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

May 3, 1991

The Hockey News May 3, 1991

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE FISH</div>It happened March 13, one of the few nights that month when the Philadelphia Flyers experienced good luck.Having already lost four straight games on a disastrous road trip, the Flyers trailed the Vancouver Canucks going into the third period.But somehow, the Flyers managed to cap off a rally from a 4-1 second-period deficit and send the game into overtime. At this point, just one point would stop the bleeding in the Flyers&rsquo; war with New Jersey and Washington for a playoff spot.Then an odd thing happened. A penalty was called in overtime and Flyers&rsquo; rookie defenseman Murray Baron spotted a hole and went for it. He scored, putting a temporary halt to the tailspin that would eventually drop the team to fifth place.Baron turned out to be one of the Flyers&rsquo; few bright spots this year. He notched a career-high eight goals in 67 games and was an improved twoway player during the second half of the season.&ldquo;Murray has all the raw skills you would want in a young defenseman,&rdquo; said assistant coach Craig Hartsbur a former all-star defenseman with the Minnesota North Stars.Coming up to the Flyers late in th 1989-90 season helped. He played 16 games, got his skates wet and even scored a couple goals.Baron played a little tentatively at times last fall but Hartsburg taught him to believe in himself.&ldquo;Before, when I went over the red line, I tended to rush things a lot more. I didn&rsquo;t think I had a lot of time to make a play, but I had a lot more time than I thought. It worked out well and I got a few goals down the stretch.&rdquo;With Mark Howe sidelined most of the year with back surgery, players like Baron and Gord Murphy had to pick up the slack in the rushing-the-puck department.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>April 19: Murray Craven, C, named to Canadian team for World Championships. &#9632;

THE NHL

PHYSICAL BARON SOARS IN FIRST FULL SEASON

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021201/5917878-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

ELSTON

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011089/5918659-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="466" height="619"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE MOLINARI</figcaption></div>A lot of people might look at Paul Coffey and decide that not only is the world his oyster, but he has been invited to go back for as many extra helpings as he would like.That&rsquo;s not exactly true. Get past his dropdead good looks, seven-figure salary and extraordinary natural abilities, and he&rsquo;s no different than the rest of us. Not much, anyway.Coffey has parlayed high-performance genes and hard work into three Stanley Cup rings, a couple of Norris Trophies and a lifestyle Robin Leach would need a solid hour to chronicle. He winters in hockey rinks around North America, summers at his cottage on a lake in Ontario.Coffey truly is a fortunate man, and he can see that. Which is part of the reason he feels so lucky. There was a time recently when Coffey feared the price for his way of life might be his left eye.Viacheslav Fetisov whacked Coffey in the eye with his stick during Game 4 of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s first-round series against New Jersey. Coffey dropped to the ice for a few minutes, then sat and opened his eye. He might as well have kept it closed. It was about 30 minutes before any hint of vision returned to that eye.&ldquo;If you shut your eye and make it as blurry as you can, that&rsquo;s what I could start seeing,&rdquo; Coffey said. &ldquo;Plus darkness.&rdquo;Eye specialists diagnosed his condition as a scratched cornea with bleeding behind the retina, and forbade Coffey to fly to New Jersey for Game 6 of the series for fear of additional damage. But he stunned everyone by dressing for Game 7 about five hours after the doctors gave him clearance to play, and scored a goal in Pittsburgh&rsquo;s 4-0 victory.Coffey wore a visor to protect his eye that night, and kept it on for the start of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s second-round series against Washington. It didn&rsquo;t help much when he made a face save on Dimitri Khristich during Game 1.Coffey got a hairline fracture in his jaw and, after taking an elbow from Dale Hunter that compounded the injury in Game 2, had to undergo surgery that will sideline him indefinitely.That was the word from Penguins&rsquo; general manager Craig Patrick who, apparently stung by criticism the Penguins had been less than forthright about Coffey&rsquo;s eye condition, had taken a bold step early in the second round to prevent any future misunderstandings: He decided to avoid any mention of injuries.All references to them vanished from notes distributed to media members before games and Pittsburgh coach Bob Johnson said he could not discuss injuries at the behest of &ldquo;my boss,&rdquo; Patrick.Even though most people figured Pittsburgh&rsquo;s second-round opponent was Washington&mdash;heck, all the TV listings had it that way&mdash;Penguins&rsquo; management had isolated the always-dangerous Team Typewriter as a primary foe. Thank goodness someone finally took a stand against those &ldquo;media jackals,&rdquo; as the Pittsburgh press corps once was characterized elsewhere on these pages.Never mind that the Penguins listed Coffey as &ldquo;day-to-day&rdquo; almost from the instant he injured his eye, even though Coffey said the prognosis all along had been for him to be out 1-2 weeks. Or that the Penguins were content to perpetuate the widely held, mistaken belief that nothing shy of a trip to Lourdes could have Coffey ready to play in Game 7 against New Jersey.Besides, acting as if injuries aren&rsquo;t one of hockey&rsquo;s realities is a terrific concept. Imagine the possibilities if this idea catches on and is applied to other areas.Every team could claim to be Stanley Cup champion every year, just by pretending its losses didn&rsquo;t happen. Bearing in mind, of course, that most defeats are fabrications concocted by the media, with covert assistance from scoreboard operators.When Coffey returns, it&rsquo;s safe to assume he will be wearing his visor. He vows he will not abandon it, now or ever, and wouldn&rsquo;t mind if the league made them mandatory.&ldquo;If I was stupid enough to go out there without a mask now and I got hit, it would be my fault,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;A serves-you-right-type of thing. I don&rsquo;t think it (mandatory use) would be a bad idea, but when you get into your 20s, you&rsquo;re supposedly an adult and should be able to make decisions by yourself.&rdquo;Coffey&rsquo;s decision was easy. He made it while wondering if his eye would ever work again.&ldquo;It was too scary,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;For two days, things run through your head, that your career will be over&hellip;I&rsquo;m 29-years-old. 1 plan on being around a little longer, hockey-wise and lifewise.&rdquo;Dave Molinari covers the Penguins for the Pittsburgh Press. &#9632;

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COLUMNS

INJURY REPORTS VANISH IN PITTSBURGH

If the Edmonton Oilers want to avoid overtime and prevent burnout, maybe they should think about scoring a power-play goal or two.The Oilers&rsquo; 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings in Game 2 of the Smythe Division final April 20 was the fourth straight time they&rsquo;ve gone into overtime. Part of the reason why is because they couldn&rsquo;t capitalize on Kings&rsquo; penalties.Los Angeles had not allowed a power play since Game 5 against the Vancouver Canucks April 12.TEAMS POWER PLAY / PENALTY KILLING TIME FRAMEGAMES PLAYED THROUGH 4/21/91The accrued time since was 30 minutes, 29 seconds of consecutive power-play time killed.As a result, the Kings vaulted from 11 th to fourth place in our playoff penalty killing ranking. These special team statistics consider how long it takes a team to score, or surrender, a power-play goal.Los Angeles improved its average time to 11:16, behind only the New York Rangers and Detroit (both eliminated) and St. Louis. The NHL average is 8:42.<h2>POWER PLAY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0989/5919370-1-eng-US/f0029-092.jpg" title="f0029-09" width="546" height="533"></div><h2>HOT SEAT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1081/5919363-1-eng-US/f0029-102.jpg" title="f0029-10" width="541" height="468"></div>Minimum 4 games playedThe hot seat average is arrived at by dividing power-play time faced, by power-play goals allowed.<h2>PENALTY KILLING</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1176/5919356-1-eng-US/f0029-112.jpg" title="f0029-11" width="538" height="645"></div>GP: games playedAverage time for/against: average time to score&middot; allow a power-play goal.<h2>EGA LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1269/5919349-1-eng-US/f0029-122.jpg" title="f0029-12" width="545" height="445"></div>Minimum four games playedThe earned goal average is arrived at by dividing even-strength time, by even-strength goals.Statistics copyright Anthony Puma. Moriches. N.Y., I991 Patent pending. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

POWER-PLAY GOALS COST KINGS’ RANSOM

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01878/5919793-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"></div>EMPLOYMENT SEASON OPENS IN NHL CITIES - PAGE 5EXPOSING THE FALLACY OF EUROPEAN VACATIONS - PAGE 13BASH BROTHERS STEVENS AND BUTCHER LEAD ST. LOUIS&rsquo; TITLE QUEST - PAGE 8THN&rsquo;s COMEBACK PLAYERS PAGE 6 &#9632;

Cover-01

BLUE BOMBERS

<h2>QUOTABLE</h2>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just one more city where they don&rsquo;t like me. &ldquo;&mdash;Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; hipcheck specialist Craig Muni, on the negative reaction following his crunching checks on L.A.&rsquo;s Tomas Sandstrom and Bob Kudelski. Page 10.&ldquo;After playing in an emotional series like we did against Edmonton. I just wanted to get away for a day and do some thinking. So I went up to my farm and took my frustrations out on a few gophers. &ldquo;&mdash;Calgary Flames&rsquo; goaltender Mike Vernon, on his off-ice antics after losing the Smythe Division semifinal to Edmonton. Page 11. &#9632;

THIS WEEK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011316/5917792-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="520" height="608"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOB MCKENZIE</figcaption></div>The Stanley Cup playoffs, like life itself, are a cosmic carnival. But wouldn&rsquo;t it be comforting to know what laws govern our hockey universe?Alas, the search for rhyme and reason is an elusive one.There are those who would have you believe that the outcome of a playoff series is determined solely by what transpires between the boards.The Calgary Flames, for example, would tell you that they were not beaten by hocus pocus, bad karma or tradition. That Esa Tikkanen has no magical powers beyond being in the right place at the right time and being able to drift a seeing-eye shot past Mike Vernon in a deciding game that could have gone either way.And the New York Rangers, bless their losing souls, will insist that a first-round exit at the hands of the Washington Capitals has nothing to do with 51 years of futility.I want to believe all that.But I&rsquo;m not so sure. And I don&rsquo;t think anyone else out there is either.Winners win and losers lose. It&rsquo;s a seemingly obvious, and perhaps idiotic, catch phrase for the playoffs that, to some extent anyway, transcends the game.The Buffalo Sabres were not going to beat the Montreal Canadiens in the first round this year. Any more than the Hartford Whalers were going to beat the Boston Bruins. There were times in both series when it looked as though the reverse may occur, but it just wasn&rsquo;t to be.You may argue that it&rsquo;s unreasonable to expect Buffalo or Hartford to win because Montreal and Boston are the better teams. Granted. You may also argue that one day Buffalo or Hartford will win a series against Montreal or Boston. Perhaps.But until it does, I&rsquo;m not prepared to believe that it will. And the longer the Sabres and Whalers go without beating the Habs or Bruins, the more difficult it becomes.The Bruins who lost 18 consecutive series over a 45-year span will tell you differently. But I believe doubt creeps into the minds of those who so often find themselves on the losing end. Ghosts? You tell me.&ldquo;First, the reason the Canadiens beat the Bruins in most of those years was because they were the best team,&rdquo; admits ex-Montreal netminder Ken Dryden. &ldquo;The only time we (the Habs) should have lost was in 1971. Still, you would have thought the occasional loss, just on the law of averages, would have been suffered in that span.&rdquo;Dryden, of course, was a factor in 1971. He arrived, seemingly out of nowhere, to shut down Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and the Bruins.But Dryden, a hockey philosopher of some note, acknowledges there is a game being played on a higher plane.&ldquo;It almost becomes tangible,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There is a sense of irresistable destiny. When it is in your favor, no matter how dire the situation, you never panic. You never feel as though you are in trouble. You have done it before; you will do it again.&rdquo;Dryden, of course, has defined the essence of the Edmonton Oilers. For lack of a better term, we call their incredible ability &ldquo;knowing how to win.&rdquo;Beyond that, it is inexplicable.Heading into this year&rsquo;s playoffs, the Oilers have lost only two games of consequence in the last seven years. One was against Calgary, the night Steve Smith banked a puck in off Grant Fuhr in 1986, and the other was against the Wayne Gretzkyled Los Angeles Kings in 1989. In each instance, the circumstances were extraordinary, no?As doubt creeps into the minds of chronic losers, confidence pervades the psyche of nearconstant winners.&ldquo;There is undoubtedly a critical moment in a game or in a series when things begin unravelling,&rdquo; says Dryden. &ldquo;The winner has been there before and endured it. It doesn&rsquo;t faze him. The loser thinks of all those times before and the end result and caves in to it.&rdquo;Admittedly, there are the exceptions. If there weren&rsquo;t, Calgary would never have beaten Montreal in the 1989 Cup final. And the Bruins would still run and hide at the sight of the Habs.But make no mistake, something extraordinary is out there steering an irresistable force. And isn&rsquo;t it strange how destiny favors some over others?Bob McKenzie is editor-in-chief of The Hockey News. &#9632;

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DESTINY DOES FAVOR SOME OVER OTHERS

Michael Lawton PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHERBob McKenzie EDITOR-IN-CHIEFWendy Currie-Mills CONTROLLERBob Amesse MANAGING EDITORAssistant Editor: Dave Bean. Contributing Editors: Steve Dryden. Matt Nicholls. Editorial Staff: Brian Costello, Jason Kay, Rand Simon. Design Director: Bob Torrans. Photographer: Bruce Bennett. Production Manager: Brad Nussbaum. Production Co-ordinator: Charlie Halpin Research Manager: Chris Nagel. Marketing Manager: Esther Sumka. Circulation Manager: Tom Moffat. Advertising Representatives: Manager, Generic Advertising: Randy Green. Sales: David Burgess. Ontario Rep: Jack Fargey, McGown & Assoc., Inc. (416) 886-4141. Quebec/Ottawa/Atlantic Canada: Yvon Lacroix, Nik Reitz, McGown & Assoc. Inc., (514) 735-2924 Western Canada: Donna Fox, McGown & Assoc. Inc., (604) 688-5914. U.S. Rep: Michael Gribbin, Executive Publishing and Advertising Group, Inc., (301) 882-0050 Newsstand Distributor: Distributed nationally by Disticor. (416)496-8444. Advertising and Editorial Offices: 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2 (416) 445-5702. The Hockey News (ISSN 0018-3016) is published weekly except for the last week in December and published monthly June, July and August with an extra issue in September by Transcontinental Publications Inc. Single-copy price $2.50. Forty-three issue subscriptions includes 38 regular issues, plus four double issues: The Draft Preview (published in May). Awards Review (published in July), Season Preview (published in September) and Year in Photos (published in November) and, the annual THN Yearbook (published in August). Subscription rates in North America are $49.95 for 43 issue package. Canadian Second Class Postage permit 1327 paid in Toronto. Subscriptions to the U.K. and Europe: Publisher reserves the right to review and adjust rates on a quarterly basis. All current subscriptions to the U.K. and Europe will be honored for the duration of their current subscription term. Rates for new subscriptions and renewals are 114.95 pounds for Airmail, 87.95 pounds for surface and are effective February I, 1991. All European subscription requests and address changes should be sent to: Barker&rsquo;s Worldwide Publications. Marlborough Road. Woking. Surrey. GUZI 5JG. Phone/Fax: 0483 776141 Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office in the U.K. Foreign subscriptions outside Europe: Publisher reserves the right to adjust rates on a quarterly basis. All current subscriptions will be honored for the duration of ther current team Rates for new subscriptions and renewals are $262.20 for airmail, $205.20 for surface and are effective February 1, 1991. U.S. subscription requests and address changes should be mailed to Box 904. Buffalo NY 14240. Please allow two to four weeks for processing. All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to: Subscription Dept., The Hockey News. In the United States: Second-class postage (No. 0579-540) paid at Buffalo. NY 14240-9544. U.S Postmaster send address changes to The Hockey News. PO Box 904, Buffalo. NY 240. The Hockey News was co-foundcd in 1947 by Ken McKenzie and W.V. Cote. Cover photos: Scott Stevens. Garth Butcher. Brian Propp, Chris Chelios and Tom Barrasso by Bruce Bennett Studios. &#9632;

The Hockey News

Though a Chicago native, I took great pleasure in seeing the Stars oust the Hawks in the Norris semifinals.Tough, aggressive hockey is great&mdash;a stupid penalty stemming from a lack of control is not. The Hawks&rsquo; failure to control their borderline goon players led to the Stars&rsquo; triumph, which was also founded on sound defense, goaltending and the greatest intangible imparted by Bob Gainey: Discipline.Finally, let&rsquo;s set the record straight on the Chicago Stadium crowd. Loudness does not equal quality. Attending Hawk games all my life, I&rsquo;ve seen too much fan behavior which was unsportsmanlike and obnoxious.It was just as gratifying seeing those fans exit early in Game 5 as it was seeing the Hawks exit the series in Game 6.Alan Mirza Chaska, Minn.<h2>SMALL TALK</h2>Bravo to The Hockey News for recognizing hockey can be played effectively by players smaller than 6 feet and 200 pounds (THN, Did You Know, April 19).Just look around the pros as well as the college ranks. David Emma of Boston College (5-foot-9, 170) won the Hobey Baker Award. Scott Beattie of Northern Michigan (5-foot-7, 164) played &ldquo;big&rdquo; in leading the Wildcats to the NCAA title.Good hockey players with exceptional ability come in all shapes and sizes. And let&rsquo;s face it. Putting the puck (one inch by three inches) in the net (four feet tall) is what wins hockey games.Peter Benton Longmeadow, Mass.<h2>CRAIG BYNG</h2>The 1990-91 Official NHL Guide and Record Book defines the Lady Byng Trophy as &ldquo;an annual award to the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.&rdquo;Brett Hull won the award last season and is a leading contender to retain his title. Other top candidates, as featured in the March 8 issue of THN, are Wayne Gretzky and Pat LaFontaine.While these three players are all legitimate Lady Byng nominees, there is another player who never seems to get mention or even consideration for the award. Craig Janney has been displaying his vast offensive talents with Boston for the past three seasons and has never collected more than 12 PIM in a regular season (he had eight this year). Combined, these aspects must be deserving of something.Janney should receive more respect from both the NHL and THN, for he definitely deserves to at least be a candidate for the Lady Byng.Gordon Thompson Calgary, Alta.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011476/5917847-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="557" height="689"><figcaption class="caption-body">Eight-minute man Craig Janney rates Lady Byng consideration.</figcaption></div><h2>NEW IDEA</h2>After watching some exciting divisional semifinal playoff action and realizing that home-ice advantage really isn&rsquo;t, I&rsquo;ve come up with yet another suggestion to make the 80-game regular season a little more interesting.For the sake of keeping the cash flowing into owners&rsquo; pockets, 16 teams would still make the playoffs. The divisional semis and finals would consist of six-game series. (First would still play fourth and second would play third).The team with more points would have to win three games to clinch the series, while the team with fewer points would have to win four games. In effect, the team that finishes higher in the standings during the regular season would be given one win going into the divisional playoff series.The Stanley Cup semis and finals would be played as it is now. Just a thought.David Smail&nbsp; Pasadena, Md.<h2>GET TOUGH</h2>I believe the NHL has done a lot to eliminate brawling and goonery and that the league is moving back towards more skillful play. However, there is still room for improvement.More should be done to allow the skilled players to exhibit their skill and more should be done to eliminate mindless intimidation. Concentrating on fighting alone isn&rsquo;t the answer.I propose a graduated system of automatic suspensions for accumulated penalty minutes during the season:100 minutes&mdash;1 game150 minutes&mdash;2 games200 minutes&mdash;3 gamesPlayers could still play tough but clean hockey and the role of intimidators would be diminished.Donald Fraser Saskatoon, Sask.Make your feelings known. Send your comments to: Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2 or fax us at (416) 445-0753. Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

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JUST DESSERTS FOR HAWKS AND FANS

&#9632; Russ Courtnail. The dynamic speedster has given neutral fans of the BostonMontreal series a reason to stay tuned. The Canadiens&rsquo; right winger often fails to convert his end-to-end rushes but has made numerous converts of former non-believers. Ironic how the playoff&rsquo;s most boring series has produced the post-season&rsquo;s most exciting player.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03792/5917916-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="375" height="362"></div>&#9632; Frank Pietrangelo. In a little less than a year, the Penguins&rsquo; goalie has gone from third-string goalie with designs of playing in Italy to playoff hero. In Game 6 of the Pens&rsquo; series against New Jersey, he made one of the most amazing saves of the year, then stopped 27 Devil shots in the 4-0 Game 7 clincher.&#9632; Los Angeles. The city&rsquo;s great, the team is exciting and the fan support is encouraging. But someone has got to do something about L.A.&rsquo;s location&hellip;or more precisely its time zone. Granted this is purely an easterner&rsquo;s beef, but a lot of us are losing valuable sleep watching the overtime marathons, leading to a lot of caerless misatkes at the workplace.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04438/5917909-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="378" height="361"></div>&#9632; Jack Adams Award selection process. Because the voting for the Adams Award is conducted at the conclusion of the regular season, Edmonton&rsquo;s John Muckler and Minnesota&rsquo;s Bob Gainey likely didn&rsquo;t get any support as NHL coach of the year. Yet nobody has done a more commendable job of leading his team in the playoffs. &#9632;

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CHEERS JEERS

The Ottawa Senators moved a considerable step closer to franchisehood when they secured $10 million from an American company known for its arena management.New York-based Ogden Allied Services Corp., which operates the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles and the Capital Centre in Landover, Md., became the largest investor in the Senators April 18 when it committed nearly half of the $22.5 million the conditional club must pay the NHL in June. The Senators have been scrambling for financial help, offering shares at reduced rates to the public.For its money, Ogden receives a 20-year contract to sell beer, hot dogs and souvenirs at the Senators&rsquo; temporary home, the Civic Centre, and then the Palladium when the club takes occupancy. Ogden will also act as arena manager at the Palladium and will promote all events held there, but will not be a shareholder in the hockey team or the Palladium.Criticism that an American company is the major investor for a team situated in Canada&rsquo;s capital is unwar-ranted, said Senators&rsquo; president Jim Durrell.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re going to employ local people and that&rsquo;s all that really matters,&rdquo; said Durrell. &ldquo;What John and Mary Dokes care about here is that they have a job. They don&rsquo;t care where their paycheques come from.&rdquo;<h2>SPEAKING OUT</h2>Talk may be cheap, but you&rsquo;d have a hard time convincing Tom Watt.For the second time this season, the Toronto Maple Leaf coach was fined by the NHL for comments regarding the performance of its referees. Watt was slapped with a $6,000 fine and the team levied a $3,500 fine for his verbal attack on Kerry Fraser after a game against Los Angeles March 20.In the game, Leaf center Tom Fergus was the recipient of a crunching, but clean check delivered by Dave Taylor. No penalty was called.Watt said the hit was a deliberate attempt to injure, and was particularly steamed when Fraser called penalties against Toronto. The Kings capitalized to erase a 4-1 deficit and forged a 4-4 tie.Earlier this season, Watt questioned the integrity of referee Terry Gregson, suggesting the veteran official might be biased when he&rsquo;s assigned to games involving the Calgary Flames.Gregson is the brother-in-law of Calgary coach Doug Risebrough.<h2>A FIRST</h2>Calgary Flames&rsquo; defenseman Frank Musil became the first player who defected from Czechoslovakia under the former communist regime to play for his country&rsquo;s national team.Musil joined Czechoslovakia for the World Championships in Finland after the Calgary Flames were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.&ldquo;I want to play in the Canada Cup for Czechoslovakia really bad, so I have to participate in the World Championships,&rdquo; said Musil. &ldquo;I want to go over there and make a statement.&ldquo;I want them to know when I left that I didn&rsquo;t have a problem with the political system, I just wanted to pursue a career in the NHL. &ldquo;<h2>DILLER FIRED</h2>Jack Diller, president of the New York Rangers since 1989, was fired by the club April 22 on the basis of the Rangers&rsquo; playoff performance.&ldquo;A change at the top was necessary to bring a new approach to the management of the team,&rdquo; said Richard Evans, Madison Square Garden president and CEO. &ldquo;The Rangers have one goal and that is to win a Stanley Cup. This year&rsquo;s performance in the playoffs was unacceptable.&rdquo;Evans said Neil Smith would continue as vice-president and general manager of the team, but did not name a replacement for Diller, who was also fired as president of the NBA&rsquo;s New York Knicks this year.<h2>PATRICK WINNERS</h2>Hall of Fame right winger Rod Gilbert and Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; owner Mike Hitch have been named the 1991 Lester Patrick Trophy winners for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.Gilbert, the Rangers&rsquo; all-time scoring leader and now the club&rsquo;s manager of community relations, is recognized for helping spark a growth in hockey participation in the New York area and for his work with minor hockey organizations.Hitch, a Detroit native, runs the Little Caesars youth hockey program in which 6,000 players participate in annually. Among the graduates of the program are the Rangers&rsquo; John Van-biesbrouck and the Blackhawks&rsquo; Wayne Presley.The Lester Patrick Trophy, presented annually since 1966 in honor of the late GM and coach of the Rangers, is awarded by the NHL on behalf of the Rangers.<h2>U.S. CONTENT</h2>Canadian fans tuning in to watch the Wales Conference final game May 3 may be in for a bit of a shock.The publicly-funded CBC, whose mandate is to promote Canadian culture, will air the final episode of the American prime time soap opera Dallas and join the hockey game in progress at 9 p.m. (EDT).The CBC will show the two-hour Dallas conclusion at 7 p.m., joining the game roughly midway through the second period for viewers in the eastern time zones.The game site will either be Pittsburgh, Montreal or Boston.&ldquo;Every option was considered,&rdquo; said Tom Curzon, CBC director of communications. &ldquo;It is a very difficult decision. But we have carried Dallas since the start (11 years ago) and it has a substantial following.&rdquo;<h2>OBITUARY</h2>Bob Dill, a defenseman with the New York Rangers during the 1940s, died of liver cancer April 16 in St. Paul, Minn. He was 71.A rugged stay-at-home rearguard, Dill retired as a player in 1950 and went on to scout for the Rangers, Blackhawks and North Stars. He was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1979.The Minnesota native also played professional baseball in the New York Giants&rsquo; organization, but had a promising career cut short after sustaining a leg injury. &#9632;

