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

January 15, 1988

The Hockey News January 15, 1988

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011275/5387533-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="177" height="136"></div>EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.&mdash;The wait continues.Since he was made the Devils&rsquo; first choice in the 1986 entry draft (third overall), Neil Brady has kept everyone waiting. Now, in his third full season with Medicine Hat of the Western League, the 6foot3, 195pound center remains at the top of the organization&rsquo;s list of prospects.&ldquo;We feel Brady has a future,&rdquo; said president and general manager Lou Lamoriello. &ldquo;We feel strength was his problem and now he&rsquo;s on a program. A (physical) therapist speaks with him once a week. I think you&rsquo;ll see Brady here in the near future.&rdquo;If not, there are several other prospects who might be. They include Olympic goalies Sean Burke of Canada (1271, 3.03 GAA, 890 save percentage) and Chris Terreri of the U.S. (1142, 2.99, .871), 19-year-old defenseman Marc Laniel of Oshawa and right winger Troy Crowder of Belleville.&ldquo;We also feel we have the two best prospects in Europe,&rdquo; said former GM and current executive vicepresident Max McNab. &ldquo;Lars Persson and Janne Ojanen are highly-regarded by our scouting staff.&rdquo;Persson, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound Swedish defenseman, was New Jersey&rsquo;s second pick in the 1987 draft behind Brendan Shanahan. The lefthanded shooter is playing his third season for Ostersund in Sweden. In 31 games for the team last season, Person scored 10 goals and 21 points. for Ojanen was a thirdround pick in &lsquo;86. A center who stands 6foot2 and 185 pounds, the Finnishborn Ojanen had seven goals and 18 assists in 23 games for Tappara this season.Laniel, the Oshawabom backliner, enjoyed a sensational training camp with the Devils this year. The 6footl, 190pounder was loaned to the Canadian Olympic team and, when he failed to stick with the club, returned to the Ontario League. He remains one of the brightest prospects in the entire organization and played well at the World Jr. Championships for Canada.In 12 games for Oshawa this season, Laniel had 10 assists and 15 penalty minutes.The progression of New Jersey&rsquo;s Olympic players, including defenseman Eric Weinrich, has been welldocumented. Burke is still regarded as the best pure goalie on the depth chart and Terreri is a bright young star who made a lasting impression on Lamoriello at Providence College.There are, however, lesserknown talents who could reach the NHL sooner. Among them is Crowder, drafted in the sixth round in 1986. Currently playing with Belleville in the Ontario League, where he had six goals, nine assists and 91 penalty minutes in 25 games, the big right winger is ticketed for a spot with the Devils.As for Brady, in 27 games this year, the playmaking forward had eight goals and 19 assists, along with 66 PIM.NOTES&mdash;After posting a 1211 record at home, me Devils lost three straight and four of five on their own ice&hellip;Craig Wolanin was slowed by a sore left hip. Aaron Broten&rsquo;s goal on Dec. 26, against the Rangers, made him the first player to score 300 points as a Devil. He also appeared in his 475th game for New Jersey, topping the mark held by Mike Kitchen&hellip;George McPhee, sidelined since Nov. 20 with a groin pull, has become a patient at me Gajda Clinicm Hillside, Ill. Dr. Karen Gajda, an expert on musclular injuries, has treated players such as Al Secord. McPhee, who has played in five games all season, figures he&rsquo;s paid more per shift than Wayne Gretzky&hellip;Doug Carpenter, who recorded his 250th professional coaching victory Dec. 28, was three victories shy of No. 100 as an NHL coach.&bull;<h2>DEVILS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 30: Anders Carlsson, LW, assigned to Utica (AHL).Dec. 31: Gord Mark, D, assigned to Utica.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Kirk Muller, Claude Loiselle, Pat rik Sundstrom, Mark Johnson.LW&mdash;Aaron Broten, Doug Sulliman, Jim Korn, Perry Anderson, David Maley, Andy Brickley.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, reaggravated groin pull, indefinite. &#9632;

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Devils Still Waiting For Brady To Develop

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Tom Boggie</div>Two members of the Colgate Red Raiders escaped serious injury Dec. 19 in an upstate New York carvan collision. Senior right winger Mark Holmes, driver of the car, broke his nose in three places, and junior goaltender Wayne Cowley, a passenger, suffered a dislocated left shoulder.The car was totalled and early reports had Cowley missing action until February.But Colgate sports information director Bob Cornell said the goalie has been enjoying a quick recovery. He could return, in a backup role, for games Jan. 89 against RPI and Vermont.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01562/5388757-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="178" height="129"></div>Cowley had never been injured in his twoplus years at Colgate. He played in 31 games last year and had a streak of 29 straight starts over the course of the last two years.The native of Bramalea, Ont., was off to a great start this year. He had a careerbest 3.00 goalsagainst average and .912 save percentage, also a career high, over the first eight games of the year.Holmes was not expected to miss any league games.Two other passengers, former Red Raider Kelly Mills and Holmes&rsquo; girlfriend, Sandy Crowder, weren&rsquo;t injured. The foursome was headed home to Canada for the holidays.<h2>ELI OOPS</h2>Not one skater was averaging a point a game for the 08 Yale Elis. Senior center Rob Baseg gio (16) and sophomore center Erik O&rsquo;Borsky (43) shared the team&rsquo;s scoring lead with seven points each&hellip;St. Lawrence&rsquo;s 21 win at Clarkson Dec. 9 was the Golden Knights&rsquo; first home loss in 19 games (1801) at Walker Arena&hellip;The Soviet Select team ended its American tour with a 64 victory against RPI. &ldquo;They were beatable,&rdquo; said Engineers&rsquo; coach Mike Adde sa. RPI held a 31 lead going into the third period.Clarkson senior center Luc Borsato needed just nine points to hit the 150 mark for his career while Colgate senior right winger Rejean Boivin needed seven points to reach the same plateau&hellip;Since the ECAC and Hockey East split four years ago, RPI has played just one game against former rival Providence&mdash;the 1985 national championship, when the Engineers won 21 at Joe Louis Arena. &#9632;

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The Colleges

Raiders Hurt In Car Crash

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02154/5389429-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">This is how you do it: Toronto Maple Leaf captain George Armstrong (right) gives alternate captain Bob Pulford some tips after an early 1960s game atMaple Leaf Gardens. Pulford and Armstrong were key players on the Leaf teams that won four Stanley Cups during the decade.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

THE WAY WE WERE

FOR DEC. 28JAN. 3<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02439/5388484-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="379" height="483"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVID HAAS Windsor ONTARIO LEAGUE</figcaption></div>Left winger David Haas, 19, of the Windsor Spitfires scored five goals and seven assists in four games. Included were fourpoint games against Hamilton and North Bay.Haas improved his totals to 29 goals and 23 assists in 36 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03313/5388477-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="377" height="477"><figcaption class="caption-body">PATRICE LEFEBVRE Shawinigan QUEBEC LEAGUE</figcaption></div>Shawinigan right winger Patrice Lefebr ve scored three goals and five assists in four games to stay atop the league&rsquo;s individual scoring race. The 5foot5, 165 pound 20-year-old&rsquo;s totals were 38 goals and 78 assists for 116 points after 42 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04226/5388470-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="371" height="480"><figcaption class="caption-body">JASON PHILLIPS Victoria WESTERN LEAGUE</figcaption></div>Victoria left winger Jason Phillips scored five goals and eight assists for 13 points in four games.Phillips, 20, improved his season totals to 26 goals and 27 assists for 53 points in 29 league games.At the end of the current season, THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year. &#9632;

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MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Every hockey game features three teams&mdash;the home side, the visitors and those objects of fan scorn in black and white, the officials.The National Hockey League has its own system of rating referees and linesmen, but that&rsquo;s confidential stuff. So, THN has taken a different slant to looking at the work of officials. Statistician Murray Townsend examines each NHL referee&rsquo;s tendencies over the first 400 games of the season.In 198586, Luc Robitaille and Guy Rouleau were the goaldust twins of the Quebec League&rsquo;s Hull Olympiques. Both enjoyed 191point seasons that year, but their careers have diverged widely since. Robitaille continued his topgun act with the Los Angeles Kings, but Rouleau has found life after junior more difficult. Read his story, and enjoy all of our regular features, in the Jan. 22 edition of THE HOCKEY NEWS. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>For a brand-new coach, Robbie Ftorek has inspired strongly-mixed feelings. Few NHL execs will admit they fear a foe but the Canucks&rsquo; Brian Burke tells BLUELINES that he&rsquo;s concerned about what rookie coach Robbie Ftorek will do for the rival Kings. &ldquo;Ever since he started coaching, Robbie has developed such a special loyalty among his players that they&rsquo;ll go through the wall for him. That scares me and the other thing that scares me is that when he starts coaching, his club&rsquo;s goals-against numbers go down.&rdquo; One former WHA exec, now in the NHL, tells BLUELINES that Robbie was miserable to deal with as a player. &ldquo;We once had an AllStar Game and asked all the players to come out on the ice without their helmets,&rdquo; the official recalls. &ldquo;Everyone complied but Ftorek. He just wouldn&rsquo;t take his helmet off. Just obstinate.&rdquo; Another story making the rounds is that Robbie&rsquo;s former New Haven players wanted to charter a bus to the Byrne-Meadowlands Arena for Ftorek&rsquo;s coaching debut against the Devils. A reporter suggested that it showed devotion to their exleader. &ldquo;Nah,&rdquo; says one NHLer, &ldquo;they just wanted to make sure he wasn&rsquo;t coming back to New Haven!&rdquo;<h2>BETTER FOR KNOWING HIM</h2>Among the nicer notes sent to the family of the late Punch Imlach was one penned by Baltimore Skipjack coach GM Gene Ubriaco, who played in the Maple Leaf organization during the Imlach era. &ldquo;Punch was a leader beyond reproach,&rdquo; wrote Ubriaco. &ldquo;I was a player sent out or cut from camp many times. I knew then&mdash;as I know now&mdash;he did what was best for his team and organization. He made people better for having met him.&rdquo;&hellip;A nonadmirer of Philadelphia&rsquo;s Ron Hextall is Devils&rsquo; goalie Alain Chevrier, who doesn&rsquo;t even list the Flyer among his top five NHL goalies. Chevy has never forgiven Hextall for sucker-punching him from behind after a Devils&rsquo; win last year in New Jersey&hellip;Vic Lynn, who played left wing on Toronto&rsquo;s postwar &lsquo;Kid Line&rsquo; with Hall-of-Famer Teeder Kennedy and Howie Meeker, was inducted into the Saskatoon Hall of Fame. To this day Lynn holds a grudge against Maurice (Rocket) Richard for a 29stitch clubbing Richard administered during the 1947 Stanley Cup finals. &ldquo;If I see the Rocket at an oldtimers affair, I still won&rsquo;t talk to him,&rdquo; says Lynn. &ldquo;When you get cut for 29 stitches from someone, you never forget it!&rdquo; Lynn rates Bruin center Milt Schmidt the greatest opponent he&rsquo;s ever faced and Hall-of-Famer Syl Apps his top teammate.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011339/5387178-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="743" height="1083"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Blues&rsquo; Charlie Bourgeois is a &ldquo;most eligible bachelor.&rdquo;</figcaption></div><h2>BALLOTBOX STUFFING</h2>Chris Chelios&rsquo; parents came up from San Diego to watch the Kings at The Forum recently. Chris&rsquo; Mom kept herself busy through three periods by marking NHL AllStar ballots for her son. By game&rsquo;s end, Mrs. Chelios had stuffed a shopping bag full of ballots&hellip;In Detroit, reporters refer to the Wings&rsquo; Bob Probert as &ldquo;Heavyweight Champion of the NHL. &ldquo;&hellip; Hearing trade rumors recently, a couple of veteran reporters recalled the classic Lynn Patrick story about the time Craig Patrick&rsquo;s dad was running the Boston Bruins and Buddy Boone was a fringe player with the Bs. Patrick phoned another GM asking, &ldquo;What will you give me for Buddy Boone?&rdquo; The other GM quickly replied, &ldquo;Nothing!&rdquo; and left it at that. &ldquo;Great,&rsquo;&rsquo; said Lynn, &ldquo;you&rsquo;ve got a deal!&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Underrated Bruin rookie Glen Wesley explains his success rather simply: &ldquo;I try to be intense without putting pressure on myself. I try to play a calm game.&rdquo;<h2>ELIGIBLE FOR DEMOTION?</h2>Asked if he&rsquo;s still the most eligible bachelor on the Blues, ebullient Charlie Bourgeois tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;If I don&rsquo;t watch out, I&rsquo;ll be the most eligible bachelor in the minors!&rdquo;&hellip;The first official history of Hartford&rsquo;s club is on the market with publication of 15 Years of Whalers Hockey, authored by Jack Lautier. The book opens with a biblical quote from Genesis: &ldquo;And God created great whales.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;American Olympians are desperately trying to downplay their chances at Calgary, fearing a build-up-to-alet-down a la 1984 at Sarajevo. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re definitely the underdogs,&rsquo;&rsquo; says goalie John Blue. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s the way we want to go in, and hopefully someone will underestimate us.&rdquo;&hellip;ExNHLer Gerry Hart and his partner, Ed Broidy, broke ground for their new Southampton Civic Center ice rink on the eastern tip of Long Island. Hart is a successful realtor. The Islanders are expected to place a junior team there when the building is completed.<h2>HE&rsquo;LL BE ON THE HUNT</h2>Bob Berry nixed the Fredericton AHL coaching job to stay home with his family in California during the Christmas holidays. Bob makes no bones over the fact that he&rsquo;ll be jobhunting in 1988&hellip;The NHL quietly warned Kings&rsquo; coowner Bruce McNall that he cannot offer cash bonuses to players during a game. The fine would be $10,000&hellip;Emile (The Cat) Francis is taking heat from Hartford Courant columnist Alan Greenberg. &ldquo;If Francis wants to have more than an alsoran team, he might need to do something major,&rdquo; writes Greenberg. &ldquo;Expectations are higher for the Whalers, and they should be. If Francis has the stuff to shed the New York/St. Louis rap that he can make a team respectable but not a champion, he&rsquo;ll never have a better chance to prove it than here.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Shortly before he was dealt to the Kings, exLeaf Mike Allison was involved in a curfew close call with coach John Brophy. It happened during a Leafs&rsquo; trip to Long Island when Allison was invited to dinner by Alex Fuchs, an accountant friend and oldtime Ranger fan. Allison was in the middle of an eight-course meal when Alex&rsquo;s son, Gary, checked his watch and reminded Allison of the curfew. Mike excused himself, bolted from the dining room and was sped to the Leafs&rsquo; hotel by Gary. Brophy was sitting in the lobby checking curfew when Allison arrived&mdash;just in time. Next time Gary saw Brophy he balled out the coach for depriving Allison of his mom&rsquo;s freshbaked apple pie.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021086/5387171-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="1506" height="2206"><figcaption class="caption-body">Robbie Ftorek is described as &ldquo;obstinate&rdquo; by one former WHA executive, but is feared by an NHL rival for what he may be able to accomplish in L.A.</figcaption></div><h2>KEPT &lsquo;EM IN STITCHES</h2>Whalers&rsquo; telecaster Gerry Cheevers finally reveals why he started the practice of painting stitch marks on his goalie mask when he played for the Bruins. &ldquo;1 was trying to get out of practice one day when this shot that couldn&rsquo;t have broken an egg hit me in the mask. I faked a serious injury and went into the locker-room. I was sitting there having a Coke when Harry Sinden came in and told me to get back out on the ice. All the guys were laughing so I knew I had to do something. I told the trainer to paint a 30stitch gash on the mask. Then I went out and told Harry, &lsquo;See how bad it is.&rsquo;&hellip;Former Bruin-Islander Ed Westfall reveals that when he teamed with Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito in Boston, the Bruins were constantly trying to set up Cheevers for a goalscoring shot.<h2>VIOLENCE TIED TO HOCKEY</h2>Outside the NHL&rsquo;s world, violence remains synonymous with hockey but the NHL marketing bureau insists that blood is not one of the league&rsquo;s selling tools. &ldquo;The issue of violence doesn&rsquo;t generally surface in terms of corporate presentations,&rdquo; says NHL marketing veep Steve Ryan, &ldquo;because corporations look at the total package in terms of what value they&rsquo;re receiving and who the fans are.&rdquo; The NHL has seen its corporate sponsorships climb from a 25 percent jump in 1986 over the previous year to a 40 percent hike this season over last. The NHL&rsquo;s corporate sponsors include American Express and Proctor & Gamble. A Madison Avenue ad exec explains: &ldquo;The NHL doesn&rsquo;t sell violence on strictly a marketing level. But the league can&rsquo;t control the images the sport sends out through TV and newspapers. The NHL does sell a total package and although a company won&rsquo;t publicly admit it, violence is something to be considered both on positive and negative levels.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Departments

Kings’ Coach Elicits Strong Feelings

CHRYSLER CANADA IS THE EXCLUSIVE SPONSOR OF THE DODGENHL PERFORMER OF THE WEEK, MONTH AND YEAR AWARDS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011363/5387209-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="559" height="818"><figcaption class="caption-body">Clint Malarchuk</figcaption></div>NEW YORK&mdash;Washington Capitals&rsquo; goaltender Clint Malarchuk, who led his team to a 301 record and registered a 2.45 average, was named the Dodge Performer of the Week for the period ending January 4. Malarchuk, who also registered his first shutout of the season, edged out rookie center Joe Nieuwendyk and rightwinger Hakan Loob of the Calgary Flames, as well as Boston Bruins&rsquo; goaltender Rejean Lemelin to capture the honor.The Dodge and Chrysler Canada divisions of Chrysler Motors will donate $500 to the youth hockey organization of Malarchuk&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.Malarchuk, a 26-year-old native of Grand Prairie, Alberta, began the week by registering 27 saves in a 44 final against Toronto (Dec. 28). He then led his team to two divisional wins, a 43 road victory against New Jersey (Dec. 30) and a 53 homeice final versus Pittsburgh (Jan. 1). The following day Malarchuk backstopped the Capitals to a 20 shutout of the Edmonton Oilers, bringing his career shutout total to six. So far in 198788, Malarchuk has compiled a 12113 record, with a 3.26 average and a save percentage of .878.Nieuwendyk and Loob each recorded 10 points in four games, posting 5510 and 2810 marks respectively. &#9632;

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DODGE NHL PERFORMER OF THE WEEK

HAVING FILLED MY quota of cheap shots for the year. I went to bed Christmas Eve feeling awfully smug.But while I slept. I was visited by this apparition rattling chains.&ldquo;Marley?&rsquo;&rsquo; I said.&ldquo;No, Pully,&rdquo; he said and disappeared.Next appeared the ghost of Christmas past, Gilles Meloche. who told me to stop being such a wise guy. The ghost of Christmas present. Steve Kasper, then admonished me for writing off the Boston Bruins. But at least he was friendly about it. Later, the ghost of Christmas future, Joe Nicuwendyk. made me see the error of my ways.I woke up in a cold sweat as a changed man. 1 resolved never to make fun of Al Tuer again. Suddenly filled with the essential goodness of mankind, plus a lot of eggnog, I didn&rsquo;t stop there. I made some more New Year&rsquo;s resolutions:&bull; I resolve never to make sport of the Norris Division again. As the good doctor Frank Orr used to say about the Toronto Maple Leafs, &lsquo;&lsquo;It&rsquo;s not nice to heckle the Special Olympians.&rdquo;&bull; I resolve never again to suggest that this is the year the Boston Bruins, living on fumes since the Espo and Orr era. finally die of carbon monoxide poisoning.In September 1 looked at what Boston had and waited a suitable time for Ray Bourque to clone himself so that the Bruins would have a chance to win half their games.But Bourque cannot clone alone, as Woody Allen used to say. And with the other Bruins figuring to combine for oh, about 10 goals the entire season, I figured this was it for the proud old black and gold.If you tied all of Harry Sinden&rsquo;s bad draft picks together, they would run all the way to Worcester.And if you wrapped them around Sinden&rsquo;s body, chained him with Frank Simonetti, and lowered him into a vat of boiling oil, Sinden would come up one year later holding Cam Neely. And be in contention again.&bull; I resolve never to pick Buffalo to win anything again until Phil Housley, Dave Andreychuk, Tom Barrasso, Paul Cyr. Adam Creighton and Mikael Andersson become the great players 1 know they will be.&bull; I resolve never to assume that any move Washington makes will make a difference.&bull; I resolve not to use any product or service Gulf and Western offers, because if any of their other divisions are run the way the New York Rangers are. then there are wiser places to spend my money.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011244/5387240-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="347" height="466"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jay Greenberg</figcaption></div>I just wonder why a general manager. Phil Esposito, who repeatedly says he&rsquo;s just passing through this job for a few years, can be allowed by his bosses to make all these moves, a lot of which appear to be shortterm in nature.&bull; I resolve not to question why all those bodies and names were exchanged between Toronto and Chicago last summer. Both those team&rsquo;s records still look the same to me.&bull; I resolve not to giggle the next time 1 read somebody writing off the Philadelphia Flyers. Or the New York Islanders or the Montreal Canadiens, as was the case a few years ago. Or any organization, for that matter, with a track record for solving its problems. Don&rsquo;t tell me the better teams simply have more talent. They have a state of mind that breeds success.&bull; I resolve not to feel like Sports Illustrated&rsquo;s hockey bias is hopeless. Not even when a year that contained Rendezvous &lsquo;87, a Stanley Cup final that featured three come-from-behind victories and wasn&rsquo;t decided until the 57th minute of game seven, plus the Canada Cup, is summarized as follows:&ldquo;Hockey tried to clean up its act with more, severe penalties for fighting, but these proved no more than mild deterrents to violence. Still, Wayne Gretzky, an artist among thugs, continued to dominate the game, demonstrating again and again that finesse does indeed count for something.&rdquo;&bull; 1 also resolve not to feel too sorry for the NHL until it stops giving Sports Illustrated both the gun and bullets by once and for all getting rid of fighting that it does not need.&bull; I resolve never to try to figure out whether the Winnipeg Jets are any good or whether John Ferguson is very smart until they put good years or bad years back-to-back.&bull; 1 resolve not to wonder what division gets to play the Soviet Red Army team when those games against NHL clubs count next year. What division gets a crack at Chelyanbinsk Traktor?&bull; I resolve to very much wanting the Red Army to tour the Norris, because I can&rsquo;t keep a straight face. Or a New Year&rsquo;s resolution, either. PHILADELPHIA FLYERS &#9632;

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Columnists

A New Year, Another Set Of Resolutions

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02917/5387271-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="177" height="135"></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;When the Philadelphia Flyers made their drive to the Stanley Cup finals last season, the unFsung heroes were guys named Tim Tookey, Don Nachbaur, Al Hill and Craig Berube.All were regulars on the Flyers&rsquo; American League affiliate in Hershey, and all helped fill gaps as the Flyers extended Edmonton to a sevengame final series.&ldquo;We believe that a strong minorleague program will help us,&rdquo; said Flyer general manager Bob Clarke, &ldquo;and with Hershey so close (to Philadelphia) we can keep a close eye on things.&rdquo;Flyer assistant coach Bill Barber acts as a go-between as the Flyers keep constant watch on player development at Hershey. Granted, the Flyers&rsquo; lineup is tough to crack, but already this season, they have used right winger Brian Dobbin, left winger Berube, and defensemen Greg Smyth, John Stevens and Jeff Chychrun from their AHL farm club.&ldquo;We think we&rsquo;ve got some outstanding young players in the AHL and other places,&rdquo; said Clarke, &ldquo;and we think many of them are going to wind up playing in the NHL.&rdquo;One player Clarke is quite certain to fit into the Flyer plans is Berube. He has already played several games with Philadelphia this season&mdash;filling in when Dave Brown was suspended&mdash;and made a big impression on coach Mike Keenan.&ldquo;He reminds me of some of the young players I had when I first got here (1984),&rdquo; said Keenan. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s tough, young and hungry for success.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s almost a certainty the Flyers will be calling upon Berube, signed as a free agent, during this season.But the Flyers&rsquo; biggest lot of future talent appears to be on defense. Though they traded away Mike Stothers, their firstround pick of 1980, to Toronto, and though their firstround pick of 1981, Steve Smith, isn&rsquo;t setting the AHL on fire, the Flyers still have several other potential NHLers.One of those is Greg Smyth, their firstround pick in 1984, who was activated by the Flyers when Brad Marsh was injured. If Smyth can overcome his over aggressiveness, he could help the Flyers this season.They&rsquo;ve also got John Stevens, who was drafted in the fifth round in 1984. &ldquo;He&lsquo;s going to play in the NHL, &ldquo;said Clarke. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s going to be this year or next, but he&rsquo;ll be in the NHL.&rdquo;There are several potential NHLers lurking among the defensemen in the Flyer system.Stevens had one goal and 10 assists in his first 33 games with Hershey this season.The Flyers also have high expectations for Jeff Chychrun, a stay-at-home defenseman who had one assist and 93 penalty minutes in 25 games with Hershey.One of the bright lights at forward is Jukka Seppo, who was drafted in the second round in 1986, but had to remain in Finland this season to fulfill his military obligations.&ldquo;We might bring him over at the end of this season, just to get an idea of what things are like here,&rdquo; said Clarke, &ldquo;but we don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;ll play here until next season, or the one after that.&rdquo;Closer to home, the Flyers are pleased with the progress of forward Glen Seabrooke, their firstround pick in 1985 draft. Seabrooke, bothered by a cyst on his hip last season, is having a big year at Hershey with 15 goals and 22 assists in 33 games.&ldquo;This is his first year of pro,&rdquo; said Clarke, &ldquo;and we think he&rsquo;s come along very well. We&rsquo;re real happy with his development.&rdquo;In the Ontario League, the Flyers are watching the development of defenseman Darren Rumble of Kitchener, their firstround pick in 1987, and Kent Hawley, a big center from Ottawa, who was their second-round pick in 1986.NOTES&mdash;The Flyers&rsquo; 14game unbeaten steak ended with a 60 loss at Edmonton, followed by a 54 loss in Calgary. They rebounded with a 41 win at Vancouver, evening their road record at .500 (992) over the first half of the season. The .500 road mark after 20 road games was a team bonus item, earning players and coaches $1,000 apiece&hellip;Peter Zezel had 14 goals (11 on the power play) over 19 games&hellip;Murray Craven led the team with 13 goals, 10 of which were scored on the road&hellip;The loss at Edmonton gave the Flyers a 1100 record in their last 11 games there, including playoffs. &bull;<h2>FLYERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 27: J.J. Daigneault, D, assigned to Hershey (AHL) for two weeks of conditioning.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dave Poulin, Pelle Eklund, Peter Zezel, Ron Sutter.LW&mdash;Murray Craven, Derrick Smith, Lindsay Carson, Magnus Roupe, Nick Fotiu.RW&mdash;Rick Tocchet, Scott Mellanby, llkka Sinisalo, Dave Brown.LD&mdash;Mark Howe, Brad Marsh, Doug Crossman.RD&mdash;Kjell Samuelsson, Kerry Huffman, Greg Smyth, Bill Root.G&mdash;Ron Hextall, Mark Laforest.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brian Propp, LW, sprained left knee, Jan. 6. &#9632;

