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 2, 1990

The Hockey News February 2, 1990

Jan. 28, 1984: Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; goaltender Markus Mattson defeated the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 at the Northlands Coliseum and halted Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s record-setting point-scoring streak at 51 games. Gretzky averaged three points a game&mdash;61 goals and 92 assists for 153 points&mdash;during the streak. The scoring streak still stands as an NHL record.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021131/5785030-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="662" height="428"><figcaption class="caption-body">Markus Mattson</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

FLASHBACK

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE FISH</div>There was a time long ago when it seemed Ken Linseman was just as happy to beat you with a stick as with a goal.But the years have a way of changing things. Now Linseman, acquired by the Philadelphia Flyers from Boston for Dave Poulin Jan. 16, appeared to be a rebel with a cause.Nearly eight years passed since Linseman&rsquo;s first tour of duty with the Flyers and there was a notable change in his manner.A couple years in Edmonton, including a Stanley Cup-winning goal, plus a long stint with the Bruins, have matured Linseman on the ice. Off it, a wife and a new son have given his life focus.While the addition of Linseman was supposed to wake up the Flyers&rsquo; dormant offense, the impact was not felt immediately. The Flyers lost in Pittsburgh 4-3 the night of the trade (before Linseman arrived) and then dropped a 3-2 overtime home decision to Vancouver two nights later with Linseman in uniform. That was their 15th one-goal defeat of the season.The pair of losses extended the Flyers&rsquo; winless streak to nine games (0-6-3), just two short of the club record (11, set in 1968-69 and 198182).It was a more confident, secure Linseman who reported for his first day of work at the Flyers&rsquo; practice facility in Voorhees, N.J.At 31, Linseman no longer plays up to the image of &lsquo;The Rat. &rsquo; Today, he&rsquo;s more like a badger, confrontational at times but usually more interested in getting his work done.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s changed immensely,&rdquo; said coach Paul Holmgren, who spent several seasons as Linseman&rsquo;s linemate and bodyguard as a player. &ldquo;He was a rebel, a nomad when he was first with us. He&rsquo;s settled down. You can just see he&rsquo;s changed; his off-ice habits are a lot different.&rdquo;Indeed. In the old days, Linseman&rsquo;s dedication was questioned both on the ice and off it.Some believe the problems began when Linseman was billed in Philadelphia as the next Bobby Clarke. The public&rsquo;s expectations were both unrealistic and unfair.His 1982 trade to Hartford (with a continuing flight to Edmonton) in exchange for Mark Howe, came almost as a relief.The Linseman of today still creates havoc but is more efficient.&ldquo;The game has changed,&rdquo; said Linseman. &ldquo;I definitely matured. When you&rsquo;re younger, you&rsquo;re more aggressive. I think I&rsquo;m just a little stronger, a little wiser.&rdquo;The speed factor obviously figured in the Flyers&rsquo; thinking.&ldquo;Any time you have a guy who has speed and can back people off the blue line, it creates space in the offensive zone,&rdquo; said Holmgren.One of the reasons Linseman wound up in Philadelphia was because he didn&rsquo;t understand his role in Boston. With the return of Craig Janney from the injury list, Linseman (6-16-22 in 32 games) was relegated to a checking assignment. He wanted to contribute more than that.When the Bruins felt he couldn&rsquo;t, he became a Flyer for the second time.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 16: Dave Poulin, C. traded to Boston for Ken Linseman, C.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ron Sutter. Ken Linseman, Murray Craven, Keith Acton, Tony Horacek.LW&mdash;Brian Propp, Pelle Eklund. Scott Mellanby, Derrick Smith.RW&mdash;RickTocchet, Mike Bullard, Normand Lacombe, Doug Sulliman, Craig Berube.LD&mdash;Kerry Huffman, Dave Fenyves, Terry Carkner.RD&mdash;Kjell Samuelsson, Jeff Chychrun. Gord Murphy.G&mdash;Ken Wregget, Pete Peeters.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Ron Hextail, G. pulled right groin muscle, indefinite.Mark Howe, D, strained back, day-to-day.Tim Kerr, RW, left shoulder surgery, day-to-day.Jiri Latal. D, fractured rib. day-to-day.Ilkka Sinlsalo, RW, sprained knee, Jan. 23.Jay Wells. D, pulled groin muscle, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Tocchet, Bullard, 21. A&mdash;Craven, 35.P&mdash;Tocchet, 54. PIM&mdash;Berube, 206. &#9632;

THE NHL

MATURED LINSEMAN MAKES HIS RETURN

In the Feb. 9 issue of The Hockey News, we will re-examine the potential threat posed by a rival league to the NHL.A year ago, computer software executive Peter Karmanos and his director of hockey operations Jim Rutherford suggested a new league might be a viable option if their efforts to secure an NHL franchise were unsuccessful.It doesn&rsquo;t look as though the Compuware group of Detroit will acquire an existing franchise. That leaves the question of whether they&rsquo;re interested in paying the $50 million (U.S.) figure, set by the NHL for an expansion franchise.Which leads to other questions: Would they consider heading a new league? Could a new league work? What form would it take?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0002-0121/5784555-1-eng-US/c0002-012.jpg" title="C0002-01" width="609" height="1213"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dean Chynoweth</figcaption></div>We&rsquo;ll also give you a progress report on promising young New York Islander property Dean Chynoweth,&rsquo; whose career has been sidetracked by a nerve disorder and injuries to his eye and knee. Chynoweth is trying a comeback at the tender age of 21, with the American League&rsquo;s Springfield Indians.You&rsquo;ll get all that and more in next week&rsquo;s issue of The Hockey News. &#9632;

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NEXT ISSUE

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div>The president of the Granby Bisons has threatened to move the franchise unless it receives some concessions from the city of Granby.Yves Proulx met with city officials Jan. 17 to discuss the Bisons&rsquo; lease at the Palais des Sports. The Bisons are in the second year of a five-year term.Proulx said the Bisons are looking | for a reduction in their rent as well as the concession rights from the arena&rsquo;s restaurant and bar. If the city doesn&rsquo;t meet his demands, Proulx said the team will be put up for sale and if no local buyers are interested, he&rsquo;ll be happy to sell to an out-of-town investor.&ldquo;Last year I lost $100,000,&rdquo; said Proulx, &ldquo;and this year I&rsquo;ll have the same deficit. I like hockey, but I&rsquo;m not crazy.&rdquo;<h2>BEGIN GUILTY</h2>Former Drummondville Vol-tigeurs&rsquo; coach Jean Begin pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual contact with boys, and was convicted in Drummondville provincial court Jan. 16.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01617/5785889-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="616" height="878"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stephane Fiset returned from Finland with a knee injury.</figcaption></div>Begin was arrested Feb. 8, 1989, and charged with sexual aggression against a boy under 14. The incident occurred Jan. 31. 1988.Begin, a 45-year-old father of two, was subsequently charged with three more counts of sexual aggression, as well as three charges of inciting a child to have sexual contact. Those incidents&mdash;also with a boy under 14&mdash;occurred between November, 1988, and January, 1989.Begin was suspended indefinitely by the Volts shortly after his arrest, and was replaced by assistant coach Gervais Rioux.At the request of defense lawyer Raphael Schachter, the court will begin pre-sentence hearings April 20.Begin also had coaching jobs with the Hull, Laval, Verdun and Trois-Rivieres. He was an assistant to Dave Chambers with the 1988 Canadian junior national team.<h2>GAUTHIER BACK</h2>The Victoriaville Tigres got their leading scorer back when left winger Daniel Gauthier returned Jan. 16.Gauthier, a third-round choice of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1988, stayed home in Charlemagne, Que., following the four-day New Year&rsquo;s break, to contemplate his hockey future. He was leading the Tigres with 22 goals and 26 assists in 35 games and missed six games during his walkout.While Gauthier returned, the Tigres were still without first-string goalie Stephane Fiset.Fiset hadn&rsquo;t played since leading the Canadian national team to a gold medal at the World Junior Championships-in Finland. He returned home Jan. 5 with a knee injury and didn&rsquo;t resume skating until Jan. 16.The Tigres, who were in the midst of a three-game losing streak, lost three players to injuries during a 5-2 defeat at Granby Jan. 11.Left winger Mathieu Lamothe broke his wrist and will likely miss the rest of the season. Left winger Marc Labelle suffered broken ribs and was expected to miss between two weeks and a month, and center Dany Nolet sprained knee ligaments and was out indefinitely.<h2>BAD LUCK</h2>The Trois-Ri vieres Draveurs, in the midst of a six-game losing streak, had $10,000 worth of equipment stolen from their dressing room at the Colisee de Trois-Rivieres Jan. 15.Three players played the next game&mdash;a 3-2 loss to Granby Jan. 16&mdash;with new skates, while three others wore borrowed skates,.. Chicoutimi Sagueneens&rsquo; coach and general manager Gaston Drapeau hired assistant Doris Labonte from the Rimouski Pioneers collegiate AA team. Drapeau was the only Quebec League coach without an assistant. &#9632;

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BISONS MAY MOVE IF DEAL CAN’T BE STRUCK

As a longtime Bay Area hockey fan, I find it disturbing to read that another California team wouldn&rsquo;t be able to survive in the NHL. That&rsquo;s simply not true.Our only experience with the NHL was the poorly-promoted and mismanaged Oakland Seals. Things are different today&mdash;much different.The Bay Area is craving an NHL franchise. Pre-season games in Oakland and San Francisco the past few years have been sellouts. With Wayne Gretzky in Los Angeles, a franchise in the Bay Area would provide an excellent rivalry and would receive overwhelming support.I&rsquo;m hopeful the NHL and the rest of the hockey world will find out what the 49ers, Giants, A&rsquo;s, Warriors and Raiders already know: the Bay Area has great fans&mdash;fans ready for the NHL.Craig OjalaAlameda, Calif.<h2>LET&rsquo;S MOVE</h2>Joel Nixon, the NHL&rsquo;s vice president of marketing, was quoted recently in the Milwaukee Journal as saying that NHL games are now televised in 225 million homes outside the United States and Canada.NHL games &ldquo;are a friendly visitor to households throughout many parts of the world. Things are going faster and better than any of us imagined,&rdquo; he said.Who&rsquo;s he kidding? I&rsquo;d like Mr. Nixon to explain to me why, for the first time in my life, I can&rsquo;t watch NHL games on television.Maybe I should move to Chile.Greg MatthewsMadison, Wise.<h2>QUICK LEARNERS</h2>Frantisek Musil had 213 penalty minutes and Esa Tikkanen had 153 PIM in 1987-88. Kjell Samuelsson had 184 in 1987-88 and had 140 PIM last season. Tomas Sandstrom had 148 PIM last season. Ulf Samuelsson hasn&rsquo;t finished with fewer than 159 PIM the last four seasons.I&rsquo;m pleased to see that European hockey players have adjusted to the North American style of play.David McCannChicago, Ill.<h2>GENE&rsquo;S GREAT</h2>I am writing to protest the one-sided accounts I&rsquo;ve read about the dismissal of Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; coach Gene Ubriaco and the subsequent furor over his honest and accurate appraisal of the team&rsquo;s prima-donna superstars.As someone who has watched Gene Ubriaco coach for the better part of a decade, I have always found him to be a coach of competence and a man of class, both on and off the ice.That Gene, in a moment of frustration, lashed out at Mario Lemieux and Paul Coffey should not be an issue. That two players used a campaign of whispers to reporters and management to oust a coach, should be.That type of backstabbing, while common in other sports, seems unusual in hockey. Craig Patrick must never turn his back.Peter WhiteSykesville, Md.<h2>RULE CHANGE</h2>How many times during a game do you see a player deliberately pushed or dragged across the blue line to create an offside call? This holding and interference is usually caused by a player who has been caught out of position.Under ideal conditions, a penalty would be called, but this seldom happens. Why should these illegal tactics be rewarded by a stoppage in play? A fair solution would be to let play continue and not call the offside.This minor change would speed up the game and, at the same time, cut down on some of the holding and interference that goes on now.Ron KaminskiWilmington, Del.<h2>MAKING A MARK</h2>Every year, we hear the usual names&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman&mdash;mentioned as leading contenders for the Hart Trophy. It&rsquo;s about time Mark Messier of the Edmonton Oilers was added to that list.In mid-January, the Oilers were in first place in the Smythe Division, in large part due to Messier. Messier has carried the Oilers with his hard work, leadership and enthusiasm. He is their leader in points, faceoffs, toughness and in dressing-room character.Of course, there are some differences between Messier and the other three. Messier doesn&rsquo;t need a bodyguard and he knows how to back-check.Billie AnsellSombra. Ont.<h2>NO REAL FAN</h2>In Gene Gasparro&rsquo;s recent letter (THN, Dec. 15), he talks about the New York Islanders, saying he has &ldquo;reached (his) tolerance level for lousy hockey.&rdquo;Well, the Islanders aren&rsquo;t playing lousy anymore. And someone should tell Mr. Gasparro that real fans stick by their teams in both good and bad years. It&rsquo;s too bad that many people are only fans when their teams are winning. The Nassau Coliseum seems &ldquo;like a funeral&rdquo; because fair weather fans like Mr. Gasparro leave empty seats instead of encouraging a young, hard-working team.Dana ParisiPeekskill, NYMake your feelings known. Send your comments to: Letters, The Hockey News,&rsquo;85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2. Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

DEPARTMENTS

BAY AREA DESERVES AN NHL FRANCHISE

<div class="byline">BOB McKENZIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011443/5784610-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="584" height="672"></div>I wanted to send a card to fired Washington Capital coach Bryan Murray. Something that would appropriately offer my condolences to a classy individual.Even in defeat, often under the most incredible circumstances, Murray walked tall. My enduring image of him is walking across the ice at season&rsquo;s end, trying to reconcile yet another shocking playoff exit.To his credit, he rarely flinched when under fire, shouldering his responsibility and the criticism directed at him.And fortunately for him, he had a boss (GM David Poile) who was understanding time and time again and who ignored the cacophony of calls for the coach&rsquo;s head.Until Jan. 15, that is. It was then that the NHL&rsquo;s elder statesman as coach, named to the Caps&rsquo; job Nov. 11, 1981, experienced the cruel reality that is coaching in the NHL.Some may argue Murray&rsquo;s firing was long overdue. Perhaps.Others will tell you that any coach who held his position intact for more than seven years should simply be thankful for the lengthy opportunity that is afforded so few in the fraternity.As for that deepest sympathies card, hope this will suffice. I&rsquo;ve taken the liberty of including wishes from all those coaches who have experienced the same sense of loss that Murray is going through.Dear Bryan,Welcome to the club. Life goes on. Good luck.Sincerely:Bert Marshall (Colorado, Dec. 21, 1981); Parker McDonald (Los Angeles, Jan. 10, 1982); Red Berenson (St. Louis, March 8, 1982); Wayne Maxner (Detroit, March 10, 1982); Jim Roberts (Buffalo, March 15, 1982); Al MacNeil (Calgary, June 1, 1982).Larry Kish (Hartford, Jan. 24, 1983); Tom Watt (Winnipeg, Nov. 7, 1983); Billy MacMillan (New Jersey, Nov. 22, 1983).Roger Neilson (Vancouver, Jan. 19, 1984); Don Perry (Los Angeles, Jan. 31, 1984); Bob Berry (Montreal, Feb. 24, 1984); Mike Nykoluk (Toronto, April 2, 1984); Bob McCammon (Philadelphia, April 15, 1984); Roger Neilson (Los Angeles, April 3, 1984); Tom McVie (New Jersey, May 31, 1984); Lou Angotti (Pittsburgh, June 4, 1984); Bill Mahoney (Minnesota, Nov. 8, 1984); Bill LaForge (Vancouver, Nov. 21, 1984).Herb Brooks (New York Rangers, Jan. 21, 1985); Doug Carpenter (New Jersey, Jan. 26, 1985); Orval Tessier (Chicago, Feb. 4, 1985); Gerry Cheevers (Boston, Feb. 13, 1985); Nick Polano (Detroit, June 21, 1985); Harry Neale (Detroit, Dec. 29, 1985).Jim Schoenfeld (Buffalo, Jan. 16, 1986); Barry Long (Winnipeg, March 4, 1986); Brad Park (Detroit, June 3, 1986); Butch Goring (Boston, Nov. 5, 1986); Ted Sator (New York Rangers, Nov. 21, 1986); Craig Ramsay (Buffalo, Dec. 22, 1986).Lorne Henning (Minnesota, March 31, 1987); Bob Berry (Pittsburgh, April 13, 1987); Tom Watt (Vancouver, June 1, 1987); Michel Bergeron (Quebec, June 18, 1987); Andre Savard (Quebec, Dec. 4, 1987); Mike Murphy (Los Angeles, Dec. 6, 1987).Jack (Tex) Evans (Hartford, Feb. 7, 1988); Mike Keenan (Philadelphia, May 11, 1988); Jean Perron (Montreal, May 16, 1988); Jacques Martin (St. Louis, May 17, 1988); Bob Murdoch (Chicago, June 9, 1988); Pierre Creamer (Pittsburgh, June 14, 1988); Herb Brooks (Minnesota, July 6, 1988); Terry Simpson (New York Islanders, Dec. 7, 1988); Ron Lapointe (Quebec, Dec. 15, 1988); John Brophy (Toronto, Dec. 19, 1988).Dan Maloney (Winnipeg, Feb. 7, 1989); Michel Bergeron (New York Rangers, April 1, 1989); Jean Perron (Quebec, April 14, 1989); Robbie Ftorek (Los Angeles, May 2, 1989); Larry Pleau (Hartford, May 16, 1989); Phil Esposito (May 24, 1989); Ted Sator (Buffalo, June 15, 1989); George Armstrong (Toronto, Aug. 14, 1989); Jim Schoenfeld (New Jersey, Nov. 6, 1989); Gene Ubriaco (Pittsburgh, Dec. 5, 1989). &#9632;

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COLUMNS

HIRED TO BE FIRED? YOU BET

&#9724; Boston Bruin Gord Kluzak. It&rsquo;s a risky business to predict how long the big defenseman&rsquo;s battered left knee&mdash;scarred by 10 surgical procedures&mdash;will hold out. But one thing is certain. Kluzak is an exceptionally dedicated athlete who should be the easy winner of this year&rsquo;s Bill Masterton Trophy.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021168/5784648-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="411" height="405"></div>&#9724; The NHL, The new format All-Star Weekend was not without its glitches, but the league should be commended for daring to be different. The old first-Tuesday-in-February routine did little or nothing to promote the sport. By going to a full weekend and including the oldtimers&rsquo; game and skills competition, the NHL created an event as opposed to an inconvenience.&#9724; Paul Coffey and Wayne Gretzky. The dashing defenseman put in a half-hearted appearance in the skills competition. The Great One failed to show at open all-star practice, Coffey says he was hurting. Gretzky says he thought it was an optional skate. Sure.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03760/5784641-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="411" height="406"></div>&#9724; Sault Ste. Marie Greyhound players. The Ontario League team wore armbands of black tape in a game to protest Eric Lindros being named to the all-star team after only one game for Oshawa. Soo players and residents may have many valid reasons to dislike Lindros, who slighted the team and community at various times, but his playing in the all-star game against the Quebec League isn&rsquo;t one of them. He&rsquo;s a star; he&rsquo;s an OHL player. He qualifies. &#9632;

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CHEERS JEERS

Official NHL Sponsor Official Cars and TrucksMONTREAL&mdash;Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; right winger Steve Larmer, who registered four goals and three assists for seven points in three games, was named the Chrysler Canada Performer of the Week for the period ending Jan. 21. Larmer, who played for the Campbell Conference all-star team at the 41st NHL All-Star Game in Pittsburgh, edged Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; right winger Brian Bellows and New York Islanders&rsquo; goaltender Glenn Healy to capture the award.Chrysler Canada and the Dodge division of Chrysler Motors will donate $500 to the youth hockey organization of each performer&rsquo;s choice. Chrysler Canada and the Dodge division of Chrysler Motors also sponsor the Performer of the Month and Performer of the Year Awards, for which the latter receives the Dodge vehicle of his choice. In five years, Chrysler Canada and Dodge have contributed more than $200,000 to youth hockey associations across North America.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011444/5784679-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="585" height="587"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Larmer</figcaption></div>Larmer, now in his eighth NHL season, began the week by scoring two goals, including his fifth power-play goal of the season, and an assist in a 7-6 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs Jan. 15. He tallied one goal in a 3-1 win over the Minnesota North Stars Jan. 17, before recording three points (1-2-3), including the game-winning goal, in a 5-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks Jan. 19.Larmer was second among Blackhawks in scoring with 54 points (20-34-54) in 48 games. He recorded nine points (5-4-9) in his previous four games. Chicago is second in the overall standings with a 27-17-4 record, good for 58 points.Bellows had eight points (2-6-8) in three games, while Healy registered a 2-0-0 record, including a shutout, and a 2.00 goals-against average. &#9632;

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NHL PERFORMER OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Greg Millen, who is happier with the Quebec Nordiques than most people think, says St. Louis Blues&rsquo; president Michael Shanahan is just as tight-fisted as his oft-criticized predecessor, Harry Ornest. &ldquo;The only difference,&rdquo; says the veteran goalie, &ldquo;is that Shanahan wears flashier suits.&rdquo; Millen insists that frugality still is the Blues&rsquo; fiscal theme. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no different than it was (with Ornest), they&rsquo;re mainly interested in the bottom line. &ldquo;&hellip; A trade that was considered impossible&mdash;Calder Trophy winner Brian Leetch leaving the New York Rangers&mdash;a year ago, may be closer to reality than most people think. The Connecticut-born Leetch has been ogled by Whalers&rsquo; owner Richard Gordon. Once an untouchable, Leetch has shown several weaknesses in his sophomore year and at least one NHL scout questions his ability to withstand constant pounding over the long haul.<h2>COFFEY BREAK</h2>With Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; GM Craig Patrick apparently in no rush to hire a coach, he was getting valuable aid from defenseman Paul Coffey. Coffey has done some coaching of his own with the Pens in practice, according to insiders&hellip; Mark Messier of the Edmonton Oilers is expected to be the next NHL millionaire when the team renegotiates his contract. Messier has grown into the captaincy even better than the Oilers anticipated. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s such a good guy off the ice,&rdquo; says teammate Adam Graves, &ldquo;always looking out for his teammates, even putting them ahead of himself. When I got here (from Detroit in the Jimmy Carson trade), Mark made sure I settled in, giving me rides, having dinner with me. I couldn&rsquo;t pick a better guy to learn from. &ldquo;&hellip; The NHL&rsquo;s gag rule on referee-criticism evidently does not extend to Mario Lemieux. Through January, he lambasted the referees several times with impunity. The Penguin captain put down Ron Hoggarth and Rob Shick, claiming &ldquo;things (refereeing) have to be changed.&rdquo; Lemieux vows he&rsquo;ll talk to top NHL executives about what he regards as the league&rsquo;s failure to protect artists such as himself. &rsquo; &lsquo;The referees are making some bad calls,&rdquo; adds Lemieux, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;ll have to live with that for a while. The league is wrong for letting them do that. Hopefully, I can get things changed, privately, with the right people.&rdquo;<h2>GOOD BOY</h2>After locking his keys in his car prior to an interview with New York Islanders&rsquo; tough guy Mick Vukota, reporter Pat Calabria asked Vukota if he knew how to use a coat hanger to open the door. &ldquo;Sorry,&rdquo; Mick replied, &ldquo;but we don&rsquo;t know how to break into cars in Saskatoon.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;The Canucks&rsquo; party line is that no significant trades were made during the offseason so the team could create a sense of stability. Coach Bob McCammon, while agreeing with GM Pat Quinn&rsquo;s philosophy at the time, now harbors second thoughts about it. &ldquo;Looking back,&rdquo; says McCammon, &ldquo;maybe we should have changed some people.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;The Montreal Junior Royals, Memorial Cup-winners in 1949, held a reunion recently and happily discovered that all 17 players from the championship squad, including Canadiens&rsquo; great Dickie Moore, are alive and healthy.<h2>ECHL BOOM</h2>The East Coast League is savoring a hockey boom. The Hampton Roads Admirals, coached by former Toronto Maple Leaf bench boss John Brophy, are doing so well they turned 2,500 fans away at a recent game. If the International League rejects Albany&rsquo;s franchise bid, ECHL president Pat Kelly expects the New York State capital to move into his league&hellip;Guy Lafleur is being featured in large newspaper ads for hair replacement products. This, in turn, has inspired some on-ice needling of The Flower, including some from referees, who have taken note of his newly-replaced hair. &ldquo;Who are you&mdash;a rookie?&rdquo; one ref said to Lafleur&hellip;U.S. collegiate hockey has grown to a point where it&rsquo;s now the third-largest university revenue-producing sport after basketball and football.<h2>BURNED CRISP</h2>Hardly a week goes by without the Calgary media criticizing Flames&rsquo; coach Terry Crisp. His answer to media nitpicking over his line changes: &ldquo;When you&rsquo;ve left them alone for 87,000 games, the time comes when you have to shake them up. You can sit on your hands all you want and nobody can criticize you. But if you want production, you&rsquo;ve got to make changes.&rdquo; Doug Gilmour denies the Flames have suffered a post-Stanley Cup letdown. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve tried too hard at times,&rdquo; says Gilmour. &ldquo;We have to relax and play a more complete game.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip; Mathieu Schneider, who Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; officials foresee as the second coming of Chris Chelios, is Manhattan-born and was raised in New Jersey. &ldquo;The first time I ever put on the skates,&rdquo; Schneider recalls, &ldquo;was at the Rockefeller Centre outdoor ice rink.&rdquo; Schneider learned his early hockey in Livingston, N.J., before going to high school in Rhode Island.<h2>GREAT JOB</h2>Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; rookie coach Rick Dudley, who has coached at every level in the minors, says he was initially worried he wouldn&rsquo;t be able to motivate highly-paid NHLers like the players he did in the minors. &ldquo;When I came to Buffalo I had many worries,&rdquo; says Dudley. &ldquo;Like whether a guy making $300,000 a year is going to be receptive to a person with my work ethic. But the Buffalo job is the easiest I&rsquo;ve had. These guys motivate themselves.&rdquo; &#9632;

MILLEN NOT BLUE ON LEAVING ST. LOU

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011348/5784734-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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THE BOB CLARKE FKMUENT FLYER PLAN

<div class="byline">STEVE THOMAS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02981/5784765-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="593" height="1296"></div>Born: July 15, 1963, Stockport, England. Height: 5-foot-10. Weight: 180 pounds. Team: Chicago Blackhawks. Position: Left wing. Acquired: Traded to Chicago by Toronto, Sept. 3, 1987.Career Highlight: &ldquo;Being in the semi-finals against Calgary (in 1988-89) was exciting. But my biggest career highlight will come this year when we win the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;Most Respected Opponent: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d have to say Gary Leeman of Toronto. That guy is a very, very underrated player. And. of course, you have to respect guys like (Mario) Lemieux and (Wayne) Gretzky.&rdquo;Favorite Visiting Arena: &ldquo;When I played for Toronto it was Chicago Stadium. Now I&rsquo;d say Toronto is No. 1. I also seem to play well in Winnipeg and Detroit &ldquo;,Favorite Movie: &ldquo;This is going to sound shallow, but my favorite movies are Fast Times at Ridgemount High and Caddyshack.&rdquo;Hobbies: Enjoys playing golf and slow pitch softball.Favorite Actor: Al Pacino and Robert Redford.Favorite Food: &ldquo;Spaghetti and&rsquo; all types of pasta.&rdquo;Favorite Musical Groups: &ldquo;I like harder music like Aerosmith and Neil Young.&rdquo;In a movie about his life he would be portrayed by&hellip; Mel Gibson.What he&rsquo;d do if he was NHL president for a day: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d boost all the players&rsquo; salaries.&rdquo;Most Embarrassing Moment: &ldquo;It probably happened tonight (in a 7-6 loss to Toronto Jan. 15) when I lost the puck and gave the other team a breakaway.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-02

