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.

March 1, 1991

The Hockey News March 1, 1991

<div class="byline">BY NICK GATES</div>Usually, one player does not make a team. But Hampton Roads&rsquo; coach John Brophy hates to think where his East Division-leading Admirals would be without leading scorer Brian Martin.Martin became the second player to join the 50-goal club this season when he scored two goals in a 10-3 win over Greensboro Feb. 6. Martin didn&rsquo;t score in the Admirals&rsquo; 5-2 loss to Richmond Feb. 8, but added goals 52 and 53 (plus two assists) in the Admirals&rsquo; 6-5 win over Roanoke Valley. The left winger finished the week with three assists in a 7-3 loss to Cincinnati Feb. 13 and was shut out in the Admirals&rsquo; 2-1 win over Louisville the next night.Knoxville&rsquo;s Stan Drulia (55 goals and 118 points in 52 games) and Dan Gauthier (117 points in 49 games) ranked 1-2 in the East Coast League scoring race, but Martin (53-59-112 in 51 games) was in hot pursuit.&ldquo;He has done everything you could ask of a player,&rdquo; Brophy said. &ldquo;He has provided leadership game after game, played center, defense and killed penalties&mdash;everything.&rdquo;Martin, who was Los Angeles&rsquo; 12th-round pick in 1983, looked to be nearing the end of his career when the Kings released him three seasons ago. He sat out a year and resurrected his career last season with 40 goals for the Admirals.Brophy believes a NHL team will sign him for next season.&ldquo;A lot of people are asking about him,&rdquo; Brophy said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll get his contract next year. His game is back on track.&rdquo;A second-team all-star last season, Martin earned a tryout with the Albany Choppers (International League) but reported to camp out of shape. Martin was cut and realized his career reached a crossroads.&ldquo;I put a little more pressure on myself this season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m keeping healthy on and off the ice. I&rsquo;m getting my sleep, doing the things I need to do.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m in the best shape (210 pounds) of my life; I can&rsquo;t get any lighter. It&rsquo;s a make-or-break year and I&rsquo;ve got to do twice as well.&rdquo;<h2>GOOD KNIGHT</h2>Only Greg Spenrath of the Erie Panthers had spent more time in the penalty box (354 minutes) this season than Nashville Knight Kirk Tomlinson (301 PIM). Tomlinson put his fighting skills on the back burner last week to display his offensive tools. He scored six goals and added seven assists in five games and was named ECHL player of the week for the period ending Feb. 11&hellip;Five cities&mdash;Birmingham, Ala.; Dayton, Ohio; Charleston, W.Va.; Flint and Port Huron, Mich.&mdash;expressed an interest in joining the ECHL at a league meeting Feb. 11 in Vinton, Va&hellip;Charlotte, N.C.; Toledo, Ohio, and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; are scheduled to join the league next season, although there&rsquo;s concern the Charlotte entry might be delayed because arena renovation is dragging. A final decision on Charlotte&rsquo;s status will be made at a June meeting in Winston-Salem&hellip;Other matters discussed at the league meeting: The playoff format was finalized. The quarterfinals will be a best-of-five series, the semifinals and finals best-of-seven; A week was added to next year&rsquo;s schedule and the league probably will be aligned into two conferences with two divisions each to keep travel costs down; Meal money was boosted from $12 to $15 per day and teams are legally allowed to keep a 17th player, who cannot dress. &#9632;

THE NHL

MARTIN AT THE HELM FOR ADMIRALS

A right winger for Buffalo, Pittsburgh. Detroit, Calgary, Washington, New Jersey and Toronto for 11 seasons, Gary McAdam, 35, works for United Parcel Service in Portland, Maine. &ldquo;Probably my greatest thrill was the first time someone asked me for my autograph,&rdquo; says McAdam. &ldquo;I never really considered myself someone of that status.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02990/5842458-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="506" height="411"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gary McAdam</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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THEN & NOW

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011127/5842664-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="540" height="621"><figcaption class="caption-body">ERIC DUHATSCHEK</figcaption></div>The most visible, vocal defender of major-junior hockey in Canada is Don Cherry&mdash;and that&rsquo;s both a blessing and a curse.On the one hand, Cherry climbs aboard his Hockey Night in Canada soapbox on a weekly basis and decries the money spent on European players&mdash;especially Soviets&mdash;as a waste of time and effort.He&rsquo;s wrong. The NHL has gained more from its contact with European players than it has lost. If the NHL&rsquo;s ultimate goal is 28 teams by the tum of the century, it will need all the skilled players it can get.But on the other hand, Cherry is correct when he says the NHL takes major-junior leagues for granted. On any given day, the NHL&rsquo;s top 20 scorers feature a majority of players groomed by the Ontario, Quebec and Western Leagues.Traditionally, the junior leagues took the NHL&rsquo;s indifference in stride. They didn&rsquo;t go public with their complaints or voice their concerns&mdash;even with the latest example of NHL foot-dragging.The background: In December, in a largely overlooked decision, the NHL board of governors voted to reinstitute the universal 18-year-old draft.Members of the NHL&rsquo;s pre-professional development committee, which includes Canadian Hockey League president Ed Chynoweth and NHL executive vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill, made the recommendation, in part so that more junior players would be chosen in the entry draft.Usually, whatever the pre-professional development committee says, goes.This time, however, NHL president John Ziegler decided to clear the matter with the Players&rsquo; Association first.Two months later, NHLPA executive director Alan Eagleson said his organization wasn&rsquo;t approving anything until they sat down with the league to negotiate the next collective bargaining agreement.&ldquo;If the NHL wants to act unilaterally to change the draft rules, fine,&rdquo; Eagleson says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll talk this summer.&rdquo;But in the meantime, the major-junior leagues are left dangling in the wind.&ldquo;Our thinking was, if we open up the draft rather than have 29 players drafted from Gopher Pocket High School in the U.S., maybe we&rsquo;ll get more of our players drafted,&rdquo; said Chynoweth.In some ways, the junior leagues inadvertently created the problem themselves.In 1987, when they proposed to limit the 18-year-old draft to three rounds, they were trying to address the problem of junior call-ups to the NHL.According to his figures, Chynoweth said 53 players were called up by the NHL from junior in the 1986-87 season on an &ldquo;emergency&rdquo; basis.Many times, the only emergency was a slumping NHL team that didn&rsquo;t have a minor leaguer who could provide immediate help.So the NHL changed the draft rules, limiting 18-year-old juniors to the first three rounds. The junior operators believed it would put an end to the abuse.And it did&mdash;but at a huge cost to the teams. So the NHL stopped drafting juniors.The number of players chosen from the Ontario League dropped by almost half. Meanwhile, U.S. high school and colleges increased their numbers by about 50 per cent.Example: In the 1990 entry draft, 17 of the first 21 players selected were from the majorjuniOr leagues. In rounds two and three, another 19 were chosen.But in the last nine rounds, only 50 juniors were selected. To put it another way, of the final 189 players selected, 139 came from outside the three major Canadian junior leagues.Not only did it cost the junior operators development money, it also damaged their prestige.&ldquo;When a 19-year-old has played two or three years of junior and he has gone through two drafts unclaimed, he asks himself: &lsquo;What the hell am I doing here?,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Chynoweth.A good question.What effect would the change have?According to Ian McKenzie, the Calgary Flames&rsquo; coordinator of scouting: &ldquo;If they throw the draft wide open, you&rsquo;re going to knock a bunch of U.S. high schoolers out of the box and get more players drafted from the Canadian junior leagues&mdash;which I think should happen anyway.&rdquo;On balance, this isn&rsquo;t a difficult problem to rectify. The NHL isn&rsquo;t going to get the Players&rsquo; Association&rsquo;s approval anyway. So really all they need is for Ziegler to give the go ahead.It&rsquo;s going on three months now. How much more time does he need?Eric Duhatschek is a hockey writer for the Calgary Herald. &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

CLARIFYING DRAFT IN ZIEGLER’S HANDS

<div class="byline">BY THN STAFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011388/5842128-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">In a shocking THN deal, New Jersey&rsquo;s Kirk Muller was traded to Detroit along with two players and Toronto&rsquo;s first-round draft pick for Steve Yzerman.</figcaption></div>The Hockey News did what the hockey gods didn&rsquo;t for 21 hockey writers: Made them NHL general managers.Sultans of Swap. Trader Phils. Or Franks, Marks, Mikes and Daves.THN&rsquo;s whimisical trading deadline was set for noon, Feb. 14th. The mandate was this: Each correspondent became the GM of the club he covers.He could wheel, deal, and make like a real GM. All the privileges of office except Serge Savard&rsquo;s cigar allowance.THN&rsquo;s 21 NHL correspondents burned up the phone lines for several days, trying to make the deal that was obvious to them but for some reason that thick-headed GM couldn&rsquo;t see.Suddenly the critics became the criticized.&#9632; Do you deal that promising young left winger for the veteran defender to shore up the blue line?&#9632; Is this the year your team is one player away from going all the way?&#9632; Is it time to build for the future or go for it all this year?Here&rsquo;s what happened to the NHL as the writers played GM:<h2>BOSTON</h2>GM: Stephen Harris.Completed trades: Bob Beers, D, to Vancouver for Jim Sandlak, RW.Bob Sweeney. C, to Winnipeg for Shawn Cronin. D.Failed trades: Wez Walz, C, and future considerations to Calgary for Gary Roberts, LW.Al Pedersen, D, to Pittsburgh for Tony Tanti, RW.Comments: In acquiring Sandlak, a first-round pick in 1985, Harris is hoping lightning strikes twice; that, with a change of scenery, Sandlak develops like another big, strong ex-Canuck, Cam Neely.Harris feels the deal for Cronin&mdash;who would be a big hit in Irish Boston&mdash;will help toughen his defense and that the organization has enough depth to fill the void created by Sweeney&rsquo;s departure.<h2>BUFFALO</h2>GM: Jim Kelley.Completed trades: Daren Puppa, G, and Christian Ruuttu, C, to Edmonton for Grant Fuhr, G, and Martin Gelinas, LW.Dave Andreychuk, LW, to Winnipeg for Fredrik Olausson, D, and Iain Duncan, LW.Failed trades: Attempts to acquire the Islanders&rsquo; Ken Baumgartner.Comments: Kelley admitted trading Puppa for Fuhr was a gamble and he gave away a lot in terms of their respective ages, but he said he was assured Fuhr had put his problems behind him and was certain Fuhr would return to the form that made him the world&rsquo;s best goaltender. Kelley sees Gelinas as being effective on a line with Pierre Turgeon.<h2>CALGARY</h2>GM: Eric Duhatschek.Completed trade: Joel Otto, C, to the Rangers for Darren Turcotte, C, and Jody Hull. RW.Failed trades: None.Comments: Giving up Otto was tough for Duhatschek because the big center always plays well against Edmonton&rsquo;s Mark Messier, but, as the GM says, &ldquo;the Oilers aren&rsquo;t the only team the Flames have to beat to win the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;Duhatschek, who likes the thought of Turcotte playing with left winger Paul Ranheim to make the league&rsquo;s fastest line, has an interesting reason for wanting Hull included in the deal. &ldquo;If I was going to play GM for a week, I wanted to acquire a Hull,&rdquo; says Duhatschek. &ldquo;Since nothing I offered could pry Brett out of St. Louis, I settled for the next best thing.&rdquo;<h2>CHICAGO</h2>GM: Tim Sassone,Completed trades: None.Failed trades: Attempts to acquire Minnesota&rsquo;s Brian Bellows, the Islanders&rsquo; Brent Sutter, Calgary&rsquo;s Doug Gilmour and Hartford&rsquo;s Ron Francis.Comments: Sassone believes the Hawks could use some more scoring but are strong enough to win the Stanley Cup. He had several offers for Dave Manson, but was unwilling to part with the tough defenseman.<h2>DETROIT</h2>GM: Keith Gave.Completed trades: Steve Yzerman, C, Alain Chevrier, G, and a fifth-round pick in the 1991 entry draft to New Jersey for Kirk Muller, LW, Sean Burke, G, Ken Daneyko, D, and Toronto&rsquo;s first-round pick in the 1991 entry draft.Shawn Burr, LW, and Joe Kocur, RW, to Washington for Calle Johannson, D.Failed trades: None.Comments: While Gave says trading Yzerman was difficult, he points out in his eight seasons in Detroit, the Wings have done little as a team. Wings&rsquo; goaltending consultant Phil Myre said he once considered Burke &ldquo;the second coming of Jesus Christ&hellip;and he still might be.&rdquo; The Toronto pick may wind up being Eric Lindros. In a real-life situation, Gave&rsquo;s next move would be to call the Quebec GM and offer him help to improve his team.<h2>EDMONTON</h2>GM: Dick Chubey.Completed trades: Grant Fuhr, G, and Martin Gelinas, LW, to Buffalo for Daren Puppa, G, and Christian Ruuttu. C.Failed trade: Dave Brown to the RangersComments: Chubey sees the Oilers&rsquo; main concern as being a playmaking center to perform behind Mark Messier and that&rsquo;s why he wanted Ruuttu.Chubey searched for a defenseman to play the point on the power play, but couldn&rsquo;t get one.<h2>HARTFORD</h2>GM: Jeff Jacobs.Completed trade: Dave Babych, D, to St. Louis for Paul MacLean, RW.Failed trades: Ron Francis, C, to New Jersey for Kirk Muller, LW. Attempts to acquire Chicago&rsquo;s Dave Manson and Philadelphia&rsquo;s Ken Wregget.Comments: &ldquo;I learned the hard way about taking matters for granted,&rdquo; says Jacobs. &ldquo;I thought the deal to send Francis to New Jersey for Muller was cemented. I missed Rich Chere a couple of times on the phone and he went behind my back and engineered a whopper deal with Detroit. Sly dogs.&rdquo;<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2>GM: Rick Sadowski.Completed trade: Rod Buskas, D, and ninth- and 12th-round picks in a future entry draft to Pittsburgh for eighth-, 10th- and 11th-round picks in a future entry draft.Failed trades: Kelly Hrudey, G, to Pittsburgh for Kevin Stevens, LW.Brian Benning, D, to New Jersey for Ken Daneyko, D.Comments: Sadowski wanted to right the wrong of 1983 when Stevens&rsquo; rights were dealt to Pittsburgh. He says the deal for the draft picks took &ldquo;several minutes&rdquo; to complete. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bold move for the future,&rdquo; says a tongue-in-cheek Sadowski. &ldquo;Everybody knows we need to get younger. Certainly we needed to do something along these lines when you consider the number of draft picks we still owe Edmonton from the Wayne Gretzky deal.&rdquo;<h2>MINNESOTA</h2>GM: Gary Olson.Completed trades: None.Failed trades: Brian Bellows, RW, Mike Craig, RW. Shawn Chambers, D, and a first-round pick in the 1991 entry draft to Quebec for a first-round pick in the 1991 entry draft.Comments: Olson wanted Lindros, but Quebec GM Kevin Johnston wouldn&rsquo;t let the pick go. Olson offered Bellows and Neal Broten to other teams, but no deals were completed. &ldquo;What the North Stars could offer was not attractive to the teams that have a chance to make a run for the Cup,&rdquo; says Olson.<h2>MONTREAL</h2>GM: Chris Stevenson,Completed trades: Denis Savard, C, and Tom Chorske, LW, to Toronto for Daniel Marois, RW, and Wendel Clark, LW.Failed trades: Shayne Corson, LW, to Philadelphia for Scott Mellanby, RW, and either Terry Carkner, D, or Jeff Chychrun, D.Corson and Savard to the Rangers for Darren Turcotte, C, and James Patrick, D.Comments: Just when Stevenson resigned himself to standing pat, the news came that enforcer Todd Ewen had broken his hand. He heard the Leafs wanted to talk and within minutes, there was a deal.Clark can provide aggressiveness and leadership&mdash;if he stays healthy. Marois, who scored 70 goals in his first two NHL seasons, may be revived playing in his home province.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2>GM: Rich Chere,Completed trade: Kirk Muller, LW, Sean Burke, G, Ken Daneyko, D, and Toronto&rsquo;s first-round pick in 1991 to Detroit for Steve Yzerman, C, Alain Chevrier, G, and Detroit&rsquo;s fifth-round draft pick in 1991,Failed trade: Burke and Daneyko to Calgary for Gary Suter, D, and Mike Vernon, G,Comments: This trade was made to bring some scoring punch to a team falling out of the Patrick Division playoff race because of its lack of offense. That the Devils&rsquo; attendance figures have suffered this season also played a large part in acquiring a marquee player such as Yzerman, along with the belief that one player of Yzerman&rsquo;s calibre can turn an NHL team around.Chere is gambling the Leafs do not finish last overall this season, which would give the Red Wings the opportunity to draft Lindros and turn this trade into a lopsided deal.<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>GM: Mark Herrmann,Completed trades: None.Failed trades: Ray Ferraro, C, to Hartford for Doug Crossman, D.Gary Nylund, D, to St. Louis for Sergio Momesso, LW, and Dan Laperriere, D.Comments: Other GMs inquired about Pat LaFontaine, but he was not on the market. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the heartbeat of the franchise, perhaps moreso at the box office than on the ice,&rdquo; says Herrmann. Brent Sutter also generated interest from Cup contenders, but they could not offer the depth and offensive help the Islanders need.<h2>RANGERS</h2>GM: Frank Brown.Completed trades: Darren Turcotte, C, and Jody Hull, RW, to Calgary for Joel Otto, C.Troy Mallette, LW, to Quebec for Paul Gillis, C, and Steven Finn, D.Failed trades: Mark Hardy, D, to Los Angeles for John Tonelli, LW.Mallette, James Patrick, D, and a third-round pick to Montreal for Denis Savard, C, and Shayne Corson, LW.Attempts to acquire Toronto&rsquo;s Luke Richardson, Minnesota&rsquo;s Mark Tinordi and Chicago&rsquo;s Dave MansonComments: Brown says he needed size at center and was hoping to get Adam Creighton from Chicago until he found out Otto was available. &ldquo;I think I accomplished all my objectives,&rdquo; says Brown. &ldquo;I wanted to get meaner and tougher&mdash;in general, but specifically on defense and at center.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011473/5842121-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="710" height="646"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rich Chere, above, and Frank Brown were both burning the wire to Flames&rsquo; &lsquo;GM&rsquo; Eric Duhatschek but only the Rangers got their man.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021176/5842114-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="712" height="732"></div>Brown, who talked trade with 11 other teams, nearly made more deals. &ldquo;Other things just didn&rsquo;t work out,&rdquo; says Brown. &ldquo;Buffalo never called me back about Dave Andreychuk, Edmonton wanted too much for Dave Brown, Detroit and Montreal had me drooling, but I couldn&rsquo;t give up (James) Patrick.&rdquo;<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2>GM: Wayne Fish.Completed trade: Jeff Chychrun, D, and Kerry Huffman, D, to Winnipeg for Bob Sweeney, C.Failed trades: Ken Wregget, G, and Ron Sutter, C, to Hartford for Ron Francis, C.Sutter, Wregget, Scott Mellanby, RW, and Terry Carkner, D, to Washington for Mike Ridley, C, and Al lafrate, D.Chychrun and Derrick Smith, LW. to Montreal for Shayne Corson, LW.Comments: If proposed deals had gone through, Fish would have been busiest GM. He declined Boston&rsquo;s offer for Mellanby because Craig Janney wasn&rsquo;t part of the deal. Fish got Sweeney from Winnipeg after he was dealt from Boston.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2>GM: Dave Molinari.Completed trade: Acquired Rod Buskas, D, and Los Angeles&rsquo; 10th- and 11th-round draft picks for eighth-, ninth- and 12th-round picks. The draft picks will be exchanged the year after Buskas plays his final game for Pittsburgh.Failed trades: Attempts to get Winnipeg&rsquo;s Pat Elynuik and New Jersey&rsquo;s Sean Burke and Ken Daneyko.Comments: Molinari says he has two reasons for wanting Buskas: A) The Penguins need muscle on defense, and B) Buskas hasn&rsquo;t played in Pittsburgh in more than five months.Molinari tried to get Elynuik, but the Jets didn&rsquo;t want Jeff Parker. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s funny, because I know the Jets really liked him less than a year ago,&rdquo; says Molinari.<h2>QUEBEC</h2>GM: Kevin Johnston.Completed trades: Paul Gillis, C, and Steven Finn, D, to the Rangers for Troy Mallette. LW.Failed trades: None.Comments: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy being GM of the last team in the overall standings,&rdquo; says Johnston. &ldquo;A bad team very rarely get&rsquo;s better when it&rsquo;s involved in a trade.&rdquo;Johnston had several offers for the No. 1 draft pick, but he didn&rsquo;t want to risk losing a shot at Lindros.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2>GM: Dave Luecking.Completed trades: Paul MacLean, RW, to Hartford for Dave Babych, D.Failed trades: Geoff Courtnall, LW, and Cliff Ronning, C, to New York Islanders for Brent Sutter.Courtnall and Ronning to Calgary for Doug Gilmour.Robert Dirk, D, and Tom Tilley, D. to Hartford for Ulf Samuelsson, D.Dirk and Tilley to Vancouver for Garth Butcher.Attempted to get Pat LaFontaine, C, from the Islanders.Comments: &ldquo;By getting Babych for MacLean,&rdquo; jokes Luecking, &ldquo;I still have depth in moustaches.&rdquo;Seriously, Luecking says he likes the team as it stands, but wouldn&rsquo;t have minded getting another rugged, experienced defenseman.<h2>TORONTO</h2>GM: Mark Harding.Completed trades: Daniel Marois, RW, and Wendel Clark, LW, to Montreal for Denis Savard, C, and Tom Chorske, LW.Luke Richardson, D, RobCimetta, LW, and Jeff Reese, G, to Vancouver for Kirk McLean, G, and a third-round pick in the 1991 entry draft.Failed trades: Clark, Marois and Richardson to the Rangers for Bernie Nicholls, C, John Vanbiesbrouck, G, and Kris King, LW.Gary Leeman, RW, to Calgary for Doug Gilmour, C.Comments: &ldquo;I was a little surprised I didn&rsquo;t have to give up a little more for Savard,&rdquo; says Harding. &ldquo;It was an absolute must that I get a bonafide center who could get 80 points. It was tough to trade Wendel but his health is a question mark.&rdquo; Harding says a No. 1 goalie was a definite need for the Leafs and McLean fits the bill.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2>GM: Mike Beamish.Completed trades: Kirk McLean, G, and a third-round pick in the 1991 entry draft to Toronto for Luke Richardson, D, Rob Cimetta, LW, and Jeff Reese, G.Jim Sandlak, RW, to Boston for Bob Beers, D.Failed trades: McLean and Doug Lidster, D, to Montreal for Shayne Corson.Garth Butcher, D, to St. Louis for Tom Tilley, D, and Robert Dirk, D. and Rick Corriveau, D.Sandlak and Lidster and a second-round pick in 1991 to Boston for Glen Wesley, D.Lidster and Dan Quinn, C, to Philadelphia for Jeff Chychrun, D, and Scott Mellanby, RW.Comments: With Troy Gamble ready to assume the No. 1 goaltending job, Beamish felt McLean was expendable and would command value in return.&ldquo;We needed some help on defense,&rdquo; says Beamish, &ldquo;and Richardson is the type of tough, stay-at-home guy who could help us. I got Reese to fill the loss of McLean and I wanted Scott Thornton from the Leafs, but I settled for Cimetta.&rdquo;<h2>WASHINGTON</h2>GM: Dave Sell.Completed trade: Calle Johansson. D, to Detroit for Joey Kocur, RW, and Shawn Burr, LW.Failed trades: Four first-round draft picks to Edmonton for Mark Messier, C, and Craig Simpson, LW.Two first-round draft picks to Calgary for Gary Roberts, LW.Comments: Sell was trying to acquire some immediate help in exchange for some of the first-round draft picks the Capitals got when Scott Stevens signed with St. Louis. He turned down an offer from Philadelphia which would have sent Al lafrate to the Flyers.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2>GM: Tim Campbell.Completed trades: Fredrik Olausson, D, and Iain Duncan, LW, to Buffalo for Dave Andreychuk, LW.Shawn Cronin, D, to Boston for Bob Sweeney, C.Bob Sweeney, C, to Philadelphia for Jeff Chychrun, D, and Kerry Huffman, D.Failed trades: None.Comments: The acquisition of Andreychuk fulfills a big need at forward for the Jets, who have a number of quality-but-small wingers. &ldquo;Andreychuk is a big winger with hands, and what GM isn&rsquo;t looking for that these days,&rdquo; says Campbell. &#9632;

f0007-01

IN THIS ISSUE

WRITERS MAKE FLURRY OF TRADES AT DEADUNE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01864/5843864-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"></div>CHICAGO&rsquo;S KINDER, GENTLER MIKE KEENAN-PAGE 13STARRY-EYED RICHER TAKES A GREAT FALL-PAGE 21FANTASY GM&rsquo;S SWAP BIG-LEAGUE TALENT, BUT LaFONTAINE DEAL ISA REAL-LIFE POSSIBILITYChris Stevenson and Mark Herrmann (bottom left and right) found out what it&rsquo;s like to be a GM. &#9632;

Cover-01

TRADING PLACES

&ldquo;Look around this room. You can hear a pin drop. It doesn&rsquo;t get any lower than this.&rdquo;&mdash;Buffalo&rsquo;s Rick Vaive, after a 3-0 loss to Toronto Feb. 17. Page 19.&ldquo;From the neck down, it&rsquo;s much easier (to stay sharp). From the neck up, my wife and kids keep me alive. &ldquo;Seldom used Rangers&rsquo; defenseman Miroslav Horava, on staying in shape mentally and physically. Page 14. &#9632;