f0005-02

Fivers Tough To Crack, But Some Manage

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK AND JIM KELLEY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011426/5387316-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Calgary sharpshooter Joe Nieuwendyk, being checked by Islander captain Brent Sutter, was on pace for a 58goal season after 37 games.</figcaption></div>First, a disclaimer.Nobody wins the Calder Trophy as the National Hockey League&rsquo;s rookie of the year on the strength of his play in the first half of the season.Kjell Dahlin will tell you that. Luc Robitaille, last year&rsquo;s winner, will second it.&ldquo;I was in Hull in 1985,&rdquo; says Robitaille, &ldquo;and 1 didn&rsquo;t even hear of Gary Suter until after Christmas. It&rsquo;s important to play well all season long, but it&rsquo;s what you do at the end that really matters.&rdquo;NHL history is full of players who were absolute shooins midway through the season and then for whatever reason&mdash;injuries or slumps&mdash;didn&rsquo;t win the Calder. See Don Murdoch or Rick Middleton for details.That said, it would take some giant unforeseen circumstance to keep Joe Nieuwendyk, the Calgary Flames&rsquo; first-year center, from running away with the annual award.As the teams reached the halfway mark, Nieuwendyk was on pace to become only the second rookie in history to score more than 50 goals in a season. Through Calgary&rsquo;s first 40 games (37 for Nieuwendyk), he had 28 goals. Mike Bossy scored a record 53 in his rookie season and Wayne Gretzky, ineligible for the Calder, scored 51 his first year in the league.Should a healthy Nieuwendyk continue scoring at his 37game pace over the remaining 40 games, he would end up with a record 58 goals.Apart from all the tangible reasons for capturing the trophy. Nieuwendyk appears to have the temperament to keep his accomplishments in perspective.&rsquo;Asked how he&rsquo;s handling the pressure, Nieuwendyk smiles and says: &ldquo;Is there pressure?&rdquo;Apparently not. Generally. Nieuwendyk attributes his ease around the goalcrease to the game of lacrosse, where he excelled as a teenager. In lacrosse, scoring from close range is the norm, not the exception. The same has held true for him in hockey.&ldquo;I played both games since I was four,&rdquo; says Nieuwendyk, who skated three years at Cornell before joining Calgary last year. &ldquo;Basically, that&rsquo;s been my game all along&mdash;put the ball or the puck in the net. I really try to bear down around the net. I get disappointed when I don&rsquo;t score.&rdquo;Much of Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s success has come with the Flames enjoying a man advantage. Of his 28 goals, a leagueleading 17 came with Calgary a man to the good.&ldquo;I get great opportunities to score because Hakan Loob, Mike Bullard and Al Maclnnis are out there,&rdquo; says Nieuwendyk of his powerplay prowess. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re such offensive threats, it leaves me open because other teams key so much on them.&rdquo;The secret, however, is getting out. How that affects his second half remains to be seen. Early on, Nieuwendyk wanted no part of Calder Trophy conversations. Now he hedges just a little.&lsquo;&lsquo;I&rsquo;d be lying if 1 said it wasn&rsquo;t in the back of my mind,&rdquo; he says.To be eligible for the rookie honor, &ldquo;a player cannot have played more than 25 games in any single preceding season&rdquo; or have &ldquo;participated in six or more games in each of any two preceding seasons in any major professional league.&rdquo;In that broad, yet exclusive definition, Gretzky was rejected because of his experience in the World Hockey Association. Yet only a year later longtime Czechoslovakian national team center Peter Stastny was embraced as the league&rsquo;s only Europeantrained winner.It is an award that often measures the talents of children fresh to the world of pro hockey against the experience of young adults tested in European, Olympic, minor pro or collegiate competition.And though it is an honor that few players openly seek, it is an award most every firstyear man covets.&ldquo;I would be wrong to say I didn&rsquo;t know it was out there,&rdquo; admits Buffalo Sabre center Pierre Turgeon, an early-line favorite off his reputation as No. 1 pick in the 1987 entry draft. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think about it when I&rsquo;m playing and I didn&rsquo;t think about it when I came here (into the league). I&rsquo;m more worried how 1 play and how I help my team, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean you don&rsquo;t know it&rsquo;s there. From the time you are a kid you have dreams.&rdquo;Of course, Turgeon is not alone in those dreams.In addition to Nieuwendyk and Turgeon, a talented but still inconsistent forward on an inconsistent team, there are a host of other firstyear men who will vie, if not for the Calder Trophy, at least a place on the league&rsquo;s allrookie team.Chief among them are Calgary right winger Brett Hull and defenseman Brian Glynn. Buffalo right winger Ray Sheppard and defenseman Calle Johansson, St. Louis center Tony Hrkac and defenseman Robert Nordmark, Detroit defenseman Jeff Sharpies, Philadelphia defenseman Kerry Huffman, Vancouver goalie Kirk McLean, Chicago goalie Darren Pang, Pittsburgh right winger Jock Callander, Winnipeg left winger lain Duncan and Boston defenseman Glen Wesley.Of course, only one can be rookie of the year and history favors selection of a forward, by voting members of the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association.Over the past 20 seasons, three defensemen&mdash;Denis Potvin, Ray Bourque and Suter&mdash;and three goalies&mdash;Tony Esposito, Ken Dryden and Tom Barrasso&mdash;have won the rookie award. The other 13 winners have been forwards.Nieuwendyk, of course, is the heavy midseason favorite to succeed Robitaille as the Calder winner. And one of the reasons why, concedes a Calgary official. is the advantage he enjoys playing with a top team. Flame coordinator of scouting Ian McKenzie notes Nieuwendyk and Hull have an edge in the rookie race over, for instance, Turgeon and Sheppard.&ldquo;In a way, it&rsquo;s sort of unfair to compare.&rdquo; says McKenzie. &ldquo;The circumstances are so different it&rsquo;s almost impossible to compare. Turgeon and Sheppard play on a team that is struggling right now while our guys (Nieuwendyk and Hull) are breaking in with one of the top teams right now.&rdquo;Turgeon, is handicapped by another factor&mdash;age. When the Sabres made him the No. 1 pick this past June, they also made him the youngest player ever drafted first overall. The former Granby Bison of the Quebec Major Junior League turned 18 just two weeks before the start of training camp.Nieuwendyk. who played nine regularseason and six playoff games last season, came to the Flames this season as a 21-year-old. Hull, who carries the burden of having a famous father, came to the Flames as a 23-year-old having spent two seasons in the Western Collegiate Association and another full season in the American League, where he became the first rookie ever to score 50 goals.Though Turgeon has struggled at times this season, he has been hindered more by a lack of regular wingers than by any meaningful shortcomings in his own game.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s done pretty much everything we&rsquo;ve asked of him.&rdquo; maintains Sabre general manger Gerry Meehan. &ldquo;Our biggest problem right now (in view of several injuries) is finding players who can complement him.&rdquo;Sheppard is one of the few who can. A sensation his final year of junior&mdash;81 goals with Cornwall in 198586&mdash;Sheppard&rsquo;s NHL debut was delayed because of a bad knee and attitude. He righted himself both mentally and physically in time to be a force in the Amerks&rsquo; drive to the Calder Cup championship last season. Sheppard has benefited as much from that experience as being Turgeon&rsquo;s righthand man.Turgeon expresses some disappointment at his start, especially in goalscoring (10 in 39 games) but is hopeful of a strong second half.&ldquo;I knew it would be hard to adjust (from junior), but there are a lot of games to go and I think I&rsquo;m getting better each time,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I would like to think I would be better in the second half.&rdquo;Turgeon&rsquo;s hopes for a big finish will have to be coupled with some sort of stumble by Nieuwendyk, who is both consistent and explosive. At the halfway mark, he had two hat tricks and two fourgoal performances to his credit. Still, he knows he must guard against the vagaries of a long season.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011272/5387309-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="2310" height="2480"><figcaption class="caption-body">The pressure is on 18-year-old Pierre Turgeon to justify his Sabre had a mediocre first half, but has high hopes for the selection as No. 1 choice in the 1987 entry draft. The Buffalo second half. (Photo by Dan Hamilton)</figcaption></div>Not since 198384, when Nieuwendyk played junior for Pickering (Ont.) Panthers has he played more than 23 league games in a season. The first taste of an NHL grind is often bitter in the end&mdash;as Dahlin discovered two years ago in Montreal.Hull, too, has no clear road to the top. An explosive scorer, Hull has been forced to share a spot in the lineup with aging veteran Lanny McDonald, among others on Calgary&rsquo;s packed roster. He missed a total of eight games early in the season, rotating in and out of the Flames&rsquo; deep lineup.Hull has kept mum on the subject, but McKenzie acknowledges it is a ticklish one.&ldquo;Lanny is &lsquo;Mr. Calgary,&rsquo; &ldquo;says McKenzie. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a situation that&rsquo;s difficult for both men, but the kid has handled it very well.&rdquo;Except for a recent scoring slump&mdash;no goals in nine games dating back to Dec. 11&mdash;he has been a consistent offensive threat wherever he&rsquo;s played.Here&rsquo;s a brief look at some of the firstyear players who have established themselves over the first half of the regular season.Each player&rsquo;s age is listed, as well as games played, goals, assists, points and penalty minutes in parentheses. Statistics for goalies McLean and Pang are winlosstie records, goalsagainst averages and save percentages.<h2>FORWARDS</h2>Joe Nieuwendyk, 21 (372817458): A slick skater and complete player, Nieuwendyk is a strong centerman who can score, kill penalties, play the power play and be comfortable with defensive responsibilities.Brett Hull, 23 (321514296): A classic scorer. Good wrist shot, great slapshot and the ability to launch both with numbing quickness. Consistency of effort has been questioned by coach Terry Crisp, who has benched him from time to time.Ray Sheppard, 21 (331413276): Slow of foot, but a gifted scorer with skills around the net that are remindful of Mike Bossy. Has slumped somewhat when not playing with Turgeon and is now bothered by a groin injury, but should improve as the season wears on.Pierre Turgeon, 18 (3910162614): Extremely talented but inconsistent and often unsure of himself without the puck. Goals and assists should be higher for a player of his calibre, but youth and lack of proven wingers are more a handicap than lack of ability.Tony Hrkac, 21 (387172410): Steady, but not overwhelming. Should remain among the top scorers. The former Fighting Sioux from North Dakota won the Hobey Baker Award last season, as top player in U.S. college hockey.Jock Callander, 26 (239142335): A veteran of the International League, Callander has flourished since his call up from Muskegon to be Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s right winger. That did wonders for Warren Young one season. It will do the same for Callander.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02895/5387302-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="1148" height="1299"><figcaption class="caption-body">Blues&rsquo; center Tony Hrkac won college hockey&rsquo;s Hobey Baker Award last year.</figcaption></div>Iain Duncan, 24 (261081820): After four years with Bowling Green, Duncan has benefited&mdash;like Callander&mdash;from playing beside a superstar. He has replaced former Jet Brian Mullen on the right side of Dale Hawerchuk.<h2>DEFENSEMEN</h2>Calle Johansson, 20 (332192125): Consistently the top pointgetter among rookie defensemen, Johanssson is a strong skater, good on his feet and able to move the puck well. He&rsquo;s surprisingly strong defensively on a mostly-minus team.Brian Glynn, 20 (395111651): A native of West Germany who played his junior hockey in Saskatoon, Glynn has surprised a lot of people with his steady play from the start of the season. He provides aggressiveness on the Calgary blue line.&ldquo;Kerry Huffman, 20 (362121416): Rebounding from a sluggish start, Huffman has responded well to increased ice time since Brad Marsh suffered a concussion. Even with Marsh back, he has continued to play often and well.Jeff Sharpies, 20 (245141917): Since being called up from Adirondack in October, he&rsquo;s proven himself a capable puckhandler. Sharpies is not a defensive liability.Glen Wesley, 19 (401161741): He&rsquo;s been spotted carefully in early season, but is beginning to come on as a puckhandler, which is what his role was in junior hockey.Robert Nordmark, 25 (363131628): Largely unnoticed because of the Blues&rsquo; poor start this season, Nordmark has helped out offensively and impressed during his first year away from Sweden.<h2>GOALTENDERS</h2>Kirk McLean, 21 (8172, 3.30, .879): The most important reason for the Canucks&rsquo; improved play. A terrific acquisition from New Jersey, McLean started 10 straight games during one stretch and has emerged as Vancouver&rsquo;s goalie of the present and future.Darren Pang, 23 (6120, 3.91, .897): Everybody&rsquo;s favorite underdog, the 5foot5 Pang has been buried in the Chicago farm system until this year. He has been superb&mdash;sometimes spectacular&mdash;in sharing goaltending chores with high-priced free agent Bob Mason. &#9632;

f0006-01

THE ROOKIE REPORT

THE PROPOSED SERIES of games between Soviet and NHL teams sounds great, but I hope the NHL doesn&rsquo;t botch it up.Schedule the series right after the NHL playoffs in either May or June, when both teams are still at their peak.If the Soviets send four club teams to North America to play NHL teams in games counting in the league standings, then each NHL team should play 84 games, with each Soviet team playing all 21 NHL teams.I have also heard that each Soviet team might only play teams in a particular division. That would be unfair to teams in a division that was required to play Central Red Army, the strongest Soviet team.But the whole idea is great.Derek Rogers, Kingston, Ont.<h2>UNDESERVED ASSISTS</h2>When are NHL official scorers going to stop handing out cheap assists?Two examples: In the Montreal-Chicago game of Nov. 4, Blackhawk Doug Wilson scored a late third-period goal with an assist to Denis Savard. How?In the Dec. 11 New York Islanders-Pittsburgh game. Rod Buskas scored early in the second period from Mario Lemieux and Jock Callander. How?Both goals were scored directly from errant passes, as were many others I&rsquo;ve seen. Savard and Lemieux are great players, but let them earn their assists.The job of an official scorer of an NHL game is a lot easier than that of a major league baseball scorer. Yet NHL scorers make more mistakes. There&rsquo;s no excuse for it. Start doing a better job!Stephen R. Silver,&nbsp; Montreal, Que.<h2>HELMETS CAUSE PROBLEMS</h2>Hooray to Stan Fischler for his excellent Dec. 18 column on helmetless players.It was so refreshing to read a commentary about something other than the constant crying about fighting in the NHL&mdash;which is about all your socalled professional writers can ink.For those of us who have closely followed hockey for decades, there is no doubt helmets and face shields have brought sticks up.Bob Bastian, St. Paul, Minn.<h2>LEAVE UNIFORMS ALONE</h2>In the Nov. 27 &lsquo;Hockey Notebook&rsquo; it was suggested teams playing at home divide their time between wearing white and dark jerseys. The implication was that fans would enjoy the variety.I&rsquo;m a fan, and I think the idea is absurd. Players come and go, franchises move hither and yon and the rules change. In the last 18 years, the uniform rule has been the one consistent thing I can count on about the NHL.In the same vein as the suggested uniform change, why not tell the NHL bigwigs that players should wear their helmets for only half the 80 games!Carlton Lee,&nbsp; San Francisco, Calif.<h2>COLORFUL ALLSTARS</h2>People criticize the NHL AllStar Game, but I see nothing wrong with the conference format. However, 1 have a suggestion for improving the appearance of the game.The NHL, which has the most colorful uniforms of any sport, should adopt the major league baseball practice which allows players to wear their own team&rsquo;s home or away uniforms, depending upon the game site. What a colorful way to show off the grace and skill of the NHL to all of North America! It wouuld also look great on television.Scott Hauck, Milwaukee, Wise.Let your voice be heard. Send your comments to Fan Forum, THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2. Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Soviet Series Good Idea, Just Handle It Correctly

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011359/5387371-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0008-01

ELSTON

LESS THAN ONE week into the new year, it occurred to me that:&bull; Nothing, not the Stanley Cup, the Canada Cup, not anything, can beat a couple of hours of good, old-fashioned pond hockey.It was something akin to a religious experience when, on the first Sunday afternoon of 1988,1 took to a pond alongside Lake Ontario in the shadow of the Pickering Nuclear Power Station. I&rsquo;d forgotten what it was like to skate on real ice, to feel the wind whip across my face and be pleasantly exhausted in a way that only pond hockey can make you feel.On that day anyway, all other hockey became a pale imitation of the real thing.&bull; It&rsquo;s funny, isn&rsquo;t it, that a nation that can produce such highly-skilled forwards and defensemen, can&rsquo;t come up with one legitimate superstar goaltender.That&rsquo;s one reason why the Soviet Union skated through all of 1987 and the first few days of &lsquo;88 without winning any international tournament of note.On the other hand. Grant Fuhr, Sean Burke and Jimmy Waite backstopped various versions of Team Canada to significant tournament titles.And it&rsquo;s conceivable that Ron Hextail, Kelly Hrudey, Patrick Roy, Andy Moog or Jeff Hackett could have done the same, given the opportunity.But then think of how devastating the Soviets would be if they had a stopper in the mold of Vladislav Tretiak.&bull; Along those same lines, why is it that the United States produces so few natural goalscorers?Perhaps this is a theory soon to be dispelled by the burgeoning scoring powers of Pat LaFon taine and Jimmy Carson, but for now, anyway, the majority of U.S. shooters fire blanks.In the closely-contested 54 loss to Team Canada at the World Jr. Championships in Moscow, the point was driven home again. The lack of forwards with touch was clearly the team&rsquo;s downfall. Just as Team USA in the &lsquo;88 Canada Cup was foiled by an inability to score.Granted, Team USA junior Mike Modano scored a superb goal against Team Canada, but he was an exception. Most of the time, his teammates played as if they were unarmed.&bull; Jimmy Waite is regarded as the No. 1 junior goaltender in the world, but he&rsquo;s the No. 2 netminder on the Chicoutimi Sagueneens of the Quebec League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021115/5387402-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="381" height="435"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob McKenzie</figcaption></div>As of Jan. 4, overage goalie Denis Desbiens, 20, had played in 25 games&mdash;15 of them wins (two shutouts)&mdash;and had a 3.50 goalsagainst average. Waite, meanwhile, had played in 18 games&mdash;10 wins&mdash;with a 4.65 GAA.&ldquo;Denis won eight games in a row so it was very tough to take him out of there,&rdquo; said Sagueneen spokesman JeanLuc Hebert of the undrafted netminder who is trying to catch on with a pro team.&ldquo;But I think Jimmy will be getting lots of games in the new year. We are taking a run at the championship and Jimmy is a very good pressure goalie.&ldquo;When the games don&rsquo;t mean as much, like early in the season, I think Jimmy loses his concentration. He becomes too relaxed maybe. He has nothing to prove in Chicoutimi. He&rsquo;s the best junior goalie in the country, he has his NHL contract. But now ourteam will need him, count on him. That is when he is at his best.&rdquo;&bull; The only thing stranger than the New York Rangers wanting to trade defenseman James Patrick is their being miffed at James Patrick trade rumors.Ranger coach Michel Bergeron wonders why the rumors refuse to go away. It may have something to do with Ranger GM Phil Esposito canvassing his colleagues around the league and asking them to submit bids on the talented young defenseman.As for why the Rangers would want to trade a defenseman who seemingly has the potential to be an elite player in the NHL, your guess is as good as mine.You can&rsquo;t help but feel that, given a stable environment in which to work, Patrick will fulfill his potential as a bluechipper, if not a Blueshirt. &#9632;

f0008-02

Joys Of Pond Hockey A New Year’s Revelation

<div class="byline">COMPILED BY KARLO BERKOVICH Editorial Staff</div>Calgary Flames and Hartford Whalers both adopted slightly new looks early in 1988.On Jan. 3, the Flames sent center Carey Wilson, defenseman Neil Sheehy and the rights to U.S. Olympic team left winger Lane MacDonald to the Whalers for defenseman Dana Murzyn and right winger Shane Churla.The 21-year-old Murzyn made the NHL allrookie team in 198586. He had one goal and six assists in 33 games with Hartford this season. Churla, a 6footl, 200pounder, played two games with Hartford, going pointless and earning 14 penalty minutes. In 23 games with the Whalers&rsquo; American League farm team at Binghamton, Churla earned 161 penalty minutes, plus five goals and 13 assists. He earned 306 penalty minutes at Binghamton in 198586 and 249 in only 24 AHL games last season.Wilson, 25, scored nine goals and 21 assists in 34 games with the Flames while Sheehy, 27, scored two goals and six assists in 36 games. McDonald, 21, scored 15 goals and 24 assists in 34 games with the U.S. Olympic team.Hartford general manager Emile Francis said he was looking for &ldquo;much-needed toughness&rdquo; from the 6foot2, 210pound Sheehy. Calgary GM Cliff Fletcher had lots of praise for Murzyn.&ldquo;When I say he could be a Corner-Stone defenseman for 10 years, I&rsquo;m probably understating the fact,&rdquo; Fletcher told the Calgary Sun.<h2>HELMETS FOR OFFICIALS?</h2>A provision requiring NHL onice officials to wear helmets may be included in the officials&rsquo; next contract with the league.&ldquo;It will be discussed in the new collective bargaining agreement,&rdquo; said Jim Gregory, the NHL&rsquo;s vice president of hockey operations. &ldquo;It will be considered. It&rsquo;s a topic of conversation.&rdquo;The current three-year collective bargaining agreement between the officials and league expires at the end of this season.The increasing incidence of injuries to officials has prompted discussion of the helmet issue. On Nov. 7, referee Mike North suffered a scalp laceration and concussion after a collision with Minnesota defenseman Craig Hartsburg. Referee Terry Gregson sustained a concussion after colliding with Toronto&rsquo;s Borje Salming Dec. 26.Both North and Gregson have since returned to action and are wearing helmets. They are among eight officials wearing helmets, according to director of officiating John McCauley. The others are referees Andy van Hellemond and Bob Hall and linesmen Ron Asselstine, Wayne Bonney, Mark Pare and Dan Schachte. There are 38 officials on the NHL&rsquo;s staff.Gregory said with or without legislation, helmets will become more popular among officials&mdash;mostly because young officials are already wearing them.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011320/5387433-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="597" height="860"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hakan Loob was the fastest skater on the Calgary Flames in December sprints.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The problem we would have (with implementing a helmet rule) would probably be with the older guys,&rdquo; said Gregory. &ldquo;If we said you had to and someone says no, we&rsquo;d have to get releases. The new refs come up through the ranks wearing helmets.&rdquo;Players signing their first NHL contracts after August, 1979 are required to wear helmets. The use of helmets is optional for players signing before the 197980 season, though players must also sign a waiver of liability.Only 11 players do not wear helmets&mdash;Toronto&rsquo;s Dave Semenko Al Secord and Brad Smith, Detroit&rsquo;s Mike O&rsquo;Connell and Harold Snepsts, Chicago&rsquo;s Doug Wilson, Edmonton&rsquo;s Craig MacTavish, New York Rangers Ron Duguay and Jeff Brubaker, Philadelphia&rsquo;s Nick Fotiu, Washington&rsquo;s Rod Langway and Winnipeg&rsquo;s Randy Carlyle. (For more on the issue, see Stan Fischler&rsquo;s column on page 12).<h2>NO DISCRIMINATION</h2>NHL president John Ziegler termed &ldquo;ludicrous&rdquo; a University of Ottawa study suggesting French Canadians are discriminated against by the league.The study, contents of which were reported in the Dec. 29 edition of the Toronto Star, concluded &ldquo;there was substantial discrimination against francophone hockey players attempting to enter the NHL.&rdquo;The study was done by Marc Lavoie, Gilles Grenier and Serge Coulombie, professors in the university&rsquo;s economics department. It was based on statistics compiled from 198384 and 198485 editions of the NHL&rsquo;s Official Guide and Record Book and interviews with players, coaches and sports reporters.<h2>FAST FLAMES</h2>The Calgary Flames had some fun recently, skating 40yard sprints in full equipment. The fastest? Hakan Loob in 4.68 seconds. Colin Patterson was next at 4.69, followed by Steve Bozek (4.74) and Gary Suter (4.83).Pierre Page, the Flames&rsquo; assistant coach with a degree in physiology from Dalhousie University in Halifax, N.S., said he was surprised the times were slower than those recorded on foot by football players.Bo Jackson of the Los Angeles Raiders (and baseball&rsquo;s Kansas City Royals) has been timed in 4.175 seconds while most running backs and defensive backs are in the 4.2to 4.4second range.Over 100 yards, Page said, a hockey player would probably be faster than a football player.Top rookies Brett Hull and Joe Nieuwendyk were clocked in 4.88 and 4.92 seconds, respectively. Goaltenders Doug Dadswell and Mike Vernon recorded times of 5.66 and 6.58 seconds, respectively, though Vernon was nursing a sore groin.<h2>OLYMPIC UPDATE</h2>The U.S. Olympic team was hot while its Canadian counterpart was not in early January.Team USA was 29135 heading into a Jan. 4 game in Chicago against the University of Illinois-Chicago, and had just completed an eightgame series against a team of Soviet Selects with a 611 record.Corey Millen, Team USA&rsquo;s leading scorer with 34 goals and 29 assists, scored 10 goals and 10 assists in eight games against the Soviets.Team Canada, meanwhile, returned to earth quickly after winning December&rsquo;s Izvestia Cup tournament in Moscow. The Canadian Olympians were I 4 as of Jan. 4 in an eightgame Canadian tour against another Soviet select team. Canada&rsquo;s season record was 261710 after 53 games.Leading Team Canada in scoring was former Edmonton Oiler and Minnesota North Star Marc Habscheid, with 17 goals and 29 assists in 51 games.<h2>OLDTIMERS PASS AWAY</h2>Neil Colville, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame who played center for the New York Rangers from 1936 to 1942 and 1945 to 1949 following World War II, died of cancer at age 73 Dec. 26 in Richmond, B.C. An Edmonton native, Colville finished his 12year career with 99 goals and 166 assists in 464 regularseason games.Funeral services were held the same day for former Toronto Maple Leaf defenseman Rudolph (Bingo) Kamp man, who passed away at age 73 in Kitchener, Ont. Kampman played five seasons for the Leafs (from 193738 through 1941 42) and was a member of the 1942 Toronto team which lost the first three games of the Stanley Cup final to Detroit before rallying to win the next four and the championship.He entered military service after the final game and never returned to the NHL. Kampman played 189 regularseason games, scoring 14 goals and 30 assists. His nickname came from the sound he made when he hit opponents with hard bodychecks.<h2>BITS AND PIECES</h2>Philadelphia Flyer defenseman Mark Howe was named NHL performer of the week for the period ending Dec. 2228. Howe, 32, scored once and earned six assists in three Flyer victories&hellip;Max Sucee, 20, of the Richmond Hill Dynes of the Central Ontario Jr. B League was suspended until Jan. 1,1989 by the Ontario Hockey Association for running Aurora Eagles goaltender Danny Aldworth in a game Dec. 2 in Richmond Hill. Aidworth, 17, suffered a collapsed lung and fractured ribs and was hospitalized for two weeks&hellip;The Toronto Sun reported the International Ice Hockey Federation suspended Bulgarian Jr. B team manager Dimitar Voinov until July 31, 1990 and fined him $2,000&mdash;for carrying overage players at the European championships in Bucharest, Hungary.&bull; &#9632;

f0009-01

Murzyn Joins Flames In 5-Plaver Deal

IF A LITTLE more of my youth slipped away Dec. 18 when I turned 30. Glen Currie helped turn back the hands of time one day later.On Dec. 19, he was summoned from New Haven by the Los Angeles Kings.To those who follow the game closely. Currie is a defensive center who has battled for the past decade to play in the National Hockey League.To me, Currie is the highscoring center who played the game like few before or after him in the Montreal suburb of Chateauguay.Nobody else was in his class. Except one year, when he was nudged out for the league MVP award. 1 still have the Robin Hood Oats Trophy and accompanying good citizenship certificate.It was a case of peaking athletically just a little too early. 1 was 10. Currie was nine and getting better by the day. I just got older.At age 18. he joined Laval Nationals of the Quebec League. His regular linemate that first year was Mike Bossy, who wound up his spectacular junior career with a 75goal season.Currie, perhaps hindered more than helped by the pressure of playing with a burgeoning legend, scored 28 times. The next year, without Bossy, the slender center scored 63 goals and 82 assists for 145 points.Washington picked him in the third round of the 1978 amateur draft.Two years later he made it to the NHL on a parttime basis. Eight more years later, he made it back to the NHL on a parttime basis.The Kings were in an injury-induced bind and new coach Robbie Ftorek, promoted from New Haven, promoted one of his old players.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t expect to be here very much longer,&rdquo; said Currie, before his third game, Dec. 30. &ldquo;Robbie has told me, as soon as everybody gets healthy, then it&rsquo;s back to New Haven for me.&rdquo;On Dec. 31, Ftorek sent the center back to the AHL.Currie, traded to the Kings in September, 1985, is accustomed to this role. Five of his six seasons with Washington were split between the American League and NHL. He learned a long time ago that his place was in the shadows, not the sun.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the kind of person I am,&rdquo; said the 29-year-old. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like being the focus of attention. I like somebody else telling me what to do and knowing my role out there.&rdquo;His role, of course, has been that of an industrious checker. He knows the talent that carried him to 145 points in 72 Quebec League games has not been enough to earn him as many in more than 300 NHL games.But he decided that lack of effort will never hold him back. Even when hockey is over. Currie is in the option year of his contract. He doesn&rsquo;t have the kind of numbers&mdash;either in goals and assists or on his birth certificate&mdash;to entice many offers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011398/5387464-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="338" height="462"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Dryden</figcaption></div>If none are interesting enough, he will pack up his wife and two children&mdash;the couple has one child and she is expecting another&mdash;and leave the Saranac Lake area in New York.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll probably move back to Montreal and get into home repairs&mdash;I should be a plumber,&ldquo;said Currie, laughing at the irony of his words. It seems an appropriate occupation for someone so long thought of as a plumber on the ice.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not afraid to work. That doesn&rsquo;t scare me at all.&rdquo;Nor is he frightened by the prospect of entering a new work world without as much as a full year of Grade 11 behind him. Currie has faith in himself. A faith renewed consistently, if not constantly, throughout his career. A faith bom out of ample evidence that he has been good enough&mdash;in Currie&rsquo;s words&mdash;&rdquo;to make the grade.&rdquo;When his career comes to an end, there&rsquo;ll be fewer regrets than reasons to be proud.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be a little sorry that 1 wasn&rsquo;t more successful at times,&rdquo; he admitted, &ldquo;but in another sense I&rsquo;m kinda&rsquo; happy that I stayed in the league as long as I did. I did have a lot of talent when 1 was younger, but so does everybody who gets drafted.&rdquo;Currie&rsquo;s self-affacing personality has helped keep his pride intact.&ldquo;The other day one of the officials asked me my first name,&rdquo; Currie related. &ldquo;I think it was (linesman Jim) Christison and he&rsquo;s been in the league I8years. And I&rsquo;ve got over 300 games in the NHL.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little embarrassing, I guess. It&rsquo;s a good thing that I&rsquo;m not too flamboyant because 1 just laughed about it. It&rsquo;s kind of humorous that I could stay in the league so long and not get recognized.&rdquo;Maybe not by a linesman. But Glen Currie can rest assured that in the mind of at least one former 10-year-old, his first name will always be remembered. &#9632;

