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.

February 24, 1989

The Hockey News February 24, 1989

Drummondville coach and general manager Jean Begin was arrested and charged Feb. 8 with sexual aggression against an unidentified male under the age of 14. Begin was released from jail in St. Hyacinthe on $1,000 bail Feb. 9. A preliminary hearing is set for Feb. 21 in Drummondville Municipal Court.<h2>QMJHL</h2>A Surete du Quebec provincial police official, who refused to be identified, confirmed Begin&rsquo;s arrest and said the alleged incident occurred in the Drummondville area on or around Jan. 31.Begin, 44, is married with two children.Team president and governor Normand Brousseau said Begin is indefinitely suspended but refused further comment. Gervais Rioux, Begin&rsquo;s assistant coach, was named interim head coach. The Volts were 23-26-4.&mdash;Herb Zurkowsky<h2>OHL</h2>Parents of a Sudbury teenager filed a notice of liability with the Ontario League, the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Greyhounds&rsquo; overage center Mark Turner concerning an incident after a game Feb. 5.Joe Zito, lawyer for the parents of Mark Corner. 13, filed the notice to cover dental work and legal costs after Corner was struck in the mouth with a puck following a game between the Sudbury Wolves and Soo Greyhounds. Sudbury won the game 3-2.Staff Sgt. Vic Collison of the Sudbury Regional Police said a Greyhounds&rsquo; player allegedly shot the puck into the stands just after the conclusion of the game and hit Comer. As of Feb. 10. police were still investigating and no charges were laid. He said police were trying to determine whether the player was trying to hit the spectators with the puck.Although no teeth were broken, four of Corner&rsquo;s top front teeth were pushed back to the top of his mouth. Corner was taken to Sudbury General Hospital and kept overnight for observation but released the next day. Zito said Corner would require $3,000 to $4,000 worth of dental work to repair the damage.No penalty was called on the play by referee Jim Houston but the OHL was investigating the incident.Turner played in the Greyhounds&rsquo; next game, a 6-3 home-ice win over the London Knights Feb. 7.OHL commissioner Dave Branch handed out his stiffest penalty of the season Feb. 9 when he suspended Toronto Marlboros&rsquo; center Chris Govedaris 15 games for a stick-swinging incident Jan. 22.&ldquo;Govedaris&rsquo; actions were totally uncalled for and certainly unacceptable,&rdquo; said Branch after meeting with Govedaris and Marlies&rsquo; coachgeneral manager Terry Martin.Govedaris, 38-30-68 in 42 games, smashed his stick across the thighs of Peterborough Petes&rsquo; defenseman Mike Dagenais during a 7-3 loss in Toronto. The impact caused Govedaris&rsquo; stick to shatter. Dagenais returned to play later in the game.Govedaris sat out the five games before the hearing and is eligible to return March 14 when the Marlies travel to Oshawa.&mdash;Ken Campbell<h2>WHL</h2>Go west and lose. That&rsquo;s been the story for all but one East Division team on road trips to the West Division this season.Even the best two teams in the East failed their test in the West. Like five of the six East teams before them, the Swift Current Broncos and Prince Albert Raiders limped home with losing records.The Broncos started their trip with a 40-9-0 record, best in major junior hockey. But they lost four of six on a Jan. 27-Feb. 5 swing. The Raiders. 30-16-0 starting their Jan. 27-Feb. 3 trip, went 1-5.Seven of eight East Division teams have made the trip, and only the last-place Moose Jaw Warriors had a winning record. The Warriors were 4-2. Regina went 0-6, Brandon and Medicine Hat 2-4 and Lethbridge 1-5.The Saskatoon Blades go west Feb. 26-March 5.&mdash;Ed Willes &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

VOLTS’ COACH CHARGED WITH SEX CRIME

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ ANO JEFF HALE</div>A Ipo who?Safe to say few had heard of Alpo Suhonen before he was named coach of the Moncton Hawks Feb. 10. But if he makes good on his recommendations, the anonymity will fade quickly.Suhonen, 40, a native of Hameenlinna, Finland, coached Hameenlinna in the Finnish Elite Division and scouted for the Winnipeg Jets. He was scheduled to make his Moncton debut Feb. &rsquo; 15 against Binghamton, replacing Rick Bowness. Bowness was named Jet coach Feb. 7 when Dan Maloney was fired. Assistant coach Ron Wilson coached the Hawks during a four-game road trip prior to Suhonen&rsquo;s arrival.Suhonen began coaching in 1971. He coached the Finnish junior team to a world championship in 1978 and was an assistant with the 1984 Olympic team.&ldquo;He knows the game inside and out,&rdquo; said Edmonton right winger Jari Kurri, a member of the &rsquo;78 junior team. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the type of guy who doesn&rsquo;t have to demand respect, he just naturally receives it. Suhonen is very good in dealing person-to-person.&rdquo;Suhonen was an instructor for the Hartford Whalers at their 1981 training camp. &ldquo;Alpo is a real people-person,&rdquo; said Whaler coach Larry Pleau. &ldquo;He has a good grasp of the game and is great, whether dealing with the players as a group or on an individual basis.&rdquo;Suhonen called the Moncton job &ldquo;a highlight in my career.&ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s kind of a logical progression. First it was the European players who were signed, then the scouts, and now it is going into the coaching side.&rdquo;<h2>FITZPATRICK BACK</h2>Goalie Mark Fitzpatrick is back with the New Haven Nighthawks. By choice.He asked to return to the Nighthawks and the American League after spending more than two months with the Los Angeles Kings.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something I wanted,&rdquo; said Fitzpatrick, 1-4-2 in his last eight starts for the Kings with a 4.88 goals-against average and.866 save percentage. Overall with Los Angeles, he was 6-7-3, with a 4.01 GAA and.890 save percentage.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t near to the top of the game as I can be. I have to improve on some things. My confidence has slipped along the way. I want to come here and work hard and regain the things I had when 1 was first called up.&rdquo;That was Nov. 21. Fitzpatrick was 9-3-1 with a 3.07 GAA and.902 save percentage with New Haven. He started off 4-1-1 with the Kings.<h2>SPRINGFIELD SHUFFLE</h2>After a 6-3 loss at New Haven Feb. 3, Springfield coach Jim Roberts shuffled his lineup for the rematch the following night in Springfield.That included benching center Bruce Boudreau, who returned to the team Jan. 10 after an ankle injury. Boudreau was going to be used on the power play, but the Indians had none in the game.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t scored in six games,&rdquo; said Boudreau, who actually was only scoreless in three games before the benching. &ldquo;So, I expected some changes. When you&rsquo;re losing with 34-year-olds, you might as well see what the kids can do.&rdquo; In 47 games, Boudreau was 28-35-63.The Indians responded to Roberts&rsquo; message and jumped to a 5-1 lead early in the second period. But New Haven scored five times&mdash;the last by Francois Breault in OT&mdash;to win 6-5.Boudreau played the following night and ended his drought with a goal against the Binghamton Whalers. But the Indians lost that game 6-4.<h2>MISSING LINKS</h2>Who do the Sherbrooke Canadiens miss more, Benoit Brunet or Donald Dufresene?. Based on their defensive record, you&rsquo;d have to say Dufresne, a defenseman. The Habs were 3-2-1 without the pair, but had allowed 29 goals in the six games&mdash;almost five per outing. Overall, Sherbrooke had a 3.18 goals-against average. Brunet (29-53-82 in 47 games) was second in scoring behind teammate Stephan Lebeau (45-44-89 in 52) when recalled Feb. 1 by Montreal. Dufresne was out with a sprained ankle. &#9632;

SUHONEN NAMED MONCTON COACH

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>Soon after he returned from a 1987 vacation in Greece, Kevin Dineen&rsquo;s stomach began to burn. He thought he had eaten something bad.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re over there eating pork and all sorts of stuff.&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;1 came back in June and I got bad diarrhea. cramps, acid stomach. It didn&rsquo;t go away, but I figured I just caught something over there.&rdquo;Dineen reacted the way anybody who has seen him play for the Hartford Whalers would expect him to react. He pushed ahead resolutely. He said little.Six weeks later, he gave in. A battery of tests revealed he had Crohn&rsquo;s disease.Crohn&rsquo;s disease is a disorder of unknown origin in which an intense inflammatory reaction takes place in the lining or wall of the bowels. While colitis is limited to the large intestine, Crohn&rsquo;s can affect the entire gastrointestinal system. It can range from mild to serious and beyond the cramps and weight loss from diarrhea, it can bring severe fatigue and even arthritis.Dineen&rsquo;s problem is in remission. And, with medication, that remission can last from weeks to months. With 33 goals and 61 points in 53 games and a trip to the All-Star Game, it&rsquo;s obvious Dineen is feeling much better than last season.Last year, he was frustrated. He dropped from 40 to 25 goals and his penalty minutes skyrocketed from 110 to 217.Although he said little about his problems until recently. Dineen said the prescription drugs he takes&mdash;Azulfidine and prednisone&mdash;played harshly with his emotions.&ldquo;Prednisone is a type of steroid and has more side effects.&rdquo; said Dineen. &ldquo;It kind of makes you wired. It makes your personality go a little bit wild. Last year, I was on some majorleague medication. I was up and down. This year I&rsquo;ve been strictly on a maintenance dose.&ldquo;The Crohn&rsquo;s has kicked in only a r~&mdash;&mdash;<h2>HARTFORD</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 7: Dallas Gaume, C, recalled from Binghamton (AHL).ROSTERC&mdash;Dean Evason, Ray Ferraro, Brian Lawton, Dallas Gaume.LW&mdash;John Anderson, Tom Martin, Tor-rie Robertson. Dave Tippett.RW&mdash;Brent Peterson. Kevin Dineen. Jody HullLD&mdash;Grant Jennings. Randy Ladouceur. Dave Babych.RD&mdash;Ulf Samuelsson. Sylvain Cote, Scott Young. Norm Maciver.G&mdash;Mike Liut. Peter Sidorkiewicz.INJURIESRon Francis. C. broken left index finger, indefinite.Paul MacDermid. RW, sprained right knee ligament, day-to-day.Don Maloney LW. broken collarbone. Feb. 15.Joel Quenneville, D. separated left shoulder, day-to-day.Sylvain Turgeon LW. separated left shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

CROHN’S DISEASE IN REMISSION, DINEEN BACK IN TOP FORM

&hellip; the Montreal Canadiens could depend on Steve Shutt for 15 extra goals every season, for a span of four years. Shutt scored 15 goals in 1973-74, 30 in &rsquo;74-75, 45 in &rsquo;75-76 and 60 in &rsquo;76-77. No other NHL left winger has ever scored 60 goals in a season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-02184/5661091-1-eng-US/f0042-022.jpg" title="f0042-02" width="954" height="484"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Shutt</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0042-02

DID YOU KNOW…

Shame on your writers. In your season preview issue (THN, Oct. 21), only Barry Meisel, of 22 writers, predicted the New York Rangers to make the playoffs. In your cover story of Jan. 27, you list five reasons why the Rangers are a Stanley Cup contender this season.1. Trader Phil Esposito went to work.2. Former GM Craig Patrick&rsquo;s patience and productivity at the draft table.3. Getting Michel Bergeron as coach.4. The Rangers were not as bad as their non-playoff record indicated.5. The ability to overcome adversity.Except for No. 5, all of these facts were evident before the season, yet none of the writers saw them. Come on fellas, get with it. I didn&rsquo;t need 40 games to see that many of Espo&rsquo;s trades were helpful.Patrick&rsquo;s draft picks were playing well before this season and we all know Michel Bergeron can coach. It also was obvious the Rangers, who finished six points out of first place, were not a bad team last year. What revelations can we expect next? That Guy Lafleur can play hockey?Lou Weiss, Philadelphia, Pa.<h2>SALUTE TO POILE</h2>Bud Poile&rsquo;s retirement as International League commissioner is sad news.He was a pioneer in bringing hockey to such cities as Tucson, Albuquerque, Wichita, Birmingham and Nashville during his days as Central League president. He was a believer in those cities, their franchises and ownership.Hockey is losing a great leader fans in many cities didn&rsquo;t get to know. I was one of the lucky people to meet a good individual and future Hall of Famer.Thanks Bud, for your leadership, devotion and support for hockey.Doug Christoff. Sacramento, Calif.<h2>SUPPORT SAVARD</h2>I completely disagree with reader Gary Ripsco, who criticized Chicago&rsquo;s Denis Savard in the Feb. 3 issue.Savard is anything but selfish. Eight pages after Ripsco&rsquo;s letter, THN reports that Savard earned his 600th assist, sandwiching him on the all-time Blackhawk list between Stan Mikitaand Bobby Hull. Savard didn&rsquo;t come into such prestigious company with the &ldquo;me, myself and I&rdquo; attitude suggested by Ripsco.I am offended when I read something like Mr. Ripsco&rsquo;s letter. I respect Denis Savard a great deal for standing up and remaining strong under intense pressure and scrutiny the past few years. I&rsquo;ll take No. 18 over 66 and 99 any day.Matt Burridge, Indianapolis, Ind.<h2>HE&rsquo;S THE TEAM</h2>I am getting sick and tired of fans like Gary Ripsco, who wrote regarding the attitude of Denis Savard of the Chicago Blackhawks. This fan from San Diego&mdash;a hotbed of hockey&mdash;is knocking one of the best players to grace the arenas of the NHL. Ripsco says Savard is not a team player. It is hard to be a team player when you are the team. He also mentioned trading Savard. The team would flounder without him. But if you don&rsquo;t get respect, why not leave?Marc Boivin, Calgary, Alta.<h2>POLISH PRINCE</h2>With respect to your mid-season &lsquo;High Fives&rsquo; in the Jan. 27 issue, a sixth backup goalie has become No. 1&mdash;Peter Sidorkiewicz of Hartford. Not only has Sidorkiewicz outplayed Mike Liut, he&rsquo;s also outplayed a fellow rookie, Sean Burke of New Jersey. As of early February, he had a better save percentage (.896-.875) than Burke.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011408/5659658-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="567" height="685"><figcaption class="caption-body">Peter Sidorkiewicz is a goaltender to watch.</figcaption></div>Take note and keep an eye on the Pole in goal.Kevin Lynch, Plainville, Conn.<h2>EXPANSION OFFER</h2>Rumor has it the NHL is considering expanding from 21 teams in the future. Nobody has said how many teams will be added or exactly when. But there are two cities which badly want a franchise&mdash;Hamilton, Ont., and Milwaukee. Both have excellent new facilites and a proven record of hockey interest. Why make the fans in these cities wait any longer? Let them both have a franchise and consider further expansion much later. The NHL would never regret giving Milwaukee, and especially Hamilton, a chance. Why not next year?Dan Born, Hamilton, Ont.Make your feelings known. Send your comments to: Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2. Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

f0003-01

WRITERS OUT TO LUNCH ON RANGERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021135/5659696-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="496" height="624"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOB MCKENZIE</figcaption></div>One might wonder: What&rsquo;s all the fuss about fighting in the National Hockey League?There it is in glorious color on the front cover&mdash;again. Inside, on page 8, we&rsquo;ve got our survey of players at the NHL All-Star Game on the subject of hockey&rsquo;s not-so-sweet science. And on page 9 you&rsquo;ll find letters reacting to Steve Dryden&rsquo;s anti-fighting column of a few weeks ago.One can only imagine a cynic asking what would happen if fighting were increasing, which it&rsquo;s not.Fact is, it&rsquo;s decreasing.That&rsquo;s the word from Mike Emrick, the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; television voice, who charts major penalties in the NHL.His data revealed a slim majority of games this season had been fight-free&mdash;299 of 595. In the remaining 296, there were 533 fights. Last season, after 593 games, there were only 253 fight-free games. In the other 340 games, there were 601 fights.That&rsquo;s 68 fewer fights and 46 more fight-free games than at approximately the same point last season.So who is the guy in the office next to mine and why is he on my case?Dryden, the managing editor of Inside HOCKEY and a THN columnist, is an abolitionist from way back. Obviously, when we sent him to Philadelphia Flyer Fantasy Camp last August, it was not money well-spent.He came back from his week with Dave Schultz, Bob Kelly, Andre Dupont, Joe Watson and some terrorists from South Philly with the same rigid beliefs he brought in. That is, there&rsquo;s no place for fighting in hockey.Dryden made his views perfectly clear when he took Toronto Maple Leaf tough guy John (&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll beat up more people&rdquo;) Kordic and the system to task in a recent column.He also questioned why this publication felt it necessary to give cover treatment to Stan Fischler&rsquo;s list of top 10 NHL fighters.Which is fine. Columnists at THN, as it should be, enjoy autonomy.It got me thinking, too. Like, what role should a newspaper play in the great debate?The pro-fighting segment&mdash;and make no mistake, there&rsquo;s a large and vociferous contingent out there&mdash;would just as soon see us stop whipping a dead horse. The abolitionists, including Dryden, would prefer to see THN take a leading position in the fight to eliminate fighting.Personally, it wouldn&rsquo;t bother me a bit if fighting were banned tomorrow. I believe the game could easily survive. To be honest, I can&rsquo;t rationalize why it needs to be a part of the game.On the other hand, it takes a lot to offend me and I admit to having watched the odd fight video over the years.But unlike my colleague next door, I don&rsquo;t see the need for a newspaper, at least not this one, to champion one cause at the expense of the other. I would no sooner consider burying Fischler&rsquo;s 10 best fighters&mdash;which I know will be well-read and enjoyed by many&mdash;than I would stifle the anti-fighting sentiments expressed by him or others.He suggested the New York Times would never run a list of the top 10 muggers in the Big Apple. But show me a newspaper, in almost any city, that doesn&rsquo;t run an annual feature on the 10 most wanted men in the country, with graphic descriptions of their personalities and crimes.The Hockey News will continue to reflect the tastes of its readership&mdash;and the hockey community. If that, at times, proves offensive to the abolitionists or tiresome to the traditionalists, then so be it.As for my difference of opinion with Dryden, it&rsquo;s nice that we can agree to disagree in a civil fashion.Failing that, I just might punch his lights out at Saturday morning hockey.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03729/5659689-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="1773" height="925"></div> &#9632;

f0003-02

OH, NO, NOT ANOTHER FIGHT COLUMN

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>The Gretzkys, Janet and Wayne, managed to keep baby Paulina&rsquo;s photo out of the press for about six weeks&mdash;what fans considered an inordinately long time. Janet finally commissioned photographer-friend Dennis Evans to take the first official family portrait, which eventually graced the cover of the Canadian edition of The Star magazine. Paulina, Janet and Wayne also were supposed to be on The Star&rsquo;s American edition cover, but somehow the photographer didn&rsquo;t deliver the pictures in time so the trio only made the inside pages. The photo appeared in the Feb. 2 Toronto Sun, which reportedly paid $5,000 for a color shot. Canadian papers not a member of the Sun chain were offered a black and white shot for $ 1,500. The Toronto Globe & Mail turned that down, but reported the money is going to Evans and not the Gretzkys&rsquo; favorite charities. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting the money and nobody else,&rdquo; Evans was quoted as saying.<h2>NO CHARACTER</h2>No matter how high the Flames climb in the regular season, one Vancouver player is unimpressed. &ldquo;When it comes playoff time,&rdquo; the Canuck says, &ldquo;the Flames will be missing an important element. With all their stars, they still don&rsquo;t have a character player like Mark Messier. The last one Calgary had was Doug Riseb-rough and he&rsquo;s now coaching for them.&rdquo;&hellip;Ranger defensemen Ron Greschner and James Patrick are teaming with ex-mate and New Jersey Devil farmhand George McPhee in the restaurant business. The trio are partners in a Manhattan Mexican-style restaurant patterned after McPhee&rsquo;s highly-successful Blue Moon&hellip;Vancouver coach Bob McCammon has been warring with the press ever since his Philadelphia days and hasn&rsquo;t mellowed a bit. &ldquo;What bothers me about the media,&rdquo; McCammon says, &ldquo;is that they don&rsquo;t realize the power they have and the damage or the good they can do. The press is tough in Vancouver but it&rsquo;s just frustration. In the east, the press is sometimes unjust. They&rsquo;re unfair.&rdquo;<h2>HOCKEY MOVIE</h2>Former Hartford Whaler executive Howard Baldwin&rsquo;s Indian Head Production Co. begins filming the hockey movie Red Line March 1. Its locale was moved from Montreal to Los Angeles &ldquo;because it was too expensive filming at The Forum,&rdquo; according to Baldwin&hellip;Contrary to an earlier report. Whaler broadcaster Chuck Kaiton has never missed a Hartford game although he did miss an exhibition game. Capital play-by-play man Ron Weber has never missed a Washington game&hellip;Bruins officials are constantly reminded of the 1988 Boston Garden playoff blackout. Washington public relations director Lou Corletto came across a souvenir puck that lit up. He sent it to Bruin PR head Nate Greenberg with the note: &ldquo;Play with this when the lights go out.&rdquo;<h2>HIGH ON LEETCH</h2>Washington defenseman Rod Langway, a two-time Norris Trophy winner (1983 and 1984), says his choice for the Norris this season is New York Ranger rookie Brian Leetch. The Washington captain says he has set no date for retirement and is feeling better than he has in a long time. &ldquo;But with my (bad) back,&rdquo; adds Langway, &ldquo;you don&rsquo;t look too far down the line.&rdquo; A golf nut, Langway bought a house which fronts an 18-hole course&hellip;Ex-Leaf Gary Nylund hasn&rsquo;t much regard for his former team&rsquo;s future. &ldquo;With them,&rdquo; says the Islander defenseman, &ldquo;every year is a rebuilding year but they never get better. Here, (GM) Bill Torrey has a definite rebuilding plan.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011313/5659727-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="560" height="828"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ex-Leaf Gary Nylund says his former team is on a treadmill.</figcaption></div><h2>ELITE THREE</h2>Goalie-tumed-broadcaster Chico Resch picks his elite three NHL goalies: Grant Fuhr of Edmonton, Sean Burke of New Jersey and Ron Hextail of Philadelphia. After them, Kelly Hrudey of the Islanders, John Vanbiesbrouck of the Rangers and Patrick Roy of Montreal. Says Resch: &ldquo;With Fuhr, Burke and Hex-tall, even when they&rsquo;re average, you can&rsquo;t go wrong with them in the nets.&rdquo;&hellip;The leaked NHL memo tightening the league&rsquo;s gag order against coaches ripping referees has stirred resentment even among officials. Retired NHL linesman Wayne Forsey told Winnipeg Free Press columnist Scott Taylor it&rsquo;s a silly edict. &ldquo;Sniping at officials is part and parcel of the game,&rdquo; says Forsey. &ldquo;You always hear it at ice level and if it gets into the papers, it is usually just water off a duck&rsquo;s back. If the game didn&rsquo;t have that give and take between coach and official or player and official, and the controversy that goes with it, then the game would be a lot less exciting.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-01

GRETZKY BABY ALREADY BIG BUSINESS

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011496/5659758-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Greg Stefan became a goalie accidentally. His father asked him to don the pads when his regular goalie got sick.</figcaption></div>Long before Philadelphia Flyer goalie Ron Hextail gained notoriety, ankles were being bruised by an aggressive goaltender who seemed to delight as much in engaging the enemy head-on as he did in stopping pucks. Greg Stefan&rsquo;s boisterous play was apparent in 1981-82 when he played two games for the Detroit Red Wings. He spent the rest of that season with the Wings&rsquo; American League farm team in Adirondack before sticking in the big leagues a season later.Stefan has endured the heartbreak of a truly terrible hockey team and the euphoria of one that twice reached the Campbell Conference finals against the Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers.THN: It must have been rough when you were younger and the Red Wings were so bad.GS: Actually, it was worth the bad years just to enjoy the better years we&rsquo;re having now. But they sure were rough years at the start and the team was in a bad way, partly because they had given away a lot of draft picks in previous years and there was a lot of rebuilding to do. Now it&rsquo;s enjoyable playing and Detroit is a great hockey town.THN: The ongoing turmoil involving Bob Probert and Petr Klima must have had an unsettling effect, even while the team was winning.GS: We tried to say there wasn&rsquo;t a problem but there definitely was. Last year Bob and Petr were among our best players and in our hearts we were hoping they&rsquo;d come back. We thought we needed them to be successful. But things kept happening and they came back and there was a little more trouble. We&rsquo;d get happy that they were back and then something else would go wrong. It was tough. We needed those guys to be like they were last year.THN: It was ironic that no matter what good things the Red Wimgs did, so much media attention was focused on the negative.GS: Even in the summertime that&rsquo;s all they were talking about; not what we had accomplished, the 93 points, making it to the semi-finals. We had a very good year last year until the episode (in Edmonton, where five play-ets, including Probert and Klima were out drinking and missed curfew) happened. It was tough because it seemed like a whole year had just gone down the drain. A lot of it did get blown up, but that&rsquo;s what happened and we had to live with it. And it was a slow start for us this year. You can always make excuses but that definitely played a part in the slow start.THN: How did you start playing goal?GS: My father was coaching an outdoor team (in Brantford, Ont.) of six-and seven-year-olds and one day the goaltender was sick. We had some goalie equipment in the house and my father threw it on me and I stood there and froze for two hours. But I stuck with it and played a few more games in goal that season.THN: How much did you see of Wayne Gretzky then?GS: Wayne and I are the same age and we played together all the way (as kids). He got his confidence shooting on me. His father, Walter Gretzky, was my coach for a few years. He&rsquo;s a really smart hockey man and the four of us were always together&mdash;my dad, Mr. Gretzky, Wayne and me. We travelled together and played together. My parents were with me all the way. Every game I played, they were there.THN: When do goalies reach their prime?GS: I&rsquo;m 28 but I believe that goaltenders are still at their best when they&rsquo;re in their early 30s. When I started in the NHL my goal was to play 10 to 12 years. If I can play &rsquo;til I&rsquo;m 32 that would be great and anything after that would be a bonus. Goaltenders mature later than players at other positions. They have to learn how to handle the highs and lows and you learn that when you get older.THN: How much anxiety is involved in goaltending?GS: Look at it this way: The goaltender is the last resort. Either the puck goes in or it doesn&rsquo;t. There&rsquo;s a lot of pressure on goaltenders, no doubt about it, especially now with a lot of power plays and high-scoring games compared to years ago. It means a lot of work for us (goalies).THN: You&rsquo;ve played for several coaches in Detroit. What is it about Jacques Demers that makes him special?GS: He&rsquo;s a great motivator. He knows how to get you up and what to say at the right time.THN: Give a specific example.GS: Sometimes we play as many as three games in four nights, and that will also involve travelling. That makes the team and the players both mentally and physically tired. At a time like that Jacques knows what to say and he really gets to the guys.THN: What kind of special attention does he give to the goalies, you and Glen Hanlon?GS: He&rsquo;s very fair with us. Jacques believes in the two-goaltender system and gives us good notice about who&rsquo;s going to be playing when. You give 100 per cent for Jacques and, win or lose, he&rsquo;s fair. That&rsquo;s all a player could want from a coach. &#9632;

f0006-01

‘EITHER THE PUCK GOES IN OR IT DOESN’T’

