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.

October 9, 1987

The Hockey News October 9, 1987

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011383/5324439-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="329" height="442"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stan Fischler</figcaption></div>Questions on everyone&rsquo;s lips and answers from mine:1. Will Edmonton&rsquo;s Stanley Cup spire more NHL teams to play the Oilers&rsquo; style of wide-open artistic hockey, or will clutch-and-grab prevail?Answer: One would like to think the Gretzky Method is the way for every club to go. Then there&rsquo;s the reality that 20 clubs don&rsquo;t have Wayne on their roster. Or Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson and Jari Kurri. Sorry, but the grinders will prevail. The Flying Sather-men will be alone in their field.2. Was the Canada Cup good for the NHL?Answer: Only if your name is Alan Eagleson or John Ziegler. The tourney had a happy ending thanks to the superb finale and that enabled The Eagle to emerge smelling like a rose. That his NHLers won made Ziegler look just fine.3. Should there be another Canada Cup?Answer: Never, ever. The NHL was lucky&mdash;fortunate that nobody on Team Canada was terribly injured. As Bruin GM Harry Sin-den said right at the start, &ldquo;If someone like Wayne Gretzky gets hurt real bad, there&rsquo;ll be a quick review of the situation by everyone.&rdquo;The man is right. So is Ray Bourque&rsquo;s agent, Steve Freyer who says, &ldquo;The Canada Cup is a disservice to 21 NHL teams.&rdquo; Right on. It has diminished the value of the coming season and could very well have a negative psychological effect on several players. &ldquo;It (the Canada Cup) is something that doesn&rsquo;t do us a heck of a lot of good and could very well do us some harm,&rdquo; adds Sinden.Canadians support the Canada Cup for chauvinistic reasons. Players show up because they&rsquo;ll be accused of sedition if they don&rsquo;t. GMs have no use for it because they fear, justifiably, the injury potential. American fans and U.S. newspapers treated the Canada Cup with the same concern they reserve for women&rsquo;s volleyball.It was an exhibition, no more, no less. The games count for nothing but ego nourishment.4. Will the Blackhawks do the unthinkable and trade Denis Savard?Answer: Not if Hawk owner Bill Wirtz likes to sell hockey tickets. Savard may not be the perfect hockey player but he sure fills seats and, at last look, Chicago Stadium had one of the best ratios of patrons-to-seats in the NHL. Trade him, if you dare, but get a megastar in return or get out of town.5. What&rsquo;s so sad about the 1987-88 season?Answer: The league opens without two of the classiest characters in memory&mdash;Chico Resch and Mike Milbury. Chico was lovable, warm, sincere, competent, endlessly quotable and, as any coach (especially Al Arbour) will tell you, never on time.Milbury&rsquo;s critics, when they were being kind, described him as a &ldquo;maverick,&rdquo; but Mike was a lot more than that.Apart from being a dam good self-made defenseman, Milbury led the crusade for better players&rsquo; rights and dared to challenge union boss Al Eagleson at a time when The Eagle was the most powerful man in hockey. As intimidating as Eagleson can be, he never frightened Milbury into backtracking an inch.A few years ago Harry Sinden mentioned that Milbury would make a terrific general manager. Now Mike is getting that chance&mdash;thanks to Sinden&mdash;in Maine. The pity of it all is that Milbury never was fully appreciated by the Boston Garden loudmouths.6. What do you make of Lanny McDonald writing in his new book that he regrets not having hit Punch Imlach after the Leaf GM announced he had traded Lanny to the Colorado Rockies?Answer: I used to like Lanny&mdash;a lot. But having read that bit about him wanting to punch out Imlach, I&rsquo;m having second thoughts. McDonald was 26 at the time. Punch was 61. We&rsquo;re talking about a difference of 35 big years. It doesn&rsquo;t take much for a 26-year-old to smack around a senior citizen with a heart condition.7. Who won the trade that sent Al Secord and Ed Olczyk to Toronto for Rick Vaive, Steve Thomas and Bob McGill?Answer: A few know-it-alls have emerged recently with Olczyk put-downs. The one I hear most often is that Ed has firmly come to believe that he is the Lord&rsquo;s gift to hockey and nobody can convince him otherwise, although John Brophy might be the one to do so.The key to the deal will be Brophy&rsquo;s ability to extract stardom from Olczyk&rsquo;s potential. As for Secord&mdash;apart from his being Don Cherry&rsquo;s favorite player&mdash;he is 29 and could be, in the deathless words of Phil Watson, &lsquo;&lsquo;a been-has.&rdquo;If so, the Leafs are in a chancy situation. Vaive in Chicago must feel as wonderful as the guy who stopped hitting himself in the head with a mallet.Playing in the Windy City will add three years, minimum, to his career and stir the fire that stilled in his heart. An unhappy but productive young Leaf, Thomas should be at least 10 per cent better in what he perceives as more hospitable Chicago Stadium. McGill, the throw-in, surely must want to dispel the prevailing bummish opinion of himself. If he has any incentive, he&rsquo;ll be a better player by 15 per cent.The verdict on this exchange is Blackhawks all the way.7. Will the NHL&rsquo;s new anti-brawling edict improve the game?Answer: Not much. Intimidation will continue to be a major weapon; a point which will be underlined by the Flyers from opening night until the end of the season. Big brawls actually do little to curb the quality of the game compared to all the hooking, holding, interference and other restraining fouls that are called too little. That is the source of hockey&rsquo;s pollution.8. Who is the nicest guy in the NHL now that Resch and Milbury, Nos. 1 and 2 (or 2 and 1), have retired?Answer: That&rsquo;s a toughie because most players&mdash;unlike football and baseball types&mdash;are solid citizens. My favorite nice guy is Charlie Bourgeois of the Blues. In fact, I&rsquo;m president of the Charlie Bourgeois Fan Club, which currently has a membership of six. The reason it&rsquo;s so low is because every time I write about the CBFC in THN, my editor kills the item.9. If the Russians are so good, how come they didn&rsquo;t win the Canada Cup?Answer: Vladislav Tretiak was out peddling his book instead of playing goal for the Russkies.10. Will there be greater parity this season than any year since expansion?Answer: Absolutely. Figure it out: all of last year&rsquo;s last-place clubs&mdash;the Canucks, North Stars, Devils and Sabres&mdash;are improved. Not only will there be more parity but we&rsquo;re coming up to one of the best seasons in decades&mdash;providing the Canada Cup hasn&rsquo;t botched up some of the players&rsquo; heads. &#9632;

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Columnists

Scrap Canada Cup Once And For All!

<h2>TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE&hellip;</h2>1. Which Minnesota North Star suffered a broken neck while playing junior hockey?2. In 1970, Gilbert Perreault became the first player selected by the Buffalo Sabres in the NHL expansion draft. Who was the Sabres&rsquo; second selection?3. What current NHLer was the IHL&rsquo;s top defenseman in 1984-85?4. How many cities applied for expansion franchises when the NHL announced it would add six new franchises in 1967?5. Which of the six 1967 expansion clubs has missed the playoffs just twice in the 20 years since it joined the league?6. What former Chicago Blackhawk now plays on the Canadian professional golf tour?7. Who is the only Pittsburgh Penguin to score a hat-trick in a Stanley Cup game?8. Which two current NHL head coaches opposed each other as coaches at the 1985 Memorial Cup?9. What 500-goal scorer was once offered a tryout by the Boston Red Sox?10. Which Montreal Canadien played his college hockey at Northeastern University?<h2>ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ</h2>1. Brian MacLellan. 2. Butch Deadmarsh. 3. Lee Norwood. 4.14. 5. Philadelphia (1969-70,1971-72). 6. Doug Lecuyer.7. Ken Schink el (Apr. 11,1970 vs. Oakland). 8. Terry Simpson and Terry Crisp. 9. Frank Mahovlich. 10. Chris Nilan. BONUS ANSWER: Eddie Mio.<h2>BONUS QUESTION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03554/5324898-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="556" height="876"><figcaption class="caption-body">BONUS: This journeyman goaltender was one of Edmonton&rsquo;s four protected players on entering the NHL from the WHA.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Departments

THN HOCKEY TRIVIA

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01537/5325877-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="170" height="164"></div>If you want to be the best, you have to play the best.That&rsquo;s exactly what the Canadian Olympic Team was thinking when it substituted NHL teams for American League and college matchups this season.And, with games still to play against Calgary, Minnesota and Winnipeg, the move had already paid dividends.Under head coach Dave King, the Olympians won two and tied one of their first six games against NHL teams. Aside from an 8-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, Sept. 24 in Drummondville, Que., Team Canada had been competitive.The Calgary-based Olympic team opened its NHL schedule with a 3-3 tie against the Stanley Cup-champion Oilers in Edmonton. Team Canada then beat the Calgary Flames 5-3 before 10,000 fans in the Calgary Saddledome, split a pair with the New Jersey Devils (winning 5-3 in Sudbury, Ont., and losing 5-4 in North Bay, Ont.), and lost 5-3 to the Buffalo Sabres in London, Ont.&ldquo;The value of playing the NHL is that we&rsquo;re playing the best competition possible,&rdquo; said Olympic team spokesman Donald Beauchamp.&ldquo;We can skate betterthan most NHL teams, but they&rsquo;re much more physical than we are.&rdquo;Not surprisingly, the Olympic team came out a little worse for wear. Former Edmonton Oiler defenseman Randy Gregg suffered a shoulder separation Sept. 19 against Calgary and was expected to be out at least another week. Another ex-Oiler, right winger Gord Sherven, hurt his thigh in the 5-4 loss to New Jersey, while left winger Bob Joyce suffered a concussion against Edmonton, Sept. 18.Sometimes, the NHL&rsquo;s belligerentapproach is a bit much. New Jersey left winger Jim Korn drew 27 minutes in penalties and was ejected from the Devils&rsquo; win over Team Canada on Sept. 22.&ldquo;They kind of gooned us out,&rdquo; said Beauchamp. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really to their advantage to play hockey against us so they can develop their players. But New Jersey doesn&rsquo;t win that often, and we had beaten them the night before. Wins are very important to that team.&rdquo;Victory is no less important to Team Canada, which sported an overall record of 9-6-4 before facing the last three NHL teams on its schedule.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of pride on our team, especially when you consider we have a lot of players with NHL experience who want to prove they can beat NHL teams,&rdquo; said Beauchamp.In addition to Gregg and Sherven, the Olympians feature former Oiler center Marc Habscheid and Montreal Canadian farmhand Serge Boisvert. The Olympic team strengthened its goaltending by adding former Oiler Andy Moog, who grew disgruntled in Edmonton playing second fiddle to Grant Fuhr.Moog will now team with Sean Burke in goal. The former Oiler&rsquo;s signing resulted in the release of Rick Kosti, who had a 2.50 goals-against-average and 5-1-2 record in eight games with Team Canada. Kosti reported to the Calgary Flames&rsquo; training camp. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

Playing NHL Teams Strengthens Olympians

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02352/5325963-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">No, it isn&rsquo;t a casting call for Sesame Street. It&rsquo;s just Montreal Canadien defenseman Larry (Big Bird) Robinson, left, jostling with Philadelphia Flyer Don (Big Bird) Saleski in mid-70s action from the Spectrum. Watching intently is Montreal goalie Ken Dryden.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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THE WAY WE WERE

In next week&rsquo;s Oct. 16 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, we&rsquo;ll provide you with part three of our NHL preview.We&rsquo;ll take in-depth looks at each of the 21 teams, examining strengths, weaknesses, training camp developments and newcomers.Speaking of newcomers, we&rsquo;ll look at who&rsquo;s new in the NHL this year. No. 1 draft choice Pierre Turgeon is the most prominent of NHL rookies this year. But he&rsquo;s not the only one. For instance Joe Murphy, the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo;first pick and No. 1 overall in 1986, is back for another run at playing as a rookie.It&rsquo;s also a don&rsquo;t-miss issue for fans of U.S. college hockey. We&rsquo;ll be presenting our annual preseason analysis of the four Division I loops&mdash;Hockey East, the Eastern College Athletic Conference, Central Collegiate Hockey Association and Western Collegiate Hockey Association. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011324/5324108-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Christian is delighted to have the multi-talented Bengt Gustafsson (inset) back with Washington after a season spent in Sweden.</figcaption></div>In Washington, a Capital gain has not been something you can take to the bank.Over the last five years, the Washington Capitals have shown marked improvement, compiling the third-best regular-season record in the NHL, trailing only Edmonton and Philadelphia.During that time, 12 different teams have reached the final four of Stanley Cup play. The Capitals are not among them. Nor have they finished first in the Patrick Division over the regular campaign.With the return of center Bengt Gustafsson, the addition of center Dale Hunter and goalie Clint Malarchuk, and the development of defensemen Larry Murphy and Kevin Hatcher, now seems the perfect time for Washington to fulfill its potential.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to win something,&rdquo; said captain Rod Langway, the cornerstone of the Capitals since his arrival from Montreal in 1982. &ldquo;I think we have the guys to finish first in the division, but no matter what we do in the regular season, it comes down to the playoffs.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s only September, but we have to be thinking a little about April. We have to get playoff clout. Everybody is going to be looking to see what we do in the playoffs. When the pressure comes on and injuries come about, you never know what will happen. But it&rsquo;s about time it started happening for us.&rdquo;Count on this being the year.With Edmonton suffering dissension like never before&mdash;Paul Coffey, Andy Moog and Mike Krushelnyski were all training camp no-shows&mdash;and Philadelphia without stars Ron Hextall (10-game suspension), Tim Kerr (shoulder injury), and Brad McCrimmon (traded to Calgary), the Capitals are in an excellent position to catch, and possibly surpass their two chief rivals.Since 1982-83, the Capitals&rsquo; first-ever playoff year, only Edmonton (.699) and Philadelphia (.659) have had superior winning percentages to Washington (.611). During that time Edmonton has won three Stanley Cups and finished as a finalist. Philadelphia has been playoff-runner-up twice.Washington is due&hellip;overdue.The law of averages decrees some blessings are owed the Capitals. Their history of misfortune is probably unmatched in sports.Washington&rsquo;s league debut was the stuff of nightmares. The 1974-75 club established five league records&mdash;fewest points (21), fewest wins (eight), fewest road wins (one), most road losses (39) and most losses (67)&mdash;that still stand for single-season futility.It took the Capitals nine years to earn a playoff berth.In their sixth and seventh seasons, under the old one-to-16 formula, they were nosed out for 16th place on the final weekend. The next year, they wound up 16th overall, but the ground rules had changed and the Capitals were out because they were fifth in the Patrick Division.Since they have become regular playoff fixtures, the Capitals have also become regular victims of the New York Islanders. Five times, they&rsquo;ve made the playoffs, four times the Islanders have eliminated them. The one year they beat the Islanders, the Capitals fell in the divisional final not to Philadelphia, but to the sub-.500 New York Rangers.In 1985, Washington became the first team ever to lose a best-of-five series after winning the first two games. In 1987, the Capitals became only the third club to drop a playoff series after leading 3-1. To accomplish that, in the first year that the opening round was expanded to best-of-seven, they skated into the fourth overtime of the seventh game.But the Capitals have long since stopped brooding over that seven-period loss to the Islanders. In fact, the attitude seems more positive than a year ago, when they came to camp wondering how they ever lost in the divisional finals to the Rangers.&ldquo;The attitude in this camp is excellent compared to last year,&rdquo; said right winger Dave Christian. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure there was anything we could have done differently last year. We played our best and we lost because a shot went in off a post in the fourth overtime. But there was an opposite feeling the year before against the Rangers. That was very disappointing.&rdquo;Coach Bryan Murray, who did not expect great things a year ago, has his sights set higher this time. He also is aware that his own future could be on the line, if the Capitals once again put away their equipment before the crunch comes in May.&ldquo;Every year we talk about where the team fits in the NHL and last year, with Gus gone and the (Bobby) Carpenter situation creating problems, we did not expect great things to happen,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;This season we&rsquo;re definitely expecting bigger things.&ldquo;In the regular season, we&rsquo;re usually there, but obviously we haven&rsquo;t been in the playoffs, for one reason or another. We&rsquo;ve had some tough luck&mdash;what else can you call a fourovertime defeat?&mdash;but we have to put that behind us. We learned a lot about certain players in terms of character and endurance and we have to make that a positive factor now.&rdquo;The Capitals can point to many positive factors as they prepare for their 14th NHL season. None, however, can overshadow the return of Gustafsson, who was lured back by a two-year contract worth almost $1 million.Gustafsson not only is a gifted offensive player, he is one of the outstanding defensive talents in the NHL, with the ability to sense a change of possession and neutralize a developing two-on-one break.Two years ago, with Gustafsson assigned to check the NHL&rsquo;s top centers, Washington swept three games from Edmonton while limiting Wayne Gretzky to one goal, and took six of seven from Pittsburgh while holding Mario Lemieux to a lone score.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad to get the money, but I&rsquo;m looking forward to playing, too,&rdquo; Gustafsson said. &ldquo;Helping Sweden win the World Championship fulfilled a dream for me and I know I have more I can accomplish. I think we&rsquo;ll have a good team in Washington, but I hope nobody is looking at me like a savior.&rdquo;Christian could be excused for feeling that way.Two years ago, with Gustafsson as his center, Christian reached career highs in goals (41) and points (83). Last season, while Gustafsson played in Sweden, Christian dipped to 23 goals and 50 points.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited about this season,&rdquo; Christian said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been looking forward to Gus coming back. We always seemed to have a pretty good rapport and I guess I didn&rsquo;t adjust as well as I should have without him. With him gone, I was playing different positions and I was wondering, &lsquo;Where will I play and how will I be used,&rsquo; instead of having the security of knowing where I&rsquo;d be.&rdquo;Big things also are expected of the feisty Hunter, especially when the Capitals play the Flyers, a club that has given them extreme difficulty (4-15-2) over the last three seasons.&ldquo;They made a trade for me and Malarchuk and they gave up two hockey players (Alan Haworth and Gaetan Duchesne) and a high draft pick, so they have a right to expect a lot from me,&rdquo; said Hunter, who signed a new contract on arrival.&ldquo;I always thought Washington was one of the top teams. They have a good system and they played us like a playoff team during the season. It&rsquo;s hard to believe they got beat the last two years. If they&rsquo;d gotten any kind of a break last year, I think they could have picked up momentum and gone a long way. Certainly, I&rsquo;ve liked what I&rsquo;ve seen so far this year.&rdquo;Hunter most likely will be put on a line with right winger Mike Gartner, who scored 41 goals last year after reaching mid-season with only 10.Gartner was one of seven Capitals who participated in the Canada Cup, joining Murphy on Canada&rsquo;s tournament championship squad. Langway, Hatcher and Kelly Miller played for the United States, Gustafsson and Peter Sund-strom for Sweden.&ldquo;It was nice to see so many Washington Capitals representing their countries in the Canada Cup,&rdquo; Langway said. &ldquo;It shows we have some pretty good talent.&rdquo;Murphy posted a plus-eight rating, best in the Canada Cup, and solidified the status he earned last season as a second-team all-star. He, Langway and Scott Stevens provide a solid base for what promises to be the NHL&rsquo;s top defense if Hatcher, a bust last winter in his sophomore season, maintains the level he reached in the Canada Cup, when coach Bob Johnson called him the most improved player on the U.S. team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really looking forwardto this season,&rdquo; Hatcher said. &ldquo;Last year was a rough year for everybody, especially me. I was on a roller coaster, up and down. During the exhibition games something happened to my confidence and it took me the longest time to play good again.&ldquo;This year I&rsquo;m coming off the Canada Cup, which was a great experience. I played all five games, I felt good and everybody seemed pleased with the way I played. I felt confident and relaxed after we started out by beating the Finns and the Swedes. It was tougher against the Czechs and the Russians, with all that speed, but you won&rsquo;t see much of that in the NHL.&rdquo;Besides Hatcher, considerable improvement is expected from Michal Pivonka, an 18-goal scorer as a rookie last season, and Mike Ridley, who netted 15 goals in 40 games after his New Year&rsquo;s Day acquisition from the Rangers.The goaltending should be more stable, after a strange campaign in which all three netmin-ders&mdash;Bob Mason, Pete Peeters and Al Jensen&mdash;spent some time in Binghamton.This season Malarchuk and Peeters are the two men who, barring injury or collapse, will carry the load. Murray is giving both plenty of work in training camp and in the exhibitions, with the intention of designating a No. 1 man by Nov. 1.Despite their competition for the top spot, the two natives of northern Alberta are working well together and it seems unlikely Murray will have to contend with the goaltending friction that occasionally has affected the team in the past.&ldquo;We do get along very well and I have a lot of respect for Pete,&rdquo; Malarchuk said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a bundle of knowledge and we&rsquo;ve been helping each other, which is nice.&ldquo;We agree on a lot of things. You know how you feel comfortable with certain guys? That&rsquo;s the way we are together. So I think that&rsquo;s going to be very positive. Pete and I have to think of ourselves as a team of goalies, and the better our team of goalies, the better our team is going to be.&rdquo;The power play, a serious deficiency last season, has been given considerable attention in training camp, where it hardly was mentioned in past years. Washington not only ranked 18th&mdash;at 18.3percent&mdash;with the extra man, but yielded 15 shorthanded goals, a total topped only by Minnesota.Despite the repeated playoff failures and the adverse effect of the new U.S. tax law on ticket deductions, the Capitals will enter the current season with about the same season-ticket base (7,600-7,700) as last fall and similar partialplan numbers (7,000-8,000), according to marketing director Lew Sturdier.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure a lot of our fans were disappointed, just as I was and (general manager) David Poile was,&rdquo; Strudler said. &ldquo;But they&rsquo;re sticking with us. The cancellations&mdash;where we got feedback, anyway&mdash;were from attrition or the tax bill or people who don&rsquo;t know hockey taking over corporate purse strings. And we had steady new sales all summer to make up most of the difference.&rdquo;If there has been a negative, it is the continuing uncertainty surrounding Murray&rsquo;s future. There has been speculation that another slow start will inspire a change by owner Abe Pollin, who has fired more coaches in the fall than any other season of the year.When the Capitals started slowly a year ago, Pollin gave Murray a full-fledged public en-dorsemeui. Ever since, however, Pollin has been silent. He is not talking to the media because a newspaper columnist ridiculed Capital Centre in print and the newspaper refused to apologize.&ldquo;He told me there might be some difficulty, because he wasn&rsquo;t talking to the press,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;But he told me there was no problem, that I was his man. Regardless, I know you only get so many chances.&rdquo;The Capitals are capable of making good on this one.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011347/5324101-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="2249" height="1989"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rod Langway, Washington&rsquo;s Secretary of Defense, flattens way will have to be at his best for the Capitals to realize their Soviet forward Sergei Makarov during Rendezvous &rsquo;87. Lang-potential.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

The Washington Capitals have been the NHL&rsquo;s third-most successful regular-season team (.611 winning percentage) over the past five years, but rate only 11th in the playoffs. Coach Bryan Murray&rsquo;s team has won just three of eight series (.375), tying it with the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues&mdash;who rank 13th and 14th, respectively, in the five-year regular-season standings. In Table I, teams are ranked according to regular-season performance (total points and winning percentage), and in Table II by playoff performance (series win-loss record and winning percentage). Five-year regular-season records are represented by a percentage of 800&mdash;the maximum number of points a team could earn over 400 games.<h2>TABLE 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021243/5324153-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="428" height="742"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031060/5324146-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="596" height="734"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bryan Murray</figcaption></div><h2>TABLE II</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04917/5324139-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="430" height="738"></div> &#9632;

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Regular-Season Wizards Aren’t So Hot In Playoffs

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011228/5324184-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="178" height="137"></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;For the first two games of the exhibition season, Philadelphia Flyer season-ticket holders behind the home bench had a major complaint&mdash;they couldn&rsquo;t see the game.The area which was usually patrolled by Mike Keenan was now being walked by 6-foot-3, 215-pound right winger Tim Kerr. And the big man&rsquo;s shoulders virtually blocked out the action.Kerr was only acting as an assistant to E.J. McGuire and Paul Holmgren while coach Mike Keenan was on postCanada Cup sabbatical, but it was strange to see the all-star in that position.Still, that&rsquo;s about as close as Kerr is going to get to the Flyers&rsquo; bench until at least mid-November.One of those big shoulders, the left, was still being held in place with a surgical screw. At least, he hoped it was being held in place. Twice before, the screw has come loose and doctors had to start over.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s not much I can do about this,&rdquo; Kerr said of his inactivity, &ldquo;but the bright side is that I should be as good as new.&ldquo;Some people were starting to won-der if I would be less effective because wouldn&rsquo;t be able to move with people hanging on my shoulders, like before. But that shouldn&rsquo;t be a problem.&ldquo;In fact, I had the other (right) shoulder done earlier, and I came back stronger.&rdquo;One thing which probably won&rsquo;t get corrected is Kerr&rsquo;s chance to score 50 goals for a fifth consecutive season.&ldquo;At first, I didn&rsquo;t even think of that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was a couple of days after I got the news about my shoulder that my wife brought it up.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a real big thing. I&rsquo;ve already proved I can score 50 goals. The real problem is just not being able to play. It&rsquo;s been a long time. Heck, I couldn&rsquo;t even practise the last part of the playoffs.&ldquo;Being out of action that long, you know it&rsquo;s going to be sore. I was going nuts thinking about that during the Bummer. I think if it wasn&rsquo;t for my wife telling me to calm down I really might have gone crazy.&rdquo;PHILLERS&mdash;With Tim Kerr out, it appeared likely that Swedish left winger Magnus Roupe will make the squad&hellip;Defenseman Kerry Huffman looked strong in the early going. Many in the Flyers&rsquo; management have likened him to Doug Crossman&hellip;A pre-season rule which prohibits players from skating through the crease has not drawn raves from the Flyers. &ldquo;It slows up the game,&rdquo; said general manager Bob Clarke. And Kerr said, &ldquo;I think I might only get 20 goals if that rule stays in the books.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;With Ron Hextail serving an eight-game suspension, the two goaltenders at the start of the season will likely be Mark Laforest and John Kemp&mdash;each fighting for the back-up job. Also in contention are Wendell Young and Darryl Gilmour, who was coming off a bout of mono&hellip;Before a game against the U.S. Olympic team, the Flyers presented a plaque to Mike Richter, the Philadelphia-area native who is a strong candidate to be the Olympic team&rsquo;s top goalie&hellip;The Flyers will honor the memory of late good-luck charm Kate Smith in October, when they dedicate a statue to their clutch-game anthem singer outside the Spectrum. Overall, the Flyers have gone 58-9-2 when Smith&rsquo;s booming tones were heard, either on tape or in person. &#9632;

