acquiring the hard-nosed talented winger, in hopes of securing a Memorial Cup. Most of the proposed trades included multi-player and draft-pick packages for Sanipass.&ldquo;I was talking to Denis Savard and Dale Tallon, who&rsquo;s on the radio now in Chicago, and they were wondering why Sanipass wasn&rsquo;t playing for Chicago this year,&rdquo; Potvin said.Liboiron, 36, is from the Montreal suburb of Pointe-aux-Trembles. He coached four seasons in Quebec&rsquo;s collegiate &lsquo;AAA&rsquo; league with St. Laurent and St. Hyacinthe, and also coached at the University of Montreal and in junior B with Rivieres des Prairies.&ldquo;It will be hard to finish the year,&rdquo; he admitted. &ldquo;We lack maturity and confidence, but I really want to develop all of our young players. I put three words on the blackboard&mdash;concentration, courage and intensity&mdash;and if we get these things, we&rsquo;ll win some games.&rdquo;The Jr. Canadiens showed signs of improvement in a 6-5 loss to the Laval Titans.&ldquo;The game was tied 5-5 after two periods and we seemed to be a little tired in the third period,&rdquo; Liboiron said. &ldquo;Jean-Claude Bergeron faced 44 shots and played well. We also have a good backup in 17-year-old Alain Harvey. We&rsquo;re happy with our goaltending.&rdquo;Bergeron has been getting most of the work since he was obtained in a trade with the Shawinigan Cataractes.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel too much pressure,&rdquo; Liboiron said. &ldquo;I also think Carol wants to see if I can coach next season.&rdquo;Although the Jr. Canadiens had won only four games, they&rsquo;d scored five goals more than the Hull Olympiques, who were tied for third place with the St-Jean Castors in the QMJHL&rsquo;s LeBel Division. But their 329 goals against were 95 more than the next most porous team, the Castors.QUEBEC CACHE&mdash;The Jr. Canadiens traded third-round left winger Alain Leveille to the Longueuil Chevaliers, for right winger Marc Poirier.<div class="sidebar">&lsquo;It will be hard to finish the year. We lack maturity and confidence.&rsquo;&mdash;Liboiron &#9632;</div>

