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

September 16, 1988

The Hockey News September 16, 1988

<div class="byline">BY JEFF GORDON AND JEFF HALE</div>The St. Louis Blues franchise has been rocked by allegations center Doug Gilmour seduced and sexually abused a 13-year-old girl last season.In a civil lawsuit filed in St. Louis county circuit court Aug. 30, an unnamed St. Louis family sought $1 million in damages from Gilmour, his wife Robyne, Blues&rsquo; president Jack Quinn and the St. Louis Blues Hockey Club, Inc.The suit charges Gilmour repeatedly engaged in sexual intercourse with the girl, who was identified only as Jane Doe in the suit. The girl, now 14, apparently lived with the Gilmours, though her precise relationship with them has not been disclosed.The suit also charges Robyne Gilmour, Quinn and others in the Blues&rsquo; management knew or should have known about the abuse and did nothing.The suit further suggested other Blues were prone to take advantage of their celebrity status &ldquo;to sexually abuse (the girl) or others similarly situated.&rdquo;On the advice of his attorney, Gordon L. Ankney, Gilmour refused to comment on the suit. But Robyne lashed back at the charges angrily. &ldquo;We are not guilty,&rdquo; she said.Said Ankney: &ldquo;Doug and Robyne are crushed by these allegations, which are totally unfounded and untrue.&rdquo;St. Louis county prosecuting attorney George R. (Buzz) Westfall said the girl&rsquo;s family never requested a criminal investigation. Westfall accused the family of attempting to extort money from the Blues.Westfall said the family contacted Blues&rsquo; chairman Michael Shanahan April 22 and asked for a cash settlement to keep the alleged sexual abuse quiet. Shanahan contacted Westfall, who advised Quinn to tape record any negotiations with the family.Westfall also advised the Blues to refuse to pay the family. He said the family was seeking more than $200,000 and his office was considering a criminal investigation into the family&rsquo;s actions.&ldquo;It is a felony to seek money for no prosecution in Missouri,&rdquo; Westfall said. &ldquo;The only crime I&rsquo;m aware of at this time is the extortion demand.&rdquo;Westfall said he would conduct a criminal investigation of the Gilmours if the girl&rsquo;s family provided enough evidence of sexual abuse.&ldquo;I have no idea if Gilmour is guilty or innocent,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If there was sexual intercourse, Gilihour should be prosecuted.&rdquo;Attorney Richard Schwartz, the family&rsquo;s original counsel in the suit, and William R. Hirsch, its current attorney, attacked Westfall&rsquo;s stance. Schwartz pointed out Westfall has close personal and political ties to Shanahan.Schwartz said &ldquo;there was never an effort to do any kind of shakedown.&rdquo; Hirsch said the girl&rsquo;s parents &ldquo;are very nice people, very loving people, and they desired to have as little exposure of their daughter as possible.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011372/5638490-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="567" height="1217"><figcaption class="caption-body">On the advice of his attorney, Doug Gilmour refused comment on the lawsuit.</figcaption></div>As of Sept. 1, the Blues management was refusing to comment on the allegations in the suit. Quinn did deny one of its charges&mdash;that the Blues had tried to trade Gilmour in the summer, while discussions with the girl&rsquo;s family were taking place.But several sources around the league indicated Gilmour was being offered to other teams after news of the lawsuit broke.Gilmour, 25, had a team-high 191 points (105 and 86) in his last two seasons (42-63 in 1986-87 and 36-50 in 1987-88) and was considered a cornerstone of the franchise. Now he faces an uncertain hockey future as well as a long and difficult legal battle to clear his name. But he is expected to be at the Blues&rsquo; training camp, which opens Sept. 10 in St. Louis.Hirsch said the girl is continuing to undergo psychological counseling and her parents may also require medical help to ease their trauma.<h2>OFFICIAL DEAL REACHED</h2>The NHL Officials&rsquo; Association and NHL averted a strike by linesmen and referees when they agreed to a collective bargaining agreement late on Aug. 28.Both sides were optimistic the contract would be accepted.After working out the deal, the two sides continued to meet to fine tune the agreement. No details were released.&ldquo;I feel we have an agreement which has reached the basic objectives of both sides,&rdquo; said NHLOA lawyer Jim Beatty. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good agreement for hockey.&rdquo;The previous collective agreement, which ran for three years, expired Aug. 31. Earlier meetings gave no indication an agreement was imminent. The NHLOA was angered by an NHL proposal to give the league freedom to terminate employment of any official at any time. Under the previous agreement, the league could only fire an official rated in the bottom third. Rankings are determined by league executives, team management and the officials themselves.<h2>LEAFS MOVING?</h2>The Toronto Maple Leafs are not interested in the possibility of trading places with the Los Angeles Kings.The Aug. 31 Toronto Sun said the Kings would propose realignment at the NHL board of governors&rsquo; meeting Sept. 7 in Toronto. The Kings reportedly want to move into the Norris for the 1989-90 season, figuring travel costs and customs delays would be reduced. Los Angeles is the only American-based team in the five-team Smythe. The Leafs are the only Canadian-based team in the five-team Norris.Toronto general manager Gord Stellick said the Maple Leafs want to remain part of the Norris family.&ldquo;We&rsquo;d be very much against the move,&rdquo; said Stellick. &ldquo;I also think most of the teams in the league would oppose it. People are becoming more and more aware of division rivalries.&rdquo;Detroit Red Wing general manager Jim Devellano, whose team is also in the Norris, agreed with Stellick.&ldquo;We&rsquo;d be 100 per cent against it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Just look at the rivalry we have with Toronto. Despite all the jokes about our division, we&rsquo;re fortunate in that we have three of the original six teams. We&rsquo;re not about to give that up.&rdquo;Some believe the switch, were it to take place, would represent a league pay back to L.A. owner Bruce McNall, who raised the profile of hockey significantly in southern California with the acquisition of Wayne Gretzky on Aug. 9.<h2>MADILL CHARGED</h2>Ohio State right winger Jeff Madill, 23, a 1987 supplemental draft choice of the New Jersey Devils, was charged with assault during the Ontario Ball Hockey Association championships in Mississauga, Ont., Aug. 21.Madill, playing for the Oshawa Bruins, pleaded not guilty at Brampton provincial court on Aug. 29. His case was remanded until Oct. 12, 1989.Madill was suspended for life by the OBHA.The charges arose from a bench-clearing incident during the championship final. Police were called in to break up the brawl<h2>BIRTH OF THE ECHL</h2>The six-team East Coast Hockey League will begin play Oct. 28. Each team will play 60 games. Teams in the fledgling league, which turned down late offers from groups in Hamilton and Brantford, Ont., are located in Winston-Salem, N.C., Vinton, Va., Johnstown, Penn., Erie, Penn., Knoxville, Tenn., and Toledo, Ohio. The league is hoping to establish affiliations with American and International League teams.Among the coaches named was former Baltimore Skipjack assistant coach Steve Carlson, who will guide the Johnstown Chiefs' fortunes. Carlson, along with brothers Jeff and Jack, played for Johnstown when they were known as the Jets. The threesome was depicted in the movie Slapshot, which featured a team modelled after Johnstown.Other coaches named were Brian Carroll, with the Winston-Salem-based Carolina Thunderbirds, and exNHL goalie Pierre Hamel, with Knoxville.<h2>BITS AND PIECES</h2>An Angus Reid poll conducted by the Toronto Star found 47 per cent of the respondents blamed Edmonton Oiler owner Peter Pocklington for trading Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings Aug. 9. Only six per cent blamed Gretzky's wife, actress Janet Jones. According to the poll, 46 per cent were sorry to hear Gretzky was traded, while IO per cent said they were happy with the news. A total of 42 per cent of respondents said the trade didn't mean much.Ron Harrison was appointed executive producer of Molstar Communications' sports productions Aug. 2, replacing Don Wallace, who left to join The Sports Network. Harrison, a former director of sports programs at CBC, directed the opening ceremonies for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary and will oversee Hockey Night In Canada and La Soiree Du Hockey for Molstar.Former NHLer Frank Mahovlich helped playwright Jim Betts with Thin Ice, a musical satire on Canada's obsession with hockey, which played the National Arts Centre in Ottawa during August.<h2>OVERHEARD</h2>"Are you calling about my comeback? -former Montreal Canadien great Dickie Moore. &#9632;

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Departments

Sex Scandal Lawsuit Rocks The Blues

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-03582/5639045-1-eng-US/f0018-032.jpg" title="f0018-03" width="148" height="120"></div>NEW YORK&mdash;After receiving a disappointing Aug. 22 arbitration ruling on Geoff Courtnall, the New York Rangers received a boost two days later when goalie John Vanbiesbrouck received medical clearance for full participation in training camp.&ldquo;This is very good news&hellip;for a change,&rdquo; general manager Phil Esposito said as he relayed a report from Dr. Susan Craig to the media. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re all happy for John and there is a far better feeling around here today than there was on June 14 (the day of Vanbies-brouck&rsquo;s surgery) when his return was projected to be somewhere between mid-December and mid-January.&rdquo;Esposito received a letter by messenger, detailing the findings of Dr. Craig, who performed four hours of delicate micro-surgery on the goalie&rsquo;s left wrist following a freak accident July 13. Vanbiesbrouck fell through a glass coffee table at home.Esposito stressed that doctors had given Vanbiesbrouck permission not only to skate with his teammates for the start of training camp on Sept. 12 at Trois-Rivieres, but also to face shots and perform weight training.Vanbiesbrouck praised the skills of Dr. Craig and therapist Wendy Levine.&ldquo;I received tremendous care and support from Dr. Craig and my therapist and, right from the start, down deep inside, I thought I'd be able to make it back by September,&rdquo; he said on Aug. 31. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great feeling to know that we made it.&rdquo;Vanbiesbrouck has most of the feeling back in his left hand, and must now work on regaining the stamina and strength in the muscles.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not 100-per-cent recovered from the nerve damage, but I am 100-per-cent recovered from the tendon damage, so 1 won&rsquo;t be risking an injury.&ldquo;James Patrick took the first shots on me the other day.&rdquo; Vanbiesbrouck said of View From The Crease TV spots he filmed for Ranger telecasts on Madison Square Garden network, &ldquo;and, yes, I caught most of them.&ldquo;The injury really didn&rsquo;t affect my hand-to-eye co-ordination. Actually, it didn&rsquo;t affect much&hellip;except for the area of my hand and wrist. The No. 1 thing for me now will be to build up stamina.&rdquo;Vanbiesbrouck said his recovery was not quite as astounding as it might appear, given the four-month difference between the doctor&rsquo;s prediction and his return.&ldquo;Dr.Craig went by the book, projecting the recovery of an average person,&rdquo; the goalie said, &ldquo;not an athlete who has already gone through a lot of physical training and rehabilitation.&rdquo;Vanbiesbrouck will wear additional padding in his glove that will protect the nerve from further injury.The 25-year-old Detroit native was 27-22-7 record last season, with a 3.38 goals-against average. In parts of six seasons, the 5-foot-7, 165-pound native of Detroit has compiled a 91-88-21 regular season record for the Rangers.NOTES&mdash;Phil Esposito said little about the arbitration ruling which okayed Edmonton&rsquo;s trade of free agent Geoff Courtnall to Washington&hellip; He did acknowledge, however, that his belief Courtnall would become a Ranger was &ldquo;at least a factor&rdquo; in his decision to trade leading scorer Walt Poddubny to Quebec.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="sidebar"><h2>RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 16: Paul Broten, C, signed contract.Aug. 22: Tony Granato, LW-C, signed contract. &#9632;</div>

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Ranger Goalie Back Ahead Of Schedule

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02398/5639941-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">San Diego Gull goaltender Ken Broderick sits down on the job as Phoenix Roadrunner forwards Bob Mowat (7) and Don Leismer (17) swarm around his net during an early-1970s Western League game. San Diego's Bob Courcy (9) and Al Lebrun (6) move in to slow down the Roadrunners.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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THE WAY WE WERE

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03395/5639634-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="547" height="914"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hershey coach John Paddock, above, will coach his brother Gord on the Bear defense.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02505/5639641-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="154" height="120"></div>A proposal to move the minor-league affiliates of the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings fell apart on Sept. I, the day after it was discussed during the American League&rsquo;s semi-annual meeting in Binghamton, N.Y.The plan called for the Rangers to leave Denver, where they have operated the Colorado (now Denver) Rangers of the International League for one season, and return to New Haven of the AHL. Los Angeles, in turn, would move its AHL franchise from New Haven to Hamilton, Ont. The changes would have produced a record-high 15-team league, forced AHL President Jack Butterfield to draft a new schedule and possibly realign the league into three divisions.Los Angeles was believed to be interested in Hamilton and its three-year-old, 17,000-seat Copps Coliseum because of its proximity to Brantford, Ont., the hometown of the Kings&rsquo; newly-acquired star, Wayne Gretzky. Brantford is 20 miles southwest of Hamilton.On Aug. 31, AHL vice-president Gord Anziano confirmed league officials were aware of the propoed changes.&ldquo;It would appear that we&rsquo;re faced with the possibility of adding a 15th team,&rdquo; Anziano said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not clear who would operate the franchise, but we do know that Los Angeles and New York are in the process of working out a deal that would put a franchise in Hamilton, subject to the approval of the board of governors.&rdquo;By the next morning, the issue was dead. Ranger officials said they were staying in Denver, and the Kings said they would continue to operate in New Haven.&ldquo;It was up and everything was moving. Then, all of a sudden, someone pulled the plug,&rdquo; Anziano said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re back to the status quo again. 1 guess you could call it a false alarm.&rdquo;<h2>MURRAY EXPANDS ROLE</h2>Terry Murray, named Baltimore Skipjack coach May 17, will serve as general manager of the team for the 1988-89 season.Murray, 38, succeeds Gene Ubriaco, who resigned his position with Baltimore on June 28 when he was hired to coach the Pittsburgh Penguins.Murray was an assistant coach with the Washington Capitals, Baltimore&rsquo;s NHL parent, for six seasons after retiring as an active player in 1982.&ldquo;It certainly presents me with an excellent opportunity to gain even better experience, not only from a coaching perspective, but also through the eyes of management,&rdquo; Murray said.<h2>FAMILY AFFAIRS</h2>Hershey will have its version of All in the Family this season with defenseman Gord Paddock playing for his brother, John, the Bears&rsquo; coach.Gord Paddock, 24, signed with the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; organization as a free agent. He spent parts of the past four seasons playing for the Springfield Indians. Last year, Paddock was the Indians&rsquo; top-scoring defenseman. sixth overall, with eight goals and 34 points in 74 games.Adirondack is beginning its third season with a family connection. Defenseman Shawn Dineen played for his father, coach Bill Dineen, during the 1986-87 season. Peter Dineen, also a defenseman, is starting his second year with his father&rsquo;s team.<h2>AROUND THE LEAGUE</h2>The four New York state-based AHL clubs&mdash;Adirondack, Binghamton, Rochester and Utica&mdash;will take part this season in the Lottery Cup tournament sponsored by the New York State Lottery. At stake in the head-to-head competition is the Cup and a share of 10,000 instant tickets that will in turn be donated to area charities&hellip;Former NHL defenseman Mike Kitchen was named an assistant coach by the Newmarket Saints. Kitchen, 32, spent eight seasons in the NHL with Colorado and New Jersey&hellip;Veterans Richie Dunn and Jim Jackson were re-signed by Rochester. Dunn signed a one-year contract, while Jackson&rsquo;s contract was extended through the 1989-90 season. The Amerks also signed center Grant Martin, who joined the club late last season after playing in Europe. Martin will start this season in Finland, but is eligible to return to North America and play for the Amerks without passing through AHL waivers because he signed a contract prior to the start of the season. Also expected to play for Rochester are rookie center Francois Guay, (60-84-144 in 66 games with Laval of the Quebec League last year) last season and Grant Tkachuk, a left winger from Saskatoon of the Western League&hellip;John Tortorella has been hired as an assistant coach at New Haven. Tortorella was a player and coach in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League. &#9632;

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The Minors

Franchise Moves Fall Apart At Last Minute

The annual Hockey Hall of Fame award ceremonies will honor the 1988 inductees. THE HOCKEY NEWS will be there as former Montreal Canadien right winger Guy Lafleur, former New York Ranger defenseman Brad Park, former Chicago Blackhawk goalie Tony Esposito, former NHL linesman George Hayes, former New York Ranger Buddy O'Connor (both posthumously) and Philadelphia Flyer owner Ed Snider are inducted.THN will also track breaking developments as the 21 NHL teams open 1988-89 training camps. Who among the new-comers will make a quick impression? Which of the veterans will be fighting for a job? Our team of writers will provide you with the latest details.Plus, there'll be our regular features and columnists, as THN prepares for another season.All that and more in the Sept. 23 edition. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

NEXT WEEK

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011402/5638280-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Minnesota North Star Dino Ciccarelli meets with reporters after spending his token sentence in Toronto Jail, the result of a verdict by Ontario Judge Sidney Harris. (Photo by Toronto Ster Syndicate)</figcaption></div>Dino Ciccarelli called the decision &ldquo;ridiculous.&rdquo; Minnesota North Star president Lou Nanne said he was &ldquo;terribly disappointed" and North Star general manager Jack Ferreira said the entire matter never should have gone as far as it did.But on Aug. 24, North Star right winger Ciccarelli made news when a provincial court judge in Toronto convicted him of assaulting Toronto Maple Leaf defenseman Luke Richardson and sentenced him to a day in jail and a $1,000 fine.Ciccarelli is the first NHL player to receive a jail term in Canada for an on-ice attack.Judge Sidney Harris said the courts can no longer tolerate such violence. Ciccarelli was convicted of hitting Richardson over the head with a stick and punching him in the mouth during a Jan. 6 game in Toronto. Richardson, who wore a helmet, was not injured.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s time now (that) a message goes out from the courts that violence in a hockey game or in any other circumstance is not acceptable in our society,&rdquo; Harris said. &ldquo;If violence in sports continues, perpetrators can expect punitive measures, including jail sentences.&rdquo;Ciccarelli was led from the courtroom in handcuffs and spent less than two hours of his sentence in jail after his attorney, Don Houston, filed an appeal. Ciccarelli hired noted Canadian criminal lawyer Eddie Greenspan Aug. 29 to act on an appeal.Ciccarelli said he could not understand the decision.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s ridiculous,&rdquo; he told reporters. &ldquo;I just think the judge wanted to use me as a precedent, but if I&rsquo;m being made an example, then the NHL I is going to have to step in and stop all the fighting and stick swinging. There have been so many things that have happened in hockey that have been far worse than this. I didn&rsquo;t even hurt him. 1 don&rsquo;t know why they (the courts) have decided now&rsquo;s the time to step in.&rdquo;Ciccarelli, 28, also was upset the North Stars or the NHL did not send a representative to help him deal with the media crush outside the courtroom."I didn&rsquo;t hear anything from anybody in the organization or anywhere else,&rdquo; Ciccarelli said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;d think they might care a little. I had to get a ride back (to his hotel) from a reporter.&rdquo;Ciccarelli, who is entering the option year of his contract, also reiterated he would not return to the team unless his contract demands were met. Ciccarelli and his agent, Ron Salcer of Los Angeles, are seeking a four- or five-year deal starting at least at $400,000 a year. Ciccarelli said he would not play out his option year and. if a new deal is not agreed upon, he would not report to training camp.North Star defenseman Craig Hartsburg said the court&rsquo;s punishment was directed at the wrong target.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just ridiculous, one of the stupidest things I&rsquo;ve ever heard,&rdquo; Hartsburg said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s any reason for the courts to intervene in any sports field. If the league can&rsquo;t monitor itself, then maybe the courts should go after the league rather than the players themselves. The league obviously wants the players to be aggressive because they think it&rsquo;s entertaining. I think it&rsquo;s up to the league to handle this type of the thing, not the courts.&rdquo;The NHL suspended Ciccarelli, who was ejected from the Jan. 6 game, for 10 games. Nanne said the financial effects of that suspension&mdash;more than $25,000&mdash;was punishment enough.&ldquo;The judge is apparently saying that the courts are going to be involved in anything that&rsquo;s violent,&rdquo; Nanne said. &ldquo;We think Dino already paid a severe enough penalty with the amount of money paid for being suspended.&rdquo;Ferreira said the matter shouldn&rsquo;t have gone to court. &ldquo;It seems that hockey&rsquo;s been able to police its own and deal with these matters instead of going to court,&rdquo; he said.Ciccarelli swung his stick repeatedly at Richardson&rsquo;s head, connecting at least twice, after Richardson had cross-checked him. Ciccarelli testified in court July 11 he swung his stick in self-defense.&ldquo;I might have overreacted to Richardson&rsquo;s initial cross-check, but there have been more severe cases,&rdquo; Ciccarelli said. &ldquo;During my previous appearance in court, the judge said he understood the first two swats I took at Richardson were instinctive. However, he said the third swipe I took at him was vicious.&rdquo;Ciccarelli said he was taken from court and was handcuffed to 12 other men during a ride to the jail. He called the two-hour stay in the jail cell &ldquo;a little scary,&rdquo; but said the inmates were &ldquo;real nice&rdquo; when they learned who he was. Ciccarelli said he asked a security guard for paper and spent much of his time signing autographs. &#9632;

f0003-01

Ciccarelli Goes To Jail

<div class="byline">BY JEFF HALE Editorial Staff</div>To absolutely no one&rsquo;s surprise, the National Hockey League and the legal establishment landed on opposite sides of the fence in reacting to the Dino Ciccarelli case.In a prepared release after the Ciccarelli verdict was rendered, NHL president John Ziegler said, &ldquo;Although we are disappointed in the outcome of this case, it has long been our belief that sports are not above the law.&rdquo;But Ziegler added the league adequately handles on-ice violence itself.&ldquo;Compared to other sports, ours has the harshest penalties for violence against other players in the game. In fact, our penalties are harsher than some of the judicial punishments handed out in some areas.&rdquo;The court found Ciccarelli guilty and sentenced him to a day in jail and a $1,000 fine. The NHL had already suspended him for 10 games without pay, the equivalent of a $40,000 (U.S.) fine.But legal authorities said if NHL penalties aren&rsquo;t a sufficient deterrent, they will continue to take matters into their own hands.Ontario attorney-general Ian Scott said on Aug. 25 the province will continue to charge hockey players under the criminal code for excessively violent incidents on the ice.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care whether the assault occurs in an alleyway or in a paid arena where a sporting event takes place.&rdquo; said Scott.Under the direction of then-attorney-general Roy McMurtry in 1975 and 1976, three separate cases of assault on the ice during hockey games were brought before the courts.&ldquo;We have the perfect right to be in the hockey rinks as well as in the alleyways of the country,&rdquo; said Scott. &ldquo;Any place where violent assault occurs.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Compared to other sports, ours has the harshest penalties for violence against other players&hellip;&rsquo; &mdash;NHL president John Ziegler</blockquote>&ldquo;We particularly have a right to be there when those who administer professional hockey seem ill-equipped to curb or regulate this kind of incident.&rdquo;Ciccarelli&rsquo;s conviction was the first for a professional hockey player since Jimmy Mann of the Winnipeg Jets was given a conditional discharge and $500 fine for breaking the jaw of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Paul Gardner in a Jan. 13, 1982 game. Mann hit Gardner with two left hooks from behind.Ciccarelli is the first hockey player to go to jail since two amateur players in Ontario and Saskatchewan served jail terms for 1985 incidents. Blair Heeg, playing for a senior men&rsquo;s league in Leader, Sask., was convicted of assault causing bodily harm after cutting Greg Erickson for 20 stitches with his stick and breaking his nose on Nov. 27, 1985. Heeg was sentenced to a day in jail and $250 fine, but the crown appealed, the fine was dropped and Heeg was given a 30-day jail term.Rod Kammerer of Pickering, Ont., was charged with aggravated assault for a Nov. 18, 1985 incident in a juvenile game. During a brawl, Kammerer kicked and slashed Sheldon Leonard for a 40-stitch cut across the throat. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail.Toronto defenseman Luke Richardson, the victim of Ciccarelli&rsquo;s attack, said he felt &ldquo;a little bit sorry&rdquo; for the Minnesota right winger. &ldquo;I thought it should have been a bigger (league) suspension,&rdquo; he told the Toronto Sun Aug. 26. &ldquo;If the league had made more of an example of him, I don&rsquo;t think it would&rsquo;ve gone to court.&ldquo;Maybe the league still has to get a little harsher and if that happens, then maybe the courts won&rsquo;t get involved. That&rsquo;s the way it should be.&ldquo;But I guess 1 should be glad I was the victim. It&rsquo;s a lot better than being the guy going to jail.&rdquo;Former NHLer Dave (Tiger) Williams, acquitted for an Oct. 20, 1976 stick-swinging which cut Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Dennis Owchar for 25 stitches, sounded a popular refrain among many players&mdash;the long arm of the law shouldn't be sticking its fingers into professional sports.&ldquo;You consent to assault when you lace up your skates,&rdquo; Williams said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t parallel what happens on the ice to what happens in a normal, controlled society.&rdquo;Philadelphia Flyer general manager Bob Clarke said the NHL is powerless to stop the law from charging hockey players.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how you stop the law from doing what it wants,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Maybe the players should start looking at themselves. It&rsquo;s easy for them to blame the NHL, but if the players are so worried about it, why are they hitting each other with sticks?&rdquo; &#9632;

