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.

May 18, 1990

The Hockey News May 18, 1990

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>The NHL is in the future for two hot Western League front office prodigies but Russ Farwell and Ken Hitchcock are plotting completely different routes to the top. Farwell, general manager of the Seattle Thunderbirds, is being mentioned as successor to Bob Clarke for the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; vacant managerial position and was recently cited in the Philadelphia front office. But Farwell is keeping a low profile. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have my resume going around,&rdquo; Farwell insists. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy what I&rsquo;m doing in Seattle although I&rsquo;d like to get to the NHL at some point, long-term.&rdquo; Farwell was interviewed for the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; GM job two years ago but allows, &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t ready at the time.&rdquo; Insiders report he&rsquo;s now the top candidate to succeed Clarke. By contrast, Hitchcock, the widely-respected coach of the Kamloops Blazers, is up front about his desire to get to the bigs as quickly as possible and, unlike Farwell, has an agent&mdash;Rollie Thompson&mdash;representing him. &ldquo;1 know I can coach in the NHL,&rdquo; says Hitchcock, whose club defeated Farwell&rsquo;s Thunderbirds in the WHL playoffs. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve gone head-to-head with coaches like Montreal&rsquo;s Pat Burns and have done well. I feel very confident except for the image problem.&rdquo; Despite his obvious coaching talents, Hitchcock&rsquo;s weight&mdash;which was at one time almost 400 pounds&mdash;has been, in his view, a liability. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m aiming to bring my weight down to 275 pounds,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;ve taken off 87 pounds since mid-November. The weight reduction will help my image.&rdquo;<h2>STELLICK BOOK</h2>New York Rangers&rsquo; assistant GM Gord Stellick is finishing the final chapters of his memoirs which will be published by Prentice-Hall Canada. &ldquo;There&rsquo;ll be a lot about my days working for (late Leaf owner) Harold Ballard,&rdquo; says Stellick, &ldquo;but this is far from a kiss-and-tell book.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s due out in September. Stellick, who watched his boss Neil Smith move from obscurity to GM of the Rangers, is a candidate for the Flyers&rsquo; opening-&hellip;Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; owner Peter Pocklington did a fair bit of crowing after his team eliminated the Los Angeles Kings in the Smythe Division final. &ldquo;Except for our Stanley Cup wins,&rdquo; says Peter, &ldquo;beating L. A. was my most gratifying victory.&rdquo;<h2>DINO-FLY</h2>Washington&rsquo;s Dino Ciccarelli has become much appreciated by his teammates since coming over from Minnesota. &ldquo;To the opposition,&rdquo; says Caps&rsquo; defenseman Neil Sheehy, &ldquo;Dino is like a fly that won&rsquo;t go away. He&rsquo;s buzzing around your nose and mouth. You keep swatting at him but he won&rsquo;t go away. He&rsquo;s pesky, feisty and he makes you crazy. Every time he scores a goal, he gets peskier and feistier.&rdquo;&hellip;In an unprecedented move, the Canadian Society of New York will bestow its prestigious Hockey Achievement Award to a pair of personalities. Goalies Ken Dryden and Vladislav Tretiak, who faced each other in the 1972 Canada-Soviet classic, will get the prize. The award has been given annually to an individual since 1983&mdash;Clarence Campbell1 was the first recipient.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011360/5829503-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="551" height="673"><figcaption class="caption-body">Patrick Roy says playing golf helps build his concentration.</figcaption></div><h2>NO REGRETS</h2>The gimpy knees that forced Bobby Orr out of hockey continue to plague him. He recently underwent major surgery on his battered left knee and says he can&rsquo;t remember whether it was the eighth or ninth time surgeons have opened him up. Although hockey is directly responsible for his chronic knee woes, Orr steadfastly insists he wouldn&rsquo;t change a thing. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s never been any doubt in my mind about it,&rdquo; says Orr. &ldquo;Hockey&rsquo;s a tough, contact game and it comes with the chance of injury. That&rsquo;s part of the deal, so I&rsquo;m not complaining. Hey, I was dealt a great hand. I have got no complaints at all.&rdquo;<h2>JET LAG</h2>Increased hockey interest in Florida is reflected in more air time for playoff scores. However, one Miami broadcaster, discussing the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; Doug Smail and Dale Hawerchuk, referred to them as &ldquo;Smell and Hawercheck.&rdquo;. The Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; hasty playoff exit will enable Patrick Roy to play plenty of his second-favorite sport. &ldquo;When I started playing golf,&rdquo; says Roy, &ldquo;I was bored and wasn&rsquo;t able to concentrate until the last hole. Now every time I make a shot I try to concentrate. I find that if I can bring my concentration on for that long a game, it helps me with a short game like hockey.&rdquo;<h2>NO MISTAKE</h2>Craig Janney&rsquo;s media relations have been a cause of concern to the Bruins. When someone criticized the Whalers for selecting Scott Young over Janney in the 1986 draft, the Bruin vehemently disagreed. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a better player,&rdquo; he asserts. &ldquo;The Whalers went for their need at the time, which was a big, strong winger. The Bruins need at the time was a center. &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

WESTERN LEAGUE DUO READY FOR THE NHL

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02214/5831848-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; general manager Jack Riley, middle, gets two of his star players&mdash;Dave Burrows, left, and Syl Apps Jr.&mdash;under contract in the early &rsquo;70s. Burrows was with the Pens from 1971 to 1978 and 1980-81, while Apps spent parts of eight seasons in Pittsburgh.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0043-02

WAY WE WERE

<div class="byline">BY MURRAY TOWNSEND</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03181/5831879-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg"></div>Lack of success on the ice didn't necessarily mean failure off it as four of the five teams to miss the playoffs had attendance increases in 1989-90 from last season.Of the non-playoff teams, only the Detroit Red Wings had an attendance decline. But the Wings still came second to the Calgary Flames in league attendance, with 781,229 fans for 40 games at Joe Louis Arena.Calgary, which finished first in NHL attendance for the first time, was one of 15 teams to show an attendance increase as the league drew 249,057 more fans.Only the Red Wings, the Montreal Canadiens, the New York Rangers, the New Jersey Devils, the Hartford Whalers and the New York Islanders had fewer fans this season.Although Minnesota came last in attendance, the North Stars showed the biggest increase, with 68,563 more fans. But that wasn&rsquo;t enough to satisfy the team&rsquo;s owners, George and Gordon Gund, who threatened to move the team to California.Listed below are attendance figures for all 21 NHL teams. Listed are figures from this season and last season and the difference, average attendance this season, the capacity of each NHL arena, the percentage of capacity filled and the number of sellouts this season.<h2>NHL HEAD COUNT &#9632;</h2>

f0043-03

IN THIS ISSUE

A FAN-TASTIC SEASON

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>Lee Norwood won&rsquo;t say it, but he understands his position with the Detroit Red Wines: He must rely on reason to prevail in order to keep playing professional hockey in his hometown.There have been rumblings from general manager Jimmy Devellano&rsquo;s office the Wings are shopping Norwood around, presumably to acquire a goaltender.But many Wing fans believe that would simply be a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, for Norwood is the team&rsquo;s only defenseman who plays with any degree of toughness.Norwood, too, has heard the rumors, but he said he just tries to ignore them.&ldquo;I can't figure it out. The more I think about it, the more it drives me nuts,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of scary, but I don&rsquo;t want to say anything to rock the boat.&rdquo;Norwood, 30, is the Wings&rsquo; only player who can trace his roots to the Little Caesers&rsquo; youth program sponsored by the pizza empire founded by team owner Mike Hitch.Norwood was the first player the team acquired after coach Jacques Demers was hired in 1986. Norwood played for Demers in St. Louis, and his acquisition&mdash;for defenseman Larry Trader and $30,000&mdash;has been called one of Devellano&rsquo;s best deals.In his four Wings&rsquo; seasons, Norwood has done just about everything the Wings asked of him. He cleaned up his off-ice habits, including quitting drinking.He became a leader in the dressing room, often wearing the &ldquo;A&rdquo; as an alternate captain. He played hard, played hurt, played ornery, played the special teams and excelled when paired with Rick Zombo.A selfless defenseman, who on some nights stops more pucks than his own goaltender, Norwood was the Wings&rsquo; nominee for the Masterton Trophy, which goes to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perserverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011421/5829789-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="548" height="635"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lee Norwood was plus-15 for the Red Wings this season.</figcaption></div>In 64 games this season, he scored eight goals and 22 points, with 95 penalty minutes and was plus-15.Apparently, it may not be enough.The knock on Norwood since he came to Detroit has been that he misses too many games because of injuries. He played 66 in 1988-89, 51 and 57 the years before.&ldquo;Because of the way I play, I tend to get hurt, but I come to play every night,&rdquo; said Norwood, who missed 16 games this season with an assortment of injuries. &ldquo;Nobody will sacrifice their body more than me. And that&rsquo;s not because I enjoy it. It&rsquo;s for the team. Nothing throws me off my game and there&rsquo;s no place I don&rsquo;t play&rdquo;Besides being the Wings&rsquo; most aggressive defenseman, Norwood has performed well during his limited power-play duty. At least he did for his first three seasons with the Wings.He was seldom used during man-advantage situations this season when the Wings had one of the NHL&rsquo;s worst power plays.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve played pretty consistent over the last four years,&rdquo; Norwood said. &ldquo;You like to think the loyalty is there. I&rsquo;m hoping it is. I&rsquo;m 30 years old, and I&rsquo;ve got a lot of good hockey left. I just hope it&rsquo;s here (in Detroit).&ldquo;I want to continue to help build a winner here. There&rsquo;s enough talent, and with the right direction, we will win.&rdquo; &#9632;

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THE NHL

NORWOOD HOPING REASON PREVAILS

<h2>THIS WEEK</h2><h3>THE NHL</h3>Norris Notebook&hellip;&hellip;8Detroit&hellip;&hellip;9Toronto&hellip;&hellip;9Minnesota&hellip;&hellip;10St. Louis&hellip;&hellip;10Chicago&hellip;&hellip;10Patrick Notebook&hellip;&hellip;11Washington&hellip;&hellip;12Philadelphia&hellip;&hellip;12NY Rangers&hellip;&hellip;13New Jersey&hellip;&hellip;13Pittsburgh&hellip;&hellip;14NY Islanders&hellip;&hellip;14Smythe Notebook&hellip;&hellip;15Edmonton&hellip;&hellip;16Los Angeles&hellip;&hellip;17Calgary&hellip;&hellip;17Vancouver&hellip;&hellip;18Winnipeg&hellip;&hellip;18Adams Notebook&hellip;&hellip;38Hartford&hellip;&hellip;39Boston&hellip;&hellip;40Buffalo&hellip;&hellip;41Quebec&hellip;&hellip;41Montreal&hellip;&hellip;44<h3>COLUMNISTS</h3>Bob McKenzie&hellip;&hellip;3Stan Fischler&hellip;&hellip;8Barry Meisel&hellip;&hellip;11Steve Dryden&hellip;&hellip;15Dave Molinari&hellip;&hellip;38Guest Shot&hellip;&hellip;43<h3>DEPARTMENTS</h3>Cheers and Jeers&hellip;&hellip;3Letters&hellip;&hellip;3NHL Playoff Update&hellip;&hellip;4Elston&hellip;&hellip;5Bluelines&hellip;&hellip;5Pro File&hellip;&hellip;5World Championships Wrapup&hellip;&hellip;6Digest&hellip;&hellip;6Cover Story&hellip;&hellip;7Then & Now&hellip;&hellip;11THN Awards Preview&hellip;&hellip;19Minor Pro Report&hellip;&hellip;30Major Junior Report&hellip;&hellip;32NHL Statistics&hellip;&hellip;34NHL Summaries&hellip;&hellip;36Scoreboard&hellip;&hellip;37Classified&hellip;&hellip;42Numbers Game&hellip;&hellip;43Way We Were&hellip;&hellip;43<h2>QUOTABLE</h2>&ldquo;Am I over the loss to Niagara? No, I&rsquo;m not. It&rsquo;s something I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll ever get over. When I think about what we did during regular season and then what happened in the playoffs, I feel like barfing.&rdquo;&mdash;London Knights&rsquo; coach Wayne Maxner on his Ontario League team&rsquo;s first-round loss to the Niagara Falls Thunder. Page 33.PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER: Michael Law(onEDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Bob McKenzieCONTROLLER: Tom MoffatContributing Editor: Steve Dryden. Editorial Staff: Dave Bean. Ken Campbell. Jason Kay. Tim Milne. Rand Simon Design Director: Bob Torrans Photographer: Bruce Bennett. Production Co-ordinator: Charlie Halpin. Research Manager: Chris Nagel. Promotion Manager: Esther Sumka. Circulation Manager: Jurate Kaknevicius. Assistant to the Publisher: Chris Ellis. Merchandising Manager: Ken WhitmelI. Advertising Representatives: Manager, Generic Advertising: Randy Green. Sales: David Burgess. Ontario Rep: Jack Fargey. 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite I00, Don Mills. Ont. M3B 2R2 (4I6) 445-5702. Quebecsol/Ottawa/Atlantic Canada: Yvon Lacroix. Nik Reitz. McGown & Assoc. Inc., 785 Plymouth Ave.. Montreal, Que. H4P IB3 (5I4) 735-2924. Western Canada: Eric McWilliam. McGown & Assoc. Inc.. I500 West Georgia St., Suite 1400, Vancouver. B.C. V6G 2Z6 (604) 688-59I4. U.S. Rep: Michael Gribbin, Executive Publishing and Advertising Group. Inc., 1703 E. Joppa Rd., Baltimore. Md., 21234 (30!) 882-0050. Classified Advertising: David Burgess. Newsstand Distributor: Distributed nationally by Disticor, I55 Gordon Baker Rd., Suite 2I3, North York. Ont. M2H 3N7 (4I6) 496-8444. Advertising and Editorial Offices: 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite I00, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2 (4I6) 445-5702. The Hockey News (ISSN 0018-3016) is published weekly except for the last week in December and published monthly June. July and August by Transcontinental Publications Inc. Single-copy price $2.25. Forty-two issue subscription rates. $39.95 in North America, $ 120.95 elsewhere, include 38 regular issues, two double issues. The Year in Photos and The Draft Preveiw. Send all Canadian and non-European orders and address changes to The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite I00, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2. European subscription requests and address changes should be sent to Barker&rsquo;s Worldwide Publications. 3 Eastbrook Close. Wokking, Surrey, U.K. U.S. subscription requests and address changes should be mailed to Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240. Please al low two to four weeks for processing. Second-class mail registration No. 1327. All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to Subscription Dept., The Hockey News. In the United States: Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, NY. I4240-9544. U.S. Postmaster send address change to The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., I424O. The Hockey News was co-founded in 1947 by K. W. McKenzie and W. V. Cote. Cover photos: Bruce Bennett Studios.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03765/5829303-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="666" height="1069"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOB BROOKE is eyeing a business career after his playing days.Page 13</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04540/5829296-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="660" height="1152"><figcaption class="caption-body">LEE NORWOOD was rumored to be on the trading block.Page 9</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05398/5829289-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="1195" height="1169"><figcaption class="caption-body">MIKE LIUT was said to be an unsettling force in Hartford, but is getting the job done in Washington.Pages 38 and 39</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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The Hockey News

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011297/5829341-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="544" height="771"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Keenan</figcaption></div>In next week&rsquo;s issue of The Hockey News, we will take a close look at the final two teams competing for the Stanley Cup in 1990, assessing their strengths, weaknesses and chances of winning it all.In addition to that, we&rsquo;ll present the good, the bad and the ugly of this year&rsquo;s playoff parade, a compendium of events and incidents that might have been lost among the excitement and bottom-line results.Like the time Buffalo coach Rick Dudley, upset at losing, walked directly from behind the bench to the street, taking a cab to get as far away from the Montreal Forum as possible. Or, exactly how many times did Mike Keenan pull his goaltenders anyway?Plus, we&rsquo;ll wrap up the 1990 Memorial Cup. Don&rsquo;t miss all that and more in next week&rsquo;s issue of The Hockey News.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021057/5829334-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="552" height="635"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jacques Cloutier</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NEXT ISSUE

I was so pleased to read in a recent issue (THN, April 20) that the NHL is &ldquo;finding a lucrative television market in Europe.&rdquo; Now if we could only see the NHL on television in the United States without going to a bar, the NHL might even make more money.Bob StewartWinter Park, Fla.<h2>SHE MAY MOVE</h2>I was pleased to read in THN countries around the world are televising this year&rsquo;s Stanley Cup playoff games.Perhaps I should consider moving to Helsinki or Tokyo to see a game, because I certainly can&rsquo;t watch them in Pittsburgh.Deborah J. HetrickEast Pittsburgh, Penn.<h2>FOREIGN COUNTRY?</h2>I read with interest about the NHL&rsquo;s lucrative television expansion into the European market. I would like to ask Joel Nixon, the NHL vice-president of broadcasting, when the NHL plans to expand its television coverage into another foreign market&mdash;the United States.With the exception of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.&mdash;which I receive from across the border from Windsor, Ont.&mdash;I can&rsquo;t watch the playoffs. I sympathize deeply with hockey fans across the United States that do not even have the limited opportunity that I have.Wayne Alan HalesNew Baltimore, Mich.<h2>NO RESPECT</h2>In a recent column, (THN, April 20), Dave Molinari said he would never have the same respect for New York Islanders&rsquo; coach Al Arbour that he once had. This came after the Islanders-New York Rangers brawl in Game 1 of the Patrick Division semi-final.Well, Mr. Molinari, I can say that I will never have the same respect for you I once had.To berate Arbour is ridiculous. Why single out Arbour? It&rsquo;s only been happening in hockey for 75 years. Had that been Wayne Gretzky and not Pat LaFontaine who suffered a head injury you probably would have printed Wayne&rsquo;s address so we could send him get well cards.Rick AllenDetroit Mich<h2>JUST AS GUILTY</h2>I was surprised and outraged to find your newspaper and almost every other chastize New York Islanders&rsquo; coach Al Arbour after the brawl in the opening game of the Patrick Division semifinal between the Islanders and the New York Rangers.The Rangers were just as guilty as the Islanders. Rangers&rsquo; coach Roger Neilson employed the disgusting tactic of running the Islanders&rsquo; best players, landing both Pat LaFontaine and Jeff Norton in the hospital.In fact, it brings to mind a memory of a playoff series between the Islanders and the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1978. The Islanders were run at that year, resulting in a neck injury to Mike Bossy.The coach of the Leafs that year? Roger Neilson.Andry WasylkoLondon, Ont.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021180/5829372-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="550" height="575"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky showed no class against Calgary, says a reader.</figcaption></div><h2>ABOUT TIME</h2>In a recent issue (THN, April 13) you reported on the latest inductees for the Hall of Fame. Like many fans, I wonder why Lorne Chabot has been ignored by the selection committee.Chabot played on two Stanley Cup winners&mdash;one with the New York Rangers and one with the Toronto Maple Leafs&mdash;won the Vezina Trophy and recorded 73 shutouts. Chabot&rsquo;s regular-season and playoff averages were 2.04 and 1.50, among the best of all-time.Chabot ranks with George Hains-worth, Alex Connell. Clint Benedict and Tiny Thompson of his period.Along with other fans, I&rsquo;ve encouraged the committee to consider Chabot a candidate, whose omission is a serious oversight. His consideration is long overdue.Bill LeGrandBlind River. Ont.<h2>NO CLASS</h2>On April 14,1 lost all respect for a player whom I consider to be the greatest to have ever played the game.When the Los Angeles Kings beat Calgary in overtime in Game 6 of the Smythe Division semifinal to eliminate the Flames, Wayne Gretzky skated by the Calgary bench laughing and pumping his arm. I couldn&rsquo;t believe it.The Kings deserved to win the series but why did a world-class player show he had no class?I wonder if Gretzky realizes how large an impact he has on youngsters today. What can they learn from that display, Wayne?Tracey VangotsinovenCalgary, Alta.Make your feelings known. Send your comments to:&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2.&nbsp;Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

f0003-02

USA SHUT OUT WHILE WORLD WATCHES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011455/5829403-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="524" height="616"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOB MCKENZIE</figcaption></div>Random thoughts:&#9642; It&rsquo;s great that the North Stars will remain in Minnesota&mdash;assuming the NHL board of governors offers its approval&mdash;but I&rsquo;m still concerned about the short-term viability of the franchise.With general manager Jack Ferreira leaving to join the Gund brothers&rsquo; expansion franchise in San Jose and coach Pierre Page jumping to the Quebec Nordiques, the North Stars have lost one of the best management teams in the business.New owner Baldwin, in his previous reign as owner of the Hartford Whalers, didn&rsquo;t always make the wisest personnel moves. Given the tenuous relationship between Minnesota hockey fans and the redeveloping North Stars, Baldwin can&rsquo;t afford to make a mistake that would set back the team&rsquo;s improvement schedule.&#9642; The potential of a Chicago-Boston Stanley Cup final would be a memorable way to say goodbye to two old buildings long past their prime and slated for replacement.Of course, for those who have to worry about such things, the Stadium and Garden present any number of logistical nightmares, such as limited press-box seating and poor broadcast and media facilities.We can only assume that all transformers in and around the Garden and Stadium have been checked out to see if they can handle the load in potentially sweltering summer conditions.Incidentally, if the Blackhawks and Bruins were to meet in the final, it would be the first time two Original Six clubs have done so since 1978-79, when Montreal beat the New York Rangers.&#9642; Kamloops Blazers&rsquo; coach Ken Hitchcock has lost almost 90 pounds, but not his sense of humor.Hitchcock, who weighed in at more than 400 pounds last Nov. 1, is hoping to drop 200 by the time he&rsquo;s finished. But he remembers all too well his days of excessiveness and being on the receiving end of some well-timed practical jokes.&ldquo;The best were by Punch MacLean,&rdquo; says Hitchcock. &ldquo;He was coaching in New Westminster in 1987-88 and whenever we were playing there, he&rsquo;d wait until a crucial time of the game. A guy wearing a big, tall white chef&rsquo;s hat would suddenly appear at our bench. One time he had a whole stack of pizzas. Another game it was 40 hot dogs. Then it was four dozen doughnuts. That Ernie. We got to be pretty good friends.&ldquo;The thing that bothers me is that I never did get to eat the pizzas. The Aces (Blazer players not dressed but in attendance at the game) scooped them and ate them before the game was over.&rdquo;Hitchock went on the weight reduction for two reasons. First, he wanted to lead a healthier, happier and more comfortable life. Second, he knew his obesity was preventing him from being considered for pro jobs.&#9642; Isn&rsquo;t it funny how a single season can tarnish an entire career? Not if you&rsquo;re Pierre Creamer.Creamer coached the Pittsburgh Penguins to a .500 record in 1987-88, missing the final playoff spot on the last night of the regular season. General manager Eddie Johnston was fired and replaced by Tony Esposito. Creamer, criticized by his players, was fired soon after by Esposito.His image at the time was that of a coach who was incapable.Yet something didn&rsquo;t quite fit. Creamer won the Quebec League title with the Verdun Junior Canadiens and the American League championship with the Sherbrooke Canadiens. On another occasion, he went to a seventh game before losing the AHL final. Then came the Pittsburgh experience.Now, Creamer has won another QMJHL title with the Laval Titan and advanced to the Memorial Cup.&ldquo;I suffered in silence,&rdquo; he says of his Penguin dismissal. &ldquo;They had to blame somebody; it was me. But I know I am a good coach. This (going to the Memorial Cup) is my payback. I&rsquo;m happy now.&rdquo; &#9632;

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COLUMNISTS

BALDWIN CAN ILL AFFORD A MISTAKE

&#9642;Mike Keenan. The Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; stem taskmaster gets results. And what else is a coach supposed to do but win? Who cares if a few egos belonging to star players get bruised along the way? Keenan&rsquo;s track record at every level of hockey is impressive and if the Blackhawks buy into what he&rsquo;s selling, they can scale new heights.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03771/5829441-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="362" height="363"></div>&#9642;Pierre Page. The new general manager of the Quebec Nordiques is not be trifled with. As an assistant coach in Calgary, he was largely responsible for developing the Flames&rsquo; deadly power play. As head coach in Minnesota, he was a key factor in the resurgence of the North Stars, especially in the attitude department.&#9642;Mike Keenan. Has the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; head coach gone mad? Sure, he&rsquo;s getting results, but at what cost? How long does he expect the players to be bludgeoned by his bullying tactics? There came a time in Philadelphia when the players ceased to respond to Keenan. It may happen again in Chicago.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04426/5829434-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="362" height="363"></div>&#9642; Gerry Callahan. Gerry Who? Until the Boston Herald columnist trashed the city of Montreal during the Bruins-Canadiens playoff, his profile outside of Bean-town was nil. Now, thanks to his vitriolic put-down of one of the great cities of the world and perhaps the best hockey town, too, he is known far and wide&mdash;as an idiot. As our friends in Montreal may say, Callahan tres fou. &#9632;

f0003-03

CHEERS JEERS

<div class="byline">BY STEPHEN HARRIS AND TIM SASSONE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011453/5829472-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Denis Savard had back-to-back three point games as Chicago won Games 2 and 3 against Edmonton.</figcaption></div>Two days before Game 1 of the Wales Conference final series against the Washington Capitals, Mike Milbury was a little worried.&ldquo;We act like we think we can win this series with one arm tied behind our backs,&rdquo; said the coach of the Boston Bruins. &ldquo;If they (his players) think this is going to be easy, they&rsquo;re in for a rude awakening.&rdquo;Milbury&rsquo;s concern proved to be warranted, in part: In the series-opener May 3 at Boston Garden, the Bruins played terribly for two periods, but won anyway, as Dave Poulin and Brian Propp keyed a 5-3 win.And in Game 2, the Bruins dominated the injury-weakened Caps, winning 3-0 May 5 behind Andy Moog&rsquo;s second shutout of the playoffs.In the opener, the Caps led 3-2 after 40 minutes, taking the lead on goals 1:21 apart late in the second period by John Tucker and Kelly Miller after blatant giveaways by Moog and Ray Bourque.&ldquo;We had played pretty well for two periods,&rdquo; said Washington coach Terry Murray. &ldquo;But we got away from our game plan in the third.&rdquo;Poulin tipped in a Dave Christian pass a 1:05 of the third to tie the game 3-3. Propp, set up in the left slot by Cam Neely, then swept the game-winner past Mike Liut at 14:38. Poulin added an empty-net score at 19:45.Two nights later, the Bruins&rsquo; lead after two periods was a slim 1-0, on Bobby Carpenter&rsquo;s first goal since the first-round Hartford series. But only the superb play of Caps&rsquo; goalie Don Beaupre had kept it so close.&ldquo;Even though we weren&rsquo;t in control of the game, we were in control of ourselves,&rdquo; said Milbury. &ldquo;We were doing the things we need to do to be successful.&rdquo;Missing sniper Dino Ciccarelli and big defenseman Kevin Hatcher (both with sprained knees), the Caps only rarely displayed the intense fore-checking game they used to beat the New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers. The Bruins were in control most of the way, skating and passing very well.Neely made it 2-0 at 2:56 of the third, steering in a nice 2-on-1 pass from Craig Janney, who started the play with a steal from veteran defenseman Rod Langway. It was the ninth goal of the playoffs for Neely, and gave the creative Janney 16 assists in 11 games.Janney then snapped in a Neely rebound for a 3-0 lead at 6:03, and all that remained for the Bruins was protecting Moog&rsquo;s (28 saves) second career playoff shutout and the team&rsquo;s eighth consecutive home win.&ldquo;The Bruins have been able to play even with most teams for two periods; then find another level of play in the third period,&rdquo; said Murray.At Boston&rsquo;s Logan Airport May 6, awaiting their flight to Landover, Md., for Games 3 and 4, Boston players watched in disappointment as the National Basketball Association Celtics, who&rsquo;d won the first two games of their series against the New York Knicks, were eliminated in a stunning upset.They learned from the Celts&rsquo; misery.&ldquo;Just look what happened to the Celtics,&rdquo; said Janney. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to a new building. Things happen.&rdquo;Added GM Harry Sinden: &ldquo;1 think (Celtic) Kevin McHale said it best. &lsquo;Every game is different.&rsquo; That&rsquo;s the way we have to look at it now.&rdquo;In the Campbell Conference final, the play of center Denis Savard had the Chicago Blackhawks halfway toward advancing to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1973.Savard was the best and most controversial player in the first three games of the Campbell Conference finals. After being benched by coach Mike Keenan for much of Game 1 May 2, won by Edmonton 5-2, Savard put together back-to-back three-point games as the Hawks won 4-3 and 5-1 to take a 2-1 lead in the series.&ldquo;Mike Keenan wants to win and Denis Savard wants to win, that&rsquo;s the bottom line,&rdquo; Savard said after Game 2 May 4. &ldquo;There is no problem between us, really. I don&rsquo;t want to start a war.&rdquo;Edmonton took advantage of a sluggish Chicago team to post its first-game victory at Northlands Coliseum. Defenseman Steve Smith scored two goals and Craig MacTavish had a goal and an assist to lead the Oilers.&ldquo;Two goals? I don&rsquo;t even know if I had two goals all season,&rdquo; joked Smith, who had seven.There were no smiles on the Chicago side after Game 1.&ldquo;We embarrassed ourselves,&rdquo; said Keenan. &ldquo;I have no excuses for our performance. I&rsquo;m extremely disappointed by the way we played.&rdquo;After giving rookie goaltender Ed Belfour the start in the series opener, Keenan pulled off a surprise by naming Greg Millen his Game 2 starter.Millen, who hadn&rsquo;t played since Game 3 of the Norris finals against St. Louis, made Keenan&rsquo;s decision look good by stopping 24 shots in a dramatic 4-3 Chicago win.Wilson&rsquo;s clutch goal wiped out a gallant comeback by the Oilers, who had trailed 3-1 late in the second period before getting goals from Jari Kurri and Esa Tikkanen to tie.Game 2 was not without its controversial moment.The game was tied 3-3 with nine minutes to play when Chicago&rsquo;s Duane Sutter threw his stick in an attempt to halt a breakaway pass from Kurri to Tikkanen. The Oilers thought either a penalty shot or five-minute penalty should have been called by referee Denis Morel, but they got neither.&ldquo;In my opinion, it should have been a penalty shot,&rdquo; said Oilers&rsquo; coach John Muckier. &ldquo;I think everyone in the rink would agree with that except for one person.&rdquo;After the game Morel told supervisor of officials John D&rsquo;Amico he was looking the other way and didn&rsquo;t see Sutter release his stick.&ldquo;He feels very bad that he missed such a crucial call at that time of the game,&rdquo; D&rsquo;Amico said of Morel.&ldquo;That changed the whole series around,&rdquo; fumed Edmonton general manager Glen Sather. &ldquo;He (Morel) screwed up.&rdquo;The Hawks had several heroes in their 5-1 win in Game 3 back in Chicago May 6. Millen was brilliant, making 31 saves, while Savard had three assists and Steve Larmer a pair of goals.&ldquo;You need big plays from your best players in the playoffs, and so far they&rsquo;re responding,&rdquo; Keenan said. &#9632;

f0004-01

BRUINS AND HAWKS TAKE EARLY CONFERENCE FINAL SERIES LEADS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02988/5829534-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0005-02

