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.

December 25, 1987

The Hockey News December 25, 1987

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011357/5379342-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0008-01

Departments

Elston

All things being unequal, Marcel Dionne figured to be booed out of Madison Square Garden by this time.The MSG hellions need precious little reason to put down St. Francis of Assisi, so you can imagine how they felt about Petit Marcel.1. They hated the deal that sent Mike Ridley and Kelly Miller to Washington for Bobby Carpenter, followed by the Carpenter-Tom Laidlaw exchange for Dionne.2. They got madder when Marcel failed to lift the Rangers over Philadelphia last spring in the first playoff round.3. They positively seethed this summer when Dionne pulled up lame and required knee surgery. And, finally&hellip;4. A city-wide chorus of &ldquo;I Told You Sos&rdquo; could be heard all the way to Weehawken when GM Phil Esposito almost left Dionne, 36, unprotected in the pre-season waiver draft. (Only the unexpected Barry Beck retirement compelled Espo to put Dionne back on the list.)Yet, from Day One of 1987-88 Marcel has been a marvel. He has moved to the top of the club&rsquo;s scoring list and has played with a 20-year-old&rsquo;s verve.Winter has not arrived yet and Dionne has passed the 700-goal mark (Oct. 31), surpassed the 1,000-assist plateau (Nov. 7) and exceeded the 1,700 point-level (Nov. 3). He is merely the all-time leading scorer among active players and if Dionne can survive a couple of more seasons&mdash;who knows?&mdash;he could be the all-time No. 1 point-getter, passing even Gordie Howe at 1,850 points.Question: What&rsquo;s the Dionne secret?Answer: I&rsquo;ve just been consistent. That and the fact that I started with guys who paid the price. Howe, Esposito, Bobby Orr, Alex Delvecchio. I learned from those guys during NHL days that were hard. In those days you didn&rsquo;t dare threaten a GM and say &ldquo;Trade me!&rdquo; We were afraid to say anything.Q: You&rsquo;ve outlasted some outstanding players.A: Two of them are Gil Perreault and Guy Lafleur. There&rsquo;s no doubt in my mind that (under the right circumstances) they could still be playing. Maybe they didn&rsquo;t spend enough time trying to understand what&rsquo;s going on. I was able to make the adjustment. We have a new trend in our game with the young people. But the way I see it, they&rsquo;re just a lot younger and I&rsquo;m not that old.Q: Perhaps the fact that you haven&rsquo;t gone to the Stanley Cup finals, like a Bryan Trottier, has helped your longevity.A: Wait a minute. Don&rsquo;t forget that I played in the World Championships in those springs. I&rsquo;d spend a month playing in Europe. Once, I went over to the world tournament when my boy was only a day old. I went and committed myself. I paid the price and I learned discipline. A player like Alex Delvecchio taught me a lot.Q: Do you believe the stories that, after all Phil Esposito spent to get you, Marcel Dionne would have gone unprotected last October?A: It&rsquo;s true. I talked to Phil before the draft and I told him that I thought it would be for the best of the team that he not protect me. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn&rsquo;t have protected a player like me. I felt we were going to lose some players who Phil had worked hard to get over the summer, so why not leave me unprotected? I don&rsquo;t think I would have gone anywhere anyway.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011372/5379552-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="328" height="445"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stan Fischler</figcaption></div>Q: You have fooled a lot of people scoring so much, so early in the season.A: I&rsquo;m skating very well. I feel very good and since the knee surgery I have a better stride. My quickness is there, although I&rsquo;m not in Pat LaFontaine&rsquo;s class. But I&rsquo;m trying to hold my own. What&rsquo;s helped is the power play. I scored 12 power-play goals by the start of December; something I had never done before. The change in the pattern of the game (increased calling of restraining fouls) has helped me. Power plays are up 30 per cent, which means a lot of power-play goals are being scored, and I&rsquo;ve been in the right place at the right time.Q: With players like Michel Petit, Lucien DeBlois, Pierre Larouche and yourself, the Rangers have a very definite French flavor. Does having a French-speaking coach like Michel Bergeron help you?A: It has no bearing at all. The thing with Michel is he&rsquo;s easy to talk to and that&rsquo;s helped me. Part of it has to do with his experience. A guy who hasn&rsquo;t been around so long would have spent the first two or three months trying to find out how to deal with a Marcel Dionne. In that sense Bergeron has helped me with my career. He&rsquo;s seen me play. He knows what I can do. All that was left was for him to find out what type of guy I am off the ice, in the dressing room, in the bus and when we go for lunch. Sometimes I talk French to Michel because it&rsquo;s easier but as far as the job goes, look what happened in L.A. My general manager (Rogie Vachon) was French and now I&rsquo;m in New York.Q: What have you learned after all these years?A: A long time ago there was an NHL awards dinner and, for some reason, Bobby Orr said he might not be able to show up. Clarence Campbell was president of the league at the time and he told Bobby, &lsquo;The game is bigger than you are, so you&rsquo;d better show up.&rsquo; And he did. So, what I learned is that the game is bigger than Marcel Dionne. And when I&rsquo;m gone there&rsquo;ll still be other players. Nobody is irreplaceable.Q: It&rsquo;s nice to know that a smallish guy like yourself or a skinny one like Gretzky can be a superstar for so long.A: I might be a little star but I feel that for what I am, I get the best out of me. Sometimes I even impress myself. I say, &lsquo;Marcel, how can you still do these things?&rsquo; But the answer is that I can still skate better than half the players in this league and they&rsquo;re 20 years old.Q: Do you have any message for them?A: Sure. If you think it&rsquo;s tough now, wait til you&rsquo;ve played another 10 years and you&rsquo;ll really see how tough it can be. &#9632;

f0012-01

Columnists

‘I Get The Best Out Of Me’—Marcel Dionne

UNSEASONABLY MILD WEATHER has eased NHL scouts into the one phase of their work even more discomforting than an overnighter in Sudbury&hellip;on a Saturday night.The U.S. prep and private schools have swung into action, and their prospect-dotted rosters demand attention.Sounds cushy, doesn&rsquo;t it? Visiting all those plush and luxurious schools that fall outside the public sector. You can just imagine the hockey facilities most of them have.No, you can&rsquo;t.A good many of them aren&rsquo;t enclosed. Count New Hampton (N.H.) Prep School among them. It does have a roof. Even sides. But no ends.Sorta&rsquo; like the old days, isn&rsquo;t it&mdash;the wind whipping through the rink, windchill factor whipping through the bones of shivering scouts.&ldquo;We do have plexiglass all around,&rdquo; points out coach Bill Cahill.Some schools don&rsquo;t. They still have fencing above the boards. The players, then, aren&rsquo;t spared the chilling winds. Ever heard of a wind-assisted goal?Call it tradition or call it a cost-saving measure, a good portion of the private schools are throwbacks to yesteryear. Sure, they have artificial ice&hellip;but no artificial heat.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t dress for looks, you dress to survive,&rdquo; says Hartford scout Dave McNab, who has resorted to scouting from the coziness of his car on occasion. &ldquo;If you get a cold windy night, it can be scary. You go to a game hoping there isn&rsquo;t a good player so you can leave early.&rdquo;At New Hampton, there are plenty of good players&mdash;enough, in fact, for Cahill to aim for a New England championship&mdash;but five of them are already drafted.Defenseman Paul Flanagan (seventh round, Buffalo), center Charles Wiegand (eighth, Rangers), defenseman Craig Daly (ninth, Vancouver), right winger Jack MacDougall (ninth, Pittsburgh) and left winger Mark Carlson (12th, Pittsburgh) were all chosen in the 1987 entry draft.Wiegand, MacDougall and Carlson played elsewhere last season, Flanagan and Daly at New Hampton.You could stamp this team NHL-approved, there are so many picks on the team. Never before have so many played on the same high school club.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s an absolute first for any high school or prep school,&rdquo; says McNab. &ldquo;So few 11th graders get drafted. It&rsquo;s more than most junior teams have.&rdquo;Hell, it&rsquo;s more than some NHL teams. Or at least it seems that way, to watch them play.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03390/5380007-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="339" height="464"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Dryden</figcaption></div>Cahill counts on a solid reputation and referrals from Hockey East and Eastern College schools to help him out on recuiting missions. He looks for players to come with talent&hellip;and weather-tested.Heartiness is every bit as important as hockey sense some games.One night was so cold last year, that Cahill sent five-man units directly from the ice to the New Hampton dressing room&mdash;located conveniently behind the team bench&mdash;with specific instructions for their toasty teammates.&ldquo;Tell the next guys they&rsquo;re on deck,&rdquo; Cahill would advise his charges.Their opponents, smartly outfitted in dapper perforated sweaters, were cool to the idea of playing in a windchill factor of minus-25 F.&ldquo;You could see their equipment through their sweaters,&rdquo; said Cahill, whose standard coaching attire includes mitts. &ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t even want to warm up.&rdquo; The game could start none too quickly enough for the visitors. Nor end. New Hampton won 14-0.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d have quit hockey if I had gone to one of those places,&rdquo; says McNab, a former University of Wisconsin goalie. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s freezing. I don&rsquo;t know how a goalie does it in practice.&rdquo;Some schools are colder than others.McNab remembers the agony of scouting former Minnesota first-rounder David Quinn at Kent Prep School in Connecticut.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s at the bottom of a valley,&rdquo; says McNab, his teeth chattering at the memory, &ldquo;and when the sun goes down, it turns into Antarctica.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-03

The Cold, Calculating World Of Scouting Prep Ice Squads

<div class="byline">BY MURRAY TOWNSEND</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011424/5379287-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Edmonton&rsquo;s power center Mark Messier, hugging Oiler and among the NHL&rsquo;s most prolific scorers&mdash;he played briefly in the Team Canada teammate Glenn Anderson (right), is a rarity minor leagues. (Photo by Dan Hamilton)</figcaption></div>Hockey is filled with truths, half-truths and other beliefs held to be truths.But are they truthful? That&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;ve set out to determine. THN examined 15 of the sport&rsquo;s most common stereotypes and tested their veracity.All statistical evidence, unless otherwise noted, is gathered from games through Dec. 6 of this season.1. Teams are demoralized by blowout losses.False. Using a five-goal-or-more margin of defeat as the basis for a blowout loss, it appears blowout games do not demoralize a team. In fact, it does the opposite.Teams that lost blowout games in 1986-87 rebounded in their next games for a collective record of 33-23-8 (.578 winning percentage). Teams that won blowout games followed up with a combined record of 31-27-6 (.531) in their next games.Many of those who lost blowouts were among the weaker teams in the league, so winning a follow-up game was even more difficult for them. Teams that were blown out of a game and then played the same team again had a collective 4-5-1 losing record.2. The minor pro leagues are for has-beens and never-will-bes.False. The minor leagues are a useful tool, especially in the development of goaltenders. All goalies who have played in the NHL this year, with the exception of Hartford&rsquo;s Mike Liut and Quebec&rsquo;s Mario Brunetta, have played at least briefly in the minor professional leagues.A check of the top 20 scorers, however, showed that only three of them had played any games in the minors&mdash;Edmonton&rsquo;s Mark Messier, Greg Adams of Vancouver, and Minnesota&rsquo;s Dino Ciccarelli.3. Shorthanded goals are demoralizing.False. The opposite seems to be true. Giving up shorthanded goals is more likely to pick up a team than demoralize it, judging from stats collected this year. Teams that had shorthanded goals scored against them, in games during which another goal was scored, went on to score the next goal most of the time (30-21). Only five of those goals came on the same power play in which the shorthanded goal was scored against them.4. Philadelphia Flyers are turning back into the Broad Street Bullies of the 1970s.False. The Dave Brown-Tomas Sandstrom incident has given people that impression. Actually, Philadelphia had 24 fights this season, only two more than the average. They stood tied for eighth out of the 21 teams.5. Scandinavian players rarely fight.True. There had been 475 fighting majors handed out this year&mdash;only two of them to Swedes or Finns. Tommy Albelin of Quebec and Ulf Samuelsson of Hartford each had one.6. College players learn how to play and not fight because it&rsquo;s not allowed.False. Two college players were in the top 10 in fights&mdash;Jay Miller of Boston and Scott Mellanby of Philadelphia. Others with at least four fights were New Jersey&rsquo;s Jim Korn, Montreal&rsquo;s Chris Nilan, and Washington&rsquo;s Paul Cavallini.7. Two per cent of NHLers account for 20 per cent of the fights.True. Five hundred and seventy-two players had played in the league this year through Dec. 6. As noted above, 475 fighting majors were handed out. That means it would take 11.44 players to account for 20 per cent of the majors. That&rsquo;s right on because it took 12 players with a total of 97 majors between them to account for 20 per cent.The problem here is, what does that really mean? If it&rsquo;s to lead us to believe only a few players are doing the fighting, then it&rsquo;s an example of selective statistical reporting because it&rsquo;s not true. In any statistical category there are leaders who will account for a larger percentage of the total. There is no wide gap between the &ldquo;terrible two per cent&rdquo; and the rest of the leaders in the fighting category.Let&rsquo;s look at what else two per cent of the players had done through Nov. 30: They had scored 11.3 per cent of the goals; 18.3 per cent of the power-play goals; and 18.2 percent of the game-winning goals. Well, you get the idea.8. A goal scored late in a period inspires a team.False. In games this year, 68 goals had been scored in the last minute of the first or second periods. If the goals had the effect of lifting teams, it&rsquo;s reasonable to assume they might score another goal in the first five minutes of the following periods. The team that scored the late goal managed to score in the first five minutes of the next period 15 times. The team allowing the late goal also scored 15 times. No goals were scored in the first five minutes 38 times.Similar to the findings of shorthanded goals and blowout games, this suggests that inspiration is a two-way street. A team that has been blown out, given up a shorthanded goal or surrendered a goal late in the period is just as likely to pick itself up and atone for a mistake as make another one.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021019/5379280-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="726" height="1299"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Liut is one of only two NHL goalies never to have played in the minors.</figcaption></div>9. Dave (Tiger) Williams and/or Dave Schultz are the most penalized players (per game) of all time.False. That dubious distinction goes to Chris Nilan of the Canadiens. As of the beginning of this season (of all players with at least 1,500 penalty minutes), Nilan averaged 4.31 minutes per game. Schultz stood second with 4.29 and Williams was next at 4.15. Williams and Schultz were one-two in total career penalty minutes. Nilan was eighth.10. A hefty percentage of players fall prey to the sophomore jinx.True. This is a myth that has been around for a long time and in many sports. Although it doesn&rsquo;t affect everybody, it does affect a lot of players.Each player listed in the NHL Guide this year was checked to see how well he did in his second season. A minimum of 60 games constituted a first season. Standards for a second season varied to account for injuries. If, for instance, a player appeared in 50 games and missed the rest with an injury, he was considered to have played a sophomore season. A player sent to the minors during his second season for more than just a few games (i.e. for injury rehabilitation) was deemed to have had a worse season.Points-per-game averages were used as the basis of comparison. Players who attained the same point totals were ignored. Only forwards were considered unless a defenseman exhibited offensive ability by scoring 40 points in a season during any one year of his career.A total of 302 players fit the specifications, and 125 (41.4 per cent) of them had worse second seasons. One hundred and seventy-seven (58.6 per cent) had better second seasons.Logic rides the fence concerning the sophomore jinx. You&rsquo;d think a player would improve with experience. But the flipside is that the opposition knows him better and is better equipped to slow him down. The top 35 rookie scorers of all time were also checked. Thirteen had better second seasons, 18 had worse, two had the same and Los Angeles&rsquo; high-scoring duo of Luc Robitaille and Jimmy Carson have not yet completed their second seasons. But they are well on the way to big second years.Of the top 10 rookie scorers last year, only Carson, Robitaille and teammate Steve Duchesne were on pace to improve as of Dec. 6. Buffalo&rsquo;s Christian Ruuttu was also playing well but Brian Benning of St. Louis, Detroit&rsquo;s Shawn Burr, Vincent Damphousse of Toronto and Washington&rsquo;s Michal Pivonka were behind last year&rsquo;s pace. Fredrik Olausson of Winnipeg has been injured all season and Vancouver&rsquo;s Jim Sandlak is in the minors.11. Winning on the road is essential to a team&rsquo;s overall success.True. During the past four years, the team with the division&rsquo;s best road record has won the division 13 times out of a possible 16. Twice, teams have finished second and only once has a team finished lower, and that was a fifth-place finish by Minnesota in 1986-87.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011270/5379273-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="726" height="1556"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jimmy Carson started well in &rsquo;87-88 and will likely beat the sophomore jinx.</figcaption></div>12. The small rinks in Buffalo and Boston make it more difficult for visting teams, than in other standard-size rinks.False. A THN story earlier this season analyzing the home advantage factor determined that both Boston and Buffalo had average home records, when measured in relation to road records over an eight-year period. The real advantage came from vocal crowds, with Chicago placing on top and Toronto the bottom.13. Interest in the sport of hockey is waning.False. Interest has never been higher. Attendance records have been set in the NHL in five of the last seven years and this year the league is on a pace to set yet another attendance record.14. The first goal of the game is the most important.False. The first goal is important, but no more important than any other goal. Win-loss records from last year prove that. Teams that scored first had a winning percentage of .634 (486-261-92). Good, but not the best. Here&rsquo;s the winning percentages and records for teams scoring the secord, third and fourth goals: Second, .633 (483-261-92); Third, .666 (508-233-85); and Fourth, .664 (478-221-85).The first-goal myth stems back to the time when scores like 2-1 and 1-0 were commonplace. An average of 7.34 goals a game were scored last year.15. Five-minute overtimes decide most games.False. Most games are still tied after overtime. Out of 148 extra-period games last year, only 55 were decided in overtime. Ninety-three were not.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02893/5379266-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="719" height="1553"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tiger Williams is No. 3 in average penalty minutes per game.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0006-01

IN THIS ISSUE

IT’S THE WAY IT ISN’T

Our next issue marks a proud achievement at THE HOCKEY NEWS&mdash;the 40th anniversary of our publication.Launched in Montreal at the beginning of the 1947-48 season, THE HOCKEY NEWS wasn&rsquo;t given much hope of surviving in the competitive specialty publication market. Forty years later, we&rsquo;re still kicking.Look for special features in the anniversary issue such as players of the decade and all-star teams of each 10-year period THE HOCKEY NEWS has covered. We&rsquo;ll take you through the post-war years, the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; dynasty of the late &rsquo;50s, expansion in the mid-&rsquo;60s, the heart-stopping Canada-Russia series of &rsquo;72 and subsequent international tournaments.Look also for our regular features and a lot more, all in your Jan. 8 edition of THE HOCKEY NEWS. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011337/5379135-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wendel Clark gets lots of fan mail, but he enjoys none more than that sent by &ldquo;little old ladies&rdquo; because &ldquo;they know their hockey.&rdquo; Paul Stewart (inset) was sometimes chained to the bench during his playing career. (Photo by Dan Hamilton)</figcaption></div>New York Islander aide Darcy Regier adds to the lore about ref Paul Stewart when Stewy was a rambunctious player. &ldquo;I was with Indianapolis,&rdquo; recalls Regier, &ldquo;and we were playing against Cincinnati with Stewart making his debut. We had all heard about what a wild man he was and expected to see him on the ice. But he didn&rsquo;t play for the first two periods and now it was down to the last couple of shifts of the game. All of a sudden, he got up and looked over at our bench and I said to myself, &lsquo;Oh, oh, here comes trouble.&rsquo; Just then, Paul yelled at the top of his lungs, &lsquo;Help! Help! They&rsquo;re holding me hostage here!&rsquo; &ldquo;&hellip;Michel Petit denies Vancouver-based charges that the Canucks unloaded him because he wouldn&rsquo;t come to the aid of teammate Dan Woodley in the club&rsquo;s opening home game. &ldquo;I was tied up, covering two guys,&rdquo; says Petit. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t leave two of them alone in front of the net and jump into the comer with play going on. Just because he (Woodley) was a rookie and getting beat and I was the biggest guy on the ice didn&rsquo;t mean I had to jump in. I did my job.&rdquo;<h2>BLAME RESTS AT TOP</h2>While the Nordiques&rsquo; superficial problems may be treated with trades and a coaching change, Quebec insiders insist that the puck stops right at the top where boss Marcel Aubut sits. One Quebec journalist whispers to BLUELINES that ever since Aubut became absorbed with Rendez-Vous &rsquo;87, his interest in the Nordiques has drifted and he seems more concerned with international hockey than his own club. &ldquo;Some Quebec people wish he would pay as much attention to the Nordiques as (Canadien president) Ronald Corey does with his club,&rdquo; says the newspaperman. Another Quebec source whispers that lack of off-ice discipline by a couple of younger players hasn&rsquo;t helped&hellip;The Nordiques&rsquo; gamble with Mario Gosselin&mdash;despite Michel Bergeron&rsquo;s warning that Gosselin couldn&rsquo;t play 40 games&mdash;looks bad, although the goalie disagrees. &ldquo;John Vanbiesbrouck played a lot more games,&rdquo; counters Gosselin, &ldquo;and he&rsquo;s smaller than I am! Bergeron said I wasn&rsquo;t big enough so many times people started to believe it.&rdquo;<h2>HOCKEY BEHIND TIMES</h2>Jack (Cardiac Jack) Blatherwick, assistant coach of the U.S. Olympic team, takes a dim view of the ice game&rsquo;s approach to fitness. &ldquo;In terms of getting players physically ready to play, hockey conditioning lags behind football and is at least 20 years behind track, gymnastics and swimming. The central reason why the Russians are so good today is not that their players are technically better than us, but that they approach the game scientifically. They&rsquo;ve looked closely at the physical demands hockey places on players and decided what has to be done to improve them to meet those demands.&rdquo;&hellip;Flame asst, coach Pierre Page says it&rsquo;s unfair to criticize vet Lanny McDonald. &ldquo;People are judging him on previous years and that&rsquo;s not fair,&rdquo; says Page. &ldquo;Lanny&rsquo;s a leader&mdash;on and off the ice. He&rsquo;s still aggressive for us and if he scores goals, it&rsquo;s a bonus.&rdquo;&hellip;Some Flames hold out hope that injured Jamie Macoun may return before the playoffs are over.<h2>WHALERMANIA GROWING</h2>A barometer of the Whalers&rsquo; growth is use of the club&rsquo;s &ldquo;Fan Phone,&rdquo; a 24-hour-a-day service. Last year it received 40,000 calls. Whalers project more than 50,000 this season&hellip;Hartford&rsquo;s Brent Peterson figures that, despite the Whalers&rsquo; slow start, &ldquo;We have a legitimate chance to challenge for the Stanley Cup.&rdquo; But the Whalers&rsquo; future is, at least, partly dependent on the play of Syl Turgeon, a colossal disappointment through the fall&hellip;Louis Sutter, father of the NHL&rsquo;s Sutter brothers, has never forgiven Flyer GM Bob Clarke for dealing Rich Sutter from Philadelphia to Vancouver, thereby splitting the twin combo of Rich and Ron. &ldquo;I told off Clarke to his face when he traded Richard,&rdquo; says Louis. &ldquo;The twins should still be together.&rdquo;&hellip;The demotion of Los Angeles&rsquo; ballyhooed Czech, Petr Prajsler, to New Haven is attributed to his inability to play a physical game.<h2>PEEVED AT PERRON</h2>John Ogrodnick didn&rsquo;t take kindly to Jean Perron&rsquo;s criticism of his outspoken desire to leave Quebec City, but opts for a &ldquo;no comment&rdquo; rather than another battle&hellip;The Canucks&rsquo; Greg Adams is engaged to Kim Swarbrick whose dad, George, skated for the Oakland Seals in their first expansion year and was the club&rsquo;s third-leading scorer. Target date for the marriage is next summer&hellip;Calgary&rsquo;s Cal Kellett and Randy Andrus have created a video &ldquo;Red Hot,&rdquo; in which the Flames do lip-synching&hellip;Hall-of-Famer Bobby Hull reminisces about son, Brett. &ldquo;When he was a kid, he had better hands than most pros. As soon as he&rsquo;d get inside the blue line, he was deadly.&rdquo;&hellip;Wendel Clark on fan mail: &ldquo;Most of it is positive, so when you get a negative letter, it makes it interesting. The ones I really like are from the little old ladies who have been fans for years and years. They know their hockey.&rdquo; Clark is the subject of a song for the second time. The latest is called, The Ballad of Wendel Clark, and is performed by The Real Statics.<h2>TWO SIDES TO STORY</h2>Flyer veteran play-by-play broadcaster Gene Hart and his sidekick, Bobby Taylor, absorbed considerable critical flak for their handling of the Dave Brown-Tomas Sandstrom affair but Hart is happy to counter-attack, especially against the Rangers&rsquo; Madison Square Garden Network. &ldquo;If you take out the Brown incident,&rdquo; Hart reflects, &ldquo;that was a helluva hockey game. So what does MSG do? It devotes 20 minutes of the next pre-game show to the incident. I wonder if Sandstrom had speared Brown, would (producer) Pete Silverman, Bergeron and Phil Esposito be so upset. Would they have devoted 20 minutes to it? I think not. Perhaps Bergeron has forgotten his Quebec days and those bloodbaths with the Canadiens and Esposito has forgotten his big, bad Bruins with Wayne Cashman.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0003-01

