The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.

February 15, 1991

The Hockey News February 15, 1991

<div class="byline">ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01926/5878517-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="536" height="624"></div>The date: March 6, 1988.The place: Calgary Flames&rsquo; general manager Cliff Fletcher&rsquo;s office.The subject: Brett Hull&hellip;and his imminent departure from the Calgary Flames.The untold story: With a month to go before the Flames would win their first-ever President&rsquo;s Trophy, Fletcher knew his team was good. But were they good enough?The consensus was no. They needed help. They needed a goalie to play behind Mike Vernon because Doug Dadswell was flunking his first NHL trial. And they needed a rugged defenseman to supplement their no-hit, all-finesse blueline.The St. Louis Blues were offering the desired commodities, but the price was high: Brett Hull, who in limited playing time with the Flames, was on pace for a 40-goal season.Fletcher polled his people in the room and asked one question. Do we deal a player who could score 160 goals in his next four NHL seasons? The replies were affirmative.Other matters were discussed: Rick Wamsley&rsquo;s shelf life as an NHL goalie and the state of defenseman Rob Ramage&rsquo;s knees. But the discussion always came back to Hull.Fletcher rephrased the question. What if Hull scored 180 goals in the next four seasons? More affirmative responses.By the time Fletcher asked a third time, Hull was up to 200 goals in four seasons. But the answers were the same. The coaching staff, especially Terry Crisp, wanted him gone.So he was.Since that date, Hull has made the Flames&mdash;and everybody who liked the deal&mdash;look stupid.Privately, the Flames&rsquo; coaching staff believed Hull would become a 35-goal-per-season player who couldn&rsquo;t help because of his perceived deficiencies in skating, defensive coverage and his attitude.Today, Fletcher has taken the brunt of the criticism for trading Hull. But the man who wanted him gone was Crisp.Hull played for Crisp in Moncton (American League) in 1986-87. Crisp was unimpressed with his work ethic and played him on the fourth line for parts of the season.But Hull still managed 50 goals in 67 games and was the AHL&rsquo;s rookie of the year.The next season, after Bob Johnson resigned as coach, Crisp was promoted to Calgary. And Hull&mdash;on the basis of his strong minor-league season&mdash;came with him. Or so it seemed.Bobby Hull, Brett&rsquo;s dad, tells a story of how, that summer, Crisp ran into Belleville Bulls&rsquo; president Dr. Robert Vaughan.&ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t it great,&rdquo; said Vaughan, &ldquo;that you&rsquo;re going to Calgary and Brett&rsquo;s coming with you?&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll never play for me,&rdquo; replied Crisp. And basically, he didn&rsquo;t.That season, the Flames were blessed with two of the best rookies of the decade, Hull and Joe Nieuwendyk.Nieuwendyk played all the time, scored 51 goals and came within two first-place votes of unanimously winning the Calder Trophy.And the overweight, easy-going Hull? He&rsquo;d come down from the press box, score a couple of goals and be bumped upstairs again.On the day the Flames traded him, Hull had 26 goals in 52 games of limited playing time.Publicly, Fletcher predicted Hull would score 180 goals in four seasons for the Blues. But Hull fooled him. He fooled all of us. His 61st goal this season will be his 180th as a St. Louis Blue. He will reach the total in just three seasons.Ask Fletcher about Hull now and you get a standard answer: &ldquo;The Hull deal won a Stanley Cup for us&mdash;so we&rsquo;re prepared to live with it.&rdquo;But did the deal do that? Some people get the time frame confused. The year they traded Hull, the Flames lost four straight games to the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the playoffs.Calgary won the Cup the next season and Wamsley played just 20 playoff minutes. Ramage started the playoffs as the team&rsquo;s seventh defenseman, and only when Gary Suter broke his jaw in the fifth game of the Vancouver series did he crack the lineup. He played well when given the chance.After the Vancouver series, the Flames lost only three games in capturing the Cup. Could they have done it without Ramage? Probably.The Flames traded Ramage to Toronto for a second-round draft choice in the off-season that year. The second-round pick turned out to be Kent Manderville.Wamsley continues to give the team a steady, second goaltender and will until Trevor Kidd is ready.And Hull? He turned into a franchise player, something the Flames, in their 18-year history, have never had.Eric Duhatschek is a hockey writer for the Calgary Herald. &#9632;

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COLUMNS

FLAMES’ LOSS A HULL OF A DEAL FOR ST. LOUIS

Since introducing overtime in 1983-84, only 35.7 per cent of NHL games (400 of 1,120) have been decided. Through Jan. 30, 67.3 per cent of OT games (64 of 95) ended in ties. Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour and the St. Louis Blues led the NHL in OT appearances (eight). Five of the games ended in ties.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02221/5879873-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="557" height="410"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

ODDITIES

A right winger with the New York Rangers from 1960-61 to 1977-78, Rod Gilbert, 49, is now the team&rsquo;s manager of community relations. &ldquo;I played 18 seasons with the Rangers and there were some fine moments, but not winning the Stanley Cup was frustrating,&rdquo; Gilbert said. &ldquo;We kept saying &lsquo;wait until next year&rsquo;, but next year never came.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021124/5878266-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="505" height="401"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rod Gilbert</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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THEN & NOW

Through Jan. 30, the Winnipeg Jets were the only NHL team without a hat trick in the last two seasons. Thomas Steen (1988-89) was the last Jet to accomplish the feat. Since &lsquo;89-90, 130 hat tricks were scored. The teams with the most: Chicago (14); Pittsburgh (13); Los Angeles (10); New York Islanders (10); St. Louis (9); Edmonton (9); and Detroit (9).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02217/5879684-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="718" height="437"><figcaption class="caption-body">Thomas Steen</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NUMBERS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01869/5879983-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"></div>NHL GIVES FUHR GREEN LIGHT TO PLAY-PAGE 6COMPROMISE COULD SOLVE STARS-SHARKS MESS-PAGE 28 TRADES HAVE ADDED 11 NEW FACES, BUT IT&rsquo;S SAME OLD STORY IN TORONTO PAGE 7FOGARTY FACES TOUGH STRUGGLE PAGE 23PENSION BATTLE BREWING PAGE 8HULL TO PLAY FOR U.S. PAGE 6 &#9632;

Cover-01

FLOYD’S FOLLIES

<div class="byline">BOB MCKENZIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011308/5877533-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="514" height="610"></div>If the real story were ever told, it would be like watching a food fight on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous&mdash;a lot of wealthy people behaving abominably.Be assured, though, that the true story of the bitter feud between the Minnesota North Stars and San Jose Sharks will never be fully revealed.We shouldn&rsquo;t be surprised. The NHL does its best work&mdash;nearly all of its work&mdash;behind closed doors.And this much you can be certain of: When the league finds itself in a stinking mess of its own making, it isn&rsquo;t about to air its soiled laundry in public.But that doesn&rsquo;t mean it smells any less.Sordid saga? You bet.From the day the NHL paved the way for the Gund brothers, George and Gordon, to trade the floundering North Stars for a potential expansion pot of gold in San Jose, something has been rotten in the state of pro hockey.It was said then, it can be said now: the Gunds got a sweetheart deal. These are ultra-wealthy men who couldn&rsquo;t make an NHL franchise go in Oakland, so they were permitted to move it to Cleveland. When the Barons were set to expire, the league allowed them to merge with the North Stars. The Gunds, with the rosters of two teams, couldn&rsquo;t make the NHL work in Minnesota either.So, hey, why not reward all that incompetence by giving the Gunds a $50 million expansion franchise in a prime location for the discounted price of approximately $37 million? And, as if that weren&rsquo;t enough, why not make this a special expansion franchise, stocked with some of the best young players from the Minnesota organization?Because if the NHL didn&rsquo;t, the Gunds might have just trundled off to the California Bay Area with their franchise in tow a la Al Davis. Since the league already had a $50-million fish on the line in San Jose&mdash;a group fronted by Howard Baldwin&mdash;it devised this clever flip flop to keep everyone happy.The Gunds got to go to San Jose. Baldwin and partner Morris Belzberg got their NHL team, albeit in Minnesota, and everybody was happy.Beautiful, just beautiful. Until it became apparent&mdash;very quickly we might add&mdash;that Baldwin and Belzberg didn&rsquo;t have the financial resources to make this thing fly.Just one question before we get to the heart of the matter: Didn&rsquo;t the NHL do a detailed investigation of the Baldwin-Belzberg finances?Enter Norman Green, bon vivant and part owner of the Calgary Flames. A dear friend of NHL president John Ziegler. Green rode to the rescue in Minnesota, buying out Baldwin-Belzberg and getting what he had always wanted&mdash;sole proprietorship and control of his own NHL franchise.Green, active in many league matters, was fully aware of the deal with the Gunds that had been struck. Upon purchasing the North Stars, he is reported to have even signed an acknowledgement of the exact terms and conditions of the North Star-Shark deal.But that didn&rsquo;t matter. He reneged.The fight was on. Allegations of misconduct, including theft of material and information, flew in both directions.Originally destined to be settled in an involved court fight that would ultimately embarrass the league&mdash;the NHL created the mess by being in such a hurry to accommodate the Gunds&mdash;the two warring factions got together Jan. 30 in Chicago. They were joined by several key NHL governors as mediators.The two sides apparently found some common ground and a compromise is, if not imminent, at least being worked on. The new deal reportedly will protect more of the North Stars&rsquo; future (young players) and give San Jose more immediate help (experienced players).At some point, the details of the new deal will be announced.But we do know this: That rich men in positions of power who threaten and cajole get their way in the NHL. It worked for the Gunds when they wanted to bolt Minnesota for San Jose. And it looks as though it&rsquo;s going to work for Green, who bought a team, gnashed his teeth, bared his fangs and sent his fellow governors and the league running for cover.We still don&rsquo;t really knows what goes on behind closed doors, but whatever it is, it stinks. Bob McKenzie is editor-in-chief of The Hockey News. &#9632;

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SOMETHING ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF PRO HOCKEY

Michael LawtonPRESIDENT AND PUBLISHERTom MoffatDIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATIONBob AmesseMANAGING EDITORBob McKenzieEDITOR-IN-CHIEFAssistant Editor: Dave Bean. Contributing Editors: Steve Dryden. Matt Nicholls Editorial Staff: Brian Costello. Jason Kay, Rand Simon Design Director: Bob Torrans Photographer: Bruce Bennett. Production Manager: Bradley Nussbaum Production Co-ordinator: Charlie Halpin. Research Manager: Chris Nagel Marketing Manager: Esther Sumka. Circulation Fulfillment Manager: Karen O&rsquo;Brien-Monaghan. Tournament Manager: Chris Ellis. Tournament Co-ordinator: Mark McConnell. Merchandising Manager: Ken Whitmell Advertising Representatives: Manager, Generic Advertising: Randy Green. Sales: David Burgess. Ontario Rep: Jack Fargey, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2 (416) 445-5702. Quebec/Ottawa/Atlantic Canada: Yvon Lacroix, Nik Reitz, McGown & Assoc. Inc. 785 Plymouth Ave., Montreal. Que. H4P 1B3 (514) 735-2924. Western Canada:Donna Fox, McGown & Assoc. Inc., 1500 West Georgia St.. Suite 1400, Vancouver, B.C. V6G 2Z6 (604) 688-5914. U.S. Rep: Michael Gribbin, Executive Publishing and Advertising Group, Inc., 1703 E. Joppa Rd., Baltimore, Md. 21234 (301) 882-0050. Classified Advertising: David Burgess Newsstand Distributor: Distributed nationally by Disticor, 155 Gordon Baker Rd., Suite 213, North York. Ont. M2H 3N7 (416) 496-8444. Advertising and Editorial Offices: 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills. Ont. M3B 2R2 (416) 445-5702. The Hockey News (ISSN 0018-3016) is published weekly except for the last week in December and published monthly June. July and August with an extra issue in September by Transcontinental Publications Inc. Single-copy price $2.50. Forty-three issue subscription rates. $49.95 in North America. $155.50 elsewhere, includes 38 regular issues, two double issues (The Yearin Photos. The Draft Preview) and The Hockey News Yearbook. Send all Canadian and non-European orders and address changes to The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2. European subscription requests and address changes should be sent to Barker&rsquo;s Worldwide Publications, 3 Eastbrook Close, Woking, Surrey, U.K. Phone: 0483-772722. Fax: 081-844-0852. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office in the U.K. U.S. subscription requests and address changes should be mailed to Box 904. Buffalo. N.Y.. 14240. Please allow two to four weeks for processing. Second-class mail registration No. 1327 All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to Subscription Dept.. The Hockey News. In the United States: Second-class postage paid at Buffalo, NY. 14240-9544. U.S. Postmaster send address change to The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904. Buffalo. N.Y.. 14240. The Hockey News was co-founded in 1947 by K. W. McKenzie and W. V. Cote. Cover Photos: Dan Hamilton. &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011466/5877588-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

ELSTON

&#9632; The St. Louis Blues. The club and one of its all-time greats, Bernie Federko, didn&rsquo;t exactly part on the best of terms when Federko was dealt to Detroit prior to the 1989-90 season. Now the two sides are officially making amends as the team has announced it will honor the 13-year Blue in a jersey-retiring ceremony March 16. Everyone likes a happy ending.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021191/5877626-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="376" height="361"></div>&#9632; Yanic Perreault. Cut by the Canadian national junior team, undrafted and seemingly unwanted, the Quebec League&rsquo;s leading scorer put on a scoring clinic at the QMJHL/OHL all-star game with three goals and an assist to earn the game&rsquo;s MVP award. Can NHL scouts ignore the Trois-Rivieres star any longer?<h2>JEERS</h2>&#9632; Job insecurity. Baseball has Tommy Lasorda. Football has Don Shula. Hockey? Well, Pat Burns has been with the Habs for three years. The firing of Vancouver&rsquo;s Bob McCammon served to magnify the NHL&rsquo;s image problem among coaches.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03782/5877619-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="379" height="366"></div>&#9632; Fight night in Detroit. This isn&rsquo;t a stand against fighting. It is a stand, however, against premeditated madness. Proponents of fighting argue in a game as intense as hockey, fighting is a natural, spontaneous and safe way to relieve tension. The Bob Probert-Troy Crowder showdown was billed as a title fight for weeks. When the game takes a back seat to the bouts it&rsquo;s time to re-examine the rules. &#9632;

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CHEERS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011466/5877671-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021329/5877664-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="496" height="254"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031122/5877657-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="578" height="705"><figcaption class="caption-body">Thomas Steen</figcaption></div>Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; center Thomas Steen, who had nine points (4-5-9) in four road games to lead the Jets to a 3-1-0 record, was named NHL Pro Set Player of the Week for the period ending Feb. 3.Steen, who has 39 points (1029-39) in 35 games this season, edged teammate defenseman Phil., Housley and Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; center Steve Yzerman to capture 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.Steen, in his 10th year with the Jets, began the week in Quebec where he recorded one goal in a 5-2 win over the Nordiques (Jan. 29).In the team&rsquo;s only loss of the week, Steen recorded three points (1-2-3) in an 8-4 setback to the Montreal Canadiens (Jan. 30).He then tallied two points (1-1-2) in a 4-2 win over the Washington Capitals (Feb. 2), before recording his third three-point game of the season (1-2-3), including the game-winning power-play goal, in a 4-3 win over the New York Rangers (Feb. 3).After missing 20 games with an ankle injury, Steen established a nine-game point-scoring streak since his return. Since Jan. 13, he tallied 14 points.The Jets are 7-3-0 in their last 10 games and are in fourth place in the Smythe Division with a 20-29-8 record (48 points).Housley (1-8-9) and Yzerman (4-5-9) also tallied nine points in four games. &#9632;

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NHL PRO SET SPOTLIGHT

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Concern over the San Jose Sharks ability to build a substantial fan base continues, but team management says not to worry. Media director Tim Bryant says the club spent little on advertising until last month and has sold more than 5,000 season tickets. The push to fill the 10,000-seat Cow Palace&mdash;the Shark&rsquo;s temporary home until a new arena is built&mdash;has begun, with advertising campaigns and other marketing strategies. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d like to see 10,000 season tickets by October,&rdquo; says Bryant. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a realistic goal. And with over half the seats gone nine months before our first game, we feel pretty good.&rdquo; In addition to GM Jack Ferreira, the Sharks have 30 employees and ten scouts in place&hellip;Wayne Cashman&rsquo;s name has surfaced as a possible head coach for the expansion Tampa Bay Lightning. Cashman is currently the Rangers&rsquo; assistant coach and although he&rsquo;s perfectly happy in New York, he&rsquo;d be closer to his horse farm in Florida. Cashman was originally hired for the Rangers&rsquo; job by Tampa Bay president, Phil Esposito.<h2>BAD RAP</h2>Calgary management is upset over suggestions made by former coach Bob Johnson that the club lacks leadership in the Jim Peplinski-Lanny McDonald-Doug Risebrough mold. Says McDonald: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bad rap. Everyone&rsquo;s different and everyone leads in a different way. There aren&rsquo;t two Peplinskis, two Risebroughs or two McDonalds. We have many guys capable of doing the job&mdash;Al MacInnis, Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour and Jamie Macoun&mdash;all capable people on and off the ice. They must be tired of hearing about the leadership of Pepper, Riser and me. We&rsquo;re getting tired of it too. Those days are gone and it&rsquo;s time to get on with the present.&rdquo;<h2>HAMMER HEAD</h2>Former Flyer tough guy Dave Schultz was crushed when his bigleague career ended in 1979-80. But he&rsquo;s currently enjoying his new career as director of Skatium, a suburban Philadelphia skating rink. Haverford township commissioner Jack McDonald was amazed when Schultz took the job. &ldquo;With Dave&rsquo;s name and his positive attitude,&rdquo; McDonald says, &ldquo;people just flock around him. We&rsquo;re really impressed.&rdquo; Schultz, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound left winger who was nicknamed &ldquo;The Hammer&rdquo;, was once the NHL&rsquo;s most notorious goon, amassing 2,294 penalty minutes in 535 games. Still an awesome physical force, Schultz says he was very different off the ice. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a violent guy,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I had to psyche myself up for it (to play). I would mentally prepare to fight some guy and generally knew who it would be. I respected those other guys. I usually fought guys who had the same roles on other teams.&rdquo;<h2>FAMILY FEUD</h2>St. Louis mayor Vincent Schoemehl Jr. caused a stir recently when he appeared at a Blues&rsquo; home game. Schoemehl and Blues&rsquo; chairman of the board, Mike Shanahan, have disagreed on the construction of a new arena for the club. And Shanahan continues to defend his $ 12 million investment for Brett Hull and Scott Stevens. &ldquo;We had recognition from our counterparts around the league for the signing of these players and it was negative publicity,&rdquo; Shanahan told Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. &ldquo;When you get negative publicity from your counterparts, it means you&rsquo;ve done something good. They probably wish they&rsquo;d have done the same thing. &ldquo;&hellip;The Hartford Whalers are hoping Bobby Holik will do well in the homestretch. They&rsquo;re also hoping Dave Babych&mdash;who&rsquo;s recovering from wrist surgery&mdash;will return soon. Management has been pleasantly surprised with the passing skills and hustle of former Penguin, Rob Brown.<h2>HALL OF FAME</h2>Flames&rsquo; goaltender coach Glenn Hall says there isn&rsquo;t a netminder alive without a weakness. Hall says solid netminders like Grant Fuhr (long shots between legs) and Andy Moog (goes down too soon during slumps) are examples. Hall says slumping goalies forget basic fundamentals. &ldquo;They get their knees locked,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;They stop moving and start to hope the puck&rsquo;s going to hit them. I was the same way. When you&rsquo;re hoping instead of moving, the puck almost never goes where you want it to.&rdquo;&hellip;A throw-in in the Wayne Gretzky deal, Marty McSorley has emerged as one of the most useful and popular Los Angeles Kings. &ldquo;In Edmonton, I didn&rsquo;t play very much,&rdquo; McSorley says. &ldquo;But in L.A., I&rsquo;ve had more chance to express my abilities and develop on the ice. In Edmonton it seemed as if every practice was a Canada Cup practice.&rdquo;<h2>NO WAY, RAY</h2>Ray Bourque goes out of his way to downplay comparisons with Bobby Orr, even though the Bruins&rsquo; captain has surpassed Orr as the highest scoring defenseman in club history. When someone recently told Bourque he was better than Orr, Bourque shot back, &ldquo;You can say that, but not me!&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Chicago&rsquo;s Jocelyn Lemieux says he hits his brother, Claude, harder than other opponents. &ldquo;Claude used to beat me up when we were kids,&rdquo; he says&hellip;The New York Rangers have released interesting statistics involving equipment costs for a season (U.S. dollars): hockey tape, $20,000; sticks (180 per player), $87,000; pucks, $14,250; pyjamas, $5,520; skates, $23,400; and laces, $2,000. &#9632;

TICKET PROBLEMS A FARCE: SHARKS

<div class="byline">BY GARY LOEWEN</div>Peter Ing and Ron Tugnutt might consider putting in a couple of orders for Patriot missiles.The beleaguered goaltenders often have been left alone to face a barrage of aerial assaults this season as they defend the nets of two of the NHL&rsquo;s most porous teams&mdash;the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Quebec Nordiques.Ing, 21, and Tugnutt, 23, find themselves in similar straits. The young goalies constitute the last line of defense for two weak teams that have a distaste for consistent defensive play. And Ing and Tugnutt do it, literally, night after night.Tugnutt had a streak of 26 consecutive starts&mdash;a Nordique team record&mdash;snapped Jan. 24 against New Jersey, while Ing had a 19-game streak snapped Jan. 26 against Chicago.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve known each other for a few years. I guess we can kind of understand what each other is going through,&rdquo; Ing said with a smile.&ldquo;You have to be mentally stronger, you have to prepare yourself more than ever when things are tough. You can&rsquo;t afford to make a mistake.&rdquo;Neither goaltender will admit to the effects of battle fatigue. Tugnutt believes the more he plays, the more effective he becomes.&ldquo;You get into a groove. It&rsquo;s a comforting feeling knowing you&rsquo;re going to get back in there the next night,&rdquo; said Tugnutt, who had faced 1,384 shots through Jan. 26, 200 shots more than his nearest rival, Edmonton Oiler Bill Ranford.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve enjoyed the ice time and I&rsquo;ve enjoyed playing under pressure, it makes me more intense. And if I&rsquo;m intense, then I&rsquo;m moving well and seeing the puck well.&rdquo;Because Tugnutt weighs only 155 pounds, his coach, Dave Chambers, is concerned about the fatigue factor. To help protect their young netminder, the Nordiques acquired veteran goalie Jacques Cloutier from Chicago Jan. 29 for left winger Tony McKegney.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011372/5877726-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="556" height="774"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Tugnutt started a Nordiquerecord 26 straight games.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Sometimes it&rsquo;s a grind to play so many games&mdash;we&rsquo;re concerned about hat. He&rsquo;s not a big guy. But he hasn&rsquo;t complained if he has been a little tired,&rdquo; Chambers said.&ldquo;We realize you can&rsquo;t play in the NHL with only one goalie. However, he&rsquo;s our best goalie and has been a big part of any success we&rsquo;ve had.&rdquo;Chambers gave his No. 1 goalie the night off against New Jersey, but turned to him midway through a 6-1 loss to the Devils. Tugnutt was effective in relief of starter Scott Gordon, stopping 20 of 21 shots.Tugnutt&rsquo;s most satisfying performance came Dec. 10 when he stopped 45 shots in a 3-2 overtime victory over the Vancouver Canucks.&ldquo;The most important thing to me is that the team does well,&rdquo; Tugnutt said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had our good times and played good games, but we&rsquo;ve been inconsistent. The Leafs and us have both been struggling but we&rsquo;re not out of a playoff spot yet.&rdquo;Ing feels the same way. The Leaf rookie&rsquo;s body may be bruised but his confidence isn&rsquo;t.Ing, who ranked third in shots against (1,138) as of Jan. 26, came to the fore during the halcyon days of December when the Leafs compiled a 7-4-1 record. The forwards in particular tightened up defensively, helping their goaltender claim the league&rsquo;s rookie-of-the-month honors.&ldquo;When we were playing well defensively, a lot of people had their eyes opened about Peter Ing,&rdquo; Leaf coach Tom Watt said. &ldquo;What I like most about Peter is his very even personality. He&rsquo;s never too high or too low emotionally.&rdquo;His temperament has had a positive effect on the team, Watt said. But the coach isn&rsquo;t quite ready to appoint Ing the No. 1 goalie.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if he has that kind of stature yet. He played well during that stretch in December so we gave him the ball to run with it,&rdquo; Watt said.With the Leafs scrambling to stay out of the league basement, Ing may get a breather.But Watt need not worry about him caving in to the stress of the stretch drive or to fatigue. Ing, in his final year of junior, played 21 consecutive playoff games over a span of 30 nights.&ldquo;Pressure is a part of the game you have to deal with,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But when you&rsquo;re in a battle, you don&rsquo;t think about it much.&ldquo;Instead of worrying about what somebody says about you, you have to go out and do your job.&rdquo; Gary Loewen is a hockey writer for the Toronto-based Globe and Mail. &#9632;

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GOALIES ING, TUGNUTT SULTANS OF STARTS

<div class="byline">STEPHANE LEBEAU</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02996/5877757-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="556" height="1186"></div>Born: Feb. 28. 1968, St. Jerome. Que. Height: 5-foot-10. Weight: 172 pounds. Team: Montreal Canadiens. Position: Center. Acquired: Signed as a free agent by Montreal, Sept. 27, 1986.Career highlight: &ldquo;My first NHL game at the Forum against Los Angeles. As a kid, I watched Hockey Night in Canada and always dreamed of playing there. It was a thrill to play where all the great players have.&rdquo;Career disappointment: &ldquo;My draft year when nobody picked me. I worked very hard to be drafted and was amazed no one took me. I felt I had a good junior career.&rdquo;Boyhood heroes: Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky. &ldquo;Orr because he controlled the game very well at a young age. Gretzky because of his character on and off the ice.&rdquo;Most respected opponent: &ldquo;Everyone is a respected opponent, but the Boston Bruins are probably the toughest. There&rsquo;s a big rivalry between us and they always work hard for 60 minutes.&rdquo;Most respected players: &ldquo;All the veterans on our team. I&rsquo;ve seen a lot of players, but guys like McPhee and Skrudlund stand out. They&rsquo;ve helped me a lot and I look up to them.&rdquo;Best hockey quality: &ldquo;My offensive skills. I scored a lot of goals in junior and although I haven&rsquo;t yet in the NHL, I&rsquo;m not worried. It&rsquo;ll come. I&rsquo;m only in my second year.&rdquo;Toughest goalie: Daren Puppa. &ldquo;The guy&rsquo;s so big and he seems more confident than other goalies.&rdquo;Favorite movie: Back to the Future. &#9632;

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PRO FILE

<h2>VIDEO REPLAY WOULD HURT THE GAME</h2>Many point to last year&rsquo;s Calgary-Los Angeles playoff game (when Denis Morel blew the whistle after losing sight of a loose puck which eventually crossed the goal line) as a prime example of why we need instant replay in the NHL. No way.Since Morel blew the whistle, the play was indeed &ldquo;dead&rdquo;. Instant replay would not have made any difference. No goal.In the Flames&rsquo; Stanley Cup year, Joel Otto kicked in the series winning goal against Vancouver. That goal would have been called back with instant replay available. No goal. No Cup?Besides changing history, instant replays will: Slow down the game; cost more money; pose difficulties getting proper camera angles; and create innumerable sources of arguments. No replays.As long as referees and other officials are honest, the mistakes will even out. Good breaks and bad breaks will be the same for every team.Brian Dickson Calgary, Alta.<h2>NO FUN</h2>The theme for this year&rsquo;s minor hockey week in Canada was, &ldquo;put the fun back in hockey.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s too bad the NHL won&rsquo;t adopt this philosophy.I remember, not so long ago, when pro hockey was played merely for sport. Every kid&rsquo;s dream was to make the big league. It didn&rsquo;t even matter which team.Now, the NHL is a business, complete with players unions, referees unions and strikes.Some players refuse to play unless they&rsquo;re paid more; some refuse to play for certain teams; some refuse to get paid in Canadian money; some refuse to play in the minors; and some walk out on their team demanding a trade.This isn&rsquo;t a great example to set for those growing up who still play the game because they enjoy it.Perhaps the NHL could learn from their minor hockey counterparts and put the fun back in hockey.Gary Phillips Marystown, Nfld.<h2>ANYONE HOME?</h2>Would somebody please knock on the door of Flyers&rsquo; GM Russ Farwell to make sure somebody is really in there? While you&rsquo;re at it, check owner Ed Snider&rsquo;s pulse to make sure he&rsquo;s still with us, because neither seems to be conscious of the direction their hockey team is taking.Please remind them the Flyers are a club that missed the playoffs for the first time in nearly 20 years last April, yet they are still fielding basically the same outfit that finished with the league&rsquo;s fourth-worst record.The team has no offense and is far from being a contender, yet they continue to hold on to the &ldquo;luxury&rdquo; of defensive specialists such as Ron Sutter and Derrick Smith, not to mention a plethora of goaltenders, including the vastly overrated Ron Hextali.Even the perennial winners such as Calgary and Edmonton constantly rotate their talent. While the Flyers sit back and hope their injured over-the-hill superstars get healthy, division rivals Pittsburgh and Washington are loading up with players that will keep them contenders for years.Doug Lund Germantown. Md.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011552/5877788-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="553" height="565"><figcaption class="caption-body">Instant replay would have nullified Joel Otto&rsquo;s kicked in goal.</figcaption></div><h2>SLUMP SYNDROME</h2>I was looking through a back issue of THN and noticed the Boston Bruins were concerned about being on a losing streak.I can understand their concern, but every team suffers such streaks some time during the season and just has to play through it.I haven&rsquo;t checked their standings lately, but I&rsquo;m sure that by now their off-ice officials are out of their slump and the Bruins are back in the win column.Thomas Pardee Huttig, Ariz.<h2>ACADEMICS FIRST</h2>In response to the NCAA rule changes that could have an impact on hockey, one must remember that the primary purpose in attending university is to further one&rsquo;s education. The recent rule changes were passed with that in mind.Criticising the collegiate sports body for decreasing revenue and restricting recruiting, although important to the coaching staff, shouldn&rsquo;t take precendence over the education and the real world after hockey.It is interesting to note that none of the critics have come from the Eastern College Athletic Conference. This conference has established a balance between academic achievements and athletic excellence that some of the other universities would do well to follow.Mike King &nbsp;Fort St. John, B.C.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&nbsp;(416) 445-0753. Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