Dan Kelly, the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; play-by-play announcer for 21 years and a recipient of the 1989 Lester Patrick Trophy, died of cancer Feb. 10 in St. Louis. He was 52.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a dreadful loss to hockey,&rdquo; said former Blue John Davidson, a broadcaster for Madison Square Garden Network. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a terrible loss because there aren&rsquo;t any Dan Kellys around. That&rsquo;s an art form you don&rsquo;t replace, something that comes around only once every 50 years.&rdquo;NHL president John Ziegler said: &ldquo;During the past two decades, the game has known no better goodwill ambassador than Dan Kelly.&rdquo;On Jan. 6, Ziegler presented Kelly with the Patrick Trophy in Kelly&rsquo;s hospital room in St. Louis. That night, Kelly&rsquo;s 28-year-old son, John, received the award on his father&rsquo;s behalf. John is a broadcaster of New York Ranger games for the MSG Network. The dinner event raised $50,000 for a broadcast journalism scholarship in Kelly&rsquo;s name at St. Louis University. Kelly also received notice he was selected by the NHL Broadcasters&rsquo; Association to the media section of the Hockey Hall of Fame.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know of anything I would rather have been doing for the last 25 years than broadcasting hockey,&rdquo; Kelly said in a taped statement.At the Blues&rsquo; game the next night, a sellout crowd of 18,746 rose for a two-minute ovation to honor Kelly.His broadcasting duties extended beyond covering the Blues. Networks often called upon him, including CBS (1969-72), Hughes Tele-vison (1979-81), USA Cable (1985-87), ESPN (1985-1987), Global (1987-1988) and CTV (1987-88).Following the retirement of Montreal Cana-dien broadcaster Danny Gallivan several years ago, the gravelly-voiced Kelly became recognized as the premier play-by-play announcer in the game.Born Sept. 17, 1936, in Ottawa, Kelly joined CJET radio in Smiths Falls, Ont., at age 19. He persuaded the station to cover the town&rsquo;s Jr. B team, and served as play-by-play man. He later joined CKOY in Ottawa.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011338/5659789-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="690" height="958"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dan Kelly&rsquo;s death was called &ldquo;a dreadful loss.&rdquo;</figcaption></div>In 1958 he became sports director at CKSO in Sudbury, but by late 1959 returned to Ottawa, where he joined CBC and did hockey and football games on TV. He joined Hockey Night In Canada in 1965. He moved to KMOX radio and TV in 1967 to cover the expansion Blues.The funeral was held Feb. 13 in St. Louis. More than 600 people attended, including honorary pallbearers Bob Plager, St. Louis general manager Ron Caron, coach Brian Sutter and center Bernie Federko.Pallbearers were former St. Louis coach and GM Scotty Bowman, former Blues&rsquo; player and New York Islander coach Al Arbour, St. Louis assistant coach Joe Micheletti, former Blues&rsquo; coach and player Red Berenson. Blues&rsquo; chairman Michael Shanahan, team president Jack Quinn, KMOX colleague Jack Buck and former HN1C producer Don Wallace.Kelly is survived by his wife Fran and six children&mdash;John, Kathy, 29, Anne, 27, Susan, 25, Karen, 23, and Danny, 15.<h2>NEW LEAGUE?</h2>Could there be another World Hockey Association?It seems a remote possibility, but at least one major company has not ruled out forming a latter-day WHA.The Canadian Press reported Feb. 8 that Compuware of Detroit, a computer software manufacturer, is investigating the possibility of helping establish a new league if the NHL does not soon expand.&ldquo;We have talked about the possibility&mdash;whether it would work or not,&rdquo; said Compuware director of hockey operations Jim Rutherford. &ldquo;But we haven&rsquo;t been to the stage where we have met with other people.&rdquo;The computer giant used to own the Ontario League&rsquo;s Windsor Spitfires, and was recently awarded an OHL franchise in Detroit.A Feb. 9 report said former NHL and WHA superstar Bobby Hull and former Winnipeg Jet owner Michael Gobuty would be involved in the new league. &ldquo;How I would like to get involved would depend on the situation,&rdquo; said Hull.Cities rumored interested in joining the new league are Hamilton, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Dallas.The WHA, drowning in a sea of red ink, dissolved in 1979 when four of its teams&mdash;Winnipeg, Edmonton, Quebec and Hartford&mdash;joined the NHL.<h2>ALL-STAR NOTES</h2>Shot down again.Sportschannel America failed in its bid to stage a slapshot competition at the All-Star Game&mdash;three years after the NHL botched its own attempt at a skills contest.The U.S. cable network arranged with six players to have their shots measured by a radar gun after the game-day practices. But the gun wouldn&rsquo;t function from behind the glass. The operator refused a suggestion to sit directly behind the net on the ice.The competition, which was to be filmed for broadcast that night, was scrapped.John MacLean. Cam Neely and Brian Mullen were to have represented the Wales Conference; Jari Kurri. Dave Ellett and Brett Hull the Campbell.The league tried unsuccessfully at the 1986 All-Star Game in Hartford to stage a skills demonstration and competition. The NHL Players&rsquo; Association hadn&rsquo;t been consulted, so the players refused to participate and the event was cancelled.Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s goal at 4:33 of the first period was his 10th, tying him with Gordie Howe for the all-time, all-star goal-scoring lead. Howe&rsquo;s 10 goals came in 23 games; Gretzky&rsquo;s in nine outings.Steve Yzerman and Gary Leeman scored within 14 seconds of each other late in the second period to record the second-fastest pair of all-star goals ever. The fastest were in 1976, when Dennis Ververgaert scored two goals in 10 seconds.The NHL board of governors meeting was brief&mdash;45 minutes&mdash;and to the point.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t do much of anything except for a few housekeeping things,&rdquo; said Minnesota North Star president Lou Nanne.The governors are next scheduled to meet at the annual Congress, June 18-19 in Minneapolis, Minn. &#9632;

f0007-01

NHL MOURNS DEATH OF BROADCASTER KELLY

<div class="byline">BY BOB McKENZIE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011425/5659820-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">A slim majority of NHLers polled believe fighting is a safety valve, and that banning fisticuffs would result in an increase in stickwork.</figcaption></div>If there is a groundswell of anti-fighting sentiment in the National Hockey League, it has yet to touch Dave Manson.Nor is it likely to.&ldquo;They will never get fighting out of the game,&rdquo; said the defiant 22-year-old Chicago Blackhawk defenseman, every bit a traditionalist. &ldquo;You have to have fighting. Guyshavetolet out their frustrations.&rdquo;You might expect that reasoning from this season&rsquo;s penalty king&mdash;273 minutes in 56 games. But what about avowed pacifists, such as Jimmy Carson of Edmonton and Pat LaFon-taine of the New York Islanders?Neither is as bullish on brawling as Manson, but when the battle lines are drawn, they all end up in the same comer.Carson and LaFontaine are among those NHL players who believe existing rules on fighting are just fine.Change? Who needs it?Vancouver&rsquo;s Paul Reinhart for one. Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux for another. Count them among those in an anti-fight lobby, which gained a considerable boost when Los Angeles superstar Wayne Gretzky spoke out early this year.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re the only professional sport that allows it,&rdquo; said Reinhart. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s time to try (banning fighting). The game is strong. We can be stronger. What do we have to lose? What are we afraid of?&rdquo;Twenty of 40 players at the NHL All-Star Game in Edmonton weren&rsquo;t afraid of addressing the issue. Exactly half of the all-stars completed The Hockey News&rsquo; five-question survey on fighting in the NHL.&#9632; Thirteen of 20 said they are satisfied with current fight legislation. NHL rules call for a five-minute fighting major. Three majors in one game result in an automatic game misconduct.&#9632; Eleven of 20 said they believe in the &ldquo;safety-valve&rdquo; theory. That is, a crackdown on fighting would lead to an increase in stick fouls because hockey is an emotional game and players must have an outlet for their frustration.&#9632; Respondents ranked the media as the group most bothered by fighting. In a question meant to determine who the players believe is most offended by fighting, they were asked to rank five hockey groups. Players used a scale of one to five, with one representing the most offended. The results were: 1. Media; 2. Players; 3. Fans; 4. General managers; 5. Coaches.&#9632; Of the seven players not satisfied with current NHL rules, four said they want to see an automatic game misconduct with the first fighting major. That would bring fighting rules in line with those governing high-sticking infractions. Players assessed high-sticking majors are given automatic game misconducts.&#9632; Five of those seven said they want automatic multiplying suspensions for repeat offenders&mdash;the same as the anti-stick measures. In other words, two fighting game misconducts would call for an automatic one-game suspension, three game misconducts a two-game suspension and so on.Our game is a speed-and-finesse game and we should not allow people to fight,&rdquo; said Lemieux, the NHL&rsquo;s leading scorer.&ldquo;Look at the other sports (football, baseball and basketball). Any time there is a fight in those sports, there is a big suspension that goes with it. It should be the same in hockey.&ldquo;If the right people care enough about it, it will happen. But you need more than one or two or three people talking about it to change it.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s not only the pure finesse players who would like to see action taken. Hartford&rsquo;s Kevin Dineen, who combines brain and brawn and isn&rsquo;t averse to dropping his gloves, is not satisfied with the status quo.But he stopped short of recommending an all-out ban.<h2>&lsquo;THE U.S. MEDIA BLOWS IT OUT OF PROPORTION.&rsquo;</h2>&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t allow one fight (per player) per game,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you&rsquo;ll have players being incited into a fight just to get them kicked out. But two fights for a game misconduct instead of (the current) three would be a step in the right direction.&rdquo;On the other hand&hellip;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a fighter so I don&rsquo;t even worry about it,&rdquo; said Carson. &ldquo;It (fighting) has been there so long. I accept it as part of the game.&rdquo;Detroit captain Steve Yzerman, who is satisfied with existing rules, suggested the impetus for change has to come from the NHL hierarchy.&ldquo;To this point,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;the league hasn&rsquo;t expressed that it wants to make changes in that area.&rdquo;It is clear many of the players believe the media is more concerned about fighting than any other segment of the hockey community.&ldquo;The U.S. media blows it out of proportion,&rdquo; said Winnipeg&rsquo;s Dave Ellett, an American.When Gretzky spoke out against fighting&mdash;the first time he&rsquo;s done so in his 10-year NHL career&mdash;it was because he believes potential hockey fans in the U.S. are being turned off. And that the growth of the game will be limited until the fighting issue is tackled.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure if banning fighting is the answer,&rdquo; replied Edmonton&rsquo;s Kevin Lowe. &ldquo;But something has to be done in order to enhance the marketability and perception of hockey in the U.S.&rdquo;If there is a surprise in the survey results, it is the high number of players (nine of 20) who don&rsquo;t believe in the safety-valve theory.Washington&rsquo;s Scott Stevens cannot fathom how a decrease in fighting would automatically lead to more high-sticking.&ldquo;Teams just can&rsquo;t afford to be killing five-minute majors for high-sticking,&rdquo; he said.Ellett said the absence of fighting in U.S. college hockey has contributed to excessive stickwork, but Calgary&rsquo;s Joe Nieuwendyk denied high-sticking and fighting have an inverse relationship in the college game.Of course, fighting isn&rsquo;t the problem it was in the mid-&rsquo;70s. Montreal&rsquo;s Mats Naslund, a Lady Byng Trophy winner who accepts the status quo, said he&rsquo;s noticed a big change during his six-plus seasons in the league.&ldquo;There have been a lot of changes for the better,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The rule to stop defenseman from coming in from the blue line after the whistle really helped. So did the rules against brawling and extra penalties for instigators. Now, they&rsquo;re going after high-sticking. It&rsquo;s getting better all the time.&rdquo;NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director Alan Eagleson remembered the last time the players took a stand on fighting.&ldquo;It was back in 1975 and we, as an association, voted in favor of recommending a ban on fighting,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was categorically rejected by the rules committee.&ldquo;I suspect it might be a little different now. We send out a survey to our membership each March and ask a variety of questions on the game. This year, our survey will include a question on fighting. It&rsquo;s become quite topical.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s my opinion, after watching Canada Cup games and international hockey, that fighting isn&rsquo;t necessary. But I&rsquo;m sure there are some players, especially the guys who might lose their jobs if fighting was out, who might have something to say on that.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0008-01

SPLIT DECISION

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011379/5659851-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Some fans like scrums like this one between the Minnesota North Stars and Vancouver Canucks. Others side with columnist Steve Dryden and deplore such violence.</figcaption></div>No issue&mdash;save the NHL&rsquo;s U.S. television deal with SportsChannel America&mdash;raises the ire of hockey fans as much as fighting.In the Jan. 27, 1989 issue of The Hockey News, columnist Steve Dryden condemned Hghting in the NHL and suggested the time has come to rid the game of it. It prompted the biggest reader response since last season s Dave Brown-Tomas Sandstrom incident.Here&rsquo;s a sampling of how fans feel about his column and fighting&rsquo;s place in the game.<h2>LIGHTNING STRIKES</h2>Steve Dryden&rsquo;s column was repulsive. He singled out Toronto&rsquo;s John Kordic and ripped him in print, basically calling for Kordic&rsquo;s job. Dryden should remember he is dealing with a man&rsquo;slivelihood. Such columns accomplish nothing except hurt feelings.Dryden called fighting the league&rsquo;s top image problem. In whose mind? Nothing gets the fans more excited than when a scuffle breaks out. Generally, that&rsquo;s the only time fans rise to their feet, regardless of who they&rsquo;re cheering for. No image problem there.The column raises two other points while calling for the elimination of fighting. One, &ldquo;hockey has outgrown fighting.&rdquo; A fashionable statement. However, if you think about it, it makes no sense and Dryden makes no attempt to explain it or back it up. Presumably because the only explanations are lame.Second, &ldquo;It keeps the sport from growing&rdquo; and is &ldquo;a convenient lightning rod for those critical of the game.&rdquo; I&rsquo;ll tel) you what it is. It&rsquo;s a convenient lightning rod for pious sportswriters who can&rsquo;t think of anything else to write about. Stan Fischler&rsquo;s column (THN. Jan. 13) about the top 10 NHL fighters was enjoyable to read, a breath of fresh air. Dryden&rsquo;s was incredibly stale and repetitive.Eric Travers, Vernon. B.C.<h2>STICKS WILL RISE</h2>If you eliminated fighting in the NHL then stick fights would become commonplace, resulting in more injuries. In a hockey game emotions run very high between players. Does Mr. Dryden want players to release this emotion through vicious stick-swinging incidents?Mike Love, Calgary, Alta.<h2>EDUCATE FANS</h2>There is a perception hockey fans want to see fighting, thus violence in the NHL is condoned. Indeed, violence sells, evidenced by the popularity of hockey fight videos. Two thousand years ago sports fans cheered for their favorite gladiator or jeered at the Christians, perennial losers to the heavily-favored lions.Violence as entertainment has mellowed since. But it&rsquo;s still a disturbing commentary on humanity that it exists at all.I attended the winter Olympics in Calgary and witnessed 10 hockey games. I did not see a single fight. What I did see were wide-open, skating-oriented games&mdash;some of the most entertaining hockey I&rsquo;ve ever seen.The point is hockey would survive, even flourish, without the violence. Fans must be taught that there is a different, better way.C.J. Veach, Calgary. Alta.<h2>NECESSARY RELEASE</h2>I would like to know when Steve Dryden becarrfe holier than thou to pass on such trash. Like it or not, Stevie boy, fighting has been part of the game since teams used a seventh man. the rover. Fighting is a necessary release valve for player frustrations. If you want to eliminate something unpleasant, why not take your crusade and preach about stickwork, hitting from behind, etc. Your views on fighting have fallen on deaf ears. If you don&rsquo;t like fighting in hockey, maybe you could cover lawn bowling or something similar, so you won&rsquo;t get offended.Herb Mowat, Winnipeg, Man.<h2>NAY TO PACIFICISM</h2>Once in a while an issue of The Hockey News contains a story of great interest to me and others who enjoy my hobby&mdash;creating and trading hockey fight tapes. Paul Abramowitz&rsquo;s Jan. 27 article, rating the 10 toughest players in the American League, was such a story.But Steve Dryden&rsquo;s column in the same issue insulted the intelligence of the average hockey fan. You know, those 10,000 or so people who stand and cheer wildly when two combatants drop their sticks and gloves and throw punches.If Dryden is so fed up with writing about fighting in hockey, he should do us a favor and stop. And if he is so tired of reading about fighting, maybe he should convince his colleagues to desist as well.Kevin Pointer,Pittsburgh, Pa.<h2>RIGHT ON!</h2>I would like to thank Steve Dryden for his column. I could not agree with him more. It&rsquo;s time for the NHL to wake up and stop promoting a pro wrestling image. There&rsquo;s nothing more frustrating than watching a television sports anchor laugh and joke about hockey as he shows highlights featuring the Richard Zemlaks and Craig Berubes of the league.Shawn P. McNamara, Philadelphia, Pa.<h2>PUNCHLESS EFFORT</h2>I&rsquo;m really tired of people like Steve Dryden saying how much fighting is ruining the sport. What&rsquo;s wrong with seeing heavyweights from respective teams go at it?1 enjoyed Paul Abramowitz&rsquo;s story in the same issue, on the 10 toughest players in the AHL. Not only was it appealing, it was very informative. I&rsquo;m not only an avid hockey fan, but an avid fan of tough guys and hockey fights. Yes, stickwork must go. But if the fight departs, hockey will lose its punch.Jason S. Nazario, Bronx. N. Y.<h2>END THE ABUSE</h2>There was a time when physical confrontations in hockey were actually fun. A couple of guys would waltz around the ice&mdash;the entire bench joining in the dance at times&mdash;with no injuries, except perhaps to someone&rsquo;s pride. Today, players are seriously injuring each other, often intentionally and sometimes without provocation. What is worse, though, is the overactive approval exhibited by fans during these muggings.I have witnessed numerous incidents of spectators taunting injured players as they left the ice bloodied. Are we so desensitized to violence that visiting players are merely non-human targets?The abuse must end. NHL rules alone may be insufficient, but extending the long arm of the law to the ice rink isn&rsquo;t going to solve the problem. The solution instead lies primarily with the players, the league and the fans. Players must gain a respect for each other such that nonsensical violence is eliminated. Fans, meanwhile, must remember players are like them&mdash;human beings.Pamela Ann Philips, Orient Heights, Mass.<h2>AN IMAGE-WRECKER</h2>Fighting gives fans unfamiliar with hockey ammunition with which to assault the NHL. The message is clear: For as many fans as there are that go to games only to see fights, there are probably 10 times as many potential fans turned off by them.By abolishing fighting, the NHL will sport a new image and flaunt a better product. A product featuring skilled, crafty players playing the game as it should be played.Brian McMahon, Notre Dame, Ind.<h2>CHEERS!</h2>Congratulations to Steve Dryden for pointing out the garbage Stan Fischler continually seems to come up with, i.e. theNHL&rsquo;s 10 best fighters. Journalism of that nature keeps the NHL in the dark ages. Fischler has been writing that sort of garbage for too long. It&rsquo;s time to get rid of fighting and KO Fischler, too.Peter L. Cormick, Telluride, Colo.<h2>WOLF&rsquo;S CLOTHING</h2>Recently I was sittiing in a restaurant when I heard two men discussing how barbaric hockey has become. They agreed hockey used to be more exciting when it was a cleaner game. I was about to argue hockey is still exciting and the focus on the violent aspects of the game are greatly exaggerated by the media.However, as Steve Dryden explained, members of the media will continue to use fighting and thuggery as a convenient means to portray hockey&rsquo;s negative side. A prime example of such yellow journalism is Warner Wolf of CBS Sports in New York City. Mr. Wolf&rsquo;s hockey &lsquo;highlights&rsquo; usually consist of fights, rather than beautiful breakaway goals or two-on-ones.True hockey fans are not interested in hockey violence. The NHL must ban fighting and stick fouls if this wonderful sport is to be treated as a major player on the U.S. sports scene.Helen W. Slater. Brooklyn, N. Y. &#9632;

f0009-01

GLOVES COME OFF AS READERS REACT TO COLUMNIST

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011466/5659882-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="450" height="631"><figcaption class="caption-body">JAY GREENBERG</figcaption></div>No sooner had OT Semenk taken the keys from Gretz and left me in a cloud of exhaust than 1 had the sinking feeling that the thrill was gone. Gary Leeman&rsquo;s all-star performance had thrilled me, then left me limp. And here 1 was, early in another February of another season, looking for something to keep me going.Motivation is difficult this time of year. Just ask Mikko Makela. You reach a point where every game looks like Vancouver and Winnipeg.Fifty games have been played and just about everybody has 50 points. So, what&rsquo;s the point? The playoffs, and that long anticipated St. Louis-Minnesota first-round matchup, are still eight weeks away.So you search the schedule, looking for something to look forward to again. And all it says, every night is: Buffalo at Hartford.Every defenseman I see looks like Brad Berry. I tried to put some excitement back in my life by joining a Rich Kromm&rsquo;s-next-goal pool, but nothing ever happens. I try. but can&rsquo;t get excited about Jeff Jackson&rsquo;s second half.Alas, I&rsquo;ve got the February blahs. Just like Steve Rooney. I&rsquo;m lower than Jyrki Lumme is on Don Cherry&rsquo;s totem pole. Truth is, both John Anderson and 1 need something to keep us going.Maybe it&rsquo;s understandable. I&rsquo;ve been very fortunate in the 15 years I&rsquo;ve been covering hockey. I&rsquo;ve witnessed a lot of great moments and been privileged to chronicle a lot of great dramas. You know, the kinds of stories that so captivate the public that they practically write themselves.I&rsquo;m sorry, but it&rsquo;s hard to feel like anything is really significant any more after some of the great thrills that I&rsquo;ve shared.I was there the night Jack Mcllhargey scored on a breakaway. I was front-row, press box, the night Greg Theberge played his first NHL game.I broke the story that Nick Beverly was going to be traded. Five of the six times. I wrote before anybody else that John Bednarski might not be long-term.I had the privilege of watching Fred Boimis-truck in his prime. I was there the night Corrado Micalef got lit up for 10. I saw Al Hill score five points in his first NHL game. And then I never saw him again.Thrills? My mind is like a photo album of them. Not only did U do the story the night Ron Hextali scored his goal, but also the night Doug Horbul got his.In other words, nothing fazes me. I&rsquo;ve done it all. The way things feel right now, it would take something extraordinary to get the juices flowing again. Like the return of David Jensen. H or A. I&rsquo;d settle for either.So here&rsquo;s my dilemma. It&rsquo;s noon Friday. This is due by 5 o&rsquo;clock. If 1 don&rsquo;t come up with something by then, they&rsquo;re going to put Ken McKenzie&rsquo;s Passing the Puck back in this spot and not pay me. So I gotta find something that moves me.I can&rsquo;t write one more violence column. You can only take so many shots at the NHL. I could make some general comments on the hockey scene today, but the truth is, I have run out of observations.Maybe the problem is that in the NHL, the spectacular is becoming too routine to appreciate. No. 99 and No. 66 are going great guns, but I&rsquo;m still turning at 331/3.So. desperate to turn up something that might excite me, I drained what was left of my brain. When the procedure was completed, found in the bucket were three quarts of anti-freeze, no strokes of genius, and the following story ideas.I can find the strength to keep going, if only some of this stuff would happen. These are the ones I still want to write:&#9632; Brent Ashton demanding to be traded.&#9632; The Edmonton Oilers take the ice with Grant Fuhr&rsquo;s No. 31 and Mark Messier&rsquo;s No. 11 replaced by &lsquo;For Sale&rsquo; signs.&#9632; Toronto fans, chanting &ldquo;we&rsquo;re mad as hell and we&rsquo;re not going to take it anymore,&rdquo; rise up, storm the owner&rsquo;s box, and, in a moving torchight ceremony, put Harold Ballard on the street.Guerilla troops from the grey seats find closets upon closets full of Yolanda&rsquo;s shoes, all purchased from the buyout of Rich Costello&rsquo;s contract. Harold applies for political asylum in Hamilton.&#9632; Viacheslav Fetisov is finally given permission to join the New Jersey Devils after general manager Lou Lamoriello agrees to have Anders Carlsson executed as a spy.Carlsson, whose real name is Boris Sluffov, is revealed to be a member of the United States Government&rsquo;s Federal Witness Relocation program. After selling Soviet secrets, Sluffov was given a new name and placed where the FBI was certain no one would ever find him: On the Devils&rsquo; fourth line.&#9632; Robbie Ftorek, given the choice of any player on the ice to take a penalty shot in overtime, selects Dean Kennedy, only to find out this is one of the weeks he plays for the New York Rangers. The game is suspended until Kennedy is traded back to Los Angeles.&#9632; Igor Larionov, in an interview in the Soviet newspaper. Sovietski Dreadski, reveals more tales of brutalities committed by national and Central Red Army team coach ViktorTikhonov. Soviet players who have not not played up to their expectations are made to watch tapes of Stu Kulak trying to score goals until they scream. If that fails, they are sent with their team on North American tours which include games against Quebec.&#9632; The Philadelphia Flyers admit that with the exception of Ron Sutter, there is no tangible evidence that all the young players Mike Keenan was supposedly ruining are playing any better for Pau! Holmgren. Hell freezes over on that day.Now, those are the stories you want to read. While waiting for lira Jarvi to become the player we all know he can be, these and only these, are the ones that I want to write. &#9632;