SENATORS GO SOUTH TO SECURE MAJOR INVESTOR

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Scott Morrison</div>They survived the battle of Alberta, and they were a hit in Hollywood. It is springtime and the Edmonton Oilers are again dominant.After an exhausting, spectacular seven-game series victory over the Calgary Flames, a supposedly bruised and battered Oiler team managed a split with the rested and confident Los Angeles Kings in the first two games, both ending 4-3, both settled in overtime, of their Smythe Division final.In the process, two checks by Oiler defenseman Craig Muni sidelined right wingers Tomas Sandstrom and Bob Kudelski with knee injuries. That hurt, in more ways than the obvious.Meantime, the alleged pretenders in the playoffs, the Minnesota North Stars and Washington Capitals, two teams who made late-season improvements, proved themselves to be for real. The North Stars pulled off the biggest upset of the spring by defeating the Chicago Blackhawks, who were first overall, then split the first two matches with the St. Louis Blues in the next round.The Blues, of course, became the eighth wonder of the hockey world, by overcoming a 3-1 series deficit to defeat the Red Wings, who became just the first team to twice blow 3-1 series leads.Otherwise, the hockey world unfolded in fairly precise order, with the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens together again in the Adams final, the Pittsburgh Penguins rallying to survive a scare from the New Jersey Devils, the Oilers meeting the Kings and Wayne Gretzky and the Blues proving their overall season ranking to be no fluke. &#9632;

OILERS SPRING INTO ACTION

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; Soviet left winger Alexander Mogilny won&rsquo;t be returning home in the near future. Russian authorities have a warrant out for his arrest should he set foot on native soil. Mogilny was an officer in the Soviet Red Army before defecting to the U.S. two seasons ago. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s regarded as a criminal,&rdquo; a Russian sports authority says. Despite the ban, Mogilny plans to meet his former Red Army teammates in Finland during the World Championships&hellip;Calder Trophy candidate Sergei Fedorov has requested to play for the Soviet Olympic team. But coach Viktor Tikhonov won&rsquo;t accept him. &ldquo;1&rsquo;11 never forgive Sergei for betraying me,&rdquo; Tikhonov says. Fedorov left the Soviet national team at the Goodwill Games in Seattle last summer to sign with Detroit.<h2>BIG SCREW UP</h2>Devils&rsquo; coach Tom McVie calls himself &ldquo;the world&rsquo;s greatest authority on screwing up the draft.&rdquo; According to McVie, he botched things up three times: in 1977-78, &lsquo;7980 and &lsquo;83-84. In &lsquo;77-78, he coached Washington, which finished with 48 points, three ahead of last-place Minnesota. &ldquo;With their first pick, the North Stars got Bobby Smith and we got Ryan Walter,&rdquo; McVie says. Walter played four seasons in Washington before being traded to Montreal in the Rod Langway deal. McVie had a bad draft in 1979-80 with Winnipeg. And he coached New Jersey in his third attempt. That year, the Devils and Pittsburgh were vying for last place and Mario Lemieux. &ldquo;I was trying to restore pride in the team,&rdquo; McVie says. &ldquo;At one point, we were 12 points behind Pittsburgh but wound up three points ahead. We got our pride back, but the Penguins got Lemieux.&rdquo;&hellip;The NHL&rsquo;s attempt to finalize a new U.S. TV contract could be delayed&mdash;and significantly affected&mdash;by merger talks between SportsChannel America and Prime Network. Industry sources report the cable outfits have held talks with several options available. One deal would involve their regional rival stations. Another would see a top-level SCA-PN unification which would be more attractive to the NHL because it would offer a combined national service.<h2>STAIR MASTER</h2>Penguins&rsquo; rookie Jaromir Jagr has an interesting pre-game habit. He runs up and down the arena stairs of every visiting building&hellip;AHL marketing experts are trying to explain the Halifax-to-Sydney phenomenon. In Atlantic Canada&rsquo;s biggest arena, the Oilers were a four-year flop. But after moving to economically-depressed Sydney, the club averaged 4,798 a game, 200 above capacity at Centre 200&hellip;Paul Coffey could win the Norris Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s best defenseman. But he has already won a prize he won&rsquo;t appreciate. Jeff Z. Klein and Karl-Eric Reif of New York&rsquo;s Village Voice newspaper have designated Coffey the winner of hockey&rsquo;s version of the Whitney Houston Award. It recognizes &ldquo;the biggest fraud in each of the four major team sports.&rdquo; According to the editors: &ldquo;Any defenseman who manages a minus-18 on a team whose average player goes plus-4 and gives away the puck so often in so many different ways in his own end, deserves something. He deserves to be called a pantomime player; a performer whose performance is empty at the core. He deserves to be called the Whitney Houston of hockey.&rdquo;<h2>RON&rsquo;S PAL</h2>Ron Caron&rsquo;s ban from the Detroit press box didn&rsquo;t cause problems with Red Wings&rsquo; PR director Bill Jamieson, a long-time pal of the Blues&rsquo; GM. &ldquo;Ron and I are big baseball fans and always like to talk about our favorite team, the Yankees,&rdquo; Jamieson says. &ldquo;I had been planning to have a talk with Ron, but in the afternoon I got the release from the league that he wouldn&rsquo;t be allowed in the box. I missed him.&rdquo;&hellip;Now that Kelly and Kevin Miller have succeeded in the NHL, pressure is mounting on kid brother, Kip, who has struggled in Quebec. &ldquo;Having two brothers in the NHL doesn&rsquo;t hurt,&rdquo; Kip says. &ldquo;But it doesn&rsquo;t help any. It doesn&rsquo;t hurt because I can always learn from them. But a lot of times it doesn&rsquo;t help because people expect me to step right in and be like they are. That takes time.&rdquo;&hellip;Mario Lemieux told Penguins&rsquo; reporters he was miffed over a column written by Pittsburgh Press columnist Bob Smizik. Smizik&rsquo;s column suggested Lemieux should be more attentive on defense. &ldquo;Bob Johnson thought it was a terrific column,&rdquo; Smizik says-&hellip;Theoren Fleury says he&rsquo;s amazed at the numbers he put up this season. &ldquo;I never thought it would get this good this fast,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If someone had told me at age 22 I&rsquo;d be making $300,000 a year playing hockey, I would&rsquo;ve said, &lsquo;You&rsquo;ve got to be crazy.&rsquo;&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011382/5917995-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="556" height="763"><figcaption class="caption-body">Penguin rookie Jaromir Jagr gets his kicks climbing stairs.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0005-01

MOGILNY A WANTED MAN BACK HOME

<div class="byline">BY STEVE SIMMONS</div>Gentlemen, start your speculation. The NHL employment season has officially been declared open.The Winnipeg Jets need a coach. The Buffalo Sabres may be looking for a general manager soon, not to mention a coach. Management of the New Jersey Devils has been huddled in meetings since their playoff elimination, and isn&rsquo;t certain who is coming or going.And that&rsquo;s just the beginning.Hartford insists Rick Ley will be back to coach the Whalers next season while speculation to the contrary continues.&ldquo;Rickey Ley is our coach,&rdquo; said general manager Eddie Johnston. But Ley shouldn&rsquo;t be concerned for another reason.Should the Whalers let him go, word is the Canucks would like him to assist Pat Quinn behind the bench next season.Quinn hasn&rsquo;t said it for the record, but the GM will be back coaching next year, the only difference will be new assistants. Ley could be one. John Paddock may be another.And there are more uncertain situations. The question in Chicago is: Will Mike Keenan return as coach, will Darryl Sutter be elevated to head coach, or will major player changes be made?The populist answer to that question is no, no and yes. Keenan and Sutter should stay as is, but player changes are imminent, and the bitterness of the first round knockout lingers.On Long Island, Al Arbour hasn&rsquo;t said he will be back to coach the Islanders next season and hasn&rsquo;t said he won&rsquo;t be. He&rsquo;s being Al Arbour: He&rsquo;s leaving everyone guessing.Should Arbour step down, assistant Lome Henning would be the natural replacement. The Islanders like to make their changes internally.The situation, though, that may bear the closest watching is in Buffalo, where there are more concerns than simply the hockey team. Not only did the Sabres do what the Sabres always do&mdash;lose out in the first round of the playoffs&mdash;but the empty seats at Memorial Auditorium became a glaring eyesore.Initially, it was assumed coach Rick Dudley would be let go, but even GM Gerry Meehan doesn&rsquo;t seem so certain. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s premature to speculate on this coach, that player, or this GM will be back next season,&rdquo; said Meehan.Should Dudley go, Rochester coach Don Lever is the likely replacement. Should Meehan go, there may be an opening for Gil Perreault in management, but not necessarily as GM.Decisions are supposed to be made shortly.In Winnipeg, general manager Mike Smith says he is no hurry to hire a coach. He has no short list, and doesn&rsquo;t plan to begin interviewing for the job until next month.For any or all of the openings, the best available coaching candidates may be: Winnipeg assistant Terry Simpson, fired Jets&rsquo; coach Bob Murdoch, Binghamton coach Paddock, plus the names that always surface, ex-Calgary boss Terry Crisp, ex-Red Wings&rsquo; coach Jacques Demers, and television comedian Don Cherry.Another situation worth keeping an eye on is that of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs want to make organizational changes&mdash;again&mdash;but may not be able to do so until their ownership mess is settled.Coach Tom Watt&rsquo;s contract expires in June. Floyd Smith, who has two years left, is considered a lame duck GM.And, in addition to the openings now, the expansion franchises in Ottawa and Tampa Bay have openings: Ottawa needs a coach and a GM. Tampa has yet to name a coach, although there must be an Esposito brother out there still available. If not, look for Esposito to add to the old boys network he has already formed with the Lightning.The best GM candidate in the open market may well be John Muckier, the decorated Stanley Cup coach who is looking to make the move to management. The Senators of Ottawa would be wise to consider Muckier.Stay tuned. It&rsquo;s still May. There are more hirings and firings to come. Steve Simmons is a feature writer/columnist for the Toronto Sun.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021006/5918026-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="562" height="888"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Arbour has everyone guessing about his plans.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0005-02

RECESSION HASN’T AFFECTED NHL COACHING MARKET

<h2>JOE REEKIE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03683/5918057-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="550" height="1187"></div>Born: Feb. 22, 1965, Petawawa, Ont. Height: 6-foot-3. Weight: 215 pounds. Position: Defense. Team: New York Islanders. Acquired: Traded to New York by Buffalo June 17, 1989 for sixth round choice (Bill Pye) in 1989 draft.Career highlight: &ldquo;Scoring two game winning goals against the Rangers this year. Whoever wins those games gets the bragging rights for the whole year.&rdquo;On life in the NHL: &ldquo;Any player knows it&rsquo;s a childhood dream to play in the NHL. When you&rsquo;re finally here, it&rsquo;s amazing. For me, it&rsquo;s everything I thought it would be.&rdquo;Most respected opponent: &ldquo;To me, I respect not the finesse players, but the Cam Neely, Rick Toc-chet, blue collar-type forwards. Every night you can expect they&rsquo;ll hit you, they&rsquo;ll check you. And they play with bumps and bruises every night.&rdquo;On leading the team with a plus-17 plus-minus rating: &ldquo;My job is to take care of my own end and for me to accomplish that and to stay even or better. I think I&rsquo;m doing my job. Or maybe I&rsquo;m jumping over the boards pretty quick and no one notices.&rdquo;Most embarrassing moment: &ldquo;The first time I played in front of my parents and friends in Vancouver. I went out on the ice and performed the worst hockey I&rsquo;ve ever seen in my life. I got beat. I took a penalty with a minute left in the game and they scored the gamewinning goal. You name it, it happened. I came out afterwords and there they were laughing. Till this day, I fear going into Vancouver.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-03

PRO FILE

<div class="byline">BY THN STAFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011562/5918088-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Propp bounced back with 73 points for the Minnesota North Stars.</figcaption></div>We have awarded Gary Suter observer status on the matter of Chris Chelios&rsquo;s resurgence. Chelios received the nod as THN&rsquo;s comeback defenseman of the year, because of an excellent, two-way 64-point season, his first as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks.Suter is Chelios&rsquo; buddy from Madison, Wisc., and probably knows him as well as anybody in hockey. So consider that Suter is not necessarilly a neutral, third-party, but that he also possesses more insight into Chelios than anyone in the NHL.&ldquo;For him, the biggest thing was going to a new team,&rdquo; assessed Suter. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a Chicago type of player&mdash;the city of broad shoulders. He&rsquo;s not afraid to say what&rsquo;s on his mind and he expresses himself well. He was put into a leadership role with the team and did a good job.&rdquo;Did he ever. The Blackhawks began the season with their premier defenseman, Doug Wilson, on the sidelines, recovering from offseason ankle surgery. So Chelios stepped in and got off to a hellacious start&mdash;offensively and defensively. He scored 39 points in the first half, second to Calgary&rsquo;s Al MacInnis, and established himself as a bonafide Norris Trophy threat.Following Wilson&rsquo;s return to the lineup, Chelios&rsquo; play tailed off a little. Some believe he simply got bored by the end of the regular season, as the Blackhawks raced to the President&rsquo;s Trophy.Before the Blackhawks were unceremoniously dumped from the NHL playoffs, coach Mike Keenan discussed the impact Chelios could have on a game.&ldquo;He reads the play well when he plays with assertiveness,&rdquo; said Keenan. &ldquo;He moves the puck well and sees the openings. That&rsquo;s one of the beauties of being a defenseman. When you read well and can handle the puck, you can really take control of the game&hellip;he&rsquo;s perceptive. The best players have that ability.&rdquo;Following his Norris Trophy season in 198889, a knee injury sabotaged Chelios the following year. He played in only 53 games, as the Canadiens retooled their defense corps and placed an even greater emphasis on team defense. The day he was traded to Chicago&mdash;June 29, 1990&mdash;ranks as one of the happiest in his life. Chelios lived in Chicago until age 13 when his family moved to San Diego.&ldquo;For a defenseman, I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s a lot of room to be as creative as you&rsquo;d like to be in Montreal,&rdquo; said Suter. &ldquo;There isn&rsquo;t a lot of onus on the defensemen to join the attack. It&rsquo;s more or less take care of your end and wait for a break up front. So he was given more freedom to roam and play his kind of reckless style of game in Chicago.&rdquo;Now that Wilson and Keenan are on the outs, the thinking in Chicago is that the Blackhawks will build their defense around Chelios next season, the way they did in the first half of this season.Tom Barrasso of the Pittsburgh Penguins, THN comeback goaltender of the year, has a new way to measure success now.Every week. Every day.And it has nothing to do with stopping 100mph slap shots.&ldquo;The way my wife and I look at it, it&rsquo;s a good day if we don&rsquo;t have to go to the hospital,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had a lot of good days lately. We&rsquo;re thankful.&rdquo;Barrasso&rsquo;s three-year-old daughter, Ashley, is fighting a courageous battle against cancer&mdash;and more than holding her own. It has been more than a year since she returned to Pittsburgh from Los Angeles, where she underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments and a bone marrow transplant to combat the disease. The news so far has been encouraging.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think my daughter is going to get sick again, I really don&rsquo;t, so it&rsquo;s not something I dwell on,&rdquo; Barrasso told Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in March&mdash;only his second interview on the subject in a year. &ldquo;But we can&rsquo;t make any long-term predictions yet. It&rsquo;s too soon. We should know more next year at this time. The doctors told us last year the greatest chance of a reoccurence was in the next two years.&rdquo;Ashley&rsquo;s improvement has allowed her father to shift some of his attention back to his professional life, and he responded with one of the best years of his career for the Patrick Division champion Penguins.He played only 24 games in 1989-90, when the team granted him a six-week leave of absence to be with his daughter in L.A. He was 7-12-3 with a4.68 goals-against average. But he has been the No. 1 goalie for the Penguins this season.Barrasso, 26, was the NHL&rsquo;s Performer of the Month in December, winning seven straight starts, and he finished the year with a 27-16-3 record and a 3.59 GA A.&ldquo;He has been great for us, especially in the big games,&rdquo; center Mario Lemieux said. &ldquo;We probably have the best goalie in the league right now.&rdquo;But it&rsquo;s a different Barrasso than the one who starred in Buffalo as a teenager and was traded to Pittsburgh in 1988. Ashley&rsquo;s ordeal has taught her dad an important lesson.&ldquo;Hockey is easier for me now,&rdquo; Barrasso said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s not much that can happen on the ice that bothers me. I don&rsquo;t have the fear of losing any more.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to tell you that hockey is just a job to me because that&rsquo;s not true. It has to be more than a job or your performance is going to suffer. Your enthusiasm will never be good enough.&ldquo;I have the same love for the game, the same desire to play, I&rsquo;ve always had. It&rsquo;s just that my desire has been tempered by what&rsquo;s happened in my life the past two years. No matter what happens on the ice, I&rsquo;m going home to a wife and two daughters I have to take care of. Winning or losing isn&rsquo;t going to change that.&rdquo;Brian Propp knows where he has been and more importantly, he knows where he&rsquo;s going.Propp, 32, THN comeback forward of the year, first lost ice time as a Flyer last season then lost his job in Philadelphia as he was traded to the Bruins. He finished with just 40 points&mdash;16 goals, 24 assists&mdash;a career low.&ldquo;Last year was a difficult season for me but I&rsquo;m not sure it&rsquo;s one I needed to make a comeback from,&rdquo; Propp said. &ldquo;I had surgery on my hand (blood clots damaged an artery) and then I hurt my shoulder. I only scored 40 points but I only played 54 games.&ldquo;I lost some of my ice time with the Flyers and because I&rsquo;m over 30 and because people were used to seeing me score about a point a game, a lot of people in hockey probably figured I was finished.&rdquo;After last season, his 11 th in the NHL, even the Bruins weren&rsquo;t sure they wanted to sign him again.Bob Clarke, a teammate of Propp&rsquo;s for five seasons with the Flyers and his boss for the last six seasons, didn&rsquo;t have any reservations. He knew where to look for a player who played hard and scored big goals.&ldquo;In Philadelphia, all of a sudden the Flyers decided to get rid of some of their older players and rebuild with kids,&rdquo; Propp said. &ldquo;Bobby Clarke did me a favor when he traded me to Boston and I didn&rsquo;t have any second thoughts about signing a contract to play for him.&rdquo;Propp rewarded the North Stars&rsquo; interest with 73 points in 79 games, third best on the team and back on his career scoring pace. He showed some of his new teammates that you play at least as hard when you lose as when you win.&ldquo;Brian Propp played this season the way he has played the majority of his career, as a good two-way player who can score big goals,&rdquo; North Stars&rsquo; coach Bob Gainey said. &ldquo;Even when we were struggling, he never gave up. It would have been easier for him to fall in with the rest of the group but just the opposite happened. He helped some of his teammates join him.&rdquo;Propp has played most of the season on a line with Dave Gagner, another of the team&rsquo;s day-in, day-out hard workers. Gagner, the team&rsquo;s regular-season scoring leader, had his best season in the NHL.&ldquo;At the start of the season, I had some trouble dealing with all of our losses,&rdquo; Propp said. &ldquo;In Philadelphia and in Boston, we were used to winning and there were no excuses when we lost. I just tried to play the same way I&rsquo;ve always played. I felt if I was consistent and did my job, the other players would eventually start to do their jobs and the team would come around. Even though we were losing a lot, we were close in most of our games; we just had to find a way to get over the hump.&rdquo;Propp becomes a free agent, without compensation, when the season ends. He has said he would like to return to Minnesota.&ldquo;The North Stars gave me a chance to play, to play a lot,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I needed that ice time to show that I can still be included among the game&rsquo;s top left wingers. I feel I have several more years before I&rsquo;ll have to accept a lesser role.&ldquo;But until the team I&rsquo;m playing for can come up with somebody who will play better than I am, it&rsquo;s a role I won&rsquo;t accept.&rdquo;&mdash;with files from Eric Duhatschek, Tom McMillan and Gary Olson &#9632;

f0006-01

THEY’RE BA-A-A-CK

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN ALLEN</div>USA Hockey learned long ago that the American way can only prevail at a world tournament if a U.S. goaltender plays out of this world.Hence, U.S. officials were ecstatic when John Vanbiesbrouck joined the team in Helsinki for the World Championships after his New York Rangers were waylaid in the opening round of the NHL playoffs.The less experienced tandem of Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; Scott Gordon and Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; Damian Rhodes was penciled in until Vanbiesbrouck jetted abroad.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011408/5918126-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="564" height="700"><figcaption class="caption-body">Team USA got a boost when Jeremy Roenick was available.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He won&rsquo;t have to rotate over here. He wants to play and he&rsquo;ll be No. 1 for us,&rdquo; said Art Berglund, U.S. director of international activities.Vanbiesbrouck delivered as promised when the U.S. defeated Czechoslovakia 4-1 April 21 to raise hopes for the team to advance to the medal round. He made key stops early, and was named the game&rsquo;s MVP.The U.S., which won its last six games to finish fifth last year, has never won a World Championship medal.The uplifting victory came a day after an emotionally-draining 4-3 loss to Canada. The U.S. squandered a third-period lead and gave up a shorthanded goal to Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; Geoff Courtnall for the game-winner.&ldquo;It was a heartbreaker,&rdquo; Berglund said. &ldquo;We got (Detroit Red Wings&rsquo;) Kevin Miller and (Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo;) Jeremy Roenick here in time for the Czechs. Boy, they could have made a difference against Canada.&rdquo;Roenick and Miller came after their teams were eliminated, but the U.S. didn&rsquo;t come close to getting everyone they wanted.Winnipeg&rsquo;s Ed Olczyk and Phil Housley, Chicago&rsquo;s Chris Chelios, New York Rangers&rsquo; Brian Leetch and Darren Turcotte and the New York Islanders Pat LaFontaine were among the top names who declined invitations for an assortment of reasons.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s always going to be a problem,&rdquo; said U.S. general manager Jack Ferreira. &ldquo;But the way I view it, every player, and young players in particular, should want to play hockey until June. Everyone&rsquo;s goal is to win the Stanley Cup and that&rsquo;s how long you have to play to win it.&rdquo;In the absence of top names, Hartford Whalers&rsquo; Todd Krygier and Winnipeg&rsquo;s Danton Cole have emerged as offensive leaders. Krygier had two goals against Czechoslovakia and Cole had a four-game goal-scoring streak, including two pre-toumament games.<h2>TEAM USA</h2><h3>ROSTER</h3>G&mdash;John Vanbiesbrouck, Scott Gordon, Damian Rhodes.D&mdash;Dave Tretowicz, Eric Weinrich, Craig Wolanin, Todd Pederson. Moe Mantha, Guy Gosselin.F&mdash;Tony Amonte, David Emma, Doug Brown, Tom Fitzgerald. Joe Sacco, Mike McNeil, Shawn McEachern, Todd Krygier, Danton Cole, Brian Mullen, Kevin Miller, Jeremy Roenick, Dave Maley.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02954/5918119-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="1164" height="1608"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Vanbiesbrouck is finally getting the chance to play every day.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0007-01