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LETTERS

<div class="byline">BY THN STAFF</div>Four long months of waiting and wondering for Grant Fuhr ended with a brief&mdash;albeit extremely favorable&mdash;15-minute meeting in NHL president John Ziegler&rsquo;s New York office.Banned for a year by Ziegler for admitting to long-time substance abuse in September, Fuhr was given the go-ahead to start playing with the Cape Breton Oilers of the American League Feb. 12 with the purpose of returning to Edmonton for their 60th game of the season, Feb. 18 in New Jersey.Ziegler, in a written statement, said Fuhr had fulfilled the requirements the president had set forth to have the suspension commuted to 60 games.Fuhr, meanwhile, rushed from the Feb. 4 meeting to join his teammates in Boston and get in some more practice time. He was understandably relieved with the decision.&ldquo;It feels pretty good. It&rsquo;s nice to have it over with and done,&rdquo; said Fuhr, who hasn&rsquo;t seen active duty since being injured in a March 30, 1990 game against Calgary. &ldquo;Now I get back to doing what I like&mdash;playing goal.&rdquo;<h2>SIMPSON OUT</h2>Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; left winger Craig Simpson was given a three-game NHL suspension for crosschecking Vancouver&rsquo;s Steve Bozek during a game Jan. 23.League vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill said there was no premeditation on Simpson&rsquo;s part, but that the Oiler player was careless in his actions which resulted in a slight shoulder separation for Bozek.Simpson, who didn&rsquo;t file an appeal, was upset with the decision but even more angered with the hearing process. He spent all of Jan. 31 flying from Edmonton to Toronto and back to hear a verdict he believed was already made.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an absolute joke,&rdquo; said Simpson, who will begin serving his ban Feb. 8. &ldquo;If (O&rsquo;Neill&rsquo;s) going to have his own kangaroo court and have his decision already made, I&rsquo;d prefer not wasting my time flying for nothing. With all the stuff that goes on, he should be ashamed of himself.&rdquo;<h2>QUEBEC WINS</h2>Yanic Perreault&rsquo;s days as the forgotten man are over.The undrafted 19-year-old Trois-Rivieres Draveur scored three goals and added an assist leading the Quebec League to an 11-7 victory over the Ontario League in the majorjunior All-Star Challenge Jan. 29.Todd Gillingham, with two, Martin Lapointe, Patrice Martineau, Philippe Boucher, Robert Guillet, Pierre Sevigny and Steve Larouche also scored for Quebec.Ontario was led by Oshawa Generals&rsquo; scoring ace Eric Lindros, who had five assists. Dale Craigwell, with two, Brad May. Adam Bennett, Steven Rice, Jarrod Skalde and Rob Pearson did the scoring. &#9632;

DIGEST

<div class="byline">BY SCOTT MORRISON</div>If good teams really are built on strength down the middle, Team Canada should have the strongest club in the upcoming Canada Cup.The two-time defending tournament champions, Canada figures to have on its training camp roster at least 15 of the top 25 scorers in the NHL, including the four highest scoring centers&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, John Cullen, Steve Yzerman and Joe Sakic&mdash;and two others who would be among them&mdash;Mario Lemieux and Adam Oates&mdash;had they not missed big chunks of the regular season.Factor in Eric Lindros, the concensus No. 1 pick in the upcoming entry draft who has already been promised an invite to the tryouts, and the host nation looks to be as strong as it has ever been at center.Canada will also possess the two highest-scoring defensemen&mdash;Paul Coffey and Al MacInnis&mdash;and the four goalies who lead the league in wins. There will be strength and depth in every position.Beyond that, Team Canada will have a coaching staff, (led by Chicago&rsquo;s Mike Keenan), that is acutely aware of what it takes to win the tournament and special Canadian intangible that has always provided a decisive edge against the European competition&mdash;emotion. They hate to lose this tournament and have only done so once.Here are 30 of the players who will be extended invitations to attend training camp in August: &#9632;

CANADA WILL BE CENTER OF ATTENTION

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN ALLEN</div>Brett Hull&rsquo;s pledge to play for Team USA in September&rsquo;s Canada Cup means the U.S. will have its best shot ever.Take that both ways.&ldquo;The Soviets don&rsquo;t scare me&mdash;it&rsquo;s the Americans,&rdquo; Wayne Gretzky says. &ldquo;I think the Americans will be the competition for the Canadians.&rdquo;Hull, bom in Belleville, Ont., has dual citizenship because his mother was an American citizen at the time of his birth.Even though he played for the U.S. in the 1986 World Championships, Hull still has the option to switch allegiances under Canada Cup rules.In 1986, Canadian national team coach Dave King and USA coach Dave Peterson scouted Hull at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. &ldquo;King didn&rsquo;t think I was good enough (to play for the national team) and Dave Peterson said I was.&rdquo;The U.S. team lacked scoring punch in its fifth-place finish in 1987. The offense looks much improved with a fresh player pool, which includes Hull (who was cut by U.S. coach Bob Johnson in 1987), Jeremy Roenick, Craig Janney, Kevin Stevens and Darren Turcotte.But defense continues to be the strength with Chris Chelios, Brian Leetch, Phil Housley, Kevin Hatcher and Gary Suter among others.Listed below are the 30 players most likely to be invited to Team USA&rsquo;s training camp in August.See Guest Shot, Page 43. &#9632;

HULL GIVES U.S. SHOT IN THE ARM

<h2>ROSTER</h2>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, John Cullen, Mark Messier, Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic, Adam Oates, Eric Lindros.LW&mdash;Luc Robitaille, Kirk Muller, Craig Simpson, Brian Bellows, Murray Craven.RW&mdash;Rick Tocchet, Cam Neely, Steve Larmer, Mark Recchi, Theoren Fleury, John MacLean.D&mdash;Al Maclnnis, Scott Stevens, Raymond Bourque, Paul Coffey, James Patrick, Steve Smith, Zarley Zalapski.G&mdash;Patrick Roy, Ed Belfour, Bill Ranford, Andy Moog.<h2>TEAM USA</h2><h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pat LaFontaine, Jeremy Roenick, Craig Janney, Joel Otto, Neal Broten, Jimmy Carson, Mike Modano.LW&mdash;Kevin Stevens, Tony Granato, Dave Christian, Kelly Miller, Paul Ranheim.RW&mdash;Brett Hull, Joe Mullen, Brian Mullen, Ed Olczyk, Darren Turcotte.D&mdash;Chris Chelios, Brian Leetch, Phil Housley, Gary Suter, Kevin Hatcher, Al lafrate, Mike Ramsey, Matt Schneider, Eric Weinrich.G&mdash;John Vanbiesbrouck, Mike Richter, Tom Barrasso, Jon Casey. &#9632;

TEAM CANADA

<div class="byline">BY SCOTT MORRISON</div>Floyd Smith once said he never saw himself as one day being a general manager. And now, he probably wishes he never was one.For historians aren&rsquo;t likely to be kind when they set down for posterity his two seasons as GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs.A man who is seldom referred to without an adjective (beleagured is the current rage), Smith also seems pre-destined to be haunted by an asterisk. To be remembered as the GM who traded away the next great impact player without ever dragging a sweater over his head.That is even a novel twist for the Maple Leafs, a team no longer revered for its championships, but ridiculed for its bungling. The Leafs have traded away five of their past 10 first-round draft picks. And Smith has taken the practise a wild step further.The date was Oct. 16,1989, the morning after Wayne Gretzky had become the all-time leading scorer in the NHL and had further secured his place in history. Perhaps unwittingly, Smith placed a reservation for himself.A significant deal at the time, (trading his first draft pick in 1991, potentially Oshawa junior sensation Eric Lindros, to the New Jersey Devils for Tom Kurvers) Smith seems hell-bent on making it catastrophic.&ldquo;If we finish last overall and we are drafting first,&rdquo; said Smith that day, &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t be around to use the pick, anyway.&rdquo;Alas, the Maple Leafs&rsquo; first-round draft pick this summer is gone. Ultimately, so too will Smith. And of all the promises, Smith never boasted of being prophetic.But as this season winds down, Smith and the Maple Leafs cannot escape the immense spectre of finishing dead last, and of being entitled to draft first in June but of having traded away the pick. It might not be fair to judge a man on one trade, but Smith&rsquo;s legacy seems destined to arrive slightly ahead of its time.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011398/5877922-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="706" height="778"><figcaption class="caption-body">Michel Petit was acquired from Quebec to help Toronto&rsquo;s power play.</figcaption></div>For if Lindros lives up to his clippings, trading him away for Kurvers, who was parlayed into Brian Bradley, will always be compared to other famous lop-sided trades.And for a while last season it seemed that Smith might escape the shadow of the trade, when his team finished with a .500 record, its best in a dozen years. A team seemingly on the rise, the Leafs touched bottom again this season and have yet to recover. And everything that has happened since is because of that trade with New Jersey.The spectre (some say the black cloud) of the trade has forced Smith to risk more this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02950/5877915-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="712" height="780"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Ellett came from Winnipeg with a reputation for offense.</figcaption></div>Sleepy Floyd evolved into Trader Floyd. A man who never quite seemed to have the stomach for trading, who never traded a roster player for another until this season, Smith developed a remarkable tolerance.&ldquo;I still hate to make a trade,&rdquo; said Smith. &ldquo;I really do.&rdquo;But eight times in 76 days this season, Smith traded, all reactive deals because for the Maple Leafs there was no salvation in finishing last.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just doing what the media wanted,&rdquo; Smith will snap occasionally about his trading. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what you guys wanted.&rdquo;In truth, though, the impetus to deal has been that overwhelming drive to not finish 21st.So after a 1-9-1 start, Smith has been scrambling since, some would say without a blueprint. He fired coach Doug Carpenter in October. In early November the trading spree began, but with a radical change of philosophy.A scout the past 10 years, Smith had always believed in building through the draft, developing youth, but he soon changed his thinking. Experience was what the Leafs needed; they had their hearts broken too often by youth.In his dealings Smith has moved draft picks (a first and second this June, a second next year), moved prospects (John McIntyre and Scott Pearson), moved a former all-star defenseman (Al-lafrate), and tried desperately to disembody the many, calamatous cliques that existed within the dressing room.He had good intentions, but critics say a man who made his mark scouting juniors, wasn&rsquo;t a good judge of talent in the NHL. Thus, he traded the future for a quick fix that hasn&rsquo;t arrived.&ldquo;Talent is nothing unless it comes out to the extent we would like. We&rsquo;ve been waiting for years for young players to develop and where did it get us? It was time for a change,&rdquo; Smith said.&ldquo;The character on this team was always being questioned. What were we supposed to do, move one player and change everything? We did what we thought would help the team. Things had to be done. We&rsquo;ll see what happens.&rdquo;Smith has steadfastly defended his moves, hoping beyond hope they will work out. Of late, the 55-year-old seldom travels with the team, preferring the solitude of his suburban Buffalo home, where he can escape everything. Even the shadow.Now, it seems, he is fretting about his future, too. Donald Giffin, the Gardens&rsquo; president who gave Smith a three-year contract last summer, has let it slip he is searching for a director of hockey operations to help salvage his own job.Try as Giffin did to insist it would not affect Smith&rsquo;s status, he admitted that it would, leaving his GM to precide over a losing team, with no apparent future. A classic lame duck. Smith wisely refuses comment.It&rsquo;s funny, but Smith insisted he never aspired to be a general manager, but he took over two summers ago after Gord Stellick&rsquo;s sudden departure because, as he said at the time, there was work that had to be done.He is driven now by that same goal, but it&rsquo;s doubtful he will prevent it from happening. &#9632;

f0007-01

TRADE WINDS

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Scott Morrison</div>A general manager who insists he still hates to make trades, Floyd Smith has nonetheless developed a stomach for it this past season.Some would say the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs has solely been driven to avoid finishing last overall at any cost after trading away his first pick in the June entry draft to the New Jersey Devils for defenseman Tom Kurvers&mdash;who has since been traded to the Vancouver Canucks for center Brian Bradley.And it has been suggested that Smith&rsquo;s compelling desire to avoid having that trade hang over his head forever more, has prompted rash trading that has cost the Leafs their future with no tangible return.The Leafs (13-35-5), after all, remain in the turtle derby for 20th place overall with the Quebec Nordiques (11-34-9), a team that has kept its pot at the end of the draft rainbow.While trying to revive a team that was .500 last season, young and apparently on the rise, by the end of January Smith had completed eight trades in 76 days, moving out 11 players and two second-round picks and bringing in 11 players and a couple of middle-round draft picks.All the while, he has yet to answer the team&rsquo;s need for a front-line center and an experienced goalie.What follows, with the benefit of hindsight, is a rating of what one Toronto columnist sarcastically refers to as, the Floydian slips:Nov. 9&mdash;Traded center John McIntyre to Los Angeles for center Mike Krushelnyski.(McIntrye has done more for the Kings than Krushelnyski has for the Leafs. There was a faint hope Krushelnyski would be the first-line center, but he isn&rsquo;t. Edge to the Kings.)Nov. 9&mdash;Traded defenseman Steve Bancroft to Boston for left winger Rob Cimetta.(Bancroft is a couple of seasons away and the Leafs do have some young defensemen. but only of late has Cimetta played in Toronto. Even.)Nov. 10&mdash;Traded center Ed Olczyk and left winger Mark Osborne to Winnipeg for defenseman Dave Ellett and left winger Paul Fenton.(Smith has since called Fenton a throw-in and dealt him away. The night of the trade Gary Leeman was injured, thus in one day the Leafs&rsquo; top line was eliminated. They never replaced it. While it seemed Olczyk had to be moved, Smith never followed up with a comparable center. Edge to the Jets.)Nov. 17&mdash;Traded left winger Scott Pearson and a second-round pick in 1991 and 1992 to Quebec for defenseman Michel Petit and left wingers Lucien DeBlois and Aaron Broten.(All three have played regularly for the Leafs, but Smith gave up a lot in draft picks. In the long-term he will lose big. in the shortterm he got bodies. For now, even.)Dec. 17&mdash;Traded defenseman Brian Curran and right winger Lou Franceschetti to Buffalo for right winger Mike Foligno and future considerations.(Neither player was playing often in Toronto, Foligno has since returning from injury. Even.)Jan. 12&mdash;Traded defenseman Tom Kurvers to Vancouver for center Brian Bradley.(Another deal to try and ease the pain at center. Bradley hasn&rsquo;t produced much, while the return for Kurvers should&rsquo;ve been better considering they gave up a first-round pick for him. Edge to Canucks&hellip;and the Devils.)Jan. 16&mdash;Traded defenseman Al lafrate to Washington for center Peter Zezel and defenseman Bob Rouse.(lafrate had to be moved and Zezel has played well. The return should&rsquo;ve been better and the potential remains for the deal to haunt if lafrate returns to form. Slight edge to Toronto now. but the edge will ultimately go to the Caps.)Jan. 24&mdash;Traded Fenton and suspended right winger John Kordic to Washington for future considerations&mdash;believed to be a middle-round pick.(Smith gave up two bodies and got nothing, while the Capitals moved Fenton to Calgary for defenseman Ken Sabourin. Everyone won but Toronto.) &#9632;

SMITH PRACTISING THE ART OF THE DEAL

<div class="byline">BY BOB MCKENZIE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011483/5877977-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gordie Howe is one of eight former NHLers on the executive board of the NHL Alumni Association.</figcaption></div>As the NHL prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary next season, part of its past threatens to haunt the celebrations.A group calling itself the NHL Alumni Association, which claims to represent approximately 150 retired players, is prepared to launch legal proceedings against the league. Headed by an eight-man executive committee that includes Hall of Famers Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull and Bobby Orr, the group charges that the league, with tacit approval of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, misappropriated about $25 million of its pension monies.&ldquo;We have been trying for years to get information but we&rsquo;re getting no answers,&rdquo; says Dave Forbes, the exBoston Bruin who has taken a leadership role with the alumni.&ldquo;All we get is the runaround. It&rsquo;s like calling the bank and asking about your account only to be told, &lsquo;Sorry, we can&rsquo;t give you that information.&rsquo; If we&rsquo;re wrong about this, tell us. But we&rsquo;re not going to go away. If we don&rsquo;t get some answers soon, we will have no choice but to go the legal route.&rdquo;The alumni group has retained Mark Zigler of Toronto, one of the top pension lawyers in Canada. He reportedly has his case prepared and is awaiting word from the NHL alumni on whether to launch proceedings in the Ontario Supreme Court.At issue is $25 million in pension monies. &ldquo;There was a point in time when it all belonged to the players,&rdquo; says Zigler. &ldquo;Whether that is so now is what we&rsquo;re fighting about.&rdquo;The money represents a pension surplus declared in 1985. A surplus is created when the pension monies that are invested earn a higher rate of interest than projected. In this case, the players&rsquo; pension fund guaranteed a three per-cent return on invested money but the actual figure was closer to 10 per cent. That seven per-cent difference generated the $25-million surplus.The question of what to do with the surplus was addressed during Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations between the NHL and NHLPA in 1986. The NHL Pension Society (which includes reps from the league, clubs, NHLPA and the insurance company which holds the plan) decided to re-allocate the surplus as follows:&#9632; Approximately $4.5 million went to upgrading retired players&rsquo; pensions. This is the amount the NHL Pension Society designated as belonging to ex-players.&#9632; Approximately $2.5 million went to non-playing NHL employees and personnel in the now-defunct Central League, which was part of the plan.&#9632; Approximately $1.2 million went towards a security package negotiated by the NHLPA in the CBA. In other words, the funding for the much-publicized $250,000 lump sum payment at age 55 for all players with 400 NHL games service was derived from the surplus.&#9632; Approximately $16.5 million went back into the pension fund, to be used as the NHL clubs&rsquo; future contributions.Sources indicate that no NHL club has paid a cent of out-of-pocket expense into the pension plan for the past five years, nor is one likely to in the near future. In other words, the pension surplus is totally funding all present-day contributions by NHL clubs. A contribution of $5,000 per player is required annually, but the club is responsible for 75 per cent ($3,750) of that figure.The retired players say the entire surplus belongs to them and should have been re-applied to upgrade individual player pensions.NHL president John Ziegler declined comment, but NHL director of communications Gary Meagher said: &ldquo;We are all looking to see if there are ways we could improve the pensions of former players. We will not, however, enter into any discussions in view of the litigation that has been threatened.&rdquo;There is a subplot to all of this. Ed Garvey and Rich Winter, the two lawyers who led the assault on Alan Eagleson&rsquo;s leadership of the NHLPA, have been assisting the alumni group in strategic planning.Some say this is merely round two of Garvey-Winter vs. Eagleson. Forbes disagrees.&ldquo;Alan can portray it whatever way he wants,&rdquo; says Forbes, &ldquo;but the reality is that (former Bruin) Fern Flaman has a pension of $200 a month and Gordie Howe, after 32 years in the league, gets $1,200 a month.&ldquo;As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, Alan Eagleson has demonstrated once again a great ability to sell the interests of players down the stream. He was fully cognizant of the surplus transfer. He knew exactly what was being done. To take money for retired players and redistribute it for the current players&rsquo; security package&hellip;that is unconscionable.&rdquo;Forbes says the alumni group has no beef with current players. Nor, he adds, is it a threat to the security package negotiated in 1986.&ldquo;Alan Eagleson is trying to portray us as bitter, angry guys trying to take away $250,000 from each player in the NHL,&rdquo; Forbes says. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s just not true.&rdquo;Eagleson responds: &ldquo;As usual, Garvey, Winter and Forbes are making allegations that are mythical, erroneous and totally unfounded. The only question that has to be answered is, &lsquo;Who does the surplus belong to?&rsquo; We&rsquo;re quite happy to let a judge make that determination.&rdquo;Caught in between are current members of the NHLPA. Player reps at the All-Star Game in Chicago voted not to hear a submission from the alumni group. They said they were too busy with preparations for the CBA negotiations of this summer.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got no quarrel with the players of today,&rdquo; Forbes says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re on the same side. It&rsquo;s like (retired Toronto Maple Leaf) Allan Stanley said, &lsquo;The players of today may not realize it now, but they&rsquo;ll play a lot longer on our team than the team they&rsquo;re on now.&rsquo; The fact is, we&rsquo;re not going to go away. This is going to get settled.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0008-01

ALUMNI PONDERS LEGAL ACTION IN ROW OVER PENSION MONIES

<div class="byline">STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011433/5878008-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="489" height="624"></div>Some of NHL&rsquo;s best trades have won Stanley Cups and I&rsquo;m sure that a deal can win one this spring because history has told us so.In 1948, for example, the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Cup on a trade general manager Conn Smythe had made five months earlier. He dealt five front-line players to Chicago for Hall of Fame center Max Bentley. Bentley promptly dipsy-doodled the Leafs to championships in 1948, 1949 and 1951.Will anyone win the 1991 Cup as a result of a trade? Let&rsquo;s examine some of the more arresting deals of recent times and then determine: (A) Who won; (B) Why; and (C) What affect it might have on a 1991 Cup win.Bernie Nicholls from Los Angeles to the Rangers for Tomas Sandstrom and Tony Granato: Winner: Kings. The deal would have been equal if it had just been Sandstrom for Nicholls but the ubiquitous Granato not only adds mustard to the Kings but rounds out a super line. Nicholls has played capably, but with less impact overall.Playoff potential: Sandstrom-Granato have enough pizazz to at least get L.A. into the Smythe finals but since neither plays defense (where the Kings are hurting most), there is no future beyond that. Conversely, on the well-balanced Rangers. Nicholls could be the man with enough decisive goals on his stick to take them all the way.Chris Chelios from Montreal to Chicago for Denis Savard: Winner: Blackhawks. Chelios has style and substance, not to mention superior leadership qualities. He has just reached his prime. Savard still is electrifying, but there&rsquo;s more style than substance in his game.Playoff potential: A vintage Chelios could be what Chicago needs to leapfrog beyond the Campbell Conference finals. Within the context of a Pat Burns-coached team, Savard will be an asset but not enough to see the Canadiens past the second round.Claude Lemieux from Montreal to New Jersey for Sylvain Turgeon: Winner: Devils. Lemieux has defied his critics who alternately labelled him a one-way washed-up, coach-killer and whiner. In fairness to Turgeon, he started the season behind the 8-ball and requires the second half to determine whether surgery has remedied his problems.Playoff potential: If the Devils make it, Lemieux has series-breaking possibilities as he once demonstrated against the Whalers. Lemieux could be the difference between a Patrick Division exit and a march to the Wales Conference finals.AI lafrate from Toronto to Washington for Peter Zezel and Bob Rouse: Winner: Maple Leafs. While it is true lafrate is one heck of a player on paper, the game still is played on ice. And until lafrate demonstrates all-star qualities over an 80-game schedule, he is merely the equal of Rouse who remains one of the better stay-at-home defensive secrets of the NHL. That leaves Toronto with advantage&mdash;Zezel.Playoff potential: lafrate will get the opportunity to make the deal worthwhile by April when the Caps will need a new Scott Stevens. The enigmatic backliner has enough in his repertoire to give Washington a bit of 1990 dejavu.Daniel Berthiaume from Minnesota to Los Angeles for Craig Duncanson: Winner: Kings. The Bandit has remained one of the less-publicized success stories of the year while actually outperforming previous No. 1 netminder, Kelly Hrudey. Berthiaume has yet to reach his goaltending prime and should kick his game up yet another notch by next year. Duncanson was traded to Winnipeg for Don Barber. Enough said.Playoff potential: Kings will face a Cup dilemma deciding between Hrudey and Berthiaume. A hot Bandit could do what Bill Ranford did last year.Phil Housley from Buffalo to Winnipeg for Dale Hawerchuk: Winner: Draw. Housley has played as well for the Jets as he did in Buffalo, but the Jets obviously have not benefitted in terms of an improvement over 1990-91. Hawerchuk has been something less than an impact player in Sabreland although he certainly hasn&rsquo;t hurt Buffalo as much as some critics have suggested.Playoff potential: Despite their poor first-half performance, the Sabres could come on smartly between here and mid-April and that&rsquo;s where Hawerchuk looms as a hero, especially if Alexander Mogilny cooperates. Housley would have lifted Winnipeg over Edmonton in Game 7 last season but now getting the Jets into the playoffs will be accomplishment enough for him.Stan Fischler is a freelance writer based in New York City. &#9632;

f0009-01

RANGERS MAY ULTIMATELY WIN TRADE FOR NICHOLLS

&hellip;Washington Capitals&rsquo; right winger Dino Ciccarelli and defenseman Al lafrate are distant relatives? lafrate&rsquo;s great grandmother is the sister of Ciccarelli&rsquo;s grandfather, lafrate joined his relative in Washington on Jan. 16 after being traded by Toronto for center Peter Zezel and defenseman Bob Rouse.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021017/5878039-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="958" height="513"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dino Ciccarelli</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0009-02