f0010-01

HERE’S WHAT I MANAGED TO COME UP WITH TO BEAT DEADLINE

<h2>KINGS</h2>Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s hat trick in 6-2 win over Chicago Feb. 12 gave him 42 goals, marking the 10th consecutive season he has scored at least 40, breaking the NHL record he shared with Mike Bossy. He needed four assists to break Marcel Dionne&rsquo;s club record (83) set in 1979-80&hellip;Right winger Ron Duguay wore a helmet for the first time in his NHL career when the Kings lost 4-1 to Boston Feb. 9, but did not guarantee it will stay on. &ldquo;Right now it&rsquo;s in my best interest to wear it,&rdquo; said Duguay, who had played all 845 of his previous NHL games without one. His head slammed against the ice Jan. 31 in a game with Calgary and he missed two games with back spasms.<h2>JETS</h2>Left winger Iain Duncan&rsquo;s troubled sophomore season took another turn for the worse. Duncan, a member of the NHL all-rookie squad last year, missed 21 games this season with rib, elbow and shoulder injuries and was 9-19-28 in 32 games. He was sent home from New York for disciplinary reasons Feb. 10. Coach Rick Bowness would not say why, adding it would remain an internal matter. But Duncan did miss a team bus earlier that day from New York to Hartford, the second bus he&rsquo;d missed in a week. It was speculated Duncan would be assigned to Moncton of the American League&hellip;Winnipeg captain Dale Hawerchuk came back for the Jets&rsquo; game against Detroit Feb. 13 after missing four games. He was recovering from a blow to the cheek suffered Feb. 1 in a collision with Chicago&rsquo;s Dirk Graham. Hawerchuk missed just one game prior to this season, his eighth in the NHL, but missed five of Winnipeg&rsquo;s first 54&hellip;Goalie Bob Essensa was recalled by the Jets from Fort Wayne of the International League Feb. 13. Essensa was 13-7-1 with a 3.28 goals-against average with the Komets.<h2>CANUCKS</h2>Vancouver&rsquo;s 3-2 win over Philadelphia Feb. 12 gave the Canucks their first season sweep over the Flyers in the team&rsquo;s 19-year history. The Canucks also defeated the Flyers 5-2 in Philadelphia Nov. 2, and 5-3 at home Jan. 17. The sweep was especially pleasing for the Canuck front office. Coach Bob McCammon coached the Flyers in 1978-79, 1981-82 and 1982-83, and general manager Pat Quinn coached them from 1978-79 to 1980-81. Director of operations Brian Burke played for the Flyers&rsquo; farm team, the American League&rsquo;s Maine Mariners, in 1977-78. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a real feather in the cap of the players and good for the organization,&rdquo; said McCammon. &ldquo;But the best part is it puts us six points up on Winnipeg-.&rdquo;&hellip;Steve Weeks was the goalie of record in a 5-4 victory over Buffalo Feb. 10&mdash;his first win since Dec. 29, when he beat Los Angeles 6-3. He went 0-4-2 in that span.<h2>OILERS</h2>The Oilers suffered two knee injuries Feb. 12, courtesy of Ranger defenseman Michel Petit. Petit kayoed Mark Messier with a classic open-ice hip check, and Jari Kurri, whom he pinned against the boards. Oilers&rsquo; coach-general manager Glen Sather said the all-star duo suffered first-degree knee sprains and would be out until Feb. 19 to 22. Rangers&rsquo; team doctor Barton Nisonson, though, said Kurri&rsquo;s injury was the more serious of the two&mdash;a sprain of the medial collateral ligament while Messier&rsquo;s was diagnosed as a bruise-&hellip;For Messier, the injury was the second to his left knee. He hurt it in a 7-6 win over Los Angeles Jan. 28 and also suffered a slight strain to his right knee in an 8-5 win over Detroit Feb. 3.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021116/5659913-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="555" height="1072"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jari Kurri, above, and Mark Messier suffered knee injuries.</figcaption></div><h2>FLAMES</h2>Coach Terry Crisp shuffled his lineup for a 5-3 win over St. Louis Feb. 9, shifting left winger Tim Hunter back to defense. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s where your depth comes in, when you can shift guys into new roles and not worry about it,&rdquo; Crisp said. The Flames were down to five healthy defensemen after Gary Suter pulled a hamstring and Brad McCrimmon developed a rash. Hunter played defense in junior with the Seattle Breakers of the Western League, and has done it occasionally for the Flames. He had no points in the game and picked up a minor penalty&hellip;Center Doug Gilmour had 18 points in his last 14 games&hellip;In their 2-1 win over Washington Feb. 11, the Flames had 14 consecutive shots to open the second period&hellip;The Flames were 32-0-2 in games they led after two periods. &#9632;

f0010-02

ANOTHER RECORD FOR GRETZKY

<div class="byline">BY GRANT McGINNIS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0011-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011334/5659944-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Bowness, above, replaced Dan Maloney as Jet coach but there was no immediate change in the team&rsquo;s fortunes.</figcaption></div>Wholesale player changes were never a realistic alternative. That left Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; general manager Mike Smith with only one option. Terminate coach Dan Maloney. Smith did that Feb. 7. replacing Maloney with Rick Bowness, former Jets&rsquo; player, assistant coach and for the last season and a half, coach and general manager of the Moncton Hawks, Winnipeg&rsquo;s American League affiliate.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not blaming him (Maloney),&rdquo; Smith said at a Winnipeg Arena press conference. &ldquo;There are two alternatives. One, change the players. Two, change the coach. It is easier to change a number of players, but you get a lot worse players in return.&rdquo;And that meant the end for Maloney. In his 2&frac12; seasons as head coach of the Jets, Maloney, 38, compiled a record of 91-93-28. His team was fifth and last in the Smythe Division (18-25-9) at the all-star break. The Jets had gone 4-11-2 since Jan. 1. Seven losses in the eight games prior to the break were as far as Smith would go with Maloney.&ldquo;The last three weeks, I&rsquo;ve been seriously watching the situation,&rdquo; Smith explained. &ldquo;In Chicago (where the Jets blew a four-goal lead Feb. 1 and lost 7-4), I thought it could be come a reality&hellip;Then Sunday (a 6-2 loss to Detroit Feb. 5) I knew it was going to be a reality.&rdquo;Bowness is the seventh head coach in the Jets&rsquo; NHL history, which dates to 1979-80. He is the 13th head coach in the club&rsquo;s 17-year NHL-World Hockey Association history.Bowness, 34, retains Bill Sutherland and Bruce Southern as assistant coaches whi le goaltending coach Rick St. Croix has been reassigned to un specified duties in the organization. Bowness was replaced in Moncton Feb. 10 by Alpo Suhonen, for 10 years coach of the Finnish national team and now the first European head coach in North American professional hockey.Maloney handled the final few weeks of his tenure and ultimately his dismissal with class.&ldquo;I knew it was coming the minute John Ferguson was fired as general manager,&rdquo; Maloney said. &ldquo;It was &rsquo;only a matter of time.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m terribly disappointed. No question about that. This is not a very good time in my life but it&rsquo;s not the end of it. I just carry on and go from here.&ldquo;Bitterness will get me nowhere. They&rsquo;ve made the decision that it&rsquo;s time for a change to be made. I&rsquo;m sure they put a lot of thought into it and I&rsquo;m hoping that it works opt for the best.&rdquo;Despite the Jets&rsquo; terrible slump that dropped the club from the top 10 to bottom four in less than two months, Maloney said there isn&rsquo;t much he would do differently. He even endorsed Bowness&rsquo; enthusiastic, positive style&mdash;one which contrasts with Maloney&rsquo;s more intense approach.Bowness, at first reluctant to accept the job because of the success his AHL team was enjoying (a solid fourth in the North Division), made no promises.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to get a feel for what&rsquo;s happening, to see what the problems are and what the strengths are and go from there,&rdquo; he said.Bowness made his debut Feb. 9 in a 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. It was the Jets&rsquo; best performance in weeks. But two nights later, Winnipeg was blown away 7-3 in Hartford. That stretched the losing streak to six games and gave Bowness a taste of the emotionless play Maloney was forced to swallow all season.Smith hinted that an organizational purge may be next.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re in a position here where we hoped to get through the year and any organizational changes I could make would be in the offseason,&rdquo; said Smith, who replaced FergusonOct. 31. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d say right now, I will address my area in terms of outside the coaching and outside the player area. And instead of waiting until May or June, I may address it now.&rdquo;<div class="sidebar"><h2>WINNIPEG</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 7: Dan Maloney, head coach, fired and replaced by Rick Bowness; Rick St. Croix, goaltending coach, reassigned to unspecified duties.Feb. 12: Alfie Turcotte, C, assigned to Moncton (AHL).ROSTERC&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk, Thomas Steen, Laurie Boschman, Randy Gilhen.LW&mdash;Brent Ashton, Doug Smail, Paul Fenton, lain Duncan.RW&mdash;Pat Elynuik, Andrew McBain, Gord Donnelly, Hannu Jarvenpaa.LD&mdash;Dave Ellett, Randy Carlyle, Jim Kyte, Brad Berry.RD&mdash;Fredrik Olausson, Peter Tag-lianetti, Teppo Numminen.G&mdash;Pokey Reddick, Daniel Berth-taurne.INJURIESNone. &#9632;</div>

f0011-01

NO ALTERNATIVE BUT TO FIRE COACH, GM SAYS

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>It didn&rsquo;t take long for Dave Brown to return to the scene of his many crimes.But the belligerent right winger and newest member of the Edmonton Oilers, wasn&rsquo;t thrilled with the idea of meeting his old Philadelphia teammates at the Spectrum just two days after the Flyers traded him for center Keith Acton and a yet-to-be-determined draft choice.In fact, Brown almost staged a one-game boycott before being talked out of the idea by Oilers&rsquo; coach-general manager Glen Sather. The trade was announced Feb. 7, the same day the 40th All-Star Game took place at Brown&rsquo;s new home&mdash;the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.Brown failed to show up for the Oilers&rsquo; game-day skate, but had a quick change of heart after a chat with Sather later that afternoon.&ldquo;I just thought I owed it to my new teammates,&rdquo; explained Brown. &ldquo;I figured I had better play and get in as many games as I can.&ldquo;If I didn&rsquo;t play I would be cheating my new teammates and I don&rsquo;t need that problem.&rdquo;The Oilers only had 11 forwards with them in Philadelphia.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s no different than anyone else,&rdquo; said Sather. &ldquo;Most guys when they get traded are upset, but he thought about his new teammates.He&rsquo;s a team guy and didn&rsquo;t want to let them down.&rdquo;But Brown put his new teammates in a hole when Pelle Eklund scored at the 58-second mark of the second period while Brown was serving his first penalty as an Oiler. Despite being outshot 38-20, the Oilers won 3-1 for their first regular-season triumph in the Spectrum since Nov. 13, 1982. The win also gave the Oilers a 28-23-6 record and helped them pass Los Angeles in the battle for second-place in the Smythe Division.&ldquo;It was a little strange out there, but it was for the better for me to play,&rdquo; said Brown. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be a better player as I get more ice. This game was a big difference for me. I haven&rsquo;t seen that much ice in a long time.&rdquo;The loudest ovation of the night was reserved for Brown&rsquo;s first shift.&ldquo;I guess they appreciated what I did there,&rdquo; said Brown, who scored 33 goals, 29 assists and 1,033 penalty minutes in 313 games with the Flyers over five years. &ldquo;It was nice to be appreciated but next time they&rsquo;ll probably boo me.&rdquo;Despite the fact Brown had only 100 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Flyers this season, Sather thinks he is the enforcer the Oilers have lacked since they traded Marty McSorley to Los Angeles in the Wayne Gretzky deal. This season, Brown was 0-3-3 with the Flyers.&ldquo;Obviously we felt we needed that ingredient on our hockey club,&rdquo; said Sather. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s 6-foot-5 and weighs 220 pounds. One of the reasons our hockey club has run into so many injuries is we&rsquo;ve had a lot of people taking advantage of us.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy he&rsquo;s coming to us instead of going to Calgary. That&rsquo;s where he would have gone if he didn&rsquo;t come to us.&rdquo;<div class="sidebar"><h2>EDMONTON</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 7: Keith Acton, C, and future considerations traded to Philadelphia foe. Dave Brown, RW.TRANSACTIONSC&mdash;Jimmy Carson. Craig MacTavish, Kevin McClelland.LW&mdash;Craig Simpson. Kelly Buchber-ger, Dave Hunter Greg Adams.RW&mdash;Glenn Anderson, Normand Lacombe, Dave Brown.RD&mdash;Chris Joseph, Craig Redmond. Randy Gregg.LD&mdash;Kevin Lowe, Charlie Huddy, Doug Halward.G&mdash;Grant Fuhr, Bill Ranford.INJURIESMiroslav Frycer. LW, bruised tailbone, day-to-day.Jari Kurri, RW, sprained left knee, indefinite.Mark Messier, C. sprained left knee, indefinite.Craig Muni, D, sprained right shoulder, indefinite.Steve Smith, D, shoulder surgery, indefinite.Esa Tlkkanen, LW, fractured left wrist, indefinite. &#9632;</div>

RETURN TO PHILADELPHIA BITTERSWEET FOR BROWN

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>A ringing endorsement for coach Robbie Ftorek it was not, but Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall made it clear he is not interested in changing coaches again.The subject came up Feb. 10, two days after a 4-1 loss in Boston extended the Kings&rsquo; road winless streak to eight games (0-5-3). It also stretched their overall slump to l-7-2over 10 games.When asked if Ftorek was the right man to coach the Kings, McNall said: &ldquo;No, not necessarily. I&rsquo;m not sure about anything right now. But I am confident he&rsquo;s a good coach. It would be silly for me to say I&rsquo;m 100-per-cent certain one way or the other because there are some problems.&ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t know whether to lay them at the foot of the coach or at the foot of the players. I&rsquo;m not 1,000-per-cent certain of anything right now. I&rsquo;ll have to see how it plays out.&rdquo;Ftorek&rsquo;s contract expires at the end of this season.McNall was encouraged when the Kings defeated Washington 7-6 in overtime later that night. They completed their three-game road trip with a 6-2 win in Chicago Feb. 12.&ldquo;Look at where we are now and where we were before,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;We have come a long way.&rdquo;The Kings were 23-25-4 under Ftorek last season&mdash;he replaced Mike Murphy Dec. 9, 1987&mdash;and 30-42-8 overall. They returned to Los Angeles following the Chicago win with a 30-22-5 record, including 3-1-1 in their past five. They were a point ahead of third-place Edmonton in the Smythe Division.On the other hand, McNall must cringe every time Ftorek refers to Wayne Gretzky&mdash;a $35-million investment if you include his eight-year contract&mdash;as just &ldquo;one of our 20 players.&rdquo;Still&hellip;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s too easy to blame the coach,&rdquo; said McNall, who figures the team will get better when Ron Duguay, Igor Liba. Marty McSorley and Dave Taylor return from injuries.The Kings have had 15 head coaches in their 22-year history.&ldquo;There are a lot of guys on our team who are not doing their jobs, who are not playing the way they are capable,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;Until they decide to put in an effort&hellip;I don&rsquo;t want this constant revolving door with the coaches.&rdquo;McNall said he will be &ldquo;mightily disappointed&rdquo; if the Kings fail to advance past the first round of the playoffs, but he did not want to speculate that far into the future.The best news for Ftorek came Feb. 10 when his wife, Wendy, gave birth to the couple&rsquo;s fourth child. Anna Victoria Ftorek weighed in at 9 pounds, 7 ounces.The only regret for Ftorek was that he was 3,000 miles away when the baby was bom at St. Mary&rsquo;s Hospital in Torrance, Calif.&ldquo;We were hoping it would happen during the all-star break so 1 could have been there,&rdquo; said Ftorek, who passed out cigars to his players. &ldquo;1 would have liked to have been there, but she and the kids understood. My mother-in-law flew in from Florida, fortunately, to be with her.&rdquo;<div class="sidebar"><h2>LOS ANGELES</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 8: Ken Baumgartner. D, recalled from New Haven (AHL). Gord Walker, RW. assigned to New Haven.ROSTERC&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Bernie Nicholls, Steve Kasper.LW&mdash;Mike Krushelnyski, John Tonelli, Jay Miller, Phil Sykes.RW&mdash;Mike Allison, Luc Robitaille, Bob Kudelski.LD&mdash;Steve Duchesne, Doug Crossman, Tim Watters, Ken Baumgartner, Wayne McBean.RD&mdash;Tom Laidlaw, Dean Kennedy, Dale DeGray.G&mdash;Glenn Healy, Rollie Melanson.INJURIESRon Duguay. RW-C. back spasms, indefinite.Jim Fox, RW, knee surgery, out for season.Igor Llba. LW, separated shoulder, day-to-day.Marty McSorley, RW-D, sprained knee, day-to-day.Dave Taylor, RW, partially torn knee cartilage, day-to-day. &#9632;</div>

FTOREK WINS McNALL’S GUARDED APPROVAL

<div class="byline">BY GRAEME MORTO</div>Two goals, one assist, 15,766 broken hearts.That was Doug Gilmour&rsquo;s scorecard when the Calgary Flames&rsquo; center made a triumphant, emotional return to St. Louis, the city where he played his first five NHL seasons.Gilmour tipped in a shot from Rob Ramage, one of five other former Blues on the Calgary roster, with 5:15 left to lift the Flames to a 5-3 come-from-behind victory Feb. 9.He also scored early in the second period and set up Theoren Fleury with the tying goal.&ldquo;Fate, I guess,&rdquo;Gilmour said with a smile about the way the scriptwriters&rsquo; dream unfolded. &ldquo;And I missed a couple of good chances, too.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been thinking about this game since the day I was traded. I was probably more nervous the first time we played them in Calgary (Nov. 3). It was probably good to get that one out of the way first.&rdquo;Gilmour was dealt to Calgary Sept. 5 along with right winger Mark Hunter and Michael Dark and left winger Steve Bozek in exchange for center Mike Bullard (now in Philadelphia), left winger Craig Coxe and the rights to defenseman Tim Corkery.The trade came shortly after a civil suit was filed by a St. Louis couple against Gilmour, alleging sexual misconduct with the couple&rsquo;s 14-year-old daughter. A St. Louis County grand jury ruled Dec. 27 there was insufficient evidence to proceed with sexual assault charges against Gilmour.Gilmour has burned the Blues in the two meetings this season. He had one goal and three assists in the Nov. 3 game&mdash;a 6-1 Flames&rsquo; win&mdash;for a total of three goals and four assists. He was named the game&rsquo;s first star both times.Gilmour received a rousing ovation from the St. Louis fans when he took his first shift and the cheers continued throughout the evening.&ldquo;The fans were great,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This building has wonderful memories for me but I&rsquo;m in a new life now, a new team and I&rsquo;ve got no regrets.&rdquo;Perhaps one small regret; not having the chance to play under new Blues&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter, a close friend and roommate on the road for five years.&ldquo;In a way, I would have loved to have played for him because I respect him a great deal,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;But it might have been tough because we were such good friends.&rdquo;Gilmour has teamed with yet another ex-Blue. Joey Mullen, and hustling left winger Colin Patterson to form a potent unit for the Flames.&ldquo;Doug&rsquo;s played well against every team in the league. He just hasn&rsquo;t been picking on the Blues, you know,&rdquo; coach Terry Crisp said, grinning.Gilmour had 21 goals and 49 assists in 57 games. Last season with the Blues, he had 36 goals and 50 assists in 72 games.Blues&rsquo; veteran captain Bernie Federko. who watched Gilmour mature into an accomplished performer, wasn&rsquo;t suprised at how his old teammate performed in his return.&ldquo;The bottom line,&rdquo; Federko said, &ldquo;is he&rsquo;s a hell of a player on a hell of a team.&rdquo;<div class="sidebar"><h2>CALGARY</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 6: Rick Lessard, D, assigned to Salt Lake (IHL)Feb. 11: Rob Ramage, D. serving eight-game league suspension, eligible to return Feb. 27; Dave Reierson, D, recalled from Salt Lake. &rsquo;ROSTERC&mdash;Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour, Joel Otto. Theoren Fleury.LW&mdash;Gary Roberts, Colin Patterson. Jim Peplinski. Tim Hunter, Jiri Hrdina, Perry Berezan.RW&mdash;Hakan Loob, Joe Mullen, Mark Hunter, Lanny McDonald.LD&mdash;Gary Suter, Jamie Macoun, Dana Murzyn, Dave ReiersonRD&mdash;Brad McCrimmon, Al Maclnnis, Ric Nattress.G&mdash;Mike Vernon, Rick Wamsley.INJURIESNone. &#9632;</div>

GLORIOUS RETURN TO ST. LOUIS FOR GILMOUR

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div>Rookie Trevor Linden has been the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; center of attention.So, the Canucks moved him to center.With 24 goals and 18 assists in 55 games on right wing, Linden was moved to center by Vancouver coach Bob McCammon after Barry Pederson and Greg Adams went down with injuries.Not only did the 18-year-old rise to the challenge with the poise of a veteran, but he may have answered some of the Canucks&rsquo; most desperate prayers. In his first game at center, Linden scored his 25th goal of the year and added an assist in a 5-4 win over Buffalo Feb. 10.The Canucks then went on to beat Philadelphia 3-2 at the Spectrum Feb. 12, giving them a 22-29-7 record and six-point lead over Winnipeg for fourth place in the Smythe Division.McCammon, who was toying with the idea of moving Linden to center even before it became a necessity, gave Linden&rsquo;s debut rave reviews.&ldquo;I thought he was outstanding,&rdquo; said McCammon, &ldquo;I asked if he wouldn&rsquo;t mind stepping into the middle and he said &lsquo;Sure.&rsquo;&rdquo;Assistant coach Mike Murphy, a former head coach of the Los Angeles Kings, went several steps further.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen Luc Robitaille as a rookie and I&rsquo;ve seen Jimmy Carson as a rookie,&rdquo;, said Murphy. &ldquo;They aren&rsquo;t near this guy.&rdquo;At 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds, Linden may be the big center in the mold of Joel Otto and Mark Messier the Canucks have been looking for. It&rsquo;s an idea that appeals to Linden.&ldquo;I like it there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You have so much more room and I feel I can use my skating more. I played center in junior (with the Memorial Cup-champion Medicine Hat Tigers) for about 10 games last year when we had injuries. I know what to do defensively because I feel it&rsquo;s part of your responsibility to know everybody&rsquo;s job. If they want to use me at center all the time, it&rsquo;s fine with me.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011419/5660047-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="549" height="604"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob McCammon was impressed with Trevor Linden as a center.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We may bum him out by the time he&rsquo;s 19,&rdquo; joked McCammon. &ldquo;But the way he&rsquo;s going, we&rsquo;ll have to take that chance. Tell him the experiment is still on.&rdquo;&ldquo;Trevor looked really good at center,&rdquo; said left winger Tony Tanti.&rdquo;Linden may be required to play all five positions if the Canucks experience many more games like the win over Buffalo. Pederson broke his nose when hit by Benoit Hogue, left winger Petri Skriko twisted his knee and defenseman Larry Melnyk was slashed across the nose by Christian Ruutu, returned, then was knocked out of the game with a Charley horse, all before the end of the first period.&ldquo;It was probably the gutsiest performance of the season,&rdquo; said McCammon. &ldquo;A lot of people picked up the slack.&rdquo;<div class="sidebar"><h2>VANCOUVER</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 8: Robin Bartel, D, traded to Winnipeg for Jamie Husgen, D. Husgen assigned to Milwaukee (IHL).Feb. 11: Jeff Rohlicek, C, Ian Kidd, D, recalled from Milwaukee.ROSTERC&mdash;Brian Bradley, Barry Pederson, Steve Bozek, Jeff Rohlicek, Trevor Linden.LW&mdash;Petri Skriko. Rich Sutter, Tony Tanti. Darryl Stanley.RW&mdash;Stan Smyl, Jim Sandlak, David Bruce.LD&mdash;Paul Reinhart, Jim Benning, Doug Lidster.RD&mdash;Kevan Guy, Robert Nordmark, Ian Kidd, Garth Butcher.G&mdash;Steve Weeks, Kirk McLean.INJURIESGreg Adams, C, twisted knee, indefinite.Larry Melnyk, D, Charley horse, day-to-day.Harold Snepsts, D. viral infection, indefinite. &#9632;</div>

f0014-01

CANUCKS LAVISH PRAISE ON NEW CENTER LINDEN

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011314/5660085-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="474" height="628"><figcaption class="caption-body">STAN FISCHLER</figcaption></div>By now it is patently obvious not even The Lord&mdash;let alone Robbie Ftorek&mdash;could have coached the Los Angeles Kings this season without being highsticked by the media to a point where his job is constantly under scrutiny.The problem is. nobody could safely lead Bruce McNall&rsquo;s team for one very good reason. Wayne Gretzky has been spoiled rotten in the coaching department.Throughout his entire NHL career, and a bit of the WHA as well, The Great One has played under one coach, Glen Sather. From day one as an Oiler. Wayne has looked on Slats as a father figure, and nobody could follow that act.In Edmonton, Gretzky was raised from skinny stripling to NHL sensation by Sather. If nothing else, Gretzky was conditioned to obey Slats. If he didn&rsquo;t, there was always the fact Sather also happened to be general manager and president of the Oilers. That is unique clout which did not escape Gretzky.Who else but Slats could command the same respect from Gretzky? Certainly not Pat Bums of Montreal. If the ex-cop was coaching the Kings this year, we&rsquo;d hear rumblings about how his NHL inexperience hampered Gzetzky. Certainly not Terry Crisp of Calgary. If the curly-thatched coach was behind the L.A. bench, the knock would be his decibel count deafens Gretzky, who prefers cool customers.Face it, folks. Robbie Ftorek automatically was cast in the all-time, no-win coaching situation because he wasn&rsquo;t Glen Sather and he wasn&rsquo;t Walter Gretzky.When the Kings win, who gets the credit? Gretzky. And when they lose, it&rsquo;s Ftorek&rsquo;s fault. Nobody credits Ftorek for John Tonelli&rsquo;s renaissance. The automatic line is, &lsquo;Wayne has lifted everyone&rsquo;s game.&rsquo;Under the circumstances, Ftorek has done a remarkable job in every area but the one that&rsquo;s killing him: public relations. When I discussed Ftorek&rsquo;s problems with him recently, he said &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t read the papers. Once, when I was playing in Quebec City, my wife read an article and said, &lsquo;You should know about this.&rsquo; It hasn&rsquo;t happened as a coach yet.&rdquo;Yet he is acutely aware of his dilemma and has made, for him, some dramatic concessions to the media. As Rick Sadowski of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner pointed out earlier in the season, &ldquo;Ftorek is making a real effort to be accommodating, and is nowhere near as intense during post-game interviews as he was last year. The hatchet jobs are undeserved.&rdquo;Unfortunately, Ftorek has learned that scorned sportswriters have long memories. Bum a hockey scribe and he&rsquo;ll get you. Ftorek has gotten it and continues to get it, even though he has reformed.Ftorek is not the only coach maligned by the media. Washington&rsquo;s Bryan Murray gets the punching-bag treatment every fall and this season was no exception. To his credit, and unlike Ftorek, Murray is a keen student of public relations. He is even cordial and communicative with reporters who have assailed him and is unfailingly available. You won&rsquo;t find Murray publicly attacking a hockey writer.The same can&rsquo;t be said for Boston&rsquo;s Terry O&rsquo;Reilly. During the Wales Conference final last spring, O&rsquo;Reilly insulted Bob Fachet of the Washington Post during a post-game interview. O&rsquo;Reilly claims his response was legitimate under the circumstances.&ldquo;The question asked,&rdquo; explained O&rsquo;Reilly, &ldquo;was, &lsquo;Is it fair to assume that your team quit?&rsquo; I didn&rsquo;t think he was asking a question or looking for an answer. I had come away from losing an important game and didn&rsquo;t have much breathing space. He (Fachet) knew that. Still, he phrased the question that way. I told him exactly what I thought he was for doing that.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02930/5660078-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="657" height="651"><figcaption class="caption-body">Robbie Ftorek has made an effort to be more accomodating with the media.</figcaption></div>I asked Fachet about the incident earlier this season, and he said O&rsquo;Reilly twitted him again last fall. Why didn&rsquo;t Fachet&rsquo;s colleagues rally to his side? &ldquo;I think they were too stunned by what had happened. This makes me realize how lucky I am to be covering Bryan Murray.&rdquo;O&rsquo;Reilly, like Ftorek-cares less about public relations than he does about doing his own thing: coaching. If the media doesn&rsquo;t like it, tough beans.&ldquo;I have no problem with what I did,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Reilly, &ldquo;because I don&rsquo;t feel that way toward the media in general. But there are bad apples in the media, just as there are on the ice.&rdquo;A battle with the writing brigade is usually not healthy for coaches or managers. Former New York Ranger GM Craig Patrick and coach Ted Sator were victimized by the Manhattan media, simply because they were low-key and less than ebullient.Sator rebounded and is getting along famously in Buffalo. Patrick, whose draft picks include Brian Leetch, Tony Granato, John Vanbies-brouck and James Patrick, is exiled at the University of Denver as athletic director.Whether Ftorek can survive the unfair attacks is a good question, the answer to which will depend on the Kings&rsquo; playoffs.More than that, it will depend on the reaction of the Kings&rsquo; No. 1 power broker, Gretzky. There is only one answer. Since not even God could run the L.A. bench this season, make Gretzky the player-coach and get it over with. &#9632;