ELSTON

<h2>KRIS KING</h2>Born: Feb. 18, 1966,Bracebridge, Ont. Height: 5-foot-10. Weight: 190 pounds. Team: New York Rangers. Position: Left wing. Acquired: Traded from Detroit in 1989.Career Highlight: &ldquo;Winning the division this year with the Rangers and the reception we got at home the next game.&rdquo;Career Disappointment: &ldquo;Obviously, we felt we could&rsquo;ve gone farther in the playoffs this year.&rdquo;Hobbies: &ldquo;I do as much fishing as I can in the summer and I also play golf and softball.&rdquo;Most Respected Opponent: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always liked Mark Messier as a player. He&rsquo;s the best at the aggressive style of play he plays.&rdquo;Favorite Book: &ldquo;Anything by Stephen King.&rdquo;Favorite Movie: &ldquo;My wife (Paula) says I&rsquo;m a moviehead. Any movie is good but my favorite is The Good. The Bad and The Ugly.&rdquo;Favorite Actor: Clint Eastwood.Favorite Television Show:&nbsp;Cheers.What he&rsquo;d like to change about the way he plays: &ldquo;I'd like to contribute a little more offensively and score a few more goals.&rdquo;If he was NHL president for a day: &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t curb fighting because I probably wouldn&rsquo;t have a job. I&rsquo;d put replays into hockey because there&rsquo;s so many disputes, but I&rsquo;d just use it for goals.&rdquo;Most Embarrassing Moment: &ldquo;In my overage year in junior in Peterborough (Ontario League) all the guys got shaved haircuts. Mine was messed up so bad I had to get everything cut off.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03677/5829565-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="527" height="1189"></div> &#9632;

f0005-03

PRO FILE

<div class="byline">BY STEVE SIMMONS</div>When it was almost over, Viktor Tikhonov finally summoned up the courage to remove his overcoat.Never mind that the coach of the Soviet national team was red-faced and soaking wet from the heat in the steamy Allemand Arena. The removal of the coat was a symbolic gesture&mdash;with seconds to go Tikhonov was finally convinced the Soviets would win their record-setting 22nd World Championships.Not that anyone else needed convincing. The Soviets were at their dominating best in winning the World Championships again. If Tikhonov was sweating the 5-0 gold-medal win over Czechoslovakia May 2, he was likely the only one worried.&ldquo;I am superstitious,&rdquo; Tikhonov said afterwards, still sweaty, but smiling. &ldquo;It is my lucky coat.&ldquo;I knew well it was hot. With only 10 minutes remaining, I tried to take it off. The guys (players) started laughing. They wouldn&rsquo;t let me.&ldquo;Eventually they pulled it off with 10 seconds left.&rdquo;They probably could have pulled it off before the tournament even began. The Soviets, with an uncertain lineup and adding four NHL players in mid-toumament for the first time, were so much the dominant team that any pre-event forecasts of their demise were rendered ludicrous.In the medal-round games against Sweden, Canada, and the Czechs, the Soviets outscored their opponents 15-1. They defeated Sweden 3-0 April 28 and Canada 7-1 April 30 after finishing in third place in the preliminary round with a record of 5-1-1.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there was any doubt the rest of us were playing for silver,&rdquo; said Sweden&rsquo;s Hakan Loob.The Swedes actually wound up with the silver by goal differential&mdash;they finished minus-1 in the medal round, compared to Czechoslovakia&rsquo;s minus-4&mdash;when they were able to beat an indifferent Canadian team 6-4 in the final game May 2. Sweden and Czechoslovakia actually tied with three medal-round points and a 1-1-1 record while Team Canada, unbeaten in the seven-game round-robin, garnered none.In addition to the losses to the Soviets and Sweden, Team Canada was beaten 3-2 by Czechoslovakia April 28 in the opening game of the medal round. Canada finished fourth, just one place ahead of Team USA. The Americans were 3-4-0 in the premininary round but won all three games in the consolation round.The Canadians appeared to be the strongest team in the tournament early on, but disappeared in the championships&rsquo; third week, when the games mattered most. Expectations were high, performance was low.Oddly, the Americans, with low expectations going in, received excellent goaltending from Minnesota's Jon Casey, in finishing a strong fifth. Team Canada wound up a weak fourth.&ldquo;This was a great disappointment for us,&rdquo; said Canadian coach Dave King.There was no knocking at all of Steve Yzerman, the Detroit center, who wowed the tournament with his offensive skill. Yzerman not only wound up as the tourney&rsquo;s leading scorer (with 9-10-19 totals in 10 games), he was named the top forward as well.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011540/5829596-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="553" height="751"><figcaption class="caption-body">Viacheslav Fetisov had an excellent World Championship.</figcaption></div>Soviet defenseman Mikhail Tatarinov, who says he will play in Washington next season (the Capitals drafted him 225th overall in 1984), was named top defenseman after posting 3-8-11 totals in 10 games. Artur Irbe of the Soviets, who allowed 13 goals in 10 games, was named top goaltender, although Casey should certainly have been considered there. Irbe had little work in most games, working behind a defense led by Tatarinov and Viacheslav Fetisov of New Jersey.The Fetisov who played at the World Championships in no way resembled the defenseman who played his home games this season at the Meadowlands. He was, despite the vote to the contrary, the best defenseman in the tournament. He was likely the best player. He had two goals and eight assists in 10 games.&ldquo;This is my game,&rdquo; he said, explaining why he is so at home playing European hockey.&ldquo;This is something special for the Soviet team,&rdquo; said Tikhonov. &ldquo;This is the first ever time I summoned players from the NHL. This was different. Every day of the tournament we were forming this team. This is unique and difficult to cope with.&rdquo;Just ask the Canadians and the Americans. They never felt totally comfortable. But in the end, it was better for them than it was for little Norway.All Norway had to do to remain in the &lsquo;A&rsquo; Pool was lose by no more than three goals in its final game against West Germany. But West Germany, which fired its longtime coach Xavier Unsinn earlier in the tournament, won 4-0 to stay in the &lsquo;A&rsquo;Pool. &#9632;

f0006-01

DOMINANT SOVIETS TAKE GOLD

<div class="byline">BY THN STAFF</div>Boston Bruins&rsquo; defenseman I Ray Bourque and St. Louis &ldquo;Blues&rsquo; right winger Brett Hull will be up for two awards when the NHL honors its best June 6 in Toronto.Both Bourque and Hull are finalists for the Hart Trophy as NHL most valuable player. Bourque is also nominated for the Norris Trophy as best defenseman while Hull is up for the Lady Byng Trophy as most gentlemanly player.Five of the awards&mdash;the Hart, Norris, Byng, Calder and Selke&mdash;were voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association. The Vezina Trophy winner is picked by the 21 NHL general managers while the NHL Broadcasters&rsquo; Association decides the Jack Adams winner.Winners of the Art Ross (Wayne Gretzky), Jennings (Andy Moog and Reggie Lemelin), the King Clancy and Masterton trophies will also be on hand to accept their awards, as will the six players selected to the NHLs first all-star team.The following are the finalists in each category:Hart Trophy: Bourque; Hull; Mark Messier, Edmonton.Norris Trophy: Bourque; Al Maclnnis, Calgary; Doug Wilson, Chicago.Calder Trophy (top rookie): Sergei Makarov, Calgary; Mike Modano, Minnesota; Jeremy Roenick, Chicago.Lady Byng Trophy: Hull; Gretzky, Los Angeles; Pat LaFontaine, New York Islanders.Selke Trophy (best defensive forward): Guy Carbonneau, Montreal; Rick Meagher, St. Louis; Esa Tikkanen, Edmonton.Vezina Trophy (best goaltender): Moog, Boston; Daren Puppa. Buffalo; Patrick Roy, Montreal.Jack Adams Award (coach of the year): Mike Milbury, Boston; Bob Murdoch, Winnipeg; Roger Neilson, New York Rangers.<h2>BYE, SHERBROOKE</h2>The Montreal Canadiens became the second NHL team to announce its minor pro affiliate will change locations next season when the Canadiens announced May 7 they are pulling out of Sherbrooke.The Hartford Whalers announcec April 4 they wouldn&rsquo;t be returning their American League affiliate to Binghamton.Montreal has had its minor pre affiliate in Sherbrooke since 1984-85 The Canadiens won the Calder Cup in their first year and lost in the finals two years later. Sherbrooke had the best regular-season record in the AHL this season at 45-23-12 but lost in the semifinals in six games to Springfield.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021073/5829634-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="553" height="641"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Hull was a finalist for the Hart and Bvn&alpha; Trophies.</figcaption></div>The main reason given for the decision to leave Sherbrooke was declining attendance. The Canadiens averaged 4,095 per game (fifth in the league) but that included an average of 13,716 at five &ldquo;home games&rdquo; played in Montreal which were part of the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; season-ticket package.The actual average paid attendance at Sherbrooke this season was 2,261, a decrease of more than 400 from last season.&ldquo;We must count on an average attendance of 4,000 people per game, which was never attained in Sherbrooke during the last six years,&rdquo; said Montreal president Ronald Corey. &ldquo;Because of this important financial loss, I, as president, have no other choice in making this decision.&rdquo;The Canadiens want an owner or city to run the team and take care of operating costs while the Canadiens supply the players and pay the salaries in exchange for a franchise fee. Corey said he&rsquo;d prefer to keep the team in the American League and not to go to the International League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03689/5829627-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="553" height="637"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Corey decided to pull the Canadiens out of Sherbrooke.</figcaption></div><h2>FURTHER DELAY</h2>The owners of seven Global League franchises agreed May 2 to push back the deadline for the formation of the league a second time.The original deadline of April 1 was changed to May 1 because the proposed league did not have enough franchises in place. The GHL is now expected to hold its organizational meeting at Providence May 26.Also May, the league formany granted a franchise to Birmingham, Ala. A group of investors that includes Richard Gerry and Joe Bucchino obtained the franchise after securing arena dates. The group previously tried to locate at Orlando and Atlanta, but could not get an acceptable lease in either city.Gerry was the owner of the Denver Rangers&rsquo; franchise in the International League that went bankrupt in 1989. Bucchino was an assistant general manager of the New York Rangers during Phil Esposito&rsquo;s regime.The seven GHL owners conducted their business during a two-hour conference call initiated by league vice-president Charles Hodgins, the owner of the Saskatoon franchise. Six North American and one European owner participated.&ldquo;Things finally came to a head. We have to get things moving,&rdquo; Hodgins said. &ldquo;Each day means more work to do in less time.&rdquo;Hodgins said eight North American teams are ready to play in the GHL&rsquo;s first season, which is scheduled to begin in November. They are: Providence, Albany, Saskatoon. Hamilton, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Miami and Birmingham.Hamilton franchise owner Barry Alter, who has been stymied by city officials in his attempt to sign a lease at Copps Coliseum, said he has found a temporary home at the University of Toronto&rsquo;s Varsity Arena.In the release announcing the Birmingham franchise, the GHL said it has six cities in its European Division: Lyon, Berlin, Milan, Rotterdam, Prague and London. Like Cleveland, London was not expected to begin play until 1991.Hodgins said three other cities&mdash;Oslo, Barcelona and Malmo, Sweden&mdash;have shown an interest in the league.<h2>PLAYER CHARGED</h2>Peter Ihnacak, who spent most of the past season with the Newmarket Saints of the American League, has been charged with assaulting his wife.Ihnacak, 32, was arrested after an argument at the couple's Toronto home, police said.Debbie Ihnacak ran to a neighbor&rsquo;s home after her hair was pulled and she was slapped and thrown to the floor. She did not require medical treatment.Ihnacak was 26-47-73 in 72 games for the Saints this season. He also played five games for the Maple Leafs, with two assists.He was scheduled to appear in court May 7.&mdash;with a file from Mike Kane<h2>DATEBOOK</h2>May 12: Memorial Cup semifinal in Hamilton. Ont. Centennial Cup final in Vernon, B.C.May 13: Memorial Cup final.May 26: OHL midget draft in Toronto. &#9632;

f0006-02

BOURQUE, HULL HEAD LIST OF NOMINEES FOR NHL AWARDS

<div class="byline">by BOB MCKENZIE AND DAVE FAY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011385/5829665-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">With 13 goals in 13 playoff games, John Druce emerged as one of the post-season&rsquo;s biggest stories. Four of the right winger&rsquo;s goals were game-winners.</figcaption></div>Washington Capital general manager David Poile pushed a lot of buttons in an effort to take his team where it has never been.As successful as many of his individual moves have been, they never quite equaled the sum of their parts. Try as they might, the Capitals could never break into the select group that competes in the Stanley Cup semifinals.Until this year. Until unheralded right winger John Druce emerged as perhaps the biggest springtime surprise since Mel (Sudden Death) Hill scored three overtime goals to propel the Boston Bruins to the 1939 Stanley Cup.The 24-year-old native of Peterborough, Ont., scored 13 goals and two assists in his first 13 playoff games, including four game-winners, two of them in overtime. He was instrumental in leading the Caps to series wins over New Jersey and the New York Rangers for the Caps&rsquo; first Patrick Division playoff championship banner.He scored in seven consecutive games&mdash;two short of Reggie Leach&rsquo;s playoff record&mdash;before being blanked against Boston&rsquo;s Andy Moog on May 5, a 3-0 Bruin victory that left the Caps trailing two games-to-none. His 13 goals were only four shy of tying the Caps&rsquo; all-time playoff goal-scoring leader, Dave Christian.&ldquo;Did I expect anything like this, him scoring 13 goals?&rdquo; says Poile. &ldquo;Of course not.&rdquo;Full marks for honesty. But if the Caps are confounded by the sheer quantity of Druce&rsquo;s work, they&rsquo;ve never doubted the quality. This button was pushed five years ago; it just took a long time for the gears to mesh.&ldquo;Yes, John Druce did have this kind of potential,&rdquo; says Jack Button, the Caps&rsquo; director of player personnel who took Druce in the second round, 40th overall in 1985.&ldquo;But too many people (in the organization) thought he was only going to be what he was&mdash;a checker&mdash;and not even that. They wanted him to be a tough guy, a fighter.&rdquo;Druce did his part to convey that image when as a rookie pro in a pre-season game, he destroyed Philadelphia&rsquo;s Greg Smyth in a fight.&ldquo;I think we were reading John Druce wrong and as long as Druce thought that&rsquo;s what his role was going to be, I don&rsquo;t think he was going to be very productive for us,&rdquo; Button says.So what happened? How did the 6-foot-1, 200-pound graduate of the Ontario &ldquo;League&rsquo;s Peterborough Petes suddenly blossom?&ldquo;John&rsquo;s problem was purely a lack of confidence,&rdquo; says player agent Rick Curran, who has represented Druce since the player&rsquo;s days as a Pete. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s always been a good kid, but life hadn&rsquo;t been easy for him.&rdquo;Druce is the product of a broken home. His mother, Linda, gave birth to him when she was only 18 and it was a responsibility too great for her to handle at times. Druce&rsquo;s father was not a factor in his life. Druce knows who he is, has spoken to him once, but that is as far as it goes.Overall, his home life was incredibly unstable, though he managed to survive it all and turn out to be a pretty good kid.&ldquo;When you meet John,&rdquo; says Curran, &ldquo;you can&rsquo;t help but be impressed with his sincerity and sensitivity.&rdquo;It is that sensitivity, though, which contributed to his stuttering development as an NHL player. The Caps realized he still had to grow as a person before he could grow as a player. They&rsquo;ve been rewarded for their patience.&ldquo;I talked to David Poile and Jack Button about John Druce so many times,&rdquo; says Curran. &ldquo;The conversation was always the same. They said, &lsquo;The day John Druce realizes just how good he can be is the day he&rsquo;ll emerge as an NHL player.&rsquo; They were right. John finally has confidence. He feels good about himself as a hockey player and he feels good about himself as a person.&rdquo;Confidence. It&rsquo;s always a difficult phenomenon! to explain. But there are factors to consider in this case.First, after last year&rsquo;s first-round playoff exit to Philadelphia, the Caps made a commitment to youth. Six players 30 years or older moved on. In their place came a string of youngsters from the Caps&rsquo; farm system; youngsters who hopefully would mature soon enough to help in the playoffs.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re always hoping younger kids come in and do something,&rdquo; Poile says. &ldquo;But this I think goes hand-in-hand with the fact we&rsquo;ve been a real top team in the regular season for the past seven years, but we were a team that didn&rsquo;t use a lot of players. We didn&rsquo;t give our younger players a chance to really get a lot of ice time or play an important role, play on top lines.&ldquo;When we made these moves, players like Rob Murray, Alan May, Nick Kypreos, Tim Bergland, Yvon Corriveau (until he was traded to Hartford), Steve Leach, Druce&hellip;they all got a chance to play a lot more than they had in previous years.&rdquo;The results were mixed. Four of the seven split time between the Caps and Baltimore of the American League before finally sticking with the big team.Druce opened the season in Baltimore, was brought up in early December and returned once again before a permanent recall the day after Christmas. He had decent figures with the Skipjacks (15-16-31 in 26 games), but in 45 games with the Caps had only eight goals and 19 points.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m no Wayne Gretzky, this is the way I&rsquo;ve played all my life, but for some reason, the puck has just started going in,&rdquo; says Druce. &ldquo;All the ice time helps. The more I&rsquo;m out there, the more confident I get.&rdquo;That confidence took a beating last September when the Caps traveled to Sweden and the Soviet Union for training camp. Druce slept in, was late for the club&rsquo;s first drill in Sweden and heard about it loudly from then-coach Bryan Murray. Druce then lost his hotel key, locking himself and wife, Chantel, out of their room.The arrival of Terry Murray, Bryan&rsquo;s brother, as head coach was another factor in building up Druce&rsquo;s confidence. It was as if Bryan gave Druce the discipline he needed to play in the NHL, but Terry allowed him to relax enough to better execute his duties.The overall effect come playoff time has been magical.&ldquo;What you have to understand,&rdquo; says Button, &ldquo;is that these are kids we&rsquo;re drafting. What we try to do is mold these kids into people as well as players. This is what I think is happening to John Druce right now. It was like a rainy day and all of a sudden the rain stops and the sun comes out and life is so good.&rdquo;poile, cautious at the best of times, isn&rsquo;t prepared to put a label on Druce. He certainly doesn&rsquo;t expect him to maintain a goal-a-game average in his NHL career, but neither does he expect him to be a playoff trivia question a la Chris Kontos.&ldquo;I think you have to keep everything in perspective,&rdquo; says Poile. &ldquo;This is certainly the best hockey he has played, but after a full year in the NHL, if he&rsquo;s only scored another eight goals or 15, something like that, then you have to make an assessment on what type of player he is. If he scores 30 or 40, then it will be a different assessment.&rdquo;Button maintains Druce has always had the potential to score goals, but isn&rsquo;t a natural sniper. Nevertheless, the ability to score some goals was one reason they used a second-round pick on him. There is no great fear he&rsquo;ll go from playoff flash to regular-season flop.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not going to be a great goal-scorer but he&rsquo;s going to be a very good all-around player,&rdquo; says Button. &ldquo;He can kill penalties, he&rsquo;s never going to do something to hurt you defensively, handles the puck well, has a good shot and will go to the net.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be like Vic Hadfield, very consistent year-in, year-out. He&rsquo;ll create some offense but also be responsible enough to put out there for the last minute.&rdquo;Druce can live with that. He&rsquo;s coped well with his new-found notoriety, keeping it all in perspective, on what he refers to as an &ldquo;even keel.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just in the right place at the right time,&rdquo; says Druce, whose modesty comes natural. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going through a spell where the puck&rsquo;s there for me. I&rsquo;ve tipped them in, I&rsquo;ve knocked them out of the air.&ldquo;This is as much a surprise to me as it is anybody else. I sometimes have to pinch myself to make sure this is really happening.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0007-01

OUT OF NOWHERE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011470/5829703-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="484" height="623"><figcaption class="caption-body">STAN FISCHLER</figcaption></div>Lessons I have learned from the NHL playoffs and other things:&#9642; Calgary Flames&rsquo; general manager Cliff Fletcher knew what he was talking about when he said on the eve of the Calgary-Los Angeles playoff series, &ldquo;Anyone who is overconfident is inexperienced and silly.&rdquo;&#9642; The Presidents&rsquo; Trophy for first overall during the regular season is the most expensive ($200,000 to the winners), little-recognized and unappreciated award in the NHL.&#9642; Denis Morel should not officiate a seventh game of any series. Nor a sixth.&#9642; How the St. Louis Blues got as far as they did with their defense says a lot for goalies Vincent Riendeau and Curtis Joseph, as well as Brian Sutter&rsquo;s coaching.&#9642; Best comeback story of the season has to be St. Louis&rsquo; Ron Wilson, who retired from American League coaching to become the best senior citizen, two-way forward in the playoffs.&#9642; Despite his goofs in Game 7 of the Chicago-St. Louis series, Harold Snepsts should be declared a national landmark, preserved during the summer and, somehow, returned to the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; roster in September.&#9642; By now Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall must have deduced that Larry Robinson used the regular season as training camp.&#9642; Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan ought to get it over with and simply change goalies as he changes lines.&#9642; If there was a playoffs MVA (Most Valuable Agitator) award it would be owned this spring by Washington&rsquo;s Neil Sheehy.&#9642; Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; coach Rick Dudley deserved better, but he won&rsquo;t get it until general manager Gerry Meehan finds a leader for his team.&#9642; I like Rick Ley&rsquo;s attitude toward his too-nonchalant Hartford Whalers.&#9642; Pound for pound, Washington&rsquo;s Kelly Miller is the smartest, most intense, underrated player in the NHL.&#9642; Brett Hull&rsquo;s playoff scoring proves he&rsquo;s not merely a regular season megastar who can be snuffed in the clutch. Which is another way of saying the Blues&rsquo; high command blew it last&rsquo; year when it had a chance of signing him for about $350,000.&#9642; Since the playoffs are the most important part of the season, voting for various league awards should include the Cup rounds as well as the 80-game slate.&#9642; I can&rsquo;t figure Kevin Dineen. Something tells me the Hartford Whalers are tired of trying to do likewise.&#9642; Jeers to those Toronto writers who betrayed their tastelessness by crowing over Maple Leaf owner Harold Ballard&rsquo;s death as if it should be proclaimed a national holiday. Granted, Pal Hal wasn&rsquo;t exactly Mr. Clean, but the time to stop mudslinging is when the man is six-feet under.&#9642; The Edmonton Oilers-Winnipeg Jets series was as good a first-rounder as 1989 Vancouver Canucks-Calgary Flames or 1984 New York Rangers-New York Islanders.&#9642; The Boston Bruins&rsquo; playoff performance begs one question: Why did the Philadelphia Flyers trade Dave Poulin?&#9642; Fights do decide series. That&rsquo;s why when Washington&rsquo;s Alan May belted out Troy Mallette&rsquo;s tooth and the Ranger turtled in the decisive Game 2 of the Patrick finals, the Caps knew they had physically beaten the Blueshirts.&#9642; Tony Granato is Dino Ciccarelli West.&#9642; Biggest pain-in-the-eyes during the playoffs are the strolling nets. And they are the biggest reason in the world why no one but a goalie&rsquo;s mother respects the netminder&rsquo;s right to stand unmolested in his crease.&#9642; John Druce deserves all the kudos he&rsquo;s getting, but the most overlooked Washington Capital is Dale Hunter, a more remarkable faceoff man. playmaker and occasional scorer than people think.&#9642; The difference between Chicago and St. Louis as cities can be discerned by the reaction of fans in The Stadium and The Arena when the American national anthem is sung.&#9642; Why did Mats Naslund even bother to dress for the Montreal Canadiens during the playoffs?&#9642; Montreal fans can spend the summer with one source of joy; Mathieu Schneider is the next Chris Chelios.&#9642; I am happy for Rod Langway, David Poile, Lou Corletto (Caps&rsquo; media relations director) and the many, many other good people in the Washington organization.&#9642; All along I&rsquo;ve said I&rsquo;d rather have Mark Messier on my team than Wayne Gretzky. You may soon see why.<h2>FLASHBACK</h2>May 19, 1984: Led by Conn Smythe Trophy winner Mark Messier, the Edmonton Oilers defeated the four-time defending Stanley Cup winners, the New York Islanders, 4-2 to capture their first playoff championship. Messier, who finished behind teammate Wayne Gretzky in post-season scoring (35 points), had 8-18-26 totals in 19 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021174/5829696-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="619" height="399"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mark Messier</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0008-01