Hockey’s Only Hostage Incident

Ron Hextall selected this week&rsquo;s Dodge-NHL Performer of the WeekCHRYSLER CANADA IS THE EXCLUSIVE SPONSOR OF THE DODGE-NHL PERFORMER OF THE WEEK, MONTH AND YEAR AWARDS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011361/5379166-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="563" height="818"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Hextall</figcaption></div>NEW YORK&mdash;Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; goaltender Ron Hextall, who posted a 3-0-0 record and became the first NHL goaltender to shoot the puck into the opposition&rsquo;s goal, captured the Dodge Performer of the Week Award for the period ending December 14. Hextall, who now has a seven game undefeated streak, edged goaltenders Grant Fuhr of the Edmonton Oilers and Mike Vernon of the Calgary Flames, and Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; center Mario Lemieux to capture the honor.The Dodge and Chrysler Canada divisions of Chrysler Motors will donate $500 to the youth hockey organization of Hextall&rsquo;s choice. The Dodge and Chrysler Canada divisions of Chrysler Motors also sponsor the Performer of the Month and the Performer of the Year Awards, for which the latter receives the Dodge vehicle of his choice.Hextall, a 23-year-old native of Brandon, Manitoba, began his week by backstopping the Flyers to a 5-2 home-ice victory over the Boston Bruins (Dec. 8). In doing so, he also secured a place in NHL history by scoring a goal into an empty Bruins&rsquo; net at the 18:48 mark of the third period. Hextall added two more wins against the New York Rangers (5-3, Dec. 10) and the Winnipeg Jets (4-3, Dec. 13), completing the week with a 2.67 average, and a .908 save percentage. With the addition of these three wins, Hextall extends his unbeaten streak to seven games, compiling a 6-01 record and 2.26 average since November 25. &#9632;

f0004-01

DODGE NHL PERFORMER OF THE WEEK

RON HEXTALL HAD not only announced he was going to score a goal. He was chosen for it.When he picked up Gordie Kluzak&rsquo;s dump-in and whipped it 170 feet into the empty Bruin net, it was done with such alacrity to suggest ease.Certainly Hextall&rsquo;s puck-handling skills are rare, maybe even unprecedented, for a goalie. He had become the logical person to do this and odds were that he would.In fact, when you think about it, what is more amazing than the feat itself is that it had never been done before. Seventy-one years of NHL hockey have produced so many one-goal leads that have emptied so many nets that it only stands to reason that some goalie, somewhere along the way, should have gotten lucky. Certainly there have been a few like Jacques Plante and Eddie Giacomin with the puck-handling skills and elan to take their shot.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really surprising, when you think about it, that nobody has ever done it before,&rdquo; said Hextall. It was also fortunate for those of the 17,345 persons smart enough to hang around after Brian Propp&rsquo;s goal with 2:27 left wrapped up what would be a 5-2 Flyer win. Because what they witnessed Dec. 8 was unique.Ron Hextall took a shot at history and nailed it. From 170 feet he scripted the &lsquo;h,&rsquo; dotted the &lsquo;i,&rsquo; crossed the &lsquo;t&rsquo; and put the puck just inside the &lsquo;y&rsquo; to become the first National Hockey League goalie to ever shoot the puck into an opposition goal.All he needed was a two-goal lead so he could risk the icing, the puck on his forehand, and just a little bit of luck. Propp&rsquo;s goal presented the margin for error and at 18:11 Bruin coach Terry O&rsquo;Reilly gave Hextall the opportunity by pulling goalie Reggie Lemelin.And then Boston defenseman Gordie Kluzak delivered the goods.The first of two Bruin dump-ins within 20 seconds bounced right in on the goalie. Those who had been on the Hextall goal watch since his first NHL game 14 months ago could see the gleam in his eye even through his mask. He decided against it.&ldquo;They were too close,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t have time. I just had to get it out of our zone.&rdquo;Hextall banked the puck off the glass back out to center, where Ray Bourque retrieved and fed cross ice to Kluzak, who was on the red line when he flipped it in. Hextall jumped out of the crease to the bottom rim of the circle to his left and laid the shaft of his stick flush against the ice to block the puck.The closest Bruin, Lyndon Byers, was still 15 feet away. The crowd was already up, realizing exactly what Hextall was going to try to do when he climbed up off his one knee, stood, and wristed the puck on its way.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011242/5379197-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="356" height="464"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jay Greenberg</figcaption></div>It lifted about 20 feet in the air straight up the middle of the ice with enough force to send it on the fly to within a foot of the Boston blue line. Bourque, the closest Bruin, was near the boards and had no way to cut it off.The only question now was whether the puck would stay on goal. &ldquo;The way I shoot it, the spin I put on it, the puck always curls off to the right,&rdquo; said Hextall. &ldquo;This one did, too, quite a bit at the end. It may have even hit the post.&rdquo;Nope, it went in cleanly. Unassisted by anything but fate. That puck slammed across the line and just inside the right post like it couldn&rsquo;t wait to get to the Hall of Fame.The shriek that accompanied it turned into an explosion. Hextall leaped into the air. As Derrick Smith, left wing and archivist, pulled the puck out of the goal for history&rsquo;s safekeeping, Hextall&rsquo;s teammates rushed onto the ice to mob him.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mean to sound cocky, but I knew I could do it,&rdquo; Hextall said. &ldquo;It was just a matter of when. I always said I would try it if we had a two-goal lead.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not the biggest thrill of my career, but it is pretty great. It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ll have when I finish hockey. And I may even get a few more.&rdquo;The Hockey Hall of Fame called the next day, asking for the puck and stick, which had been immediately hustled out of the game for safekeeping. The other Hextall stick in the Hall may not be there too much longer because it&rsquo;s still stuck in Kent Nilsson&rsquo;s leg and he&rsquo;s getting tired of standing in a glass case so visitors can see it.&ldquo;Very funny,&rdquo; said Hextall, who was reserving his decision on whether to loan the momentos out for display.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t seem real yet,&rdquo; Hextall said later, after the first rush had worn off. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard enough to believe. I mean, I scored a goal. I mean, it just doesn&rsquo;t happen every day.&rdquo;Just once every 71 years. Every 23,725 regular-season games.&ldquo;He shot it,&rdquo; said Mark Laforest, Hextall&rsquo;s very excited backup. &ldquo;I mean this isn&rsquo;t like Billy Smith&rsquo;s goal. Wow. He actually shot the thing.&rdquo;Damn if Ron Hextall didn&rsquo;t. &#9632;

f0005-01

Hextall’s Goal Was History In The Making

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03640/5379228-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Flyers gave Ron Hextall a new car after he goal. He earned a reputation last year (above) for became the first NHL goalie to net a legitimate his shooting ability.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02915/5379235-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="179" height="135"></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;When Ron Hextall made NHL history with his shoot-and-score effort Dec.8, he unwittingly obscured a more important feat accomplished by his Philadelphia Flyer teammates.Despite Hextall&rsquo;s one large step for goaliekind, bigger footsteps were taken by the team as a whole. The Flyers went unbeaten in eight games (6-0-2) to stomp back into the picture for the Patrick Division crown.&ldquo;We were a long way back in the Patrick Division,&rdquo; said Flyers&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan. &ldquo;And what we have to do now is continue to keep our goals tuned into a short-term focus.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s a step-by-step approach. Victories over the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers at the Spectrum, a tie in Detroit&mdash;where back-up goalie Mark Laforest played a strong game&mdash;and victory in Winnipeg, were all importent to the Flyers.&ldquo;The 4-3 win at Winnipeg was especially notable as a couple of rookie defensemen, Kerry Huffman and Greg Smyth, helped the climb toward the top. In a matter of two games three youngsters had come forward to lead the team; the Flyers, it appeared, were back to their old ways of equally sharing the burden of the regular-season grind.Defenseman Brad Marsh was absent for both of those games, recovering from a concussion he suffered when he smashed his head on the ice during the 5-2 victory over Boston. It was during the first period of that &ldquo;Hextall&rdquo; game, that Marsh was checked into the edge of the glass near the Boston bench.He was knocked out by the blow and, in the ensuing fall, his bare head bounced on to the ice. He was taken from the Spectrum on a stretcher into a waiting ambulance. There was much apprehension the injury was severe.Marsh, one of about a dozen NHL players who do not wear helmets, suffered a concussion and required several stitches, but there was no major injury. But the Flyers&rsquo; medical staff indicated he might be forced to wear a helmet on his return.With Marsh already out, the Flyers got more bad news. Before the game in Winnipeg, it was learned Kjell Samuellson could not play due to a bruised shoulder. But even with those two out of the lineup, the Flyers were compensated by strong performances from their rookie rearguards. Huffman scored his first NHL goal and Smyth chipped in with two assists.And as if to prove just how much things have turned around, the Flyers won the game on Murray Craven&rsquo;s goal with his team two men short late in the third period.For more than a month, it looked as if the Flyers could do nothing right, and now, it looks as if they can do no wrong.With the victory, the Flyers again leaped over the Washington Capitals and tied Pittsburgh for third place in the division. Just a short while ago, they were handcuffed with the lowly Rangers in the Patrick Division basement.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t even start thinking about first place yet,&rdquo; said Keenan. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve just got to keep the attention on these small steps.To that end, the Flyers revamped their 10-game bonus plan to five-game plans. Every player on the team is awarded bonus money if the club picks up six points during a five-game segment.And although the Flyers might not be shouting about first place, the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils aren&rsquo;t turning a deaf ear.NOTES&mdash;The Flyers gave Ron Hextall a 1988 Mercury Cougar for scoring his goal&hellip;Even disregarding right winger Tim Kerr, who has been out all season with a damaged left shoulder, the Flyers have played only one game with a full complement of players. Kerr is now serving behind the bench as assistant coach.<h2>FLYERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 7: Craig Berube, LW, recalled from Hershey (AHL).Dec. 9: Brian Dobbin, RW, recalled from Hershey.Dec. 11: Greg Smyth, D, activated from injury list.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dave Poulin, Ron Sutter, Peter Zezel, Pelle Eklund.LW&mdash;Brian Propp, Murray Craven, Derrick Smith, Lindsay Carson, Nick Fotiu.RW&mdash;Rick Tocchet, Scott Mellanby, Dave Brown, Brian Dobbin.LD&mdash;Mark Howe, Kerry Huffman, Greg Smyth.RD&mdash;Doug Crossman, Kjell Samuelsson, Bill Root, J.J. Daigneault.G&mdash;Ron Hextall, Mark Laforest.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Craig Berube, LW, bruised left eye area, day-to-day.Brad Marsh, D, concussion, Dec. 15.Ilkka Sinisalo, RW, back spasms, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0005-03

Confident Flyers Stride Back, Step By Step

I CAN&rsquo;T HELP but come to the conclusion that Minnesota North Star general manager Lou Nanne is going to be a doctor for insomniacs when he leaves the game.Hundreds, maybe thousands of transients have pulled on the green and gold, marching to the beat of mediocrity. Yes, as I follow the melodic pulse of players sleep walking on skates, I pull my cozy comforter up to my neck (yawn) each game in my season-ticket seat, and thank Louie for my improved health.My doctor says I must be getting plenty of sleep. He&rsquo;s never seen me more rested. I told him I am a North Star fan and season-ticket holder. He said that explained why I wouldn&rsquo;t have to refill my tranquilizer prescription. I told him I haven&rsquo;t taken any since hockey season started.Yes, old William Shakespeare had it right when he wrote &lsquo;To sleep, perchance to dream.&rsquo; Maybe he was dreaming of NHL hockey returning to Minnesota.Pat Melich, Minneapolis, Minn.<h2>REDUCE NUMBERS</h2>Hockey fans and players seem to agree that the professional game would be improved by increasing the size of North American ice surfaces. While conceding the improbability of owners sacrificing the high-priced seats such a change would require, they overlook another option.Today&rsquo;s larger, faster players could be accommodated, and the effectiveness of clutch-and-grab defenses reduced by decreasing the number of players on the ice from six to five, including the goaltenders. You&rsquo;d have four-on-four hockey.The reduction would put added emphasis on skills, especially skating. It would also eliminate less-skilled players and actually reduce payroll expenses, though legitimate resistance would probably come from the NHL Players&rsquo; Association. Any other resistance would only come from a fear of change.Al Deagle, Surrey, B.C.<h2>ESPN OFF BASE</h2>Our only access to NHL hockey here in Hamilton, N.Y. is brought to us by ESPN, or occasional New York Ranger home games on WWOR-TV.So I was pleased to read (THN, Oct. 23) that ESPN was supposedly going to pick their games on short notice to ensure carrying the best possible match-ups.So what games have viewers been presented with? Other than one between the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals, it seems ESPN has deliberately shown the most boring match-ups possible. On Wed., Nov. 25, the network showed Chicago at Los Angeles, starting at 11 p.m., on the same night Montreal was at Hartford, Boston at Buffalo, Buffalo at Philadelphia and New Jersey at Edmonton. What became of the best possible match-ups?It&rsquo;s quite obvious this is ESPN&rsquo;s first step out of the hockey market. Or should I say the second step&mdash;the first being the brilliant decision not to televise the Canada Cup.If ESPN drops hockey, it will undoubtedly justify doing so because of ratings. Hockey fans around here who have cable watch ESPN&rsquo;s hockey telecasts religiously. We won&rsquo;t have anywhere to go for hockey if the network pulls out. The injustice of a great sport being constantly short-changed and discriminated against by the networks makes my blood boil.If ESPN drops hockey, its credibility as the so-called total sports network will be seriously undermined, and it will lose subscribers&mdash;starting with yours truly.Richard Fenner, Hamilton, N. Y.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;

Stars Can Cure Insomnia Says Ticket-Holding Fan

IN SIMPLER TIMES, the job of a National Hockey League scout was, well, simpler.He would arrive at the arena, go downstairs, get his coffee, doughnut and lineup, underline the players eligible to be drafted and then watch.Like just about everything else in this world, though, scouting hockey players has become a much more complex endeavor. The scout still grabs the coffee and doughnut, but merely underlining draft-eligible names no longer suffices.It&rsquo;s hard enough that new eligibility rules mean only certain players are available at certain points of the draft. But now, the scouts have to keep tabs on players who have already been drafted by other teams.You see, these days you just never know when a drafted player suddenly becomes draft-eligible again.It&rsquo;s a transition that Toronto player agent Rick Curran is watching closely because he has a number of clients who might be in a position to cross over&mdash;and, he hopes, take advatange of a system that usually favors the club.&ldquo;Look at a kid who was taken in middle or late rounds of the 1986 entry draft,&rdquo; says Curran. &ldquo;A year later, by June 1 of 1987, one of four things happened to that kid. One, the team cut him loose and he re-entered the &rsquo;87 draft. Two, he accepted a contract offer from the team that drafted him. Three, he took the team&rsquo;s contract offer to arbitration. Or four, he rejected the offer but accepted the fact that the team owns his rights until June 1 of 1988.&rdquo;The last is the most common practice. It not only gives the team another year before having to make a firm commitment, but it allows the player to improve his bargaining position by having a good season.But just as important, and unusually so, the player can put himself in the position of calling the shots.&ldquo;The bottom line now,&rdquo; says Curran, &ldquo;is that the team has to sign that player by June I, 1988. If the team doesn&rsquo;t, then the player can make himself eligible for the 1988 entry draft.&ldquo;I represent a lot of kids who were middle- or late-round selections in the &rsquo;86 draft. They didn&rsquo;t sign last year, they had good pro training camps and now they&rsquo;re having very good seasons in junior. It&rsquo;s going to be interesting from the point of view that if we&rsquo;re having trouble negotiating a contract with the team, there exists the possibility that it would be in the player&rsquo;s best interest to re-enter the draft.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021113/5379373-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="385" height="441"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob McKenzie</figcaption></div>It&rsquo;s called an alternative and rarely do you find a situation where the player has the option of exercising it. The drafting-and-contract-negotiating process for junior players and their NHL teams isn&rsquo;t exactly a one-way street. But it&rsquo;s damn close.Of course, no player would risk re-entering the draft if he weren&rsquo;t reasonably sure it would be to his advantage.&ldquo;That would have to be looked at,&rdquo; says Curran. &ldquo;Take a guy like Glen Featherstone (drafted 73rd overall in &rsquo;86 by St. Louis). He&rsquo;s having a helluva year for a Memorial Cup-contending team (Windsor Spitfires). If we couldn&rsquo;t come to an agreement with St. Louis, we would have to decide if he&rsquo;s progressed enough in the last two seasons to now be considered a first- or second-round pick. Maybe his stock would be higher this year because he&rsquo;s a big, strong defenseman (6-foot-4, 210 pounds) in a draft year that doesn&rsquo;t have a lot of them.&rdquo;Should more players re-enter the draft&mdash;a few, including Buffalo&rsquo;s Joe Reekie, have in the past&mdash;it&rsquo;s incumbent upon NHL teams to be prepared.The Washington Capitals, for one, are.&ldquo;We grade and rate all players in all (NHL) teams&rsquo; systems,&rdquo; says Capital director of player personnel Jack Button. &ldquo;We rate or project each player as to what kind of NHL or minor pro player he would be. We revise our ratings a couple of times a year so if someone were to suddenly become available, we would have information on them.&rdquo;In 1987, then, scouts must digest more than coffee and doughnuts. Curran and his clients, meanwhile, have food for thought. &#9632;

f0008-02

NHL Draft Picks Digest Some Food For Thought

<div class="byline">BY KARLO BERKOVICH Editorial Staff</div>No clear-cut leader has emerged, but Darrin Shannon, Mike Modano and Francois Leroux are NHL Central Scouting&rsquo;s top-rated 1988 draft-eligible junior skaters.Shannon, a left winger with the Ontario League&rsquo;s Windsor Spitfires; Modano, a center with the Western League&rsquo;s Prince Albert Raiders; and Leroux, a defenseman with the Quebec League&rsquo;s St-Jean Castors topped their leagues in the confidential listing dated Nov. 20.Shannon, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound 18-year-old, suffered a dislocated elbow Nov. 21 in a game against Toronto and is sidelined until January. He scored 20 goals and 26 assists in 22 games before being injured.The 17-year-old Modano spreads 170 pounds over a 6-foot-l frame. He had 23 goals and 30 assists in 30 games. Leroux, a 6-foot-5, 211-pound 17-year-old, earned three goals, five assists and 106 penalty minutes in 32 games.The top-rated goaltenders in each league are Pat Tenpenny of the OHL&rsquo;s Toronto Marlboros (5.40 goals-against average, 4-5-1 record), Dusty Immo of the WHL&rsquo;s New Westminster Bruins (4.34, 6-1-1) and Stephane Fiset of the QMJHL&rsquo;s Victoriaville Tigres (3.83, one shutout, 4-10-1).Here&rsquo;s a look at the remaining top five from each of the junior leagues. Individual stats (games-goals-assists-points-height-weight) and goals-against averages are included in parentheses.Finishing off the OHL&rsquo;s top five are, in order, Sault Ste. Marie center/left winger Troy Mallette (32-7-17-24, 62, 195), Hamilton left winger Wayne Doucet (25-10-4-14, 6-2, 203), Kingston left winger Scott Pearson (21-10-12-22, 6-1, 195) and Toronto left winger Chris Govedaris (25-1621-37, 6-0, 190).Rounding out the top five WHL prospects are Medicine Hat center Trevor Linden (31-21-32-53, 6-2, 175), Lethbridge defenseman Rob Krauss (31-4-13-17, 6-3, 210), Saskatoon defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn (30-1014-24, 6-0, 180) and Victoria right winger Joel Savage (30-15-15-30, 60, 200).Completing the QMJHL&rsquo;s top five are Hull left winger Martin Gelinas (35-32-39-71, 5-10, 183), Drummondville right winger Daniel Dore (27-15-14-29, 6-3, 206), Trois-Rivieres defenseman Eric Charron (31-3-10-13, 6-3, 206) and Drummondville defenseman Serge Angle-hart (26-0-6-6, 6-2, 180).Among junior goaltenders, other top prospects include Danny Lorenz (5.51) of Seattle and Jeff Ferguson (4.51) of Lethbridge in the WHL; Windsor&rsquo;s Peter Ing (3.51) and Todd Bojcun (2.97, two shutouts) of Peterborough in the OHL; and Eric Metivier (5.76) of Shawinigan and Stephane Beauregard (3.63) of St-Jean in the QMJHL.Top-rated players outside major junior hockey include center Jeremy Roenick of Thayer Academy (Mass.), Notre Dame Hound (Sask.) center Rod Brind&rsquo; Amour, defenseman Ted Crowley of Lawrence Academy (Mass.), center David Roberts of Avon Old Farms (Conn.) and Joe Cleary, a Stratford Culliton (Ont.) defenseman.The Nov. 20 rating is the first of four issued by Central Scouting to the NHL&rsquo;s 21 teams. Others are released in January, March and before the draft in June.This year&rsquo;s draft is set for June 11 in Montreal but the date could change, due to a conflict with the Montreal Grand Prix auto race which is scheduled for June 12.<h2>PLAYER ARRESTED</h2>Junior hockey continues to be plagued by violence.In the latest incident, John Andersen of the Ontario League&rsquo;s Oshawa Generals was charged with unlawfully causing bodily harm after a fan was hit in the face with a stick Dec. 12 at the Cornwall Civic Complex.With 1:27 left in the second period, a stick was thrown into the crowd by an Oshawa player. Bob Blanchard, a season-ticket holder for 10 years, had four teeth knocked out and needed eight stitches to close a cut on his face.Andersen, a second-year business student at University of Toronto, was assessed a game misconduct. He was arrested immediately following the game by Cornwall police.No league suspension had been announced.Already this year, the OHL and Western League have handed out several lengthy suspensions&mdash;including a two-year ban on Sudbury&rsquo;s Marc Laforge&mdash;over acts of violence.<h2>BITS AND PIECES</h2>Referee Kerry Fraser is hoping to return to his NHL duties by early January. He has been suffering from hepatitis since the summer, but recent blood tests indicated his liver profile was almost normal. Fraser, 35, has been supervising referee trainees in the International League since Dec. 5&hellip;Minnesota North Star right winger Dino Ciccarelli was scheduled to appear in municipal court Dec. 16 to face charges of indecent exposure resulting from a Nov. 25 arrest at his Eden Prairie, Minn., home. Ciccarelli faces a $700 fine or 90 days in jail if found guilty&hellip;A cryptic report in the Moscow News in mid-December said Soviet sports officials were preparing a list of available players for NHL service. No further details were provided.Iserlohn, a West German first division team, was banned from wearing uniforms advertising Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi&rsquo;s Green Book, which outlines his political philosophy of socialism and radicalism. The team, which faced bankruptcy, was promised $900,000 for wearing the uniforms&hellip;Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team went 3-2-2 in a seven-game Canadian swing with one of two Soviet Selects teams touring North America. Canada brought a 21-12-10 season record into the Izvestia tournament in Moscow Dec. 16-22&hellip;The U.S. Olympians were 24-13-4 after routing another Soviet touring team 13-2 Dec. 13 at Uniondale, N.Y. Team USA led the eight-game series 2-1. Edmonton Oilers remain favorites to win the Stanley Cup, according to the December line issued by Harrah&rsquo;s Race and Sports Book in Reno, Nev. Odds on the Oilers winning their fourth title in five years are listed at 2-1. The trade of defenseman Paul Coffey to Pittsburgh had no effect on the Oilers&rsquo; season-opening odds. The Penguins improved from 50-1 to 30-1 on Nov. 24, the date of the big Edmonton-Pittsburgh deal. Other December odds, with season-opening odds listed second, are: Montreal (3-1, 5-1), Philadelphia (4-1, 52), Calgary (6-1, 5-1), Hartford (7-1, 7-1), Islanders (8-1, 15-1), Winnipeg (8-1, 15-1), Boston (10-1, 25-1), Detroit (12-1, 12-1), Washington (12-1, 16-1), Quebec (20-1, 30-1), St. Louis (25-1,20-1), New Jersey (25-1,75-1), Rangers (25-1, 25-1), Minnesota (401,60-1), Toronto (40-1,35-1), Chicago (40-1, 50-1), Buffalo (50-1,45-1), Los Angeles (60-1, 50-1) and Vancouver (100-1, 100-1). A Harrah&rsquo;s spokesperson said new odds would not be released until just before the playoffs.<h2>OVERHEARD</h2>&ldquo;When I went for a crap it was a major-league poop.&rdquo;&mdash;Former Boston Bruin goalie Dave Reece, the victim of ex-Toronto Maple Leaf Darryl Sittler&rsquo;s record-setting 10-point night Feb. 7, 1976. &#9632;

Shannon, Modano, Leroux Top-Rated

1. Darrin Shannon, LW, Windsor. 2. Troy Mallette, LW/C, Sault Ste. Marie. 3. Wayne Doucet, LW, Hamilton. 4. Scott Pearson, LW, Kingston. 5. Chris Govedaris, LW, Toronto. 6. Paul Holden, D, London. 7. Mark Major, LW, North Bay. 8. Robert Zamuner, C, Guelph. 9. Ted Miskolczi, RW, London. 10. Rob Cimetta, RW, Toronto. 11. Cory Keenan, D, Kitchener 12. Corey Foster, D, Peterborough 13. Shawn McCosh, C, Hamilton. 14. Bill Armstrong, D, Toronto. 15. Tim Taylor, C, London. 16. Derek Booth, D, Cornwall. 17. Sloan Torti, LW/C, North Bay. 18. Todd Mondor, D, Cornwall. 19. Jason York, D, Hamilton. 20. Chad Badawey, RW, Sudbury. 21. Mike Short, D, Oshawa.Goaltenders: 1. Pat Tenpenny, Toronto. 2. Peter Ing, Windsor. 3. Todd Bojcun, Peterborough. 4. Michael Parson, Guelph. 5. Ted Mielczarek, Sudbury.<h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>1. Mike Modano, C, Prince Albert. 2. Trevor Linden, C, Medicine Hat. 3. Rob Krauss, D, Lethbridge. 4. Curtis Leschyshyn, D, Saskatoon. 5. Joel Savage, RW, Victoria. 6. Kevin Cheveldayoff, D, Brandon. 7. Greg Leahy, C, Lethbridge. 8. Sean Lebrun, LW, New Westminster. 9. Kevin Knopp, D, Seattle. 10. Trevor Sim, C, Seattle. 11. Jason Ruff, LW, Lethbridge. 12. Jason Smart, LW, Prince Albert 13. Jim Mathieson, D, Regina. 14. Colin Gregor, RW, Portland. 15. Jim McKenzie, LW, Moose Jaw. 16. Ken Dochuk, C, Seattle. 17. Clarke Polglase, D, Swift Current. 18. Milan Dragicevic, D, Regina. 19. Mike Aivazoff, C, Victoria. 20. Tracy Egeland, LW, Swift Current. 21. Collin Bauer, D, Saskatoon.Goaltenders: 1. Dusty Imoo, New Westminster. 2. Danny Lorenz, Seattle. 3. Jeff Ferguson, Lethbridge. 4. Rod Houk, Regina. 5. John Colvin, Medicine Hat.<h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>1. Francois Leroux, D, St-Jean. 2. Martin Gelinas, LW, Hull. 3. Daniel Dore, RW, Drummondville.4. Eric Charron, D, Trois-Rivieres. 5. Serge Anglehart, D, Drummondville. 6. Patrick Cloutier, RW, St-Jean. 7. Daniel Gauthier, C, Victoriaville. 8. Claude Boivin, LW, Drummondville. 9. Neil Carnes, C, Verdun. 10. Steven Paiement, C, Victoriaville. 11. Patrick Lebeau, LW, Shawinigan. 12. Guy Dupuis, D, Hull. 13. Pascal Dufault, D, Trois-Rivieres. 14. Martin St-Amour, LW, Verdun. 15. Patrick Hebert, D, Shawinigan. 16. Reginald Savage, C, Victoriaville. 17. Claude Barthe, D, Verdun. 18. Eric Dubois, D, Laval. 19. Carl Mantha, D, Laval. 20. Christian Bertrand, LW, Laval. 21. George Wilcox, C, Hull.Goaltenders: 1. Stephane Fiset, Victoriaville. 2. Eric Metivier, Shawinigan. 3. Stephane Beauregard, St-Jean. 4. Dominic Roussel, Trois-Rivieres. 5. Jason Glickman, Hull.<h2>SOME OF THE BEST OF THE REST</h2>(Listed alphabetically): Rob Brind&rsquo;Amour, C, Notre Dame (Sask); Joe Cleary, D, Stratford (Ont.); Ted Crowley, D, Lawrence (Mass.) Academy; Dean Dyer, C, Lake Superior; Denny Felsner, LW, Detroit Falcons; Dan Fowler, D, Maine; Steve Heinze, C, Lawrence Academy; Joe Juneau, C, RPI; Justin Lafayette, LW, Ferris State; Jason Muzzatti, G, Michigan State; David Roberts, C, Avon Old Farms (Conn.); Jeremy Roenick, C, Thayer (Mass.) Academy; Russell Romaniuk, LW, St. Boniface (Man.); Alain Roy, G, Choate (Conn.) Prep; Matt Ruchty, LW, Bowling Green; Stephane Venne, D, Vermont. &#9632;