DID YOU KNOW…

<div class="byline">BLACKHAWKS</div>The Blackhawks and Troy Murray got a scare Jan. 28 at Vancouver when Murray swallowed a portion of his permanent dental bridge after being hit in the mouth with the puck. Murray dropped to his knees and began gagging and coughing up blood from a cut on his tongue as his dental plate became lodged in his esophagus. He was taken from the ice on a stretcher with the dental bridge still in his throat. On the way to the hospital, Murray swallowed the bridge. After arriving at the hospital, Murray was sedated and the bridge was removed by doctors using a procedure where they inserted a scope through Murray&rsquo;s mouth to his stomach. Murray practised two days later and got two assists in the Hawks&rsquo; next game against Edmonton (4-3 loss Feb. 1). &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to change my approach to the game,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of the hazards of the job. I wouldn&rsquo;t count on that happening again.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Greg Millen became the Hawks&rsquo; No. 2 goalie when Jacques Cloutier was traded to Quebec. When Millen dressed for the Oilers&rsquo; game, it was his first appearance in uniform since Oct. 14. He saw his first game action Feb. 2 at Calgary when he relieved Ed Belfour in the third period of a 3-1 loss.<h2>RED WINGS</h2>Goalie Tim Cheveldae came within a phone call of unnecessarily having his appendix removed and being lost to the Wings for six weeks. Dr. John Finley, the Red Wings&rsquo; general surgeon, recently took an emergency call from a physician seeking permission to perform an appendectomy on the young netminder. Cheveldae was feverish and had been experiencing abdominal pain. Finley suggested another opinion and after further examination, doctors concluded that Cheveldae was suffering from a viral infection whose symptoms are similar to appendicitis. Through 55 games, the Wings were approaching the club record for the number of players used in a season. GM and coach Bryan Murray had employed 42 players, one short of the team record set in the 40-point, 1985-86 season. The 42 included 13 recalls from the minors, 11 from Adirondack (AHL).<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>Owner Norman Green watched the North Stars get shut out 3-0 by Toronto Jan. 28 and it made him angry. &ldquo;We have some players who aren&rsquo;t working hard enough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m tired of the excuses. We have injuries, there has been turmoil because of the arrangement (with San Jose Sharks&rsquo; owners&rsquo; George and Gordon Gund), attendance is down and we have a new coach. I&rsquo;ve heard enough excuses; they can kill you. We should be better. We certainly should get a better effort. We&rsquo;re far too good a team to be in 19th place in the league.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Neal Broten&rsquo;s goal in a 5-2 win over Detroit Jan. 30 was the 228th of his career and tied him with Steve Payne for fourth place on the North Stars&rsquo; all-time goals list. It was Broten&rsquo;s first goal in 16 games-&hellip;Green said he had freed GM Bob Clarke to make any trades necessary and said no players were untouchable. &ldquo;The loyalty in this organization has to be to the people who try the hardest and care the most,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;Players don&rsquo;t play for Mr. Green or for me. They play for each other. If they&rsquo;re not willing to play hard, then they&rsquo;re not much of a teammate and they&rsquo;re the kind of player I&rsquo;ll be looking to move.&rdquo;&hellip;Jim Erickson, legal counsel to the North Stars, has been named an alternate to the NHL Board of Governors.<h2>BLUES</h2>Center Adam Oates continues to shine for the Blues. Through Feb. 3, he had a point-scoring streak of six games with 20 points in that span on two goals and 18 assists. He started 1991 with six goals and 24 assists for 30 points, then doubled his output in January, finishing the month with season totals of 12-48-60 and had 13-5063 through Feb. 3. If he had not missed 19 games with injuries, he&rsquo;d be on a pace to score 148 points over an 80-game schedule. He&rsquo;s currently on pace to finish the season with 113 points. &ldquo;Things are going my way,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Whatever it is, I&rsquo;ve got to bottle it.&rdquo;&hellip;The Blues, minus an injured Brett Hull (sprained ankle), proved a point with wins over Buffalo (8-3 Jan. 29) and Hartford (4-3 Jan. 31). &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big part of our team, but we still have a lot of good players here,&rdquo; said veteran Ron Wilson, who had a goal and three assists against Buffalo. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not a one-man team.&rdquo; The victory over Hartford was the 100th of Brian Sutter&rsquo;s NHL coaching career&hellip;With three right wingers out with injuries, the Blues brought up Steve Tuttle from Peoria on an emergency basis for the game against Hartford and he came through with the first four-point game of his career, on a goal and three assists.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2>The 1990-91 season has been filled with disappointing nights, but Feb. 2 may just have been the most frustrating of all. After blowing a 1-0 lead the night before and losing 4-1 to Detroit in the first game of a home-and-home series, the Leafs lost 5-2 in the second game in Toronto. Coupled with Minnesota&rsquo;s win over Quebec, the Leafs found themselves 12 points out of the fourth and final playoff spot with 27 games remaining. &ldquo;Every time Minnesota wins it becomes another rung in the ladder for us to climb,&rdquo; said defenseman Todd Gill. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re running out of rungs.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Right winger Mike Foligno was philosophical about the Leafs&rsquo; recent troubles. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s an oasis in every desert and right now we&rsquo;re looking for that oasis,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

THE NHL

CLOSE CALLS FOR HAWK AND WING

<div class="byline">BY MARK HARDING</div>Perhaps even more perplexing than the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; fall from respectability this season has been the demise of the team&rsquo;s power play.Ranked fifth in the league at the conclusion of last season with an efficiency rating of 23.3 per cent, this year&rsquo;s Leafs held down 20th spot overall with a 15.6 success rate through games of Feb. 2.It&rsquo;s an astounding drop, to say the least. But considering many of general manager Floyd Smith&rsquo;s acquisitions this season have been made with the express purpose of bolstering the power play, the collapse is all the more mind-boggling.&ldquo;When you don&rsquo;t have good players, it&rsquo;s easy to understand, but we have good guys with good hands,&rdquo; said Michel Petit, whose cannon from the blue line was expected to contribute to the power play.Some of the good hands to which Petit referred include forwards Vince Damphousse, Gary Leeman, Daniel Marois, Wendel Clark and Mike Krushelnyski&mdash;each gifted offensive players. But it has been veteran defenseman Rob Ramage who has led the Leafs in power-play points for most of the campaign.Only recently did Damphousse overtake the team captain with four goals and nine assists.&ldquo;We have the talent and the potential,&rdquo; Petit said, &ldquo;but at times we just can&rsquo;t figure it out.&rdquo;Coach Tom Watt was the guiding force behind the revered Calgary power play last season, whose units combined for a league-leading 27.7 per cent efficiency rating. But Watt&rsquo;s expertise hasn&rsquo;t translated into success in Toronto.It can be argued that Watt has little chance of duplicating those numbers without an Al MacInnis or a Gary Suter or a Joe Nieuwendyk or a Doug Gilmour. Still, the club does possess ample offensive potential.And Watt hasn&rsquo;t concocted any complicated power-play strategies. In fact, his gospel couldn&rsquo;t be more simple: Get it back to the point and blast away.&ldquo;One of the more disappointing things for me as the coach is that I think our power play can be much better than it is,&rdquo; said Watt, who has seen Toronto&rsquo;s power play rating drop from 19.3 per cent when Doug Carpenter was released to 15.6.Defenseman Dave Ellett, picked up in mid-stream from Winnipeg and also expected to bolster the Leaf power play, has two goals and eight points in 34 games as a member of the manpower advantage units.&ldquo;All my career I&rsquo;ve played on the power play and I take pride in how it&rsquo;s doing&mdash;all the guys do&mdash;but we have to work harder to get the puck, move it around and move ourselves,&rdquo; said Ellett, who had eight power-play goals for Winipeg last season.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 28: Joe Sacco. LW, and Rob Cimetta, LW, recalled from Newmarket (AHL). Jan. 29: Sacco assigned to Newmarket. Scott Thornton, LW, recalled from Newmarket.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Peter Zezel, Mike Krushelnyski, Brian Bradley. Dave Hannan, Lucien DeBlois.LW&mdash;Vincent Damphousse, Wendel Clark, Rob Cimetta, Dave Reid.RW&mdash;Daniel Marois, Mike Foligno, Gary Leeman, Kevin Maguire.LD&mdash;Dave Ellett, Todd Gill, Luke Richardson, Brad Marsh.RD&mdash;Bob Rouse, Rob Ramage, Michel Petit.G&mdash;Peter Ing, Jeff Reese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Aaron Broten, LW, dislocated shoulder, indefinite. Tom Fergus, C, groin surgery, indefinite Scott Thornton, C, separated shoulder, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Damphousse, 14. A&mdash;Damphousse, 30. P&mdash;Damphousse, 44. PIM&mdash;Richardson, 151. &#9632;

POWER SHORTAGE HAS LEFT WATT PERPLEXED

<div class="byline">BY GARY OLSON</div>Mark Tinordi&rsquo;s first NHL game was when he was with the New York Rangers. The game was in Edmonton and Curt Giles was his partner.The next day, Nov. 20, 1987, Tinordi was sent back to the Rangers&rsquo; farm team in Denver and Giles was traded back to Minnesota, ending his 74-game exile in New York.&ldquo;I wanted to call Curt and apologize for what I&rsquo;d done to his career,&rdquo; Tinordi said, three seasons later. &ldquo;It tells you how good the Rangers thought we were.&rdquo;Giles was waiting when Tinordi got traded to the North Stars at the start of the next season and was his partner until Tinordi got more experience. Today, they&rsquo;re the Stars&rsquo; two best defensemen.&ldquo;Mark plays with much more confidence than when he first got here,&rdquo; said Giles. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s just beginning to realize how good he can be. I think he has a lot more talent than he thought he did when he first got here.&ldquo;Seeing the kids get better is a lot of what keeps me in the game,&rdquo; said Giles, 32.Tinordi, 24, is a 6-foot-4, 205-pound defenseman from Red Deer, Alta. He was signed as a free agent by the Rangers in 1987 and rescued the Stars&rsquo; 1983 draft from the dumpster by coming to Minnesota in a trade for No. 1 pick Brian Lawton Oct. 11, 1988.&ldquo;Mark&rsquo;s had a couple different seasons already,&rdquo; North Stars&rsquo; coach Bob Gainey said. &ldquo;He started under suspension (10 games for leaving the penalty box during a pre-season game) and didn&rsquo;t get going until about 20 per cent of our games were over.&ldquo;Then, he started to look like the player I expected: A big, rugged defensive defenseman.&ldquo;Somewhere during the middle part of our season, he took his game another step. He wasn&rsquo;t content to just play defense and started to lead rushes, beat the first man and open things up for our forwards.&rdquo;Tinordi was a big hit with the North Stars because he was a big hitter on the ice. He took on all comers and joined Basil McRae as the team&rsquo;s true heavyweights.&ldquo;I can tell I&rsquo;m playing with more confidence (than when I first arrived) because I make the plays without stopping to think about what will happen if I make a bad play,&rdquo; said Tinordi, who had 2-14-16 totals in 42 games. &ldquo;One of the things a young player has to get over is being afraid to make a mistake.&ldquo;The downside of my getting more involved with the offense is that I&rsquo;m not as physical as I used to be. That still has to be a big part of my game, something I need to get back to.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve fought most of the tough guys in the league at one time or another and I&rsquo;ve done well enough so maybe I get a little more room than some other guys. Now, I need to take advantage of that extra space and remember how I got it.&rdquo;<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 31: Pat MacLeod. D, assigned to Kalamazoo (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Neal Broten, Dave Gagner, Mike Modano, Bobby Smith.LW&mdash;Doug Smail, Brian Propp, Brian Bellows, Gaetan Duchesne.RW&mdash;Ilkka Sinisalo, Mike Craig, Ulf Dahlen, Basil McRae.LD&mdash;Mark Tinordi, Chris Dahlquist, Dan KeczmerRD&mdash;Neil Wilkinson, Brian Glynn, Jim Johnson, Curt Giles.G&mdash;Jon Casey, Brian Hayward.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Perry Berezan, C, separated shoulder, day-to-day. Shawn Chambers, D, left knee surgery, indefinite Shane Churla, RW, right shoulder separation, indefinite. Stewart Gavin, RW, strained ligament left knee, indefinite. Rob Zettler, D, hip flexor, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Gagner, 29. A&mdash;Broten, 40. P&mdash;Broten, 51. PIM&mdash;Churla, 219.<h3>BLUES &#9632;</h3>

TINORDI FINALLY HITTING HIS STRIDE

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div>When the St. Louis Blues traded career scoring leader Bernie Federko to Detroit June 15, 1989, they didn&rsquo;t give him much of a going away party.They simply called him in and told him after 13 years he was finished with the Blues. He could either retire or be traded.Federko chose the latter and the Blues obliged, sending him and Tony McKegney to the Red Wings for Adam Oates and Paul Mac Lean.It was perhaps one of the most lopsided trades in NHL history.Federko left with much sadness and regret, but his heart remained in St. Louis. When he retired after the 198990 season, he returned to St. Louis and is now a television analyst covering the Blues.And now that he&rsquo;s back, the Blues have decided it&rsquo;s time to properly acknowledge the high scoring center&rsquo;s place in team history. They plan to give him a retirement/homecoming party, retiring his jersey (No. 24) in a pre-game ceremony March 16.&ldquo;When you think of Federko&rsquo;s career,&rdquo; said team president Jack Quinn, &ldquo;and his contribution to the Blues and hockey&mdash;he&rsquo;ll probably be in the Hall of Fame some day&mdash;it&rsquo;s the right thing to do.Federko&rsquo;s number will be the fourth retired by the club, who have Bob Gassoff&rsquo;s No. 3, Barclay Plager&rsquo;s No. 8 and Brian Sutter&rsquo;s No. 11 hanging from The Arena rafters.The Blues also have a special banner commemorating the career of broadcaster Dan Kelly.The 33-year-old Federko was deeply moved.&ldquo;When you see the other names up there, it&rsquo;s a nice compliment to be honored with them,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big, big honor, especially since you don&rsquo;t see it happen very often. I&rsquo;m very flattered.&ldquo;When a team does that, it&rsquo;s the ultimate. When you play, it&rsquo;s something you dream about, but you can&rsquo;t expect anything like that. You just try to do your job and hope for the best.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011362/5878142-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="553" height="626"><figcaption class="caption-body">Adam Oates was acquired in a trade for Bernie Federko.</figcaption></div>The Blues drafted Federko in the first round (seventh overall) of the 1976 entry draft. He played just 42 games with Kansas City in the Central League in 1976-77 before joining the Blues for the rest of the season.During his 13 seasons with the Blues, Federko set team records for games (927), goals (352), assists (721) and points (1,073) before being shipped to Detroit.He retired after only one season with the Red Wings, finishing his career with 1,130 points on 369 goals and 761 assists in 1,000 games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing,&rdquo; Federko said. &ldquo;All the things that have happened, all the games, all the years. I&rsquo;ve done well, and I care for the Blues. What a nice gesture.&rdquo;Quinn and publicist Susie Mathieu decided last month it was time to honor Federko&rsquo;s achievements. They called him in for a meeting. It was in stark contrast to the meeting he had before the trade.&ldquo;This one was a little different,&rdquo; Federko said. &ldquo;They asked if it was okay. I said, &lsquo;Oh, of course.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s a tremendous honor.&rdquo;A deserving one, according to Sutter.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 29: David Bruce, RW. recalled from Peoria (IHL). Jan. 31: Steve Tuttle. RW, recalled from Peoria. Feb. 1: Bruce assigned to Peoria. Feb. 4: Herb Raglan, RW, Tony Twist, D, and Andy Rymsha, D, traded to Quebec for Darin Kimble, RW.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Adam Oates, Bob Bassen, Ron Wilson, Cliff Ronning.LW&mdash;Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Dave Lowry, Geoff Courtnall, Gino Cavallini.RW&mdash;Brett Hull, Rich Sutter, Steve Tuttle, Sergio Momesso.LD&mdash;Scott Stevens, Robert Dirk, Harold Snepsts.RD&mdash;Jeff Brown, Paul Cavallini, Glen Featherstone. Mario Marois.G&mdash;Vincent Riendeau, Curtis Joseph.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Herb Raglan, RW, left knee sprain, day-to-day. Paul MacLean, RW, torn rib cartilage, day-to-day. Rick Meagher, C. bruised ankle, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Hull, 53. A&mdash;Oates, 50. P&mdash;Hull, 76. PIM&mdash;Featherstone, 139. &#9632;

f0011-01

CLUB ROLLING OUT BLUE CARPET FOR FEDERKO

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>It started with a buzz.The Detroit Red Wings were hopelessly losing to the New Jersey Devils in front of another standing-room-only crowd at Joe Louis Arena, but nobody was going anywhere.On this night, the result of a hockey game was incidental. Nobody much cared that the Wings were about to lose their sixth straight game Jan. 28. This was fight night, the moment every NHL fight fan had anticipated eagerly since Opening Night, when rookie Troy Crowder opened a 13-stitch gash under Bob Probert&rsquo;s right eye in the worst beating Probert had taken in his career.The buzz became a roar.Finally, in the game&rsquo;s 25th minute, both teams changed lines and Probert and Crowder hopped over the boards well-rested and ready to rumble. Probert skated directly toward Crowder. The two bumped together and then&mdash;as if one of them said, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s get it over with&rsquo; and the other agreed&mdash;they dropped their sticks and shook off their gloves.New Jersey already was leading the game, 4-1 en route to a 6-2 win, and the only issue that remained unresolved soon would be settled.Crowder held the early upper hand, pulling Probert&rsquo;s sweater over his head and throwing blows that weren&rsquo;t landing. Probert lost his sweater, then his pads, and then most of his undershirt. Probert managed to free his right arm of Crowder&rsquo;s grasp and began to pound. First, he pummeled Crowder so hard his helmet went flying. Then he pulled Crowder&rsquo;s sweater over his shoulders and landed another right to the head that dropped Crowder to the ice.The linsemen intervened and ushered the combatants to the their penalty boxes.The roar became a two-minute standing ovation.&ldquo;It felt like it was a heavyweight title (fight) with the crowd and all,&rdquo; Probert said. &ldquo;That was the first time in the six years I&rsquo;ve played in Detroit that I&rsquo;ve seen something like that.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something I think needed to be done, with all the press it got. It&rsquo;s part of my game. I enjoy the odd scuffle now and then. I owed him one, and I think I got him back fair and square.&rdquo;Crowder later tried a sneak attack seeking his own measure of revenge. As Probert neared the end of a shift, Crowder hopped over the boards and approached his rival from the blind side, landing several harmless punches before Probert could shake off his gloves. Probert held his ground and managed to pull Crowder to the ice before the linesmen intervened again. This time, Crowder was ejected with a game misconduct and Probert finished the game.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think that was very manly,&rdquo; Probert said.The two teams meet again March I at Joe Louis Arena. Does Probert expect another title fight?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have anything to prove. I think I proved that tonight,&rdquo; he said.-&rdquo;The ball&rsquo;s in his court now.&rdquo;<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 29: Dave Gagnon, G, and Chris Luongo, D, assigned to Adirondack (AHL). Alain Chevrier, G, recalled from San Diego (IHL). Gord Kruppke, D, recalled from Adirondack.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, John Chabot, Paul Ysebaert, Marc Habscheid.LW&mdash;Gerard Gallant, Shawn Burr, Johan Garpenlov, Keith Primeau.RW&mdash;Bob Probert, Joe Kocur, Dave Barr, Randy McKay.LD&mdash;Bobby Dollas, Rick Green, Gord Kruppke.RD&mdash;Rick Zombo, Yves Racine, Doug HoudaG&mdash;Tim Cheveldae, Alain Chevrier, Scott King.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jimmy Carson, C, strained knee, day-to-day. Steve Chiasson. D, broken foot, indefinite. Brent Fedyk, RW, deep shin bruise, day-to-day. Glen Hanlon, G, broken hand, day-to-day Brad McCrimmon. D. broken ankle, day-to-day. Greg Stefan, G, right knee surgery, Feb. 16.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Yzerman, 38. A&mdash;Yzerman, 37. P&mdash;Yzerman, 75. PIM&mdash;Kocur, 211. &#9632;

PROBERT WINS ‘SHOWDOWN IN MOTOWN’

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div>Being so familiar with the Norris Division after stops in Minnesota, St. Louis and Detroit, Tony McKegney often wondered what it would be like to play for the Chicago Blackhawks.Now he&rsquo;ll know.McKegney was traded for the seventh time in his 13-year career Jan. 29 when the Quebec Nordiques sent him to the Hawks in exchange for goaltender Jacques Cloutier.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve sat on that other bench many times in Chicago Stadium fantasizing about what it would be like to have those people behind you,&rdquo; said McKegney, who is with his sixth team in the last six years.&ldquo;Being traded so often has been more of an inconvience than anything else. I hope this is the last stop for me.I like the way the team plays, I like the city and Chicago Stadium is unbelievable. This is like a new life for me.&rdquo;Hawks&rsquo; general manager and head coach Mike Keenan said the 32-year-old McKegney was acquired for one reason.&ldquo;Goals,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s put the numbers up before, so we&rsquo;re expecting him to help. I like his speed, his size (6-foot-1,200 pounds) and his ability to go to the net.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think I can score some goals here,&rdquo; said McKegney, who had 17 with Quebec this season and 320 for his career at the time of the deal. &ldquo;This team has so much talent it will make goal scoring easier. They move the puck so well.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011375/5878204-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="570" height="1024"><figcaption class="caption-body">Greg Millen feels McKegney can help Chicago&rsquo;s offense.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02991/5878197-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="562" height="804"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tony McKegney was traded to the Blackhawks Jan. 29.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really a breath of fresh air to come here. You can feel it in the atmosphere and feel it with their spirit that this team has a lot of confidence in itself.&rdquo;Even though it meant packing up and moving for yet another time, McKegney was excited to be joining a team first in the overall standings and in position to make a serious run at the Stanley Cup.&ldquo;Last year, I missed the playoffs for the first time in 12 years and it wasn&rsquo;t fun,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m hungry to play and help this team. This is a challenge I need.&rdquo;Another challenge facing McKegney is adapting to Keenan, who demands discipline, defense and his players to be in top shape. Those who don&rsquo;t comply, don&rsquo;t play.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking at a longer period of time with Tony than we had with, say, Michel Goulet last year,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s good we made the deal now instead of in March at the trading deadline. It&rsquo;ll give us some time to work with Tony.&rdquo;&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to have to adapt like all of us did to Mike&rsquo;s worth ethic,&rdquo; said Greg Millen, a teammate of McKegney&rsquo;s in St. Louis and Quebec. &ldquo;The key will be how Tony reacts. Not many coaches demand what Mike does. A lot of players are taken aback by it and I&rsquo;m sure Tony will need some time.&ldquo;But this is a chance of a lifetime for anyone coming to our organization. Tony&rsquo;s a natural goal scorer, and if our organization felt we needed more scoring, Tony can score.&rdquo;McKegney made his Hawks&rsquo; debut Feb. 1 against Edmonton, playing right wing on a line with center Adam Creighton and Greg Gilbert. The trio was held off the score sheet.&ldquo;The biggest thing now for me is putting the pressure on myself to win because that pressure wasn&rsquo;t there in Quebec,&rdquo; McKegney said. &ldquo;This team expects to win every time out.&rdquo;While McKegney would like to remain in Chicago past this season, he knows his stay could last only a few months since he&rsquo;s playing out his option.&ldquo;This is a team that&rsquo;s going to be good for years to come and I&rsquo;d certainly like to stay here, but my first thought is just to play well,&rdquo; McKegney said. &ldquo;If I do that the other thing will take care of itself.&rdquo;<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 29: Jacques Cloutier, G, traded to Quebec for Tony McKegney, LW-RW.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Jeremy Roenick, Troy Murray, Adam Creighton, Mike Hudson.LW&mdash;Michel Goulet, Steve Thomas, Greg Gilbert, Mike Peluso, Stu Grimson.RW&mdash;Steve Larmer, Dirk Graham, Tony McKegney, Jocelyn Lemieux, Wayne Presley.LD&mdash;Doug Wilson, Trent Yawney, Steve Konroyd.RD&mdash;Bob McGill, Chris Chelios, Dave Manson.G&mdash;Ed Belfour, Greg Millen.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Keith Brown. D, dislocated left shoulder, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Larmer, 31. A&mdash;Larmer, 43. P&mdash;Larmer, 74 PIM&mdash;Peluso, 185. &#9632;

f0013-01

CHICAGO IS McKEGNEY’S KIND OF TOWN

<div class="byline">STEVE DRYDEN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011457/5878235-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="506" height="617"></div>I surrender. Fighting belongs in the NHL. It is a natural consequence of a fast-paced game that puts a premium on body contact. If players don&rsquo;t fight, they will swing their sticks and kill one another.It is preferable and more manly for them to pound each other silly. It would be presumptuous and unfair to suggest some players don&rsquo;t have far to go.The fights between Troy Crowder and Bob Probert are convincing proof that fighting is not a tactic. Nor is it ever an act of pre-meditated violence. Fighting is simply the result of spontaneous combustion. It was coincidence that Crowder and Probert erupted at the same time.People never get hurt in fights anyway. Why would they? Think of all the fights you had when you were a kid. I&rsquo;ll bet you never missed a day of school after a scrap.Because we are a hockey publication and pride ourselves on maintaining the game&rsquo;s rich traditions, we have a rule around The Hockey News that has kept work-related injuries to a minimum. It has had the effect of taking the rulers out of our hands.As you would expect in the high-pressure world of a weekly publication, tempers flare as that Monday deadline approaches. There have been ugly incidents. Copy editor Jason Kay once poked Inside HOCKEY assistant editor Ken Campbell with a line gauge. Campbell could have lost an eye.Since that savage day, new regulations have been instituted. Employees are ejected from the office for one day if they use a measuring instrument wrecklessly.Instead, we encourage people to settle their differences like North Americans. (Thankfully, we don&rsquo;t have any of those panty waist European editors.) There were three fights last week and we were all pretty proud that we acted like adults.The most important reason to allow fighting is that people like it. I think the NHL should be responsive to its fans. Certainly, we at THN have tried to be just that. As part of our datebook in the Oct. 26 issue, we listed a Nov. 3 game between New Jersey and Edmonton as noteworthy because Crowder would be defending his unofficial heavyweight crown against Dave Brown. Journalism at its best.Some people from other sports think the NHL is asinine to permit fighting. They argue it is degrading. How can they say that? Two playersbeating the crap out of each other is good for the game.And five other things I would like to say:&#9632; The Americans will be good at Canada Cup &lsquo;91, but the Canadians will be better. Canada has the best goalie (Patrick Roy), best defenseman (Raymond Bourque), best playmaker (Wayne Gretzky), best goal-scorer (Mario Lemieux, not Brett Hull) and best coach (Mike Keenan) in the world.&#9632; Earlier this season, I wrote somewhat tentatively that Joe Sakic could be considered the best player from the 1987 entry draft&mdash;ranking ahead even of No. 1 pick Pierre Turgeon. I was wrong to write it tentatively.&#9632; Steve Yzerman is my favorite player for two reasons: (1) Of the league&rsquo;s highest-skilled forwards, none plays so physical a game as Yzerman. (I know, I know, so what are the others doing&mdash;playing a metaphysical game?) You can&rsquo;t say Yzerman plays a scrappy game. He is the epitome of elegance on ice, but he&rsquo;s willing to give a hit and take a hit. (2) Few players take so many 1-on-l chances. While others dish off or spin and delay when confronted by an opponent, the smooth-skating Yzerman loves the challenge of putting his skills on the line.&#9632; The coach of the year should not be chosen until after the Stanley Cup champion is determined. It is outrageous the Cup-winning coach has received the Jack Adams Award just twice (Scotty Bowman, 1977, and Fred Shero, 1974). But since it is based on regular-season results, the leading candidate should be Pat Bums.&#9632; This will be the most important summer of agent Rick Curran&rsquo;s career. Several of his players have contracts that demand attention&mdash;including Eric Lindros. The starting point is a $1 million signing bonus. Three other Curran clients&mdash;Mark Recchi, Brendan Shanahan and Glen Wesley&mdash;will be Type I free agents as of July 1. That means they are not subject to compensation based on salary. Should one of them sign with a new club, the teams can either settle between themselves or go before a league-appointed arbitrator. In addition, Curran is sure to be renegotiating John MacLean&rsquo;s contract. The gifted goal-scorer, who is making $300,000 (U.S.) this season, ranks 20th among right wingers. If Toronto finishes last, Curran and Lou Lamoriello are going to see a great deal of one another this summer.Steve Dryden is managing editor of Inside HOCKEY. &#9632;