Hockey And Law At Odds Once Again

<div class="byline">BY SCOTT MORRISON </div><div class="byline">With contributions by Frank Brown, Steve Dryden and Jeff Hale.</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011306/5638342-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo by Denis Brodeur)</figcaption></div>At first he seemed almost pathetic, a forgotten superstar whose compelling desire to play hockey had never quite left him, but whose good sense surely had.He was confused, that was it. And misguided. Perhaps even financially troubled. He was a man who had never comfortably parted with the good life&mdash;and the good times&mdash;and accepted reality. That had to be it.&ldquo;People laugh and they say I&rsquo;m crazy, but it&rsquo;s me that has to be satisfied,&rdquo; says Guy Lafleur, who&rsquo;ll turn 37 on Sept. 20. Four years removed from the NHL, Lafleur is defying logic to attempt a comeback with the New York Rangers.&ldquo;I have to live with myself and I had to do it now before it was too late,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to wake up one morning when I&rsquo;m 50 years old and still be saying to myself, &lsquo;Why didn&rsquo;t 1 give it another shot?&rsquo;&rdquo;Why? It is a question of why Lafleur would contemplate a return to hockey, risking injury and failure and, worse still, embarrassment?It&rsquo;s simple. Lafleur refuses to turn his back on the game forever until he is certain it is time. that the fire is completely out. He wants only to end his career on his own terms, certain in his mind that this time when it&rsquo;s over, it will really be over.Perhaps the question should not be why, but why not?&ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s the old saying, &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t leave with the music in you,&rsquo;&rdquo; reasons Gordie Howe, an expert on matters of age and comebacks. He returned at the age of 45, after a two-year absence, to play with sons Mark and Marty with the Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association. Howe didn&rsquo;t end his illustrious 32-season pro career until he was 52.&ldquo;My reason for returning was simple. Excitement. I was just looking for a dream. He&rsquo;s looking for a job. He&rsquo;s got another 10 or 12 years. He&rsquo;s smart enough. I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;ll fail, either, but even if he does, he&rsquo;ll clear his mind. If you can still do it, it&rsquo;s a shame to give it up.&rdquo;Perhaps youth really is wasted on the young, for Lafleur seems more aware and prepared now for the attendant pratfalls of the game, both emotional and physical, than he was when he last played. He is self-assured and professes to have the necessary discipline.His training regimen was to consist of a dozen gruelling days&mdash;2&frac12; hours in the gym, another hour on the ice&mdash;until reporting to the Rangers&rsquo; training camp in Trois-Rivieres, Que., on Sept. 10.Then the real test begins. If he passes, a two-year contract is his. If he fails&hellip;It was on Nov. 24, 1984, that Lafleur, then in his 14th season, quit the Montreal Canadiens. The Flower no longer bloomed as he once did and no longer did the Canadiens win with fire wagon hockey. They had grown apart&mdash;strange bedfellows.A trade might have been the answer, but legends are forever adored, never traded, in Montreal. A seat on the bench was unthinkable. And two goals in his final 30 games, averaging but nine minutes of ice time a night, had created doubts in even the most faithful fans. From failing hands&hellip;&ldquo;I knew I could still play, but I had no choice,&rdquo; says Lafleur. Retirement was the only answer, but it was apparently not the solution.&ldquo;I kind of advised him to go elsewhere at the time because he had a lot left in him,&rdquo; says former Canadien Dickie Moore, who also knows something of comebacks. After a two-year hiatus, he came back to play 27 games with the St. Louis Blues the first year of expansion.&ldquo;The reason I came back was to prove that I could do it,&rdquo; adds Moore, who aborted an earlier comeback attempt (after a one-year absence he joined the Toronto Maple Leafs) because of a fractured kneecap. &ldquo;And I proved I could do it. given a chance. Maybe I wasn&rsquo;t good enough to play for the Canadiens because of the team they had. But given the chance to prove to someone else I could do it, I achieved a goal. It&rsquo;s a game you love, and it hurts when you leave it.&ldquo;But he's a star. It&rsquo;s harder. 1 wasn&rsquo;t in that calibre. They&rsquo;re going to expect him to do things he did 10 or 12 years ago.&rdquo;Change, however, is unavoidable and Lafleur has learned that valuable lesson. In the years that have passed, the Hall of Famer (he was inducted Sept. 7 in Toronto) had a celebrated parting with the Canadiens and the game&mdash;his $75,OOO-a-year public relations job ending in apparent misunderstanding. He was gone and to a degree forgotten, but the desire to play seldom faltered.One year into retirement, the man who had scored 518 career goals&mdash;more than half gathered in six consecutive 50-plus-goal seasons&mdash;contemplated a comeback. Pittsburgh Penguins seemed interested, but Lafleur declared he wasn&rsquo;t mentally prepared. No deal could be arranged.&ldquo;This is the second time he has thought about coming back,&rdquo; says Canadiens&rsquo; managing director Serge Savard, a teammate of Lafleur&rsquo;s on five Stanley Cup championship teams. &ldquo;Three years ago, I talked with six teams but none of them were interested. There have been some management changes since then.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s 37 years old. I played until I was 37 and it wasn't easy. Coming back after four years is not going to be easy. I wish him the best of luck.&rdquo;Lafleur asks for no favors. All he wants is a chance, one that Ranger GM Phil Esposito is providing. Like Lafleur, Esposito has nothing to lose, everything to gain. And maybe, most of all, Lafleur, a two-time Hart Trophy winner and three times the league scoring champion, has earned it. The game has received an awful lot from Guy Lafleur, another chance is the least it can offer in return.The past two winters, Lafleur has played charity hockey with a collection of former pros who play a 60- to 70-game schedule against junior, university and senior teams across Canada. It is hardly the acid test of a comeback, but it provides a chance to play, keep fit, and keep the dream alive.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011489/5638335-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="3016" height="1957"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Guy Lafleur of old was one of the dominant players of his era, as witnessed by his offered him a tryout, nor an older Lafleur (inset), four years removed from pro hockey. trophy haul following the 1976-77 season. Neither the New York Rangers, who have such great expectations this time around.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you lose your skills,&rdquo; says Reggie Leach, a former Philadelphia Flyer and Lafleur&rsquo;s oldtimer teammate. &ldquo;You lose a step, but the way he can skate I think he can still stick with anybody in the league. It all depends on how much he wants to play.&ldquo;If he can go to training camp with a level head, I can&rsquo;t see any reason for him not to make the Rangers. He&rsquo;s probably better than half the right wingers in the league&hellip;! think he can still Play&rdquo;The desire seems obvious. Lafleur calmly endured the ridicule of his detractors when he announced his plans to return, and dutifully worked out. After being rejected by the Los Angeles Kings&mdash;a chance to play with Wayne Gretzky appealed to him&mdash;he sought out the Rangers. He would not have stopped until there were no teams left.Never did he consider the Habs, though. The ties had been severed, the pressure would have been too intense.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll have no problem playing in the pros (judging) from the last time we saw him,&rdquo; says ex-Flyer Rick MacLeish, another oldtimer teammate. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a natural skater.&rdquo;The battle to return will be waged on two levels&mdash;the physical and the mental. Is he physically able to play? And can he cope with the grind, pressure, frustrations and his own limitations? Time and inactivity, after all, exact a staggering toll on both the mind and the body.Once the flashiest, fastest and most exciting player in the NHL, Lafleur must accept he will never again be what he once was. As his golden locks have faded, so too have his tools. He will never be as good, but some believe he can be good enough.Is that good enough for Lafleur?&ldquo;I guess in answering that there are two questions,&rdquo; says ex-Hab goalie Ken Dryden. &ldquo;One, what level can he play at? And does that match up with what he&rsquo;s willing to play at? I think it&rsquo;s fairly clear he could continue to play back in &rsquo;83. But he couldn&rsquo;t (play) the way he wanted to, and the way he could, and because he couldn&rsquo;t meet those standards he couldn&rsquo;t continue.&ldquo;He has to, in his own mind, come to terms with a different way of success and he&rsquo;s going to have to be content with a different kind of contribution.&ldquo;But even if the team finds it acceptable, will it be acceptable for him? I think he probably can. Towards the last few years Gordie Howe played, it was bonus time. Just coming over the boards and skating around the rink for 40 seconds was wonderful. The expectations were completely different.&rdquo;Lafleur, for his part, insists he can be content filling a role, having a reduced workload and performing on power plays. To start.&ldquo;Mentally, I&rsquo;m ready,&rdquo; he says, sounding defiant, but also fully prepared to accept the reality of the situation. &ldquo;Physically, I weigh six pounds less than I did the day I retired. (He now weighs 175 pounds.) 1 still think I can help a team for one or two years. Endurance will be the big thing, but I&rsquo;m going to give it everything I&rsquo;ve got and for that I&rsquo;ll be proud of myself.&rdquo;Ah, yes, pride. While some will never understand what drives Lafleur, those who have played the game for a living understand. Those who have retired know of the disappointment and the constant doubts, of wondering whether they could still play. What if&hellip;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been thinking about it since he retired,&rdquo; says former Hab winger and linemate Steve Shutt, who skated alongside his buddy on the oldtimer team. &ldquo;I think everybody&rsquo;s thinking about it the wrong way. He&rsquo;s coming back for himself, not for his friends or his family, but to satisfy his own mind.&ldquo;He was skating hard (last year), really well, and he had his shot back. Mentally, he was back into it. I think it took him four years to get mentally unscrewed. But you could see it coming.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s trying it for himself, so that when he&rsquo;s 50 or 60, he&rsquo;ll know he gave it all he had. He&rsquo;ll say, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m finished.&rsquo; When you think of it that way, then it&rsquo;s justified.&rdquo;Should he be successful and earn a job with the Rangers, Lafleur will become the first active Hall of Famer and the fourth-oldest active player in the league, behind Leaf defenseman Borje Salming, Canadien defenseman Larry Robinson and Ranger center Marcel Dionne, all 37 and only months older. With Dionne, he will be united with the second player selected in the 1971 entry draft. Lafleur was first.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m rooting for him,&rdquo; says Ranger forward Pierre Larouche, who owns Lafleur&rsquo;s No. 10, but is willing to part with it in the event The Flower makes it. &ldquo;If somebody can do what he&rsquo;s trying to accomplish, it&rsquo;s him. But even to be away a few weeks because of an injury is tough and he&rsquo;s been gone a lot longer than that. There&rsquo;s no pressure on him, but I don&rsquo;t expect to see the Guy Lafleur of his prime.&rdquo;There has been considerable speculation, too, that money might be the impetus behind Lafleur&rsquo;s return. But he says he is doing fine financially, having recently opened a communications company with his agent. It&rsquo;s also believed he is still receiving deferred salary payments, though he offers no clues. Not to be overlooked, though, is the lucrative retirement package the NHL Players&rsquo; Association earned in the last collective bargaining agreement with the league. Lafleur needs 100 games to qualify for the lump sum payment of $250,000 (Cdn.) when he reaches age 55. Two more seasons would allow him to reach that attractive bonus.&ldquo;The reason I&rsquo;m doing it is to prove to myself whether I can play,&rdquo; says Lafleur, dismissing all other notions. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s driving me.&ldquo;When I make it,&rdquo; he adds with a sly laugh, &ldquo;everyone will be saying, &lsquo;I told you he could come back and play. &rsquo; If I don&rsquo;t make it, well, I won&rsquo;t be leaving with my tail between my legs. I&rsquo;ll be very proud of myself. And I&rsquo;ll know.&rdquo;Perhaps he&rsquo;ll do it. And then, perhaps not.But a man who is willing and needs to know, should at least be allowed to discover the answer. &#9632;

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<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011331/5638373-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="164" height="126"></div>BLOOMINGTON, Minn.&mdash;Looks like Minnesota North Star coach Pierre Page and general manager Jack Ferreira figure big and mean is the best way to rebuild their team.&bull; Defenseman Link Gaetz reported to Minnesota in mid-July and stayed for the rest of the summer, Gaetz, the tough but sometimes troubled fighter whom the Stars selected in the second round of the June draft, has been tutored by scout Glen Sonmor and former Star Bill Goldsworthy.&bull; Right winger Andy Ristau is considering the Stars&rsquo; offer to come out of retirement. Ristau, the 6-foot-5, 235-pound giant who retired to a relative&rsquo;s Winnipeg sod farm when he was traded from Buffalo to Minnesota before last season, hasn&rsquo;t agreed to a new contract but apparently hasn&rsquo;t ruled out a return either.&bull; The Stars signed left winger Larry DePalma to a contract. Many observers considered DePalma&rsquo;s career with the Stars kaput last season after he snapped during an International League game Feb. 7 with Kalamazoo and attacked a linesman. He was 6-11-17 with 215 penalty minutes in 22 games, but Page said DePalma is the kind of player his team needs.&ldquo;You have to be able to play at home and on the road and the Norris Division is a grinding, mucking, physical division,&rdquo; Page said.Page wants two physical centers and one may be Bob Brooke, (5-20-25 and 108 penalty minutes in 77 games) who played primarily at right wing and defense last season. Page will also look at DePalma and junior prospects Warren Babe (17-19-36 and 73 penalty minutes in 32 games with Kamloops of the Western League) and Kevin Kaminski (38-61-99 and 247 penalty minutes in 55 games with Saskatoon of the WHL).The plan may be to beef up, but the trick is to do it with intelligence. The Stars weren&rsquo;t particularly tough last season, but they were the league&rsquo;s fourth most penalized team (28.9 minutes per game) and they were last in the league in penalty killing (75.2 per cent).&ldquo;If you want to find out how to get better, just look at that,&rdquo; said Page, who has hired assistant coach Doug Jarvisto handle the team&rsquo;s penalty killing. &ldquo;The quickest way to get better is to take fewer penalties and kill them better. You need tough players but they have to be character players.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t need anyone who needs their butt kicked to get going. We want tough guys, talented guys, character guys, guys who will kill penalties, guys who will check.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Agent Ron Salcer continued to fire salvoes at North Star management on behalf of Dino Ciccarelli, who is entering the option year of his contract. The latest Salcer salvo was prompted by a 28-page report the agent received from Stars&rsquo; general manager Jack Ferreira. The report, written by North Star assistant GM Dean Lombardi, documented why Ciccarelli should accept the club&rsquo;s offer, a four-year contract estimated at $300,000 a year. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re so far apart that we&rsquo;re a 15-minute cab ride from being in the ball park,&rdquo; Salcer said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;d think the Gunds (team owners Gordon and George Gund) would want to get Dino signed. Instead, the negotiations have gone from Lou Nanne to Jack Ferreira to Dean Lombardi. Who are we going to get next? That 28-page report was something. We&rsquo;re not here to win the Pulitzer Prize. I should have gotten my red pencil out, made a few marks on it. put A-minus on top and sent it back.&rdquo; Ferreira said he had no intentions of trading Ciccarelli. No teams had even inquired-&hellip; Ferreira was not close to signing No. I draft pick Mike Modano. Link Gaetz, the Stars&rsquo; No. 2 pick in June, also remained unsigned.<div class="sidebar"><h2>NORTH STARS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 18: Mike McHugh, LW, Jon G, signed to multi-year contracts.Aug. 14: Larry DePalma, LW, agreed to terms. &#9632;</div>

f0007-01

Where’s The Beef? Look In Bloomington

THE HOCKEY NEWS presents many thrilling issues and insights of players from Los Angeles or Pittsburgh.I have yet to see any columnist from THN put Denis Savard in the category of The Great One or Mario Lemieux. Savard may not finish like the two I have mentioned when it comes to goal-scoring, but they also cannot perform such acts as Savard. It is ridiculous that Denis Savard is not playing for his country when it comes to selection of Team Canada. It is also ridiculous that he is not considered an automatic all-star.Could the problem be that most writers and reporters never played the game, and are experts from the press box? I know the fans in Chicago Stadium get their money&rsquo;s worth watching Savard for 40 games and so do 1.I can tell you first-hand, as a former assistant trainer of the Blackhawks (1979-84), that Denis Savard is a class act on and off the ice, and I think Chicago fans would agree! The media should take into consideration that there are other greats in the National Hockey League.Kenny McCudden, Chicago. III.<h2>LEAFS' BOY CHARLIE</h2>What did Gord Stellick ever achieve to merit his photo on the cover of THE HOCKEY NEWS (September)? Aside from bringing Harold Ballard his morning coffee and croissants, that is. Stellick can&rsquo;t speak a sentence without mentioning &ldquo;Mr. Ballard&hellip;&rdquo; He reminds me of the office boy Charlie in the Slap Maxwell TV series.Your readers outside of Toronto could care less about Stellick and his sad-sack team.John C. Albertawe, Waleran, Ont.<h2>KINGS NEED DEFENSE</h2>An open letter to Mr. Bruce McNall:Sir,I conclude that you were so busy reviewing new uniform designs that you were unable to watch your hockey club last season. Let me fill you in on what happened.The Kings had no trouble scoring goals. Indeed, they were fifth in the league in that category. What they could not do is keep the puck out of our goal&hellip; dead last in the goals-against category.Wayne Gretzky is not even a quick fix, except insofar as he will initially put fans in the stands. He will not bring a winner to L.A. By midseason, many of the new fans will be gone. By next season, a number of the 10.000 hard-core fans you have may well have departed, too.They know the difference between a publicity move and a hockey move.Lt. Col. John B. Fretwell&nbsp;USMC Camp Pendleton, Calif.<h2>MURPHY DESERVING NO. 1</h2>Rick Sadowski, the THN journalist covering the Los Angeles Kings, wrote &lsquo;Jimmy Carson was the answer to another trivia question: Name a Kings&rsquo; first-round draft choice who ever amounted to anything (&ldquo;Carson: Not Just A Trivia Answer,&rdquo; THN Sept. 9).&rsquo;Has the man ever heard the name Larry Murphy, the Kings&rsquo; first-round draft choice of 1980 (fourth overall)? Murphy was the true rookie-of-the-year in &rsquo;80-81, not Peter (the professional) Stastny.In 1986-87, Murphy led the Washington Capitals in scoring, finished 21st overall in NHL scoring, was a nominee for the Norris Trophy, and was voted to the second all-star team. Furthermore, he was the top plus-minus player in the 1987 Canada Cup (plus-eight) and arguably Canada&rsquo;s top player in the final game.Murphy&rsquo;s accomplishments hardly amount to &lsquo;nothing.&rsquo;John Fitzpatrick&nbsp;Peterborough, Ont.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;

Overlooked Hawk Star Warrants Recognition

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011419/5638428-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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Elston

<div class="byline">Bob McKenzie</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021153/5638459-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="411" height="446"></div>THEY SAY THE law and professional hockey make strange bedfellows, but I&rsquo;m not convinced it&rsquo;s such a bad arrangement.NHL president John Ziegler says hockey should not place itself above the law. This is good, despite all the rhetoric you hear from the Tiger Williamses of the world, who think players consent to overt acts of violence each time they lace up their skates.Ziegler also says the league does a good job of policing itself.It is a sentiment echoed by many in the NHL, who argue that in itself should be the justification for the courts not to get involved with on-ice activities.I don&rsquo;t dispute the league is sometimes tougher on its players than the court: Witness Ciccarelli&rsquo;s day in jail and $1,000 (Cdn.) fine versus the league-imposed equivalent of a $40,000 (U.S.) fine in the form of a 10-game suspension.But where is the connection between NHL action and legal action? That line of thinking&mdash;&rsquo; we&rsquo;re tough on our own so leave us alone&mdash;just doesn&rsquo;t wash when the courts are involved.It did the time in Grade 7 when I decided to skip a month or so of school without telling either my parents or teacher. When my mother caught on, and turned me in, she asked the school authorities to go easy on me because I&rsquo;d been punished at home. The school principal, thankfully, agreed.Now, if I went out today and assaulted someone and was subsequently charged, I can&rsquo;t imagine the court being lenient because my mother testified, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s okay, I spanked him at home.&rdquo;A crime is a crime is a crime and whatever the NHL does or doesn&rsquo;t do has no bearing on the outcome of that case. Ontario Provincial Court Judge Edward Carter made it clear in 1970 during the Wayne Maki case. &ldquo;No sports league, no matter how well organized or self-policed it may be, should thereby render the players in that league immune from criminal prosecution.&rdquo;You can argue the stiffer the league penalty, the less likely a violent act will be repeated. But ultimately, a league penalty has no bearing on the possibility of a court-imposed penalty. And shouldn&rsquo;t.Dino Ciccarelli, to some degree, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Others have wreaked greater havoc and not received so much as a major penalty. But even if he&rsquo;d been suspended from hockey for life, it wouldn&rsquo;t have influenced the outcome of his trial.The next burning issue is whether the Ciccarelli case is a hint of things to come this season?I don&rsquo;t think so. The Ciccarelli verdict represents no more a precedent than the acquittal of Dan Maloney in 1975, when the Detroit Red Wing was charged with assault for bouncing Brian Glennie&rsquo;s head off the ice.Surely what Ciccarelli did is no worse than what Maloney did. It&rsquo;s just that one judge in one city decided in this specific set of circumstances to find an NHL player guilty and give him a jail term.The history of law&rsquo;s involvement in hockey tells us next time the act may be more violent but the player may be acquitted. Or that charges will never be laid in the first place.I prefer to look at the law&rsquo;s occasional involvement in the game as unavoidable. The NHL, a community of sorts, mirrors society in general. It has players with drinking problems, some who use drugs and others who have experienced marital breakdowns.And it has some who have been charged for crimes, both on and off the ice.Criminal assault charges for on-ice incidents have been laid nine times since 1969: That&rsquo;s about once every two years.It&rsquo;s all a matter of perspective, of course, but what peace-loving community in Canada or the U.S. wouldn&rsquo;t be satisfied with that crime rate? &#9632;

