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.

September 18, 1987

The Hockey News September 18, 1987

<div class="image-hero"><img title="s0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0006-013/5177094-1-eng-US/s0006-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0007-013/5177087-1-eng-US/s0007-012.jpg" title="s0007-01" width="3300" height="3958"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

HOCKEY PRODUCT ANALYSIS

In next week&rsquo;s Sept. 25 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, we will provide you with the answer to the most complex hockey question there is: Who is the best player in the world today?It&rsquo;s a timely query, what with the best players on the best teams in the world gathered for the 1987 Canada Cup.And in addition to that, we&rsquo;ll have a complete Canada Cup report orwrap-up, depending upon whether the final goes two games or three games.Regardless, we&rsquo;ll offer a unique perspective on the six-nation tournament.But we&rsquo;ll also continue to update all that is happening in the National Hockey League. Plus, we&rsquo;ll present our annual preview of the Canadian Hockey League, with separate stories on the Western, Ontario and Quebec Leagues.Don&rsquo;t miss all that plus much more in next week&rsquo;s issue. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01586/5175890-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="174" height="131"></div>And a little child will lead them.&mdash;Isiah 11:6EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.&mdash;At 6-foot-3, Brendan Shanahan isn&rsquo;t so little, but at 18 years of age, he is awfully young to inherit the mantle of Messiah.Although New Jersey Devil coach Doug Carpenter has insisted the No. 2 overall draft choice may be returned to junior hockey for more seasoning, it would be a major disappointment if the big 18-year-old didn&rsquo;t make an immediate splash in the NHL.Management is determined to downplay Shanahan&rsquo;s signing&mdash;for $600,000 plus bonuses over three years plus an option term&mdash;but anxious Devil fans have already cast the centerman in the role of &ldquo;franchise&rdquo; player.Will it bother him?&ldquo;It might,&rdquo; said another Devil first-round draft choice, Craig Wolanin, who has stayed with the Devils since being picked third overall in 1985. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s mature enough to handle the pressure. More likely, the only pressure he probably will feel will be the pressure he puts on himself to perform well. I know my first two years I didn&rsquo;t feel any pressure from management.&ldquo;I talked with him over the summer and he basically had the same attitude I had&mdash;come in and do my best. If I stick with the club, I stick with the club. If I go back to juniors, I&rsquo;ll work my butt off to come back next year.&rdquo;Shanahan has handled himself like a talk show host. He has been a reporter&rsquo;s dream since being drafted second overall, from London Knights of the Ontario League. Yet, when pressed, he admitted he is unsure of himself.&ldquo;I have my doubts,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This is going to be the toughest adjustment year of my life.&ldquo;I know I&rsquo;m not ready for everything that&rsquo;s going to challenge me in the NHL. I have to work on my overall quickness and I have to work on my upper body strength. But this is the team I want to play for.&ldquo;Everybody talks about my character. They talk about how Pierre Turgeon has the talent and I have the character. I think people will be surprised when they see how I handle the puck and when they see I can skate forward and backward.&rdquo;Scouts confirm that Shanahan has the skills, and past exploits show that he can put his 208-pound frame to good use on the wing.He&rsquo;s also a good team man, not one to let his mates be pushed around. During the Jan. 4 brawl between Canada and the Soviet Union at the World Jr. Championships in Czechoslovakia, Shanahan punched out two Soviet opponents.&ldquo;I felt we had to go over the boards,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We thought it had gone beyond the point of being a game and we had to protect our guys. There&rsquo;s no pride in letting yourself be taken advantage of.&rdquo;This is no musclebound goon, however. Shanahan researched his off-season program, and eschewed weightlifting for extra skating practice.&ldquo;At first I was going to focus on the weights because I was thinking about playing against men for the first time in my life,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I talked to a few NHL players, people I respect, and they all reminded me that I&rsquo;m going to be earning my living on the ice.&ldquo;They told me a lot of young guys have a tendency to forget their skating in the summer and, instead, try to bulk up too much with weights. A hockey player can&rsquo;t get ready the same way a football player does.&rdquo;The toughest adjustment, however, will be mental.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think of myself as the franchise player of the (London) club, much less of an NHL club,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;A franchise player is a guy who takes his team from last and puts it in first.&rdquo;All the Devils ask is a move from sixth to fourth&mdash;a playoff spot&mdash;in the Patrick Division.HOT STUFF&mdash;The Devils also signed right winger Claude Loiselle and left winger Perry Anderson to multi-year contracts. &ldquo;Sometimes you add by subtracting, but we wanted those players back,&rdquo; said general manager Max McNab. &ldquo;Last year was the first time Loiselle was given so much responsibility and such a heavy work-load. His stamina wasn&rsquo;t there because he wasn&rsquo;t used to playing so much&mdash;but I feel he&rsquo;ll come on. And our scouts scour the bushes for 200-pound players who can skate like Perry. I think he&rsquo;s ready to emerge. I&rsquo;m optimistic about him.&rdquo;&hellip;Kirk Muller was among those cut from Team Canada Aug. 19. The decision didn&rsquo;t disappoint New Jersey&rsquo;s front office, since the new captain is now assured of remaining healthy for training camp&hellip;Tim Burke, assistant hockey coach at Princeton University, was added to the Devils&rsquo; scouting staff. &#9632;

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Shanahan Embarking On His ‘Toughest Year’

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011221/5175531-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="172" height="132"></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;The defensive corps which helped gain the Philadelphia Flyers three consecutive Patrick Division titles and two trips to the Stanley Cup finals has been seriously altered.Though Mark Howe is the Flyers&rsquo; acknowledged wheelhorse defenseman, Brad McCrimmon has been as valuable in a stay-at-home role. Now McCrimmon&rsquo;s gone, traded to the Calgary Flames for two high draft picks.It&rsquo;s long been a Flyer policy to swap some of their present talent to ensure a bright future. They did so again in trading McCrimmon for first- and second-round picks from the Flames.The Flyers have their choice. They can take the first-rounder in either 1988 or 1989, and take the third-rounder in the other draft.It has also long been a Flyer tradition to hold the line when it comes to salaries&mdash;and McCrimmon had already tried to step over that line once. The Flyers not only appeared to make a statement that they were looking toward the future, but also sent out vibes that their salary structure would not be blown apart.Although Flyer general manager Bob Clarke said that money was not a factor, McCrimmon did sit out the early part of last season in a contract dispute.&ldquo;Brad has been an integral part of the success of this team,&rdquo; Clarke acknowledged, &ldquo;but with the age of our defense, we thought it was in the best interest of our club to work in some youth.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got young defensmen in Hershey, and our last two draft picks have been defensemen. We thought it was about time to go with some youth.&rdquo;Indeed, the Flyers&rsquo; defense does feature 32-year-old Howe and 29-year-old Brad Marsh. But an equally com-pelling reason to part with McCrimmon and his contract squabbles came from Kjell Samuelsson&rsquo;s fine play in last season&rsquo;s playoffs. Clarke also said 19-year-old defenseman Kerry Huffman, a first-round draft choice in 1986, could be ready to assume a major role.Huffman, presently with the Canadian Olympic program, was a standout with Guelph of the Ontario League last season. He played five games with the Flyers last fall during McCrimmon&rsquo;s absence.The Flyers have likely cut some kind of deal with the Olympic team. If Huffman is impressive enough, he&rsquo;ll stay with the Flyers. If he is still a bit green, the Flyers may send him back to the Olympic team, rather than Hershey.Others in line to fill the vacancy include Mike Stothers, Steve Smith, Greg Smyth, Jeff Chychrun and John Stevens.No matter who gets the job, it&rsquo;s unlikely they&rsquo;ll fit into the team or community as smoothly as McCrimmon.McCrimmon was a solid team player. Despite his contract squabbles, McCrimmon was the perfect team soldier when it came to play on the ice. And he fit in well with Howe, his defensive partner and good friend.McCrimmon is a rock and roll expert. He is probably hockey&rsquo;s best rock-ologist, and was a favorite on Philadelphia&rsquo;s top rock station WMMR, where he often took part in the morning drive-time program.McCrimmon, who was at home in Saskatchewan when the trade was made, was not bitter. His point of contention is that he. should be paid commensurate with his peers, in the neighborhood of $250,000 per season.At the end, Clarke said, money was not a problem. He believed the Flyers could come to terms with McCrimmon.PHILLERS&mdash;Goalie Darren Jensen, rendered dispensable by the draft-day deal with Detroit which brought American League star Mark Laforest to Philadelphia, was dealt to Vancouver with defenseman-winger Darryl Stanley. In return, the Flyers got Vancouver farmhand goalie Wendell Young and the Canucks&rsquo; third-round draft choice in 1990. &#9632;

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Flyers Trade Some Present For The Future

Hab-haters of the hockey world unite.A Halifax, N.S., chartered accountant has provided the perfect rallying point.Art McDonald, 34, may well have created the most mean-spirited calendar in the history of sport. It may also be among the most funny.The longtime Montreal Canadien masher spent about 500 hours, by his estimate, filling in the days of leap year 1988 with unhappy pieces of Hab history.FromJan. 1 (1932), birthdateof Don Aitkin, whose goals-against ayerage of 10.59 is the worst in Montreal history, to Dec. 31 (1981), date of Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s 50th goal in 39 games, which broke Canadien great Maurice Richard&rsquo;s record for fastest 50 goals, McDonald accounts for 366 dismal days in the life of the Montreal Canadiens.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a labor of love,&rdquo; said McDonald, a Detroit Red Wing fan who loves to hate the Canadiens. &ldquo;The whole thing started when I was about six years old and I kept hearing that Rocket Richard was a better player than Gordie Howe.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011192/5174993-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="363" height="487"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Dryden</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I remember being very insufferable in school when Gordie Howe broke Rocket Richard&rsquo;s record (for most career goals).&rdquo;That, by the way, was Nov. 10, 1963&hellip;an accomplishment duly noted on McDonald&rsquo;s calendar.&ldquo;Everyone over the age of 20 either loves the Canadiens or hates them,&rdquo; said McDonald. &ldquo;You just aren&rsquo;t ambivalent.&rdquo;McDonald leaves no skeleton in the Canadiens&rsquo; closet untouched&mdash;reflecting on enough despair to turn even the gentlemanly Jean Beliveau into Chris Nilan, were he to meet McDonald.Some entries, for example:Feb. 2 (1939)&mdash;Jules Dugal, who had been the team&rsquo;s secretary, coaches the Canadiens to a 4-2 loss.March 15 (1984)&mdash;Canadiens sign Normand Baron, a body-builder with limited hockey experience. What depths have they reached?May 29 (1917)&mdash;Birthdate of John Kennedy, whose presidential administration was free of Canadiens winning the Cup.June 14 (1977)&mdash;Canadiens pass up Mike Bossy in the NHL draft. Bossy has scored over 500 goals for the New York Islanders.July 18 (1969)&mdash;Rangers&rsquo; Vic Hadfield outplays Canadiens&rsquo; Bobby Rousseau, a golf pro, in the NHL players&rsquo; golf tournament.Sept. 14 (1752)&mdash;North America adopts the Gregorian calendar, featuring Feb. 29 in leap years. Canadiens are winless on this date.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02875/5174986-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="1455" height="1222"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gordie Howe, left, broke Rocket Richard&rsquo;s record for most career goals (544) on Nov. 10,1963. Jean Beliveau presented a painting of Howe on behalf of the Canadiens to mark the occasion. Art McDonald, naturally, noted the event on his special calendar.</figcaption></div>Nov. 1 (1924)&mdash;Boston becomes the first American NHL team. Canadiens can now lose in two countries.Dec. 8 (1983)&mdash;Tom Fergus scores the 10,000th goal against Canadiens.McDonald&rsquo;s 366 fateful facts are supplemented by special lists for each month, which detail, among other things, the Canadiens&rsquo; five worst seasons, five obscure teams which have beaten Montreal, the five fastest overtime goals allowed by the Canadiens and five worst Montreal first-round picks.The former Montreal resident has tried to market the copyrighted calendar but has, so far, had no luck. Besides several publishers, he has sent a copy to Carling O&rsquo;Keefe, owner of the Quebec Nordiques&mdash;arch-rival of the Molson-owned Canadiens.In his cover letter to Carling, which did not respond, he notes, &ldquo;I feel this project may be of interest to your brewery given your ownership of the Quebec Nordiques and their natural rivalry with the Canadiens. In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of hockey fans across the country who take particular pleasure in watching the Canadiens lose.&rdquo;None, apparently, more so than Art McDonald.<h2>Trouble At Camp-National Squad</h2>Back to square one.That&rsquo;s where Bryan Fogarty is after being sent home early from the Canadian national junior team&rsquo;s summer training camp in Ottawa.The Kingston Canadiens&rsquo; star defenseman was among four players disciplined after a drinking incident at the team hotel.Fogarty, goalie Shawn Simpson, defenseman Bryan Marchment and center Kent Hawley were dismissed before the final scrimmage and team meal.This, in itself, is not remarkable news. Boys, after all, will be boys, said one National Hockey League official. But, Fogarty&rsquo;s inclusion in the group and the response of two NHL teams indicates the seriousness with which the situation is viewed.Fogarty, 18, was the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; first-round draft choice (ninth overall) this past June. His on-ice credentials are impeccable, his off-ice, well&hellip;He has a reputation&mdash;one that he hoped to put behind him after Quebec indicated its faith in his doing so. &ldquo;Hopefully, everybody will forget about it.&rdquo; Fogarty said at the draft.The defenseman hasn&rsquo;t let them.&ldquo;I feel pretty bad about it, it shouldn&rsquo;t have happened.&rdquo; said Fogarty, who shared in celebrations that got out of hand after the coaching staff assessed each player&rsquo;s performance individually.Team officials were alerted to excessive merriment when water leaked into assistant coach Ken Hitchcock&rsquo;s room, one floor beneath the players. A fire extinguisher had been used for reasons other than putting out a fire.That chore&mdash;putting out a fire&mdash;was left to others.Dave Draper, director of scouting for the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, was not impressed.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re in an elite program,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and in an elite program you&rsquo;ve got to make sacrifices. If you can&rsquo;t do that at training camp what are you going to do in competition?&rdquo;Draper didn&rsquo;t rule out the four players being invited back for the final pre-Christmas camp before the World Jr. Championships, but did say &ldquo;they&rsquo;d almost have to come back to us on their knees.&rdquo;The Nordiques certainly weren&rsquo;t amused. Neither was Gus Badali, Fogarty&rsquo;s agent, who was in the midst of contract talks with Quebec when word reached general manager Maurice Filion.&ldquo;Now because of this incident, negotiations have been terminated,&rdquo; said Badali. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got to go to camp and prove he wants to play the game.&rdquo;Filion, mindful of Fogarty&rsquo;s enormous potential, is prepared to be patient.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll take care of him,&rdquo; said Filion. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll look after him&hellip;He&rsquo;s got to be ready to help himself.&rdquo;Then, the Nordiques will make a commitment.&ldquo;I figure we&rsquo;ll wait till training camp and if he behaves well, maybe we&rsquo;ll do something (in terms of a contract),&rdquo; said Filion.One player who won&rsquo;t get a chance at training camp is Simpson, a 1986 third-round draft choice of the Washington Capitals. GM David Poile said Simpson will be excluded from camp this year.Poile, would not confirm Simpson is being disciplined, but the message seems loud and clear&mdash;the Capitals want it understood they expect good behaviour, as well as good goaltending, from Simpson.Neither Winnipeg, which picked Marchment 16th overall this year, nor Philadelphia, which selected Hawley 28th overall in 1986, indicated any further action would be taken.<h2>&lsquo;Not Funny Joke&rsquo;-Herb Pinder</h2>Quote of the week:&ldquo;Free agency is a joke but it&rsquo;s not a very funny joke when you&rsquo;re Andy Moog. It&rsquo;s not a money issue. It&rsquo;s a human rights issue.&rdquo;&mdash;Herb Pinder, Moog&rsquo;s agent, page 16.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03612/5174979-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="3069" height="423"></div>Seven days in the life of the Montreal Canadiens, as seen through the eyes of Art McDonald. The month is February. Dates are at top right, years at bottom. &#9632;

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Hab-Haters Will Love it

He has won three Stanley Cups, two Norris Trophies, one Canada Cup and was busy shooting for a second in just seven years as a pro. Edmonton Oiler Paul Coffey is not only considered one of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s premier defensemen, but one of hockey&rsquo;s all-time offensive stars. He has been touted as a 1980s version of Bobby Orr.Still, the 26-year-old native of Malton, Ont. (just outside Toronto), heads into the 1987-88 season the subject of much debate and controversy, due largely to an uneasy alliance with Oiler general manager-coach Glen Sather.THN Editor-in-Chief Bob McKenzie went to Montreal in mid-August, during Team Canada&rsquo;s Canada Cup training camp, to talk to Coffey about the coming season.THN: Minutes after winning the Stanley Cup last May, you were heard in the dressing room wondering if that had been your final game as an Edmonton Oiler. Do you think you have a future with the Oilers?COFFEY: I would like to think so. Last year was a tough year for me, communications-wise, with Glen (Sather), but hopefully that will be water under the bridge come the start of this season. We didn&rsquo;t really get a chance to talk too much at the end of the season. We&rsquo;ll set up a meeting at training camp to talk over a few things.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011374/5175059-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="701" height="1257"><figcaption class="caption-body">General manager-coach Glen Sather and Paul Coffey are not always on the best of terms.</figcaption></div>THN: Obviously there is friction between you and Sather. Is it a one-year problem or does it date back further than that?COFFEY: I don&rsquo;t know&hellip;I mean, everybody has their ideas, you know, that a coach is the boss and he is paid to coach and the player is paid to play. A lot of things were said that hurt me personally, different things that were said in the newspaper.THN: Only in this past season? &lsquo;COFFEY: Well, mostly. There was stuff said before, but most of it was justifiable stuff, trying-to-get-a-player-going stuff. Some of the stuff this year, though, I just didn&rsquo;t really like it. I just wanted to voice my opinion and talk to Glen about it.THN: What specifically did Sather say that you didn&rsquo;t like?COFFEY: I don&rsquo;t really want to bring it up again. We (Coffey and Sather) both know what it was.Ed. Note&mdash;After the third game of the 198687 season, a 5-3 loss to Winnipeg in which Coffey and defense partner Charlie Huddy were on for three goals against, Sather singled out Coffey for his poor play. Sather told reporters: &ldquo;Paul isn&rsquo;t playing as well as he&rsquo;s capable of&hellip;you can&rsquo;t defend guys when they &lsquo;re playing bad. If he is, he&rsquo;s got to own up to it. He&rsquo;s always been a slow starter as long as he&rsquo;s been here. I told him in Montreal (second game of the season) it would be interesting to see how good he&rsquo;d be if he played October and November like the rest of the season.&rdquo;Coffey, when informed of Sather&rsquo;s remarks, responded angrily to reporters: &ldquo;Pointing fingers is a pretty shallow thing to do. I&rsquo;m getting sick of it. Seven years I&rsquo;ve been here and it&rsquo;s the same thing, game in and game out. lean see it if I&rsquo;m 20 years old but I should be treated differently now. I feel good but this is crap that I don&rsquo;t need. &ldquo;THN: Other than this past season, has your relationship with Sather been good?COFFEY: Yeah, I have a lot of respect for Glen. I think in the seven years I&rsquo;ve been there, I&rsquo;ve definitely learned a lot from him, both on and off the ice. But there are times when in the player-coach relationship you don&rsquo;t see eye to eye.THN: Your name has popped up more frequently in trade rumors. For example, there was a report recently out of Pittsburgh that had you going to the Penguins for Doug Bodger and a couple of other players. Is trade talk something you might expect more now than you would have in the past?<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-02992/5175052-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="1477" height="1928"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doing what he does best, the swift-skating Paul Coffey clears Edmonton&rsquo;s defensive zone with Hartford&rsquo;s John Anderson in hot pursuit.</figcaption></div>COFFEY: I think I&rsquo;ve always accepted that (the possibility of a trade) as part of the game. I heard the Pittsburgh rumor. My initial reaction was, &lsquo;Oh, boy, I don&rsquo;t want to go anywhere.&rsquo; But then the more you think about it, hey, if my time is up in Edmonton, if I&rsquo;ve spent seven good years there, but now they don&rsquo;t want me to play hockey anymore, that&rsquo;s fine. You treat it as a mature person and realize it&rsquo;s a business.THN: It was obviously a tough year for you personally. What about the atmosphere on the team as a whole, was it different than in other years?COFFEY: I think it was (different). My situation revolved around my back injury. Nothing was said out loud but a few people might have thought it wasn&rsquo;t as serious as it was and when I was playing I wasn&rsquo;t putting out 100 per cent.But we, as a team, have had a tough time, too. In the last four years we&rsquo;ve won three Stanley Cups, which has been great, but losing to Calgary (in the 1986 playoffs) made it pretty difficult.That&rsquo;s why last year we had such a tough year, always trying to prove ourselves. It was a grind at times because no matter what we did, none of it really mattered until we won the Cup.THN: You mentioned the back injury. Even though you went on to win the Cup, was it the worst year of your career?COFFEY: Yeah, I played 59 games, ended up with 67 points (including 17 goals), which is better than a point a game, but sitting out was rough. I would get rolling for three or four games, start getting some momentum and then I&rsquo;d have a bad game because of my back. I should have rested it, but I didn&rsquo;t want to lose the momentum. I kept on playing. It was stupid. If I had to do it all over again, I would have taken three weeks off in November and really rested it&hellip;It got so I couldn&rsquo;t bend over, put on my socks or shoes. My back would go into spasm and all the muscles in my back would start contracting all at once.THN: It must have been difficult to deal with.COFFEY: Yes, it was. My advice to any other player who goes through something like that is that he should just get out of town, get away from hockey completely. If the doctor says it&rsquo;s going to take two or three weeks, you&rsquo;re better off going as far away from the game as possible.THN: Did you ever think it might be a career-threatening injury?COFFEY: Definitely. All those things went through my mind. It was scary, really scary.THN: Given all the pain and the ups and downs of the season, how much satisfaction did you derive from the Stanley Cup victory?COFFEY: It was probably a better feeling than winning the other two Cups. I guess that was because the year was so tough. Just knowing that the year was over, it was May 31 and we&rsquo;d won another Stanley Cup, it was probably the best one for me. I think a lot of the other guys would say the same thing because it was a tough year for all of us.The year before, losing to Calgary (in the 1986 playoffs) was a big thing. Then, this past season we lost six, tied one and won one against Calgary. People said if we met them in the playoffs, we&rsquo;d lose. Well, people will never know what would have happened because we never met them, but we still won the Stanley Cup and that&rsquo;s the bottom line.THN: After being eliminated by the Flames in 1986, Sather was very critical of the Oiler players. His refrain at the time was that the coaching staff told the players what to do, but they didn&rsquo;t follow instructions. One theory is that&rsquo;s when your problems with Sather really began.COFFEY: I am a firm believer that you win as a team and lose as a team and every time you point one finger, there are three of them coming back at you. I think we won the Stanley Cup this year as a team and if we had lost it, it would have been as a team, too. That&rsquo;s what happened against Calgary. They played good, good hockey against us. We just weren&rsquo;t running on all eight cylinders for some reason, which I still can&rsquo;t explain. But some days you go to work, you just don&rsquo;t feel too good. We&rsquo;re not robots. We picked a bad time to have a slump.THN: Then came the Sports Illustrated story that, among other things, said unnamed members of the Oilers were using cocaine. Did the story have a big impact on you with your friends and family?COFFEY: Yeah, it did. First and foremost, I was defensive about it. They (Sports Illustrated) were speculating. To this day, I think it was a crock. I don&rsquo;t think any of it was true. Here was a guy (co-author Don Ramsay) who was trying to break a big story. It surprises me that a great magazine like Sports Illustrated would get involved in something like that and then not have a follow-up story with all the facts. To me, they just proved it wasn&rsquo;t true, otherwise they would have had all the facts in the next issue.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011223/5175045-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="719" height="1703"><figcaption class="caption-body">Philadelphia defenseman Mark Howe is a member of Paul Coffey&rsquo;s personal allstar team.</figcaption></div>THN: It all must have made for a very difficult summer.COFFEY: Yeah, especially when people said the reason you lost was because members of our team, good friends of mine, were on cocaine. But as a professional athlete, those are things you have to deal with. You can&rsquo;t run and hide from stuff like that. You do your best to explain things, but if people don&rsquo;t understand or choose not to believe you, well then that&rsquo;s tough, too bad for them.THN: By contrast, this has been a good summer.COFFEY: Yes, but if we hadn&rsquo;t won the Cup, I don&rsquo;t think our team would be the same right now. One of our big gunners would be gone. They (management) would have been forced to make a big move. But knowing that helps us as a team. In big games, we say to each other, &lsquo;Win this one or they&rsquo;ll be breaking us up.&rsquo; We had to win.Like, Philadelphia, even though they lost, they were well accepted by their fans. If we had lost, we would have had to sneak out of town. And somebody, maybe me, would have been gone by now to another team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02866/5175038-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="714" height="1678"><figcaption class="caption-body">The high-scoring Oiler defenseman celebrates yet another goal produced by Edmonton.</figcaption></div>THN: If you were traded, do you think you would be nearly as effective with another team as you are with the Oilers?COFFEY: It depends on how the team would want you to play. If I played on a team like Pittsburgh with a great player like Mario Lemieux, I think it would be great. Or Detroit with Steve Yzerman or Winnipeg with Dale Hawerchuk. And a lot of times during the year, I don&rsquo;t play that much with Wayne (Gretzky) anyway. Playing on the Oilers definitely helps me, but it helps everybody. Wayne will tell you that. He&rsquo;s not going to get 200 points playing with anybody else. He&rsquo;d get close to it. but&hellip;THN: If you were going to pick your NHL all-star team, a goalie, two defensemen and three forwards, who would they be?COFFEY: Grant Fuhr in goal, Ray Bourque and Mark Howe on defense, Wayne (Gretzky) at center, Jari Kurri on right wing. Left wing-&hellip;hmmmmm&hellip;I would take Mark Messier. Is that allowed?Ed. Note&mdash;Messier is ordinarily a center.THN: It&rsquo;s your team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03597/5175031-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="715" height="1631"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dale Hawerchuk, right, would make a fine teammate in the estimation of Paul Coffey.</figcaption></div>COFFEY: Messier it is then.THN: At the NHL awards banquet a couple of years ago, you made an interesting remark to describe what kind of person Wayne Gretzky is. Do you remember it?COFFEY: Yeah. I think a lot of people misunderstand Wayne because a lot of the times he&rsquo;s nervous in crowds, out in public. There are some people he doesn&rsquo;t trust for different reasons, not people he knows, but because he&rsquo;s a figure who people may take potshots at.I have a simple definition for Wayne: He&rsquo;s a better person than he is a hockey player.THN: At what age did you realize you had a shot at playing professional hockey?COFFEY: I was playing for the Toronto Young Nats in my first year of midget, 15 years old, and I didn&rsquo;t have a clue about junior hockey or how to get there. I just played. I remember going to a game and someone on the team saying, &lsquo;There are Toronto Marlie scouts in the crowd tonight.&rsquo; I still remember to this day saying, &lsquo;Scouts? What do you mean?&rsquo; I had no clue about how you got to play junior.I remember talking to my dad in the car on the way home and trying to find out what went on. At that time, I was a half-decent skater and thought I would have a shot at it if I gave it my all. It turned out I did.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-04422/5175024-1-eng-US/f0007-042.jpg" title="f0007-04" width="716" height="1702"><figcaption class="caption-body">Boston rearguard Ray Bourque won the Norris Trophy in 1986-87, his first top defenseman award.</figcaption></div>THN: When you played junior hockey in Kitchener and Rod Seiling was the coach, didn&rsquo;t he once tell you that you would never make it as a pro?COFFEY: Not exactly. We had a meeting at the end of the year, but it wasn&rsquo;t as bad as it&rsquo;s been made out to be in the last couple of years. He just said everything opposite to what I had heard. He said that to be a pro I needed to work on my skating and my shooting and that my defensive play was good enough. I didn&rsquo;t know what to believe because everybody had always told me the opposite of that. Rod had played 16 years in the NHL, he knew his hockey, so I didn&rsquo;t know what to think. I wondered if he was talking to the right guy.THN: How do you spend the off-season?COFFEY: I do as little as possible. The last few years, the season has been so long. I just go to my cottage (in the Muskoka region north of Toronto) and do absolutely nothing for a month. It takes me that long to unwind, especially this year when it went to seven games in the final and we didn&rsquo;t finish until May 31. Let me tell you something, you can never, not in a sudden-death Canada Cup final or anything else, experience the pressure of the seventh game of a Stanley Cup final. It takes you a month just to get your appetite back after that.THN: Are you optimistic you&rsquo;ll be able to work out your differences with Glen Sather and start the season with a clean slate?COFFEY: Yeah, we&rsquo;ll have our little chat and I&rsquo;m sure we can work things out. I just want to play hockey. I don&rsquo;t want to be treated any differently than the next guy, no better, no worse. All I want to do is play hockey. That&rsquo;s it. &#9632;