f0010-01

A Plumber Reflects On Life In The Shadows

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03697/5387495-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="589" height="943"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Dean Chynoweth is a bruiser who should help on the Isles&rsquo; blue line.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021070/5387502-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="178" height="134"></div>UNIONDALE, N.Y.&mdash;The New York Islanders need help on the wings. And when their top prospects are ready for NHL play, they&rsquo;ll still need help on the wings.Center Rob DiMaio and goaltender Jeff Hackett spent Christmas in Moscow, with Canada&rsquo;s national junior team. Defenseman Dean Chynoweth was the team&rsquo;s last cut.Center Todd McLellan and defenseman Jeff Finley are in Springfield with the American League Indians. Tom Fitzgerald, a projected center playing right wing, is in Providence, with the college Friars. Defenseman Jeff Norton. a U.S. Olympian, will soon be in Calgary.Not one of the Islanders&rsquo; top prospects is a natural left or right winger.Chynoweth. 19, the Islanders&rsquo; firstround pick in 1987 out of Medicine Hat was 077 with 110 penalty minutes in 25 games. He was Canada&rsquo;s last cut before entering the World Jr. Championships.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s big and strong and plays tough,&rdquo; Islander general manager Bill Torrey said of the 6footl, 190pounder. &ldquo;But for a guy who&rsquo;s that kind of player, he plays with intelligence and has very, very good fundamentals.&rdquo;DiMaio, 19, who missed 12 earlyseason games with a knee injury, is 5foot8, 175. He was 171734 in 23 games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a quick skater, an excellent skater,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not tall, but he&rsquo;s strong.&rdquo;Hackett, 19, made a brief stop in Long Island when Billy Smith was hurt, although he didn&rsquo;t play. In 27 games for Oshawa of the Ontario League he was 15111 with a 3.59 goalsagainst average and .888 save percentage.McLellan, a fifthround pick in 1986, has surprised Torrey and Lane with his rapid development. The 20-year-old center, who still needs to improve his defensive skills, was considered as an emergency replacement for injured Brent Sutter. But he needs a full American League season under his belt. McLellan was 71623 in 28 games for Springfield.Finley, 20. who was the Islanders&rsquo; last cut in training camp, is an offensive-minded defenseman with excellent speed. He is an NHL-level skater, but he lacks upper body strength. And his 4812 stats in 31 games have been a minor disappointment to Lane.Re started out the season with a junior league mentality,&rdquo; the former Islander defenseman said. &ldquo;It took him 20 games or so to pick up his pace. He&rsquo;s having his ups and downs, but his ups have outnumbered his downs dramatically.&rdquo;Fitzgerald, 19, was the Islanders&rsquo; firstround pick in 1986. He failed to make the U.S. Olympic team, but has had an outstanding sophomore season at Providence College. He has been moved from center to right wing and was 11617, plus11, in 13 games.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t care where he plays, as long as he&rsquo;s getting ice time,&rdquo; said Torrey, who expects Fitzgerald to spend four years in college before turning pro.Norton (31215 in41 games) is one of two Islander draftees playing with the U.S. Olympic team. The 22-year-old defenseman was a thirdround pick of the Isles in 1984.&ldquo;Outside of Brian Leetch,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;Norton is the U.S. team&rsquo;s best defenseman.&rdquo;Torrey expects both Jeff Norton and right winger Todd Okerlund to turn pro after the Olympics. Both will likely be assigned to Springfield.NOTES&mdash;Bryan Trottier tied Alex Delvecchio for 18th place on the NHL&rsquo;s alltime goalscoring list, when he put the 456th of his career past Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Pat Riggin in a 32 Isle win Jan. 2. The goal put Trottier one point behind Guy Lafleur for 10th spot in the alltime points list 1,246 to 1,245&hellip;Brent Sutter, who missed nine games with a right thumb injury, was expected to return Jan. 5 against Minnesota. The Isles were 252 in their captain&rsquo;s absence&hellip;The reassignments to Springfield (AHL) of rookies Brad Dalgarno and Derek King, the Isles&rsquo; two 1985 firstround picks, were the first demotions since the season began.&bull;<h2>ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 29: Todd McLellan, C, recalled from Springfield (AHL)Dec. 31: Brad Dalgarno, RW, and Derek King, LW, assigned to Springfield.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bryan Trottier, Pat LaFontaine, Brent Sutter, Todd McLellan.LW&mdash;Greg Gilbert, Rich Kromm, Dale Henry, Brad Lauer, Randy Wood.RW&mdash;Mikko Makela, Patrick Flatley, Alan Kerr.LD&mdash;Denis Potvin, Steve Konroyd, Brian Curran.RD&mdash;Gerald Diduck, Gord Dineen, Tomas Jonsson, Ken Morrow.G&mdash;Billy Smith, Kelly Hrudey.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Ken Leiter, D, strained abdominal muscle, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0010-03

Isles’ Future Like A Helicopter—No Wings

Among the best put downs I&rsquo;ve received in many a moon has come via the postal authorities from referee Mike North.No, ref North is not fuming because I called him a lousy official&mdash;he&rsquo;s hissing and moaning over my recent diatribe against helmets.(As a brief refresher, in the Dec. 18 issue of THN I said hockey would be a better spectacle if everyone eschewed headpieces, like Rod Lang way, Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Al Secord and Dave Semenko.)North thinks I&rsquo;m crazy and that&rsquo;s the least of his charges. The referee puts it this way:&ldquo;I have decided to lower my standards and respond to the nonsensical article&hellip;Some words must have been omitted from your story. One sentence read, &lsquo;Helmets are stupid.&rsquo; Surely you must have meant, &lsquo;People who think helmets are stupid are stupid.&rsquo;&ldquo;On Nov. 7 of this season, Craig Hartsburg of Minnesota and I collided during a game at the Met Center. We never saw each other, and we both were knocked unconscious.&rdquo;At the time of the collision the North Star defenseman was wearing a helmet but North was bareheaded.&ldquo;I saw him six days later and he told me that he woke up in the dressing room,&rdquo; continues North. &ldquo;In my case, I suffered a twoinch laceration on the back of my head where it hit the ice, a grade four concussion, and was taken to the hospital for head and neck Xrays. Although I am told that I regained consciousness on the ice, I next remember being in the ambulance.&rdquo;Until the accident, North was one of numerous bareheaded officials. Now he wears a helmet. Obviously, he believes that anyone who suggests otherwise is a madman.I wear one now because I never saw Hartsburg coming,&rdquo; North explains, &ldquo;and I may not see the next guy, either. The Minnesota team doctor said that I was lucky I had a harder head than Bill Masterton (Ed. Note&mdash;Masterton is the North Star who died in 1968 after hitting his head on the ice). Thank God it pays to be a little thickheaded once in a while.&rdquo;North also objects to my suggestion that helmets detract from the game&rsquo;s personality.&ldquo;Games do not have personalities, Mr. Fischler, but the people who make up the games certainly do. The quality of one&rsquo;s individuality is questionable when he is being carried off on a stretcher.&ldquo;Players and officials are slowly learning that their heads are more important than their hair. You probably will not understand any of this for I have not heard of anyone being seriously injured while watching the game from the press box.&rdquo;My contention, supported by Langway, that helmetless players get more respect from their foes, is disputed by North and his colleague, linesman Ron Asselstine.&ldquo;I was in Los Angeles,&rdquo; says Asselstine, &ldquo;when Tiger Williams crosschecked Randy Carlyle into the boards and damn near broke his neck.&rdquo;The North-Asselstine assertions are well-taken but they miss the points, which have everything to do with making hockey a better sport for everyone&mdash;spectators, players and, yes, even referees.Point One: Bigleague hockey did very well without helmets for more than 40 years without a serious injury.Point Two: The NHL is in a struggle for the American entertainment dollar with the National Basketball Association. In recent years, the NBA has made tremendous gains on the NHL. Pro basketball has a network TV contract; hockey does not because the hoop wizards have developed dozens of personalities among its stars. And one way it has done that is because helmetless hoopsters are recognizable.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011373/5387564-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="328" height="438"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stan Fischler</figcaption></div>Point Three: Helmets became fashionable&mdash;North would say necessary&mdash;with the excessive speedup of the game, specifically with the advent of hightech sticks and the slapshot. In fact, hockey is too fast for its own good right now and too dangerous for players and officials.Point Four: With the goal of making the game safer and saner, a thorough revision of the rules should be considered so that folks like North, Asselstine and several hundred NHL players need not have to wear helmets and worry about their lives on the ice.With that in mind, I offer the following changes.Eliminate The Slapshot: Sad to say but the slapshot has done very little to help hockey and much to hurt it. For one thing, it propels the puck so fast it is a legitimate health hazard. Furthermore, the puck travels too fast to be seen by the naked eye so what&rsquo;s the fun for the spectators.Eliminate Dump-And-Run: One reason why people like North get run over is that contemporary hockey often becomes a helterskelter mishmash of dumping the puck into a zone, skating like heck for it, then dumping it out and so on, ad nauseum. I&rsquo;d write a rule compelling players to either stickhandle or pass the puck over the enemy blue line. If they dumpandrun, they&rsquo;re offside.Sticks For Passing And Shooting Only: Once upon a time, about 40 years ago, the hip check was the most beautiful defensive maneuver in hockey. Now it&rsquo;s all but extinct. The highspeed game has virtually eliminated the bodycheck. That, and the fact that illegal stickwork (crosschecking, spearing, buttending, highsticking) is virtually taken for granted, has reduced the ice to a war zone and inspired helmets, visors and heaven knows what else will follow. Fans are disgusted with the vicious stickwork and most players are, too. Everyone would revel in a return to the tough, but clean, hipshoulder checks.Four Skaters Instead Of Five: There was a time when bigleague hockey had six skaters (two defensemen, three forwards and a rover) and a goalie. It finally occurred to the geniuses running the game that the ice was too crowded so the number was reduced to the present fiveskater arrangement. The time has come, radical as it may seem, for another major change. Bigger skaters and congested ice virtually demands that we now have four skaters&mdash;one defenseman, two forwards and a rover. Then, the lyricism and magnificence of hockey will return.(Ed. Note&mdash;For report on a recent head injury sustained by referee Terry Gregson see Hockey Notebook on page 9.) &#9632;

f0012-01

Helmet Issue Is Part Of A Larger Problem

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021144/5387595-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="177" height="135"></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;It was not so many winters ago that the Penguins&rsquo; finest prospects were a handful of career minorleaguers with bad hands and worse attitudes.While their list of promising prospects still is not staggering tn its length, there is ample quality to compensate for whatever is lacking in quantity.So far as general manager Eddie Johnston is concerned, four future Penguins&mdash;defenseman Zarley Zalapski, center Dave Capuano, left winger Kevin Stevens and goalie Richard Tabaracci&mdash;arc almost certain to make an indelible impression.Zalapski is, by far, the most widely known of the group. He was named top defenseman in the 1986 Izvestia Tournament and is one of the lynchpins of the Canadian Olympic team.And when the Calgary Games have ended, Zalapski, the Penguins&rsquo; No. 1 draft pick (fourth overall) in 1986, almost surely will assume a prominent position on the Penguin defense.&ldquo;He has such great offensive and defensive skills,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s great on the transition game, going from defense to offense.&rdquo;Zalapski&mdash;who had one goal and 11 assists in the first 27 games of Team Canada&rsquo;s preOlympic schedule&mdash;spent several weeks with the Penguins during training camp.His stay was cut short by a back problem, but he stayed long enough to impress his future employers&mdash;even though there are concerns about how he will handle the more physical play in the NHL.Capuano (111829 in 16 games for the University of Maine), the Penguins&rsquo; No. 2 pick in 1986, has shaken off the &ldquo;questionable attitude&rdquo; label.Stevens, then of Boston College, figured prominently in that list of scorerleaders last season, but is spending this winter with the U.S. Olympic team.He had 14 goals and 18 assists in 30 games during its preOlympics schedule. The Penguins acquired his rights from Los Angeles for forward Anders Hakansson on Sept. 9, 1983.Stevens is big (6foot3, 210 pounds) and his skating has improved.Johnston figures Tabaracci, the secondround pick in 1987, eventually will give the Penguins a takecharge player in goal.Although the Penguins figure to get Team Canada goalie Andy Moog after the Calgary Games, it is Tabaracci who they hope will provide stability in goal for a decade or so after he enters the league.His statistics with the Cornwall Royals this season&mdash;a 1972 record and 3.51 goalsagainst average&mdash;back up that notion.So taken is Johnston that, when discussing Tabaracci, he invokes the images of Ron Hextall and Grant Fuhr, two of the finest goalies on the planet.&ldquo;He&rsquo;slike Hextali. He hasatendency every once in a while to chop (opposing players with his stick), get in trouble&hellip;which 1 don&rsquo;t mind, a guy being overaggressive like that.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tough position to put him in, but a lot of people say that, down the line, he could be another Fuhr because of his reflexes.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Defenseman Paul Coffey was sidelined by another knee injury, this one involving a slightly torn cartilage resulting from a collision with referee Don Koharski. Surgery was not necessary, but it was uncertain when he would return to the lineup&hellip;Coffey was one of four defensemen&mdash;Ville Siren, Jim Johnson and Norm Schmidt were the others&mdash;taken out of the lineup by injuries. A fifth, Doug Bodger, was playing despite recurring problems with a knee injury suffered in early December&hellip;The Penguins sold out 10 of their first 20 home games and attracted 289,537 fans, an average of 14,477.<h2>PENGUINS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 1: Wilf Paiement, RW, recalled from Muskegon (IHL).Jan. 2: Todd Charlesworth, D, recalled from Muskegon.Jan. 3: Steve Gotaas, C, recalled from Muskegon.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mario Lemieux, Dan Quinn, Dave McLIwain, Chris Kontos, Steve Gotaas.LW&mdash;Randy Cunneyworth, Dave Hunter, Charlie Simmer, Wayne Van Dorp, Scott Gruhl.RW&mdash;Jock Callander, Troy Loney, Perry Ganchar, Lee Giffin, Wilf Paiement, Mark Kachowski.LD&mdash;Doug Bodger, Phil Bourque, Todd Charlesworth.RD&mdash;Randy Hiller, Rod Buskas, Chris Dahlquist.G&mdash;Gilles Meloche, Pat Riggin.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Paul Coffey, D, knee, day-to-day.Bob Errey, LW, broken wrist, indefinite.Dan Frawley, RW, knee, indefinite.Jim Johnson, D, knee, indefinite.Jimmy Mann, RW, elbow surgery, indefinite.Norm Schmidt, D, back, day-to-day.Ville Siren, D, broken foot, indefinite. &#9632;

f0012-02

Quality, Not Quantity, Key To Pens Future

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>NEW YORK&mdash;So much has been said and written about the outstanding skills of U.S. Olympic team defenseman Brian Leetch, New York Ranger general manager Phil Esposito believes there is a tendency to overlook some of his team&rsquo;s other top prospects.&ldquo;You see Brian Leetch do somethine new and impressive every time you watch him,&rdquo; Esposito said after watching the Olympians rout the Soviet Selects during their recent tour. &ldquo;He is such a good skater and playmaker that you can&rsquo;t miss him. And yes, we&rsquo;re going to be trying to sign him as soon as the Olympics are over.&rdquo;Leetch, a Boston College sophomoretobe, was New York&rsquo;s firstround draft choice (ninth overall) in 1986 and is rated among the very best amateur prospects in North America.&ldquo;Everybody knows about Leetch but I don&rsquo;t want to overlook the other five players whose rights we own on the U.S. team,&rdquo; Esposito continued.Centerleft winger Tony Granato (78th overall in 1982), center Corey Millen (57th in 1982), right winger Kevin Miller (202nd in 1984), goalie Mike Richter (28th in 1985) and defenseman Peter Laviolette (free agent, 1987) have also enjoyed excellent preOlympic seasons.&ldquo;Miller and Granato look, to us, like guys who will score in the pros,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;Miller has very good hands and reminded some of us a little bit of Rick Middleton. Granato really seems to know the game and gets in good position on every shift.&ldquo;Millen is a terrific skater and everybody likes Richter; he&rsquo;s a goalie with no weaknesses.&rdquo;Named the U.S. team captain, Leetch was fourth in team scoring with eight goals and 46 assists in 36 games for the Olympians. Millen (332861 in 35 games) and Miller (292857 in 42) were onetwo, and Granato (282452 in 37) fifth. Richter had a 1352 record, with 3.04 goalsagainst average and .889 save percentage.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011294/5387626-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="176" height="137"></div>Perhaps because he is the longest long shot of all, it is Laviolette who has really opened Esposito&rsquo;s eyes. His statistics (three goals and 15 assists in 42 games) are modest but his hustle and hitting make the Rangers smile.In addition to the U.S. players, Ferreira is high on left wingercenter Daniel Lacroix of Granby (31st in 1987), center Mike Golden (40th by Edmonton in 1983), defenseman Jeff Bloemberg (93rd in 1986) and defenseman Jayson More (10th in 1987).&ldquo;Lacroix had 14 goals in his first 23 games, which is more than he had all season,&rdquo; Ferreira said, &ldquo;and he is still playing very aggressively (170 penalty minutes).&rdquo;Since the Rangers&rsquo; best drafts in the past have been mostly small, finesse players, Lacroix and Golden&mdash;a 6foot1, 197pound center at the University of Maine&mdash;are especially important to Ferreira.&ldquo;Golden has scored 17 goals in his first 15 games for the University of Maine,&rdquo; Ferreira reported, &ldquo;and he can play a physical game. We like him very much.&ldquo;Bloemberg (of North Bay) has good size (btoot1, 210) and is a good bodychecker, but doesn&rsquo;t take many penalties,&rdquo; Ferreira said. &ldquo;More was a pick a lot of people didn&rsquo;t seem to like it when we made it but now Phil tells me other teams mention him in trade talks.&rdquo;In 27 games with New Westminster (WHL), More had five goals, 19 assists and piled up 110 penalty minutes.Colorado GMcoach Pete Mahovlich has been sending good reports on centers Simon Wheeldon (18 goals in 25 games) and Tod Elik (18 goals in 26 games).NOTES&mdash;Backtoback losses to Pittsburgh Dec. 1920 found the Rangers at their low point, prompting another flurry of rumors about possible changes. Then came internal moves which seemed to lift team immediately&hellip;The Rangers did acquire left winger Paul Cyr, 24, from Buffalo for left winger Mike Donnelly, 24&hellip;Coach Michel Bergeron appointed veteran center Kelly Kisio as the team&rsquo;s 21st captain on Dec. 24 and also sought stability by going to a onegoalie system&hellip;John Vanbiesbrouck was in goal for a fivegame unbeaten streak (401) from Dec. 26 through Jan. 2.&bull;<h2>RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 24: Kelly Kisio, C, named captain.Dec. 26: Ron Scott, G, assigned to Denver for 14 days of conditioining.Dec. 31: Paul Cyr, LW, acquired from Buffalo, along with a 10thround draft choice in 1988, for Mike Donnelly, LW, and a fifthround draft choice in 1988.<h2>INJURIES</h2>C&mdash;Walt Poddubny, Kelly Kisio, Lucien DeBlois, Steve Nemeth.LW&mdash;Mark Tinordi, Paul Cyr, Don Maloney, Jeff Brubaker.RW&mdash;Tomas Sandstrom, Brian Mullen, Jan Erixon, Ulf Dahlen, Ron Duguay.LD&mdash;Jari Gronstrand, Ron Gres chner, Norm Maciver, Jim Pavese.RD&mdash;James Patrick, David Shaw.G&mdash;lohn Vanbiesbrouck, Bob Froese.<h2>INJURIES</h2>Marcel Dionne, C, inflammation of left knee, Jan. 15.Pierre Larouche, C, pinched nerve, lower back, indefinite.John Ogrodnick, LW, bruised instep, Jan. 6.Michel Petit, C, pulled groin, indefinite. &#9632;

f0013-01

Ranciers Can’t Wait For Olympics To Finish

SNAPSHOTS, POTSHOTS, slap shots and cheap shots on the year that was 1987.Best goalie not voted to the allstar team: Grant Fuhr.Best goalie not to have won the Vezina Trophy: Grant Fuhr.Most underpaid player: Grant Fuhr.Legitimate Hart Trophy candidate: Grant Fuhr.Outrageous fortune: What Vancouver Canucks are paying Barry Pederson.Favorite new term: Poilenoia. It permeates the Washington organization. GM David Poile ordered his PR staff not to put players&rsquo; game-by-game statistics in the game notes anymore. His reason? To protect the players. If anything, his reason should have been embarrassment.Best victory: Pat Quinn over John Ziegler, in twooutofthree fall match. No disqualifications.Worst decision: Maurice Filion hiring Andre Savard as coach.Going out in a blaze of gory: Bob Johnson, who cut Jimmy Carson and Brett Hull from his Team USA lineup, then found he had no scoring.Jack Evans Award: To Pittsburgh coach Pierre Creamer, who after Paul Coffey&rsquo;s first game with the Pens said, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good hockey player.&rdquo; Tex Evans couldn&rsquo;t have said it better himself.Foul play: What comes out of Terry Crisp&rsquo;s mouth while Calgary Flames play.Still waiting for: Michal Pivonka, Frantisek Musil, Joe Murphy, Andrew McBain.Victim of circumstances: Good goalie Andy Moog left Edmonton Oilers because he was tired of playing second fiddle to Grant Fuhr. He joined Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team, where he now plays second fiddle to Sean Burke.Most underrated players: Bernie Nicholls, Joel Otto, Kelly Kisio.Most overrated players: Sly Turgeon, Borje Salming, Tom Barrasso.He&rsquo;s no saviour: BengtAke Gustafsson.Worst comedian: Dave Brown.He deserves better: Gene Ubriaco, a good guy and a good coach, who&rsquo;s saddled with the worst team in recent hockey history, the Baltimore Skipjacks.Claim to fame: Robbie Ftorek, the new coach of Los Angeles Kings, is the only active man in pro hockey to have outscored Wayne Gretzky in a season. He did it in 197879, Gretzky&rsquo;s first pro season. Ftorek had 116 points, Gretzkv 110.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011350/5387657-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="369" height="452"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Simmons</figcaption></div>Still scoring after all these years: Marcel Dionne, Nifty Middleton, Bryan Trottier.Old coaches don&rsquo;t die, they just become TV announcers: Scotty Bowman, Harry Neale, Roger Neilson, Gary Green.Best games of &lsquo;87: Canada Cup final three, Islanders-Capitals overtime marathon, any Calgary-Edmonton game.See you in Siberia, Viktor: In 1987, the Soviet Union lost: a) the Calgary Cup; b) the World Jr. Championships; c) the World Championships; d) the Canada Cup; e) the Izvestia Cup; or f) all of the above.Carrying on a proud tradition: Lou Lamor iello, in his first major trade as Jersey boss, sent Greg Adams and Kirk McLean to Vancouver in exchange for Patrik Sundstrom. All Adams has done is lead the Canucks in scoring and McLean is Vancouver&rsquo;s No. 1 goalie. Sundstrom is playing the way Sundstrom always plays.Last laugh: When the New York Rangers acquired coach Michel Bergeron from Quebec, they were smiling. When the Nords let Bergeron go for a first pick, they were smiling. At last glance, both clubs were in last place, and neither was smiling.1988 Stanley Cup champ: Whichever Alberta team wins the Smythe Division.Best hockey writers: Jay (Philadelphia Daily News) Greenberg (again), Eric (Calgary Herald) Duhatschek, Scott (Toronto Sun) Morrison.Worst column: Me. I wrote that Al lafrate was making a big mistake by passing on the Canada Cup. It obviously hasn&rsquo;t hurt him. He&rsquo;s the most improved player in the NHL.Best Paul Coffey impression: Al lafrate. &#9632;

f0014-01

Washington Suffering From Case Of ‘Poilenoia’

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021054/5387688-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="180" height="137"></div>LANDOVER, Md.&mdash;While recent firstround draft choices struggled to make an impression, the Washington Capitals&rsquo; hopes for a talent transfusion centered around a free agent in Binghamton and an I throught draft pick in Fort Wayne.Center Mike Richard, overlooked by NHL talent scouts, established an American League record with at least one point in 31 straight games, after signing a tryout contract and being assigned to Binghamton.&ldquo;He fits the bill of the classic underdog,&rdquo; said Washington general manager David Poile.Only 5foot10 and 175 pounds, Richard was given short shrift by NHL talent scouts more interested in size. Although he scored 117 points for the Toronto Marlboros last season and was not out of place in nine games with the Baltimore Skipjacks, Richard was headed to Finland this winter until the Capitals&rsquo; tryout became available.In 36 games with Binghamton, Richard collected 28 goals and 31 assists.Nevertheless, he realized the need for more experience and, after setting the record, said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still learning and I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m ready to go up now.&rdquo; The Capitals concurred after giving him a fourgame audition, but still have hopes for him.Washington did take a look at another youngster with promise, goaltender Alain Raymond. He was an 11 thround pick in 1983 when he toiled for TroisRivieres.Last season Raymond was in Fort Wayne, where he compiled a 3.30 goalsagainst mark and shared the James Norris Trophy for top goalie with teammate Michel Dufour. In 14 games this season for the Komets, he was on the money for a repeat performance, at 3.28.Meanwhile, the Capitals&rsquo; firstround picks of 1985 and 1986, wingers Yvon Corriveau and Jeff Greenlaw, were struggling in Binghamton. Corriveau had 15 goals and 14 assists in 33 games, and Greenlaw, again troubled by a bad back, was 336 in 26. Ironically, it was Richard who was Corriveau&rsquo;s center with the Marlies in 198586, when Corriveau scored 54 goals.Playing well for Ontario League teams were center Tyler Larter (273663 in 36 games at Sault Ste. Marie), left winger Frank DiMuzio (252045 in 28 at Ottawa), left winger Steve Maltais (222143 in 33 at Cornwall), right winger John Purves (212142 in 32 at Hamilton) and center Rob Arabs ki (182341 in 33 at Guelph).NOTES&mdash;The Capitals lost only one of nine games after general manager David Poile issued his &ldquo;reevaluation&rdquo; ultimatum&hellip; Forwards Yvon Corriveau and Mike Richard performed capably in a fourgame stretch while Lou Franceschetti and Ed Kastelic watched from the press box. Richard was sent back to Binghmaton when Mike Ridley returned from a knee injury&hellip;Rod Langway, although still feeling pain in his back, returned to the lineup Dec. 26, almost a week earlier than scheduled. Larry Murphy was scratched from a game in Toronto. Four days later, he had a goal and three assists in a 53 victory over Pittsburgh&hellip;When Clint Malarchuk blanked Edmonton Jan. 2, it was the first shutout by a Washington goaltender in 22 months.&bull;<h2>CAPITALS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 21: Yves Beaudoin, D, recalled from Binghamton (AHL).Dec. 24: Yves Beaudoin, D, assigned to Binghamton.Dec. 27: Yvon Corriveau, LW, and Mike Richard, C, recalled from Binghamton; Alain Raymond, G, recalled from Fort Wayne (IHL).Jan. 4: Mike Richard, C, returned to Binghamton; Alain Raymond, G, returned to Fort Wayne.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hunter, Bengt Gustafsson, Bob Gould, Mike Ridley.LW&mdash;Yvon Corriveau, Michal Pivonka, Kelly Miller, Greg Adams, Lou Franceschetti.RW&mdash;Dave Christian, Mike Gartner, Peter Sundstrom, Craig Laughlin, Ed Kastelic.LD&mdash;Scott Stevens, Rod Langway, Bill Houlder.RD&mdash;Larry Murphy, Kevin Hatcher, Greg Smith, Garry Galley.G&mdash;Clint Malarchuk, Pete Peeters.<h3>INJURIES</h3>John Barrett, D, fractured left kneecap, indefinite. &#9632;

f0014-02

Free Agent, LateRound Pick Steal Spotlight

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03740/5387719-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="177" height="131"></div>BUFFALO&mdash;The best and brightest prospects in the Buffalo Sabre system&mdash;rookie forwards Pierre Turgeon, Ray Sheppard and Mikael Andersson, and defensemen Calle Johansson and Uwe Krupp&mdash;are already with the big club.When you finish last overall in the National Hockey League&mdash;as the Sabres did last season&mdash;your top prospects move up in a hurry, though goalie Daren Puppa was assigned to Buffalo&rsquo;s American League farm team in Rochester Jan. 4.But there are players on the horizon.Buffalo has drafted for depth and defense the last two seasons. Two of those players&mdash;defenseman Greg Brown and left winger Dave Snugger ud&mdash;are expected to make an impact for Team USA at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary.Brown, a member of the Hockey East allrookie team at Boston College last season, was Buffalo&rsquo;s second pick, 26th overall in the 1986 entry draft. He&rsquo;s a key member of Team USA&rsquo;s defense. The 6foot, 190pound rushing defenseman had three goals and 16 assists in 30 games of Team USA&rsquo;s preOlympic schedule.Snuggerud was not considered much of a prospect when he was taken with the first pick in the 1987 supplemental draft. His lack of bulk at 6 feet, 170 pounds could be a problem. He had six goals and 11 assists in 24 games withThe Sabres are also hoping Regina Pat defenseman Brad Miller, taken 22nd overall in the 1987 draft, will develop. At 6foot4, 202 pounds, Miller is one of the few players in the system capable of adding much-needed muscle on the blue line.Other prospects:&bull; Jeff Parker, right wingercenter at Rochester. A member of the 1986 Michigan State NCAA national championship team.&bull; Mike Hartman, right winger, Rochester. In his first full season with the Amerks, the physical former North Bay Centennial was Buffalo&rsquo;s eighth pick, 131st overall, in the 1986 draft.&bull; Bob Corkum, right winger, University of Maine. Buffalo&rsquo;s third pick, 57th overall in 1986, Corkum is big (6foot2, 195 pounds) and tough and led Hockey East in playoff scoring last season.&bull; Ken Priestlay, center, RochesterBuffalo. Priestlay had nine goals and 15 assists in 28 games with the Amerks this season.&bull; Hannu Virta and Petri Mati kainen. Both defensemen are playing in Finland. A proven NHL performer, Virta will play for Finland in the upcoming Olympics, but is still Sabre property and could figure in their plans after the Games. Matikainen has also joined the national team. He played two seasons for the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario League and just turned 21.NOTES&mdash;The Sabres could not reach .500 by the halfway point of the season (their best possible record was 16177), but they did have 37 points in their first 39 games. It took 52 games to reach that level last season.&bull;<h2>SABRES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 23: Ken Priestlay, C, and Don McSween, D, recalled from Rochester (AHL).Dec. 28: Bob Logan, LW, assigned to Rochester. Jody Gage, RW, and, Mikael Andersson, RW, recalled from Rochester.Dec. 29: Don McSween, D, assigned to Rochester.Dec. 31: Paul Cyr, LW, traded to New York Rangers along with a 10thround draft choice for Mike Donnelly, LW, and New York&rsquo;s fifth pick in the 1988 entry draft.Jan. 1: Jody Gage, RW, assigned to Rochester.Jan. 4: Daren Puppa, G, assigned to Rochester.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Christian Ruuttu, Pierre Turgeon, Doug Smith, Ken Priestlay.LW&mdash;Dave Andreychuk, Mike Donnelly, Lindy Ruff, Mikael Andersson.RW&mdash;Mike Foligno, Ray Sheppard, Scott Arniel, Kevin Maguire, Mark Napier.LD&mdash;Uwe Krupp, Mike Ramsey, Steve Dykstra.RD&mdash;Calle Johansson, Ed Hospodar, Shawn Anderson, Phil Housley.G&mdash;Tom Barrasso, Jacques Cloutier.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Adam Creighton, C, shoulder, indefinite.Clark Gillies, LW, knee, day-to-day.Bob Halkidis, D, ankle, day-to-day.Jan Ludvig, RW, knee, day-to-day.Joe Reekie, D, knee, indifinite.John Tucker, C, shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0014-03