f0033-02

Verdun Can’t Wait To Kiss Off ’86-87 Season

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01575/5254654-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01542/5254647-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="3125" height="3846"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01518/5254640-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="3059" height="3348"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<h2>AHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01450/5254867-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="532" height="186"></div><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02324/5254860-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="536" height="239"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>WED. JAN. 7NEWMARKET 1 AT HERSHEY 8NOVA SCOTIA 2 AT MONCTON 1ROCHESTER 4 AT SHERBROOKE 3THU. JAN. 8MAINE 5 AT ADIRONDACK 2FRI. JAN. 9NEWMARKET 0 AT BINGHAMTON 5MAINE 2 AT NEW HAVEN 7MONCTON 5 AT SHERBROOKE 7BALTIMORE 6 AT SPRINGFIELD 4SAT. JAN. 10MONCTON 2 AT ADIRONDACK 3NOVA SCOTIA 7 AT FREDERICTON 8BINGHAMTON 3 AT HERSHEY 2BALTIMORE 5 AT MAINE 6ROCHESTER 5 AT NEWMARKET 6NEW HAVEN 4 AT SPRINGFIELD 5SUN. JAN. 11SPRINGFIELD 6 AT NEW HAVEN 7FREDERICTON 5 AT NOVA SCOTIA 3BALTIMORE 2 AT SHERBROOKE 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03246/5254853-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="536" height="400"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04202/5254846-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="558" height="170"></div><h2>ACHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05176/5254839-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="537" height="214"></div>(TEAMS GET POINT FOR OVERTIME LOSS)(SUSPENDED OPERATIONS MON. NOV. 17)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>WED. JAN. 7VIRGINIA 6 AT MOHAWK VALLEY 7FRI. JAN. 9MOHAWK VALLEY 8 AT CAROLINA 9VIRGINIA 7 AT ERIE 8SAT. JAN. 10MOHAWK VALLEY 6 AT CAROLINA 2VIRGINIA AT ERIE (PPD) SUN. JAN. 11VIRGINIA 6 AT MOHAWK VALLEY 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06152/5254832-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="542" height="427"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07130/5254825-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="567" height="166"></div><h2>IHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08107/5254818-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="536" height="132"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-0992/5254811-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="542" height="187"></div>(TEAMS GET POINT FOR OVERTIME LOSS)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. JAN. 6SALT LAKE 5 AT MUSKEGON 3WED. JAN. 7SALT LAKE 2 AT INDIANAPOLIS 7KALAMAZOO 1 AT FLINT 11FRI. JAN. 9FLINT 3 AT KALAMAZOO 6INDIANAPOLIS AT PEORIA (PPD. SNOW)MUSKEGON 5 AT SALT LAKE 4SAT. JAN. 10FORT WAYNE 4 AT KALAMAZOO 3SAGINAW 6 AT MILWAUKEE 2SUN. JAN. 11FLINT 3 AT PEORIA 5GAMES TO COMETHU. JAN. 15FLINT AT MILWAUKEEFRI. JAN. 16MILWAUKEE AT FORT WAYNESAGINAW AT MUSKEGONKALAMAZOO AT INDIANAPOLISPEORIA AT SALT LAKESAT. JAN. 17INDIANAPOLIS AT FORT WAYNEFLINT AT MUSKEGONMILWAUKEE AT SAGINAWPEORIA AT KALAMAZOO<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1085/5254804-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="545" height="421"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1169/5254797-1-eng-US/f0037-112.jpg" title="f0037-11" width="572" height="162"></div><h2>OHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1260/5254790-1-eng-US/f0037-122.jpg" title="f0037-12" width="537" height="212"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1354/5254783-1-eng-US/f0037-132.jpg" title="f0037-13" width="539" height="238"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. JAN. 6TORONTO 2 AT OSHAWA 3WED. JAN. 7KITCHENER 7 AT BELLEVILLE 2THU. JAN. 8TORONTO 2 AT CORNWALL 6S.S, MARIE 2 AT HAMILTON 8SUDBURY 6 AT NORTH NAY 5OSHAWA 5 AT PETERBOROUGH 4LONDON 2 AT WINDSOR 7FRI. JAN. 9S.S. MARIE 8 AT GUELPH 6CORNWALL 3 AT KINGSTON 5HAMILTON 6 AT KITCHENER 8WINDSOR 