CENTRAL SCOUTING’S TOP PROSPECTS ONTARIO LEAGUE

TIME AND PLACE are two elements athletes can&rsquo;t control. No matter how hard an athlete may prepare for the future, he can&rsquo;t pick his teammates or his team.For some athletes who seem to be forever attached to losing outfits, this can be a maddening experience. The good ones will blame themselves, in part, for the losing, but in the back of their minds and in the bottom of their hearts, they can be excused for wondering, why me, dear Lord, why me?The Mike Ramseys of the world might best understand.So, when the unforgiving gods of sport cut an athlete a huge break by placing him on the best team of his generation with the best player of his generation, what&rsquo;s the last thing that the athlete should do?Leave.Right.Let the record show, Paul Coffey left. I suspect that the player and the Edmonton Oilers will be forever sorry.Look at it this way.If you had the good fortune to land Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra, all at the same time, all on the same team, what would you do, trade Berra?If you had Denis Potvin, Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier, all at the same time, all on the same team, what would you do, trade Trottier?If you had Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Coffey, all at the same time, all on the same team, what would you do, trade Coffey?That&rsquo;s what the Oilers did. All right, Coffey forced the deal. He felt that he was underpaid in Edmonton, and said so. Coffey will not be underpaid in Pittsburgh.But is money the sole reason that athletes push themselves to the limit, day after day, year after year? Wait a minute. Don&rsquo;t answer that. Some children might be standing nearby.In a perfect world, Coffey would join forces with Mario Lemieux and lead the Penguins to the Stanley Cup finals, in which they would defeat the Oilers. But let&rsquo;s be honest. Which way would you bet?In all likelihood, Coffey will help to make the Pens a respectable outfit and pocket lots and lots of American loot. Only after his career has ended will he rue the day he left Edmonton.Those who tinker with time and place after time and place have been good to them will pay in the end.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011397/5379452-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="420" height="475"><figcaption class="caption-body">Randy Smith</figcaption></div>The Michel Bergeron case is different. After seven seasons in Quebec, a record for coaches that figures to stand for a very long time in the do-it-now-or-else world of the hockey-crazed &ldquo;village,&rdquo; Bergeron was shipped to the New York Rangers for a No. 1 draft choice, of all things.Listen, if it were me, I&rsquo;d trade my coach for a No. 1 draft pick every day until somebody stopped me. In two weeks, I&rsquo;d have compiled 14 or 15 first-round selections, and then I would hire Don Blackburn, who is selling insurance in Hartford, to be my coach.With the arrival of Coffey in the Patrick Division, the Rangers&rsquo; chances of making the playoffs, dim to begin with, have grown considerably dimmer. In all probability, Quebec will draft in the top five in June, thanks to the Bergeron deal.It may well be remembered as the best trade ever made: A high draft pick for a coach who was likely going to be fired, anyway.Bergeron is a very good hockey coach. His record proves that. But Le Colisee is light years away from 4 Pennsylvania Plaza.Bergeron&rsquo;s personality and flat-out passion for both his job and the game, which fit so perfectly in Quebec, may not fit as well in New York. With Phil Esposito calling the shots, there is no right-thinking coach who envies Bergeron&rsquo;s predicament.The point is, Bergeron belonged in Quebec. It was a match made, if not in heaven, then in heaven&rsquo;s crease.And Coffey belonged in Edmonton, with the best team and the best player.Time and place dealt Bergeron and Coffey the perfect hands. Then, for whatever reasons, they got redeals.Man learned long ago that he should never tinker with the elements. More hockey people should have been paying closer attention. &#9632;

f0010-01

Some Things Meant To Be: Don’t Change Them

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03696/5379483-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="582" height="752"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Devils have hopes Patrick Sundstrom will help them into the playoffs.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021069/5379490-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="179" height="133"></div>EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J&mdash;When Patrik Sundstrom returned to Vancouver for the first time since his Sept. 10 trade to New Jersey, he was greeted with jeers. Not a very warm welcome home for the Canucks&rsquo; fifth all-time leading scorer.The 25-year-old Swede was never fully appreciated in Vancouver. Some thought he came to play only half the time and stories circulated that he wanted out of the city long before his trade east for Greg Adams and goalie Kirk McLean.Sundstrom claims he never asked to be traded, but admits the move to New Jersey has been for the best. While he has not done much scoring (he went 16 straight games without a goal and had only five goals in 29 games), this much is certain: Sundstrom is not only playing well for the second-place Devils, but he is one of the biggest reasons for the team&rsquo;s dramatic improvement this season.&ldquo;Maybe he&rsquo;s not scoring goals but I see a guy who&rsquo;s got 20 points in 29 games, playing in every key situation including penalty-killing,&rdquo; said coach Doug Carpenter. &ldquo;There are certain expectations that he&rsquo;s going to be a 50-goal scorer. That&rsquo;s not the case. If he continues his pace he&rsquo;s going to have a 75-point year, which is pretty good in the NHL.&ldquo;Sunny deserves a tremendous amount of the credit for our success. There are a lot of intangibles involved but he&rsquo;s a player with great defensive instincts and offensive skills. He&rsquo;s a playmaker and his addition has helped our young people become adept at the defensive part of the game. We felt offense was already one of our strengths but you can&rsquo;t lead the league with 368 goals-against and expect to make the playoffs.&rdquo;Adams is showing clearly what he can do. Sundstrom is much more subtle.&ldquo;People don&rsquo;t realize how good he really is. He&rsquo;s not a guy who jumps out at you,&rdquo; said Devils&rsquo; associate coach Ron Smith, who first saw Sundstrom when the two were in Vancouver. &ldquo;The ice he covers both shorthanded and even strength is such a big factor. If there&rsquo;s a better defensive center in the league, a better two-way player, I don&rsquo;t know who he is.&rdquo;The score sheet, of course, doesn&rsquo;t show Sundstrom&rsquo;s value and there are more exciting players on the team. Since he is his own worst press agent, is it any wonder he has been so overlooked in the past?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really care about that,&rdquo; Sundstrom said. &ldquo;Recognition wouldn&rsquo;t change me. You know yourself how you&rsquo;re doing. If you have a couple of bad games you know about it and if you have a couple of good games you know about it. I don&rsquo;t care about the media thing. If I work hard and play my best my teammates and opposing players know.&rdquo;The Devils traded big numbers in Adams. What they hope to get from Sundstrom is a trip to the playoffs.&ldquo;No question in my mind we got what we were looking for,&rdquo; said general manager Lou Lamoriello. &ldquo;In my estimation he&rsquo;s one of the top players in the league with overall abilities. You can get a player who might be a better offensive center and a player who might be a better defensive center, but there are not many more with a better combination than Patrik has given us.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been used in all situations and he&rsquo;s responded. The biggest characteristic I like about him after all his abilities is his unselfishness. The fellow scoring more goals gets more recognition because that&rsquo;s the obvious. But that went into our decision.&rdquo;Lamoriello relied heavily on Smith&rsquo;s input for the trade.&ldquo;I was pretty confident Patrik would do the kind of job that needed to be done, but to be honest he&rsquo;s done it better than I hoped for. He&rsquo;s 20 per cent better than I hoped he&rsquo;d be,&rdquo; said Smith.&ldquo;There are two things I didn&rsquo;t see in Vancouver. The first is he seems to be enjoying the physical play which is in our division. It wasn&rsquo;t there in Vancouver. The other is he&rsquo;s a pro. I saw him two years in Vancouver and he was still learning. I also know Patrik was not happy in Vancouver. He was underachieving the last few years.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;The Devils wasted back-to-back chances to move past the New York Islanders into first place, prompting Mark Johnson to say: &ldquo;You talk about being in first place and I want to be there as much as anyone. But most importantly we have to be consistent. What good is it if we go into first place and then lose four in a row and drop into third? When we get there, I want to stay there.&rdquo;&hellip;John MacLean, who had no goals (two assists) in 14 games and one goal in 20, tossed out nearly a dozen sticks to start anew&hellip;Devils&rsquo; power play is 3-for-40&hellip;Brendan Shanahan went 14 games without a goal. He had one in 29 this season&hellip;Pat Verbeek, who had 17 goals in his first 22 games, had not scored a goal in eight straight.<h2>DEVILS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Kirk Muller, Claude Loiselle, Patrik Sundstrom, Mark Johnson.LW&mdash;Aaron Broten, Perry Anderson, Jim Korn, Andy Brickley, Anders Carlsson.RW&mdash;Pat Verbeek, John MacLean, Brendan Shanahan, Doug Brown.LD&mdash;Ken Daneyko, Bruce Driver, Tom Kurvers.RD&mdash;Craig Wolanin, Joe Cirella, Randy Velischek, Jack O&rsquo;Callahan.G&mdash;Alain Chevrier, Bob Sauve.<h3>INJURIES</h3>George McPhee, LW, re-aggravated groin pull, day-to-day.Doug Sulliman, LW, bruised left shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0010-03

This Trade Gives Devils A ‘Sunny’ Disposition

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011273/5379521-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="180" height="137"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;It wasn&rsquo;t the kind of encouragement that would help them today, or even tomorrow, but it was encouragement nonetheless.New York Ranger general manager Phil Esposito and coach Michel Bergeron were in need of a boost&mdash;and they got one on Dec. 13 when five members of the U.S. Olympic team sparkled in a 13-2 exhibition victory over a Soviet select team.Center Tony Granato and right winger Kevin Miller, both Ranger draft choices (Granato, 120th overall in &rsquo;82; Miller, 202nd overall in &rsquo;84), scored three goals apiece in the surprising rout at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.In addition, U.S. Olympic defenseman Brian Leetch (ninth overall in &rsquo;86) flashed his exceptional puckhandling skills, defenseman Peter Laviolette (a Ranger free-agent signee) played a strong defensive game and center Corey Millen (57th overall in &rsquo;82) chipped in with a goal and an assist.&ldquo;They were very impressive,&rdquo; said Esposito, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;d like to have them all playing for me right now. I could use them.&ldquo;But I can&rsquo;t really say too much or do too much about them because they have a job to do that I don&rsquo;t want to distract from or interfere with. They&rsquo;re going after a gold medal and, until the Olympics are over, we shouldn&rsquo;t even be thinking about them.&rdquo;That said, Esposito could not resist expressing one more thought.&ldquo;I really like the way they are playing,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t seen too many Soviet teams dominated that way. It was super.&rdquo;The Rangers, meanwhile, cannot seem to find a level other than last place in the Patrick Division, and that&rsquo;s an address Bergeron doesn&rsquo;t like.In recent weeks, Bergeron has displayed precious few smiles, because of his team&rsquo;s continuing tendency to lose close games. In their first 13 one-goal decisions, the Rangers came away with only a pair of victories (2-11).Bergeron continued to question the Rangers&rsquo; depth and determination following a 5-3 loss at Phiadelphia on Dec. 10.&ldquo;It is tough to win, especially on the road,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;when a couple guys don&rsquo;t play too well. A couple guys have a problem with back-to-back games.&rdquo;On the same subject, Bergeron pointed out that it was not fair to ask 36-year-oId Marcel Dionne to play more than 20 minutes per game in back-to-back contests.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re having to ask too much, especially at this (early) stage of the season,&rdquo; Bergeron said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to talk to Peter (Mahovlich, coach of the Rangers&rsquo; International League farm team in Denver) to see if some other people are ready. But I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;Even after his talk with Mahovlich, which came before a 4-3 loss at Toronto, the Rangers did not call up anyone from Colorado. There was, however, some hope that injured right winger Tomas Sandstrom might be ready to return within days.&ldquo;We need Tomas in our lineup very much,&rdquo; Bergeron said. &ldquo;All those one-goal games&mdash;he could have been the difference for us in a lot of them.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Rookie center Steve Nemeth scored his first NHL goal at Toronto in a shorthanded situation. Michel Bergeron was using him more and more in critical situations&hellip;U.S. Olympic team goalie Mike Richter, who did not play Dec. 13 at Nassau Coliseum, said he hopes to sign with the Rangers following the Olympics-&hellip;&rdquo;We can&rsquo;t play any better than that,&rdquo; Bergeron said after a 2-2 tie with Montreal at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 10&hellip;Left winger Brian Mullen continued to be the Rangers&rsquo; most consistent offensive threat&hellip;Pierre Larouche was released from hospital on Dec. 12 and traction made his back feel better enough for him to start talking about starting some light skating in the near future.<h2>RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 7: Gordie Walker, RW, assignee to Denver (IHL&gt;.Dec. 8: Dave Pichette, D, assigned tc New Haven (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Marcel Dionne, Kelly Kisio, Ron Duguay, Ulf Dahlen, Steve Nemeth.LW&mdash;Walt Poddubny, John Ogrodnick, Jan Erixon, Don Maloney, Jeff Brubaker.RW&mdash;Lucien DeBlois, Brian Mullen, Mike Donnelly.LD&mdash;Jari Gronstrand, Ron Greschner, Mark Tinordi.RD&mdash;James Patrick, David Shaw, Michel Petit.G&mdash;John Vanbiesbrouck, Bob Froese, Ron Scott.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Pierre Larouche, C, pinched nerve, lower back, indefinite.Jim Pavese, D, abdominal strain, indefinite.Tomas Sandstrom, RW, acute back spasms, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0011-01

Future Looks Bright, But Present Is Problem

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021143/5379583-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="175" height="135"></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;When Norm Schmidt stepped onto the ice early in the Penguins&rsquo; 27th game of the season, there were no discernable murmurs from the 14,380 witnesses on hand at the Civic Arena.Not much he did during the game elicited appreciable attention, either&mdash;perhaps the most lofty praise possible for a guy returning to the lineup for the first time after major back surgery.&ldquo;After you&rsquo;ve been off a while, it&rsquo;s hard to get back and play to your capabilities,&rdquo; Schmidt said.Schmidt got precious little time to shake the rust from his game, however. He had been back for only two games when the Penguins lost defensemen Paul Coffey (bruised knee) and Ville Siren (broken foot).They joined defenseman Doug Bodger, who already was sidelined by a bruised knee.Two nights after Schmidt made his debut in a 5-2 victory over Calgary&mdash;a game that ended the Flames&rsquo; nine-game unbeaten streak (7-0-2)&mdash;he furnished statistical evidence that his comeback is progressing nicely.He had two assists in a 6-4 victory over the New York Islanders and, the next night, got his first goal of the season in a 5-2 loss in St. Louis.By then, Schmidt was beginning to shoot in his customary manner, with vapor trails following the puck.It was that shot which enabled Schmidt to score 15 goals&mdash;one shy of the team record for defensemen, held by Randy Carlyle&mdash;two seasons ago and which prompted Penguin coach Pierre Creamer to put Schmidt on the power play the night he returned to the lineup.The Penguins converted on four of six power-play chances in that game against the Islanders.As gratifying as it was to be thrust into such a prominent role, Schmidt was satisfied simply to have survived his protracted rehabiliation.His back problem was rooted in an injury sustained against the Islanders about two years ago&mdash;&ldquo;I got hit in front of the net and fell into the post&rdquo;&mdash;but he did not have surgery until after the 1986-87 season, even though pain had been bothering him for several months.&ldquo;I just kind of let it slip by, because we were in the playoff drive and I really couldn&rsquo;t afford to be out of the lineup,&rdquo; Schmidt said.He agreed to an operation after discussions with Dr. Chuck Stone, an orthopedic surgeon.&ldquo;He recommended I either have it done or not play again,&rdquo; Schmidt said. &ldquo;I really didn&rsquo;t have too much choice in the matter, because the vertebrae in question could have slipped more than they already had.&ldquo;If that were to happen, I probably would have been looking at a wheelchair.&rdquo;Instead, he was staring at an operation and several months of rest, followed by rigorous rehabilitation.&ldquo;I spent the better part of a week in the hospital, then I just couldn&rsquo;t stand it anymore,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I asked to be moved out of the hospital and I had a hospital bed brought to my house.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t allowed to do anything for the better part of three months. Basically, all I did was sit at home and watch TV.&rdquo;Light workouts began in late summer, and Schmidt progressed to more strenous exertion near the end of training camp.Throughout the ordeal, he adhered zealously to his assigned program.&ldquo;There were some things I really didn&rsquo;t want to do,&rdquo; Schmidt said, &ldquo;but I did them anyway. I just tried to bear the pain.&rdquo;He bore it, and now he apparently has beaten it. Schmidt&rsquo;s play in the first three games back betrayed little evidence of enduring problems.NOTES&mdash;The Penguins were 5-1-1 in their seven games with Paul Coffey, who had one goal and 12 assists during that time&hellip;Because of the lengthy list of injuries to their defense, the Penguins were expected to recall defenseman Phil Bourque from Muskegon. Left winger Scott Gruhl was another strong candidate for promotion&hellip;The Penguins, 6-5-3 in their first 14 games against Patrick Division opponents, were about to enter a stretch of five straight divisional games.<h2>PENGUINS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mario Lemieux, Dan Quinn, Dave McLIwain, Rob Brown.LW&mdash;Randy Cunneyworth, Dave Hunter, Charlie Simmer, Wayne Van Dorp, Mark Kachowski.RW&mdash;Jock Callander, Troy Loney, Dwight Mathiasen, Chris Kontos.LD&mdash;Jim Johnson, Norm Schmidt, Chris Dahlquist.RD&mdash;Rod Buskas, Dave Goertz, Randy Hillier.G&mdash;Gilles Meloche, Pat Riggin.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Doug Bodger, D, sprained knee, indefinite.Paul Coffey, D, bruised knee, day-to-day.Bob Errey, LW, broken wrist, indefinite.Dan Frawley, RW, knee surgery, indefinite.Jimmy Mann, RW, elbow surgery, indefinite.Ville Siren, D, broken foot, indefinite. &#9632;

f0012-02

Schmidt Makes His Return None Too Soon

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011293/5379614-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="176" height="136"></div>UNIONDALE, N.Y.&mdash;Oh. was Brent Sutter mad.It was early in the second period of the New York Islanders&rsquo; 5-3 win over the New Jersey Devils at Nassau Coliseum Dec. 12. Sutter had won a loose puck in New Jersey&rsquo;s zone, but then jumped defenseman Tom Kurvers, who rarely fights.Sutter threw a few punches that didn&rsquo;t appear to land, landed on top of Kurvers when the two toppled to the ice and skated directly to the penalty box. A few minutes later, however, he exited the penalty box for the dressing room, his right thumb throbbing.Sutter was finished for the night. He spent the next day at home, his swelled digit either drowned in ice or attached to an electronic device that stimulates healing.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Our biggest motivating factor was a three-game skid. We don&rsquo;t need that&hellip;&rsquo;&mdash;Hrudey</blockquote>Trainer Craig Smith called it a bruise and said it was unlikely the thumb was broken. Since X-rays were not scheduled. Sutter said he did not expect to miss a game.But he wasn&rsquo;t happy.&ldquo;I got a slash on it,&rdquo; he said, ending speculation that the thumb might have been injured by punching a helmet and facial visor. &ldquo;I was playing the puck at the time. I really don&rsquo;t know how it happened. It happened so fast.&rdquo;Sutter was playing aggressively before he went after Kurvers. The team&rsquo;s captain was hitting and forechecking ferociously, something no Islander did the night before in Pittsburgh, when the Penguins whipped them 6-4 in a game that was not nearly as close as the score.The Islanders started the week with a 3-2 loss at home to Montreal, a wonderful game decided when Claude Lemieux&rsquo;s wrist shot whistled over Kelly Hrudey&rsquo;s right shoulder at 6:34 of the third period.The listless loss in Pittsburgh left the Islanders with their first two-game losing streak this season. It also snapped goalie Billy Smith&rsquo;s 12-0-2 unbeaten streak at Civic Arena that dated to April 4, 1982.Devils-Isles on Dec. 12 was for first place, since New Jersey trailed New York by one point. But as winning goalie Kelly Hrudey said: &ldquo;Our biggest motivating factor was a three-game skid. We don&rsquo;t need that now. We need to put a winning streak together.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Billy Smith made news when he revealed that he began training privately in late November with Richie Barathy, the Long Island physical fitness expert who trained the New York Jets&rsquo; Mark Gastineau and then wrote a book with Gastineau entitled, The Body You Want. Barathy preaches the rapport between the mind and the musculature. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve wanted to go for him for years,&rdquo; said the goalie, who turned 37 on Dec. 12. &ldquo;I remembered how much he helped Gastineau.&rdquo;&hellip;Denis Potvin earned his 1,021st career point against the Devils. That tied him with New York Ranger great Rod Gilbert for 20th place on the all-time list. Henri Richard is 19th with 1,046&hellip;Islanders are 34-1-3 lifetime at home vs. Devils-Colorado Rockies-K. C. Scouts. They&rsquo;ve won last 10 from Devils&hellip;Derek King didn&rsquo;t know how he suffered a sprained left wrist in Pittsburgh. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t feel it until we were on the plane coming home,&rdquo; he said. Results of the X-rays were pending. It was speculated that he might have suffered a hairline fracture.<h2>ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bryan Trottier, Pat LaFontaine, Bob Bassen.LW&mdash;Greg Gilbert, Randy Wood, Rich Kromm Brad Lauer.RW&mdash;Mikko Makela, Alan Kerr, Brad Dalgarno, Patrick Flatley.LD&mdash;Steve Konroyd, Ken Leiter, Denis Potvin, Brian Curran.RD&mdash;Gord Dineen, Tomas Jonsson, Gerald Diduck, Ken Morrow.G&mdash;Kelly Hrudey, Billy Smith.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Derek King, LW, sprained left wrist, indefinite.Brent Sutter, C, bruised right thumb, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0013-01

Isles Beat Devils To Avoid Three-Game Skid

<div class="byline">BY AL STRACHAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011348/5379645-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Canadian defenseman Zarley Zalapski will have some NHL players as teammates by the time the Olympics roll around in February. (Photo By Dan Hamilton)</figcaption></div>WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.&mdash;The NHL has cleared the way for some of its secondary players to play in the &rsquo;88 Winter Games in Calgary.Benefiting most will be the Canadian Olympic team, but the American squad can also draw from the league&rsquo;s resources.The board of governors facilitated the temporary transfer of players to the Olympic teams by permitting them to join the Canadian or American teams without first clearing waivers.Ordinarily, veteran NHL players sent to non-league teams must be made available on the waiver wire before assignment.That standard procedure was lifted by the governors during their three-day semi-annual meetings here, Dec. 6-8.The Canadian Olympic team will have the opportunity to pick players ranked 10th to 20th on the seven Canadian-based NHL teams. Dave King, coach of Canada&rsquo;s team, has said there are as many as three openings on his team. It&rsquo;s believed that number could be expanded to five or six.The American team is all but set, and team officials have long said they have no intention of staging a late pre-Olympic airlift of players. But injuries could lead to the U.S. squad picking up one or two players. Any player(s) for the U.S. team would come from the 14 American-based teams.NHL vice-president Jim Gregory and Calgary Flame president and general manager Cliff Fletcher will work together to draw up a list of potentially-helpful players on Canadian teams.The list will be submitted to Ziegler and. if he approves it, those players will be deemed to have been waived through the league. The Olympic team can have only players who consent and who have their team&rsquo;s approval.In another major development, spurred by the defection of Pat Quinn from Los Angeles to Vancouver last year, the governors passed a tough new slate of by-law amendments which permit fines of up to $500,000 in tampering cases.The change was brought about following a Supreme Court of British Columbia decision, which is now under appeal. The court allowed NHL president John Ziegler to apply just a single $10,000 league fine&mdash;for acts considered &ldquo;dishonorable, prejudicial to or against the welfare of the league or the game of hockey&rdquo;&mdash;and not 31 such fines, against the Canucks.Ziegler assessed fines of $310,000 against the Canucks, or $10,000 for each of the 31 days the league was not aware Quinn had signed a contract (and accepted a signing bonus) last December with Vancouver while still acting as coach of the Kings.Ziegler could have levied a $25,000 fine under another by-law section dealing with tampering. It is that section which now provides for the $500,000 fine.Another provision inspired by the Quinn case was also passed at the three-day meetings. Notices of employment must now be filed with the league for all coaches, assistant coaches, general managers, assistant general managers and head scouts.No club can try to lure one of those employees away from another club without first informing both the club and the league that it is doing so.Maximum league fines were also raised substantially for drug abuse (from $10,000 to $100,000) and other dishonorable conduct (also from $10,000 to $100,000).Large fines appear to be working as a deterrent in the league. Last summer, the NHL legislated fines up to $100,000 and suspensions of up to 10 games for bench-clearing brawls. There have been no bench-clearers this season.The governors also moved to come down hard on teams whose players are suspended for deliberately attempting to injure opponents. The offender&rsquo;s team will be fined an amount equal to half the player&rsquo;s salary for the period of the suspension&mdash;if it&rsquo;s a first offence. If it&rsquo;s a second, or subsequent, offence, the fine matches 100 per cent of the player&rsquo;s salary for the period.Ziegler said although there is no specific fine in place for a club which reimburses a suspended player for lost salary, &ldquo;they have been told that if I ever get any hard evidence (that the club reimbursed a fine) they will be fined a substantial amount.&rdquo;Ziegler produced statistics to support the league&rsquo;s move toward stronger deterrents.&ldquo;In the last 10 years, any player who has received a suspension of 10 games or more has not been a repeat offender,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;From our standpoint, the deterrent, as it relates to an individual, has worked.&ldquo;If you go down to eight games&mdash;and that increases the number of suspensions significantly&mdash;there has only been one repeat offender (Detroit Red Wing goaltender Greg Stefan).&ldquo;In the last 10 years, relative to stick fouls, we&rsquo;ve had approximately 70 suspensions. That&rsquo;s in about 9,000 or 10,000 games.&ldquo;From 1977-78 to 1979-80, the average length of a suspension in supplementary discipline was three games. From 1980-81 to 1982-83 inclusive, it was four games, up one third. From 1983-84 to the present, the average is 5.5 games.&rdquo;When they weren&rsquo;t working on their image, the governors were involved with a number of other matters of varying importance.They changed the rules relating to the waiver draft, allowing teams to protect 20 players&mdash;two of whom must be goalies&mdash;rather than 19. Also, a rule that prevented teams from grabbing players from divisional opponents has been modified to apply in only the first two rounds. Non-playoff teams may draft exclusively only in the first two rounds; after that, it&rsquo;s wide open.And the league has disallowed teams from claiming players in the waiver draft, then offering them on loan to other teams without resubmitting them to the waiver process.In other developments:&bull; The governors approved the sale of less than 49 per cent of the Edmonton Oilers, in a public offering.&bull; Ziegler reported on his recent trip to the Soviet Union and the proposals for increased NHL-Soviet interaction. No action was taken, but the matter will be discussed at a future meeting.&bull; Also deferred&mdash;to a special meeting on Jan. 19&mdash;was a $l-million tampering claim against the Canucks by the Kings. That&rsquo;s another skirmish in the Quinn war.&bull; There was no discussion of expansion. because the various television packages are in the process of being renegotiated. ESPN&rsquo;s U.S. contract expires at the end of this season, as does Molson Breweries&rsquo; Canadian deal.The Members&rsquo; Agreement, which determines the split of TV revenues among the teams, expires in 1989. Ziegler said it would be &ldquo;suicide&rdquo; to consider bringing in new teams without knowing what TV money is forthcoming.&bull; The league also announced that the 1988-89 season, its 72nd, will begin Oct. 6 and conclude Apr. 2. &#9632;

f0014-01

NHL Governors Agree To Waive Waiver Regulations

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011261/5379676-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">With 10 extra-man goals in 29 games, Mike Ridley has been the top gunner on Washington&rsquo;s potent power play.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02905/5379683-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="182" height="139"></div>LANDOVER, Md.&mdash;As early as the first week of training camp, the Washington Capitals made power-play improvement a high priority.And the man-advantage unit is one of the few things that has worked according to plan for a team stumbling along a step below .500.When Mike Gartner produced the game-winning goal in a 2-1 triumph over Chicago, it marked the 11th game in a row the Capitals had produced a power-play goal, establishing a team record.Except for a technicality, Washington would have recorded at least two power-play goals in 10 straight games. They had one in a 5-4 loss to Calgary and another came exactly two minutes after the start of a penalty, which is considered an equal-strength goal by the NHL.After 29 games, the Capitals had rolled up 43 power-play goals in 171 opportunities. Although that placed Washington only fifth in the league at 25.1 per cent, it projected to 119 goals over the full season.The NHL record of 99 is shared by the 1981-82 Pittsburgh Penguins and 1985-86 Quebec Nordiques. In this season dedicated to rulebook enforcement, that mark seems likely to be wiped out not only by Washington, but by several other clubs.Nevertheless, for a team accustomed to hearing the boos of Capital Centre fans every time a power play goes awry, the high rate of production is most welcome.&ldquo;The way we play and the way they&rsquo;re calling the games, we get a lot of power plays,&rdquo; said Gartner, who had collected eight of his 17 when the Caps had a man advantage. We&rsquo;re working hard on the power play and we&rsquo;re finally making other teams pay for their mistakes.&rdquo;The Capitals&rsquo; success has come from the availability of two strong units up front&mdash;one centered around Gartner and the other featuring Mike Ridley, who led the team with 10 power-play goals. Another plus has been the emergence of Kevin Hatcher as a fourth point man to supplement Scott Stevens, Larry Murphy and Garry Galley.Coach Bryan Murray, delighted to be asked a question about a positive situation after constant interrogation on negatives, said, &ldquo;The big thing is that we have a veteran-enough hockey team, in an area where confidence is such a big factor. We know now that we may have trouble on one part of a power play, but one of the two units will get some good chances.&ldquo;Kevin is playing well at the point, so we are able to go with four there, and we have guys going to the net. We have spent more time on it this year. Power plays are made up of talented people and if you stick to the same guys and give them time in practice to work together, you ought to have some success.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Despite the defensive shortage generated by Rod Langway&rsquo;s extended absence, the Capitals dealt defenseman Paul Cavallini to St. Louis for a draft pick&hellip;Langway left the hospital and was recuperating from his ruptured disc at home. Attempting to skate Dec. 13, he said he felt &ldquo;lousy.&rdquo;&hellip;Dave Christian recorded his third career hat trick, and first as a Capital, in a 5-4 loss to Calgary&hellip;Pete Peeters, making his first appearance in two weeks, stopped 26 shots to beat Chicago and lower his goals-against mark to 2.52.<h2>CAPITALS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 7: David Jensen, LW, recalled from Binghamton (AHL).Dec. 10: Alain Raymond, G, assigned to Fort Wayne (IHL).Dec. 11: Paul Cavallini, D, traded to St. Louis for choice of Montreal&rsquo;s second-round pick in 1988 entry draft (property of St. Louis through earlier deal) or St. Louis&rsquo; second-round pick in 1989.Dec. 12: David Jensen, LW, assigned to Fort Wayne.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bengt Gustafsson, Mike Ridley, Bob Gould, Michal Pivonka.LW&mdash;Kelly Miller, Peter Sundstrom, Greg Adams, Lou Franceschetti.RW&mdash;Mike Gartner, Dave Christian, Craig Laughlin, Ed Kastelic.LD&mdash;Scott Stevens, Greg Smith, Bill Houlder.RD&mdash;Kevin Hatcher, Larry Murphy, Garry Galley.G&mdash;Clint Malarchuk, Pete Peeters.<h3>INJURIES</h3>John Barrett, D, fractured left kneecap, indefinite.Dale Hunter, C, severely bruised buttock, day-to-day.Rod Langway, D, ruptured disc in back, indefinite. &#9632;