PRO FILE

<div class="byline">BY BOB McKENZIE</div>The early line on the 1990 National Hockey League entry draft is that there will be a bumper crop of prospects from the Ontario League.Ten of the 21 top-ranked players on the NHL Central Scouting Bureau&rsquo;s confidential mid-season ratings list play in the OHL, including Mike Ricci, the Peterborough Petes&rsquo; center who has been designated No. I. Six of the top 10 are from the OHL.The CSB list ranks 210 skaters and 28 goaltenders from North America. Europeans are ranked separately.OHLers in the top 10 include: Ricci; Cornwall right winger Owen Nolan (No. 2); Niagara Falls center Keith Primeau (No. 4); North Bay defenseman Derian Hatcher (No. 6), who is the younger brother of Washington Cap Kevin Hatcher; Ottawa right winger Ryan Kuwabara (No. 9) and London center Chris Taylor (No. 10).Three Western League players&mdash;Seattle center and Czechoslovakian defector Petr Nedved (No. 3), Saskatoon center Scott Scissons (No. 5) and Kamloops defenseman Darryl Sydor (No. 8)-&mdash;plus U.S. collegian Ryan Hughes (No. 7), a center from Cornell University, round out the top 10.Top-rated goalie is Trevor Kidd of the WHL&rsquo;s Brandon Wheat Kings.NHL scouts predict this year&rsquo;s crop of talent is high iii both quality and quantity. The draft will be held June 16 in Vancouver. B.C.Listed below are the CSB rankings for the top 42 skaters and 10 goaltenders. Information includes: rank, name, age, position, height, weight, 1989-90 club and league.<h2>FIRST ROUND</h2>1. Mike Ricci, 18, C, 6-0, 180, Peterborough (OHL). 2. Owen Nolan, 17, RW, 6-1, 194, Cornwall (OHL). 3. Petr Nedved, 18, C, 6-2/2, 178, Seattle (WHL). 4. Keith Primeau, 18, C, 6-4, 217, Niagara Falls (OHL). 5. Scott Scissons, 18, C, 6-1,201, Saskatoon (WHL). 6. Derian Hatcher, 17, D, 6-5, 204, North Bay (OHL). 7. Ryan Hughes, 18, C, 6-1, 180, Cornell (Eastern College Athletic Conference). 8. Darryl Sydor, 17, D, 6-0, 205, Kamloops (WHL). 9. Ryan Kuwabara, 17, RW, 6-0, 205, Ottawa (OHL). 10. Chris Taylor, 17, C, 511&rsquo;6, 185, London (OHL). 11. Karl Dykhuis, 17, D, 6-2&rsquo;6, 184, Hull (Quebec League). 12. RodPasma, 17, D, 6-4, 207, Cornwall (OHL). 13. Grayden Reid, 18, C, 5-11&rsquo;6, 176, Owen Sound (OHL). 14. Doug Weight, 19, C, 5-11, 185, Lake Superior State (Central Collegiate Hockey Association). 15. Terran Sandwith, 17, D, 6-4, 210, Tri-City (WHL). 16. Bryan Smolinski, 18, C, 6-0, 185, Michigan State (CCHA). 17. Brad May, 18, LW, 6-0, 200. Niagara Falls (OHL). 18. Michael Stewart, 17, D, 6-2, 197, Michigan State (CCHA). 19. Brad Zavisha, 18, LW, 6-1 &lsquo;/a, 195, Seattle (WHL). 20. Shawn Antoski, 19, LW, 6-4, 221, North Bay (OHL). 21. Brandy Semchuk, 18, RW, 6-1 1/2, 187, Canadian national team.<h2>SECOND ROUND</h2>22. Scott Allison. 17, C, 6-4, 194, Prince Albert (WHL). 23. John Slaney, 17, D, 5-11!6, 186, Cornwall (OHL). 24. Yanic Perreault, 18, C, 5-1116, 175, Trois-Rivieres (QMJHL). 25. Mike Muller, 18, D, 6-2, 200, Wayzata (Minnesota H.S.). 26. David Harlock, 18, D, 6-2, 192, Michigan (CCHA). 27. Dale McTavish, 17, C-LW, 5-1116, 180, Peterborough (OHL). 28. Turner. Stevenson, 17, RW, 6-3, 200, Seattle (WHL). 29. Michael Burkett. 17, LW, 6-2, 170, Wexford (Metro Toronto Junior B). 30. Keith Tkachuk, 17, LW, 6-2, 212, Malden Catholic (Massachusetts H.S.). 31. Zac Boyer, 18, RW, 6-1&rsquo;6, Kamloops (WHL). 32. Jeff Sebastien, 18, D, 6-216, 192, Portland (WHL). 33. Dave Stewart, 18, D, 511 !6, 194, Kingston (OHL). 34. Geoff Sanderson, 18, C, 6-0, 185, Swift Current (WHL). 35. Todd Gleason, 17, D, 6-0, 185! Hamilton (OHL). 36. John Porco, 18, C, 5-11, 179, Belleville (OHL). 37. Craig Johnson, 17, C, 6-1, 170, Hill-Murray (Minnesota H.S.). 38. John Vary, 17, D, 6-116, 207, North Bay (OHL). 39. Bob Berg, 19, LW, 6-1 16, 190, Belleville (OHL). 40. Chris Longo, 17, RW, 5-10&rsquo;6, 180, Peterborough (OHL). 41. Done-van Hextail, 17, LW, 6-2, 175, Weybum (SJHL). 42. Nicholas Perrault, 17, D, 6-3, 200, Hawkesbury (Central Ontario Junior League).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011529/5784796-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="615" height="770"><figcaption class="caption-body">Owen Nolan of Cornwall was rated No. 2 by Central Scouting.</figcaption></div><h2>TOP GOALIES</h2>1. Trevor Kidd, 17,6-2, 176, Brandon (WHL). 2. Martin Brodeur, 17, 6-0, 189, St-Hyacinthe (QMJHL). 3. David Goverde, 18, 6-0, 205, Sudbury (OHL). 4. Mike Dunham. 17, 6-2, 162, Canterbury (Connecticut H.S.). 5. Jean-Francois Gagnon, 17, 5-9, 164, College Francais (QMJHL). 6, Corey Hirsch, 17, 5-9&rsquo;6, 152, Kamloops (WHL). 7. Felix Potvin, 18,6-1, 181, Chicoutimi (QMJHL). 8. Todd Bojcun, 19, 5-8&rsquo;6, 151, Peterborough (OHL). 9. Peter McGlynn, 19, 5-10, 158, Ottawa (OHL). 10. Pierre Gagnon, 18, 5-8, 145, Victor-iaville (QMJHL). &#9632;

f0006-01

DRAFT PREVIEW: RICCI NO. 1

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div>The NHL Players&rsquo; Association has named its heir-apparent to Alan Eagleson.Player agent Bob Goodenow, a 37-year-old lawyer from Dearborn, Mich., is being groomed to replace Eagleson next year. In the meantime, the association&rsquo;s first-ever deputy executive director will take a lead role as negotiations get underway for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHLPA and league owners.Goodenow was named to the post Jan. 21 in Pittsburgh, just hours before the NHL All-Star Game.&ldquo;The NHL is growing dramatically and as we work our way through the 1990s,&rdquo; said Goodenow, &ldquo;there are going to be so many changes. It&rsquo;s going to be a great challenge and I&rsquo;m looking forward to it. The opportunity to have an impact on the future of hockey is very exciting.&rdquo;Eagleson could continue as executive director as long as Dec. 31, 1991, but may leave earlier if a CBA can be reached before that date. The current CBA expires in September of next year. Eagleson will be retained by the association to handle international hockey matters until 1993.&ldquo;Bob will take the lead hand in (CBA) negotiations,&rdquo; said Eagleson, who founded the association in 1967 and has been its only executive director. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m sure he&rsquo;ll do a great job.&rdquo;Goodenow was one of six finalists interviewed by the NHLPA&rsquo;s search committee Jan. 20 in Pittsburgh. He has been a player agent for five years and represents 20 NHLers, including high-scoring Brett Hull of the St. Louis Blues and checking forward Kelly Miller of the Washington Capitals&mdash;both of whom are in their option years. Unlike Eagleson, who continued to represent players during his tenure as head of the NHLPA, Goodenow will drop ail clients by the end of 1990.The appointment of Goodenow ended an exhaustive process that began in August, following a review of Eagleson&rsquo;s leadership. The list of candidates was pared down from 104 to 31 to 18 and, finally, the six who were interviewed in Pittsburgh.The selection of Goodenow was ratified unanimously by the 21 player reps.&ldquo;We were looking for a well-rounded person and Bob&rsquo;s experience in the labor relations field is impressive,&rdquo; said Kevin Dineen of the Hartford Whalers, chairman of the search committee. &ldquo;With Bob&rsquo;s fresh new ideas and Al&rsquo;s experience, I think we will be very well prepared to go into negotiations.&rdquo;The others interviewed included a &lsquo;pair of player agents&mdash;Neil Abbott, a lawyer from Newton, Mass,, and Steve Bartlett, an accountant from Rochester, N.Y.&mdash;as well as Toronto lawyers Kevin O&rsquo;Shea and Ken Bial-kowski, and Toronto tax accountant Lyman Maclnnis.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021069/5784827-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="611" height="870"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Johnson&rsquo;s pact with USA Hockey was extended five years.</figcaption></div>Goodenow, captain of the 1974 Harvard hockey team, said it&rsquo;s premature to speculate on the outcome of the upcoming CBA negotiations.&ldquo;Free agency will certainly be a major issue that we&rsquo;ll have to look at but we&rsquo;re still a year away from serious negotiations,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There will definitely be some tough negotiations but what they result in remains to be seen. I hope there won&rsquo;t be a strike but to say right now that there won&rsquo;t be one, would be wrong.&rdquo;In other news, Eagleson announced the first salary disclosure in the union&rsquo;s 23-year history will likely take place Feb. 4-7.&ldquo;The player representatives for each team will be given the salary figures for each player on the NHL rosters as of Jan. 11,&rdquo; said Eagleson. &ldquo;And if I know the media, it will become public knowledge shortly after. I think the best thing for the association is to get it out as quickly and noisily as we can.&rdquo;(Formore on Goodenow, see Steve Dryden&rsquo;s column on page 20.)<h2>WOMAN&rsquo;S WORLD</h2>The International Ice Hockey Federation holds its first women&rsquo;s world championship March 19 to .25 in Ottawa.The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association named 14 members of its team Jan. 19 after four days of tryouts in Toronto. The Canadian team, which will pick up six more players at a camp just before the championships, is favored to win the event.&ldquo;If everything goes the way it should, there should be a Canada-U.S. final,&rdquo; said Canadian head coach Dave McMaster, also head coach at the University of Toronto. &ldquo;But because it&rsquo;s the first championship, we don&rsquo;t know much about the other teams and you can&rsquo;t discount their abilities.&rdquo;Canada and the United States will be joined by Sweden, West Germany, Japan, Finland, Norway and Switzerland. In the world event, body checking will be allowed, even though neither the United States nor Canada allow hitting in most of their women&rsquo;s leagues.&ldquo;We certainly kept that in mind when we chose our team,&rdquo; said USA coach Don MacLeod. &ldquo;We chose a big, physical team &ldquo;MacLeod, who coaches at Northeastern University, conceded that Canada is definitely the early favorite to win the tournament.Should Canada win the event, the Ratushny family of Nepean, Ont., will make hockey history by placing a brother and sister on world championship hockey teams in the same year. Dan, a 19-year-old defenseman at Cornell University, played for Canada&rsquo;s gold-medal team at the World Junior Championships in Finland. His sister, Kim, who plays for Cornell&rsquo;s women&rsquo;s team, was named as a forward to the Canadian team. Judy Diduck, who was named to the team on defense, is the sister of New York Islanders&rsquo; defenseman Gerald Diduck.On the American side, forward Cammi Granato of Downers Grove, Ill., is the sister of Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; right winger Tony Granato.Much of the reason for the world championship is the possibility of women&rsquo;s hockey becoming a demonstration sport at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. In order to be in the Olympics, a sport must hold a sanctioned world championship annually.<h2>JOHNSON BACK</h2>USA Hockey president Walter Bush Jr. announced Jan. 9 that the contract for executive director Bob Johnson was extended for five more years, effective Jan. 1, 1990.Johnson, the former head coach of the Calgary Flames, left the NHL for the job in 1987 but had been constantly mentioned as a candidate when NHL and college hockey jobs came open in the past year.&ldquo;It seemed every time there was a job open I&rsquo;d read that I was a candidate,&rdquo; said Johnson, 56. &ldquo;But many of those were rumors.&rdquo;Johnson said he&rsquo;s pleased with the progress that&rsquo;s been made but said USA Hockey still has much work to do.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re happy with what we&rsquo;ve done so far, but we&rsquo;ve only scratched the surface,&rdquo; said Johnson.<h2>DATEBOOK</h2>Jan. 27: New York Rangers at Los AngeleS Bernie Nicholls plays his first game at the Forum as a Ranger.Feb. 5: Opening round of Beanpot tournament at Boston Garden with Boston College, Boston University, Harvard and Northeastern.Feb. 7: Former Detroit Red Wing Bob Probert is scheduled to be released from prison in Rochester, Minn. &#9632;

f0006-02

NHLPA SEARCH ENDS WITH APPOINTMENT OF PLAYER AGENT GOODENOW

<div class="byline">BY GARY LOEWEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011373/5784858-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brad Marsh says the Maple Leafs have benefitted from &ldquo;the accumulation of a lot of little things that&hellip;add up to a better attitude on and off the ice."</figcaption></div>A former coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs once suggested the franchise was only a bulldozer away from a proper rebuilding job.The solution, he said, was to flatten Maple Leaf Gardens and start anew.But when Gord Stellick resigned as general manager last Aug. 11, it seemed the Leafs might crumble without the aid of heavy equipment.Stellick ostensibly was the cornerstone of the Leafs. In his 14 years with the organization&mdash;specifically, his 16 months as GM&mdash;Stellick, a diehard fan, worked to restore pride and dignity to a team that had lapsed into a 10-year losing streak. When owner Harold Ballard blocked his efforts, he quit on principle.Ironically, the resignation of the Leafs&rsquo; lone bastion of sanity sparked the precise chain of events that Stellick had envisioned.&ldquo;I was in a comer, it was a tough move to make. But it was in the best interests of the hockey team,&rdquo; recalls Stellick, now an assistant general manager of the New York Rangers.Clearly, the Leafs&rsquo; sudden turnabout this season can be attributed to Stellick&rsquo;s departure, which served to bring Ballard temporarily to his senses. The octogenarian owner hired Floyd Smith as GM, and okayed changes Stellick had pressed for&mdash;the hiring of a qualified coach (Doug Carpenter) and the appointment of a captain (Rob Ramage). The two moves helped bring a sense of respect to the team and a long-absent passion to the Gardens.Indeed, in a dramatic reversal, the Leafs have become a spirited, exciting team. Their play infects fans with a playoff-style euphoria.&ldquo;People are genuinely happy and excited for us,&rdquo; Ramage says. &ldquo;I guess everybody loves a winner.&rdquo;That goes for the players, too. Playing with confidence and elan, the Leafs were poised to finish a season above .500 for the first time since 1978-79. A lack of talent wasn&rsquo;t the problem&mdash;at least in the players&rsquo; minds. What they lacked was a sense of direction.Enter Carpenter. With a compass.&ldquo;There seems to be more stability and we have a coach who knows his game,&rdquo; veteran left winger Mark Osborne says.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing sound, systematic hockey and each player has a defined role. For the first time since I&rsquo;ve been here, there is a positive approach to getting the most out of the team and getting the players to play to the best of their abilities.&rdquo;At the outset of the season, not everyone was a believer in Carpenter. The Leafs lost five of their first six games and players groused that he was trying to teach too much, too soon. Star forwards Ed Olczyk and Gary Leeman were upset over diminished ice time.That led to charges by some players, particularly those who had adapted to Carpenter&rsquo;s team-first concept, that Olczyk and Leeman were selfish and aloof.&ldquo;The thing with Eddie and Gary was blown out of proportion by the media,&rdquo; says defenseman Brad Marsh. &ldquo;Every team has its arguments. But it&rsquo;s one hurdle we&rsquo;ve had to overcome as a team and we&rsquo;re a better team because of it.&rdquo;Marsh, with newcomers Ramage and Lou Franceschetti, has helped nurture a strong team atmosphere.&ldquo;The leadership&rsquo;of some of the older players has put pride back in the dressing room,&rdquo; says Osborne. &ldquo;Rob has demanded respect and he&rsquo;s gotten it&mdash;he&rsquo;s a great guy.&ldquo;We had some sour apples pulling in the wrong direction, but they&rsquo;ve brought them over to their side. You&rsquo;re never going to have 20 guys who enjoy doing things together or have the same habits. But once we put on the sweaters, you see respect and togetherness on the ice.&rdquo;Carpenter&rsquo;s initial goal was to establish an identity for the Leafs as a hard-working team. With the newcomers leading the way, the team became an exponent of the work ethic, evolving into a physical, sometimes nasty, team.Then, with the line of Olczyk, Leeman and Osborne catching fire, the Leafs&rsquo; added another dimension&mdash;explosiveness. Suddenly, they were a hard-working, bruising, high-scoring team.They became the talk of Toronto. Leaf fans, who had hurled team sweaters, souvenir pucks and spicy invective during a particularly dismal performance at the Gardens a year previous, rushed back to support the team.It&rsquo;s no secret, Ramage notes, that the opposition&rsquo;s universal game plan was to jump on the Leafs early and get the Gardens fans to turn on them. With the Leafs&rsquo; success at home, that hasn&rsquo;t happened this season.&ldquo;The fan support has been really nice,&rdquo; Marsh says. &ldquo;It was sort of a Catch-22 before. We&rsquo;d say, &lsquo;Cheer for us and we&rsquo;ll play good.&rsquo; The fans would say, &lsquo;Play good and we&rsquo;ll cheer for you.&rsquo;&ldquo;It was a standoff. For whatever reason, we&rsquo;ve both caught fire.&rdquo; Especially the team, which went 6-1-1 in a homestand that catapulted the Leafs over the .500 barrier. A win in St. Louis Jan. 18 upped the record to 25-22-1.The Leafs have seen many hot streaks evaporate before, but there is a feeling they will sustain this one. In recent years, those streaks usually stemmed from hot goaltending. This season, it has resulted from strong overall play.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an accumulation of little things that by themselves aren&rsquo;t a big deal,&rdquo; Marsh says. &ldquo;But they all add up to a better attitude on and off the ice. It&rsquo;s a matter of Doug coming in and refocusing 20 guys.&rdquo;So far, the Leafs have managed to flatten their emotions and aren&rsquo;t getting carried away by their success. Ramage, an 11-year veteran, has cautioned them about that.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t fool ourselves,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had a lot of games where we&rsquo;ve been a little luckier than good. Whether it&rsquo;s myself or another veteran, we have to point that out.&rdquo;With Ballard suffering from health problems, the Leafs have been spared one distraction. They&rsquo;re more relaxed and self-assured, confident that no deficit is too large to overcome. &#9632;

f0007-01

TORONTO TURNS OVER A NEW LEAF

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Gary Loewen</div>Despite the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; success, there is one area of their game that has confounded coach Doug Carpenter.Since taking over the job at the start of this season, Carpenter has hammered away relentlessly at the Leafs&rsquo; defensive shortcomings.&ldquo;If you play good defense, you&rsquo;ll create offense. Is that so difficult to understand?&rdquo;Evidently, yes, at least for the Leafs. The team was plagued by &lsquo;mental mistakes in its own zone, often resulting in costly turnovers. The only thing was, they were able to cover up for it by simply outscoring the opposition.Carpenter was generally satisfied with the players&rsquo; work ethic, physical prowess and offensive production. But he was aghast at the team&rsquo;s goals-against average&mdash;214 goals against for a 4.43 GAA at the all-star break&mdash;which was the second-highest in the NHL.That&rsquo;s one area where Carpenter was demanding improvement as he looked ahead to the final two months of the regular season.Another area was special-team play. Through 48 games, the Leafs were 13th in the league with 40 power-play goals in 201 opportunities, for a 19.9-per-cent efficiency rating. They ranked 16th in penalty killing with 54 goals allowed in 232 shorthanded situations, for a 76.7-per-cent success rate.The 47-year-old Carpenter was adamant the Leafs wouldn&rsquo;t grow complacent after reaching the .500 mark. And they looked very much like they would finish with a .500 record for the first time since 1978-79, when they posted a 34-33-13 mark.&ldquo;Usually .500 doesn&rsquo;t mean so much and it&rsquo;s ironic that we looked at it as a hurdle to overcome,&rdquo; said Carpenter. &ldquo;But here, in recent history, they weren&rsquo;t able to accomplish it.&rdquo; &#9632;

CARPENTER OFFENDED BY LEAFS’ DEFENSE

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011460/5784913-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Lemieux, right, and Wayne Gretzky shake hands after Lemieux&rsquo; Wales Conference team beat the Campbell Conference 12-7 at the All-Star Game Jan. 21 in Pittsburgh. Lemieux outscored Gretzky 4-0 and was named the game&rsquo;s MVP.</figcaption></div>Mario Lemieux never read the all-star record book. He just helped to rewrite it.After his spectacular four-goal performance in the NHL All-Star Game Jan. 21, Lemieux was surprised to learn he had just tied Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s record for goals in one all-star game. The Wales Conference&rsquo;s 12-7 win over the Campbell Conference in the annual event was loaded with offensive, records, but it was Lemieux&rsquo; mark that captured the most attention.It also gave him a record third All-Star Game Most Valuable Player award&mdash;he also won it in 1985 and 1988.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t even know what the record was for goals in a game,&rdquo; said Lemieux. &ldquo;I just wanted to go out there and make some plays and have some fun.&rdquo;For a guy who gets his jollies scoring goals and creating offense, Lemieux had a riot. And the man who promises to be the dominant player of the 1990s got the decade off to a good start. Not only did he please the sellout crowd at the Civic Center in Pittsburgh, he helped salvage what became one of the most sloppily-played All-Star Games in history.Lemieux scored the first of his four on a wrap-around, on his first shift, 21 seconds into the game. He had people throwing their hats on the ice by 17:37 of the first period, when he scored his third of the game. He added another goal early in the third.And the scary thing is, he admitted he could have had several more.&ldquo;After I got the first three, I was trying to set up (linemates) Cam Neely and Brian Propp so they could score too,&rdquo; said Lemieux. &ldquo;A couple of times I should have shot when I dished it off to my wingers and I missed a couple of others that I could have had.&rdquo;In a game where backchecking and defense were foreign terms, Lemieux ironically contributed defensively more than he does during the regular season. Wales&rsquo; coach Pat Bums had Lemieux going against Wayne Gretzky for most of the game and it brought out a seldom-seen facet of Lemieux&rsquo; game. Gretzky, on the other hand, had an excellent vantage point for Lemieux&rsquo; performance. He was on the ice for all four goals, finished the game at minus-6 and failed to record a point.&ldquo;I was playing a little more defensively than usual,&rdquo; said Lemieux. &ldquo;With Gretzky and (Jari) Kurri out there, you have to come back deeper and backcheck. I was pretty surprised Wayne didn&rsquo;t get any points.&rdquo;Defensively, both teams looked extraordinarily bad. Nine offensive records fell and, not surprisingly, Lemieux had a large hand in their demise.&#9642; The record for the most goals by both teams, which was set in last year&rsquo;s 9-5 win by the Campbell Conference in Edmonton, was broken when Cam Neely scored to give the Wales Conference an 11-4 lead midway through the third period.&#9642; The 12 goals scored by the Wales Conference erased the record for goals by one team in a game (nine), set by the Campbell Conference in 1983 and tied by the same team last year.&#9642; The Wales outshot the Campbell Conference 45-42, breaking the record for most shots by both teams in one game (81), set in 1968 when the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the NHL All-Stars 4-3.&#9642; The Wales&rsquo; 45 shots broke the record for most shots by one team (44), set in 1955 by the Detroit Red Wings and tied in 1970 by the East Division. The Campbell Conference&rsquo;s 22 shots in the third period broke the record of 20 for most shots in one period, set by the East Division in 1970. The 36 shots by both teams in the third period broke the mark for most shots in a period by both teams (30), set in the same game, a 4-1 East Division win.&#9642; The Wales Conference took a 7-2 lead in the first period, breaking the mark for goals in one period (six), set by the Campbell Conference in a 9-3 win in 1983. The nine goals broke the record of seven for goals in a period by both teams, set in the same game.Lemieux, who had a 35-game point-scoring streak going into the game, said this one was special because he was able to do it in front of the Pittsburgh fans, who have embraced him since his arrival in 1984.&rsquo; &lsquo;There was a lot of pressure on me to do well and win the MVP award but playing here with these fans really helped,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad I could do it for the people of Pittsburgh. They&rsquo;ve supported us and they deserve it.&rdquo;Gretzky was a no-show at the Campbell Conference practice the day before the game, saying he was under the impression the practice was optional. But when the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; superstar was a virtual no-show for the game, he offered no excuses.There were 19 goals scored. One hand was easily enough to count the body-checks thrown during the game. Gretzky didn&rsquo;t score a point playing alongside some of the best players in the NHL. All is not well in the world.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a tough two days,&rdquo; said Gretzky. &ldquo;But one game isn&rsquo;t going to break us. When I retire in 10 years, I&rsquo;m not going to think about not getting a point in Pittsburgh.&rdquo;Which is just as well, since Mario Lemieux provided enough memories to last a lifetime. &#9632;

f0008-01

FOR THE RECORD

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Ken Campbell</div>The Campbell Conference won the first NHL skills competition and the $40,000 that went with it, the day before the All-Star Game.The Campbel Conference won the competition 30-10 and took the honors in the puck control relay, hardest shot, skating speed and breakaway relay events. The Wales won the rapid-fire and accuracy shooting events.Al lafrate of the Toronto Maple Leafs recorded the hardest shot at 96 miles per hour, Mike Gartner of the Minnesota North Stars won the skating speed competition by going from the red line to the blueline in 0.728-seconds, for a skating speed of 28.1 mph. Ray Bourque of the Boston Bruins won the accuracy shooting by hitting four targets in seven shots. Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; goalie Kirk McLean, who stopped 11 of 12 breakaways and 12 of 15 rapid-fire shots, was named top goalie.<h2>TWO STRAIGHT</h2>For the second straight year, an injury forced Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; center Denis Savard to withdraw from the All-Star Game. He was a late scratch because of an ankle injury and was replaced by teammate Steve Larmer. Thomas Steen of the Winnipeg Jets also missed the game because of back spasms and was replaced by teammate Doug Smail&hellip;Syl Apps Jr. and Steve Shutt each scored two goals to lead the Wales Conference to a 7-1 win in the Heroes of Hockey game, held Jan. 20&hellip;Canada defeated the USA 6-2 in the first media all-star game, held the morning of the All-Star Game in Mount Lebanon, Penn. &#9632;