QUOTABLE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011300/5841773-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="512" height="613"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOB MCKENZIE</figcaption></div>Indulge your speculative powers for a moment.We know that Compuware of Detroit, Mich., has entered into negotiations to purchase an existing NHL franchise. We think there is substance to reports that the Pittsburgh Penguins may be for sale.Could it be Compuware is trying to buy the Penguins?Some days my deductive powers amaze even me.Now, neither side has acknowledged this. Compuware director of operations Jim Rutherford couldn&rsquo;t be reached for comment.And as for the published reports that the Penguins are for sale, club vice president Paul Martha says, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;re true. Imean, if they were, I think I would know.&rdquo;So he doesn&rsquo;t believe the team is for sale, never mind negotiating with Compuware. Frankly, I&rsquo;m not that reassured.But it is funny some players on the Penguins believe their owner, Edward DeBartolo Sr., and Compuware are talking about more than the weather in the Golden Triangle.At the same time these possible-sale reports are circulating comes another that the DeBartolo Corp, of Youngstown, Ohio, is intensely scrutinizing the Penguins&rsquo; day-to-day budget and making cuts wherever possible.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s not exactly right,&rdquo; Martha says. &ldquo;You could say it&rsquo;s pretty much business as usual. We&rsquo;ve got one of the top payrolls in the league and we&rsquo;re paying our players. No problem there.&rdquo;Well, there are apparently problems somewhere. Reports I hear suggest they will soon start counting paper clips in the Penguins&rsquo; front office.As for the big picture, the DeBartolo Corp, recently sustained significant losses (estimated at more than $200 million) in dealings with Robert Campeau&rsquo;s crumbling financial empire.Have you figured out which side of the Pat LaFontaine debate you&rsquo;re on?In one corner is New York Islander general manager Bill Torrey, who is being portrayed as taking a stand against the greed and dishonor of a player who can&rsquo;t abide by a contract.In the other comer is Islander star center LaFontaine, who is being portrayed as giving his heart and soul to the club only to have it walk all over him in return.Fact is, it doesn&rsquo;t matter which camp you&rsquo;re in. What&rsquo;s important is, who&rsquo;s making the best business decision?LaFontaine wins that one in a walk.No one is tighter with a buck than Boston Bruin GM Harry Sinden, but-even he realizes you have to take care of your prime assets. In his case, it meant renegotiating with Ray Bourque and Cam Neely.Why won&rsquo;t the Isles follow suit with LaFontaine?Whatever the rationale, it&rsquo;s a risky business decision that could negatively impact on the Islanders&rsquo; competitive future.The only way the Isles emerge a winner is if they deal LaFontaine and are assured an excellent return. Otherwise, they have lost a franchise player who is arguably among the five finest in the NHL.LaFontaine can&rsquo;t lose. He knows someone, somewhere will pay his price.Toronto Maple Leafs Mark Recchi and Brendan Shanahan. If you&rsquo;re a fan of the beleaguered NHL team, it has a nice ring to it, doesn&rsquo;t it?And there&rsquo;s no reason&mdash;except perhaps lack of foresight, too little conviction and too much thrift&mdash;for it not to happen.Recchi and Shanahan are Type I free agents. That means they may sign with the team of their choice this summer so long as that team is prepared to compensate the Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils, respectively. The compensation can be settled in the form of a forced trade or, failing that, binding arbitration.Now, look at the Toronto roster and tell me who you would be afraid of losing if you knew Recchi and Shanahan were coming your way. Exactly.Toronto&rsquo;s talent pool is so shallow, it couldn&rsquo;t lose in getting a couple of quality individuals who have as much character as they do talent.If the Leafs don&rsquo;t use a little foresight and take some bold steps, they are destined to be in a stage of perpetual disarray.Bob McKenzie is editor-in-chief of The Hockey News. &#9632;

f0002-01

COLUMNS

PENGUINS FOR SALE? I WOULD BUY THAT

The recent revelation that Kevin Dineen will likely play for Team USA in the upcoming Canada Cup underscores a glaring weakness in the player eligibility guidelines. Sadly, this has received very little media attention.Bom in Quebec City, Dineen has played for Canadian Olympic, World Championship and Canada Cup teams. Under no circumstances should he be allowed to play for the Americans.This loophole of dual citizenship has been gleefully used by the Americans in the past&mdash;witness Tony Esposito, Bryan Trottier and Brett Hull&mdash;but is inherently flawed. The ramifications are clear: Many Canadian-born players who play on American based NHL teams may opt for dual citizenship for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is financial. As a result, players such as Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman or Mario Lemieux could join the United States.I propose all players may only play for the country in which they were bom. For the very few whose country&rsquo;s don&rsquo;t participate, organizers should examine each case individually and decide. And, effective immediately, any player who has played in an international event in the past should not be allowed to switch allegiances. Yes, the Americans can keep Brett Hull.These changes should be adopted for the good of international hockey and the future of the Canada Cup.Michael Nease Bramalea, Ont.<h2>THANK YOU</h2>An open letter to everyone who attended the All-Star Game:Thanks! The flag waving and signs mean more than you&rsquo;ll ever know. It&rsquo;s good to know Americans, Canadians and citizens of all the coalition countries support their troops.Hopefully, everyone will return home safe and soon.Spec. William P. McLaughlin U.S. Army Reserve&nbsp;Germany<h2>HEAT OF BATTLE</h2>Thanks to Stan Fischler for his column on racial comments in hockey (THN, Feb. 1).As a black man who has played, coached and watched the greatest sport in the world since 1970, I know that during the heat of the game racial slurs are sometimes uttered. I&rsquo;ve had racial slurs directed at me and I was guilty of saying some myself.It&rsquo;s true a person who uses racial slurs makes himself look bad, but what is said during the heat of the game does not necessarily make that person a racist.K. Hatcher Troy, Mich.<h2>BLUEBOOSTING</h2>Stan Fischler has once again displayed his lack of knowledge. In the Jan. 25 issue, he says the Blues will go nowhere in the playoffs because of less-than-average goaltending and poor defense.Imagine, poor defense and goaltending, yet they had the allowed the third fewest goals in the league through Feb. 11.It&rsquo;s hard to imagine how good this team could be if it measured up to Fischler&rsquo;s lofty standards.John Stauder St. Louis, Mo.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011458/5841828-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="552" height="690"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kevin Dineen can play for Canada or the United States.</figcaption></div><h2>SATURDAY NIGHT</h2>Kudos to Scott Young on his book, The Boys of Saturday Night. His insights into Hockey Night in Canada&rsquo;s evolution on everything from contracts to camera angles were superb and provided a whole new perspective for my next televised game.My favorite description of HNIC, though, remains from the late reporter Joe Falls, who said on Saturday nights he loved to &ldquo;put on my pajamas, turn out all the lights and enjoy the game.&rdquo; Ditto!Loy Jeffords Spartanburg, S.C.<h2>BRING BACK PETER</h2>It&rsquo;s time the NHL woke up and started promoting their game with better marketing.This fall, the East Coast League comes to Raleigh and the locals have no idea what this sport is all about.The people I work with just don&rsquo;t understand the rules, which are simple to a transplant from Buffalo, but are complex to people who have never seen a puck.Critics who say people in the South won&rsquo;t watch hockey are wrong; most people I meet are very inquisitive and I feverishly draw a rink and try to explain the rules. This is a job the NHL should be doing.Bring back Peter Puck and the league will build quite a following in the South.Sam Kiser Cary, N.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;

f0003-01

CANADA CUP NEEDS NEW ELIGIBILITY RULES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021183/5841859-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0003-02

ELSTON

Adam Oates. There are no such official records, but the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; center may have established a league standard with his 12 consecutive multiple-point games&mdash;a streak that was still alive through games of Feb. 17. It&rsquo;s too bad Oates missed 19 games or we may just have a race for the scoring title.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03774/5841897-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="374" height="364"></div>Norman Green. Granted we&rsquo;re doing an about-face on the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; owner&mdash;we jeered him earlier this season&mdash;but you&rsquo;ve just got to like the effort he&rsquo;s putting into promoting his club. His latest fan bonanza includes giving away an extra seat with a pair of season tickets for next year. If Green can&rsquo;t save pro hockey in the Twin Cities it won&rsquo;t be for a lack of trying.New Haven Nighthawk fans. A diplomatic Grant Fuhr said the Nighthawks&rsquo; paying customers had every right to verbally abuse him. We disagree. While it was likely another case of a few giving everyone a bad name, the New Haven fans&rsquo; drug-related chants and racial slurs went beyond what is acceptable.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04427/5841890-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="378" height="364"></div>San Jose Sharks&rsquo; crest. We can live with teal blue (just barely), but that Shark biting through the hockey stick has to go. It looks amateurish, cartoonish and altogether boorish. We hope the players who have to wear the uniform can rise above it. Really, is that the best the Sharks, granted a franchise last year, could muster? &#9632;

f0003-03

CHEERS JEERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011456/5841942-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="882" height="594"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021320/5841935-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="500" height="254"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031114/5841928-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="572" height="790"></div>Right winger Brett Hull of the St. Louis Blues, who had nine points (5-4-9) in three road games to lead all scorers, was named NHL Pro Set Player of the Week for the period ending Feb. 17.Hull, who recorded a point on 82 per cent of St. Louis&rsquo; goals during the week and led the league goal-scoring race by a 21-goal margin, edged Calgary Flames&rsquo; center Theoren Fleury and Hartford Whalers&rsquo; center Ron Francis.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.Hull, who had recorded at least one point in a 10-game period and 17 of 18 games, began the week with a three-point performance (12-3) to help his team to a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers (Feb. 12).In a 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks (Feb. 14), Hull scored two goals&mdash;including the game-winner&mdash;and added an assist.In the club&rsquo;s only loss of the week, Hull notched his 62nd and 63rd goals of the year (2-1-3) in a 7-4 setback to the Calgary Flames (Feb. 17).Hull led the NHL in goals (63), power-play goals (21), game-winning goals (10), shots (286) and first goals (11). He was on pace to score 82 goals and 125 points this season.Fleury recorded eight points (53-8) in three games, while Francis had a power-play and game-winning goal for three goals and five assists in three games. &#9632;

f0004-01

NHL PRO SET SPOTLIGHT

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Posturing for the summer battle over the next collective bargaining agreement between owners and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association has begun, with agents getting into the act. Their prime concern is the manner in which rookie NHLPA boss Bob Goodenow handles negotiations with the league. &ldquo;The players are rallying behind Goodenow,&rdquo; says Steve Bartlett, president of the Rochester-based Sports Consulting Group and runner-up to Goodenow in the NHLPA executive director race. But another agent says Goodenow&mdash;unlike predecessor Al Eagleson&mdash;may antagonize owners and inspire a strike. &ldquo;Neither side will get what it wants, but there&rsquo;s room for compromise,&rdquo; says Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s agent Tom Reich. &ldquo;But it won&rsquo;t come without butting heads.&rdquo; Bartlett says unrestricted free agency&mdash;advocated by some agents&mdash;won&rsquo;t work. &ldquo;Another thing that must be overhauled,&rdquo; says Bartlett, &ldquo;is the waiver system. They shouldn&rsquo;t allow teams the right to call back waivers.<h2>BAD THREADS</h2>Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; jackets, shirts and caps have taken on sinister over-tones in American inner cities. Dubbed Kings&rsquo; chic, the apparel has been adapted by several street gangs. The scare has prompted schools from San Diego to Denver to ban the team&rsquo;s jackets and caps&hellip;Referee Don Koharski, who became embroiled in a 1988 corridor incident with former Sabres&rsquo; coach Jim Schoenfeld, had another walkway episode recently, this time with Rangers&rsquo; defenseman Randy Moller. As the two walked to their respective dressing rooms following an Islanders-Rangers game at Madison Square Garden, Moller taunted Koharski about missing a call. Koharski shot back, &ldquo;Shut up or you&rsquo;ll get your ass run right now!&rdquo; Linesman Ryan Bozak grabbed Koharski and escorted him to the dressing room before the incident escalated.<h2>TUNED IN</h2>TV industry sources say ABC may bid for NHL games next season. ABC&rsquo;s games would be in addition to those broadcast by Sports Channel America, ESPN and Prime Network, the networks expected to divide the NHL&rsquo;s next TV contract. NBC is also said to be interested in doing the All-Star Game for the third straight year. But if ESPN gets the package, ABC could get the game since ABC is ESPN&rsquo;s majority owner&hellip;Now that Tacoma, Wash., has been added to the Western League, lobbying will get serious for an Edmonton Tier I junior hockey franchise. Bill LaForge, who is leading the push, is up against tough opposition, including Portland Winterhawks&rsquo; boss Brian Shaw. Sources say Shaw wants Edmonton out because he often imports Alberta skaters for his Oregon team. If Edmonton gains admission, the club will be named the Oil Kings, the moniker for some of the city&rsquo;s best junior teams.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011362/5841973-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="559" height="686"><figcaption class="caption-body">Thomas Steen wouldn&rsquo;t put up a fight if fisticuffs were banned.</figcaption></div><h2>BRUCE&rsquo;S GUY</h2>Kings&rsquo; GM Rogie Vachon has received a ringing endorsement from owner Bruce McNall. &ldquo;When I have an idea of what we ought to do and Rogie has another, I go with his opinion,&rdquo; says McNall. &ldquo;Rather than saying it has to be my way, it&rsquo;s just the opposite. I never tell him what to do. I don&rsquo;t have the experience for that. The ultimate decision I leave to Rogie.&rdquo; As for the endless putdowns and reports of his dismissal, Vachon says, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s not much I can do about it. If it&rsquo;s going to happen, it&rsquo;s beyond my control. But it&rsquo;s frustrating. Sometimes I get nervous about it when people bring it up.&rdquo;<h2>LEAGUE UPDATE</h2>The &lsquo;make-or-break&rsquo; date for the proposed North American League is March 1. Founder Gordon Stenback hopes to have six franchises in place by then and if not, play will begin in 1992-93. &ldquo;Most sports writers say the league won&rsquo;t make it,&rdquo; says Stenback. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;ve got 1,500 letters in my office from people in Cleveland who want season tickets.&rdquo; So far Cleveland is the only city in the bag, thanks to Paul Lufkin, president of a corporate marketing company and a former Yale coach. The NAHL has set its sights on Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Indianapolis and Providence. But concrete offers have not yet been submitted. Stenback is currently planning a meeting to discuss the league&rsquo;s future. One topic of discussion will be a possible merger with the Global League.<h2>MR. AUTHORITY</h2>One reason for L.A.&rsquo;s success this season is because Tom Webster delegates authority well, a source says. Assistant coach Cap Raeder is said to be the brains of the operation. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s an excellent innovator,&rdquo; the source says&hellip;The abolition of fighting would not upset Winnipeg&rsquo;s Thomas Steen. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve lost nearly every fight I&rsquo;ve been in,&rdquo; says Steen. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve learned there are guys in the league you don&rsquo;t try to fight.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-01

AGENTS JOIN NHLPA BATTLE

<div class="byline">BY FRANK BROWN</div>New York Islanders&rsquo; general manager Bill Torrey knows there is no way he can win a popularity contest on Long Island for the position he and owner John O. Pickett have taken on the issue of Pat LaFontaine&rsquo;s contract.Management&rsquo;s apparent rigidity in the past has brought about unhappy partings with such standouts as Mike Bossy, John Tonelli and Bryan Trottier, and it seems certain now that LaFontaine&mdash;or &ldquo;Pretty Patty,&rdquo; as Torrey called him in a recent interview&mdash;will be added to the list.Torrey endured his share of criticism during prior disputes, but his expressions to The Hockey News suggest a new high in exasperation over this scrap. His organization&rsquo;s most talented player wants out, sooner being preferable to later and Torrey is steamed.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not naive enough not to know that the heavy in this thing is not going to end up being William Torrey, and the good guy is going to be &lsquo;Pretty Patty,&rsquo;&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way the world is. No matter what the real truth is, that&rsquo;s the way it&rsquo;s going to fall. In this day and age, the players obviously are the ones the fans relate to, and there&rsquo;s nothing I can do about it.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a popular cause to portray, and I understand that. The only thing I can say about it is, you&rsquo;re going to have these things. It&rsquo;s the nature of the business these days. But what is good business, what isn&rsquo;t? What is judgment? What&rsquo;s fair? In this case, it hasn&rsquo;t worked out.&rdquo;Torrey insisted the stalemate is not from a lack of effort on management&rsquo;s end. He ripped LaFontaine&rsquo;s side for the disintegration of relations and blamed the media for turning the hassle into a distraction for the other players.&ldquo;We, as an organization, went to Mr. (Don) Meehan, who represents Patty, at the end of last year and advised him we would be willing to extend his (LaFontaine&rsquo;s) contract. That&rsquo;s spelled E-X-T-E-N-D,&rdquo; Torrey said firmly, reaffirming the Islanders&rsquo; longstanding refusal to renegotiate contracts.&ldquo;He (LaFontaine) had a year and an option to go. We told him (Meehan) we would be willing to extend it and we made a proposal. It obviously was not accepted. We have made, since then, a number of additional proposals, none of which have been to their satisfaction. I am not embarrassed by any of those proposals.&rdquo;Torrey&rsquo;s use of the word &ldquo;embarrassed&rdquo; seemed a direct response to Meehan&rsquo;s expression that he was &ldquo;embarrassed&rdquo; to convey Torrey&rsquo;s reported initial offer of a six-year contract that would begin at $450,000, escalate to $575,000 and would include a $3million signing bonus that would not be payable until five years after LaFontaine&rsquo;s retirement.&ldquo;Their position has been, there were certain things they wanted&mdash;no ifs, ands or buts. That&rsquo;s why it has reached the point that it has,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;The simple truth of the matter is, we acknowledged his status by volunteering to go to him in the first place. There&rsquo;s no question in our mind we wanted to make it better, and we have made a number of attempts to do it.&ldquo;It bothered me, worried me right from very beginning, that this thing would become exactly what it has become&mdash;a cause celebre, and it has had a negative, difficult, damaging effect overall, because it&rsquo;s all our guys have ever heard about. And while it is unquestioned he (LaFontaine) is our most talented player on our team, I think to say he is the only hockey player on our team is unfair to a lot players on this team.&rdquo;Torrey&rsquo;s remarks mirrored those of his boss, whose expressions in an October interview with the New York newspaper Newsday seemed to throw gasoline on what, at the time, was only a small fire.&ldquo;Several years ago, we negotiated a very fair contract with him (LaFontaine)&hellip;we always honor our contracts,&rdquo; Pickett said. &ldquo;When a player is having a hard time, I can assure you he still comes up to the office and gets his paycheque every two weeks. We don&rsquo;t ask him to give it back&hellip;a contract is something I feel you should honor.&rdquo;If he has taken any nights off, LaFontaine has disguised them well. Now, citing lack of respect for the organization&mdash;not his teammates or his coach&mdash;LaFontaine wants to leave.Torrey expressed doubt a trade would be made.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have a Ouija board or a crystal ball. But I&rsquo;m an optimistic guy,&rdquo; Torrey said. &ldquo;My concern right now is trying to keep this team going, and when we get eliminated from the playoffs, I&rsquo;ll start worrying about next year.&rdquo;Next year is the option season of LaFontaine&rsquo;s contract. The issue won&rsquo;t go away&mdash;unless LaFontaine does.Frank Brown is a hockey writer based in New York City. &#9632;

TORREY INSISTS HE’S NOT THE VILLAIN IN LaFONTAINE AFFAIR

<h2>DAVE CHYZOWSKI</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02989/5842028-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="545" height="1176"></div>Born: July 11, 1971, Edmonton, Alta. Height: 6-foot-2. Weight: 190 pounds. Team: New York Islanders. Position: Left wing. Acquired: New York&rsquo;s first choice, second overall, in 1989 entry draft.Most embarrassing moment: &ldquo;I lost a tooth in training camp and I looked pretty stupid. So Bob Nystrom asked me if I wanted to do a TV commercial, but he didn&rsquo;t say what it was for. It turned out to be for dentures. When I showed up. I was really embarrassed. Everyone was much older than me, but it turned out to be a lot of fun.&rdquo;Most memorable fight: &ldquo;At the beginning of the year. I fought Troy Crowder. I guess I didn&rsquo;t realize who I was fighting, but I did okay. Actually, I have it on tape. I live with Mick Vukota and I play it in case he ever forgets. I just hope Crowder forgets.&rdquo;Ideal evening: &ldquo;Just relaxing. Being with the guys gets a little stale sometimes, so I like to relax by myself. I bought a Nintendo a couple of weeks ago, and I didn&rsquo;t think it would be so addictive.&rdquo;Three people he&rsquo;d like to meet: I. Adolf Hitler. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve read some things about him and I&rsquo;d like to sit down and talk to him.&rdquo; 2. John Candy. &ldquo;We were playing in Chicago one time and I looked over and Candy was sitting in the stands. I started to laugh. It&rsquo;s a good thing it was the latter part of the game.&rdquo; 3. Alf. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great guy.&rdquo;Favorite TV show:&nbsp;Alf. &ldquo;That family isn&rsquo;t like others on TV. It&rsquo;s more realistic. And Alf reminds me of when I was a little punk at home.If he won a lottery: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d give it all to my Dad. I&rsquo;m afraid I&rsquo;d blow it on something stupid.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-02

PRO FILE

<div class="byline">BY THN STAFF</div>The Continental Hockey Association emerged from the ashes of the Global Hockey League at a news conference at St. Paul, Minn., Feb. 15.The new league expects to begin operation in October with six to 10 franchises in North America and four to six in Europe. That is the same concept that was the basis for the GHL, which went public with its plan in February of 1990, and put itself on hold five months later. Like the GHL, the CHA intends to have some rules that differ from the NHL: No red line, no-touch icing and moving the goals 15 feet from the endboards.Bill Hunter of Saskatoon was introduced as CHA president. Hunter was involved with the formation of the Edmonton Oilers in the WHA, Bill Putnam, who was helping put together the GHL, was named executive director of the CHA. Two of the CHA investors, Charles Hodgins and Richard Geary, were franchise holders in the GHL.Hunter said CHA teams will not raid NHL rosters.&ldquo;Our calibre will be nothing short of Triple-A in our first year,&rdquo; Hunter said. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;ll be fast, competitive and reasonably priced, and we&rsquo;ll attract some outstanding prospects and some veteran pros who like the look of us.&rdquo;Saskatoon and St. Paul were the only two CHA franchises identified. The third location, in the &ldquo;Southeastern United States,&rdquo; is expected to be Birmingham, Ala. None of the three groups has a lease arrangement in place.A CHA franchise will cost $400,000. The yearly dues will be $250,000.<h2>REDUCED CHARGES</h2>Calgary Flames&rsquo; defenseman Gary Suter paid fines and court costs amounting to $8,520 Feb. 11, as part of a plea bargain arrangement that allowed him to avoid trial on charges he hit a police officer outside a Madison, Wise., tavern last summer.Suter was arrested in June along with Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; defenseman Chris Chelios after a scuffle broke out when undercover police officers arrested Chelios for public mischief. Suter was originally charged with battery to a police officer and was scheduled to go on trial in Dane County circuit court.Under terms of the plea bargaining agreement reached with prosecutors, Suter agreed to enter Alford pleas to reduced charges of simple battery and obstructing an officer. An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain his innocence while entering a no contest plea to charges.Suter did not miss a single NHL game. He joined the Flames in Los Angeles in time for a 4-4 tie with the Smythe Division-leaders Feb. 12.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011543/5842059-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="548" height="622"><figcaption class="caption-body">Calgary&rsquo;s Gary Suter pleaded no contest to a reduced charge.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I decided to take a personal kick in the teeth rather than hurt the organization that gave me my career,&rdquo; said Suter. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a relief it&rsquo;s behind me now.&rdquo;Suter said he struck one of the officers after he heard Chelios cry for help.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know he was a cop,&rdquo; said Suter. &ldquo;I was reacting to a friend in trouble.&rdquo;<h2>SUSPENSION NEWS</h2>NHL vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill, adjudicator of on-ice incidents, has been kept busy in recent weeks with a number of cases including:&#9632; Bernie Nicholls&rsquo;. O&rsquo;Neill gave the New York Rangers&rsquo; center a three-game suspension for a high-sticking incident involving Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; defenseman J.J. Daigneault in a Feb. 9 game.In his ruling Feb. 12, O&rsquo;Neill said Nicholls deliberately swung his stick at Daigneault&rsquo;s bare hand. In the process, the stick deflected and struck Daigneault in the back of the neck on the helmet.&ldquo;Even though Nicholls was attempting to defend himself,&rdquo; said O&rsquo;Neill, &ldquo;he swung his stick at his opponent who had dropped his gloves and stick at the time. The blow to the hand was intentional and could have resulted in serious injury.&rdquo;Nicholls, like Edmonton&rsquo;s Craig Simpson who was suspended earlier this season, was critical of the hearing process, saying O&rsquo;Neill had made his decision before Nicholls had a chance to plead his case.&ldquo;We obviously wasted our time going to Montreal for a hearing,&rdquo; said Nicholls who began serving his supsension Feb. 21 and is eligible to return Feb. 27. &ldquo;The (NHL) Players&rsquo; Association has to do something about this. We have to have someone standing up for the players.&rdquo;&#9632; Ed Kastelic&rsquo;s. Pleas and a special trip to Montreal by Hartford Whalers&rsquo; general manager Ed Johnston, did not overturn a 10-game suspension to Kastelic who was banned for violating Rule 66A (leaving the bench to join an altercation).In a game against the Chicago Blackhawks Feb. 10, Kastelic came out on a line change following a fight between the Whalers&rsquo; Jim McKenzie and the Blackhawks&rsquo; Adam Creighton. Just before the ensuing faceoff, Kastelic fought with Chicago&rsquo;s Mike Peluso, who was on the ice for the preceding shift.Rule 66A carries an automatic 10-game suspension. Kastelic is eligible to return March 5.&#9632; The Washington-Philadelphia brawl. O&rsquo;Neill was continuing to investigate the causes behind the 19 fighting majors assessed in the Feb. 10 game between the Capitals and Flyers. It wasn&rsquo;t certain when a decision would be rendered.<h2>AGENT POOL</h2>A player-agent data pool which will make information on players&rsquo; salaries easier to access should be in place by May 1, said NHL Players&rsquo; Association director of operations Sam Simpson.For an annual fee of $800, player representatives will have access to detailed information on salaries of other agents&rsquo; clients and will be invited to an annual seminar to keep them informed on league issues.Players looking for agents will also benefit from the new arrangement. Each representative who joins the association will be required to fill out an extensive personal survey which will be available to players upon request.Simpson said the new system should make it easier for the media to find out terms of contracts soon after they&rsquo;re signed.&ldquo;There will be a lot more information available to the agent,&rdquo; said Simpson. &ldquo;That will mean a lot more information will get out. It should make hockey (salaries) more open the way other sports are.&rdquo;Beginning last season, the NHLPA began releasing complete salary lists to agents on an annual basis.&ldquo;Since then we&rsquo;ve been bombarded with calls,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It cost us a lot of money&mdash;we had to bring in someone to help with the extra work. This should help ease that burden.&rdquo;&mdash;with files from Mike Kane and Eric Duhatschek &#9632;

f0006-01

SHORT-LIVED GHL GOES CONTINENTAL

March 1: Pittsburgh at Calgary. Penguins&rsquo; coach Bob Johnson returns to Calgary for the first time. Johnson coached the Flames from 1982-87, then left to become president of USA Hockey.March 5: NHL trading deadline. Teams have until 3 p.m. eastern time to file trades with the NHL office. The clubs will not be able to deal again until after the season ends.March 8-10: Hockeyfest &rsquo;91 at the Boston Garden featuring Hockey East and Eastern College Athletic Conference semi-finals and finals. &#9632;

DATEBOOK

Bryan Murray predicts &ldquo;Steve Yzerman will be a Red Wing probably as long as I am.&rdquo; But that doesn&rsquo;t mean the Detroit coach and general manager wasn&rsquo;t intrigued by the deal his alter ego, Keith Gave, was able to swing with New Jersey&rsquo;s Rich Chere.When he learned Gave had acquired the first-round draft pick the Devils obtained from Toronto, Kirk Muller, Sean Burke and Ken Daneyko for Steve Yzerman, Alain Chevrier and a fifth-round pick, Murray looked Gave in the eye and shook his hand. Then he raised his eyebrows in disbelief and walked away.Gave, meanwhile, was able to carry out one of Murray&rsquo;s demands. When the reporter-turned-hockey executive informed Murray of his mission, Murray jokingly said: &ldquo;Get me a guy who can play the point on the power play.&rdquo; Gave obliged when he got Washington&rsquo;s Calle Johansson for Shawn Burr and Joey Kocur.Other real GMs weren&rsquo;t as demonstrative, but did offer some interesting comments.&#9632; Boston&rsquo;s Harry Sinden said he wasn&rsquo;t looking to trade either Bob Beers or Bob Sweeney (as his evil twin Stephen Harris did), but he was interested in the &ldquo;types&rdquo; of player Harris acquired.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d always be interested in a 6-foot-4, 220-pound winger who I thought could score,&rdquo; he said when asked about a player in the Jim Sandlak mold. &ldquo;And I would like to add the type of player you&rsquo;re describing (Shawn Cronin) providing he could play on a regular basis.&rdquo;&#9632; New York Rangers&rsquo; Neil Smith, a man who made several trades in his first year on the job, was even more cryptic in his response to the deals Frank Brown was able to engineer.&ldquo;I hate to see my team tom apart,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And you must remember: As a general philosophy, we&rsquo;re against trades.&rdquo; &#9632;

WHAT THE GMs HAVE TO SAY

As teams jockey for playoff position, the March 5 trading deadline looms larger and larger. Here&rsquo;s a look at the needs and who is available for each of the NHL&rsquo;s 21 clubs:BOSTON: Needs: Scoring and size on the wings; big, intimidating defenseman.Available: Andy Brickley, John Carter, Al Pedersen, Norm Foster.BUFFALO: Needs: Offensive defenseman; big, strong left winger.Available: Everyone except Dale Hawerchuk, Pierre Turgeon and Alexander Mogilny.CALGARY: Needs: Depth on the wings.Available: Brian MacLellan, Mark Hunter. Ric Nattress, Dana Murzyn, Roger Johansson.CHICAGO: Needs: Playmaking center; more scoring from the wings.Available: Adam Creighton, Trent Yawney, Wayne Presley, Dominik Hasek.DETROIT: Needs: Offensive defenseman; more scoring from the wings; character players; backup goaltender.Available: Everyone except Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov and Bob Probert.EDMONTON: Needs: No. 2 center; point man on the power play.Available: Charlie Huddy. Grant Fuhr, rights to Jari Kurri.HARTFORD: Needs: No. 1 goalie; more scoring from left side; No. 2 center; offensive defenseman.Available: Most notably Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson and Kevin Dineen and everyone else except Bobby Holik, Pat Verbeek and Rob Brown.LOS ANGELES: Needs: defensive defenseman; offensive left winger.Available: Kelly Hrudey or Daniel Berthiaume.MINNESOTA: Needs: A tough winger who can score; a big center; a mobile defenseman.Available: Everyone except Dave Gagner, Mike Modano, Mark Tinordi and Jon Casey.MONTREAL: Needs: Enforcer to replace injured Todd Ewen; experienced defenseman.Available: Shayne Corson, Stephane Richer.NEW JERSEY: Needs: Offense, both up front and from the point; physical defenseman.Available: Sean Burke, Jon Morris. Ken Daneyko, Lee Norwood, Al Stewart, Pat Conacher.NY ISLANDERS: Needs: Scoring on the wings; offensive defenseman.Available: Everyone.NY RANGERS: Needs: Size and tough-ness on the wings and at center; intimidating defenseman.Available: Paul Broten, Jody Hull. Lindy Ruff.PHILADELPHIA: Needs: Scoring left winger; depth at center.Available: Ken Wregget, Ron Sutter, Jeff Chychrun, Scott Mellanby.PITTSBURGH: Needs: Toughness on offense and defense.Available: Frank Pietrangelo. Tony Tanti.QUEBEC: Needs: Toughness on the wings; character players willing to ride out the rebuilding process.Available: Claude Loiselle. Paul Gillis.ST. LOUIS: Needs: A No. 2 center; a strong, veteran defenseman.Available: Geoff Courtnall. Sergio Momesso, Cliff Ronning. Paul MacLean, Glen Featherstone. Robert Dirk.TORONTO: Needs: Veteran goalie; No. 1 center.Available: Wendel Clark, Gary Leeman. Daniel Marois, Vince Damphousse, Luke Richardson.VANCOUVER: Needs: A ragged, stay-at-home, intimidating defensemen; a skilled, muscular center to complement developing Petr Nedved; big, banging wingers with some scoring potential.Available: Jim Sandlak, Dan Quinn, Garth Butcher. Doug Lidster, Kirk McLean.WASHINGTON: Needs: More offense and toughness on the wings; enforcer to replace John Kordic.Available: First-round draft picks obtained from St. Louis as compensation for Scott Stevens.WINNIPEG: Needs: Scoring from the wings.Available: Brent Ashton and draft picks. &#9632;