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Departments

COFFEY BREAK

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011308/5175090-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div>MY COVER STORY for the Canada Cup preview reads as follows: $27 for nose bleed seats at the Hartford Civic Center to see a no-hustle exhibition game between the United States Olympic team and Team USA; $6 for an arrogant parking attendant; and $17 lost when I sold my additional seat for $10.Of course, there was also the $1.95 for the hot dog. I was afraid to ask how much for the mustard. I can&rsquo;t afford to get my shirt cleaned of mustard stains caused by dropping my frank due to all the excitement.That was a joke, but not as funny as the Canada Cup and the hundreds of dollars I&rsquo;ve wasted. I wonder, does Alan Eagleson buy hot dogs at the games?Larry Press, Milford, Conn.<h2>WENDEL A WINNER</h2>Although Team Canada possesses many things&mdash;experience, finesse, quality, and Gretzky&mdash;it&rsquo;s still lacking one vital ingredient&mdash;the Wendel Clark effect.With his admirable leadership abilities and superior wrist shot, the Toronto Maple Leaf left winger would have been a perfect addition to a team set on taking the hockey world by storm.Clark displays the honest work ethic and proper heart and soul that makes those pride-filled games with the Soviets a success for Team Canada.When Wendel Clark was removed from Team Canada, so was much heart, feistiness, and talent.Lisa Redekop, Vienna, Ont.<h2>HALL NEEDS GAME</h2>Fans are concentrating on the Canada Cup, but a more worthwhile pursuit would be to preserve and develop another great hockey tradition&mdash;the Hockey Hall of Fame.How about an annual game to raise money for the Hall and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association pension fund, as well as improve awareness of hockey&rsquo;s illustrious past?The National Football League, National Basketball Association and Major League baseball all have Hall of Fame games. A hockey version would help preserve and promote the sport&rsquo;s great traditions.A possible format would see the defending Stanley Cup champions meet the league allstars&mdash;the same system used for all-star games in the six-team days.Such an event would benefit everyone involved in hockey.Bill Hamade, Scarborough, Ont.<h2>QUINN OVERSPENDS</h2>I&rsquo;m a Vancouver Canuck fan and I&rsquo;m not satisfied with the job new president and general manager Pat Quinn is doing. He&rsquo;s spending too much money without cutting costs.First, Quinn hired a new coach, though Tom Watt is still under contract. Now he&rsquo;s paying two coaches. One&mdash;Bob McCammon&mdash;is coaching, while the other is waiting for the cheque in the mail.Second. Quinn signed two free agents&mdash;defenseman Ian Kidd and forward Claude Vilgrain&mdash;without giving up any of the players he already has. The Soviet players will be arriving soon, and they will have to be paid. too.Third, Quinn raised ticket prices without showing us that the team we&rsquo;ve known for all these years can actually win a few games.Can Canuck fans allow Quinn to bankrupt the franchise before it has a chance to become a contender? I say we can&rsquo;t. I agree with THN&rsquo;s Stan Fischler&mdash;Quinn is the most overrated person in hockey today.Doug VanWieren, Ucluelet, B.C. &#9632;

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Canada Cup Is A Joke To Connecticut Comic

Let your voice be heard. Send your comments to Fan Forum, THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

FAN FORUM

YOU SUSPECT THAT Mario Lemieux understands international hockey protocol as well as the next guy. It&rsquo;s just that he chooses to ignore it.And why not? No one else seems to care.Not now anyway. Not after Lemieux scored three goals to lead Team Canada to an important 3-2 win over Team USA in the Canada Cup tournament.The virtuoso scoring performance came, appropriately enough, at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton. Appropriate because five months earlier at that very locale, Lemieux was noticeable by his absence.Then, the other Team Canada, the playoff no-shows edition, was on the ice with coach Dave King in the first stage of preparation for the 1987 World Championships in Vienna.Upstairs, Canada&rsquo;s international hockey czar was exercising his vocal chords.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not fair for Wayne Gretzky, Marcel Dionne and Tony Tanti to answer the (World Championships) call if Richard Brodeur, Doug Lidster and Mario Lemieux don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Alan Eagleson said, suggesting that the time may be at hand to take sanctions against those players who refuse to make the sacrifice.&ldquo;There is an obligation that exists within our (NHL Players&rsquo;) association to play international hockey.&rdquo;Lemieux, however, has always been obliged only to look after No. 1, er No. 66. Which is neither an indictment nor an endorsement, merely an observation.The &ldquo;obligation&rdquo; is implied, not supplied in writing. First and foremost, international hockey events serve to underwrite a good portion of the NHL players&rsquo; pension fund.Second, sending NHL playoff castoffs to the World Championships each spring is the tradeoff that permits the Canada Cup to be sanctioned and staged.Lemieux, of course, is in this Canada Cup, but only once in the past three springs has he personally made the trade-off. Even then, he had to be dragged to Prague and coerced to stay, before leading Team Canada &lsquo;85 to a silver medal.&ldquo;The Canada Cup is different (than the World Championships),&rdquo; Lemieux said after the hat-trick performance against the Americans. &ldquo;When you go overseas for that other tournament, it&rsquo;s after the 80-game season, you have aches and pains and disappointment at not making the playoffs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021091/5175145-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="409" height="457"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob McKenzie</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The Canada Cup, it&rsquo;s at the beginning of the season. You are healthy and rested and you don&rsquo;t have to go overseas.&rdquo;Maybe Lemieux doesn&rsquo;t, but someone, for the sake of the pension and the Canada Cup, must.&ldquo;There were some players who suggested we not invite Mario Lemieux (to the Canada Cup),&rdquo; Eagleson said in June.The notion was never seriously considered.The response of defenseman Craig Hartsburg, who was in Vienna last spring and is playing with Lemieux in this Canada Cup, is as typical as it is telling.&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t deny that it would have been nice to have him over there last spring,&rdquo; Hartsburg says. &ldquo;We really could have used him. But not include him in the Canada Cup because he didn&rsquo;t play in the World Championships? I don&rsquo;t think so.&ldquo;For the Canada Cup, you have to put aside all those other conflicts and take the best players.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you one thing,&rdquo; says Eagleson, last spring&rsquo;s World Championships apparently a faded memory. &ldquo;He (Lemieux) will always be invited to any international event that Canada is in.&ldquo;He may turn us down sometimes, but he&rsquo;ll always be invited.&rdquo;So if it doesn&rsquo;t bother the Eagle or Hartsburg, then it certainly shouldn&rsquo;t bother you or me.Fact is, it will only become a problem when the Scott Stevens, Tony Tantis and Kirk Mullers of the world get tired of going overseas each April so Mario Lemieux can play the world on his terms. &#9632;

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Mario Meets The World Only On His Terms

<div class="byline">COMPILED BY RICHARD BEALES Editorial Staff</div>Danny Gare was not among those West German hockey players whose homes were recently raided by govement officials.The former NHLer called THN to clarify the situation after reading in Sept. 11 &lsquo;s Hockey Notebook that he was targeted in a tax crackdown.Though West German tax authorities did confiscate goods from the homes of several players on the Iserlohn team, Gare&rsquo;s was not one of them.Gare said that only members of last year&rsquo;s team&mdash;Gare was not&mdash;were subject to raids, instituted to collect government-levied fines.&ldquo;I was there while it did go on,&rdquo; Gare said, &ldquo;but it was not my apartment that was broken into.&rdquo; A call to the Iserlohn team confirmed Gate&rsquo;s home was not among those raided.Further, Gare said he did not say, &ldquo;I thought I was coming to a free country.&rdquo;The right winger, who left the team after one exhibition game, was upset that his teammates were raided. That, combined with &ldquo;other problems with management&rdquo; and the aggravation of an old groin injury, led to his departure.When about 10 days of rest didn&rsquo;t help the groin injury, Gare returned to North America. A doctor looked at the injury and advised the NHL career 354-goal scorer to retire.Gare said he is exploring career options in broadcasting. Negotiations are under way with the new Buffalo Sabres-owned TV station, WNYB.<h2>SCOTSMAN COMES BACK</h2>Scottish-born sharpshooter Tony Hand is giving North American hockey another try.Hand, 20, was selected by the Edmonton Oilers in the 12th round of the 1986 entry draft after scoring 79 goals in 32 games with Murrayfield Racers of the British League.He attended the Oilers&rsquo; training camp last year, impressed coachgeneral manager Glen Sather with his offensive prowess, and then joined Victoria Cougars of the Western League.Hand scored four goals and four assists in three games before homesickness got the better of him and he returned to Scotland.But the 5-foot-9 center is back with the Cougars again.&ldquo;He is going to the Edmonton camp, the same as he did last year,&rdquo; said Cougar general manager Al Patterson. &ldquo;In our league, we can play four 20-year-olds and Tony would be one of them.&rdquo;If not returned to Victoria, Hand could be sent to Edmonton&rsquo;s American League affiliate in Halifax, N.S.<h2>SOVIETS IN ROMP</h2>The host Soviets cruised to three straight victories in winning the annual Four Nations (Junior) Cup.Other national teams participating in the late-August event were Czechoslovakia, Finland and Sweden.This year&rsquo;s event, held in Tallin, Estonia, saw the Soviets post a perfect 3-0 record in round-robin play. Sweden finished second at 1-1-1, followed by the Czechoslovaks at 1-2-0 and Finland at 0-2-1.No playoff round was held.The Soviets were, by far, the best team, said Dave Draper of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, who scouted the event for Canada&rsquo;s national junior team.Finland, he said, missed the presence of star defenseman Teppo Numminen, left winger Jukka Seppo and center Janne Ojanen, all of whom were playing in the Canada Cup.<h2>LUKOWICH TO ITALY</h2>Ex-Los Angeles King left winger Morris Lukowich, 31, has left the Canadian Olympic team after less than a month, to accept an offer from Mera-no, an Italian team coached by exUniversity of Manitoba mentor Wayne Fleming.&ldquo;Morris asked (coach Dave King) when he would know what his status was and was told, &lsquo;Not until the middle of October,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Olympic team spokesman Donald Beauchamp. &ldquo;He couldn&rsquo;t wait, because he got a good offer from Italy.&rdquo;The team added scoring punch, however, in the person of Brian Bradley. The 22-year-old center, who scored 10 goals and 18 assists in 40 games last year as a rookie with the Calgary Flames, was lent to the Olympic team by the NHL team.Ln other developments, goalie Jimmy Waite and defenseman Chris Joseph were let go. Waite, the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; first pick in the 1987 NHL entry draft, will attend Hawk camp but will likely wind up with his junior team in Chicoutimi, Que. Joseph, meanwhile, will report directly to his junior club, the Seattle Thunderbirds.Center Benoit Doucet, with the team last year, was also released, along with center Paul Ysebaert of Bowling Green.<h2>LINDBERGH ESTATE SUED</h2>A female survivor of the car crash that killed Pelle Lindbergh has filed suit in U.S. federal court against the estate of the former Philadelphia Flyer goaltender.Kathy McNeal of Ridley Park, Pa., a passenger in the Turbo-charged Porsche that Lindbergh was driving in the Nov., 1985 crash, suffered a broken pelvis and injuries to her liver and spleen.Lindbergh&rsquo;s other passenger, Edward Parvin of Mount Ephraim, N.J., sustained severe head injuries.Police reports showed that Lindbergh&rsquo;s blood-alcohol level was.24 when he slammed his car into a concrete retaining wall in Somerdale, N.J. Drivers with a blood-alcohol level over.10 are considered legally drunk in New Jersey.McNeal&rsquo;s suit also names two bars&mdash;the Coliseum Club in Voorhees, N.J., and Bennigan&rsquo;s in Mount Laurel, N.J.&mdash;where Lindbergh was reported to have been drinking the night of the crash.<h2>HORNETS FOLD</h2>One of the proudest franchises in Ontario senior hockey history has folded after 28 years of play.The Cambridge Hornets, who were known as the Galt Terriers when they won the silver medal representing Canada at the 1962 World Championships in Denver, Colo., ceasedoperations when their application to join the Southern Counties League was rejected.The Hornets played in the Ontario Senior League until that loop folded at the end of the 1986-87 season. Two other OSHL franchises, Brantford and Dundas, also folded, while the Thunder Bay Twins were accepted in a Manitoba-based senior league.The Galt-Cambridge franchise won four Allan Cups as national senior champions. &#9632;

Gare Sets Straight German Escapade

IF HOCKEY WEREN&rsquo;T so damned un American, Bob Johnson would have made a good subject for a Norman Rockwell painting. Several themes spring to mind.One is a classic, &ldquo;The Coach.&rdquo; Johnson is intensely peering over a row of sweaty young heads on a hockey bench, concentration on his face, notepad in his hands.Another would have Badger Bob at the pulpit, sort of a Jim Bakker without the Tammy, wearing a hockey jacket and wiping his face in that nervous habit of his. Johnson is preaching fire, brimstone and &ldquo;tempo&rdquo; to ignorant American savages who know nothing but football.Last, and best, is the Armed Forces recruiting poster. The dress is Uncle Sam&rsquo;s, the face (we&rsquo;d recognize that shnozz anywhere) is Robert Johnson&rsquo;s. Yeah, pal, he&rsquo;s pointing right at you.It always seemed ironic that the team which gave Johnson the opportunity to leave his mark in the NHL was a Canadian one. And unfortunate, too, that it took so many years and so many wins at the University of Wisconsin before somebody in a position to do something about it realized how much Badger had to offer.Ultimately, it worked out fine for Cliff Fletcher and the Calgary Flames, who became one of the NHL&rsquo;s best teams during Johnson&rsquo;s five-year tenure. And great also for Johnson, who provided further proof that a team liberally sprinkled with Americans and college hockey players could win in the most competitive hockey league in the world.Certainly no taste other than the ultimate one from a Stanley Cup could be as sweet as the one Badger enjoyed in the spring of 1986. &ldquo;Bleeping right, I want it,&rdquo; one remembers him saying, his eyes flaring, as the war between the Flames and Oilers moved towards its final, bizarre, twist. And Badger got it, too, in game seven. If, just once in all our lives, we have a moment like Bob Johnson enjoyed walking off the ice at the Northlands Coliseum that night, we could all die happily.The Flames didn&rsquo;t go on to win the Cup and, of course, that left a void to which any coach and competitor like Johnson has to bow. So yeah, when the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States called last spring and offered to make him the big fish in its pond, he said he hated to leave unfinished business and so on. But one also wondered whether Badger thought again about having beaten the Oilers and figured it just couldn&rsquo;t get much better than that.That would have been a rationalization for moving on, though not the reason. He had better reasons. The job&mdash;virtually running hockey in the U.S.&mdash;was certainly appealing enough. Johnson was 56 and not burned out on coaching, but the AH AUS job was on the table then, not in five years. So he had to be wondering what was next.Fortunately, this is a Canada Cup year, so the &ldquo;career coach&rdquo; could have an appropriate farewell.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011350/5175200-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="362" height="484"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jay Greenberg</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Seven games to go,&rdquo; he said, hustling into Hamilton&rsquo;s Copps Coliseum the morning before Team USA&rsquo;s game with Sweden. Alas, only seven more pages in the old notebook.&ldquo;Yeah, I&rsquo;m enjoying it,&rdquo; Badger said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s hard. I&rsquo;ve been too busy. I&rsquo;m working two jobs at once.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s the one with AHAUS that, if done well, will ultimately make the one of coaching Team USAs in future Canada Cups easier. Badger is good at both, so administration&rsquo;s gain is coaching&rsquo;s loss. Team USA, to hardly any-one&rsquo;s suprise, was grinding away to the utmost of its abilities. Nevertheless, that AHAUS job is really perfect for Johnson.&ldquo;So much to be done,&rdquo; he said. Among his first acts was instructing his telephone receptionist to answer &ldquo;USA Hockey.&rdquo;&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what we are,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;You say &lsquo;AHAUS,&rsquo; people think you&rsquo;re in the construction business. Then again, I guess we are.&ldquo;Twelve-thousand teams, 8,000 referees&hellip;it&rsquo;s a big program, boy. And this is the year, with the Olympics in Calgary, that we can really promote. A lot of things are in our favor.&rdquo;Among them should be Team USA. But the ultimate measuring stick for progress of the game in the U.S.&mdash;what&rsquo;s better than its best pros against the best in the world?&mdash;might as well not have inch markings. Someone has decided that it is not news. There were exactly six major U.S. dailies in Hamilton for the Canada- and Sweden-USA games.August apathy is the cop-out. Ignorance of editors and television producers is more to the point. &ldquo;The losers are the fans in the U.S.,&rdquo; said Johnson.He pulled out a typewritten sheet with the names of every American-born player who played at least one game in the National Hockey League last year.&ldquo;One hundred and two,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can remember when we had to fill out a Canada Cup team with minor-leaguers. That&rsquo;s how far we&rsquo;ve come.&rdquo;At the same time, six papers covering the best American hockey team ever put together&mdash;and Mark Howe and Craig Ludwig declining Canada Cup invitations&mdash;shows how far American hockey has to go.The new guy they got to lead the charge is the right one, though. He&rsquo;s the same American original who has been leading it for more than 20 years. &#9632;

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Columnists

Badger An American Classic In Rockwell Hues

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021037/5175231-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="176" height="131"></div>BLOOMINGTON, Minn.&mdash;The way the last-place Minnesota North Stars played last season, one would hardly think the opportunity to play for them would be seen as a &ldquo;reward.&rdquo;Yet, the Czechoslovak Ice Hockey Federation has decided to &ldquo;reward&rdquo; 27-year-old national team captain Dusan Pasek for distinguished international play by allowing him to join the Stars some time after the 1988 Olympic Games.Minnesota GM Lou Nanne was pleased with the decision.&ldquo;He has the skill level of an NHLer,&rdquo; Nanne said. &ldquo;There is no doubt about that.&rdquo;But after that declaration there are only questions: When will the Czechoslovakians make Pasek available? How will he make the adjustment? Will he be another Frantisek Cemik&mdash;a bust in Detroit three seasons ago&mdash;or will he become another Jiri Bubla&mdash;a success with Vancouver?Nanne said he expects Pasek, a center, to be available by the start of the 1988-89 season. He was planning to talk with Czechoslovak officials while their national team and Nanne&rsquo;s Team USA were in Nova Scotia on Canada Cup business in early September.Nanne said he hoped to get Pasek after the Olympics are over in February, but was not optimistic because Pasek&rsquo;s club team, Slovan Bratislava, wanted him to return for the final month of the Czechoslovak season.Nanne said he was not worried about whether Pasek will be released; the question is when. The GM has known since last spring that Pasek&rsquo;s name was on a list of athletes the country is exporting for hard currency.What Nanne doesn&rsquo;t know is how Pasek will respond when he gets to the NHL. He said he expects the European to have an edge in adapting to American culture because he wants to play in Minnesota and speaks English well.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s dying to play here,&rdquo; Nanne said. &ldquo;I got a call in my office the other day from another Czech with a message from Dusan. He wanted to be sure that I knew he wanted to come over. I said, &lsquo;Yeah, I&rsquo;m working on it.&rsquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;He&rsquo;s dying to play here.&rsquo;&mdash;Nanne</blockquote>&ldquo;You never know how a European player will fit in, but he&rsquo;s been on the national team there seven or eight years and he&rsquo;s their captain. He&rsquo;s a world-class player. He competes hard. He has an excellent shot and is an excellent puck-handler. He has National Hockey League skills and that&rsquo;s all you can go on.&rdquo;Nanne said he hopes the presence of Frantisek Musil, who left Czechosla-vakia for the Stars last July, will help Pasek adjust more quickly.Czechoslovak officials, after the recent defections of such players as Musil and Petr Klima, have changed their policy on the release of players to the NHL. Before, no player would be released before he reached the age of 30. Now, a handful of players are expected to be released by 27.Nanne said he is hoping to strike a deal with Czechoslovak officials similar to established agreements with the Finnish federation. He said Finland is paid $20,000 after a player is signed and another $20,000 when the player appears in 40 games. More payments of $20,000 are dispatched after 80 and 120 games.If Nanne really wants Pasek for this season, he probably would have to strike another financial deal with Slovan Bratislava. The GM said he will go to Bratislava, if necessary, to reach a deal.STARDUST&mdash;Left wing-center Brian Lawton left Team USA in late August and flew back to the Twin Cities to have arthoscopic surgery on his right knee. Lawton tore cartilage in the knee during the World Championships in Vienna last April and it didn&rsquo;t respond to therapy overthe summer. He was expected to be skating shortly, but wasn&rsquo;t expected to join in training camp workouts until mid- or late September&hellip;Lawton&rsquo;s negotiations for a new contract have gone to arbitration. A decision is expected before the start of the season&hellip;Forty-nine prospects&mdash;including left winger Warren Babe (1986 No. 1 draft choice), defenseman Scott McCrady (1987 No. 2 pick), former Michigan State winger Mitch Messier and former Boston College center Ken Hodge&mdash;were expected to participate in the Stars&rsquo; pre-camp, which will be held the week before training camp opens Sept. 11. Center Dave Archibald, the team&rsquo;s No. 1 pick in June, is with the Canadian Olympic team and won&rsquo;t appear in camp until the veterans report&hellip;Lou Nanne said he is trying to deal right winger Willi Plett, who spent the final weeks of last season watching from the press box. &ldquo;We won&rsquo;t get much for him,&rdquo; Nanne said. Plett. 32, has played 11 NHL seasons, five with the North Stars. &#9632;

f0010-02

Czechoslovaks’ Captain Looks To The Stars

<div class="byline">BY JEFF GORDON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011231/5175262-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="174" height="132"></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;Get ready, St. Louis&mdash;here come &ldquo;the New Blues.&rdquo;The Michael Shanahan-led regime has trumpeted a new-look team, while it rebuilds the civic bridges burned by previous owner Harry Omest.Its goals: No. 1&mdash;To sell more season tickets, and; No. 2&mdash;To enjoy a longer feed at the lucrative playoff trough. Last year, the Blues were knocked out of post-season play in the first round and lost money as a result.&ldquo;We were not as successful as we would have wanted last year,&rdquo; said Blues&rsquo; president Jack Quinn. &ldquo;With a stronger season-ticket base, we would not have to rely on getting into the second round of the playoffs to make the year fiscally successful. The key to our success is season tickets.&rdquo;The campaign appeared to be working.By Sept. 1, the Blues had sold 5,570 full and 1,792 half-season ticket plans. The overall season ticket figure at that date, 7,073, was the best in five years. The team reached its low mark in 1984, selling roughly 5,300 season tickets.Despite price increases for most seats this season, 97.2 per cent of the season-ticket holders renewed this summer.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the best renewal rate, percentage-wise, in the five years I&rsquo;ve been here,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;And it usually takes until October to get to, or over, the 6,000 mark. We&rsquo;ve never had this much time before.&rdquo;With more than a month left before the season opener, the sales staff, led by ex-Blues&rsquo; player Bruce Affleck, eyed the 8,500 mark.The selling of the Blues featured a multi-point plan of attack:&bull; The retention of Fleishman-Hillard, a prominent local advertising agency, to help market and promote the team.&bull; Improvement of the 20-game ticket plan, by allowing fans to choose their schedule from 30 games.&bull; Transfer of the team&rsquo;s radio rights from KXOK, a limited-range small station, to KMOX, a powerful clear-channel station.&bull; Approaches to 50 top local companies about holding employee nights at the St. Louis Arena. The idea was to hype group ticket sales and support season and single-game ticket sales.The Blues found a receptive audience. At a late August open house, nearly 4,000 fans attended and 288 ticket plans were sold. And late August personal appearances by Blues&rsquo; players drew crowds of better than 400 at local shopping malls.&ldquo;The atmosphere is so positive, so up,&rdquo; said Susie Mathieu, vicepresident and director of public relations for the Blues. &ldquo;The players here sense it. It&rsquo;s been a whole attitude swing and you have to attribute that to Michael Shanahan and the local investors.&ldquo;For the first time there is viable, local ownership and the entire organization is being run as an ongoing business concern and not as a hobby to feed somebody&rsquo;s ego.&rdquo;BLUENOTES&mdash;General manager Ron Caron was interested in disgrunted Philadelphia Flyer defenseman Brad McCrimmon for two years, but the Flyers usually asked for Rob Ramage in return. The Calgary Flames got McCrimmon instead, for No. 1 and 3 draft picks&mdash;a price the Blues would have paid. &#9632;

f0011-01

St. Louis Getting Excited About ‘New Blues’