5 AT LONDON 8TORONTO 1 AT OTTAWA 1NORTH BAY 5 AT SUDBURY 3SAT. JAN. 10PETERBOROUGH 4 AT BELLEVILLE 6GUELPH 3 AT KITCHENER 7SUN. JAN. 11KITCHENER 3 AT HAMILTON 4GUELPH 5 AT LONDON 2KINGSTON 1 AT NORTH BAY 9PETERBOROUGH 4 AT OSHAWA 2CORNWALL 1 AT OTTAWA 9SUDBURY 4 AT S.S. MARIE 5BELLEVILLE 4 AT TORONTO 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1449/5254776-1-eng-US/f0037-142.jpg" title="f0037-14" width="551" height="344"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1544/5254769-1-eng-US/f0037-152.jpg" title="f0037-15" width="563" height="111"></div><h2>WHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1639/5254762-1-eng-US/f0037-162.jpg" title="f0037-16" width="547" height="239"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1735/5254755-1-eng-US/f0037-172.jpg" title="f0037-17" width="543" height="189"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. JAN. 6REGINA AT SWIFT CURRENT (PPD)BRANDON 2 AT PRINCE ALBERT 8WED. JAN. 7BRANDON 4 AT SASKATOONN 5MEDICINE HAT 6 AT CALGARY 5KAMLOOPS 10 AT VICTORIA 4PORTLAND 8 AT SPOKANE 3THU. JAN. 8VICTORIA 4 AT NEW WESTMINSTER 5FRI. JAN. 9PRINCE ALBERT 2 AT CALGARY 5SASKATOON 7 AT REGINA 2SWIFT CURRENT 5 AT MOOSE JAW 6PORTLAND 5 AT KAMLOOPS 6SPOKANE 6 AT SEATTLE 5SAT. JAN. 10PRINCE ALBERT 1 AT MEDICINE HAT 7PORTLAND 6 AT VICTORIA 3SEATTLE 2 AT SPOKANE 2SUN. JAN. 11SWIFT CURRENT 6 AT REGINA 7MOOSE JAW 7 AT BRANDON 3MEDICINE HAT 6 AT CALGARY 4PORTLAND 5 AT NEW WESTMINSTER 6VICTORIA 2 AT KAMLOOPS 5SPOKANE 0 AT SEATTLE 8<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1834/5254748-1-eng-US/f0037-182.jpg" title="f0037-18" width="545" height="501"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-1930/5254741-1-eng-US/f0037-192.jpg" title="f0037-19" width="565" height="162"></div><h2>QMJHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<h3>DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2030/5254734-1-eng-US/f0037-202.jpg" title="f0037-20" width="542" height="160"></div><h3>LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2129/5254727-1-eng-US/f0037-212.jpg" title="f0037-21" width="545" height="158"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>MON. JAN. 5CHICOUTIMI 6 AT LAVAL 6TUE. JAN. 6GRANBY 6 AT DRUMMONDVILLE 4LONGUEUIL 2 AT HULL 2SHAWINIGAN 9 AT T-RIVIERES 5WED. JAN. 7VERDUN 5 AT LAVAL 6ST. JEAN 9 AT SHAWINIGAN 4FRI. JAN. 8T-RIVIERES 4 AT CHICOUTIMI 5SHAWINIGAN 7 AT DRUMMONDVILLE 6HULL 8 AT GRANBY 6LAVAL 3 AT LONGUEUIL 2VERDUN 5 AT ST. JEAN 6SUN. JAN. 11CHICOUTIMI 3 AT GRANBY 8LAVAL 4 AT HULL 4DRUMMONDVILLE 5 AT SHAWINIGAN 3ST. JEAN 4 AT VERDUN 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2228/5254720-1-eng-US/f0037-222.jpg" title="f0037-22" width="544" height="399"></div><h3>TOP GOALTENDERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2327/5254713-1-eng-US/f0037-232.jpg" title="f0037-23" width="560" height="139"></div><h2>USHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2425/5254706-1-eng-US/f0037-242.jpg" title="f0037-24" width="545" height="319"></div>(TEAMS GET POINT FOR OVERTIME LOSS)<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>FRI. JAN. 9THUNDER BAY 6 AT NORTH IOWA 2ROCHESTER 9 AT SIOUXCITY 7 MADISON 10 AT DES MOINES 4ST. PAUL 6 AT DUBUQUE 5SAT. JAN. 10SIOUX CITY 6 AT NORTH IOWA 4MADISON 7 AT WATERLOO 6THUNDER BAY 5 AT DES MOINES 1ROCHESTER 7 AT OMAHA 2SUN. JAN. 11MADISON 6 AT ST. PAUL 1THUNDER BAY 7 AT WATERLOO 2<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2524/5254699-1-eng-US/f0037-252.jpg" title="f0037-25" width="539" height="268"></div><h2>OSHL</h2>(STANDINGS ON MON. JAN. 12)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2621/5254692-1-eng-US/f0037-262.jpg" title="f0037-26" width="540" height="157"></div>TEAMS GET POINT FOR OVERTIME LOSS<h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>TUE. JAN. 6BRANTFODRD 4 AT CAMBRIDGE 3FRI. JAN. 9BRANTFORD 7 AT DUNDAS 5SAT. JAN. 10CAMBRIDGE 3 AT THUNDER BAY 7SUN. JAN. 11CAMBRIDGE 4 AT THUNDER BAY 6DUNDAS 5 AT BRANTFORD 2<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-2717/5254685-1-eng-US/f0037-272.jpg" title="f0037-27" width="542" height="241"></div> &#9632;