f0015-01

Cap Power Play On Pace To Break Record

DAVID POILE DIDN&rsquo;T want to talk about it when he picked up the phone in the summer of 1982.&ldquo;Did you hear?&rdquo; he was asked.&ldquo;Yeah,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just heard it on the radio. The thing that hurts is, they didn&rsquo;t even bother to call.&rdquo;&ldquo;They&rdquo; happened to be Detroit Red Wings, and &ldquo;they&rdquo; had chosen Jimmy Devellano to be their next general manager.It was the second time in two seasons Poile was turned down for a job. Earlier, the Colorado Rockies, in a move typical of that franchise, hired Billy MacMillan ahead of him.That one really hurt. MacMillan had no previous managerial experience. Poile was an original Flame, his managerial moves dating back to day one in Atlanta.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know about this business,&rdquo; whispered at the time. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know about my future.&rdquo;He did know that he didn&rsquo;t want to spend his career carrying Cliff Fletcher&rsquo;s bags in Calgary. He wanted to make a move up&mdash;or a move out of hockey.Poile got lucky. He made the move up.Finally, someone took Fletcher&rsquo;s advice and hired Poile to run their team. By then, Washington Capitals were desperate.And only a desperate man would have accepted the job under the conditions. His mandate was simple: Get this team in the playoffs or get another job. Under the gun, Poile proved to be stronger than anyone expected. Within two weeks on the job, he engineered the franchise-saving trade that brought Rod Langway to Washington.In the five years that followed, Washington averaged 98 points a season&mdash;an average figure higher than most NHL teams attain in a single season.Along the way, in a quiet, tight-lipped, efficient manner, Poile has done all the right things.He&rsquo;s shown the patience of his previous boss while sticking with coach Bryan Murray.He&rsquo;s made trades for quality players such as Larry Murphy and Dave Christian without losing anything substantial in exchange.He needed a goaltender, so he went out and acquired Clint Malarchuk. He needed help in the leadership department, so in the same trade he wound up with feisty Dale Hunter.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011140/5379714-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="358" height="453"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Simmons</figcaption></div>Of the current Capitals, almost half have been obtained in trades.In the same six-year period, no general manager has been as successful at the trade table. No GM has turned a club around so quickly.And no GM has been as frustrated as David Poile.For as smart as he&rsquo;s been in the regular season, the team has done poorly once the real season begins. It has been the Atlanta story all over again for Poile.There, he learned how meaningless the best regular seasons are. There, it became cause for celebration when a single playoff victory was recorded.Only a change in venue changed the Flames&rsquo; playoff fortunes.Poile doesn&rsquo;t have that option with the Capitals. They aren&rsquo;t moving anywhere, other than down in the Patrick Division standings.Which should not necessarily be something to fret about. Right now, things don&rsquo;t look great for the Caps. Langway is hurting, the club is struggling, the promise again seems more spoken than actual.But none of those 100-point seasons got the Capitals anything. Maybe this year, after all the moves, all the expectations, Poile&rsquo;s club has finally figured it out.Maybe a lousy regular season&mdash;the kind Washington is now experiencing&mdash;is just the thing to lead to a strong playoff.In this year&rsquo;s Patrick Division, where the Devils are bound to dip, Islanders playing over their helmets and Flyers going nowhere, this could be the year the Capitals don&rsquo;t disappoint.David Poile deserves success.No general manager in hockey has done more to build his club, nor been as frustrated by misfortune when the pages on the calendar are turned to April. &#9632;

f0016-01

Capitals’ Success May Be In Playoffs This Time

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03703/5379745-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center Alan Haworth, above, says the discipline and confidence instilled by new coach Ron Lapointe will pay dividends.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02911/5379752-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="177" height="135"></div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;Ron Lapointe&rsquo;s first week as head coach of the Quebec Nordiques went well, producing a 2-11 record and&mdash;more importantly&mdash;a happy team ready to play hockey once again.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t set any specific goals yet, except in demanding lots of intensity,&rdquo; said Lapointe, who replaced the fired Andre Savard. &ldquo;And the guys are responding very well. We have a pretty good hockey team here, and we&rsquo;re starting to prove it.&rdquo;The players feel rejuvenated by the coaching change.&ldquo;Ron Lapointe has given this hockey team a new life,&rdquo; said left winger Jeff Jackson. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really refreshing and reassuring to see him behind the bench. It&rsquo;s good for a player to feel that the coaches behind the bench are full of confidence.&rdquo;Normand Rochefort, who recently complained about being ignored, has been playing up to Canada Cup standards.&ldquo;You have to give the credit to Ron,&rdquo; said Rochefort. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s given us all so much confidence. The minute he stepped on the ice for his first practice session with us, we could feel his presence. The man is a real leader.&rdquo;Rochefort said the team feels better prepared under its new coach.&ldquo;Ron knows the teams we are going to play against, he knows their system. He&rsquo;s always ready for a game and he puts an awful lot of emphasis on our readiness.&ldquo;When we step into the dressing room for our morning workout on the day of a game, the game plan is ready and we can prepare ourselves accordingly. And that is so important.&rdquo;Lapointe preaches confidence and teamwork, and the Nordiques listen.&ldquo;In Ron&rsquo;s book, everyone is on the same level on the team,&rdquo; Rochefort said. &ldquo;Nobody has a special standing. The guys who sit in the stands are as important as the ones who play 30 minutes a game.&ldquo;He even takes time himself to skate with the extras. Communication is a big part of his strategy. He likes to see everyone on the team happy. And when a team is happy, anything is possible.&rdquo;Lapointe acknowledged that open lines of communication are important to his style of coaching.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t had time yet to speak to everyone individually,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;ll find the time soon enough. I want everyone to know what his job is on our team. And I want everyone to have one. Everyone has to feel he&rsquo;s part of our team. Everyone has a role and I want them to know it.&rdquo;Center Alan Haworth said he feels the team will prosper under Lapointe.&ldquo;For the past week, it&rsquo;s a different team that you&rsquo;ve seen on the ice,&rdquo; said Haworth, one of two former Washington Capitals acquired in the Dale Hunter trade. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s more discipline, but more importantly, there&rsquo;s more confidence. That&rsquo;s what makes the big difference.&ldquo;The defensemen know what to expect from the forwards and the forwards know what to expect from the defensemen. We look a lot more like a team.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;One of Ron Lapointe&rsquo;s first moves was to separate left winger Michel Goulet and center Alan Haworth as linemates. &ldquo;Alan and Michel have similar styles,&rdquo; said Lapointe. &ldquo;In my book, they aren&rsquo;t compatible.&rdquo;&hellip;Lapointe then said what the Nords really need is a center for Goulet. The all-star left winger was playing with Peter and Anton Stastny, but Lapointe would like to see him on a different unit. Jason Lafreniere could be brought up from Fredericton to fill the gap&hellip;Mike Hough, unhappy at being demoted to Fredericton, has requested a tryout with the Canadian Olympic Team&mdash;&ldquo;if they want me.&rdquo;<h2>NORDIQUES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 8: Mike Hough, LW, assigned to Fredericton (AHL); Ken Quinney, RW, recalled from Fredericton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Peter Stastny, Alan Haworth, Paul Gillis, Jeff Jackson.LW&mdash;Michel Goulet, Gaetan Duchesne, Mike Eagles, Gord Donnelly.RW&mdash;Anton Stastny, Ken Quinney, Alain Cote, Lane Lambert, Stu Kulak.LD&mdash;Normand Rochefort, Steven Finn, Terry Carkner.RD&mdash;Robert Picard, Randy Moller, Jeff Brown, Tommy Albelin.G&mdash;Mario Gosselin, Mario Brunetta.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Stephane Guerard, D, injured left knee, indefinite. &#9632;

f0016-03

Lapointe Breathes New Life Into Nordiques

Donny Siclari won&rsquo;t have to worry if his hockey skills don&rsquo;t take him to the pros.The nine-year-old from Hamden, Conn., has his sights set on a career in medicine, specifically surgery. He&rsquo;s already read two college-level textbooks on anatomy and physiology, and has set up a medical-chemistry lab in his basement.He&rsquo;s also an avid computer buff who enjoys flying airplanes in simulation, in anticipation of the day he receives his pilot&rsquo;s license. Donny also plays the clarinet and enjoys other sports like Tae-Kwon-Do, lacrosse and baseball.And yes, the 4-foot-4, 60-pound Grade 4 student at St. Rita&rsquo;s School also plays hockey. Jim Riccio and Paul Perrotti, his coaches on the Yale Youth Hockey Association Mite &lsquo;A&rsquo; travel team, have him playing both defense and left wing.His favorite NHL team is the Hartford Whalers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04531/5379783-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="564" height="1172"><figcaption class="caption-body">DONNY SICLARI</figcaption></div>You or someone you know can be part of the TITAN-JOFA Minor Hockey Showcase. Just send a photograph, along with biographical information (age, height, weight, team, coach&rsquo;s name, school and grade, as well as favorite NHL team and player) to: TITAN-JOFA SHOWCASE, C/O THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. All entries submitted will be eligible for selection as THN/TITAN-JOFA Minor Hockey Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0016-04

PLAYER OF WEEK

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01998/5379814-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="178" height="138"></div>BOSTON&mdash;Keith Crowder has again started to shoulder his share of the scoring burden for the Boston Bruins.That&rsquo;s appropriate, because it was his right shoulder that kept him from doing so last season, when his goal production fell off by about a third&mdash;from 38 goals in 1985-86 to 22 in &rsquo;86-87.&ldquo;It feels fine,&rdquo; Crowder reported, after he scored his second career hat trick in a 7-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Dec. 5.After his usual slow start, he had run his goal-scoring total to 10 in the Bruins&rsquo; first 31 games.&ldquo;The shoulder is good; it&rsquo;s 100 per cent,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m lacking some range of motion. I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;ll ever get that back, but I know it&rsquo;s not going to pop out again.&rdquo;Crowder&rsquo;s problems started Oct. 26, 1986, during a game in Calgary.&ldquo;First, I separated my left shoulder,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Then a real problem developed in my right shoulder. It was a combination of an injury I had a few years back and the fact that it was starting to come out if its socket.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a full separation.&ldquo;When it comes out partially like that,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;the muscles relax and you have no strength. Sometimes my arm would go completely numb.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t have the strength to hold people off or pin people in a corner, so I could use my feet to move the puck. I didn&rsquo;t have the strength to make a good pass or shoot off my backhand.&ldquo;You have to play with injuries in hockey, but I had to wonder if I was really helping the club, if I was doing the job I was supposed to do.&rdquo;Crowder underwent two surgical procedures last May&mdash;one to reset the clavicle and eliminate a calcium formation, the other to stretch a shoulder muscle to his chest to keep the joint from popping out again.&ldquo;There was no way I could have played without the surgery,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It would have been a pretty dismal season having to deal with pain and weakness all over again.&ldquo;It was a painful operation. I couldn&rsquo;t even move my arm. My elbow was down to my side and stayed there for about six weeks before I could do almost anything. I couldn&rsquo;t even write a check, that&rsquo;s how sore it was.&rdquo;There were still three months of intensive rehabilitation, five days a week with Bruins&rsquo; trainer Jim Narrigan and therapist Don Worden, before he was ready to face the bumps and grind of training camp.Still, he wasn&rsquo;t sure until the preseason opener with Washington, when he got a goal and an assist and played a full game pain-free for the first time in 11 months.Now, with old linemate Ken Linseman at center and Geoff Courtnall on left wing, Crowder is ready to meet the two goals he&rsquo;s set for himself:&ldquo;I want to stay healthy; I don&rsquo;t want to play another season hurt.&ldquo;And I&rsquo;m going to score 30 goals. There&rsquo;s no reason why I shouldn&rsquo;t as long as I stay healthy. I&rsquo;ve been a 30-goal scorer before.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;When the Bruins beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 on Dec. 10, the first four goals were scored by players from Massachusetts&mdash;Bob Sweeney of Concord and Billy O&rsquo;Dwyer of South Boston for the Bruins, and Bob Carpenter of Peabody and Paul Fenton of Springfield for the Kings&hellip;Boston Garden has probably seen its last bare-headed Bruin. The lone holdout, Willi Plett, finally donned the headgear on seeing old teammate (at Atlanta) Brad Marsh carried off the ice on a stretcher after suffering a severe concussion when he was checked into the boards by Cam Neely during a Bruin-Flyer game. &ldquo;He could have died,&rdquo; said Plett. &ldquo;As soon as I saw him laying there unconscious, I said to myself, &lsquo;Willi, you should put a helmet on &lsquo;&ldquo;&hellip;Geoff Courtnall has been playing&mdash;and scoring six goals in six games&mdash;with a protective splint over his fractured left thumb&hellip;Coach Terry O&rsquo;Reilly&rsquo;s reaction to Flyer goalie Ron Hextail&rsquo;s goal, scored against the Bruins: &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t be surprised if he did it again. After all, he&rsquo;s in a scoring race with Bill Smith now.&rdquo; The Islanders&rsquo; Smith is the only other NHL goalie to be credited with a goal.<h2>BRUINS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ken Linseman, Steve Kasper, Bob Sweeney, Billy O&rsquo;Dwyer.LW&mdash;Rick Middleton, Geoff Courtnall, Randy Burridge, Jay Miller, John Carter.RW&mdash;Cam Neely, Keith Crowder, Willi Plett, Lyndon Byers.LD&mdash;Gord Klutak, Glen Wesley, Allen Pedersen, John Blum.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque, Reed Larson, Michael Thelven, Frank Simonetti.G&mdash;Reggie Lemelin, Doug Keans.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tommy Lehmann, C sprained right knee, Dec. 26.Nevin Markwart, RW, left shoulder separation, Feb. 27Tom McCarthy, C sprained right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

f0017-01

Crowder Ready For Another 30-Goal Year

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011039/5379845-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="179" height="130"></div>HARTFORD&mdash;For 26 games, the Hartford Whalers dragged Doug Jarvis around like a pet on a family vacation.To watch the NHL&rsquo;s ironman endure such treatment, no matter what your allegiance might be, was not a pretty sight.Finally, the team and the player made a long-overdue adjustment.Jarvis, 32, was assigned to Binghamton, the Whalers&rsquo; AHL affiliate, as a player-assistant coach under Larry Pleau.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been talking about this for the last 10 days or two weeks,&rdquo; Jarvis said. &ldquo;Mr. (Emile) Francis thought it would be a good opportunity for me, and I agreed.&rdquo;This does not mean that Jarvis, who logged an NHL-record 964 consecutive games over a 12-year period, will never play another NHL game, but it does signal the end of an era.&ldquo;I think this is a positive step,&rdquo; said Jarvis, who wants to become an NHL coach someday. &ldquo;I can continue to play, which is something I love to do, and it gets me involved in the coaching aspect. I&rsquo;ve only heard tremendous things about Larry Pleau.&rdquo;Jarvis was beaten out of a job by Brent Peterson, who was acquired by the Whalers from Vancouver in the waiver draft. After playing the first two games this year, Jarvis was scratched in the next 26. Unclaimed in the waiver draft and unused by the Whalers, there was really nowhere else for Jarvis to go.&ldquo;We feel that Doug has an excellent future as a coach, and that he will be able to develop those skills by working with Larry Pleau,&rdquo; Whaler general-manager-president Emile Francis said. &ldquo;Not playing hasn&rsquo;t been easy on him, but he has handled it with class. You&rsquo;ll be hearing Doug&rsquo;s name a lot in coaching circles for years to come.&rdquo;Francis said that Jarvis, who signed a one-year-plus-option contract during the summer, will take no pay cut. They will discuss Jarvis&rsquo; future again after this season, Francis said.&ldquo;I have total respect for what Doug has done since he&rsquo;s been here,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;If we run into problems down the road, he&rsquo;ll be there for us.&rdquo;Jarvis&rsquo; career began in Montreal. After seven seasons with the Canadiens that included four Stanley Cup championships, Jarvis was traded to Washington in 1982. There he won the Selke Trophy for being the league&rsquo;s top defensive forward. In December, 1985, Jarvis was dealt to the Whalers for Jorgen Pettersson. Last year he won the Masterston Trophy for &ldquo;perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication&rdquo; to hockey.Pleau, for his part, sounded pleased about the arrival of his new first mate.&ldquo;I talked to Doug twice about coming here,&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to working with him.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Tiger Williams, who is zeroing in on 4,000 penalty minutes, has expressed interest in coaching someday. &ldquo;Life&rsquo;s a challenge,&rdquo; Williams said. &ldquo;Some people can&rsquo;t meet the challenge. I would take a job if the right opportunity came along.&rdquo;<h2>WHALERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 12: Doug Jarvis, C, assigned to Binghamton (AHL) as a player assistant coach.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ronnie Francis, Dean Evason, Ray Ferraro, Brent Peterson.LW&mdash;Sylvain Turgeon, Paul Lawless, Dave Tippett, Dave Williams, Torrie Robertson.RW&mdash;Kevin Dineen, John Anderson, Paul MacDermid, Mike Millar, Mark Reeds.LD&mdash;Joel Quenneville, Dana Murzyn, Randy Ladouceur.RD&mdash;Dave Babych, Ulf Samuelsson, Scot Kleinendorst, Sylvain Cote.G&mdash;Mike Liut, Steve Weeks.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Stewart Gavin, RW, torn ankle ligaments, indefinite. &#9632;

f0018-01

Rusty Ironman Takes A Trip To The Minors

I MUST ADMIT right now the contents of this rectangle will be of interest to precious few of you.(That, of course, distinguishes it from all my other labors, which keep a worldwide audience, including an estimated two billion Chinese, enraptured every fortnight.)The problem is &ldquo;THE HOCKEY NEWS Xmas Gift Guide&rdquo; has been in circulation for more than a month now, so most people probably wrapped up their holiday shopping long ago. That&rsquo;s how much great stuff there was to pick from.Geez, won&rsquo;t Grandma just adore that Here&rsquo;s Howe home video? Face it, her play in the defensive zone has been pretty shabby for the past few decades, and this might be just the thing to help.At least the gift guide removed some of the confusion that usually accompanies the holidays, although some still remains.Americans, for example, have never figured out why Canadians celebrate Boxing Day on Dec. 26, but have yet to designate a Wrestling Day or Tractor Pull Day.I suppose that&rsquo;s something for the folks at TSN to work on.Hard as it might be to believe, not every present was selected from the Xmas Gift Guide&mdash;there&rsquo;s no accounting for taste&mdash;and some were handed out long before the holidays.Heck, Dave Brown got a 15-game paid vacation, Bob Froese was given a goal&mdash;thank heavens the official scorer kept the receipt and was able to exchange it&mdash;and Andre Savard got 24 games to prove he couldn&rsquo;t coach in the NHL.Who could ask for anything more?But just on the off-chance you still haven&rsquo;t quite settled on the ideal present for the hockey figure on your gift list, we&rsquo;d like to help.Here&rsquo;s a few suggestions:&bull; Vancouver general manager Pat Quinn surely could use a lot of things&mdash;like a few more guys who can get around the offensive zone without help from the auto club&mdash;but nothing so much as a memory-enhancement course.You might recall that earlier this season, Quinn suggested the Vancouver media&rsquo;s coverage of his team was &ldquo;unethical.&rdquo;It must have slipped his mind that less than a year ago, Quinn managed to raise more than a few eyebrows and ethical questions with a move so stunning it actually obliged the Los Angeles papers to give hockey more space than European yachting results for a few days.Something about working for one team while signing a contract with&mdash;and getting money from&mdash;another.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03559/5379876-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="355" height="455"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Molinari</figcaption></div>The operative term at the time was &ldquo;expelled.&rdquo;Make no mistake, Quinn is entitled to critique the coverage of the Canucks.Informal studies have shown no more than three-quarters of working hockey writers&mdash;is that a contradiction in terms?&mdash;make it through the season without committing at least one error in fact or judgement.So what if most of those have to do with placement of a comma? A mistake is a mistake.So, Quinn has the undeniable right to express his displeasure with what is written and said about his team.But in view of the events of last winter&mdash;no matter how technically legal they might have been&mdash;for Quinn to even think about labeling anyone unethical is like me calling somebody caustic and ugly.&bull; A thesaurus for Flames&rsquo; coach Terry Crisp, who has outraged some segments of Calgary society with his, uh, candid commentary behind the bench.Instead of screaming about &ldquo;bleeping this&rdquo; or &ldquo;bleeping that&rdquo; all the time, Crisp would be able to break up the monotony with such colorful colloquialisms as $%(&#9733;&, or a nice, simple.&bull; A gift certificate from F. Lee Bailey for all the rockheads who figure pulling on a pair of skates gives them a license to hunt humans 80 nights every winter.It&rsquo;s the kind of thing that should come in handy the first time one of their mindless assaults during a game results in criminal action.And, be assured, that time is coming.&bull; Finally, a suggestion on what not to buy&mdash;any sort of clothing for anyone associated with the Philadelphia Flyers.I&rsquo;m not sure exactly why, but you&rsquo;ll just have to trust me on this one.All I know is that any time people outside Philly spoke about the Flyers during the first two months of the season, they seemed really impressed by what the Flyers were wearing.Almost invariably, they said, It looks good on them.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-03

Christmas Gift Suggestions From A Friendly Columnist

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02786/5379907-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="179" height="132"></div>BUFFALO&mdash;It isn&rsquo;t that Tom Barrasso doesn&rsquo;t like to go home, it&rsquo;s just that it makes him a little, well, nervous.&ldquo;You always want to do well here, this being my hometown and all,&rdquo; said the Buffalo Sabre goaltender after his first trip to the Boston Garden this season. &ldquo;But I still get pretty nervous coming in here.&ldquo;I live in Buffalo now and I really don&rsquo;t get back here all that much. Maybe my wife and I come here two weeks out of the year, but I still have friends here and you always want to do well in situations like that.&rdquo;Barrasso has always had a love-hate affair with the vocal Garden fans. A good portion of them like to get on him early just because he is playing against the Bruins. Another portion come to see the local legend live up to his reputation, and take great delight whenever the light goes on behind him. A much smaller percentage, family and friends, openly root for him, usually drawing the wrath of the Bruin faithful.&ldquo;My mother and father usually sit up in one of the boxes (skyboxes). It&rsquo;s a little less rowdy up there,&rdquo; he said.Barrasso, now 22 and in his fifth NHL season, said he&rsquo;s not quite sure why it&rsquo;s so much tougher for him to play in the Garden. Though he first started putting on pads in the historic building when he was &ldquo;about eight or nine years old,&rdquo; it&rsquo;s still not quite like playing in any other building.The nervousness was apparent early in a game Dec. 12, the first of eight meetings between the Bruins and Sabres. Barrasso was beaten for an early power-play goal by Geoff Courtnall and then appeared to have problems handling the puck the next few times the Bruins came back down the ice. It didn&rsquo;t show when the game was on the line, however.Barrasso turned aside 30 of Boston&rsquo;s 33 shots in a game that ended in a 3-3 tie. He looked good doing it.&ldquo;I thought he played a super game,&rdquo; said Sabre coach Ted Sator. &ldquo;They (the Bruins) were running him a lot, he had to take a lot of that because they were trying to get him off balance, but he hung in there.&rdquo;The good showing highlights what is clearly a turnabout for Barrasso this season. He started well, then both he and the team began to struggle. He fell victim to the injury epidemic (chip fracture on his left ankle) and also lost time while veteran backup Jacques Cloutier and new challenger Daren Puppa vied for playing time.NOTES&mdash;The Sabres rebounded from the loss to the Canucks by beating up on the struggling Blackhawks 6-3 in Chicago. It was only the second time the Hawks lost in Chicago Stadium this season. Then they tied the Bruins, but lost the following night to the Calgary Flames 7-1&hellip;Sabre GM Gerry Meehan acknowledged he did a lot of talking at the winter meetings in Florida, but he came back without making any deals&hellip;Sabre defenseman Calle Johansson has begun to force himself into the rookie race with seven points (2-5) in a nine-game span. Johansson recently tied Bruin rookie Glen Wesley for second place among league rookies with 14 assists&hellip;Christian Ruuttu recorded the first four-point game of the season (2-2) for the Sabres in the win at Chicago&hellip;Rookie Ray Sheppard scored goals in seven of nine games.<h2>SABRES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Christian Ruuttu, Pierre Turgeon, Doug Smith, Adam Creighton.LW&mdash;Dave Andreychuk, Lindy Ruff, Paul Cyr, Bob Logan.RW&mdash;Mike Foligno, Ray Sheppard, Scott Arniel, Mark Napier, Kevin Maguire.LD&mdash;Steve Dykstra, Uwe Krupp, Richie Dunn.RD&mdash;Calle Johansson, Ed Hospodar, Phil Housley.G&mdash;Tom Barrasso, Jacques Cloutier, Daren Puppa.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Shawn Anderson, D, ankle, day-to-day.Clark Gillies, LW, knee, indefinite.Bob Halkidis, D, ankle, day-to-day.Jan Ludvig, RW, knee, indefinite.Joe Reekie, D, knee, indefinite.John Tucker, C, knee, indefinite. &#9632;

f0018-02

Boston Boy Nervous Before Garden Party

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01964/5379938-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="591" height="935"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Canadiens were thinking of offering Larry Trader to Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02715/5379945-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="177" height="132"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;When a doctor tells you a broken left pinky will keep you out of action two weeks, you can take his word for it&mdash;right?Wrong, Chris Chelios has found.Team doctor Eric Lenczner told the Journal de Montreal that Chelios&rsquo; Dec. 9 injury was not all that bad, and that the defenseman should be ready to resume playing when the Montreal Canadiens head out on a post-Christmas road trip, which begins in Toronto and continues to the west coast.&ldquo;He should be back in two weeks,&rdquo; the doctor said. &ldquo;Three maximum.&rdquo;But when Chelios told a group of media members he figured to be back in two weeks and not the four to six weeks which had been announced by the Canadiens, coach Jean Perron was not pleased.&ldquo;It won&rsquo;t be Chris Chelios who decides when he returns,&rdquo; Perron said.&ldquo;There are two people who will make the decision and he isn&rsquo;t one of them. It will be up to the managing director (Serge Savard) and me.&rdquo;The Chelios injury was the second within a week to a young Montreal defenseman. Petr Svoboda, the NHL&rsquo;s plus-minus leader, missed three games with a jammed thumb but returned to action in a 5-3 home-ice victory over Detroit Dec. 12.Larry Trader, out with a knee injury since Nov. 12, was just about ready to return when the Chelios injury occurred.Still, the Canadiens continued their consistent play, stretching their unbeaten streak to seven (5-0-2) with victories over the New York Islanders (32) and Detroit Red Wings (5-3), and a 2-2 tie against the lowly New York Rangers.The victory over Detroit came gift-wrapped by goaltender Patrick Roy, who turned aside 41 shots, including 19 in the first period, to run his record to 7-2-2 since returning from an eight-game suspension.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the first time this season we have been involved in such a wide-open game,&rdquo; said Perron.Stephane Richer came close to becoming the first Canadien to score three in a game this season, missing on a third-period breakaway against the Red Wings.Richer&rsquo;s two goals brought his total to 20 this season.&ldquo;If somebody had told me in training camp that I would have had 20 goals by Christmas, I would have told them they were crazy,&rdquo; said Richer. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just happy that I have been able to contibute to the success of the team and to earn the respect of my teammates and my coach.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;The Canadiens were considering offering Larry Trader to the Canadian Olympic Team for which he played much of last season while a member of the Blues&rsquo; organization&hellip;John Kordic suffered stretched ligaments in his left thumb against Detroit, but the injury was not expected to keep him out of action&hellip;Bobby Smith recorded his 500th NHL assist Dec. 12 against the Red Wings&hellip;Claude Lemieux suffered a concusssion in the Ranger game&mdash;the same game in which Chris Chelios broke his finger&mdash;but did not miss a game. Chelios had nine goals and 23 assists for 32 points in 32 games before being sidelined&hellip;Sergio Momesso and Kjell Dahlin continued to alternate as designated sitters.<h2>CANADIENS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Shayne Corson, Bobby Smith, Guy Carbonneau, Brian Skrudland.LW&mdash;Mats Naslund, Ryan Walter, Bob Gainey, Mike McPhee, Sergio Momesso.RW&mdash;Stephane Richer, Claude Lemieux, Chris Nilan, John Kordic, Kjell Dahlin.LD&mdash;Craig Ludwig, Mike Lalor, Petr Svoboda.RD&mdash;Larry Robinson, Rick Green.G&mdash;Patrick Roy, Brian Hayward.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Chris Chelios, D, broken little finger on left hand, indefinite.Larry Trader, D, sprained right knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0019-01