…AND MEANWHILE IN THE REAL WORLD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011424/5842207-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="487" height="622"><figcaption class="caption-body">STAN FISCHLER</figcaption></div>So many distortions have been delivered on the fighting-in-hockey issue that it&rsquo;s time to set the record straight.Distortion 1: The NHL doesn&rsquo;t promote fighting. Reality:The league makes feeble attempts to downplay fighting, fooling no one in the process. If the NHL wanted to eliminate fighting, it could with one stroke of the pen. But this will never happen because fighting has been a part of the game since the invention of artificial ice.Owners realize fighting is sometimes the only exciting aspect of boring games and are deathly afraid of banning a good brawl.Distortion No. 2. Wayne Gretzky loathes fighting. Reality:Gretzky&rsquo;s stance is phony. If he really meant business, he&rsquo;d do something significant&mdash;like Bobby Hull once did&mdash;and stage a protest walk-out. But he doesn&rsquo;t have the nerve.And here&rsquo;s further evidence to doubt Gretzky&rsquo;s anti-fighting stance. The last time I saw Gretzky, he was at Byrne Arena in New Jersey and a fight started between one of his teammates and a Devil.After Gretzky&rsquo;s teammate ended the bout triumphantly, Wayne broke into a large grin and drummed his stick on the ice to celebrate the victory. To this viewer&rsquo;s eye, Gretzky loved every minute.Distortion No. 3. Referees and linesmen do their best to curb fights. Reality:If this were the case, fights could be eliminated by 75 per cent.For example, on Feb. 6, the Islanders and Rangers met at Madison Square Garden in what was clearly a grudge match.The Rangers had targetted Randy Wood, claiming he&rsquo;d injured Bernie Nicholls in a previous meeting between the clubs.Several published remarks suggested an uprising would occur. If referee Don Koharski had any desire to stop possible fights, he could&rsquo;ve talked to the captains before the opening faceoff and said: &ldquo;No nonsense tonight, boys. I&rsquo;ll toss out anyone who wants to go. You guys will play hockey, or else.&rdquo;As expected, mayhem was the order of the day and the fans loved it.And what do linesmen do when a fight breaks out? Half the time they discreetly step aside&mdash;instead of moving right in&mdash;and watch as the combatants slug each other.Distortion No. 4. Hockey writers would like fighting eliminated. Reality:Newspapers give more play to fights than ever. What better proof than the &ldquo;Heavyweight Championship&rdquo; bout between Troy Crowder and Bob Probert Jan. 28 at Joe Louis Arena.For weeks, the impending meeting was played up like a Mike Tyson-Buster Douglas encounter.On game day, the Detroit News went so far as to run a &ldquo;tale of the tape&rdquo; story, while the Newark Star-Ledger featured Probert and Crowder as if the anticipated fight was more important than the game.Even Hockey Night In Canada, supposedly above covering goonism, dispatched fight analyst Don Cherry to the scene.Distortion No. 5. Teams can no longer afford to carry goons. Reality:Tell that to Troy Crowder, Tie Domi, Todd Ewen or Darin Kimble.The Blues are paying Kimble $165,000 and they&rsquo;ll be lucky if he scores a goal between now and April.The Rangers have a shuttle service for Domi. They shelter him in a Binghamton bunker until Roger Neilson figures some fighting is necessary.Conclusion:Since the big, bad Bruins of the late 1960s and the Broad Street Bullies of the 1970s, fighting has been glorified more than ever.Where once teams couldn&rsquo;t afford goons, each now considers it imperative to carry at least one.Fighting has reached an art form in the NHL. Purists say it has severely damaged the NHL&rsquo;s image and they&rsquo;re right.But the beatings go on with no end in sight.The only thing that surprises me is an enterprising summer hockey school operator has yet to take an ad in The Hockey News which reads: &ldquo;Elite Hockey Fighting Center&mdash;Specialized Training in: getting in the first punch; pulling the sweater over a foe&rsquo;s jersey; the importance of landing on top of the enemy; and how to raise your arms in triumph after a victory.And one more thing. Artistic players and Lady Byng candidates need not apply.Stan Fischler is a freelance writer based in New York City. &#9632;

f0009-01

NHL MAKES FEEBLE TRY TO STOP FIGHTING

&hellip;Former Montreal goaltender Ken Dryden is the only Conn Smythe Trophy winner who didn&rsquo;t play major junior hockey? Dryden won the award in 1970-71, leading the Canadiens to a Stanley Cup win over Chicago. He played for Cornell University before joining the Canadiens for the last six games of the &rsquo;70-71 season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021010/5842238-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="960" height="515"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken Dryden</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0009-02

DID YOU KNOW…

<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>Right winger Steve Larmer played in his 700th consecutive game Feb. 17 against Detroit (3-3 tie). Larmer trails only Doug Jarvis (962), Garry Unger (914) and Craig Ramsay (776) on the NHL&rsquo;s all-time iron-man list&hellip;Center Adam Creighton (bruised hand) and defenseman Steve Konroyd (back spasms) missed games against Quebec (2-1 win Feb. 14) and Detroit. Creighton got hurt fighting Hartford&rsquo;s Jim McKenzie Feb. 10(31 loss)&hellip;Defenseman Chris Chelios returned to the lineup Feb. 14 after missing one game. Chelios received a 40-stitch cut on the side of the head Feb. 9 from the skate of Boston&rsquo;s Bob Sweeney&hellip;Defenseman Dave Manson had his nose broken by an elbow from the Bruins&rsquo; Cam Neely Feb. 9 and his mouth cut by the stick of Ron Francis the following day. Neither Neely nor Francis received a penalty. &ldquo;How do you think it would have been called if it was reversed?&rdquo; asked Manson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s still a player officials overreact to,&rdquo; coach Mike Keenan said of Manson. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s getting better.&rdquo;&hellip;Tony McKegney was scratched Feb. 17 against Detroit after going pointless in his first six games with the Hawks.<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>Neal Broten appeared in career game No. 700 against the Sabres. He has averaged better than a point a game&mdash;228 goals and 715 points&mdash;during that time&hellip;Brian Bellows scored his 300th and 301st career goals Feb. 13 in Buffalo (6-6 tie)&hellip;The North Stars have begun their season-ticket campaign for next season. Anyone who buys two season tickets and pays half of the invoice now, gets a third season ticket free as well as tickets for the rest of this season&rsquo;s games.<h2>BLUES</h2>Defenseman Jeff Brown suffered a bruised left ankle Feb. 14 when he was hit on the inside of the ankle by a shot in the Blues&rsquo; 3-2 victory at Vancouver. &ldquo;I knew right away something was seriously wrong,&rdquo; he said. &lsquo;&ldquo;I got hit right on the bone. I couldn&rsquo;t put any weight on it.&rdquo; The Blues listed Brown as day-to-day, but he probably won&rsquo;t play until the Blues play at Chicago Feb. 24&hellip;Through Feb. 18, the Blues were in first place in the Norris Division and challenging for first place overall. Still, coach Brian Sutter casts the team as underdogs, saying they get no respect. &ldquo;In &bull;Canada, nobody expects us to win,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Nobody puts us in the class with Edmonton, Chicago and the Boston. Nobody&hellip;We just don&rsquo;t seem to get the recognition. Teams still take us for granted. Every place I go, people ask, &lsquo;How in the heck are you winning? How do you get things out of these guys?&rsquo; &ldquo;&hellip;Veteran Harold Snepsts stayed on the Blues&rsquo; Western Canada trip even though he couldn&rsquo;t play the last two games with sore ribs. After a reporter asked why he didn&rsquo;t go back to St. Louis, trainer Mike Folga said, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s on his Kareem Abdul Jabbar farewell tour.&rdquo;<h2>RED WINGS</h2>As the season entered its final quarter, goaltender Tim Cheveldae had 22 victories in his first full NHL season. That tied him with Glen Hanlon&rsquo;s 22 in 1987-88. The 22 wins are the most by a Wings&rsquo; goalie since Roy Edwards had 24 in 1969-70&hellip;The Wings spent four days in Banff, Alta., during a three-game, seven-day trip to Western Canada. Due to a quirk in the schedule, Detroit has five straight days off in mid-March, but GM Bryan Murray said his team is going nowhere. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re spending it in Detroit,&rdquo; said Murray, who in past seasons as Washington&rsquo;s coach accompanied his teams to Las Vegas and Palm Springs to blow off steam before gearing up for the playoffs. As bad as the Wings have been this season, especially on the road, Murray can&rsquo;t justify the expense. Instead, he plans to hold a mini-training camp&hellip;Murray took nine stitches in the face when he was hit by an errant puck shot by the Whalers&rsquo; Sylvain Cote in a 6-2 loss to Hartford Feb. 13. It was Murray&rsquo;s first such injury. When he was off for the stitches, the Wings tied the game 1-1. When Murray returned, the Whalers scored three times to put the game away. &ldquo;I should have stayed in the dressing room,&rdquo; he said.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2>Coach Tom Watt met with NHL general counsel Gil Stein Feb. 14 to discuss Watt&rsquo;s comments regarding referee Terry Gregson after a game against Calgary Jan. 8. But both parties were tight-lipped after the meeting and Stein&rsquo;s decision wasn&rsquo;t expected for several days. Watt faces a maximum fine of $10,000 after openly questioning the assignment of Gregson to games involving his brother-in-law, Flames&rsquo; coach Doug Risebrough. What upset Watt most about his meeting in downtown Toronto was the $12 parking fee he had to pay. &ldquo;The guy (parking attendant) should have had a gun and a mask,&rdquo; said Watt&hellip;Gary Leeman, upset over his benching for a game against the Islanders Feb. 9, huddled with Floyd Smith upon the GM&rsquo;s return from an extended scouting trip to Sweden but refused to comment on his 15-minute meeting. &ldquo;Floyd just needed some help with his golf grip,&rdquo; Leeman said with a smile after emerging from the GM&rsquo;s office. Smith echoed Leeman&rsquo;s comments and shrugged the entire matter off&hellip;A survey conducted by the Toronto Sun showed 58.5 per cent of fans polled hold Smith directly responsible for the club&rsquo;s woes this year, while 48.2 per cent say the club&rsquo;s failure to fire him in the off-season was its biggest mistake. &#9632;

LARMER’S IRONMAN STREAK HITS 700

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div>While Brett Hull and Adam Oates have been grabbing the spotlight, linemate Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour has been quietly playing in the shadows. But he has been a big part of the duo&rsquo;s success.Since Blues&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter inserted Brind&rsquo;Amour on the Hull-Oates line after the all-star break, Hull and Oates have excelled.Oates has put up some gawdy Gretzky-esque numbers, and Hull&rsquo;s threatening to break Gretzky&rsquo;s NHL record of 92 goals in a season. As of Feb. 18, he was on pace to score 87 goals.In their first 12 games together, Oates had a remarkable 34 points, on five goals and 29 assists.Hull, meanwhile, had 17 goals in putting together a team record 10-game scoring streak.Hull and Oates were in the spotlight, mainly because Brind&rsquo;Amour helped put them there. Others may have overlooked the 20-year-old left winger&rsquo;s role, but Hull and Oates haven&rsquo;t.&ldquo;He means everything to our line,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;He has got skill, and he puts out all the time. The limelight falls on me and Adam, but we appreciate what he does. It&rsquo;s fantastic.&rdquo;And very unglamorous. Brand&rsquo;Amour is supposed to cover for Hull and Oates on defense and take the physical punishment on offense, allowing them room to work their magic.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the strength on that line; he creates room,&rdquo; captain Scott Stevens said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the forechecker, the first one in. Hullie goes to the slot and if Roddie gets the first guy, the puck is there for Oatsie.&rdquo;Through Feb. 18, the Blues scored 19 goals on 52 power plays since Sutter settled on a No. 1 unit with Brind&rsquo;Amour at center, Hull and Cliff Ronning on the wings and Oates and Jeff Brown at the points.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the guy banging in front of the net,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s taking the abuse.&rdquo;Abuse is nothing new for Brind&rsquo;Amour, especially this season.He could do no wrong as a rookie last season, scoring 26 goals and 61 points in 79 games. He was also chosen to the NHL&rsquo;s All-Rookie team.But this season started poorly for the Ottawa, Ont., native. An attempt to move him back to his natural center position didn&rsquo;t work out and his performance suffered.Through Feb. 18, he had 11 goals and 27 assists for 38 points in 57 games.The low point came during a two-game benching in December. But Brind&rsquo;Amour has rebounded nicely since.Sutter moved him back to left wing after that hiatus, and he ascended from a spot on the checking line with Bob Bassen and Rich Sutter to the front line with Hull and Oates.With Hull and Oates, he had his best offensive stretch of the season&mdash;12 points in 10 games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a lot more confident,&rdquo; Oates said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy playing with me and Hullie because we tend to look for each other. He has to play more defense than we do and he does a great job. We really like him there.&rdquo;<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 17: Tom Tilley, D, recalled from Peoria (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Adam Oates, Bob Bassen, Rick Meagher, Cliff Ronning, Ron Wilson.LW&mdash;Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Dave Lowry, Geoff Courtnail, Gino Cavallini, Sergio Momesso.RW&mdash;Brett Hull, Rich Sutter, Steve Tuttle, Darin Kimble.LD&mdash;Scott Stevens, Robert Dirk, Glen Featherstone.RD&mdash;Tom Tilley, Paul Cavallini, Mario Marois.G&mdash;Vincent Riendeau, Curtis Joseph.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jeff Brown, D, bruised left ankle, Feb. 25. Paul Maclean. RW, torn rib cartilage, Feb. 28. Harold Snepsts, D, sore ribs, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Hull, 63. A&mdash;Oates, 61. P&mdash;Hull, 94. PIM&mdash;Bassen. 153. &#9632;

BRIND’AMOUR IN TUNE WITH HULL AND OATES

<div class="byline">BY MARK HARDING</div>He has been gone so long, it might be difficult for some people to remember what Tom Fergus looks like in a Toronto Maple Leaf jersey.He&rsquo;s big, remember? About 6-foot-3 without his skates and roughly 205 pounds. He&rsquo;s also an extremely fluid skater, so much so in fact he seems to be coasting when actually moving at a decent clip.And remember his shot? Though his slap shot is average by NHL standards, his wrist shot is one of the heaviest and most accurate in professional circles.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011359/5842317-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="546" height="728"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Fergus needed surgery to repair a severe groin injury.</figcaption></div>Getting the picture? Well, if all goes according to plan, Leaf fans may not have to imagine Fergus on the ice. He&rsquo;ll be right there on the television, finally playing again for the Leafs.Indeed, the long wait may soon be over for Fergus, the 28-year-old Chicago native who has become all but forgotten in this, a most forgettable season for the Leafs.For several weeks, Fergus was skating his way back into shape after undergoing groin surgery in Vancouver last October. Now, all appears fine and that can only be good news for the Leafs, who played their first 60 games without him.Their only hope, and Fergus&rsquo; main wish, is the groin holds up for an extended period. Fergus hoped to be back in the lineup earlier, but had a couple of setbacks.&ldquo;Just when it looks as though I&rsquo;ll be ready to return it (soreness) flares up again and puts me back a few more days,&rdquo; said Fergus.Coach Tom Watt, who has had to deal with numerous roster changes this season, is as anxious as anyone to see a healthy Fergus return to the lineup. &ldquo;It certainly gives us some flexibility at the center position, something we haven&rsquo;t really had all season,&rdquo; said Watt.Though it will take time for Fergus to play himself into game shape, his presence should give the Leafs an extra boost as they stage a last-gasp bid for the final Norris playoff bid.Though he has yet to decide where to fit Fergus into his lineup, Watt would be well-advised to re-insert him where he was so comfortable last season, between Vincent Damphousse and Daniel Marois.The line amassed 91 goals and 215 points last year, even though Fergus missed 26 games with a groin injury that eventually led to his requiring surgery. The threesome&rsquo;s production was second only to that of the Ed Olczyk-Gary Leeman-Mark Osborne trio.But without Fergus this season, Damphousse and Marois have struggled, having combined for 32 goals and 70 points as they&rsquo;ve tried to adapt to playing with eight different centers.&ldquo;It has been tough,&rdquo; agreed Marois who hasn&rsquo;t had a multiplegoal game this season. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what it was with Fergie, but we played really well together and we&rsquo;ve missed him this year for sure.&rdquo;<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Peter Zezel, Scott Thornton, Brian Bradley, Dave Hannan.LW&mdash;Vincent Damphousse. Mike Krushelnyski, Rob Cimetta, Dave Reid.RW&mdash;Gary Leeman, Mike Foligno, Kevin Maguire, Lucien DeBlois. Daniel Marois.LD&mdash;Dave Ellett, Todd Gill. Luke Richardson, Darryl Shannon.RD&mdash;Michel Petit, Rob Ramage, Alexander Godynyuk.G&mdash;Peter Ing, Jeff Reese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Aaron Broten, LW, dislocated shoulder, indefinite Wendel Clark. LW, sore rib muscle, day-to-day. Tom Fergus, C, pulled groin, day-to-day. Bob Rouse, D. sore shoulder, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Damphousse, 17. A&mdash;Damphousse, 31. P&mdash;Damphousse, 48. PIM&mdash;Richardson, 156. &#9632;

f0011-01

HEALTHY FERGUS SET TO RETURN

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div>After a slow start to his season, Doug Wilson is looking for a big finish.Wilson missed the first 25 games this season while rehabilitating from ankle surgery, which enabled the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; defenseman to head into the final 20 games fresher and stronger than he has been in years at this point in the season.&ldquo;I feel great,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m rested and I&rsquo;ve still got some weight on, which is rare for me.&rdquo;This is usually the time when Wilson begins to feel the stress and strain of a long season. Normally, Wilson has appeared in every game, logging upwards of 30 minutes a night. As a result, Wilson has often been wom out by playoff time when he&rsquo;s needed the most on the Hawks&rsquo; blue line.&ldquo;There have been times I&rsquo;ve felt a little wom out by the playoffs, but everybody tends to feel that way,&rdquo; said Wilson, 33, who is in his I4th season with the Hawks. &ldquo;I think with the depth we have this year, everyone is feeling a little stronger. What I&rsquo;m trying to do now is gear everything up toward the playoffs.&rdquo;Something else that has helped Wilson tremendously is the arrival of Chris Chelios.&ldquo;Chris is just so strong overall,&rdquo; said Wilson. &ldquo;Even when he&rsquo;s not scoring he can be the best player on the ice. He&rsquo;s a great leader who came from a great organization. All he wants to do is play. He doesn&rsquo;t get bogged down by all the other stuff.&rdquo;Where Chelios&rsquo; presence has benefitted Wilson most is on the power play.&ldquo;We move it around more so I don&rsquo;t have to shoot it as much,&rdquo; said Wilson who had eight goals and 21 points in 31 games this season. &ldquo;We can take it to both sides now. We used to work the one side so much with me and Denis (Savard), so a lot of teams would overplay to that side. That also left Larms (Steve Larmer) out of the play a lot. Now that we can go both ways it makes him a lot more dangerous.&rdquo;Wilson calls this the best Hawks&rsquo; team he has played on since coming to Chicago from Ottawa as an 18-year-old first-round pick in 1977.&ldquo;Overall, this is probably the best (team) because of the commitment,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got guys sacrificing their own stats to play defense, and I mean all the guys. That&rsquo;s the sign of a good team.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02996/5842348-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="548" height="758"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Wilson missed the first 25 games due to ankle surgery.</figcaption></div>Wilson doesn&rsquo;t necessarily agree with critics who say the Hawks don&rsquo;t possess enough offensive firepower to go as far into the playoffs as they&rsquo;d like.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got the guys where if we have to open it up we can,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think scoring goals is going to be a problem. We&rsquo;ve got some explosive guys around here who can score goals in tough games.&rdquo;Not all has been going well with Wilson since his return. He was benched for substantial periods of time during a Feb. 9 loss to Boston and a Feb. 17 tie with Detroit. Word was head coach Mike Keenan didn&rsquo;t think Wilson was playing physical enough.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the coach and he does what he has to do,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to question him. Coaches coach and players play.&rdquo;<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 15: Frantisek Kucera, D. assigned to Indianapolis (IHL). Feb. 17: Kucera recalled from Indianapolis.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Jeremy Roenick, Troy Murray, Tony McKegney, Mike Hudson.LW&mdash;Michel Goulet, Steve Thomas, Greg Gilbert. Mike Peluso. Stu Grimson.RW&mdash;Steve Larmer. Dirk Graham, Jocelyn Lemieux, Wayne Presley.LD&mdash;Doug Wilson, Trent Yawney, Frantisek Kucera.RD&mdash;Chris Chelios, Dave Manson, Bob McGill.G&mdash;Ed Belfour, Greg Millen<h3>INJURIES</h3>Keith Brown. D. dislocated left shoulder, indefinite. Adam Creighton, C, sprained right hand, day-to-day. Steve Konroyd. D, back spasms, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Larmer, 33. A&mdash;Larmer, 47. P&mdash;Larmer, 80. PIM&mdash;Peluso, 208. &#9632;

f0011-02

WELL-RESTED WILSON PRIMED FOR PLAYOFFS

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>Rick Green and Glen Hanlon, the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; two oldest players at 35 and 34 respectively, have two things in common.First, their birthdays are both Feb. 20. And second, they&rsquo;ve both added stability and experience to a Red Wings&rsquo; team that hasn&rsquo;t played up to its capabilities this season.&ldquo;Incredible, eh?&rdquo; said Green, a 13-year NHL veteran who played with Montreal and Washington before this season. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a &rsquo;57 model and I&rsquo;m a &rsquo;56.&rdquo;Detroit general manager and coach Bryan Murray, who coached Green for 66 games in 1981-82 with Washington, said Green&mdash;despite being overworked this season&mdash;has helped stabilize Detroit&rsquo;s defense.&ldquo;I think Rick respects the game more than he did when he was younger,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;He has learned what it takes to be really successful&hellip;Now, he understands what the game is all about and what he&rsquo;s all about.&rdquo;Green was chosen first overall by the Capitals in the 1976 amateur draft. He played six seasons with the Capitals, before being traded to Montreal Sept. 9, 1982. He spent seven seasons in Montreal and played nine games in Italy during the &rsquo;89-90 season. He was traded to Detroit on June 15, 1990.&ldquo;Your body doesn&rsquo;t feel the same,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t seem to get enough rest. And there seems to be more demands on your time. It plays on your mind a little more than when you&rsquo;re young.&rdquo;Hanlon agreed, but isn&rsquo;t ready to give up the game just yet. The Bran-don, Man., native is in his 16th NHL season, his fifth with Detroit. His primary role has been as a backup to Tim Cheveldae.&ldquo;The game keeps you young,&rdquo; Hanlon said. &ldquo;Hey, I can still do all the stuff I was doing when I was, uh, 32.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve learned to look at it the same way all the time now&mdash;from the end of the bench.&rdquo;Turning serious for just an instant, Hanlon added, &ldquo;And every time I play now, I really enjoy it.&rdquo;With 29 seasons between them, Hanlon and Green have many memories.And Green has recorded every one.At his home in suburban Detroit, Green has a room full of paraphernalia&mdash;pictures, trophies and other memorabilia&mdash;of a playing career spanning more than 30 years.The centerpiece is a miniature Stanley Cup bearing the names of his Montreal teammates from the 1986 championship team.&ldquo;Everything has a story,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You look at them and associate them with the people you&rsquo;ve met, the places you&rsquo;ve been, the things you&rsquo;ve done.&rdquo;Green&rsquo;s parents also have their own keepsakes. At their Lakehurst, Ont., home, Vie and Doug Green have seven or eight thick scrapbooks of newspaper stores written about their son.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t sat down to look at it very often, but when I do, you can&rsquo;t get my nose out of it,&rdquo; Green said.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 13: Sheldon Kennedy, RW, assigned to Adirondack (AHL). Feb. 15: Greg Stefan, G, assigned to Adirondack.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Jimmy Carson, John Chabot, Marc Habscheid.LW&mdash;Gerard Gallant, Shawn Burr, Paul Ysebaert, Keith Primeau, Randy McKay.RW&mdash;Johan Garpenlov. Bob Probert, Joe Kocur, Dave Barr, Brent Fedyk.LD&mdash;Bobby Dollas, Rick Green. Brad Marsh.RD&mdash;Rick Zombo, Yves Racine, Doug HoudaG&mdash;Tim Cheveldae, Glen Hanlon.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Steve Chiasson, D, broken foot, day-to-day Brad McCrimmon. D, broken ankle, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Yzerman, 42. A&mdash;Yzerman, 45. P&mdash;Yzerman, 87 PIM&mdash;Probert, 261. &#9632;

OLDTIMERS GREEN, HANLON LEND EXPERIENCED HAND

<div class="byline">BY GARY OLSON</div>Would you be anxious to get back on skates if there was a 50-50 chance you&rsquo;d be assigned to shadow St. Louis Blues&rsquo; superstar Brett Hull in a playoff series?Stewart Gavin is. And he has driven Hull to distraction before.&ldquo;Dave Gagner and I were talking just the other day and I told him I&rsquo;d love the challenge if it works out that we play St. Louis in the playoffs,&rdquo; said Gavin who has appeared in just 28 games this season because of ligament problems in his left knee.&ldquo;I love the one-on-one challenges in hockey. It puts pressure on you but if you can do the job against a player like Hull, it would give your team a chance to win the series and you&rsquo;d feel like you had really contributed some-thing.&rdquo;Gavin returned to active duty Feb. 16 in Detroit (a 3-0 win) but only lasted a little while before he aggravated the knee again.&ldquo;Just call me&lsquo;crystal,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said, as in fragile as crystal. The injury wasn&rsquo;t believed to be serious&mdash;perhaps a tearing of scar tissue&mdash;and the setback should only be temporary.Gavin is a role player, one who supports the goal scorers and assist makers. He kills penalties and usually checks the other team&rsquo;s best forward. At 30, he&rsquo;s playing in his 11th season and it has been one of his most frustrating.He played 16 games at the start of the season before he tore the ligaments in his left knee. After sitting out 19 games, he came back and played 11 of the next 12 before reinjuring the knee. He sat out the next 14 before being cleared to play.The Stars had a 3-9-4 record before Gavin got hurt the first time and a 1-8-2 record between injuries.&ldquo;The strength of Stewie&rsquo;s game has always been his skating,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;The injuries he has had are ones that you can make a 100 per cent recovery from. What he needs the most after the kind of season he has had is the competition.&rdquo;The North Stars&rsquo; penalty killing has been suberb lately, successfully killing 57 of 65 times shorthanded over the last 14 games through Feb. 16. Gavin should make it better.&ldquo;I know I&rsquo;ll have to play a smart game until I catch up to the pace,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In the past, my legs have been able to make up for most of my mistakes. Now, I&rsquo;ll need to be smart so I don&rsquo;t get caught.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad I have 19 games to get ready for the playoffs. That&rsquo;s when there&rsquo;s money and prestige on the line.&ldquo;So far, this has been a wasted season for me but there&rsquo;s still time.&rdquo;<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 13: Mike McHugh, RW, recalled from Kalamazoo (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Neal Broten, Dave Gagner, Bobby Smith, Perry Berezan.LW&mdash;Brian Bellows, Brian Propp, Gaetan Duchesne, Basil McRae.RW&mdash;Ulf Dahlen, Mike Modano, Mike McHugh, llkka Sinisalo.LD&mdash;Mark Tinordi, Neil Wilkinson, Brian Glynn.RD&mdash;Chris Dahlquist, Curt Giles, Dan Keczmer.G&mdash;Jon Casey, Brian Hayward.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Shawn Chambers. D, left-knee surgery, indefinite. Shane Churla, RW, right shoulder separation, indefinite. Mike Craig. RW, broken right hand, indefinite. Stewart Gavin. RW. aggravated knee injury. day-to-day. Jim Johnson, D. sprained back, day-to-day Doug Smail. LW. knee surgery, indefinite. Rob Zettler, D, hip flexor, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Gagner, 33. A&mdash;Broten, 45 P&mdash;Gagner, 61. PIM&mdash;Churla, 219. &#9632;