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Kerr’s Injury Casts Shadow On Flyer Hopes

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011410/5324215-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="340" height="471"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jay Greenberg</figcaption></div>HERE&rsquo;S THE PROPOSITION:You take a collection of U.S.-bom college hockey players. Assume, on the basis of availability, that none are as yet so outstanding their NHL draft teams have made offers that cannot be refused.Take these kids on tour for five months, not playing a single game that will count for anything more tangible than a bragging right. Then deliver them to Calgary, put them on ABC television in front of oh, 100 million people, most of whom like their hockey only red, white and blue and once every four years.Expect these lads to be competitive with Soviet and Czechoslovakian squads that the best Canadian professionals, with Wayne Gretzky playing the greatest hockey of his career, could barely beat.Put a flag around our guys to make us proud. Put &ldquo;Bud&rdquo; on their helmets to sell beer. Put an anvil on their backs&mdash;because we sure expect something better than those disgraces of 1984 gave us in Sarajevo.And please put me out of my misery if I get caught up in all this. Take me out and beat me over the head with a hardcover edition of Theodore Dreiser&rsquo;s An American Tragedy, impale me on a Christian stick, have Badger Bob Johnson deliver my eulogy and bury me in a potter&rsquo;s field in Eveleth, Minn.What&rsquo;s the matter, don&rsquo;t I believe in miracles? Yeah, one per lifetime. And it&rsquo;s already happened. It came in 1980 with the understanding that it was so incredible that it should not be expected again. Look at it this way: If it occurs again in Calgary, then Lake Placid couldn&rsquo;t have been the event of a lifetime, could it? Well, could it?So give the 1988 U.S. Olympians a break, will you? Expect absolutely nothing from them, just as we did in 1980. Maybe you&rsquo;ll be surprised. Maybe they&rsquo;ll lose to Austria. But let them be what the Olympics are supposed to be about.The U.S. team is about as pure as it gets these days. It is made up of relative amateurs, fortunate enough to be able put aside a year for one of the great experiences of a lifetime.Some will be able to use this as a springboard to an NHL career. That&rsquo;s great. Some will get on with the rest of their lives. And that&rsquo;s just as great.I&rsquo;m not decrying professionalism here. The Soviets have been represented in the Olympics by pros for years and that seemed terribly unfair. So I don&rsquo;t blame the Canadian Olympic team for putting to use any mercenary they can get their hands on. And I&rsquo;m not decrying commercialism either, because before there was corporate sponsorship, athletes either had to starve to death or come from a family with money to compete in the Olympics. That wasn&rsquo;t right, either.I just think it&rsquo;s kind of neat that circumstances dictate this is the kind of hockey team the U.S. has to send to the Olympics. It is neither bad enough to embarrass us or&mdash;please, may we have learned from 1984&mdash;strong enough that we demand too much of them. In other words, just good enough to see how well it can do.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to Calgary to beat the Russians,&rdquo; said general manager Art Berglund. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going there to represent the United States.&rdquo;If you want to throw up, please do it away from me. I don&rsquo;t care how much sinus spray these kids get caught with, they&rsquo;re good enough to represent me.Dave Peterson is my idea of an Olympic coach. He is a career high school teacher, past the point where he&rsquo;s in this to catch a spotlight and ride it into the pros.Scott Fusco looks like he should have Huck Finn on right wing, Tom Sawyer on his left. You never heard of a goalie born in Philadelphia, did you? Well, even if Mike Richter can&rsquo;t stop a thing, he was bom in the cradle of liberty and you gotta love him for that.I&rsquo;m not quite sure how a guy named Guy Gosselin was bom in the U.S., but that&rsquo;s what makes this country so great. Miller&hellip;Brown-&hellip;Jones&hellip;Richards&hellip;Young&hellip;not only do these names reflect heritages that go back to the Mayflower, but you can also spell them.The Philadelphia Flyers played these guys in an exhibition game recently. From one game, it was hard to tell how good they are now, and certainly there&rsquo;s no telling how good they will be by February. But they conducted themselves so well that not even the Flyers felt like gooning them.The Olympians, Brian Leetch in particular, skated pretty fast, and bumped pretty hard. If you couldn&rsquo;t tell they were a bunch of Americans from their uniforms, their identities were clear as soon as they got around the net. From sea to shining sea, our hockey players can&rsquo;t put the puck into either one of them.&ldquo;We may have a good goal-scoter, a Pat LaFontaine,&rdquo; said Peterson. &ldquo;We just don&rsquo;t know who he is yet.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s got five months to find out but, even if he doesn&rsquo;t, the U.S. Olympic team won&rsquo;t let me down a bit. I feel a little different about the pros.I think they ought to take all the Soviet hockey players to Siberia for not winning the Canada Cup. No, too good for them. Chernobyl is where you take them. I think the Oilers, having won three of the last four Stanley Cups, have no excuse for not winning all four.I don&rsquo;t care how many injuries the Flyers had, they choked again, just like they did the last three times they made the finals. The Cana-diens were a disgrace to their tradition if they couldn&rsquo;t beat that crippled Philly team. The Islanders have done nothing for me lately.I&rsquo;m not as demanding about the U.S. Olympic team. Those kids will let me down only if it doesn&rsquo;t look like they&rsquo;re having fun. &#9632;

f0006-01

Miracles Happen Only Once In A Lifetime

<div class="byline">BY JIM SMITH</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03657/5324246-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Denis Potvin, accompanied by the Stanley Cup, proudly signals to fans where the New York Islanders rated in the hockey world.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021010/5324253-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="178" height="136"></div>UNIONDALE, N.Y.&mdash;Confidence, consistency and leadership are perhaps the three qualities for which New York Islander defenseman Denis Potvin will be most remembered.On Sept. 25, Potvin announced he will retire after this, his 15th NHL season. Asked privately if he thinks he was the greatest defenseman in NHL history, Potvin said, &ldquo;Yeah.&rdquo; Confidence.Potvin knows he and Bobby Orr both won Calder Trophies as rookie of the year. He knows Orr exceeded 100 points in six straight years, won three Hart Trophies as most valuable player and captured two scoring titles. Potvin topped 100 points only once and won neither the Hart nor Art Ross (scoring champ) Trophies. But Potvin has scored more goals (291), more assists (710) and more points (1,001) than any NHL defenseman, including Orr.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll always be evaluated in terms of, &lsquo;Denis played 15 years and Orr played 12,&rsquo;&rdquo; Potvin said. &ldquo;But look at our championship teams. They&rsquo;ll say we won four Cups (Orr played on two Cup-winners) and 19 straight series&hellip;Longevity was a big part of my game.&rdquo;Potvin said he is most proud of captaining those four Stanley Cup winners from 1980-83, adding, &ldquo;One thing stands out in my mind that I always wanted to accomplish and did,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was dependable.&rdquo;He won three Norris Trophies as the NHL&rsquo;s top defenseman and was a fivetime first-team all-star. Orr won eight straight Norrises (1968-75) and was an eight-time first-team all-star before knee problems forced his retirement. Each quarterbacked one of the best power plays of all time. History will be the judge of who was the greatest. Both were centerpieces in their franchises.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Potvin believes he ranks ahead of even Orr.</blockquote>&ldquo;We had some tremendous success early, in 1975,&rdquo; Potvin said. &ldquo;That definitely helped the organization get untracked. But I think we started to think that we were better than we were. The culmination of our frustration was in the spring of 1979, when we lost to the Rangers&hellip;But that was part of the reason we matured and went on to win four Cups.&ldquo;My play in that fifth Stanley Cup playoff was not what I expected of myself. Personal problems were a factor. I will never forget the fact we should have had a fifth Cup. Other than that, I feel I did everything I wanted to do&hellip;We had the greatest damn team that ever played this game.&rdquo;Potvin, team captain since 1979, gave up the job, he said, &ldquo;to provide continuity.&rdquo; General manager Bill Torrey indicated Potvin&rsquo;s successor will be named before the regular season opens and will be a symbol of the club&rsquo;s youth movement. That seemed to rule out 31-year-old Bryan Trottier.The logical next choice was 25-year-old Brent Sutter, an intense, productive center.Potvin, who will be 34 on Oct. 29, said he is looking forward to a season without the burdens of the captaincy or record-chasing.&ldquo;I want to be a contributor right to the end and a solid one,&rsquo;&rsquo; he said. &ldquo;And then I want to walk out without feeling I stayed too long. It&rsquo;s simply time to call it quits.&rdquo;He laughed when somebody suggested his announcements would prompt Julius Erving-style tributes in NHL cities. &ldquo;I want to be at the Garden for that one,&rdquo; general manager Bill Torrey quipped.Potvin is respected by peers but his punishing bodychecks made enemies among rival players and fans, especially in Madison Square Garden, where he has long been an object of scorn.&ldquo;What I did do by being an Islander,&rdquo; said Potvin, &ldquo;is dodge a lot of the burdens a Ranger feels. The young players in our organization are sheltered from a lot of the negativism that comes from playing in Manhattan. I feel my image and what I accomplished over the years has been appreciated.&rdquo;ON THE ISLE&mdash;The Isles did not expect to lose any significant players in the waiver draft. They were likely to protect all nine of their veteran defensemen and only eight forwards, since forwards Bob Bassen, Ari Haanpaa, Brad Lauer, Mikko Makela and Randy Wood have all played fewer than three years professionally and do not have to be protected. &#9632;

f0006-03

Potvin To Call It Quits After ’87-88 Season

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011258/5324284-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="582" height="1257"><figcaption class="caption-body">Minor-league goaltender Ron Scott was having a strong camp for the Rangers.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02886/5324291-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="175" height="134"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;Goaltending, it would seem, is one of the few areas where New York Ranger coach Michel Bergeron would want to leave well enough alone but he raised more than one eyebrow early in the pre-season by hinting about the possibility of a three-man system.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to say I&rsquo;m going to do it (keep three goalies), but I&rsquo;m going to think about it,&rdquo; Bergeron said after Ron Scott made 21 saves in relief of John Vanbiesbrouck to complete a 3-0 shutout over the New York Islanders.&ldquo;I like the three-goalie system. I had it in Quebec and it worked well. It&rsquo;s a possibility.&rdquo;The hard-luck Scott has been a minor-leaguer since signing as a free agent in 1983. More was expected, but he&rsquo;s been held back by chronic groin troubles and player shuffles that have consistently left him left out.The latest was New York&rsquo;s acquisition of Froese last season from Philadelphia. Scott was playing for New Haven of the American League at the time.&ldquo;Of course I was a little disappointed because I was 8-2 at the time,&rdquo; recalled Scott of his reaction. &ldquo;Any time you get a chance to get a goalie of that quality you do it. I didn&rsquo;t think it was a bad trade then and I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s a bad trade now.&ldquo;It just wasn&rsquo;t the thing I wanted to see happen to the Rangers.&rdquo;Scott expressed shock when told Bergeron was considering the implementation of a three-man system.&ldquo;Michel said that?&rdquo; he said in disbelief.Both Vanbiesbrouck and Bob Froese responded to the &ldquo;possibility&rdquo; with cautious, diplomatic statements but more than one student of human nature was left shaking his head.&ldquo;I hope he doesn&rsquo;t mess with our goaltending,&rdquo; one Ranger veteran noted. &ldquo;John and Bob are the strength of our team and they got along well last year when they both knew they were going to be playing. Why tamper with something that works?&rsquo; &lsquo;Even before Scott was brought into the picture, Bergeron put Froese and Vanbiesbrouck on notice that he does not believe in alternating goalies the way Phil Esposito and Tom Webster did for most of last season.He announced plans to go with the &ldquo;hot goalie&rdquo; as long as he can keep winning, which often leads to inactivity and frustration for the other goalie.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be a tough situation because we&rsquo;ll both want to play,&rdquo; Vanbiesbrouck acknowledged, even before the subject of a three-goalie system came up, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;re going to have to adapt to him. He&rsquo;s the boss.&rdquo;For some time last season, Doug Soetaert was part of a three-goalie system in New York but Vanbiesbrouck and Froese did not like being left home to rest in the case of back-to-back games. Their preference for being on the bench, even when they weren&rsquo;t playing, eventually led to Soetaert, now a high-priced assistant coach and assistant general manager at Denver, being phased out.The 27-year-old Scott was phased in not only because he is, for the first time, eligible for claim in the Oct. 6 waiver draft but because he had been outstanding in the pre-season.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know much about Ron Scott when I came here,&rdquo; Bergeron said, &ldquo;but Phil (GM Esposito) told me he was good enough to play in the NHL. He has really impressed me. He has been very sharp.&rdquo;Even though Vanbiesbrouck did not appear to be overjoyed by the prospect of a three-goalie system, he was supportive of Scott.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve known all along that Ron was capable of playing in the NHL,&rdquo; the 1985-86 Vezina Trophy winner noted. &ldquo;We had similar seasons the year we won the championship at Tulsa (CHL).&ldquo;Ron has just been unfortunate in the timing of some of the groin injuries which have held him back. There&rsquo;s no question he is capable.&rdquo;BIG APPLESAUCE&mdash;Having been in the wrong place at the wrong time for much of his career, Ron Scott now faces the reality that Pittsburgh, which appears to be most in need of a goalie, can&rsquo;t claim him because he is in the same division&hellip;Rangers&rsquo; medical trainer Dave Smith sent Scott to a specialist during the off-season for treatment of groin problem and the goalie says, for the first time, he feels as though he has found a program that helps. Scott fashioned a 17-23 record at New Haven (AHL) with a 3.71 goals against average. He was 0-0-1 with the Rangers.<div class="sidebar">&lsquo;I didn&rsquo;t know much about Ron Scott when I came here&hellip;He has really impressed me. He has been very sharp.&rsquo;&mdash;Bergeron &#9632;</div>

f0007-01

Bergeron Considering Three-Goalie System

IT WAS SUNDAY night and I flicked through the channels to see what was on the tube, all the while knowing that, in just a few minutes, a man in a tuxedo was about to sing the national anthems of Canada and the Soviet Union, and that one of the best games in the history of hockey was about to get under way at the Canada Cup.I tuned in to ESPN, only to find some selfproclaimed NFL expert slobbering all over the microphone. I couldn&rsquo;t believe it. ESPN, the &ldquo;all-sports network,&rdquo; was not covering one of the most exciting hockey series ever. So, I handed the TV selector to Mom as I retreated in anger at not getting to see the final series between Team Canada and CCCP.Suddenly, there was a scream from the living room. The game was on the tube! &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t mess around, Mom.&rdquo; I said. But sure enough, there it was, live from Hamilton. And here&rsquo;s the clincher: It was on FNN, the Financial News Network. This channel had gone from stocksand-bonds reports to international hockey. Yee haa!Thanks to FNN, I had the opportunity to witness one of the greatest matchups in the history of hockey. Thank you, FNN and THN for your coverage of the Canada Cup series of 1987.Tony Testa, Folcroft. Pa.<h2>HABS THE GREATEST</h2>Could Art McDonald be serious about his Hab-haters&rsquo; calendar (THN, Sept. 18)? Could any true fan of history, aware of the Canadiens&rsquo; glories, do anything but admire them?Since 1910, Les Glorieux have won Stanley Cups in every decade and will certainly end the Oilers&rsquo; ownership of Lord Stanley&rsquo;s silverware in &rsquo;88. No franchise can match their consistency or aura of greatness.Mr. McDonald mentions that he contacted the Nordiques and didn&rsquo;t receive a reply. This is not unusual. For five years, I&rsquo;ve written the Canadiens and other NHL teams for pictures to cheer up the shut-ins in my parish. Quebec is unique in never acknowledging my letters. The Habs, under Jean Beliveau and the publicity department, have never failed to acknowledge my requests or those of any other pastor. This past summer, Le Gros Bill (Jean Beliveau) took time out of a hectic schedule to meet me, a long-time fan, at his office.Greatness with the Habs means more than victories on the ice. They mean smiles and friendships in the hospitals and homes for shutins across Canada. They treat fans well.Fr. Bill LeGrand,&nbsp; Blind River, Ont.<h2>CANUCKS ON THE RISE</h2>I am writing in response to the letter, &lsquo;Quinn Overspends,&rsquo; from Fan Forum in the Sept. 18 issue. I couldn&rsquo;t believe what I was reading. Someone is finally making an attempt to get the cellar-dwelling Canucks to a respectable position among the other franchises in the NHL and some of their own fans are criticizing the actions of the team (more specifically, the GM).True, Pat Quinn is spending more money, but don&rsquo;t you feel that Vancouver greatly needs the help he is trying to give them? In the long run, wouldn&rsquo;t everyone agree that if Vancouver was to turn its franchise around and start putting some respectable numbers on the board, then the extra money spent would be well worth it?I believe that the Canucks and their fans have paid their dues and are deserving of a prime NHL contender. And that is what Pat Quinn is trying to do for them.Bob Bergeron,&nbsp; Woonsocket, R.I. &#9632;

Fan Astonished To Find ESPN Didn’t Cover Cup

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011343/5324346-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div>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;

f0008-01

FAN FORUM

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021106/5324377-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="385" height="442"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob McKenzie</figcaption></div>YOU SEE THE Washington Capitals on the front cover. I see the Cleveland Indians. You see defenseman Scott Stevens. I see outfielders Cory Snyder and Joe Carter.I try hard to think Caps&hellip;but they keep coming up Indians.Not surprising, really.Sitting on my desk is the April 6, 1987 issue of Sports Illustrated. On its cover, Snyder and Carter are smiling broadly, bats poised, as SI boldly proclaims &rsquo;87 as the year of the &lsquo;Indian Uprising.&rsquo;Hindsight being what it is, I know now why Cleveland&rsquo;s cartoon character Indian flashes that big, toothy grin. He, too, read the cover line that says, &ldquo;Believe it! Cleveland is the best team in the American League.&rdquo;Right on. The last time I checked the Indians were 36 games out of first place, last in the AL East.This, I believe, qualifies as a prime example of the infamous SI cover jinx.Mind you, an acquaintance who works at SI wonders if the Cleveland cover (and ensuing collapse) was more an example of stupidity than superstition. How, he asks, could anyone pick the Indians as the best of anything?Well, one might look at our cover this week and pose a similar query: How could anyone select the Caps as this year&rsquo;s team of destiny?You could answer Dale Hunter, Bengt Gustafsson, another year older, another year wiser and leave it at that. But you do have to consider that this is a team that can&rsquo;t, or at least hasn&rsquo;t been able to, win when it counts.It&rsquo;s bad enough having to worry about the discipline of the Flyers, the tradition of the Islanders, the unpredictability of the Rangers and the presence of Mario Lemieux. Each one is a threat to our team of destiny.But another peril lurks out there. And you thought SI was the only publication with a cover jinx.Cap GM David Poile is an astute fellow. That&rsquo;s why he was underwhelmed by his team&rsquo;s pre-season appraisal in THN.&ldquo;Geez,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that doesn&rsquo;t make my day. I&rsquo;ll tell you how I feel about it when the year is over.&rdquo;Good luck, David. You&rsquo;ll need it.On the Sept. 21, 1984 cover, Team USA&rsquo;s Tom Barrasso appeared along with the line, &lsquo;Is he the best goalie in hockey?&rsquo; A few nights later, we had our answer. Barrasso let in four goals in 12 minutes and pulled himself en route to a 9-2 loss to Sweden in the Canada Cup sudden-death semi-final.Then, of course, there is the advance cover jinx. L.A. King Bernie Nicholls was to appear on the Dec. 10, 1982 cover, but just days before going to press, he tore ligaments in his knee, ending his streak of 16 goals in 19 games.Instead, Boston&rsquo;s Tom Fergus filled in on that cover with the headline, &lsquo;The Sleeper&rsquo;. It took more than four years, but our jinx finally caught up with him. Last season, he suffered a mysterious viral ailment that sapped his strength and made him want to, you guessed it, sleep.How about the guilt-by-association jinx? Sylvain Turgeon had the misfortune of being in our post-entry draft cover photo with younger brother Pierre this past summer. We all know what happened to Sylvain just weeks later at the Canada Cup training camp.Mike Bossy posed with his magic number (50) last season and for the first time in 10 years, failed to hit the 50-goal mark. The less said about last fall&rsquo;s &lsquo;Penguin Power&rsquo; cover, with, ahem, Roberto Romano and Terry Ruskowski on it, the better.Lest this frighten a player from posing for a THN cover photo, be aware of the reverse jinx. A slumping Winnipeg Jet star appeared on the Dec. 23, 1983 cover with the query, &lsquo;What&rsquo;s wrong with Dale Hawerchuk?&rsquo;Evidently, not much. Two days after publication, he scored three goals and three assists in an 8-4 win over Toronto.And so it goes. That&rsquo;s why you see Capitals, I see Indians.Beware. It can strike anybody at any time. &#9632;

f0008-02

Good Luck, Capitals. You’re Going To Need It

<div class="byline">COMPILED BY RICHARD BEALES Editorial Staff</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011311/5324408-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gary Suter will miss the first four games of the season while serving a suspension for slashing a Soviet during the Canada Cup.</figcaption></div>Disgruntled free-agent goaltender Andy Moog made good on his vow not to rejoin the Edmonton Oilers.Moog, 27, is the newest member of the Canadian Olympic team.Dissatisfied with his role as backup to Grant Fuhr, Moog became a free agent over the summer. But NHL compensation requirements scared off potential bidders&mdash;he would have cost any team signing him at least a first-round draft choice.So, Moog left the Oilers, refusing to report to the Stanley Cup champion&rsquo;s training camp.Finally, when Oiler coach-general manager Glen Sather didn&rsquo;t trade him, Moog opted for the Olympic program.Sather said that Moog moved too quickly.&ldquo;If he had waited another week, I would have traded him,&rdquo; Sather told the Buffalo News. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll still be traded. He&rsquo;s too good to be out of this league. He better play well for them. If he doesn&rsquo;t play well, he could really drop in his bargaining position.&rdquo;Moog joins an Oiler teammate on the Canadian team. Earlier, defenseman Randy Gregg left the Oilers to join the Olympic team. He and Moog were teammates on Edmonton&rsquo;s 1984, &rsquo;85 and &rsquo;87 Stanley Cup championship teams.While Moog won&rsquo;t be collecting on a big contract with the Olympic team, his earnings will be supplemented by a deal with the IGA grocery store chain&mdash;for whom he will act as a company spokesman.Moog appeared in 46 games for the Oilers last year, compiling a 28-11-3 record. He recorded a 3.51 goals-against average. In the playoffs, however, he gave way to Fuhr. Moog played only two games during the Oilers&rsquo; march to the Cup.Goalie Rick Kosti was released to make room for Moog, while Sean Burke remains with the team. Kosti was returned to the Calgary Flames for reassignment.<h2>SUTER SUSPENDED</h2>Gary Suter did not escape National Hockey League justice.Suter, who slashed a Soviet player in the face during the Canada Cup, has been suspended 10 games&mdash;including the first four games of the 1987-88 NHL season.The Calgary Flame defenseman cut Andrei Lomakin for more than 20 facial stitches during a Sept. 4 game between Team USA and the Soviet Union.It was unclear how the infraction would be dealt with because it happened outside NHL play.But a clause in the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and NHL Players&rsquo; Association stipulates the league can take action.Suter must also sit out the first six games of any International Ice Hockey Federation-sanctioned event for which he is eligible.&ldquo;The league wishes to make it clear, that no matter how severe the provocation, no player may take matters into his own hands by retaliating in this manner,&rdquo; said NHL vice president Brian O&rsquo;Neill, in announcing the suspension.&ldquo;In addition, all players must be made aware that they are responsible for their conduct wherever they play while under an NHL contract.&rdquo;<h2>YOUNG PLAYER DIES</h2>A 17-year-old midget hockey player from Aylmer, Que., died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage, minutes after experiencing a seizure during a game Sept. 27 in Hull.Mario Cote, playing for the Citoyens du Hull midget AA team, was sitting on the players&rsquo; bench after finishing a shift against the Nepean Raiders. Meanwhile on the ice, a Hull teammate was trying to clear the puck out of his zone. It cleared the boards and was thought to have hit Cote. Upon later examination, there was no evidence the puck struck him.Cote began vomiting uncontrollably. He lost consciousness and was pronounced dead on arrival at Outauois Regional Hospital.Coroner Gaston Tremblay said whether Cote was hit by the puck or not, it was inconsequential to his death. The hemorrhage could have happened anywhere, at any time, he said.The incident recalls a similar accident on Oct. 23, 1982, involving Normand Leveille of the Boston Bruins. Leveille, a promising second-year left winger, complained of a headache between periods of a game with the Vancouver Canucks. Before the intermission was over, he started hemorrhaging and was rushed to hospital for brain surgery.Leveille survived, but his movement and speech are still greatly impaired. He has not played hockey since.<h2>TRICKY SHOOTER</h2>The most prominent right winger in the United States was foiled twice by Washington Capital netminder Pete Peeters, but he managed to score on his third try.It was hockey day at the White House, and the highlight was a shootout between Peeters and president Ronald Reagan.After Peeters stopped Reagan&rsquo;s second shot on a slick surface specially set up on the White House lawn, the president resorted to drastic measures.&ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;ll have to be a little tricky,&rdquo; he said, as he slipped a second puck out of his jacket pocket and quickly batted it by the Capital netminder.Members of both the Capitals and U.S. Olympic team were invited for tea in the Rose Garden Sept. 24, prior to their exhibition game at the Capital Center that night. The president paid tribute to the Olympic team as a national symbol of amateur purity and sportsmanship.<h2>SOVIET PLAYOFFS</h2>Central Red Army, perennial champion of the Soviet Union&rsquo;s Elite Division, will have to work a little harder this season.Typically in the past, Army skated away and hid from the pack by the season&rsquo;s halfway mark&mdash;clinching the championship. This year, however, for the first time in its 42-year history, the league will have a playoff system.The top four teams will qualify for the playoffs. Soviet officials hope that races for post-season berths will generate more excitement among fans.Previously, the top team at the end of the season was awarded the title. Red Army has won the last 11 years in a row, 30 times altogether. No matter how strongly Army finishes in the regular season, it could still face the possibility of an upset in a short series. Semi-finals will be best-of-three; finals and third-place finals best-of-five.The division will open with 14 teams. The worst four will be dropped to the second division in mid-season, while six of the remaining 10 are eliminated from the playoffs. &#9632;