CAMPBELL’S COUP

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011409/5784968-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="487" height="559"></div>Forty-two times a season The Hockey News delivers the iplete 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 controversyof 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&hellip;subscribe now.You&rsquo;ll receive 40 hockeypacked issues plus the Draft Preview and the Year In Photos for only $39.95 - that&rsquo;s a savings of $58.95 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! &#9632;

f0009-01

FORTY TWO PICK-UP

<div class="byline">STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011490/5784999-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="536" height="683"></div>Here&rsquo;s my pre-homestretch report card. Teams are listed by division, in order of last season&rsquo;s finish. Percentage grade is for fulfillment of potential and letter grade is for performance.Calgary: The loss of Hakan Loob has hurt more than the addition of Sergei Makarov has helped. The Flames will finish a mediocre second and, if Winnipeg finishes third, will go out in the first round. Grades: 75 and C+.Los Angeles: Robbie Ftorek never should have been fired. Larry Robinson should never have been hired, and Wayne Gretzky can&rsquo;t coach, manage and play simultaneously. Grades: 73 and C.Edmonton: John Muckier&rsquo;s handling of the team is splendid and Bill Ranford has rendered Grant Fuhr obsolete. The championship core has more character than the Flames any night. Grades: 90 and A.Vancouver: Vladimir Krutov and Igor Larionov have been a huge letdown. More was expected from Trevor Linden, Kirk McLean and Greg Adams. Grades: 78 and D.Winnipeg: Bob Murdoch is a coach-of-the year candidate. The goaltending of Dan Berthiaume and Bob Essensa hasn&rsquo;t hurt, nor has Dale Hawerchuk&rsquo;s modest point total. Pat Elynuik is the NHL&rsquo;s best-kept secret, followed closely by Dave Ellett. Grades: 90 and B.Detroit: Jacques Demers can make tuna salad out of fish hooks only so many times. Bernie Federko and Borje Salming have been disasters and the absence of Bob Probert hasn&rsquo;t helped. Grades: 85 and D.St. Louis: If Brett Hull gets any help, these guys could be dangerous. Everything hinges on Vince Riendeau holding up in goal. Brian Sutter&rsquo;s coaching and Adam Oates have been pleasant surprises. Grades: 85 and C+.Minnesota: The early surge was not done with mirrors but too much pressure was placed on too few aces. If Mike Modano plays like a Calder Trophy winner from here on, the season could be salvaged. Grades: 85 and C-.Chicago: If Mike Keenan ever tames Dave Manson and Denis Savard, while getting adequate goaltending, spring could be a playoff jubilee. Grades: 90 and B.Toronto: Doug Carpenter rates a standing ovation, but let&rsquo;s not overlook Ed Olczyk, Gary Leeman, and the unfairly-mocked general manager Floyd Smith. Grades: 88 and C+.Montreal: Considering the exits, injuries and rookies, coach Pat Bums has done a commendable job. If Mats Naslund feels like playing, the Habs will be there. Grades: 83 and C+.Boston: After Cam Neely, Ray Borque, and two fine goalies, there is no all-star cast. Yet, rookie coach Mike Milbury has kept the Bruins competitive. The fear? That Bourque will be overworked by April. Grades: 89 and B+.Buffalo: They&rsquo;ve cooled off since their great start but the Sabres are still a legitimate contender. They will also be a playoff threat if Daren Puppa stays healthy and Alexander Mogilny handles the stretch. Grades: 90 and B.Hartford: The Whale might have reached the top had its No. 1 fin, Mike Liut, not been disloged from the torso. With the likes of Kevin Dineen, Pat Verbeek and Ron Francis, it&rsquo;s possible Rick Ley can inspire this enigmatic team to greater heights. Grades: 80 and C.Quebec: Management needed half a season to realize that goaltending is necessary to win.- Now that Michel Bergeron has the goaltending we&rsquo;ll find out whether he&rsquo;s the right man for coaching job or the worst choice since Jean Perron. Grades: 65 and F.Washington: This should have been the year. And it still could be if the Caps want to play for Terry Murray. By the way, Bryan Murray could be the next coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Grades: 75 and C&mdash;.Pittsburgh: The good news is that Paul Coffey-Mario Lemieux can turn the game around at any time. The bad news is that when they don&rsquo;t, look out. Grades: 78 and C.New York Rangers: Their mid-season demise was greatly exaggerated. Mike Richter is the new John Vanbiesbrouck. If Carey Wilson and Brian Leetch stay healthy, and Chris Nilan returns to form, the Blueshirts will finish strong. Grades: 75 and C.Philadelphia: The Survival Quotient is amazingly high considering the loss of Ron Hextall and Tim Kerr. Full credit to the coaching staff, Ken Wregget and Rick Tocchet. Grades: 80 and B &mdash;.New Jersey: So many transplants&mdash;Fetisov, Starikov, Kasatonov, Ruotsalainen&mdash;require long acclimatization. Through it all, John Cunniff has kept the Devils competitive. Now it&rsquo;s up to goalies Sean Burke and Chris Terreri. Grades: 85 and B &mdash;.New York Islanders: The turnabout from late November to mid-January was phenomenal.&rsquo;Pat LaFontaine is MVP material while Al Arbour could be coach-of-the-year. The question is, can they maintain their mid-season momentum? Grades: 90 and B-. &#9632;

f0010-01

CHARACTER OF OILERS IS SHINING THROUGH

<h2>BRUINS</h2>Several Bruin players expressed sadness over the dealing of Ken Linseman to the Philadelphia Flyers for Dave Poulin. &ldquo;He was always there at crunch time,&rdquo; Andy Brickley said. &lsquo;&rsquo;He won a Cup (with Edmonton in 1984) and he knows what it takes. It&rsquo;s things like that we&rsquo;ll miss with him gone.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Greg Hawgood became the seventh player to play left wing on Craig Janney&rsquo;s line with Cam Neely. The parade of left wingers on the Bruins&rsquo; premier line started with Bob Joyce (now with Washington) and continued, in no particular order, with Brickley, Randy Burridge, Bobby Carpenter, John Carter and Rob Cimetta. &ldquo;We have a revolving door on the left side,&rdquo; Neely said&hellip;With 33 goals at the break, all-star right winger Neely was one shy of 200 career goals&hellip;With their 28-16-4 mark, the Bruins owned the best record in the league at the all-star break. The team went 10-2-2 in the 14 games leading up to the weekend. They were 14 points ahead of their pace at this juncture last year&hellip;Gord Kluzak&rsquo;s left knee, which has been operated upon 10 times during his career and kept him out until January, held up well in the eight games he played up to the All-Star Game. Kluzak had two assists.<h2>SABRES</h2>Just when the Buffalo Sabres began getting their act together on the road, their woes at home continued. The Sabres, who jumped out to a 15-1-2 record at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, lost four straight at home in mid-January to drop the record to 155-2. The Sabres got back-to-back wins in Vancouver (5-3 Jan. 13) and Los Angeles (4-2 Jan. 16). But they were easily defeated by the Washington Capitals by a score of 6-3 when they returned home Jan. 19. The futility mark at home was the longest of the season and a disturbing trend for a team that prides itself on an exceptional record at home. &ldquo;That really bothers me,&rdquo; said coach Rick Dudley. &ldquo;We have a successful road trip and we come home and give two of the points away.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Former Sabre center-right winger John Tucker returned to Buffalo with the Capitals and had a goal and two assists. He was named the game&rsquo;s first star.<h2>CANADIENS</h2>With back-to-back games coming up against Washington (Jan. 26) and Toronto (Jan. 27) the Canadiens decided to recall tough left winger Steve Martinson from Sherbrooke of the American League Jan. 21. Martinson, 31, appeared in just one of the Habs&rsquo; first 13 games before being assigned to Sherbrooke on Oct. 27&hellip;The Habs&rsquo; other enforcer, Todd Ewen, scored his first goal in a Montreal uniform Jan. 15. It was the game-winner in a 4-3 victory over Minnesota&hellip;Defenseman Craig Ludwig turned down an invitation to replace Chris Chelios in the All-Star Game. It was later determined Chelios, who was suffering from a groin pull, was well enough to play&hellip;Right winger Russ Courtnail continued to struggle with just one goal in his last 15 games heading into the all-star break. Ryan Walter, meanwhile, had just one assist in his last 17 outings.<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>Michel Petit stayed home from the Nords&rsquo; Jan. 16-18 road trip to Winnipeg and Minnesota, recovering from a cross-check to the face delivered by New Jersey&rsquo;s Brendan Shanahan Jan. 13. Petit suffered a concussion and a deep laceration below his mouth&hellip;Soviet forwards Viacheslav Bykov and Andrei Khomutov impressed the Nords during the Red Army&rsquo;s tour of North America. Both players will more than likely start next season with the Nordiques. They may be asked to report as early as June so they can adapt to their new environnment before the season starts. Bykov was a ninth-round choice in 1989 and Khomutov was a 10th-round selection last year&hellip;Left winger Michel Goulet, who has spent all of his 11 seasons with the Nordiques, said he was convinced he would be traded before the March trade deadline.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-03723/5785061-1-eng-US/f0010-032.jpg" title="f0010-03" width="601" height="854"><figcaption class="caption-body">Michel Goulet is certain he&rsquo;ll be traded this season.</figcaption></div><h2>WHALERS</h2>Rookie defenseman Adam Burt was expected to be out for up to three weeks with a dislocated shoulder he suffered Jan. 19, when Calgary&rsquo;s Joel Otto fell on him during a 3-3 tie&hellip;Whalers&rsquo; GM Ed Johnston turned down the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; overtures concerning Bernie Nicholls, before Nicholls was traded at the all-star break to the New York Rangers. Johnston said the Kings wanted Kevin Dineen&hellip;Center Ron Francis, the Whalers&rsquo; representative at the All-star Game, had two assists in Pittsburgh. Francis had this to say about the skills&rsquo; competition held the day before the game: &ldquo;What I need is an event where you stand still and pass from behind the net with a guy checking you. I&rsquo;d have a chance then.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-03

BRUINS WILL MISS LINSEMAN

<div class="byline">BY STEPHEN HARRIS</div>When Boston Bruins&rsquo; general manager Harry Sinden sent Ken Linseman to the Philadelphia Flyers Jan. 16 in exchange for Dave Poulin, he thought it was a routine swap of 31-year-old centers.Sinden even uttered the GM&rsquo;s standard trade cliche: &ldquo;With the kind of player Kenny is, and the type of player Dave Poulin is, this should be a trade that helps both teams.&rdquo;But Sinden soon learned there was nothing routine about this deal.And for six days, as Poulin pondered whether to accept the trade or retire, it looked as though the Bruins might not get any help at all from the classy veteran.The story led Boston sports pages all week, until, shortly before midnight Jan. 21, it was settled. Poulin decided to report to Boston the next day.The impasse ended when Poulin agreed to a contract extension, believed to run until the end of the 1992-93 season.&ldquo;My first concern was a commitment from the Bruins that I&rsquo;d be here (beyond his present contract) and it was resolved,&rdquo; said Poulin. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m thrilled. I&rsquo;ve been fortunate to be in one place for the better part of my career and I didn&rsquo;t want it to end in four or five places. I&rsquo;ve had assurance and I&rsquo;m confident.&rdquo;Sinden echoed Poulin&rsquo;s thoughts.&ldquo;More than anything, I think he finally came to grips with being traded,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;He had just been rejected by someone (Flyers&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke) who had indicated that he was going to be there for a lifetime.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he felt certain of going to a strange organization at that point, with the possibility of bouncing around the last few years of his career.&ldquo;He needed to feel he was going to be part of this team.&ldquo;Now I just want him to do what I got him for, which is help the team. From what I&rsquo;m told, when he commits himself, he really commits himself. He&rsquo;s ready to come here and commit himself to the organization and the community.&rdquo;Salary was never a serious stumbling block in the negotiations, according to both Sinden and Poulin&rsquo;s agent, Steve Mountain.&ldquo;We just want a real committment from Boston,&rdquo; said Mountain, who also represents&rsquo; Bruce Springsteen&rsquo;s girlfriend, singer Patti Scialfa.In Poulin, Sinden got a center comfortable with the checking role for which Linseman was ill-suited. The Bruins believe Poulin makes them a better-balanced club, with a far better shot at major playoff success.After a four-year career at Notre Dame, Poulin played the 1982-83 season in Sweden under Bruins&rsquo; assistant coach Ted Sator. After signing with the Flyers as a free agent on March 8, 1983, Poulin quickly emerged as a top two-way center.He had career highs of 31 goals and 45 assists in 1983-84, and in 1987, won the Selke Trophy winner as the league&rsquo;s top defensive forward. His career totals in 467 games with the Flyers were 161-233-394. This season, in 28 games, he was 9-8-17.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 16: Ken Linseman. C, traded to Philadephia for Dave Poulin, C. Poulin granted leave of absence to contemplate retirement.Jan. 21: Poulin agrees to report: signs contract extension, terms and length not released.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Craig Janney, Bob Sweeney, Bob Carpenter, Dave Poulin, John Carter.LW&mdash;Greg Hawgood. Randy Burridge, Andy Brickley, Robert Cimetta.RW&mdash;Cam Neely, Bob Gould, Dave Christian. Lyndon Byers.LD&mdash;Gord Kluzak. Allen Pedersen, Glen Wesley, Don Sweeney.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque, Garry Galley, Jim Wiemer.G&mdash;Reggie Lemelin, Andy Moog.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Nevin Markwart, RW, left shoulder surgery, out for seasonMichael Thelven, D, right knee surgery, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Neely, 33. A&mdash;Bourque, 43. P&mdash; Neely. 57. PIM&mdash;Byers. 79. &#9632;

RELUCTANT POULIN FINALLY AGREES TO REPORT

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>The Hartford Whalers&rsquo; hectic week heading into the all-star break brought a loss and two ties, but the Whalers&rsquo; brass said its club was finally showing some brass.General manager Eddie Johnston has become obsessed with the Whalers improving on their dismal 8-13-3 Civic Center record. Only the 21st-place Quebec Nordiques have lost as many at home.&ldquo;The difference between our club and first place is our home record,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;We need to get some confidence in our building. Look at the Islanders. They were atrocious at home. Suddenly they started winning there and they went from last place to first place in the Patrick Division.&rdquo;&ldquo;We still have to find ways to win at home and get away from negative things like goals caused by some soft play, but we&rsquo;ve played rather intense in our recent games. It&rsquo;s going to pay off,&rdquo; said Whalers&rsquo; coach Rick Ley.On Jan. 15 at Boston Garden, the Whalers played perhaps their most physical game of the season&mdash;a surprise, considering it came at the conclusion of a five-game (2-2-1) road trip. Dineen even knocked Gord Kluzak silly with a left to the jaw during a second-period fight. But a 2-1 game eventually became a 4-1 loss.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011454/5785116-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="769" height="721"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kevin Dineen was impressive both on and off the ice for the Whalers.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I gladly would have traded that punch for a goal,&rdquo; said Dineen, who landed his best left since he gave Mike Milbury, now the Bruins&rsquo; coach, a concussion in a fight three years ago before Milbury retired.On Jan. 17, Dineen, who has played considerably better after public criticism from Ley, scored with only 17 seconds remaining to give the Whalers a 5-5 tie with the Bruins.With Kay Whitmore pulled for an extra attacker, Francis won a faceoff and Ray Ferraro wound up fora slapshot on Andy Moog. Ferraro partially tanned and the puck dribbled to the net, but Raymond Bourque&rsquo;s clearing attempt hit Dineen on the leg and went in the net for a 5-5 tie with the Bruins.&ldquo;I should have used my putter,&rdquo; Ferraro said.Two nights later, the Whalers scored with 41 seconds left, Pete Sidorkiewicz pulled and Calgary&rsquo;s Jamie Macoun in the penalty box, to tie the Flames 3-3. Both games were part of owner Richard Gordon&rsquo;s buy one ticket, get one free January promotion, which resulted in back-to-back sellouts of 15,535.Ferraro scored the game-tying goal when Scott Young partially mishit a slapshot and it fluttered off Ferraro&rsquo;s elbow, hit Mike Vernon&rsquo;s pad, dropped to the ice and Ferraro had his stick ready for the rebound.&ldquo;If you look at old pictures of Gordie Howe, you&rsquo;ll always see his stick is on the ice,&rdquo; said Ferraro. &ldquo;Either that or his elbow will be in some poor guy&rsquo;s face. If you keep your stick on the ice, good things will happen.&rdquo;Dineen, meanwhile, attacked Tim Hunter and was given a game misconduct with 1:52 left.Dineen went to Pittsburgh, not as the Whalers&rsquo; All-Star Game representative, but as head of the search committee that selected Bob Goodenpw as Alan Eagleson&rsquo;s eventual successor to the job of NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director. After two fights, Dineen looked prim and proper&mdash;complete with briefcase&mdash;in introducing Goodenow at a press conference.&ldquo;Bob&rsquo;s extremely well-rounded. He knows labor relations and he knows the ins and outs of being a player rep,&rdquo; said Dineen. &ldquo;I learned more from this search than I would in a year at business school.&rdquo;<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 16: Chris Govedaris, LW. assigned to Hamilton (OHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ron Francis, Dean Evason, Ray Ferraro, Mike Tomlak.LW&mdash;Tom Martin, Todd Krygier, Randy Cunneyworth, Dave Tippett, Mikael Andersson.RW&mdash;Kevin Dineen, Scott Young, Pat Verbeek, Ed Kastelic.LD&mdash;Joel Quenneville, Randy Ladouceur, Grant Jennings.RD&mdash;Brad Shaw, Ulf Samuelsson, Dave Babych, Sylvain Cote.G&mdash;Pete Sidorkiewicz, Kay Whitmore.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Adam Burt, D, dislocated shoulder, Feb 5-12.Mike Liut, G, arthroscopic surgery on left knee, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Verbeek, 25. A&mdash;Francis, 43. P&mdash;Francis. 62. PIM&mdash;Verbeek, 129. &#9632;

f0012-01

HOME IMPROVEMENTS TOP LIST OF PRIORITIES

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>Ray Sheppard did not fall off the face of the earth this season. Sometimes it just seems that way.Two years ago, Sheppard was runner-up for rookie of the year after scoring 38 goals in his first season. For most of this season, he was a spare part but when he finally got his chance to play regularly, he made the most of it.Sheppard lined up on right wing with Pierre Turgeon in Vancouver Jan. 13 and promptly scored a goal in the Sabres&rsquo; 5-3 win over the Canucks. The victory snapped the Sabres&rsquo; six-game losing streak. Two nights later, he scored the game-winner in a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011367/5785147-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="607" height="673"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Sheppard had five points in only 12 games this season.</figcaption></div>That boosted his modest totals to three goals and two assists in 12 games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just happy to be playing in hockey games,&rsquo;&rsquo; said Sheppard. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to look at anything beyond that.&rdquo;Mostly because this season has been an exercise in frustration. After his sensational rookie season, Sheppard slumped to 23 goals last season and this year, he fell right out of sight.A natural goal-scorer, but a player not known for his skating skills or defensive abilities, he didn&rsquo;t seem to fit in with new coach Rick Dudley&rsquo;s plans. He also couldn&rsquo;t dislodge anyone from a solid right side that included veterans Mike Foligno, Rick Vaive and Kevin Maguire and rookie Alexander Mogilny.Most people, including Sheppard himself, thought his exclusion from the lineup was only temporary. But when the team got off to such a good start, Sheppard was reduced to being the designated sitter.But all that changed when Foligno suffered bronchitis in mid-January and Sheppard took his place alongside Turgeon. Turgeon and Sheppard were linemates during their rookie seasons and they worked well during the three games they were together.It was a mini-comeback, but neither Sheppard nor Dudley was willing to guess how long it might last.Dudley said he was pleased with Sheppard&rsquo;s contributions, but would not be drawn into making a definitive statement on Sheppard&rsquo;s future.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s doing a lot with his opportunity and I&rsquo;m happy for him,&rdquo; Dudley said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s played with a positive approach to his situation and he&rsquo;s making the most of it.&rdquo;Also factored into the equation was the possibility Sheppard was being showcased for a trade.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s going to happen from here on out, but I&rsquo;ve learned a lot from all of this,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The biggest thing is that it doesn&rsquo;t matter what the name is on the back of the sweater, it&rsquo;s the crest on the front that counts.&rdquo;<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 14: Robert Ray, LW. assigned to Rochester (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pierre Turgeon, Christian Ruuttu, Benoit Hogue. Jeff Parker.LW&mdash;Dave Andreychuk, Mike Hartman, Alexander Mogilny, Dave Snuggerud.RW&mdash;Ray Sheppard, Kevin Maguire, Scott Arniel, Rick Vaive.LD&mdash;Mike Ramsey, Doug Bodger, Don McSween, Grant Ledyard.RD&mdash;Phil Housley, Dean Kennedy, Uwe Krupp.G&mdash;Daren Puppa, Clint Malarchuk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mike Foligno, RW, bronchitis, day-to-day.Larry Playfair. D, pulled hamstring, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Andreychuk. 22. A&mdash;Turgeon. 42.P&mdash;Turgeon, 62. PIM&mdash;Hartman. 123 &#9632;

f0013-01

SHEPPARD MAKING MOST OF OPPORTUNITY

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>Michel Petit has brought a new twist to the old ultimatum: &ldquo;Pay me or trade me.&rdquo;Petit, acquired by the Quebec Nordiques Oct. 5 from the New York Rangers for Randy Moller, is playing out his option and was hoping a new contract would be signed before the all-star break.Petit was reportedly looking for a three-year deal worth about $1 million. But his agent, Larry Rauch, was unable to strike a deal with Nords&rsquo; general manager Martin Madden.All of which left Petit in a sour mood.&ldquo;The joke has lasted long enough,&rdquo; the 25-year-old native of St-Malo, Que., said. &ldquo;Either they give me what I&rsquo;m looking for, or else they can trade me right now. I&rsquo;m in no mood to wait until the end of the season to get things settled. It&rsquo;s now or never.&rdquo;Don&rsquo;t pull any punches, Michel. How have things really gone?&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still a long way apart. We&rsquo;re talking in the $200,000 range for three years. It&rsquo;s funny, because my bosses keep saying I&rsquo;m their best defenseman. But they don&rsquo;t want to pay me as the best one.&ldquo;The team doesn&rsquo;t shy away from giving other players big deals, but when a French-Canadian is involved, it&rsquo;s a different matter. It&rsquo;s as if we should accept the situation without saying a word. I&rsquo;m fed up.&rdquo;Madden declined comment on the situation.The Nordiques can wait until a rival team offers a deal to Petit this summer, when he becomes a free agent. Then, under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, they can then match the offer. Petit would then have to stay in Quebec.&ldquo;The situation is ridiculous,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The Nordiques came to get me in New York and they knew very well back then what kind of contract I was looking for.&ldquo;It makes me laugh because they haven&rsquo;t stepped forward to give me what I want. I&rsquo;m more than ready to play for the Nordiques, as long as they get me under contract very soon. Very, very soon.&ldquo;Careers in the National Hockey League are short and I&rsquo;m losing money right now. I&rsquo;m sick and tired of the whole affair.&rdquo;If Petit does leave for another team, Quebec will get two first-round draft picks over the next three seasons from the team that signs him.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very poor way to operate,&rdquo; Rauch said Jan. 18. &ldquo;The bottom line is that the Nordiques don&rsquo;t seem very interested to get Michel under contract. Things could happen pretty soon.&rdquo;<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 15: Joel Balllargeon, LW, retired from Halifax (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Peter Stastny, Joe Sakic, Claude Loiselle, Paul Gillis, Ken McRae, Lucien DeBlois, Tony Hrkac.LW&mdash;Michel Goulet, Jeff Jackson, Mike Hough. Tony McKegney.RW&mdash;Guy Lafleur, Darin Kimble. Brian Lawton, liro Jarvi.LD&mdash;Curtis Leschyshyn, Bryan Fogarty, Steven Finn, Brent Severyn.RD&mdash;Mario Marois, Michel Petit, Joe Cirella.G&mdash;Greg Millen, Ron Tugnutt, Sergei Mylnikov.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Stephane Guerard. D, pulled thigh muscle and injured knee, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Sakic, 26. A&mdash;Sakic, 31. P&mdash;Sakic, 57. PIM&mdash;Gillis, 113. &#9632;

’PAY ME OR TRADE ME,’ SAYS PETIT

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div>It may seem bizarre that a 12-7 game could help a goaltender&rsquo;s confidence. But that was the case for Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; netminder Patrick Roy.Roy was the starting goalie for the victorious Wales Conference team at theNHL&rsquo;s41st All-Star Game Jan. 21 in Pittsburgh. He allowed three goals on 11 shots in the 29:14 he played.Still, he emerged from the game feeling more confident about his play, and eager to the lead the Canadiens in the final third of the NHL schedule.&ldquo;I wanted to make sure that I didn&rsquo;t allow a bad goal in the game,&rdquo; said Roy. &ldquo;They scored three goals against me, but they had to work for them. They were good goals.&ldquo;A game like the all-star is a good challenge for a goaltender. The first thing is that you can&rsquo;t worry about how many goals you are going to give up.&rdquo;Like most who participate the the All-Star Game, Roy&rsquo;s main objective was to have a good time&mdash;and he did. However, he accomplished more than just having fun in the 1 1/2 periods he spent in net for the Wales team.&ldquo;This should help me get sharper,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was out for 14 days (with tonsilitis) and it takes time to get back into a groove. Facing some of the league&rsquo;s best forwards in a game like this is going to be a help.&rdquo;Roy came into the game on a low. He was less than impressive in a 6-3 home-ice loss to the New York Islanders Jan. 17&mdash;he stopped only 23 shots&mdash;and admitted he was having difficulties.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011442/5785202-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="610" height="762"><figcaption class="caption-body">Patrick Roy recovered from a bout with tonsilitis.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;There was a lack of concentration on my part,&rdquo; said Roy. &ldquo;I might have been a little bit tired too because I was playing my third game in five nights after coming back from being sick.&rdquo;Two nights earlier against Minnesota, Roy looked shaky on two goals and stopped 22 shots in a 4-3 Forum triumph over the North Stars. On Jan. 13, he replaced Brian Hayward at 3:53 of the first period and stopped 29 shots to give the Canadiens a 2-2 tie against the Philadelphia Flyers.In 28 games, he had a 2.68 goals-against average and .906 save percentage. His record was 15-10-2.As the Canadiens prepared for the last two full months of the 1989-90 schedule, they had one thing going for them which they hadn&rsquo;t had all season&mdash;a full, healthy squad.Roy recovered from his tonsilitis. And Brian Hayward&rsquo;s bruised right knee, sustained in the game against the Flyers, had healed sufficiently to allow him to play.With Chris Chelios returning from a groin injury, the Canadiens had all of their regular defensemen back in the lineup for the first time since October.And Bobby Smith&rsquo;s separated right shoulder healed during the all-star break. That gave coach Pat Bums a full allotment of regular forwards.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 15: Andre Racicot, G. recalled from Sherbrooke (AHL).Jan. 18: Racicot assigned to Sherbrooke.Jan. 21: Steve Martinson, LW, recalled from Sherbrooke.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Guy Carbonneau. Brian Skrudland, Bobby Smith. Brent Gilchrist, Stephan Lebeau.LW&mdash;Ryan Walter. Mike McPhee, Mats Naslund, Shayne Corson, Steve Martinson.RW&mdash;Russ Courtnall, Claude Lemieux, Mike Keane. Stephane Richer.LD&mdash;Craig Ludwig. Sylvain Lefebvre. Jyrki Lumme.RD&mdash;Chris Chelios, Matt Schneider, Petr Svoboda, Eric Desjardins.G&mdash;Brian Hayward, Patrick Roy:<h3>INJURIES</h3>None.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Richer, 27. A&mdash;Richer. 29. P&mdash; Richer. 56. PIM&mdash;Chelios, 118. &#9632;

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ROY GAINS CONFIDENCE FROM ALL-STAR GAME