‘CRYSTAL’ GAVIN HAS ANOTHER SETBACK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011372/5842427-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="507" height="621"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE DRYDEN</figcaption></div>Mike Keenan&rsquo;s image is taking a beating.First, there were unconfirmed reports of him joking after a game in January.Then, a reporter claimed the legendarily tough coach opened up to him during an interview.And finally, there were no fatalities when the Chicago Blackhawks recently lost four of five games.What&rsquo;s next, a Keenan confession he believes Doug Crossman is a great guy?Strange talk is emanating from Chicago. The players are saying Keenan isn&rsquo;t such a bad guy. Reporters are saying Keenan is showing a sensitive side. Keenan, himself, is saying the same things and acknowledges this has been the most enjoyable year of his NHL career.Chicago&rsquo;s lofty winning percentage is one reason. Another is Keenan&rsquo;s status as coach-GM. It has allowed him to relax. Forced him to ease up. To fulfill the dual mandate, Keenan says it is imperative that he see the big picture. He cannot become consumed by the smaller details that are coaching. His ability to manage would suffer.Keenan has determined perspective is everything.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d say I&rsquo;m still very intense and a fierce competitor,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;ve been able to take a broader view of each game and each situation.&rdquo;Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; director of operations Brian Burke once said Keenan brings a National Football League mentality to the National Hockey League. NFL teams build to a frenzy for 16 games a year. NHL teams must be more selective over a regular season five times as long.Keenan has never been thought to appreciate that viewpoint.He earned a reputation for tyranny and autocratic leadership during four years in Philadelphia. The Flyers never finished fewer than five games over .500. Twice, they made it to the Stanley Cup finals.Yet, for all his success, Keenan alienated such a large bloc of players that Flyers&rsquo; GM Bob Clarke felt compelled to fire him. Clarke, one of the most driven men ever to play in the NHL, canned his coach for being too driven.&ldquo;I think Mike went over the line of being tough on the players,&rdquo; Clarke says. &ldquo;Players want tough coaches but they want them to be fair. We had a very young club, we had no depth and Mike took us to the finals twice. It&rsquo;s obvious he did an outstanding job, but the last year was just a constant fight for everybody. I certainly think the players were wrong, too. Some of them&mdash;a player like Crossman&mdash;literally quit on him. Maybe I was wrong, too. Mike goes to Chicago and he&rsquo;s still one of the top coaches in the game. Maybe I should have been the one who said, &lsquo;To hell with some of these players.&rsquo;It was ugly in Philadelphia. Keenan relentlessly pushed his authority&mdash;and his players&mdash;to the limit. He was compared to super space villain Darth Vader. Others called him Adolf Hitler. It was truly distasteful and insensitive. Rita, Keenan&rsquo;s wife, is Jewish. Several of her relatives were sent to interment camps during the Second World War. Her grandfather was gassed at Auschwitz.But Keenan would not let up, so Clarke let him go.It was more a professional than personal decision. Clarke liked Keenan then and still does today. The GM would have the coach and his family over to the house in Philadelphia. It was there Clarke saw a warmth Keenan was loathe to exude at work.But has he actually lightened up? &ldquo;I think so, (although) not particularly this year,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I think it has been a process.&rdquo;Keenan is generally regarded as the strongest leader among all league coaches, yet he says it is essential players&mdash;and not the coach&mdash;assume the principle leadership role on a team. He says it is the coach&rsquo;s job to nurture those qualities in his key players and then back off and let them breathe. Keenan may begin as the overwhelming source of energy and direction, but the players are expected to usurp that function.&ldquo;If I made an error in Philadelphia,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;it was this: In Chicago we have made that shift. In Philadelphia, I probably made an error in that I didn&rsquo;t let that shift happen quick enough. It might have been my own insecurities or my own inability to let go and give the responsibility. Things were going well in an autocratic sense, at least in performance, but the players wanted more responsibility. That&rsquo;s the fine line. You hand them the responsibility and then you have to trust them to live up to it.&rdquo;The Blackhawks have been given that responsibility.So, what does all this mean? Has Iron Mike become Mellow Mike?&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t exaggerate that much,&rdquo; he says. Steve Dryden is managing editor of Inside HOCKEY. &#9632;

f0013-01

HEAVYHANDED KEENAN LIGHTENS UP IN CHICAGO

<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>Patrick Flatley, who has skated for years on bad knees and has endured numerous injuries, reached the 20-goal mark for the first time since 1984-85. He did it just in time. His 20th was the game-winner in the third period of a 4-3 decision over Pittsburgh Feb. 16, only a few minutes before he was hit on the left hand by a shot, causing a broken finger that probably will put him out for the rest of the season. In fact, it was a selfless gesture by linemate Brent Sutter that brought Flatley to the 20-goal plateau. Sutter originally had been credited with the goal, but he went over to the official scorer after the game and reported that Flatley tipped the puck in the net. &ldquo;He has worked hard to get there,&rdquo; said Sutter, who recently reached the 20-goal mark for the 10th straight season&hellip;Goalie Mark Fitzpatrick resumed his career Feb. 16 in Capital District (AHL). Fitzpatrick, who had been out since the start of the season after contracting a rare muscle disease, helped the Islanders to a 5-5 tie with Adirondack. The next night he was the winner as the Islanders beat Springfield 4-2.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>The Capitals should seek an exemption from playing in Calgary. In October, they ventured into the Saddledome and left in tatters with a 9-4 loss. That was the most goals they allowed this season, but the Flames almost matched it Feb. 15. The game was tied 2-2 after the first period, but the Flames scored two goals in the first two minutes of the second period and four more before the intermission. The 8-2 loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Capitals. &ldquo;We never showed up to play in either game,&rdquo; said goalie Don Beaupre, who relieved Mike Liut in the second period with the score 6-2. &ldquo;We embarrassed ourselves as bad as we could both times.&rdquo; Liut did not get much help in what was his first start since a 6-1 loss in Philadelphia Jan. 24&hellip;Mike Ridley&rsquo;s two points (a goal and assist) in a 4-2 loss to Vancouver Feb. 16 pushed his scoring streak to 10 games. The assist set up Dino Ciccarelli&rsquo;s 19th goal, the team high at the time. John Druce had been the team leader in goals for most of the season, even though he had just three since Dec. 1.<h2>FLYERS</h2>I he Flyers sent a videotape of Dale Hunter&rsquo;s hit on Gord Murphy (in a 5-1 win Feb. 10) to the league office. The Washington Capitals&rsquo; center hit Murphy with an elbow and was assessed a five-minute major penalty. The Flyers thought Hunter should have been given an intent-to-injure penalty&hellip;Scott Mellanby recorded the first four-point game (one goal, three assists) in his career in the Flyers&rsquo; 6-3 win over Toronto Feb. 13&hellip;Rick Tocchet came off a five-game absence due to a groin pull to score two goals against the Maple Leats and one in a 3-2 loss to New Jersey Feb. 16&hellip;Murphy ended a 24-game streak without a goal when he scored against Toronto&hellip;Coach Paul Holmgren benched rookie Martin Hostak for the Devils&rsquo; game and inserted Chris Jensen on a line with Murray Craven and Mellanby.<h2>RANGERS</h2>With 71 points through 60 games, the Rangers retained an outside shot at their first 100-point season since they mustered 102 in 1972-73. It would require a .725 finish, though, with 29 points of the possible 40, meaning anything from 11-2-7 to 14-5-1&hellip;Of the Rangers&rsquo; final 20 regular-season games, 14 are against Patrick Division rivals and 11 are on the road&hellip;Of the Rangers&rsquo; 65 power-play goals through Feb. 17, 41 had been scored at Madison Square Garden&hellip;The Rangers hoped either Darren Turcotte (bruised shin) or Kelly Kisio (groin pull) would recover from injuries before Bernie Nicholls began his suspension Feb. 21. The absence of all three would leave Kevin Miller and Mark Janssens as the team&rsquo;s only healthy centers&hellip;March 13 was to have been Ron Greschner Night at the Garden, but Greschner asked that it be pushed back to next season out of respect for the crisis in the Middle East.<h2>PENGUINS</h2>General manager Craig Patrick scoffed at several rumors that gained momentum as the trade deadline approached. He said the Penguins have not expressed an interest in Edmonton goalie Grant Fuhr and have &ldquo;never even considered the possibility&rdquo; of trading Mario Lemieux-&hellip;Lemieux said rookie right winger Jaromir Jagr, his frequent linemate of late, &ldquo;certainly is a (future) 50-goal scorer.&rdquo; Jagr had 19 goals after 59 games, six of those in games 54 to 59&hellip;The Penguins entered their Feb. 19 game against Buffalo with a seven-game winning streak at the Civic Arena, two shy of the franchise record. Pittsburgh&rsquo;s only home-ice defeat in 1991 was in the first game of the year, a 7-5 loss to the New York Rangers Jan. 3.<h2>DEVILS</h2>With a history of trouble against the Washington Capitals, the Devils are hoping to face the Philadelphia Flyers in the playoffs this season. The Devils won the season series against the Flyers 4-1-2, including a 3-0-1 record at the Meadowlands Arena. Goalie Chris Terreri was 3-0-1 with a 2.00 GAA against Philadelphia this season. &ldquo;That would suit us fine,&rdquo; Terreri said. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve played up to our ability when we&rsquo;ve played them. I see no reason to change if we meet them in the playoffs.&rdquo;&hellip;Kirk Muller scored his first goal in 12 games Feb. 16 (3-2 win over the Flyers), giving him 15 for the season. &#9632;

20-G0AL MAN FLATLEY GONE FOR SEASON

<div class="byline">BY DAVE SELL</div>John Kordic&rsquo;s initial stay with the Washington Capitals was not long, but it had the impact of one of his heavy fists.Kordic appeared in four games with the Capitals (all wins) and his aggressive play aided in building a three-game winning streak. But after Kordic did not show up for practice Feb. 11, the team announced he would be seeking treatment for an &ldquo;alcohol-related&rdquo; problem.The Capitals knew of Kordic&rsquo;s troubled past when they traded a 1991 fifth-round draft pick to Toronto for him and Paul Fenton. Fenton was immediately sent to Calgary for defenseman Ken Sabourin.Still, the team was hoping Kordic had solved his problems and there was some shock. General manager David Poile described it as a shot between the eyes. The team decided Kordic would not play or practise while getting treatment, but initially, at least, his pay was not suspended.There was some indication Kordic was receiving treatment in the Washington area, but he was unavailable for comment. The Capitals didn&rsquo;t have many answers about when or if Kordic will be back on the team.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know when I&rsquo;m going to know,&rdquo; Poile said.However cold it sounds, Poile will be following Kordic&rsquo;s treatment in part because it might influence a decision on whether Poile needs to acquire another enforcer. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t given it any thought because in my mind this is not a final situation,&rdquo; Poile said.This has been a season full of adjustments for the Capitals. Every few weeks, it seems, somebody comes or leaves or something else odd happens. Coach Terry Murray was trying to roll with the punches.&ldquo;Things change in this business,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve learned to adjust in the last year.&rdquo;Alan May was second in the league in penalty minutes last season. His numbers are down this season, partly because of injury, but also because, in his mind, the change in the make up of the team made it less aggressive. So May saw the 58 penalty minutes Kordic had in four games as a great addition.&ldquo;He provided a lot of enthusiasm in the dressing room,&rdquo; May said. &ldquo;A lot of guys on this team are real quiet. He was always talking and having fun. He talks on the ice and in practice. He knew exactly what his job is and doesn&rsquo;t gripe about it or ice time.&rdquo;<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 11: Announced that John Kordic, RW. would leave the team while seeking treatment for an alcohol-related problem. Feb. 13: Tim Bergland, C/RW, and Alfie Turcotte, C, recalled from Baltimore (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Ridley, Dale Hunter, Michal Pivonka, Dave Tippett, Alfie Turcotte.LW&mdash;Kelly Miller, Dimitri Khristich, John Druce, Nick Kypreos.RW&mdash;Dino Ciccarelli, Steve Leach, Alan May, Tim Bergland.LD&mdash;Calle Johansson. Mike Lalor, Ken Sabourin.RD&mdash;Kevin Hatcher, Mikhail Tatarinov, Al lafrate.G&mdash;Don Beaupre, Mike Liut.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Peter Bondra, RW, dislocated shoulder, day-to-day Chris Felix, D, broken ankle, indefinite. Rod Langway, D, back spasms, day-to-day. Reggie Savage, RW, groin pull, indefinite Neil Sheehy, D, herniated disc, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Ciccarelli, 19. A&mdash;Hatcher, 40. P&mdash;Hatcher, 57. PIM&mdash;May, 193. &#9632;

KORDIC’S TOUGHNESS WILL BE MISSED

<div class="byline">BY FRANK BROWN</div>The way the New York Rangers&rsquo; defensive depth chart is structured, the chances of Miloslav Horava getting some playing time were slim&mdash;he&rsquo;s the Rangers&rsquo; eighth defenseman. That was the statistical reality the offensively talented Czechoslovak defenseman faced before the Rangers hosted Hartford Feb. 15.That night, such defensemen as Brian Leetch and James Patrick were available but Mark Hardy wasn&rsquo;t, due to a bruised foot. Enter Horava, the &ldquo;designated extra&rdquo; who had been scratched from eight consecutive games, 16 of 19 in the second half and 23 of 59.&ldquo;From the neck down, it&rsquo;s much easier (to stay sharp),&rdquo; Horava said. &ldquo;From the neck up, my wife and kids keep me alive.&ldquo;My sons (Milo, 8 and Peter, 5) always keep asking me why I&rsquo;m not playing, and what&rsquo;s the matter with me. If you don&rsquo;t play, you don&rsquo;t go to the games. &ldquo;The Whalers&rsquo; game was the Rangers&rsquo; 60th game of the season and Horava&rsquo;s 24th, which meant 36 trips to various press boxes. Last year&rsquo;s total was &ldquo;only&rdquo; 30, and that included two games lost to injury; this year, Horava hasn&rsquo;t played enough to get hurt.Still, if the Rangers pick up his option, Horava might spend next year reprising his part-time role.&ldquo;I would love to play here, but I would love to play, not sit out,&rdquo; said the 29-year-old defenseman whose rights were obtained from Edmonton by general manager Phil Esposito in the Reijo Ruotsalainen deal of 1986. &ldquo;I like the New York Rangers because they gave me the opportunity to play in the NHL. But I also like to play&rdquo;Horava&rsquo;s comments came in response to questions; he wasn&rsquo;t whining. The questions were asked after Horava had shaken the dust from his sweater, had stepped off the bench and had sent a 15-foot backhand past Peter Sidorkiewicz in the Rangers&rsquo; 5-3 victory over the Whalers. The shot was Horava&rsquo;s 23rd of the season, the goal his first regular-season score since March 25 1990 in Philadelphia.&ldquo;Milo&rsquo;s been our utility defenseman, waiting for somebody to get hurt or somebody to not play well, so it really puts him in a tough spot,&rdquo; coach Roger Neilson said.&ldquo;The guys on the bench were really happy when he scored, as happy as I&rsquo;ve seen a team when somebody scores.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 14: Bernie Nicholls. C, given three-game NHL suspension for high-sticking Montreal&rsquo;s J.J. Daigneault. Feb. 9. Nicholls was to begin suspension Feb. 21 and was eligible to return Feb. 27.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Bernie Nicholls. Kevin Miller, Mark Janssens.LW&mdash;John Ogrodnick, Jan Erixon, Troy Mallette, Kris King, Lindy Ruff.RW&mdash;Mike Gartner, Ray Sheppard, Tie Domi, Brian Mullen, Jody Hull.LD&mdash;Brian Leetch, Mark Hardy, Normand Rochefort, Milo Horava.RD&mdash;James Patrick, Randy Moller, David Shaw.G&mdash;John Vanbiesbrouck, Mike Richter.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Joe Cireila. D, facial bruise, day-to-day. Bob Froese, G, shoulder surgery, out for season. Kelly Klslo, C, groin pull, day-to-day. Darren Turcotte, C, bruised shin, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Gartner, 32. A&mdash;Leetch, 53. P&mdash;Leetch, 65. PIM&mdash;Mallette, 175. &#9632;

PATIENT HORAVA MAKES THE MOST OF HIS CHANCES

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE FISH</div>On game nights, the speculation begins: Who will start in goal for the Philadelphia Flyers?Will it be Ron Hextall, the swashbuckling fellow who practically revolutionized the position with his stickhandling prowess, scoring goals and winning a Vezina Trophy in the process? Or will it be Ron Hextall, the troubled player beset by suspensions, injuries and contract problems in a star-crossed 1989-90 season?Will the real Ron Hextail please stand up?Even Hextall, who started 11 straight games in late January and early February, isn&rsquo;t sure who&rsquo;s going to show up to play when he pulls sweater No. 27.But he&rsquo;s determined to find out. That&rsquo;s one of the reasons the Flyers&rsquo; current season has been so intriguing. The Flyers (27-26-6) were in third place in the Patrick Division and a vintage Hextall is a must entering the playoffs.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s consistency I&rsquo;m looking for,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the one game out of three or four where I&rsquo;m playing below what I should be that upsets me. If I play three great games in a row and then a mediocre one, then I&rsquo;m not happy about it.&rdquo;Hextall said a 5-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers Jan. 13 was an example. The previous night, Hextall was sensational in a 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins.The Flyers rallied against the Oilers to take a 3-2 lead in the third period. Edmonton struck back for the tying goal and then Hextall gave up a goal from a near-impossible angle that proved to be the game-winner.&ldquo;I let that terrible goal in with seven minutes left. When I don&rsquo;t play well and we lose by a goal, that&rsquo;s what upsets me and sticks in my mind.&rdquo;All in all, Hextall has rebounded from two early season injuries&mdash;a slight groin pull and an injured knee ligament&mdash;to have a decent year. Although his record was below .500 (11-14-4), his 2.93 goals-against average was the lowest of his five-season career.Not bad for someone who missed 51 games last year, didn&rsquo;t end a year-long contract squabble until training camp and still has to live with the weight of that miracle 1986-87 rookie season on his shoulders.&ldquo;It has been a lot harder to come back than I thought it would be after a year and a half. I thought I would play a half-dozen games and be right where I want to be. A year and a half is a long time to be off.&rdquo;Hextall said no matter what he does from now on, it will be tough to overshadow what he did that first season when he won 37 games and led the Flyers to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals.&ldquo;Even if I won the Stanley Cup, I don&rsquo;t know if that would stick out as much in some people&rsquo;s minds as doing what I did that year,&rdquo; he said &ldquo;There are variables every year&mdash;how good your team is, how many goals your team scores. My rookie year tends to overshadow everything else.&rdquo;All the adversity has forced the 26-year-old goaltender to mature a little faster.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 15: Pat Murray, LW. assigned to Hershey (AHL). Feb. 18: Dale Kusner, RW, served automatic one-game suspension for double game misconduct he received Feb. 10 against Washington. Scott Sandelin, D, and Bill Armstrong, RW, recalled from Hershey.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Ricci, Murray Craven, Ron Sutter, Keith Acton.LW&mdash;Pelle Eklund, Scott Mellanby. Derrick Smith, Craig Berube.RW&mdash;Rick Tocchet, Chris Jensen, Norman Lacombe, Dale Kushner, Bill Armstrong.LD&mdash;Terry Carkner, Murray Baron, Scott Sandelin.RD&mdash;Kjell Samuelsson, Gord Murphy, Dave Fenyves.G&mdash;Ron Hextall, Ken Wregget, Pete Peeters.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jeff Chychrun, D, broken left wrist, indefinite Mark Howe, D. back surgery, indefinite. Jiri Latal, D, bruised right knee, day-to-day. Tim Kerr, RW, groin pull, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Tocchet, 37. A&mdash;Eklund, 41. P&mdash;Tocchet, 61. PIM&mdash;Berube, 197.HN14, Philadelphia &#9632;

HEALTHY HEXTALL HAS HANDLED HEAVY WORK

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>Was it a ploy on John Cunniff&rsquo;s part to motivate an apathetic Viacheslav Fetisov? Or was it simply a lack of communication between the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; head coach and his Soviet defenseman?In either case, when Cunniff benched Fetisov for back-to-back games against the Vancouver Canucks and New York Rangers, it resulted in a dressing room tantrum from Fetisov and some of his best hockey of the season.Cunniff, who has had difficulty motivating his players all season, was particularly frustrated after a 3-1 loss to the Nordiques in Quebec Feb. 9. The Devils returned to the Meadowlands Arena to host the Canucks the next afternoon and Cunniff decided not to dress Fetisov.When the Devils shut out the Canucks 2-0, Cunniff chose to stick with the same lineup against the Rangers three nights later. Angered that he read about his benching in the newspaper rather than hearing it from Cunniff, Fetisov enlivened an optional morning skate Feb. 14 with a dressing room tirade in which he tossed his helmet and other objects around the room.That night Fetisov scored a goal, set up another and played a solid defensive game in a 3-3 tie with the Jets.&ldquo;I was so upset about why I didn&rsquo;t play. I didn&rsquo;t sleep a couple of nights,&rdquo; said Fetisov. &ldquo;I feel good (physically) now. When I was sick (with pneumonia) I played. Now I&rsquo;m healthy and he doesn&rsquo;t play me.&rdquo;&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t like to read anything like that. You like the guy to come to you,&rdquo; Cunniff said about Fetisov&rsquo;s printed comments. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not a big deal to me. What I&rsquo;m interested in is the way he responded and I thought he played well. I liked his response.&rdquo;The two remained cold to each other on the ice during practices.&ldquo;The Rangers and Vancouver are two different teams,&rdquo; Fetisov said. &ldquo;He (Cunniff) explained before the Vancouver game that I was slow in Quebec. Everybody was slow. Then I don&rsquo;t play against the Rangers and I got it from the newspaper, not the coach. The day before the Ranger game nobody talked to me. No good. Tell me you don&rsquo;t like me or I have to rest a few games. I&rsquo;m not a junior. I came here not from a university team.&rdquo;&ldquo;He had been told,&rdquo; answered Cunniff, who admitted he could&rsquo;ve used Fetisov as a penalty killer in the 6-3 loss to the Rangers. &ldquo;Sully (assistant coach Doug Sulliman) told him. He was taken out of the lineup and the reason was I didn&rsquo;t think his play was that great. The second reason is he&rsquo;s 32 and we had back-to-back games.There were no plans for a closed-door meeting between the two.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll bump into him here and there. See if he wants to bring it up,&rdquo; Cunniff said. &ldquo;The funny thing is today I threw a puck to him in practice and he wouldn&rsquo;t take it. He wouldn&rsquo;t throw me a pass. The first part of practice we were cool to each other.&rdquo;A Cool War, no doubt.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 14: Kevin Todd, C, recalled from Utica (AHL). Feb. 15: Todd assigned to Utica.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Peter Stastny, Patrik Sundstrom, Laurie Boschman, Jon Morris.LW&mdash;Kirk Muller, Brendan Shanahan, Dave Maley, Pat Conacher, Al Stewart.RW&mdash;Claude Lemieux, John MacLean, Zdeno Ciger, Troy Crowder.LD&mdash;Viacheslav Fetisov, Lee Norwood, Bruce Driver.RD&mdash;Alexei Kasatonov, Eric Weinrich, Ken Daneyko, Myles O&rsquo;Connor.G&mdash;Chris Terreri, Sean Burke.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Doug Brown, RW, bruised right foot, day-to-day. Walt Poddubny, LW, right knee surgery, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;MacLean, 33. A&mdash;Muller, 41. P&mdash;MacLean, 58. PIM&mdash;Daneyko, 192. &#9632;

FETISOV SEES RED AFTER BACK-TO-BACK BENCHINGS

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>Peter Taglianetti&rsquo;s 42-game statistics&mdash;one goal and six assists&mdash;aren&rsquo;t particularly impressive.Heck, they don&rsquo;t represent much more than a decent night&rsquo;s work for some of his teammates, such as Mario Lemieux.But the Penguins didn&rsquo;t acquire Taglianetti from Minnesota Dec. 11 because they needed another goalscorer. They were looking for a solid, physical defenseman, which is precisely the role Taglianetti has filled.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a defensive defenseman on a team that needs defensive defensemen,&rdquo; Pittsburgh coach Bob Johnson said.That need was compounded Feb. 11, when Edmonton&rsquo;s Kelly Buchberger rode Taglianetti into the right goalpost of the Pittsburgh net during a 7-5 Oilers&rsquo; win.The collision left Taglianetti with a partially collapsed lung that forced him to spend four days in the University of Alberta hospital and will keep him out of the Penguins&rsquo; lineup indefinitely.Taglianetti had proven to be an effective partner for Paul Coffey; his stay-at-home style allowed Coffey to play the offense-oriented game that is his forte.&ldquo;I thought the chemistry with Paul Coffey was very good,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;Paul has been allowed to play his game and play it very well, and I think you&rsquo;ve got to attribute part of that to Taglianetti.&rdquo;Taglianetti&rsquo;s place alongside Coffey was turned over to Randy Hillier, who has filled that spot for most of the past few years. Taglianetti assumed it while Hillier was recovering from a broken left foot sustained in Minnesota Nov. 13.While Taglianetti&rsquo;s injury allowed Hillier and Coffey to be reunited, another medical problem prevented the Penguins from trying a pairing they had been looking forward to since last summer.Right winger Joe Mullen underwent surgery Feb. 6 to remove a herniated disc from his neck. The operation almost certainly will sideline Mullen until next season.It also prevented him from playing on a line with Mario Lemieux, who had returned to the Pittsburgh lineup less than two weeks earlier after missing the first 50 games because of a back infection.Mullen, acquired from Calgary for a second-round draft choice last June, had 17 goals and 22 assists in 47 games this year, despite playing much of the time with pain caused by his disc problem.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to watch him over a period of time to really appreciate him,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t have the blazing speed of some of our players. He doesn&rsquo;t have a blazing shot.&rdquo;Mullen, who turns 34 Feb. 25, said the operation relieved the pain in his neck, back and arm. He does not expect to return before next fall, but has not completely ruled out the possibility.&ldquo;If I&rsquo;m feeling great a month from now, who knows?&rdquo; he said.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mario Lemieux, John Cullen, Jiri Hrdina, Bryan Trottier, Randy Gilhen, Barry PedersonLW&mdash;Bob Errey, Phil Bourque, Kevin Stevens, Troy Loney.RW&mdash;Jaromir Jagr, Mark Recchi, Scott Young, Tony Tanti, Jay Caufield.LD&mdash;Paul Coffey, Zarley Zalapski, Gordie Roberts.RD&mdash;Randy Hillier, Larry Murphy, Paul Stanton.G&mdash;Tom Barrasso, Frank Pietrangelo, Wendell Young.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Gilbert Delorme, D, leg stress fracture, indefinite. Joe Mullen, RW, neck surgery, indefinite. Peter Taglianetti, D, partially collapsed lung, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Recchi, 30. A&mdash;Cullen, 61. P&mdash;Cullen, 87. PIM&mdash;Errey, 105. &#9632;