RANGERS’ PLAYOFF LOSS TEAM USA’S NET GAIN

<div class="byline">BY SCOTT MORRISON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03634/5918157-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Canada&rsquo;s medal hopes are riding on the play of Joe Sakic.</figcaption></div>This is definitely not how Alan Eagleson envisioned it.Over the years, Eagleson, who is Hockey Canada&rsquo;s chief delegate and the man who annually assembles Team Canada for the World Championships, has fought long and hard to have the starting and player eligibility dates pushed deeper and deeper into April.This year was the latest ever. But what happens? Not too much right, is what happens.On paper, though they won the first three games of the championship (4-3 over the U.S. April 19, 3-0 over Switzerland April 20 and 3-2 over Germany April 22), Team Canada probably has assembled one of its weakest lineups. There is talent, but not enough of it in key areas, and certainly not the talent for which Eagleson had hoped when the first round of the NHL playoffs ended.There is, for instance, no Steve Yzerman or Joe Nieuwendyk, two players who would have greatly helped the cause.The two upsets that helped the cause were the Chicago Blackhawks and Calgary Flames both being bounced and sending over seven players. But, as it evolved, Team Canada didn&rsquo;t put a dent into the playoff scoring leader board. Clearly, the wrong teams were eliminated for their purposes.In goal, they are strong with Mike Vernon and a rejuvenated Sean Burke. The defense is capable, though not especially fast or mobile. Up front, there isn&rsquo;t enough depth, or depth of scoring.This might, however, be the sort of team that coach Dave King can make work. It is solid, not spectacular. He may be able to foster a team togetherness, but if the Canadians are to prevail, center Joe Sakic will have to be phenomenal and the goaltending unbeatable when it matters.Sakic and Vancouver&rsquo;s Geoff Courtnall supplied the offense in the first two games. Each had three goals.On the plus side, the Canadians don&rsquo;t play the powers, the Soviets, Swedes or Czechoslovakians until the final games of the round robin, which should work in their favor.<h2>TEAM CANADA</h2><h3>ROSTER</h3>G&mdash;Sean Burke, Mike Vernon, Craig Billington.D&mdash;Trent Yawney, Jamie Macoun, Steve Konroyd, Doug Lidster, Zarley Zalapski, Brad Schlegel.F&mdash;Theoren Fleury, Steve Thomas, Steve Larmer, Joe Sakic, Murray Craven, Dave Archibald. Randy Smith, Trevor Linden. Geoff Courtnall, Cliff Ronning. &#9632;

f0007-03

WEAK TEAM CANADA NOT HELPED BY LATER STARTING DATE

<div class="byline">BY JEFF GORDON</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011492/5918195-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">St. Louis may not have eliminated Detroit without defenseman Garth Butcher.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021181/5918188-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="1476" height="1270"><figcaption class="caption-body">Was the Blues&rsquo; 105-point season worth the cost of getting Scott Stevens?</figcaption></div>How valuable are physical, heady, wily and indefatigable defenseman?Ask the St. Louis Blues. General manager Ron Caron spent heavily to get free agent Scott Stevens from the Washington Capitals in the off-season and Garth Butcher from the Vancouver Canucks at the trading deadline.The total bill: Up to five first-round draft picks, a $5.1-million commitment to Stevens and four solid NHL players&mdash;Geoff Courtnall, Cliff Ronning, Sergio Momesso and Robert Dirk&mdash;to get Butcher. (Caron also got center Dan Quinn as Butcher&rsquo;s tagalong from the Canucks.)But the results have justified the staggering cost. With Stevens and the aptly-named Butcher taking turns policing their zone with a vicious zeal, the Blues finished the season with 105 points and then rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Detroit Red Wings in their Norris Division semifinal.So the second-guessing of the Butcher trade has subsided somewhat in the Gateway City.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s just what we needed,&rdquo; Stevens says. &ldquo;He works hard, he gets in people&rsquo;s faces and he&rsquo;s good at killing penalties.&rdquo;No wonder Blues&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter wanted Butcher all season.&ldquo;We may not have won the last playoff without him,&rdquo; Sutter says. &ldquo;He is going to compete every shift. I played against him for a lot of years. You know the people who compete, plain and simple. Some people compete once in a while and some people compete all the time.&ldquo;With him on the ice, we can put any of our people against any of their people and it won&rsquo;t matter.&rdquo;While Stevens&rsquo; value was well-established when he was acquired by the Blues&mdash;he made the NHL&rsquo;s first all-star team in 1988&mdash;Butcher seemed to be an underappreciated performer for the Canucks.&ldquo;If you&rsquo;re a defensive-type player and you&rsquo;re down a goal or two every game, it&rsquo;s hard for that type of player to look good,&rdquo; Butcher says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the offensive players which get teams back into games. When you&rsquo;re leading or even in a game, that&rsquo;s when defense seems more important.&rdquo;And that&rsquo;s why Stevens and Butcher stood out against the Red Wings. Butcher worked over Steve Yzerman and Bob Probert while Stevens made Sergei Fedorov his favorite target.All three vanished offensively as the Blues won the last three games of the series 6-1, 3-0 and 3-2.&ldquo;They made their presence felt,&rdquo; says Yzerman, who was further slowed after Blues&rsquo; winger Dave Lowry took him down late in Game 4, injuring his right knee.&ldquo;We finished every check; you have to take the body in these games,&rdquo; Stevens says.&ldquo;The more physical you play at the start of the series, the better chance to have to wear the other team down by the end of the series,&rdquo; Butcher says.&ldquo;They got under the other team&rsquo;s skin,&rdquo; says Blues&rsquo; defenseman Glen Featherstone. &ldquo;Yzerman took a shot at Butcher. When you have a player of that caliber taking shots that way&hellip;&rdquo;Butcher did more than help win a series. He helped solidify a defense which was showing signs of strain before the trade deadline.Stevens seemed to be wearing down, Paul Cavallini appeared to be losing his confidence, Harold Snepsts was getting older and Jeff Brown was hobbling around with ankle injuries.Butcher absorbed a huge workload for the Blues and also added toughness&mdash;always a plus for post-season play.&ldquo;It helps a lot,&rdquo; Blues&rsquo; goaltender Vincent Riendeau says. &ldquo;If you only have one or two big guys, they will get run and the other team will try to take penalties with them. But if you have four or five back there, what can they do?&rdquo;The Red Wings tried to goad Butcher and Stevens into taking penalties, but both kept their cool and kept themselves on the ice. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not going anywhere in the playoffs by fighting,&rdquo; Stevens says. &ldquo;You have to be disciplined.&rdquo;The Blues have assembled their best defensive corps in franchise history. For much of the 1980s, they put makeshift units on the ice by combining fading veterans with too-green youngsters.In the 1988-89 season, for instance, journeyman Gordie Roberts (77 games), rookie Tom Tilley (70 games) and tough guy Dave Richter (66 games) were their defensive workhorses. Remember Gaston Gingras? He played 52 games that season as well.Since then, Cavallini blossomed into an allstar and Caron acquired Brown, Snepsts, Stevens, Butcher and Mario Marois and promoted Featherstone to full-time duty. Tilley, once a regular, has spent most of this season in Peoria (International League).&ldquo;We have a good mix of guys who can move the puck and guys who are physical.&rdquo; Stevens says. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t score a lot of goals so it&rsquo;s important we don&rsquo;t give up a lot.&rdquo;That conservative philosophy suits Butcher fine.&ldquo;This team succeeds by working hard and having everybody show up every night,&rdquo; Butcher says. &ldquo;By no means is this a finesse team. To me, these are the kind of players you want to play with.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0008-01

CARVING A NICHE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011443/5918226-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="483" height="623"><figcaption class="caption-body">STAN FISCHLER</figcaption></div>Are lying, deception and vengeance necessary to win the Stanley Cup?One would get that impression from the machinations of Mike Milbury and Bob Johnson, two of the coaching fraternity&rsquo;s most literate members.Milbury&rsquo;s exercise in mendacity during the Bruins-Whalers series so infuriated Boston media you&rsquo;d think Mike should&rsquo;ve been ordered before the House Un-American Activities Committee.How dare he tell reporters Bobby Carpenter was unfit to play when he knew darn well Carpenter was ready, willing and able that night?Bruins&rsquo; broadcaster Bob Wilson was so disgusted with the fibbery, he publicly scorned Milbury over the airwaves. And when your own play-by-play man prosecutes you, well, that&rsquo;s grounds for heavy penance.&ldquo;We expected more from a class act like Milbury,&rdquo; one journalist said. &ldquo;It comes down to this; was the lie necessary?&rdquo;We&rsquo;ll get to that in a moment; right after Badger Bob&rsquo;s revenge routine and his Paul Coffey fiasco is noted.No, Badger didn&rsquo;t actually lie. But he did tread the verbal tightrope between phony accusation and the truth, when he charged Slava Fetisov with deliberately injuring Paul Coffey in the eye with his stick during the Devils-Penguins series.Obviously, the league didn&rsquo;t agree. NHL executive vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill reviewed the episode on video and dismissed Badger&rsquo;s case.Next came Master Deception II that rivalled the Milbury fakeout. Artful communiques from The Igloo broadly hinted Coffey&rsquo;s eye injury was so bad, he could be permanently blinded.What a set-up for bamboozling by Badger. While the hockey world was mourning Coffey&rsquo;s absence, Johnson gleefully delivered the reincarnated defenseman for the series&rsquo; decisive Game 7.Paul&rsquo;s vision was so impaired, he only scored one of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s four goals. The Penguins won the game and the series.Which proves Johnson and Milbury subscribe to a very pragmatic theory: From April 3, 1991 to late May, all&rsquo;s fair in love and war&mdash;especially in the Stanley Cup playoffs.Telling the truth is a very low priority item. By traditional ethical standards, what Milbury did was reprehensible. Period.I mean, how do I answer my young son when he asks whether the Bruins&rsquo; coach told a lie? I have to say yes. And when he prods me about right and wrong, I must add that Milbury was dead wrong. With an asterisk, of course.You see, at playoff time most coaches regard the ethical world as a remote planet that can be compared best to the land of tooth fairies.In a business where coaches are considered durable if they last a year, survival means doing everything possible to win&mdash;even if you fib until your nose resembles Pinocchio&rsquo;s.Don&rsquo;t try telling Milbury hockey is only a game. It&rsquo;s his livelihood. Beating Hartford meant more than satisfying the apetitites of a dozen voracious journalists checking out the Carpenter menu.Milbury takes his war as seriously as General Norman Schwarzkopf regarded the Gulf War. Weeks after the truce was declared, war correspondents learned they had been deceived by the military. The general explained deception was a necessity. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t want to tip our hand to the enemy,&rdquo; he said.That was precisely Milbury&rsquo;s position. Losing to the oft-reviled Whalers would&rsquo;ve been a fate worse than coaching the Maple Leafs.To win Milbury&rsquo;s War, keeping a lineup secret is important to Mike and in his view, the journalists are naive &ldquo;babies&rdquo; to think otherwise.Badger Bob&rsquo;s extremist view of L&rsquo;Affaire Coffey should be taken with the same grain of cyanide. Whether Badger really thought Fetisov had deliberately sticked Coffey in the eye wasn&rsquo;t the issue.Are these desperate and unethical measures necessary? More important, do they work?I&rsquo;m always reminded of Dick Irvin&rsquo;s classic 1947 move, when he coached Montreal against Toronto in the finals.Canadiens&rsquo; star center Elmer Lach had been sidelined by a harsh Don Metz check and Irvin charged the Leaf with dirty play. Irvin added portentiously that &ldquo;God was watching the series.&rdquo;The clear implication was that if it had been a clean hit, as Metz claimed, then Toronto would win the cup. However, if it was a dirty hit, the Habs would take the mug.P.S. The Lord must have loved the Leafs (or it must have been a clean hit): Toronto won the series 4-2.Stan Fischler is a freelance writer based in New York City. &#9632;

f0009-01

ARE COACHES’ PLAYOFF PLOYS UNETHICAL?

A defenseman with Atlanta, Detroit and Los Angeles for 10 seasons between 1970-71 and &lsquo;79-80, Randy Manery, 42, works with a Christian ministry in Atlanta. &ldquo;My style was more of an offensive defenseman. a puck-carrying type who liked to jump into the play,&rdquo; Manery said. &ldquo;It was always thrilling to get involved offensively.&rdquo; Manery had 256 points in 582 NHL games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021025/5918257-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="514" height="422"><figcaption class="caption-body">Randy Manery</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0009-02

THEN & NOW

<h2>FLAMES</h2>In the days after the Flames were eliminated, there was a lot of speculation about Sergei Makarov&rsquo;s future with the team. Despite consecutive 30-goal seasons, Makarov was benched for four of the seven games of the Oilers series. Makarov said he would prefer to return for one more NHL season, if not with the Flames, then with some other club. GM Cliff Fletcher said he would meet with Makarov following the world championships to decide the matter&hellip;Fletcher does not expect to have nearly as busy a summer this year as last. Of the eight players whose contracts come up for renewal this year, only two&mdash;centers Doug Gilmour and Joel Otto&mdash;are among the team&rsquo;s core of players. The others: Stephane Matteau, Paul Fenton, Jim Kyte, Ric Nattress, Roger Johansson and Makarov&hellip;It took until the final game of the playoffs, but left winger Colin Patterson finally played this season. Patterson replaced Matteau, who was out with an injury, for the seasonending 5-4 loss to the Oilers. He had missed the entire regular season recovering from major reconstructive knee surgery.<h2>OILERS</h2>Joe Murphy missed Game 7 against Calgary and Game 1 against Los Angeles with food poisoning. &ldquo;I feel much better, I think it was something I ate,&rdquo; the Oilers&rsquo; right winger said prior to Game 2 of the Smythe Division final. &ldquo;I spent the last couple of days relaxing and got some food into me.&rdquo; Murphy wasn&rsquo;t sure if he had lost any weight. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t weigh myself, but if I did (lose weight), I think I got it all back,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I probably lost more energy than anything. I loaded up on food and I feel back to normal. I&rsquo;ve skated, I feel good and I&rsquo;m ready to go.&rdquo;&hellip;Veteran defenseman Kevin Lowe also missed the same two games when the tendinitis problem in his right ankle that sidelined him late in the regular season acted up in Game 6 against Calgary. &ldquo;It happened on the first shift,&rdquo; Lowe said. &ldquo;I tried to get the puck and I felt it give from my ankle to my calf. At first I thought it was a cramp. I left the ice and it went away, but as soon as I went back on, same thing.&rdquo;<h2>CANUCKS</h2>The line that carried the Canucks into the playoffs hoped to take Team Canada into the medal round at the World Championships in Finland. Left winger Geoff Courtnall, center Cliff Ronning and right winger Trevor Linden headed overseas as a unit after supplying most of the Canucks&rsquo; offense in their Smythe Division semi-final playoff loss to the Los Angeles Kings. Ronning had six goals and three assists, Courtnail five goals and three assists and Linden had seven assists in six games against the Kings. Joining them was defenseman Doug Lidster, who played on the silver medal team at the 1985 world tournament in Austria. Defenseman Jyrki Lumme returned to Finland to play for the home team&hellip;Rookie left winger Garry Valk, who went more than 30 games without a goal, was returned to Milwaukee for the IHL playoffs&hellip;Right winger Stan Smyl is mulling over his future prospects. The 13-year veteran played out the option year of his five-year contract and doesn&rsquo;t figure in the Canucks&rsquo; plans.<h2>JETS</h2>From president Barry Shenkarow to equipment manager Craig Heisinger, the Jets&rsquo; organization believes hiring a coach who &ldquo;can communicate&rdquo; is the top priority. GM Mike Smith said he&rsquo;ll have the job done by the end of May. Bob Murdoch was fired April 1&hellip;Smith said he has 29 contract signings to deal with throughout the organization. His key signings are defensemen Bryan Marchment and Phil Housley&hellip;Last season the Jets lost $1.1 million but Smith said financial problems will not have an effect on his negotiations this summer. &ldquo;If a player is worth $800,000, he&rsquo;ll get it,&rdquo; said Smith. &ldquo;But how many $800,000 players are there on a last place team?&rdquo;<h2>KINGS</h2>Several players who contributed much to the Kings&rsquo; offense in the regular season were relatively silent in the playoffs. Left winger Tony Granato, who scored 30 goals in 68 regular-season games while playing on the No. 1 line, had just one in the first eight playoff games. Todd Elik, the No. 2 center also had just one goal in eight playoff games after scoring 21 in the regular season&hellip;Owner Bruce McNall made news with his other sports team, when he got Raghib (Rocket) Ismail to agree to a four-year, $18-million personal services contract to play for the Toronto Argos of the Canadian Football League. The former Notre Dame star was expected to be the first pick in the National Football League&rsquo;s draft, however he agreed to the deal with McNall which could earn him up to $26 million if he meets certain conditions in the contract.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-03665/5918288-1-eng-US/f0009-032.jpg" title="f0009-03" width="557" height="757"><figcaption class="caption-body">Some bad food sidelined Joe Murphy for two playoff games.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0009-03

MAKAROV’S FUTURE IN QUESTION

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>Craig Muni wears the black hat.He&rsquo;s the guy 16,000 Southern California borderline loons love to hate.Muni&rsquo;s the bad guy, who talks out of the side of his mouth. And when the movie ends, he won&rsquo;t be the chap who gets the girl.But this isn&rsquo;t Hollywood. This is the Smythe Division championship at the Northlands Coliseum, where people understand open-ice hitting is as much a part of hockey as &ldquo;he shoots, he scores.&rdquo;Muni, the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; pugnacious defenseman who has mastered the hip check in the fashion of a depth charge, sent two members of the Los Angeles Kings to hospital in Game 2 of the Smythe Division final.Right winger Tomas Sandstrom is a front-liner and a key member of Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s line. But when the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Swede was lugged off the ice with a fractured femur in his right knee (broken leg) with 5&frac12; minutes gone in the first period. Bob Kudelski took Sandstrom&rsquo;s place on No. 99&rsquo;s right side.But as overtime started for the Oilers&rsquo; fourth game in seven nights, Kudelski saw Muni going into his submarine position again. He bailed out to avoid the hit and wound Up with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee. He too, is gone for the playoffs.The hits produced loud complaints from Kings&rsquo; management.&ldquo;That guy does it all the time,&rdquo; Kings&rsquo; general manager Rogie Vachon said. &ldquo;He goes right to the&rsquo; knee.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s disappointing to lose two players to knee injuries and not have penalties called,&rdquo; coach Tom Webster said.No question, there have been others who have been hospitalized by Muni hip checks. One season, Brian Propp, then with Philadelphia, and Winnipeg&rsquo;s Ray Neufeld and Hannu Jar-venpaa wished they would&rsquo;ve kept their heads up.The Oilers say Muni&rsquo;s checks were within the rules.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want to see anybody get hurt&mdash;especially a talent like Sandstrom. He adds a dimension to the game,&rdquo; co-coach Ted Green said. &ldquo;But, it takes talent to hit on open ice and it takes timing.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s an art to throwing a hip check at center ice today because very few people do it.&rdquo;Is that due to the fact players are faster and more difficult to line up?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s that, but the game seems to have gotten away from it,&rdquo; Green said.Muni takes all the turmoil in stride.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t bother me, they can say what they want,&rdquo; the 28-year-old said. &ldquo;Both times I was coming across. Usually you get hurt is when you try to get out of the way. That&rsquo;s what happened (with Kudelski).&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure they&rsquo;ll be the first to admit they play clean, too. All they do is spear, slash. In the first game (Tony) Granato cross-checked Gravey (Adam Graves) on the face.&rdquo;Muni admitted he hasn&rsquo;t lost sleep over the situation. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just one more city where they don&rsquo;t like me,&rdquo; he said.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier, Craig MacTavish, Adam Graves, Mark Lamb, Ken Linseman.LW&mdash;Craig Simpson, Kelly Buchberger, Martin Gelinas, Esa Tikkanen.RW&mdash;Glenn Anderson, Dave Brown, Joe Murphy, Petr Klima, Anatoli Semenov.LD&mdash;Steve Smith, Kevin Lowe. Charlie Huddy, Geoff Smith.RD&mdash;Jeff Beukeboom, Norm Maciver, Craig Muni, Chris Joseph.G&mdash;Grant Fuhr, Bill Ranford.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Tikkanen, 7. A&mdash;Simpson, 7. P&mdash;Tikkanen. 12. PIM&mdash;Gelinas. 21. &#9632;

MUNI’S BIG HITS SPARK PLAYOFF DEBATE

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BEAMISH</div>In Pat Quinn&rsquo;s four years as general manager, the Vancouver Canucks finished 19th, 14th, 20th and 17th. In most NHL cities, that would appear to be a lack of progress. But not in Vancouver.Quinn&rsquo;s reward for continuing the unrelenting mediocrity of the franchise was a new four-year contract. The announcement was made April 15, a day after the Canucks were eliminated in six games in their Smythe Division semifinal series with the Los Angeles Kings.Whether Quinn continues to coach beyond this season is something he prefered not to discuss, although the decision will be his to make.Quinn fired coach Bob McCammon Jan. 31 after the Canucks fell to 19-30-5 and took over behind the bench. He guided the club to a 9-13-4 record and the Canucks qualified for the playoffs by the barest of margins&mdash;an overtime goal against the Winnipeg Jets in Game No. 80.Quinn, 48, had one year remaining on his original contract, signed in 1986 while he was still under contract to coach the Kings. He would&rsquo;ve been free to sign with another club if the Canucks had not offered him an extension by Aug. 30.Arthur Griffiths, the Canucks&rsquo; vice-chairman, said the team was in much better shape than it was four years ago when Quinn took over, a debatable point to be sure.The Canucks had 66 points the year before Quinn arrived and have achieved 64 and 65 in the past two years under his guidance. The Canucks finished 1990-91 with a 2843-9 record, the 15th straight season the team has lost more games than it has won.Nevertheless, Quinn has scored some successes, especially when it comes to the bottom line. It&rsquo;s not easy to forget that Pacific Coliseum used to be half-empty on many nights in the mid-1980s. Now the Canucks play to near capacity crowds most of the time.Quinn also redesigned the team&rsquo;s frightful uniforms to provide a more presentable look and has given an image of competence in the front office.While his drafting record is spotty, Quinn has proven to be a shrewd trader. He has taken some heat in the past for overestimating the worth of his team and failing to act decisively in the trade market. But a six-player trade with St. Louis at the March 5 deadline turned out to be a beauty.He dealt Garth Butcher and Dan Quinn to the Blues for Cliff Ronning, Geoff Courtnall, Sergio Momesso and Robert Dirk.&#9632; Ronning, used mainly as a power-play specialist by the Blues, became the Canucks&rsquo; No. 1 center on a line with Courtnall and right winger Trevor Linden. He scored six goals and three assists in six playoff games.&#9632; Courtnall, the second highest scoring left winger in the NHL over the past three seasons, gave the Canucks a much-need triggerman.&#9632; Momesso, a power forward with a mean streak, beefed up the Canucks&rsquo; second line with Petr Nedved and right winger Dave Capuano.&#9632; Dirk, a seventh defenseman in St. Louis, showed the ability to play regularly and added size and toughness to the Canucks&rsquo; back end.In addition to Dirk, Quinn completely remodelled his defense by adding Dana Murzyn, Tom Kurvers and Gerald Diduck.Putting himself behind the bench was an emotional catharsis for Quinn. He became a changed man. The GM&rsquo;s job description and Quinn&rsquo;s personal style had made him aloof and overbearing.The betting is Quinn will remain behind the bench and appoint a cocoach, possibly former Philadelphia assistant GM John Paddock, as a future successor and name McCammon as the team&rsquo;s director of player personnel.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011513/5918343-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="563" height="912"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Quinn missed the personal contact when he was just GM.</figcaption></div><h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>April 15: Pat Quinn, GM, signed four-year contract extension. Garry Valk, LW, assigned to Milwaukee (IHL). &#9632;

f0010-01

QUINN UNSURE ABOUT FUTURE AS COACH

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>His first reaction was to say no. Nyet. Not under any circumstances.This was the day after the Calgary Flames were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in overtime of Game 7 of the Smythe Division semifinal. The last thing Mike Vernon wanted to consider was an invitation to play for Canada at the World Championships.Then he thought about it some more and figured maybe Finland wasn&rsquo;t a bad place to get away to.Or hide out in.&ldquo;After playing in an emotional series like we did against Edmonton, I just wanted to get away for a day and do some thinking,&rdquo; Vernon said, following the Flames&rsquo; post-season wrap-up party. &ldquo;So I went up to my farm and took my frustrations out on a few gophers. When I thought about it again, I decided I better go over. It&rsquo;ll probably be the last year pros will participate. Helsinki&rsquo;s not a bad spot. I&rsquo;ve been there before. It&rsquo;s cold. It&rsquo;s snowing there now. Hockey weather.&ldquo;Besides, the golf courses here aren&rsquo;t ready to go yet anyway.&rdquo;Despite Vernon&rsquo;s brilliance throughout the series, the Flames lost a heart-breaking 5-4 overtime decision to the Oilers in Game 7 when Esa Tikkanen&rsquo;s shot carommed off defenseman Frank Musil&rsquo;s stick and shot up under the crossbar past Vernon&rsquo;s glove hand.Tikkanen&rsquo;s shot ended a series that Hockey Night in Canada analyst Don Cherry called the best he&rsquo;d ever seen. That was small consolation to the Flames and Vernon, who lost in the first round for the second consecutive season, prompting the usual call for changes and adjustments.The main man on the bubble? Vernon, the man they love to hate in Calgary. Objectively, it would be hard to argue with Vernon&rsquo;s performance throughout the Edmonton series.Defenseman Jamie Macoun described Vernon as the Flames&rsquo; most valuable player in the series, and the majority of his teammates agreed.There is a sense, however that Vernon will never do enough to appease the Saddledome&rsquo;s boobirds; that if the Flames lose, he automatically becomes the fall guy.So the question was asked: In a perfect world, did Vernon want to keep playing here? Or does he wish to seek asylum in one of 21 other NHL cities?&ldquo;I think I have a perfect world right now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My family lives here, my friends are here, I have a lot of interests here. So it would be tough for me to leave. I&rsquo;m very content.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll just have to see what happens this summer, but I know this: Any talk of a trade won&rsquo;t be coming from me.&rdquo;Not that it didn&rsquo;t cross Vernon&rsquo;s mind that a trade would be the best thing for him. Despite 31 regularseason wins, the people&rsquo;s choice remains anybody but Vernon.&ldquo;Yeah, there&rsquo;s no doubt that it entered my mind.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When you get 20,000 fans booing you, sometimes you feel like crawling into a little crack in the boards. But it&rsquo;s something you have to deal with.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour, Joel Otto, Robert Reichel.LW&mdash;Gary Roberts. Paul Ranheim, Paul Fenton, Carey Wilson, Stephane Matteau, Colin Patterson, Brian MacLellan, Sergei Priakin.RW&mdash;Theo Fleury, Ron Stern, Tim Hunter, Sergei Makarov.LD&mdash;Gary Suter, Jamie Macoun, Frank Musil, Roger Johansson.RD&mdash;Al Maclnnis, Ric Nattress. Jim Kyte, Kevan Guy.G&mdash;Mike Vernon, Rick Wamsley.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Nieuwendyk, 4. A&mdash;Suter, 6. P&mdash;Suter, 7. PIM&mdash;Roberts, 18. &#9632;

