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January 19, 1990
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.
EXPANSION NUMBERS DON’T I ADD UP
Excuse me for a moment, but paying $50 million for the rights to finish last and name Brian MacLellan your captain just doesn’t sound fair. I mean, Brian’s not all bad. He even once had a good season playing beside Marcel Dionne and Dave Taylor with the Los Angeles Kings. Then again, who hasn’t? But that’s what National Hockey League expansion will bring for those fortunate enough in Milwaukee or San Jose or Seattle or Ottawa who are fascinated by the dregs of the common NHL teams. Brian MacLellan. Kevin McClelland. You take your pick. No matter how you spell the names they will all look and sound the same. Once you’ve seen a Kerry Ketter you may never forget him. Hard as you might try. As usual, the NHL thought about money first and execution…
LACOMBE HOPES TO PLAY MORE IN PHILADELPHIA
The Edmonton Oilers probably wish it had been this easy to deal with Jimmy Carson. After realizing he wasn’t going to receive an overabundance of playing time this season, right winger Normand Lacombe politely inquired about a trade. The Oilers accommodated him by sending him to the Philadelphia Flyers Jan. 5 for a fourth-round choice in either 1990 or 1991. Plain and simple. And nobody gets hurt in the process. Although Lacombe was pleased with the trade, the Oilers’ quick willingness to deal him came as a bit of a shock. He had been with the Oilers since March, 1987, when he came in a trade from the Buffalo Sabres. “Yeah, 1 was kind of surprised, but I was expecting it,” said Lacombe. We talked about it, but 1 didn’t think it would happen…
FLYERS HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN CUP
It’s not what the Philadelphia Flyers do that impresses you, or even who they are. It’s what they may become. They were in first place when they visited Calgary early in the new year. Brian Propp returned that night. He’d missed seven weeks. Tim Kerr’s return was imminent. Somewhere down the road, you knew Ron Hextail was coming back, too—either to play or as trade bait to upgrade the current roster of talent. Someday soon, the Flyers will wake up and find themselves with an old team—too many Propps, Kerrs and Howes, not enough Toc-chets—but in the short term, which is the only term that really matters in pro sport, they look like a legitimate Stanley Cup challenger this year. In a year of increasing parity, the same could be said for almost…
NEW DECADE, NEW MAN
On Jan. 1, 1980, the future savior of the Pittsburgh Penguins was 14 years old and chasing pucks across a frozen pond in Montreal. “It was just a game to me then,” Mario Lemieux remembers. “My only dream was to play in the NHL…somewhere.” On Jan. 1, 1990, Lemieux was second to Wayne Gretzky in the NHL scoring race, breathing daily down the Great One’s neck, seeking his third straight league title. And the question being asked was an outgrowth of their personal duel for NHL supremacy: As Gretzky was the player of the 1980s, will Lemieux be the player of the ’90s? Certainly, he is the early favorite, the safest choice. Lemieux, at age 24, has at least five prime seasons in front of him, years in which he may threaten Gretzky’s…
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