f0008-02

NHL Crime Rate Simply Matter Of Perspective

<div class="byline">Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011459/5638521-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="341" height="466"></div>THE SAME LEAGUE that has brought you the Cleveland Barons, Harry Omest and Yolanda has really done it this time. After a torturous alphabetical journey from CBS to NBC to the NHL Monday night network to USA to ESPN, the ingenious marketers of the NHL have brought hockey on U.S. television to its ultimate destiny:The Game of the Week that nobody can watch.For $51 million, more than double the $24 million ESPN had paid, Sportschannel America has obtained the rights to televise the NHL on cable over the next three years.This means more money for each of the NHL teams. This means more games than ever will be on televison. This means fewer people than ever before will be able to watch them.The NHL has sold its rights to a channel that does not yet exist. SportsChannel America, conceived to bring ESPN to its knees with a more appealing regional lineup of events, will go on the air Oct. 6 with an NHL doubleheader featuring the Devils versus the Flyers and the Kings against the Red Wings.Regular nightly programming will not begin until January.In the meantime, the five regional SportsChannels already in existence in New York, New England and Florida, Chicago and Philadelphia will initially deliver 10 million home.ESPN is seen in 47 million households. Now, even Pierre Creamer could figure out that a lot of people who got used to watching hockey on ESPN are going to be shut out.This means they&rsquo;re buzzing in Butte. They are burning in Birmingham. Turns out they are even foiled in Philly, where PRISM, the local SportsChannel subsidiary, is going to continue to show only the 30 Flyer home games and not move a single showing of Three Amigos to sneak in the Caps versus the Islanders. PRISM is instead trying to sell SportsChannel America as a separate service to local cable operators. So far, not one of those operators has committed.The only commitments, in fact, might be for suicides in those small but devout colonies of puckdom that litter the U.S. Hockey will rise again in Albuquerque only if the diehards can convince their local cable company that, if they don&rsquo;t get SportsChannel, from now on they&rsquo;ll only listen to the radio.Starting in January, when SportsChannel will be offering college basketball and other live programming, some of these companies might bite. But this figures to be a hard sell to cable operators who already have the one sports channel&mdash;ESPN&mdash;they think they need. They won&rsquo;t want to have to raise their basic cable fees for another enterprise whose only exclusive offering is NHL hockey. Granted, there may be the odd hockey mutant in Miami. But let&rsquo;s face it: They aren&rsquo;t that batty in Bismarck about Bob Bassen.Whatever the growth potential of this new venture and however forward-thinking this regional concept of programming, the fact of the matter is that people who want to see NHL hockey this year are going to be shut out. Can the NHL really afford to turn people away?Divide the $27 million increase in rights fees between 21 teams over the three-year length of the contract and the gain is about $400,000 per franchise per year. That&rsquo;s only enough to buy the St. Louis Blues two Rick Meaghers and a Gino Cavallini. We&rsquo;re not taking windfall here. So are we talking myopia?Not necesarily. The ratings the NHL drew on ESPN were satisfactory to maintain the network&rsquo;s interest for another three years. But they were not encouraging enough to raise the ante.ESPN was decent exposure for the league and presented hockey well. But ESPN promised little growth for the NHL. The league believes, as the National Football League did in the 1950s, that the regional concept and more games to a specific, diehard hockey audience is the way to go-&ldquo;We served ESPN extremely well in its building days,&rdquo; said Joel Nixon, the NHL&rsquo;s vice president in charge of broadcasting. &ldquo;And they served us.&ldquo;Still, the innate problems of our regional appeal that doomed us on NBC and CBS may become problems for an ESPN or a Turner (Broadcasting System).&ldquo;At some particular point the national cable systems may have the same problem (with southern and western affiliates) that NBC and CBS had with hockey.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t honestly say I don&rsquo;t have any qualms about this, but I think we&rsquo;re headed in the right direction. How long it will take us to get there is, I suppose, what you and I are both asking.&ldquo;I do know that hockey fans are far more inquisitive and demanding than those of the other sports. They&rsquo;ve already screamed to me about what we&rsquo;ve done. The hockey fan responds and we&rsquo;re counting on him to respond to get SportsChannel on the cable systems where they live.&ldquo;One thing we now have going for us is Wayne Gretzky playing for a team in a U.S. city with home games that have a 7:30 or 8:30 start in the western or mountain time zones. I think that&rsquo;s going to be attractive to cable systems out there.&rdquo;The future may look bright, but the present looks like a test pattern. Do not adjust, the problem is not in your set. Get out your Canada Cup videos. And do not despair enough to watch&mdash;and we choke on the very word, bbbbbbbbasketball. Never. Cross Doug Crossman&rsquo;s heart and hope to die, never.Hang on for a year or two. And try this: Gather all the hockey fans in your neighborhood together, open up a cool, pretend one, take the picture tube out of your set, dress your youngest like Wayne Gretzky and make him stand inside the set. He can&rsquo;t be any worse to watch than Mark LaVarre.Keep reminding yourself that not being able to see two games a week is much better than being able to watch only one. We just never knew how bad we hockey fans really had it. &#9632;

f0010-01

Columnists

There May Be A Method To TV Madness

<div class="byline">BY RICK MATSUMOTO</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021109/5638552-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="158" height="130"></div>TORONTO&mdash; The Toronto Maple Leaf defense looks like an intersection at rush hour.However, the question which begs asking is whether the congestion is made up of rusty Chevys and Fords or shiny BMWs and Mercedes.Quantity is something Maple Leaf general manager Gord Stellick is trying to give the organization. But whether there&rsquo;s enough quality in the increased numbers remained to be seen as the team prepared for training camp Sept. 9 in Newmarket, Ont.The return to the fold of 37-year-old Swede Borje Salming, who signed a one-year deal Aug. 8, brought to nine the number of defensemen on the training camp roster who played in the NHL last season. Of that number, eight were with the Leafs during 1987-88.And at least three other blueliners&mdash;Darryl Shannon, Jack Capuano and Brian Blad&mdash;were ready to roll off the production line into the traffic jam.&ldquo;If they make the team it&rsquo;ll be because they earned it,&rdquo; said Stellick. &ldquo;But truthfully I feel they&rsquo;re at least half a year away. It won&rsquo;t hurt them to go to Newmarket (Toronto&rsquo;s American League affiliate) and play 25 or 30 minutes a game. Here they&rsquo;d be the eighth defenseman and they wouldn't get much ice time.&rdquo;Shannon, Toronto&rsquo;s second choice in the 1986 draft, has spent the last two seasons with his junior club, the Ontario League&rsquo;s Windsor Spitfires. Shannon, 20, had 16 goals and 70 assists in 60 games for the Spits last season and could stick with the Leafs, though he will also likely wind up in Newmarket.A similar fate probably awaits Capuano, 22. A Leaf fourth-rounder in 1984, he had 13 goals and 37 assists in 43 games for the University of Maine last season. Blad, 21, was Toronto&rsquo;s ninth pick, 175th overall from Belleville Bulls in the 1987 entry draft. He had one goal and six assists in 28 games with the International League&rsquo;s Milwaukee Admirals before joining Newmarket, where he earned four assists in 39 games.Stellick expects Al lafrate, Todd Gill and second-year man Luke Richardson to &ldquo;start maturing into our future on defense.&rdquo;lafrate and Gill, each entering his fifth NHL season, must become more consistent. Both started strongly last season but faded. Early last season, lafrate was being touted as an all-star and Norris Trophy candidate. But while his 22 goals tied Ian Turnbull&rsquo;s club record for defensemen, he finished with a plus-minus rating of minus-21.Gill scored four goals in the first five games of the season and played with confidence both offensively and defensively. The good start sputtered after he suffered a broken ankle, which side-lined him for 15 games. He finished with eight goals, 17 assists and a minus-20 rating in 65 games.Richardson, the Leafs&rsquo; No. 1 pick in the 1987 draft, had four goals and six assists in 78 games as an 18-year-old He said during the off-season that he would try to emphasize the offensive part of his game more during 1988-89.The 37-year-old Salming can no longer be expected to log 25-30 minutes of ice time each game. But as he showed in the playoffs, when he was the Leafs&rsquo; best defenseman, he can still effective if employed wisely.<blockquote class="pullQuote">A full recovery from a groin injury by Chris Kotsopoulos would be a big boost to the Maple Leaf blueline corps.</blockquote>With that foursome secure, Stellick expects it to be &ldquo;pretty competitive&rdquo; among the five veterans&mdash;Chris Kotsopoulos, Rick Lanz, Darren Veitch, Brian Curran and Dale DeGray&mdash;vying for the remaining spots.The return of Kotsopoulos would help the Toronto defense, judging by the impact his absence for 59 games with a serious groin injury had last season. Though not flashy or particularly fast, Kotsopoulos is one Leaf defenseman not averse to clearing opposing forwards from in front of the net. However, it remained to be seen ifhe is fully recovered from the injury.The acquisition of Veitch and his big shot from Detroit could hurt Lanz&rsquo; job security. Obtained 17 games into the 1986-87 season to help the Toronto power play, Lanz has scored only eight goals in 119 games in blue and white six in 75 games last season.The remaining defenseman in the Leaf scheme could be dubbed Brian DeGray&mdash;a combination of Brian Curran and Dale DeGray.When the occasion calls for finesse. DeGray would get the nod. When heavy armaments are required, Curran would be coach John Brophy&rsquo;s bombardier.NOTES&mdash;Maple Leaf left winger Wendel Clark remained unsigned a week before training camp, scheduled to open Sept. 9. An Aug. 20 Toronto Sun report suggested Clark had turned down a Leaf offer worth nearly $800,000 (Cdn.), including incentive clauses, on a three-year contract. Clark&rsquo;s agent, Don Meehan said the club had not offered &ldquo;nearly that much&rdquo; and reiterated that Clark would play out his option and become a free agent with compensation on July 1, 1989, if the Leafs didn&rsquo;t improve their offer&hellip; Defenseman Rick Lanz will be playing out his option this season&hellip; Defenseman Dale DeGray agreed to terms on a multi-year, two-way contract though he had not signed by the end of August&hellip; The Leafs signed goalie Dean Anderson, 22, to a multiyear deal. Anderson, taken 11th by Toronto in the 1988 supplemental draft, had a 3.27 goals-against average in 45 games with the University of Wisconsin last season.<div class="sidebar"><h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug 31: Dean Anderson, G, signed multi-year contract; Dale DeGray, D, agreed to terms on multi-year contract. &#9632;</div>

f0010-02

Toronto Defense Needs A Traffic Controller

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011329/5638583-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="162" height="123"></div>CHICAGO&mdash; The Blackhawks can thank John Ziegler for the fact Dirk Graham still wears their colors.Graham, meanwhile, will never know what he might have commanded as a free agent without compensation.The NHL president ruled the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; right winger was bound by the team&rsquo;s verbal offer&mdash;even though the Hawks did not get a written offer to Graham by the Aug. 10 deadline.&ldquo;Obviously, I&rsquo;m very disappointed,&rdquo; Graham said after Ziegler&rsquo;s Aug. 22 ruling. &ldquo;From my standpoint, anybody who looks at the case will see that legally, we were in the right. Why the ruling came the way it did, I don&rsquo;t know. I feel like I&rsquo;ve been treated unfairly.&rdquo;Graham was entering the final year of a contract he was under when he was acquired from Minnesota for left winger Curt Fraser Jan. 4. When Graham did not receive a written offer in the mail by the deadline, he and his agent, Bob Murray of Boston, filed for free agency.Verbal Offer Stymies Graham Free Agency BY MIKE PERRICONE But Ziegler ruled that, since both sides acknowledged a verbal offer had been made, the Hawks retained Graham&rsquo;s rights. Graham acknowledged receiving an offer by telephone, but maintained the lack of a written offer was the key point.&ldquo;There was a deadline, and it wasn&rsquo;t met,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;There has to be an offer in writing and sent by certified mail by Aug. 10. It wasn&rsquo;t done. When the offer was made, (the Hawks) called us up, they had a few (financial) numbers in mind, and we said &lsquo;No.&rsquo;&rdquo;NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director Alan Eagleson said a verbal offer by the Hawks upheld the rules of the collective bargaining agreement. Eagleson said the stipulation of a written offer appeared to be deceiving.&ldquo;It appears to be black-and-white, but it was only intended to apply in cases where no offer whatsoever has been made,&rdquo; Eagleson said. &ldquo;In this case they knew that an offer had been made, so Dirk knew he was guaranteed employment at least through a one-and-one (one-year contract plus option).&rdquo;Eagleson said the Aug. 10 deadline wasn&rsquo;t intended as a punitive measure toward NHL clubs.&ldquo;In negotiations related to this between the players and owners, the aim was to require the club to bargain in good faith,&rdquo; Eagleson said. &ldquo;It stems from the days of (former Toronto and Buffalo general manager) Punch Im-lach, who wouldn&rsquo;t offer his players a contract until the end of training camp.&rdquo;Eagleson said he already spoke with Hawk president William Wirtz, chairman of the NHL board of governors, about changing the wording to make the rule less ambiguous. But he also said ambiguity did not excuse sloppy business practices.&ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t all the general managers just send out their formal offers to the players by mail on July 1?&rdquo; Eagleson said. &ldquo;That way we won&rsquo;t have these problems.&rdquo;Graham, 29, was 17-19-36 in 42 games with the Hawks after the trade. Overall, he had 24 goals and 24 assists in 70 games. He said the Ziegler ruling would not affect his play this season, and his attempt at free agency was purely a business consideration and did not reflect any ill will towards the Blackhawks.&ldquo;It had nothing to do with Chicago or the players there,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;An opportunity came my way, and I had to take advantage of it. Otherwise, I was short-changing Dirk Graham. It was strictly a business decision.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;The Hawks will retire the numbers of goaltenders Glenn Hall (1) and Tony Esposito (35). Esposito, now general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins, will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame Sept. 7 in Toronto. The Hawks have previously retired the numbers of Bobby Hull (9) and Stan Mikita (21)&hellip; The Hawks&rsquo; first exhibition game, Oct. 1 against the Edmonton Oilers, is the opening event for Milwaukee&rsquo;s Bradley Arena and is sold out. Bradley Arena, seating more than 17,000 for hockey, was donated to the city of Milwaukee by former Hawk broadcaster Lloyd Petit and his wife, Jane Bradley Petit. The arena was built in two years at a cost of $53 million (U.S.)&hellip; Top draft pick Jeremy Roenick, selected eighth overall from Thayer (Mass.) Academy, remained unsigned at the end of August. Roenick has been accepted at Boston College. &#9632;

f0011-01

Verbal Offer Stymies Graham Free Agency

<div class="byline">Stan Fischler</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011431/5638614-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="336" height="445"></div>FOR THOSE HOPING Wayne Gretzky can turn the Los Angeles Kings into a championship team overnight, there's both bad and good news.The bad news? History has demonstrated that the transfer of titans from one club to another can destroy the superstar&rsquo;s career. The good news? There is evidence that a Gretzky can help deliver a Stanley Cup to the new team.The worst-case situation for the Kings would be another Howie Morenz case, where the superstar is so distraught leaving his old buddies and old town, he simply goes to pieces and becomes a shade of his former self. Let us examine this and other classic big-star deals to see where Gretzky best fits.THE HOWIE MORENZ CATAS-TROPHE: One of the speediest skaters ever, Morenz had been the toast of Montreal as Gretzky was to Edmonton. But Morenz&rsquo; scoring abilities began eroding in 1933-34. Just prior to the 1934-35 season, the impossible happened: Morenz was traded from the Canadiens to the Blackhawks.In Chicago, Morenz was a fish out of water. He floundered badly, scoring only eight goals. Midway through the next year he was dealt to the Rangers. Morenz was greeted with enormous fanfare on Broadway butscored just two goals in 19 games. Then a most amazing thing happened; he was traded back to his natural habitat, The Forum, and started the 1936-37 season with the Canadiens. He was reborn to an extent with the Habs&mdash;earning 20 points in 30 games compared to the 21 in 42 of the previous season with the Hawks and Rangers. But an injury abruptly ended his career and resulted in an unexpected and untimely death.THE FIRST BIG POST-WAR DEAL: In terms of numbers of big-time players involved, no deal&mdash;not even the Gretzky exchange&mdash;entailed as many stars skaters as the Blackhawk-Red Wing deal of July 13, 1950. Nor was any as shocking.The first tremor was caused by goaltender Harry Lumley, a Hall of Famer who had starred for the Red Wings and helped bring the 1950 Stanley Cup to Detroit. Lumley was to Motor City hockey what Grant Fuhr is to Edmonton. You simply don&rsquo;t trade your netminding ace in his prime.Ah, but the Red Wings had a prize prospect named Terry Sawchuk on the farm, setting the stage for the mammoth exchange. Not only was Lumley put in the package, but Hall of Fame defenseman Jack Stewart as well, along with defenseman Al Dewsbury and forwards Don Morrison and Pete Babando.In return the Red Wings got goalie Sugar Jim Henry, defenseman Bob Goldham and forwards Gaye Stewart and Metro Prystai.THE SAWCHUK SHOCKER: Within three years of becoming a regular Red Wing, Sawchuk was being hailed as the greatest goalie of all time. His averages were 1.90, 1.90, 1.94 and 1.96, respectively, from 1950-51 through 1954-55.But Wing general manager Jack Adams had a bloke named Glenn Hall playing on his Indianapolis farm team. Hall, they said, was as good as Sawchuk and Adams believed it. He traded Sawchuk to Boston in a deal that caused as much relative commotion as the Gretzky explosion.In many ways the Bruins were asking Sawchuk to do what No. 99 is expected to accomplish for the Kings&mdash;convert a mediocre squad into a winner. The results should send a chill through Bruce McNall&rsquo;s bank book. Sawchuk could not carry the woeful Bruins by himself. They finished fifth and in 1957, Sawchuk was dealt back to Detroit.The lesson for the Kings? No one player, no matter how good, can do it alone.THE BATHGATE BOMBSHELL: Several thousand New York hockey fans got a collective case of lock jaw when the Rangers dealt the toast of Broadway to Toronto in February, 1964.Bathgate and Don McKenney were shipped north for a grab bag of experienced pros (Bob Nevin, Dick Duff), promising kids (Rod Seiling, Amie Brown), and one borderline NHLer (Don Blackbum).The Rangers, then as now, had not won a Stanley Cup since 1940 and hoped to build toward one around the Nevin-Duff nucleus. Punch Imlach, who had already delivered two straight Stanley Cups (1962 and 1963) to Toronto, was taking dead aim on a third. &ldquo;Bathgate,&rdquo; said Imlach, &ldquo;could be the man who could win it for us.&rdquo;He was right. Bathgate scored the Stanely Cup-winning goal against Detroit in the seventh game of the final series. The Rangers, as usual, went nowhere.But Imlach soon soured on Bathgate and traded him to Detroit after the 1964-65 season. Seiling, Brown, Nevin and Duff eventually shaped up the Rangers, giving them the elements of a crackling good club but one significantly short of championship calibre.Don&rsquo;t be surprised if Gretzky follows the Bathgate graph&mdash;without winning The Cup.UNTOUCHABLES SWAP CITIES: Super-goal scorer Phil Esposito had been setting records for the Bruins for years when he was sent from Beantown to Broadway in November 1975. He was accompanied by Carol Vadnais. Meanwhile, perpetual Norris Trophy runner-up Brad Park wound up in Boston with previously untouchable Ranger Jean Ratelle. Esposito eventually helped the Rangers to the Stanely Cup finals, in 1979. He is, of course, now their GM.Park and Ratelle led the Bruins to appearances in the Cup finals against Montreal in 1977 and 1978. Joe Zanussi, the third body sent to Boston, disappeared the next season after being traded to St. Louis.For the sake of the Kings, the NHL and, naturally, The Great One, the hope here is that Gretzky does as well as Bathgate in the first year and for the next decade continues to shine as brightly as the California sun. &#9632;

f0012-01

Big Deals Can Either Bomb Or Blossom

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021190/5638652-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="563" height="985"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jacques Demers said he was flattered Larry Robinson expressed interest in Detroit.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03789/5638659-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="162" height="121"></div>DETROIT&mdash;Seems like everybody in the NHL wants to come to Detroit these days, especially if they&rsquo;re involved in troublesome contract negotiations.General manager Jim Devellano is used to it by now.Most recently, Devellano was hounded by Larry Robinson rumors, which he welcomed as a change of pace from all the questions about what the Wings were doing about off-ice problem children Bob Probert and Petr Klima.Robinson, the veteran Montreal defenseman, was involved in contract talks with the Canadiens when he suggested to a Montreal newspaper that he might be better off playing elsewhere. He added that Detroit might be a nice place to finish his career, especially since his son is a goaltender for a private school in suburban Detroit.A Detroit newspaper took the bait and ran Robinson stories almost daily. Suddenly the airwaves were full reports that Robinson might be on his way to Detroit.Coach Jacques Demers fueled the rumors when he said he said he was flattered that Robinson, whose name is engraved six times on the Stanley Cup, would think enough of the franchise to say he&rsquo;d like to play for the Wings. Demers said he thought Robinson, even at 37, could help Detroit over the next two seasons.Devellano, however, took Robinson&rsquo;s comment for what it probably was&mdash;an attempt to use the media to gain leverage in his negotiations with Montreal GM Serge Savard.&ldquo;Certainly, it&rsquo;s nice to have all these people say they want to come and play for you,&rdquo; Devellano said, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m not completely fooled by it. I know part of the reason they say that is financial.&rdquo;Devellano does not dispute that Detroit owner Mike Hitch tends to pay his players very well.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d much rather like them to come for other reasons as well, though,&rdquo; Devellano said.&ldquo;The funny thing about all this is that I never heard from Larry Robinson or his agent (Don Cape).&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">"&hellip;it all got blown out of proportion.&rsquo; &mdash;Devellano</blockquote>Nor did he hear from Savard. Yet Devellano&rsquo;s phone was ringing off its hook from reporters wondering about Robinson.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing, really, how it got all blown out of proportion,&rdquo; Devellano said.Finally, the Wing GM phoned Savard.&ldquo;I found out that Montreal had offered Larry Robinson a one-year contract plus an option year,&rdquo; Devellano said.End of discussion.Had Robinson been a free agent without compensation, as was Brad Park, Harold Snepsts, John Chabot and other Detroit signees in recent years, it might have been different, Devellano said.&ldquo;Certainly, we admire his (Robinson&rsquo;s) career, what he&rsquo;s done and what he still might still be capable of doing,&rdquo; Devellano said. But not enough to begin negotiating a trade for a 37-year-old defenseman. The Wings already have 10 rearguards they&rsquo;ll bring to camp on Sept. 10, among them several promising youngsters who must get ice time to develop.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-04467/5638645-1-eng-US/f0012-042.jpg" title="f0012-04" width="564" height="994"><figcaption class="caption-body">Red Wing center Shawn Burr signed a two-year contract with the club.</figcaption></div>Devellano and Demers also were skeptical of two other issues: Robinson&rsquo;s salary and his desire for future employment in hockey when he&rsquo;s through playing.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind telling you he&rsquo;s the highest-paid player in Montreal right now,&rdquo; Devellano said.And both men wondered why Robinson felt it necessary to get a guarantee of future employment from the Canadiens, of all teams. The Habs are notorious for keeping their great players in the organization. Their front office reads like a registry of former greats.Demers noted that as much as he would like to coach a great player like Robinson, who could teach his young defensemen the finer points of the job, the Wings would have no job waiting for him when he was through playing.NOTES&mdash;The Red Wings announced Aug. 26 that center Shawn Burr had signed a two-year contract-&hellip; Jacques Demers said the Ontario courts sent a strong message to hockey when Minnesota&rsquo;s Dino Ciccarelli was fined $1,000 and jailed for a day for a stick attack on Toronto&rsquo;s Luke Richardson. &ldquo;The hockey stick is a weapon, as far as I&rsquo;m concerned,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It could injure someone to the point where it could end a career or handicap a person. It&rsquo;s going to be a strong warning to keepsticks down.&rdquo;<div class="sidebar"><h2>RED WINGS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 26: Shawn Burr, C, signed two-year contract. &#9632;</div>