<div class="byline">BY CYNTHIA LAMBERT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02932/5175293-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="177" height="130"></div>DETROIT&mdash;A year ago, skepticism was high among Detroit hockey fans. After all, the Red Wings had just come off a 40-point season.Now, following a 78-point season and an appearance in the Campbell Conference final against Edmonton, the scenario has changed. Improvement and success are expected.&ldquo;This season, we feel, will be more of a challenge,&rdquo; assistant coach Don MacAdam said during the team&rsquo;s recent press tour. &ldquo;Not that last year wasn&rsquo;t a challenge, but we feel this will be even more.&ldquo;The players we have now are much more of a group. They&rsquo;re more serious, they have more of a goal. We&rsquo;re hoping for a seven- to nine-point improvement.That seriousness has already been shown by some of the players. Even Shawn Burr, who exceeded expectations with his tenacious play throughout last season, has been feeling the pressure.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting a little nervous,&rdquo; said the second-year center. &ldquo;The only thing I get nervous about is that I hope I play well in training camp. You want to have a good training camp because no spots are guaranteed. Training camp can be brutal. And we&rsquo;ve all heard of the sophomore jinx.&ldquo;You just have to try to be steady and not flashy. Last season my play was all right, but I have to get better. You can&rsquo;t just rest.&rdquo;The Wings, afraid of disturbing the chemistry of last year&rsquo;s team, have made only a few changes during the off-season. They beefed up their center position with the acquisition of Pittsburgh free-agent center John Chabot, who is expected to center the checking line.They also picked up free-agent goaltender Darren Eliot from Los Angeles. Eliot will, at least, create competition for Greg Stefan and Glen Hanlon.There will be major changes on the right wing, the Wings&rsquo; weakest position. Left winger Bob Probert will play the right side on the Gerard Gallant-Steve Yzerman line. Coach Jacques Demers said he also wants to try 1986 top draft pick Joe Murphy, a left-shot center, on the right wing.WINGTIPS&mdash;Don MacAdam, the team&rsquo;s physical conditioning coach, said he had only one concern about left winger Gerard Gallant: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got to stop drinking Coke. That was his project over the summer. The guy drinks it non-stop.&rdquo; MacAdam said excessive amounts of cola affected Gallant&rsquo;s production in the playoffs. Still, Gallant led Detroit during the post-season with eight goals in 16 games&hellip;Shawn Burr was recently asked what his answer would be if he had a chance to voice one complaint about the NHL to league president John Ziegler: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d tell him it&rsquo;s too fast.&rdquo;&hellip;At a local bachelor auction for charity, the highest price for a date was paid for winger Joe Kocur. He drew a $1,300 price tag. &#9632;

f0011-02

Red Wings Say ‘87-88 Will Be Tougher

Myles J. Lane, who died recently, was the most unusual NHL player to ever come down the pike and, arguably, the best storyteller.Lane was. among other things, a justice of the New York Supreme Court, varsity football coach at Boston University, backfield coach at Harvard, all-America halfback at Dartmouth, and, best of all. Boston Bruin defenseman when they won their first Stanley Cup in 1929.To non-hockey people, Lane is remembered as the attorney who helped prosecute Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the couple executed after being convicted of conspiracy to violate U.S. espionage laws.But to the ice folk Lane will always be recalled as the centerpiece of one of hockey&rsquo;s favorite tales.It was 1928 and Myles, a native of Melrose, Mass., had been signed by New York Ranger manager Lester Patrick whose boss, Madison Square Garden president Col. John Hammond&rsquo;, was hockey ignorant.Somebody told Hammond that the Rangers could win the Stanley Cup if they had Bruin superstar Eddie Shore in their lineup. Upon hearing that, the Colonel called Patrick into his office and demanded that he trade the inexperienced rookie Myles Lane to Boston for Shore.Rather than argue with his boss, Patrick dispatched a wire to his colleague, Bruin GM Art Ross, proposing the Shore-Lane deal. A day later the return cable to Patrick arrived at the Garden. It read: &ldquo;Lester, you are so many Myles from Shore, you need a life preserver!&rdquo;On the serious side, Lane was one of the NHL&rsquo;s first victims of media misrepresentation.It happened right after Lane&rsquo;s Madison Square Garden debut. A reporter pumped him with questions about the difference between NHL hockey and the collegiate variety. Lane attempted to be discreet with his replies. O&rsquo;Neill persisted. &ldquo;Did you ever play a college game in which you were a lot more tired than you are tonight?&rdquo;Lane admitted that he had. &ldquo;When I played college hockey I played as much as 60 minutes without relief. If you&rsquo;re in a daisy chain for 60 minutes, you&rsquo;ll get tired of walking around. But out there tonight I&rsquo;d get relief every three or four minutes, so I wasn&rsquo;t so tired afterwards.&rdquo;When the reporter finally finished. Lane walked to his hotel and went to bed. The next morning he went down for breakfast.Lane: &ldquo;I ran into the desk clerk, a friend of mine. He asked if I had seen the Times that morning and when I replied no, he said, &lsquo;Here, take a look.&rsquo; I picked up the paper and saw a headline across the sports page that read, &lsquo;Lane says professional hockey a cinch compared to the college brand.&rsquo; That was something. Worse still was when I walked into our dressing room that day and there were all those Canadian players&mdash;and me just an American collegian&mdash;well, you could have cut the silence with a knife.&rdquo;The rookie told his teammates that the headline was a fabrication and they accepted his explanation, but it was too late as far as the rest of the NHL was concerned. Within days word had spread throughout the league.Lane had hell to pay the next time the Rangers visited the Montreal Forum. On his first rush two Maroons sandwiched him and nearly put him over the boards. &ldquo;I rushed down the ice three times,&rdquo; remembered Lane, &ldquo;and on those three rushes three Montreal players went to the cooler.&rdquo;There were three reasons why Lane couldn&rsquo;t be intimidated. First, he was a strapping 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds (huge in those days); second, he was tough; and finally, he had been well-schooled by his partner, Hall of Famer Ching Johnson.Johnson&rsquo;s advice was explicit: &ldquo;The first lesson in this game is to protect yourself. Make sure when you bump somebody that your stick is right up in front of you so they don&rsquo;t give you the stick in the face. When you hit them, hit them hard; hit them clean if you can, but always protect yourself. In this game there are no medals for bravery.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011323/5175324-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="364" height="467"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stan Fischler</figcaption></div>Several decades later quite a fuss was made about the fact that Canadien goalie Ken Dryden was studying law while playing a full NHL schedule. Not many realize that Lane was the very first big-leaguer to combine law school with pro hockey.&ldquo;Once,&rdquo; Lane recalled, &ldquo;we had a game in Detroit when I was supposed to be taking my mid-year exams. The solution was supplied by the law school, which let me take my exams at the University of Detroit. They sent the exam out ahead, and when the team departed for the next game in Chicago, I was left behind in Detroit. I took the exam on a Friday and Detroit University sent the papers back to Boston while I got the train to Chicago.&rdquo;The summer following his Stanley Cup win Lane nearly was killed in an auto accident on Cape Cod. While recuperating, Myles was asked to coach the Bruins&rsquo; farm club, the Boston Cubs. This led to a blood-curdling episode, as well as one of the best yarns of the day.&ldquo;We had a little firecracker on the team, a Polish kid, Joe Geroux. Nobody could handle him, but I was determined to work with Geroux, even though everybody else had dropped him because he was so wild. One day I gave him this advice: &lsquo;The next time anybody whacks you, count to 10 before you do anything!&rsquo; &ldquo;In the next game against New Haven, Geroux was being pestered by a player named Dutkowski. Joe&rsquo;s blood heated, simmered and then boiled over when he clobbered Dutkowski over the head with his stick. The victim was carried off the ice while Geroux took a match penalty and needed a police platoon for protection.Lane: &ldquo;Later that night we were on the train back to Boston and I was sitting and fuming about the incident when in comes Joe, acting like a St. Bernard. He just sat there watching me and finally asked, &lsquo;Myles, what&rsquo;s the trouble?&rsquo; I told him he had disgraced me out there, hitting the guy over the head and besides, I had told him to count to 10.&ldquo;He tells me he did count to ten before swinging, and I said, &lsquo;Joe, look, when you got into the bumping with Dutkowski, I started to count and got to five and you let that stick go.&ldquo;But he had an answer to that. He said, &lsquo;Myles, I forgot to tell you one thing. You know I was bom in Poland and came over to Canada when I was eight. Whenever I get mad I forget to count in English, so I do it in Polish and count twice as fast. When I was bumping Dutkowski. I counted 10 in Polish, let the stick go, and he was in the way.&rsquo;&rdquo;Among Lane&rsquo;s favorite stories was that of his NHL debut alongside the tempestuous Ching Johnson.&ldquo;I was thrown off the ice three times with penalties,&rdquo; said Lane. &ldquo;Ching finally came over to me and said, &lsquo;Myles, if you don&rsquo;t cut this out, you&rsquo;re going to be the bad man of hockey instead of me.&rsquo;&rdquo;Myles J. Lane never was a bad man. He was a good one, a very good one. &#9632;

f0012-01

Myles Lane: A Man Of Many Talents

<div class="byline">BY KARLO BERKOVICH Editorial Staff</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03743/5175355-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="590" height="816"><figcaption class="caption-body">The blockbuster Toronto-Chicago trade hinges on the development of Ed Olczyk.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021106/5175362-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="174" height="141"></div>TORONTO&mdash;Rick Vaive said he didn&rsquo;t want to take a shot at the Toronto Maple Leafs, but the right winger with the heavy slapshot let one go anyway after being traded to the Chicago Blackhawks.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to a team that wants me, respects me, and will treat me with class,&rdquo; said Vaive after he, left winger Steve Thomas and defenseman Bob McGill were dealt to the Blackhawks in exchange for tough left winger Al Secord and winger-center Ed Olczyk.The implication, of course, is that Vaive, who was stripped of his Maple Leaf captaincy after oversleeping for a practice in Minnesota two seasons ago, wasn&rsquo;t treated with respect and class in Toronto.Vaive had been the subject of persistent trade rumors. When the deal finally happened on Sept. 3, Vaive was shocked, but relieved to escape the turmoil of Toronto.&ldquo;Relations haven&rsquo;t been that great lately,&rdquo; said the 28-year-old.&rdquo; A lot of things have happened here, and I think I&rsquo;ll be a lot more relaxed in Chicago. I&rsquo;ll feel much better about myself.&rdquo;So will Thomas, a free agent (with compensation) who had reached an impasse in contract talks with Toronto and asked for a trade just one day before the deal went through. On Sept. 2, he said that he would leave the Leafs for the Canadian Olympic team if matters weren&rsquo;t resolved to his satisfaction.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m pretty happy,&rdquo; Thomas said. &ldquo;The key point is I&rsquo;m staying in the NHL. That was my first priority. I didn&rsquo;t want to go to the Olympic team, although I was serious about it because that was really my only alternative.&rdquo;Thomas wasn&rsquo;t concerned about contract negotiations with Chicago general manager Bob Pulford.&ldquo;He said not to worry about it,&rdquo; Thomas said. &ldquo;I think negotiations will go smoothly. They can&rsquo;t go any worse than they&rsquo;ve been in Toronto.&rdquo;The Maple Leafs were firm in contract talks with both Thomas and Vaive, adopting a &ldquo;take-it-or-leave-it&rdquo; posture. Thomas, who scored 35 goals while making $80,000 last year, wanted $270,000 while Toronto offered $170,000 plus incentives.Vaive actually agreed to terms on a one-year deal for $300,000, but was upset that he was offered neither a raise nor the security of a long-term deal. Both players, in addition to McGill, will get immediate raises due to the stronger American dollar and more favorable U.S. tax structure.Who gained the upper hand in the trade was the subject of intense speculation, and perhaps the first returns will be filed Oct. 8, when the Leafs open the 1987-88 season against the Blackhawks at Chicago Stadium.&ldquo;The common denominator for us was that all three guys we dealt had asked to be traded,&rdquo; said Toronto general manager Gerry McNamara. &ldquo;We felt it was time to do something.&rdquo;What the Maple Leafs did was trade a former 50-goal man now counting in the 30-goal range (Vaive), a streak scorer prone to prolonged slumps (Thomas), and a tough defenseman (McGill) who no longer seemed interested in being an enforcer. Unless it meant fighting Secord, with whom he had a running feud.&ldquo;He quit doing things he had to do to stay in the league,&rdquo; said Maple Leaf coach John Brophy of the 25-year-old McGill.In return, Toronto received a former 50-goal man (Secord) who scored his age (29) last year, and a 21-year-old Chicago native whose potential has yet to be realized. Olczyk, taken third overall in the 1984 entry draft, scored 20 and 29 goals his first two NHL seasons, but slumped to 16 in 1986-87.Olczyk, a U.S. Olympian in 1984 who was selected by Toronto Marlboros in the Ontario League midget draft, was with Team USA in the Canada Cup tournament when informed of the deal.&ldquo;On paper, it looks like we&rsquo;re giving up more goals than we&rsquo;re getting,&rdquo; McNamara said of the 67-45 advantage Vaive and Thomas held over Secord and Olczyk. &ldquo;But in Olczyk, you&rsquo;re talking about a 21-year-old with potential. He didn&rsquo;t play badly last year. Had he had a fantastic year, do you think we&rsquo;d have been able to get him? You have to take a chance, and I certainly believe he can score 30 goals for us.&rdquo;The Leafs hoped to have Olczyk in the lineup a year ago. When free-agent defenseman Gary Nylund signed with the Blackhawks last summer, the Leafs sought Olczyk as compensation. But an arbitrator ruled in favor of Chica-go&rsquo;s compensation offer of defenseman Jerome Dupont and center Ken Yaremchuk.Dupont has since retired from hockey, while Yaremchuk is considered a marginal forward in Toronto.What the Maple Leafs are most interested in is the Chicago muscle coming east to take some of the pressure off left winger Wendel Clark. Secord is 6-foot-1,205 pounds and Olczyk goes 6-foot-2, 195 pounds, compared to Vaive at 6 feet, 180 and Thomas, 5-foot-10, 180.&ldquo;We needed more toughness,&rdquo; said McNamara.LEAFLETS&mdash;Toronto signed first-round draft pick Luke Richardson, a 6-foot-4, 212-pound defenseman from the Peterborough Petes. Coach John Brophy said Richardson will get every chance to make the team. &#9632;

f0012-03

Rumors Finally End—Leafs Trade Vaive

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011249/5175393-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="587" height="1113"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Secord, above, joins Ed Olczyk in a trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02916/5175400-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="176" height="133"></div>&ldquo;All I was interested in doing in my life was playing for the Chicago Blackhawks. I did it for three years. Not many people ever get to live their dream.&rdquo;&mdash;Ed OlczykCHICAGO&mdash;Ed Olczyk wasn&rsquo;t happy about leaving the Chicago Blackhawks, but he expected a split decision from his former teammates.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure quite a few guys on the team will be happy to see me go,&rdquo; Olczyk said. &ldquo;And I know a handful will be sorry to see me go.&ldquo;Those are the guys that liked me for being Eddie Olczyk the hockey player and the person, not Eddie Olczyk the kid from Chicago.&rdquo;The kid from Chicago headed for the Toronto Maple Leafs along with Al Secord, in the five-player trade that brought right winger Rick Vaive, left winger Steve Thomas and right defenseman Bob McGill to the Hawks from Toronto.&ldquo;This is the most difficult trade I&rsquo;ve ever made,&rdquo; said Hawk general manager Bob Pulford. &ldquo;Eddie is a Chicago boy I&rsquo;ve known for a long, long time. But we needed to make some changes on our team, especially on our right side.&ldquo;We feel we&rsquo;ve gotten quality players in Vaive and Thomas, and McGill can give us a little toughness on our back line. In order to do that, we had to give up two quality players in Secord and Olczyk.&rdquo;The impact will be felt quickly. The Hawks and Leafs open the NHL season against each other Oct. 8 at Chicago Stadium.The Hawks followed up with another deal, acquiring right winger Duane Sutter, 27, from the New York Islanders for &ldquo;future considerations&rdquo; which appear likely to be a second-round draft pick.But Olczyk, 21, was the big surprise in the big trade. The Hawks drafted him third overall in 1984, making deals with Los Angeles and New Jersey to make sure they got the kid from the Chicago-suburbs and U.S. Olympic team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m in shock more than anything else,&rdquo; Olczyk said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very disappointed. I&rsquo;m hurt.&rdquo;Olczyk also reacted to a chill in the Hawks&rsquo; dressing room toward the constant &ldquo;local-boy-does-good/bad&rdquo; focus on him.&ldquo;It was a tough situation, coming home to play, getting a lot of publicity and a lot of attention,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t because I asked for it.&ldquo;It was because I came from Chicago and ended up playing for the hometown team. It wasn&rsquo;t publicity and pressure I asked for. It was a unique situation. But I think a lot of guys resented me for that.&rdquo;Secord, 29, was a favorite with Chicago Stadium fans for his rough-house style for nearly seven years after being acquired from Boston.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t really have a role in Boston,&rdquo; Secord said. &ldquo;The best thing for my career was coming to Chicago.&rdquo;He scored 44 goals in 1982-83 and 54 in 1982-83. then missed much of two seasons with strained abdominal muscles. He rebounded with 40 goals in 1985-86, then dropped to 29 last season. He shifted lines and positions (between left wing and center). Bothered by a hyperextended elbow, he had a deep late-season scoring slump.For Olczyk, last season began with the Leafs demanding him as compensation for the Hawks&rsquo; signing of free-agent defenseman Gary Nylund. He played all three forward positions while dropping from 29 goals in 198586 to just 16. Occasionally, he was benched and booed.&ldquo;I had a bad season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;At times, I was just awful. I said I was having a bad season. I was candid. I never ducked anybody about it.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to make excuses, but a very close friend of mine was killed just before the season started. Then the Nylund thing came up. Then I went from wing to center to wing. My head just never got straight.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0013-01

Hometown Boy Olczyk ‘Hurt, Disappointed’

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-03740/5175431-1-eng-US/f0013-032.jpg" title="f0013-03" width="176" height="129"></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Is bigger better? The Los Angeles Kings will find out soon enough.&ldquo;We could have a very competitive defense,&rdquo; general manager Rogie Vachon said shortly before the start of training camp.He was referring to the Kings&rsquo; two newest defensemen: Wayne McBean, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 210 pounds, and Petr Prajsler, who goes 6-foot-3 and 200.McBean. 18, became a King in the conventional manner. He was the team&rsquo;s first-round pick in the June draft and has been signed to a multiyear contract.While McBean was being drafted, the 21-year-old Prajsler, a fifth-round pick in 1985, was hoodwinking Czechoslovakian authorities. He and his wife, Eva, led them to believe they were taking a vacation when in reality they were taking a trip to freedom.&ldquo;It was not that dramatic,&rdquo; Vachon said of the scenario which led to Prajsler&rsquo;s defection.Prajsler (pronounced Prays-ler) arrived in Los Angeles on Sept. 2 and has been granted refugee status in the Un-ited States.The Kings went to great lengths and expense to bring the Prajslers out of Austria, where they had been in hiding since June.Speaking at a Forum news conference through an interpreter, Prajsler said he and his wife simply drove to Yugoslavia for a brief vacation and then&mdash;with help from the Kings, an unidentified sports agent and two U.S.-based immigration officials&mdash;acquired the documents which enabled them to drive by car across the Austrian border.&ldquo;Yes, I was nervous,&rdquo; Prajsler said. &ldquo;I was afraid maybe the Yugoslavians wouldn&rsquo;t let us go. If we would have been returned to Czechoslovakia with an Austrian transit stamp in our passport, that would have meant we wanted to leave illegally.&rdquo;That, obviously, would have meant big problems for Petr and Eva, and possibly for his parents, Jaroslav and Jana, who remain in Czechoslovakia. He is an only child.&ldquo;We just showed our documents (to the Yugoslavian border guards) and they let us go.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;To go to a Western country, you need a visa. Normally, they won&rsquo;t give a visa to an average citizen, but if you go through a travel agency for vacation tickets, you might get it.&rdquo;When asked if it was necessary to bribe anyone, Prajsler said, &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t talk about that.&rdquo;Nor would he identify his agent.He wouldn&rsquo;t say whether his parents were aware of his plans throughout, but said he has spoken with them by phone several times.Saying, &ldquo;I wanted to play in the National Hockey League,&rdquo; Prajsler made the decision to defect last March. The Kings had gotten a letter to him in Czechoslovakia, saying they would provide him with assistance in leaving.Much to their surprise, a letter from Prajsler arrived at the Forum in June. Having already fled to Austria, Prajsler included a telephone number where he could be reached.&ldquo;He really didn&rsquo;t want to talk when we first made contact,&rdquo; said Vachon. &ldquo;Finally, we convinced him who we were, that we were willing to sponsor him&hellip;&ldquo;We moved him to another place, to a tiny little town near Vienna. We tried to keep it as quiet as possible for security reasons. We didn&rsquo;t want someone to grab him in the middle of the night. &ldquo;With the help of immigration lawyers Ron Bonaparte of Los Angeles and Milton Glenian of Washington, Prajsler finally got his tickets out of Europe. He needed two flights, from Vienna to Frankfurt, then to L.A.&ldquo;Twenty-one hours, I was very tired,&rdquo; said Prajsler. who will find out soon enough what real road trips arc like.Prajsler had used money sent by the Kings for clothes, food and accommodations while in Austria. He was expected to sign a contract soon and already was enrolled in a Berlitz course in English.&ldquo;Our scouts saw him in the junior World Championships in &lsquo;84. They said he was one of the best players in the tournament,&rdquo; Vachon said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s played for Czechoslovakia&rsquo;s best team (Pardubice) the past two seasons. They&rsquo;re the Edmonton Oilers of Czechoslovakia.&ldquo;He claims he&rsquo;s a stay-at-home type defenseman, but he can move the puck, too. He&rsquo;s a big and strong boy. He can handle the puck and he can skate. We&rsquo;re keeping our fingers crossed he can play.&rdquo;Prajsler had three goals and four assists in 41 games for Pardubice last season. Had he not defected. Prajsler said, he would have competed in the Canada Cup. &#9632;

f0013-03

Young Czechoslovak Defector Joins Kings

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Larry Robinson&rsquo;s polo injury not only botches up his hockey season, but also his autobiography, which was to be based on 1987-88 as Robbie&rsquo;s NHL swan song. Robinson also lost one-half of his ghostwriting team of Al Turowetz and Chris Goyens. Turowetz has bowed out of the project&hellip;Biggest hockey-wedding bash of the summer was tossed by millionaire Hall of Famer Dickie Moore for his daughter. Lianne, at Montreal&rsquo;s Ritz-Carlton Hotel. The gala drew such legends as Jean Beliveau. Henri (Pocket Rocket) Richard and Doug Harvey, as well as Moore&rsquo;s pals from childhood, including ex-Flyer-Red Wing-Blackhawk, Larry Zeidel. At one point Moore put his arm around his neighborhood buddy Zeidel and chirped, &ldquo;Not bad for a kid from poor Park Extension.&rdquo;There&rsquo;ll be a record NHL low of non-helmeted players this season now that Peter McNab has retired. Among the few remaining bareheaded players are Brad Marsh. Ron Duguay, Craig MacTavish, Rod Langway, Dave Semenko, Randy Carlyle, Al Secord and Harold Snepsts&hellip;Bilked by an unscrupulous agent a few years ago, Fred Shero stuck close to home when shopping for a new rep to handle his pact with the Tilburg (Holland) Trappers. His son, Rejean, handled negotiations&hellip;&rsquo;Tis rumored that the Sabres have chatted with the Oilers about moving Mike Ramsey to Edmonton, perhaps for Glenn Anderson.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011300/5175469-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="354" height="502"><figcaption class="caption-body">Peter McNab</figcaption></div>Ron Hextail is proving that badness means big bucks when it comes to landing extra ad money. Young & Rubicam, one of Madison Avenue&rsquo;s biggest ad agencies, was so taken with Hextall&rsquo;s wood-chopping and other aggressive behavior, they signed him to do a lucrative Canada Dry ginger ale commercial. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t have to be sweet to be good,&rdquo; says Hextall. Al Eagleson, Hexy&rsquo;s agent, tells BLUELINES that he has not re-negotiated the goalie&rsquo;s contract. &ldquo;Even before he became a regular with the Flyers, we signed a good contract,&rdquo; says Eagleson. &ldquo;Everyone knew he&rsquo;d be good-.&rdquo;&hellip;Ron Greschner and his actress-model wife, Carol Alt, were the stars of a big Broadway bash hailing their new exercise video. Carol also just filmed &ldquo;Story of A Woman&rdquo; in Italy&hellip;Brad Buetow, who signed a one-year contract to coach again at U.S. International University in San Diego, may work with the NHL Kings on a part-time basis as scout, etc.Ex-NHLer Bill Goldsworthy, creator of the &ldquo;Goldsworthy Shuffle&rdquo; (his celebration after a goal), will join baseball&rsquo;s Vida Blue and football&rsquo;s Mercury Morris in a drug and alcohol abuse awareness conference October 13-14 in Bloomington&hellip;It was our mistake two weeks ago when we reported that the Buffalo Sabres had purchased cable TV station WNYB. Actually, WNYB is not a cable, but an over-the-air station&mdash;available to all in signal range&hellip;U.S. Olympic hopeful Scott Young, the Whalers&rsquo; first-round pick in 1986, learns Oct. 4 in Paris about his hockey future. Young, who flunked a drug test in Vienna at the World Championships last May, was barred from international hockey for 18 months, including the 1988 Olympics. All Young did was take Sine-Aid for a cold. At the appeal in Paris, U.S. officials will argue that Sine-Aid does not enhance a player&rsquo;s ability. Says U.S. Olympic coach Dave Peterson: &ldquo;I have no quarrels with drug-testing, if it&rsquo;s to make sure guys aren&rsquo;t taking things to skate faster, but fighting a cold?&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021020/5175462-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="352" height="521"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Johnson</figcaption></div>Speaking of dollars, word is that Badger Bob Johnson dropped $ 175,000 on the salary scale when he moved from his Flames&rsquo; job to boss of the Amateur Hockey Ass&rsquo;n. of the U.S&hellip;.Reflecting on his best season (1986-87), Wings&rsquo; captain Steve Yzerman says his finest moment occurred in the seventh game of the Toronto-Detroit playoff at Joe Louis Arena. &ldquo;The final minute of that game was something,&rdquo; says Yzerman. &ldquo;The crowd at Joe Louis was going crazy. It was so loud! It was great to be on the ice for that. That one minute alone made the whole season worthwhile.&rdquo; A bumper sticker distributed by Wyandotte (Mich.) General Hospital reads: &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t cure Red Wings fever.&rdquo;Before returning to Nassau Coliseum, Islander coach Terry Simpson was feted by friends and neighbors at his old base, Shellbrook, Sask. So many pals came to chat with him that Simpson could hardly get in a word with an interviewer who was spending the day there&hellip;Analyzing hockey&rsquo;s growth in the U.S., American Olympic team GM Art Berglund notes, &ldquo;In the late 1950s it used to be that Minnesota was the only place we could find talent. Now it&rsquo;s all over the country.&rdquo;&hellip;A group of agents figures that, on average, a first-round NHL pick in 1987 gets a three-year pact with an option year worth approximately $700,000&hellip;Carl Wetzel got the North Stars&rsquo; goalie coaching job only after the Caps&rsquo; Warren Strelow turned down a two-year deal. Strelow&rsquo;s Washington contract runs out this season. &#9632;

f0014-01

Accident Rewrites Robinson’s Book

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03717/5175500-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="175" height="133"></div>CALGARY&mdash;When Brad McCrimmon was dropped from Team Canada a week before training camp ended, the decision didn&rsquo;t come as a surprise to his Philadelphia Flyer teammates.McCrimmon was, after all. a late addition to the team. He gave it his best shot, but he didn&rsquo;t make it. There would be other opportunities in other years.Then came a more permanent move five days later, when McCrimmon was sent to the Calgary Flames for first-and third-round draft choices in 1988 and 1989. If the first is used in 1988, the third must be used in 1989, and vice versa.The trade didn&rsquo;t sit well.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t replace a guy like him because he was one of our main team leaders,&rdquo; said left winger Brian Propp, a teammate of McCrimmon since their junior years in Brandon, Man. &ldquo;Plus, he played really well on the ice. I don&rsquo;t think we have anyone in the minors who can come up and replace him right away.&rdquo;Added Rick Tocchet: &ldquo;Personally, for me, he&rsquo;s one of my best friends. So it&rsquo;s tough, not just on the ice, but off the ice too. His stats and his play speak for themselves. Any time you lose a player of his quality, he&rsquo;s tough to replace.&rdquo;The Flames began their pursuit of McCrimmon last September, when the 28-year-old walked out of the Flyers&rsquo; training camp in a bid to settle his contract dispute with general manager Bob Clarke. They renewed their pursuit following last season&rsquo;s Stanley Cup playoffs. Then, a serious arm injury to defenseman Jamie Macoun&mdash;which will put him on the sidelines a minimum of six months, perhaps for the entire season&mdash;forced them to step up their efforts.Until they added McCrimmon, it looked as if the Flames would enter training camp with only three frontline defensemen&mdash;Al MacInnis, Paul Reinhart and Gary Suter&mdash;and steady Neil Sheehy. Because all four have been bothered by injuries in the last two seasons, the Flames did not think they could risk losing one or more and still entertain serious thoughts of challenging the defnding Stanley Cupchampion Edmonton Oilers.In the playoffs last season, they lost Reinhart, MacInnis and Macoun with a variety of ailments and that, as much as anything else, proved to be a killing blow against the Winnipeg Jets.If Macoun can return, if rookie Brian Glynn develops and if one of the team&rsquo;s two Swedish prospects&mdash;Roger Johansson or Mats Kihlstrom&mdash;joins the Flames for the 1988-89 season, defense could become one of the team&rsquo;s sounder areas.General manager Fletcher did not rule out the possibility of trading one of his extra forwards to reacquire a draft choice or two.However, his next step will be to get McCrimmon&rsquo;s name on a contract. Until that happens, McCrimmon technically remains a free agent with compensation. All that the deal really meant was that he now belongs on Calgary&rsquo;s reserve list instead of Philadelphia&rsquo;s.Signing McCrimmon may not pose much of a problem to Fletcher, however. In the team&rsquo;s seven years in Calgary. he has never had a major contract squabble.McCrimmon&rsquo;s off-season home&mdash;the land of Plenty, Sask.&mdash;is only 300 miles from Calgary (&ldquo;practically a suburb&rdquo;), so he is reasonably familiar with his new organization.&ldquo;Calgary&rsquo;s got a good hockey team there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I know when they beat us 5-0 in Philadelphia last year, it was like men playing against boys. It was an embarrassing night&mdash;as a Flyer anyway&mdash;because they really took it to us. So there&rsquo;s no question, they&rsquo;re a very legitimate Stanley Cup contender.&rdquo;With McCrimmon in the fold, the Flames expect to begin the season with him, Reinhart, Suter, MacInnis, Sheehy, Ric Nattress and either Kevan Guy or Glynn as members of their seven-man defense corps.FLICKERS&mdash;The Flames signed veteran center Mike Bullard to a new contract, leaving them with five unsigned players, plus Brad McCrim-mon, heading into camp. &#9632;