DEFENSIVE GAME HURT BY LOSS OF ANCHOR

<div class="byline">BY MARK HERRMANN</div>A season-long contract impasse, marked by frustrations and hard feelings, finally boiled over as Pat LaFontaine asked the New York Islanders to trade him and general manager Bill Torrey charged the center and his agent with &ldquo;damaging&rdquo; the team&rsquo;s season.The Islanders&rsquo; high scorer, who had hoped for a contract that would upgrade his $425,000 salary into a category with other superstars, cut off negotiations, telling Torrey in a recent meeting, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want your money.&rdquo;LaFontaine, 25, said he no longer wants to play for the Islanders, no matter how much Torrey offered. Although he would not mention specifics, LaFontaine is known to be upset about what he considered patronizing criticism from team owner John O. Pickett. LaFontaine also was &ldquo;disillusioned&rdquo; by the tenor and pace of contract talks with Torrey&mdash;talks that LaFontaine said were initiated by the Islanders last May.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played seven years for the New York Islanders and I&rsquo;m proud of those seven years,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve learned a lot as a player and a person. I&rsquo;ve met my wife and had a baby. I&rsquo;ve worked here for seven years and I&rsquo;ve loved what I&rsquo;ve done. I have a lot of great memories and a lot to be thankful for.&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s an issue of principle, of respect, honesty, and communication. It&rsquo;s been unfortunate. It&rsquo;s something I believe in and I&rsquo;m going to stand by it.&rdquo;His agent, Don Meehan, has used Steve Yzerman&rsquo;s annual $1.5 million salary as a target, but said LaFontaine would accept less. Meehan said Torrey never approached the $1.25 million that Montreal is paying Denis Savard.Torrey answered that four separate offers were sent to Meehan, and one of them was worth more than $6 million over five years.LaFontaine and Meehan both emphasized they were requesting a trade, not demanding it. &ldquo;If we were in a position to demand a trade, he would be sitting home and not playing,&rdquo; Meehan said, mindful that his client has an option year left after this season.They also said money no longer is the issue. LaFontaine remains unhappy about this remark by Pickett in October: &ldquo;Several years ago we negotiated a very fair contract with him&hellip;we always honor our contracts. When a player is having a hard time, I can assure you he still comes up to the office and gets his paycheck every two weeks.&rdquo;Pickett, who rarely speaks to the press, declined comment except to say of LaFontaine: &ldquo;He has got to deal with Bill Torrey. There&rsquo;s no point trying to drag my comment into it.&rdquo;Torrey was far more animated in his response to the trade request. He called a news conference and spoke pointedly about the player and agent.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011082/5842633-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="563" height="603"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat LaFontaine says his trade request is a matter of principle,</figcaption></div>Noting that he had just begun his 20th year as an Islander executive, he said: &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t think of anything that has disturbed me more than what has occurred relative to this situation. I have great respect for Patty LaFontaine and I tremendously respect what he has done for this franchise. But I think he has been given bad advice and I think what has happened here has damaged our team this year, and I resent that.&rdquo;He also charged that the situation made the Islanders&rsquo; struggle for the playoffs seem secondary. &ldquo;The team comes first. It has from the first minute that this franchise was founded, and there is nothing more important than the team,&rdquo; he said.Torrey asserted that he never suggested renegotiation, only a contract extension. That follows a longstanding team policy. LaFontaine countered that that was only a matter of semantics, that the important issue was the Islanders&rsquo; initiation of the talks.Both sides, and the Islanders&rsquo; players and coaches, agreed that it is a thomy issue. And it appeared to offer no easy resolution.The general manager said he will &ldquo;leave the door open.&rdquo; But LaFontaine did not appear inclined to walk through it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been told change was good,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The way to grow is to change.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. ISLES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 15: Mark Fitzpatrick, G, assigned to Capital District (AHL) for conditioning. Feb. 16: Paul Guay, RW, recalled from Capital District.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pat LaFontaine, Brent Sutter, Ray Ferraro, John Tucker.LW&mdash;Bill Berg. Brad Lauer, Ken Baumgartner, Dave Chyzowski.RW&mdash;David Volek, Randy Wood, Mick Vukota, Paul Guay.LD&mdash;Gary Nylund, Rich Pilon. Wayne McBean.RD&mdash;Joe Reekie, Jeff Norton, Craig Ludwig.G&mdash;Glenn Healy. Jeff Hackett.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Patrick Flatley. RW, broken left little finger, indefinite. Derek King. LW, separated right shoulder, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;LaFontaine, 33. A&mdash;LaFontaine, 35. P&mdash;LaFontaine, 68. PIM&mdash;Baumgartner, 223. &#9632;

f0017-01

LaFONTAINE WANTS OFF THE ISLAND

Feb. 26, 1981: The Minnesota North Stars set an NHL record for the most penalty minutes by a team in one game. Minnesota received 18 minors, 13 majors, four l()-minute misconducts and seven game misconducts in a 5-1 loss to Boston. Steve Payne and Al MacAdam led the North Stars with 29 PIM each.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02844/5842695-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="619" height="404"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Payne</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0018-02

FLASHBACK

<h2>SABRES</h2>Reports that GM Gerry Meehan was looking to make a major deal to shake up his club were gaining momentum in Buffalo. Meehan recently met with Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; senior vice-president Bob Pulford in Buffalo and then traveled to Chicago to see the Blackhawks play the Detroit Red Wings Feb. 17. The Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals were also scouting the Sabres heavily as the March 5 trade deadline approached. Benoit Hogue and Christian Ruuttu were the most prominent names mentioned in trade talk&hellip;Daren Puppa was pulled from an eventual 4-4 tie with Los Angeles Feb. 8 and yanked again in an eventual 6-6 tie with Minnesota Feb. 12. In both games he was replaced by Darcy Wakaluk who kept the Sabres in the games. Buffalo was outshot 9-0 in overtime by the North Stars and Wakaluk was rewarded by getting the next two starts&mdash;a 2-2 tie with Montreal Feb. 15 and a 3-0 loss to Toronto Feb. 17. Clint Malarchuk remained out of the lineup with a neck and shoulder injury&hellip;Dale Hawerchuk scored his 400th NHL goal against the North Stars and was 11 points away from 1,000. for his career&hellip;Rob Ray moved into fourth place on the team&rsquo;s single-season penalty-minute list. He had 222 PIM through games of Feb. 17.<h2>BRUINS</h2>Left winger Randy Burridge got unexpected good news Feb. 13: An arthroscopic exam showed only a partially tom right knee ligament, not the full tear that was feared, and he could be back before the end of the regular season. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s great news for us,&rdquo; said assistant coach Gordie Clark. &ldquo;I shudder to think of going into the playoffs without Stumpie (Burridge).&rdquo;&hellip;The Boston Garden is hosting a March 16 exhibition game between the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team and a squad of Hollywood celebrities, with proceeds benefitting the families of Massachussetts national guardsmen serving in the Persian Gulf&hellip;With Andy Moog missing seven games with a sprained knee, Reggie Lemelin ran off a four-game winning streak from Feb. 9-16&hellip;The Bruins spent four days between games in Los Angeles and Chicago in sunny Phoenix. &ldquo;Enjoy your sabbatical,&rdquo; coach Mike Milbury told his players. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve earned it.&rdquo;<h2>WHALERS</h2>No sooner had defenseman Dave Babych returned after missing 44 games following surgery on his right wrist he went down for the rest of the season with a fracture at the thumb base attached to that wrist. &ldquo;What can you say? The season was a washout for him,&rdquo; said GM Ed Johnston. Babych, playing in his second game of his return, banged his thumb against the boards Feb. 9 in the 5-2 loss to Calgary, but the fracture wasn&rsquo;t discovered for a few days. Team physician John Fulkerson said the injury had nothing to do with the surgery: &ldquo;That area is solid as a rock. &ldquo;&hellip;Grant Jennings injured his shoulder in a second fight with Bob Probert Feb. 13 in the Whalers&rsquo; 6-2 win over Detroit. Challenged by Probert, Jennings dropped his gloves in a flash and floored the stunned Red Wing with two shots. Probert, however, came out prepared minutes later and avenged that embarassing moment.<h2>CANADIENS</h2>The Guy Carbonneau-Russ Courtnall-Mike McPhee line had racked up a combined 81 points in the Habs&rsquo; last 21 games through Feb. 16. Courtnall led the way with 37 points (12 goals-25 assists) while McPhee had 25 (14-11) and Carbonneau 19 (9-10). The Habs were 12-7-2 during that time. Brian Skrudland&rsquo;s broken foot is taking longer to heal than first projected. When he broke it Jan. 17, it was thought he might be out three weeks. Now he won&rsquo;t begin skating until March l&hellip;As the trade deadline loomed and No. 1 goaltender Patrick Roy was still hobbled with an ankle injury, Canadiens&rsquo; GM Serge Savard remained patient. He turned down a Chicago offer of veteran Jacques Cloutier for left winger Ryan Walter. Both Bums and Savard were guarded in their comments about rookie goaltenders Andre Racicot and Jean-Claude Bergeron, not wanting to shake the youngsters&rsquo; confidence&hellip;Reports persist Savard and Carbonneau are working on a new deal for the Canadiens&rsquo; captain. Carbonneau is playing out his option and is due to become a free agent this summer&hellip;Said Bums after the Habs&rsquo; 2-1 loss to Hartford Feb. 16: &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t have wanted to start the playoffs tonight against the Whalers. We&rsquo;d be on vacation pretty quick.&rdquo;<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>Claude Loiselle, who had asked to be traded, finally dressed for a game Feb. 12 at home against Buffalo (4-4 tie). He had two shifts, and each time, the crowd booed the whole time he was on the ice. Loiselle had been kept out of games since making his demands public Feb. 7. The veteran had practiced, but the Nordiques said he wouldn&rsquo;t play. But minutes before the Buffalo game, Everett Sanipass hurt his back and Loiselle had to play&hellip;Stephane Fiset got the start against the Sabres. He stopped 32 shots in his first NHL game since Nov. 16, 1989&hellip;Claude Lapointe, who had taken away the center spot on the checking line from Paul Gillis and Loiselle, was injured in a 3-1 win over the New Jersey Devils Feb. 9. He tore a muscle in his groin and is expected to miss three weeks&hellip;The Nordiques broke the 31-point barrier, their total of last season, in the win over the Devils. It was Quebec&rsquo;s 56th game of the season. &#9632;

SABRE SHAKEUP ON THE HORIZON?

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>Sixty games into the season the Buffalo Sabres had made one thing perfectly clear. They are pieces of a puzzle that do not fit.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to put your finger on one thing, but you look around any team that&rsquo;s won and you see the guys play for each other,&rdquo; goaltender Darcy Wakaluk said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to play for each other. You&rsquo;ve got to care about each other. You&rsquo;ve got to have that bonding and team unity. When everybody is playing for each other you&rsquo;re going to win a lot of games. &ldquo;Wakaluk wasn&rsquo;t criticizing his teammates per se. But the implications were obvious.He had been asked what he saw as the difference between his Rochester Americans, a team that went from last to first in the Southern Division of the American League this season and Buffalo, a club that was picked by many to win the Adams Division and even challenge for the Stanley Cup but was languishing in fourth place.In Buffalo, clearly, something is missing.&ldquo;Look around this room,&rdquo; said right winger Rick Vaive after the Sabres lost Game No. 60 in humiliating fashion, a 3-0 shutout to the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs. &ldquo;You can hear a pin drop. It doesn&rsquo;t get any lower than this.&rdquo;Nor should it.In losing to the Leafs, the Sabres fell to 22-24-14 on the season and were nearly as close to the last-place Quebec Nordiques as they were to the first-place Boston Bruins. Worse still, the loss extended their home winless streak to a franchise-record eight games (0-5-3) as of Feb. 18. The last time the Sabres won at home, Buffalo Bills&rsquo; fans were scrambling for Super Bowl tickets.After beating Boston at home Jan. 22 and Chicago on the road Jan. 24, the Sabres had just one win, seven losses and four ties in 12 games. One of the losses and one of the ties was against Quebec, a team the Sabres had a 1-2-3 record against in six meetings.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011044/5842757-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="552" height="755"><figcaption class="caption-body">Darcy Wakaluk says that winning teams play for each other.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02762/5842750-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="551" height="966"><figcaption class="caption-body">Right winger Rick Vaive says the Sabres have hit rock bottom.</figcaption></div>Against Montreal, a team with eight injured players out including goaltender Patrick Roy, the Sabres managed just two goals. Against the Leafs, a team that started backup goaltender Jeff Reese and has given up more goals than any team except Quebec, Buffalo went 0-for-7 on the power play.An overworked defense and struggling offense were mostly to blame for the poor play. Goaltender Daren Puppa, meanwhile, hasn&rsquo;t been playing to his capabilities. Alexander Mogilny was hurt, Pierre Turgeon is having an off season and there wasn&rsquo;t much scoring coming from the wingers.But the problem seems to have grown more acute, and it&rsquo;s difficult to get away from the perception these players don&rsquo;t play for each other.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got some guys out there killing themselves and others who aren&rsquo;t doing a damn thing,&rdquo; said coach Rick Dudley after the tie with the North Stars. &ldquo;Frankly, I&rsquo;m pissed.&rdquo;So were the 16,325 who watched the Toronto game then booed the Sabres off the ice.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hawerchuk. Christian Ruuttu, Pierre Turgeon, Dave Snuggerud.LW&mdash;Dave Andreychuk, Benoit Hogue, Mike Hartman, Darrin Shannon.RW&mdash;Greg Paslawski, Rick Vaive, Rob Ray, Mikko Makela.LD&mdash;Doug Bodger, Mike Ramsey, Brian Curran.RD&mdash;Greg Brown. Uwe Krupp, Grant Ledyard. Jay Wells.G&mdash;Daren Puppa, Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Donald Audette, RW, torn knee ligaments, out for season. Lou Franceschetti, LW. strained knee, day-to-day. Kevin Haller, D, separated shoulder, day-to-day. Dean Kennedy. D, hip pointer, day-to-day Clint Malarchuk, G, strained neck and shoulder muscles, day-to-day. Alexander Mogilny. RW, separated shoulder, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Turgeon. 26. A&mdash;Hawerchuk, 39. P&mdash;Hawerchuk, 60. PIM&mdash;Ray, 222. &#9632;

f0019-01

PUZZLING TEAM’S PIECES DON’T FIT

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>For Kip Miller, making it to the NHL amounts to little more than joining the family business.A 21-year-old native of Lansing, Mich., Miller was recalled from Halifax of the American League Feb. 5, bringing to three the number of Millers in the league. His older brothers Kelly and Kevin play for the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers.The 1990 Hobey Baker Award winner as the top U.S. collegian, Miller was summoned to help the Nordiques get on track offensively. Many were surprised when the Michigan State grad was sent to the Nordiques&rsquo; farm team after training camp, but Miller said going to the minors has worked out for the best.&ldquo;I know I was very dissapointed when I was told to report to Halifax after training camp because I had good outings in pre-season play,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;I realize today that I could have ruined my pro career if I had started the year in Quebec. It&rsquo;s such a big step up from college hockey. The intensity level is so high in the pros. And the wear and tear really gets to you after a while.&rdquo;Miller, used to playing around 40 or 50 games a season, has found professional hockey a big adjustment. But the biggest change Miller has to deal with isn&rsquo;t on the ice.&ldquo;I just can&rsquo;t get over all the free time we have,&rdquo; Miller said. &ldquo;In college, life was structured, we had practice, courses, studies to do. We really never had any free time. But since the beginning of the season, I&rsquo;ve been trying to fill all these time outs.&rdquo;So Miller walks the malls in the afternoon. Window shopping, just trying to get away from the boredom.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy, but I&rsquo;m working very hard at adapting to my new life. And now that I&rsquo;m in Quebec, it&rsquo;s all the better.&rdquo;Miller had 25 goals and 52 points in 55 games with the Citadels. He was making the on-ice adjustment well with help from his right winger Mark Vermette.In Miller&rsquo;s first game&mdash;a 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens Feb. 7&mdash;he showed flashes of brilliance, but his reaction time was still at the minor-league level. In his third game&mdash;a 7-4 loss to the Boston Bruins&mdash;Miller scored his first NHL goal and also picked up an assist. Playing on the second power-play unit, he was one of the better Nordiques.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 8: Mark Vermette, RW, and Greg Smyth, D, recalled from Halifax (AHL). Feb. 10: Stephane Fiset, G, recalled from Halifax. Feb. 11: Scott Gordon, G, and Ken Quinney, RW, assigned to Halifax. Feb. 12: Smyth assigned to Halifax.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Sakic, Tony Hrkac, Kip Miller. Stephane Morin, Claude Loiselle.LW&mdash;Mike Hough, Everett Sanipass, Paul Gillis, Scott Pearson. Tony Twist.RW&mdash;Mats Sundin, Owen Nolan, Guy Lafleur. Mark Vermette.LD&mdash;Steven Finn, Curtis Leschyshyn, Shawn Anderson.RD&mdash;Alexei Gusarov, Randy Velischek. Craig Wolanin.G&mdash;Ron Tugnutt, Stephane Fiset.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jacques Cloutier, G. groin injury, day-to-day Jeff Jackson, LW, broken arm, out for season. Claude Lapointe, C, groin injury, indefinite. Wayne Van Dorp, LW, torn muscle in shoulder, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Sakic, 33. A&mdash;Sakic, 45. P&mdash;Sakic, 78. PIM&mdash;Finn, 157. &#9632;

LACK OF OFFENSE SHOWS IT’S TIME FOR A MILLER

<div class="byline">BY STEPHEN HARRIS</div>What a difference a couple of months have made for Glen Wesley.Earlier this season, the Boston Bruins&rsquo; coaching staff was critical of Wesley, questioning both the quality and intensity of his play.Trade rumors were nothing new for the 22-year-old defenseman: He&rsquo;s heard them periodically throughout his first three NHL campaigns. But the trade talk heated up at mid-season.Wesley was going to Los Angeles in a deal involving Luc Robitaille: he was going to Edmonton in exchange for the rights to Jari Kurri. He was going here, he was going there.&ldquo;You get tired of hearing those things,&rdquo; said Wesley. &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;ve got to expect it every time a team comes to town. Actually, there&rsquo;s a few teams I&rsquo;ve haven&rsquo;t been traded to yet. But I can&rsquo;t do anything about it. I&rsquo;ve just got to play through it.&rdquo;And play through it he has. Wesley has shaken off the early-season blues to raise his game to an all-star level, an upsurge that played a key role in the Bruins&rsquo; climb to the top of the NHL standings.The difference for Wesley has been two-fold. In his own end, he is playing a far more physically-assertive defensive style, and when the puck goes the other way, he is using his superb skating to join the attack.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t getting into the offense as much as I should,&rdquo; said Wesley, whose point production was down to start the season&mdash;he had three goals and nine assists after 26 games. He has since rebounded to compile 9-23-32 totals in 62 games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been very good the last 1!6 months,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been encouraging him to get more involved in the offense, and to get more involved in the comers. And he&rsquo;s taking the body very well.&rdquo;Sinden, who drafted Wesley third overall in 1987 from Portland of the Western League, recognizes young blue liners are prone to highly-visible errors.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a position at which mistakes are much more obvious,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;A young forward makes just as many mistakes, but they go unnoticed. A forward can hide. As a defenseman, you can&rsquo;t make a mistake without everyone noticing. Everybody zeroes in on them.&rdquo;But Wesley&rsquo;s improvement lately has been just as noticeable&mdash;and has greatly enhanced the leverage he&rsquo;ll bring to contract talks during or after this season.&ldquo;It may be we&rsquo;ll do some preliminary talking (with agent Rick Curran), perhaps when I go to Toronto with the team (March 5),&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a free agent come July 1. If we can&rsquo;t sign him, and somebody else can, then we go to arbitration.&rsquo;But the Bruins, more than ever, don&rsquo;t want to see Wesley going any-where.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 12: John Byce, LW. assigned to Maine (AHL). Feb. 14: Norm Foster, G, loaned to Cape Breton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Craig Janney, Ken Hodge, Bob Sweeney. Wes Walz.LW&mdash;Jeff Lazaro, Petri Skirko, John Carter, Jarmo Kekalainen.RW&mdash;Dave Christian, Cam Neely. Shayne Stevenson, Graeme TownshendLD&mdash;Glen Wesley. Don Sweeney, Jim Weimer, Al Pedersen.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque, Stephane Quintal, Garry Galley.G&mdash;Reggie Lemelin, Andy Moog.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Randy Burrldge, LW, torn right knee ligament, indefinite. Lyndon Byers, RW, left foot surgery, indefinite. Bob Carpenter, C, left knee surgery, out for season. Chris Nilan, RW, left ankle surgery, indefinite. Dave Poulin, C, fractured shoulder blade, indefinite Vladimir Ruzicka. C, left ankle tendinitis, indefinite. Michael Thelven, D, chronic right knee pain, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Neely, 39. A&mdash;Bourque, 50. P&mdash; Janney, 70. PIM&mdash;Nilan. 190. &#9632;

RED-HOT WESLEY SHAKES EARLY-SEASON BLUES

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>Get past the first round of the playoffs.It&rsquo;s the stated goal of Hartford Whalers&rsquo; ownership and management.The key to advancing to the Adams Division finals? Hardcore cynics would answer: Somehow find a way to play the Buffalo Sabres in the first round. They haven&rsquo;t won a series since 1983.But the more substantive hockey reply: Get better goaltending than Boston or Montreal for a few weeks in April.Can Peter Sidorkiewicz steal a series from the Boston Bruins or the Montreal Canadiens? That&rsquo;s the question, and that&rsquo;s why Philadelphia&rsquo;s Ken Wregget, Edmonton&rsquo;s Grant Fuhr and Chicago&rsquo;s Dominik Hasek keep coming up in trade rumors.&ldquo;Neither one of our goalies has stepped up in the coaching staff&rsquo;s opinion and said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m your No. 1 guy,&rsquo;&rdquo; coach Rick Ley said. &ldquo;Both Peter and Daryl Reaugh played well at times and at other times didn&rsquo;t. But, right now, we&rsquo;re in a situation where both are playing well. So I&rsquo;m going to try to alternate. At some point, where I see both of them are getting work, I&rsquo;ll have to make a decision.&rdquo;No sooner had Ley made that statement than Sidorkiewicz really began to heat up. He beat Philly in the Spectrum (2-0 Feb. 2) as Wregget watched from the bench. He beat Edmonton (5-1 Feb. 6) as Fuhr watched from the press box. He beat Chicago (3-1 Feb. 10) while Hasek languished in the Blackhawks&rsquo; minor-league system. And he followed those triumphs with a 6-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings (Feb. 13) for good measure.&ldquo;I having more fun now,&rdquo; said Sidorkiewicz, who had a 9-4-1 record from Jan. 5 to Feb. 15. &ldquo;I went through a lull where I wasn&rsquo;t having fun. I&rsquo;m feeling confident. I can only do my best. I have no control of trades.&rdquo;When Sidorkiewicz was beaten 5-3 in New York Feb. 15, however, Reaugh stepped in to make 31 saves in a 2-1 victory in Montreal the following night.When stories began circulating about goalies, Ley felt one headline&mdash;&ldquo;Goalies Worry Whalers&rdquo;&mdash;in the newspaper unnecessarily worried his two netminders, particularly Reaugh.&ldquo;I had one guy (Reaugh) playing that night against Calgary who was scared stiff,&rdquo; Ley said. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t know if he&rsquo;d even be here. My goal-tending&rsquo;s fine. Any rumors that have been started, the media has started them. They haven&rsquo;t been started by us. Goalies may have been offered to us, but we haven&rsquo;t actively pursued them.&ldquo;I told them, &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t read the papers if it bothers you.&rsquo; If what I read in the papers bothered me, I&rsquo;d have chains and five bolts in the door so you guys would never get in here.&rdquo;<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 11: Ed Kastelic, RW, suspended 10 games for leaving bench to join an altercation Feb. 10 against Chicago. Feb. 12: Chris Tancill, RW. recalled from Springfield.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ron Francis, Bobby Holik, Mike Tomlak, Dean Evason.LW&mdash;Jim McKenzie, Pat Verbeek, Chris Govedaris, Paul Cyr.RW&mdash;Rob Brown, Todd Krygier, Kevin Dineen, Chris Tancill.LD&mdash;Randy Ladouceur, Ulf Samuelsson.RD&mdash;Brad Shaw. Sylvain Cote, Doug Crossman.G&mdash;Peter Sidorkiewicz. Daryl Reaugh.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Babych, D. broken right thumb, out for season. Adam Burt. D. strained knee, indefinite. Randy Cunneyworth. LW, broken left leg, day-to-day. Grant Jennings, D, shoulder injury, day-to-day Carey Wilson, C, sprained knee, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Verbeek, 33. A&mdash;Francis, 46 P&mdash; Francis, 67 PIM&mdash;Kastelic, 181. &#9632;

CREASE WORRIES CEASE AND DESIST

<div class="byline">BY CHRIS STEVENSON</div>On Humpty Dumpty practice day, 18,000 kids took the opportunity to dump on Stephane Richer.The young crowd took in the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; practice Feb. 10 as part of the potato chip company&rsquo;s annual promotion.And the youngsters booed the Habs&rsquo; struggling winger every time he touched the puck, much as their older counterparts had the night before in a 6-4 win over the New York Rangers.&ldquo;If I had been able to disappear during the last 10 minutes of the Rangers&rsquo; game, I would have done it,&rdquo; said Richer, a 51-goal scorer last season who has slumped to just 20 this year. He hadn&rsquo;t scored in nine games through Feb. 18 and was on pace to finish the season with 26.&ldquo;The people expect a lot of me. That&rsquo;s Montreal. One day you&rsquo;re a big hero, the next a big zero. That&rsquo;s the way I feel now. Anyway, if I complain, the open-line shows will only roast me the next day.&rdquo;Richer is a frustrating enigma to Montreal fans; one moment a brilliant blur with quick hands and a booming shot, and the next an easily discouraged brooder who floats.Sort of like the sniper with an evil twin, which is the message the winger received from three astrologists he consulted recently.Yes, astrologists.&ldquo;As a Gemini, they told me it&rsquo;s all or nothing with me,&rdquo; said Richer. &ldquo;Either I&rsquo;m loved or I&rsquo;m despised. No one is indifferent when it comes to me.&rdquo;Richer&rsquo;s name has come up in trade rumors, most notably in a deal that would see him go to Vancouver for Doug Lidster and Kirk McLean.But Montreal coach Pat Burns, whose relationship with Richer goes back to the days when Bums coached him as a 15-year-old in minor hockey in Hull, Que., said he&rsquo;s willing to cut Richer some slack&mdash;but only so much.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to go to war with him, although maybe it will come to that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Come the playoffs, he can do one of two things for us&mdash;help or hurt us.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s being given 80 games to sort that out. When the puck is dropped April 4 or 5, if he&rsquo;s not playing hard, he&rsquo;ll be out.&rdquo;Richer&rsquo;s problems were low on Bums&rsquo; list of priorities. Taking up most of his time was the injury situation which was so bad Feb. 15 he had only 20 healthy bodies available tor the game against the Sabres in Buffalo&mdash;a 2-2 tie.The latest to join the ranks of the wounded was enforcer Todd Ewen, who had his broken right hand operated on Feb. 15. It&rsquo;s expected he&rsquo;ll be out for the rest of the season.The hand was broken at the time he was acquired from the St. Louis Blues in December 1989 and Ewen broke it again when he took a tumble on some ice outside his home earlier this season.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Guy Carbonneau, Denis Savard, Andrew Cassels, Stephan Lebeau.LW&mdash;Mike McPhee, Mark Pederson, Shayne Corson, Ryan Walter.RW&mdash;Russ Courtnall, Tom Chorske, Mike Keane, Stephane Richer.LD&mdash;Donald Dufresne, Mathieu Schneider, J.J. Daigneault.RD&mdash;Sylvain Lefebvre, Patrice Brisebois, Alain Cote.G&mdash;Andre Racicot, Jean-Claude Bergeron,<h3>INJURIES</h3>Eric Desjardins, D, sprained left ankle, indefinite. Todd Ewen, RW, broken right hand, out for season. Brent Gilchrist, LW, sore left shoulder, day-to-day. Lyle Odeleln, D, sprained right ankle, Feb. 23. Patrick Roy, G, torn left ankle ligaments, indefinite. Brian Skrudland, C, broken left foot, indefinite. Petr Svoboda, D, broken left foot, indefinite. Sylvain Turgeon, LW, fractured right knee cap, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Courtnall, 21. A&mdash;Courtnall, 37. P&mdash;Courtnall, 58. PIM&mdash; Odelein, 163. &#9632;