f0012-02

Robinson To The Red Wings? Not A Chance

<div class="byline">BY JEFF GORDON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011344/5638690-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="156" height="119"></div>ST. LOUIS&mdash;To nobody&rsquo;s surprise, the St. Louis Blues are taking a whole new approach to their training camp and pre-season.Their 1987 pre-season was a fiasco. They finished 1-7-1, then lost their first four regular-season games. By winning just one of their first 13 games, they put themselves in a hole they spent much of the season trying to climb from.The Blues were tired by a lengthy western road trip to close out their exhibition schedule and open the season. They weren&rsquo;t pleased with their accommodations at Peoria. 111., home of their International League affiliate, where they held the bulk of their camp. They felt they spent too much of the early camp looking at players who had no chance to play in the NHL.General manager Ron Caron and coach Brian Sutter made the following changes for this season:&bull; Training camp was shifted from the Peoria Civic Center to the Brentwood Ice Rink in suburban St. Louis. Caron and Sutter said the extra travel created by training in Peoria and the time spent away from families were needless inconveniences.&ldquo;We hope there will be a storing of energy, since the new coaches require a bigger effort,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;With the bunch of younger guys we&rsquo;ll have in our camp, some middle-aged players will be pushed.&rdquo;&bull; The pre-season schedule was cut from nine games to five and only one, a game at Houston, is outside the midwestern U.S. The Blues traditionally played at Calgary and Edmonton to finish the pre-season and then at Vancouver and Los Angeles to open the regular season.&ldquo;We went to the well once too many times, starting out west, having to go to too many places,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;You can only absorb so much travelling.&rdquo;This season they open at Minnesota Oct. 6 and play at home Oct. 8.&bull; Mackie Shilstone, a nutrition and fitness expert who has trained athletes ranging from boxer Michael Spinks to basketball player Manute Bol to baseball player Ozzie Smith, was hired to lead the pre-season conditioning program. He replaces Lome Goldenberg, a consultant brought in by former coach Jacques Martin.&bull; Instead of inviting a lot of borderline prospects on amateur tryouts, the Blues will focus on their crop of graduating U.S. collegians.&ldquo;We had a lot of amateurs in camp last season,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;This year we won&rsquo;t have five. Most of these guys are under contract. It will be a much more intense training camp. Their confidence will be there because they have contracts.&rdquo;Caron also demands competitive camps, but he seems to have created a deeper roster for this one.&ldquo;I would say the experimental years are over,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We expect to start the growth years with high expectations. We know our personnel very, very well. We will be demanding more.&ldquo;Our players won&rsquo;t have a month or two to adjust,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;We have to have results. We won&rsquo;t give somebody eight, 10, 12 weeks to prove he belongs on the roster.&rdquo;Sutter agreed.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s put it this way,&rdquo; he said. "The players are aware that things will be different. It will be a little more intense. We&rsquo;re expecting a lot. The ownership is, Mr. Caron is. It&rsquo;s time to step forward.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Goaltender Alan Perry, who signed a termination contract, has been loaned to Indianapolis of the IHL. He will not be in the Blues camp&hellip; Top draft choice Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, a center, was weighing the Blues&rsquo; contract offer. If he signs, he would report to training camp and probably play in the Canadian Olympic program. If he doesn&rsquo;t sign, he will play at Michigan State. &#9632;

f0013-01

Caron Hopes Changes Lead To Better Start

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02974/5638721-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="171" height="116"></div>LOS ANGELES&mdash;Without even playing one game as a Los Angeles King, Wayne Gretzky is already paying big dividends at the box office.The Kings sold about 5,000 season tickets last season but, based on requests since The Great Trade of Aug. 9 with the Edmonton Oilers, they expect that total to at least double.By the end of August, the entire 8,000-seat loge section of the 16,005-seat Forum was sold out.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to say exactly how many tickets we&rsquo;ve sold because there is such a backlog of requests,&rdquo; Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall said. &ldquo;But I would think 10,000 is a ball park figure.&rdquo;That said, McNall is prepared to make Gretzky a very wealthy man.&ldquo;I think without question he&rsquo;ll be the highest-paid player by far in hockey,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;Certainly I wouldn&rsquo;t think $2 million a year is out of the ball park.&rdquo;A share in gate receipts or a piece of the team itself, however, are out of the question, McNall said. Especially since whole or part ownership of a team by a player contravenes NHL rules. But McNall added Gretzky&rsquo;s $1.1 million base salary will increase.&ldquo;All that stuff that&rsquo;s coming out is absolutely not the case at all,&rdquo; McNall said, referring to published reports Gretzky can write his own ticket.&ldquo;The truth of the matter is, sure, no question he&rsquo;s increased attendance a lot and the economics of our club a lot. But at the same time, I paid a lot of money to get him. With that in mind, one has to be a little bit reasonable about everything.&rdquo;To get Gretzky, left winger Mike Krushelnyski, defenseman-winger Marty McSorley and defenseman John Miner from Edmonton, the Kings gave up center Jimmy Carson, left winger Martin Gelinas, defenseman Craig Redmond, three No. 1 draft picks and $15 million (U.S.).McNall also pointed out the Kings have been losing between $3 million and $4 million a season, including last year.McNall wants to sign Gretzky to a lifetime contract. The Great One currently has three years, plus an option year, left on his existing deal. As September began. McNall had not sat down with Gretzky and his financial adviser, Ian Barrigan, to discuss specifics.&ldquo;No, not at all,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;The only thing we&rsquo;ve talked about so far&mdash;I&rsquo;ve told Wayne, and he&rsquo;s agreed&mdash;is that I would like to have a longer-term deal.&ldquo;We could either redo his current contract, give him an extension or do a combination. At the moment, we haven&rsquo;t gotten even to the initial stage. We could just throw away the old contract and redo a whole new one. I don&rsquo;t know what we&rsquo;re going to do now. Let&rsquo;s sit down and see what he&rsquo;s comfortable with and work it out.&rdquo;Said Barrigan from his Edmonton office: &ldquo;I don't think Wayne is expecting ownership of the team. I&rsquo;m sure something agreeable will be worked out. I&rsquo;m sure something will come to fruition. But I don&rsquo;t know how long it will take.&rdquo;Shortly after his acquisition, Gretzky said things &ldquo;happened too fast&rdquo; to sit down and discuss a new contract. But he added, &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll hammer something out. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s going to be too hard.&rdquo;Meanwhile, captain Dave Taylor agreed to terms Aug. 25 on a four-year contract that will pay him $700,000 per season. All four years are guaranteed.Taylor, who turns 32 in December, was entering the option year of a seven-year contract worth in excess of $6 million. He ranks second behind Marcel Dionne on the Kings&rsquo; all-time lists for games (752), goals (347), assists (514) and points (861).&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great contract. I&rsquo;m really happy with it,&rdquo; said Taylor, who had 26 goals and 41 assists in 68 games last season. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re showing a lot of confidence in me to sign me for four years.&rdquo;Center Bernie Nicholls, who is five years younger than Taylor and posted better numbers (32-46-78 in 65 games), was quoted by the Los Angeles Daily News Aug. 26 as saying he was upset to be making substantially less than Taylor, and wanted his contract renegotiated.Nicholls signed a five-year deal in 1985 and will make $250,000 this year, $100,000 of that deferred, with no raises for the remainder of the contract.&ldquo;They put the red carpet down for (Taylor). When I wanted something, they said they weren&rsquo;t interested. That ticked me off,&rdquo; Nicholls was quoted as saying.Nicholls outscored Taylor in five of the past six seasons, averaging 36 goals and 48 assists during that time. On the Kings&rsquo; all-time lists, he ranks fourth in goals (230), assists (303) and points (533).L.A. general manager Rogie Vachon has since spoken with Nicholls, and said his non-renegotiation policy will not change.When asked ifhis conversation with Nicholls was a good one, Vachon responded, &ldquo;As good as it could be under the circumstances.&rdquo;McNall said Nicholls told him he was misquoted. The owner added as long as the team does well he will &ldquo;take care&rdquo; of his players. He said he would like to do away with personal bonuses, for example, in future contracts and give substantial, team-oriented bonuses instead.NOTES&mdash;One day after Wayne Gretzky became a King, the Las Vegas Hilton Sports Book odds on the team winning the Stanley Cup this season dropped from 100-1 to 30-1&hellip; Left winger-center Bob Carpenter, entering the option year of the contract he signed in 1985 after scoring 53 goals for Washington, is playing out his option. "We really didn&rsquo;t discuss a contract,&rdquo; Carpenter&rsquo;s agent, Bob Murray said, referring to himself and King GM Rogie Vachon. &ldquo;Rogie made an offer by the (Aug. 10) deadline, but it really is much more advantageous for Bobby to take this route.&rdquo;<div class="sidebar"><h2>KINGS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 25: Dave Taylor, RW, agreed to terms on a four-year contract. &#9632;</div>

f0013-02

Gretzkv Already Paving Dividends For L.A.

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Success breeds endorsements and Sean Burke, following his playoff heroics, is now cashing in on his first big deals. The Devils&rsquo; goalie signed a major endorsement contract with Koho equipment and Titan hockey sticks&hellip; The Devils&rsquo; spring uprising has brought other benefits. The club signed a two-year deal with powerful 50,000 watt radio station WABC after having been with the 5,000-watt WMCA. Devils figure to make $ 150,000 more net radio revenue than they did last season&hellip; Jack O&rsquo;Callahan on playing golf in the rain: &ldquo;It reminds me of overtime. After the first few minutes of tension, you hardly notice it. Same with golf in the rain.&rdquo;&hellip; NHL expansionists will be watching several exhibition gates including the Blues-Red Wings tilt Sept. 25 at the Summit in Houston. The city did very well with a WHA franchise when Gordie, Mark and Marty Howe played for the Aeros.Prior to their leaving for holiday in the Far East, Cam Neely and Lyndon Byers were cautioned by GM Harry Sinden to stay out of trouble. Obviously, the Bruin forwards have a curious idea about &ldquo;trouble.&rdquo; In Bangkok, their attention was arrested by a snake charmer operating with the usual cobra. Next thing anyone knew, Cam and Lyn went into the snake pit. Apparently Byers stayed in a bit longer but both are alive and well&hellip; Neely was a guest at film star Michael J. Fox&rsquo;s hush-hush wedding in Vermont&hellip; Why the Red Wings would unload productive Brent Ashton (to Winnipeg for Paul MacLean) has been a puzzlement for many Detroiters. The inside word is that while they liked Ashton as a person, they felt he was too selfish with the puck.Calder Trophy winner Joe Nieuwendyk believes he&rsquo;s living proof that a kid can get just as good basic training for the NHL in college as he can in junior hockey. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the junior game could have done any better for me than college did in preparing for the NHL.&rdquo; Joe N&rsquo;s chief asset? &ldquo;I have a good sense of the game. I can anticipate where pucks are going to be around the net.&rdquo;&hellip; The Caps&rsquo; Kevin Hatcher disagrees with Nieuwendyk. Hatcher went the junior route with North Bay and has never rued the day. &ldquo;Playing junior,&rsquo; &rsquo; says Hatcher, &ldquo;is the quickest way to the NHL. When you go to college, you have to wait four years. I didn&rsquo;t want to do that.&rdquo;&hellip; If fear can be a factor in shaping up a team for the new season. Mike Keenan has a jump on his Blackhawks. In off-the-record comments, players have revealed during the summer their concern about Keenan&rsquo;s iron-fisted policy&hellip; Watch closely to see how Wayne Gretzky handles longtime friend-agent-confidante-advisor Michael Barnett, who handled Wayne from his CorpSport International offices in Edmonton. No sooner had Gretzky landed in L.A. then he was confronted with big-name Hollywood agents ready to move in with offers. One was from the powerful William Morris Agency, which had just landed heavyweight champ Mike Tyson as a client. One possibility would have Barnett&mdash;who just became a father&mdash;move to California. Those close to Gretzky believe he will be loyal to anyone who has served him well. Speaking of loyalty, Bamett says of Gretzky, &ldquo;Any off-ice opportunities may or may not manifest themselves, but those opportunities were not the motivation for the move to L.A.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011412/5638759-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="343" height="555"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cam Neely</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021098/5638752-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="344" height="513"><figcaption class="caption-body">Petr Klima</figcaption></div>A Canadian agent has been trying to sell publishers on the idea of doing a book on the Sutter brothers but, so far, no bites&hellip; The Red Wings have sold 16,000 season tickets at Joe Louis Arena&mdash;a club record&mdash;and cut off sales at that point&hellip; Detroit high command has not forgotten the Edmonton curfew-cutting episode that tarnished an otherwise commendable Red Wing effort against the champion Oilers. Jacques Demers tells BLUELINES he has since met privately with each of the culprits&mdash;Bob Probert, Petr Klima, et. al.&mdash;and is satisfied with their responses. Wings will continue monitoring Probert, with assistant coach Colin Campbell supplying him anti-alcohol pills.Dave Newell&rsquo;s playoff walkout last spring at Byme Arena could have a long-term fallout after the referee&rsquo;s career concludes. Sources indicate it could reduce his chances of being named an NHL supervisor of officials&hellip; Before the Hartford Whalers were put up for sale the club&rsquo;s estimated value was put at $25 million. After the Whale went for $31 million, word was the price could have been even higher, given a couple of weeks&rsquo; more negotiation&hellip; Hall-of-Famer Bobby Hull may be the only superstar who hit the heights after having an outstanding spring exhibition in France. &ldquo;This was right after my rookie year (1957-58) with the Blackhawks,&rdquo; Hull recalls. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t make the playoffs and went on a barnstorming tour of Europe and I was invited. I hadn&rsquo;t played very well up until then but once we started going in Europe, I found my confidence. After that, I never looked back.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-01

Burke’s Cashing In On Playoff Success

<div class="byline">BY GRANT McGINNIS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03768/5638790-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="156" height="122"></div>WINNIPEG&mdash;It&rsquo;s all Jim Kyte&rsquo;s fault.Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; spring swoon can be blamed on the absence of the defenseman from the lineup. When the general manager says so, there isn&rsquo;t a whole lot you can do to refute it anyway.Kyte, the 6-foot-5-inch, 210-pound Goliath of the Jets' defense, spent most of last spring&mdash;a total of 11 weeks&mdash;in a back brace. Thanks to a fracture in his lower back that went undiagnosed for six weeks and was apparently caused by a fall on his driveway, Kyte missed the Jets&rsquo; 2-7-1 season-ending skid and the playoffs.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;&hellip;the guys were wondering if I was faking it and so forth and that was very difficult for me.&rsquo; &mdash;Kyte</blockquote>His series of injuries&mdash;a sore wrist and tendinitis in his shoulder preceded the back trouble&mdash;has been a convenient screen for the Jets&rsquo; brass to hide behind each spring. General manager John Ferguson said if the team had Kyte, they might have avoided the spring disappointment. It was a theory Ferguson spelled out in a letter to season ticket holders and later expounded on in a series of television commercials.After a summer of rehabilitation, however, Kyte was allowed by Mayo Clinic doctors to resume skiting and he was back on the ice for the first time Aug. 26. Kyte expected to be in uniform Sept. 9 when the Jets were to open training camp in Moncton, N. B.. But he wouldn&rsquo;t be allowed body contact until Oct. 1, less than a week before the team&rsquo;s regular-season opener Oct. 6 at Vancouver.&ldquo;The fact that he (Ferguson) singled me out is flattering,&rdquo; Kyte said. &ldquo;However, it&rsquo;s a team game and you can&rsquo;t just rely on one person to do it.&rdquo;Kyte&rsquo;s career has progressed significantly since the awkward early years when it seemed his hockey skills would never catch up to his fists, among the most-feared in the game.But Kyte made meteoric progress in the 1986-87 season to the point where he was not only a terrific protector of his fellow man but also a solid defenseman and first-rate penalty killer. Last season, his fifth in the NHL. he had a goal, three assists and 128 penalty minutes in 51 games.&ldquo;A few years ago, they didn&rsquo;t rely on me for a lot,&rdquo; Kyte said. &ldquo;I like the sense of responsibility.&rdquo;Now the Ottawa native, who played his junior hockey with Cornwall Royals, said his career is starting over.&ldquo;I have to prove myself all over again. I know I&rsquo;m going to have a better year than I did two years ago. I learned a lot two years ago when I played well and 1 learned a lot last year as well,&rdquo; said Kyte, who had five goals, five assists and 162 penalty minutes in 72 games in 1986-87.&ldquo;There was a lot of peer pressure there as well,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;You know, the guys were wondering if I was faking it and so forth and that was very difficult for me. Everyone had their doubts after six weeks. When my back was finally diagnosed, it was a relief."Now Kyte must regain his reputation, not only as the decent defenseman he was two years ago but also as the only notable enforcer on the Winnipeg roster. He knows his role.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s my game. That&rsquo;s what got me here,&rdquo; Kyte said candidly. &ldquo;Being physical in front of the net and in the comers and getting the puck up to the forwards.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s my job and that&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m here, so I&rsquo;m not going to change my style and try to be a finesse player.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Winnipeg continued to shop veteran left winger Doug Smail around the league. Three clubs are reportedly interested in the speedy University of North Dakota graduate who has requested a trade to an American-based team&hellip; Two Winnipeg prospects will miss training camp because of off-season injuries. Left winger Kevin Heise of the Lethbridge Broncos suffered tom knee ligaments while water skiing and is expected to be out nine months. Defenseman Chris Norton of Cornell University fractured an ankle playing summer hockey and will be out six weeks before reporting to Moncton of the American League. &#9632;

f0014-03

Kyte Is Looking To Soar To New Heights For Jets

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011308/5638821-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="159" height="125"></div>CALGARY&mdash;Jamie Macoun&rsquo;s game&mdash;his golf game, that is&mdash;started coming back in mid-June, the day he shot an 83.In the past&mdash;before May 11, 1987, when he rolled his Datsun 300ZX sports car, damaging the nerve endings in his left arm and shoulder&mdash;Macoun would routinely score in the mid-80s.Then came his winter of discontent, a whole year away from all the games of his life: Golf, slo-pitch and, of course, hockey.Macoun, the Calgary Flames&rsquo; defenseman, missed all of last season, recovering from an injury that some doctors feared would prevent him from ever again playing professional hockey.So as the summer progressed, Macoun continued to rebuild his strength as well as his confidence. The little things&mdash;lower golf scores, power to left field, more rhythm on the speed bag&mdash;all boded well for Sept. 9, the day Macoun expected to resume his career with the Flames at their training camp.Visually, the difference between his good arm and his bad arm is so small you cannot tell unless he flexes his bicep.But can he play again?General manager Cliff Fletcher is counting on it. "You&rsquo;re never fully certain until he gets into game situations, but it looks as if he&rsquo;s ready to come back.&rdquo;&ldquo;I haven't gone in for the final tests, but pretty well everything 1 work on is within 10 to 15 per cent,&rdquo; said Macoun. &ldquo;Some things are dead equal. Others are a little behind. The good thing is it&rsquo;s not something that will be a permanent difference.&ldquo;By Christmas, I could see very easily there being absolutely no difference, because it&rsquo;s continued to get better and better. As anyone knows who&rsquo;s had a problem, recovery is a long process. You can&rsquo;t do it 15 hours one day and be ready. You&rsquo;ve got to do it day after day after day. I'm continuing to get stronger. Everything is feeling a little more comfortable. It&rsquo;s to the point now where I don&rsquo;t even think about it, except when I get asked the question&mdash;which only happens about 500 times a day.&rdquo;Macoun stopped going to physical therapy with about a month remaining in the 1987-88 regular season. At that time, he was skating with the Flames in the hopes of coming back for the playoffs. Doctors vetoed the plan, however.&ldquo;I was lucky because the majority of people who go through what I did have to retrain everything. Granted, I did, too, but for some reason, it came back to me a lot easier. I didn&rsquo;t have to worry about putting blocks into the right holes or picking up dimes or pins and needles or things like that.&rdquo;Once it became clear Macoun would not return last season, he began to work out with the University of Calgary hockey team. That was the first time he was involved in contact.&ldquo;I had one weakness&mdash;which I&rsquo;m not going to tell you about,&rdquo; he said, "but it was something that could easily be overcome. I&rsquo;ve played games with injuries knowing that, in a certain game, there were things I wouldn&rsquo;t be able to do. That would hve been the case for me had I played last year.&ldquo;Now that weakness is gone. I can tell it&rsquo;s gone.&rdquo;The right-handed Macoun said he was lucky the injury occurred to his left side.&ldquo;It&rsquo;d be a different story if I was left-handed because then, absolutely everything I did I&rsquo;d have to retrain&mdash;everything from throwing the ball to what have you.&ldquo;Now, through continued use and stretching, I don&rsquo;t have as much trouble with things as I did earlier in the summer. It&rsquo;s hard to say if I&rsquo;m back to where I was before, but I&rsquo;m pretty close in the majority of things.&rdquo;Including golf?&ldquo;My average game is still about 90,&rdquo; he acknowledged. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not back to where it was, but I don&rsquo;t know if I can actually blame it on my arm. I just think my golf game&rsquo;s bad because I&rsquo;m bad.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Several members of the Flames, including right wingers Tim Hunter and Shane Churla, did their off-season training at the same local boxing club where former Canadian heavyweight champion Willie deWit worked out of as an amateur fighter&hellip; Cliff Fletcher discounted several trade rumors that centered on defenseman Al Maclnnis and left winger Jim Peplinski. &ldquo;We have no interest in talking about them,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not looking to move guys in and out for the sake of making changes. They&rsquo;ll be on the ice with us in training camp.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0015-01