f0037-01

SCOREBOARD

<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Randy Burridge, LW, assigned to Moncton of AHL.BUFFALO&mdash;Dave Fenyves, D, recalled from Rochester of AHL. Gates Orlando, C, sent to Rochester.CALGARY&mdash;Gary Roberts, LW, recalled from Moncton of AHL.CHICAGO&mdash;Darryl Sutter, LW, back on active roster.DETROIT&mdash;Sam St. Laurent, G, and Chris Cichocki, RW, assigned to Adirondack of AHL. Steve Chiasson, D, returned to Wings from Jr. Team Canada.EDMONTON&mdash;Butch Goring, C, playing with Nova Scotia of AHL, informed Oilers he was retiring as a player. Steve Graves, LW, returned to Nova Scotia of AHL.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Craig Redmond, D, and Paul Guay, RW, back from injury list and assigned to New Haven of AHL for conditioning purposes. Peter Dineen, D, also returned to New Haven.MONTREAL&mdash;Steve Rooney, LW, recalled from Sherbrooke of AHL and traded to Winnipeg for a third-round draft choice in 1987.MINNESOTA&mdash;Todd Bergen, C, recalled from Springfield of AHL and later returned. Paul Houck, D, sent to Springfield.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Craig Billington, G, Gord Mark, D, and Al Stewart, LW, recalled from Maine of AHL. Stewart later returned along with Kirk McLean, G, and Anders Carlsson, LW.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Brian Dobbin, LW, Tim Tookey, C, Don Nachbaur, C, and Al Hill, RW, recalled from Hershey of AHL. Hill returned to Hershey along with Greg Smyth, D.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Troy Loney, LW, recalled from Baltimore of AHL. Dwight Mathiasen, RW, returned to Baltimore.QUEBEC&mdash;Richard Zemlak, C, Yves Heroux, RW, and Jeff Brown, D, recalled from Fredericton of AHL. Jean-Marc Gaulin, RW, Trevor Stienburg, RW, and Richard Sevigny, G, returned to Fredericton.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Cliff Ronning, C, rejoined Blues from Team Canada. Alan Perry, G, and Philippe Bozon, LW, recalled from Peoria of IHL and returned to their junior teams, Perry to Belleville of OHL and Bozon to St-Jean of QMJHL.TORONTO&mdash;Bill Root, D, recalled from Newmarket of AHL.VANCOUVER&mdash;Shawn Kilroy, G, recalled from Fredericton of AHL and then re-assigned to Kalamazoo of IHL.WASHINGTON&mdash;Paul Cavillini, D, and Ed Kastelic, RW, returned to Binghamton of AHL. Jim Thomson, RW, recalled from Binghamton and later returned.WINNIPEG&mdash;Bill Derlago, C, traded to Quebec for fourth-round choice in 1989. Steve Penney, G, and Joel Baillargeon, LW, recalled from Sherbrooke of AHL.<h2>INJURY LIST</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Dwight Foster, C, knee injury, Keith Crowder, RW, bruised ribs, Ken Linseman, C, sprained knee, Michael Thelven, D, shoulder surgery, Gord Kluzak, knee surgery, and Louis Sleigher, RW, groin surgery. Foster out day-to-day, Crowder one more week, Thelven two weeks, Linseman four weeks, Kluzak and Sleigher indefinitely.BUFFALO&mdash;Bill Hajt, D, out day-to-day with groin injury.CALGARY&mdash;Doug Risebrough, C, twisted knee, Perry Berezan, pulled groin, Colin Patterson, D, and Brian Engblom, D, both suffered concussions. Patterson out day-to-day, the rest sidelined indefinitely.CHICAGO&mdash;Bill Watson, LW, and Al Secord, LW, back in lineup. Troy Murray, C, bruised thumb, out day-to-day. Behn Wilson, D, sidelined indefinitely while recovering from back surgery.DETROIT&mdash;Doug Halward, D, separated shoulder, out 10 more days.EDMONTON&mdash;Paul Coffey, D, back in lineup.HARTFORD&mdash;John Anderson, LW, Sylvain Turgeon, LW, and Kevin Dineen, RW, back in lineup. Paul Lawless, LW, knee injury, Joel Quenneville, D, shoulder separation, Torrie Robertson, LW, broken leg, and Wayne Babych, RW, torn knee ligaments. Babych out day-today, Robertson and Lawless sidelined indefinitely, Quenneville for rest of season.