f0015-01

COACHING THE KINGS A NO-WIN SITUATION

<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>Minnesota left winger Larry DePalma offered a dangerous theory that threatens to upset the balance of power in the NHL. When asked about his fancy playmaking that led to Dave Gagner&rsquo;s winning goal in a 3-2 victory over Vancouver Feb. 9, DePalma credited his helmet. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a Wayne Gretzky helmet, a Jofa,&rdquo; DePalma said. &ldquo;I wore it tonight for the first time and I started thinking like him.&rdquo; Which leads to one frightening thought: What if someone convinces Gretzky to wear one of DePalma&rsquo;s old CCM helmets? DePalma had five goals, seven assists and 95 penalty minutes in 39 games this season-&hellip;With defensemen Frantisek Musil and Ville Siren both sidelined, the Stars recalled blueliner Rob Zettler from Kalamazoo for the second time in 10 games.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2>Al Secord, who was traded to Philadelphia Feb. 7 for a 1989 draft choice, doesn&rsquo;t understand why he never panned out for the Leafs after coming to the team last season. Asked what happened to his scoring touch on the way from Chicago to Toronto, Secord replied: &ldquo;1 just can&rsquo;t put my finger on it. It was obvious I was having my problems on the ice and that I was lacking confidence.&rdquo; A 54-goal scorer with Chicago in 1982-83, he was 15-27-42 in 74 games with the Leafs last year and had five goals and 10 assists in 40 games this year-&hellip;Goalie Ken Wregget. who had lost his starting job to Allan Bester, got further bad news. He has mononucleosis and is out indefinitely. Jeff Reese was called up from the American League&rsquo;s Newmarket Saints to back up Bester&hellip;The Leafs recallled veteran center Peter Ihnacak from Newmarket Feb. 8. He was banished there at the start of the season. His promotion resulted in Vincent Dam-phousse moving to left wing from center in place of the departed Secord.<h2>RED WINGS</h2>Making up a six-point lead may be the Norris Division&rsquo;s version of mission impossible, but Red Wings&rsquo; coach Jacques Demers was starting to feel the heat. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a tight race that&rsquo;s going on in the Norris Division all of a sudden,&rdquo; said Demers. &ldquo;For a long time, there didn&rsquo;t seem to be much of a race, but there is now. And I think our players are starting to understand that.&rdquo; The only team above the.500 mark in the Norris, the Wings had themselves to blame for creating a race. On Jan. 15, the Wings, at 20-16-7, were 13 points ahead of St. Louis. But by Feb. 13 Detroit was 25-24-8 and only six points up on the Blues. St. Louis was 21-25-10&hellip;Center Shawn Burr was left behind when the Wings visited Washington Jan. Since sitting out that 4-3 win. Burr had seven goals and three assists in nine games and had a eight-game point streak. Burr was 13-19-32 in 56 games&hellip;Left winger Gerard Gallant had nine goals in his last 10 games. Overall, he was 32-41-73 in 54 games.<h2>BLUES</h2>Greg Millen recorded his leagueleading sixth shutout, blanking the New York Islanders 5-0 Feb. 11. The shutout was the second for Millen and the Blues against the Islanders this season. The Blues beat the Islanders 8-0 Dec. I&hellip;Center Tony Hrkac extended his scoring streak to seven games with a goal in a 5-2 loss to Buffalo Feb. 12. Hrkac had four goals and five assists during the streak-.. Right winger Brett Hull received a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct for cutting former teammate Joey Mullen in a 5-3 loss to Calgary Feb. 9. Hull called the infraction &ldquo;purely accidental.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03685/5660116-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg" title="f0015-03" width="532" height="1008"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tony Hrkac extended his pointscoring streak to seven games.</figcaption></div><h2>HAWKS</h2>Blackhawks&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan has been on a crusade of sorts to get Steve Larmer the recognition Keenan feels the right winger deserves. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the best-kept secret in the National Hockey League,&rdquo; Keenan said of Larmer. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been a dominant player for us the last two months and is most definitely an all-star. Based on my experiences with some of the great players, he could play on any all-star team and be a top player.&rdquo;&hellip;The Hawks set a club record Feb. 12 when Dirk Graham scored shorthanded in a 6-2 loss to Los Angeles. It was the Hawks&rsquo; 19th shorthanded goal of the season, breaking the record of 18 set last season&hellip;Rookie goalie Jimmy Waite, out since early December with a broken collarbone, started skating Feb. 9, but said he was about three weeks away from resuming practice&hellip;The Hawks won six of nine games without Denis Savard, who suffered strained ligaments in his right ankle Jan. 21 against St. Louis. &#9632;

f0015-03

LOOK OUT, GRETZKY, HERE COMES DEPALMA

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>After nearly three years on the rocks, it&rsquo;s obvious the marriage between Joe Murphy and the Detroit Red Wings isn&rsquo;t working out.The Wings admitted as much when they sent Murphy to Adirondack of the American League Jan. 2 for the remainder of the season. Murphy has filed for divorce; he&rsquo;s demanding to be traded.His agent, lawyer Don Meehan, is seeking an amicable settlement. But Detroit general manager Jimmy De-vellano has settled nothing.&ldquo;I wrote them a letter about a month ago, telling them that Joe wanted to be traded,&rdquo; Meehan said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s so obvious he doesn&rsquo;t fit into their plans. Then I talked with Jimmy D. and he said, &lsquo;We&rsquo;ll think about it.&rsquo; So far, nothing.&rdquo;In 26 games with Detroit this season, Murphy had a goal and seven assists and was minus-seven. With Adirondack, he was 15-17-32 in 27 games. Since being the No. 1 draft choice overall in 1986, Murphy has gone 11-17-28 in 81 NHL games.Meehan said he believes the Wings &ldquo;are scared to death&rdquo; if they trade Murphy he&rsquo;ll go to another team and flourish. &ldquo;So they&rsquo;ll just bury him in the minors, hoping their problem will just fade away.&rdquo;Devellano countered that the Wings are in no hurry to part with Murphy.&ldquo;We have no intention of trading Joe Murphy,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;because we haven&rsquo;t given up on him.&rdquo;Murphy is not convinced of that, especially after the Wings promoted five players from Adirondack Feb. 1 and he wasn&rsquo;t among them. When Murphy was assigned to Adirondack the Wings said they never considered recalling him, and won&rsquo;t.&ldquo;They made some decisions, and I wasn&rsquo;t part of them,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;They were cleaning house and felt I wasn&rsquo;t contributing to the team. I was told that they were going to try and trade me, so if I&rsquo;m not in their plans here (in Detroit), then a trade might be the best thing for me.&rdquo;In spite of Murphy&rsquo;s poor totals, Meehan argued the Red Wings never gave the 21-year-old center a chance.&ldquo;He was drafted No. 1 overall, ahead of every other player available&mdash;as a center,&rdquo; Meehan said. &ldquo;How many games has he played at center in the NHL? Three, four, maybe five at the very most. I hardly think you can say that&rsquo;s giving him a chance.&rdquo;Murphy started the season as left winger on a line centered by Steve Yzerman.Though Murphy is frustrated by his circumstances, he is playing excellent hockey in the AHL. Adirondack coach Bill Dineen has become a Murphy booster after having some differences with him in the past two seasons.&ldquo;His work ethic has improved about 1,500 per cent,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a combination of him understanding all the things he has to do. The game is becoming more meaningful to him. Joe is starting to understand what&rsquo;s expected of him. He&rsquo;s got a lot more discipline.&ldquo;If anything, he just needs to get a little stronger. I don&rsquo;t think he ever realized it before now. He&rsquo;s going to be a great player some day. The only thing we can&rsquo;t do is rush him. When he&rsquo;s ready, we&rsquo;ll know.&rdquo;Murphy insists he&rsquo;s ready now. &ldquo;I know I can play in the NHL,&rdquo; he said.Whether he can do that with the Detroit Red Wings is a long way from certain.<h2>DETROIT</h2>TRANSACTIONSNoneROSTERC&mdash;Steve Yzerman, Shawn Burr, John Chabot, Adam Graves, Adam Oates.LW&mdash;Gerard Gallant, Kris King, Petr Klima, Dale Krentz.RW&mdash;Paul MacLean, Dave Barr. Joe Kocur, Jim Nil).LD&mdash;Lee Norwood. John Mokosak, Jim Pavese, Jeff Sharpies.RD&mdash;Gilbert Delorme, Doug Houda, Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Rick Zombo.G&mdash;Glen Hanlon. Tim Cheveldae.INJURIESSteve Chiasson, D, ankle, day-to-day. Randy McKay, RW, knee, indefinite. Greg Stefan, G, back, day-to-day. &#9632;

MURPHY REQUESTS TRADE FROM WINGS

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div>When Mike Keenan was searching for leadership from his struggling Chicago Blackhawks earlier this season, Dirk Graham was one of the first players to come forward.He has been one of the most valuable Hawks this season, his second in Chicago and seventh in the NHL. And his quietly effective play hasn&rsquo;t gone unnoticed by Keenan and his Blackhawk teammates.&ldquo;Dirk&rsquo;s not flashy, he&rsquo;s more of a lunchpail guy,&rdquo; said Troy Murray, Graham&rsquo;s teammate and good friend. &ldquo;But he comes to work hard each and every day. He doesn&rsquo;t speak out much or want a lot of credit, but he has a real presence. When he says something, people listen.&rdquo;Graham was rewarded for his hard work and leadership when Keenan named him captain after Denis Savard was knocked out of the lineup with strained knee ligaments Jan. 21. Graham responded to the challenge with six goals and four assists in the next nine games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great honor to be singled out as a leader, but it&rsquo;s something I didn&rsquo;t go looking for,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve tried not to change since I got it, and I don&rsquo;t think I have.&rdquo;Graham has been the picture of consistency since he was acquired from the Minnesota North Stars for Curt Fraser Jan. 2, 1988. In 42 games with the Hawks last season, Graham had 17 goals and 19 assists. In 57 games this season, he had 24 goals and 26 assists. He was one goal short of the career-high he set in 1986-87 with the North Stars.He&rsquo;s also developed into one of the more dangerous penalty-killers in the league. Graham&rsquo;s shorthanded goal in a 6-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings Feb. 11 was his sixth of the season, putting him third in the league behind Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux (nine) and Edmonton&rsquo;s Esa Tikkanen (eight).&ldquo;I take a lot of pride in killing penalties,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s late in a game and you kill a penalty, to me that&rsquo;s as important as scoring a goal.&rdquo;Graham feels his best offensive years are ahead of him. That&rsquo;s why he&rsquo;s hesitant to call this his best season ever.&ldquo;Stats-wise it is, but I always think 1 can do better,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel satisfied with being close to my career-high for goals. I&rsquo;ve always felt that I could be a legitimate 30-goal scorer, but I&rsquo;ve always been put in a defensive role over the years. This year I still have a defensive role, but Mike also expects more out of me offensively.&rdquo;And while he&rsquo;s not about to take the credit for it, Graham has noticed a change of attitude in the hapless Hawks of the early season and the 19-31-7 team that occupied fourth place in the Norris Division after 57 games.&ldquo;When it comes to crunch time we&rsquo;ve got guys taking charge instead of waiting for someone else to do it. And it&rsquo;s coming from all over,&rdquo; said Graham, 29. &ldquo;Every night it&rsquo;s a different guy, and if you want to be a winning team in this league you have to have that.&rdquo;<h2>CHICAGO</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 6: Bill Gardner, C, Bill Watson, LW, assigned to Saginaw (IHL).Feb. 9: Gardner, Warren Rychel, LW, recalled from Saginaw.Feb. 13: Jeremy Roenick, C, recalled from Hull (QMJHL). Mano Doyon, D, recalled from Saginaw.ROSTERC&mdash;Troy Murray. Adam Creighton, Bob Bassen, Bill Gardner, Jeremy Roenick.LW&mdash;Dan Vincelette, Everett Sani-pass, Dave Mackey, Dirk Graham, Warren Rychel.RW&mdash;Steve Larmer. Wayne Presley, Duane Sutter.LD&mdash;Steve Konroyd, Trent Yawney, Mario Doyon.RD&mdash;Dave Manson, Keith Brown, Bob McGill, Bob Murray.G&mdash;Alain Chevrier, Ed Belfour.INJURIESMike Eagles. C-LW, broken left hand, indefinite.Denis Savard, C, strained right ankle ligaments, day-to-day.Steve Thomas, LW, shoulder surgery, rest of season.Jimmy Waite, G, broken collarbone, indefinite.Doug Wilson, D, broken right hand, day-to-day. &#9632;

GRAHAM DRAWS PRAISE AS HAWKS’ LEADER

<div class="byline">BY JERRY ZGODA</div>Minnesota North Stars have discovered it isn&rsquo;t a simple journey from the bottom to the top. They learned that the hard way in a 5-1 loss at home to Detroit Feb. 11.A 6-5-6 run through non-divisioinal opponents convinced the North Stars they were ready to challenge the Red Wings for first place in the Norris Division. A victory would have pulled them within five points with 25 games remaining, including 12 against division opponents.But the Wings, l-5-0 in their previous six games, delivered a clear message: The rise to first place doesn&rsquo;t come that easily.&ldquo;It was the champ versus the chump,&rdquo; North Stars&rsquo; coach Pierre Page said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been there before. They know what it takes. They were aggresssive, chippy, hungry. Our guys came out to play hockey, but there&rsquo;s more to it than that. There are battles and we didn&rsquo;t win any of them tonight.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011052/5660202-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="540" height="616"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ville Siren missed a loss to Detroit with the flu.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Where were the battles? Where was the emotion? People who have been there before teach you that.&rdquo;The loss, which came after consecutive victories over the New York Rangers and Vancouver, also reminded Page that some nights he and his young defense will suffer greatly. Especially when they&rsquo;re missing Frantisek Musi! (slight concussion) and Ville Siren (flu), both of whom did not play against Detroit.&ldquo;Our defensemen are really young and they&rsquo;re going to have nights like that,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;They were under pressure all night; they panicked and the forwards did not help much. We couldn&rsquo;t pass the puck. We couldn&rsquo;t forecheck. We couldn&rsquo;t do anything. It was a brutal game. It just wasn&rsquo;t there. I can get mad at everyone in a game like this.&rdquo;The loss came at the end of a 17-game stretch during which the Stars played just one Norris team, Toronto. They were 5-2-6 in the final 13 of those.&ldquo;We made up ground against nondivision teams and that&rsquo;s a good sign,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;This is our chance.&rdquo;Perhaps, but the Stars must find a way to stay as competitive within the division as they have been out of it. After the Detroit loss, they were 6-10-4 in division play, including I-3-2 against St. Louis, l-4-0 against Detroit, l-2-1 against Chicago and 3-1-1 against Toronto.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re where we are and Detroit and St. Louis are where they are because of those records,&rdquo; Page said.The second-place Blues were three points ahead of Minnesota. The big question, though, is not where the Stars are now, but where they will be in April.&ldquo;The key is to know that we&rsquo;re better than we were and that we&rsquo;re going to get better yet,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;I think we know by now what we do best. There&rsquo;s no sense being someone else. We play best when we play defensive, pressure hockey. We don&rsquo;t want to be in the situation where we have to score five, six, seven goals a game. Maybe down the road, we might be the kind of team that can win those kind of games consistently. But not yet.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02818/5660195-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="1155" height="871"><figcaption class="caption-body">North Star coach Pierre Page described a game between Detroit and Minnesota as &ldquo;champ versus chump.&rdquo; His team was the chump.</figcaption></div><h2>MINNESOTA</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 11: Rob Zettler, D, recalled from Kalamazoo (IHL).ROSTERC&mdash;Neal Broten, Dave Gagner, Dave Archibald. Bob Brooke, Dusan Pasek.LW&mdash;Basil McRae, Brian MacLellan, Brian Bellows, Terry Ruskowski.RW&mdash;Dino Ciccarelli. Marc Habscheid, Stewart Gavin, Larry DePalma.LD&mdash;Dean Kolstad, Rob Zettler. Mark Tinordi.RD&mdash;Bob Rouse, Curt Giles, Shawn Chambers.G&mdash;Jon Casey, Kari Takko.INJURIESCurt Fraser, LW, reconstructive wrist surgery, out for season.Frantisek Musil, D. slight concussion, day-to-day.Ville Siren, D, flu, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0017-01

RED WINGS TEACH STARS A LESSON

<div class="byline">BY RICK MATSUMOTO</div>For one game at least. Gary Leeman soared with eagles.Selected as the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; Ione representative in the All-Star Game, the talented right winger responded with a goal and an assist to help the Campbell Conference to a 9-5 victory over the Wales Conference.Reality forced his return to Maple Leaf Gardens. But he was still on a high four days later against Philadelphia.Leeman had a goal and two assists to lead Toronto past the Flyers 4-3 Feb. 11.&ldquo;I think I will be (on a high) for a while,&rdquo; he said.Leeman, who had 16 goals and 28 assists in 38 games&mdash;he missed 17 games with a damaged inner ear&mdash;was not surprised he fit in so successfully with the NHL&rsquo;s elite.&ldquo;I wanted to go there and just do my best and have fun,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Actually, it was my kind of game; wide-open hockey with lots of skating.&ldquo;I was confident I&rsquo;d fit in. After all, I play against those guys all the time.&rdquo;What may have been more of a surprise to Leeman was the way his Leaf teammates came back&mdash;for one game at least&mdash;after the all-star break. They performed with uncommon discipline. toughness and teamwork to defeat the Flyers.The Leafs nearly blew a 4-0 lead, but the win was still impressive. And satisfying. In five of their previous six games, the Leafs had scored only one goal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011097/5660233-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="564" height="952"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gary Leeman had a goal and an assist in the All-Star Game.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I guess the days that we had off did some good.&rdquo; said Leeman. &ldquo;It gave us a chance to recharge our batteries.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always felt that if we played as a team and worked hard we&rsquo;d be competitive. It&rsquo;s no big secret. And another good thing is that we had 20 guys playing a physical game.&rdquo;Toronto came out with a rare display of muscle.Peter lhnacak. just up from Newmarket of the American League, set the tone with his feisty work along the boards and in the comers.Others quickly got the idea.Todd Gill didn&rsquo;t hesitate to grapple with Kjell Samuelsson and wrestled the 6-foot-6, 225-pound defenseman to the ice during a third-period melee. Gill is 6-foot-l. 185.Even John Kordic. who has been reluctant to flex his muscles in recent weeks, got into the act by decking Moe Mantha with a crushing hip check that finally earned him some cheers from Leaf fans.The Leafs must sustain that kind of effort if they hope to catch the Chicago Blackhawks and grab the final playoff berth in the Norris Division. Chicago had a four-point lead as of Feb. 13.<h2>TORONTO</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 7: Al Secord. LW, traded to Philadelphia for fifth-round draft choice in 1989. If Philadelphia advances to Wales Conference final this season. Toronto&rsquo;s choice becomes a fourth-rounder.Feb. 8: Peter Ihnacak, C, recalled from Newmarket (AHL); Tim Armstrong, C. Darren Veitch. D, assigned to Newmarket.Feb. 10: Jeff Reese. G. recalled from Newmarket.ROSTERC&mdash;Ed Olczyk, Peter Ihnacak. Tom Fergus, Dan Daoust.LW&mdash;Mark Osborne. Vincent Dam-phousse. Dave Reid, Todd Gill.RW&mdash;Daniel Marois. Gary Leeman, Craig Laughlin, John Kordic.LD&mdash;Borje Salming, Luke Richardson, Brad Marsh, Al latrate.RD&mdash;Rick Lanz, Chris Kotsopoulos, Brian Curran.G&mdash;Allan Bester. Jeff Reese.INJURIESWendel Clark. LW, back, indefiniteDoug Shedden. RW, knee, out for season.Ken Wregget. G. mononucleosis, indefinite. &#9632;

f0018-01

LEEMAN RIDES ALL-STAR HIGH INTO LEAFS’ STRETCH DRIVE

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div>Paul Cavallini talks a good game.And in his second NHL season, he&rsquo;s showing he plays a pretty good one too.After a 5-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres Feb. 12 in which they gave up five even-strength goals, the Blues had surrendered 24 even-strength goals in their last 13 games.But Cavallini wasn&rsquo;t on the ice for any of them. His plus-minus rating of plus-19 led the next-best Blue, Rick Meagher, by three points. In 56 games, he had three goals and 14 assists.Cavallini, the younger half of the Flying Cavallini brothers&mdash;his 26-year-old brother Gino is a left winger with the Blues&mdash;has become the Blues&rsquo; best defenseman.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s just a kid, this is his first full year in the NHL,&rdquo; said Blues&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter. &ldquo;He plays with a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of emotion. He has good knowledge of the game.&rdquo;Cavallini uses his 6-foot-l, 210-pound frame to push around opponents, and his mouth to push them over the edge. Rarely does a game go by without at least one &lsquo;discussion&rsquo; with an opposing player.&ldquo;I talk a lot and get on people&rsquo;s nerves,&rdquo; said the 23-year-old. &ldquo;They get frustrated and get off their games.&ldquo;Guys like Bernie Nicholls and Mario Lemieux, they get a lot of room out there, but I don&rsquo;t like to leave them alone.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s one thing to talk,&rdquo; said brotherGino, &ldquo;but you&rsquo;ve got to back it up when you have to. That&rsquo;s important, too.&rdquo;With 116 penalty minutes, Cavallini has had to back it up several times this season. But being on the penaltykilling and power-play units, he knows he has to be timely with his remarks.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big guy and he&rsquo;s always aggressive, but he has to be disciplined, too,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;Paulie&rsquo;s learning to do that. I&rsquo;d rather have him oh the ice than in the penalty box.&rdquo;Cavallini credits the arrival of Mike Cavallini credits the arrival of Mike Lalor from the Montreal Canadiens as a big part of his recent success with the Blues. Since the Blues acquired Lalor from the Canadiens for future considerations Jan. 17, the two have played together. In 13 games after the trade, Cavallini was plus-10.&ldquo;The trade for Mike was a blessing for me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m starting to learn from him, many different things.&ldquo;His experience really helps me out. He&rsquo;s only two years older, than me, but he&rsquo;s played with some great defensemen and he&rsquo;s played in the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;Washington&rsquo;s lOth-round choice (205th overall) in 1984, Cavallini was traded to the Blues late in 1987 for the Blues&rsquo; second-round choice in 1988, which turned out to be Wade Bartley. Cavallini played six games with the Capitals in 1986-87 and 24 games last year before being traded.&ldquo;He was kind of hidden in Washington,&rdquo; said Gino. &ldquo;They had six or seven guys back there with a lot of talent.&ldquo;He came here and after we traded Rob Ramage (to Calgary) he filled that void.&rdquo;<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC&mdash;Tony Hrkac. Bernie Federko, Peter Zezel, Cliff Ronning.LW&mdash;Doug Evans, Gino Cavallini, Steve Tuttle. Rick Meagher, Sergio Momesso, Craig CoxeRW&mdash;Tony McKegney, Greg Paslaws-ki, Brett Hull. Todd Ewen.LD&mdash;Mike Lalor. Brian Benning, Gordie RobertsRD&mdash;Paul Cavallini, Dave Richter, Tom Tilley.G&mdash;Greg Millen, Vincent Riendeau.INJURIESGaston Gingras, D, bruised tailbone, day-to-day.Herb Raglan, RW, pulled left groin, day-to-day. &#9632;