Flames Count On Full Recovery By Macoun

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-03726/5638852-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg" title="f0016-03" width="555" height="1301"><figcaption class="caption-body">Grant Fuhr's celebrity slo-pitch game raised $50,000 and attracted 5,000 fans.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011198/5638859-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="162" height="123"></div>EDMONTON&mdash;When he faced the media. newly-acquired Edmonton Oiler center Jimmy Carson recalled when he faced the music as a Los Angeles King.It happened, ironically enough, in Edmonton."There was that playoff game when they beat us 12-3 or something (actually 13-3 on April 9, 1987)," said Carson at an Aug. 23 press conference in Edmonton."I kept hearing that song Still The One beating in my ears for three weeks after that."The 13-3 drubbing was game two of the Smythe Division semi-final between the Kings and Oilers. After L.A. pulled a stunning 5-2 upset in the opener, the Oilers awoke in the next game, won the remaining three in the series and much later, took the Stanley Cup.Their theme song that playoff season-after losing out the year before to Calgary-was Still The One.Now it remains to be seen if Carson&mdash;the main acquisition in the Aug. 9 Wayne Gretzky blockbuster trade&mdash;will be one to face the music in Edmonton, as players, fans and media watch his every move.But already the 20-year-old is calling his own tune. He has made one request: Please don't compare me to Gretzky."I've idolized him for as long as I can remember," said Carson, a native of Southfield, Mich., near Detroit. "I'd watch him do something, and the next day in practice, I'd try it."He's incomparable," added Carson, who wore No. 17 with the Kings but will don No. 15 with the Oilers. No. 17 is taken in Edmonton by Jari Kurri."There's a lot of pressure and I'd like to get off to a good start&hellip; I usually do," said Carson. "But, if not, I'm not going to get depressed and worry about it."The inevitable comparisons will be unavoidable, but Carson understands."In Los Angeles, you sort of lose that sense of what a hockey town is all about," said the 6-foot-1, 205-pounder. "You walk around and nobody knows you. There's no pressure to perform from the fans&hellip; and I think that hurts hockey down there."However, the Oiler brass, aware of the pressure such comparisons bring, is trying to downplay them."I don't think something like that is very fair to ask of somebody who was traded for the greatest hockey player we'll probably ever see," said Edmonton general manager-coach Glen Sather. "I don't think you can ever make comparisons between any of the guys on our club with Wayne. He's an entirely different kind of player."We can never make Jimmy into The Great One," added Sather, "but he's got an opportunity to do everything in the world for himself. He'd been very successful his first two years. He's scored a pile of goals and he'll continue to do the same for us."Carson, the second overall choice in the 1986 entry draft, has 92 NHL goals in 160 games, 55 of them in 80 games last season. He added 52 assists for 107 points. Ironically, Gretzky also scored 55 goals during his second NHL season."That's great, I'm proud of that," smiled Carson. "It's nice to do something similar to Wayne. But I still don't want any comparisons. He's incomparable."NOTES&mdash;Over $50,000 was raised for charity at the first annual Grant Fuhr Celebrity Slo-Pitch game, which drew a crowd of 5,000 here Aug. 28&hellip; Left winger Greg Adams, acquired from Washington for Geoff Courtnall, stayed a member of the Oilers following the arbitration ruling on Courtnall's case (see page 18.)&hellip; General manager-coach Glen Sather said only 134 irate customers have cancelled season tickets due to the Wayne Gretzky trade. "The fans have not turned on us," said Sather. "The crying is over. We've got an awesomely talented young team here. Let's move on." &#9632;

f0016-03

Carson Wants To Conduct His Own Music

<div class="byline">Dave Molinari</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02955/5638890-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="372" height="467"></div>IT WAS, FROM every professional and personal perspective, an extraordinary period that preceded the start of 1988-89 training camps.How often, after all, does one get to witness one of the game's all-time dominant figures being sent away for a Kings' ransom?For a bonus, the deal featured intrigue of the sort that just might get the NHL a network TV contract in the United States.As a prime-time soap opera, of course, set in Edmonton. The Young and the Gretzless, maybe?Anyway, one can assume such a thing transpires about as frequently as an Easterner confronting a bighorn sheep snout-to-snout in the Canadian Rockies. Through a rolled-down car window, no less.The odds against such monumental occurrences happening within a span of IO or so days make the chances of, say, Minnesota winning the Stanley Cup next season, seem downright overwhelming.But memorable as those events were, neither could begin to rival the raw thrills inherent in being on the cutting edge of hockey history.As nothing less than the organizer, coordinator and chief accountant for the first-ever Hockey Writers' Fantasy Camp.Think that doesn't look great on top of the resume?The week-long program cost a perfectly zeasonable $3,500 (covering room, board and my vacation), was open to only a select few (those with that much money and no intelligent way to spend it) and was conducted at one of the true shrines of the profession (my basement).Suffice to ay, I found the experience was enriching, in the most literal sense.Of course, like any program conducted on such a grand scale, this one had a few foul-ups and foibles.The greatest disappointment had to be the cancellation of a much-anticipated lecture, Ethics: Why They Are For Other People.The speech was to cover such diverse and vital topics as taking statements out of context and using them to fuel highly flammable issues and how to pad expenses so much they could be mistaken for a reclining chair.Unfortunately, the keynote speaker, Richard Nixon, asked to be pardoned at the last minute.Another seminar, this one on press box food, had to be dropped when the cook scheduled to make the presentation was arrested for unspecified crimes against humanity.None of this, however, is to suggest those who enrolled went away as anything less than happy campers, for they learned many of the techniques needed to survive in this business.One of my favorites was the class on interpersonal relationships. which combined elements of psychology, sociology and deceit.Explaining to your wife why you are not in the hotel room at 4 a.m. in Montreal, when she calls to tell you the dog has run away to become a Moonie, is a finely-honed skill most acquire only through painful experience.The campers are now prepared for just such a situation, however, and can calmly explain to the spouse that she was missed so much the writer just couldn't sleep and was sitting in the hotel lobby to cut down the chances of committing suicide.A key, they learn, is to make certain she does not hear the laughter and clinking of glasses in the background.Naturally, most of the camp focused on matters pertaining to actual execution of the job. Notice that the term "work" didn't come up in the conversation much.Interviewing strategies were of particular interest, and a lot of time was devoted to taking athletes' words and converting them into coherent thoughts.Finally, however, it was determined such a monumental challenge could not be effectively addressed in a mere week.We had better luck with teaching students how to get through an in-depth session with a European whose command of English is limited to "beer," "brutal" and a particularly offensive-but highly popular-expletive.They learned such a predicament is best handled by simply making up what you think the player should have said, ideally making extensive use of Barlett's Familiar Quotations.And hey, when the camp was completed, those who attended went away feeling pretty good about themselves.Some probably even developed an ego the size of Manhattan. &#9632;

f0016-02

Summer Is Time To Learn For Earnest Sports Scribes

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-04536/5638921-1-eng-US/f0016-042.jpg" title="f0016-04" width="150" height="115"></div>VANCOUVER&mdash;The Canucks turned down an Edmonton offer of a trade for Wayne Gretzky because the price was too steep, according to Vancouver majority owner Frank Griffiths.Griffiths also said it was the Oilers who contacted him about the possibility of purchasing Gretzky and not the other way around.While it's also speculation Vancouver was used to jack up the price in Los Angeles. Griffiths said he doesn't think he'll ever know the truth about the entire situation."I don't think we'll ever know, because I have no idea whether or not Gretzky would have come to Vancouver," he said. "I would be disappointed to learn that was the case if it were true. But we were interested in him. The money, really, wasn't a big problem because it's not really so much. But the future is what bothered me.&ldquo;Los Angeles is banking on every part of their plan working right. If any part doesn't go perfectly, their future is most certainly jeopardized. I just didn't want to be giving up all those draft picks."In the end, it was the Canuck hockey people-president and generil manager Pat Quinn and director of hockey operations Brian Burke-who nixed any further discussion of a possible deal. which went to considerable lengths. Right winger Tony Tanti and Vancouver's top draft choice in June, right winger Trevor Linden, plus four of the next five draft picks were part of the offer Quinn turned down."The hockey department was presented with a Gretzky scenario and felt it was not a good deal for the hockey club," said Burke. "The concept of trading a couple of great young players, a bunch of first-round draft picks and many millions of dollars was not a good deal for the team. We said it was out of the question and not a good deal considering the age of Gretzky and the others."I would refuse it again today," said Burke, who added he felt the Kings had made a "big mistake."NOTES-Canuck majority owner Frank Griffiths remained hopeful about landing Soviet players Igor Larionov and Vladimir Krutov. "Things change and our offer is still there and money is a factor in it. We're just waiting for them to say yes.''&hellip; Canuck director of hockey operations Brian Burke said Aug. 29 nothing has been signed or agreed upon between free agent defenseman Harold Snepsts and the team. The day before, Snepsts, who played the first 10 seasons of his 14-year career with Vancouver, said he'd agreed to play for the Canucks. The 33-year-old was released at the end of the 1987-88 season by Detroit and requires no compensation&hellip; The Canucks were expected to hire Murray Oliver as a scout. &#9632;

f0016-04

Canucks A Decoy In Gretzky Trade?

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011048/5638952-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="156" height="119"></div>EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J &mdash; When Brendan Shanahan phoned to say he&rsquo;d broken his thumb in mid-June playing street hockey in Toronto, his New Jersey Devil employers shuddered.Three years ago, Pat Verbeek severed his left thumb in an off-season farm accident. For several weeks, his hockey career hung in the balance.Shanahan had better news. The thumb was indeed broken, but the injury was hardly career-threatening.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nowhere near as serious as Patty&rsquo;s,&rdquo; said Shanahan. &ldquo;His rehab was every day, sweating it out, and he went through a lot of pain. In my case, a lot was healing itself. It was more or less an inconvenience. It put a damper on my summer, having to wear a cast.&rdquo;Shanahan, the Devils&rsquo; first pick, second overall in 1987, will be expected to score more than the seven goals and 19 assists he collected in 65 games as a rookie last season. It remains to be seen whether the broken thumb will hamper him early in the season.&ldquo;It feels pretty good. I still don&rsquo;t have full range with the thumb, but I have 90-per-cent. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;ll bother me that much. I hope not,&rdquo; said Shanahan, who had the cast removed in early August. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the physical play will hurt. Dropping my gloves and fighting I might catch my thumb and hurt it, but in camp you don&rsquo;t have to do an awful lot of that. If I work hard the first couple of weeks of camp I can have it at 100 per cent by the time we get into exhibition games.&rdquo;The Devils&rsquo; first pre-season game is on Sept. 18 against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Utica, N.Y.The injury occurred when Shanahan, 19, was playing street hockey with his brothers Dan, Brian and Shaun, and their friends. Wearing lacrosse gloves with the palms cut out, Shanahan took a slapshot at the net and an opponent sliced at his stick to block the shot.&ldquo;His stick slid up the shaft and hit me on my thumb,&rdquo; Shanahan recalled. &ldquo;I kind of shook it off and thought it was a sting. I didn't think it was that serious, but I stopped playing and got it checked out and sure enough there was a chip in the bone.&rdquo;He underwent surgery June 23.&ldquo;Lou (Lamoriello, Devils&rsquo; GM) was great about it. All he wanted to know was if I&rsquo;d done it in a fight,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;For the people who know me it sounded a little bit unbelievable that it was so innocent. They would assume it was a little bit more mischievous. A lot of guys would pull me aside and say, &lsquo;Now, what really happened?&rsquo;&ldquo;The Devils supported me the whole way and looked after me like a first-class club would. You know, we don&rsquo;t put ourselves in a padded room over the summertime. We play other sports, too. 1 do things in the course of a day sometimes a lot more reckless than playing ball hockey. I could just as easily have hurt myself grabbing for a leg of chicken in my house. I could break my arm from something like that.&rdquo;He is anxious to put the injury behind him and prove to his teammates he is more than just a seven-goal scorer. In his final junior season in London, Ont., he scored 39.NOTES&mdash;Though they remained quiet on the subject, the Devils were anticipating the arrival of Soviet defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov for the 1988-89 season. Since Fetisov&rsquo;s contract with the Devils is already worked out, he may have cleared the last remaining hurdle by submitting his letter of resignation to the Central Red Army during the first week of August. Fetisov, a major in the Red Army, circumvented additional red tape by resigning his commission. Even Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev gave his blessing, but a protocol situation has held up the process. Several old-school generals were apparently still holding back their stamps of approval&hellip; Chris Ipson, the Devils&rsquo; trainer the past four seasons, and long-time equipment manager Keith Parker were fired Aug. 23 after meeting with GM Lou Lamoriello. According to a team press release, the pair left to &ldquo;pursue other career opportunities.&rdquo; Ted Schuch, the 41-year-old hockey trainer at Providence College, replaces Ipson, and Ken Fleger, the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; trainer in charge of equipment the past eight seasons, succeeds Parker. Equipment man Peter Henderson remains with the team.<div class="sidebar"><h2>DEVILS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 23: Chris Ipson, trainer, and Keith Parker, equipment manager, fired. Ted Schuch hired as trainer, Ken Fleger as equipment manager. &#9632;</div>

f0017-01

Shanahan Gives Thumbs-Up Sign To Devils

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011093/5638983-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="166" height="115"></div>LANDOVER, Md.&mdash;There&rsquo;s a difference of about 20 per cent between American and Canadian dollars on foreign exchanges.But NHL president John Ziegler contended that as far as the league is concerned, U.S. and Canadian dollars are equal.Judge Joseph Kane agreed. On Aug. 22, Kane ruled that left winger Geoff Courtnall belongs to the Washington Capitals and not the New York Rangers.The arbitration case concerning Courtnall&rsquo;s rights was a no-lose situation for the player. Washington, as well as New York, was committed to fulfilling the terms of the offer sheet he signed with the Rangers on July 20&mdash;a four-year deal worth about $800,000 in American funds.A year ago, Courtnall was earning $l 15,000 (U.S.) under terms of a contract he signed with Boston. He became a free agent from that deal on July 1. Edmonton, which acquired Courtnall from Boston in the March 8 Andy Moog trade, retained his rights by offering Courtnall a new contract that included the 15-per-cent raise stipulated by the collective bargaining agreement.But since the Oiler offer was in Canadian dollars, Courtnall actually would have received about $110,000 in U.S. funds, or $5,000 less than he earned last year.Two days after Courtnall signed the Ranger offer sheet, Edmonton technically matched the figure, claiming right of first refusal. At the same time, the Oilers traded Courtnall to the Capitals for left winger Greg Adams. At that point, the NHL Players&rsquo; Association intervened, maintaining the original Edmonton offer was flawed because of the difference in currency. NHLPA executive director Alan Eagleson argued that the Oilers had thus forfeited right of first refusal and that Courtnall was Ranger property.Ziegler, however, said 15 per cent was 15 percent, regardless of the currency, and Courtnall was a Capital. Kane, who found that NHL bylaws and contracts are subject only to the interpretation of the league president, ruled that Ziegler&rsquo;s decision was final. There is no appeal process.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re very pleased,&rsquo;&rsquo; said Capital general manager David Poile. &ldquo;We followed the directions of the league president all the way through. We felt we were on safe ground.&rdquo;Eagleson, meanwhile, said he had already spoken with several NHL governors and was confident bylaws would be changed for before the 1989-90 season to prevent a recurrence of the Courtnall case.Courtnall was not particularly upset with Kane's decision.&ldquo;When I was first going through contract negotiations, maybe there was a little bit of desire to play New York over Washington,&rdquo; Courtnall said. &ldquo;But the more I thought about it, the more people I&rsquo;ve talked to, I think it&rsquo;s going to work out better for me.&ldquo;1 know Washington is a team that&rsquo;s only one round away from advancing to the Stanley Cup. They&rsquo;ve probably got the best defense in the league. If I could go there and add some scoring, that would be nice.&rdquo;The Caps are counting on it. Courtnail&rsquo;s 36 goals&mdash;32 in 62 games with Boston&mdash;last season were only 12 fewer than Washington&rsquo;s four regular left wingers scored last season. The Victoria, B.C., native added four more goals in 12 regular-season games as a spot player for Edmonton but went scoreless in 19 playoff contests.&ldquo;It was exciting to go to Edmonton and have a chance at winning the Stanley Cup, but it was disappointing leaving Boston, where I thought I was just getting established,&rdquo; Courtnall said. &ldquo;And it was a big letdown in Edmonton, not to see the ice for more than two shifts a period. It&rsquo;s pretty tough to contribute when you&rsquo;re in that situation.&ldquo;I want another chance to prove that getting 36 goals wasn&rsquo;t just a one-chance thing. I think if I had stayed in Boston for the full year, I would have hit 40 pretty easily. It was the first year I got to play on the top line and also got to play on the power play.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Former Washington assistant coach Terry Murray, was named general manager of the Baltimore Skipjacks, the Capitals&rsquo; American League affiliate, on Aug. 23. &#9632;

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Decision Turns Courtnall Into Capital Gain

<div class="byline">Steve Simmons</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02830/5639014-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="412" height="464"></div>NEWS: Wayne Gretzky tells friends he wants to revitalize Bobby Carpenter&rsquo;s career with the Los Angeles Kings.VIEWS: He may be The Great One, but he isn&rsquo;t The Almighty.NEWS: Canadians go into a national funk because Gretzky is traded to the United States.VIEWS: This one makes no sense. Bobby Hull played in Chicago, Gordie Howe in Detroit and Bobby Orr in Boston and Canadians were never shy about claiming them. The only Canadians who should be upset are the Canucks in Vancouver, because now that the trade has been made, they won&rsquo;t make the playoffs until after Gretzky retires.NEWS: Dino Ciccarelli goes to jail for two hours.VIEWS: After years playing for Minnesota North Stars, hasn&rsquo;t this man suffered enough?NEWS: Guy Lafleur phones Los Angeles Kings, looking to make a comeback.VIEWS: King general manager Rogie Vachon assures Lafleur that if he can make it back with the Kings, Vachon will come out of retirement to play goal.NEWS: Lafleur, instead, will make his comeback attempt with New York Rangers.VIEWS: Any day now,(Phil Esposito is going to announce that he&rsquo;s coming out of retirement to play on a line with Lafleur and Marcel Dionne.NEWS: In his most important move as Pittsburgh GM, Tony Esposito hires Gene Ubriaco to coach the Penguins.VIEWS: And to think, Bill LaForge and Ned Harkness were both available.NEWS: In a trade overshadowed by The Trade, Quebec sends defenseman Terry Carkner to Philadelphia for tough guy Greg Smyth.VIEWS: Does Bobby Clarke have pictures of new Quebec GM Martin Madden doing something unsavory?NEWS: Quebec trades for center Walt Poddubny.VIEWS: Is Madden on Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; payroll, or what?NEWS: Toronto Maple Leafs do not fire John Brophy as coach.VIEWS: All together now: W-h-y?NEWS: Dave King decides he&rsquo;ll no longer participate in summer coaching seminars because he&rsquo;s tired of seeing NHL coaches in the seats taking notes.VIEWS: Funny, he never saw Brophy among them. Broph doesn&rsquo;t go for that X&rsquo;s and O&rsquo;s stuff.NEWS: Gretzky being traded to Los Angeles was huge news in the United States.VIEWS: The lights going on at Wrigley Field got a full page in Time magazine. In the same issue, the Gretzky trade got a quarter page.NEWS: Bob Pulford hires Mike Keenan to coach Chicago Blackhawks.VIEWS: Pulford broke rule No. 1 among sports executives. He hired someone who will take his job.NEWS: Blackhawks fire coach Bob Murdoch, who learns of his firing from a Chicago reporter.VIEWS: Pulford might have told Murdoch first, but Murdoch couldn&rsquo;t decipher the mumbling.NEWS: New North Star GM Jack Ferreira says he isn&rsquo;t worried about interference from club president Lou Nanne and insists he only has to answer to the owners.VIEWS: Ferreira also believes in the Easter Bunny and thought the Honky Tonky Man was a worthy pro wrestling champion.NEWS: St. Louis Blues make yet another trade with Montreal Canadiens.VIEWS: The Blues should give up scouting juniors and simply assign a full-time scout to follow the Canadiens.NEWS: Pittsburgh Penguins vow they&rsquo;re destined to earn a playoff spot in the tough Patrick Division.VIEWS: Four good reasons why the Pens won&rsquo;t make the playoffs again. 1. Sean Burke. 2. Ron Hextali. 3. Kelly Hrudey. 4. Clint Malarchuk.NEWS: Not only is Gretzky in Los Angeles but the Kings signed John Tonelli as a free agent.VIEWS: Now the Kings can say they have a Wayner and a Whiner in their lineup.NEWS: Detroit winger Bob Probert admits he&rsquo;s back on the bottle, but says he&rsquo;s under control.VIEWS: Funny, I remember Lawrence Taylor of New York Giant fame spinning a similar yam about a different habit.NEWS: Brent Ashton is traded from Detroit to Winnipeg, after starting out in Vancouver, moving to Colorado, then Jersey, then Minnesota, then Quebec, then Detroit.VIEWS: Suitcase Ashton, after all those years, finally felt at home in Detroit. He found out what almost all hockey players eventually find out. As soon as you feel secure and go out and purchase a home you should know you&rsquo;re going to be traded.NEWS: NHL season only about a month away from commencing.VIEWS: Whatever became of the off-season? &#9632;

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Gretzky A Miracle Worker, But Not A Carpenter’s Son

Skates are the single most important piece of hockey equipment you&rsquo;ll ever buy.It makes sense to be cost-conscious, of course, but remember&mdash;if the skate doesn&rsquo;t fit, isn&rsquo;t comfortable, or doesn&rsquo;t perform the way you want it, no saving is big enough to justify your purchase.A quick look through our Skate Buyers&rsquo; Guide should provide you with a fair idea of what&rsquo;s out there in the world of skates. And when you&rsquo;ve digested all the information, your next step should be to go out in the open market and begin the quest for the perfect pair of skates for you or your child.If you&rsquo;ve been out of the market recently, you&rsquo;ll be amazed at the new innovations in skates, especially in the all-important area of fit.&ldquo;The biggest thing about the skate industry today,&rdquo; says an executive of a leading skate manufacturer, &ldquo;is that it&rsquo;s paying a lot of attention to innovations in the footwear industry in general.&ldquo;You look at shoes and how they&rsquo;ve been developed to give a better fit, and many of those same innovations are being used on skates. For example, it wasn&rsquo;t long ago that you could get only one width in a skate. Now, many of the skate manufacturers are offering a variety of widths.&ldquo;Most of the major manufacturers now have some sort of ankle system that molds to the shape of the ankle. The insoles have been customized, too. The big winner is the consumer, no doubt about that.&rdquo;Another skate company spokesman explained that as players improve competitively, they demand the best fit possible.During that time, a custom fit is obtained. First, the player&rsquo;s foot is measured for both length and width.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s just a gauge, it&rsquo;s not exact,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It just gives us the size as a starting point.&rdquo; Then, when a boot of the right approximate size is selected, the real customizing starts.As the player slides his foot into the boot, his heel meets with a malleable substance inside the boot&mdash;some makes feature a putty-like material, some use cork, some use foam&mdash;and molds the substance to its own shape.&ldquo;The key is that you get your heel as locked in as possible. We suggest the player put the boot on, and keep on kicking his heel back as he laces it up. With the boot laced, he should walk around a while in the skates, because the (casing) material expands.&ldquo;Most skate exteriors are made of nylon or leather&mdash;which will stretch&mdash;so it&rsquo;s best you get a close, tight fit initially.&rdquo;But if you&rsquo;re trying for a tight fit, how can you tell if you&rsquo;ve got enough room for your toes?&ldquo;When you get into the boot,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;your toes will be very close to the end of the boot&mdash;but once you kick your foot back, your toes will be feathering the toe of the boot.&rdquo;Children, he said, are a different situation. Most will grow during the season, so it&rsquo;s not a good idea to get the tightest possible fit. A better idea is to take a fitting for the ideal size, then buy a half-size larger.&ldquo;The key for a kid&rsquo;s skate is to allow a little room for growth&mdash;but not too much. Kids&rsquo; feet will grow over the course of the season.&rdquo;The spokesman recommended buying new skates, not because that&rsquo;s what he sells, but because there&rsquo;s far less room for error and injury.&ldquo;A lot of used skates you&rsquo;ll see around are worth nothing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing to them&mdash;you can squish them in your hand.&rdquo;Advances in technology will also be missed. The older the skate, as a rule, the worse the construction. And since the skate-buying public is generally a sophisticated bunch these days, sporting goods dealers have had to keep pace. Most are aware of the specifics of the products they sell, and many have been schooled on what constitutes proper fit and design.And there&rsquo;s a great deal of literature available to anyone who&rsquo;s interested in taking the time to teach himself about skates and their care.&ldquo;I think manufacturers have realized that a lot of their success depends on the retailer who sells the skates,&rdquo; another spokesman noted. &ldquo;If the retailer is ignorant of skates and how they fit, or how they should be cared for, then the customer will likely be unhappy. But when he gets mad, he&rsquo;s going to blame the skate. Therefore, it&rsquo;s in the manufacturer&rsquo;s best interests to educate the retailers who, in turn, can educate the customer.&ldquo;If that customer is satisfied with the purchase, then there&rsquo;s a good chance he or she will buy your product again. I know for sure no manufacturer can afford to rest on its laurels. You&rsquo;re only as good as the last pair of skates you produce.&rdquo; &#9632;

