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

October 28, 1988

The Hockey News October 28, 1988

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LEUCKING</div>Rookie goaltender Vincent Riendeau received a baptism by fire in his debut with the St. Louis Blues.Coach Brian Sutter threw him in for the third period of a game the Blues were losing 7-3 at Detroit on Oct. 14. The Blues came back to tie the game 8-8.Sutter started Riendeau the next night against, arguably, the best player in the National Hockey League&mdash;Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins.Riendeau, 22, emerged shell-shocked. The Penguins beat the Blues 9-2 and Lemieux had a career-best eight points on two goals and six assists.Pittsburgh scored three of its goals on power plays. The Penguins outshot St. Louis 35-22 as the Blues&rsquo; defense rested.&ldquo;All we could tell him was, &lsquo;We were horsefeathers, but we&rsquo;re sorry,&rsquo;&rdquo; defenseman Gordie Roberts said.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t blame the goalie for something like that,&rdquo; said Sutter.Lemieux scored both of his goals on breakaways. Riendeau stopped a third in Lemieux&rsquo;s quest for a hat trick. On one of his goals, Lemieux fought through three Blues players to face Riendeau 1-on-l.&ldquo;They were walking in and walking in and walking in,&rdquo; captain Bernie Federko said. &ldquo;They were teeing up shots from 15 feet.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011348/5651707-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="551" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vincent Riendeau gave up nine goals against the Penguins.</figcaption></div>Riendeau tried to shrug off the loss, his first in the NHL.&ldquo;It was a tough game for everybody, I guess,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Everything was working for them and nothing for us. It was one of those nights.&ldquo;We have to forget about it. It&rsquo;s gone.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s easier said than done.&ldquo;The breakaways, that was tough,&rdquo; Riendeau said. &ldquo;They made nice goals, but still 1 could have stopped a couple more.&rdquo;Riendeau gave up only one goal the previous night against Detroit, but the goal lifted the Red Wings into the tie. Paul MacLean scored with 30 seconds left in regulation time on a scramble in front of the net. Detroit goaltender Glen Hanlon was pulled in favor of a sixth attacker.&ldquo;I went down because I had lost the puck,&rdquo; Riendeau said. &ldquo;There were so many men in front of the net. The puck hit a stick and went up.&rdquo;Riendeau wasn&rsquo;t even expecting to play against Detroit, but the Red Wings scored seven goals in two periods against veteran Greg Millen.&ldquo;I was just trying to do well and get confidence for (Pittsburgh)," Riendeau said. &ldquo;Then, all of a sudden, we were in the game. I would have liked to have won, but those are the breaks.&rdquo;In three career NHL games, Riendeau had allowed 15 goals in 121 minutes. He played one game last year for Montreal, allowing five goals in 36 minutes against Calgary.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 14: Ron Flockhart, LW, assigned to Cortina in Italy.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Bullard, Bernie Federko, Tony Hrkac, Rick Meagher.LW&mdash;Gino Cavallini, Tony McKegney, Craig Coxe, Sergio Momesso, Doug Evans.RW&mdash;Greg Paslawski, Steve Tuttle, Brett Hull, Herb Raglan, Todd Ewen.LD&mdash;Brian Benning. Gordie Roberts, Robert Dirk.RD&mdash;Dave Richter, Paul Cavallini, Tom Tilley, Gaston Gingras.G&mdash;Greg Millen. Vincent Riendeau.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0013-01

THE NHL

ROOKIE SUFFERS EARLY SHELL SHOCK

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02459/5652151-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Schoenfeld said his club might have been caught off-guard by an emotionally-charged Washington Capital team.</figcaption></div>Memories of the 1988 Stanley Cup playoffs have come back to haunt the New Jersey Devils.First, it was the Patrick Division playoff championship banner, theatrically raised at the Byrne Arena before the team&rsquo;s Oct. 14 home opener. The stirring ceremony only seemed to emotionally drain and mentally distract the Devils, who were soundly beaten by the Montreal Canadiens 7-3.Just 24 hours later at the Capital Centre, it was the Capitals who chose to remember the Patrick Division finals. In New Jersey&rsquo;s first visit since eliminating Washington from the playoffs April 30 in the Patrick final, the Devils discovered the Caps haven&rsquo;t forgotten what happened. The Devils lost an ugly 8-5 game, as referee Dan Marouelli called a total of 169 minutes in penalties.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t know what to expect,&rdquo; said Joe Cirella, one of four players who received game misconduct penalties. New Jersey&rsquo;s Perry Anderson and Washington&rsquo;s Rod Langway and Jim Thomson were the others. &ldquo;It could&rsquo;ve gone either way. It was a very emotional playoff series last year and it&rsquo;s a long season this year. Now we know what to expect in the next six games against these guys. We&rsquo;re ready now. They came out very hard and they kept that face up all night long. It was a very chippy game.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure they wanted to prove something as far as last year,&rdquo; said captain Kirk Muller. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be like that all season for us. We&rsquo;ve got to expect it from everybody. If we want to go far and be a strong team this year, we&rsquo;ve got to get used to it. We should expect it by now.&rdquo;In game one of last season&rsquo;s seven-game playoff series against Washington, Capital defenseman Rod Langway was cut on the left calf by Pat Verbeek&rsquo;s skate, sidelining him for the rest of the playoffs.Washington coach Bryan Murray accused Verbeek of being a dirty player and the Devils were regarded as thugs. So it was not surprising when Capital defenseman Kevin Hatcher elbowed Muller twice in the face without provocation in this year&rsquo;s first meeting and the game developed into a series of retaliatory cheap shots on both sides.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think this rivalry will fade away,&rdquo; said New Jersey right winger Brendan Shanahan. &ldquo;I was angrier at the end of the game than I was at the start of the game. The most intimidating thing they did was come at us with speed early in the game. They didn&rsquo;t intimidate us with cheap shots. If they want to get goofy, we can play that kind of game better than they can. If they want to get silly, we&rsquo;ve got the guys that can go.&rdquo;Is New Jersey&rsquo;s reputation as Lou Lamoriello&rsquo;s thugs justified?&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a bad rap,&rdquo; said Verbeek. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just being physical and retaliation happens. It keeps building and we don&rsquo;t want anyone to get the best of us.&rdquo;&ldquo;Dirty? I have to disagree,&rdquo; added Muller. &ldquo;I think we play a clean style. We just hit more than other teams. But, a lot of things will happen when we play.&rdquo;Coach Jim Schoenfeld was hardly surprised by the intensity of the Washington match.&ldquo;I expected it to be a pretty hard-fought game,&rdquo; said Schoenfeld. &ldquo;The last time the two teams met it was a very emotional game. They came at us with some very good hockey, too. Maybe they caught us off guard. They were sky-high emotionally.&rdquo;The Devils want to tum the emotion meter down a few notches. Now that they&rsquo;ve raised their playoff banner for permanent display, they will try to get down to business following a 2-3-0 start.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t play well under ceremonial conditions,&rdquo; said Schoenfeld. &ldquo;We end up falling on our faces. Save the ceremonies for summer time.&rdquo;<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 12: Jamie Huscroft, D. assigned to Utica (AHL): Frederic Chabot, G. released.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Kirk Muller, Mark Johnson, Claude Loiselle, Jon Morris.LW&mdash;Aaron Broten, David Maley. Pat Conacher, Jim Korn. Steve Rooney.RW&mdash;Pat Verbeek, John MacLean, Doug Brown. Brendan Shanahan.LD&mdash;Bruce Driver, Ken Daneyko, Tom Kurvers, Randy Velischek.RD&mdash;Craig Wolanin, Joe Cirella, Jack O'Callahan.G&mdash;Sean Burke, Bob Sauve.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Perry Anderson, RW, strained rotator cuff, indefinite.Patrik Sundstrom, LW, lower back strain, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0023-02

BANNER EFFORT NOT IN THE CARDS AT HOME OPENER

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01255/5652850-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ulf Samuelsson, considered by some to be among the top 10 defensemen in the NHL, had four points against Chicago.</figcaption></div>Ulf Samuelsson was good enough to play for the NHL all-stars against the Soviets in Rendez-Vous &rsquo;87, but he wasn&rsquo;t deemed good enough by the Swedes for Canada Cup &rsquo;87.Mike Keenan didn&rsquo;t pick Samuelsson for the 1988 All-Star Game, but his Whaler teammates did vote him their outstanding player.So, is he one of the top 10 defensemen in the NHL or not?That was the question asked after Samuelsson scored a career-best four points (1-3-4) to lift the Whalers over Keenan&rsquo;s Chicago Blackhawks 7-5 on Oct. 15, and lead a mini-revival after a dismal start.Samuelsson&rsquo;s outburst may have paled in comparison to Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s eight and Cam Neely&rsquo;s seven points the same weekend. But for the Whalers, who scored a meager five goals in three opening losses, 11 goals in wins over the Rangers and Blackhawks was a goal rush.And it was Samuelsson, a sometimes reluctant offensive force, who led the charge in victory No. 2 after Jody Hull scored his first NHL goal for the game winner in the initial win.&ldquo;I hate that question about being one of the top 10 defensemen,&rdquo; said Samuelsson (76-8-33-41, 159 PIM last year). &ldquo;When 1 came here (in 1984) 1 was just happy to make the team. Now, I know they expect me to do a lot of stuff. I play all situations. But I don&rsquo;t want to put my nose out there and say I&rsquo;m one of the 10 best. But you can if you want.&rdquo;&ldquo;Ulfie&rsquo;s got enough talent to be one of the top 10,&rdquo; captain Ron Francis said. &ldquo;But now that he&rsquo;s been here a while, he&rsquo;s got to take a bigger role and take a little more responsibility. I think he&rsquo;s responding.&rdquo;&ldquo;Ulf has to be a guy who moves the puck and is able to move up on the play,&rdquo; said coach Larry Pleau. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s also got to be able to read the play. He can&rsquo;t just be freewheeling. He&rsquo;s got to pick and choose. When he hangs on to the puck too long, the play goes by and he tries to do too much.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking for more points than last year. But for me it&rsquo;s still a lot tougher to create something on the power play than to kill a penalty,&rdquo; said the 24-year-old Samuelsson. &ldquo;Larry wants the defense to come in as the fourth guy offensively when the chance is there. It&rsquo;s a little different from (former coach) Jack Evans.&rdquo;Samuelsson, with a new four-year contract, said he has no intentions of returning to Europe soon and would like to play in North America as long as Borje Salming has in Toronto (16 years).&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing else I&rsquo;d rather do than play hockey in Hartford,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m working on a permanent visa. I could even sell cars at Mitchell (a Hartford area dealership he does zany commercials for) when I finish hockey.&rdquo;Meanwhile, Whalers&rsquo; goalie Richard Brodeur was questioning the team&rsquo;s judgment in their Oct. 11 decision to demote him to the Binghamton Whalers of the American League.Brodeur hopes his demotion is not a permanent visa to nowhere. Pleau named Peter Sidorkiewicz, who had one game of NHL experience under his belt going into the season, the No. 2 goalie. Brodeur didn&rsquo;t go in the NHL waiver draft and attempts to deal him were unsuccessful.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s their decision and even though I don&rsquo;t agree with it I have to go along,&rdquo; said Brodeur, in the final year of a one-way contract that will earn him $225,000. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a pleasant sight.&rdquo;&ldquo;I have to give the guy high marks," Emile Francis said. &ldquo;He was in as good a shape as I&rsquo;ve seen him in. We just had to make a decision and we didn&rsquo;t want him sitting around like he did last year in Vancouver.&rdquo;The Whalers obtained Brodeur from the Canucks for goaltender Steve Weeks last March.&ldquo;Richard thinks the demotion is wrong, but three goalies doesn&rsquo;t work,&rdquo; Pleau said. &ldquo;It stinks that a guy 36 with a wife and two kids has to be sent to the minors, but that&rsquo;s part of the business.&rdquo;<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 11: Richard Brodeur, G, assigned to Binghamton (AHL).Oct. 13: Al Tuer, D, assigned to Binghamton. Adam Burt, 0, assigned to Binghamton for two weeks of conditioning.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ron Francis, Carey Wilson, Ray Ferraro. Dean Evason, Brent Peterson.LW&mdash;Sylvain Turgeon, John Anderson, Dave Tippett, Tome Robertson.RW&mdash;Kevin Dineen, Paul MacDermid, Scott Young, Ed Kastelic, Jody Hull.LD&mdash;Joel Qugnneville, Randy Ladouceur, Grant Jennings.RD&mdash;Sylvain Cote, Ulf Samuelsson, Dave Babych.G&mdash;Mike Liut, Peter Sidorkiewicz.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Scot Klelnendorst, D, sprained right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

f0042-01

SAMUELSSON NOT CONCERNED ABOUT RATINGS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01608/5652633-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

BaUer CoLLeGe SCOreBOarD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011262/5651169-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="549" height="552"><figcaption class="caption-body">Larry Robinson</figcaption></div>Welcome to Hockey Literature 101. No, it&rsquo;s not a university course, but if each fall brings as many new hockey-related book titles as this one, you never know.In next week&rsquo;s Nov. 4 issue of The Hockey News we will take a look at the hockey book publishing industry, the whys and wherefores of NHL players and personalities such as Larry Robinson and Dick Irvin turning to the printed word.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021029/5651162-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="546" height="564"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Hull</figcaption></div>Plus, we'll present the weekly THN interview, with St. Loui Blue sniper Brett Hull.Our Major Junior Report features an interview with Quebec League president Gilles Courteau, the second of a three-part series profiling the men who run junior hockey.In our U.S. College Report, read about the Cinderella story that is defending NCAA champion Lake Superior State College, the little school that could.All in next week's Nov. 4 issue of The Hockey News. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

NEXT ISSUE

This letter is about hype, Jim Van Home and facts. I&rsquo;ll admit that whatever hype is attached to Wayne Gretzky is deserved. But when Jim Van Home of The Sports Network asked us during the first intermission of the Oct. 6 telecast to remember where we were when we heard about The Trade, he compared it to the shooting of John Lennon and the shooting of Elvis Presley.Could you please find out for me when Elvis was shot and if it was fatal? Perhaps Jim knows more than the rest of us.Actually, I think I saw Elvis in the crowd. The camera swept past a man fitting his description, eating a few rink steaks and sucking on a soda.Paul Robertson, Mississauga, Ont.<h2>ROOKIES? YES!</h2>I most certainly do consider Sean Burke and Craig Janney rookies (THN, Vol. 42, No. 3). To do otherwise would be an injustice. They will be the leading rookie-of-the-year candidates this year and deservedly so. Janney and Burke are both extremely talented and should not be punished for representing their respective countries in the Olympics and joining new teams in the playoff drive.Bill Westerman, Muskegon, Mich.<h2>FAN'S DREAM</h2>In response to Jay Greenberg's Sept. 30 column, "All We Are Saying Is Give Peace A Chance," I too, have a dream.My dream is that press coverage of hockey in the city of Philadelphia, which has been the home of one of the NHL's top franchises for the past 20 years, will be upgraded from its present status as a miscellaneous sport and that either Greenberg or Al Morganti, two of the beat writers covering the Flyers-both of whom write for THN-become Flyer fans at heart. Objectivity and aloofness are fine, but in the partisan world of hockey, where feelings run deep and last forever, some pro-Flyer comments once in a while on close calls would be appreciated by the hometown folks.Morganti's style is adversarial because he is part of the 'blame-the-Flyers-first' crowd. Greenberg's style is detached and philosophical, just right for the Pittsburgh Penguin fan that he is, but with a soft spot for the Kansas City Scouts-turned New Jersey Devils.No friends of the Flyers these two. And the Flyers wonder why they still have an image problem.Tom Carey, Bryn Athyn, Pa.<h2>OTHER PENGUINS</h2>I am an avid hockey fan and always have been. But I am really tired of seeing Mario Lemieux as the center of every Penguin article.There are other people on the team, maybe not as explosive but almost as valuable. Take Dan Quinn for instance. He was the second-leading scorer on the Penguins next to Lemieux (79 points to 168) last season. Quinn contributed 40 goals to the Penguin offense and missed IO games due to a wrist injury.Had Quinn not missed those 10 games, he just might have scored 50 goals.Greg D'Ambrosio, Poughkeepsie, N. Y<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011405/5651200-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="547" height="570"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dan Quinn deserves more recognition, says reader.</figcaption></div><h2>MORE FINESSE</h2>Believe it or not, there really are Philadelphia Flyer fans who would prefer to see their hometown team play a finesse game instead of trying to return to the Broad Street Bullies' era.They are banking this season's fortunes on hockey's first 'goon goalie', Ron Hextall, and their all-time penalty leader (1,600 minutes) Paul Holmgren, as coach. While everyone raves about Mr. Hextall, all I ever see him do is get caught up ice and then act like an idiot when he gives up a goal. This 'franchise player' has all of one career shutout.While Mr. Holmgren went to great lengths to deny the Flyers would return to goon hockey, a pre-season parade to the penalty box (397 total minutes) and a miserable exhibition record (4-6-0) are only a harbinger of things to come. The Flyers even wasted their first-round draft pick on another tough guy, Claude Boivin, instead of attempting to solve their scoring woes.It would be nice not to have to apologize for being a Flyer fan. Then again, a finesse team would cost more money and I'm not sure any of Philadelphia's sports franchises want to go that far.Douglas Lund, Gennantown, Md.Make your feelings known. Send your comments to: Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M38 2R2. Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

f0003-01

OKAY, BUT WHO WAS THE GUY EATING THE RINK STEAK?

<div class="byline">BOB McKENZIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021132/5651231-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="505" height="631"></div>If you have grown weary of the Detroit Red Wings' Booze Brothers saga, take heart. You arc not alone.The Red Wing travelling road show slipped into town in the middle of the night and, when the new day dawned, the dispositions were far from sunny.The Wings were nursing a collective hangover of their own, hurtin' for certain after escaping with an 8-8 tie at home against St. Louis. Detroit had led 7-3. but needed to pull the goalie just to draw even.So there they were on the morning after. The defending Norris Division champs-one of the best teams in the NHL, but winless in the new season-filed into Maple Leaf Gardens for a game-day skate and team meeting.Man, they looked like hell.Bob Probert? Petr Klima? Don't even ask. No one, players or management, wanted to talk about them. After all, what could be said on a Saturday morning in Toronto that hadn't already been said on a Friday before meeting St. Louis or a Monday in Calgary or&hellip;"It's the same in every city we go to," said Detroit public relations director Bill Jamieson. "I look forward to the day when we're asked a question that has something to do with hockey.''A day earlier, Probert left the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Klima, meanwhile, was supposed to be on his way to Detroit's minor-league affiliate in Glens Falls, N.Y.But this isn't a story about Probert or Klima. It's about a team trying to cope with a family problem. How well they fare may be the difference between being a legitimate Cup contender or just another big-fish-in-a-little-pond Norris Division chump.Coach Jacques Demers didn't have to say his Wings were physically overpowered by the Blues the night before. Nor did he have to mention how Red Wing foes grow in stature when they know they have don't have to deal with the NHL's heavyweight champion. Or how the Wings' most pivotal player, captain Steve Yzerman, was manhandled by the Blues Or that the chemistry-so important on a Demers-coached club-hasn't been right since last spring when Probert, Klima and a few other party boys celebrated the end of the playoffs &hellip; the night before they were over.His look of concern said it all&hellip; and then some.The good news, if you're a raving optimist, is the Wings' early-season stumble can be partially attributed to factors other than having two too many bad livers.When the Wings checked into Toronto on Oct. 15, they had been on the road for 17 of 24 days. Home cooking alone should make a difference. So should an improved work ethic. Some people think the Wings had forgotten how far hustle and team defense can take them.The bad news, of course, is Probert and Klima. The Wings can't live with them, but they may not be able to live without them either.Certainly, against the Maple Leafs on this Saturday night, Detroit looked like a team in deep trouble. But a funny thing happened on the way to what looked like the Wings' third loss (with two ties) in five games. They rallied and won the game. Was it a case of a Detroit comeback or a Toronto collapse?Demers, who madly pumped his arms in the air when Yzerman iced the game with an empty-net goal, didn't seem to care.No one, certainly not the NHL coach of the year for two years running, would suggest all of the Red Wings' woes were behind them.They seemed to know that-with or without Probert and Klima-they continued to have a problem. But unlike their problem children, the Wings looked to have the strength to take this one day at a time. &#9632;

f0003-02

COLUMNISTS

THE LOOK ON DEMERS' FACE SAID IT ALL

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03726/5651262-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0003-03

Elston

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031097/5651314-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="415" height="354"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04931/5651307-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="406" height="347"></div>Dodge is the official sponsor of NHL All-Star Fan Balloting<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011419/5651300-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="537" height="676"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Lemieux</figcaption></div>NEW YORK-Pittsburgh Penguin center Mario Lemieux, who recorded 15 points (6-9-15) in his first four games this season, and Los Angeles King center Wayne Gretzky, who led his team to a 4-1-0 record and registered at least a point in each of his first five games (6-7-13), were named co-winners of the Dodge NHL Performer-of-the-Week award for the period ending Oct. 16.Lemieux and Gretzky, who each tallied one power-play and two shorthanded goals during the 10-day period, edged Chicago Blackhawk center Denis Savard and Philadelphia Flyer goaltender Ron Hextall to capture the honor.Dodge will donate $500 to the youth hockey organization of each performer's choice. Dodge also sponsors the Performer-of-the-Month and Performer-of-the-Year Awards, for which the latter receives the Chrysler/Dodge vehicle of his choice. In four years, Dodge has contributed more than $120,000 to youth hockey associations across North America.Savard recorded 13 points in six games to start the season while Hextall was 4-0-0 with a 2.72 goals-against-average.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021299/5651293-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="542" height="671"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0004-03