PAUL CAVALLINI PUTS MONEY WHERE MOUTH IS

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01895/5660288-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rob Brown of the Wales Conference missed this chance against Campbell Conference goalie Grant Fuhr during the All-Star Game. Brown was held off the scoresheet.</figcaption></div>The 40th National Hockey League All-Star Game? Nice try. It was actually the second Wayne Gretzky Homecoming.On the ice. Off the ice. Before the game. During the game. After the game.You name it. No. 99 had a hand in it.For the record, the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; center had one goal and two assists to lead the Campbell Conference to a 9-5 win over the Wales Conference before 17,503 at Edmonton&rsquo;s Northlands Coliseum Feb. 7.But this was more than another three-point outing for the ex-Edmonton Oiler superstar who received a new car for being named game MVP.It was a reaffirmation of love between a city and its departed hero.&ldquo;I never denied 1 miss Edmonton,&rdquo; said Gretzky, who was dealt to the Kings Aug. 9. &ldquo;I never denied I miss my (Oiler) teammates. How can you deny that when you win four championships together?&rdquo;The first homecoming was Oct. 19&mdash;the Kings&rsquo; first game at Northlands in 1988-89. That was an exciting night, too, but one Gretzky didn&rsquo;t enjoy. Not only were the Kings 8-6 losers, but the pressure was stifling. Gretzky had two assists in the game.The atmosphere of the homecoming sequel, though, was completely different.Gretzky arrived in Edmonton with wife Janet and six-week-old daughter Paulina. The baby, it turned out, was as much in demand as her father.No. 99 was secure in the knowledge he would not be playing against the Oilers, but with them. At least with Oiler all-stars Grant Fuhr, Kevin Lowe, Mark Messier and Jari Kurri and for the all-star coaching staff of Oilers&rsquo; Glen Sather, John Muckier and Ted Green.Throughout the two-day all-star affair, Gretzky appeared more relaxed than anyone could remember, the picture of contentment.He was the focal point at the game-day skate, when thousands of local school children were bussed to the Coliseum. They cheered him wildly. In fact, he was on the ice with several local youngsters for 30 minutes before being joined by the rest of his all-star teammates.That night, his much anticipated pre-game introduction sparked a 75-second standing ovation. It would have lasted longer had the spotlight in the darkened arena not been taken off him to keep the ceremonies moving along.And then&mdash;reunited with longtime right winger Jari Kurri for the first time since game four of the 1988 Stanley Cup finals&mdash;Gretzky wasted no time in rising to the occasion.At 1:07, on their first shift of the game, Gretzky set up Kurri&rsquo;s first-ever all-star goal. Less than four minutes later, at 4:33, Gretzky scored one himself.The fans loved it.The line of Gretzky and Kurri, along with L.A.&rsquo;s Luc Robitaille, was dominant&mdash;especially when out against the Campbell&rsquo;s top unit of Mario Lemieux between Cam Neely and Rob Brown with Paul Coffey and Ray Bourque on defense.&ldquo;It was like old times out there,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;After the first period, it really sunk in&hellip; I realized I had been traded and this would be the last time 1 would be sitting on this bench.&ldquo;It was nice playing for (Sather) again. 1 enjoyed it tremendously&hellip; It was great. I haven&rsquo;t stopped smiling. It was great to play with Mess and Kevin and Grant&hellip;&ldquo;Every time I had the puck, I knew exactly where Jari was, whether he was beside me, in front of me or behind me. We had 10 or 11 really good chances. That was really like old times. Reggie Lemelin gave up six.People don&rsquo;t realize it, but for us, the less we handled the puck, the more success we had. That&rsquo;s what it was like tonight.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll always remember that first time (returning to Edmonton as a King) in October, but this was something really special. I&rsquo;m going to go home and watch the tape.&rdquo;Calgary&rsquo;s Joey Mullen had two goals and an assist for the winners. The other scorers were Robitaille, Detroit&rsquo;s Steve Yzerman, Toronto&rsquo;s Gary Leeman and Edmonton&rsquo;s Messier and Jimmy Carson.Quebec&rsquo;s Walt Poddubny, with two, Boston&rsquo;s Neely and Glen Wesley, and Washington&rsquo;s Mike Ridley scored for the Wales.Campbell starting goalie Fuhr (three goals against in 29:58) and Calgary&rsquo;s Mike Vernon (two goals against in 30:02) were the winning goaltenders. New Jersey&rsquo;s Sean Burke, the Wales&rsquo; starter, allowed three goals. Boston&rsquo;s Reggie Lemelin gave up six.&ldquo;That first period was like an NBA game, slam-dunking and guys driving to the net,&rdquo; Gretzky said.Gretzky was the fans&rsquo; choice as MVP. Except. of course, for a small band of Calgary supporters who chanted, &ldquo;Joey, Joey&rdquo; in honor of Mullen.&ldquo;In my mind,&rdquo; said Sather, &ldquo;it (MVP) was either Wayne or Joey Mullen. They both had great games, but those were the top two.&rdquo;The voters, members of the media, went with the sentimental choice. That gave Gretzky what he believes is the 14th automobile he has been awarded during his career.He said he would give the car to former Oiler teammate Dave Semenko, now retired from hockey and selling real estate in Edmonton.&ldquo;All I asked him (Gretzky) to do was to write the foreword for my new book,&rdquo; Semenko said later. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t have to get carried away.&rdquo;Gretzky had his reasons, though.&ldquo;He (Semenko) helped my career a lot,&rdquo; said Gretzky. &ldquo;Maybe more than he knows. If he wants it, it&rsquo;s his. If my daughter was 16, she&rsquo;d get it. But she&rsquo;s not.&rdquo;But like her father, she&rsquo;s already a crowdpleaser in Edmonton. Baby Paulina and her mother attended the game, sitting in seats behind the net where Gretzky scored his goal and set up the two others.Between periods, Edmontonians lined up to see the baby clad in a black and silver L.A. King sweat suit. Some even stopped to have their picture taken with Paulina.Make no mistake, this was a Gretzky production from start to finish.&ldquo;I was pulling for him (to do well),&rdquo; said Lemieux, the NHL scoring leader who enjoyed relative obscurity in Edmonton. Lemieux, who won all-star MVP honors in 1988 and 1986. did not have a vintage game. He was minus-three on the night.&ldquo;Mario was in a no-win situation, unless he got three goals and four assists,&rdquo; said Yzerman. &ldquo;No matter what he did, they would say he didn&rsquo;t play as well as he did last year (when he scored three goals and three assists).&rdquo;Mullen, meanwhile, was playing in his first All-Star Game&mdash;even though he&rsquo;s had five consecutive 40-goal seasons and is on a 50-goal pace this season.He not only lined up against his brother&mdash;Brian of the New York Rangers&mdash;and had his parents flown in from New Jersey, he took a late-game turn with Gretzky and Kurri.&ldquo;Glen (Sather) and everyone on the bench said to go out and get the third goal with Wayne and Jari,&rdquo; said Mullen, who had been playing with Messier and Calgary teammate Joe Nieuwendyk.&ldquo;That was the purpose of putting me out there. They were trying to get me the puck.&rdquo;Mullen did have one good chance for the hat trick, but Lemelin made the save.&ldquo;I was happy with the way things went,&rdquo; Mullen added. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t bother me (not winning the MVP). I don&rsquo;t worry about that. Am 1 underrated? I don&rsquo;t even think about that stuff. Wayne had a heck of a game.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-01

A GREAT PERFORMANCE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01666/5660319-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="446" height="618"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE DRYDEN</figcaption></div>Professional hockey&rsquo;s only black official is a referee first, the lone representative of a minority group second.When Derek Martin goes on the ice, he is neither black nor white. He is black and white. It&rsquo;s the colors of his stripes, not his skin, that matter most.The 26-year-old native of Chicago is in his fifth year with the International League. The first two were spent as a linesman, the past three as a referee.He is more than an oddity.Martin was recently named the IHL&rsquo;s best referee in a THNpoll. Still, there are fans who overlook his qualifications.&ldquo;Some buildings in the T are a little rougher than others,&rdquo; says Martin. &ldquo;1 think Flint would be one of the toughest ones for me to work in from a racial standpoint. It&rsquo;s a very blue-collar town. People go to work at General Motors and they think when they come to the rink, they can yell anything they want. And they usually do.&ldquo;I just ignore them. If that&rsquo;s what they think or feel, I&rsquo;m not going to change their perspective by saying a smart remark back. I find the best thing to do&mdash;and it frustrates them more&mdash;is to ignore them. That gets them more upset, because they feel they&rsquo;re not getting to me. And I think that&rsquo;s their goal.&ldquo;When I was refereeing earlier, I was in tough towns where I was probably the first black to step into the town. It made it interesting. And you&rsquo;d go into towns where they already had racial problems, and they&rsquo;re not accustomed to seeing a black person officiate a hockey game.&rdquo;Coaches have great respect for him. Players, for the most part, don&rsquo;t make an issue of Martin&rsquo;s color. When they do, he dismisses it as spontaneous combustion.&ldquo;In the IHL, for the five years I&rsquo;ve been officiating, I&rsquo;ve been called &lsquo;nigger&rsquo; twice by players,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;One was a close play in the semi-finals of the playoffs. I was working the lines. And I think, another time when I was refereeing in the semi-finals. Those are the only two isolated incidents. I&rsquo;ve heard worse. So I handle the situation (as the result) of the heat of the moment. It&rsquo;s like some officials are called &lsquo;Frogs,&rsquo; or other referees get called, &lsquo;Polack,&rsquo; or, &lsquo;You stupid Irishman.&rsquo; &rdquo;There is nothing stupid about this man, an accounting major from St. Mary&rsquo;s College (Winona, Minn.) whose triumphs have been the result of hard work&mdash;both his and his mother&rsquo;s.Emma Martin raised Derek, an only child, on her own&mdash;by doing the work of two people. Both as a parent and employee. While Derek was growing up in Chicago&rsquo;s inner city, she worked at the state attorney&rsquo;s office as a clerk. On weekends, she managed a gas station. Hockey in the United States is an expensive proposition. It was even more so for Emma. Her son decided to become a goaltender after seeing Tony Esposito play for the hometown Hawks.&ldquo;I guess all her life she&rsquo;s been doing two jobs to put up with my hockey habit, which I really appreciate,&rdquo; says Martin, who also worked at the gas station. A guarddog acted as his bodyguard during the night shifts. To this day, Emma Martin has two jobs. She&rsquo;s still at the state attorney&rsquo;s office, but now buys and sells real estate. The son inherited the mother&rsquo;s work ethic. Martin represents three companies in the travel industry, runs a summer hockey school in Utica, N.Y., supervises officiating in the United States (Junior) League, works for USA Hockey in its officials&rsquo; training program and will work up to 90 games in the IHL this season.He recently returned to the Chicago home he shares with his mother, from Copenhagen, where he taught power skating at a world officials&rsquo; seminar. Skating is Martin&rsquo;s greatest asset. But not his only strength.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got all the ingredients to be a top-notch official,&rdquo; says IHL director of officiating Tom Berry. &ldquo;The coaches in the West (Division) absolutely love him. They think he&rsquo;s the best in the business.&rdquo;The NHL does not have him in its trainee program, but has noticed. Martin was scheduled to work three games in four nights in the Quebec League, starting Feb. 17, so NHL observers could get a close look at him in different circumstances. He admitted to some apprehension about going into a new league. He&rsquo;s heard QMJHL fans can be tough to take.&ldquo;There was an official (Rob Hearn) who used to work for the National Hockey League and he had a dark complexion,&rdquo; says Martin. &ldquo;They thought that he was black, and he got a lot of abuse.&rdquo;QMJHL fans have been known to abuse all referees&mdash;regardless of color.Should Martin someday work in the NHL, the 5-foot-10, 190-pounder would be the first black to officiate a game. But he cares less about being a pioneer than serving as a positive role model for children of all backgrounds.His increased visibility, however, could serve as a touchstone for young blacks who have few NHLers with whom they can relate. That&rsquo;s the reason Martin is understanding when most people&rsquo;s first reaction to his profession is disbelief.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll neverforget when I was refereeing in the USHL,&rdquo; remembers Martin. &ldquo;All the guys were telling me, &lsquo;Yeah, I got out of this speeding ticket because I told the guy I refereed in the USHL. He let me go, and gave me a warning.&rsquo; I tried that one night and (the state trooper) told me that was the best story he&rsquo;d heard all year.&ldquo;I look at it (from the viewpoint) that it&rsquo;s hard to believe that somebody who referees ice hockey is black. I grant that&hellip;It&rsquo;s like a black person in America telling somebody he&rsquo;s chief executive officer of a company. That, for the mass public, is hard to believe.&rdquo;What was even harder to believe for those involved was an occasion earlier this year, when Martin officiated a game that included three black players. At one point, all four were on the ice.One of them issued a warning to his trainer. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re taking over,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Watch out.&rdquo;In the meantime, be satisfied with watching out for Derek Martin. &#9632;

f0021-01

IHL REFEREE AN NHL HOPEFUL, NOT A PIONEER

<h2>PENGUINS</h2>The Penguins&rsquo; hopes of winning the Patrick Division received a serious blow Feb. 12 when all-star right winger Rob Brown suffered a separated right shoulder while checking Calgary center Joe Nieuwendyk in a 4-2 loss to the Flames. Brown, who needs two points to become the fourth Penguin in history to score 100 in a season, will be out until March 12. He had 42 goals and 56 assists in 56 games&hellip;Left winger Randy Cunneyworth, playing Feb. 11 in Quebec for the first time since breaking his foot during a practice Jan. 24, returned to the sidelines quickly. He received two game misconducts for his role in a brawl late in the Penguins&rsquo; 8-1 loss. That gave him four for the season and required him to serve a one-game suspension.Detroit Feb. 9 in the Devils&rsquo; 6-3 win&hellip;If goalie Bob Sauve is unable to play again because of back problems, he is a prime candidate to become a radio color commentator for the Devils.<h2>RANGERS</h2>Defenseman Michel Petit, one of the few consistently physical players in the Rangers&rsquo; lineup, doesn&rsquo;t believe his team has to add more muscle for success in the stretch drive and playoffs. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to be successful with speed and ability. We have a<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>Lome Henning, the leading candidate to coach the Islanders next season if Al Arbour doesn&rsquo;t return, telephoned general manager Bill Torrey in late January to &ldquo;touch base and get an idea of what he was thinking&rdquo; about 1989-90. According to Henning, Torrey didn&rsquo;t say very much abou the job. &ldquo;We talked, but there&rsquo;s nothing right now. It&rsquo;s up to Al.&rdquo;&hellip;If left winger David Volek makes the allrookie team, he&rsquo;d be the first Islander to do so since it was established in 1982-83. Left winger Randy Wood finished second to Winnipeg&rsquo;s Iain Duncan last season. Voting is conducted by members of the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association.Michel Petit doesn&rsquo;t think the Rangers need more muscle.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>Defenseman Kevin Hatcher suffered two broken bones in his left foot when he was struck by a shot from the stick of Mike Bullard in the first period of a 3-1 loss to Philadelphia Feb. 5. Hatcher kept his skate on and finished the game. Once he removed the skate, the foot swelled. When pain persisted two days later, he went for X-rays and discovered two fractured metatarsals.. Back-to-back sellouts of 18,130 against Los Angeles Feb. 10 and Calgary Feb. 11 gave the Capitals a record 15 for the season. Attendance was averaging an all-time high of 16,705&hellip;Defenseman Rod Langway opened the scoring in a 7-6 loss to the Kings with his first goal in 350 days.<h2>DEVILS</h2>Right winger John MacLean and goalie Sean Burke both admitted they were nervous playing in their first AllStar Game. &ldquo;I enjoyed the second half,&rdquo; said Burke, who played the first 30 minutes as the Wales Conference starter and allowed three goals. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t enjoy them (the Campbell stars) scoring all those goals, but I was able to sit back and watch the game-.&rdquo;&hellip;MacLean had his all-star teammates autograph two of his sticks. Maybe the signatures were good luck charms. MacLean had the first five-point game of his career (2-3-5) in Detroit Feb. in the Devils&rsquo; 6-3 win&hellip; If goalie Bob Sauve is unable to play again because ofback problems, he is prime candidate to become radio color commentator for the Devils.<h2>RANGERS</h2>Defenseman Michel Petit, one of the few consistently physical players in the Rangers&rsquo; lineup, doesn&rsquo;t believe his team has to add more muscle for success in the stretch drive and playoffs. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to be successful with speed and ability. We have a few guys who hit and some more with finesse and we don&rsquo;t need guys with big arms and cement heads who use their sticks all the time.&rdquo; Petit sidelined Oilers Mark Messier and Jari Kurri with checks in a Feb. 12 game. &ldquo;They (the Oilers) were yapping at me and saying I&rsquo;d never finish the game,&rdquo; Petit said. &ldquo;But 1 was ready. When I can, I hit clean. That&rsquo;s the only way I know how to play-.&rdquo;&hellip;Ranger winger Tony Granato seemed surprised when it was suggested his Feb. 12 move from the No. 1 line to the checking line might hurt his CalderTrophy chances. &ldquo;I look at this as a positive move. I&rsquo;m going to get a lot of chances skating with Lucien (DeBlois) and Jan (Erixon) and there is less pressure on me in this role.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02369/5660350-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="549" height="853"><figcaption class="caption-body">Michel Petit doesn&rsquo;t think the Rangers need more muscle.</figcaption></div><h2>FLYERS</h2>Right winger Ilkka Sinisalo did further damage to his already broken left wrist. Sinisalo fell at home and one of the bones in his wrist which hadn&rsquo;t set moved. If Sinisalo returns this season, it won&rsquo;t be until the Patrick Division final&hellip;Right winger Tim Kerr missed the first three games after the all-star break, nursing his sore left shoulder. No date for his return was set. The Flyers will let Kerr get as much rest as he needs and hope his ravaged left shoulder will be ready for the play offs&hellip; The Flyers&rsquo; loss at Toronto gave them a 5-6-0 record against Norris Division teams. Last season they were 7-7-1 against the Norris. &#9632;

f0021-02

SHOULDER INJURY STOPS PENS’ BROWN

<div class="byline">BY BARRY MEISEL</div>Let the campaign begin. Alter mistakenly listing David Volck as a right winger on their own press notes and pre-game lineup sheets lor nearly two months, the New York Islanders have corrected their error in strand fashion.&lsquo;Volek Enters All-Star Break as NHL&rsquo;s Top Rookie Left Winger&rsquo; blared the bold headline on the Islander news release issued Feb. 6. Despite the highly uncharacteristic hype from the low-key Islanders, they weren&rsquo;t exaggerating.Volck. the 22-year-old Czechoslovak who defected July 25 and signed a five-year deal believed worth between $7(X).()()0 and $8(X),(XX). and Boston&rsquo;s Bob Joyce arc the two leading candidates for the left wing spot on the all-rookie team.Volek. a right-handed shooter, has looked like the favorite since excoach Terry Simpson anchored him to the left of Brent Sutter 30 games ago.&ldquo;David&rsquo;s played very well with Brent.&rdquo; current coach Al Arbour said. &ldquo;That whole line&rsquo;s played very well.&rdquo;Patrick Flatley is the right winger on the unit.&ldquo;His English is getting much better.&rdquo; Sutter said of Volck. &ldquo;it&rsquo;s getting easier and easier for us to communicate on the ice.&rdquo;Volek&rsquo;s English isn&rsquo;t so great that he doesn&rsquo;t occasionally say something he shouldn&rsquo;t. Like the time he mixed one of those dirty words he hears in the dressing room into an ordinary conversation with strangers. He did that at the home of Pat LaFon-taine, his closest friend and best man at his recent wedding. It came during a meal with LaFontaine&rsquo;s in-laws.Or the time he said he enjoyed playing against Mario Lemieux.&ldquo;You know why?&rdquo; Volek volunteered. &ldquo;Because Mario is no back-check too hard. It&rsquo;s more room.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01778/5660381-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="550" height="788"><figcaption class="caption-body">David Volek led rookie left wingers in six categories.</figcaption></div>Nevertheless, he and his wife Alice, who defected with him, are learning off the ice as quickly as Volek is learning on it.At the all-star break, Volek led rookie left wingers in goals (18), assists (23), points (41), shots on goal (156) and game-winning goals (6). He and Joyce were tied with six powerplay goals. Only Volek&rsquo;s minus-10 rating blemished a sweep of the major statistical categories.Volek hangs around with LaFon-taine. but hopes to make another friend soon. Tennis great Ivan Lendl, a fellow countryman who lives in Connecticut and is on the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; board of directors, said at the All-Star Game he&rsquo;d &ldquo;love to meet&rdquo; Volek.&ldquo;Yeah, why not?&rdquo; Volek said when told about Lendl. &ldquo;I like tennis. Maybe I&rsquo;ll meet him when we play in Hartford. That was nice of him.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. ISLES</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 8: Derek King, LW. recalled from Springfield (AHL): Tom Fitzgerald, C, Jeff Hackett, G. Rich Kromm, LW, assigned to Springfield.ROSTERC&mdash;Brent Sutter, Pat LaFontaine, Bryan Trottier, Rob DiMaio.LW&mdash;David Volek. Randy Wood, Greg Gilbert, Brad Lauer, Derek King.RW&mdash;Patrick Flatley. Brad Dalgarno. Mikko Makela, Alan Kerr, Mick Vukota.LD&mdash;Marc Bergevin. Richard Pilon, Gary Nylund.RD&mdash;Gerald Diduck, Tomas Jonsson, Reed Larson. Jeff Norton. Ken Morrow.G&mdash;Kelly Hrudey, Billy Smith.INJURIESDean Chynoweth, D, Osgood-Schlatter Disease, indefinite. &#9632;

f0022-01

VOLEK STAKING CLAIM TO ALL-ROOKIE TEAM

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>In late November. Brendan Shanahan sat in a Vancouver hotel lobby and pondered his hockey future. Many had already given up on the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; top draft choice&mdash;second overall&mdash;in 1987.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m determined to prove everybody wrong if they think I&rsquo;m not a player,&rdquo; Shanahan said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s frustrating to me that my career seems to be wrapped up at age 19.&rdquo;It would be another two months before Shanahan, who turned 20 Jan. 23, proved anything. But as the Devils approached the final quarter of the regular season with their eyes still on a playoff spot, he was emerging as one of the team&rsquo;s key contributors.On a five-game road trip, during which the Devils went 2-1-2 to move within seven points of fourth-place Philadelphia in the Patrick Division, Shanahan scored three goals and added seven assists. That was one-third of his entire offensive output for the season (10-19-29).In his first 34 games of the season, Shanahan had four goals and six assists. In his last 15 games the sophomore forward had six goals and 13 assists.The reason for Shanahan&rsquo;s turnaround is no mystery. Since Mark Johnson&rsquo;s hamstring injury on Jan. 13, Shanahan had played left wing on New Jersey&rsquo;s top line with center Pat-rik Sundstrom and all-star right winger John MacLean.Shanahan is quick to credit his linemates.&ldquo;I feel my play has picked up and Sunny and Johnny are the whole difference,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Those two guys generate so much offense. I notice at times I&rsquo;m almost ignored by the other team defensively because those guys are so good.&rdquo;Sundstrom has been invaluable since coming to the Devils from Vancouver on Sept. 10, 1987, in exchange for center Greg Adams and goaltender Kirk McLean.Not only has the 27-year-old Swede overcome a reputation for playing hard only when the mood strikes him. but he has helped transform the careers of two No. 1 draft picks&mdash;Shanahan and MacLean (sixth overall in 1983).&ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s easy for a finesse player to be thought of as not working hard,&rdquo; said Sundstrom. who has unselfishly played left wing and center with equal proficiency. &ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;ve been eager to play every night. I feel like I came to play every night in Vancouver, too. I think that was just a bad rap.&rdquo;Devils&rsquo; general manager Lou Lamoriello agrees and points to Sundstrom as perhaps the team&rsquo;s most important player behind goalie Sean Burke. He had 21 goals and 28 assists in 46 games. MacLean. who represented New Jersey at the All-Star Game, had 33 goals and 36 assists in 55 games.Sundstrom s impact on Shanahan has been significant. Shanahan has surpassed his rookie total of seven goals and matched his assist total of 19. Trade talk which swirled around Shanahan has quieted.&ldquo;I was aware of the trade talk but it makes no sense to worry about getting traded.&rdquo; Shanahan said. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t control whether we get traded, but we can control how we play. I&rsquo;ve fallen into a groove where I&rsquo;m working hard and I enjoy it. Nobody&rsquo;s untouchable, but I don&rsquo;t want to be traded. I want to do it in New Jersey. I want to prove in New Jersey that I&rsquo;m the player they drafted. I don&rsquo;t want to prove it somewhere else.&rdquo;<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC&mdash;Kirk Muller, Patrik Sundstrom, Claude Loiselle, Anders Carlsson.LW&mdash;Aaron Broten, Brendan Shanahan, Jim Korn, Pat Conacher, Steve Rooney, Perry Anderson.RW&mdash;John MacLean. Pat Verbeek. Doug Brown. David Maley.LD&mdash;Ken Daneyko, Randy Velischek, Tommy Albelin.RD&mdash;Joe Cirella. Tom Kurvers, Craig Wolanin, Jack O&rsquo;Callahan.G&mdash;Sean Burke, Craig BillingtonINJURIESBruce Driver, D, broken right leg, indefinite.Mark Johnson. C, pulled hamstring, indefinite.Bob Sauve, G, herniated disc, indefinite. &#9632;

SHANAHAN SHOWING SIGNS OF BREAKTHROUGH

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01757/5660436-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Keith Acton had no points and a penalty in his Flyer debut. He joined Philadelphia in a trade for Dave Brown Feb. 7.</figcaption></div>After the last major trade made by the Philadelphia Flyers&mdash;the Nov. 29 swap of centers which brought Mike Bullard from St. Louis for Peter Zezel&mdash;they won 13 of their next 16 games.Maybe Flyer general manager Bob Clarke thought he&rsquo;d get double the return when he made two separate deals Feb. 7. He acquired left winger Al Secord from Toronto for a fourth-or fifth-round draft choice this year. He also traded right winger Dave Brown to Edmonton for center Keith Acton.Instead of having twice the impact, the trades didn&rsquo;t appear to have even half the desired effect as the Flyers lost their next three games, including back-to-back setbacks to Toronto (4-3) Feb. 11 and Vancouver (3-2) Feb. 12. The loss to Vancouver was the Flyers&rsquo; fifth in six home games.In the first game since the trade, Brown and Acton lined up Feb. 9 against their former teams. Edmonton won 3-1 for its first regular-season win at the Spectrum since 1982. Brown received an ovation from a crowd of 17,423. Acton took a regular shift at center and Secord played right wing. Neither had any points and Acton received a minor penalty. They were pointless in the other two games, with Acton picking up a double roughing minor against Toronto.Still, Clarke had no regrets. Not yet, anyway.&ldquo;The simple fact of the matter is that Dave Brown wasn&rsquo;t playing here,&rdquo; said Clarke, who could afford to deal away some toughness after acquiring defensemen Jay Wells from Los Angeles and Terry Carkner from Quebec in the off-season and promoting defenseman Jeff Chychrun and left winger Craig Berube from Hershey of the American League.&ldquo;This trade really bothered me,&rdquo; added Clarke. &ldquo;Dave Brown was a great team guy. In his first year up in the league, I roomed with him, so this really hurt. But he wasn&rsquo;t getting a regular shift, and he&rsquo;s the kind of guy who needs ice time. He was kind of dying on the vine here.&rdquo;Brown&rsquo;s production (0-3-3 in 50 games) was also a factor. Clarke and coach Paul Holmgren respect Acton&rsquo;s ability. He was 11-15-26 in 46 games with the Oilers.&ldquo;When Ilkka (Sinisalo) went out with his injury (multiple fracture of left wrist), I think we were hurt in the speed department,&rdquo; said Clarke. &ldquo;Keith Acton is a very quick, smart player, and a proven winner. Paul played with him in Minnesota, and he knows what kind of player he can be.&rdquo;Acton gives the Flyers five regular centers&mdash;Bullard, Ron Sutter, Dave Poulin, Pelle Eklund and Acton&mdash;along with Murray Craven and Doug Sulliman, who can both play center and wing.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it will be a problem,&rdquo; said Holmgren. &ldquo;Almost all of these guys can and have played wing before. I think this will give us some flexibility.&rdquo;Second was struggling with Toronto (5-10-15 in 40 games), but Clarke figures he&rsquo;ll snap out of it.x &ldquo;Our scouts looked at him and thought he could still play, and help us,&rdquo; said Clarke. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s always been a hard worker, and it&rsquo;s obvious he can score goals. (He scored 40 goals three of his six years with Chicago.) What happened to him in Toronto, I don&rsquo;t know. But we think he&rsquo;ll respond with the Flyers.&rdquo;He didn&rsquo;t respond to playing against his former team and neither did the rest of the Flyers. Philadelphia fell behind 4-0 after five minutes of the second period. &ldquo;We should know enough not to expect to win a game without working,&rdquo; said Clarke. &ldquo;It looks like they just took a win over Toronto for granted.&rdquo;There wasn&rsquo;t much improvement the next night as the Canucks swept the season series (3-0-0) from the Flyers.&ldquo;We have to understand that there are no easy games in this league,&rdquo; said Holmgren. &ldquo;A lot of people might have thought the games against Vancouver would be easy. And look what we got&mdash;three games and zero points.&rdquo;The loss left the Flyers at the.500 level (27-27-3), the latest in a season they had been there since 1970-71.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 6: Brian Dobbin, RW, assigned to Hershey (AHL).Feb. 7: Al Secord, LW, acquired from Toronto for a fifth-round draft choice in 1989 If Philadelphia advances to Wales Conference final this year. Toronto&rsquo;s choice becomes a fourth-rounder; Dave Brown. RW. traded to Edmonton for Keith Acton, C.Feb. 11: Dobbin recalled from Hershey.ROSTERC&mdash;Mike Bullard. Pelle Eklund, Dave Poulin. Ron Sutter, Keith Acton.LW&mdash;Brian Propp, Derrick Smith, Craig Berube, Al Secord. Doug Sulliman RW&mdash;Rick Tocchet, Scott Mellanby, Murray Craven, Brian Dobbin.LD&mdash;Jay Wells, Terry Carkner, Moe Mantha.RD&mdash;Kjell Samuelsson, Jeff Chychrun, Gord Murphy.G&mdash;Ron Hextail, Mark LaforestINJURIESJeff Harding. RW. lacerated knee cap, indefinite.Mark Howe. D, sprained left knee, day-to-day.Tim Kerr, RW, sore left shoulder, day-to-day.Ilkka Sinisalo. RW. multiple fracture of left wrist, indefinite. &#9632;