Today’s Skates Fit And Perform Better

Blademaster ice skate care equipment has evolved over many years, into the modern Blademaster machines of today.The grinding heads are powerful one-half horsepower units, turning eight-inch diameter grinding wheels at 3600 revolutions per minute, providing the optimum speed for grinding. Precisely-ground spindles turn in double ball bearings, sealed for lifetime usage. The bearing housings are honed to tenths of a thousandths of an inch. Blademaster machines are more powerful and faster than others.The polished heavy steel table acts as a surface plate, giving a rigid and precise location to the skate blade during sharpening. The table absorbs and dampens any grinding wheel vibrations, thus providing a smooth finish on the skate blade.Recognizing the need to keep dust and grit from floating in the air. Blademaster machines now are equipped with an efficient hood-and-filter system. This allows the skate sharpening-operation to be performed in sporting goods stores, thus generating interest and additional sales and revenues.Two patented contouring systems&mdash;Custom Radius Mark I and Mark II&mdash;are unique to the Blademaster machines. These systems transfer the radius from the contoured gauge bar to the skate blade. A wide range of radii is available. A small radius will give the skater great maneuverability, while a large radius will increase stability and speed. The choice is up to the individual, for his particular needs.These Custom Radius systems provide the proper balance or &ldquo;lie&rdquo; of the skate blade. This enables the skater to generate powerful strokes and to have a comfortable, natural skating style. This feature also enables adjustment in the he to suit the skater&rsquo;s needs. A hockey forward may want his skate blade slightly forward to give him quick starts; a defenseman who frequently must skate backward may want his he tipped slightly back of center. These adjustments can be easily made in the contour grind operation.Another variable that Blademaster makes available to the discriminating skater is the radius of the hollow grind. Various radii can be obtained easily by changing the calibration of the diamond dresser. Generally, hockey players want to be able to cut sharply and stop quickly, so they may want a deep hollow grind of &#8540;&rdquo; radius. On the other hand, figure skaters, for their compulsory figures, want a maximum glide&mdash;so they may want a very shallow hollow grind. With a Blademaster you can have up to a 4 &frac12;&rdquo; radius.In 1987 the Blademaster-Custom Radius ice skate care equipment rights were acquired by Guspro Inc. of Chatham, Ontario, Canada. This family-owned company has been manufacturing precision honing equipment since 1932 and is dedicated to making the highest quality equipment and to giving the customer outstanding service. &#9632;

Blademaster: Best For Custom Sharpening

Since North Americans started skating, Daoust has been a familiar name. Established since 1891, the company has evolved from a footwear factory to an expert in one field&mdash;Skate making.Working closely with professional hockey players, Daoust&rsquo;s technical team constantly monitors the ever-evolving demands of those players in order to keep their skates always in line with today&rsquo;s tough standards.<h2>National 501</h2>We now invite you to meet the world&rsquo;s most technically advanced skating instrument: the National 501. To this day, no other skate has been able to match it in terms of comfort, safety and toughness. For the first time ever, computer simulation provided unmistakable evidence with regard to significance of pressure points: rapid acceleration, an abrupt stop and a sharp turn are the crucial movements in the art of skating. For this reason Daoust has introduced the bi-structural skate.<blockquote class="pullQuote">The National 501 proves it has the right stuff on the ice.</blockquote><h2>Most advanced skate</h2>Examine the 501 up close. Note its rugged, racy good looks and flawless engineering. A hands-on examination will allow you to appreciate the quality of materials used in the making of the 501, as well as the expertise of their craftsmanship: try the 501 on for size&hellip;unbelievable comfort, right? But where the 501 really proves it has the right stuff is&hellip;on ice.Ultra-comfortable, lightweight and resistant, we firmly believe you&rsquo;ll never find a better skate&hellip; no matter how long you look.<h2>Construction</h2>The skate&rsquo;s interior facing features a different construction which provides the quarter with precision reinforcement with regard to the varying pressure placed on the foot by the skate during action.A resin-reinforced, ballistic nylon mesh boot, black leather trimmings, as well as a tongue and back strap, both featuring an inner nylon mesh, have positioned the National 501 as the ideal model for ultimate safety.The beehive construction of the new Daoust insole offers many advantages:&bull; total insulation of warm air passage&bull; completely ventilated&bull; hygienic, fully washable&bull; absorbent cushion resists buckling<h2>Blade</h2>Naturally the 501 comes with the best blade available today. The Tuuk Titanium stainless for longer wear, keeping a sharp edge over the competition.<h2>Durability</h2>Daoust skates also last longer than those of its competitors because they are built tougher. The National 501 skates are available in quarter sizes and in five different widths.Daoust encourages amateur hockey. Its sales representatives are providing guidelines on the fit of skates at hockey schools.Daoust skates are available at sporting goods retailers, and are distributed internationally.For more information please contact: In Canada&mdash;Daoust, 190 East Cremazie Street, Suite 110, Montreal, Que., H2P 1E1, phone (514) 382-3872. In the U.S. &mdash;Daoust U.S., 60 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA., 02178. &#9632;

Daoust Expert In One Field—Skate-Making

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01773/5639155-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02546/5639148-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="1447" height="2171"></div> &#9632;

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HOCKEY SKATE ANALYSIS

The world skates on TUUK and ICM products.CANPRO combines the ultimate in engineering with the strictest standards of quality control, to produce the most complete line of blades available today, the TUUK and ICM brands.This year&rsquo;s Une of TUUK products features the high-performing stainless steel blade, the blade preferred by most professional hockey players. Completing the line of TUUK products will be the stainless titanium blade and the Fasteel Carbon blade. The unique V-shaped blade holder, manufactured of Zytel, offers the hockey player a distinctive feel of the ice surface, unique to TUUK.This year, the ICM family will once again offer the high performing super steel blade, along with the Comp Plus and Jet models. Once again, all blades supports are manufactured of Zytel and feature the improved radius (similar to TUUK) for superior manoeuverability and performance.The ICM GOALER COWLING, a protective shell and integrated blade which is 20-per-cent lighter in weight than the conventional steel-and-protector combination, will be available in white.CANPRO is proud to be a supplier to major boot manufacturers such as Bauer, Cooper, Daoust, Graf, Micron and Riedell.When purchasing your next pair of skates, make sure they are equipped with CANPRO products, THE BLADES preferred throughout the world.WATCH FOR THN&rsquo;S EQUIPMENT BUYERS&rsquo; GUIDE (Sept. 23) AND STICK BUYERS&rsquo; GUIDE (Sept. 30) INThe Hockey News &#9632;

TUUK And ICM Feature Strictest Quality Control

Designed by computer technology and the science of bio-mechanics, the Mega 10-90 is the most technologically-advanced hockey skate available.In the same way today&rsquo;s advanced running shoes are designed to complement and enhance the natural motion of running, Mega skates are the first skates designed and built to complement the natural motions of skating.The ongoing commitment to improve the Mega has resulted in an important modification to our flagship skate, theMega 10-90 for 1988.Micron&rsquo;s objective of creating the &lsquo;bio-mechanically perfect&rsquo; skate has led to the biomechanically functioning flex notch. Located in the facing of the boot between the third and fourth eyelets, this allows for improved dorsal (forward) flexibility. The design also improves fit by absorbing the buckling that normally occurs in the boot during the dorsal flex stage of the skating stride. In addition, to improve the fitting capabilities of our most specialized dealers, we now offer the 10-90 Tuuk-bladed skate in five widths.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01696/5639217-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="531" height="811"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Lemieux Mega Advisory Staff</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02458/5639210-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="543" height="795"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wendel Clark Mega Advisory Staff</figcaption></div>The Mega 10-70 may be hockey&rsquo;s best-kept secret. Functionally, it&rsquo;s a skate every bit as good as the 10-90 but without the bells and whistles. To make the skate an alternative to the consumer whose price point is the 10-70, our objective was to make the skate as comfortable as the 10-90. To this end, the new 1988 Mega 10-70 was improved in several areas. Firstly, to improve comfort and quality the highly-successful Clarino lining used in the top-end 10-90 replaces the full-grain leather lining from 1987. In addition, the ankle pad has been replaced by a new Multifit foam system. The benefit is a more comfortable and supple feel that will not bottom out. &#9632;

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Mega: The Bio-Mechanically Perfect Skate

With Bauer&rsquo;s continued leadership in the skate industry and its commitment to always being technologically superior to its competitors, 1988 will be highlighted with the launch of the exciting new Bauer Supreme Custom 2000.Bauer is proud to introduce this new top-end skate which has been designed to provide superior fit and flexibility for maximum performance. Bauer has added the revolutionary new Dynaflex System to the 2000 for increased forward and backward flexibility to provide an even better fit for maximum energy transfer from foot to blade. And the strategic placing of unique notches in the facing and topguard makes certain that the new Bauer Supreme Custom 2000 will break in without breaking down.Add to this the custom fit obtained from Floflite ankle pads which conform exactly to ankle contours, Superfeet anatomical footbeds which optimize skating power and control, and the Form-fit tongue, which always remains centered on the foot. The result: The new Bauer Supreme Custom 2000-- ultimate fit for maximum performance.Following in the tracks of the successful Porsche-styled Supreme 944 is the new Supreme 924, which offers outstanding value and completes the family of &lsquo;new generation&rsquo; Supreme. And Bauer proudly reintroduces a Supreme tradition, the Supreme Classic 100, which created a new standard for fit and performance in the early &rsquo;80s. Featuring many of Bauer&rsquo;s exclusive fitting features, the Classic 100 also offers uncompromising value.With continued leadership and commitment to the Supreme line, it is not surprising that more NHL players wear Bauer Supremes than any other 4 brand of skate. As supplied by I the independent Elliott Research Corp., in 1987, the skate use by brand for the NHL was: Bauer 57 per cent; CCM 18 per cent; Daoust 13 per cent; and Micron seven per cent.The intermediate skates will continue to offer outstanding value by providing the famous Bauer fit and through the utilization of superior materials throughout the line. And Bauer introduces an exciting new recreational hockey skate, the Charger, which features a Hi-Tech molded backstrap for excellent support and style, combined with the fit of a sewn boot.After two years of continuous research and development by Bauer and Superfeet Inshoe Systems Inc., Bauer has recently introduced a revolutionary Custom Skatethotic Program. These custom-made footbeds precisely align the leg and foot with the skate blade for the most efficient transfer of energy from the foot to the blade. The result is superior balance, more control and an extremely comfortable fit. And thus, naturally, better performance.Bauer-branded accessories will complement the hockey line. These include a full selection of new Bold Graphic equipment bags, and an expanded clothing line featuring hockey underwear and a full line of sports-related leisure clothing.Bauer, Fit For Performance. &#9632;

Bauer Launches Its Supreme Custom 2000

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01665/5639279-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02440/5639272-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="1503" height="1896"></div> &#9632;

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Riedell USA is entering the 1988-89 hockey season with more strength and enthusiasm than ever before, because of the overall success Riedell has received from the Pro-College Program implemented over the last two years.Riedell has always been recognized as the world leader in the design and manufacturer of top quality figure skates since 1945, and the craftsmanship and success it has known for figure skates continues in the commitment to building the best line of hockey skates available.The Riedell Comp 411 is the top-end skate in the line. Through extensive research and design, Riedell is able to build the type of skate needed to withstand the constant abuse that is associated with the game of hockey. Riedell will be concentrating heavily on the promotion of its Comp 411. The skate offers lightweight, durable construction and delivers the finest in performance. The materials and construction methods are such that the boot won&rsquo;t break down prematurely and will keep on performing through the end of the season.Knowing that many top-end skates on the market lose their strength and support before season&rsquo;s end, Riedell&rsquo;s No. 1 goal was to develop a boot that withstood all the damaging effects of the game&mdash;such as stress, flex and damaging moisture. By using a non-absorbent padding system and internal materials that are highly resistant to moisture, the skate automatically delivers performance longer. Together with the latest shoemaking methods, the skate has unsurpassed strength in all areas.<blockquote class="pullQuote">With the addition of the new 71 Pro Star, Riedell now has a model of skate to suit all levels of hockey player.</blockquote>With the addition of the new 71 Pro Star, Riedell now has a model to suit all levels of hockey player. Whether it is the Comp 411 like the pros wear, or the inexpensive 71 Pro Star, you can count on Riedell to give you the highest standard in skates. &#9632;

Riedell Gives Highest Standard In Skates

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01651/5639334-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="148" height="114"></div>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Philadelphia Flyer general manager Bob Clarke, hesitant to shuffle the deck too much, will instead rely on a new team of dealers to adjust the Flyers&rsquo; pat hand for the 1988-89 season.The closer the Flyers got to their Sept. 9 training camp opening at Voorhees, N.J., the more it became apparent there would not be major player changes in store for a team which was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last spring.Clarke did make one move, trading goaltender Wendell Young and a seventh-round 1990 draft pick to Pittsburgh on Sept. 1 for the Penguins&rsquo; second-round selection in the same draft.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><blockquote class="pullQuote">Goaltender Wendell Young, who starred for the Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears, was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins.</blockquote>The move left Mark Laforest (5-9-2, 3.70 goals-against average in 21 games last sesaon) as Ron Hextail&rsquo;s backup. Young was (3-2-0, 3.75 in six NHL games and 33-15-1,2.77 GAA in 51 American League games with the Flyers&rsquo; Hershey farm team).Apart from that deal, as the season approached Clarke was banking on a revamped coaching staff plus help from Hershey to restore the Flyers to their usual level.The quiet summer eased the adjustments for the new coaching trio of Paul Holmgren and assistants Mike Eaves and Andy Murray.&ldquo;The new coaching team will represent a virtual wholesale change from the Mike Keenan regime. It&rsquo;s a feeling of newness, sort of like what we had in the summer of 1984,&rdquo; said Clarke.Clarke hired Keenan in the summer of 1984 and the Flyers baffled the experts by reaching the Stanley Cup finals in 1985. Philadelphia advanced to the finals again in 1987, but lost to Washington in a seven-game Patrick Division semi-final last year.Clarke is hoping for a repeat of the 1984-85 season.&ldquo;I think the approach of this coaching staff will be a lot different,&rdquo; said Clarke. &ldquo;Sometimes different doesn&rsquo;t mean better, but I think this will be better as well.&ldquo;I think the players were tired of the way things were being run here.&rdquo;The addition of Eaves should aid the Flyer power-play production. Murray is an X and O type, much like E.J. McGuire, who will rejoin Keenan in Chicago. Eaves will serve as a bench coach with Holmgren, with Murray watching from above in the press box.Clarke wasn&rsquo;t kidding about the challenges from Hershey.&ldquo;Look,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;we drafted these guys because we thought they could play. And Hershey went 12-0 in the playoffs last season (winning the Calder Cup). They know how to play and they are going to push some of the veterans.&rdquo;The most likely candidates are defensemen Gord Murphy (8-20-28 in 62 games with Hershey), John Stevens (1-15-16 in 59 games), and Jeff Chychrun (0-5-5 in 55 games), along with left wingers Glen Seabrooke (32-46-78 in 73 games) and Magnus Roupe (6-16-22 in 23 games).NOTES&mdash;The Flyers signed left winger Bruce Rendall, 21, and right winger Jeff Harding, 19, both of whom played for Michigan State Spartans last season. Rendall, a 6-foot-l, 185-pounder, was 10-2-12 with 35 penalty minutes in 39 games in his junior season. He was taken 42nd overall by the Flyers in the 1985 draft from Chatham of the Western (Ontario) Jr. B league. Harding, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound freshman, was 17-10-27 with 129 PIM in 43 games with the Spartans. Philadelphia took him 30th overall in the 1987 draft from St. Michael&rsquo;s of the Metro (Toronto) Jr. B league&hellip; The Flyers signed a three-year deal Aug. 18 to retain Hershey as their farm team.<div class="sidebar"><h2>FLYERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Sept. 1: Wendell Young, G, and seventh-round pick in 1990 draft traded to Pittsburgh for third-round pick in 1990 draft; Bruce Rendall, LW, Jeff Harding, RW, signed contracts. &#9632;</div>

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Clarke Not Ready For A Wholesale Discard

<div class="byline">Randy Smith</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01676/5639365-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="438" height="469"></div>WHERE DO BROKEN hearts go?Howard Baldwin went to California.Can they find their way home?In all likelihood, no.&ldquo;Seventeen years ago, we bought the Whalers for $25,000 and they were sold for an NHL-record $31 million,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;That will be our statement. We must have done something right.&ldquo;I'm real proud of that. But who&rsquo;s kidding who? For me, it&rsquo;s over.&rdquo;Baldwin was the founding father of the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association in 1972. He became president of the WHA and played a vital role in the merger with the NHL in 1979.As chairman, managing general partner and governor of the Whalers, Baldwin watched his dream grow into reality. Vision quest? Baldwin succeeded.Who knew that someday it would explode in his face?At a press conference in February, 1985, Baldwin unknowingly delivered his own obituary.&ldquo;I was the one who brought this team to Hartford,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I want to see the job through. And the job isn&rsquo;t done yet&mdash;far from it. I&rsquo;m not going anywhere unless they throw me out the door on my rear end.&rdquo;Founding fathers aren&rsquo;t often shown the door, but that&rsquo;s exactly what happened to Baldwin this summer (see page 37).When a group of investors headed by former Aetna Life & Casualty chief Donald Conrad and financier Richard Gordon purchased the Whalers for $31 million in June, Baldwin was offered a diminished role with the Whalers, but refused.For $31 million, Conrad and Gordon should get to deal, but nobody suspected that the abrupt exodus of Baldwin to the west coast would be in the cards.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not bitter or angry, not at all,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather be a buyer than a seller, but I had a good run. The corporate partners were real supportive of me and real good to me. So be it.&rdquo;Conrad and Baldwin were instrumental in bringing the Whalers to Hartford in 1974. The public perception of the pair is that they were comrades in arms, determined to bring big-league hockey to Hartford, no matter the obstacles, including an ungodly roof collapse in 1978.Conrad, who has served the Whalers as an alternate governor since 1974, tried in his own way to accommodate Baldwin in the new hierarchy, but the two couldn&rsquo;t reach a satisfactory agreement.&ldquo;Howard&rsquo;s been a spokesman, not an owner,&rdquo; Conrad said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a difference.&rdquo;Baldwin owns just one per cent of the Whalers, so when the big money came on the table, his leverage was undermined.So, he hiked, with only a hint of unhappiness.&ldquo;The funny thing is that I was complimentary to Conrad and Gordon through this whole thing and I wasn&rsquo;t extended the same courtesy,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;I resent that.&rdquo;Under Baldwin, the Whalers grew into a viable and vibrant franchise. They commanded great attention in Hartford, knocking the Bruins and Rangers off the front sports pages for good.&lsquo;&lsquo;It was a love affair, from beginning to end,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;The Whalers were like a son to me.&rdquo;Baldwin had to endure his share of criticism over the years, but nobody ever said he didn&rsquo;t care.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m better now at admitting my mistakes than I was when I was younger,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Did we win as many hockey games as I would have liked? Hell, no. But we built a creditable organization that was financially viable. Plus we had a lot of fun.&rdquo;Baldwin heads Indian Neck Productions, a movie company in California. He will be involved in four-to-six movies a year, he said. His wife, Karen, will give acting a fulltime shot and will play one of the lead female roles in Redline, a hockey movie scheduled to begin shooting in January.He plans to write a book, too.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll center on the Whalers, naturally, and the war years in the late &rsquo;70s and early &rsquo;80s,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Those were revolutionary times. I was there.&rdquo;But against all odds, Baldwin will not be with the Whalers anymore.&ldquo;I might get back into hockey,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but if I do, it&rsquo;ll be with another organization. My Whaler days are over.&rdquo;Nobody ever figured it would turn out this way.But so it has.There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with Conrad coming out the big winner in this scenario, but there is everything wrong with Baldwin coming out the big loser.He deserved better, way better, in fact. But Baldwin doesn&rsquo;t sound like a loser.&ldquo;Look, I&rsquo;m healthy, my kids are good and I&rsquo;ve got a gorgeous wife,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Who the hell am I to complain?&rdquo;In between we can argue the merits of one Howald L. Baldwin, but let the record show that no man ever came in or went out with more class.Hartford will forever be in his debt. &#9632;

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Founding Father Of Whalers Leaves With Class

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03346/5639396-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="554" height="851"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rob Brown was one of only two Penguin right wingers to top six goals last year.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02481/5639403-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="153" height="120"></div>PITTSBURGH&mdash;For the better part of last season, it seemed only a matter of time until right winger Dave Capuano signed with Pittsburgh Penguins.Now, it apparently will be the better part of another year before he does so&mdash;and there is no assurance he will do so even then.Capuano, the Penguins&rsquo; second-round choice in the 1986 entry draft, was prepared to skip his junior season at the University of Maine to play in the NHL, but could not reach a contract agreement and will return to the Black Bears.Capuano told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette the contract offered by Penguin general manager Tony Esposito was &ldquo;a little disrespectful.&rdquo;Esposito contended Capuano was asking for more money than Windsor left winger Darrin Shannon, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s No. 1 choice in the 1988 entry draft, and characterized Capuano&rsquo;s contract demands as &ldquo;a bit outrageous.&rdquo;&ldquo;He has a right to his opinion, just like I do,&rdquo; Capuano said. &ldquo;All I wanted was what I was worth&mdash;market value. I don&rsquo;t think they had any intention of signing me with the contract they offered. The offer just wasn&rsquo;t there.&rdquo;So Capuano won&rsquo;t be when training camp opens Sept. 9, either, which means the Penguins will be without a player many had expected to significantly strengthen the weakest position on their depth chart.Last season, only two right wingers&mdash;Rob Brown (24 goals in 51 games) and Jock Callander (11 in 41)&mdash;scored more than six goals for the Penguins.Capuano, meanwhile, made some gaudy additions to his already impressive resume last season, winning the Hockey East scoring championship by 17 points and being named a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award.Capuano, 20, had 25 goals and 34 assists in 26 league games last year, to easily outdistance teammate Mike McHugh, the runner-up in the Hockey East scoring race.The Penguins did bolster their right side a bit by signing Mark Recchi of Kamloops, their No. 4 pick in June, but are continuing their rather fervent search for help at that position.That explained why Esposito pondered the possibility of extending a training-camp invitation to Guy Lafleur, who had not picked up a stick in anger in nearly four years.Lafleur instead signed a tryout pact with Esposito&rsquo;s brother Phil, general manager of the Patrick Division-rival New York Rangers.Lafleur and Tony Esposito, coincidentally enough, were among those to be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sept. 7.Whether a similar honor awaits Capuano in 20 or so years is conjecture, but this much is certain:Regardless of whether his NHL career turns out to be legendary or laughable, it is all but guaranteed to have not started before the 1989-90 season.NOTES&mdash;Tony Esposito&rsquo;s search for another goalie ended Sept. 1 with the acquisition of Wendell Young from Philadelphia. The Penguins also received the Flyers&rsquo; seventh-round pick in the 1990 draft in exchange for a third-round choice in the same draft. Young was 33-15-1 with a 2.77 goals-against average for Hershey last season and 12-0, 2.19 GAA during the Bears&rsquo; perfect run to the Calder Cup. Young was named American League playoff MVP&hellip; Contract negotiations were continuing with centers Mario Lemieux and Dan Quinn, goalie Steve Guenette and Darrin Shannon. Shannon&rsquo;s agent, Rick Curran, said Shannon would not report to camp without a contract&hellip; The Penguins were scheduled to open their nine-game exhibition schedule Sept. 17 against the New York Rangers in Denver. They will play two pre-season games&mdash;Sept. 22 against Montreal and Oct. 1 against Hartford&mdash;at the Civic Arena.<div class="sidebar"><h2>PENGUINS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 17: Mark Recchi, RW, signed multi-year contract.Sept. 1: Wendell Young, G, and seventh-round 1990 draft choice acquired from Philadelphia for third-round 1990 draft choice. &#9632;</div>