Hab Blue Line Thinned By Injury To Chelios

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01829/5379976-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="179" height="131"></div>DETROIT&mdash;For eight games, Red Wings&rsquo; defenseman Mike O&rsquo;Connell watched with the cool eye of a detached observer. And learned.Exiled for eight games by the NHL for high-sticking St. Louis&rsquo; Doug Evans, O&rsquo;Connell sat in the press box with teammates who yearn for something he has taken for granted since the dawn of the decade&mdash;a regular spot in the lineup.By invitation of coach Jacques Demers, he watched a 5-3 Red Wing loss from behind the bench in Montreal and marvelled at the speed of the game and the intensity in the players&rsquo; eyes when they came off the bench.But most of all, he was impressed with the amount of stress involved in professional athletics.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just amazed,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Connell, eligible to return Dec. 16 against Washington. &ldquo;I never realized the stress players are under, that everyone is under. It&rsquo;s just something you get used to, I guess. I never realized&hellip;&ldquo;Even if you&rsquo;re sitting, you&rsquo;re feeling it. And the guys who don&rsquo;t play as much, guys like Kumps (Mark Kumpel), they worry about it every shift.&rdquo;Ironically, during his eight-game suspension, O&rsquo;Connell said he felt no stress at all because he was helpless to change his situation. Nor did he expect his new-found understanding to affect him when he returned to the lineup.&ldquo;When you get used to it, it really doesn&rsquo;t affect you,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Connell. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s still a very enjoyable game. I just never realized how much pressure there is.&rdquo;While he was out of the lineup, the Wings played two rookies&mdash;Jeff Sharpies and Doug Houda&mdash;on the blueline and were 4-2-2, moving from fourth to first in the Norris Division. They might have done even better were it not for what Demers described as &ldquo;youthful mistakes&rdquo; in a 5-4 overtime loss at Toronto and 4-4 home tie against St. Louis.O&rsquo;Connell&rsquo;s scheduled return followed by two nights the scheduled season debut of Harold Snepsts, the 14-year veteran returning from off-season shoulder surgery. Snepsts was set to return in New York against the Rangers.The presence of both defensemen, along with Rick Zombo&rsquo;s imminent return from a minor shoulder separation will give the Wings nine healthy defenseman while Lee Norwood recovers from a knee injury.Which will result, Demers said, in some of the most difficult roster decisions he has had to face since arriving in Detroit. He doesn&rsquo;t rule out a trade, but it isn&rsquo;t likely because he has doubts about what Snepsts, 33, can contribute. Also, O&rsquo;Connell admits he is a year or two from retirement, and Norwood has been prone to injury since coming to Detroit.Demers says he has no intention of trading away his youngsters&mdash;Sharpies, Houda, Zombo and Steve Chiasson, each of whom has played less than a full season in the NHL.NOTES&mdash;Right winger Brent Ashton was hospitalized in Montreal after the Canadiens Ryan Walter lost his balance and brought his stick up, catching Ashton in the right eye. Doctors were unsure of the severity of the injury, though they feared a detached retina. Ashton didn&rsquo;t blame Walter, terming the incident an accident&hellip;Coach Jacques Demers is fed up with the stick work of St. Louis Blues&rsquo; defenseman Rob Ramage, a favorite of his when he coached the Blues. Ramage left Tim Higgins limping after a hard slash to the right foot in the teams&rsquo; 4-4 tie Dec. 9.<h2>RED WINGS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 14: Harold Snepsts, D, recalled from Adirondack (AHL). Mike O&rsquo;Connell, D, serving eight-game suspension. Eligible to return Dec. 16.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Steve Yzerman, John Chabot, Shawn Burr, Murray Eaves.LW&mdash;Gerard Gallant, Petr Klima, Mel Bridgman, Joe Murphy, Steve Martinson.RW&mdash;Bob Probert, Tim Higgins, Dave Barr.LD&mdash;Jeff Sharpies, Steve Chiasson, Doug Halward, Harold Snepsts.RD&mdash;Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Darren Veitch, Gilbert Delorme, Doug Houda.G&mdash;Greg Stefan, Glen Hanlon.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brent Ashton, RW, eye, indefinite.Joe Kocur, RW, shoulder, indefinite.Lee Norwood, D, knee, indefinite.Adam Oates, C, groin, indefinite.Rick Zombo, D, shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0020-01

Suspension Gives O’Connell New Perspective

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02559/5380038-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="178" height="136"></div>CHICAGO&mdash;The Chicago Blackhawks still have plenty of problems, but an eight-game losing streak is not one of them.They ended that at Chicago Stadium Dec. 13, with a fast start against Toronto. Ex-Maple Leaf Rick Vaive opened the scoring at 21 seconds and goaltender Darren Pang held on to frustrate the Leafs 5-1.&ldquo;Let the guys relax and and enjoy it,&rdquo; coach Bob Murdoch said. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s savor this one for a while.&rdquo;During their eight-game losing streak, the Hawks were outscored 4614 and outshot 326-207. They fell to last place in the Norris Division, slipping down among the tail-enders in the league.They still had horrendous road streaks&mdash;12 straight losses, 15 straight winless games (0-14-1) to contend with. As well as an enormous number of injuries.The latest was a flare-up of Doug Wilson&rsquo;s chronic shoulder problem. The former Norris Trophy-winner was leading NHL defensemen in scoring when he left the lineup Dec. 9. Wilson experiences numbness in his left arm and hand, sometimes for days at a time.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s too early to say it&rsquo;s anything serious,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;The main thing is to find out what it is, to get it diagnosed.&rdquo;Wilson was examined by Dr. Louis Kolb, the Hawks&rsquo; orthopedist, and Dr. Frank Jobe, a Los Angeles sports specialist who has worked with Chicago Bear quarterback Jim McMahon. Wilson has had extensive tests and surgery remains a possibility.The Hawks had enough defensive problems before they lost their best defenseman. But Pang stepped in to keep the Hawks close in a loss at Washington, then came back the next night to end the streak.Murdoch has been stumped by the lack of production of some of the Hawks&rsquo; big guns, but they were out in force in the Toronto victory. Vaive scored his 22nd and 23rd goals, ranking near the top of the NHL. Center Troy Murray, who has slumped for two seasons since winning the Selke Trophy in 1985-86, scored twice, his fifth and sixth goals. He had 45 goals two years ago.&ldquo;Troy Murray is back,&rdquo; Murdoch said.If all of the others followed that lead, the Hawks might not be in last place.NOTES&mdash;The Hawks recalled center Bill Gardner and Kent Paynter from Saginaw for two games. Gardner scored a power-play goal in his first game at Boston, then hardly played afterward&hellip;Rookie center Mike Stapleton was sent to Saginaw, then re-called with defenseman Jim Playfair when Gardner and Paynter were sent back. Stapleton was on the power-play and penalty-killing units before being sent down, and was back on them when he returned&hellip;After returning from a six-game road trip, the Hawks still faced three of their next five games on the road. They played 20 of their first 32 games on the road.<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 11: Mike Stapleton, C, and Jim Playfair, D, recalled from Saginaw (IHL); Bill Gardner, C, and Kent Paynter, D, returned to Saginaw.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Denis Savard, Troy Murray, Brian Noonan, Steve Ludzik, Mike Stapleton.LW&mdash;Curt Fraser, Dan Vincelette, Dave Mackey.RW&mdash;Steve Larmer, Rick Vaive, Mark LaVarre.LD&mdash;Behn Wilson, Gary Nylund, Glen Cochrane, Jim Playfair.RD&mdash;Bob McGill, Marc Bergevin, Rik Wilson.G&mdash;Bob Mason, Darren Pang.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Keith Brown, D, knee surgery, March 1.Bob Murray, D, back spasms, indefinite.Wayne Presley, RW, knee surgery, March 1.Everett Sanipass, LW, back spasms, day-to-day.Duane Sutter, RW, right knee cartilage, indefinite.Steve Thomas, LW, abdominal strain, indefinite.Doug Wilson. D, shoulder strain, indefinite. &#9632;

f0020-02

Hawks Break Slide But Wilson Injured

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01618/5380069-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="181" height="137"></div>BLOOMINGTON, Minn.&mdash;In a season dominated by the battered, bruised and broken, it is appropriate that the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; December icescape should be dominated by two injuries.One&mdash;Steve Payne&rsquo;s troubled neck&mdash;threatens to end a career. The other&mdash;Craig Hartsburg&rsquo;s painful left hip&mdash;threatens to inhibit a career.Most troublesome for coach Herb Brooks is Hartsburg&rsquo;s injury, for the simple reason that Hartsburg often is the Stars&rsquo; defense. Hartsburg missed six games because of the hip, and a related groin pull, and to further complicate matters, he separated his left shoulder in his first game back, a 5-4 loss to St. Louis at Met Center.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;I&rsquo;ll probably have to live with it for the rest of my career, but it&rsquo;s a relief to know&hellip;I should be able to control it.&rsquo;&mdash;Hartsburg</blockquote>The shoulder will heal within two to three weeks. The hip might not. The same hip that caused Hartsburg to miss much of the 1984-85 season now is threatening to limit his playing time and effectiveness, perhaps for the rest of his career.Hartsburg said he has felt pain in the hip since a stress fracture was discovered three seasons ago. The stress fracture healed, but doctors have now discovered more problems that probably can be minimalized but not totally corrected.Hartsburg has been given two explanations: that he has a flat spot in the ball of the hip&rsquo;s ball-and-socket joint; and that his hip has shifted out of position from years of collisions.Either way, there is pain that starts in the hip and shoots into the groin. He probably will be bothered by arthritis in the hip for the rest of his life. There is enough pain that after playing with it all fall, Hartsburg could play no more in late November. He missed the six games, but after extensive examinations, the North Stars&rsquo; medical staff decided it could control the pain with a series of stretching exercises and therapy.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll probably have to live with it for the rest of my career, but it&rsquo;s a relief to know that if I treat it right, I should be able to control it,&rdquo; said Hartsburg, 28. &ldquo;It is not a career threatener and in no way will it change the way I play. I&rsquo;ll be able to do the things I&rsquo;m supposed to do.&rdquo;But the hip will affect how much he plays and how much he practises. Hartsburg can ride the exercise bike with no problems, but the starts and stop of skating aggravate the problem. Brooks says that fact will alter Hartsburg&rsquo;s conditioning. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have to get him on the bike as much as possible and limit his ice time,&rdquo; Brooks said.The same for games. In the past three seasons, Hartsburg has been the workorse on a defense that is seriously limited in its depth.Hartsburg isn&rsquo;t the only Star wondering what the future holds. Payne, 29, spent a week visiting six doctors and undergoing a series of tests on a neck injury that could mean the end of his 10-season NHL career.Payne is awaiting word whether the trouble is bone spurs, which grow onto the spinal cord, or a herniated disc, or a combination of the two. If the problem is the disc, traction might allow Payne to play again. But if bone spurs are responsible, Payne might face spinal-fusion surgery that would mean the end of his playing days.&ldquo;Never in my wildest dreams did I think I&rsquo;d ever have problems with my neck again,&rdquo; said Payne, who underwent surgery at the start of the 1985-86 season to remove a ruptured disc. He then missed most of the last two seasons because of three knee operations. &ldquo;I worked and worked to get my knee back into shape and now this.&rdquo;Payne&rsquo;s latest neck injury started when he was hit from behind during a game in Washington in early November. The neck continued to bother him until Brooks finally sent him home during the team&rsquo;s recent western road trip.&ldquo;If I have to have surgery, I&rsquo;m cooked,&rdquo; Payne said. &ldquo;You could never play again, with all the hitting and bumping, after that&hellip;But I&rsquo;m not cooked yet. I want nothing more than to keep playing, but if it means that someday my left arm or something will be paralyzed, forget it. My life will last a lot longer than my career.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Goalie Don Beaupre suffered pulled groin muscles in a 5-0 loss to Quebec and was expected to miss about two weeks. The Stars called up Jon Casey from Kalamazoo to fill Beaupre&rsquo;s spot on the roster&hellip;The Stars managed just 17 shots on Quebec goalie Mario Gosselin. It was their second straight loss at home after going 4-1-1 in their six previous games.<h2>NORTH STARS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 12: Al Tuer, D, recalled from Kalamazoo (IHL).Dec. 14: Jon Casey, G, recalled from Kalamazoo.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Neal Broten, Brian Lawton, Dave Archibald, Keith Acton.LW&mdash;Brian MacLellan, Brian Bellows, Scott Bjugstad, Basil McRae.RW&mdash;Dino Ciccarelli, Dirk Graham, Bob Brooke, Terry Ruskowski, Richard Zemlak.LD&mdash;Frantisek Musil, Gordie Roberts, Al Tuer.RD&mdash;Bob Rouse, Curt Giles, Pat Price, Ron Wilson.G&mdash;Kari Takko, Jon Casey.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Don Beaupre, G, pulled groin muscles, Dec. 26.Craig Hartsburg, D, separated shoulder, indefinite.Tom Hirsch, D, shoulder, indefinite.Dennis Maruk, C, foot tendons, indefinite.Steve Payne, LW, neck, indefinite. &#9632;

f0021-01

Hartsburg’s Hip Condition Hurts North Stars

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01718/5380100-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="167" height="168"></div>John Davies just wishes he had faced the Soviets.Not that he&rsquo;s about to trade in his 1952 Winter Olympics gold medal. It&rsquo;s a cherished momento, and represents the last time a Canadian hockey team won Olympic gold.But the Soviet Union&mdash;which won the Olympic title in 1956 in its first appearance&mdash;might have provided a better test than some of the teams the Edmonton Mercurys steamrolled in February, 1952 in Oslo, Norway.There were close games. Canada edged Sweden 3-2 and beat Czechoslovakia 4-1 before tying the United States 3-3 to sew up the gold medal. But the blowout wins&mdash;11-2 over Norway, 15-1 over West Germany, 13-3 over Finland, 11-0 over Poland and 112 over Switzerland&mdash;left the impression Canada could dictate the score of any game it played.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what they were writing,&rdquo; recalled Davies, a defenseman on the Mercurys, an intermediate level team. &ldquo;Especially when we tied the U.S. when all we needed to win the gold was a tie.&rdquo;The Soviets were writing things too&hellip;in little notebooks they carried while watching every move the Canadians made.&ldquo;Oh yeah, we saw them,&rdquo; said Davies. &ldquo;Every game they were there, 20 or 30 guys in brown coats and fur hats, watching us and picking up pointers.&rdquo;The Mercurys were to have gone to Berlin following the Olympics for a series of exhibitions with the Soviets, but plans fell through and the team disbanded after returning home to a civic reception.That was about the extent of the celebration.&ldquo;There was really no interest in Canada,&rdquo; said Davies. &ldquo;We were even second banana in Edmonton. Everybody was interested in the Edmonton Flyers senior team. They were Allan Cup contenders in those days.&rdquo;Even while the Mercurys were rolling to the gold, Davies says he could tell Canada&rsquo;s domination of world and Olympic tournaments was almost over.&ldquo;The Europeans were getting better. We knew if we kept using club teams over there, time was running out on Canadian teams winning. You go over there and can&rsquo;t afford to have a bad game, especially with all the pressure on you to win. But we went knowing we had a job to do, and we were a real family. You need that feeling if you want to win.&rdquo;Davies said the European hosts would often stack the odds against the Canadians.&ldquo;The Swedes were complaining about all their travel ling in the Canada Cup&mdash;they should have come with us,&rdquo; said Davies. &ldquo;We went over there for exhibition games before the Olympics and travelled all over the north of Sweden playing on outdoor rinks. Then at the Olympics, because they knew we were good skaters, they&rsquo;d fix the rink so we were playing on slush. The politics were just as bad then. They&rsquo;re a cheeky bunch over there.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0022-01

Soviets Took Notes As Canada Won Gold

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN Associate Editor</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01646/5380131-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="183" height="148"></div>TORONTO&mdash;Vincent Damphousse&rsquo;s misery may be coming to an end.&ldquo;It is frustrating when you don&rsquo;t do your job,&rdquo; said the 20-year-old left winger. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really hard to be happy off the ice.&rdquo;Make no mistake about it. For most of this season, Damphousse has not been doing his job.Through 26 games, two of which he was benched, Damphouse had just four goals and 10 assists&mdash;far below expectations after a 46-point rookie season.His creativity with the puck was expected to fully blossom this year. No other Toronto Maple Leaf has the ability to make plays as he does.But you wouldn&rsquo;t know it to watch him in October and November.&ldquo;I had a bad camp,&rdquo; said Damphousse, &ldquo;and when the season started I didn&rsquo;t have the confidence I had last year.&rdquo;Coach John Brophy didn&rsquo;t play the former Laval Titan in the season-opener. That ended Damphousse&rsquo;s modest ironman streak at 80&mdash;he didn&rsquo;t miss a single game during his first season.Eleven games later, Damphousse was back in the doghouse. But another visit to the press box did little to ignite the slick stickhandler.He responded with one goal and seven assists in his next 13 games.Then came a visit by the Detroit Red Wings Dec. 7. Playing alongside TomFergus and Mirko Frycer, both of whom were battling their own slumps, Damphousse scored a goal and assist as Toronto beat Detroit 5-4.The win ended a six-game winless streak and energized Damphousse, Fergus and Frycer.Fergus, benched the previous game, contributed three assists and Frycer scored two goals, including the winner in overtime, and an assist.Brophy was elated with the performance of all three, particularly Damphousse, calling it his best effort of the season.&ldquo;If he goes like that the rest of the year,&rdquo; said Brophy, &ldquo;he&rsquo;s going to have a helluva year.&rdquo;Five days later, the Leafs won their second straight&mdash;a 4-3 decision&mdash;and the line of Fergus, Frycer and Damphousse again played a strong role.Damphousse finished off a pass from Al Iafrate to give the Leafs a 2-1 lead and Frycer scored the eventual winner when he batted the puck past Ranger goalie John Vanbiesbrouck.&ldquo;I think if I can go back to playing the way I did last season, it&rsquo;ll be okay,&rdquo; said Damphousse. &ldquo;I really started playing after Christmas.&rdquo;Damphousse scored 26 of his 46 points in the second half last year.The Montreal native wasn&rsquo;t the only one hoping for better things. The back-to-back wins brought to an end a month-long streak that lasted 14 games without consecutive wins.Toronto, however, couldn&rsquo;t make it three in a row&mdash;getting blown out 5-1 by the Blackhawks in Chicago one night after the win over New York.NOTES&mdash;The Leafs traded right winger Mike Allison to Los Angeles for right winger Sean McKenna. Allison, 26, played in just 15 of the Leafs&rsquo; first 29 games, watching the other 14 from the press box. He had only three assists after a good performance in last year&rsquo;s playoffs. The Leafs obtained Allison from the New York Rangers in the summer of &rsquo;86 for Walt Poddubny. McKenna, 25, had three goals and two assists in 30 games for the Kings this year&hellip;Russ Courtnall and Mirko Frycer extended their goal-scoring streaks to four before both being held scoreless by Chicago.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 8: Mike Blaisdell, RW, assigned to Newmarket (AHL).Dec. 14: Mike Allison, RW, traded to Los Angeles for Sean McKenna, RW.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Tom Fergus, Russ Courtnall, Peter Ihnacak, Dan Daoust.LW&mdash;Vincent Damphousse, Al Secord, Mark Osborne, Dave Semenko.RW&mdash;Mirko Frycer, Ed Olczyk, Gary Leeman, Greg Terrion, Sean McKenna.LD&mdash;Al lafrate, Todd Gill, Mike Stothers.RD&mdash;Chris Kotsopoulos, Rick Lanz, Dale DeGray.G&mdash;Ken Wregget, Allan Bester.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Wendel Clark, LW, back spasms, indefinite.Luke Richardson, D, hand, day-to-day.Borje Salming, D, twisted back, day-to-day.Brad Smith, RW, back, indefinite. &#9632;

f0023-01

Finally, Some Encouraging Developments

Dave Reece was just another goaltender trying to earn an NHL job when he stepped onto Maple Leaf Gardens ice the night of Feb. 7, 1976.A few hours later, he was the answer to a trivia question, thanks to Toronto&rsquo;s Darryl Sittler. The Maple Leafs&rsquo; star center riddled Reece and the Boston Bruins for six goals and four assists in an 11-4 Toronto victory.Sittier&rsquo;s 10-point game has survived seven subsequent eight-point assaults, including two by Wayne Gretzky, to remain the NHL record.&ldquo;When I screwed up, it was sure big time,&rdquo; said Reece with a laugh from his home in Pawling, N.Y. Now 39, he is director of admissions at Trinity Pawling School, a private high school.He takes a perverse sort of pride in his moment, which he admits is his only claim to hockey fame. He coaches hockey at Trinity Pawling, and every year he screens a videotape of the game for his new players.It&rsquo;s often forgotten that Reece was a steady back-up goaltender for Bruin No. 1 man Gilles Gilbert until the fateful night. He posted a 7-5-2 record for Boston in his only NHL season, with two shutouts and a respectable 3.32 goals-against average. And it wasn&rsquo;t Sittler&rsquo;s onslaught that prompted Boston to send him to the Springfield Indians.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01699/5380162-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="566" height="1213"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Reece</figcaption></div>Reece was caught in a numbers game. The rumors of Gerry Cheevers&rsquo; return to Boston from the Cleveland Crusaders of the WHA were true. With veterans Cheevers and Gilbert around, the Troy, N.Y., native&rsquo;s days as a Bruin were numbered.&ldquo;But (coach) Don Cherry gave me the call, the one last shot,&rdquo; said Reece.He was shot full of holes.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like I wasn&rsquo;t trying,&rdquo; Reece said. &ldquo;I just didn&rsquo;t have it, and he (Sittier) did. It was his night and he deserved it, because he worked hard. I wasn&rsquo;t really that unhappy about it. Some other poor stiff will come along and allow seven goals.&rdquo;Sittier had only one assist in the first period, after which Toronto led 2-1. But he exploded for three goals and three assists in the second, and then bagged the only three goals of the final period. Though Toronto led 8-4 after 40 minutes, Cherry left Reece in goal.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to be pulled,&rdquo; said Reece, who never played another game in the NHL. &ldquo;I was doing badly, but you have to take your lumps. You have to prove how tough you are when things are going poorly.&rdquo;In retrospect, things couldn&rsquo;t have worked out better for Reece. He met his wife Linda while playing in Springfield, and is happy at Trinity Pawling, where he is starting his second decade.&ldquo;I knew I wasn&rsquo;t good enough to be a No. 1 goalie in the NHL,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was just glad the Bruins gave a Yank a chance to play. When I got sent down, I realized I was seeing the minors on the way down, so after another year, I left to take a teaching job at Trinity. I left when I wanted to.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0024-01

Reece Became Trivia Answer Thanks To Toronto’s Sittler

For Canadians,&rdquo; writes Douglas Beardsley, &ldquo;hockey represents the play of life, with all its inherent paradoxes and contradictions&mdash;the boys of winter cavorting in a white transparent world of ritual and make-believe.&rdquo;If baseball players are the boys of summer, then hockey players are&mdash;as Beardsley calls them in his new book, Country on Ice&mdash;the boys of winter.Country on Ice is a unique work, a piece of literature with which the recreational hockey player can identify as much as the armchair NHL fan.Beardsley, an unabashedly rabid Canadian nationalist from Montreal who teaches at the University of Victoria (B.C.), ex-amines the way hockey mirrors Canadian culture. Canada isn&rsquo;t Canada without winter, he feels, and winter isn&rsquo;t winter without hockey&mdash;at whatever level it&rsquo;s played.American readers might feel miffed at the author&rsquo;s dismissal of their contributions to the game, but they can&rsquo;t argue with his contention that hockey is Canada, just as baseball s the United States.The book&rsquo;s strength is not its historical perspective&mdash;there are minor inaccuracies throughout&mdash;but its romantic vision.Beardsley looks at hockey as it affects the average Canadian&mdash;young boys playing shinny after dark, men and women enjoying the game at the &ldquo;beer league&rdquo; level, and the pro game as enjoyed by the fan.Beardsley has little knowledge of the inner workings of pro hockey but, in this book, that&rsquo;s not needed. He brings the folk wisdom of the fan, analyzing the game from his living room and idolizing the game&rsquo;s icons, such as Foster Hewitt, Jean Beliveau, Ted Kennedy and Wayne Gretzky.Country On Ice is, as much as anything, a narrative. It is one man&rsquo;s opinion on how the game has touched all Canadians, young and old, big and small, male and female. Beardsley draws widely from his own experience, and occasionally brings in other voices to support his observations.The book is at its best, however, when the author waxes romantic about his own life in hockey&mdash;from the time as a young boy when he played a &ldquo;parlor&rdquo; game with his grandfather on a &ldquo;rink&rdquo; made from a spread-out set of Encyclopedia Britannica, to his days as a goaltender in recreational hockey.Country On Ice (Polestar Press, 191 pages hard cover, $19.95) is available through THE HOCKEY NEWS Book Locker, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2. &#9632;

Hockey’s Romance Examined In Book

<div class="byline">BY JEFF GORDON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01611/5380217-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Blues&rsquo; center Doug Gilmour is feeling self-imposed pressure as he tries to measure up to last year&rsquo;s 105-point season.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02402/5380224-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="179" height="135"></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;A quick quiz: After 26 games, who had the worst plus-minus rating in the NHL?Surprisingly, the answer was Doug Gilmour, the tenacious center who built his reputation with solid defense before breaking loose for 105 points last season.He was stuck with a minus-21 rating.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m supposed to be a defensive player,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t do anything about some of the goals that are scored while you&rsquo;re on. But I have to go back in my zone and get the puck. The more I wait for the puck, the more I stand around, the more I&rsquo;m not making plays.&ldquo;From my standpoint, I haven&rsquo;t played well this year. It has nothing to do with the guys I&rsquo;m playing with or anything else. It&rsquo;s myself. The only way to come out of this is to work hard. I have to get back with hard work.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel like myself right now. I have to relax. I put a lot more pressure on myself. I should be carrying the team a little more, by setting up plays, by setting up goals.&rdquo;Gilmour did have 32 points after 28 games, but he was doing his best work on the power-play unit with Bernie Federko and Mark Hunter.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the only thing that&rsquo;s kept me going,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I know what I have to do. I know what I&rsquo;m doing wrong. I&rsquo;m positive I can turn things around. Bumping and grinding, that&rsquo;s what I have to get back to. I&rsquo;m in a positive frame of mind right now. It&rsquo;s not to the point where I&rsquo;m concerned.&rdquo;Last season, coach Jacques Martin turned Gilmour loose to carry the puck in and create plays. This season, Gilmour has struggled to do the same.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had a lot more attention from the people playing against me,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but if I skate the way I&rsquo;m capable of skating, I can get away from people. I can jump into holes. I&rsquo;ve been going up the middle, skating right at the defensemen. I need to skate away from them, go wide and set up the wings.&rdquo;In even-strength situations, he has been tied up and frustrated, and that frustration has led him to lash out at referees and opponents on the ice. He has had some trouble focusing his aggression.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the way I play,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;Guys hit me and stuff; they go out of their way to hit me. It makes me so mad it gets me into the game more. I want to prove that I&rsquo;m better than the guys hitting me. I want to prove that by scoring goals and hitting them. When I put too much pressure on myself, that&rsquo;s when I do all the wrong things.&rdquo;But he&rsquo;ll never tiptoe around the rink.&ldquo;The time when I&rsquo;m out there and I don&rsquo;t get mad, that&rsquo;s the time I won&rsquo;t be playing any more,&rdquo; he said.NOTES&mdash;Looking to fill their need for a sound and physical left defender, the Blues got Gino Cavallini&rsquo;s brother, Paul, from the Washington Capitals. General manager Ron Caron tried to get him earlier in the season but couldn&rsquo;t work out a trade&hellip;Caron was also interested in right winger Paul MacLean of the Jets. The teams scouted each other after the board of governor meetings, but Caron was concerned that Winnipeg wanted too much for MacLean, a former Blues&rsquo; prospect who has averaged more than 30goals a season with Winnipeg&hellip;After scoring just one goal in 21 ineffective games, second-year winger Jocelyn Lemieux was demoted to Peoria of the IHL for the first time in his short career&hellip;Defenseman Rob Whistle was also sent down, although Caron promised to recall him shortly, in order to trade him to a team which needed him. Whistle was a plus-three in 13 games with the Blues and was instrumental in two victories at Toronto.<h2>BLUES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 11: Jocelyn Lemieux, LW, and Rob Whistle, D, assigned to Peoria (IHL); Paul Cavallini, D, acquired from Washington for the choice of Montreal&rsquo;s second-round pick in the 1988 entry draft (acquired by St. Louis in an earlier deal), or St. Louis&rsquo; own second pick in 1989.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bernie Federko, Doug Gilmour, Tony Hrkac, Rick Meagher.LW&mdash;Brian Sutter, Gino Cavallini, Perry Turnbull, Doug Evans, Ron Flockhart.RW&mdash;Mark Hunter, Greg Paslawski, Herb Raglan, Tony McKegney, Todd Ewen.LD&mdash;Brian Benning, Tim Bothwell, Paul Cavallini, Gaston Gingras.RD&mdash;Rob Ramage, Charlie Bourgeois, Robert Nordmark.G&mdash;Greg Millen, Rick Wamsley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Greg Paslawski, RW, sore back, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0025-01