f0014-01

FIGHTING AND THE NHL GO TOGETHER LIKE PROBERT AND CROWDER

<h2>RANGERS</h2>Only seven goalies in NHL history have made more saves in one game than the 59 Mike Richter made in 3-3 tie at Vancouver Jan. 31. The tie gave Richter a 4-1-3 record this season in games when opposition has 40 shots or more. Vancouver&rsquo;s totals for shots in the game (62) and shots in the third period (28) were all-time highs against the Rangers&hellip;The Rangers have eight players with 100 or more shots on goal, which ties Chicago and Pittsburgh for the NHL lead&hellip;The Rangers&rsquo; 4-3 loss to Winnipeg Feb. 3 marked the first time this season the Rangers permitted three power-play goals&hellip;Ray Sheppard scored his first goal in one month, connecting against Winnipeg to end an II-game dry spell&hellip;Kevin Miller scored his first five goals of the season at home, then scored his next eight on the road.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>John Kordic made his Capitals&rsquo; debut Jan. 31 in a 4-3 win over the New York Islanders and promptly got into a skirmish with Mick Vukota. Vukota was given an instigating and game misconduct penalty, in addition to the fighting penalty. &ldquo;I just wanted to get into a game as fast as I could,&rdquo; Kordic said. He is still trying to get in shape. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll keep it easy and as simple as I can.&rdquo;&hellip;In a recent six-game stretch, the Capitals played five overtime games, including four in a row. They were 3-1-1 in those overtime games. Don Beaupre was in goal for all five matches&hellip;Peter Bondra, who was the rookie of the month in November, had last scored a goal Dec. 7 through Feb. 4.<h2>DEVILS</h2>Peter Stastny scored the 400th goal of his NHL career Jan. 30 in L. A. (4-2 win), just hours after receiving a call from his brother, Anton, from Switzerland. &ldquo;He reminded me I always play well in L.A.,&rdquo; Stastny said. &ldquo;I told him I would score No. 400 that night and he said there was no doubt in his mind.&rdquo; After being knocked down by Bob Probert in the first of two fights at Joe Louis Arena Jan. 28, Troy Crowder rebounded to win the second bout. The slugfests only proved that they are the two toughest heavyweights in the game&hellip;A decision to start goalie Sean Burke in St. Louis Feb. 2 three days after Chris Terreri stole a victory in L. A., put coach John Cunniff on the hot seat once again. Burke allowed three goals on 12 second-period shots as the Blues came from behind for a 5-4 win.<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>Goalie Jeff Hackett, who has been the backup for Glenn Healy for most of the season, started three games in a four-game stretch for the Islanders and played well each time. He allowed one goal in each of two games against Hartford&mdash;an 8-1 win Jan. 29 and a 1-1 tie Feb. 3&mdash;and kept the Islanders competitive in a 4-3 overtime loss to Washington Jan. 31. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been taking our time with him,&rdquo; coach Al Arbour said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s maturing. I think he&rsquo;s understanding the game and the goaltending a lot better up here in the NHL. He&rsquo;s getting better and better and will get better yet.&rdquo; Hackett, 22, said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to give credit to Glenn. He has deserved the majority of ice time. He has kept us in games singlehandedly.&rdquo;&hellip; The Isles, who have scored six or more goals in a game on three occasions this season, got that many in the second period of the 8-1 win over Hartford. &ldquo;Things have been tough for us,&rdquo; said Arbour. &ldquo;We were determined, heads up, doing the right things and for a while I thought it was the Russian Red Army out there the way we were moving the puck.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03776/5878297-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg" title="f0014-03" width="547" height="650"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wendell Young was effective as a fill-in for Tom Barrasso.</figcaption></div><h2>PENGUINS</h2>Veteran backup goaltender Wendell Young did an admirable job filling in for No. 1 goalie Tom Barrasso, who has been sidelined with an infected finger and a bruised foot. Young won three of his four start-s&hellip;. Right winger Joe Mullen was scheduled to undergo surgery Feb. 6 to repair a herniated disc in his neck. Mullen will miss the rest of the season&hellip;Rookie defenseman Paul Stanton scored the winning goal in overtime of a 3-2 victory against Washington Jan. 29. But his effort wasn&rsquo;t enough to preserve his spot in the lineup. Randy Hillier took Stanton&rsquo;s spot when he returned from a broken foot two nights later.<h2>FLYERS</h2>Playing without their top three scorers&mdash;Rick Tocchet (pulled left groin), Pelle Eklund (strained hip flexor) and Murray Craven (swollen left eye)&mdash;the Flyers were shut out by Hartford (2-0 Feb. 2) for the second time this season. It marks the first time the Flyers have been shut out by the same team twice in the same year since the New York Rangers turned the trick in 1980-81. The win also gave Hartford its first-ever season sweep of Philadelphia&hellip;Craven suffered a 16-stitch cut when he was accidentally hit by a Kjell Samuelsson shot in the Flyers&rsquo; 4-2 win over Pittsburgh Jan. 31. &#9632;

f0014-03

CANUCKS USE RICHTER FOR TARGET PRACTICE

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>During a season in which the New Jersey Devils have lacked an inspirational leader, Brendan Shanahan decided it was time to step forward.Still showing the physical effects of a slap shot which crushed the right side of his face and required surgery to repair a fractured cheekbone, broken jaw and displaced teeth, Shanahan returned to the Devils&rsquo; lineup Jan. 26, nearly a month before anyone thought it was possible.The 22-year-old forward&rsquo;s impact was felt immediately. Coach John Cunniff, whose job was hanging in the balance, reunited Shanahan with longtime linemates John MacLean and Patrik Sundstrom and it helped produce key victories in Detroit (6-2 Jan. 28) and Los Angeles 4-2 (Jan. 30).&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never really sustained any serious injuries since playing hockey,&rdquo; Shanahan said, who had six points in his first four games back in the lineup. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t like the feeling of sitting out.&ldquo;I felt bad at a time when the team was struggling. Every guy on the team feels he can pull the team out of it and I wanted to be that guy. Of course, it was a team effort when we finally did turn it around.&rdquo;Nevertheless, it was the Shanahan (0-3-3), MacLean (3-2-5) and Sundstrom (1-4-5) line which combined for 13 points in victories over the Red Wings and Kings.&ldquo;He came back a lot sooner than expected, no question,&rdquo; said Ken Daneyko. &ldquo;It was important. We hadn&rsquo;t been scoring goals and he&rsquo;s the guy who creates opportunities.&rdquo;Shanahan&rsquo;s injury occurred Jan. 8 at the Meadowlands Arena when he was struck in the face by a Tommy Albelin shot which deflected off the stick of St. Louis defenseman Harold Snepsts.He underwent surgery the next day and, in the hours immediately after the operation, talked tough.He spoke of being unafraid to stand in front of the net in the line of oncoming slap shots, but when his return was imminent, Shanahan had to deal with the fear experienced by any hockey player hit in the face with a puck or baseball player beaned by a pitch.Would he be gun-shy?&ldquo;It was something that crossed my mind, but knowing myself I didn&rsquo;t think that would happen. I&rsquo;m stubborn that way. I guess I always approached it thinking, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll be okay,&rsquo; &ldquo;Shanahan said. &ldquo;But when I was finally going to be playing, I pictured myself standing in front of the net and the puck coming right at me. If it chooses to hit you, there&rsquo;s nothing you can do about it.&rdquo;Shanahan faced his fear head-on.&ldquo;The first thing I did was get Tommy Albelin and line up 10 or 15 pucks at the blue line for him to take slap shots and I tried to tip them in,&rdquo; Shanahan said. &ldquo;The first couple of shots were really low. I told him to shoot like he normally would, hip or knee-high. On the first couple I held my breath, but I was okay.&ldquo;One thing I wanted to show my teammates in the first game back was that I would go in front of the net on the power play.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll never forget what happened but I&rsquo;m not going to let it change the way I play the game. Part of my game is standing in front of the net, creating chances and creating havoc.&rdquo;By returning so soon, Shanahan risked further injury and possibly his financial future since he is playing out his option with the Devils.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 27: Jon Morris, C, and Roland Melanson, G, recalled from Utica (AHL). Jan. 29: Perry Anderson, LW, recalled from Utica. Tommy Albelin, D, and Neil Brady, C, assigned to Utica. Jan. 31: Anderson and Melanson assigned to Utica.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Peter Stastny, Patrik Sundstrom, Laurie Boschman, Jon Morris.LW&mdash;Kirk Muller, Brendan Shanahan, Dave Maley, Jeff Madill.RW&mdash;Claude Lemieux, John MacLean, Doug Brown, Troy Crowder.LD&mdash;Ken Daneyko, Viacheslav Fetisov, Lee Norwood, Bruce Driver.RD&mdash;Alexei Kasatonov. Eric Weinrich, Myles O&rsquo;Connor.G&mdash;Chris Terreri, Sean Burke.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Zdeno Ciger, LW, infected elbow, dayto-day Walt Poddubny. LW. right knee surgery, indefinite.<h2>LEADERS</h2>G&mdash;MacLean, 31. A&mdash;Muller, 41. P&mdash;MacLean, Muller, 55. PIM&mdash;Daneyko, 168. &#9632;

SHANAHAN FACES FEAR HEAD ON—AND WINS

<div class="byline">BY MARK HERRMANN</div>Al Arbour said he was as surprised as anyone to read a newspaper report asserting he is expected to retire as coach of the New York Islanders at the end of this season.After reading the report, he questioned the account, laughed, and joked about it with his players.He did everything&mdash;except deny it.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t look that far ahead,&rdquo; said the 58-year-old coach, who ranks third in NHL coaching victories behind Scotty Bowman and Dick Irvin.But victories have been scarce this season, perhaps the most frustrating of his 21 seasons as an NHL coach.Arbour has tried scolding, chiding and encouraging his players, but the offensively-weak Islanders haven&rsquo;t been able to create a winning streak or make a run at a playoff spot.And while Arbour is more relaxed between games than he used to be, he still becomes uptight during and after games.Given that backdrop, even general manager Bill Torrey&mdash;his close friend, who coaxed Arbour out of retirement to replace Terry Simpson Dec. 7, 1988&mdash;wouldn&rsquo;t be surprised if Arbour doesn&rsquo;t renew his two-year contract that expires at the end of the season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had discussions about the situation with Al on and off all season,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;Now I don&rsquo;t want to prejudge anything, and 1 certainly want to leave the door open for him, but certainly Al&rsquo;s retirement is something I&rsquo;ve given thought to. It&rsquo;s not a surprise.&rdquo;For his part, Arbour says he has reached a decision and he will reveal it until at the end of the season.He said he did &ldquo;not want to open a can of worms now.&rdquo;If Arbour has in fact decided to step down, he hasn&rsquo;t made it clear in the dressing room. Assistant coach Darcy Regier, when told a day in advance of the newspaper report, said: &ldquo;That&rsquo;s news to me.&rdquo;Center Ray Ferraro said he hadn&rsquo;t heard anything about Arbour&rsquo;s future until he was walking in his Long Island neighborhood, noticed a copy of the paper on a neighbor&rsquo;s lawn and stopped to read it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve only been here 2&frac12; months, but I&rsquo;ve noticed one thing. Al has an ability to mix a great sense of humor in with some tough times,&rdquo; Ferraro said. &ldquo;I hope he stays.&rdquo;Arbour tried not to differentiate this season from the rest of his career.&ldquo;I had frustrating seasons when I started, in the middle, in the better years,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When you lose, it doesn&rsquo;t matter when it is. Any time you lose a game, it&rsquo;s frustrating.&rdquo;Arbour is assured of a place in the front office. The last time he left coaching, in 1986, he served as a consultant and scout. He could be a valuable commodity in the latter category for the Islanders, who have not had a productive first-round draft pick since Pat LaFontaine in 1983.Arbour is handling the retirement speculation in a good-natured fashion. Before a recent game, he graciously accepted &ldquo;parting gifts&rdquo; from Islanders&rsquo; broadcaster Jiggs McDonald.<h2>N.Y. ISLES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 1: Jeff Finley, D, and Rich Kromm, LW, assigned to Capital District (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pat LaFontaine, Brent Sutter, Ray Ferraro, John Tucker.LW&mdash;David Volek, Derek King. Bill Berg, Dave Chyzowski.RW&mdash;Randy Wood, Patrick Flatley, Brad Lauer. Mick Vukota.LD&mdash;Rich Pilon, Gary Nylund, Wayne McBean, Ken Baumgartner.RD&mdash;Jeff Norton, Joe Reekie, Craig Ludwig.G&mdash;Glenn Healy. Jeff Hackett.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mark Fitzpatrick, G, eosinophilia myalgia syndrome, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;LaFontaine, 29. A&mdash;LaFontaine, 33. P&mdash;LaFontaine, 62. PIM&mdash;Baumgartner, 197. &#9632;

ARBOUR DAYS RUMORED TO BE NEARING AN END

<div class="byline">BY DAVE SELL</div>The Washington Capitals were bobbing in Patrick Division waters for most of January, struggling to keep their heads above the surface and an eye on the leaders. That would be easier with Rod Langway in the lineup.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s frustrating, more than anything else,&rdquo; Langway said of the back spasms that have had him on the shelf since Jan. 11. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s at a point where we&rsquo;re fighting fora playoff spot. It&rsquo;s a lot of things&hellip; not being with the guys or even being able to stay in shape.&rdquo;At the end of January, Langway started on some new medication that he and the doctors hoped would relieve the pain that can make getting out of bed difficult. He skated for the first time Feb. 2, and that night said he felt quite sore. But he skated again the next day, which qualifies as progress.The Capitals were 4-6-1 in the first 11 games Langway missed with the back spasms and were 24-28-3 overall&mdash;in fifth spot in the Patrick Division. During that 11-game stretch, in which they never won twice in a row, there were frequent problems with making the simple clearing pass or sweeping the front of the net of rebounds. There had been problems with that before, but Langway often helps in those areas.Langway will be 34 by the end of the season, but he was still playing well when he was hurt. Only Ken Sabourin, who brought a plus-9 rating with him from Calgary, had a better plus/minus rating than Langway&rsquo;s plus-8. And though Langway&rsquo;s shifts might be a tad shorter or fewer per game, coach Terry Murray still had him on the ice for the first penaltykilling shift or whenever there was a key faceoff in the Capitals end.&ldquo;I want to play as long as I feel I&rsquo;m not embarrassing myself,&rdquo; said Langway, who has won two Norris Trophies during his 13-season career.But it is possible it could be his last season in Washington, though both he and management say they hope it is not.Langway is playing out the option year of his contract. This season, he&rsquo;s making $342,500, plus $75,000 in deferred compensation, which he readily admits puts him some distance from the poverty line. But with salaries going up, he would like more of the pie.Langway said there may be discussions in the upcoming weeks and he would like to stay. Though recently divorced, his children (Drew, Tucker and Nicole) are frequent vistors at practice and he has business interests in the area.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking for more than just a playing contract,&rdquo; Langway said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking for an organizational contract, also. I don&rsquo;t want to be a head coach. I&rsquo;d like to be able to give my opinion. But my big thing would be to help defensemen; say be responsible for helping defensemen on the Caps and in Baltimore. That would be my ideal hockey job.&rdquo;&ldquo;Certainly, my ideal scenario would be to have him stay and end his career in Washington,&rdquo; said Capitals&rsquo; general manager David Poile.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Ridley, Dale Hunter. Michal Pivonka, Dave Tippett.LW&mdash;Kelly Miller. John Druce. Dimitri Khristich, Nick Kypreos.RW&mdash;Dino Ciccarelli, Steve Leach, Peter Bondra, Alan May, John Kordic.LD&mdash;Calle Johansson, Mike Lalor. Ken Sabourin.RD&mdash;Kevin Hatcher, Al lafrate, Mikhail Tatarinov.G&mdash;Don Beaupre, Mike Liut.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Chris Felix, D, broken ankle, indefinite. Rod Langway, D, back spasms, day-today. Neil Sheehy. D. herniated disc, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Druce. 18. A&mdash;Hatcher, 37. P&mdash;Hatcher, 53. PIM&mdash;Hunter. 173.<h3>RANGERS &#9632;</h3>

DEFENSE HURT BY LOSS OF LANGWAY

<div class="byline">BY FRANK BROWN</div>Barely two weeks after wearing the Prince of Wales Conference sweater so proudly at the NHL All-Star game in Chicago, center Darren Turcotte found himself with no sweater at all for the Rangers&rsquo; Jan. 31 3-3 tie in Vancouver.After watching the third-year speedster produce just two goals and two assists over the first 13 games of the second half, coach Roger Neilson assigned the 22-year-old a night of observation from the Pacific Coliseum press box.&ldquo;Darren Turcotte is one of our guys who works hardest in practice. He&rsquo;s a very coachable, keen, eager young player who is going to be a top player in the NHL,&rdquo; Neilson said. &ldquo;He was struggling a bit defensively and offensively, pucks weren&rsquo;t bouncing for him, and we decided to sit him out a game.&rdquo;Turcotte, who said he took the banishment positively, reacted as such in the following game against Winnipeg. Placed on a line with defensive stalwart Jan Erixon and offensive standout Mike Gartner, Turcotte provided a hard-driving, two-assist performance.&ldquo;He played his usual game,&rdquo; Neilson said after Turcotte&rsquo;s output had. gone for naught in a 4-3 loss to Winnipeg. &ldquo;He was getting lots of shots (three official shots, two that struck the posts behind Jets&rsquo; goalie Bob Essensa). He was darting in and out, and he had a couple of good hits, too, which showed he was really ready to play&rdquo;The Rangers, by and large, were not. After getting embarrassed for 62 shots by the Canucks in the game Turcotte watched, they fell behind 2-0 in the first 13 minutes against a Jets&rsquo; team that had played in Washington the night before. Chasing all night, the Rangers left the Garden with a 1-4-2 record for the seven-game stretch ending Feb. 3; they retained the Patrick Division lead only because Pittsburgh lost in Boston.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m concerned about our record,&rdquo; Neilson admitted.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011084/5878400-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="551" height="674"><figcaption class="caption-body">Darren Turcotte says his offensive slump is frustrating.</figcaption></div>The coach also had been concerned about Turcotte, who entered February with just one even-strength goal since Nov. 9. And Turcotte, who opened the season with an 11-game point streak, was somewhat concerned about himself.&ldquo;I started getting frustrated, like most offensive players would when the points aren&rsquo;t coming,&rdquo; Turcotte said. &ldquo;You start to worry a bit and almost start trying too hard. When you try too hard, your whole game goes&mdash;you&rsquo;re not doing the defensive things well, you&rsquo;re not doing the offensive things well, and everything in between just isn&rsquo;t working.&rdquo;Neilson immediately, and energetically, dismissed a published report which claimed Turcotte was benched for some attitude adjustment.Refocusing is more like it. While Turcotte&rsquo;s checking game had been emerging, the fact remained that once Bernie Nicholls was lost to a separated shoulder against the Islanders Jan. 22, the Rangers also needed some points from the middle. Unaccustomed as he was to shifting from an offensive role to a defensive one and back again&mdash;the guy&rsquo;s 22, remember&mdash;Turcotte had a rough time adjusting.&ldquo;I think Roger still has confidence in using me in a defensive role,&rdquo; said Turcotte, who opened the season in an offensive role but had his resposibilities revised to make optimal use of his speed. &ldquo;But I like to consider myself as capable of doing both&mdash;being able to go out offensively and do my job defensively as well.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 4: Ric Bennett, LW, assigned to Binghamton (AHL). Paul Broten, RW, assigned to Binghamton for 14-day conditioning stint.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Kevin Miller, Kelly Kisio. Darren Turcotte, Mark Janssens.LW&mdash;John Ogrodnick, Jan Erixon, Troy Mallette, Kris King, Lindy Ruff.RW&mdash;Mike Gartner, Jody Hull, Brian Mullen, Tie Domi.LD&mdash;Brian Leetch, Mark Hardy, Normand Rochefort, Milo Horava.RD&mdash;James Patrick, Randy Moller, David Shaw, Joe Cirella.G&mdash;John Vanbiesbrouck, Mike Richter.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bob Froese, G, shoulder surgery, out for season. Bernie Nicholls, C, separated left shoulder, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Gartner, 28. A&mdash;Leetch, 49. P&mdash;Leetch, 60. PIM&mdash;Mallette, 133. &#9632;

f0017-01

PRESS BOX VIEW GIVES TURCOTTE NEW OUTLOOK

Dennis Woods is built like a tree.The 6-foot, 145-pound center from Greensville, Ont., plays for the Dundas major peewee team in the Tri-County League.The 13-year-old team captain scored 29 goals and added 43 assists last season.Woods has continued his strong scoring pace this season. Through Jan. 10, he had 51 goals and 27 assists, much to the delight of coach Rob Rogers.Woods has played with the Dundas major peewees for two seasons. He spent the summer improving his skating skills at the Marilyn Velenosi Skating School.A Grade 8 student at Spencer Valley Elementary School, Woods has been named the student athlete of the year for the past two years.He loves to watch hockey and his favorite team is the defending Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers. His favorite player is Oilers&rsquo; captain Mark Messier.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02831/5878431-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="553" height="1134"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dennis Woods</figcaption></div>You or someone you know can be part of the JOFA-TIT AN 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;

f0017-02

PLAYER OF WEEK JOFA TITAN

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>It took nearly four months for Mario Lemieux to recover from a serious back infection and rejoin the lineup, but for the Pittsburgh Penguins, it was worth the wait.Lemieux scored six points in his&rsquo; first three games back: A 6-5 win over Quebec Jan. 26, a 3-2 overtime win over Washington Jan. 29 and a 4-2 loss to Philadelphia Jan. 31.But Lemieux&rsquo;s presence on the Penguin bench was shortlived.The lanky center, who sat out the first 50 games of the season, pulled a groin muscle during a 6-2 win over Boston Feb. 2. He sat out the rematch, a 6-3 Bruins&rsquo; victory, the next night at Boston Garden.The injury was attributed to his substandard conditioning and wasn&rsquo;t serious. He was expected to return Feb. 8 against the Winnipeg Jets.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t appear to have anything to do with his back,&rdquo; team physician Dr. Charles Burke said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s anything to be worried about, other than taking a few days to heal.&rdquo;Lemieux was named the No. 1 star in his first two games back, but the Penguins didn&rsquo;t miss him much when he left the first Boston game early in the second period.They had a 2-0 lead when he departed and weren&rsquo;t seriously threatened the rest of the game.Losing Lemieux this time was easier to take for the Penguins, considering he&rsquo;d played his first game of the season just a week earlier.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve adjusted to Mario not being here,&rdquo; goalie Wendell Young said.&ldquo;Mario is a great player and we definitely miss him, but we still have enough good hockey players who can pick up the slack,&rdquo; defenseman Paul Coffey said.Coffey is one who has. His strong performance in the victory over Boston may have been his finest in a Penguins&rsquo; uniform.He had a goal and two assists and made several breathtaking rushes which led to Pittsburgh goals.&ldquo;My philosophy has always been February and March are when you have to start playing your best hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I had a little trouble getting motivated earlier in the season&mdash;you should be motivated all the time, but there are times when you&rsquo;re not&mdash;and I&rsquo;m just trying to pick my game up.&rdquo;Coffey&rsquo;s enthusiasm obviously rubbed off on rookie right winger Jaromir Jagr. Jagr scored his first NHL hat trick in the win over the Bruins and Coffey set up two of the goals.Jagr&rsquo;s puckhandling skills have been compared to Lemieux&rsquo;s, but Jagr has struggled to capitalize on the scoring chances he creates.&ldquo;Sometimes you&rsquo;re lucky, sometimes you&rsquo;re not,&rdquo; Jagr said, through translator, teammate Jiri Hrdina.&ldquo;He picked it up when Mario went down and gave us a spark offensively,&rdquo; Pittsburgh coach Bob Johnson said.Jagr is Lemieux&rsquo;s likely successor as the &ldquo;franchise player&rdquo;, but his game is still evolving. He needs to develop his scoring touch before he can effectively lead the team.&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t have a great shot,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s only 18 years old. He&rsquo;s going to learn how to fire the puck.&rdquo;This season, the Penguins have had many players who can accomplish that feat. They averaged a league-high 4.27 goals-per-game through their first 55 games and had four players&mdash;John Cullen, Mark Recchi, Coffey and Kevin Stevens&mdash;in the league&rsquo;s top 15 scorers.The team&rsquo;s exceptional production has helped them challenge the New York Rangers for top spot in the Patrick Division. And Pittsburgh hadn&rsquo;t lost two consecutive games since Dec. 8-11.Cullen, the league&rsquo;s No. 2 scorer, will lose much of the spotlight and probably some ice time when Lemieux returns for good, but he isn&rsquo;t concerned.&ldquo;If we can build a pretty strong second line behind Mario, that&rsquo;s going to help the team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Not too many teams have that.&rdquo;<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;John Cullen, Jiri Hrdina, Randy Gilhen, Barry Pederson.LW&mdash;Phil Bourque, Kevin Stevens, Bob Errey, Troy Loney.RW&mdash;Mark Recchi, Jaromir Jagr, Scott Young, Tony Tanti, Jay Caufield.LD&mdash;Paul Coffey, Zarley Zalapski, Gordie Roberts.RD&mdash;Randy Hillier, Peter Taglianetti, Larry Murphy. Paul Stanton, Gord Dineen.G&mdash;Frank Pietrangelo, Wendell Young.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tom Barrasso, G, bruised foot, day-today. Gilbert Delorme, D, leg stress fracture, indefinite Mario Lemieux. C, pulled groin muscle. Feb. 8 Joe Mullen. RW, herniated neck disc, out for season. Bryan Trottier. C, pulled groin, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Stevens, Recchi, 27. A&mdash;Cullen, 59. P&mdash;Cullen, 83. PIM&mdash;Stevens, 98. &#9632;

LEMIEUX’S RETURN HITS TEMPORARY SNAG

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE FISH</div>The genesis of Scott Mellanby&rsquo;s comeback season didn&rsquo;t occur on the day his badly injured left wrist felt strong again.It began when the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; right winger decided the only way he could return to his original level of play was to work harder.The turning point came last summer, shortly after a nightmare season in which his weakened condition limited him to just six goals in 57 games.Mellanby missed the first quarter of last season after he sustained a severe laceration during an August, 1989, nightclub altercation and was hampered by the injury all year.While others enjoyed the offseason leisure lives of professional hockey players, Mellanby spent countless hours working out at conditioning coach Pat Croce&rsquo;s gym on the New Jersey shore.Mellanby reported for training camp looking, as one coach put it, &ldquo;leaner and meaner.&rdquo;The hard work has paid off. Mellanby has scored 16 goals (third on the team) and 32 points (tied for fourth) through 56 games.An example of his improved play took place shortly after he returned earlier than expected from a shoulder separation he suffered in Buffalo on New Year&rsquo;s Eve.Mellanby scored the game-winning goals in victories over Quebec (5-1, Jan. 17), Calgary (4-3, Jan. 22) and Pittsburgh (4-2, Jan. 31), fueling the Flyers to a five-game home winning streak.The 24-year-old forward out of the University of Wisconsin had been playing well before this stretch. But coach Paul Holmgren said he believes Mellanby turned it up another notch after coming back from the shoulder problem.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011051/5878486-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="560" height="647"><figcaption class="caption-body">Right winger Scott Mellanby hopes to reach the 20-goal level.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I read a story about him the other day where he said he wanted to be a more consistent player,&rdquo; said Holmgren. &ldquo;Well, consistency is not just playing the games. It&rsquo;s when the whistle blows for practice, there&rsquo;s no screwing around. You&rsquo;re here to work and here to improve your skills&hellip;and help the team improve the team play. I think Scott has shown a real concern there.&rdquo;Mellanby indicated he didn&rsquo;t want the shoulder problem to knock him off course. He said prior to the season he wanted to get back to the 20-25 goal level again, which he has achieved twice in the past.&ldquo;It was one of those injuries that was going to be with me for a few more weeks,&rdquo; said Mellanby. &ldquo;When I came back, it still hurt. You can wait a month until it&rsquo;s 100 per cent but if you can get in the lineup and play which I felt I could and try to protect it a bit, it shouldn&rsquo;t be a problem.&rdquo;Not only is Mellanby scoring again, he&rsquo;s beginning to show some of the flashy offensive moves that led to a 25-goal campaign in 1987-88.Against Pittsburgh, Mellanby snapped a 2-2 tie with a 30-foot blast past goaltender Wendell Young. In the Calgary win, Mellanby knocked the puck out of goalie Mike Vernon&rsquo;s glove for the deciding goal.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always nice to contribute with some goals,&rdquo; Mellanby said. &ldquo;We lost some pretty close games (in December). When you&rsquo;re counted on to score and you can&rsquo;t get one once in a while, you feel like you&rsquo;ve let the team down.&rdquo;Holmgren moved rookie center Martin Hostak on to a line with Mellanby and Murray Craven and the threesome came up with nine points in the Calgary game.&ldquo;We need that,&rdquo; said Mellanby. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t depend on the same guys every night, (Rick) Tocchet and (Pelle) Eklund.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 30: Kerry Huffman, D, assigned to Hershey (AHL). Feb. 2: Craig Fisher, C, and Pat Murray, RW, recalled from Hershey.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Ricci, Ron Sutter, Martin Hos tak, Craig Fisher.LW&mdash;Derrick Smith, Craig Berube, Keith Acton.RW&mdash;Tim Kerr, Scott Mellanby, Norm Lacombe, Dale Kushner, Pat Murray.LD&mdash;Jiri Latal, Murray Baron, Terry Carkner.RD&mdash;Kjell Samuelsson, Gord Murphy, Dave Fenyves.G&mdash;Ron Hextali, Ken Wregget, Pete Peeters.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jeff Chychrun, D, broken left wrist, indefinite. Murray Craven, LW, swollen left eye, day-to-day. Pelle Eklund, LW, strained hip flexor, day-to-day Mark Howe. D, back surgery, indefinite. Scott Sandelin, D, broken right arm, indefinite. Rick Tocchet, RW. pulled left groin, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Tocchet, 34. A&mdash;Eklund, 40. P&mdash;Tocchet, 58 PIM&mdash;Berube, 148. &#9632;

f0019-01

LEANER, MEANER MELLANBY REGAINS SCORING TOUCH

Feb. 14,1977: Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; left winger AI Hill set an NHL record for the most points by a player in his first NHL game. Hill scored five points&mdash;two goals and three assists&mdash;in a 6-4 win over St. Louis. Hill scored his first NHL goal just 36 seconds into the game, beating St. Louis goaltender Yves Belanger.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02620/5878548-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="624" height="405"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Hill</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0020-02