f0024-01

IMMEDIATE IMPACT OF TRADES NEGLIGIBLE

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>Suddenly, a finely-tuned machine has broken down, with no sure signs it can be successfully rebuilt.The New York Rangers set an NHL record with 111 power-play goals last season. But after a 3-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers at Madison Square Garden Feb. 12, they had the worst home-ice power play (24-for-159, 15 per-cent efficiency) in the league. Overall they were 59-for-329, a 17.9 per-cent efficiency rate&mdash;18th in the league.&ldquo;The longer it (the power-play slump) goes, the more we feel the tension,&rdquo; Ranger defenseman James Patrick said.Suddenly, a finely-tuned machine has broken down, with no sure signs it can be successfully rebuilt.The New York Rangers set an NHL record with 111 power-play goals last season. But after a 3-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers at Madison Square Garden Feb. 12, they had the worst home-ice power play (24-for-159, 15 per-cent efficiency) in the league. Overall they were 59-for-329, a 17.9 per-cent efficiency rate&mdash;18th in the league.&ldquo;The longer it (the power-play slump) goes, the more we feel the tension,&rdquo; Ranger defenseman James Patrick said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01669/5660467-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="552" height="718"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kelly Kisio was benched by coach Michel Bergeron.</figcaption></div>Against Edmonton, the power play was O-for-7. During their last eight games the skidding Rangers (2-5-1), were 5-for-47 with the man advantage.Attempting to bring the team out of the slump, coach Michel Bergeron switched line combinations furiously. Captain Kelly Kisio, left winger Brian Mullen, rookie left winger Tony Gra-nato, center Carey Wilson and left winger John Orgodnick found themselves receiving less than their usual amount of ice time.Granato, the Rangers&rsquo; leading goal-scorer (32-21-53 in 57 games), was moved from the No. 1 line to the checking line on Feb. 12 against Edmonton in order to put Ulf Dahlen on a line with Wilson and right winger Tomas Sandstrom. Dahlen returned after missing 12 games with a shoulder separation.&ldquo;The last two games, I benched some guys I don&rsquo;t bench much,&rdquo; Bergeron said. &ldquo;Kelly is one. A few guys, game in and game out, have to be the leaders. Kelly is one. He&rsquo;s the captain.&ldquo;I know Kelly is working hard, trying hard and sometimes you don&rsquo;t know why the legs are not going the way you want them to. I understand that but&hellip;&rdquo;Last season, the Rangers&rsquo; two most effective power-play scorers were centers Marcel Dionne (44 powerplay points) and Walt Poddubny (40 power-play points). Dionne is now with Denver of the International League. Poddubny was traded to Quebec.The power play&rsquo;s ineffectiveness and the Ranger flop had Bergeron frustrated.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure everybody can handle the pressure right now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Playing at home, playing for first place in the division is more pressure than playing on the road.&rdquo;After 57 games, the Rangers&rsquo; homerecord (15-10-2) was only slightly better than their road mark (14-10-6).&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s face it,&rdquo; said Bergeron, &ldquo;1 need the leaders to step forward, in the room and on the ice. I need guys like Chris Nilan (out 22 straight games with an abdominal ligament strain) back in the lineup.&ldquo;I want to finish first (in the Patrick),&rdquo; Bergeron said, &ldquo;and I hope everybody wants to finish first.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 8: Joe Paterson, LW, assigned to Denver (IHL).Feb. 9: Darren Turcotte. C, assigned to Denver.ROSTERC&mdash;Carey Wilson, Kelly Kisio, Lucien DeBlois, Jason Lafreniere.LW&mdash;Brian Mullen, Tony Granato, John Ogrodnick, Kevin Miller.RW&mdash;Tomas Sandstrom, Ulf Dahlen, Guy Lafleur, Jan Erixon, Rudy PoeschekLD&mdash;Brian Leetch, Ron Greschner. Mark Hardy.RO&mdash;James Patrick, David Shaw, Michel Petit.G&mdash;John Vanbiesbrouck, Bob Froese.INJURIESPaul Cyr, LW-C, surgery right knee, out for seasonChris Nllan, RW, strained ligament, front pelvic bone, March 1.Normand Rochefort. D, surgery right knee, out for season. &#9632;

f0025-01

PLODDING POWER PLAY HAMPERS RANGERS

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01707/5660498-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Barrasso, out with a pulled groin, was one of two Pittsburgh goalies sidelined with the same injury.</figcaption></div>The fight for first place in the Patrick Division has developed into a three-team battle, and the Penguins have found themselves in the novel position of being active participants, not interested onlookers.Even so, that struggle might not be the most intriguing in Pittsburgh in coming weeks.There is another that will be carried on, not along the boards and in the corners, but in back rooms and council chambers.The Edward J. DeBartolo Corp., which owns the Penguins and operates the Civic Arena on a series of 10 five-year leases, has asked local government for about $5.5 million in public funds for improvements to the building.The request would have to be approved by the Auditorium Authority, Pittsburgh City Council and Allegheny County Board of Commissioners.In 1985, the DeBartolo Corp, was given $11.4 million and a $425,000 annual rent reduction in exchange for a promise to keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh until at least 1992.The latest request was conveyed in a letter from Paul Martha, president of the Civic Arena Corp., to four local officials.The letter said the Penguins hoped to have work on the Arena completed before Pittsburgh hosts the 1990 NHL All-Star Game in February.Martha said the CAC would like to have &ldquo;state-of-the-art&rdquo; facilities for the game, &ldquo;which will bring the city international exposure.&rdquo;The $11.4 million given in 1985 was used in two phases of renovations and improvements that included new locker rooms and offices for the Penguins.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t force them to make the improvements,&rdquo; Martha said. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t sue them. These are only recommendations.&rdquo;Early indications are the recommendations will have a difficult time getting approval.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a little surprised this comes so soon after a major expenditure,&rdquo; said Frank Brooks Robinson, head of the Auditorium Authority, the Arena&rsquo;s governing body.&ldquo;There is no responsibility for the city, county or Auditorium Authority to make capital improvements,&rdquo; said Bob Brown, solicitor for the Auditorium Authority. &ldquo;If he (DeBartolo) wants to make capital improvements, he can make them.&rdquo;&ldquo;My only concern is that the Auditorium Authority, the mayor and any other government agency not cave in,&rdquo; city councilman Mark Pollock said. &ldquo;We have been extremely generous in the past with the DeBartolo Corp.&rdquo;Predictably, there are political overtones to this scenario. DeBartolo has made a $20,000 contribution to the mayoral campaign of Allegheny County controller Frank Lucchino, who will oppose incumbent Sophie Masloff in the November election.&ldquo;It looks suspicious, doesn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo; Masloff said.&ldquo;The interim mayor&rsquo;s handlers are trying to take this campaign to the low road,&rdquo; said Lucchino. &ldquo;We won&rsquo;t go down that road.&rdquo;Whoever wins the election will take office less than a month before the All-Star Game.&ldquo;Clearly, construction would have to be started well before I would assume office,&rdquo; Lucchino said.But for the moment, it is far from certain there will be any additional work on the Arena before the All-Star Game, let alone who would pay for it.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 7: Mark Recchi, RW, assigned to Muskegon (IHL).Feb. 12: Bruce Racine, G, recalled from Muskegon.Feb. 13: Perry Ganchar, RW, recalled from Muskegon.ROSTERC&mdash;Mario Lemieux, Dan Quinn, John Cullen, Dave Hannan.LW&mdash;Bob Errey, Phil Bourque, Troy Loney. Scott Bjugstad, Randy Cun-neyworth.RW&mdash;Jay Caufield, Dan Frawley, Richard Zemlak, Perry Ganchar.LD&mdash;Paul Coffey. Steve Dykstra, Chris Dahlquist.RD&mdash;Randy Hillier, Jim Johnson, Gord Dineen, Rod Buskas.G&mdash;Wendell Young, Bruce Racine.INJURIESTom Barrasso. G. pulled groin, day-to-day.Rob Brown. RW. separated right shoulder, indefinite.Frank Pietrangelo, G, pulled groin, day-to-day.Zarley Zalapski. D, knee surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

f0026-01

BATTLE BREWING OVER ARENA IMPROVEMENTS

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0027-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01657/5660529-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Gartner stressed the Capitals had to become more consistent, especially with the season in its late stages.</figcaption></div>General manager David Poile celebrated his 40th birthday Feb. 14. Poile has had gray hair for years. So has 46-year-old coach Bryan Murray.Trying to figure out the Washington Capitals can do that to you.One of Murray&rsquo;s principal goals this season was to play well at Capital Centre, where visiting teams have enjoyed a measure of success in the past.When the Capitals reeled off an 11-game unbeaten streak at the Centre from Nov. 29 to Jan. 13, Murray figured that goal had been accomplished. Of course, he should have known better.The Capitals promptly went into a nosedive at home, winning only one of their next eight (1-6-1), a 1-0 nailbiter against Hartford Feb. 3.Meanwhile, the team was confusing the issue with a seven-game unbeaten streak (3-0-4) on the road, including a 1-0 success at Philadelphia Jan. 26 and 4-3 overtime decision over the New York Rangers Feb. 1.As far as winger Mike Gartner was concerned, the confusion could be attributed to one factor. The Capitals really weren&rsquo;t playing very well anywhere.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not necessarily just a home thing,&rdquo; Gartner said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s more a fact that we haven&rsquo;t been playing that great hockey for the last month. The consistency hasn&rsquo;t been there.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;ve gone through many times. We didn&rsquo;t really want to do it again, but we&rsquo;re going through it right now. I hope we can change. There aren&rsquo;t many games left.&rdquo;The Capitals scored only one goal in three of four home games on a stand in which every seat was sold at Capital Centre. In the fourth contest, they scored six against Los Angeles and wound up losing in overtime Feb. 10.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m certainly disappointed,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;We thought we&rsquo;d turned around the home-ice thing and now we can&rsquo;t win here. We should score more goals in this building. We just haven&rsquo;t done that.&ldquo;We have some players who play better on the road, because there&rsquo;s a little less burden on their shoulders. And teams feel the need to put on a bit of a show at home. On the road, you just play to win.&rdquo;Home or road, the Capitals were keeping things close enough for the customers to stay until the final buzzer. In their last 15 games, the Capitals had four ties, nine one-goal games and two decided by two goals.Forty-five of Washington&rsquo;s first 58 games were decided by two goals or fewer. The Capitals were 13-9 in one-goal games.Of 16 overtime matches (2-4-10), goalie Clint Malarchuk was involved in 13 (2-4-7). He played four straight overtime games early in the season and matched that streak during a recent stretch when he worked overtime in seven of eight games.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 12: Bill Houlder, D, Jim Thomson, RW, Michal Pivonka, C, recalled from Baltimore (AHL); Mike Millar, RW, Chris Felix, D, assigned to Baltimore.ROSTERC&mdash;Bengt Gustafsson, Dale Hunter. Mike Ridley, Michal Pivonka. Peter Sundstrom.LW&mdash;Kelly Miller, John Druce, Geoff Courtnall, Lou Franceschetti.RW&mdash;Dave Christian, Mike Gartner, Steve Leach, Bob Gould. Jim Thomson.LD&mdash;Scott Stevens, Rod Langway, Grant LedyardRD&mdash;Larry Murphy, Neil Sheehy. Bill Houlder.G&mdash;Clint Malarchuk, Pete Peeters.INJURIESKevin Hatcher, D, fractured left foot, Feb. 22. &#9632;

f0027-01

CAPS MAKE COACH GM OLD BEFORE THEIR TIME

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KAME</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01683/5660560-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Photo courtesy of Craig Hospital)</figcaption></div>Step by deliberate step, Peter McGeough is making progress in his struggle to recover from a serious back injury that has completely changed his life.The Springfield Indians&rsquo; rookie defenseman is out of hospital and back on his feet, secure in the knowledge he will not be bed-ridden or bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. McGeough will never play hockey again, that is understood. Whether he will ever fully regain normal control of his legs is not clear.&ldquo;The toughest part of the whole thing is that no one knows anything,&rdquo; says the Warwick, R.I., native who played four seasons for St. Lawrence University and was chosen 247th overall by the New York Islanders in the 1983 entry draft.&ldquo;I wish somebody would come in and tell me &lsquo;Yes&rsquo; or &lsquo;No.&rsquo; I wouldn&rsquo;t want to hear &lsquo;No,&rsquo; of course, but that&rsquo;s the most difficult part.&rdquo;McGeough, 23, fractured and dislocated two vertebrae Oct. 11 in the second period of an American League game&mdash;his third as a pro&mdash;at Sydney, N.S. McGeough became entangled with left winger Nicolas Beaulieu of the Cape Breton Oilers and fell to the ice. He slammed head-first into the boards.&ldquo;When I first got injured, when I first went down, I couldn&rsquo;t feel anything from my waist down,&rdquo; says McGeough. &ldquo;It was completely dead. Obviously, they didn&rsquo;t know if I would ever walk again. The injury is pretty severe.&rdquo;McGeough was removed from the ice on a stretcher and taken to Sydney City Hospital where he underwent spinal fusion surgery, during which metal rods were implanted to stabilize the spinal column. Two days after operating on McGeough, Dr. H.J. Malik, a neurosurgeon, and orthopedist Iain Holmes said there was already some movement in the quadricep muscles in both McGeough&rsquo;s legs. They added McGeough would be immobilized in bed for about three months.On Dec. 6, McGeough was flown to Denver and admitted to renowned Craig Hospital, a private 80-bed rehabilitation center located in the suburb of Englewood that has specialized in treating spinal cord and head injuries since 1955.McGeough underwent a second spinal fusion operation Dec. 28, with doctors implanting bone from his right hip in the spinal column. The original rods were removed and replaced. Four days later, using a special tilt table, McGeough was slowly raised to an upright position. It was the first time he had been beyond horizontal since the accident.&ldquo;I actually didn&rsquo;t have any problem when 1 first sat up,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;1 had no dizziness. It didn&rsquo;t feel any different for me getting up than any other time. It was surprising after being down for so long.&rdquo;His first attempt to stand wasn&rsquo;t nearly as pleasant.Physical therapist Conny McClintock of the Craig Hospital in session. McGeough dislocated two vertebrae during an early-Englewood, Colo., helps Peter McGeough through a therapy season AHL game.&ldquo;They got me to stand up around the fifth or sixth of January,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I was fine for the first 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, I started to get sick to my stomach and I sat down and passed out. The blood just doesn&rsquo;t circulate that well if you haven&rsquo;t been up.&rdquo;That minor setback aside, McGeough continued to move forward. He undergoes therapy every day and is now able to stand and move around with the aid of crutches or a cane. He wears a brace to support his trunk and keep pressure off the spine. That brace prevents him from bending enough to put on his socks and shoes. Aside from that restriction, he was mobile enough and able to care for himself well enough to be discharged from hospital Feb. 4. He lives across the street in outpatient apartments and continues therapy. The Islanders, Springfield&rsquo;s NHL affiliate, are paying for McGeough&rsquo;s care and rehabilitation though no figures were disclosed.In addition to the body brace, he wears supports for his ankles. Though he has regained feeling in his legs, the ankle muscles that lift and lower his feet have not responded to treatment. There is no way to tell whether they ever will.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking for that to come back,&rdquo; says Dr. Thomas Palazy, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist on the Craig staff who is treating McGeough. &ldquo;All we can do is hope that the surgery put the column in good alignment and allowed good space for the cord to heal and do as much healing as it naturally can. There is no way we can increase the healing. It&rsquo;s such very tender tissue. Once it is damaged significantly it has a hard time regenerating.&rdquo;During the three-month period from his original surgery, the 6-foot-l McGeough&rsquo;s weight dropped from 195 to 135 pounds. He has gained back 30 pounds, and is steadily regaining his strength.&ldquo;I just deteriorated,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I lost nine inches on my thighs. I lost three inches on my neck. Your muscles just absolutely atrophy. It falls right off you.&rdquo;In addition to rehabilitation work with other patients, McGeough also rides a stationary bike, swims and uses equipment designed to help him walk and strengthen his hips and leg muscles.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;EVERY TIME I MAKE A STEP&hellip;MY GOALS INCREASE.&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s fairly intense about his program,&rdquo; says Conny McClintock, a physical therapist with 10 years of service at Craig. &ldquo;He&rsquo;dneverin a million years think of missing being in therapy or coming up with an excuse or anything like that. Although, on the other hand, he&rsquo;s the one who is enjoying the muscle return, so it makes some sense.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a special guy all-around. He&rsquo;s a fighter. He&rsquo;s got an awfully good attitude.&rdquo;But will-power alone isn&rsquo;t enough to repair damage to the nervous system.&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t bring himself out of paralysis,&rdquo; McClintock says. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t make a miracle. There was a miracle in the making. His injury was not as severe as others, but he had to work very, very hard within the parameters of his own injury in order to get where he is.&rdquo;Because of his success, McGeough-has become an inspiration to other patients.&ldquo;There are people in here who should be doing a lot better than 1 am, and I happen to be doing better than they are,&rdquo; McGeough says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know whether I&rsquo;m compensating for the things I don&rsquo;t have, or whether it&rsquo;s my athletic background or what it is. A lot of people will say it&rsquo;s the athletic background.&ldquo;Some people in here are not going to improve. They&rsquo;re not going to walk again unless we have a medical miracle. So for some people here they could have the greatest attitude in the world and they&rsquo;re not going to get any better. But when you have the ability to (recover), the positive attitude helps a great deal.&rdquo;In all likelihood, McGeough&rsquo;s recovery will never be complete. It is now a case of how much more progress can be made.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not going to be where it was before,&rdquo; says McClintock. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s definitely suffered a loss. It would be very wrong to act like he was going to be a hockey player again.&rdquo;Complications from McGeough being prone for so long are blood clots in the legs and lungs, fluid congestion in the lungs and bladder infection. All these have since gone away. but&hellip;&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be disabled probably for the rest of my life,&rdquo; says McGeough. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;ll do whatever I can do to make it at least noticeable as possible. If I don&rsquo;t develop any more or progress any more. I&rsquo;ll be able to get around on crutches for the rest of my life.&ldquo;Every time I make a step farther my goals increase. At the beginning, I was just happy to be up, to be on crutches. Now, I&rsquo;m no longer satisfied with that.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0028-01

STEP BY STEP

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>As expected, a minor-pro attendance record was set Feb. 6 when the Adirondack Red Wings defeated the Newmarket Saints 7-4 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.The paid attendance for the AHL regularseason game was 17,446. However, approximately half of the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; 16,000 season-ticket holders who received the game in their ticket package did not attend. The actual attendance was estimated at 9,000. The Red Wings could not provide an exact figure.The previous regular-season record in the AHL was 13,909, set by the Boston Braves during the 1971-72 season. The playoff record of 15,019 was set in May. 1973 for a Calder Cup game between the Cincinnati Mohawks and Nova Scotia Voyageurs in Buffalo. The IHL record of 15,331 was set at Milwaukee Oct. 8, 1988.<h2>DINEEN&rsquo;S 1,000TH</h2>Adirondack coach Bill Dineen coached his 1,000th regular-season game Feb. 8. His Red Wings lost 5-2 to Moncton.Dineen, 56, started his coaching career in 1972 with the Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association. He has been named coach of the year four times in a 13-season career with the Aeros, New England Whalers and Adirondack. After a seven-year WHA career ended in 1978-79, Dineen was out of the coaching ranks until being named to the Adirondack job for the 1983-84 season. The Aeros won four divisional titles and two Avco Cup championships. The Red Wings won the North Division and Calder Cup titles in 1985-86.In 516 seasons with the Red Wings, Dineen was 229-174-51. His overall record in the WHA and AHL was 548-373-79.<h2>GOOD FOR TWO</h2>Center Ken Priestlay is a major reason the Rochester Americans still have playoff hopes.Priestlay, 21, scored a goal and assisted on another in the Amerks&rsquo; 3-3 tie at Sherbrooke Feb. 8 to extend his streak of scoring two or more points to nine games. During the streak, Priestlay was 12-11-23. In 43 games with Rochester, Priestlay was 36-27-63.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01589/5660615-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="705" height="790"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken Priestlay had 23 points in nine games for Rochester.</figcaption></div>The tie at Sherbrooke extended the Amerks&rsquo; unbeaten streak to five games (3-0-2), their longest of the season. It improved their record to 23-30-4 and moved them within one point of fourth-place Utica and the last playoff spot. Rochester started the season with a 10-game losing streak.<h2>IHNACAK UP</h2>Center Peter Ihnacak was recalled from Newmarket Feb. 8, while defenseman Darren Veitch and center Tim Armstrong were assigned to the Saints from Toronto. Ihnacak was 14-16-30 in 38 games&hellip;Baltimore broke a five-game losing streak on the road, winning 7-3 Feb. 5 at Moncton. Rookie goaltender Jim Hrivnak earned the victory, making 29 saves in his pro debut&hellip;Utica right winger Chris Cichocki had a goal and an assist against Hershey Feb. 8, in his first game after missing 17 with a shoulder separation. Nick Kypreos&rsquo; first goal of the season 16 seconds into overtime gave the Bears a4-3 victory. Kypreos missed the first 52 games of the season recovering from knee surgery. &#9632;

f0029-01

ADIRONDACK ‘HOME’ GAME SETS RECORD

<div class="byline">BY BOB WAGNER</div>Not even the NHL&rsquo;s third all-time leading scorer could draw fans to a Denver Ranger game.There were 1,912 people in the 8,100-seat Denver Coliseum Feb. 8 for Marcel Dionne&rsquo;s first minor-pro game, a 6-4 loss to Kalamazoo. Dionne, who requested the Denver assignment Feb. 3, had four shots on goal and no points. In 1,770 NHL games over 18 seasons, he had 731 goals and 1,039 assists.&ldquo;This was very difficult for me because I haven&rsquo;t played in a while,&rdquo; said Dionne, who did not dress for his last eight games on the New York Rangers&rsquo; roster. He was in the penalty box for one Kalamazoo goal and on the ice for four others.&ldquo;These things happen. Things are going to get better.&rdquo;The IHL Rangers, meanwhile, are having their own problems, drawing a league-low average of 2,012 people to the Coliseum through 27 games.There were 1,437 at Denver&rsquo;s 5-3 home win over Fort Wayne Feb. 1. That win ended a 16-game losing streak. The Rangers were on the road for 11 games in January while automobile and stock shows occupied the Coliseum.The win over Fort Wayne began a 14-game homestand, but the fans seemed oblivious. Attendance for a three-game series against the Komets averaged 1,500. Denver won the second game 1-0 Feb. 3 and lost the third 3-1 Feb. 4. The Rangers were third in the West Division with a 21-28-4 record.Weather was one factor hampering attendance. The wind-chill factor dropped temperatures as low as minus-41 Fahrenheit in February. On Feb. 3, a blizzard left eight inches of snow.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02405/5660646-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="554" height="954"><figcaption class="caption-body">Marcel Dionne didn&rsquo;t earn a point in his IHL debut.</figcaption></div>The Rangers are also given short shrift for dates at the Colseum. In March, the club will take to the road for another 11-game trek because every available date has been booked for, among other things, the state high school basketball tournament and a sports trade show.But Richard Gerry, the Rangers&rsquo; director of operations, said rumors of a move out of Denver are premature. The team has two years remaining on its affiliation with New York and has committed to four years in Denver.<h2>HAWKS FLYING</h2>Saginaw Hawks&rsquo; 6-3 win at Peoria Feb. 7 was their 13th straight&mdash;one victory short of the IHL record jointly held by the 1961 Minneapolis Millers and 1959 Fort Wayne Komets. Centers Mike Rucinski (7-18-25) and Steve Ludzik (10-14-24) led the team during the streak. In five games, center Brian Noonan was 5-5-10. Despite winning 16 of 17 games, the 32-15-5 Hawks were second in the East Division, four points behind first-place Muskegon (34-11-5).<h2>GREEN LAND</h2>The ice will be tinted green March 17 in Kalamazoo.And the the faceoff dots will become shamrocks. It&rsquo;s all in celebration of&mdash;what else?&mdash;St. Patrick&rsquo;s Day.During the first St. Patrick&rsquo;s experiment eight years ago, food coloring was used to achieve the tint and the green rubbed off on the uniforms of both teams. Now, a non-run compound called polar ice paint is used.In seven previous St. Patrick&rsquo;s Day games, the Wings averaged 4,426 fans in the 5,113-seat Stadium. The inaugural game drew a standing-room-only 5,446 for a 4-1 win over Muskegon&mdash;the largest of the St. Patrick crowds.The Wings play host to Muskegon for this year&rsquo;s promotion. &#9632;