<div class="byline">BARRY MEISEL</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011222/5785233-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="557" height="700"></div>The New York Rangers filled their primary need without opening another hole. The Los Angeles Kings didn&rsquo;t. The Rangers got the best player in the deal. The Kings didn&rsquo;t.That&rsquo;s why the Rangers won the Bernie Nicholls for Tomas Sandstrom and Tony Grana-to trade. They won it big.What a zoo the All-Star weekend was, between Nicholls coming in late after minor surgery and both teams denying that the deal had been done. The story of the trade was first broken Jan. 18 in New York and Los Angeles. It was reconfirmed the next day. It was announced Jan. 20, but not until after Nicholls had to endure a nerve-wracking day of endless speculation.&ldquo;I wish they-had told me before I got here,&rdquo; he said the day of the trade, the day before the All-Star Game in Pittsburgh. &ldquo;But they said the deal wasn&rsquo;t done until now.&rdquo;Untrue, but unimportant. Now let&rsquo;s assess it.In Nicholls, 28, Smith acquired a flamboyant offensive star. The Rangers didn&rsquo;t just improve their team for today. If you want to assess the Nicholls trade, consider what it means for Carey Wilson, Kelly Kisio, Darren Turcotte, Eric Bennett, Steven Rice and Tony Amonte.Wilson&rsquo;s a nice center, but he&rsquo;s not a No. 1. Let him pivot a second line, one that won&rsquo;t be checked by some defensive stud, and he&rsquo;s an excellent commodity. Same for Kisio. He was miscast as an all-purpose No. 2, but now that he&rsquo;s the third center, he&rsquo;s far more valuable. Turcotte? He&rsquo;s a rookie who showed flash as a scoring center, until opponents realized he doesn&rsquo;t distribute the puck. Nicholls will push Turcotte to wing, maybe one of his wings. Turcotte&rsquo;s got a scorer&rsquo;s touch. With Nicholls around, he&rsquo;ll improve.Smith, who said he began negotiating the deal with Rogie Vachon at the GMs&rsquo; meetings in Florida in early January, got the Ranger job because of his extensive background in scouting. When he took over, he assembled a staff that included everyone but a director of amateur scouting.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s my area of expertise,&rdquo; he said.Here&rsquo;s the first test of his talent. Smith traded two 25-year-old right wingers because he thinks Bennett, Rice and Amonte are blue-chip prospects. Bennett, 22, is a seniorat Providence who could be a Ranger left winger by March. Rice, 18, was the Rangers&rsquo; first round pick last June.He&rsquo;s a right winger playing for the Ontario League&rsquo;s Kitchener Rangers who could make the team next year. Amonte, 19, is a freshman at Boston University, a right winger who&rsquo;ll likely be a Ranger in two or three years.Of course there are question marks. How will Nicholls produce in the overrated Patrick Division, which leaves fancy skating for the slicksters north and west and prefers to clutch and grab its way around the league? How&rsquo;s he going to collect 50 or 60 assists passing to the Troy Mallettes of the world?And how will he handle the pressure of being the newest in a 50-year line of saviors in a town that chews and spits out key players who don&rsquo;t deliver?&ldquo;I understand all that,&rdquo; Nicholls said. &ldquo;I hope 1 don&rsquo;t disappoint. All I can do is go out and do my best. They&rsquo;re a real big part of the New York Rangers, the Ranger fans. I feel they&rsquo;ll bear with me. Hopefully I&rsquo;ll give them what they want.&rdquo;New York had to like Nicholls&rsquo; comment on the trade: &ldquo;I told Rogie he got the raw end of the deal. &lsquo;&rsquo;The Kings needed to lower their overall age, improve their speed, tighten their defense and change their chemistry. In Sandstrom and Granato, they&rsquo;ve added youth and speed. They&rsquo;ve acquired two guys with the burning desire to win. Granato&rsquo;s excellent defensively, Sandstrom&rsquo;s not.The Swede is widely known for his speed, stickhandling, lethal shot and feisty character. It&rsquo;s not so widely known that he has only eight goals in 29 playoff games. That he doesn&rsquo;t have a deft touch from beyond the front of the net. That his burning desire to win translates into the burning need to antagonize every opponent. That his dirty play hurts him far more than it helps him. That he is an inconsistent performer who exasperated Neilson by going into a monthlong funk while his favorite center, Wilson, was injured.That&rsquo;s not the mark of a leader.Granato is a shift-disturber, a spunky little igniter who scored 30 goals in his first 48 NHL games and 12 in his last 67. He&rsquo;s agreat person. He&rsquo;ll be a popular teammate, a useful No. 3 right winger and penalty-killer.It&rsquo;s not that Sandstrom and Granato won&rsquo;t help the Kings. It&rsquo;s just that the price they paid was too high. &#9632;

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L. A. GAVE UP A KING IN NICHOLLS TRADE

One of the first Finnish-born players to play in the NHL, Pentti Lund, 64, is now the sports editor of the Thunder Bay (Ont.) Times-News. Lund, who emigrated to Canada as a child, also contributes a weekly column about the NHL to a Helsinki newspaper. &ldquo;I keep very close tabs on the Finnish players,&rdquo; says Lund. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to see Jari Kurri doing so well in Edmonton despite the loss of Wayne Gretzky to Los Angeles.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02968/5785264-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="629" height="442"><figcaption class="caption-body">&nbsp;Pentti Lund</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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THEN & NOW

<h2>JETS</h2>After causing a stir in the local media, Jets&rsquo; goalie Daniel Berthiaume was traded to Minnesota Jan-22 for future considerations. &ldquo;It was because of (the team&rsquo;s goaltending strength), and the recent negative publicity that has hounded Daniel, that we felt a trade would be in his best interests,&rdquo; said GM Mike Smith. The controversy began when Berthiaume stormed off the ice and directly to the dressing room after being pulled near the end of the third period of an 8-6 loss to Quebec Jan. 16. Jets&rsquo; coach Bob Murdoch later revealed he made the move to give his players a breather and that he planned to put Berthiaume back into the game at the next whistle. After the game, in the presence of a number of witnesses, Berthiaume allegedly swore at young autograph seekers. Among the bystanders was Winnipeg Free Press correspondent Scott Taylor, who wrote a column about the incident. Berthiaume apologized on local television prior to a game with Edmonton on Jan. 19, but later said he did so only at management&rsquo;s request and denied the entire episode&hellip;The Jets recalled Stephane Beauregard from Fort Wayne of the International League Jan. 22 to replace the traded Berthiaume in the lineup. Beauregard&rsquo;s only appearance with the Jets came Dec. 27 when he stoned the Soviet Central Red Army in a 4-1 exhibition victory.<h2>KINGS</h2>The All-Star Game in Pittsburgh Jan. 21 was a bittersweet experience for Bernie Nicholls, Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille and Steve Duchense. Nicholls was traded to the New York Rangers the day before for Tomas Sandstrom and Tony Grana-to. &ldquo;I was in Edmonton for 10 years and 1 made a lot of good friends there,&rdquo; said Gretzky. &ldquo;But in the short time I&rsquo;ve been in L.A., it seems I spent 90 per cent of my time with Bemie. He&rsquo;s a good friend, a great player. I will miss him. It took a lot away from the All-Star Game for me. &ldquo;&hellip; Robitail le started the game on a line with Gretzky, but he was reunited with Nicholls in the third period. &ldquo;It was our last game and we knew it,&rdquo; Robitaille said. &ldquo;We said, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s try and do something.&rsquo; It was hard. I can&rsquo;t believe this was it.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Duchesne seconded that emotion. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to accept. It&rsquo;s tough to see Bemie leaving L.A. He showed courage by playing. Luc said, &lsquo;I should tape that game.&rsquo; &ldquo;<h2>CANUCKS</h2>Kirk McLean is the most overworked goalie in the NHL. At the All-Star break, McLean had appeared in more games&mdash;39&mdash;than any other NHL backstopper. He&rsquo;s also faced more shots (1,220), made more saves (1,095), allowed more goals (125) and had more losses (19) than anyone else. While his mates seldom give him a moment to relax. McLean said there&rsquo;s a positive side to seeing so many shots. &ldquo;It makes you that much stronger mentally,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The more it happens, the stronger you&rsquo;ll be. It&rsquo;s part of the challenge&mdash;to be sharp from the start of the game to the finish.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Goalies have been pulled in 30 of the Canucks&rsquo; 49 games. Sixteen times the Canucks have yanked McLean or Steve Weeks&mdash;either for a replacement or an extra skater&hellip;Following a 3-2 overtime win against the Flyers Jan. 18 in Philadelphia, coach Bob McCammon was 4-0 at the Spectrum against the team he used to coach<h2>FLAMES</h2>Following six weeks of indifferent play, Sergei Makarov finally picked it up again, scoring five goals and adding three assists in five games to tie Joe Nieuwendyk for the team scoring lead. Both players had 56 points in 50 games going into the all-star break. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d agree with that observation,&rdquo; said Nieuwendyk. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s shooting the puck more. The goal he scored (in a 5-2 win Jan. 16 in St. Louis) came because he&rsquo;s going to the net more. He&rsquo;s looking for goals more than he was earlier in the season. He used to want to dish it off to me or Robs (Gary Roberts) all the time. Now, he wants a piece of the action himself.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Nieuwendyk ended the longest slump of his short career with his 26th goal of the season in a 2-2 tie Jan. 18 with Boston. It was his first goal in 11 games.. Mike Vernon continued to regain the form that saw him lose only six times in the 1988-89 regular season. On a recent road trip, &rsquo; Vernon started the final four games (two wins, two ties) and arguably stole points for them in games against Chicago (a 6-5 win Jan. 14) and Boston (a 2-2 tie Jan. 18)&hellip;Left winger Brian MacLeilan scored seven goals in a recent four-game stretch to give him 10 for the season.<h2>OILERS</h2>Mark Messier opened the scoring Jan. 16 in a 6-4 loss to Detroit with his 359th career goal, one more than exMontreal great Henri Richard and ex-Philadelphia Flyer Bob Clarke. The following night Messier again scored first&mdash;in typical locomotive fashion on a breakaway. He also added his 361st and 362nd goals later plus a milestone assist which moved him into a tie on the career scoring list with Bobby Orr. &ldquo;Bobby Orr? No Way.&rdquo; said Messier, whose assist was his 553rd, pulling him even with Mike Bossy. &ldquo;Orr&rsquo;s one of the guys I liked most when 1 was growing up, he and Guy Lafleur. I guess all of this means I&rsquo;m getting a little long in the tooth. But, it is exciting.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Newcomer Vladimir Ruzicka said his favorite NHL player is Mario Lemieux. &ldquo;I saw him at the Canada Cup in 1987 and he was outstanding, a great entertainer,&rdquo; said Ruzicka. Calgary Flames&rsquo; Jiri Hrdina, a former linemate of Ruzicka&rsquo;s, has compared the big Czech favorably to Lemieux. &#9632;

BERTHIAUME TRADED AMID CONTROVERSY

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>Vladimir Ruzicka may not be fully acquainted with the rules of the NHL but if his debut was any indication, he&rsquo;ll have no problem fitting in with the Edmonton Oilers.Ruzicka (pronounced Ruz-eech-ka) made his surprise debut with the Oilers for their 6-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets Jan. 17. And even though he caused the Oilers a minor penalty after the second period, the 6-foot-4, 218-pound Czechoslovakian gave every indication he has a bright future in the NHL.With the Oilers leading 3-1 after the second period, Ruzicka enthusiastically jumped off the bench to congratulate Oiler goalie Bill Ranford and drew a bench minor penalty from referee Terry Gregson.&ldquo;The players were laughing,&rdquo; said Ruzicka through an interpreter, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s a different rule. In Europe, everyone goes off the bench, taps the goalie&rsquo;s pads.&rdquo;Nobody was laughing at Ruzicka&rsquo;s play. Centering a line between Esa Tikkanen and Jari Kurri, the 26-year-old played a regular shift and even saw time on the power play and penalty-killing units. Although he didn&rsquo;t record any points, the Oilers were happy with his play. He did set up Tikkanen for an excellent chance during his first shift but Tikkanen missed the. net.&ldquo;On the power play is where I especially noticed Ruzicka,&rdquo; said Oilers&rsquo; coach John Muckier. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s really good in the faceoff circle and we were able to control the play because of it.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s played a lot of games of international hockey,&rdquo; said Messier. &ldquo;No question, he&rsquo;s a big, talented guy, who has been at the top of the scoring in the World Championships and the Canada Cup. A guy that big who is able to skate, shoot and create room should help us out a lot.&ldquo;Right now the size of the rink is something he&rsquo;ll have to get used to. But, for his first NHL game, he was excited.&rdquo;Messier, who has led the team offensively this season, may have been the biggest beneficiary of Ruzicka&rsquo;s arrival. Ruzicka provides the Oilers with another dominant center and should take some of the pressure off Messier, who registered a hat trick against the Jets.&ldquo;Mess looked like he could have played all night. He was awesome, he wanted the puck&hellip;but you know what?&rdquo; said Muckier. &ldquo;Having Ruzicka out there really helped him. It took a lot of pressure off Mark. 1 think they&rsquo;re really good for each other. Mess didn&rsquo;t have to play as much.&rdquo;Ruzicka also received a royal welcome to the NHL early in the game when he took a well-placed elbow in the face from Jets&rsquo; defenseman Peter Taglianetti, who received a minor penalty.&ldquo;He has talent and he&rsquo;s an excellent passer,&rdquo; said Jets&rsquo; coach Bob Murdoch. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;ll fit in rather nicely once he gets into the groove. He&rsquo;s big, strong, good on faceoffs. You know he can play. He&rsquo;s not old, he&rsquo;s right in his prime.&rdquo;Ruzicka arrived in Edmonton only a week earlier, along with his wife Eva and their children, Eva and Vladimir. With the Oilers on the road upon his arrival, he practised with his new teammates on four occasions prior to his debut.&ldquo;It was a good feeling,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They accepted me so fast, it was a boost.&rdquo;<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier, Vladimir Ruzicka, Craig MacTavish, Adam Graves. Mark Lamb.LW&mdash;Craig Simpson, Esa Tikkanen, Martin Gelinas, Kelly Buchberger. Petr Klima.RW&mdash;Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, Joe Murphy, Dave Brown.LD&mdash;Kevin Lowe, Steve Smith, Geoff Smith.RD&mdash;Craig Muni. Charlie Huddy, Randy Gregg, Jeff Beukeboom.G&mdash;Bill Ranford, Pokey Reddick.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Grant Fuhr, G, shoulder surgery, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Messier, 27. A&mdash;Messier, 47. P&mdash; Messier, 74. PIM&mdash;Buchberger, 111, &#9632;

RUZICKA IMPRESSES IN NHL DEBUT

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BEAMISH</div>Ronnie Stem will likely never become the captain of the Vancouver Canucks, even though it looked like he was being groomed to replace aging Canucks&rsquo; captain Stan Smyl in the lineup.In nine games since his Jan. I recall from the Canucks&rsquo; International League affiliate in Milwaukee, Stem hadn&rsquo;t registered a point. But the robust play of the 23-year-old right winger was one of the few things coach Bob McCammon was pleased about with his team.In a 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks Jan. 19, Stem had four minor penalties and got into a third-period fight with Blackhawks&rsquo; defenseman Bob McGill. In his nine games with the Canucks, Stem had 47 penalty minutes.McCammon knows Stem will give an effort every game, which was more than the beleaguered coach could say about some of his other players.&ldquo;He stands up for the guys and shows he wants to be here,&rdquo; said McCammon of Stem. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s always been physical. His problem has been understanding his assignments on the ice, his defensive play and handling the puck. He&rsquo;s never going to be a Guy Lafleur, but he&rsquo;s improving. &lsquo;Stern&rsquo;s emergence in the lineup was not good news for the 32-year-old Smyl, who hadn&rsquo;t played since Nov. 29 when he injured his knee in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.Even though he was available on the Canucks&rsquo; three-game road trip prior to the all-star break, he wasn&rsquo;t used. In 22 games with the Canucks, Smyl had no goals and six assists.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t ask me questions I can&rsquo;t answer,&rdquo; said McCammon, sidestepping the issue of when Smyl will play again. Smyl, who has served as the Canucks&rsquo; captain since the 198182 season, still has the remainder of this season and next left on his five-year contract.&ldquo;I expected to play on this trip,&rdquo; Smyl said, &ldquo;although because of our travel schedule I haven&rsquo;t been able to practise as much as I&rsquo;d like.&ldquo;Ronnie&rsquo;s playing well. Does that bother me? All I know is I give the effort I can give, and that&rsquo;s good enough for me. I can&rsquo;t predict anything after that. If other players are playing in place of me, that&rsquo;s great. That&rsquo;s what it&rsquo;s all about.&rdquo;When asked to speculate on Smyl&rsquo;s future, and his own, Stem took the diplomatic route.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a decision management will have to make,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Stan&rsquo;s brought a lot of heart, guts and motivation to this team. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s a question of whether I play in place of Stan Smyl. We can always use a guy like Stan Smyl.&rdquo;Still 11 points out of fourth place in the Smythe Division at the break, the Canucks were considered longshots to make the playoffs, though they had some new players to lend encouragement.Stem looked as if he could help fill the Canucks&rsquo; void of aggressive, grinding role players. And while the standings had yet to reflect the fact, center Dan Quinn and right winger Andrew McBain looked as though they were going to be significant contributors to an offense that ranked last in the NHL with 144 goals after 49 games.Quinn, McBain and Dave Capuano came to the Canucks from the Pittsburgh Penguins Jan. 8, for Tony Tanti, Barry Pederson and Rod Buskas.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 14: Todd Hawkins, LW, assigned to Milwaukee (IHL).Jan. 15: Kevan Guy, D, recalled from Milwaukee.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dan Quinn, Brian Bradley, Igor Larionov, Steve Bozek, Craig Coxe.LW&mdash;Petri Skriko, Vladimir Krutov, Rich Sutter, Dave Capuano.RW&mdash;Andrew McBain,. Trevor Linden, Jim Sandlak, Ronnie Stern, Doug Smith, Stan Smyl.LD&mdash;Paul Reinhart, Larry Melnyk, Harold Snepsts, Kevan Guy.RD&mdash;Garth Butcher, Doug Lidster, Jim Benning.G&mdash;Kirk McLean, Steve Weeks.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Greg Adams. LW, fractured cheekbone, indefinite.Daryl Stanley, LW, tendon damage in finger, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Adams, 20. A&mdash;Reinhart. 30. P&mdash;Bradley, Reinhart, 37 PIM&mdash;Butcher, 125. &#9632;

NEWCOMER OFFERS STERN REMINDER TO SMYL

For some players, a 33-goal season would be an accomplishment worth celebrating.But eight-year-old Jaime Thomas of the Warner (Alta.) Elk Squirts matched that feat in only three games. Among his 121 goals in 26 games this season Jaime has had three 11-goal games. Scoring has come naturally for Jaime, ever since he first strapped on a pair of skates at the age of two. Jaime normally plays center but has played every non-goalie position.Coached by Dale Rawleigh, the 4-foot-3, 55-pounder sharpened his skills last summer at the Pony Professional Hockey School in Coaldale, Alta. He spends the offseason taking golf lessons and playing baseball.The Grade 2 student at Warner Elementary School is a huge fan of the NHL&rsquo;s Montreal Canadiens.Jaime is a member of the Habs&rsquo; fan club and his favorite player is Stephane Richer. He recently had a chance to meet ex-Habs Steve Shutt and Maurice Richard.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02840/5785367-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="633" height="1285"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jaime Thomas</figcaption></div>You or someone you know can be part of the JOFA-TITAN Minor Hockey Showcase. Just send a photograph (non-returnable), 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. &#9632;

f0018-02

JOFA TITAN

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>Saying, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re brutal defensively,&rdquo; Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; general manager Rogie Vachon took action to help remedy the situation: He acquired offensive right wingers Tomas Sandstrom and Tony Granato from the New York Rangers.Say what?&ldquo;Our forwards are the key to this team,&rdquo; Vachon said after shipping high-scoring center Bernie Nicholls, 28, to New York Jan. 20. &ldquo;If they do the job, they make the goal tenders and the defensemen that much better.&ldquo;There has been such a gap that the defensemen don&rsquo;t trust the forwards because they don&rsquo;t come back all the time. That&rsquo;s where breakdowns begin.&rdquo;Vachon said his analysis was not to be construed as criticism of Nicholls, who scored a club-record 70 goals last season and had &lsquo;i&rsquo;2.1 goals in parts of nine seasons with the Kings.&ldquo;Bernie has been great for us,&rdquo; said Vachon. &ldquo;This trade has nothing to do with Bernie Nicholls.&rdquo;Nicholls, who played for the Campbell Conference all-star team the day after the trade, couldn&rsquo;t understand why the deal was made.&ldquo;I just bought a house in L. A. and I thought I was going to live in it a long time,&rdquo; Nicholls said. &ldquo;But this is the nature of the business and it&rsquo;s not always good.&ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t understand why they would make a deal like that. It just doesn&rsquo;t make any sense. Considering the players involved, I don&rsquo;t think theKings got fair value for me.&rdquo;When the trade was made, the Kings were 1-6-1 in eight games, 2-72 in 11, and 21-21-5 overall, two points behind the third-place Winnipeg Jets in the Smythe Division and 10 points back of first-place Edmonton.Club owner Bruce McNall described Nicholls as &ldquo;a victim of circumstances.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re giving up an incredible all-star. For me, this was worse than the Jimmy Carson deal.&rdquo;Carson, a McNall favorite who is now with the Detroit Red Wings, went to the Oilers Aug. 9, 1988, in the Wayne Gretzky trade.&ldquo;I was a Bernie Nicholls fan even before I was an owner, &rsquo; &rsquo; said McNall. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve known him for a long time. He was sort of &lsquo;Mr. King.&rsquo; We even own horses together. He has a huge number of fans and I know this won&rsquo;t be popular. When the trade talk started leaking last week, I received an enormous amount of calls and mail from fans to keep Bernie. If I was just a fan, I would have signed a petition myself.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to take solace in the fact that New York should be a great place for Bernie. I mean, it could have been Winnipeg. He will be a major star in New York. He&rsquo;s been in the shadow of (Marcel) Dionne and Wayne in L.A. Maybe being in New York will allow Bernie to be the bigtime star that he deserves to be.&rdquo;Vachon disagreed with the critics who said the deal fails to address the Kings&rsquo; defensive woes, that he should have gotten one of two defensemen from the Rangers&mdash;James Patrick orRandy Moller&mdash;instead of Granato.The Kings had scored 209 goals in 47 games, second in the NHL to the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; 212. But they had permitted 195 goals, fourth-worst total in the league.&ldquo;Sandstrom is a tremendous hockey player,&rdquo; Vachon said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great skater, he has great hands, he plays in traffic, and he goes to the comers. He can get under your skin. He&rsquo;s a good all-around player.&rdquo;Sandstrom had 19 goals and 38 points in 48 games this season. &ldquo;If I had to be traded, it&rsquo;s nice to go to Los Angeles,&rdquo; he said.Granato made the all-rookie team last year when he scored 36 goals. He had just seven goals in 37 games this year.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 20: Bernie Nicholls, C, traded to the New York Rangers for Tony Granato, RW, and Tomas Sandstrom, RW.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky. Mike Krushelnys-ki, Steve Kasper. Todd Elik.LW&mdash;Mikko Makela, Luc Robitaille, John Tonelli. Jay Miller.RW&mdash;Tomas Sandstrom, Tony Granato. Keith Crowder, Bob Kudelski, Mikael Lindholm.LD&mdash;Brian Benning. Barry Beck. Petr Prajsler.RD&mdash;Steve Duchesne. Larry Robinson, Marty McSorley, Tim Watters.G&mdash;Kelly Hrudey. Mario Gosselin.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tom Laidlaw. D, sprained knee, day-to-day.Dave Taylor, RW, inflamed knee, day-to-day<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Robitaille, 35A&mdash;Gretzky. 71.P&mdash; Gretzky, 98 PIM&mdash;McSorley, 172. &#9632;

CAN TWO NEW FORWARDS FIX DEFENSIVE WOES?

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>In all the years Al Maclnnis has scared goalies and intimidated defensemen with the velocity of his slapshot, he never really knew just how fast it was.Only twice in his career did anyone ever try to measure the speed of his shot.&ldquo;One time, four or five years ago, they brought a radar gun down to the Saddledome, but they couldn&rsquo;t pick it up,&rdquo; said Maclnnis.In December, as part of a dry run for the skills competition that took place the day before the NHL&rsquo;s 41st All-Star Game, organizers had Maclnnis drift a&rsquo;lazy 94-mile-per-hour slapshot at the net. The next time he shot, the radar gun broke down.From shock, perhaps.Maclnnis thought a 100-mph slap-shot was not out of the question.&ldquo;I know somebody said Bobby Hull&rsquo;s shot was once measured at 118 miles per hour, which 1 think is unbelievable. The one I shot at the Saddledome was 94. I think anything over 100 is an unbelievable number.&rdquo;In the end, Maclnnis registered only 92 mph in the competition, good for second place behind Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; Al lafrate. lafrate reached 96 on the radar gun.Disappointed? Yes. Discouraged? Not at all.Maclnnis had the disadvantage of starting first. After a time, it looked like the way to go was to shoot low. lafrate&rsquo;s winning shot went screaming right along the ice.Maclnnis put his two right in the center of the net.If he had to do it over again, Maclnnis said he would like a chance to warm up, and the opportunity to experiment with shooting at different areas of the net.Maclnnis admitted to some jitters because he was going in as the favorite.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re nervous, you don&rsquo;t catch it all some times,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You take too much ice. That&rsquo;s what happened to a couple of guys.The competition came at a good time of the season for the hot Maclnnis. His 17 goals led the league&rsquo;s defensemen heading into the All-Star break. On his current pace, Maclnnis would finish the season with 27 goals, breaking his club record of 25.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 19: Marc Bureau. C. assigned to Salt Lake (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour. Theoren Fleury. Joel Otto.LW&mdash;Gary Roberts. Brian MacLellan. Paul Ranheim, Sergei Priakin, Colin Patterson.RW&mdash;Sergei Makarov. Joey Mullen, Tim Hunter, Jiri Hrdina, Jonas Bergqvist.LD&mdash;Gary Suter. Jamie Macoun, Dana Murzyn, Roger Johansson.RD&mdash;Al Maclnnis, Brad McCrimmon, Ric Nattress.G&mdash;Mike Vernon, Rick Wamsley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Stu Grimson, LW. broken cheekbone, indefinite.Mark Hunter, RW. reconstructive knee surgery, out for season.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Nieuwendyk. 26. A&mdash;Makarov, 41.P&mdash;Nieuwendyk, Makarov, 56. PIM&mdash;T. Hunter, 171. WINNIPEG &#9632;

NHL’S TOP GUN FINISHES SECOND

<div class="byline">BY GRANT McGINNIS</div>Brent Ashton has reached a number of milestones in a long and winding career. And not all of them have been pretty.On Dec. 17 during a 6-3 loss in Edmonton, the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; left winger hit another, his 500th NHL point, on his 12th goal of the season. The most traded player in hockey has accomplished the feat in 11 seasons with seven different teams.For a long while this season, it appeared as though Ashton would reach the milestone on behalf of an eighth franchise.&ldquo;I must admit, he didn&rsquo;t play very well (at the start of the season),&rdquo; said Jets&rsquo; coach Bob Murdoch. &ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s just the way we handled him.&rdquo; But he is one of those players who as the year goes on just gets better and better and better.&rdquo;That has been Ashton&rsquo;s history.In Minnesota, he had four goals in the first half during the 1984-85 season. Traded to Quebec, he scored 27 after Christmas.Last winter, he was a power in the second half, finishing the campaign with 31 goals and 68 points. Night in and night out he was a consistent two way performer.This year, with a new coaching staff in place, Ashton found himself on the outside looking in. He got off to a horrendous start, recording only one assist and going minus-12 in the Jets&rsquo; first 10 games. He quickly became a fourth-line bit player.He did his best to keep quiet about it publicly. But in the Winnipeg dressing room, his grumbling was clearly audible.&rdquo;&ldquo;You&rsquo;re playing against grinders who want to hook and hold you up and it&rsquo;s that much tougher to get moving,&rdquo; said Ashton. &ldquo;It is frustrating because the best part of my game is probably my skating.&rdquo;At times, he looked uninterested. His play was selfish and uninspired.But things have gradually improved for Ashton, 29, since his promotion to the Jets&rsquo; top line with Thomas Steen and Pat Elynuik.He saw a six-game point streak come to an end in a 6-4 loss to the New York Islanders Jan. 19, but had three goals and five assists since the midway mark. He collected only nine goals and 10 assists in the first 40 games.&ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s a combination of mishandling him and a mental thing of accepting his role on the team,&rdquo; Murdoch said. &ldquo;I think Brent, earlier in the year, may have been thinking too much about who he should play with and where he should play and how he should play and it affected his play.&rdquo;According to Murdoch, Ashton&rsquo;s excellent conditioning has been paying dividends..&ldquo;Now is the stretch where you&rsquo;re going to see him get very good because of that,&rdquo; said Murdoch.And moving Doug Smail from the Steen line to Dale Hawerchuk&rsquo;s side has seen Hawerchuk go on a nine-game, 16-point streak.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m playing a little more, getting a little more ice time and I&rsquo;m starting to feel better,&rdquo; Ashton said. &ldquo;I felt bad for Doug Smail because he&rsquo;s played well and he deserved to play with Thomas. &ldquo;<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 22: Daniel Berthiaume, G, traded to Minnesota for future considerations. Stephane Beauregard, G, recalled from Ft. Wayne (IHL). Rick Tabaracci, G, reassigned from Moncton (AHL) to Ft. Wayne.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk, Dave McLlwain, Laurie Boschman.LW&mdash;Doug Smail, Brent Ashton, Paul Fenton, Phil Sykes.RW&mdash;-Pat Elynuik, Greg Paslawski, Paul MacDermid, Gord Donnelly, Mark Kumpel.LD&mdash;Dave Ellett, Randy Carlyle. Peter Taglianetti, Shawn Cronin.RD&mdash;Fredrik Olausson. Teppo Numminen, Moe Mantha.G&mdash;Bob Essensa, Stephane Beauregard.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Thomas Steen, C, back strain, Feb. 1.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Elynuik, 20. A&mdash;Steen, 39. P&mdash; Steen, 52. PIM&mdash;Donnelly, 157. &#9632;