f0009-01

Moog Leaves Edmonton For Nats

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021058/5324477-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="583" height="824"><figcaption class="caption-body">Captain Kirk Muller aims to pilot the Devils towards a new hockey frontier.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03688/5324484-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="179" height="136"></div>EAST RUTHERFORD, N. J.&mdash;Captain Kirk&rsquo;s mission: To lead New Jersey where no Devils&rsquo; team has gone before&mdash;the playoffs.But unlike the starship Enterprise, team leader Kirk Muller and the Devils don&rsquo;t have a five-year timetable. The future, hopes New Jersey, is now.When the center-winger took the bridge on June 18, it officially signaled the end of an era in which a succession of veterans commandeered the Devils&rsquo; locker room.&ldquo;Maybe it will be a boost, a spark,&rdquo; said defenseman Joe Cirella. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of us. We all grew together, whereas all the other captains we had came from different pasts. They would relate to things that happened somewhere else, for another team at another time, and we weren&rsquo;t there. We can relate to a younger guy, what he does on the ice and his work habits.&ldquo;It was always the older players who the franchise relied on and who ran the team. Now Kirk is the captain and they&rsquo;re relying on us. I guess we&rsquo;re starting to get old.&rdquo;Muller is confident in his abilities.&ldquo;I can relate to the young guys and how they feel on and off the ice because I&rsquo;ve grown up with these guys,&rdquo; said the 21-year-old who is in his fourth season with New Jersey.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve built through the draft the last few years and my being named captain is a sign that we can&rsquo;t use youth and inexperience as an excuse anymore. Obviously we&rsquo;re still trying to improve, but we&rsquo;ve played three or four years together in this league and this is the year we have to do it.&rdquo;That straight-forward attitude, coupled with his well-known work ethic on the ice, made Muller the logical candidate to follow Mel Bridgman as captain. Bridgman, traded to the Detroit Red Wings last season, succeeded the retired Don Lever in that post.There was speculation that the Devils might opt for an older, married player as captain&mdash;perhaps Cirella, Aaron Broten or Mark Johnson. But nobody was shocked at Muller&rsquo;s appointment.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t surprised at all. I thought it was a great choice,&rdquo; said defenseman Craig Wolanin. &ldquo;If you talk about leading by example there is no better choice on the team. I&rsquo;m not a big hoot-and-holler guy but I see what he does on the ice every night and that&rsquo;s enough for me. Kirk&rsquo;s also got great credentials.&rdquo;The captain&rsquo;s resume includes skating for Team NHL at Rendezvous &rsquo;87 against the Soviet Union, and attending Team Canada&rsquo;s 1987 Canada Cup training camp&mdash;though he was an early cut. Muller has played in the last three World Championships and represented Canada at the 1984 Olympics and World Jr. Championships.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s matured into that quality player,&rdquo; said Cirella. &ldquo;Kirk has shown he&rsquo;s a true Devil and people can really relate to Kirk when they think of the Devils. He&rsquo;s our man. I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s a better man.&rdquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt the 5-foot-11, 186-pound Muller is getting better as a hockey player. The club&rsquo;s first selection in the 1984 draft (second overall to Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux), Muller finished second behind Broten in team scoring last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-04492/5324470-1-eng-US/f0010-042.jpg" title="f0010-04" width="580" height="820"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andy Brickley tied himself up so tightly he was sidelined with a foot injury.</figcaption></div>He had 26 goals and 50 assists for 76 points in 79 games. Those totals were improvements for Muller who progressed from 17 goals and 54 points as a rookie to 25 goals and 66 points as a sophomore.Getting cut by Team Canada was disappointing, both to Muller and the Devils. New Jersey had hoped a spot on the team would give the Kingston, Ont., native an emotional lift for the 1987-88 season. But given the number of injuries to Canada Cup participants&mdash;Philadelphia&rsquo;s Rick Tocchet, Montreal&rsquo;s Claude Lemieux, Edmonton&rsquo;s Glenn Anderson and Hartford&rsquo;s Kevin Dineen, Scot Kleinendorst and Sylvain Turgeon&mdash;perhaps it worked out best for all concerned.&ldquo;Maybe it was a blessing in disguise,&rdquo; said former general manager Max McNab, who is now the Devils&rsquo; executive vice president. &ldquo;By getting cut it allowed Kirk to concentrate on his duties as captain and he reported to training camp healthy.&rdquo;HOT STUFF&mdash;Defenseman Craig Wolanin was sidelined with back spasms while center Andy Brickley suffered from a foot injury caused by lacing his skates too tightly. Dan Dorion, the right winger who starred at Western Michigan University, was impressive skating on a line with Kirk Muller and Pat Verbeek&hellip;Defenseman Randy Velischek was shaken up in a collision with Joe Cirella&hellip;Devils&rsquo; coach Doug Carpenter said center Patrik Sundstrom, who endured lengthy road trips with Vancouver of the far-flung Smythe Division, will benefit from the reduced travel in the Patrick Division. &#9632;

f0010-02

Devils’ Captain Kirk Treks Toward Playoffs

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011358/5324515-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="374" height="421"><figcaption class="caption-body">Frank Orr</figcaption></div>AFTER TEAM CANADA triumphed in the 1984 Canada Cup tournament, head honcho Glen Sather was asked if there was any special significance in the triumph, accomplished with that superb semi-final win over the Soviet Union and a sweep of Sweden in the final.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re damned right there is,&rdquo; Sather said. &ldquo;It means the NHL can hold its head high for the next four years knowing it proved on the ice that it plays the best hockey in the world.&rdquo;Slats&rsquo; words were recalled in the euphoria of Team Canada&rsquo;s victory in this year&rsquo;s version of the tournament, a win made even sweeter by the fact that it came over the USSR in three extraordinary hockey games.The &rsquo;84 and &rsquo;87 triumphs gave the NHL a big run through the decade that started with a crusher on the international ponds. The Soviet Union had reconstructed its team&mdash;after blowing the &rsquo;80 Olympics to the U.S. squad&mdash;with such splendid young players as Viacheslav Fetisov, Alexei Kasatanov, Vladimir Krutov, Sergei Makarov and Igor Larionov. And after that awesome 8-1 win over Team Canada, there were those in North American hockey who figured the Soviets were destined to control the world of hockey.Ray Bourque, the dandy Boston Bruin defenseman, has played in the three Canada Cup tournaments in the &rsquo;80s. Wearing the suit he wore into the world, he stood in the center of the dressing room at Copps Coliseum and reflected on what the 6-5 victory Sept. 15 meant to Canadians and the NHL.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll never forget the dressing room at the Forum after that loss in &rsquo;81,&rdquo; Bourque said. &ldquo;We had not lost in the entire tournament until they just blew us away. We went into the room and we were all alone. Everyone was stuck in a desert by himself.&ldquo;Even if we had lost this time, that wouldn&rsquo;t have happened because there was such a close feeling on this team. There are so many guys with so much character that we would have been down really low but we would have been together very strong.&rdquo;Bourque hopes to play in the next Canada Cup, too. That one is scheduled for 1992, but there&rsquo;s talk of an NHL-Soviet eight-game series, perhaps in &rsquo;90.&ldquo;Yeah, if they ask me, I&rsquo;ll be there in &rsquo;92,&rdquo; Bourque said. &ldquo;Or any other time there&rsquo;s an international event. I really enjoy playing in something like this.&ldquo;It has been just a great experience to get together with some great athletes, grow so much as a team and really accomplish something worthwhile. To have played in three hockey games at a level as high as these three with the Russians is a privilege.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to be a little bit sad&mdash;no, make that a lot sad&mdash;when this team breaks up, because I&rsquo;ve really got close to many of these players. But maybe that&rsquo;s what makes it so great, the fact that we did develop that feeling in a short time.&rdquo;When a game is pushed to such a high level by a wonderful international event, someone always wonders how much appeal the domestic game will have when the NHL season starts. Washington Capital GM David Poile had a good answer for that.&ldquo;Something as great as the calibre of hockey in those Canada-Soviet games makes you wonder how you can ever watch an ordinary NHL game,&rdquo; Poile said.&ldquo;But if you like hockey, you like to watch the game at all levels if it has good competition. There will be a good game early in the season and you&rsquo;ll find yourself forgetting about the Canada Cup and thinking that the NHL is pretty good stuff.&ldquo;Heck, I watched my son&rsquo;s tyke hockey game the other day and it was a good one because the competition was good.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-01

Team Canada And NHL Big Winners In 80s

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03760/5324546-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="577" height="868"><figcaption class="caption-body">High-scoring junior Dave McLlwain is tabbed for the Penguins&rsquo; checking line.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021133/5324553-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="178" height="133"></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;At best, management types say, the NHL entry draft is an imprecise science, an often-exasperating exercise in the uncertain.It is a difficult and demanding job, they say, trying to project how an 18-year-old will perform in a few years, when his body and abilities are fully developed.And that&rsquo;s how they talk about the early rounds, when the available talent is considerably skilled and has been scrupulously studied.Get past, say, the first four or five rounds and the remaining players include more suspects than prospects, and might be no more than footnotes in scouts&rsquo; notebooks.Make it to the ninth, and you&rsquo;re usually happy to tum up a guy capable of lacing his own skates.Get a player like Dave McLlwain, whom the Penguins chose in the ninth round of the 1986 draft, and you run the risk of going to prison for theft.He looks like that much of a steal.&ldquo;We just got lucky,&rdquo; Penguin general manager Eddie Johnston said. &ldquo;We think we hit the lottery.&rdquo;The payoff for that pick apparently will come this season, as McLlwain established himself during the early weeks of training camp as the favorite to center the Penguins&rsquo; checking line. Johnston said McLlwain not only figured to replace John Chabot, who signed with Detroit as a free agent dur ing the off-season, but should surpass him.&ldquo;He knows the game, he&rsquo;s a lot more physical than what we had here before and he&rsquo;s a lot better skater.&rdquo; And he&rsquo;s a pretty good scorer, too. Last season, as a 19-year-old with the North Bay Centennials, he finished second in the Ontario League with 119 points (46-73) in 60 games.The Penguins, who chose the 6 foot, 180-pounder at the insistence of Ontario scout Doug Wood, are fortunate not only that McLlwain lasted until the ninth round, but that he made it to 1986.He had been eligible for the draft in 1985, but it was the considered opinion of NHL teams that there were at least 252 better prospects. McLlwain was not picked.After being overlooked, McLlwain had no inflated expectations going into the next year&rsquo;s draft&mdash;even though he scored 72 points in 64 games with the Centennials.&ldquo;I had an idea I wouldn&rsquo;t be a high draft pick because it wasn&rsquo;t my draft year. I figured not many teams would take a chance on drafting me.&rdquo;For their nominal risk, the Penguins acquired a player more versatile than a Swiss Army knife&mdash;he can play all three forward positions&mdash;and whose prowess on faceoffs addresses one of their most glaring needs.&ldquo;He was the best in junior hockey on the draws,&rdquo; Johnston said.McLlwain was used extensively on faceoffs by Team Canada at the World Jr. Championships last year, and his performance made a lasting impression on a former player who was also fast on the draw.&ldquo;(Philadelphia GM) Bobby Clarke said he was the best player in the World Championships,&rdquo; Johnston said.&ldquo;Our guys thought the same thing, but to hear it from somebody else&hellip;&rdquo;Although he can play all three forward positions, McLlwain, like teammate Craig Simpson, said he is more comfortable and productive at center.&ldquo;I can play the wing if they want me to, but my game&rsquo;s a lot of skating. At center, you get a lot of room to skate and wheel with the puck.&rdquo;The Penguins obviously like what they&rsquo;ve seen McLlwain do with&mdash;and without&mdash;the puck in camp.&ldquo;He hasn&rsquo;t done anything to knock him off the club,&rdquo; Johnston said.There&rsquo;s not much reason to believe anyone else will do that to him by the time the Penguins open the regular season Oct. 8 in Madison Square Garden.And this time, luck has nothing to do with it.PENPOINTS&mdash;Center Mario Lemieux began practising with the Penguins five days after scoring the Canada Cup-winning goal against the Soviet Union&hellip;Rookie right winger Lee Giffin suffered a scratched left cornea and cut eyelid when he was struck by the stick of defenseman Moe Mantha during a scrimmage. Giffin wore a face shield when he returned two days later&hellip;Right winger Jimmy Mann (groin) and rookie centers Rob Brown (flu) and Steve Gotaas (bursitis in his hip) were sidelined early in camp. &#9632;

f0012-03

Ninth-Round Pick Impresses At Pens’ Camp

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-04459/5324584-1-eng-US/f0012-042.jpg" title="f0012-04" width="175" height="134"></div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;Who says Joe Sakic isn&rsquo;t ready for the NHL?Sakic does.The Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; second first-round choice in the 1987 entry draft, Sakic was given a good chance of making the Nordiques.But early in training camp, he asked to be sent back to his junior team, the Swift Current Broncos of the Western League. Quebec complied with his request.&ldquo;To our mutual agreement, it was decided that another year in junior hockey would benefit me more than making the pros this year,&rdquo; said the 18-year-old center. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;ll also be able to complete my high school studies.&ldquo;My studies are very important to me, because I won&rsquo;t be playing hockey for the rest of my life. I want something to fall back on.&rdquo;The 5-foot-11, 180-pound native of Burnaby, B.C., was chosen with the pick obtained from Washington in the Dale Hunter trade. Earlier, the Nordiques selected defenseman Bryan Fogarty from Kingston ninth overall.Sakic scored 60 goals and 73 assists in 72 games for the Broncos in 198687, when he was named Western League rookie of the year.Rumors had Sakic leaving Quebec to join the Canadian Olympic program, but he denied them.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather play another year in junior hockey than play in the Olympics,&rdquo; said Sakic. &ldquo;And I have a good chance of being selected for the Team Canada juniors. The World Championships are in Moscow this year and, if Canada goes, I might get to play there.&rdquo;In Swift Current, Sakic will be united with his younger brother Brian, a 16-year-old centerman.&ldquo;I know I have a few weaknesses,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I really have to strengthen my upper body. I&rsquo;m leaving with the firm intention of making the team next year.&rdquo;Sakic showed he had good stuff in the two pre-season games he played&mdash;against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens. New head coach Andre Savard was impressed.&ldquo;In both games, Joe showed tremendous poise for a kid his age,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really too bad he&rsquo;s chosen to leave, because we were going to give him a really good chance to prove himself. But it&rsquo;s his decision and I respect it.&rdquo;General manager Maurice Filion also had praise for Sakic.&ldquo;We watched Joe very closely from the first minute he stepped on the ice at our rookie training camp,&rdquo; said Filion.&ldquo;And we&rsquo;re even more convinced that he&rsquo;s star material.&ldquo;His chances of making the Nordiques next season are excellent. He has tremendous potential. He can&rsquo;t miss.&rdquo;NORDIQUE NOTES&mdash;As expected, the first questions fired at Bryan Fogarty by the Quebec writers were about his dismissal from the Canadian national junior team over disciplinary problems. &ldquo;I admit it was my mistake,&rdquo; said Fogarty. &ldquo;I was caught red-handed with a couple of my teammates after curfew. We were having a couple of beers and were a little loud. So they sent us home. I&rsquo;m really unlucky. I always seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.&rdquo; After learning of the incident, Maurice Filion cut off negotiations with Gus Badali, Fogarty&rsquo;s agent. &ldquo;Mr. Filion told me to pull my socks up and concentrate on hockey,&rdquo; said Fogarty. &ldquo;He told me to straighten up and that I was in Quebec for one thing only and that was to play hockey.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-04

‘Send Me Back,’ Junior Tells Nords

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011280/5324615-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="176" height="131"></div>HARTFORD&mdash;There are about as many jobs open on the Hartford Whalers as there are back orders for Edsels.But the goaltending situation is interesting.&ldquo;How many goaltenders should a team carry?&rdquo; the question goes.The usual reply is, &ldquo;How many nets are there?&rdquo;The Whalers have three competent goaltenders trying to squeeze into two jobs. Veteran Mike Liut, the No. 1 man in everyone&rsquo;s eyes, has the inside track. Proven back-up Steve Weeks and Liut&rsquo;s heir-apparent. Peter Sidor-kiewicz, who has toiled successfully for three years with Binghamton of the American League, should battle it out for the reserve job.Sidorkiewicz, 24, has been in the Whalers&rsquo; plans, at least verbally, for many, many moons. But time is running out.&ldquo;Three goaltenders are something you can go short term with,&rdquo; general manager Emile Francis said, &ldquo;but it sure as heck isn&rsquo;t something I&rsquo;d want to go long term with. Somewhere along the line, we&rsquo;ll have to make a decision on Peter Sidorkiewicz. It&rsquo;s not going to take until Jan. 1, either.&rdquo;Sidorkiewicz was torched for three goals on nine shots in the Whalers&rsquo; opening exhibition game, a 5-4 home win over New Jersey.&ldquo;This is a do-or-die situation for me,&rdquo; Sidorkiewicz said. &ldquo;I have to do well this year or it&rsquo;ll be over here for me. It&rsquo;s scary.&rdquo;Coach Jack Evans rushed to his goalie&rsquo;s defense after his opening performance.&ldquo;Maybe I should have started Sidorkiewicz,&rdquo; said Evans, who opened the game with Liut. &ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t help for a rookie to sit out for a period and a half. It&rsquo;s tough on a guy fighting for a job.&rdquo;Because of the rules that govern the annual waiver draft, Sidorkiewicz has found himself in something of a noman&rsquo;s land.The waiver draft stipulates that any goalie with three or more years of pro experience must be protected. Each team can protect two. In all likelihood, the Whalers will protect Liut, 31, and Weeks, 29.Sidorkiewicz, meanwhile, has played exactly three years, which is both good news and bad news for the Whalers. The good news is that he is exempt from the October waiver draft. The bad news is that he must be exposed to other teams if the Whalers try to demote him to the minors.A transaction appears imminent.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re always reluctant to trade a young player without seeing him perform for you at the top level,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;You have the exhibition games and whether that carries over to the regular season depends on the performance of Peter.&rdquo;Francis, a former goaltender, said the Whalers&rsquo; situation in net has never been healthier.&ldquo;We created this kind of competition to get better,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The first year I was here, I remember saying, &lsquo;If Greg Millen gets hurt, who the heck is going to play goal? Me?&rsquo;&rdquo;Kay Whitmore, 20, and Sean Evoy, 21, a pair of hotshots out of junior hockey, provide plenty of depth. One will play in Binghamton this season, the other in Milwaukee of the International League.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really sure what they have in mind,&rdquo; said Sidorkiewicz.The threesome has handled the competition admirably.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think anybody wants three goalies over the long haul, but everybody wants a job,&rdquo; said Weeks, 3533-4 in Hartford over three seasons.Added Liut: &ldquo;The three-goalie system will never work in the NHL, simply because of the time-tested theory that there are only two nets in every rink. I imagine the situation will be resolved sooner or later.&rdquo;Sooner would be better, but don&rsquo;t hold your Whaler Wands.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel the market is as good right now as it&rsquo;ll be later,&rdquo; Francis said.WHALER SCUTTLEBUTT&mdash;Joel Quenneville has signed a contract, leaving Mike Liut the only unsigned player&hellip;&rdquo;We&rsquo;re not that far away.&rdquo; said Liut, who turns 32 in January. &ldquo;I have no intention of playing elsewhere.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Gordie Howe has been signed to a new five-year contract as chairman Howard Baldwin&rsquo;s special assistant. Baldwin signed the Howe family&mdash;Gordie, wife Colleen and sons, Mark and Marty, to 10-year contracts in 1977. &#9632;

f0013-01

Whaler Goalies: Three Into Two Won’t Go

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>If the Canucks&rsquo; Brian Burke wants to ignite a Vancouver-Edmonton brushfire, he&rsquo;s got the matches. Analyzing the Stanley Cup champs, Burke declares, &ldquo;They&rsquo;re the best eight-man team in the league but from nine to 20, they&rsquo;re not even in the top 10.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;One veteran NHL scout, tells BLUELINES the Leafs got stiffed in the Ed Olczyk deal, claiming the Chicagoan will never be as good as he was in his rookie year&hellip;A Montreal insider tells BLUELINES that the Habs are just aching to unload Stephane Richer and the sooner the better&hellip;Devil rookie Brendan Shanahan impressed vets with his manhandling of Ranger freshman Jayson More after the latter challenged Shanahan at the close of a New York-New Jersey match.The Flyers&rsquo; Brad Marsh, who ran in the 100-mile New York-to-Philly triathlon in 1986, didn&rsquo;t compete this year because the Flyers&rsquo; season ended so late and two months were needed to train&hellip;A friend whispers that Bruin GM Harry Sinden told him that he (Sinden) is delighted Michel Bergeron is out of the Adams Division&hellip;Arthur Reichert, 84, the NHL&rsquo;s senior office official, will be back at his Madison Square Garden post where he&rsquo;s supervisor of officials. He&rsquo;s been doing Ranger games for 43 years and missed only six in that span. A semiretired certified public accountant, Reichert says, &ldquo;I still do some tax work just to keep my brain from turning to hay!&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011334/5324653-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="372" height="538"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brad Marsh</figcaption></div>The Bruins will hold a Phil Esposito Night at Boston Garden early in the campaign and hoist Espo&rsquo;s No. 7 on a banner to the BG roof, a la Bobby Orr&rsquo;s No. 4. Friends of Ray Bourque are urging the Norris Trophy-winner to give up his No. 7 so the jersey can officially be retired. It&rsquo;s a toss-up whether Bourque will comply and, even if he does, whether the Bruins will go that far to please Espo&hellip;The Blackhawks&rsquo; Troy Murray will be profiled in People magazine. He&rsquo;s part of a story on how NHLers have enrolled in back-to-college workshops. Murray is studying at Chicago&rsquo;s DePaul University&hellip;Ex-NHLer John Davidson, after watching the Canada Cup, predicts that Mario Lemieux will benefit more than any of the players. &ldquo;The new confidence in his leadership will spill over to regular-season play with the Penguins,&rdquo; says JD&hellip;Hall of Famer Doug Harvey is in his third year scouting for the Canadiens. The ex-Hab suggests that officials crack down on the hooking and holding. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we don&rsquo;t have the stickhandlers the way we used to.&rdquo;Wayne Gretzky is unending in his praise of Grant Fuhr, the highly-rated goalie who has never been named to the first all-star team. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question in my mind that he&rsquo;s the most underrated player in hockey and the best goaltender that this game has ever seen.&rdquo; Asked whether Fuhr is better than Ron Hextail, Gretzky replies, &ldquo;Right now he is but Hextall&rsquo;s going to be a great goaltender.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Scotty Bowman on the difficulty in working for the Canucks: &ldquo;The trouble with Vancouver is that when you wake up at nine, it&rsquo;s noon everywhere else in the world!&rdquo; That&rsquo;s precisely the reason Burke opens the hockey office at 7 a.m. local time each day&mdash;to accommodate all the eastern time zone teams and media&hellip;The NHL&rsquo;s confidence in PR and marketing vice president Steve Ryan was reinforced when president John Ziegler added &ldquo;president of NHL services&rdquo; to his nameplate.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021044/5324646-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="368" height="540"><figcaption class="caption-body">Toe Blake</figcaption></div>Hall of Famer Red Storey on the vociferous Canadien Cup-winning coach Toe Blake: &ldquo;I loved when Toe was coaching,&rdquo; says ex-ref Storey. &ldquo;By Christmas he was hoarse and you couldn&rsquo;t hear him for the rest of the season.&rdquo; Blake coached Montreal to eight Stanley Cups&hellip;One of Fred Shero&rsquo;s pals tells BLUELINES that The Fog is earning $100,000 clear and has a place to live, free, as part of his coaching job in Holland with the Tilburg Trapper-s&hellip;The NHL&rsquo;s New York office is being swamped with resumes for the PR vacancy created when Jack Falla walked out on the league early in the summer. An executive search firm will make a recommendation to the league after evaluating candidates.When the Sabres&rsquo; Clark Gillies retires, he can continue playing in Rosie Paiement&rsquo;s Florida Hockey League. Gillies bought a house in Naples, Fla. and will move south after he ends his NHL career&hellip;Scotty Morrison tells BLUELINES that &ldquo;things are looking good&rdquo; in the search for a new Hall of Fame site. A favorite location is in downtown Toronto near the proposed Dome. He&rsquo;s hoping to have the new Hall set up within 18 months&hellip;The Wings&rsquo; Lee Norwood figures teammate Gerard Gallant owns the NHL&rsquo;s best nickname. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s &lsquo;Potato Head&rsquo; because he&rsquo;s from Prince Edward Island, the Idaho of Canada,&rdquo; Norwood explains&hellip;Joe Bertagna, the ex-Harvard netminder who now runs a goaltending camp, on counselling young puckstoppers: &ldquo;We&rsquo;re out to disprove the myth of the goalie as a flake. Unfortunately, three out of every four live up to the myth.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-01