f0029-02

DENVER DOESN’T DRAW FOR DIONNE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01673/5660677-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Messuri is Princeton&rsquo;s all-time scoring leader, but has not received widespread recognition because the Tigers are usually under.500. (Photo by Rudy Winston)</figcaption></div>Winning, with apologies to Vince Lombardi, is neither everything nor the only thing.But the eight players profiled here would like the chance to find that out for themselves. They are the best players on some of U.S. college hockey&rsquo;s worst teams.Players are listed by name, position, individual statistics (GP-G-A-P, or GP-GAA-Save Percentage), team and overall record (W-L-T).<h2>ECAC</h2>Chris Harvey, G, (17, 5.23,.863), Brown (1-19-0).Harvey chose to attend Brown over Clarkson because he wanted a chance to play. He&rsquo;s received that, and more. Lots more.A 6-foot-2, 192-pound junior goalie, Harvey has played a little less than three seasons for the Bruins, but has already broken the school&rsquo;s record for career saves (2,036). At his current pace, he has a good chance of surpassing the ECAC record for career saves (2,839), set by Bill Milmer of Providence from 1975 to 1979.But winning has been a rare occurrence. His career record is 13-47-0.&ldquo;You have to learn how to deal with the losses, &rsquo; &rsquo; says Harvey. &ldquo;Butl&rsquo;mjust happy to be playing at this level. I wanted to go somewhere where I could play right away.&rdquo;Harvey was chosen by the Boston Bruins in the 1988 supplemental draft.&ldquo;Chris has played a lot of good hockey for us,&rdquo; says first-year Brown coach Bob Gaudet.John Messuri, C, (20-8-30-38), Princeton (5-15-0).The Tigers&rsquo; all-time scoring leader with 166 points (56-110) in 104 games, Messuri has never received his due as one of the top players in the country because the Tigers have continually struggled.This year, injuries have been Princeton&rsquo;s downfall, but the 5-foot-8, 170-pound senior has remained the team leader.&ldquo;John didn&rsquo;t come from the strongest league (Arlington in the Greater Boston League) and I think a lot of people just overlooked him,&rdquo; says Princeton coach John Higgins. &ldquo;He had the opportunity to come in here and play a lot of hockey and he went on to fool a lot of the people who thought he couldn&rsquo;t play at this level.&rdquo;Princeton has never had a.500 season during Messuri&rsquo;s tenure. Overall, since 1985-86, the Tigers were 36-64-4.Riley. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of the first guys on the rink and one of the last guys off it. He&rsquo;s done it all in terms of becoming a good player.&rdquo;Charron, who was Lowell&rsquo;s second-leading point-getter (22-18-40) a year ago, feels he has improved his shot and his quickness this season.&ldquo;But you can&rsquo;t be happy individually if your team isn&rsquo;t doing well,&rdquo; the 5-foot-10, 176-pounder says. &ldquo;This season has been incredible. I&rsquo;ve never been through anything like this.&rdquo;The Chiefs, whose 12-14-0 record (20-17-2 overall) put them in fourth place last season, were expected to fall&mdash;but not this far. In the pre-season coaches&rsquo; poll, they were tabbed for fifth place in the seven-team league.Jeff Lazaro, D, (24-6-10-16), New Hampshire (10-17-0).The speedy junior, a 5-foot-10, 170-pounder, is close to bettering last season&rsquo;s totals of 4-1317 in 30 games.&ldquo;He is a fantastic athlete,&rdquo; says UNH coach Bob Kullen. &ldquo;He has great athletic ability. His feet and hands are exceptional and he&rsquo;s really quick. The thing about him this year is he has settled down and he has played much more relaxed.&rdquo;The Wildcats are actually on the upswing. In Lazaro&rsquo;s first two seasons, they were 8-27-3 and 7-20-3 overall.<h2>CCHA</h2>Craig Fisher, C, (31-20-16-36), Miami (923-0).Fisher, a candidate for CCHA freshman-of-the-year honors, has helped Miami become more competitive this season. But not quite competitive enough. With six games to play, the Redskins were five points behind eighth-placeOhio State for the league&rsquo;s last playoff spot.&ldquo;Things have been going well for me individually,&rdquo; says Fisher, a third-round draft choice of the Philadelphia Flyers in 1988, &ldquo;but my success doesn&rsquo;t mean as much since the team hasn&rsquo;t won a lot.&rdquo;The Redskins haven&rsquo;t made the CCHA playoffs since the 1984-85 season. Close games have killed them this season. They&rsquo;ve lost 12 one-goal games.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got the start of something good here, especially with all of us being so young,&rdquo; says the 6-foot-3, 170-pounder. &ldquo;We just need a couple of wins to get us going. Eleven Miami players have been drafted by NHL teams. We need to keep a positive attitude and the wins will come.&rdquo;Paul Rutherford, C, (31-14-25-39), Ohio State (9-20-3).Though only a sophomore, Rutherford has emerged as one of the Buckeyes&rsquo; big guns.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s my role to score goals and to produce some offense for the team,&rdquo; says the 6-foot, 189-pounder, who leads Ohio State in scoring.But Buckeye coach Jerry Welsh says Rutherford has begun to develop defensively as well. And it&rsquo;s that strong two-way play which could help the Buckeyes return to prominence in the CCHA. Ohio State was one of the stronger CCHA teams during the 1970s and early &rsquo;80s, but has slipped.&ldquo;That runs through your mind,&rdquo; Rutherford says. &ldquo;What would have happened if you would have gone to a school with a better record? But 1 like the challenge of trying to turn the program around here. We&rsquo;ve got the nucleus of a good team here, so we&rsquo;re not far away.&ldquo;Plus, the education you get here is outstanding,&rdquo; adds the finance major. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t beat the academics here.&rdquo;<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>Craig Charron, C, (29-14-18-32), Lowell (7-19-2).The crafty junior&rsquo;s dedication led him to share the team scoring lead with linemate Scott MacPherson.&ldquo;He loves the game,&rdquo; says Lowell coach Bill Riley. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s one ofthe first guys onthe rink and one of the last guys off it. He&rsquo;s done it all in terms of becoming good player.&rdquo;Charron, who was Lowell&rsquo;s second-leading point-getter (22-18-40) year ago, feels he has improved his shot and his quickness this season. &ldquo;But you can&rsquo;t be happy individually if your team isn&rsquo;t doing well,&rdquo; the 5-foot-10, 176-pounder says. &ldquo;This season has been incredible. I&rsquo;ve never been through anything like this.&rdquo;The Chiefs, whose 12-14-0 record (20-17-2 overall) put them in fourth place last season, were expected to fall&mdash;but not this far. In the pre-season coaches&rsquo; poll, they were tabbed for fifth place in the seven-team league.Jeff Lazaro, D, (24-6-10-16), New Hamp-shire (10-17-0).The speedy junior, 5-foot-10, 170-pounder, is close to bettering last season&rsquo;s totals of4-13-17 in 30 games.&ldquo;He is fantastic athlete,&rdquo; says UNH coach Bob Kullen. &ldquo;He has great athletic ability. His feet and hands are exceptional and he&rsquo;s really quick. The thing about him this year is he has settled down and he has played much more relaxed.&rdquo;The Wildcats are actually on the upswing. In Lazaro&rsquo;s first two seasons, they were 8-27-3 and 7-20-3 overall.<h2>WCHA</h2>Steve Strunk, RW, (33-19-20-39), Colorado College (10-21-3).Strunk doesn&rsquo;t get the recognition he deserves because of CC&rsquo;s prolonged presence in last place.A 5-foot-8, 165-pounder from Madison, Wis., Strunk would be a strong candidate for WCHA rookie of the year. But he&rsquo;ll probably be denied in favor of Wisconsin freshman goalie Curtis Joseph, who had the league&rsquo;s second-best GAA (2.43) behind Minnesota&rsquo;s Robb Stauber (2.14).&ldquo;I feel he should be rookie of the year in the WCHA,&rdquo; says Tiger coach Brad Buetow. &ldquo;He has the offense, and for a small guy, he&rsquo;s durable. He plays like a 200-pounder.&rdquo;Strunk is the top-scoring newcomer in the league, and ranks fifth among league scorers overall.Dennis Vaske, D, (31-8-15-23), Minnesota-Duluth (13-20-1).The junior rearguard was drafted higher than any player in Bulldog history.The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder from Armstrong High School in Robbinsdale, Minn., was a second-round pick, 38th overall, of the New York Islanders in the 1986 entry draft. That&rsquo;s higher than 1984 Hobey Baker Award winner Tom Kurvers (145th overall by Montreal, 1981 draft) and 1985 winner Bill Watson (70th overall by Chicago, 1982).Vaske is enjoying his best season personally; he had just nine points in 70 games his first two years at UMD.&ldquo;Dennis made a commitment to the game through weightlifting and keeping himself in shape,&rdquo; says UMD coach Mike Sertich. &ldquo;He plays any role you want, offensively or defensively. Dennis is a player we can count on.&rdquo;With files from Tom Boggie, Kevin Gordon, Larry Mahoney and Virg Foss. &#9632;

f0030-01

GOOD PLAYERS BAD TEAMS

<div class="byline">BY LARRY MAHONEY</div>There is light at the end of the tunnel for New Hampshire.The Wildcats, last place finishers in Hockey East the last three seasons, all but assured themselves of at least a sixth-place finish&mdash;and a playoff berth&mdash;in the seven-team league.A split with second-place Maine&mdash;the Wildcats won 4-3 Feb. 3 and lost 6-4 Feb. 4&mdash;gave them a 7-13-0 record, seven points ahead of Lowell. New Hampshire needed one more point in its last six games to make the playoffs for the first time since 1985-86.The Wildcats&rsquo; seven wins represent their best victory total in four seasons. New Hampshire was 5-27-2 in 1985-86, 5-24-3 in 1986-87 and 6-18-2 in 1987-88.Coach Bob Kullen said a 4-3 overtime loss to powerhouse Harvard on Dec. 10 was one of the turning points to the season.&ldquo;That was a real important game for us,&rdquo; said Kullen. &ldquo;That got us thinking that we weren&rsquo;t as bad as we thought. We really haven&rsquo;t played a bad game in a while even though we&rsquo;ve lost some games.&rdquo;&ldquo;We used to go into games with the idea that we were going to try to keep them close,&rdquo; said junior defenseman Chris Grassie. &ldquo;The Harvard game proved to us what we could do. Now we expect to be in every game and know we have a chance to win it.&rdquo;Sophomore goalie Pat Morrison contributed to the cause with a 6-10-0 record and a 3.99 goals-against average in league play. Overall, Morrison was 8-12-0 with a 4.02 GAA.&ldquo;(Morrison&rsquo;s) goaltending has been very important,&rdquo; said Kullen. &ldquo;Our kids realize if they make a mistake, he&rsquo;ll come up with the save. So they can play more relaxed.&rdquo;Offensively, the Wildcats were led by freshman center Joe Flanagan (21-10-31 in 27 games), junior left winger Dave Aiken (11-16-27 in 27 games) and sophomore right winger Chris Winnes (10-16-26 in 23 games).<h2>PERRON BACK</h2>Maine junior center Guy Perron returned to the Black Bear lineup for the New Hampshire series after missing 11 games with sprained ligaments in his right knee. Perron had three goals and an assist in the series and extended his point-scoring streak to 18 games, one shy of Joe Crespi&rsquo;s school record, set in the 1978-79 season. Perron&rsquo;s totals are recognized by the school even though he missed time due to injury.<h2>RED-HOT TRIO</h2>Providence freshman center Mike Boback scored his second hat trick of the season in a 5-2 win over Lowell Feb. 7. In 18 games, the line of Boback, junior left winger Rick Bennett and freshman right winger Rob Gaudreau had 38 goals and 52 assists. Bennett was 10-21-31, Gaudreau 13-17-30 and Boback 15-14-29.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01622/5660708-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="540" height="775"><figcaption class="caption-body">Providence&rsquo;s Mike Boback scored his second hat trick.</figcaption></div><h2>IN THE BOX</h2>Northeastern was well on its way to leading the league in penalty minutes for the third time in five years. The Huskies, who led the league with 694 penalty minutes in 34 games in 1984-85 and 552 in 26 games last season, had 522 minutes in 22 games this season. Lowell was second with 437 minutes in 21 games, followed by Providence (418 in 20), Boston University (408 in 21), Maine (350 in 20), Boston College (284 in 20) and New Hampshire (210 in 20). The league average was 375.6 minutes in 20.6 games. &#9632;

f0031-01

WILDCATS CLOSE IN ON ELUSIVE PLAYOFF BERTH

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN GORDON</div>Michigan State Spartans, ranked No. 1 in the nation, have all but clinched their third regular-season title in five years, but another state school is making some noise of its own.The 12th-ranked Michigan Wolverines were 7-0-1 in their last eight games. With a 12-4-1 road record, they had already tied the school record for road wins set in 1976-77.&ldquo;Our team has really improved,&rdquo; said Michigan coach Red Berenson. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing very consistently and that&rsquo;s good for us because we have to extend ourselves every game to be competitive and have a chance to win. We&rsquo;ve been in a lot of close games and we&rsquo;re finding ways to win. We&rsquo;re playing smart, patient hockey.&rdquo;The Wolverines were just 8-7-3 at Christmas, but surged after winning the Great Lakes Invitational tournament with a 6-5 overtime victory over North Dakota in the championship game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02431/5660739-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="552" height="688"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rod Schluter tied a Ferris State shorthanded-goal record.</figcaption></div>Warren Sharpies (15-7-2 record, 3.61 goals-against average) had the league&rsquo;s third-best GAA behind Lake Superior&rsquo;s Bruce Hoffort (2.77) and Michigan State&rsquo;s Jason Muzzatti (2.55).First place, however, is out of reach for the Wolverines. With only four league games left, Michigan (15-9-4. 17-11-4 overall) was nine points behind the Spartans (21-4-1, 26-5-1). The only team with a chance to catch Michigan State was third-place Lake Superior State, which was 10 points behind with six games remaining.<h2>NOT ENOUGH</h2>Ohio State senior goalie Roger Beedon made 50 saves but the Buckeyes lost 4-2 to Michigan State Feb. 4. Beedon made 28 saves in the second period&hellip;Ferris State senior center Rod Schluter scored his fifth shorthanded goal of the season during a 2-2 tie at Lake Superior Feb. 4. That tied the school record held by current Ferris assistant coach Tom Rudrud, who set the mark in 1982-83. Schluter&rsquo;s 12 career shorthanded goals already are a Ferris record&hellip;Bowling Green moved over the.500 mark with a pair of wins over Miami&mdash;7-1 Feb. 3 and 6-1 Feb. 4. The Falcons, 4-0-1 in their last five, were in fifth place with a 14-13-1 league record. The Falcons were 20-13-1 overall. &#9632;

f0031-02

PIECES FALL INTO PLACE FOR MICHIGAN

AHL: Max Middendorf, Halifax. Five goals, three assists in three games.IHL: Kevin Evans, Kalamazoo. Four Goals, four assists in three games.QMJHL: MichelPicard, Trois-Rivieres. Seven goals, five assists in four games.OHL: Jeff Waver, Kingston. Five goals, two assists in two games.WHL: Fred Chabot, Prince Albert. Three games played, four goals against.Hockey East: Mark Romaine, Providence. Two games played, four goals against.For the period Feb. 6-12<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01658/5660770-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="154" height="255"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kevin Evans</figcaption></div>ECAC: Craig Woodcroft, Colgate. Five goals, one assist in two games.CCHA: Mike Williams, Ferris State. Two games played, threegoals against.WCHA: Jay Moore, Denver. One goal, three assists in two games.AUAA: Allan Macl-saac, St. Francis Xavier. Three goals, four assists in three games.OUAA: Brian Glenney, Brock. Three goals, two assists in two games.CWUAA: Carl Repp, British Columbia. Two games played, three goals against.Major junior players are eligible for the THN-Micron-Mega Junior Player of the Year award. U.S. college players are eligible for the THN-Bauer U.S. College Player of the Year award Canadian university players are eligible for the THN-Bauer Canadian University Player of the Year award. &#9632;

f0032-01

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>Derek Pizzey performed a rare feat for the Colorado College Tigers Feb. 4.The senior goalie made 28 saves to shut out Northern Michigan 3-0 and became the first Tiger goalie to post a Western Collegiate Hockey Association shutout in more than 20 years. The last Colorado College goalie to do it was Bill Howard, who beat Minnesota 4-0 Nov. 27, 1965. Howard is now an assistant coach at Wisconsin.The Tigers&rsquo; last non-conference shutout came Dec. 12, 1982 when Dale Peterson beat Northern Arizona 6-0.The Tigers&rsquo; feat was even more remarkable considering they shut down the WCHA&rsquo;s highest-scoring team. Going into the game, the Broncos had scored 147 goals in 30 games, an average of almost five per contest.The shutout was the first of Piz-zey&rsquo;s WCHA career and a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing season. Pizzey was 5-16-3 with a 4.29 goals-against average for the last-place Tigers.The win was only the Tigers&rsquo; hird at home this season, where they were 3-12-1. Colorado College was 7-9-on the road after winning only one away game last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02477/5660801-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="568" height="940"><figcaption class="caption-body">Derek Pizzey earned his first WCHA shutout.</figcaption></div><h2>CHAMPS AGAIN</h2>Minnesota clinched its second straight regular-season league title Feb. 4 and joined a select group in the process.Only four other schools have won two straight crowns: Minnesota-Duluth (1983-84 and 1984-85); North Dakota (1978-79 and 1979-80), Denver (1971-72 and 1972-73, 1962-63 and 1963-64, 1959-60 and 1960-61) and Michigan Tech (1964-65 and 1965-66). Minnesota-Duluth also won consecutive titles in 1952-53 and 1953-54 when the league was known as the Western Intercollegiate Hockey Association.No school has won three straight regular-season championships.The Gophers clinched the title with a 6-3 win over Michigan Tech after beating the Huskies 7-3 the night before. With four WCHA games remaining, the 24-5-2 Gophers led second-place Northern Michigan (18-11-2) by 12 points.<h2>EXTRA WORK</h2>Wisconsin has played in a school record lOovertime games this season. The Badgers were 2-3-5 in OT&hellip;A1) 15,600 seats in the St. Paul Civic Center are sold for each of the four games in the NCAA Division I tournament March 30 to April 1. It&rsquo;s the first time both the semi-finals and finals have been sold out for an NCAA hockey tournament. &#9632;

f0032-02

PIZZEY ENDS SHUTOUT DROUGHT FOR TIGERS

<div class="byline">BY TOM BOGGIE</div>Realistically, the Colgate Red Raiders have no chance of catching either first-place Harvard or second-place St. Lawrence in the Eastern College Athletic Conference standings.With six regular-season games left for each team, the Red Raiders trailed the Crimson by nine points and the Saints by five. But they led Cornell by a point and Clarkson by three in the race for third.The Red Raiders cite four reasons they think they have the inside track.Starr Rink, Scott Young, Dave Gagnon and their shorthanded play.&bull; Home-ice advantage took on a whole new meaning at Starr Rink, home of the Red Raiders, this season. After a sweep of Clarkson (8-5 Feb. 3) and St. Lawrence (4-1 Feb. 4), the Red Raiders were 10-0 at home. Only Princeton&mdash;who beat the Red Raiders 4-3 Jan. 30,1988&mdash;has won a game at Starr Rink the last two years. The Red Raiders play four of their last six at home.&bull; Young, a senior defenseman, is having a record-setting season. He&rsquo;s already established a school career record for goals by a defenseman (34) and went into the final six regularseason games with 12 goals, just one shy of the single-season record for goals by a defenseman he set as a sophomore.He&rsquo;s also one of the most penalized players in the league. This year he had 119 penalty minutes after 23 games and with 364 career minutes, was making a run at the school record of 387, set by Dan Fridgen from 1978-79 to 1981-82. Fridgen is now an assistant coach at Union College.&bull; Colgate&rsquo;s shorthanded play continued to victimize opposing teams, as the Red Raiders scored 17 shorthanded goals in 23 games this season. Freshman left winger Jason Greyerbiehl and junior right winger Marc Dupere led the shorthanded unit with four goals each.&bull; Gagnon helped the Red Raiders to an 1 lth-place national ranking with a 14-8-1 record and a 3.47 goals-against average. In the 8-5 win over Clarkson Feb. 3, the sophomore goalie picked up two assists. He had four assists in 15 games this year.<h2>HE&rsquo;S BACK</h2>A case of role reversal helped RPI senior defenseman Rob Schena reestablish himself as one of the premier defensemen in the league this season.Schena, a native of Melrose, Mass., had a great freshman season under the guidance of All-American Mike Dark, going 0-6-6 in 32 games. But he struggled defensively during both his sophomore and junior years.This year, Schena helped his defensive partner, freshman Todd Hilditch make the transition to Division I hockey. By putting his focus on Hilditch&rsquo;s development, Schena is playing a much more relaxed game. After 24 games this season, Schena was 5-4-9 and Hilditch was 1-0-1 after 21 games.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re trying to lead, you don&rsquo;t want to be the guy who gives up the game-winning goal,&rdquo; said Schena, who had the first two-goal game of his career in RPI&rsquo;s 5-4 loss to Yale Feb. 4. &ldquo;You want to be the backbone of the team. It&rsquo;s really role reversal, where I&rsquo;m the Mike Dark and he&rsquo;s the Rob Schena, and it&rsquo;s helped me a lot.&rdquo;Schena, a ninth-round choice of the Detroit Red Wings in 1985, has drawn a change in attitude from RPI coach Mike Addesa.&ldquo;Detroit asked me about Schena before the year started,&rdquo; said Addesa. &ldquo;They asked me if I thought he was a prospect, and I said I thought he was more of a suspect. But now, he&rsquo;s clearly a prospect.&rdquo;<h2>O&rsquo;NEILL HOT</h2>Senior goalie Mike O&rsquo;Neill of Yale was in net as the Elis won six of seven to move into a tie with Vermont for eighth place. O&rsquo;Neill was 8-9-1 with a 3.47 GAA&hellip;Last-place Brown lost its 18th and 19th straight games when the Bruins dropped a 2-0 decision to RPI Feb. 3 and lost 8-4 to Vermont Feb. 4. The school record for consecutive losses is 25, set between 1959-60 and 1960-61.. Dartmouth&rsquo;s playoff hopes suffered a serious blow when senior center Derek Tweddell broke his jaw and was lost for the remainder of the season in a 5-1 win over Army Feb. 3. Twedell, 9-12-21 in 15 games, was Dartmouth&rsquo;s leading scorer. After 16 league games Dartmouth was in seventh place with a 6-9-record. &#9632;

COLGATE PLANS TO FINISH THIRD

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01584/5660856-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Toronto coach George Armstrong, left, GM Frank Bonello and defenseman Bob Dailey, right, take the Memorial Cup on parade in 1973. (Photo courtesy of The Toronto Sun)</figcaption></div>Ever since her mother introduced her to the Toronto Marlboros 30 years ago, Evelyn McLean has been a fan, occupying the same seat for games at Maple Leaf Gardens.And unlike thousands who have turned off juniorhockey in Toronto, 43-year-old Evelyn McLean never left her beloved Marlies.Now, they are leaving her. And she doesn&rsquo;t know what to do with her Saturday and Sunday afternoons next season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very sad feeling, it feels like I&rsquo;m losing a friend,&rdquo; says McLean. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m really going to miss this place.&rdquo;The sad fact for the Marlies&mdash;an institution in Canadian junior hockey&mdash;is there aren&rsquo;t enough Eveyln McLeans. Not near enough.So at the end of this season, the Marlies will die a painless death at the age of 63, a victim of economic reality. Part of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd., the Marlies (the franchise but not the name) were sold by owner Harold Ballard to Hamilton interests Oct. 18. From now until the transaction closes May 15, the tradition-rich Marlies will play but their last Ontario League season in obscurity.Even on their death bed, few have come by the cavernous Gardens to pay their last respects. Drawing an average of 1,545 in the 16,182-seat building last season, the Marlies are under 1,000 for paid per-game attendance this season. One mid-week game drew 300.&ldquo;Sure, it&rsquo;s disappointing, but when you look at the figures and the numbers of people coming, it&rsquo;s pretty tough to feel sad,&rdquo; says Marlboros&rsquo; business manager Roger Lajoie. &ldquo;Saying the Marlies have struggled financially is a polite way of saying the team lost a great deal of money. I don&rsquo;t have the figures but I know the losses have hit six figures the last couple of seasons.&ldquo;Everyone&rsquo;s asking, &lsquo;Why now, why this year?&rsquo; My question is, &lsquo;What took so long? Why did Mr. Ballard stay with the team so long?&rsquo;&rdquo;Once upon a time the hockey fans of Toronto responded in droves to the junior product. During the peak of their popularity in the 1950s and 60s, it wasn&rsquo;t unusual for a Sunday afternoon doubleheader with rival St. Michael&rsquo;s College to draw SRO crowds.Frank Bonello, the team&rsquo;s general manager for 17 years, says people&rsquo;s tastes have changed.&ldquo;Even in the mid-70s when we were winning Memorial Cups we weren&rsquo;t drawing that well,&rdquo; says Bonello, who became director of the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau this season.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s anyone who feels good about selling the team, but from a business standpoint it had to be done. If this team had been owned under different circumstances, there&rsquo;s no way the owners would have put up with it this long.&ldquo;The city of Toronto has grown in leaps and bounds and everything has become very professional. It seems junior hockey just got lost somewhere. When I was growing up you could never get a ticket for a Leaf game because all the adults had them. Now you see 4,000 or 5,000 kids at a Leaf game and these are the kids who&rsquo;d normally be coming to a Marlie game.&rdquo;Since the Marlies won their last Memorial Cup in 1975, the product hasn&rsquo;t been great. Toronto has only advanced to the Leyden Division final once, losing to Ottawa in 1983-84. Since then, the Marlies have failed to win a single playoff series. This season&rsquo;s team, with NHL first-round draft picks Chris Govedaris (Hartford) and Rob Cimetta (Boston), was 24-24-3 and in fifth place in the seven-team Leyden Division.Lajoie wonders if even a winning team would matter.OHL commissioner Dave Branch disagrees. He says Toronto could have a franchise back as early as 1990-91. The city of North York, part of Metropolitan Toronto, has an 1,800-seat arena and could add 1,000 seats. And the league is looking into other local venues. Branch adds.&ldquo;Everything is very preliminary but we&rsquo;ve had two groups approach us already,&rdquo; says Branch. &ldquo;I feel it&rsquo;s necessary for our league to have a presence in Toronto. It&rsquo;s the media center of Canada and there&rsquo;s great interest in hockey there.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0033-01

END OF AN ERA

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01668/5660953-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01635/5660946-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="3030" height="2880"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01604/5660939-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="3094" height="3184"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01523/5660932-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="3094" height="1256"></div><h2>SCOREBOARD</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02383/5660925-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="3036" height="2203"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01611/5660918-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="1212" height="3560"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02474/5660911-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="1820" height="2364"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

1. Which NHL general manager is also an American League general manager?2. Which International League team could win its third straight Turner Cup title this season?3. What two teams met in the first game between an NHL and Soviet club?4. The IHL&rsquo;s Fort Wayne Komets are affiliated with four NHL teams. Name them.5. What former Detroit Red Wing is head coach at Cornell?6. What former Pittsburgh, Atlanta and Washington player is an assistant coach at McGill University in Montreal?7. What former Indianapolis Racer netminder coaches the goaltenders for Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto?8. Which U.S. college did Hobey Baker play for?9. Who is the only member of the Triple Crown line still with the Los Angeles Kings?10. What former NHL head coach is now an assistant coach at the University of Guelph?ANSWER: 1. Gord Stellick (Toronto and Newmarket). 2. Salt Lake City. 3. Red Army 7, New York Rangers 3 (Dec. 28, 1975). 4. Winnipeg, Washington, Quebec, Edmonton. 5. Brian McCutcheon. 6. Jean Pronovost. 7. Jim Park. 8. Princeton. 9. Dave Taylor. 10. Aldo Guidolin. BONUS ANSWER: Kevin McCarthy.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03384/5660984-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="555" height="841"><figcaption class="caption-body">BONUS QUESTION: He was the Flyers&rsquo; first pick (17th overall) in 1977.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0038-03