HOSTILE FANS DON’T FAZE CLASSY VERNON

<div class="byline">BY SCOTT TAYLOR</div>There is a decided difference of opinion about the needs of the Winnipeg Jets.For a team that finished last in the Smythe Division with 63 points and ended up firing its coach, changes to player personnel are inevitable.But general manager Mike Smith and most of the veteran players disagree on exactly what&rsquo;s needed to get the Jets back in the playoffs. That is, after the team hires a coach.&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t score a lot of goals last year so I think our first priority should be a goal-scorer,&rdquo; said Ed Olczyk, echoing the sentiments of a number of players polled.&ldquo;We definitely need more offense and I&rsquo;d like to see us get a big left winger who can get us some goals.&rdquo;But Smith, who was addressing criticism that the Jets don&rsquo;t have enough Western Canadian-trained players in their lineup, said that during the June 22 entry draft, the Jets will probably select a defenseman with the fifth pick overall.&ldquo;If you look at our depth chart, we need a defenseman,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;(In this year&rsquo;s draft) I think it would be safe to say we&rsquo;ll take a North American defenseman before we take a Western Canadian forward.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011366/5918398-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="547" height="755"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center Ed Olczyk says the Jets&rsquo; greatest need is on offense.</figcaption></div>The concern the Jets don&rsquo;t have enough homegrown players and that their best players&mdash;Americans Olczyk, Phil Housley, Moe Mantha and Danton Cole, Swedes Thomas Steen and Fredrik Olausson and Finn Teppo Numminen&mdash;are foreigners is a bone of contention among Winnipeg&rsquo;s hockey fans.Those fans are hoping Smith will take a very serious look at Manitobaborn Western League scoring stars Pat Falloon and Kyle Reeves in this spring&rsquo;s draft. But to Smith that situation neither matters nor will it necessarily wash in future.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping a local Winnipegger with a really nice scoring touch will make the team this year,&rdquo; said Smith, referring to University of North Dakota forward Russ Romaniuk.&ldquo;And we also believe a former Western League scoring leader (national team member Stu Barnes) will be here next season.&rdquo;But draft picks will not provide the Jets with immediate talent and Smith is aware of that.&ldquo;Our scouts, and the scouts throughout the NHL for that matter, tell us only one player from this year&rsquo;s draft is likely to step right in and play in the NHL next season,&rdquo; said Smith.&ldquo;And I doubt Eric Lindros will still be available when we pick fifth.&rdquo;Which means Smith is likely to make a trade or two before the 199192 seasons begins, though he&rsquo;s promising nothing.&ldquo;With the addition of Teemu Selanne from Finland along with young players such as Kris Draper (Ottawa 67&rsquo;s), Dan Ratushny (Cornell University) and Jason Cirone (Windsor Spitfires) we&rsquo;ll be in a position to start making the transition to a younger lineup.&rdquo;And that&rsquo;s a key move for the Jets. At the beginning of September&rsquo;s training camp, the Jets will have seven veterans who are 30 or older&mdash;Mantha, Steen, Randy Carlyle, Brent Ashton, Phil Sykes, Mark Osborne and Mark Kumpel. &#9632;

f0011-01

PLAYERS, SMITH AGREE TO DISAGREE

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>The news for the Los Angeles Kings couldn&rsquo;t have been much worse.Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s right-hand man, 45-goal-scorer Tomas Sandstrom, has a fractured bone near his right knee and likely is through for the year.Bob Kudelski, an all-purpose forward who scored 23 goals during the regular season, has a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee and will miss the remainder of the season.Both players were sent to the hospital courtesy of Edmonton defenseman Craig Muni during the Oilers&rsquo; 4-3 double-overtime win April 20 at the Forum, a decision that evened the best-of-seven Smythe Division championship series at one game apiece.The Kings accused Muni of cheapshot tactics and wondered aloud why referee Denis Morel didn&rsquo;t call a penalty on either play.Sandstrom was hit on the kneecap 5:25 into the game. Muni whipped out his right leg to trip Kudelski 1:34 into the first overtime.General manager Rogie Vachon said he would send a videotape of the hit on Kudelski to the league office and was searching for a tape of the hit on Sandstrom.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know (if the NHL) will do anything about, but it&rsquo;s something we have to do to try and protect our players,&rdquo; Vachon said.&ldquo;Hitting a guy on the knee, that&rsquo;s a dangerous spot. (Muni) comes across, he&rsquo;s a big guy, and instead of going for the top of the body, he goes right down and chops at the knees. He&rsquo;s a good player, but he does it all the time.&rdquo;Neither Sandstrom nor Kudelski will require surgery and both are expected to make full recoveries.It will take between four and six weeks for Sandstrom&rsquo;s fracture to heal. It will take six weeks for Kudelski&rsquo;s knee to heal, then between three and four months of rehabilitation.Sandstrom, who missed 10 regularseason games with a fractured vertebra in his back, said he never saw Muni coming.&ldquo;I took a shot and was watching the puck,&rdquo; said Sandstrom, who was fitted for a splint and using crutches to get around. &ldquo;(Muni) was coming from the far side and he got me on the knee. I thought it was kind of late.&rdquo;Muni attempted to check Tony Granato in the second overtime, but the Kings winger saw him coming and leaped out of the way.&ldquo;He almost got three guys,&rdquo; Sandstrom said of Muni. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way he plays. You have to keep your head up. Unfortunately, I didn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Both teams were guilty of cheap shots throughout, yet over the final 41:35, Morel called exactly four penalties&mdash;a pair of coincidental minors.Coach Tom Webster was livid.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s disappointing to lose two quality players to knee injuries and not have penalties called,&rdquo; Webster said.Muni pleaded innocent.&ldquo;They were both coming across,&rdquo; he said of Sandstrom and Kudelski. &ldquo;You get hurt when you try and get out of the way. That&rsquo;s what happened.&rdquo;<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky. Todd Elik, Steve Kasper, John McIntyre.LW&mdash;Tony Granato, Luc Robitaille. John Tonelli, Scott Bjugstad.RW&mdash;Dave Taylor, Brad Jones, Jay Miller, llkka Sinisalo. Jim Thomson.LD&mdash;Larry Robinson, Brian Benning, Tim Watters, Bob Halkidis.RD&mdash;Steve Duchesne, Rob Blake. Marty McSorley, Dennis Smith.G&mdash;Kelly Hrudey. Daniel Berthiaume.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Frank Breault, RW, right knee surgery, out for season. Rod Buskas, D. fractured left thumb, out for season. Mike Donnelly. LW, concussion, day-to-day. Bob Kudelski. sprained right knee, out for season Tom Laidlaw, D, three bulging discs in back, out for season. Tomas Sandstrom, RW, broken right leg. out for season.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Robitaille, 7. A&mdash;Gretzky, 8. P&mdash;Gretzky, 12. PIM&mdash;McSorley, 23. &#9632;

NOW’S THE WRONG TIME FOR RIGHT SIDE WOES

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011378/5918453-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="515" height="629"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE DRYDEN</figcaption></div>A friend of mine is a Euro-basher. He says non-North American hockey players are floaters who pile up points on the power play and believe anything more than a post-game handshake is excessive physical contact.I think he&rsquo;s xenophobic. He thinks I&rsquo;m xenophilic.He says European players are nowhere to be found when a game is on the line and courage is every bit as important as craftiness. I say when a game is on the line goal-scoring ability is every bit as important as grit and the two are not mutually exclusive when describing an overseas player.Skeptical? Well, show me an overtime game and I&rsquo;ll show you a European scoring the decisive goal.Twelve games had gone into extra periods through April 21. Europeans scored the winners in three of those games. Jaromir Jagr beat the New Jersey Devils, Esa Tikkanen eliminated the Calgary Flames and Petr Klima took away home-ice advantage from the Los Angeles Kings.(Let&rsquo;s make it four out of 12 and count Russ Courtnall&rsquo;s beauty against the Buffalo Sabres. Sure, Courtnall was born and raised in British Columbia&mdash;not the British Isles&mdash;but he plays like a European and deserves honorary status. He also deserves to be on the playoff honor role for playing through a hip pointer in spectacular fashion this spring.)Jagr and Klima are Czechoslovakian. Tikkanen is Finnish.Non-North Americans were responsible for deciding 25 per cent of the overtime games. Non-North Americans represent just 10 per cent of the league&rsquo;s players.This is not a playoff phenomenon for these players. Klima had five game-winning goals during the regular season. Tikkanen was the only Edmonton Oiler with more (six). Jagr had four game-winning goals during his rookie season with the Pittsburgh Penguins.Europeans are routinely accused of disappearing during the playoffs. When the games get tight&mdash;the argument goes&mdash;so do their throats. Former Swedish star Kent Nilsson is customarily raised as evidence. The ultra-talented Magic Man had just 11 playoff goals in 59 games.But there is contrary evidence. Lots of it during the past couple of seasons.Finnish superstar Jari Kurri, one of the best two-way players in the game&rsquo;s history, left for Italy this year as the NHL&rsquo;s all-time leading playoff goal-scorer (92). Wayne Gretzky recently passed him.Kurri is remembered for a lot of things but three of the most significant are playoff-related: A record-tying 19-goal playoff year in 1985, the Cup-winning goal in 1987 and a five-point performance in the pivotal second game of the final in 1990.Tikkanen, too, has been an outstanding playoff performer during his career. Over the past three playoff years, Tikkanen had more goals than celebrated teammate Mark Messier.In last year&rsquo;s finals, Tikkanen shadowed Boston Bruin center Craig Janney and outscored the talented playmaker 4-0 in one of the series&rsquo; most crucial match-ups.Klima, meanwhile, has become something of a playoff specialist&mdash;shifting into overdrive during overtime. He ended the longest Stanley Cup final overtime game in NHL history (55:13) last year and ended the longest overtime game (24:48) so far this year.Even the Bruins, who have never had a European star, have benefited from an import this playoff season. Petri Skriko has shone for the Bruins&mdash;scoring in four games.The Finn had four goals in nine playoff games with Boston. He had five in 28 regular-season games with the Bruins.To be sure, there are Europeans (and Canadians and Americans, for that matter) who have been busts during the playoffs. Sergei Makarov was so uninspiring with the Calgary Flames last year Theoren Fleury ripped his Soviet teammate during the 1990 World Championships.A second straight lacklustre playoff postseason performance this year may be his last with the Flames.And it&rsquo;s not uncommon to see Europeans earn plenty of points on the power play. But so do many North Americans. Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s first four playoff goals this spring were scored on the power play. Is it so bad, then, that Swedish defenseman Calle Johansson earned four of six points on the power play in the Washington Capitals&rsquo; first two games against Pittsburgh?Not if you consider the alternative&mdash;four fewer goals and one fewer victory for the Capitals. Steve Dryden in managing editor of Inside HOCKEY. &#9632;

f0013-01

THESE MAGIC ACTS ARE NOT BASED ON DISAPPEARING

&hellip;Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; left winger Brian Propp has played more playoff games&mdash;142&mdash;than any player who hasn&rsquo;t won a Stanley Cup? Propp played 116 playoff games with Philadelphia from 1979-80 to &lsquo;88-89, 20 games with Boston in &lsquo;89-90 and six with Minnesota this season through April 17.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02992/5918484-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="983" height="527"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Propp</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0013-02

DID YOU KNOW…

<h2>BRUINS</h2>In Game 3 of the Adams Division title series at the Forum, goalie Andy Moog played perhaps his greatest game as a Bruin, stopping 39 shots to singlehandedly steal a 3-2 victory. &ldquo;We did everything right,&rdquo; said Habs&rsquo; coach Pat Burns. &ldquo;But they had a guy named Andy Moog in net.&rdquo;&hellip;The Bruins were without key defenseman Garry Galley, who suffered a pulled hamstring in the seriesopener and was expected to miss at least three games&hellip;With two Game 3 assists, Ray Bourque became the Bruins&rsquo; all-time leading playoff scorer, passing Phil Esposito with 104. points in 113 games&hellip;During this and the previous three playoff series against Montreal, the Bruins have killed 70-of-71 Habs&rsquo; power plays.<h2>CANADIENS</h2>Left winger Sylvain Turgeon, who missed all but 19 games this season with an assortment of injuries, returned to action against the Bruins. One joke making the rounds in Montreal is that Turgeon&rsquo;s hockey card next season will picture him sitting on a stationary bicycle. Turgeon was looking for his first playoff goal since April 1, 1987 which he scored against the Nordiques while playing with the Whalers&hellip;The Habs wasted little time getting rookie defenseman Sean Hill some experience. Hill, who signed with the organization April 12 from Wisconsin (WCHA), played three games with Fredericton of the AHL. He was then called up April 17 and played in Game 1 of the Adams Division final against the Bruins. He might have played in Game 2 as well, but came up with a lame ankle&hellip;After going a respectable 9-for-41 against the Sabres on the power play in the Adams semifinal, the Habs were 0-for-9 through the first three games against the Bruins in the Adams final-&hellip;Goaltender Patrick Roy is one of the NHL&rsquo;s classiest performers. Following the tough 3-2 Game 3 loss to the Bruins April 21, which saw him give up a goal with just 81 seconds to go in the game, Roy posed for photos with a couple of kids in the Habs&rsquo; dressing room. Though profoundly disappointed, he even managed to force a smile.<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>The Washington Capitals reportedly did everything they could to get their hands on center Kip Miller. They offered Brian Sakic, (Joe Sakic&rsquo;s brother), to Quebec so they could reunite Kip with his own brother, Kelly. But Nordiques&rsquo; GM Pierre Page said no thanks&hellip;There&rsquo;s a rumor going around that highly touted Soviet right winger Valeri Kamensky (Quebec&rsquo;s 8th pick, 129th overall, in the 1988 draft), could sign a deal with the Lugano team of the Swiss Elite League. But the Nords are still convinced they hold the upper hand. Page and owner Marcel Aubut are scheduled to meet with Kamensky May 5, the day the World Championships end&hellip;Dan Lambert, the Nords&rsquo; 8th choice, 106th overall, in 1989, will be given a good shot at making the Nordiques next season. &ldquo;He was our best defenseman in Halifax (AHL) at the end of the season,&rdquo; said Page. &ldquo;Now we want to know if, at 5-foot-8, he can play night after night in the NHL.&rdquo;&hellip;Page spent a long time looking at Trois-Rivieres&rsquo; (QMJHL) star Yanic Perreault this spring. Perreault could be a second-round pick. The Nords have two choices in the second round, their own as well as Toronto&rsquo;s from the trade that brought right winger Scott Pearson from Quebec.<h2>WHALERS</h2>Although he stopped short of making a definitive announcement, GM Ed Johnston made it sound like coach Rick Ley would be returning next season. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to talk to (owner) Richard Gordon about this still But I&rsquo;m optimistic Ricky will remaias coach,&rdquo; Johnston said. Said Gordon: &ldquo;The decision is 100 per cent Eddie&rsquo;s.&rdquo;&hellip;A week after a disciplinary visit to NHL executive vice president Brian O&rsquo;Neill, left winger Pat Verbeek was still waiting to hear if there would be any suspension for his role in a Game 5 melee in Boston.<h2>SABRES</h2>If turnabout is fair play, a little exchange between the media and center Pierre Turgeon goes a long way in explaining some of the problems the Sabres had with accountability this season. Asked to try and assess what went wrong for the Sabres in the playoffs, Turgeon said the team has good players and that if people looked at the team that&rsquo;s here they would acknowledge that. Turgeon also said he wished he was able to make more of a contribution. Asked if he had any reasons why this year was a lesser year than the last one, he said it was because &ldquo;some people decided that.&rdquo; Turgeon didn&rsquo;t say who those people were. When asked if this was a disputed point between himself and the coaching staff, Turgeon said: &ldquo;I guess there are some people here who have the last word and you can&rsquo;t do a thing about it.&rdquo; Turgeon never mentioned the coaches. During the playoffs, coach Rick Dudley singled out a player for quitting on the play that led to Montreal&rsquo;s winning goal in Game 2. Dudley never mentioned Turgeon by name, but made it clear that was the player he was talking about. This time, Turgeon did the same&hellip;Dudley declined to answer whether or not he was interested in coaching the Sabres again next season. He said the point was moot until he met with GM Gerry Meehan. Dudley also hinted he wouldn&rsquo;t be surprised if he is not in Buffalo next season. &ldquo;Everybody wants to rip the organization apart and I know that I&rsquo;m probably the guy who gets the chop first and that&rsquo;s fine,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

MOOG STEALS WIN FOR BRUINS

<div class="byline">BY CHRIS STEVENSON</div>Stephane Richer shares a common interest with thousands of hockey fans&mdash;he likes to dabble in pools.Playoff pool players who selected the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; sniper haven&rsquo;t been disappointed. The farther the Canadiens go in the playoffs, the better the chance those poolsters will have of a big payoff.Richer&rsquo;s a pool player, too.&ldquo;I want the team to go as far as possible in the playoffs because I need money to pay for my swimming pool,&rdquo; he joked.After a lacklustre regular season, which saw his goal production tumble from 51 to 31 goals, Richer is once again doing just swimmingly.Of course, he never doubted he would.Richer stood in the middle of the Habs&rsquo; dressing room a couple of weeks before the 1990-91 playoffs got underway. He self-assuredly predicted he would redeem himself in the postseason. He said he was a money player.Well, seven goals in eight games (as of the Habs 3-2 loss to Boston in Game 3 of the Adams Division final April 21) have the right winger putting his money right where his mouth is.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always done well in the playoffs since I&rsquo;ve been in Montreal,&rdquo; said Richer who had 34 goals in 68 career playoff games. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a playoff player. I like to score the big goals the people will remember.&rdquo;One of those will be the overtime winner Richer poked home in Game 2 against the Bruins. After having tied the game with his sixth of the playoffs, bringing the Habs back from a 2-0 deficit, Richer lashed home a rebound just 27 seconds into overtime to give the Habs a split at the Boston Garden.Richer is quick to credit his linemates Shayne Corson and Brian Skrudland for his success.&ldquo;Shayne is working the comers while Brian has been crashing the net,&rdquo; said Richer. &ldquo;Just ask (Bruins&rsquo; goaltender) Andy Moog.&rdquo;The fickle Forum fans, who booed Richer earlier this season when he was on the ice, now boo when Montreal coach Pat Burns takes him off. That was the case in Game 3 of the Adams final at the Forum when Richer and his linemates did a good job of forechecking down low, creating turnovers and getting scoring chances. The line combined for 14 shots that night.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t really win,&rdquo; said Richer.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>April 17: Sean Hill, D, recalled from Fredericton (AHL). April 21: Kevin Dahl, D, Gilbert Dionne, LW, and Jean-Claude Bergeron, G, recalled from Fredericton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Guy Carbonneau, Andrew Cassels, Stephan Lebeau, Denis Savard, Brian Skrudland.LW&mdash;Mike McPhee, Shayne Corson, John LeClair, Ryan Walter, Brent Gilchrist, Gilbert Dionne, Sylvain Turgeon, Mario Roberge.RW&mdash;Russ Courtnall, Stephane Richer, Mike Keane, Tom Chorske.LD&mdash;Mathieu Schneider, Sylvain Lefebvre, Donald Dufresne, Sean Hill.RD&mdash;Lyle Odelein, Eric Desjardins. Alain Cote, Kevin Dahl.G&mdash;Patrick Roy, Andre Racicot, Jean-Claude Bergeron.<h3>INJURIES</h3>J.J. Daigneault. D, bruised knee, day-to-day. Todd Ewen. RW. broken right hand, indefinite Petr Svoboda, D. bruised knee, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Courtnail, Richer, 7. A&mdash;Savard, 8. P&mdash;Richer, Savard, 10 PIM&mdash;Odelein, 44. &#9632;

RICHER PUTS MONEY WHERE MOUTH IS

<div class="byline">BY STEPHEN HARRIS</div>Unwanted by a perennial loser in Vancouver, Petri Skriko has become a key performer for the Stanley Cup contending Boston Bruins.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a born-again hockey player,&rdquo; said Skriko. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m like a young pup again. Everything&rsquo;s fun. I smile all the time.&rdquo;There have also been smiles among Bruins&rsquo; management over their Jan. 16 acquisition of the 29-year-old Skriko, a theft that cost them only a second-round pick in one of the next two entry drafts.The 5-foot-10, 175-pound left winger has been one of the Bruins&rsquo; top two-way performers during the playoffs, with four goals and four assists in nine games. He has seen regular duty with Craig Janney and Cam Neely on the Bruins&rsquo; No. 1 power play unit and has been used in gut-check defensive situations.He has played, in other words, much the same way he did in relative anonymity for six years with the Canucks, for whom he scored 30 or more goals four times but was a well-kept secret to most NHL fans. In six NHL seasons with Vancouver, Skriko had 167 goals and 365 points in 452 games.&ldquo;Playing for a last-place team, you might not get all the credit you deserve,&rdquo; said Bruins&rsquo; goalie Reggie Lemelin, a former Flame and frequent Smythe Division foe of Skriko.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the same player now he was then. He has got a new environment, a new start and definitely a new incentive.&rdquo;Skriko still isn&rsquo;t sure why he suddenly found himself watching most Canuck games earlier this season from the press box&mdash;a situation that worsened until he was forced to demand a trade, and was banned from practice by then-coach Bob McCammon.&ldquo;I had eight weeks waiting every day,&rdquo; said Skriko, who just wanted to play&mdash;if not for the Canucks, then somewhere. &ldquo;It got pretty ugly at the end. I would say to (McCammon), &lsquo;What have I done wrong? Why do you treat me this way?&rsquo;&ldquo;I kept quiet for three weeks. After that, it&rsquo;s a no-win situation. They wanted me just to sit there and rot.&rdquo;There has been no shortage of ice time in Boston, and Skriko&rsquo;s skating, passing and obvious hockey sense have significantly helped the Bruins.&ldquo;He brought some offensive skills that really weren&rsquo;t available to us from the left side,&rdquo; said defenseman Don Sweeney.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Craig Janney, Dave Poulin, Ken Hodge, Vladimir Ruzicka, Ron Hoover, Wes Walz.LW&mdash;Jeff Lazaro, Petri Skriko, Randy Burridge, Nevin Markwart.RW&mdash;Cam Neely, Dave Christian, Bob Sweeney, Chris Nilan, Peter Douris, Chris WinnesLD&mdash;Don Sweeney, Glen Wesley, Al Pedersen, Ken Hammond.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque, Jim Wiemer, Bob Beers.G&mdash;Andy Moog, Reggie Lemelin, Matt DelGuidice, Norm Foster.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bobby Carpenter, LW, fractured left kneecap, out for season. Garry Galley. D, pulled hamstring, day-to-day. Stephane Quintal, torn ankle ligaments, out for season.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Neely, 7. A&mdash;Bourque, 10. P&mdash;Bourque, 13. PIM&mdash;B. Sweeney, 35. &#9632;