Gilmour Surprisingly Poor At Even Strength

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02454/5380255-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Coach Tom McVie has a serious side&mdash;most often seen when he&rsquo;s behind the Utica Devils&rsquo; bench in the American League. (Photo by Steve Somerville/Sports Eye)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01650/5380262-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="180" height="139"></div>A character. That&rsquo;s what he is. An unforgettable, Runyonesque character.&ldquo;They broke the mold after they made Tom McVie,&rdquo; says Adirondack Red Wings&rsquo; coach Bill Dineen, who first met the Trail, B.C., native 25 years ago when both were players in the old Western League. &ldquo;What do you say about the guy? He&rsquo;s so flamboyant. I go out of my way whenever he&rsquo;s around to spend a little time with him because he&rsquo;s so refreshing. &ldquo;McVie, the Utica Devils&rsquo; 52-year-old coach, has a sparkling wit. desire to succeed, audacity to challenge convention, and foghorn-like voice stuck in a compact body.And he has turned a passion for hockey into a lifelong love affair.He says his wife, Arlene, figured out the score long ago.&ldquo;She&rsquo;s always telling me, &lsquo;You love hockey more than you love me.&rsquo; And I tell her, &lsquo;Yes, but I love you more than baseball.&rdquo;&rsquo;&ldquo;As a player he was the life of your team,&rdquo; Dineen says. &ldquo;During practice he kept everybody loose. He was great in the dressing room and he was a great player. He was a natural goal-scorer and he was a competitor.&rdquo;During his 17 years as a player, most of them with Seattle and Portland in the WHL, McVie developed a solid reputation. He averaged more than 27 goals a season. During a five-year span in the early 1960s, he scored 33,45, 37, 36 and 37 goals.But there was more to McVie&rsquo;s life than shooting pucks past goaltenders. Much more.&ldquo;In those years I would do anything to make anybody laugh,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It was almost like I had to jump off the Space Needle to get them to laugh, because every day you had to do something crazier.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing to me that after all these years people can sit around and tell Tom McVie stories. Out west, they&rsquo;re still telling those stories. That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m in the east.&rdquo;McVie admits his personality is, well, different.&ldquo;One time Harry Glickman&mdash;he Jims the (Portland Trail Blazers) now and he was my boss&mdash;said to me, &lsquo;You don&rsquo;t fool me. All this Clown Prince stuff and all this flamboyant stuff off the ice, that&rsquo;s all a cover-up for all the seriousness, the determination and the intensity you&rsquo;ve got.&rsquo;&ldquo;I guess, maybe, he was right. I don&rsquo;t know much about that. It was almost like a Jekyll-and-Hyde situation: The seriousness for the game, and off the ice I was a complete idiot.&rdquo;When MeVie began to make plans for a career change he came to understand the long-term effect of his wild behavior.&ldquo;I talked to Keith Allen, who turned me pro in the first place, and I said, &lsquo;You know, Keith, I&rsquo;d really like to stay in hockey and be a coach.&rsquo;&ldquo;&lsquo;Coach?&rsquo; he said and laughed. &lsquo;Coach?&rsquo; he said and laughed again. &lsquo;Yeah right, Tom.&rsquo;&rdquo;This time, McVie wasn&rsquo;t laughing along.&ldquo;Honestly, it took me four or five years to convince people,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I had to change my ways. I stopped goofing around, I stopped telling crazy stories, I stopped drinking.&rdquo;McVie eventually landed in Dayton, Ohio, where he turned the Gems into an International League power. But by the time Dayton won the league title at the end of the 1975-76 season, McVie was coaching the Washington Capitals, a struggling NHL expansion team. It was the first of three NHL coaching jobs with three woeful clubs. The Caps let McVie go after the 1977-78 season. His record: 49-122-33.Late the following season he joined the Winnipeg Jets and led them to the final AVCO Cup title in WHA history. When the Jets joined the NHL in 1979, McVie was behind the bench. But 28 games into the 1980-81 season, he was fired again. His record: 29-58-21.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve had eight coaches in eight years,&rdquo; says McVie. &ldquo;Fergie is one of my best friends and it had to happen, but you mean to tell me that they&rsquo;ve had eight awful coaches and one good general manager? In fact, they should fire him for hiring those eight awful coaches.After a season in the Central League at Oklahoma City and a season-plus in the American League running the Maine Mariners, McVie returned to the NHL once again&mdash;with the New Jersey Devils, in November, 1983.&ldquo;I go down to Maine and I say, &lsquo;Okay, just leave me alone. Leave me alone,&rdquo; he says, his delivery picking up speed. &ldquo;But noooo, Gretzky has to call (the Devils) &lsquo;Mickey Mouse.&rsquo; So now I go down to Jersey and totally clean up that whole thing.&rdquo;But by the summer of 1984, McVie was back as coach and general manager of the Mariners. His record with the Devils: 15-38-7. He says he could have stayed on if he had signed a one-year contract. His request for a longer contract was turned down.&ldquo;Mr. Mac (Devils&rsquo; owner John McMullen) and I were talking about it and he said, &lsquo;You are a hell of a hockey man and a great coach, but you&rsquo;re an awful businessman. You&rsquo;ll go ride on the buses for half the money.&rsquo;&ldquo;I think about that now. I&rsquo;ve gone 100,000 miles on the bus just because I was stubborn. But, on the other hand, my wife was proud of me and so were a lot of other guys that are close to me. The only thing is, my wife doesn&rsquo;t ride on the bus and neither do they.&rdquo;After five seasons in Maine, McVie moved to Utica this year when the Devils transferred their AHL affiliate.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played for old school-type coaches, which Tommy is, but he&rsquo;s a unique character,&rdquo; says Utica captain Steve Tsujiura, a veteran of five seasons with McVie.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the type of coach that just commands respect. You can either hate him or you can love him, but he gets that respect from you.&rdquo;McVie admits he wants another chance in the NHL, but concedes it may never come.&ldquo;What I guess I&rsquo;m really proud of,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;is that I&rsquo;m a real hard, tough SOB and I&rsquo;ve taken young players that weren&rsquo;t going to get there&mdash;and I&rsquo;ll tell you, almost every team in the National League is sprinkled with guys that came through my horror show.&rdquo;McVie&rsquo;s Travelling Boot Camp and Comedy Shop. &#9632;

f0026-02

The Minors

From Clown Prince To Coach

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Mike Kane</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03370/5380293-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="182" height="136"></div>Philadelphia&rsquo;s Ron Hextall may be the acknowledged trend-setter among good-shooting goaltenders, but Rochester&rsquo;s Darcy Wakaluk beat him into the history books.On Dec. 5, Wakaluk became the first AHL goaltender in the league&rsquo;s 52-season history to score a goal. Three days later, Hextall followed suit in an NHL game against Boston, when he shot the puck into the Bruins&rsquo; open net.Wakaluk, 21, scored his goal in a game at Utica with one second remaining. Trailing 4-2, the Devils were on a power play and had pulled their goaltender. Utica made the mistake of dumping the puck right at Wakaluk. He caught the puck, dropped it to the ice and fired it toward the neutral zone, but was not trying to score.&ldquo;Not really. When I caught it I think I concentrated more on going up the middle,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I shot it I wasn&rsquo;t looking at the net, I was looking to get it over the guys that were coming in on me. I went up the middle in case it did go in.&rdquo;The puck landed four feet inside the Devils&rsquo; zone.&ldquo;As soon as it hit,&rdquo; Wakaluk said, &ldquo;I knew it was (going in).&rdquo;&ldquo;I thought it had a chance,&rdquo; said Rochester coach John Van Boxmeer. &ldquo;I looked up at the clock. I didn&rsquo;t know if there was enough time left on the clock for it to make it. You hope it gets there in time.&rdquo;It did&mdash;by one second and three days.<h2>ROCKET RICHARD</h2>Rookie center Mike Richard of Binghamton extended his point-scoring streak to 25 games, moving within four of the league record set by former Whaler Bob Sullivan in 1981-82&hellip;Utica captain Steve Tsujiura will be out until early-to mid-January, recovering from a broken left clavicle suffered Dec. 2 against Rochester&hellip;Forward Alan Stewart has resumed skating with the Devils. A operation to repair a hernia has kept Stewart on the injured list since training camp&hellip;Defenseman Shawn Dineen returned to Baltimore after missing five weeks with a punctured lung.The Skipjacks signed right winger Steve Seguin, 23, who last played with Hershey in 1985-86&hellip;Detroit recalled defenseman Doug Houda and forwards Murray Eaves and Steve Martinson from Adirondack to replace injured players&hellip;Defensemen Mark Ferner and Jim Hofford returned to the Rochester lineup after missing several games with injuries&hellip;Mark Kirton was named Newmarket captain. The Saints are 5-3-3 at home, but all three losses came in overtime. An overtime loser gains one point in the standings. &#9632;

f0026-03

Goalie Wakaluk Beat Clock…And Hextall

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01603/5380324-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="180" height="135"></div>Two teams vying for the division lead, Fredericton and New Haven, were looking for new coaches after theirs were called up to replace fired NHL mentors.The Express lost first-year coach Ron Lapointe to the Quebec Nordiques, who dumped rookie coach Andre Savard 24 games into the season.Lapointe, an assistant coach with the Washington Capitals for two seasons before being hired by Quebec this summer, had his team in first place (14-6-3) when he left.Lapointe&rsquo;s interim replacements behind the bench were player-assistant coach Marc Crawford and Quebec scout Simon Nolet.Several names popped up as candidates for the position. Bob Berry, fired as Pittsburgh Penguins coach after last season, apparently was offered the job, but turned it down. Also under consideration were former WHA and NHL pro B.J. MacDonald, who spent the last couple of seasons in Austria, and Darcy Rota, the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; director of media relations.The Express were 2-1 in the first three games under Crawford and Nolet, winning their debut 7-4 over South leader Binghamton.A search began for the Nighthawks after Rob Ftorek moved up to replace Mike Murphy with the Los Angeles Kings.Ftorek, who prefers casual sweaters behind the bench to the traditional sports jacket, entered the season as the division&rsquo;s most experienced coach. This was his third season.In his two-plus years, Ftorek&rsquo;s Nighthawks won 96 games.&ldquo;It was very emotional for me,&rdquo; said New Haven GM Roy Mlakar about the loss of Ftorek.&ldquo;But when people like (Binghamton&rsquo;s) Larry Pleau and (Adirondack&rsquo;s) Bill Dineen and Ftorek are in the AHL, that&rsquo;s a crime. They&rsquo;re outstanding coaches and they&rsquo;re all deserving of being in the NHL.&rdquo;Ftorek&rsquo;s temporary replacement was former Nighthawk coach Nick Beverley, still a scout in the Kings&rsquo; organization.Beverley coached the Nighthawks for three-plus seasons before being replaced by Ftorek. In Beverley&rsquo;s last two seasons, the Nighthawks finished fifth and failed to make the playoffs.&ldquo;He knows all our players,&rdquo; Mlakar said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be more than an adequate replacement for the time being.&rdquo;<h2>HAWKS GET HOT</h2>The Moncton Hawks extended their unbeaten streak to a season-best four games, by beating the Nova Scotia Oilers 7-4 on Dec. 5. Hawk goalie Dave Quigley made 48 saves.The Hawks ended the month of November with a 3-10-1 record, 0-7-1 on the road. But the Hawks were hoping to rebound in December&mdash;12 of their games were at home, where they were 8-4-1 after 13 games.<h2>PRACTICE MAKES&hellip;WELL</h2>Minutes after Springfield&rsquo;s 6-1 loss at Adirondack on Dec. 2, Indian coach Gord Lane put his team through a 40-minute practice. The loss was the fifth and last game of Lane&rsquo;s five-game suspension.Lane&rsquo;s message didn&rsquo;t exactly sink in, though. Two nights later, the Indians were swamped 9-0 by the Sherbrooke Canadiens. In that game, Sherbrooke&rsquo;s Martin Desjardins notched his third hat trick this season.Seven of Sherbrooke&rsquo;s goals came in the second period. The final one was scored into an empty net, as Lane pulled his goalie in hopes of preventing a shutout.<h2>MARINERS HEALTHY</h2>The Maine Mariners&rsquo; lineup filled out when Ray Podloski, Kraig Nienhuis and Dave Reid returned from lengthy injuries. Podloski missed 13 games with an ankle/knee injury, Reid missed 10 with a separated shoulder and Nienhuis almost two months with mononucleosis.Still missing for the Mariners is right winger Dave Pasin, who has been out since early November with an eye injury.<h2>BUCHBERGER&rsquo;S BACK</h2>Canadien center Gilles Thibaudeau had his 19-garne point streak snapped in the Canadiens&rsquo; 2-1 loss at Maine on Dec. 6&hellip;The Hawks released center Mike Jeffrey from his amateur tryout contract. In 22 games with Moncton, Jeffrey had three goals and eight assists. Many of his 11 points, however, came during the first 10 games of the season&hellip;Kelly Buchberger was returned to Nova Scotia by Edmonton. The Oilers had a respectable 5-5-1 record on the road despite being outscored 53-36 in the 11 games. &#9632;

f0027-01

NHL Comes Calling For Top AHL Coaches

<div class="byline">BY BOB WAGNER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02395/5380355-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="158" height="134"></div>Life is no longer gruelling for Scott Gruhl.The 28-year-old Muskegon Lumberjack left winger&rsquo;s enthusiasm was rekindled at the Pittsburgh Penguin training camp. &ldquo;This was the first camp (NHL) I&rsquo;d been to since 1985,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was an extraordinary circumstance. I was the only player there without a contract and they were trying to make room for me right up to when the season started.&rdquo;His strong showing helped him overcome the &ldquo;confidence problems&rdquo; he said have plagued him the last four years.Gruhl is back for his fifth season in Muskegon on an International League Bon tract. His NHL experience is limited to seven-game stints in 1981-82 and &rsquo;82-83 with the Los Angeles Kings.On Dec. 5, the second of two crucial games at Colorado (both of which Muskegon won), Gruhl scored three of the Lumberjacks&rsquo; five first-period goals, the club&rsquo;s first hat trick of the season.&ldquo;I got all three goals on rebounds,&rdquo; he grinned. He had 30 points (15-15) in 23 games for Muskegon, just seven fewer than club leader Dave Michayluk (16-21), another left winger.<h2>HOME SOUR HOME</h2>The Colorado Rangers&rsquo; 14-game unblemished home record came crashing down early in December.In fact, the Rangers were going in reverse, with three consecutive losses at the Denver Coliseum. They suffered back-to-back losses to Muskegon&mdash;10-5 on Dec. 4 and 7-5 Dec. 5&mdash;then will to Salt Lake City 4-1 on Dec. 8. &ldquo;You score five goals each night and come away with two losses; not a very good sign,&rdquo; said GM-coach Pete Mahovlich after the two games with Muskegon. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to tighten up defensively and, hopefully, our goaltending will pick up.&rdquo;In the second game of the series, Colorado outshot Muskegon 56-40.Preparing to show films of the Muskegon debacle, Mahovlich said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m putting the Rocky Mountain Horror Show on TV for them.&rdquo;<h2>HAWKS SOAR TO NHL</h2>When the Chicago Blackhawks were swamped 12-0 by the Detroit Red Wings recently, it created a domino effect for their top farm club, the Saginaw Hawks. Players began tumbling up to the NHL.Chicago recalled center Bill Gardner, right winger Mark LaVarre, and defensemen Rik Wilson and Kent Paynter. Before the Detroit debacle, left winger Dave Mackey was summoned. Gardner, LaVarre and Mackey represent Saginaw&rsquo;s top three scorers.As if the call-ups weren&rsquo;t enough to cause GM-coach Dennis Desrosiers to reach for the Excedrin, the IHL Hawks also lost right winger Archie Henderson for two weeks with a shoulder dislocation.<h2>CASEY COOL CUSTOMER</h2>Most goalies shudder when it comes to shootouts in the IHL, but not the Kalamazoo Wings&rsquo; Jon Casey. The Wings were 5-0 in shootout showdowns and Casey was in goal for four of them&hellip;Right winger Kevin Schamehorn of the Milwaukee Admirals reached the career 700-point plateau in 12 seasons of professional hockey with a goal against Kalamazoo, his former IHL team, Dec. 4.Muskegon left winger Warren Young and right winger Wilf Paiement were recalled by Pittsburgh for treatment of injuries. Young has a persistent hand infection, and Paiement may be headed for arthroscopic surgery on his knee&hellip;The Flint Spirits won four of their last five games through Dec. 8 and six of their last eight to pull within one point of second place in the IHL East. Rookie center John Cullen led the club in scoring (10-29-39), collected points in nine consecutive games (6-12-18), was second to Peoria&rsquo;s Ron Handy (23-2447) in IHL scoring, and No. 1 in assists. &#9632;

f0027-02

Gruhl’s Confidence Restored At Pittsburgh Penguin Camp

<div class="byline">BY GREGG DRINNAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02438/5380393-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Always a fiery competitor, Moose Jaw&rsquo;s Theoren Fleury digs in for another goal in front of the net. Fleury has had a good year, but not the Warriors who recently fired coach Jim Harrison. (Photo by Alan Murdock)</figcaption></div>Theoren Fleury&rsquo;s temper flares when the conversation turns to the topic of his size.The Moose Jaw Warriors&rsquo; 19-year-old center&mdash;listed at 5-foot-6 and 150 pounds in the 1984-85 Western League guide, 5-foot-6 and 153 the next year, 5-foot-10 and 150 in both &rsquo;86-87 and &rsquo;87-88, and 5-foot-5, 153 on the Calgary Flames&rsquo; &rsquo;87-88 training camp roster&mdash;could care less what the figures say.He knows he can play hockey.&ldquo;I think the question has been answered,&rdquo; says Calgary&rsquo;s eighth-round choice in the 1987 NHL entry draft. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve proven myself at every level. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s a question of size any more. It&rsquo;s determination, desire, all of those other things.&rdquo;Al MacNeil, Calgary&rsquo;s assistant general manager, believes.&ldquo;That kid&rsquo;s not small,&rdquo; says MacNeil, who assessed Fleury at camp. &ldquo;Being small is when you think small. Size has nothing to do with it.&rdquo;It didn&rsquo;t bother Fleury during Calgary&rsquo;s exhibition schedule. Commented veteran John Tonelli, who had a goal and two assists after playing on Fleury&rsquo;s wing one game: &ldquo;I seem to get the puck more. It was like playing with Brent Sutter.&rdquo;There was a time when Fleury, the WHL&rsquo;s leading point-getter with 82 in his first 30 games, wondered if his size would stand in the way of a hockey career.&ldquo;When I came to my first WHL camp, I was 16,&rdquo; he recalls. &ldquo;Everybody was a lot bigger than I was.&rdquo;Seasons of 75, 108 and 129 points erased the doubts. The last of those three campaigns was interrupted by Fleury&rsquo;s participation in the infamous &rsquo;87-88 World Junior Championships.Fleury was the man in the middle Jan. 4 at Piestany, Czech., during Canada&rsquo;s bench-clearing brawl with the Soviet Union. He was decked by a Soviet player, prompting the melee that eventually saw both teams disqualified from the competition.Players from both teams were suspended from international play for a year. The bans have since been lifted by the International Ice Hockey Federation.Fleury will be back on the national team this year for the championships in Moscow.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to it,&rdquo; he says, bitterly. &ldquo;I think we got screwed around last year. I have no idea what kind of reaction we&rsquo;re going to get (in Moscow). Basically, what the team has to do is keep a low profile, go out and play the game, then get lost in Russia&mdash;stay away from all the media.&rdquo;That may be hard to do. Fleury is the WHL&rsquo;s Mr. Excitement, and he&rsquo;s as quick with the tongue as he is with the stick.His response to post-brawl questioners last year was flippant. &ldquo;I went around and suckered everybody,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t so much the players, it was more the country&mdash;get the Russians.&rdquo;Typical Fleury.&ldquo;He does get involved, probably too much in the mouth department,&rdquo; says Daryl Lubiniecki, general manager of the Saskatoon Blades. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s definitely the key to Moose Jaw.&rdquo;Fleury knows he&rsquo;ll have to modify his style in the Soviet Union. He leads the WHL not only in points but in minor penalties, an indication he plays the chippy type of hockey frowned on in the international arena.&ldquo;I have to take a totally different approach&hellip;because discipline is going to be a major factor in the team&rsquo;s doing well in Moscow. Every guy who puts on a Canadian sweater is going to be a marked man.&rdquo;Fleury has been a marked man in the WHL for years.&ldquo;I think I am,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just my reputation, that I like to go out and play hard every shift. Because guys are so much bigger, every check I throw my stick&rsquo;s up or my elbow&rsquo;s up or I jump or whatever&mdash;so the refs are always looking for me. A little bit of it has to do with frustration over what&rsquo;s been going on this year in Moose Jaw.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s been a turbulent season. The Warriors have struggled on the ice (1219-0, seventh in the eight-team East Division) and the front office has been in turmoil. Fleury hasn&rsquo;t escaped. On Nov. 17, he was named team captain only to be stripped of the &lsquo;C&rsquo; 19 days later when management chose to go with three alternate captains&mdash;Jerome Bechard, Gerald Bzdel and Rob Harvey.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01622/5380386-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="593" height="873"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fleury was in the middle of the infamous Canada-Soviet brawl last season.</figcaption></div>There was no doubt Fleury was being disciplined, but recently-fired coach Jim Harrison (See page 30.) wouldn&rsquo;t elaborate, saying only that it was &ldquo;something internal&rdquo; and not related to Fleury&rsquo;s disparaging comments on the team&rsquo;s organizational shuffle.Fleury, quoted in the Regina Leader-Post as saying the front-office moves were &ldquo;a big joke,&rdquo; says he was upset by the club&rsquo;s decision to fire trainer Dennis Scott. He may have lost the &ldquo;C,&rsquo; he adds, when he took a delay-of-game penalty in Lethbridge Dec. 4. The Hurricanes scored on a power play to win 6-5.It&rsquo;s all added up to what Fleury terms a disappointing season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you, I&rsquo;ve come home a lot of nights and asked myself if it&rsquo;s all worth it.&rdquo;What keeps Fleury going is the unfulfilled dream of cracking an NHL roster. The experience of the Flames&rsquo; training camp left him hungry for more.&ldquo;I made an impression every day, did something different&mdash;and they always had to have a meeting about me, whether to keep me, whether to send me back, whatever. It was just such a great experience.&rdquo;Before it was over he convinced himself he can play in the NHL. But in the end, it was back to the buses and a final season in junior.&ldquo;Sometimes,&rdquo; he reflects, &ldquo;I look back to when I was an eight-year-old and just playing the game for fun, and going out and scoring a million goals.&ldquo;You just kind of look back year by year, and every year it gets better. I never dreamed I&rsquo;d be this close to being a pro hockey player at this point.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0028-02

The Juniors

LITTLE BIGMAN

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03312/5380438-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="379" height="475"><figcaption class="caption-body">TIM TAYLOR London</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>Center Tim Taylor, 17, of the London Knights scored six goals&mdash;including five in a 7-5 win over Guelph&mdash;and three assists in three games.Taylor was the OHL&rsquo;s rookie scoring leader with 31 goals and 25 assists for 56 points in 30 games to Dec. 13.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04225/5380431-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="382" height="470"><figcaption class="caption-body">REGINALD SAVAGE Victoriaville</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>Victoriaville center Reginald Savage, 17, scored seven goals&mdash;including two game-winners&mdash;and four assists in three games to improve his totals to 32 goals and 28 assists in 33 games.Savage, a 5-foot-11, 180-pounder, was the key to victories over St-Jean and Hull.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05185/5380424-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="384" height="475"><figcaption class="caption-body">GARY DICKIE Regina</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>Regina center Gary Dickie scored six goals and two assists in three games. He scored three times in a 7-5 win over Lethbridge.Dickie, 19, improved his totals to 18 goals and 17 assists for 35 points in 32 league games this season.At the end of the current season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0028-03

MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK FOR DEC. 7-13

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01536/5380469-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="181" height="134"></div>Bill LaForge isn&rsquo;t one to mince words.And the Hamilton Steelhawk coach and general manager was typically forthright in comparing his team to the Emms Division-leading Windsor Spitfires.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a naive person,&rdquo; said LaForge, &ldquo;and while I&rsquo;ll match my 12 forwards with those of the Spitfires, they are definitely stronger on defense.&rdquo;LaForge isn&rsquo;t ready to concede the division to Windsor, however.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still not convinced Windsor is all that great,&rdquo; continued LaForge, whose club was in third place, five points behind the Spitfires and two behind second-place London Knights following December&rsquo;s first week of action.&ldquo;If I can add an experienced defenseman, we can handle Windsor,&rdquo; LaForge said. &ldquo;I like our forwards more and I think our goalie (19-year-old Mike Rosati) is better than theirs (18-year-old Peter Ing.)&rdquo;Rumors had LaForge trying to swing a deal for defenseman Bryan Fogarty, dangled as trade bait by the Kingston Canadians. Fogarty, 18, led OHL defensemen with 20 goals and 50 assists last season and was the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; first-round pick, ninth overall, in the 1987 entry draft.Fogarty had three goals, 17 assists and 32 penalty minutes in 23 games this season.While worrying about Windsor, Hamilton forgot about the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. The Steelhawks lost 5-3 to the Emms Division&rsquo;s fifth-place team Dec. 6 in the Soo.<h2>PRAISE THE LORD</h2>Toronto Marlboro general manager Frank Bonello was relieved, more than anything else, when his team snapped an 11-game losing streak.&ldquo;Thank God,&rdquo; said Bonello after rookie center Jason Winch&rsquo;s goal at 3:12 of overtime gave the Marlies a 7-6 win over Oshawa at Maple Leaf Gardens Dec. 8.Toronto&rsquo;s win ended a five-game Generals&rsquo; winning streak and improved the Marlies&rsquo; record to 10-15-1, respectable considering the losing streak. Toronto, which led the Leyden Division briefly early in the season, was in sixth place, seven points ahead of last-place Kingston.&ldquo;Not to make excuses but it was one thing or another that was costing us games,&rdquo; said Bonello. &ldquo;One night the goaltending would kill us. Then we&rsquo;d get the goaltending but couldn&rsquo;t score in the ocean.&rdquo;Goaltender Mark Gowans, a former General, was credited with the victory, his first of the season after four earlier losses.A fourth-round pick (71st overall) of the Detroit Red Wings in 1985, Gowans spent the first six weeks of the season as Hamilton&rsquo;s fourth goalie before being acquired by Toronto on waivers in November.<h2>GOODALL GOING GREAT</h2>Kitchener overage center Ron Goodall was on fire, scoring 30 goals in his first 27 games&hellip;The Cornwall Royals, who started the season 1-8, were on a 15-3-1 tear and only two points behind the Leyden Division-leading Peterborough Petes on Dec. 9&hellip;Oshawa left winger John Andersen, 19, scored just two goals in his first 18 games but scored five in back-to-back games against Kingston and Toronto&hellip;North Bay Centennials&rsquo; coach and general manager Bert Templeton, after his youthful club won two straight to improve to 6-19-1: &ldquo;I think the players are finding me a litte easier to live with now. All of those losses were making me miserable. And if Bert Templeton is miserable, I can tell you that everyone around me is going to be miserable, too.&rdquo;&hellip;Rookie goalies David Schill, 17, of the London Knights and Gus Morschauser, 18, of Kitchener were teammates last season with the Kitchener Greenshirts&rsquo; midgets. &#9632;

f0029-01

LaForge Isn’t Completely Sold On Spitfires

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02370/5380500-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="182" height="133"></div>You can&rsquo;t tell who&rsquo;s running the Laval Titan without a program.First, coach Claude Therien resigned Nov. 4, citing work pressures at Canada Post. The Titan was in first place in the LeBel Division with a 126-1 record at the time.Marcel Patenaude, 24, replaced Therien, with Maurice Lemay as his assistant, but the pair switched roles Nov. 23 after the Titan went 2-4-1 under Patenaude.A bigger bomb dropped on Pearl ferbor Day, Dec. 7. General manager Jocelyn Guevremont stepped down, citing personal family problems.The recent instability contributed to the Titan (16-15-2) falling to third place, eight points behind first-place Hull (20-13-2) as of Dec. 9.&ldquo;Jocelyn came to us and said he had to quit because of personal reasons,&rdquo; said Laval governor Jean-Claude Morissette of the former NHL defenseman. &ldquo;He was doing a very, very good job. We were very happy with him. It had nothing to do with the performance of the team. We had to respect the decision of the man. Now we&rsquo;ll sit back a bit and take a look at what&rsquo;s on the market.&rdquo;Morissette said the club was not in a hurry to fill the position which was being jointly handled by Lemay and Patenaude.Patenaude voluntarily turned over the head coaching duties to Lemay because he felt the change from Therien&rsquo;s rah-rah style to his own was too drastic.&ldquo;It would be like changing to Don Cherry from (Montreal Canadien coach) Jean Perron,&rdquo; said Patenaude. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m more low-key in my approach.&rdquo;Lemay, 41, a Repentigny, Que., native, took Chamonix from 12th to sixth place in France&rsquo;s first division last season and guided the Chamonix&rsquo;s junior and midget teams to national championships. He coached at various levels in Repentigny for 15 years. He was 2-3 in his first five games as Titan head coach.<h2>BISONS LIMPING</h2>Talk about bizarre injuries.Eddy Courtenay, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound Granby right winger, sustained a 15-inch cut above the knee from his own skate in practice and was lost for two weeks.Courtenay&rsquo;s injury was another the Bisons&mdash;last in the LeBel Division at 9-22-2&mdash;could not afford.Left winger Daniel Lacroix, the New York Rangers&rsquo; second pick in the 1987 entry draft, and right winger Stephane Dubois were both listed as day-to-day with shoulder and ankle injuries, respectively.The Bisons received good news when Stephane Quintal, the Boston Bruins&rsquo; second 1987 pick (14th over-all), started skating Nov. 30. Quintal underwent surgery for a hernia Nov. 6.<h2>CATS CLAW HULL</h2>The Shawinigan Cataractes ended Hull&rsquo;s 12-game unbeaten streak by dumping the Olympiques 6-4 in Shawinigan. Stephane Morin&rsquo;s goal with five minutes remaining was the winner. Hull&rsquo;s home unbeaten streak reached 14 as Olympique rookie left winger Martin Gelinas scored three goals to lead an 8-1 win Dec. 8 over Verdun. The hat trick moved Gelinas into seventh place in league scoring with 32 goals and 39 assists in 35 games. Teammate Marc Saumier, a center, was sixth with 26 goals and 46 assists in 27 games. &#9632;

f0029-02

If Change Is Spice Of Life, Then Call Titan Team Tasty

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03242/5380545-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="371" height="488"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEN MORRISON Saskatchewan</figcaption></div><h2>CANADA WEST</h2>The Saskatchewan forward was leading his league in goals with 21 in 14 games at the Christmas holiday break. Morrison added 14 assists to stand second in Canada West scoring with 35 points for the Huskies.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04169/5380538-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="369" height="488"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAUL KENNY St. Francis Xavier</figcaption></div><h2>ATLANTIC</h2>Goaltender Paul Kenny was a major reason St. Francis Xavier was leading the Kelly Division at the Christmas break. Kenny posted a 2.66 goals-against average and a 7-2 record for the 9-2 X-Men.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-05145/5380531-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="371" height="489"><figcaption class="caption-body">RICHARD LAPLANTE Concordia</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO</h2>Center Richard Laplante scored three goals in a losing effort for the Stingers, who dropped a 5-4 decision to the Trois-Rivieres Patriotes. Laplante scored 15 goals in his first 10 games of the season.Performers of the week for the period Dec. 7-13. &#9632;

f0029-03

Bauer’s university performers OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY GREGG DRINNAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01614/5380576-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="183" height="135"></div>Moose Jaw Warriors and Lethbridge Hurricanes did what most losing teams eventually do: They fired their coaches.In Moose Jaw, Jim Harrison was the victim of a 12-19 record that had the Warriors in seventh place in the eight-team East Division. Glen Hawker took the rap for doing slightly worse. The Hurricanes were 9-21-1 and last in the same division when he was let go Dec. 4.Ironically, both coaches were victorious before being fired by their community-owned teams. Hawker was gassed moments after his Hurricanes beat Harrison&rsquo;s Warriors 6-5 at Lethbridge.Harrison&rsquo;s job looked secure at that point, following a meeting of Moose Jaw&rsquo;s board of directors. At the meeting, Harrison was put in charge of hockey operations, while general manager Harvey Roy&rsquo;s role was switched to administrative, financial and promotional duties.But four days later, Harrison, 40, was gone&mdash;fired immediately after Moose Jaw beat Saskatoon 7-4 on home ice. Harrison, an ex-NHL and WHA player who was on a one-year contract with the Warriors, learned of the news when asked for comment by reporters.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve sensed that I&rsquo;ve been caught in the middle of a power struggle for a month now,&rdquo; said Harrison. &ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t understand what&rsquo;s happening. If you run a class organization, you don&rsquo;t tell people this way.&rdquo;Hawker, 29, was in his first year with the Hurricanes, the former Calgary Wranglers franchise moved to Lethbridge during the summer. He was replaced by Blaine Galbraith, 28, most recently head coach of an Edmonton midget team.Hawker was unavailable for comment.Taking Harrison&rsquo;s place is Gerry James, who could be described as a 1950s-precursor of Bo Jackson, the Kansas City Royal outfielder who doubles as a running back with the Los Angeles Raiders.James, 53, played 11 seasons in the Canadian Football League with Winnipeg and Saskatchewan while doubling as a right winger with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Selected to the CFL Hall of Fame in 1981, James coached the last 15 seasons in the Saskatchewan Jr. League, including this season with the Estevan Bruins.<h2>REIMER HITS ROAD</h2>Goaltender Mark Reimer was returned to the Saskatoon Blades by the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; organization Nov. 27. Four days later he was in Portland.Reimer, 20, Detroit&rsquo;s fifth pick in the 1987 draft, played a total of three games with the International League&rsquo;s Flint Spirits and American League&rsquo;s Adirondack Red Wings. He and defenseman Rick Rehmann, 17, became Winter Hawks for left winger/center Brian Gerrits, 18. Saskatoon chose to go with 18-year-old Tim Cheveldae&mdash;Detroit&rsquo;s fourth pick in 1986&mdash;as their No. 1 goalie.Gerrits, who scored 25 goals and 27 assists in 68 games last season, is not expected to play for Saskatoon until January. He suffered a broken hand four games into the season.<h2>JUNIORS NAB MODANO</h2>Prince Albert center Mike Modano, a native of Livonia, Mich., will play for the United States at the World Junior Championships in Moscow Dec. 26-Jan. 4. NHL Central Scouting rates Modano the WHL&rsquo;s top 1988 draft-eligible prospect&hellip;Spokane winger Tony Horacek was suspended a total of eight games&mdash;five for leaving the penalty box to enter a fight and three for fighting in the penalty box&mdash;during a 10-1 loss at Swift Current Nov. 27. Swift Current left winger Darren Schwartz received three games for fighting Horacek in the box Horacek got four games for swinging his stick at New Westminster fans Nov. 1. &#9632;

f0030-01

Coaches Sacked In Lethbridge, Moose Jaw

<div class="byline">BY STEVE GILLILAND</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02446/5380607-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="576" height="140"></div>Rick Nickelchok knows exactly what he wants for Christmas&mdash;hockey players.The New Brunswick Red Devils&rsquo; coach spent his holiday break scouring Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes for players. The need is desperate, considering the defections that decimated his roster at the end of November and early December.In one seven-day period, UNB lost four regulars, including team scoring leader Mike Sutherland, who went to the Fredericton Alpine seniors. Left winger Ralph Manning, defenseman Paul Loggie and utility player Brian Clark all quit the 2-10 team for what they termed &ldquo;personal reasons.&rdquo; None have yet turned up with other teams.While the four skaters were jumping ship, starting goalie Dean Frost was knocked out of commission for mid-to late-January with tom ligaments. The loss of Frost forced Nickelchok to go with two intramural goaltenders for the final three games of the first-half schedule.UNB&rsquo;s No. 1 goalie, Rick Poirier, left school on the eve of the regular-season opener to play senior hockey in Newfoundland.Oddly enough, it just might turn out to be Poirier who comes back to bail the Red Devils out of a jam. Apparently, he has become disenchanted with senior hockey and is considering returning to university in January.<h2>PURCELL LEADS WAY</h2>Dave Purcell of St. Francis Xavier appears to have the inside track on AUAA player-of-the-year honors. The fourth-year center from Antigonish, N.S., was the leading scorer at the break, with 23 goals and 13 assists in 12 games. He won the AUAA player-of-the-year honors in 1985-86&hellip;Cape Breton&rsquo;s inaugural season has been huge success. Average home attenanent is 1,800 at a school whose enrolment is 2,200. &#9632;

f0030-02

The Colleges

New Brunswick’s Bedevilled By Departures And Injuries

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03305/5380659-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="398" height="534"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE WILLIAMS Ferris State</figcaption></div><h2>CCHA</h2>Sophomore goaltender Mike Williams stopped 79 shots as Ferris State took three of four points from Michigan State, winning 5-4 and tying 1-1.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04208/5380652-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="354" height="466"><figcaption class="caption-body">KELLY HURD Michigan Tech</figcaption></div><h2>WCHA</h2>Freshman right winger Kelly Hurd scored three goals and added one assist as Michigan Tech swept North Dakota with 4-3 and 5-4 victories.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05140/5380645-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="396" height="535"><figcaption class="caption-body">JON MORRIS Lowell</figcaption></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>Senior forward Jon Morris scored one goal and added five assists as Lowell beat Northeastern 8-7 and New Hampshire 3-2. Morris had four assists in the first win.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-06108/5380638-1-eng-US/f0030-062.jpg" title="f0030-06" width="399" height="536"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAUL COHEN St. Lawrence</figcaption></div><h2>ECAC</h2>Sophomore goalie Paul Cohen stopped 31 of 32 shots as St. Lawrence beat Clarkson 2-1. It was the first victory for St. Lawrence at Clarkson&rsquo;s Walker Arena in 15 years.Performers of the week for the period Dec. 7-13. &#9632;

f0030-03

Bauer’s COLLEGE PERFORMER OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY CLAUDE SCILLEY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01560/5380690-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Toronto goaltender Bruno Pullara stops a close-in chance by based team&mdash;one of three from the province to join the OUAA Jamie Kompon of McGill, during a recent visit from the Quebec-league this year. The others are Concordia and Trois-Rivieres. (Photo By Lewko Hryhorijiw)</figcaption></div>They were the orphans of the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union.They were three hockey clubs, cast adrift among the wreckage of a provincial league that was unable to sustain itself. For months, it appeared nobody wanted to adopt them. Taking in strangers, after all, causes considerable upheaval in a household.The fourth member of the Quebec Universities League, Ottawa, decided to break ranks at the end of the 1986-87 season. After, all, the school was based in Ontario. It was returning home, even if that meant its Quebec-based cousins would be left in limbo.Ottawa was quickly welcomed into the Ontario Universities Athletic Association. But three others&mdash;Trois-Rivieres, McGill and Concordia&mdash;were left knocking on the door.After much discussion, the OUAA finally decided that, with sufficient remodelling, it had room in its house not only for the prodigal Ottawa, but for the other three schools as well.Now halfway into their first season as members of the OUAA&rsquo;s East Division, the defending national-champion Trois-Rivieres Patriotes, Concordia Stingers, and McGill Redmen have made their marks.The entire conference was restructured, from one 13-team grouping which advanced eight teams to the playoffs, to a three-division league. An unbalanced schedule was introduced, and 12 of 17 teams will advance to post-season play.&ldquo;Getting them into the league changes everybody&rsquo;s thinking,&rdquo; says Windsor Lancer coach Rick Cranker. &ldquo;With the divisionalized format, you&rsquo;re concentrating more on people in your division. Before, when it was 13 teams all together, you had to keep an eye on everybody.&rdquo;The convoluted schedule has, for example, Queen&rsquo;s playing RMC five times, but four teams not at all. And Windsor (the league&rsquo;s westernmost team) played McGill, Concordia and Trois Rivieres (the three easternmost teams) in the first three weeks of the season. The Lancers emerged with a win and tie.Concordia coach Paul Arsenault welcomes the move.&ldquo;Playing in Quebec last year was really tough,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You were playing two of the teams in the country (Ottawa and Trois-Riverieres) two-thirds of the time.&ldquo;This gives us a lot of variety. Some teams are stronger, some are weaker, but it keeps the players more interested.&rdquo;For his players, Arsenault says there&rsquo;s an intrinsic benefit to having multi-game, overnight trips.Single-game trips to Ottawa and Trois-Rivieres, he says, were neither conducive to good hockey nor good study habits. &ldquo;If you have an overnight trip, the guys get to know each other. It&rsquo;s great for team spirit.&rdquo;The extra road time doesn&rsquo;t agree with all coaches, but they&rsquo;re willing to give it a shot.&ldquo;From our standpoint,&rdquo; says Cranker, &ldquo;logistically it&rsquo;s not what we&rsquo;d like. It&rsquo;s an extra three or four hours on the highway, but it&rsquo;s a new experience for some of our kids.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0031-01

A HOUSEUNITED

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Virg Foss</div>When Northern Michigan gets hungry for a win, it follows the lead of a major fast food chain and orders up &ldquo;Berger Bundles.&rdquo; Junior winger Phil Berger of Dearborn, Mich., has earned that nickname for his habit of scoring big goals in bunches. Thirteen of his goals had come in four games&mdash;three hat tricks and a four-goal effort&mdash;all Wildcat victories. Overall, he had 15 goals in 17 games.Wisconsin senior goalie Dean Anderson closed to within one victory of Julian Baretta&rsquo;s school record of 51, with a pair of wins over Michigan Tech Dec. 4-5. Anderson stopped 58 of 61 shots as the Badgers triumphed 3-1 and 4-2.Minnesota-Duluth broke an 0-13-1 road slump dating back to Jan. 10, 1987, with 4-3 and 6-2 wins at Colorado College on the Dec. 4-5 weekend&hellip;North Dakota co-captain Scott Dub earned his second game disqualification penalty of the season in an 8-3 loss to Northern Michigan. That meant Dub had to sit out both games of the Michigan Tech-UND series Dec. 11-12&hellip;When pre-season league favorite Denver was swept by Minnesota in Denver on Dec. 4-5, the Pioneers also lost their top two defensemen, indefinitely. Derek Mayer (shoulder separation) and Marc Rousseau (shoulder, knee injuries) were both hurt. &#9632;

Berger Cheeses Off Foes

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Bill Crawford</div>Western Michigan back-up goalie Kevin McCaffrey is making the most of his chances to play. He relieved Bill Horn early in the Dec. 5 game against Bowling Green, with the Broncos down 3-0, and persevered for an 8-7 overtime victory. That raised his record to 3-1 for the 10-6 Broncos, who moved to within three points of second-place Lake Superior.Ohio State outshot Illinois-Chicago 41-19 Dec. 4, but Dave Depinto&rsquo;s strong goaltending led the Flames to a 4-2 victory&hellip;Senior forward Mike Orn of Miami continued his hot scoring pace Dec. 4 against Ferris, with his fourth hat trick of the year in a 9-5 Redskin victory.Michigan&rsquo;s Rob Brown scored his second game-winner of the season in a 5-4 triumph over Hockey East&rsquo;s Boston College Dec. 5. Michigan has gone 7-0 against BC over the years&hellip;Western Michigan&rsquo;s Ron Hoover moved into a tie with Lake Superior&rsquo;s Mark Vermette for the CCHA and national goal-scoring leadership. Through Dec. 5, each had 20 goals. &#9632;

CENTRAL COLLEGIATE

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Larry Mahoney</div>Third-period collapses have been killing the New Hampshire Wildcats. New Hampshire, 27-1 through its first 10 games, was only 2-4-1 in the seven games it led at some point in the final frame&hellip;Lowell&rsquo;s Jon Morris finally snapped his goal-scoring drought. The all-American center had a hat trick in a 6-3 win over U.S. International of San Diego, his first goals of the year.Providence College sophomore winger Tom Fitzgerald had three two-goal games and seven multiple-point games&hellip;Boston College goalie Dave Liftman set a school record with two assists in a 4-1 win over Colorado College. He also made 32 saves&hellip;Lowell defenseman Carl Valimont had three goals and six assists in three wins last week&hellip;Boston University&rsquo;s Ville Kentala and Mike Kelfer scored goals four seconds apart to tie a league mark in a 3-3 tie with Denver. &#9632;

HOCKEY EAST

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Tom Boggie</div>RP1 senior Mo Mansi scored four goals in an 8-2 rout of Army&hellip;Colgate cruised to a surprisingly easy 4-1 win over previously-undefeated Harvard&hellip;Yale continued to struggle. The Elis fell to 0-6 in the league and 0-8 overall with losses to Clarkson and St. Lawrence&hellip;RPI sophomore Denis Poissant&rsquo;s first two goals of the year were both scored shorthanded&hellip;Vermont went through a stretch of 37 successful penalty-killing situations&hellip;Colgate senior Rejean Boivin ran his goal-scoring streak to five games, with a marker against Harvard. He had 14 goals as the Red Raiders won eight of their first nine games. &#9632;

EASTERN COLLEGE

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02433/5380817-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="601" height="1184"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky passed Phil Esposito on the NHL all-time points list.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01591/5380824-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="184" height="136"></div>EDMONTON&mdash;As another milestone went down for the count, Phil Esposito turned to the offensive.&ldquo;The only record I&rsquo;ll ever keep is shots on goal for one year,&rdquo; the New York Rangers&rsquo; general manager said, after Wayne Gretzky passed his career third-place mark of 1,590 points. As a member of the Boston Bruins in 197071, Esposito peppered opposing NHL goaltenders with a whopping 550 shots.Gretzky scored his 1,591st point in a winning effort Dec. 11, setting up the final goal for Jari Kurri in a 2-1 win over the defense-minded Vancouver Canucks.The assist topped a memorable seven-day period for Gretzky:&bull; On Dec. 6 against the Minnesota, the 26-year-old exploded for five goals as the Oilers posted a 10-4 victory over the North Stars.A television replay revealed Gretzky had put the puck into the net on six occasions, which would have equalled the NHL&rsquo;s modern-day record. But goalie Don Beaupre fished it out with his stick and rookie referee Paul Stewart waved off the goal.&ldquo;I was disappointed,&rdquo; admitted Gretzky, &ldquo;because it was a record. You don&rsquo;t get too many chances at something like that. I know how hard I worked to get five. The night (Darryl) Sittler and (Red) Berenson each scored six, they must have had everything going for them.&rdquo;&bull; Three nights later Gretzky pulled alongside Esposito on the career points list, to a thunderous ovation at the Northlands Coliseum. But the man of the hour was goalie Grant Fuhr, who blanked the Winnipeg Jets 2-0.&ldquo;It was great for Grant to get the shutout,&rdquo; Gretzky said, noting Fuhr, for the first time in his career, had recorded his second shutout of a season.&ldquo;He was in a situation kind of like (Paul) Coffey&rsquo;s three or four years ago when people weren&rsquo;t sure of Paul. Now Grant has come off the Canada Cup and, with the start he&rsquo;s had this season, people know how great he is.&rdquo;&bull; Another two nights passed and Gretzky thanked Kurri for threading the needle and giving him point 1,591.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t worried about it because I knew sooner or later I was going to get it,&rdquo; Gretzky shrugged matter-of-factly. &ldquo;I certainly didn&rsquo;t feel any pressure trying to overtake Espo. It wasn&rsquo;t like going for the 77th goal (in 1982). I wanted to get it so badly because Phil was following me around.&rdquo;&bull; The following night in Vancouver, Gretzky stunned rookie goalie Kirk McLean with a couple of shorthanded howitzers to move within three goals of No. 5-seeded Mike Bossy&rsquo;s 573. He also sent Kurri off and running on a breakaway goal to move within six points of the 1,600 barrier.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way we play, whether we&rsquo;re killing penalties or on the power play,&rdquo; explained Gretzky. &ldquo;We rely on speed, aggressiveness and forechecking.&rdquo;As far as Esposito&rsquo;s 550 shots are concerned, Gretzky agreed wholeheartedly. &ldquo;No question, I couldn&rsquo;t break that one. But, guys like Mario (Lemieux) or (Ray) Bourque, they could do it. One of those two might.&rdquo;Gretzky&rsquo;s high shot total was 370, taken in 1981-82, the year he set the NHL record of 92 goals.He admitted surpassing Esposito has meant something special, partially due to the fact they both play center.Not that Esposito didn&rsquo;t see it coming. He had an advance warning 10 years ago.&ldquo;My dad called me from the Soo (Sault Ste. Marie, where Gretzky played for the Ontario League Greyhounds) and told me there was a kid playing junior down there who was going to come to the NHL and break my records. My dad&rsquo;s a super judge talent.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Grant Fuhr went a team-record 124 minutes and 26 seconds without allowing a goal, erasing Andy Moog&rsquo;s old mark of 102:46&hellip;Defenseman Chris Joseph, the youngest player in the NHL at 18, joined the Canadian Olympic team for the Izvestia Tournament in Moscow. Joseph will also play in the World Junior Championships in the Soviet Union&hellip;Dave Hannan&rsquo;s first goal as an Oiler came on an unassisted shorthanded effort in Vancouver&hellip;The Oilers&rsquo; sweep over the Canucks ran their unbeaten record at Vancouver&rsquo;s expense to 23 games (21-0-2), which includes a three-game playoff sweep in 1986. The Canucks&rsquo; last win over Edmonton was on March 10, 1985. &#9632;

f0032-02

Just Another Week For The Great Gretzky

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03288/5380855-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0032-03

The Hockey News Classified (416) 445-5702

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01527/5380886-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne McBean, the Kings&rsquo; first-round draft pick in 1987, will join Team Canada for the World Junior Championships.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02372/5380893-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="186" height="133"></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Robbie Ftorek was anxious to come home so he could check out his new stomping grounds as coach of the Los Angeles Kings.His sputtering team was simply anxious to get home following a miserable eight-day excursion in which it lost all five games, two-thirds of its coaching staff and possibly winger Bobby Carpenter, who hurt his right shoulder when cross-checked in a trip-ending 3-2 defeat in Hartford.So the 7-20-4 Kings, mired in a even-game losing streak and nine-game winless string (0-8-1), were grateful to return to familiar surroundings.Ftorek stepped up from the Kings&rsquo; farm team in New Haven on Dec. 9&mdash;three days after Mike Murphy was relieved of his duties following a 7-16-4 start&mdash;to become the 15th head coach in the NHL team&rsquo;s 21-year history. He said he was looking forward to getting to the Forum for the first time since retiring as a player in 1985.The Kings&rsquo; road trip included stops in Boston (near Ftorek&rsquo;s birthplace of Needham, Mass.) and Hartford (near his home in Guilford, Conn.)&ldquo;There&rsquo;s been a lot of attention from the press, which is great,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You like it to a certain extent, but I like to keep my mind on the game. You like to keep around the players a little more. At least I do.&rdquo;The Kings lost Ftorek&rsquo;s first three games, but at least got away from the free-wheeling, shootout type of hockey that had resulted in 81 goals against in 13 previous games, resulted in the dismissal of Murphy and, three days later, the firing of assistant coach Phil Myre.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing better and there are a lot of positive signs,&rdquo; Mark Hardy said, &ldquo;but the end of the story is that we&rsquo;re still losing. We need some wins.&rdquo;Ftorek made his debut in a 2-1 loss to New Jersey, followed by one-goal losses to Boston and Hartford. He was encouraged by his first week behind an NHL bench.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen guys dive for pucks, goaltenders make big saves, forwards come back to help and guys make some big hits,&rdquo; he said.Ftorek took the job following an all-night meeting with co-owner Bruce McNall and general manager Rogie Vachon at a New York City restaurant.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like when you&rsquo;re dating a girl. You want to find out as much about her as you can,&rdquo; he said.McNall was quite impressed. &ldquo;Robbie is very unique,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I mean, I was ready to talk contract and all he wanted to talk about was the team. I really feel he&rsquo;s going to turn this thing around.&rdquo;Murphy felt he, too, could have turned things around if given the chance.&ldquo;I was shocked and I was hurt,&rdquo; the ex-coach said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to sling mud or feel sorry for myself, but I did the best I could. We didn&rsquo;t win many games and I would have liked a longer amount of time. I think I would have gotten the team playing better, but I wasn&rsquo;t given the opportunity.&rdquo;Saying he had &ldquo;no inkling&rdquo; about his firing, Murphy said, &ldquo;I knew what I was getting into when I took the job. This comes with the territory.&ldquo;But I&rsquo;m very disappointed. I don&rsquo;t feel anyone has given more to this organization than I have.&rdquo;Murphy said he was anxious to get right back into coaching. &ldquo;If I have to go to a junior team, that&rsquo;s fine.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Bobby Carpenter&rsquo;s sore right shoulder was to be examined by team physician Dr. Steve Lombardo. In 31 games, Carpenter had already surpassed last season&rsquo;s scoring totals (9-18) with 12 goals and 19 assists&hellip;First-round draft pick Wayne McBean will play for Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Moscow&hellip;Bernie Nicholls had 11 goals and 17 assists during 12-game scoring streak, snapped in New Jersey&hellip;The Kings were 0-16-2 when trailing after two periods&hellip;They scored a power-play goal in 12 straight games until getting blanked in Hartford.<h2>KINGS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 9: Robbie Ftorek named head coach; Phil Myre, assistant coach, fired.Dec. 11: Bob Kudelski, LW-C, assigned to New Haven (AHL).Dec. 14: Wayne McBean, D, assigned to Canadian junior national team for World Championships in Moscow. Sean McKenna, RW, traded to Toronto for Mike Allison, RW.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Jimmy Carson, Bernie Nicholls, Bob Bourne.LW&mdash;Luc Robitaille, Bobby Carpenter, Paul Fenton, Joe Paterson.RW&mdash;Dave Taylor, Jim Fox, Mike Allison, Bryan Erickson.LD&mdash;Tom Laidlaw, Jay Wells, Larry Playfair.RD&mdash;Mark Hardy, Steve Duchesne, Grant Ledyard, Dean Kennedy.G&mdash;Glenn Healy, Bob Janecyk, Rollie Melanson.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Phil Sykes, LW, partially torn groin muscle, Jan. 2.Tim Tookey, C, knee surgery, March 5. &#9632;

f0033-01

Kings And New Coach Happy To Be Home

<h2>TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE&hellip;</h2>1. Which NHL rink is commonly known as &lsquo;The Igloo&rsquo;?2. What current Toronto Maple Leaf scored the last goal in the history of the WHA?3. Which New Jersey Devil is the cousin of Toronto Blue Jay mascot B.J. Birdie?4. What former Toronto Maple Leaf captain competed in the pole vault at the 1936 Olympics?5. Name the only goaltender to win the Hart and Vezina Trophies in the same season.6. What is the nickname of the Western League&rsquo;s Lethbridge franchise?7. Which Conacher won the NHL scoring race in 1948-49?8. When was the last time the Montreal Canadiens missed the playoffs?9. Who was captain of the Detroit Red Wings from 1962-63 through 1973-74?10. Who played 17 consecutive years in the NHL playoffs&mdash;1968-69 through 1984-85&mdash;without being a member of a Stanley Cup championship team?<h2>ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ</h2>1. Civic Arena, Pittsburgh. 2. Dave Semenko. 3. Brendan Shanahan. His cousin is Kevin Shanahan. 4. Syl Apps, Sr. 5. Jacques Plante, 1961-62. 6. Hurricanes. 7. Roy. 8. 1969-70. 9. Alex Delvecchio. 10. Brad Park. BONUS ANSWER: Wayne Merrick.<h2>BONUS QUESTION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03269/5380924-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="576" height="923"><figcaption class="caption-body">BONUS: His goal was the winner when New York Islanders won the 1981 Stanley Cup.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0033-03