FLASHBACK

<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>Nords&rsquo; GM Pierre Page finally acquired an experienced goalie to give Ron Tugnutt a hand. Jacques Cloutier, 31, was obtained from Chicago Jan. 29 in exchange for veteran left winger Tony McKegney. Cloutier was impressive in his first start, stopping 35 Buffalo shots in a 4-1 win&hellip;Joe Sakic has gone on record saying he&rsquo;d love to make the Canada Cup squad that will defend its title in September&hellip;The most improved Nord in recent games is young defenseman Curtis Leschyhsyn. A first-round pick in 1988, Leschyshyn, 21, has led by example on the ice and has even worn the assistant captain&rsquo;s &lsquo;A&rsquo; on occasion&hellip;Coach Dave Chambers denied a Hockey News report that he is unhappy in Quebec and may trade jobs with associate coach Jacques Martin at the end of the season.<h2>SABRES</h2>Defenseman Mike Ramsey was named team captain Jan. 29, just hours before the Sabres were to play the Blues in St. Louis (8-3 loss). &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the right choice,&rdquo; said Pierre Turgeon. &ldquo;He has lots of experience and he&rsquo;s respected by everyone.&rdquo; Though coach Rick Dudley said there were other candidates, Ramsey was an undisputed choice. The only question was whether or not he would take it. &ldquo;It was a misconception,&rdquo; Ramsey said of the popular belief he did not want the job. &ldquo;Somewhere along the line messages got crossed up. I never said I wouldn&rsquo;t do it.&rdquo; Asked if he had any doubts&mdash;in light of what happened to former captains Mike Foligno and Lindy Ruff (both traded)&mdash;as to whether or not he should take the job he said, &ldquo;No, my role is no different then a year ago, a month ago or a week ago. It&rsquo;s no different at all. Sewing a letter on a jersey doesn&rsquo;t make you change.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Alexander Mogilny returned from a two-game absence (knee sprain) against Edmonton (3-2 loss Feb. 3) and scored his 20th goal of the season. He is only the second Sabre to reach that plateau thus far this season (Turgeon has 24).<h2>WHALERS</h2>Ron Francis scored his 797th and 798th points in his 700th NHL game (all with the Whalers) Feb. 2 in a 2-0 win in Philadelphia. &ldquo;It was my 700th game. I figured I better do something,&rdquo; Francis said. Francis, however, was more struck by the 11 a.m. starting time in Philadelphia. &ldquo;We had a 9 p.m. curfew. The guys were just saying that&rsquo;s the earliest they&rsquo;ve had to be in since they were 11 or 12. &ldquo;The Whalers swept the Flyers in a season series for the first time in their NHL history, (including two shutouts), and are 9-1 in the Patrick Division when not counting the New York Islanders. The Whalers finished 0-2-1 against the Islanders&hellip;The Whalers&rsquo; penalty killing finished 10-for-10 on a recent 1-1-1 road trip, giving them a 34-for-37 mark over nine games. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve learned to pressure in unison,&rdquo; said coach Rick Ley&hellip;Trade rumors continue to swirl in Hartford, although Whalers&rsquo; GM Ed Johnston denies actively trying to peddle Francis. He does not deny looking for a top-flight goalie, which automatically brought up Ken Wregget&rsquo;s and Grant Fuhr&rsquo;s names. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m looking for a defenseman and help on the left wing, too,&rdquo; Johnston said.<h2>BRUINS</h2>The stranglehold on the Boston Bruins&rsquo; goaltending chores held by Reggie Lemelin and Andy Moog has ended after almost three years. Rookie Matt DelGuidice, recalled from Maine (AHL) Jan. 31 when Lemelin was felled by back spasms, entered a 5-2 Bruins&rsquo; victory over Montreal with 9:57 to play when Moog sprained his right knee. DelGuidice became the first goalie other than Moog and Lemelin to play for the Bruins since March 7, 1988, when Boston obtained Moog in a trade with Edmonton&hellip;Ray Bourque reached a few milestones by going on a hot streak (4-17-21 in a 12-game span). A pair of assists against Hartford Jan. 24 moved him past Bobby Orr as the club&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer among defensemen, and a three-assist effort against Pittsburgh Feb. 3 moved him ahead of Rick Middleton to third on the Bruins&rsquo; all-time scoring list with 898 points. Bourque also took the team scoring lead from Craig Janney during the streak&hellip;Dave Poulin&rsquo;s most recent comeback lasted less than two games. He returned from a 14-game absence with a broken jaw Jan. 31 and scored a goal, but fractured a shoulder blade in Boston&rsquo;s next game at Pittsburgh Feb. 2. He was expected to miss another month.<h2>CANADIENS</h2>Habs&rsquo; center Denis Savard celebrated his return to the lineup with his 14th goal of the season in a 3-3 tie with the New York Islanders Feb. 2. Savard missed six games with a bad case of sinusitus and had seen his weight drop from 174 to 162 pounds&hellip;Coach Pat Bums has completed a second month without smoking. He gave up the habit after Michel Bergeron, former coach of the Nordiques and Rangers and a heavy smoker, suffered a heart attack&hellip;The Habs&rsquo; wave of injuries forced them to dip deeply into the lineup of their Fredericton farm team, leaving the AHL club with just 20 players. One of the players called up was goaltender Frederic Chabot. He got his first NHL start in tie against the Islanders. The playing time qualifies Chabot for the expansion draft this summer&hellip;Bums continues to take heat in the Frenchlanguage press everytime he doesn&rsquo;t dress Stephan Lebeau. But the fact remains Burns&rsquo; strategy with the young center pays off. Without fail, Lebeau bounces back with a couple of strong games after being sat out. &#9632;

TUGNUTT FINALLY GETS SOME RELIEF

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>Daren Puppa came back, played well, and still the Buffalo Sabres didn&rsquo;t win.A scary scenario indeed.Granted, the opponent was the defending Stanley Cup Champion Edmonton Oilers, the hottest team in the NHL. And sure, it was only a one-goal loss (3-2 Feb. 3 at Memorial Auditorium), but for the Buffalo Sabres, it was a fifth consecutive loss. It came in a game in which they played reasonably well and it came with their ace, Puppa, in the lineup.&ldquo;Certainly Daren gives us a lift,&rdquo; said Sabres&rsquo; coach Rick Dudley. &ldquo;I think the team responds more confidently when he is in there.&rdquo;And that&rsquo;s been the problem for the Sabres at various times this season. Unlike last season when he played in nearly three-quarters of the games, Puppa has had trouble staying in the lineup. The Edmonton game was just his 27th of the season, one more than the now injured Clint Malarchuk has played.At the same point last season, Puppa, who has the letters &ldquo;AU&rdquo; (All Universe) painted on the back of his mask, had started or appeared in 39 games en route to a career-high 56. He was a second-team all-star, the runner-up in Vezina Trophy balloting, tied for first in wins, was third in save percentage and fourth in goals-against average.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01696/5878603-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="549" height="541"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Sabres struggled when Daren Puppa hasn&rsquo;t played.</figcaption></div>This season, he started slowly and eventually had to come out of the lineup for nine games because of a back injury. When he got back into game-shape he went on a tear, putting together a nine-game unbeaten streak (8-0-1).At his peak, he shutout the Chicago Blackhawks in Buffalo, 5-0. Shortly thereafter, however, came extended bouts with the flu. Just after the allstar break, he missed a game in Chicago at the same time Malarchuk was out with a strained neck/shoulder muscle. He came back to play in losses at Montreal (4-1 Jan. 26) and at home to Calgary (5-4 Jan. 27), but then missed a loss at St. Louis (8-3 Jan. 29) and a fourth straight loss to the lowly Quebec Nordiques (4-1 at Buffalo Jan. 31).Much of the losing this season hasn&rsquo;t been Puppa&rsquo;s fault, but being in and out of the lineup so often has affected the club.In a division where goaltending is defined by Montreal&rsquo;s Patrick Roy and Boston&rsquo;s Andy Moog, Puppa has been unable to make a consistent mark. The team plays better when he&rsquo;s there. Their winning streaks can be tied directly to his performance at peak level and the losing streaks generally coincide with his absence or his inability to play his best game.Still, Puppa doesn&rsquo;t categorize his season as a struggle, not yet anyway. After the Sabres&rsquo; poor start and his subsequent back miseries, he railed against criticism directed at him and the team and said there was far too much negativism. He proved that with his stellar comeback during which he lowered his goals-against average from over 4.00 to 3.17. He sees his latest bout with the flu as just another mild setback, one from which he will return.&ldquo;We just need a win,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve won in the past and we&rsquo;ll win again. We just need one to get it going again.&rdquo;<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 2: Darrin Shannon, LW, Joel Savage, RW, Kevin Haller, D, and David Littman, G, assigned to Rochester (AHL). Feb. 3: Jiri Sejba, RW-LW, assigned to Rochester.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk, Christian Ruuttu, Pierre Turgeon, Benoit Hogue.LW&mdash;Dave Andreychuk, Dave Snuggerud, Rob Ray, Mike Hartman.RW&mdash;Alexander Mogilny, Mikko Makela, Lou Franceschetti.LD&mdash;Doug Bodger, Mike Ramsey, Brian Curran.RD&mdash;Uwe Krupp, Grant Ledyard, Jay Wells.G&mdash;Daren Puppa. Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Donald Audette, RW, tom knee ligaments, out for season. Dean Kennedy, D, hip pointer, day-to-day Clint Malarchuk, G, strained neck and shoulder muscles, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Turgeon, 24. A&mdash;Hawerchuk. 33. P&mdash;Hawerchuk, 52. PIM&mdash;Ray, 183. &#9632;

f0021-01

SLUMPING TEAM NEEDS AN ALL-UNIVERSE PUPPA

<div class="byline">BY CHRIS STEVENSON</div>Russ Courtnail has climbed to the top of the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; scoring list, but it wasn&rsquo;t his quick feet or soft hands that got him there.It was his ears.The 25-year-old right winger sat down with Habs&rsquo; managing directorSerge Savard two months ago in the wake of Courtnall being scratched for the first time in his three years with the Canadiens. Habs&rsquo; coach Pat Burns passed him over for a game against Chicago Oct. 28.Savard&rsquo;s message was this: Just playing and, perhaps playing well, wasn&rsquo;t enough. He wanted more from Courtnall.&ldquo;Serge said he expected leadership from me,&rdquo; Courtnall said. &ldquo;He said 1 could be a leader. Nobody had ever sat me down and told me that before. Or maybe they had and 1 just wasn&rsquo;t listening.&ldquo;He asked me to do some things 1 had never asked myself to do or even expected myself to do.&rdquo;Savard&rsquo;s message and the cumulative effects of some changes in his off-ice life led to some introspection on Courtnall&rsquo;s part.For starters, he examined his role on the team.&ldquo;I looked at myself and I realized I&rsquo;m one of the more experienced guys on the team,&rdquo; said Courtnall, who had 507 NHL games to his credit through Feb. 2. &ldquo;I think Wally (RyanWalter), Denis (Savard) and Carbo (Guy Carbonneau) are the only guys with more games played than me.&ldquo;I know they (management) expect me to score, but now they expect me to lead the younger guys, too. So in practice you try to work harder and do those things expected of you.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s no coincidence the sustained scoring streak Courtnall has been on coincided with a turnaround in the Habs&rsquo; point production.Since a 1-1 tie with the Quebec Nordiques Dec. 19, the Habs went 13-4-3 in their next 20 games. During that stretch, Courtnall had 10 goals and 16 assists for 26 points, raising his season totals to a team-leading 18-2846.There were only five games in that span when he went pointless.And he achieved that while playing against the opponents&rsquo; top offensive lines. Courtnall has been aligned with Carbonneau and Mike McPhee on the Habs&rsquo; so-called defensive line.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been as good on defense as he has on offense,&rdquo; said Burns. &ldquo;Russ is skating better than ever and he makes a nicely balanced line with Carbonneau and McPhee.&rdquo;Courtnall has also seen duty on the power play and has teamed with Carbonneau to become a lethal penalty killing duo.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had success scoring before, but I think today I&rsquo;ve become a much more complete player,&rdquo; said Courtnall, who came to Montreal from Toronto in November, 1988 in the infamous deal for John Kordic.Courtnall said he also feels more comfortable, more sure of himself, off the ice as well.His long-time relationship with his girlfriend ended in late summer and he found himself in the unaccustomed position of being independent.&ldquo;I had to do things I hadn&rsquo;t done before and I just had to do them,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a great year for me personally. I&rsquo;ve learned a lot about myself as a person and as a hockey player.&ldquo;I feel confident about myself and my hockey.&rdquo;<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Denis Savard, Guy Carbonneau, Andrew Cassels, Stephan Lebeau.LW&mdash;Shayne Corson, Mike McPhee, Sylvain Turgeon, Ryan Walter, Benoit Brunet, Mark Pederson. Brent Gilchrist.RW&mdash;Mike Keane, Russ Courtnall, Stephane Richer, Todd Ewen, Tom Chorske.LD&mdash;Sylvain Lefebvre, Donald Dufresne, J.J. Daigneault.RD&mdash;Patrice Brisebois, Alain Cote, Lyle Odelein, Luc Gauthier.G&mdash;Andre Racicot, Frederic Chabot.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Eric Desjardins. D, sprained left ankle, indefinite Patrick Roy, G, torn left ankle ligaments, indefinite. Mathieu Schneider, D, sprained left ankle, indefinite. Brian Skrudland, C, broken right foot, day-today. Petr Svoboda. D, broken left foot, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Richer, 20. A&mdash;Courtnall, 28. P&mdash;Courtnall, 46. PIM&mdash;Odelein, 142. &#9632;

CANADIENS

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>Nothing frightens a pro scout more about a young prospect than to hear rumblings that the player&rsquo;s off-ice habits are bad.That was how The Hockey News described Bryan Fogarty in the Draft Preview of 1987. It was already clear to many hockey scouts it was risky to select the very talented Kingston Canadians&rsquo; defenseman&mdash;who later gained recognition with the Niagara Falls Thunder.And four seasons later Fogarty&rsquo;s off-ice habits are feeding the rumor mills again. Fogarty was assigned to the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; American League farm team in Halifax Jan. 26 under mysterious circumstances.A week after Fogarty was assigned, Nordique general manager Pierre Page said Fogarty had entered a rehab center&mdash;with no indication given where the center was.&ldquo;We want to help Bryan as much as we possibly can,&rdquo; Page said.Fogarty&rsquo;s bad reputation helped the Nordiques acquire him in the 1987 entry draft. Fogarty was still available when they selected ninth overall. The Nordiques took a chance and the way the Brantford native sparkled in his last year of junior hockey&mdash;breaking Ontario League scoring records for defensemen&mdash;they were very happy with their decision.Fogarty scored 155 points in 66 games with the Thunder on his way to being named OHL and Canadian Hockey League player of the year for 1988-89. He was in some very select company: His 47 goals broke Bobby Orr&rsquo;s record (37 in 1965-66); his 108 assists broke Doug Crossman&rsquo;s mark (96 in 1979-80); and his total was better than Denis Potvin&rsquo;s 123 points in 1972-73.But even in his junior days, there were rumors that didn&rsquo;t do much for his reputation. He was kicked off of the Canadian world junior team for disciplinary reasons. It was ironic that Nordiques&rsquo; coach Dave Chambers was then in charge of the program.There was also a car crash June 10, 1988, that resulted in two of Fogarty&rsquo;s friends&mdash;Marc Laforge and Michel Maurice&mdash;being injured. Fogarty was convicted of impaired driving in May, 1989, and was sentenced to three weeks in jail, which he served on weekends. He also had his driver&rsquo;s license revoked for one year.Then, Fogarty, who was fourth on the Nordiques in scoring with 9-20-29 totals in 41 games, was assigned to the Citadels. Fogarty, who had a league worst plus-minus rating of minus-47 last season, had a minus-11 rating this year.Page said Fogarty needed the change of scenery, that he wasn&rsquo;t playing very well.&ldquo;There comes a time when you have to act,&rdquo; said Page. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s for his good. We&rsquo;re all trying to understand Bryan, we want him to succeed. Bryan&rsquo;s a special young man. He needs to understand that all we want is to help.&rdquo;It was learned Jan. 29 that Fogarty was consulting specialists for problems related to his drinking. The same day, it was rumored Fogarty would enter a rehab clinic. Page declined to comment directly, simply stating that the time would come when he would be able to talk about the whole situation.A close family member said Jan. 30 Fogarty did have a problem and he would have to come to grips with it.On Feb. 1, Fogarty&rsquo;s father Thomas told La Presse Canadienne his son was in Florida.&ldquo;I know where he is and I know who he is with,&rdquo; said Fogarty. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s mixed up right now and very bitter. He needs to sort things out.&rdquo;Fogarty went on to say that his son was not an alcoholic. That if it were the case, it would have been made public a long time ago. He said his son is having a hard time coping with losing&mdash;the Nordiques seem destined to finish last again this season.The incident with Fogarty must have seemed familiar to Page. He had similar experiences with players when he was coaching in Minnesota. Two North Stars&mdash;Neil Wilkinson and Link Gaetz&mdash;had well publicized drinking problems. Wilkinson has managed to get his career back on track, but Gaetz was recently charged with criminal damage to property over $300&mdash;although the incident was not alcohol-related.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be very tough for Bryan,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;If he succeeds in getting through the 90 meetings in the first 90 days, the odds (of success) are at around 80 per cent.&ldquo;The first month will be difficult. The second a little less because his family will be there to help. But his big test will come after the first two months when he will end back with his friends.&rdquo;<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 29: Mark Vermette, RW, assigned to Halifax (AHL). Tony McKegney, LW. traded to Chicago for Jacques Cloutier. G. Jan. 30: Serge Roberge, LW, recalled from Halifax. Jan. 31: Greg Smyth, D. recalled from Halifax. Feb. 1: Smyth and Roberge assigned to Halifax. Feb. 4: Darin Kimble, RW, traded to St. Louis for Tony Twist, D , Herb Raglan, RW, and Andy Rymsha, D.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Sakic. Tony Hrkac, Claude Lapointe, Claude Loiselle, Stephane Morin.LW&mdash;Mike Hough. Everett Sanipass, Paul Gillis, Scott Pearson.RW&mdash;Mats Sundin. Owen Nolan, Guy Lafleur, Darin Kimble, Ken Quinney.LD&mdash;Curtis Leschyshyn, Shawn Anderson. Steven Finn.RD&mdash;Alexei Gusarov, Randy Velischek, Craig Wolanin.G&mdash;Ron Tugnutt, Jacques Cloutier, Scott Gordon.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jeff Jackson, LW. broken arm, out for season Wayne Van Dorp, LW, torn muscle in shoulder, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Sakic, 28. A&mdash;Sakic, 42. P&mdash;Sakic, 70. PIM&mdash;Finn, 142. &#9632;

FOGARTY ENTERS REHAB CENTER

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>Rick Ley and Dean Evason made a big mistake after an 8-1 loss to the New York Islanders Jan. 30. They criticized the fans.And the Hartford Whalers were fortunate they were in the midst of a 1-1-1 road trip, because judging by local reaction, they weren&rsquo;t very popular at home.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t see 6,000 people leave Boston Garden halfway through the second period,&rdquo; Evason said. &ldquo;They want to see hockey. They want to see the game played win or lose. They want to try to win the game. And I think it&rsquo;s a personal thing with fans like that. We&rsquo;ve got some great fans, but a lot of our fans aren&rsquo;t that knowledgable about the game.&rdquo;Through a serious recession, big interest in University of Connecticut basketball and another .500 season, the Whalers are drawing an average of just 12,200 per game this season.That&rsquo;s the team&rsquo;s lowest attendence figure since 1984-85 for the NHL&rsquo;s smallest American market.&ldquo;The fans get on the guys right off the bat because of missed power-play attempts,&rdquo; Ley said. &ldquo;Our special teams are what won us some games. To have them jump on us&mdash;I don&rsquo;t think that has helped either.&rdquo;After the incident, Evason, aware several ticketholders had called the Whalers&rsquo; office to complain about his statements, said he felt badly and wanted to apologize.&ldquo;What I meant was there are a lot of great fans and some ignorant ones,&rdquo; Evason said. &ldquo;And by ignorant I meant not knowledgeable about hockey&mdash;not as human beings or because the Hartford fans left when we were losing 8-1 to the Islanders.&ldquo;A lot of insurance companies buy up seats and give them to first-time people. If we&rsquo;re losing bad and they&rsquo;re not entertained, they leave the building.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t mean to offend our loyal fans. I&rsquo;ve been here seven years. People who know me, know I don&rsquo;t feel that way at all. If it was interpreted any other way, I&rsquo;m very sorry about it. My point was I just wish our fans were like Boston and Chicago when we fall behind&mdash;to help rally us back in the game. In turn, we&rsquo;ve got to win hockey games for them.&rdquo;Evason has never complained about the fans before. But the fact he chose to criticize them in the midst of the club&rsquo;s 7-5-1 winning streak, was another example of the Whalers&rsquo; shooting themselves in the foot.But Evason and Ley weren&rsquo;t the only ones to criticize the Whaler fans.Goaltender Peter Sidorkiewicz also tossed a few barbs at the fans before the Islander game.&ldquo;Our crowd is pretty quiet to begin with,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and when we don&rsquo;t do well, they jump on us pretty quick. It seems like the rationale of the fans is we&rsquo;re supposed to be winning by five goals the whole game. It&rsquo;s as if the other team isn&rsquo;t supposed to try when we&rsquo;re at home&mdash;they&rsquo;re just going to come in here and give us the game.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a joke. If we give up a goal early, it&rsquo;s like somebody bombed our building. It&rsquo;s like the end of the world. It&rsquo;s incredible.&rdquo;<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 1: John Stevens, D, recalled from Springfield (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ron Francis, Dean Evason, Carey Wilson, Mike Tomlak.LW&mdash;Pat Verbeek, Jim McKenzie, Paul Cyr, Todd Krygier, Mikael Andersson.RW&mdash;Rob Brown, Bobby Holik, Ed Kastelic, Kevin Dineen.LD&mdash;Adam Burt, Grant Jennings, John Stevens.RD&mdash;Brad Shaw, Doug Crossman, Sylvain Cote.G&mdash;Daryl Reaugh, Peter Sidorkiewicz.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Babych, D, wrist surgery, day-today Randy Cunneyworth, LW, broken leg, Feb. 16 Chris Govedaris, LW, knee tear, day-to-day Randy Ladouceur. D, sore back, day-to-day Ulf Samuelsson, D, bruised shoulder, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Verbeek, 27. A&mdash;Francis, 36. P&mdash;Francis, 53. PIM&mdash;Kastelic, 156. &#9632;

EV ASON, LEY INCENSED BY UNSUPPORTIVE FANS

<div class="byline">BY MIKE LOFTUS</div>The Boston Bruins recalled Ralph Barahona from the American League&rsquo;s Maine Mariners Feb. 3. Later that evening, in his first NHL game, Barahona scored two goals in a 6-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.A story like that is generally considered a fairy tale. In Boston this season, it&rsquo;s almost business as usual.The Bruins, because of a combination of injuries and occasional ineffectiveness, have recalled an inordinate amount of Mariners this season. Nine of the 20 Bruins dressed for the victory over the Penguins had spent part of the season in Portland, and five of those nine (two were goalies) scored at least a point.It seems like a phenomenon, brilliant management, good luck or a combination of all three. The Bruins say it has more to do with logic.&ldquo;When we get a guy from Maine,&rdquo; coach Mike Milbury said, &ldquo;we assume we&rsquo;re getting someone who&rsquo;s been a very good player and that we should be able to use him.&rdquo;Milbury doesn&rsquo;t request a certain player when he calls Maine coach Rick Bowness. Milbury simply asks which Mariner is playing best, and Bowness makes the call. After that, it&rsquo;s in the player&rsquo;s hands.Every Mariner called from Portland to Boston appreciates the chance to be in the NHL, but some appreciate it more than others. Rookies such as Townshend, Barahona and Jeff Lazaro (currently on a line with allstar right winger Cam Neely) have never been in another organization, so they had no reason to expect they wouldn&rsquo;t play when called to Boston.But players such as Ken Hodge, who centers Lazaro and Neely, and Peter Douris treasure the chance they&rsquo;ve had to play.Hodge faced a similar situation in Minnesota, where the North Stars made him a third-round pick in 1984. He turned pro in 1988, but acquired a reputation as a less than diligent worker. His work habits and numbers rose drastically in the two seasons after that (59 goals in his last two seasons with Kalamazoo of the IHL), but the Stars let him go in a minor trade last August. He had played five NHL games in three seasons.Hodge, too, started the year, in Maine. He was recalled in late October, played well enough to keep playing and eventually moved onto his current line in mid-January.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t consider it an organizational philosophy,&rdquo; Milbury said. &ldquo;We call Rick in Maine and tell him, &lsquo;Send us your best player.&rsquo; You&rsquo;re usually getting a guy who&rsquo;s hot, who has been playing 25 minutes a game. Why not use them? If they play well enough, they&rsquo;ll keep playing.&rdquo;<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 31: Matt DelGuidice, G, recalled from Maine (AHL); Wes Walz, C, assigned to Maine. Feb. 1: DelGuidice assigned to Maine; Norm Foster, G. recalled from Maine. Feb. 3: DelGuidice, Ralph Barahona, C, recalled from Maine.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ralph Barahona, Ken Hodge, Craig Janney, Bob Sweeney.LW&mdash;Andy Brickley, Jeff Lazaro, Randy Burridge, Petri Skriko.RW&mdash;Dave Christian, Cam Neely, Peter Douris, Graeme Townshend.LD&mdash;Al Pedersen, Don Sweeney, Glen Wesley, Jim Wiemer.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque, Garry Galley, Stephane Quintal.G&mdash;Norm Foster, Matt DelGuidice.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Lyndon Byers, RW, hairline fracture, left foot, indefinite. Bob Carpenter, LW, fractured left kneecap, out for season. Reggie Lemelin, G, back spasms, day-to-day. Andy Moog, G, right knee sprain, day-to-day. Chris Nilan, RW, left ankle sprain, indefinite. Dave Poulin, C, shoulder blade fracture, Indefinite. Vladimir Ruzicka. LW, left ankle tendinitis, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Neely, 33. A&mdash;Bourque, 47. P&mdash;Bourque, 59 PIM&mdash;Nilan, 190. &#9632;

MINOR LEAGUERS PLAY BIG ROLES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0025-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01700/5878730-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0025-01