MILLER’S THE MOST UNDERRATED PLAYER

<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>With Pierre Page in Quebec and general manager Jack Ferreira set to follow North Stars&rsquo; owners George and Gordon Gund to California, the rumors have begun as to their replacements. Early speculation about the Stars&rsquo; next GM made former New York Rangers&rsquo; executive Phil Esposito and fired Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; GM Bob Clarke the early favorites. For coach, the Flyers&rsquo; Paul Holmgren is a possibility&hellip;Howard Baldwin was offered five years free rent for the North Stars if they&rsquo;ll move to the Minnesota Timberwolves&rsquo; new arena in downtown Minneapolis. He hadn&rsquo;t decided whether the team would stay at the Met Center in Bloomington, which he has called &ldquo;an asset,&rdquo; or join the one-year-old National Basketball Association team downtown&hellip; Ferreira and his staff will conduct the June 16 draft for the North Stars and the division of talent will follow.<h2>BLUES</h2>After playing six close games with the Chicago Blackhawks in the Norris Division final, the Blues lost Game 7 April 30 by an 8-2 score. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a poor excuse to end the season,&rdquo; Paul Cavallini said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a disgraceful way to lose, and I hope that all of us are in pain all summer. This is unacceptable, 8-2. If every guy on the team is not embarrassed, there&rsquo;s something wrong with them-.&rdquo;&hellip;Veteran defenseman Harold Snepsts, acquired from Vancouver at the trade deadline, was minus-5 in Game 7 and minus-7 for the series&hellip; Brett Hull finished the playoffs with 13 goals, giving him 85 for the year, including regular-season games, the fourth-highest mark in NHL history&hellip;Adam Oates had 12 assists in the playoffs, but he was minus-10, the Blues&rsquo; worst&hellip;The Blues&rsquo; plus-minus leader in the playoffs was veteran Gordie Roberts, who was plus-6 but was scratched by coach Brian Sutter for the last two games of the Chicago series&hellip;Captain Rick Meagher underwent knee surgery May 1, the morning after Game 7 of the Norris final. The Selke Trophy finalist, 36, plans on returning by November. &ldquo;I get mad when people say this could be the end of my career,&rdquo; Meagher said.<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>When Jeremy Roenick scored two goals against St. Louis in the Blackhawks&rsquo; 8-2 win April 30 in Game 7 of the Norris Division finals, it gave him 13 points for the playoffs to establish a club record for a rookie. The previous record was held by Steve Larmer, who had 12 points in the 1983 playoffs. In each of the Hawks&rsquo; seventh games in the Norris playoffs, Roenick came through with a pair of goals-&hellip;With five points against St. Louis in Game 7 of the Norris Division finals April 30, Larmer tied Stan Mikita&rsquo;s club record for most points in a playoff game&hellip;Doug Wilson didn&rsquo;t expect to be one of the finalists for the Norris Trophy. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m surprised, to tell you the truth,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;I was pleased with the first half I had, but the second half didn&rsquo;t go as well as I would have liked.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03902/5829734-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="549" height="668"><figcaption class="caption-body">One report says Bernie Federko is finished in Detroit.</figcaption></div><h2>RED WINGS</h2>The Red Wings plan to buy out the final year of center Bernie Federko&rsquo;s contract, according to a report circulating among the St. Louis Blues, the team Federko captained last season. That would be a mistake, Blues&rsquo; scout Bob Plager said. &ldquo;From the blue line in, he still one of the best in the game,&rdquo; Plager said, suggesting Federko could best be employed as a power-play specialist. &ldquo;Especially if they move the nets up a foot like they&rsquo;re thinking about doing. That&rsquo;s where he&rsquo;s best, and for 40 or 50 seconds, he could give teams fits behind the net.&rdquo; The Wings said it&rsquo;s premature to discuss Federko&rsquo;s future&hellip;There seems to be some confusion about the number of picks Detroit has in the upcoming NHL entry draft. It&rsquo;s 12, one in each round, general manager Jimmy Devellano insisted. The NHL thinks the Wings have an extra fifth-rounder that they acquired from the Rangers. Wrong, Devellano said. They re-acquired their own fifth-round pick in the deal that sent Kris King to the Rangers for Chris McRae. Detroit picked up an extra fifth-rounder in 1991 from Edmonton in the Jimmy Carson deal.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2>General manager Floyd Smith has now fired three members of the Leaf organization and reports indicated more could be on their way out. Paul Gardner, coach of the club&rsquo;s American League affiliate in Newmarket, was released May 1 after compiling a 130-156-34 record in his four seasons behind the Saints&rsquo; bench (for more on Gardner, see page 31). Gardner, who spent seven seasons in the NHL with Toronto, Buffalo, Washington, Pittsburgh and Colorado, coached the club to fifth place in the Southern Division this season, finishing 14 points out of a playoff spot. Another to be axed was Guy Kinnear. who had been the Leafs&rsquo; trainer since 1969. Assistant coach Garry Lariviere was fired by Smith April 19. &#9632;

f0008-03

STARS SEARCH FOR COACH, GM

<div class="byline">BY MARK HARDING</div>Despite the fact he played on a I losing team for almost his entire career, Dan Daoust felt he was leaving the NHL as a winner.After eight seasons in the NHL, Daoust decided May 1 to end his days as a Toronto Maple Leaf and continue playing in Switzerland. During the latter part of his career he was known as a useful defensive forward and top penalty killer.&ldquo;What makes this a little easier for me is the fact that they still wanted me,&rdquo; said Daoust, who had signed a termination contract with the Leats prior to last season and was to become a free agent at the end of this month. &ldquo;They had offered me a contract to come back.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like I&rsquo;m leaving as a has-been or as some guy who&rsquo;s washed up. I&rsquo;m proud of the fact that I played well enough last season for them to want me back.&rdquo;Daoust played 65 games this season, with 7-11-18 totals. In his career, Daoust played 522 games with 87167-254 totals.Daoust, who will join Ajoie of the Swiss B Division and be a teammate of former NHLer Lane Lambert, said he had hoped to remain with the Leafs, especially after the promising season the club enjoyed this year. But management refused to offer the 30-year-old Montreal native a two-year deal.&ldquo;I thought that after the way I&rsquo;d played for them this year that I deserved a little security, but I guess I never really thought they&rsquo;d give it to me,&rdquo; said Daoust. &ldquo;The only way I would have stayed with a one-year contract is if it had been for more than $200,000, but they weren&rsquo;t anywhere near that.&rdquo;Daoust, who had been offered a $15,000 raise to his $167,000 contract, said the thought of playing for a team that will give him almost triple the amount of playing time that he&rsquo;d become accustomed to in Toronto was a major reason in deciding to leave.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be playing a regular shift, see duty on the power play, which is something I haven&rsquo;t done since junior, and continue to kill penalties,&rdquo; Daoust said enthusiastically. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to it.&rdquo;With five centers&mdash;Ed Olczyk, Dave Hannan, Tom Fergus, John McIntyre and Gilles Thibaudeau&mdash;returning to training camp this fall, Daoust knew things wouldn&rsquo;t improve for him.&ldquo;They told me prior to last season that if I played 40 or 50 games that it would be great,&rdquo; said Daoust. &ldquo;The only reason I played in as many as I did was because of injuries.&rdquo;The former Cornwall Royals&rsquo; star said the 36-game schedule, with games played only on Tuesday and Saturday nights, will be a refreshing break from the 80-game grind of the NHL.&ldquo;It will give me the opportunity to spend some time with my wife (Julie) and son (Eric), something I haven&rsquo;t been able to do before,&rdquo; said Daoust, who became a father for the first time last summer.Originally signed as a free agent by the Montreal Canadiens in 1981 before being dealt to Toronto in December 1982&mdash;he played only four games with the Habs&mdash;Daoust said he will always reflect fondly on his days as a Maple Leaf.Overall, I think the good times outshine the bad,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We missed the playoffs three times while I was with the Leafs, but made it the other five years.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll also always look back to the year Rick Vaive became the team&rsquo;s first 50-goal scorer (1981-82) as a highlight of my career in Toronto.&rdquo; Daoust centered Vaive that season.Daoust also fondly recalled being named to the NHL all-rookie team in 1983.&ldquo;But more than anything, just to have fulfilled a life-long dream to play in the NHL is all I could have ever asked for,&rdquo; said Daoust. &ldquo;I spent the best years of my life playing in the NHL. I can&rsquo;t have any regrets about that.&rdquo; &#9632;

DAOUST LEAVES WITH FOND MEMORIES

<h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>April 30: Bob Stellick, director of media relations, named director of business operations and communications.May 1: Guy Kinnear, trainer, and Paul Gardner. Newmarket (AHL) coach, fired. Dan Daoust, C, signed contract to play in Ajoie, Switzerland. &#9632;

TORONTO

<div class="byline">BY GARY OLSON</div>The threat to move the Minnesota North Stars to California ended with an agreement to sell the team instead.George and Gordon Gund, owners of the North Stars since the team&rsquo;s 1978 merger with the Cleveland Barons, agreed to sell the Stars to Howard Baldwin and Morris Belzberg for $31.5 million with the proviso the NHL agrees to grant the Gunds an expansion franchise for the Bay Area of northern California.Without an expansion team in place for the 1991-92 season, a year before the league&rsquo;s announced expansion plans, the deal will be called off. The board of governors was to meet May 8 in Chicago and the deal needed approval from 16 of the 21 governors.&ldquo;This is a comprehensive agreement, a solution to a number of opportunities and problems,&rdquo; Gordon Gund said. &ldquo;Without every piece of it, it&rsquo;s not going to go. All the pieces have to fit together and to take one part and look at it solely is not going to prove anything unless it&rsquo;s in with the other pieces.&rdquo;The Gunds received several concessions from Baldwin, the former minority owner of the Hartford Whalers, founder of the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association and president of the WHA at the time of its merger with the NHL.The largest of the concessions and the one that will have the most immediate effect on the team has the Gunds sharing the North Stars&rsquo; young players. They&rsquo;ll get their pick of 11 skaters and two goalies with fewer than 50 games NHL experience plus six unsigned draft picks, some of which will come from the upcoming entry draft in Vancouver (for more on that aspect of the agreement, see page 31).&ldquo;The integrity of the North Stars&rsquo; roster is intact and it will stay intact,&rdquo; Baldwin said.&ldquo;This is a very, very complicated transaction and we broke new ground on this. It&rsquo;s a good solution to several difficult problems.&ldquo;Once the league approves the deal, I will be very happy to be back in the NHL. I've missed it, the people and the game.&rdquo;Baldwin, a Beverly Hills, Calif., filmmaker and owner of a frozen yogurt company in Hartford, Conn., was a minority owner and managing general partner of the Whalers until ousted in a reorganization two years ago. He&rsquo;ll be a majority owner of the Stars and will have 60 days after the agreement is passed by the league to complete his financial obligations.&ldquo;Howard was the leader from the WHA side that brought about the expansion of 1979,&rdquo; NHL president John Ziegler said, referring to the merger with four WHA teams (Hartford, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Quebec).The May 2 agreement between Baldwin and the Gunds ended more than three months of uncertainty about the North Stars&rsquo; future in Minnesota. On Jan. 30, the Gunds said if the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission didn&rsquo;t agree to $15 million in improvements to the Met Center and the team didn&rsquo;t receive a demonstration of corporate and community support, they would transfer the franchise to northern California. They cited $7 million in losses from the 1988-89 season and an unworkable business situation as their reasons.Their demands were rejected by the Sports Facilities Commission Feb. 21.Baldwin&rsquo;s group, which had hoped to land an expansion franchise for San Jose, Calif., entered the bidding for the North Stars when it became apparent if the Stars moved to the Bay Area, it would erase the chances for expansion in San Jose.<h2>MINNESOTA</h2>May 4: Pierre Page, coach, resigned. &#9632;

GUNDS TAKE TEAM’S FUTURE TO THE WEST

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LEUCKING</div>Seven years ago, Brett Hull had one last ? chance for a future in hockey, playing with Penticton in the British Columbia Junior League.He was a chubby teenager with a famous surname and a famous slapshot, but he had little else going for him at the time.That seems like such a long time ago, particularly now with Hull a bonafide superstar in the NHL.Hull made the most of his chance at Penticton, parlaying his assets into an NHL contract with Calgary three years later. Now, those assets are worth a million bucks.At least that what he thinks. That&rsquo;s what it will take the St. Louis Blues to keep their franchise player happy.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the ball park, right there in the neighborhood,&rdquo; Hull said several days after the Blues were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs. Hull led the Blues with 1&lsquo;3 goals and eight assists in 12 games. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want more. I don&rsquo;t want less.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not asking anything outrageous. I don&rsquo;t want $ 10 million. I just want a good contract. I want to stay in St. Louis, and I want everyone to know that.&ldquo;Sports to me is tradition and loyalty. Right now, the Blues have a lot of tradition and I&rsquo;m loyal to them&hellip;It&rsquo;s a great town. The people are great. We have so much potential on this team. Just to be a part of it and watching it grow is something special. If you don&rsquo;t cherish something like that, you&rsquo;re in trouble.&rdquo;Hull, 25, will become a restricted free agent June 30, when his $125,000 (U.S.)-per-year contract signed with Calgary three years ago expires. He couldn&rsquo;t have picked a better season to play out his option.Hull is a finalist for two post-season trophies&mdash;the Hart Trophy for the most valuable player and the Lady Byng for sportsmanship. He set an NHL record for goals by a right winger with 72 and a Blues&rsquo; team record for goals and points (113).What has Hull meant to the Blues? Attendance is up nine per cent since his arrival two years ago. Souvenir sales also are way up, with the Blues receiving league-wide notoriety thanks to the Hull name.&ldquo;We want to get this young man signed,&rdquo; Blues&rsquo; president Jack Quinn said. &ldquo;We want to get it done as quickly as we can. that&rsquo;s the primary objective now, the main focus, the No. 1 priority.&rdquo;Although Hull holds the hammer in the negotiations, the Blues retain some control until June 30. Then, other teams will set the parameters, and the Blues will have to match someone else&rsquo;s offer.Like the Blues, Hull would like to get the matter settled quickly.&ldquo;I would like to sign,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter what day.&rdquo;The price has to be right, though. &#9632;

HULL SETS HIS PRICE AND IT’S $1 MILLION

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div>The Chicago Blackhawks got a welcome surprise not long before they were to faceoff against St. Louis in Game 7 of the Norris Division final April 30.After missing six weeks with a cracked left kneecap, Dirk Graham, the Hawks&rsquo; captain and spiritual leader, was going to give it a try and lace up the skates for the big game.&ldquo;When we walked into the dressing room and saw his sweater hanging there, it gave us a big lift,&rdquo; said Troy Murray.Graham gave the Hawks an even bigger lift on the ice. He contributed a key assist on a shorthanded goal by Steve Larmer in the second period that made it 3-0, as the Hawks went on to rout the Blues 8-2 to advance to the Campbell Conference finals for the second straight year.&ldquo;I honestly didn&rsquo;t know if I could play until five minutes before faceoff,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;Then I wasn't sure whether the knee was ready until the puck was dropped.&rdquo;&ldquo;Dirk called me in the afternoon and said he thought he could play,&rdquo; said coach Mike Keenan. &ldquo;I said, Okay, you&rsquo;re in the lineup.&rsquo;&rdquo;Graham downplayed the significance of his presence in the seventh game against St. Louis.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011499/5829892-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="705" height="833"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dirk Graham returned after missing six weeks with a knee injury.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;They would have played like that whether I was out there or not,&rdquo; Graham said of his team mates after the convincing victory. &ldquo;They came out flying in the seventh game against Minnesota and would have done the same thing this time.&rdquo;Maybe so. but his teammates felt Graham&rsquo;s presence made sure they played well.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no way to describe what it means to have Dirk back, said Dems Savard. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great leader and a winner. He really inspires me and the whole club. It&rsquo;s just the example he sets of playing hard. That&rsquo;s the way he is as a person. He&rsquo;s honest. He comes to work hard every day no matter the situation.&rdquo;&ldquo;We missed Dirk,&rdquo; added Larmer. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll do anything for anybody.&rdquo;Graham suffered his knee injury March 17 at Montreal when he went to throw a check and slammed his knee into the boards.After playing against St. Louis in Game 7, Graham&rsquo;s knee flared up and prevented him from playing in the first game of the semifinals against Edmonton May 2. The Hawks lost 5-2.But he was back for Games 2 and 3, both Chicago victories. He assisted on a goal by Savard in the 4-3 win in Game 2 May 4, then got a clutch shorthanded goal himself in the Hawks&rsquo; 5-1 win in Game 3 May 6 back in Chicago.&ldquo;When we know he&rsquo;s out there playing hurt, it rubs off on all of us,&rdquo; said Steve Thomas.&ldquo;Dirk is just great for this team,&rdquo; said assistant coach E.J. McGuire. &ldquo;He gives us something special, something intense and important. He&rsquo;s down and dirty and real.&rdquo;Graham was just happy to be contributing again after six long weeks of rehabilitation.&ldquo;It was tough because you don&rsquo;t feel part of things when you&rsquo;re hurt,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;Right now my game is probably as rusty as the six weeks I&rsquo;ve been out. I still feel a little slow, but when you&rsquo;re out there with (Mark) Messier and (Glenn) Anderson you&rsquo;re going to feel slow. The knee gets tender, especially toward the end of periods, but it&rsquo;s getting stronger every day.&rdquo;And so, it appeared, were the Hawks thanks largely to Graham&rsquo;s return.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 2: Bob Bassen, LW. assigned to Indianapolis (IHL).May 3: Cam Russell, D, recalled from Indianapolis.May 5: Russell assigned to Indianapolis.May 6: Russell recalled from Indianapolis.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Denis Savard, Adam-Creighton, Troy Murray. Jeremy Roenick.LW&mdash;Greg Gilbert. Steve Thomas, Jocelyn Lemieux, Mike Hudson, Michel Goulet, Al Secord, Wayne Van Dorp.RW&mdash;Steve Larmer, Wayne Presley, Dirk Graham, Duane Sutter.LD&mdash;Doug Wilson, Steve Konroyd, Trent Yawney, Cam Russell.RD&mdash;Dave Manson. Keith Brown, Bob Murray.G&mdash;Greg Millen, Jacques Cloutier, Ed Belfour.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bob McGill, D, bruised left foot, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Roenick, Presley, 9. A&mdash;Savard, 14. P&mdash; Larmer, 20. PIM&mdash;Creighton, 55. &#9632;

f0010-01

CAPTAIN GRAHAM PROVIDES INSPIRATION

<h2>TRANSACTIONS</h2>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Peter Zezel, Adam Oates, Ron Wilson, Miche Mongeau, Nelson Emerson.LW&mdash;Sergio Momesso, Rod Brind'Amour, Dave Lowry. Gino Cavallini, Dave Thomlinson.RW&mdash;Brett Hull, Paul MacLean, Rich Sutter, Steve Tuttle, Kelly Chase.LD&mdash;Harold Snepsts. Mike Lalor, Robert Dirk, Gordie Roberts, Tony Twist.RD&mdash;Jeff Brown, Glen Featherstone, Paul Cavallini, Tom Tilley, Dominic Lavoie.G&mdash;Vincent Riendeau, Curtis Joseph, Pat Jablonski.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Rick Meagher, C, torn ligament in right knee.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Hull, 13. A&mdash;Oates, 12. P&mdash;Hull, 21. PIM&mdash;Momesso, 63. &#9632;

ST. LOUIS

It hasn&rsquo;t been long since the Philadelphia Flyers tore the &ldquo;C&rdquo; from above his breast. And the trade that broke his heart is still fresh in his mind. But it&rsquo;s safe to say Dave Poulin is now glad he reported to Boston.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011356/5829947-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="492" height="635"><figcaption class="caption-body">BARRY MEISEL</figcaption></div>Poulin, you see, has a habit of making life work. He&rsquo;s not just a hockey player. He&rsquo;s 31 years old. He&rsquo;s married with healthy twin daughters and a third child due in August. He has a stock brokers&rsquo; license, a successful brokerage, a B.A. from Notre Dame, a past, a future.And now, David James Poulin is one of the main reasons why the Bruins survived the Adams Division playoffs and were playing the Washington Capitals for the right to play for the Stanley Cup.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s equipped with a remarkable ability to believe that whatever he wants to do, he can do,&rdquo; said Kim Poulin, his wife of eight years. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something he was born with. It&rsquo;s incredible.&rdquo;He was undrafted in 1979, yet his four seasons at Notre Dame helped him earn a contract in Sweden. His season with Rogle attracted the attention of an opposing coach, Ted Sator, who told the Flyers to sign Poulin. Seven NHL years convinced Boston GM Harry Sinden that Poulin was worth three more seasons after this one to the Bruins.Becoming a successful player in the NHL when nobody thought you could is wonderful, but in the global view it hardly ranks with the universe&rsquo;s great achievements. Valuing life in the painful face of death is why Poulin is a leader.He did it twice, 11 months apart.In November, 1985, he was the man whose character kept a grieving team strong in the face of Pelle Lindbergh&rsquo;s horrible death. In October, 1986, he was the husband and father who refused to let Taylor and Lindsay, twins born three months premature, die.&ldquo;He just would not let me believe they were not going to live,&rdquo; Kim said. &ldquo;He wouldn&rsquo;t let me believe they wouldn&rsquo;t be fine and normal. He was determined they were going to survive and be normal human beings.&rdquo;He&rsquo;s a savvy two-way center with good speed who kills penalties, takes key faceoffs, scores a few goals and hands out a few more assists. He won a Selke Trophy in 1986-87, the year he refused to let his daughters&rsquo; scary first few months interfere with his job. He has dressed for Stanley Cup playoff games with bad knees, broken ribs, cracked fingers. He scored the overtime goal last May that temporarily kept the Flyers alive in the Wales finals against Montreal.And to think that on Jan. 16, former GM Bob Clarke traded him for Ken Linseman. Nothing against Linseman, but you don't give up on people like Poulin because people like Poulin never give up. Poulin still doesn&rsquo;t know if it was Clarke or president Jay Snider, the wannabee GM, who wanted him out of Philly.It doesn't matter now. Then it did.&ldquo;It was a very traumatic thing,&rdquo; Kim said. &ldquo;We sat down, talked about it. He decided it could be terrible for the Poulins or fabulous for the Poulins. He decided it was going to be fabulous. And that&rsquo;s what it&rsquo;s been.&rdquo;Poulin took five days to accept the trade. While most of the myopic NHL establishment had conniptions, he made sure Sinden wanted him for more than a year or two. He made sure playing in Boston wasn&rsquo;t going to interrupt his life. He made sure his business partners knew he wasn&rsquo;t abandoning them. He made sure this was best for Lindsay and Taylor and Kim&hellip;and Dave.The family recently spent a month in his Newton Centre townhouse, but they&rsquo;re back in Voorhees, N.J. That&rsquo;s their home. That&rsquo;s where they&rsquo;ll all be in June. For now, Poulin takes a different route home from the rink every day and tries to learn a little more about Boston off the ice.On the ice?&ldquo;It's a confident group,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been thinking lately about how people undervalue the regular season. A large part of our success now, I think, is we have a good regular season to draw from.&rdquo;The Bruins finished first overall with a record of 46-25-9. They went 19-9-4 after he arrived. They survived a scare from Hartford, overwhelmed Montreal, and held serve in Games 1 and 2 of the Wales final against Washington.Poulin wasn&rsquo;t offensive enough for the Flyers, but coach Mike Milbury has found time obetween killing penalties for Poulin to play a regular shift between Randy Burridge and Dave Christian, and get a chance on Boston&rsquo;s power play.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s scary,&rdquo; Kim said. &ldquo;I get freaked out watching him now, because I&rsquo;ve never seen him on the power play.&rdquo;Again, nothing against Linseman. But this is one of those trades you don&rsquo;t need five years to assess. The Bruins won big. &#9632;

f0011-01

POULIN PROVES PATIENCE PAYS

<h2>FLYERS</h2>Goaltender Ron Hextall is being sued by his former agent, Alan Eagleson, who contends Hextall owes $50,000 in unpaid negotiation fees. The suit was filed in March by Rae-Con Consultants Ltd. Hextail&rsquo;s contract, an eight-year deal negotiated by Eagleson in 1987, called for Hextall to earn $4 million over eight years. Eagleson was supposed to be paid $60,000 but according to him, he received $10,000. Hextall claimed in September the contract was invalid and did not report to training camp. He returned to the Flyers in October but has not divulged terms of the settlement. He has since retained the services of Rich Winter&hellip;Pat Croce will return as the Flyers&rsquo; physical conditioning coach next year. There had been reports Croce might not be rehired.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>The best quote coming out of the Washington Capitals&rsquo; playoff drive thus far can be attributed only to a Caps&rsquo; official who asked to remain anonymous: &ldquo;The best player for the Boston Bruins this far has been Kris King.&rdquo; King is the New York Ranger (and former Cap) left winger who knocked both right winger Dino Ciccarelli and defenseman Kevin Hatcher out of the Patrick Division finals with knee injuries. Both also missed the first two games of the Wales final. Ciccarelli was possible for Game 4 but Hatcher was expected to miss the entire series. Were they missed? The Caps scored only three goals in the first two games against the Bruins and allowed eight&hellip;The Caps were shut out 3-0 by Andy Moog May 5, the first time in their 66-game playoff history they failed to score a goal.<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>The mid-season run that launched the Islanders into first place did not keep them atop the Patrick Division standings for very long, but it did revive flagging interest in the franchise on Long Island. Officials in the team&rsquo;s front office said that group sales increased dramatically following the start of the team&rsquo;s turnaround in late November. It was not enough to prevent the team from sustaining its lowest average attendance&mdash;12,710&mdash;in l6years. But team executives do not like to think what the figures would have been had the Isles failed to break out of the 5-18-3 slump with which they started the season. Four of the final eight regular-season games at the 16,297-seat Nassau Coliseum were sellouts, as were both home playoff games.<h2>DEVILS</h2>Marshall Johnston, director of player personnel, did some scouting at the World Championships in Switzerland. The Devils could be interested in drafting some of the talent on the Czechoslovakian team&hellip;Center Peter Stastny returned to Czechoslovakia at the conclusion of the playoffs. It marked Stastny&rsquo;s first visit to his homeland since he defected with brother Anton in August of 1980&hellip;Soviets Viacheslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov will remain in New Jersey this summer, except for a two-week getaway to the Soviet Union&hellip;Goalie Chris Terreri was scheduled to undergo surgery on his thumb.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-03707/5829978-1-eng-US/f0011-032.jpg" title="f0011-03" width="544" height="886"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Coffey broke a finger at the World Championships.</figcaption></div><h2>PENGUINS</h2>General manager Craig Patrick said he has had &ldquo;preliminary discussions with a couple&rdquo; of head-coaching candidates, but is not close to deciding who will get the job. John Paddock, assistant general manager of the Flyers, is the only person to publicly express an interest in the position so far&hellip;Defenseman Paul Coffey broke a finger while playing for Team Canada at the World Championships&hellip; Pittsburgh has the fifth pick in the June 16 entry draft, but there has been speculation the Penguins will try to trade for a higher choice. Patrick, however, seemed satisfied with being No. 5: &ldquo;When we pick, we&rsquo;re going to get a player who will be in a Penguin uniform in the near future, if not next year,&rdquo; he said.<h2>RANGERS</h2>Roger Neilson, chosen as one of three finalists by the broadcasters for coach of the year, said the Rangers were a little short of team toughness against the Capitals but said his team has enough when everybody is healthy. &ldquo;I believe that not having Chris Nilan (fractured arm) for the Washington series hurt us,&rdquo; he conceded after the Rangers were knocked out by the Capitals in five games. &ldquo;Maybe against the Capitals we needed another bigger guy but, if we had all three of our injured defensemen (Brian Leetch, Mark Hardy and David Shaw) in the lineup, I don&rsquo;t think that would have been the case.&rdquo;&hellip;The Rangers have five free agents: John Ogrodnick, Mike Gartner, Paul Broten, Ron Greschner and Kevin Miller. &#9632;

f0011-03

HEXTALL SUED BY FORMER AGENT

A goalie for six teams from 1969-70 to &rsquo;82-83, Phil Myre, 41, is an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings. Myre says goaltenders have had to adapt to the changing style of the game. &ldquo;(Today&rsquo;s) goalies have to be quicker and more agile than 20 years ago. Now there are more quality shots and more one-timers&mdash;the game is more offensive.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02995/5830009-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="560" height="402"><figcaption class="caption-body">Phil Myre</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0011-02

THEN & NOW

<div class="byline">BY DAVE FAY</div>Mention the name Dale Hunter and NHL fans in 20 cities stand and boo.Even in Quebec this season, the city where he once was a hero as a rock-solid Nordique star for seven seasons, fans booed him, whistled and chanted &ldquo;traitor&rdquo; when he helped humiliate the hometown team as a part of the Washington Capitals.Is he a man of intense bravery, the ultimate competitor willing to pay any price to come to a teammate&rsquo;s aid, to take any form of physical abuse to clear a path for a Washington goal? There is testimony to that effect.Is he a mad dog turned loose on a staid old league? There are figures to back that claim, 501 of them, the number of penalty minutes he has taken in 10 playoff seasons, exactly 100 playoff games as of May 5.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011459/5830040-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="547" height="815"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dale Hunter is the all-time playoff penalty-minute leader.</figcaption></div>Or is he nothing more than a cheapshot artist, as Boston coach Mike Milbury claims?&ldquo;Anytime Dale Hunter&rsquo;s in a hockey game you know you&rsquo;re going to have some cheap shots, there&rsquo;s no question about that,&rdquo; Milbury said before the Caps-Bruins Wales Conference series. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve seen him play for I don&rsquo;t know how many years and that&rsquo;s his style. And he&rsquo;s awfully good at it.&rdquo;Hunter&rsquo;s career playoff total for penalty minutes broke new ground this season when he became the first player to surpass 500 minutes (four minors in a 3-0 loss to Boston May 5 gave him 501). He opened the playoffs this season with 446, good for second place on the all-time list, but quickly moved past Willi Plett&rsquo;s 466 to take over first place.&ldquo;He is aggressive, there can be no disputing that. But dirty? Dale Hunter is a Washington Capital,&rdquo; general manager David Poile said, &ldquo;so the way I like to describe it is that he&rsquo;s the ultimate competitor.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think David hit it right on the head because Dale is such a competitive person,&rdquo; said coach Terry Murray. &ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s that he plays the old-style game, almost, the physical play and all that. In the old days players were involved, finished their checks all the time, paid the price for playing in the trenches in front of the net to be successful.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the philosophy Dale Hunter works under. As a coach you would like to see that on a consistent basis from almost everybody but the game has changed a little bit. Thai part of the game today is not as obvious, or as important for a lot ol people.&rdquo;Murray, a player from the &rsquo;70s, has heard boos in Boston Garden before. He remembers the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; championship teams of the mid-&rsquo;70s being booed there, just a few short years after the Bruins were winning a few Cups of their own.&ldquo;They were used to seeing the Bruins being the bad guys, being able to intimidate, putting fear into everybody just by walking into the building,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;(The fans) were putting pressure on the Bruins to return to the top of their game.&rdquo;&ldquo;When they boo a player, you know they love him,&rdquo; defenseman Rod Langway, a Boston native, said of Garden fans&rsquo; reaction to Hunter. &ldquo;But if he ever got traded here, he&rsquo;d be the fan favorite. Every team in the league would love him.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-01

HUNTER A HATED MAN WHEREVER HE GOES

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE FISH</div>When the Philadelphia Flyers announced they were about to embark on a youth movement next season, nearly everyone thought they just meant players.Little did they know age might also be a factor in the search for a new general manager.One of the first candidates selected to be interviewed for the job left vacant by Bob Clarke&rsquo;s firing was 34-year-old Russ Farwell.Farwell, general manager of the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western League, met with Flyers&rsquo; president Jay Snider May 3.Snider also interviewed sports management consultant Bill Watters May 2.Neither man has experience on the management level in the NHL, which runs contrary to what qualifications Snider said he was looking for shortly after Clarke&rsquo;s release April 16.Farwell, however, does fit Snider&rsquo;s job description when it comes to development of young players.During his eight-year tenure in the WHL, Farwell has provided the NHL with approximately 20 players from the junior ranks.Also working in Farwell&rsquo;s favor are his ties to the organization. He has served as a freelance scout for the Flyers and had a good working relationship with Clarke.Snider didn&rsquo;t make any offers. However, it is believed he will reach a decision before the end of the month.&ldquo;It would be a bold move for the Flyers to take a general manager out of junior hockey,&rdquo; Farwell said. &ldquo;Change for the sake of change is not the answer for the Flyers.&rdquo;Farwell spent six seasons with Medicine Hat before arriving in Seattle two seasons ago. Medicine Hat won the Memorial Cup in 1987 and 1988 under Farwell&rsquo;s guidance.This past season, the Thunderbirds set franchise records for wins (52) and points (107), compiling a 52-15-3 record.Seattle qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 1986 and Farwell was named WHL executive of the year.Watters, 46, is the former president of Branada Sports Management Ltd., and is presently an associate employee of Rick Curran Representation Inc. While he has phased himself out of the agent business, he does keep a hands-on responsibility with a limited number of that firm&rsquo;s clients, one of whom is the Flyers&rsquo; Ilkka Sinisalo.Watters also works as a television and radio hockey analyst in Toronto.&ldquo;I was quite flattered to be considered,&rdquo; said Watters. &ldquo;I was called by Mr. Snider but I have not applied for the job.&rdquo;The direction Snider took in his first interviews for the GM job fueled speculation he might retain head coach Paul Holmgren and his assistants, Andy Murray and Mike Eaves.In a television interview May I, Snider said Holmgren and his staff did a respectable job under trying conditions and that he favored keeping them.On the other hand, Snider said if a new GM insisted on bringing his own coach, he would honor that request.But there are other clues to suggest Holmgren might be back.For instance, the Flyers fired Hershey (American League) coach Kevin McCarthy May 2, but Snider offered him another job in the organization. That job is believed to be reassignment as a third assistant coach under Holmgren.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 2: Kevin McCarthy, coach of Hershey Bears (AHL), and Al Hill, assistant coach of Hershey, fired. &#9632;

FARWELL FRONTRUNNER FOR GENERAL MANAGER JOB

<h2>TRANSACTIONS</h2>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Ridley, Dale Hunter, Michal Pivonka, Tim Bergland, Rob Murray, Alfie Turcotte.LW&mdash;Kelly Miller, Geoff Courtnall, Bob Joyce, Nick Kypreos, Steve Maltais, Steve Seftel.RW&mdash;John Druce, Steve Leach, Alan May, John Tucker.LD&mdash;Rod Langway, Scott Stevens, Scot Kleinendorst, Kent Paynter, Mark Ferner.RD&mdash;Bob Rouse, Neil Sheehy, Calle Johansson.G&mdash;Don Beaupre, Mike Liut, Jim Hrivnak.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dino Ciccarelli, RW, sprained left knee. May 9.Kevin Hatcher, D, sprained left knee, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Druce, 13. A&mdash;Hatcher, Courtnall, Hunter. 8. P&mdash;Druce, 15. PIM&mdash;Sheehy. 92. &#9632;

WASHINGTON

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>Bob Brooke is ready to trade a career of forechecks and blue &lsquo;lines for a life of bank checks and bottom lines.The New Jersey Devils&rsquo; right winger said he will likely retire from hockey after next season to begin a career in the business world.Brooke, 29, was accepted at the prestigious Harvard Business School. Entering the option year on his $215,000 contract with the Devils, the former Yale University and U.S. Olympic star plans to play out his option and then file his retirement papers at the end of the 1990-91 season.&ldquo;Depending on contract talks with (Devils&rsquo; general manager) Lou Lamoriello which, to be honest, are not going very well, I&rsquo;ll probably end up playing out my option, save as much money as I can, retire at the end of next season and go to Harvard Business School,&rdquo; Brooke said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way I&rsquo;m feeling about things right now. It&rsquo;s always been my ambition to be successful outside of hockey.&rdquo;Lamoriello was not surprised by Brooke&rsquo;s career decision.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think Bobby is trying to put any pressure on us. He has other options in life. To me, there is nothing wrong with that,&rdquo; said Lamoriello.&ldquo;We have to see what&rsquo;s in the best interests of the organization. I don&rsquo;t feel uncomfortable saying Bobby can help the New Jersey Devils, but to what extent?&rdquo;Two factors weighed heavily in Brooke&rsquo;s decision. He wants to enter the business world in his prime and his hockey career has not gone smoothly the past few seasons.After being acquired from the Minnesota North Stars Jan. 5 in the trade for Aaron Broten, Brooke played a key role for the Devils down the stretch. He was a member of the checking line with Dave Maley and Pat Conacher before being moved to a line with Kirk Muller and Peter Stastny.But when the Devils opened the playoffs against the Washington Capitals, Brooke was on the bench as a seldom-used fourth-line forward. He did not even dress for the fifth and final game of the Patrick Division semifinals.&ldquo;Things went from a pretty rosy picture to pretty bleak. It got me to re-evaluate what I want to do the remainder of my working years,&rdquo; Brooke said. &ldquo;One of the reasons I applied to business school is the way things were going in Minnesota the last two seasons. In one I got injured and missed a bunch of games and in another I just wasn&rsquo;t getting the ice time. Without ice time you can&rsquo;t put the statistics on the board to have more fun and to make more money.&ldquo;I thought I was a playoff player. When the playoffs began this year I was sitting on the bench and I never heard anything. I understand decisions are made and I don&rsquo;t have to be told, but I got a little discouraged.&rdquo;A veteran of six full NHL seasons, Brooke was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in 1980. He was traded to Minnesota on Nov. 13, 1986 with a fourth-round draft choice (Jeffery Stolp) for Curt Giles, Tony McKegney and a second-round draft pick (Troy Mallette).The Melrose. Mass., native scored eight goals with 10 assists in 35 games for the Devils this season. His season totals with New Jersey and Minnesota were 12-14-26 in 73 games.&ldquo;I wish I had played the whole season for the Devils. I probably would&rsquo;ve had 40 or 50 points, I think,&rdquo; Brooke said. &ldquo;I think the Devils are a great organization. There aren&rsquo;t any other teams I&rsquo;d rather play for, but hockey to me has become almost a financial decision to play.&ldquo;If I want to have a successful post-hockey career it gets more and more difficult the longer you postpone getting into it. It would be almost perfect. I&rsquo;ll be 30 next year. I&rsquo;d get out of Harvard Business School at 32. I&rsquo;d be young enough to start on the fast track.&rdquo; &#9632;

BROOKE LOOKS TO CASH IN ON POST-HOCKEY CAREER

<div class="byline">BY WALT MacPEEK</div>As poor as the New York Rankgers&rsquo; team health was reported to be for much of the season, it was apparently even worse.The Rangers ended the playoffs without Chris Nilan (fractured arm), Darren Turcotte (fractured foot), Brian Leetch (fractured ankle), David Shaw (shoulder surgery) and Mark Hardy (sprained ankle) but some of their &ldquo;healthy&rdquo; players weren&rsquo;t much better off.Two days after the Rangers had been knocked out of the playoffs by the Washington Capitals, defenseman Randy Moller said he was headed for a summer of &ldquo;extensive rehabilitation&rdquo; on a worse-than-reported right shoulder and, three days later, left winger Jan Erixon underwent surgery during which a herniated disc in his lower back was partially removed.Operated upon by Dr. Patrick O&rsquo;Leary at Lenox Hill Hospital, Erixon was expected to be able to resume skating in August and, according to the doctor, should be ready for the start of training camp in September.&ldquo;We knew that we were going to have Jan&rsquo;s back thoroughly examined when the season was over,&rdquo; Ranger general manager Neil Smith said, &ldquo;and, in the best case scenario, the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) gives a clear indication of a slip or a bulge. Then the specialist knows where to focus on, where to snip, slice, sand or whatever they do.&ldquo;When they did the MRI on Jan, they found quite a big bulge in one disc and so the problem was clear to them and they were able to go in and repair it. They said it was a very successful procedure and that he should be much better.&rdquo;Smith estimated Erixon played at about &ldquo;75 per cent efficiency&rdquo; for most of the season (58 games) and that takes into consideration a slight improvement over the season before, when he was limited to 44 games.Erixon has not been healthy for much of the last four years, having suffered a sprained knee and a fractured ankle, in addition to his longterm back woes.&ldquo;Jan never complained,&rdquo; defenseman James Patrick said after the Rangers were eliminated in five games by Washington, &ldquo;but you could tell he was in pain because he couldn&rsquo;t even sit through a team meal and he stood up on the bench sometimes. I don&rsquo;t know how he played so well all this time.&rdquo;Moller is another player who was less than 100 per cent during the playoffs but still managed to get a goal and six assists in 10 playoff games while logging huge amounts of ice time.&ldquo;When you get knocked out of the playoffs,&rdquo; Moller said, &ldquo;you&rsquo;re down and disappointed but I also knew in the back of my mind that one more hit, the wrong way, and I was going to have to have surgery. I just know it.&ldquo;And now time is on my side, I'll work hard on rehabilitation all summer with a friend of mine who is a physical therapist back home in Red Deer, Alta., and I&rsquo;ll come back strong for training camp.&ldquo;I hurt the shoulder twice (Dec. 13 and Feb. 14) and then I missed the last six games with back spasms, which were related to the shoulder problem.&ldquo;I remember after the first game against Washington, I couldn&rsquo;t get out of bed the next morning. I couldn&rsquo;t practise (during the playoffs) and I had my back and neck worked on every morning just to be able to play in the games.&rdquo;Moller missed most of training camp with Quebec because of a fractured toe and then rushed into the regular season with the Rangers following an Oct. 5 deal which sent Michel Petit to the Nordiques.&ldquo;I never realized how much a player needs a good training camp,&rdquo; Moller said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to join a new team and try to catch up with everybody.&rdquo; &#9632;

TWO MORE JOIN INJURY LIST

<div class="byline">BY MARK HERRMANN</div>Ken Baumgartner finished the playoffs with a new degree of respect among teammates and opponents. That was surprising, considering the way the New York Islanders&rsquo; enforcer had begun the series.He was one of two Islander players suspended by the NHL for an attack on several New York Rangers with two seconds left in Game 1 of the Patrick Division semifinal April 5. But unlike teammate Mick Vukota, who received a 10-game suspension, Baumgartner got a chance for redemption after sitting out one game.Through the rest of the series, he played left wing and consistently distributed hard, clean checks. When the series ended after the fifth game, Baumgartner was the first one in line to shake hands with the Rangers&mdash;a move that earned him praise from the Rangers&rsquo; television commentators who had severely criticized him while the game-ending brawl was taking place a week earlier.&ldquo;I only had one minor penalty in that series, aside from the one incident,&rdquo; Baumgartner said. &ldquo;I played hard, but I proved to a lot of people I can play under control and play smart.&ldquo;You can come in the first year and fight everyone and build a reputation as a game kid. I think time is the test. Three years I&rsquo;ve been in the league now. With the increased coverage of the series, a lot of people got to see us play and a lot of people got to see what I can and can&rsquo;t do.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011446/5830167-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="551" height="643"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken Baumgartner had six points and 222 PIM this season.</figcaption></div>Observers saw how important Baumgartner was to a team that began a 23-6-3 run on Nov. 30, the night he and center Hubie McDonough debuted following their trade from the Los Angeles Kings for right winger Mikko Makela.He did not win unanimous praise, however. Madison Square Garden fans taunted him. Rangers&rsquo; right winger Chris Nilan, who suffered a season-ending broken arm when he tried to fend off a Baumgartner check, suggested the Islander &ldquo;might be a player&hellip; someday.&rdquo;But others had different view-points. Baumgartner did not even have time to dress after the game before Ranger center&mdash;and former Kings&rsquo; teammate&mdash;Bernie Nicholls summoned him out into the hallway after Game 5 for a long, friendly chat.And people close to Roger Neilson insist the Rangers&rsquo; coach would love to have someone like Baumgartner on his team.&ldquo;He always seems to play his game,&rdquo; Neilson said. &ldquo;If there&rsquo;s a fight, he fights. But he&rsquo;ll only go after the other team&rsquo;s fighter.&rdquo;While the 24-year-old Flin Flon, Man., native has little shooting or passing ability&mdash;he collected only six points in 65 games with 222 penalty minutes&mdash;he is hardly a one-dimensional person. As a junior with Prince Albert, he was named the Western League&rsquo;s scholastic player of the year in 1986.This off-season, he is about to enter another field. He is scheduled to go to Los Angeles to do vocals on a Metal Blade Records release called &ldquo;The Bomber,&rdquo; a title that matches his nickname. &#9632;

f0014-01

FORWARD-THINKING BOMBER GAINS SOME RESPECT

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; general manager Craig Patrick returned from the World Championships in Switzerland with many of the same things as his colleagues from around the NHL.Severe jet lag, a highly favorable impression of Jaromir Jagr&mdash;the Czechoslovakian left winger who figures to be one of the first players taken in the June 16 entry draft&mdash;and a list of other international players deemed worthy of being chosen in the draft.But Patrick also came back with a keen interest in signing a guy who could become the first Eastern Bloc player in Penguins&rsquo; history, Czechoslovakian right winger Jiri Kucera.Kucera, 24, was Pittsburgh&rsquo;s eighth-round choice in the 1987 draft, the last one overseen by then-general manager Eddie Johnston. Johnston was interested in signing Kucera, but he was replaced by Tony Esposito April 14, 1988.Esposito showed little interest in drafting&mdash;let alone signing&mdash;European players, so Kucera seemed destined to be little more than a footnote in franchise history until Patrick was named general manager last Dec. 5.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021117/5830198-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="551" height="597"><figcaption class="caption-body">Craig Patrick, above, hopes to have Jiri Kucera next season.</figcaption></div>Patrick, whose longtime involvement with international hockey includes being an assistant coach with the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team in 1980, put together a strong track record for acquiring Europeans during his tenure as general manager of the New York Rangers.Getting a good look at Kucera was one of Patrick&rsquo;s top priorities at the World Championships, and he obviously liked what he saw.He was sufficiently impressed that his objective is to have the 6-foot, 174 pound winger in Pittsburgh when training camp opens in September. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;m shooting for,&rdquo; Patrick said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be worth bringing over.&rdquo;Kucera usually plays right wing with the Czechoslovakian national team and Skoda Plzen, his club team in the Czechoslovakian Elite League, but was shifted to center for the world tournament. Patrick theorized the move was made because of the vacancy created when Vladimir Ruzicka joined the Edmonton Oilers this season. Kucera had 4-1-5 totals in eight games for the bronze-medal winning Czechoslovakian team at the World Championships.Patrick discussed Kucera abilities in somewhat vague, but laudatory, phrases like &ldquo;he is good with the puck.&rdquo; That is high praise from Patrick, who rarely offers anything more than a sketchy evaluation, good or bad, of a player&rsquo;s performance or potential.Of course, wanting to sign Kucera is not to be confused with actually doing it. Patrick had no direct contact with Kucera in Switzerland and still is not certain who will negotiate his contract.Once the identity of Kucera&rsquo;s representative is established, Patrick will begin trying to work out a deal. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m waiting until the dust clears,&rdquo; he said.Patrick said Kucera has expressed an interest in playing in the NHL, but does have at least one reservation.&ldquo;He has a daughter who&rsquo;s ill and he&rsquo;s concerned about the hospitals over here,&rdquo; he said.Patrick said he is sure he can convince Kucera he need not worry about the quality of health care in North America. &#9632;

f0014-02

PATRICK CZECHS OUT PROSPECT

It is one of nature&rsquo;s inviolable laws that father begets son, and not the son the father.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011338/5830236-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="497" height="611"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE DRYDEN</figcaption></div>But that fact of life is sometimes overlooked when the subject turns to the Browns, Bob and. Rob. Bob is general manager of the Kamloops Blazers, Rob, a star with the Pittsburgh Penguins.Everybody knows about Rob, the free-spirit right winger. Few people outside the Western League know about Bob, the architect of the winningest team in major junior hockey.The Blazers&rsquo; .675 winning percentage during the four years Brown has been GM is the best of 40 teams in the Western, Ontario and Quebec Leagues. This year marks the second time Kamloops has reached the Memorial Cup during his stewardship.Two circumstances contribute to Brown&rsquo;s relative anonymity: His son and his coach.Rob was one of the best players ever in the WHL, and starred four years with the Blazers. When Bob was hired as a scout, suspicions were he was hired because he is Rob Brown&rsquo;s father.Not even Bob&rsquo;s elevation from head scout to GM in 1986, or Rob&rsquo;s depature one year later, has served to thrust Brown into the spotlight.Blame that on the enormous shadow cast by coaching heavyweight Ken Hitchcock, arguably the most successful coach in major junior history and inarguably a media star.He is colorful and quotable. People who write down what others say for a living, love guys who make their jobs easy.Bob Brown, 45, is his partner. He&rsquo;s no silent partner&mdash;just ask those who have listened to him filibuster at WHL meetings&mdash;but Brown is clearly second to Hitchcock in the public&rsquo;s perception.He was not so easy to overlook when he played the game.&lsquo;Big Bad&rsquo; Bobby Brown was not very big, but he more than made up for that shortcoming by being very bad. The 5-foot-9 defenseman once earned close to 400 penalty minutes with the Dayton Gems of the International League.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve run into many a man who fought my father,&rdquo; recalls Rob Brown, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;ve yet to meet a man who beat him.&rdquo;Including the neighbor who badmouthed one of the Brown boys, and then challenged their father to a fight. Bob, sporting a patch over his left eye after surgery, accommodated the man on the Brown&rsquo;s front lawn.If he is to reach his next objective, the only fight Brown needs wage now is one for recognition. Bob Brown wants to be a GM in the NHL.At least one biased observer believe he has the right stuff.&ldquo;My father would be a very good GM in the NHL,&rdquo; Rob says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a matter of time before he gets there.&rdquo;Bob Brown says he has no set timetable for making the NHL, but plans on pursuing a position within the next couple of seasons. By then, he&rsquo;ll have five years in with the Blazers and a firmly-entrenched reputation for fiscal responsibility.The first-rate scout offers this scouting report on himself: &ldquo;I think I have a pretty good business sense and I think I&rsquo;m a pretty good motivator.&rdquo;Brown has certainly helped keep Kamloops fans motivated. The Blazers played to 98 percent capacity in the 2,569-seat Memorial Arena this season.&ldquo;His ability to read the fans is amazing,&rdquo; Hitchcock says. &ldquo;He can tell you almost to the fan how many will show up for each game.&rdquo;Hitchcock and Brown have the perfect working relationship: Each shores up the other&rsquo;s weaknesses. Brown has a keen eye for skill players, Hitchcock for character players.&ldquo;He (Hitchcock) questions my skill players,&rdquo; Brown says, &ldquo;because they don&rsquo;t always show up every night&hellip;except on the scoreboard.&rdquo;Brown always shows up prepared. He is a diligent worker&mdash;&ldquo;Seven days a week, 24 hours a day,&rdquo; Blazers&rsquo; president Colin Day says&mdash;and willing to take risks. Brown made five trades this season, including the deal that brought Len Barrie from the Victoria Cougars. Barrie won the league scoring championship this season. Brown is a demanding GM. He wasted no time in letting Memorial Cup organizers know that no detail is too small for his attention. One official labeled him a pain in the rear end. Brown was just doing his job.Hitchcock and Brown share an aggressiveness that sometimes rubs people the wrong way. So does their win-loss record. The two never go more than 24 hours without talking to one another, and they split the cost of a satelite dish for the Blazers&rsquo; office. Hitchcock says the split was not an even one. Brown says that&rsquo;s fair because the only time he gets dibs on the dish is when the Penguins are playing.That, too, is fair. After all, Bob Brown&rsquo;s son plays for them.<h2>NUMBERS</h2>Entering the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Boston Bruins had more former U.S. collegians on their roster than any other NHL team. The 13 players are: Craig Janney, Dave Poulin, Bob Gould, John Carter, Bob Sweeney, Don Sweeney, Dave Christian, Peter Douris, Garry Galley, Andy Brickley, John Byce, Bill O&rsquo;Dwyer and Bob Beers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02942/5830229-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="693" height="411"><figcaption class="caption-body">Craig Janney</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0015-01

‘BAD BOY’ BOBBY BROWN MAKING NAME FOR HIMSELF

<h2>CANUCKS</h2>Brian Burke, the team&rsquo;s vicepresident and director of hockey operations, signed a new contract, likely for two years to coincide with the final two years on GM Pat Quinn&rsquo;s pact. Burke, who turns 35 in June, joined the Canucks in June, 1987. The Canucks have finished 19th, 14th and 20th under the Quinn-Burke regime, reaching the playoffs just once in three years&hellip;The rumored Bob McCammon-to-Los Angeles move surfaced again in Vancouver, but Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall quickly put a stop to it. &ldquo;There have been no discussions with Bob McCammon, none whatsoever,&rdquo; said McNall. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m satisifed with where we&rsquo;re going now. Again, I think we&rsquo;ve made so many changes in those areas, I&rsquo;m pretty much settled on trying to maintain things.&rdquo;<h2>OILERS</h2>The news on the Kelly Buchberger front was comforting. On May 4, the right winger re-injured the shoulder he dislocated March 13 during a fight in Quebec. Buchberger fell at the Chicago blue line during Game 2 of the Campbell final and Blackhawks&rsquo; defenseman Steve Konroyd fell on him, popping his left shoulder again. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not as bad as it was in Quebec,&rdquo; said therapist Ken Lowe. &ldquo;This time it&rsquo;s day-to-day.&rdquo; Buchberger, who missed three weeks after he sustained the initial injury, knew his shoulder popped when the 195-pound Konroyd fell on him. &ldquo;I went down kind of funny and he landed on me,&rdquo; said Buchberger. &ldquo;I could feel it go out and it didn&rsquo;t go back in until the doctors worked on me. They told me the first day would be the worst. They told me I&rsquo;ve got to keep using it.&rdquo;&hellip;Mark Messier on being named a finalist for the Hart Trophy, along with Boston&rsquo;s Ray Bourque and St. Louis&rsquo; Brett Hull: &ldquo;This means a lot to me, but, as Wayne (Gretzky) said so often, &lsquo;These awards are great, but the Stanley Cup is the goal.&rsquo;&rdquo;<h2>FLAMES</h2>The Flames&rsquo; first move of the offseason did not come unexpectedly. They assigned the contract of left winger Jonas Bergqvist to Mannheim of the German league April 28. Bergqvist, signed from Sweden a year ago, saw limited duty for the Flames, scoring two goals and five assists in 22 games&hellip;Left winger Sergei Priakin appeared to score a first when He won the gold medal with the Soviet Union team a year after he won a Stanley Cup with Calgary. Priakin, the last player added to the Soviet roster, played only three games in the medal round but showed enough to draw praise from the Flames&rsquo; players on Team Canada. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s really underrated,&rdquo; said defenseman Jamie Macoun. &ldquo;He just goes out and does his job every time he&rsquo;s on the ice.&rdquo; &hellip;The Flames were to find out in mid-May if center Joe Nieuwendyk needs to undergo a major reconstruction on ms left knee. Nieuwendyk tore the anterior cruciate ligament in a innocent collision with the USA&rsquo;s Jim Johnson at the World Championships.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03689/5830267-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg" title="f0015-03" width="553" height="797"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Laidlaw has an 80 per cent chance of returning next year.</figcaption></div><h2>KINGS</h2>The chances Tom Laidlaw&rsquo;s back injury will heal and permit him to play next season are &ldquo;80 per cent,&rdquo; the Kings&rsquo; defenseman said. If it doesn&rsquo;t? &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. I try not to think about that,&rdquo; Laidlaw, 32, said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not the young pup I used to be, you know?&rdquo; Laidlaw missed the final eight regular-season games and all 10 playoff games with a disc problem. The coating that protects one of the discs is damaged. Whenever he twists or turns his back, the disc becomes irritated, the back muscles tighten, and he experiences a shooting pain. &ldquo;Missing all those games was really frustrating,&rdquo; Laidlaw said. &ldquo;But it got to the point where I couldn&rsquo;t even bend over to touch my knees.&rdquo;&hellip;Coach Tom Webster and former Kings&rsquo; star Bernie Nicholls have reached a truce of sorts. Nicholls, who took several verbal jabs at Webster after Nicholls was traded to the New York Rangers Jan. 20, called his criticism &ldquo;stupid. I shouldn&rsquo;t have said those things.&rdquo;<h2>JETS</h2>The Winnipeg Jets and their fans shared in the loss of captain Thomas Steen and his wife Mona following the death of their son April 28. Amadeus Steen, just eight weeks old, died suddenly at the couple&rsquo;s Winnipeg home. The cause of death was not known. Amadeus was born March 2, the same day Steen returned from a 22-game absence. The Steens have two other children, Alexander, 6, and Cassandra. 4&hellip;The arena debate took a new twist in Winnipeg at the end of April with the revelation Winnipeg Enterprises Corporation, the public body which runs the current Winnipeg Arena and holds a 36 per cent interest in the Jets, is considering building a football-hockey multiplex. Enterprises board members admitted they were studying a $110,000 million facility being built in San Antonio. &#9632;

f0015-03

BURKE RE-SIGNED BY VANCOUVER

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>Glenn Anderson has long hinted about moving on.The concensus has been the right winger would not be a career Edmonton Oiler such as, say, linemate Mark Messier.The free-spirited Anderson declared he could be headed to Europe at the completion of his NHL contract. The 29-year-old has two years to run on an eight-year deal signed after the 1984 Canada Cup.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to play in Europe,&rdquo; he said.Any place in particular?&ldquo;Whatever team would take me,&rdquo; said the Burnaby, B.C. native, who has had an eye on Switzerland.Considering Anderson&rsquo;s 10-year NHL statistics (389 goals, 452 assists), the line would undoubtedly form to the right.A few years ago during the Stanley Cup playoffs, Anderson disclosed he would like to spend a year or so in the Soviet Union, but has since changed that tune.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think so now, I thought about that more when I was in my prime,&rdquo; said Anderson. &ldquo;Besides, I always wanted to make sure I&rsquo;d come back.&rdquo;Anderson&rsquo;s penchant to perform in Europe stems back to his days with the 1980 Canadian Olympic team.After Lake Placid he had three options: play in Europe as an amateur, sign with the Oilers who had drafted him in the fourth round in 1979, or return to Denver University.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011231/5830298-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="705" height="766"><figcaption class="caption-body">Glenn Anderson&rsquo;s contract with Edmonton expires in two seasons.</figcaption></div>In fact, he was in the process of negotiating a contract with Visp, Switzerland when an outside source gave him no choice but to turn pro.&ldquo;Eagleson came out and said he wouldn&rsquo;t send amateurs to the World Championships,&rdquo; said Anderson of Al Eagleson, outgoing NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always dreamed of winning a medal (Olympic), whatever medal that would be,&rdquo; said Anderson, who has performed on four Stanley Cup winners, two Canada Cup championship teams and the silver-medal team at last year&rsquo;s World Championships in Sweden.Ideally, he&rsquo;d love to play for Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team in 1992&mdash;on loan from the Oilers the way Calgary&rsquo;s Jim Peplinski did in 1988.&ldquo;I think that would be great,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Absolutely. If the Oilers would let me play, I&rsquo;d love to. I&rsquo;d play for my country any time I could. I find international hockey always to be intriguing.&rdquo;What are the chances of him re-signing with the Oilers in two years?&ldquo;There&rsquo;s always that possibility,&rdquo; said Anderson, who earns $330,000 (Cdn.) annually and was turned down flatly when he sought re-negotiation of his contract following the 1987 Canada Cup.Would it be a financial decision?&ldquo;Either that or the fact I&rsquo;d still want to play in the NHL,&rdquo; said Anderson. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think money is the No. 1 priority. You know me, I&rsquo;ll do whatever makes me happy.&rdquo;In the meantime, Anderson has been a solid performer during the Stanley Cup playoffs. Following a dismal season in 1988-89 (16 goals, plus one in the playoffs), he came to the conclusion a year ago at the World Championships, he had better get his act together.&ldquo;I knew I wasn&rsquo;t going to be playing much longer,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;so I would do everything possible to be a winner.&rdquo;He had 72 points and more than doubled his goal output from 1988-89 (34). He added four goals and five assists in 14 playoff games.&ldquo;Maybe he didn&rsquo;t get a lot of points early in the Winnipeg series,&rdquo; said linemate Craig Simpson, &ldquo;but he was in the goalie&rsquo;s face every night. He played hard and created opportunities for other guys.&rdquo;Anderson&rsquo;s attitude adjustment has also worked wonders in the dressing room.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been a great influence in the dressing room,&rdquo; said Simpson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been very team-oriented.&rdquo;<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier, Mark Lamb, Craig MacTavish. Adam Graves, Vladimir Ruzicka, Tommy Lehmann.LW&mdash;Craig Simpson, Esa Tikkanen. Petr Klima, Martin Gelinas, Peter Eriksson, Dan Currie, David Haas.RW&mdash;Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, Joe Murphy, Dave Brown, Mike Ware, Kim Issel.LD&mdash;Kevin Lowe, Steve Smith, Geoff Smith. Chris Joseph.RD&mdash;Craig Muni, Reijo Ruotsalainen, Charlie Huddy, Randy Gregg, Jeff Beukeboom, Mark Laforge.G&mdash;Bill Ranford, Eldon Reddick.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Kelly Buchberger. RW, dislocated left shoulder, day-to-day.Grant Fuhr, G, shoulder surgery, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Tikkanen, Simpson. 9. A&mdash;Messier. 12. P&mdash; Messier, 18. PIM&mdash;MacTavish, 25. &#9632;

f0016-01

ANDERSON MAY END CAREER IN EUROPE

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>The decision took three agonizing weeks but in the end, Calgary Flames&rsquo; general manager, Cliff Fletcher did what everyone predicted he would:He fired coach Terry Crisp.Crisp, who has the highest winning percentage in organization history and the only one to win a Stanley Cup, had two years left on his contract. Fletcher gave him the option of pursuing other NHL jobs or staying with the Flames in an unspecified managerial capacity.Although Fletcher refused to lay the blame for Crisp&rsquo;s dismissal on the team&rsquo;s first-round loss to the Los Angeles Kings, it was clear that played a significant part in his decision.Crisp, 47, was 144-63-33 in his three seasons behind the Flames&rsquo; bench, but twice his teams were victims of major playoff upsets. In addition to this spring, there was the 1988 playoffs when they lost in the second round to the Edmonton Oilers.Moreover, there was a feeling the Flames, a team with the best personnel in the league, were not getting as much out of their talent as they could with somebody else running the bench.Once again, the decision essentially became: Do you replace one coach or 20 players?Crisp did not attend the May 7 news conference announcing his dismissal and was not immediately available for comment.In addressing a crowded room of reporters and speaking in measured tones, Fletcher said he met with Crisp May 6 following the latter&rsquo;s return from a Hawaiian vacation and advised him of his decision.&ldquo;It was the feeling of our organization that to maximize the potential of our hockey club heading into the 1990-91 season that it necessitated a change in coach,&rdquo; Fletcher said.&ldquo;I told Terry that after everything dies down and he has the opportunity to reflect on what he may plan to do in the future that he always has the option to remain with the organization in a meaningful capacity.&rdquo;Fletcher would not comment on possible replacements. Some of the names mentioned included assistant general manager Doug Risebrough; Canadian national team coach Dave King; former Washington Capitals&rsquo; coach Bryan Murray and, as a long-shot, former Calgary coach Bob Johnson, now executive director of USA Hockey.Fletcher refused to tip his hand, other than to say he had one candidate in mind above all the others.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not giving a timetable because there&rsquo;s no need to have a timetable,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It may be resolved in a matter of a few days or it may take a considerable amount of time.&rdquo;Of the head coaching positions coming available around the NHL, Crisp would be a strong candidate for at least two: the Philadelphia Flyers and Minnesota North Stars.Crisp, a former Flyer, maintains close ties in the Philadelphia organization. If, as expected, Bob Clarke were to get the GM job in Minnesota, he would probably consider Crisp as his coach.&ldquo;There may be some very appealing coaching opportunities in the NHL available to him which he may or may not consider,&rdquo; Fletcher said. &ldquo;Should he choose not to pursue those, there will be an opportunity dealing with personnel that would be available to him.&rdquo;Fletcher was asked Crisp&rsquo;s reaction to the news.His reply: &ldquo;It was a very emotional meeting. Terry is a professional and he realizes that in professional sports, there&rsquo;s many curves in the road and sharp turns that are sometimes not anticipated.&rdquo;Both assistant coaches&mdash;Tom Watt and Paul Baxter&mdash;remained under contract. Their status will be reviewed by whomever becomes the new head coach.Crisp was the third coach fired by Fletcher in his 18 years as Flames&rsquo; general manager. The others: Fred Creighton in 1979 and Al MacNeil in 1982.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>April 28: Jonas Bergqvist, RW, assigned to Mannheim of the West German Elite League.May 7: Terry Crisp, coach, fired. &#9632;

CRISP AXED FOR PLAYOFF DEFEAT

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>An infusion of youth and speed is high on the priority list for the Los Angeles Kings.Injuries to nine key players aside&mdash;including Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s hyperextended back&mdash;the Kings closed out the 1989-90 season about the same way they began it: Too old and too slow.Unless changes are made in the offseason, they&rsquo;ll go to training camp next fall with nine members in the over-30 club.Larry Robinson will be 39, Dave Taylor, 34; John Tonelli, 33; Tom Laidlaw, 32; Keith Crowder and Tim Watters, 31; Mike Krushelnyski, Jay Miller and Ron Scott, 30.Five other players&mdash;Gretzky, Mike Allison, Scott Bjugstad, Kelly Hrudey and Steve Kasper&mdash;will be 29.The Kings did not grow old by accident. It has been part of the so-called master plan to surround Gretzky with experienced players capable of with-standing pressure situations.After knocking out defending Stanley Cup champions in successive first-round upsets two years in a row (the Edmonton Oilers in 1989 and the Calgary Flames this year), however, the Kings have failed to win a second-round game.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m used to it,&rdquo; owner Bruce McNall said after the Kings were swept by the Oilers in the Smythe Division finals. They were swept by the Flames in the &rsquo;89 division finals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011079/5830353-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="543" height="837"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Tonelli is one of nine Kings over 30 years of age.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;But we did beat Calgary in the first round,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If you can beat, them, you must have a pretty good club.&rdquo;McNall said the Kings could use some more young and swift wingers like Tony Granato and Tomas Sandstrom, the pair of 25-year-olds who were acquired from the New York Rangers in the controversial Jan. 20 trade that cost them Bernie Nicholls.&ldquo;I think that was a good start,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;Those guys played very well when they were healthy. And don&rsquo;t forget about Todd Elik. The trade gave him an opportunity to play regularly. I thought his development was very impressive.&rdquo;Elik, 24, took over Nicholls&rsquo; spot at center between Taylor and Luc Robitaille. He had 10 goals and 33 points in 48 games, then led the Kings in scoring in the playoffs with three goals and 12 points in 10 games.But outside of Granato, Sandstrom, Elik, Krushelnyski and Mikko Make-la&mdash;the latter was a major disappointment after coming over from the New York Islanders in an early-season trade for Ken Baumgartner and Hubie McDonough&mdash;the Kings have little speed up front.&ldquo;If we could trade some older players for younger guys who have speed, we would do it,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;But realistically&hellip;it&rsquo;s tough to pull off deals like that.&rdquo;The Kings signed several free agents the last two off-seasons, including Crowder, Robinson, Tonelli, Watters and Mario Gosselin.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to look at free agents that much this summer,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;I mean, we&rsquo;ll take a look, but we&rsquo;re not going to be super aggressive. I think we should give some of the younger guys in the organization a look.&rdquo;General manager Rogie Vachon said he plans to use the Kings&rsquo; No. 1 pick (seventh overall) in the draft on a swift-skating forward.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been stockpiling defensemen (11 in the last two drafts), so we&rsquo;re in pretty good shape there,&rdquo; Vachon said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d like to add some forwards with some speed. You definitely have to have a fast team to compete in our division.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0017-01

YOUTH AND SPEED ARE TEAM’S BIGGEST NEEDS

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BEAMISH</div>After trading away a couple of &iota; the team&rsquo;s few character players at the trading deadline in March, general manager Pat Quinn will go after &ldquo;grit&rdquo; at the draft table in June.Quinn said the Vancouver Canucks aren&rsquo;t out to fill a particular position, but rather a need.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m kind of looking for a type of player,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have a lot of what I call &lsquo;grit&rsquo; players. Hopefully, out of the three top picks we have, we&rsquo;ll find that kind of guy.&rdquo;Two years ago, Quinn blasted his team for its lack of leadership and character, which is one reason why the Canucks signed defenseman Harold Snepsts as a free agent. But Snepsts and left winger Rich Sutter, another player who gave his heart and soul to the team, were traded to St. Louis March 7 for defenseman Adrien Plavsic and draft choices.With the second overall pick in the June draft, plus an extra first-rounder picked up in the deal with St. Louis, the Canucks will have three picks in the top 23 for the 1990 draft, scheduled for Pacific Coliseum June 16.The Canucks will likely pick either Peterborough center Mike Ricci, Cornwall right winger Owen Nolan, Seattle center Petr Nedved or center Keith Pnmeau of Niagara rails with their first choice.Fired Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke, who had discussions about a position with the Canucks, said Vancouver was leaning toward Primeau, a 6-foot-5, 230-pounder who led the Ontario League in scoring.&ldquo;I believe you can never have enough centers,&rdquo; said Quinn. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been looking for a big center here for three years and we still haven&rsquo;t got one.&rdquo;Still, if he gets the chance, Quinn might find Nolan an irresistible choice. Born in Northern Ireland, Nolan is tough and plays a crushing, physical game like Cam Neely.Quinn said left wing is another area where he could uses a guy with moxie. &ldquo;At left wing, we&rsquo;ve still got a soft type of player there,&rdquo; he said.The Canucks didn&rsquo;t want to begin the 1989-90 season with two small centers, Igor Larionov and Brian Bradley, but by the time they closed out the regular season they had three. Dan Quinn was acquired in January from Pittsburgh and he will be a fixture next season, considering his chemistry with right winger Trevor Linden. Larionov is a virtual untouchable, considering the Canucks&rsquo; heavy investment in the 29-year-old Soviet.That leaves Bradley as the odd man out, a situation with which he is very familiar. If the Canucks take a center with their first pick, Bradley is almost certainly trade material.&ldquo;To be honest, I&rsquo;m prepared for anything,&rdquo; said Bradley, who was picked as the Canucks&rsquo; most exciting player in voting by the fans.&rdquo;Bradley felt a little unwanted last summer as the Canucks went on an all-out pursuit of the Soviets. He had difficulty wrangling a contract out of Vancouver and finally signed just before training camp to a one-year, plus option contract for $155,000, according to published reports. Bradley had hoped for a longer-term deal.His plan was to have a big season, then re-sign for bigger dollars.But Bradley suffered through a poor second half, hampered by a broken thumb that made him ineffective and took him out of the lineup for a seven-week period.His statistics, 19 goals and 29 assists in 67 games, were almost identical to last season, when Bradley had 18 goals and 27 assists in 71 games. He was plus-5, the highest of any Canuck regular.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 2: Brian Burke, vice-president and director of hockey operations, signed multi-year contract. &#9632;

QUINN HOPES TO BUILD CHARACTER THROUGH DRAFT

<div class="byline">BY GRANT MCGINNIS</div>Summer. For most, a time of rejuvenation and renewal, a time for fun and sun.For your average NHL general manager, it&rsquo;s also a time for irritation and agitation, a time when half the players in the organization are knocking on your door in search of more money and the other half will be sure to knock next summer.It is a time, Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; GM Mike Smith has discovered that he does not look forward to.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an aspect of the job I don&rsquo;t like,&rdquo; said Smith, who has 32 players to sign this summer. Last year, in his first summer on the job, he signed 28.&ldquo;To start with, you&rsquo;re always in a disagreement,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You think a player is worth &lsquo;X&rsquo; dollars and the player and his representative think he&rsquo;s worth &lsquo;X&rsquo; dollars. It&rsquo;s not an attractive part of the job.&rdquo;But a necessary evil nonetheless.And after his experiences of last year. Smith looks to have an easier time of it in 1990.For starters, he&rsquo;s already got defenseman Fredrik Olausson&rsquo;s name on a long-term contract, a deal Olausson agreed to April 25. That was supposed to be one of his more difficult negotiating tasks but a struggle never materialized.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011124/5830408-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="549" height="563"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Elynuik rejected a $190,000-a-year offer last summer.</figcaption></div>Smith also felt confident he&rsquo;d get right winger Pat Elynuik&rsquo;s name on the dotted line in due course. Elynuik rejected a $190,000-a-year (Cdn.) offer last summer, electing instead to play out his option. Elynuik becomes a free agent June 1.&ldquo;He had a great season and his numbers were very close to what he recorded in 1988-89,&rdquo; Smith said of Elynuik, who had 32 goals and 74 points in 80 games this season, up from 26 goals, 51 points in 56 games as a rookie a year ago. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s proven he&rsquo;s a very consistent player. We&rsquo;re going to do everything we can to sign him.&rdquo;Last summer, there was a far greater sense of urgency to get the contracts settled. Olausson was threatening to leave. Thomas Steen was waving European offers under Smith&rsquo;s nose. Dave Ellett was seeking a huge salary increase. And the fans were disgruntled after a dismal season.In due course, Smith doused those brushfires, handing Steen and Ellett terrific deals. But not before the integrity of the franchise and its willingness to open the chequebook was questioned.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;re taking a different approach this year,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;Last year, if you&rsquo;ll recall, things weren&rsquo;t very good in Winnipeg. People kept reading in the newspaper that players weren&rsquo;t coming back. We were were really aggressive and we started in April. This year, we won't be quite so aggressive.&rdquo;Besides Elynuik, Smith must also sign Doug Smail, Paul Fenton, Dave McLlwain, Teppo Numminen and goalies Bob Essensa and Stephane Beauregard, all of whom had successful seasons.&ldquo;I think you learn all the time at this,&rdquo; said Smith. &ldquo;I learned a lot last year and I would expect to learn a lot this year. I think any GM who tells you he doesn&rsquo;t have to learn anymore probably isn&rsquo;t a GM anymore.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to be one to pride myself on paying a player less than he&rsquo;s worth. Hopefully I can pride myself on not being one to overpay a player either.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-01

SMITH PREPARED FOR BUSY SUMMER

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011042/5830439-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mark Messier of the Edmonton Oilers finished second in the scoring race and compiled only 79 minutes in penalties.</figcaption></div>For nearly a decade there was little mystery surrounding the winner of the THN-Black Velvet NHL Player of the Year.Each year, from 1979 to 1987, it was practically a foregone conclusion that Wayne Gretzky would earn the prestigious honor. In 1981 he shared the award with netminder Mike Liut, then with the St. Louis Blues.Then, in 1988, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux broke Gretzky&rsquo;s streak at eight. The Penguins&rsquo; high-scoring center finished the 1987-88 season with 70-98-168 totals to win the regular-season scoring derby.The following year Detroit&rsquo;s Steve Yzerman took home the coveted plaque, as voted upon by THN readers. Yzerman racked up 65 goals and 155 points in 80 games, for a less-than-spectacular Red Wing team.While the latter half of the &lsquo;80s belonged to Gretzky and Lemieux, and to a lesser extent, Yzerman, two new candidates for player of the year emerged at the start of the &rsquo;90s.Blues&rsquo; right winger Brett Hull and Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; center Mark Messier are this year&rsquo;s nominees for the THN-Black Velvet NHL Player of the Year Award.The Player of the Year Award winner, along with all of this year&rsquo;s other award winners, will be honored at the seventh annual Hockey News Awards Luncheon June 7 in Toronto. The luncheon honors winners from all levels of hockey from the NHL to minor hockey. THN, in its 43rd year of publication has been honoring hockey excellence since 1950. For the first time this year, all NHL-related awards were voted upon by readers of THN and more than 16,000 ballots were received.Hull, 25, was the league&rsquo;s top gun in 1989-90.In 80 games, Hull scored a leagueleading 72 goals&mdash;the next-best was Yzerman with 62&mdash;and added 41 assists.When Hull first entered the league with the Calgary Flames in 1987-88, however, he didn&rsquo;t draw such rave reviews. He was often overshadowed by fellow rookie Joe Nieuwendyk who, from the very start, was outstanding. Nieuwendyk won the Calder Trophy as the league&rsquo;s top freshman in 1987-88, amassing 51-41-92 totals in 75 games.Dealt with Steve Bozek for Rob Ramage and Rick Wamsley, Hull became an instant favorite in St. Louis.In 1988-89, his first full season with the Blues, he scored 41 goals and 84 points. This season, Hull reached for the stars.Because of his quick release and hard shot, he often draws comparisons to his father, Bobby Hull, and quickly earned the moniker, &ldquo;The Golden Brett.&rdquo;Messier, 29, is the heart and soul of the Oilers. The 6-foot-1,210 pounder is in his 11th season with the Oilers; his second without Gretzky. And, in The Great One&rsquo;s absence, Messier has turned his game up a notch.In 79 games, Messier scored 45 goals and 129 points, finishing second in league scoring behind Gretzky. The 79 penalty minutes he was assessed&mdash;his lowest total in three seasons&mdash;reflected his new commitment to leadership.Messier has long been recognized as one of the premier all-around players in the NHL. But it wasn&rsquo;t until Gretzky&rsquo;s departure in 1988 to the Los Angeles Kings, that Messier really began to get the attention he deserved.Prior to this season, Messier&rsquo;s best year was 1987-88 when he finished with 111 points in 77 games. An integral part of the Oilers&rsquo; four Stanley Cup teams in the &rsquo;80s, his brightest moment came in the 1984 playoffs when he had 8-18-26 totals in 19 games and was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the outstanding post-season performer.This year, Messier excelled in Gretzky&rsquo;s absence and under first-year head coach John Muckier, the team finished the regular season at 38-28-14. &#9632;

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HULL AND MESSIER EMERGE TO STARDOM

This season may have been billed as the Year of the Soviet in the NHL, but the young Americans were the ones to steal the spotlight.The United States produced a host of NHL freshmen this season who made a significant impact on their teams and produced one of the most wide open Calder Trophy (NHL rookie of the year) races in history.Mike Modano of the Minnesota North Stars had the best offensive season of all the U.S.-born rookies, posting 29-46-75 totals in 80 games. Darren Turcotte of the New York Rangers, perhaps the most surprising first-year player, had 32 goals and 34 assists for 66 points in 76 games. Jeremy Roenick of the Chicago Blackhawks had 26-40-66 totals in 78 games and was one of the Hawks&rsquo; best players during the playoffs. Speedy Paul Ranheim cracked the Calgary Flames&rsquo; lineup and had 26 goals and 28 assists for 54 points in 80 games.For their efforts, Modano and Roenick were named nominees for THN-Pepsi Rookie of the Year, meaning the five-year Canadian stronghold on the award&mdash;Mario Lemieux (1985), Wendel Clark (1986), Luc Robitaille (1987), Joe Nieuwendyk (1988) and Trevor Linden (1989)&mdash;will be broken. The last American-born player to take the award was Tom Barrasso in 1984. The award is voted upon by THN readers.Modano, a native of Detroit, Mich., became only the second American-born player&mdash;the other was Brian Lawton in 1983&mdash;to be chosen first overall in the NHL entry draft when the North Stars selected him first in 1988. Linden went second overall to the Vancouver Canucks.Linden had a very successful 198889 season, compiling 30-29-59 totals in 80 games. Modano&rsquo;s season wasn&rsquo;t quite so memorable. Unable to come to terms with the North Stars, Modano returned to the Prince Albert Raiders of the Western League, where he had 39-66-105 totals in 41 games before breaking his wrist in the league&rsquo;s All-Star Game.Fortunately, the setback didn&rsquo;t hamper his career. He came to terms with the NHL team during the World Junior Championships in 1989 and joined the team for two games in the playoffs.With no contract worries and a healthy attitude, the 19-year-old Modano established himself as one of the NHL&rsquo;s rising stars this season. More importantly, he had no injury problems and managed to play all 80 games for Minnesota.His 29 goals put him third in rookie goal-scoring behind Turcotte (32) and Mark Recchi of the Pittsburgh Penguins (30) and his 46 assists put him second in that category behind the Calgary Flames&rsquo; 31-year-old rookie Sergei Makarov (62). Modano&rsquo;s point total of 75 was second only to Makarov&rsquo;s (86).While Modano established himself from the start of the season. Roenick experienced his fair share of problems early in his first full NHL season.Much was expected of the 20-year-old native of Boston, Mass., partly due to the fact that he played so well for the Hawks at the end of the 198889 season. After posting 34-36-70 totals in 28 games with the Hull Olympiques of the Quebec League, the first-round choice of the Hawks in 1988 joined the big team for the last 20 games of the season and had nine goals and nine assists. In the playoffs, he added a goal and three assists in 10 games.An early-season favorite for the Calder, Roenick struggled badly trying to adjust to the NHL and had only one goal and seven assists in his first 17 games. But by the 49-game mark, Roenick had found his scoring touch and had 15-25-40 totals. In the six games that followed, he had four goals and four assists and vaulted himself back into the race.Roenick attributed his early slump to the Calder hype that surrounded him and he admitted he was one of those who got caught up in it.&ldquo;I think I hurt myself by letting all that rookie of the year stuff bother me, thinking I had to go out and get so many points each night,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That was too much pressure on a kid, but I put it all on myself.&rdquo;Roenick&rsquo;s emergence with the Hawks couldn&rsquo;t have come at a better time. He caught fire right around mid-January when superstar center Denis Savard was sidelined with a broken finger.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just one of four (centers) to fill the void,&rdquo; he said at the time. &#9632;

YOUNG AMERICANS DOMINATE ROOKIE AWARD

The nominees for the THN-Molson NHL Coach of the Year&mdash;Boston Bruins&rsquo; Mike Milbury and Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; Bob Murdoch&mdash;are both at the top of their profession.They just took different routes to get there.Each played 12 NHL seasons and each is in his rookie season as a head coach. While Milbury has spent his entire career as a player and coach with the same organization, Murdoch has made more stops than a traveling salesman.Milbury, 37, played 12 seasons as a defenseman for the Bruins before retiring in 1987. He remained in the Bruins&rsquo; organization, taking the head coaching job with the team's American League affiliate in Maine. There, he compiled a 76-69-15 record in two seasons.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01690/5830494-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="556" height="780"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Milbury&rsquo;s Bruins finished first overall in the NHL.</figcaption></div>He got the call to replace Terry O&rsquo;Reilly as head coach in Boston to start the 1989-90 season and did a remarkable job. The Bruins compiled a 46-25-9 record and won the President&rsquo;s Trophy by finishing first overall.Milbury inherited a Bruins&rsquo; team that, under O&rsquo;Reilly, was defensively strong. Milbury built on that strength, as his Bruins finished first in the league in goals against (232, down 24 from last season) and ended the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; three-year hold on the Jennings Trophy.That the Bruins were able to finish first overall, was a surprise to most hockey observers. Nearly all the preseason prognositcators had the Bruins pegged for second, if not third, in the Adams Division.But Cam Neely scored a career-high 55 goals, the Bruins&rsquo; power play ranked second in the league to Calgary (83 goals in 352 attempts for a 23.6 per cent success rate) and finished with the second-fewest penalty minutes in the league (1,158).Murdoch also brought his team to unexpected heights, despite working with what was perceived as a lack of talented players. Despite a sub-par season by superstar center Dale Hawerchuk, the Jets compiled a 3732-11 record, good for third place in the Smythe Division.Murdoch, 42, also spent 12 seasons as a player in the NHL. But unlike Milbury, who played his entire career in Boston, Murdoch had stints with three teams&mdash;the Montreal Canadiens, Los Angeles Kings and Atlanta and Calgary Flames&mdash;before turning to coaching.After retiring in 1982, Murdoch became the Flames&rsquo; assistant coach under Bob Johnson. He stayed in Calgary until 1987 when he took over as head coach of the Chicago Black hawks. He was fired after the 1987-88 season and returned to Kirkland Lake, Ont., to work in the family automobile business. He came out of coaching retirement to accept the head job with the Jets for the 1989-90 season.With the job, he also accepted the burden of raising a 26-42-12 team from the depths of despair. The Jets finished 1988-89 last in the Smythe Division and 19th in the league and there was little reason to expect any upward mobility this season.Murdoch, known chiefly as a strong communicator and motivator, sold his defensive philosophy to the Jets and convinced them that they could win with hard work.As a result, the Jets scored fewer goals this season than last (300 in 1988-89 to 298 in 1989-90) but were able to cut down their goals against by 65 (355 to 290). Last season, the Jets finished dead last in goals against. This season, they moved to 12th in the NHL.The THN-Molson NHL Coach of the Year Award is voted upon by THN readers. &#9632;

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COACHES TOOK DIFFERENT PATHS TO SUCCESS

The Chicago Blackhawks may be one of the best teams in the NHL but they don&rsquo;t have a lot of individual stars.The Hawks were the only team to make the Stanley Cup semifinals in 1988-89 to repeat the feat this season. But only defenseman Doug Wilson was nominated for the THN-Jofa-Titan All-Star Team.The all-star teams are voted upon by THN readers.<h2>CENTER</h2>Wayne Gretzky, Los Angeles: Gretzky was the NHL&rsquo;s leading scorer with 40-102-142 totals in 73 games.Pat LaFontaine, New York Islanders: LaFontaine carried the Islanders to a playoff berth. He was 54-51-105 in 74 games.Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh: Lemieux only played 59 games because of a sore back but still came fourth in the scoring race with 45-78123 totals.Mark Messier, Edmonton: Messier came second to Gretzky with 4584-129 totals in 79 games.Steve Yzerman, Detroit: Yzerman had 62-65-127 totals in 79 games.<h2>LEFT WING</h2>Brian Bellows, Minnesota: Bellows led left wingers in goals with 55 and added 44 assists in 80 games.Vince Damphousse, Toronto: He broke the Leaf record for points by a left winger with 33-61-94 totals in 80 games.Gerard Gallant, Detroit: In 69 games, Gallant was 36-44-80 with 254 penalty minutes.John Ogrodnick, New York Rangers: In 80 games, Ogrodnick was 43-31-74 as he scored 30 more goals this season than last.Luc Robitaille, Los Angeles: He led left wingers in points with 52-49101 totals in 80 games.<h2>RIGHT WING</h2>Brett Hull, St. Louis: Hull broke the record for most goals in a season by a right winger as he led the league with 72. He added 41 assists for 113 points in 80 games.Jari Kurri, Edmonton: The Finnish right winger was 33-60-93 in 78 games and was strong at both ends of the ice.Gary Leeman, Toronto: He became the second Leaf to score 50 goals in a season, posting 51-44-95 totals in 80 games.Cam Neely, Boston: Neely had his first 50-goal season and was 55-37-92 in 76 games.Rick Tocchet, Philadelphia: Tocchet led the Flyers in scoring with 37-59-96 totals in 75 games.<h2>DEFENSE</h2>Ray Bourque, Boston: The Hart and Norris Trophy candidate was 1965-84 in 76 games.Chris Chelios, Montreal: The defending Norris winner was hurt much of the season and was 9-22-31 in 53 games.Paul Coffey, Pittsburgh: He led defensemen in scoring with 29-74103 totals in 80 games.Kevin Hatcher, Washington: The new leader of the Caps&rsquo; defense, he was 13-41-54 in 80 games.Phil Housley, Buffalo: The U.S.- born defenseman was 21-60-81 in 80 games.Al Maclnnis, Calgary: He was second among rearguards in scoring with 28-62-90 totals in 79 games.Doug Wilson, Chicago: The veteran had another fine year with 23-5073 totals in 70 games.<h2>GOAL</h2>Mike Liut, Washington: A midseason trade to the Caps revived Liut who was 19-16-1 with a 2.53 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage.Andy Moog, Boston: Part of the tandem which allowed the fewest goals in the league, he was 24-10-7, 2.89, .893.Daren Puppa, Buffalo: The Vezina Trophy candidate was 31-16-6 with a 2.89 GAA and a .903 save percentage.Patrick Roy, Montreal: The defending Vezina winner was 31-16-5, 2.53, .912.Jofa-Titan also sponsors the THN-Jofa-Titan Minor Hockey Player of the Year. Every year, the stick and equipment company honors youth hockey by selecting an individual to represent all of minor hockey.Last year&rsquo;s winner was Jason Francis, an 11-year-old defenseman for the West Hants (N.S.) Warriors. &#9632;

READERS SELECT THE BEST OF THE BEST

Boston Bruins&rsquo; Harry Sinden is in his 18th season as a general manager in the NHL. New York Rangers&rsquo; general manager Neil Smith recently finished his first.Both are nominees for the THN-The Sports Network NHL Executive of the Year Award. The award is voted upon by THN readers.Sinden, 57, who never played in the NHL, joined the Bruins as head coach in 1966. In 1970 he led the Bruins to their first Stanley Cup championship in 29 years.After taking a two-year hiatus from hockey, Sinden re-emerged to coach Team Canada to a 4-3-1 series victory over the Soviet Union in the first-ever NHL-Soviet Summit Series. Immediately following the series, Sinden returned to the Bruins.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01723/5830549-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="555" height="701"><figcaption class="caption-body">Neil Smith, 36, was the youngest GM in the NHL this season.</figcaption></div>In his 18-year reign as Bruins&rsquo; general manager, Sinden established himself as one of hockey&rsquo;s top executives. He is first in winning percentage among active general manager (.621). Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; Glen Sather (.617) and Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; Serge Savard (.588), are second and third, respectively. Under Sinden, the Bruins have finished first in their division eight times and second in their division seven times. They&rsquo;ve also been to the finals four times.Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the builders&rsquo; category in 1983, he was named the THN NHL Executive of the Year along with Washington Capitals&rsquo; general manager David Poile in 1983.Even more impressive than the long list of honors, is the job Sinden has done with the Bruins in 1989-90. A team picked to finish no better than second in its own division, Sinden, along with coach Mike Milbury, helped his squad to the best record (46-25-9) in the NHL.Renowned as a shrewd trader, Sinden did nothing to dispell that reputation this season. In December, he acquired Washington Capitals&rsquo; right winger Dave Christian, who contributed 29 points in 50 games. A month later, he traded Ken Linseman to the Philadelphia Flyers for Dave Poulin and then added Brian Propp, Poulin&rsquo;s teammate in Philadelphia.Poulin, who was acquired for his defense, penalty killing and leadership, contributed six goals and 19 assists in 32 games while Propp had 3-9-12 totals in 14 games.While Sinden strengthened the Bruins by adding experience, the Rangers turned their fortunes around by hiring someone without any experience as an NHL general manager.Smith, 36, is the NHL&rsquo;s youngest general manager. Thanks to his performance this season, his star is on the rise.A native of Toronto, Smith replaced Phil Esposito, who was fired at the end of last season. Within a month after his hiring, Smith rebuilt the Rangers&rsquo; front office. He promptly hired assistants Larry Pleau (player development) and Gord Stellick (operations).Smith&rsquo;s smartest move, however, was making Roger Neilson the 24th head coach in Rangers&rsquo; history. Neilson, widely respected as a student of the game and one of its premier defensive minds, immediately gave credibility to the floundering organization.On Jan. 20, Smith instigated the blockbuster trade of the season. He shipped Tomas Sandstrom and Tony Granato to the Los Angeles Kings for high-flying center Bernie Nicholls.Nicholls posted 12-25-37 totals in 32 games with the Rangers&mdash;39-73-112 in 79 games overall. At the trade deadline, Smith added Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; Mike Gartner to his lineup in exchange for Ulf Dahlen.The Rangers responded by posting a 36-31-13 record and won the Patrick Division regular-season championship. It was the first division title of any kind for the Rangers in 48 years. &#9632;

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OLD AND NEW UP FOR EXEC OF THE YEAR

Forty-two times a season The Hockey &ldquo;News delivers the complete inside story on what is happening in the National Hockey League. We&rsquo;ve got the news and statistics no one else gives you &hellip; complete NHL team rosters, injuries, transactions and the raging controversy of the day &hellip; Plus, the most incredible statistics package available, not to mention the best in major junior, minor pro. college and international hockey. We&rsquo;re thorough, we&rsquo;re exciting &hellip; subscribe now.You&rsquo;ll receive 40 hockey-packed 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 un-mailed issues, no questions asked!Don&rsquo;t miss out on any of the NHL action - subscribe today!<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02466/5830594-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg" title="f0023-02" width="346" height="842"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-03326/5830587-1-eng-US/f0023-032.jpg" title="f0023-03" width="1739" height="1156"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-04236/5830580-1-eng-US/f0023-042.jpg" title="f0023-04" width="1838" height="730"></div> &#9632;

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ISSUES OF THE DAY EVERY WEEK

Stephane Fiset and Steve Yzerman both shone for Canada on &lsquo;the international scene this season. But that&rsquo;s where the similarities end for the two finalists for the THN-Cooper International Personality of the Year.While Fiset led the Canadian national junior team to the gold medal at the World Junior Championships in Finland, Yzerman&rsquo;s superb play wasn&rsquo;t enough to get Canada a medal at the World Championships in Switzerland.Fiset, a goaltender with the Victoriaville Tigres of the Quebec League, was named outstanding goaltender at the tournament as Canada went 5-1-1 to win the gold after finishing fourth in Alaska the year before.The 19-year-old Montreal, Que., native played every minute of every game in leading Canada to gold. He allowed 18 goals in seven games for a 2.57 goals-against average.&ldquo;Stephane is unbelievable,&rdquo; said Canadian coach Guy Charron. &ldquo;We had a great team effort but he was the key to our success.&ldquo;I would hate to see the Soviets or Czechs if they got the kind of goaltending Stephane gave us and what Canada traditionally gets. I don&rsquo;t know if you&rsquo;d ever beat them.&rdquo;Fiset was also excellent in Alaska, but the extra experience made him virtually unbeatable in Finland as he was named the first-team all-star goalie.The Tigres finished first in the regular season in the QMJHL but were defeated in four straight games by the Laval Titan in the finals. The loss to Laval likely ended Fiset&rsquo;s junior career, as he will almost certainly be with the Quebec Nordiques next season. Fiset was a second-round draft pick (24th overall) by the Nordiques in 1988.This season, Fiset was 14-6-3 with a league-leading 2.73 GAA and a .917 save percentage. He missed several games with a shoulder injury.&ldquo;Technically, Stephane is as sound a goalie as you&rsquo;ll see,&rdquo; said Victoriaville coach Guy Chouinard. &ldquo;He covers a lot of the net and he moves quickly. He also handles the puck extremely well.&rdquo;Fiset made the QMJHL all-star team last season when he was 25-14-0 with a 3.45 GAA. He also led the league with nine playoff wins and a 2.78 GAA.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01783/5830625-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="541" height="681"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Yzerman was a big hit at the World Championships.</figcaption></div>Detroit Red Wing superstar center Steve Yzerman led Canada to an undefeated preliminary round record at the World Championships in Switzerland.But the medal round was a different story.A 3-2 loss to Czechoslovakia April 28 was followed by a 7-1 thrashing at the hands of the Soviet Union April 30 to end Canada&rsquo;s gold-medal hopes. A 6-4 loss to Sweden May 2 knocked Canada out of the medals.But Yzerman&rsquo;s outstanding play in the first round was the talk of the tournament. With 15 points in seven games, Yzerman passed Marcel Dionne&rsquo;s record for most points by a Canadian in the tournament. Canada was the only undefeated team in the opening round, with a record of 6-0-1.Yzerman finished the tournament with 9-10-19 totals in 10 games to win the scoring race. He was named the World Championships&rsquo; first-team all-star center and top forward.The disappointing medal round came on the heels of a disappointing season for the Red Wings. Detroit finished out of the playoffs for the first time since 1986 with a record of 28-38-14.But Yzerman enjoyed another fine season, coming third in the scoring race behind Los Angeles&rsquo; Wayne Gretzky and Edmonton&rsquo;s Mark Messier.The THN-Cooper International I Personality of the Year is selected by I members of the editorial staff at THN. &#9632;

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INTERNATIONAL STARS VIE FOR AWARD

The most impressive thing about Eric Lindros and Mike Ricci is that they have accomplished so much in so little time.Both are young men. In different ways, both are incredible hockey players. Each of them has left his mark on the Ontario League and the world stage.And no matter which one of the two young phenoms is named THN-Mega Junior Player of the Year, history will once again be made. The one who wins will earn the distinction of the being the youngest person to win the Player of the Year since the award was established in 1984.The award is voted upon by members of the editorial staff at THN.Ricci, who turned 18 last Oct. 27, and Lindros, who turned 17 Feb. 23, will eclipse the mark set by Mario Lemieux. Lemieux, who enjoyed an outstanding career with the Laval Voisins of the Quebec League, was also 18 when he won the award in 1984 but his birthdate is Oct. 5, 1965.Like Lemieux, both Ricci and Lindros have proven themselves to be without equal in junior hockey. Only time will determine whether or not they enjoy the same success Lemieux has in the NHL. With talents like theirs, it certainly isn&rsquo;t out of the realm of possibility.Few players have ever entered the OHL&mdash;or any other league&mdash;with the amount of hype that surrounded Lindros. Which is understandable, since there are few players who possess the same characteristics as Lindros.When Lindros joined the Oshawa Generals in January, they were a fifth-place team in the Leyden Division. It would be unfair to suggest the center singlehandedly led the Generals to first place and a berth in the Memorial Cup by the end of the season but his 17-19-36 totals in 25 regular-season games, along with his huge presence in the lineup, were certainly large factors. In the playoffs, Lindros led the Generals with 18 goals and 18 assists in 17 games and came second in the playoff scoring championship.As the youngest player in the 1990 World Junior Championships in Finland, Lindros scored four goals in seven games for the gold medal-winning Canadian team.Off the ice, Lindros inspired the OHL&rsquo;s board of governors to change I their league&rsquo;s rules so he could play. The first overall choice of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in 1989. Lindros refused to report to the team and played the first half of the season with Detroit Compuware of the North American Junior League. Responding to the Lindros situation, the OHL then changed its rules so teams could trade first-round choices during their first season from Jan. 1 to 10 of that season. Lindros was traded to the Generals for Mike DeCoff, Jason Denomme, Mike Lenarduzzi, second-round choices in 1990 and 1991 and $80,000.There&rsquo;s an excellent chance Lin-dros will be the first player chosen in the 1991 NHL draft. And there&rsquo;s also a chance he&rsquo;ll inspire a rule change in the NHL. There has been an unofficial movement afoot to institute a draft lottery, meaning the team that finishes last overall that year wouldn&rsquo;t automatically get the first choice overall.If Mike Ricci had a sub-par season as many will suggest, most other players would like to share in such misery.Battling fatigue and injury for most of the season. Ricci led the youthful Peterborough Petes far beyond expectation and earned the Red Tilson Award as the league&rsquo;s most outstanding player. He was also named the league&rsquo;s candidate for player-of-the-year honors in the Canadian League and won the William Hanley Trophy as the OHL&rsquo;s most gentlemanly player.His 52 goals and 64 assists for 116 points in 60 games placed him third in OHL scoring. Last season he led the Petes to a berth in the Memorial Cup.This season, he was chosen as captain of the Canadian junior team that won the gold medal at the World Championship and despite suffering a shoulder injury in a pre-tournament game, had four assists in five games. He also captained Team OHL in its Challenge Cup victory over the Quebec League.But his contributions to the Petes went far beyond goals and assists. No player in the league showed more leadership on or off the ice than Ricci, a commodity which will make the center a certain top-five choice in the NHL entry draft June 16 in Vancouver. &#9632;

YOUNG TURKS VIE FOR TOP JUNIOR AWARD

By advancing to the National Collegiate Athletic Association final, the Colgate Red Raiders surprised almost everyone but themselves.That accomplishment was largely due to the play of their junior goalie, Dave Gagnon.Undrafted and a free agent at 22, Gagnon emerged as the NCAA&rsquo;s top goalie. He was the only netminder among the 10 Hobey Baker Award finalists as selected by Division I coaches. His is also a finalist for the THN-Bauer U.S. College Player of the Year Award. Michigan State senior center Kip Miller is the other nominee for the award, which is voted upon by the editorial staff at THN.A native of Essex, Ont., Gagnon finished the season with a 28-4-1 record and a 2.84 goals-against average.&ldquo;Dave Gagnon is one of the best goal tenders I&rsquo;ve ever had, and I&rsquo;ve had some great ones,&rdquo; said Colgate coach Terry Slater. &ldquo;The thing that he does so well is move the puck. He&rsquo;s great with the stick.&rdquo;In leading his team to the Eastern College Athletic Association regular-season and playoff titles, Gagnon earned ECAC player-of-the-year honors.<h2>NCAA</h2>Miller, who won the Hobey Baker Award as the top U.S. collegian, led the nation in points (101), goals (48) and points-per-game average (2.24).An offensive wizard. Miller, 20, was also strong defensively, playing on the Spartans&rsquo; No. 1 penalty-killing unit.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very difficult to get 101 points on one of my teams because I stress defense so much,&rdquo; said MSU coach Ron Mason. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite an accomplishment.&rdquo;A native of Lansing, Mich., Miller I was picked in the fourth round of the NHL entry draft (72nd overall) by the Quebec Nordiques and was a key member of the U.S. team at the World Championships in Bern, Switzerland.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01743/5830680-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="547" height="667"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Bishop won the CIAU&rsquo;s Sullivan Award this season.</figcaption></div><h2>CIAU</h2>Waterloo Warriors&rsquo; goalie Mike Bishop was the cornerstone of his team&rsquo;s success this season.The Sullivan award winner as the top player in the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union, Bishop played in all of his team&rsquo;s regular-season games, finishing with a 17-4-1 record, a 2.63 GAA and an .894 save percentage.It is no surprise that he is also a finalist for the THN-Bauer Canadian I University Player of the Year Award, along with Prince Edward Island center Rich Little.Entering the season. Warriors&rsquo; coach Don McKee knew his team would have to rely on Bishop if it was to be successful.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to score nine or 10 goals like Laurier,&rdquo; said McKee, &ldquo;but if we keep the opposition to under two goals we can win.&rdquo;Thanks in large part their 25-year-old goalie from Elmira, Ont., the Warriors did just that, finishing second in the Ontario Universities Athletic Association&rsquo;s West Division.Little, a 23-year-old native of Port Hawksbury, N.S., had 23-21-44 totals in 21 games for the Panthers. But according to his coach, Billy MacMillan, offense wasn&rsquo;t Little&rsquo;s only attribute.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a player that a coach can use in any position except goal,&rdquo; said MacMillan. &ldquo;We won a lot of playoff-type games this year where (Littie) dictated the outcome.&rdquo;Little played for the Verdun Junior Candiens (QMJHL) before going to UPEI four years ago. MacMillan said Little&rsquo;s become a better player with age.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s progressed steadily since coming here,&rdquo; said MacMillan. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s gotten to the point where he&rsquo;s a bonafide star now.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0026-01

TWO GOALIES. TWO CENTERS HEAD CLASS OF ’90

In the 40 years The Hockey News has presented its awards for hockey excellence, only six goalies have been honored.In 1950, New York Rangers&rsquo; Charlie Rayner was presented with THN's inaugural NHL Player of the Year Award. Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; Jacques Plante was honored with the same award in 1962 and Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; Rogie Vachon was the recipient in 1975.Three others, Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; Roger Crozier (1965), Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; Tony Esposito (1970) and Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; Tom Barrasso (1984) were honored by THN as the NHL Rookie of the Year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01691/5830711-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="555" height="705"><figcaption class="caption-body">Daren Puppa tied for the league lead in wins by a goalie.</figcaption></div>But the men who stop pucks for a living will no longer be ignored. This year, a new award has been established to honor the best NHL goaltender&mdash; THN-GTC Goalie of the Year Award.Daren Puppa of the Buffalo Sabres and Patrick Roy of the Montreal Canadiens are the finalists for the first-time honor. The award is voted upon by THN readers.Puppa, a 27-year-old native of Kirkland Lake, Ont., spent the better part of his first three pro seasons shuttling between Buffalo and the Sabres&rsquo; American League affiliate in Rochester. He played in only 27 NHL games in those first three seasons and had 11 wins to his credit.Puppa turned his career around last season. He spent the entire season with the Sabres, playing in 37 games. He compiled a 17-10-6 record with a goals-against average of 3.36.This season, the former goalie for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute elevated himself into the NHL&rsquo;s goaltending elite. In 56 games, Puppa compiled a record of 31-16-6 with a 2.89 goals-against average, a .903 save percentage and one shutout.More important than statistics was the role Puppa played in the Sabres&rsquo; revival. The Sabres&rsquo; finished the regular season with a 45-27-8 mark, good for second in their division and third in the league.Puppa, the Sabres&rsquo; seventh pick in the 1983 NHL entry draft, used his imposing size to his advantage this season. At 6-foot-3, 191 pounds, Puppa is one of the largest netminders in the league. His stand-up style gives opposing snipers almost no holes to shoot at.Puppa and Malarchuk combined to allow &iquest;48 goals, third in the league behind Boston (232) and Montreal (234).While Puppa proved himself to be one of the NHL&rsquo;s best in 1989-90, Roy simply maintained the form that earned him the 1989 Vezina Trophy. He and teammated Brian Hawyard shared the Jennings Trophy for three straight years for the league&rsquo;s top GAA until the Boston Bruins claimed the award this season.Roy, a 24-year-old native of Quebec City, had little difficulty making the transition to the NHL game. In 1985-86, Roy&rsquo;s first pro season, he led the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup. He was awarded the Conn Smythe trophy as the playoff MVP and made the all-rookie team. It happened fast for the netminder who, a year before, was finishing his third season with the QMJHL&rsquo;s Granby Bisons.Last season, Roy led the league with a 2.47 GAA and had a record of 33-5-6.This season, Roy had a 2.56 GAA, good for a first-place tie with Liut. His 31-16-5 record tied him in wins with Puppa and Casey and his save percentage of .912 was also tops in the league. He also registered three shutouts, one behind Liut, who had four with the Hartford Whalers and Washington Capitals. He was tied for second with Boston Bruins&rsquo; Andy Moog, New York Islanders&rsquo; Mark Fitzpatrick and Casey.Roy and Hayward combined to allow 234 goals, second to the Bruins. &#9632;

f0027-01

FORGOTTEN MEN GET THEIR JUST REWARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01721/5830742-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hector (Toe) Blake distinguished himself as both a player and coach with the Montreal Canadiens. He won eight Stanley Cups in 13 years behind the Habs&rsquo; bench.</figcaption></div>The purpose behind the THN-Itech King Clancy Memorial Award is to recognize an individual who has continued to give to the game long after his active days as a player, coach or general manager are over.In the award&rsquo;s brief history, there have been some worthy recipients.In June, 1986, Francis Michael (King) Clancy was chosen as the inaugural winner of the THN-Itech Hall of Fame Award. Five months later, after his death at age 83, THN and Itech decided to change the name of the award to honor the memory of its first winner.Clancy epitomized the spirit of the award, serving in the NHL as a player, official, coach and executive.His NHL playing days began in 1921-22 with the Ottawa Senators, where he was a defensive stalwart for nine seasons.Prior to the 1930-31 season he was sold to Conn Smythe, founder of the Toronto Maple Leafs, for the then-unheard of sum of $35,000. So began a relationship with the Leafs that would last until Clancy&rsquo;s death.After his playing days ended in 1937, Clancy served the game as a referee, coached the Montreal Maroons and the Leafs, was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1958, and held down a front-office position at Maple Leaf Gardens, where he was known for his friendly demeanor.The second winner of the THN-Itech King Clancy Memorial Award, Red Storey, also had a long and varied career.A referee of more than 2,000 NHL games, Storey never played the game professionally, but was a major contributor. He was also a great athlete.He starred as a halfback in the Canadian Football League with the Toronto Argonauts, and received offers from the National Football League&rsquo;s New York Giants and Chicago Bears.Storey was also a proficient baseball player&mdash;he played in the minor leagues with the Montreal Royals&mdash;and was well known for his skill as a lacrosse player.In 1988, the award was shared by a trio of&rsquo; Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; stars&mdash;Hector (Toe) Blake, Elmer Lach and Maurice (Rocket) Richard.Known as the &ldquo;Punch Line&rdquo;, the three helped establish the Habs as one of the winningest franchises in professional sports. Lach, the center on the line, was an extremely gifted play maker, who finished his career with 623 points in 664 games&mdash;all with Montreal.Lach was rewarded for his outstanding play, winning the Hart Trophy in 1955, the Art Ross Trophy as the regular-season scoring champ in 1944-45 and 1947-48, and he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1966.Blake played the left side on the line, amassing 235-292-527 totals in 578 games. His achievements are impressive&mdash;he won the Hart and Art Ross Trophies in 1939, the Lady Byng Trophy in 1946 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1966&mdash;but he had an even greater career as a coach.In 13 seasons behind the Habs&rsquo; bench, Blake won an incredible eight Stanley Cups.Richard, of course, reached legendary status in his 18 years as a Hab. One of his most notable achievements came in 1944-45, when he scored 50 goals in 50 games.Richard played on eight Stanley Cup winners for Montreal and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1961.The most recent winner of the THN-Itech King Clancy Memorial Award was Howie Meeker in 1989.The Calder Trophy winner as the NHL&rsquo;s best rookie in 1947, Meeker played eight seasons for the Toronto Maple Leafs.In 346 regular-season games, the right winger finished with 83-102-185 totals, and was part of three Stanley Cup teams in Toronto.After his playing days, Meeker coached the, Leafs for a season (1956-57), started his own hockey school, and was a color analyst for Hockey Night In Canada. &#9632;

f0028-01

LEGENDS RECOGNIZED WITH CLANCY AWARD

Mark Pederson replaced Stephan Lebeau as the scoring leader on the American League&rsquo;s Sherbrooke Canadiens. Now he&rsquo;s in the running to succeed Lebeau as The Hockey News Minor Pro Player of the Year.But it won't be easy for the Sherbrooke left winger. He&rsquo;s up against stiff competition in International League goaltender Jimmy Waite of the Indianapolis Ice. The winner is voted upon by members of the THN editorial staff.Pederson, 22, led the Canadiens and finished fourth in the league with 53-42-95 totals in 72 games. He led the league with nine shorthanded goals, was second with eight game-winning goals and had a team-leading 14 power-play markers.Pederson made his NHL debut this season, playing nine-regular season games with the parent Montreal Canadiens. He had no goals and two assists. He also played two playoff games for Montreal and was held without a point.In Sherbrooke, Pederson was easily the Canadiens&rsquo; biggest offensive threat. He had 21 more goals than the team runner-up, Benoit Brunet, and 28 more points than Brunet and Andrew Cassels.Pederson, a first-round pick (15th overall) in the 1986 entry draft from the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western League, was in his second pro season. He was 43-38-81 in 75 games in his rookie season with Sherbrooke.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a great scoring touch,&rdquo; said New Haven Nighthawks&rsquo; coach Marcel Comeau. &ldquo;I saw all I wanted to see of him and more.&rdquo;&ldquo;He anticipates very well and has a very good shot,&rdquo; said Sherbrooke coach Jean Hamel. &ldquo;Those are two great qualities for a scorer and he knows where to stay on the ice to get the goals.&rdquo;Waite backstopped the Ice to the IHL&rsquo;s Western Division title with his clutch goaltending. He led the league with a 2.53 goals-against average and five shutouts. No one else in the IHL had more than two shutouts and the next best GAA belonged to Ray LeBlanc at 3.42.The 21-year-old rookie appeared in 54 games, posting a 34-14-4 record and an .893 save percentage.Waite finished tied for second with teammate Bob Bassen&mdash;behind Peoria&rsquo;s Michel Mongeau&mdash;in the voting for the IHL&rsquo;s most valuable player award. Waite also came second in rookie-of-the-year balloting, finishing behind Milwaukee&rsquo;s Rob Murphy.Waite played 11 games last season without a win for Chicago before a broken collarbone Dec. 6, 1988 ended his season. He was recalled by the Hawks for four games this season and was 2-0-0 with a 4.59 GAA and an .848 save percentage. He recorded his first NHL win, a 3-1 triumph Dec. 13 in Montreal against the Canadiens.The Blackhawks drafted Waite in the first round (eighth overall) in 1987 from Chicoutimi of the Quebec League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01623/5830780-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="546" height="700"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jean Hamel led Sherbrooke to first overall in the AHL.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s something that stands out about him,&rdquo; said Ice coach Darryl Sutter. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a very talented kid, real good reflexes, plays the angles well.&ldquo;Last year, with the injury, and then sitting up there (Chicago), I&rsquo;m not saying it set him back, but it didn&rsquo;t help him.&rdquo;The finalists for THN Minor Pro Coach of the Year also come from Sherbrooke and Indianapolis. The award winner is also chosen by the editorial staff at THN.Hamel guided the Canadiens to the top of the Northern Division and the No.1 spot in the overall standings with a record of 45-23-12.Hamel won his second Northern Division title in as many seasons behind the Canadiens&rsquo; bench as he took his young team to the top.With two rookie goaltenders and without Lebeau, the Canadiens won the division by 17 points over Cape Breton.Hamel, 37, stressed defense-first as Sherbrooke allowed the fewest goals in the league for the fourth straight season. With 247 goals allowed, the Canadiens gave up 18 goals fewer than the next best team, Baltimore.The only disappointment for Hamel was another early playoff exit. The Canadiens lost in six games to the Springfield Indians in the semifinals. Last season, after winning the first two games on goals by Pederson, the Canadiens were upset in the first round in six games by New Haven.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02422/5830773-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="546" height="700"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jimmy Waite posted five shutouts for the Indianapolis Ice.</figcaption></div>Hamel played defense for 699 games in the NHL over 12 seasons before retiring in 1984. He had 26-95121 totals while playing for Montreal, Detroit, St. Louis and Quebec.Sutter was behind the bench as Indianapolis won the IHL&rsquo;s West Division and finished just two points behind Muskegon in the overall standings.The Ice went 53-21-8 for 114 points in their first year as the main affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks. Last season in Saginaw, Sutter guided the Hawks to a 46-26-10 record, second in the East and fourth overall.As Hamel did with the Canadiens, Sutter stressed defense. The Ice gave up a league-low 237 goals, 67 fewer than Muskegon.Aside from Waite, the Ice had few superstars. Brian Noonan&rsquo;s 76 points led the Ice but weren&rsquo;t good enough to crack the league&rsquo;s top 20 scorers.The Ice relied on hard work and solid defense&mdash;two traits Sutter, 31, often displayed in an eight-season NHL career. In 406 games, all with Chicago, he had 161-118-279 totals. &#9632;

f0029-01

ICE AND CANADIENS AT TOP OF THE CLASS

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE AND BILL PICKETT</div>By taking a 2-0 lead in the Calder Cup championship series against Rochester, &ldquo;the Sorinefield Indians are following a recent Calder Cup theme of overcoming some rather long odds.Springfield secured its first trip to the finals since 1975&mdash;the last year it won the playoff title&mdash;with a 5-4 overtime victory May 1 in Game 6 game of its series with Northern Division champion Sherbrooke.Three days later, the Indians stunned the Amerks 7-6 at Rochester. They completed a sweep of the series-opening games at the Rochester War Memorial with a 3-1 victory May 6.<h2>AHL</h2>After finishing third in the Northern Division with a 38-38-4 record and 80 points, the Indians prepped for the finals by beating Cape Breton and Sherbrooke in six games each.Still, most obervers figured the Indians would be an easy mark for the Amerks, who won the Southern Divasion title and were 6-0 at home in the playoffs.&ldquo;Who picked us to get to the finals? But there are 20 guys in this dressing room who believe we&rsquo;re the best team,&rdquo; said Indians&rsquo; goaltender Jeff Hackett after handling 34 shots in Game 2. &ldquo;You guys can pick whoever you want, but we believe we&rsquo;re the best team.&rdquo;If the Indians succeed in defeating both division champions to win the title, they will continue what has become a trend in the Calder Cup playoffs: The unusual is usual. For example, in 1988 Hershey stepped into the record book by sweeping all three series. Last year, Adirondack accomplished the seemingly impossible by defeating Hershey in a seven-game semifinal after losing the first three games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01710/5830818-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="701" height="875"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Berg scored twice as Springfield beat Rochester 3-1 May 6.</figcaption></div>Defenseman-turned-right winger Bill Berg scored two goals in Game 2. Berg&rsquo;s first goal gave Springfield a 2-0 lead at 16:10 of the second period and he iced it by scoring into an empty net with 40 seconds remaining.Defenseman Shawn Evans opened the scoring at 3:06 of the first period. He intercepted Dale DeGray&rsquo;s pass in the neutral zone, carried it into the Rochester zone and fired a 45-foot slap shot that beat goalie Darcy Wakaluk.Rochester&rsquo;s Ray Sheppard cut it to 2-1 1:25 later with his sixth playoff goal. He stripped Evans of the puck, walked to the crease and stuffed a backhander past Hackett.Springfield coach Jimmy Roberts moved Berg up to forward in January when the Indians were wallowing at the bottom of the division standings. In the playoffs, Berg was 5-12-17 in 14 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02503/5830811-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="701" height="875"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jamie Leach scored two goals in a 7-3 win over Kalamazoo.</figcaption></div>Paul Gagne scored two goals and assisted on two others in the series opener.The Indians led 3-1 after the first period and 6-2 after two, with Gagne figuring in two goals in each period.In the semifinal, Derek Laxda&rsquo;s goal at 7:21 of overtime completed the Indians&rsquo; comeback from a 4-1 deficit and knocked Sherbrooke out of the playoffs. Goals by Gagne and Rod Dallman 56 seconds apart midway through the third period tied the score and sent the game into overtime.<h2>IHL</h2>Brian Noonan and Mike Eagles were at the end of their shift two minutes into overtime May 5 when the puck bounced their way.Eagles nudged the puck to his Indianapolis teammate, who carried it into the Salt Lake end and let it fly from the right circle.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t thinking pass,&rdquo; Noonan said after his goal lifted the Ice past the Golden Eagles 3-2 and into the Turner Cup finals against Muskegon.&ldquo;I was shooting all the wav. It was late in the game and I figured it was time to take a chance, so I let it go. Overtime is a game of bounces and we got one at the blue line.&rdquo;The game-winning goal came at 2:33 of overtime after the Ice twice had rallied from one-goal deficits.A second-period power play goal by Sean Williams tied the game after Rick Chernomaz put Salt Lake up 1-0 with a shorthanded goal in the first period. And following Stephane Matteau&rsquo;s deflection past Jimmy Waite midway through the third period, Mike Stapleton forced another tie with 4:12 left in regulation. Both were power-play goals.Each team had one shot in the overtime, but Noonan&rsquo;s went in and the Ice closed the series with a 4-1 edge in games and kept the Golden Eagles winless in nine outings in Indianapolis this season.After a 5-4 overtime loss at Salt Lake April 30, which tied the series at a game each, the Ice swept all three at home, beginning with a 5-1 victory May 2.Waite followed May 4 with his third shutout of Salt Lake, and sixth of the season, 2-0, setting the stage for Noonan&rsquo;s clincher a night later.&ldquo;Salt Lake really battled,&rdquo; said Ice coach Darryl Sutter. &ldquo;They played hard. They dressed a lot of big guys and played a physical game. But it was the smartest game they played in the series.&rdquo;At Kalamazoo, the defending champion Muskegon Lumberjacks eliminated the Wings, four games to two, with a 7-3 victory May 5.The Lumberjacks broke a 3-3 tie on a power-play goal by Jamie Leach 23 seconds into the third period and added three more, including Leach&rsquo;s second power-play goal. Jock Callander had three assists in the win.The Wings had kept the semifinal series alive the night before with a 3-2 overtime win at 4 Muskegon. The deciding goal came off the stick of Ken Hodge at 13:43 of the extra period. Hodge also scored the winner in overtime in Game 2 April 27, a 4-3 win.Muskegon had taken a 3-1 series lead with a 6-5 win in Game 4 May 2. Dave Michayluk, who led all scorers with 11 points in the series, had two goals and an assist. &#9632;

f0030-01

INDIANS ON THE WARPATH

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT AND GARY OLSON</div>The sale of the Minnesota North Stars to Howard Baldwin and Morris Belzberg will have a profound effect on several players on the Kalamazoo Wings&rsquo; roster.North Stars&rsquo; owners Gordon and George Gund asked for &ldquo;at least $50 million&rdquo; for the North Stars, yet agreed to sell for $31.5 million. Part of the reason for accepting the lower price is the Gunds will get to take 11 I skaters and two goaltenders with fewer than 50 games of NHL experience with them when they set up an expansion franchise in the California Bay Area. That&rsquo;s where the Wings, the North Stars&rsquo; No. 1 affiliate, come in.Kalamazoo&rsquo;s highly-touted young defense includes Pat McLeod, Rob Zettler. Dean Kolstad, Link Gaetz and Jayson More. They will almost certainly go to California.Injured goaltender Jarmo Myllys also appears likely to be headed west with the Gunds and Minnesota general manager Jack Ferreira.All signs point to the North Stars operating their farm team in Kalamazoo again next season.&ldquo;From our standpoint, we have a working agreement with Minnesota and everything points to them being back,&rdquo; said Wings&rsquo; general manager Bill Inglis. &ldquo;Everything else is pure speculation at this time. They&rsquo;ve given us every indication they plan to continue the affiliation.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01655/5830849-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="551" height="631"><figcaption class="caption-body">Link Gaetz may join an expansion franchise in California.</figcaption></div><h2>HE&rsquo;S STAYING</h2>Flint Spirits&rsquo; general manager Don Waddell denied a report he was a candidate for the GM job with the expansion Kansas City Blades.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no truth to anything that&rsquo;s going around concerning Kansas City,&rdquo; Waddell said.The Blades will begin operation next season in Kemper Arena. Jim Loria, who was director of public relations and marketing for the Spokane Chiefs of the Western League, will hold a similar post with the Blades.Meanwhile, Waddell was in New York at the end of April to talk to Rangers&rsquo; GM Neil Smith about Flint&rsquo;s affiliation with the Rangers.&ldquo;The Binghamton situation is definitely there,&rdquo; Waddell said of the rumor the Rangers will move their affiliate to Binghamton. &ldquo;If they decide to move there, it&rsquo;s strictly a business decision. Both of us (Flint and New York) have been positive about the Flint affiliation.&rdquo;Waddell said the chances of the Rangers staying in Flint are 50 per cent. He said it&rsquo;s definite the franchise would operate next season &ldquo;even if I have to run it as an independent.&rdquo;Earlier, Waddell had said he would not stay in Flint if the Spirits were unaffiliated.<h2>NO SALE</h2>Fort Wayne Komets&rsquo; owner David Welker, who said: &ldquo;Other than my wife, everything I have is for sale,&rdquo; had received no offers for the independent team.Welker said he&rsquo;s heard some people are interested in the franchise but no one had contacted him about it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had no calls, nobody showing any money yet,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

f0031-01

SEVERAL WINGS MAY BE CALIFORNIA DREAMING

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div>Paul Gardner found out by &lsquo;phone. Kevin McCarthy was informed during a meeting.In each case, the news was not good. Gardner and McCarthy were told they would not return to coach the teams they did this season.Gardner leaves the Newmarket Saints after four seasons, McCarthy exits the Hershey Bears after just one. Each has a year remaining on his contract. Gardner will not have another job with the parent Toronto organization, but McCarthy will have one in the Philadelphia organization.&ldquo;I had a feeling it was coming,&rdquo; said Gardner, who got a call from Maple Leafs&rsquo; general manager Floyd Smith May 2. &ldquo;You know you get a sense of these things. Just from things that happened and the talk going around. It&rsquo;s just the feeling I got.&rdquo;Gardner saw Leafs&rsquo; assistant Garry Larivierre fired and also long-time Toronto trainer Guy Kinnear let go. So, he figured it was just a matter of time.&ldquo;I had a quick meeting with Floyd after the season and he said he&rsquo;d talk to me later,&rdquo; Gardner said. &ldquo;Then I got the call.&rdquo;Gardner, who once played for the Leafs, was hired in the summer of 1986. In four seasons in Newmarket, the Saints were 130-156-34 and made the playoffs once. There were some reports the Leafs were unhappy with the way their younger players were developing. But Smith would not confirm that.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02450/5830880-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="543" height="635"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don McSween will still be able to get married May 25.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We never had very many kids there,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;Are you pleased? Are you ever pleased?&ldquo;We just felt a change was in the best interests of the hockey club.&rdquo;The same day Gardner got his call, McCarthy had a meeting with Flyers&rsquo; president Jay Snider. He was relieved of his coaching duties and offered another job in the organization. That position has yet to be defined.McCarthy was an assistant coach to John Paddock in 1988-89. When Paddock became the Flyers&rsquo; assistant GM, McCarthy became coach. In his one season, the Bears finished sixth in the Southern Division with a 32-38-10 record and missed the playoffs for the first time in five years.The day of McCarthy&rsquo;s dismissal, assistant coach Al Hill was fired.Don McSween will still be able to &alpha;et married May 25.<h2>GOOD TIMING</h2>Rochester defenseman Don McSween was very happy the Springfield-Sherbrooke semifinal playoff series didn&rsquo;t go seven games.Had that happened, the league final between Rochester and Springfield could have lasted until May 27. Now, the last possible game for the Americans is May 23.Why is that so important? McSween is getting married in Lansing, Mich., May 25.&lsquo;I would have had to be married by phone or in between periods,&rdquo; McSween said.<h2>DEJA VU</h2>When Sherbrooke lost 5-4 to Springfield in overtime in Game 6 of the semifinals May 1, (on a goal by Derek Laxdal), it was the second straight year the team was ousted from the playoffs on an overtime goal. Last season, New Haven&rsquo;s Gordie Walker scored midway through the first overtime period in Game 6 of the quarterfinals&hellip;Entering the Calder Cup final between Rochester and Springfield, playoff attendance was on a record-setting pace. After 35 games, attendance was 166,957&mdash;an average of 4,770. The high since 1980 is 194,718 in 1984. Last season, attendance was 180,798. &#9632;

f0031-02

COACHES GARDNER, McCARTHY FIRED

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div>If there were any doubts about the quality of future NHL entry drafts, they were dismissed when the Canadian League handed out its annual awards May 7 in Hamilton.All the player awards but one were won by candidates for this year&rsquo;s draft&mdash;scheduled for June 16 in Vancouver&mdash;or the 1991 draft. Kamloops Blazers&rsquo; center Len Barrie, who won the Transamerica Life plus-minus award with a rating of plus-87, is the only player who took an award who isn&rsquo;t eligible for this year or 1991. The 21-year-old signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Flyers this season.Aside from that, there were several firsts but few surprises. Winners of the awards were chosen by a panel of scouts from the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau.As expected, Peterborough Petes&rsquo; center Mike Ricci was named Molson-Cooper player of the year in the CHL.Ricci, who captained the Canadian national junior team to the gold medal at the 1990 World Junior Championships in Finland, won the award over Wes Walz of the Western League&rsquo;s Lethbridge Hurricanes and Andrew McKim of the Quebec League&rsquo;s Hull Olympiques.Ricci, who battled fatigue and injury much of the season, finished with 56-63-119 totals in 60 games and led the youthful Petes to the Leyden Division final against the Oshawa Generals.Ricci, 18, is certain to be a first-round choice at this year&rsquo;s draft.Petr Nedved, meanwhile, made history when he was named the Toshiba Facsimile rookie of&rsquo; the year. A native of Libirec, Czechoslovakia, Nedved became the first European-born and trained player to win a Canadian League award.The 18-year-old Nedved, who posted 65-80145 totals with the Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL), beat out Chris Longo of Peterborough and Martin Lapointe of the Laval Titan (QMJHL) to win the award.John Slaney of the Cornwall Royals (OHL) capped a brilliant season by being named the Chrysler Canada defenseman of the year. Slaney, 18, led all Canadian League defensemen with 38-59-97 totals in 64 games. He won the award over Kevin Haller of the Regina Pats (WHL) and Claude Barthe of the Victoriaville Tigres (QMJHL).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02502/5830918-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="714" height="802"><figcaption class="caption-body">Petr Nedved became the first European-born player to win a CHL award.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01700/5830911-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="1476" height="1800"><figcaption class="caption-body">Peterborough Petes&rsquo; center Mike Ricci was named CHL player of the year. Battling injury and fatigue, he led the Petes to the Leyden Division final against Oshawa.</figcaption></div>Trevor Kidd of the Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL) was rewarded for his work this season by being named the Cooper Canada goalie of the year. Kidd, who led the WHL with the most losses (34) and most goals against (254), played more minutes than any other goalie in the CHL (3,676) and posted a respectable 4.15 goals-against average and an .891 save percentage. Kidd, 18, won over Jeff Fife of the Belleville Bulls (OHL) and Pierre Gagnon of Victoriaville.McKim, who lost the player-of-the-year honors to Ricci, was named Canon Camera most sportsmanlike player of the year. McKim, 19, had 44 penalty minutes this season and won over Ricci and Bryan Bosch of the Lethbridge Hurricanes (WHL).Jeff Nelson of the Prince Albert Raiders (WHL) also made history by becoming the first olaver to win back-to-back CHL awards. Nelson was named Canadian Airlines scholastic player of the year, the same award he won last year.Nelson, who is eligible for the 1991 draft, holds down an 85 per cent average at the Carlton Comprehensive High School. He won the award over Ryan Kuwabara of the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s (OHL) and Yanic Perreault of the Trois Rivieres Draveurs (QMJHL).Ken Hitchcock, who steered his Kamloops Blazers to the WHL championship and the Memorial Cup, was named Molson coach of the year. Hitchcock, whose team has finished first in the West Division five of his six seasons in Kamloops, had a 56-16-0 record this season. He won over Larry Mavety of the Kingston Frontenacs (OHL) and Guy Chouinard of Victoriaville.Russ Farwell, who guided the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 52-17-3 mark, was named Canadian Airlines executive of the year. The Thunderbirds&rsquo; general manager won over Victoriaville general manager Michel Larocque and Sudbury Wolves&rsquo; (OHL) general manager Sam McMaster&hellip; &#9632;

f0032-02

YOUNG BLOOD

If things weren&rsquo;t exciting enough on the ice during the first three games of the 1990 Memorial Cup, some off-ice fireworks were doing their part to keep things interesting.In a strange twist of events, the Western League&rsquo;s Kamloops Blazers, who entered the tournament as the top-ranked team in the Canadian League, were 0-2 after losing their first two games in overtime. The Blazers&rsquo; second loss, a 7-6 setback to the Ontario League&rsquo;s Oshawa Generals May 6, sparked some spirited verbal exchanges from players and coaches on both teams.On the strength of three goals by right winger Mike Craig, the Generals held a 6-2 lead after two periods. But the Blazers came back with four goals in the third period to tie the game before Generals&rsquo; captain Iain Fraser scored at 3:05 of the first overtime period to give Oshawa the win.<h2>MEMORIAL CUP</h2>&ldquo;I would personally like to thank (Blazers&rsquo; center) Len Barrie for helping us win this game,&rdquo; said Generals&rsquo; coach Rick Comacchia. &ldquo;Before the overtime, he skated by our bench and said we had no character and that gave us the impetus to score in overtime. The Oshawa Generals have shown all year that we have character and we showed it again and came through.&rdquo;&ldquo;Any team that blows a 6-2 lead in the third period doesn&rsquo;t have character,&rdquo; said Barrie, who had two goals and two assists during the game. &ldquo;They may have individual talent, but no character.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even know who this guy (Comacchia) is but if he&rsquo;s going to make comments like that, he should head back to Junior B.&rdquo;Blazers&rsquo; coach Ken Hitchcock called Comacchia&rsquo;s statement, &ldquo;the most classless comments I&rsquo;ve ever heard.The win for the Generals was their second of the tournament&mdash;they defeated the Quebec League&rsquo;s Laval Titan 6-2 in their opening game the day before&mdash;and assured themselves of a berth in the semifinal game May 12. Despite being outshot 51-21 in the Kamloops game, the Generals were able to capitalize on their chances and got solid goaltending from Kevin Butt.Things were much quieter after the Blazers&rsquo; first loss, an 8-7 overtime loss to the OHL&rsquo;s Kitchener Rangers May 5.Rangers&rsquo; right winger Shayne Stevenson, who had two goals and two assists in the game, scored at the 7:41 mark of the first overtime period to give the Rangers the victory. The Rangers, who had lost the last three games of the OHL finals to the Oshawa Generals, were down 6-4 going into the final period.&mdash;Ken Campbell &#9632;

SHOWDOWN ERUPTS INTO WAR OF WORDS

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div>Although the Victoriaville Tigres finished in first place and reached the final round kof the playoffs in the Quebec League, there&rsquo;s no assurance coach Guy Chouinard nor general manager Michel Larocque will be rehired.The Tigres had a good season, but it might not have been good enough.After their blockbuster acquisition Feb. 14 of Patrick Lebeau, Jean Blouin and Francois Leroux from St-Jean for Trevor Duhaime, future considerations and draft choices, Victoriaville was expected to breeze to the Memorial Cup.Instead, the Tigres were swept by defending champion Laval in the best-of-seven final.Two of the three players acquired&mdash;Blouin and Leroux&mdash;were unavailable for the finals due to injuries.Tigres&rsquo; president Pierre Roux said he and the six other members of the hockey committee would meet by mid-May to discuss the season and the future of Chouinard and Larocque, whose contracts expire May 31.Roux admitted the Tigres&rsquo; inability to qualify for the Memorial Cup would &ldquo;have some effect for sure&rdquo; on Chouinard&rsquo;s and Larocque&rsquo;s status.Chouinard and Larocque were named the QMJHL&rsquo;s coach and executive of the year.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it should be that you win the (QMJHL&rsquo;s President) Cup or you&rsquo;re out. If you did a good job it shouldn&rsquo;t matter,&rdquo; said Chouinard. &ldquo;You can be a bad coach and win it all.&rdquo;Although Chouinard has been rumored to be in line for the coaching position with the expansion Beauport Harfangs next season, he said his ambition is to coach professionally. He said he doesn't have much desire to go to an expansion team&mdash;he compared it to coaching the last-place Verdun Junior Canadiens in 1988-89&mdash;and isn&rsquo;t sure he&rsquo;ll return to Victoriaville even if he&rsquo;s offered a new contract.The main reason behind Chouinard&rsquo;s hesitancy to accept a new offer is that he&rsquo;s aware Victoriaville fans want Gilbert Perrault to return behind the bench.The former Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; center coached the Tigres to the finals last season, then resigned. He resurfaced this year as one of the team&rsquo;s owners.Perreault was non-commital about returning.&ldquo;Last year I did enjoy it and you miss it once you get out,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I watched all the home games and I still love the game. About coaching, that's a different story.&rdquo;<h2>HARFANGS IN</h2>With the deposit of a $10,000 cheque at a board of governors meeting April 30, the Beauport Harfangs officially joined the QMJHL for the 1990-91 season.The Harfangs become the league&rsquo;s 12th team and will play in the Frank Dilio Division along with Chicoutimi, Drummondville, Shawinigan. Trois-Rivieres and Victoriaville.College Francais, Granby, Hull, Laval, St-Hyacinthe and St-Jean will make up the Robert Lebel division.The season will continue to be 70 games&mdash;eight intra-division games against each team and five against each team in the other division. The top four teams in each division qualify for the playoffs. Each playoff round will be a best-of-seven, with one team from each division qualifying for the final.<h2>WANTS TO STAY</h2>Now that the sale of the Bisons has been finalized and it has been assured that the team will remain in Granby, coach and general manager John Paris has stated that he wants to return behind the bench.Paris, who replaced the fired Real Paiement in mid-December with the team 10-23-0, guided the young Bisons to a 10-26-1 record&mdash;20-49-1 overall&mdash;and a l0th-place finish. &#9632;

FIRST-PLACE TIGRES TO REVIEW FRONT OFFICE

<div class="byline">BY ROB VANSTONE</div>The Medicine Hat Tigers completed their purge of upper management May 1, when owner George Maser announced that general manager Tim Speltz&rsquo;s contract would not be renewed.One week earlier, Maser informed Ron Kennedy&mdash;the WHL&rsquo;s coach of the year last season&mdash;and assistant coach Kevin Dickie they would not be invited back next season.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t been going too well,&rdquo; Maser said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had two straight years where we&rsquo;ve only played three playoff games. We&rsquo;ve been out in three straight both times.&ldquo;You have to blame something on somebody without saying anything nasty. Sports is a tough business.&rdquo;The Tigers posted a 32-38-2 record this season, but were swept by the Saskatoon Blades in a first-round playoff series. Last season, Medicine Hat finished the regular season with a 4127-4 mark before being ousted by the Moose Jaw Warriors.&ldquo;(Maser) felt he wasn&rsquo;t hands-on enough as an owner and that he wasn&rsquo;t in touch with things on a day-to-day basis,&rdquo; said Speltz, who like Kennedy, spent the past two seasons with the Tigers. &ldquo;1 didn&rsquo;t understand it that way. I thought I was running the team and calling the shots.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know I had to have anything cleared. He wasn&rsquo;t around a whole lot and decisions had to be made.&rdquo;<h2>BRETTS ARE IN</h2>The four Brett brothers&mdash;Bobby, George, John and Ken&mdash;received unanimous approval from the WHL s 14 governors May 1 in their bid to purchase the Spokane Chiefs from Vic Fitzgerald.The transfer required a two-thrids majority, or at least 10 votes.George, the long-time star with baseball&rsquo;s Kansas City Royals, Ken, a former major league pitcher, and John will essentially be silent partners while Bobby acts as the team&rsquo;s governor.The Bretts, who also own the Spokane Indians AA baseball team of the Northwest League, purchased the franchise for an estimated $650,000.&ldquo;The first order of business is probably to find someone who knows hockey,&rdquo; said Bobby. &ldquo;We have to hire a hockey general manager. We will look at our existing staff and we will talk to a number of people.&rdquo;That includes head coach Bryan Maxwell, who led the Chiefs to a 30-37-5 record and a fourth-place finish in the West Division in his first season. Maxwell, who handled the general manager duties with Fitzgerald, has two years remaining on his contract.<h2>NEW HEAD COUGAR</h2>Rick Hopper has accepted what might be the most challenging job in hockey.Hopper, 35, was named head coach and director of operations of the Victoria Cougars April 26. He agreed to a two-year contract.The Cougars, who had a record of 5-62-5 last season, went through three coaches and were the worst team in Western League history. They also set a Canadian League record by losing 32 straight games. Hopper, who was an assistant with the Cougars in 1985-86 and with the New Westminster Bruins in 1986-87, spent the last two seasons coaching the Powell River Paper Kings of the British Columbia Junior League.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a rookie,&rdquo; Hopper said. &ldquo;1 know that and the kids do, too, which means there&rsquo;s a lot of undiscovered space.&rdquo;Lyle Moffat, who finished the Cougars&rsquo; dismal 1989-90 season as head coach and marketing manager, was appointed general manager. John Almond remains as director of player personnel and will report to Hopper. &#9632;

TIGERS CLEAN HOUSE FOR NEW START

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div>The Ontario League Central Scouting Bureau has compiled its final ranking of players eligible for the May 26 priority selections draft.The confidential rankings have Detroit Compuware center Pat Peake as the top-rated player.The 1990-91 expansion Detroit Ambassadors, with the No. 1 pick at the draft have already declared Peake as their choice. The draft is scheduled for May 26 at the North York Centennial Arena.The rest of the players rated in the first round are as follows:2. Todd Warriner, C, Chatham Jr. B; 3. Jeff Bes, C, St. Mary&rsquo;s Jr. B; 4. Mike Cote, C, Oshawa Midgets; 5. Steve Staios, D, Hamilton Midgets; 6. Grant Marshall, D, Toronto Young Nats; 7. Richard Raymond, D, Bramalea Jr. B; 8. Greg Devries, D, Aurora Jr. B; 9. Shane McCosh, D, Oshawa Midgets; 10. Aaon Ward, D, Nepean Midgets; 11. Jarret Reid, C, Sault Ste. Marie Midgets; 12. Chris Varga, C, Kitchener Midgets; 13. Brian Rodston, C-LW, Detroit Tier Two; 14. Ryan Black, LW, Waterloo Jr. B; 15. Kelly Corpse, C, London Jr. B; 16. Rick Marshall, D, Lindsay Jr. B.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01624/5831021-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="701" height="949"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Peake, already expected to go first overall to Detroit, was rated No. 1.</figcaption></div>Following Detroit in the draft will be the three teams that missed the playoffs this season: Hamilton selects second followed by Windsor and Sault Ste. Marie.The Dukes are said to be leaning towards Staios, a hometown boy. Spitfires general Jerry McDonnell said Windsor&rsquo;s pick will depend on whom Hamilton takes.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re very high on Warriner, Bes, Cote and Reid,&rdquo; said McDonnell. &ldquo;All are forwards who can step in and play right away. We didn&rsquo;t score a lot last season and would like some offense.&rdquo;The Greyhounds, picking fourth, are under pressure in the Soo to get Reid if he&rsquo;s available. The Soo media has been critical of Greyhound management for allowing local stars such as Paul DiPietro (Sudbury), Chris Simon (Ottawa) and John Porco (Belleville) get away to other teams.<h2>HE CAN RELATE</h2>Wayne Maxner said he can relate to what Joe McDonnell went through last year.Maxner, coach of the London Knights, watched last season as McDonnell&rsquo;s first-place Kitchener Rangers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the sixth-place North Bay Centennials.&ldquo;Joe must feel awful,&rdquo; Maxner said at the time.This season it was Maxner&rsquo;s Knights who finished first only to lose in the first round to the sixth-place Niagara Falls Thunder. The Rangers, meanwhile, finished second and won the Emms Division final before losing the league final in seven games to Oshawa. Both finalists advanced to the Memorial Cup.&ldquo;What an empty feeling,&rdquo; Maxner said just prior to the Memorial Cup in Hamilton. &ldquo;I thought we had a very good chance to advance to the Memorial Cup.&ldquo;Am I over the loss to Niagara? No, I&rsquo;m not. It&rsquo;s something I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll ever get over. When I think about what we did during the regular season and then what happened in the playoffs, I feel like barfing.&ldquo;Losing to Niagara was the lowest point in my coaching career. It hurt less when I got fired by Sudbury (in 1986) after taking them into the playoffs.&rdquo;<h2>TRADE SPECULATION</h2>At the May 24-26 summer meetings, Windsor and Kitchener will complete the January trade that sent defenseman Jason York from the Spits to the Rangers for a second-round draft choice and future considerations. It&rsquo;s expected the Spits will obtain the rights to overage goalie David Schill and right winger Rival Fullum from the Rangers&hellip;Through May 3, the Belleville Bulls had yet to announce a replacement for Danny Flynn, fired as coach-general manager during the playoffs. Interim coach-GM Shawn MacKenzie is a candidate to replace Flynn on a full-time basis. &#9632;

f0033-01

PEAKE RANKED TOP DRAFT PROSPECT BY CSB

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-23" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2361/5831276-1-eng-US/f0034-232.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01709/5831269-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="2877" height="312"></div><h2>LEADING SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03413/5831262-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="989" height="501"></div><h2>INDIVIDUAL LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04309/5831255-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="408" height="274"></div><h2>LEADING DEFENSEMEN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07195/5831248-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="985" height="293"></div><h2>LEADING ROOKIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08184/5831241-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="984" height="242"></div><h2>INDIVIDUAL ROOKIE LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-10165/5831234-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="640" height="269"></div><h2>TEAM PENALTIES</h2>(GP) GAMES PLAYED (PEN) TOTAL PENALTY MINUTES INCLUDING BENCH MINUTES(BMI) TOTAL BENCH MINOR MINUTES (AVG) AVERAGE PENALTY MINUTES/GAMEARRIVED BY DIVIDING TOTAL PENALTY MINUTES BY GAMES PLAYED<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-11155/5831227-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="470" height="252"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-12151/5831220-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="453" height="291"></div><h2>TEAM POWER PLAY</h2>(ADV) TOTAL ADVANTAGES (PPGF) POWER-PLAY GOALS FOR(PCTG) ARRIVED BY DIVIDING NIIMRFR &cap;F P&cap;WFR-PI AY G&cap;Al SRY TOT Al ADVANTAGES<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-13137/5831213-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="993" height="498"></div><h2>TEAM PENALTY KILLING</h2>(TSH) TOTAL TIMES SHORT-HANDED (PPGA) POWER-PLAY GOALS AGAINST(PCTG) ARRIVED BY DIVIDING-TIMES SHORT MINUS POWER-PLAY GOALS AGAINSToBY TIMES SHORT<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-14131/5831206-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="993" height="498"></div><h2>TEAM-BY-TEAM SCORING</h2><h3>BOSTON BRUINS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-15124/5831199-1-eng-US/f0034-152.jpg" title="f0034-15" width="986" height="709"></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-16122/5831192-1-eng-US/f0034-162.jpg" title="f0034-16" width="979" height="580"></div><h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-17110/5831185-1-eng-US/f0034-172.jpg" title="f0034-17" width="973" height="159"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-18105/5831178-1-eng-US/f0034-182.jpg" title="f0034-18" width="977" height="393"></div><h2>CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-1998/5831171-1-eng-US/f0034-192.jpg" title="f0034-19" width="978" height="705"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2085/5831164-1-eng-US/f0034-202.jpg" title="f0034-20" width="978" height="626"></div><h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2175/5831157-1-eng-US/f0034-212.jpg" title="f0034-21" width="977" height="572"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-2267/5831150-1-eng-US/f0034-222.jpg" title="f0034-22" width="975" height="415"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01673/5831143-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="975" height="312"></div><h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02517/5831136-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="983" height="595"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03416/5831129-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="983" height="682"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04332/5831122-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="983" height="622"></div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05274/5831115-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="983" height="622"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06247/5831108-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="974" height="88"></div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07229/5831101-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="983" height="647"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08206/5831094-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="982" height="625"></div><h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09192/5831087-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="982" height="601"></div><h2>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10169/5831080-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="980" height="648"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-11153/5831073-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="974" height="133"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-12137/5831066-1-eng-US/f0035-122.jpg" title="f0035-12" width="984" height="504"></div><h2>GOALTENDING</h2>ALL GOALS AGAINST A TEAM IN ANY GAME ARE CHARGED TO THE GOALTENDER OF THAT GAME FOR PURPOSES OF AWARDING THE BILL JENNINGS TROPHYWONoLOST-TIED RECORD IS BASED UPON WHICH GOALTENDER WAS PLAYING WHEN THE WINNING OR TYING GOAL WAS SCOREDEMPTY-NET GOALS ARE NOT COUNTED IN PERSONAL AVERAGES BUT ARE INCLUDED IN THE TEAM TOTAL AND THE SHOTS(S) INCLUDED IN THE GOALTENDER S SHOTS AGAINST ISA) TOTAL (GP) GAMES PLAYED IN (MIN) MINUTES PLAYED (AVG) 60 MINUTE AVERAGE (GA) GOALS AGAINST &Iacute;SA&gt; SHOTS AGAINST (PCT) SAVE PERCENTAGE<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-13123/5831059-1-eng-US/f0035-132.jpg" title="f0035-13" width="995" height="1655"></div><h2>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-14103/5831052-1-eng-US/f0035-142.jpg" title="f0035-14" width="950" height="569"></div> &#9632;

f0034-23

NHL PLAYOFF STATISTICS

f0036-01

NHL PLAYOFF SUMMARIES

ALL PLAYOFF STANDINGSAS OF MON MAY 7<h2>NHL PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01556/5831562-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="607" height="3206"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02405/5831555-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="583" height="1317"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03315/5831548-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="593" height="1964"></div><h2>AHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04260/5831541-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="592" height="2490"></div><h2>IHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05229/5831534-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="572" height="689"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06199/5831527-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="558" height="457"></div><h2>MEMORIAL CUP</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07176/5831520-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="563" height="753"></div><h2>OHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08147/5831513-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="565" height="967"></div><h2>ALLAN CUP</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-09126/5831506-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="552" height="139"></div><h2>CENTENNIAL CUP</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-10116/5831499-1-eng-US/f0037-102.jpg" title="f0037-10" width="576" height="1332"></div> &#9632;

f0037-01

SCOREBOARD

Mike Liut has been playing goal for professional hockey teams since about the time they first considered the merits of artificial ice.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01644/5831600-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="461" height="619"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE MOLINARI</figcaption></div>At least it seems that way.He&rsquo;s outlasted one league and is on his fourth team, which is not unusual for a guy in his 14th year in the business.Fourteen seasons. Think about it. And try to translate that into people years.Anyway, when you&rsquo;re around as long as Liut has been, people form some impressions about you. And a lot of the time, they&rsquo;re in direct conflict with opinions somebody else has developed.Which is why Liut went from Hartford, where he was viewed as a disruptive force in the dressing room, to Washington, where he was being viewed as a civic icon by late April.A scoundrel in one place, a savior in another. But one man&rsquo;s feelings about Mike Liut have never changed.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never had any trouble looking in the mirror,&rdquo; Liut says.What Liut saw in the mirror after two rounds of the playoffs was a guy who had played a vital role in the Capitals&rsquo; first-ever appearance in the Stanley Cup semifinals. A guy who performed brilliantly after goaltending partner Don Beaupre was injured in the second round. A guy who lost most of the headlines to teammate John Druce, but didn&rsquo;t surrender a whole lot else through the first month of the playoffs.And a guy who made Washington general manager David Poile&rsquo;s decision to send Yvon Corriveau to the Whalers for Liut a few months ago seem nothing less than brilliant.&ldquo;A great trade, wasn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo; Capitals&rsquo; coach Terry Murray says.Maybe it won&rsquo;t seem that way a few years from now when, or if, Liut has given up the game and Corriveau is grinding out 20 or 25 goals a year in Hartford. But by early May, the Whalers were vacationing and Liut was a big part of the reason why the Capitals weren&rsquo;t.&ldquo;You come into a club like that and you want to contribute, want to fit in right away,&rdquo; Liut says. &ldquo;Sometimes you do. Sometimes you don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Liut, you might remember, was widely believed incapable of contributing to anything but his favorite charity a year ago. He was 33 years old, coming off a 13-19-1 season and in danger of being jettisoned out of hockey by Peter Sidorkiewicz and Kay Whitmore in Hartford.Now he&rsquo;s 34, but coming off a season when he tied Patrick Roy for the NHL&rsquo;s best goals-against average (2.53) and was second to Roy in save percentage (.905). And a playoff performance that moved Murray to suggest: &ldquo;We have all kinds of confidence in him.&rdquo;That confidence could have been bludgeoned after Game 1 of the Patrick Division final when the New York Rangers savaged him for seven goals. But Liut has learned that the scoreboard isn&rsquo;t the only way to judge one&rsquo;s performance, and he realized the goalie hasn&rsquo;t been born who can consistently stop the kind of deflections and rebounds he faced that night.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t make very many mistakes in Game 1, and that&rsquo;s what you&rsquo;re trying to do,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t stop what you don&rsquo;t see.&rdquo;Liut is a thinking man&rsquo;s athlete, studious and well-spoken. He has acquired the kind of working wisdom you don&rsquo;t get from genetics or a textbook. And a big part of that knowledge is knowing what he can and cannot control, what he should and shouldn&rsquo;t worry about.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t allow yourself to get down on yourself,&rdquo; Liut says. &ldquo;You just go out there and play the game, get into it and not worry about, &lsquo;Are you in the right spot or are you following the puck well tonight?&rsquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been in the game a long time and I&rsquo;ve accomplished some things and haven&rsquo;t accomplished other things. But you try your best when you play, give it your shot, and that&rsquo;s it.&rdquo;And always, the contradictions. The word circulating around Hartford was Liut was an unsettling force. But in Washington, he has been preaching&mdash;and practising&mdash;emotional stability to a team that never before had reached the ratified heights of the semifinals.&ldquo;You have to keep an even keel,&rdquo; Liut says. &ldquo;One thing you don&rsquo;t want to do in the playoffs is get too high or too low, in terms of expectations. You don&rsquo;t want your emotions to run wild. I just try to do my best for this team and hope it works out.&rdquo;It already has. That happened the moment May arrived and the Capitals were still playing hockey.<h2>DID YOU KNOW&hellip;</h2>&hellip;Only seven goalies have surrendered penalty-shot goals in NHL playoff history and three of them were in uniform May 5 in Boston: Washington&rsquo;s Mike Liut and Don Beaupre and Boston&rsquo;s Andy Moog, Moog stopped a penalty shot by Washington&rsquo;s Kelly Miller in Game 1 of the Wales Conference final.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02495/5831593-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="967" height="508"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andy Moog</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0038-01

LIUT’S EVEN KEEL STEERS THE CAPS

<h2>BRUINS</h2>Efforts to sign top prospect Wes Walz for the playoffs were broken off. &ldquo;See-ya-later, sayonarra, broken off, goodbye,&rdquo; said general manager Harry Sinden, whose efforts to sign Walz failed when the Western League player of the year demanded a one-way contract for next season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve never done and I don&rsquo;t think I should do it in this case. I mean, if it&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux, sure. If it&rsquo;s a 100 per cent sure-fire NHLer, okay.&rdquo; Walz, a center, became eligible to join the Bruins when his Leth-bridge team lost in the WHL playoffs to Kamloops. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to play for the Boston Bruins one day and maybe have a long career there,&rdquo; Walz said, &ldquo;but it just didn&rsquo;t pan out. We&rsquo;ll just have to wait and see what happens in the future.&rdquo;&hellip;Robert Cimetta and Lou Crawford, who were brought up from Maine (American League) at the start of the playoffs, were sent home&hellip;Defenseman Glen Wesley was plus-6 in the first two games of the Wales Conference final series with Washington&hellip;Television and movie star Michael J. Fox, and Cheers sitcom star Woody Harrelson were at the Boston Garden for Game 2 against the Capitals May 5. Both are good friends of Cam Neely.<h2>WHALERS</h2>The Whalers&rsquo; attendance topped 500,000) for the fifth successive season. Including the playoffs, the Whalers drew 594,560&mdash;an average of 13,829&mdash;for 89.0 per cent capacity of the Civic Center. During the regular season, the Whalers drew 548,199&mdash; down 7,638 from last season&mdash;for an average of 13,705&hellip;The Whalers set 21 team and individual records. The most important involved most wins (21), points (46) and fewest goals allowed (133) on the road. Ron Francis set a club record for most assists in a season with 69&hellip;The Whalers had yet to decide on their minor-league affiliate for next season. Springfield and New Haven became long shots.<h2>CANADIENS</h2>Bobby Smith, Brian Skrudland, Chris Chelios, Brent Gilchrist, Ryan Walter, Petr Svoboda, Brian Hayward and Mike McPhee were on hand May 4 when Mats Naslund confirmed he was retiring from the Canadiens to play in Switzerland&hellip; Managing director Serge Savard said left wingers Benoit Brunet and Mark Pederson were the players from Sherbrooke (American League) closest to earning NHL jobs. &ldquo;But we will have to see what happens in training camp.&rdquo; Savard added Andrew Cassels should be able to take Smith&rsquo;s spot on the club in a year&hellip;Guy Carbonneau played the Adams Division final with a cracked bone in his wrist. The arm was placed in a cast for six weeks&hellip;Because of the problems Chicago center Denis Savard was having with coach Mike Keenan, speculation began again Savard would be coming to Montreal in a multi-player deal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03401/5831631-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="551" height="640"><figcaption class="caption-body">Michel Petit was expected to resign with Quebec.</figcaption></div><h2>NORDIQUES</h2>Doug Jarvis, newly-hired Nords&rsquo; GM Pierre Page&rsquo;s assistant coach in Minnesota, was rumored to be joining Quebec&hellip;Goalie Mario Brunetta has left the Nords to play hockey in Italy. Brunetta, whose father is a native Italian, signed on with the Asiago club May 4&hellip;Team president Marcel Aubut said there is a good chance that Soviet star Valeri Kamensky could join the Nordiques as soon as 1991. The Nords chose the right winger in the eighth round (129th overall), in 1988&hellip;Defenseman Michel Petit, the team&rsquo;s steadiest blue liner in &rsquo;89-90, was reportedly on the verge of signing a long-term contract&hellip;The Nordiques may offer the Halifax (the Nordiques&rsquo; American League affiliate) coaching job to Jean Hamel of the Sherbrooke Canadiens if the Habs don&rsquo;t renew Hamel&rsquo;s contract.<h2>SABRES</h2>General manager Gerry Meehan scouted several Sabres&rsquo; prospects at the World Championships including Boston College defenseman Greg Brown and Northern Michigan University goaltender Bill Pye. Both played for Team USA, but Pye saw limited action&hellip;Goaltender Daren Puppa (Vezina Trophy) emerged as the lone Sabres&rsquo; contender for a postseason award. It was thought coach Rick Dudley might receive some consideration for the Jack Adams award. Dudley improved the team by 15 points in his first NHL season&hellip;The Sabres averaged 15,867 fans over 40 home dates&hellip;Three players who were with the Sabres for the playoffs this season&mdash;Darrin Shannon, Donald Audette and Bob Corkum&mdash;were now contending for a Calder Cup Championship with Rochester in the American League&hellip;Another first-round playoff loss did not deter the Sabres from a substantial ticket-price hike. Window ticket prices will increase from 12 to 21 percent next season. Season ticket holders will have to pay hikes ranging from nine to 13 per cent. The Sabres also made one pre-season home game and a game against a touring Soviet team a mandatory buy for season-ticket holders. &#9632;

f0038-03

BRUINS FAIL TO SIGN WALZ

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>The Washington Capitals and Mike Liut have held much in common for several years. Each has enjoyed a number of dynamite regular seasons, but neither had been to the NHL&rsquo;s conference finals.April showers may mean plenty of sweet-smelling things will blossom in May. But never the Caps or Liut.And as pleased as Liut was to finally do it with the Caps, he suggested he could have helped the Hartford Whalers do the same thing this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01607/5831662-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="553" height="775"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Liut understands he wasn&rsquo;t a part of Hartford&rsquo;s future.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;This is great,&rdquo; said the 34-year-old Liut. &ldquo;But the league&rsquo;s so close now I thought we had a chance in Hartford to be in this position this spring, too. The Whalers always play Boston tough. And it&rsquo;s crazy how momentum changes so quickly in the playoffs.&rdquo;I Liut, for obvious reasons, didn't play April 11 for Hartford when the team had a chance to grab a 3-1 series lead over Boston. Instead, the Whalers collapsed and lost the series in seven games.When the score flashed up at the Cap Centre that the Whalers were ahead 5-2 in the third period of Game 4 against Boston, Liut said he looked down the bench at former Bruin left winger Bob Joyce and said, &ldquo;&lsquo;Boston&rsquo;s dead.&rsquo; But just at the end of our game, it flashed up, 5-5. It was mind-blowing.&rdquo;So was the March 5 trade for Yvon Corriveau.&ldquo;It was an emotional blow,&rdquo; Liut said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to be traded as much for personal reasons as for professional ones. Hartford is a great place to raise a family.&ldquo;If I had the year that I had last year (13-19-1, 4.25 GAA in &rsquo;88-89) and I got traded I might have retired, but I was playing as well as I&rsquo;ve ever played. The one guy who they could trade with relative ease of conscience was me. I&rsquo;ve got two years left, maybe. There&rsquo;s less of a chance I could embarrass them than Kevin Dineen.&rdquo;Whalers&rsquo; general manager Ed Johnston never bought into that line of thinking. And when goaltender Peter Sidorkiewicz played fine in the opening-round loss to Boston, the critics were quiet.&ldquo;We had our own questions about why they would trade Liut,&rdquo; Boston coach Mike Milbury said. &ldquo;But we saw why after the way Sidorkiewicz performed.!&rsquo;&ldquo;How many games has Liut won in the playoffs the last three years or so?&rdquo; asked Johnston. &ldquo;Not many.&rdquo;Liut was 3-5 in post-season play from 1986-87 to &rsquo;88-89.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve accepted the trade,&rdquo; said Liut, who has received a verbal guarantee the Caps will extend his contract at least for one year. &ldquo;I understand why they did it. We can write it off to fiscal responsibility (Liut made about $460,000 (U.S) this season). We can say they had to make a goaltending decision among Peter, Kay Whitmore and myself.&rdquo;Liut, whose 19-16-1 record this season pushed him into a 13th place tie with Bernie Parent on the all-time NHL victory list (270), led the league with four shutouts and was tied with Montreal&rsquo;s Patrick Roy in goals-against average (2.53) and second to Roy in save percentage (.905).&ldquo;My (knee) injury might have cost me an all-star game and a (Vezina) Trophy,&rdquo; Liut said. &ldquo;I felt I played as well as them (Roy and Buffalo&rsquo;s Daren Puppa), just not as many games.&rdquo; Liut was limited to 37 games. &#9632;

f0039-01

LIUT GETTING IT DONE IN WASHINGTON

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02428/5831693-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg"></div>Only Inside HOCKEY has in-depth features and columns that take you from the dressing room to the boardroom&hellip; from the press box to the penalty box. Action packed four colour photography that puts you where the action is - right on the ice. Only $19.95 for 6 big issues plus our special bonus issue Season In Review. Don&rsquo;t delay subscribe today! &#9632;

f0039-02

THE HEARTBEAT OF HOCKEY

<div class="byline">BY KAREN GUREGIAN</div>It&rsquo;s hard to believe the Philadelphia Flyers didn&rsquo;t want him anymore.That fact is amazing. Because in the play offs, the Boston Bruins couldn&rsquo;t live without him.Dave Poulin has been Mr. Everything for the Bruins during the playoffs.He was on the power play. He was killing penalties. He was forechecking. He was back-checking. He was taking key faceoffs. He was providing leadership. He was scoring big goals.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the guy who leads the show when we&rsquo;re down,&rdquo; Bruins&rsquo; coach Mike Milbury said of Poulin, who arrived in Boston from Philadelphia in January in exchange for Keri Linseman.Poulin had eight goals and five assists in 14 playoff games, one fewer goal than the team&rsquo;s leading goal-getter, Cam Neely. Entering the 1990 post-season he had 17-22-39 totals in 63 playoff games, all with Philadelphia.Many of his eight goals this season were key ones in Boston's ride through the playoffs and into the final four with Washington, Chicago and Edmonton.For starters, he netted two goals, including the game-winner with 1:44 to play in the Bruins&rsquo; amazing 6-5 come-from-behind victory against the Hartford Whalers in Game 4 of the first-round series.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01324/5831724-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="703" height="879"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Poulin scored twice in Boston&rsquo;s win over Washington in Game 1.</figcaption></div>Poulin was 4-3-7 in the hard-fought seven-game series which eliminated the Whalers.There were more Poulin highlights in the Montreal series. He had Boston's lone goal in a 1-0 triumph over the Canadiens in Game 1 of the Adams Division final series. During that five-game series, he had two goals and two assists.With the start of the Wales Conference series against the Capitals, Poulin was again an instrumental player in the Bruins&rsquo; two home victories.He netted two goals in a 5-3 Game 1 victory May 4, and while he didn&rsquo;t score in a 3-0 shutout of the Caps in Game 2 May 6, he was still a very visible player on his line with Randy Burridge and Dave Christian.As far as his goal-scoring surge is concerned, Poulin didn&rsquo;t plan on stopping at eight.&ldquo;I think I have a few more left in me,&rdquo; Poulin said, &ldquo;at least I hope I do.&rdquo;Poulin, a center, was relegated to the role of defensive specialist this season with the Flyers.His importance went no further than the checking line and his offensive totals were only 9-8-17 in 28 games. He knew he was no longer part of the Flyers&rsquo; plans when they asked him to give up the team captaincy to the younger Ron Sutter.With Boston, he became an invaluable member of the team, both on (where he was 6-19-25 in 32 regular season games) and off the ice.Bruins&rsquo; general manager Harry Sinden said when the 31-year-old Poulin speaks, players listen.The Bruins&rsquo; general manager compared Poulin to Wayne Gretzky in that regard.&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t make any mistakes when he speaks out,&rdquo; Sinden said. &ldquo;There are players in all sports who can fool you for at least a little. But Dave Poulin is genuine.&rdquo;<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Craig Janney, Dave Poulin, Bob Carpenter, Bob Sweeney, Bill O&rsquo;Dwyer.LW&mdash;Brian Propp, Randy Burridge, John Carter, Greg Hawgood.RW&mdash;Cam Neely, Dave Christian, Peter Douris, Lyndon Byers, John Byce, Greg Johnston.LD&mdash;Glen Wesley, Don Sweeney, Allen Pedersen, Jim Wiemer.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque, Garry Galley, Bob Beers, Stephane QuintalG&mdash;Reggie Lemelin, Andy Moog, Norm Foster.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Andy Brlckley, LW, hip/groin pull, indefinite.Bob Gould, RW, knee strain, day-to-day.Gord Kluzak, D, left knee strain, indefinite.Nevin Markwart. RW, left shoulder surgery, out for season.Michael Thelven, D, right knee surgery, out for season.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Neely, 9. A-Janney, 16. P&mdash;Neely, 20. PIM&mdash; Neely, 41. &#9632;

f0040-01

MR. POULIN BECOMES MR. EVERYTHING

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>Two weeks removed from another first-round playoff loss, Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; management was quietly conducting a review of what went wrong. Though no one was saying much, it&rsquo;s likely the players will have to shoulder the blame.Maybe even some impact players.Defenseman Phil Housley and right winger Mike Foligno were the first who were rumored to be on the trading block. Center Christian Ruuttu was also reported to be on his way out.Recent reports had Housley and Foligno going to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Wendel Clark and perhaps John Kordic.Sabres&rsquo; general manager Gerry Meehan said he&rsquo;s not happy with that kind of talk, but he didn&rsquo;t close the door on trades either.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very leary of a planted story out of Toronto,&rdquo; Meehan said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a feeling they (the Leafs) want to get the word out about the players they&rsquo;re dangling. That&rsquo;s normal this time of year.&rdquo;Meehan, while not downgrading &ldquo;Clark&rsquo;s abilities and leadership value, said he wasn&rsquo;t interested in a deal for the oft-injured left winger, at least not at that price.However, Meehan didn&rsquo;t say he was not interested in moving Housley, Foligno, or anyone else.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01269/5831755-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="549" height="643"><figcaption class="caption-body">One report had Phil Housley being traded to Toronto.</figcaption></div>While it&rsquo;s expected center Pierre Turgeon and goaltender Daren Puppa are untouchables, Meehan is known to still be extremely upset with several players because of a lack of effort in the six-game loss to Montreal in the Adams Division semifinal.He made a point of saying that in his end-of-season statements two days after the team was eliminated. Several sources close to the team said he took an extended trip to the World Championships not only to scout Sabres&rsquo; prospects there, but to put some distance between himself and the opportunity to do something rash.Though he rarely shows it publicly, Meehan has a short temper. He was known to be upset with some comments made by head coach Rick Dudley immediately after the Montreal series, but he was said to be even more upset with his players. Though he has been cautious in his public statements about change, it&rsquo;s known some bigname players, including club mainstays such as Housley and Foligno are getting an exceptionally critical review.Meehan wouldn&rsquo;t comment on that, but he did not deny he was unhappy and did not deny there was more than a casual review in progress.Meehan went on record in favor of, the players last season. He fired coach Ted Sator (a ,500-plus coach in his two seasons in Buffalo) largely on their say. He also handed out some big contracts to some other players.Sources close to the team said it will be a surprise if the Sabres don&rsquo;t go to the June draft in Vancouver with some big-name players on the trade list. The Sabres this season showed themselves to be a good young team on the rise, but the old problem of not winning in the playoffs has been hanging over the club far too many years.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not that far away,&rdquo; Meehan said. &ldquo;This is a good team, but there&rsquo;s a difference between winning in the regular season and winning in the playoffs. It seems we&rsquo;ll have to evaluate our players on that difference.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0041-01

BIG-NAME PLAYERS MAY SHUFFLE OUT OF BUFFALO

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>It took two years, but Marcel Aubut feels he&rsquo;s corrected his biggest error as president of the Quebec Nordiques.On June 27, 1988, Aubut hired Martin Madden as the team&rsquo;s general manager, then fired him this past February after nearly two dismal seasons.On May 4, 1990, Aubut signed Pie&sigma;e Page to a reported four-year, $1 million contract as Madden&rsquo;s replacement. Maurice Filion served as GM in the interim.&ldquo;The mistake I made two years ago is now patched up,&rdquo; said Filion at a press conference in Quebec City.Page, the coach of the Minnesota North Stars for the past two seasons, had been the frontrunner for the Nordiques&rsquo; job since the end of the regular season, but the uncertainty surrounding the Stars kept things from being finalized.Just before George and Gordon Gund sold the North Stars to Howard Baldwin May 1, Aubut finally got Permission from the Gunds to open negotiations with Page.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02173/5831786-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="543" height="597"><figcaption class="caption-body">Michel Bergeron&rsquo;s future as head coach was still undecided.</figcaption></div>Page said the deal the Gunds struck with Baldwin, which included taking several North Star prospects to San Jose provided they were granted an expansion franchise in the Bay Area in 1991, helped make his decision.&ldquo;All of a sudden, there wasn&rsquo;t any stability in Minnesota any more,&rdquo; said Page, who denied reports he&rsquo;d also take over as the Nords&rsquo; head coach. &ldquo;I just couldn&rsquo;t work in such an atmosphere.&rdquo;Aubut, who followed Page from the World Championships in Switzerland to New York, then returned to Europe the same day, put a lot of time and money into securing his man.&ldquo;That was probably the best spent $12,000 in the Nordiques&rsquo; history,&rdquo; said Aubut of his one-day jaunt.&ldquo;There were other candidates, but from the beginning, Pierre was the one I had my eyes on. I really wanted the new general manager to come from another organization. That was not negotiable.&ldquo;And Pierre is more than qualified for the job. He&rsquo;s a born leader and I felt as soon as I met him, that we would get along fine.Page, 42, said his first task as general manager, would be to find two qualified assistants.&ldquo;I want to be helped in this job,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I need a good administrator and a good hockey man. The trick in this job is to be well surrounded.&rdquo;Page refused to say whether his new entourage would include incumbent head coach, Michel Bergeron, or Filion.&ldquo;As you know, I&rsquo;ve been given carte-blanche by Marcel Aubut,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m the kind of person who likes changes. I&rsquo;ve got a few names in my head, but I don&rsquo;t think now is the time to name them.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s wait before doing anything. Give me three or four weeks to meet my hockey personnel and evaluate what they have to say.&rdquo;<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>May 4: Pierre Page hired as general manager. Mario Brunetta, G, signed &infin;ntract to play in Asiago, Italy. &#9632;

f0041-02

AUBUT FINALLY GETS HIS MAN

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01288/5831817-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="311" height="485"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE SIMMONS</figcaption></div>I can see it now in bright lights. The sign outside the East Berlin Gardens.Tonight: Saskatoon, 8 p.m. Good tickets still available.The sign wouldn&rsquo;t be in English, of course, But we&rsquo;re taking liberties here. It&rsquo;s hard not to when we speak of the fledgling Global League.For a brief moment when I ate their cheese, drank their wine and listened to the gospel of commissioner Michael Gobuty, I believed the Global League had a chance.But when the smell of cheese disappeared and my head cleared of German wine, I came back to my senses. The sense most people in hockey have.The Global League is a lot like disco. It doesn&rsquo;t have a chance.That much became apparent after I left their impressive news conference at a downtown hotel in Bern, Switzerland. That much became apparent when one glanced at the list of European franchises involved.There is no team in hockey-crazed Sweden. No team in Finland. No team in Switzerland. And one team in Italy, to which the Italian Federation took it upon itself to issue a terse news release denying any knowledge of any existing Global League.Even the International Ice Hockey Federation, whose palms have yet to be greased by the Global people, are disavowing any recognition. Donations payable to the Gunther Sabetzki trust fund, will however, be accepted.Right now there are five European franchises. There is the Berlin Wall, the Holland Tunnels, the Lyon Lions, the Prague Pragmatists, and the Milan Mafia.There is, at least not yet, no London Bridge to come tumbling down.All this has happened, one European hockey expert told me, because the Global League does not understand the global picture.Take the Prague franchise for example. And you may get it cheap in the fall. When Czechoslovakian league games are played in Prague, the ticket prices range from 50 cents to about $2. The average price is about $1 a ticket, American money.How can a professional franchise survive in such an economic climate?And that&rsquo;s just one team. The East Berlin franchise supposedly will play in a rundown building that holds little more than 4,000.Milan is a soccer town and the World Cup is going to Italy. Bet they&rsquo;re excited about the new hockey season. And when was the last time Rotterdam or Lyon, France, were mentioned as great untapped hockey cities?The U.S. franchises may not be any better. Los Angeles? Now, there&rsquo;s a town that loves hockey, doesn&rsquo;t it? Until Wayne Gretzky arrived from Edmonton, they didn&rsquo;t even know puck was a four-letter word. When Gretzky leaves, hockey dies. Right now, hockey is little more than cottage industry in Los Angeles.The Global League&rsquo;s chances of survival in Los Angeles? Heck, it won&rsquo;t even have Robbie Ftorek&rsquo;s staying power.Miami? Cleveland? Providence? They can put all the penalty-shot competitions they want in their game. It won&rsquo;t work here.The way I figure it, when the dust settles, the Global League will be a two-team entity:Albany versus Saskatoon, for your viewing pleasure 60 nights each hockey season.At least you can see a minor brand of hockey, with minor players, selling in a Saskatoon or an Albany, decent hockey centers starving for more than they currently have.But for now, we&rsquo;ll all have to wait. The excitement is building. The draft of players&mdash;amateurs, and professionals whose contracts have expired&mdash;will take place sometime in June in Lyon.If my sources prove correct, the first ever Global League draft should be the talk of wine country in France. And why shouldn&rsquo;t it be?Steve Simmons is a feature writer-columnist with the Toronto Sun. &#9632;

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May 18, 1990

WESTERN LEAGUE DUO READY FOR THE NHL

WAY WE WERE

A FAN-TASTIC SEASON

NORWOOD HOPING REASON PREVAILS