Olympians Among Sabre Prospects

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011262/5387757-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="594" height="1138"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;For years, the Montreal Canadiens have taken great care to assure themselves of a healthy farm system.When the need arises, the Canadiens are generally confident that they can reach down and come up with the missing part. Some years, they need more than others.In 1984, Chris Chelios was brought in and provided some impetus for the Canadiens&rsquo; drive to a semifinal berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs.In 1985, Steve Rooney joined the Canadiens late in the season from Providence College and, in 1986, Claude Lemieux, banished to Sherbrooke for poor play, returned in March and was a biggoal man for the Canadiens in their drive to a Stanley Cup championship.Help from Sherbrooke came early in the season when Patrick Roy was suspended for eight games. Vincent Rien deau was recalled to back up Brian Hayward in the Montreal goal, and there is a strong feeling that come next season Riendeau will be a fulltime NHL employee.Riendeau, who won the Happy Holmes Trophy as the AHL&rsquo;s best goaltender last season, had a 3.17 goalsagainst average at the Christmas break and was the winner in 10 of Sherbrooke&rsquo;s 20 triumphs.On defense, the Canadiens&rsquo; best prospect is Mathieu Schneider, a thirdround pick in last summer&rsquo;s draft. Schheider played four games with the Canadiens before being returned to Cornwall of the Ontario League for further development.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02906/5387750-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="177" height="133"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vincent Riendeau showed he&rsquo;s close to ready during an earlier trial in Montreal.</figcaption></div>He started slowly with the Royals, but had picked up his play by Christmastime and was named to the U.S. national junior team. In 24 Ontario League games, he had 14 goals and 24 assists.Scott Sandelin, who appeared to have a spot with the Canadiens as a seventh defenseman, found himself back in Sherbrooke for a second season and legitimately questioning his future in the Montreal organization.Sandelin had two goals in 19 appearances with Sherbrooke in the first part of the season after being sent down to the minors in midNovember.The Canadiens&rsquo; attack has some relief on the way in the next couple of years. Jose Charbonneau, Montreal&rsquo;s first draft choice in 1984, acquired in the deal which sent Mark Hunter to St. Louis, was a bust in his first two seasons in Sherbrooke. This year, he was 212344 in 30 games.Charbonneau was 20 points behind team scoring leader Gilles Thi baudeau. who is likely to be a career AHLer because of his size (5foot10, 165 pounds) and lack of breakaway speed.Center Martin Desjardins (33 points in 33 games) was the Canadiens&rsquo; fifth choice, 75th overall in the 1985 draft. Desjardins led Sherbrooke with six powerplay goals and three gamewinning goals at the Christmas break.Mike Keane, a tough little rightwinger, should win a job as a checker in the next year or two. Keane was discovered by Savard in Winnipeg and signed as a free agent in September, 1985.The top junior prospects include Andrew Cassels, Montreal&rsquo;s first choice, 17th overall, in the 1987 draft. He was tied for fourth among OHL scorers at the Christmas break with 63 points.Also performing well was freeagent signee Stephane Lebeau, who was second in Quebec League scoring with 54 goals and 103 points at Shawinigan.NOTES&mdash;Larry Robinson missed the first three games of the Canadiens&rsquo; post-Christmas road trip with a sprained right wrist&hellip;Chris Chelios returned to the Canadiens lineup Dec. 26 in Toronto, with extra protection for his broken little finger&hellip;Brian Hayward suffered a pulled thigh muscle in a 42 victory at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on Dec. 26&hellip;Sergio Mornes sos days with Montreal may be numbered. He sat out the Canadiens final preChristmas home game and did not dress for any games in the Canadiens&rsquo; fourgame road trip, which finished 220.&bull;<h2>CANADIENS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 22: Guy Carbonneau, C, signed a threeyear contract, plus an option.Dec. 27: Vincent Riendeau, G, recalled from Sherbrooke (AHL).Jan. 3: Vincent Riendeau, G, assigned to Sherbrooke.<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, Kjell Dahlin, Chris Nilan, John Kordic.LD&mdash;Craig Ludwig, Petr Svoboda, Mike Lalor, Larry Trader.RD&mdash;Chris Chelios, Larry Robinson, Rick Green.G&mdash;Patrick Roy, Brian Hayward.<h3>INJURIES &#9632;</h3>

f0015-01

Hab Success Recipe Uses Homegrown Stock

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;The Quebec Nor diques are beginning to develop a reputation as a team of patience and foresight.In last June&rsquo;s entry draft, Quebec had two firstround selections, ninth and 15th overall. They&rsquo;ll also have two firstrounders in 1988 entry draft&mdash;their own and that of the New York Rangers, acquired in the deal for coach Michel Bergeron.One of the &lsquo;86 firstrounders&mdash;center Joe Sakic of Swift Current, selected 15th overall&mdash;could make a big impact next year, predicts Martin Madden, the Nords&rsquo; director of player development.&ldquo;Even though he isn&rsquo;t huge (5&mdash;foot11, 180 pounds), he works very well in close quarters,&rdquo; said Madden. &ldquo;I saw him play a couple of weeks ago and he really impressed me.&ldquo;There simply isn&rsquo;t a better player when the time comes to go all out in the opponent&rsquo;s territory. And if he does get that extra speed, he&rsquo;ll be the same kind of player that Steve Yzerman is for the Red Wings.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011142/5387788-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="175" height="135"></div>Sakic was third in WHL scoring (31 3869 in 33 games) before joining Canada&rsquo;s national team for the World Jr. Championships in Moscow.Bryan Fogarty, the Kingston Canadian defenseman chosen ninth overall, is less of a certainty. Madden said. Disciplinary problems started in his draft year and continued through this season, leading to his early departure from the junior national team camp.But Madden is convinced Fogarty&rsquo;s pure talent, combined with a maturing attitude, will help him crack the NHL.Another top candidate in the Nords&rsquo; system is Mark Vermette, an eighthround pick in the 1986 entry draft. Vermette, who plays for Lake Superior State, had 23 goals at Christmas.&ldquo;Mark is one of the best college players in America,&rdquo; said Madden. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big right winger (6foot2, 205 pounds) who loves to mix it up along the boards.&rdquo;One prospect whose time may have arrived is former Peterborough Pete Ron Tugnutt, the top goalie in the Ontario League last year. After posting a 2.79 goalsagainst average in 18 games with Fredericton, Tugnutt was called up to the Nordiques and didn&rsquo;t disappoint.In two games with the Nords since his promotion Dec. 22, Tugnutt had a 110 reexord, 1.50 GAA and .955 save percentage. His first start was a 51 win over Buffalo Dec. 29.Quebec would like to see better play out of center Jason Lafreniere and right winger Max Middendorf, both in Fredericton. Lafreniere, 21, the Nords&rsquo; secondround choice in 1985, has yet to show he can play consistently enough to stay at the NHL level.Middendorf, a 6foot4 Syracuse, N.Y., native, was picked in the third round of the 1985 draft.After a soso training camp, the 20-year-old reported to the Fredericton Express where he wasn&rsquo;t playing too badly. But all of a sudden, he started losing weight. At one point, he was down to 175 pounds&mdash;20 fewer than his listed weight in the NHL guide.The team doctor suspected mononucleosis, but no trace of it was found in his blood. His convalescence lasted about six weeks.NOTES&mdash;Peter Stastny scored the 300th goal of his NHL career Dec. 29, as the Nordiques hammered Buffalo 51 at Le Colisee. Tom Barrasso was the opposition goaltender.<h2>NORDIQUES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 18: Trevor Stienburg, C, recalled from Fredericton (AHL).Dec. 22: Ron Tugnutt, G, recalled from Fredericton.Dec. 30: Mario Brunetta, G, assigned to Fredericton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Peter Stastny, Alan Haworth, Paul Gillis, Trevor Stienburg.LW&mdash;Michel Goulet, Mike Eagles, Gaetan Duchesne, Terry Carkner.RW&mdash;Anton Stastny, Jeff Jackson, Alain Cote, Gord Donnelly, Ken Quinney.LD&mdash;Normand Rochefort, Steven Finn, Robert Picard, Stephane Guerard.RD&mdash;Randy Moller, Jeff Brown, Tommy Albelin.G&mdash;Mario Gosselin, Ron Tugnutt.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0016-01

Nords Say Sakic Will Be The Next Yzerman

IT IS ONLY in January, when we are a few weeks removed from the glory of the holidays, that we can truly grasp their real message.Which is, of course, pay off your creditcard balance&mdash;in full and on time&mdash;or the company will send a highlymotivated gorilla to repossess your presents.But there is another meaningful aspect to that most festive season that we dare not overlook: Leftovers.The ham that&rsquo;s turning a delightful emerald green around the edges, the cute little yam circles that have taken on the consistency of vulcanized rubber&mdash;and the pressing issues that carried over into the new year like a Jan. I hangover.For example, with all the injuries Paul Coffey has suffered since going to Pittsburgh, should the Penguins be more interested in getting Dr. Randy Gregg instead of Andy Moog from the Canadian Olympic team?But there are even more urgent issues to be addressed, one of which pertains to the most important people in the I hockey world: Writers.Sure, there probably are a few misguided souls out there I who still think some other folks, like players, are more important to the game, but it&rsquo;s easy to disprove that.Just ask a writer.And believe him. I know I would.Randy Smith told me to.A few weeks back on these very pages, Mr. Smith pleaded with the populace to have faith in the people who mangle adjectives for a living.&ldquo;&hellip;trust the writers,&rdquo; he wrote, &ldquo;&hellip;for the most part, they know their stuff.&rdquo;If I&rsquo;m not mistaken, that latter phrase means most writers can identify their luggage when it appears on an airport baggage carousel.But hey, I know I believe in writers and every precious nugget of knowledge that spills from their fingertips.Why, every time Jay Greenberg says Buffalo will win the Stanley Cup. I know he is speaking from more than a decade of accumulated wisdom, to say nothing of the innermost depths of his soul.After all, as Randy so eloquently pointed out, writers &ldquo;don&rsquo;t have to play the public posturing game&hellip;&rdquo; And I believe, brothers and sisters, I believe.Truth be told, if there&rsquo;s anyone who should not be trusted, it is editors, those scurrilous souls who write headlines and always alter the wisdom that gushes forth from writers.Why, right before the start of the season&mdash;in this very space&mdash;I tried to make a series of predictions that proved to be shockingly accurate.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03704/5387819-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="349" height="452"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Molinari</figcaption></div>I said the Flyers would struggle early, then turn it around in December. That Hartford would score the fewest goals in the league by midseason. That Denis Savard would have a super start and intrude on the Wayne GretzkyMario Lemieux comfort zone on the scoring charts. That the New Jersey Devils would be a couple of points out of first place around Christmas, by which time Robbie Ftorek would have replaced Mike Murphy.So what happened? The editors at THN cut every one of those insights from the column in question, and inserted mindless, sophomoric drivel in its place.I suggest someone out there file a classaction suit on behalf of all the deprived readers from Boston to B.C.Trust me.And trust Randy, too, even though there are a few nagging concerns about his credibility.Sure, he has covered the Hartford Whalers for 38 years&mdash;trust me on that number&mdash;and has spent time in every coffee shop from Landover to Lethbridge, but a few things still trouble me.First, the crack THN investigative team (Woodchuck and Bernstein) has uncovered evidence it was one of Mr. Smith&rsquo;s ancestors who convinced American Indians $24 worth of trinkets surely was the best offer they could get for the island that came to be known as Manhattan.Apparently, he didn&rsquo;t bother to mention the remote possibility realestate values could rise somewhat over the next few years.Even so, take Randy&rsquo;s word for it. Trust the writers. Cherish them. Embrace their every thought. Buy them nice gifts.Most importantly, believe them.And when you do, let me know. I can offer you such a deal on prime, uh waterfront, land in Florida. &#9632;

f0016-03

Trust Our Man Molinari… Even If Nobody Else Does

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div>HARTFORD&mdash;One of Jack Evans favorite adjectives is &ldquo;young.&rdquo; He refers to his players sometimes as &ldquo;Young Cote&rdquo; or &ldquo;Young Millar.&rdquo;A joke making the rounds in the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; locker room concerns what Evans might call Scott Young, the organization&rsquo;s top prospect&mdash;&rdquo;Young Young?&rdquo;It won&rsquo;t matter what Evans calls Young, according to general manager Emile Francis, because the 11 th overall draft pick in 1986 is a cinch to play for the Whalers.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very good hockey player,&rdquo; said Francis, who has watched Young on the U.S. Olympic team. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got such good mobility that they&rsquo;re using him on defense. He also plays the point on all power plays, so that&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s going to be good for us down the road.&rdquo;In 39 games, the 6-foot-l, 200-pounder had eight goals and 39 points.Francis pointed to other NHLers&mdash;such as Dave Christian. Bob Brooke and his own Kevin Dineen&mdash;who played defense in the Olympics and easily made the adjustment to forward in the pros.Young will be arriving in Hartford after the Olympics are over, Francis said.So will centerwinger Gord Sherven, who had six goals and 20 points in 33 games with the Canadian Olympic team.&ldquo;Sherven gives us that much more speed,&rdquo; Francis said. &ldquo;With him and Young, they&rsquo;ll give us the additional depth, we&rsquo;ll need come March.&rdquo;In net, they have strong insurance for Mike Liut and Steve Weeks.Peter Sidorkiewicz, who was 1041 with a 3.04 GAA and an .897 save percentage through 15 games in Binghamton, is &ldquo;back in form after a rough training camp,&rdquo; Francis said. Kay Whitmore was 662 with a 3.56 GAA through 15 games.Binghamton defenseman Brad Shaw, meanwhile, has done everything asked of him and then some. Last year he was named the AHL&rsquo;s top defenseman and apparently has picked up where he left off this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02912/5387850-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="177" height="131"></div>Shaw, 23, had five goals and 36 points through 34 games.Binghamton coach Larry Pleau calls Shaw &ldquo;the best character guy in our league.&rdquo;Jody Hull, last year&rsquo;s No. 1 draft pick, played for Canada in the World Jr. Championships at Moscow. In 22 games with Peterborough, Hull was 221739.Last year&rsquo;s No. 2, defenseman Adam Burt, who scored many points in training camp, continues to blossom at North Bay.NOTES&mdash;Dana Murzyn is going home. The Whalers swapped Murzyn (167 in 33 games), a 21-year-old defenseman who was drafted fifth overall in 1985, with 22-year-old bruiser Shane Churla to Calgary for 25-year-old center Carey Wilson, 27-year-old defenseman Neil Sheehy and the rights to U.S. Olympian Lane MacDonald (152439 in 34 games), a 21-year-old left winger. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve wanted Wilson and Sheehy for a long time,&rsquo;&rsquo; Emile Francis said. (For more on the trade, see Notebook on page 9).<h2>WHALERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 3: Dana Murzyn, D, and Shane Churla, RW, traded to Calgary for Carey Wilson, C, Neil Sheehy, D, and the rights to U.S. Olympian Lane MacDonald, LW.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ronnie Francis, Carey Wilson, Dean Evason, Ray Ferraro, Brent Peterson.LW&mdash;Sylvain Turgeon, Paul Lawless, Dave Tippett, Dave Williams, Torrie Robertson.RW&mdash;Kevin Dineen, Stewart Gavin, John Anderson, Paul MacDermid, Mike Millar, Mark Reeds.LD&mdash;Joel Quenneville, Randy Ladouceur, Scot Kleinendorst.RD&mdash;Dave Babych, Ulf Samuelsson, Sylvain Cote, Neil Sheehy.G&mdash;Mike Liut, Steve Weeks.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Stewart Gavin, RW, torn ankle ligaments, indefinite. &#9632;

f0016-02

Young Star Rising In Whalers’ View

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011000/5387881-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Team Canada goaltender Jimmy Waite, outstanding in a 32 victory over the Soviet Union, was named the World Jr. Championships&rsquo; MVP.</figcaption></div>Editor-in-ChiefThere was but one ugly blemish on an otherwise golden year of Canadian hockey in 1987.And now the Piestany Punchup, the infamous brawl that saw both Canada and the Soviet Union expelled from the World Jr. Championships in Czechoslovakia, is but a faded memory.Thanks to the goldmedal performance by Team Canada at the 1988 tournament in Moscow, the black mark has been erased. In its place, Canadians see a streak of gold they hope will pave the way to the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary next month.In the meantime, though, Canadians are savoring a claim, however tenuous it may be, of global hockey supremacy.The boast is not without some foundation, dating back to last fall&rsquo;s Canada Cup victory over the Soviet Union, followed by the national junior team&rsquo;s performance in Moscow.In between, there was a stunning victory for Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team at the Izvestia Tournament, Dec. 22 in Moscow, and a second consecutive Spengler Cup win, on New Year&rsquo;s Day in Switzerland.Canada&rsquo;s rise has coincided with the Soviets&rsquo; fall. Or so it would seem. The Soviets failed to win a tournament of any significance throughout all of &lsquo;87 and into the first few days of &lsquo;88.&ldquo;As Canadians,&rdquo; says Olympic team coach Dave King, &ldquo;the most important thing (to explain the success) is that we learned a number of valuable lessons from our past experiences.&lsquo;&lsquo;On the Soviet side, I see only two problems. First, they seem to have a morale problem. It seems the players&rsquo; enthusiasm for the game is not as great as it has been. Second, they&rsquo;re a bit of a question mark in goal.&ldquo;But be careful. I do not believe Soviet hockey is on the decline. You look at the goals for and goals against in any tournament and they&rsquo;re No. 1 in each category. They&rsquo;ve simply lost some close games. They still deserve our respect.&rdquo;As do the Canadian teams which have been successful against them.&ldquo;I was so impressed by the discipline of Dave Chambers&rsquo; team at the World Jr. Championships,&rdquo; King says.Chambers&rsquo; team finished the tournament with a 601 record, marred only by a 44 tie against defendingchampion Finland. Team Canada was inconsistent but throughout the tournament reflected the gentlemanlybutdisciplined demeanor of their coach.It was a stark contrast to a year ago, when the team, even before the brawl against the Soviets, reflected the feisty and belligerent temperament of head coach Bert Templeton.One constant from &lsquo;87 to &lsquo;88 was the outstanding netminding of Jimmy Waite.If not for his brilliance against the Soviet Union on New Year&rsquo;s Day, a game which Canada won 32, there surely would have been no gold medal.Canada had to have a win, the Soviets a tie to put themselves in a position to nail down the tournament title. Both clubs faced weak sisters Poland and West Germany in their final two games, so the CanadaSoviet game was, for all intents and purposes, a goldmedal contest.Canada dominated the Soviets in the first half of the game, but the Soviets stormed them in the second half. Canada&rsquo;s 32 lead looked awfully tenuous. Thirdperiod opportunities were few and far between for Canada but Waite saved them time and time again.Team Canada, outshot 174 in the second and third periods, wasn&rsquo;t trying to protect the lead; they just weren&rsquo;t able to stem the Soviet tide. Finally, as time wound down, the Canadian players realized they would have to make do with the onegoal lead and worked to protect it.&ldquo;With seven or eight minutes to go we got a big surge of confidence that Jimmy simply wasn&rsquo;t going to give them another goal,&rdquo; said Team Canada winger Warren Babe. &ldquo;That picked us up and we started to carry the play to them a little, which eased things a bit.&rdquo;Championship observers were equally impressed with Waite, naming him the tournament&rsquo;s most valuable player. But Soviet coach Anatoli Kostrukov didn&rsquo;t share their enthusiasm.&ldquo;He was lucky,&rdquo; said Kostrukov. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all.Goals by Theoren Fleury and Trevor Linden gave Canada a 20 firstperiod lead. Fleury&rsquo;s was a powerplay marker. Seven minutes into the second period, Hariy Vitolinish scored a powerplay goal to revive the sluggish Soviets. At 11:45, defenseman Marc Laniel&rsquo;s slap shot from the blue line eluded Soviet goalie Aleksei Sheblenov to give Canada a 31 lead. That, too, was a powerplay goal.Just 28 seconds later, Valeri Zelepukin beat Waite.There was some apprehension that the Canadians would experience an emotional letdown after the Soviet game and would be ripe for upset by Poland or West Germany. It never came to pass.They bombed West Germany 81 and Poland 91 to wrap up the gold medal on Jan. 4, the first anniversary of the brawl in Czechoslovakia.Canada opened the tourney with a 42 win over Sweden and followed that with a 42 victory over Czechoslovakia, their first against the Czechoslovaks in world junior play, the 44 tie with Finland, a hardfought 54 win over Team USA and victories over the Soviets, Poles and Germans.The Soviets trounced West Germany 122 on the final day of the tourney to secure the silver medal, while Finland&rsquo;s 21 win against Czechoslovakia gave them the bronze medal. The Czechoslovaks finished fourth and the Swedes fifth.NOTES&mdash;Finnish defenseman Teppo Numminen, who may join the Winnipeg Jets following the Olympics, was chosen top defenseman while Soviet Alexander Moligny was named top forward. &#9632;

f0017-01

Gold Rush For Canada!