CLASSIFIED

<div class="byline">BY NICK GATES AND DAVE BEAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01755/5878761-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stan Drulia, left, Dan Gauthier and Troy Mick have been tearing up the East Coast League with Knoxville. Drulia and Gauthier were tied for the scoring lead.</figcaption></div>It&rsquo;s not surprising the Knoxville Cherokees&rsquo; line of Stan Drulia, Dan Gauthier and Troy Mick&mdash;all scoring sensations in junior hockey&mdash;are tearing up the East Coast League. What&rsquo;s surprising is the three are even in the league.The ECHL wasn&rsquo;t at the top of their wish list when they reported to NHL training camps last fall.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d go back to juniors before that,&rdquo; was the initial reaction of Gauthier, a third-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1988.But the Penguins&rsquo; organization quickly shot that idea down, although Gauthier, 20, could&rsquo;ve returned to the Quebec League as an overage player.&ldquo;They told me, &lsquo;no&rsquo;,&rdquo; Gauthier says. &ldquo;&lsquo;You&rsquo;re going to Knoxville.&rsquo; &ldquo;Mick, the Penguins&rsquo; seventh-round choice in 1988, also had reservations of going to Knoxville. &ldquo;It was definitely a disappointment I still haven&rsquo;t completely gotten over,&rdquo; he says.But Drulia saw the move as a chance to improve and get more ice time. He was an 11th-round choice of Pittsburgh in 1986 and signed with Edmonton as a free agent in May, 1989. Last season, he split time between Cape Breton of the American League and Phoenix of the International League scoring 21 points in 47 games.Drulia, 23, didn&rsquo;t want to repeat that in the option year of his contract. Earlier this season, he was offered to the expansion Kansas City Blades (IHL) but was turned down.Drulia, Gauthier and Mick have been a vital part of the first-place Cherokees&rsquo; offense. Knoxville (33-9-4) has been in top spot since the second week of the season.The three probably weren&rsquo;t even aware of the ECHL when they were filling the nets in the Canadian Hockey League. The three Cherokees, who were 1-2-3 in ECHL scoring until Mick went down with a knee injury at Christmas, combined for 1,200 points in junior hockey. Drulia and Mick earned places in the record books.&#9632; Drulia is the Ontario League&rsquo;s top career scorer. He racked up 479 points in four seasons with Belleville, Hamilton and Niagara Falls between 1985-86 and &lsquo;88-89. He ranks second in career goals (198) and third in assists (281).&#9632; Mick scored 204 goals between 1986-87 and &lsquo;89-90 with Portland and Regina of the Western League&mdash;eighth on the career list. He added 262 assists (for 15th spot) for 466 points (11th).&#9632; Gauthier played in the QMJHL at the time it was transforming from the highest to the lowest scoring of the three leagues, so his 365 points isn&rsquo;t among the career leaders. He averaged more than 50 assists per season with Longueuil and Victoriaville from 1986-87 to &lsquo;89-90.So the three stars arrived in Knoxville with impeccable credentials. They were determined to prove they weren&rsquo;t just high-scoring junior players but could score in professional hockey, too. And they have put their jobs before their egos.&ldquo;If we had an attitude problem, we wouldn&rsquo;t have the numbers we do,&rdquo; says Gauthier. The center was tied with his right winger Drulia for the league scoring lead with 101 points.Mick, 21, agrees the best way to show the Penguins they deserve a shot is to produce.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t play as well as we could at camp,&rdquo; says Mick. &ldquo;We felt we were better than some of the players they kept (with the Penguins&rsquo; IHL farm team in Muskegon). But what can you do? You can&rsquo;t tell them they&rsquo;re wrong. You have to show them,&rdquo; says Mick.Halfway through the season, Drulia, Gauthier and Mick were showing them with impressive numbers with the Cherokees.Drulia led the league with 46 goals in 45 games and his target is 60. He was on pace to score 50 goals in 50 games.Gauthier led the league in assists with 69 in 42 games. He went on a tear&mdash;11 goalsand 12assists in six games&mdash;after missing three games to be with his hospitalized mother in Charlemagne, Que.Mick, who had missed 14 games due to his injury, was anxious to get back in the lineup&mdash;he was expected to return Feb. 1.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m starting to go crazy watching them get all the goals and points,&rdquo; he says. Mick had 29-3968 totals in 31 games.Chemistry though, not jealousy, is the trademark of these three amigos.Drulia and Gauthier became the first professionals in North America to hit 100 points this season in a 5-2 win at Winston-Salem Jan. 26. They both hit the century mark on a goal by Drulia&mdash;with Gauthier getting the assist. Instead of arguing who would get the keepsake puck they celebrated by cutting the puck in half.Their unselfishness in a highly competitive business is something to behold. Winning supercedes individual achievement.&ldquo;There were a couple of times when I could&rsquo;ve shot,&rdquo; Drulia says. &ldquo;I tried to get him the puck. He has done that for me all season when I&rsquo;ve had two or three goals.&ldquo;Just as long as we win. That&rsquo;s what it&rsquo;s all about.&rdquo;.The rap against Drulia, Gauthier and Mick is the same in each case&mdash;they need to improve their skating.&ldquo;The first thing Daniel mentioned to me was how he needed to work on his legs,&rdquo; Cherokees&rsquo; coach Don Jackson says. &ldquo;Skating will dictate whether or not he makes it to the NHL.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s face it, (scoring) talent isn&rsquo;t the reason they aren&rsquo;t in the NHL. Stan has already been told by the Oilers that they don&rsquo;t feel he has the overall speed it takes to play in NHL.&rdquo;And Drulia acknowledges the criticism.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have blazing speed,&rdquo; Drulia says, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m not slow. My anticipation makes up for any lack of speed.&rdquo;The Penguins have taken notice of Gauthier and Mick.&ldquo;In both cases (Gauthier and Mick), they have great hockey sense and great hand skills,&rdquo; says Penguins&rsquo; general manager Craig Patrick. &ldquo;They have great offensive savvy.&ldquo;The thing is, they need to work on are their overall strength and skating. Don Jackson has them on a training program to work on that and improvement comes with playing.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve only got so many spots for so many players. We wanted them to play as much as they possibly could. If they stayed in Muskegon, they probably wouldn&rsquo;t have gotten as much ice time as they&rsquo;re enjoying this year.&rdquo;And the high-scoring trio is certainly enjoying the ice time they are getting and enjoying making life miserable for ECHL goalies. &#9632;

f0026-01

TRIPLE THREAT

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Nick Gates</div>Quite often a traded player goes on a hot streak with his new team and then cools off. But Richmond Renegade Joe Ferras has steadily climbed the East Coast League&rsquo;s scoring ladder since his December trade and had moved into fourth spot with 29-46-75 totals.&ldquo;So far, so good,&rdquo; the 24-year-old center said, in describing his Dec. 21 move from Winston-Salem to Richmond.And the Renegades couldn&rsquo;t be happier. Coach Chris McSorley was looking for a top scorer and that&rsquo;s exactly what he acquired in the 5-foot-10, 177-pound native of Brantford, Ont.Ferras was playing on a line between left winger Frank LaScala and Steve Scheifele with the Renegades. Scheifele, 22, was assigned from Hershey (American League) to Richmond by Philadelphia Jan. 19.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a free-wheeler and Chris gives me a lot of ice time,&rdquo; Ferras said of the Renegades&rsquo; system. &ldquo;Our line clicked really well. Steve can skate and Frank is a big, strong kid who can create a lot of open ice.&rdquo;Ferras was caught in a shakeup at Winston-Salem, where the Thunderbirds were struggling. He rejected a trade to Erie but agreed to go to Richmond.&ldquo;I have some great friends (in Winston-Salem),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I grew up and played with Keith Gretzky. The people there were super. But Jay (Fraser, the Thunderbirds&rsquo; general manager) had to do something.&rdquo;<h2>SWEET HOME</h2>Birmingham, Ala., is making a strong push for an expansion team for next season. Art Clarkson, the former GM and chief executive officer of the minor-league baseball Birmingham Barons (Class AA Southern League), applied for admission Jan. 25 and Jack Boggan, manager of the 15,000-seat Civic Center, said he would welcome back a hockey tenant. Birmingham had the World Hockey Association Bulls as well as a team with the same name in the defunct Central League. Officials of the proposed North American and Global Leagues have also contacted Clarkson. The bid will be voted Feb. 11 at the ECHL&rsquo;s semi-annual meeting in Roanoke. The bid will need a two-thirds vote to be passed. Geography is the biggest factor working against Clarkson&mdash;because Birmingham is far south of the teams already in the ECHL. But commissioner Pat Kelly and Hampton Roads&rsquo; coach John Brophy are both ex Bulls&rsquo; coaches which should be a plus. Former NHL player Phil Roberto, who is assisting Clarkson, is the leading candidate to coach the team&hellip;The expansion franchise in Raleigh has selected a team nickname&mdash;the IceCaps. The IceCaps announced they will play in the Dorton Arena. They join the Toledo Storm and a franchise in Charlotte which will join the league in 1991-92. The IceCaps owners include Pete Bock, the team president, and Miles Wolff, the president of the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team&hellip;Knoxville&rsquo;s Dan Gauthier, who scored six goals and collected eight assists as the Cherokees won three of four games, was chosen ECHL player of the week for the period ending Jan. 28. He is the first back-to-back winner this season. &#9632;

RED-HOT RENEGADE NO ORDINARY JOE

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ AND KEVIN OKLOBZIJA</div>When goalie Norm Foster steps onto the ice you can&rsquo;t blame him for feeling confused. With his Cape Breton Oilers&rsquo; blue and orange uniform contrasting his black and gold mask and pads, he looks like the wreckage of a Glenn Anderson-Andy Moog crease crashing.But the last weekend of January must have added to the Oiler&rsquo;s confusion. Foster, who is still under contract to the Bruins, returned to Maine for the first time since Boston loaned him to Cape Breton Oct. 22.Foster played the last two seasons with the Mariners. He was loaned to the Oilers to solve a three-goalie situation in Maine.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m in a hard spot,&rdquo; Foster said. &ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;ve been put out on a limb and kind of hanging on. But I&rsquo;m just glad I&rsquo;m getting a chance to play.&ldquo;This whole set up is just a very odd circumstance. To still be property of one organization and play against that team&rsquo;s farm team&hellip;I don&rsquo;t think you see it too often.&rdquo;The Mariners had tried to get the Bruins to recall Foster before the Jan. 25 and 26 games at the Cumberland County Civic Center, but they were denied. Foster was recalled by Boston Feb. 1 when Andy Moog and Reggie Lemelin were injured but was expected to be sent back to Cape Breton&mdash;according to American League rules he can&rsquo;t be assigned to Maine.When Foster joined Cape Breton, the Oilers were in last place in the Northern Division and their goaltending was suspect. Since Foster&rsquo;s arrival, the Oilers have moved to second place, bypassing the Mariners.But, Foster couldn&rsquo;t beat the Mariners in either of the two games. In the first, he was a 4-1 loser. The next night, he kept the Oilers in the game early with key saves and helped them earn a 2-2 tie.&ldquo;I certainly had mixed emotions,&rdquo; said Foster, who is 10-10-6 with a 3.51 goals-against average.<h2>COMEBACK KID</h2>Binghamtons&rsquo; Corey Millen terrorized opponents with his ability to dance and dart when he earned all-state honors as a high school star and second-team all-America honors twice with the University of Minnesota.But a serious and puzzling knee injury in September of 1989 put his NHL career on hold. It has taken 16 months for Millen to regain that feeling on the ice as he continues a comeback with the Rangers.It has been a slow process, one that began midway through the 1989-90 season, was interrupted after only 15 games, then finally resumed in November in Binghamton.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t realize I could feel so terrible in a pair of skates,&rdquo; said Millen, the Rangers&rsquo; third-round selection in the 1982 draft and a 1984 and &lsquo;88 U.S. Olympian.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just now getting back to situational timing, how I react in certain situations. I&rsquo;m still kind of re-learning with my hands and even my head.&rdquo;The 5-foot-7, 168-pound Millen was playing in an exhibition game with the New York Rangers in September 1989 when he collided with then-islanders&rsquo; center Bryan Trottier.At the time, he sustained what was believed to be a mild knee sprain.A year and a half and three arthroscopic operations later, Millen&rsquo;s left knee is apparently healthy.Now he&rsquo;s trying to regain his hockey senses and get back to the NHL. He has 5-11-16 totals in 17 AHL games.&ldquo;My first game was against Springfield (Dec. 2) and I was completely lost,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting closer to 100 per cent but 1 still have a little ways to go.&rdquo;<h2>FIVE ROSES</h2>When Binghamton defenseman Rudy Poeschek was traded to Moncton for center Guy Larose Jan. 21, Ranger coach John Paddock expected his offense to improve. Larose immediately obliged, scoring five goals in his first game with the Rangers, a 9-1 rout of Adirondack Jan. 25. &ldquo;I just wanted to play a good game,&rdquo; said Larose, who tied a Binghamton franchise record set by Jacques Cossette in 1977-78&hellip;The AHL liaison committee, headed by Maine Mariner general partner Ed Anderson, met with an International League committee in Chicago during the NHL all-star break. The committees talked about a possible all-star game for next season and a playoff format. Another topic mentioned was a set-up like Triple-A baseball, where the International League and American Association are operated independently but play an inter-locking schedule. The two committees are scheduled to meet again before the end of the season. &#9632;

CONFUSION THE NORM FOR OILER GOALIE

<div class="byline">BY ADAM TEICHER AND BILL PICKETT</div>After months of attendance woes and rumors of the imminent sale of the team, the Albany Choppers were on the verge of being sold to a group of local businessmen.Choppers&rsquo; owner David Welker was expected to complete negotiations for the sale of the team on his return to Albany from International League meetings in San Diego Jan. 2930.Details of the deal, including the identity of the investors, were a mystery. But Welker said the transaction hinged on final negotiations and league approval.&ldquo;I hope the team will be in Albany for years to come,&rdquo; Welker said.Welker moved the Fort Wayne franchise to Albany before the season and immediately ran into problems. A late start combined with competition from two local AHL teams and a poor record contributed to a league-low average attendance of 2,428 through 24 games. Rumors have persisted the average attendance was under 1,000.Welker was late meeting his team&rsquo;s payroll midway through January, prompting players to threaten not to make a road trip to Kansas City. After meeting his payroll, he held talks with prospective buyers who would have moved the Choppers to either Tucson, Memphis or Dallas.Then the payroll due Jan. 28 was four days late and local investors stepped into the picture.&ldquo;There has been a question concerning what&rsquo;s going to happen there,&rdquo; IHL commisioner Tom Berry said. &ldquo;But the team goes on the road and wins at Kansas City (5-4 Jan. 24 and 6-5 Jan. 26) and Fort Wayne (a 6-3 home win Jan. 29). The players certainly are putting out a great deal of effort.&rdquo;The Choppers (20-27-3) were on a four-game win streak as the off-ice turmoil continued. They added a 3-2 win over Fort Wayne Jan. 31 after receiving half of their expected pay.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s unbelievable how everyone is playing like a group,&rdquo; said Chopper captain Dale Henry. &ldquo;The last four games I haven&rsquo;t seen the team play better. We used to play two good periods and lose. Now, we&rsquo;re playing three full periods.&ldquo;If the team does fold the guys (who are on loan from NHL teams) have to go back to their past clubs and they didn&rsquo;t want them in the first place,&rdquo; Henry said. &ldquo;Maybe some other players would get picked up but we&rsquo;ve got a really good thing going right now and no one wants to see that end.&rdquo;<h2>TRADE DEFICIT</h2>Salt Lake City lost another steady defensman Jan. 24 when the parent Calgary Flames traded Ken Sabourin to Washington for left winger Paul Fenton, who reported to Calgary.That&rsquo;s the second time this season the Golden Eagles have lost a defenseman to a trade without receiving anyone in return. In October, Brian Glynn was sent to the Minnesota North Stars.Sabourin didn&rsquo;t figure in the Flames&rsquo; future, but he was a rock for the Golden Eagles, leading the team with a plus-21 rating. His departure leaves Salt Lake City desperately in need of a solid veteran defenseman.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty obvious my future was as a parttime player in Calgary,&rdquo; said Sabourin, who had been with the Flames two separate times this season.&ldquo;There just wasn&rsquo;t room for me with the Flames.&rdquo;The Flames, meanwhile, sent left winger Tim Sweeney to Salt Lake City. Sweeney, who had 46 goals and 97 points for the Golden Eagles last season, had seven goals and nine assists in 42 games this year for the Flames.<h2>SPREADING WINGS</h2>The East Division-leading Kalamazoo Wings, who lost their first three games of 1991, finished January with four straight victories and had a seven-point lead over Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. And one has to wonder where coach John Marks is getting the offense from. The Wings don&rsquo;t have a player among the league leaders in any category, not even penalty minutes. &ldquo;We finally got a 20-goal scorer,&rdquo; Marks said. &ldquo;Ed Courtenay got a couple of goals and has 21.&rdquo;&hellip;Another issue dealt with at the league meetings was expansion. The IHL increased its membership fee by 50 per cent to $750,000. The governors also discussed whether to award franchises in the near future. &ldquo;We want to be a development league,&rdquo; Berry said. He doesn&rsquo;t want many more teams than can secure NHL affiliation. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want a bunch of free-agent teams,&rdquo; he said. Berry said there are no applications for franchises&hellip;Despite playing poorly for much of January, goalie Alain Chevrier was promoted from San Diego to the Detroit Red Wings Jan. 29. Chevrier earned his way back by winning 4-3 at Peoria Jan. 26.&mdash;with a file from Bob Dittmeier &#9632;

SALE OF CHOPPERS BEING NEGOTIATED

<div class="byline">BY LANCE GOSHKO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01731/5878864-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The 19,000-seat Tacoma Dome in Washington State is home to sion franchise, granted Feb. 4, will share the facility with the the Western League&rsquo;s newest entry next season. The expanTacoma Stars of the Major Indoor Soccer League.</figcaption></div>The addition of Tacoma, Wash., to the Western League has sparked a new round of speculation the WHL may one day be split into two.It has long been suggested economics would force the major junior league to divide along geographical lines&mdash;the prairies and northwest corridor&mdash;but never before has the talk been so strong.With Tacoma entering the WHL next season, the West Division will have seven teams&mdash;just one fewer than the East Division. A stumbling block in the past for those considering a breakup of the WHL has been a shortage of teams in the west.By the mid-1990s, the West Division is expected to have an eighth team&mdash;possibly in Boise, Idaho. What might happen after that is anybody&rsquo;s guess, but don&rsquo;t rule out the likelihood of two distinct leagues forming.The split has nothing to do with a difference in philosophies. The blame, or credit, is due to economics. Rising travel costs for inter-locking games between the existing divisions have placed a financial burden on budgets.It&rsquo;s becoming sensible to break the WHL into two geographical entities. One would be a prairie league made up of the five Saskatchewan teams (Moose Jaw, Prince Albert, Regina, Saskatoon and Swift Current), two Alberta teams (Lethbridge and Medicine Hat) and one Manitoba team (Brandon). The other a pacific northwest loop made up of Victoria and Kamloops in British Columbia, Portland in Oregon, and Seattle, Spokane, Tri-Cities and expansion Tacoma in Washington.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something we really have to take a look at,&rdquo; Spokane Chiefs&rsquo; president Bobby Brett says. &ldquo;A lot of teams in the East are limited in what their resources could be.&rdquo;As it stands now, each team in the East Division goes on a seven-to-10 day trip through the West Division once a year&mdash;and vice-versa&rsquo;. The expenses have turned some owners off.&ldquo;It costs us up to $150,000 a year to travel,&rdquo; Kamloops Blazers&rsquo; governor Colin Day says. &ldquo;The decision on splitting, if it does come up, will probably be based on costs versus what is really good for the WHL.&rdquo;If the break occurs, the Canadian Hockey League would have four leagues under its umbrella&mdash;two Western leagues, the Ontario League and the Quebec League.CHL president Ed Chynoweth, who doubles as president of the WHL, has heard talk of a WHL split before and suspects the topic will come up again.&ldquo;The long-term goal was to find one and possibly two more teams in the West Division,&rdquo; Chynoweth says. &ldquo;That would give them seven or eight, an equal number to the East. And if that should come to pass, I&rsquo;m sure there will certainly be some discussion&hellip;&rdquo;But that doesn&rsquo;t mean Chynoweth is in favor of it.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s sense in me making my personal thoughts known until we get enough interest from the people who pay the bills,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s where I take my direction from.&rdquo;The success of teams in Washington State and Oregon has made that region a hockey hotbed. Owners and potential owners see a high rate return on their dollar.Professional baseball player George Brett of the Kansas City Royals was one of six investors who purchased the Chiefs last summer for an estimated $700,000 (U.S.). The new front office put the organization in excellent standing. Average attendance has risen by 700 (from 2,400 to 3,100) over last season.The Portland Winter Hawks have long been the flagship of the West. In their best season attendance-wise&mdash;1988-89&mdash;the team drew 240,404 for 36 home games, a 6,678 per game average.The Seattle Thunderbirds set a single game attendance record of 12,253 (since broken by Saskatoon&rsquo;s 12,341) last Feb. 9. Five games at the Seattle Coliseum, the home of the NBA SuperSonics, averaged more than 12,000 fans.The New Westminster Bruins became the TriCities Americans in 1988-89 and in a 44-game period up to Jan. 27, all games at the 6,010-seatTri-City Coliseum have been sellouts.A league division isn&rsquo;t clear cut, so to speak. What about Kamloops? The Blazers are isolated in B.C.&rsquo;s interior, more than four hours and a ferry ride away from its closest geographical rival&mdash;Victoria. To solidify its place in the pacific northwest, Kamloops would like to see a team in nearby Kelowna, B.C.What about the struggling Victoria Cougars, who are experiencing attendance problems and may not be back next season? They set a CHL futility record of 32 straight losses last year and won just five times all season. The Cougars haven&rsquo;t improved a great deal this season and are averaging about 1,000 fans per game.&ldquo;United States fans support (junior hockey) more than they do in Canada,&rdquo; says Cougars&rsquo; owner Bob Vranckaert, a former part-owner of the Thunderbirds. Between buying the franchise and keeping it afloat, we&rsquo;ve invested $1.1-million. The (Victoria fans) don&rsquo;t care. If things don&rsquo;t change we&rsquo;ll have to do something.&rdquo;The Brandon Wheat Kings, in the East Division, would benefit the most from a split of the WHL. They spend $125,000 a year riding the bus&mdash;trips which carry the team four provinces and two states to the west.There is no consensus to split, however. Some team owners, like Rick Brodsky of the Saskatoon Blades, say a split could cause dissension when it comes to the ethics of recruiting.&ldquo;A lot of the guys on the prairies are concerned that the West Division teams might have an unfair advantage,&rdquo; Brodsky says. &ldquo;In other words, they may head off in their own direction if they start recruiting players with money. If the West teams come in here (to scout) with no regard, that would really screw up the league. &ldquo;Splitting into two leagues would force the start of a new administration&mdash;and overhead costs. Abolishing inter-locking play&mdash;which was the case in 1985-86 season&mdash;would eliminate the connection between the divisions.Right now, though, a split is not on the agenda. Some teams are talking about a new beginning, some are talking about survival and others are talking about domination.A common objective now is to aim towards the title of one league&mdash;not two. &#9632;

f0028-01

HOW WEST WAS WON

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Brian Costello</div>The Ontario and Quebec leagues will remain status quo for the 1991-92 season, but expansion is probable within the next few years.The determining factors regarding an increase in teams for both leagues are the player-talent pool and group interests.&ldquo;Our approach is to creep along with expansion and watch the signals,&rdquo; OHL commissioner David Branch said. &ldquo;There are so many things that can alter set expansion plans. We hesitate in trying to suggest that by a certain date we will have done certain things.&rdquo;The Detroit Ambassadors were added this season bringing the league total to 16 teams. The Ambassadors are averaging about 2,300 fans in the 9.500-seat Cobo Arena in downtown Detroit. And even though the team is struggling with a 7-37-4 record, there&rsquo;s a firm commitment from the Compuware ownership group.The Michigan area is of great interest in OHL expansion plans. Centers such as Port Huron, Flint and Saginaw formerly had International League teams.&ldquo;Those places have excellent facilities and a great awareness of hockey,&rdquo; Branch said. &ldquo;Now they&rsquo;re without teams. So there&rsquo;s potential there for growth. Three groups in that area have expressed interest.&rdquo;The OHL would also consider expansion teams in the Toronto area and the Barrie-Orillia corridor provided quality ownership groups and facilities are put together.The Dukes of Hamilton are up for sale for $12-million. Groups in Toronto and Guelph have inquired.The QMJHL is standing firm at 12 teams after adding the Beauport Harfangs this season.&ldquo;Our board of governors had a meeting and decided not to expand for at least one year, or until the talent-pool allows us to,&rdquo; QMJHL president Gilles Courteau said. &ldquo;Any movement at all in the near future would be by a transfer.&rdquo;Courteau said groups in Sherbrooke, Vald&rsquo;Or, St-Jerome and Sorel have expressed interest in purchasing an existing club, but nothing is likely to change until the 1992-93 season at least.The Harfangs have been a big hit in Beauport. The team sold 650 season tickets and home games have averaged more than 1,400 fans in the 1,700-seat Centre Sportif Marcel Bedard.The 19-29-2 Harfangs have been remarkably competitive in their first season and are battling the Shawinigan Cataracts for the final playoff spot in the Dilio Division. &#9632;

MICHIGAN TARGETED FOR OHL EXPANSION

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON AND BRIAN COSTELLO</div>For most Ontario League all-stars, playing in the Montreal Forum was a first. For Trevor Halverson of the North Bay Centennials, getting on a plane and flying was a first.The 19-year-old native of White River, Ont., (300 kilometers north of Sault Ste. Marie) was taken aback by the flight and All-Star Challenge in Montreal Jan. 29.&ldquo;It was a shock, I didn&rsquo;t know what to think,&rdquo; Halverson said. &ldquo;Flying&rsquo;s a lot quicker than taking a bus&mdash;a lot more comfortable, too. I&rsquo;d like to get used to it.&rdquo;Flying over Montreal, Halverson commented on the vastness of the city. He was even more impressed playing in the Forum.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of tradition there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was pretty nervous all day. I didn&rsquo;t relax until I started playing. It was quite a thrill.&rdquo;The third-year left winger is having his best season with 42 goals&mdash;tied for second with Windsor Spitfires&rsquo; Jason Cirone, two behind Eric Lindros of the Oshawa Generals.<h2>YOUTH MOVEMENT</h2>Even with deadline deals to acquire prize 19-year-old veterans Jason Cirone and Mike Speer, the Windsor Spitfires are a younger team now than at the start of the season.&ldquo;Everyone thinks I traded away the future in getting Cirone and Speer,&rdquo; Windsor general manager Wayne Maxner said. &ldquo;But I was trading away extra draft choices and players drafted with extra choices.&rdquo;The Spitfires started the season trying to rebuild with 13 players in their final year of junior eligibility and two overage players. They were 17-41-8 last season.Maxner, in his first year with the club, unloaded many veterans and now has seven 19-year-olds and two overage players. The Spitfires have become contenders and were 26-20-2, just 11 points off the pace in the Emms Division.&ldquo;I think (Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds&rsquo; GM) Sherry Bassin was the one calling us old,&rdquo; Maxner said. &ldquo;Sherry is jealous that (Spitfire coach Brad Smith) and I have rebuilt our team as quick as he has built the Greyhounds.&rdquo;<h2>SAM&rsquo;S GANG</h2>Ontario&rsquo;s under-17 provincial team has a definite Sudbury Wolves-Kingston Frontenacs twist to it.Wolves&rsquo; director of operations Sam McMaster holds the same post with the under-17 team, at the Canada Winter Games Feb. 16-23 in Prince Edward Island. Also on the team are Sudbury centers Brandon Convery and Mike Peca.Frontencs&rsquo; coach Randy Hall and director of player development Kevin Abrams are on the coaching staff and center Keli Corpse is on the roster.Seven other OHL players are on the team: Defensemen Drew Bannister (Sault Ste. Marie), Shayne McCosh (Kitchener), Gerry Skrypec (Ottawa) and Brent Tully (Peterborough); centers Jeremy Stevenson (Cornwall) and Todd Warriner (Windsor); and left winger Geordie Maynard (Owen Sound). London defenseman Nick Stajduhar is an alternate. &#9632;

HALVERSON IN FLIGHT AT ALL-STAR CHALLENGE

<div class="byline">BY LANCE GOSHKO AND VANCE OLIVER</div>The Western League expanded to 15 teams with the unanimous approval of an expansion franchise in Tacoma, Wash.Tacoma begins play next season, giving the league five U.S.-based teams and 10 Canadian clubs. It will play in the seven-team West Division.Team president Bruce Hamilton, a scout for the Washington Capitals, heads a group of investors who paid an expansion fee of $500,000 (U.S.) Feb. 4. The group had to work out a territorial agreement with the Seattle Thunderbirds, 30 miles north of Tacoma.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re thinking of $500,000 to start up and then maybe $250,000 to $300,000 to get things going, it&rsquo;s a matter of getting in an area where you can survive,&rdquo; Hamilton said.The Tacoma team does not yet have a nickname, coach or general manager. Its roster will come from four different sources:&#9632; First pick in the WHL&rsquo;s bantam draft.&#9632; The addition of one player born in either 1972,1973, 1974 from each WHL team. Teams can protect 11 players.&#9632; The addition of one player bom in 1975 from each WHL team. Teams can protect eight players.&#9632; Five overage players&mdash;two more than what other teams are allowed.The Tacoma team will play out of the 19,000-seat Tacoma Dome, home of the Tacoma Stars of the Major Indoor Soccer League.Tacoma once had a team&mdash;the Rockets&mdash;in the defunct Western League (no relation to the existing league) from 1948 to 1952.<h2>SMOKING BIRDS</h2>If the Seattle Thunderbirds are to challenge for the West Division title in the WHL, they must get hot. But not so hot they can&rsquo;t play.The Thunderbirds were scheduled to meet the Spokane Chiefs Jan. 23, but had trouble getting there. After the team bus pulled out of Ellensburg, Wash., following a pre-game meal, the passenger area began to fill with smoke. By the time a fire erupted inside, everybody had vacated the bus.Driver James Lutz, a fireman by trade, grabbed the fire extinguisher, went to the outside of the bus, smashed the window and put out the fire. Hockey equipment was removed, but there was serious damage inside the vehicle, which was equipped with bunks, a TV set and VCR.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a big deal,&rdquo; Seattle coach-general manager Peter Anholt. &ldquo;But it could have been if things would have gotten further along. There was an electrical problem. The adjustors are looking at it now.&rdquo;The T-Birds chartered a bus from Yakima, Wash., and borrowed a truck from a local dealership to continue their trip to Spokane. The game was delayed 75 minutes, but Seattle went on to win 4-3 in overtime on a goal by Jesse Wilson.The victory tied a Seattle record for nine consecutive wins and 13-game unbeaten streak.&ldquo;I was happy with the way the guys handled it,&rdquo; Anholt said. &ldquo;Nobody complained about anything. The guys just played through it.&rdquo; &#9632;