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Larry Playfair, D, out three weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery.MINNESOTA&mdash;Brian Bellows, RW, and Larry DePalma, LW, back in lineup. Tom Hirsch, shoulder surgery, sidelined indefinitely.MONTREAL&mdash;John Kordic, LW, hand injury, out day-to-day, Kjell Dahlin, RW, and Chris Nilan, RW, torn knee ligaments, both sidelined indefinitely.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Joe Cirella, D, out indefinitely with broken foot.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Steve Konroyd, D, sidelined day-to-day with bruised collarbone.NY RANGERS&mdash;George McPhee, LW, separated shoulder, and Lucien DeBlois, LW, knee surgery. Both sidelined indefinitely.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Dave Brown, RW, cracked ribs, sidelined 10 days, Ulka Sinisalo, RW, and Brian Propp, LW, both out indefinitelv after knee surgery.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Terry Ruskowski, LW, sprained knee, Kevin LaVallee, LW, shoulder injury, and Mario Lemieux, C, sprained knee. LaVallee out day-to-day, Ruskowski one more week, Lemieux 10 days.QUEBEC&mdash;Jason Lafreniere, C, suffering from mononucleosis, Greg Malone, C, sepa-rated shoulder. Dale Hunter, C, and Gord Donnelly, D, broken legs. All sidelined indefinitely.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Bernie Federko, C, broken jaw, Charles Bourgeois, D, virus infection, Jocelyn Lemieux, LW, lacerated finger, Brian Sutter, LW, severe shoulder injury, Ed Beers, LW, back surgery, and Kent Carlson, LW, spinal surgery. Bourgeois out day-to-day, Lemieux two more weeks, Federko iridefinitely, Sutter, Beers and Carlson sidelined for rest of season.TORONTO&mdash;Brad Smith, RW, back problem, Tom Fergus, C, undergoing tests for virus, Miroslav Frycer, RW, strained knee, Ken Yaremchuk, C, broken foot, and Dan Daoust, C, broken ankle. Frycer and Smith out day-to-day, the rest sidelined indefinitely.VANCOUVER&mdash;Patrik Sundstrom, C, sidelined day-to-day with rotator cuff injury, and Glen Cochrane, D, out indefinitely after back surgery.WASHINGTON&mdash;Greg Smith, D, back in lineup. Jeff Greenlaw, LW, back injury, and Alan Haworth, C, torn knee ligaments. Greenlaw out day-to-day, Haworth sidelined three more weeks.WINNIPEG&mdash;Jim Nill, RW, back in lineup. Hannu Jarvenpaa, RW, severely damaged knee ligaments, and Perry Turnbull, LW, shoulder injury. Both sidelined indefinitely.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>ADIRONDACK&mdash;Randy Hansch, G, recalled from Kalamazoo of IHL. Shawn Dineen, D, signed as free agent. Taras Diakiwski, RW, released outright.BALTIMORE&mdash;Roger Belanger, RW, assigned to Muskegon of IHL.BINGHAMTON&mdash;Dave Moffit, G, back in lineup. Shawn Cronin, D, returned from Team USA.HERSHEY&mdash;Ross Fitzpatrick, LW, sidelined four weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. Dom Campadelli, D, returned from Team USA.MONCTON&mdash;Bob Bodak, D, sidelined indefinitely with knee injury. Mike Mersch, D, returned from Team USA and placed on injury list indefinitely with shoulder separation.NEW HAVEN&mdash;Peter Sawkins, D, and Mike Donnelly, LW, returned from Team USA.NEWMARKET&mdash;Rich Costello, C, back from injury list.NOVA SCOTIA&mdash;Alfie Turcotte, C, returned from Team USA. Bruce Cassidy, D, back from Team Canada. John Miner, D, sidelined for two months with ankle injury.SHERBROOKE&mdash;Ernie Vargas, LW, Peter Taglianetti, D, and Marc Behrend, G, returned from Team USA.SPRINGFIELD&mdash;Tom Weiss, RW, assigned to Peoria of IHL. Pat Micheletti, RW, returned from Team USA.<h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>SAGINAW&mdash;Jeff Prendergast, D, signed as free agent to five-game pro trial. Guy Jacob, RW, back from injury list. Glenn Greenough, RW, sidelined with shoulder injury. &#9632;