THN HOCKEY TRIVIA

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01604/5380969-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01569/5380962-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="3111" height="3691"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01544/5380955-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="3121" height="3231"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-09" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-09100/5381150-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg"></div>Current first place team: Laurie Johnson, Delisle, Sask.Bos Ray Bourque, Cal Joe Mullen, Chi Denis Savard, Chi Steve Larmer, Det Steve Yzerman, Edm Wayne Gretzky, Edm Jari Kurri, Edm Mark Messier, LA Luc Robitaille, LA Jimmy Carson, Min Dino Ciccarelli. Mon Mats Naslund, Mon Bobby Smith, Edm Glenn Anderson, Hart Ron Francis, Hart Kevin Dineen, NJ Aaron Broten, NJ Kirk Muller, NYI Bryan Trottier, NYR Walt Poddubny, NYR Marcel Dionne, NYR Tomas Sandstrom, Phi Brian Propp, Pit Mario Lemieux, Edm Craig Simpson, Que Michel Goulet, Que Peter Stastny, SL Doug Gilmour, SL Bernie Federko, Van Tony Tanti, Wpg Dale Hawerchuk, Wpg Paul MacLean.Point leaders listed below for games to Sunday, December 6 inclusive. &#9632;

f0037-09

SASK HOCKEY DRAFT

<h2>Mon., Dec. 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01472/5381119-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="595" height="940"></div><h2>Tue., Dec. 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02344/5381112-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="599" height="1227"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03262/5381105-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="607" height="2244"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04216/5381098-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="592" height="537"></div><h2>Wed., Dec. 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05188/5381091-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="606" height="1664"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06162/5381084-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="608" height="2235"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07140/5381077-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="608" height="1936"></div><h2>Thur., Dec. 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08115/5381070-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="591" height="233"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01550/5381063-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="620" height="2058"></div><h2>Fri., Dec. 11</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02432/5381056-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="608" height="1459"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04267/5381049-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="606" height="2418"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05190/5381042-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="591" height="185"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03348/5381035-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="598" height="976"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Archibald&rsquo;s two goals weren&rsquo;t enough as Minnesota lost 5-4 to St. Louis.</figcaption></div><h2>Sat., Dec. 12</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06152/5381028-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="622" height="3318"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-08120/5381021-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="608" height="2428"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-09109/5381014-1-eng-US/f0038-092.jpg" title="f0038-09" width="605" height="1151"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07138/5381007-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="597" height="974"><figcaption class="caption-body">Murray Craven&rsquo;s shorthanded goal gave Philadelphia a 4-3 win over Winnipeg.</figcaption></div><h2>Sun., Dec. 13</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-10103/5381000-1-eng-US/f0038-102.jpg" title="f0038-10" width="607" height="2358"></div> &#9632;

f0037-01

NHL SUMMARIES

ALL LEAGUE STANDINGS AS OF MON., DEC. 14<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2><h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01519/5381349-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="589" height="213"></div><h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02361/5381342-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="589" height="238"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>TUE, DEC. 8ADIRONDACK 4 AT NEWMARKET 4 (OT)FREDERICTON 7 AT SHERBROOKE 4WED., DEC. 9MAINE 2 AT HERSHEY 3MONCTON 3 AT NOVA SCOTIA 9BINGHAMTON 5 A UTICA 6 (OT)THUR., DEC. 10MAINE 2 AT BALTIMORE 2 (OT)FRI, DEC. 11UTICA 5 AT BINGHAMTON 2HERSHEY 9 AT MAINE 2NOVA SCOTIA 3 AT MONCTON 1SHERBROOKE 5 AT NEWMARKET 1ADIRONDACK 1 AT ROCHESTER 5NEW HAVEN 3 AT SPRINGFIELD 6SAT., DEC. 12ROCHESTER 4 AT ADIRONDACK 3 (OT)NOVA SCOTIA 4 AT FREDERICTON 5SHERBROOKE 2 AT HERSHEY 4NEW HAVEN 2 AT MAINE 4BINGHAMTON 5 AT SPRINGFIELD 1NEWMARKET 5 AT UTICA 3SUN., DEC. 13SHERBROOKE 7 AT BALTIMORE 0NEW HAVEN 3 AT NOVA SCOTIA 6FREDERICTON 3 AT ROCHESTER 5<h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03267/5381335-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="594" height="548"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04218/5381328-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="586" height="160"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05177/5381321-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="586" height="159"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06151/5381314-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="586" height="162"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>TUE., DEC. 8MILWAUKEE 3 AT MUSKEGON 6SALT LAKE 4 AT COLORADO 1WED., DEC 9SAGINAW 3 AT FORT WAYNE 6KALAMAZOO 7 AT COLORADO 5FLINT 4 AT MILWAUKEE 2THUR., DEC. 10MUSKEGON 3 AT SALT LAKE 6FRI., DEC. 11MILWAUKEE 6 AT PEORIA 7MUSKEGON 6 AT SALT LAKE 4FORT WAYNE 4 AT FLINT 3 (OT)KALAMAZOO 2 AT COLORADO 6SAT., DEC 12SALT LAKE 3 AT FORT WAYNE 4PEORIA 0 AT MUSKEGON 3MILWAUKEE 1 AT SAGINAW 7FLINT 0 AT KALAMAZOO 4SUN., DEC. 13KALAMAZOO 4 AT PEORIA 3MILWAUKEE 6 AT FLINT 9<h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07134/5381307-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="593" height="420"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-08121/5381300-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="589" height="161"></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2><h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-09109/5381293-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="587" height="211"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1095/5381286-1-eng-US/f0039-102.jpg" title="f0039-10" width="583" height="238"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>TUE, DEC. 8HAMILTON 8 AT SUDBURY 5OSHAWA 6 AT TORONTO 7WED, DEC. 9LONDON 7 AT GUELPH 5THUR, DEC. 10CORNWALL 6 AT PETERBOROUGH 1SUDBURY 1 AT WINDSOR 5FRI, DEC. 11WINDSOR 4 AT HAMILTON 7BELLEVILLE 6 AT KINGSTON 3GUELPH 7 AT KITCHENER 4SUDBURY 6 AT LONDON 8OSHAWA 2 AT OTTAWA 4NORTH BAY 3 AT S.S. MARIE 6SAT, DEC. 12PETERBOROUGH 4 AT BELLEVILLE 3OSHAWA 5 AT CORNWALL 6GUELPH 7 AT TORONTO 3SUN, DEC. 13PETERBOROUGH 1 AT CORNWALL 1 (OT)SUDBURY 0 AT HAMILTON 9KITCHENER 4 AT NORTH BAY 7LONDON 3 AT OSHAWA 2KINGSTON 5 AT OTTAWA 3WINDSOR 3 AT S.S. MARIE 6BELLEVILLE 4 AT TORONTO 3<h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1183/5381279-1-eng-US/f0039-112.jpg" title="f0039-11" width="587" height="58"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1275/5381272-1-eng-US/f0039-122.jpg" title="f0039-12" width="596" height="503"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1367/5381265-1-eng-US/f0039-132.jpg" title="f0039-13" width="593" height="162"></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1463/5381258-1-eng-US/f0039-142.jpg" title="f0039-14" width="588" height="239"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1556/5381251-1-eng-US/f0039-152.jpg" title="f0039-15" width="588" height="187"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>TUE, DEC. 8SASKATOON 4 AT MOOSE JAW 7SWIFT CURRENT 4 AT PRINCE ALBERT 2MED. HAT 2 AT VICTORIA 5WED, DEC. 9SWIFT CURRENT 2 AT SASKATOON 5MED. HAT 3 AT KAMLOOPS 5PORTLAND 3 AT SPOKANE 5FRI, DEC. 11PORTLAND 3 AT SWIFT CURRENT 6LETHBRIDGE 5 AT REGINA 7SASAKATOON 7 AT BRANDON 5PRINCE ALBERT 6 AT MOOSE JAW 4SPOKANE 4 AT NEW WESTMINSTER 3VICTORIA 6 AT SEATTLE 6 (OT)SAT, DEC. 12PORTLAND 1 AT MED. HAT 1 (OT)REGINA 6 AT MOOSE JAW 2VICTORIA 4 ST SPOKANE 3SEATTLE 4 AT KAMLOOPS 3 (OT)SUN, DEC. 13PORTLAND 1 AT LETHBRIDGE 3MED. HAT 3 AT REGINA 5SASKATOON 5 AT BRANDON 4PRINCE ALBERT 5 AT SWIFT CURRENT 4VICTORIA 3 AT SPOKANE 2SEATTLE 7 AT NEW WESTMINSTER 8 (OT)<h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1650/5381244-1-eng-US/f0039-162.jpg" title="f0039-16" width="594" height="628"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1745/5381237-1-eng-US/f0039-172.jpg" title="f0039-17" width="590" height="163"></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2><h3>DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1837/5381230-1-eng-US/f0039-182.jpg" title="f0039-18" width="591" height="163"></div><h3>LeBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1933/5381223-1-eng-US/f0039-192.jpg" title="f0039-19" width="591" height="159"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>MON, DEC, 7ST-JEAN 3 AT LAVAL 1TUE, DEC 8VERDUN 1 AT HULL 8DRUMMONDVILLE 5 AT T-RIVIERES 7WED, DEC. 9GRANBY 2 AT SHAWINIGAN 7VICTORIAVILLE 6 AT ST-JEAN 4THUR, DEC 10CHICOUTIMI 7 AT T-RIVIERES 5FRI, DEC. 11HULL 6 AT DRUMMONDVILLE 3VERDUN 3 AT GRANBY 7CHICOUTIMI 7 AT SHAWINIGAN 2LAVAL 4 AT ST ST-JEAN 5T-RIVIERES 2 AT VICTORIAVILLE 5SUN, DEC. 13GRANBY 2 AT CHICOUTIMI 7ST-JEAN 5 AT DRUMMONDVILLE 6LAVAL 6 AT T-RIVIERES 4SHAWINIGAN 6 AT VERDUN 10HULL 5 AT VICTORIAVILLE 6 (OT)<h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2028/5381216-1-eng-US/f0039-202.jpg" title="f0039-20" width="597" height="397"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2127/5381209-1-eng-US/f0039-212.jpg" title="f0039-21" width="587" height="62"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2225/5381202-1-eng-US/f0039-222.jpg" title="f0039-22" width="588" height="161"></div><h2>UNITED STATES LEAGUE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2324/5381195-1-eng-US/f0039-232.jpg" title="f0039-23" width="595" height="316"></div><h3>RESULTS</h3>FRI, DEC. 11NORTH IOWA 7 AT DUBUQUE 4DES MOINES 5 AT THUNDER BAY 11WATERLOO 6 AT OMAHA 4SAT, DEC. 12DES MOINES 4 AT THUNDER BAY 6NORTH IOWA 6 AT MADISON 4WATERLOO 5 AT SIOUX CITY 7ROCHESTER 6 AT DUBUQUE 1ST. PAUL 5 AT OMAHA 1SUN, DEC. 13ROCHESTER 4 AT MADISON 3DES MOINES 6 AT ST. PAUL 4SIOUX CITY 9 AT WATERLOO 10 (OT)<h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2421/5381188-1-eng-US/f0039-242.jpg" title="f0039-24" width="596" height="421"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2518/5381181-1-eng-US/f0039-252.jpg" title="f0039-25" width="590" height="161"></div> &#9632;

f0039-01

SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01247/5381380-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0040-01

Bauer COLLEGE scoreboard

<div class="byline">BY GRANT McGINNIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0041-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02132/5381411-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Rooney returned to practice with the Jets after missing all of November and half of December with a broken ankle.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01203/5381418-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="182" height="137"></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;Great hockey teams always find a way to win. But the Winnipeg Jets, slipping ever further from greatness, seem to be finding new ways to lose.So it was for the struggling NHL team in the second week of December, a stretch which saw the Jets gain just one point in three outings.First, it was a hot goaltender (Grant Fuhr) who stumped the Jets in a 2-0 loss at Edmonton Dec. 9. Then Winnipeg could not escape its own zone in the closing seconds of a 3-3 tie with Quebec Dec. 11.And on Dec. 13, Winnipeg gave up an extremely rare two-men short goal to Philadelphia&rsquo;s Murray Craven late in the game while tied 3-3. The resulting 4-3 loss ended the week and seemed to sum up the Jets&rsquo; frustrations of late.The defeat dropped the Jets&rsquo; record to 12-14-2 and left Winnipeg a whopping 14 points behind the Oilers and Calgary Flames in the Smythe Division race.Winnipeg captain Dale Hawerchuk was baffled by the Flyers&rsquo; good fortune while two men down. Veteran Jet defenseman Mario Marois lost control of the puck at the Philadelphia blue line, handing it right to Craven who went coast to coast to beat goaltender Eldon (Pokey) Reddick for the winner.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t happen very often,&rdquo; Hawerchuk said of the five-on-three goof, the 10th shorthanded goal Winnipeg had given up. &ldquo;It should not ever happen but it did. I don&rsquo;t know. We just made a boner on that play and it burned us.&rdquo;A similar blunder cost the Jets two nights earlier. Winnipeg allowed Quebec a tie at 3-3 when the Jets could not move the puck to safety.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that we didn&rsquo;t have the opportunities to move it out,&rdquo; said coach Dan Maloney, alluding to the Jets&rsquo; late collapse which allowed Quebec&rsquo;s Michel Goulet to tie the game with just 21 seconds remaining.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve just gotta keep practising things,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;Sometimes it&rsquo;s the little things in the game that are overlooked and we went over them again.&rdquo;Trouble in their own end of the rink is nothing new to the Jets. Since early November, when Winnipeg dropped from contenders to also-rans, third periods have brought plenty of similar difficulties and cost the team a half-dozen wins.&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t get it out the first time, you&rsquo;re usually in trouble,&rdquo; Maloney said. &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t get it out the second time, you are in trouble and they usually end up putting it in your net.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">It should not ever happen but it did&hellip;We just made a boner on that play and it burned us.&rsquo;&mdash;Hawerchuk</blockquote>It&rsquo;s a problem Winnipeg must solve if it hopes to climb back into a contender&rsquo;s role in the Smythe Division. Below the .500 mark, the Jets were fighting just to stay ahead of the Vancouver Canucks.And it isn&rsquo;t just a problem of young players making rookie mistakes, the kind of errors the team may have been forgiven for a few years ago. Veterans such as Randy Carlyle, Dave Ellett and Jim Kyte have been among the worst offenders.&ldquo;Whether it&rsquo;s a veteran or a rookie, it&rsquo;s always a concern,&rdquo; said Maloney. &ldquo;Obviously, you look to veterans to make fewer mistakes than the rookies but it&rsquo;s very important to remember that I play them a great deal and sometimes they get a little worn down.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Left winger Steve Rooney is back practising after being out since Nov. 1 with a fractured ankle&hellip;Winnipeg captain Dale Hawerchuk wasn&rsquo;t part of the Jets&rsquo; morning practices twice during the week because coach Dan Maloney gave him some time off&hellip;Swedish defenseman Fredrik Olausson, out since training camp after shoulder surgery, is now able to shoot the puck but is still a month away&hellip;Rookie left winger Iain Duncan scored twice against Quebec to stretch his goal total for the year to 10, nine since returning from the minors Nov. 19.<h2>JETS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen, Laurie Boschman, Ron Wilson.LW&mdash;lain Duncan, Doug Smail, Jim Niti, Gilles Hamel.RW&mdash;Paul MacLean, Hannu Jarvenpaa, Ray Neufeld, Andrew McBain.LD&mdash;Randy Carlyle, Dave Ellett, Jim Kyte.RD&mdash;Mario Marois, Peter Taglianetti, Brad Berry, Tim Watters.G&mdash;Eldon Reddick, Daniel Berthiaume.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Fredrik Olausson, D, shoulder surgery, Jan. 15.Steve Rooney, LW, fractured ankle, Dec. 20. &#9632;

f0041-02

Struggling Jets Fall Out Of Race In Smythe

<div class="byline">By Bruce Hood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-0392/5381449-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="374" height="446"></div>Q: What has happened to referee Kerry Fraser? At a time when everyone is criticizing officials, one of the better referees has disappeared.Mark Pucker, Philadelphia, Pa.A: Well, maybe he&rsquo;s disappeared from NHL rinks for the time being, but not entirely! Kerry was unable to report to training camp in September after he contracted hepatitis during the summer. Hepatitis is a blood disease that leaves the sufferer tired and run-down. Kerry is waiting for the affliction to leave his system before returning to action. Latest report: Kerry is feeling better and will soon return. Meanwhile, he is working for the NHL, observing trainee officials in the International League.Q: It is my understanding that a team in the Ontario League may be penalized if it is not on the ice ready to play at the official start time of a game. If a team is given a minor penalty, my question is, can the penalized team change the starting lineup it handed in?A: Ordinarily, once a team has submitted its starting lineup (visiting team first) there can be no change. But according to league policy, in the above instance the teams would be permitted to change, icing their penalty-killing and power-play units.Q: In an Oct. 24 game at Philadelphia between the Flyers and New York Rangers, New York&rsquo;s Walt Poddubny was in the penalty box when teammate Jan Erixon scored on a penalty shot. The television announcers did not know if it counted as a shorthanded goal, and in the NHL summaries in the Nov. 6 edition of THE HOCKEY NEWS, it is not listed as shorthanded. Does it count is a shorthanded goal or not?L.R. Hall, Taylor, Penn.A: Yes, it is considered a shorthanded goal. The situation is looked upon as a continuation of the play that was taking place at the time the penalty shot was assessed. In other words, if a goal had been scored during play while the player was in the box serving a minor, a shorthanded goal would have been credited. The NHL has since updated its statistics and credited Erixon with a shorthanded goal.If you want your questions answered, write to:ASK THE REFEREE16 Martin StreetMilton, Ont.L9T 2P9All questions will be considered, but only those published will be answered. Personal responses are not possible. &#9632;

f0041-03

ASK THE REFEREE

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01210/5381480-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="182" height="138"></div>CALGARY&mdash;The circumstances of his arrival may have intimidated a less confident player.Doug Dadswell, the Calgary Flames&rsquo; rookie goaltender, has been asked to fill some imposing skates this season&mdash;those worn by Reggie Lemelin from 1980 to 1987.Not only was Lemelin an accomplished player&mdash;twice a runner-up for the Vezina Trophy&mdash;he was a popular one as well. Except for Lanny McDonald, no one brought the house down like Lemelin, who&rsquo;d knock off 30 wins a year, many to the chant of &ldquo;Reggie, Reggie, Reggie.&rdquo;Accordingly, when the Flames decided it was time to bring in a younger man to do the job&mdash;giving Lemelin his outright release over the summer&mdash;they wanted someone who wasn&rsquo;t afraid of ghosts.Enter Dadswell. Signed as a free agent out of Cornell University in August, 1986, he played two seasons of college hockey with Joe Nieuwendyk, the team&rsquo;s rookie sensation.Cornell, of course, is a breeding ground for more NHL goalies per capita than any school in the U.S., beginning with Montreal Canadien great Ken Dryden and including Montreal&rsquo;s Brian Hayward and Detroit farmhand Darren Eliot.Is it a coincidence?&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a coincidence that the three of us went to the same school as Dryden,&rdquo; said Dadswell, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s a coincidence that the three of us all went there together&mdash;because (former Cornell coach) Lou Reycroft, who was my head coach, was goalie coach for Eliot and Hayward. He recruited them both. He&rsquo;s got a pretty good eye for goalies.&rdquo;The quality the Flames like best about Dadswell is his athleticism. Some goaltenders lumber around the ice in their equipment, but not Dadswell. He is an exceptional skater and it shows in the way he moves laterally across the crease and behind the goal.Occasionally this season, he&rsquo;s gotten himself into trouble with lapses in concentration. Otherwise, the Flames have been reasonably satisfied with his work. For this season, he is here to spell starter Mike Vernon.Eventually, they&rsquo;d like to see him push Vernon for the top job.So how does he find life in the NHL?&ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s what I expected,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not as glamorous, maybe. I mean, it does have its glamorous moments, especially playing in Calgary. People are always coming up to you to say, &lsquo;Good game or introducing themselves and asking for an autograph. In that way, it&rsquo;s a lot different than playing in the minors.&ldquo;Really though, it is just a job. I used to play in the summer with a bunch of pros and I was really intimidated by them. I&rsquo;d just sit in the dressing room and think, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m with all these stars.&rsquo; Then you get on the team with them and they&rsquo;re real people like anybody else. Probably if you were a movie star, it&rsquo;d be the same thing.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s got its tedious times just like anything else&mdash;but there are worse things. I&rsquo;d rather be doing what I&rsquo;m doing then waking up at seven every morning and working eight hours.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Joe Nieuwendyk recorded the second four-goal game of his rookie season, this one against Buffalo Dec. 13&hellip;The Flames tied a Calgary team record by putting together a nine-game undefeated streak. However, it came to an end in Pittsburgh in a 5-2 loss Dec. 8&hellip;One night earlier in Washington, a 5-4 win, Colin Patterson played his first game in almost two months. Patterson&rsquo;s return means the Flames must now sit out two regulars every night. Steve Bozek, Gary Roberts, John Tonelli and Lanny McDonald all took turns on the sidelines recently&hellip;As a result of their player surplus, you can expect the Flames to send a quality player, possibly center Carey Wilson, to Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team following the decision to exempt would-be Olympians from NHL waivers. The Flames&rsquo; owners are strong supporters of the Olympic program&hellip;The Flames received some bad news on two injured players. Center Perry Berezan, out indefinitely with a groin injury, will try to get into the Mayo Clinic to see if they can isoland what exactly is the cause of his recurring injury&hellip;Defenseman Paul Reinhart will undergo a further series of tests on his injured back in January to determine if surgery is necessary. Reinhart&rsquo;s condition&mdash;a deteriorating disc&mdash;could be career-threatening. It looks as if Reinhart, 27, could miss the rest of the regular season.<h2>FLAMES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joel Otto, Mike Bullard, Joe Nieuwendyk, Carey Wilson, Steve Bozek.LW&mdash;Jim Peplinski, Colin Patterson, John Tonelli, Gary Roberts.RW&mdash;Joey Mullen, Hakan Loob, Brett Hull, Tim Hunter, Lanny McDonald.LD&mdash;Gary Suter, Brian Glynn, Neil Sheehy.RD&mdash;Brad McCrimmon, Al Maclnnis, Ric Nattress.G&mdash;Mike Vernon, Doug Dadswell.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Perry Berezan, C, groin, indefinite.Jamie Macoun, D, nerve damage, arm and shoulder, indefinite.Paul Reinhart, D, back spasms, indefinite. &#9632;

f0042-01

Dadswell Isn’t Afraid Of Ghostbuster Role

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02148/5381511-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="181" height="134"></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;Every year at this time, at least one NHL team is hit so hard with injuries the world looks like one giant red cross.The Vancouver Canucks, spared such a horror for five or six years, are finding it&rsquo;s their turn this season. And while nobody is using it as an excuse, it&rsquo;s almost impossible for a team such as the Canucks to win when the likes of Tony Tanti and Barry Pederson join a horde of others on the sidelines.It&rsquo;s getting so bad, players are getting hurt before they even get to the rink. Pederson left his home in the west end of Vancouver Dec. 12 for a game against the Edmonton Oilers, but never made it.&ldquo;He ran into the back of a truck,&rdquo; said Brian Burke, the Canucks&rsquo; director of hockey operations. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll miss our road trip to Hartford and Boston. He&rsquo;s got a minor whiplash injury.&rdquo;Tanti took a shot on the foot in a 3-2 home win over Minnesota Dec. 8, and skated off the ice thinking it would be all right. But X-rays showed a broken bone, putting Tanti out until Christmas or two weeks after. That brought the total players unavailable due to sickness or injury to seven. Seventy-four man-games were lost though Dec. 14.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty scary playing the Oilers when they&rsquo;re healthy let alone when we&rsquo;re this beat up,&rdquo; said Burke.The Canucks gave every indication that when and if they get a complete lineup this season, they will be much improved over last year. They played well in losing 2-1 to the Oilers in Edmonton Dec. 11, prompting Wayne Gretzky to say he feels the Canucks are &ldquo;the most improved team in the league.&rdquo;The following night they gave up three shorthanded goals, losing 6-3 with a lineup more familiar to the people of Fredericton than it was to Vancouverites.&ldquo;The shorthanded goals really hurt us,&rdquo; said coach Bob McCammon. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t give up goals like that, especially against a team like Edmonton.&rdquo;Meanwhile, the Canucks were making the most of the injuries to get a look at what depth they have in the organization. The latest recall from the American League was John LeBlanc, who scored two goals against Edmonton in his first game up this season.NOTES&mdash;Given the need to juggle, Bob McCammon has used rookie defenseman Ian Kidd up on the right wing on some shifts&hellip;Rookie goals Kirk McLean was 1-6 in his last seven starts, despite the fact he&rsquo;s given UP more than three goals just three times&hellip;The Canucks had lost all four meetings with the Oilers, plus both against the Flames and had a 1-8-1 Smythe Division record. They were .500 against the rest of the league&hellip;The Canucks had been excellent in the first period, outscoring the opposition 15-7 in their last 13 games.<h2>CANUCKS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec 10: John LeBlanc, LW, recalled from Fredericton (AHL).Dec 13: Dan Woodley, C, recalled from Flint (IHL); Jim Sandlak, RW, recalled from Fredericton; Jeff Rohlicek, C, and David Bruce, RW, assigned to Fredericton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Steve Tambellini, Greg Adams, Doug Wickenheiser, Dan Woodley.LW&mdash;Dave Saunders, John LeBlanc, Craig Coxe, Petri Skriko.RW&mdash;Stan Smyl, Ronnie Stern, Rich Sutter, Jim Sandlak.LD&mdash;Jim Benning, Randy Boyd, Doug Lidster, Jim Agnew.RD&mdash;Garth Butcher, Ian Kidd, Dave Richter.G&mdash;Frank Caprice, Kirk McLean.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Richard Brodeur, G, pulled groin, day-to-day.Dan Hodgson, C, fractured leg, out for season.Willie Huber, D, strained left knee, indefinite.Larry Melnyk, D, eye injury, day-to-day.Barry Pederson, C, whiplash, day-to-day.Darryl Stanley, D, bruised shoulder, day-to-day.Tony Tanti, RW, broken bone in foot, indefinite. &#9632;

f0042-02

Injury Toll Keeps Rising On Canucks

<div class="byline">BY LARRY HUMBER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01207/5381549-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"></div><h2>ACROSS:</h2>1. Pictured Jet holds the NHL record for most assists&mdash;five&mdash;in a period (9).8. First name of the Whalers&rsquo; general manager (5).9. This former Islander was twice a first-team all-star (7).10. Home of the 1985 Memorial Cup-winning Raiders, Albert (6).11. This Hamilton, Ont.-born Maple Leaf appeared in 36 games last season (6).12. Divide (5).14. Give medical attention to (5).17. He served more than twice as many penalty minutes as any of his Islander teammates last season (6).19. Cup awarded in six of the seven Canadian NHL cities (6).20. Players not shy about going into them are often referred to as &lsquo;diggers&rsquo; (7).21. First name of the Kings&rsquo; general manager (5).22. His six NHL seasons were spent mostly with the North Stars, Tom (9).<h2>DOWN:</h2>2. Nimble (5).3. Cleveland-born Jet, Dave (6).4. Shoot the puck away from the defended goal (5).5. He and Harold Snepsts share the Canuck club record for most seasons (10) with the team, Dennis (6).6. Referees use them when assessing penalties (7).7. Harry Howell was a Ranger for this number of seasons (9).11. Home of the American League&rsquo;s Skipjacks (9).13. &lsquo;Billy D&rsquo; (7).15. He topped American League scorers last season, Tim (6).16. The Ontario League&rsquo;s commissioner (6).17. The Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; logo features one (5).18. Broten with New Jersey (5).Crossword solution in Classified Section on page 32.<h2>CROSSWORD SOLUTION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04177/5381542-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="588" height="579"></div> &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

December 25, 1987

Elston

‘I Get The Best Out Of Me’—Marcel Dionne

The Cold, Calculating World Of Scouting Prep Ice Squads

IT’S THE WAY IT ISN’T