SKRIKO GETS RESPECT—AND ICE TIME—IN BEANTOWN

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>Will it be a clean sweep or just a light dusting? That was the question Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; fans were asking after their team made yet another premature exit from the Stanley Cup playoffs.If indications from president and chairman of the board Seymour H. Knox are correct, they won&rsquo;t have to wait long for an answer.&ldquo;As you know I call the shots,&rdquo; Knox said, &ldquo;but I think everyone should know and understand that we are always fair to all parties. We are not prone to make rash judgments&mdash;that has never been our style, nor will it be&mdash;but I can assure that we will not waste time on this.&rdquo;Knox did not reaffirm anyone&rsquo;s position with the club, including that of general manager Gerry Meehan. As in the past, Knox said he always has had confidence in Meehan&rsquo;s judgment, but quickly added he neither would commit to any person nor submit to any extensive questioning until he had completed his review.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t, at this point, want to be drawn into any conversation regarding anyone,&rdquo; Knox said. &ldquo;We have always been fair to everyone in that regard.&ldquo;We have questions that we too want answered. And until we sit down and meet among ourselves, and then ask the questions we want answered, it would be unfair to make statements at this time. We will do this (conduct a review) as expeditiously as possible.&rdquo;Knox&rsquo;s comments were surprising in that Meehan has had a strong rapport with the ownership and the board of directors, but he too implied that the future of everyone in the organization is subject to review.&ldquo;The organization is to be evaluated at all levels,&rdquo; Meehan said in an end-of-season press briefing. &ldquo;You people can write what you want, but until that evaluation is complete, there&rsquo;s no point in engaging in speculation for this player or that manager or this coach.&rdquo;Meehan said the recently completed season and playoff run was for him &ldquo;the most frustrating and disappointing season I&rsquo;ve been involved with since I&rsquo;ve been general manager.&rdquo;Meehan also said:&#9632; He felt everything was in place for a top performance and that he was surprised the players didn&rsquo;t deliver.&#9632; High expectations had a great deal to do with the team being perceived as a failure (he indicted the media for having unrealistic expectations but later conceded he also had high expectations and was disappointed they were not met).&#9632; Some of the people counted on for leadership did not measure up.&#9632; The Knox family gave the team quality ownership committed to winning and he took strong exception to allegations they were not.&#9632; The organization would have to look at some sort of restructuring in consideration of the obvious displeasure of the fans.&#9632; The health and quality of the goaltending is a concern.&#9632; The team had to show some sort of accountability regarding leadership and commitment to winning.Meehan also said he had no timetable for talking to coach Rick Dudley about his future with the team, but intended to have those talks soon. Both men said they were not so far apart philosophically as some people might believe. Meehan did admit to a rift between the two men at the start of the season, but he said those differences have since been overcome.&ldquo;Without question, some players could have played better throughout the year and the playoffs,&rdquo; Meehan said.What happens to them, and everyone else, remains to be seen.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>April 15: Darrin Shannon, LW, Darcy Wakaluk. G, Ken Sutton, D, Kevin Haller, D. assigned to Rochester (AHL). &#9632;

NOBODY’S JOB SAFE IN SCHOOL OF FAIR KNOX

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>Dave Chambers&rsquo; first season as a head coach in the NHL wasn&rsquo;t exactly pleasant, but the 50-year-old Toronto native did gain valuable information that should prove helpful next season.Chambers was hired by the Quebec Nordiques last season because general manager Pierre Page felt he had the right character to transform younger players into bonafide NHLers.The consummate teacher, Chambers is patient and understanding. He has extensive experience with younger players having coached at the University of Saskatchewan (Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union, 1967-69), Guelph (CIAU, &lsquo;69-70), Ohio State (Central Collegiate Hockey Association, &lsquo;70-72), York University (CIAU, &lsquo;72-77) and the Toronto Marlboros (Ontario League, &lsquo;78-79).But even the patient Chambers had his hands full this season, as he employed 49 different players.&ldquo;We started off with the people we had available,&rdquo; Chambers said. &ldquo;We were convinced we could better this team. And if the early results would&rsquo;ve been positive, we wouldn&rsquo;t have had to make so many changes to the lineup.&ldquo;But we came to the point where we knew something was wrong and that our nice plans simply wouldn&rsquo;t work out. That&rsquo;s when we decided to get rid of players who didn&rsquo;t want to perform for us and go with the younger elements. It was tough, because I really wasn&rsquo;t used to losing so much.&rdquo;Sleepless nights became common for Chambers this season, as his team struggled to its third consecutive last-place finish&mdash;16-50-14, 46 points.&ldquo;I went through some rough times,&rdquo; said Chambers. &ldquo;So many things can go wrong and there always seemed to be something happening to disrupt the concentration.&rdquo;Things hit rock bottom in November during one of the team&rsquo;s worst losing skids. That&rsquo;s when it became apparent that certain elements&mdash;particularly veterans including disgruntled center Claude Loiselle&mdash;were being disruptive in the Nordique dressing room.Veterans Lucien DeBlois, Michel Petit and Aaron Broten were traded to Toronto to cleanse the team of its bad influences. Loiselle was acquired by Toronto shortly thereafter.&ldquo;It was tough dealing with that,&rdquo; admitted Chambers. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m encouraged by our solid performances towards the end of the season. The chemistry is a lot more stable right now. I think we&rsquo;ve created the right kind of atmosphere. The players now in place believe in our plans. And that&rsquo;s good.&rdquo;But despite the team&rsquo;s youthful character, there are major gaps to fill. And Chambers knows it&rsquo;s Page&rsquo;s job to find the missing personnel.&ldquo;We need a couple of veterans with character, guys who know what it takes to win. Players who will be able to help the younger ones get over the hump, take the extra step and mature. I don&rsquo;t think we can do it with only youngsters.&rdquo;Many critics feel Chambers is too distant behind the bench, failing to react to bad plays and bad calls. Chambers is the first to admit, he&rsquo;s not Michel Bergeron, the team&rsquo;s fiery former coach who flew off the handle often.&ldquo;I know people find me a little stiff behind the bench, but that&rsquo;s me,&rdquo; Chambers said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m more of a positive guy than a negative one. I can shout as loud as anybody else. But only when I think it&rsquo;s the right time to do it.&rdquo; &#9632;

KEVIN JOHNSTON

PATIENT CHAMBERS AIMS FOR PLAYOFFS

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>Eddie Johnston saw enough in the playoffs to convince him that his daring moves at the March 5 trading deadline will pay off next season.The Hartford Whalers won just three of their final 19 regular-season games, but outplayed the Boston Bruins in long stretches during their six-game loss in the Adams Division semifinals.The Whalers received high style points for their play on the ice against the Bruins, but received low points in doing what it takes to win on the scoreboard.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sick about it,&rdquo; left winger Pat Verbeek said. &ldquo;It makes me sick to my stomach to think we outplayed them and still lost.&rdquo;&ldquo;The problem is this team doesn&rsquo;t know how to win yet,&rdquo; right winger Kevin Dineen said.But less than 48 hours after Hartford&rsquo;s elimination, Johnston, the Whalers&rsquo; general manager, was selling optimism. He&rsquo;s convinced the acquistions of John Cullen, Zarley Zalapski and Mark Hunter at the trading deadline, along with the development of Bobby Holik, Adam Burt and some influx from their American League affiliate (the Springfield Indians), will greatly improve things next season.And after a 12-point drop in the standings and the team&rsquo;s fifth successive defeat in the first round of the playoffs, things probably couldn&rsquo;t get much worse.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt we are optimistic,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;The playoffs showed we can work together and the chemistry is very good. We didn&rsquo;t have that part before.&rdquo;Johnston followed by taking a verbal shot at Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson, Dave Tippett, Mike Liut and Joel Quenneville&mdash;the Whalers&rsquo; former leaders who have since been traded.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s put it bluntly,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t have any leadership in our locker room before.&rdquo;With only 17 goals this season, chances are Dineen may have played his last game for the Whalers, too.The 5-foot-11, 195-pound Quebec City native scored a goal and played well in Game 1 against the Bruins, but was quiet on a checking line covering Craig Janney and Cam Neely the rest of the series.&ldquo;I think the Whalers can probably find somebody a little cheaper to do the job that I&rsquo;ve done here the last couple of months as a third-line checker,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;If that&rsquo;s the way it&rsquo;s going to be, I&rsquo;d imagine something will happen. But I can&rsquo;t concern myself with it at this point.&rdquo;The Whalers&rsquo; shopping list for the summer has three main elements: a No. 2 center with offensive and defensive capabilities; a tough, physical defenseman; and a No. 1 goaltender.The Whalers will likely talk with Edmonton, Philadelphia or New Jersey regarding a No. 1 goaltender.With Cullen, the Whalers have a No. 1 center with more offensive bite than Francis. But they still need to replace his size and two-way play.Zalapski gives the team the quarterback on defense they sorely lacked, but losing Samuelsson means Hartford is without a muscular defenseman.&ldquo;We&rsquo;d like to get a better second center who can get 20 goals or better,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to add toughness on D. We&rsquo;re going to evaluate our goaltending, but a guy like Grant Fuhr&mdash;teams don&rsquo;t give away easily.&rdquo; &#9632;

JOHNSTON’S SHOPPING LIST TARGETS THREE ITEMS

May 7, 1985: The Edmonton Oilers and Chicago Blackhawks set an NHL playoff record for the fastest three goals (both teams) in a playoff game&mdash;21 seconds. Chicago&rsquo;s Behn Wilson scored for Chicago at 19:22 of the third period, followed by Edmonton&rsquo;s Jari Kurri (19:36) and Glenn Anderson (19:43). Edmonton won 7-3.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02835/5918690-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="639" height="419"><figcaption class="caption-body">Behn Wilson</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0017-02

FLASHBACK

<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>Last summer Denis Savard was traded to Montreal because of his deteriorating relationship with Mike Keenan. Will veteran defenseman Doug Wilson follow Savard out of town this summer? &ldquo;No one is beyond being traded, but Wilson&rsquo;s 33,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;Is he marketable? I don&rsquo;t know because I&rsquo;ve never tried to trade him.&rdquo; A stumbling block could be a reported no-trade clause in Wilson&rsquo;s contract, which has one year remaining. Wilson and Keenan have long been at odds. Keenan has often questioned Wilson&rsquo;s toughness and did so again in the playoffs. Wilson suffered a cut jaw and concussion in Game 5 against the North Stars but was cleared to play in Game 6 at Minnesota. When Wilson told Keenan he couldn&rsquo;t play, Keenan left him behind in Chicago. Wilson flew to Minnesota on his own the day of the game, but Keenan kept him out of the lineup, saying, &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to go into the game with any reservations.&rdquo; Wilson has refused to comment on the situation&hellip;Jeremy Roenick, Steve Larmer, Steve Thomas, Trent Yawney and Steve Konroyd all accepted invitations to play in the World Championships. Roenick is playing for the U.S., the other four for Canada.<h2>RED WINGS</h2>Steve Yzerman played the final three games of the playoffs on a very sore right knee, coach/GM Bryan Murray revealed after the 3-2 loss in Game 7 in St. Louis. Yzerman injured the right knee&mdash;the same one he badly injured three years ago&mdash;when he fell on it after a check in the closing seconds of Game 4. Doctors at first suggested resting him for Games 5 and 6, but Yzerman strapped on a bulky brace and played anyway. He went without a goal after scoring a hat trick in Game 1, and was pointless in the final three games, all losses. Murray said the injury was not serious, however. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s muscle fatigue. He just needs rest,&rdquo; Murray said&hellip;Defenseman Rick Zombo and Adam Oates were inseparable friends when the two were Detroit teammates. But they exchanged not a word until the traditional handshake after Game 7 of the Detroit-St. Louis series. &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t basketball,&rdquo; Zombo said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t kiss a guy before the jump ball. Hockey&rsquo;s not like that. He plays for the St. Louis Blues now, so we wanted to chop off his fingers.&rdquo;<h2>BLUES</h2>The Blues got a kick out of their power play in Game 2 of the Norris Division final. Minnesota&rsquo;s Marc Bureau kicked Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s rebound into the North Stars net to end the Blues&rsquo; slump of 24 power plays without a goal. The Blues had gone 308 minutes 25 seconds without a power-play goal.<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>Owner Norman Green said he expects plans for a $30 million expansion and remodeling of the Met Center to become a political issue between I the cities of Bloomington and down-town Minneapolis. The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission must give Green the ability to mortgage the project for it to be financially feasible&hellip;The North Stars have played the St. Louis Blues in eight previous playoff series, more than any other NHL team. St. Louis holds a 5-3 edge&hellip;The Blues won the season series against the North Stars 5-1-2&hellip;The North Stars&rsquo; power play, the best in the NHL after its first-round success against Chicago, needed just four seconds to score its first powerplay goal against the Blues&hellip;Derian Hatcher, recalled from North Bay (OHL) after his team was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs, couldn&rsquo;t skate with the team when he first arrived because his size-131/2 skates hadn&rsquo;t arrived. None of the North Stars wear skates that big.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2>Despite Team Canada&rsquo;s dire need for players at the World Championships in Finland, no invitations were extended to Leaf players. The most likely candidate, left winger Vincent Damphousse who led the Leafs with 73 points, was passed over in favor Chicago&rsquo;s Steve Thomas (54 points), Vancouver&rsquo;s Geoff Courtnall (65 points) and Philadelphia&rsquo;s Murray Craven (66 points). Team USA invited left winger Joe Sacco&hellip;Boston Bruins&rsquo; president and GM Harry Sinden said he has no interest in becoming the Leafs&rsquo; hockey boss. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think many would be interested until the ownership question is settled there,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

WILL WILSON BLOW OUT OF WINDY CITY?

<div class="byline">BY GARY OLSON</div>Churla, 25, is known as a straightahead. blue collar-type hockey player. Every game he plays, you&rsquo;ll know what to expect. If a player wears a different color sweater than Churla&rsquo;s he&rsquo;s probably going to get hit&mdash;and hit hard.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question my job is to take the body,&rdquo; Churla said during the Norris Division finals against the St. Louis Blues. &ldquo;Our line tries to go out and hit somebody and maybe get the momentum to swing our way. Maybe the next line will feed off that.&ldquo;Everybody likes to pitch in on offense (Churla outscored Brett Hull 1-0 in the first two games of the series, something coach Bob Gainey called a &ldquo;short-term statistic.&rdquo;), but my job in the playoffs is to play smart, avoid the stupid penalties and still play a physical game. It&rsquo;s not easy because the referees really have me under the microscope.&rdquo;Churla led the North Stars with 284 penalty minutes in 1990-91. He probably would&rsquo;ve led the NHL in that category, but a variety of nagging injuries limited him to 40 games. But he did lead the league in PIM per game, averaging 7.1 minutes per appearance.Like every team&rsquo;s tough guys, Churla has earned special attention from officials. The severity of penalties he gets usually coincides with when they&rsquo;re taken. If there&rsquo;s less than five minutes left in a period or game, a Churla scuffle will probably net a fighting penalty.If there&rsquo;s more time left, a referee may tack on an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty or even a misconduct penalty.&ldquo;There are certain parts of Shane&rsquo;s game that are an asset to our club,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;The value depends on how well he uses them.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of the best players we have when it comes to fighting the puck out of our zone along the boards.&ldquo;He has played a very disciplined game in the playoffs and he has been getting chances to score. He has problems with certain officials, but he has to adjust his game to them. Things he does can be penalties when they wouldn&rsquo;t be for anybody else.&rdquo;Churla recognizes the limits of his game and has played with considerable enthusiasm in the post-season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m no 50-goal scorer, but I can look after our goal scorers and make sure they have room to do their jobs,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been labelled a &lsquo;goon&rsquo; and there&rsquo;s nothing I can do to change that image with some people. But I know I can make the plays.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing better than scoring goals but a lot of what I do goes unnoticed on the scoresheet. My job is to check people, tick off the other guy, get him looking to get even with me.&ldquo;The way I got to the NHL and the way I hope to stay in the NHL is through hard work. A guy can make up for a lot of skill with a lot of hard work.&rdquo;<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>April 16: Derian Hatcher, D, recalled from North Bay (OHL). Cal McGowan, C. recalled from Kamloops (WHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Neal Broten, Dave Gagner, Bobby Smith, Marc Bureau, Perry Berezan, Cal McGowan.LW&mdash;Gaetan Duchesne, Brian Propp, Brian Bellows, Basil McRae.RW&mdash;Stewart Gavin, Mike Modano. Mike Craig. Shane Churla, Ulf Dahlen, Doug Smail.LD&mdash;Mark Tinordi. Neil Wilkinson. Brian Glynn, Rob Zettler.RD&mdash;Chris Dahlquist, Shawn Chambers, Curt Giles, Derian Hatcher.G&mdash;Jon Casey, Brian Hayward.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jim Johnson, D, bruised hip, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Bellows, 5. A&mdash;Bellows, 8. P&mdash;Bellows. 13. PIM&mdash;Churla. 54. &#9632;

CHURLA WORKING TO MAKE ST. LOUIS BLUE

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div>In the first two games of the Norris Division finals, Brett Hull was a shadow of himself.Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; Stewart Gavin and Gaetan Duchesne shrouded Hull with the tightest checking he has seen this season, covering him with arms, legs, sticks and bodies.Daylight was at a premium. Hull had just one shot on goal in Game 1, a 2-1 loss by the St. Louis Blues, and four in Game 2, a 5-2 victory. After scoring eight goals in the Norris semifinal victory over Detroit, Hull had none in the first two games.Not that he minded.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care if I ever score again as long as guys keeping putting them in when I create the openings,&rdquo; Hull said.With the massive defensive effort against him, Hull has been relegated to the grunt work of a grinder, and he has done it quite well. Instead of lurking in the shadows, jumping into openings and rifling his famous snapshot past unsuspecting goalies, as usual, Hull has driven to the net to create confusion and openings.When Hull has gone to the net, defensemen have joined in the shadows, and teammates have been open. That happened twice in Game 2. As a Minnesota defender rode Hull through the crease, defenseman Garth Butcher swooped in to redirect Bob Bassen&rsquo;s centering pass past Jon Casey.Later, as Gavin mugged Hull, Adam Oates was left unattended at the side of the net to pick up the rebound of a weak shot by Hull and beat Casey. Oates&rsquo; goal proved to be the game-winner.Hull&rsquo;s strategy also proved to be a game-winner.&ldquo;If they&rsquo;re shadowing me with a forward, I&rsquo;m trying to bring him to the defenseman in front of the net and bring at least two of their guys together,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;If I get more, that&rsquo;s great because someone will be open.&ldquo;I have to go to the net and create openings for the other guys. If they&rsquo;re not going to jump into them&hellip;Hey, they have to jump into the holes I create going through. That&rsquo;s where the scoring chances are.&rdquo;And that&rsquo;s where linemates Adam Oates and Dave Thomlinson, as well as right defensemen Butcher, Jeff Brown and Mario Marois, will have to step in. Oates had a career high 25 goals this season. Thomlinson had 53 in Peoria (International League).&ldquo;We have to come through,&rdquo; Oates said. &ldquo;We have to help him. He helps us often enough. If we score, it&rsquo;ll pull them away from Brett a little bit. They&rsquo;ll have to change their plan. Simple.&ldquo;And if the defense comes in and buries a couple, they&rsquo;ll have to change it, too, won&rsquo;t they?&rdquo;Not necessarily, Gavin said.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure they&rsquo;ll try to do something, but we&rsquo;re still going to concentrate on him,&rdquo; Gavin said. &ldquo;He scores the bulk of their goals. We&rsquo;re still going to key on him because he&rsquo;ll kill you the most.&rdquo;Hull scored 86 of the Blues&rsquo; 310 goals this season, or 27.7 per cent. Through two Norris final games, he was just below that, with eight of the Blues&rsquo; 30 goals, or 26.7 per cent.&ldquo;If you leave an inch or two, he has got such a good wrist shot and it&rsquo;s so quick, that&rsquo;s all he needs,&rdquo; Duchesne said. &ldquo;If I try to score, I need two or three feet.&rdquo;Hull would gladly take his inch or two, and the Blues would like to see officials give him some room.&ldquo;Gavin was all over him,&rdquo; Brown said. &ldquo;That kind of stuff has to stop. The ref&rsquo;s got to start calling that kind of stuff. (Gavin) is draped all over him.&rdquo;The tight checking has frustrated Hull, who jawed with Duchesne during Game 1 and slashed rookie Marc Bureau to negate a power play in Game 2. He also had a long talk with Casey, who slashed him in the ankles as Gavin mugged him in the crease.&ldquo;If (Casey) wants to slash me, he can slash me as much as he wants,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;I kind of know him a little bit. I wasn&rsquo;t expecting him to take a slash at me. I don&rsquo;t do anything to him.&rdquo;Nor anyone else, which makes the stick work in the shadows frustrating.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind getting checked,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That makes it more of a challenge, but I don&rsquo;t like the cheap stuff.&rdquo;<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>April 19: Tom Tilley, D, assigned to Peoria (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Adam Oates, Bob Bassen, Dan Quinn, Rick Meagher.LW&mdash;Dave Thomlinson, Dave Lowry, Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Gino Cavallini.RW&mdash;Brett Hull, Rich Sutter, Kelly Chase. Darin Kimble, Steve Tuttle.LD&mdash;Scott Stevens, Paul Cavallini, Harold Snepsts.RD&mdash;Jeff Brown, Garth Butcher, Glen Featherstone, Mario Marois.G&mdash;Vincent Riendeau, Pat Jablonski.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Curtis Joseph, G, sprained right knee, day-to-day. Ron Wilson, C, sprained thumb, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Hull, 8. A&mdash;Oates, 10. P&mdash;Oates, 15. PIM&mdash;Butcher. 44.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011057/5918769-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="558" height="620"><figcaption class="caption-body">Despite blanket coverage, Brett Hull has managed to score.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0019-01

HULL CAUSES TROUBLE DANCING IN SHADOWS

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>The day after the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; season-ending loss in Game 7 of the Norris Division semifinal to St. Louis, Bryan Murray was bracing for what he predicted would be a &ldquo;hectic summer&rdquo;&mdash;one that could include a major deal involving center Jimmy Carson.&ldquo;Winning would have done wonders for some of our guys,&rdquo; coach/general manager Murray said in a wide-ranging interview. &ldquo;But losing gives you the message that something has to be done.&rdquo;But while some teams with greater expectations&mdash;like Chicago and the New York Rangers&mdash;threatened major housecleaning, the Red Wings talked of tidying up a roster that generally exceeded expectations in Murray&rsquo;s first season.They finished six points better than the club that failed to make the playoffs in the final year of the Jimmy Devellano-Jacques Demers regime last season.And in the playoffs, the Red Wings gave the Blues a much better tussle than anyone expected before bowing 3-2 in the series finale.Still, Murray warns the Red Wings have to continue improving in order to keep up with Chicago, the Blues and the ever-improving Minnesota North Stars.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll make a few moves to add some talent to our team,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Hopefully, there&rsquo;ll be some new faces here next year.&rdquo;Some of the faces expected to be moved.&#9632; Carson. The Red Wings are losing patience with the former star. His poor production in Detroit has been mitigated by knee injuries and a lack of wingers to properly complement three top-line centers.&#9632; Goaltender Glen Hanlon. He has an offer to play for the Canadian Olympic program. The Red Wings are encouraging him to seek other opportunities.&#9632; Defenseman Rick Green. Does the team&rsquo;s oldest player (35) want to return for one more season? Do the Red Wings want him at his salary? Both sides are mulling it over.&#9632; Goaltender Allan Bester. He finished the season as Tim Cheveldae&rsquo;s backup, but his future is uncertain because the Red Wings are shopping for another goaltender.&#9632; Defenseman Doug Crossman. He played out his option, but the Red Wings hope to begin negotiating a new contract soon.&#9632; Assistant coaches Dave Lewis, Phil Myre and Adirondack coach and GM Barry Melrose. All were hired by the regime that preceded Murray and finished their contracts.Carson&rsquo;s future may be the best developing story of the summer. The suburban Detroit native has struggled to find his Midas touch around the net since coming home in a blockbuster deal with Edmonton early last season, disappointing an enormous potential following.More and more as the season and playoffs progressed, it was clear he wasn&rsquo;t fitting into Murray&rsquo;s plans.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>April 21: Greg Stefan, G, and Kevin McClelland, C/RW, released.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Jimmy Carson, Marc Habscheid.LW&mdash;Bob Probert, Brent Fedyk, Shawn Burr, Keith Primeau, Paul Ysebaert.RW&mdash;Johan Garpenlov, Kevin Miller, Marc Potvin, Gary Shuchuk, Mike Sillinger.LD&mdash;Steve Chiasson, Yves Racine, Rick Green, Brad Marsh, Bobby Dollas, Dennis Vial.RD&mdash;Brad McCrimmon, Rick Zombo, Doug Crossman.G&mdash;Tim Cheveldae, Allan Bester. Glen Hanlon<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Barr. RW, broken right ankle. Gerald Gallant. LW, back surgery.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Yzerman, Miller. 3. A&mdash;Crossman, Fedorov, 5. P&mdash;Yzerman, Fedorov, 6. PIM&mdash;Probert. 50. &#9632;