FALLING STAR RICHER CONSULTS THE STARS

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01786/5842884-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Patrick Lebeau led rookie scorers with 40 goals and 78 points in 54 games. His linemates, Jesse Belanger and Gilbert Dionne, were also among the rookie leaders.</figcaption></div>Having a Lebeau among the American League scoring leaders seems appropriate and with a Dionne joining him&mdash;well, his brother could play a little, too.Patrick Lebeau, the younger brother of Montreal Canadien Stephan, and Gilbert Dionne, Marcel&rsquo;s younger brother, are emerging from their brothers&rsquo; shadows with strong rookie seasons with the Fredericton Canadiens. They ranked first and sixth in rookie scoring heading into the final quarter of the season.Right on Lebeau&rsquo;s heels is their linemate, Jesse Belanger, who was third on the rookie list.Coming into this season, who would have expected a fourth-round pick (Dionne), a eighth-round selection (Lebeau) and a walk-on (Belanger) to be one of the league&rsquo;s highest-scoring lines?The three have emerged as bona fide pro players and serious prospects to move up to the parent Montreal Canadiens. Yet not one of the three arrived at the Canadiens&rsquo; training camp in September carrying a &lsquo;can&rsquo;t-miss&rsquo; label. Belanger didn&rsquo;t even have a contract.Lebeau, the left winger, was second overall in league scoring with 40 goals and 78 points in 54 games. Belanger, the center, was eighth with 24 goals and 69 points, while Dionne, a left-handed shot playing the off wing, had 29 goals and 60 points to tie for 18th.The linemates have been an important part of the offense for Fredericton (25-26-7). The line had scored 93 of Fredericton&rsquo;s 208 goals, 44.7 per cent; 207 of the team&rsquo;s 531 points, 39 per cent; and had accounted for 25 of 53 power play goals, 47.1 per cent.Lebeau and Dionne arrived with pedigrees that could&rsquo;ve been trouble.Lebeau&rsquo;s brother, Stephan, jumped up to Montreal after tearing up the AHL as a rookie in 1988-89 with league records of 70 goals and 134 points. Patrick, 20, won the Quebec League scoring title last season with 68 goals and 174 points after being taken in the eighth round, 147th overall, of the 1989 draft.Dionne, 20, grew up in Drummondville, Que., while Marcel was compiling Hall of Fame statistics with the Los Angeles Kings. Marcel is the oldest of eight children&mdash;Gilbert the youngest.Gilbert left Quebec for Ontario in order to continue his hockey career. He says it was understood he wasn&rsquo;t good enough to play for his hometown team. Dionne was chosen by Kitchener in the 19th round of the OHL Midget Draft in 1987 and graduated from a junior-B club in Niagara Falls to spend two seasons with Kitchener. Montreal took him in the fourth round, 81st overall, last season after he scored 48 goals and 105 points in 64 games.&ldquo;Some kids develop later on and I think he&rsquo;s one of them,&rdquo; says Jacques Lemaire, Montreal&rsquo;s assistant general manager. &ldquo;Now we&rsquo;ll see if he keeps improving or if he stops. Some of the best hockey players at 18 never improve, and others just keep getting better.&rdquo;Belanger, 21, has no connection to pro hockey in his family and was not taken in either the QMJHL or NHL drafts. He played two seasons in Granby and returned as an overager, scoring 53 goals and 107 points last year&mdash;after he failed a tryout with Montreal&rsquo;s AHL team in Sherbrooke.&ldquo;He came from nowhere, showed character and earned a spot,&rdquo; says Fredericton coach Paulin Bordeleau. &ldquo;And he kept working and wasn&rsquo;t satisfied with just making the team. That&rsquo;s a good sign.&rdquo;The best sign for the Canadiens is that all three players have played above expectations and are gaining confidence.&ldquo;We all have talent and I think the only thing we needed was a chance to prove what we can do on the ice,&rdquo; Lebeau says. &ldquo;Of course, when you are drafted like Gilbert and I were, you have a chance, but I think Jesse worked a little bit harder than Gilbert and me to prove what he can do.&rdquo;Montreal&rsquo;s farm team has been the first stop for many Canadiens. Twenty-three of the 30 players who played for Montreal this season are either draft choices or free agents&mdash;like Brian Skrudland, Stephan Lebeau and Sylvain Lefebvre&mdash;who came up through the system.Every September, the Canadiens seem to have a new wave of rookies to plug into the minor league lineup. Besides Lebeau, Dionne and Belanger, the crop in Fredricton this season includes defenseman Eric Charron, center Paul DiPietro, left winger Martin St. Amour and right winger Tom Sagissor.&ldquo;The difference with this organization is they&rsquo;re really patient,&rdquo; Dionne says. &ldquo;They want to take the kids and give us time. They don&rsquo;t want to bring you up to the big leagues if you&rsquo;re not ready because you might crack and you might say your career is over. They take it real slowly and it&rsquo;s all up to you with your maturity to be really patient.&rdquo;Bordeleau says it&rsquo;s too early to tell whether his &ldquo;Kid Line&rdquo; will be able to step up to the next level.&ldquo;They play well together in the American League because they have talent,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;That doesn&rsquo;t mean they&rsquo;re going to play in the NHL, but the chances are there.&rdquo;And that&rsquo;s exactly what Lebeau, Dionne and Belanger are looking for.&ldquo;The only thing that&rsquo;s very important is to get a chance,&rdquo; Lebeau says. &ldquo;If you are a first-round pick and don&rsquo;t do well and if I&rsquo;m an eighth-round draft pick and I&rsquo;m doing well I could take the place of the first-round pick. Anything can happen. It&rsquo;s the determination and the way you work that is important.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0024-01

THREE OF A KIND

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT AND ADAM TEICHER</div>Time ran out on the Albany Choppers.Chopper owner David Welker, who had been negotiating an 11 th-hour deal to sell the team to local businessmen, announced Feb. 15 that the team had folded.&ldquo;We just didn&rsquo;t have enough time to put a deal together,&rdquo; said Jim Salfi, the Choppers&rsquo; general manager. Welker had said the team could not make expenses without a sale.The International League governors, in a conference call the same day, decided the independent (IHL contract) players would be able to make their own deals instead of being offered in a draft. The nine players involved were free to sign with any team&mdash;IHL, American League or NHL. Players under contract to NHL teams were reassigned by the parent clubs.According to free agent Joe Stefan, &ldquo;Guys were making calls to their agents to go to other teams&rdquo; when no paychecks arrived on the scheduled payday Feb. 14.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll probably have to go home and find a real job,&rdquo; said coach Dave Allison.The Salt Lake Golden Eagles were the team put in a bind by the death of the Choppers. Salt Lake was the only idle team Feb. 15, when the Choppers were scheduled to play on the road in Milwaukee. So the Golden Eagles flew into Green Bay and played in their fourth game in four nights and won 5-2. Salt Lake took the Choppers place Feb. 17 and beat Fort Wayne 5-3.No team will lose any home dates because of the Choppers demise, said IHL director of information Mike Meyers.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll fill out the remainder of the schedule and it might mean that only four dates will have to be changed,&rdquo; Meyers said. He expected to announce the IHL&rsquo;s revised schedule by Feb. 19.<h2>GULLS DIVE</h2>One of the marvels of the season&rsquo;s first tour months was the San Diego Gulls, who stayed above the. 500 mark despite being a first-year independent franchise.But the loss of three top scorers appears to have caught up with the fourth-place Gulls, who were struggling to hold on to a playoff spot. San Diego suffered through an 0-3-1 week in early February.The Gulls scored eight goals in the losses, all at home, three by a goal and one by two goals to lowly Kansas City Feb. 9.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to win our games 3-2 and 2-1 and we&rsquo;re just not getting that big goal,&rdquo; said general manager Don Waddell, bemoaning the losses of Brent Sapergia, Derek Mayer and Dennis Holland.Where the Gulls once had a number of feared gunners, now only center Larry Floyd (16 goals and 53 points in 50 games) and right winger Darren Lowe (16-29-45 in 54 games) are anywhere near point-a-game scorers. Sapergia left the team to play in Europe while Mayer and Holland were reassigned to the Adirondack Red Wings (AHL).&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have a lot of guys who can do that kind of thing anymore,&rdquo; Waddell said. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t just rely on them. We need other guys to step forward.&rdquo;<h2>INDY 5-0-0</h2>The Indianapolis Ice kick-started a nine-game road trip with two wins, running their unbeaten streak to five, making a move in the standings.Sparked by IHL player of the week Jim Waite, who twice beat the East Divisionleading Kalamazoo Wings (7-0 at home Feb. 8 and 4-3 Feb. 10). the Ice climbed over the Fort Wayne Komets into second place, one point behind the Wings as of Feb. 13.Waite was 2-0 for the week with a 1.50 goals-against average and a. 957 save percentage. His victory over Kalamazoo Feb. 8 was his second shutout of the season and lowered his goals-against to 3.03 for the year.<h2>SHARK BAIT</h2>More and more it appears as if the San Jose Sharks will locate their minor affiliate in Kansas City when they begin play in the NHL next season. San Jose vice president Jack Ferreira said the Sharks are very interested in Kansas City, while the independent Blades have been pushing hard for the Sharks ever since being rejected in an attempt for an affiliation by NHL teams last summer.&ldquo;I like what they have to offer,&rdquo; Ferreira said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got a great facility, great ownership, good practice facilities and I would like having our players live in a major league town.&rdquo;Ferreira said the Sharks needed clearance from the NHL before reaching an agreement with any minor pro club.&mdash;with a file from Bob Dittmeier &#9632;

CHOPPERS FOLD AFTER LOCAL DEAL FALLS APART

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN OKLOBZIJA AND PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div>Adirondack&rsquo;s Randy Hansch, who had appeared in four Red Wings&rsquo; games in the last four seasons, has known his share of setbacks.A complicated and puzzling problem with his pelvis caused repeated hamstring and lower back injuries. But Hansch made an unexpected&mdash;and triumphant&mdash;return Jan. 30, beating the Utica Devils 6-4.Hansch, 25, played five of Adirondack&rsquo;s next nine games and was unbeaten (4-0-1 with a 3.12 goals-against average and. 897 save percentage).He also recorded the Red Wings&rsquo; first shutout of the season, 3-0 at Cape Breton Feb. 8.&ldquo;That was my birthday so it was a little birthday present,&rdquo; Hansch said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a long process getting back and it was a different feeling at first because I haven&rsquo;t played in so long. But I owe a lot to my teammates because they&rsquo;ve played so well in front of me &ldquo;Hansch&rsquo;s problems began in his final year with the Kamloops Blazers (Western League) in 1985-86. He wasn&rsquo;t bothered in his first minor-pro season playing 26 games with the Red Wings and the Kalamazoo Wings (International League), but he had a bad hamstring tear in 1987-88 and missed the entire season. He played 29 games with the Canadian national team in 1988-89 and appeared healthy again, but everything acted up again last year. He played only four games with Hampton Roads of the East Coast League.This year, he thought he was healthy again until he was injured in an October exhibition game.&ldquo;Every time it would start to get better. I&rsquo;d try to do something and it would start over again,&rdquo; Hansch said. &ldquo;It has something to do with my pelvis; my pelvis shifts a bit. But it&rsquo;s just something I have to play with.&rdquo;<h2>MAINE STREAK</h2>After a 9-2 loss at Springfield Jan. 20, Maine Mariner defenseman Ken Hammond said the situation was getting discouraging.The Mariners were three games below. 500 and in sixth place in the AHL Northern Division. Failing to make the playoffs for the third straight season was a possibility.But, the situation quickly changed. After splitting their next two games, the Mariners went nine games without a loss (6-0-3) to move into a tie for second place. Their streak&mdash;second longest in team history&mdash;ended with a 5-4 loss at Capital District Feb. 13.&ldquo;Going into that game (Springfield), we thought we had a lot of talent on the team,&rdquo; said Hammond, Maine&rsquo;s most valuable defenseman. &ldquo;We had just received a lot of players from Boston during the all-star break.&ldquo;To get embarrassed like that was a catalyst to get us going,&rdquo; Hammond said. &ldquo;We were just embarrassed by it and everyone was concerned about not being embarrassed again.&rdquo;They won in Baltimore, 4-2, two nights later and then lost 17 seconds into overtime in Hershey the following night. The unbeaten streak began with a 4-1 home victory against Cape Breton. Then came a 2-2 tie with the Oilers, a 5-3 win at New Haven, a 1-0 win at Springfield, a 4-3 victory against Capital District, a 4-4 tie with Springfield, a 3-3 tie with Rochester and back-to-back wins against New Haven, 5-1 and 4-1.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve played pretty well all year,&rdquo; said coach Rick Bowness, whose team was three games above. 500 after the nine-game streak. &ldquo;We were never worse than three games below. 500 and now we&rsquo;re three above. So that&rsquo;s pretty consistent.&rdquo;<h2>WISH GRANTED</h2>Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; all-star goalie Grant Fuhr began his comeback in Cape Breton&rsquo;s 5-3 win over the Rochester Americans Feb. 12. Fuhr made 41 saves in the victory. Fuhr is expected to spend a week with Cape Breton before returning to Edmonton. Fuhr was suspended one year by NHL president John Ziegler Sept. 27 for drug abuse. Ziegler lifted the suspension Feb. 4. &ldquo;I was a bit rusty,&rdquo; Fuhr said. &ldquo;But I guess I did enough to get the win.&rdquo; Fuhr wasn&rsquo;t as effective in his second start, losing 6-3 at New Haven one night later. Fuhr made only 19 saves in that game&hellip;The Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers set a Capital Centre record with 294 penalty minutes in a brawl-filled 5-1 win Feb. 10, and their AHL affiliates continued the fight that night. Hershey had 101 PIM and Baltimore 70 in the Skipjacks&rsquo; 9-5 win. Even the goalies&mdash;Hershey&rsquo;s Dominic Roussel and Baltimore&rsquo;s Jim Hrivnak&mdash;went at it, with Hrivnak drawing a match penalty and one-game suspension because he didn&rsquo;t remove his gloves when he fought. &#9632;

WINGS’ GOALIE BOUNCES BACK

<div class="byline">BY KEN WARREN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01746/5842987-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Seguin and the 67&rsquo;s are a big draw in Ottawa now, but two major-junior franchises will face a struggle for survival when the Senators arrive in 1992.</figcaption></div>Major-junior hockey is facing a double jeopardy or sorts now that the Ottawa Senators have been granted a conditional franchise for the 1992-93 season.The Ottawa 67&rsquo;s of the Ontario League and the Hull Olympiques of the Quebec League face an uncertain future competing against the top league in the world. Some people say it&rsquo;s an impossible task.Major-junior teams tried and failed to co-exist in Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. In Detroit, the Ambassadors are in their first year competing on the hockey market with the Red Wings.The appointment of the Senators in the national capital region hasn&rsquo;t scared off junior operators. They scoff at the suggestion they&rsquo;re destined to fail.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been here 23 years and we plan to be here 23 more,&rdquo; 67&rsquo;s co-owner Howard Darwin has been saying since the Senators were awarded a conditional team last December.The Ottawa-Hull area has been one of Canada&rsquo;s major-junior hockey hotbeds for for more than two decades. Only 10 kilometers and the Ottawa River separates the OHL from the QMJHL. Despite sharing the region&rsquo;s majorjunior hockey dollar, neither the 67&rsquo;s or the Olympiques have had trouble staying afloat.In fact, the 67&rsquo;s and Olympiques are considered model Canadian Hockey League franchises. Crowds at the Ottawa Civic Centre and the Robert Guertin Arena in Hull have illustrated that. On a recent weekend, the 67&rsquo;s played twice and the Olympiques once, drawing nearly 17,000 fans between them.Of the 17,000 spectators, almost 10,000 came in one shot. Fans packed the Civic Centre Feb. 8, to get a look at the Oshawa Generals and Eric Lindros, a future star of the NHL.And it&rsquo;s the NHL which threatens the survival of both franchises.The Senators set an NHL record for the speed in which they sold season tickets in December. Fans gobbled up all 1992-93 Senators tickets at the 9,355-seat Civic Centre in 10 days.Such facts don&rsquo;t impress the 67&rsquo;s. They believe they can make it in an NHL city&mdash;against all odds.&ldquo;Ottawa will be an exception, because we&rsquo;re going to operate,&rdquo; 67&rsquo;s co-owner Earl Monta-gano says. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t go on history. If we did, we&rsquo;d just pack up our tent now and go.&rdquo;The Olympiques aren&rsquo;t quitting, either&mdash;despite owner Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s forecast junior hockey can&rsquo;t survive in an NHL city.Olympiques&rsquo; director of operations Charlie Henry says he won&rsquo;t get too alarmed until the term &ldquo;conditional franchise&rdquo; is removed from the Senators name. To meet the NHL&rsquo;s $50million franchise fee, the Senators must pay another $45-million in two installments&mdash;June and December.&ldquo;Once they deposit that money in June, we&rsquo;ll go from there,&rdquo; Henry says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s crunch time after that. We can move, we can sell&hellip;there&rsquo;s all kinds of things we can do.&rdquo;Despite rumors to the contrary, Henry denies Gretzky has suggested selling the team&mdash;at least for now. Assuming the Senators do meet their financial obligations, the 67&rsquo;s would appear to be in a worse situation than the Olympiques.Until the state-of-the-art, 21,000-seat Palladium is built on the western outskirts of Ottawa, the Senators will play at the Civic Centre. The Senators are not expected to move into their new home until at least 1994, possibly 1995.&ldquo;It will be better for our survival once they are in their own building,&rdquo; Montagano says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s certainly possible there could be five games in this building in five days. We may take some lean years. I&rsquo;m hoping they will only be here for two years&hellip;actually I was hoping it would be only one, or none.&rdquo;Typically, the Civic Centre has been booked Fridays and Sundays for the 67&rsquo;s. The Senators want to play at home Thursdays and Saturdays.OHL commissioner Dave Branch says the 67&rsquo;s may indeed go through a couple of tough seasons. But he is buoyed by the fact Montagano and Darwin are so confident they can survive and have no plans of moving or selling.&ldquo;Not knowing what the schedule for the teams will be, it&rsquo;s tough to guess what impact the Senators might have,&rdquo; Branch says. &ldquo;But the Civic Centre is booked all year for different events and it hasn&rsquo;t seemed to hurt.&rdquo;QMJHL president Gilles Courteau compares the 67&rsquo;s-Senators situation to what happened in Quebec City and Montreal. Both the majorjunior Remparts and Jr. Canadiens left town after playing in the same building as their NHL counterparts.&ldquo;It may not hurt Hull,&rdquo; Courteau says. &ldquo;Hull and Ottawa are like Quebec City and Beauport. They&rsquo;re not so close to one another.&rdquo;While Hull remains the main attraction in its own building, it and the 67&rsquo;s have suffered from dwindling media attention.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been knocked off the front pages (of the sports section) if not out of the papers altogether,&rdquo; Henry says. &ldquo;Anytime (the Senators) speak, it&rsquo;s news.&rdquo;Says Montagano: &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the thing that hurts the most. The media, particularly the local papers, are the ones that can make the difference. We&rsquo;ve been getting squeezed out and like everyone else in the sports business, we want and need to be mentioned all the time.&rdquo;A key to survival is improving season-ticket sales, never before a major concern. The Olympiques need to average 2,300 fans to break even and sold 600 season tickets this season. The 67&rsquo;s need 2,600 fans to break even and sold about 800 season tickets this year.Montagano predicts the poor initial on-ice success of the Senators, coupled with the novelty of the NHL wearing off will bring fans back to the 67&rsquo;s after a couple of seasons.&ldquo;The NHL can&rsquo;t be family entertainment anymore. You&rsquo;re going to pay,&rdquo; Montagano says. &ldquo;Our (67&rsquo;s) tickets sell for $7.50, while Senator tickets range from $21 to $60.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ll have a resurgence the first season they leave the Civic Centre. People will realize the difference in entertainment is not worth the difference in ticket prices.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0026-01

AGAINST ALL ODDS

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Brian Costello</div>The Ontario League Detroit Ambassadors are intent on proving the critics and odds wrong.Competing in the same market as the NHL Red Wings, the expansion Ambassadors are considering their first season a success. Even though they&rsquo;ve struggled on the ice with a 7-42-4 record, the Ambassadors, are happy with the reception they have received in Detroit.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a solid support base of people who have accepted us,&rdquo; Ambassadors&rsquo; assistant general manager Russ Gregory said. &ldquo;We play our games in downtown Detroit, but our market is different than that of the Red Wings.&rdquo;The Ambassadors were averaging 2,300 fans per game this season and expect to make a permanent home in Detroit.&ldquo;A lot of people said it wouldn&rsquo;t work, but we&rsquo;re confident it will,&rdquo; Gregory said. &ldquo;As the team improves, so will our roots.&rdquo;Seven other NHL cities once had major-junior teams. In all cases, the junior teams lost out. The following is a look at junior teams in NHL cities since the formation of the Western, Ontario and Quebec Leagues.&#9632; Vancouver. The Vancouver Canucks entered the NHL as an expansion franchise in 1970. The very next year, the Vancouver Nats tried to make a go of it in the Western League. After two seasons and a 27-105-4 record, the Nats moved to Kamloops.&#9632; Edmonton. The Edmonton Oil Kings lasted until 1976 when they lost out to the World Hockey Association Edmonton Oilers and moved to Portland. The Oil Kings tried again in 1978, moving in from Flin Flon. After one season, they moved to Great Falls, Mont. A year later, the Oilers entered the NHL.&#9632; Winnipeg. The junior Winnipeg Jets started in 1967, became the Clubs in 1973 and the Monarchs in 1976 before moving to Calgary in 1977, unable to compete with the WHA Jets. The Winnipeg Warriors started in 1980&mdash;the same year the Jets entered the NHL&mdash;but were sold to Moose Jaw in 1984.&#9632; Montreal. The Montreal Jr. Canadiens were original members of the Quebec League in 1969 winning the Memorial Cup that season and 1970. They became the Red. White and Blue in 1972 and back to the Montreal Jr. Canadiens in 1975. After the 1981-82 season, the Jr. Canadiens moved to Verdun. The Montreal Canadiens have been part of the NHL since 1917.&#9632; Quebec. The Quebec Remparts were part of the original Quebec League in 1969 and won the Memorial Cup in 1971. After the 1984-85 season, the Remparts were inoperative until the franchise was sold to College Francais de Longueil in 1988.&#9632; Calgary. The Calgary Buffaloes became the Wranglers after the 1966-67 season and moved to Billings, Mont., in 1977 after the WHA Calgary Cowboys became the No. 1 game in town. Before the city was without a junior team, the Winnipeg Monarchs became the Calgary Wranglers in 1977. The NHL Flames moved from Atlanta to Calgary in 1980 and in 1987, the Wranglers moved to Lethbridge.&#9632; Toronto. The Toronto Marlboros were original members of the Ontario League since 1973, last winning the Memorial Cup in 1975. Support for the team waned and the franchise moved to Hamilton in 1989. The Toronto Maple Leafs have been part of the NHL since 1917. &#9632;

EXPANSION AMBASSADORS BUCKING THE ODDS

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON AND BRIAN COSTELLO</div>The Guelph Poppies?Don&rsquo;t count on it, but the Dukes of Hamilton are looking for a new moniker now that it&rsquo;s confirmed they&rsquo;re moving to Guelph after this season. Radio station CJOY is having a name-the-team contest.&ldquo;Guelph is known for its old-stone buildings and poppy fields, but I hope they rule out those possibilities,&rdquo; team president Dave Kendrick said.Dukes&rsquo; owner Mario Cupido sold the floundering franchise to the Guelph Community Hockey Club Ltd.&mdash;a group of 20 shareholders&mdash;Feb. 11 for a reported $850,000.The sale must be ratified by the Dukes&rsquo; board of governors and the transfer must be approved by the Ontario League. The Guelph group had no problem getting a release of a territorial agreement from the nearby Kitchener Rangers.&ldquo;The goodwill displayed by the Rangers and Art Diegal was encouraging,&rdquo; said Kendrick, 43, a Guelph aiderman. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m optimistic this city will support another junior team. Our strength is broad-based ownership.&rdquo;Guelph previously had the Platers from 1982 to 1989, when owner Joe Holody moved the franchise to Owen Sound.The Dukes will complete the season in Hamilton. Coach-general manager Jerry Andreatta and his assistant Scott Lisko will be considered for the same positions in Guelph, but Kendrick said he&rsquo;s accepting applications.The Dukes were 13-34-6 this season and 11-49-6 last season after moving over from Toronto. Cupido said he lost $500,000 in two years.<h2>HOME COOKIN&rsquo;</h2>The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Windsor Spitfires used home-ice advantage to the ultimate during their eight-game regular-season series.When the Spitfires edged the Greyhounds 6-5 at Windsor Arena Feb. 7, it evened the eight-game series at 4-4. Neither team was able to win in the other&rsquo;s building.Sault Ste. Marie and Windsor were third and fourth in the Emms Division, four points apart. A first-round playoff series is looming. The extra home game, awarded to the third-place team, could mean the difference in the series.&ldquo;The fans are like a seventh player,&rdquo; Windsor overage goalie Jeff Wilson said. &ldquo;If (Sault Ste. Marie) finishes third and us fourth, we&rsquo;re going to have to win one up there.&rdquo;Sault Ste. Marie captain Bob Boughner&mdash;a Windsor native&mdash;said the Greyhounds are tougher than the Spitfires.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a matter of us wearing them down,&rdquo; Boughner said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got a lot of guys who aren&rsquo;t as tough in our building. You give them a couple of good hits early and they disappear.&rdquo;While Boughner is a Windsor native playing for the Soo, the opposite is true of Spitfire Kevin MacKay.<h2>STREAK AT 28</h2>Oshawa Generals&rsquo; center Eric Lindros is player of the week for the period ending Feb. 10, after scoring 12 goals and 19 points in five games. Lindros led the OHL with 60 goals and 117 points in 45 games. He extended his scoring streak to 28 games Feb. 17&hellip;The Kingston Frontenacs were eliminated from the playoffs Feb. 15, losing 10-3 to the North Bay Centennials. The Frontenacs were 14-36-4 and 26 points behind the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s with 12 games remaining&hellip;North Bay had only 18 losses in 54 games this season, but 12 of those setbacks have been to the Sudbury Wolves and Oshawa&hellip;After a 5-8-3 start this season, the Belleville Bulls went on a 24-10-4 run to move into third place in the Leyden Division. The Bulls had only one loss in 17 home games up to Feb. 13&hellip;The Cornwall Royals went through a streak of 121 minutes, 39 seconds without scoring a goal Feb. 5-9. &#9632;

GUELPH TRANSFER TEAM LOOKING FOR NICKNAME

<div class="byline">BY VANCE OLIVER</div>Prince Albert Raiders&rsquo; center Jeff Nelson established the Western League mark of 48 consecutive games with at least one point.Nelson, expected to be chosen in the first round of the 1991 NHL entry draft, assisted on a goal by Brian Pellerin at 15:52 of the first period in a Feb. 16 game against the Medicine Hat Tigers.Nelson flipped the puck in the neutral zone to Donevan Hextall, who in turn set up Pellerin for the first goal of the game in a 5-3 Raiders&rsquo; victory.Nelson eclisped the 47-game point-scoring streak shared by Regina Pats&rsquo; teammates Wally Schreiber and Jock Callander in 1981-82.&ldquo;I feel it&rsquo;s a pretty good acomplishment to go out every game and get a point,&rdquo; said Nelson, 18. &ldquo;Sometimes the puck isn&rsquo;t bouncing your way, but I&rsquo;ve managed to fight through things like that. I (also) had great support from my teammates which made it easier on me.&rdquo;Nelson, who had 34 goals and 92 points since his streak began Oct. 22 against the Saskatoon Blades, will tie Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s Canadian Hockey League record of 61, if he gets at least one point in his 13 remaining games.&ldquo;It would be quite an honor,&rdquo; Nelson said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m not going to think about it right now. I&rsquo;m just going to go out and help our team win.&rdquo;<h2>GOOD LOUCKS</h2>Second-year Lethbridge Hurricanes&rsquo; coach Bob Loucks is shedding his Rodney Dangerfield image.Last season, Loucks inherited a talent-laden team and coached it to the WHL final. This season, with the Hurricanes&rsquo; top five scorers not returning, most observers predicted Loucks would struggle through a rebuilding phase.Lethbridge, however, is threatening to capture its second consecutive East Division title with a different nucleus. The Hurricanes have moved from a highly-skilled team last season to a hard-working defense-oriented squad this season.Lethbridge moved into first place in the East Division for the first time this season with a 32-18-5 record. Buoyed by a 11-game-winning streak, the Hurricanes led the Swift Current Broncos by two points with one game in hand.&ldquo;This is more my style of team,&rdquo; said Loucks, a former wrestler. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s more of a lunch-pail crew, while last year it was more of a white-collar crew.&ldquo;In some ways it&rsquo;s more challenging because the game is always in question. On the other hand, you&rsquo;re not dealing with as many egos as last year. On a one-to-one basis it has been easier to coach, but as far as team-effort goes, it has been more difficult.&rdquo;<h2>CENTER STAGE</h2>The Kamloops Blazers shifted Scott Niedermayer, expected to be a top-five pick in the 1991 NHL entry draft, from defense to center due to a spate of injuries.The front-running Blazers have been hard hit at center where second and third-line pivots Jeff Watchorn and Ryan Harrison remain sidelined.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got some bad injuries which have forced our hand in terms of where we&rsquo;re putting people,&rdquo; Blazers&rsquo; coach Tom Renney said. &ldquo;Scotty&rsquo;s offensive skills allow us to put him at center. It has paid off so far, but it&rsquo;s certainly something we don&rsquo;t see as a long-term thing.&rdquo;The 17-year-old Niedermayer, a member of Canada&rsquo;s gold-medal winning team at the 1991 World Junior Championship, isn&rsquo;t enthused with his new posting.The Cranbrook, B.C., native had seven goals and 12 points in seven games as a centerman, but may have dropped a notch or two in the Central Scouting Bureau&rsquo;s rankings.&ldquo;I hope it doesn&rsquo;t hurt me,&rdquo; Niedermayer said. &ldquo;Some people might want me playing defense to watch what I&rsquo;m doing. But to help the team, I have to play center and that&rsquo;s the most important thing right now.&rdquo; &#9632;