TRANSACTIONS

<div class="byline">BY MURRAY TOWNSEND</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01228/5255065-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"></div>A change is far better than a rest for most NHL players.An examination of 68 players traded in-season over the past three years shows that 43 increased their points-per-game pace over the balance of the year, while 24 decreased and one (Morris Lukowich, Boston to L.A., 1985-86) stayed even.Players in the survey dressed for at least 40 games with both clubs combined, and for at least 10 games with each club.In most cases, however, the new-found scoring skills are temporary. Of 39 players whose scoring totals improved after in-season trades in 1984-85 and 1985-86, only five were able to keep up the same pace the following year.You can&rsquo;t help but wonder that the best fate for some players is to be traded every once in awhile to revive their careers. Steve Patrick, who appears twice on the most-improved list, might not have retired earlier this year if his natural trade cycle (Buffalo-RangersQuebec) had continued.For players traded this year, their goals and assists are considered through games of Jan. 4.<h2>(Top post-trade production)</h2><h2>(Worst post-trade production)</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02149/5255058-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="1094" height="544"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03101/5255051-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="1738" height="1402"></div> &#9632;

f0040-01

Traded Players Usually Improve

<div class="byline">BY LARRY HUMBER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0476/5255096-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="554" height="952"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Johnson</figcaption></div>&bull; Estimated number of stitches taken by Leaf defenseman Borje Salming in a recent game, prompting him to wear a face shield: 200.Number of stitches Hall of Fame netminder Jacques Plante claims to have taken before he began wearing a face mask: 200.&bull; Where the Buffalo Sabres rank in terms of average team weight (from lightest to heaviest): 21st.Where the Sabres stood at the season&rsquo;s halfway mark: 21st.&bull; Number of current NHLers who were born in one of Canada&rsquo;s four Maritime provinces: 13.Number who were born in Finland: 13.&bull; Number of playoff games won by the Calgary Flames in Bob Johnson&rsquo;s four seasons as coach: 23.Number of playoff games lost by the Flames under Johnson: 23.&bull; Percentage of NHL players who don&rsquo;t wear helmets: 2.7 (14 of 518). &#9632;

f0040-04

Salming, Plante Stitches In Time

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0559/5255127-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="178" height="140"></div>CALGARY&mdash;News item: Al Maclnnis reached the halfway mark as the league&rsquo;s leading scorer among defenseman.Reaction: No surprise really. Paul Coffey missed 10 games and Maclnnis has been one of the best offensive defensemen in the league for years.News item: Assistant coach Bob Murdoch says Maclnnis is the Calgary Flames&rsquo; best defensive defenseman as well.Reaction: Real surprise. Almost everybody remembers Maclnnis from his one-dimensional days&mdash;when he played mainly because he could shoot the puck on the Flames&rsquo; power play. The Flames were prepared to live with his defensive shortcomings because they needed his shooting and passing skills on the right point.Times have changed. Instead of sending Maclnnis to the bench when Wayne Gretzky or like-minded players come on the ice, coach Bob Johnson now turns to Maclnnis and Jamie Macoun, his defense partner. His old image is dying hard, however, as fan balloting for Rendez-vous &rsquo;87 would suggest. In the latest ballot, Maclnnis held down only 12th place in the defense vote.&ldquo;That may be the way they see me around the league,&rdquo; said Maclnnis, &ldquo;but the important thing to me is our coaches know I can play defense. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d be on the ice in the last minute of a period or a game if they didn&rsquo;t think I could play defense.&rdquo;Perhaps the most significant statistic as it relates to Maclnnis and Macoun is their respective plus/minus. Macoun was plus-29, Maclnnis plus-20. The next highest regular was Jim Peplinski, a plus-eight. Almost half the team was minus.&ldquo;If I had to choose, I&rsquo;d take the good plus/minus over the points,&rdquo; said Maclnnis. &ldquo;When people look at statistics, I think there&rsquo;s more negatives associated with a bad plus/minus than if a player doesn&rsquo;t have many points.&ldquo;Sometimes, the plus/minus can be deceiving, but over 80 games, it&rsquo;s a pretty good evaluation. You can&rsquo;t be unlucky over 80 games.&rdquo;Flames&rsquo; goaltender Mike Vernon played with Maclnnis in 1984 when the two were assigned to the team&rsquo;s minor-league affiliate in Denver. He says Maclnnis improvement has been dramatic.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s just developed into one of the best defensemen in the league,&rdquo; said Vernon. &ldquo;He gets his points, but he&rsquo;s playing solid defensively, too. I&rsquo;m impressed with the way he plays one-on-one. Not many guys beat him anymore. He fits into the category of players who can play at both ends of the rink.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not worried about guys beating me one-on-one anymore,&rdquo; said Maclnnis. &ldquo;I can go up with the play and skate back and not worry about somebody beating me. In the years before, maybe I was waiting at the blue line because I was scared of getting caught up the ice.&rdquo;Maclnnis&rsquo; goal isn&rsquo;t to win the Norris Trophy this year. That would be too big a jump. Instead he&rsquo;ll settle for con-vincing people he has overcome the shortcomings of his early years.&ldquo;There are so many good defensemen in the league,&rdquo; said Maclnnis. &ldquo;When you look at one-two-three, you have to say it&rsquo;s Coffey, Bourque and Howe in whatever order you put them in. Me, I want to become a more complete player. If I do that, hopefully my name will keep coming up and sooner or later, it&rsquo;ll become one of the top in the league.&rdquo;IN BRIEF&mdash;Two months after injuring his right knee, center Doug Risebrough was scheduled to undergo exploratory arthroscopic surgery to see why it hadn&rsquo;t responded to treatment. Risebrough spent the day before his operation jogging with Jim Peplinski. &ldquo;It may be my last chance in a while,&rdquo; said Risebrough&hellip;Also from the injury front: Center Perry Berezan was to undergo a bone scan to see if his groin pull was actually a muscle tear&hellip;Since returning to the lineup after Christmas, veteran right winger Lanny McDonald had been used as a penalty killer. McDonald&rsquo;s pre-season targets of 31 goals and 65 points&mdash;which would have given him 500 career goals and 1,000 career points&mdash;were clearly out of reach as a result of the two knee injuries he suffered. &ldquo;Naturally, I&rsquo;d prefer to play the power play,&rdquo; said McDonald, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s going well now, so they&rsquo;re not going to change it. I understand the situation. Not that I don&rsquo;t think I can do the job but timewise, I guess you&rsquo;ve got to be patient.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0040-05