ASHTON TAKING OFF IN THE SECOND HALF

<div class="byline">STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01912/5785470-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="562" height="673"></div>When the NHL Players&rsquo; Association goes into labor within the next two years, there will be a new man delivering the baby on behalf of the players.But Bob Goodenow doesn&rsquo;t see himself as a doctor. He compares his new position as deputy executive director of the NHLPA to that of a quarterback. And this QB does not lack for confidence, skills or strength of character. Much like executive director Alan Eagleson, the man whom he will replace by Jan. 1, 1992.If that sounds like a long time from now, and you don&rsquo;t expect to see the rookie QB on the field much while the veteran goes on a farewell tour, you&rsquo;re mistaken.Although Goodenow does not officially supplant Eagleson for up to two years, he hasn&rsquo;t joined the NHLPA to relay signals from the sidelines. Goodenow will, in fact, take the lead in negotiations for the Collective Bargaining Agreement that expires in September, 1991. His expertise in labor matters was a crucial factor in the NHLPA&rsquo;s decision to choose the Michigan native over five other finalists.Kevin Dineen, chairman of the players&rsquo; search committee that endorsed Goodenow&rsquo;s candidacy, didn&rsquo;t say anything about football when he helped introduce the red-haired Harvard graduate Jan. 21 in Pittsburgh.But the sports analogy was the first that came to Goodenow one day later when he was asked how he would differ from his Hall-of-Fame predecessor.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to be a different type of quarterback,&rdquo; Goodenow says. &ldquo;No two people are alike.&rdquo;If Eagleson has been high-profile and mercurial, Goodenow seems more likely to be low-key and methodical. &ldquo;I like to think of myself,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;as someone who works hard, is well-prepared and tries to reason through and work through the issues, (in addition to being) a pretty good negotiator.&rdquo;Goodenow is reluctant to speculate on how he might be a different leader than Eagleson, but it seems clear he will not strive to achieve the public dominance Eagleson established. Without the international portfolio, it would be impossible, anyway. Not that Goodenow will be without influence in that area, nor the experienced Eagleson without input into CB A negotiations.&ldquo;Alan&rsquo;s going to direct (international matters) but I&rsquo;ll be there working with him,&rdquo; Goodenow says. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be co-ordinating the international hockey aspect of it, and I&rsquo;ll be concentrating on the Collective Bargaining Agreement but, I think it goes without saying, there will be some crossover.&rdquo;Goodenow will likely stress a team approach more than &lsquo;The Eagle,&rsquo; who customarily soared on his own. Eagleson eventually grew distant &ldquo;from his membership, and lost a measure of control&mdash;as evidenced by the summertime revolt.The first thing Goodenow pointed out at the All-Star Game news conference announcing his appointment was that his highest priority is to determine a consensus among the players on major issues.The former Harvard hockey team captain&rsquo;s debut with the NHLPA was an impressive one. He was firm and assertive. Eagleson had much to say&mdash;perhaps too much on a day that was not his&mdash;but Goodenow waited his turn patiently and then made it clear he is his own man.Eagleson has often been accused of being too cozy with the owners and president John Ziegler, but Goodenow considers those charges unfair and says the alternative&mdash;an adversarial mindset&mdash;is oft-times unworkable.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a fine line,&rdquo; says Goodenow, who is being phased into the NHLPA as he phases himself out as a player agent. &ldquo;I think you&rsquo;ve got to be friends. I&rsquo;m friends with some of the general managers, but they know I&rsquo;ll tell them to hit the road and walk out of the room (if necessary-)&hellip;One thing I&rsquo;ve learned in the last 10 years doing labor negotiations is that I try as best I can to (separate) the issues from personalities.&rdquo;The burning question of the day, though, is not so much about Goodenow&rsquo;s relations with NHL owners as his personal relations with the incumbent leader.Eagleson has clearly been a solo force virtually unequalled in hockey. Now, he is expected to work closely&mdash;and apparently on an equal footing&mdash;within an empire he built.Does Goodenow work with Eagleson, or for him? -&ldquo;I work for the Association,&rdquo; Goodenow says. &ldquo;So does he.&rdquo;So who holds the hammer?&ldquo;The executive committee,&rdquo; Goodenow says. &ldquo;We both work for the executive committee. Alan will be the executive director and I&rsquo;m the deputy director, but we both work for the Association.&rdquo;Nice piece of stickhandling, don&rsquo;t you think? &#9632;

f0020-01

A NEW QB IS SHARING TOP BILLING IN NHLPA

Glenn Hail, a former goalie for the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues, holds two All-Star Game records of note. During his 18-year career. Hall played in 13 all-star games, the most of any goaltender. He also allowed more goals than any other (22) and is second to Terry Sawchuk in minutes played with 421. His all-star goals-against average is 3.14.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02612/5785501-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="770" height="459"><figcaption class="caption-body">Glenn Hall</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0020-02

NUMBERS

<h2>RANGERS</h2>Veteran defenseman Normand Rochefort played his first NHL game in 347 days when he took a regulai shift in a 3-3 tie at Pittsburgh Jan. 18. Rochefort, coming off major reconstructive surgery to repair tom ligaments in his right knee, said he had a relatively easy time readjusting in his first game back. &ldquo;I was surprised,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Maybe for the first minute or so I was very nervous but, when the game was over, I was pleased. The knee gave me no problem but I have to give myself a chance. I&rsquo;m not Superman; I&rsquo;m just a guy trying to come back from an injury.&rdquo;<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>Glenn Healy&rsquo;s second career shutout, his first as an Islander, did not come cheaply. He had to make 51 saves against the Vancouver Canucks Jan. 16 in a 3-0 win. Healy; whose other shutout also came against Vancouver (in 1988), rejected the notion that a goalie is most effective stopping a lot of shots. &ldquo;Anyone who says that is crazy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d take 10 over 51 any day. &ldquo;&hellip; Goalie Mark Fitzpatrick secured his eighth straight win, a 6-3 triumph in Montreal Jan. 17&hellip;The Islanders proved they don&rsquo;t need dominant scoring by Pat LaFontaine in order to win consistently. The all-star center got only one goal in a four-game span&mdash;his 40th of the season against the Canadiens Jan. 17&mdash;as the team went 4-0 during that stretch&hellip;Captain Brent Sutter was expected to miss a week due to a skate cut sustained to his right leg&hellip;Veteran center Bryan Trottier, out 12 games with a broken rib, returned Jan. 16 against Vancouver. Midway through the first period, he helped the Islanders successfully kill off a 5-on-3 disadvantage. Playing mostly at left wing on LaFontaine&rsquo;s line, he scored his 495th career goal, into an empty net in Winnipeg Jan. 19.<h2>FLYERS</h2>Tim Kerr, who underwent an operation on his left shoulder Nov. 21, conferred with his surgeon, Dr. James Andrews, before attempting his comeback. Coach Paul Holmgren said Kerr still had some concerns about the strength in his shoulder&hellip;The Flyers played six overtime games in the nine games preceding the NHL All-Star Game, losing three and tying three. Their overtime mark for the year stood at 1-5-7&hellip;Ken Linseman, acquired from Boston in the Dave Poulin trade, was given sweater No. 18. He wore numbers 26and Mon his first tour with the Flyers&hellip; Ron Sutter registered his 300th NHL point in a Jan. 11 game against Chicago&hellip;Mark Howe, bothered by recurring back problems, missed six games before attempting a comeback in 4-3 loss at Pittsburgh Jan. 16. However, Howe had to be scratched from the lineup two nights later when the Flyers lost 3-2 to Vancouver.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>Terry Murray&rsquo;s debut as coach was a stunning success&hellip;sort of. The Caps hosted New Jersey Jan. 16 and, before the first period was half over with Washington down 3-0, fans at the Capital Centre were loudly booing. Butthen Washington, finding a scoring touch that had been missing all season, rattled off six goals in a row and coasted to a 9-6 win, breaking an eight-game losing streak. &ldquo;I forgot I was supposed to come in here,&rdquo; Murray said showing up late at his post-game press conference. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited but I just hope we don&rsquo;t have too many games like that.&rdquo; Owner Abe Pollin had champagne brought into the dressing room&hellip;Defenseman Neil Sheehy, who attempted to come back too early from a sprained right knee injury, played Jan. 13 in a 4-2 loss to the New York Islanders. Sheehy was very sore and stiff the next day and was to miss at least another week&hellip;Left winger Bob Joyce, who suffered a knee injury Jan. 3 against the New York Rangers, did not respond to treatment and underwent arthroscopic surgery Jan. 17.<h2>DEVILS</h2>Brendan Shanahan faced a hearing with NHL executive vice president Brian O&rsquo;Neill just after the All-Star Game. The hearing involved Shanahan&rsquo;s role in the Jan. 13 high-sticking incident with Quebec defenseman Michel Petit. Shanahan, who received an 11-stitch cut on the upper lip from Petit&rsquo;s stick, flattened Petit 30 seconds later with a crosscheck to the mouth and chin. The Nordiques sent a television video of Shanahan&rsquo;s high stick, while the Devils had their own video tape of Petit&rsquo;s high stick taken from the press box&hellip;The Devils&rsquo; 22 victories at the All-Star break were just five short of their entire 1988-89 total.<h2>PENGUINS</h2>GM Craig Patrick said reports out of Los Angeles of a trade that would send defenseman Paul Coffey to the Kings for left winger Luc Robitaille and defenseman Steve Duchesne were &ldquo;totally non-factual.&rdquo; That story was a recycled version of a rumor that was widely circulated earlier in the season&hellip;A few days before that report surfaced, Coffey became the fourth defenseman in NHL history to reach the 900-point level. The others are Denis Potvin. Bobby Orr and Larry Robinson.. Mario Lemieux&rsquo; scoring streak stood at 35 games at the all-star break. Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s 39-game streak in 1985-86 was Lemieux&rsquo; next target&hellip;The Penguins were 3-1-1 in their first five games after acquiring Tony Tanti, Barry Pederson and Rod Buskas from Vancouver for Dan Quinn, Andrew McBain and Dave Capuano. Buskas was still sidelined indefinitely after undergoing ankle surgery. &#9632;

ROCHEFORT RETURN A PLEASANT SURPRISE

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>Just about the only thing Mark Recchi has been short on in his rookie season is height.The Pittsburgh Penguin right winger had 15 goals and 17 assists in 40 games at the all-star break. He was an integral part of the penalty-killing unit and he had a rating of plus-11, tying Bob Errey for the best among Penguins&rsquo; forwards.So far, so good. But you&rsquo;d be amazed at how many people hold it against Recchi that he can&rsquo;t dunk a basketball.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not the tallest person in the world,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;So everyone had doubts about it (his height).&rdquo;Although Recchi stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 185 solid pounds, concerns about his size apparently prompted teams to bypass him in two entry drafts before Pittsburgh chose him in the fourth round in 1988. His high-intensity, intelligent style of play was impressive from the start, but Recchi never really got a chance to play regularly until Craig Patrick took over as coach and general manager of the Penguins Dec. 5.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s fit in anywhere,&rdquo; Patrick said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have reservations about putting him at center, left wing or right wing with anybody. You can use him any way you want.&rdquo;Patrick didn&rsquo;t know how to use Recchi, or even what to call him, during his early days on the job. Recchi was one of many players Patrick knew little about.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t aware of him,&rdquo; Patrick said. &ldquo;I had seen his name in scoring summaries earlier in the season, but I didn&rsquo;t know Mark at all.&rdquo;Anyone who has read the summaries lately should be getting pretty familiar with Recchi. He had 10 goals in the 14 games leading up to the all-star break.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a goal-scorer,&rdquo; said John Cullen, who has centered a line with Recchi and left winger Phil Bourque. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question. He&rsquo;s got one of the hardest shots I&rsquo;ve ever seen-&hellip;When he gets a chance, he usually scores.&rdquo;Recchi has scored on 15 of 60 shots, a success rate of 25 per cent that is among the highest in the league. But that&rsquo;s not really surprising, considering he scored 61 for the Western League&rsquo;s Kamloops Blazers two seasons ago and 50 in 63 games with Muskegon of the International League in &lsquo;88-89.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been able to score,&rdquo; Recchi said. &ldquo;I knew it would come. I&rsquo;m not going to score like I did in junior or in Muskegon, but if I can chip in 20, 25 goals, play well in my own end and be a key on penalty-killing, then I feel I&rsquo;m doing my job.&rdquo;When this season began, it wasn&rsquo;t clear where Recchi would be playing, let alone what his role would be. The Penguins, then under the control of coach Gene Ubriaco and general manager Tony Esposito, shipped him to Muskegon before the regular-season opener in Boston Oct. 5.His recall to Pittsburgh came Oct. 18 and regular ice time arrived shortly after Patrick did. Recchi was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the management shakeup, but believes it rejuvenated the team in general.&ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s enjoying coming to the rink again,&rdquo; Recchi said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something we lacked before, and you can tell in our play.&rdquo;<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mario Lemieux, Barry Pederson, John Cullen, Randy Gilhen.LW&mdash;Kevin Stevens, Bob Errey. Phil Bourque, Troy Loney.RW&mdash;Tony Tanti, Rob Brown, Mark Recchi, Jay Caufield.LD&mdash;Paul Coffey. Chris Dahlquist, Jim Kyte.RD&mdash;Zarley Zalapski, Gord Dineen, Gilbert Delorme.G&mdash;Tom Barrasso, Wendell Young.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Rod Buskas, D, ankle surgery, indefinite.Randy Hillier, D, broken thumb, indefinite.Jim Johnson, D, pulled hip muscle, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Lemieux, 34. A&mdash;Lemieux, 58. P&mdash; Lemieux. 92. PIM&mdash;Stevens. 126. &#9632;

SO WHAT IF HE CAN’T DUNK A BASKETBALL?

<div class="byline">BY DAVE FAY</div>It was, by any standard, a bizarre situation: One brother replacing his fired brother as coach of an NHL club&mdash;something that had never happened in league history.Bryan Murray, 47, was fired Jan. 15 after the Washington Capitals lost eight in a row and fell from first to worst in the Patrick Division.He was replaced by Terry Murray, the 39-year-old kid brother who used to depend on Bryan for rides to hockey games; who, as a high school student in tiny Shawville, Que., had Bryan as a teacher; who spent six years as Bryan&rsquo;s assistant learning the craft; who, for the last two seasons, was coaching prospects for Washington&rsquo;s American League affiliate in Baltimore.Through seven full seasons and parts of two others behind the Capitals&rsquo; bench, Bryan had become the NHL&rsquo;s senior coach in terms of continuous service with one team. He left the Caps as the seventh most successful coach in league history based on winning percentage (343-246-83, .572). This year&rsquo;s Capitals had a 1924-4 record.The man behind the move was general manager David Poile. When he made the announcement at a press conference Jan. 15, Poile was visibly nervous.And by making the move, Poile violated a principle he had railed against on more than one occasion: He was making change for change&rsquo;s sake.&ldquo;I refer back to my expectations on where we should be and where we are today and obviously I think we should be better off than where we are today,&rdquo; Poile said.Team owner Abe Pollin and club president Dick Patrick agreed with Poile&rsquo;s assessment, although Poile was left to make the announcement by himself.Still, the timing of the move was unusual for Poile, the ever-patient, thoroughly documented, never-get-rattled general manager who had ridden out numerous earlier calls for Bryan&rsquo;s dismissal after playoff failures.Bryan and the Caps were caught up in a crippling series of injuries that started in mid-December, mostly to the defense. Rod Lang way and Scott Stevens were out for more than a month with knee or foot injuries; Bob Rouse had a knee injury, as did Neil Sheehy. Scot Kleinendorst was rushed back early from reconditioning in the minors after rehabilitating his injured knee.Inexperienced players were upgraded from fifth or sixth defensive spots to second or third, and journeymen were rushed in from Baltimore. But none were a Langway or Stevens, or even a Sheehy, and a slump was inevitable. For Bryan, it was fatal.But there were other factors. The team appeared listless all season, something many blame on the three-week European jaunt in September that included four games in the Soviet Union. It was felt the Caps peaked for the Russian games but rarely came close to matching that intensity again. The power play was dreadful (a 16-percent success ratio through 47 games), scoring was down (from an average of 3.80 goals a game for all of last season to 3.30 this year) and the club had traded away character players Lou Franceschetti and Bob Gould to work youngsters into the lineup.Poile went out of his way to praise Bryan as a coach and man during the news conference, placing much of the blame on the players.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s not one player during this eight-game losing streak that I can say has come to the front, taken the bull by the horns, shown any improvement,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;There are a lot of things wrong with this hockey club and Terry Murray has his work cut out for him.&rdquo;&ldquo;He (Bryan) took a lot of heat for us,&rdquo; said Rouse.&ldquo;Bryan is the scapegoat,&rdquo; agreed Dino Ciccarelli.Langway arrived in Washington in September of 1982, as Bryan was beginning his first full season as the Caps&rsquo; coach. Bryan immediately named Langway captain. Understandably, Bryan&rsquo;s firing left Langway depressed.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a case where you have a bad taste in your mouth with what happened,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was a bad feeling, to lose somebody you went to work with every day for eight years. All of a sudden they pushed him aside. He had eight good years here and has nothing to be ashamed of. But there is still a bad taste.&rdquo;<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 15: Bryan Murray, coach, fired. Terry Murray, coach-GM of Baltimore (AHL), named coach.Jan. 16: Doug MacLean. assistant coach, named coach-GM of Baltimore.Jan. 17: Doug Wickenheiser, C, assigned to Baltimore for conditioning purposes.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Ridley. Dale Hunter, Mike Richard, Rob Murray.LW&mdash;Kelly Miller, Geoff Courtnail, Michal Pivonka, Yvon Corriveau, Nick Kypreos.RW&mdash;Dino Ciccarelli, John Tucker, Steve Leach, Alan May, John Druce.LD&mdash;Scot Kleinendorst, Bill Houlder, Kent Paynter.RD&mdash;Kevin Hatcher, Calle Johansson, Bob Rouse, Neil Sheehy.G&mdash;Don Beaupre, Bob Mason.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bob Joyce, arthroscopic surgery right knee, indefinite.Rod Langway, D, arthroscopic surgery to both knees, Jan. 26.Scott Stevens. D, broken left foot, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Ciccarelli, 23. A&mdash;Ridley. 27. P&mdash;Ciccarelli, 44. PIM&mdash;May, 219. &#9632;

BIZARRE MURRAY HIRING AND FIRING LEAVES ‘BAD TASTE’

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>After you cut through all the evaluations, reasoning and projections into the future, perhaps the most insightful way to understand why the New York Rangers traded Tony Granato and Tomas Sandstrom&mdash;two of their best players&mdash;to the Los Angeles Kings for Bernie Nicholls Jan. 20, was to consider the parting words of Granato.&ldquo;I told (Rangers&rsquo; general manager) Neil Smith that he had nothing to be sorry about,&rdquo; Granato said. &ldquo;He had to make this trade. He was in a position to acquire one of the great players in the game, Bernie Nicholls. And he had the courage to do it.&rdquo;In acquiring Nicholls, only the fifth player in NHL history to score 70 goals in a season (1988-89), Smith gave up the Rangers&rsquo; biggest, most talented forward in Sandstrom (6-foot-2, 206 pounds) and their fastest skater in Granato.As a result, the team headed into its final 32 games of the season without one winger who has ever had a 30-goal season as a Ranger.Sandstrom, who scored 32 goals last season and Granato, who led the team with 36 as a rookie, are both 25 years old. Nicholls is 28 and a veteran of more than 600 NHL games.Smith said he made the trade because he was concerned that his team&rsquo;s weakness at center and its lack of a gamebreaking offensive force would continue indefinitely.&ldquo;I just know that to win in this league, you need a home run hitter, a guy you can depend on every night&hellip; who is probably going be able to go out do something offensively,&rdquo; Smith said at a news conference in Pittsburgh on the eve of the 41st NHL All-Star Game. Nicholls was also in attendance, with his wife Heather.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve found it very frustrating this year to sit upstairs and watch the team,&rdquo; Smith continued, &ldquo;maybe as many as 10 times, play pretty well&hellip; well enough to have won the game. If we had a guy in the category of a Mario Lemieux or a&hellip;&rdquo;Smith interrupted himself to try and qualify the statement but it was clear that he expects a lot from Nicholls.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mean that Bernie is going to match Lemieux&rsquo; numbers, but he is a guy who can break things open for us offensively. Before today, we never knew who we were going to get that from.&rdquo;The Rangers&rsquo; only two veteran centers, 30-year-old Kelly Kisio and 27-year-old Carey Wilson, have both missed significant time because of injuries and neither has ever been a prolific goal-scorer.&ldquo;You know, we&rsquo;ve been worrying and living in fear that Wilson&rsquo;s knee will go again or that Kisio&rsquo;s back will go again,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little like you&rsquo;re playing with a ticking time bomb and your odds get worse and worse the longer you fail to do someting about it.&rdquo;At the time of the deal, Nicholls ranked third among NHL scorers with 27 goals and 48 assists for 75 points, behind only Wayne Gretzky and Lemieux.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 16: Rudy Poeschek, RW, assigned to Flint (IHL).Jan. 19: Normand Rochefort, D, assigned to Flint.Jan. 20: Tomas Sandstrom, RW, and Tony Granato. RW, traded to Los Angeles for Bernie Nicholls, C.Jan. 22: Rochefort recalled from Flint.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bernie Nicholls, Carey Wilson, Kelly Kisio. Mark Janssens.LW&mdash;Troy Mallette, John Ogrodnick, Darren Turcotte. Kris King.RW&mdash;Ulf Dahlen. Brian Mullen, Jan Erixon, Paul Broten.LD&mdash;Mark Hardy, Miloslav Horava, Lindy Ruff.RD&mdash;Brian Leetch, Randy Moller, Normand Rochefort, Jeff Bloemberg.G&mdash;Mike Richter, John Vanbiesbrouck, Bob Froese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Paul Cyr, C, right knee surgery, out for season.Ron Greschner, D. bruised knee, Jan. 23.Chris Nllan, RW, fractured right forearm, Jan. 27.James Patrick, D, mild concussion, slight separation left shoulder, Jan. 23.David Shaw, D, dislocated right shoulder, Jan. 23.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Ogrodnick, 28. A&mdash;Nicholls, 48. P&mdash;Nicholls. 75. PIM&mdash;King, 178. &#9632;

SMITH ACQUIRES NICHOLLS IN TRADE HE ‘HAD TO MAKE’

During the New York Islanders&rsquo; season of rapid improvement and unexpected success, right winger Randy Wood&rsquo;s surprising performance has mirrored that of his team.A four-game suspension for a high-sticking incident in October contributed to a slow start for the 26-year-old Yale graduate. But, since then, like his team, Wood has made an incredible turnaround. Going into the all-star break, Wood had 15 goals (and 26 points) in 44 games, most of them coming during the team&rsquo;s hot streak.Never considered a major scoring threat, Wood contributed the game winning goal in a 3-0 win over Vancouver on Jan. 16. Three nights later in Winnipeg he secured his first career hat trick during a 6-4 win. For the Islanders it was their ninth straight victory during a 14-1 streak, and it moved them into sole possession of first place in the Patrick Division.In the win over the Jets, the league&rsquo;s second-best penalty-killing team, Wood scored three of the Islanders&rsquo; four power-play goals.&ldquo;At times, maybe I didn&rsquo;t play him as much as I should have,&rdquo; coach Al Arbour said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s progressing, he&rsquo;s maturing, he&rsquo;s really firing that puck on those one-timers. He&rsquo;s got as good a shot as anybody, and he can unload it in stride.&rdquo;A player who often lifts weights&rsquo; after off-day workouts, Wood exhibited increased strength on the third goal, shunning a check from Randy Carlyle, sweeping around the net and jamming the puck inside the right post.Wood said it was the kind of play he&rsquo;d hoped to make early in the season, but felt the suspension&mdash;issued after his high stick hit Minnesota&rsquo;s Curt Giles Oct. 17&mdash;slowed his progress.&ldquo;Once 1 got hit with that suspension, I lost a lot of my momentum,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t really bother me, but I fell out of my rhythm there for nine days. It&rsquo;s been a little bit of a battle getting back into rhythm.&rdquo;Of late, however, Wood has been much more comfortable with the Islanders atop the standings.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m the type of person who loves to be on top, looking down on everybody,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the type of feeling that will win games for you.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 19: Tom Fitzgerald, C, recalled from Springfield (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pat LaFontaine, Hubie McDonough, Bryan Trottier, Tom Fitzgerald.LW&mdash;Dave Chyzowski, Don Maloney, David Volek. Date Henry.RW&mdash;Randy Wood, Patrick Flatley, Brad Lauer, Alan Kerr.LD&mdash;Ken Baumgartner, Gary Nylund, Jeff Norton.RD&mdash;Doug Crossman, Gerald Diduck, Jari Gronstrand.G&mdash;Mark Fitzpatrick. Glenn Healy.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Derek King, LW, sprained left knee, day-to-day.Rich Pilon, D, contused and lacerated right eye, indefinite.Joe Reekie. D, broken left hand, indefinite.Brent Sutter, C, lacerated right leg, day-to-dayMick Vukota, RW, infected left elbow, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;LaFontaine. 40.A&mdash;Norton, 36. P&mdash;LaFontaine, 67. PIM&mdash;Vukota, 190. &#9632;