Believe it or not, things could have been worse for the U.S. at the 1988 World Jr. Championships in Moscow.A lot worse.The Americans lost six of seven games, including a 43 tourneyopening loss to Poland, and finished in a threeway tie for last place with the Poles and West Germany.But thanks to the tiebreaking procedure (goal differential only for those games against each other) Team USA escaped last place and relegation to the International Ice Hockey Federation &lsquo;B&rsquo; Pool.Most important, though, was that by staying in the &lsquo;A&rsquo; pool, the U.S. remains as host for next year&rsquo;s tournament. The Amateur Hockey Association of the United States, with IIHF approval, had already designated Anchorage, Alaska, as the host site.Poland, with a minustwo rating in the tiebreaker, faced relegation while both West Germany and the U.S. finished with plusone marks. The U.S. finished in sixth place on the strength of its 64 win over West Germany in their headtohead encounter.&ldquo;The picture isn&rsquo;t quite as bleak as it could be,&rdquo; Bob (Badger) Johnson, executive director of AHAUS, said from his Colorado Springs, Colo., office.&ldquo;What were we, sixth, seventh place? It would have been really bad news if we finished eighth. We&rsquo;re really looking forward to putting on the best damn World Jr. Championship ever and if we&rsquo;d been going to the &lsquo;B&rsquo; pool, we definitely would have had to give it up.&rdquo;This year&rsquo;s U.S. national junior team was, relatively speaking, young and inexperienced. Two key players still eligible for the tourney&mdash;defensemen Brian Leetch and Greg Brown&mdash;were unavailable because of their commitment to the U.S. Olympic team.And Terry Christensen, an assistant in past years and a fulltime assistant coach at Michigan State, filled in for head coach Dave Peterson, who is guiding the Olympic team.The absence of Leetch, of course, was pivotal. He&rsquo;s Considered a worldclass offensivetype defenseman who is expected to turn pro with the New York Rangers immediately after the Winter Games.&ldquo;In Leetch and Brown,&rdquo; Johnson said, &ldquo;you &lsquo;re talking about the best player (Leetch) in our program and the most improved player (Brown) in our program. I&rsquo;m sure they would&rsquo;ve helped but that&rsquo;s the way it goes. It&rsquo;s the same old story. You rarely get an opportunity to send your best possible team.&rdquo;The poor finish this year and last (although the U.S. officially finished fourth with a 43 record in &lsquo;87, they were actually sixth with a 25 mark before Canada and the Soviet Union were stripped of their points) doesn&rsquo;t worry Johnson.&ldquo;Like all countries,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;these things seem to run in cycles. A couple of years ago, we had a whole group of really great players (Leetch, Brown, Craig Janney, Scott Young, Jimmy Carson, to name a few) and a lot of them are now forming the nucleus of what I think is a really fine Olympic team.&rdquo;After the stunning loss to Poland&mdash;the Poles&rsquo; secondever win in &lsquo;A&rsquo; Pool competition&mdash;to start the tourney, the U.S. recorded its only victory, a 64 decision over West Germany. Then came five consecutive losses: 73 to the Soviet Union; 54 to Canada; 86 to Finland; 111 to Czechoslovakia and 75 to Sweden.The game against Canada was probably Team USA&rsquo;s best of the tournament. The Canadians dominated early, but the Americans rebounded with a strong third period and came close to recording an upset. &#9632;

U.S. Points Toward Next Year’s Event

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div>BOSTON&mdash;The two best prospects in the Boston Bruins&rsquo; system are currently gearing up to play against each other in the medal round of the 1988 Winter Olympics.Then, said Boston general manager Harry Sinden, it is possible Bob Joyce will be at left wing and Craig Janney at center as the Bruins drive for the Stanley Cup.Janney, from Enfield, Conn., will be playing for the American team, and Joyce, who grew up in Winnipeg, for Team Canada at the Calgary Games.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have to take a look at them first, of course,&rdquo; said Sinden, &ldquo;but both of them have good chances of sticking with the team this year.&ldquo;Joyce is a big (6footl, 180 pounds) left winger who plays a similar style to the NHL game. If we can work out a contract, he should be joining the Bruins after the Olympics.&rdquo;Joyce, the Bruins&rsquo; fourth choice in the 1984 draft, graduated from the University of North Dakota, where he scored 52 goals in 48 games last season.Janney, selected in the first round (13th overall) in 1986, has two years of eligibility left at Boston College. He led Hockey East in assists (55) and points (83) during the 198687 season.&ldquo;I know he wants to turn pro and we&rsquo;d like him to,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;Again, it depends on whether or not we can work out a contract with him.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a finessetype player who will put a lot of points on the board. He&rsquo;s more of a playmaker than a scorer but he&rsquo;s a good goalscorer too. Many people liken him to Jean Ratelle.&rdquo;Approaching the Christmas break, Janney had 20 goals and 34 assists in 45 games for the American team. Joyce, injured during the fall, had seven goals and five assists for Team Canada, leading up to the Izvestia Tournament.During a trip to Boston last season, when his Fighting Sioux played Boston University, Joyce said he was looking forward to the Bruins&rsquo; grinding style of play in Boston Garden.&ldquo;They have a small barn,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of an upanddown, grind it out in the corners type of game. I think that&rsquo;s my kind of game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011041/5387936-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="177" height="137"></div>&ldquo;My best part is up and down my wing, working it out to my centerman and my other winger, and maybe a touch around the net.&rdquo;Joyce grew up in Winnipeg, next door to the Patrick brothers, James and Steve, and played midget hockey at Notre Dame College in Wilcox, Sask., a few years after current Bruins Gord Kluzak, Brian Curran and Lyndon Byers.Janney led his high school team to two Connecticut state championships in Enfield, and then transferred to Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, where the hockey competition is stronger, for his senior year.The Bruins appear to be wellfortified on defense for the near future with Ray Bourque, Gord Kluzak, Reed Larson, Glen Wesley and Michael Thelven, but Sinden is high on three defense prospects in the system.&ldquo;Stephane Quintal, our No. 1 draft choice (14th overall) along with Wesley this past year, is a darned good prospect,&rdquo; said the general manager. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s just starting to play again after a hernia.&rdquo;Quintal was at the Bruin training camp briefly this past fall and was sent back to the Granby Bisons.Don Sweeney, an eighthround choice in 1984 who graduates from Harvard this spring, is another highlyrated defenseman. Although not known as a scorer, he was leading the Crimson with two goals and six assists in eight games.&ldquo;Up in Maine, Alain Cote, our first pick in the second round in 1985, is really coming into his own on defense,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s also a top prospect.&rdquo;Taking a regular turn for the Mariners, Cote had six goals and nine assists in 27 games.Bill Ranford is still the goalie of the future for the Bruins, even though he was disappointing in 41 games (3.33 goalsagainst average, 16202 record) with the big club last season. He&rsquo;s been at Maine all this year for development.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing very, very well in the AHL now,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;it more and more appears that this is the best thing for him.&rdquo;In 17 games, Ranford had a 3.52 GAA for the Mariners, who have been in or near last place in the league all year.NOTES&mdash;The Adams Division rivalry between Boston and Quebec boiled over&mdash;again&mdash;during the Bruins&rsquo; 51 win in Boston Garden Jan. 2. Referee Don Koharski called 214 minutes in penalties, including 15 fighting majors, seven game misconducts, a match penalty to Boston&rsquo;s Willi Plett for headbutting and a spearing major to the Nords&rsquo; Mike Eagles. On Oct. 29, the rivals did 222 minutes worth of battling in Quebec&rsquo;s 42 win at Boston. Judging by postgame comments, more could be in store when the teams tangle again, on Jan. 28 in Boston. &ldquo;They wanted to play it tough and they did,&rdquo; said Quebec coach Ron Lapointe. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a couple of guys in the minors who can play like that. If they want that, fine.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Goalie Reggie Lemelin shut out Buffalo twice in 10 days&mdash;90 on Dec. 22 and 20 on Dec. 31. The shutouts were the seventh and eighth of Lemelin&rsquo;s career&hellip;Coach Terry O&rsquo;Reilly has criticized officiating all season. On Dec. 27, he threw a full water bottle in the direction of referee Denis Morel during a game with New York Rangers.<h2>BRUINS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 25: Tommy Lehmann, C, assigned to Maine (AHL) for conditioning.Dec. 26: Tom McCarthy, C, assigned to Maine for conditioning.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ken Linseman, Steve Kasper, Bob Sweeney, Billy O&rsquo;Dwyer.LW&mdash;Rick Middleton, Geoff Courtnail, Randy Burridge, Jay Miller.RW&mdash;Cam Neely, Keith Crowder, Willi Plett, Lyndon Byers.LD&mdash;Gord Kluzak, Glen Wesley, Allen Pedersen.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque, Reed Larson, Michael Thelven, Frank Simonetti.G&mdash;Reggie Lemelin, Doug Keans.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Nevin Markwart, RW, left shoulder surgery, Feb. 27. &#9632;

f0018-01

Pair Of Olympians Carry Hopes Of Bruins

AT THE NHL&rsquo;S halfmile pole, here are one man&rsquo;s top 10 movies:1) The Devil at 4 O&rsquo;Clock: Nobody really believes that the New Jersey Devils are a playoff team, except perhaps the Devils themselves. From a distance, the Patrick Division looks like a fourteam party with the Rangers and Devils playing the role of uninvited guests now that Paul Coffey has crashed in Pittsburgh. Yet, here are the Devils, one of the league&rsquo;s least likely home monsters, still playing with the big boys through 40 games. Let&rsquo;s be honest. How can you hate it? You don&rsquo;t have to shake hands with the Devils, but you do have to applaud them.2) Ring of Fire: In a most unspectacular manner, the Calgary Flames appear to have drawn even up with the Edmonton Oilers, not the easiest of tricks, to be sure. A long stretch duel remains, but the Flames, under new coach Terry Crisp and boosted by something called a Joe Nieuwendyk (spell it backwards on the first try and you qualify for Olympic credentials), seem to be authentic. For one thing, they were doing the impossible. They were outscoring the Oilers. It shouldn&rsquo;t be too long before the game&rsquo;s defensive wizards start knocking the Flames, just as they&rsquo;ve knocked the Oilers in the past. Let &lsquo;em knock.3) All The Right Moves: The return of Gord Kluzak, an impact player, has probably had the most impact on the resurgence of the Boston Bruins, but GM Harry Sinden rates a tip of the hat. Not only have the Bruins returned to their longtime role of contender, but rather amazingly, they&rsquo;ve turned younger in the process. Randy Burridge, Glen Wesley and Bob Sweeney look the part, with Craig Janney on the way from the U.S. Olympic team. The net looks to be a little iffy, but for yet another season, Harry can keep the change.4) Paths of Glory: Somehow all of us forgot that the Montreal Canadiens won their last Stanley Cup two years ahead of schedule. Leave it to them to remind us in the only place that has ever counted&mdash;the standings. Lookout below.5) The Eagle Has Landed: Just when you thought it was safe to walk along Broad Street after dark, the Philadelphia Flyers have reassembled their gang. Pedestrians everywhere have noticed. Trust me.6) Guess Who&rsquo;s Coming to Dinner?: Or, guess who never went away! The New York Islanders have continued to win while rebuilding, the true mark of a firstclass organization. Surprised? You shouldn&rsquo;t be. In a sense, they were the game&rsquo;s most popular champions. Everybody liked them during their Cup years and everybody wrote good things about them. Guess what? Everybody was right.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02788/5387967-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="416" height="469"><figcaption class="caption-body">&nbsp;Randy Smith</figcaption></div>7) The Color of Money: Without Coffey, it&rsquo;s doubly difficult to predict that the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; season will be good to the very last drop. On the other hand, even without Coffey, it&rsquo;s difficult to write off the Oilers. They are the champions until beaten. Mark it down.8) Close Encounters of The Third Kind: Five years in, Emile Francis&rsquo; Hartford Whalers have begun to look suspiciously like Francis&rsquo; Rangers and Francis&rsquo; Blues of days gone by. Can a leopard change his spots? Only if he admits that the spots need changing. In Francis&rsquo; vocabulary, change is a dirty word. This is the result. Again.9) Stand By Me: In Dale Hunter, David Poile and Bryan Murray thought they had found the missing piece to the increasingly perplexing puzzle that is the Washington Capitals. They&rsquo;ve been almost good enough for what seems like a long, long time. The gun is still loaded, but it had better fire soon.10) Airplane II, The Sequel: In no way, shape or form will this be the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; most memorable season, but the QuinnMcCammon connection appears to be laying the groundwork for future success. The Canucks are no longer cupcakes. Hey, it&rsquo;s a start.Bonus&mdash; The Horn Blows At Midnight: To Norris Division teams and fans, here&rsquo;s a tip. Enjoy the regular season. It&rsquo;s your time of year. &#9632;

f0018-02

The NHL’s Top 10 Movies—As Chosen By Our Critic

<div class="byline">BY STEVE DRYDEN Associate Editor</div>TORONTO&mdash;The top prospect in the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; system is a player to be named later.June 11, to be exact.That&rsquo;s the date of the 1988 entry draft in Montreal. And if you want to know what newcomer is most likely to join the Maple Leafs next year, it&rsquo;s a good bet he&rsquo;ll be identified that day.Toronto&rsquo;s last seven firstround picks have played in the NHL during their first years of eligibility. No other team has a comparable record.None of the players now in the Leafs&rsquo; system are as sure a bet as past history would indicate this year&rsquo;s No. 1 will be.It&rsquo;s not that there aren&rsquo;t some capable players. It&rsquo;s just that none of them have made clear they won&rsquo;t be denied next year.Toronto&rsquo;s top prospects include John McIntyre.The Leafs&rsquo; top five prospects are Newmarket goalie Jeff Reese, 21, and defenseman Ken Spangler, 20, Windsor defenseman Darryl Shannon, 19, Verdun right winger Daniel Marois, 19, and Guelph center John McIntyre, 18.Reese, a fourthround pick in 1984, had an excellent year last season, his first in the American League, but got off to a mediocre start this year.&ldquo;The thing Reese can do better than I either of them (Wregget and Bester).&rdquo; said Newmarket general manager Gord Stellick, &ldquo;is that he&rsquo;s the best puckhandler we&rsquo;ve got.&rdquo;Through 23 starts this season, Reese had a goalsagainst average of 3.95 and 8123 record.More has been expected of Spangler, the Leafs&rsquo; secondrounder in 1985.In this, his first year with Newmarket, the 5-footl-l, 196-pounder had one goal and four assists through 34 games.&ldquo;Spangler recently has been playing much better&mdash;more aggressively and that&rsquo;s his game,&rdquo; said Toronto GM Gerry McNamara. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s still learning how to play.&rdquo;Shannon, Toronto&rsquo;s secondround choice in 1986, is another defenseman the Leafs are counting on. There were hopes he&rsquo;d make the squad this season,but he&rsquo;s back in Windsor where he had an impressive 11 goals and 31 assists in just 28 games.The 6foot2, 190pounder is better with the puck on the offensive side of center ice than defensive.Through 39 games. Marois had 26 goals and 22 assists, plus 86 penalty minutes. He&rsquo;s 6footl. 180 pounds.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a determined kid,&rdquo; said McNamara, &ldquo;and he&rsquo;s scored his share of goals. I think he knows where he wants to go.&rdquo;McIntyre could be one of the steals of the 1987 draft. Twenty teams laid off him because a severed nerve below his right knee ended his 198687 season in February.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01965/5387998-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="177" height="146"></div>Toronto selected the 6-foot-l. 175-pounder in the third round. The NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau had him rated as high as the first round before the injury.Finally back in action a couple of months into the 198788 season, McIntyre responded with 10 goals and three assists in his first 12 games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s doing alright for a guy who&rsquo;s been out (almost) a year,&rdquo; said McNamara in typical understatement.Among the other prospects to keep an eye on arc 19-year-old left winger Stephane Giguere (192140, plus 65 penalty minutes, in 35 games) of StJean and 18-year-old goalie Damian Rhodes of Michigan Tech (841, 4.74, .876 save percentage) and the U.S. national junior team.NOTES&mdash;Wendel Clark returned Jan. 2 in a 64 home loss to Buffalo. Clark contributed two assists after missing 23 games with back spasms&hellip;Boije Saltning was set to play his 1000th NHL game Jan. 4, when Vancouver visited the Gardens&hellip;Goalie Allan Bester started six straight games, during which the Leafs went 132. He allowed 18 goals during that stretch&hellip;Owner Harold Ballard. 84, told the Toronto Starthat he planned to leave the Leafs and Maple Leaf Gardens to charity when he dies. &bull;<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 28: Ted Fauss, D, called up from Newmarket (AHL).Jan. 2: Ted Fauss, D, assigned to Newmarket.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Russ Courtnall, Tom Fergus, Vincent Damphousse, Dan Daoust.LW&mdash;Wendel Clark, Al Secord, Mark Osborne, Dave Semenko.RW&mdash;Gary Leeman, Ed Olczyk, Sean McKenna, Greg Terrion, Chris McRae.LD&mdash;Borje Salming, Todd Gill, Luke Richardson.RD&mdash;Dale DeGray, Rick Lanz, Al lafrate.G&mdash;Allan Bester, Ken Wregget.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mirko Frycer, RW, knee, indefinite.Chris Kotsopoulos, D, groin muscle, indefinite.Brad Smith, RW, back, indefinite. &#9632;

f0019-01

Next Newcomer Could Be FirstRound Picfe

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div>CHICAGO&mdash;The Chicago Blackhawks have seen the future, and they hope 22-year-old Trent Yawney can change it.The 6-foot-3, 198-pound defenseman will join the Hawks in March following the Winter Olympics in Calgary. A strong twoway player for the Canadian team, Yawney will be a welcome addition on a consistentlypoor defensive club.&ldquo;We think he can move right in after the Olympics. He&rsquo;s that good,&rdquo; said Hawk scouting director Jack Davison. &ldquo;He understands the game. He&rsquo;s got character, there&rsquo;s no question about it. He&rsquo;s a team guy.&ldquo;He probably curtails his offensive play because of his consciousness of defense. He&rsquo;s got good wheels and he can handle the puck.&rdquo;Yawney will provide the most immediate help.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01831/5388036-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="588" height="739"><figcaption class="caption-body">Big Trent Yawney is the hope of the future for the Blackhawk defense.</figcaption></div>But goaltender Jimmy Waite, the Hawks&rsquo; No. I pick last June, may have the most significant impact eventually. He had an outstanding training camp but was returned to Chicoutimi in the Quebec League. Just 18, he was selected for the Canadian national junior team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02561/5388029-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="177" height="134"></div>Waite all but stole a gold medal for Canada with a remarkable performance against the Soviets in a 32 win. Canada was outshot 4016, including 348 over the final two periods.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question he&rsquo;s a majorleague prospect,&rdquo; said Davison. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of the logical ones to move in in the next couple of years. His team, Chicoutimi, was in first place in their division, and he was certainly a big part of it.&rdquo;Waite had a 4.65 goalsagainst average and .869 save percentage to go with a 1071 record at Chicoutimi before joining the national team.Looking further down the road, the Hawks are high on 6foot4 defenseman Cam Russell of Hull in the Quebec League, a thirdround pick last June. Russell had three goals and nine points with 86 penalty minutes in 23 games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a real general out there,&rdquo; Davison said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a throwback to the old days with his ability to hit. He&rsquo;s certainly a topnotch prospect.&rdquo;The Hawks are hoping for longrange payoffs from goaltender Ed Bel four, signed as a free agent from the University of North Dakota. At Saginaw in the 1HL, he is 1070 with a shutout, 3.44 average, and .881 save percentage. They are also high on Swedish right winger Ulf Sandstrom, drafted last June, who has 19 goals in 22 games with MoDo in the Elite League.But Yawney is the big hope with the earliest arrival date.The thirdround pick (1984) from Saskatoon in the Western League is in his third season with the Olympic team, where he is developing under the tutelage of coach Dave King.Yawney plays in all game situations&mdash;man up, man down and even strength. Entering the Izvestia Tournament, which Canada won, Yawney had three goals and 12 points with 46 penalty minutes in 41 games.&ldquo;We think he can play better offensively, but he&rsquo;s a great defensive player,&rdquo; Davison said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what DaveKing wants him to do. But he has great wheels, and Ithink he can step in.&rdquo;The sooner the better.NOTES&mdash;The Hawks acquired right winger Dirk Graham from Minnesota in a Jan. 3 trade, sending left winger Curt Fraser to the North Stars. Graham made his Hawk debut Jan. 4 in loss to Calgary, and got into a fight with 6foot4 Calgary center Joel Otto. &ldquo;I bit off a little more than I could chew,&rdquo; Graham said&hellip;Left winger Steve Thomas returned from his abdominal strain for a twogame series with the North Stars Dec. 3031 and scored his first goal as a Hawk the second night, in Minnesota&hellip; Right winger Duane Sutter underwent arthroscopic surgery Jan. 1 on his right knee, his second operation since suffering torn cartilage Oct. 24&hellip;. Defenseman Doug Wilson was scheduled for arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder Jan. 5 in Los Angeles, to be peformed by Dr. Frank Jobe. Wilson has been out since Dec. 5 with numbness in his left arm and hand, and was expected out until early February.<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 27: Dave Manson, D, recalled from Saginaw (IHL).Jan. 2: Curt Fraser, LW, traded to Minnesota for Dirk Graham, RW.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Denis Savard, Troy Murray, Steve Ludzik, Mike Stapleton.LW&mdash;Steve Thomas, Dan Vincelette, Everett Sanipass, Dave Mackey.RW&mdash;Steve Larmer, Rick Vaive, Brian Noonan, Mark LaVarre, Dirk Graham.LD&mdash;Gary Nylund, Glen Cochrane, Jim Playfair, Dave Manson.RD&mdash;Bob McGill, Marc Bergevin, Rik Wilson.G&mdash;Bob Mason, Darren Pang.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Keith Brown, D, knee surgery, Feb. 1.Bob Murray, D, back strain, day-to-day.Wayne Presley, RW, knee surgery. Mar. 1.Duane Sutter, RW, knee surgery, Feb. 1.Behn Wilson, D, pulled groin, day-to-day.Doug Wilson, D, shoulder surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

f0020-01

Hawks Hope Yawney Fills In Yawning Hole

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>DETROIT&mdash;Coach Jacques Demers looks over his roster and sees a team capable of winning, but not quite ready to break into the &ldquo;top five or six of the NHL&rsquo;s elite teams.&rdquo;But when he looks at the young players destined to wear the winged wheel one day, he sees a team that could dominate the league. &ldquo;The team of the 1990s,&rdquo; is how he often describes the future Detroit Red Wings.&ldquo;Of course, we&rsquo;re at a time right now where some of our best prospects are starting to play for us (in Detroit),&rdquo; added Detroit general manager Jimmy Devellano. &ldquo;We still consider Joe Murphy (the NHL&rsquo;s No. 1 draft pick in 1986) our best prospect&hellip; We&rsquo;re still waiting for him to come around.&rdquo;Four other youngsters&mdash;defensemen Doug Houda, left winger Kris King and right winger Brent Fedyk, all assigned to Adirondack, and Adam Graves, a center who plays both wings finishing his final junior season in Windsor&mdash;have played some games for Detroit this season.The defenseminded Houda (21416 in 27 AHL games) has made four trips to the NHL and should make at least one more&mdash;to stay&mdash;this season. Demers has pledged to &ldquo;make room,&rdquo; somehow, for the 20-year-old defenseman, who has played well each time.By most accounts, Graves&mdash;a secondrounder in 1986&mdash;was more ready to play in the NHL than Murphy. There was not room enough for both, however, and since Graves had another year of eligibility with Windsor, the Wings dispatched him across the Detroit River, and kept Murphy.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03391/5388067-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="176" height="130"></div>Graves played well back in the Ontario League, scoring eight goals and six assists in 11 games to earn earn a berth on the Canadian national junior team. He played a prominent role at the World Jr. Championships.King, a prototypical Demerstype player&mdash;&rdquo;he plays Red Wing hockey,&rdquo; the coach says&mdash;is the surprise among the group. In 34 AHL games, he had 13 goals, 13 assists and 147 penalty minutes&hellip;Fedyk is another No. 1 pick trying to escape the &ldquo;disappointment&rdquo; label. The Wings liked his touch as a goalscorer when they drafted him, and compared his style to that of the Islanders&rsquo; Mike Bossy. He has a long way to go, and so far has shown more of a tendency to get injured. Fedyk had eight goals and eight assists in 25 games with Adirondack.Other prospects are farther away from the NHL, but their performances are promising.&bull; Defenseman Yves Racine, the Wings&rsquo; firstround pick in 1987, had 45 points in 33 games for Victoriaville.&bull; Defenseman Bob Wilkie of Swift Current, a secondround pick in 1987, was also on a 100point pace, with 45 points in 33 games.&bull; Tim Cheveldae recently became the winningest (62) goalie in Saskatoon Blades history. A very quick goalie, he was 21122 in 35 games.&bull; Goalie Scott King may turn out to be the steal of the 1986 draft. Detroit&rsquo;s l0thround pick, King is a key reason Maine has excelled this year. He had an 811 record in 12 games, and ledHockey East with a 2.81 goalsagainst average.&bull; Derek Mayer, a rugged defenseman, had 11 points and 44 penalty minutes in 16 games for Denver.NOTES&mdash;Jacques Demers&rsquo; move to shake up his team by benching five regulars and replacing them with farmhands from Adirondack apparently paid off. The Wings lost a 54 decision at Minnesota with the minor leaguers and dropped briefly out of first place in the Norris. But then they won both ends of a homeandhome series with St. Louis to recapture first, and followed that with a 44 tie Sunday at Winnipeg, thanks to a natural hat trick by Steve Yzerman and 48save performace by Glen Hanlon&hellip; Bob Probert served oneand twogame suspensions for accumulation of game misconducts.<h2>RED WINGS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 27: Kris King, LW, Dale Krentz, LW, Steve Martinson, LW, Brent Fedyk, RW, and Doug Houda, D, recalled from Adirondack (AHL). &bdquo;Dec. 28: Steve Martinson, LW, Brent Fedyk, RW, and Doug Houda, D, assigned to Adirondack.Dec. 31: Kris King, LW and Dale Krentz, LW, assigned to Adirondack.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Steve Yzerman, John Chabot, Shawn Burr.LW&mdash;Gerard Gallant, Petr Klima, Mel Bridgman, Joe Murphy.RW&mdash;Bob Probert, Brent Ashton, Joe Kocur.LD&mdash;Jeff Sharpies, Doug Halward, Lee Norwood, Harold Snepsts.RD&mdash;Darren Veitch, Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Rick Zombo, Gilbert Delorme.G&mdash;Greg Stefan, Glen Hanlon.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Barr, RW, broken foot, indefinite.Tim Higgins, RW, dislocated left shoulder, indefinite.Mark Kumpel, RW, dislocated left thumb, indefinite.Steve Chiasson, D, hip pointer, day-to-day.Adam Oates, C, abdominal muscle pull, indefinite. &#9632;

f0020-03

Red Wings Confident About Future

<div class="byline">BY JEFF GORDON</div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;Though he&rsquo;s had a difficult year and a quarter in the NHL. left winger Jocelyn Lemieux remains the top prospect in the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; organization.The team&rsquo;s No. 1 pick in the 1986 entry draft. Lemieux has spent the second quarter of this year with the international League&rsquo;s Peoria Rivermen. After scoring just one goal in 21 games with the Blues, he welcomed the demotion to the IHL.&ldquo;I need a few weeks to find out I&rsquo;m a somebody again,&rdquo; said Lemieux, who picked up an assist in his first minorleague game. &ldquo;I need to find out who 1 am.&rdquo;Blues&rsquo; player development director Bob Plager believes the demotion is the best thing that could happen to Lemieux, still just 20 years old.&ldquo;Jocelyn is happy to be down,&rdquo; Plager said. &ldquo;He came with a great attitude. He wants to play, but had lost all his confidence. The first game here (St. Louis) he lost seven pounds. It took three shifts for the whole league to hate him. After his first game, he was shaking, he was so nervous.&rdquo;Other top prospects, by position, include:Center&mdash;Cliff Ronning, currently playing for the Canadian Olympic team, will have a hard time cracking the Blues&rsquo; lineup in March. They are loaded at center and have some prospects on the way.In two years, the Blues expect Bowling Green star Nelson Emerson L(12 goals, 32 assists in 19 games) to be Fa Tony Hrkaclike pro. Shane MacEachern (91221 in 25 games) was learning the ropes at Peoria before his recent callup following an injury to Gino Cavallini. He could fill the Blues&rsquo; future need for a checkingline center.Windsor&rsquo;s Mike Wolak (264167 in 67 games) figures to jump from the Ontario League to the IHL next season. He is small but quick, not unlike Blues&rsquo; mainstay Rick Meagher.Left wing&mdash;Besides Lemieux, Peoria has grinders Dave Thomlinson (111324 in 22 games) and Darin Smith (6713 in 30 games) trying to mijy, NHL shots.Thomlinson, who was signed as a free agent over the summer, is a favorite of Plagcr&rsquo;s. &ldquo;Here is a player who will be up in a year,&rdquo; Plager said.&rdquo; People like to sec a player who comes out and works every time he is on the ice.&rdquo;Smith, a fourthround pick this summer. has been inconsistent. &ldquo;After he plays a couple of good shifts, he thinks maybe he&rsquo;s a goalscorer,&rdquo; Plager said. &ldquo;He goes all over the ice.&rdquo;&ldquo;I need a few weeks to find out I&rsquo;m a somebody again.&rdquo;&mdash;LemieuxRight wing&mdash;At the end of the Blues&rsquo; camp, Michael Dark shifted from defense to right wing. He&rsquo;s been productive at Peoria (14620 in 18 games) and filled in for three games earlier this season with the Blues.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s difficult coming from defense to forward,&rdquo; Plager said. &ldquo;He has to go to the goal and and use his size (6foot3, 225 pounds) and strength.&rdquo;Collegians Steve Tuttle of Wisconsin (13922 in 18 games) and Jim Vesey of Merrimack College (131831 in 12 games) figure to get pro contracts after their seasons. Vesey might even get a lateseason look by the Blues.Keith Osborne, the Blues&rsquo; No. 1 pick this summer, missed training camp and part of the OHL season after suffering a broken wrist in the offseason. In his first five games at North Bay. he had two goals and four assists.Defense&mdash;Big Robert Dirk, a rugged 6foot4, 220pound left defenseman, was on the brink of sticking with the Blues. But a poor early showing at Peoria, participation in a bar fight and a recent car accident have slowed his development.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01619/5388098-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="175" height="132"></div>So instead of recalling Dirk (110II in 21 games) early in December, the Blues acquired Paul Cavallini. a tough 22-year-old from Washington.Rob Whistle, who played 13 outstanding games with the Blues, was demoted with Lemieux when Cavallini was acquired. He doesn&rsquo;t figure to stay in the IHL long.Riverman Kent Carlson (1 23 in 13 games) is still overcoming back problems and a hand injury suffered in a bar fight. Teammate Dominic Lavoie has just two assists in 14 games and was earlier sidelined by knee problems.Prospects for next season&rsquo;s camp include include Windsor&rsquo;s Glen Featherstone (21921, 128 penalty minutes in 31 OHL games) and Scott Paluch (61016 in 19 games) at Bowling Green.Goaltenders&mdash;Two prospects are at Peoria&mdash;journeyman Darrell May (8112, 3.29 goalagainst average) and youngster Alan Perry (22, 4.26). But Windsor goalie Pat Jablonski (221, 3.57 at Peoria before his recent return to the Spitfires) has the best longrange potential.NOTES&mdash;Greg Paslawski underwent successful disc surgery on Dec. 31, but will probably miss the rest of the season. A herniated disc was pinching a nerve in his lower back&hellip;Also on Dec. 31, Gino Cavallini suffered a broken right hand when slashed by Red Wing defenseman Darren Veitch during a 72 loss at Detroit. He was expected out until midto lateFebruary&hellip;Mark Hunter had missed eight games with lingering groin muscle problems, but was on the verge of returning. Because ot his shortage of forwards, coach Jacques Martin experimented with Doug Gilmour at left wing.<h2>BLUES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 31: Michael Dark, RW, recalled from Peoria (IHL).Jan. 1: Shane MacEachern, C, recalled from Peoria.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bernie Federko, Doug Gilmour, Tony Hrkac, Rick Meagher, Shane MacEachern.LW&mdash;Brian Sutter, Doug Evans, Perry Turnbull.RW&mdash;Mark Hunter, Tony McKegney, Herb Raglan, Todd Ewen, Michael Dark.LD&mdash;Brian Benning, Tim Bothwell, Paul Cavallini, Gaston Gingras.RD&mdash;Rob Ramage, Charlie Bourgeois, Robert Nordmark.G&mdash;Rick Wamsley, Greg Millen.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Gino Cavallini, LW, broken hand, Feb. 1.Ron Flockhart, LW, rheumatoid arthritis.Greg Paslawski, RW, disc surgery, probably out for season. &#9632;

f0021-01

Despite Demotion, Lemieux Rated Highly

Michael Cotrone is a 12-year-old goaltender in his fourth year of organized hockey.This season is his first as a member of the junior varsity team of PatchogeMedford High School in Greenlawn, N.Y.&mdash;even though he is a Grade 7 student at Elwood Middle School.Michael also plays for the Oyster Bay Gulls travelling team, which is coached by Bob Bianco and Jay Rosenbloom.Michael is learning the fine art of goaltending from exNHLer Gilles Villemure. Ville mure, goaltender coach for Oyster Bay, shared the Vezina Trophy with New York Ranger teammate Ed Giacomin in 1971.Michael won the &ldquo;Skate, Stick and Shoot&rdquo; Long Island goaltending championship for his age group last year.The 5-foot-4, 122-pounder loves all sports, including football, wrestling and baseball.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02346/5388129-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="563" height="1125"><figcaption class="caption-body">MICHAEL COTRONE</figcaption></div>You or someone you know can be part of the TITANJOFA 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: TITANJOFA SHOWCASE, C/O THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. All entries submitted will be eligible for selection as THN/TITANJOFA Minor Hockey Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0021-02