CARSON TRADE LIKELY IN SUMMER

<div class="byline">BY MARK HARDING</div>That well-worn adage about a team only going as far as its goaltending will carry it proved accurate for the Toronto Maple Leafs last season.That isn&rsquo;t, however, meant to be an indictment of those who tended goal for Toronto in I990-91. Truth is, the Leaf goalies, Peter Ing in particular, played at or above expectations.While the goaltending might not have been Vezina Trophy material night in and night out, far too many other areas collapsed on a regular basis and left the goaltenders on extremely unstable ground most games.And, though, it may not have been a banner year for Leaf netminders collectively, it was a good year for Ing despite his mediocre numbers.&ldquo;Considering the fact the original plan at training camp called for Peter and Jeff to serve as backups to Allan (Bester), I think we did all right,&rdquo; said coach Tom Watt, who remained loyal to his backstops throughout the season. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question that we had to bring Peter along a little more quickly than we would have liked, but I think he&rsquo;ll benefit from it in the long run and the team as well.&rdquo;The Leafs now have a much better idea of where they stand in goal than they did nine months ago and have valid cause to look optimistically towards the future.Ing&rsquo;s 3.84 goals-against average isn&rsquo;t going to win any Jennings Trophies, but there were nights when he was the difference between a loss and an embarrassing rout. His award as the league&rsquo;s top freshman in December and his Molson Cup win in Toronto for game-star selections says plenty about what Ing is capable of producing.His 56 appearances was an incredibly high number for a newcomer and ranked him fourth overall behind Ed Belfour, Tim Cheveldae and Bill Ranford.Jeff Reese, with some much-needed help from team goaltending consultant Ian Young, showed a fresh and revitalized mental approach to his game over the final two months of the season and will no doubt be eager for a new start in September.With only 51 appearances under his belt the last two seasons, Reese clearly lacks the confidence that comes with playing on a regular basis. His only question mark is how he recovers from two small broken bones in his back suffered late in the season. If healthy from Day 1 of camp, Reese will give Ing some stiff competition.There is also Felix Potvin to consider. The Leafs No. 2 draft pick in 1990 (31st overall and the second goalie chosen behind Trevor Kidd), Potvin led the Quebec League with a 2.73 GAA last season playing for Chicoutimi.Though Potvin would appear destined to start in Newmarket (American League), it is not inconceivable that he could unseat Reese for the No. 2 job or even challenge Ing for the top spot.Speaking of Newmarket, the Leafs will no doubt want to take a long look at both Czechoslovakian Robert Horyna and Damian Rhodes this fall.Though his numbers weren&rsquo;t very impressive last season, Horyna is still highly regarded and will be given every opportunity to win a job with the parent club.Rhodes, meanwhile, made an impressive debut late in the season against Detroit and, buoyed by that performance, will be much more confident this September.And finally, Dean Anderson, the all-but-forgotten man in the Leafs&rsquo; goaltending scheme of things should come to camp with an improved outlook following a successful season. Clearly at the end of his rope if he fared poorly, Anderson posted a league-leading 2.88 GAA in Knoxville (East Coast League). &#9632;

GOALTENDING NOT AN OFF-SEASON CONCERN

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div>Despite the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; stunning first-round playoff loss to Minnesota, owner Bill Wirtz still considers Mike Keenan the right coach and general manager for his hockey club.&ldquo;Let me make it clear that both my brother (executive vice-president Michael Wirtz) and I give full endorsement to Mike Keenan,&rdquo; said Wirtz. &ldquo;We brought Mike here three years ago to change the culture of the hockey club and we have. We&rsquo;re going in the right direction.&rdquo;There had been speculation Keenan might turn the coaching reigns over to Darryl Sutter in order to devote all of his time to being GM. However, the day after the season ended, Keenan cleared up that matter.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a tough question to answer at this point, but, yes, I do plan on coaching the team,&rdquo; Keenan said.Keenan thinks he still has the collective ear of his players despite the fact several Hawks have grumbled privately about the relationship they have with their head coach.Keenan was fired in Philadelphia after four seasons when the players revolted. Some people have suggested he may have reached a danger point with his players in Chicago after three years behind the bench.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01933/5918848-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="712" height="919"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chicago underestimated the Minnesota North Stars, says Mike Keenan.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s an issue at all,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;Sure, some guys are ticked off from time to time, but when all is said and done, they&rsquo;re listening.&rdquo;&ldquo;History says Mike Keenan is a pretty good coach,&rdquo; said Hawks&rsquo; senior vice-president Bob Pulford. &ldquo;The fact is, Mike&rsquo;s record is as good as anybody&rsquo;s or better, so somebody must be listening.&rdquo;If the players are still listening to Keenan, Wirtz felt they didn&rsquo;t show it against Minnesota as he laid blame for the loss directly at their doorstep.&ldquo;Sometimes people don&rsquo;t listen,&rdquo; Wirtz said, meaning the players. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to have one leader. If you don&rsquo;t march to that piper, we&rsquo;ll be sitting here like we are today.&ldquo;It simply came down to this club did not have the respect for Minnesota that it needed. This is very painful. I feel wounded and hurt because we had such high expectations.&rdquo;It was suggested to Keenan that maybe the drive to finish first overall and the resulting fatigue it caused was a reason for the Hawks&rsquo; playoff collapse.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to apologize for the amount of effort we put into finishing first because that&rsquo;s what the integrity of the league is all about,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;It was really important to the players. However, after we did it, there was a little sigh of relief and we probably underestimated Minnesota&rsquo;s club.&rdquo;Despite the fact the Hawks scored just two goals in the last three games of the Minnesota series, Keenan defended his offense.But because our defense didn&rsquo;t play well our offense showed up as a weakness.&rdquo;Did Keenan regret not trying to acquire another goal scorer at the trading deadline?&ldquo;I felt the players we had deserved the opportunity,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;We came a long way and it looked like our team was solid and the players were going in the right direction.&rdquo;<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>April 15: Mike Peluso, LW, Warren Rychel, LW. Cam Russell, D, Frantisek Kucera, D, and Dominik Hasek, G, assigned to Indianapolis (IHL). April 19: Steve Larmer, RW, Steve Thomas, LW, Trent Yawney, D, and Steve Konroyd. D, named to Canadian team for Worid Championships.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Jeremy Roenick, Adam Creighton. Troy Murray, Paul Gillis.LW&mdash;Steve Thomas, Mike Hudson, Stu Grimson.RW&mdash;Steve Larmer. Wayne Presley, Dirk Graham, Jocelyn Lemieux, Tony McKegney.LD&mdash;Dave Manson. Steve Konroyd. Trent Yawney.RD&mdash;Chris Chelios. Keith Brown, Bob McGill.G&mdash;Ed Belfour, Greg Millen.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Greg Gilbert, LW, hyperextended left knee Michel Goulet, LW, sprained right knee. Doug Wilson, D, lacerated jaw, concussion.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Larmer. 5. A&mdash;Chelios, 7. P&mdash;Roenick, Chelios, 8. PIM&mdash;Grimson. 46 &#9632;

f0020-01

SHOCKING LOSS WON’T CHANGE KEENAN’S STATUS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01702/5918879-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0021-01

CLASSIFIED

<div class="byline">BY BULL PICKETT AND KEVIN OKLOBZIJA</div>Maybe home ice isn&rsquo;t such an advantage in the International League playoffs. Just ask the Salt Lake Golden Eagles or Indianapolis Ice.The Eagles, who finished 20 points ahead of the West Division&rsquo;s third-place Phoenix Roadrunners, lost their opening round series in four games. The East Division&rsquo;s second-place Ice had a 10-point regular season edge over Fort Wayne, but the Komets won the series in seven games.The division winners also moved on to the second round of the Turner Cup playoffs. The regular-season champion Peoria Rivermen disposed of the Milwaukee Admirals 4-2. The East Division Kalamazoo Wings beat the Muskegon Lumberjacks 4-1.The Roadrunners got some late season help from the parent Los Angeles Kings that helped in their sweep of Salt Lake.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not the same club we were earlier in the season,&rdquo; Phoenix general manager Adam Keller said. The Roadrunners were boosted by the assignment of half a dozen players from the Kings&rsquo; American League team in New Haven.In the final game April 17, Sylvain Couturier scored twice in a three-goal third period&mdash;one on a power play and the second into an empty net&mdash;to help the Roadrunners to a 5-2 win.&ldquo;Nobody expected us to win the series 4-0,&rdquo; Keller said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s a tribute to our organization, especially the players and coaches. They prepared well. They played well.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01820/5918917-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="716" height="754"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sylvain Couturier scored twice in the Roadrunners&rsquo; clinching win.</figcaption></div><h2>IHL</h2>Peoria split Games 4 and 5 at home April 16 and 17, but got the clincher at Milwaukee April 19.David Bruce scored twice for the Rivermen in Game 4, including the overtime power-play goal for the 3-2 victory.Dave Mackey&rsquo;s hat trick in Game 5 kept the Admirals alive, though they had to survive a three-goal third period by the Rivermen to win 6-5 and force the sixth game.Peoria scored five straight goals before the Admirals scored at 11:20 of the third period of Game 6. Peoria goalie Tom Draper stopped 27 Milwaukee shots in the 5-1 win.Fort Wayne&rsquo;s Lonnie Loach, the IHL&rsquo;s leading scorer in the regular season, had one playoff goal heading into Game 7 at Indianapolis April 21.Fort Wayne coach Al Sims told him not to worry. He repeated words to Loach that he had heard from Jacques Martin: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t worry about scoring a lot of goals, just get the big one.&rdquo;&ldquo;And Lonnie got the big one,&rdquo; said Sims.Loach scored at 18:29 of overtime for the 4-3 win after the Ice&rsquo;s Brian Noonan scored twice in the third period to force overtime.A night earlier the Ice won 4-3, their first win of the season at Fort Wayne, to send the series back to Indianapolis.The Wings advanced with a power-play goal by Larry DePalma midway through the third period of Game 5 April 20. The goal lifted the Wings past the Lumberjacks 5-4.Five different Wings scored, including Peter Lappin, who also had a goal in Kalamazoo&rsquo;s 5-2 victory in Game 4 April 17. The well-balanced Wings got goals from five different players in that game, as well.<h2>AHL</h2>The youthful Springfield Indians grew up in a hurry, showing the grit of a veteran team in rallying past the Fredericton Canadiens in their Calder Cup quarter-final series.The Indians, with five rookies in the lineup, overcame a 3-1 deficit to win the best-of-seven series 4-3. They opened semifinal play against Moncton April 24.&ldquo;Once we had our backs to the wall we played like we can,&rdquo; Indians&rsquo; coach Jim Roberts said.In the Southern Division, Binghamton and Rochester started their semifinal series April 24. Binghamton finally finished off Baltimore in six games with a 2-1 victory April 19.The Indians started their comeback with a 2-1 overtime win in Game 5 April 16. Terry Yake scored the winner at 12:55.Springfield jumped to a 2-0 lead in Game 6 and Fredericton tied it in the third period before a goal by rookie Joe Day at 13:33 made it 3-2, and James Black capped the 4-2 victory with an empty-net goal.Fredericton rookie sensation Patrick Lebeau scored only 40 seconds into Game 7, but Michel Picard tied it at 6:16. Goals by Brian Chapman and Mikael Andersson gave the Indians a 3-1 lead heading into the third period, but Darcy Simon and Lebeau scored 1:25 apart to tie it.Rookie Mark Greig countered for the Indians at 8:28, and Yvon Corriveau secured the victory with an insurance goal at 17:18 before capping it with an empty-netter.Binghamton won the first three games and appeared to be on its way to a sweep of its series, but Baltimore fought back. The Skipjacks posted a 6-5 victory in Game 4, then went into Binghamton for Game 5 and won 5-3.Rangers&rsquo; coach John Paddock turned to goalie Sam St. Laurent for Game 6 in Baltimore and the 12th-year pro responded with 32 saves in a 2-1 victory. Mark Laforest played the first five games.Steve Rice, who joined Binghamton from Kitchener&mdash;with an intermediate stop with the New York Rangers&mdash;scored the winning goal at 9:15 of the third period.Baltimore had offset Tie Domi&rsquo;s first-period goal when Bob Joyce beat St. Laurent at 7:23 of the third.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02570/5918910-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="718" height="746"><figcaption class="caption-body">Springfield got the overtime goal in Game 5 from Terry Yake.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

THIRD TIME LUCKY

<div class="byline">BY NICK GATES</div>At first, the thought of playing in the East Coast League repulsed Dan Gauthier.Gauthier thought &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll go to juniors before I go to Knoxville&rdquo; where Pittsburgh told their farmhand to report.Talk about making the best of a potentially volatile situation.Gauthier scored 41 goals and set a league record with 93 assists for the regular-season champion Cherokees.According to 10 coaches, the Charlemagne, Que., native is the ECHL&rsquo;s top prospect. Richmond&rsquo;s Dave Allison abstained because he was hired in February and didn&rsquo;t have a chance to see all the teams.1. Gauthier, C, 20, 6-foot-1, 180 pounds. Drafted 62nd overall by Pittsburgh in 1988.It came as no surprise when Cincinnati coach Dennis Desrosiers put Gauthier at the top of his ballot. Excluding an exhibition game in which Gauthier scored four goals, the Cyclones were 0-6-0 against Knoxville during the season and Gauthier had seven goals and nine assists.&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t have many holes,&rdquo; Roanoke Valley coach Claude Noel said. &ldquo;He is a very clever center that does many things well.&rdquo;Gauthier&rsquo;s value could best be measured by his absence. Knoxville&rsquo;s record-setting offense suffered a meltdown when he missed three regular-season games to be with his ailing mother. The Cherokees lost their first playoff game with him out of the lineup because of an injury.2. Sheldon Gorski, RW, 25, 5-10, 185, Louisville. A free agent signed by Chicago&rsquo;s farm team in Indianapolis (International League).Like Bill MacDougall, a record 80-goal scorer for Erie in 1989-90 who was called up by Detroit this season, Gorski was never drafted. The second-team All-American at the University of Illinois at Chicago went unnoticed because of his size.&ldquo;He was overlooked, but the size thing isn&rsquo;t going to keep him out of the (NHL) picture totally,&rdquo; Knoxville coach Don Jackson said. &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t have the speed of a (Theo) Fleury, but he has other assets. He is conscientious defensively and has some spunk.&rdquo;After a tour of duty in Holland, Gorski made a big splash with 51 goals and 53 assists and had a brief stint with Indianapolis.3. Steve Cadieux, C, 20,6-1,205, Cincinnati. Drafted 251 st by Montreal in 1989.The crafty Cadieux scored 47 goals&mdash;with 54 assists&mdash;and led the league with nine gamewinners.Cadieux left an indelible mark on Winston-Salem&rsquo;s Marcel Comeau, who began the season coaching in the American League.&ldquo;He is a good skater and shooter,&rdquo; Comeau said. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t make many mistakes.&rdquo;Cadieux&rsquo;s scoring and passing ability put him on a few ballots. But others couldn&rsquo;t ignore his ability to do the little things&mdash;win critical faceoffs, forecheck and backcheck&mdash;required to be a complete player.4. John Blessman, D, 24, 6-3, 210. Greensboro. Drafted 170th overall by New Jersey in 1987.Posseses the hardest shot in the league. His blast from the blue line caught Louisville&rsquo;s Rob Dopson by surprise in the playoffs and shattered the goalie&rsquo;s mask.Blessman scored seven goals (6 on the power play), recorded 14 assists and picked up 124 penalty minutes in 28 games.Comeau and Greensboro coach Jeff Brubaker didn&rsquo;t see a better prospect than the Toronto native.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s big and tough and plays at a good skill level,&rdquo; Comeau said. &ldquo;From what I&rsquo;ve seen, he is the best total package.&rdquo;5. (tie) Ryan Kummu, D, 23,6-4, 195, Erie. Drafted 246th overall by Washington in 1987.Kummu was voted to the second all-star team primarily because of his 24 goals and 50 assists. But his future depends on his defense.Kummu, who spent 192 minutes in the penalty box, raised his stock by taking charge on the ice. An intimidating, hard-hitting style is his ticket.&ldquo;If he goes to a training camp, he has got to prove he is top dog and command respect,&rdquo; said Jackson, who followed a similar blueprint to Edmonton, where he won a pair of Stanley Cup rings.5. (tie) Greg Spenrath, LW, 21,. 6-1, 210, Erie. Drafted 160th overall by the New York Rangers in 1989.When you think of Spenrath, you think of public enenmy No. 1. He set an ECHL record with 417 penalty minutes.He scored 29 goals and added 35 assists. Just imagine how productive he would have been had he not been a penalty-box regular.&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t skate as well as he should, but he knows when to play tough and he learned to pick and choose his spots better,&rdquo; Noel said. &#9632;

GAUTHIER TOPS LIST OF BEST PROSPECTS

<div class="byline">BY ADAM TEICHER</div>The Peoria Rivermen dominated the regular season in the International League and, as expected, they took home most of the end-of-season awards.The Rivermen had three of the six first-team all-stars and four of the nine second-team spots. Peoria also won three of the six individual awards.The first team all-stars:Goal: Dominik Hasek (Indianapolis). Defense: Brian McKee (Fort Wayne) and Dominic Lavoie (Peoria). Left wing: David Bruce (Peoria). Center: Nelson Emerson (Peoria). Right wing: Brian Noonan (Indianapolis).Second team all-stars:Goal: Guy Hebert (Peoria). Defense (fourway tie): Tom Tilley (Peoria), Rob Robinson (Peoria), Jack Capuano (Milwaukee), Ryan McGill (Indianapolis but traded to Quebec at end of the season). Left wing: Lonnie Loach (Fort Wayne). Center (tie): Marc Bureau (Salt Lake) and Michel Mongeau (Peoria). Right wing: Rich Chernomaz (Salt Lake).The award winners: Gatschene Trophy (most valuable player): Bruce. Governor&rsquo;s Trophy (outstanding defenseman): McKee. Longman Trophy (outstanding rookie): Emerson. McKenzie Trophy (outstanding U.S.-born rookie): C.J. Young, Salt Lake. Lamoureux Trophy (leading scorer): Loach. Norris Trophy (top goaltenders): Hebert and Pat Jablonski (Peoria).The top coach and executive awards will be named at a later date.<h2>GULLS GROUNDED</h2>For most of the season, the San Diego Gulls were defying gravity, a first-year independent club hovering above. 500.Time, not to mention injuries and callups by their partial affiliates, caught up to the Gulls in a big way, sending them reeling to a 7-23-4 finish that led to a 30-45-8 record, dropping them from a West Division playoff spot.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01736/5918972-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="698" height="705"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ryan McGill was an all star with the Ice before being traded.</figcaption></div>The quick start, however, will not be forgotten quickly in San Diego. If the Gulls could fool everybody for a half-season after getting their start only last summer, then imagine what they could do with an entire off-season to put the pieces together.&ldquo;Considering the quickness we used to put this team together and the quality of players available to us when we got started in July, we gave it a good run,&rdquo; coach Mike O&rsquo;Connell said.While O&rsquo;Connell was ready to begin work on next season, he and general manager Don Wad-dell have been put on hold by the pending sale of the Gulls by Harry Cooper to local real estate developer Ronald Hahn. Whether O&rsquo;Connell will be retained will likely remain undecided until the ownership issue is settled.&ldquo;Don mentioned that we can&rsquo;t really do much until something happens with the ownership deal,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Connell said. &ldquo;The quicker that gets done, the better off we&rsquo;ll be. We sure don&rsquo;t want to get another late start.&rdquo;<h2>WAYNE&rsquo;S WORLD</h2>Muskegon&rsquo;s Dave Michayluk joined Wayne Gretzky as the only professional players to score 100 points for the last six seasons. Michayluk had 40 goals and 62 assists for the Lumberjacks&hellip;After the Sabres were eliminated from the NHL playoffs, Buffalo returned goaltender Steve Weeks to Milwaukee. Weeks had been five days with the Sabres&rsquo; American League affiliate in Rochester, but didn&rsquo;t play in a game. &#9632;

f0023-01

RIVERMEN REWARDED FOR ALL-STAR SEASON

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div>Kevin Todd, the American League&rsquo;s scoring champ and a top candidate for most valuable player honors, wants to follow in the footsteps of his former Utica Devil teammate Paul Ysebaert.Ysebaert was the AHL&rsquo;s top scorer and MVP last season and got his chance to play in the NHL with New Jersey at the start of the season and then was traded to Detroit.Todd, a third-year pro, now wants his chance at the NHL.&ldquo;There is no chance I&rsquo;ll be in Utica next year. None. Zero,&rdquo; said Todd, who is playing out his option and will be a free agent with compensation. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not interested in playing in the minors anymore.&rdquo;Todd has played two games in the NHL the last three seasons plus one in New Jersey&rsquo;s playoff series with Pittsburgh this year. He is one of the lowest paid Devils, earning a minor-league salary of $27,500.&ldquo;My agent is trying to work out a contract with New Jersey so obviously they are still interested,&rdquo; said Todd. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m interested in playing here. But for the New Jersey Devils, not the Utica Devils. I&rsquo;ve put my time in down here and now it&rsquo;s time to move on to another league.&ldquo;Hopefully they will realize that. But if the contract numbers aren&rsquo;t there. I&rsquo;m not going to let the things I did and the numbers I put up this year go to waste. I&rsquo;ve been underpaid the past three years, but I&rsquo;m not bitter.&rdquo;Todd, New Jersey&rsquo;s seventh choice in the 1986 draft, collected 118 points (37 goals, 81 assists) in 75 games for Utica. He had 54 points last season (18-36) and 71 as a rookie (26-45).&ldquo;I guess you could say I&rsquo;m on a one-man mission this year,&rdquo; Todd said. &ldquo;I wanted to prove to a lot of people that I belong in the NHL and that I can do the same thing Paul Ysebaert did the year before.&ldquo;Ysebaert was bitter last year, but I&rsquo;ve minded my P&rsquo;s and Q&rsquo;s. Now the ball is in their court. We&rsquo;re open to negotiations, but if the money is not there, I&rsquo;ll go elsewhere.&rdquo;Todd said he would consider playing in Europe or another opportunity for the NHL might come up with expansion on the horizon.&ldquo;If he takes a defensive posture at first, he can be a catalyst in the NHL,&rdquo; said Utica coach Tim Burke. &ldquo;He could be like a Kelly Kisio or a chippy player like a Laurie Boschman. But he has got to get a role and be successful.&rdquo;<h2>SAINTS ON HOLD</h2>While the behind the scenes soap opera continued at Maple Leaf Gardens, the Maple Leafs were negotiating with representatives from Newmarket to keep Toronto&rsquo;s farm team there.The Leafs&rsquo; contingent met with people from Newmarket April 17 about renewing a five-year agreement that ended this season.The meeting took place at Maple Leaf Gardens and lasted about an hour. Representing the Maple Leafs were Bob Stellick, director of business operations and communications; team president Donald Giffin and general manager Floyd Smith. And in Newmarket&rsquo;s comer were mayor Ray Twinney and recreation commissioner Bill Andrews.Toronto is also considering offers from Charlottetown, P.E.I. and St. John&rsquo;s, Newfoundland.&ldquo;No one is ahead of anyone at this point,&rdquo; Stellick said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like there is a Rochester with an empty rink waiting for us to move in.&rdquo;<h2>FANS DWINDLING</h2>The AHL&rsquo;s average attendance declined for the first time in five years. The 15 teams drew 2,311,943 in 600 games, an average of 3,853. Last season, the 14 teams drew 2,256,122 in 560 games, a 4,029 average. This season&rsquo;s attendance is a new league record but the extra team inflated that number. Seven teams saw their attendance drop. Adirondack topped the list with 25,038 fewer, an average of 625 per game. Baltimore, Hersey, New Haven, Rochester, Springfield and Utica also drew fewer people than they did last season. Showing gains were Binghamton, Cape Breton, Halifax, Maine, Moncton and Newarket. Binghamton showed the biggest gain with 26.152, or 653 per game&hellip;The Americans were bolstered for their second-round playoff series after the parent Buffalo Sabres lost. Rochester received goalie Darcy Wakaluk, left winger Darrin Shannon and defensemen Ken Sutton and Kevin Haller. &#9632;