TACOMA ADDED AS EXPANSION FRANCHISE

<div class="byline">BY KEN WARREN</div>Hull Olympiques&rsquo; coach Alain Vigneault tops a list of candidates for the vacant head coaching position with Canada&rsquo;s national junior team.Vigneault was an assitant to Peterborough Petes&rsquo; Dick Todd at January&rsquo;s World Junior Championships in Saskatchewan. He also assisted Guy Charron at the 1990 tournament.Two weeks after this year&rsquo;s tournament, Todd announced he wouldn&rsquo;t be applying for the coaching post in 1992. Vigneault hadn&rsquo;t decided whether he&rsquo;s interested or not.&ldquo;Right now, my focus is getting the Hull Olympiques into the playoffs,&rdquo; Vigneault said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have to wait a while and evaluate a bit longer. Dick Todd has been there for two years&mdash;once as a head coach and once as an assistant&mdash;and he has done an amazing job. There are so many sacrifices. To do it for just one year is tough. He has done it for two.&rdquo;The Canadian Amateur Hockey Associaton is sending coaching applications to all 42 major-junior teams in Canada. From there, a CAHA board will create a shortlist and interview candidates. The coaching staff will be announced during Memorial Cup weekend at Quebec City in May.<h2>MISSING FORM</h2>While Drummondville continued to run second to the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in the Dilio Division, not all is good news.Drummondville gave Victoriaville a second-round pick to obtain 1989 all-star goalie Pierre Gagnon. But Gagnon has struggled this season. He had an 18-12-2 record, but his save percentage is not among the leaders.Chicoutimi&rsquo;s Felix Potvin, Granby&rsquo;s Boris Rousson and Patrick Labrecque of the St-Jean Lynx are considered stronger NHL prospects. Last year, Gagnon&mdash;who backed up Stephane Fiset on the Tigres&mdash;was touted as the next great Quebec goalie.<h2>STARRY GAME</h2>No one should be surprised what Trois-Rivieres center Yanic Perreault did at the Quebec League/Ontario League All-Star Challenge Jan. 29.In the two weeks preceding the game, Perreault scored eight goals and 23 points in six games. The 19-year-old Sherbrooke, Que., native had eight points in a 14-2 win over the lowly Victoriaville Tigres Jan. 18.Perreault led all scorers in the Canadian Hockey League with 61 goals and 142 points in 47 games heading into the All-Star Game. He scored three goals and assisted on another in leading Quebec to an 11-7 triumph.Perreault was chosen first star and defenseman Philippe Boucher of the Granby Bisons was selected third star.Defenseman Patrice Brisebois of the Drummondville Voltigeurs was named to the all-star team, but was ruled ineligible to play by the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens, who selected Brisebois in the second round in 1989, called him up on an emergency basis Jan. 27.Brisebois led QMJHL defensemen in scoring with 14 goals and 51 points in 39 games.<h2>SIMOES SAYS</h2>Hull rookie center Stefan Simoes was named player of the week for the period ending Jan. 27. Simoes anchors the top line for the Olympiques, who headed into the all-star break on a five-game winning streak. Linemates Bruno Villeneuve and Todd Sparks were in the top-15 in scoring&hellip;Drummondville&rsquo;s Denis Chasse owned the QMJHL&rsquo;s top plus-minus ratio, with a narrow lead over Yanic Perreault. Chasse, who had 32 goals and 71 points, was plus-36, one ahead of Perreault. Patrick Cote of Victoriaville had the worst rating, minus-48. &#9632;

VIGNEAULT IN UNE FOR NATIONAL TEAM POST

The Brock Badgers and Guelph Gryphons conquered the mighty giant Jan. 25 and Jan.26. Each defeated the only unbeaten team in the Ontario Universities Athletic Association&rsquo;s East Division&mdash;the Trois-Rivieres Patriotes.Brock turned the trick first, tripping the Patriotes 6-5 in overtime Jan. 25. The win boosted the Badgers&rsquo; record to 5-8-0 after 13 games. UQTR fell to 13-1-0.&ldquo;It was unbelievable,&rdquo; said Badgers&rsquo; coach Mike Pelino. &ldquo;It was probably the best game a Brock team has ever played.&rdquo;<h2>OUAA</h2>Defenseman Jack Villella scored the winning goal for Brock, his first of the season. The win ended the team&rsquo;s six game losing streak.Guelph followed Brock&rsquo;s lead the next day, beating UQTR 5-3. The Gryphons improved to 9-6-1, third in the OUAA West Division behind Waterloo (13-0-2) and Wilfred Laurier (10-5-0).<h2>CWUAA</h2>The Saskatchewan Huskies snapped the Alberta Golden Bears&rsquo; home-ice winning streak with a 6-4 win Jan. 25.<h2>CIAU</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01723/5878991-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="552" height="669"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rich Little has had a strong season for the UPEI Panthers.</figcaption></div>Alberta was undefeated at Clare Drake Arena in 13 games dating back to last season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a goal for us&mdash;beating the Bears,&rdquo; said fifth-year Huskie Terry Lloyd. &ldquo;As new players come along, that&rsquo;s something you pass along. Beat Alberta.&rdquo;Brad McGinnis (10-18-28) and Rob Thiessen (7-9-16) scored twice for the Huskies.Saskatchewan continued its strong play the next day, tying Alberta 4-4. Golden Bear Gord Thibodeau tied the game with 52 seconds remaining with his first goal of the season.Saskatchewan improved to (9-9-2), tying Manitoba (9-9-2) for fourth place in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association. Alberta (13-5-2) dropped to second behind Calgary (15-4-1).<h2>AUAA</h2>The Prince Edward Island Panthers call them the three amigos. But to opposing Atlantic Universities Athletic Association goaltenders, they&rsquo;re big trouble.Centers Shane MacEachem. Derek Clancy and Rich Little combined for 67 points in eight games following the mid-winter break.After 20 games, MacEachem had 11 goals and 23 points; Clancy, seven goals and 23 points; and Little, seven goals and 21 points.The trio helped UPEI (10-10-0) remain third in the MacAdam Division behind second-place Moncton (9-8-4) and first-place New Brunswick (10-73).&ldquo;All are impact players,&rdquo; said UPEI coach Bill MacMillan&rdquo; Rich was an all-Canadian and conference MVP last season. Derek is a sniper. He&rsquo;ll be drifting along and bang, bang, he&rsquo;ll score two quick goals. And since Shane has joined us, we&rsquo;ve only lost one game on the island.&rdquo;MacEachem sat out the first half of the season because of his professional status. He previously played in the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; system.In 1988-89, MacEachem had 53 points in 73 games for the Peoria Rivermen, the Blues&rsquo; International League affiliate.&mdash;with files from Bruce Hallihan, Claude Scilley and Mark Spector &#9632;

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BADGERS, GRYPHONS, TOPPLE GIANT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01668/5879022-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Clarkson&rsquo;s Scott Thomas, a highly-touted Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; prospect who suffers from dyslexia, is posting good numbers in the classroom as well as on the ice.</figcaption></div>Hockey has always come easy to Clarkson Golden Knight sophomore Scott Thomas.Can he score? No problem. As a senior at the Nichols School in Buffalo, he racked up 90 points in 29 games. He was Clarkson&rsquo;s leading post-season goal-scorer last year and came up with his first career hat trick this season against Princeton while playing with a cast on his broken thumb.Is he durable? He&rsquo;s played in 56 of a possible 57 games in a little over a year and a half.Can he deliver a hit? Next question, please. At 6-foot-l, 195 pounds, the right winger is one of the toughest forwards in the Eastern College Athletic Conference.Does he have a future? His hometown Buffalo Sabres didn&rsquo;t take him in the third round of the 1989 draft for nothing.Yet, while Thomas, a native of East Aurora, N.Y., continues to terrorize the ECAC, he battles an unseen opponent, one that might have kept a less dedicated player out of college.Thomas suffers from dyslexia, a reading disorder that can make schoolwork a long and tedious process.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really know when 1 first noticed it,&rdquo; said Thomas. &ldquo;I was diagnosed as having it when I was in eighth grade. My parents were curious why I was always getting bad grades when I was younger. They knew I was working hard, but I wasn&rsquo;t getting the results.&rdquo;<h2>ECAC</h2>Dyslexia is a disorder in which letters and numbers appear in reverse order. The word hockey, for example, may appear as &ldquo;yekcoh&rdquo; and and the number 19 could look like 91.&ldquo;It just takes me a little longer to get through the work,&rdquo; said Thomas, a business management major. &ldquo;If I&rsquo;m reading something, it&rsquo;s hard for me to comprehend and when I&rsquo;m doing math, sometimes, the numbers are flipped around.&rdquo;To help compensate for his disorder, Thomas receives special academic consideration from the school. That means, on occasion, he&rsquo;s given more time to complete exams and reading assignments, and in some instances, is given tape recordings of readings. All of which has helped contribute to his academic success.&ldquo;I was a little skeptical about bringing him in here because 1 didn&rsquo;t know if he was capable of doing the work,&rdquo; said Clarkson coach Mark Morris. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s doing well in school. He&rsquo;s been able to overcome his problem by utilizing the special facilities that are available. Perseverance has made the skeptics believers.&rdquo;Belief in Thomas&rsquo; hockey ability, on the other hand, has never been an issue.Thomas&rsquo; NHL idol is Cam Neely of the Boston Bruins and that admiration is reflected in how the Golden Knight sophomore approaches the game. In just 1&frac12; season in Potsdam, N.Y., Thomas has established a reputation as one of the league&rsquo;s best two-way performers.&ldquo;At this level, Scott is probably as close to being that type of player (Neely) as anyone,&rdquo; said Morris. &ldquo;He can play all facets of the game. He&rsquo;s got a presence on the ice that demands respect.&rdquo;Because of his rugged style, Thomas&rsquo; statistics are impressive, but not overwhelming. As a freshman last season, he was second on the team with 19 goals and was the leader in penalty minutes (95). This season, he had 14-8-22 totals in 22 games. But Thomas would rather point out his plus-19 rating, best on the team, and dig out the hit chart the coaches keep.&ldquo;Points aren&rsquo;t the most important stat in terms of being a team player,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The stat I like is plus-minus. The best players always have the highest ratio.&rdquo;Morris, whose team is armed with snipers such as senior left winger Mark Green and sophomore left winger Hugo Belanger, doesn&rsquo;t put any pressure on Thomas to score more.&ldquo;He does so much. I really couldn&rsquo;t ask anything more from him,&rdquo; said Morris. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s such a complete player, you can&rsquo;t knock his productivity. What he doesn&rsquo;t do on the stat sheet he makes up for by slamming bodies and springing other players. A lot of people look at his work ethic and want to follow in his footsteps.&rdquo;&#9632; &#9632; &#9632;The Eastern College Athletic Conference picked up a 12th member for the 1991-92 season when Union College accepted an invitation to join the league Jan. 28.Union, one of the top Division III teams in the ECAC East during the 1980s, received the request Dec. 17 and conducted a series of meetings involving campus officials, students, faculty and staff for over a month before making a decision.The opening in the league was created in November, when Army announced it would be leaving at the end of the current season to pursue an independent schedule.<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>Boston University coach Jack Parker escaped suspension after going on a tirade which saw him litter Maine&rsquo;s Alfond Arena Ice with water bottles and a clip board during his team&rsquo;s 4-2 1oss to the Black Bears Jan. 25.Hockey East commissioner Stu Haskell, in attendance at the game, said he had no reason to take action against Parker, who received a minor penalty for delay of game and was ejected from the contest.&ldquo;My personal policy is that unless there is a flagrant situation, like a coach striking an official, I feel it is the responsibility of the respective institution to decide what type of behavior is acceptable.&rdquo;Boston University officials said Parker would not be reprimanded.Parker&rsquo;s antics stemmed from what he felt was poor officiating by referee Scott Leavitt. The BU coach took exception to the way the game was being called, but felt his punishment fit the crime.&ldquo;I deserved a delay of game penalty but I didn&rsquo;t do anything else,&rdquo; said Parker. &ldquo;I got what I deserved and that&rsquo;s all I deserved.&rdquo;Maine coach Shawn Walsh, meanwhile, was livid that Parker wasn&rsquo;t suspended.&ldquo;If I had done that, particularly in Boston, I would have been suspended for five games,&rdquo; said Walsh. &ldquo;There were kids in the crowd and that type of behavior gives college hockey a bad reputation.&rdquo;&#9632; &#9632; &#9632;The Merrimack College Warriors continue to surprise. A 3-18-0 team in 1989-90 (their first Hockey East season), the Warriors beat Northeastern (5-1 Jan. 25) and Providence (4-2 Jan. 26) to move into fourth place with a 7-6-0 mark (13-10-0 overall).<h2>CCHA</h2>A delayed ruling by the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee has reversed the Central Collegiate Hockey Association&rsquo;s attempt to add automatic 10-minute misconduct penalties to checking-from-behind and roughing-after-the-whistle infractions.During the first three weeks of January, the league became the first college circuit to adapt the new rule&mdash;apparently with the blessing of rules committee chairman Sid Watson. Through 24 CCHA contests, from Jan. 4 through Jan. 19, a total of 20 checking-from-behind and 18 roughing-after-the-whistle calls were made.However, in Jan. 25-26 weekend action, the extra misconducts mysteriously vanished. Although Watson supported the rule change, other members of the seven-person rules committee didn&rsquo;t.The misconduct rule had been hustled into effect by CCHA commissioner Bill Beagan, who wants to maintain a swift, safe image for his league.&ldquo;Checking from behind was more serious,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We observed that it was surfacing as a problem that could lead to a career-threatening injury. We reacted to that and took action to stop it.&rdquo;<h2>WCHA</h2>Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer bowed to pressure from the WCHA and shelved plans to appeal a two-game suspension levied against his standout defenseman, Sean Hill. As a result, Hill served the sentence during a home series against Minnesota Jan. 25-26.The suspension was imposed by a three-man executive committee after it reviewed video tape and written reports from an incident Jan. 18 in Denver. In that game, Hill elbowed DU defenseman Mike Aikens in the head. Aikens required surgery to repair vertebrae in his neck. The hit, coupled with a congenital weakness, may force Aikens to give up the sport.The reversal came down approximately an hour before the series opener against Minnesota and, according to players, affected their play. The Badgers dropped 5-3 and 8-1 decisions to fall out of the title chase.&#9632; &#9632; &#9632;Michigan Tech defenseman Darcy Martini is on pace to break the league&rsquo;s single-season penalty minute record. Through 24 games, Martini had 128 PIM, just 13 minutes shy of the mark established by North Dakota&rsquo;s Jim Archibald in 1984-85.&mdash;with files from Tom Boggie, Larry Mahoney, Matt Carlson and Andy Baggot &#9632;

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VALIANT KNIGHT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01713/5879074-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01634/5879067-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="3068" height="3209"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01721/5879060-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="3076" height="3611"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01686/5879053-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="3049" height="1224"></div> &#9632;

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NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

Boasting the best quarterback tandems in hockey, the Chicago Blackhawks and Calgary Flames rank 1-2 in power-play efficiency.With Chris Chelios and Doug Wilson working the points, the Hawks moved into first place ahead of Calgary scoring a power-play goal every seven minutes, 11 seconds on average. The Flames, with Al MacInnis and Gary Suter controlling the flow, are one tick back at 7:12.The NHL average is 8:38.The Washington Capitals regained top spot in the penaltykilling department allowed a goal while playing short-handed every 11:37 on average. The Buffalo Sabres are well back at 11:11.The NHL average is 8:38.TEAMS POWER PLAY/PENALTY KILLING TIME FRAMEGAMES PLAYED THROUGH 2/03/91<h2>POWER PLAY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06254/5879325-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="547" height="685"></div><h2>EGA LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07235/5879318-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="542" height="446"></div><h2>PENALTY KILLING</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08211/5879311-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="549" height="849"></div><h2>HOT SEAT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09195/5879304-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="546" height="500"></div> &#9632;

f0035-06

QUARTERBACKS SHOW DOMINANCE

<h2>Mon., Jan. 28</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02524/5879273-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="586" height="2127"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03423/5879266-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="581" height="1356"></div><h2>Tues., Jan. 29</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04339/5879259-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="584" height="768"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05281/5879252-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="581" height="2142"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01653/5879245-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="598" height="1717"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02476/5879238-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="577" height="303"></div><h2>Wed., Jan. 30</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03383/5879231-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="583" height="1336"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04291/5879224-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="584" height="1704"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05239/5879217-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="585" height="1707"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06207/5879210-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="586" height="1248"></div><h2>Thur., Jan. 31</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07189/5879203-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="577" height="374"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01568/5879196-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="584" height="3569"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02411/5879189-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="586" height="2789"></div><h2>Fri., Feb. 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03320/5879182-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="582" height="720"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04265/5879175-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="582" height="1377"></div><h2>Sat., Feb. 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05234/5879168-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="582" height="2109"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06204/5879161-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="578" height="2379"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07180/5879154-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="578" height="2337"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01654/5879147-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="606" height="1887"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02502/5879140-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="588" height="1355"></div><h2>Sun., Feb. 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03406/5879133-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="594" height="446"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04312/5879126-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="592" height="1875"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05230/5879119-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="588" height="1878"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06191/5879112-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="577" height="237"></div><h2>JR. ALL-STAR GAME</h2><h3>Wed., Jan. 30</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07177/5879105-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="589" height="1511"></div> &#9632;

f0035-02

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-08" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-08153/5879622-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg"></div>ALL LEAGUE STANDINGS AS OF MON., FEB. 4<h2>AHL</h2><h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01618/5879615-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="573" height="185"></div><h2>WHL</h2><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02435/5879608-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="577" height="233"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03326/5879601-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="575" height="651"></div><h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04264/5879594-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="575" height="597"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05217/5879587-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="577" height="158"></div><h2>QMJHL</h2><h3>ROBERT LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06184/5879580-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="580" height="180"></div><h3>FRANK DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07166/5879573-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="578" height="569"></div><h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-08148/5879566-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="578" height="414"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-09130/5879559-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="577" height="156"></div><h2>US COLLEGE</h2>(THE COLLEGE HOCKEY COMPUTER RATING)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-10114/5879552-1-eng-US/f0039-102.jpg" title="f0039-10" width="579" height="313"></div><h2>CCHA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1198/5879545-1-eng-US/f0039-112.jpg" title="f0039-11" width="586" height="570"></div><h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1290/5879538-1-eng-US/f0039-122.jpg" title="f0039-12" width="579" height="389"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1381/5879531-1-eng-US/f0039-132.jpg" title="f0039-13" width="577" height="159"></div><h2>WCHA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1476/5879524-1-eng-US/f0039-142.jpg" title="f0039-14" width="578" height="624"></div><h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1568/5879517-1-eng-US/f0039-152.jpg" title="f0039-15" width="579" height="389"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1662/5879510-1-eng-US/f0039-162.jpg" title="f0039-16" width="572" height="165"></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1757/5879503-1-eng-US/f0039-172.jpg" title="f0039-17" width="585" height="467"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1849/5879496-1-eng-US/f0039-182.jpg" title="f0039-18" width="539" height="631"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kyle Reeves led the WHL and CHL with 81 goals in 54 games.</figcaption></div><h3>FUTURE GAMES</h3>BEANPOT TOURNAMENT<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1945/5879489-1-eng-US/f0039-192.jpg" title="f0039-19" width="570" height="79"></div><h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2040/5879482-1-eng-US/f0039-202.jpg" title="f0039-20" width="581" height="387"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2137/5879475-1-eng-US/f0039-212.jpg" title="f0039-21" width="582" height="158"></div><h2>ECAC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2233/5879468-1-eng-US/f0039-222.jpg" title="f0039-22" width="584" height="721"></div><h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2332/5879461-1-eng-US/f0039-232.jpg" title="f0039-23" width="578" height="338"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2427/5879454-1-eng-US/f0039-242.jpg" title="f0039-24" width="574" height="156"></div><h2>CIAU</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2523/5879447-1-eng-US/f0039-252.jpg" title="f0039-25" width="578" height="311"></div><h2>CWUAA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2616/5879440-1-eng-US/f0039-262.jpg" title="f0039-26" width="582" height="236"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2714/5879433-1-eng-US/f0039-272.jpg" title="f0039-27" width="580" height="214"></div><h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2811/5879426-1-eng-US/f0039-282.jpg" title="f0039-28" width="578" height="394"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-2911/5879419-1-eng-US/f0039-292.jpg" title="f0039-29" width="569" height="158"></div><h2>AUAA</h2><h3>KELLY DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-3010/5879412-1-eng-US/f0039-302.jpg" title="f0039-30" width="575" height="159"></div><h3>MacADAM DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-319/5879405-1-eng-US/f0039-312.jpg" title="f0039-31" width="571" height="399"></div><h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-328/5879398-1-eng-US/f0039-322.jpg" title="f0039-32" width="571" height="288"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-337/5879391-1-eng-US/f0039-332.jpg" title="f0039-33" width="572" height="103"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-345/5879384-1-eng-US/f0039-342.jpg" title="f0039-34" width="570" height="158"></div><h2>OUAA</h2><h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-355/5879377-1-eng-US/f0039-352.jpg" title="f0039-35" width="570" height="235"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-364/5879370-1-eng-US/f0039-362.jpg" title="f0039-36" width="574" height="650"></div><h3>SCORING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-373/5879363-1-eng-US/f0039-372.jpg" title="f0039-37" width="575" height="363"></div><h3>GOALTENDING LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-383/5879356-1-eng-US/f0039-382.jpg" title="f0039-38" width="574" height="157"></div> &#9632;

f0038-08

SCOREBOARD

<div class="byline">KEVIN DUPONT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01332/5879653-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="555" height="617"></div>Every act grows old. Be it a TV sitcom, male/female vocalist (are you singing in the shower this morning, Boy George?) or hockey coach, eventually people just stop watching, listening or playing.So today, Bob McCammon is walking the coach&rsquo;s unemployment line. Fired Jan. 31, only moments after his soon-to-be-ex-Canucks rallied for a 3-3 tie with the Rangers, the 49-year-old McCammon no longer had the ear of his players. They weren&rsquo;t improving, the season was growing longer and a stretch of 2-13-2 had the Canucks at the bottom of the Smythe Division.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll miss him,&rdquo; said Trevor Linden, perhaps the Canucks&rsquo; most promising young player. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s our fault&hellip;someone has to suffer for the way we played.&rdquo;It is almost always the same scenario. A team with some promising talent talks in training camp of good things to come. Who knows how good Robert Kron can be? Season begins, and an early .500 base confirms September&rsquo;s promise was not foolhardy. And then, all hope gets rubbed out in 4-5 weeks packed with injuries, hit posts and a couple of trades&mdash;bringing Tom Kurvers and Gerald Diduck&mdash;ending, in this case, with another coach&rsquo;s decapitation.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the hardest thing I&rsquo;ve ever had to go through&hellip;Bob&rsquo;s a good friend and a good coach,&rdquo; said Brian Burke, the Canucks&rsquo; director of hockey operations. &ldquo;It just seemed like we weren&rsquo;t going to get better and very frankly, there&rsquo;s a lot of blame here to spread around&mdash;and not all of it Bob&rsquo;s. We made the two trades, maybe if we had made them sooner&hellip;&rdquo;Bob McCammon is old school, which is not an indictment, but undeniably a piece of yam in the quilt of his undoing. With the Canucks, he sometimes showed a modem idea of offensive attack. But his leanings were toward old-time discipline that was carved in 11 years of playing in the International League and another four years of coaching the IHL&rsquo;s Port Huron Flags. He could growl and snap, but he was more patient, stem and sometimes brutally honest. A finesse player like Petri Skriko was not high on his list, which is why Skriko today is in Boston.But in today&rsquo;s hockey, players listen to discipline and honesty on a selective basis. If a team has talent, enough talent, it will win. The clatter of a strong voice is heard. But with McCammon, the winning wasn&rsquo;t coming and 20 sets of ears turned off.&ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s part of it,&rdquo; concurred Burke.&ldquo;Players will put up with more when they&rsquo;re winning, and the best example of that now is Mike Keenan in Chicago. I look at a guy like Mike Milbury in Boston, too&hellip;I mean, there&rsquo;s a guy who deserves coach-of-the-year honors just for the way he has got Ken Hodge playing. There&rsquo;s a guy who was a minor-league dog, and Mike has got him with the Bruins as a key contributor.&ldquo;Hockey in the &lsquo;90s is different, no question. It&rsquo;s tricky managing 20 players. A coach, more than ever, has to approach each one of his guys individually. I&rsquo;m not saying Bob didn&rsquo;t do that, but it&rsquo;s true that it&rsquo;s more of a challenge now than it ever was. I&rsquo;m sure 1 sound 80 years old when I say this, but today&rsquo;s player often has other goals and ambitions than what goes on on the ice.&rdquo;Management usually states that it has one of two choices when firing time arrives. A general manager, confronted with not making the playoffs, will shuffle his feet and say, &ldquo;Well, I had a choice: fire the coach or fire the team.&rdquo;Within memory, only one team, this season&rsquo;s Toronto Maple Leafs, has done both. Doug Carpenter was given the gate early and now one third or more of the Leaf lineup couldn&rsquo;t tell Doug Carpenter from Bobby Carpenter.Did the Canucks have a choice? Probably not. They were losing sight of both wins and Winnipeg and the trading deadline was but one month away. They made minor changes to get Kurvers and Diduck, but that changed little. Linden went into McCammon&rsquo;s last game as the club&rsquo;s leading scorer with 40 points in 53 games and Dan Quinn was second with 37 points&mdash;and a minus-23 plus-minus rating.But was Bob McCammon necessarily the wrong man for the job? Probably not. The Canucks, especially in the talent-heavy Smythe Division, are a .500 team most nights, whether coached by Keenan, Milbury, McCammon or even the old-school, stem Al Arbour.The truth is, when players stop listening, even when it looks like they&rsquo;re trying, there is nothing a coach can do. Pat Quinn has moved from the Canucks&rsquo; front office now and, undoubtedly, he&rsquo;ll shake his team from its tone deafness from behind the bench. That shake may get them in the playoffs.If not, there could be a bigger shake yet to come in Vancouver. Quinn and Co. have to hope someone is listening.Kevin Dupont is a hockey writer for the Boston Globe. &#9632;

f0040-01

SELECTIVE EARS WERE McCAMMON’S UNDOING

<h2>KINGS</h2>Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall said he is interested in purchasing the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League from Beverly Hills businessman Harry Omest. McNall said Ornest&rsquo;s original asking price was &ldquo;between $10-12 million,&rdquo; and that his chances of buying the team are &ldquo;better than 50-50. I don&rsquo;t know much about the CFL, but I do know that Toronto is a great sports town and they have one of best facilities (the Skydome) in the world.&rdquo; McNall has approached Wayne Gretzky and actor John Candy about purchasing an as yet undetermined piece of the Argonauts. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re both from the Toronto area and would be of great help in terms of marketing,&rdquo; McNall said, &ldquo;but I haven&rsquo;t discussed any specifics whatsoever with either of them.&rdquo; McNall said he would decide whether or not to buy the team by the end of February&hellip;Marty McSorley set career highs for assists (five) and points (six) when the Kings routed Vancouver 9-1 Feb. 2. McSorley had never collected more than three points in any of his previous 424 NHL games. He had one goal, 12 assists and a team-leading 159 penalty minutes in his first 36 games this year. &ldquo;This was fun, but believe me, I&rsquo;m not going to change my game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The coaches won&rsquo;t let me. They&rsquo;ll keep me in check, give me a spanking if I go up the ice too much.&rdquo;<h2>CANUCKS</h2>The Canadian Airlines jet carrying the Canucks to Los Angeles from Vancouver Feb. 1 touched down at LAX at almost the precise moment USAir and Skywest planes collided, killing 32 people. &ldquo;I looked back and saw the whole thing,&rdquo; said rookie Petr Nedved. &ldquo;We could see it happening right next to us. Something like that really makes you stop and think.&rdquo;&hellip;Former Canucks&rsquo; left winger Vladimir Krutov was released Jan. 30 by Zurich of the Swiss first division. The club said Krutov was too overweight and out of shape for the club to consider signing him. On Oct. 2, 1990, Krutov was cut by the Canucks because of he was out of shape, but he remained in Vancouver until Dec. 26 while his representatives tried to arrange a buyout of the two remaining years on his $375,000 a year contract. The issue remains unresolved&hellip;Veteran defenseman Doug Lidster, who is playing out his option, says his agent, Herb Pinder, has been talking with the Canucks about a new contract. Lidster was the center of furor last November when he mentioned he might play for the Canadian Olympic team or in Europe if he was unable to stay in the NHL.<h2>OILERS</h2>Right winger Dave Brown served an automatic one-game suspension Feb. 1 for incurring three game misconducts, while defenseman Steve Smith also missed the 4-3 overtime win over No. 1-overall Chicago and a Feb. 3 game in Buffalo (3-2 win) with a cracked bone in his left foot. Smith was hurt blocking a shot during the third period in the Jan. 30 9-4 win over Vancouver. Smith was listed as day-to-day. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little uncomfortable,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m pressing to get back into the lineup.&rdquo; Therapist Ken Lowe didn&rsquo;t rule out the possibility that Smith could return for a Feb. 5 game in Boston. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very mild fracture,&rdquo; Lowe explained. &ldquo;You treat it like a bruise. If he can skate, he can go. He&rsquo;ll be back some time on the (four-game) road trip.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Smith&rsquo;s absence coincided with Charlie Huddy&rsquo;s return to the Oilers&rsquo; lineup after missing 17 games with a sprained right ankle suffered Dec. 22 in Calgary. Huddy drew two assists upon his return, including one on Petr Klima&rsquo;s overtime winner against the Blackhawks.<h2>JETS</h2>After a six-game stint in the press box, left winger Doug Evans was back in the lineup for the Jets&rsquo; 4-2 win Feb. 2 in Washington. Evans had gone six games with one point before being shuffled out of the lineup Jan. 16&hellip;Starting with a Feb. 6 game against Toronto, the Jets play eight of their next 10 and 13 of their next 18 games at home. Their season ends with five road games&mdash;all against Smythe rivals&mdash;while the World Curling Championships occupy Winnipeg Arena for the final two weeks of March&hellip;Igor Kuperman. 33, has joined the Jets&rsquo; organization and will work in the hockey department under communications director Mike O&rsquo;Hearn. Kuperman moved from Moscow, where he had been employed as a sportswriter with Sovietsky Sport and as statistician for the Soviet hockey federation. &ldquo;The hiring is a continuation of sharing of knowledge and co-operation with the Soviets that started with our exchange with Sokol Kiev,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Heam.<h2>FLAMES</h2>After playing semi-regularly in Calgary&rsquo;s first 42 games, left winger Tim Sweeney was sent to the Flames&rsquo; farm team in Salt Lake (IHL) to regain his lost scoring touch. Sweeney dropped to fifth on the team&rsquo;s depth chart following the acquisition of Paul Fenton. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we saw the best of what he had to offer offensively,&rdquo; said coach Doug Risebrough. &ldquo;I think he would admit that too.&rsquo;&rsquo;&hellip;Risebrough introduced a new, get-tough policy on stupid penalties after the Flames found themselves facing 27 two-man disadvantages in the first 51 games. Two days after promising he would bench the first player that took an unnecessary penalty, Risebrough sat out right winger Sergei Makarov for most of a 5-1 win against the New York Rangers Jan. 30. Makarov had received a double minor for spearing late in the first period. &#9632;