Oiler Second String Rated Just Average

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-04510/5324684-1-eng-US/f0014-042.jpg" title="f0014-04" width="576" height="1152"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andrew Cassels was returned to Ottawa after signing a contract with Montreal.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03732/5324691-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="177" height="136"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;It has been a training camp with little excitement.For managing director Serge Savard and the rest of the management team and coaching staff of the Montreal Canadiens, there were no dramatic surprises and nothing in the way of controversy.Barring any last-minute miracles, the number of new faces are likely to be minimal when Montreal takes to the ice for the first regular-season game in Philadelphia, Oct. 8.&ldquo;From a player point of view, I certainly hope there won&rsquo;t be a lot of changes,&rdquo; said center Brian Skrud-land, back for his third season with Montreal. &ldquo;I think we have had a couple of good seasons here with the personnel that we have been carrying.&ldquo;Certainly I hope there are no changes in center ice. Our team ran into a tough Philadelphia club last season in the Stanley Cup semi-finals. We had them on the ropes and I think we could have just as easily been in the Stanley Cup finals again.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there is any panic, any reason for changes and that&rsquo;s the way management seems to feel as well.&rdquo;Skrudland&rsquo;s job does indeed appear secure. Center Andrew Cassels, the Canadiens&rsquo; first-round pick in the 1987 National Hockey League entry draft, was returned to the Ottawa 67s of the Ontario League after playing two preseason games.On the right wing, it appeared Sergio Momesso has been designated Claude Lemieux&rsquo;s replacement while the latter recovers from tom ligaments in his left ankle. Lemieux tried to skate in late September, hoping that he would play in Philadelphia, but after a couple of turns around the ice, he left in pain.On the left side, Ernie Vargas had a shot at a part-time job. A lot depended on what he did in the late pre-season games.Despite the apparent security, Skrudland denied that complacency will set in among the defending Adams Division playoff champions.The fact that Montreal lost its first three pre-season games, including a shocking 7-1 loss to its Sherbrooke farm team, had people wondering if the Canadiens were taking training camp seriously.&ldquo;You try and get better in preseason,&rdquo; Skrudland said. &ldquo;There are little things you want to work out and Jean Perron has pointed that out. Even when we were down 7-1 after two periods going into the third period, he just wanted a good third period. Obviously in that situation, it&rsquo;s tough to score six goals.&rdquo;The Canadiens were still looking for a solution to the prolonged absence of Larry Robinson.Gaston Gingras, who stood to get more ice time, was having a poor camp. Perron, one of his biggest boosters, was concerned.Scott Sandelin, hyped last season as a sure-fire NHLer, had not impressed. In fact, the best of the young defenseman was Mathieu Schneider, whom the Canadiens chose in the third round last June.Schneider was kept around for the second weekend of pre-season games. His play in those contests could determine his immediate hockey future.&ldquo;He reads the play very well,&rdquo; said assistant managing director Jacques Lemaire. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a lot like (Montreal star Chris) Chelios.&rdquo;HAB BITS&mdash;Goaltenders Vincent Riendeau and Brian Hayward both signed new contracts with the Canadiens. Jean Perron hinted the club could start the season with three goaltenders. Patrick Roy completes the trio&hellip;Canadiens returned center Stephane Lebeau to Shawinigan and left winger Benoit Brunet to Hull the same day that center Andrew Cassels signed a three-year contract and was sent back to Ottawa&hellip;Alfie Turcotte, who came to the Canadiens&rsquo; camp as a free agent, was sent to Sherbrooke along with three other players. Turcotte was not on the Canadiens&rsquo; protected list for the waiver draft&hellip;Mike Lalor was bothered by a touch of bursitis in his left ankle which kept him off the ice for over a week&hellip;Shayne Corson suffered a strained ligament in his right knee which kept him out of action for a week&hellip;Jose Charbonneau was called up for a pre-season game against the Canadian Olympic team in Drummond ville, Que. Charbonneau, who has asked to be traded from the Montreal organization, was booed by the Drummondville fans. &#9632;

f0014-04

Few Changes Anticipated On The Canadiens’ Roster

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02898/5324722-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="529" height="651"><figcaption class="caption-body">Red Storey</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011248/5324729-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="177" height="137"></div>BOSTON&mdash;Every year about this time, Doug Keans hears the same old song.The refrain goes, &ldquo;You&rsquo;re a hell of a back-up goalie, Doug. But&hellip;&rdquo;At age 29, the Pembroke, Ont., native is running out of years to claim a No. 1 netminding job. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tough situation for me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I come up with good stats every year and they still don&rsquo;t want me. Every year I&rsquo;m always here.&ldquo;Unfortunately, I&rsquo;ve always been labelled a back-up. It bothers me that nobody has ever given me a chance to be No. 1.&rdquo;Roberto Romano, who played only one game in goal for the Bruins after five up-and-down seasons with Pittsburgh, has started to feel the same way.The 25-year-old was demoted to the Maine Mariners, lending credence to what he, himself, admitted during the off-season.&ldquo;People would ask me over the summer if I played for the Bruins,&rdquo; said Romano, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;d tell them, &lsquo;No, I belong to the Bruins. I don&rsquo;t play for them, I belong to them.&rsquo;&rdquo;Keans faces a new problem this year, in the person of Rejean Lemelin. The 32-year-old was obtained from the Calgary Flames Aug. 11 as a free agent, after nine years in the NHL with Calgary and Atlanta.&ldquo;You can pretty well be assured that Lemelin will at least be one of our goalies here,&rdquo; said Bruin general manager Harry Sinden. That leaves the second goalie opening on the big club open to either Keans or Bill Ranford&mdash;and the 21-year-old Ranford has already been called &ldquo;the Bruins&rsquo; goalie of the future&rdquo; by Sinden.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just approaching this the same way I approach every camp,&rdquo; said Keans. &ldquo;I just get myself ready for the season. If somebody else plays better, there&rsquo;s nothing I can do.&rdquo;One person who will benefit from the Bruins&rsquo; crowded goaltending situation is Mike Milbury, coach and general manager of the Mariners, Boston&rsquo;s fully-stocked American League farm club.&ldquo;One thing&rsquo;s for sure,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Barring a trade, I should get a good goaltender.&rdquo;WHAT&rsquo;S BRUIN&mdash;Rookie defensemen Glen Wesley and Garth Premak said it&rsquo;s only a coincidence, but both showed up in camp with tattoos of a wild-looking animal called the Tasmanian Devil on their legs. Little did they know coach Terry O&rsquo;Reilly was nicknamed &ldquo;Taz,&rdquo; short for Tasmanian Devil, by his old teammates&hellip;Premak, called &lsquo;The Bomber&rsquo; during his junior days in New Westminster, also has a small man with a bomb tattooed to his chest. Wesley, the Bruins&rsquo; first draft pick, had a goal and two assists in the Bruins&rsquo; first exhibition game, a 4-4 tie with Washington&hellip;Lyndon Byers suffered the first serious injury of the 1987-88 season. He&rsquo;ll be out until about the end of October, with tom ligaments in his left knee, suffered in a collison with teammate Randy Burridge&hellip;Veteran defenseman Reed Larson, an unsigned free agent, was still at home in Mound, Minn. &ldquo;All I&rsquo;m doing is waiting patiently,&rdquo; he said.&rdquo;ITECH is proud to return this season as sponsor of THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; King Clancy Hall of Fame Award. The second annual award was presented to colorful NHL referee and sports personality Red Storey at the THN Awards Luncheon last June.Once again this year, THN and ITECH will honor a deserving individual who has helped to shape hockey history. And, in 10 coming issues of THN, ITECH will present the ITECH Hockey Memories Page, two stories that reflect on the game&rsquo;s past and deal with the rapidly-expanding world of adult hockey. &#9632;

f0015-02

Romano First One To Be Odd Goalie Out

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011127/5324760-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former King Doug Smith, normally a center, was being tried on the Sabres&rsquo; left side where Buffalo is short of scoring.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02899/5324767-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="177" height="133"></div>BUFFALO&mdash;Doug Smith has been to the American League. He has no plans for a return visit.The center, exiled to Rochester Americans for 15 games last year, intends on playing this entire season with the Buffalo Sabres.Smith figures he&rsquo;s got an edge on would-be Sabres&mdash;an NHL edge.&ldquo;What I want to do is be able to use my speed to my advantage,&rdquo; said the 24-year-old. &ldquo;The one thing that the AHL taught me is that there are a lot of good players there, players who can do great things with the puck. The primary difference is speed.&rdquo;Smith, drafted second overall by the Los Angeles Kings behind Dale Hawerchuk in 1981, has always had speed. He&rsquo;s had it in abundance. This year, however, he&rsquo;s trying very hard to find new ways to exploit it.In addition to his usual workout program, Smith spent a week this past summer working with figure skater Gary Visconti in Los Angeles.&ldquo;I learned a lot about using my speed and about balance and things like that,&rdquo; said Smith, obtained from Los Angeles during the 1985-86 season. &ldquo;You can have all the straight up-and-down speed in the world, but it won&rsquo;t do you any good unless you can get to the net. I worked on ways to cut sharp to the inside with speed and keep that speed going.&ldquo;You&rsquo;d be amazed how much a hockey player can learn about skating. We do it all the time, but for most of us it&rsquo;s just something you do. I think a lot of us can do it better.&rdquo;Aside from speed. Smith said he has one other refinement that he&rsquo;s been working on&mdash;his mental approach.A streak player, who counted 16 goals and 24 assists in 62 games last year, Smith said he&rsquo;s striving to maintain a sense of stability in his game.&ldquo;My goal is to be able to give the same effort, the same thing, every time out,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I want to be one of those players who sticks his nose in there. There&rsquo;s always room for a player like that in today&rsquo;s game. You watch a guy like (Hartford&rsquo;s) Kevin Dineen stick his nose in there and he has no regard for what&rsquo;s going to happen to his face. That&rsquo;s the way I want to play.&rdquo;Normally a centerman, the six-year veteran has seen time at that position in training camp, but he&rsquo;s also being asked to try his hand at left wing. It&rsquo;s not an overly difficult transition and could be a move that would guarantee him a position on a team in need of scoring off that side.Smith, however, is approaching the challenge with a real fear for his situation. The Americans won the AHL championship last year. There are players who hope for advancement, looking for places on the NHL&rsquo;s worst team in 1986-87.It&rsquo;s the kind of challenge that Smith never did face in his five seasons with the Kings. He said he&rsquo;s prepared him-self to earn a spot on this team at center or wing.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played both so it&rsquo;s not like it&rsquo;s something new to me,&rdquo; he said. What is new, apparently, is the attitude around the Sabres&rsquo; camp.&ldquo;With this management and this coaching staff, there&rsquo;s no time to fool around,&rdquo; said Smith.Not after last year.SABREPOINTS&mdash;The Sabres went 4-0 through their first four preseason games. They beat the Washington Capitals by 3-1 and 3-2 scores, the U.S. Olympic prospects by a 4-3 score and Canadian Olympic prospects 53&hellip;Top pick Pierre Turgeon scored a goal on his first professional shift, in the exhibition game against the Capitals. He had two goals and two assists after four games&hellip;Sabre GM Gerry Meehan said he would give retired defenseman Lee Fogolin as much time as he needed to make up his mind about training camp. Meehan said he still holds out hope that Fogolin will change his mind.<div class="sidebar">&lsquo;I want to be one of those players who sticks his nose in there.&rsquo;&mdash;Smith &#9632;</div>

f0016-01

Speedy Smith Aims To Maximize Chief Asset

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03694/5324798-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="412" height="460"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Simmons</figcaption></div>YOU HAVE TO hand it to Glen Sather, he has a sense of humor.On one hand, he is complaining that greed has overcome members of his Stanley Cup-champion Edmonton Oilers. And on the other, he himself is demonstrating a greed all his own.The subject of most of this greed-like discussion is Paul Coffey, who, when he wants to be, is in a class by himself amongst National Hockey League defenseman.Coffey is holding out. The Oilers aren&rsquo;t thrilled by either the holdout or demand for more money.They&rsquo;ve called Coffey greedy. Owner Peter Pocklington has called him unprintable names.Which brings us to Sather, who is now asking for the moon, the stars and Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s first bom, in exchange for a defenseman he is reluctant to reward with a raise.Sather called Phil Esposito and asked for Tomas Sandstrom and James Patrick. Esposito likes to trade, but not that much.Coffey for Patrick is an interesting deal. Coffey for Sandstrom and Patrick is a ridiculous deal. A greedy deal.After Calling New York and finding the Rangers, as always, willing to part with Willie Huber&mdash;the Rangers are always willing to part with Huber&mdash;Slats then called his buddy, Ed Johnston in Pittsburgh.Sather likes to call Pittsburgh. He found Kevin McClelland there and Marty McSorley and he and Johnston like to do business.They even talked about free agent Andy Moog a while back, but nobody in the NHL likes to talk much about Moog these days.So Sather asked Johnston if he wanted Coffey and E. J.&rsquo;s phone line lit up, until he heard the price.Sather asked for Zarley Zalapski, the Edmonton boy the Pens drafted No. 1 a year ago, and Doug Bodger, a first-rounder from two years previous.All Slats was asking for was Pittsburgh&rsquo;s future. Johnston had no choice but to turn down the offer.Now the question is: Who is being greedy here?Is it Coffey, for trying to up his ante in an organization which has been known for underpaying its players? (What Grant Fuhr has earned in recent seasons is one of the NHL&rsquo;s best-kept jokes.)Or is it Sather, for trying to pry franchises away for a player he would love to dispatch elsewhere.The answer is: both are. But this is professional sports and it could be worse. The players could be on strike.But that&rsquo;s another story.Unfortunately, for those Oiler-haters around the NHL&mdash;and there are many&mdash;the unravelling of the Stanley Cup champions is not happening before our very eyes.Some of us would like it to happen, but we&rsquo;re not so lucky.With Fuhr, the Oilers still have the world&rsquo;s best goaltender. With Coffey, or with whomever takes his place, their defense remains adequate enough to compete. It will be moreso after Randy Gregg returns from the Olympics.Up front, with Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson and Jari Kurri, Mike Krushelnyski can sit out the rest of his career, for all it will affect the Oilers.Turmoil aside, make no mistake, this is still the club to beat in the NHL.Some teams, such as the Oakland Raiders in football, have thrived on controversy. Others have been destroyed by it. In the past, the Oilers have re-routed it effectively. The same is likely to happen again.Sather will continue smirking and the Oilers winning, while the Oiler-haters plant their tiny bombs in hopes the franchise will one day self-destruct. &#9632;

f0016-03

Sather Every Bit As Guilty Of Avarice As Star Coffey

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN Associate Editor</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01989/5324829-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="175" height="144"></div>TORONTO&mdash;Mirko Frycer has put his running feud with John Brophy behind him.Which must come as a great relief to the Toronto Maple Leaf coach, because when Frycer suffered a cracked pelvic bone last February, it was as much a pain in the rear end for Brophy as it was for Frycer.The two squabbled endlessly.&ldquo;Last year was a disaster,&rdquo; said Frycer during training camp. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t blame anybody. It was my fault. There were some injuries, there were some disagreements with John.&rdquo;By season&rsquo;s end, it was widely expected Frycer would be traded. Brophy had made quite clear his unhappiness with the Czechoslovakian right winger who played just 29 games between benchings and infirmaries.It&rsquo;s likely only his reduced trade value&mdash;he scored seven goals and eight assists&mdash;saved him from that fate.The Leafs, in effect, had no choice but to keep Frycer. Now they are hoping he can recapture the form he flashed in 1985-86&mdash;the season he led the team in scoring with career highs in goals (32), assists (43) and points (75).Three games into the exhibition season, Frycer had one goal, one assist and regular linemates, center Tom Fergus and left winger Al Secord.Brophy had noticed something else.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got the fire back in him,&rdquo; Raid the second-year coach. &ldquo;He wants to play hockey this year and I&rsquo;m going to let him. He can certainly help this hockey club if he wants to play.&rdquo;Four times in Frycer&rsquo;s six-year career, he has scored 24 or more goals.&ldquo;I know I can play in this league and I can help this hockey club,&rdquo; said the 28-year-old, who isn&rsquo;t carrying any of the excess poundage that so angered Brophy last year.&ldquo;Finally, I&rsquo;m smiling again. Last year, it was completely different. I was in a bitchy mood all year.&rdquo;During one of Frycer&rsquo;s snits early last season he asked to be traded. By the end of the year, he may as well have been. His relations with Brophy were so severely strained&mdash;&rdquo;Always we were yapping at each other, waiting for each other to slip up,&rdquo; said Frycer&mdash;and his pelvic injury so burdensome, he was rarely seen around the Gardens.That only exacerbated the situation. Always one to go his own way, Frycer Didn&rsquo;t help matters by rarely visiting the Gardens to lend support to teammates.&ldquo;You could see the guys (fellow players) when I would walk in,&rdquo; recalled Frycer. &ldquo;They (would) say, &lsquo;Look at him, he&rsquo;s complaining all the time.&rsquo; I didn&rsquo;t feel part of it so I decided I will stay home and see what will happen&hellip;I was certain I would be gone over the summer.&rdquo;The only place Frycer went was West Germany, where he spends every summer training with his father&rsquo;s Division II team in Freiburg.It was his father who offered the most sage advice to Frycer about difficulties with Brophy: He&rsquo;s your boss, said father to son, and you have no choice but to get along with him.Frycer admits now, &ldquo;I was acting some kind of stupid.&rdquo;So, this year, he&rsquo;s committed to playing more and complaining less. Brophy has indicated his willingness to let bygones be bygones.&ldquo;We had a little chat before the (first exhibition) game in Quebec City,&rdquo; said Frycer. &ldquo;He just told me, &lsquo;Go out and play your game. What happened last year is over.&rsquo; I respect him and he respects me.&ldquo;Everything has gone smooth so far. There are no complaints from my side.&rdquo;Neither were there from Brophy, who desperately needs a rejuvenated Frycer to help compensate for the trading away of 30-goal scorers Steve Thomas and Rick Vaive.LEAFLETS&mdash;First-round pick Luke Richardson, an 18-year-old left defenseman, was making a strong bid for a place on the team. Two factors were in Richardson&rsquo;s favor: His strong play and the Leafs&rsquo; lack of depth on defense. Edmonton tough-guy Kelly Buchberger welcomed Richardson to the big leagues during an exhibition game Sept. 21&mdash;he broke the rookie&rsquo;s nose with a punch. Richardson didn&rsquo;t miss&rsquo; any action, returning two nights later to face the Oilers&hellip;The Leafs picked up defenseman Dale Degray, 24, from Calgary for future considerations&hellip;Rambunctious crowd favorite Brad Smith&rsquo;s hold on a right wing job was considered tenuous. &#9632;

f0017-01

Call It A Fresh Start For Frustrated Frycer

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02776/5324860-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center John Chabot wasn&rsquo;t a free agent long. Detroit picked him up less than two weeks after Pittsburgh let him go.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011027/5324867-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="178" height="134"></div>DETROIT&mdash;The unwanted Penguin has found his Wings.Detroit Red Wing coach Jacques Demers doesn&rsquo;t know why Pittsburgh didn&rsquo;t bother to resign center John Chabot. Nor does he care. But his eyes light up when asked what Chabot&mdash;an off-season free-agent acquisition&mdash;will add to Detroit&rsquo;s lineup this season.&ldquo;I chuckle when I see him out there,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;I think John Chabot will have his best year as a professional. He and I clicked right away as a player and coach.&rdquo;When the Wings signed Chabot in June as a free agent without compensation, they talked of using him in a defensive role, perhaps centering a checking line with Mel Bridgman on the left and Tim Higgins on the right.But Demers was impressed with Chabot&rsquo;s-offensive skills.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re going to have to give him some offense,&rdquo; the coach said. &ldquo;I see more in him than I ever thought he had. He&rsquo;s making such beautiful plays.&rdquo;Both roles&mdash;scoring goals and stopping them&mdash;suit Chabot fine.&ldquo;If the team needs a goal or a point or a play,&rdquo; the 25-year-old said, &ldquo;I like to look at myself as the type of player who can come in and do it.&rdquo;So how did he become typecast as a defensive player?&ldquo;I know I&rsquo;m more than that,&rdquo; he shrugged.St. Louis general manager Ron Caron thought so, too. When Caron was a Montreal scout, he drafted Chabot (third round, 40th overall in 1980) for his puckhandling and scoring touch.&ldquo;He has tremendous skills,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll help this team (Detroit), that&rsquo;s for sure.&rdquo;Higgins concurred.&ldquo;He has the best hands in camp.&rdquo;Chabot recalled that, when he left the Canadiens, he was &ldquo;more or less their No. 1 center.&rdquo; At Pittsburgh, however, Mario Lemieux carries the offensive load. Frequent doubleshifting left less time for other talented centermen, such as Mike Bullard, and even less for Chabot.Eventually, the Penguins figured they could do without his services.&ldquo;They&rsquo;said they tried to trade me, but I don&rsquo;t really think they tried,&rdquo; Chabot said. On June 1, he received a termination contract.&ldquo;I knew I wasn&rsquo;t going to sign that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Then, Detroit called right away. It was kind of funny because, when my wife Terry and I discussed where we might want to go, she had Detroit at the top of her list, because of the way they treat the players here. She felt this would be the best place for me.&rdquo;The Wings and Chabot came to terms on June 13, the day of the entry draft in Detroit.&ldquo;Can you imagine?&rdquo; Demers said. &lsquo;&lsquo;That was the busiest day of the whole year for Jimmy D (GM Jim Devella-no), and I come up and tell him I think Chabot&rsquo;s available and that we should try to get him. All he said was, &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t let him get away.&rsquo;&rdquo;Demers acted as intermediary between Devellano and Chabot&rsquo;s agent, Steve Bartlett. Within two weeks, Chabot signed a three-year contract.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very difficult for me to understand how we got him, why they let him go,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;All I know is that it&rsquo;s a change that&rsquo;s really going to help our hockey club. I call itasteal.&rdquo;Chabot called it an opportunity.&ldquo;The thing you look for any time you go anywhere is a chance, just a chance, to win the Stanley Cup,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And when you get that chance, you won&rsquo;t go down and out without the biggest fight of your life.&rdquo;WINGTIPS&mdash;Joe Kocur&rsquo;s suspension lasted a week, but when he returned to training camp he was asssigned to Adirondack. Jacques Demers said he wasn&rsquo;t sure what he&rsquo;d do with his precocious enforcer. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s still not at the stage where I can say &lsquo;Boom, it&rsquo;s over with,&rsquo;&rsquo;Demers said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll sit down in the next couple of weeks and find a solution.&rdquo; He didn&rsquo;t rule out a trade. But Jim Devellano said he hadn&rsquo;t received a single inquiry from rival GMs regarding Kocur&rsquo;s availability. &lsquo;&lsquo;People don&rsquo;t want Other people&rsquo;s problems,&rdquo; Devellano said, adding that Kocur is the type of player (nine goals, 276 penalty minutes last season) teams usually find available on waiver lists&hellip;Defenseman Dwight Schofield was the only player in camp without a contract, but his audition was going well. He worked over Chicago defenseman Bob McGill in a pre-season game at Kalamazoo, Mich., and Demers said he liked what he saw. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what he has to do to make it with this team,&rdquo; the coach said&hellip;The Wings pared their roster to 31 by assigning 19 players&mdash;including goalies Darren Eliot and Randy Hansch, and left winger Dale Krentz&mdash;to Adirondack. All three performed well in camp.<div class="sidebar">&lsquo;It&rsquo;s a change that&rsquo;s really going to help our hockey club. I call it a steal.&rsquo;&mdash;Demers &#9632;</div>

f0018-02

Wings Pat Selves On Back For Picking Up Free Agent

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01956/5324929-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Coming off the worst season of his career, Chicago goalie Murray Bannerman is under the gun to play well for the Hawks.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02709/5324936-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="177" height="135"></div>CHICAGO&mdash;Jimmy Waite&rsquo;s impressive showing early in training camp could leave the Chicago Blackhawks facing a dilemma.Do they let their 18-year-old goaltender develop in junior hockey?Or do they try to use his skills now&mdash;and risk the burnout that has affected several other young goaltenders rushed into the NHL?&ldquo;Most goaltenders don&rsquo;t step in at 18,&rdquo; said Hawk coach Bob Murdoch. &ldquo;Those who did have had difficulty. They&rsquo;ve almost come to a stop in their careers.&rdquo;Waite had the advantage of spending several weeks working out with the Canadian Olympic team before reporting to training camp.He was the top goaltender in the Hawks&rsquo; week-long scrimmage tournament. Then he was sharp in the exhibition opener at Chicago Stadium, allowing one goal on 20 shots by St. Louis.&ldquo;I feel really good,&rdquo; said Waite, the Hawks&rsquo; first-round draft choice from Chicoutimi in the Quebec League. &ldquo;If I play like that in all the games, maybe I can make the team.&ldquo;If not, it&rsquo;s no problem. I have two years left in junior. I will just do my best.&rdquo;Murray Bannerman, trying to come back from the worst season in his career (4.14 goals-against average over 39 games), also seems to be doing his best. He had a 6.00 average in the scrimmage tournament, but then allowed just two goals on 18 shots in an exhibition against Detroit.&ldquo;I have to think it&rsquo;s fairly obvious that I have to play well,&rdquo; said Bannerman.Murdoch said Bannerman will have plenty of chances to redeem himself.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a one-shot affair,&rdquo; Murdoch said. &ldquo;And he came to camp in the best shape he&rsquo;s ever been in his life.&rdquo;The Hawks have a wide field of choice in goal.Bob Mason, the Washington free agent signed for $1 million, had a slow start after sitting on the sidelines with Team USA in the Canada Cup. Ed Belfour, the free agent signed from the University of North Dakota, allowed just one goal on 19 shots while backing up Bannerman against Detroit.And the man who always seems to be counted out, diminutive Darren Pang, was having yet another good training camp and refused to count himself out.&ldquo;Hindsight is always good,&rdquo; said general manager Bob Pulford, last season&rsquo;s coach. &ldquo;Looking back, we should have given Pang a shot last year. We didn&rsquo;t, and that was a mistake.&ldquo;Wayne Thomas (Murdoch&rsquo;s assistant and goaltending coach) says you can say what you want about Pang, all he ever does is win every place he plays.&rdquo;Choosing their goaltenders will be the Hawks&rsquo; prime objective in the exhibition season.&ldquo;Our goaltenders have been playing well,&rdquo; Murdoch said. &ldquo;I hope they make it a tough choice for us.&rdquo;HAWK TALK&mdash;The surprise of training camp was Brian Noonan, a 22-year-old right winger being given a shot at the No. 3 center spot behind Denis Savard and Troy Murray. Noonan, a ninth-round pick in 1983, had 25 goals last season at Nova Scotia in the AHL. He scored most of his goals in the second half, after beginning to play regularly&hellip;The Hawks opened their exhibition season with two ties, 4-4 against St. Louis in Chicago Stadium and 3-3 against Detroit in Kalamazoo, Mich&hellip;Former assistant coach Cliff Koroll has been named the Hawks&rsquo; community relations director&hellip;President Keith Magnuson and vice president Koroll head up the new Blackhawks&rsquo; Alumni Association, which will donate a $1,000 scholarship annually to the most deserving high school hockey player in the Chicago area. The Alumni also are forming plans to stage benefit games. Possible opponents include Detroit Red Wing oldtimers and the Hollywood All-Stars.<div class="sidebar">&lsquo;We should have given Pang a shot last year.&rsquo;&mdash;Pulford &#9632;</div>