TODD SAYS HE HAS PAID DEVILS’ DUES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01798/5919027-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Drummondville&rsquo;s Roger Larche was tied for the scoring lead.</figcaption></div>Eric Lindros can at least finish his Ontario League career where it was supposed to have unfolded.The 18-year-old junior superstar returns for the first time to the city that drafted him as the Oshawa Generals take on the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for the OHL championship starting April 29 in Oshawa.Oshawa won the Leyden Division title with a 7-2 victory over the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s April 21, taking the best-of-seven series 4-1. Sault Ste. Marie captured the Emms Division title completing a four-game sweep of the Niagara Falls Thunder April 16.The Greyhounds drafted Lindros first overall in the 1989 OHL priority selection, but six months later traded his rights to Oshawa when Lindros refused to play in Sault Ste. Marie.In 1&frac12; seasons with the Generals, Lindros never played in Sault Ste. Marie (due to commitments to the national junior team), setting the stage for this much anticipated series.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s fine,&rdquo; Lindros said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way it will end up. This is my last year of junior. Sault Ste. Marie is probably the second last place I&rsquo;ll play. I&rsquo;ll approach it the same as any other city&mdash;just go out and play.&rdquo;In the past, Greyhound fans have had a hostile attitude towards Lindros. This is their chance to see him in person.&ldquo;I have no idea what their reception will be,&rdquo; Sault Ste. Marie coach Ted Nolan said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even want to think about it. I&rsquo;m just concerned about the series.&rdquo;<h2>OHL</h2>Lindros said he never had anything against the community when he didn&rsquo;t report. Rather, he was concerned about how the exorbitant travel to and from the northern city would affect his university studies.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s going to be some pressure on him, but the fans of Sault Ste. Marie will realize he&rsquo;s a good player,&rdquo; linemate Rob Pearson said. &ldquo;Hopefully, I&rsquo;ll be able to take the pressure off him.&rdquo;Oshawa overcame the relentless checking of the 67&rsquo;s to win the Leyden Division final series in five hard-fought games. The Generals scored six unanswered goals after watching defenseman Dave Craievich taken from the ice with a concussion when boarded by 67&rsquo;s Chris Simon.Ottawa defenseman Grant Marshall played his first game in six months after returning from a broken neck.The teams split the first two games, before the Generals won Game 3 8-2 April 16 and Game 4 6-5 on Matt Hoffman&rsquo;s overtime goal April 18.Nolan credits Sault Ste. Marie&rsquo;s sweep to timing.&ldquo;The 2&frac12;-week layoff helped,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This is a long season, 70 games now, and we&rsquo;re dealing with kids 17 and 18. The time off helped mentally as much as it did physically.&rdquo;The Greyhounds won the third and fourth games&mdash;6-4 April 15 and 8-3 April 16&mdash;on Niagara Falls&rsquo; ice.&ldquo;They have great depth and balance,&rdquo; Thunder coach George Burnett said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re better than a lot of people give them credit for. Shut down their leading scorer, Colin Miller, and they have a bunch of other players who hurt you.&rdquo;<h2>WHL</h2>The Battle of Alberta rages on.The Medicine Hat Tigers scored three first-period goals and hung on for a 3-2 win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes April 21, knotting the Western League East Division final series 3-3.Rookie Rob Niedermayer&rsquo;s goal at 17:20 of the opening frame proved to be the winner. Jason Miller and Dave Shute also scored for the Tigers. Darcy Werenka and Jason Ruff replied for Lethbridge.Game 6 ended with a confrontation that almost spilled into the stands at the Medicine Hat Arena. The home-town fans, which have been warned by the WHL to control their conduct, pelted the Lethbridge bench with debris after Hurricane center Brad Rubachuk started pushing Tiger netminder Chris Osgood.Rubachuk and defenseman Terry Hollinger attempted to climb into the stands, but were restrained by teammates. Lethbridge coach Bob Loucks was seething over the behavior of unruly fans behind the visiting team&rsquo;s bench.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to paint all your fans with the same brush,&rdquo; Loucks said. &ldquo;But those people in that far corner near our bench are ignorant, rude people. As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, the Medicine Hat Tigers and the league should do something about cleaning that area out.&rdquo;Lethbridge moved ahead 2-1 in the series with a 6-5 victory April 15. The Tigers came back April 17 with a 4-3 overtime win on Kalvin Knibbs&rsquo; goal. Ruffs scored the winner in a 5-4 win April 19 to give Lethbridge a 3-2 series lead.The winner of Game 7 April 23 meets the West Division champion Spokane Chiefs, who have been idle since completing a 5-0 sweep of the Kamloops Blazers April 14.<h2>QMJHL</h2>Sandy McCarthy is usually described as a role player; the kind whose influence with the gloves off is as important as with the gloves on.McCarthy, however, came through with his stick when it counted most April 19, scoring at 7:53 of overtime giving the Laval Titan a 3-2 win over the Chicoutimi Sagueneens and a 3-2 lead in their Quebec League semifinal series.Laval&rsquo;s win was its first in seven meetings on Chicoutimi ice. Pivotal Game 6 was at the Centre Sportif Laval. Entering the game, the Titan had not lost on home ice since Feb. 5&mdash;a stretch of 16 games. Laval won Game 4 5-3 April 16.Although the winner of the series automatically qualifies to play in Quebec City at the Memorial Cup, the Drummondville Voltigeurs play the survivor for the QMJHL&rsquo;s President&rsquo;s Cup.The Voltigueurs were impressive in sweeping College Fran&ccedil;ais in four games, capped by a 3-2 victory April 17.Defenseman Patrice Brisebois sat atop the playoff scoring race with teammate Roger Larche. Larche (714-21) and Brisebois (5-16-21) had three other teammates in the top 10 scoring.&mdash;with files from Brian Costello, Vance Oliver and Ken Warren &#9632;

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LINDROS RETURNS TO DRAFT ROOTS

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN COSTELLO</div>The Dukes of Hamilton weren&rsquo;t very colorful and didn&rsquo;t play like superheroes this season, but they&rsquo;ll probably be both next season in Guelph.The team&rsquo;s new nickname is Storm and sweater colors are silver and blue with a splash of gold and black. The logo is an inverted red triangle behind a whirlwind &lsquo;S&rsquo;.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll almost look like Superman on ice,&rdquo; Storm president Dave Kendrick said.The franchise was purchased by the Guelph Community Hockey Club Ltd., from Dukes&rsquo; owner Mario Cupido for a reported $850,000 Feb. 1 i. The Ontario League team will play in the 3,999-seat Guelph Memorial Gardens next season.Also expected to add color to a struggling franchise is Michael Kelly, hired as general manager April 15.Kelly, 39, spent the past eight seasons as a coach/manager for several professional teams in Italy. He was twice the coach of the Italian National team and last season coached Cortina to the Italian First Division title.Kelly also coached hockey at the University of Buffalo and Canisius College in Buffalo. He was one of 30 applicants for the Guelph job.&ldquo;After talking it over with a lot of knowledgeable hockey people, his name kept coming up,&rdquo; Kendrick said. &ldquo;He won&rsquo;t be coaching, though. We&rsquo;ll let him decide who to hire as coach.&rdquo;Current coach Jerry Andreatta took over the Dukes in mid-season and the team went 11-223. Before Andreatta, the Dukes were 6-21-3. Andreatta has said he would like to join the team in Guelph.Storm was one of 686 entries put forth in a name-the-team contest. A team committee narrowed the field down to Speed and Grizzlies, but a marketing firm later suggested Storm, which was one of 11 names on a short list.<h2>JUST REWARD</h2>Junior teams can&rsquo;t very well offer money to their players for winning. But they can provide other incentives.The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds didn&rsquo;t expect to sweep the Niagara Falls Thunder in the Emms Division final. So when they completed the series April 16 in Niagara Falls, coach Ted Nolan rewarded his players with a treat in Detroit.Before heading back to the Soo, the Greyhounds made a stop at Tiger Stadium for an afternoon Major League Baseball game. They watched the Toronto Blue Jays blow a 4-1 lead in the ninth inning and lose 5-4 to the Tigers in an extra frame.&ldquo;That didn&rsquo;t bother me because I&rsquo;m a Tiger fan,&rdquo; Nolan said. &ldquo;But most of the players are Blue Jay fans. I hope they didn&rsquo;t learn any bad lessons.&rdquo;<h2>BURNETT TOP COACH</h2>Second-year Niagara Falls&rsquo; coach-GM George Burnett was named OHL coach of the year in voting conducted by league coaches and GMs.Burnett received 49 points based on a 5-3-1 system for first, second and third place. Ted Nolan of Sault Ste. Marie was second (30) and Rick Cornacchia of the Oshawa Generals was third (25) in balloting.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to have been selected by my peers,&rdquo; Burnett said. &ldquo;The guy I voted for (Nolan) ended up beating us (in the Emms Division final).&rdquo;Burnett, 29, guided the Thunder to a 39-18-9 record and second place in the Emms Division. He took over from Bill LaForge at mid-season last year, transforming a losing team into a division finalist.Other award winners announced April 18 are: Kitchener Rangers&rsquo; Mike Torchia, top goaltender; Oshawa&rsquo;s Eric Lindros, Red Tilson Trophy for most outstanding player and Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy for scoring title; Sault Ste. Marie&rsquo;s Mike Lenarduzzi and Kevin Hodson, Dave Pinkney Trophy for best goals-against average; Sault Ste. Marie&rsquo;s Hodson, F.W. Dinty Moore Trophy for top rookie goaltender; Oshawa&rsquo;s Rob Pearson, Jim Mahon Memorial Trophy for highest scoring right winger. &#9632;

NEW TEAM BREWS UP A STORM IN GUELPH

<div class="byline">BY VANCE OLIVER</div>Some observers predicted a long and drawn out affair between the Spokane Chiefs and Kamloops Blazers in the Western League West Division final. Not Tom Renney.The rookie Blazers&rsquo; coach wasn&rsquo;t surprised his injury-plagued team was ousted in straight games in the best-of-nine series.&ldquo;We should recognize the tremendous effort by (Spokane) first and foremost,&rdquo; Renney said. &ldquo;They looked great in every facet of the game. But I will tell you with healthy people in our lineup, the series would have taken a different complexion.&rdquo;The Blazers finished first in the WHL this season with 102 points, but had five players sidelined with injuries. All-star defenseman Scott Niedermayer, right winger Eddie Patterson, and center Lance Johnson did not see any action, while defensemen Steve Yule and Craig Bonner played sporadically in one game.Renney, who succeeded the popular Ken Hitchcock in Kamloops, was satisfied with his team&rsquo;s season.&ldquo;A team not picked to finish in first place did just that by overachieving and working awfully hard,&rdquo; Renney said. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t have enough left to get the job done in the playoffs.&rdquo;Other WHL teams should beware. Renney considers the 1990-91 season a rebuilding period for the club.&ldquo;For a rookie coach to come back into his sophomore season, it&rsquo;s gratifying to know you&rsquo;re going to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 19-21 guys back,&rdquo; he said.<h2>RAY TOP PLAYER</h2>Center Ray Whitney of Spokane was selected Molson player of the year in a vote by the league&rsquo;s 14 coaches.Whitney led the WHL in scoring with 67 goals and 185 points. He edged Jeff Nelson of the Prince Albert Raiders for the award. Whitney also won the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy, awarded to the league&rsquo;s most valuable player.Darryl Sydor of Kamloops was named top defenseman. The first-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings in 1990 led rearguards in scoring with 27 goals and 105 points. He beat out Troy Neumeier of Prince Albert.Jamie McLennan of the Lethbridge Hurricanes was named the WHL&rsquo;s top goaltender. The 19-year-old compiled a 3.81 goals-against average and 32-18-4 record, and edged Core Hirsch of Kamloops.Kamloops&rsquo; defenseman Scott Niedermayer was chosen Scholastic player of the year. He maintained a 90 per cent average in Grade 12, while scoring 26 goals and 82 points in 57 games.Other award winners are: Spokane&rsquo;s Pat Fal-loon, most sportsmanlike player; Prince Albert&rsquo;s Donevan Hextall, rookie of the year; Kamloops&rsquo; Tom Renney, coach of the year; and Kamloops&rsquo; general manager Bob Brown, executive of the year.<h2>ALL-STARS</h2>The WHL released its first and second all-star teams for the East and West Divisions April 13:&#9632; East Division, first team: G&mdash;Jamie McLennan. D&mdash;Troy Neumeier and Jamie Heward, Regina. C&mdash;Mike Sillinger, Regina. LW&mdash;Jason Ruff, Lethbridge. RW&mdash;Brian Pellerin, Prince Albert.Second team: G&mdash;Chris Osgood. Medicine Hat. D&mdash;Brent Thompson. Medicine Hat and Darcy Werenka, Lethbridge. C&mdash;Jeff Nelson. LW&mdash;Jason Miller, Medicine Hat. RW&mdash;Kevin St. Jacques, Lethbridge.&#9632; West Division, first team: G&mdash;Corey Hirsch. D&mdash;Darryl Sydor and Scott Niedermayer. C&mdash;Ray Whitney and Cal McGowan, Kamloops (tied). LW&mdash;Brian Sakic, Tri-City. RW&mdash;Pat Falloon.Second team: G&mdash;Scott Bailey, Spokane. D&mdash;Vince Boe, Seattle and Jon Klemm, Spokane. C&mdash;Doug Barrault, Seattle. LW&mdash;Murray Duval, Kamloops. RW&mdash;Kyle Reeves, Tri-Cities. &#9632;

WEAKENED BLAZERS SIZZLE TO ASHES

<div class="byline">BY KEN WARREN</div>Patrice Brisebois just can&rsquo;t stop making history.If there&rsquo;s a World Junior Championships gold medal to be won. Brisebois will be there. If there&rsquo;s a Memorial Cup to be fought for, Brisebois will be there.At least that has been the plotline the past few seasons.Brisebois and the Drummondville Voltigeurs completed a clean sweep of College Francais in the Quebec League semifinals April 17, guaranteeing entry into the Memorial Cup May 11-18.While the Voltigeurs haven&rsquo;t represented the QMJHL in the four-team Memorial Cup tournament since 1988, it&rsquo;s becoming old hat for Brisebois.As a member of the QMJHL champion Laval Titan the past two seasons, Brisebois has twice been part of Canada&rsquo;s junior hockey showcase. Yet the cup has always escaped his grasp.&ldquo;At the awards banquet, (QMJHL president) Gilles Courteau told me &lsquo;It&rsquo;s about time you win the thing&rsquo;&rdquo; Brisebois said. &ldquo;I really think we&rsquo;ve got a chance. The team spirit is fantastic, our offensive attack is explosive and our defense allows very few 2-on-1s and 3-on-2s.&rsquo;Bringing Quebec its first Memorial Cup since the Cornwall Royals did it in 1981 seems the natural way for Brisebois to complete his four-year junior career. After all, he has done everything else.Brisebois was traded from the Titan in the off-season and had his name engraved on the QMJHL&rsquo;s President&rsquo;s Trophy in 1989 and 1990; he anchored the defense on Canada&rsquo;s back-to-back WJC&mdash;becoming the first Quebecker to win double gold; and he&rsquo;s a finalist in the Canadian Hockey League defenseman of the year award.Brisebois, a second-round draft pick of the Montreal Canadiens in 1989, also had two assists in 10 games with the Habs this season. He signed a four-year contract with the Canadiens and should start the 1991-92 season in Montreal.&ldquo;Sure, it was disappointing coming back to junior,&rdquo; Brisebois said. &ldquo;Playing for the Canadiens has always been my dream. It was a bit of an adjustment coming back, but I think that&rsquo;s normal. The guys bug me a little, but now that we&rsquo;re going to the Memorial Cup, it&rsquo;s a pleasure.&rdquo;The Voltigeurs have to be pleased with the play of Brisebois. In addition to leading the defense, he topped all scorers in the playoffs. In six games, Brisebois had five goals and 21 points.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting a chance to support the attack,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;For me to be the top scorer in the league is very surprising.&rdquo;Not surprisingly, Brisebois says he is feeling the pressure of leading the defense in the postseason. Yet he says he thrives playing in those situations, something no one who knows his track record can deny.As for this year&rsquo;s Memorial Cup, Brisebois says it&rsquo;s &ldquo;a big, big challenge.&rdquo;Before getting there, however, is the business of taking care of the Quebec League title against the winner of the other semifinal series between Laval and the Chicoutimi Sagueneens.Although both teams advance to Quebec City and the Memorial Cup, Brisebois says he&rsquo;s not about to take the series lightly.&ldquo;Winning the President&rsquo;s Cup is very important to me,&rdquo; Brisebois said. &ldquo;To have my name on the Cup three consecutive years would be something.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s something no one else has done before.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01705/5919106-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="706" height="1044"><figcaption class="caption-body">Patrice Brisebois will play in his third Memorial Cup tournament in May.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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BRISEBOIS EYEING THIRD STRAIGHT TITLE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01761/5919144-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Markham Gretzky&rsquo;s Offspring tournament champions are, front row (from left): Rob Lee (most valuable player, inset), Scott Wadsworth, Bob Curran, Steve Hayward, Jim Gegeny, Jim Patterson, coach Bob Wadsworth. Back row: coach Larry Bourque, Thane Ellis, Steve Reynolds, Mike Pludra, Craig Menzies, Brad Peters, Anthony Cross, Art Kelly, Paul Butterworth and Brad Wadsworth.</figcaption></div>Wayne Gretzky can boast a beautiful wife, two children and four Stanley Cup rings. The Hockey News Classic Cup tournament championship team&mdash;Markham Gretzky&rsquo;s Offspring&mdash;is no relation.The senior team with the bizarre name performed like a team of Gretzkys winning five games, including a 2-1 triumph over the Peterborough Knights in the deciding game to claim the $ 1,000 purse and Classic Cup hockey equipment bags. The tournament in Lindsay was the ninth in a series of 10.Steve Boyd opened the scoring in the first period for the Knights, but goals by Thane Ellis and Anthony Cross in the final 10 minutes of the game gave Gretzky&rsquo;s the victory.The Markham-based team beat the Scarborough Wings 8-3, Linwood St. Clements Saints 8-5 and Scarborough Ironworkers 2-1 in preliminary games and the Minden Rangers 4-2 in the semifinals.Cross led Gretzky&rsquo;s in scoring with six goals and nine points in five games. Steve Reynolds added three goals and seven points. Brad Wadsworth two goals and seven points, Pat West two goals and six points, Scott Wadsworth six assists and Mike Pludra two goals and five points. Ellis added three goals.The tournament most valuable player was Markham goalie Rob Lee. He had a 2.40 goals-against average in five games.The Knights won their three preliminary round games and settled for $700.In the consolation final, Brian Shaw scored two goals propelling Minden to a 4-2 decision over the Ironworkers. The Rangers picked up $300 in prize money.Other teams participating in the three-day 10-team tournament (including win-loss record) were: Minden (4-1), Scarborough Ironworkers (2-3), Linwood (1-1-1), Scarborough Wings (12), Toronto Casual Daze Bandits (2-1), Scarborough Top Law (1-2), Lindsay Therien Black Hawks (1-2) and Peterborough Kings (0-2-1).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02511/5919137-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="724" height="206"></div> &#9632;

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GRETZKY’S OFFSPRING WIN HOCKEY NEWS TOURNEY

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0027-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01707/5919182-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01739/5919175-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="3070" height="3624"></div> &#9632;

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PEPSI ON ICE

<h2>Mon., Apr. 15</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01641/5919318-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="579" height="1053"></div><h2>Tues., Apr. 26</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02428/5919311-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="583" height="2293"></div><h2>Wed., Apr. 17</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03274/5919304-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="579" height="1996"></div><h2>Thur.,Apr. 18</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04193/5919297-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="582" height="1363"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-05167/5919290-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="580" height="786"></div><h2>Fri., Apr. 19</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-06134/5919283-1-eng-US/f0029-062.jpg" title="f0029-06" width="575" height="2596"></div><h2>Sat., Apr. 20</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-07109/5919276-1-eng-US/f0029-072.jpg" title="f0029-07" width="578" height="1254"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-0895/5919269-1-eng-US/f0029-082.jpg" title="f0029-08" width="582" height="1268"></div><h2>Sun., Apr. 21</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01733/5919262-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="584" height="776"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02508/5919255-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="583" height="841"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03345/5919248-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="583" height="561"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04240/5919241-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="590" height="120"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05169/5919234-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="585" height="386"></div><h2>Fri., Apr. 19</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-06133/5919227-1-eng-US/f0030-062.jpg" title="f0030-06" width="583" height="369"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-07109/5919220-1-eng-US/f0030-072.jpg" title="f0030-07" width="570" height="207"></div><h2>Sat., Apr. 20</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0899/5919213-1-eng-US/f0030-082.jpg" title="f0030-08" width="579" height="549"></div> &#9632;

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PLAYOFF SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-09" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0989/5919408-1-eng-US/f0030-092.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01677/5919401-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="1843" height="3597"></div> &#9632;

f0030-09

SCOREBOARD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01723/5919439-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="553" height="619"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEVIN DUPONT</figcaption></div>The playoff doctor is here to fix post-season ills.No reward for finishing first overall in the regular season? Ah. an annual virus, this year known as the Chicago Chills. No problem. He has the remedy.Too many first-round upsets? Hmm. Sounds like yet another bad case of Rangeritis. The good doctor has something to sooth this malady of melancholy.Depressed over the same first- and second-round matchups year after year? Oh, the perils of perennialism. Don&rsquo;t worry, there is something in the little black bag.Overanxious that the two best teams over 80 games might not have a reasonable chance to go head-to-head for the Stanley Cup? This is always the worst of illnesses, known as the conundrum of the conferences.For now, though, open wide and say, &ldquo;Ahhhhh&hellip;&rdquo; The playoff doctor is here, on a housecleaning call.To begin, we must look ahead to expansion and the inclusion of Ottawa, San Jose and Tampa for the 1992-93 season. The doctor orders a realignment of the conferences, expanding to three divisions within each conference. Here is how they should look:PRINCE OF WALES CONFERENCEAdams Division&mdash;Boston, Hartford, Montreal, Philadelphia.Byng Division&mdash;Buffalo, Quebec, Tampa Bay, Toronto.Patrick Division&mdash;Devils, Islanders, Rangers, Washington.CAMPBELL CONFERENCENorris Division&mdash;Chicago, Edmonton, Minnesota, Winnipeg.Selke Division&mdash;Detroit, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, St. Louis.Smythe Division&mdash;Calgary, Los Angeles, San Jose, Vancouver.Before determining the post-season matchups, let&rsquo;s see what prescription the doctor writes for regular-season play.Over the course of 80 games, each club will play eight games against each of its three divisional partners (24 games). Leaving the division, but remaining within the conference, each club will play two home games and two away games against the other eight conference partners (32 games). The remaining 24 games will be played against the other conference&mdash;one home game, one away game.Come playoff time, the eight teams with the best records in each conference will be seeded 1-8. That should immediately rid the redundancy of first- and second-round matchups we see with the current divisional method that seeds teams 1-4.What&rsquo;s the reward for finishing first overall? Well, with the 1-8 seeding, each conference champion will be pitted against the weakest team in the conference, as opposed to the division. This doesn&rsquo;t guarantee an award for finishing with the best record over 80 games&mdash;Chicago, under this format, still would have faced Minnesota this year&mdash;but an eight-team spread, over the long haul, should provide conference champions with softer first-round matchups.Doctor&rsquo;s Note: Hey, not every cure is guaranteed. Let&rsquo;s face it, the North Stars have a strong astronomical tie to Halley&rsquo;s Comet, anyway. They both come around about every 86 years.The good doctor, then, has taken care of rewarding the No. 1 club in each conference. He has broadened the seedings and diminished the chances of repetitive matchups like BostonMontreal. The Bruins and Canadiens now have met in the first or second playoff round for eight straight years and it is impossible for these two teams&mdash;who generate such a pate of hate for each other&mdash;ever to meet even in the Stanley Cup semifinals.All of which leads the patient to the worst of anxieties, the dread fear that the NHL&rsquo;s two best teams won&rsquo;t meet in the finals. In the early going of Round 2 this year, the prospect of a Washington-Minnesota final had the patient slipping into a coma.Doctor&rsquo;s Note No. 2: Pardon my bedside manner, but close your mouth for a second and don&rsquo;t say a word. No system is perfect. Remember the start of the &lsquo;80s? We took the 16 playoff teams, seeded them top to bottom, and the Islanders came out winners both years, first beating the Flyers and then beating&mdash;do you remember&mdash;the North Stars? Minnesota finished third in 1980-81 in the old Adams Division with 87 points and then took a magic carpet ride that carried them through five games with the Islanders.Okay, so the North Stars come around every 10 years. Every doctor makes a mistake now and then. For now, take two aspirin and call Mike Keenan (1-800-ITS-OVER) in the morning. Kevin Dupont is a hockey writer for the Boston Globe. &#9632;

f0032-01

THE GOOD PLAYOFF DOCTOR IS IN

Last season, goaltenders earned five shutouts in the playoffs. But after the first round this year, five netminders had already blanked the opposition. Two of the five&mdash;Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Frank Pietrangelo and Washington&rsquo;s Don Beaupre&mdash;picked up their team&rsquo;s second-ever playoff shutouts.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02510/5919470-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="713" height="441"><figcaption class="caption-body">Frank Pietrangelo</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0032-02