NELSON BREAKS SCORING RECORD

<div class="byline">BY KEN WARREN</div>Attendance in the Quebec League through January was up by more than 63,000 over last season.Eight of the 12 franchises have shown improvement over 1989-90 and only three teams had seen their crowd figures drop.The Drummondville Voltigeurs, third in the Dilio Division, led the pack with an increase of 15,555 over the same time last year. The Chicoutimi Sagueneens and Laval Titan had also seen crowd figures increase by more than 5,000.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s great,&rdquo; QMJHL president Gilles Courteau said. &ldquo;Our attendance is way up and we&rsquo;re just now heading into the stretch run. Of the three teams that had their crowd figures fall, two are down less than 1,000.&rdquo;The Victoriaville Tigres, with a record of 7-47-1, were down by less than 400 spectators, while the Hull Olympiques&mdash;typically one of the highest drawing teams in the QMJHL&mdash;have seen attendance drop by more than 4,000 fans.&ldquo;I guess we have to bite the bullet,&rdquo; Olympiques&rsquo; director of operations Charlie Henry said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a rebuilding year and the spectators know that.&rdquo;The expansion Beauport Harfangs had drawn 33,509 spectators in 27 home games.<h2>BLANK BLANK</h2>Granby Bisons&rsquo; goaltender Boris Rousson was not the only one to post a shutout in a 3-0 win over the Beauport Harfangs Feb. 12. So, too, did referee Luc Lachapelle.Lachapelle did not call a single penalty in the game. That had never before happened in the 22-year-history of the league.The game took less than two hours to play.The Bisons have taken only 794 minutes in penalties through 54 games, more than 400 minutes fewer than league-leading College Francais.<h2>SEASON OVER</h2>The Victoriaville Tigres have been reduced to playing for pride in the final 15 games of the season.The Trois Rivieres Draveurs mathematically eliminated the Tigres from the playoffs Feb. 12, padding their scoring totals in the process.Trois Rivieres trounced the Tigres 13-0, with league-leading scorer Yanic Perreault netting five goals to reach 73 for the season. Carl Boudreau (0-5), Paul Brousseau (1-3), Patrick Nadeau (2-2) and Dominic Maltais (2-2) also had big nights.The Draveurs&rsquo; four power-play goals also gave them 100 for the season, tops in the league.Trois Rivieres entered the game having scored on 27 per cent of their power-play chances. Perreault led the team with 27, while Todd Gillingham had 16, Boudreau 11, Eric St-Amant 10 and Brousseau eight.<h2>TWO&rsquo;S ENOUGH</h2>Hull Olympiques&rsquo; goaltender Francis Ouellette, who allowed two or fewer goals in an eight-game stretch, was named player of the week for the period ending Feb. 10.Ouellette, 20, was 3-0 with a 1.67 goals-against average during the week. He was named defensive player of the month for January and jumped ahead of Chicoutimi&rsquo;s Felix Potvin for the league&rsquo;s best GAA.Ouellette&rsquo;s play helped the Olympiques sustain a winning streak. Hull beat Lebel Division-leading Longueuil Feb. 12 for their 10th straight win. In the process, the Olympiques moved past St-Hyacinthe into second place in the division.<h2>TOP ROOKIE</h2>Simon Toupin is having an impressive rookie season with expansion Beauport. Toupin led all rookies in scoring with 25 goals and 69 points in 54 games, which was a tie for 12th place in league scoring. &#9632;

ATTENDANCE ON RISE; VOLTIGEURS LEAD WAY

The Waterloo Warriors failed in their attempt to become the first Ontario Universities Athletic Association team in 20 seasons to record an undefeated season.The Warriors (16-1-2) lost their first game of the season 5-4 to the Western Mustangs (9-7-2) Feb. 8.Western&rsquo;s Peter Jeffrey scored the winning goal with less than eight minutes remaining in the game.The 1974-75 University of Toronto Blues were the last OUAA team to go undefeated in the regular season.<h2>OUAA</h2>The win pulled the Mustangs to within one point of the Guelph Gryphons (10-8-1) and Windsor Lancers (10-7-1) in the OUAA West Division.York&rsquo;s Brian MacDonald had a nine-point week for the Yeomen. McDonald had five goals and six points in a 7-4 win over Queen&rsquo;s Feb. 9.<h2>CWUAA</h2>The Calgary Dinosaurs moved closer to clinching their second second straight Canadian West Universitites Athletic Association title.<h2>CIAU</h2>Calgary reduced its magic number for clinching the division to three with back-to-back 4-2 wins over the Manitoba Bisons Feb. 9-10.Center Matt Kabayama led the &lsquo;Dinos with a goal and five assists in the weekend series.Calgary (18-5-1) maintained their three-point lead on the second place Alberta Golden Bears (16-6-2), who swept the Regina Cougars 4-2 and 4-3 Feb. 8-9.The first-place Dinosaurs are trying to make amends for last season&rsquo;s loss at The Nationals (CIAU championships) in Toronto.The &lsquo;Dinos reached the semifinals at the nationals last season, but lost to the eventual CIAU champion, the Moncton Blue Eagles (AUAA).Calgary is attempting to finish first in the CWUAA to gain home-ice advantage for the playoffs. For the past three seasons, the home team has had a clear path to the nationals.The Lethbridge Pronghorns (8-160) beat Brandon twice&mdash;7-4 Feb. 8 and 7-6 Feb. 9&mdash;to set several club records, including longest winning streak (four games), most wins in a season (eight) and most points in a season. Brandon (6-14-4) was in jeopardy of finishing last in the CWUAA&hellip;Calgary&rsquo;s Wayne Hines led the CWUAA scoring race after 24 games with 54 points (24-30). Regina&rsquo;s Len Nielson was second with 19 goals and 40 points.<h2>AUAA</h2>The Atlantic Universities Athletic Association&rsquo;s new playoff format has come under fire with just one week tua play in the season.&ldquo;No we&rsquo;re not happy with it,&rdquo; AUAA president Jim Born said. &ldquo;We wanted to have a 39-game schedule&mdash;including four exhibition, 26 regular season and nine playoff games&mdash;but we were told we could play a maximum of 36.&ldquo;So we had to cut two exhibition games and reduce the playoffs by a game. We&rsquo;ll be asking for those other three games to be added on for next season.&rdquo;The AUAA was informed of the playoff change at CIAU meetings in Toronto last June.Changes include:&#9632; A two-game, total-point series to be played at the home of the higher ranked team. Last seson, a best-of-three series was used, with the first game at the home of the lower-placing team.&#9632; The first-round series will not be a total goal series. Ties will be decided by a 10-minute mini-game following the second game of the series.If the mini-game ends in a tie, the teams play 20-minute sudden-death overtimes until a winner is decided.The four survivors play a best-of-three divisional final, with the two divisional champions playing in a best of three conference final.&mdash;with files from Bruce Hallihan, Claude Scilley and Mark Spector &#9632;

WARRIORS MEET THEIR WATERLOO

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01626/5843138-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hobey Baker candidate Denny Felsner leads college hockey&rsquo;s highest-scoring line, The right winger was the nation&rsquo;s sharpest shooter with 34 goals in 34 games.</figcaption></div>Red Berenson isn&rsquo;t usually one to offer effusive praise. The head coach of the Michigan Wolverines generally likes to&mdash;as so many athletes put it&mdash;stay on an even keel.Mention his line of David Roberts, Mark Ouimet and Denny Felsner, however, and Berenson&rsquo;s usually restrained demeanor takes (for him) a walk on the wild side.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re what college hockey is all about,&rdquo; beamed Berenson, a Michigan grad who went on to star and coach in the NHL. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re what we want college hockey to be.&rdquo;Granted, Berenson does not exactly rate as an unbiased evaluator of his team&rsquo;s&mdash;and U.S. college hockey&rsquo;s&mdash;top offense-producing trio. But when the casual observer can sense the Roberts-uuimet-Felsner unit has a special presence and chemistry.The threesome (first united Dec. 15-16, 1989) occasionally must do some bumping and grinding. They can&rsquo;t avoid it, as opponents increasingly focus on frustrating the troika which has clicked for 66 goals in 34 games this season. But the line&rsquo;s style is more tape-to-tape than toe-to-toe. They thrive on speed, finesse and the desire to put the puck in the net.&ldquo;Actually, we have to dump the puck in more than you&rsquo;d expect,&rdquo; said Ouimet, a 5-foot-10, 170-pound sophomore center who had 10 goals and 29 assists in 34 matches. &ldquo;A lot of times we have to dig for the puck and our chances. But once we get the puck, we keep it. We like to work it as low as possible and keep it moving.&rdquo;Until of course, the puck settles in the back of the opponent&rsquo;s net.<h2>CCHA</h2>While all three forwards are a threat to finish the play, none does it better than Felsner. The 6-foot, 185-pound junior right winger with all-American athletic looks, is a Hobey Baker candidate who skipped from bantam to junior (NAJHL) before coming to Ann Arbor.&ldquo;Coach Berenson loves it when you go to the net,&rdquo; said Felsner, 20. &ldquo;But they (his line-mates) usually give me the puck before I crash the net.&rdquo;Although Felsner isn&rsquo;t apt to stickhandle around defenders, he&rsquo;ll beat them with pure, driving speed. Flatfooted opponents usually are doomed. Even ones that are moving have a hard time keeping up as the Mt. Clemens, Mich., native powers and sweeps wide or thrusts into the slot.After creating openings on the ice, the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; draftee (third round, 55th overall in 1989) often zeroes in on spaces a goaltender hasn&rsquo;t covered. As his CCHA-leading 34 goals and 61 points suggest, Felsner is an adept sniper.&ldquo;Denny is a great goal-scorer with a lot of talent and good size,&rdquo; said Roberts, a 19-year-old sophomore left winger who had 22-34-56 totals in 34 games. &ldquo;A lot of people don&rsquo;t realize how strong he is.&rdquo;Strong is also a good word to describe Roberts. As in strong NHL prospect. He isn&rsquo;t in any hurry, however, to make the quantum leap.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s been a lot of talk about me going pro,&rdquo; said Roberts who was born in Alameda, Calif., but grew up in Old Lyme, Conn. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m close to being the type of hockey player who can go pro at this point.&rdquo;Roberts should have good counseling for that transition. His father, Doug, played in the NHL and WHA for 12 seasons, including a stint alongside Berenson in St. Louis. His uncle, Gordie (now with Pittsburgh) also has enjoyed a long pro career. A cousin, Alex, played defense for four years at Michigan before signing with the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; organization last spring.But for now, Roberts is content to remain at Michigan, playing at a level he is just beginning to master and where&mdash;even when things do go awry&mdash;they seem to work out in the end.&ldquo;They can be a good line even when they don&rsquo;t play together,&rdquo; said Berenson. &ldquo;That is, they may be on the ice together, but they also can do a lot as individuals.And when the unit is in sync?&ldquo;When the three of us are working hard,&rdquo; said Felsner, &ldquo;something is going to happen.&rdquo;The Miami Redskins were mathematically eliminated from post-season play after dropping 3-2 and 7-2 decisions to the Michigan State Spartans Feb. 8-9. The double dip&mdash;Miami&rsquo;s 13th and 14th consecutive defeats&mdash;cemented ninth place for the 2-23-3 Redskins, leaving them eight points behind the Illinois-Chicago Flames and the final playoff berth with four games remaining. Should the two clubs finish the regular season tied, UIC would get the nod based on their 2-1-1 record in head-to-head play with Miami&hellip;Two Ferris State players were exonerated from any wrong-doing following a school investigation for an incident alleged by another FSU student. Senior goaltender Marc Felicio and freshman right winger Justin George, who were mysteriously absent from the Bulldogs&rsquo; lineup from Jan. 18 to Feb. 1, were reinstated after school officials cleared them of any misconduct. FSU officials refused to release details or the nature of the alleged incident.<h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>If their performance in the Beanpot final is a true indicator, the Boston University Terriers are deep enough to win without the services of one of their marquee players.In this case, the Terriers crushed cross-town rival Boston College 8-4 in the tournament final Feb. 11 minus standout freshman defenseman Scott Lachance.One of the highest-rated players available for the upcoming NHL draft, Lachance tore cartilage in his left knee during BU&rsquo;s Beanpot opener (8-2 win over Harvard Feb. 4) and will be out for the rest of the regular season. He underwent arthroscopic surgery Feb. 8 and is expected to return in time for the playoffs.Another high-profile Terrier, sophomore right winger Tony Amonte, was the catalyst behind BU&rsquo;s 16th Beanpot win in 39 years. Amonte, named the tournament&rsquo;s most valuable player, scored three second-period goals, including the game winner, and set a Beanpot record for the fastest three goals in a game (five minutes and 24 seconds).&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t do too much work for the goals,&rdquo; said Amonte, whose hat trick gave him seven goals in his previous four games and 13 in a 13-game span. &ldquo;(Linemates) Keith Tkachuk and Shawn McEachern did all the work and the puck bounced right on to my stick.&rdquo;The victory was BU coach Jack Parker&rsquo;s eighth, tying him with former BC coach Snooks Kelley for the most titles.Meanwhile, Northeastern&rsquo;s Tom Cole blanked Harvard 5-0 on 37 saves in the consolation game and earned the Eberly Trophy as the outstanding goalie based on save percentage (.945).Cole stopped 51 shots in a 5-3 semifinal loss to Boston College Feb. 4 giving him 88 saves in two games, three shy of the record.It was the first time Harvard had ever been shut out in a Beanpot game.University of Lowell senior Steve Ablitt will miss the rest of the season after undergoing an appendectomy Feb. 7. Ablitt, second on the Chiefs this season with nine goals and 25 points in 24 games and first with a plus-3, has played every position except goal during his four years at Lowell. He finishes his collegiate career with 23-51-74 totals and 279 penalty minutes in 112 games.<h2>ECAC</h2>Army coach Rob Riley has been selected as an assistant coach for the U.S. team that will be participating at the World University Games in Sapporo, Japan, March 2-10.Riley, who served in the same capacity last year, will assist Major Chuck Delich of the Air Force Academy. Riley and Delich were both assistants to Herb Hammond last year.The U.S. will be the second-seed in the four-team A pool, behind the Soviet Union. The team will be selected during the final week of February.In a season that has seen two new league penalty-minute records established, Vermont and Army pulled off the improbable Feb. 9, playing a penalty-free game. The contest, a 3-1 Vermont victory, marked just the fourth time in ECAC history that a game was played without penalties&hellip;Colgate sophomore defenseman Bob Haddock picked a perfect time to end a goal-scoring drought. Haddock&rsquo;s third period power-play goal gave the Red Raiders a 5-5 tie with Harvard Feb. 8. The goal was just his third of the year, and first since Oct. 27 (a 23-game span).<h2>WCHA</h2>Minnesota-Duluth established an NCAA Division I standard Feb. 9 when it recorded its seventh tie of the season, a 3-3 standoff with Alaska-Anchorage.Ferris State (1989-90), Lake Superior State (1987-88, 1988-89), Western Michigan (198889) and Minnesota (1973-74) previously had six.Northern Michigan center Scott Beattie took a 20-game point-scoring streak into the last two weeks of the regular season. He had 25-26-51 totals since Dec. 7&hellip;Wisconsin center Doug Macdonald celebrated his 22nd birthday Feb. 8 by registering a hat trick, the first of his career, in a 5-2 victory over Colorado College.&mdash;with files from Matt Carlson, Larry Mahoney, Tom Boggie and Andy Baggot &#9632;

f0029-01

THE FIRING LINE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01713/5843190-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01658/5843183-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="3079" height="3614"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01703/5843176-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="3051" height="3608"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01626/5843169-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="3055" height="1219"></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

The Buffalo Sabres aren&rsquo;t nearly the explosive team pre-season prognosticators said they would be. They are dyna-mite killing penalties, though.While the Sabres have flirted with the. 500 mark instead of challenging for first place overall, their penalty-killing unit has been at or near the top all season.Buffalo allowed a power-play goal on the average of 11 minutes, 10 seconds of opportunity&mdash;second in the NHL behind Washington (12:06).Sabres&rsquo; goalies Clint Malarchuk and Daren Puppa are both in the top-seven in the Hot Seat department&mdash;which looks at how long it takes for a goalie to allow a power-play goal.Malarchuk is fourth in the NHL with a hot-seat average of 12:09, while Puppa is seventh at 11:19.TEAMS POWER PLAY / PENALTY KILLING TIME FRAMEGAMES PLAYED THROUGH 2/17/91<h3>POWER PLAY</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06176/5843441-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="548" height="682"></div><h3>EGA LEADERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07159/5843434-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="548" height="442"></div><h3>PENALTY KILLING</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-08134/5843427-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="542" height="844"></div><h3>HOT SEAT</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-09117/5843420-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="546" height="474"></div> &#9632;

f0033-06

SABRES CHALLENGE IN OTHER STANDING

<h2>Mon., Feb. 11</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02438/5843389-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="586" height="1321"></div><h2>Tues., Feb. 12</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03319/5843382-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="580" height="722"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04254/5843375-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="582" height="2193"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05208/5843368-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="584" height="2141"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04334/5843361-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="1164" height="1661"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Mark Recchi had a goal and two assists in the Penguins.&rsquo; 4-3 loss to the New York Islanders Feb. 16.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01711/5843354-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="582" height="810"></div><h2>Wed., Feb. 13</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02530/5843347-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="580" height="798"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03415/5843340-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="580" height="1699"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04311/5843333-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="588" height="1699"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05245/5843326-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="588" height="1699"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06212/5843319-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="588" height="410"></div><h2>Thur., Feb. 14</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07197/5843312-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="592" height="1227"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01676/5843305-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="592" height="3575"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02519/5843298-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="590" height="778"></div><h2>Fri., Feb 15</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03418/5843291-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="588" height="2715"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05276/5843284-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="582" height="714"></div><h2>Sat., Feb. 16</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06249/5843277-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="580" height="1024"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07231/5843270-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="584" height="1803"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08208/5843263-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="590" height="3535"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01643/5843256-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="580" height="953"></div><h2>Sun., Feb. 17</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02467/5843249-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="586" height="139"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03377/5843242-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="582" height="1127"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04285/5843235-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="578" height="1124"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05233/5843228-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="577" height="1127"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06202/5843221-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="574" height="1123"></div> &#9632;

f0033-02

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-07" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07187/5843479-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01559/5843472-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="1834" height="3598"></div> &#9632;

f0036-07

SCOREBOARD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01610/5843510-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="551" height="621"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEVIN DUPONT</figcaption></div>He&rsquo;s not making saves anymore for a living. And he&rsquo;ll admit now, less than a year into retirement, he was never 5-feet-5 or even close to 155 pounds. In his best days, Darren Pang tipped the scales at 135 pounds.&ldquo;And, well, I might be only 5-feet-4- and-a-half,&rdquo; Pang said, adding a little laugh to the subject of his height. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really know. I can tell you, though, that I was usually 130-135 pounds. I used to put weights in my shorts to make everyone think I was heavier.&rdquo;There was a time, not long ago, when Pang was about the biggest and most exciting thing the Chicago Blackhawks had going in their net. He went 10-11-6 in the 1988-89 season and was partly responsible, along with Alain Chevrier, for getting the Hawks into the &rsquo;89 Campbell Conference finals against Calgary.Mike Keenan had just arrived that season as the Chicago coach and Pang, then only 25 years old, was looking at what he figured to be a long career for a short guy. Maybe the Hawks would one day soon win the Stanley Cup, and Pang could envision his name enscribed there in silver, just as Glenn Hall&rsquo;s name was etched there for Chicago in 1961.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d set goals for myself,&rdquo; recalled Pang. &ldquo;I figured then that I&rsquo;d be playing another seven-to-10 years anyway, and I wanted my play to improve. I was so motivated to be good. It&rsquo;s just too bad that I didn&rsquo;t get enough time to reach all the goals I wanted to reach, that&rsquo;s all. I don&rsquo;t dwell on that, but I&rsquo;m a realist. I wish it could have been different.&ldquo;I never thought it would come to an end at 27.&rdquo;If not for a fluke accident at the end of the conference finals against Calgary, it might have been very different for Pang. Getting ready for Game 5, which would become a series-ending fourth win for the Flames, then-Hawk Wayne Van Dorp banged into Pang during practice. A ligament in Pang&rsquo;s left knee was mangled and his career effectively over, though he did play 11 games in the minors last season.Pang was going to try again this year, but even a simple game of tennis was out of the question.&ldquo;When the time came, I had a good talk with Brian Kilrea,&rdquo; said Pang, referring to the coach of the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s, where Pang played junior hockey. &ldquo;And I said, &lsquo;Brian, what do you think? If I retire, do you think I&rsquo;d be cheating myself?&rsquo; But you know, he said no one expected me to be in the league to begin with. And, he said, &lsquo;What you did will help kids&mdash;especially a lot of small kids&mdash;see some light at the end of the tunnel. They&rsquo;ll know they have a chance to make it.&rsquo; I&rsquo;m thankful he said that. It made it easier.&rdquo;These days, Pang can still be found around Chicago Stadium, but lugging a microphone instead of a goalie stick. The Hawks put him to work immediately on their new official hotline (1-900-45-HAWKS) and callers nationwide can listen to his taped reports on the Hawks every day of the week. The toll is 75 cents per minute, with a maximum charge of $2.25. He&rsquo;s also hosting a post-game show on radio station WBBM in Chicago, conducting a post-game interview during home games and talking to call-in guests whether the Hawks are home or on the road.The radio game is nothing new for Pang. During his minor-league days with Saginaw, he hooked on with WHNN, an FM rock station, for a one-hour stint every morning.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d take calls, do the weather, whatever they wanted,&rdquo; said Pang. &ldquo;I just listened to those tapes the other day as a matter of fact. Oh, gosh, I wasn&rsquo;t very good. I was saying stuff like, &lsquo;Well, the high today will be 32&hellip;the low 28.&rsquo; But, hey, when you&rsquo;re making $22,500 in the International League, you&rsquo;ve got to look to do some other things.&rdquo;There&rsquo;s no knowing if he&rsquo;ll stay in Chicago. Pang would like to stay with the Hawks, but he&rsquo;d also like to see his new career progress. Like hockey, he has set goals. For a next step, he&rsquo;d like to handle color commentary for TV or radio. Those jobs are locked up in Chicago, but he has sent out a few tapes, including one to the Ottawa Senators. Ottawa is Pang&rsquo;s home, and maybe a new team could use a new talent.&ldquo;If I could change one thing, I&rsquo;d stress putting more emphasis on schooling,&rdquo; said Pang. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;d want young kids to hear. I&rsquo;m fortunate, I got my high school diploma&hellip;a lot of guys in the NHL don&rsquo;t get that. But when I had an extra hour or two, I put it into hockey and not into books. If I&rsquo;d known that I was going to love broadcasting the way I do, I would have gone full bore for school.&ldquo;Because, you realize, your career is so vulnerable. It is for everyone. It can come to an end quite quickly.&rdquo;Kevin Dupont is a hockey writer for the Boston Globe. &#9632;

f0039-01

PANG GOES FROM SAVES TO AIRWAVES

The NHL had a power outage Feb. 10, when 10 teams scored two goals in 52 power-play opportunities&mdash;a 3.8 percent success rate. The night before, the NHL&rsquo;s lowest-rated power-play team&mdash;Detroit&mdash;scored two power-play goals in a 6-5 loss to Minnesota. Paul Ysebaert scored one and assisted on the other.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02430/5843541-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="714" height="440"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Ysebaert</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NUMBERS

<h2>OILERS</h2>Goaltender Grant Fuhr, who passed his four-game conditioning test in the American League, was the subject of catcalls concerning his use of drugs and also racial slurs during a game in New Haven Feb. 13. &ldquo;It was kind of ugly,&rdquo; said Fuhr. &ldquo;You have the good, bad and ugly&hellip;and that was definitely of the ugly variety. &ldquo;&hellip;Goaltender Bill Ranford, forced out of the lineup recently because of a sore back, returned to action Feb. 14 against Los Angeles (4-2 loss) and said he felt no ill-effects&hellip;Petr Klima had one of the Oilers&rsquo; two goals in a 3-2 loss to Toronto Feb. 16, giving him 12 in 10 games. &ldquo;Everything seems to be going in,&rdquo; said Klima, who scored twice in a 7-5 win over Pittsburgh Feb. 11&hellip;Craig Simpson returned from his league-imposed three-game suspension Feb. 14 against the Kings. Through Feb. 17, he had eight goals in eight games.<h2>CANUCKS</h2>Goalie Kirk McLean beat the Washington Capitals 4-2 Feb. 16 for his first solo win since Dec. 18 and his first complete game win at home since beating the New York Islanders 3-2 Nov. 16&hellip;Left winger Robert Kron admitted he has been playing this season with a special protective pad on his left hand to protect a broken bone. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a small bone, but it&rsquo;s an important bone,&rdquo; said the 23-year-old rookie from Czechoslovakia. &ldquo;It was giving me a lot of trouble last year, but the pain is not so bad now. Maybe it affects my wrist shot a little bit. I&rsquo;ve lost a bit of my quickness.&rdquo; Kron said he broke the bone when he was slashed on the wrist before the world championships last year. When he came to the Canucks&rsquo; training camp in September, he discovered the bone was broken but put off surgery for a year because he was a rookie and hadn&rsquo;t yet established a place on the team&hellip;The Canucks snapped a goalless drought of 130 minutes, 51 seconds when Kron connected in the second period of a 3-2 loss to St. Louis Feb. 14&hellip;Fired coach Bob McCammon is still pondering the Canucks&rsquo; offer of a scouting position. He met with GM Pat Quinn Feb. 14.<h2>JETS</h2>After sitting out two weeks, rookie goalie Rick Tabaracci came in to mop up for Bob Essensa in a 6-1 loss to Detroit Feb. 12. Two nights later, Tabaracci was sharp in the Jets&rsquo; 3-3 draw at New Jersey. He finished off the week by blanking Quebec 6-0 Feb. 17 for his first NHL shutout. The Jets swept the season series against Quebec, with Tabaracci winning all three&hellip;The shutout, the Jets fourth this season, left them second only to Minnesota in that department. It also established a club record for most shutouts in one season, bettering the three posted in 1981-82&hellip;Brent Ashton scored twice against the Nordiques and had 25 minutes to go for the hat trick. He failed to get another shot on goalie Stephane Fiset. The Jets haven&rsquo;t recorded a hat trick in 151 games&hellip;Mark Osborne has only five goals since being acquired from Toronto, but two of those have been game-winners&hellip;With 35 points and a team-worst minus-19, defenseman Fredrik Olausson was sent to the press box against New Jersey, the first time he had been a non-injury scratch this season.<h2>FLAMES</h2>A sign the Flames may be on the right track: They took nine of 10 points from the division leaders in an 18-day span. That was made possible after St. Louis supplanted Chicago atop the Norris Division in early February. They won games over Boston, the Rangers, Chicago and St. Louis by a combined score of 19-7 and tied Los Angeles 4-4. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re asking how will the Calgary Flames fare going into the playoffs, if we get out of our division, it looks like the answer is pretty well,&rdquo; said defenseman Jamie Macoun. &ldquo;The key question is, who are we going to play in the playoffs? If we can have the home-ice advantage and let L. A. and Edmonton fight it out amongst themselves and hopefully knock each other down a notch, it&rsquo;ll make it that much better for us.&rdquo;&hellip;With seven weeks to go in the season, the Flames were in position to take a run at the divisionleading Kings. Calgary plays 17 of its final 23 games at home, where they had not lost or tied a game from Dec. 22 to Feb. 17. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to win every game we play at home,&rdquo; said right winger Theo Fleury. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the advantage we have through the schedule, getting all these home games. But if we don&rsquo;t win, then the schedule means nothing.&rdquo;&hellip;Fleury, who scored just twice in January, had seven goals in the first 17 days of February raising his season total to 30.<h2>KINGS</h2>Since celebrating his 30th birthday Jan. 26 with a hat trick in a 5-4 win over Vancouver, Wayne Gretzky scored only one goal in the next nine games. That included a seven-game goal-less streak, his longest of the season. He had 10 assists in the seven games&hellip;GM Rogie Vachon didn&rsquo;t sound like he intended to make a pitch for New York Islanders&rsquo; star Pat LaFontaine, who has asked to be traded. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not touching that one,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I get a call from Bill Torrey&hellip;LaFontaine&rsquo;s not the only player who wants to be traded&hellip;During Feb. 12 ceremonies at the Forum before the Kings&rsquo; 4-4 tie with Calgary, Dave Taylor was honored for collecting his 1,000th career point. Team owner Bruce McNall presented Taylor with 1,000 mint-condition Morgan Silver Dollars valued at $20,000 in a Baccarat crystal bowl set on a black onyx base. Gretzky presented the players&rsquo; gift, a sterling silver stick. &#9632;