f0014-03

Addition Of McCrimmon Improves Flame Defense

FROM THE DAY Team Canada opened its training camp for the Canada Cup in early August, concern was expressed about the club&rsquo;s defense.Too much offense! That&rsquo;s was the most common complaint. Two Team Canada backliners, Ray Bourque of the Boston Bruins and the Washington Capitals&rsquo; Larry Murphy, led their clubs in scoring last season and the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; Paul Coffey holds the record for most goals by a defenseman in one season.While the backline does have some flaws this group&rsquo;s biggest woe is having too tough an act to follow.The defense that Team Canada employed in the first Canada Cup back in 1976 was the finest backline ever employed by a hockey team. Too high an accolade? Well, name a better one!There was Bobby Orr, fulfilling a dream of playing against the Soviets, in his last hurrah before gimpy knees sidelined him forever. He spent a large portion of the tournament with his wheels packed in ice. The game he delivered against the Soviets at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto is something many will never forget.Denis Potvin was three seasons into his illustrious National Hockey League career and his Canada Cup effort that year confirmed all the predictions made about him. Potvin complained after the tournament that there were some nights when Orr wasn&rsquo;t the best man in the house, but he should have realized that sharing space with a legend isn&rsquo;t easy.Serge Savard, Larry Robinson and Guy Lapointe had backed Montreal Canadiens to the first of four consecutive Stanley Cup championships. That trio formed what was very likely the best defense ever placed on a club team. Through history a few teams had two of the best five or six defensemen in the NHL; no club ever had three.Jimmy Watson was along, too, but in the second game of the tournament, a slapshot by Gary Sargent of the U.S. struck Watson flush in the face and by the time the swelling subsided, the tournament was over.The only missing all-star was Brad Park, who was scratched by knee problems.The five-man corps, however, was more than equal to the task against a strong field that included a good (but not overpowering) USSR side, splendid Swedish team and, maybe, the strongest Czechoslovakian ever.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011098/5175562-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="393" height="432"><figcaption class="caption-body">Frank Orr</figcaption></div>Behind that wonderful unit was goalie Rogie Vachon, who didn&rsquo;t give up a weak goal in seven games. In front of it was a group of experienced forwards, all of whom could play both ways.The solid team effort was why the Canadian side surrendered only 10 goals in the seven games of the tournament and the two-game final against the Czechoslovaks.&ldquo;It was rather nice to play on a team when, no matter what pair was on the ice, you knew the first-team NHL all-stars were behind you,&rdquo; said Bob Clarke, a center on that Team Canada and now general manager of the Flyers.&ldquo;Some may disagree with me but in the time I played in the league, I always figured the second-best defenseman in the NHL was Serge Savard.&rdquo;Clarke and Savard are co-GMs of Team Canada &lsquo;87.&ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t as fast as the others,&rdquo; continued Clarke, &ldquo;didn&rsquo;t have their offensive statistics but, game in and game out, he played at such a high level on a consistent basis. Serge was very, very smart, exceptional at positioning himself to make it tough for you to get anything done.&ldquo;I can remember being very frustrated after games against the Canadiens because I hadn&rsquo;t accomplished anything against him. What made it worse was that he never seemed to be doing anything great. You would move up the ice against him, he wouldn&rsquo;t touch you but all of a sudden you&rsquo;re too far out of position to do anything and you didn&rsquo;t know why.&rdquo;Clarke&rsquo;s No. 1 defenseman from that era? If you have to ask, you don&rsquo;t want to know! &#9632;

f0016-01

Team Canada ‘76 Defense Best Ever Conceived

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03680/5175593-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="577" height="745"><figcaption class="caption-body">Frustrated free agent Andy Moog appears at wits&rsquo; end with the Edmonton Oilers.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02877/5175600-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="174" height="130"></div>EDMONTON&mdash;Andy Moog is finished as an Edmonton Oiler, according to his agent, Herb Pinder.&ldquo;Under no circumstances,&rdquo; said Pinder, will Moog re-sign with the Oilers. the team which holds the trump card in the goalie&rsquo;s bid to escape from the suffocating &ldquo;liberty&rdquo; of NHL free agency.&ldquo;Slats&rsquo; (general manager-coach Glen Sather) reaction to me was that Andy better find a job in Penticton (Moog&rsquo;s hometown and off-season residence),&rdquo; the agent added.Sather insisted he&rsquo;ll take his time in trying to work out a deal, regardless of how the timing suits Moog, who has played out his option.Pinder said Moog would not be reporting to training camp.&ldquo;Free agency is a joke,&rdquo; Pinder said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s not a very funny joke when you&rsquo;re Andy Moog. It&rsquo;s not a money issue, it&rsquo;s a human rights issue.&rdquo;With training camp less than two weeks away, Sather wasn&rsquo;t close to making a trade with either of the teams rumored to be interested, the Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins. Due to the NHL&rsquo;s stringent compensation regulations&mdash;determined by the player&rsquo;s age and worth of contract&mdash;both teams are reluctant to sign Moog as a free agent. He would probably cost a first-round draft choice, perhaps a player as well.&ldquo;Chances are better of a deal during the season than before training camp but Andy may not want that,&rdquo; said Sather. &ldquo;After teams come into training camp, they have an opportunity to look at their goaltenders and may be more apt to make a deal. It would give us a chance to look at our young goaltenders, too.&rdquo;Although Pinder hinted an offer should be forthcoming from the Canucks &ldquo;fairly soon,&rdquo; he has also said that Moog could join the Canadian Olympic team should a deal not be worked out.But will he miss the NHL salary?&ldquo;Who&rsquo;s to say a big company wouldn&rsquo;t mind Andy Moog as a (well-paid) spokesperson?&rdquo; Pinder countered. &ldquo;Besides, the issue is that he&rsquo;s not going back to Edmonton and I think he&rsquo;d get caught up in it (Olympic program) very soon.&rdquo;Sather stuck to his guns.&ldquo;I would trade if the deal was good for both teams,&rdquo; said Sather, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m not going to trade Andy Moog just to meet his request. I did that once before.&rdquo;He was referring to a December, 1981, deal that sent Eddie Mio to the New York Rangers for Lance Nethery. After the trade, Mio spent parts of five more seasons in the NHL, while Nethery&rsquo;s career with the Oilers lasted three games.Sather also scoffed at reports he asked for Tony Tanti or Petri Skriko from the Canucks.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve talked to (Vancouver GM Pat) Quinn a few times and we&rsquo;ve kicked a few names around, but not Tanti or Skriko,&rdquo; he said.Sather said he&rsquo;s close to coming to terms with free agents Craig MacTavish and Kevin McClelland. Mike Krushelnyski and Moe Lemay, on the other hand, are still &ldquo;a ways apart&rdquo; from the Oilers. Sather maintained there hasn&rsquo;t been a request by Krushelnyski to take negotiations to arbitration.There had been a report Lemay was bound for Europe, but the left winger said his plans are to remain in the NHL. &ldquo;I would like to get my pension time in,&rdquo; he said.OIL SLICKS&mdash;The pubitis ailment (inflammation of the pubic bone) that kept defenseman Kevin Lowe out of the Canada Cup shouldn&rsquo;t prevent the 28-year-old from attending training camp Sept. 11. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure it all should be cleared up by training camp,&rdquo; said Lowe, who heeded the counsel of his brother, Edmonton Eskimos&rsquo; trainer Ken Lowe, to bypass the Canada Cup. Oilers&rsquo; therapist Peter Millar and Dr. Gordon Cameron agreed with the advice&hellip;A new $1.5 million score clock, featuring an animated message system, has been unveiled at the Northlands Coliseum for the upcoming NHL campaign. &#9632;

f0016-03

Agent Says Moog Won’t Return To Oilers

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04525/5175631-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="581" height="740"><figcaption class="caption-body">Richard Brodeur was having contract difficulties as training camp approached.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-05410/5175638-1-eng-US/f0016-052.jpg" title="f0016-05" width="173" height="128"></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;King Richard has tumbled from the throne.After seven years with the Vancouver Canucks, goalie Richard Brodeur appears to be on his way out. The new management team of Brian Burke and Pat Quinn has sent the 35-year-old goalie a contract offer for one year and an option but here&rsquo;s the catch&mdash;it has a minor-league clause in it, something Brodeur hasn&rsquo;t seen in print since he left the New York Islanders.Adding fuel to the fire was the Canucks&rsquo; acquisition of goalie Darren Jensen from the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; system, for goalie Wendell Young. Utility player Darryl Stanley also came to the Canucks, and a 1990 third-round draft pick went to the Flyers.The Canucks have also been in hot pursuit of Andy Moog, the free-agent goalie who has told the Stanley Cup-champion Edmonton Oilers he will not be back with them this season.An upset Brodeur left the talking to agent Bill Watters, who also handles Young and another Vancouver goalie on shaky ground, Frank Caprice. Watters said he&rsquo;ll probably take the Canucks to arbitration with Brodeur&rsquo;s contract, but the fact remains the Canucks don&rsquo;t seem keen on offering his client the No. 1 job again this season.The process of signing Moog as a free agent, however, is fraught with obstacles.&ldquo;The trade route seems to be the only route that makes any sense,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to entirely rule out the other option (signing him as a free agent) but, based on the rhetoric I&rsquo;ve heard, that&rsquo;s not the way to go&rdquo;The problems are two-fold. Oiler GM Glen Sather could simply match a Vancouver offer, or accept league-enforced compensation of a first-round draft choice (or more, depending on the size of Moog&rsquo;s contract).&ldquo;Some teams can afford to give up their pick,&rdquo; said Quinn, &ldquo;but at the stage of development of our hockey club, we can&rsquo;t do that. And no, I don&rsquo;t feel we&rsquo;re any closer to a trade with Edmonton. I&rsquo;ve met with Glen Sather to try to establish Andy&rsquo;s status. I&rsquo;ll be talking further with Glen.&rdquo;The Oilers were said to be interested in defenseman Garth Butcher and a draft pick for Moog, but both sides have been too close-lipped for more than mere speculation.The negotiation process with Brodeur, meanwhile, was not going smoothly.&ldquo;I think we made what I felt was a proper offer under the circumstances,&rdquo; said Quinn, who is now looking at the possibility of losing at arbitration when he could have sent Brodeur a termination contract and freed up the netminder&rsquo;s $300,000 salary to chase the goalie he really wants. But the Canucks could have lost him for nothing that way; they didn&rsquo;t want to risk it because, at the time they offered the contract, they didn&rsquo;t have Jensen in the fold.VAN LINES&mdash;The Canucks were puzzled by a Hamilton Spectator story which said they would be signing 29-year-old Soviet defenseman Vladimir Zubkov for the forthcoming NHL season. Not only had they not heard of him before, they have not drafted him. Zubkov would be ineligible to play for any team until chosen in the entry draft. &#9632;

f0016-04

King Richard’s Reign Appears Over

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01968/5175669-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="176" height="135"></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Winnipeg Jet general manager John Ferguson has found a Penney won&rsquo;t go far in today&rsquo;s hockey marketplace.Ferguson said he&rsquo;s trying to oblige goalie Steve Penney&rsquo;s demands to be traded, but he can&rsquo;t find any takers.&ldquo;Look, I&rsquo;d like to accommodate him.&rdquo; Ferguson said, &ldquo;but sometimes these players don&rsquo;t understand that before you can be moved somebody has to want you.&rdquo;Three years ago, the netminder could have named his price and chosen his place of residence. But Penney stocks have tumbled since then.The toast of Montreal has been burned in Winnipeg; an unwitting, unwilling victim of the Pokey and The Bandit Show.The star of the Canadiens&rsquo; 1984 playoff season&mdash;15 starts, nine wins, three shutouts and a goals-against average of 2.20&mdash;is coming off an awful year in Winnipeg. His record was 1-4-1 and goals-against average 4.59.When camp opens Sept. 12, he won&rsquo;t be considered a serious threat to either incumbent, Eldon (Pokey) Reddick or Daniel (The Bandit) Berth-iaume.If any goaltender in the system unseats a starter this season, it will probably be last year&rsquo;s top Canadian university player, 22-year-old Dave Quigley of Moncton University.&ldquo;We thought Quigley might be a major surprise in camp,&rdquo; Ferguson said, &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s had minor surgery in the groin area and we don&rsquo;t expect to see him for four to six weeks.&rdquo;Quigley is expected to return to Moncton, this time as a member of the Jets&rsquo; American League affiliate. Joining him will be 22-year-old Bob Essensa, whose 2.78 goals-against average in 25 starts for Michigan State was impressive.Battles loom at other positions as well, notably on left wing and defense.A hole on defense has been created by the loss of Fredrik Olausson. He&rsquo;ll miss two to three months, after under-going surgery to repair a shoulder that repeatedly dislocates.Contenders for his spot will be Bobby Dollas, Peter Taglianetti and Bryan Marchment. the team&rsquo;s first-round draft choice in June.Dollas vowed he&rsquo;ll be tougher, bigger and more determined to crack either the Jets&rsquo; lineup or some other NHL team&rsquo;s. Now 22, he has spent two years in the minors.Taglianetti has been described as &ldquo;an eyelash away&rdquo; by Ferguson. He is tough, but his mobility and puck-handling ability are suspect,Marchment, 18, took 238 minutes in penalties as a member of the Belleville Bulls. He has been described as ultra-aggressive, and that doesn&rsquo;t bother Ferguson.Few were surprised when the Jets unloaded two left wingers, Brian Mullen (to the New York Rangers) and Perry Tumbull (to St. Louis), for draft choices.Two Swedes could be their successors.Jan Ingman, a first-round draft choice of the Canadiens&rsquo; in 1981, could be the redeeming factor in the trade that sent Brian Hayward to Montreal for Penney. He led Farjestads of the Swedish Elite League in scoring last year.Also signed was Roger Ohman, 20, a 210-pound left winger, who teems with talent but is noted as an under-achiever. He was the Jets&rsquo; second-round choice in 1985.Not to be overlooked is Iain Duncan, 21, a stocky left winger who could be Mullen&rsquo;s successor on the Dale Hawerchuk line. But Duncan stretched knee ligaments while working out in July. He will miss training camp.JET LINES&mdash;Canadian Olympic coach Dave King has requested the services of Doug Smail in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and John Ferguson doesn&rsquo;t mind the idea. Said Smail: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve wanted to do for a long time.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0017-01

Penney Tarnished By His Stay In Winnipeg

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01998/5175707-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="584" height="1018"><figcaption class="caption-body">Peter Sundstrom didn&rsquo;t fit into the Rangers&rsquo; plans, so he was traded to the Capitals.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02750/5175714-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="175" height="136"></div>LANDOVER, Md.&mdash;If desire were the only determinant. Peter Sundstrom would have an NHL job locked up with the Washington Capitals.The New York Rangers didn&rsquo;t think the Swedish winger could cut it in North America, but the Capitals have given him a second chance.Sundstrom was so determined to show the Rangers and other critics wrong that he settled his contract with Bjorkloven in the Swedish Elite Division. clearing the way for him to sign a one-year-plus-option pact with Washington.For their part, the Capitals dealt the Rangers a fifth-round selection in the 1988 entry draft.Sundstrom. 25, is considered a replacement for Gaetan Duchesne at left wing on the Capitals&rsquo; checking line with Bob Gould and Kelly Miller. Such a prospect no doubt has Phil Esposito laughing and Ted Sator smiling a bit.In his first NHL tour, Sundstrom spent three years with the Rangers. Over the first two. he averaged 20 goals while building a reputation as a good skater who went out of his way to avoid physical contact.Then Sator became the Rangers&rsquo; coach and Sundstrom quickly earned a spot in his doghouse, alternating be-tween spot duty in New York and service in New Haven.When Esposito took over as general manager before the 1986-87 season and retained Sator, however briefly. Sundstrom elected to return to Sweden. Back on home ice. he blossomed into a scoring threat, producing 22 goals in 36 games.The twin brother of the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; Patrik Sundstrom also played for the Swedish national team that captured the world championship in Vienna. Washington general manager David Poile and coach Bryan Murray were in Vienna, too. luring BengtGus-tafsson back to the NHL, when Sundstrom let them know he also was in-terested in returning.On draft day, June 13 in Detroit, Poile made a deal with Quebec, sending his first pick along with Duchesne and Alan Haworth to the Nordiques for Dale Hunter and Clint Malarchuk. At the same time, the GM laid the ground-work for the acquisition of Sundstrom.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03539/5175700-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="584" height="1042"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Scott Stevens was upset at being the last cut from Team Canada.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;On my way to Quebec&rsquo;s table (after requesting time in the draft proceedings), I asked Espo about Sundstrom,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;Then I made the deal with Quebec and, on the way back, I confirmed the Sundstrom deal with Espo.&ldquo;My thought with giving up Gaetan was that this was a player who could fill his role on the Gould-Miller line.&rdquo;Those who have watched the tenacious Duchesne and the less-dedicated Sundstrom might doubt the Swede&rsquo;s ability to keep the line at the high level it reached late last season. Poile, while conceding that he would have made the Quebec deal regardless of Sundstrom&rsquo;s availability, said he expected a different Sundstrom in Washington livery.&ldquo;One of the big attractions to me was that he wanted to come back and show people he could play in the NHL,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;Defensively, he can do that part and he does have some offensive ability, with 22 goals one year (1983-84) in the NHL.&ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t very physical before and he must improve in that area. He&rsquo;s indicated to me that he wants to, that he was stung by the criticism he took before and that he was disappointed with the way he left the Rangers. The big year in Sweden has given him the confidence to try again.&rdquo;CAPSULES&mdash;Defenseman Scott Stevens was the last player cut by Team Canada before it opened play in the Canada Cup. It was another in a long line of disappointments for Stevens, who was on a preliminary list for Rendez-vous 87, then was not selected. Stevens, recently married, vowed that he would not play for Canada again and said he would consider obtaining U.S. citizenship&hellip;Peter Sundstrom was a member of Team Sweden in the Canada Cup&hellip;The Capitals once again will hold training camp at their Mt. Vernon practice rink in Alexandria, Va. However, they will work out at Lake Placid, N. Y., for four days before meeting Hartford in an exhibition game at the Olympic rink on Oct. 2&hellip;Washington will host the 1988 U.S. Olympic team on Sept. 25. &#9632;

f0018-01

Sundstrom Gets Second Chance With Caps

USUALLY, THE NATIONAL Hockey League manages to stay out of court. That&rsquo;s wise. No one knows which way jurors will lean these days.But on Oct. 7, despite frantic attempts to get the matter settled amicably, president John Ziegler and his league are scheduled to be in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver.The plaintiff is none other than Frank Griffiths, chairman of the Vancouver Canucks. If you find it strange that the head of an NHL team should be suing the league, then you can understand Ziegler&rsquo;s position. He feels the same way. Accordingly, he has done everything he considers reasonable in an attempt to convince Griffiths of the error of his ways.But Griffiths remains unconvinced, because Zeigler won&rsquo;t do the one thing Griffiths wants most. He won&rsquo;t set aside his judgment in the Pat Quinn case.In case you&rsquo;ve forgotten, Quinn was coach of the Los Angeles Kings last December when he accepted $ 100,000 from the Canucks as a signing bonus. When the season ended, Quinn was to become the Canucks&rsquo; president and general manager.But as soon as Ziegler heard about it, he expelled Quinn from the league. Later, saying that it was &ldquo;clear that at some point, everyone forgot&hellip;the integrity of the competition,&rdquo; he fined the Canucks $310,000 and barred Quinn from &ldquo;performing any functions at, or attending league meetings or drafts&rdquo; until the conclusion of the NHL&rsquo;s June meeting. In addition, Quinn was suspended from coaching until 1990.The Canucks were furious. They said that neither they nor Quinn broke any laws. In addition, they said, they acted within the bylaws and constitution of the league. They filed unsuccessful appeals to the board of governors and eventually filed a lawsuit.At stake is much more than the fine and the blemish on Quinn&rsquo;s record. The ability of the league to govern itself and the reputation of its president are up for consideration.So far, the board of governors has backed Ziegler. But will they continue to do so if the courts decide that he was grievously mistaken in his action?What happens if the court rules that NHL vice-president Gil Stein, who carried out the investigation upon which Ziegler based his decision, made some errors? Would Ziegler be held responsible?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04358/5175745-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="412" height="466"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Strachan</figcaption></div>And what would Quinn do next? Would he decide to sue Ziegler, claiming that his reputation had been damaged unjustly?And what would happen behind the closed doors of the governors&rsquo; meetings? Griffiths is one of the senior governors, a member of the advisory committee, which advises Ziegler on how to run the league. How could they be expected to work together aftar a lawsuit?The whole Quinn affair gives every indication of being a battle with no winners. Still, if the matter runs its course in court, there will be a clear winner. And therefore, of course, a clear loser.Either Ziegler&rsquo;s decision will be upheld or it won&rsquo;t, but either way animosity will be perpetuated.If the Canucks lose, Griffiths and Quinn will continue to harbor resentment against Ziegler. They will continue to believe that the decision was unjust because it branded Quinn as disreputable. He is one of only three people in NHL history to be expelled. The other two were guilty of betting on their own games.But if the Canucks win, Ziegler&rsquo;s authority and judgment is not only challenged, it is overturned. He might well be forced to resign as a result. If he stayed on, he would face untold difficulties&mdash;and possibly subsequent lawsuits&mdash;from those who disagreed with future decisions.The NHL has faced other important court cases in recent years but it has either won or settled out of court. This may well be the one that ends that string and if so, the consequences could be far-reaching indeed. &#9632;

f0018-04

Implications Of Quinn Case Could Well Be Far-Reaching

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02691/5175776-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="556" height="740"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Greschner, above, is looking forward to having Barry Beck back in the fold.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01929/5175783-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="173" height="132"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;Barry Beck&rsquo;s return to the New York Rangers not only will affect Ron Greschner on the ice more than most of his teammates, it is also a development which the tall defenseman understands better than most.Greschner, who finished last season as captain, a role Beck used to perform, knows well of coming back after a long absence. He missed most of the 1981-82 and 82-83 seasons because of a serious back injury which threatened his career.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve known Bubba (Beck) since he was 16,&rdquo; Greschner said, &ldquo;and he keeps himself in great shape. If his shoulder is okay&mdash;and I&rsquo;ve heard that it is&mdash;then he won&rsquo;t have any problems strength- and conditioning-wise.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;It is fairly easy to fill in and do an adequate job at defense and center.&rsquo;&mdash;Greschner</blockquote>&ldquo;The hockey part will be a little different; it will take a while for him to get all of his timing and feel for the game back. I&rsquo;d bet on him, though. He has a lot of talent.&rdquo;Greschner, who will be 33 in December, went through his comeback season of 1983-84 at almost the same age, 30, as Beck will be this season.The native of Goodsoil, Sask., was in Italy where his wife, model Carol Alt, was filming a movie when Beck made his Aug. 12 decison to come out of retirement. The news didn&rsquo;t seem to surprise him.&ldquo;If he can help the team,&rdquo; Greschner noted, &ldquo;then I guess that&rsquo;s fine. We aren&rsquo;t so loaded with talent that we can&rsquo;t use the help a healthy Barry Beck can give us.&rdquo;Preparing for his 14th NHL season, Greschner is the senior Ranger in point of service. He ranks 14th on the team&rsquo;s all-time goal-scoring list (176), fourth in penalty minutes (997), fifth in assists (407), and sixth in games played (818), and points (583, three behind Steve Vickers).Before Beck signed, Greschner seemed almost assured of a spot on defense but that may change. Beck&rsquo;s return creates a surplus on the blue line and New York&rsquo;s lack of strong forwards will make another Greschner-to-center experiment tempting for new coach Michel Bergeron.Throughout his career, Greschner has filled in willingly, wherever needed. And, even though he would like to take a shot at one more full season on defense, he is ready to accept whatever role Bergeron chooses for him.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve found that it is fairly easy to fill in and do an adequate job at defense and center,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but it is difficult to be productive going back and forth.Still, if it means winning, Greschner will do it.&ldquo;I want to have a good year. I want to win something before I quit. I want to do a lap around the Garden ice with the Cup. I&rsquo;ll do whatever it takes.&rdquo;BIG APPLESAUCE&mdash;Michel Bergeron officially moved into his office at Rye, N.Y., on Aug. 24&hellip;Though he usually chooses a captain, Bergeron said he &ldquo;saw no problem&rdquo; with Ron Greschner keeping the job. Greschner, who played for the New Westminster Bruins a year before Barry Beck did, collected six goals and 34 assists for 40 points in 61 games last season. Over the course of the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons, Greschner missed 78 consecutive games because of his back injury, while Beck has missed 92 straight and 135 of the last 146 Ranger games&hellip;Although they didn&rsquo;t report the signing, the Rangers were believed to have added veteran Dave Pichette on defense. &#9632;

f0019-02

Greschner Just Wants To’Win Something

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01787/5175821-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="585" height="1054"><figcaption class="caption-body">Canadian Olympian Zarley Zalapski will play eight to 10 games with the Penguins.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02533/5175828-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="174" height="133"></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;One would think a guy called Zarley Zalapski shouldn&rsquo;t have to worry about making a name for himself.But the Pittsburgh Penguins, their thirst for success whetted by a five-year absence from the Stanley Cup playoffs, are anxious to have Zalapski demonstrate his skills for the rest of the NHL.To that end, the Canadian Olympian will report to the Penguins&rsquo; training camp on Sept. 24 and stay with them long enough to play eight to 10 regularseason games.That would take Zalapski, named best defenseman at the Izvestia Tournament last Christmas, into at least late October before rejoining the Canadian Olympic team.Zalapski, the Penguins&rsquo; No. 1 pick in the 1986 entry draft, has consistently expressed his desire to remain with Team Canada through the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary.The Penguins already possess the nucleus of a promising young defensive corps&mdash;Doug Bodger, Ville Siren and Jim Johnson&mdash;but believe Zalapski will benefit from early exposure to the realities of life in the NHL.&ldquo;He can get used to the league and know what to expect when he comes back here,&rdquo; said Pittsburgh general manager Eddie Johnston.Understandably, the idea of parting with Zalapski, even for a short time, is not appealing to Team Canada coach Dave King.&ldquo;The option seems attractive to NHL teams,&rdquo; King said, &ldquo;but our problem is that we&rsquo;ve got five or six months to get ready for a very, very major competition.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s difficult for us. Our problem is the same as Pittsburgh&rsquo;s. We&rsquo;re trying to develop a competitive hockey team.&rdquo;Zalapski has been trying to placate two parties whose interests are mutually exclusive.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03371/5175814-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="575" height="1047"><figcaption class="caption-body">Eddie Johnston, above, says Chris Joseph is a candidate for this year&rsquo;s team.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to be accommodating with Pittsburgh because they&rsquo;ve been so patient,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it depends how far I want to go without jeopardizing my standing (with Team Canada).&rdquo;Although relations between King and the Penguins have become somewhat strained, Team Canada still might get another gifted young defenseman from Pittsburgh.If Chris Joseph, the Penguins&rsquo; No. 1 pick in the June entry draft, does not cam a roster spot during camp, John-ston will offer him to King&mdash;with one critical condition.&ldquo;If he goes to the Olympics, we want a commitment from King he will be one of the players (on the roster for the Games).&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to send him back to the program and ail of a sudden have him be dropped. I&rsquo;d rather send him back to junior.&rdquo;Joseph was the final unsigned player among the early picks in the June 13 entry draft, but Johnston said he expects a deal before camp opens.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been negotiating for a while and we&rsquo;re starting to get fairly close.&rdquo;It is believed Joseph will sign for three years and an option for about $600,000.Johnston believes that investment might pay immediate dividends for the Penguins despite the inexperience and youth of Joseph, who qualified for inclusion in the 1987 draft by just five days.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be a contender (for a roster berth) for the simple reasons of his speed, his being 6-foot-3 and the way he handles the puck,&rdquo; Johnston said.PEN POINTS&mdash;Checking-line forward Dave Hannan has signed a multi-year deal with the Penguins&hellip;Edmonton general manager Glen Sather and Eddie Johnston were expected to discuss a trade for Oiler goalie Andy Moog when they met at the Canada Cup&hellip;The Penguins will train in suburban Mt. Lebanon for a week, then move to the Civic Arena Sept. 18. &#9632;