PLAYER OF WEEK JOFA TITAN

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div>BLOOMINGTON, Minn.&mdash;Say the word &ldquo;prospects&rdquo; to Minnesota North Star coach Herb Brooks and he puts his hands together to pray.Mention the same word to general manager Lou Nanne and he calmly clicks off a long list of players who seemingly have few flaws.Judging by the Stars&rsquo; recent record of developing NHL players, Brooks method might be more effective. Either way, both men know that the health of the struggling North Star franchise will depend much more on that list of names than on any trade Nanne might make.Trouble is, most of those players are at least a few years away from rescuing this team. There were a few legitimate prospects at the Stars&rsquo; Kalamazoo farm team, but a recent fivegame losing streak brought many of them&mdash;including defenseman Al Tuer, forwards George Servinis, Mitch Messier, Larry DePalma, and goalie Jon Casey&mdash;to the NHL.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01720/5388160-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="179" height="134"></div>The best and brightest hopes are still in the Western League&mdash;left winger/center Warren Babe, who played six games for the Stars in the fall before returning to the WHL, and defenseman Scott McCrady, who might have stuck with the big club had he not suffered a knee injury in training camp.McCrady, a 6footl, 195pounder selected in the second round of the 1987 draft, had three goals and 29 assists in 31 games at Medicine Hat this season. Babe, a firstround pick in &lsquo;86, had a goal and four assists in five games after being returned to Kamloops in late November.Both made the Canadian junior national team that played at the World Jr. Championships in Moscow.The Stars have drafted for size, strength and aggressiveness in the past two NHL entry drafts. Filling the size category is 6foot6 defenseman Dean Kolstad, a 1986 secondround pick now playing for Prince Albert.The rest of the Stars&rsquo; top junior prospects also play in the WHL. Defenseman Neil Wilkinson (second round in &lsquo;86) has landed in Medicine Hat after flunking out at Michigan State. Winger Darcy Norton (sixth round in &lsquo;87) was the WHL&rsquo;s thirdleading goal scorer with 35 in 35 games at Kamloops.Nanne hopes that Saskatoon center Kevin Kaminsky (third round in &lsquo;87) someday turns into an NHLcalibre aggressive, gutsy pivot. Kaminsky had 19 goals, 30 assists and 100 penalty minutes in 21 games this year.Center Ken Hodge of Kalamazoo has slipped after suffering a shoulder injury last fall and his skating is questionable. Messier also must improve his skating and center Stephane Roy, who was highly regarded by Stars scouts when selected in the third round in 1985, has turned into a bust.Star scouts were high on defenseman Mike Berger early in the season, but he struggled with the Stars and needs time in the minors.NOTES&mdash;The North Stars opened the new year by sending right winger Dirk Graham to Chicago for left winger Curt Fraser. General manager Lou Nanne said the deal was made because the Stars are looking for the (ideal left winger to play with center Neal Broten and Dino Ciccarelli. Fraser, 29, had four goals and 10 points in 27 games for Chicago this seasop; Graham, 28, had seven goals and 12 points in 28 games for the Stars&hellip;Left winger Steve Payne, 29, announced his retirement Dec. 27. Payne, who suffered from bone spurs growing on his spine, said he decided to retire after 10 NHL seasons rather than face spinalfusion surgery if he continued to play. Payne played his last game Dec. 5 at Calgary.<h2>NORTH STARS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 21: Chris Pryor, D, returned to Kalamazoo (IHL).Dec. 22: Emanuel Viveiros, D, recalled from Kalamazoo.Dec. 25: Larry DePalma, LW, and Mitch Messier, RW, returned to Kalamazoo.Dec. 31: Ron Wilson, D, cleared through waivers and released.Jan. 1: George Servinis, LW, and Jon Casey, G, returned to Kalamazoo.Jan. 2: Dirk Graham, RW, traded to Chicago for Curt Fraser, LW.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Neal Broten, Dennis Maruk, Dave Archibald, Brian Lawton, Keith Acton.LW&mdash;Brian Bellows, Curt Fraser, Basil McRae, Brian MacLellan.RW&mdash;Dino Ciccarelli, Bob Brooke, Terry Ruskowski, Richard Zemlak.LD&mdash;Craig Hartsburg, Frantisek Musil, Gordie Roberts.RD&mdash;Bob Rouse, Curt Giles, Emanuel Viveiros, Pat Price.G&mdash;Kari Takko, Don Beaupre.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Scott Bjugstad, LW, torn knee ligaments, Feb. 17.Tom Hirsch, D, shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0022-01

Nanne’s Star Prospects Are Brooks’ Suspects

<div class="byline">BY GYLE KONOTOPETZ</div>CALGARY&mdash;If any pintsized center can survive the NHL wars, the Calgary Flames believe they&rsquo;ve got the man.&ldquo;If a small guy&rsquo;s going to make it, he&rsquo;d be the one,&rdquo; Flames&rsquo; assistant general manager Al MacNeil said of Moose Jaw Warrior Theoren Fleury. &ldquo;He may only be 5foot6&frac12; (he&rsquo;s listed at 5foot5 in the NHL Guide) but he plays like a 6footer,&rdquo;Because of his size, the jury is still out on the 19-year-old kid who took the Flames&rsquo; training camp by storm this fall.After the Flames assigned the feisty center to Moose Jaw, Fleury said he would try to be the best player in the WHL. So far, no one can argue with the numbers (365288 in 33 games).But the most glaring stat is his penaltyminute total&mdash;124. Fleury plays a chippy, nevergiveaninch style reminiscent of Bobby Clarke and Ken Linseman.Fleury was captain and best forward on Canada&rsquo;s recent gold medalwinning team at the World Jr. Championships in Moscow.The best bet for a job later this season is left winger Paul Ranheim, a senior at the University of Wisconsin.Ranheim, a 21-year-old St. Louis native, will report to the Flames after the college season.Also due to join Calgary after the Olympics is Canadian center Brian Bradley.The 22-year-old Kitchener product, who played 45 games with the Flames the past two seasons, had 14 goals and 12 assists in 29 games with Canada.Left wing has been the prime area of concern with the Flames in recent years but the prospects are bright with Ranheim, 18-year-old junior Stephane Matteau and 19-year-old collegian Bryan Deasley waiting in the wings.Matteau, a rangy 6-foot-4. 185-pounder from Rouyn, Que., could be a Flame next season. With Hull of theQuebec League, he had 11 goals and 14 assists in 25 games.Deasley, a member of the University of Michigan Wolverines, broke his ankle in the fall but has made an impressive comeback. He played for gold medalwinning Canada at the Spengler Cup tournament.The Flames&rsquo; best prospect on the farm, in Salt Lake of the International League, is left winger Rich Chernomaz.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01647/5388191-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="178" height="137"></div>The 5-foot-9, 175-pounder from Selkirk. Man., described by MacNeil as a &ldquo;hustling buzz bomb,&rdquo; had 27 goals in 35 games.The top defenseman on the farm has been Kevan Guy, who appeared in 24 games with Calgary last year before losing his job after a disappointing camp this season.NOTES&mdash;Brett Hull, the son of Hall of Famer Bobby, performed for the first time at Chicago Stadium, his father&rsquo;s old stomping grounds, Jan. 3 in a 53 Flame win. &ldquo;The last time I was here I was seven years old,&rdquo; said Brett, who had a strong game. Dad and uncle Dennis were both in the stands.. The game also marked the Calgary debut of defenseman Dana Murzyn. who was acquired earlier in the day from Hartford with Shane Churla in exchange for Carey Wilson, Neil Sheehy and the rights to U.S. Olympian Lane MacDonald. (For more on the trade, see Notebook on page 9.)&hellip;Jamie Macoun, the defenseman who suffered careerthreatening injuries in an offseason auto accident, started skating on New Year&rsquo;s Eve and was giving himself a &ldquo;90 to 100 percent&rdquo; chance of returning to action this season.<h2>FLAMES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 27: Kevan Guy, D, recalled from Salt Lake (IHL).Dec. 29: Kevan Guy, D, assigned to Salt Lake.Dec. 30: Kevan Guy, D, recalled from Salt Lake.Jan. 3: Carey Wilson, C, Neil Sheehy, D, and rights to Lane McDonald, LW, of U.S. Olympic team, traded to Hartford for Dana Murzyn, D, and Shane Churla, LW.Jan. 4: Kevan Guy, D, assigned to Salt Lake.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Nieuwendyk, Mike Bullard, Joel Otto, Steve Bozek.LW&mdash;Gary Roberts, John Tonelli, Jim Peplinski, Lanny McDonald, Shane Churla.RW&mdash;Brett Hull, Hakan Loob, Joey Mullen, Tim Hunter.LD&mdash;Gary Suter, Dana Murzyn, Brian Glynn.RD&mdash;Brad McCrimmon, Al Maclnnis, Ric Nattress.G&mdash;Mike Vernon, Doug Dadswell.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Perry Berezan, pulled groin, indefinite.Jamie Macoun, nerve damage in arm and shoulder, indefinite.Colin Patterson, sprained ankle, Jan. 15.Paul Reinhart, back spasms, indefinite &#9632;

f0023-01

Flame Fans Readv For Fleurv Of Excitement

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>EDMONTON&mdash;Like most NHL teams, the Edmonton Oilers have prospects worldwide.But, the Oilers&rsquo; immediate help is only 180 miles away.Goaltender Andy Moog and defenseman Randy Gregg are members of the Calgarybased Canadian Olympic team.Gregg will return to the Oilers following the Winter Games and is expected to stabilize the Oilers&rsquo; defense during the stretch drive.Moog&rsquo;s status is uncertain. But, it&rsquo;s assumed he&rsquo;ll wind up with the Pittsburgh Penguins as a codicil to the Paul Coffey trade.One player the Oilers secured from the Penguins in that deal, defenseman Chris Joseph, was on loan to the Nats when they became the first Canadian team ever to win the Izvestia Tournament in Moscow. Joseph, only 18, later joined the Canadian team for the World Jr. Championships in Moscow.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;ll be a terrific player,&rdquo; said managercoach Glen Sather of Joseph, the fifth player selected in last June&rsquo;s entry draft. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got all sorts of ability, but why forcefeed him? We had him here for a couple of weeks to get to know the guys and for them to get to know him.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s lots of time for him. He&rsquo;s going to be in the NHL a long, long time. I don&rsquo;t want to screw up his future.&rdquo;The Oilers have the right to recall Joseph from the Olympic team, 077 in 22 NHL games, should they run into injury problems.The top defensemen on Edmonton&rsquo;s Nova Scotia farm team are 1984 No. 1 draft pick Selmar Odelein (61016 in 24 games), along with a couple of local youngsters who were drafted in 1986&mdash;Ron Shudra (thirdrounder) and Jim Ennis (sixthrounder).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01701/5388222-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="178" height="130"></div>Odelein, recovering from the knee ailments that plagued him in junior, is essentially a rookie, said director of player personnel Barry Fraser. &ldquo;As a firstyear pro, he&rsquo;s come along better than expected.&rdquo;The Oilers are going to be very patient with promising defenseman Chris Joseph.Ennis, 549 in 26 games with Nova Scotia, began the season in the NHL, but after five games was sent down. &ldquo;He had a good start in Halifax, but hasn&rsquo;t been much better lately,&rdquo; said Fraser. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s probably all part of adjusting to pro hockey.&rdquo;Shudra, 213 in 13 games with Nova Scotia, drew strong reviews when summoned for 10 NHL games, playing both defense and the wing.&ldquo;What I like about him,&rdquo; said cocoach John Muckier, &ldquo;is that he never seemed to be out of position.&rdquo;Veteran Jim Weimer (077 in 19 AHL games) also didn&rsquo;t look out of place, going plus8 during an 11game NHL recall.Up front, top prospects on the farm are a couple of firstround draft choices, 1985&rsquo;s Scott Metcalfe (71320 in 28) and 1986&rsquo;s Kim Issel (11920 in 30), along with Kelly Buchberger (111324 in 27), who saw some action during the Stanley Cup finals.The Oilers also have experienced players such as Tom McMurchy (14620 in 23), Mark Lamb (92332 in 26), and Moe Lemay (121931 in 28) to draw from on the farm.Both Lemay and Metcalfe were recalled early in January.A couple of left wingers have been impressive in junior hockey. Firstrounder Peter Soberlak of Swift Current (223052 in 30) and Dan Currie, a fourthrounder out of Sault Ste. Marie was leading the Ontario League in goals with 33 (to go with 33 assists in 34 games) when he was named to the Canadian junior team.With Moog headed elsewhere, the Oilers have been looking to solidify their goaltending situation for the future.Junior Darren Beals (4.65 GAA, .872 save percentage in 14 OHL games) probably leads the way. &ldquo;Kitchener&rsquo;s a fairly runofthemill team, but they&rsquo;re in the middle of the pack and he has a lot to do with that,&rdquo; said Fraser.NOTES&mdash;Wayne Gretzky was expected to be out until Jan. 18, after twisting his right knee when he scored the final goal in a 60 whitewash of the Philadelphia Flyers Dec. 30. The goal was a milestone marker, No. 573 of No. 99&rsquo;s career, tying him for fifth place with Mike Bossy on the career list&hellip;Grant Fuhr&rsquo;s shutout over the Flyers was his NHLhigh third of 198788, one more than the 25-year-old had recorded throughout the first six years of his career combined.<h2>OILERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 1: Moe Lemay, LW, recalled from Nova Scotia (AHL).Jan. 3: Scott Metcalfe, LW, recalled from Nova Scotia.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier, Craig MacTavish, Mike Krushelnyski, Esa Tikkanen.LW&mdash;Glenn Anderson, Dave Hannan, Steve Graves, Moe Lemay, Scott Metcalfe.RW&mdash;lari Kurri, Craig Simpson, Kevin McClelland, Marty McSorley, Normand Lacombe.RD&mdash;Craig Muni, Jeff Beukeboom, Moe Mantha.LD&mdash;Kevin Lowe, Steve Smith, Charlie Huddy.G&mdash;Grant Fuhr, Daryl Reaugh.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dec. 30: Wayne Gretzky, twisted right knee, Jan. 18. &#9632;

f0024-01

Help For Oilers So Near, Yet So Far Away

<div class="byline">BY GRANT McGINNIS</div>WINNIPEG&mdash;When the Winnipeg Jets look to the future these days, their gaze clears the Atlantic Ocean.And the primary subject of Winnipeg general manager John Ferguson&rsquo;s admiring glances is Finnish defenseman Teppo Numminen.Numminen, a 6footl, 175pounder from Tappara, was chosen by the Jets in the second round, 29th overall in 1986. This season, the 19-year-old had eight goals and eight assists in 26 Finnish League games, played for Finland at the Izvestia Tournament in the Soviet Union and will skate in the Winter Olympics.Ferguson recently returned from a trip to Finland and brought back glowing reports.&ldquo;I would think at this time, he is the top candidate for us as far as a youngster coming into our lineup,&rdquo; Ferguson said. &ldquo;I expect him in our lineup next year, basically because he&rsquo;s a very good younger player and he&rsquo;s going to get a lot of hockey between now and then.&rdquo;Numminen is a good skater, possesses a strong shot and moves the puck well. Most in Finland rate him a &ldquo;can&rsquo;tmiss&rdquo; prospect.The other apple of Ferguson&rsquo;s eye is also a teenager from Europe. Patrik Eriksson, a 5-foot-l 1, 175-pound center, will become the first black Swede to skate in the NHL if he cracks the Jet lineup. He led Brynas with 16 goals and four assists in 20 games and was on Sweden&rsquo;s team at the World Jr. Championships in Moscow. Eriksson was the second European taken in the 1987 draft, going in the second round, 37th overall.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01613/5388253-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="180" height="140"></div>While the Jets are gambling heavily on their two European sweethearts, more immediate help sits on this side of the water.Right winger Pat Elynuik (8816 in 15 games) is currently with Moncton of the American League and close to earning a starting spot with the big club. Elynuik, a 6foot, 185poundcr, was Winnipeg&rsquo;s first choice in the &lsquo;86 draft, chosen eighth overall from Prince Albert of the Western League.Brad Jones, a center with the U.S. Olympic team, will join the Jets for the stretch drive. An eighthround pick. 156th overall in 1984 from Michigan. Jones may turn out to be a steal. He had 20 goals and 16 assists in 32 games with the U.S.Craig Endean, a left winger taken in the fifth round, 92nd overall in 1986, is a pure scorer, tearing up the WHL with 19 goals and 44 assists in 35 games at Regina.Elynuik and Jones are sure to be regulars before this season is out, and Numminen. Eriksson and Endean have a good shot at the roster next fall. Winnipeg has a number of other prospects in the system whose potential is considered good.Included in that group are U.S. Olympians Guy Gosselin, a hardhitting defenseman who had two goals and 13 assists in 29 games this year, and John Blue, the third goalie on the team with a 3.48 goalsagainst average in six games.Finnish right wingers Markku Kyl lonen (61521 in 25 games) and Esa Palosaari (injured most of the year) of Karpat are possibilities. The same is true of defenseman Arto Blomsten, a I2thround pick in 1986 from Djurgar den of Sweden.NOTES&mdash;The Jets put together their longest unbeaten streak of the season, beginning Dec. 18 with a tie in Edmonton followed by wins at home over New Jersey, the New York Islanders and Minnesota and a road victory in Los Angeles&hellip;Defenseman Fredrik Olausson. out all season after shoulder surgery, is back practising with the team but won&rsquo;t be in the lineup until the second half of January&hellip; Winnipeg opened the new year with a 44 overtime tie with Detroit. It was the 10th time the Jets needed an extra period and Winnipeg has yet to lose when tied after 60 minutes. The Jets were 604 in OT, tops in the NHL&hellip;Captain Dale Hawerchuk recorded his 400th career assist Dec. 30 in L.A&hellip;. Winger Andrew McBain, a force on the Winnipeg power play, recorded his 15th goal of the season Jan. 3. His previous best output was 11 goals.<h2>JETS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 26: Paul Boutilier, D, acquired from the New York Rangers in a Dec. 16 trade, reported to Moncton of the AHL after being suspended Dec. 18 for refusing to report.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen, Laurie Boschman, Ron Wilson.LW&mdash;lain Duncan, Doug Smail, Gilles Hamel, Steve Rooney.RW&mdash;Paul MacLean, AndrewMcBain, Ray Neufeld, Jim Nill, Hannu Jarvenpaa.LD&mdash;Randy Carlyle, Dave Ellett, Jim Kyte.RD&mdash;Mario Marois, Peter Taglianetti, Brad Berry.G&mdash;Daniel Berthiaume, Eldon Reddick.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Fredrik Olausson, D, shoulder surgery, Jan. 20.Tim Watters, D, strained knee, Jan. 10. &#9632;

f0025-01

Jets Go Transcontinental In Prospect Search

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>VANCOUVER&mdash;In days past, Mother Teresa ministered to the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; farm system.Her treatment never seemed to help until this year, when some brighter prospects have begun turning up in the traditionally barren wasteland of Fredericton in the American League.Given the injuries to the club this year, the farm system has come to Vancouver. Center Dan Woodley, defenseman Jim Agnew, left winger Dave Saunders, left winger John LeBlanc, right winger Jim Sandlak, right winger Ron Stern, defenseman Ian Kidd, left winger Dave Lowry, left winger Raimo Summanen and center Dan Hodgson have all either been in Freddie Beach or Flint of the International League at some time this season.&ldquo;The biggest surprise for me has been Saunders,&rdquo; said coach Bob McCammon of the left winger who began the season in Flint. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been really strong and has helped us. And Jim Agnew really surprised me too. We sent him back, but he&rsquo;s played pretty well in his time with us. He&rsquo;s a Darryl Stanleytype player, with much the same style and attributes. He opened my eyes.&rdquo;Saunders, however, had gone 10 games without a point.With Canadian Olympian Claude Vilgrain expected to join the team from Canada after the Games, the Canucks now have some depth to ensure the white flag doesn&rsquo;t immediately go up when somebody gets hurt. It&rsquo;s true they went through a stretch of just one win in nine games when the injury tollreached a peak, but the games were all close and wellcontested, unlike other years.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02404/5388284-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="177" height="130"></div>But the Canucks got their best longterm news at training camp, when they saw No. 1 draft choice (24th overall) Rob Murphy (163248 in 34 games with two Quebec League teams). He and another secondround pick, defenseman Steve Veilleux (51116 in 35 games) of Trois Rivieres, had excellent showings in training camp. Both have improved since, said director of hockey operations Brian Burke.&ldquo;Murphy just got traded from Laval to Drummondville and we&rsquo;re delighted with that situation,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Laval had just lost their coach and general manager and now he&rsquo;s going to a better team. It&rsquo;s just a better situation altogether.&rdquo;Murphy is a rangy lefthanded center who will help if he continues to develop. He didn&rsquo;t look too far away from making the club as it was.Burke is also happy about the club&rsquo;s third pick&mdash;Doug Torrel, a center out of Hibbing High School in Minnesota.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s having a great year,&rdquo; says Burke. &ldquo;I understand he&rsquo;s the most widely-recruited player in the state.&rdquo;And while all clubs have good young players they hope will eventually turn into pros, the Canucks do have that Moscow connection. Nobody in the Pat Quinn entourage is counting on it, but there&rsquo;s always the chance spadework the Griffiths family has been doing with the Soviets could bear fruit at some stage. The NHL rights to forwards Igor Larionov and Vladimir Krutov are held by the Canucks, and the new management team felt confident enough to draft Viktor Tumenev, another forward, in the eighth round last June.NOTES&mdash;The Canucks with just nine goals in their last five games and 22 in 10, began some radical experimentation. Coach Bob McCammon switched Tony Tanti from right wing to center in an attempt to spark the team but, in the two games Tanti was in the middle, the club had three goals&hellip;Left winger John LeBIanc has been a bright spot, having scored seven goals in 10 games since his recall from Fredericton Dec. 10&hellip;On the negative side, Doug Wickenheiser had just three goals in 39 games with virtually fullshift ice time&hellip;Barry Pederson and Petri Skriko had not combined for 50 points by the halfway mark of the season.<h2>CANUCKS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 30: Dan Woodley, C, assigned to Flint (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Barry Pederson, Tony Tanti, Greg Adams, Doug Wickenheiser.LW&mdash;Petri Skriko, Dave Saunders, John LeBIanc, Steve Tambellini, Craig Coxe.RW&mdash;Rich Sutter, Stan Smyl, Jim Sandlak.LD&mdash;Randy Boyd, Daryl Stanley, Jim Benning, Larry Melnyk.RD&mdash;Doug Lidster, Garth Buthcer, Dave Richter, Willie Huber.G&mdash;Kirk McLean, Frank Caprice, Richard Brodeur.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dan Hodgson, C, fractured leg, out for season. &#9632;

f0025-02

Canucks Hope Murphy’s Law Has Positive Twist For Them

<div class="byline">BY BOB WAGNER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02455/5388315-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Radio playbyplay man Bob Chase moved into the Fort Wayne Komets&rsquo; executive suite, when new owner David Welker took over the team.</figcaption></div>The radio voice of the Fort Wayne Komets finally has an excuse for being a &ldquo;homer&rdquo;&mdash;he&rsquo;s now general manager of the team.By night. Bob Chase&rsquo;s wellmodulated voice comes through loud and clear as he delivers the play-by-play of Komet games over powerful 50.000-watt WOWO. By day, he works at improving the International League franchise he&rsquo;s been describing since its birth in 195354.Chase had no intention of managing the club until last summer, when Fort Wayne businessman David Welker purchased it and hunted him down.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01652/5388322-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="156" height="131"></div>Although Chase was the Komets&rsquo; radio voice, his office occupation had nothing to do with hockey. &ldquo;I was with a company that did computer shows around the midwest, displaying products.&rdquo;.So why did he accept an office position with a hockey club that had just been rescued from receivership?&ldquo;Mainly because it (hockey) is a part of my life. I had a nice job but&hellip;&rdquo;After some four months of shuffling papers and answering telephones, Chase said he&rsquo;s happy with the switch.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s getting better all the time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was a matter of getting things back together. When I took over, this place was humptydumpty. Fort Wayne was on the COD list for about everything.&ldquo;I finally quelled those things and the new corporation&rsquo;s obligations have been kept up to date, every penny of it. We even have some credits coming back.&rdquo;Both Chase and the hockey club are doing the job. Fort Wayne was leading the IHL in attendance through its first 15 home games, with an average of 3,651, and was running second in the East Division standings behind Muskegon Lumberjacks.Chase&rsquo;s performance shouldn&rsquo;t surprise anyone.&ldquo;A lot of the background I&rsquo;ve gained over the years I would have to attribute to Ken Ullyot (former owner and GM of the Komets), one of the best hockey men I&rsquo;ve ever seen operate. Ullyot is totally retired now.&rdquo;But Chase, a native of Negaunee, Mich., is just getting started at age 62&mdash;mixing his love for the sport with his 36 years of experience since earning a business degree from Northern Michigan University.In the meantime, he&rsquo;s helped to create memories for Komet fans. He&rsquo;s described three Turner Cup championship teams, but the highlight of his broadcast career came in a playoff final the Komets did not win.&ldquo;It was the championship series of 195960. We were playing St. Paul when Fred Shero was coaching there. We had an overtime that lasted 118 minutes and 30 seconds. St. Paul finally won it 54, and the game ended at 1:20 in the morning.&ldquo;That was the same year that John Ferguson (current vicepresident and GM of the Winnipeg Jets) played for us. On the same team was a guy by the name of Connie Madigan who eventually turned out to be the oldest rookie ever to play in the National Hockey League. He broke in with St. Louis at 38 years of age.&rdquo;The paths of Chase and Ferguson crossed once again before the start of the 198788 hockey season.&ldquo;John was travelling through Denver,&rdquo; recalled Chase, &ldquo;when he picked up a copy of USA Today, the issue that told about my becoming GM of the Komets. He called me right away and told me I could announce that Winnipeg was renewing its relationship with Fort Wayne.&rdquo;The Komets have no primary affiliation with an NHL team, but they have productive working relationships with both the Jets and Washington Capitals.With six IHL clubs now designated as No. 1 affiliates of NHL teams&mdash;exceeding by four the high in any previous season&mdash;the financial structure of the 43-year-old league has changed. Inflation, too, has caught up with the game.Chase&rsquo;s coachplayer personnel director, Robbie Laird, made his debut as a player with the Komets in 197273 and &ldquo;his first contract was under $5,000 for the year,&rdquo;Chase recal led.&ldquo;The base minimum now is $13,000. You can&rsquo;t operate a hockey team much under a million dollars at the minorleague level, including the subsidies you get from the National Hockey League in salaries.&rdquo;Chase started in Fort Wayne radio. As a disc jockey, he had the highest quarterhour drivetime rating in the U.S. during the 4:004:15 p.m. slot. He also covered Big 10 football, the Indianapolis 500, and high school basketball for WOWO.It was a road that might have led to Hollywood.Chase was behind the mike when little Milan High School met muchlarger Muncie Central for the Indiana state high school basketball championship in 1954. &ldquo;I had just come out of Michigan then,&rdquo; said Chase, &ldquo;and 1 kept saying how the Michigan class system (which categorized schools by student enrolment) was superior to that in Indiana where they had no classes. I inferred that a small school had no chance.&ldquo;Milan had about 120 in the whole school and Muncie Central at that time had over 4,000 in enrolment.&rdquo;But the little school loaded up its slingshot and slew the giant &ldquo;3230 on a hook shot by Bobby Plump that went down the hole with three seconds on the clock.&rdquo;It was inevitable that a movie would be made some day of that miracle victory by tiny Milan. Hoosiers, starring Gene Hackman as the coach, depicted the unlikely triumph in a popular 1987 movie.Bat when they cast a radio announcer for the film, Chase was not invited. &ldquo;They wanted someone who looked older,&rdquo; he laughed.Maybe the stress of two jobs will add a few grey hairs for the next time Hollywood comes calling. &#9632;

f0026-02

The Minors

Broadcaster Calling The Shots

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Bob Wagner</div>Christmas lasted the entire month of December for the Muskegon Lumberjacks.Through Dec. 29, the &lsquo;Jacks were 911 for the year&rsquo;s 12th month. That gave them 48 points in 31 games. They led the International League&rsquo;s East Division by nine points and held an eightpoint bulge over the West Division&rsquo;s slipping Colorado Rangers in the overall standings.Not even the flu and 104degree temperature of coach Rick Ley could break Muskegon&rsquo;s stride. They beat the Kalamazoo Wings 75 on home ice Dec. 27, with assistant coach Roy Sommer filling in for Ley.Muskegon didn&rsquo;t even stumble when the parent Pittsburgh Penguins called up their second, third and fourth scorers&mdash;left winger Scott Gruhl, right winger Lee Giffin and defensemanPhil Bourque&mdash;on Dec. 15. The IHL club responded by going 301.The Lumberjacks got a boost when the Penguins returned right winger Dwight Mathiasen, and center Mark Teevens came off the injured list. Playing on a line with left winger Carl Mokosak, Mathiasen and Teevens both scored at least one point in their first four games back.<h2>RANGERS STUMBLE</h2>The Colorado Rangers failed to take advantage of a ninegame homestand Dec. 2 to 19, and finished up 351.&ldquo;We got off to a good start (for the season) because they worked so hard,&rdquo; said coach Pete Mahovlich. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve lost a lot of talent (to the parent New York Rangers) and that&rsquo;s hard to plug up.&ldquo;Hopefully, we can do something on the road. If we play .500 we&rsquo;ll be pretty happy.&rdquo;But the Rangers went east and promptly lost 43 to Muskegon Dec. 26, and 64 to Flint Dec. 27.<h2>THE DEFENSE RESTS</h2>Maybe it was too much Christmas celebrating.In the eight IHL games Dec. 2627 there were 79 goals scored, an average of 9.9 per game. In two wild ones, Saginaw edged Flint 87 in a shootout Dec. 26, and Fort Wayne ripped Saginaw 96 the next night.Despite all the scoring, Peoria goaltender Darrell May was voted coplayer of the week with Kalamazoo center Dave Gagner.May beat Milwaukee 31, and lost 43 to the same club, in a shootout. Both games were on the road. May was in goal for 125 minutes in the two games, stopped 67 of 71 shots for a .943 save percentage and 1.92 GAA.Gagner, a centermanleft winger, had three goals and two assists in a 110 week for Kalamazoo. He had 17 points (107) in the 10 games he had played since coming to the Wings from Minnesota.<h2>LINESMAN DIES</h2>Services for Luigi Cortese, 41, an IHL linesman for more than a decade, were held Dec. 28 in Windsor, Ont. Cortese, hospitalized following a heart attack, was one of the more popular officials in the league and even sang the national anthem in Kalamazoo and Toledo at the request of those two clubs. He was one of a kind&hellip;Muskegon drew 9,296 fans for its two games immediately after Christmas, including 5,272 for its showdown against Colorado&hellip;Goalie Ed Belfour of Saginaw blanked Fort Wayne 40 Dec. 20, for his leaguehigh 11th win. &#9632;