FUHR’S RETURN GETS UGLY

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BEAMISH</div>When Petr Nedved received a hero&rsquo;s welcome at the NHL entry draft last June, few of the 19,000 fans in Vancouver who hailed him as the Canucks&rsquo; first superstar could have imagined the rocky road ahead.In the subsequent nine months, both Nedved and his legions of enthusiastic supporters have gone through some sobering times. Nedved suffered through the disillusionment of a messy contract hassle and a poor first half, even though the Canucks were surprising most experts by hovering around the. 500 mark.But after a good beginning, the talent-poor Canucks had sunk to the bottom of the Smythe Division. Their 4-18-2 nosedive in the first 24 games after Christmas was something foreign to the 19-year-old Nedved, who had never played on a bad team before.&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not just hard for me,&rdquo; said Nedved, the second overall pick in the 1990 draft, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s also hard for guys like Doug Lidster and Trevor Linden. It&rsquo;s hard for everybody. In Czechoslovakia, from the beginning, I always played on the best team. Last year, in Seattle, we were pretty good. But I&rsquo;m here now and this is what I have to deal with.&rdquo;The reality of playing with the Canucks has proven to be something of a nightmare. After scoring four goals&mdash;all on the road&mdash;in his first 41 games, Nedved finally scored a goal at Pacific Coliseum Feb. 16 against Washington.Capital goalie Don Beaupre never had a chance on Nedved&rsquo;s shot, mainly because Beaupre was sitting on the bench, pulled for an extra attacker. Nedved shot the puck about 160 feet into an empty net to ensure a 4-2 Canuck win.That Nedved was on the ice in a crucial situation late in the game indicates his growing maturity and improvement in his defensive play.In the early months of the season, coach Bob McCammon used him sparingly or not at all, and Nedved became the focus of a debate about whether the Canucks should play him more or send him back to junior for more seasoning.His situation changed dramatically Jan. 12, however, when general manager Pat Quinn, now head coach after firing McCammon Jan. 31, traded center Brian Bradley to Toronto for Tom Kurvers. Bradley&rsquo;s trade opened up a spot, and Nedved started to play regularly.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying I have improved a lot because I know I have to improve more,&rdquo; Nedved said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m playing a little bit better than before and my confidence is coming back with the ice time.&rdquo;<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dan Quinn, Igor Larionov, Petr Nedved, Rob Murphy.LW&mdash;Greg Adams. Robert Kron, Garry Valk, Gino Odjick.RW&mdash;Trevor Linden, Jay Mazur, Jim Sandlak, Ron Stern, Stan Smyl.LD&mdash;Doug Lidster, Gerald Diduck, Adrien Plavsic, Kevan Guy.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, day-to-day. Dave Capuano, RW. arthroscopic knee surgery, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Linden, 24. A&mdash;Quinn, 28. P&mdash;Linden, 45. PIM&mdash;Odiick 258 &#9632;

FUTURE ISN’T NOW FOR CZECH ROOKIE

<div class="byline">BY TIM CAMPBELL</div>Patience has been a rewarding virtue for Phil Housley.The 26-year-old defenseman, who was traded from the Buffalo Sabres to the Winnipeg Jets in the off-season for center Dale Hawerchuk, has survived the post-trade frustration with his new team.And he&rsquo;s starting to show general manager Mike Smith the deal was a good one.On Jan. 12, the Jets trailed fourth-place Vancouver by six points. At the time, Housley had a respectable 40 points in 46 games, but was a miserable minus-19.&ldquo;At the beginning of the season, there were a lot of things I wish I&rsquo;d done over,&rdquo; said the St. Paul, Minn., native. &ldquo;One was trying not to do too much. When you come to a new team, you want to prove to your teammates you can play good hockey.&ldquo;And one reason my defensive game struggled was because I tried to lead the play instead of coming up on it.&rdquo;Since Jan. 12, Housley&rsquo;s improved play has had a major impact on the team.After Winnipeg&rsquo;s 6-0 whitewash of the Quebec Nordiques Feb. 17&mdash;Housley had three points&mdash;the Jets bolted seven points ahead of Vancouver in the Smythe Division.They were 9-5-2 in the 16 games ending Feb. 17 and Housley had seven goals, 13 assists and was plus-14 during the stretch.With 19 goals and 60 points through Feb. 18, Housley was fifth among NHL defensemen in scoring.At his current pace, Housley will finish the season with 76 points, his third-best career total.He had 81 points last season for Buffalo, his best in the NHL. In 608 games for the Sabres over eight seasons, Housley had 178 goals and 558 points.Housley said he&rsquo;s finally comfortable with his new team and said the Jets are just finding a comfort zone.&ldquo;It seems when the team starts playing well and winning games, all those other individual things follow,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;To me, as a defenseman, plus-minus is an important stat.&ldquo;Sometimes you don&rsquo;t have control of your plus-minus, but I think if you look back 15-16 games ago, our team has really started to play well. But plus-minus statistics aren&rsquo;t as important to me as wins and losses.&rdquo;And Housley agreed leading the team in points was of secondary importance.&ldquo;If those things happen, they happen,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say I&rsquo;m not happy about it because I&rsquo;m very happy about it. But the bottom line is winning.&rdquo;<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 Arniel.RW&mdash;Pat Elynuik, Paul MacDermid, Danton Cole, Mark Kumpel, Gord Donnelly.LD&mdash;Randy Carlyle, Shawn Cronin, Bryan March-ment.RD&mdash;Phil Housley, Teppo Numminen, Fredrik Olausson, Moe Mantha.G&mdash;Bob Essensa, Rick Tabaracci.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Elynuik, 26. A&mdash;Housley, 41. P&mdash;Housley, 60. PIM&mdash;Donnellv, 170. &#9632;

HOUSLEY FUELS DRIVE TO FOURTH

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>And down the Smythe Division stretch they come&hellip;With 21 games remaining in the regular season, the Los Angeles Kings were bucking history by hanging onto a three-point lead over the Calgary Flames.The Kings, who entered the league in 1967, have never won a division title.In fact, not since Feb. 21, 1981, during their final stint in the Norris, had the Kings been in first place this late in a season; they wound up with 99 points in 1980-81, but finished second to Montreal.The &rsquo;67-68 expansion team was in first place in the old Western Conference as late as March 26, 1968, but finished behind Philadelphia.That&rsquo;s why, despite a 5-4 overtime loss to Boston Feb. 16 that dropped the present team&rsquo;s record to 32-20-7, the Kings were so excited about the final six weeks of the season.&ldquo;We feel we can play with everybody in the league,&rdquo; Dave Taylor said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had success against Chicago, Calgary, Edmonton and 8. Louis, and we&rsquo;ve hung tough with Boston. I think these are going to be the top teams in the league once the playoffs roll around. If we&rsquo;re healthy, we can play with all of them.&rdquo;For the record, the Kings were 2-00 against the Blackhawks, 2-2-1 against the Flames, 3-2-1 against the Oilers and 1-1-1 against the Blues.They lost two of three meetings to the Bruins, but could have won the final regular-season matchup if not for some splendid work by goaltender Reggie Lemelin.Perhaps the performance against a Boston team gutted with injuries wasn&rsquo;t a true litmus test for the Kings, who also had the advantage of playing at home.But the Kings were coming off two big divisional games (a 4-4 tie with Calgary Feb. 12 and a 4-2 win in Edmonton Feb. 14) that left them a bit emotionally spent, and the Bruins do own the NHL&rsquo;s best record.If nothing else, the game gave them a general idea as to how they stack up with the league&rsquo;s elite.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re on the edge,&rdquo; Wayne Gretzky said. &ldquo;How wide is that edge? We can only find out during the playoffs.&rdquo;Coach Tom Webster used a cliche&mdash;&ldquo;We have to rise to the occasion every time we play&rdquo;&mdash;to explain what the Kings must do if they are going to win the Smythe and avoid the prospect of meeting both Calgary and Edmonton in the playoffs for the third successive spring.&ldquo;Sure, in a sense the Boston game was like a playoff game,&rdquo; Webster said. &ldquo;You could say the same thing about the Calgary and Edmonton games. But that&rsquo;s how it&rsquo;s going to be for the rest of the season. We&rsquo;re going to have to be prepared for it.&rdquo;For the first time since arriving in Los Angeles in 1988, Gretzky senses a championship-type spirit in the dressing room.&ldquo;For too many years the goal was just to make the playoffs,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But that doesn&rsquo;t cut it anymore. We have good blood in here now. Good blood spreads.&rdquo;Said Steve Duchesne: &ldquo;When we lose now, we get mad. We feel like hell when that happens. There&rsquo;s a different spirit here.&rdquo;<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Todd Elik, Steve Kasper, John McIntyreLW&mdash;Tony Granato, Luc Robitaille, Mike Donnelly, John Tonelli, Scott Bjugstad.RW&mdash;Tomas Sandstrom, Dave Taylor, Bob Kudelski, Jay Miller, Brad Jones.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>INJURIES</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. 80. P&mdash; Gretzky. 113. PIM&mdash;McSorley, 171. &#9632;

INITIAL FIRST-PLACE FINISH REMAINS IN SIGHT

Justin Healy knows how to score goals.The 4-foot-9, 85-pound forward from Hamilton, Ont., is one of the leading goal scorers on the two teams he plays for&mdash;the Mount Hamilton Optomist Blues atom selects and the Mount Hamilton Minor Hockey Association Kings.The 10-year-old sharpshooter had 110 goals and 155 points through Feb. 3.Justin recorded a personal milestone earlier this season, scoring his 500th career goal Dec. 8. He has scored 100 or more goals his past four seasons.One of the highlights of Justin&rsquo;s career occurred Jan. 31, when he took part in a minor hockey shootout at a Hamilton Dukes-London Knights (Ontario League) game.An avid hockey fan, Justin enjoys watching hockey on TV. His favorite player is Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01282/5843668-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="558" height="1022"><figcaption class="caption-body">Justin Healy</figcaption></div>You or someone you Know can part be the JOFA-TITAN Minor Hockey Showcase. Just send a photograph (non-returnable), along with biographical information (age. height, weight, team, coach&rsquo;s name, school and grade, as well as favorite NHL team and player) to JOFA-TITAN SHOWCASE, c/o The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd&hellip;Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. All entries submitted will be eligible for selection as THN/JOFA-TITAN Minor Hockey Player of the Year &#9632;

f0042-01

PLAYER OF WEEK JOFA TITAN

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>He played for three teams this season and found himself on four different NHL rosters, something that could give a guy a complex if he let it.Paul Fenton didn&rsquo;t. Which may explain why a player traded by a fourthplace team to a fifth-place team to another fifth-place team has found a home on the second-place Calgary Flames.Fenton joined the Flames in a Jan. 25 trade with the Washington Capitals and gives them the same qualities injured left winger Colin Patterson provided when he was healthy. Like Patterson, Fenton can play all three forward positions. He can kill penalties and even score a goal here and there. The Flames like him for his versatility and they like him for his attitude.Maybe it&rsquo;s just a coincidence, but in Fenton&rsquo;s first 10 games with the team, the Flames&rsquo; penalty killing was pretty respectable, giving up only five goals on 38 attempts (86.9 per cent.)Unlike some teams he has played for, the Flames play an aggressive, &ldquo;chase&rdquo; style of penalty killing.&ldquo;I like it,&rdquo; said Fenton. &ldquo;I like to play aggressive.&rdquo;Fenton learned early on the classic, passive &ldquo;penalty killing box&rdquo; doesn&rsquo;t work against teams with an overpowering shooter.&ldquo;Stand back and make them come through the box? We used to try that against Calgary,&rdquo; said Fenton. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t work when you&rsquo;ve got somebody like Al Maclnnis shooting the puck the way he does. Around the league, there&rsquo;s a lot of good shooters. Buffalo is No. 1 overall and they&rsquo;re so aggressive.&rdquo;In two previous Smythe Division stops&mdash;first the Los Angeles Kings, then the Winnipeg Jets&mdash;Fenton remembered that balanced scoring set them apart from other NHL teams. When they were at their best, from night to night, you&rsquo;d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the first line and the fourth.It took Fenton until his 10th game with the Flames to finally connect, scoring twice in Calgary&rsquo;s 7-4 win over the St. Louis Blues Feb. 17. That gave him 11 goals and 26 points in 57 games this season.When Fenton checked into town, the consensus was pretty much that his 32 goals of a year ago represented a career season, one that he would never repeat. Coach Doug Risebrough disputes that. Risebrough would love to see Fenton push for more offense.&ldquo;He has added a competitive element to the team,&rdquo; said Risebrough. &ldquo;He added another dimension by putting the puck in the net. We&rsquo;d like to see him score because I think he has that ability. We&rsquo;ve moved him around a bit and put him in a defensive role, so I don&rsquo;t know if he&rsquo;s really had a chance to show how productive he can be.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Nieuwendyk. Doug Gilmour. Joel Otto, Robert Reichei.LW&mdash;Gary Roberts. Stephane Matteau. Paul Fenton. Brian MacLellan.RW&mdash;Theo Fleury. Sergei Makarov, Mark Hunter, Tim Hunter, Sergei Pnakin.LD&mdash;Gary Suter, Jamie Macoun, Frank Musil.RD&mdash;Al Maclnnis, Jim Kyte. Ric Nattress. Roger Johansson.G&mdash;Mwe Vernon, Rick Wamsley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dana Murzyn, D sore shoulder, day-to-day. Colin Patterson. LW. reconstructive knee surgery, indefinite. Paul Ranheim. LW, broken ankle, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Nieuwendyk, Fleury, 30 A&mdash; Maclnnis, 51. P&mdash;Maclnnis. 72. PIM&mdash; Roberts, 181. &#9632;

LOOKS LIKE THIRD TEAM’S THE CHARM FOR FENTON

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>How could something so good go so bad so fast?That&rsquo;s what the Edmonton Oilers, who had been the hottest NHL team since Christmas, were asking themselves as February&rsquo;s deep freeze wore on.Having lost six of their past seven games through Feb. 17, the Oilers had dropped to the. 500 mark (28-28-3), falling 12 points back of Smythe Division-leading Los Angeles Kings.And considering the Calgary Flames play 17 of their last 23 games in the friendly confines of the Saddledome, the Oilers seem all but certain to finish third. That is, if they can hold off the quietly-creeping-up Winnipeg Jets.As was the case when the Oilers dug themselves a 2-11-2 hole early in the season, their offense had once again disappeared. In the last three games of their six-losses-in-seven span, the Oilers averaged two goals a game, including a 3-2 defeat to the Maple Leafs in Toronto Feb. 16.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the same old story,&rdquo; said Oilers&rsquo; coach John Muckier. &ldquo;We keep playing from behind. In Washington (a 6-3 loss Feb. 8), we were down 4-1 and we fell behind 2-0 to St. Louis (4-2 loss Feb. 12) and Los Angeles (4-2 loss Feb. 14) at home. We go to Toronto and fall behind 3-0.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not scoring enough goals and we&rsquo;re giving the puck up. We want to play about six feet inside the other team&rsquo;s blue line and turn the puck over.&rdquo;The Oilers&rsquo; state of disarray began when they blew a 4-1 lead Feb. 5 in Boston and lost 6-5 in overtime.&ldquo;The fact is&mdash;and it&rsquo;s no excuse&mdash;-our club is tired,&rdquo; said Muckier. &ldquo;I know that and the players do, too. But, it&rsquo;s something that goes with the territory.&rdquo;The club won&rsquo;t get much chance to rest in the closing stages of the season as they play their final 21 games in 42 days.&ldquo;No rest for the wicked&hellip;and we&rsquo;ve definitely been that,&rdquo; said assistant coach Ron Low.There are also individual circumstances to consider:&#9632; Captain Mark Messier had two goals and six assists in his eight games through Feb. 17, leading to speculation that contract renegotiation talks that have stalled are beginning to affect the 30-year-old&rsquo;s performance.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to do it offensively if we&rsquo;re going to be successful,&rdquo; said Messier.&#9632; EsaTikkanen, who led the Oilers with 52 points in 59 games, was on an 11-game goal-less drought and had one assist in six contests. To make matters worse, Tikkanen suffered a bruise on his left calf after being struck by a Gary Leeman shot and didn&rsquo;t play the last 40 minutes in Toronto.&#9632; Veteran Ken Linseman was showing the wear and tear of a little man playing bigger than he is. At age 32, it&rsquo;s apparent he can&rsquo;t play every night.&#9632; Another 32-year-old has shown remarkable durability over the years, but Muckier also feels Craig MacTavish is becoming worn down.&#9632; X-rays on Craig Muni&rsquo;s thumb and Jeff Beukeboom&rsquo;s ankle were negative, but both were still sore.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 17: Grant Fuhr, G, recalled from Cape Breton (AHL). Feb. 18: Eldon Reddick. G. assigned to Cape Breton. Norm Maclver, D, recalled from Cape Breton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier, Craig MacTavish, Ken Linseman, Esa Tikkanen. Mark Lamb.LW&mdash;Craig Simpson, Petr Klima. Martin Gelinas, Adam Graves. Kelly Buchberger.RW&mdash;Glenn Anderson, Joe Murphy, Dave Brown, Anatoli Semenov.LD&mdash;Kevin Lowe, Steve Smith, Norm Maclver.RD&mdash;Craig Muni. Jeff Beukeboom, Chris Joseph.G&mdash;Bill Ranford, Grant Fuhr, Kari Takko.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Geoff Smith, D, pulled back muscle, day-to-day. Charlie Huddy D, possible fractured toe, day-to-day<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Klima, 28 A&mdash;Messier. 41. P&mdash; Tikkanen. 52. PIM&mdash;S. Smith. 159. &#9632;

FATIGUE FACTOR FIGURES INTO SLUMP

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01291/5843747-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="361" height="603"></div>Recently, The Hockey News listed 30 players who might be invited to the Team Canada training camp in early August.Included in the list were all the players who make this event such a spectacle, and the names all made sense. But at the risk of telling Mike Keenan how to do his job&mdash;and let&rsquo;s face it that&rsquo;s half the fun of the Canada Cup&mdash;there might be one addition. His name is Trevor Linden.Now it&rsquo;s certainly true it&rsquo;s crowded on right wing with the likes of Cam Neely, Rich Tocchet, John MacLean, Steve Larmer, Theoren Fleury and Mark Recchi. It would take Floyd Smith, Gerry McNamara and Jack Gordon a full year combined to trade away this much talent. And it&rsquo;s especially clogged in light of the fact Mario Lemieux may switch to the right side if he is to work with Wayne Gretzky again. But a moment, here to lobby for Mr. Linden.For starters, the kid really wants to play, which given these days of long playoffs and short summers is a plus right from the outset.&ldquo;Of course I&rsquo;d love to play,&rdquo; says Linden, who grew up watching the games on the prairies. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something you always dream about. Of course that&rsquo;s not what I&rsquo;m concerned about right now, but when the time comes, I&rsquo;d like to give it a shot.&rdquo;Given that the Canucks always end play before April, he will most certainly be fresh, having had a full four months break away from the game before the August training camp. And there is ample evidence to suggest he is really a much better player than his statistics would indicate.First, as he showed by making the final four in the fastest skater contest at the All-Star Game, he has more than enough speed to play with the great skaters of the international game. He&rsquo;s big enough to give &ldquo;huge&rdquo; lessons and he loves to hit, an element which has always given Canada a leg up on the Europeans. Further, his disposition to hit and forget about the nonsense confrontations that follow is helpful on the international stage. Stupid penalties are not a problem.It&rsquo;s true he only had 24 goals in 59 games and he was a considerable minus (minus-23) with the Canucks, but there are circumstances slightly more than mitigating.First, his center is Dan Quinn, who at minus-31 seems to have trouble in a lot of places. And with the riverboat gamblers on the blue line you&rsquo;ll see more of Elvis than a plus player in Vancouver.Linden&rsquo;s had a &lsquo;C&rsquo; pinned to his jersey for much of this season of woe which has given him the feeling shared by the skippers of the Titanic and the Exxon Valdez. And as former coach Bob McCammon said before going to a rotating captaincy among Linden, Quinn and Doug Lids-ter: &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t want to give it to Trevor by himself yet. It would weigh like a manhole cover if we did.&rdquo;&ldquo;It (this season) has been so frustrating at times I don&rsquo;t know what to do with myself,&rdquo; said Linden, who now has some idea of how former captain Stan Smyl gnashed his teeth for years. &ldquo;I do think Pat (Quinn, Canucks&rsquo; coach and general manager) is going about it the right way though. I think you&rsquo;ll see some progress.&rdquo;There have been nights when Linden has singlehandedly lifted the Canucks, dominating play every time he has been on the ice. He has been so effective, the Oilers seem to have taken the position that if you stop Linden, the game is over. Therefore Steve Smith, Jeff Beukeboom and Dave Brown have all left calling cards in the physical games between these teams.This is not to say that Linden should make Team Canada. In fact, it&rsquo;s quite likely he won&rsquo;t, given the competition and his relative inexperience. But if he&rsquo;s exposed to a Keenan training camp and some exhibition games at this level this year, it stands to reason in three years he&rsquo;s going to be that much better when he&rsquo;s a favorite to nail down a spot. Surely that&rsquo;s the only reason Eric Lindros is being invited to the training camp.There is also the possibility that Linden could be helped by playing with a center who is not in a coma; playing on a team with an ambition greater than survival; and, enjoying less than the usual Vancouver jet lag.At Canada Cup time, of course, the players are motivated by a lot of factors, money generally not one of them. But in the case of Linden, there could exist a parallel motive in that he is one of the lowest-paid players in the NHL, making nowhere near what he should be. It would be absurd to suggest this might be a key motive, but it couldn&rsquo;t hurt.It&rsquo;s likely Keenan would like to look at a lot more players than will be invited to training camp. But Linden is most assuredly one worth checking out.Tony Gallagher is a columnist with the Vancouver Province and hosts a sports talk show on the Satellite Radio Network in Western Canada. &#9632;

f0043-01

CANUCK WORTHY OF CANADA CUP INVITE

The unusual names of Detroit&rsquo;s Steve Yzerman and Paul Ysebaert bring to mind other unique name combinations from the past. The NHL has had two Greg Adams, two Bob Murdochs, two Bob Murrays and two Rob Palmers. But perhaps the strangest entry is Edwards. There have been four&mdash;Don. Gary, Marv and Roy&mdash;and all were goaltenders.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02217/5843778-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="563" height="430"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Edwards</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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ODDITIES

Boston Bruins&rsquo; defenseman Ray Bourque scored a power-play goal in the first period of a 5-3 win over Chicago Feb. 9 to become the fifth defenseman in NHL history to record 900 career points. Bourque trails Denis Potvin (1,052), Paul Coffey (1,027), Larry Robinson (937) and Bobby Orr (915) on the all-time points list for defenseman.<h2>LEMIEUX HITS MARK</h2>Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; center Mario Lemieux recorded his 500th NHL assist in a 7-5 loss to Edmonton Feb. 11. Lemieux reached the mark in his 433rd game. Only one player, Los Angeles center Wayne Gretzky, has recorded 500 assists in fewer games. Gretzky reached 500 after 352 games. The top six players to record 500 assists in the fewest number of games; Gretzky (352); Lemieux (433); Peter Stastny (507); Bobby Orr (522); Denis Savard (563); and Paul Coffey (566).<h2>THIRTYSOMETHING</h2>New York Rangers&rsquo; right winger Mike Gartner and Los Angeles center Wayne Gretzky have each reached the 30-goal mark for the 12th straight season. Gretzky scored his 30th goal Jan. 26 in a 5-4 win over Vancouver. Gartner scored his 30th goal Feb. 8 in an 8-1 win over the Canucks. Gretzky and Gartner join Marcel Dionne for the second longest streak in league history, behind Bobby Hull and Phil Esposito (13 seasons).<h2>PAYING DIVIDENDS</h2>Through Feb. 18, 34 NHL trades had been made since Oct. 4. And of the 65 players changing teams, (excluding goaltenders), 38 have improved their offensive totals. The top five players (80-game projection) after trades (minimum 10 games with each team, initial team listed first): Vancouver&rsquo;s Tom Kurvers, 13 (Tor.), 69 (Van.), plus-55; Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Jiri Hrdina, 17 (Cgy.), 59 (Pgh.), plus-42; Hartford&rsquo;s Rob Brown, 51 (Pgh.), 93 (Hfd.), plus-42; Quebec&rsquo;s Scott Pearson, 0 (Tor.), 27 (Que.), plus-27; and Toronto&rsquo;s Lucien DeBlois, 23 (Que.), 48 (Tor.), plus-25.<h2>COOLING DOWN</h2>The players with the greatest offensive letdowns after this season&rsquo;s trades (initial team listed first); New Jersey&rsquo;s Lee Norwood, 38 (Det.), 15 (N.J.), minus-23; Toronto&rsquo;s Dave Ellett, 52 (Wpg.), 39 (Tor.), minus-13; Toronto&rsquo;s Brian Bradley, 56 (Van.), 43 (Tor.), minus-13; Toronto&rsquo;s Michel Petit, 46 (Que.), 34 (Tor.), minus-12; and Detroit&rsquo;s Paul Ysebaert, 51 (N.J.), 43 (Det.), minus-8.<h2>FLIPPIN&rsquo; MAGICIAN</h2>Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Larry Murphy sports one of the deadliest weapons in the NHL&mdash;the flip shot. Murphy will flip the puck as high as he can from center ice into the opposition&rsquo;s zone, hoping it bounces on the stick of a rushing teammate. It worked effectively in the Penguins&rsquo; 5-2 win over the New York Islanders Feb. 14, as his flip shot landed right on John Cullen&rsquo;s stick. Cullen promptly banged home the winning goal. &ldquo;I know Murph does it all the time,&rdquo; Cullen said. A dejected Islander goalie Glenn Healy said, &ldquo;When a guy chips a puck that high, it&rsquo;s bound to do crazy things.&rdquo;<h2>QUESTION OF THE WEEK:</h2>The New York Rangers have alternated John Vanbiesbrouck and Mike Richter in goal this season. What are their plans for the playoffs?&ldquo;If the playoffs started right now, we&rsquo;d just keep alternating,&rdquo; said Rangers&rsquo; coach Roger Neilson &ldquo;So far, they&rsquo;ve both played pretty well. And in the playoffs to have a fresh goaltender could be a definite advantage.&rdquo; &#9632;

BOURQUE JOINS ELITE 900 CLUB

&#9632; Good players, bad teams. We&rsquo;ll give some of the best U.S. college players languishing on struggling clubs a few minutes in the spotlight.&#9632; Spokane&rsquo;s Ray Whitney came out of near obscurity to grab the Western League scoring lead. We&rsquo;ll take a look at the diminutive center, who has been player of the month for the past two months in the WHL.&#9632; Pheonix Roadrunner Brian Lawton has seen a lot in his travels in the NHL. This year, his first full season in the minors, he&rsquo;s having his best statistical season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03183/5843833-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="549" height="642"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Lawton</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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March 1, 1991

MARTIN AT THE HELM FOR ADMIRALS

THEN & NOW

CLARIFYING DRAFT IN ZIEGLER’S HANDS

WRITERS MAKE FLURRY OF TRADES AT DEADUNE