f0019-01

Hawks Suddenly Have Glut Of Goaltenders

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03490/5324967-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="386" height="468"><figcaption class="caption-body">Barry Meisel</figcaption></div>I&rsquo;M ALL IN favor of the new legislation designed to eliminate bench-clearing brawls. It&rsquo;s a penal system of Lotto dollars: Fines of $10,000 per team, $1,000 per coach, $500 per player. A $100,000 penalty to any team that pays a player his salary while he&rsquo;s suspended, or covers his fine. Penalties doubled for subsequent infractions during a three-year probationary period.Sounds super to me. Now here&rsquo;s what the NHL could do with the money:&bull; Commission a study to discover what happened to the $500,000 that was commissioned to study officiating a few years ago.&bull; Buy CBS and return hockey to national TV in the U.S., with Dan Kelly and Dan Rather reporting.&bull; Hand out free franchises to Hamilton, Tacoma and San Francisco. Create the Sunshine Division with teams in Phoenix, Miami, Dallas, Tampa Bay, San Diego and Atlanta (again), but charge these guys. Then take that money and give it to Harry Omest, the poor guy. (Could you imagine if Harry Owe still owned the Blues? With these new fines, he&rsquo;d chain his players to the bench and have Jacques Martin unlock them shift by shift.)&bull; Pay Wayne Gretzky what he&rsquo;s worth.&bull; Buy a dozen classical albums along the lines of the 1812 Overture, and play them each time an Islander scores a goal. That should wake up the Nassau Coliseum&rsquo;s silent majority.&bull; Buy Mario Lemieux a right winger.&bull; Give 20 owners $1 million each, then instruct them to spend it on minor-league forwards and defensemen aged 35 and older. Call it &ldquo;Be Mike Hitch for a Day.&rdquo;&bull; Spend $500,000 to commission a study on improving the sport&rsquo;s image in the States. I stood on a comer in Manhattan the other day and asked 10 people if they know who Michel Bergeron is. Eight said she is this month&rsquo;s Vogue cover girl. The other two said no, they don&rsquo;t, because they&rsquo;d never been to France.&bull; Move the Capital Centre to downtown D.C.&bull; Clone the Chicago Stadium organ.&bull; Buy Mario Lemieux a left winger.&bull; Dome Winnipeg. Not the arena, the city.&bull; Make the International League truly international. Buy the Vancouver Canucks (with picks Igor Larionov, a1985 11th-rounder and Vladimir Krutov, 1986 12th-rounder) and the New Jersey Devils (Viacheslav Fetisov, 1984 eighth-rounder, and Alexei Kasatonov, 1984 12th-rounder) a jointly operated IHL franchise in Moscow. Call it the Central Red Army.&bull; Hire a construction company that would transplant southern California adjacent to Maine, acre by acre. Stick the Kings in the Adams or Patrick Division, thereby cutting down their travel time, and let them see how tough life really can be.&bull; Buy 126 cameras and institute the instant replay as an officiating aid.&bull; Hire unbiased official scorers who&rsquo;ll refuse to hand out garbage assists.&bull; Install Diamondvision scoreboards in every rink. Paying customers deserve to see how goals are scored, too.&bull; Buy Mario Lemieux a hard-rushing defenseman.&bull; If cable&rsquo;s all you&rsquo;ve got in the States, use it. Create a 30-minute show called This Week in the NHL and tell ESPN to run it every Monday night. If they won&rsquo;t, make them write it into the next contract. If they won&rsquo;t, pay them until they will.&bull; Hire some qualified people to write, produce and direct this show&mdash;independent TV people who know what they&rsquo;re doing. They&rsquo;ll know to show Gretzky, Gretzky and more Gretzky. They&rsquo;ll know how to teach the American sporting public that the players don&rsquo;t fight all the time. They&rsquo;ll be smart enough to introduce the fans to Pat LaFontaine and John Vanbiesbrouck of Detroit, New York&rsquo;s Joey and Brian Mullen, Eddie Olczyk from Chicago. They&rsquo;ll sell the damned game. &#9632;

f0019-03

Here’s 20 Ways To Spend Windfall From Brawl Fines

<div class="byline">BY JEFF GORDON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01705/5325005-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="589" height="1309"><figcaption class="caption-body">Larry Trader, formerly of the Canadian national team, was playing well at camp.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02500/5325012-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="178" height="133"></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;Never, ever, count out a Sutter.The oldest member of the Viking, Alta., NHL hockey clan has served notice to his foes in the Norris Division: Brian Sutter is back&mdash;all the way back&mdash;from last season&rsquo;s slow-healing shoulder injury.The 31-year-old left winger scored minutes into his first pre-season game, against the Blackhawks Sept. 20 in Chicago. He went to the net, took a centering pass from pivot Bernie Federko and jammed in a power-play goal.It was vintage Sutter, showing the sort of presence the St. Louis Blues missed dearly last season after he reinjured his shoulder against the Blackhawks Nov. 15.&ldquo;You just don&rsquo;t replace a guy like that,&rdquo; Blues&rsquo; coach Jacques Martin said.Sutter played just 14 games last season. Since it was the third time he seriously injured his left shoulder, many doubted he would ever be his old grinding self again. He plays the physical game, slamming himself around both ends of the rink.But Sutter has refused to yield. Following an excercise plan devised by shoulder specialists, he was judged fully sound at the beginning of training camp.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m better, stronger than I&rsquo;ve ever been,&rdquo; the Blues&rsquo; captain said. &ldquo;I feel good. I&rsquo;m excited about the progress. I&rsquo;ve proven I can handle the rough stuff. I&rsquo;m not worried about that. The only time I think about it is when I talk about it&mdash;in the media.&rdquo;After breaking his left shoulder blade two years ago, and again after re-injuring the muscle tissue below the blade last season, Sutter helped the Blues by playing the role of unofficial assistant coach behind the bench.He made a contribution, but&hellip;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m paid to play hockey,&rdquo; Sutter years and never missed more than four or five games at a time. Naturally, when I got hurt, it was very aggravating and disappointing.&rdquo;Sutter hoped he could play last year, but never fully recovered. His shoulder was still weak from rushing his comebacks from the original injury.&ldquo;Last year when I came to camp,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;deep down I knew I wasn&rsquo;t where I wanted to be. Just because I passed the physical a year ago, we thought it might be okay. From what we did in the physical, it didn&rsquo;t show. I couldn&rsquo;t do the things I used to in front of the net. I couldn&rsquo;t make the hit I wanted to.&rdquo;Without Sutter and Eddy Beers, who suffered a career-ending back injury in camp, the Blues were woeful on left wing last season. Gino Cavallini banged a lot of bodies and scored 18 goals, but his colleagues were both unproductive and inconsistent.Now Sutter and newcomers Perry Turnbull and Tony McKegney have combined to make the position vastly improved.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve helped the team, no doubt about that,&rsquo;&rsquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;I know what I have to do. When I got hurt (in 198586), I had 19 goals in 34 games. Our top scorer at left wing last year had 18 goals in 80 games. I know I can help this team when I&rsquo;m healthy. I&rsquo;ve always scored when I had the opportunity.&rdquo;BLUENOTES&mdash;Right winger Greg Paslawski hadn&rsquo;t signed by the opening of training camp. He entered his option year&hellip;Shoulder separations knocked left winger Doug Evans and defenseman Robert Nordmark out of the Blues&rsquo; first three exhibition games&hellip;General manager Ron Caron was still fielding offers for goaltenders Greg Millen and Rick Wamsley, but he wasn&rsquo;t actively seeking a deal&hellip;After a season with Team Canada, journeyman rearguard Larry Trader was an early standout in training camp. So was Rob Whistle, who came over from the Rangers in the Tony McKegney-for-Bruce Bell deal&hellip;Rookie defenseman Michael Dark may be converted into a right winger&hellip;As expected, No. 1 entry draft pick KeitM Osborne was sent back to North Ba^ without playing for the Blues or signing a contract. He was recovering from a broken wrist.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03382/5324998-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="1207" height="1339"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tony McKegney is expected to help out on the left side, which was woefully unproductive during the 1986-87 season.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

Sutter Set To Shoulder His Responsibilities

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01635/5325043-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="180" height="135"></div>BLOOMINGTON, Minn.&mdash;When the Minnesota North Stars took to the ice for their 5-0 exhibition victory over Winnipeg, they knew they had to play their best&mdash;because the man upstairs was watching.While assistants J.P. Parise and John Marks worked the bench, head coach Herb Brooks observed from an obscure position in the press box.&ldquo;The first time I did this in New York, everybody looked at me and said, &lsquo;What the heck are you doing?&rsquo;&rdquo; Brooks said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;ll do this other times during training camp and during the regular season. The worst seat in the house is on the bench. From upstairs, I can see patterns developing and I can evaluate individual players&rsquo; performances better. From there, I can really see what we&rsquo;re doing in five-man units. It&rsquo;s the overhead-camera view.&rdquo;Brooks said he can envision the day when head coaches will watch from the press box.<blockquote class="pullQuote">The Stars are encouraged by Bjugstad&rsquo;s early play.</blockquote>What Brooks saw from that viewpoint was the Stars&rsquo; first victory, after a tie and loss on a trip to Winnipeg and Edmonton. He also saw a team that seems to be picking up Brooks&rsquo; weaving systems. He started teaching those patterns the first day of camp and, each day, something else was being thrown into the mix.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re far from a smooth-and-polished hockey club right now, but then everyone else is, too,&rdquo; said Brooks, who watched the Stars outshoot the penalty-prone Jets 34-12. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s coming. The best thing is that we played well without the puck. We just threw some new checking things in and they picked it up pretty much right away.&rdquo;Brooks is seeing other things he likes&mdash;among them the play of left winger Scott Bjugstad, who scored four goals last season, after tallying 43 times in 1985-86. He had been reunited with Neal Broten and Dino Ciccarelli, with whom he had his big year. Bjugstad scored twice and added ah assist in the Stars&rsquo; first two exhibition games. After he returned from the trip, he scored two more goals in an intrasquad scrimmage.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to get his confidence back,&rdquo; Brooks said. &ldquo;He can score goals. He&rsquo;s done it everywhere he&rsquo;s been. I wouldn&rsquo;t say he needs to play with Neal. He can score playing with any center that can get him the puck. He and (Brian) Lawton would be fine together. But hopefully this will get him going. We need him.&rdquo;Brooks also saw a rookie line of Gary McColgan, Ken Hodge and Pat Micheletti stand out in the home victory over Winnipeg. They combined for four of the five goals (three were on power plays).Hodge, who bypassed his final year of eligibility at Boston College to turn pro, scored his first two exhibition goals and added an assist.McColgan, the former Oshawa General who played last season for Indianapolis, had a goal and two assists. Micheletti, who played at the University of Minnesota, had a goal and an assist.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really good to see our young guys show a lot of spark,&rdquo; Brooks said. &ldquo;You need that in a training camp. It really gets the internal competition going. If anybody has any doubt that there are jobs to be won, all they have to do is look around and count the numbers of players in camp.&rdquo;There were 44.STARDUST&mdash;Rookie defensemen Scott McCrady and Mike Berger both went down with knee injuries during the second week of camp. Both were expected to miss between three to five weeks of action&hellip;Free-agent goalie Warren Skorodenski was released from camp&hellip;Winger Terry Ruskowski missed most of the first two weeks of camp with a hip flexor&hellip;Frantisek Musil&rsquo;s parents were visiting him for the first time since he defected from Czechoslavakia in July, 1986. His mother, Hana, attended the Winnipeg game, the first time she had seen him play in years. She is not fond of hockey because of its physical nature. A fight broke out midway through the game and someone on the Stars&rsquo; bench asked Frantisek what his mother would think of that. &ldquo;Either she will cry or she will go home,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

f0023-01

Star Coach Grades Talent From Lofty Perch

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02483/5325074-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Kevin Lowe suffered an inflammation of the pubic bone after jogging too much during the summer of &rsquo;86.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01687/5325081-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="179" height="133"></div>EDMONTON&mdash;Jogging, Kevin Lowe has found, can be hazardous to your health.Motivated by the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; early dismissal from the 1986 Stanley Cup playoffs at the hands of the Calgary Flames, the veteran defenseman ran himself into the pavement as part of a rigid off-season conditioning program during the summer of &rsquo;86.The result was an inflammation of the pubic bone that bothered him throughout the 1986-87 season as the Oilers completed their redemption by repossessing the Stanley Cup.Despite the season-long problem, Lowe only missed three games&mdash;two in December with what was diagnosed as a &ldquo;pulled stomach muscle.&rdquo;The inflammation persisted. Following the season he was told to take four months complete rest and advised not to play in the Canada Cup. The advice came from three sources&mdash;Oilers&rsquo; physician Dr. Gord Cameron and therapist Peter Millar, and Lowe&rsquo;s brother Ken, therapist for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League.It has been suggested the aggravation could be career-threatening.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know about that,&rdquo; shrugged Lowe, 28, whose first exhibition game was Sept. 18, against the Canadian Olympic team. &ldquo;Rod Connop (Eskimos&rsquo; lineman) has had it for three years and he said it was going away.&ldquo;Besides, the way I look at it, it was bad all last season and I had one of my best years.&rdquo;But, make no mistake, the frightening aspect of being forced into a premature retirement has crossed his mind.&ldquo;If you want to know whether I&rsquo;ve thought about it, I sure have,&rdquo; confessed Lowe, the Oilers&rsquo; first-ever NHL entry draft pick (out of the Quebec Rempartsin 1979). &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been aware there&rsquo;s an end, but I feel I&rsquo;ve got three, four or five more good years left in me.&rdquo;Obviously the feeling is mutual. The Oilers resigned the native of Lachute, Que., to a five-year contract this summer.Lowe said the aggravation couldn&rsquo;t be linked to one particular incident. It is not uncommon to long-distance runners and even pregnant women. The pounding of a runner&rsquo;s feet on the pavement grinds into the pelvis, resulting in pubitis.&ldquo;I did a lot of running last summer,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This summer I cycled instead.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">Lowe doesn&rsquo;t intend on letting his ailment get in the way of another good season.</blockquote>The habitual pain is only part of the problem Lowe has been forced to endure. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s also the constant wearing on you pyschologically,&rdquo; he admitted. &ldquo;You get up every day and like to think there&rsquo;s not really a concern. But, yeah, it&rsquo;s there because it&rsquo;s reality and you never know.&rdquo;The upsetting part is that here&rsquo;s a 6-foot-2, 195-pound athlete of sound mind who has never been bothered by a major injury.&ldquo;I feel bad,&rdquo; said Lowe, who holds the Oilers&rsquo; record for most consecutive games played (420). &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a silly little thing. I&rsquo;ve had no bad injuries, I&rsquo;ve always been 100 per cent and this thing comes along. It&rsquo;s really a bizarre thing and becomes mind over matter.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s one of those things you can&rsquo;t compare to anything else like a knee injury or something. I mean, who knows how much pain Bobby Orr went through (with bad knees)?&rdquo;Still, he knows if he had taken part in the Canada Cup, he would be in considerable discomfort now.&ldquo;I skated for the first time (in midSeptember) and there was pain. I&rsquo;d be lying if I said there wasn&rsquo;t, but you&rsquo;ve got to get used to it because it&rsquo;s a long process. We just have to stay on top of it, keep it monitored and keep the muscles strong.&rdquo;In the meantime, running&rsquo;s out&mdash;at least temporarily.&ldquo;One day I&rsquo;d like to run in a marathon,&rdquo; said Lowe. &ldquo;I hope this doesn&rsquo;t stop me.&rdquo;Once a jogger, always a jogger.OIL SLICKS&mdash;The Oilers suspended defenseman Paul Coffey for failing to to meet a Sept. 23 trainingcamp deadline. He was being fined $250 per day. He wants his contract renegotiated. Winger Glenn Anderson ended a brief holdout when he agreed to report. Meanwhile, Oiler owner Peter Pocklington had this to say about Coffey: &ldquo;Let the little (expletive deleted) sit.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Former Calgary Flame Nick Fotiu joined the Oilers on a tryout basis&hellip;Among 17 players sent to Nova Scotia were 1984 No. 1 draft pick Selmar Odelein, a defenseman, and Scottish product Tony Hand, a forward. &#9632;

f0024-02

Oiler Lowe Learning To Live With The Pain

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01600/5325119-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="592" height="968"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Ian Kidd has impressed in pre-season games with the Canucks.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02393/5325126-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="180" height="132"></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;If you think the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; new management trio wasn&rsquo;t sweating a little over Ian Kidd, you&rsquo;re kidding yourself.The free-agent defenseman from North Dakota Fighting Sioux was signed during the off-season, for a bonus that tops most Canuck players&rsquo; annual salaries.Early indications were the investment will be a worthwhile one.He saw some pre-season action with the Canuck rookies, who took on the Calgary Flames&rsquo; rookies in a pair of games in Vernon and Penticton, B.C. But that was more a matter of Kidd paying his dues than relegation to the lower ranks.He looked extremely promising offensively. His shot is low, hard and accurate and he moves the puck out of his own end well.Defensively, there are some worries, but with the Canucks&rsquo; back end having the depth of Anatoly Tarasov&rsquo;s weight-watching will-power, he is certain to start the season.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s played pretty well,&rdquo; said coach Bob McCammon. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s run half our power plays and has done an excellent job. He&rsquo;s killed a couple of penalties, too.&rdquo;&ldquo;I was a little jittery at first and I made some mistakes,&rdquo; said Kidd after his first two exhibition games, both wins over the Los Angeles Kings. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I played up to my capabilities and I know I can play better. I appreciated the fact that when I did make a mistake, I was put right back out there.&rdquo;Kidd, who was used as an enforcer during his first year in Penticton of the British Columbia Junior League, said he discovered he could play defense through a stroke of luck.&ldquo;For most of my career I was pretty well a mucker forward,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d just go in the comers and try and get me back there. Suddenly I could see and read the game much better. I realized this is where I should have been all along.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03263/5325112-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="584" height="970"><figcaption class="caption-body">Richard Brodeur signed a one-year plus option contract but took a pay cut.</figcaption></div>The previous Vancouver administration had no intention of bidding on the free agent Kidd and, in fact, turned down scout George Wood&rsquo;s requests to take him in his draft year.&ldquo;Certainly there were doubts about his ability to play pro hockey,&rdquo; said team president-general manager Pat Quinn.If the move works out, it will be to the chagrin of the Detroit Red Wings, who originally thought they had Kidd with the first selection of the NHL&rsquo;s first supplemental draft in 1986. But he was ruled ineligible, slipping through the maze of rules.VAN LINES&mdash;Defensemen Garth Butcher and Doug Lidster signed multi-year contracts&hellip;Right winger Rich Sutter and goaltender Frank Caprice had not yet signed&hellip;Goaltender Richard Brodeur signed a one-year plus option deal, but his $300,000 annual income was slashed by 10 per cent&hellip;Defense prospect Jim Agnew is out indefinitely with tom rib cartilage&hellip;Center-left winger Craig Coxe has been suspended for the first three games of the regular season for coming out of the penalty box to go after Joe Paterson of the Kings.<div class="sidebar">&lsquo;I was a little jittery at first and I made some mistakes.&rsquo;&mdash;Kidd &#9632;</div>

f0025-01

Canucks’ Investment In Kidd Looks Sound

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-04174/5325157-1-eng-US/f0025-042.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0025-04

The Hockey News Classified (416) 445-5702

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02445/5325188-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hershey Bear sharpshooter Tim Tookey won both the AHL scoring championship and most valuable player award last year. (Photo by steve Somerville)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01639/5325195-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="179" height="132"></div>The Rochester Americans and Adirondack Red Wings, the last two Calder Cup champions, loom as the top teams in the Southern Division of the American League this season.Although player assignments were yet to be completed throughout the AHL, Rochester once again had many of the important players from the team that won the divisional and playoff crowns last season. Experience and ability make the Amerks the team to beat.Adirondack was moved to the Southern Division last summer and Bill Dineen&rsquo;s Wings have a new look with the addition of veterans Murray Eaves, Doug Kostynski and Ric Seiling, but they figure to be prime challengers again.The rest of the division is more difficult to assess: Binghamton has many new players. Hershey is missing a couple of important forwards, Utica is new to the league, and Baltimore is trying life as an independent.In predicted order of finish, here&rsquo;s a team-by-team breakdown. Last year&rsquo;s records are in brackets:<h2>ROCHESTER AMERICANS (47-26-7)</h2>Coach: John Van Boxmeer. GM: George Bergantz.NHL Affiliate: Buffalo Sabres.Key Veterans: Forwards Jody Gage (entering his ninth AHL season), Jim Jackson, Benoit Hogue, Richard Hajdu, Jeff Parker, former Buffalo first-round draft pick Mikael Andersson and tough guy Jay Fraser; defensemen Richie Dunn, playoff MVP Dave Fenyves, Jamie Hofford and Bob Halkidis; goaltender Darcy Wakaluk.Newcomers: Forwards Keith Gretzky (3566-101 with Hamilton), John Cullen of Boston University, Allan Maclsaac of Guelph and Mike Hartman of North Bay; defensemen Ian Herbers of Swift Current and Don McSween of Michigan State; goaltenders Kenton Rein, a first-team all-star with Prince Albert of the Western League last year, and Sudbury&rsquo;s Pete Richards.Outlook: Many of the players who helped the Amerks win the Southern Division title and the Calder Cup playoffs remain, but the final cuts made by the parent Sabres will determine whether Rochester is the class of the division or a top contender. If goaltender Daren Puppa, a first-team all-star last season, and forwards Ray Sheppard, Ken Priestlay and Bob Logan are sent down, the Amerks will be tough to catch.<h2>ADIRONDACK RED WINGS (44-31-5)</h2>Coach: Bill Dineen. GM: Neil Smith.NHL Affiliate: Detroit Red Wings.Key Veterans: Forwards Dale Krentz (a 32-goal man last season), hard-working Murray Eaves, Doug Kostynski, Warren Harper, Mark Lamb and player-assistant coach Ric Seiling; defensemen Peter Dineen, Dennis Smith and Dave Korol; goaltenders Sam St. Laurent and Darren Eliot, both with NHL experience.Newcomers: Forwards Brent Fedyk (Detroit&rsquo;s 1985 first-rounder), Swede Thomas Bjuhr (28-26-54 in 39 games with Portland), Bill Shibicky of Michigan State and aggressive Kris King from Peterborough; defenseman Rob Doyle, a star at Colorado College; and Kalamazoo goaltender Randy Hansch.Outlook: The Red Wings move into the Southern Division with solid goaltending and an experienced defense. The question at the start is whether the offense can deliver. The Wings expect big things from Hansch, who joined the club late last season.<h2>BINGHAMTON WHALERS (47-26-7)</h2>Coach-GM: Larry Pleau.NHL Affiliates: Hartford Whalers, Washington Capitals.Key Veterans: Forwards Dallas Gaume, 45-goal-scorer Mike Millar, Yves Courteau, Roger Kortko, Tom Martin and tough Jim Thomson; defensemen Tony Kellin, Grant Jennings, Yves Beaudoin and Mark Vichorek.Newcomers: Forwards Jeff Greenlaw of the Capitals and Yvon Corriveau of the Toronto Marlies, both Washington first-rounders; defensemen Sean Cronin of Salt Lake, Larry Shaw of Peterborough and Brian Chapman of Belleville; goaltenders Kay Whitmore from Peterborough and Alain Raymond, an ex-Fort Wayne Komet.Outlook: A year ago, Pleau had experienced goaltenders, a group of veteran forwards and young defense. This time, his defensemen are a bit older, but his goalies and forwards are quite young. If Peter Sidorkiewicz sticks in Hartford, rookie goaltenders Raymond and Whitmore will have to make a quick transition to the AHL.<h2>UTICA DEVILS</h2>Coach-GM: Tom McVie.NHL Affiliate: New Jersey Devils.Key Veterans: Forwards Steve Tsujiura (tiny and talented), Dave Gans, Tim Lenardon. Dave Anderson, Dan Dorion, Doug Brown and Alan Stewart; defensemen Alan Hepple and Murray Brumwell.Newcomers: Forwards Paul Ysebaert from Bowling Green, Ohio State&rsquo;s Jeff Madill and Northern Alberta&rsquo;s John Walker; defensemen Jamie Huscroft of Medicine Hat, Oshawa&rsquo;s Shane Doyle and Dave Marcinyshyn of Kamloops; goaltender Dan Delianedis, who graduated from Mohawk Valley of the Atlantic Coast League.Outlook: New Jersey&rsquo;s development team moves from Portland, and Utica may gain from the arrival in more than one way. The Mariners were loaded with rookies last season and did not make the playoffs. Most made progress and could be impact players this season.<h2>HERSHEY BEARS (43-36-1)</h2>Coach: John Paddock. GM: Frank Mathers.NHL Affiliate: Philadelphia Flyers.Key Veterans: Forwards Tim Tookey (AHL scoring champion and MVP), feisty Mitch Lamoureux, Don (Little Big Man) Biggs, Al Hill, Kevin Maxwell and Mark Lofthouse; defensemen Kevin McCarthy, Steve Smith, Mike Stothers, Jeff Chychrun and John Stevens; goaltender John Kemp.Newcomers: Forwards Dave McLay from Portland, Tony Horacek of Saginaw and Glen Seabrooke, from Peterborough; Oshawa defenseman Gord Murphy; Moose Jaw goaltender Darryl Gilmour.Outlook: Paddock has the core of another strong team, but a couple of questions remain. For instance, is goaltender John Kemp ready to take a prominent role? Or will some of the younger players contribute to the offense which has lost Ray Allison (to Switzerland) and Ross Fitzpatrick (for three months with knee surgery)?<h2>BALTIMORE SKIPJACKS (35-37-8)</h2>Coach-GM: Gene Ubriaco.NHL Affiliates: Minnesota North Stars, Buffalo Sabres, New York Rangers, Quebec Nordiques, Pittsburgh Penguins.Key Veterans: Possibly center Alain Lemieux, defenseman Phil Bourque, and goaltenders Brian Ford and Jon Casey (former Minnesota North Star rookie of the year).Newcomers: Unknown.Outlook: The Skipjacks are being operated as an independent team this season and five NHL clubs have promised to assign players. Skipjacks&rsquo; officials expect to have an experienced team with few, if any, rookies. The four veterans mentioned have played in Baltimore in the past and would provide an instant identity in the market.<h2>NEWMARKET SAINTS (28-48-4)</h2>Coach: Paul Gardner. GM: Gord Stellick.NHL Affiliate: Toronto Maple Leafs.Key Veterans: Forwards Wes Jarvis (a nifty centerman), Daryl Evans, Marty Dallman (48 points in 42 games before injuring his knee) and Chris McRae; defensemen Scott Clements, Ted Fauss, old pro Greg Hotham and Cliff Albrecht; goaltenders Tim Bernhardt and Jeff Reese, rated highly by the Toronto Maple Leafs.Newcomers: Forwards Tim Bean from North Bay, Toronto Marlie Tim Armstrong, Mark Kirton of Fredericton, Baltimore&rsquo;s Mike Blaisdell; combative defenseman Dave Allison of Muskegon and Dale Degray from Moncton.Outlook: Difficult to predict what the Saints will do. They had the fewest points in the league last year during Gardner&rsquo;s rookie season. No doubt, he will benefit from a year&rsquo;s experience. &#9632;