WOOD LIKES VIEW FROM ON HIGH BY MARK HERRMANN

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>Randy Velischek was astonished when comments he made about the NHL&rsquo;s Soviet invasion kept his name in the news all summer. As a former player rep, Velischek was against Soviet players taking NHL jobs.But it came as no surprise to the 27-year-old Velischek that he actually foresaw his own demise as a regular defenseman for the New Jersey Devils.The emergence of Alexei Kasatonov and Viacheslav Fetisov as two of coach John Cunniff&rsquo;s key defensemen left Velischek and Reijo Ruotsalainen as the odd men out.&ldquo;With the arrival of Alex, the writing is sort of on the wall,&rdquo; said Velischek. &ldquo;I can see my ice time diminishing with each passing game. In addition to being a quality player, Alex is a penalty killer. That was my role at one time, sort of my ace in the hole. It&rsquo;s no longer my ace.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wonder why I&rsquo;m the guy whose playing time has dropped. I look at it from John&rsquo;s perspective. He&rsquo;s got Slava (Fetisov) and Bru (Bruce Driver), two good offensive defensemen, and Tommy (Albelin) and Dan-o (Ken Daneyko) as his top two defense pairings. The fifth guy is Alex. No wonder at all to me that I&rsquo;m the odd man out. Realistically, 1 don&rsquo;t do enough things well. The five guys ahead of me deserve to be there. They&rsquo;re all quality hockey players.&rdquo;Cunniff explained his position.&ldquo;I was able to use Randy as a steady guy and switch Craig (Wola-nin) and Rexi (Ruotsalainen) off, depending on who we were playing,&rdquo; said Cunniff. &ldquo;With Alex coming in, that has changed. Combine Rexi and Craig and that&rsquo;s Alex. He&rsquo;s got that offensive movement and size.&rdquo;It was not the first time in his NHL career Velischek found himself benched. The Montreal native sat out long stretches while Doug Carpenter was coaching the Devils.&ldquo;It really hurts, but 1 learned a lot from the last time I sat out when Doug was here,&rdquo; said Velischek. &ldquo;I let it show in the dressing room back then. I held a grudge and I took it out on the guys. No one wants a sour guy around.&ldquo;With Doug, I would sit out 18 to 20 games in a row and with some of the guys we had then it was a little tougher to take. I&rsquo;m accepting it more now. Craig Wolanin has gone through it, Rexi has gone through it and now I have to swallow it. I&rsquo;m not a wave maker. I can&rsquo;t be.&rdquo;Velischek, whose strength is his consistency as a defensive defenseman, certainly made waves during the off-season when he commented against signing Soviet players.Those comments never figured in Velischek&rsquo;s role with the Devils this season. However, Kasatonov&rsquo;s arrival Jan. 2 did. Velischek was scratched from four of six games before the all-star break. In 39 games, Velischek had five assists and 55 penalty minutes.&ldquo;Career-wise, this is hard.&rdquo; Velischek said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going into my option year and it&rsquo;s very possible I won&rsquo;t get to 50 games. If I don&rsquo;t play 50 games this year my bargaining position will be just about nil.&ldquo;This is such a weird game. A few years ago it seemed like my world was over. Then I became a regular&hellip;until now. There might be an injury or a player move. I might be part of a transaction. I&rsquo;d like to be a playing part of any team. If not here, I&rsquo;d like to move on. I also know that doesn&rsquo;t happen easily, especially with a role player. I&rsquo;m pretty realistic about my chances of going somewhere. I really don&rsquo;t see that happening. I&rsquo;ve talked to Lou (Lamoriello) and I know I&rsquo;m not actually trade bait like Craig. He&rsquo;s 22 years old and he has that &lsquo;unlimited potential&rsquo; tag.&rdquo;Can Velischek accept the role of insurance policy?&ldquo;This team is going to go places, which is one of the things that hurt Aaron (Broten) when he was traded (to Minnesota),&rdquo; Velischek said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been here five years and I&rsquo;ve been through some tough times. I&rsquo;d like to be a part of a winning tradition. I can handle a diminishing role.&rdquo;<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Patrik Sundstrom. Mark Johnson, Bob Brooke, Walt Poddubny.LW&mdash;Brendan Shanahan, Kirk Muller, Dave Maley, Jim Korn.RW&mdash;John MacLean, Sylvain Turgeon, Doug Brown. Jamie Huscroft, Janne Ojanen.LD&mdash;Tommy Albelin, Bruce Driver, Craig Wolanin, Randy Velischek.RD&mdash;Ken Daneyko, Viacheslav Fetisov, Alexei Kasatonov, Reijo Ruotsalainen.G&mdash;Sean Burke, Chris Terreri.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;MacLean, 26. A&mdash;Sundstrom, 35.P&mdash;Muller. 53. PIM&mdash;Maley, 129 &#9632;

SOVIET’S ARRIVAL LEAVES VELISCHEK ON BENCH

<div class="byline">BY RAND SIMON AND MIKE KANE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01734/5785700-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug MacLean, right, with recently fired Washington coach Bryan Murray, is the new head coach of the Baltimore Skipjacks, the Capitals&rsquo; AHL affiliate.</figcaption></div>Doug MacLean has got it good. And he knows it.As the recently appointed head coach of the Baltimore Skipjacks, MacLean is facing few of the problems which are usually encountered by a new coach. There are no superstars asking to be traded, no team in a horrendous slump and no management with a win-now-or-else attitude.In fact, MacLean inherits a team which has been the surprise of the American League, one whose 26-17-2 record gave it a first-place tie in the Southern Division with the Adirondack Red Wings.On Jan. 16, the Washington Capitals fired Bryan Murray after eight seasons as head coach, setting off a chain reaction which resulted in MacLean, the Capitals&rsquo; assistant, landing in Baltimore. Ex-Skipjack coach Terry Murray moved up to Washington to replace his fired brother as the Capitals&rsquo; head coach.The first professional head-coaching job for MacLean, a 35-year-old Summerside, P.E.I., native, is tailor-made.&ldquo;Usually when you become coach of a team either the team is playing really poorly or they&rsquo;re in a big slump or it&rsquo;s the first of the year,&rdquo; says MacLean. &ldquo;Here I&rsquo;m coming into the situation where the team is in first place.&rdquo;All MacLean has to do is keep the team there. But he&rsquo;ll have to do it without his best player, Mike Richard.Richard, the AHL&rsquo;s leading scorer (36-35-71 in 41 games), was recalled by the Capitals Jan. 13.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t complain when you lose talent,&rdquo; says MacLean. &ldquo;When your talent guys go up and your lineup is depleted you can&rsquo;t complain. That&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve really got to keep in perspective. You gotta win whatever way you can win.&rdquo;In the beginning, anyway, that will be with defense. Veteran defensemen Chris Felix and Dennis Smith and goaltender Jim Hrivnak are all having outstanding seasons.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little bit of a concern because we&rsquo;ve got a good team and we&rsquo;ve had a few callups lately&mdash;Richard, the top player in the American League, being one of them.&rdquo;But with Capitals&rsquo; management behind him, MacLean should be able to handle it.Washington general manager David Poile, known for his commitment to stability, wanted to create as smooth a situation as possible in the organization when Murray was fired. He says he&rsquo;s done that by having MacLean coach in Baltimore.&ldquo;This is a significant change for him,&rdquo; says Poile. &ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s his turn to be the boss and we have the confidence that he&rsquo;ll be able to make that adjustment and do a good job. This is the challenge that faces him.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a competitive team and some really good people in Baltimore. If Doug presents himself in a professional manner and if he puts in the time and effort to earn the players&rsquo; respect, there should be no problem.&rdquo;Earning the players&rsquo; respect should be the easiest part of MacLean&rsquo;s job. An excellent communicator, MacLean received his masters&rsquo; degree in special education from the University of Western Ontario. From there, he became assistant coach of the Ontario League&rsquo;s London Knights, before replacing Don MacAdam as head coach of the University of New Brunswick in 1985.The next season, MacLean joined Jacques&rsquo; Martin&rsquo;s staff in St. Louis, where he stayed until he joined the Capitals in 1988.&ldquo;In St. Louis, I was younger than some of the players so you have to learn how to communicate pretty quickly,&rdquo; says MacLean. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been an outgoing, communicative kind of guy and I think I broadened those skills when I became an assistant coach in the NHL.&rdquo;&ldquo;I kind of describe him as a teacher but also as a motivator,&rdquo; says Felix. &ldquo;He expresses himself a little more than Terry did, he&rsquo;s right into the game a lot more. Terry was a teacher who wrote a lot of stuff down. Doug expresses himself and communicates well with the-guys.&rdquo;&ldquo;He was a guy that every player on the team was comfortable talking to,&rdquo; says Capitals&rsquo; defenseman Neil Sheehy. &ldquo;I think he did his job extremely well. He was very loyal to Bryan Murray the coach but at the same time he had a loyalty to the players, too. The players felt they could talk to him and say what they wanted to say and it would be presented in the right light to Bryan Murray.&ldquo;I certainly think just with his personality the players in Baltimore will feel pretty comfortable being open with him and talking to him. I think being in the minors, you need someone who can communicate and express to the players what it takes to get to the NHL.&rdquo;Getting to the NHL as a head coach is all that&rsquo;s left for MacLean. It&rsquo;s the next progression in a career which has taken him from university hockey to the minor pros.But MacLean is in no hurry to take the next&mdash;and biggest&mdash;step. He knows he has much to learn now that he is the one making all the decisions. For MacLean, it will be a solo effort. The Baltimore Skipjacks don&rsquo;t employ an assistant coach.&ldquo;As an assistant you make suggestions,&rdquo; says MacLean. &ldquo;Here, you&rsquo;ve got to make decisions. It&rsquo;s quite a difference. You&rsquo;ve got to make the ultimate decisions.&rdquo;And how does MacLean feel about making those decisions in the AHL after three years of the good life in the NHL?&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sort of looking forward to a change from waiting around in airports,&rdquo; says MacLean. &ldquo;As a university coach I had seven-hour bus rides and it didn&rsquo;t really bother me so I&rsquo;m not expecting it to bother me here.&ldquo;Anytime you take a step up in coaching it&rsquo;s a good feeling. Any assistant in the NHL who says he doesn&rsquo;t want to be a head coach&hellip;Well, I don&rsquo;t want to say he&rsquo;s lying, but everybody wants to be a head coach.&rdquo;Now, MacLean has his chance. &#9632;

f0026-01

TOP SKIP JACK

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Rand Simon</div>While Terry Murray hopes he&rsquo;s made it to the National Hockey League to stay, the odds are 50-50 he&rsquo;ll coach once again in the minor pros.Murray became the first coach in the 1990s to graduate from the AHL to the NHL. But if a look back at the coaches in the 1980s who went from an AHL club to their parent team in mid-season is a reliable indicator, Murray could find himself back coaching in the minors one day.Eight times in the &lsquo;80s, coaches were promoted from AHL teams to their parent club in mid-season. Four of those eight are back in the minor pros, and only one is still coaching in the NHL.Here are nutshell accounts of the eight, in chronological order of their promotion.Wayne Maxner (1980-81)&mdash;Then: Named coach of the Detroit Red Wings Nov. 24 when he was called up from Adirondack to replace Ted Lindsay. Coached the final 60 games of &lsquo;80-81 and the first 69 of the next season, compiling a 34-68-27 mark. Now: Coach and general manager of the Ontario League&rsquo;s London Knights.Don Perry (1981-82)&mdash;Then: Promoted by the Los Angeles Kings from New Haven Jan. 10. He led the team to a 11-17-10 mark that season after taking over from Parker MacDonald, and followed up with a 41-68-21 record over the next U/j seasons before being fired. Now: Scouting for the Kings.Bob McCammon (1981-82)&mdash;Then: Was coaching in Maine when he was named coach of the Philadelphia Flyers March 19 replacing Pat Quinn. He led the team to a 97-51-20 record before leaving the Flyers. Now: Coach of the Vancouver Canucks.Tom McVie (1983-84)&mdash;Then: Called up by the New Jersey Devils from Maine Nov. 22, 1983, he posted a 15-38-7 mark after replacing Bill MacMillan. Now: Coach of the Utica Devils, New Jersey&rsquo;s No. 1 affiliate.Ron LaPointe (1987-88)&mdash;Then: Became coach of the Quebec Nordiques Dec. 4 taking over from Andre Savard. Had 22-30-4 record in &lsquo;87-88 and 11-20-3 mark in &lsquo;88-89 before a cancerous tumor on his left kidney was discovered, forcing him to step down. Now: Coach of the Milwaukee Admirals of the International League, No. 1 affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks.Robbie Ftorek (1987-88)&mdash;Then: Promoted by the Los Angeles Kings Dec. 9 from New Haven to replace Mike Murphy. Coached Kings to 23-25-4 record in &lsquo;87-88 and 42-31-7 record in &lsquo;88-89 before being fired. Now: Coach of the Halifax Citadels, No. 1 affiliate of the Quebec Nordiques.Larry Pleau (1987-88)&mdash;Then: Became coach of the Hartford Whalers Feb. 7 after being called up from Binghamton. He replaced Jack (Tex) Evans and had a 50-51-5 record coaching the rest of&rsquo;87-88 and all of&rsquo;88-89. Now: Scouting for the Whalers.Rick Bowness (1988-89)&mdash;Then: Called up by the Winnipeg Jets Feb. 7 from Moncton to replace Dan Maloney. Coached Jets to 7-18-3 record and did not have contract renewed at end of the season. Now: Coach of the Maine Mariners, No. 1 affiliate of the Boston Bruins. &#9632;

MURRAY’S STAY IN NHL COULD BE A SHORT ONE

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>The comparisons are inevitable. Are the Binghamton Whalers of 1989-90 as bad as the Baltimore Skipjacks of 1987-88, the worst club in American League history? Statistically, they&rsquo;re close.Forced to operate as an independent without any direct NHL affiliation, the Skipjacks staggered to a 13-58-9 record. They set league records for fewest victories, most defeats, most goals allowed (434) and longest losing streak (18 games).At 8-33-5 through 46 games, the Whalers were threatening two of the Skipjacks&rsquo; futility marks. They were on pace to win only 14 games and lose 57. But that&rsquo;s a subject the Whalers prefer to avoid.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s never really been discussed,&rdquo; said Whalers&rsquo; right winger Chris Cichocki. &ldquo;As far as the playoff situation, well, we just want to win. No matter what your record is when you come to the rink and you win it&rsquo;s a good feeling. It&rsquo;s tough coming to the rink when you lose four or five in a row.&rdquo;The Whalers have one of the youngest teams in the league and it showed, particularly on the road where they had a 2-22-0 record and were outscored 127-62. They ended a 19-game road losing streak Jan. 14 with a 5-3 victory at Adirondack. It was their first victory on the road since Oct. 14 when they beat Halifax 2-1. In the win at Adirondack, first-year coach Doug McKay had six rookies and two second-year players in the lineup.There have been a few blowouts, of course, but the Whalers are a competitive team that has trouble scoring. Eleven of their 33 losses were by one goal. Nineteen times they managed to score fewer than three goals in a game. The Whalers were 1-5-5 in overtime and 0-23-1 in games in which they trailed after two periods. Eight times they gave up the lead in the third period.&ldquo;It would be different if we kept losing and it was because of no effort that we were losing, and that we had a bunch of guys who really didn&rsquo;t care,&rdquo; said goaltender Daryl Reaugh. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s not one guy who really enjoys losing a game. I can see from the beginning of the year &lsquo;til now a lot of improvement in a lot of guys. We&rsquo;ve lost a lot of games just by stupid, little mental errors.&ldquo;We could have a better record. Our home record is almost at .500 (6-11-5). It&rsquo;s just on the road we have trouble. That&rsquo;s when the more experienced players come into play. When you go into another building with a bunch of raw rookies and guys who haven&rsquo;t played that much in this league it&rsquo;s tough to win.&rdquo;<h2>TRADING STICKS</h2>Veteran goaltender Brian Ford has traded in his hockey stick for a night stick.Ford, 28, retired from the Rochester Americans Jan. 16 to start a career as a policeman.Ford decided to accept an appointment to the Atlantic Police Academy at Charlottetown, P.E.I. He applied for the nine-month course last year and told officials of the Buffalo Sabres he might retire if he was admitted to the program.In 19 appearances with the Amerks this season, Ford compiled a 7-6-4 record and a 3.85 goals-against average. Ford&rsquo;s departure left the Amerks with veteran Darcy Wakaluk and rookie Dave Liftman, who started the year with the Phoenix Roadrunners of the International League.<h2>FULL HOUSE</h2>In their 100th regular season game in Utica, the Devils had their first sellout crowd, 3,971, on Jan. 13. Paul Ysebaert sent the crowd away happy with the goal in overtime that gave the Devils a 3-2 victory over Springfield&hellip;Peter Dineen compiled a 4-1-0 record as the replacement for suspended Adirondack coach Barry Melrose. That gave Dineen, an injured 29-year-old defenseman, a .800 winning percentage, the highest in team history. However, he needed 242 more victories to tie his father, Bill, in that category. Bill is now the team&rsquo;s general manager. &#9632;

WHALERS SINKING TO LOWEST DEPTHS

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAM0WITZ</div>It looked like trouble for the Cape Breton Oilers when goalie Pokey Reddick was recalled on a long-term basis by Edmonton in December.&ldquo;That was a logical assumption,&rdquo; said Cape Breton coach Don McAdam.But thanks to rookie netminder Mike Green-lay, that has not happened.&ldquo;Mike has certainly grasped the opportunity to play,&rdquo; said Cape Breton GM Dave Andrews. &ldquo;We would have been in a lot of trouble if Mike didn&rsquo;t play the way he has.&rdquo;Greenlay, a ninth-round draft pick by Edmonton in 1986. left Lake Superior State in his junior year last season to join Saskatoon of the Western League. He helped the Blades reach the Memorial Cup finals, where they lost 4-3 in overtime to Swift Current. The game-winning goal was scored by Tim Tisdale, Greenlay&rsquo;s roommate at Cape Breton.Greenlay began the season as Cape Breton&rsquo;s No. 3 goalie. But he became No. 1 after Reddick was called up Dec. 17 to replace an injured Grant Fuhr, and Soviet Alexander Tyzhnych went down with a knee injury which sidelined him nearly three months.&ldquo;I knew they sent me down here to get experience,&rdquo; Greenlay said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t expect to be playing as big a role, but I like it.&rdquo;Greenlay played the first 11 games after Reddick&rsquo;s recall, going 5-4-2. He played better than his record would indicate. Before an 8-4 blowout loss to Halifax Jan. 6, he had allowed just 11 goals in his previous six games. Included in that span was his first pro shutout, blanking the Canadiens at Sherbrooke 4-0 Dec. 22.&ldquo;It (the Reddick recall) sort of put me in the forefront,&rdquo; Greenlay said. &ldquo;Since then I&rsquo;ve been playing the best hockey of my career, because I was put in the spot where 1 had to play good. 1 think the pressure to play good made me play well. If I didn&rsquo;t play well, no one was there to come in and bail me out.&rdquo;Instead, Greenlay has bailed out the Oilers, who were 22-18-4 and in second place after 44 games. Overall, Greenlay was 10-8-3 with a 3.28 goals-against average&mdash;the seventh-lowest in the league.&ldquo;It was sort of a blessing to have this happen,&rdquo; Greenlay said. &ldquo;It gave me the opportunity to step in and show people I belong here.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve started to show people I can play in the AHL. The important thing for me is to stay consistent and improve on what I&rsquo;ve done.&rdquo;<h2>PUCK STOPS HERE</h2>Sherbrooke Canadiens&rsquo; rookie goalie Jean-Claude Bergeron posted his first two pro shutouts in consecutive games and lowered his league-leading goals-against average to 2.79. Maine&rsquo;s Norm Foster and Baltimore&rsquo;s Jim Hrivnak also have two shutouts this season.Bergeron made 28 saves in a 1-0 victory at Moncton Jan. 14. Two nights later, he stopped 33 shots as the Canadiens won at Moncton 4-0.The two shutouts extended Bergeron&rsquo;s personal shutout streak to 126 minutes, 40 seconds&mdash;more than two full games shy of the league record of 249:51 set by Cleveland&rsquo;s Johnny Bower in 1957-58.<h2>IS EIGHT ENOUGH?</h2>Springfield&rsquo;s winless streak reached eight games (0-7-1), with three heartbreaking losses. On Jan. 12 in Baltimore, Mike Richard&rsquo;s power-play goal with 1:01 left in the third period gave the Skipjacks a 4-3 victory over the Indians. The next night in Utica, Paul Ysebaert scored in overtime to give the Devils a 4-3 victory. Then, Jan. 14 in New Haven, Craig Duncanson scored a power-play goal in overtime to down the Indians 3-2&hellip;New Haven&rsquo;s Scott Bjugstad had his eight-game goal scoring streak ended by Maine Jan. 12 in New Haven&mdash;his first game since being sent down by Los Angeles. It didn&rsquo;t take Bjugstad long to regain his touch as the next night, in a 5-2 win at Maine, he scored twice. &#9632;

GREENLAY SOLVES NETMINDING QUESTION

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>A perfect 8-0 start to the &lsquo;90s vaulted the Muskegon Lumberjacks to the top of the International League standings.The game which sent the Lumberjacks ahead of Indianapolis was a 3-2 victory Jan. 15, at the Ice&rsquo;s Indiana State Fairgrounds home.It was fitting the Lumberjacks took over the No. 1 spot while on the road, where they had a league-best 12-6-2 record before beating Indianapolis. Coach Blair MacDonald&rsquo;s club had earned as many points on the road as it had at home (14-6-0).&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had a lot of tough games,&rdquo; MacDonald said. &rsquo; &lsquo;They all go down to the last minutes and we&rsquo;ve been able to hang on.&rdquo;The win over the Ice was the eighth straight for Muskegon&mdash;the longest winning streak in the IHL this season&mdash;and followed a 5-4 overtime victory two nights earlier at Fort Wayne.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had the minimum number of players (18) for the longest time and it&rsquo;s a tribute to the guys we&rsquo;ve got that they keep working, game in and game out,&rdquo; said MacDonald. &ldquo;No matter where we&rsquo;re short on any night, the next guy jumps in and does the job.&rdquo;The most recent guy to do the job was center Jock Callander, reassigned to Muskegon from Pittsburgh Dec. 28. In eight games with the Lumberjacks, Callander had 6-11-17 totals and one player-of-the-week honor.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01685/5785803-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="785" height="946"><figcaption class="caption-body">Blair MacDonald&rsquo;s Lumberjacks were a perfect 8-0 to start 1990.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Jock wasn&rsquo;t getting to play that much up there, MacDonald said. &ldquo;It was a numbers game and it was obvious they were going to go with a set lineup. But he needs playing time and he&rsquo;ll get it here.&rdquo;Callander&rsquo;s return wasn&rsquo;t the only reason Muskegon went on its winning streak, though he certainly helped sustain it.&ldquo;We were playing well before that, but it sure helps getting him down here,&rdquo; said MacDonald. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re a little short at center. We lost (Dave) Capuano in a trade (Jan. 8 to Vancouver) and Callander is our only natural center.&ldquo;The defense is starting to play well and the goaltending is better. It&rsquo;s been a combination of things like it usually is when you put together a streak like this.&rdquo;The victory over Indianapolis gave Muskegon the best record in the IHL (27-12-2) with 56 points, one point better than the lee (26-11-3).<h2>STREAKS ICED</h2>The loss to the Lumberjacks stopped a pair of lengthy Indianapolis streaks. The Ice was 21-01 when scoring first, and had won eight in a row at home before the loss.One streak which did continue, however, was a losing one. The Ice hasn&rsquo;t defeated Muskegon in three meetings this season. Muskegon has defeated the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; affiliate five straight times, dating back to two wins over Saginaw last season.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt we&rsquo;re going to meet these guys down the road somewhere,&rdquo; said Ice captain Jim Playfair. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have to beat them some time.&rdquo;They&rsquo;ll get five more chances in the regular season; the next is Jan. 26 at Muskegon.<h2>HOT ROOKIES</h2>This season&rsquo;s outstanding crop of rookies in the IHL continued to shine the week from Jan. 8-14.Salt Lake&rsquo;s Tim Sweeney was named the league&rsquo;s player of the week. Sweeney scored five goals in three games as the Golden Eagles continued to struggle, winning only once&mdash;a 5-4 shootout victory over Phoenix Jan. 13.Two of Sweeney&rsquo;s goals were shorthanded. The left winger took over the Golden Eagles&rsquo; scoring lead with 49 points in 42 games.Two other first-year pros had more points.Flint&rsquo;s Rob Zamuner had two goals and five assists in three games, and Rob Murphy of Milwaukee had three goals and three assists in two games. Murphy had a hat trick in the Admirals&rsquo; 7-6 win over the Phoenix Roadrunners Jan. 11. &#9632;

f0027-01

ROAD SHOW TAKES LUMBERJACKS TO THE TOP

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01713/5785834-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Confident he was ready to improve this season, Martin St-Amour declined a contract offer from the Montreal Canadiens in hopes of earning a better deal.</figcaption></div>Martin St-Amour fancies himself as a good cook, but it has taken him three years to find the recipe for success in the Quebec League.This year, however, St-Amour and his Trois-Rivieres Draveurs teammates have risen like a fine souffle.After 41 games, St-Amour had 39 goals and 102 points for the first-place Draveurs. That tied him for second place in the scoring race with Patrick Lebeau (42-60-102 in 44 games), one point behind St-Amour&rsquo;s linemate, Steve Larouche, who had 44 goals and 103 pttints in 41 games.The first overall choice of the Verdun Junior Canadiens (now St-Hyacinthe Laser) in 1987, St-Amour was traded from the Baby Habs with a sixth-round choice in 1989 (Giuseppe Argento) for defenseman Eric Charron. He took half a season to adjust but has finally begun to show his potential.&ldquo;Martin has the talent and he&rsquo;s a good player,&rdquo; says Draveurs&rsquo; coach Dany Dube. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good guy in the room. I enjoy the job he&rsquo;s doing.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a natural scorer. He&rsquo;s a playmaker. He&rsquo;s smart with the puck. He reads the play. He&rsquo;s a strong guy. He&rsquo;s good with the puck in the comer and around the net. And in the corner, he gets involved physically.&rdquo;You would expect a 6-foot-3, 200-pounder to get involved in the corner. But you wouldn&rsquo;t expect to see him hard at work in a kitchen.Yet St-Amour takes cooking and baking seriously; for him, &ldquo;icing&rdquo; is far more than a hockey term.Ever since taking a cooking course as a 16-year-old in high school, St-Amour has worked diligently on his culinary skills and has expressed an interest in opening his own restaurant someday. Desserts are his specialty, especially black forest cake.&ldquo;I love to cook and make my own food,&rdquo; says the 19-year-old left winger. &ldquo;At least then I know what I&rsquo;m eating. Give me a recipe and I can make almost anything.&ldquo;Cooking isn&rsquo;t difficult. You just look at the recipe. The key to cooking is good timing and good organization.&rdquo;The same holds true in hockey, where St-Amour&rsquo;s good timing just happened to land him with a good organization last year. The trade to Trois-Rivieres couldn&rsquo;t have come at a better time for St-Amour, who had worn out his welcome with the Baby Habs. Like most of his teammates, he wasn&rsquo;t happy playing fora perennial loser.Previously tagged as a player with loads of potential but no work ethic, St-Amour admits there were times when personal motivation was not a dominant ingredient in his game. Many people interpreted a slow, languid skating style as laziness. St-Amour also was charged with putting himself before the team.&ldquo;Maybe 1 was working less in Verdun,&rdquo; St-Amour says. &ldquo;But in Verdun it was more difficult because you&rsquo;d lose five, six, seven games in a row. It was hard on the morale.&rdquo;As a midget player with Laval, St-Amour scored 55 goals and 95 assists for 150 points in only 42 games. But as a rookie in junior, he sagged to 20-50-70 in 61 games.&ldquo;Maybe people expected too much of me my first year,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;They all said 1 could put the team upstairs, but one player can&rsquo;t make a difference.&ldquo;That first year affected me a lot. I&rsquo;d get up in the morning, read the papers, and see that I hadn&rsquo;t played a good game the night before. That&rsquo;s tough on a 16-, 17-year-old. But you have to live with it.&rdquo;Despite what was considered a sub-par season, St-Amour was a surprise draft choice, taken in the second round (34th overall) by the Canadiens.&ldquo;Mainly we looked at his size and ability and his background,&rdquo; said Canadiens&rsquo; managing director Serge Savard. &ldquo;Sometimes the first | year in junior is very difficult. In fact, everybody in Verdun had a difficult year. Still, we took a gamble.&rdquo;The next season, St-Amour&rsquo;s production with the Junior Canadiens improved, with 19 goals and 36 points in 28 games before the trade to the Draveurs.The effect of the trade was not immediate. In his first half-season as a Draveur, he scored a modest eight goals and 29 points in 26 games.St-Amour, who had never lived away from home, had trouble adjusting to life on his own. He was also deeply affected by the divorce of his parents, Alain and Mireille, which was finalized at the time of the trade.St-Amour attributes much of his success this season to his decision to remain in Trois-Rivieres over the summer to train under the watchful eye of Dube.&ldquo;I remember I had a talk with him at the end of the season,&rdquo; Dube says. &ldquo;I told him 1 wanted an effort game after game. I told him, &lsquo;If you give me your best, what can I say?&rsquo;&rdquo;St-Amour has delivered on all counts this season.He plays the power-play and kills penalties. He has improved his defensive play. Finally, he is beginning to use his size to his advantage.But most importantly, St-Amour has matured.&ldquo;It was tough to mature when 1 was near my mother and father,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But now I&rsquo;m on my own and have to do all my own stuff. I stayed here all summer and learned a lot. I&ldquo;When I take a look at what&rsquo;s happened I have to say that, yes, the trade was the best thing that could have happened to me. I&rsquo;m playing the best hockey of-my career. I&rsquo;m playing for a great team, I&rsquo;m working hard and it&rsquo;s easier to motivate myself.&rdquo;Part of that motivation is the result of not having signed a contract with the Canadiens. Last summer, St-Amour turned down a three-year offer without any bonuses because he wasn&rsquo;t satisfied with the money. The Canadiens have to sign St-Amour before June 14&mdash;48 hours before the NHL entry draft June 16 in Vancouver&mdash;or he becomes a free agent. Savard recently tendered a new offer and was optimistic that St-Amour would sign it.&ldquo;We were concerned with his intensity, but I&rsquo;ve received only good comments,&rdquo; said Savard. &ldquo;If he can just improve his skating, we&rsquo;ll have a hell of a player.&rdquo;Even today, some skeptics charge that St-Amour will never play for Montreal. They claim he is not proficient as a skater&mdash;he lacks quickness and must work on changing direction, according to Dube&mdash;and that center Larouche has made him the player that he is.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think so,&rdquo; says St-Amour. &ldquo;People who see me say I&rsquo;m different, I work harder and I&rsquo;m a better player. It helps a lot to play with (Larouche), but I don&rsquo;t think (my improvement) is simply because I&rsquo;m playing with better players.&rsquo;I&rsquo;ve changed a lot. If I wasn&rsquo;t playing good I wouldn&rsquo;t have as many points&mdash;and maybe &rsquo; Larouche wouldn&rsquo;t either.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0028-01