f0020-01

Pens Anxious To Showcase Zalapski’s Talents

SUMMER IS OVER and hockey season is upon us.You remember summer. That&rsquo;s the 64-1/2 hours between the end of the NHL&rsquo;s annual congress and the start of Canada Cup training camps.Like most people, I can&rsquo;t figure out where the summer went. I checked the attic, scoured the cellar, even strayed into the office once or twice looking for it and couldn&rsquo;t turn up a trace.We probably won&rsquo;t see it again until the Oilers bring it back from Europe for the playoffs next year.If you don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s how it works, remember that the Oilers drag just about everything else across the Atlan-tic each spring.Not that I&rsquo;m bitter, mind you, and it&rsquo;s not like I didn&rsquo;t have plenty of important projects to keep me busy when I wasn&rsquo;t nurturing the weeds, that comprise my lawn, to full bloom.I spent several weeks, for example, on an ultimately inconclusive study of whether the most reliable source of off-season information is a Smythe Division insider or an Arizona sidewinder.Much of August was devoted to researching&mdash;and fretting over&mdash;how many Selke votes Mario Lemieux and Wilf Paiement will steal from each other if, as planned, they end up on the same line in Pittsburgh.And then there was the philosophical debate over why Ron Hextall would break the arm of a temporary team-mate, Sylvain Turgeon, when he only bruised the leg of a full-fledged opponent, Kent Nilsson, a few months ear-lier.Some blame Hextall&rsquo;s fiercely competitive nature.I, on the other hand (the one attached to the unbroken arm), figure it&rsquo;s a natural byproduct of playing in Phi-ladelphia, the only city in North America where the police department has a Frequent Felon program.They do a lot of things differently in Philly, you see, although folks there still embrace sport&rsquo;s most revered cliches with the kind of passion usually reserved for a lost lover.Consider last spring, when Flyer players and management insisted Philadelphia&rsquo;s march to the Stanley Cup finals was a manifestation of the team&rsquo;s exceptional character.That would seem to make all of us who watched the playoffs character witnesses, but that&rsquo;s beside the point.The only trouble is, the whole concept of character is rather vague.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04242/5175859-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="376" height="476"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Molinari</figcaption></div>Most people think a team shows character by preferring victory to defeat, but somehow that doesn&rsquo;t seem a particularly radical idea. Outside of the Pacific Coliseum, anyway.Personally, I think the best demonstration of character is when a person violates no more than three of the Ten Commandments while spending an afternoon with the in-laws.Anyway, the Flyers&rsquo; loss to Edmonton in the finals raises several disturbing questions about character.Like, did Air Canada baggage-handlers inadvertently transfer the Flyers&rsquo; character to, say, England instead of Edmonton before game seven?If so, why didn&rsquo;t the highly-organized Flyers think to take their carry-on character instead of the kind you have to check, just to prevent such an occurrence?OK, so there are a few cynics&mdash;don&rsquo;t you just loathe those sarcastic, negative sorts who make fun of every-thing?&mdash;who contend the Oilers&rsquo; victory proves character is an ancient Indian word meaning &ldquo;more talent,&rdquo; but let&rsquo;s not worry about them.As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, Edmonton&rsquo;s victory shows beyond any reasonable doubt that the Oilers have more charcter than a pair of hockey socks that haven&rsquo;t been washed in three months.Since character is obviously so important, the course of action for the NHL&rsquo;s next expansion team should be apparent:Forget about cluttering the roster with worn-out forwards and defensemen of dubious pedigree. Load the lineup with players recruited from the neighborhood monastery.With that much character on hand, an 80-0 season is the very least anyone can expect.Thought you might like to know. &#9632;

f0020-04

Character Witnesses Abound When Flyers Do Their Thing

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02329/5175921-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="174" height="133"></div>UNIONDALE, N.Y.&mdash;Ken Morrow is hanging in there very well for a guy whose NHL career was supposedly dangling by ligaments and cartilage.The New York Islanders weren&rsquo;t sure that Morrow, whose injured right knee did not fully respond to three arthroscopic procedures, would make it past Oct. 11, 1984&mdash;the day his knee was surgically reconstructed.After all, this guy had fluid drained from his knee about as often as teammate Mike Bossy scored goals. But Morrow recovered in time to play 15 games late that 1984-85 season.The Islanders weren&rsquo;t certain he&rsquo;d make it through the 1985-86 season, either. He fooled them by playing 69 games. But despite that accomplishment, nobody&mdash;least of all rookie coach Terry Simpson, who had heard the medical reports and had seen Morrow&rsquo;s ugly joint in the locker room&mdash;ever thought the defenseman would plod through the 1986-87 season.Yet Morrow, who remains in terrific shape as he approaches his 31st birthday Oct. 17, played in 64 of 80 games last season and looked fine. He finished plus-seven, fourth-best on the team and tops among Islander defensemen.He didn&rsquo;t lose any speed, because he never had any to begin with. But his mobility improved and he retained his deceptive strength. Nobody knocked him off the puck in the comers and even Philadelphia&rsquo;s Tim Kerr yielded the slot when Morrow came calling.&ldquo;Even before last season, everybody was wondering if I could still play,&rdquo; said Morrow, who walks with a slight limp. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t sure myself. It took two years after the surgery for the knee to completely heal. I was thinking it would take six, eight months. But last year it really came around for me.&rdquo;He doesn&rsquo;t expect the Islanders to come around on a long-term contract. Morrow is entering the option year of a one-year deal he signed early last season, but the Islanders don&rsquo;t want to offer him a new pact. Not just yet.&ldquo;I had a good meeting with Bill (Torrey, Islander GM),&rdquo; Morrow said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t expect them to give me a long-term contract. They still want to see if I could put two seasons like that together. I&rsquo;m anxious to show I can.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Even before last season, everybody was wondering if I could still play. I wasn&rsquo;t sure myself.&rsquo;&mdash;Morrow</blockquote>Morrow, one of the premier defensive blueliners in the game, scored three goals last season. That gave him 15 for his eight-year, 463-game career.The flip side to Morrow is Randy Boyd, an erratic yet offensively-skilled defenseman with slick moves. Boyd, 25, played out his option, but has been re-signed.&ldquo;Randy had a disappointing training camp last year, but he managed to regroup in Springfield,&rdquo; said Torrey. &ldquo;Upon his rejoining the club, Randy played extremely well down the stretch and into the playoffs. We&rsquo;re very opti-mistic about what he can do for the team&rsquo;s defense, especially on the power play.&rdquo;In 30 games, Boyd reminded everybody that, offensively, he is a bona-fide NHLer. His flashes of crafty stick-handling and forays down opponents&rsquo; wings often left coach Terry Simpson gasping for oxygen, but more than occasionally they paid off.Boyd collected seven goals and 17 assists&mdash;the best offensive season of his six-year NHL career&mdash;and finished with an even plus-minus rating. Three of his goals and 11 of his assists came on power plays. He had seven multiple-point games, second among Islander defensemen behind Denis Potvin.ON THE ISLE&mdash;The formal announcement of the rehiring of assistant coach Bob Nystrom was expected shortly&hellip;Left winger Derek King and right winger Brad Dalgarno, the Isles&rsquo; two first-round draft picks in 1985, have signed pro contracts&hellip;Right winger Patrick Flatley, one of 15 Islanders from last season&rsquo;s official postseason squad with only an option year remaining, was close to signing a new pact&hellip;Three draftees eligible to turn pro&mdash;left winger Kevin Herom (fourth round in 1985), right winger Kurt Lackten (seventh round in &lsquo;85) and center Todd McLellan (fifth round in &lsquo;86)&mdash;have signed&hellip;Rookies were scheduled to report for training camp Sat., Sept. 10 at Cantiague Park in Hicksville, veterans the next morning, with the first full-squad workout set for the afternoon of Sept. 11. &#9632;

f0021-02

Morrow Taking It One Season At A Time

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01675/5175959-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01611/5175952-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="3126" height="2432"></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE TRAINING CAMP ROSTERS

<h2>SEPTEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02418/5176011-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="754" height="1159"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03304/5176004-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="736" height="1171"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04226/5175997-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="765" height="1159"></div><h2>OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-05188/5175990-1-eng-US/f0023-052.jpg" title="f0023-05" width="772" height="1153"></div> &#9632;

f0023-02

NATIONAL LEAGUE PRE-SEASON SCHEDULE

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01656/5176042-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="174" height="134"></div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;Left winger John Ogrodnick has given the Quebec Nordiques an unpleasant choice&mdash;trade him, or watch him retire.&ldquo;John&rsquo;s family has told him that they would not return to Quebec City this fall,&rdquo; said Lou Oppenheim, a player rep associated with Ogrodnick&rsquo;s agent, Art Kaminsky. &ldquo;And if John has to choose between hockey and his family, there&rsquo;s no contest. He would rather retire from the game than have to live away from his wife and young daughter.&ldquo;Evidently, the ideal solution would be to see John leaving for another team. Otherwise, he&rsquo;ll have no other choice than to leave the sport he loves so much. But in his book, family comes first.&ldquo;Fortunately, John has been well-treated financially since his arrival in pro hockey. That&rsquo;s why he can think of retiring without bothering with money problems.&rdquo;For those unfamiliar with the Ogrodnick dossier, the problem is one of language and adaptation, following his trade to Quebec from Detroit last season. Ogrodnick&rsquo;s wife, Betty Anne, is American and she had a hard time adjusting to Quebec&rsquo;s French culture.Ogrodnick&rsquo;s daughter, Kelsey Anne, is ready to start school, and he wants her to study in an Englishspeaking environment.As training camp approached, the left winger continued to hope he&rsquo;d be traded.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to play another couple of years,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I want to finish my career in the United States. I haven&rsquo;t lost hope yet. I know there&rsquo;s a team that is trying to make a deal for me. That&rsquo;s why I can&rsquo;t understand why the Nordiques won&rsquo;t trade me.&rdquo;Ogrodnick said Filion has known for a long time that he wanted out.&ldquo;Last year,&rdquo; Ogrodnick said, &ldquo;he told me to work very hard so that my trading value would be high. That&rsquo;s exactly what I did in the playoffs. But now, he wants me to come back to Quebec and do the same thing. He told me he would help me if I worked hard and I did. Now, he wants me to start all over again.&ldquo;Even if I have to come back to the Nordiques, I wouldn&rsquo;t be much use to them. I would be far from my family and that would distract me too much. My head wouldn&rsquo;t be in the game. I wouldn&rsquo;t perform up to my standards.&ldquo;The Nordiques knew that I didn&rsquo;t want to play in Quebec. If I would have gotten here when I was 20 or 21 years old and a bachelor, things might have been different. But I&rsquo;m 28 and I don&rsquo;t know three words of French. And I really don&rsquo;t see why I&rsquo;d have to learn the language when I know that I&rsquo;ll be living in the States when my career is over.&ldquo;I have about three good years of hockey left in me. I have to use those years to prepare for my career after hockey. And I have no future in Quebec. I find the city very charming. But I just don&rsquo;t want to live there.&rdquo;Ogrodnick&rsquo;s hefty contract has three years to go. Would he accept a pay cut if it would help him get out of Quebec?&ldquo;No way. My contract stays as it is.&rdquo;Filion, meanwhile, insisted he was doing his best to accommodate Ogrodnick.&ldquo;If John wants to retire, well, that&rsquo;s his business,&rdquo; the Nordiuqe GM said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to trade him, but there aren&rsquo;t too many takers around. And I won&rsquo;t simply simply give him away. You can be sure of that.&ldquo;All the other general managers know what I want. I won&rsquo;t trade John away unless I get a first draft choice or a top-notch player in return. It&rsquo;s as simple as that.&ldquo;And it&rsquo;s not the threat of a strike or sudden retirement that will get me all excited. I&rsquo;m still waiting for an in-teresting proposition. And until I get one, John is a Nordique.&rdquo;NORDIQUE NOTES&mdash;Bernard Brisset has left his job as Nordique public relations director to return to media work. Brisset now works for the Four Seasons TV network as a color commentator on sports events (including French-language broadcasts of the Canada Cup) and writes three columns a week for the Montreal-based Journal le Pays. His job with the Nordiques has been split between Nicole Bouchard and Jean Martineau. &#9632;

f0024-01

Ogrodnick Vows He’ll Retire If Not Traded

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN Associate Editor</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01573/5176080-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The world&rsquo;s best players, including Thomas Rundqvist of Sweden and Igor Larionov of the USSR, faced off during week one of the Canada Cup. Sweden upset the Soviets 5-3.</figcaption></div>Soviet hockey officials have been called a lot of things over the years. Funny isn&rsquo;t one of them.Former national coach Boris Kulagin was nicknamed &lsquo;Chuckles&rsquo; in deference to his chilling personality, not his charm. And current coach Viktor Tikhonov only learned to smile during the past year.So, it was more than a little surprising when the funniest Soviets since Abbottov and Costellov left &lsquo;em laughing at the Sept. 6 press conference winding up round-robin play at the Canada Cup.Crinkly-faced assistant coach Igor Dmitriev and his no-frills translator combined to provide more punchlines than Philadelphia slugger Dave Brown.Had Dmitriev not laughed he might have cried over his team&rsquo;s 3-3 tie with Canada in Hamilton. The Soviets blew a two-goal lead and first place to the undefeated Canadians.In Dmitriev&rsquo;s view, referee Mike Noeth blew the game. Canada had five power plays in the game, the Soviets none.Asked if he could remember a Soviet team ever going an entire game without one manadvantage situation, Dmitriev conferred with his translator for what seemed a minute.Then came the response.&ldquo;No.&rdquo;Journalists, even those aware that English can be a more economic language than others, burst into laughter. So did Dmitriev.Earlier, the assistant coach was asked to assess Noeth.Dmitriev said that after watching the American work Sweden&rsquo;s shocking 5-3 upset of the Soviets, he thought Noeth was &ldquo;tired.&rdquo; &ldquo;Now, I take those words back. He&rsquo;s probably not tired, but he&rsquo;s not a referee.&rdquo;The grey-haired coach laughed along with the media.And it was with a twinkle in his eyes that he reported Tikhonov would not be disabled by a finger injury suffered in the third period.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a very serious injury,&rdquo; grinned Dmitriev. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll play the next game.&rdquo;Tikhonov may have hurt himself grabbing linesman Kevin Collins&hellip;while play was going on.&ldquo;I backed up against the boards when I got shoved from behind,&rdquo; explained Collins. &ldquo;I stumbled, lost my balance and almost fell. I regained my position, went back and then got shoved at least twice more.&rdquo;These Soviets play hardball.&ldquo;At that time,&rdquo; continued Collins, &ldquo;I turned and I warned them&mdash;as I started to warn them, the coach (Tikhonov) came from behind the bench, reached across and grabbed my arm and started shaking me while he was yelling at me&hellip;I had no alternative but to assess them a bench penalty.&rdquo;Asked if he understood any of what was being said from the Soviet bench, Collins got into the spirit of things and quipped, &ldquo;It was all Russian to me.&rdquo;The pushy protest was apparently over a difference in opinion over whether an offside should have been called.That wasn&rsquo;t the first time Tikhonov had taken matters into his own hands. In a pre-toumament game, he grabbed Czechoslovakian referee Vladimir Subrt.It also wasn&rsquo;t the first time a referee was accused of adversely influencing a game in this Canada Cup. U.S. coach Bob Johnson did that when he announced, &ldquo;We got screwed the whole game,&rdquo; after Canada edged the Americans 3-2 on Sept. 2.In that game, Finnish referee Karl-Gustav Kaisla appeared in over his head&mdash;to Canada&rsquo;s advantage. &ldquo;I feel sorry for Team USA,&rdquo; said tournament director Alan Eagleson. John McCauley, one member of the tournament&rsquo;s three-man officiating committee, agreed Kais-la&rsquo;s &ldquo;inexperience&rdquo; showed.But McCauley deflected criticism of Noeth.&ldquo;They (the Soviets) complained during the second and third periods,&rdquo; said McCauley. &ldquo;They thought it was going to be a war. I told them I thought they were looking at the game through different eyes.&ldquo;They felt that the official should be more objective. They were just complaining about Noeth.&rdquo;With just cause. Several penalties that could have been called against Canada escaped his notice.Instead of asking Dmitriev if his team had ever gone a full game without a power-play opportunity, reporters should have asked if he&rsquo;d ever seen the traditionally truculent Canadians go a game without having to kill off at least one power play.That is the more unlikely of the two scenarios. Almost as unlikely as Canada getting five powerplay chances to the Soviets&rsquo; zero.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a case where you keep score in your mind,&rdquo; said Noeth. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way I saw the game.&rdquo;Also seeing the game was a tournament-high crowd of 17,056&mdash;which brought the unofficial aggregate attendance for 15 round-robin games to 121,233.That&rsquo;s right in line with what the past two Canada Cup round-robins have drawn (111,614 in 1984 and 119,433 in 1981) but nearly 90,000 less than the 205,566 in 1976, when international hockey was at its most popular.So small was the crowd in Calgary&mdash;3,055&mdash;for Sweden&rsquo;s win over the Soviets that Swedish and Montreal Canadien ace Mats Naslund said that there have been more reporters at some Montreal practices than there were spectators at that game.What the no-shows missed was a superb and significant game. The triumph was a rarity for the Swedes, who won the 1987 world championship in Vienna&mdash;their first in 25 years&mdash;without beating the Soviets.Despite that win and subsequent third-place finish in the round robin, Swedish coach Tommy Sandlin was bitter.&ldquo;This tournament isn&rsquo;t sport&mdash;it&rsquo;s a Canadian summer hockey tournament for Alan Eagleson,&rdquo; said Sandlin.&ldquo;After this circus, thanks, but this tournament can be for Eagleson and his playoffs, it&rsquo;s a joke and the Finns and Czechs agree. I&rsquo;m sure the Russians do too, after tonight (the night of Canada&rsquo;s 3-3 tie with the Soviet Union). The referee was the worst I&rsquo;ve ever seen in international competition.&rdquo;The tournament, as a whole, was slow to gain momentum.It wasn&rsquo;t until the vitriolic Canada-U.S. encounter on the fifth game day of the event that emotion and fan interest began to peak.(The sellout crowd of 17,026 resulted in a gate of $380,000&mdash;called the largest in Canada Cup history by Eagleson. Presumably, that mark was eclipsed four nights later when an additional 30 people jammed in for the Canada-Soviet game.)There was plenty of animosity between the two North American teams comprised of NHLers. The most curious sights were those of Americans Chris Chelios and Chris Nilan taking shots at Montreal teammate Claude Lemieux of Canada.&ldquo;I was just trying to keep Claude out of trouble,&rdquo; smiled Chelios, who was seen kicking Lemieux. &ldquo;He kicked me, he&rsquo;s crazy.&rdquo;Canada&rsquo;s 3-2 victory was due mostly to Mario Lemieux, who scored all three goals for the winners.The game was pivotal for both teams. It was the first of three straight losses for the U.S., which entered the game undefeated. The gritty Americans were eliminated on the final day of the round robin when they lost 3-1 to the Czechoslovakians.Meanwhile, Canada emerged as a cohesive unit, following up with a 5-3 win over the Swedes and the tie with the Soviets.It was in those two games that Canadian captain Wayne Gretzky led the way.After setting up Lemieux for the winner against the U.S., he scored once and assisted on three other goals (including two by Mario Lemieux) against Sweden.Then, with Canada trailing 3-1 against the Soviets, Gretzky fed defenseman Ray Bourque with a perfect goalmouth pass in the second period before scoring the tying goal at 17:33 of the third period.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t say enough about him,&rdquo; said Team Canada coach Mike Keenan. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the leader of the team, both on the ice and off the ice. You expect it (great things) from him, and he delivers.&rdquo;The Canadian-Soviet tie, combined with Sweden&rsquo;s 3-1 triumph over the no-win Finns and Czechoslovakia&rsquo;s same-score victory over the U.S., set up the semi-final match-ups between first-place Canada (3-0-2) and fourth-place Czechoslovakia (2-2-1) and second-place Soviets (3-1-1) and third-place Swedes (3-2-0).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01605/5176073-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="581" height="910"><figcaption class="caption-body">Viktor Tikhonov has been tough on the officials at the Canada Cup.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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On Official Business! Bitter U.S.-Canada Battle Snarks Interest

<div class="byline">BY SCOTT MORRISON</div>After Paul Coffey had unwittingly spent a night in the red-light district called Team Canada&rsquo;s defensive zone, he discovered another light&mdash;the one at the end of the proverbial tunnel.&ldquo;Hey,&rdquo; the defenseman said after a sloppy Canada Cup opening-night 4-4 tie with Czechoslovakia, &ldquo;we can&rsquo;t play any worse.&ldquo;We have to think positively. That&rsquo;s the worst we can play, and we still got a point. All we need is time.&rdquo;At that point, the thought provided precious little solace, but it served as a harbinger of the journey ahead.Coffey was right. All Team Canada needed was time. Time to learn a new system. Time to come together as one. Time to dust off the cobwebs of the short summer.&ldquo;It took a while for the team to develop,&rdquo; said coach Mike Keenan. &ldquo;It just didn&rsquo;t happen, it evolved.&rdquo;The evolution of Team Canada, from that maddening opening night, to the impressive 3-3 tie with the Soviets in the round-robin finale, was dynamic.With that emotional point in the final game, Team Canada finished first overall with a 3-0-2 record, a point ahead of the Soviets (3-1-1). In third were the Swedes at 3-2-0, followed by the Czechoslovaks (2-2-1), winners of their final two games.Team Canada&rsquo;s renaissance featured persistent line-juggling and continual changes to the power-play unit. It saw the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, in that order, reaffirm their status as the NHL&rsquo;s best.&ldquo;It took a few games to happen,&rdquo; said defenseman Raymond Bourque, a veteran of two previous Canada Cups, &ldquo;but we stopped worrying about all the other things and concentrated on the games at hand.&rdquo;On the heels of the 4-4 tie against the Czechoslovaks, Canada returned from the wild west for a pair of games in Hamilton, the first a 4-1 sleepwalk over against Finland, the second an emotional 3-2 victory over Team USA. It wasn&rsquo;t until that third game, against their brothers from the United States, that the Canadians were jolted into the reality of the tournament.Canada was literally shaken awake by a belligerent U.S. team dedicated to defense. Borrowing a game plan coach Bob Johnson had used with the Calgary Flames to subdue the Edmonton Oilers, the Americans kept Canada in check for only a while.Enter Mario Lemieux, escorted to center stage by Gretzky.Lemieux, often reluctant to involve himself in international competition, scored all three goals, two of them arranged by the amazing Gretzky. It was on this night, too, that Keenan finally settled on his power play, a virtual who&rsquo;s-who of talent.Even though Gretzky, Lemieux and Mark Messier are all natural centers, the unit was deadly with Nos. 66 and 99 playing wing. On the points were Coffey and Bourque. Five of the NHL&rsquo;s top 10 scorers were together on a shift.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s scary,&rdquo; said Bourque. &ldquo;You see the puck moving around and you can&rsquo;t believe it. It would be scary if you could keep this team together for a whole season.&rdquo;The unit produced two power-play goals against the Americans and another pair against Sweden two nights later in Montreal, a game the Canadians won 5-3. A game that was, by far, their most impressive until the Sept. 6 showdown with the Soviets.Gretzky and Lemieux, in particular, provided an artistic display against the Swedes. Gretzky scored his first goal and assisted on three others, two of Lemieux&rsquo; goals, both tip-ins. All were memorable plays.&ldquo;I wanted to play my best,&rdquo; said Gretzky. &ldquo;I made a conscious effort to dig down.&rdquo;Then came the Soviets, and the game that would decide first place and the semi-final pairings. Already without right winger Kevin Dineen, who sprained his left ankle against the Americans, Canada also lost left winger Michel Goulet because of a strained knee. The number of healthy bodies dropped to 18 when right winger Rick Tocchet strained his left knee one shift into the second period.But with the big five seldom leaving the ice, Canada battled back from a 3-1 deficit to tie. Fittingly, Gretzky prodded in the tying goal and the entire bench emptied to congratulate him.&ldquo;We were more happy with finishing first than earning a tie,&rdquo; said Messier, the man who sounded the rallying call a week earlier in Calgary. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost like an 80-game schedule. You take some pride in finishing first.&rdquo; &#9632;

Round-Robin Formula: 99+66 = No. 1

<div class="byline">BY LARRY SICINSKI</div>The stick Gary Suter laid on Sergei Lomakin left a deep impression on more than the Soviet forward&rsquo;s face.&ldquo;He is crazy,&rdquo; defenseman Igor Kravchuk said of the Team USA blueliner who attacked Lomakin during the Soviet Union&rsquo;s 5-1 win Sept. 4.Suter said Lomakin speared him.But the consensus was that Lomakin may have been carrying his stick high, but not with sufficient malice to warrant the two-hander Suter swung at his face.The speedy 23-year-old Moscow forward took about 20 stitches around his eye.&ldquo;It was absolutely the worst thing I&rsquo;ve ever seen in hockey.&rdquo; said Bob Clarke, co-general manager of Team Canada.The NHL was investigating the incident. A suspension was possible even though the attack did not take place in a league game. The Canada Cup is an NHL-sanctioned tournament.The severity of Suter&rsquo;s slash confirmed long-held suspicions.The Soviets, especially the veterans, believe North Americans only play dirty when they meet them. They can&rsquo;t understand why. but have seen enough of it to be convinced that&rsquo;s generally the case.Lomakin wore a face shield, obtained from Team Canada trainers, for the 3-3 tie with Team Canada in the final game of the round robin.The tie left the Soviet Union in second place with a 3-1-1 record, a date with Sweden in the semi-finals, and coach Viktor Tikhonov in an increasingly precarious position with the referees.Tikhonov, who has a curious habit of tugging on nearby officials in protesting calls, was nailed for an unsport-manslike conduct penalty after grabbing linesman Kevin Collins during the third period.The Soviet coach also tugged at Czechoslovakian referee Vladimir Subrt during a pre-tournament game.Tikhonov did not appear after the Canada-Soviet game, but assistant coach Igor Dmitriev said the Soviets were extremely dissatisfied with the refereeing of Mike Noeth.Noeth worked the Swedes&rsquo; upset 5-3 win of the Soviets earlier in the tournament.&ldquo;We thought he was tired,&rdquo; Dmitriev said of Noeth&rsquo;s performance in the Swedish game, a contest that featured three power-play opportunities for each team.Against the Canadians, remarkably, the Soviets did not get a single powerplay opportunity. Canada had five chances.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s probably not tired,&rdquo; Dmitriev reassessed, &ldquo;but he&rsquo;s not a referee.&rdquo;Noeth, an NHL referee, would not be drawn into a war of words.&ldquo;That comment,&rdquo; said Noeth, &ldquo;doesn&rsquo;t deserve a response.&rdquo;A frustrated Tikhonov has been feeling pressure in light of the Soviets&rsquo; poor&mdash;by their standards&mdash;international track record in 1987. Soviet sports journalists have been unrelenting in their scrutiny of his work.Dmitriev is widely rumored to be his heir-apparent.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01576/5176135-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="582" height="869"><figcaption class="caption-body">Soviet great Vladimir Krutov scored four times during the five-game round robin.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Soviet Coach Ticked Off By Officials