f0026-02

Past Champions Look Good Again

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0027-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02388/5325226-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Nifty center Gilles Thibaudeau is just one of the high-scoring forwards Sherbrooke coach Pat Burns will have to call on. (Photo by Steve Somerville)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01595/5325233-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="181" height="138"></div>The American League has always been known as a development league, but this is ridiculous.Six coaches are in their first year behind the bench. And New Haven&rsquo;s Rob Ftorek, beginning his third campaign, is the dean of the AHL coaching fraternity.The most-watched new coach should be Pat Bums of Sherbrooke, which won the Northern Division title last year and came within a win of capturing its second Calder Cup in three seasons under coach Pierre Creamer. Creamer left to take the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; job.Other rookie coaches are Mike Milbury at Maine, Ron Lapointe at Fredericton, Ron Low at Nova Scotia, Gord Lane at Springfield and Rick Bowness at Moncton. Bowness, a playercoach for the Sherbrooke Jets in 1982-83, will treat this as his initiation.There&rsquo;s a new look to the divisional alignments, too. New Haven and Springfield have been moved from the Southern Division, with Adirondack leaving the North.Here&rsquo;s a team-by-team breakdown in predicted order of finish. Last year&rsquo;s records are in brackets:<h2>NEW HAVEN NIGHTHAWKS (44-25-11)</h2>Coach: Rob Ftorek. GM: Roy Mlakar.NHL Affiliates: Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers.Key Veterans: Dynamic-duo goalies Glenn Healy and Ron Scott; hard-hitting defenseman Ken Hammond; enforcer defenseman Ken Baumgartner; defensemen Norm Maciver and Jim Leavins; left wingers Lyle Phair, high-scoring Paul Fenton and speedy Mike Donnelly; centers Glenn Currie and Dave Gagner and right winger Gordie Walker.Newcomers: University of Vermont center Shannon Deegan (19-21-40 in 29 games); right winger Todd Hooey (47 goals with Salt Lake).Outlook: If the Rangers, who are also supplying players to Baltimore and Denver in the IHL, are generous, the speedy offensive-minded Nighthawks will repeat last season&rsquo;s success and capture their first division title since 1979-80.<h2>SHERBROOKE CANADIENS (50-28-2)</h2>Coach: Pat Bums. GM: Andre Boudrias.NHL Affiliate: Montreal Canadiens.Key Veterans: Goalies Jocelyn Perreault and Vincent Riendeau; defenseman Andre Villeneuve; offensive centers Gilles Thibaudeau, Alfie Turcotte and Scott Harlow; right winger Jose Charbonneau, Montreal&rsquo;s first-rounder in 1985, center-winger Ernie Vargas and tough left winger Steve Fletcher.Newcomers: High-scoring center Brent Gilchrist from Spokane of the Western League; right winger Rocky Dundas of Medicine Hat; feisty right winger Mike Keane from Moose Jaw; playmaking defenseman Wayne Gagne from Western Michigan and goalie Randy Ex-elby of Lake Superior.Outlook: Bums inherits a talented, fast team that will pose many problems for opposing teams. Scoring goals might not be as easy as last season, but preventing them should not fall off for the team that allowed the fewest in the league last season.<h2>MAINE MARINERS (35-40-5)</h2>Coach-GM: Mike Milbury.NHL Affiliate: Boston Bruins.Key Veterans: Left wingers Dave Reid, John Carter, Jim Camazzola and Taylor Hall; centers Bill O&rsquo;Dwyer and Ray Podloski; defensemen Wade Campbell, Alain Cote, Gord Hynes and veteran Blake Wesley.Newcomers: University of Denver center Jeff Lamb; rugged right winger Tim Driscoll of Princeton (6-foot-3, 220 pounds); Michigan Tech defenseman Randy Oswald; right winger Alan May (310 penalty minutes in 38 games with Carolina of the Atlantic Coast League); goalies Norm Foster from Michigan State and Terry Taillefer from Boston University.Outlook: Defense and goaltending will be a key for rookie coach Milbury&rsquo;s team to contend. Scoring goals doesn&rsquo;t figure to be a problem.<h2>NOVA SCOTIA VOYAGEURS (38-39-3)</h2>Coach: Ron Low. GM: Dave Andrews.NHL Affiliate: Edmonton Oilers.Key Veterans: Goalie Daryl Reaugh; defensemen Jim Wiemer, Al Tuer, John Miner, Shawn Evans and Dom Campedelli; left wingers Tom McMurchy and the rugged pair of Wayne Van Dorp and Lou Crawford; right wingers Dean Hopkins and Mike Moller.Newcomers: Rugged defenseman Mario Barbe (356 penalty minutes for Granby); left winger Scott Metcalfe, Edmonton&rsquo;s 1985 first-rounder from Kingston; high-scoring centers Fabian Joseph, an ex-Canadian national team-er, and Gary Emmons (32 goals for Northern Michigan) and Prince Albert right winger Kim Issel, the Oilers&rsquo; first pick in 1986.Outlook: Center will be a weak spot with all four from last year&rsquo;s team departed. Defense should be a strength for the Oilers, who will be big and aggressive on the wings.<h2>MONCTON HAWKS (43-31-6)</h2>Coach-GM: Rick Bowness.NHL Affiliate: Winnipeg Jets.Key Veterans: Goalie Steve Penney; defensemen Bobby Dollas and Peter Taglianetti; tough left winger Joel Baillargeon, left winger Steve Rooney, high-scoring center Randy Gilhen (36 goals) and right winger Peter Douris.Newcomers: Goalies Dave Quigley, Canadian university player of the year at Moncton, and Cornell&rsquo;s Jim Edmonds; big defenseman Todd Flichel of Bowling Green; tough left winger Mike Warus of Lake Superior State; offensive center Len Nielsen of Regina and high-scoring left winger Brent Hughes of Victoria.Outlook: Defense will be young, as will the forwards. If the goaltending holds up early in the season and gives the chance for youngsters to learn while winning, the Hawks will be in good shape.<h2>FREDERICTON EXPRESS (32-43-5)</h2>Coach-GM: Ron Lapointe.NHL Affiliates: Quebec Nordiques, Vancouver Canucks.Key Veterans: Goalie Scott Gordon; defensemen Claude Julien (returning after a one-year absence), Daniel Poudrier, tough guy Jim Agnew and Robin Bartel; left winger Mike Hough; right wingers Doug Shedden and JeanMarc Lanthier; and musclemen Craig Coxe, Mike Stevens and Richard Zemlak.Newcomers: Goalie Darren Jensen (a Hershey Bear the past three seasons); high-scoring left winger Keith Miller from Guelph; Czechoslovaks Jarolsav Sevcik and Ladislav Tresl; Portland center Dan Woodley (Vancouver&rsquo;s top pick in 1986) and big right winger Mike Natyshak of Bowling Green.Outlook: Solid goaltending, a decent defense and a big physical team will keep the Express in many games. Scoring goals might be a problem that could derail the Express&rsquo; playoff chances.<h2>SPRINGFIELD INDIANS (34-40-6)</h2>Coach: Gord Lane. GM: Bruce Landon.NHL Affiliate: New York Islanders.Key Veterans: Goalies Marty Wakelyn and Roydon Gunn; defensemen Vem Smith and underrated Gord Paddock; physical left winger Glenn Johannesen; right wingers Neal Coulter, Stu Bumie and Tom Weiss.Newcomers: High-scoring veteran center Bruce Boudreau from Nova Scotia; stay-at-home defenseman John Mokosak of Binghamton; high-scoring center Todd McLellan of Saskatoon; big defenseman Jeff Finley of Portland; tough guy Mick Vukota (337 penalty minutes at Spokane) and tough right winger Rod Dallman of Prince Albert.Outlook: There aren&rsquo;t going to be too many teams pushing the Indians around this season. The only things missing for the Indians to get into the playoffs after a two-year absence is consistent offense and reliable goaltending. &#9632;

f0027-02

The Minors

North Full Of New Coaches

<h2>OCTOBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01609/5325334-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="546" height="1755"></div><h2>NOVEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02429/5325327-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="530" height="1675"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03306/5325320-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="498" height="790"></div><h2>DECEMBER</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04221/5325313-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="536" height="2423"></div><h2>JANUARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05181/5325306-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="494" height="220"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-06157/5325299-1-eng-US/f0028-062.jpg" title="f0028-06" width="530" height="2449"></div><h2>FEBRUARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-07146/5325292-1-eng-US/f0028-072.jpg" title="f0028-07" width="556" height="1024"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-08135/5325285-1-eng-US/f0028-082.jpg" title="f0028-08" width="526" height="1441"></div><h2>MARCH</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-09127/5325278-1-eng-US/f0028-092.jpg" title="f0028-09" width="523" height="740"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-10124/5325271-1-eng-US/f0028-102.jpg" title="f0028-10" width="523" height="1674"></div><h2>APRIL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-11116/5325264-1-eng-US/f0028-112.jpg" title="f0028-11" width="511" height="510"></div> &#9632;

f0028-01

AHL SCHEDULE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-12112/5325372-1-eng-US/f0028-122.jpg" title="f0028-12" width="602" height="1028"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-13104/5325365-1-eng-US/f0028-132.jpg" title="f0028-13" width="590" height="1018"></div> &#9632;

f0028-12

STARTING TIMES OF AHL GAMES

<div class="byline">BY BOB WAGNER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01524/5325403-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="156" height="133"></div>Paul Baxter was a tough customer as a pro hockey player, but he was also a smart one.Baxter, who logged 1,564 penalty minutes during his eight-year NHL career (and another 962 in just 290 WHA games), had lots of time to learn about the nuances of the game from one of the best seats in the house&mdash;the sin bin.Now, as the new coach of the International League&rsquo;s Salt Lake Golden Eagles, he will have an opportunity to put that accumulated knowledge to good use.Baxter, 31, played (and picked up penalty minutes) for some of the best coaches in the business.&ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;ve been really fortunate with the coaches I&rsquo;ve played for&mdash;Jacques Demers in Quebec, Eddie Johnston in Pittsburgh, and Bob Johnson, Pierre Page and Bob Murdoch the past four years in Calgary.&ldquo;I expect to have to give my best effort and try to have an exciting and winning team. We feel like we&rsquo;re going to have a strong team, but it&rsquo;s hard to project these things.&ldquo;No question about it, we&rsquo;ll be competitive. I&rsquo;m really excited about working with Bobby Francis, a really knowledgeable guy who adds some continuity to the Golden Eagles&rsquo; organization.&rdquo;Francis, who was a playing assistant coach under Wayne Thomas last season, was named Salt Lake&rsquo;s MVP. Now, he has hung up his skates to assist Baxter behind the bench.Baxter&rsquo;s hiring is part of a trend in the IHL. Of the four new coaches this season, two are former defensemen&mdash;Baxter and Milwaukee&rsquo;s Kevin Willison. Another ex-blueliner, Rick Ley, has guided the Muskegon Lumberjacks to the Turner Cup final round each of the last three years.When Baxter saw his playing career on the wane, he became part-owner of a Calgary-based playground equipment manufacturer.Although he appeared in only 18 regular-season games and two in the playoffs for the Flames last year, Baxter got coaching experience as an assistant with the NHL club. &ldquo;I did a little one-on-one work with the young players.&rdquo;When Calgary annointed Salt Lake as its No. 1 farm club, and Thomas moved up to the Chicago Blackhawks as an assistant coach, Baxter got his rance.&ldquo;I thought I wanted to retire as a player after last year because I no longer was an asset on the ice. I didn&rsquo;t foresee any (coaching) opportunities with the Flames, but all that changed when Bob Johnson took the position (as executive director of the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States). It&rsquo;s a funny business when unexpected things happen.&ldquo;When all this coaching movement came about, I approached Cliff (Fletcher, Calgary president-GM) and let him know I was interested.&rdquo;When the Salt Lake job opened, Baxter had his chance. He has his work cut out for him; the Golden Eagles are defending Turner Cup champs.I-LITES&mdash;The Kalamazoo Wings will not have the use of their own ice for their only home exhibition game, against Fort Wayne Komets Oct. 14. The ladies of the Eastern Star will be holding their annual state convention in Wings Stadium, so the game has been moved to Western Michigan University&rsquo;s Lawson Ice Arena&hellip;The Flint Spirits are holding a Gordie Howe Day, Friday Oct. 16. The promotion will include an appearance on the IMA Sports Arena ice by the hockey Hall of Famer who will take five shots on each of eight Flint-area high school goaltenders, prior to the Spirits&rsquo; regular-season opener against the Milwaukee Admirals&hellip;There are 369 games on the unbalanced IHL schedule for the 1987-88 season, 249 of them on weekends. The five East Division clubs (Flint, Fort Wayne, Kalamazoo, Muskegon and Saginaw) will play eight games each, four at home and four away, against the four teams in the West (Colorado, Milwaukee, Peoria and Salt Lake City). &#9632;

f0029-01

Feisty Ex-Pro Takes On Eagle Coaching Job

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01601/5325441-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="591" height="1231"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former Peterborough Pete Greg Vey paid immediate dividends for his new team.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02439/5325448-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="180" height="135"></div>Call Wayne Maxner an optimist.The general managercoach of the London Knights has lost eight players from the team that finished in seventh place and out of the playoffs last season. His best player is likely to stick in the NHL as an underager.But he still maintains that his team will improve in 1987-88.Maxner said the Knights will make the Ontario League&rsquo;s Emms Division playoffs with or without Brendan Shanahan, a 92-point center-winger who is certain to start the season with the New Jersey Devils. The Devils picked Shanahan second overall at the 1987 entry draft.&ldquo;Laugh if you want,&rdquo; said Maxner. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to be there when the season ends. I missed the playoffs last year, but that isn&rsquo;t going to happen again.&ldquo;1&rsquo;11 tell you, take me seriously. So we&rsquo;ve lost some players. We couldn&rsquo;t make the playoffs with some of those guys, so maybe we&rsquo;re better off without them anyway.&rdquo;Maxner said he doesn&rsquo;t expect Shanahan back, so he&rsquo;s not going to spend any time worrying about last year&rsquo;s team captain.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t think about Brendan,&rdquo; Maxner said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s in New Jersey right now. Best of luck to him, but life has to go on in London.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re probably looking at our roster and wondering who some of the guys are. But I&rsquo;ll tell you, you&rsquo;ll soon know. I look around this division and see teams with all of these returning players. Windsor is supposed to be great and so is the Soo. They may have a quantity of veterans, but I don&rsquo;t know how much quality there really is.&ldquo;Look, I&rsquo;m not trying to take anything away from Windsor or the Soo. But in this division, Hamilton is the class.&rdquo;Maxner began the season with a starting goalie, Chris Somers, whose total OHL playing time was 1,508 minutes&mdash;the equivalent of just over 25 games. And his highest-scoring returning forward, Don Martin, posted modest 19-38-57 totals last season.&ldquo;I think Somers can do the job,&rdquo; Maxner said bluntly. &ldquo;But if he can&rsquo;t I&rsquo;ll find somebody who can. I&rsquo;m looking at making some trades to get some help up front, sure, but I think our defense is in good shape.&rdquo;He did complete a trade with the Peterborough Petes, obtaining overage forwards Greg Vey and Billie McMillan for a fifth-round draft choice in 1989.Vey scored once in London&rsquo;s season-opening 11-2 win over Guelph and then added two more when the Knights lost 6-5 in Peterborough. McMillan also scored against his former team.Despite their early production, Vey and McMillan don&rsquo;t have reputations as offensive forces. Last year, Vey accounted for eight goals and 22 assists in 57 games, McMillan 14 goals and 14 assists in 38 games.Maxner said he expects big defenseman Jim Sprott (picked in the third round round, 51st overall, by the Quebec Nordiques) to lead the rearguards. And he said that with Brad Schlegel, David Akey and No. 1 draft choice Ric Corriveau, the defense will be just fine.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been in this league eight years and last year was the first time I missed the playoffs,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve made it by screaming and scrounging and patching up some pretty bad teams.&ldquo;This team has some good young talent. A lot of the kids played well toward the end of last year, when we began to make our move. You know, if there had been another 10 games last year, we would have made it.&ldquo;We were coming on while the Soo and Guelph were going downhill.&rdquo;Maxner, who has coached in the OHL with Windsor on two different occasions, led the Sudbury Wolves to their first playoff spot in six years in his only season there.He has also been behind the bench of the Detroit Red Wings, has coached in the Quebec League with Hull and did a stint in the Atlantic Universities Athletic Association at St. Francis Xavier.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03300/5325434-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="1209" height="1305"><figcaption class="caption-body">London Knight coach Wayne Maxner is confident his new players can lift the Emms Division club back into the playoffs.</figcaption></div>He got the London job last season after being fired by Sudbury. Maxner said new owner Jack Robillard (who also owns the Hamilton Steelhawks) &ldquo;is making things happen in London.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s really done a job fixing up the rink and has spent a lot of money since buying the team. He&rsquo;s also let me go out and hire an assistant coach (Dan Flynn). Jack&rsquo;s not afraid to spend money.&ldquo;And I intend to reward him with a playoff team. Just you wait and see.&rdquo;ONTARIO OUTTAKES&mdash;Belleville Bulls traded center Tony Crisp, 19, to the Kitchener Rangers for future considerations. He is the son of Calgary Flame coach Terry Crisp&hellip;Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds won&rsquo;t be getting center Mike Oliverio back as an overager, as they had hoped. Oliverio, who led the Greyhounds in scoring with 93 points last season, will play Division I hockey in Cortina, Italy. Oliverio flunked a tryout with the New York Rangers&hellip;The Windsor Spitfires have their captain back as an overager. Defenseman Paul Maurice recently returned from the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; camp for a fourth season at Windsor. &#9632;

f0030-01

The Juniors

Maxner Insists Knights Will Be Better Team

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04203/5325493-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="374" height="468"><figcaption class="caption-body">ROB ARABSKI Guelph</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>Ron Arabski got off to an explosive start with the Guelph Platers this season.The 6-foot, 186-pound center, who led the Platers with 89,points last year, opened the new year with five points in a 9-3 win over Hamilton to earn the nod as OHL Player of the Week.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05136/5325486-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="316" height="465"><figcaption class="caption-body">KORY KOCUR Saskatoon</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>The Saskatoon Blades are hoping Kory Kocur&rsquo;s fast start this season is a sign of things to come.The 18-year-old center was hot during the exhibition games. Kocur collected six goals in three games to become the WHL&rsquo;s Player of the Week. His performance included two hat-tricks. Kocur had only 13 goals all of last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-06105/5325479-1-eng-US/f0030-062.jpg" title="f0030-06" width="371" height="469"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE CHARTRAND Drummondville</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>Steve Chartrand received second billing to the super-scorers in the QMJHL last year but things may change this season.The Drummondville center began the new year with 11 points, six of them goals (including two gamewinners), to earn QMJHL Player of the Week honors. Chartrand scored four in one game.At the end of the current season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year.MEGA by MICRON Bio-engineered for skating performance &#9632;

f0030-04

MICRON

<div class="byline">BY GREGG DRINNAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02382/5325524-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="590" height="1326"><figcaption class="caption-body">The rights to defenseman Curtis Hunt, 20, were acquired by the New Westminster Bruins.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01547/5325531-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="182" height="133"></div>The hibernation is over for the New Westminster Bruins.New public relations-marketing director Brent Stebbings has been working night and day since May to revive community interest in the Bruins&mdash;not an easy task with a team that has won just 43 Western League games over the past two seasons.Stebbings, bom and raised in Humboldt, Sask., was with the Saskatchewan Junior League&rsquo;s (SJHL) Broncos for four-and-a-half years. You know, the team that runs that great hockey pool you see advertised in THN.&ldquo;In Humboldt, you almost took it (fan interest) for granted,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There was one newspaper. We didn&rsquo;t have a radio station in Humboldt, but (nearby) Melfort came in and covered us really heavily. There were so few people that everybody knew about (the team). You could just go hang up posters in business windows. It didn&rsquo;t take much to get the word out; a lot was word of mouth.&rdquo;Now Stebbings has found himself dealing with 21 radio stations, several television outlets, two major dailies and a few community newspapers in the Vancouver area.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to create more awareness of the team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Keeping them (fans) more informed of what&rsquo;s going on is an area that we&rsquo;ve been lacking in. A lot of emphasis has been placed on that.&rdquo;Stebbings even managed to land a 15-minute weekly radio program, &ldquo;Bruins This Week,&rdquo; on station CJOR.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re also creating more community awareness by getting the players active and involved in the community,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;A lot of that is mall appearances, appearances in stores, autograph sessions. We&rsquo;re doing a lot of charity work this year. We started a Bruins&rsquo; speaker bureau. We&rsquo;re publicizing the fact that we&rsquo;re available to any group&mdash;be it a business, organization, minor hockey, whatever.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s only natural, too, that the Bruins have gone back to their glory days&mdash;Memorial Cups in 1977 and 1978&mdash;in a bid to revive fan interest.&ldquo;You like to emphasize the fact the team&rsquo;s had a great tradition and the Bruins have put the city on the map, which they certainly have,&rdquo; Stebbings said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re getting all of our pennants back in place and getting up the team photos and things like that, so people can associate with it. But on the other hand, we want to give them a new look and a new image, as well.&ldquo;We feel that, even though we&rsquo;re on the lower mainland (of British Columbia) and we&rsquo;re part of Vancouver, we are still trying to concentrate quite heavily on &lsquo;New West.&rsquo; We&rsquo;re placing a lot of emphasis right in the city of New Westminster. The people in this city are quite proud. They consider themselves New Westminster citizens instead of suburbanites of Vancouver.&rdquo;The response so far has been good.&ldquo;Everybody knows of the Bruins and a lot of people certainly talk back to those great days in the &rsquo;70s and they all seem to be interested. But I kind of get a general feeling that people are saying, &lsquo;Well, give me a reason to go to a game.&rdquo;With that in mind, the Bruins will liven up Queen&rsquo;s Park Arena this season. They&rsquo;ll have lots of promotions, an organist and a trumpeter&mdash;but will they have a team?&ldquo;At least we can be optimistic this year with a pretty strong nucleus returning,&rdquo; said general manager John Olver. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to be working long hours when you know that you just don&rsquo;t have the team to compete and that&rsquo;s how we felt last year. Our management and players are very optimistic, and working long hours seems a lot easier under those circumstances.&rdquo;Added to the nucleus could be defenseman Curtis Hunt, 20, whose rights were acquired from the Prince Albert Raiders, for future considerations. Hunt (6-31-37 in 47 games with the Raiders last year) was at camp with the Vancouver Canucks at the time of the deal.The Bruins also acquired 19-year-old defenseman Mark Kuntz (4-14-18 in 66 games) from the Medicine Hat Tigers for goaltender Patrick Back-lund, 18. Backlund, from Sweden, was named goalie of the year in the SJHL last year. He had a 25-4 record and 3.49 goals-against average with Humboldt.WESTERN ROUNDUP&mdash;The Regina Pats announced they will retire Brad Hornung&rsquo;s No. 8 on Oct. 25. Only two other Regina sweaters have been retired&mdash;Bill Hicke&rsquo;s 17 and Dennis Sobchuk&rsquo;s 14. Hicke is now a co-owner of the Pats and Sobchuk the assistant coach&hellip;Casey McMillan of the Kamloops Blazers was named the WHL&rsquo;s scholastic player of the year for 1986-87. McMillan had a 90 per cent average while attending Cariboo College&hellip;Regina traded second-year defenseman Darren Parsons, 18, and center Sheldon Kowalchuk, 16, to Brandon for defenseman Wade Bartley, 17. None of the players had reported to camp&hellip;Medicine Hat dealt goaltender Kelly Hitchins, 18, to Swift Current for defenseman Ryan McGill, 18. McGill was taken by the Chicago Blackhawks in the second round of the 1987 NHL entry draft. The Tigers later traded defenseman Garth Lamb, 20, to the Lethbridge Hurricanes for future considerations. Lamb, entering his fourth WHL season, has played for Medicine Hat, Moose Jaw, Swift Current and Victoria, and was cut by Spokane earlier this fall. &#9632;