ST-AMOUR TURNS ON JETS IN KITCHEN AND ON ICE

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Herb Zurkowsky</div>The Trois-Rivieres Draveurs learned a lot about themselves last season.Problem is, they learned it the hard way. Last season, the youthful Draveurs surprised many by finishing first overall in the 11-team Quebec League with a record of 4325-2. Then they were surprised themselves by the eighth-place Shawinigan Cataractes. who knocked them out in the quarter-finals in four straight games.Despite a six-game losing streak that extended to mid-January, the Draveurs were duplicating last year&rsquo;s efforts with a 28-17-0 mark and first place. But with a more experienced coach (second-year man Dany Dube) and players, the Draveurs say there won&rsquo;t be another early exit from the playoffs.&ldquo;For sure we won&rsquo;t drive the team the same as last year,&rdquo; says Draveurs&rsquo; general manager Michel Boucher. &ldquo;But you must also remember it was my first playoff and Dany&rsquo;s too. And last year we were led by our 17-year-olds like (Yanic) Perreault and (Steve) Larouche. They didn&rsquo;t know how the playoffs were played.&rdquo;In Dube, 28, the Draveurs have a rising star. A masterful technician, he led the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres Patriotes to an Ontario Universities Athletic Association title in 1987-88. He is considered by many to be an NHL codch in the making.&ldquo;I like the way Dube works with the guys,&rdquo; says Boucher. &#9632;

LOOKING FOR BIG PLAYOFF

<div class="byline">BY VANCE OLIVER</div>The Swift Current Broncos didn&rsquo;t just make a trade Jan. 15, they made a statement.By dealing two more veterans from last year&rsquo;s Memorial Cup team, they resigned themselves to the fact that they&rsquo;re destined to rebuild, not repeat.Holding down last place in the Western League&rsquo;s East Division with a record of 19-26-1, the Broncos traded left winger Kevin Knopp, 20, and defenseman Jeff Knight, 18, to the Medicine Hat Tigers for defenseman Vince Boe, 19, and left winger Lloyd Pelletier, 18.Broncos&rsquo; coach-general manager Graham James then shipped Boe to the Seattle Thunderbirds the next day, for right winger Eddie Patterson. 17.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to get a group of players to go along with (Geoff) Sanderson. (Kimbi) Daniels and those guys, who maybe can win it all in a year or two,&rdquo; said James. &ldquo;Patterson is certainly in the same category as those players. He&rsquo;s not as skilled, but he&rsquo;s bigger and gives us a different dimension.&rdquo;Patterson, who had collected nine goals anl two assists in 18 games with the T-Birds before breaking his leg, will return to action on Jan. 26 with the Broncos. Knopp had 22-53-75 totals in 46 games. Knight posted 7-5-12 totals in 47 games and Pelletier had four assists in 19 games with the Broncos. Boe had 4-21-25 totals in 42 games with the Tigers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02418/5785920-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="607" height="1077"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vince Boe ended up with in Seattle after a three-way trade.</figcaption></div>Many were expecting the Broncos to repeat as champions this year but in mid-January, they were in serious danger of not even making the playoffs. From Dec. 12 to Jan. 16, they won only three of 13 games and fell into last place.&ldquo;To be realistic, we&rsquo;re not going to knock off (division-leading) Lethbridge,&rdquo; said James. &ldquo;But we haven&rsquo;t given up. The division is so tight right now that if we pick up a couple of wins instead of losing, then we&rsquo;re right back in the thick of everything.&rdquo;<h2>BACKLUND HOME</h2>Overage goaltender Patrick Back-lund left the Medicine Hat Tigers Jan.12 to return to his hometown of Lulea, Sweden.Backlund, who had a 5-6-0 record and a 3.93 goals-against average this season, stretched ligaments in his knee during practice on Nov. 10 and never fully recovered from the injury.He appeared in the Tigers&rsquo; 6-1 loss to Seattle Dec. 15 and a 6-2 loss to Lethbridge Dec. 29, but the knee was still causing him discomfort.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough for any player being injured,&rdquo; said Tigers&rsquo; Tim Speltz. &ldquo;But when you&rsquo;re not from here, it&rsquo;s even more difficult to cope. He was having trouble with all the time he had when he was not playing and I think that was weighing heavily on him.&rdquo;The Tigers picked up 19-year-old goalie Eric Badzgon to fill the void. Badzgon, who began the season with the Portland Winter Hawks but was traded to the Prince Albert Raiders Oct. 17, was released by the Raiders on Jan. 8.Badzgon had a 6-8-0 record and a 4.17 GAA with the Raiders.<h2>BIG CHIEF</h2>Eric Lindros of the Ontario League&rsquo;s Oshawa Generals is being touted as the No. 1 choice in the 1991 NHL draft, but Pat Falloon of the Spokane Chiefs certainly can&rsquo;t be very far behind.Falloon, 17, picked up five goals and six assists in a 9-8 overtime loss to Seattle Jan. 12 and a 6-2 win over the Victoria Cougars the next night. In 47 games, the 5-foot-10, 185-pound center had 34 goals and 78 points.&ldquo;He stole the show in Seattle,&rdquo; said Chiefs&rsquo; coach-general manager Bryan Maxwell. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question Pat Falloon is going to make an impact when he arrives in the NHL.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0029-02

BRONCOS COMMIT TO REBUILDING WITH DEAL

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div>Just as the Ambassador Bridge serves as a link between Detroit, Mich., and Windsor, Ont., the Detroit Ambassadors will serve as a link between Michigan and the Ontario League.The OHL&rsquo;s first U.S.-based expansion team, which begins play next season, revealed the team nickname at a Jan. 15 news conference. They also announced Tony MacDonald will be the team&rsquo;s general manager and director of scouting and Andy Weiden- bach has been hired as coach.Russ Gregory will be the team&rsquo;s assistant general manager and public relations director and Tom Wall and Bill Gunther were named scouts.Weidenbach, 38, is in his third season as coach of Compuware of the North American Junior League. MacDonald. 42, scouted for Compuware when it owned the OHL Windsor Spitfires and was a special assignment scout with Compuware. Compuware owns the Ambassadors.&ldquo;The biggest thing going for Tony and Andy is they&rsquo;ve been with us five years and we know them,&rsquo;&rsquo; said Ambassadors&rsquo; director of operations Jim Rutherford. &ldquo;They deserve this next step.&rdquo;The Ambassadors, who will play home games at the 9,600-seat Cobo Arena in downtown Detroit, will play in the Emms Division, and the Dukes of Hamilton will move from the Leyden Division to the Emms. The Sudbury Wolves and North Bay Centennials will shift from the Emms to the Leyden, giving each division eight teams.<h2>GOOD RETURN</h2>Even though he refused to play for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, Eric Lindros may help them make the playoffs.When the Greyhounds traded their no-show No. 1 draft choice to the Oshawa Generals, they received right wingers Jason Denomme and Mike DeCoff, goalie Mike Lenarduzzi, second-round draft picks in 1990 and 1991 and $80,000.After the players&rsquo;Jan. 1 arrival, the Greyhounds went 4-2-0 and Denomme, DeCoff and Lenarduzzi all contributed in a big way. Denomme had six goals. DeCoff had five and Lenarduzzi posted a 3-1-0 record and a 2.75 goals-against average.Lindros, meanwhile, made his OHL debut on Jan. 14 and had two assists in a 5-4 Oshawa win over the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s.&ldquo;These kids went from a contending team that was getting all kinds of publicity and went to a struggling team,&rdquo; said Greyhounds&rsquo; director of operations Sherry Bassin, &ldquo;and their attitude has been just great. They&rsquo;re really trying to make the team better.&rdquo;The Greyhounds did come back to earth with a 6-2 loss to the Sudbury Wolves Jan. 16. Denomme had his seventh goal in as many games and Lenarduzzi allowed one goal over two periods in relief of starter Graeme Harvey. The Greyhound players, meanwhile, wore armbands made of black tape to protest the naming of Lindros to the all-star team that will play the Quebec League Jan. 30 at Cornwall.<h2>GOVEDARIS BACK</h2>The Dukes of Hamilton, in last place overall with an 8-30-5 record, finally received some good news when left winger Chris Govedaris was returned to junior by the Hartford Whalers Jan. 15.Govedaris, 19, had one assist in 12 games with Whalers this season and had two assists with the Whalers&rsquo; American League farm team in Binghamton. He was the Whalers&rsquo; first-round choice in 1988.Govedaris had 41-38-79 totals in 49 games with the Toronto Marlies (now the Dukes) last season. &#9632;

AMBASSADORS OF OHL READY FOR NEXT SEASON

Fourth-year Saskatchewan center Ken Morrison became Canada West&rsquo;s career goalscoring leader with a hat trick Jan. 12, in a 7-5 loss to the Calgary Dinosaurs.Morrison entered his 100th collegiate game with 107 goals, tying him with former Alberta Golden Bear and 1988-89 CIAU most valuable player Stacey Wakabayashi.A science major who plans to pursue a career in dentistry, Morrison has been filling a few nets this season. He finished the game with his first hat trick of the season, and the 10th of his career.The following day Morrison added another goal and two assists in the Huskies&rsquo; 3-2 win over the Dinos.The 24-year-old Saskatoon native had 11-15-26 totals in 18 games this season, and was 111-101-212 in his 101 career games with the Huskies.The Brandon Bobcats won all six games on their exhibition tour of Germany, outscoring their Division I and II opponents 66-13. Brandon, 7-11 after 18 CWUAA games, has a four-game Alaska tour slated for Jan. 18-23. The Bobcats will play two against the Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves and then a pair versus the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks.&mdash;Mark Spector<h2>OUAA</h2>Having lost his team&rsquo;s most prolific scorers to graduation, Windsor Lancer coach Rick Cranker decided to go with a new game plan this season.But when the Lancers got off to an 0-4 start, many doubted they could be effective as a defensive-minded team.There aren&rsquo;t so many doubters now.The Lancers won seven of eight Ontario Universities Athletic Association games, followed by an 8-0 loss to Toronto Jan. 14. During that span, the Lancers won the bronze medal at the Duracell Classic tournament in Toronto, where their victims included No. 8-ranked Western and East Division-leading York.&ldquo;We had a lot of new people at the start,&rdquo; said Cranker. &ldquo;Nobody was comfortable with their linemates. We had a whole new system. It took some time to develop some discipline.&rdquo;A game between Trois-Rivieres and Ryerson scheduled for Jan. 12 was postponed because of travel problems incurred by the Patriotes in Europe.After having won all five games on a tour of Czechoslovakia and Sweden that ended Jan. 10, the Patriotes were delayed on their flight from Czechoslovakia to Frankfurt, West Germany. Because of that they missed their flight to North America.It&rsquo;s expected the game will be rescheduled some time in early February.&mdash;Claude Scillev<h2>AUAA</h2>The Moncton Blue Eagles won the battle of the Atlantic Universities Athletic Association division frontrunners on Jan. 14.Danny Gauvin&rsquo;s goal 20 seconds into overtime gave the Eagles a 6-5 victory over the Acadia Axemen. The win improved the Eagles&rsquo; record to 11-2-0 and moved them into second place in the CIAU rankings for the week ending Jan. 14.&ldquo;I think they deserved to win it more than we did,&rdquo; said Eagles&rsquo; coach Len Doucet. &ldquo;We were spectators more than we were participants, especially in the second period. But it certainly was a big win for us.&rdquo;Cape Breton named Francois Chabot-Cormier head coach Jan. 2, replacing John Hanna, who resigned a month earlier because of health problems. The team, off for the Christmas break, did not have any games in the interim. The Capers gave Cormier his first victory Jan. 14 when they hung on for a 6-5 win over the Prince Edward Island Panthers.&mdash;Bill Hunt &#9632;

MORRISON BREAKS CWUAA GOAL MARK

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01646/5785999-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Boston University&rsquo;s Shawn McEachern, front, fights for the puck with Boston College&rsquo;s David Pergola. The teams will battle again at the prestigious Beanpot Feb. 5.</figcaption></div>Ask most Americans to list the major winter sporting events and they&rsquo;ll probably name the Super Bowl, the major college football bowl games and the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament.Ask Bostonians the same question and it&rsquo;s likely they&rsquo;ll include a college hockey tournament called the Beanpot.Played on the first two Mondays in February at the Boston Garden, the Beanpot appears, on the surface, to be like any other college hockey tournament.It involves four teams&mdash;Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern and Harvard&mdash;who play a single-game elimination format. The two losers on the first Monday play for the consolation the following week, while the winners vie for the title. This year, Boston College and Boston University meet in one semi-final Feb. 5, while defending champion Harvard takes on Northeastern. The final and consolation final go Feb. 12.The exhibition games, played during the dog days of a long season, have no bearing on league standings.Yet, ever since the inaugural tourney in 1952&mdash;it was called the New England invitational then and was played in the Boston Arena&mdash;a mystique has developed around the Beanpot, elevating it above the norm.<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>&ldquo;The day of the Beanpot is like Christmas Eve when you&rsquo;re a kid or St. Patrick&rsquo;s Day if you&rsquo;re Irish,&rdquo; said Lowell coach Bill Riley, who played for Boston University from 1965 to 1968. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big thing.&rdquo;Riley said the Beanpot phenomenon is due, in part, to the social standing it has attained.&ldquo;In the old days, it was all hockey people (who went to the Beanpot), he said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;d walk into the Beanpot and you&rsquo;d know everybody in the building.&ldquo;Now, unfortunately or fortunately&mdash;maybe it&rsquo;s good for hockey&mdash;it&rsquo;s like the Kentucky Derby. It&rsquo;s the social thing to do in Boston so you&rsquo;re getting a lot of people who aren&rsquo;t the diehards or regulars.&rdquo;As in previous seasons, tickets for this year&rsquo;s tournament (to be played Feb. 5 and 12) were sold out well in advance. The Washington Capitals&rsquo; Neil Sheehy, who participated in the Beanpot for Harvard from 1980 to &lsquo;83, attributed the tournament&rsquo;s popularity to its unique features.&ldquo;Boston is a huge college city,&rdquo; said Sheehy. &ldquo;There are cross-town rivalries between all the schools. I can&rsquo;t think of any other tournament where you have the same four teams from the same city competing every year.&rdquo;The growth of the tournament has gone hand-in-hand with increased media coverage. As the Bcanpot became more prolific, the local media picked up on its significance. In doing so the tourney&rsquo;s reputation became that much more enhanced.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very difficult to explain how much hype it gets,&rdquo; said Boston University coach Jack Parker. &ldquo;You wouldn&rsquo;t believe what goes on in the dressing room prior to practices two or three days before the Beanpot games. It&rsquo;s such a big thing in the middle of the season, it can elevate or depress a team when, in reality, it&rsquo;s just a couple of non-league games.&rdquo;Just don&rsquo;t tell that to anyone in Boston.Lowell goalie Mark Richards has a broadcaster to thank for a recent eight-game stretch where he compiled a 4-2-1 record, 3.34 goals-against average and .901 save percentage.Richards was watching the replay of the Chiefs&rsquo; 5-4 win over Army Jan. 2 on the New England Sports Network.&ldquo;One of the commentators, Bob Norton, said that I was going down a little too soon,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Sol worked on trying to stay up longer. &rsquo; &lsquo;&mdash;Larry Mahoney and Jason Kay<h2>ECAC</h2>Vermont Catamount coach Mike Gilligan is usually forced to talk about &ldquo;what might have been&rdquo; when the subject is injury-plagued junior center John LeClair.After playing in all 31 of his team&rsquo;s games as a freshman, LeClair, a rugged 6-foot-2, 205-pounder, was limited to just 18 games in 198889 because of a serious thigh injury.This season, an infected hand (he cut it on a piece of glass) forced him to miss the first nine games of the schedule. Since returning to the lineup in early December, LeClair had eight goals in eight games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s so different from a lot of other kids in the league,&rdquo; said Gilligan. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s probably one of the best pro prospects in the league, but he&rsquo;s not a truly finished college hockey player.&rdquo;LeClair, a native of St. Albans, Vt., was the first American player picked in the 1987 NHL entry draft (second round, 33rd overall, by Montreal).After playing in a total of eight games in his first three years, St. Lawrence senior Mike Mudd has developed into one of the league&rsquo;s best goaltenders this season.SLU coach Joe Marsh began alternating Mudd and junior Les Kuntar early in December. In nine games, Mudd compiled a 3-2-2 record and 3.03 goals-against average.On Jan. 13, he made 43 saves and assisted on the game-winning goal as the Saints defeated Boston University 4-3, breaking an 0-5-1 slump against non-conference opponents.&mdash;Tom Boggie<h2>WCHA</h2>The Western Collegiate Hockey Association suspended Denver left winger Rick Berens for two games, in the wake of his physical encounter with linesman Bill Waisenen during a game at Northern Michigan Jan. 13.Berens, a junior from Palatine, Ill., was to sit out games at home against Northeastern Jan. 19 and 20.Pioneers&rsquo; coach Ralph Backstrom said he agreed with the steps taken by the league.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re taught in pee wees to leave the officials alone,&rdquo; Backstrom said. &ldquo;He did make contact. It wasn&rsquo;t anything malacious, but I agree with the decision.&rdquo;WCHA supervisor of officials Ron Foyt said Waisenen had just given Berens a five-minute high-sticking penalty for an infraction against NMU defenseman Dan Ruoho when Ruoho&rsquo;s teammate, Jim Hiller, arrived on the scene. Berens twice struck Waisenen in the face with an open glove as the offical tried to separate the players.Northern Michigan was in the process of trying to gain redshirt status for senior defenseman Brad Werenka, said sports information director Tony Tollefson.Werenka, considered one of the league&rsquo;s best all-around blue liners coming into the season, has played only eight games due to a pulled stomach muscle and strained knee ligaments.&mdash;Andy Baggot<h2>CCHA</h2>Lake Superior State&rsquo;s 30-game home unbeaten streak (26-0-4) came to an end Jan. 12, on a 60-foot slapshot.Illinois-Chicago junior left winger Rick Judson beat sophomore goaltender Brandon Reed with 26 seconds remaining in the third period to snap a 2-2 tie and propel the Flames to a 4-2 win. UIC junior right winger Dominic Dunlap added an empty-net goal.LSSU hadn&rsquo;t been defeated in the Norris Center since a 3-1 loss to Michigan, Oct. 29, 1988. For the Flames, the win snapped a nine-game winless streak (0-8-1) at Sault Ste. Marie, dating back to Nov. 4, 1983.Lake Superior senior left winger Jeff Jablonski extended his point scoring streak to 14 games with a goal in the Falcons&rsquo; 3-1 win over UIC Jan. 13. That equaled the school record set last season by center Jim Dowd. Dowd, a junior this season, had an 11-game streak alive after the UIC game.During his streak, Jablonski, the twin brother of St. Louis Blues&rsquo; goalie Pat Jablonski, had 13 goals and 10 assists. In 26 games this season he had 17-19-36 totals.&mdash;Matt Carlson &#9632;

f0031-01

A HILL OF BEANS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01690/5786044-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01698/5786037-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="3418" height="4039"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01664/5786030-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="3380" height="1102"></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

PGPSI ON ICG

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02513/5786089-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01631/5786082-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="1986" height="3901"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01545/5786075-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="3327" height="1879"></div> &#9632;

f0035-02

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01635/5786127-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02419/5786120-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="2043" height="3967"></div> &#9632;

f0038-01

SCOREBOARD

<div class="byline">ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01314/5786158-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="593" height="681"></div>You figure in a league run by lawyers, they would have plugged this loophole by now, the one that comes up every year at all-star time.Did Joey Mullen deserve to go to the All-Star Game ahead of Gary Leeman? Or Adams Oates?Outside of Calgary, the answer was a resounding &lsquo;No.&rsquo; Mullen&rsquo;s first-half numbers paled beside those of Leeman or Oates&mdash;so if first-half numbers were the sole selection criteria, then yes, it was a major injustice.Only one thing: Nowhere does it say that first-half performance has any bearing at all on the decision.Ever since they changed the procedure for selecting the mid-season all-star team so that the fans choose the starting six, the league left a significant amount of discretionary power in the hands of the head coach.There&rsquo;s only one rule he must follow in adding the other 14 players to his roster: Every team in the conference has to be represented by at least one player. After that, he&rsquo;s got carte blanche.Accordingly, Calgary&rsquo;s Terry Crisp just followed a tradition established by Edmonton&rsquo;s Glen Sather, Boston&rsquo;s Terry O&rsquo;Reilly and others before him. He rewarded a player, Joey Mullen, who helped him win a Stanley Cup, who scored a minimum of 40 goals in each of the last six years, who won the Lady Byng Trophy twice in three years, who is the reigning, end-of-season all-star right winger.And on Sunday in Pittsburgh, he played in only the second All-Star Game of his career.Did Joey Mullen deserve to go to the All-Star Game? Of course he did.He had nothing to apologize for. Early on in his career, there were years when Mullen&rsquo;s numbers were good enough to put him on the all-star team and he was passed over. Nobody said anything then.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know where players get off saying who should be picked and who shouldn&rsquo;t be picked,&rdquo; said Flames&rsquo; center Doug Gilmour, a teammate of Mullen&rsquo;s in both Calgary and St. Louis.&ldquo;Other teams that have won or been to the finals like Edmonton always had their own players on the all-star team. There have always been one or two players at the most from a team like St. Louis.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t like those words from Eddie Olcyzk (who said his Toronto teammate. Leeman, should have been picked ahead of Mullen). He and Leeman are good friends and they&rsquo;re both having good years but they haven&rsquo;t done what Joey has over time. When they do, then they can say something. Joey&rsquo;s had a tough start, but who cares? We all know he&rsquo;s an all-star. He should be there.&rdquo;Gilmour made a point that Pat Bums tried to second, when he asked Guy Lafleur to represent Quebec ahead of Joe Sakic. Sakic&rsquo;s had the better year, Lafleur the better career.Certainly, the fans thought that long-term accomplishments outweighed a good first half. Why else would they put Brian Propp on the Wales Conference all-star team after he missed almost the whole first half?To get a truly representative team, you need to go back to the old system. Let the writers select the first two teams and allow the coaches to add the last eight players. By the time they get every team represented, there&rsquo;s very little room to maneuver.In those days, there were far fewer controversial selections.&ldquo;Every year, there&rsquo;s BS like that,&rdquo; said Boston Bruins&rsquo; goalie Reggie Lemelin, caught in a similar storm of controversy last year.&ldquo;First of all, the format is wrong. The coaches hold grudges against other teams. It happened last year when I got picked (by then-Bruin coach Terry O&rsquo;Reilly) ahead of (Montreal&rsquo;s) Patrick Roy. They (the Canadiens) did the same to us this year. They didn&rsquo;t add anyone from our team (Ray Bourque and Cam Neely were selected by the fans) even though we&rsquo;re first overall and have the best defensive record in the league. C&rsquo;mon. Get serious.&ldquo;But in the end, who really cares?&rdquo;Lemelin&rsquo;s advice to Mullen: &ldquo;Play and have a good time. That&rsquo;s what I did. You get picked for what you did before. That&rsquo;s all.&rdquo;By the time they dropped the puck at the All-Star Game, Mullen was on a seven-points-in-three games streak that saw him become the highest-scoring U.S. player of all time, passing Reed Larson.The game was played in the U.S. and for the first time in more than a decade, was shown on national television in the U.S.No question. The best U.S.-bom player in history deserved to be there. &#9632;

f0040-01

NO QUESTION: MULLEN DESERVED TO BE THERE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02209/5786189-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Charlie Burns</figcaption></div>&hellip;that Charlie Bums was the last player-coach in the NHL? Bums coached 44 games for Minnesota in 1969-70 and played in 50. In the Jan. 19 Hockey News, it was reported Doug Harvey, who played and coached with the New York Rangers in 1961-62, was the last player-coach. In fact, Harvey was the last to hold the dual role over the course of a full season. &#9632;

f0040-02

DID YOU KNOW…

<h2>BLUES</h2>Television reports in Canada indicated that an upstart global hockey league would like to make Brett Hull its first conquest, just as the World Hockey Association stole his father, Bobby, from the NHL in 1972. Hull, the league&rsquo;s goal-scoring leader with 42, is playing out his option with the Blues. Bob Goodenow, Hull&rsquo;s agent and the new NHL Players&rsquo; Association deputy executive director, found the rumors intriguing, but said &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t heard from anybody from an upstart league. I&rsquo;m sure it makes for good discussion&hellip;As an agent, obviously, anything that would help my clients I&rsquo;m interested in. But as far as anything specific happening I&rsquo;m not aware of it.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Hull&rsquo;s contract negotiations are now being handled by Blues&rsquo; president Jack Quinn, to whom Goodenow made his latest proposal&hellip;The eight-game auditions of rookies Curtis Joseph and Pat Jablonski for the Blues&rsquo; backup goaltender job consisted of one start apiece&mdash;not much to decide on, since each gave up six goals. Vincent Riendeau has handled the bulk of the action, since Greg Millen was traded to Quebec Dec. 13. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d have liked to have played them more, but the situation didn&rsquo;t dictate it,&rdquo; said Blues&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter, who implied each goalie&rsquo;s real audition may have been held with Peoria of the International League, while the other goaltender was up with the Blues. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just as important what they do down there,&rdquo; he said.<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>Left winger Curt Fraser underwent successful reconstruction surgery to his left shoulder Jan. 15. It was his 16th operation as a player. He was expected to miss six to eight weeks&hellip;Goalie Kari Takko was credited with his first victory since Oct. 14, when the Stars beat Detroit 6-4 on Jan. 13. Takko was playing in relief of Jon Casey&hellip;Mike Modano was the 13th North Stars&rsquo; rookie to score at least 20 goals. Brian Bellows was the 12th, scoring 35 goals in 1982-83&hellip;Only four Stars had a positive plus-minus rating at the all-star break. Right winger Don Barber was plus-6 but had been with the North Stars for only 13 games. Defenseman Ville Siren and right winger Stewart Gavin, plus-3 and plus-2 respectively, were the best among the regulars, and 37-year-old rookie Helmut BaLderis was plus-2 in 18 games.<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>Coach Mike Keenan felt Steve Larmer&rsquo;s addition to the Campbell Conference all-star team as a replacement for the injured Denis Savard was a long overdue reward. It was Larmer&rsquo;s first All-Star Game in his eight NHL seasons. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m really happy to see Steve get the acknowledgement he&rsquo;s probably deserved before,&rdquo; said Keenan. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been a consistent player in this league and for the Black-hawks. Larmer said it hadn&rsquo;t bothered him being overlooked so many times, despite his scoring more than 40 goals four times and his consecutive games streak of 608. &ldquo;There are a lot of players who are consistent and good who never make it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Every year there was always someone playing better.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Savard suffered a sprained left ankle in a 3-1 win over Minnesota Jan. 17 and was expected to be sidelined a week. Savard said it was a &ldquo;completely different&rdquo; injury than the ligament problem he had in his right ankle last season that forced him to miss 20 games.<h2>RED WINGS</h2>When the Washington Capitals fired Bryan Murray Jan. 15, Jacques Demers became the current coach with the longest continuous service with one NHL team. He has led the Wings since the beginning of the 1986-87 season. Demers, however, wasn&rsquo;t impressed with the distinction. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s horse (expletive deleted),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It means I&rsquo;m next (to be fired)&hellip; Hey, what about Al Arbour?&rdquo; Arbour, now in his 15th season behind the New York Islanders&rsquo; bench, had his tenure interrupted for 11/2 seasons by Terry Simpson. &ldquo;1 now proclaim Al Arbour to be No. 1,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want it.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Jimmy Carson on his return to Edmonton Jan. 16: &ldquo;There will be 17,000 booing fans, and one very happy Red Wing,&rdquo; he said. In fact, the Northlands Coliseum crowd of 17,191 booed him every time he touched the puck. And they cheered when he was leveled by the inadvertant check of linemate Shawn Burr. Carson managed one assist in a 6-4 Detroit win.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2>Defenseman Al lafrate hoped to make it through the remainder of the season without having surgery performed on his right wrist. lafrate was scheduled to have the wrist examined in London, Ont., during the all-star weekend but changed plans when Campbell Conference coach Terry Crisp named him to the squad for the Jan. 21 AU-StarGame. &ldquo;It just keeps getting worse and worse,&rdquo; said lafrate, who nevertheless won the ASG&rsquo;s hardest-shooter competition with a 96-mile-an-hour drive&hellip;A 4-1 win over St. Louis Jan. 18 was Toronto&rsquo;s sixth in as many games this season against the Blues, although they&rsquo;ve been badly outplayed and outshot in most of those contests. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s definitely a feeling that we run into good fortune when we play these guys,&rdquo; said defenseman Tom Kurvers&hellip;The Leafs completed an eight-game homestand (Dec. 27-Jan. 15) with a 6-1-1 record, losing only to the Islanders (3-1 Jan. 10) and tying Detroit (7-7 Dec. 27). The wins came against Los Angeles, Boston, Quebec, Washington, Calgary and Chicago. &#9632;

ANOTHER HULL GOING TO NEW LEAGUE?