<div class="byline">BY KARLO BERKOVICH Editorial Staff</div>If the Canada Cup was a sideshow, as Tommy Sandlin has suggested, then the Swedish coach wanted off the carousel after the round robin. Perhaps permanently.&ldquo;After this circus? Thanks, but this tournament can be for (tournament chairman Alan) Eagleson and his players,&rdquo; Sandlin steamed, before his team faced the Soviet Union in a suddendeath semi-final game in Hamilton.Sandlin, who termed the Canada Cup nothing more than a &ldquo;summer tournament&rdquo; before the event began, was even less complimentary when the round robin was over.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a joke,&rdquo; Sandlin said. &ldquo;This tournament isn&rsquo;t sport.&rdquo;Sandlin accused Eagleson of changing the playoff rules at Sweden&rsquo;s expense. saddling his club with a gruelling travel schedule, and skimping on meal money.Sandlin claimed third-place Sweden (3-2) should have faced the second-place Soviets (3-1-1) at the Montreal Forum, not Hamilton&rsquo;s Copps Coliseum.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;We&rsquo;re treated like animals. We&rsquo;re so tired.&rsquo;&mdash;Sandlin</blockquote>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big scandal,&rdquo; said Sandlin, who filed a protest with the tournament committee. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s written in the rules that the second- and third-place teams will play in Montreal. We&rsquo;re the third-place team. Canada and the Czechs should be in Hamilton. There are no rules at all, or Eagleson changes them.&rdquo;Eagleson was en route to Montreal for Team Canada&rsquo;s semi-final game against Czechoslovakia and could not be reached for comment.Fuelling Sandlin&rsquo;s fire was Sweden&rsquo;s schedule, the worst of any Cup participant. Sweden&rsquo;s five roundrobin games were played in Calgary, Hamilton, Regina. Montreal, and Sydney&mdash;in that order. Canada had the most favorable schedule, opening the tournament in Calgary before playing two games in Hamilton, one in Montreal, and its final round-robin match in Hamilton.Twice&mdash;against Czechoslovakia Sept. 2 in Regina, and against Finland Sept, 6 in Sydney, N.S.&mdash;Sweden arrived the day before a game to face a rested opponent. The semi-final followed the same scenario, when Sweden flew from Sydney to Hamilton to meet a Soviet team that had played Team Canada in Hamilton two nights earlier.That Sweden won both round-robin games played under those conditions did not placate Sandlin.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re treated like animals,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re so tired. We need a day off, and flying in the morning of our off day is not a day off. We&rsquo;re the world champions and we&rsquo;ve flown 9,000 kilometres (4,100 miles) across Canada&mdash;that&rsquo;s twice as much as Canada and the Russians.&rdquo;Under the circumstances, Sandlin was pleased with his team&rsquo;s effort. After shocking the Soviet Union 5-3 in its opener&mdash;Sweden&rsquo;s first victory over the USSR in tournament play since the 1977 World Championships&mdash;Sand-lin&rsquo;s team lost 5-2 to Team USA, beat Czechoslovakia 4-0, lost 5-3 to Canada and beat Finland 3-1 to qualify for medal play.All that was accomplished with five of the best Swedes in the NHL&mdash;Patrik Sundstrom. Tomas Sandstrom, Pelle Eklund, Jan Erixon and Thomas Steen&mdash;declining invitations to participate.&ldquo;We had one bad game, against the USA,&rdquo; Sandlin said, &ldquo;and that was after giving everything we had against the Russians and then flying from Calgary to Hamilton.&rdquo;And, Sandlin implied, this was all accomplished on empty stomachs. He said the per diem expense of $35 per player was not enough.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve paid our own money for food,&rdquo; Sandlin said. &ldquo;They give us $35 a day for food. That&rsquo;s not enough for hockey players. When we go to a tournament in Russia, the Russians help us by getting food we&rsquo;re used to.&rdquo;Sandlin claimed that the Finns and Czechoslovakians were voicing the same complaints. He predicted the Soviets would soon follow suit, especially after seeing them denied a power-play chance in their 3-3 tie with Team Canada.&ldquo;The referee (American Mike Noeth, an NHL official) was the worst I&rsquo;ve ever seen in international competition,&rdquo; Sandlin said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t think he was favoring the Canadians? But this is a Canadian tournament.&rdquo; &#9632;

Sweden’s Sandlin Sour On Canada Cup

<div class="byline">BY RUSS DOYLE</div>They blow hot. They blow cold. And no one knows just what to expect from Czechoslovakia&rsquo;s national team.In two words, the Czechoslovak national team is &ldquo;consistently inconsistent.&rdquo; And they&rsquo;ve been that way for some time now.But team officials, riding the high of back-to-back victories over Finland and the United States in Sydney, N.S., which put the Czechoslovaks up against Canada in one Canada Cup semi-final, believe they may well have turned the corner in becoming a consistent threat.At least that&rsquo;s how an optimistic coach Jan Starsi saw it after his team played a strong defensive game to beat the Americans 3-1, quashing U.S. hopes of advancing to tournament semi-final action. The U.S. had needed only a tie to advance at the expense of Czechoslovakia.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what it is,&rdquo; Starsi said. &ldquo;We just didn&rsquo;t play that well early in the tournament and things looked bleak. But I liked the way we played here. We came up with a good game against Finland (a 5-2 win) and we were, perhaps, at the top of our game against Team USA.&rdquo;That outcome wasn&rsquo;t surprising to Starsi or his players.Captain Dusan Pasek, whose second-period, power-play goal proved to be the winner against the Americans, saw it the same way.&ldquo;We knew we could beat them.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the type of hockey this team is capable of playing. It&rsquo;s only a matter of time before we will be able to do it on a more consistent basis.&rdquo;Starsi said his club will be a serious contender by the time the 1988 Winter Olympic Games are held in February at Calgary.&ldquo;This is the same team we had at the World Championships in Vienna (where the Czechoslovaks claimed a bronze medal) last year,&rdquo; Starsi said. &ldquo;There are but two changes in personnel.&ldquo;We came awfully close to winning the world title with this very same team. So we came with high expectations of doing well in this tournament.&ldquo;But we got off to such a slow start. I was pleased when we tied Team Canada 4-4 in the opening game at Calgary, but there&rsquo;s just no way of explaining what happened to us against the Soviets and Swedes in Regina (a pair of 4-0 losses). We just couldn&rsquo;t score any goals.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;That&rsquo;s the type of hockey this team is capable of playing.&rsquo;&mdash;Pasek</blockquote>Some of their inconsistency may be attributable to youth. The Czechoslovaks&rsquo; average age is just 23.6 years old, which is one reason why Starsi is hopeful the club will jell by February.&ldquo;We can play hockey with all of these teams,&rdquo; Starsi added. &ldquo;We tied Canada 4-4 in Calgary and could have come away with a win. And we were just not ourselves against the Soviets and the Swedes. They (the Soviets and Swedes) both know that and I&rsquo;m sure they wouldn&rsquo;t take us lightly at another time.&ldquo;And after the way we played this weekend (against Finland and the U.S.), all of those other teams will be giving us respect as well.&rdquo;He already has it from Team USA head coach Bob Johnson, who saw no disgrace in being eliminated at the hands of the Czechoslovaks.&ldquo;They (the Czechoslovaks) stepped up the pace and we just couldn&rsquo;t keep up,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s awfully difficult for us to play well at that tempo but they can do it.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01545/5176190-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="574" height="932"><figcaption class="caption-body">Czechoslovak captain Dusan Pasek scored the winning goal against Team USA.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Czechoslovaks’ Goal Is Consistency

<div class="byline">BY JAY GREENBERG</div>The hands that built America continued to fail its hockey players.In so many ways, Team USA was a trophy case for the development of the sport in the United States. Twenty years ago there was exactly one American playing in the NHL. The first U.S. Canada Cup team in 1976 did not have two handfuls of major-league players.This time, coach Bob Johnson was able to select from 102 players who had seen at least one shift in the NHL last season. He had two Vezina Trophy-winning goalies, a rookie of the year, a Norris Trophy winner (top defenseman) and a full complement of role players. Team USA was strong enough and smart enough to play with any of the six best hockey-playing countries in the world and, with a break or two, was capable of beating any of them.And yet for all its fundamental improvement, Team USA&rsquo;s failure to reach the semi-finals was as basic as the game itself: The team that shoots the puck into the goal the most times wins.Team USA, deficient of world-class offensive stars, couldn&rsquo;t do that. Not consistently enough anyway, to be any more than a hard night&rsquo;s work for Canada and the Soviets. After winning its first two games and jumping to a 1-0 lead over Canada following one period of the third, Johnson&rsquo;s team scored exactly three goals the rest of the tournament.Typically, when it ended for them Sept. 6 in Sydney, N.S., the Americans were on a power play, had the goalie pulled, and still couldn&rsquo;t buy their way past the Czechoslovakians. The last semi-final spot disappeared to their opponents, who were worthy 3-1 winners.Team USA was eliminated in the same virtual secrecy with which it was conceived, before 4,463 Canadians and almost no American attention. Few in the U.S. understood the significance of the Canada Cup or the wonderful calibre of the hockey played in it, largely because the media were directing their attention elsewhere.Make no mistake however, about any of the apathy infecting the team. The match with Canada, a ceremonial scrimmage between two countries whose players share a common league, produced about 30 facial stitches and nationalistic name-calling on the ice. It was played at almost rage level. This may account for why the Americans behaved so poorly afterward, but does not excuse it.Without shame, and without a great deal of logic, they dumped on Finnish referee Karl-Gustav Kaisla, pointing out the discrepancy in power-play opportunities (nine to six) and a marginal penalty called on Curt Fraser just as they were getting ready to pull their goalie.All the while, the Americans refused to acknowldge that Kaisla, who ignored the obvious Gary Suter hook that allowed Pat LaFontaine to take the puck in alone for a goal, had practically given them a 1-0 lead.The Americans showed up with an underdog&rsquo;s mentality and a chip on their shoulder. They won the one game they figured towin (over Finland), lost the two they figured to lose (to Canada and the Soviets), and went 1-1 in the two games (with the Swedes and Czechoslovaks) that figured to make or break them.They lost the last three games primarily because those were the toughest games on their schedule. They didn&rsquo;t choke and they didn&rsquo;t run out of gas. It was just that they were running on low octane from the beginning.Joey Mullen, their one world-class sniper, missed the Canada game with a knee problem.&ldquo;We need a break,&rdquo; Johnson had said after the 5-1 loss to the Soviets. &ldquo;A puck to bounce off a leg, and go in.&rdquo;An idealist would say the difference between the 3-1-1 mark the U.S. ran up in the 1984 tournament and the 2-3 record this time, was that kind of goal. A realist, however, would say this team died because it was too dependent on bounces that didn&rsquo;t come. &#9632;

U.S. Better Only On Paper. Not On Ice

<div class="byline">BY KARLO BERKOVICH Editorial Staff</div>Hopeful expectations dissolved into unfulfilled potential for Finland at the Canada Cup.Boasting a lineup of 13 players with NHL experience&mdash;including Jari Kurri, Esa Tikkanen, Petri Skriko, Mikko Makela and Christian Ruuttu&mdash;more was expected of the Finns than an 0-5 record.Probably the most talented group of Finnish players ever assembled, the team produced Finland&rsquo;s worst round-robin record in three Canada Cup appearances. Finland&rsquo;s victory total over three tournaments remains one&mdash;an 8-6 shootout over Scandinavian rival Sweden in 1976. Finland was 0-4-1 in I981,and didn&rsquo;t participate in 1984.&ldquo;I would put it this way,&rdquo; said assistant coach Juhani Tamminen, &ldquo;we lacked the peak play which we had to have to do well.&rdquo;Instead, the Canada Cup was Death Valley for Finland. And much of its poor showing could be traced to the ineffectiveness of NHLers who were expected to provide spark and leadership.Though the NHL veterans on the Finnish side contributed six of the nine goals the team scored, and 16 of the 22 scoring points, key individuals did not come through.Conspicuous among them were Kurri and Tikkanen, who skate on Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s right and left side, respectively, for the Edmonton Oilers.Kurri, who scored 54 goals and 54 assists last season, and has scored 71 and 68 goals in previous NHL years, managed just one goal and an assist in five games.Tikkanen, who scored 34 goals and 44 assists for the Oilers last season, had one assist in the tournament.Those are damning figures, and the implication is that the pair&rsquo;s production depends on splendid centerman Gretzky.The Edmonton duo began the tournament on the same line, flanking former Oiler and Boston Bruin center Matti Hagman. The unit was ineffective, and Hagman was replaced by Janne Ojanen. That move provided no im-provement, and resulted in an overhaul that saw Kurri placed with Vancouver Canuck left winger Skriko and Buffalo Sabre center Christian Ruuttu.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;The problem was that the players put tremendous press ure on themselves.&rsquo;&mdash;Tamminen</blockquote>Of the NHL veterans on the Finnish team. Ruuttu and goaltender Kari Takko were the most impressive. Ruuttu boosted his Sabre stock with two goals and two assists, but Skriko, a 33-goal man with Vancouver, managed just one assist. Makela had a goal and an assist.Still, Tamminen wouldn&rsquo;t criticize his team.&ldquo;The problem was that the players put tremendous pressure on themselves,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There was huge interest and hope back home and much was expected. We thought that if everything clicked, we would make the top four&mdash;but we realized this was a two-way league of Canada and the Soviet Union, then the rest.&rdquo;Finland was the worst of the rest. The lethargic Finns played Carl Lewis to the opposition&rsquo;s Ben Johnson&mdash;they were left in the starting blocks.&ldquo;We always played lousy in the beginning,&rdquo; said Tamminen. &ldquo;Everybody seemed to have a 2-0 lead on us early in the game.&rdquo;Finland never led in any game, and usually trailed early. Canada was up 2-0 after five minutes en route to a 4-1 win. The Soviet Union opened up a 2-0 lead after 2:51 and won 7-4. Czechoslovakia led 2-0 after 9:40 of a 5-2 win, and Sweden jumped into a 1-0 lead after 10:38 of a 3-1 decision. The Finns held Team USA scoreless for a period, but collapsed when the Americans scored twice in the first seven minutes of the third to ice a 4-1 win.&ldquo;We were falling asleep in the first 10 minutes,&rdquo; Kurri said after the Team Canada game. &ldquo;We eventually started playing but it was always too late. We were missing something. Maybe we weren&rsquo;t ready.&rdquo;That was an apt summation of Finland&rsquo;s efforts throughout the tournament. &#9632;

Poor Starts Led To A Terrible Finnish

<div class="byline">COMPILED BY KARLO BERKOVICH Editorial Staff</div>Before the Canada Cup began. Team USA coach Bob Johnson said his power play had to succeed for the Americans to contend.Well, the power play was perfect&mdash;perfectly bad. as the Americans failed to convert even one of their 19 man-advantage opportunities.Team USA finished fifth and out of the playoffs with a 2-3 record.In the game the Americans had to at least tie, with Czechoslovakia in the final round-robin game, Team USA went 0-for-6 on the power play.Canada&rsquo;s power play (6-for-23) came to life in the last three games, converting five of 14 chances. The Soviets were also clicking, scoring on three of five chances after going 0-for-10 in their first two games.Other power-play totals were Sweden (4-for-20), Czechoslovakia (2-for-20) and Finland (2-for-19).Four shorthanded goals were scored in the round robin&mdash;three by the Soviet Union and one by Czechoslovakia. Vladimir Krutov had two for the Soviets and Sergei Svetlov the other. Jiri Hrdina did it for Czechoslovakia.<h2>NO. 1 AGAIN</h2>Wayne Gretzky has led the individual scoring race in every Canada Cup he&rsquo;s played, and he was in his accustomed position after round-robin play.After a slow start, Gretzky picked up two goals and six assists in Team Canada&rsquo;s final three games, giving him two goals and eight assists heading into the tournament semi-finals.No. 99 was No. I in scoring at both the 1981 and 1984 events.Team Canada teammate Mario Lemieux was second in scoring with five goals and three assists. Gretzky had assists on four of Lemieux&rsquo;s goals. Third in the scoring race was Sergei Makarov of the Soviet Union, with four goals and three assists.<h2>BADGERING THE REF</h2>It wouldn&rsquo;t be international hockey without someone carping about the refereeing.Team USA coach Bob Johnson badgered Finland&rsquo;s Karl-Gustav Kaisla following a 3-2 round-robin loss to Team Canada in Hamilton. But John D&rsquo;Amico, who worked the game along with fellow NHL linesman Kevin Collins, came to the referee&rsquo;s defense. Sort of.&ldquo;He did the job adequately for what he could do,&rdquo; said D&rsquo;Amico. &ldquo;The foreign referees can&rsquo;t compare to an NHL ref, but it&rsquo;s difficult for them when they&rsquo;re not accustomed to a chippy game. He&rsquo;s more used to a game between two European teams, or a North American team against a European team.&rdquo;<h2>BREWERY BLUES</h2>It was bad enough that most American television viewers couldn&rsquo;t tune in to Canada Cup games&mdash;but they couldn&rsquo;t even watch same-day highlights of games until a sports announcer blew the suds off Labatt&rsquo;s Breweries, the Cup&rsquo;s major sponsor.TV Labatt, the production arm of Labatt&rsquo;s Breweries, had imposed a 72hour embargo on broadcast of game highlights in the United States and Europe, in an effort to stop the pirating that occurred during the 1984 Cup.But the ban was rescinded for Team USA games, plus the Cup semi-finals and finals, when ESPN anchorman Tom Mees ridiculed TV Labatt policy on the air.Labatt&rsquo;s got the hint and lifted the ban Sept. I, in time for highlights of Team USA&rsquo;s 3-2 loss to Team Canada on Sept. 2. &#9632;

USA Powerless To Stop Elimination

<h2>CANADA CUP</h2><h3>ROUND-ROBIN FINAL STANDINGS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01503/5176377-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="555" height="193"></div><h3>PRE TOURNAMENT GAMES</h3>SUN. AUG. 9CANADA 7, CDN. OLYMPIC TEAM 1MON. AUG. 10CANADA 12, CDN. OLYMPIC TEAM 1THU. AUG. 13CANADA 3, UNITED STATES 2FRI. AUG. 14USA 3, US OLYMPIC TEAM 1MON. AUG. 17CANADA 3, UNITED STATES 0WED. AUG. 19CANADA 7, UNITED STATES 6THU. AUG. 20CANADA 11, UNITED STATES 2SAT. AUG 22SOVIET UNION 9, CANADA 4SUN. AUG. 23CANADA 4, CZECHOSLOVAKIA 2CDN. OLYMPIC TEAM 4, FINLAND 1MON. AUG. 24CDN. OLYMPIC TEAM 5, SWEDEN 5USA 5, US OLYMPIC TEAM 2TUE. AUG. 25CANADA 5, SOVIET UNION 2CZECHOSLOVAKIA 6, FINLAND 1WED. AUG. 26SWEDEN 5, CDN OLYMPIC TEAM 4TOURNAMENT GAMESFRI. AUG. 28USA 4, FINLAND 1CANADA 4, CZECHOSLOVAKIA 4SAT. AUG. 29SWEDEN 5, SOVIET UNION 3SUN. AUG. 30CANADA 4, FINLAND 1MON. AUG. 31SOVIET UNION 4, CZECHOSLOVAKIA 0USA 5, SWEDEN 2 WED. SEPT. 2CANADA 3, USA 2SWEDEN 4, CZECHOSLOVAKIA 0SOVIET UNION 7, FINLAND 4FRI. SEPT. 4SOVIET UNION 5, USA 1CANADA 5, SWEDEN 3CZECHOSLOVAKIA 5, FINLAND 2SUN. SEPT. 6CANADA 3, SOVIET UNION 3CZECHOSLOVAKIA 3, USA 1SWEDEN 3, FINLAND 1(END OF REGULAR TOURNAMENT)PLAYOFF ROUNDSEMI-FINALSTUE. SEPT. 8SWEDEN VS SOVIET UNION(AT HAMILTON)WED. SEPT. 9CZECHOSLOVAKIA VS CANADA(AT MONTREAL)CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS(BEST-OF-THREE)FRI. SEPT. 11FIRST GAME AT MONTREALSUN. SEPT. 13SECOND GAME AT HAMILTONTUE. SEPT. 14THIRD GAME AT HAMILTON(IF NECESSARY)<h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02378/5176370-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="540" height="294"></div><h2>Fri. Aug. 28</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03302/5176363-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="580" height="1038"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04222/5176356-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="597" height="294"></div><h2>Sat. Aug. 29</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05177/5176349-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="567" height="588"></div><h2>Sun. Aug. 30</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06155/5176342-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="566" height="551"></div><h2>Mon. Aug. 31</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-13121/5176335-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="573" height="123"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07147/5176328-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="576" height="1176"></div><h2>Wed. Sept. 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08142/5176321-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="579" height="420"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09136/5176314-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="570" height="1650"></div><h2>Fri. Sept. 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10133/5176307-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="573" height="1839"></div><h2>Sun. Sept. 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11129/5176300-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="576" height="1647"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-12124/5176293-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="1797" height="1800"><figcaption class="caption-body">Team Canada&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux embraces teammates Ray Bourque (7) and Wayne Gretzky (hidden from view) after scoring his third goal to give the Canadians a 3-2 win over the U.S. on Sept. 2.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

SCOREBOARD

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01437/5176408-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="173" height="129"></div>MONCTON, N. B.&mdash;The coach of Winnipeg&rsquo;s new American League franchise in Moncton would like to set the record straight: Even though he was bom in this city, his current tour of duty is no homecoming.&ldquo;People here look at me and say, &lsquo;You lived here,&rsquo;&rdquo; Rick Bowness said. &ldquo;But I never lived here. I was bom here.&rdquo;Bowness was born in Moncton in January, 1955, while his dad, Bob, played for Moncton Hawks of the Maritime Senior League. The season ended a few months later and Bowness&rsquo; family returned home to Halifax.Save a couple of visits to relatives, this is Bowness&rsquo; first time back in Moncton.The symbolism is there, however. Bowness is starting a new career in his birthplace. And ironically, the team he&rsquo;s coaching has the same name as the one his dad played on 32 years ago.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t get carried away with those things,&rdquo; Bowness said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to be here, but I wanted this job regardless of where Winnipeg had its farm team.&rdquo;In fact, when Winnipeg announced this spring it was abandoning its dual affiliation with Montreal at Sher-brooke, Bowness immediately applied for the job.&ldquo;When this came up, I jumped at it,&rdquo; said Bowness, a Winnipeg assistant coach the last four years. &ldquo;It was something I felt I needed if I wanted to get into coaching.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to be an assistant coach. You can sit back and watch others make decisions. It&rsquo;s a lot tougher to make them yourself.&rdquo;And it was tough for Jet general manager John Ferguson and coach Dan Maloney to let Bowness go.&ldquo;They preferred I stay in Winnipeg,&rdquo; Bowness said. &ldquo;But they weren&rsquo;t going to stand in my way. I want to win, and develop players for Winnipeg in a winning atmosphere. That&rsquo;s my role as a coach.&rdquo;Technically, this is Bowness&rsquo; second stint as a head coach. In 198283, he served as player-coach for the last-place Sherbrooke Jets, after coach Ron Racette was stricken with a brain tumor.&ldquo;I was the oldest guy on the team,&rdquo; Bowness said, &ldquo;and so they asked me to be the player-coach for two months and then Ron would come back. But Ron was too sick. I finished the year as player-coach, but I looked upon myself more as a player.&rdquo;Bowness&rsquo; situation is different this time.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t committed to coaching then,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough as a player to think as a coach, and I was still thinking as a player. I didn&rsquo;t get the feel for coaching.&rdquo;Racette, who has since died, returned to coach the following season, and Bowness was one his players. But his ninth season of pro hockey didn&rsquo;t last too long.Bowness was offered a job as Winnipeg&rsquo;s assistant coach in midNovember by Barry Long, who had replaced the fired Tom Watt.&ldquo;Over that summer I had a chance to re-evaluate what happened that winter,&rdquo; Bowness said. &ldquo;The next season I was in the minors and it dawned on me that I was bored playing in the minors.&ldquo;I wanted to get into coaching. I wanted a new challenge and I wanted a career change.&rdquo;His experience behind the bench at Sherbrooke and Winnipeg will help Bowness, one of six first-year head coaches in the Northern Division.&ldquo;Running the bench during the games will be the biggest challenge,&rdquo; Bowness said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to sit up in the stands and second-guess. But when you&rsquo;re in the heat of the action, your decisions become more important.&ldquo;That&rsquo;ll be the biggest adjustment. But, since I was behind the bench in Winnipeg, I have a feel for it.&rdquo;AROUND THE LEAGUE&mdash;Defenseman Peter Dineen signed to play with the Adirondack Red Wings, who are coached by his dad. Bill Dineen-&hellip;Boston Bruins are trying to work out a deal with the New Jersey Devils to keep center Steve Tsujiura in Maine. Tsujiura signed a three-year contract last season with the Devils, who moved their farm team to Utica during the off-season. Boston moved to Portland, where Tsujiura has played four of the last five seasons&hellip;Rochester center Gates Orlando, a free agent with compensation, will play in Italy this season. Based on Buffalo&rsquo;s contract offer, compensation for Orlando is a third-round draft pick&hellip;Rochester&rsquo;s Calder Cup championship is paying huge dividends at the box office. The team has sold more than 3,000 season tickets, a franchise record, with a shot at 3,500. The Amerks have led the AHL in attendance the last five seasons&hellip;Rochester defenseman Richie Dunn, an AHL all-star two of the last three years, has agreed to sign with Buffalo. &#9632;