f0031-02

Fans’ Interest Is Bruin In New Westminster

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03279/5325562-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="182" height="132"></div>Older isn&rsquo;t always wiser, at least in the Quebec League.The Hull Olympiques were the youngest team in the league last season and they&rsquo;re the youngest team again this year. But this year, they&rsquo;re among the top contenders in the LeBel Division.The Olympiques, who finished ninth overall (26-39-5) in the 10-team circuit in 1986-87 while rebuilding their 1986 Memorial Cup-finalist squad, have done a quick job of it.&ldquo;We think we&rsquo;re ahead of schedule,&rdquo; said Charlie Henry, director of operations for the club owned by Wayne Gretzky. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d like to finish in the top three in the division and the top five in the league. We think we&rsquo;ll be a good contender this year.&rdquo;Provided the youth comes through.&ldquo;Last year, I was just following the veterans,&rdquo; said Moncton, N.B., native Guy Dupuis, 17, a defenseman entering his second season with Hull. &ldquo;Now, I have a really important role&mdash;to show the rookies what to do.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ll be more aggressive than last year. When everyone comes back (from NHL training camps), the rest of the league will have a hard time with us.&rdquo;Henry said he hopes one day to see his roster stocked entirely with players who began their junior careers in Hull. Already, there are 12 players in the lineup who were Olympique rookies during the past two years.&ldquo;Luc Robitaille always talks about his junior club and that&rsquo;s the way we want it,&rdquo; said Henry of his former star left winger, the 1986-87 NHL rookie of the year with the Los Angeles Kings.Hull&rsquo;s chances will be greatly improved if 20-year-old centers Shane MacEachem and Marc Saumier return from the training camps of the St. Louis Blues and Sherbrooke Canadiens, respectively. They would be the QMJHL&rsquo;s top pair of overage players.MacEachem was the Olympiques&rsquo; second-leading scorer last season with 44 goals and 102 points, and was one of the league&rsquo;s best two-way players. Team scoring leader Benoit Brunet (43-67-110), a 19-year-old left winger who was the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; second-rounder in 1986, has been returned to Hull&mdash;but he missed the first three league games with a minor ankle injury.Saumier helped lead the Longueuil Chevaliers to the Memorial Cup tournament last season with 39 goals, 88 points and 250 penalty minutes. The Olympiques traded the popular Hull native to Longueuil two seasons ago in a deal for two-time QMJHL scoring champion Guy Rouleau. The Olympiques reacquired Saumier from Longueuil, now the Victoriaville Tigres, during the summer in a deal involving Jean-Marc Routhier, a Quebec Nordique second-rounder in 1986.&ldquo;We have to be patient until Christmas, because of our youth,&rdquo; said Hull&rsquo;s first-year coach, Alain Vigneault, 26. Vigneault grew up in Hull, was an Olympique defenseman and played 42 games for the St. Louis Blues from 1981 to 1983.In addition to MacEachem and Saumier, two other Hull players were still at pro camps&mdash;left winger Stephane Matteau (Calgary), who is just turning 18, and defenseman Cam Russell (Chicago), 18. Defenseman Joe Aloi (Calgary), 19, was returned to Hull by the Flames.The Olympiques&rsquo; strength starts in goal.Last year&rsquo;s starter, 18-year-old Jason Glickman, wound up with the second-lowest goals-against average in the league (3.78). He will be backed up by 18-year-old second-rounder Graeme Harvey of Detroit, who came on at the end of the schedule last season and had a strong training camp this year.&ldquo;This is Cam Russell&rsquo;s third year and we&rsquo;re expecting a lot from him,&rdquo; Vigneault said of the big (6-foot-3, 190-pound) blueliner. The Halifax, N.S., native gained 10 pounds of muscle through off-season weightlifting.Aloi, Dupuis and slick Herbie Hohenberger, 18, are returning on the blue line. Hohenberger was the league&rsquo;s second-leading goal-scorer among defensemen last season, with 20 as a rookie.He played in West Germany the previous year and may play for his native Austria in the Olympic Games in Calgary.Among the rookie defensemen who have impressed are Mark McLane, 17, Christian Breton, 17, and Hull native Claude-Charles Sauriol, 17.Up front the left wing is formidable with Brunet, Matteau and Marc Labelle.Returning centers Kelly Nester, 18, and Joe Suk, 17, last year&rsquo;s first-rounder, are expected to provide speed and firepower.The right side is big but questionable. Impressive sophomore Ken Mac-Dermid, 17, is switching from left wing to add experience to a group of rookies. They include a pair of 16-year-olds&mdash;fiery second-rounder Jean-not Ferland (5-foot-6, 167 pounds) and fifth-rounder Craig Martin (6-foot-3, 229)&mdash;and seventh-rounder Stephane Charbonneau, 17.Though young, the Olympiques will be an aggressive, mobile club that should come on after Christmas.QUEBEC CACHE&mdash;The Olympiques got off to a rocky start without Cam Russell, Stephane Matteau, Benoit Brunet and Herbie Hohenberger, who&rsquo;s been sidelined with a nagging ankle injury. Hull lost its first three games, 7-2 to the Castors in St-Jean, 7-5 to the Shawinigan Cataractes on home ice, and 8-3 to the Draveurs in Trois-Rivieres. &#9632;

f0031-03

Young Olympiques Set To Face Challenge

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01577/5325593-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="183" height="137"></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Once a tough guy, always a tough guy.Winnipeg Jet general manager John Ferguson, who carved himself a reputation with his fists as a Montreal Canadien in the 1960s, still likes the rough going. And he sees a need for toughness on the Jets&rsquo; blue line.Enter Peter Taglianetti, a rugged 24-year-old defenseman who played last year with Sherbrooke of the American League. Unlike most of his teammates on the Winnipeg defense, he is uniquely assertive and willing to back up his arguments with his fists.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re pleased with Peter&rsquo;s progress,&rdquo; said John Ferguson. &ldquo;He is showing the benefits of a full year in Sherbrooke.&rdquo;On a team reasonably deep in defensemen, Taglianetti does run the risk of having a good training camp and still seeing his ticket printed for Moncton, the Jets&rsquo; new farm team.After all, Ferguson couched his praise with phrases such as &ldquo;may be ready&rdquo; and &ldquo;only an eyelash away.&rdquo;Then he offered this all-encompassing analysis:&ldquo;He&rsquo;s shown us he&rsquo;s ready for the NHL.&rdquo;Drafted from Providence College in the third round in 1983, the likable Framingham, Mass., native turned pro in 1985 and has since played 22 games in the NHL.A year ago, he had an operation to repair a shoulder that frequently dislocated itself and inhibited his zeal for hitting.The Jets weren&rsquo;t worried about his shoulder, though. They were more concerned with his skating and puckhandling.&ldquo;I would say he&rsquo;s doing both better,&rdquo; Ferguson said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s an improved hockey player.&rdquo;Selected as the first star in a 5-0 exhibition-game win over the Calgary Flames, he saw his value rise even higher when the decision was made to perform a shoulder operation on Fredrik Olausson.Olausson, a 21-year-old who want overlooked on the NHL&rsquo;s all-rook team, injured the shoulder while playing for Sweden in a pre-Canada Cup exhibition game.Oddly enough, it was a jarring check by Taglianetti that caused the shoulder to dislocate for the second time in a month.Expected to be gone until Christmas at least, Olausson may see Taglianetti trying to fill his spot on defense.Their styles are completely different.Olausson is shifty, swift and a slick puck-handler. Taglianetti is a crashing, crushing body-banger who uses his stick for a lever.If Taglianetti isn&rsquo;t around come opening game, look for Bobby Dollas instead.The Jets&rsquo; first-round choice in 1983, Dollas is making yet another bid to crack the starting lineup. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound defenseman has informed the team he may be willing to be moved if he&rsquo;s not in their plans this season.&ldquo;When the time comes, we&rsquo;ll see,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My first ambition is to crack the Jets&rsquo; lineup. I feel I am ready to play in the NHL.&rdquo;JET STREAM&mdash;Arthroscopic surgery has been performed on Doug Smail&rsquo;s knee and the speedy left winger was not expected back until midOctober&hellip;Heads turned when big Joel Baillargeon (6-foot-1, 205 pounds) left several Calgary Flames seemingly embedded into the boards or flat on their backs. &ldquo;His physical presence is something every team in the league looking for,&rdquo; said GM John Ferguson. The Jets&rsquo; left side has been one of the NHL&rsquo;s lightest in recent years&hellip;There&rsquo;s concern that Jan Ingman, a Swedish left winger, will be too timid to play in the NHL&hellip;Roger Ohman is certainly big enough, at 6-fooi-3 and 215, but the 20-year-old Swede does not look comfortable on left wing. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a defenseman we&rsquo;re trying to groom into a winger,&rdquo; said Ferguson. &lsquo;&lsquo;We must be patient with him.&rdquo;&hellip;The Jets were held scoreless in their first two pre-season games on the road, falling 3-0 in Calgary and 5-0 in Minnesota. At one point, the North Stars were outshooting them 27-3.<div class="sidebar">&lsquo;He (Taglianetti) is showing the benefits of a full year in Sherbrooke.&rsquo;&mdash;Ferguson &#9632;</div>

f0032-01

Tough Guy Taglianetti Plans To Pin Jet Job

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01590/5325624-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Calgary Flame veteran Lanny McDonald sees no need to retire: It isn&rsquo;t time,&rdquo; the mustachioed winger says.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02459/5325631-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="183" height="136"></div>CALGARY&mdash;The Calgary Flames&rsquo; elder statesmen reported to camp with a common goal&mdash;putting their illustrious, but now flagging, careers back on track.Under normal circumstances, the Lanny McDonalds and John Tonellis of the world do not have to appear in top shape on the opening day of camp. But these are not normal circumstances.McDonald, 34, and Tonelli, 30, both found themselves in a position where they had something to prove&mdash;if not to themselves, then to the critics who saw the first tangible signs of decline in their play last season. Both entered camp in peak physical condition.McDonald traced most of his problems to a series of knee injuries and the three-game suspension that limited him to 58 appearances, and saw him in and out of the Flames&rsquo; lineup three separate times.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Tonelli has paid a price for his tenacious style.</blockquote>Playing despite a nagging groin injury, Tonelli appeared in 78 games last season. But his production fell way off. Since his 100-point season (198485), Tonelli slipped to 68 and then 51 points last year.Over the summer, there were whispers that one and possibly both players would not be back with the team. Not so. In both cases, McDonald and Tonelli saw the new Terry Crisp regime as a chance for a fresh start.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not one to hide from the facts,&rdquo; left winger Tonelli said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t have a very good season last year.&rdquo;Tonelli said the team&rsquo;s long offseason, thanks to a six-game elimination by Winnipeg, helped him get ready for the new season. His style of play&mdash;digging in the comers, crashing around in front of the net&mdash;has extracted a greater price than that of a finesse player.The veteran of 138 playoff games wanted more post-season action at the time; now, he&rsquo;s glad of the extra rest.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a long break, but it really helped me,&rdquo; Tonelli said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been through a lot of hockey in the last few years (six Stanley Cup finals in nine NHL seasons). The break helped me heal the old wounds, get rid of my nagging injuries. I feel really good. I&rsquo;m looking forward to the new season.&rdquo;Tonelli&rsquo;s off-season conditioning program consisted mainly of cycling. Jogging bothered his groins too much.McDonald split his time between a rowing machine and stationary bicycle, two pieces of apparatus that he hauled from the Flames&rsquo; dressing room to his summer home in Montana. He also reorganized his schedule so that he could take a longer holiday than he would ordinarily.&ldquo;We did 21 commitments in a span of 35 days where Ardell (his wife) and I did things for companies I was involved with or for different charities,&rdquo; said McDonald. &ldquo;We tried to get everything finished by July 1 when the kids were out of school, so we could spend the summer together as a family and concentrate&mdash;first on building my knee back up and second, getting in the best shape possible. We were gone for basically two months and it was great, absolutely great.&rdquo;To everybody who suggested his 14-goal, 12-assist season was reason enough to retire, McDonald responded emphatically: &ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t time.&ldquo;Two years ago, you play every game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In fact, you set a (team) record for playing most games in a year&mdash;80 regular-season and 22 playoff games. Then the next year, you&rsquo;re too old to play? It happens that fast? I don&rsquo;t buy it.&ldquo;I have the things that are still important&mdash;my love for the game, my enthusiasm, my willingness to compete. When that goes, I think I&rsquo;ll know in a hurry that it&rsquo;s time to say thank-you and goodbye.&rdquo;FLICKERS&mdash;The Flames held right winger Hakan Loob out of the lineup for their first four exhibition games. Loob, recovering from offseason surgery, hadn&rsquo;t fully regained the strength in his right shoulder. The Flames didn&rsquo;t want him to risk contact too soon&hellip;Left winger Jim Peplinski suffered a freak injury&mdash;a punctured sinus&mdash;as a result of a heavy hit from Winnipeg Jet rookie left winger Joel Baillargeon&hellip;Terry Crisp spent his first weeks behind the Flames&rsquo; bench familiarizing himself with his new team. Except for a handful of players&mdash;Doug Dadswell, Kevan Guy, Gary Roberts and Brett Hull&mdash;the Flames represented unknown commodities to the new head coach. Accordingly, he went into the season trying to keep an open mind: &ldquo;First, I have to find out what I have,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Do I have a fleet team? Do I have a mucking team? As a coach, you hope to have a middle-of-the-road team, a team that can skate with anybody, score with anybody and muck it out with anybody.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0034-01

Flames’ Greybeards Fighting For Their Jobs

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01555/5325669-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="594" height="1209"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Paterson got off to a fast start in the Kings&rsquo; first two preseason games.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02441/5325676-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="181" height="133"></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;There isn&rsquo;t much doubt in Bryan Maxwell&rsquo;s mind that defenseman Wayne McBean will eventually develop into an excellent NHLer.&ldquo;I think he has the potential to be a superstar,&rdquo; Maxwell said.Maxwell gave up his job as head coach of the Memorial Cup-winning Medicine Hat Tigers, where he had McBean, to join the Los Angeles Kings as an assistant coach, where he has McBean again.It&rsquo;s a unique situation.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a familiar face and it&rsquo;s just comfortable to know that he&rsquo;s around,&rdquo; said the 6-foot-2, 200-pound McBean, the Kings&rsquo; first pick in the June draft. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s always there for me to talk to and he knows my style. It&rsquo;s a good situation.&rdquo;The Kings had raved about McBean well before the draft, but had to move up&mdash;from sixth to fourth&mdash;to get him. The Kings swapped first-round picks with Minnesota and threw in one of their two third-round picks.&ldquo;To have (an NHL job) within reach at the age of 18 is almost a fantasy for me,&rdquo; said McBean. &ldquo;If it does work out, there won&rsquo;t be a happier man around.&rdquo;There wasn&rsquo;t a more tired man around after the Kings opened preseason play. Their defense corps ravaged by illness and misfortune, McBean played three games in two days and didn&rsquo;t look out of place.While he was playing in a rookie game against Vancouver, the Kings learned that defenseman Mark Hardy&rsquo;s wife, Kris, had suffered a miscarriage. Hardy immediately left camp to be with her.With several defensemen already hurting&mdash;Grant Ledyard had a twisted ankle, Jay Wells a strained hamstring and Larry Playfair was still getting his reconstructed knee in shape&mdash;McBean sat out the third period of the rookies game, then played in a 6-5 overtime loss to Vancouver in the regular game two hours later.Two more defensemen&mdash;Craig Redmond (concussion) and Dean Kennedy (pulled groin)&mdash;were injured in that game, so the last thing McBean needed was overtime. He came back and played the next night in a 2-1 loss to the Canucks.&ldquo;He has a great set of wheels,&rdquo; Maxwell said.Endurance, too. When he wasn&rsquo;t skating a regular shift, McBean also played on power plays and killed penalties.&ldquo;Right now I&rsquo;m just fighting for a job,&rdquo; said McBean. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy with the way things are going. This is my first camp, but Bryan helped prepare me for it. I haven&rsquo;t been surprised by much so far.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03350/5325662-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="594" height="1209"><figcaption class="caption-body">Smooth-skating Wayne McBean was pressed into extra duty with Los Angeles.</figcaption></div>Coach Mike Murphy hadn&rsquo;t planned to use McBean or rookie defenseman Petr Prajsler in the first regular game, saying, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure they&rsquo;ll both be okay, but I wanted them to get their feet wet first.&rdquo;Neither looked out of place.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s very strong in front of the net,&rdquo; Maxwell said of McBean. &ldquo;And he&rsquo;s a great skater, so he can fill the hole. I don&rsquo;t know if he&rsquo;s going to be a great scorer, but he does it all. He&rsquo;s going to be an outstanding all-around defenseman.&rdquo;ROYALTIES&mdash;Co-owners Jerry Buss and Bruce McNall, and alternate governor Ken Doi flew to Victoria, B.C., to watch the Kings&rsquo; first two pre-season games&hellip;Left winger Joe Paterson had two power-play goals and an assist in those games. He had only two goals and one assist in 45 regular-season games last season. Paterson received a Cowichan Indian sweater as team MVP for scoring twice in the Kings&rsquo; opener, the 6-5 overtime loss to Vancouver&hellip;Bobby Carpenter, moved from center to left wing, didn&rsquo;t play in the first two games. Mike Murphy used eight rookies in each of them&hellip;GM Rogie Vachon wrapped up contract negotiations by signing defenseman Steve Duchesne and right winger Sean McKenna to one-year deals with an option. Czechoslovak defenseman Petr Prajsler signed a multi-year deal, length unknown. &lsquo;&lsquo;He has world-class skills,&rdquo; Murphy said of Prajsler. &#9632;

f0035-01

Top Draft McBean Kept Busy At L.A. Camp

<h2>NHL EXHIBITION SCOREBOARD</h2>Standings as of Mon., Sept. 28<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01531/5325756-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="550" height="600"></div>RESULTSFRI. SEPT. 18BUFFALO 3, WASHINGTON 1DETROIT 5, ST. LOUIS 1EDMONTON 3, CDN. OLYMPIC TEAM 3VANCOUVER 6, LOS ANGELES 5PITTSBURGH 3, MONTREAL 2QUEBEC 3, TORONTO 2SAT. SEPT. 19BOSTON 4, WASHINGTON 4DETROIT 5, ST. LOUIS 2QUEBEC 3, MONTREAL 2CDN. OLYMPIC TEAM 5, CALGARY 4HARTFORD 5, NEW JERSEY 4MINNESOTA 6, WINNIPEG 6NY ISLANDERS 4, PHILADELPHIA 1VANCOUVER 2, LOS ANGELES 1NY RANGERS 6, U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM 5SUN. SEPT. 20ST. LOUIS 4, CHICAGO 4EDMONTON 5, MINNESOTA 3SHERBROOKE (AHL) 7, MONTREAL 1PHILADELPHIA 3, U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM 2CALGARY 3, WINNIPEG 0BUFFALO 3, WASHINGTON 2MON. SEPT. 21EDMONTON 4, TORONTO 2CDN. OLYMPIC TEAM 5, NEW JERSEY 3TUE. SEPT. 22VANCOUVER 8, LOS ANGELES 2HARTFORD 3, PITTSBURGH 3NEW JERSEY 5, CDN. OLYMPIC TEAM 4NYRANGERS 3, NY ISLANDERS 0WINNIPEG 5, CALGARY 0CHICAGO 3, DETROIT 3BUFFALO 4, U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM 3WED. SEPT. 23MINNESOTA 5, WINNIPEG 0NY ISLANDERS 4, NYRANGERS 1TORONTO 3, EDMONTON 1HARTFORD 7, QUEBEC 2WASHINGTON 3, BOSTON 2BUFFALO 5, CDN OLYMPIC TEAM 3CALGARY 5, CHICAGO 5THU. SEPT. 24NEW JERSEY 6, HARTFORD 5DETROIT 5, TORONTO 3FRI. SEPT 25LOS ANGELES 3, WINNIPEG 0EDMONTON 4, ST. LOUIS 1NY RANGERS 2, MINNESOTA 1(GAME CANCELLED AFTER ONE PERIODBECAUSE OF BAD ICE AT CLEVELAND)MONTREAL 2, BOSTON 2PHILADELPHIA 7, QUEBEC 2WASHINGTON 3, U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM 2SAT SEPT 26U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM 3, DETROIT 1EDMONTON 3, MINNESOTA 3PITTSBURGH 3, MONTREAL 3NY ISLANDERS 8, PHILADELPHIA 1NY RANGERS 5, HARTFORD 3TORONTO 5, BUFFALO 3WINNIPEG 6, VANCOUVER 4CHICAGO 3, ST. LOUIS 2SUN SEPT. 27CHICAGO 5, EDMONTON 1MONTREAL 5, QUEBEC 3BUFFALO 4, NEW JERSEY 2HARTFORD 4, NY RANGERS 4HERSHEY (AHL) 4, PHILADELPHIA 2CALGARY 7, VANCOUVER 4FUTURE GAMESWED. SEPT. 30QUEBEC AT TORONTOU.S. OLYMPIC TEAM VS ST. LOUIS (PEORIA)WINNIPEG AT LOS ANGELESCHICAGO AT CALGARYEDMONTON VS PHILADELPHIA (DALLAS)MINNESOTA VS CDN. OLYMPIC (THUNDER BAY)NEW JERSEY VS PITTSBURGH (MUSKEGON)NY ISLANDERS VS BUFFALO (ROCHESTER)VANCOUVER VS NYRANGERS (DENVER)THU OCT 3CHICAGO AT EDMONTONMINNESOTA AT NY RANGERSBUFFALO AT NEW JERSEYBOSTON AT NY ISLANDERSQUEBEC VS PHILADELPHIA (CLEVELAND)PITTSBURGH AT HARTFORDDETROIT VS ST. LOUIS (KANSAS CITY)FRI. OCT. 2HARTFORD VS WASHINGTON (LAKE PLACID)MONTREAL AT PITTSBURGHPHILADELPHIA VSBOSTON (WORCESTER)TORONTO AT BUFFALOWINNIPEG AT VANCOUVERCALGARY VS U.S. OLYMPIC (SALT LAKE)SAT OCT. 3CHICAGO AT MINNESOTANY ISLANDERS AT MONTREALPHILADELPHIA AT QUEBECST. LOUIS AT CALGARYDETROIT AT TORONTOWINNIPEG VS VANCOUVER (NANAIMO)WASHINGTON AT HARTFORDU.S. OLYMPIC VS LOS ANGELES (SAN DIEGO)SUN. OCT. 4ST. LOUIS AT EDMONTONMINNESOTA AT CHICAGOBOSTON AT MONTREALPITTSBURGH AT QUEBECMON OCT. 5CDN. OLYMPIC VS WINNIPEG (THUNDER BAY)(END OF EXHIBITION SCHEDULE)EXHIBITION SCORERSMON. SEPT. 21EDMONTON (4)&mdash;ESA TIKKANEN (2), CRAIG MUNI, kevin McClelland. Toronto (2)&mdash;AL IAFRATE, TOM FERGUS.CDN. OLYMPIC TEAM (5)&mdash;BRIAN BRADLEY (2), CLAUDE VILGRAIN, DAVE REIERSON, WALLY SCHREIBER. NEW JERSEY (3)&mdash;PAT VERBEEK, KIRK MULLER, ANDERS CARLSSON.TUE. SEPT. 22NY RANGERS (3)&mdash;JAY CAUFIELD, WILLI PLETT, DON MALONEY. NY ISLANDERS (0)&ndash;NONE.NEW JERSEY(5)&mdash;JOHN MacLEAN, PERRY ANDERSON, DAN DORION, PAUL YSEBAERT, CLAUDE LOISELLE. CDN. OLYMPIC TEAM (4)&mdash;SERGE BOISVERT, CLAUDE VILGRAIN, FRED BERRY, BRIAN BRADLEY.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02399/5325749-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="570" height="1669"><figcaption class="caption-body">Esa Tikkanen</figcaption></div>QUEBEC(5)&mdash;ANTON STASTNY, KEN QUINNEY, JASON LAFRENIERE, ALAN HAWORTH, MAX MIDDENDORF. FREDERICTON (2)&mdash;J.F. NAULT, TERRY PERKINS.BUFFALO (4)&mdash;RAY SHEPPARD (2), KEITH GRETZKY, JAMES GASSEAU. U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM (3)&mdash;COREY MILLEN, TOM CHORSKE, KEVIN MILLER.WINNIPEG (5)&mdash;BRAD BERRY, CRAIG ENDEAN, DAVE ELLETT, PETER DOURIS, PAUL MacLEAN. CALGARY (0)&mdash;NONE.HARTFORD (3)&ndash;STEWART GAVIN, TOM MARTIN, PAUL LAWLESS. PITTSBURGH (3)&ndash;BOB ERREY (2), DWIGHT MATHIASEN.CHICAGO (3)&mdash;DUANE SUTTER, BILL WATSON, JIRI TORKKI. DETROIT (3)&mdash;BRENT FEDYK, ADAM OATES, GERARD GALLANTVANCOUVER (8)&mdash;GARTH BUTCHER (2), TONY TANTI (2), PETRI SKRIKO (2), DAVEBRUCE, BARRY PEDERSON. LOS ANGELES (2)&mdash;JIM FOX, BOB CARPENTER.WED. SEPT. 23TORONTO (3)&mdash;AL SECORD, TODD GILL. MIKE ALLISON. EDMONTON (1)&mdash;ESA TIKKANEN.HARTFORD (7)&mdash;MIKE MILLAR (2), PAUL LAWLESS, DAVE BABYCH, PAUL MacDERMID, JODY HULL, ULF SAMUELSSON. QUEBEC (2)&mdash;MARC FORTIER, LANE LAMBERT.BUFFALO (5)&mdash;CALLE JOHANSSON, BRAD MILLER, JOHN TUCKER, PIERRE TURGEON, DOUG SMITH. CDN. OLYMPIC TEAM (3)&mdash;MARC HABSCHEID (2), SERGE BOISVERT.NY ISLANDERS (4)&mdash;PAT LAFONTAINE (2), ALAN KERR, DALE HENRY. NY RANGERS (1)&mdash;JEFF JACKSON.WASHINGTON (3)&mdash;MICHAL PIVONKA, DALE HUNTER, LOU FRANCESCHETTI (OTW). BOSTON (2)&mdash;GEOFF COURTNALL, TOM McCARTHY.MINNESOTA (5)&mdash;KEN HODGE (2), GARY McCOLGAN, PAT MICHELETTI, NEAL BROTEN. WINNIPEG (0)&mdash;NONE.THU. SEPT. 24DETROIT (5)&mdash;MARK KUMPEL (2), MEL BRIDGMAN, BRENT ASHTON, ADAM GRAVES. TORONTO (3)&mdash;TOM FERGUS (2), MARK OSBORNE.NEW JERSEY (6)&mdash;KIRK MULLER, TOM KURVERS, PAT VERBEEK, DOUG SULLIMAN, AARON BROTEN, DOUG BROWN. HARTFORD (5)&mdash;DALLAS GAUME, JOHN ANDERSON, ULF SAMUELSSON, RAY FERRARO, GARY CALLAGHAN.MONTREAL (8)&mdash;JOSE CHARBONNEAU (2), MATHIEU SCHNEIDER, CHRIS NILAN, SERGIO MOMESSO, KJELL DAHUN, MATS NASLUND. CDN. OLYMPIC TEAM (2)&mdash;VAUGHN KARPAN, WALLY SCHREIBER.CALGARY (5)&mdash;BRETT HULL, COLIN PATTERSON, GARY ROBERTS, RICH CHERNOMAZ, AL MacINNIS. CHICAGO (5)&mdash;DENIS SAVARD, BRIAN NOONAN, MARK LAVARRE, TROY MURRAY.FRI. SEPT. 25PHILADELPHIA (7)&mdash;DAVE POULIN (2), SCOTT MELLANBY (2), KERRY HUFFMAN, PETER ZEZEL, BRIAN DOBBIN. QUEBEC (2)&mdash;LANE LAMBERT, JEFF BROWN.EDMONTON (4)&mdash;ESA TIKKANEN (2), JARI KURRI, CRAIG MacTAVISH. ST. LOUIS (1)&mdash;RON FLOCKHART.BOSTON (2)&mdash;NEVIN MARKWART, DAVE PASIN. MONTREAL (2)&mdash;MIKE McPHEE (2).LOS ANGELES (3)&mdash;BOB CARPENTER, CRAIG REDMOND, STEVE DUCHESNE. WINNIPEG (0)&mdash;NONE.WASHINGTON (3)&mdash;MIKE RIDLEY, BENGT GUSTAFSSON, DAVE CHRISTIAN. U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM (2)&mdash;KEVIN MILLER, LANE MacDONALD.NY RANGERS (2)&mdash;JEFF JACKSON, STU KULAK. MINNESOTA (1)&mdash;KEN HODGE. (GAME CANCELLED AFTER ONE PERIOD BAD ICE IN CLEVELAND).SAT. SEPT. 26TORONTO (5)&mdash;MIRO FRYCER (2), VINCENT DAMPHOUSSE, PETER IHNACAK, AL IAFRATE. BUFFALO (3)&mdash;PHIL HOUSLEY, JOHN TUCKER, CLARK GILLIES.CHICAGO (3)&mdash;STEVE LARMER, JACK O&rsquo;CALLAHAN, DANIEL VINCELETTE. ST. LOUIS (2)&mdash;HERB RAGLAN, PERRY TURNBULL.U.S. OLYMPIC TEAM (3)&mdash;LANE MacDONALD, BRAD JONES, JIM JOHNSON. DETROIT (1)&mdash;MARK LAMB.NY ISLANDERS (8)&mdash;BRYAN TROTTIER (3), MIKE WALSH, PAT LAFONTAINE, ALAN KERR, MIKO MAKKELA, GREG GILBERT. PHILADELPHIA&mdash;MAGNUS ROUPE.WINNIPEG (6)&mdash;DALE HAWERCHUK (2), THOMAS STEEN (2), RANDY CARLYLE, MARIO MAROIS. VANCOUVER (4)&mdash;RICH SUTTER, GREG ADAMS, ROB MURPHY, JOHN LEBLANC.EDMONTON (3)&mdash;JARI KURRI, CHARLIE HUDDY, CRAIG MUNI. MINNESOTA (3)&mdash;BRIAN BELLOWS, SCOTT BJUGSTAD, KEITH ACTON.MONTREAL (3)&mdash;SHAYNE CORSON, BRIAN SKRUDLAND, CRAIG LUDWIG. PITTSBURGH&mdash;MARIO LEMIEUX (2), BOB ERREY.NY RANGERS (5)&mdash;BRIAN MULLEN (2), TOMAS SANDSTROM, STU KULAK, WALT PODDUBNY. HARTFORD&mdash;JOHN ANDERSON, RON FRANCIS, PAUL LAWLESS.SUN. SEPT 27MONTREAL (5)&mdash;RYAN WALTER (2), MIKE McPHEE, CHRIS NILAN, BOB GAINEY. QUEBEC (3)&mdash;PETER STASTNY, LANE LAMBERT, MICHEL GOULET.HERSHEY (4)&mdash;DON NACHBAUR, TIM TOOKEY, STEVE SMITH, MIKE MURRAY. PHILADELPHIA (2)&mdash;GLEN SEABROOKE, MARK FREER.BUFFALO (4)&mdash;RAY SHEPPARD (2), KEN PRIESTLAY, DOUG SMITH. NEW JERSEY (2)&mdash;DOUG BROWN, AARON BROTEN.NY RANGERS (4)&mdash;TOMAS SANDSTROM (2), JEFF JACKSON, WALT PODDUBNY. HARTFORD (4)&mdash;DEAN EVASON (2), SCOT KLEINENDORST, RAY FERRARO.CALGARY (7)&mdash;BRAD McCRIMMON (2), JOHN TONELU, GARY ROBERTS, BRIAN GLYNN, COLIN PATTERSON, BRETT HULL. VANCOUVER (4)&mdash;JIM SANDLAK, TONY TANTI, JIM BENNING, DAVE LOWRY.CHICAGO (5)&mdash;DAVE McKAY (2), BRIAN NOONAN, RICK VAIVE, STEVE LARMER. EDMONTON (1)&mdash;GLENN ANDERSON.<h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>Standings as of Mon., Sept. 28<h3>DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03322/5325742-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="547" height="159"></div><h3>LeBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04239/5325735-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="542" height="157"></div>RESULTSMON SEPT 21GRANBY 5 AT LAVAL 5TUE. SEPT. 22HULL 3 AT T-RIVIERES 8VERDUN 8 AT VICTORIAVILLE 7WED. SEPT. 23DRUMMONDVILLE 3 AT SHAWINIGAN 5THU. SEPT. 24ST-JEAN 3 AT GRANBY 4FRI. SEPT. 25T-RIVIERES 7 AT DRUMMONDVILLE 6(OT)VERDUN 3 AT GRANBY 10HULL 6 AT SHAWINIGAN 9CHICOUTIMI 4 AT ST-JEAN 5SUN. SEPT. 27GRANBY 3 AT CHICOUTIMI 5SHAWINIGAN 5 AT DRUMMONDVILLE 6(OT)VICTORIAVILLE 5 AT HULL 4LAVAL 5 AT VERDUN 2FUTURE GAMESWED SEPT 30ST-JEAN AT GRANBYFRI. OCT. 2T-RIVIERES AT CHICOUTIMILAVAL AT DRUMMONDVILLEHULL AT GRANBYVERDUN AT ST-JEANSHAWINIGAN AT VICTORIAVILLESUN. OCT. 4SHAWINIGAN AT CHICOUTIMIDRUMMONDVILLE AT GRANBYT-RIVIERES AT HULLLAVAL AT ST-JEANVICTORIAVILLE AT VERDUNSCORING LEADERS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05191/5325728-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="547" height="290"></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>Standings as of Mon., Sept. 28<h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06162/5325721-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="540" height="207"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07153/5325714-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="542" height="237"></div>RESULTSWED. SEPT. 23S.S. MARIE 3 AT BELLEVILLE 7HAMILTON 3 AT GUELPH 9THU. SEPT 24WINDSOR 6 AT CORNWALL 3OSHAWA 4 AT NORTH BAY 3S.S. MARIE 2 AT PETERBOROUGH 6FRI. SEPT. 25S.S. MARIE 4 AT KINGSTON 3HAMILTON 8 AT KITCHENER 7GUELPH 2 AT LONDON 11WINDSOR 4 AT OTTAWA 6NORTH BAY 1 AT SUDBURY 4SAT SEPT. 26WINDSOR 4 AT BELLEVILLE 7LONDON 5 AT PETERBOROUGH 6SUN. SEPT. 27OTTAWA 6 AT CORNWALL 5GUELPH 7 AT KITCHENER 8SUDBURY 5 AT NORTH BAY 4HAMILTON 2 AT OSHAWA 4FUTURE GAMESWED. SEPT. 30TORONTO AT GUELPHTHU. OCT. 1KINGSTON AT CORNWALLOTTAWA AT NORTH BAYSUDBURY AT PETERBOROUGHBELLEVILLE AT WINDSORFRI. OCT. 2CORNWALL AT GUELPHSUDBURY AT HAMILTONKINGSTON AT KITCHENERBELLEVILLE AT LONDONOTTAWA AT S.S. MARIESAT. OCT. 3BELLEVILLE AT PETERBOROUGHSUN OCT 4CORNWALL AT KITCHENERHAMILTON AT NORTH BAYTORONTO AT OSHAWAOTTAWA AT SUDBURYLONDON AT S.S. MARIEGUELPH AT WINDSORSCORING LEADERS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08148/5325707-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="544" height="318"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