Lumberjacks Climb To Top Of The Pole

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div>Goaltender Roberto Romano, who left Maine Mariners during their twoday Christmas break to settle personal problems, has worked out a deal to play in Italy for the balance of the season.The Mariners&rsquo; parent team, Boston Bruins, okayed the moved but retain his NHL rights.&ldquo;It was just time to move on, I guess,&rdquo; said Romano, who was 581 with a 3.67 goalsagainst average in 16 flames for the Mariners.Romano was acquired by the Bruins last February from Pittsburgh for goalie Pat Riggin. Since then, he has played just once with Boston.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to put some sort of a limit on how long he&rsquo;ll be over there just in case we need him,&rdquo; said Mariner coach Mike Milbury, who is handling the negotations.This isn&rsquo;t the first time Romano has left a team. Toward the end of the 198485 season he formally retired from Pittsburgh and considered becoming a wine salesman in Baltimore. He returned the following season.<h2>VARGAS REJOINS HABS</h2>Left winger Ernie Vargas, outspoken in his displeasure about playing in Sherbrooke, has returned to the Canadiens.To accommodate his wishes, Sherbrooke loaned the native of St. Paul, Minn.&mdash;who found it difficult living in predominantly Frenchspeaking city&mdash;to the Baltimore Skipjacks. But after Sherbrooke&rsquo;s 70 win at Baltimore Dec. 13, Vargas told Sherbrooke coach Pat Burns he wanted to return. It just so happened Bums had an opening after captain Perry Ganchar was traded to Pittsburgh.Vargas couldn&rsquo;t immediately join the Canadiens; he injured his ankle in the 70 game. He went home for Christmas and rejoined the team for a 41 win at Springfield on Dec. 26. The following night Vargas had a goal in a 52 win at New Haven.<h2>BOUTILIER RETURNS</h2>Veteran defenseman Paul Bouti lier, traded for the third time since last March, ended his brief retirement and returned to the Moncton Hawks. Boutilier played one game for the Hawks, after being traded in midNovember from the New York Rangers&rsquo; organization (in New Haven) to Winnipeg&rsquo;s, then left the team to ponder his future.The defenseman played against the Nighthawks on Dec. 16 and returned to Moncton the weekend after Christmas for a homeandhome split with the Nova Scotia Oilers. In his first three games with the Hawks, he had six assists.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01605/5388377-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="177" height="136"></div>Boutilier, a firstround draft pick of the New York Islanders in 1981, was sent to Boston as freeagent compensation for Brian Curran in August, 1987. He was traded to Minnesota before being dealt to the Rangers.<h2>COTE SKATING</h2>Moncton received some encouraging news about rookie defenseman Matt Cote, who suffered a serious eye injury when cut by a skate blade in an exhibition game with Fredericton.Cote started skating in midDecember and could possibly be back by the end of January. At the time of the injury, Cote needed seven stitchesin his eye. Six have been removed. There is still some blood in the eye but Cote has regained much of his vision.<h2>STALLED FORD</h2>Goalies can&rsquo;t win games all by themselves. During a recent threegame stretch. Springfield goalie Brian Ford allowed six goals, but won just once.Ford lost a 21 decision at home to Maine, beat New Haven 42 the following night, then lost another 21 game at Sherbrooke on Sunday afternoon.The three games lowered Ford&rsquo;s goalsagainst average to 3.49 with a 10102 record.<h2>NIGHTHAWKS SLUMPING</h2>One of Don Perry&rsquo;s first tasks as New Haven&rsquo;s new coach was to get the Nighthawks out of a brutal slump.The Nighthawks lost a teamrecord nine straight games after Robbie Ftorek took the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; coaching job, but still remained in third place.The Nighthawks lost five straight under interim coach Nick Beverley and the first four under Perry, who was semiretired and living in upstate New York. This is Perry&rsquo;s second stint as Nighthawk coach. In 198182 he led New Haven for 44 games before taking the coaching job in Los Angeles. &#9632;

f0027-01

Romano Is Set To Finish Season In Italy

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>The longest scoring streak in American League history came to an end one day after Christmas, but there was still one more present awaiting Mike Richard.The rookie center was held pointless Dec. 26 when the Binghamton Whalers posted a 64 victory over the Rochester Americans.That ended an American Leaguerecord 31game scoring streak&mdash;a streak that began Oct. 18 against Rochester.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t find that I played that well, so I didn&rsquo;t deserve to get a point,&rdquo; said Richard, after the game. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s over. Now I can get back to playing hockey like I did at the beginning of the year. At the beginning of the year I was getting more assists and looking for my wingers.&rdquo;When his final shift ended with 18 seconds to play, the sellout crowd at Binghamton gave Richard a standing ovation.The parent Washington Capitals also took notice&mdash;they summoned Richard to the NHL as soon as the streak ended. In fact, that&rsquo;s all they were waiting for.During the streak, he scored 25 goals and 30 assists for 55 points. When he was recalled to the Capitals on Dec. 27, Richard was second in league scoring to Gilles Thibaudeau of Sherbrooke. Richard had 28 goals and 59 points.The previous AHL record for consecutive-game scoring was 28, set by Binghamton&rsquo;s Bob Sullivan in 198182.<h2>DEVILISHLY GOOD</h2>The Utica Devils came to life in December, and made a move toward a playoff position. Goaltender Craig Billington and forwards Chris Cichocki. Dan Dorion, Alan Stewart and Wally Chapman were the leaders of the Devils&rsquo; 934 resurgence.Billington turned in impressive baektoback 42save performances on the road at Glens Falls and Springfield to help the Devils drop the Wings 62 and tie the Indians 22. Overall, Billington was 9106 with a 3.69 goalsagainst average.Dorion scored a goal in seven consecutive games, and Chapman accumulated five goals and 12 points during a fivegame streak. Cichocki (five games, 549) and Stewart (four games, 055) also enjoyed scoring streaks.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02397/5388408-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="177" height="136"></div><h2>BEARS STRENGTHEN GRIP</h2>Hershey remained the hottest team in the division. The Bears solidified their grip on first place by winning 10 of 11 games, before losing at Binghamton Dec. 28&hellip;Hershey forward Don Biggs was named player of the week for scoring five goals and assisting on eight others in three games&hellip; Buffalo recalled forwards Jody Gage and Mikael Anderson from Rochester, and assigned Bob Logan to the Amerks. Rochester signed veteran goaltender Cleon Daskalakis, who ended a brief retirement.Shane Churla smashed Binghamton&rsquo;s career penaltyminute record. With 22 minutes against Rochester on Dec. 19, Churla moved past Randy MacGregor into first place. MacGregor picked up 670 minutes in 374 games. Churla needed just 95 games to compile 676 minutes&hellip;Binghamton forward Tom Martin extended his point streak to nine games (7916)&hellip;On Dec. 26, Detroit pulled off the largest recall of players in the eightplus seasons it has operated the Adirondack franchise. The senior Wings promoted five players&mdash;Doug Houda, Brent Fedyk, Steve Martinson. Dale Krentz and Kris King&mdash;then returned Houda, Martinson and Fedyk after one pame &#9632;

f0027-02

Richard’s Record Run Ends At No. 31

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01624/5388439-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Guy Chouinard wasn&rsquo;t prepared for the end of his playing career, but he&rsquo;s now coach of the Victoriaville Tigres. (Photo by Sylvain Lafleur)</figcaption></div>Often the toughest decision an NHL player or coach has to make is what to do when his professional career is over.It may have been a lengthy career or just a taste of the big time. But some want to remain in the game and, by returning to junior hockey in a management capacity, they can do so.Five coaches in the 15team Ontario League&mdash;Cornwall&rsquo;s Orval Tessier, Ottawa&rsquo;s Brian Kilrea, London&rsquo;s Wayne Maxner. Toronto&rsquo;s Terry Martin and Windsor&rsquo;s Tom Webster&mdash;played in the NHL. Tessier, Maxner, Webster and Hamilton&rsquo;s Bill LaForge coached at the pro level.Three more exNHLers coach in the 14team Western League&mdash;Spokane&rsquo;s Butch Goring, Medicine Hat&rsquo;s Barry Melrose and Prince Albert&rsquo;s Rick Wilson.But the migration back to junior is strongest in the 10team Quebec League. In fact, there are more retired NHLers associated with one team, the Victoriaville Tigres, than with the OHL and WHL combined.The NHL ExPros Oldtimers&rsquo; team bought a controlling share of the franchise, then struggling in Longueuil as the Chevaliers, in January, 1986. The ExPros are a pool of about 40 players, many of whom play 40 to 50 games a season to raise funds for a variety of causes. Former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; great Guy Lafleur is president of both the ExPros and the Tigres.Unlike the OHL and WHL returnees (of whom only Goring and Webster, in his WHA days, could be called prominent as pro players), the QMJHL is loaded with ex stars.Lafleur, of course, is the biggest. Solid NHL defenseman Carol Vad nais, ex50goalscorer Guy Chouinard and Vezina Trophywinning goaler Michel (Bunny) Larocque have also renewed their QMJHL ties. Rearguards Jocelyn Guevremont and Andre (Moose) Dupont have also managed and coached QMJHL franchises, but are no longer associated with them.Another star defenseman, Guy Lapointe, is back in the NHL as assistant coach of the Quebec Nordiques, after three seasons as coach and GM with the Chevaliers.Big names mean big box office, exNHLer Michel Parizeau maintains.&ldquo;In Quebec, they like the big name. Maybe they think it will sell more tickets,&rdquo; says Parizeau, who coached the Chicoutimi Sagueneens for one year and Drummondville for three. &ldquo;It all depends on who you know&mdash;and if you live in these cities, it helps. I played my junior hockey in Drummondville.&rdquo;Parizeau is now director of personnel for an accounting company in Drummondville.The network has helped other expros find hockey jobs when no others were available.Chouinard, coach of the Tigres, is a case in point. Atlanta&rsquo;s first pick in the 1974 entry draft, he played his junior hockey with the Quebec Remparts. He scored 107 points with the Flames in 197778, but wasn&rsquo;t prepared when the end came in St. Louis seven seasons later.&ldquo;In my last year in St. Louis, I ended up not playing at all,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Maybe in the back of my mind, coaching was always there. Andre Savard asked me to coach with him in Fredericton, but the budget wasn&rsquo;t there.&rdquo;The Quebec League old boys were, however.&ldquo;Some guys play 10 or 15 years and then don&rsquo;t want to get near it,&rdquo; Chouinard says. &ldquo;I wanted to put something back into hockey and help younger players, but I didn&rsquo;t have any coaching experience. If (Chevaliers vice president and exNHL defenseman Gilles) Lupien hadn&rsquo;t called me, I could still be looking for a job.&rdquo;Vadnais, who played for five NHL franchises and is now the Verdun Jr. Canadiens&rsquo; GM, says the oldpro pipeline helped him make the move after a twoseason stint as Herb Brooks&rsquo; assistant coach with the New York Rangers.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great opening to stay in hockey,&rdquo; the 17year NHL veteran says.It&rsquo;s also a lot of work. Junior players aren&rsquo;t nearly as polished as their pro counterparts.&ldquo;The fundamentals aren&rsquo;t there,&rdquo; Vadnais says, &ldquo;and we don&rsquo;t have that much time to work with them. Still, sometimes a player is like a green horse and the progress is tremendous.&rdquo;Lapointe wasn&rsquo;t prepared for the workload.He left his assistant&rsquo;s position with the Nords in 198485 to return to junior hockey with the Chevs, thinking it would allow him more hours at home.&ldquo;I wanted to spend more time with my family,&rdquo; Lapointe says. &ldquo;There was a lot of travelling in the NHL and I didn&rsquo;t look forward to the plane trips.&ldquo;I had it in mind to coach a junior team, but I found I was spending even less time at home. We didn&rsquo;t have a good team and we were fighting to make the playoffs. I was always going to watch midget games (in preparation for the draft) and working on trades.&ldquo;Although I was joining the juniors, at the bottom of my heart I was missing the big league. When you work with pros, it&rsquo;s a lot easier to get the message through.&rdquo;Lapointe&rsquo;s departure created an opportunity for Larocque to become Longueuil&rsquo;s general manager at the end of the 198687 season.With Lupien, Chouinard and Bob Sirois, another exNHLer, Larocque oversaw the franchise&rsquo;s move to Victoriaville, just three weeks before training camp opened.Larocque spent a season as assistant coach of the University of Ottawa GeeGees under Michel Boucher, now GM of the QMJHL&rsquo;s TroisRivieres Draveurs, before joining the Chevs. He&rsquo;s noticed a big change in the junior game in the last 20 years.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like when I was playing junior,&rdquo; says Larocque, an original member of the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s at age 15. &ldquo;Before, a kid would do anything to play hockey. There wasn&rsquo;t much communication with the coaches. You need a lot more psychology today. Kids worry more about their schooling. There are better school programs and I wish I&rsquo;d had that.&rdquo;Chouinard says he, too, has had to make some adjustments to his thinking.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t treat a guy who&rsquo;s 17 like a guy who&rsquo;s 27,&rdquo; Chouinard says. &ldquo;They still have to learn and there&rsquo;s a lot of repetition. Hockey is a different world&hellip;a tough world, but a fun world.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0028-01

The Juniors

LES GARCONS ANCIENS

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02371/5388515-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="591" height="1334"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Andersen of the Oshawa Generals pleaded not guilty to an assault charge.</figcaption></div>Two years ago, Wayne Max ner was fired as coach and general manager of the Sudbury Wolves, despite steering the club to its first Ontario League playoff berth in six seasons.Last season, Maxner surfaced with the London Knights, replacing Don Boyd, who resigned to take the coachGM job with Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.Maxner&rsquo;s Knights missed the playoffs, finishing seventh in the Emms Division, and there were whispers that is 14year major junior coaching career was in jeopardy.But during the summer. Jack Robillard, who also owns the Hamilton Steelhawks, bought the Knights and immediately signed Maxner to a new contract.And on Jan. 26, when the OHL allstars meet the best of the Quebec League at Hamilton&rsquo;s Copps Coliseum, Maxner will be back of the Ontario League bench.Maxner earned allstar coach status because the Knights, with a 2373 mark, had the best record of any OHL club after 33 games, the halfway point in the season schedule.&ldquo;Sure, I heard stories that I was washed up,&rdquo; said Maxner, who enjoyed great success with the Windsor Spitfires over fiveplus seasons before a brief pro stint with the Detroit Red Wings.He is confident that the old &lsquo;Max&rsquo; is back again.The Knights entered the new year leading the Emms Division, just ahead of Windsor and. Hamilton. And they&rsquo; are making it work with 12 rookies on the roster.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01538/5388522-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="178" height="137"></div>A year ago at the halfway point of the season, the Knights were 11211 and seventh in the Emms, 12th overall.Maxner credits his coaching staff (&ldquo;the best in junior hockey&rdquo;) of Danny Flynn and parttimer Gary Agnew.<h2>PLEADS NOT GUILTY</h2>John Andersen, a 19-year-old left winger with the Oshawa Generals, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault causing bodily harm.Andersen was charged by Cornwall police following a game between the Generals and Royals Dec. 12, when he threw his stick into the stands at the Cornwall Civic Complex. A spectator suffered facial injuries.At the preliminary hearing Dec. 29 in Cornwall, a trial date was set for Nov. 14, 1988.Andersen has been under indefinite suspension by the league since the incident.<h2>BRANCH TO INVESTIGATE</h2>OHL commissioner David Branch has announced he will conduct an investigation into a brawl that occurred Dec. 27 during a game in Hamilton between the Steelhawks and Guelph Platers.Platers&rsquo; coach Floyd Crawford said about 16 players&mdash;some of whom left the penalty box to join in&mdash;were involved in the melee.Branch has asked for reports from referee Murray Darroch, who handled the game, and director of officiating Ken Bodendistel, who was a spectator.Eight game misconducts, four per team, were handed out by Darroch.Branch has dealt harshly with violent offenders this season. Sudbury Wolves&rsquo; defenseman Marc Laforge was suspended for the balance of his junior career for his part in a brawl against the Platers Nov. 6. Other incidents have led to 12and 15game sentences.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been an interesting season,&rdquo; Branch told the Toronto Globe and Mail. &ldquo;It seems most games come off without incident, but when we do have a matter to attend to, it&rsquo;s a serious one.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think anyone will dispute that we&rsquo;ve addressed (violence) in a very strong fashion,&rdquo; the commissioner continued. &ldquo;Hopefully, it will get through to the players.&rdquo;<h2>ROYALS JELLING</h2>After beating Oshawa 64 at home Dec. 29, Cornwall stretched its unbeaten string to 14 games (1202). After a 18 start, Cornwall&rsquo;s recordthrough until the end of December stood at 2033&hellip;The North Bay Centennials were also making up some ground. After a 419 start, the rebuilding Cents, who won the Emms title last season, went 522 to move within four points of the seventhplace Sudbury Wolves. North Bay also had three games in hand on the Wolves, losers of 10 games in succession. &#9632;

f0029-02

‘Max’ Back On Top With London Knights

<div class="byline">BY CLAUDE SCILLEY</div>The battered Kams are a thing of the past in the Ontario Universities Athletic Association.Perennial doormats of the league, the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute Rams are playing respectable hockey.The Rams have been playing close 500 hockey (67), after winning just 12 of 96 games in four years. Only four seasons ago, the Rams went 024 and gave up an average of more than 11 goals per game.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re better,&rdquo; deadpanned coach Jim Cairns.The Rams last enjoyed success in 197677, when they went 1141 and finished atop the Central Division, before bowing 111 to Toronto in a suddendeath quarterfinal.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still not as consistent as I&rsquo;d like to see us,&rdquo; said Cairns. &ldquo;We anticipated being over .500, but before the regular season ends, I can see us pushing for second place. A realistic goal for us is to be in the final in the West Division.&ldquo;We recruited five or six players who had a history of success within their own hockey careers, the desire to win, the ability to know how to win. And it spread. For some of the team members who have been here through the lessthanglory days, it helped at. We still need some direction, some intensity, but I think we&rsquo;re a lost closer.&ldquo;For the first time since I&rsquo;ve been here, there really is some kind of identity with the hockey team, in terms of pride being here.&ldquo;The last couple of years, we had a dismal record, but we played some competitive hockey. We lost five or six games last year by one goal. Last year and even the year before last, 1 think teams around the league recognized our commitment to building a program.&rdquo;But the Rams are still not over the hump. In single games this year, they&rsquo;ve allowed 16, 13 and 12 goals. Part of the problem is Ryerson&rsquo;s propensity for taking penalties. They&rsquo;ve averaged 33 penalty minutes per game and, against Laurier, faced 17 power plays in one game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03243/5388553-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="571" height="143"></div><h2>VOYAGEURS DEFENSELESS</h2>Laurentian Voyageur coach Stu Duncan has found it&rsquo;s tough to implement a defensive system when three of your top rearguards are unavailable for duty.Veterans Jeff Stevens and Denis Gauthier both left the team for academic reasons, while Shawn Morris has been injured.&ldquo;We changed our system, hopefully making it more defensive,&rdquo; Duncan said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s cut down our goalsagainst, but we still haven&rsquo;t cut them down enough. We&rsquo;ve got to score seven or eight to win. We score enough but we bury ourselves in a hole.&rdquo;The Voyageurs scored four or moretimes in all but one of their last six games but lost all of them, extending their preChristmas losing streak to eight.On the bright side, forward Denis Castonguay was second in league scoring with 37 points in 14 games&mdash;even though he frequently misses practice because of studentteaching commitments.<h2>MARLINS PERKING</h2>The McMaster Marlins needed a little good news before the holidays&mdash;something to take their minds off an 0141 start, which included just 21 goals for and 107 against.Thanks to the Brock Badgers, Christmas came early. The Marlins suddenly discovered how to score Dec. 5, outgunning the Badgers 107 for their first win of the season.&ldquo;Moralewise, we needed to get that one,&rdquo; said Marlin coach Carmen Cirella. &ldquo;At least now it&rsquo;s within our reach, possibly, for a playoff spot.McMaster trailed fourthplace Laurentian by seven points and had two games remaining with the Voyageurs. &#9632;

f0029-03

Ryerson Isn’t Ram Tough Yet, But The Club Keeps Improving

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04170/5388605-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-05146/5388598-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="364" height="493"><figcaption class="caption-body">TERRY HOULDER Calgary CANADA WEST</figcaption></div>The Calgary forward was named the most valuable player of the Dinosaur Invitational tournament. Houlder scored two goals and seven assists in three games to lead the Dinosaurs to the championship.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-06117/5388591-1-eng-US/f0029-062.jpg" title="f0029-06" width="363" height="489"><figcaption class="caption-body">SERGE AMYOT Moncton ATLANTIC</figcaption></div>The Moncton forward scored three goals and one assist to lead his team to an 82 rout of St. Thomas in a nonleague game. Moncton and St. Thomas returned to league action the first week of January.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0799/5388584-1-eng-US/f0029-072.jpg" title="f0029-07" width="367" height="488"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEN MINELLO Windsor ONTARIO</figcaption></div>Ken Minello scored three goals and two assists for five points as Windsor beat the powerful York Yeomen 72 in a game played during the Calgary Dinosaur Invitational tournament.Performers of the week for the period Dec. 28Jan. 3. &#9632;

f0029-04

Bauer’s university performers OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY GREGG DRINNAN</div>The Saskatoon Blades weren&rsquo;t dulled by the Western League&rsquo;s weeklong Christmas break.On Dec. 20, the Blades blew out the Lethbridge Hurricanes 81 in Saskatoon to move into a firstplace tie with the Prince Albert Raiders atop the East Division. A week later, they returned to action and thumped the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors 115 to take sole possession of top spot with a 22132 record. The Raiders (21112) held three games in hand.Saskatoon was the WHL&rsquo;s secondhighest scoring team, with 196 goals compared to West Divisionleading Kamloops&rsquo; 199.The victory over Moose Jaw improved the Blades&rsquo; record at the Saskatoon Arena to 161. The club is scheduled to move from the 3,304seat Arena to Saskatchewan Place, a new 8,000seat facility, in midFebruary.<h2>ALL IN THE FAMILY</h2>Brian Sakic was left to carry the family banner on the home front while highscoring older brother Joe was in Moscow with Canada&rsquo;s national team at the World Jr. Championships.The younger Sakic, 16, did it in style, scoring his first two WHL goals Dec. 16 to lead the Swift Current Broncos to a 51 win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. The rookie center went into the Lethbridge game with no goals and 10 assists. He scored another goal and two assists two nights later in a 64 Broncos&rsquo; win over the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors. Coincidentally, that was the same day his brother was officially named to the national team.Joe Sakic, 18, who scored 31 goalsand 38 assists in 33 games before leaving for Moscow, scored once in Canada&rsquo;s second game of the World Championships, a 42 defeat of Czechoslovakia Dec. 28.<h2>WAR AND PEACE</h2>Christmas is usually associated with peace, but Prince Albert Raider right winger Darin Kimble went to war in his last preYuletide game.Kimble, a 6foot3, 215pounder, was in three fights during the Raiders&rsquo; 40 victory over Regina Dec. 19 in Prince Albert. His final penalty tally for the game read three majors, a 10minute misconduct and game misconduct. At the Christmas break, Kimble led the WHL with 21 majors, nine misconducts and four game misconducts.<h2>FLEURY FLYING</h2>Moose Jaw center Theoren Fleury (365288) was leading the league scoring race by a comfortable 16point margin over his left winger, Trevor Jobe (363571).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01616/5388636-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="177" height="132"></div>Center Mike Modano (283664) of Prince Albert, rated the top drafteligible prospect in the WHL by NHL Central Scouting, was seventh in league scoring. Modano played for the United States at the World Championships.<h2>CENTURY MARK</h2>Saskatoon left winger Grant Tkachuk scored his 100th WHL goal in an 81 win over Lethbridge Dec. 20&hellip;Moose Jaw was 12190 when coach Jim Harrison was fired Dec. 8. The Warriors were 031 under new man Gerry James and entered the trade market as the league closed up shop for Christmas. James acquired tough right winger Wade Shutter, 18, from Spokane for future considerations. Shutter earned just one assist and 40 penalty minutes in 22 games with Spokane, then scored two goals and served four penalty minutes in his first two games with Moose Jaw. In 49 games with the Jamescoached Estevan Bruins of the Saskatchewan Jr. League last season. Shutter earned 229 penalty minutes while scoring 12 goals and 10 assists. Two days after the league returned to action Dec. 27, the Warriors exchanged 20-year-old right wingers with Victoria. Moose Jaw sent Bob Foglietta (281543 in 34 games with 20 penalty minutes) west for Greg Batters (347 in 18 games with 65 penalty minutes). Batters missed most of the first three months of the season with a stomach virus.Spokane beat Victoria 42 Dec. 19 in Victoria to snap the Cougars&rsquo; 11game unbeaten streak (1001)&hellip;Regina acquired defenseman Tim Logan, 19, from Swift Current for future considerations&hellip;New Westminster was hoping to lure defenseman Troy Arndt, 19, back into action. Arndt refused to report to the Brandon Wheat Kings this season after playing 38 games for them last year. In four WHL seasons with Portland and Brandon, Arndt totalled 442 penalty minutes&hellip; New Westminster right winger Mark Holick, 19, asked to be traded and left the club before a Dec. 20 trip to Brandon. The Bruins lost game 91 to close a fivegame Division swing 032&hellip;The East Division led the West 26195 in interlocking play at Christmas. At home, eastern teams were 2033 but 6162 on the road against western opponents. &#9632;