f0037-01

The Minors

Coaching Job Lets Bowness Call Own Shots

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02314/5176439-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="151" height="130"></div>INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;With a summer of turmoil behind him, International League commissioner Bud Poile has reason to be optimistic.The league won one franchise battle when the Fort Wayne Komets were rescued by new ownership, but lost another when the Indianapolis Checkers were placed on the shelf by owner Larry Woods. &lsquo;Poile and Indianapolis fans, whose attendance boosted the Checkers to No. 1 in the 1HL, were disappointed at the Checkers&rsquo; demise.But since then, things have been looking rosy. The upcoming season could be the most significant in the 43-year history of the league.This is the year the IHL will be aiming to solidify its credibility.Six of nine teams now have primary National Hockey League affiliations. And that number could grow next season, if other NHL teams opt for &lsquo;The I.&rsquo;The biggest change this season is at Salt Lake City, where the defending Turner Cup-champion Golden Eagles will have a new look on the ice as well as in operations.Salt Lake&rsquo;s green-and-gold uniforms will be replaced by the red, white and gold colors of Calgary. The Flames have made Salt Lake their No. 1 developmental club.In addition, Calgary has assigned former Flame defenseman Paul Baxter to coach. Baxter, 31, a player-coach with the Flames last season, retired after 13 seasons in the NHL.It will be the first time in three seasons Salt Lake has had a primary NHL affiliation. As a member of the defunct Central League, the Golden Eagles worked with St. Louis.Salt Lake general manager Marc Amicone said he&rsquo;s pleased with the present arrangements.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s no secret the Golden Eagles have struggled,&rdquo; he observed, adding that Salt Lake is headed &ldquo;back toward being the top club in professional hockey outside the NHL.&rdquo;Minnesota are in Kalamazoo with former NHL winger John Marks as coach, Chicago is in Saginaw, and the Flame GM Cliff Fletcher is happy about joining the IHL.&ldquo;The IHL is going to go from a single-A to triple-A league,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The North Stars, Blackhawks, Rangers, Blues and Penguins will all have their top farm clubs in the IHL and more could come next year. This league will be stronger and more successful than the CHL.&rdquo;New York Rangers are supporting the IHL&rsquo;s newest franchise in Denver, the Colorado Rangers. Peter Mahovlich, who coached at Toledo two years ago, is the Ranger coach.St. Louis is continuing its affiliation with Peoria, which is also getting help from the New York Islanders. Pitt-sburgh&rsquo;s primary working agreement is with Muskegon.Saginaw, incidentally, has changed its team name from the Generals to Hawks.The remaining IHL teams figure to gets lots of support from the NHL. Milwaukee are looking to Edmonton, Hartford, Boston and Toronto for player help; Flint is working with Philadelphia, Detroit, Buffalo and Vancouver; and Fort Wayne is maintaining its association with Washington.Milwaukee, Flint and Fort Wayne, the league&rsquo;s three independent franchises, could also strengthen their 198788 rosters by adding former Checker players who became free agents with the suspension of Indianapolis&rsquo; franchise.&ldquo;There are some real gunners on that list,&rdquo; Poile said.Among them are Ron Handy, the league&rsquo;s No. 2 scorer last season; winger Bob Lakso, a 40-goal scorer; and hard-working center Todd Bjork-strand. Also available will be goaltender Mike Zanier.Poile said he sees progress and promise for the upcoming season, but he&rsquo;s already looking further ahead.&ldquo;We hope that, by our semi-annual meeting in February, we have the Indianapolis situation resolved,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And things look pretty good concerning a franchise in Kansas City next year.&rdquo;I-LITES&mdash;Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks are slated to play an NHL exhibition game Oct. 1 at the Tucson (Ariz.) Community Center. Phoenix businessman Jack Donovan, who is sponsoring the game, originally planned to play the game in Phoenix, but the ice plant in Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum isn&rsquo;t working. That problem prevented a recent attempt by Donovan to secure an expansion franchise for the upcoming season. But Donovan said he still hopes to bring a minor-league team to Arizona in the near future. &#9632;

f0037-02

IHL’s Future Looks Promising To Poile

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01511/5176470-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="584" height="896"><figcaption class="caption-body">Big defenseman Marc Laforge was dealt to Sudbury from the Kingston Canadians.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02403/5176477-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="176" height="132"></div>KINGSTON, Ont.&mdash;For the Kingston Canadians, it was just another month at the office.The Canadians lost their first draft choice, thought they had lost their coach, pulled off a couple of trades and found their top defenseman embroiled in an embarrassing off-ice fiasco.In late August, Canadians&rsquo; general manager Gord Wood was informed by Gary Widmeyer&mdash;the father of Kings-ton&rsquo;s No. 1 draft pick, Steven Widmeyer&mdash;that Steven would not be reporting to the Ontario League team, despite previous assurances to the contrary.Wood was irate over the loss of. Widmeyer, chosen from Dartmouth, N.S.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve spent a lot of money on that boy already,&rdquo; he fumed. &ldquo;He told us if we took him in the first round he would definitely report. He signed a form stating he would play with us. But as soon as he got home and thought about it, he changed his mind when those people from Saskatchewan called.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe what he has done. I guess some people just don&rsquo;t have any honor anymore.&rdquo;Widmeyer, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound right winger, has enrolled in Notre Dame College at Wilcox, Sask., where he plans to complete his Grade 12 education and play Tier II junior hockey for the Hounds.The elder Widmeyer said his son&rsquo;s decision had nothing to do with Wood or the Canadians. He said the move was based on the difference in education laws between Ontario, Saskatchewan and his home province of Nova Scotia.In both Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan, students may enter university directly from Grade 12. In Ontario, completion of Grade 13 is required.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t ruled Kingston out for next season,&rdquo; said Widmeyer. &ldquo;Basically, Steven wants to get his Grade 12 out of the way and, at the same time, play hockey at a higher level and keep his U.S. college scholarship eligibility open.&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t want to play AAA midget here in Nova Scotia again, and there are no higher leagues. Steven felt that, all things considered, his best bet at this time would be Saskatchewan.&rdquo;The younger Widmeyer was the sixth overall selection in the 1987 priority selection draft.Two other high draft choices of the Canadians have also made tracks, but via the trade route.Wood, entering his first season as Kingston GM after a 14-year career with the Cornwall Royals which yielded three Memorial Cups, spent a busy summer in the talent marketplace.Wood swapped former first-round choices with the Hamilton Steelhawks, giving away 6-foot-2, 190-pound right winger Chad Badawey (16-13-29 in 66 games last year) for 5-foot-10, 180-pound center Brad Gratton (18-19-37 in 59).Then, in a deal with the North Bay Centennials, Wood exchanged 6-foot-3, 195-pound center Sloan Torti (4-1-5 in 58), Kingston&rsquo;s second pick behind Badawey a year ago, for center Darcy Cahill (7-19-26 in 52).Cahill, North Bay&rsquo;s first pick in 1986, is a 5-foot-11,168-pound native of Kingston.Trading size for speed has been Wood&rsquo;s project since taking over the Canadians. Before the May 30 draft, Wood dealt Marc Laforge, an aggressive 6-foot-2, 210-pound defenseman (2-10-12 in 53) who has racked up 720 penalty minutes in three OHL seasons, to the Sudbury Wolves, for 5-foot-10, 180-pound left winger Mark Turner (20-33-53 in 63).While he was settling on players, Wood wasn&rsquo;t sure he was going to have a coach this year.Wood hired ex-Quebec League and European mentor Jacques Tremblay in late July, after failing to secure Orval Tessier from Cornwall.Before Tremblay had a chance to move his family to Kingston, however, Wood heard that a Quebec-based college team had hired a coach named Jacques Tremblay.When Wood was unable to contact his own new coach, he feared the worst. A few days later, he finally reached Tremblay by telephone. The coach assured him he was going to Kingston, and that there was another Jacques Tremblay coaching in Quebec.&ldquo;I was thinking about sending the Mounties out after him,&rdquo; Wood laughed.He must have stopped laughing when he heard that his top defensemen, Bryan Fogarty, was one of four Ontario Leaguers sent home from the Canadian national junior team camp in Ottawa, for off-ice indiscretions.The others were goalie Shawn Simpson of Sault Ste. Marie, defenseman Bryan Marchment of Belleville and center Kent Hawley of Ottawa. The four missed the final scrimmage and meal after an incident the night before camp broke. (For more, see Page 3.)NOTEBOOK&mdash;Kingston wasn&rsquo;t the only team to receive news that a high pick wasn&rsquo;t going to report. Jim Solly, a center from the St. Catharines Jr. Bs, advised the Windsor Spitfires that he was going to bypass them in order to maintain his college eligibility. Solly was the Spitfires&rsquo; second pick, 27th overall, in the 1987 draft&hellip;The Belleville Bulls, stung by the retirement of 19-year-old goalie Paul Henriques, were pursuing Hamilton Steelhawk overage netminder Mark Gowans. Hamilton coach-general manager Bill LaForge said he has been advised by the Detroit Red Wings to expect Gowans back from their NHL camp. But LaForge is content with 19-year-old Mike Rosati as the No. 1 man and said he wants to groom a younger goalie as his back-up&hellip;Last week, THN reported that OHL teams will be dropping the Cooperall long pants in favor of traditional short pants, for the regular season. What wasn&rsquo;t mentioned is that players will be wearing Cooperall-brand short pants. &#9632;

f0038-01

The Juniors

Top Draft Pick Jilts OHL For Notre Dame

<h2>TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE&hellip;</h2>1. Name the NHL player who was the first to score more assists than goals.2. Name the four current NHL teams to possess winning records in Stanley Cup play.3. Name the only remaining member of the Atlanta Flames on the 1987-88 Calgary Flame roster.4. Who held the NHL record for most assists by a defenseman before Bobby Orr?5. Name the 1975 first-round draft choice of the Montreal Canadiens who retired from hockey to become a fireman.6. Name the player who finished fifth in scoring and was named rookie of the year in the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s last year of existence?7. What was Tony Esposito&rsquo;s first NHL team?8. When was the last time the Boston Bruins won a playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens?9. Two unrelated NHLers with the same last name, Lloyd (194647) and John Doran (1933-40), also shared what nickname in common?10. Name the man who won five consecutive Vezina Trophies, from 1956 to 1960.<h2>ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ</h2>1. Eddie Gerard, 1918-19. 2. Edmonton, Philadelphia, Montreal and New York Islanders. 3. Paul Reinhart. 4. Pierre Pilote. 5. Robin Sadler. 6. Wayne Gretzky. 7. Montreal Canadiens. 8. 1943. 9. Red. 10. Jacques Plante. BONUS ANSWER: Jiri Crha.BONUS QUESTION<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03324/5176508-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="552" height="912"><figcaption class="caption-body">BONUS: The Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; first Czechoslovakian player, he shared goaltending duties with Mike Palmateer.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0038-03

THN HOCKEY TRIVIA

<div class="byline">BY GREGG DRINNAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01481/5176546-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="589" height="962"><figcaption class="caption-body">Moose Jaw&rsquo;s Gerald Bzdel says the Eastern Division is better than the Western.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02331/5176553-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="176" height="129"></div>LETHBRIDGE, Alta.&mdash;How does the new head coach of a fledgling major junior hockey franchise spend his summer?Well, if he&rsquo;s Glen Hawker of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, he beats the bushes, aiming to recruit young players for his program.&ldquo;I got a car from a dealer here in town and it just rolled over the 10,000 (kilometre) mark,&rdquo; said Hawker. &ldquo;Actually, I was a little embarrassed the other day. I was at a Rotary Club luncheon and they introduced me to the dealer whose car I have been driving all over the country.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s what happens when the franchise you&rsquo;re in control of has missed the playoffs the last two seasons, and the situation has resulted in the team moving to another city.Formerly the Calgary Wranglers, the Hurricanes took up residence in Lethbridge following the 1986-87 season. Hawker was hired to get the organization back on its feet.He has his work cut out for him. Calgary stood 13th in the 14-team WHL in goals scored last season, while giving up 5.42 goals a game. The returnees, Hawker estimated, had only 85 goals between them.&ldquo;Over 72 games, you&rsquo;d have to win a lot of 1-0 games with that kind of offense,&rdquo; he said.The franchise lost five of its six leading pivotmen from last season. The top returnee is Bryan Bosch, an 18-year-old center, who had 12 goals and 55 points as a rookie last winter.Hawker was expecting in the neighborhood of 60 players to show up for training camp in Coaldale, Alta., about 20 of those with some WHL experience.&ldquo;Some of the stability is gone,&rdquo; said Hawker. Gone are Terry Houlder, Terry Zaporzan, Mark Tinordi and Ken Spangler, four players who totaled 16 WHL seasons between them.&ldquo;This is the year we&rsquo;ll have to go with some of the young players. Hopefully, we&rsquo;ll be able to make a few trades and acquire some goals and some leadership. But not at the expense of the future.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping Greg Leahy will score, and we know Bosch can score. And we&rsquo;ll have a lot of kids in their draft year so we&rsquo;re hoping they&rsquo;ll mature.&rdquo;Pat Pylypuik and Mark Greig could play huge roles. Pylypuik, a defenseman, and Greig, a center, missed the Hurricanes&rsquo; rookie camp but Hawker wasn&rsquo;t upset. The two youngsters were with Team Pacific, an under-17 team that was touring Czechoslovakia.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03238/5176539-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="576" height="958"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lethbridge will have to make do without the likes of high-scoring Terry Houlder.</figcaption></div>The No. 1 goaltender should be Grant McPhail, a veteran of two seasons in Calgary who had a 4.98 goals-against average last season. Hawker said McPhail &ldquo;has been in the situation the last couple of seasons with a team that didn&rsquo;t make the playoffs and he deserves the opportunity to be a starter. I think he&rsquo;ll mature with that opportunity.&rdquo;While the Hurricanes may have to wait a season or two before they&rsquo;re a hit on the ice, it appears that they will do fine at the gate. As August turned into September, the season-ticket count was heading toward 1,000.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got the cash for between 700 and 800,&rdquo; said Hawker, &ldquo;and we&rsquo;ve got commitments for 900 and all that&rsquo;s on the initial excitement of getting the franchise.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s quite a switch for this Alberta city, which let its first WHL franchise, the Broncos, slip away and relocate in Swift Current.As Hawker said: &ldquo;They&rsquo;re bound on doing it right this time.&rdquo;WESTERN ROUNDUP&mdash;In the first major trade of the new season, the Seattle Thunderbirds and Moose Jaw Warriors moved three defensemen, all of whom have reputations as defensive specialists. Moose Jaw acquired Gerald Bzdel, 19, and a player to be named later for Neil Pilon, 20, and Corey Beaulieu, 18. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s good to be back in the Eastern Division,&rdquo; said Bzdel, who was dealt from the Regina Pats to Seattle last season. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s better hockey out here.&rdquo; Bzdel, whose uncle Jim Bzdel scouts for the Toronto Maple Leafs, was selected by the Quebec Nordiques in the fifth round of the 1986 draft, while Pilon, a four-year veteran, was picked by the New York Rangers in the seventh round in 1985. &#9632;

f0039-01

New GM Hawker In Eye Of The Hurricane

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04195/5176584-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="177" height="131"></div>VICTORIAVILLE, Que.&mdash;The Longueuil Chevaliers have moved from Jean Beliveau Colisee in the Montreal suburbs to an arena in the ex-Montreal Canadien great&rsquo;s hometown of Victoriaville.The NHL Old Pros Association, owner of the defending Quebec League-champion Chevaliers, transferred the franchise to the Colisee de Bois Francs in Victoriaville, just three weeks before training camp.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe that Gilles Lupien and Bunny Larocque did in three weeks what is usually done in a few months,&rdquo; said Guy Chouinard, coach of the team now known as the Victoriaville Tigres.Old Pros Lupien (also the Tigres&rsquo; vice-president) and Bob Sirois organized the transfer with Chouinard and general manager Larocque.Why the move?&ldquo;The main reason was that there was no support from the fans in Lon-gueuil,&rdquo; said Sirois, a right winger with the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers from 1974 to 1981. &ldquo;There were 2,500 seats but only 600 or 700 were good ones. The rink wasn&rsquo;t well located and people didn&rsquo;t identify as part of the city. The city didn&rsquo;t help us much.&rdquo;Despite a strong season which saw the Chevaliers win the LeBel Division and league titles, and advance to the Memorial Cup tournament, the team averaged only 1,000 fans a game. There were crowds of just 800 in the playoffs.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had more than that at regular practices (in Victoriaville),&rdquo; said Gilles Marotte, a former Victoriaville junior defenseman who played 13 years with four NHL clubs. Marotte coached the Tigres&rsquo; intra-squad game before 1,100 spectators. The team&rsquo;s first exhibition match, a 12-1 romp over the Granby Bisons Aug. 28, drew 1,200.The Tigres five-year-old rink seats close to 2,200 fans and can hold almost 4,000.&ldquo;We sold more than 600 season tickets in a little over two weeks, and we expect to sell another 400 before the season starts,&rdquo; Sirois said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to start the season with some money in the bank.&rdquo;One of the Tigres&rsquo; first supporters was ex-Buffalo Sabre star Gilbert Perreault, a Victoriaville native who bought four season tickets the second day they were available. Perreault, a member of the Old Pros, may become active in some capacity with the Tigres.The Old Pros, an oldtimers&rsquo; team which raises funds for charities, is still counting up the losses in Longueuil. It expects them to be between $75,000 and $150,000 for the season and a half the team played there.After talking with several cities, including St-Hyacinthe, St-Jerome, and Valleyfield, the Old Pros signed a contract with Victoriaville for two years and an option year. Victoriaville, about 80 miles east of Montreal, has a population of 31,000 and drawing area of about 50,000.One of the city&rsquo;s best known landmarks was its hockey stick factory, which burned down in January. The QMJHL centers of Drummondville, Trois-Rivieres and Shawinigan are less than an hour away.&ldquo;We wanted to stay around Montreal because we drafted a lot of American and Maritime kids,&rdquo; Sirois said. &ldquo;But Victoriaville made us the best offer. We got the free use of the arena, we don&rsquo;t pay the 10 per-cent entertainment tax, we sell all of our own publicity and use the administrative services of the arena.&rdquo;Added Chouinard: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun to be in a place where you know the people are responding to you. We had 700 or 800 fans in Longueuil who would come to every game, but we didn&rsquo;t draw new faces.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have the team we had last year and it will be tough at the start. But we have a good nucleus.&rdquo;Expected to return are Yves Racine, Alex Fortin and Guy Darveau on defense, right winger Jean-Marc Routhier, and centers Real Godin, Steve Paiement and Daniel Gauthier.Among the newcomers is No. 1 draft Stephen Fiset, winner of the Ken Dryden Trophy as the Quebec midget AAA league&rsquo;s most talented goaltender last year. Center Reggie Savage, who led the Richelieu Riverains to the Air Canada Cup national midget championship, will also join the team.Gone are defenseman Mark McLane of Charlottetown, and right wingers Todd Kohler of Detroit and Mark Carlson of Philadelphia, all traded to the Hull Olympiques for left winger Dominic Emond and two Hull-affiliated players, center Richard Hamel and defenseman Eric Moran. The move was made to accommodate the ex-Chevs&rsquo; wishes to be schooled in English.Victoriaville also threw in its sixthround pick in the 1988 midget draft, in return for Hull&rsquo;s fifth- and seventh-round picks.QUEBEC CACHE&mdash;The Tigres lost their second pre-season game 7-5 to the Jr. Canadiens in Verdun. In other exhibition action, the Chicoutimi Sagueneens beat Verdun 8-5, Shawinigan Cataractes defeated Drummondville Voltigeurs 7-6, St-Jean Castors downed Granby 7-2, Hull got past Trois-Rivieres 54 and Drummondville stopped Shawinigan 4-2. &#9632;

f0039-04

Tigres All Set To Roar In Victoriaville

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01216/5176615-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="586" height="1125"><figcaption class="caption-body">Louis Sleigher&rsquo;s career effectively ended two years ago with a freak injury.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02139/5176622-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="174" height="133"></div>BOSTON&mdash;It&rsquo;s all over for Louis Sleigher, just a few weeks shy of his 29th birthday.The Bruins&rsquo; right winger, who tore muscles in his upper right groin in a freak mishap Oct. 16, 1985, called it a career after two years of frustration.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been playing hockey since I was five years old,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This is all I&rsquo;ve ever wanted to do&mdash;play in the National Hockey League. It&rsquo;s what I worked for, day-to-day, season-to-season.&ldquo;I was never a star. Every year when I went to camp, there were 11 guys ready to take my spot, it was always on my mind: &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve got to make the team. I&rsquo;ve got to make the team.&rsquo;&ldquo;Then I got traded to Boston and it seemed like my career was headed in the right direction. That&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s really frustrating, to see it all end over something like this.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve separated my shoulder, I&rsquo;ve banged up my knees, I&rsquo;ve had so many concussions I&rsquo;ve lost count. But I always fought back. And now this&hellip;&rdquo;The Bruins obtained Sleigher from the Quebec Nordiques Oct. 25, 1984, in exchange for Luc Dufour and a fourth-round draft choice. He was a prototype Bruin winger. His game was fought along the boards.Then, five games into the 1985-86 season, he was coming over the dasher during a game in Vancouver, when he caught his right skate in the shirt of teammate Nevin Markwart. Sleigher could feel the groin muscle tear.After two years and two surgical procedures, there was still no improvement in sight. His contract had expired and it was time to hang them up.&ldquo;Louis,&rdquo; general manager Harry Sinden said during a recent telephone conversation with Sleigher, &ldquo;I just want you to know that we liked you on this team. You were an important part of our organization.&rdquo;&ldquo;I know,&rdquo; said Sleigher. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve found a home.&rdquo;Sleigher, who did not play a single game in 1986-87, ended his three-plus-year NHL career with 46 goals, 53 assists and 146 penalty minutes in 194 games.Meanwhile, on the eve of the 198788 training camp, the medical jury was still out on the future of defenseman Gordie Kluzak, who has missed two of the last three full seasons with knee problems.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Every year when I went to camp, there were 11 guys ready to take my spot.&rsquo;&mdash;Sleigher</blockquote>Last May, for the fourth time since July, 1986, his left knee was cut open. A piece of cartilage was taken out, in hopes the procedure would relieve the pain that bothered him all last season whenever he tried to skate.He donned skates for the first time in late July at the Bruins&rsquo; old practice rink in suburban Danvers. The pain was still there, but he could stand it. The question was: Could he stand it through an NHL season?&ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;There have been times in the last 15 months when I&rsquo;ve said to myself, &lsquo;Look, you&rsquo;re just kidding yourself. You can&rsquo;t play anymore. You might as well get on with your life.&rsquo; But you give it one more try.&ldquo;It gets to the point where you feel like you&rsquo;re spinning your wheels. I&rsquo;ve felt sometimes that my life has kind of stopped. I&rsquo;m not very good in that situation. If my life isn&rsquo;t moving in a positive direction, I can&rsquo;t tolerate it.&ldquo;I know now, if I play again, I&rsquo;ll thank God for that&mdash;because I want to play more than anything in the world. I&rsquo;ll work as hard as I can to find out.&ldquo;But I know I have other abilities. I can get my education. There&rsquo;s a lot of things I know I can do. The question is, will I do them when I&rsquo;m 24 or 34 or whenever else I&rsquo;m done?&rdquo;WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN&mdash;Giving up a good part of the summer to play in the Canada Cup may be wearing on some players, but it whetted Cam Neely&rsquo;s appetite for more hockey. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited about getting going again,&rdquo; said Neely, who was cut from Team Canada after three weeks of practice. &ldquo;Once you&rsquo;re around the hockey atmosphere every day, it makes you want to be out there all the more. &ldquo;&hellip;Bob Johnson, who coached Reggie Lemelin in Calgary, said he thinks the new Bruin goalie will be rejuvenated by switching teams. &ldquo;He has a history of playing well in Boston Garden,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Maybe he can&rsquo;t play 60 to 80 games, but he can play 40 and be successful.&rdquo;&hellip;Defenseman Reed Larson, injured in an off-season auto accident in Minnesota, has been recuperating nicely and should be ready for training camp&hellip;Some observations on the Bruins&rsquo; training camp roster: The average age is 23.6 years. The oldest player is Rick Middleton, 34 on Dec. 4. The average height is 5-foot-11. The tallest are defensemen Wade Campbell and Gord Kluzak at 6-foot-4. The average weight is 191.6 pounds. The heaviest are Campbell and right winger Tim Driscoll at 220 pounds. There are 44 Canadians, 10 Americans and four Swedes. &#9632;

f0040-01

Sleigher’s Career Coasts To A Halt

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01176/5176653-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="176" height="133"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;The pressure has been on Chris Chelios.Everywhere he went during the Canada Cup, the 25-year-old American was told he will have to pick up much of the slack created by the absence of Larry Robinson, out for the first two months of the season with a broken leg suffered while playing polo.Chelios has done his best to downplay it, but the consensus is that the former University of Wisconsin star is No. 1 on the Montreal defense until further notice.&ldquo;With our type of team,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;naturally it&rsquo;s going to hurt us without Larry. He&rsquo;sour best defenseman. If we put things together, though, we will be all right. There were some games we played last year like Stanley Cup champions, and there were others where we just didn&rsquo;t put it together.&rdquo;The key to Chelios&rsquo; future success is his health.When he first joined the Canadiens after the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, he had an ankle injury. In 1985-86, a knee problem made him miss close to half a season. On a couple of occasions in 1986-87, he was slowed by less serious ailments.&ldquo;The only goal I set is to stay healthy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I stay healthy, everything seems to go well.&rdquo;In 198 NHL games, Chelios has scored 28 goals and 116 assists for 144 points. Last season, he clicked for 11 goals and 33 assists, despite seeing only irregular work on the power play.In his rookie season, Chelios and Tom Kurvers, now with New Jersey, formed an effective power-play point duo. He began that season in fine fashion, after participating in the Canada Cup with Team USA. This time around, he is looking for the same quick start.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I&rsquo;ll be in a lot better shape than the rest of the players in the league who didn&rsquo;t play in this tournament.&rsquo;&mdash;Chelios</blockquote>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be in a lot better shape than the rest of the players in the league who didn&rsquo;t play in this tournament,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You get your timing. You get a good jump on everybody. The tournament is a couple of steps above the NHL in skating, and that leaves you in better condition coming into the season.&rdquo;The Chicago-born defenseman still had not signed a new contract with the Canadiens, but was expected to sign a multi-year pact before the season began. Last year, there had been speculation he might play out his option and move to an American-based team for the 1988-89 campaign.Managing director Serge Savard was not going to allow that to happen. He knows about Chelios&rsquo; star quality, though the defenseman downplays it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just a role player,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;We have got a lot of depth on our defense and I don&rsquo;t think all the pressure is going to be on me now with Larry out. We&rsquo;ve got Petr Svoboda and Gaston Gingras coming back, and Luds (Craig Ludwig). We have a kid in (Scott) Sandelin that can come up and play just as good as anyone. Without Larry it&rsquo;s going to be tougher. We just have to pick up the slack.&rdquo;HAB BITS-Guy Carbonneau&rsquo;s negotiations with the Canadiens hit a snag and he was expected to play out his option this season&hellip;Patrick Roy has been incommunicado since being cut from Team Canada&rsquo;s training camp in late August&hellip;Ryan Walter and Claude Lemieux have agreed to multiyear contracts with the team&hellip;Jacques Lemaire, an assistant to managing director Serge Savard, is continuing a project started last summer. He is instructing minor hockey coaches and players in Quebec&hellip;The Canadiens have lost their Ottawa radio outlet. CJSB, citing a change in format, decided to exclude NHL hockey from its programming. &#9632;

f0041-01

Canadiens’ Defense Now Rests On Chelios

BOSTON&mdash;Louis Sleigher, C, retired from hockey after failing to recover from groin injury.BUFFALO&mdash;Phil Housley, D, signed multi-year contract.CALGARY&mdash;Brian Bradley, C, assigned to Canadian Olympic Team on loan.CHICAGO&mdash;Ed Olczyk, RW-C, and Al Secord, LW, traded to Toronto for Rick Vaive, RW, Steve Thomas, LW, and Bob McGill, D.EDMONTON&mdash;Jari Kurri, RW, Kevin Lowe, D, and Esa Tikkanen, LW, signed new multi-year contractsHARTFORD&mdash;Steve Weeks, G, Sylvain Cote, D, Doug Jarvis, C, and Shane Churla, RW, all signed to multi-year contracts. Kevin Dineen, RW, sidelined indefinitely with ankle injury sustained while playing for Team Canada.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Bob Kudelski, C, from Yale University, signed to pro contract. Petr Prajsler, D, of Czechoslovakia signed to NHL contract.MINNESOTA&mdash;Brian Lawton, C, sidelined indefinitely after undergoing knee surgery.MONTREAL&mdash;Ryan Walter, LW, and Claude Lemieux, RW, signed to multi-year contracts.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Duane Sutter, RW, traded to Chicago for future considerations. Patrick Flatley, RW, signed new multi-year contract. Randy Boyd, D, Vern Smith, D, Jeff Finley, D, and Bill Berg, D, all signed new contracts. Kurt Lackten, RW, from Swift Current of WHL, Kevin Herom, LW, from Moose Jaw of WHL, and Todd McClellan, C, from Saskatoon, signed to pro contracts.NY RANGERS&mdash;Peter Sundstrom, RW, traded to Washington for fifth-round draft choice in 1988. Don Maloney, LW, Brian Mullen, LW, Jeff Jackson, LW, and Barry Beck, D, signed to new contractsPHILADELPHIA&mdash;Brad McCrimmon, D, traded to Calgary for Flyers&rsquo; first-round draft pick in either 1988 or 1989 and a third-round choice in year to be determined. Tim Kerr, C, out indefinitely after undergoing shoulder surgery. Mark Lofthouse, C, signed as free agent.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Zarley Zalapski, D, signed to multi-year contract from Canadian Olympic Team. Dave Hannan, C, signed to new contract.VANCOUVER&mdash;Wendell Young, G, and a 1990 third-round draft pick, traded to Philadephia for Darren Jensen, G, and Daryl Stanley, D. Ian Kidd, D, signed to multi-year contract as free agent from University of North Dakota.WASHINGTON&mdash;John Barrett, D, sidelined indefinitely with broken kneecap.CANADIAN OLYMPIC TEAM&mdash;Morris Lukowich, LW, left team to play for Merano in Italian Hockey League. Jimmy Waite, G, returned to Chicago Blackhawks and Chris Joseph, D, returned to Seattle of WHL. Benoit Doucet, C, and Paul Ysebaert, C, released outright. &#9632;