SCOREBOARD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09142/5325801-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="566" height="690"><figcaption class="caption-body">Randy Green</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10139/5325794-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="568" height="690"><figcaption class="caption-body">Esther Sumka</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11135/5325787-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="572" height="690"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jurate Kaknevicius</figcaption></div>M. A. Lawton, Publisher and General Manager of THE HOCKEY NEWS and INSIDE HOCKEY magazine, takes pleasure in announcing three well-earned promotions within the organization.Randy Green is appointed Ontario Sales Manager. Randy has been with the organization five years and has distinguished himself in advertising sales.Esther Sumka is appointed Promotion Manager, in addition to Newsstand Sales Manager. Esther began her career with THE HOCKEY NEWS eight years ago and has progressed steadily through management ranks.Jurate Kaknevicius is appointed Circulation Services Manager. Jurate has been with the organization three years and has earned increasing responsibility and recognition for her exceptional contribution in Accounting and Circulation subscription sales.THE HOCKEY NEWS and INSIDE HOCKEY are wholly-owned subsidiaries of G.T.C. Transcontinental Group Ltd. &#9632;

f0036-09

The Hockey News ANNOUNCEMENT

BOSTON&mdash;Lyndon Byers, RW, sidelined a month with stretched knee ligaments. Reed Larson, D, holding out over contract dispute. Following players assigned to Maine of AHL: Roberto Romano, G, Norm Foster, G, Terry Taillefer, G, Wade Campbell, D, Blake Wesley, D, Duane Joyce, D, Dale Dunbar, D, Gord Hynes, D, Bruce Shoebottom, D, Dave Reid, LW, John Carter, LW, Jim Cammazola, LW, Taylor Hall, LW, Paul Beraldo, LW, Jeff Lamb, C, Ray Podloski, C, Alan May, RW, Tim Driscoll, RW.BUFFALO&mdash;Following players returnedto juniorteams: Francois Guay, C, to Laval of QMJHL, Andrew McVicar, LW, to Peterborough of OHL, Grant Tkachuk, LW, to Saskatoon of WHL, Miguel Baldris, D, to St-Jean of QMJHL. Following players assigned to AHL camp in Rochester: Pete Richards, G, Darcy Wakaluk, G, Richie Dunn, D, Dave Fenyves, D, James Gasseau, D, Ian Herbers, D, Jim Hofford, D, Don McSween, D, Dave Moylan, D, Jay Fraser, LW, Richard Hajdu, LW, Mario Chitaroni, C, John Cullen, C, Keith Gretzky, C, Benoit Hogue, C, Jody Gage, RW, Jim Jackson, RW, Trent Kaese, RW, Kevin Kerr, RW. Andy Cozzi, C. Tim Hoover, D, released. Allan Maclsaac, LW, quit team.CALGARY&mdash;Following players returned to junior teams: Kevin Grant, D, to Kitchener of OHL, Rick Lessard, D, Dave Rowbotham, LW, to Ottawa of OHL, Stephane Matteau, LW, to Hull of QMJHL. Martin McKay, G, Dwight Mullins, RW, released. Jamie Macoun, D, sidelined for season with injuries suffered in off-season auto crash.CHICAGO&mdash;Glenn Lowes, LW, returned to Toronto of OHL. Following players assigned to Saginaw of IHL: Chris Clifford, G, John Reid, G, Brad Beck, D, Bruce Cassidy, D, Victor Posa, LW, Warren Rychel, LW, Glenn Greenough, RW, Mike Snell, RW, Guy Jacob, RW, Guy Phillips, RW, Brad MacGregor, C, Mike Rucinski, C, Brad Belland, C, Rick Paterson, C, Mike Hudson, C. Jari Torkki, RW/LW, returned to Finnish Olympic team.DETROIT&mdash;Joey Kocur, RW, reinstated from suspension, assigned to Adirondack of AHL, then recalled. Greg Stephan, G, sidelined day-to-day with groin injury. Darren Eliot, G, recalled from Adirondack. Following players assigned to Adirondack: Randy Hansch, G, Mark Reimer, G, Sam St. Laurent, G, Dennis Smith, D, David Korol, D, Peter Dineen, D, Phil DeGaetano, D, Jim Smith, D, Rob Doyle, D, Dale Krentz, LW, Neil Megannety, LW, Murray Eaves, C, Doug Kostynski, C, Bill Shibicky, C, Thomas Bjuhr, RW, Warren Harper, RW.EDMONTON&mdash;Andy Moog, G, joined Canadian Olympic Team. Paul Coffey, D, and Mike Krushelnyski, C, suspended for not reporting to training camp. Following players assigned to Nova Scotia of AHL: Brian Tessier, G, David Roach, G, Mario Barbe, D, John Miner, D, Dom Campedlli, D, Selmar Odlein, D, Ron Shudra, D, Jim Weimer, D, Lou Crawford, LW, Moe Lemay, LW, Wayne Van Dorp, LW, Tom McMurchy, LW, Gary Emmons, C, Shaun Van Allen, C, Tony Hand, C, Fabian Joseph, C, Troy Edwards, C, Jim Mollard, RW, Mike Ware, RW, KimIssel, RW, Mike Moller, RW. Grant Dion, D, Todd Carnelley, D, assigned to Milwaukee of IHL. Following players returned to junior teams: Darren Beals, G, to Kitchener of OHL, Dan Currie, LW, to S.S. Marie of OHL, Jamie Nicolls, LW, to Portland of WHL, Peter Soberlak, LW, to Swift Current of WHL.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01460/5325846-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="858" height="1889"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vancouver&rsquo;s Craig Coxe has been suspended for the first three games of the season.</figcaption></div>HARTFORD&mdash;Gary Stewart, D, and Ally Cook, LW, assigned to Milwaukee of IHL. Following players returnedto junior teams: Jody Hull, RW, to Peterborough of OHL, Adam Burt, D, to North Bay of OHL, Kelly Chase, LW, to Saskatoon of WHL, Terry Yake, D, to Brandon of WHL, Brian Chapman, D, to Belleville of OHL, Marc Laforge, D, to Sudbury of OHL. Ron Chyzowski, C, Brian Johnson, C, George Perperidis, C, Mickey Krampotich, LW, Joe Tracey, RW, George Beauchesne, D, Ken Lovsin, D, Ross McKay, G, released.LOS ANGELES&mdash;Sean McKenna, RW, and Steve Duchesne, D, signed contracts.MINNESOTA&mdash;Dean Kolstad, D, returned to Prince Albert of WHL. Todd Bergen, C, holding out over contract dispute. Raimo Helminen, LW, sidelined indefinitely after wrist surgery. Steve Payne, LW, sidelined a month after knee surgery. Mike Berger, C, and Scott McCrady, D, sidelined indefinitely with knee injuries. Dave Archibald, C, sidelined three weeks after shoulder surgery.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03253/5325839-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="386" height="400"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Jose Charbonneau, RW, recalled from Sherbrooke of AHL. Jocelyn Perrault, G, Rick Hayward, D, Alfie Turcotte, C, and Graeme Bonar, RW, assigned to Sherbrooke. Andrew Cassells, C, returned to Ottawa of OHL. Brian Hayward, G, signed three-year-contract. Vincent Riendeau, G, and Brian Skrudland, C, each signed one-year-contracts.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Bill McMillan, RW, and Gus Greco, LW, released. Adam Morrison, C, returned to University of Alberta. Wally Chapman, RW, signed as free agent. Following players returned to junior teams: Kevin Todd, C, to Prince Albert of WHL, Frederic Chabot, G, to Drummondville of QMJHL, John Andersen, LW, to Oshawa of OHL.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Denis Potvin, D, announced retirement effective end of 1987-88 season. Following players returned to junior teams: Paul Thompson, D, to PrinceAlbert of WHL, Kerry Clark, RW, to Saskatoon of WHL, Dean Ewen, LW, to Spokane of WHL, Will Andersen, D, to Victoria of WHL, Rob DiMaio, C, to Medicine Hat of WHL, Dean Sexsmith, C, to Seattle of WHL, Jeff Hackett, G, to Oshawa of OHL. Brian Ford, G, signed as free agent.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02334/5325832-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="854" height="1891"><figcaption class="caption-body">Winnipeg defenseman Fredrik Olausson is out indefinitely after shoulder surgery.</figcaption></div>NY RANGERS&mdash;Gordon Walker, RW, signed NHL contract. Following players returned to junior teams: Jayson More, D, to New Westminster of WHL, Stephane Brochu, D, to St-Jean of QMJHL, Jeff Bloemberg, D, to North Bay of OHL, Robb Graham, RW, to Guelph of OHL. Scott Cooper, G, released. Following players assigned to Colorado of IHL: Drago Adam, G, Ray Woodley, G, Scott Smith, D, Mark Tinordi, D, Don Herczeg, D, Larry Bernard, LW, Barry Nelson, LW, Mike. Holmes, LW, Mike Siltala, C, Simon Wheeldon, C, Todd Elik, C, Jim Latos, RW, Paul Jerrard, RW, Bret Walter, RW, Jeff Crossman, RW, Ron Talakoski, RW, Rudy Poeschek, RW.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Returned Mike McWilliam, C, to Medicine Hat of WHL. Following players assigned to Hershey of AHL: Daryl Gilmour, G, Steve Smith, D, Kevin McCarthy, D, John Stevens, D, Ian Armstrong, D, Gord Murphy, D, Harold Duvall, LW, Tony Horacek, LW, Ed Lowney, LW, David Whyte, LW, Dave McLay, LW, Al Hill, LW, Don Biggs, C, Mike Murray, C, Mitch Lamoureux, C, Bill McDougall, C, Kevin Maxwell, RW, Mark Lofthouse, RW.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Doug Hobson, D, returned to Prince Albert of WHL, Glenn Mulvenna, C, returned to Kamloops of WHL. Following players assigned to Muskegon of IHL: Jeff Cooper, G, Phil Bourque, D, Mike Rowe, D, Randy Taylor, D, Dave Goertz, D, Jim Paek, D, Pat Mayer, D, Brad Aitken, LW, Mark Kachowski, LW, Scott Johnson, LW, Warren Young, LW, Mark Teevens, C, Jock Callander, C, Steve Gotaas, C, Mitch Wilson, RW, Troy Vol-Ihoffer, RW, Dave Michayluk, RW.QUEBEC&mdash;Returned following players to junior teams: Jim Sprott, D, to London of OHL, Gerald Bzdel, D, to Seattle of WHL, Joe Sakic, C, to Swift Current of WHL. Assigned following players to Fredericton of AHL: Rick Reus-se, G, Scott Gordon, G, Claude Julien, D, Scott Shaunessy, D, Vo-jtech Kucera, D, Don McGrath, D, Craig Mack, D, Jean-Marc Richard, D, Tim Hrynewich, LW, Keith Miller, LW, Vladislav Tresl, C, Wayne Groulx, C, Jean-Francois Nault, C, Marc Fortier, C, Terry Perkins, RW, Paul Gerlitz, RW, Brit Peer, RW, Yves Heroux, RW, Mike Natyshak, RW, Max Middendorf, RW, Trevor Stien-burg, RW.ST. LOUIS&mdash;Keith Osborne, RW, returnedto North Bay of OHL. Ron Handy, C, signed multi-year contract, assigned to Peoria of IHL. Also assigned to Peoria: Alan Perry, G, Mike Posavad, D, Dominic Lavoie, D, Shane MacEachern, C, Darin Smith, RW. Doug Evans LW, and Robert Nordmark, D, sidelined indefinitely with shoulder separations.TORONTO&mdash;Following players assigned to Newmarket of AHL: Tim Bernhardt, G, Jim Ralph, G, Ted Fauss, D, Terry Johnson, D, Ken Spangler, D, Greg Hotham, D, Scott Clements, D, Cliff Albrecht, D, Dave Allison, D, Brian Blad, D, Tim Bean, LW, Chris McRae, LW, Joel Burridge, LW, Daryl Evans, LW, Wes Jarvis, C, Mark Kirton, C, Tim Armstrong, C, Marty Dallman, C, Mike Blaisdell, RW, Derek Laxdal, RW, Leigh Verstraete, RW, Gerrard Waslen, RW.VANCOUVER&mdash;Craig Coxe, C, suspended by NHL for first three games of new season for leaving penalty box during pre-season game against Los Angeles. Following players assigned to Fredericton of AHL: Troy Gamble, G, Kevin Hamlin, G, Brett MacDonald, D, Jim Agnew, D, Darren Durdle, D, Mike Stevens, LW, Jeff Rohlicek, LW, Marc Crawford, LW, Brian Bertuzzi, C, Todd Hawkins, RW, Jay Mazur, RW, Ronnie Stern, RW. Agnew sidelined indefinitely with torn rib cartilage. Doug Lidster, D, Rich Sutter, RW, Richard Brodeur, G, Frank Caprice, G, signed multi-year contractsWINNIPEG&mdash;Fredrik Olausson, D, sidelined indefinitely after shoulder surgery. Bryan March-ment, D, signed multi-year contract. Suspension of Steve Penney, G, lifted after Penney agreed to report to Moncton of AHL. Bobby Dollas, D, Ryan Stewart, C, and Randy Gilhen, LW, assigned to Moncton. &#9632;

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TRANSACTIONS

<div class="byline">BY LARRY HUMBER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01507/5325908-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div><h2>ACROSS:</h2>1. Jet general manager John Ferguson was previously with this Patrick Division club (7).4. First name of the Isles&rsquo; second Smythe Trophy winner (5).7. The NHL&rsquo;s 1979-80 penalty-minute leader (4).8. Former Ranger netminder now with Madison Square Garden Network (8).10. Jet assistant coach who scored the Flyers&rsquo; first-ever goal (10).12. Veteran linesman Knox (5).13. Spoils, mars (5).14. Both he and Al MacAdam tallied 42 times for the North Stars in 1979-80 (5,5).18. Ted Hampson is director of this for the Blues (8).19. He was twice named the WHA&rsquo;s most valuable player (4).20. He succeeded Jean-Guy Talbot as coach of the Rangers in 1978 (5).21. Angers (7).<h2>DOWN:</h2>1. Wins easily (5).2. Number worn by Bill Masterton during his brief stint with Minnesota (8).3. Jet schooled atthe University of North Dakota (5).4. He topped the Flyers in scoring in 1985-86 (5,5).5. Throw (4).6. Dale of the Caps, Dave of the Oilersand Mark of the Blues (7).9. Number of points earned by the Blackhawks, Nordiques and Penguins last season (7,3).11. He was drafted in the first round by the Kings in 1975, but spent most of his career in Minnesota (3,5).12. This veteran blueliner is the Canucks&rsquo; career penalty leader (7).15. Leaf forward Damphousse (5).16. He was a member of Team Canada &rsquo;72 (5).17. The WHA&rsquo;s most valuable player trophy featu red a bust of this hockey great (4). &#9632;

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CROSSWORD

<h2>25 YEARS AGO:</h2>&bull; The Chicago Blackhawks thought they had acquired Toronto&rsquo;s star left winger Frank Mahovlich for $1 million in cash, when Blackhawk owner Jim Norris agreed to a deal with Maple Leaf co-owner Harold Ballard. But at the 11th hour, the deal was vetoed by Maple Leaf president Stafford Smythe.&bull; Toronto Maple Leaf coach-GM Punch Imlach was high on rookie defenseman Kent Douglas. Asked where the newcomer could fit in on a blue-line crew featuring Tim Horton, Allan Stanley, Bob Baun, Carl Brewer, Al Arbour and Larry Hillman. Imlach replied, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure, but there&rsquo;s got to be a place for him. He&rsquo;s too good to keep out.&rdquo; Imlach&rsquo;s judgment proved correct&mdash;Douglas went on to win the Calder Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s top rookie.<h2>35 YEARS AGO:</h2>&bull; Montreal Canadien coach Dick Irvin boldly predicted that star right winger Maurice (Rocket) Richard would score 55 goals in 1952-53. Richard, coming off a disappointing 27-goal campaign, was showing flashes of his old brilliance during the exhibition season. Irvin&rsquo;s prediction wasn&rsquo;t to be, however&mdash;Richard scored only 28 goals in &rsquo;52-53.&bull; Toronto Maple Leaf defenseman Bill Juzda was miffed when the Leafs announced plans to send the eight-year veteran to their American League farm team in Pittsburgh. Juzda had planned to sit out the year and work on the railway in his Winnipeg home, but relented. He never played in the NHL again, spending four seasons in the minor pros. &#9632;

THIS MONTH…

<div class="byline">BY HOWARD BERGER</div>Les Binkley was the Cinderella of pro hockey.The native of Walkerton, Ont., started his hockey career as a trainer with the American League Cleveland Barons in 1957-58. During practice, he would strap on the pads and play goal. He got so proficient at puck-stopping that he was actually given the job as Barons&rsquo; goaltender the following season.He played seven years in Cleveland and one in San Diego before signing with the NHL expansion Pittsburgh Penguins in 1967. Veteran goalie Hank Bassen, a Detroit cast-off, won the starting nod at Pittsburgh&rsquo;s training camp and played in the Penguins&rsquo; first-ever game, a 2-1 loss to Montreal.Before long, however, the extrainer overtook Bassen and became the best goalie in the NHL&rsquo;s new West Division.During the first year of expansion, 1967-68, Binkley tied Minnesota&rsquo;s Cesare Maniago for most shutouts (six) in the new division. One gooseegg in particular stood out as the fondest memory of Binkley&rsquo;s five-year NHL tenure.&ldquo;In a late-January game that season, I beat the Bruins 1-0 right in Boston,&rdquo; he recalled. &ldquo;They had a real explosive team in those days, with guys like Phil Esposito, Bobby Orr and John Bucyk, but it was just one of those nights where I could do no wrong.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03258/5325994-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="584" height="1387"><figcaption class="caption-body">Les Binkley</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d be flat on my back in the goal crease and they&rsquo;d throw the puck over top the net&hellip;things like that. I did, however, manage to stop (Bruin rookie) Derek Sanderson on a couple of breakaways and, toward the end of the game, even the Boston fans were cheering me.&ldquo;Our goal was a real fluke,&rdquo; Binkley continued. &ldquo;George Konik, one of our wingers, tried to center the puck from behind the net and it went in off a Bruin skate.&ldquo;I was on a high for weeks after that game and I still have my white road sweater from that first season&mdash;the one with &ldquo;PITTSBURGH&rdquo; written diagonally across the front.&ldquo;It was a fun year.&rdquo;Binkley defected to Ottawa of the World Hockey Association in 1972-73 and played two seasons with the Toronto Toros. In his five NHL seasons with Pittsburgh, he compiled a 3.12 goals-against average and 11 shutouts.Binkley, 51, is currently chief scout of the Winnipeg Jets. &#9632;

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October 9, 1987

Scrap Canada Cup Once And For All!

THN HOCKEY TRIVIA

Playing NHL Teams Strengthens Olympians

THE WAY WE WERE