Maclnnis Much More Than Offensive Force

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02115/5255158-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="458" height="2324"></div> &#9632;

f0041-02

NHL Games To Come

<div class="byline">BY JEFF GORDON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01185/5255189-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="182" height="142"></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;Three seasons ago, defenseman Bruce Bell was one of the brightest prospects in hockey.But earlier this season, he was down and out of the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; lineup, his future clouded.&ldquo;I proved I could play in this league,&rdquo; a dejected Bell said in November. &ldquo;Maybe it was a fluke. But I don&rsquo;t think it was.&rdquo;He made the National Hockey League&rsquo;s all-rookie team in 1985, after compiling 37 points in 75 games for the Quebec Nordiques. He showed great skating and stickhandling ability and the Blues, looking for a lift, traded Gilbert Delorme to get him for the 1985-86 season.Last season was a disaster; Bell provided just 20 points in 75 rocky games for then-coach Jacques Demers. This season he missed 13 of the team&rsquo;s first 31 games&mdash;first because of a pulled groin muscle, later because of lost confidence and added weight.Now, at the age of 21, Bell is making a comeback.After earning just two points in his first 17 games, he had six in his next seven. He stepped onto the second power-play unit and moved into the No. 2 left defense role behind rookie phenom Brian Benning.In what has been a difficult season for the Blues, Bell&rsquo;s re-emergence is one of the their happier stories.&ldquo;I feel good,&rdquo; Bell said. &ldquo;I feel I&rsquo;m handling the puck well. That&rsquo;s my forte. I love handling the puck. They give me the freedom to do that. I love skating, I could skate all day. By stepping up into plays and stuff and playing with Rob Ramage, I&rsquo;m getting a lot of points.&rdquo;Like Benning, a 1987 all-rookie team candidate. Bell is a speedy finesse defenseman with unusual offensive skills. But unlike Benning, Bell isn&rsquo;t well-schooled in defensive zone play.&ldquo;I still have to work on my defense, not getting scored on; take guys to the boards and keep them out of the play,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to do my job that way. I&rsquo;m not going to hit people like Gino (Cavallini), Jocelyn (Lemieux) or Herbie (Raglan). They tumble people.&rdquo;Blues&rsquo; coach Jacques Martin just wants Bell to tie attackers up&mdash;something he failed to do consistently earlier this season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s good coming up, forcing the play,&rdquo; Martin said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s good with the puck. Away from the puck, the area he needs to work on is taking the man out around the net.&ldquo;He is starting to perform better. He&rsquo;s playing with much more confidence. But he is in a situation where he can&rsquo;t afford to slack off. He needs to perform. There are other individuals (Jim Pavese and Tim Bothwell) waiting to get in the lineup.&rdquo;Being idle earlier this season&mdash;after what happened last season&mdash;was difficult for Bell. But he turned his dis-appointment into motivation to improve.&ldquo;Last year, I struggled through the whole year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather not talk about it. It just didn&rsquo;t go well. I came in this season and had a good training camp. They were happy with me. Then the second game of the season I got hurt. Then I was ready to play and I didn&rsquo;t play for a couple of games.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s tough. I got back in the lineup for a couple of games, then I went out again. I was trying to keep my head up. I thought that hard work would get me back into the lineup.&ldquo;But you start thinking. I just bought a house. You try not to think about your problems, but a lot of things go through your mind.&rdquo;After nearly one-and-a-half seasons of spinning his wheels here, Bell may finally be on track. If they keep improving. Bell and Benning could rule the left side of the Blues&rsquo; defense for years to come.&ldquo;That would be nice,&rdquo; Bell said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to be here for awhile.&rdquo;BLUENOTES&mdash;Rob Ramage returned in style, with six assists in his first seven games back from the injured list. He had missed 21 games with tendinitis of his kneecap. With five goals and three assists in a six-game span, Benning moved into the top 10 of rookie scorers&hellip;Goaltender Greg Millen made his first back-to-back starts of the season, beating the Rangers and Bruins Dec. 27 and 30&hellip;Cliff Ronning, the star center for Team Canada, got another trial with the Blues starting Jan. 9. Center Doug Wickenheiser had just 17 points in his first 38 games and the Blues were looking for an offensive spark.<div class="sidebar">&lsquo;I feel I&rsquo;m handling the puck well. That&rsquo;s my forte. I love handling the puck. They give me the freedom to do that.&rsquo;&mdash;Bell &#9632;</div>