Transactions

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01182/5176708-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="173" height="129"></div>BUFFALO&mdash;The Buffalo Sabres will come to training camp this season with the usual list of question marks&mdash;but this time, coaching won&rsquo;t be one of them.Sabre general manager Gerry Meehan moved the last piece of his coaching puzzle into place this summer with the announcement that former Sabre player Don Lever will assist head coach Ted Sator and holdover assistant Barry Smith.Lever&mdash;a 15-year professional player with stops in Vancouver, Atlanta, Calgary, Colorado, New Jersey, Buffalo and the Sabres&rsquo; American League affiliate in Rochester&mdash;is expected to bring a dimension that has been missing in the coaching ranks, that of a player&rsquo;s point of view.&ldquo;My role hasn&rsquo;t really been that well defined yet,&rdquo; Lever said, &ldquo;but I guess that would be a part of it. Certainly, that&rsquo;s important.&rdquo;Though this is his first coaching assignment, Lever had a taste of his new role during his final season. He spent most of last year with the Rochester Amerks and was instrumental in helping that team to the Calder Cup championship as both a player and part-time coach.&ldquo;I went through a bit of that last year (with Rochester head coach John Van Boxmeer),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I found myself being something of a liaison between John and the other players and I learned a lot from that.&ldquo;I think it is important to have someone there to help smooth things over.&rdquo;Lever said he expects he&rsquo;ll have other duties as well, and was certain he&rsquo;d be able to contribute in other areas.It had been Lever&rsquo;s ambition to get into the coaching ranks once his playing days were finished.&ldquo;This is what I&rsquo;ve been wanting to do for a long time, he said. &ldquo;I know when I was finished playing that this would be the road I would want to travel. That it happened here, in Buffalo, makes it all that much more enjoyable.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve taken a little bit from every-one I&rsquo;ve ever known in this game. I&rsquo;ve kept a log and I&rsquo;ve watched for what works, what doesn&rsquo;t and why. I expect to bring that experience with me and I expect I&rsquo;ll take whatever I can learn from Ted and Barry. It should all work out.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0042-01

Sabres Pull Lever Into Coaching Profession

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-0389/5176739-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0042-03

The Hockey News Classified

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01156/5176770-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="584" height="984"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Semenko was not expected to attend the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; training camp.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02105/5176777-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="175" height="128"></div>HARTFORD&mdash;Hockey roots do not run deeply in Hartford, at least not compared to other NHL cities.But Hartford, in the form of Whaler chairman and managing general partner Howard Baldwin, is trying to build on those roots. That has to count for something.Three Canada Cup games&mdash;one of which was an exhibition&mdash;at the Civic Center probably won&rsquo;t make much of a dent in hockey history, but from Hartford&rsquo;s point of view, they represent a start.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I got a little scared when the call came from the attorney general&rsquo;s office.&rsquo;&mdash;Baldwin</blockquote>&ldquo;From the beginning, the whole idea was to bring a first-class international event to Hartford and make a buck if we could,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re all about.&rdquo;For Baldwin, the Whalers and the city of Hartford, the games were something of a test to determine what the hockey market&mdash;that is, the summer hockey market&mdash;might bear.A crowd of 8,843 turned out for a Team USA-U.S. Olympic team exhibition, fol lowed by 8.508 for a Team USA-Finland opening-round game.&ldquo;Those are the real numbers, too,&rdquo; Baldwin said with a smile. &ldquo;We were instructed not to lie about it.&rdquo;The break-even number for the Canada Cup in Hartford was roughly 8,000, Baldwin said.&ldquo;The way it looks right now, we should do all right. We turned a little profit for the Olympians and the Finns. When I say a little profit, I mean in the $5,000 range. Against the Russians, we should do better, maybe make about $25,000.&rdquo;More than 11,000 tickets had been sold for a Team USA-Team USSR game, the third and last of Hartford&rsquo;s summer games.&ldquo;What I&rsquo;m hoping is that everybody has a good time, and that hopefully they&rsquo;ll remember it,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;That way, we can bring in more games three years from now.&rdquo;The attendance figures won&rsquo;t turn a lot of heads, but compared to other figures, the city of Hartford more than held its own.&ldquo;Look around at the attendances and you&rsquo;ll see that Hartford did just fine,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;Last week in Canada, they drew in the 5,000s. The promoters got exactly what they wanted out of Hartford. I&rsquo;m sure they&rsquo;re delighted on their end.&rdquo;Baldwin confessed that he tried to bring Canada Cup hockey to Hartford three years ago, but &ldquo;we were late getting our bid in.&ldquo;This time we were ready. We got our bid in early. Personally, I was thrilled to get the games in Hartford.&rdquo;Once they got the games, the Whalers made a tactical blunder by including the Canada Cup games as a manda-tory part of the season-ticket package. Longtime season-ticket holders balked, and suddenly, the state attorney general&rsquo;s office became interested in the Whalers&rsquo; package deal.&ldquo;If there was a mistake made, it was including the games in the full package,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s be honest. I got a little scared when the call came from the attorney general&rsquo;s office. I&rsquo;m not sure we wouldn&rsquo;t have won the case had we pursued it, but we were in a no-win situation. The best thing to do was to drop it, which we did.&rdquo;Baldwin then appealed directly to Whaler fans, and many responded.&ldquo;The hard-core fans were great, just like they&rsquo;ve always been,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;I swear, it&rsquo;s still some of the same people who belonged to the (Hwy.) 1-91 Club and made those drives to Springfield. They&rsquo;ve been with us a long time. I appreciate that.&rdquo;During their first two NHL seasons, 1979 and 1980, the Whalers played in Springfield, Mass., while the new Civic Center was being constructed in Hartford.Now, Baldwin has set his sights on the NHL entry draft.&ldquo;I think you&rsquo;ll see the draft in Hartford before too long,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We may lose money on it, but that&rsquo;s some-thing I&rsquo;d really like to do.&rdquo;WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash;The Whalers have signed three players&mdash;defenseman Brian Chapman (1986 third-round draft pick), center Greg Dornbach (1986 ninth-round pick) and defenseman Mark Vichorek, a free agent who played last season in Salt Lake City&hellip;Hulking Dave Semenko, 30, said it is unlikely that he will report to training camp Sept. 10. &ldquo;At the moment. I&rsquo;m not coming back,&rdquo; Semenko said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to look somewhere else if they leave me unprotected (waiver draft) or not play at all and do something out-side of hockey.&rdquo; Semenko, obtained from Edmonton for a third-round draft pick last December after enforcer Torrie Robertson broke his leg, scored four goals and 12 points in 56 games in Hartford last year. &#9632;

f0044-01

Hartford Horizons Expanded At Canada Cup

<div class="byline">BY LARRY HUMBER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0045-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01134/5176815-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg"></div><h2>ACROSS:</h2>1. Winners of 1987 NCAA hockey championship, North Dakota&hellip;Sioux (8).5. Goad, incite (4).9. Governor (5).10. Flame netminder originally drafted by Philadelphia in 1974 (7).11. First pick of Kings in the 1986 draft (6).12. North Star netminder, formerly of Finland&rsquo;s Olympic team (5).14. NHL&rsquo;s second president (6).16. Blues&rsquo; Federko (6).19. Dave Poulin&rsquo;s school,&hellip;Dame (5).21. Blues&rsquo; previous owner (6).24. Puck shot with considerable velocity (7).25. Dull (5).26. First name of Leafs&rsquo; leading scorer last season (4).27. Team not expected to win (8).<h2>DOWN:</h2>1. Home of IHL Komets,&hellip;Wayne (4).2. Rugged Red Wing was also among Detroit&rsquo;s leading pointgetters last season (7).3. Nickname of Toronto&rsquo;s WHA entry (5).4. He was taken third overall by Toronto in 1982 NHL draft (6).6. Rearguard with Leafs, 196774 (5).7. Canadiens&rsquo; president (3,5).8. Roger Crozier is only Red Wing to capture this trophy (6).13. Flyers&rsquo; owner (2,6).15. NHL executive who is responsible for dealing with wrongdoers (6).17. Twice netted more than 40 goals for Canadiens (7).18. Nickname of Moncton&rsquo;s AHL entry,&hellip;Flames (6).20. What Rich and Ron Sutter are (5).22. Lesser-known Hall of Famer, Reg&hellip;(5).23. Brother of Borje Salming (4).<h2>CROSSWORD SOLUTION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02122/5176808-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="576" height="578"></div> &#9632;

f0045-01

CROSSWORD

<h2>30 YEARS AGO:</h2>&bull; Chicago general manager-coach Tommy Ivan convinced Eric Nesterenko to play full-time in 1957-58. The winger played in only weekend games the year before, while he attended school full-time. Nesterenko didn&rsquo;t miss a step in 1957-58, scoring 20 goals in 70 games.&bull; Boston Red Sox scout Maurice Deloof thought he had a phenom on his hands during a trip through Northern Ontario. Deloof liked a husky youngster with the Schumacher junior ball club and offered him a tryout at the Bosox&rsquo; spring camp. But Frank Mahovlich said, &ldquo;No, thanks,&rdquo; and joined the Toronto Maple Leafs for the first year of a splendid NHL career that saw him score 533 goals.&bull; For the first time in NHL history, the schedule-makers had Chicago Blackhawks open their season on home ice. The Hawks were slated to open against the Toronto Maple Leafs Tuesday, Oct. 8, in Chicago Stadium.<h2>25 YEARS AGO:</h2>&bull; Former linemate Sid Abel stripped Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; captaincy, but Howe didn&rsquo;t mind. The game&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer took on the responsibilities of assistant coach and helped head coach Abel run practices. Alex Delvecchio succeeded Howe as captain.&bull; Star defenseman Doug Harvey postponed plans to retire at the age of 37, when the New York Rangers made him an offer he couldn&rsquo;t refuse. Harvey, the club&rsquo;s player-coach in 1961-62, was offered a one-season job as player only for about $30,000 a year. Harvey played the full 1962-63 year and part of the next before retiring. Detroit lured him back for two games in 1966-67 and the St. Louis Blues for 70 games in 1968-69. &#9632;

THIS MONTH…

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0045-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0290/5176870-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Cleveland Barons, Walter Tkaczuk and referee Bob Kilger are all gone from the NHL now, but Dennis Maruk remains. The former Baron is now a member of the Minnesota North Stars. Cleveland was home to an NHL franchise for the 1976-77 and 1977-78 seasons.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0045-02

THE WAY WE WERE

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div>When Andre Dupont was a boy, he was told he resembled a Moose. He was delighted.The moose in question was Elmer (Moose) Vasko, a veteran NHL defenseman whom young Andre admired. The nickname has stuck with Dupont since.Dupont, a native of Trois-Rivieres, Que., played 14 seasons in the NHL with the New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Philadelphia Flyers and Quebec Nordiques. The 6-foot-2, 202-pound defenseman never played for either of Vasko&rsquo;s teams, the Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota North Stars.Dupont was picked in the first round of the 1969 amateur draft by the Rangers, but he only played seven games for them before being sent to St. Louis in a six-player deal in 1971. It wasn&rsquo;t until he was traded from the Blues to the Flyers midway through the 197273 season that he gained fame and notoriety as a member of the &lsquo;Broad Street Bullies.&rsquo;With the Flyers, Dupont was reunited with one of his minor-league coaches, Fred Shero. Shero taught him to be mean but controlled.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0364/5176901-1-eng-US/f0045-032.jpg" title="f0045-03" width="579" height="1129"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andre (Moose) Dupont</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Fred was very influential as far as my career goes,&rdquo; recalled Dupont. &ldquo;He taught me how to be patient and not to be so aggressive that it would cost me at my position.&rdquo;Dupont also credited three Flyer teammates with helping him establish his career.&ldquo;Joe Watson, Ed Van Impe and Barry Ashbee were also very helpful to me. They were all veterans when I got to the Flyers. They were all defensemen whom I looked to for help in my early years.&ldquo;Barry (Dupont&rsquo;s defensive partner) was the best example I will ever be able to think of when it came to hard work and consistency. He seemed to be the ideal player to have on a team.&rdquo;One of Dupont&rsquo;s greatest moments came in the second game of the 1974 Stanley Cup final against Boston Bruins in the Boston Garden.&ldquo;All I know is that it was the last minute of play in the game and I scored the tying goal for the Flyers,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Then, in the overtime, Isetup Bobby Clarke for the game-winning goal. It was the road victory we needed to go on and win the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;Today, at 38, Dupont owns and operates a sporting goods store and small pro shop in Trois-Rivieres, where he lives with his wife and two children. &#9632;

f0045-03

Moose Influenced By Ashbee

<div class="image-hero"><img title="s0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0004-013/5177025-1-eng-US/s0004-012.jpg"></div>Hockey equipment users will be hit hard if the Canadian government approves plans to shift sales tax on imported goods to the wholesale level, says a representative of the Canadian Sporting Goods Association (CSGA).&ldquo;Costs will go through the roof and the price of gloves will go crazy,&rdquo; predicts Steve Johnson, a vice-president of Karhu Canada Inc., which manufacturers hockey equipment under the Titan, Koho, Jofa and Canadian brand names. &ldquo;The impact is very dramatic on equipment.&rdquo;Currently, Karhu&rsquo;s hockey gloves are retail priced from $24.95 to $200 a pair. Johnson says the new tax could force the price of top-of-the-line gloves to about $250.A broad spectrum of sporting goods, including hockey equipment, would be affected by the change, proposed by Canadian finance minister Michael Wilson as part of a tax reform package tabled in June.The government says the tax will correct the &ldquo;imbalance&rdquo; between taxes on imported and domestic goods. On average, the tax on domestic products is one-third higher than on imports.But because most hockey equipment&mdash;gloves, helmets and some shoulder and elbow pads&mdash;is manufactured overseas to take advantage of cheaper labor costs, the CSGA says the policy will result in higher purchase prices.Johnson says he is most concerned about the effect the policy will have on youngsters starting out in the game. Hockey registrations continue to decline at the minor levels, and a sudden jump in the price of equipment will exacerbate the problem.&ldquo;It won&rsquo;t affect the NHL much, since most equipment used at that level is made domestically,&rdquo; Johnson says. &ldquo;But it will affect kids starting out. Every low-end (lower-priced) kid&rsquo;s glove will be affected. Ninety per cent of those are manufactured in the Orient, and 70 per cent of our Jofa helmets are made in Sweden.&rdquo;Sporting goods manufacturers feel their industry has been unfairly targeted.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why sporting goods have been singled out,&rdquo; says Johnson. &ldquo;I hope someone realizes that the game of hockey is in trouble, with registrations down. It doesn&rsquo;t make a lot of sense. Here they go raising taxes, and it will generate maybe $300 million. That&rsquo;s not a lot of money.&rdquo;Member of Parliament Don Blenkarn, chairman of the House of Commons finance committee that has been conducting hearings into the issue, admits the policy might cause an increase in prices, but maintains it would be &ldquo;nothing that dramatic.&ldquo;All we want to do is have the (federal) sales tax moved to the wholesale level,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;What happens now is that importers pay taxes at the border, but they don&rsquo;t pay it on their distribution costs as the domestic producers do. This is designed to catch the importers so they pay a higher rate of sales tax. Why should the importers have the advantage? The current system hurts Canadian goods;.&rdquo;Manufacturers say others will be hurt by the proposed legislation.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s viewed as positive for domestic producers, and it is protectionist legislation,&rdquo; says a marketing executive with a skate manufacturer, &ldquo;but things are going to cost more for the consumer. The bottom line is they&rsquo;ll be paying more on low-end equipment.&rdquo;Johnson sees no reason for changing the current system, which he maintains has kept consumer costs in line.&ldquo;Importing as we currently do has kept pricing down, since we can produce gloves and other equipment overseas less expensively.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0011-013/5177018-1-eng-US/s0011-012.jpg" title="s0011-01" width="3300" height="3958"></div> &#9632;

s0004-01

Tax Bill Hits Hockey Gear—CSGA

<div class="image-hero"><img title="s0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0005-013/5177056-1-eng-US/s0005-012.jpg"></div>Cooper&rsquo;s ongoing commitment to research and development has resulted in an ever increasing level of protection and performance for its entire hockey equipment line. Starting with the introduction of the first generation Cooper-all girdle and pant system 6 years ago, Cooper&rsquo;s latest efforts have resulted in a tremendous breakthrough in the reduction of mid-body injuries for all levels of play.New materials and manufacturing technologies have allowed Cooper to take the Cooperall protection system to its next logical step&mdash;the Cooperall upper body protector.<blockquote class="pullQuote">All Cooperall upper-body protectors come complete with wide, comfortable, quick-fasten bicep and chest straps for a snug fit.</blockquote>Cooper adapted the advanced technology of the Cooperall girdle&mdash;now the standard for midbody protection and the ongoing choice of Canadian Major Junior hockey for the past five seasons&mdash;to the new CSB1000 Cooperall upper body protector. The CSB1000 is more than a shoulder pad. It&rsquo;s an upper body protective system that provides 20 per cent more coverage than conventional shoulder pads with increased protection for the upper rib cage. Padded protection also extends around the back and over the spine. The vital shoulder tips are protected by poly reinforced double layer foam pads while high density moulded bicep pads have an inner layer of soft foam for comfort and fit.The CSB1000 is extremely lightweight, comfortable and flexible. Its sanitized&reg; stretch lycra&reg; double layer shell en-sures that when fitted and worn i correctly, the built-in protective components never leave the area of the body they are designed to protect. Unlike con ventional shoulder pads, the CSB1000 is made of closed cell foam which dissipates moisture out through the Lycra&reg; shell, so that the perspiration runs off the body instead of being absorbed into the equipment. This ensures that the CSB1000 stays as light in the third period as it did in the first.Cooperall upper body protectors are also available in two other models. The CSB2000 upper body protector features the same moulding technology and styling as the CSB1000 to provide Cooperall lightweight protection at a popular price. The CSB3000 features a poly reinforced belly protector for extended frontal protection and a stretch polyester outer shell for comfort and durability.All Cooperall upper body protectors come complete with wide comfortable quick fasten bicep and chest straps for a snug fit.For more information, please contact: Cooper Canada Ltd, 501 Alliance Ave. Toronto, Canada, M6N 2J3 (416) 7633801. &#9632;

s0005-01

Cooper

<div class="image-hero"><img title="s0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0009-013/5177125-1-eng-US/s0009-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

s0009-01

JAYCO HOCKEY EQUIPITIENT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="s0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0013-01/5176932-1-eng-US/s0013-012.jpg"></div>The Brown pant was designed to give the goalie that extra protection needed in key areas.Molded plastic and foam protect the front of the thighs, kidney and tail bone areas. In the hip area we have incorporated a large plastic protector which gives the goalie that much needed hip protection when making sprawling saves.The upper thigh is protected by two hinged protective pieces. Protection in this area consists of 1&rdquo; foam and plastic to help reduce injury from frontal shots.<h2>JB12 Junior Catch Glove</h2>The Brown JB12 has a small trap and palm to make it easier for the younger goalie to handle. The Junior model features the standard Brown cuff and side thumb webbing as our pro models.The JB12 Junior also features a slash guard for additional protection to the back of the hand, colored leather is also available.<h2>JB 9 Junior Blocker</h2>The JB 9 Junior is basically a scaled down version of our Pro JB10 blocker. The glove features a smaller palm and blocking surface to fit the younger goalie.As in the pro model, the JB 9 junior features water resistant nylon in place of leather in nonwearing areas. &#9632;

s0013-01

BROWN

The best hockey players aren&rsquo;t born&mdash;they&rsquo;re made by top-notch instruction and plenty of hard practice. Considering the high cost of ice time today, it makes sense to use every minute as efficiently as possible. Now Sure-Score will help make the most of your practice time.To improve and simplify the training of your team, here&rsquo;s Sure-Score, a revolutionary, new, lightweight, high-impact plastic target that attaches easily to any part of a regulation net. Sure-Score&rsquo;s an eight-inch round bright yellow, spring-loaded target with an adaptable clamp. Its styling and bright color catch the shooter&rsquo;s eye, with or without a goalie. The lightweight and compact design make it easy to carry.Now your players can learn how to score with the use of Sure-Score. It improves shooting skills because the bright yellow targets catch the shooter&rsquo;s eye instantly, enabling him to stop seeing the goalie and aim at proper scoring locations. With practice, the targets will condition players, through eye-muscle coordination, to locate scoring openings much faster than ever before.<h2>Improve Your Next Practice</h2>Hockey may stay the same, but practice will never be the same again once you use Sure-Score. It will become part of your team&rsquo;s standard equipment.One thing that never changes isthevalueof learning from practice because, as they say, practice makes perfect. Now, with Sure-Score, practice is perfect! It adds a new dimension to every workout. Your players have something to concentrate on and aim for, which creates a sense of accomplishment and fun.<h2>Innovate New Shooting Drills</h2>Great for drills, scrimmages and show downs. Practice is always complete with or without a goalie. You can develop new techniques for improving shooting drills. Scoring skills will improve dramatically with emphasis on concentration and accuracy through practice, as players learn to aim and place their shots with Sure-Score.Sure-Score shows players where to shoot to score; no practice is complete without it!<h2>All Players Want To Score</h2>Aspiration is fine, but achievement is something more&mdash;that takes time and plenty of practice. Now scoring ability is developed faster with Sure-Score. &#9632;

Sports Target

<div class="image-hero"><img title="s0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/s0014-013/5176987-1-eng-US/s0014-012.jpg"></div>During the last hockey season, new black-and-orange equipment started appearing in dressing rooms around the NHL and in minor hockey leagues across Canada and the U.S.The hockey equipment was Pro-tech-ion and the name told the story. This revolutionary equipment uses a patented air management system, comprised of three layers of different density foams encased in nylon. Basically, this construction acts as an air bag to disperse the shock of an impact over the entire pad and protects the player from injury.No other hockey manufacturer has been able to duplicate the process and Pro-tech-ion has been checking off the shelves as fast as dealers can stock it. This year&rsquo;s line has been expanded to include five models of shoulder pads, rib pads, elbow pads in two sizes, shin guards in five sizes, both a goaler and a regular player athletic supporter and a revolutionary pant.On all equipment, the plastic is removable and the padding can easily be washed and rinsed to keep it clean and pro-long its use.The equipment has not only caught on with the minor hockey player; the pros are scrambling for it as well. Rick Green is one of them. In February 1987 at the Montreal trade show, the head trainer of the Montreal Canadiens discussed an injury problem with John Pagotto, vice president of sales and marketing with Easton Sports/Canada who sells Pro-tech-ion. John showed the trainer Protech-ion&rsquo;s new EP 5000 and the trainer took it directly from the show to Rick Green&rsquo;s elbow. The rest is history; Rick was able to return to play and help the Canadiens through the playoffs.If the Green story is not enough, just ask Dave Poulin how he likes Pro-tech-ion. Dave was injured during the latter part of the season and appeared to be out of action for the playoffs. Easton Sports flew him to California and fitted him with Pro-tech-ion&rsquo;s new SP 6600 shoulder pad, with additional rib and back protection. Poulin returned to play and has not taken the pads off since.Claude Lemieux of the Montreal Canadiens would agree. He has been wearing Pro-techion for the past two years and dozens of other players in the NHL are catching on. The Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordi-ques and Washington Capitals, almost to a man, are now wearing Pro-tech-ion.This full line of super protective equipment is available in specialty sporting good stores across Canada and the U.S. A word of caution, however. Several dealers may be low on stock because of the huge sales success of this equipment. Protech-ion&rsquo;s factories in Montreal and California are working hard to overcome the shortage. So, be persistent and a little bit patient. Rick, Claude, Dave, and the rest of the NHL players who use Pro-tech-ion will tell you the wait will be worth it. &#9632;

s0014-01

PROTECHION

<div class="image-hero"><img title="c0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01186/5177156-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg"></div>With the clever corporate slogan &ldquo;Clearly The Best Protection In Sight,&rdquo; ITECH takes a global view of its potential markets. One can find ITECH products in Europe and Japan as readily as in Canada and the U.S. Moreover, wherever they are sold, ITECH products are praised for their outstanding quality, practical design features and reasonable price&mdash;a powerful combination thatgivesthem a considerable edge on the competition.ITECH Sport Products Ltd., a Canadian company, had its beginnings with the realization of founder Robin Burns&rsquo; brainchild, the face-off shield. This former NHL player had a vision and a purpose of developing, promoting and marketing a new and innovative hockey face mask. This clear, optically correct face mask with its unique anti-fogging interior, has had tremendous impact on the hockey world. Despite early scoffers who felt such a product was unfeasible and impractical, ITECH&rsquo;S face-off shields are now sported by an unprecedented number of hockey players, professionally and internationally by the likes of Ray Bourque, Ryan Walter, Mike Gardner and Borje Salming, on down to the peewees in the local arena.Reflecting the success of ITECH&rsquo;S face-off shield, not only does it pass and exceed the rigid standards set by CSA and HECC, it has become the accepted and official shield of CAHA, Ringette Canada, and the Canadian Ball Hockey Association. ITECH is also pleased to be the official supplier to both the Canadian and the U.S. Olympic hockey teams.ITECH&rsquo;s original polycarbonate hockey shield is now part of a full line of sport optical equipment. Swimmers of all types can utilize the full range of swim goggles from a youth model to the streamlined racing goggle for the competitive edge. Athletes on the racquetball and squash courts are also glad of the excellent eye protection ITECH provides with its sports goggles. The baseball face guard has been warmly welcomed by parents and players in the amateur and minor leagues for eyes and facial protection.Being innovators in the field of sport opticals, ITECH introduces the first optically-correct shield designed to reduce the risk of eye and upper facial injuries in football. Called the super shield, this revolutionary new product is made of virtually the same high-density, high-impact polycarbonate resin found in the finest helmets. It features an anti-fog interior for clear visibility at all times. A special nylon-tie assembly ensures easy mounting and provides secure attachment to brand name helmets.Being the first name in eye protection, ITECH carries its reputation into other protective equipment. Ringette and hockey players have learned to depend upon the NECTECH neck protectors. Recently welcomed to the NEC-TECH family, the new goaler throat protector, &ldquo;designed by goalers for goalers&rdquo;, offers maximum protection without sacrificing mobility and vision.With the upsurge of interest and growth of ringette across Canada, Europe and the U.S., ITECH has presented RINGTECH. Already having the official shield and the only approved girdle for Ringette Canada, ITECH continually improves, updates and adds to its line of ringette equipment.ITECH Sport Products Ltd., is one of the fastest growing and most innovative sporting goods manufacturers in North America. Continually breaking new ground in the sport optics and protective equipment products, ITECH is &ldquo;Clearly The Best Protection In Sight.&rdquo; &#9632;

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September 18, 1987

HOCKEY PRODUCT ANALYSIS

NEXT WEEK

Shanahan Embarking On His ‘Toughest Year’

Flyers Trade Some Present For The Future