McNALL HAS SIGHTS ON CFL FRANCHISE

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>Doug Gilmour made the resolution at the all-star break. To re-phrase a U.S. army recruiting jingle, the first 48 games of Gilmour&rsquo;s season were not the best that he can be.His numbers were down. His impact had lessened. His name came up in every trade rumor involving the Calgary Flames.So Gilmour did some soul searching and eventually told himself: Play your own game again. Carry the puck more. Set up plays. Do the things that produced, on average, 92 points per season over the last four years.The thing that sets Gilmour apart from other players&mdash;and maybe saved him from learning a new postal code&mdash;is that he can be an impact player.No less an authority than Wayne Gretzky calls him the Flames&rsquo; catalyst. Even strength, in a tie game, Gilmour is the player most likely to score or set up the winning goal.Playoffs are usually his best time of the season because he possesses the ability to raise his game a notch when crunch time comes. For Gilmour, crunch time started the last week of January.The Flames had a big week with two home games against the divisionleading New York Rangers (a 5-1 win Jan. 30) and Chicago Blackhawks (a 3-1 win Feb. 2) after an important road win (5-4) in Buffalo Jan. 27. Gilmour scored the game-winner twice and added the insurance goal in the other game.Gradually, Gilmour is playing his way off the trading block and into the good graces of coach Doug Risebrough.Since the all-star break, he has been the team&rsquo;s best forward.&ldquo;When we were in a desperate state there, I thought Dougie was leading the way,&rdquo; said Risebrough. &ldquo;We were asking for more competitiveness and that&rsquo;s what his stamp is.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying,&rdquo; said Gilmour. &ldquo;Riser&rsquo;s counted on me a little more lately. I &lsquo;m getting out there in different situations. I&rsquo;m just happy to be going out and getting lots of ice time.&rdquo;Gilmour thought the coaching staff was sending him a signal by playing him more. In addition, they also gave him the &lsquo;C&rsquo; to wear, at least during home games. Fifty-four games into the season and the Flames still can&rsquo;t decide on a captain.&ldquo;Even though we lost three games on the last road trip, the coaching staff was being more positive with me,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;I felt great. 1 needed that confidence. Everyone wants to feel needed.&ldquo;It has been a frustrating year in a sense because the team hasn&rsquo;t picked up where it should have,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;At times, we&rsquo;ve made a lot of little mistakes that have really hurt us. I know people have said we lack leadership on this team, but I feel we have enough leaders here and it&rsquo;s time for certain guys to pull the load.&ldquo;I really believe we can work through this. I know I&rsquo;m getting back towards the top of my game.&rdquo;Part of it may be Risebrough&rsquo;s decision to reunite him with Theo Fleury during the team&rsquo;s January slump.Of his partnership with Fleury, Gilmour said: &ldquo;Theo&rsquo;s a smart player. I like working with a guy like that because I know every night he&rsquo;s going to come to compete and that he&rsquo;s going to make good plays.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 28: Tim Sweeney, LW, assigned to Salt Lake (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour, Joel Otto, Robert Reichel.LW&mdash;Gary Roberts, Stephane Matteau, Paul Fenton, Brian MacLellan.RW&mdash;Theo Fleury, Sergei Makarov, Mark Hunter, Tim Hunter, Sergei Priakin.LD&mdash;Gary Suter, Jamie Macoun, Frank Musil.RD&mdash;Al Maclnnis, Jim Kyte, Ric Nattress, Roger Johansson.G&mdash;Mike Vernon, Rick Wamsley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dana Murzyn, D, shoulder separation, indefinite. Colin Patterson. LW, reconstructive knee surgery, indefinite. Paul Ranheim, LW, broken ankle, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Nieuwendyk, 27. A&mdash;Maclnnis, 46. P&mdash;Maclnnis, 65. PIM&mdash;Roberts. 179. &#9632;

GILMOUR DUG DEEP TO GET OUT OF SLUMP

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BEAMISH</div>Nearly five years after being expelled by the NHL for having contracts with two different teams, Pat Quinn is back behind the bench.The Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; president and general manager added an extra title&mdash;coach&mdash;after firing head coach Bob McCammon moments after the team&rsquo;s 3-3 tie with the New York Rangers Jan. 31.After sitting and grumbling and pounding his fist in frustration in the press box, Quinn had a close-up view of how bad the Canucks really were.McCammon, in his fourth season behind the Canucks&rsquo; bench&mdash;which was the longest tenure of any current NHL coach&mdash;was 2-13-2 in his last 17 games after the club reached the .500 mark Dec. 22.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you could imagine a worse nightmare for the opening game,&rdquo; Quinn said after the Canucks&rsquo; 9-1 wipeout by the Kings Feb. 2.By bizarre coincidence, Quinn&rsquo;s first game as Canucks&rsquo; coach came in Los Angeles. Quinn last coached in the NHL for the Kings Jan. 8, 1987, the day before NHL president John Ziegler expelled him for accepting a signing bonus of $100,000 from the Canucks while still under contract to the Kings. The 48-year-old, cigarchomping boss said he intended to remain as head coach until the end of the season. Assistant coaches Ron Wilson and Jack McIlhargey will be retained until at least the end of the season.&ldquo;Jack and Ron are both excellent men and I want to use their skills,&rdquo; Quinn said.Quinn built the scaffolding for McCammon&rsquo;s hanging Dec. 30 when, during a radio interview from Edmonton, the GM said there was a possibility he could go behind the bench, although it wasn&rsquo;t part of the plan.When McCammon learned about Quinn&rsquo;s remarks, he met with Quinn the next day to have his situation clarified. Apparently, McCammon asked for a definite time frame in which to turn the team around, but Quinn gave him no assurance he could last beyond the next day, much less the next week.When McCammon went behind the Canuck bench against the Rangers, he told McIlhargey it would probably be his last game with the Canucks.Even a tremendous vote of confidence by his players and a stirring comeback in the third period couldn&rsquo;t save McCammon. The Canucks fired a team record 62 shots at Ranger goalie Mike Richter in one of their most inspired games of this, or any, season.In an effort to put a gloss on the firing, Quinn said he had offered McCammon a place in the organization.McCammon, however, said a new position was never discussed and he was unlikely to consider it if one is offered.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 29: Craig Coxe, LW, assigned to Milwaukee (IHL). Jan. 31: Bob McCammon, head coach, fired, and replaced by GM Pat Quinn.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Petr Nedved, Trevor Linden, Rob Murphy.LW&mdash;Greg Adams, Garry Valk, Gino Odjick, Jim Sandlak.RW&mdash;Robert Kron, Jay Mazur, Stan Smyl.LD&mdash;Doug Lidster, Gerald Diduck, Kevan Guy, Adrien Plavsic.RD&mdash;Garth Butcher, Jyrki Lumme, Tom Kurvers, Robert Nordmark.G&mdash;Kirk McLean, Troy Gamble.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jim Agnew, D, sprained knee, indefinite. Steve Bozek. LW, partially separated shoulder, indefinite. Dave Capuano, RW, knee surgery, indefinite Igor Larionov, C, sprained ankle, indefinite. Dan Quinn. C, bruised shoulder, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Linden, 23. A&mdash;Quinn, 28. P&mdash;Linden, 41. PIM&mdash;Odjick, 237. &#9632;

MIGHTY QUINN FIRES COACH, TAKES CONTROL

<div class="byline">BY TIM CAMPBELL</div>The Winnipeg Jets have finally risen from their mid-winter slumber and Randy Carlyle is a big reason why.After losing four straight games in December, the 34-year-old Jets&rsquo; captain decided it was time head coach Bob Murdoch stopped taking all the blame for the team&rsquo;s poor play.So Carlyle spoke out. And his words of wisdom have sparked the Jets, who had won six of eight and were 10-7-1 since the four December losses.&ldquo;I just hate to see quality people take the brunt, the blame for a group of individuals,&rdquo; said Carlyle. &ldquo;The coaching staff, everybody, had to carry certain responsibility. But when the brunt of it goes on one guy&rsquo;s head, I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s fair. At lot of times, if you make your bed, you sleep in it. But this wasn&rsquo;t one of those cases.&rdquo;Carlyle believes the consistency the Jets have showed lately&mdash;winning three of four road games between Jan. 29 and Feb. 3&mdash;has been aided by consistent coaching.&ldquo;The thing I respect about our coaches is they&rsquo;re coaching in the &lsquo;90s,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There aren&rsquo;t the types of highs and lows, peaks and valleys, that hockey is notorious for&mdash;you know, when you win you can do anything you want and when you lose you get kicked.&ldquo;I think the guys on the team finally realized the situation, that they were being treated like human beings. It was about time we did something about it.&rdquo;In addition to speaking out, Carlyle was doing his share on the ice.The former Norris Trophy winner (1981 with Pittsburgh) had a plus-10 stretch since Christmas and led the team with a plus-.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just one of those things when you get things going,&rdquo; Carlyle said. &ldquo;Last year, I only played 53 games. This year, I&rsquo;ve had some problems with injuries. I wasn&rsquo;t playing every game. I was the designated sitter on some nights. That still could happen here. We&rsquo;ve got some quality people around.&rdquo;But the Jets don&rsquo;t have to worry about missing their captain&rsquo;s constant chirping and irascible attitude. They seem to have adopted it.&ldquo;Where we were, we weren&rsquo;t nasty enough as a whole,&rdquo; Carlyle said. &ldquo;And it&rsquo;s not a question of just having one guy like a Shawn Cronin or Gord Donnelly going out and being a physical force and fighting or what not. It&rsquo;s our whole club&rsquo;s attitude. We had to get meaner.&ldquo;Teams were coming into our building and dictating a style of play and consequently, at times, we were getting pushed around. That can&rsquo;t happen in the NHL.&rdquo;Carlyle, a 15-year veteran who had 137 goals and 607 points in 915 games prior to this season, grinned when asked about returning next season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s management&rsquo;s decision,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something to be talked about in the off-season.&rdquo;Carlyle said he&rsquo;d prefer to spend his final season in Winnipeg. But his current concern is making the playoffs this season.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Thomas Steen, Ed Olczyk, Dave McLIwain, Mike Eagles.LW&mdash;Brent Ashton, Mark Osborne, Phil Sykes, Doug Evans. Scott ArnielRW&mdash;Pat Elynuik, Paul MacDermid, Danton Cole, Mark Kumpel, Gord Donnelly.LD&mdash;Randy Carlyle, Shawn Cronin, Bryan MarchmentRD&mdash;Phil Housley, Teppo Numminen, Fredrik Olausson, Moe Mantha.G&mdash;Bob Essensa, Rick Tabaracci.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Greg Paslawskl, RW, pulled groin, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Elynuik, 22. A&mdash;Housley, 37. P&mdash;Housley. 53. PIM&mdash;Donnelly, 170. &#9632;

CARLYLE’S LEADERSHIP FUELS RESURGENCE

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>Every team has its quarrels with the NHL schedule maker. Most involve games on back-to-back nights or a tough travel intinerary. The Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; main beef with the 1990-91 schedule is it started too soon.After starting the season in a daze and bottoming out with their ninth consecutive loss&mdash;a team standard for futility&mdash;in Los Angeles Nov. 10, the defending Stanley Cup champs have been like, well, champs.Petr Klima brought the Oilers full circle when he scored at 2:24 of overtime to beat this season&rsquo;s best team, the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 in Edmonton Feb. 1. And when Craig Simpson scored two third-period goals and assisted on another two nights later in Buffalo, rallying Edmonton from a 2-0 deficit for a 3-2 win, the Oilers became the NHL&rsquo;s most torrid outfit since mid-November.In games from Nov. 11 to Feb. 3, Chicago went 24-12-4 for a .650 winning percentage. During that same span, Edmonton was 25-11-1, which translates to a .689 success rate.&ldquo;Not too bad,&rdquo; said Oilers&rsquo; coach John Muckier. &ldquo;Going from a hole like 2-11-2 to be where we are today means we&rsquo;ve made a dramatic turnaround.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01288/5879811-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="715" height="710"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken Linseman wishes the first 15 games of the season would disappear.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The only bad part is if we stumble, we&rsquo;re back to .500. Once you&rsquo;ve been in a hole, you&rsquo;re always in a hole.&rdquo;&ldquo;If we could only make those first 15 (games) disappear,&rdquo; lamented center Ken Linseman. &ldquo;After that start, we didn&rsquo;t have any choice, we absolutely had to get it going.&rdquo;Mark Messier feels there&rsquo;s a perfectly logical explanation for the rotten start to the Oilers&rsquo; 1990-91 campaign.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve said all along, we had a long haul until the end of May,&rdquo; said Messier of the team&rsquo;s drive to the Stanley Cup. &ldquo;Then we started early (training camp) in Europe with a lot of travel and when we came home, we still played another 11 exhibition games. By the time the season started, we were a little burned out.&rdquo;Not to be overlooked, either, was the sprained knee Messier suffered Oct. 16, which was followed by two aborted comebacks before he finally took a month off for proper healing. The Oilers were 21-9-3 with their captain in the lineup.The experience has patiently lifted the Oilers from 21 st overall to 10th, while the Hawks have remained at the top of the heap. Chicago is well out of the Oilers&rsquo; range, but certainly the pursuit of divisional rivals Los Angeles and Calgary is in full swing. The Oilers&rsquo;, however, would perfer it if no one notice their winning ways.Initially, Muckier is concerned with a handful of individual problems that have drawn attention:&#9632; Simpson, who is starting to score more consistently, begins a three-game suspension Feb. 8 in Washington.&#9632; Standout defenseman Steve Smith has ahairline fracture of the left foot. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping Smitty can come back somewhere on the trip,&rdquo; said Muckier.&#9632; Suspended goaltender Grant Fuhr had a date Feb. 4 in New York with NHL president John Ziegler to review his application for reinstatement. Fuhr, who has basically missed two seasons, was reinstated by Ziegler and the Oilers are anxious to see him back in action.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 1: Craig Simpson, LW, given three-game NHL suspension for cross-checking Vancouver&rsquo;s Steve Bozek in the face. Will begin serving suspension Feb. 8. Eligible to return Feb. 14.<h2>ROSTER</h2>C&mdash;Mark Messier, Craig MacTavish, Ken Linseman, Adam Graves, Mark Lamb.LW&mdash;Esa Tikkanen, Craig Simpson, Martin Gelinas, Kelly Buchberger.RW&mdash;Glenn Anderson. Joe Murphy, Dave Brown, Petr Klima, Anatoli Semenov.LD&mdash;Kevin Lowe, Charlie Huddy, Geoff Smith.RD&mdash;Craig Muni, Jeff Beukeboom, Chris Joseph.G&mdash;Bill Ranford, Kari Takko.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Steve Smith, D, mild fracture, left foot, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Simpson, 23. A&mdash;Messier, 38. P&mdash;Tikkanen, 49. PIM&mdash;S. Smith, 152. &#9632;

f0042-01

POOR START STILL HAUNTS NHL’S HOTTEST TEAM

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01298/5879842-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="418" height="636"></div>Nobody has asked my star-spangled opinion, but word is that Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; general manager Craig Patrick is going to be general manager of Team USA in this summer&rsquo;s Canada Cup.That&rsquo;s fine. Patrick is the hockey broker who kept matters civil when Herb Brooks led the miracle charge to the gold medal in 1980 at Lake Placid. He doesn&rsquo;t let his ego get in the way of results.&ldquo;Nothing is firmed up yet,&rdquo; Patrick said recently. &ldquo;They asked me if I would be interested and I said yes.&rdquo;It, of course, follows that Penguins&rsquo; coach Bob Johnson would be frontrunner as head coach. After all, &ldquo;Badger&rdquo; Bob has done it before and loves international hockey with a passion.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t even talked to him about it,&rdquo; Patrick said.Before you and USA hockey bigwigs do, Craig, stop and think long and hard about Bruins&rsquo; coach Mike Milbury.&ldquo;Certainly, he&rsquo;d have to be considered,&rdquo; Patrick said.Do more than consider him, fellows. Name him head coach, with Ted Sator as assistant and Johnson as assistant GM/assistant coach.That&rsquo;s right.Permit me to put my objective journalist hat in the closet for a minute to speak like a typcially over-opinioned American.The selection of Dave Peterson as 1992 Olympic coach by a special committee was extremely disappointing. I asked some knowledgeable hockey people, who believe it or not are Americans, and they simply rolled their eyes and said, &lsquo;It&rsquo;s a clique that runs AHAUS.&rsquo;Well, I&rsquo;m tired of the Soviets and Canadians intensely huddling and plotting and playing the Canada Cup like it&rsquo;s life-and-death while the Americans walk around smiling and telling everybody, &lsquo;Isn&rsquo;t this international hockey grand.&rsquo;The Canada Cup is a tournament of the best against the best. I thought I died and went to hockey heaven during that 1987 three-game final between Canada and the Soviet Union. It&rsquo;s also a tournament of hard-core professionals. And Milbury has won more games the past two seasons in the NHL than any other coach.Is the guy arrogant? Of course he is. Is he a little pompous? Sure. Does he have a temper?Hey, I cover the Hartford Whalers. I&rsquo;ve seen him try to scale the glass partition between Boston Garden benches. Was the selection of Chris Nilan to the NHL All-Star Game by Milbury an extremely selfish act? Of course it was.But he also is a bright, driven man. The Canadians play hardball in Canada Cup. So must the Americans. Mike Milbury plays hardball. He is a competitor to the highest power.No less a Canadian authority than Wayne Gretzky says he&rsquo;s plenty worried about the Yanks.&ldquo;The Russians really don&rsquo;t scare me,&rdquo; Gretzky told reporters while at the All-Star Game. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the Americans. They&rsquo;re at a point where they&rsquo;re equals.&rdquo;The goaltending has Mike Richter, John Vanbiesbrouck and/or Tom Barrasso. Very good.Down the middle, Teams USA can ice Pat LaFontaine, Jeremy Roenick, Ed Olczyk and Craig Janney, Jimmy Carson, Mike Modano and Joel Otto. Not bad, eh?On defense, the Americans are scary good. They&rsquo;ve got a pick from Kevin Hatcher, Gary Suter, Chris Chelios, Al lafrate, Mike Ramsey, Phil Housley and Brian Leetch.&ldquo;Other than the Stanley Cup, there&rsquo;s nothing like the Canada Cup,&rdquo; said Whalers&rsquo; right winger Kevin Dineen. &ldquo;Best of the best. Everybody talks about the Soviets. But this year I think the U.S. and Canada are favorites.&rdquo;The Canadians are hiring Mike Keenan for the job. You just know he&rsquo;s going to be incredibly organized and demanding. He&rsquo;ll be wildeyed for victory, too. That&rsquo;s why the Yanks should go for Milbury.Brooks has designed a pyramid-style building block for amateur development, stressing the need for better individual skill development for youths. He makes some fascinating points. This is where people like Brooks and Johnson are at their best.Should Johnson be involved with the Canada Cup team? Absolutely. It&rsquo;s a must. He&rsquo;s one of the grandest teachers hockey ever has known. But this isn&rsquo;t a year-long camp. This is a fastpaced, ultra-competitive tournament. And Mil-bury&rsquo;s just wild enough to get the Yanks pumped up.Jeff Jacobs is a hockey writer for the Hartford Courant. &#9632;

f0043-01

MILBURY’S THE MAN FOR TEAM USA JOB

With the firing of Vancouver coach Bob McCammon Jan. 31, four NHL coaches&mdash;Montreal&rsquo;s Pat Bums, Chicago&rsquo;s Mike Keenan, Philadelphia&rsquo;s Paul Holmgren and St. Louis&rsquo; Brian Sutter&mdash;are tied for the lead in continuous service with their clubs. All were hired in June, 1988, giving them almost three years service. McCammon was with Vancouver for three-and-half-seasons. There have been over 100 coaching changes in the NHL during the past decade, making it one of the most precarious positions in sport.<h2>PACE SETTER</h2>Chicago goaltender Ed Belfour is on pace to tie two NHL goaltending marks this season. At his current pace, Belfour will appear in 72 games and record 47 wins. Philadelphia&rsquo;s Bernie Parent set the NHL record for wins (47) during the 1972-73 season. And Buffalo&rsquo;s Don Edwards holds the NHL record for games (72) during the 1973-74 season. Belfour could also break Terry Sawchuk&rsquo;s record for the most games won by a rookie goaltender. Sawchuk won 44 games for Detroit in 1950-51.<h2>WAKE-UP CALL</h2>Flyers&rsquo; rookie Mike Ricci reminds Philadelphia faithful of Bobby Clarke when he smiles. Like Clarke, Ricci, the Flyers&rsquo; first choice, fourth overall in the 1990 entry draft, has a gap-toothed grin. &ldquo;I lost the tooth a couple of years ago,&rdquo; Ricci says. &ldquo;I got speared in the face, but no problem. I don&rsquo;t mind losing teeth and getting cuts. Sometimes you feel like getting a little blood on your face when you&rsquo;re playing. It gets you pumped up. It wakes you up&mdash;gets you going again.&rdquo;<h2>SHAKEN UP</h2>Red Wings&rsquo; broadcaster Paul Woods was invited to dinner at the Old Original Bookbinders restaurant in Philadelphia recently but reneged when he recalled his NHL playing days. &ldquo;1 had dinner there when I was a player,&rdquo; Woods says, &ldquo;and the next night I went into the comer and broke my jaw. Former Flyer and now coach, Paul Holmgren got me with an elbow. I had milk shakes for four weeks and went down to 150 pounds, so I wasn&rsquo;t anxious to go back.&rdquo;<h2>LEAF LAUGHTER</h2>Bill Ballard, son of the late Maple Leafs&rsquo; owner Harold Ballard, on the chaotic situation involving the executors of his father&rsquo;s estate: &ldquo;Cripes, Harold and I got along better than those guys (state executors Steve Stavro, Donald Giffin and Donald Crump)&hellip;It&rsquo;s like having three guys in a car and they&rsquo;re all grabbing for the wheel. Wait, make that two guys. Crump is hiding in the trunk.&rdquo;<h2>TOUGH TIMES</h2>Phil Esposito says he won&rsquo;t have a short list of potential Lightning coaches until mid-June. When Espo signed some league documents with president John Ziegler, he commented to the president that his glasses weren&rsquo;t working too well. &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you go out and buy a new pair?&rdquo; Ziegler suggested. &ldquo;I just wrote you a cheque for five million dollars,&rdquo; Espo shot back. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m broke!&rdquo;<h2>QUESTION OF THE WEEK:</h2>Given the number of coaching replacements over the past few years, do you ever worry about losing your job?&ldquo;Coaches get fired every two or three years in the NHL,&rdquo; says Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; coach Bob Murdoch, last season&rsquo;s NHL coach of the year. &ldquo;Why worry about it? You know it&rsquo;s going to happen.&rdquo; &#9632;

McCAMMON’S STREAK COMES TO AN END

&#9632; Scott Lachance, the Boston University rookie defenseman, is the highest rated U.S. college player for the 1991 NHL entry draft. We&rsquo;ll examine his career.&#9632; In volume 1, No. 4 of The Hockey News&rsquo; Collectors World, is a complete guide for all hockey cards from 1951 to 1991. Also included is the first ever Collectors World readers&rsquo; poll.&#9632; John Anderson and Bruce Boudreau of the Fort Wayne Komets are two of many former NHLers in the International League. Both are among the league scoring leaders.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03187/5879928-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="558" height="628"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bruce Boudreau</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0043-03

NEXT ISSUE

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>Tom Laidlaw&rsquo;s playing career appears to be over.The Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; defenseman, sidelined since March 17 of last season because of three bulging discs in his back, has been hinting he will retire if a settlement on the final two years of his contract can be reached.Laidlaw, who turns 33 in April, is still drawing his $290,000 salary and has another year and an option remaining on his contract, each worth $310,000.Laidlaw&rsquo;s New York-based agent, Steve Gutstein, and Kings&rsquo; general manager Rogie Vachon were believed to be close to an arrangement in which Laidlaw would be paid the final two years of his contract over four years.Laidlaw has been working as a color analyst on the Kings&rsquo; home radio broadcasts and would earn his pay by continuing that job on a full-time basis.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve worked hard at the broadcasting thing and have had some success at it. It&rsquo;s something I really enjoy and would like to pursue as a career,&rdquo; said Laidlaw. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t seem like I have much of a future left with the Kings as a player.&rdquo;Laidlaw&rsquo;s back was so sore in the fall that he didn&rsquo;t even report to training camp, but he did attempt a comeback in December, when he played in four games for the Phoenix Roadrunners, the Kings&rsquo; International League affiliate.But his back acted up again after he played in back-to-back games for Phoenix Dec. 26-27 and it hasn&rsquo;t gotten any better.&ldquo;My back felt real good until then,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was real confident I was going to make this work. But even if I hadn&rsquo;t had problems then, who knows, I could have hurt my back again by bending over to pick up a dime.&ldquo;Look, even if I was able to come back next year, I&rsquo;d be putting the team in a real bind. Everybody would be wondering, &lsquo;How long is this guy going to stay healthy?&rsquo; What if the team traded a defenseman and then my back went out again? I really put myself behind the 8-ball by missing this year. I&rsquo;m not a kid anymore.&rdquo;Laidlaw began his career in 198081 with the New York Rangers, for whom he played parts of seven seasons. He was involved in one of the biggest trades in the Kings&rsquo; history, moving to Los Angeles with Bob Carpenter on March 10, 1987 in exchange for Kings&rsquo; all-time leading scorer Marcel Dionne, Jeff Crossman and a 1989 third-round draft pick.Laidlaw never registered more than six goals or 29 points in any of his 10 NHL seasons, but he built a reputation as a steady, stay-at-home defenseman who rarely made mistakes.In 705 career games, 195 of them with the Kings, Laidlaw had 25 goals and 164 points.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Todd Elik, Steve Kasper, John McIntyre.LW&mdash;Tony Granato, Luc Robitaille, John Tonelli, Jay Miller, Mike Donnelly.RW&mdash;Tomas Sandstrom, Dave Taylor, Bob Kudelski, Brad Jones, Scott Bjugstad.LD&mdash;Larry Robinson, Brian Benning, Bob Halkidis, Tim Watters.RD&mdash;Steve Duchesne, Rob Blake, Marty McSorley, Rod Buskas.G&mdash;Kelly Hrudey, Daniel Berthiaume.<h3>ROSTER</h3>Frank Breault, RW, right knee surgery, out for season Tom Laidlaw. D, three bulging discs in back, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Gretzky, 33. A&mdash;Gretzky, 70. P&mdash;Gretzky, 103. PIM&mdash;McSorley, 161. &#9632;

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February 15, 1991

FLAMES’ LOSS A HULL OF A DEAL FOR ST. LOUIS

ODDITIES

THEN & NOW

NUMBERS