f0041-01

Bell Hopes Career Back On Track

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01191/5255220-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="177" height="135"></div>DETROIT&mdash;After waiting nearly half a season, Jacques Demers finally saw the real Greg Stefan.As an opposing coach, Demers came to recognize Stefan as one of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s premier goaltenders. When he came over to coach the Detroit Red Wings, Demers was lavish in his praise of the 25-year-old goaltender.&ldquo;One of the five best goalies in the NHL,&rdquo; Demers called Stefan after taking over as Detroit coach.But through 30 games, Stefan had his problems. A couple of fluke injuries suffered in pre-game warm-ups set him back, and he wasn&rsquo;t sharp as Glen Hanlon carried the early-season load.Then came the turning point for Stefan&mdash;and the Red Wings.The date: Dec. 20.The place: Joe Louis Arena.The opponent: Hartford Whalers.The score: 2-2.&ldquo;Anytime you win the first game back when you&rsquo;re slumping, it&rsquo;s a big lift,&rdquo; recalled Stefan. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t win, but we got the tie.&rdquo;For the record, Stefan earned the No. 2 star while raising his personal record to 3-6-1 on the season.That&rsquo;s when he took off.Stefan put together a seven-game unbeaten streak (5-0-2), including successive victories over the Minnesota North Stars in a home-and-home set. With first place in the Norris Division at stake, Stefan faced a total of 64 shots in two nights and allowed just three goals as the Wings won twice, 2-1 and 3-2, to move into first place alone.He also beat Calgary, 6-4, earlier the same week en route to NHL player-of-the-week honors.&ldquo;Once Jacques gave me the reins to go game after game, that helped my confidence,&rdquo; Stefan said.&ldquo;Stef&rsquo;s as hot as any goalie in the league,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been phenomenal.&rdquo;The Wings reached the 40-game point with 40 points, a .500 record, after a 4-4 tie in Boston. They were seven seconds from victory when Ray Bourque scored for the Bruins. It was a bittersweet tie but the Wings were no less satisfied with their first half.&ldquo;Hard work and one point, 40 in 40, that&rsquo;s a good, solid accomplishment,&rdquo; Demers said.The second half of the season didn&rsquo;t start quite so well as the Wings found themselves in a four-game winless streak (0-3-1). In three of those games, the Wings had the lead going into the third period and blew it. Previously, they were 13-0-0 in games in which they led after two periods. The Blackhawks rallied for a 5-3 victory at Chicago Stadium on goals by Curt Fraser and Steve Larmer in the final 17 minutes.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;re not doing very well,&rdquo; Demers said of protecting leads.WINGS WIRE&mdash;Shawn Burr&rsquo;s excellent rookie season hit a rough patch when he was benched by Demers after making a mistake which cost the Wingsagoal inChicago. &ldquo;Forthefirst 30 games, he played phenomenal hockey for us,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;He played within his limitations. For some reason, he&rsquo;s gotten away from that&hellip;He&rsquo;s trying to be cute and fancy. I will live with an honest mistake. I cannot live with a cute mistake.&rdquo; Said Burr, &ldquo;He wants me to play defensively and I&rsquo;ve been getting away from it. Tonight it caught up to me. &ldquo;&hellip;Gerard Gallant, with 21 goals, had surpassed his output of last season&hellip;Rookie defenseman Steve Chiasson returned from the Canadian national junior team and Demers said he would stay with the Wings. &#9632;

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January 23, 1987

PLAYER OF WEEK TITAN JOFA

THN HOCKEY TRIVIA

Speedy Courtnall Has Arrived With Toronto

NHL SUMMARIES