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>Steve Yzerman went to the All-Star Game in Pittsburgh in search of a lost attribute: Consistency.The Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; star center understood consistency is the foundation of greatness. So, despite being fifth in league scoring with 71 points going into his fourth all-star game in five seasons, Yzerman knew there was room for improvement.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not really pleased (with my play) at all,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I find myself inconsistent, and with the amount I play (30-35 minutes per game), it should be easy to be consistent. Sometimes, I find it hard to get in the game, and I&rsquo;ll stink the joint out.&rdquo;His lack of consistency was evident in recent back-to-back games against teams led by two of the NHL&rsquo;s most prominent stars.In a 6-4 win over Mark Messier and the Edmonton Oilers Jan. 16, Yzerman was brilliant, scoring two goals and setting up a third. Two nights later against the Los Angeles Kings and Wayne Gretzky, Yzerman was held pointless for the 12th time this season in a 9-4 loss. (The Wings were 2-9-1 in games in which Yzerman failed to register a point).The 24-year-old Wings&rsquo; captain didn&rsquo;t have a simple explanation for his hot-and-cold play.Early in the season, when the Wings weren&rsquo;t scoring many goals, it was relatively easy for the opposition to concentrate on containing him. Lately, however, with Jimmy Carson and others producing offense on a steady basis, Yzerman began to believe his problem may lie within.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s more what I&rsquo;m not doing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been skating. I&rsquo;m sort of sitting back, watching the play&hellip;thinking too much.&rdquo;Maybe from his perspective. Not so from the viewpoint behind the opponents&rsquo; bench, however.&ldquo;He is a great one, right up there in the same category with Gretzky and (Mario) Lemieux,&rdquo; Quebec coach Michel Bergeron said after a recent contest.Such comments have become routine after Wings&rsquo; games, but Yzerman disdains the comparison to Gretzky and Lemieux.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re in a class by themselves,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t done anything compared to what they have done. And they do it year after year.&rdquo;If Yzerman belongs in any category, he said, it is with a handful of players a notch below the two superstars. Among that group he included Messier, Raymond Bourque, Paul Coffey, Grant Fuhr, Bernie Nicholls, Denis Savard, Pat LaFontaine and several others.That was not to say Yzerman felt he didn&rsquo;t belong in the All-Star Game. He said he had hoped to be selected, but admitted he could have used a few days off.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 22: Gerard Gallant, LW, Rick Zombo, D, serving three-game NHL suspensions. Eligible to return Jan. 24.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Steve Yzerman, Jimmy Carson, John Chabot. Bernie Federko.LW&mdash;Greg C. Adams, Dave Barr, Shawn Burr. Torrie Robertson.RW&mdash;Marc Habscheid, Kevin McClelland, Randy McKay, Jim Nill, Daniel Shank.LD&mdash;Steve Chiasson, John Mokosak, Borje Salming.RD&mdash;Doug Houda, Lee Norwood, Mike O&rsquo;Connell.G&mdash;Glen Hanlon, Sam St. Laurent.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Joe Kocur. RW, lacerated right hand, day-to-day.Robert Picard. D, ankle sprain, indefinite.Greg Stefan, G, ligament damage in right knee, Jan. 27.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Yzerman, 32.A&mdash;Yzerman, 39. P&mdash;Yzerman, 71. PIM&mdash;Kocur. 156. &#9632;

YZERMAN SEARCHES FOR CONSISTENCY

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div>If the St. Louis Blues could throw out half of their losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs, they would be in the top third of the National Hockey League standings.Instead, with six befuddling losses in six games against Toronto, the Blues were tied for 13th overall at the all-star break with 46 points, a 20-21-6 record.Toronto, meanwhile, was seventh with 51 points&mdash;25-22-1, thanks in large part to six victories over the Blues. Split half of those games, and the rankings would be reversed.That is only fantasy for the Blues, but it could have been reality&mdash;because they outplayed the Maple Leafs in most, if not all, of the games.The Blues have outshot Toronto 239-156 in the six games. Even though the Maple Leaf goaltenders have struggled this year, they have looked like Bernie Parent against the Blues.The Leafs goalies have a 2.33 goals-against average and a .941 save percentage against St. Louis. Against the rest of the league, their GAA is 4.73 and the save percentage is .861.Jeff Reese, a recent call-up from Newmarket of the American League, was the latest Maple Leafs&rsquo; goalie to benefit from a game against the Blues. He stopped 48 shots in a 4-1 victory Jan. 18.&ldquo;Jeff Reese,&rdquo; Blues&rsquo; defenseman Gordie Roberts said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never even heard of the guy, and he stones us. It doesn&rsquo;t seem to matter who they put out there.&rdquo;The Blues have had more than 40 shots in three of the six games against the Leafs, but as general manager Ron Caron said, &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t need shots. Shots are for losers.&rdquo;Added coach Brian Sutter: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not the chances you get. We had the opportunities to put the puck in the net, but the puck never went in&hellip; When you get 18 to 19 shots a period, those are opportunities to score. But it&rsquo;s not the opportunities, it&rsquo;s the ones you put in.&rdquo;Veteran Paul MacLean agreed, adding that the Blues haven&rsquo;t been taking quality shots.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the same old thing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The goalie played tremendous&mdash;but it&rsquo;s not just that. Our shots were erratic. I know I had at least three good chances and didn&rsquo;t put the puck in the net. There&rsquo;s no excuse for that.&rdquo;The Blues haven&rsquo;t put in many against Toronto, or anyone else, forthat matter. Despite Brett Hull&rsquo;s league-leading 42 goals at the All-Star break, the Blues were tied for 16th in scoring with 161 goals. -They scored only three goals in their last two games before the break&mdash;a 5-2 loss to Calgary Jan. 16 and the 4-1 loss to Toronto, extending their losing streak to three games.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a lot of guys that are trying,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;It seems like we&rsquo;ve gone through this a few times this season. Guys are pushing and nothing seems to happen.&rdquo;<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 17: Adrien Plavsic, D, and Dominic Lavoie, D, assigned to Peona (IHL). Glen Featherstone. D, and Robert Dirk, D, recalled from Peoria.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Adam Oates, Peter Zezel. Rick Meagher. Steve Tuttle.LW&mdash;Gino Cavallini, Sergio Momesso. Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour. Dave Thomlinson.RW&mdash;Paul MacLean, Brett Hull, Dave Lowry. Kelly ChaseLD&mdash;Gordie Roberts, Robert Dirk, Mike Lalor. Tony Twist.RD&mdash;Jeff Brown, Paul Cavallini, Glen Featherstone.G&mdash;Vincent Riendeau, Curtis Joseph.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Herb Raglan. RW, broken right wrist, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Hull, 42. A&mdash;Oates, 49. P&mdash;Hull, 67.PIM&mdash;Kelly Chase. 133. &#9632;

LEAF JINX CONTINUES AND SO DOES GOAL SLUMP

<div class="byline">BY GARY OLSON</div>The Minnesota North Stars reached the all-star break with a lot of questions, a few answers and, miraculously, still clinging to goals that should have been destroyed in the slide toward 1990.The team started the season with a 16-8-1 record. But anyone with a sense of history around the Stars knew it wasn&rsquo;t logical. The trip from the outhouse to the penthouse isn&rsquo;t so easy or so fast.The crash&mdash;the 16-8-1 start was followed by a 1-12-2 skid&mdash;wasn&rsquo;t expected either, but maybe the North Stars were afraid of heights. Success demands more success.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re quicker than we were last year, our power play is better and our penalty killing is as good,&rdquo; North Stars&rsquo; coach Pierre Page said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re scoring as many goals but we&rsquo;re not as good defensively.&rdquo;The poor defense came as a bit of surprise. Ever since Page and general manager Jack Ferreira arrived for the start of the 1988-89 season, they&rsquo;d sold defense, mostly to players who weren&rsquo;t buying.A lot of this season&rsquo;s good signs and bad signs have become lumped together like a good-news, bad-news joke.Brian Bellows, 31 games from the option year of his contract, was on pace for a career-high 95 points. Bellows had 58 points in 49 games. Neal Broten had 40 assists and 54 points and was back to pre-shoulder injury form. Mike Gartner has brought all-star character and lots of points to the North Stars and Larry Murphy has added to the offense from the defense. Mike Modano has been the Stars&rsquo; best rookie since since Bellows eight seasons ago.Now for the bad news. Bellows, Broten, Gartner, Murphy and Modano&mdash;the Stars&rsquo; best players&mdash;had a combined plus-minus rating of minus-64. That&rsquo;s more than can be explained by empty-net goals.&ldquo;The same guys are making the same mistakes, over and over,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s time these guys do what they&rsquo;re supposed to do.&rdquo;A better indication of the North Stars&rsquo; potential might be their 4-4-0 record at the start of the &lsquo;90s. The stretch included two easy wins (8-2 over the New York Rangers Jan. 4 and 7-4 over Quebec Jan. 18), two tough wins (4-3 and 6-4 over Detroit Jan. 6 and 13), one embarrassment (9-0 to Detroit Jan. 9) and three hard-to-swallow losses (8-4 to the New York Islanders Jan. 11, 4-3 to Montreal Jan. 15 and 3-1 against Chicago Jan. 17).<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 13: Mike McHugh, LW. recalled from Kalamazoo (IHL).Jan. 14: Jarmo Myllys, G, assigned to Kalamazoo.Jan. 18: Neil Wilkinson, D, recalled from Kalamazoo.Jan. 19: McHugh assigned to Kalamazoo.Jan. 22: Daniel Berthiaume, G, acquired from Winnipeg for future considerations. Shane Churla, RW, serving 10-game NHL suspension. Eligible to return Jan. 29. Basil McRae, LW, serving five-game NHL suspension. Eligible to return Jan. 26.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Modano, Neal Broten. Dave Gagner, Perry Berezan.LW&mdash;Brian Bellows, Aaron Broten, Gaetan Duchesne, Dave Mackey.RW&mdash;Don Barber, Mike Gartner, Stewart Gavin, Helmut Balderis.LD&mdash;Ville Siren, Frantisek Musil, Curt Giles.RD&mdash;Shawn Chambers, Neil Wilkinson, Rob Zettler.G&mdash;Jon Casey, Daniel Berthiaume, Karl Takko.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Curt Fraser. LW. left shoulder surgery, indefinite.Mark Tlnordi, D, concussion, day-to-day.Larry Murphy, D, pulled groin muscle, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Bellows, 21. A&mdash;Broten, 40. P&mdash; Bellows, 58. PIM&mdash;Churla, 187. &#9632;

MIRACULOUSLY, PLAYOFF DREAMS STILL LINGER ON

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div>Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; goaltender Jacques Cloutier was sitting at his kitchen table Jan. 17, when his wife, Lynn, slipped a news story on the Hawks in front of him.&ldquo;My wife put the paper down in front of me and circled the part where it said the goaltending had to be better,&rdquo; Cloutier said. &ldquo;She didn&rsquo;t have to say a word. I knew what she meant.&rdquo;Motivated by his wife&rsquo;s ploy, Cloutier went out and stopped 25 shots that night in a 3-1 victory over the Minnesota North Stars.After the game, Cloutier said he didn&rsquo;t appreciate all the criticism that was being directed at the Hawks&rsquo; goaltending following back-to-back losses to Calgary (6-5 Jan. 14) and Toronto (7-6 Jan. 16).Cloutier appeared in both of those games in relief of starter Alain Chevrier, inheriting two-goal deficits on both occasions. Cloutier contended those were difficult spots for him to be thrust into considering the appearances were his first and second in almost three weeks because of a pulled groin muscle.The day of the Minnesota game, there was another newspaper story, suggesting perhaps the Hawks should go after available New York Rangers&rsquo; goalie John Vanbiesbrouck.Cloutier, however, said he doesn&rsquo;t think there are any problems with the Hawk goaltending situation.&ldquo;The goaltending has taken a lot of heat in the last few days, but I think our goaltending here is pretty good,&rdquo; he said.Two nights later, Cloutier backed up his words once again by making 23 saves in a 5-2 win over Vancouver.The victory raised Cloutier&rsquo;s record to 13-6-1 (10-2-0 at Chicago Stadium) and went a long way to solidifying his grip on the No. 1 job.After 25 games, he had a 3.05 goals-against average and .881 save percentage.&ldquo;I like that,&rdquo; Keenan said of the competition between Cloutier and Chevrier for playing time. &ldquo;Those kind of positive rivalries are good for the hockey club.&rdquo;Cloutier didn&rsquo;t think his strong play in the wins over Minnesota and Vancouver should have come as a surprise. Before he pulled his groin muscle in practice Dec. 11 and missed 10 of the next 11 games, he was 11-4-1 with two shutouts.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 17: Everett Sanipass, LW, Bruce Cassidy, D, and Ryan McGill, D, assigned to Indianapolis (IHL). Bob Bassen, C-LW, recalled from Indianapolis.Jan. 18: Brian Noonan, RW-C, recalled from IndianapolisJan. 22: Dave Manson, D, serving 13-game suspension by NHL. Eligible to return Jan. 27. Wayne Van Dorp, LW, serving 10-game NHL suspension. Eligible to return Jan. 26.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Adam Creighton, Jeremy Roenick, Brian Noonan, Bob Bassen.LW&mdash;Steve Thomas. Al Secord. Greg Gilbert, Jocelyn Lemieux.RW&mdash;Wayne Presley, Steve Larmer, Dirk Graham, Duane Sutter.LD&mdash;Doug Wilson, Trent Yawney, Cam Russell.RD&mdash;Keith Brown, Bob McGill, Bob Murray.G&mdash;Alain Chevrier, Jacques Cloutier.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mike Eagles, C-LW, bruised kidney, indefinite.Mike Hudson, LW, lacerated right hand, indefinite.Steve Konroyd, D. Charley horse, day-to-day.Troy Murray, C, right elbow surgery, indefinite.Darren Pang, G, left knee surgery, indefinite.Denis Savard. C. sprained left ankle, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Creighton, 25. A&mdash;Savard, 42.P&mdash; Savard, 63. PIM&mdash;Manson, 161. &#9632;

CLOUTIER RESPONDS TO RECENT CRITICISM

<div class="byline">JEFF JACOBS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01282/5786340-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="347" height="537"></div>A 12-day tour of the continent with the NHL&rsquo;s best road team, your Hartford Whalers:Day 1: Bid adieu to Golden Lab puppy, Mogilny (real name) and wife, Krutov (pseudonym to protect identity). On flight to Calgary, players are on me to grill coach Rick Ley on why six days in Vancouver and only one in L. A. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not out here for sun and fun,&rdquo; coach says. &ldquo;I just hope I&rsquo;ve brought enough clean underwear.&rdquo; Says Ron Francis: &ldquo;This year&rsquo;s schedule is the worst since I came to Hartford (1981).&rdquo;Day 2: Flames call up something called The Grim Reaper (Stu Grimson) from minors to get bigger and meaner. &ldquo;Look at Philly,&rdquo; Terry Crisp says. &ldquo;Jeff Chychrun and Jay Wells are 8-foot-4. Kjell Samuelsson is 11 feet. And here&rsquo;s poor Theoren Fleury chinning himself on their kneecaps to score.&rdquo; Grim Reaper isn&rsquo;t needed against skating green munchkins. Whalers blow 3-1 lead, lose 6-4. Kevin Dineen is benched last 14 minutes.Day 3: Whale takes three-hour bus ride from Calgary to Edmonton after game. Most teams fly that route. &ldquo;Wait until the Whale pays all that money to get Holik out of Czechoslovakia,&rdquo; Ray Ferraro says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll bus all over Western Canada.&rdquo; Whale takes 3-1 lead against Oilers, but settles for 4-4 tie. Jari Kurri, presented a sterling silver stick for his 1,000th point, sends a 90-foot lead pass to Esa Tikkanen for shorthanded, breakaway goal. &ldquo;Best pass we&rsquo;ve seen all year. Joe Montana couldn&rsquo;t have thrown it better,&rdquo; Joel Quenneville says. Wonder if he used that silver stick?Day 4: Arrive in Vancouver. Ley rips Dineen for play. &ldquo;Below average,&rdquo; Ley says. &ldquo;Surprise, surprise,&rdquo; Dineen retorts.Day 5: Assistant coach and former Canuck Brent Peterson is kidded that since we&rsquo;re in Vancouver for so long, we ought to stay at his old house. Peterson informs us the house has been sold, resold and the latest owners were busted for making drugs there.Day 6: Vancouver gets Dan Quinn, Andrew McBain and Dave Capuano from Pittsburgh for Barry Pederson, Tony Tanti and Rod Buskas. One set of problems for another. Vancouver native Tom Martin can&rsquo;t get enough of his town. &ldquo;The boys are really giving it to him,&rdquo; says Ferraro. &ldquo;Everything&rsquo;s &lsquo;best in the world&rsquo; here. Best restaurant, best seafood. He knows the city so well, right? He tells us to take a cab somewhere. The guy starts the meter at $1.50. He takes a left. We&rsquo;re there. Fare, $1.60.&rdquo;Day 7: A 3-1 victory over the Canucks. Hilarious moment: Todd Krygier winds up for a huge slapshot. His aluminum stick shears in half. Krygier soars 30 feet into the boards, the puck slides six inches. &ldquo;Gotta to cut back on (strength coach) Doug McKenney&rsquo;s weight program,&rdquo; says Krygier, making a muscle.Day 8: Abandon team and rain for sunny L. A. Go to Edmonton-Kings game. &ldquo;Whatever goalie Kelly Hrudey gets paid, it&rsquo;s not enough. What L.A. plays is only vaguely reminiscent of ice hockey as we know it in the Adams Division,&rdquo; says assistant coach Jay Leach, scouting the game.Day 9: Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall lunches with Ronald Reagan. Maybe The Gipper can help. He always was strong on defense.Day 10: Whalers outscore Kings 6-3. Owner Richard Gordon, befuddled by his team&rsquo;s road (13-8-2) and home (8-13-2) records, declares, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re canceling all remaining home games.&rdquo;Day 11: All-night flight to Boston. Hotel rooms for coaches, trainers and media aren&rsquo;t ready upon arrival. Some sour buckaroos found in Long Wharf Marriott lobby. &ldquo;I slept 17 hours,&rdquo; Ferraro later reports. &rsquo; &lsquo;They had to roll me over so I wouldn&rsquo;t get bed sores.&rdquo;Day 12: Find out GM Harry Sinden was star at the dunk tank at Bruins&rsquo; Wives&rsquo; Carnival previous day. Lyndon Byers repeatedly missed the target trying to dunk his boss. &ldquo;He thinks it&rsquo;s a goal,&rdquo; Sinden taunts. Bang. Byers&rsquo; next throw sends Sinden for a swim. &ldquo;Harry at the dunk tank?&rdquo; asks Whalers&rsquo; TV analayst Gerry Cheevers, fired by Sinden as coach. &ldquo;Must have been the busiest booth at the carnival.&rdquo; Dineen kayos Gord Kluzak with left to jaw, but Boston wins 4-1. Arrive home at 3:30 a.m. Kiss sleeping Krutov (not real name). Mogilny licks my face.Jeff Jacobs is a hockey writer for the Hartford Courant. &#9632;

f0043-01

A WHALE OF A ROAD TRIP

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02211/5786371-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The 1948 all-stars (from left, coach Tommy Ivan, Jack Stewart, Elmer Lach, Bill Quackenbush, Turk Broda, NHL president Clarence Campbell, Maurice Richard and Ted Lindsay) pose for pre-AII-Star Game photos. Broda returned to the Toronto nets for the game and was beaten 3-1 by the stars.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0043-02

WAY WE WERE

<div class="byline">BY MURRAY TOWNSEND</div>Perhaps the biggest indication that parity has arrived in the NHL lies in the fact that, as of the all-star break, not one team in the league was on pace to finish with 100 points this season. At the current pace, the Boston Bruins, with 59 points in their first 48 games, would lead the league with 98 points at the end of the season. The last time there was no 100-point finisher was 1969-70, when the Chicago Blackhawks and the Bruins each had 99 points in 76 games.Listed below are the number of teams with 100 points in an 80-game schedule since 1974-75:<h2>CENTURY MARK</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03179/5786416-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="956" height="747"></div><h2>SLIM LEADS</h2>The Montreal Canadiens of the mid 1970s were arguably the greatest NHL team of all time. The 1976-77 edition of the team finished the 80-game regular season with 132 points, the most ever recorded.The &lsquo;77-78 Habs had 129 points, second-most in NHL history. And the &lsquo;75-76 team finished with 127 points, the third-best regular-season finish. As outlined above, those marks are not in jeopardy this season.What may fall, however, is the record for lowest point total needed for a first-overall finish in an 80-game season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-04127/5786409-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="971" height="601"></div><h2>HURTIN&rsquo; FOR CERTAIN</h2>It looks as though the ever-popular knee injury will win the NHL&rsquo;s injury race this season. Listed below are the number and types of injuries sustained this season according to injuries listed through the Jan. 19 edition of The Hockey News:<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-05113/5786402-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="960" height="555"></div> &#9632;

f0043-03

NHL PARITY IS HERE

<div class="byline">BY MARK HARDING</div>Jeff Reese came back to the Toronto Maple Leafs not only thinking differently, but not looking at all like the goaltender sent to the minors in October.The question remained, however, whether he could play any differently than he had before the demotion.The Leafs didn&rsquo;t have to wait long for an answer. Less than a week after his recall from American League&rsquo;s Newmarket Saints, Reese stoned the St. Louis Blues with a 48-save performance in a 4-1 Toronto win.He was, quite simply, magnificent.&ldquo;That was definitely a goaltending win,&rdquo; said coach Doug Carpenter, who recalled Reese after Mark Laforest strained ligaments in his right ankle when he slipped on ice outside his home. For now, the Leafs decided Reese would be of more help than Peter Ing, who was previously recalled from Newmarket.Carpenter had every reason to be excited. At a time when his club was allowing an average of five goals a game (but scoring almost seven), Reese stepped in and provided the type of goaltending the Leafs have been looking for all season.Allan Bester and Laforest have provided it sporadically. The key for Reese was to do it on a more consistent basis.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d sure like to (be No. 1). I&rsquo;ve been around long enough and been up and down often enough,&rdquo; said Reese, a 23-year-old former London Knight who was the Leafs&rsquo; third-round selection in the 1984 draft. &ldquo;I think you make your own breaks so I&rsquo;m going to work hard.&ldquo;With the team scoring the way it is right now, it makes quite a difference knowing you don&rsquo;t have to stand on your head to get a win.&rdquo;In the second week of the season, Reese tried standing on his head but wound up falling flat on his face. After one relief appearance and one start with the Leafs, he was dispatched to the Saints with a goals-against average of 7.06.Just when he thought things couldn&rsquo;t get much worse, they did. In one of his first workouts with the Saints, he turned his right leg to block a shot and the puck struck the kneecap, cracking the bone.&ldquo;I went home to London for six weeks and didn&rsquo;t break a sweat,&rdquo; said Reese. &ldquo;But it did me a Jot of good because I didn&rsquo;t have my head together at all when I went down to Newmarket.&ldquo;I went down (to Newmarket), which was tough enough, but when 1 broke the kneecap the whole world just seemed to cave in. But I had lots of time to think things over and 1 think I&rsquo;ve come back with a pretty positive attitude.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s also come back with a solid stand-up style that he hadn&rsquo;t used in a number of years.&ldquo;I talked to my dad about it and we agreed that I should go back to the way I played in Tier II, which is more of a stand-up style with bigger pads rather than butterflying,&rdquo; explained Reese. &ldquo;I had tried it for the last five or six games down in Newmarket but wanted to prove to myself that I could do it up here and I think I did.&ldquo;I proved that I don&rsquo;t have to be flopping all over the place. I&rsquo;m going to work on making the shooter beat me.&rdquo;<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 15: Peter Ihnacak, RW, recalled from Newmarket (AHL).Jan. 16: Ihnacak assigned to Newmarket.Jan. 19: Gilles Thibaudeau, C, assigned to Newmarket.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ed Olczyk, Tom Fergus, John McIntyre, Dan Daoust.LW&mdash;Mark Osborne, Vincent Damphousse, Scott Pearson, Wendel Clark, Dave Reid.RW&mdash;Gary Leeman, Daniel Marois, Lou Franceschetti, John Kordic.LD&mdash;Brad Marsh, Luke Richardson, Brian Curran, Todd Gill.RD&mdash;Al lafrate, Rob Ramage, Tom Kurvers.G&mdash;Jeff Reese. Allan Bester.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Hannan. C, stretched ligaments in left knee. Jan. 26.Mark Laforest, G, sprained left ankle, Feb 17-March 3.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Leeman, 29. A&mdash;Damphousse. Olczyk, 36. P&mdash;Olczyk, 59. PIM&mdash;Kordic. 173. &#9632;

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February 2, 1990

FLASHBACK

MATURED LINSEMAN MAKES HIS RETURN

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