THE DODGE NHL REPORT

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>What looms as one of the harshest attacks against hockey power broker Alan Eagleson is being organized by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation current-affairs program the fifth estate. A CBC official informs BLUELINES that researchers for the show have already contacted a number of significant personalities who have had grievances against Eagleson. The Eagle&rsquo;s longtime adversary, Bobby Orr, was contacted but apparently declined to appear on the program, which is scheduled to air in November. &ldquo;Basically, what he told us was that he has a &lsquo;non-disclosure&rsquo; agreement with Eagleson,&rdquo; says researcher Elliot Schiff. According to current info, the show aims to focus on Eagleson&rsquo;s &ldquo;conflicts-of-interest,&rdquo; as well as alleged disenchantment with his work as players&rsquo; union boss. Eagleson is expected to appear on the show.<h2>MILLER TIME</h2>Madison A venue sports promoter Marty Blackman is chasing down former NHL enforcers Tiger Williams, Dave Semenko and John Wensink. He wants them to audition for a Miller Lite TV commercial&hellip; Any charges that Hartford's only daily, the Courant, goes soft on the team because of its part-ownership of the Whalers no longer hold water. The paper, which owned 6 percent of the club, unloaded its interest. "We felt that being the type of business we are and having to report on the Whalers, it was appropriate for us to take this action," explains Courant vice president Raymond Jansen&hellip; Terry Crisp on what he thinks about when it comes to defending against Wayne Gretzky: "Let's just hope that Janet (Jones) keeps him busy!" &hellip;Gretzky on linemate Bob Carpenter: "He could be a good choice for the office (hockey) pool." Gretzky again, on the Ben Johnson Olympic steroid scandal: "I'd rather finish second without them (steroids) and Jive to be 80 than finish first with steroids and then die of cancer." ..Actor Jamie Farr claims he's "the only Hollywood person who's followed the Kings for the last nine years," and adds that if the club clicks the Forum will be filled every night. "If not," he warns, "the place will empty out." &hellip;Blackhawk rookie Jeremy Roenick may have a back-up if hockey doesn't work out. "I haven't ruled out the possibility of joining the Professional Golf (Association) Tour,'' he says.<h2>BE NICE, GUYS</h2>Retired Bob Bourne, a longtime media favorite, asked what advice he'd give young NHLers who deal with reporter, tells BLUELINES, "I'd suggest that they ask themselves this question-what does it cost you to be nice?" &hellip;Gilbert Perreault's split with the Sabres was far from amicable. Insiders report that the club had hoped to have a ceremony retiring his No. 11 jersey but Buffalo's biggest (retired) superstar nixed an appearance at The Aud for the proposed ceremonies. He's now coaching Victoriaville of the Quebec League &hellip;Municipal officials in St. Louis already are making long-range plans to demolish The Arena, home of the Blues. That would happen if the NHL club make good on its wish to move into a new, yet-to-be-built downtown rink. Should that happen, the landmark Arena would be razed. The city, which owns the Arena, has been advertising for a buyer. The Blues' offer of $15 million was rebuffed as too low&hellip; Speaking of new arenas, Bruin high command tells BLUELINES it expects a new Boston Garden to rise by 1992, replacing the 60-year-old building.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011310/5651345-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="541" height="624"><figcaption class="caption-body">Todd Ewen says fights change the momentum of a game.</figcaption></div><h2>THE FIGHT GAME</h2>On the assumption that it takes one to know one, Penguin slugger Mark Kachowski offers his list of top NHL fighters. 1. Bob Probert; 2. Marty McSorley; 3. Ken Baumgartner; 4. Dave Brown; 5. Jay Miller; 6. Rick Tocchet. "On any given night," says Kachowski, "any one of these guys can beat any one of the other guys." McSorley, Wayne Gretzky's guardian, says no matter how big a player is, he can't learn toughness. "It's a matter of personality," McSorley explains. "Character. You can't make a guy who is passive into a rough one. You can't make a player tough if he just doesn't have it, because he won't do it at the needed times." &hellip;Blues' enforcer Todd Ewen on the psychology of ice fighting: "If we're going really high and there's a fight and we win the fight, the team will pick up. We're flying on top of the world. But if a Bob Probert goes out there and gets rag-dolled, like two times in a row, Detroit pretty well is sunk because their tough guy is beaten. The hits start to seem so much worse. The momentum of the team is really demolished." &#9632;

f0005-01

TV SHOW AIMS TO CLIP EAGLE’S WINGS

<div class="byline">BY MURRAY TOWNSEND AND BOB McKENZIE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011493/5651390-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fans of the Calgary Flames pay the highest ticket price in the NHL but the $33.50 is money well-spent.</figcaption></div>Finally, some tangible proof of what everybody has long believed: Fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs are being short-changed!A survey of 1988-89 ticket prices by The Hockey News has determined Maple Leaf followers are getting less bang for their buck than any other team's fans in the NHL.They stand last in THN's ranking of team entertainment value. Calgary Flames, regular-season champions last year, are first.To be fair, Toronto fans don't pay the highest ticket prices in the NHL, but then again they haven't been seeing the highest quality of hockey either.Fans of the Flames, on the other hand, do pay top dollar, shelling out as much as $33.50 for the highest-price ticket in the league. In return, however, they get top-notch hockey.Among the other survey conclusions are:&#9633; Edmonton Oilers have the lowest ticket price in the league, $6.50.&#9633; Chicago Blackhawks have the lowest average ticket price, $16.&#9633; New York Islanders have the highest average ticket price, $24.(Dollar figures are listed in the currency of the team's home country. Since there is limited crossover-few fans outside of Windsor, Ont., cross the U.S.-Canada border to watch games-dollars have not been converted into one currency for comparison purposes.)<h2>CHEAP SEATS</h2>The Oilers have a well-earned reputation for being thrifty in their business dealings, but at least they allow their fans to do the same.The Oilers, at $6.50, have the cheapest seat available in the NHL.In fact, western Canada-with the exception of Vancouver-is the home of the bargain-basement ticket. Winnipeg, at $7, and Calgary, at $7.50, offer decent deals. Chicago and Quebec, both at $8, and Detroit ($9) and Montreal ($9.50) are the only other clubs to crack the $10 barrier.As for the steepest-priced cheap seats, the Minnesota North Stars, arguably the worst team in hockey, lead the way with a stiff $14 hit.Pittsburgh, at $13, has the second-most expensive cheap seat, but with Mario Lemieux and Paul Coffey in the lineup, you're not likely to hear too many complaints.After that, it's Buffalo ($12.50), Philadelphia, New Jersey, Hartford and Boston ($12), Washington, Vancouver, Toronto and New York Rangers ($1 I) and St Louis, New York Islanders and Los Angele ($10).<h2>BIG BUCKS</h2>Topping the list of most-expensive tickets is Calgary, with a $33.50 price tag. Right behind them, at $33, is Montreal, followed by four teams (Boston, Chicago, New York Rangers and Winnipeg) at $30.Toronto slides in under the $30 mark with a $29 tag, but that's still $9.50 more than what a North Star fan pays in Minnesota. In fact. the North Stars. at $19.50, are the only NHL team with a top-priced ticket under $20.So while the North Stars have the most expensive cheap seat ($14), they've got the most inexpensive best seat. Not that it seems to make a difference in Minnesota, where only 6,374 fans showed up for the Oct. 14 game with Philadelphia.Washington and St. Louis, both at $21, check in with the second-best deals on high-end tickets. In ascending order, the others are Pitt burgh and Detroit ($23), Vancouver, Hartford and New Jersey ($24), Quebec and Los Angeles ($25), Philadelphia and Edmonton ($26) and the Islanders ($28).<h2>AVERAGE</h2>The formula for calculating average ticket price is as follows: multiply the number of seats in each price range by the ticket price and then divide by the total number of seats. The total was rounded off to the nearest 50 cents.There is, however, a margin of error to consider.One is that it requires the assistance of the clubs to provide accurate data on how many seats are old at each price level. For this survey, three clubs (Boston, Edmonton and Quebec) would not provide that data. We estimated their numbers.This average doesn't take into account that tickets sold in season packages are, in many cases, cheaper than the face value of the ticket. For example, Quebec's average ticket price is $19.50. But if you used the discounted price for season subscribers, the actual average price works out to only $14 per seat.Luxury boxe, wheelchair seating and other specialty seats were not included in the average ticket price.The Islanders top the list for the most expensive average ticket $24.At the other end of the scale, the Chicago average price is $16.00.In between, in ascending order, are St. Louis ($17.50), Winnipeg, Minnesota and Calgary ($18), Los Angeles and Detroit ($18.50), Washington and Buffalo ($ I 9), Toronto, Quebec and Pittsburgh ($19.50), Philadelphia and Edmonton ($20), New York Rangers and New Jersey ($20.50), Vancouver ($21.50), Hartford and Boston ($22.50), and Montreal ($23.50).<h2>QUALITY</h2>There is no sure-fire formula to calculate which fans get the best value for their ticket dollar, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean we can&rsquo;t try.What you must do is not only judge the quality of the home team but the quality of the visitors as well. In the NHL, fortunately, that isn&rsquo;t as difficult as it seems.What distinguishes each NHL team&rsquo;s schedule is the emphasis on divisional rivalries. With that in mind, we came up with the following concept:First, we divided the 21 teams into four quality categories and assigned point values. The Best (eight points): Calgary. Edmonton, Montreal; The Very Good (seven points): Boston, Detroit; The Good (six points): Islanders, Rangers, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Washington; The Mediocre (five points): Hartford, Winnipeg, St. Louis, Quebec, Chicago; The Bad (four points): Vancouver, Toronto, Minnesota.Next, we looked at each team&rsquo;s divisional opponents. For example, since we mentioned Toronto off the top, let&rsquo;s focus on the Leafs and the Norris Division. Toronto&rsquo;s divisional foes (Detroit 7, Chicago 5, St. Louis 5 and Minnesota 4) have a combined quality rating of 21. That works out to an average of 5.25.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011335/5651383-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="1465" height="1121"><figcaption class="caption-body">The New York Islanders, at $24, have the highest average ticket price of the 21 NHL teams surveyed by THN.</figcaption></div>Then, we added that average to Toronto&rsquo;s rating of 4.00 to get the Maple Leafs&rsquo; overall quality rating of 9.25. To find out how much a Toronto fan pays for each quality unit, we divided 9.25 into the Leafs&rsquo; average ticket price ($19.50).The Maple Leafs topped the scale with a per quality unit price of $2.10. Only the Islanders and Vancouver, at $2.00, were close.At the other end of the spectrum, Calgary fans pay only $1.30 for a unit of quality hockey. Edmonton is the only other club to come in under $1.50. The Oilers were at $1.45.In ascending order, the prices other fans pay per quality unit of hockey, are Los Angeles ($1.51), Buffalo ($1.55), Winnipeg ($1.57), Washington ($1.58), Chicago and Detroit ($1.61), Pittsburgh ($1.63), Philadelphia ($1.66), Rangers, Quebec, New Jersey, Montreal ($1.70), Boston ($1.73), St. Louis ($1.75), Minnesota ($1.95), and Hartford ($1.96).It&rsquo;s obvious, of course, that the best possible rating would be obtained by a strong team, with a low average ticket price, in a strong division. Likewise, a weak team, with a high average ticket price, in a weak division would get the worst possible rating.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02926/5651376-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="3032" height="2269"></div> &#9632;

f0006-01

YOUR TICKET

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011423/5651421-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">PHIL ESPOSITORanger general manager Phil Esposito said signing Hall-of-Famer Guy Lafleur would have been worth the publicity alone.</figcaption></div>When former star Montreal Canadien right winger Guy Lafleur made it known this summer he wanted to resume his NHL career. New York Ranger general manager Phil Esposito responded. Espo&rsquo;s daring, which has spurred him into countless trades since he became Ranger general manager July 14, 1986, stunned some observers and angered others.A self-professed wheeler-dealer such as Esposito has already set the tone of his tenure at Madison Square Garden with several gutsy risks such as that one.The former Boston Bruin and New York Ranger center already added a new wrinkle to this season by getting Lafleur. But there will be other novelties, as Esposito squares off in management against his brother Tony, the GM for Patrick Division-rival Pittsburgh.Stan Fischler talks with the 46-year-old Esposito about his style as a GM, coping with Tony and having Hall-of-Famer Lafleur on his team.THN: When did you originally decide to go after Lafleur?PE: Believe it or not, when I first got the job here in July, 1986. I called Guy and asked him to come out of retirement. I also phoned (former Buffalo Sabre center) Gilbert Perreault. Hey, why not? I wanted to give&rsquo;em a shot. Neither of them were receptive at the time and my idea just died. Then, last August, (Ranger coach) Michel Bergeron called and said, &ldquo;Guy would like to make a comeback.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s when I told him to get Lafleur down to New York.THN: Some people think only a Phil Esposito would go for a Guy Lafleur. You like to take gambles, don&rsquo;t you?PE: I&rsquo;m a risk-taker. Always have been, always will be. I believe in my heart that people who take risks are successful. I took risks as a player so why should I change now? Before I signed him, it was Guy Lafleur&rsquo;s risk coming to our training camp. Now it&rsquo;s my risk because 1 have money invested in him and we&rsquo;ve got a roster spot invested in him and if he doesn&rsquo;t progress any better than he did in training camp, then I&rsquo;ve made a bad choice. I don&rsquo;t understand why other general managers didn&rsquo;t do it. The publicity alone would have been terrific. It certainly was for us.THN: What do you expect from Lafleur?PE: He&rsquo;s going to add something to our power play which already is dominating. Some people say &lsquo;Oh, the Rangers can&rsquo;t score at even strength. &rsquo; Who cares? If you can score on the power play 30 per cent of the time, then nobody&rsquo;s gonna take penalties against you. As for Guy, his skating, as it always was, is still his strongest skill. The question will be his timing. His shot is fine. (Goalie) John Vanbiesbrouck tells me &ldquo;Lafleur is one of the few guys in hockey who still can intimidate you with his shot.&rdquo; Getting the puck and shooting it quickly; that&rsquo;s the last thing to come back after you&rsquo;ve been away for a while.THN: Brother Tony is now a rookie GM (with the Pittsburgh Penguins). What do you two talk about?PE: I&rsquo;ll give you a for-instance. I was sitting watching a game with Tony, watching our guys play&mdash;and this is not to belittle our guys&mdash;but Mario Lemieux is so head-and-shoulders above anybody in this league right now that it&rsquo;s incredible. So, I said: &ldquo;Tony, pick any five (Rangers), any five and give me Mario.&rdquo; By the time the game was over, I was up to offering him ten players. A few minutes later I was going to give him the whole Ranger team.THN: How much do you bug Tony?PE: When I call him on the phone and his wife answers, she yells to him, &ldquo;Your brother&rsquo;s on the phone!&rdquo; He says, &ldquo;Oh, no!&rdquo; You know why? Because the first thing I tell him is &ldquo;Hi, I want Lemieux!&rdquo; I figure, what have I got to lose? All Tony says is &ldquo;Phil, will ya leave me alone!&rdquo;THN: There was some criticism about your moving training camp out of the New York area (Rye, N.Y.) to an all-French community like Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.PE: It was one of the best decisions I ever made. It gave our club a bit of togetherness that wasn&rsquo;t there before. In the past (at Rye) the guys would be running home. In Three Rivers and later Denver, they were together playing golf, having dinner together, a couple of beers, stuff like that. It reminded me of my days with the Bruins when we trained at London (Ontario). That togetherness meant a lot to us.THN: A lot of eyes are on your club and, in particular, Lafleur. What advice have you given him?PE: Don&rsquo;t worry about everything not coming together at once. Be patient. It&rsquo;ll all come back. I&rsquo;m sure it&rsquo;s going to come back.THN: And when it does?PE: That is when my risk comes in. &#9632;

f0008-01

‘I’VE ALWAYS TAKEN RISKS’

<div class="byline">BY JEFF HALE</div>The National Hockey League promised in September to crack down on illegal use of the stick. In October, it made good on that promise.Through 54 games of the 1988-89 season&mdash;from Oct. 6 to 16&mdash;players had been ejected for stick-related infractions nine times. One player,- Montreal Canadien defenseman Petr Svoboda, was nailed twice, which calls for an automatic one-game suspsension.Svoboda sat out his team&rsquo;s Oct. 17 home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.&ldquo;You have to leant from your mistakes,&rdquo; said Svoboda, who was ejected Oct. 15 and Oct. 8 against the New York Islanders and Minnesota North Stars, respectively. &ldquo;1 know I can&rsquo;t afford to get another game misconduct because if 1 do I&rsquo;m gone for two games. I&rsquo;m going to have to keep my stick down for the rest of the season.&rdquo;The new anti-stick rule&mdash;instituted at a board of governors&rsquo; meeting in Toronto on Sept. 7&mdash;calls for any major penalty for injuring an opponent by high-sticking, slashing, butt-ending, cross-checking or spearing to be accompanied by automatic ejection from the game. A repeat offender, such as Svoboda, has the suspension increased by one game for each additional ejection.NHL director of officiating John McCauley says the message is clear&mdash;keep the sticks down or pay the price.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re pleased with the rule and the application to date,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think we'd have been faced with more of a problem if these hadn&rsquo;t been called.&rdquo;And, he added, referees will continue to prosecute the guilty.&ldquo;This wasn&rsquo;t something brought down by the (league office),&rdquo; McCauley said. &ldquo;This was resolved in the summer at Chicago (during a meeting of the 21 NHL general managers) and in Toronto by the (governors of all) 21 teams.&rdquo;Minnesota North Star general manager Jack Ferreira wasn&rsquo;t surprised at the officials&rsquo; vigilance.&ldquo;A player is responsible for his stick at all times and they (officials) are going to the letter of the law on this one,&rdquo; Ferreira said. &ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s the way it has to be.&rdquo;Veteran referee Dave Newell, who had yet to eject a player on the new rule, said it is having the desired effect.He pointed to an Oct. 7 game between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins, when centers Dale Hunter and Dan Quinn collided.&ldquo;They came together, both had their sticks up and it was almost like an alarm went off,&rdquo; said Newell. &ldquo;They stopped midway and brought them down.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011376/5651452-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="544" height="619"><figcaption class="caption-body">Petr Svoboda received an automatic one-game suspension.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Maybe that&rsquo;s wishful thinking on my part, but I really believe it&rsquo;s embedded in most of their (players&rsquo;) minds that they&rsquo;ll have to pay the piper.&rdquo;Newell said it&rsquo;s one of the easiest calls a referee has to make&mdash;&ldquo;it&rsquo;s more cut and dried than a lot of other penalties.&rdquo;The following is a list of players who had been ejected as part of the crackdown:Oct. 6: John MacLean, New Jersey, at Philadelphia, high-sticking; Mike Bullard, St. Louis, at Minnesota, slashing.Oct. 8: Svoboda, Montreal, at Montreal (vs. Minnesota), crosschecking.Oct. 9: Gary Nylund, Chicago, at Chicago (vs. Toronto), high-sticking; John Tonelli, Los Angeles, at Los Angeles (vs. N.Y. Islanders), high-sticking; Link Gaetz, Minnesota, at Quebec, spearing.Oct. 10: Randy Wood, N.Y. Islanders, at Vancouver, high-sticking.Oct. 12: Paul Gillis, Quebec, at Montreal, cross-checking.Oct. 15: Svoboda, Montreal, at N.Y. Islanders, high-sticking. &#9632;

f0009-01

‘STICKING’ TO THE PLAN

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Compiled By Jeff Hale</div>NHL disciplinarian Brian O&rsquo;Neill has changed his mind about suspensions handed out in the wake of a Sept. 24 brawl between the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t happen very often,&rdquo; admitted NHL vice-president O&rsquo;Neill, who reversed six suspensions after viewing video tape of the incident at Brendan Byrne Arena.The original suspensions were not made widely known.But O&rsquo;Neill said he suspended New Jersey right winger Brendan Shanahan and New York left winger Joe Paterson 10 games each, New Jersey left winger Steve Rooney, New York center Doug Wickenheiser, New Jersey coach Jim Schoenfeld and New York coach Michel Bergeron five each.O&rsquo;Neill said the suspensions were levied Sept. 25, after consultations with referee Bob Myers.Shanahan and Paterson were originally fingered as first off their respective benches and hit with the longer suspensions. But the NHL vice-president later decided they were merely the first off for a line change, something Myers couldn&rsquo;t see because he had his back to them. Rooney and Wickenheiser were suspended five games because they were second off the bench and the coaches&rsquo; suspensions were automatic once the benches cleared.&ldquo;We have done this before&hellip;reviewed to see if a mistake was made,&rsquo; said O&rsquo;Neill. &ldquo;We would not deal with a judgment call made by an official, but have examined on a factual basis.&rdquo;Only one suspension was upheld by the review. New Jersey right winger John MacLean received a one-game suspension for being third man in a fight.<h2>YOUNG SOVIETS</h2>Canada, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union will be represented at the first-ever Saskatchewan Cup.National teams from Canada and Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Selects, will be taking part in a round-robin tournament Dec. 28-Jan. 1 at the 7,700-seat Saskatchewan Place in Saskatoon.The Soviet Selects will be comprised mostly of players under 25 years old who are being touted as prospects for the Soviet Union&rsquo;s national team at the 1992 Winter Olympics.The tournament schedule is as follows: Dec 28, Canada vs. Czechoslovakia; Dec. 29, Czechoslovakia vs. Soviet Selects; Dec. 30, Canada vs. Soviet Selects; Jan. 1, final.The tournament has been squeezed into a busy schedule for the Canadian national team, currently on a nine-game tour through the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-02987/5651483-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="555" height="633"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brendan Shanahan had a 10-game suspension revoked.</figcaption></div>Canada will play the Selects, Dec. 3-12, on a Maritime tour. Locations have yet to be determined. Canada then plays at the Izvestia Tournament in Moscow Dec. 15-22 and on Dec. 27 plays the Selects at Prince Albert, Sask.After the Saskatchewan Cup, Canada will play a five-game exhibition schedule against the Selects and Czechoslovakia in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.Game dates and sites are: Jan. 2, vs. Czechoslovakia at Rosetown, Sask.; Jan. 3, vs. the Selects at Swift Current, Sask.; Jan. 4, vs. the Selects at Regina, Sask.; Jan. 6, vs. the Selects at Dauphin, Man.; Jan. 7, vs. the Selects at Yorkton, Sask.<h2>GILMOUR WAIT</h2>The sex scandal lawsuit and countersuit involving Calgary Flame center Doug Gilmour, traded by the St. Louis Blues to Calgary Sept. 6, is a long way from being resolved&mdash;barring an out-of-court settlement.A St. Louis County Court spokesperson said the current backlog could delay the case from being heard for at least two years.On Aug. 30, a St. Louis couple, identified only as John and Mary Doe, filed a suit seeking $ 1 million in damages from Gilmour, his wife Robyne, Blues&rsquo; president Jack Quinn and the St. Louis Blues Hockey Club, Inc. The parents allege Gilmour had sex with their 14-year-old daughter and the Blues tried to cover it up.On Oct. 4, the Gilmours filed a $4-milIion countersuit charging the girl&rsquo;s parents with slander and libel<h2>BITS AND PIECES</h2>A Los Angeles Times gossip report said L.A. King owner Bruce McNall recently sidled up to Michael J. Fox, an avid hockey fan and star of television&rsquo;s Family Ties, and told him: &ldquo;You&rsquo;re going to be our Jack Nicholson.&rdquo; Actor Nicholson regularly attends Los Angeles Laker basketball games at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif.McNall, meanwhile, has two three-year-old thoroughbreds in his 202-horse stable named after famous goalies. One is named Tretiak and the other, Rogatien. They are named, of course, after Soviet national goalie Vladislav Tretiak and L.A. King general manager Rogatien Vachon. McNall's horses wear the same colors as the Kings, silver and black.Bill Ballard. 41-year-old son of Toronto Maple Leaf owner Harold Ballard, appeared in Toronto court Oct. 13 in connection with a Sept. 8 assault charge filed by Yolanda Mac-Millan, the elder Ballard&rsquo;s 55-year-old companion. He was remanded until Feb. 16.<h2>OVERHEARD</h2>&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s get one thing straight&mdash;I didn&rsquo;t make those projections and I don&rsquo;t know what people were basing them on.&rdquo;&mdash;Bert Templeton, coach of the 2-9-0 North Bay Centennials, responding to questions about his team&rsquo;s start after being named a top contender in the Ontario League. &#9632;

f0009-02

PENALTIES REVERSED IN RARE NHL MOVE

<div class="byline">JAY GREENBERG</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011463/5651521-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="451" height="641"></div>For those who have wished upon the North Stars, their dreams have not come true. You&rsquo;ve known it. I&rsquo;ve known it. There are even recent indications the North Stars finally do, too.Reality has been hard to come by for Minnesota&rsquo;s hockey team. The official car of the North Stars has been the Isuzu. Like the team, it looks much better than it runs.It promises 38 miles a gallon and for a while delivered about 20. But that was okay mileage, particularly for the Norris road rally, so there was always a grey area about whether it was time to trade it in.Alas, the last two seasons Minnesota has failed to make it out of the parking lot. Even master mechanic Herb Brooks couldn&rsquo;t jumpstart this jalopy and move it the scant 10 feet or so it would have taken to make the playoffs.What was particularly galling was that back at the dealership, Smiling Lou Nanne would look you in the face and say: &ldquo;This car is basically in good shape.&rdquo;&ldquo;First of all,&rdquo; Nanne would say, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure it&rsquo;s being driven correctly. And it may just need a tuneup. 1 designed it well. I just think it&rsquo;s been in too many accidents that have been out of my control.&rdquo;What the people of the Twin Cities wanted was a team that would not be denied. What they had was a general manager who denied he didn&rsquo;t have one. Whether Nanne really believed he was as close and as unlucky as he always insisted, is hard to say. But his resignation in January, and eventual replacement by Jack Ferreira, marked the end of an era. And the admission of some errors.Among them was Brian Lawton, the first player taken in the 1983 draft and one of the last players who should have been. The North Stars stood at the station for five years waiting for Lawton's train to come in. Finally, on Oct. 11 they announced they would seek other means of transportation.&ldquo;It was the North Stars&rsquo; decision to draft Brian Lawton first overall,&rdquo; said Ferreira, "not Brian&rsquo;s.&rdquo; In other words, it was time to admit a mistake.Church bells began ringing in St. Paul. In Minnetonka, they bowed in the direction of the Met Center. Never mind whether the North Stars got anything of any promise back from the Rangers in the eight-player deal that moved Lawton. Never mind whether he becomes a productive player in New York, which remains a possibility.The point was the franchise was finally looking at itself in the mirror. &ldquo;For a long time, the people around here have been saying how good we should be,&rdquo; said Dino Ciccarelli. &ldquo;They aren&rsquo;t very realistic. When you&rsquo;re trying your best and people are still dumping on you, it takes some of the fun out of playing.&rdquo;Of course, so does a 19-48-13 record, and all the amenities that go with the status of becoming the worst team in the league. There were only 6,374 squeaky voices squeaking through the Met Center for the second home game this season, even with a decent draw like Philadelphia in town. With the Twins and Vikings coming up winners and an NBA expansion team making its debut next season, the North Stars have been forced to their knees to woo the fans back.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve been up front with our players and fans that we&rsquo;re starting over,&rdquo; said Ferreira. That said, it could be pointed out that with Craig Hartsburg, Neal Broten, Brian Bellows and Ciccarelli, some teams have begun with far less.That said, it&rsquo;s easy to fall into the old trap. With a nucleus like that, why can&rsquo;t the North Stars be decent? That&rsquo;s because they have always been a team that has had arms, but no spine to support them.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021113/5651514-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="701" height="559"><figcaption class="caption-body">The North Stars could use more players like Bob Brooke.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Role players, big physical players. Penalty-killers. Where are they?&rdquo; said first-year coach Pierre Page, the former Calgary assistant. &ldquo;Al MacAdam, Mike Eaves, where are they? Where are those kinds of players? We have Bob Brooke, that&rsquo;s it.&rdquo;It was a startlingly frank admission. It also caused one&rsquo;s mind to flash to Page&rsquo;s tombstone: &ldquo;Where are they?&rdquo; will be engraved on it.&ldquo;We have some things going for us,&rdquo; said Page. &ldquo;Calgary had to trade three players to get a Joey Mullen, a goal-scorer.&ldquo;We have a Ciccarelli and a Bellows. We have two Joey Mullens here. But you have to have some size around your skill players. If there were easy answers, Minnesota would have won a long time ago.&rdquo;The chemistry was never quite right, and the 1983 through 1985 drafts were decidedly wrong. As a result it will be a long time before Minnesota wins again. At the same time, there is some talent here and it shouldn&rsquo;t take that much to move up in the Norris Division and&hellip;Aw, here we go again.Page is intelligent, dedicated, and has an ability to relate to people. He is also not naive, a critical trait for any coach who faces a rebuilding program, and a characteristic he says he shares with his general manager.&ldquo;Jack and I sit down after a game,&rdquo; said Page, &ldquo;and at least we are seeing the same things. We agree on what&rsquo;s wrong.&rdquo;These must be some long meetings. Portending a long road back. &#9632;

f0010-01

NORTH STARS CHUG ALONG IN NORRIS JALOPY

<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>The Hawks will retire Nos. I and 35, the uniform numbers of goaltenders Glenn Hall and Tony Esposito respectively, in ceremonies before their Nov. 20 game at the Stadium against the Vancouver Canucks. Esposito, now general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins, had 74 shutouts in his 16-year career with the Hawks. His 15 shutouts in 1969-70 are the most for one season in modem NHL history and rank second all-time to the 22 recorded by George Hainsworth of Montreal in 1928-29. Hall, now a goaltending consultant with the Calgary Flames, holds the NHL record for consecutive games played by a goaltender, 502, from 1955-56 to 1962-63 with Chicago.With two shorthanded goals against Winnipeg, Denis Savard tied the Hawks&rsquo; club record shared by Eric Nesterenko, Stan Mikita, Chico Maki, Darryl Sutter and Rick Paterson. Paterson, now an assistant coach with Pittsburgh, was the last Hawk to do it, on Jan. 16, 1985 against Winnipeg&hellip; Referee Bob Hall was nearly hit by a beer bottle thrown from the second balcony during the Hawks&rsquo; 10-3 loss to Boston on Oct. 16&hellip; The Blackhawks sent first-round pick Jeremy Roenick, 18, to Hull of the Quebec League, saying he needed to play a full season to gain experience. They also returned Ryan McGill to Medicine Hat of the Western League and left winger Everett Senipass to Saginaw of the International League for conditioning.<h2>LEAFS</h2>Defenseman Chris Kotsopoulos was back in the lineup on Oct. 17 against Montreal after missing the Oct. 15 game against Detroit because of a painfully bruised left ankle&hellip; Blueliner Rick Lanz was out on a day-to-day basis with a bruised shoulder&hellip; Backup goalie Allan Bester, who watched Ken Wregget work the first four games, played back-to-back against Washington and Detroit&hellip; Assistant coach Garry Lariviere was limping noticeably after being upended by defenseman Al Iafrate the second week of October.The Leafs demoted center Ken Yaremchuk to Newmarket Saints Oct. 14 after failing to make a deal to send him to another NHL team&hellip; Veterans Borje Salming and Brad Marsh were the only defensemen to play in all of the first six games as coach John Brophy juggled his nine blueliners. Two were expected to be shipped out&hellip; Rookie right winger Daniel Marois was off to a fast start with four goals in his first six games.<h2>RED WINGS</h2>After his team managed only a pair of ugly ties in its first four games, Red Wing coach Jacques Demers&nbsp;threatened his players with a nine-hour work day if they didn&rsquo;t shape up. They responded with a come-from-behind 5-3 win over Toronto. &ldquo;We needed this win bad,&rdquo; said Demers. &ldquo;I told them they didn&rsquo;t want to work a 9(a.m.) to 6(p.m.) day.&rdquo;&hellip;Demers scratched John Chabot and Joe Murphy for the Toronto game Oct. 15. Wings&rsquo; insiders say Murphy, off to a slow start in his third professional season, is in big trouble. If the Wings can&rsquo;t trade him, he&rsquo;ll likely wind up in the minors before long.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03718/5651552-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="541" height="519"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tony Esposito will have his No. 35 retired in Chicago.</figcaption></div><h2>BLUES</h2>Right winger Todd Ewen set a personal record of sorts, scoring his first goal of the season&mdash;Oct. 12 against Toronto&mdash;before receiving his first penalty. Ewen had four goals and 227 penalty minutes last season as a rookie. Blues&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter paired Ewen (6-foot-3, 230 pounds) with left winger Craig Coxe (6-foot-4, 220 pounds) and center Rick Meagher (5-foot-8, 175 pounds) against Toronto. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of beef on the outside and a little filet in the center,&rdquo; said Sutter.After allowing only one goal in their first 12 penalty-killing situations, the Blues allowed six in the next 13&hellip;After scoring three goals on five power plays against Minnesota in the season opener, the Blues scored only two in their next 15 chances.<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>The latest episode in defenseman Craig Hartsburg&rsquo;s medical odyssey involved a freak ankle infection that would keep him sidelined for at least five games. Hartsburg&rsquo;s ankle was hit by a shot late in a 4-1 loss in Quebec Oct. 9. He skated the next two days, but then the ankle became sore and swollen again and Hartsburg had to be hospitalized to have the ankle drained. A day later, he was admitted to the hospital so he could receive antibiotics intravenously.Center Bob Brooke and defenseman Shawn Chambers returned to play in the Stars&rsquo; 5-1 victory over Boston Oct. 15. Both missed much of training camp because of shoulder separations. Defenseman Moe Mantha, who also missed time because of a shoulder separation, returned Oct. 13 against Philadelphia. &#9632;

f0010-03

EX-GOALIES HALL AND TONY ‘O’ HONORED

<div class="byline">BY MIKE PERRICONE</div>Hope turned to despair for the Chicago Blackhawks as the losses and goals-against kept mounting.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re just dead,&rdquo; said left winger Steve Thomas. &ldquo;We have to change that drastically, or we&rsquo;re never going to win.&ldquo;Something has got to change. Something big has got to happen to shake us up and get us going.&rdquo;The Hawks were shaken by a 10-3 loss to Boston at Chicago Stadium. As if their 1-4-1 record weren&rsquo;t bad enough, they faced a seven-game road trip while surrendering their building to the circus. Then the Hawks face another seven-game road trip in late November and early December.&ldquo;With a number of games on the road, you could say it&rsquo;s just what the doctor ordered,&rdquo; said Hawks&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan. &ldquo;Or we could go into another tailspin.&rdquo;Keenan sounded as though he expected this kind of trouble with the Hawks, who have had slow starts, poor road records and poor defensive records in the past.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t expect it this early, but it&rsquo;s upon us,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;I went through it last year in Philadelphia. In the first 20 games, we were 21st in the league. Then from the 20th to the 60th game, we were in first place. I&rsquo;ve gone through it before and I&rsquo;ll go through it again.&rdquo;In their first six games, the Hawks&rsquo; only points came from a 2-2 tie with the New York Rangers on opening night and a 10-1 whipping of Winnipeg at Chicago Stadium on Oct. 12. In their four losses, they surrendered 32 goals (an average of eight per game). They gave opponents 51 power-play chances and 14 power-play goals in the first six games. Keenan was livid over the penalties.&ldquo;Lack of discipline is the only way I can describe it, taking selfish penalties,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;With only one win under our belt, I don&rsquo;t know how long it&rsquo;s going to take to drive home the point.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been asked not to take those stupid penalties, but they continue to do it. So we&rsquo;ll have to do something about it. The options are to change personnel. If players continue to do that (take penalties), either they&rsquo;ll stop doing that or let other people have the opportunity to play.&rdquo;The Hawks&rsquo; manpower was reduced by two when defenseman Ryan McGill and first-round draft pick Jeremy Roenick were assigned to their junior teams. McGill went back to Medicine Hat in the Western League and Roenick was assigned to Hull of the Quebec League. Hull drafted Roenick from Thayer Academy (Mass.) in the third round of the 1988 midget draft.That left the Hawks with just two extra players.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011333/5651583-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="543" height="623"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jeremy Roenick was sent to the Hull Olympiques.</figcaption></div>There were several options facing Chicago. One was to call up goaltender Ed Belfour from Saginaw of the International League. Neither Jimmy Waite, a rookie, nor Darren Pang, a sophomore, had sparkled. Another was to make a deal for a defenseman, in a bid to bolster Chicago&rsquo;s beleaguered blue line.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 12: Everett Sanipass, LW, assigned to Saginaw (IHL).Oct. 13: Ryan McGill. D, returned to Medicine Hat (WHL)Oct. 14: Jeremy Roenick, C, assigned to Hull (QMJHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Denis Savard. Troy Murray, Mike Eagles. Mike Hudson.LW&mdash;Steve Larmer. Steve Thomas. Dan Vincelette, Glen Cochrane. Jim Playfair.RW&mdash;Rick Vaive, Dirk Graham, Duane Sutter. Wayne Presley.LD&mdash;Doug Wilson, Gary Nylund, Marc BergevinRD&mdash;Trent Yawney, Keith Brown, Dave Manson. Bob McGill. Bob Murray.G&mdash;Darren Pang, Jimmy Waite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0011-01

BAD START HAS HAWKS TALKING CHANGE

<div class="byline">BY RICK MATSUMOTO</div>As far as Gary Leeman is concerned, working the power play is like riding a bike.Once you learn the technique, you never forget it.With Regina Pats of the Western League, Leeman was an intricate part of one of the best power plays in junior hockey.Now, five years later, he&rsquo;s using the same skills to quarterback the Toronto Maple Leafs' power play.&ldquo;We had such a powerful power play in Regina that it was easier to learn how it should be done.&rdquo; explained Leeman, 24. &ldquo;One of the most important things about a successful power play is to have patient people.&ldquo;When things aren&rsquo;t going right you can&rsquo;t be panicked into taking stupid shots. You have to work to get back into the right pattern.&ldquo;If things aren&rsquo;t working, if the guys are starting to run around or aren&rsquo;t waiting to get a good shot, then we have to talk about it when there&rsquo;s a stoppage in play and correct it.&rdquo;The Leafs were horrendous last season when they had the man advantage. In fact, they were the worst team in the league, converting only 15.6 per cent of their opportunities.This season, coach John Brophy spent considerable time on the power play during training camp, and has continued to do so during regular-season practices.The results have been encouraging.With Leeman in the important pivotal spot on the right point, the Leaf power play got off to a much better start this season.After the first three games, it was operating at a 23.5-per-cent success ratio.When it dipped to 18.5 per cent following an 0-for-4 outing against the St. Louis Blues, Oct. 12, Brophy immediately went to work on his two extra-man units.He inserted rookie Daniel Marois on right wing in the first group, with center Ed Olczyk and left winger Mark Osborne. Leeman and Al lafrate remained on the points.He then shifted Vincent Damphousse, who had been playing the right side with Olczyk and Osborne, to left wing, in place of Al Secord, on the second unit with Tom Fergus and Craig Laughlin. Rick Lanz, Todd Gill. Borje Salming and Darren Veitch shared the point roles on this quintet.The results weren&rsquo;t readily evident in two weekend games as Toronto beat Washington Capitals 3-1, Oct. 14, before blowing a 3-1 lead against Detroit Red Wings the next night, losing 5-3.The power play managed only one goal in nine chances in those two games, dropping its power-play efficiency to under 18 per cent. Still, there was much more purpose in the Leaf attack as the units moved the puck crisply and without hesitation.Though he&rsquo;s a right winger now. Leeman used to be a defenseman. That&rsquo;s invaluable training for a point man, who represents the last line of defense.Leeman was the Leafs&rsquo; second pick in the 1982 draft, but was returned to the Pats.He moved up to the Leafs in 1982-83, still with junior eligibility remaining, and saw only limited duty.He spent time with both the Maple Leafs and American League St. Catharines Saints during the next two seasons, as Leaf management debated whether he should be a defenseman or a forward.On his second trip to St. Catharines, where Brophy was then head coach, he moved to right wing permanently.Last year in his second full season with the Leafs, he emerged as a capable NHL right winger scoring 30 goals and 31 assists.This year he got off to an even faster start, scoring five goals and six assists in the Leafs&rsquo; first six games.Leeman, only 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds, said he never thought he&rsquo;d wind up as a right winger.&ldquo;I was always a defenseman and I never thought of being a forward," he said. "And when NHL teams drafted guys like (Minnesota North Star wheelhorse) Craig Hartsburg, I felt there was going to be a trend towards offensive defensemen.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02983/5651614-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="541" height="1125"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gary Leeman started his career as a defenseman.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;On top of that, the Leafs were having trouble getting the puck out of their own zone and I thought that&rsquo;s why they drafted an offensive defenseman like myself."Now, however. Leeman is strictly a right winger. Except, of course, when he&rsquo;s on the point on the power play.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 14: Ken Yaremchuk, C. assigned to Newmarket (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ed Olczyk, Tom Fergus. Vincent Damphousse, Russ Courtnail, Dan Daoust.LW&mdash;Mark Osborne, Al Secord, Dave Reid. Scott Pearson.RW&mdash;Gary Leeman. Craig Laughlin, Daniel Marois, Derek Laxdal.LD&mdash;Borje Salming. Luke Richardson. Todd Gill. Brian Curran, Brad Marsh.RD&mdash;Chris Kotsopoulos. Al lafrate, Darren Veitch. Rick Lanz.G&mdash;Ken Wregget, Allan Bester.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Wendel Clark, LW, back muscles, indefinite.Rick Lanz, D, bruised shoulder, day-to-day.Sean McKenna, RW, torn ligaments in right hand, indefinite.Chris McRae, LW, broken right hand, Oct. 31. &#9632;

f0011-02

POINT-MAN LEEMAN ADDS NEEDED PUNCH TO LEAF POWER PLAY

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>And now for this week&rsquo;s episode&hellip;The Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; soap opera involving reprobates right winger Bob Probert and left winger Petr Klima continued when, for reasons largely unexplained, Probert returned to Detroit prematurely from a California rehabilitation center, and Klima rejoined the club&rsquo;s payroll when the Wings reinstated him Oct. 13.Klima was promptly assigned to the Wings&rsquo; farm team in Adirondack of the American League. He reported to the team Oct. 16.Both players were suspended without pay on Sept. 23 for breaking a series of team rules. Neither would be welcomed back, the Wings said at the time, until they got their acts together. For Probert, an alcoholic, that meant drying out at a rehab center. For Klima, it meant getting help for what the Wings described as a &ldquo;behavior disorder.&rdquo;But Probert left the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage. Calif., on Oct. 13, after less than 10 days of a program the Wings said would last between 30 and 42 days. Klima, meanwhile, was arrested a second time for drunken driving, Oct. 9, and faces a probable jail sentence.Arguably, then, neither seemed to be making much progress. Yet each appeared closer to rejoining the team, which got off to a dreadful start (1-2-2).Club officials were evasive when asked why Klima&rsquo;s suspension was lifted. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to discuss that. We&rsquo;re just doing it,&rdquo; said Red Wings&rsquo; general manager Jimmy Devellano. &ldquo;1&rsquo;11 let people use their imaginations as to why.&ldquo;Petr has done things that would indicate that he at least wants to follow the rules. Let&rsquo;s give him that chance.&rdquo;Coach Jacques Demers would comment only on Klima&rsquo;s situation, since he has been reinstated. He declined comment on Probert.&ldquo;I have a feeling we won&rsquo;t have any more problems with Petr,&rdquo; said Demers, while relishing a three-point weekend. The Red Wings tied St. Louis 8-8, Oct. 15, and beat Toronto 5-3, the following night.&ldquo;I really think he&rsquo;s going to be okay this time. 1 think Petr wants to be a good citizen and help the Red Wings.&rdquo;Demers said the club has set several &ldquo;major terms&rdquo; that Klima must meet before he returns to the NHL team. He would not elaborate.Klima faces a court hearing on the second drunken driving charge and other charges later this month. Another court hearing may result over possible probation violations stemming from an earlier conviction for driving while impaired.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited because I&rsquo;m playing hockey again,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m with the guys again. But I don&rsquo;t know what the hockey is like (in the AHL). 1 never even saw these games. It will be different, I think.&rdquo;Like Demers, Klima didn&rsquo;t have a particular timetable for his return to Detroit. Asked when he would like to come back, Klima laughed and said, &ldquo;tomorrow&hellip;as soon as possible.&rdquo;In the meantime, sources within the organization say Probert&rsquo;s attempt, through his agent, Patrick Ducharme, to get reinstated is because of financial problems.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s flat broke,&rdquo; said one Wings&rsquo; source, who asked not to be identified.Probert, who is losing $1,300 per day while suspended, is moving out of his riverfront apartment in downtown Detroit and his $40,000 Corvette is for sale, the source said. He will live with two recovering alcoholics and continue therapy through Alcoholics Anonymous. Also, he has started to work out on his own in Windsor, Ont. And he resumed taking the medication Antabuse to help control his drinking.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011435/5651645-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="549" height="560"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jimmy Devellano said Petr Klima deserves another chance.</figcaption></div>But Ducharme&rsquo;s plan to get Probert back on the payroll by late October, as he has previously stated, may be overoptimistic, the Wings&rsquo; source said. The club, which is wary of being burned again by Probert, is thinking more along the lines of bringing him back in mid-November, the source said.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 13: Petr Klima, LW, reinstated after suspension. Assigned to Adirondack (AHL) on Oct. 16.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Steve Yzerman, Adam Oates, John Chabot. Shawn Burr.LW&mdash;Gerard Gallant, Joe Murphy. Kris King, Adam Graves, Jim Nill, Tim Higgins.RW&mdash;Paul MacLean, Miroslav Frycer, Dave Barr, Joe Kocur.LD&mdash;Jeff Sharples, Doug Halward, Lee Nonwood.RD&mdash;Rick Zombo, Gilbert Delorme, Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Jim Pavese.G&mdash;Greg Stefan, Glen Hanlon.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Steve Chiasson, D, groin injury, day-to-day.Doug Houda, D, fractured left cheekbone, indefinite. &#9632;

f0012-01

BAD BOYS COME STEP CLOSER TO REJOINING RED WINGS

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021194/5651676-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Link Gaetz was benched after being charged with drunk driving on an off-day for the North Stars.</figcaption></div>Two experiments ended within three days at the Met Center.One lasted five years, the other four games.First, the North Stars finally admitted their selection of Brian Lawton as first overall choice in 1983 was a major mistake.Lawton, Czechoslovakian left winger Igor Liba and the rights to Providence College left winger Eric Bennett were sent to the New York Rangers for five prospects on Oct. 11.In exchange, the North Stars received defensemen Mark Tinordi and Paul Jerrard, plus the rights to Boston University center Mike Sullivan and Lake Superior State left winger Bret Barnett and a 1989 third-round draft pick.Next, the Stars shelved their plan to build immediately with youth by sending rookie goaltender Jarmo Myllys, who played in three of the team&rsquo;s first four games, and rookie defenseman Dean Kolstad to Kalamazoo in the International League.Meanwhile, North Star general manager Jack Ferreira and coach Pierre Page disciplined rookie defenseman Link Gaetz, who was arrested for driving while under the influence of alcohol. He was benched for two home games and left behind on a three-game road trip.Lawton and Liba were demoted to the minors a day before the season began and both refused to report. Lawton said he was prepared to retire if he was not traded to another team. Just six days later, he was gone and he shed no tears.&ldquo;This is a happy day for me,&rdquo; Lawton said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very thankful they moved me and moved me quickly.&rdquo;Lawton, 23, once was projected as a tough, aggressive two-way center who would lead the Stars back on track toward the Stanley Cup. Former GM Lou Nanne and his scouting staff compared him to New York Islander Bryan Trottier when they selected Lawton ahead of Pat LaFontaine, Sylvain Turgeon, Steve Yzerman, Tom Barrasso, Cam Neely, Claude Lemieux, Rick Tocchet and Bob Probert in the 1983 draft.But Lawton, who signed with the Stars and turned down the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, played sparingly in his rookie season (58-10-21-31) under coach Bill Mahoney and never delivered on his promise. His best season was 1986-87, when he scored 21 goals and had 44 points in 66 games. Last season he scored 17 goals and added 24 assists in 71 games.&ldquo;I wish I had played more in my first year,&rdquo; said Lawton. &ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s a crucial time for a young player. I think even before I arrived here I was pencilled in as being brought along slowly. For a young player, you can really get down in a situation like that.&rdquo;The trade will not help the Stars immediately, but it will eventually be a measuring stick for Ferreira&rsquo;s scouting talents, which is why team owners Gordon and George Gund hired him. It was Ferreira&rsquo;s first trade since being hired June 14. &ldquo;This particular deal will help us by the end of the year and for the future,&rdquo; Ferreira said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m certainly not against a trade that will give us immediate help, but those are difficult to make.&rdquo;The Stars received size and some toughness from the Rangers. Tinordi, 22, is 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds while Jerrard, 23, is 6-foot-l and 195 pounds. Barnett, 21, is a 6-foot-3, 185-pound sophomore and Sullivan, 20, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound junior.The Stars shifted the emphasis to experience after losing their first four games. Myllys, 23, surrendered 17 goals in games against St. Louis, Montreal and Philadelphia. He was sent to Kalamazoo and Page elected to go with two goalies, Jon Casey and Kari Takko. Casey was in the net for a loss to Quebec, Oct. 9, and for the North Stars&rsquo; first win, a 5-1 victory over the Boston Bruins, Oct. 22. Takko had yet to be involved in a decision.&ldquo;Myllys was the best goalie in camp and we had to give him a chance," Page said. &ldquo;I told him that John Vanbiesbrouck and Ron Hextall started in the minors. I told him to go down, work hard and maybe he&rsquo;ll be back in a week, or two weeks or four or three months. Who knows?&rdquo;Gaetz, 20, was arrested in the early hours of Oct. 12, an off-day for the Stars. He was sent to the press box for home games against Philadelphia and Boston and did not make a three-game road trip to Edmonton, Calgary and Los Angeles.Ferreira considered sending Gaetz, who has a history of off-ice problems, to the minors but decided against it. Last season, Gaetz was suspended by Spokane Chiefs for the Western League playoffs for disciplinary reasons.&ldquo;I just tried to make it clear to Link that we&rsquo;re not very pleased with what he did,&rdquo; Ferreira said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve done what we can to help him make it in the NHL. He understands we can&rsquo;t sit back and sweep this under the carpet. We didn&rsquo;t feel it was in his best interests to send him to the minors. But he also has to understand that when he creates problems for himself, he has to put up with the consequences. He apologized to us and to the team.&rdquo;<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 10: Dave Gagner, C-RW. recalled from Kalamazoo (IHL); Kevin Kaminski, C. returned to Saskatoon (WHL).Oct. 11: Brian Lawton, C, Igor Liba, C, and rights to Eric Bennett, LW, traded to New York Rangers for Paul Jerrard, D, Mark Tinordi, D, and the rights to Mike Sullivan, C, Bret Barnett. LW, and 1989 third-round draft pick. Jerrard assigned to Kalamazoo.Oct. 14: Jarmo Myllys, G. Dean Kolstad. D, assigned to Kalamazoo.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Neal Broten, Dusan Pasek, Bob Brooke, Marc Habscheid. Larry De-Palma.LW&mdash;Basil McRae, Brian MacLellan, Dave Archibald, Tom Martin, Terry Ruskowski.RW&mdash;Dino Ciccarelli, Brian Bellows, Wally Schreiber, Dave Gagner. Richard Zemlak.LD&mdash;Frantisek Musil, Curt Giles, Mark Hardy.RD&mdash;Bob Rouse, Moe Mantha. Shawn Chambers. Link Gaetz.G&mdash;Jon Casey, Kari Takko<h3>INJURIES</h3>Curt Fraser, LW, stretched rib cartilage. indefinite.Craig Hartsburg, D, ankle infection, indefinite. &#9632;

f0012-02

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD AFTER WOEFUL START

<div class="byline">STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011416/5651738-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="474" height="650"></div>Is it possible to clean up fan pollution in an NHL rink?When you&rsquo;re talking about Madison Square Garden, home of the New York Rangers, the answer would seem to be no, it&rsquo;s impossible.Ranger rooters over the past two decades have become notorious as the loudest, most obscene and, in many cases, violent in the league.&ldquo;They are a total disgrace to the game of hockey,&rdquo; was the way Hall of Famer Ed Snider, the Philadelphia Flyer owner, put it in 1987. &ldquo;The fans&rsquo; vulgarity is uncontrolled and undisciplined by the Garden.&rdquo;Snider&rsquo;s point has been underlined by innumerable hockey people, reporters and reasonable Ranger fans, many of whom cancelled their season tickets in disgust.That&rsquo;s the bad news. The good news is MSG not only has become acutely aware of the garbage-pail vapor drifting down from the blue seats, but is doing something about the fumigation of Ranger rooters.MSG executive vice-president Judd Perkins reveals the Garden has embarked on an ambitious anti-pollution drive aimed at the fans. It got serious last year and is even more serious this season.The clean-up campaign ranges from questionnaires to shapely &lsquo;guest-service coordinators,&rsquo; who resemble Disneyland guides. In addition MSG has created a Mr. Clean high command which includes Perkins and &lsquo;guest-relations coordinator&rsquo; John Gentile.&ldquo;What we&rsquo;re trying to do is positive, not negative,&rdquo; says Gentile. &ldquo;We want to create as pleasant and safe and comfortable an atmosphere as possible for everybody in this building.&rdquo;To that end MSG sent tough letters to Ranger subscribers. The first warning reserves MSG&rsquo;s right &ldquo;to eject and/or automatically and permanently revoke season tickets if a subscriber or guest is found: Fighting; acting in a drunken or abusive manner; throwing objects on the ice or in the seating area; using drugs or other illegal substances; loitering in emergency exits or other unauthorized areas; reselling tickets or causing any other action that is deemed unacceptable behavior or potentially harmful to players. Garden employees or other guests.&rdquo;Perkins claims more than 500 fans were ejected during Ranger games last year. Apparently, MSG has received the message that many respectable fans, especially those with children, are fed up with the X-rated ambience.&ldquo;We heard from a number of fans and season subscribers over the last year or two, both by letter and phone,&rdquo; says Gentile. &ldquo;They indicated that they were concerned with the atmosphere in the arena and people who were interfering with the enjoyment of other fans at the game. They indicated that it had become increasingly difficult to bring important clients or young children to the games. The general feeling is that there really is no reason why each and every person who comes here can&rsquo;t come and feel safe and comfortable and that their enjoyment should not be interfered with by people who are performing all sorts of unacceptable behavior.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s nice talk but reality is another story. Dan Mahoney, a computer programmer and diehard fan who has had season tickets so long he can&rsquo;t remember, gave them up this year because of disgust over blue-seat vulgarity. Some folks, like professional musician Paul Ringe, won&rsquo;t even take a freebie to an MSG game. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been a Ranger fan for 35 years,&rdquo; says Ringe, &ldquo;but I won't go to the Garden any more because of the abuse and profanity. The crowd has become so ugly&mdash;the people seem to love the fights in the stands&mdash;that it will conclude with a knife in the belly. The Garden can say anything it wants about a clean-up campaign but it has nothing to do with reality.&rdquo;Perkins counters there have been tangible changes for the better&mdash;&ldquo;the building is cleaner and brighter&rdquo;&mdash;but admits there&rsquo;s considerable work to be done.&ldquo;The most difficult thing to deal with is the (foul) language,&rdquo; says Perkins. &ldquo;Language is a big factor in the situation and it&rsquo;s a problem we&rsquo;re getting a handle on. Our philosophy is that the obscenities must go.&rdquo;Other Garden officials doubt anything can be done about the cursing. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re p&mdash;ing into the wind,&rdquo; says a vice-president, requesting anonymity. Visiting team officials and the out-of-town media who grimace through games in the upper press box directly in front of the raucous blue seats have been regularly harassed by the fans. The presence of a security guard apparently does nothing.When Ranger season-ticket holder Bill Feingold received a questionnaire requesting suggestions for improving the scene, he mailed it back with the following proposal: &ldquo;I told them that the first thing they should do is outlaw the blue seats.&rdquo;Are the animals still running the Garden zoo? Consider management&rsquo;s response when it was suggested last winter the Rangers honor retiring New York Islander defenseman Denis Potvin. &ldquo;We couldn&rsquo;t do it because we were afraid that the fans would go nuts and it would be embarrassing to him,&rdquo; says a Garden official. &ldquo;We realize that he deserved the recognition but we felt it would be inappropriate.&rdquo;If MSG is serious about its clean-up campaign it will have to look in places other than the blue seats. &ldquo;The mistaken impression,&rdquo; says former season-ticket holder Bob Stampleman, &ldquo;is that all the crazies are in the blues. Actually, you see some pretty disgusting stuff down below in the most expensive seats.&rdquo;Just how the Garden juxtaposes the evident anarchy with its Snow White drive is fascinating, if nothing else. But Perkins insists the fan clean-up will intensify this season. &ldquo;We mean business,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;and we&rsquo;re very aware of the problems and will continue to address them. The complete solution won&rsquo;t happen tomorrow because Rome wasn&rsquo;t built in a day.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-01

BLUE FANS BLACK PATCH IN THE GARDEN

<h2>KINGS</h2>After goaltender Rollie Melanson sprained his left knee in the opener against Detroit Oct. 6, Glenn Healy stepped in and won three consecutive games, a career high. &ldquo;The goalies here seem to get a lot of pressure put on them.&rdquo; Healy said. &ldquo;There are a lot of critics. Everyone seems to think we should trade for this guy or get rid of that guy. I try not to let it bother me. It&rsquo;s the team that wins and the team that loses. It&rsquo;s not one guy. It&rsquo;s not me and it&rsquo;s not Wayne Gretzky. It&rsquo;s everybody.&rdquo;The King&rsquo;s penalty killers have killed off a major, produced two shorthanded goals and allowed three power-play goals in 26 chances. The power play, on the other hand, was in a 2-for-25 rut over four games&hellip; Left winger Phil Sykes agreed to go to New Haven of the AHL after failing to swing a deal for himself.<h2>OILERS</h2>Veteran left winger Nick Fotiu will be with the Oilers for at least 20 games. The 36-year-old&rsquo;s status with the team will be reviewed after that. The trial period began ominously, when he twisted his knee during his Edmonton debut Oct. 14 against Calgary. He was listed as day-to-day on the injury report&hellip; Cape Breton left winger Ivan Matulik, the Czechoslovak defector who was impressive at Oiler training camp, is likely gone for the season. Matulik tore the medial collateral ligament in his right knee Sept. 27 and was operated upon in Edmonton by team physician Dr. Gordon Cameron.When defenseman Craig Redmond was taken from the Oilers by the New York Rangers in the Oct. 3 waiver draft, coach-general manager Glen Sather vowed he would reclaim the former L.A. first-round draft pick if he was sent to the minors. Redmond was sent down to the Rangers&rsquo; IHL team in Denver Oct. 13. &ldquo;I made a deal with Phil (Esposito, Ranger GM),&rdquo; explained Sather. &ldquo;Redmond went to school there (Denver University) and asked if he could go there for a while. Things change.&rdquo;&hellip; Ex-Oiler Dave Semenko has acquired his real estate licence and is selling for a firm in Edmonton.<h2>FLAMES</h2>Is it important for the Flames to get off to a fast start? In the past, October never was a good month for Calgary. Last year, they were 5-5-1 in October and under .500 in mid November (6-7-2), before recovering to finish first overall. Two years ago, they were 3-7 in the first month and 5-5 the year before that. &ldquo;Everybody wants a fast start,&rdquo; said coach Terry Crisp. &ldquo;But then you go to the story of the rabbit and the tortoise. The rabbit took off like a shot out of hell, but he wasn&rsquo;t there in the end.&rdquo;Defenseman Al Maclnnis, who set a team record for goals last year (25), said he plans to shoot more this season. The reason? Too many teams, in scouting the Flames&rsquo; power play, realized he&rsquo;s dishing off as much as he shoots&hellip; Lanny McDonald&rsquo;s next assist would be the 500th of his NHL career.<h2>JETS</h2>Coming off a brilliant training camp, right winger Hannu Jarvenpaa figured to be a key man in the Winnipeg lineup. The third-year pro from Finland started the year on the second line and the first power-play unit but by game five, he was a non-dresser&hellip; Veteran Ray Neufeld continues to baffle. Fourth line has been has been his lot thus far in 1988-89 but he was left out of an Oct. 16 meeting with Edmonton altogether &hellip; The Jets sent center Alfie Turcotte to Moncton Oct. 13 in a surprising move. Turcotte had an excellent training camp and looked to have a job sewn up in Winnipeg. But after missing the first two games with a bruised sternum, Turcotte played in just one game before Winnipeg management decided he wasn&rsquo;t good enough defensively for a fourth-line job&hellip; The Jets power play, second-best in the NHL a year ago with 110 goals, is off to a 5-for-29 start, 17.2 per cent. The unit went 1-for-12 in Chicago and had given up five shorthanded goals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021102/5651769-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="550" height="569"><figcaption class="caption-body">Count on Al Maclnnis shooting more this year in Calgary.</figcaption></div><h2>CANUCKS</h2>The experiment moving right winger Tony Tanti to the left side ended after two games, but the three-time 40-goal scorer hadn&rsquo;t scored in six games&hellip; Left winger-defenseman Daryl Stanley has been told he is welcome to rejoin the Canucks after going AWOL following opening night. When he didn&rsquo;t play in the first game, he took off, eventually ending up at home five days later. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll sit down and talk about some of the things that are bothering him,&rdquo; said Canucks&rsquo; GM Pat Quinn. &ldquo;He matters to us as a person.&rdquo;&hellip; Canucks were not only victims of Guy Lafleur&rsquo;s first comeback goal in New York, they were the victim in the Rangers&rsquo; first victory on home ice this season. &#9632;

f0014-02

HEALY HUSHES CRITICS WITH THREE WINS FOR SURGING KINGS

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011312/5651800-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center Bernie Nicholls was off to a torrid start, with three goals and nine assists in his first five games.</figcaption></div>The Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; mood was best described as cautiously optimistic following a 4-1-0 homestand which began the season.Winning in the Forum was one thing but the Kings also had to do it on the road, beginning with games in Calgary Oct. 17 and Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s return to Edmonton Oct. 19.The road was rather bumpy last season when the team&rsquo;s 11-24-5 record was better only than those compiled by Vancouver, Minnesota, Chicago and Toronto.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question we&rsquo;ve got to improve on our road record,&rdquo; said Bernie Nicholls, who was off to a good start himself with three goals and nine assists in five games.&ldquo;But this team has a totally different attitude than we&rsquo;ve had in the past. We&rsquo;ve set our sights high. People expect us to win and we do, too. That puts more pressure on us. 1 think you need that.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of pressure on Wayne, too. The guys understand that. We don&rsquo;t want to let them down.&rdquo;Gretzky, who had six goals and seven assists in his first five games with Los Angeles, was certainly pleased when the Kings rattled off four consecutive victories&mdash;the best start in franchise history&mdash;before dropping a 4-1 decision to the Philadelphia Flyers Oct. 15.&ldquo;The attitude is great right now,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re on such a roll, we&rsquo;re on such a high, that we feel we can beat anyone, come back from any score.&rdquo;The Kings fell short against the Flyers, giving up three third-period goals to turn a 1-0 nail-biter into a 4-0 deficit. They did manage to extend their non-shutout streak to 176 consecutive games when Bob Carpenter scored a power-play goal with 3:47 left in the game.&ldquo;We were going to lose a game eventually,&rdquo; Nicholls said. &ldquo;But good teams don&rsquo;t lose back-to-back very often. That&rsquo;s why this trip is important. We can&rsquo;t afford to string a bunch of losses together.&rdquo;One early habit the Kings were trying to break was allowing the first goal.&ldquo;(But) the key is playing the same way whether you&rsquo;re up by a goal or down by three,&rdquo; said Gretzky. &ldquo;With the talent we have here, we will score four, five, six goals. We just have to be patient.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of the hardest things for a team to learn&mdash;to stay patient and calm, that there's 60 minutes to a game, that games aren&rsquo;t won or lost in five minutes.&rdquo;<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 12: Doug Crossman, D, assigned to New Haven (AHL).Oct. 13: Bob Janecyk, G, assigned to New Haven.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Bernie Nicholls, Tim Tookey. Ron Duguay.LW&mdash;Luc Robitaille, Bob Carpenter, John Tonelli, Paul Fenton.RW&mdash;Dave Taylor, Mike Krushetnyski, Marty McSorley. Larry Playlair.LD&mdash;Tom Laidlaw, Tim Watters. Wayne McBean, Ken Baumgartner.RD&mdash;Steve Duchesne, Dean Kennedy. Jim Hofford.G&mdash; Rollie Melanson. Glenn Healy.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mike Allison, C, sprained wrist, day-today.Dale DeGray, D, sprained knee, day-to-day.Jim Fox, RW, knee surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

f0015-01

KINGS AIM FOR A WINNING ROAD SHOW

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>His workload, teammate Joey Mullen said, used to be unbelievable.&ldquo;He&rsquo;d play close to 40 minutes,&rdquo; said Mullen. "He was expected to carry the puck, clear the front of the net, play the power play, kill penalties and play tough, too.&rdquo;Not that Rob Ramage got into too many scraps.&ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Mullen, &ldquo;but with the amount of ice time he got and his being one of the only defensemen we could count on, we really couldn&rsquo;t afford to have him fight.&rdquo;This was Mullen, reminiscing about Ramage and their days with St. Louis Blues. Even though Ramage belonged to a union&mdash;the NHL Players&rsquo; Association&mdash;there were no provisions for overtime in his contract. He&rsquo;d punch in and play right through the coffee break, lunch time and nap period.Not so in Calgary. On a Flames' team with unusual depth on defense, Ramage plays regularly. No more. No less. It represents a major adjustment to a man who used to be Mr. Everything in his previous NHL life.&ldquo;My ice time has dropped dramatically since coming to Calgary,&rdquo; said Ramage. &ldquo;You look at the reasons for that. First, there&rsquo;s the power play. I played a lot of power play in St. Louis. Here, the first unit&mdash;justifiably so&mdash;is Gary Suter and Al Maclnnis. They&rsquo;ve had a tremendous amount of success. Same thing for killing penalties. Then, in St. Louis, I played a lot against other teams&rsquo; top lines&mdash;and those lines tended to get a lot of ice time.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just there&rsquo;s so much more depth here that you&rsquo;re not going to get the same workload.&rdquo;By playing less now, Ramage may be able to extend his career. During his career, the 29-year-old put in a lot of minutes.&ldquo;In the long run, this will certainly help him,&rdquo; said coach Terry Crisp. &ldquo;Because we have some younger legs, we&rsquo;re not going to wear him out. So when he does go out on the power play or to kill penalties, he&rsquo;s fresher than if he were to log all the ice time he used to.&rdquo;One of the misconceptions about Ramage is he&rsquo;s doddering around on his last legs. In the aftermath of the trade that brought him to Calgary, it was whispered his knees wouldn&rsquo;t stand up to the NHL grind much longer. Ramage disagreed. He said the problem was overstated.&ldquo;That was the talk in St. Louis before the trade, but the problem I had, tendinitis, developed over three years. It&rsquo;s something that comes and goes. It&rsquo;s just a matter of preventive maintenance now. That's the best way to keep it in shape.&rdquo;Ramage received his off-ice program from the sports injury clinic at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont.&ldquo;I do a lot of stretching now, before and after I go on the ice. If there&rsquo;s any soreness, I use ice. On days between games, it&rsquo;s a matter of trying to keep the knee strong with weight work.&rdquo;Coincidentally, Ramage developed the problem in the spring of 1986, the year the Blues went to the semi-finals against the Flames. He stretched the ligaments in his knee just before the playoffs began.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03684/5651831-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg" title="f0015-03" width="544" height="852"><figcaption class="caption-body">A deep lineup lets Terry Crisp use Rob Ramage wisely.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It happened right at the end of the year and. because it was the playoffs, it was a matter of taping the knee up and playing with it.&rdquo;Since arriving from St. Louis, the Flames have been tapping his wealth of experience&mdash;10 years in the NHL, one in the World Hockey Association&mdash;by using him with the team's younger defensemen. In the exhibition season, Ramage was usually paired with whatever minor-leaguer or junior happened to be getting his showcase game that night.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s because he&rsquo;s so steady,&rdquo; said Crisp. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s similar to Brad McCrimmon. You can put him out with anybody and he plays within himself. If you have a kid&hellip; it&rsquo;s good to put a Ramage or McCrimmon out there with him. Or even if a guy&rsquo;s simply going through a rough stretch.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joel Otto, Joe Nieuwendyk. Doug Gilmour, Jiri Hrdina.LW&mdash;Jim Peplmski, Gary Roberts, Colin Patterson. Perry Berezan, Tim Hunter.RW&mdash;Hakan Loob, Joey Mullen, Mark Hunter, Lanny McDonald. Shane Churla.LD&mdash;Gary Suter. Jamie Macoun. Dana Murzyn.RD&mdash;Brad McCrimmon, Al Maclnnis, Rob Ramage, Ric Nattress.G&mdash;Mike Vernon. Rick Wamsley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0015-03

DROP IN WORKLOAD SUITS RAMAGE JUST FINE

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>Not only did Kevin Lowe fail to get the license number of the truck that ran over him during a 6-1 loss in Calgary, but the veteran Edmonton Oiler defenseman couldn&rsquo;t recall the time and place of the collision.&ldquo;I don't remember a thing,&rdquo; Lowe commented on the concussion he suffered when blindsided by Flame right winger Mark Hunter, Oct. 14. &ldquo;1 don&rsquo;t remember who hit me. The doctor tried to tell me what happened, but 1 guess I&rsquo;ll have to wait and see the film.&ldquo;The doctor and the staff at the hospital (where he spent the night for observation) told me later that I kept insisting I was in Vancouver and that it was September.&rdquo;Lowe lay unconscious behind the Oiler net for several anxious minutes following the hit by Hunter, who received a major penalty for charging.&ldquo;Normally when you&rsquo;re hit, you remember the impact. I don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said the 29-year-old, who also suffered a three-inch gash behind his left ear. &ldquo;I seem to recall a few shifts prior to that, though.&rdquo;Nothing afterwards, however.Oiler general manager-coach Glen Sather said Hunter should have received a match penalty for the thunderous check.&ldquo;It was an intentional hit to injure,&rdquo; maintained Sather. &ldquo;Whether Hunter realized how hard the hit was, I don&rsquo;t know. But when a guy gets hit that hard and hurt that hard, I think something should be done about it.&rdquo;Lowe wasn&rsquo;t about to file charges against his assailant.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to comment, 1 haven&rsquo;t seen it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t think it was a deliberate attempt to injure. In a game, guys try and put you through the end boards. That&rsquo;s part of the business. But I don&rsquo;t think anyone has it in his head to deliberately try and hurt someone.&rdquo;One thing&rsquo;s certain. Lowe&rsquo;s Jofa helmet, model 235, didn&rsquo;t provide much protection.&ldquo;Those helmets aren't the greatest,&rdquo; said Lowe. &ldquo;That helmet just covers the bare necessities; it isn&rsquo;t going to save you.&ldquo;In fact. Mess (Oiler captain Mark Messier) has told me from time to time I&rsquo;m crazy not to get rid of that thing. I&rsquo;ve thought about it before. And I&rsquo;m sure going to consider it now.&rdquo;The Oilers also lost Messier for two periods as he and Hunter were ejected for fighting prior to the start of the second period. Messier was also taken to hospital for X-rays&mdash;that proved negative&mdash;to his jaw.&ldquo;Somebody hit me with his stick. I don&rsquo;t know who&hellip;maybe Don Corleone,&rdquo; shrugged Messier. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t remember the whole first period.&rdquo;<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 10: Nick Fotiu. LW. signed 20-game option contract.Oct. 12: Darryl Reaugh, G, assigned to Cape Breton (AHL).Oct. 17: John Muckier, co-coach, eligible to return from five-game suspension; Jeff Beukeboom, D, serving 10-game suspension. Eligible to return Nov. 4.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier, Jimmy Carson. Craig MacTavish, Esa Tikkanen, Doug Smith, Keith Acton.LW&mdash;Craig Simpson, Greg Adams, Martin Gelinas, Kelly Buchberger.RW&mdash;Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Kevin McClelland, Normand Lacombe.LD&mdash;Reed Larson. Charlie Huddy, Ken Hammond.RD&mdash;Craig Muni. Randy Gregg. Chris Joseph.G&mdash;Grant Fuhr, Bill Ranford.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Nick Fotiu, LW. twisted knee, day-today.Kevin Lowe, D, concussion, day-today.Steve Smith, D, sprained shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

LOWE BLOW LEAVES OILER SHAKING HEAD

<div class="byline">BY GRANT McGINNIS</div>If a quick start to the season means anything at all, then the Winnipeg Jets just might be in trouble, both on and off the ice.After three games on the road and two at home, Winnipeg had earned just one victory and two ties and drawn a combined total of only 20,867 fans.A franchise-low 10,427 spectators watched the Oct. 14 home-opener.&ldquo;Right now, I think our hockey club is kind of in that adjustment stage where we are learning about a few people, learning to make adjustments to one another,&rdquo; said veteran winger Doug Smail following a 3-3 tie with the Edmonton Oilers, Oct. 16. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s not put the cart before the horse here. We are a hockey club that is looking for ways to win.&rdquo;Indeed, they are.After opening with a tie in Vancouver on Oct. 6 and a loss in Edmonton on Oct. 9, the Jets were pasted 10-1 by the Chicago Blackhawks three days later&mdash;which was not what they needed 48 hours prior to playing on home ice for the first time this season.Greeted by a tiny and less-than-enthusiastic crowd&mdash;it was the smallest home-opening crowd in the NHL this season and the Jets&rsquo; worst in 10 opening nights&mdash;Winnipeg played tentative, timid hockey against the Vancouver Canucks.Only the brilliance of netminder Pokey Reddick allowed the Jets to win 4-3 as Laurie Boschman got his first goal of the season, in overtime. Reddick stopped 32 shots.Two days later, Alain Chevrier stopped 34 shots to keep Edmonton at bay as the Jets escaped with another point, continued to shuffle the deck in search of a winning combination and kept on looking for something&mdash;anything&mdash;to build on.The blasting in Chicago, the worst loss since Dan Maloney took over as coach three seasons ago, left a deep impression. Winnipeg gave up three shorthanded goals in the game after surrendering two in Edmonton. The club scored just 14 times in its first five games.The only real positive vibes were emerging from between the goal-posts. Both Chevrier and Reddick were solid&mdash;the 10-goal barrage could not be saddled on the goaltenders&mdash;and the Daniel Berthiaume controversy came to a quick conclusion.Berthiaume, suspended without pay after refusing a demotion to Moncton of the American League, agreed to report Oct. 11.&ldquo;I think when someone misses a pay check, it doesn&rsquo;t take long for them to realize they are a little short on cash,&rdquo; Winnipeg general manager John Ferguson said of the about-face. &ldquo;I told him (Berthiaume) I don&rsquo;t get mad at players who get mad at being sent down. I respected that.&rdquo;<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 11: Kent Carlson, D, traded to Washington Capitals for future considerations after refusing to report to Moncton (AHL). Daniel Berthiaume, G, has suspension lifted after agreeing to report to Moncton.Oct. 13: Alfie Turcotte, C, assigned to Moncton. Bryan Marchment, D, assigned to Belleville (OHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen, Laurie Boschman, Randy Gilhen, Darren Boyko.LW&mdash;lain Duncan, Doug Smail, Dave Hunter, Steven Fletcher.RW&mdash;Andrew McBain, Brent Ashton, Markku Kyllonen, Stu Kulak, Hannu Jarvenpaa, Ray Neufeld.LD&mdash;Dave Ellett, Randy Carlyle, Jim Kyte.RD&mdash;Teppo Numminen, Fredrik Olausson, Mario Marois.G&mdash;Pokey Reddick, Alain Chevrier.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Peter Taglianetti, D, arthroscopic surgery on right knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

WINNIPEG LOSING FANS AND GAMES

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>Talk about Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s eight-point night against St. Louis if you must. Thrill to the 4-1-0 start of the Los Angeles Kings if you wish. But don&rsquo;t forget this one&hellip;The Vancouver Canucks defeated the Edmonton Oilers in Northlands Coliseum. Oct. 12, 1988. 6-2.The last time the Canucks won at Northlands Coliseum, Cam Neely, now a Boston Bruin, scored the winning goal for coach and general manager Harry Neale, who had fired Bill LaForge a month earlier.Like the Canuck goalie in that game, John Garrett, Neale has gone on to join the Hockey Night In Canada broadcast team. Jiri Bubla, now in an Austrian jail for drug smuggling, was one of the defensemen.The win at Northlands was the first since Dec. 21, 1984, when they defeated the Oilers 3-1. The Canucks later defeated Edmonton 6-3, on March 10, 1985 at Vancouver, when Mike Zanier started in goal for the Oilers.The streak lasted 27 regular-season games and included a 13-0 loss Nov. 8, 1985.Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s absence Oct. 12 made the Canucks&rsquo; hearts grow fonder.&ldquo;Any time you don&rsquo;t have to worry about that guy (Gretzky) out there it makes the game a lot easier,&rdquo; said center Greg Adams, who had three goals and an assist. &ldquo;It takes one big thing off your mind.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the best thing that&rsquo;s happened to hockey since Gretzky was traded,&rdquo; said Vancouver coach Bob McCammon, who watched several of those Canuck losses when he was an assistant coach in Edmonton.Perhaps the most amazing part of the victory was that it really wasn&rsquo;t a fluke. Oiler goalie Grant Fuhr, returning from the injured list, wasn&rsquo;t in top form, but a four-goal win in a building where the Oilers generally dig themselves out of such holes was astonishing.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a lot of losses but that&rsquo;s history now,&rdquo; said Stan Smyl, the Canucks captain for all of them. &ldquo;This is a big confidence booster for us.&rdquo;It also represented the only victory through six games for the 1-3-2 Canucks. McCammon tried to keep things in perspective.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02831/5651910-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="547" height="486"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stan Smyl said beating Edmonton was a confidence booster.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s be honest, Gretzky is the best offensive player in the world and they&rsquo;ve got to miss him,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But they had an off-night and we had a good night so let&rsquo;s not get too excited.&rdquo;By Oct. 16, when they lost 3-2 at Madison Square Garden to the New York Rangers, the magic had worn off.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 12: Daryl Stanley, D/LW, rejoined team after three-day team suspension lifted.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Barry Pederson, Brian Bradley. Greg Adams, Rob Murphy.LW&mdash;Petri Skriko, Daryl Stanley, Steve Bozek, Ken Berry, Todd Hawkins.RW&mdash; Rich Sutter, Stan Smyl, Tony Tanti, David Bruce, Ronnie Stern, Trevor Linden.LD&mdash;Larry Melnyk, Paul Reinhart, Harold Snepsts, Jim Benning.RO&mdash;Garth Butcher, Doug Lidster, Robert Nordmark, Kevan Guy.G&mdash;Kirk McLean, Steve Weeks.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jim Sandlak, RW, bruised shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0018-02

NORTHLANDS NIGHTMARE FINALLY ENDS

<div class="byline">STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011013/5651948-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="500" height="619"></div>Neil Smith drinks diet pop and light beer and works out.The Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; director of scouting is upwardly mobile and unbearably career-oriented. He is a hockey yuppie who represents a full generation of potential hockey leaders whose resumes are equal parts academic and athletic.Smith attended Western Michigan University on a hockey scholarship. He was a Division II All-American on defense, but graduated as a top-notch managerial prospect, not an NHL prospect.Smith joined the New York Islanders&rsquo; organization. Jimmy Devellano brought him along to Detroit when he was named Red Wings&rsquo; general manager in 1982. Since then, Smith has established himself as a hockey man with a promising future.The 34-year-oId doubles as GM of the Adirondack Red Wings, Detroit&rsquo;s American League affiliate. He expects to someday be a GM in the NHL.&ldquo;This is my ninth season of scouting between the Islanders and the Red Wings,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really have a timetable&hellip; I&rsquo;m interested in moving up within a reasonable amount of time. I certainly don&rsquo;t want to do this (scout) until I&rsquo;m 60.&rdquo;He has learned well from Jimmy D, a shrewd businessman. Smith has three residences&mdash;a home in Grosse Pte. Farms that he rents out, a co-op apartment in Detroit and a condominium on Toronto&rsquo;s high-priced waterfront.You can&rsquo;t lose on real estate. Just the same, Smith doesn&rsquo;t take any chances. His wristwatch has a telephone directory. Among the 20 numbers programmed is one belonging to Smith&rsquo;s stockbroker.Eleven of the NHL&rsquo;s 21 current general managers are ex-NHLers. That percentage may not always be above 50 per cent in years to come.Collegians Lou Lamoriello and David Poile seem to represent more the wave of the future than Rogie Vachon and Bobby Clarke.Not that there isn&rsquo;t a place for ex-NHLers as GMs. It&rsquo;s just that, more than ever, there&rsquo;s competition from beyond the boards.For instance, among those who join Smith in the Frat Pack of future leaders are Pierre Gauthier, Quebec&rsquo;s new chief scout, Dave McNab, Hartford&rsquo;s director of player evaluation, Les Jackson, Minnesota&rsquo;s director of amateur scouting, and David Conte, New Jersey&rsquo;s assistant director of player personnel.Only Jackson, a former junior and minor-league player, doesn&rsquo;t have a university degree.Playing in the NHL is no longer considered the only pre-requisite for employment in NHL front offices. Sound administrative skills are of paramount importance.&ldquo;Being a patient doesn&rsquo;t qualify you for being a doctor,&rdquo; says Conte, who remains respectful of those with prominent playing backgrounds&mdash;especially those who also have solid academic credentials.Marshall Johnston, New Jersey&rsquo;s director of player personnel, and Anders Hedberg, now a Swedish banker, are strong in their qualifications both on and off the ice, says Conte.Gauthier agrees, although his orientation is largely academic.&ldquo;I think in an organization you should have a combination of people who have played and people who have not,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If I were a general manager I would certainly want to surround myself with people who have different backgrounds, who will bring different perspectives.Gauthier played hockey at the junior college level in Quebec, before moving on to Syracuse University, where he graduated with honors in physical education. He earned his Master&rsquo;s in sports administration at University of Minnesota.This past summer, he was elevated to chief scout when Martin Madden replaced Maurice Filion as GM.The bilingual Gauthier is 35 and looks younger. He doesn&rsquo;t drink. And he fancies himself a lone wolf. The older scouts, he says, tend to stick together&mdash;comfortable in groups. The younger scouts, Gauthier says, are more likely to isolate themselves.They are also more likely to deviate from the standard uniform favored by hockey people. After all, says Gauthier, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re too young to buy trench coats.&rdquo;But they&rsquo;re not too young to entrench themselves as rising stars in the hockey bureaucracy.<h2>DID YOU KNOW&hellip;</h2>&hellip; that the NHL reports its overall attendance for 1987-88 was 13,454,413, for average per-game attendance of 14,577.&hellip;Quebec left winger Michel Goulet has scored more power-play goals (102) in the last five seasons than any other NHL player.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02743/5651941-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="945" height="504"><figcaption class="caption-body">Michel Goulet</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0019-01

HERE’S THE FRAT PACK OF FUTURE LEADERS

<h2>DEVILS</h2>Coach Jim Schoenfeld benched right winger Pat Verbeek for the entire third period against the New York Rangers on Oct. 10. Verbeek took two bad penalties in the second period&hellip; Sean Burke made 41 saves to shut out the Rangers 5-0. He became the only Devil goalie with two career regular-season shutouts. He had one last season. Glenn Resch and Ron Low had one shutout apiece as Devils and shared a third&hellip; Resch dropped the ceremonial puck before the Devils&rsquo; home opener and received a rousing reception topped only by ovations for Burke and Schoenfeld.<h2>PENGUINS</h2>Pittsburgh sold out the 16,168-seat Civic Arena for its first two home games for the first time in the franchise&rsquo;s 22-year history&hellip; Pittsburgh was the most prolific scoring team in the NHL during the first 10 days of the season. The Penguins scored 28 goals&mdash;an average of seven&mdash;in their first four games&hellip; Left winger Randy Cunneyworth, who was deeply frustrated by his failure to score a goal during the pre-season, had four in his first three regular-season games.<h2>RANGERS</h2>In addition to his first goal, Guy Lafleur also notched his first assist as a Ranger Oct. 16 against Vancouver, setting up a power-play goal by rookie defenseman Brian Leetch&hellip; Lafleur&rsquo;s last goal with Montreal was scored on Oct. 25, 1984, against Buffalo&rsquo;s Bob Sauve. His last Montreal assist was earned on a goal by Mark Hunter, Nov. 1, 1984, against the New York Islanders and Billy Smith.When they fell into last place in the Patrick Division, Rangers rushed both center Kelly Kisio (severely bruised hand) and right winger Tomas Sandstrom (fractured finger) back into the lineup for the game against Vancouver. Neither appeared able to shoot the puck properly and Kisio was playing in obvious pain&hellip; Craig Redmond&rsquo;s agent. Alan Eagleson, said he has asked Ranger general manager Phil Esposito to trade the young defenseman back to Edmonton if he is not back in the NHL by December&hellip; Left winger Igor Liba, a former member of the Czechoslovakian national team, speaks very little English but coach Michel Bergeron, who coached the Stastny brothers for seven years while with the Quebec Nordiques, said he has no problem communicating with his new player. &ldquo;I showed him the puck and the net; they are the same for everybody.&rdquo;<h2>FLYERS</h2>The Flyers&rsquo; six power-play goals during a 7-6 victory over the Minnesota North Stars, Oct. 13, tied a team record, and they set a record with four power-play goals in the second period&hellip; The line of center Pelle Eklund, right winger Tim Kerr and left winger Brian Propp accounted for five goals and 11 points on the power play, with Propp scoring a hat trick&hellip; Coach Paul Holmgren moved Murray Craven from left wing to center and shifted captain Dave Poulin from center to left wing&hellip; Flyer owner Ed Snider bought the team tickets for the second game of the World Series, Oct. 16. Winning pitcher Orel Hershiser of the Los Angeles Dodgers used to play in the Little Flyers minor hockey program.<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>Besides goalie Kelly Hrudey, general manager Bill Torrey was close to signing two of the other four Islanders playing out their options. Center Pat LaFontaine was near agreement on a four-year contract and left winger Randy Wood verbally agreed to a two-year deal. Only right winger Alan Kerr and center Bob Bassen are in option-year deals. Kerr said his agent, Herb Pinder, gave Torrey a negotiation deadline of Nov. 1. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want this dragging all season,&rdquo; said Kerr, pointless and a team-low minus-five in his first five games.The Islanders&rsquo; new color commentator on home radio broadcasts (WEVD, 97.9 FM) is former assistant coach Bob Nystrom, the team&rsquo;s director of corporate affairs. He&rsquo;s a late replacement for ex-Islander Jean Potvin, who worked eight years, but couldn&rsquo;t come to terms on a new contract&hellip; Center Raimo Helminen, who underwent surgery over the summer for nerve damage in his left hip and buttocks, is sidelined again pending tests to determine the cause of persistent pain in the area. &ldquo;It feels like a knife sticking into me,&rdquo; he said&hellip; The Islanders drew 14,080 to the 16,297-seat Nassau Coliseum for their home opener Oct. 15 against Montreal.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>In their seven-game Patrick Division final series a year ago, the Washington Capitals and New Jersey Devils established Stanley Cup records for penalties (219) and penalty minutes (656). In their first meeting this season Oct. 15, they were back at it, with Washington drawing 22 penalties. New Jersey 20&hellip; Rod Langway. knocked out of the playoff series by a cut from Devil Pat Verbeek&rsquo;s skate in the first game, did not last long this time, either. He was ejected, along with teammate Jim Thomson and New Jersey&rsquo;s Joe Cirella and Perry Anderson, for a first-period fight.The Capitals faced two goaltenders making their seasonal debuts on successive nights at the Capital Centre. Toronto&rsquo;s Allan Bester was sensational Oct. 14, stopping 35 shots to beat Washington, 3-1. New Jersey&rsquo;s Bob Sauve had less success, dropping an 8-5 decision&hellip; An 8-7 loss at Pittsburgh Oct. 11, in which MikeRidley scored four goals and Mario Lemieux three, marked the fifth time in the Capitals&rsquo; 15-year history they were beaten despite scoring seven goals. &#9632;

DEVILS’ VERBEEK BEHCHED

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01892/5652003-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Lemieux went from 14th to first in scoring with an eight-point performance against St. Louis.</figcaption></div>Mario Lemieux stared hard at the thicket of microphones sprouting before him, and couldn&rsquo;t understand what all the fuss was about.Lemieux insisted he had played better games and besides, it&rsquo;s not like nobody had ever scored eight points in a game before.Right, but since players had scored eight or more points in a game only 10 previous times in NHL history&mdash;none while wearing a Pittsburgh Penguin uniform&mdash;Lemieux finally agreed his accomplishment merited mention.But not much.&ldquo;It was a great game,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but tomorrow, I have to forget about it&rdquo;But don&rsquo;t expect the St. Louis Blues to put it behind them as quickly, since they were the ones victimized by his two goals and six assists in a 9-2 Pittsburgh victory Oct. 15.Lemieux&rsquo;s outburst tied the franchise single-game assist record held by Ron Stackhouse and Greg Malone. The previous team record of six points was shared by Lemieux, Stackhouse, Malone, Mike Bullard and Syl Apps.The most recent eight-point game was produced by Pittsburgh defenseman Paul Coffey, then of Edmonton, against Detroit on March 14, 1986.To put his performance in proper perspective, consider that in one game, Lemieux moved from a tie for 14th place in the NHL scoring race to undisputed possession of first with six goals and nine assists for 15 points.But the most troubling reality for opponents might be that Lemieux&rsquo;s teammates were no more taken aback by his accomplishment than Lemieux himself.The general tone of their remarks was, &ldquo;Yeah, pretty nice game&hellip;but he can do better. A lot better.&rdquo;Right winger Rob Brown, Lemieux&rsquo;s linemate, unabashedly predicted Lemieux will shatter Darryl Sittier&rsquo;s record of 10 points in one game.Brown was one of the primary beneficiaries of Lemieux&rsquo;s spectacular game against St. Louis, since Lemieux was directly responsible for setting up each of Brown&rsquo;s three goals&mdash;his first NHL hat trick.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux,&rdquo; said Brown, who notched his third, fourth and fifth goals of the season in the game. &ldquo;You expect it. When he only gets three or four points, you think he has a broken leg or something.&rdquo;While it was Lemieux&rsquo;s prolific night that captured the headlines, the victory over St. Louis might prove to have more enduring implications for the Penguins&rsquo; season.They limited the Blues to 22 shots and just one goal in seven power-play chances.Doesn&rsquo;t sound like anything too special, until you realize the Penguins had given up 15 goals&mdash;nine of them on power plays&mdash;in their previous two games, an 8-7 win over Washington and an 8-5 loss in Buffalo.The Blues admittedly looked like a team that had hitchhiked in from Detroit, where they played an 8-8 game the previous night, but the Penguins still were pleased to have plugged some of their defensive leaks.&ldquo;We did tighten up a bit,&rdquo; said defenseman Zarley Zalapski. &ldquo;But they didn&rsquo;t really seem to force the issue.&rdquo;&ldquo;The key was our penalty-killing,&rdquo; coach Gene Ubriaco said. &ldquo;It was super when it had to be.&rdquo;&ldquo;The play in front of me was outstanding,&rdquo; said goalie Steve Guenette, who got his first start of the season.&ldquo;After their second goal, I was a spectator. And I had a great seat.&rdquo;It was one of the most extraordinary nights in Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s career.But probably not the last of them. Lemieux picked up 13 points in his first two home games. The next 38 figured to be pretty interesting.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct 10: Kevin Stevens, LW, and Chris Dahlquist, D, assigned to Muskegon OHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mario Lemieux, Dan Quinn, Dave Hannan, John Cullen.RW&mdash;Rob Brown, Dan Frawley, Phil Bourque, Jay Caufield, Perry Ganchar.LW&mdash;Bob Errey, Randy Cunneyworth, Troy Loney. Mark Kachowski.LD&mdash;Paul Coffey, Steve Dykstra, Doug Bodger, Jim Johnson.RD&mdash;Rod Buskas, Zarley Zalapski, Randy Hillier, Ville SirenG&mdash;Wendell Young, Steve Guenette, Richard Tabaracci.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0020-01

LEMIEUX AND PENGUINS SURPRISED BY FUSS OVER EIGHT-POINT GAME

Five games into the season, Washington Capital fans were taking their hats off to the team&rsquo;s improved offense and wondering where the defense went.While struggling to a 2-3-0 record, the Capitals scored 26 goals, for a 5.2 average, but gave up 24, or 4.8 a game. That was quite a contrast to a year ago, when the club averaged only 3.5 goals and yielded a mere 3.1 per game.The power play, a negative factor much of last season (11th with a 20-per-cent success rate), was a major reason for the offensive surge. The Capitals collected 10 extra-man goals in 39 chances for a 25.6 per cent success rate that ranked fourth in the NHL.Defensively, too many players were taking foolish chances and paying a price, since the goaltending not only was failing to erase mistakes but was contributing some as well.The offensive contribution was spread among right winger Mike Gartner (5-4-6-10), right winger Dave Christian (5-6-3-9), center Mike Ridley (5-5-3-8), left winger Geoff Courtnall (5-2-6-8) and center Bengt Gustafsson (5-0-7-7).Ridley and Christian were the ringleaders in three games from Oct. 10 to Oct. 16.Last season Gartner and Christian posted the Capitals&rsquo; only hat tricks. That figure was matched, with Ridley scoring four times in an 8-7 loss at Pittsburgh, Oct. 11, and Christian scoring three in an 8-5 victory over New Jersey, Oct. 15.&ldquo;Some nights you get a few chances and everything seems to go in,&rdquo; said Ridley, whose only previous NHL hat trick came against Washington while he was with the New York Rangers. &ldquo;Another night you get the same chances and nothing goes in. You have to have a little luck to score four goals.&rdquo;Ridley had a lot of good luck on his third goal. He lost his right glove behind the Pittsburgh net and, as he bent to retrieve it, was checked by Penguin defenseman Paul Coffey. Coffey then swept the glove out toward the blue line.Ridley nevertheless took up position in the trenches and deflected Michal Pivonka&rsquo;s shot into the net with his left glove.&ldquo;I thought about skating out to get it, because it&rsquo;s dangerous to get in front of the net without a glove,&rdquo; Ridley said. &ldquo;But I moved in front with the play and the puck hit my left glove and went in. I have to say that was a real lucky goal, because if it had hit my right hand I might have been out for a month.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02601/5652034-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="552" height="595"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Christian scored six goals in the Caps&rsquo; first five games.</figcaption></div>Ridley didn&rsquo;t have a shot on goal against the Devils, as Christian was the man with the hot hand. Afterward, Christian gave credit to linemates Gustafsson and Courtnail for setting him up.&ldquo;As a line, we&rsquo;re getting a lot of chances and we&rsquo;re getting good shots,&rdquo; Christian said. &ldquo;We want to help offensively and so far we seem to be doing the job.&rdquo;Christian had a scare too. He was on the ice when Gustafsson was blasted into the boards from behind by New Jersey&rsquo;s Claude Loiselle and watched the Swede carried off on a stretcher. Fortunately, Gustafsson suffered only muscle spasms in his back.&ldquo;Two guys were converging on him and he saw one and stopped a ways from the boards,&rdquo; Christian said. &ldquo;I yelled that Loiselle was coming, but he didn&rsquo;t have time to move. He&rsquo;ll be stiff and sore, but he&rsquo;ll be out there pretty quick to keep giving me that soft touch on his passes.&rdquo;The hat trick, fourth in his NHL career, gave Christian six goals in five games. Asked if he had ever enjoyed such a fast start before, he replied, &ldquo;Yeah, it was back in bantam, or maybe peewee.&rdquo;The day after the victory over New Jersey, only two regulars attended an optional practice&mdash;Ridley and Christian.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 10: Mike Millar, RW. and John Druce. LW, assigned to Baltimore (AHL).Oct. 12: Kent Carlson, D. purchased from Winnipeg and assigned to Baitimore; Doug Keans, G. given pro tryout and assigned to Baltimore.Oct 13: Chris Felix, D, recalled from Baltimore.Oct. 16: Chris Felix, D, assigned to Baltimore.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hunter, Mike Ridley, Bob Gould.LW&mdash;Geoff Courtnall, Yvon Corriveau, Michal Pivonka. Peter Sundstrom.RW&mdash;Dave Christian, Mike Gartner. Kelly Miller, Steve Leach, Jim Thomson.LD&mdash;Scott Stevens. Rod Langway. Grant Ledyard.RD&mdash;Larry Murphy, Kevin Hatcher, Neil Sheehy.G&mdash;Pete Peeters, Clint Malarchuk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bengt Gustafsson, C, muscle spasms in back, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0020-02

CHRISTIAN AND RIDLEY LEAD IMPROVED OFFENSE

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>In the first showdown of the young NHL season&mdash;between the only two remaining undefeated teams&mdash;the Philadelphia Flyers put an emphatic stamp on things, defeating Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 at the Forum.The Oct. 15 win left the Flyers at 4-0-0, the only undefeated team in the NHL. The Kings&rsquo; loss was their first in four games and left them at 3-1-0.The impact of Gretzky and the Kings&rsquo; quick start was apparent when the Flyers visited. The 16,005-seat Forum was sold out on a night when the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland A&rsquo;s opened the first game of the World Series at Dodger Stadium.The Flyers lugged a 1-0 lead into the final period, and the crowd was waiting for the Kings to finally kick it in gear. After all, L. A. trailed in each of their previous games, and each time Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, Bemie Nicholls and Bob Carpenter led them to victory.Not this time.Brian Propp scored a goal while on his knees early in the period, and then Dave Poulin added a shorthanded goal midway through the period for a 3-0 lead. That put the game out of reach for the Kings.For Poulin, it was a most delicious day. Not only did the Flyers beat the Kings, but his alma mater, Notre Dame, edged top-ranked Miami 31-30 in a football game earlier in the day.&ldquo;Not a bad day at all,&rdquo; said Poulin. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t get much better than this. We know it&rsquo;s early, but this really did have a big-game atmosphere.&rdquo;&ldquo;They were so quiet,&rdquo; said coach Paul Holmgren of the Flyers&rsquo; pregame mood. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know what to think. After they went out of the locker room, I looked at (assistant coach) Mike Eaves and asked him what was up.&rdquo;Eaves shrugged and told Holmgren: &ldquo;1 think they&rsquo;re ready. Really ready for this one.&rdquo;Goalie Ron Hextail may have been the best prepared. He lost his shutout with 3:57 to play, but made several key saves during the first two periods. Among them was a brilliant stop on a Gretzky shot at the end of a 2-on-l break, preserving the Flyers&rsquo; 1-0 lead.&ldquo;There wasn&rsquo;t any doubt in any-body&rsquo;s mind that this game was something special,&rdquo; said Hextali, who finished with 30 saves.&ldquo;It was like playing a brand new team. It&rsquo;s not just Gretzky&rsquo;s abilities, it&rsquo;s his presence. I think it all rubs off on every member of any team he plays for, any team.&ldquo;So, we knew this was going to be a real big game. It was very quiet in here before the game. I think maybe some of us were nervous, maybe a little uptight&mdash;but definitely ready.&rdquo;Flyer center Ron Sutter said the team wasn&rsquo;t trying to match the Kings in all departments of the game.&ldquo;I think the key was that we didn&rsquo;t try to come in here and ride on a wave with them,&rdquo; said Sutter, who scored the Flyers&rsquo; final goal. &ldquo;I think the Kings have been on a wave, and maybe other teams try to ride that wave with them. Our plan was to try to stop them&mdash;not ride with them.&rdquo;<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Murray Craven, Ron Sutter, Peter Zezel, Pelle Eklund.LW&mdash;Brian Propp, Dave Poulin, Scott Mellanby, Derrick Smith, Magnus Roupe.RW&mdash;Tim Kerr, Rick Tocchet, Dave Brown, Brian Dobbin. Ilkka Sinisalo, Doug Sulliman.LD&mdash;Mark Howe, Jay Wells, Kerry Huffman.RO&mdash;Kjell Samuelsson, Gord Murphy, Jeff Chychrun, Terry Carkner.G&mdash;Ron Hextali, Mark Laforest.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

FLYERS STAY OFF L.A. WAVE OF SUCCESS

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div>It's hockey's version of the 40-40 club.A goalie face 40 or more hots, and tries to make 40 or more saves. And if the New York Islanders don't tighten up defensively, Kelly Hrudey's going to become a member for life.Okay, Hrudey hasn't exactly faced more than 40 shots every game. But he stopped 43 to beat the Canucks 3-2 in Vancouver, Oct. 10, and he saved 36 of 37 in the Islanders' home opener against Montreal, Oct. 15.That 2-1 triumph over the Canadiens emphasized the Isles will only go as far as their 28-year-old target will take them. With three rookies on defense and another two up front, the jelling of this young team isn't going to happen over night."It's a time right now where, up until we get going, the goalies are going to have to weather the storm and be patient," Hrudey said. "That's what we're paid to do, stop the puck."It's a good thing general manager Bill Torrey doesn't pay by the save. In his first four starts, Hrudey faced 45, 43, 45 and 37 shots. He stopped 158 of those 170, a .929 save percentage. The Islanders did not play well, but they escaped the first 10 days of the season with a 2-2-1 record because Hrudey stole wins from the Canucks and Canadiens."How big has Kelly been?" Bryan Trottier asked rhetorically. "Only the biggest."Hrudey is in the option year of a four-year contract. He was close to signing a four-year deal that will raise him financially into the upper echelon of NHL goalies.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02547/5652089-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="540" height="770"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kelly Hrudey's strong play has led the Islanders.</figcaption></div>If Hrudey has a flaw, it's his inability to sustain his excellence an entire season. He is not yet a superstar goalie and he won't be until he lasts a season without falling into a month-long slump. This year he'll get the chance. Coach Terry Simpson says that as long as Hrudey plays the way he can, he'll make 50 to 55 starts.Hrudey's thinking 79."Terry called me (before the Montreal game) to tell me I was starting, but I a sumed it anyway," Hrudey explained. "With that attitude, I'm not wondering. It help me stay up, mentally prepared. I'm taking it for granted every game that I' II play. He's going to have to tell me I'm not."<h2>N.Y. ISLES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 12: Rod Dallman, LW, Jeff Finley, D, assigned to Springfield (AHL)<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pat LaFontaine. Bryan Trottier, Brent Sutter, Bob Bassen.LW&mdash;Derek King, Greg Gilbert, Randy Wood, Brad LauerRW&mdash;David Volek, Mikko Makela. Brad Dalgarno. Alan Kerr, Mick Vukota.LO&mdash;Richard Pilon, Steve Konroyd, Jeff Norton.RD&mdash;Ken Morrow, Gerald Diduck, Tomas Jonsson, Dean Chynoweth.G&mdash;Kelly Hrudey, Billy Smith.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Patrick Flatley RW, knee, Nov 30.Raimo Helminen, C, irritated hip and buttocks. day-to-day.Dale Henry, LW, sprained left ankle, day-to-day &#9632;

f0022-02

HRUDEY A DUCK IN SHOOTING GALLERY

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>Guy Lafleur has noticed life with the New York Rangers includes an ever-changing whirl of personnel.After the Rangers sent his friend and pre-season center, Doug Wickenheiser, to Flint of the International League, and benched his regular-season linemate, rookie Darren Turcotte, the 37-year-old Hall-of-Famer may have wondered if he&rsquo;d be affected next.Then, he scored his first goal as a New Yorker.&ldquo;It takes some pressure off,&rdquo; Lafleur acknowledged after one-timing a 10-footer past Vancouver&rsquo;s Steve Weeks early in a 3-2 Ranger victory on Oct. 16. &ldquo;And it takes some pressure off the guys 1 play with, too.&rdquo;Although Lafleur did not elaborate, he could have been referring to Turcotte, the 21-year-old rookie with whom he played for most of the first four games.In game No. 5, Lafleur skated on right wing for newly-acquired Brian Lawton, but it was 37-year-old future Hall-of-Famer Marcel Dionne who set the Flower up with a pass from behind the net during a power play. Lafleur kept the puck, commemorating career goal No. 519.&ldquo;It makes you feel good,&rdquo; said Lafleur, whose 13th shot on goal as a Ranger created a 1-0 lead for the home team. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had a lot of chances since the beginning of the season. It&rsquo;s nice to get one goal&hellip;at least. I was looking forward to it. I missed the feeling a little bit.&ldquo;Four years,&rdquo; he joked, &ldquo;is a big slump.&rdquo;Lafleur&rsquo;s goal not only helped the Rangers snap a two-game losing streak and earn their first home victory, but it also snapped the team&rsquo;s season-opening O-for-25 mark on the power play.&ldquo;Guy&rsquo;s goal,&rdquo; Ranger goalie John Vanbiesbrouck observed, &ldquo;gave everybody a lift. After losing our first two at home, we felt we absolutely had to have this game.&rdquo;A week earlier, Ranger general manager Phil Esposito apparently felt he absolutely had to have another center, so he grabbed the 23-year-old Lawton, who refused to report to Kalamazoo of the IHL when demoted by Minnesota.&ldquo;Hey, Lawton is a pretty good player,&rdquo; Esposito noted as he discussed the seven-player deal, his 36th trade in a little more than two years as GM of the Rangers. &ldquo;Two years ago, he scored 21 goals in 66 games and didn&rsquo;t really play regular.&ldquo;Brian came to the NHL a little early, at 17 or 18,&rdquo; the Ranger GM added, &ldquo;and never had a steady position or a lot of ice time in Minnesota. I tried to get him last year but I couldn't. This year, I was able to do it and, frankly. I&rsquo;m surprised.&rdquo;Esposito, who plucked former first-round draft choice Craig Redmond from the Edmonton roster in the waiver draft, continued his policy of collecting underachieving high picks.In 1983, Lawton became the first U.S.-born (New Brunswick, N.J.) player to be picked first overall in the NHL entry draft. The fact he was picked ahead of such outstanding players as Pat LaFontaine and Steve Yzerman has served to make his life more difficult.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux. I just want to be the best player I can be,&rdquo; Lawton stressed. But he didn&rsquo;t exactly step into a no-pressure situation in New York.The Rangers rushed him into their lineup only hours after he arrived in New York, and he was on the ice for two Hartford goals in a 4-3 loss to the Whalers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01699/5652120-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="552" height="700"><figcaption class="caption-body">Guy Lafleur kept the puck after scoring career goal 519.</figcaption></div>While Lawton was glad for the chance at a fresh start, he was a bit awed by life in the big city.&ldquo;That was amazing,&rdquo; he observed, after Lafleur addressed a huge throng of reporters asking about his big goal. &ldquo;I never saw that many reporters-&hellip;not even when we made the playoffs in Minnesota.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 11: Brian Lawton. C-LW, Igor Uba, LW, and Eric Bennett, LW, acquired from Minnesota for Mark Tinordi, D. Paul Jerrard, RW, Mike Sullivan, C, Bret Barnett. RW. and a third-round draft choice in 1989.Oct. 12: Joe Paterson, LW, assigned to Denver (IHL); Doug Wickenheiser, C, assigned to Flint (IHL).Oct. 15: Jason Lafreniere, C, assigned to Denver for conditioning.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Kelly Kisio, Lucien DeBlois, Darren Turcotte, Brian Lawton, Marcel Dionne.LW&mdash;Ulf Dahlen, Jan Erixon. Brian Mullen, John Ogrodnick, Don Maloney.RW&mdash;Tomas Sandstrom, Chris Nilan, Guy Lafleur, Tony Granato. Rudy Poeschek, Igor Liba.LD&mdash;Normand Rochefort, Brian Leetch, Ron Greschner. Norm Maciver.RD&mdash;James Patrick, Michel Petit, David Shaw.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Paul Cyr, LW. surgery on right knee, out for season.James Patrick, D, flu, Oct. 19. &#9632;

f0023-01

LAFLEUR’S FIRST GOAL AS RANGER RELIEVES PRESSURE

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01667/5652182-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Van Boxmeer found hisplayers performed better when he relaxed more behind the bench. (Photo by Julian Gonzalez/Rochester Dally Democrat)</figcaption></div>John Van Boxmeer is easily recognized. As the coach with the beet-red face berating an official. Or as the coach delivering a leather-lunged tirade at one of his own players. Or as the coach who bangs a stick at a rival team&rsquo;s mascot.It seems as though the Rochester American coach is recognized for everything he does&mdash;everything except being one of the winningest coaches in minor pro hockey.If the powers that be in the National Hockey League have taken notice of Van Boxmeer, they have cleverly concealed their enthusiasm for his work.This despite a record over the past two seasons that includes winning 93 games, a Calder Cup and division title (1987) and tying a team record for points (101 in 1986-87).Only one other AHL team (Hershey Bears) Mas matched Rochester&rsquo;s win total the last two seasons.But Hershey coach John Paddock was considered for at least two NHL jobs (Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) in the off-season and shared AHL coach-of-the-year honors with Maine&rsquo;s Mike Milbury last season.Van Boxmeer is still waiting for that first offer, though he&rsquo;s more likely to get upset with a player&rsquo;s error than at his lack of recognition.&ldquo;I want to coach (in the NHL) some day,&rdquo; says Van Boxmeer, 34. &ldquo;I would like to coach in Buffalo (Rochester&rsquo;s NHL parent). That&rsquo;s the organization that gave me my start (in coaching) and that&rsquo;s where I&rsquo;ve grown up with a lot of Those players.&ldquo;The best opportunity would be for me to come up through the organization where people know me. I am not actually going to apply for a job. If some other NHL teams want me, they know where I am.&rdquo;Until somebody calls, Van Boxmeer claims to be happy in Rochester.&ldquo;Sure, you&rsquo;d like recognition,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;&ldquo;It&rsquo;d be nice. I think the people in Rochester have come to appreciate the job I&rsquo;m doing and are happy with what I&rsquo;m doing.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t always that way. Van Boxmeer&rsquo;s first two years were a struggle on and off the ice. His players didn&rsquo;t particularly enjoy his tirades behind the bench and the Rochester fans, the most supportive in the league&mdash;crowds averaged 6,365 in 6,983-seat War Memorial Arena last season&mdash;frequently voiced their displeasure. They often booed Van Boxmeer when he was introduced before home games.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;d be doing the best thing for the team, yet people didn&rsquo;t understand. One of the things that really made a big change for me was the fact that we had a child (in his first year of coaching, 1984-85). What am I worried about whether a few people are booing or not? What&rsquo;s&nbsp;the most important thing in my life right now? What&rsquo;s the worst thing that can happen? They can fire me. I&rsquo;ve always got my family, that&rsquo;s the most important thing.&rdquo;Van Boxmeer, who inherited the Rochester job when Jim Schoenfeld was recalled to play for Buffalo 26 games into the 1984-85 season, quickly earned a reputation for having a short fuse that blew often. Referees, opposing players and even his own players were not spared his temper.Last season, for instance, he and the Canadiens&rsquo; mascot had a little duel during the final minute of a Rochester loss at Sherbrooke. The mascot picked up a shovel and banged it on the glass at Van Boxmeer. In response, Van Boxmeer picked up a stick and banged back.Van Boxmeer says it was done in fun, but&nbsp;many at the Sherbrooke Sports Palace viewed the incident differently because of his reputation.&ldquo;Those are things I&rsquo;m sure I have to improve on,&rdquo; says Van Boxmeer. &ldquo;But now the difference is like night and day. Before, I always wanted perfection and I kept hammering and hammering away. I probably tried to overcoach.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like every time somebody came off the ice, I would have something to say to them. I think now I let the players play the game a little more and we&rsquo;ll work on the stuff in practice and in between periods.&rdquo;Defenseman Richie Dunn, who has played for Van Boxmeer three years, notices the difference.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s probably a little calmer behind the bench,&rdquo; Dunn says. &ldquo;If someone made a mistake, he&rsquo;d be up and down and all over him. If a guy made a mistake on the ice, he&rsquo;d yell at people on the bench.&rdquo;Van Boxmeer re-evaluated his approach.&ldquo;I wanted intensity every day of the week and I wanted it for 80 games and 100 practices,&rdquo; Van Boxmeer says. &ldquo;That was just impossible to do. I just couldn&rsquo;t relax on my players. But the more I relaxed, the better they played.&ldquo;I think my job was in jeopardy a lot of times,&rdquo; adds Van Boxmeer, who played 11 NHL seasons with Montreal, Colorado, Buffalo and Quebec from 1973-1984.The Amerks went 34-39-7 and missed the playoffs for the first time in five years in 1985-86, but rebounded to go 47-26-7 and win the Calder Cup the next year.&ldquo;Ifwe didn&rsquo;t win the Calder Cup, I probably would have been out of a job. Buffalo was under new management and I think the pressure of the fans would have forced them to do something.&rdquo;Buffalo GM Gerry Meehan, however, is satisfied with Van Boxmeer&rsquo;s performance.&ldquo;The truest test of what a minor-league coach accomplishes is how many players are in the NHL,&rdquo; says Meehan, who counts Ray Sheppard, Benoit Hogue, Daren Puppa, Mike Hartman, Joe Reekie, Jeff Parker, Adam Creighton, Mark Ferner and Bob Halkidis as Van Boxmeer pupils who have graduated to this year&rsquo;s Sabres.&ldquo;He had a tough start and he was a young coach and he expected to win all the time. But you have to learn to balance the two&mdash;developing players and winning games. The ideal combination of the two would be to win games and develop players and he&rsquo;s done that the last two years.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0025-01

VAN BOXMEER TRIES TO CALM THE BEAST WITHIN

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Paul Abramowitz</div>Springfield Indians were unable to savor their first victory this season because their thoughts were on rookie defenseman Peter McGeough.McGeough broke his back in the second period of a 9-4 win at Cape Breton on Oct. 11 and was taken to Sydney City Hospital.McGeough, taken 247th overall by the New York Islanders in the 1983 draft, became tangled with Oiler left winger Nicolas Beaulieu and fell to the ice. He was unable to brace himself and slid face-first into the boards.McGeough was taken off the ice on a stretcher and had major surgery performed that night. According to Indian general manager Bruce Landon, a metal rod was implanted and spinal fusion surgery was performed.As is the case with all spinal injuries, paralysis is a concern.A press release issued Oct. 13 by Sydney City Hospital doctors H.J. Malik, a neurosurgeon,&nbsp;and Iain Holmes, an orthopedist, said, "There are some optimistic signs following Peter's examination today. There is some movement in the quadricep muscles of both legs and even down into one (unspecified) bicep muscle (in his arm). But it is still too early to project a definitive prognosis."The release went on to say that McGeough, a Watertown, N.Y., native, would remain completely immobilized&middot; for possibly up to three months. The doctors planned to release daily reports on McGeough's condition."It's a disaster," said Indian coach Jim Roberts. "We don't know how bad it really is yet. A broken back is bad, but it could be worse."It is horrible. He's a young kid (23), a good hockey player who is just getting started. But the main thing is that he was a healthy kid. Forget about the hockey. "McGeough, whose father Jack played for the defunct Providence Reds of the American&nbsp;League, finished a four-year career at St. Lawrence University last season. His college coach, Joe Marsh, flew to Cape Breton from Canton, N. Y., to visit Peter the day after the accident.<h2>DIFFERENT BIRDS</h2>Moncton Hawks, who set a league record by losing 34 road games last season, won their first three away games this season---one shy of their total last year."The two teams are totally different," said second-year Moncton coach Rick Bowness, whose team finished sixth-27-45-8-last year. "It's not fair to compare."Last year we had 15 rookies in the lineup and this year we only have two. We have a much tougher team with Neal Meadmore (380 penalty minutes in 76 game with Milwaukee of the International League last season) and we are more experienced."The Hawks could also benefit from the arrival&nbsp;of goalie Daniel Berthiaume, who ended his holdout with the parent Winnipeg Jets on Oct. 11.The Hawks opened the season with 3-2 and 4-2 victories at Springfield Oct. 7 and 8, and a 4-2 win at New Haven Oct. 9. Defenseman Paul Boutilier had five assists in the three games while right winger Pat Elynuik had two game-winning goals.<h2>ISLAND GREETING</h2>A capacity crowd of 4,545 filled the Centre 200 in Sydney for the Cape Breton Oiler season-opener Oct. 7 against the Newmarket Saints.Edmonton's farm team was based in the Nova Scotia capital of Halifax last season. Cape Breton Island is directly northwest of the mainland-part of Nova Scotia.Cape Breton came back from a 4-3 deficit to win 6-4. &#9632;

INDIAN ROOKIE McGEOUGH BREAKS BACK

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>A little less of Marty Dallman has already produced a lot more for the Newmarket Saints.The 25-year-old right winger is off to the best start of his career and he said it&rsquo;s because he lost some extra weight before training camp. It&rsquo;s hard to argue. Through four games, Dallman led the AHL with seven goals&mdash;including two game-winners&mdash;and five assists.The Saints benefited from Dallman&rsquo;s production by winning three of their first four games, all on the road.&ldquo;I just tried to keep my weight down. That&rsquo;s the biggest thing,&rdquo; Dallman said. &ldquo;Last year, I got off to a slow start because I weighed in at 194. I wanted to get into the low 80s and that&rsquo;s what I did.&rdquo;Dallman finished last season with career-highs of 50 goals and 89 points in 76 games. Most of those goals and points came later in the season, after Dallman played himself into better shape.He began this season at 183 pounds and said he can feel the difference. Statistically, it shows.&ldquo;Last year I had two goals in the first 20 games of the season. So this year I wanted to turn it around and start strong,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Start strong and finish strong. As it turned out, that&rsquo;s what happened.&rdquo;<h2>ROSTER MOVES</h2>Three straight losses resulted in a flurry of roster changes by the Baltimore Skipjacks after the Oct. 7-9 opening weekend of the season.The Washington Capital farm team added experienced players while four youngsters were reassigned.Leaving Baltimore were left winger David Wensley, center Steve Hollett and center Claude Dumas, all of whom were loaned to Fort Wayne of the IHL, while rookie defenseman Dallas Eakins was sent home to Peterborough to receive treatment for a back injury.Added to the Skipjack lineup were veteran goaltender Doug Keans, defenseman Kent Carlson and right wingers John Druce and Mike Millar. Keans, 30, was signed as a free agent Oct. 12. He has a 96-64-26 record and 3.51 goals-against average in 210 NHL games with Los Angeles and Boston. He was 2-8-0 last season with Maine and was a late cut by Los Angeles this season.Carlson, 26, was acquired in a trade with Winnipeg for future considerations Oct. 12. In 111 NHL games, with both Montreal and St. Louis, he has six goals, 11 assists and I 48 penalty minutes.In 92 games with Binghamton during the the last two seasons, the 23-year-old Millar scored 77 goals. He was acquired with Neil Sheehy by the Caps in a July trade with Hartford for Grant Jennings and Ed Kastelic.Druce, 22, scored 32 goals and 61 points in 68 games with Binghamton last season.<h2>DINEEN'S 200th</h2>Adirondack wasted no time getting coach Bill Dineen his 200th AHL victory. A 4-1 win over Binghamton in the season-opener Oct. 8 gave Dineen, 56, the milestone in his sixth season with Adirondack. With victories in the first two games of this season, his record is 201 - 155 - 46&hellip; Dineen's teams have made a habit of playing well at the start of the season. With the two wins this season they are 23-6-1 in October since the 1985 season &hellip; Binghamton's roster underwent change in the first week of the season. Defenseman Al Tuer was recalled to Hartford Oct. 8 and on Oct. 6 Binghamton received right winger David O'Brien on loan from St. Louis and right winger Mark LaVarre, obtained from Chicago by Hartford for future considerations. O'Brien, 22, is a rookie from Northeastern, where he was a Hockey East all-star last season (18-29-47 in 37 games). Lavarre, 23, split last season between Chicago and Saginaw of the IHL. He had 27 goals and 45 points in 39 games with Saginaw. He had a goal and an assist in 18 games with Chicago &hellip; Defenseman Jamie Huscroft was assigned to Utica Oct. 12 by the New Jersey Devils. Muscroft, 21, suffered a hairline fracture of his right wrist in training camp. He was sent to Utica for conditioning. In 71 games last season with Utica, he had five goals, seven assists and 3 I 6 penalty minutes. &#9632;

SAINTS’ DALLMAN WEIGHS IN WITH BIG NUMBERS

<div class="byline">BY BOB WAGNER</div>If you want to be successful, think big.The Milwaukee Admirals discovered that on the opening weekend of the International League's 44th season, when they shattered attendance records not once, but twice, in the new $71-million Bradley Center. The arena seats 17,900 for hockey.For the Oct. 7 opener, 13,933 fans watched the Admirals edge defending Turner Cup champion Salt Lake 6-5. That was more than enough to eclipse the old record of 10,055, set last Jan. 16 on Bikini Night at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. The Salt Lake figure surpassed a league record of 24 years when Des Moines Oak Leafs drew 10,017 fans to Veterans Auditorium on Feb. 16, 1964.The new record lasted only one night. On Oct. 8, a crowd of 15,331 watched the Admirals defeat the Peoria Rivermen 7-4. The 29,264 two-game total was a full 25 per cent of last year's average IHL attendance for the entire season.Last year, the Admirals played at 2,001-seat Wilson Park Arena.There is, however, a bottom line to the big Milwaukee crowds. The club worked a promotion with local radio station WKTI-FM94, so fans paid just $1.94 (to tie in with the station's frequency) for upper-level seats which normally retail for $7. And, conceded Admiral public-relations director Doug Pettit, many attendees had never seen a hockey game before and were just curious about the spectacular new arena in downtown Milwaukee.<h2>BAXTER HAPPY</h2>Paul Baxter guided the Salt Lake Golden Eagles to the Turner Cup championship in his first-ever experience as a head coach. But with Terry Crisp also successful in his first season as coach of the parent Calgary Flames, no promotions are imminent.Baxter said he's far from disappointed. "I'm under contract to the Flames and I really enjoy the organization. So much loyalty I feel is there. We all work together."Baxter's sudden success apparently hasn't gone to his head. "I have good memories (from the title season). Winning the Turner Cup was flattering but, in the process, what I enjoyed the most, the most exciting part, was how we came together as a team. We got great mileage out of a lot of individuals. I know it's an overused word, but we had a lot of character. We want to develop as people and as players."Although he has a solid nucleus from last season, Baxter doesn't feel a repeat of that success is assured. "I think that competition makes the team, since potential doesn't buy you much any more. You must develop and grow as a team. We have 14 guys returning and hopefully they realize what it took last year and that it will carry over. ''The presence of two young prospects who greatly aided the Eagles in their winning drive last season, right winger Peter Lap pin and center Theoren Fleury, certainly can't hurt.<h2>SHUTOUT START</h2>Don Beaupre wasted no time sulking when he was assigned to Kalamazoo by the Minnesota North Stars. Beaupre blanked the Fort Wayne Komets 4-0 on the road in the KWings' IHL opener Oct. 8, stopping 23 shots in the process. With Minnesota GM Jack Ferreira in attendance at Salt Lake City, Beaupre faced 35 shots in a 5-2 loss to the Golden Eagles Oct. 12 &hellip; The Eagles and Admirals drew a total of 47 penalties for 176 minutes in the Bradley Center opener. Paul Baxter got bounced late in the Milwaukee game after tossing a towel in the air as his Eagles collected the game's last seven penalties, all minors. The next night in Indianapolis, Baxter and Ice rookie head coach Archie Henderson exchanged a loud difference of opinion from their opposing benches. Although the two never came to blows, their two clubs drew 47 penalties for 206 minutes. Golden Eagle defenseman Rick Hayward was suspended for six games for abusing an official. The Eagles won 5-3 &hellip; One of the reasons penalty minutes are on the rise is that IHL referees now are adding game misconducts to all fighting majors except those involving the original two combatants. &#9632;

MILWAUKEE FANS FLOCK TO RINK

<div class="byline">With contribution from Tom Boggie, Ken Campbell, Virg Foss and Lany Mahoney.</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01680/5652292-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Derek Pizzey is one of Colorado College's few bright spots but his exposure is limited because the Tigers have no live TV deal.</figcaption></div>While U.S. college hockey has joined the fast lane of television contracts, it hardly revs a big engine. Unlike the NHL, enduring a furor over its decision to switch its U.S contract from ESPN to Sports-Channel America. college hockey blithely putt-putts along, a local television deal here and there, occasionally whining the turbines over something like the CCHA's Game-of-the-Week deal.But while there are merits in television coverage&mdash;It makes word-of-mouth recruiting easier&mdash;schools are hesitant to pursue much more than local deals because of conference geography and difficulty obtaining advertising.The WCHA, for instance, covers the states of Michigan, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. Even a league with Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux is having difficulty selling regional-based coverage, so imagine how the WCHA would do peddling Robb Stauber and Russ Romaniuk.Here then, are summaries of each college conference's television strategy for the coming season.<h2>ECAC</h2>Rather than prowl around after a TV contract, the ECAC waited for the right offer and found it in Alley Cat Productions of Cincinnati, Ohio. How right the offer was won't be known, because the ECAC won't release any details.Alley Cat originally set up a 16-game regular-season schedule. But problems with selling advertising have forced Alley Cat to push back its production date and pound out a revised, I I-game schedule, set to begin with the ArmyClarkson game Jan. 6.Poor advertising revenue killed off an earlier ECAC Game-of-the-Week, which ran for two seasons (1977-78 and 1978-79) on Boston CBS affiliate WNAC-TV, now WNEV-TV.Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute put together its own seven-game television package with public television station WXXA-TV in Schenectady. N. Y. last season and will have another six-game schedule on that station this year, complemented by the Alley Cat package. Vermont will also have three of its regular-season games aired on Burlington, Vt., station WCAX-TV.The ECAC hasn't announced the stations Alley Cat will service, but are still negotiating with SportsChannel in both New York and New England ESPN has also expressed an interest in showing the Harvard-Yale game Jan. 31.New England Sports Network (NESN) spokesman John Slattery said the ECAC's TV future has good possibilites."All the schools are right here and a lot of the alumni who have a keen interest in the games are still right here in New England &hellip; the ECAC has got potential. there's no question about it. There are some very good teams in that league."<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>For Hockey East, an early marriage to NESN has flourished.The Boston-area based network, in its infancy when it began televising Hockey East games in the fall of 1984, has aired 114 HE games.The two parties exchanged 'I dos' on another three-year deal taking them through the 1990-91 season. The pact includes between 20-26 regular-season games and all playoff games each year.It is the second three-year deal after an initial one-year package in 1983. In that first year, WSBK-TV of Boston, was also involved in the deal.In addition to NESN. some schools have aired occasional games on local cable-TV stations or public broadcasting networks.Maine has graduated to network affiliations. This season four of their games will be shown on WCSH-TV in Portland and WLBZ-TV in Bangor, both NBC affiliates.The deal with the NBC affiliates is part of a three-year, $150,000 package that also includes University of Maine football and men's and women's basketball games.<h2>WCHA</h2>The Western Collegiate Hockey Association has won 30 of the 41 NCAA Division I championships.But when it comes to television contracts, the WCHA ranks far below other conference.There is no game of the week in the WCHA. A sales pitch by KXLI-TV of St. Cloud, Minn., for a game of the week was made too late.Most of the live TV in the WCHA is confined to local markets.Wisconsin, for example, shows all of its home games on a tape-delayed basis on a state educational network WHA-TV in Madison. They're telecast shortly after the live game ends.For the first time, six Wisconsin game will be carried live by WVTV-TV of Milwaukee, which will feed games to affiliates around the state.North Dakota has often led the way in live television coverage. Between WDAZ-TV in Grand Forks, which penetrates the Winnipeg market, and KVRR-TV in Fargo, the Fighting Sioux are on TV 20 times this season.Minnesota-Duluth, Denver and the University of Minnesota have package arranged through local stations, with Minneapolis station KITNTV broadcasting 20 Golden Gopher games.Three schools-Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan and Colorado College-have no games on live television.St. Cloud State will become the ninth member of the WCHA, effective with the 1990-91 sea. on and the seventh school from the upper mid-west. A network affiliation stringing together stations in that region may work, with KXLI expressing interest in being the flagship station for it.<h2>CCHA</h2>In two years, the CCHA has become a national television star.When the league signed on with Pro-Am Sports System (PASS) for the CCHA game of the week in 1986, there were 236,000 potenti viewers on board.Heading into this season, eight other cable networks are picking up the PASS signal, giving the CCHA a potential eight million viewers for the weekly games."It puts hockey in a different strata instead of the parochial position it's been in for years," said CCHA commissioner Bill Beagan, who initiated the deal with PASS in 1986.This season the CCHA signed on with PASS for another two years. The network will carry one game per week as well as the first round of the playoffs and the championship. This year the network will show 18 league games along with three first-round games and three more in the championship.Affiliates picking up the feed from PASS include SportsChannel New England in six states, WNVC-TV in Washington and Balti more, Home Sports Entertainment in Houston, SportsVision in Chicago, TwinsVision in Minnesota, Prime Sports Network in Colorado, Dimension Cable in Phoenix and the Sunshine Network in Florida.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02483/5652285-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="694" height="726"><figcaption class="caption-body">Commissioner Bill Beagan has reason to smile over the CCHA's TV package.</figcaption></div>The deal nets the CCHA "six figures," said Beagan, who added the league's key to success on television is catering to the viewer.This year for conference games, the CCHA will go to an immediate five-minute overtime to break ties, rather than the NCAA rule which calls for an intermission and a I 0-minute period."We pitch the game as sustained speed and action," said Beagan. "We also have the fast icing where we don't wait for the team to touch the puck and we make the officials aware of the fact that they're not to waste any time at all. We have 12-minute intermission and we push quick line changes. And last year, our average game was two hours and 24 minutes."Beagan said there's no reason why the NCAA can't take the CCHA's lead and carry the game-of-the-week concept to the national level."I think it's the next logical phase. We've made some incredible inroads and we'll make more. All we have to do is find a target area and sell it." &#9632;

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BROADCAST NEWS

<div class="byline">BY LARRY MAHONEY</div>University of Maine freshman right winger Steve Widmeyer will have to sit out this season.That was the ruling handed down Oct. 6 from the NCAA &middot;s two-member committee. which heard an appeal from Maine to reinstate Widmeyer after the NCAA &middot;s Legislative Services division had ruled him ineligible permanently.Widmeyer had been ruled ineligible as a result of dealings with the Kingston Canadians (now Raiders) of the Ontario League and Toronto-based lawyer-player agent Anton Thun.Maine coach Shawn Walsh said the Oct. 6 decision would be appealed to the NCAA 's Eligibility Committee. which is the third and final authority.Widmeyer will retain his scholarship and will be able to practice with the team this season but he won't be able to play in regular-season games until next year.However. because this is Widmeyer's (NHL) draft year. he might consider returning to play tier two or Jr. B in Canada&ndash;he said he definitely won't play in the OHL for Kingston. The player said he would wait for the final appeal to be heard before making any decision on his future.A first-round draft pick of the Canadians in 1987. he decided against playing in the OHL, which is considered a professional league by the NCAA He opted to play for the Notre Dame Hounds of the Saskatchewan Jr. League, where he scored eight goals and 10 assists and added 387 penalty minutes in 45 games.But he and his father, Gary, were involved in discussions with the Canadians and signed a contract The Widmeyers understood that the contract simply stated that if Steve decided to report to Kingston &middot;s training camp. he would do so in good health and with a good attitude He refused to sign a playing card that would have meant he intended to play for Kingston.But first-year Raiders&rsquo; owner Lou Kazowski said that the contract indicated that he did intend to sign a playing card and play for Kingston and the Widmeyers signed the contract under the guidance of Thun.Thun understood that he was Widmeyers agent but the Widmeyers said they never indicated to Thun that he was representing them or that he was their agent. Gal) Widmeyer said he asked several people about the OHL and Thun volunteered advice.Meanwhile. Kazowski said he will go ahead and file a lawsuit against the NCAA and the University of Maine. claiming that Widmeyer represented thousands of dollars in gate receipts and NHL draft money. He also said that if Widmeyer retained any eligibility at all. he would seek a court injunction to prevent Widmeyer from playing in the NCAA."This (ruling) will help in our damage sull." said Kazowski. "Clearly we've won and now it's Just a matter of damages."To me, it's ludicrous that the NCAA would allow him to play at all," he said. "Either you have rules or you don't. What it tells me is that in the NCAA, everything is flexible and if that's the case. there's no point having rules."<h2>KULLEN BACK</h2>A little over a year ago. Bob Kullen was fighting for his life.But the University of New Hampshire coach survived a heart transplant and. after a year off to recuperate. is right back behind the UNH bench."It's been better than I ever thought it would be." said the 39-year-old Kullen after his first two weeks back with the Wildcats.Kullen's experience has enabled him to put things into perspective as he prepares to lead the young Wild cats into Hockey East battle."It's exciting and wonderful but. at the same time, it's not bigger than life." said Kullen. "It is an important part of life."Kullen had been an assistant coach under Charlie Holt at UNH for eight seasons before becoming head coach for the 1986-87 season.UNH went 8-27-3 under Kullen, who became ill shortly after the season.Assistant Dave O'Connor was the intenm head coach a year ago and the Wildcats finished 7-20-3.Kullien's routine is a little different these days."I make sure I walk to work: and walk downtown to lunch." he said. "I get my exercise that way instead of running or playing squash although I could still do that." &#9632;

MAINE WINGER WIDMEYER SUSPENDED FOR YEAR

<div class="byline">BY TOM BUGGIE</div>It's a family affair in the Eastern College Athletic Conference.In recent years. Brown University has carried two sets of twins&mdash;Kelly and Karl Bums, who graduated last year. and Ross and Rick Bonine. who are both seniors Ross suffered a serious neck injury last season and won't play this year.And Pete and Tim Lappin helped St. Lawrence win the league title and advance to the national championship game last season.But this year a brother act will be behind the same bench.Army Cadets head coach Rob Riley has added his younger brother Brian as an assistant. Riley is joined by fellow assistants Glen Giovanucci and Bruce Graham.The Cadets could probably be more aptly nicknamed 'Team Riley'. Rob is in his third year as the head coach after succeeding his father Jack, who coached the Cadets for 36 years.Brian, who graduated from Brown in 1983, has impressive coach mg credentials of his own. He spent three years as an assistant at Plattsburgh (N.Y.) State University, where he worked under another former Army assistant, Steve Hoar. In Riley's final season with Plattsburgh, the Cardinals won the 1986-87 Division III national championship.Last year, Brian was an assistant coach at the University of Lowell. under head coach Bill Riley, his uncle.<h2>FATHER AND SON</h2>It's also all in the family at Colgate, where coach Terry Slater could be united with his son Grant before season's end.Grant, a Junior center, transferred from Geneseo State in New York and is eligible to play with the Red Raiders in the second semester this season."We never forced him to go anywhere, &middot;&middot; said Slater of his 21-year-old son. who scored 14 goals and 15 assists in 31 games in his freshman year at Geneseo before sitting out half of last season after deciding to go to Colgate. "He grew up here and had always been close to the sports scene at Colgate so he decided to come here. He didn't even say anything to me. He told his mother."Coach Slater says talent, not nepotism, will determine whether his son makes the team."We're weak at center ice and he could really help us there," said Slater. "But coming from a prep school (Westminster Prep in Connecticut) and having sat out half of last year. he'll have to pick up on the speed.<h2>RPI LOSES TWO</h2>Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute lost sophomore defenseman Cam Brauer (18-0-1-1 last season), a fourth-round Edmonton Oiler 1988 draft pick and right winger Derek DeCosty (30-10-8-18). Brauer left school to play for the Western League's Regina Pats while DeCosty, a penalty-killing specialist, was declared academically ineligible. &#9632;

FAMILY PLANNING ALL THE RAGE

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN GORDON</div>You&rsquo;ll have to pardon the Central Collegiate Hockey Association for bragging.CCHA folk claim their league is No. 1 in the country, and the facts support the contention. At least, last year&rsquo;s facts do.&#9632; CCHA members have captured three of the last five National Collegiate Athletic Association titles and a CCHA team has been represented in the NCAA final in four of the last five seasons.&#9632; Lake Superior is the defending NCAA champion, while Michigan State won in 1986 and Bowling Green in 1984.&#9632; Lake Superior, Michigan State and Bowling Green took three of the 11 non-independent earned berths in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament last season and all three advanced to the final eight.&#9632; The CCHA posted a 33-9-2 record against non-conference Division I schools in 1987-88 regular-season play, a .772 winning percentage based on percentage of actual points versus possible points. Included was a 16-2-0 mark against independents and 17-7-1 against the other three major conferences&mdash;the Eastern College Athletic Conference, Hockey East and Western Collegiate Hockey Association.By comparison, the WCHA, which went 29-26-5 in an interlocking conference schedule with Hockey East, went 6-6 against the CCHA and ECAC (4-4 and 2-2, respectively) and 7-1 against Division I independents for an overall 42-33-5 (.556) mark against non-league opponents.Hockey East went 7-4-0 against the CCHA, 12-10-1 against the ECAC and 10-1-0 against Division I independents. Combined with its record against WCHA schools, Hockey East went 55-44-6 (.547) against nonleague opponents.ECAC teams went 1-13-1 against the CCHA, 7-8-1 against Hockey East, 2-2 against the WCHA and 7-6 against Division I independents for an overall 17-29-2 (.375) nonconference mark.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve come a long way. We definitely have the best league in the country,&rdquo; says Lake Superior coach Frank Anzalone."It's taken a lot of hard work, but now we're on a par with everyone," adds CCHA commissioner Bill Beagan, who is in his fourth season.MSU coach Ron Mason gives credit to the CCHA 's administrators, coaches and players for the league's rise to national prominence.There's been a total commitment to being the best from everyone within the league," Mason says. "It's been a team effort."Of the 43 U.S college players drafted by the NHL last June, 21 were from the CCHA. The highest choice was Michigan State goaltender Jason Muzzatti. He was Calgary's first choice, 21st overall.<h2>LOO-SING AHEAD</h2>With four teams capable of making a run for the NCAA championship this season, the CCHA is banking on another highly-competitive league championship tournament.The CCHA playoff champion and automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament are determined March 10 and 11 when the four quarter-final survivors collide at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01670/5652371-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="546" height="989"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jason Muzzatti was one of 21 CCHA players drafted.</figcaption></div>Last season the two-day tournament drew 33,663 fans, including 17,664 for the championship game.More of the same is expected this season. Lake Superior, Michigan State, Bowling Green and Western Michigan should be among the top teams in the nation this winter.<h2>LAKERS TOP POLL</h2>If the CCHA championship was decided by polls, Lake Superior State would have it wrapped up.As was the case with the league's coaches, Lake Superior was picked to win the CCHA title in a poll of writers, broadcasters and sports information directors around the league.The Lakers totaled eight out of a possible 13 first-place votes and had 110 points.Michigan State received four firstplace votes and 106 points, while Western Michigan collected one firstplace vote and 90 points.Rounding out the poll were Bowling Green (78), Michigan (66), Ferris State (52), Illinois-Chicago (36), Miami (30) and Ohio State (1 7).Teams were awarded point for predicted finish from nine for first to one for ninth place. &#9632;

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‘OUR LEAGUE IS BEST,’ SAY CCHA OFFICIALS

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>Sophomore goalie Robb Stauber started each of Minnesota's 44 games last season as the Golden Gophers won the WCHA title.Stauber was rewarded for his ironman act and sterling performance (34-10, 2.72 goals-against average) with the Hobey Baker A ward as the top collegiate player in the United States.But Stauber likely won't get as many chances to show his stuff this sea on."We feel more confident about our overall goaltending this year," said Minnesota coach Doug Woog. He has sophomore Al Filsinger (0-0, 6.86 GAA) and freshman Jeff Stolp of Greenway High School (Minn.) available to back up Stauber. Woog said both will see more action this season.<h2>TROUBLED START</h2>It was tough enough that new Colorado College coach Brad Buetow took over a team which won just three games last season.But Buetow had to go through the first two weeks of practice without his two top goalies, Derek Pizzey and John Gustafson. Pizzey (3-22-1, 5.32 GAA) was suffering a back ailment that had doctors puzzled and Gustafson (0-9, 7.21 GAA) was recovering from knee surgery.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02484/5652402-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="546" height="1276"><figcaption class="caption-body">Robb Stauber likely won't play as often for the Gophers.</figcaption></div>Pizzey returned to the lineup Oct. I and was scheduled to start the season opener at Michigan Tech Oct. 14, but it wasn't known how long Gustafson would be out. Colorado College, which has less depth than any team in the WCHA, can ill afford the loss of one goalie, let alone two.Buetow said his goal is to get the Tigers back to respectability. He has a huge task ahead of him. Last year they finished 3-31-1, 25 points out of seventh place in the WCHA.<h2>OLD RIVALS</h2>Two old WCHA rivals, North Dakota and Minnesota-Duluth, kicked off the college season by playing to a 2-2 tie Oct. 8 in the annual Hall of Fame game in Eveleth, Minn.The game is held in conjunction with ceremonies honoring the latest inductees into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. Richard Desmond, a Dartmouth College goalie and Olympic silver medalist, and Larry Ross. who won six state titles in 31 years with International Falls (Minn.) High School, were this year's inductees.Sophomore center Chris Lindberg scored both Minnesota-Duluth goals on power plays.Freshman left winger Dixon Ward and senior center Scott Koberinski scored for the Sioux. Koberinski scored with 44 seconds left in the game, shortly after the Sioux pulled goalie Tony Couture for a sixth attacker.Lindberg's second goal of the game had given Duluth a 2-1 lead with just 1:58 left in the game.<h2>HOLE TO FILL</h2>Derek Mayer's decision to leave the University of Denver and join the Canadian national team (he signed July 6) left the Pioneers with seven defensemen. The loss of Mayer (34-5-16-21), who was entering his senior season, prompted Denver coach Ralph Backstrom to speak of bringing in a defenseman from either a Canadian tier two or U.S. junior league team after Christmas. &#9632;

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STAUBER TO GET MORE OF A BREATHER THIS YEAR

<div class="byline">BY DAVE HALL AND KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01619/5652433-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Branch would like to eliminate the notion that junior hockey players can't combine their sport and schoolwork. (Photo by Dan Hamilton)</figcaption></div>When it comes to hockey, Dave Branch&rsquo;s ability and stamina aren&rsquo;t what they used to be.Even when he does find time to join his three sons for a game of road hockey outside their Whitby, Ont., home, the 39-year-old finds it&rsquo;s all he can do just to keep up.&ldquo;The problem is that more and more, I&rsquo;m getting relegated to playing goal,&rdquo; says Branch. &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m slowing up a bit.&rdquo;Off the streets, the commissioner of the Ontario League shows no signs of slowing down. In his 10th year as the league&rsquo;s commissioner, Branch feels the challenge of running junior hockey in Ontario is as invigorating as it was in 1979-80, when he took the job.A strong opponent of violence, he takes pride in the OHL&rsquo;s attempts to curb hockey hooliganism, but is the first to admit there is still a long way to go. As Branch leads the league into the 1990s, he talks of expansion, education and, even, a Junior Canada Cup.The Hockey News caught up with the commissioner to get his thoughts on some of the issues facing the league. The following is the first in a series of question-and-answer sessions with the men who run Canada&rsquo;s three major junior leagues. Gilles Courteau, president of the Quebec Major Junior League, will be featured next week, and Western League president Ed Chynoweth the following week.THN: If you could change one thing about the Ontario League, what would it be?DB: I'd like to eliminate the perception that you can't combine junior hockey with an education. We must get that message out. Over 80 per cent of our players are in school, almost 90 per cent of our games are played Thursday through Sunday and 25 per cent of the players in the Ontario Universities Athletic Association are graduates of our league. All of which shows the two can mix very successfully.THN: What's happening at the Canadian Hockey League level?DB: The CHL executives and our counterparts at the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association are fomulating plans for a Junior Canada Cup, tenatively set to start in 1990-91. It would involve all-star teams from Ontario, the West, Quebec and the Soviet Union. The Soviets are extremely interested. Right now, we' re working on the timing. It will probably be in either February or September so as not to conflict with the World Junior Championships every December.THN: You've come down hard on those who commit violence, such as the lifetime suspension of ex-Sudbury Wolves' defenseman Marc Laforge last year. Has the reaction been positive or negative?DB: Positive, no question. In many ways it's a Catch-22 situation because our detractors point at the incidents rather than the punitive measure we've taken. There are 495 games in our league this year and there are no such incidents in 485 of them, but it's the other 10 that generate all the publicity.THN: You've always taken an active role in disciplining players. Does that sometimes put you in an awkward position with the owners who employ you?DB: Hockey is a game of emotions and from time to time in a disciplinary action, you do get emotions involved and you will go through periods where an owner or maybe a coach or manager would rather not speak to you. And because it's usually the result of emotions, it subsides, given time. Our league sits down often and we'll address the style of play and the discipline factor and the support has always been there.THN: Does the fact that you take a strong stand on violence make you an outcast in the hockey community?DB: We feel that we've been progressive in addressing the game and eliminating the parts of the game that we don't want in it. Three or four years ago I think maybe the old guard in the hockey community may have felt that I really didn't belong or that I was from another part of the world that had never seen hockey before. But now that's not the case and I think there's a strong mood by everyone that you have to be consistent.THN: Do you think the league has done enough to address violence? Are there plans to take any further measures?DB: It's like anything else; you evolve. We've taken steps every year toward improving the style of the game. I think if there's one area of the game that hockey has been slow to react to, certainly at the junior level and down, is that of the illegal use of the stick. In junior hockey everyone wears helmets and facial protection and there's no question it has resulted in the sticks going up and an increasing lack of respect to the opposing player. We have to be much stronger in demonstrating to the players that we cannot condone the illegal use of the stick.THN: What about alcohol and the OHL? It seems peculiar that a league with players as young as 15 has a brewery (Molson's) as its major sponsor.DB: As a parent, I don't hide things from my children. I don't think that's how you put people on the right path. That's not going to stop the abuse factor that some fall into. Molson's is synonymous with hockey and their sponsorship is not a hands-on sponsorship. It's with the league as a whole, supporting certain events. It's not a case where there's beer in the dressing room or at player receptions because we don't permit it. I don't find it awkward. And as a league, for the last four years, we have had&nbsp;drug-and-alcohol-abuse seminars with all our teams through the RCMP.THN: How would you compare the OHL with your rivals in the west and Quebec?DB: We've all had our successes and failures but I think the OHL stacks up very favorably at the championship level and at the NHL draft. We're probably closer together in terms of our relationship than at any other time and I only see it getting stronger.THN: No player from the OHL has been chosen first overall in the NHL draft since the London Knights' Rob Ramage was picked by Colorado in 1979. Is there a concern that the other leagues have caught up to&mdash;or even passed&mdash;the OHL in producing professionals?DB: Year in and year out over the last JO years, we've been the leader. Picking first overall is a very subjective move on someone's part and who's to say that was the best player? More than one-third of the players in the NHL are graduates of our league.THN: What are the OHL's plans for the future and do they include expansion?DB: Yes, I can see us adding a 16th team in time for the 1989-90 season. We've decided ownership stability in the league, the increased talent pool and the new NHL-CHL agreement make it feasible to expand at this time. I foresee four four-team divisions within two conferences. We have not received any formal applications yet but there has been considerable interest from groups in Hamilton and Barrie.THN: Have you ever had any aspirations to move on to a higher league, maybe the NHL?DB: I always approach things with the attitude that as long as there are challenges and the job provides a sense of self satisfaction, I'd be happy. There are many challenges so it's self gratifying. When I initially got involved at the junior level I had a very strong desire to ultimately end up in the NHL but I'm not so sure now that same desire is there, given that there's so much to do (in the OHL).THN: What challenges are those?DB: The whole nature of junior hockey has changed dramatically in the last five years. It's become such a big business and we're in a situation where now it can cost anywhere from $600,000 to a million dollars a year to operate a franchise. More than ever before, there are more challenges for the entertainment dollar and there are a number of issues we have to face in order to survive and one of them is to increase our marketing skills and all our teams are in the process of doing that. When I came into the league, only one team had a full-time marketing person and now only one team doesn't.THN: How long do you plan to remain as commissioner of the OHL?DB: My four-year contract expires at the end of this season and we're currently in the process of renegotiating. I'd like to stay because I feel very fortunate to be in the hockey industry. I've been in the business 15 years, including nine with the OHL, and I've enjoyed it immensely. &#9632;

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DAVE BRANCH

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01655/5652471-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01666/5652464-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="2245" height="1395"></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01633/5652502-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0035-01

SCOREBOARD

1. Which two teams played before an NHL record crowd of 21,109 on Nov. 25, 1983?2. Which two Boston players were junior teammates with Verdun of the Quebec League in 1978-79?3. Which Calgary Flame was awarded three penalty shots during the 1986-87 season?4. Name the only two players to have worn sweater No. 2 for the Buffalo Sabres.5. Which team set an NHL record for road victories and tied it a year later?6. Which Boston Bruin was Quebec&rsquo;s second pick in the 1980 draft?7. Which is the only team to be shutout in a three-game playoff series?8. Which NHL team traded away its first-round draft choice in 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1981?9. Who was the first winner of the Lester B. Pearson Award, presented to the league&rsquo;s outstanding player as selected by members of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association?10. Which Vancouver player goes by the nickname &ldquo;Benji&rdquo;?ANSWERS: 1. Pittsburgh 2 at Detroit 5. 2. Ray Bourque and Steve Kasfier. 3. Jod Mullen. 4. Jim Watson (1971-72) and Tim Horton (1973-74). 5. Montreal (1976-77 and 1977-78). 6. Jay Miller. 7. Montreal Maroons in 1936 vs. Detroit. 8. Pittsburgh. 9. Phil Esposito (1971). 10. Jim Benning. BONUS ANSWER: Guy Chouinard.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02444/5652571-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="407" height="603"></div>BONUS QUESTION: He was the only Atlanta Flame to ever score 50 goals in a season. &#9632;

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TRIVIA

Brian Dudrow is an eight-year-old who plays center for the Denver University Young Pioneer Hockey Mites.A Grade 3 student at Timberline Elementary in Aurora, Colo., Brian is in his fifth year of organized hockey. This summer he moved from Maryland to Colorado and has played for the Easton (Maryland) Mites for the past four seasons. The last two seasons, his Mite team captured the Capital Beltway League championship under coach Marc Felizzi. He chipped in with 11 goals and 12 assists, including two hat tricks, to lead his team to a 20-1 record last season.Despite the disruption of the move, Brian played in the South Suburban Summer Hockey League in Denver.The 4-foot-3,65-pounder is a big fan of the Washington Capitals and enjoys cheering for his favorite player, Los Angeles King super-star Wayne Gretzky.Aside from hockey, he also enjoys playing T-ball and lacrosse in the summer as well as writing stories.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03359/5652602-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="398" height="880"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Dudrow</figcaption></div>You or someone you know can be part of the JOFA-TITAN Minor Hockey Showcase. Just send a photograph, along with biographical Information (age, height, weight, team, coach's name, school and grade, as well as favorite NHL team and player) to JOFA-TITAN SHOWCASE, c/o The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. All entries submitted will be eligible for selection as THN/JOFA-TITAN Minor Hockey Player of the Year. &#9632;

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JOFA TITAN

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01603/5652540-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01522/5652533-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="3258" height="4000"></div> &#9632;

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NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="byline">DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01575/5652671-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="462" height="637"></div>We&rsquo;ve seen a lot of hockey stuffed into the first few weeks of the 1988-89 season, haven&rsquo;t we?We have seen how those fears that Wayne Gretzky might be good for only 100 or so points in Los Angeles appear to be unfounded. Unless, of course, that was a prediction for his production in October.We have seen the struggle for supremacy in the Patrick Division open with a fury that exceeded even the most lofty of expectations.We have seen the Edmonton Oilers prove they don&rsquo;t plan to go gently into the darkness of the post-Gretzky era, even though plenty of people have come up with 99 reasons why they should.But there is still much more hockey to be played this season, and many more marvels to be witnessed.Surely, anyone with a detectable pulse has to be intrigued by the very prospect of Gretzky and Mario Lemieux crossing sticks for the first time this season, Nov. 12 at the Fabulous Forum.But there is much, much more than just that collision of looming legends awaiting us before the season melts into a memory.Personally, before this winter has expired, I would like to see:&#9632; Fans at the Pacific Mausoleum in Vancouver make some sounds that actually could be mistaken for crowd noise.&#9632; The pipe organ in Chicago Stalium designated a historic landmark.&#9632; Robert Gordon Orr, the man whose breath-taking abilities inspired a whole generation of American players, return to hockey in a high-profile position.&#9632; NHL Players&rsquo; Association members realize that publicizing salaries, standard practice in other major sports, would only serve to increase them.&#9632; Guy Lafleur recapture the full magic and majesty of his youth&mdash;complete with flowing hair&mdash;even if it&rsquo;s just for one shift.&#9632; Bob Probert win the biggest&mdash;and toughest&mdash;fight of his life before it puts him down for the count and writes a sorry, soggy end to what still can become a marvelous career.&#9632; Eddie Johnston land a position that would fully capitalize on his considerable skills, the ones he used to construct a promising young contender from the rubble he inherited in Pittsburgh five years ago.&#9632; The Canucks stay in playoff contention longer than anybody seems to expect. Like until the end of October, maybe.&#9632; Rick Ley be given a chance to prove why so many consider him an exceptional NHL coaching candidate.&#9632; Someone, somehow restore the dignity and pride to Toronto that such a venerable franchise deserves.&#9632; Denis Savard be widely appreciated solely for the magnificence of his skills rather than being measured against the dizzying standards set by Gretzky and Lemieux.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02402/5652664-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="699" height="503"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tony Tanti would probably appreciate some noise in his home rink.</figcaption></div>&#9632; The most extensive NHL television package ever in the United States be available on screens in more than a handful of cities. Failing that, to have somebody explain how it&rsquo;s better for the league to have more dollars for the rights to its product than viewers who are able to watch it. Along with a believable reason why this most exciting of games could not catch on south of the Mason-Dixon Line if marketed properly.&#9632; Bryan Murray hang onto his job with the Capitals. Debate, if you must, the merits of his coaching, but understand how wonderful it is to deal with such an agreeable, accessible man in that position.&#9632; Czechoslovak forward Igor Liba go over the list of words his teammates have taught him. Words that do not appear in what Liba claims to be his favorite book, the English dictionary.&#9632; One time, just one time, a referee put on a public display belittling a coach&rsquo;s decision, the way some coaches are quick to demonstrably criticize officials&rsquo; judgments.&#9632; Expansion to the Bahamas, Hawaii or anyplace else where the average winter wind-chill factor is about 75 degrees. Or maybe to all of them. &#9632;

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A WISH LIST FOR THIS SEASON

<h2>WHALERS</h2>The Whalers will continue to support the University of Connecticut Health Center, according to team owner Donald Conrad. A state report recently charged that state funds have been steered into a private foundation and misused for a sailboat and parties. &ldquo;I am confident that all the Whaler contributions have been spent appropriately,&rdquo; said Conrad. The Whalers have donated $800,000 over the years, including $100,000 raised by the 1986 NHL All-Star Game in Hartford.After learning center Brian Lawton was interested in playing in Boston, Hartford or New York, Francis was interested in making a bid to Minnesota. &ldquo;But I didn&rsquo;t get an opportunity,&rdquo; said Francis. &ldquo;All of a sudden I get a call saying, the deal (with the Rangers) is done.&rdquo;&hellip; Right winger Scott Young returned to the lineup on Oct. 15 after missing two games with a 22-stitch gash over his right eye caused when Boston defenseman Garry Galley&rsquo;s aluminum stick shattered on Oct. 8. &ldquo;It was a freak thing,&rdquo; said Young. &ldquo;It hit so hard I thought I had crashed into the boards.&rdquo;<h2>BRUINS</h2>Second-year defenseman Glen Wesley returned to the lineup in Minnesota Oct. 15 after missing three games with a sprained left knee suffered in the opener against Toronto Oct. 6. He had six points on a goal and five assists in a 10-3 win over Chicago Oct. 16. &ldquo;I never did it in bantams, junior, nothing like that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what happened. I was just moving the puck quickly and I had lots of ice time on the power play.&rdquo;&hellip; Don&rsquo;t invite Ken Linseman and Bruce Hood to the same party. Hood, the former referee who has written a book, Calling The Shots, had this to say about Linseman: &ldquo;When he absolutely has to pair off with somebody, he goes looking for the other team&rsquo;s Lady Byng candidate.&rdquo; To which Linseman replied: &ldquo;I always thought he wasn&rsquo;t a good referee because he thought he was the entertainment, not the players. Obviously that&rsquo;s what he&rsquo;s still trying to do, be the center of attention.&rdquo;<h2>CANADIENS</h2>Canadiens&rsquo; captain Bob Gainey suffered a bruised left foot in Montreal&rsquo;s 2-1 loss to the Islanders&hellip; Left winger Jocelyn Lemieux was dispatched to the Canadiens&rsquo; farm team in Sherbrooke Oct. 13 along with defenseman Donald Dufresne. &ldquo;He has to get ice time,&rdquo; said coach Pat Burns. &ldquo;He wasn&rsquo;t going to get that here because we have a lot of left wingers ahead of him. &ldquo;Gainey, Mats Naslund, Mike McPhee, Ryan Walter and Shayne Corson ranked ahead of Lemieux on the depth chart-&hellip; Defenseman Mike Lalor played his first two games against the Devils Oct. 14 and the Islanders Oct. 15, replacing rookie Eric Desjardins.<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>Finnish right winger liro Jarvi continued to impress, playing on a line with center Walt Poddubny and left winger Gaetan Duchesne. Jarvi was fourth in team scoring (6-2-4-6) and was playing on the power-play&hellip; Rookie left winger Mark Vermette, called up from Halifax of the AHL on Oct. 10, thought he had his first goal Oct. 14 at Le Colisee against Buffalo. But the official scorer changed it and Vermette was given an assist. David Latta was credited with the goal, his first in the NHL. Vermette, meanwhile, had three assists in his first three NHL games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03302/5652702-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="553" height="622"><figcaption class="caption-body">Glen Wesley had six points as the Bruins bombed Chicago.</figcaption></div>Center Joe Sakic, who has averaged a point a game for the Nordiques (6-5-4-9), led all rookies in points&hellip; Defenseman Jeff Brown led the team and NHL defenseman in scoring through Oct. 16, with three goals and seven assists in six games&hellip; The Nordiques were third in killing off penalties (88.4 per cent, five goals allowed in 43 chances) and eighth in power-play production (24.3 per cent, 9-for-37). The Nordiques were 28.6 per cent (2-for-7) on the power-play in a home-and-home series against Buffalo Oct. 14 and 16. Last season, the Nordiques were 19th in penalty-killing (76.6 per cent) and eighth in power-play production (21.7 per cent).<h2>SABRES</h2>Center Dave Andreychuk marked his first start of the season with a five-point night&mdash;three goals and two assists&mdash;Oct. 11 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Andreychuk missed the first three games of the season with a knee injury&hellip; Right winger Mike Foligno moved to within one goal of seventh place on the all-time Sabre goal-scoring list with a goal Oct. 14 at Quebec. It was his 175th in a Buffalo uniform. He played in his 500th game as a Sabre Oct. 12&hellip; The NHL and the Sabres honored referee Andy van Hellemond on the occasion of his 1,000th game Oct. 16 in Memorial Auditorium. Van Hellemond received a plaque and his family was brought out on to the ice to share in the moment. &#9632;

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WHALER OWNER SAYS FUNDS NOT MISUSED

<div class="byline">&#x2014;L.A. King owner Bruce McNall.</div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had some unbelievable things happen to me. I bought a racehorse one day and won the Arc de Triomphe the next and had the president of France present me with the trophy. I&rsquo;ve purchased some of the greatest coins and artifacts in the history of the world, but if you add them all up, they don't beat the thrill of this Wayne Gretzky deal.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04246/5652733-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="490" height="397"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bruce McNall</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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QUOTABLES

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>To understand the Buffalo Sabre goaltending situation this season, it is important to know just one thing: Tom Barrasso is No. 1.Daren Puppa knows it and it has helped him.Once Barrasso established that&mdash;with management, himself, the players and fans&mdash;everything else just fell into place. For Barrasso, Puppa and Jacques Cloutier.&ldquo;Tommy came in and it was clear he was No. 1,&rdquo; acknowledged Puppa, 25 and the backup goalie.&ldquo;I think the problem last year was that no one knew what was going on. It went that way all through camp with everybody in a dogfight and everybody watching the other guy. It never was settled at the start and it went that way right into the season.&rdquo;The uncertainty ended around Christmas last year. Barrasso took hold of the situation and ran with it, right through to runner-up status in Vezina Trophy voting. After a struggling 3-9-5 start, Barrasso went 25-18-8 and finished with a 3.31 goals-against average. Puppa went to Rochester. Cloutier (4-8-2, 4.72 GAA) was the backup.This season Cloutier and Puppa have reversed roles, with Puppa splitting his first two games and posting a 3.69 GAA average. Last season, Puppa was 8-6-1 with a 4.19 GAA. This year, Cloutier has been sent to Rochester.Though he didn&rsquo;t say so publicly, it was obvious Puppa felt he made the team last season. This time, there were no denials. He would be with the Sabres from the start.He said he expected as much.&ldquo;No,&rdquo; he said when asked if he thought it was going to be another three-man rotation at the start of the season. &ldquo;It would have been a mistake.&rdquo;Did he think he would be the one to go?&ldquo;No.&rdquo;He said he would have been surprised and very disappointed had he not been with the Sabres this season. He also said he is happy to be a part of this team and stressed the word team.&ldquo;Everything&rsquo;s more positive now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Everything is for the benefit of the team. I&rsquo;m a player and I&rsquo;ll do whatever is necessary for the good of the team. There&rsquo;s no point in being negative about anything. If it doesn&rsquo;t help the team it doesn&rsquo;t help me, so it&rsquo;s more important to be positive about things. Everything seems to go better that way.&rdquo;Most people are positive Puppa is a goaltender with an NHL future. He has the requisite skills. He is tall (6-foot-3), strong and quick. He sees the puck well and has learned to handle it better than when he first came into the pros.Sabre coach Ted Sator said having two men vying for the same position can be a tense situation and having three is impossible. Last season was clearly a case of the latter, but a certain maturity on Barrasso&rsquo;s part has made having Puppa on the team this season a lot easier.&ldquo;Give Tommy credit,&rdquo; said Sator. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a situation where they are competing with each other, but it&rsquo;s in a positive way. Tommy has made it that way and that makes it a situation where the whole team benefits because we have two who can play.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01294/5652764-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="538" height="1249"><figcaption class="caption-body">Daren Puppa was confident of making the Sabres this season.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re two people in the same profession,&rdquo; said Puppa. &ldquo;We stay aware of each other and we help each other where we can.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a team game and there&rsquo;s no sense doing it any other way.&rdquo;<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 13: Jeff Parker, C, assigned to Rochester (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Christian Ruuttu, John Tucker, Pierre Turgeon.LW&mdash;Dave Andreychuk, Scott Arniel, Mike Donnelly, Adam Creighton, Benoit Hogue.RW&mdash;Mike Foligno, Mark Napier, Kevin Maguire, Ray Sheppard, Jan Ludvig, Scott Amiel.LD&mdash;Mike Ramsey, Lindy Ruff, Bob Halkidis.RD&mdash;Uwe Krupp, Phil Housley, Steve Smith.G&mdash;Tom Barrasso. Daren Puppa.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mark Ferner, D, bruised sternum, day-to-day.Calle Johansson, D, sprained thumb, day-to-day.Joe Reekie, D, knee, indefinite. &#9632;

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PUPPA REVERSES ROLES, WINS JOB

<div class="byline">TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02196/5652795-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">All-star defenseman Ray Bourque is enthusiastic about the Bruins chances for success this year.</figcaption></div>Ray Bourque sounded as if he were ready to end the regular season and start the playoffs.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s scary,&rdquo; the Boston Bruins&rsquo; captain said. &ldquo;In my 10 years in the league I&rsquo;ve never played on a team that has started a season as good as we have this year.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never played on a team that has moved the puck or skated like we have so early in the season. Everybody&rsquo;s involved and things are happening.&ldquo;And I think we can get better. That&rsquo;s the scary part.&rdquo;The Bruins started the season with three straight victories&mdash;over Toronto in the opener, and twice over Hartford. They slumped against Los Angeles and Minnesota, then rebounded to blow apart Chicago 10-3.Bourque said the Bruins became a better team after their loss in four straight games to the Edmonton Oilers in last spring&rsquo;s Stanley Cup finals.&ldquo;I think we realized in that last series,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that we weren&rsquo;t really moving the puck or skating as good as we could have.&ldquo;We realized that, and we&rsquo;ve been working on that so much in practice that now we&rsquo;re skating and moving the puck a lot better than we did in that series last year already.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve learned something from last year and we&rsquo;ve already improved on it. That's a good sign.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s so much fun now just going out there and seeing the way we&rsquo;re playing. It gives my game an advantage. I think I can get more involved in that type of hockey.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re trying to do, get everybody involved in the offense and everybody involved in the defense, moving the puck as crisp as we can and skating and following the play and having fun.&rdquo;The Bruins didn&rsquo;t accomplish very much in the first two games of their five-game road trip. They lost 6-2 to the Kings and 5-1 to the North Stars.Then coach Terry O&rsquo;Reilly reunited the line of Cam Neely, Craig Janney and Bob Joyce for the first time this season. Their play helped the Bruins blow out Chicago.Neely responded by scoring three goals and setting up four more for seven points, tying the club record shared by Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and Barry Pederson.Neely indirectly assumed a share of the blame for the losses in Los Angeles and Minnesota.&ldquo;Things were going well for me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t playing as physical as I could. I was getting too caught up in being a finesse player.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Reilly blamed the two-game slump on &ldquo;the Stanley Cup syndrome.&ldquo;After watching the films,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Reilly, &ldquo;we decided the main problem was what we feared most over the summer&mdash;going to the Stanley Cup final.&ldquo;You come in the next season and think you&rsquo;re better than you are. All of a sudden you forget the things that got you there, the physical, grinding play&rdquo;<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 10: Moe Lemay, LW, assigned to Maine (AHL) for conditioning.Oct. 14: Bruce Shoebottom, D. assigned to Maine.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Craig Janney, Ken Linseman, Steve Kasper. Billy O'Dwyer.LW&mdash;Bob Joyce, Andy Brickley, Randy Burridge, Jay Miller, Tommy Lehmann.RW&mdash;Cam Neely, Keith Crowder. Lyndon Byers, Bob Sweeney, Greg Johnston.LD&mdash;Glen Wesley, Al Pedersen, Don Sweeney, Alain Cote.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque. Michael Thelven, Garry Galley.G&mdash;Reggie Lemelin, Andy Moog.<h3>INJURIES</h3>David Jensen, C, left shoulder surgery, indefinite.Gord Kluzak, D, left knee arthroscopy, indefinite.Nevin Markwart, RW, stomach muscel/groin pull, indefinite.Stephane Quintal, D, left knee injury, indefinite. &#9632;

f0040-02

TEAM INVOLVEMENT LEADS TO QUICK START FOR BRUINS

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>The Goose&rsquo; isn&rsquo;t happy in the new cage the Quebec Nordiques have fashioned for him. Nordique goalie Mario (Goose) Gosselin didn&rsquo;t play&mdash;or even dress&mdash;for Quebec&rsquo;s first six games of the 1988-89 season. Bob Mason and Mario Brunetta shared the duties. The 25-year-old Gosselin played 54 games (20-28-4, 3.78 goals-against average) last season.Gosselin&rsquo;s feathers were ruffled.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the kind of situation that usually ends up in a trade," he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way I see things right now. I&rsquo;m not saying that I&rsquo;ve heard I was on the trading block. It&rsquo;s only my personal feeling.&rdquo;Quebec general manager Martin Madden and coach Ron Lapointe downplayed the situation.&ldquo;We know Mario is unhappy, but there&rsquo;s nothing we can do about it right now,&rdquo; said Lapointe. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve decided that in our best interests, Bob Mason and Mario Brunetta would be the ones we would call on for the moment.&ldquo;Mario Gosselin is kicking up a fuss and there&rsquo;s nothing unusual about that. He&rsquo;s proven in the past that he can play in the NHL, so he&rsquo;s bound to be disappointed.&rdquo;Madden said there&rsquo;s no truth to the trade rumors.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s pure fiction,&rdquo; said Madden. &ldquo;The season has just started. There&rsquo;s still a long way to go. Mario will get his chance to start pretty soon. I know he&rsquo;ll be ready when we call upon him.&ldquo;Gosselin didn&rsquo;t have a bad training camp. But the two other goalies in town were better than he was. That&rsquo;s mainly why Lapointe decided to go with Mason, with Brunetta being the backup.&rdquo;But it didn&rsquo;t placate the Goose.&ldquo;I trained with Mario Brunetta all summer long and they seem to like the shape he&rsquo;s in. So why not mine?&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s going on,&rdquo; said Gosselin. &ldquo;There just isn&rsquo;t any justifiable reason to keep me out of the lineup.&rdquo;Gosselin added it still wasn&rsquo;t time to panic, but things had better improve shortly.&ldquo;With three goalies around, there are always problems,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s always-one guy cast aside. And I don&rsquo;t want to be that guy.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t worked hard to make a name for myself just to be used as a target during practice sessions. It&rsquo;s just not for me. I want to play and I have to play.&rdquo;Gosselin&rsquo;s agent, Don Meehan, talked with Madden during the season&rsquo;s second week, but the Nordique GM didn&rsquo;t budge.&ldquo;For the moment,&rdquo; said Madden, &ldquo;Mario is our No. 3 goalie. And that&rsquo;s that.&rdquo;Gosselin, booed much of last season at Le Colisee and during some pre-season games, added a solemn reminder.&ldquo;I don't mind the boos that much, but if you remember well, they also booed Mario Marois, Real Cloutier and Daniel Bouchard just before they left for another team.&rdquo;<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 17: Gord Donnelly, RW, serving 10-game suspension. Eligible to return Oct. 20<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Peter Stastny, Walt Poddubny, Joe Sakic, Paul Gillis.LW&mdash;David Latta, Gaetan Duchesne, Anton Stastny, Jeff Jackson, Joel Baillargeon.RW&mdash;Mark Vermette, liro Jarvi, Alain Cote, Lane Lambert.LD&mdash;Steven Finn, Robert Picard, Tommy Albelin, Jari Gronstrand.RD&mdash;Jeff Brown, Curtis Leschyshyn, Randy Moller, Greg Smyth.G&mdash;Bob Mason, Mario Brunetta. Mario Gosselin.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Michel Goulet, sprained ligaments in left knee, indefinite.Trevor Stienburg, sprained left ankle, indefinite. &#9632;

GOOSE FIGURES HE’S COOKED IN QUEBEC

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>This time around, Claude Lemieux didn&rsquo;t shatter any ashtrays.Responding to a one-game suspension handed down by coach Pat Burns, Lemieux notched his first career hat trick, leading the Canadiens to a 7-3 win over New Jersey Devils on Oct. 14.Lemieux found himself on the outside looking in as the Canadiens embarked on the first campaign of the Battle of Quebec Oct. 12.Bums benched the feisty right winger for the 6-5 loss, forcing him to contemplate his behavior in a game against Minnesota Oct. 8. In that game, Lemieux received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, misconduct and game misconduct from referee Bill McCreary.Lemieux was complaining because he said McCreary missed a foul committed against him.&ldquo;I told Lemieux that I couldn&rsquo;t let him get away with that,&rdquo; said Bums. &ldquo;I asked him what he would do in my position.&rdquo; Lemieux agreed with his coach, although he did not like the idea of having to sit out a game.Last season, deposed coach Jean Perron suspended Lemieux for a game after he acted up during a game at the Forum against Hartford in mid-March. Lemieux broke an ashtray in the hall outside the ex-coach&rsquo;s office and had to be restrained from going after Perron.This time around, there was no yelling on Lemieux's part. He knew he was in the wrong and he wasn&rsquo;t going to get any sympathy from anybody.&ldquo;I wanted to have a good game,&rdquo; admitted Lemieux, who was put back on a line with Brian Skrudland and Mike McPhee, his linemates during the 1986 playoffs when the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup.&ldquo;I kind of knew I was going to play well. In the past two years, 1 have had to sit out a game and both times I&rsquo;ve come back and played well.&rdquo;The three-goal effort dashed a belated comeback effort by the Devils, who were trying to salvage a tie in their home opener.&ldquo;I told myself to work hard and be patient and the chances would come,&rdquo; Lemieux noted. &ldquo;I was hungry.&rdquo;Bums also had some sharp words for defenseman Petr Svoboda, who received a one-game suspension after earning his second game misconduct for a stick-related major.In the Canadiens&rsquo; 2-1 loss to the New York Islanders, Oct. 15, Svoboda was given a major and game mis-conduct in the third period by McCreary for high-sticking Islanders&rsquo; right winger Brad Dalgarno. At the time, the Canadiens were trying to overcome the one-goal deficit.Svoboda was given a cross-checking major by McCreary on Oct. 8 against Minnesota and became the first NHL player to sit out an automatic one-game suspension for receiving two major stick fouls. Svoboda was scheduled to sit out the Canadiens&rsquo; home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs Oct. 17.&ldquo;Petr has got to stop taking those types of penalties,&rdquo; said Burns. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of the most-penalized players on the team (fourth with 149 penalty minutes last year) and he doesn&rsquo;t drop the gloves (to fight). It was a very stupid penalty; a very, very stupid penalty.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02182/5652881-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="539" height="990"><figcaption class="caption-body">Claude Lemieux excelled after a one-game suspension.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I hit him (Dalgarno) with an elbow,&rdquo; said Svoboda of his second major penalty. &ldquo;I thought 1 would get two minutes for elbowing.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he (McCreary) was looking for me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think he likes to call that penalty though.&rdquo;Bums, who forgave Svoboda for taking the cross-checking major, was not in a forgiving mood the second time around. &ldquo;I talked with Lemieux and now it&rsquo;s time to talk to Petr,&rdquo; Burns said.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 13: Donald Dufresne, D, Jocelyn Lemieux, LW, assigned to Sherbrooke (AHL).Oct. 15: Petr Svoboda, D. suspended one game. Eligible to return Oct. 19.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bobby Smith, Guy Carbonneau, Gilles Thibaudeau, Brian Skrudland.LW&mdash;Mats Naslund, Shayne Corson, Mike McPhee, Ryan Walter.RW&mdash;Jose Charbonneau, Mike Keane, Stephane Richer. Claude Lemieux. John Kordic.LD&mdash;Craig Ludwig, Rick Green.RD&mdash;Chris Chelios, Larry Robinson, Mike Lalor, Eric Desjardins.G&mdash;Patrick Roy, Brian Hayward.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bob Gainey, LW, bruised left foot, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0042-02

ASHTRAYS INTACT AS LEMIEUX GETS FIRST HAT TRICK

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01257/5652912-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Boston&rsquo;s Derek Sanderson is stuck between Buffalo&rsquo;s French Connection linemates Rene Robert, right, and Richard Martin as he tries to move in on the Sabre goal during a 1973-74 game. Sanderson was in his second stint as a Bruin after spending part of the previous season in the WHA.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0043-01

WAY WE WERE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02191/5652950-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg"></div><h2>ACROSS:</h2>1. Former Bruin blueliner involved in a serious stick-swinging incident in 1969.5. The least-busy of Boston&rsquo;s three netminders last season.9. First name of the Kings&rsquo; GM.10. Binghamton&rsquo;s AHL entry was once known by this nickname.11. He was first named NHL Coach of the Year in 1987.12. New York is known as &lsquo;The Big -----&rsquo;14. Former netminder Maniago.16. He had stints with both the Islanders and the Devils through 1983-84.19. This B.C. town was the birthplace of former Canuck Steve Tambellini.21. Growing weary.24. The Flyers&rsquo; former athem: &lsquo;God Bless -----&rsquo;.25. Merge.26. He was a Bruin assistant during Gerry Cheevers&rsquo; tenure as coach.27. He appeared in 65 games for the Seals in 1974-75, his last NHL season.<h2>DOWN:</h2>1. A nickname shared by Derek Sanderson and Walter Broda.2. Comermen.3. He plays goal for Toronto&rsquo;s American League farm team.4. Most senior.6. A goal ahead.7. One of three netminders to see action for Quebec last season.8. The Ontario League Generals.13. Oiler rearguard Steve Smith&rsquo;s country of birth.15. &lsquo;----- the Goalie&rsquo; Melanson.17. Canuck schooled at the University of North Dakota.18. Home of the OHL&rsquo;s 67&rsquo;s.20. The Jets&rsquo; building, Winnipeg -----.22. A Swedish-born Flyer.23. A 50-goal scorer every NHL season from 1983-84 to 1986-87.<h2>CROSSWORD SOLUTION</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01754/5652943-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="412" height="405"></div> &#9632;

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October 28, 1988

ROOKIE SUFFERS EARLY SHELL SHOCK

BANNER EFFORT NOT IN THE CARDS AT HOME OPENER

SAMUELSSON NOT CONCERNED ABOUT RATINGS

BaUer CoLLeGe SCOreBOarD