TRIVIA

f0039-01

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01257/5661060-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="458" height="632"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE MOLINARI</figcaption></div>Everyone knows hockey writers have all the answers. It&rsquo;s just that sometimes we have to wait for the right questions to come along.Some, of course, take longer for us to sort out than others. Like, do argyle socks go with plaid pants and a striped sports jacket? We&rsquo;ve selected a blue-ribbon panel of our peers to study that one, but so far, they can&rsquo;t figure out what to wear with that color of ribbon.Still, lots of questions and their attendant answers have passed before us in the first four months of this season.Can Mario Lemieux win another scoring championship? (Yes.) Were the New Jersey Devils for real last spring? (No.) Just what game is Toronto trying to play out there? (Data imcom-plete.)We now know that circumstances in Chicago have forced Mike Keenan to take on a new title&mdash;hockey coach&mdash;after serving as demigod genius in Philadelphia.We know Ron Asselstine is the best bodychecker to pass through this league in decades.We know the fight for fourth place in the Smythe Division will be as scintillating as an evening of low-stakes Parcheesi with the inlaws.We know now this is a league on the move, having seen Calgary and Montreal go crazy, New Jersey go in circles and the Islanders go right down the drain.Still, there are lots of pressing questions to be answered in the final weeks of the season as teams prepare for the playoffs. Some of the more important ones are&hellip;&#9632; Did Don Koharski ever have another doughnut?&#9632; If things don&rsquo;t work out with the Devils, will Jim Schoenfeld try to get a job as nutrition adviser to the officials&rsquo; union?&#9632; Don&rsquo;t you wish Wayne Gretzky was named MVP of the All-Star Game by virtue of a typically breathtaking performance, rather than by default?&#9632; How is it that Dan Maloney became such an awful coach just a few years after he was such a brilliant one? Could that mean that maybe, just maybe, it&rsquo;s not a coincidence the good coaches tend to be the ones with good players?&#9632; Wasn&rsquo;t it a shame when the hardest slap shot competition scheduled for the All-Star Game had to be cancelled because the radar gun that was supposed to clock the shots couldn&rsquo;t be worked properly? Aren&rsquo;t we lucky the NBA&rsquo;s slam dunk competition didn&rsquo;t meet a similar fate because, say, they couldn&rsquo;t get the basketballs inflated?&#9632; Does anyone still care to dispute the importance of Denis Potvin to the Islanders, now that New York&mdash;about 10 months removed from a Patrick Division championship&mdash;has no hope of competing for anything but the first choice in the entry draft?&#9632; Is there a factory somewhere in North America that does nothing except produce cars for Wayne Gretzky to win? And will he refuse to retire until he has given at least one to every family member, neighbor, teammate and casual acquaintance?&#9632; Is everyone suitably shocked to hear the Philadelphia Flyers, who have protested so loudly and so long that they are unfairly characterized as an unfriendly bunch on the ice, are marketing a cologne called Bully? Or is the name not what we cynics think, and actually a tribute to Mike Bullard?&#9632; Do NHL officials really believe an animated, hour-long commercial for a car company qualifies as a press conference? If not, why did they call it that when it happened the day before the All-Star Game?&#9632; Has anyone gotten reaction yet from the guy who actually is able to see games carried on SportsChannel?&#9632; Can anyone deny the greatness of this game when you see how long it has endured despite the kind of decisions consistently made by the people who run the NHL?&#9632; Why isn&rsquo;t Pierre Creamer coaching above the high school level, and could this be an indication a mutant strain of the rare goodjudgment virus has infected people in management throughout hockey?&#9632; Why? Why not? Who cares?Answers to the above questions appear elsewhere on these pages.If they are not in your copy, please address all threatening correspondence to Robert (Spuds) McKenzie, Grand Poobah In Charge Of Pretty Much Everything. &#9632;

f0042-01

PRESSING QUESTIONS WHICH MUST BE ANSWERED

<h2>WHALERS</h2>Ivan Lendl, the No. 1-ranked tennis player in the world and a member of the Whalers&rsquo; board of directors, said he may try to land some players for the team. He said at the All-Star Game Feb. 7 he would try to use his influence in his native land to find out what Czechoslovakian players the Whalers could draft and would be released to play&hellip; Left winger John Anderson scored his first hat trick since March 18, 1986 in a 7-3 rout of Winnipeg Feb. 11&hellip; Center Dallas Gaume, mired in Binghamton for three seasons, was recalled because of injuries and scored his first NHL goal Feb. 9 in a 5-2 victory over Buffalo.<h2>BRUINS</h2>Defensemen Michael Thelven and Glen Wesley were assessed major stick infractions and automatic game misconducts in the Bruins&rsquo; 5-2 win over Edmonton Feb. 11. Referee Bob Myers tagged Thelven with a crosschecking major for hitting Jari Kurri in the back of the head in the first period. Wesley was called in the second period for spearing Craig Simpson. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great rule,&rdquo; Bruin defenseman Ray Bourque said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d just like to see it called on the opposition sometimes. We&rsquo;ve had guys cut or hurt three or four times and nothing was called.&rdquo;&hellip;The Bruins met Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky in back to-back games at the Garden and held the duo to just one point, an assist by Lemieux. Pittsburgh beat the Bruins 5-2 Feb. 5 and Boston beat L.A. 4-1 Feb. 9&hellip; Jay Miller, playing in his first game as a King at Boston Garden, inadvertently knocked two of Keith Crowder&rsquo;s teeth out with his stick. Crowder was down on the ice when Miller skated by and clipped him.<h2>CANADIENS</h2>Right winger Russ Courtnall would like to improve his goal total in the last third of the season. &ldquo;Offensively, I think I have had some tough luck around the net,&rdquo; said Courtnail, whose 14th goal of the season gave the Habs a 5-0 lead and then proved to be the game-winner in a 5-4 win over New Jersey Feb. 11. &ldquo;I should have a lot more goals than I have. Offensively I haven&rsquo;t accomplished what I would have liked.&rdquo; Courtnail was 14-10-24 in 51 games this season&hellip;Canadiens&rsquo; coach Pat Burns doesn&rsquo;t like the idea of people putting pressure on right winger Stephane Richer by saying he is the key to the playoffs. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing well now, leave him alone,&rdquo; said Bums. &ldquo;Let him play.&rdquo; Richer scored his 17th and 18th goals of the season against New Jersey. He was 18-27-45 after 47 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-03143/5661129-1-eng-US/f0042-032.jpg" title="f0042-03" width="552" height="640"><figcaption class="caption-body">Russ Courtnall figured he should have more than 14 goals.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-04111/5661122-1-eng-US/f0042-042.jpg" title="f0042-04" width="554" height="724"><figcaption class="caption-body">Daren Puppa could be sidelined longer than expected.</figcaption></div><h2>SABRES</h2>Goaltender Daren Puppa said he wasn&rsquo;t sure whether he&rsquo;d be back be fore the end of the regular season. When he broke his arm Jan. 27 against Montreal, the prognosis was he&rsquo;d be out six weeks&hellip;The Sabres reportedly expressed an interest in former Minnesota goaltender Don Beaupre but backed off when the Washington Capitals, who currently hold his rights, asked for defenseman Brad Miller in return. Miller was the Sabres&rsquo; first pick in the second round of the 1987 entry draft, the 22nd player taken overall&hellip;The Sabres&rsquo; 5-2 loss to Hartford Feb. 9 gave the Whalers a lock on the season series. Hartford led 5-1 with two games remaining.<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>Left winger Anton Stastny agreed to return to the Halifax Citadels of the American League after meeting with Nordique general manager Martin Madden Feb. 9. Stastny, who was sent down Jan. 19, left the team Feb. 3 and returned to Quebec City after scoring five goals and four assists in eight games. Upon his return from the Czechoslovian under-18 championships, Madden met with Stastny and both agreed he would return to Halifax. Stastny was in uniform for the Citadels Feb. 12 when they defeated Binghamton 8-1. He was held pointless&hellip;Defenseman Jari Gron-strand suffered a fractured cheekbone after being hit in the face by a shot in the Nords&rsquo; 5-2 loss to Pittsburgh Feb. 9. Grondstrand&rsquo;s replacement, Greg Smyth, who was recalled from Halifax the next day, was assessed two majors for fighting and a game misconduct in his first game, an 8-1 win over the Penguins Feb. 11. &#9632;

f0042-03

LENDL MAY SCOUT TALENT FOR WHALERS

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>Montreal left winger Mike McPhee struck a blow for plumbers in the National Hockey League in Edmonton Feb. 7.The soft-spoken man from Riviere Bourgeois, N.S., got a chance to play in the All-Star Game&mdash;a rare treat for a defense-oriented player.&ldquo;I still don&rsquo;t consider myself an all-star,&rdquo; said McPhee, who replaced injured teammate Mats Naslund on the Wales Conference club. Naslund. voted to the starting lineup in fan balloting, was sidelined with a sprained ankle.&ldquo;Mats obviously deserved to go,&rdquo; said McPhee. &ldquo;I feel honored to have been chosen to replace Mats. I feel there are a lot better left wingers in the league than myself.&rdquo;McPhee is not going to be a 40-or 50-goal scorer in the NHL. That&rsquo;s not his style nor is it his job with the Canadiens. While he is enjoying one of his finest offensive seasons in Montreal&mdash;he had 16 goals and 16 assists in 58 games&mdash;the accepted role for McPhee is that of a plumber.&ldquo;I think it was real good for the plumbers that I was there,&rdquo; said McPhee. &ldquo;It is not too often that a defensive player gets to play in an All-Star Game.&ldquo;I was a little nervous. I wasn&rsquo;t nervous that I wouldn&rsquo;t be able to keep up with the play. I play against these guys all the time. I knew I could blend in well enough to get by. without standing out as a guy who shouldn&rsquo;t be there. I felt confident with my play and my speed and ability to keep up with the play.McPhee never dreamed he would have an opportunity to participate in a contest with the NHL&rsquo;s elite.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have these memories when I retire,&rdquo; said McPhee, noting that it is still not the biggest thrill of his NHL career. He was a member of the Stanley Cup-winning Canadiens in 1986.&ldquo;The main goal of all players in the National Hockey League is the Stanley Cup and I think that anyone would trade an All-Star Game for one any time.&ldquo;Still, it was a great honor for me just being there.&rdquo;McPhee was the subject of controversy once the Canadiens returned to league play Feb. 11. With 2:19 left in the Habs&rsquo; 5-4 home victory over New Jersey Feb. 11, Devils&rsquo; coach Jim Schoenfeld requested a measurement of McPhee&rsquo;s stick blade. Schoenfeld thought it exceeded the maximum three-inch width.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01259/5661160-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="705" height="715"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike McPhee&rsquo;s stick came under suspicion against New Jersey.</figcaption></div>The stick was ruled legal and the Devils were tagged with a delay-of-game minor which killed their momentum. New Jersey rallied from a 5-0 deficit in the contest only to lose by the one-goal margin.&ldquo;It just looks big,&rdquo; McPhee said of the stick. &ldquo;The entire blade of the stick is the maximum three inches high. Most sticks are three inches just near the blade, so they don&rsquo;t look as big.&rdquo;<h2>MONTREAL</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC&mdash;Bobby Smith, Brian Skrudland, Guy Carbon-neau, Gilles Thibaudeau, Brent Gilchrist.LW&mdash;Mats Naslund, Mike McPhee, Ryan Walter, Shayne Corson, Steven Martinson.RW&mdash;Mike Keane, Claude Lemieux, Russ Courtnall, Stephane RicherLD&mdash;Craig Ludwig, Larry Robinson, Petr Svoboda.RD&mdash;Chris Chelios, Jyrki Lumme. Rick Green, Eric Desjardins.G&mdash;Patrick Roy, Brian Hayward.INJURIESBob Gainey, LW. broken right foot, indefinite. &#9632;

f0043-01

‘PLUMBER’ McPHEE GETS MOMENT IN SPOTLIGHT

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>They dropped the axe on Buffalo Sabre captain Lindy Ruff Feb. 10, excluding him from the lineup for a home game against the Vancouver Canucks.Ruff countered by dropping a bombshell Feb. 13, resigning as team captain.&ldquo;I gave it back, no ifs, ands or buts,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s totally my decision. Ted (coach Sator) wanted me to keep it, but my own morals stood in the way.&rdquo;A new captain wasn&rsquo;t expected to be named for a few games. Heading into a Feb. 14 game in Pittsburgh, the Sabres were going with alternates Mike Foligno, Phil Housley and Mike Ramsey.Housley served as captain during Ruff s absence from the lineup.Ruff was deeply hurt by the benching.&ldquo;(It) was really hard,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They ripped a piece right out of me and it will be hard to replace. I&rsquo;ll remember this for a long while.&rdquo;He cited the benching when he give up the captaincy.&ldquo;If the team is in need of an on-ice leader, they must have been disappointed to see their captain sitting on the bench.&rdquo;The 29-year-old defenseman-winger was not dressed while the Sabres were struggling through a four-game losing streak. Ruff returned Feb. 12 and had an assist in Buffalo&rsquo;s 5-2 home win against the St. Louis Blues.He played his usual robust game against the Blues and drew praise from Sator, but most of it fell on deaf ears.&ldquo;They (management) know how I feel,&rdquo; said Ruff. &ldquo;I told them that and I won&rsquo;t discuss that with you guys (media).&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t use one game as an example, but of course I was happy with the way I played tonight. I feel 1 contributed again and it was great just to be involved again. Getting out every second or third shift, where you can get a little rhythm in the game, means a lot.&ldquo;Every team goes through a cycle. To single me out was&hellip;maybe they overplayed it, but it hurt me. I said before it hurt me. I don&rsquo;t know what more I can say.&rdquo;Ruff had never been removed from the lineup for reasons other than injury or suspension since he assumed the captaincy in November, 1986.Sabre general manager Gerry Meehan said the situation was &ldquo;delicate&rdquo; and &ldquo;the only thing I can say is that the coaches are trying to win hockey games as best they can.&rdquo;That seemed to indicate a deferral to the coaches, but Sator hinted otherwise.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t make any lineup decisions without talking it through the entire management team. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s fair sometimes in the coaching ranks to make those kinds of autocratic decisions. Obviously there are some repercussions and we wanted to balance them off.&ldquo;The bottom line is, that at the time of the lineup decision, we weren&rsquo;t exactly coming in off a successful swing of games. We were trying to do something to get the Buffalo Sabres back on track. If it put the Buffalo Sabres back on track, then so be it. It certainly was not done as an embarrassment or a signal or anything else. That simply was not the case.&rdquo;Asked if the benching was an attempt to wake up the team, Sator said: &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t embarrass a professional, not a guy like Lindy. He&rsquo;s been the heart and soul of the Buffalo Sabres, period. He stepped out for one game. Period. The way he came back to play and the play of the veterans, I think they sent a signal back to the Buffalo Sabres, to tell us they&rsquo;re here for the long run.&rdquo;<h2>BUFFALO</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC&mdash;Pierre Turgeon, Christian Ruuttu, Jeff Parker, Benoit Hogue.LW&mdash;Scott Arniel, Dave Andreychuk, Mike Hartman.RW&mdash;Mark Napier. Ray Sheppard, Kevin Maguire, Mike Foligno, Rick Vaive.LD&mdash;Doug Bodger, Joe Reekie, Mike Ramsey. Larry Playfair, Lindy Ruff.RD&mdash;Shawn Anderson, Calle Johansson, Uwe Krupp.Gt&mdash;Jacques Cloutier, Darcy Wakaluk.INJURIESPhil Housley. D, bruised ankle, day-to-day.Jan Ludvig, RW, knee, indefinite.Daren Puppa, G, broken arm, indefinite.John Tucker, C, back, indefinite. &#9632;

RUFF RESIGNS CAPTAINCY AFTER BENCHING

<div class="byline">BY KAREN GUREGIAN</div>Take the rotor out of the engine&mdash;the car doesn&rsquo;t work. Take the defensemen out of Boston&rsquo;s lineup&mdash;the Bruins don&rsquo;t work.Life with four of the team&rsquo;s best defensemen out of action wasn&rsquo;t a particularly moving experience for the Bruins, who tumbled from second to third place in the Adams Division during the prolonged absences of Ray Bourque, Michael Thelven and Allen Pedersen. The fourth, Gord Kluzak. has yet to play this season.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t wish it on anybody-&hellip;except the other teams in our division,&rdquo; coach Terry O&rsquo;Reilly said with a smile.With the recent returns of Bourque. Thelven and Pedersen, however, the Bruins showed signs of playing like the Stanley Cup finalists of last year. Following the all-star break, they posted impressive wins over Los Angeles Feb. 9 and Edmonton Feb. 11 to move back into second place.&ldquo;Experience on the blue line is an absolute must,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Reilly said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you this: It would have been nice to come at Edmonton in the finals last year and have them with four of their best defensemen out. Or take. say. (Rick) Green. (Larry) Robinson. (Chris) Chclios and (Petr) Svoboda out of the Montreal lineup. It would be devastating. What you have is a situation like those mechanical hockey games, the ones where the players go up and down in their slots. The forwards can only come back so far. Then their slots stop.&rdquo;Opposing teams used a simple strategy against the Bruins&rsquo; inexperienced defensemen. They dumped the puck in and got on top of them in a hurry. It worked, time and again.&ldquo;The forwards are out waiting for that one pass&mdash;but if that pass isn&rsquo;t made quickly and cleanly, it&rsquo;s a turnover.&rdquo; O&rsquo;Reilly said. &ldquo;Having these guys back improves our defense, and also generates offense. Stop the play defensively&mdash;then turn it into offense.&rdquo;The Bruins have done just that. They shut down high-scoring Los Angeles, outshooting the Kings 32-19 en route to a 4-1 victory. They gave Edmonton the same treatment, outshooting them 40-27 in a 5-2 triumph. The Bruins performed so well they boiled over with renewed optimism.&ldquo;I think we finally have something going here.&rdquo; Keith Crowder said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re starting to dominate play like we did to get to the finals last year. We&rsquo;re playing with a lot of confidence, and a lot of discipline. It&rsquo;s just a matter of us keeping it.&rdquo;Andy Brickley said the team shouldn&rsquo;t have used the missing defensemen as a crutch for poor performances. But it&rsquo;s not something to be overlooked, since the Bruins have started winning with the blueliners back.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just your state of mind.&rdquo; Brickley said. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re one of 12 forwards and know that four of your best defensemen are out. you play like you&rsquo;re walking on eggshells. You&rsquo;re afraid to get caught up ice.&rdquo;<h2>BOSTON</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 10: Paul Beraldo, RW. assigned to Maine (AHL).Feb. 11: Lyndon Byers, RW, recalled from Maine.ROSTERC&mdash;Ken Linseman. Craig Janney, Andy Brickley. Bob Sweeney.LW&mdash;Bob Joyce, John Carter. Randy Burridge. Tommy Lehmann.RW&mdash;Cam Neely, Keith Crowder. Greg Johnston, Lyndon Byers.LD&mdash;Glen Wesley, Allen Pedersen, Bruce Shoebottom.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque. Garry Galley. Greg Hawgood. Michael Thelven.G&mdash;Andy Moog, Reggie Lemelin.INJURIESBobby Carpenter. C. cracked right thumb, day-to-day.Gord Kluzak. D, arthroscopic surgery on left knee, indefinite.Nevin Markwart, LW. abdominal pull, indefinite.Ray Neufeld. LW, torn left knee ligament. indefinite.Bill O&rsquo;Dwyer, C. left knee inflammation. indefinite. &#9632;

BLUELINE CORPS KEY TO BRUIN SURGE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01166/5661284-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="412" height="632"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-02110/5661277-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg" title="f0045-02" width="425" height="424"></div>If you consider yourself a true hockey fan, you won&rsquo;t want to be without: Jay Greenberg&rsquo;s words of wisdom&hellip; Stan Fischler&rsquo;s news and views&hellip; plus the complete inside story on what is happening in the National Hockey League. We&rsquo;ve got the news and statistics no one else gives you&hellip; complete NHL team rosters, injuries, transactions and the raging controversy of the day&hellip; Plus, the most incredible statistics package available, not to mention the best in major junior, minor pro, college and international hockey. We&rsquo;re thorough, we&rsquo;re exciting.&rsquo;.. subscribe now.You&rsquo;ll receive 40 hockey-packed issues plus the Draft Preview and the Year In Photos for only $37.95-that&rsquo;s a savings of $48.95 off the newsstand price! And, you&rsquo;ll receive our no risk offer: you must be completely satisfied with THE HOCKEY NEWS or we will refund your money for all unmailed issues, no questions asked!Don&rsquo;t miss out on any of the NHL action-subscribe today!<h2>EVERY WEEK</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0382/5661270-1-eng-US/f0045-032.jpg" title="f0045-03" width="2160" height="1584"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0461/5661263-1-eng-US/f0045-042.jpg" title="f0045-04" width="1728" height="668"></div> &#9632;

f0045-01

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT HOCKEY

Shaun Hoffman is a 10-year-old goaltender with the Saskatoon Black Bobcats in the Atom Tier III league of the Saskatoon (Sask.) Minor Hockey Association.Shaun is in his fifth year of playing minor hockey. He has recorded four shutouts for his team this season. At one point in the year, Shaun turned in two straight shutouts and three in four games. So far this season, he has played 1,080 minutes and has allowed 42 goals for a 1.90 goals-against average. His record is 17-2-3. In early January, Shaun allowed only eight goals in four games to lead his team to the championship of the Vonda, Sask., Atom Tier III tournament.Coached by Eldon Tilk and Neil Gabrielson, the 4-foot-6, 63-pounder is a Grade 4 student at Hugh Cairns V.C. School. Shaun&rsquo;s favorite N HL team is the Edmonton Oilers and his favorite player is Oilers&rsquo; goalie Grant Fuhr.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01185/5661322-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="564" height="1106"><figcaption class="caption-body">Shaun Hoffman</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&rsquo;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.<h2>WAY WE WERE</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-02130/5661315-1-eng-US/f0047-022.jpg" title="f0047-02" width="1764" height="1476"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hockey Night In Canada kept it all in the family during a late-1970s telecast when Mickey Redmond, right, interviewed his brother Dick of the Boston Bruins. Mickey played for Montreal and Detroit during his career. Dick was a member of six NHL teams.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0047-01

PLAYER OF WEEK JOFA TITAN

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0047-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0398/5661360-1-eng-US/f0047-032.jpg"></div>ACROSS:1. Pictured Blackhawk sniper.4. Maintained possession of the puck.9. MVP of the 1984 Canada Cup.10. Player selection system.11. Plus-minus trophy,&mdash;Edqe Award.12. Kamloops-born Canuck and former Olympian.13. &lsquo;Cyclone&rsquo; Taylor&rsquo;s real first name.15. Mark and Marty are Gordie Howe&rsquo;s-&mdash;.18. Canadian university champion in 1978, 1979 and 1980.21. First name of the WHA&rsquo;s first scoring champion.23. Buffalo goalie&mdash;Puppa.24. The only time the NHL draft was held outside Canada, it was staged here.25. He preceded Wayne Gretzky as the Art Ross Trophy winner.26. Fewer.DOWN:1. Alberta-born coach and general manager.2. Leafs&rsquo; left winger Damphousse.3. Passed.5. Assisted.6. This off-the-wall goalie played goal for Ottawa and Toronto in the WHA and St. Louis and the Rangers in the NHL.7. Discourages.8. NHL trophy bears the name of this former North Star,&mdash;-Masterton.14. He was with six NHL teams from 1969-70 to 1976-77, Phil15. An influenza outbreak in this city caused the cancellation of the 1919 Stanley Cup final.16. Having fewer men on the ice than your opponent, short.17. The North Stars play at the Met19. An argument, quarrel (3,2).20. Veteran referee&mdash;-van Helle-mond.22. A team that frequently loses often&mdash;in the standings.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01167/5661353-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="582" height="586"></div> &#9632;

f0047-03

CROSSWORD

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>Paul Gillis is his combative self once again.After a lacklustre 1987-88, he&rsquo;s bounced back to his fiery, stir-&rsquo;em-up style of play.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m playing as well as during Michel Bergeron&rsquo;s last season in Quebec (1986-87),&rdquo; said Gillis. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in top shape and feel very comfortable on the ice. I&rsquo;m showing all those people that I&rsquo;m a lot better than they thought I was.&rdquo;In voting by reporters, the 25-year-old center was named the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; top offensive player for the season&rsquo;s third quarter.Gillis, who scored four goals and 12 assists in 18 games, outpointed Iiro Jarvi 51-25 in voting.He finished second to defenseman Randy Moller (43-41) in voting for the top defensive player. Gillis, with 121 points, leads in player-of-the-year voting. Moller is second with 103.Gillis&rsquo; turnaround has been welcomed by the Nordiques, who dealt feisty center Dale Hunter to Washington in the summer of 1987, confident Gillis would fill the void.There was no reason to believe otherwise, after strong seasons in 1985-86 and 1986-87.But Gillis, slowed by surgery to his left shoulder, scored just seven goals last year. He missed most of training camp and never got into shape. He saw little ice time under coach Andre Savard. That circumstance didn&rsquo;t change when Savard was fired in favor of Ron Lapointe.Gillis arrived at training camp this year in better shape, but Lapointe still slotted him as a fourth-line center.When Lapointe resigned and Jean Perron became coach, Gillis&rsquo; play improved. Since Perron&rsquo;s Dec. 16 appointment, Gillis had six goals and 12 assists in 23 games.For the season he had nine goals, 19 assists and 139 penalty minutes in 57 games.&ldquo;Everything turned around when Jean took over,&rdquo; said Gillis. &ldquo;He showed an awful lot of confidence in me and that made me feel good.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f00c4-01254/5661398-1-eng-US/f00c4-012.jpg" title="f00C4-01" width="555" height="649"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Gillis has improved since Jean Perron took over.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;But most importantly, Jean has used me a lot. And that has made me a much better player. I love the challenge of playing the better players on opposing teams. That&rsquo;s when I&rsquo;m at my best.&rdquo;Gillis draws the top checking assignments. He had a goal and an assist to Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s goal in an 8-1 rout of the Pittsburgh Penguins Feb. 11.&ldquo;In my book,&rdquo; said Perron, &ldquo;Paul is one of the best checkers in the National Hockey League. And to top things off, he&rsquo;s also helping out in the offensive department. I surely can&rsquo;t complain.&rdquo;<h2>QUEBEC</h2>TRANSACTIONSFeb. 10: Greg Smyth, D, recalled from Halifax (AHL).ROSTERC&mdash;Peter Stastny, Joe Sakic, Paul Gillis.LW&mdash;Walt Poddubny, Marc Fortier. Michel Goulet, Mike Hough.RW&mdash;liro Jarvi, Ken McRae. Trevor Stienburg, Alain Cote, Darin Kimble.LD&mdash;Jeff Brown, Steven Finn, Curtis LeschyshynRD&mdash;Mario Marois, Randy Moller. Robert Picard, Greg Smyth.G&mdash;Mario Gosselin, Ron Tugnutt.INJURIESJarl Gronstrand D, fractured left cheek bone, indefinite.Jeff Jackson. LW, sprained ligaments left knee, indefinite.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f00c4-02216/5661391-1-eng-US/f00c4-022.jpg" title="f00C4-02" width="2398" height="3024"></div> &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

February 24, 1989

VOLTS’ COACH CHARGED WITH SEX CRIME

SUHONEN NAMED MONCTON COACH

CROHN’S DISEASE IN REMISSION, DINEEN BACK IN TOP FORM

DID YOU KNOW…