f0028-03

College Star Snubs ‘Disrespectful’ Pen Offer

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01584/5639434-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="143" height="116"></div>UNIONDALE, N.Y.&mdash;Free agent Brent Sutter&rsquo;s new two-way contract runs for six years and could be worth as much as $2.5 million, depending on fulfillment of bonus clauses.David Volek&rsquo;s first professional contract, meanwhile, won&rsquo;t guarantee him as much as a tryout with the New York Islanders. Volek&rsquo;s Edmonton-based agent, Rich Winter, claimed the 22-year-old Czechoslovakian defector is being set up for use as a political pawn between the NHL and the International Ice Hockey Federation.No wonder GM Bill Torrey didn't get much of a tan this summer. It&rsquo;s been a hectic few months for the Islanders.Volek, the world-class right winger who waited more than four years from the day the Islanders drafted him to defect from Czechoslovakia and pursue his NHL dream, agreed to terms on a multi-year contract with the Isles on August 31.That was only the first step. Volek and Winter are concerned about another political entanglement. Earlier this summer, the IIHF asked the NHL to enforce a six-month suspension handed Volek by the Czechoslovaks, who claimed he tested posiive for steroids during the Czechoslovak League playoffs in April.Winter said the charges are unfounded, that Volek has not used steroids, and that the Czechoslovak government tested only Volek during its country&rsquo;s playoffs because it suspected he would defect and found him in violation simply to retaliate once he did.Winter said he has &ldquo;heard rumors that David will be used as a political pawn&rdquo; in the ongoing negotiations (for future exhibition series and tournaments or signings) between the NHL, the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, the IIHF and the Soviet Union.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m extrememly frustrated by the NHL and NHLPA&rsquo;s efforts to discuss this among themselves and not discuss this with David,&rdquo; Winter said. &ldquo;Bill Torrey and 1 are taking the position that this is not a problem.&rdquo;Torrey has kept quiet on the subject since Volek and his 22-year-old girlfriend defected to Canada on July 25.Winter, a staunch opponent of NHLPA Alan Eagleson (who doubles as an agent), admitted he has no evidence to back the claim that Volek is being used as &ldquo;a bargaining chip.&rdquo; But he was taking no chances.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve written letters and made phone calls to the NHL,&rdquo; Winter said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve refused to respond. We want to know what&rsquo;s going on. We&rsquo;ll take a lie detectortest to satisfy the czar of the NHL. Who that is, Ziegler or Eagleson, I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;Ziegler was in Moscow in late August, firming this winter&rsquo;s series of exhibition games between two of the USSR&rsquo;s teams and 14 NHL teams, including the Islanders. Eagleson could not be reached either, but the NHLPA&rsquo;s assistant director, Sam Simpson, said from Toronto that "nothing has been presented to the Players&rsquo; Association (regarding Volek). I know that a request has gone from the IIHF to the NHL requesting that the ban be upheld.&rdquo;&ldquo;The league doesn&rsquo;t automatically uphold suspensions,&rdquo; said Gerry Helper, the NHL&rsquo;s director of information. &ldquo;In an instance like this, the NHL would conduct its own independent inquiry before deciding whether to take any action.&rdquo;Meanwhile, Sutter, the 26-year-old Isle captain, learned free agency in the NHL is a myth. Once Torrey raised the stakes a bit, Sutter accepted a two-way clause that had delayed the signing for several weeks.&ldquo;My feelings about contracts have not changed,&rdquo; said Torrey. &ldquo;Each player in the organization, even Bryan Trottier (who is in the seventh year of an $8 million, 10-year deal) has a clause that lowers his salary if he&rsquo;s sent to the minors.NOTES&mdash;Coach Terry Simpson admitted he interviewed only Rick Wilson, his assistant coach for six years at Prince Albert (WHL), in his search for a new assistant coach. Bob Nystrom, who wanted to keep the job he held for two years, was named director of corporate affairs, a one-year part-time position&hellip;Training camp was to open Sept. 8 for rookies and the following day for veterans. The 10-game pre-season schedule begins Sept. 17 with the beginning of a home-and-home series against Philadelphia. The Isles play the Flyers, New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins and Quebec Nordiques twice each&hellip; The Isles signed a working agreement with the International League Indianapolis Ice, but the American League Springfield Indians remain their primary affiliate.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="sidebar"><h2>ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 25: Brent Sutter, C, agreed to terms on six-year contract; Bob Nystrom named director of corporate affairs.Aug. 30: Hank Lammens, D, and Peter McGeough, RW, agreed to contract terms.Aug. 31: David Volek, RW, agreed to contract terms. &#9632;</div>

f0029-01

Agent Says Newestlslels ‘Political Pawn’

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02403/5639465-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="159" height="120"></div>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;Make no mistake about it, the 1988-89 Quebec Nordiques are Martin Madden&rsquo;s team.The Nordique general manager has wasted little time putting his imprint on things since taking over from Maurice Filion June 27.He obtained goalie Bob Mason from Chicago in a July 5 trade to shore up Quebec&rsquo;s netminding and dealt the unhappy pair of defenseman Normand Rochefort and center Jason Lafreniere, both of whom demanded trades, to the New York Rangers on Aug. I. Madden obtained center Walt Poddubny and defensemen Bruce Bell and Jari Gronstrand from the Rangers.He hasn&rsquo;t neglected returning veterans or rookies either, signing 57 players to contracts. Madden invited 80 players to training camp, which was scheduled to open Sept. 9 at Le Colisee.In May, Madden signed Canadian League player-of-the-year Joe Sakic of the Western League&rsquo;s Swift Current Broncos and former Lake Superior State right winger Mark Vermette, THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; 1988 U.S. college player of the year.Also under contract are right winger Darin Kimble, Mike Modano&rsquo;s protector on the Western League Prince Albert Raiders last season (35-36-71 in 67 games with 307 penalty minutes), tough left winger Jacques Mailhot, who accumulated 304 penalty minutes in 43 American League games last season, right wingerKen Quinney (37-39-76 in 58 games with Fredericton of the American League and 2-2-4 in 15 games with the Nordiques) and defenseman Brent Severyn (21-29-50 in 46 games with the University of Alberta last season). Quinney and Severyn will likely play with the Nordiques&rsquo; American League affiliate in Halifax.Among the notable veterans signed are defenseman Randy Moller, right winger Gord Donnelly and right winger Lane Lambert (13-28-41 in 61).Madden also struck a deal with Finnish left winger lira Jarvi, a third-round draft pick from 1983, whose play is based on a strong work ethic. Jarvi impressed Nordique management during the Calgary Winter Olympics, when he was 2-5-7 in eight games.Moller, who signed a four-year contract, praised Madden&rsquo;s early efforts.&ldquo;It was a lot easier than I thought it would be,&rdquo; said Moller, 3-22-25 and 169 penalty minutes in 66 games last season. &ldquo;We really didn&rsquo;t know what to expect of Martin Madden. But everything turned out beautifully.Donnelly, who also sighed for four years, is another Madden fan.&ldquo;They also agreed to include a clause that states that I can&rsquo;t be sent down to the minors,&rdquo; said Donnelly, 4-3-7 and 301 penalty minutes in 63 games last season. &ldquo;That really makes me feel good. I&rsquo;ve been looking for the security and now I have it.NOTES&mdash;Veteran AHL defense-man Daniel Poudrier has asked the Nords for his release so he can play in Europe. Since graduating from Drummondville of the Quebec League after the 1983-84 season, Poudrier, 24, has played 19 games for Quebec&hellip;Left winger Scott Shaunessy, the 6-foot, 220-pound Boston University grad who was 0-9-9 with 257 penalty minutes for Fredericton of the AHL last season, will be moved to left wing this year.<div class="sidebar"><h2>NORDIQUES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 18: Randy Moller, D, Jacques Mailhot, LW, Ken Quinney, RW, Brent Severyn, D, signed contracts.Aug. 25: Gord Donnelly, RW, Lane Lambert, LW, Darin Kimble, RW, liro Jarvi, LW, signed contracts. &#9632;</div>

f0029-02

Madden Making His Mark Assembling Quebec Roster

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04228/5639496-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="555" height="797"><figcaption class="caption-body">According to his agent, Larry Robinson was insulted by Montreal's contract offer.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03331/5639503-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="155" height="113"></div>MONTREAL&mdash;Larry Robinson wants assurances of a job with the Montreal Canadiens following his playing days.Since the Canadiens can&rsquo;t&mdash;or won&rsquo;t&mdash;promise anything, the 16-year veteran defenseman has decided to play out his option during the 1988-89 National Hockey League season and become a free agent without compensation.&ldquo;I am still with the Canadiens,&rdquo; Robinson said. &ldquo;Maybe we will be able to get something worked out during the season.&ldquo;If I stay here, what I want to know is if they are going to have something for me after my playing days. Are they willing to offer me a job in some capacity?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to be the coach. I don&rsquo;t have the experience. A job as an assistant coach is worth thinking about.&rdquo;Robinson owns an auto repair company in Montreal but a deal to become part owner of a restaurant on the West Island went sour and Robinson is suing his former prospective partners.&ldquo;People like to know where they are going before they retire rather than after they retire,&rdquo; said Robinson, who owns a farm in nearby St. Lazare. &ldquo;My heart and soul is still here.&rdquo;Robinson&rsquo;s business agent, Don Cape, went much further, saying that the two-time Norris Trophy winner was insulted with a one-year plus option offer made by the Canadiens.Managing director Serge Savard said he wanted Robinson, 37. back for the coming season.&ldquo;If Savard is smart he&rsquo;ll trade Larry right now,&rdquo; Cape said. &ldquo;If he doesn&rsquo;t trade him, he won&rsquo;t get anything for him.&rdquo;Savard made Robinson an offer by the Aug. 10 deadline, otherwise Robinson would have been a free agent. He was waiting for an answer from the defenseman, but didn&rsquo;t appreciate the manner in which he received it.&ldquo;Normally you expect to have the player call you or receive something in writing,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m disappointed that I read in the newspaper that he was not accepting our offer. I&rsquo;m not going to negotiate through the media.&rdquo;Savard also indicated if it was Robinson&rsquo;s wish to be traded, maybe some accommodation could be made. He also said if Robinson acted the same way during the coming season as he did this past season he might be prepared to part company with the veteran.Robinson was an outspoken critic of former coach Jean Perron, who resigned May 16, and Savard has indicated he will not tolerate similar behavior with Perron&rsquo;s successor, Pat Bums.Savard indicated no approach was made by any of the other 20 NHL teams regarding Robinson, though Detroit is a location that&rsquo;s been mentioned by some, including Robinson (see page 12).&ldquo;It is not our intention to trade him now,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;If it becomes our intention, then it will be to a team that we can get the best deal from and that might not be Detroit.&rdquo;Robinson&rsquo;s son, Jeff, is a goaltender at a Detroit-area high school. Red Wing coach Jacques Demers has successfully used veteran defensemen in the past and said Robinson could be the missing link to get the Red Wings out of the Campbell Conference playoffs and into the Stanley Cup finals. He can&rsquo;t say much more than that because the NHL could invoke a fine for tampering.&ldquo;This summer, we thought seriously of signing (free agent Toronto defenseman) Borje Salming,&rdquo; Demers told Le Journal de Montreal. &ldquo;We need a player capable of creating opportunities from the point on our power play.&ldquo;A guy like Robinson could play until he is 40 because he is strong mentally. He would be a great leader.&rdquo;In the past, the Canadiens or Molson Breweries, the owners of the team, have looked after a few of their veteran players upon retirement.Center Pierre Mondou suffered a career-ending eye injury in March, 1985 and was given an assistant coaching job with the Verdun Jr. Canadiens before becoming a Canadiens&rsquo; scout.Right winger Mario Tremblay has carved himself a niche on the Molson-sponsored La Soiree du Hockey telecasts and broadcasts on Radio Canada, the French-language arm of the CBC.Defenseman Jean Hamel, who suffered a career-ending eye injury prior to the 1984-85 season, became an assistant coach with Sherbrooke of the American Hockey League. He replaced Bums as head coach at Sher-brooke this season.But not all have been content with what was offered them. Former star right winger Guy Lafleur (See page 5), was offered a public relations job after he retired in 1984. Dissatisfied with the $75,000 salary he was offered, Lafleur turned it down.NOTES&mdash;Managing director Serge Savard also has another contract problem with 12-year veteran defenseman Rick Green, who has been mumbling about retirement&hellip; TV A has signed a six-year contract for exclusive midweek television rights to Canadien games.<div class="sidebar"><h2>CANADIENS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 19: Donald Dufresne, D, signed one-year contract, plus option.Aug. 25: Sylvain Lefebvre, D, and Jose Charbonneau, RW, signed one-year contracts, plus option. &#9632;</div>

f0030-04

Dissatisfied Robinson Will Play Out Option

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01616/5639534-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="151" height="121"></div>BOSTON&mdash;David Jensen has returned home to make what could be his last stand as a professional hockey player.At the age of 23.Jensen, Hartford&rsquo;s first draft choice in 1983, has already had opportunities with the Whalers and Washington Capitals. He signed as a free agent with the Boston Bruins on July 1.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really happy,&rdquo; said the native of Newton, Mass. &ldquo;I always dreamed of playing with the Bruins. I&rsquo;m really looking forward to training camp. I&rsquo;m going to keep my mind set on hockey and give it my best shot.&rdquo;Jensen grew up in the Boston suburb of Needham and watched Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and John Bucyk lead the Bruins to Stanley Cups in 1970 and 1972.&ldquo;I grew up watching those guys and became obsessed with hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I even watched Terry O&rsquo;Reilly (his current coach), but don&rsquo;t tell him that.&rdquo;Jensen played for Lawrence Academy in one of the top prep school leagues in the Boston area and was a member of the U.S. Olympic team at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics in 1984.Jensen never panned out for the Whalers, who took him 20th overall in the draft. He played just 13 games for them during the 1984-85 season, spent the rest of the year in Binghamton of the American League, and was traded to Washington in March, 1985.A month after the trade. Jensen injured his knee playing for Binghamton, had surgery and went through a summer of rehabilitation. He missed all of the 1985 playoffs and the first 18 games of the 1985-86 season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s healthy as far as we&rsquo;re concerned,&rdquo; said Bruin assistant general manager Tom Johnson.After he spent most of the 1985-86 season and the next two in both Binghamton and Fort Wayne of the International League, the Caps gave up on him. At the urging of New England scout Joe Lyons, the Bruins signed him.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve made no promises,&rdquo; said Jensen. &ldquo;They know I&rsquo;ll work hard and they think I have the skills to make it.&ldquo;My best assets are my speed and puck-handling ability. I&rsquo;m lifting weights and running quite a bit to build my strength so I can become a more physical player.&rdquo;Last year, he had an assist in five games last year with the Capitals and 5-2-7 in nine games with Binghamton.&ldquo;Last season was very discouraging. I separated my shoulder twice and I&rsquo;ve been working to build my shoulder strength back up. I&rsquo;m also working at getting my confidence back up.&ldquo;I just look at the past as part of life. I&rsquo;m going to just keep on trying. This is a big opportunity for me and I&rsquo;m really glad to have it.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s a difficult opportunity, too, with four centers&mdash;Ken Linseman, Steve Kasper and Bob Sweeney, representing 77 goals, and promising rookie Craig Janney&mdash;all but guaranteed jobs ahead of him.Meanwhile, general manager Harry Sinden spent the summer politely declining offers for goalie Andy Moog.One of the offers reportedly would have brought center Bernie Nicholls from the Los Angeles Kings even up.&ldquo;1 think they look at our goaltending and see that Reggie (Lemelin) played so well last year that maybe we'll deal Moog,&rdquo; said Sinden.&ldquo;But what happens if we have an injury? What happens if Reggie is not what he was last year? He might be what we expect him to be but his history has been sort of on-again, off-again.&rdquo;Some people, aware of Sinden&rsquo;s track record in trading, just aren&rsquo;t listening.&ldquo;I suppose if you&rsquo;ve traded Phil Esposito, you&rsquo;ll trade anybody,&rdquo; said Herb Pinder, Nicholls&rsquo; agent.Behind Moog and Lemelin, it&rsquo;s a long way back to Terry Taillefer (4-30, 3.32 goals-against average in 12 games at Maine of the AHL last season) and Norm Foster, who played for the IHL&rsquo;s Milwaukee Admirals in 1987-88 (10-22-1, 5.10 GAA in 38 games).NOTES&mdash;Former Bruin left winger Geoff Courtnall, awarded to Washington after an arbitration hearing, described money matters with Bruin general manager Harry Sinden this way: &ldquo;Harry runs a tight ship. He pays probably five guys and the rest of the guys have to work for everything they get.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Tickets for all 40 Bruin home games went on sale Aug. 31 and fans were limited to only four tickets each for four games with Montreal, two with Edmonton and one for the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; visit Feb. 9. &#9632;

f0031-01

Jensen Heads Home But With No Promises

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01652/5639572-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01580/5639565-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="3438" height="2472"></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE TRAINING CAMP ROSTERS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02415/5639603-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0033-02

NATIONAL LEAGUE PRE-SEASON SCHEDULE

<div class="byline">BY BOB WAGNER</div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04292/5639672-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="130" height="115"></div>More than the Colorado Rangers&rsquo; name almost changed on Aug. 31.The International League Rangers had already decided to drop the reference to Colorado and make it Denver when another decision came close to being made&mdash;a move to New Haven, Conn., and the American League.At the request of the New York Rangers, the Los Angeles Kings were going to vacate New Haven and move to Hamilton, Ont. The parent Rangers were then going to withdraw their farm team from the IHL and move back to the AHL.But the final details were unable to be worked out, so the Denver Rangers are staying put for the 1988-89 season, as are the L.A.-sponsored Nighthawks of the AHL.&ldquo;We have a 10-team league, the season opens Oct. 7, and it is my understanding that the Denver Rangers have made a two-year agreement with the New York Rangers,&rdquo; said IHL commissioner Bud Poile. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s done, finalized, period.&rdquo;The &lsquo;new&rsquo; Rangers will come under the umbrella of an ownership troika of Richard Gerry of Venture Capital, an organization that raises money for new companies; Sidney Shlenker, owner of the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association, and the Denver-area United Cable Television.Previous owner Dennis Champine, who brought Denver and its New York Rangers affiliation to the IHL just last season, said his pockets &ldquo;weren&rsquo;t deep enough&rdquo; to run the team. Champine, a commercial real estate broker, was the sole owner.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a difficult business,&rdquo; said Champine. &ldquo;The budget is pretty much the same, but there were variables, like how many people come to the games (attendance last year averaged 2,600 in the 8,100-seat Denver Coliseum). My projections coming in here were higher than what took place, so there was a shortfall, probably not a significant sum but it was significant to me.&rdquo;The transfer of ownership has the approval of the New York Rangers and the IHL is expected to approve it at its fall meeting Sept. 14 in Kalamazoo, Mich.Gerry, who once played goalie for St. George&rsquo;s School in Newport, R.I., is optimistic about the team. &ldquo;Everything depends on the lease being approved by the city council and it looks very positive. I think the city wants to keep hockey here. Denver is going to be one of the capitals of the west and they&rsquo;re going to have to support the four major sports, major or minor.&rdquo;Gerry, 30, severed ties with Venture to run the team full-time. &ldquo;I want to make sure it&rsquo;s done right. I&rsquo;ve got two great partners. With my background interest in hockey, cable television&rsquo;s involvement, and Sidney having run a professional sports franchise, the ownership fits like a glove.&rdquo;</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>A TOUGH ENCORE</h2>Life doesn&rsquo;t get any easier for Blair MacDonald.MacDonald, 34, was named head coach of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s IHL affiliate in Muskegon on Aug. 29. The Lumberjacks won four East Division championships and one Turner Cup the last four years under Milwaukee-bound Rick Ley.That&rsquo;s a tough act to follow. But consider last season when MacDonald took over the reins of the Fredericton Express of the AHL after the Quebec Nordiques brought up Ron Lapointe to run the NHL team in early December. Fredericton was in first place in the Northern Division at the time.&ldquo;The only way we could go was down,&rdquo; shrugged MacDonald. That&rsquo;s pressure. The Express finished second with 95 points (42-30-8), eliminated first place Maine in the Northern final, then lost to Hershey in the Calder Cup final. &ldquo;We were a little beat up at the time,&rdquo; said MacDonald.It won&rsquo;t be any easier in Muskegon for MacDonald, a veteran right winger of six years in the World Hockey Association and four in the NHL.&ldquo;When you play at a certain level everyone is expecting you to maintain that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There will be a little pressure at first, especially with the coaching change. But we&rsquo;re here to develop players and our first priority is supply Pittsburgh with players who will fit the pieces of their puzzle, and you do that with a winning program.&rdquo;<h2>WHAT'S IN A NAME?</h2>The Indianapolis Ice&hellip; it&rsquo;s better than Purple Haze. Ray Compton. general manager of the Indianapolis team, said fan balloting chose the nickname for the defunct Checkers franchise bought by businessmen Larry Woods and Horn Chen. &ldquo;We had received suggestions like Icemen and leers and we simplified that to Ice. Other names were Warriors, Capitals, Silver Streaks, Purple Haze and one other strange one. I can&rsquo;t remember what it was.&rdquo;&hellip;L.J. (Skip) Probst, who coached at Villanova University, was named general manager of the Peoria Rivermen Aug. 3. His 11-year record at Villanova was 176-183-26. &#9632;

f0034-04

Rangers Stay In Colorado After Ownership Changes

<div class="byline">BY ED WILLES</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03393/5639703-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="537" height="1125"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gord Lane changed his mind about coaching the Americans after two visits to Tri-Cities.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01629/5639710-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="151" height="113"></div>The youngest coach and general manager in the Western League will be guiding the Prince Albert Raiders this season.Peter Anholt, 27, and Brad Tippett, 28, were named coach and general manager, respectively, of the Raiders on Aug. 12, the same day Rick Wilson resigned both positions.Anholt replaced Wilson, who on Aug. 15 was selected an assistant coach with the New York Islanders. Wilson was reunited with his Raider predecessor Terry Simpson, coach of the Islanders since the 1986-87 season.Both Anholt and Tippett are familiar with the Raiders&rsquo; organization. Anholt was an assistant under Wilson the past two seasons. He also played for the Raiders from 1978-79 to 1980-81 when the team was still a member of the Tier II Saskatchewan Junior League. Anholt went on to play with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies before joining the Raiders as an assistant in 1986-87.Tippet was the Raiders&rsquo; assistant general manager last season. He played three seasons for the SJHL Raiders, then attended the University of Michigan, where he obtained a bachelor&rsquo;s degree in business administration, majoring in accounting. He is the older brother of Hartford Whaler center Dave Tippett.&ldquo;There will be lots of grey areas and overlaps,&rdquo; said Tippett, &ldquo;but I will be concerned more with business activities and day-to-day operations of the hockey club. Peter will coach the team and make the hockey decisions.&rdquo;Wilson, an assistant coach for six seasons under Simpson, including the 1985 Memorial Cup championship team, is expected to coach the Islander defensemen.Prince Albert was 43-24-5 last season for 91 points and third place in the East Division.<h2>LANE LEAVES</h2>The Tri-Cities Americans, who&rsquo;ve yet to play a game in the WHL, are on their second head coach.During the WHL meetings June 26-30, the Americans announced former New York Islander defenseman Gord Lane agreed to a three-year contract to coach the team. However. Lane never signed the deal and reconsidered later in the summer."They weren&rsquo;t ready to accept what 1 needed as far as control of my destiny,&rdquo; Lane said.Lane added he changed his mind after two visits to the Tri-Cities, an area in western Washington state which includes the cities of Kennewick, Pasco and Richland. Owner Ron Dixon moved the New Westminster Bruins there this summer.&ldquo;I researched the team and the whole situation and I didn&rsquo;t think it was right,&rdquo; Lane said.With Lane unavailable, Dixon was expected to turn the coaching reins over to 30-year-old John Olver, the team&rsquo;s general manager.&ldquo;We would have hired John Olver as the new head coach after last season. but we thought he was going to retire from hockey," Dixon said.John Van Horlick coached the Bruins last season. His contract was not renewed following the team&rsquo;s 33-34-5 record.Olver's general manager duties have been assumed by 29-year-old Mike McCall. McCall is also the general manager of Consolidated Sports, the firm which is building the Americans&rsquo; home rink in Kennewick.The Americans have also signed Kevin Gallant as assistant general manager. Gallant was the Regina Pats&rsquo; director of marketing last season.<h2>TRADE TALK</h2>Two minor trades were announced as teams prepared to go to training camp. The Regina Pats dealt defenseman Kevin Derksen and Jason Marshall to the Americans for 17-year-old right winger Mark Cipriano. Derksen, 17, played midget hockey with the Calgary Buffaloes last season. Marshall, also 17, played junior B with Invermere, B.C. last season.In 25 games with the Bruins in 1987-88, Cipriano scored five goals, added five assists and picked up 41 penalty minutes.The other deal saw the Medicine Hat Tigers acquire 18-year-old left winger Tracey Egeland from the Swift Current Broncos for 15-year-old forward Travis Kelln. Egeland scored 10 goals and added 22 assists for the Broncos in 63 games last season. The 18-year-old native of Enchant, Alta., also picked up 34 penalty minutes. Kelln, a native of Swift Current, played bantam hockey in the Saskatchewan city last season. &#9632;

f0035-03

The Juniors

Young Men Take Charge In Prince Albert

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02489/5639741-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="154" height="112"></div>The 1988-89 season marks the Quebec League&rsquo;s 20th anniversary. It will be one of change.A new team, College Francais of Longueuil, takes to the ice, bringing league membership to 11 teams.College Francais&rsquo; presence also means the QMJHL has decided to dispense with the Dilio and LeBel Divisions in favor of one 11-team division.League president Gilles Courteau explained that the league didn&rsquo;t want unbalanced divisions. Last year, the 10-team league operated with two five-team sections. As well, Courteau said, travel would be facilitated by abandoning inter-divisional play.Another change is the move of the league office from the Quebec City suburb of Charlesbourg to Longueuil. And to celebrate the QMJHL&rsquo;s 20th anniversary, plans are in the works to select an all-time all-star team.Playoff format for the new league alignment is straightforward. The eight playoff teams will be seeded (according to regular-season finish, -with first-round play pitting 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5 in best-of-seven series. The survivors will again be seeded for semi-finals and finals.<h2>REVERSING COURSE</h2>Verdun Jr. Canadien general manager Jacques Lemaire faces a big rebuilding task with a team that finished last overall the last two seasons.Changing a losing attitude that saw the team go 19-47-4 last season after a 14-55-1 mark the previous year is the immediate task of Lemaire and coach Guy Chouinard, the former Calgary Flame who coached Victoriaville Tigres last season.&ldquo;No doubt,&rdquo; Lemaire said. &ldquo;We can see it right away. When the other team scores, our guys from last year get frustated. Our job is to change that as quickly as possible.&rdquo;Verdun got off on the right foot, beating the expansion College Francais of Longeueil 4-3 on Aug. 28. However, the Jr. Habs were drubbed 7-1 by the same club a night later.<blockquote class="pullQuote">Drummondville is excited about the Volts&rsquo; chances this year&mdash;1,400 fans attended the first pre-season game.</blockquote>Lemaire says that if Verdun&rsquo;s returning players display a better attitude, they can key the club&rsquo;s improvement.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have eight or nine veterans and it depends on how they play,&rdquo; said the former Montreal Canadien player and coach. &ldquo;We have a lot of confidence in guys like (left winger) Martin St-Amour, (center) Neil Carnes and (center) Andrew McKim.&rdquo;Verdun opened with 45 players in training camp on Aug. 19 and cut 10 in the first 10 days. The Jr. Habs were scheduled to begin the regular season Sept. 25 against Victoriaville.<h2>THE COLLEGE CROWD</h2>College Francais went through about 80 players, half of them invitees, at its training camp.The 5,000-student private school lost its first game to Verdun when Jr. Canadien Serge Renaud scored a power-play goal with 40 seconds remaining.&ldquo;We received many calls from parents asking us to invite their sons,&rdquo; said College head scout and former Verdun coach Richard Liboiron. &ldquo;You never know. If we miss a player because he wasn&rsquo;t invited, and he ends up playing in Verdun&hellip;&rdquo;<h2>FANS CHARGED UP</h2>Drummondville Voltigeurs, fresh from an appearance in last year&rsquo;s Memorial Cup, attracted 1,400 fans to the 3,033-seat Marcel Dionne Centre for their opening pre-season game.The fans went home happy as the Volts zapped the Victoriaville Tigres 3-1 on Aug. 26. Last year, Drummondville&rsquo;s pre-season home opener attracted about 500 spectators.The Volts were 35-31-4 last season, second in the Dilio Division. They lost the league final in seven games to Hull after winning the Dilio playoff championship to earn a Memorial Cup berth.But success has put Drummondville coach Jean Begin in a quandry with respect to determining this year&rsquo;s roster. Eight Voltigeurs were expected to attend NHL camps and Begin is uncertain how many of those would be returning to the Quebec League.Defenseman Mario Doyon (Chicago), defenseman Serge Anglehart (Detroit), center Daniel Maurice (Chicago), left winger Jean-Eric Landry (Los Angeles), left winger Claude Boivin (Philadelphia), right winger Simon Gagne (New York Rangers), center Rob Murphy (Vancouver) and right winger Daniel Dore (Quebec) were expected at NHL camps. &#9632;

f0035-02

QMJHL Starts 20th Season With One-Division Format

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01599/5639779-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="557" height="943"><figcaption class="caption-body">Overager Stan Drulia will follow the Hamilton Steelhawks to Niagara Falls.</figcaption></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04268/5639786-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="143" height="101"></div>The first player chosen at the Ontario League&rsquo;s 1985 priority selections draft has been traded.The Kingston Raiders swapped 19-year-old defenseman Bryan Fogarty to Niagara Falls Aug. 24 for overage defenseman Garth Joy, 19-year-old left winger Jason Simon, Kevin Lune, a 17-year-old left winger taken in the eighth round of this year&rsquo;s draft May 28 and a fourth-round pick in the 1989 selections.Fogarty, who is 6-foot-l, 175 pounds, was a first-round pick, ninth overall, of the Quebec Nordiquesat the 1987 NHL entry draft. He was 11-36-47 with 50 PIM in 48 games with Kingston, which finished last overall in the OHL in 1987-88 with a 14-52-0 record.The season before, Fogarty led all OHL defensemen in scoring, compiling 20-50-70 totals in 56 games for Kingston. His statistics last season placed him 17th among OHL defensemen.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>Kingston coach Larry Mavety said the Raiders needed some experienced players.&ldquo;Joy is an experienced defenseman who has played (four seasons with the Hamilton Steelhawks) and Simon is a tough kid who comes to play. I think Joy can do for us what Fogarty would here. And Simon gives us some depth up front.&rdquo;Joy is smaller than Fogarty at 5-foot-11, 180 pounds, but had 105 PIM in 62 games last season to go with offensive totals of 10-36-46.Mavety said Joy, an overager, has indicated he will play for the Raiders this season and attend Queen&rsquo;s University.Simon, 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, was 10-20-30 with 139 PIM last season while playing 26 games for the Sudbury Wolves and 29 for Hamilton. He was a rookie with the London Knights two seasons ago before being shipped to the Wolves.<h2>OVERAGE GANG</h2>Besides Joy, three other overage players have committed to returning.Right winger Stan Drulia, sixth in OHL scoring with 52-69-121 totals last season, told coach-general manager Bill LaForge he&rsquo;ll play for the former Hamilton Steelhawk franchise, which moved to Niagara Falls for this season.Drulia, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s llth-round choice, 214th overall, at the 1986 NHL entry draft, was not offered a contract by the Penguins, despite his impressive OHL totals.In London, right winger Dennis McEwen will be the Knights&rsquo; overage player. McEwen was 27-30-57 with 91 PIM in 55 games with the Knights last season.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05216/5639772-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="1159" height="1255"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bryan Fogarty, the Quebec Nordiques' first-round draft choice in 1987, was traded from Kingston to Niagara Fails.</figcaption></div>In Sudbury, the Wolves will have captain Jordan Fois back. The fourthyear defenseman was 6-24-30 with 89 PIM in 52 games with the Wolves last season.<h2>GOODALL OVERSEAS</h2>Ron Goodall is going Dutch.The right winger, who led the OHL in goals last season with 63 in 62 games while splitting time as an overager between Kitchener and London, will play this winter with Heereveen, a division-one team in the Netherlands.Goodall&rsquo;s agent, Rolly Thompson, said his client will make the equivalent of $25,000 (U.S.) playing in the Netherlands.Thompson said Goodall, who was 63-56-119&mdash;seventh in the OHL&mdash;last season, didn&rsquo;t receive any substantial offers from NHL teams.The 5-foot-9, 175 pound right winger wasn&rsquo;t drafted into the OHL and was not selected by a NHL team.Goodall had a tryout with the Vancouver Canucks last fall, but was released. &#9632;

f0036-01

Kingston Trades Fogarty For Three Players

<h2>TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE&hellip;</h2>1. Name the current NHL assistant general manager who wrote the book Life After Hockey.2. Which NHL assistant coach played for the 1968 U.S. Olympic team?3. Which current New York Ranger played for Davos of the Swiss League?4. Which Patrick Division player produced 251 points for Sorel of the Quebec League in 1973-74?5. Name the goaltender selected by Detroit in the first round of the 1973 NHL entry draft.6. Who was the only player who was a member of Boston's Stanley Cup winners in 1928-29, 1938-39 and 1940-41?7. Name the only team to eliminate Edmonton from the playoffs and not make it to the Stanley Cup finals.8. How many WHA Avco Cups did the Edmonton Oilers win?9. What team selected Boston goalie Reggie Lemelin in the 1974 NHL entry draft?10. Which Winnipeg Jet hails from Cleveland?<h2>ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ</h2>1. Mike Smith, Winnipeg. 2. John Cunniff, Boston. 3. Kelly Kisio. 4. Pierre Larouche. 5. Terry Richardson. 6. Aubrey (Dit) Clapper. 7. Los Angeles, 1981-82. 8. None. 9. Philadelphia. 10. Dave Ellett.BONUS ANSWER: Dennis Ververgaert.<h2>BONUS QUESTION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06185/5639817-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="527" height="946"></div>BONUS: He holds the record for fastest two goals in an All-Star Game (10 seconds, in 1976). &#9632;

f0036-06

THN HOCKEY TRIVIA

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01518/5639848-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="152" height="116"></div>HARTFORD&mdash;Howard Baldwin survived the WHA-NHL war. He survived the transfer of the New England Whalers from Boston to Hartford and persevered through the collapse of the Hartford Civic Center roof in 1978. He survived the lean seasons when the Whalers could have collapsed and drowned in red ink.But in the end, Baldwin could not survive the Whalers themselves. He lost his ruling position as Whaler chairman-managing general partner because the corporate partnership he &rsquo; helped devise chose Donald Conrad as the new owner. The move was to be effective Sept. 7.After Conrad and Richard Gordon paid a NHL-record $31 million on June 28 to purchase the Whalers&mdash;a sale which was expected to be approved by the NHL board of governors at its Sept 7 meeting in Toronto&mdash;Baldwin was asked by Conrad to remain as a consultant. He refused.Baldwin, who founded the team in 1972 and served as WHA president from 1977-1979, wanted to retain considerable power. Colonial Realty, which unsuccessfully bid against Conrad and Gordon, wanted to include Baldwin in its power structure. Baldin said he had the financial backing himself and the legal means as one of the existing partners to match any offer for the team.&ldquo;But 1 don&rsquo;t think anyone involved in good conscience could tell you this team was open for bid,&rdquo; Baldwin said. &ldquo;Two bids were received and only one was interviewed. That&rsquo;s not what I&rsquo;d call a process of evaluation.&rdquo;Conrad, who has served as chairman of the Whaler executive committee since 1975, left Aetna Life & Casualty to become owner and fulltime boss. Before the sale, Aetna was the Whalers' largest shareholder at 40 per cent.&ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t think our bid was taken seriously,&rdquo; agreed Frank Shuch, one of the partners at Colonial. &ldquo;I can see where Howard is coming from. We were never called in. We submitted our bid and when we heard that the bid wasn&rsquo;t going to be successful, we upped it, hoping that might do the trick.&rdquo;Although he retained one per cent ownership, Baldwin said he&rsquo;s doing it mainly for tax purposes. Conrad and Gordon, who will pay $23.25 million (U.S.) for 75 percent control, are selling back 25 per cent ($7.75 million U.S.) to 14 of the 15 existing partners. Those are huge numbers compared to ^he $25,000 loan Baldwin coerced from a bank to join the WHA in 1972.&ldquo;We turned the comer from losing a substantial sum of money to making money," Baldwin said. &ldquo;I hate to use the (NHL president) John Ziegler quote, but &lsquo;If it ain&rsquo;t broke, don&rsquo;t fix it.&rsquo; After starting and building this up, I couldn&rsquo;t take a subservient role.&ldquo;My relationship with Don Conrad right now isn&rsquo;t what you&rsquo;d call warm. I much prefer to be a buyer than a seller. But it was clear my attempts (to buy the team) would have been resisted by the corporate community. It would have gotten ugly. It would have tom apart everybody concerned.&rdquo;If Baldwin used his right as a partner to match a bid without the consent of the other majority partners, they could have banded together to equal his bid. Not only would the partners have kept control, they could vote Baldwin out of his job.Baldwin, who has been one of the more progressive voices in the NHL and helped engineer the WHA-NHL merger in 1979, said he has discussed a role with three or four other NHL teams and wants to remain part of the NHL advisory committee.&ldquo;The future of the league, that&rsquo;s where the big challenge is,&rdquo; Baldwin said.Baldwin is pushing for three expansion franchises&mdash;at least two in the western United States&mdash;within the next five years.NOTES&mdash;Center Ray Ferraro, entering the option year of his two-year contract, will go to arbitration. No date was set&hellip;Richard Gordon, a member of the board of directors at the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., approached Czechoslovakian tennis star Ivan Lendl about getting involved in the Whaler hierarchy. Lendl, who has attended a few Whaler games, has a home in Greenwich, Conn., and is seeking U.S. citizenship.<div class="sidebar"><h2>WHALERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 3: Al Tuer, D, and Larry Trader, D, signed multi-year contracts.Aug. 8: Todd Krygier, C, and Dave Rowbotham, LW, signed multi-year contracts.Aug. 26: Jacques Caron named minor-league goaltender consultant.Sept. 7: Howard Baldwin, managing general partner, resigned. &#9632;</div>

f0037-01

Baldwin Leaves After Refusing Reduced Role

<div class="byline">BY LARRY HUMBER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01571/5639886-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div><h2>ACROSS:</h2>1. Mark Messier's last amateur club, St. Albert-----.4. The Flyers' all-time leading goal scorer.9. Red Wing defenseman previously with the Canucks, Kings and Bruins.10. Maple Leaf farmhand Evans.11. A U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer12. Red Wing named to the NHL's all-rookie team in 1984.13. He was acquired by the Kings from the Rangers early in 1974, Gene----.15. One of a number of active players drafted first by the Canucks but no longer with the club.18. Edmonton-born goaltender began his NHL career with the Flyers.21. This veteran tough guy has yet to amass 200 penalty minutes in a season.23. Sending the puck from one end of the rink to the other.24. Sarnia-born Devil.25. Don Cherry's nickname26. Leaf goalie played junior with the Ontario League's Brantford Alexanders.<h2>DOWN:</h2>1. A university or college.2. Germain Gagnon was the first member of this NHL team to score a hat trick.3. 'Bearcat' Murray holds this job with the Flames.5. An original Canuck, ----- Boudrias.6. A defenseman with Team Canada in 1972.7. Goaltender Melanson.8. Former Flame Beers.14. Kate Smith's anthem, 'God Bless------.'15. This OHL coach had a brief stint behind the Canuck bench.16. This former Jet also served with Canada's Olympic team, Don-----.17. This Sabre was named the OHL's most outstanding player in 1984.19. Nickname of NHL Players' Association director.20. Prevent the puck from entering the net.22. Give medical attention to.<h2>CROSSWORD SOLUTION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01605/5639879-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="561" height="549"></div> &#9632;

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CROSSWORD

<h2>10 YEARS AGO:</h2>&bull; Montreal Canadien vice-president and general manager Sam Pollock retired after 31 years with the team. Irving Grundman replaced Pollock in the newly-created position of executive vice-president and managing director. Grundman was replaced by former Canadien defenseman Serge Savard on April 28, 1983.&bull; Right winger Andy Bathgate, goalie Jacques Plante and defenseman Marcel Pronovost were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame at the annual dinner in Toronto. Bathgate, a 17-year veteran, played for the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins during his career. Plante played 18 years with Montreal, the Rangers, St. Louis, Toronto and Boston, while Pronovost was a 20-year veteran with Detroit and Toronto.<h2>20 YEARS AGO:</h2>&bull; Members of the Toronto Maple Leafs were in for a surprise when they arrived at training camp in Peterborough, Ont. Stressing discipline, Leaf coach Punch Imlach ordered all sideburns shaved off and banned turtleneck sweaters. The 1967-68 Leafs finished fifth in the East Division with a 33-31-10 record for 76 points.&bull; New York Ranger coach Bernie Geoffrion was beaming about 21-year-old rookie defenseman Brad Park after he scored a goal and assisted on another in the Rangers&rsquo; first exhibition game. Park began the season with the Rangers and played there seven seasons before being traded to Boston in 1975. &#9632;

THIS WEEK…

<div class="byline">BY HOWARD BERGER</div>While Minnesota North Star right winger Dino Cic-carelli recently served two hours in a Toronto jail for his stick attack on Toronto defenseman Luke Richardson Jan. 6. a former NHLer counted his blessings in Philadelphia.Former Philadelphia Flyer defenseman Joe Watson has vivid memories of his encounter in Ontario provincial court, when he and three teammates were charged under the Criminal Code after a violent playoff game at Maple Leaf Gardens against the Leafs April 15, 1976.Watson, Mel Bridgman. Bob Kelly and Don Saleski were arrested in their Toronto hotel rooms the morning after Philadelphia&rsquo;s 5-4 loss to the Leafs in the third game of their NHL quarterfinal.Watson was charged with two counts of common assault, two of assaulting a policeman and one of possession of a dangerous weapon (his hockey stick).They endured the same legal procedures as Ciccarelli, with Kelly and Watson pleading guilty to assault charges. But they were only fined $750. The cases against Bridgman and Saleski were dropped.&ldquo;In retrospect, I couldn't help but feel very fortunate for myself after hearing of Dino&rsquo;sjail sentence,&rdquo; Watson said.The charges against Watson stemmed from an incident at the penalty box area in Maple Leaf Gardens.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03299/5639972-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="576" height="881"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Watson</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It was back in the &lsquo;Broad Street Bully&rsquo; days and our reputation proceeded us every game,&rdquo; Watson recalled. &ldquo;On this particular night (referee) Dave Newell assessed something like 15 penalties against us in the first 30 minutes.&ldquo;At one point, Bobby Clarke and I were in the box together and the people behind us were spitting and throwing things.&ldquo;When we finally left, Don Saleski got a penalty and became embroiled with several of the fans. I guess I was frustrated over all the penalties we were getting and 1 was really ticked off at the spectators behind the box.&ldquo;I saw one of them beating on Saleski so I jumped up on the glass and swung my stick at the guy. I wound up striking a policeman on the shoulder, and that turned out to be the biggest break of my life.&rdquo;Watson was charged by Ontario attorney-general Roy McMurtry, but the policeman never took the incident a step further.Watson played two years for the Boston Bruins before the Flyers grabbed him in the 1967 expansion draft. He suffered through the inevitable growing pains in Philadelphia but stuck around long enough to bask in the glory of Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975.A reliable, stay-at-home type, Watson possessed little offensive flair but he did have one moment of personal glory.He scored a shorthanded goal against goalie Vladislav Tretiak in a January 1976, game at the Spectrum between the Flyers and Central Red Army. Philadelphia won 4-1.&ldquo;After the game, our coach, Fred Shero, came up to me and said I had set the Russian hockey program back 20 years,&rdquo; laughed Watson. &ldquo;But it sure was a great moment.&rdquo;Watson was sold to the Colorado Rockies in 1978 but a severe leg injury 16 games into the 1978-79 season ended his career.In 835 NHL games, he had 38 goals and 178 assists. The 45-year-old works in advertising with the Flyers. &#9632;

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Watson Courted By The Law

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03142/5640003-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="583" height="754"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former Devil Jan Ludvig&rsquo;s career depends on his recovery from knee surgery.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01291/5640010-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="157" height="118"></div>BUFFALO-A summer's worth of doubt is about to come to a close for Buffalo Sabre right winger Jan Ludvig.One way or another all his questions will be answered."Right after the season ended I really felt discouraged." said Ludvig. "I wasn&rsquo;t sure if I would ever play again."Ludvig&rsquo;s doubts were well founded. He had twice undergone surgery for cartilage damage in his left knee. In between, he missed virtually all of the regular season, playing 13 games (1-6-7) and missing all of the playoffs.What appears to be a successful second surgery followed by a summer-long rehabilitation process has convinced both Ludvig, his doctor and his therapists the knee and muscles sur-rounding it are ready for another NHL season.Ludvig knows the real test awaits him, but he is optimistic.He is also driven.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never trained so hard in my life,&rdquo; said Ludvig, who regularly worked out during his five previous seasons with the New Jersey Devils. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in the best shape of my life. In my mind there is no question I will make the team. I don&rsquo;t care where they play me, I jut want to be on that team.&rdquo;Though there was never any question about the seriousness of his injury or his inability to perform, Ludvig insisted he let down his teammates last season.&ldquo;They never got to know me and so maybe they felt 1 didn&rsquo;t want to play,&rdquo; he said &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not so. I really wanted to play, especially in the playoffs, but when they don&rsquo;t know you, they can&rsquo;t help but wonder. I want to show them that I want to be a part of their team.&rdquo;Ludvig said missing the six-game Adams Division semi-final against the Boston Bruins last spring was the crudest blow of all.Buffalo obtained Ludvig from the Devils in return for left winger-, defenseman Jim Korn before the star of the 1987-88 season. The Sabremissed the playoffs the previous two seasons. The Devils missed them the previous five. Ludvig has never been involved in a playoff series and the year both teams made it, he was out.&ldquo;That was hard,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It (the series with Boston) was a war, you could see it in the faces of the guys who were out there. I wanted to be out there with them.&ldquo;My goal last year was to play in the playoffs. I didn&rsquo;t care about points or anything else. I just wanted to be in the playoffs. I used to talk about what it was like with Chico (former Devil, Philadelphia and New York Islander goalie Glenn Resch) and I just wanted to experience that.&rdquo;For him to get another shot. Ludvig&rsquo;s knee must hold up. tie may also have to shift from the right to the left side and perhaps even play some at center in order to make the club.&ldquo;I don't care where.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played all three before. "They can play me anywhere they want. I just want to play.&rdquo;NOTES-The Sabres named former defenseman Larry Carriere to a position as part-time scout in Quebec and eastern Canada Aug. 30. Carriere played for the Sabres from 1972 to 1975 and again in 1978&hellip;.Richard W. Rupp, chairman of ArmorBox Corp., was named to the partnership board of Niagara Frontier Hockey, owners of the Sabres. The Rupp family was part of the original investment group which brought the Sabres into existance in 1970&hellip;Bruce Hood, a former NHL official and an analyst on Sabre television broadcasts will not return in that capacity.<div class="sidebar"><h2>SABRES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 30: Francois Guay, C, Grant Tkachuk, LW, and Brad Miller, D, signed contracts; Larry Carriere hired as part-time scout. &#9632;</div>

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September 16, 1988

Sex Scandal Lawsuit Rocks The Blues

Ranger Goalie Back Ahead Of Schedule

THE WAY WE WERE

Franchise Moves Fall Apart At Last Minute