f0030-01

Blades Keep Scoring Touch Over Holidays

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>Cautiously active defined the approach taken by teams during the Quebec League&rsquo;s third of four scheduled trading periods.&ldquo;Everybody has been discussing trades and big names are going around,&rdquo; said TroisRivieres Draveurs&rsquo; general manager Michel Boucher. &ldquo;But everybody still has a chance to make the playoffs and the price is going to be very high for a topline player.&rdquo;QMJHL players attending school can be traded only during four periods corresponding to high school, college and university semesters. The third period&mdash;extended to more than three weeks due to the Christmas holidays&mdash;ran from Dec. 18 to Jan. 9. The final period is scheduled for Feb. 1213.Two trades were made as of Dec. 29. On Dec. 17, the Shawinigan Catar actes traded center Stephane Morin, 18, and a secondround pick in the 1988 midget draft to the leagueleading Chicoutimi Sagueneens for offensive defenseman Daniel Bock, 19.Bock, who quarterbacked Chicoutimi&rsquo;s power play, scored 10 goals and 31 assists in 29 games with the Sags. He made an immediate impact with Shawinigan, but his three goals weren&rsquo;t enough to prevent a 76 overtime loss Dec. 20 at TroisRivieres. The defeat was Shawinigan&rsquo;s third straight overtime loss to the Draveurs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02448/5388667-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="179" height="131"></div>Morin scored 16 goals and 21 assists for 37 points in 36 games with Chicoutimi.The other trade saw the Verdun Jr. Canadiens add muchneeded experience to their defense by acquiring Serge Lanthier, 19, from Chicoutimi for rugged 6foot, 190pound right winger Michel Bedard, 18.<h2>TIGRES ROARING</h2>Chicoutimi&rsquo;s 11game winning streak, which carried the Sagueneens to a 25121 record and first place in the overall league standings, was rivalled by the improved play of the Victoriaville Tigres.Though Victoriaville remained last in the Dilio Division, the Tigres (17192) won eight of 12 games to&rsquo; move within one point of Shawinigan (18201) and the Drummondville Vol tigeurs (18191). The Tigres rebounded from a slump in which they won just one of 13 games.&ldquo;We still don&rsquo;t have explosive offensive players,&rdquo; said Victoriaville coach Guy Chouinard. &ldquo;But we lost nine games by one goal and we&rsquo;ve cut down a goal a game. Defensive guys have been doing a good job.&rdquo;One player&mdash;center Reginald Savage&mdash;has been doing a bit of everything. Savage, 17, led the Richelieu Riverains to the Air Canada Cup national midget championship last season and was explosive enough to score 34 goals and 31 assists in his first 36 games with Victoriaville, good for 11th in league scoring.Included in the Savage assault were 11 powerplay goals and five gamewinners. Savage scored four goals, including the overtime winner, and assisted on another in a 65 victory over the Hull Olympiques Dec. 13.The Tigres also will be strengthened by the return of 5foot5, 155poud goaltender Bobby Desjardins, 20. De sjardins, who played in consecutive losing Memorial Cup finals with Shawinigan, Hull and Longueuil the last three years, began practice in late December after tearing up his knee in a motorcycle accident during the summer.<h2>WELCOME HOME</h2>Trois-Rivieres happily welcomed back captain and right winger Francis Breault, 20, after a 25game tryout with Maine of the American League.Breault, a free agent, scored five goals and seven assists and served 50 penalty minutes in eight games with the Draveurs before departing for Maine. His experience was needed on a TroisRivieres team carrying 10 rookies. &#9632;

f0030-02

Teams Talk A Lot. But Trade A Little

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03306/5388726-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04209/5388719-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="387" height="530"><figcaption class="caption-body">RON HOOVER Western Michigan CCH</figcaption></div>Junior forward Ron Hoover scored three goals and two assists and was named most valuable player of the Riverfront Classic in Cincinnati.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05141/5388712-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="420" height="525"><figcaption class="caption-body">DEAN ANDERSON Wisconsin WCHA</figcaption></div>Goaltender Dean Anderson was named most valuable player of the Great Lakes tournament. Anderson led Wisconsin past Michigan State 43 in the final.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-06109/5388705-1-eng-US/f0030-062.jpg" title="f0030-06" width="398" height="535"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVID CAPUANO Maine HOCKEY EAST</figcaption></div>Sophomore David Capuano scored three goals and one assist to lead toprated Maine to an easy 71 romp over Wisconsin.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0788/5388698-1-eng-US/f0030-072.jpg" title="f0030-07" width="426" height="528"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE LAURIN Dartmouth ECAC</figcaption></div>Sophomore goalie Steve Laurin made 58 saves to lead Dartmouth to a 43 upset victory over RPLPerformers of the week for the period Dec. 28Jan. 3. &#9632;

f0030-03

Bauer’s COLLEGE PERFORMERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Virg Foss</div>Western Collegiate Association rinks can cut down on their electric bills by inviting the Michigan Tech Huskies in for a few games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02391/5388795-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="686" height="135"></div>The Huskies showed the league they have power to bum, when they scored five goals on one power play, Dec. 19 against the No. 1ranked team in the country, the Minnesota Gophers.With Michigan Tech leading 42 eight minutes into the third period, Minnesota senior forward Paul Broten&mdash;younger brother of NHLers Neal and Aaron&mdash;was handed a fiveminute major for spearing.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03287/5388788-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="1491" height="1883"><figcaption class="caption-body">Colgate goalie Wayne Cowley&rsquo;s sensational year was interrupted when he sustained a dislocated shoulder in a preChristmas car accident. (Photo by Rudy Winston)</figcaption></div>The Huskies, clicking at 24 per cent on the power play, increased that lead to 92 before Broten returned. All of the goals came against Gopher goalie Robb Stauber, the toprated net minder in the league.Stauber left after Tech&rsquo;s surge and saw his goalsagainst average jump from 2.42 to 2.79, still the best in the league.Tech scored twice more against Stauber&rsquo;s replacement, Al Fritsinger, on its way to an 113 shocker. The night before, Minnesota won 82 in the seriesopener.<h2>HAT TRICK MARK TIED</h2>Northern Michigan junior winger Phil Berger had six hat tricks, matching the WCHA mark set by Minnesota&rsquo;s Tim Harrer in 197980&hellip;MinnesotaDuluth&rsquo;s Shawn Howard became the second Bulldog freshman this year to score three goals in a game, when he turned the trick in a 103 win over Colorado College Dec. 19. Jerry Chumola had three goals in a win over New Hampshire earlier this season&hellip;Wisconsin associate athletic director Otto Breitenbach is retiring from that position at the end of the school term, but he will stay on as commissioner of the WCHA. &#9632;

f0031-02

Big Tech Attack

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Bill Crawford</div>Respect is coming, surely but slowly, to the Lake Superior Lakers.The Lakers have been ranked in the top 10 all season in all Division I polls, and have been as high as No. 2 in the prestigious NCAA poll, but they&rsquo;re still virtual unknowns.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04213/5388826-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="176" height="132"></div>One reason is lack of television exposure. The Lakers can be seen only once this season on the ProAm Sports System (PASS), a sports channel beamed to their home state of Michigan and throughout the Midwest and New England&mdash;and that one time is on a tapedelay basis.Both metropolitan Detroit newspapers more or less ignore them, too&mdash;even though Lake Superior boasts one of the nation&rsquo;s top college players in junior Mark Vermette, a solid Hobey Baker candidate. As of Dec. 31, Vermette had 23 goals.Because the Lakers are in Sault Ste. Marie, a small town in Michigan&rsquo;s eastern Upper Peninsula (sixandahalf hours north of Detroit by bus), they can&rsquo;t lure the sort of nonconference foes necessary to build a reputation or draw any sort of notable tournament.<h2>BG BOOTS MAINE</h2>Bowling Green won the Dexter Shoe Classic at Orono, Maine, with a 65 triumph Dec. 28 over the host team, thenNo. 1 Maine. Don Barber, back from earlyseason knee problems, scored the gamewinner against the Black Bears, his second goal of the tournament and third of the season&hellip;When Maine beat Michigan State at the Alaska Holiday Tournament Dec. 20, the Spartans were without four key players. Defensemen Sean Clement (knee) and Brad Hamilton (shoulder separation) and winger Bruce Rendall (broken left wrist) were injured, while center Kip Miller was with the U.S. junior team in the Soviet Union. &#9632;

f0031-04

Lakers Ignored

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Larry Mahoney</div>The Maine Black Bears are tough enough at even strength, but the power play has been their breadandbutter. Maine connected for at least one powerplay goal in 17 straight games, converting 11 of its last 24 opportunities (45.8 per cent) and 23 of 60 (38.3 per cent).Senior center Mike Golden had 10 of his 24 goals on the power play, and the Bears had six other players with at least two powerplay goals on the season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05168/5388857-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="174" height="131"></div>Golden is on Maine&rsquo;s No. 1 powerplay unit with Dave Capuano (second with five PPGs), Mike McHugh, Jack Capuano (four apiece) and Claudio Scremin (one). Scremin was recently moved to the No. 1 unit and Dave Wensley (two) shifted back to the second unit.Dave Nonis, who is on the second manadvantage unit with Christian Lalonde, Guy Perron, Mario Thyer and Wensley, said the key to Maine&rsquo;s success &ldquo;is the personnel. We&rsquo;ve got quality players on the power play.&rdquo;The two powerplay units operate differently. The Golden unit works high in the slot, near the blue line, while the Thyer group works low in the slot.&ldquo;That makes it confusing for opposing penaltykillers,&rdquo; said Golden.<h2>MORRISON SHINES</h2>New Hampshire freshman goalie Pat Morrison of Charlottetown, P.E.I., could be working himself into the Wildcats&rsquo; No. 1 spot. Morrison had a 4.15 goalsagainst average and an .890 save percentage in six games, entering the Yale Hockey Classic tournament. Fellow freshman Pat Szturm, who had also appeared in six games, had a 5.68 GAA and .840 save percentage.The Northeastern Huskies have been having problems with their penaltykilling. Assistant coach Jim Madigan, a fine penaltykiller when he played for the Huskies, was devoting considerable time to improving that aspect of their game.Northeastern had surrendered 22 powerplay goals in 75 shorthanded situations, giving the opponents a conversion rate close to 29.3 per cent. &#9632;

f0031-05

Power Hungry

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01593/5388902-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01529/5388895-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="3095" height="3706"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01606/5388888-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="3079" height="3219"></div> &#9632;

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NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<h2>Mon., Dec. 21</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01571/5389150-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="600" height="1056"></div><h2>Tue., Dec. 22</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02453/5389143-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="610" height="2427"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03360/5389136-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="604" height="2809"></div><h2>Wed., Dec. 23</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04293/5389129-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="590" height="699"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05242/5389122-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="598" height="2042"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06218/5389115-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="606" height="2046"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07205/5389108-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="596" height="1474"></div><h2>Sat., Dec. 26</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08182/5389101-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="589" height="497"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01546/5389094-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="600" height="3523"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02410/5389087-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="596" height="3517"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03331/5389080-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="585" height="531"></div><h2>Sun., Dec. 27</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04247/5389073-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="610" height="2955"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05198/5389066-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="585" height="1229"></div><h2>Mon., Dec. 28</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06168/5389059-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="601" height="2267"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07158/5389052-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="606" height="2505"></div><h2>Tue., Dec. 29</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08152/5389045-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="588" height="988"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01474/5389038-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="611" height="2255"></div><h2>Wed., Dec. 30</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02345/5389031-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="602" height="1251"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03263/5389024-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="635" height="3534"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04217/5389017-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="583" height="156"></div><h2>Thu., Dec. 31</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05189/5389010-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="638" height="3335"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06163/5389003-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="611" height="1730"></div><h2>Fri., Jan. 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07141/5388996-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="584" height="178"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08116/5388989-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="596" height="879"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-09101/5388982-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="591" height="966"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01552/5388975-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="593" height="1062"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02434/5388968-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="594" height="1065"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03350/5388961-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="604" height="2666"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04269/5388954-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="595" height="1730"></div><h2>Sun., Jan. 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05191/5388947-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="593" height="904"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06153/5388940-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="594" height="1921"></div><h2>IZVESTIA TOURNAMENT</h2><h3>Tue., Dec. 22</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07139/5388933-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="585" height="525"></div> &#9632;

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NHL SUMMARIES

1. What were the nicknames of the two original NHL franchises in Montreal?2. Name the six Montreal franchises that have won the Stanley Cup.3. What two teams played in the first Stanley Cup final held at the Montreal Forum?.4. When was the last season the Montreal Canadiens missed the playoffs?5. What seasons were the Montreal Maroons in the NHL?6. Who assisted on both Gordie Howe&rsquo;s 700th and Jean Beliveau&rsquo;s 500th NHL goals?7. Who sat out the 197374 season in a contract dispute with the Canadiens?8. How many Stanley Cups did the Canadiens win in the 1960s?9. What Canadiens&rsquo; defenseman won the Calder Trophy in 196364 and Norris Trophy in 196566?10. What NHL Hall of Famer retired the day before the Canadiens made Guy Lafleur the first pick in the 1971 amateur draft?<h2>ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ</h2>1. Wanderers and Canadiens. 2. Amateur Athletic Association, Canadiens, Maroons, Shamrocks, Victorias, Wanderers. 3. Montreal MaroonsVictoria Cougars, 1926. 4. 1969 70. 5. 192425 to 193738. 6. Frank Mahovlich. 7. Ken Dryden. 8. Five. 9. Jacques Laperriere. 10. Jean Beliveau. BONUS ANSWER: Michel Larocque.<h2>BONUS QUESTION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09172/5389181-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="575" height="914"><figcaption class="caption-body">BONUS: This former Canadien and Maple Leaf is now GM of the Quebec League&rsquo;s Victor iaville Tigres.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0035-09

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE…

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01521/5389212-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0039-01

SCOREGBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01249/5389243-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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BaUER COLLEGE SCOreBOARD

<div class="byline">BY RICHARD BEALES</div>Editorial StaffOnly the Olympic gold medal remains in Canada&rsquo;s hunt for a perfect 5for5 international hockey season.The first title&mdash;the thrilling climax of the threegame Canada Cup final series in September&mdash;was merely the appetizer. Championships two, three and four fell neatly into place in Europe over the holiday season, as Canadian teams triumphed at the Izvestia Tournament, Spengler Cup and World Junior Championships (See page 17).Canada was not favored to win either the Izvestia or Spengler tournaments. Little was known about the Spengler team, a collection of exNHLers, university players and juniors representing Canada in Davos, Switzerland.The lack of attention steamed Canadian team general manager Paul Henry.&ldquo;I want these kids to get the recognition they deserve,&rdquo; said Henry. &ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t beat an airforce team (as one news agency reported), They beat the Wings of the Soviet&mdash;the secondplace team in the Elite League.&rdquo;Canada finished second in the roundrobin portion of the tournament with a 31 record. The only blemish was a 52 loss to the Soviets. The two teams advanced to the final, and were tied 33 after regulation time and a fiveminute overtime period.Tim Barakett, with two goals, and Red Laurence scored for Canada.That led to a shootout, a series of five penalty shots by each team. Canada scored on three shots (Brian Hills, Ken Morrison and Dave Morrison tallied), while goaltender Claude Guerard allowed only one goal.Henry heralded the victory as a triumph of determination, combined with topnotch coaching from the University of Calgary&rsquo;s George Kingston.Equally impressive&mdash;and unexpected&mdash;was Canada&rsquo;s triumph in the Izvestia Tournament. It was the first time in 21 years a Canadian team won the Moscow event. Few were expecting such a determined effort from the Canadian Olympic team, which defeated the powerful Soviet nationals 32m the pivotal game.That victory was followed by a 41 decision over Finland in Canada&rsquo;s roundrobin series finale. There are no playoffs in the Izvestia. Canada won it all with a 410 record.Scoring for Canada in the gold medalclinching game were Gord Sherven, Bob Joyce, Claude Vilgrain and Chris Feliz.Teamwork and pride were the key factors, said defenseman Randy Gregg, who has won three Stanley Cups as a member of the Edmonton Oilers.&bull; &#9632;

Gritty Canucks Win Izvestia, Spengler Titles

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0041-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01205/5389298-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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The Hockey News Classified

<div class="byline">BY MURRAY TOWNSEND</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01212/5389329-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg"></div>Less than halt of the nearly 450 players who have played in the NHL this year joined their current teams through the entry draft.Only 211 of 443 players&mdash;47.6 per cent&mdash;listed on NHL rosters in the Dec. 25 edition of THE HOCKEY NEWS were drafted by the teams for which they now play. A total of 147 players, or 33.2 per cent, were obtained in trades.Included in the traded category are undrafted players who signed as free agents and were later traded. Additional free agents, and players acquired through the waiver draft, numbered 79 and accounted for 17.9 per cent of the total.That seems a high percentage, considering most players in that category&mdash;especially those going through the waiver draft&mdash;were either unwanted or overlooked.Prominent players, such as Minnesota&rsquo;s Dino Ciccarelli, Philadelphia&rsquo;s Tim Kerr and Dave Poulin, Calgary&rsquo;s Joe Mullen, Boston goaltender Doug Keans and the New York Rangers&rsquo; Kelly Kisio are among undrafted players now playing in the NHL.Forwards Ciccarelli, Mullen and Kisio are 5foot10 or shorter. Obviously, that was the reason they were overlooked.For purposes of the study, each NHL team was examined on the basis of how its players were obtained.Players were considered to be acquired through one of six processes: (1) the entry draft; (2) the waiver draft; (3) a trade; (4) NHL free agency, for example Terry Ruskowski of Minnesota; (5) complete free agency, Poulin for example; and (6) other means, including acquisition through the expansion draft (New York Islanders&rsquo; Billy Smith for example) and protection as a priorityexpansion selection (Edmonton&rsquo;s Wayne Gretzky).St. Louis, which did not participate in the 1983 lottery because of franchise instability, has obtained the fewest players in the entry draft&mdash;seven or 30.4 per cent.The New York Islanders have a reputation for building through the draft. It&rsquo;s welldeserved. The Islanders have the highest percentage of players drafted originally by them (17 or 73.&rsquo;9 per cent) and the fewest obtained by trade (two or 8.7 per cent).Uncertainty at the draft table accounts, at least in part, for the fact eight teams have obtained more players through trades than drafts. Trades are also used by teams looking for players to fit a particular style of play. This circumstance offers hope to players trapped in a system not suited to their talents.Team rosters on the accompanying chart are categorized as follows: D&mdash;Drafted Players; T&mdash;Traded Players; NFA&mdash;NHL Free Agents; OFA&mdash;Other Free Agents; WD&mdash;Waiver Draft Players; O&mdash;Others.<h2>The Road To NHL Rosters &#9632;</h2>

f0042-01

Draft But One Means Of Getting Players

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;The NHL entry draft hasn&rsquo;t been kind to the Los Angeles Kings.Since taking over as general manager midway through the 198384 season. Rogie Vachon has overseen four drafts, made five firstround picks, three secondround and three thirdround. Of those, only Jimmy Carson (second overall in 1986) is currently on the bigleague roster.The Kings, however, have not given up on their kids. Craig Redmond (sixth overall, &lsquo;84) has joined the Canadian Olympic program and Wayne McBean (fourth overall, &lsquo;87) will be back after being loaned to Canada&rsquo;s national junior team.The rest are with the New Haven Nighthawks of the American League, in U.S. colleges or playing for junior teams.Here&rsquo;s how Vachon sees his top prospects:Craig Duncanson, LWRW, 6 feet; 190 pounds, ninth overall in 1985 (7714, 101 penalty minutes, in 17 games for New Haven): &ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing very aggressive. He has to be especially strong on the boards and around the net, and he&rsquo;s coming around. When he&rsquo;s finishing checks and playingmean, Craig is very effective.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02150/5389367-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="586" height="1048"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center Sylvain Couturier of the Laval Titan is a possible future King.</figcaption></div>Robb Stauber, G, 5foot10, 1/5, sixthround pick in &lsquo;86 (1432, 2.50 goalsagainst average at University of Minnesota): &ldquo;He&rsquo;s definitely the best goalie in college right now. He&rsquo;s very quick with his feet and has a quick glove. He&rsquo;s a standup type playing the angles and butterflies on closein shots. He&rsquo;s just having an outstanding year.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03113/5389360-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="182" height="132"></div>Paul Kelly, RW, 6 feet, 190, 10thround pick in &lsquo;86 (101424 in 33 games with New Haven): &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be a good player. Paul is good defensively already, which says a lot for a 20-year-old. He just needs to polish his game a little.&rdquo;Dan Gratton, CRW, 6footl, 190, 10th overall in &lsquo;85 (61319 in 30 games with New Haven): &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;s going to be a superstar in the NHL. but Danny can be a good twoway player. He has speed and size, a lot of skill. He hasn&rsquo;t come around the way we thought he would. I think it&rsquo;s a matter of him getting his whole game together.&rdquo;Sean Krakiwsky, C, 6 feet, 185, seventhround pick in &lsquo;85 (101626 in 24 games with New Haven): &ldquo;He started the season playing really well. He has very good hands and is very strong inside the blue line. He&rsquo;s very strong. He needs to work on his defensive game, as most kids right out of junior do.&rdquo;John English, D, 6foot2, 195, thirdround pick in &lsquo;84 (21012 and 129 penalty minutes in 28 games with New Haven): &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a righthanded shooting defensemen, and we don&rsquo;t have many of those in the organization. He has good hands. He&rsquo;s a heck of a fighter, too.&rdquo;Czechoslovakian defector Petr Pra jsler, D, 6foot3, 200, fifthround pick in &lsquo;85 (101 in 13 games with New Haven): &ldquo;Petr&rsquo;s definitely a project, but he&rsquo;s probably the most skilled defenseman in the organization. He has tremendous raw skill. Communication has been a problem because he still doesn&rsquo;t speak much English, but we&rsquo;ve sent a tutor to New Haven.&rdquo;Ken Baumgartner, D, 6footl, 200, 12thround pick of Buffalo in &lsquo;85 (123 and 142 penalty minutes in 34 games with New Haven): &ldquo;Eventually, he will play for our club. He&rsquo;s the type of player every team can use because ne can equalize everyming in one night. He crushes people on the boards and in the comers.&rdquo;Other players of note include winger Brian Wilks, who is out for the rest of the season with a separated shoulder; goalie Mark Fitzpatrick of the Medicine Hat Tigers; and 6foot2, 210pound forward Sylvain Couturier of Laval.NOTES&mdash;The Kings were 12244 at the midway point of season, one point behind fourthplace Vancouver in the Smythe Division. They were 570 since coach Robbie Ftorek took over for Mike Murphy, who was 7164 at the time of his Dec. 6 firing&hellip; Defenseman Dean Kennedy was back in lineup after missing 14 games with broken finger&hellip;Bobby Carpenter ended sevengame scoring slump with a goal and an assist against the Canadiens, in a 52 win Jan. 2.&bull;<h2>Kings</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Dec. 21: Ken Hammond, D, recalled from New Haven (AHL).Dec. 31: Glen Currie, C, assigned to New Haven.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bernie Nicholls, Jimmy Carson, Mike Allison, Bob Bourne.LW&mdash;Bobby Carpenter, Luc Robitaille, Paul Fenton, Joe Paterson.RW&mdash;Jim Fox, Bryan Erickson, Paul Guay.LD&mdash;Mark Hardy, Steve Duchesne, Jay Wells, Larry Playfair.RD&mdash;Tom Laidlaw, Ken Hammond, Dean Kennedy.G&mdash;Glenn Healy, Rollie Melanson, Bob Janecyk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Grant Ledyard, D, sprained ankle, indefinite.Phil Sykes, RW, groin, day-to-day.Dave Taylor, RW, groin, day-to-day.Tim Tookey, C, knee surgery, March 5. &#9632;

f0042-02

Kings Waiting For Draft Choices To Bloom

<div class="byline">BY LARRY HUMBER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01209/5389398-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"></div>ACROSS:1. Ron Chipperfield (pictured) captained this club its first season in the NHL (6).4. Looked after (6).9. One of the Canadiens&rsquo; three firstround draft picks in 1971, Chuck(7).10. Geoffrion briefly with Winnipeg, Montreal (5).11. Grant Fuhr&rsquo;s birthplace, Spruce(5).12. Properly perform a play (7).13. Pacific Coast Hockey League: abbrev. (4).15. Jean Beliveau once starred with this Quebec City club (4).18. Canadien named winner of the first Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy (7).21. Championship (5).23. First name of a former Nordiques&rsquo; coach (5).24. Firstyear players (7).25. Pressure (6).26. Red Wing winger previously vyith the Canucks, Rockies, Devils, North Stars and Nordiques. (6).DOWN:1. Color worn by both the Flyers and Oilers (6).2. Jargon (5).3. He succeeded Brad Marsh as Flames&rsquo; captain (7).4. Hall of Famer Shore (5).5. The only Sabre to be named Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy winner (3,4).6. Former Oiler goaltender was the WHA&rsquo;s last most valuable player (6).7. Former Leaf Hammarstrom (4).8. Windsorborn Bruin, Keith (7).9. Roy Conacher won this trophy in 194849 (3,4).10. Jabs opponent with stick blade (6).11. First name of former Flame owner Skalbania (6).19. Starts (5).20. Hall of Famer Walter Broda was better known by this nickname (4).22. Bend (5).Crossword solution in Classified Section on page 41. &#9632;

f0043-01

CROSSWORD

<div class="byline">BY HOWARD BERGER</div>One of the oldest surviving members of the Toronto Maple Leafs has never begrudged the two men who bounced him from hockey.The brilliant eightyear career of Irvine (Ace) Bailey, now 84, came to an abrupt end in December, 1933, when Bruin defenseman Eddie Shore toppled him headfirst to the ice at the Boston Garden. After recovering from a skull fracture, Bailey retired at age 30.More than 50 years later, the Bracebridge, Ont., native received another unpleasant surprise&mdash;this one from Maple Leaf Gardens&rsquo; owner Harold Ballard.&ldquo;1 had been penalty timekeeper at the Gardens for 47 years when I received a letter in 1984 saying that I was fired,&rdquo; Bailey recalls. &ldquo;There were no reasons given; just a very distinct line that read, &lsquo;Your services are no longer required here.&rsquo;&ldquo;I went down to see Mr. Ballard and asked him what his complaints were. He insisted that he didn&rsquo;t sign the letter but I showed it to him and he couldn&rsquo;t back away from the truth.&ldquo;I told him to take his job and put it in his keester.&rdquo;Bailey was an exceptional goalscorer during his brief NHL career. He played for the original Toronto Maple Leafs (who changed their name from St. Patricks) in 192627. Two years later he scored 22 goals and 10 assists in 44 games, winning the Art Ross Trophy as the league&rsquo;s top scorer. He finished with 111 goals in 313 regularseason NHL games, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1975.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03129/5389460-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="601" height="1201"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ace Bailey</figcaption></div>Bailey insists he is not a bitter man, despite the ways his NHL jobs came to an end.&ldquo;I think about the Shore incident quite often&mdash;especially on Dec. 12, the anniversary of when it happened&mdash;but I never felt a grudge towards the man,&rdquo; Bailey says. &ldquo;He was actually trying to get at my teammate, Red Horner, and he clipped the back of my skates.&ldquo;That type of thing could have happened to anyone.&ldquo;As for Mr. Ballard, he changed quite a bit after buying the Leafs. He had previously been a cheerful fellow; always in a great mood. But, he lost that demeanor once he became head man around the Gardens.&ldquo;Even though he fired me after 47 years, without even a handshake, I have no hard feelings. He hired a much younger crew of office officials so he could pay less money. That&rsquo;s his style and his business.&rdquo;Bailey, who is two years younger than Clarence (Hap) Day, the oldest surviving Leaf, still watches hockey and keeps in touch with his exteammate and lifelong friend, Joe Primeau. Bailey now lives alone in a Don Mills, Ont. apartment. His memories of the game remain vivid.&ldquo;Aurel Joliat and Howie Morenz of Montreal were the two best players I ever faced,&rdquo; he recalls. &ldquo;Joliat could tum on a nickel and leave you some change; he was such a fabulous skater&hellip;and if you didn&rsquo;t corral (Morenz) in his own zone, it was almost impossible to prevent him from scoring.&rdquo; &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

January 15, 1988

Devils Still Waiting For Brady To Develop

Raiders Hurt In Car Crash

THE WAY WE WERE

MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK