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.

November 16, 1990

The Hockey News November 16, 1990

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Jason Kay</div>Those fabulous Baker boys were in a class of their own during their college days.Professional success, however, has been a different story.Harvard&rsquo;s Lane MacDonald, forced to retire at 24 because of severe headaches, is the most recent Hobey Baker Award winner who&rsquo;s failed to make the next step and make a big impact in the NHL.Listed below are how the other nine Hobey winners have fared since copping the award. Information includes the year and team of their winning season.&#9632; Neal Broten, 1981 Minnesota. The inaugural winner, Broten has enjoyed the most NHL success. He was drafted 42nd overall by the Minnesota North Stars in 1979, broke into their lineup soon after his Hobey win and has been with the team ever since. Entering the 1990-91 season, Broten had played in 639 regular-season games and had 216-444-660 scoring totals.&#9632; George McPhee, 1982, Bowling Green. The Falcons&rsquo; left winger was signed as a free agent in 1982 by the New York Rangers, then suffered through a seven-year injury-filled career. His most productive season was 198485. when in 49 games he had 12-15-27 totals. Traded to New Jersey in 1987, McPhee retired after the 1988-89 season and now attends law school at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.&#9632; Mark Fusco, 1983. Harvard. The first of back-to-back defensemen to win the Hobey, Fusco walked away from the Hartford Whalers in 1985 rather than accept a minor-league demotion. During his brief I &lsquo;Z&frac12;-year NHL career, he had 3-12-15 totals.&#9632; Tom Kurvers. 1984. Minnesota-Duluth. Kurvers has enjoyed moderate success since breaking into the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; lineup in 1984-85. After stints in Buffalo and New Jersey, Kurvers was traded to Toronto last year for a first-round draft pick.&#9632; Bill Watson. 1985, Minnesota-Duluth. The high-scoring Bulldog winger could never get it together for the Chicago Blackhawks who drafted him in the fourth round of the 1982 draft. In parts of four NHL seasons, Watson, now coaching a junior &lsquo;B&rsquo; team in Duluth, produced 23 goals and 59 points.&#9632; Scott Fusco, 1986, Harvard. A free agent after playing for the U.S. Olympic team in 1988, Fusco (younger brother of Mark), received some contract offers but decided pro hockey wasn&rsquo;t for him. He&rsquo;s now working at his father&rsquo;s Boston-area computer firm and rooms with MacDonald.&#9632; Tony Hrkac. 1987, North Dakota. The diminutive center has seen his production decline each season since breaking in with St. Louis in 1987. The highest draft pick of the Hobey winners (32nd overall in 1984), Hrkac spent a third of last season in the minors after being traded to Quebec.&#9632; Robb Stauber. 1988, Minnesota. Stauber has been touted as the goalie of the future in Los Angeles, but his progress was hampered by a groin injury last year. Stauber began 1990-91 in New Haven (AHL),&#9632; Kip Miller, 1990, Michigan State. The book is still out on Miller who just turned pro this season. He couldn&rsquo;t crack the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; lineup and figures to spend the entire campaign in Halifax (AHL). &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

BAKERS HAVEN’T YET MASTERED THE NHL RECIPE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01800/5797763-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="537" height="615"><figcaption class="caption-body">ERIC DUHATSCHEK</figcaption></div>We must be getting jaded.It&rsquo;s the only way to explain why the Washington Capitals&rsquo; acquisition of Mikhail Tatarinov, one of the best young Soviet players in the world, was treated almost as an afterthought.You had to sift through the fine print of most newspapers to find a reference to the signing, which&mdash;and make no mistake about this&mdash;represented a major coup for the Caps.Three things set Tatarinov apart from other Soviets released through conventional channels: a) His age, 24. b) His ability, good enough to make the all-star team at the most recent world championships; and c) his feisty approach to the game.Until Tatarinov, only Soviets over the age of 28 received official permission to join NHL teams. For the most part, they&rsquo;ve been indifferent newcomers, none of whom really lived up to their advance billing, none of whom dominated the Way they did when they wore the hammer and sickle.Tatarinov may be different.As general manager David Poile puts it, he could have a career here. The others? The suspicion is their main objective is to pick up a paycheque.&ldquo;What I know from history is that every one of these Europeans, regardless of age, has had a tremendous adjustment period,&rdquo; said Poile. &ldquo;Look at Michal Pivonka. Last year was the first year he started to make a significant contribution to our team.&ldquo;There&rsquo;ll be adjustments (for Tatarinov) on and off the ice. He has a wife (Natalia) and a baby (Vladimir) who&rsquo;ve never been out of the Soviet Union. None of them speak English. Living in Moscow, she&rsquo;s never driven a car. Living in the States you have to drive&rdquo;The point is, there&rsquo;ll be time to adjust. The clock will not run on Tatarinov&rsquo;s career the day he starts to feel comfortable in the NHL.Tatarinov made his first big splash in the West during the 1985 World Junior Championships in Hamilton. He was the first young Soviet to play more like a Canadian than most Canadians did. He was mean and nasty and really skilled with the puck.Calgary Flames&rsquo; Joe Nieuwendyk called him,&rdquo;Their biggest weapon&hellip;the main guy on their team.&rdquo;Next time I saw Tatarinov was January, 1987 in the Calgary Cup pre-Olympic tournament. The thing that stuck most in my head was one memorable pass which travelled almost 100 feet and sent a teammate in on a breakaway.By May, 1987, he had dropped off the hockey map. Viktor Tikhonov brushed off questions about Tatarinov&rsquo;s absence at the Vienna World Championships with one word,&rdquo;Injured.&rdquo; Later, he added: &ldquo;But why so many questions about Tatarinov? He was not even a candidate for this team.&rdquo;Just where Tatarinov disappeared to is a matter of some dispute. Some say he ended up in a detox center.Poile disputed that point. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s fair or accurate,&rdquo; said Poile. &ldquo;He had a shoulder injury, a knee injury. I think people got him confused with Igor Viazmikin. But this is on our list of things to talk to him about.&rdquo;Next time I saw him wasn&rsquo;t until a September 1989 game against the Capitals in Moscow&rsquo;s Luzhniki Arena. That represented almost an audition for Tatarinov. He was playing again and his potential employers were the opposition. Tatarinov played a dynamic game for Moscow Dynamo that night. Poile, witnessing the destruction of his team, walked past a camera position and instructed a technician to &ldquo;pull the plug.&rdquo;Then in May, 1990&mdash;finally reinstated to the national team, despite Tikhonov&rsquo;s well-documented dislike for him&mdash;Tatarinov played in the Bern World Championships and put on a shooting clinic.One goal especially stood out. It came against Canada&rsquo;s Bob Essensa in a real surreal setting. Game time was about 5 p.m., in a building&mdash;the Allemand Stadium&mdash;with a glass roof. So the sun was shining in Essensa&rsquo;s eyes as Tatarinov shelfed one from the blue line. Essensa maybe blinked once. Even if he&rsquo;d been wearing his Wayfarers, I doubt if he&rsquo;d picked up the puck.Tatarinov&rsquo;s velocity impressed one of the NHL&rsquo;s top guns, Al MacInnis.&ldquo;I remember the shot,&rdquo; said MacInnis. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question he&rsquo;s a good player.&rdquo;Tatarinov represents a pioneer of a different sort. Just how Tatarinov develops may in large part determine how NHL teams set policies with regard to Soviet players. As Soviet society changes, more and more good, young players will become available.Not only is this a big plus for the Capitals in the year of Scott Stevens&rsquo; defection to the St. Louis Blues, it may open the doorfor other NHL teams to capitalize on the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation&rsquo;s cashflow problems.But only if Tatarinov pans out. &#9632;

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COLUMNS

TATARINOV SIGNING A CAPITAL COUP

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021051/5796848-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="568" height="843"><figcaption class="caption-body">Detroit&rsquo;s Sergei Fedorov leads a dangerous trio. Page 53.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03763/5796841-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="576" height="840"><figcaption class="caption-body">Winnipeg&rsquo;s Moe Mantha is sitting out regularly. Page 19.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04538/5796834-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="568" height="836"><figcaption class="caption-body">Minnesota&rsquo;s Jon Casey is playing for peanuts. Page 58.</figcaption></div><h2>QUOTABLE</h2>&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t win at home (2-5-1), can&rsquo;t win on the road (0-3-1), where else is there left to play?&rdquo;&mdash;Edmonton Oiler assistant coach Ron Low, on the dismal play of the defending Stanley Cup champions. Page 17.&ldquo;When we traded Denis Savard I don&rsquo;t think Islept for two weeks.&rdquo;&mdash;Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; president Bill Wirtz, of his initial reaction to the Savard for Chris Chelios trade. Page 9. &#9632;

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THIS WEEK

&hellip;the Winnipeg Jets are the only NHL team to have a Swedish-bom captain? Center Thomas Steen, a Jet since the 1981-82 season after playing six years in Sweden, is the current captain. Lars-Erik Sjoberg, who spent most of his career with the Jets in the WHA, was captain for 79 games during the 1979-80 season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021132/5797368-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="977" height="530"><figcaption class="caption-body">Lars-Erik Sjoberg</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

DID YOU KNOW…

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011288/5796803-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="527" height="610"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOB MCKENZIE</figcaption></div>Hockey is the greatest game. You know it. I know it.But in the grand scheme of things, we are little more than a lone voice calling out in the sports wilderness.The average American, for instance, cannot comprehend that hockey is a better game than baseball, football or basketball. It is sacrilege to even consider the notion. God help his soul.And even here in Canada, there is growing evidence to support the theory that hockey fans aren&rsquo;t as fervent as they once were.Toronto, which set a Major League attendance record this year with the Blue Jays, has become, egads, a baseball city first, a hockey city second. We must have mercy. The fans simply have lost their reason to beleaf.We are fighting a losing battle. Baseball, football and basketball fans are either too dumb or too loyal to consider opening their minds to the great game of hockey.We could extol hockey&rsquo;s many virtues, but they wouldn&rsquo;t listen. They do not appreciate the speed, grace, beauty, contact and confrontation of the world&rsquo;s fastest sport.Why hockey is better than baseball.&#9632; Baseball is boring.Spare us the baseball-as-a-metaphor-of-life lecture and all that other elitist nonsense. It&rsquo;s a game. And, more often than not. a pretty dull one.&#9632; Baseball is myopic.The players compete to win the World Series. World Series? Cincinnati vs. Oakland. San Francisco vs. Oakland. Los Angeles vs. Oakland. A real global affair, isn&rsquo;t it?&#9632; Baseball is violent.-There are now more bench-clearing brawls in baseball than any other sport. Why, a guy I know went to the Holyfield-Douglas card and a baseball game broke out. Ha, ha, ha&hellip;&#9632; Baseball knows no bounds.The sport&rsquo;s literati revere this as timelessness, equating it with some magical, mystical quality. Which is just swell, given that the game is into the 16th inning, and you have to rush home because the babysitter, unlike the game, has a curfew. Hey, you didn&rsquo;t really want to see the winning run, did you?&#9632; Baseball managers wear uniforms.C&rsquo;mon now, admit it. Have you ever seen anything more ludicrous than a grown man who doesn&rsquo;t throw, catch, field or hit crammed into one of those polyester knits?&#9632; Baseball games, in most cities, can be rained out.Nothing like a night in the drizzle waiting for word on if the game will resume.Why hockey is better than football.&#9632; Football plays one game a week.Just what the attraction to the sport is the other six days of the week, we&rsquo;re not quite sure.&#9632; Football pays no heeds to the elements.If God had intended for human beings to expose their flesh in Green Bay in midDecember, He would have said so in the Bible. Or Sports Illustrated.&#9632; Football is responsible for the advent of artificial turf.Sure, it&rsquo;s functional. And, yes, hockey is played on artificial ice. But it looks like ice, feels like ice and, in a pinch, you could put it in your drink. Artificial turf? Grass, my a-.&#9632; Football has too many timeouts.Three in the first half, three in the second. Is this a football game or a civil service convention?&#9632; Football games are too crowded.Now you know how the tailgate party tradition got started. You have to take supplies and cooking utensils with you, lest you perish in a parking lot designed to accommodate 80,000.&#9632; Halftime shows.Marching bands, baton twirlers, co-ed cheerleaders and on-field formations saluting this or that. Enough said.&#9632; The Soviets don&rsquo;t play it.If those crafty Reds aren&rsquo;t in on it, then it isn&rsquo;t worth getting in on.Why hockey is better than basketball.&#9632; You don&rsquo;t have to be seven feet tall to play hockey.And never mind Spud Webb. He&rsquo;s small potatoes.&#9632; Basketball has too many timeouts.Didn&rsquo;t we have the same complaint about football? Sorry, gridiron fans. The last 30 seconds of a basketball game make the last two minutes of a football game look like a Charlie Chaplin movie on fast forward.&#9632; In basketball, the last basket usually wins.Great excitement, but why bother with the first 47 minutes?Hockey is the greatest game. You know it. I know it. &#9632;

f0002-01

WHY HOCKEY IS THE BEST SPORT OF ALL

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011446/5796917-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="879" height="589"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021171/5796910-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="495" height="249"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03763/5796903-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="578" height="798"></div>Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; goalie Bob Essensa, who won two games and had a 1.50 goals-against average and a.954 save percentage, was today named the NHL Pro Set Player of the Week for the period ending Nov. 4. Essensa, who registered four wins in his last four starts, edged Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; right winger Mark Recchi and Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; center Neal Broten for the award.Throughout the 1990-91 NHL season, Pro Set, Inc. will donate $500 to the youth hockey organization designated by the Player of the Week. Pro Set will also contribute $1,000 on behalf of the Player of the Month and $7,500 for the Player of the Year Award.As a first-year sponsor of these NHL awards, Pro Set is contributing over $26,000 to youth hockey organizations across North America.Beginning his two-game road trip in Edmonton, Essensa led his club to a 1-0 overtime win over the Oilers (Oct. 31). He turned away 34 shots en route to his first shutout of the season, third of his career. In Vancouver, Essensa faced 31 shots while helping the Jets to a 5-3 win over the Canucks (Nov. 3).The Jets have a 6-8-1 record after 15 games, while Essensa has a 4-1-0 record, a 3.00 GAA and a.896 save percentage.Recchi tallied six points (2-4-6) in two games, including two powerplay goals and one game-winner. Pittsburgh beat Philadelphia 6-2 (Oct. 30) and the New York Rangers 3-1 (Nov. 3).Broten led the league in scoring with seven points (2-5-7) in four games. Minnesota lost 5-4 to Toronto (Oct. 30) and 6-3 to Philadelphia (Nov. 1) before beating Quebec 2-0 (Nov. 3) and tying Montreal 4-4 (Nov. 4). &#9632;

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NHL PRO SET SPOTLIGHT

Many thanks for jeering the abysmal SportsChannel schedule for the first half of the season (THN, Oct. 26).When I moved to Chicago from California a year ago, I was excited at the prospect of enjoying all of the NHL. Instead, I get the PHL&mdash;Patrick Hockey League.Prime Ticket in Los Angeles was really far superior. The Kings&rsquo; full broadcast schedule ensures that fans get to see every team more than once in the course of a season.Another shortcoming of SportsChannel is its Canadaphobia. I have to visit the folks in Detroit and switch on Hockey Night in Canada to see two Canadian teams on the ice together.Enough is enough. Let the league admit its mistake and beg forgiveness of ESPN.Cynthia Cheski Lombard, III.<h2>A DISGRACE</h2>After the Meech Lake fiasco. Oka and the Senate circus, I was outraged to find on Saturday, Oct. 13 that CBC&rsquo;s national Hockey Night in Canada broadcast was originating from Hartford, Conn.It was bad enough national viewers had to watch the Montreal Canadiens, but why should our tax dollars go towards a broadcast from an American city.I may be naive, but I always thought Hockey Night in Canada was supposed to be hockey night in Canada.Lyle Wardinek Richmond, B.C.<h2>WHO&rsquo;S FOR US?</h2>An open letter to Stan Fischler:So Bob Goodenow scares you (THN, Oct. 19)? He should scare you. If there&rsquo;s a strike in the NHL next year what would you do?But the NHL has bigger problems on its plate than Goodenow, the Players&rsquo; Association deputy executive director. Foremost, it needs a new TV contract and it must do something about the sky-high ticket prices.Goodenow may be getting what the players want. What we need now is someone to represent the fans&rsquo; needs.Walter Devlin Everett, Mass.<h2>FIRE FLOYD</h2>Watching the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; dismal start has been frustrating, but the firing of Doug Carpenter really angered me.Carpenter was not the problem. General manager Floyd Smith admitted as much when he said there was no need for change during the season. But, as usual, the GM took the easy way out and got rid of his coach.Smith hasn&rsquo;t made any deals to improve the club. He traded a first-round pick to New Jersey for Tom Kurvers, a deal that ranks right up there with the John Kordic for Russ Courtnail fiasco.The time has come for the team to fire Smith and hire someone who isn&rsquo;t afraid to make a deal.Tim McFadden Rutherford, Ont.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011446/5796948-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="563" height="616"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Kordic ought to give up No. 27, says a Leafs&rsquo; fan.</figcaption></div><h2>REWARD RON</h2>I can&rsquo;t understand why Hartford Whalers&rsquo; management is stalling in signing the most important player in franchise history&mdash;Ron Francis.Trading Dave Tippett to Washington and now refusing to pay Francis what he rightly deserves makes one wonder if Hartford is serious about winning.Francis, 27, is coming off a career-high 101-point season and is the Whalers&rsquo; all-time leading scorer. He should be paid at the same level as players such as Boston&rsquo;s Cam Neely.If there has been one constant in Hartford Whalers&rsquo; hockey, it has been the tremendous play and leadership Francis has provided.Dave Tamas St. Catharines, Ont.<h2>HONOR DARRYL</h2>I have always been a Maple Leafs&rsquo; fan, through good times and bad. and I think they&rsquo;re on the right track by. honoring former players.The next thing they ought to do is retire Darryl Sittier&rsquo;s No. 27. After all, he is a Hall of Famer and the only player&mdash;including Wayne Gretzky&mdash;to ever have a 10-point game.As for John Kordic, the current owner of jersey No. 27 for Toronto, he should prove his manhood by giving up the number.Paul LeBlanc Cap-Pele, N.B.(Ed. note: Kordic doesn&rsquo;t have to give up No. 27. The Leafs took care of that by demoting him to the minors Oct. 30.)<h2>SABRE-CHUK</h2>It seems as though the Buffalo Sabres have the market cornered on Chuks&mdash;Dave Andreychuk, Dale Hawerchuk and Clint Malarchuk.Sam Kent West Los Angeles, Calif.Make your feelings known. Send your comments to:&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2&nbsp;or fax us at (416) 445-0753. Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

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PATRICK, PATRICK: IT’S ALL WE GET

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021312/5796979-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

&#9632; Wayne Bonney. We&rsquo;ve heard of working overtime, but this is ridiculous. Bonney, an NHL linesman, worked the Philadelphia-Chicago game on the afternoon of Nov. 3 then flew to Boston after the game to relieve Gerard Gauthier who had a neck injury. Bonney worked the Boston-Buffalo game at Boston.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031107/5797017-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="374" height="361"></div>&#9632; Tim Kerr. The classy Philadelphia Flyer veteran returned to action Oct. 30, two weeks after the death of his wife. Kathy. He showed a lot of courage to come back from such a tragedy. Kerr, who has played through a number of injuries throughout his career, was rewarded by Philadelphia fans with a lengthy ovation when he returned. We applaud him, too.&#9632; The Vancouver Canucks. We&rsquo;re no fan of overweight Vladimir Krutov, but the Canucks should have to make good on their contractual obligations to him. Krutov has had a history of being inconsistent and overweight. He was a calculated risk, but the Canucks saw fit to reward him handsomely.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04935/5797010-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="374" height="362"></div>&#9632; NHL board of governors. If it weren&rsquo;t dragging its feet on the issue of using video replays, the embarrassing no-goal scenes in Boston wouldn&rsquo;t have escalated to such ridiculous proportions. Video is too costly? That&rsquo;s a copout when everyone, from the owners to the players, are making more money. The way we see it, how can the NHL not afford to have video replays? &#9632;

f0004-03

CHEERS JEERS

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>With all the Florida expansion talk involving St. Petersburg, Tampa and Miami, Orlando was banished to the background&mdash;but not any more. Lou Friedman, a Long Island journalist/promoter, has quietly organized Orlando Hockey Inc., with a goal of bringing pro hockey to the city. Friedman, who has worked for Associated Press, recently visited Orlando&rsquo;s mayor Bill Frederick. The mayor&rsquo;s spokesman Joe Mittiga says Friedman &ldquo;has our encouragement.&rdquo; Friedman reports that he&rsquo;s seeking backers for a second-wave of NHL expansion&mdash;in the 1995-96 season or later. At the moment, Orlando is considered a longshot for expansion-&hellip;Some NHL insiders familiar with Ottawa&rsquo;s expansion bid insist that it&rsquo;s an example of style over substance because the big money is lacking. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a real estate promotion that&rsquo;s based on the awarding of an NHL franchise,&rdquo; a reliable source says. &ldquo;If there&rsquo;s no franchise, there&rsquo;ll be no re-zoning for commercial development. And if there&rsquo;s no re-zoning, they won&rsquo;t have the dollars.&rdquo; Despite enthusiastic demographics produced in Ottawa&rsquo;s elaborate presentation. American NHL owners remain convinced Canada&rsquo;s capital is too small to handle an NHL team.<h2>EAGLE SOARS</h2>While it may have appeared Alan Eagleson&rsquo;s wings were clipped when Bob Goodenow took over the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, it was a deceptive appearance. The truth is, Eagle-son is as powerful as ever, even within the union&hellip;Controversial Dave Peterson, who returns as U.S. Olympic coach for 1992, agrees he was &ldquo;probably wrong&rdquo; in criticizing some of the media during his stormy 1988 reign. Still, Peterson insists there were significant instances of media misrepresentation. He cites one major newspaper placing him in New York, lobbying Rangers&rsquo; goalie John Vanbiesbrouck into joining the Olympians. &ldquo;Not only was the story untrue,&rdquo; Peterson says,&rdquo;but Vanbiesbrouck wasn&rsquo;t eligible according to NHL guidelines.&rdquo;<h2>RANGER BUCKS</h2>Look for the Rangers&rsquo; Brian Leetch and Bernie Nicholls to pull the next NHL fiscal power play. Leetch&rsquo;s agent, Jay Grossman, has put the word out that he will become the club&rsquo;s first million-dollar-a-year player. The Norris Trophy candidate is making $230,000 this year and will move up to $250,000 in 1991-92, his option season. A low-key type, Leetch is not on a soapbox yet. Reports suggest the hardball won&rsquo;t begin until after the season. A loosening of free agent regulations in the revised collective bargaining agreement, could make Leetch the most attractive commodity in the marketplace. The betting is Leetch wants to stay in New York&hellip;Islanders&rsquo; Mick Vukota says too much was made of the Rangers-Isles playoff brawl last spring. And he certainly didn&rsquo;t merit a ten-game suspension that carried into this season. &ldquo;The hardest part of it,&rdquo; Mick explains,&rdquo;was working so hard to get a chance to be in the playoffs&mdash;and then having that chance taken away.&rdquo;<h2>WHAT A PAYNE</h2>Former North Star Steve Payne caused a stir when he publicly lambasted Minnesota fans for their failure to support NHL hockey. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m from Toronto,&rdquo; said Payne in a letter printed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, &ldquo;and the people there know a lot more about the game than just about every Minnesotan. And they still support the Leafs. Why? Because they enjoy hockey at its highest level. That defines what a true fan is all about. &ldquo;&hellip;Vancouver&rsquo;s Czechoslovakian players on NHL checking: Robert Kron;&ldquo;They expect a physical game here and we have to get used to it.&rdquo; Petr Nedved; &ldquo;Everything is quicker and everyone is stronger than in junior.&rdquo;<h2>MASKED MEN</h2>Flyers&rsquo; assistant coach Ken Hitchcock, a Western League expatriate, says the best three junior goalies he ever saw were: &ldquo;No. 1, John Davidson, when he was playing for Calgary back in the 1970s; Troy Gamble, who actually was second fiddle to Mark Fitzpatrick and more recently Danny Lorenz in Seattle.&rdquo;&hellip;Rob Cimetta&rsquo;s problems with the Bruins were complicated by the fact his father, Angelo, an attorney, has been his representative on Rob&rsquo;s collision course with GM Harry Sinden. Rob resents the fact that Bruins&rsquo; management has tagged him as unaggressive. &ldquo;What do they mean when they say &lsquo;aggressive?&rsquo;,&rdquo; Cimetta&rsquo;s father asks. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re scapegoating the word. Do they mean they want him to hit somebody on the head with his elbow? When a team chooses someone over someone else, it&rsquo;s easy to cover yourself by using a word like &lsquo;aggressive.&rsquo;<h2>SPELL CHECK</h2>San Jose Sharks are distributing an elaborate brochure covered with pucks of old and new teams. It&rsquo;s a beauty, except for one egregious error. The famed Montreal Wanderers&rsquo; logo is spelled Wonderers&hellip;The Sabres have the oddest press requirements. The press club guide stipulates: &ldquo;Credentials should be displayed for admission to the press box, press lounge and dressing room areas. Those who do not have their passes clearly visible may be asked by the attendant to correctly answer ten questions on the Buffalo Braves, Stallions and Royals.&rdquo;&hellip;Isles defenseman Jeff Norton is so fussy about his skate blades, he has them shipped to Boston where a special skate sharpener does his grinding and sends them back to Long Island. &#9632;

ORLANDO WANTS PIECE OF EXPANSION PIE

<div class="byline">BY GARY LOEWEN</div>There could be some confusion surrounding the NHL&rsquo;s newest expansion franchise, the San Jose Sharks, who start up next season.The team&rsquo;s home base won&rsquo;t be San Jose, but San Francisco, where the Sharks will prowl in a rink that was built for cows.Furthermore, most of these Sharks come from the Land O&rsquo; Lakes. The owners, George and Gordon Gund, the general manager, Jack Ferreira, and, eventually, 30 players, all come from the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; organization.Clearly, this is a unique expansion franchise.Some existing teams have voiced concerns about the Sharks&rsquo; home, the Cow Palace, and the North Stars&rsquo; new owner, Norman Green has complained about the pending &ldquo;crosspollination draft&rdquo;.But the Sharks are on schedule as they prepare for their inaugural season.Initial plans called for the Sharks to spend one season at the Cow Palace, which was built during the depression as a public works project. Because of construction delays on a new facility in downtown San Jose, the Sharks will spend two years 35 miles away in San Francisco.While the Palace is used mainly for agricultural exhibitions, NHL preseason games have been staged there with mixed results.The 10,800-seat building is being renovated and Ferreira is confident other teams will be pleased with the results. New dasher boards are being installed, the dressing rooms are being upgraded and ice-plant problems will be investigated.Clearly, Bay Area hockey fans have no qualms about the Palace. The Sharks have received deposits for 9,000 season tickets and anticipate sellouts for all home games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011351/5797072-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="557" height="845"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jack Ferreira is scouting players for the San Jose Sharks.</figcaption></div>As for the new arena, design changes were required to bring it up to NHL standards. It will seat 18,500&mdash;4,000 more than originally planned. A soil contamination concern has been overcome and construction is underway, Ferreira said.While he awaits next season, Ferreira is more of a scouting director than a general manager. Before the Sharks begin play, he will take part in four drafts.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have the typical headaches you have as a general manager. We&rsquo;re co-ordinating all our scouting for the different drafts we&rsquo;ll be involved in. That&rsquo;s our primary focus,&rdquo; he said.The Sharks will pick up amateur prospects in the 1991 entry and supplemental drafts, immediate help in the expansion draft and some of the North Stars&rsquo; better young players in the controversial dispersal or cross-pollination draft.The North Stars will protect 14 skaters and two goalies who had played a minimum 50 career games by the end of the 1989-90 season. San Jose will select 14 skaters and two goalies from the Minnesota reserve list (excluding 1990 draft picks).The teams then will take turns selecting players until San Jose has a complement of 30.In the ensuing expansion draft, each team will select 10 players from the reserve lists of the other 20 teams, who will protect 16 skaters and two goalies.The complicated process was part of the deal in which the Minnesota franchise was sold by the Gunds to Howard Baldwin and Morris Belzberg. The Gunds initially threatened to move the money-losing North Stars to San Jose.Green, who later bought the Stars from Baldwin and Belzberg, complained the cross-pollination draft was unfair and appealed to the board of governors for a renegotiation.Ferreira and the Gunds aren&rsquo;t prepared to discuss the issue. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no meeting planned,&rdquo; Ferreira said.The deal, he said, was designed so the North Stars would not lose any key veterans. While they will give up some prospects, players from the expansion draft should fill the gap.With Ferreira at the helm and with population and hockey interest in California booming, the Gunds would seem destined to prosper after a spotty ownership career.They were involved in the ill-fated California Golden Seals franchise from the 1967-68 expansion&mdash;the team shifted to Cleveland in 1976-77. The Barons then merged with Minnesota in 1978-79.&mdash;Gary Loewen is a hockey writer for the Toronto-based Globe and Mail. &#9632;

f0005-01

SHARKS GETTING READY TO GO BACK IN THE WATER

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02984/5797103-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="548" height="1195"></div><h2>MATT SCHNEIDER</h2>Born: June 12, 1969, Woon-sockett, R1. Height: 5-foot-11. Weight: 189 pounds. Team: Montreal Canadiens. Position: Defense. Acquired: Montreal&rsquo;s fourth choice, 44th overall, 1987 Entry Draft.Career highlight: &ldquo;Last year&rsquo;s playoff series with the Buffalo Sabres (Montreal won 4-2). That whole series was my first real chance to play in the NHL playoffs. It was the most exciting hockey I&rsquo;ve ever been involved with.&rdquo;Career disappointment: &ldquo;Coming up, I was always disappointed that I didn&rsquo;t get a chance to play for the U.S. Olympic team. It was a tough decision for me to make (to play junior).&rdquo;Boyhood heroes: &ldquo;Guy Lafleur was always my hero growing up. I was always a Canadiens&rsquo; fan and I think at that time, every young hockey fan was a Lafleur fan.&rdquo;Favorite visiting city: &ldquo;Boston and Chicago. Boston because it is close to my hometown and a lot of my family and friends come to see me play. And I played in Chicago for the first time the other night. You can feel the excitement run right through your bones there.&rdquo;Most respected opponent: Mark Messier of the Edmonton Oilers. &ldquo;He can do everything. He has a great shot, he&rsquo;s a great skater and you have to have eyes in the back of your head to keep an eye on him.&rdquo;Most embarrassing moment: &ldquo;Having my head shaved last season (as an initiation prank). Taking my helmet off in front of the fans during the national anthem was brutal. It took my hair four months to grow back.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-02

PRO FILE

<div class="byline">BY THN STAFF</div>Less than a year after he was named the New England Division I Coach of the Year, University of New Hampshire&rsquo;s Bob Kullen, a heart transplant patient in 1987, died unexpectedly from heart failure Nov. 3.He was 41.At the outset of the current season, Kullen took a leave of absence after a three-week stay at Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Presbyterian Hospital. He had suffered pain in his feet and hands and was having his post-operative medication adjusted.Kullen had expected to return behind the bench within a few weeks.His Wildcats, who were being run by assistant coach Dick Umile, were informed of their coach&rsquo;s death the morning before a game against Air Force. New Hampshire won the match 8-3.New Hampshire sports information director Eric McDowell said it would be a couple of weeks before the future of the program was decided.A native of Milton, Mass., Kullen began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at UNH for the 1977-78 season and became the full-time assistant under head coach Charlie Holt.Kullen was named the associate head coach prior to the 1983-84 season and became the head coach after Holt retired in 1986.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011532/5797134-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="540" height="888"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Kullen was New England coach of the year in 1989-90.</figcaption></div>He was diagnosed as having a rare form of heart disease in 1987 and underwent a transplant at Presbyterian Hospital that August.Kullen returned behind the Wildcat bench a year later (1989-90) and guided the team to a 17-17-5 record, its best since joining Hockey East in 1984-85.The Wildcats made it to the Hockey East semifinals last season, but lost an overtime thriller to Boston College.&ldquo;It&rsquo;sreally sad,&rdquo; said Maine coach Shawn Walsh. &ldquo;He was a real quali ty person, a classy guy. He was very positive and a good hockey man. He persevered so hard against the disease.&rdquo;<h2>TAKING STOCK</h2>While the Toronto Maple Leafs struggled for a victory on the ice, Bill Ballard, son of former owner Harold Ballard, is seeking a court win that would see him assume control of Maple Leaf Gardens.Ballard, 43, the eldest son of the late owner, claims his younger brother, Harold Ballard Jr., reneged on a deal they had when the younger Ballard sold 34 shares in Harold E. Ballard Ltd. valued at $21 million to his father in 1989.Harold E. Ballard Ltd., is the holding company that now controls 60.38 per cent of Gardens shares. It had controlled 80.28 per cent but Molson Co. Ltd., exercised an option it had to buy 19.9 per cent of Gardens shares.Bill Ballard is trying to convince the court that the shares his brother sold to his late father rightfully belong to him and that he should be able to buy them. Ballard already owns 34 shares and with his brother&rsquo;s 34 would have control of the Gardens.If granted, it would no doubt mean the end for the trusteeship which now runs the Gardens, led by Donald Giffin, Donald Crump and Steve Stavro.The Molson beer company, mean-while, announced Nov. 1 it had exercised a 30-day option it had to purchase 735,575 shares, or 19.9 per cent, of the Gardens from Harold E. Ballard Ltd. Molson, which also owns the Montreal Canadiens, gained the option in November, 1980, when it helped the late Gardens&rsquo; owner consolidate control in his company through payment of undisclosed interest on an $8.8 million bank loan. A Molson spokesman said despite the breweries stake in the Gardens, it will not play any role in the operation of the hockey team. The spokesman added the company has no intention of selling the Canadiens.<h2>HOWE CLEARED</h2>A Connecticut Superior Court jury found Gordie Howe was not liable for the death of a 20-year-old man in a car accident six years ago.Marguerita LeSarra, the mother of the deceased John LaBrusciano, had filed a civil suit alleging Howe was responsible for her son&rsquo;s death.LaBrusciano, of Fairfield, Conn., died March 24, 1984, after his car slammed into a tree and burst into flames along the Merritt Parkway.Howe testified during the four-day trial that LaBrusciano&rsquo;s car rear-ended his car before careening across the highway and hitting the tree. Howe, who said he immediately tried to rescue the victim, was relieved with the verdict.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a scary experience,&rdquo; he said after the trial, adding he felt empathy for LeBrusciano&rsquo;s mother. &ldquo;I was feeling more for her than she probably knew. I lost my mother in an accident and I know how it feels.&rdquo;<h2>NEW RINK</h2>A group of local investors, in conjunction with the city of St. Louis, announced plans Oct. 30 to build a new $85-million downtown arena at the sight of the city-owned Kiel Auditorium.But there&rsquo;s a hitch. St. Louis Blues&rsquo; chairman Mike Shanahan wasn&rsquo;t privy to the plans to build the 18,000-seat arena and didn&rsquo;t attend the press conference.&ldquo;I had a previous commitment that I could not change,&rdquo; said Shanahan, who added he didn&rsquo;t consider it a slight that he wasn&rsquo;t involved.Rumors persist, however, there&rsquo;s a power play under way to oust the Blues&rsquo; chairman, who has been responsible for the remarkable growth of the team over the last few years.<h2>CHALLENGE CUP</h2>Soviet Elite League club Dynamo Riga will play a USA Selects team for the Challenge Cup Dec. 18-19 in Orlando&rsquo;s Sports Arena.The two-game, total-goals series will feature the top U.S. college players and potential 1992 Olympians facing off against the touring Dynamo team.It marks the second time in two years that the tournament will be held in the Florida city.&ldquo;We are delighted to be back in Orlando again,&rdquo; said USA Hockey executive director Keith Blase. &ldquo;This series is a great way for the USA Hockey staff to help identify players with Olympic potential and for the hockey fans in Florida to see good quality international competition.&rdquo;<h2>DATEBOOK</h2>Nov, 24: Los Angeles at Montreal. Providing he doesn&rsquo;t miss any games, Kings&rsquo; right winger Dave Taylor will appear in his 900th career NHL match.Dec. 1: New Jersey at St. Louis. Providing he doesn&rsquo;t miss any games, Blues&rsquo; defenseman Harold Snepsts will appear in his 1,000th NHL match.Dec. 3: Super Series 1990-91 begins in Los Angeles. Beginning Dec. 3, each NHL club will play a game against one of three Soviet Elite League teams&mdash;Moscow Dynamo, Central Red Army or Khimik Voskresensk. NHL teams will wear a specially designed league uniform while the Soviet teams will wear the national red and white jerseys. Results from the 21-game challenge, as well as the eight games involving the Minnesota North Stars and Montreal Canadiens during Friendship Tour &rsquo;90 (they went 3-5-0) will be totaled and a winner honored. &#9632;

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COLLEGE COACH DIES OF HEART FAILURE AT 41

<div class="byline">BY FRANK BROWN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011376/5797165-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chicago rookie Ed Belfour led the league in wins (nine), was second in goals-against-average (1.78) and second in save percentage (.930) as of Nov. 5.</figcaption></div>There has been a surprising turnover in the NHL goaltending ranks this season. The reasons range from suspension to injury to that old favorite, the numbers game. More and more nights, you&rsquo;re saying,&rdquo;Who?&rdquo; after the public address announcer discloses the identity of the starting netminder.Of the 78 goaltenders who played at least one game in the NHL last season, 24, virtually one-third, have been absent for all or part of 199091. In just the first month, 14 rookie goaltenders&mdash;among them the rookie of the month for October, Chicago&rsquo;s Ed Belfour&mdash;had made at least one game appearance.Philadelphia&rsquo;s Ron Hextali is hurt again. Edmonton&rsquo;s Grant Fuhr is waiting for a commutation of his one-season suspension for substance abuse. Blackhawk Greg Millen is in limbo and Glen Hanlon is in San Diego. Brian Hayward, who got bored sitting on the Canadiens&rsquo; bench and walked out probably is even sicker of sitting in his living room. And so it goes.Amazingly, the league&rsquo;s goaltending leaders after one month of the season contained few prominent goalies. Montreal&rsquo;s Patrick Roy, Calgary&rsquo;s Mike Vernon and the Rangers&rsquo; John Vanbiesbrouck were the only established goalies among the league leaders. Roy and Vernon managed to crack the top five in wins&mdash;they were tied for second with eight wins as of Nov. 5. Vanbiesbrouck cracked the top five in goals-against average&mdash;he was fifth at 2.38&mdash;and was tied for fifth in save percentage (.923).Who would have expected that Belfour, Vancouver&rsquo;s Troy Gamble, the Rangers&rsquo; Mike Richter or Los Angeles&rsquo; Daniel Berthiaume would be among the league leaders?And in Washington, Don Beaupre has surprised with a league-leading 1.75GAAand.932 save percentage as of Nov. 5. Beaupre had appeared in six of the Capitals&rsquo; games while Mike Liut had played the lion&rsquo;s share, 10.The headlines in netminding still belong to Roy, Vernon, Vabiesbrouck and Buffalo&rsquo;s Daren Puppa. But even Puppa, Vezina Trophy runner-up to Roy last season, lately has watched Clint Malarchuk get the larger share of the ice time.Vanbiesbrouck may have been named NHL player of the month for October, but he has gotten no more than half the Rangers&rsquo; goaltending load. He has been replaced twice following shutouts; Richter has been that good.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a pretty good guy to imitate,&rdquo; said Richter, who had a.923 save percentage over his first eight starts. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s at the other end of the ice every practice.&rdquo;But Richter isn&rsquo;t the only one pushing an incumbent for ice time. Kirk McLean played 63 games last season for a lousy Vancouver team that seems to be rebounding in front of rookie Gamble. Frank Pietrangelo is providing the steadiness the Pittsburgh Penguins figured they&rsquo;d get from Tom Barrasso.The Devils have gotten solid goaltending from Chris Terreri, who held opponents to two goals or fewer five times in six starts over one recent run. And Chicago rookie Belfour must be exceptional beyond his league-leading nine wins through Nov. 5, because his hook-happy coach, Mike Keenan, pulled the 25-year-old from only one of his first 12 starts.There are several theories for this changing of the guard:1. General managers and coaches know what the veterans can do. Sometimes, the early season is a good time to see if a younger player&mdash;usually making less money&mdash;is ready to take the job and perhaps allow the veteran to be traded.2. Management may not like either goalie used last season and is waiting for one to emerge.3. They are determined not to overwork the guy who played too much last season.4. With many new coaches now, there is less loyalty toward tenured veterans with the result of a Bryan Murray taking over in Detroit and waving goodbye to a Hanlon, who had become a Red Wing fixture.Still, what was the 23-year-old Gamble doing, among the league leaders with a GAA half that of heralded teammate McLean (1.92 to 4.78). Why won&rsquo;t Berthiaume, who won his first five decisions, leave Kelly Hrudey alone in Los Angeles?Kings&rsquo; coach Tom Webster had the answer to that one.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that he (Berthiaume) hasn&rsquo;t done it before,&rdquo; Webster said of the netminder obtained from Winnipeg Sept. 6 for left winger Craig Duncanson. &ldquo;Daniel has been given the opportunity to play, he&rsquo;s been healthy, and we&rsquo;ve been trying to have all-around tighter defense. But Daniel has a great opportunity, because we feel we need a two-goalie system.&rdquo;Edmonton is the only city where the one-goalie system, something of an Oiler tradition, remains firmly in place. Fuhr totalled 94 regular-season and playoff games in 1987-88. The guy doing it there this year is Bill Ranford, last year&rsquo;s playoff MVP, who played every minute of the first 12 games. Roy had the nerve to miss one game in Montreal&rsquo;s first 16 and 22-year-old Tim Cheveldae seems on his way to overwork, having started 14 of Detroit&rsquo;s first 15.Everyplace else, though, equal opportunities seem to abound.&ldquo;The other night, they asked me about me playing more,&rdquo; Malarchuk mused,&rdquo;and I said, &lsquo;Well, you know, last year, I had to accept a role. I don&rsquo;t want to say back-up. I don&rsquo;t want to say second-stringer, either. Let&rsquo;s say, the other guy. I don&rsquo;t like those other terms.&rsquo;&rdquo;But while Puppa played six of the seven games in the Sabres&rsquo; 0-4-3 start, Malarchuk followed with a 2-1-1 run that helped Buffalo regain its balance.Malarchuk, a fossil at 29, has the benefit of nine seasons&rsquo; NHL experience; he has equipment younger than some of the kids tending the nets these days.&ldquo;There are a lot of goaltenders who have what it takes, but they can&rsquo;t stay in the NHL because they can&rsquo;t handle the pressure,&rdquo; Malarchuk said.Richter certainly seems a quick study.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re always learning,&rdquo; the 24-year-old said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s more, for goaltenders, a battle against yourself than anyone else. And if you can accept that challenge, it&rsquo;s very healthy.&rdquo;Seemingly, that challenge is being accepted in nets everywhere. &#9632;

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GOAL ORIENTED

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Frank Brown</div>Where have all the goalies gone?The NHL season is shifting into high gear and so many of its familiar goaltending names are in less than familiar spots on the sidelines.For some, health is the issue.Philadelphia&rsquo;s Ron Hextail, who played in only eight games last season, played 36 minutes of his first Flyers&rsquo; start before pulling a groin muscle. He then was 28 minutes into his second start before twisting a knee. The Islanders&rsquo; Mark Fitzpatrick would rather be any place than home in Kitimat, B.C., recovering from eosinophilic fascitis, a condition that caused severe swelling of his muscle tissues.A surgeon just put Bob Froese&rsquo;s right shoulder back together, ending the Ranger goalie&rsquo;s season. And knee woes continue to trouble Detroit&rsquo;s Greg Stefan.For others it comes down to a matter of circumstances.Edmonton&rsquo;s Grant Fuhr, suspended for substance abuse, won&rsquo;t be eligible to return until Feb. 18. Greg Millen simply can&rsquo;t make the Blackhawks&rsquo; lineup these days.Glen Hanlon and Steve Weeks, who shared the Rangers&rsquo; net in 1983-84, are International League opponents now&mdash;Hanlon with Detroit&rsquo;s affiliate in San Diego, Weeks with Vancouver&rsquo;s farm team in Milwaukee. And Mark LaForest and Sam St. Laurent, who helped handle Detroit&rsquo;s goaltending in 1986-87, are doing the same with the Rangers&rsquo; Binghamton affiliate in the American League. &#9632;

FAMILIAR NAMES MISSING IN ACTION

Rookie goalies are making their mark this season. Chicago&rsquo;s Ed Belfour, Vancouver&rsquo;s Troy Gamble and the Rangers&rsquo; Mike Richter are among the league&rsquo;s goaltending leaders.The rookies are challenging last season&rsquo;s Vezina Trophy contenders&mdash;Montreal&rsquo;s Patrick Roy, Buffalo&rsquo;s Daren Puppa and Boston&rsquo;s Andy Moog. Listed below are games played, records, save percentages and goals-against averages as of Nov. 5.<h2>YOUNG GUNS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02942/5797227-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="676" height="161"></div><h2>VEZINA CONTENDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03628/5797220-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="677" height="130"></div> &#9632;

f0007-02

ON THE RISE

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011412/5797258-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Geoff Courtnall, above, gives the Blues something rare&mdash;a scoring left winger&mdash;says general manager Ron Caron. Courtnall had 17 points after 14 games.</figcaption></div>In previous summers, a trade such as the one in which the St. Louis Blues sent center Peter Zezel and defenseman Mike Lalor to Washington for left winger Geoff Courtnail would have been the top off-season hockey story in the Gateway City.There would have been a lot of grousing and gnashing of teeth. Zezel was Brett Hull&rsquo;s center, and everyone knows what kind of year Hull had last season. Lalor was a steadying force on defense, and a team leader as an alternate captain.The Blues needed a scoring left winger, but two-for-one wouldn&rsquo;t have added up, unless one factored in their salaries. Surely, skeptics would have reached for the list of NHL salaries to see how much money the tightwad Blues saved in the transaction. ($180,000, if you&rsquo;re interested.)But this wasn&rsquo;t a typical summer. The Blues shed their tightwad image in a big way by signing Brett Hull to a four-year contract worth $7 million to prevent him from becoming a free agent. Then, they turned around and wrested free-agent defenseman Scott Stevens from Washington for $5.145 million over four years.These were the top stories in the NHL, relegating Courtnall for Zezel and Lalor to a footnote. But as the season has unfolded, the appar-antly lopsided two-for-one deal has been a major reason for the Blues&rsquo; early success.Through Nov. 5, the Blues were 9-4-1 for 19 points, the best start in franchise history. They trailed first-place Chicago, with two games in hand, by one point in the Norris Division. With Stevens providing character leadership, the Blues had the best road record (6-3-0) in the league.Courtnall, who scored 42 goals two years ago and 35 last season, had eight goals in 14 games, a 46-goal pace. He added nine assists and also led the team with a plus-eight rating.Most importantly. Courtnail has given opponents someone to worry about other than Hull, who after scoring 72 goals last season was on a 91-goal pace with 16 goals in 14 games.The Blues agreed to part with Lalor and Zezel because Geoff Courtnall &ldquo;was a very special piece of the chemistry that we had missing,&rdquo; genera] manager Ron Caron says. &ldquo;There is a scarcity of scoring left wingers in the game.&rdquo;Stevens, elected captain by his teammates, was plus-6 and led the defensemen with two goals and nine points.Amazingly, Washington has held up without Courtnall and Stevens and without great contribution from Zezel, who had nine points and was minus-11 in 13 games before injuring his left ankle. The Capitals were 9-7-0 for 18 points through Nov. 2&mdash;good for third place in the Patrick Division.So far, the Blues&rsquo; summer gambling has paid off, and it&rsquo;s a good thing because an off-season trade is paying big dividends for Chicago. Defenseman Chris Chelios, acquired from Montreal in the blockbuster trade for center Denis Savard, has nullified the absence of Doug Wilson.Wilson, who was expected to team up with Chelios in a pairing of former Norris Trophy winners, missed the start of the season after off-season ankle surgery, but Chicago hasn&rsquo;t missed a beat, thanks to Chelios.&ldquo;We felt we needed another top defenseman and someone to fill another important area such as leadership,&rdquo; said general manager-coach Mike Keenan. &ldquo;All of our defenseman have been helped by Chelios. His talent level is very high, he&rsquo;s experienced, he&rsquo;s won a Stanley Cup and he&rsquo;s a fierce competitor.&rdquo;Hawks&rsquo; owner Bill Wirtz, extremely leery about the deal initially, has had his fears laid to rest.&ldquo;When we traded Denis Savard I don&rsquo;t think I slept for two weeks,&rdquo; saidWirtz. &ldquo;Butthe trade has worked out very well for us.&ldquo;I thought it might take 10-12 games for the fans to take to (Chelios) but they&rsquo;ve loved him right from the start. I think the fans in Chicago realized it was two great hockey players traded for each other.&rdquo;Through 16 games, Chelios was second on the team in scoring with 19 points on four goals and 15 assists. And center Jeremy Roenick, a Calder Trophy finalist last season, emerged from Savard&rsquo;s shadow with 17 points&mdash;six goals and 11 assists&mdash;through 16 games.It also hasn&rsquo;t hurt that rookie Ed Belfour has emerged as a solid goaltender.&ldquo;Chicago is probably a better team this year than last year,&rdquo; Savard says. &ldquo;They have a great defense. The goaltending is playing good, and they have more depth than they had before. St. Louis has its work cut out for them.&rdquo;Savard&rsquo;s arrival in Montreal was treated with great fanfare in June, but he has had trouble adjusting to new linemates. The dream line of Savard, right winger Stephane Richer and left winger Shayne Corson didn&rsquo;t work, and plumber Mike Keane replaced Richer.Montreal also may be looking for a replacement for the struggling Corson, who had just two goals and five points in 14 games.Savard had six goals and eight assists for 14 points in 14 games, and the Montreal power play hadn&rsquo;t improved as expected. The Canadiens, 21st last season, were 20th through Nov. 2.One move to improve the power play, the acquisition of left winger Sylvain Turgeon from New Jersey for right winger Claude Lemieux, has been a wash because Turgeon is out after having hernia surgery. Lemieux, meanwhile, injected life into the surging Devils.Early returns on the biggest trade of the summer&mdash;center Dale Hawerchuk from Winnipeg to Buffalo for high-scoring defenseman Phil Housley, center Scott Amiel and right winger Jeff Parker&mdash;have been inclusive.Buffalo is still searching for regular wingers for Hawerchuk, whose numbers were down with just two goals and 10 points through 14 games. The latest pairing had Hawerchuk with right winger Alexander Mogilny and left winger Benoit Hogue.The Sabres also have missed Housley&rsquo;s game-breaking ability. He has four goals and 10 points in 14 games in Winnipeg.Housley has given the Jets more defensemen than they can handle, leading to numerous pairing changes and confusion. Hawerchuk&rsquo;s absence has created a big void at center, a position singled out by general manager Mike Smith after their 1-6-1 start.Amiel, meanwhile, has been used as Winnipeg&rsquo;s third line center and has one goal and six points in 14 games. Parker didn&rsquo;t even make the team.Caron, who was in the Hawerchuk sweepstakes until the end, says,&rdquo;It&rsquo;s too early to have a good judgement&rdquo; on the Hawerchuk trade. &#9632;

f0009-01

BIG DEALS PAY OFF FOR BLUES AND HAWKS

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Dave Luecking</div>Of the 28 off-season trades, three of the best, in the view of St. Louis Blues&rsquo; general manager Ron Caron, involved the exchange of established players for draft choices before the NHL draft in Vancouver.Pittsburgh acquired 50-goal scorer Joe Mullen from Calgary, where the right winger rejoined former Flames&rsquo; coach Bob Johnson. In return, the Flames got a second-round pick that they used to pick defenseman Nicolas Perreault.The Detroit Red Wings acquired veteran defenseman Brad McCrimmon from Calgary for a second-round pick that was packaged in a complicated deal with New Jersey in order for the Flames to trade up in the first round to select goalie Trevor Kidd.Detroit used a fifth-round pick to acquire the rights of another defenseman, veteran Rick Green, from the Montreal Canadiens. Green, who played nine games in Italy last season, sat out most of last season.&ldquo;When you can get values like that with a pick, that&rsquo;s very good,&rdquo; says Caron, who raved about the Mullen deal.The Flames felt they could move Mullen to open a spot for Paul Ranheim and McCrimmon to open a spot for Ken Sabourin and Roger Johannsson. Mullen and McCrimmon are in the thirtysomething crowd, and the Flames felt it was time for rejuvenation.&ldquo;Certainly, we let some good players go,&rdquo; Calgary coach Doug Risebrough says. &ldquo;It was not only to create a good product this year, but to make sure we didn&rsquo;t dead end ourselves down the road.&rdquo;The Penguins wanted a sniper of Mullen&rsquo;s calibre to play as Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s right winger. That hasn&rsquo;t materialized because of Lemieux&rsquo; back injury, but Mullen still got off to a hot start with 10 goals and 17 points in 14 games.&ldquo;Bob Johnson has always been in love with Joe Mullen from Day 1,&rdquo; Caron says.&ldquo;So, when they had a chance to get him, they got him.&rdquo;The acquisition of Mullen also may lead to a trade involving right winger Rob Brown, a 49-goal scorer two seasons ago but a benchwarmer this season. The Detroit Red Wings were rumored to be interested, wanting Brown to play as Steve Yzerman&rsquo;s right winger.Other than the lack of a right winger, the Red Wings are surprisingly solid, thanks in part to the presence of Green and McCrimmon. The veterans have stabilized a young defense. &#9632;

MULLEN A STEAL FOR TOP PICK OF DEALS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011491/5797313-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="488" height="617"><figcaption class="caption-body">STAN FISCHLER</figcaption></div>A few blunt comments on some pointed items:&#9632; Remarkable as Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s recent 2,000 point milestone may be, it remains inferior to Gordie Howe&rsquo;s efforts.The difference? When Howe performed for the Detroit Red Wings, goals and assists lacked the cheap, inflationary quality of the contemporary game.That, however, is only one difference. The inescapable factor is the physical side. Howe could take it; Gretzky can&rsquo;t. Nothing says it more vividly than a recent episode at Nassau Coliseum.Gretzky was legitimately checked into the boards by Islanders&rsquo; defenseman Richard Pilon.No big deal. It was a hefty rap, the kind every coach likes delivered. The Great One went down, embellishing his descent with his dyingswan routine to which we have become accustomed. In less than a minute, Gretzky was back on his feet cavorting as usual, scoring a goal and setting up another. Following his goal, Wayne couldn&rsquo;t resist an unnecessary hot-dog putdown of Pilon as he skated away.Howe never would have been so bush.Here&rsquo;s the point: When Howe played he absorbed several blows like the Pilon check during a game and wouldn&rsquo;t complain. Instead, he&rsquo;d hit back; he wouldn&rsquo;t rely on a Jay Miller or Marty McSorley to fight his battles. But Gretzky gets one lousy legitimate jolt in a game and it literally makes headlines all over the place.Even the New York Times made it the next day&rsquo;s lead sports story. Heaven forbid The Great One should get laid out the way Pat LaFontaine did in last spring&rsquo;s playoffs.Let&rsquo;s face it: Gretzky is supreme in his realm, no question. But in the context of what Howe did, you have to wonder whether Wayne would have come remotely close to the 2,000 mark in Howe&rsquo;s jungle-era game.&#9632; The most misguided club owner who ever lived was the one who, in a terribly weak moment, decided to renegotiate a contract. Whoever he was, he set an illogical precedent which, thanks to the media, is accepted today as the norm.Hockey writers relish the idea of helping players get more dough for a couple of reasons:1. They rely more on players than anyone for interviews; 2. Player agents give them a lot more usable tips than club owners; 3. The money doesn&rsquo;t come out of their pockets. Therefore, journalists side with those who butter their bread.&#9632; If there&rsquo;s a better or wittier hockey analyst than Harry Neale, he certainly doesn&rsquo;t reside on this continent.In his own semi-subtle way, Neale has become a better broadcaster than he was a coach; always there with a pithy bit of punditry.Example: After the Bruins stunk out the joint on their October western jaunt, Neale succinctly said,&rdquo;When your best players aren&rsquo;t your best players, you&rsquo;re in trouble.&rdquo;&#9632; Doug Carpenter&rsquo;s exit kindled three off-the-wall thoughts.1. Night in and night out he owned the most vise-like handshake this side of Brian Sutter&rsquo;s league-leading cruncher. I always felt Carpenter&rsquo;s shake reflected his personality.2. I knew Carpenter was doomed the moment he let his guard slip last summer and betrayed his distaste for the Toronto media. He was right, for the most part, about newsmens&rsquo; voracious appetites in a city where there&rsquo;s a three-paper war. But he should have kept his mouth shut. Once Carpenter&rsquo;s true feelings got out, it was only a matter of time before the media pulled a piranha act on him.3. The second Tom Watt was hired by Floyd Smith as understudy to the coach, you had more elements for mutiny than ever. The sensible headline at the time would have been&hellip;WATTAGE ON; CARPENTER OUT.&#9632; While the NHL twiddles its thumbs over the idea of using video replay to aid officials, events continue to prove that the league should exploit the electronic marvel.During a recent Sabres-Devils game Troy Crowder cleanly beat Clint Malarchuk for the contest&rsquo;s pivotal first goal. Somehow the goal judge neglected to flash the red light and play continued. Alert linesmen Pat Dapuzzo notified referee Terry Gregson that the puck did, in fact, enter the net. The goal was finally allowed. A few seconds later, the play was shown on Byrne Arena&rsquo;s big screen making it clear to all the puck had hit the back part of the net.The situation in Boston Garden a few nights later&mdash;when Chicago coach Mike Keenan called Boston officials cheaters for not calling a late goal&mdash;only serves to reinforce the need for video. Now. &#9632;

f0010-01

GRETZKY CAN’T TOUCH HOWE

<h2>WHALERS</h2>Left winger Mikael Andersson, voted the team&rsquo;s Unsung Hero last season after being picked up from Buffalo in the waiver draft, was demoted to Springfield of the American League Nov. 1. Andersson had knee surgery over the summer and had scored one goal in eight games. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t have any zip or drive,&rdquo; coach Rick Ley said. &ldquo;His game is skating. Last year, he did everything for us. This year he hasn&rsquo;t done anything for us with the same vim and vigor. The leg is fine now. It&rsquo;s mental. In my opinion, it&rsquo;s lack of thought-.&rdquo;&hellip;Among the club&rsquo;s many problems is a disastrous second period. The Whalers, outscored 48-33 overall, have been outscored 20-7 in the middle 20 minutes. If the second period was a game, the Whalers would be 1-9-4: &ldquo;We take leads, let up, fall behind and scramble to catch up in the third period. It&rsquo;s tough to catch up,&rdquo; said Pat Verbeek, who had one goal in 12 games. &ldquo;This losing is no fun. It&rsquo;s too much like work.&rdquo;<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>Something was finally done about all the bodies hanging around the Quebec Nordiques. With 29 players around, it was as bad as training camp. So GM Pierre Page assigned centers Ken McRae and Tony Hrkac and defenseman Shawn Anderson to the Halifax Citadels of the American League Nov. 2. Hrkac, who was acquired last season from St. Louis to add some offense, hadn&rsquo;t scored a goal this season. In Anderson&rsquo;s case, Page had to ask him permission. When a player is picked up in the waiver draft, he has to play 20 games before he can be sent down, unless he agrees to report&hellip;In a four-game stretch between Oct. 27 and Nov. 3, the Nordiques scored a total of fdur goals and lost all four games&hellip;Right winger Guy Lafleur was presented with a gold and silver flower in New York Oct. 29. The former Ranger was playing his last game in Madison Square Garden.<h2>BRUINS</h2>Oft-injured defenseman Gord Kluzak played his first game of the season Nov. 3 in a 4-1 loss to Buffalo. Kluzak, who was suffering from soreness in his left knee, missed 72 games last season and 77 the year before&hellip;Right winger Cam Neely missed one game after having a broken nose surgically repaired Oct. 28, but returned Nov. 1 in grand fashion. He scored two goals, including the game-winner in a 3-2 overtime win against St. Louis-&hellip;Captain Ray Bourque returned to the lineup Oct. 31 for a 3-3 tie with Buffalo. He missed four games with a sprained right shoulder. The Bruins were 2-2-0 without the Norris Trophy winner&hellip;Like AWOL left winger Rob Cimetta, who was at home in Toronto hoping to be traded, defenseman Stephane Quintal balked at being sent to Maine of the American League. But after meeting with GM Harry Sinden Oct. 29, he agreed to report to the Mariners.<h2>CANADIENS</h2>Right winger Mike Keane expected to miss about 10 days after a freak accident against Hartford on Halloween. Keane sustained a cut knee cap that required stitches when his knee brace cut him during a collision with Whalers&rsquo; defenseman Ulf Samuelsson. &ldquo;It just came up on me,&rdquo; said Keane. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve fixed it so it won&rsquo;t happen again.&rdquo;&hellip;Coach Pat Burns&rsquo;s benching of players returned dividends yet again. He scratched right winger Russ Courtnail against the Blackhawks in Chicago Oct. 28 because he wasn&rsquo;t pleased with his play, particularly on the road. Courtnail was back in the lineup against the Whalers two nights later and scored two goals in the 4-2 win. Both defenseman Mathieu Schneider and center Stephan Lebeau bounced back from being scratched to score a couple of goals. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t like the way I&rsquo;ve been playing,&rdquo; said Courtnail after the benching. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve been playing all right. It&rsquo;s not a good situation.&rdquo; Courtnall was 6-6-12 in 15 games this season.<h2>SABRES</h2>The Sabres beat the Bruins in Boston (4-1 Nov. 3) and the Calgary Flames in Buffalo (2-l Nov. 4) to reach the.500 mark for the first time this season (5-5-4). Goalie Daren Puppa allowed just one goal and the Sabres&rsquo; penalty killers stopped seven Bruins&rsquo; power-play opportunities. The next night Clint Malarchuk allowed just one goal and the Sabres killed six more penalties&hellip;The Sabres recalled left winger Robert Ray and defenseman Brad Miller (a combined 63 minutes in penalties in Rochester of the American League) for some toughness after the Bruins slapped scoring star Pierre Turgeon around in Buffalo (a 3-3 tie Oct. 31). Coach Rick Dudley didn&rsquo;t come out and make any direct threats, but he made it clear if Turgeon is a target that players such as Ray Bourque are in danger as well. &ldquo;Teams are going to have to learn that you don&rsquo;t do that to players like Turgeon,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If they are going to do that, they&rsquo;re going to have to expect that Ray Bourque will draw similar treatment.&rdquo; Dudley was referring to a Boston tactic of roughing up the Sabres&rsquo; center during stoppages in &bull;play&hellip;Joel Savage was recalled from Rochester after Mike Hartman injured his elbow Nov. 1. Savage, Buffalo&rsquo;s first pick in the 1988 entry draft, the 13th player taken overall, had five goals and four assists with Rochester this season. His assist on Ray&rsquo;s goal Nov. 4 was his first NHL point and came on his first NHL shift. John Tucker also assisted on the play and that point brought him to within two of the 300 mark for his NHL career. &#9632;

THE NHL

UNSUNG HERO DEMOTED TO MINORS

<div class="byline">BY STEPHEN HARRIS</div>During the Stanley Cup finals of 1988 and 1990, failures of the ancient lighting system at Boston Garden messed up games and badly embarrassed the NHL and the Bruins,In recent back-to-back games, an entirely different sort of off-ice trouble marred games, and gave the Bruins victories they may not have deserved. It also re-ignited the push for the use of television replays to assist on-ice officials.In a 5-4 Bruins&rsquo; victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Oct. 27, an apparent game-tying score by Dirk Graham with two seconds left was disallowed by referee Andy Van Hellemond. Van Hellemond called the goal off after conferring with veteran goal judge Ed Quin, who never turned on the red light.NHL vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill rushed to Boston Oct. 31 for a miniinvestigation.Then, the next game in the Bruins&rsquo; 3-2 overtime win against the St. Louis Blues (Nov. 1), a shot by Rich Sutter with 8:01 left and the scored tied 2-2 flew past goalie Andy Moog&rsquo;s left shoulder, hit the pipe high inside the back of the net and bounced out.Again, no red light by goal judge Vic Rasmussen. No goal, said referee Kerry Fraser.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re getting some wins. We may not deserve them, but that&rsquo;s the way it goes,&rdquo; said right winger Cam Neely.&ldquo;I think Gordie Kluzak put it best,&rdquo; joked Bruins&rsquo; coach Mike Milbury after the St. Louis game. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got the best goal judges in hockey.&rdquo;Ron Caron, however, wasn&rsquo;t laughing. The fiery St. Louis general manager was relatively restrained as he confronted officiating supervisor John D&rsquo;Amico, who sat in the press box and saw TV replays that plainly showed Sutter&rsquo;s shot go in. A mere phone call down to ice level could have corrected the mistake&mdash;but the league has no such policy.Fraser&rsquo;s explanation to Blues&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter was that he did not see the puck go in and had to rely on the goal judge.&ldquo;I called him and he told me the shot hit the crossbar,&rdquo; said Fraser. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to go with what they give us.&rdquo;On the non-goal by Chicago&rsquo;s Graham, there was a mad scramble with the net getting knocked off its magnets by Bruin Dave Christian an instant before Graham shot. Under a new league rule, though, the referee can allow such a goal, if the net is dislodged by the defending team.But the light did not come on, there was no whistle, and the final seconds clicked off the clock.Chicago coach Mike Keenan went crazy, charging across the ice to berate the Garden time-keeper. Among the charges leveled by the incensed Keenan: That the off-ice officials &ldquo;cheated&rdquo; to ensure a Bruins&rsquo; win.While he may have been going overboard, Keenan had a point. There may indeed be something wrong with a system that has employees of the home team making decisions that decide games.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct 29: Stephane Quintal, D, and Peter Douris, RW, assigned to Maine. Norm Foster, G, loaned to Cape Breton (AHL). Oct. 30: Nevin Markwart, LW, assigned to Maine. Oct. 31: Bruce Shoebottom, D, assigned to Maine. Nov. 2: Foster recalled from Cape Breton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Vladimir Ruzicka, Bob Sweeney. Dave Christian, Ken Hodge, Wes Walz.LW&mdash;Craig Janney, Randy Burridge, Andy Brickley, Bob Carpenter, John Carter.RW&mdash;Cam Neely, John Byce, Chris Nilan, Lyndon Byers.LD&mdash;Al Pedersen, Gord Kluzak, Don Sweeney, Glen Wesley.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque, Garry Galley, Jim Wiemer.G&mdash;Andy Moog, Norm Foster.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bob Beers, D, broken right leg, indefinite Reggie Lemelin, G, strained groin muscle, day-to-day. Al Pedersen, D, leg infection, indefinite. Dave Poulin, C, strained groin muscle, indefinite Michael Thelven, D. chronic right knee pain, inde-finte.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Neely, 7. A&mdash;Janney, Bourque, 7. P&mdash;Neely. 13. PIM&mdash;Nilan, 73. &#9632;

INSTANT REPLAY GAMES SPARK VIDEO TALK

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>It was a week for grabbing control and then losing hockey games.In the long run, that should be better than losing control and winning a few games.Or at least, Hartford Whalers&rsquo; coach Rick Ley can only hope.After returning from an embarrassing 5-0 loss in Buffalo Oct. 28, the Whalers stepped off their flight Monday and onto the ice for an intense practice.After practice. Ley announced there&rsquo;d be no more Mr. Nice Guy. Mr. Miserable was back in charge.On Tuesday, he introduced a dou ble-session treat for any of those who weren&rsquo;t listening.On Wednesday, Oct. 31, the Whalers lost again, this time to Montreal, 4-2, at the Civic Center. It was Halloween, but none of the Whalers, who had 11 goals over eight games, dressed up as scorers. Many fans, however, did come disguised as empty seats.Only 10,573 showed, leading Whalers&rsquo; owner Richard Gordon to make this assessment of the regional economy: &ldquo;The whole Northeast is in the tank.&rdquo;The Whalers, off to a surprising 4-8-2 start, can only hope their players don&rsquo;t join the somber economy down the tubes.The day after the loss to the Canadiens, Ley said some of his players weren&rsquo;t earning their paycheques. The Whalers emphasized the point by sending left winger Mikael Andersson, one of about 12 disappointments, to the Whalers&rsquo; American League affiliate in Springfield.There have been worse weeks in the Whalers&rsquo; history. But not many.After gaining a reputation as a tough-talking, driven coach in his rookie year, Ley backed off some in the early going in an attempt to allow peer pressure&mdash;and not his fire and brimstone&mdash;to be the guide. But this would result in a week in which Ley shot with both barrels.After the loss to St. Louis&mdash;in which rookie Bobby Holik was perhaps the only shining light&mdash;Ley responded: &ldquo;Bobby Holik is 19. We will not rush him. He&rsquo;s not our team leader. I don&rsquo;t know who is our team leader. We have people in that room that need to step up and be a leader.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s not a slam on (captain) Ron Francis. It&rsquo;s not just one guy. No one guy leads a hockey team. The veterans have to grab the bull by the horns. The captain can&rsquo;t do it alone. I don&rsquo;t care if it&rsquo;s Larry Bird of the Celtics&hellip;If you can&rsquo;t stand the press-&rsquo; ure and lead the team out of the doldrums, you&rsquo;re in trouble. It&rsquo;s frustrating for me. It&rsquo;s frustrating for everyone. I guess we have to make some changes.&rdquo;Forty-eight hours earlier, Ley had said: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a lot of lazy minds here. A lot of people who don&rsquo;t pay attention to what&rsquo;s going on. Maybe they&rsquo;re a little overconfident about their jobs. Things change. This a business. They get paid every two weeks. We&rsquo;re expecting an honest job for the paycheque and we&rsquo;re not getting it.&rdquo;And 48 hours before that, Ley said: &ldquo;Apparently, I&rsquo;ve got to go back to the old way. Maybe players have to have a fear of the coach. They&rsquo;re looking for the miserable side of again.&rdquo;And you&rsquo;re willing to give it to them?&ldquo;Yes, and I don&rsquo;t think 1&rsquo;11 ever change back.&rdquo; Ley said.<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 31: Marc Bergevin, D, acquired from New York Islanders for future considerations. Bergevin assigned to Springfield (AHL). Nov. 1: Mikael Andersson, LW, assigned to Springfield.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ron Francis, Dean Evason, Carey Wilson, Ray Ferraro.LW&mdash;Randy Cunneyworth, Yvon Corriveau, Todd Krygier, Paul Cyr.RW&mdash;Scott Young, Kevin Dineen, Bobby Holik, Pat Verbeek, Ed Kastelic.LO&mdash;Adam Burt, Grant Jennings, Randy LadouceurRD&mdash;Sylvain Cote, Ulf Samuelsson, Brad Shaw, Jergus Baca.G&mdash;Kay Whitmore, Peter Sidorkiewicz.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Babych, D. right wrist surgery, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Dineen, 5 A&mdash;Francis, 8. P&mdash;Francis, 11. PIM&mdash;Samuelsson, 57. &#9632;

LEY NOT ONE TO LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>John Tanner&rsquo;s dream isn&rsquo;t over yet. Far from it. Let&rsquo;s just say it has been put on hold.The 19-year-old goaltender, a surprise addition to the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; roster on opening day, was returned to the London Knights of the Ontario League Oct. 31.Tanner&rsquo;s demotion was not a surprise. He was pulled from three of his six games and the feeling was it was asking too much of a 19-year-old to excel in the NHL with a second-rate team.Tanner, 1-4-1 with a 4.21 goals-against average, played 228 minutes in six games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really disappointed,&rdquo; said Tanner. &ldquo;But at least I&rsquo;m proud to say that I gave it my best shot to help the team. I know it sounds like cliche time, but it&rsquo;s the truth.&ldquo;In a certain way, I guess I would have had a tough time adapting if I would have had to live through tough times like this all year long. Up to a certain point, I didn&rsquo;t perform at a satisfying level. Would I have been able to bounce back after so many setbacks?&rdquo;Tanner follows in the footsteps of Stephane Fiset, the starter last season who was returned to Victoriaville of the Quebec League early in the season.Like Tanner, Fiset had played six games. His record was 1-5-0 with a 5.96 GAA.Tanner didn&rsquo;t kick up a fuss when he was told he was going back to London. But he said he&rsquo;d have preferred to play in Halifax, the Nordiques&rsquo; American League affiliate. But NHL rules won&rsquo;t permit it.&ldquo;I can still leam a few things in junior hockey, but it would have been a lot more constructive for me to go directly to the AHL,&rdquo; said Tanner. &ldquo;That would have been the ideal scenario. The rule will have to be changed for the benefit of the young goaltenders.&ldquo;Mentally speaking, preparation for a game is a lot easier at the junior level. I&rsquo;ll have to improve on that aspect as well as leam how to do better with the puck around my own net. It&rsquo;s not easy to be mature at 19. But the NHL has helped me become a man a lot faster.&rdquo;The main reason Tanner started the season in Quebec was his excellent work in training camp and exhibition games.&ldquo;All John has to do is look at a guy like Ed Belfour of the Blackhawks. It took him four years to make it to the NHL and he&rsquo;s a lot better player because of the long delay. So we can&rsquo;t be hasty with a talented young prospect like John. If he&rsquo;s patient, he&rsquo;ll have a great career.&rdquo;So with Tanner out of the picture, Scott Gordon was recalled from Halifax. Gordon was sent down to the Citadels Oct. 15.In Halifax, he had a 5-1-1 record. He credited Quebec goaltending consultant Daniel Bouchard, the ex-Nordique goalie, for the turnaround.&ldquo;In three days, I learned more from Daniel than from anybody else since the beginning of my pro career,&rdquo; he said.And in his first appearance Nov. 3 against Minnesota, Gordon proved he&rsquo;s learned something. He gave up only one goal in a 2-0 loss. The Stars&rsquo; second goal was into an empty net.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 31: John Tanner, G, assigned to London (OHL). Nov. 2: Ken McRae, C, assigned to Halifax (AHL). Nov. 4: Tony Hrkac, C, and Shawn Anderson, D, assigned to Halifax.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Sakic, Lucien Debtors, Paul Gillis, Aaron Broten, Marc Fortier, Claude Loiselle.LW&mdash;Mike Hough, Tony McKegney, Daniel Vincelette, Everett Sanipass.RW&mdash;Guy Lafleur, Owen Nolan, Mats Sundin, Darin Kimble.LD&mdash;Steven Finn, Randy Velischek, Bryan Fogarty, Curtis Leschyshyn.RD&mdash;Michel Petit, Joe Cirella, Craig Wolanin.G&mdash;Ron Tugnutt, Scott Gordon.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Daniel Dore, RW, chronic back problems, indefinite. Stephane Guerard, D, strained right shoulder, indefinite. Wayne Van Dorp, LW, torn muscle in right shoulder, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Sakic, 9. A&mdash;Sakic, 13. P&mdash;Sakic, 22. PHU&mdash;Finn, 59. &#9632;

TANNER’S DREAM TEMPORARILY PUT ON HOLD

<div class="byline">BY CHRIS STEVENSON</div>As they approached the quarter mark of the season, the Montreal Canadiens fully expected to be led offensively by a small, shifty forward from Quebec and a scoring left winger from Ontario.They didn&rsquo;t expect their names to be Stephan Lebeau and Andrew Cassels.The pair was matched up on a line Oct. 24 against the New York Islanders&mdash;with Cassels shifted from his usual center position to left wing&mdash;and combined for seven points in the 8-2 win. Lebeau had a goal and three assists; Cassels, three assists.Cassels, the Habs&rsquo; top pick in the 1987 draft (17th overall), was then returned to the stands by coach Pat Burns, where he had spent the first nine games.Three games later (in which the Habs scored just five goals in three games), Burns summoned Cassels again.He responded by notching his second straight three-assist night while hooking up with Lebeau for a combined six points in a 5-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings Nov. 3.Having shown off the playmaking skills that earned him 266 assists in 183 games with the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s of Ontario League, Cassels turned goalscorer against the Minnesota North Stars Nov. 4.He flicked home the equalizer in a 2-2 draw on a great individual effort, cutting around Stars&rsquo; defenseman Brian Glynn and then roofing a shot over goaltender Jon Casey.That gave him seven points in the five games he&rsquo;s played this season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a confidence-builder knowing I can still do that,&rdquo; said the 21-year-old Cassels, the OHL&rsquo;s player of the year in 1988. He had 67 points in 55 games with Sherbrooke of the American League last season. &ldquo;I looked up and saw the goalie was down and the top of the net was open.&rdquo;Cassels has been impressing his teammates, none more so than Lebeau.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a complete player with a great head for the game,&rdquo; said Lebeau. &ldquo;I think we really complement each other. We&rsquo;re compatible.&rdquo;Cassels said he thinks the pair, who first worked with rookie Tom Chorske on right wing and then Todd Ewen, hit it off because they&rsquo;re the same type of players.&ldquo;I think I have an idea about what Steph is going to do in a certain situation and he has an idea about what I&rsquo;m going to do,&rdquo; Cassels said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the goal-scorer, he&rsquo;s got a lot of tricks around the net. I can go where I think he&rsquo;ll put the puck. It works both ways.&rdquo;Cassels has looked at home on the wing after playing his junior career exclusively at center.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d play defense if it meant getting in the lineup,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve watched enough games to know what the winger&rsquo;s job is. It&rsquo;s not a big adjustment.&rdquo;&ldquo;They&rsquo;re not doing anything spectacular, but they&rsquo;re doing a lot of right things at the right moment,&rdquo; said Bums. &ldquo;If (Cassels) keeps playing the way he has, there&rsquo;s no doubt he&rsquo;ll have a place with us.&rdquo;The young pair&mdash;they had a total of 64 NHL games between them entering this season&mdash;have given the Habs some offensive spark of late in the absence of consistent scoring from Denis Savard, Shayne Corson and Stephane Richer, the players who were supposed to carry the offensive load.Savard had just one point&mdash;a goal&mdash;in the three games since Oct. 31 while Corson had a goal and an assist bringing his season totals to a disappointing two goals and three assists.After starting the season with four goals and seven points in his first four games, Richer has had just four goals and two assists in the following 13 games.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Denis Savard, Guy Cartonneau, Brian Skrudland, Stephan Lebeau.LW&mdash;Mark Pederson, Mike McPhee. Brent Gilchrist, Shayne Corson, Andrew Cassels.RW&mdash;Stephane Richer, Russ Courtnail, Todd Ewen, Tom Chorske.LD&mdash;Sylvain Lefebvre, Lyle Odelein, Petr Svoboda, Donald Dufresne.RD&mdash;Gerald Diduck, Matt Schneider, Eric Desjardins, J.J Daigneault.G&mdash;Patrick Roy, Jean-Claude Bergeron.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Benoit Brunet, LW, strained left knee ligaments, indefinite. Mike Keane, RW, knee laceration, day-to-day. Sylvain Turgeon, LW, hernia surgery, indefinite. Ryan Walter, LW, broken right wrist, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Richer, 8. A&mdash;Savard, Svoboda, Lebeau, 8. P&mdash;Savard, 14. PIM&mdash;Ewen, 59. &#9632;

YOUNG GUNS LEADING THE OFFENSIVE WAY

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>In another year or perhaps in another team&rsquo;s camp, Greg Brown would have arrived with all the pomp and build-up usually reserved for a top draft choice, an Olympic hero or even a franchise savior.But the arrival of Dale Hawerchuk, the emergence of Alexander Mogilny and the generally high expectations surrounding Pierre Turgeon, Dave Andreychuk and company made Brown&rsquo;s NHL debut seem small by comparison.That&rsquo;s not to say that Brown has gone unnoticed&mdash;especially by those who count.&ldquo;He has an intensity about him in that he&rsquo;s always looking to make the right play,&rdquo; said coach Rick Dudley. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very solid in that area.&rdquo;But Brown, like most first-year players, has experienced growing pains.It&rsquo;s all part of the learning process for the 22-year-old who appeared in each of the Sabres&rsquo; first 14 games. Brown is proud of that, but admits the experience has been one of wonderment mixed with some disappointments. There&rsquo;s a big difference between watching Cam Neely and Ray Bourque play one season and then trying to play against them the next.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s as difficult and then harder than I thought it would be,&rdquo; Brown said. &ldquo;I knew it would be difficult and that I would have a lot to learn. Everyone told me that and I expected it, but until you experience it, it&rsquo;s hard to comprehend. The level of play is so high and it&rsquo;s like that every night. I&rsquo;m learning and the guys are helping me, but I had hoped I&rsquo;d be able to contribute more.&rdquo; He had no goals and one assist in the 14 games.Brown said he&rsquo;s made more than his share of mistakes, and is grateful his teammates have been able to cover for him more often than not.Earlier this season he took a ferocious elbow in the face from Quebec defenseman Michel Petit. The blow broke his nose and later his teammates told him that rushing the puck along the boards with his head down makes him a target few players in the league can resist.Subsequently, they laughed both at him and with him, but they also gave him their respect. Brown stayed in the game after that hit. He didn&rsquo;t let Petit get away (he went after the Quebec player as soon as he recovered) and he stuck it out in a game in which the Sabres lost Jay Wells to a knee injury and absolutely had to have him perform.&ldquo;I thought about that (hit) for a while,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I mean I knew this is what I wanted to do and that I would make some mistakes while learning to play in the NHL, but I looked at that and decided it was part of the learning process. It&rsquo;s one way to learn not to do it again.&rdquo;A native of Hartford, Conn., and standout defenseman for Boston College, Brown also played for the the U.S. Olympic and World Championship teams. Last season, he was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award as the top player in college hockey.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 30: Bill Houlder, D, assigned to Rochester (AHL) Nov. 1: Rob Ray, RW, and Brad Miller, D, recalled from Rochester Nov. 4: Joel Savage, RW. recalled from Rochester.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pierre Turgeon, Dale Hawerchuk, Christian Ruuttu, John Tucker.LW&mdash;Dave Andreychuk. Benoit Hogue, Rob Ray, Mikko MakelaRW&mdash;Mike Foligno, Alexander Mogilny. Dave Snuggerud, Joel Savage.LD&mdash;Mike Ramsey, Doug Bodger, Dean Kennedy. Brad Miller.RD&mdash;Uwe Krupp, Greg Brown. Dean Kennedy, Grant Ledyard.G&mdash;Daren Puppa, Clint Malarchuk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Donald Audette, RW, thigh contusion, day-to-day. Mike Hartman. LW. inflamed elbow, day-to-day. Brad May, LW, ligament damage left knee, indefinite. Rick Valve, RW, bruised shoulder, day-to-day. Jay Wells, D, bruised knee, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Turgeon, 9. A&mdash;Turgeon, Hawerchuk, 8. P&mdash;Turgeon, 17. PIM&mdash;Hartman, 40. &#9632;

COLLEGE STAR HAS MUCH LEARNING AHEAD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011224/5797519-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="510" height="619"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE DRYDEN</figcaption></div>Is he Saint James or Jiggly James?We&rsquo;re left to ponder that question in the wake of a bizarre Western Hockey League incident Oct. 30. That&rsquo;s the day Swift Current Broncos coach Graham James&rsquo; rage mushroomed into the outrageous.Late in a 9-8 loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers, James stormed onto the ice to protest the refereeing of NHL trainee Kevin Meunch. The coach was restrained by linesmen and steered back to the bench, where he performed a partial striptease&mdash;tossing his shoes, suit jacket, tie and shirt onto the ice. The bare-chested James then left the players&rsquo; bench.Within three days, the WHL had suspended him six games and levied a $2,000 fine. Saskatchewan strippers were considering supplementary disciplinary action so angered were they for James giving their profession a bad name. His colleagues in the WHL may have the same complaint.A lot of strange things have happened on the prairie flats over the years, but nobody can remember a coach ever disrobing in disgust behind the bench. For those of you who missed the video evidence, be assured Graham James is no Michael Ontkean, the last guy to take off his clothes during a hockey game. They do, however, share the same motivation. Both are method actors. (The method to James&rsquo; madness stems from a fondness for Monty Python.) Ontkean played the Slap Shot character who stripped on skates, so nauseated was he by a bench-clearing brawl. James has waged a campaign for several seasons against violence in hockey.Yet, there he was leaving the bench to confront Meunch after Medicine Hat scored the winning goal with 13 seconds left to play. James didn&rsquo;t come close to the referee and says he only wanted to yell at him from close quarters.&ldquo;At no time was I going out there to punch the referee,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I was going out there because I was upset and I don&rsquo;t like shrinking from issues and I definitely thought this was an issue. Normally, I&rsquo;m a calm guy, but I&rsquo;ve had moments in my life when I have flipped out.&rdquo;He lost it this time because of what he viewed as imcompetent refereeing by Meunch. He says Meunch has stood by in the past and watched the Broncos &ldquo;butchered&rdquo; but acted against them with uncommon vigilance on this night. The Tigers staged a comeback against Swift Current on the strength of three goals while playing with two-man advantages and another with a one-man advantage.Regardless of how good or bad Meunch might have been Oct. 30 or in the past, there is no justification for what James did. It reduced the WHL to the level of burlesque&mdash;literally&mdash;and probably damaged his credibility as a leading spokesman of non-violence in hockey, although he believes otherwise.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think that because I go out and protest a game like that,&rdquo; he says,&rdquo;that my feelings about the other aspects have changed. We still have the same kind of hockey club here. I still tell my guys not to hurt people.&rdquo;James&rsquo; outburst against Meunch was no aberration. He has been fined and suspended several times for outbursts against referees. James says the even-up philosophy that guides hockey officiating needs to be re-evaluated.There are no easy answers to Graham James. He is a glib and complex man, whose interests extend beyond the boards. For instance, James objected to beer advertising being tied in with the Broncos, so it was banned and replaced by a dairy promotion.James does not believe he is a hypocrite for the way he acted Oct. 30. Nor is he particularly contrite. He says the fine will be paid out of the Broncos&rsquo; referee improvement fund.&ldquo;I still don&rsquo;t think I hurt anybody unless people would feel I hurt myself,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Everybody is going to have a different opinion of it. There are people who know me and like me who think it is humorous. There are people who hate me and are going to think it&rsquo;s ridiculous and there are people who are going to care more about the Middle East.&rdquo;Two years ago, James was named Man of the Year by Inside HOCKEY, the magazine of which I am managing editor. He was recognized for his campaign to rid hockey of the belligerence that has stained our sport. There is no doubt that passion remains today. But it is a doubleedged sword.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t say thatl&rsquo;m a moral crusader and I&rsquo;m always going to be on the straight and narrow,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I get upset about things and I try to do something about it.&rdquo;James was presented with a watch from IH when he was honored. After the Swift Current strip show, he wondered whether it had a lifetime guarantee.&ldquo;Do you want me to send it back,&rdquo; he asked?No, Graham, keep the watch, your cool, and most of all, your clothes on. I don&rsquo;t know what has done more harm to the game&rsquo;s image&mdash;your fierce outburst or your physique. &#9632;

f0016-01

GRAHAM GOES CRACKERS OVER THE OFFICIATING

<h2>FLAMES</h2>After failing to sell his 18 per cent share of the Calgary Flames to his former partners, Norm Green&mdash;now the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; majority owner&mdash;says he will look for a buyer on the open market. Green&rsquo;s price: $13.5 million dollars, which is 18 per cent of $75 million, which he estimates is the net worth of the franchise. Nelson Skalbania originally paid $16 million (U.S.) for the team. Green&rsquo;s shares have been held in trust ever since he purchased the North Stars. Green&rsquo;s partners have the right of first refusal, but he said if there was a buyer prepared to pay $13.5 million,&rdquo;my guess is they would not match it, not as long as that buyer was compatible to the group.&ldquo;&hellip;Doug Gilmour is going Hollywood. On a recent trip to Los Angeles, Gilmour had a meeting with Hollywood producer Gene Corman, who plans to use the center in the life story of auto racer Peter Revson. Revson, an heir to the Revlon cosmetics fortune, died in the 1974 South African Grand Prix. Gilmour, who has no previous acting experience, admitted to a little nervousness, but GM Cliff Fletcher gave his okay to the project. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s good for players to develop interest beyond their careers.&rdquo;<h2>KINGS</h2>The Kings were in giddy spirits following a 2-0 win in Chicago Nov. 4 that completed what will be their longest trip of the year with a 3-3 record following losses to the Rangers (9-4 Oct. 31) and Washington (4-3 Nov. 2). &ldquo;This is the kind of game we hadn&rsquo;t won in my three years here,&rdquo; Wayne Gretzky said.&ldquo;It was the end of our trip and we were a little tired, but we hung in there.&rdquo;&hellip;Goaltender Daniel Berthiaume, who was given the hook early in the third period of the Rangers&rsquo; defeat after giving up six goals, was spectacular in stopping 40 shots to blank the Blackhawks and register his fifth career shutout. He was 6-1 with a 2.54 goals-against average. &ldquo;I was ready to face the music and (Chicago) didn&rsquo;t disappoint me,&rdquo; Berthiaume said. &ldquo;Sure, it was one of my best games. Obviously it was.&rdquo;&hellip;The Kings&rsquo; power play was in a 1-for-15 slump, prompting defenseman Steve Duchesne to say,&rdquo;We were pressuring. dumping the puck and passing it around before, now it&rsquo;s not working and we&rsquo;re starting to panic a little. We&rsquo;re not shooting enough anymore. If you don&rsquo;t shoot, there&rsquo;s no way you&rsquo;re going to score.&rdquo;<h2>OILERS</h2>Mark Lamb was still being bothered by a pinched nerve in his neck. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s better than it was, but from my ear down to my hand, it goes numb some times,&rdquo; said Lamb. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a weird injury, you turn you&rsquo;re head either way and it starts tingling.&rdquo; Lamb was hurt Oct. 21 (2-1 loss to Calgary) when he was caught on the back of the head by the knee of the Flames&rsquo; Paul Ranheim&hellip;Kevin Lowe to Mark Messier: &ldquo;I heard a farmer from Saskatchewan phoned and said your knee would get better sooner if you put horse manure on it.&rdquo; To which Messier countered: &ldquo;Yeah, I&rsquo;ve heard it enhances the growth of the medial collateral ligament.&rdquo; Messier&rsquo;s been lifting weights daily and figures to be back in action by Christmas&hellip;Rookie Tomas Srsen was inserted in the lineup for two recent games as the anemically offensive Oilers attempted to mend their ways. The 24-year-old was summoned from Cape Breton (AHL) Oct. 29, but was sent back Nov. 4 and David Haas was recalled.<h2>JETS</h2>After a sluggish start to the season, Winnipeg&rsquo;s top offensive weapon has finally begun to produce. Thomas Steen put together a seven-game point streak that began Oct. 19 and was still going two games into November. The Winnipeg captain compiled two goals and 10 assists to give him 4-13-17 totals on the season, a 90-point pace. &ldquo;Sometimes the puck just seems to follow you around,&rdquo; Steen said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to get that.&rdquo; Not surprisingly, Steen&rsquo;s right winger, Pat Elynuik, was also putting points on the board after a dismal beginning. Elynuik had points in five straight games&hellip;After losing six in a row in the first two weeks of the season, the Jets rebounded to go 5-2-0 in their next seven, all against Smythe Division opponents. Goalie Bob Essensa, who missed the early part of the year with a groin pull, reeled off four straight victories in the comeback including a 1-0 shutout in Edmonton Oct. 31, Winnipeg&rsquo;s first blanking of the Oilers in the NHL. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not complaining,&rdquo; said Essensa, who went 18-9-5 as a rookie one year ago.<h2>CANUCKS</h2>Bill Faminoff, the lawyer for exCanuck Vladimir Krutov, charged that Vancouver management is ignoring his attempt to negotiate a contract settlement for the 30-year-old left winger. The Canucks claimed Krutov breached his contract by not reporting to training camp in acceptable physical condition and won&rsquo;t honor the final two years of his contract at $375,000 per season. Krutov, who played in only three exhibition games for the Canucks, was cut Oct. 2, two days before the start of the regular season. Quoting from a letter sent to him by Yuri Koralev, president of the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation, Faminoff said Koralev is &ldquo;shocked&rdquo; and &ldquo;displeased&rdquo; with the Canucks&rsquo; handling of Krutov. Faminoff said the Canucks&rsquo; treatment of Krutov could give the USSR&rsquo;s sports leadership cause to ponder future dealings with the NHL team over Pavel Bure, one of the country&rsquo;s top young talents who was claimed by Vancouver in the 1989 draft. &lsquo; &#9632;

GREEN SEARCHES FOR BUYER

A center for the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks between 1972-73 and 1980-81, Chris Oddleifson works for Sussex Real Estate in Vancouver. &ldquo;I like real estate because you&rsquo;re still working in a team concept, you still have to have goals that are immediate,&rdquo; says Oddleifson. &ldquo;I have to work as hard at this career as I did at the previous one.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02969/5797574-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="589" height="406"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Oddleifson</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0016-02

THEN & NOW

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>One goal was considered delightful. Two euphoria. Three would have been heaven on earth. Four&hellip;well, let&rsquo;s keep this in perspective.The Edmonton Oilers, known locally as &ldquo;The Gang That Couldn&rsquo;t Shoot Straight&rdquo;, finally scored a goal Nov. 3 against New Jersey. Two, in fact, in a 5-2 loss for the reigning Stanley Cup champions.When Joe Murphy took an Esa Tikkanen pass and snapped a power-play goal past New Jersey goalie Chris Terreri at 13:43 of the first period, it marked the first Oilers&rsquo; goal in 156 minutes, 31 seconds.That&rsquo;s hardly what you&rsquo;d expect from the NHL&rsquo;s highest-scoring team of all-time.Over five straight seasons (1981-82 to &rsquo;85-&rsquo;86), the Oilers scored more than 400 goals per campaign. No other NHL team has accomplished the feat.Murphy&rsquo;s goal, however, did little to change the fortunes of the struggling Oilers. The loss to New Jersey was their sixth straight, equalling a club record set in the franchise&rsquo;s maiden NHL season, 1979-80. And they recently lost four games in a row for the first time in team history.What&rsquo;s gone wrong?Not goaltending. Bill Ranford has been rock solid with a 2.96 goals-against average through the team&rsquo;s first 12 games.Assistant coach Ron Low, the man who turned around the 1979-80 season by backstopping the Oilers to an 8-2-1 finish, doesn&rsquo;t have any answers but knows its time to put up or shut up.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not good, not good at all,&rdquo; said Low. &ldquo;And, we can&rsquo;t hide, there&rsquo;s no place to hide.&ldquo;Can&rsquo;t win at home (2-5-1), can&rsquo;t win on the road (0-3-1), where else is there left to play?&rdquo;A dozen games into the 1990-91 season and the 2-8-2 Oilers are on the verge of their worst NHL season ever. But it wasn&rsquo;t supposed to be that way.The early portion of the Oilers&rsquo; schedule was supposed to be the easy part. Eight of their first 12 games were at home, many against sub-par opponents.But the Oilers find themselves desperately grasping for straws. Some said they were actually looking forward to a road swing that would see them play nine of 13 games away from Northlands Coliseum.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s extremely disappointing,&rdquo; said Kevin Lowe, the interim captain while Mark Messier&rsquo;s sits out until at least mid-December with a knee injury. &ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s a good thing we&rsquo;re going on the road for a few games to regroup.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a pretty proud bunch in this room and to be having this type of start, well&hellip;there&rsquo;s still 60-odd games to go. We know we have to start winning and we&rsquo;re not going to feel relieved until we get back to.500.&ldquo;I can remember when we played worse and still came up with a few wins for whatever reason.&rdquo;But perhaps this edition doesn&rsquo;t have the talent the Oilers of old possessed.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re like an accident waiting to happen and when you do that, it usually does,&rdquo; said coach John Muckier. &ldquo;Nobody in the league is feeling sorry for us and it&rsquo;s easy to feel sorry for yourself, but nobody&rsquo;s going to help us get out of this, only ourselves. Maybe it&rsquo;s a good thing we&rsquo;re getting out of here.&rdquo;Not too many teams going well would be overly excited about venturing into places such as St. Louis, Chicago and Los Angeles at this point of the season, let alone the downtrodden Oilers. But that was the test the club faced to start their road trip.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just not going to get any easier, we&rsquo;ve got to play in three tough cities,&rdquo; said Craig MacTavish. &ldquo;But let&rsquo;s get on the road and come back playing well. Hopefully when we get back, our fans won&rsquo;t recognize us.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 29: Tomas Srsen, RW, recalled from Cape Breton (AHL). Nov. 3: Petr Klima, LW, began four-game suspension for butt-ending Los Angeles&rsquo; Brad Jones, LW, Oct. 25. Eligible to return Nov. 14. Nov. 4: Srsen assigned to Cape Breton. David Haas, LW, recalled from Cape Breton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Adam Graves, Craig MacTavish, Esa Tikkanen, Anatoli Semenov, Ken Linseman.LW&mdash;Craig Simpson, Kelly Buchberger, Martin Gelinas, David Haas.RW&mdash;Glenn Anderson, Joe Murphy, Dave Brown.LD&mdash;Kevin Lowe, Steve Smith, Geoff Smith.RD&mdash;Craig Muni, Charlie Huddy, Greg Hawgood, Jeff Beukeboom, Chris Joseph.G&mdash;Bill Ranford. Eldon Reddick.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mark Lamb, C, pinched nerve in neck, day-to-day. Mark Messier, C, sprained left knee, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Klima, 5. A&mdash;Smith, 7. P&mdash;Klima. Smith, 10. PIM&mdash;Graves, 38. &#9632;

FISH OR CUT BAIT TIME FOR DEFENDING CHAMPS

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>It took Steve Kasper 11 games to register his first goal of the season, and through 15 games he had only two goals and four assists.But Kasper was playing so well in other areas&mdash;winning faceoffs, checking and killing penalties&mdash;that his contributions to the Los Angeles Kings were nearly as significant as those of another 29-year-old center, Wayne Gretzky.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been doing a tremendous job,&rdquo; coach Tom Webster said. &ldquo;Lots of times, statistics are very misleading. The job he does usually doesn&rsquo;t get his name on the scoresheet, but that isn&rsquo;t important.&ldquo;I think he deserves a little more credit for the role he has. He&rsquo;s got some pretty hefty responsibilities. Everybody likes to get recognition. Everybody needs to get a little pat on the back every once in a while. Stevie&rsquo;s the type of guy who&rsquo;s happy when he&rsquo;s done his job and we&rsquo;ve won, whether he&rsquo;s gotten a point or no points.&rdquo;Through 15 games, the Kings permitted 30 goals at even strength. Kasper, who is always asked to play against an opponent&rsquo;s top center, was on the ice for only five of them and was plus-5 on the year.Among the offensive threats Kas per has held without a goal were Pat LaFontaine (in two games), Mark Messier, Craig Janney, Rod Brind&rsquo;A-mour, Mike Modano, Ron Francis, Joe Nieuwendyk, Thomas Steen, Bernie Nicholls, Mike Ridley and Jeremy Roenick.Kasper and Mike Krushelnyski also won several key faceoffs in the defensive zone Nov. 4 when Daniel Berth-iaume stopped 40 shots and the Kings took a 2-0 decision in Chicago.Pretty impressive stuff.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re talking to me about defense right now, so it doesn&rsquo;t go completely unnoticed,&rdquo; said Kasper, who centers a line with Bob Kudelski on the right and Scott Bjugstad or Jay Miller on the left. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t worry so much about it, anyway. In order for a team to be successful, it needs to have guys who can do things other than score goals.&ldquo;I know what my job is, and I get as high if I do it well as the other guys do when they score goals. (Lack of recognition) doesn&rsquo;t bother me a bit.&rdquo;Paired up front with Tony Granato when the Kings are shorthanded, Kasper helped kill 58 of 70 penalties, an 82.9 percentage and a vast improvement from a year ago.&ldquo;Some of our best kills have come when games have been on the line. It&rsquo;s crucial to kill those off. That makes you feel good,&rdquo; Kasper said.Kasper won the Selke Trophy as the league&rsquo;s best defensive forward in 1981-82, when he was playing for the Boston Bruins. He spent 8&frac12; seasons in Boston and scored 20-plus goals in three of them before the Kings acquired him with Jay Miller on Jan. 23, 1989 in exchange for Bob Carpenter.Kasper scored 17 goals in 77 games for the Kings last season, when he was voted the club&rsquo;s best defensive forward by the Los Angeles media.It&rsquo;s an award he figures to win again.&ldquo;Our overall defensive play has been much better, and that&rsquo;s encouraging,&rdquo; Kasper said. &ldquo;Really, you&rsquo;ve got to pass the credit for that around because everyone is committed to cutting down our goals against. Besides, our goaltending has been very good.&ldquo;The effort has been there, which makes it a little easier to accept when you do have a breakdown.&rdquo;<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Todd Elik, Steve Kasper. Mike Krushelnyski.LW&mdash;Tony Granato, Luc Robitaille. Scott Bjugstad, John Tortelli, Jay Miller.RW&mdash;Tomas Sandstrom, Dave Taylor, Bob Kudelski, Frank Breault. Brad Jones.LD&mdash;Steve Duchesne, Larry Robinson, Tim Watters, Brian Benning.RD&mdash;Rod Buskas, Marty McSorley, Rob Blake.G&mdash;Kelly Hrudey, Daniel Berthiaume.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bob Halkidis, D, shoulder surgery, indefinite Tom Laidlaw, D. inflamed disc in back, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Gretzky, 10. A&mdash;Gretzky, 19. P&mdash;Gretzky, 29. PIM&mdash;Granato, 50. &#9632;

KASPER’S EERIE DEFENSE HAUNTS OPPONENTS

<div class="byline">BY GRANT McGINNIS</div>More is not necessarily merrier.Need proof? Just ask the eight NHL-calibre defensemen who play for the Winnipeg Jets. They&rsquo;re in the midst of a struggle for ice time that has left at least three of them in search of answers.&ldquo;Right now, in this part of my career, it gets frustrating,&rdquo; said Moe Mantha, who, along with Randy Carlyle and Gord Donnelly, is bearing the brunt of the overcrowding. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re 29 years old. You don&rsquo;t want to say you&rsquo;re washed out. You want to make sure you play all the games. You want to play hockey.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what Randy&rsquo;s feeling in and out of the lineup but I&rsquo;m sure it&rsquo;s the same. Both of us are waiting for the 20-game mark. If nothing&rsquo;s changed, then we&rsquo;ll have to walk in and ask for a trade.&rdquo; &lsquo;When Phil Housley was acquired from Buffalo in the Dale Hawerchuk swap in June, Winnipeg&rsquo;s blue line looked set. Deep in talent, it was supposed to be the cornerstone of the franchise.Housley, Dave Ellett, Fredrik Olausson and Teppo Numminen&mdash;the so-called &ldquo;Fab Four&rdquo;&mdash;play every night. But from the remaining &ldquo;Grab Four&rdquo;&mdash;Mantha, Donnelly, Carlyle and Shawn Cronin&mdash;coach Bob Murdoch must pick two.&ldquo;There has to be something done,&rdquo; said Donnelly. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt. You go to bed at night thinking you&rsquo;re playing and you go to the rink the next day and find out you&rsquo;re not playing.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve asked a million times to be traded last year and it never worked out. I&rsquo;ve quit that thing. But for those guys, Moe and Randy, they&rsquo;re a little older, they want to play and they want to survive in the league. Something has to be done.&rdquo;General manager Mike Smith isn&rsquo;t so sure. He and Murdoch have said all along they wouldn&rsquo;t go through the season with all eight but nothing has transpired to alter the situation.&ldquo;No, we haven&rsquo;t made any decision to change yet,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;I think if everybody stays healthy we&rsquo;ll have to address it sometime in the near future.&rdquo;There has been trade speculation&mdash;the latest has Ellett going to Washington for center Mike Ridley&mdash;but Smith said he hasn&rsquo;t talked trade with anyone.&ldquo;I guess there is a potential for a problem if they all stay healthy,&rdquo; he admitted. &ldquo;They won&rsquo;t get to play enough. I think we are getting closer to that time.&rdquo;Very close.Mantha finally got his wish to play against Edmonton Oct. 31 (a 1-0 win) after being scratched in two previous meetings.Carlyle is taking a wait and see approach.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s starting to take a toll on guys,&rdquo; Donnelly said. &ldquo;If you play good, you&rsquo;re out. If you play bad, you&rsquo;re in. Just the rotation is tough.We&rsquo;re all finding it very difficult right now.&rdquo;But just when the situation may have been about to boil over, three things happened to ease some of the pressure.First, Olausson suffered an ankle injury against Edmonton that kept him out of the next two games. Then Donnelly was moved back to right wing for the first time this season. And the Jets were winning.With five victories in seven tries (all in the Smythe Division) things were looking up.&ldquo;Either one of those guys moves or I move,&rdquo; Donnelly said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what it&rsquo;s going to come down to I think.&rdquo;<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 30: Danton Cole, RW, recalled from Moncton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Thomas Steen, Dave McLIwain, Doug Evans, Simon Wheeldon.LW&mdash;Doug Smail, Paul Fenton, Scott Amiel, Phil Sykes.RW&mdash;Pat Elynuik, Paul MacDermid, Greg Paslawski, Danton Cole, Mark Kumpel, Gord Donnelly.LD&mdash;Dave Ellett, Randy Carlyle, Shawn CroninRD&mdash;Phil Housley, Teppo Numminen, Moe Mantha.G&mdash;Bob Essensa, Stephane Beauregard.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brent Ashton. C. pulled groin, day-to-day. Fredrik Olausson, D, sore ankle, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;McLIwain, 5. A&mdash;Steen, 13. P&mdash;Steen, 17 PIM&mdash;Donnelly, 44. &#9632;

MERRY-GO-ROUND DEFENSE GROUNDS VETERAN BACKLINERS

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BEAMISH</div>Doug Lidster is no longer a favorite of hockey poolsters.His career-high 63 points in 1987&mdash;12goalsand51 assists, a team record for points by a defenseman&mdash;looks to be a blip in a steady line of 30-40 point seasons.The 30-year-old Kamloops, B.C., native is never likely to repeat his magic season offensively.Still, Lidster will pass Rick Lanz in November or early December and move in behind Dennis Kearns as the Canucks&rsquo; all-time scoring leader among defensemen.Lidster had one goal and four assists in 14 games this season, giving him career totals of 48 goals and 172 assists in seven seasons with the Canucks. His 220 points trailed Lanz (227) and Kearns (321). Lidster, who first joined the Canucks in 1984, following a four-year career at Colorado College and a season with Team Canada, culminating at the 1984Olympics in Sarajevo, had played 465 games going into the week of Nov. 5.What is harder to quantify is Lidster&rsquo;s contribution in a defensive role. He led the Canucks at plus-7, but even that statistic didn&rsquo;t do justice to the kind of year he is having.Lidster has been a tower of strength. He often plays at least 30 minutes a game. Defensively, he has been close to flawless, almost uncanny in his ability to make the right play.When the Canucks are under siege, he is the one who skates the puck out of the defensive zone. When the Canucks are caught outmanned in a quick counter-attack, Lidster is usually the one hustling back to break up the play.Rookie goalie Troy Gamble, who led the NHL in goals-against average (1.63) and save percentage (.936) after 13 games, couldn&rsquo;t praise his defense enough.&ldquo;The statistics are all misleading,&rdquo; said Gamble,&rdquo;The way the defense is playing right now, a goalie should have good numbers. They&rsquo;re letting me see the puck and they&rsquo;re clearing rebounds.&ldquo;People have been focusing on me the last few games, but it&rsquo;s guys like Doug (Lidster) and Garth (Butcher), they&rsquo;re the real heroes.&rdquo;Lidster, who turned 30 Oct. 18, is the senior mart on the youthful defense. Butcher, despite have played 90 more games than Lidster in his career, is only 27.Last season, the Canucks fell to 16th in defense from third in &rsquo;88-89, when the team made the playoffs and almost upset the Calgary Flames in the first round. Lidster said the team is returning to the defensive habits of two seasons ago, and perhaps this is why he has been noticed.&ldquo;Right now, this team is able to win the low-scoring type games,&rdquo; Lidster said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s more suited to my style of play. The high-scoring, freewheeling games, I can play that way too, but it&rsquo;s not my forte.&rdquo;Lidster is one of only two Canucks (Stan Smyl is the other) playing out his option this season, and with the prospect of a change in free agency rules in the offing, his bargaining position next year could be enhanced.Lidster is also considering playing in Europe next year, with an eye toward joining Team Canada for the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. He has been told a berth on the team is there if he wants it, although he is looking at the Olympics as a secondary option.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dan Quinn, Igor Larionov. Brian Bradley. Petr Nedved.LW&mdash;Robert Kron, Petri Skriko, Jim Sandlak, Steve Bozek, Craig Coxe.RW&mdash;Trevor Linden, Dave Capuano, Stan Smyl, Andrew McBain.LD&mdash;Doug Lidster, Adrien Plavsic, Jim Agnew.RD&mdash;Garth Butcher, Jyrki Lumme, Robert Nordmark, Kevan Guy.G&mdash;Troy Gamble, Kirk McLean.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Greg Adams, LW, sprained left knee, day-to-day. Rob Murphy, C. sprained knee, indefinite. Jay Mazur. RW. bruised chest, indefinite Ron Stern, RW. broken wrist, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Linden, 7. A&mdash;Quinn, 8. P&mdash;Capuano. 12. PIM&mdash;Stern, 59. &#9632;

LIDSTER MAKING HIS CASE WITH DEFENSE

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01685/5797701-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Maclnnis had two assists in a 2-1 win over Winnipeg Nov. 1 and moved into top spot in the NHL scoring race with 27 points.</figcaption></div>It didn&rsquo;t last forever. In fact in only lasted for one tantalizing night. But there, atop the NHL scoring leaders was one singularly unfamiliar name.Calgary Flames&rsquo; defenseman Al MacInnis.It happened Nov. 1 when Maclnnis set up both goals in a 2-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets to give him 27 points. That put him one up on the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; Wayne Gretzky and the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; John Cullen.Even in his best times, such as the 1989 Stanley Cup playoffs when he won the Conn Smythe Trophy, Maclnnis never went on a roll like this. Every time he puts a shot towards the net, something good happens for the Flames. He went 11 games in a row&mdash;Oct. 13toNov. 3&mdash;with at least one point.It almost looks as if he can do whatever he wants.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s certainly not like that,&rdquo; said MacInnis. &ldquo;You hear guys say when they get on a roll that the net looks like a soccer net. When they&rsquo;re struggl ing, it looks like the thing is behind their back.&ldquo;You have to take everything in stride. It would be ridiculous to think I can keep up this pace. It&rsquo;s just something. I&rsquo;m on a roll for a few games. What obviously makes it easier and more fun is the team is playing well right now.&rdquo;MacInnis signed the biggest contract in team history during training camp&mdash;four years, $4 million. Unlike many who fail to produce after signing a big contract, MacInnis has simply been better.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s any secret that after signing the deal I did, I wanted to get off to a good start,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Sure, I put a little pressure on myself to play well. There&rsquo;s always people out there, as soon as you sign a big contract, they feel you&rsquo;re going to go into the tank. I certainly didn&rsquo;t want that to happen. I didn&rsquo;t want to disappoint mvself. mv teammates, the organization.&rdquo;MacInnis&rsquo;s good start makes him an early frontrunner for the Norris Trophy. In his contract there&rsquo;s a healthy bonus for winning the Norris&mdash;$150,000. In addition, his base salary would kick up another $150,000 for each of the three remaining years on his deal.&ldquo;The best thing I&rsquo;m doing now is keeping my eye on what&rsquo;s going on in front of me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Goaltenders are real tough to beat from the blue line 1-on-1. They&rsquo;re just too good. So I&rsquo;m able to see guys off to the side, guys in front of the net, guys in the slot.&ldquo;A lot of times, I&rsquo;m not just trying to hit the net, but the guy off to the side.&rdquo;Defensively, he&rsquo;s been more than efficient. It may be the single biggest difference between MacInnis now and the player that came into the league in 1982 as a power-play specialist.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m plus-12, which puts me in the top five or six in the NHL,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m as happy about that as I am with all the points. I&rsquo;m not jumping up every play. I&rsquo;m jumping up every once in a while, but I&rsquo;m making good reads&mdash;when to go and when not to go. I think that just comes with experience and reading the situation.&rdquo;In getting off to an 11-5-0 start, the best beginning in their 11 seasons in Calgary, the Flames were relying heavily on MacInnis for offense. Every time they got into a tight game they received something from MacInnis.Considering how much teams are pressuring him and his partner Gary Suter on the power play, the fact he was even getting his shot off as well and as often as he was seemed a bit surprising.&ldquo;I think Gary and I realize, the last two, three, four years, they play higher on us than most teams and therefore, we&rsquo;ve got to a establish a real, solid all-around power play,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We need to work the puck in deep so our three guys down there can establish a 3-on-2. When you do that, you can get teams caught in between, where they&rsquo;re not sure if the want to stay high on the points or help the defense down low.&ldquo;On our power play, I don&rsquo;t think anybody&rsquo;s selfish. We move the puck real well and we take whatever option opens up.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 4: Marc Bureau, C, recalled from Salt Lake (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour, Joel Otto, Marc BureauLW&mdash;Gary Roberts, Paul Ranheim, Sergei Priakin, Tim Sweeney.RW&mdash;Sergei Makarov, Theo Fleury, Jiri Hrdina, Stephane Matteau.LD&mdash;Gary Suter, Jamie Macoun, Ken Sabourin.RD&mdash;Al Maclnnis, Ric Nattress, Roger Johansson, Frantisek Musil.G&mdash;Mike Vernon, Steve Guenette.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mark Hunter, RW, bruised shoulder, day-to-day Tim Hunter. RW, bruised shoulder, indefinite. Brian MacLellan, LW, stiff neck, day-to-day. Dana Murzyn, D, hip pointer, indefinite. Colin Patterson, LW, knee surgery, indefinite. Robert Relchel, C, strained back, day-to-day. Rick Wamsley, G, broken hand, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Nieuwendyk, Maclnnis, Ranheim, 8. A&mdash;Maclnnis, 19. P&mdash;Maclnnis, 27. PIM&mdash;Roberts, 41. &#9632;

f0021-01

MacINNIS BLESSED WITH ‘MIDAS TOUCH’ START

Travis Coffman just loves to skate and play hockey.And in a way, it&rsquo;s a small miracle he can.The 4-foot, 45-pound five-year-old from Canoga Park, Calif., was born three months premature and doctors wondered if he&rsquo;d live, let alone play hockey, says his mother, Robin.&ldquo;They weren&rsquo;t even sure if he&rsquo;d make it,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;But now he just whizzes along on the ice.&rdquo;Travis has been skating for a-year-and-a-half and last season, he played both right wing and center for the Van Nuys Chiefs in California.This season, he&rsquo;ll suit up for the Valley Flames, a team that skates out of a rink in North Hollywood. A kindergarten student at First Lutheran School in Northbridge, Calif., Travis loves to play street hockey with his brother Kyle. He&rsquo;s also an avid reader.His favorite NHL team is the Los Angeles Kings and his favorite player, Wayne Gretzky.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02377/5797732-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="568" height="1200"><figcaption class="caption-body">Travis Coffman</figcaption></div>You or someone you know can be part of the JOFA-TITAN Minor Hockey Showcase. Just send a photograph (non-returnable), along with biographical information (age, height, weight, team, coach&rsquo;s name, school and grade, as well as favorite NHL team and player) to JOFA-TITAN SHOWCASE, c/o The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. All entries submitted will be eligible for selection as THN/JOFA-TITAN Minor Hockey Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0021-02

PLAYER OF WEEK JOFA TITAN

<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>The New York State Department of Health apparently is studying the illness suffered by goalie Mark Fitzpatrick, exploring a possible link between his case of eosinophilic fasciitis and the toxic L-tryptophan, a dietary supplement that injured more than 1,500 people and killed 27 in the United States last year. Because of confidentiality regulations, health department officials could not confirm they are studying Fitzpatrick&rsquo;s case, but the 21-year-old goalie&rsquo;s mother did confirm it while Fitzpatrick was seeing specialists in Vancouver. L-tryptophan has been linked to an outbreak of eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome (EMS), an illness for which there is no known cure. Doctors believe Fitzpatrick&rsquo;s condition, which caused swelling of muscles and tissues, is either related to, or a component of, EMS. &ldquo;The doctors can&rsquo;t give him any positive feedback.&rdquo; Vi Fitzpatrick said from the family&rsquo;s home in Kitimat, B.C. Health department officials said they are not certain where&mdash;or if&mdash;the patient being studied was exposed to L-try ptophan.<h2>PENGUINS</h2>The Penguins got a motivational speech from an unlikely source before their 6-2 victory in Philadelphia Oct. 30: Flyers&rsquo; defenseman Terry Carkner. In an interview published in the Philadelphia Inquirer that morning, Carkner was quoted as saying,&rdquo;We should be able to physically keep them down for 60 minutes. It should be an easy game.&rdquo; Pittsburgh responded with its most lopsided victory ever in the Spectrum. &ldquo;I think everybody took a look at (the story) and it sunk in,&rdquo; left winger Kevin Stevens said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know why he would pipe up like that.&rdquo;&hellip;Center Bryan Trottier, who hoped to return from a sore buttock muscle in Philadelphia, aggravated the injury in the game-day skate and is sidelined indefinitely&hellip;Even without Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh is putting up some impressive offensive numbers. The Penguins scored 64 goals&mdash;a league-best average of 4.57 per game&mdash;in their first 14 games.<h2>RANGERS</h2>GM Neil Smith is making progress with his option-year players. Negotiations are all but complete on a new contract for defenseman James Patrick, and talks are in progress regarding goalie Mike Richter and right winger Jan Erixon. Defenseman Mark Hardy appears firmest about playing out the season, but neither he nor Smith rules out the chance of a new agreement before the end of the season&hellip;Center Kelly Kisio, who watched the Rangers go 11-2 in their first 13 games after he chipped his right ankle Oct. 6 against Hartford, resumed skating Nov. 3. Defenseman Normand Rochefort (knee) resumed skating Nov. 5&hellip;Center Corey Millen, who has missed the entire season due to his third left-knee operation, came to New York for a checkup.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>Dave Tippett had a strong road trip (Oct. 23-30), but it was under duress. He scored two goals against Calgary Oct. 27 in a 9-4 loss, then scored the game-winner in a 2-1 win against Vancouver Oct. 30. The duress was due to his wife, Wendy, and the impending birth of their second child. Tippett had a cab waiting outside the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver ready to whisk him away if he was needed. He finished the game and then took the red-eye flight through Toronto after the game. He was back in Washington by 9 a.m. only to find out Wendy hadn&rsquo;t given birth&hellip;Rookie John Purves scored his first NHL goal in his fourth game. A deflection off a pass from Tippett, proved to be the game-winner in a 5-2 win Nov. 3 against the Islanders&hellip;Enforcer Alan May wanted to make sure his injured knuckle healed completely before returning. &ldquo;My hands are as important to me as Dino Ciccarelli&rsquo;s are to him,&rdquo; May said.<h2>FLYERS</h2>Goaltender Pete Peeters made his debut early in the second period of a game at Toronto Nov. 4. Ken Wregget left the game with a strained hip flexor muscle. Peeters allowed one goal and stopped a penalty shot try by Gary Leeman in the Flyers&rsquo; 7-1 win-&hellip;Mark Howe was forced out early in games against Chicago on Nov. 3 and Toronto. Howe was shaken up in a second-period collision with Chicago&rsquo;s Steve Larmer during the Blackhawks&rsquo; 3-1 win. Against Toronto, Howe aggravated an injury in his lower back&hellip;Craig Berube was scratched for four straight games. Coach Paul Holmgren expressed dissatisfaction with the left winger&rsquo;s play&hellip;Tim Kerr scored the only goal in the loss to Chicago, lifting his career total to 357, one short of tying Bobby Clarke for third on the Flyers&rsquo; alltime goal list.<h2>DEVILS</h2>Troy Crowder added Vancouver&rsquo;s Craig Coxe to his list of fighting victims when he flattened Coxe in a fight during the Devils&rsquo; 2-i loss Nov. 1. Ten minutes after the fight, Crowder was knocked out of the game by a slash to the elbow from Stan Srnyl-&hellip;Viacheslav Fetisov said he expects his autobiography to be published in the Soviet Union by the end of the year. &ldquo;I did it with a Russian reporter but I still have to make some changes,&rdquo; Fetisov said. &ldquo;It will be only in Russia.&rdquo; Fetisov acknowledged that the still-untitled book will anger some people&hellip;Doug Brown and his agent, Bob Goodenow, have asked GM Lou Lamoriello for ice time or a trade. Lamoriello has not been pressured into making a move and Brown sat out 10 straight games. &#9632;

TOXIN MAY BE CAUSE OF ISLE’S ILLNESS

Nov. 15, 1973: Boston&rsquo;s Bobby Orr scores seven points (3-4-7) in a 10-2 win over the New York Rangers to set a record for the most points in a game by a defenseman. Two players have since bettered that mark. Philadelphia&rsquo;s Tom Bladon scored eight points (4-4-8) in a 11-1 Flyer win Dec. 11, 1977 against the Colorado Rockies. Paul Coffey scored eight points (2-6-8) in a 12-3 Edmonton Oiler win March 14, 1986 at Detroit.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02560/5797818-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="635" height="411"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Coffey</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0022-02

FLASHBACK

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE FISH</div>Tim Kerr had heard it a thousand times before but never with such feeling. This ovation was for Tim Kerr the man, not Tim Kerr the hockey player.He skated onto the ice and stood waiting for a faceoff near the Flyers&rsquo; blue line shortly after the start of the Flyers&rsquo; Oct. 30 game against Pittsburgh.The applause in the Spectrum started slowly, then built to a crescendo. Kerr, head down at first, looked up and nodded.It was Kerr&rsquo;s first appearance with the Flyers since the death of his wife, Kathy, Oct. 16.This was a difficult moment for the 11-year veteran and the struggle to control many emotions showed in his face.Play finally began and the business of hockey resumed. But the echoes of the outpouring of affection, respect and sympathy were left ringing in the ears of everyone throughout the evening.Kerr said he appreciated the gesture. In the eyes of many, it was perhaps the first step back for a man who endured a tremendous loss.&ldquo;It was great,&rdquo; said Kerr. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been here for a long time. People go through some tough times and the people here in Philadelphia are like my family.&ldquo;It was good to get back tonight. I&rsquo;m glad this game is over and things can get back to normal a little bit.&rdquo;The Flyers lost the game 6-2, but the loss was of little consequence. Helping Kerr over this formidable hurdle was foremost in everyone&rsquo;s minds.In the days, weeks and months ahead, the 30-year-old Kerr will try to put his life back together again.And there is no guarantee he will maintain the same sort of relationship with hockey he has enjoyed in the past.There is his family to consider. Kathy Kerr died less than two weeks after delivering the couple&rsquo;s third child, a healthy daughter. Kerr now feels especially sensitive to the care and needs of his children.Understandably, he is reluctant to leave them with anyone else, even for short periods of time during Flyers&rsquo; home games. Road trips figured to be even tougher.Prior to the game against the Penguins, Kerr composed a letter which was distributed to members of the media.&ldquo;As you can well imagine, the past two weeks have been the most difficult of my life,&rdquo; it read. &ldquo;There are no words to describe the pain of losing someone you love. I lost a great wife and my children lost a wonderful mother.&ldquo;The pain was eased just a bit, however, by the kindness and support of so many people, especially Jay Snider (team president) and his wife Terry, whom I can never thank enough. I would also like to thank my teammates and friends, who were there for me to lean on, and the media, whose kind words provided much comfort.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01719/5797849-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="568" height="646"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tim Kerr struggled to contain his emotions during ovation.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I would appreciate it if you would publicly thank the hundreds of people who expressed their sympathy in so many ways. To have so many people care means so much.&rdquo;Kerr expressed other feelings in an interview he granted the day before the game against Pittsburgh.He said he would give hockey an honest try but if he didn&rsquo;t feel right about it, he might stop playing.His top priority now, he said, is to serve the memory of his wife by being the best father he can possibly be for his children.The first night back with the Flyers was difficult but Kerr made it through.&ldquo;To be honest, I felt better tonight than I do most games,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if it was the emotion or not. I had some good chances and I just didn&rsquo;t connect.&rdquo;Coach Paul Holmgren, one of Kerr&rsquo;s closest friends, said Kerr&rsquo;s performance was an inspiration for everyone.&ldquo;Tim&rsquo;s out to play. He wants to get away from everything else for three hours&hellip;I thought he played great.&rdquo; I<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct 31: Pete Peeters, G, and Murray Baron, D, assigned to Hershey (AHL). Bruce Hoffort, G, recalled from Hershey. Nov. 3: Peeters, Baron recalled from Hershey. Hoffort returned to Hershey. Nov. 5: Hoffort recalled from Hershey.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Ricci, Ron Sutter, Keith Acton, Martin Hostak.LW&mdash;Pelle Eklund, Murray Craven, Derrick Smith, Craig Berube, Pat Murray, Tony Horacek.RW&mdash;Tim Kerr, Rick Tocchet, Scott Mellanby, Norm Lacombe, Dale Kushner.LD&mdash;Terry Carkner, Murray Baron, Kerry Huffman.RD&mdash;Kjell Samuelsson, Gord Murphy, Jeff Chychrun.G&mdash;Pete Peeters, Bruce Hoffort.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Ron Hextali, G, sprained left knee, indefinite. Mark Howe, D, strained lower back, day-to-day. Jiri Latal, D, bruised left shoulder, indefinite. Ken Wregget. G, strained right hip flexor, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Tocchet, 10. A&mdash;Craven, 15. P&mdash;Craven, 18. PIM&mdash;Mellanby, 43. &#9632;

f0023-01

KERR PUTTING HIS LIFE BACK TOGETHER

<div class="byline">BY DAVE SELL</div>The 1990 version of the Washington Capitals has been wrapped up in two series of events that usually don&rsquo;t happen together: injuries and victories.In 1989-90, the Capitals didn&rsquo;t win four games in a row until the Patrick Division final against the New York Rangers.But this season the wait wasn&rsquo;t nearly as long, as the Capitals beat Edmonton 1-0 Oct. 28, Vancouver 2-1 Oct. 30, Los Angeles 4-3 Nov. 2 and the New York Islanders 5-2 Nov. 3 to forge one of their best starts (8-70) in history.Their best previous 16-game record was 8-6-2 in the 1985-86 season.But during the four-game streak, the Capitals were losing a lot of bodies.The victory over the Canucks was particularly painful. Goalie Don Beaupre, who had two shutouts in his three prior games, pulled a groin muscle midway through the first period.He left the game and was expected to miss two weeks of action.In the third period, Vancouver defenseman Garth Butcher knocked center Peter Zezel&rsquo;s right leg out from under him and he sprained his left ankle. He was scheduled to spend three weeks in a cast.These key injuries followed on the heels of earlier ones to right wingers Dino Ciccarelli, who will be out until December with a fractured thumb, and Alan May, who bruised his knuckle during a fight with New&rsquo; Jersey&rsquo;s Al Stewart. Both injuries occurred Oct. 20.Zezel was leading the team with five power-play goals, but he hasn&rsquo;t had the kind of start the Caps had hoped for.Beaupre had a late start to his season because of contract negotiations. But since returning, he&rsquo;s done very well.He entered the Vancouver game fresh off a 1-0 victory in Edmonton two nights earlier and before leaving the game with the injured groin, his GAA was 1.75, second-best in the NHL at the time.This is the fifth time in Beaupre&rsquo;s career he has suffered a groin injury. Last season he suffered the same injury on two different occasions.&ldquo;Coming in late, after training camp, I worked extra hard to get this going,&rdquo; Beaupre said. &ldquo;Now I have to do it again. Not that I&rsquo;m afraid of hard work, but it&rsquo;s a lot easier to keep something going than it is to start something over again.&rdquo;The Capitals felt the same way about their run of success. They were 3-2 on a five-game road trip, with victories in Philadelphia (6-2 Oct. 23), Edmonton and Vancouver and losses in Chicago (3-2 Oct. 25 in overtime) and Calgary (9-4 Oct. 27).The Caps were also pleased that after losing their first four Patrick Division games, they won their next four. The Nov. 3 victory over the Islanders pushed their record to 9-7.&ldquo;It&rsquo;sdefense more than anything,&rdquo; coach Terry Murray said. The Capit als allowed an average of just two-goals-a-game during their four-game streak.But the defense was also providing much of the offense. While several forwards were behind their normal paces, Kevin Hatcher and Calle Johansson were challenging for the lead in team scoring.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 31: Jim Hrivnak, G, recalled from Baltimore (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hunter, Mike Ridley, Michal Pivonka, Rob Murray.LW&mdash;John Druce, Kelly Miller, Dave Tippett, Nick Kypreos.RW&mdash;Steve Leach, Peter Bondra, Tim Bergland, John Purves.LD&mdash;Rod Langway, Calle Johansson, Mike Lalor, Joel Quenneville.RD&mdash;Kevin Hatcher, Bob Rouse, Mikhail Tatarinov.G&mdash;Mike Liut, Jim Hrvinak<h3>INJURIES</h3>Don Beaupre, G, pulled groin, indefinite. Dino Ciccarelli, RW, fractured right thumb, indefinite. Alan May, RW, bruised knuckle, indefinite. Neil Sheehy. D, broken left leg and ankle, indefinte. Peter Zezel, C, sprained left ankle, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Druce, 7. A&mdash;Hatcher, Johansson, 9. P&mdash;Druce, Hatcher, 14. PIM&mdash;Hunter, 39. &#9632;

INJURY BUG FAILS TO SLOW DOWN CAPS

<div class="byline">BY MARK HERRMANN</div>When coach Al Arbour made a deliberate statement to the New York Islanders by recalling four minor-leaguers and scratching several veterans, he made a silent commentary on highly-regarded defenseman Craig Ludwig.The former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; stalwart was the most notable deletion from the lineup in Arbour&rsquo;s shakeup on Oct. 30&mdash;a 4-1 loss to Los Angeles. Ludwig also was left out of the next game, a 3-2 win over the Rangers Nov. 2&mdash;which meant he was scratched more in one week than he had been in eight previous full sea sons. He recalled having been scratched only once in Montreal, and that was seven years ago.Arbour pointedly declined to point fingers after recalling defenseman Joe Reekie, center Greg Parks, right winger Derek Laxdal and left winger Rich Kromm (the latter two for one game only) from the Capital District Islan ders of the American League. &ldquo;I could go right down the list,&rdquo; he said of his struggling team.But Ludwig&rsquo;s absence seemed particularly symbolic, since the Islanders acquired him in a Sept. 4 trade for Gerald Diduck specifically because they had hoped to prevent defensive lapses such as the ones that produced three blowouts in a four-game late-October span.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to put up with this,&rdquo; Arbour said.Ludwig, who had a minus-10 rating at the time of the scratches, merely tried to take it in stride. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt this has been a difficult start, a difficult change,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Seeing the way things have been going, I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s any guy on the club who doesn&rsquo;t feel the same way.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a situation where everybody&rsquo;s frustrated and everybody&rsquo;s trying to win, and that includes the coaches. You&rsquo;ve just got to keep on going out and working.&rdquo;The Islanders&rsquo; weak start has not been enough to make him wish he still were in Montreal, where he found the pressure, scrutiny and tax situation burdensome. &ldquo;One thing I don&rsquo;t ever try to do is look back on things that have happened. I always look ahead,&rdquo; he said.Admittedly, he won&rsquo;t be able to look back fondly on his first month on Long Island. &ldquo;I hate being on the ice when we&rsquo;re scored against. Everybody does, but when you&rsquo;re a defenseman&mdash;a defensive defenseman&mdash;it especially bothers you.&rdquo;Ludwig&rsquo;s unappealing plus-minus rating has not stopped teammates from seeking his advice. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played with a lot of great players and they&rsquo;ve given me good advice,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Some were players who didn&rsquo;t play every game, but you could learn things from them because they had seen so many situations.&rdquo;Ironically, Reekie&mdash;Ludwig&rsquo;s defense-oriented replacement&mdash;scored the winning goal in the Islanders&rsquo; rousing win over the Rangers.Otherwise, though, the Islanders proved that they need more than a temporary lineup shuffle. They lost to the Kings on the night of Arbour&rsquo;s &lsquo;statement&rsquo; and fell to the Capitals 5-2 a night after they beat the Rangers.<h2>N.Y. ISLES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 30: Joe Reekie, D, Greg Parks, C, Derek Laxdal, RW, and Rich Kromm, LW, recalled from Capital District (AHL). Oct. 31: Laxdal, Kromm assigned to Capital District. Nov. 2: Dave Chyzowski, LW, assigned to Capital District for conditioning. George Maneluk, G, assigned to Capital District<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pat LaFontaine, Brent Sutter, Hubie McDonough, Greg Parks.LW&mdash;David Volek, Bill Berg, Don Maloney.RW&mdash;Patrick Flatley, Randy Wood, Tom Fitzgerald. Mick Vukota, Brad Dal-garno.LD&mdash;Rich Pilon, Craig Ludwig, Ken BaumgartnerRD&mdash;Gary Nylund, Doug Crossman, Joe Reekie, Wayne McBeanG&mdash;Glenn Healy. Danny Lorenz.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mark Fitzpatrick, G, eosinophilic fasciitis (swelling of muscles and tissues), indefinite. Jeff Hackett, G. strained groin, Nov. 13. Alan Kerr. RW, bruised eyeball, bruised kidney, indefinite. Derek King, LW. mild concussion, day-to-day. Jeff Norton, D, dislocated right shoulder, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;LaFontaine. 9. A&mdash;LaFontaine. 9. P&mdash;LaFontaine, 16 PIM&mdash;Nylund. 41. &#9632;

LUDWIG BENCHING SIGN OF DEFENSIVE WOES

<div class="byline">BY FRANK BROWN</div>One year ago, it was difficult to find a smile on Brian Mullen&rsquo;s face, and tougher still to find reporters at his dressing space in the New York Rangers&rsquo; locker room.The right winger had one goal and seven assists in the team&rsquo;s first 15 games and was on his way to a &ldquo;DND&rdquo; (did not dress), which was coach Roger Neilson&rsquo;s version of a wakeup call.But now, Mullen&rsquo;s smile is back and so are the reporters.Through the Rangers&rsquo; first 15 games, Mullen has seven goals and 11 assists, many of which he collected during one of his famous Mullen hot streaks.This streak (4-7-11 in six games from Oct. 20-31), was a weak challenge to the team-leading 12-game streak Mullen had at the end of last season.But this streak featured more of the marvelous Mullen handywork and also his 500th point of his nine-season career&mdash;a goal against the Los Angeles Kings in a 9-4 win Oct. 31.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting the points, getting the goals, so everybody&rsquo;s noticing me,&rdquo; the 28-year-old Mullen said. &ldquo;But I try to play a good.two-way game every night. When I don&rsquo;t get the points, I think I work just as hard.&rdquo;Mullen and his brother Joey, a right winger with Pittsburgh, worked their way to the NHL from the mean streets of the Manhattan district known as Hell&rsquo;s Kitchen.But despite their humble beginnings, the Mullens are now the topscoring U.S.-bom brother tandem in league history with more than 1,230 points.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01687/5797928-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="567" height="738"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Mullen is a key performer in New York&rsquo;s fast start.</figcaption></div>Though they were favored to retain their regular-season division title, the Rangers mounted an early 11-4-0 run aimed at erasing the word &lsquo;fluke&rsquo; from fans who scoffed at last year&rsquo;s performance.Coach Roger Neilson has placed the right people out at the right times during most line changes this season, and there have been different heroes every winning night. Mullen has often been one of them.&ldquo;We have a solid team,&rdquo; Mullen said,&rdquo;and I think in everyone&rsquo;s mind right now is the idea that we can do things this team has never done. Winning the division last year was a confidence builder for the club. And now, for the first time in my career, I feel we have as good a shot as anybody else at winning the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;Lots of early optimism has been known to erode when that optimism is about the Rangers.Some disaster always seems to strike; and it looked like it happened again this season, after Kelly Kisio suffered a chipped right ankle against Hartford Oct. 6, depriving Mullen and John Ogrodnick of their favorite center.But Kevin Miller stepped into Kisio&rsquo;s shoes and has done extremely well.&ldquo;Kevin&rsquo;s the same kind of player as Kelly,&rdquo; Mullen said. &ldquo;He has good stickhandling ability. He&rsquo;s a good passer and shooter, and both of them do a solid job on defense. It was an easy adjustment for me to play with him.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice when things are going well. We&rsquo;re having a lot of fun,&rdquo;Mullen added. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s a long season.&rdquo;The Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins reminded the Rangers of that recently. Just when it seemed the Ran gers were going to run away from the rest of the Patrick Division, the Rangers were beaten by both, 3-2 to the Islanders Nov. 2 and 3-1 to Pittsburgh Nov. 3.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Darren Turcotte. Bernie Nicholls. Kevin Miller, Mark Janssens.LW&mdash;Jan Erixon, Troy Mallette, John Ogrodnick, Kris King.RW&mdash;Mike Gartner. Ray Sheppard, Brian Mullen, Paul Broten, Jody Hull. Steven Rice.LD&mdash;Brian Leetch, Mark Hardy, Dennis Vial, Miloslav Horava, Lindy Ruff.RD&mdash;David Shaw, James Patrick, Randy MollerG&mdash;Mike Richter, John Vanbiesbrouck.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bob Froese, G. ligament surgery on right shoulder, out for season Kelly Kisio, C, torn ligament and chip fracture in right ankle, indefinite Normand Rochefort, D. arthroscopic surgery on left knee, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Gartner, Ogrodnick. 8. A&mdash;Leetch, 16. P&mdash;Turcotte, 23. PIM&mdash;Moller, 45. &#9632;

f0027-01

MULLEN SHOWS WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>During the off-season, it seemed likely Frank Pietrangelo would spend the 1990-91 season in Italy.And little more than a month ago, it appeared&rsquo;a safe bet he would be unprotected in the waiver draft.But today, Pietrangelo has moved past Tom Barrasso and Wendell Young to become, at least temporarily, the Penguins&rsquo; No. 1 goalie.Pietrangelo entered the second month of the regular season with five consecutive victories, a 5-1-0 record, and the growing confidence of his teammates.Not bad for a guy who was a longshot to be around this year.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s shown he&rsquo;s an NHL goaltender from Day 1 this year,&rdquo; defenseman Jim Johnson said. &ldquo;It seems like he&rsquo;s got his confidence and knows he can do the job. He&rsquo;s improved every year since he&rsquo;s got here, but I&rsquo;ve seen the biggest improvement over this summer.&rdquo;Pietrangelo commuted between Pittsburgh and Muskegon, home of the Penguins&rsquo; International League farm team, for the past three seasons. He never played more than 21 games in the NHL.&ldquo;Going up and down, up and down all the time is very disappointing, but I never wanted to quit,&rdquo; Pietrangelo said. &ldquo;Sometimes I wanted to try to find a different road to stay in the NHL, but I always felt I could play here.&rdquo;That road nearly led to Milan, Italy during the summer.Pietrangelo received a lucrative offer to play there, but a phone call from general manager Craig Patrick, who had become reluctant to release Pietrangelo from his contract, convinced him to stay.The move he didn&rsquo;t make is shaping up as the best of Pietrangelo&rsquo;s career.&ldquo;Things have turned around, definitely,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad I didn&rsquo;t go&rdquo;Pietrangelo slipped through a loophole in the waiver-draft rules&mdash;he has played four pro seasons, but his first was on a minor-league contract&mdash;but started only two of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s first nine games. And he knows he might only be a short slump away from being back in the press box.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want someone else to get the opportunity to get in there and get hot and take away my opportunity,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If you have a few bad games, all of a sudden you could be the guy in the stands.&ldquo;There are three guys and I think, three very capable guys. I&rsquo;m not stupid. I realize the situation here. I just want to make the best of it.&rdquo;The fifth in his string of victories might have been the most impressive, as Pietrangelo stopped 25 shots in a 3-1 win against the New York Rangers Nov. 3.Pietrangelo lost a chance for his second career shutout when he gave up a soft goal to New York left winger John Ogrodnick in the third period. But nobody in Pittsburgh was complaining, including Pietrangelo.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t really (upset) about it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t really expect to shut out the Rangers coming into the game.&rdquo;&ldquo;Frankie made the big save when he had to,&rdquo; coach Bob Johnson said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing with a lot of confidence right now.&rdquo;<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 29: Jim Paek, D, assigned to Canadian National team. Nov. 1: Gord Dineen, D, assigned to Muskegon (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;John Cullen. Mark Recchi, Barry Pederson. Rob Brown.LW&mdash;Kevin Stevens, Bob Errey, Randy Gilhen, Phil Bourque.RW&mdash;Jaromir Jagr. Tony Tanti, Joe Mullen, Jay Caufield, Jett Daniels.LD&mdash;Paul Coffey, Chris Dahlquist, Zarley Zalapski.RD&mdash;Randy Hillier, Jim Johnson, Paul Stanton, Gordie Roberts.G&mdash;-Frank Pietrangelo, Tom Barrasso, Wendell Young.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Gilbert Delorme. D, left leg stress fracture. indefinite Jamie Leach. RW, tom ligaments in left knee, indefinite. Mario Lemieux. C, back infection, indefinite. Troy Loney, LW, right knee surgery, indefinite. Bryan Trottier. C, pulled buttock muscle, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Mullen, 10. A&mdash;Cullen, 22. P&mdash;Cullen, 28. PIM&mdash;Bourque, 30 &#9632;

PIETRANGELO PICKS RIGHT FORK IN THE ROAD

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>John Cunniff knew he was gambling by breaking up his top line of Brendan Shanahan, Patrik Sundstrom and John MacLean at the start of this season, but the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; coach wanted to spread the wealth.However, 14 games into the campaign, Cunniff decided it was time to reunite the high-scoring trio rather than going bankrupt.And the result was pure gold.The Devils were struggling with a 1-5-0 road record when the move was made during the second period of a Nov. 3 game in Edmonton.The line responded immediately, combining for three goals and five points in a 5-2 triumph over the Oilers, salvaging the Devils&rsquo; trip through Western Canada.The Devils had dropped their first two games of the western swing 6-3 Oct. 31 to Calgary and 2-1 the next night in Vancouver.&ldquo;After the game in Vancouver, I was playing with different line combinations and that was an easy one,&rdquo; Cunniff said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want anyone to think we were pressing the panic button, but we know that line clicks and we wanted to get John and Brendan going. Patrik seems to be able to do that.&rdquo;With Sundstrom centering the line as one of the best two-way players in the league last season, Shanahan matured as a rising young star, reaching the 30-goal plateau for the first time in his three seasons with New Jersey.MacLean also responded, netting 41 goals and 79 points, just one goal less than his previous season&rsquo;s total of 42.Cunniff broke up the line in training camp this season after Sundstrom was forced to start late because of offseason surgery on the baby toe on his right foot. Shanahan was moved to right wing on a different line.When Sundstrom returned to the lineup, he played left wing with Dave Maley and Claude Lemieux while MacLean skated with Kirk Muller and Peter Stastny.Shanahan, teamed with rookie left winger Zdeno Ciger and center Jon Morris, clearly suffered the most from the breakup of the line.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to make it sound like it was a bummer playing with Jon Morris and Zdeno Ciger, but the two years I played with these guys our line clicked,&rdquo; Shanahan said. &ldquo;I seemed to be inches away with Jon and Zdeno and that&rsquo;s the difference. I seem to know where Mac is going to be. I&rsquo;m passing to his stick and Sunny plays off the two of us and runs the show.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always nice to play with Mac and Shanny because we played together for so long,&rdquo; added Sundstrom.&ldquo;John (Cunniff) wanted to get something going and we seem to work well together.&rdquo;<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Patrik Sundstrom, Peter Stastny, Jon Morris. Laurie Boschman, Paul Yse-baert.LW&mdash;Brendan Shanahan, Walt Poddubny, Dave Maley, Zdeno Ciger, Pat Conacher.RW&mdash;John MacLean, Kirk Muller, Claude Lemieux, Al Stewart, Doug Brown.LD&mdash;Viacheslav Fetisov, Bruce Driver, Tommy Albelin, Dave Marcinyshyn.RD&mdash;Ken Daneyko, Alexei Kasatonov, Eric Weinrich.G&mdash;Chris Terreri, Sean Burke.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Troy Crowder. RW. bruised left elbow, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;MacLean, 7. A&mdash;Muller, 13. P&mdash;Muller, 18. PIM&mdash;Stewart, 57. &#9632;

SHANNY, SUNNY AND MAC SHOW A HIT AGAIN

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01691/5798007-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Right winger Bob Gould is contributing on and off the ice for the Maine Mariners. Gould, an assistant coach, played in all of the Mariners&rsquo; 11 games in October.</figcaption></div>At the time, Bob Gould didn&rsquo;t know it but he was being interviewed for a job. Appropriately, it took place on a bus.The discussion took place with the Boston Bruins returning home after a playoff game at Hartford last April. Gould, a fourth-line right winger with the Adams Division champions, started talking with Maine Mariners&rsquo; coach Rick Bowness, who was part of the Bruins&rsquo; playoff entourage.Bowness was looking for a player-assistant coach for the Bruins&rsquo; American League farm team this season and Gould&mdash;whose contract was up&mdash;was his man.&ldquo;He is an old-time hockey player with oldtime values,&rdquo; Bowness says. &ldquo;He knows the game and knows how it should be played and not just what the textbook says. He&rsquo;s got guts, desire and knows how to check.&rdquo;But before Gould took the job, he wanted to make certain no other NHL team was interested in him as a player. When there were no takers, he took Bowness up on the offer.Gould, entering his 12th pro season, is one of five playing-assistant coaches in the AHL this season. The others are Wade Campbell in Cape Breton, Murray Brumwell in New Haven, Jim Nill in Adirondack and Mike Stothers in Hershey.It has become a trend. Last season, there were just three playing-assistant coaches in the league&mdash;Ron Wilson with Moncton, Tim Bothwell with New Haven and Chris Pryor with Springfield.(In the International League there are three player-assistant coaches&mdash;Charlie Simmer in San Diego, Bruce Boudreau in Fort Wayne and Dave Richter in Albany. Last season, there were none.)Having a player-assistant coach justifies an organization signing an older player and also helps groom him for a possible coaching spot in the future.&ldquo;Guys like us are not ready to pack it in yet,&rdquo; says Gould, who had 8-17-25 totals in 77 games with the Bruins last season. &ldquo;Put it this way, guys who are player-assistant coaches are obviously going to have good attitudes about coming to the minors and playing.&rdquo;Gould is not quite management, though. He sits in the front of the bus with Bowness and discusses playing situations and personnel with the coach.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m kind of like a sounding board for Rick,&rdquo; Gould says. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll ask what I think about an idea or what I think about a player. I give him my opinion and then he can go from there.&rdquo;But during practices and games Gould is strictly a player. Campbell, Brumwell and Stothers are players first, as well. They help their respective head coaches and offer advice. They help at practices and frequently work one-on-one with smaller groups.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to say it has been my lifelong dream to coach,&rdquo; Campbell says. &ldquo;What I&rsquo;m doing is giving myself another option so in a year or so, if things work out and I enjoy it then maybe it&rsquo;s something I possibly could do.&rdquo;Brumwell is more positive that he&rsquo;d like to get involved in coaching once his playing days are over.&ldquo;Where can you get this much grief from 20 guys for nothing?,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;They rib me a lot, but I enjoy it.&rdquo;Of the five player-assistant coaches in the AHL, Nill considers himself more of a coach than a player. Nill had played in just three of the Red Wings&rsquo; first 10 games.The situation is different for Gould and the three other AHL playing-assistant coaches. None of the four missed a game in the month of October.&ldquo;So far I&rsquo;ve played every game,&rdquo; says Gould, who had three goals and three assists in 11 games. &ldquo;But a lot depends on the situation. If a guy like (Rob) Cimetta (who refused to report when assigned by Boston) would have come down, maybe I wouldn&rsquo;t be in the lineup now. It&rsquo;s hard to say if I will play in all 80 games.&rdquo;But it&rsquo;s something Gould would enjoy. He would dearly miss playing.&ldquo;I just like playing the game of hockey,&rdquo; Gould says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a hard thing to give up. Someone will have to knock me over the head and say it&rsquo;s time (to quit).&rdquo;Gould had considered the coaching profession for the last three seasons. Last year, Washington general manager David Poile offered him the playing-assistant coach spot with the Capitals&rsquo; farm team in Baltimore, but Gould decided against it and eventually was traded to the Bruins the week before the season opener.&ldquo;At that point I felt I wanted to play a little more,&rdquo; Gould says. &ldquo;And it worked out well because I got the opportunity to play in the Stanley Cup finals.&ldquo;This is a good way to see if I would want to go into the coaching profession,&rdquo; Gould says. &ldquo;After all these years as a player, it would be interesting to see what it&rsquo;d be like to be on the other side.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0032-01

RIGHT HAND MAN

<div class="byline">BY NICK GATES</div>NHL goaltenders aren&rsquo;t the only ones being victimized by a Gretzky.While Wayne Gretzky passed the 2,0(X) mark in career NHL points, younger brother Keith scored three goals and collected three assists to help move Winston-Salem (3-10) into first place in the East Coast League&rsquo;s West Division.The Thunderbirds, who were 0-4 during the pre-season, got off to a flying start thanks to Gretzky and their working agreement with Montreal. The Canadiens have sent eight players&mdash;goalies Kenton Rein and Alain Morissette, defensemen Kevin Dahl, Guy Darveaux. left wingers Troy Volhoffer and Brent Fleetwood and centers Joe Ferras and Steve Cadieux&mdash;to Winston-Salem. The Thunderbirds, not supri-singly, lead the league in number of assigned pros.Keith Gretzky. 23, attributes his success to being placed on a line with veterans Volhoffer (five goals, four assists in four games) and center John Devereaux.&ldquo;Volhoffer has been playing out of his mind,&rdquo; Gretzky said,&rdquo;and it helps to be playing with experienced players.&rdquo;Gretzky, drafted by Buffalo in 1985 (56th overall), played last year in Scotland, where he benefited from extensive ice time.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t playing much at Phoenix (1HL) and playing in Scotland built up my confidence.&rdquo;Winston-Salem coach and general manager Jay Fraser and Ferras convinced Gretzky to join the Thunderbirds.&ldquo;Joe played here last year and is from my hometown (Brantford. Ont.). He got Jay to give me a call,&rdquo; Gretzky said.Gretzky, who was slowed by a pre-season groin pull, had a goal and an assist in the opening game against Johnstown&mdash;a 7-6 win Oct. 24. The next night, Gretzky was shutout in a4-3 win over the defending champion Greensboro Monarchs.Gretzky rebounded with a goal and assist the next night as the Thunderbirds lost 7-4 to the Monarchs. He had a goal and an assist in the rematch with the Chiefs&mdash;a 4-3 win Oct. 27.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a tricky little guy,&rdquo; Greensboro coach Jeff Brubaker said. &ldquo;There is no physical clement to his game, but he can produce and should score 50 points, which isn&rsquo;t too bad.&rdquo;No matter where he goes, Gretzky can&rsquo;t escape the pressure associated with being The Great One&rsquo;s younger brother, a fate also shared by younger brother Brent, who is 18 and playing with the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario League.&ldquo;People always expect a lot from you,&rdquo; Keith Gretzky said. &ldquo;But there is only one of every hockey player. As long as you give 100 per cent, there can&rsquo;t be any knocks against you.&rdquo;<h2>BREAKING THE ICE</h2>The Louisville Icehawks ran into a slight problem before their opening game&mdash;an 8-3 loss to Knoxville Oct. 26. The ice hadn&rsquo;t set properly and was deemed not sturdy enough to support the weight ofthe Zamboni. The solution: back to old-time hockey&mdash;in between periods the ice was flooded by using shovels and hoses. Two players who hadn&rsquo;t dressed for the game plus a couple of maintenance workers flooded the ice in about 20 minutes and the ice was considered playable. The ice cooling system was to be removed after the IceHawks&rsquo; second game (a 3-2 win over Roanoke Valley Oct. 27) for other events. The problem&mdash;to do with the insulation of the pipes&mdash;should be fixed when the IceHawks return home Nov. 20&hellip;Johnstown right winger Andrew MacVicar had a pair of hat tricks in the first two games of the season&mdash;the loss to Winston-Salem and a 6-1 win over Nashville Oct. 25. He was named ECHL player of the week ending Oct. 28. MacVicar, originally drafted by Buffalo (53rd overall in 1987) but now in the Boston system, leads the league in scoring with 10 points in three games and was promoted to the Maine Mariners (AHL) Oct. 31&hellip;Hampton Roads drew a league-record 8,918 fans&mdash;23 short of capacity&mdash;for its home opener Oct. 26 against Richmond which the Renegades won 4-2&hellip;A crowd of 5,119 witnessed the debut of the expansion Louisville IceHawks on Oct. 26. &#9632;

THUNDERBIRDS FLYING HIGH WITH GRETZKY

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN OKLOBZIJA AND PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01616/5798062-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Citadels&rsquo; Miroslav Ihnacak had six goals and three assists in four games, putting him at the top of the scoring race.</figcaption></div>Someone check the nets at the Baltimore Arena. Are they for soccer or hockey?The one behind Hershey Bears&rsquo; goalies Dominic Roussel and Bruce Hoffort certainly looked enormous to the Skipjacks in the first period of their game Oct. 27. The Skipjacks tied two American League records and set two team records en route to a 12-5 slaughtering of the Bears.They tied a 43-year-old league record by scoring nine first-period goals. The Skipjacks also beat the old team record for goals in the first period&mdash;they scored seven in beating Rochester 12-0 in 1984.Pittsburgh set the AHL record in 1947 in a 14-4 victory over St. Louis, and it was tied by Buffalo against Philadelphia in 1948 and again by Hershey over Rochester in 1981.Baltimore led 9-3 after the first period. The 12 total first-period goals also tied an AHL record, set by Pittsburgh (seven) and Cleveland (five) in 1945 in a 12-10 Cleveland win.Roussel gave up five goals on 10 shots in the first 13:33 and was relieved by Hoffort, who allowed four goals on seven shots in the final 6:27 of the period. Roussel returned to start second period and finished the The 12 goals allowed by Hershey was a record for the 53-year-old franchise. The Bears had allowed 11 six other times.&ldquo;We were completely embarrassed,&rdquo; Hershey coach Mike Eaves said.Center Alfie Turcotte scored two goals and assisted on three others in the first period and finished with six points by adding an assist in the second period. Center Tyler Larter also had two first-period goals.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d make a pass to one player and it would get deflected by the player I was passing to and go right to a player in the slot and he&rsquo;d score,&rdquo; Turcotte said. &ldquo;My first goal bounced off four skates and right onto my stick in front of the net. Everything bounced to us.&rdquo;<h2>CLEM IN TIME</h2>The slow start, which saw the Halifax Citadels go 1-5-1 in their first seven games, didn&rsquo;t cause first-year coach Clem Jodoin to panic.He remained calm and positive. It wasn&rsquo;t long for the Citadels to respond and catch the fever. After a 4-3 loss to the Capital District Islanders on Oct. 20, the Citadels won four straight games and had a five-game unbeaten streak to move into a second-place tie in the Northern Division.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t nervous at all,&rdquo; said Jodoin. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been positive all season long. We played well early in the season but we couldn&rsquo;t put the puck in the net.&rdquo;Jodoin has the perfect explanation for the slow start. He had too many players. He had 31 players, but has since pared his squad to 24.&ldquo;We learned from that experience,&rdquo; Jodoin said. &ldquo;We wanted to give everybody a fair chance. With 31 players on the ice, it&rsquo;s pretty tough to run a good practice.&rdquo;The situation was cleared up as two pldyers were sent to the East Coast League, four went to Fort Wayne of the International League and another one was sent back to juniors.During the streak, left winger Miroslav Ihnacak had six goals and three assists in four games to take over the league&rsquo;s scoring lead with 18 points (11 goals and seven assists) in 12 games.The Citadels won the first three games&mdash;3-2 over Newmarket Oct. 23, 7-5 over Rochester Oct. 26 and 8-6 over Springfield Oct. 27. In the fourth game, Halifax tied Springfield 4-4 Oct. 28.<h2>500 POINTS</h2>Binghamton Rangers&rsquo; left winger Ross Fitzpatrick earned his 500th AHL point with an assist in the Oct. 27 game against Rochester.The ninth-year pro assisted on a goal by former Hershey Bears&rsquo; teammate Len Hachborn, which tied the game in the third period and Binghamton went on to win, 5-4.Fitzpatrick, 30, had his best year as a pro last season with Hershey, when his 45 goals, league-leading 58 assists and 103 points earned him second-team AHL All-Star honors. He signed as a free agent with Binghamton.<h2>RENT A GOALIE</h2>The Cape Breton Oilers had their goaltending problems solved when the Boston Bruins loaned them Norm Foster. Foster started the season with the Maine Mariners and was recalled by Boston on Oct. 22. A week later, he was loaned to the Oilers. Foster can be recalled by the Bruins, but he can not play for Maine again this season-&hellip;New Haven&rsquo;s Darryl Gilmour recorded the league&rsquo;s first shutout, stopping 29 shots in a 5-0 win at Maine on Oct. 27&hellip;Capital District center Travis Green was the AHL&rsquo;s leading rookie scorer through Oct. 31 with eight goals, eight assists and 16 points. Green, 19, was the New York Islanders second-round pick (23rd overall) in 1989&hellip;The Mariners&rsquo; offense struggled in the three games since high-scorer Ken Hodge Jr., was recalled by the Bruins Oct. 27. The Mariners lost three straight and scored just two even-strength goals in the losses. &#9632;

f0033-01

MAULING OF BEARS TIES TWO RECORDS

<div class="byline">BY ADAM TEICHER AND BILL PICKETT</div>After turning down players from the Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers, the Kansas City Blades lost their NHL affiliation.Saying Kansas City failed to live up to the agreement, the Edmonton Oilers announced Oct. 23 they terminated their secondary affiliation with the Blades.Earlier. Kansas City coach Doug Soetaert refused to accept three players offered by Barry Fraser, the Oilers&rsquo; director of player personnel. Fraser then notified Soetaert he would nullify the agreement the teams reached over the summer.&ldquo;The players that were offered to Kansas City were not given an opportunity to make that hockey club,&rdquo; Fraser said. &ldquo;Why would we offer them any more hockey players?&rdquo;The players&mdash;Stan Drulia, Richard Borgo and Ivan Matulik&mdash;are right wingers and have been assigned to other minor league or junior clubs. Drulia was assigned to the Knoxville Cherokees (East Coast League), Borgo was returned to the Kitchener Rangers (Ontario League) and Matulik was bought out by the Oilers and was going to try out with the Halifax Citadels (AHL).Drulia had 21 points in 47 games and Matulik 16 points in 61 games with each splitting his season between Cape Breton (AHL) and Phoenix. Borgo had 35 points in 32 games with the Rangers last season.&ldquo;I have to look after our end of things and I&rsquo;m not going to spend our money on players I don&rsquo;t think can help our organization,&rdquo; Soetaert said. &ldquo;I had seen them play, (assistant coach Ken Morrow) had, too, and we talked and felt they weren&rsquo;t what we were looking for.&rdquo;The independent Blades also have a secondary affiliation with Hartford, but the Whalers had not sent any players to Kansas City yet.<h2>KOMETS ON FIRE</h2>The Fort Wayne Komets have started the season with a flash.The Komets streaked to a 7-1-2 record, claiming 16 of a possible 20 points and battling the Kalamazoo Wings (8-2-0) to a tie for the lead in the East Division. The Wings and Komets also were tied for the best record overall with the West Division&rsquo;s Peoria Rivermen (8-1-0).&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to grab all these points early,&rdquo; said Al Sims, in his second year as Komets&rsquo; coach. &ldquo;We got off to a fast start and we&rsquo;ve been strong in all areas.&rdquo;Sims was especially impressed with left winger Lonnie Loach, who was leading the league in assists with 12 (as of Oct. 31). Loach, with 4-1216 totals in 10 games, was tied with Peoria&rsquo;s David Bruce (10-6-16 in nine games) for the overall scoring lead.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been a bright spot and he&rsquo;s working with some real good veterans,&rdquo; Sims points out. Loach is on Fort Wayne&rsquo;s first line with center Bruce Boudreau and right winger John Anderson.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s been our key line,&rdquo; says Sims,&rdquo;and that&rsquo;s without (left winger) Bob Lakso, who had 100 points for us last year. Lakso helps give us another strong scoring line and our third line is a good defensive unit.&rdquo;The Komets, who survived for this season when the local Franke family purchased the Flint franchise and moved it to Fort Wayne, may have one of the strongest independent teams the IHL has seen.<h2>WINNING WAYS</h2>The Blades, in their seventh game, finally busted out of the loss column with a 4-2 home win over Salt Lake City Oct. 24. Kansas City got two goals from center Mike Kelfer and 24 saves from Wade Flaherty and had its first two-goal lead of the season in the game.The Blades promptly returned to their old ways, scoring a total of two goals in three straight losses. Kansas City lost 4-1 to Peoria Oct. 26, 2-1 to Muskegon Oct. 27 and 3-0 to Indianapolis Oct. 30.<h2>ROAD WARRIORS</h2>Kalamazoo (5-0-0) and Peoria (50-0) were the only teams unbeaten on the road in October. The Indianapolis Ice stopped Fort Wayne&rsquo;s unbeaten road streak at five games with a 4-3 shootout victory Oct. 26. Indianapolis&rsquo; goalie Dominik Hasek won his third game without a loss when he stopped four Komets&rsquo; shots in his first pro shootout. Hasek went out the next night at Kalamazoo and halted the Wings&rsquo; winning streak in a 7-5 Ice win. &#9632;

KANSAS CITY HAS ITS OILER SUPPLY CUT OFF

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN DUPONT</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01634/5798117-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">After playing in Europe, Lane MacDonald was forced to retire because of a severe headache problem. The former Crimson is now back at Harvard as an assistant coach.</figcaption></div>The pattern was always the same, a frightening, accelerated series of symptoms that left Lane MacDonald wondering what was going on&mdash;really going on&mdash;inside his head.He would see the spots, his head would ache, his vision blur and a chilling numbness would take over one of his hands as he began to hyperventilate.Hockey was his joy. but it was also his torment.&ldquo;It always began with a hit,&rdquo; said MacDonald, who gave up hockey nearly a year ago when trauma-induced migraine headaches finally convinced him to pursue a playing career no longer. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d take a hit, skate to the bench, and maybe five minutes later&hellip;the flashes, the spots. At that point, I knew I was in trouble.&rdquo;MacDonald, 24, was playing for Lugano (Switzerland) last December when two hits in a span of 10 days essentially ended his playing days. A member of Harvard&rsquo;s 1989 NCAA championship squad, the 1989 Hobey Baker Award winner and a 1988 U.S. Olympian, he turned down a substantial offer to turn pro with the Hartford Whalers and opted for the lighter schedule and bigger rinks of European hockey.In the end, though, MacDonald was convinced there wasn&rsquo;t enough room on any rink to skate by the hits and escape the headaches. He knew he would always be vulnerable and, perhaps worse, remain exposed to the stress and worry that came with each incident. After the second hit last December, MacDonald took a 10-day tour of Florence, Italy, and made his decision to retire.&ldquo;Certainly, there&rsquo;s some bad luck in all this, but I don&rsquo;t feel unlucky,&rdquo; said MacDonald, now back at Harvard as an assistant coach. &ldquo;I played in the Olympics, I played at Harvard, and obviously I feel very fortunate to have done that. It&rsquo;s just that my history with the headaches caused me a lot of emotional distress. Over the course of five years, there were 10 or 11 incidents&hellip;it was a tough couple of years. And I can&rsquo;t tell you how often I wished it had just been a bad shoulder, something I could deal with and get better.&ldquo;But I was always wondering, &lsquo;Am I doing more damage by playing? Is there some bigger problem?&rsquo; You just never know with this type of thing, and the worry would get to me, the worry and the stress became a downward spiral in my life.&rdquo;MacDonald&rsquo;s hockey days are now filled with the safer, non-trauma duties of coaching at his alma mater. He was only back from Europe for a few weeks last spring when Bill Cleary, the longtime head of Harvard hockey, announced he was leaving the Crimson bench to become the school&rsquo;s athletic director. Ron Tomassoni was soon named head coach and MacDonald, who collected 111 goals and 225 points in his four seasons with the Crimson, joined him as the team&rsquo;s only assistant coach.College coaching doesn&rsquo;t carry the glamor of, say, playing in the NHL, but MacDonald learned as a boy that the bright lights of the pros didn&rsquo;t always guarantee joy and an easy life. His father, Lowell MacDonald, played for 13 seasons in the NHL and underwent seven operations on his left knee. As a profession, it paid well, but it also carried a price.&ldquo;I loved the game, and the people, but there are times, in hindsight, I say, &lsquo;Geez, was it worth it?&rsquo;&rdquo; said Lowell, now the athletic director and hockey coach at University School Milwaukee, where he coached both his sons. Lane and Lowell Jr. &ldquo;My answer is, &lsquo;Yes, it was.&rsquo; But after seven operations, you look at it with two viewpoints. Sure, I&rsquo;d do it all over again, in a minute. But at 49 years old, with the knee sore 24 hours a day, it makes you think sometimes.&rdquo;And when it came time for Lane to leave the sport he loved, and excelled in, his father understood.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d be disappointed for him if he hadn&rsquo;t had the thrill of playing at Harvard, and the Olympics,&rdquo; said Lowell. &ldquo;But he loved Harvard, and he wanted the Olympic dream to come true. He did everything humanly possible to fulfill a great dream, and he made it happen. How can you feel bad about that? And he had such concerns about the headaches&hellip;his mother and I, as parents, were both relieved when he made his decision.&rdquo;Now, instead of speedy flashes down left wing, MacDonald dashes off for places like Ottawa and Toronto to recruit new players for Harvard. He has gone from a healthy paycheck in Europe&mdash;about $75,000 after taxes&mdash;to the typical first-year coach&rsquo;s pay in the $25,000 range.&ldquo;Boy,&rdquo; laughed MacDonald,&rdquo;has my payday changed.&rdquo;But, more important, so has his health. There are no more trips to neurologists and sports psychiatrists, no more trying to come to grips with that disconcerting pounding in his head and the scary diminished vision. When he&rsquo;s not recruiting, he&rsquo;s talking hockey with some Harvard sophomore or senior, and enjoying another day without worry and pain.&ldquo;You know, it doesn&rsquo;t seem frustrating to me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a joy to be back at Harvard and around these guys. I&rsquo;m not saying it doesn&rsquo;t cross my mind, I wonder what it would have been like to play in the NHL&mdash;and play against the best in the world&mdash;but I&rsquo;m having fun again.&ldquo;My Olympic year, and my senior year, it was just so much worry and stress. It had an impact on everything I did&mdash;everything. How I ate, slept, studied&hellip;different things in different ways. There was a huge sense of relief when I finally made the decision, and it&rsquo;s nice&hellip;it&rsquo;s nice to feel totally healthy again.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0036-01

MEMORY LANE

<div class="byline">BY MATT CARLSON</div>The changing of the guard at Lake Superior State was widely perceived as mass clemency for the players.Gone was the dictatorial Frank Anzalone, who ran a gulag-like program on the frozen shores of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.Incoming was Jeff Jackson, a players&rsquo; coach and ally who wouldn&rsquo;t put the team through the same rigors as Anzalone.That perception has turned out to be only partly true. Jackson isn&rsquo;t about to compromise the athletic&mdash;and academic&mdash;standards set forth by his predecessor.&ldquo;If anything, I&rsquo;m putting a little more emphasis on the academic side,&rdquo; said Jackson, whose team got of to a 4-1-1 start.&rdquo;However, outside of the arena, gym and classroom, Jackson is allowing his players more freedom.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m giving them more selfresponsibility away from hockey and school,&rdquo; said Jackson. &ldquo;But there still are time requirements of being a student athlete and you have to take the good with the bad.&rdquo;<h2>BABY BIRDS</h2>The Bowling Green Falcons usually find a way to contend in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Over the past 20 years their.655 winning percentage is second only to Michigan State in the nine-team league.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01547/5798172-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="559" height="594"><figcaption class="caption-body">Plageman has emerged as the Falcons&rsquo; defensive leader.</figcaption></div>But Falcons&rsquo; coach Jerry York admits 1990-91 is a transition year. Nowhere is the change more dramatic than on the Falcons&rsquo; blue line. Of York&rsquo;s six regular defensemen, one (Otis Plageman) is a junior, one (Ken Klee) is a sophomore and four (Glen Mears, Aris Brimanis, Todd Reirden and Jeff Wells) are freshmen.&ldquo;This is the youngest group of defensemen I&rsquo;ve ever coached,&rdquo; said York, who is in his 12th year at the Falcons&rsquo; helm.After a shaky start in seasonopening 3-1 and 10-3 losses at Lake Superior State Oct. 12-13, York has been pleased with the improvement and performance of his youthful rearguards. With 9-3 and 5-3 wins over Ohio State Oct. 28-29, BG climbed&ldquo;It was a real long bus ride back from Lake Superior,&rdquo; said York. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve regrouped. They (defensemen) have kept it fairly simple, been strong in our defensive zone and effective at the offensive blue line.&rdquo;York said Plageman, a 5-foot-11, 170-pound native of St. Albert, Alta., has emerged as a defensive leader and power-play quarterback. The BG coach also is impressed by Klee, a 6-foot-1,200-pounder from who hails from Kansas City, Mo.&ldquo;I think (Klee) has really stepped up from last year,&rdquo; said York. &ldquo;He appears much stronger physically.&rdquo;Klee also is stronger offensively. Hampered by a broken hand, he had 0-5-5 totals in 41 games last season. After six contests this season, Klee was 1-9-10.<h2>HOT LINE</h2>The Wolverine trio of sophomore left winger David Roberts, sophomore center Mark Ouimet and junior right winger Denny Felsner is the hottest line in the league.After six games of the 1990-91 schedule, Felsner led the CCHA in scoring with 9-7-16 totals, Roberts was tied for second with 6-8-14 numbers, while Ouimet was 3-6-9.&ldquo;All three are fast, smart and can make things happen.&rdquo; said Michigan coach Red Berenson. &ldquo;They are creative and unpredictable as individuals. When they get going, it&rsquo;s &#9632;

f0037-01

JACKSON ERA NO PIECE OF CAKE

<div class="byline">BY LARRY MAHONEY</div>The first game Shawn Walsh missed during his seven years as the Maine Black Bear head coach turned out to be a memorable one.The morning after a seasonopening 7-3 loss at Lake Superior State Oct. 26, Walsh learned his wife, Tracey, had gone into labor.Walsh gave his team an emotional talk before leaving Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., Oct. 27 for the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.That night, Walsh listened to the game on the radio while at his wife&rsquo;s side. First-year full-time assistant Red Gendron and first-year graduate assistant Tim Whitehead ran the bench.Between periods, Walsh was in telephone contact with student equipment manager Jack Hughes, who relayed Walsh&rsquo;s suggestions to Gendron.The result? The Black Bears stunned previously undefeated Lake Superior 6-3. Maine outshot the Lakers 38-15 in LSSU, just its fourth home loss over the last 45 home games (384-3).&ldquo;We scored three goals during contractions,&rdquo; joked Walsh. &ldquo;The doctor was a big fan and he was excited when we scored, too. The only one who wasn&rsquo;t really into it was my wife. But she let out a little smile, too.&rdquo;Tracey Walsh, daughter of Michigan State head coach Ron Mason, gave birth to baby boy Tyler Mason Walsh at 2:03 a.m. Oct. 28.Walsh had the opportunity to watch the videotape of the game later that evening and was very appreciative of the efforts turned in by his assistants and players.&ldquo;We should have a baby every month or so,&rdquo; said Walsh. &ldquo;That was as strong a game as I&rsquo;ve ever seen a Maine team play during my tenure. And it came after our worst performance in five years.&rdquo;The players admitted they were more pumped than usual for the game.&ldquo;We owed this to coach Walsh,&rdquo; said junior center Martin Robitaille, who had the sixth goal in the win. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s done a lot for us. I know he&rsquo;s done a lot for me in my three years here.&rdquo;&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t tell us to win it for him,&rdquo; said sophomore right winger Jean-Yves Roy,&rdquo;but after losing to Lake Superior in the final four (1988 in Lake Placid), we know that in his heart he really wanted to win here.&rdquo;<h2>HODGE PODGE</h2>Merrimack College freshman defenseman Dan Hodge collected his first collegiate goal in a 6-6 overtime tie with Alabama-Huntsville Oct. 26. The next day older brother Ken Hodge Jr. was called up by the Boston Bruins from the Maine Mariners (AHL). Both boys are sons of former Bruins&rsquo; winger Ken Hodge.<h2>BYE-BYE BO</h2>Providence College equipment specialist Bob (Bo) Riendeau was behind the Friar bench for the last time in their 7-3 win at Vermont Oct. 27. Riendeau, who is leaving to join the New Jersey Devils as an equipment specialist, never missed a Providence game during his 551-match, 18-year tenure.<h2>GOOD START</h2>Maine&rsquo;s Jean-Yves Roy picked up where he left off last season scoring three times and adding an assist in Maine&rsquo;s split at Lake Superior. Roy, who had 39 goals in 1989-90 to lead the nation&rsquo;s freshman, was named the Hockey East player of the week for the period ending Oct. 28&hellip;Providence goalie Mike Heinke, who had 32 saves in a 4-2 win over St. Lawrence Oct. 26, earned league rookie-of-the-week honors for the &#9632;

OH, BABY! BEARS WIN ONE FOR WALSH

<div class="byline">BY ANDY BAGGOT</div>Two cable outlets have been secured, a schedule of games has been drawn up and a format for presentation has been devised, but five weeks into the regular season, the Western Collegiate Hockey Asssociation&rsquo;s game of the week television package is still in limbo.Commissioner Otto Breitenbach said the holdup involves trying to get the series, which had been tentatively scheduled to start Oct. 19 and run through Feb. 22, to fit around existing local TV packages.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping to have something in place in the next three weeks, four weeks maximum.&rdquo; Breitenbach said Oct. 17.The delay has meant at least three scheduled telecasts&mdash;Minnesota at Denver Oct. 19, St. Cloud State at North Dakota Oct. 26 and Wisconsin at Northern Michigan Nov. 2&mdash;were not shown.The plan calls for tape-delayed broadcasts to be carried on SportsChannel and Midwest Sports Channel. Ironically, a majority of the WCHA markets, including the Twin Cities, Madison, Wis., and Michigan&rsquo;s Upper Peninsula, are unable to subscribe to these outlets.Under the original format, games would feature local production units and announcers. The contests would then be edited for broadcast and produced by WHA Television of Madison. The show would run within a 2&rsquo;/2-hour time frame and include a weekly host and a specially-designed set with which to introduce between-period features on the schools involved.Members of the three other major college leagues&mdash;the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, Hockey East and the Eastern College Athletic Conference&mdash;have enjoyed consistent television exposure in recent years thanks to deals with PASS and NESN.But this is the second straight year the WCHA&rsquo;s attempt at getting and keeping its product available on cable has run into problems.Last season, the Madison production company hired to handle game of the week distribution switched to an all-music-video format.<h2>TOK TALK</h2>Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer and his recruiting coordinator, Mike Kemp, paid an official in-house visit to Coleraine, Minn., to recruit Chris Tok Oct. 25.What made the meeting unusual is that the following two nights, Mike Tok, Chris&rsquo; father, worked as a linesman during the Badger-Minnesota-Duluth series at Duluth.<h2>GREAT START</h2>With nine goals in his first six WCHA games. North Dakota left winger Dixon Ward was on pace to become only the fifth player in league history to top the 40-goal plateau in one season.At his current rate. Ward would finish with 42. Tim Harrer of Minnesota had 45 in 197980, Gary Emmons of Northern Michigan had 42 in 1985-86, Tom Ross of Michigan State had 41 in 1975-76 and Pat Micheletti of Minnesota had 40 in 1984-85. &#9632;

TELEVISION PICTURE REMAINS FUZZY

<div class="byline">BY TOM BOGGIE</div>After four straight seasons of finishing at or near the bottom of the league. Army&rsquo;s braintrust is considering a full Eastern College Athletic Conference withdrawal.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something that we&rsquo;re talking about,&rdquo; said coach Rob Riley. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if there&rsquo;s any set time frame or anything, but I do know our administration is looking into scheduling and the future of the program.&ldquo;They (the administration) are not upset with us or with the league, but it&rsquo;s something we realistically have to look into, exploring independent avenues.The Cadets, a former Division 11 power under the direction of Rob&rsquo;s father. Jack, have struggled since becoming a full member of the ECAC in 1986. In four years, the team has compiled a 19-63-6 league record.&ldquo;People ask me if I think we&rsquo;re competitive in the league. I don&rsquo;t know what competitive is,&rdquo; said Riley. &ldquo;Is being competitive staying close but losing the game?&ldquo;We want to get in a situation where our players have as good a chance of winning as the athletes in the other programs here have.&rdquo;The Cadets haven&rsquo;t participated in postseason play since 1980, when they lost to Oswego State in the first round of the ECAC Division II West playoffs.Curiously, Army seems to have its best games against some of the top teams in the league&mdash;it is 3-5 against both Cornell and RPI. The only team Army hasn&rsquo;t beaten at least once in league play is St. Lawrence.Joe Bertagna, executive director of ECAC hockey, said the two schools most often mentioned as replacements, should an opening arise, are Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. and Rochester Institute of Technology.<h2>NO DEFENSE</h2>If Buddy Powers&rsquo; RPI squad was a baseball team, the bottom line on the Engineers would be good stick, no defense.Last year, RPI averaged more than five goals per game and won shootouts 9-8 and 9-7.It looks like the trend will continue in 1990-91 as the Engineers opened their season with a 9-7 loss to Boston University Oct. 27.&ldquo;Someone told me our football team won 10-8 this afternoon, and I said we almost had the same thing (score) tonight,&rdquo; said RPI coach Buddy Powers. &ldquo;I think we set defensive hockey back two decades with this effort.&rdquo;<h2>TANDEM TIME?</h2>Colgate coach Terry Slater has always been a one-goalie kind of guy, but that may change this year.In the opening weekend of the season. Slater used both senior Greg Menges and junior Ken Baker in road victories over Lowell (6-4 Oct. 26) and Northeastern (4-2 Oct. 27). Menges had 18 saves against Lowell and Baker made 25 stops and allowed just two power-play goals against the Huskies.Junior center Dale Band had the gamewinning.goal in both contests. &#9632;

BATTERED ARMY MAY LEAVE LEAGUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01598/5798275-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Todd Gillingham has been on a roll since being put on a line with Yanic Perreault. The two players combined for 88 points in 17 Draveurs&rsquo; games.</figcaption></div>Gaston Drapeau is like most other coaches and general managers in major junior hockey. He&rsquo;s unilingual.The Trois-Rivieres Draveurs mentor has complete command of his language and his players. When he talks, they listen, and understand.So it isn&rsquo;t an issue his language is French. What is important is Drapeau, who speaks broken English at best, has his Quebec League team doing what few people expected them to do&mdash;win games at a torrid pace.Should the Draveurs make it to the Memorial Cup, the language barrier will become an issue. Right now, though, they&rsquo;ve shocked the critics who pegged them as just an average team.Through graduation and trades, Trois-Rivieres lost four players who accounted for almost half (165 of 345 goals) the team&rsquo;s offense.Centers Steve Larouche and Sebastien Parent were traded to Chicoutimi (for right wingers Paul Brousseau and Jasmin Ouellet); left winger Martin St-Amour graduated to the American League&rsquo;s Fredericton Canadiens; and right winger Marco Pietroniro is playing in Italy.Nearly two months into the season, it was unexpected to see Trois-Rivieres leading the Dilio Division with a 12-5 record.Trois-Rivieres players say Drapeau deserves the credit.&ldquo;He knows how to get the maximum out of his players,&rdquo; says center Yanic Perreault, leading the league with a three-points-per-game average.One of the league&rsquo;s hardest-working coaches, Drapeau is in his office by 9 a.m. each day. He has a strict open-door policy.&ldquo;He speaks to players man to man,&rdquo; says Draveurs&rsquo; governor Andre Gabias. &ldquo;He considers the players young men, not children. He doesn&rsquo;t give them any b.s. The players appreciate this. They have confidence in him.&rdquo;&ldquo;Gaston tells you what you have to do to win, and it&rsquo;s up to you to perform,&rdquo; says Todd Gillingham. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a technical coach with a lot of systems.&rdquo;Drapeau, in a fit of genius, teamed bellicose left winger Gillingham with slick-skating center Perreault. It has been a marriage made in heaven.Perreault led the QMJHL in scoring with 21 goals and 52 points in 17 games. Gillingham, 22-36-58 in 62 games last season, was on his way to his most productive season, going 11-2536 through 15-games.Perreault, meanwhile, is happy for the first time in three years. Although he&rsquo;s racked up consecutive 50-goal seasons, Perreault never got along with coach Dany Dube. And Perreault was never satisfied sharing the superstar&rsquo;s mantle with Larouche.The Draveurs aren&rsquo;t getting over-confident&mdash;it&rsquo;s too early for that. This is a team driven by the ghosts of playoff failures past.&ldquo;The presence of the Draveurs at the Memorial Cup isn&rsquo;t a dream. It&rsquo;s a possibility,&rdquo;Gabias says. &ldquo;But we don&rsquo;t speak about that now.&rdquo;Two brawls within four days of one another have resulted in $5,500 in fines and 21 games worth of suspensions in the Quebec League.The Hull Olympiques and Beauport Harfangs didn&rsquo;t wait for their Oct. 22 game to begin; the teams duked it out during the pre-game warmup.Each team was fined $2,000. The coaches&mdash;Hull&rsquo;s Alain Vigneault and Beauport&rsquo;s Alain Chainey&mdash;each received two-game suspensions.The second brawl took place at the conclusion of an Oct. 26 game between St-Hyacinthe and College Francais. It was touched off by a fight between the Laser&rsquo;s Pierre Allard and College&rsquo;s David St. Pierre.St-Hyacinthe defenseman Serge Labelle was the first player off the bench. He was escorted off the ice, only to return and molest an official. At the same time, Laser goaltender Martin Brodeur left his crease to fight.St-Hyacinthe coach Norman Flynn received a two-game suspension. The Laser was fined $1,000, while College Francais received a $500 penalty.Labelle was suspended 14 games, while Brodeur received a one-game suspension. The league&rsquo;s disciplinary committee said Brodeur was acting in self-defense.New Laval Titan coach Francois Lacombe wanted Blair MacKasey. his assistant in midget at Lac St-Louis, to work with him at the major junior level. But MacKasey has head coaching aspirations himself and remained with the Lions.So rather than bring in his own staff, Lacombe has retained assistants Michel Therrien and Benoit Allaire. Both were with former Laval coach Jean-Maurice Cool, who was fired Oct. 23.<h2>WHL</h2>Call it a case of Graham James losing his cool&hellip;then his jacket, his tie, his shirt, his shoes.The Swift Current Broncos&rsquo; coach and general manager lost his composure in 9-8 loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers Oct. 30. After Kevin Riehl capped a six-goal, third period Tigers&rsquo; rally scoring with 13 seconds remaining, James stormed onto the ice screaming at referee Kevin Muench.James was escorted to the bench, but when his game misconduct was announced the strip-tease began. James flung his jacket, tie, shirt and one shoe onto the ice, before heading to the locker room.&ldquo;All I can say is wow!&rdquo; said Medicine Hat coach Tim Bothwell. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what words can describe what happened out there.&rdquo;The Western League suspended James for six games and fined him $2,000 for physical abuse of a linesman. James has a previous record for going onto the ice in an attempt to get at an official and for throwing articles on the ice.Swift Current center Chris Herperger suffered a broken neck Oct. 28, but the injury is not believed to be career ending.Herperger, 16, injured his neck in the final two minutes of a 5-5 overtime game against the hometown Prince Albert Raiders. He was transferred to a Regina hospital the following day.The Broncos said in a statement &ldquo;there is no paralysis&rdquo; and Herperger will be hospitalized for one week.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be able to play again in the future, physically anyway, and I hope nothing psychologically happens to him,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;He has a professional career in his future if he can come back from this. Physically, he should be able to but you never know how a guy is scarred by this mentally.&rdquo;<h2>OHL</h2>With just five wins away from home last season, the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds were the Road Worriers of the Ontario League.This season, they&rsquo;re the Road Warriors, having won five times in their first seven games on foreign ice. The difference, according to coach Ted Nolan, is maturity.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the nature of the players,&rdquo; Nolan said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve learned not to be afraid playing on the road. They play exactly the same on the road as they do at home.&rdquo;Which is, in both cases, excellent. The Greyhounds won seven of their first eight home games to rate the third best team in the Canadian Hockey League, behind Oshawa and Swift Current.&ldquo;Credit the work of (general manager) Sherry Bassin and (director of player personnel) Dave Mayville,&rdquo; Nolan said. &ldquo;They came here last season and brought in character players. Talent alone doesn&rsquo;t do much if you don&rsquo;t have character.&rdquo;Detroit may be the car-manufacturing capital of North America, but all the expansion Ambassadors have seen is a long line of rollercoasters.The Ambassadors opened the season with seven straight losses followed by three consecutive wins. They then completed October with a six-game losing streak.&ldquo;This is like a big rollercoaster ride,&rdquo; said Ambassadors&rsquo; assistant GM Russ Gregory.Center Pat Peake, the first pick overall in the 1990 midget draft, has been everything the Ambassadors expected. He led the team and all OHL rookies in scoring with nine goals and 22 points after 16 games.The Ambassadors have been bolstered by strong fan support. After 11 home games (one-third of the season), average attendance at the 9,600-seat Cobo Arena was 2,200.&mdash;With files from Vance Oliver, Randy Russon, Herb Zurkowsky, and Brian Costello &#9632;

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DRAVEURS’ SEAT

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MAJOR JUNIOR ROSTERS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01275/5798344-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01284/5798337-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="3055" height="3681"></div> &#9632;

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CLASSIFIED

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01205/5798389-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01175/5798382-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="3041" height="3578"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01175/5798375-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="3076" height="3582"></div> &#9632;

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SCOREBOARD

<h2>NOTE</h2>In an effort to supply the most complete summaries possible, The Hockey News is again presenting its revised format with additional information.Both teams&rsquo; lineups are listed with the number of shots taken by each player, followed by that player&rsquo;s plusminus rating for the game, in parentheses. For example, (2/-3), indicates the player had two shots on net and was minus-3. A zero in plus-minus represents an even rating. We are also including a more detailed goaltenders&rsquo; breakdown, including minutes played (Time), saves (SA), goals against (GA), empty-net goals (ENG) and to whom the decision (W or L) goes.<h2>Mon., Oct. 29</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01199/5798553-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="584" height="1177"></div><h2>Tues., Oct. 30</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-02142/5798546-1-eng-US/f0047-022.jpg" title="f0047-02" width="573" height="1985"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-03109/5798539-1-eng-US/f0047-032.jpg" title="f0047-03" width="575" height="2030"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0476/5798532-1-eng-US/f0047-042.jpg" title="f0047-04" width="575" height="2030"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0556/5798525-1-eng-US/f0047-052.jpg" title="f0047-05" width="575" height="482"></div><h2>Wed., Oct. 31</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0643/5798518-1-eng-US/f0047-062.jpg" title="f0047-06" width="581" height="1427"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01139/5798511-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="580" height="3215"></div><h2>Thur., Nov. 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0292/5798504-1-eng-US/f0048-022.jpg" title="f0048-02" width="578" height="294"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0363/5798497-1-eng-US/f0048-032.jpg" title="f0048-03" width="590" height="3555"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0448/5798490-1-eng-US/f0048-042.jpg" title="f0048-04" width="594" height="2793"></div><h2>Fri., Nov. 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0534/5798483-1-eng-US/f0048-052.jpg" title="f0048-05" width="586" height="697"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01126/5798476-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="580" height="1442"></div><h2>Sat., Nov. 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0291/5798469-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg" title="f0049-02" width="578" height="1120"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0358/5798462-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg" title="f0049-03" width="578" height="2645"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0449/5798455-1-eng-US/f0049-042.jpg" title="f0049-04" width="584" height="2601"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01127/5798448-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="588" height="3537"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0292/5798441-1-eng-US/f0050-022.jpg" title="f0050-02" width="1168" height="1016"><figcaption class="caption-body">Captain Thomas Steen scored a goal and assisted on two others leading Winnipeg past Vancouver 5-3 Nov. 3.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0349/5798434-1-eng-US/f0050-032.jpg" title="f0050-03" width="578" height="656"></div><h2>Sun., Nov. 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0439/5798427-1-eng-US/f0050-042.jpg" title="f0050-04" width="571" height="1708"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-0523/5798420-1-eng-US/f0050-052.jpg" title="f0050-05" width="583" height="2415"></div> &#9632;

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NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0051-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-01114/5798584-1-eng-US/f0051-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-01115/5798615-1-eng-US/f0052-012.jpg" title="f0052-01" width="556" height="613"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEVIN DUPONT</figcaption></div>Mike O&rsquo;Connell has a vivid recollection of the fights he fought in 12-plus seasons in the NHL.&ldquo;Every one of them,&rdquo; said the former defenseman, who played for three of the NHL&rsquo;s Original Six teams&mdash;Chicago, Boston and Detroit. &ldquo;How many fights? Oh, three or four, and sure I remember them&mdash;I was scared. I didn&rsquo;t like getting punched in the face.&rdquo;And it was that point that O&rsquo;Connell boldly underscored when it came time to talk career change with Jim Devellano, Detroit&rsquo;s senior vice-president, over this past summer. If he was going to give up his playing career, and follow Devellano&rsquo;s job lead to become coach of the San Diego Gulls, he wanted to know that it was hockey they played&mdash;and wanted coached&mdash;in the International League.Long nights of watching over IHL donnyb-rooks and stereotypical buckets of blood were not his idea of coaching. He&rsquo;d seen enough of those days, those old and almost forgotten days, in the pre-reformation NHL.&ldquo;I lived it,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Connell, who was with Boston at the start of the &rsquo;80s, when some of the foolish brawling was still part of the Big, Bad Bruins&rsquo; legacy. &ldquo;But I never liked the fighting. There was way too much emphasis on it, and the sport was taken out of the game. It set the sport back, and unfortunately there are still people who believe that&rsquo;s what hockey&rsquo;s all about.&rdquo;The IHL, of course, has long been thought of as professional hockey&rsquo;s monster factory. Didn&rsquo;t Dr. Frankenstein first work behind a bench there? Wasn&rsquo;t it some IHL berg where Robocop and the Terminator made their debuts? What do you think of when someone says slapshot with a capital &lsquo;S&rsquo;?Now we have up-and-coming coaches like O&rsquo;Connell, who will turn 35 later this month, talking art from the start. Hockey art. More and more, people believe ice hockey can thrive in North America without guns for hire, and the likes of Jay Miller, Dave Brown and Dave Manson some day soon may have to trade in their holsters and find real-life employment. Who knows, perhaps they&rsquo;ll form a bar bouncers&rsquo; union.Meanwhile, O&rsquo;Connell is hardly on a pacifist&rsquo;s crusade. He simply wants to learn a new job, without theatric distractions, and he has Charlie Simmer, the former famed Los Angeles King, working with him as a playing assistant. They spend their days tutoring young Gulls in how to get ahead in the hockey world while also trying to figure out where their post-playing days eventually will lead.O&rsquo;Connell figured he had at least another year left in his legs and could have played defense for the Red Wings. Simmer hadn&rsquo;t played professionally since working the 1988-89 season in Frankfurt, Germany, after spending a final NHL season in Pittsburgh. He was working in commercial real estate around San Diego and was looking for a way to keep his hand in hockey when he contacted the Gulls. He&rsquo;s still in the realty game and doesn&rsquo;t plan ever to leave San Diego.&ldquo;No way am I looking to play in the NHL again,&rdquo; said Simmer, his voiced tinged with laughter and relief. &ldquo;This is home, and I think what I&rsquo;m doing is a whole lot easier that what Guy Lafleurdid. But I know one thing, I haven&rsquo;t gotten any slower.&rdquo;Both Simmer and O&rsquo;Connell, former teammates for more than a season in Boston, could be well positioned if San Diego joins the NHL. They&rsquo;re there, in place, and Gulls&rsquo; owner Harry Cooper is spearheading an expansion bid that the NHL&rsquo;s board of governors will scrutinize&mdash;and perhaps approve&mdash;early next month in Florida.The Gulls were kicking around the.500 mark as October closed. There were a couple of surprises, said O&rsquo;Connell, including his inheriting a team void of discipline and inheriting a job that was far more consuming than he ever dreamed. Structuring a good practice can take up to a couple of hours and there are worries in management, from finances to faceoffs, that he never thought of as a player.&ldquo;This is far harder than playing. Funny, but when you&rsquo;re a player, what do you really have to think about?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;All you have to do is get yourself ready for the next game. That&rsquo;s it, just show up.&rdquo;And when it came to fighting, there was a pleasant surprise awaiting him.&ldquo;That stereotype, I had it, and I think everyone thinks that way,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But when you really think about it, you know, it can&rsquo;t be that way. You just don&rsquo;t see those kinds of guys coming up anymore, do you? If there is a guy like that, he usually doesn&rsquo;t last&mdash;not even here&mdash;he just goes around from team to team and then he&rsquo;s out. We&rsquo;ve got guys with decent skills in this league.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to know, they&rsquo;re playing hockey here, too.&rdquo; &#9632;

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BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TO SAN DIEGO

<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>After signing a new four-year $3.1 million contract with the Blackhawks, Steve Larmer tipped his hat to players such as the Blues&rsquo; Brett Hull and Scott Stevens for helping make it all possible. &ldquo;Thanks, guys,&rdquo; Larmer said jokingly. &ldquo;My timing just happened to be right. A lot of things loosened up over the summer after guys like Hull and Stevens got the contracts they did. The league is healthy now, and with them talking about expansion, I think salaries will continue to go up.&rdquo; Larmer will earn $750,000 the first year of his contract and $775,000 the second. He&rsquo;ll get $800,000 for the third and fourth years. Larry Kelly, Larmer&rsquo;s agent, said his client could have got a better deal if he had gone through aribitration and advised Larmer against signing the contract he did. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s water under the bridge now,&rdquo; said Larmer-&hellip;Veteran defenseman Keith Brown agreed to a new three-year $1.05 million contract, although he hadn&rsquo;t signed it yet. Brown will earn $340,000 for the first year of the deal, $350,000 the second and $360,000 the third&hellip;Rookie Czech defenseman Frantisek Kucera played well filling in for the suspended Dave Manson. Kucera had two assists, his first NHL points, in a 6-2 win over Quebec Nov. 1 and was named the game&rsquo;s first star.<h2>BLUES</h2>Curtis Joseph, an emergency replacement when starter Vincent Riendeau was hurt in pre-game warmups in a 4-1 victory over Hartford Nov. 3, stopped 32 shots and was named the first star. &ldquo;He did a great job, outstanding,&rdquo; said Riendeau, who suffered a bruise on the top of his right shoulder on a high shot by Dave Lowry. &ldquo;Curt won the game for us. All I care about is that we won the game. It&rsquo;s not a bad injury either. Just a bruise. Everything will be fine-.&rdquo;&hellip;Lowry felt very bad about the accident, especially since Riendeau&rsquo;s parents and sister drove five hours from Quebec for the game. &ldquo;I told them I&rsquo;d pay for the gas,&rdquo; Lowry said&hellip;Brett Hull, the NHL goal scoring leader with 16 through Nov. 4, was held without a goal for only the fifth time this season against Hartford. The Blues won for the first time this season without Hull scoring a goal. The Blues are 8-1 when Hull scores, 1-3-1 when he doesn&rsquo;t.<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>When Stars&rsquo; coach Bob Gainey returned to Montreal Nov. 4, his team had the same number of losses&mdash;eight&mdash;as the 1976-77 Canadiens hat all season&hellip;Fifteen of the 16 Cana diens&rsquo; teams that Gainey played foi won at least 40 games, which is the most the North Stars have evei won&hellip;The Stars won their first roai game on their ninth try, in Quebei Nov. 3, a 2-0 win. It was the Nords sixth straight loss&hellip;Curt Giles ha: played in 704 games with the Nortl Stars, second among defensemen to Fred Barrett who played 730 games for Minnesota&hellip;Neal Broten had scored two goals and seven points in the four games games from Oct. 30 to Nov. 4. Mike Modano hadn&rsquo;t scored a goal from Oct. 26 to Nov. 4, a span of six games.<h2>RED WINGS</h2>A 5-2 loss at Montreal Nov. 3 stretched the Red Wings&rsquo; winless streak on the road to seven games (0-4-3) to start the season and 10 games (0-6-4) overall, dating to a 4-3 overtime win at St. Louis on March 17. Last season, the Wings were 8-248 away from Joe Louis Arena&hellip;Steve Yzerman&rsquo;s theory for the poor road record: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve played a lot different at home. On the road, we seem to just sit back and wait and wait. At home, we come out flying, everybody&rsquo;s wheeling, guys are trying different things with the puck. We just have to be more aggressive on the road.&rdquo;&hellip;After matching his career high nine-game scoring streak, left winger Shawn Burr was scoreless in three straight games&hellip;Jimmy Carson seems to miss right winger Bob Probert when the Wings play without him in Canada. Carson&rsquo;s only points in three games in Canadian cities were the two goals he scored in a 3-3 tie at Toronto on Oct. 13. In the two games since, losses at Quebec (5-3 Oct. 20) and Montreal (5-2 Nov. 3), Carson was held pointless, had just four shots on goal and was minus-2&hellip;After 15 games, Tim Cheveldae was the NHL&rsquo;s busiest goalie. Appearing in every game, Cheveldae logged 854 minutes.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2>Enforcer John Kordic, who was demoted to Newmarket of the American League after clearing recallable waivers Oct. 30, swore he will be back in the NHL some day. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve changed my attitude. You&rsquo;re going to see a different John Kordic,&rdquo; the veteran right winger said after his demotion. One day earlier, Kordic was rather despondent about his future, certainly as a member of the Leafs. But he vowed to spend no longer than a month in the AHL. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to make this as short as possible,&rdquo; he said&hellip;Rookie center Scott Thornton has made the grade with the Leafs, which either merits congratulations or condolences depending on your viewpoint, but fellow rookie Drake Berehowsky is headed back to Kingston of the Ontario League&hellip;After assuming the coaching reins from Doug Carpenter, Tom Watt said he would stick with the three-goalie system&hellip;Goaltender Allan Bester is bothered once again by calcium deposits on his right heel. He was thought to be ready to play Nov. 4 against Philadelphia, but sat out. There was speculation he simply did not want to face former teammate Ken Wregget in a showdown on Gardens ice after not having played in 11 games. &#9632;

WEALTHY LARMER THANKS HIS PEERS

Former Bruin defenseman Guy Lapointe was given an honorary jersey number after joining the Bruins for the 1983-84 season. Lapointe wore No. 5 in Montreal, but that number belonged to former Bruin Dit Clapper, whose uniform number had been retired after he playing 833 games for Boston from 1927-28 to 1946-47. Lapointe initially requested the jersey number, but later decided to play the season with No. 27.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-0270/5798670-1-eng-US/f0052-022.jpg" title="f0052-02" width="710" height="433"><figcaption class="caption-body">Guv Lapointe</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0052-02

NUMBERS

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>One&rsquo;s a Russian. One has Russian roots and the another is often mistaken for a Russian.Two are rookies and the other entered the season with marginal NHL experience and marginal success.But this troika&mdash;center Sergei Fedorov flanked by Johan Garpenlov on the left and Brent Fedyk on the right&mdash;is getting a lot of attention around the league.Fedorov, the 20-year-old Russian, was averaging a point-a-game after 15 games. Which explains why he was being touted as an early contender for the Calder Trophy.And if he wasn&rsquo;t, Garpenlov, 22, the Swede with the Russian-sounding name, would be. He had 11 points in 15 games.Fedyk, 23, a Canadian whose ancestors immigrated to Saskatchewan from Soviet-dominated Ukrania, may be the happiest of the three.So happy in fact, he&rsquo;s driving his father, Anton, up the family tree in search of his real name.&ldquo;The name was shortened when they came over here,&rdquo; Fedyk said.&rdquo; I&rsquo;m not sure what it was&hellip;but I&rsquo; 11 bet there was an-ov at the end.&rdquo;So call him Fedykov. Everybody else does. And call this international trio dangerous.In their first seven games together, the trio was the Wings&rsquo; most impressive line at both ends of the ice.And though none of the three understands each other&rsquo;s language, communication on the ice was hardly a problem.&ldquo;We read each other offensively so well,&rdquo; Fedyk said. &ldquo;If you think you&rsquo;re going to get the puck, you know you will. You just go to the spot and the puck is there. Everything seems to move so smoothly. Those two guys pass the puck so well, and in this league, if you can catch the other guy a little flat-footed, all of us have enough speed to take advantage.&rdquo;Fedyk may never put up the numbers the Wings had hoped when they made him their first-round pick (eighth overall) in 1985, but he&rsquo;s starting to come around offensively.With such great expectations early in his career, his failure to live up to high expectations made for some difficult times. But now he&rsquo;s found a home with his international mates.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s playing with a couple of guys who don&rsquo;t know him from Adam,&rdquo; a Red Wings&rsquo; official said.The Fedorov line was established as a defensive unit, but it has recently had numerous scoring opportunities.Many opposing teams&rsquo; checking lines often forget about it because they&rsquo;re trying to contain lines centered by Steve Yzerman (with left winger Gerard Gallant and Dave Barr on the right) and Jimmy Carson (with Shawn Burr on the left and Bob Probert on the right).Montreal coach Pat Burns liked what he saw of Fedyk in Detroit&rsquo;s two games against the Canadiens.&ldquo;Brent Fedyk finally looks like he&rsquo;s going to be a good NHL player,&rdquo; Burns said.And the play of Fedorov and Garpenlov left St. Louis GM Ron Caron breathless, and a little confused.&ldquo;Those two Russians really play well together,&rdquo; he said.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 30: Bob Wilkie, D, assigned to Adirondack (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Steve Yzerman, Jimmy Carson, Sergei Fedorov, Keith Primeau.LW&mdash;Gerard Gallant, Shawn Burr, Johan Garpenlov, Marc Habscheid.RW&mdash;Dave Barr, Bob Probed, Brent Fedyk, Joe Kocur, Kevin McClelland, Randy MacKay.LD&mdash;Rick Green, Steve Chiasson, Lee Norwood.RD&mdash;Brad McCrimmon, Rick Zombo, Per Djoos, Bobby Dollas.G&mdash;Tim Cheveldae, Alain Chevrier.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Sheldon Kennedy. RW, left shoulder surgery, indefinite. Greg Stefan, G, right knee surgery, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Yzerman, 9. A&mdash;Yzerman, Fedorov, 11. P&mdash;Yzerman, 20. PIM&mdash;Kocur, 73. &#9632;

COMRADES IN ARMS A DANGEROUS TRIO

<div class="byline">BY MARK HARDING</div>One week after the firing of Doug Carpenter, it was painfully obvious the ex-head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs was a scapegoat.It took his successor, Tom Watt, about a week to realize what a great many people had suspected for some time: That coaching legends Punch Imlach, Toe Blake, Scotty Bowman and Al Arbour combined could not change the Leafs&rsquo; fortunes.After going 1-4-0 in his first week behind the Leaf bench&mdash;and after watching his club be humilitated on home ice in consecutive games against Calgary and Philadelphia Nov. 3-4 (7-3 and 7-1 losses)&mdash;Watt had seen enough.The rhetoric about how the Leafs just needed a win to get them going, remained just that. Watt, to his credit, didn&rsquo;t try to make excuses.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard about the talent, but my goodness, if anyone thinks we&rsquo;re loaded with talent that&rsquo;s a mistake,&rdquo; said Watt. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just not a very good hockey team right now.&rdquo;Having given up a league-leading 80 goals after 16 games, the Leafs were obviously having defensive problems. Watt put it much more bluntly.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re outscored 14-4 in two games in your own building, the defensive part of your game is obviously woeful,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And that&rsquo;s an understatement.&ldquo;We, as coaches, can set the stage and work at it, but unless there&rsquo;s a will to play sound defensive hockey, we&rsquo;re not going to get out of this.&rdquo;After losing to Calgary, where Watt had served as an assistant the last few years, the Leaf coach pointed to the Flames &ldquo;as what the Toronto Maple Leafs should be aspiring to become.&ldquo;Not only were they very good offensively, but they were excellent defensively. People cringe when they hear you say you want your team to concentrate on defense because they think that offense will vanish. That&rsquo;s just not so, and the Calgary Flames are proof that a team can be sound defensively as well as extremely powerful offensively.&rdquo;Carpenter tried several times last season to convince the Leafs of the need to play a more sound defensive game, but the message fell on deaf ears.&ldquo;Defense has got nothing to do with talent,&rdquo; said Watt. &ldquo;It has everything to do with will.&rdquo;Captain Rob Ramage said the Leaf plight is humiliating.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re sick and tired of being embarrassed night in and night out,&rdquo; said Ramage. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very, very hol low feeling walking out of this building on nights like this.&rdquo;Ramage also cautioned his teammates against waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. After the firing of Carpenter, it was widely speculated that general manager Floyd Smith would also make a major trade to change the chemistry on the club.That seemed a remote possibility given Smith&rsquo;s reluctance to deal his &ldquo;battleships&rdquo; for &ldquo;rowboats.&rdquo;&ldquo;I sure hope people around here aren&rsquo;t waiting for that to happen,&rdquo; said Ramage. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t go out and play the way you&rsquo;re supposed to when you&rsquo;re thinking about what&rsquo;s going on upstairs (at management level.)&rdquo;<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 28: Darren Veitch, D, assigned to Newmarket (AHL). Oct. 30: John Kordic, RW, assigned to Newmarket.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;-Ed Olczyk, Gilles Thibaudeau, Scott Thornton, Dave Hannan, John McIntyre.LW&mdash;Mark Osborne, Vince Dam-phousse, Wendel Clark, Scott Pearson.RW&mdash;Gary Leeman, Daniel Marois, Dave Reid, Kevin Maguire.LD&mdash;Brad Marsh, Luke Richardson, Todd Gill.RD&mdash;Al lafrate, Rob Ramage, Tom Kurvers, Drake Berehowsky.G&mdash;Peter Ing, Jeff Reese, Allan Bester.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brian Curran, D, bruised right hand, day-to-day. Tom Fergus, C, groin surgery, indefinite. Lou Franceschetti, RW, hairline foot fracture, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Damphousse, Marois, 6. A&mdash;Damphousse. Olczyk, 9. P&mdash;Damphousse, 15. PIM&mdash;Clark, lafrate, 51. &#9632;

WATT BLOWS A FUSE OVER POWERLESS CLUB

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0056-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-01108/5798749-1-eng-US/f0056-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Chelios is a key man behind the NHL&rsquo;s best defense. He can pile up the points and is a stalwart defensively.</figcaption></div>There was a time when the Chicago Blackhawks played defense quite offensively. But times have changed.Through the first month of the regular season, the Hawks were the best defensive club in the NHL, with a 2.31 goals-against average in their first 16 games.Last season, the Hawks allowed 294 goals. The season before they allowed 335.The team&rsquo;s turnabout defensively can be directly related to two key additions to the club: goalie Ed Belfour and defenseman Chris Chelios.Belfour won nine of his first 12 starts and had a 1.78 GAA to earn NHL rookie of the month honors for October.And Chelios has brought confidence and stability to a corps of back-liners that lacked stability in the past.&ldquo;Chris has definitely had an impact on our defensive play,&rdquo; said associate coach Darryl Sutter. &ldquo;He sees the ice so well and reacts to situations so well. He breaks up a lot of plays himself. Just watching him has had an impact on the other guys, especially our younger players.&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve changed our game a bit with Chris here, and that&rsquo;s no knock against Denis (Savard),&rdquo; said coach Troy Murray. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing a more consistent defensive game now. When Chris is out there, we rarely get in trouble.&rdquo;The Hawks were playing particularly stingy defense in the cozy confines of Chicago Stadium.During a recent six-game stretch at home, the Hawks won five times and allowed only eight goals.This type of tight-checking, low-scoring hockey is something new to the Hawks. But it&rsquo;s how they must play if they want to win in the playoffs.&ldquo;In the playoffs, you&rsquo;re not going to blow teams out 5-1, so we better get used to this,&rdquo; said captain Dirk Graham. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s actually pretty satisfying.&rdquo;Belfour&rsquo;s play has been perhaps the most satisfying thing about the Hawks&rsquo; fast start. He won the No. 1 job in training camp and hasn&rsquo;t looked back.&ldquo;Right now, Eddie is doing what every great goaltender does, which is make the big saves at the key times,&rdquo; said Chelios. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s reminding me of Patrick Roy when I was in Montreal. He doesn&rsquo;t flop and he doesn&rsquo;t really stand up. He just stops the puck.&rdquo;The Hawks have managed to win despite early season injuries.Defenseman Doug Wilson missed the first 16 games with damaged right ankle ligaments following off-season surgery, left winger Steve Thomas missed the first 11 games with a strained right knee, and center Adam Creighton missed five-games because of an NHL suspension.The three represent a significant portion of the Chicago offense, but with Steve Larmer and Jeremy Roenick picking up the scoring slack, the Hawks have been getting by.&ldquo;Anytime you win, it&rsquo;s enough goals,&rdquo; Graham said. &ldquo;The object is to get one more than your opponent, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;&ldquo;A lot of times the game dictates the offense,&rdquo; added Murray. &ldquo;If we have to score, we can. We&rsquo;ve just been fortunate Eddie Belfour has come up so big for us. We might not be scoring goals like people think we should, but we&rsquo;re playing tremendous defensive hockey, and that&rsquo;s some-thing every one should be proud of&rdquo;The Hawks&rsquo; strong defensive effort put them on a course to achieve one of their most important pre-season goals.&ldquo;We set a goal before this season that we wanted to cut 40 or 50 goals off our GAA this year,&rdquo; said left winger Greg Gilbert. &ldquo;It has been pretty rewarding so far, but we&rsquo;ve still got some improving to do.&rdquo;<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 5: Dave Manson, D, serving four-game NHL suspension as a result of a match penalty he received Oct. 20 against Toronto. Eligible to return Nov. 8.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Jeremy Roenick, Adam Creighton, Troy Murray, Jocelyn Lemieux.LW&mdash;Michel Goulet. Steve Thomas, Greg Gilbert, Mike Peluso. Stu Grimson, Mike Hudson.RW&mdash;Steve Larmer, Wayne Presley. Dirk Graham, Mike McNeill.LD&mdash;Steve Konroyd, Trent Yawney, Frantisek Kucera.RD&mdash;Chris Chelios, Keith Brown. Bob McGill.G&mdash;Ed Belfour, Jacques Cloutier, Greg Millen.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Doug Wilson, D, damaged right ankle ligaments, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Larmer. 13. A&mdash;Chelios, 15. P&mdash;Larmer, 24. PIM&mdash;Peluso. 85. &#9632;

f0056-01

OFFENSIVE-MINDED HAWKS ARE SUDDENLY DEFENSIVE

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div>The NHL has been talking about using instant replays for some time, but St. Louis Blues&rsquo; left winger Geoff Courtnall said they aren&rsquo;t needed everywhere.&ldquo;Just in the Garden,&rdquo; he said.That&rsquo;s Boston Garden Courtnail&rsquo;s referring to, where the Blues feel they were robbed of a goal&mdash;and a victory&mdash;in a 3-2 loss Nov. 1.The Chicago Blackhawks suffered a similar fate Oct. 27 in a 5-4 loss to the Bruins. Both teams complained about controversial non-goals.Chicago&rsquo;s Dirk Graham apparently scored the game-tying goal with three seconds to play, but goal judge Ed Quin didn&rsquo;t turn the red light on and timekeeper Larry Stafford didn&rsquo;t stop the clock.In the Blues&rsquo; case, Rich Sutter&rsquo;s goal with eight minutes to play was disallowed because goal judge Vic Rasmussen didn&rsquo;t turn on the red light and referee Kerry Fraser let play continue.After consulting with Rasmussen and linesmen Leon Stickle and Gerry Gauthier, Fraser ruled the puck had hit the crossbar.Replays indicated otherwise. The goal would have given the Blues a 3-2 lead in a game they lost in overtime.If they had won, the Blues would have swept a three-game trip that also included stops in Detroit Oct. 30 (a 5-2 win) and Hartford Nov. 3 (a 4-1 win).The loss also ruined a potential six-game winning streak and a nine-game unbeaten streak, not to mention a club record six-game road winning streak.Coach Brian Sutter said the lost points could hurt the Blues down the road.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how many games that guy (Rasmussen) has watched, and he&rsquo;s probably a very good person and everything else, but those may be multi-million dollar points that we lost,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Those two points may be two big points at the end of the season&mdash;maybe for home ice in the semifinals or finals.&rdquo;Sutter may also be fined for his verbal lambasting of the officials following the game.&ldquo;You get fined for talking, but this is different,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not criticizing. Those are facts. The whole building sees it.&rdquo;Blues&rsquo; general manager Ron Caron, who threw a mini-temper tantrum in the press box after the call, said he would talk with NHL executive vice president Brian O&rsquo;Neill or vice-president of hockey operations Jim Gregory about the situation.Caron stormed down to John D&rsquo;Amico, the supervisor of officials at the game, and later told of D&rsquo;Amico&rsquo;s response.&ldquo;This guy is a heck of a guy, John D&rsquo;Amico. I asked &lsquo;How did you see it?&rsquo; I didn&rsquo;t (scream) Aaarrrrgh. You know what he said? &lsquo;Very simply, no doubt, it&rsquo;s a goal.&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;How did (Fraser) miss it?&rsquo; He said, &lsquo;He got no help.&rsquo;&rdquo;<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Adam Oates. Ron Wilson, Bob Bassen.LW&mdash;Gino Cavallini, Geoff Courtnall. Sergio Momesso, Dave Lowry.RW&mdash;Brett Hull, Rich Sutter, Paul MacLean. Herb Raglan.LD&mdash;Scott Stevens, Robert Dirk, Glen Featherstone, Harold Snepsts.RD&mdash;Jeff Brown, Paul Cavallini, Mario Marois.G&mdash;Vincent Riendeau, Curtis Joseph.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Rick Meagher, C, right knee surgery, indefinite. Cliff Ronning, C, broken right index finger, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Hull, 16. A&mdash;Oates. 18, P&mdash;Hull, 21. PIM&mdash;Raglan, 29. &#9632;

BLOWN GOAL CALL IRKS CARON’S TROOPS

<div class="byline">BY GARY OLSON</div>Jon Casey was promised a new contract with the North Stars, but the guy who made the promise left town.It has been that kind of year in Minnesota.New general manager Bob Clarke wants to sign Casey, but apparently not as badly as Casey wants to sign.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve finished talking,&rdquo; the Stars&rsquo; goaltender said, fresh from a 2-0 shutout in Quebec Nov. 3 and a 2-2 tie in Montreal Nov. 4. &ldquo;Maybe I won&rsquo;t do anything. The way things are going, I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;ll ever sign another contract in Minnesota.&rdquo;The North Stars&rsquo; No. 1 goaltender, Casey can be best compared to Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; goaltender Patrick Roy. Casey tied Roy last season with 31 wins, tops in the NHL.But because Montreal finished with a superior record (41-28-11) to Minnesota&rsquo;s (36-40-4), it&rsquo;s easy to look past Casey&rsquo;s accomplishment and say Roy had a superior year.The result? Roy won the Vezina Trophy. Casey won respect.But until Casey signs a new deal, he&rsquo;s the best bargain in the NHL, with a sub-$150,000 contract.His record through Nov. 5 was only 3-5-4, but he&rsquo;d played in every win and every tie for the North Stars. His 2.85 goals-against average and.903 save percentage speak for themselves.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not looking for anything outrageous,&rdquo; Casey said. &ldquo;All I want is what&rsquo;s fair.&ldquo;At the end of last season, Jack Ferreira (the former GM) told me he&rsquo;d give me a new contract. But then he left town. Bob Clarke hasn&rsquo;t been here the last two years, and I guess he doesn&rsquo;t feel the same way.&ldquo;Maybe 1&rsquo;11 play the rest of the season and become a free agent. Maybe the new collective bargaining agreement will let me become a free agent without compensation or maybe the compensation will be low enough that someone else will be interested in signing me.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not happy. And I&rsquo;m not happy about the way negotiations have gone.&rdquo;But even though Casey is unhappy, he&rsquo;s given the North Stars plenty to be happy about.A home-grown talent, Casey was the American League rookie of the year in 1984-85 with Baltimore and was 11-11-1 with the North Stars the next season, sharing time with Don Beaupre and Kari Takko.In 1986-87, Casey split his time between Springfield (AHL) and Indianapolis (IHL). The next season he was back with the Stars briefly and then played in Kalamazoo (IHL), where he was reunited with one of his old college coaches, John Marks.Casey shared the disaster of the North Stars&rsquo; 1988-89 season and played well, but no new deal was offered.Instead, he was offered a termination contract. But Ferreira tore up that deal and brought Casey back.Ever since, he&rsquo;s been a winner.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not out there by myself,&rdquo; Casey said. &ldquo;If the forwards don&rsquo;t help the defense and the defense doesn&rsquo;t help me, I can&rsquo;t do my job. We all make mistakes but we have to&rsquo; help each other. When a team scores, it&rsquo;s usually the result of two or three mistakes.&ldquo;Recently, even our goal scorers have been making the effort to come back and help out in our end.&rdquo;<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Neal Broten, Dave Gagner, Mike Modano, Bobby Smith, Perry Berezan.LW&mdash;Brian Propp, Brian Bellows, Basil McRae, Don BarberRW&mdash;Mike Craig. Larry DePalma, Shane Churla, Ulf Dahlen.LD&mdash;Mark Tinordi, Brian Glynn, Rob Zettler, Peter Taglianetti.RD&mdash;Neil Wilkinson, Larry Murphy, Curt Giles, Shawn Chambers.G&mdash;Jon Casey. Kari Takko.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Gaetan Duchesne, LW, day-to-day. Stewart Gavin, RW, torn left knee ligaments, indefinite. Ilkka Sinisalo, LW, groin strain, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Gagner, 8. A&mdash;Broten, 15. P&mdash;Broten, 18. PtM&mdash;-Churla, 88. &#9632;

BARGAIN BASEMENT CASEY WEIGHS OPTIONS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-0188/5798828-1-eng-US/f0059-012.jpg" title="f0059-01" width="493" height="615"><figcaption class="caption-body">SCOTT MORRISON</figcaption></div>Last spring when the gregarious owner died, a writer wondered whether Harold Ballard would be looking in on his favorite team from the Heavenly Gardens high above, or the Red Hot Stove Lounge down under. At the time, it was too close to call.But from wherever Ballard is viewing proceedings at Maple Leaf Gardens these days, he undoubtedly is doing so with a broad smile on his face, for his beloved Maple Leafs are still in utter disarray seven months after his passing, and with no convincing signs that a turnaround might be imminent.At a time when there appeared hope that a once-proud franchise would be restored to its former dignity, the Maple Leafs have continued to be a Ballard-like satire. They stood last in the entire league through the first month of the season (and without their first draft pick), on pace to have as many wins as the North Stars will have sellouts, having already changed coaches, with a judge about to determine ownership of the franchise, and a local ticket scalper claiming to be the late owner&rsquo;s illegitimate son.Send in the clowns, the circus never leaves town.It occurred in late October, when the Leafs were in the midst of turmoil, that nothing really has changed with this franchise despite the departure of Ballard to the great beyond. If anything, it is as if he had never really left.Consider the events surrounding the dismissal of Doug Carpenter as coach. It was, sadly, vintage Leafs. Informed early in the morning of his fate, Carpenter skipped town without having to confront the media. Fair enough.But at noon that day, general manager Floyd Smith took precisely 35 seconds to confirm that Carpenter had been relieved of his duties and to express his regrets, but he offered no clues as to who actually pulled the trigger, of whether an replacement had been ordered, of why the change was made, or even who killed Laura Palmer.Three days later, after the Leafs had proven easily adaptable, able to lose under interim coach Tom Watt as effortlessly as they had under Carpenter, Smith announces in the morning that the search for a new head coach would take three or four more days. The phone was ringing off the hook, he said.About an hour later, however, after what must have been the best-run, most impressive practice in the history of hockey, Smith emerges from a sitting with Gardens&rsquo; president Donald Giffin to announce that Watt will be the new Leaf coach. He was the best choice, the only choice, hold all the general manager&rsquo;s calls.Ballard surely must have left the old scripts in a drawer.The point is, there was a belief among the hockey fraternity and the fans in Toronto that when Ballard passed on the Leafs would be revived, that they would become a mirror image of the Montreal Canadiens, the team that wrote the book on distinguished, intelligent behavior.What was clearly lacking with the Maple Leafs when Ballard was alive, remains now that he is dead. It is leadership at the top. Giffin is a nice man, but not a hockey man. Smith is a competent general manager. But there still exists a void in the executive suite.It is no coincidence that the best teams in the NHL today have a club president who is adept in both the practises of business and hockey. In some cases it&rsquo;s the general manager, in others it&rsquo;s a businessman who has surrounded himself with top hockey advisors. The Leafs have neither.Giffin plays the role of president, but has no clear idea of how to run a hockey team, leaving that to Smith. But Smith has no hockey intellect above him with whom to consult, or report.So nothing changes at the Gardens. Point to the dressing room, point to the coach, point to the general manager, point to them all with an accusing finger, but the problem with the Maple Leafs remains a void at the top.And whether he is looking in from the Heavenly Gardens, or the Red Hot Stove Lounge, as writer Rex MacLeod pondered, it is as if Harold Ballard never really left at all.He probably would have wanted it that way, too.Briefly: There is no reason to fear that expansion in the NHL is doomed because several groups do not have the required $50 million. That, in part, was why the fee was set so high, to separate the contenders from the pretenders&hellip;Not to suggest there could be any unsavory dealings, but it doesn&rsquo;t enhance the image and integrity of the league to have Molson owning the Canadiens and a share of the Maple Leafs, and to have Norman Green owning the North Stars and a share of the Flames, even if it is for only a year.Scott Morrison is a hockey columnist with the Toronto Sun. &#9632;

f0059-01

LEAFS’ SONG REMAINS THE SAME

Pittsburgh&rsquo;s John Cullen is moving into Wayne Gretzky territory. With 20 assists in his first 12 games, Cullen&rsquo;s season total projects to 133. That would give him the third-best single season assist mark of all time. Gretzky currently has the seven highest totals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-0341/5798866-1-eng-US/f0059-032.jpg" title="f0059-03" width="518" height="462"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-0433/5798859-1-eng-US/f0059-042.jpg" title="f0059-04" width="551" height="406"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Cullen</figcaption></div><h2>NO RESPECT</h2>Glen Sather must feel a little like Rodney Dangerfield these days. With the defending Stanley Cup Champions floundering at the bottom of the Smythe Division standings with only six points in their first 12 games, the last thing Sather needed was to have something go wrong with his new $100,000-plus BMW. Well, ironically it did. Sather, director of player personnel Barry Fraser and public relations director Bill Tuele, all had their cars damaged following a New Kids On The Block concert at Northlands Coliseum Nov. 1. &ldquo;People just don&rsquo;t have any respect these days,&rdquo; Sather said.<h2>KEANE POWER-FUL</h2>Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; blue-collar right winger Mike Keane, out for ten days with a lacerated knee, was on his way to the dressing room when a fan said: &ldquo;When are you coming back Mike. We need you on the power play.&rdquo; Keane just smiled and for good reason. Keane has only 25 career goals in 143 games, but he leads the team with two power play goals this season.<h2>DRAFT PROSPECT WATCH</h2>Five times during the season, Valvoline Canada Ltd. tabulates the top draft prospects in the Canadian Hockey League. A 12-member media panel compiled the following list after the first segment.ONTARIO LEAGUE: 1. Eric Lindros, C, Oshawa. 2. Pat Peake, C, Detroit. 3. Dennis Purdie, RW, London. 4. Jamie Caruso, RW, North Bay. 5. John Porco, C, Belleville. 6. Steve Staois, D, Niagara Falls. 6.(tie) Mike Torchia, G, Kitchener. 6.(tie) Dale MacTavish, C/LW, Peteborough. 6.(tie) Terry Chitaroni, C, Sudbury.WESTERN LEAGUE: 1. Jeff Nelson, C, Prince Albert. 2. Richard Matvichuk, D, Saskatoon. 3. Brent Bilodeau. D, Seattle. 3.(tie) Pat Falloon. C, Spokane. 5. Scott Neidermayer, D, Kamloops. 6. Lee J. Leslie, C, Prince Albert. 7. Tyler Wright, C, Swift Current. 8. Bill Lindsay, LW, Tri-City.QUEBEC LEAGUE: 1. Yanic Perreault, C, Trois-Rivieres. 2. Patrick Poulin, LW, St-Hyacinthe. 3. Francois Groleau, D, Shawinigan. 4. Martin Lapointe, LW, Laval. 5. Jean-Francois Gregoire, RW. Granby. 6. Eric Lavigne, D, Hull. 6.(tie) David St-Pierre, C, College Francais. 8. Yan Arsenault, D, Colleg ancais. 8.(tie) Marcel Cousineau, G, Beauport.<h2>QUESTION OF THE WEEK:</h2>Has the extra foot of space behind the goal line&mdash;touted to open up the game&mdash;made a difference to players?&ldquo;It hasn&rsquo;t made a difference to me,&rdquo; said Joe Sakic, co-captain of the Quebec Nordiques. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even notice it.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0059-03

CULLEN SHOOTING FOR SPOT WITH WAYNE

&#9632; The Edmonton Oilers have stumbled badly early this season, losing a number of key players through injuries and departures. We&rsquo;ll take a look at what&rsquo;s gone wrong.&#9632; Former 50-goal scorer Charlie Simmer is back in North America. Simmer is a player-assistant coach for the International League San Diego Gulls (IHL) who are off to a surprising start this season.&#9632; We&rsquo;ll take a look at two great Scotts, Boston College and Boston University sophmore goaltenders Scott LaGrand and Scott Cashman. Both have been instrumental this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-0523/5798897-1-eng-US/f0059-052.jpg" title="f0059-05" width="560" height="660"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Lagrand</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NEXT WEEK

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Murray Townsend</div>New NHL coaches Doug Risebrough (Calgary) and Bob Gainey (Minnesota) bring to 15 the number of players Scotty Bowman once tutored who became head coaches themselves. That includes two other current coaches&mdash;Al Arbour (Islanders) and Rick Dudley (Buffalo)&mdash;and three current general managers&mdash;Serge Savard (Montreal), Rogie Vachon (Los Angeles), and Glen Sather (Edmonton).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-0258/5798928-1-eng-US/f0059-022.jpg" title="f0059-02" width="552" height="406"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Risebrough</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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November 16, 1990

BAKERS HAVEN’T YET MASTERED THE NHL RECIPE

TATARINOV SIGNING A CAPITAL COUP

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