NUMBERS

<h2>PENGUINS</h2>Defenseman Paul Coffey questioned coach Bob Johnson&rsquo;s decision not to shorten his bench during the Penguins&rsquo; 4-2 loss to Washington in Game 1 of the second round. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t play to win, man,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t be fair to everybody. You&rsquo;ve got to play to win. That&rsquo;s all there is.&rdquo; Johnson said he did not regret his strategy. &ldquo;Some of our most effective guys probably were the guys that didn&rsquo;t get that much ice time in Games 6 and 7 (of the first round),&rdquo; he said. Center Mario Lemieux sided with Coffey and said, &ldquo;I think all the players feel the same way.&rdquo;&hellip;The Penguins faced the prospect of trying to get through their second-round series without the nucleus of their defense corps. Coffey (jaw surgery) and Ulf Samuelsson (broken right hand) were sidelined indefinitely.<h2>DEVILS</h2>Viacheslav Fetisov is weighing a $500,000 offer to play in Switzerland next season, but he still has another season remaining on his contract with the Devils. It&rsquo;s the club&rsquo;s decision whether they want the 33-year-old defenseman back or would allow him to play in Europe. &ldquo;Why stay?&rdquo; Fetisov asked. &ldquo;Something inside me says wait and think about it. All my life I thought about playing in the NHL. When I was 20 or 25 it was not possible. I&rsquo;ve enjoyed the couple of years with the Devils. I would like to know how they want me to play next season.&rdquo;&hellip;Kirk Muller failed to score a goal in seven playoff games (0-2-2)&hellip;Devils&rsquo; owner John McMullen said GM Lou Lamoriello&rsquo;s job is safe despite the team&rsquo;s early exit&hellip;Lee Norwood will have off-season shoulder surgery&hellip;Bruce Driver on the playoff loss to the Penguins: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still in shock. I thought we were in command of the series.&rdquo;<h2>RANGERS</h2>Defenseman Milo Horava said he has had offers from teams in Sweden and Finland and is &ldquo;99 per cent sure&rdquo; he won&rsquo;t be back. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t afford to try another year and be in the press box again,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m fed up sitting in the press box. Neil (GM Neil Smith) tried to trade me before the deadline, and nobody wanted me because nobody knew me. But I&rsquo;m not upset. I&rsquo;m glad I went through all this. I&rsquo;m just not glad I didn&rsquo;t play&hellip;Smith said he would battle the temptation to overreact to first-round defeat and trade the entire team. &ldquo;Just because the washer and the dryer and the stove go on the fritz at home doesn&rsquo;t mean you bulldoze the house down,&rdquo; he said&hellip;Coach Roger Neilson said right wingers Ray Sheppard and Steven Rice might see some duty on left wing next year&hellip;Sheppard, goalie Mike Richter and defenseman Mark Hardy all have completed the option seasons of their contracts and are free agents, with varying forms of compensation&hellip;Thirteen others are entering their option seasons: Corey Millen, John Ogrodnick, Kris King, Jan Erixon, Brian Leetch. Bob Froese, Mike Gartner, Horava, Lindy Ruff, John Vanbiesbrouck, Normand Rochefort, David Shaw and Tie Domi&hellip;On breakup day, every player was handed a videotape of personal highlights from the season. Defenseman Randy Moller pulled his cassette out of the box, stared at the contents and screamed, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s only 25 seconds long!&rdquo;<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>Coach Al Arbour certainly did not sound like a man preparing to clean out his desk soon. In the weeks following the end of the Islanders&rsquo; season, Arbour scouted minor-league games, then returned to his office at Nassau Coliseum to meet daily with players about the last-place finish. &ldquo;I think everybody&rsquo;s very disappointed. We let things slide and felt sorry for ourselves. Certainly, we&rsquo;re all responsible,&rdquo; he said. Of his own future, Arbour still insisted he hasn&rsquo;t made up his mind. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m proceeding as normal,&rdquo; he said. GM Bill Torrey said Arbour has always been given a few weeks after the end of a season to collect his thoughts and chart his course. This year, regardless of speculation about Arbour&rsquo;s retirement, is no exception.<h2>FLYERS</h2>The Flyers would like to get more playing time out of defenseman Jiri Latal next year. The 24-year-old from Czechoslovakia, missed 36 games this past season due to shoulder, foot and knee injuries and 25 the previous year because of a shoulder separation and a cracked rib. The Flyers believe Latal has to realize most players compete even when they&rsquo;re not completely healthy. &ldquo;He has got to learn that when you play in the NHL, you might be 100 per cent on opening night, if you&rsquo;re lucky. Other than that, there is always something wrong,&rdquo; coach Paul Holmgren said.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>The Capitals had won six straight overtime playoff games until they dropped a 7-6 decision to Pittsburgh April 19 at the Civic Arena. The previous loss in an overtime playoff game was April 10, 1988, when Philadelphia beat them 5-4 at the Spectrum. The streak included two wins over the Flyers, one over the Devils and three over the Rangers&hellip;The traditional playoff scorers were starting to move to the top of the list for the Capitals. Through three games of the Patrick Division finals, Dale Hunter led the team with 10 points and Dino Ciccarelli had five goals&hellip;The Capitals did not sell out the first two games of their first-round series with the Rangers. The first game of the finals (Game 3 against Pittsburgh) was sold-out, thanks to a large influx of Penguin supporters. &#9632;

COFFEY BADGERS BOB ABOUT STRATEGY

<div class="byline">BY FRANK BROWN</div>The New York Rangers went a bit heavy on the &ldquo;second-season&rdquo; angle when they playoffs began. When that second season ended in a six-game loss to the Washington Capitals, who are getting rather good at feeding them disappointment sandwiches, the players, coaches and executives had some significant realities to confront.Among those realities:&#9632; The Rangers may have quantity and quality on defense, but there is little texture. Some of their defensemen will throw the odd bodycheck (Normand Rochefort tries, when he&rsquo;s healthy) but there is no certified mean streak back there.&#9632; It may have taken all season, but teams finally started exploiting that extra foot of space behind the net and started generating plays from there, and the comers, against which the Rangers could not defend. New York&rsquo;s &ldquo;down low&rdquo; coverage in the last few months of the season was abysmal.&#9632; Because so many senior Rangers were either injured or irrelevant during the playoff defeat, the best idea for next season very well may be to &ldquo;go with the kids.&rdquo; Outside of left winger Kris King and defenseman Joe Cirella, the team&rsquo;s best players against Washington were rookies (goalie Mike Richter, right winger Steven Rice and center Corey Millen).&#9632; The Boston Bruins turned 299 goals-scored and 264 goals-against into 100 points. The Rangers&rsquo; goal figures were 297-265, virtually identical, yet New York finished with 83 points and eight fewer victories (44-36).To save you from having to look it up, the Bruins went 6-1-1 against league doormat Quebec, but who cares? The Rangers had a division doormat in the Islanders and only beat them twice in seven tries (2-4-1). The missing element certainly seems to be character; the 100-point teams beat up on the Quebecs the way the Bruins did and the mediocre teams mess up against the Islanders the way the Rangers did.That about covers the lowlights. Turning to the future, coach Roger Neilson said he hopes to have a stronger forechecking team next season and expects he will have a faster, larger army with which to use that style.General manager Neil Smith immediately sent the coaching staff to the playoff series outside the Patrick Division so the management team could be prepared for any trade eventuality, should it arise.And just about everybody else went home with a very sour taste in his mouth.Right winger Mike Gartner did not turn down a chance to discuss his one-goal output&mdash;the goal coming on a power play&mdash;over the six games. Though seemingly singled out by Smith in an blistering tirade the night the series ended, Gartner said, &ldquo;1&rsquo;11 take my share of the responsibility for what happened in this year&rsquo;s playoffs, but I won&rsquo;t take more (than his share), any more than I would take more of the credit if I had done well and the team had done well.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>April 15: Steven Rice, RW, and Corey Millen, C, assigned to Binghamton (AHL). John Vanbiesbrouck, G, and Brian Mullen. RW, assigned to Team USA for World Championships.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Darren Turcotte, Mark Janssens, Doug Weight.LW&mdash;Jan Erixon, Kris King, Troy Mallette, Lindy Ruff.RW&mdash;Mike Gartner, Joe Kocur, Brian Mullen, Tony Amonte, Paul Broten, Jody Hull.LD&mdash;Brian Leetch, Mark Hardy, Joe Cirella. Milos-lav Horava.RD&mdash;James Patrick, David Shaw, Randy Moller.G&mdash;Mike Richter, John Vanbiesbrouck.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bob Froese, G. shoulder surgery. Normand Rochefort. D. compression fracture, L-2 vertebra. Kelly Kisio, C, hip flexor Ray Sheppard. RW, separated left shoulder. Bernie Nicholls, C, stress fracture, left foot, sprained right knee John Ogrodnick. LW, slight fracture, fight fibula.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Nicholls, 4. A&mdash;Nicholls, Leetch, 3. P&mdash;Nicholls, 7. PIM&mdash;King, 36. &#9632;

TIME HAS COME TO FACE THE FACTS

<div class="byline">BY MARK HERRMANN</div>This off-season, Brad Dalgamo can concentrate on less complicated issues, such as finding a way to score more goals.A year ago at this time, that question was secondary to the New York Islanders&rsquo; first round pick (sixth overall) in the 1985 draft, who was finalizing his plan to make a comeback after a one-year &ldquo;retirement&rdquo; at 22.He&rsquo;s now convinced he made the right decision, despite a mid-season trip to the minors and a meager total of three goals in 41 games with New York.&ldquo;This was a tough year,&rdquo; Dalgamo said. &ldquo;But it was a year I had to go through,&rdquo; adding that he considered it an unfortunate coincidence the team suffered through an unsettling lastplace season at the same time.&ldquo;It could end up being a very valuable one,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was an important year for me to go through.&rdquo;Dalgamo said he has proven to himself he can play in the NHL, after having had doubts whether that was a worthwhile pursuit.The 6-foot-3, 215-pound right winger quit at the end of training camp in 1989, rather than accept a demotion to the team&rsquo;s American League affiliate in Springfield.He later said the decision was a culmination of &ldquo;my feelings toward the game&rdquo; and added that a severe injury he suffered in a Feb. 21, 1989 fight with Joey Kocur influenced his thinking.While he retained no physical scars from the broken left orbital bone in his face, Dalgarno knew he had to show he could withstand the rigors&mdash;and the occasional cheap shot&mdash;of playing a rough sport.His first test came during the very first day of training camp when he lost several front teeth to a high stick from defenseman Dean Chynoweth. Later in the season in Quebec, Dalgarno was hit in the mouth again.Dalgarno made the Islanders&rsquo; opening night roster, but scored just one goal before being sent to the minors Dec. 20. He was recalled for good Feb. 24, but didn&rsquo;t score again until the final week of the season, when he collected two more.&ldquo;I was quite happy with my last two or three weeks,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Unfortunately, I have to look back and say, &lsquo;Great. That&rsquo;s only two weeks.&rsquo; At least it gives me something. If it hadn&rsquo;t been the last few weeks, I would&rsquo;ve had to find some other time of the year for my inspirational point that would&rsquo;ve kept me going.&rdquo;Attitude was a greater concern than his point total (15) or his minus-10 rating.&ldquo;There were times during the season when I lapsed a little bit, I started getting down,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The positive thing was that I could see that happening and I could change course. In past years, I couldn&rsquo;t see it happening. It just happened. The next thing you know, you&rsquo;re exhausted, you&rsquo;re tired every day, you&rsquo;re not happy, you&rsquo;re having headaches. If you can see it happening, you can stay a lot more positive and be a lot more productive.&rdquo;He did exhibit a sounder, more physical style in the closing weeks. That&rsquo;s the least the Islanders expected when they selected him in the draft.Although Dalgarno was not a dominating junior scorer&mdash;collecting 49 goals in two seasons with Hamilton (Ontario League)&mdash;the Islanders expected him to score more than three times a season.&ldquo;The year off might have had a lot to do with it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t work on my shot. Next year is going to be totally different, with totally different numbers.&ldquo;Obviously, people are going to look at me and say, &lsquo;Oh, he&rsquo;s not a goal scorer.&rsquo; I&rsquo;m going to work like mad on my shot this summer. I want to achieve my goal of 20 goals. That doesn&rsquo;t drop off when you don&rsquo;t have a productive year.&rdquo; &#9632;

REVITALIZED DALGARNO PUTS PAST BEHIND HIM

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>As the New Jersey Devils emerged from the visitors&rsquo; dressing room at Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Civic Arena to start the third period in the seventh game of the Patrick Division semifinals, Sean Burke was overcome with a feeling of nostalgia.The 24-year-old goaltender realized it might be his last few minutes in a New Jersey Devils&rsquo; sweater.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want to think that&rsquo;ll be the last time I play with those guys, but I did think it,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;Going out for the third period I had to give myself a shake. We were down, 3-0 and I realized this could be it and I haven&rsquo;t played a single minute in the playoffs.&rdquo;The Devils were eliminated by the Penguins and Burke didn&rsquo;t play. He finishing the regular season with an 8-12-8 record and 3.59 goals-against average.On July 1, Burke will become a Group II free agent with a chance to walk away from two unhappy seasons with the Devils. In what could be a mass exodus, the Devils stand to lose Burke, Brendan Shanahan, Alexei Kasatonov, Eric Weinrich, Doug Brown, Dave Maley and Troy Crowder as free agents.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01643/5919573-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="714" height="714"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sean Burke says he has probably played his last game in New Jersey.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s an outside chance things could change with a new collective bargaining agreement, but as restrictive as it is now I can&rsquo;t see anything drastic being done,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;Nobody is just going to walk away, that&rsquo;s for sure. If anything, Shanny is in the best position, of course.&rdquo;Shanahan will be a 22-year-old Group I free agent with a bright future. A team that signs Shanahan would not have to fear losing draft picks, only a player of similar value, and the Devils do not have the option of matching another club&rsquo;s contract offer.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m one of the lowest-paid players on this team,&rdquo; said Shanahan, who earned $130,000 this season, the same figure as right winger Jeff Madill. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to jump into the upper echelon of salaries in the NHL, but it&rsquo;ll be other teams dictating that, not me.&ldquo;I guess what I have to do is listen to other teams and see who wants me, where they feel I&rsquo;d fit in and what I&rsquo;m worth. There are going to be a lot of teams that won&rsquo;t come near me for fear of losing players they want to keep.&rdquo;Yet others, such as Toronto and San Jose, can&rsquo;t lose in making an offer for the fourth-year forward who scored 29 goals and 66 points despite having his face shattered by a puck Jan. 8.Crowder is in the same Group I category as Shanahan while Weinrich, Maley and Brown are Group II free agents like Burke. If another team makes a contract offer, the Devils have the right to match that offer or lose the player and accept compensation of draft picks, cash or both, depending on the size of the contract.Kasatonov is in a separate category. Since he&rsquo;ll reach his 31 st birthday before July 1, he&rsquo;s a Group III free agent. The Devils can retain their rights to match another team&rsquo;s deal only by offering Kasatonov a 15 per cent raise on a new contract or a one-year, no-option contract by June 30.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>April 19: Sean Burke, G. named to Canadian team for World Championships.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Kirk Muller, Patrik Sundstrom, Jon Morris. Peter Stastny, Laurie Boschman, Kevin Todd.LW&mdash;Zdeno Ciger, Brendan Shanahan, Perry Anderson, Pat Conacher, Jamie HuscroftRW&mdash;Claude Lemieux, John MacLean, Doug Brown, Troy Crowder. Jeff Madill.LD&mdash;Viacheslav Fetisov, Bruce Driver. Lee Norwood.RD&mdash;Alexei Kasatonov, Eric Weinrich, Ken Daneyko.G&mdash;-Chris Terreri, Roland Melanson.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tommy Albelin. D, bruised left hand. Dave Maley. LW, fractured left hand. Walt Poddubny, LW, right knee surgery.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;MacLean, 5. A&mdash;Shanahan. 5. P&mdash;MacLean, Shanahan, 8. PIM&mdash;Lemieux, 34. &#9632;

f0033-01

FREE AGENT EXODUS COULD DECIMATE LINEUP

<div class="byline">BY DAVE SELL</div>Sometimes defying both gravity and description, the stick and puck become one for a second&mdash;or even two or three&mdash;before Al lafrate separates them and sends the puck on its way. A flick here, a flip there, lafrate has a hundred little moves that most hockey players don&rsquo;t have and he loves to tinker with them after practices when the situation is right.&ldquo;Ken Wregget, Russ Courtnall and I used to do that my first three years, when we had the ice forever at Maple Leaf Gardens,&rdquo; lafrate said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d just stay out goofing around long after the regular practice, trying all sorts of creative things.&rdquo;Iafrate is, of course, a defenseman, but that offensive thinking is part of the makeup of the Washington Capitals&rsquo; blue line corps this season. lafrate scored the game-winner in the 4-2 win in Game 1 of the Patrick Division finals against Pittsburgh, but his goal came after those by fellow defensemen Calle Johansson and Kevin Hatcher. The Capitals lost the next two games of the series, but the first one highlighted the transformation of the defense, which is as important in putting the puck in the net as it is in preventing goals at the other end.&ldquo;They have a group of forwards that don&rsquo;t score a lot,&rdquo; Phildelphia coach Paul Holmgren said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the defensemen that are the key to the offense.&rdquo;Johansson, who had career highs in goals (11), assists (41) and points (52), said the forwards deserve credit for adjusting to the increased role of the defensemen.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way it seems to be working out, but the forwards have been equally as important in the defensive part of the game,&rdquo; Johansson said. &ldquo;If we lose a little bit offensively in goals and maybe we don&rsquo;t have a 50-goal scorer, we prevent a lot of goals.&rdquo;The Capitals had success in the first round against the Rangers because they realized they had to dump-and-chase if they weren&rsquo;t able to carry into the zone. And some of the goals by defensemen come when the puck comes back to the point after work down low by the forwards. The change in the defense has also highlighted the importance of Rod Langway.&ldquo;Depth is the thing,&rdquo; said general manager David Poile, whose team has been without Mikhail Tatarinov for the playoffs. &ldquo;When we didn&rsquo;t have Al for the first game against the Rangers, that changes the whole thing. We need to be deeper in defensemen, but everybody wants that.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why Rod Langway is a big part of the puzzle. His coming back to the lineup is a tremendous key to where we are today. He&rsquo;s a great stabilizer and complements the younger players. He is the glue that keeps it together.&rdquo;Coach Terry Murray thinks more teams will try to have defensive corps shaped around mobile defensemen, but it&rsquo;s not something invented in Landover. And Poile admits, his team&rsquo;s change was forced upon it.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s after the fact, but so much was brought about by Scott Stevens signing with St. Louis,&rdquo; Poile said.Stevens, with 53 points, remains the Capitals all-time playoff scoring leader. Stevens had fewer points this season than he had in most of his seasons in Washington, but he was an AllStar game representative, and helped the Blues to a great regular season. Sometimes, a change of scenery can help.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>April 22: Jim Hrivnak, G, Kent Paynter, D, Mark Ferner, D, Jeff Greenlaw, RW, Steve Settel, LW, Reggie Savage. RW, Alfie Turcotte, C, and Rob Murray, C, recalled from Baltimore (AHL),<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hunter, Mike Ridley, Michal Pivonka, Tim Bergland, Rob Murray, Alfie Turcotte.LW&mdash;-Dimitri Khristich, Kelly Miller, Dave Tippett. Nick Kypreos, Steve Seftel.RW&mdash;Dino Ciccarelli, Steve Leach, John Druce, Alan May, Reggie Savage, Jeff Greenlaw.LD&mdash;Rod Langway, Calle Johansson, Ken Sabourin, Kent Paynter, Mark Ferner.RD&mdash;Kevin Hatcher, Al lafrate, Mike Lalor, Neil Sheehy.G&mdash;Don Beaupre, Mike Liut, Jim Hrivnak.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mikhail Tatarinov, D, paritially torn hamstring, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Ciccarelli, 5. A&mdash;Hunter, 9. P&mdash;Hunter, 10. PIM&mdash;Kypreos. 38 &#9632;

DEFENSE COUNTED UPON FOR OFFENSE

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>There was a time when Frank Pietrangelo didn&rsquo;t think he figured in the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; future, so he made plans to spend this season in Italy. That was last summer.And there was a time when he didn&rsquo;t figure to be more than an interested observer during the playoffs. That was a few weeks ago. Before No. 1 goalie Tom Barrasso strained his right shoulder. Before Pietrangelo pushed the Penguins deeper into the playoffs by beating New Jersey in Games 6 and 7 of the first round.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like buying lottery tickets,&rdquo; Pittsburgh goalie Wendell Young said. &ldquo;You never think you&rsquo;re going to win, but when it hits, it hits big. Frankie hit big.&rdquo;Barrasso finally moved back into the No. 1 job for the Penguins&rsquo; 3-1 win against Washington in Game 3 of their second-round series, but not until Pietrangelo had left an indelible imprint on Pittsburgh&rsquo;s spring.His personal playoff linescore&mdash;four games played, a 3-1 record, a 2.90 goals-against average, one shutout, a 90.8 save percentage&mdash;constituted a contribution the Penguins didn&rsquo;t forget even after Pietrangelo had gone back to the far end of the bench.Pietrangelo knew there was little chance of remaining the No. 1 goalie when Barrasso was healthy. After his 4-0 victory against New Jersey in Game 7 of the first round, Pietrangelo said, &ldquo;I want to be the goalie from here on in,&rdquo; but he knew it was unlikely.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t concern myself with that (who starts),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a coach&rsquo;s decision. I&rsquo;m just prepared to play.&rdquo;That preparation paid off when he was pressed into service against the Devils and responded with some of the finest work of his career. Perhaps he&rsquo;s not a threat to, say, the legend of Ken Dryden, but the 5-foot-10, 182-pound Niagara Falls, Ont., native lived a dream by proving himself in the harsh crucible of the playoffs.&ldquo;All of us played street hockey when we were kids and fantasized about making the big save against Wayne Gretzky or whoever in Game 7 of the playoffs,&rdquo; he said.Pietrangelo didn&rsquo;t get to stop Gretzky, but he did make an astonishing stop on Peter Stastny in Game 6 of the first round. Pietrangelo was off his feet and Stastny had the puck in front of an open net. Stastny snapped a shot and it went directly into the 26-year-old&rsquo;s glove.&ldquo;He hit my glove,&rdquo; Pietrangelo said. &ldquo;It was not a matter of a skill save; it was a lucky save.&rdquo;No one argued Pietrangelo&rsquo;s good fortune, but no one disputed that the stop was pivotal, because it prevented the Devils from wiping out a tenuous 2-1 Pittsburgh lead that became a 4-3 victory.&ldquo;The save of the series,&rdquo; Pittsburgh center Bryan Trottier called it. Devils&rsquo; coach Tom McVie described it as &ldquo;the highlight-film save of the year.&rdquo;But Pietrangelo wasn&rsquo;t finished. He stopped all 27 New Jersey shots during the Penguins&rsquo; 4-0 victory in Game 7 to record the second playoff shutout in Penguins&rsquo; history, the first since Michel Plasse blanked Toronto in a 2-0 victory April 8, 1976.&ldquo;You have to take advantage of your opportunities,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I want to take advantage of this one.&rdquo;He did, which is why Pittsburgh still had a chance to play a hockey game in May for the first time in franchise history.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mano Lemieux, Ron Francis, Bryan Trottier, Jin Hrdina, Randy Gilhen, Barry Pederson. Ken Pnesttay.LW&mdash;BoBErrey. Phil Bourque. Kevin Stevens. Troy Loney,RW&mdash;Mark Recchi. Jaromir Jagr, Joe Mullen Scott Young, Jay Caufieid. Jamie LeachLD&mdash;Gordie Roberts. Grant Jennings, Jim PaeRD&mdash;Larry Murphy. Paul Stanton. Randy HiherG&mdash;Tom Barrasso Frank Pietrangelo, Bruce Racine<h3>INJURIES</h3>Paul Coffey, 0, jaw surgery indefinite Gilbert Delorme. D. leg stress fracture, indefinite. Ulf Samuels-son, D. broken right hand, indefinite Peter Tag-lianetti D, bruised foot, day-to-day Wendell Young G. dislocated right shoulder, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Stevens. 6 A&mdash;Recchi. 13. P&mdash;Recchi, 17 PIM&mdash;Trottier. 35. &#9632;

PIETRANGELO’S PLAY FRANKLY QUITE SUPERB

<div class="byline">BY STEVE SIMMONS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01694/5919652-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="504" height="610"></div>The desperation began to sink in around early evening, and for the first time I understood what it was to be American&mdash;what it was to be deprived of a Canadian birthright: hockey on television.It was a Tuesday night in Atlantic City, that New Jersey dump site that has somehow become home to some of heavyweight boxing&rsquo;s bigger shows.My newspaper, depriving me of the pleasure of covering the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, had assigned me instead to the George Foreman-Evander Holyfield mess. Fighting without skates.So there I was on a Tuesday night, knowing that Calgary and Edmonton were playing Game 7, knowing that Detroit and St. Louis were doing the same, knowing that Ron MacLean and Don Cherry would be sparring, and knowing that somewhere in this haven of gambling and guilt I had to find a television set that had SportsChannel America.Finding TV sets was easy, even in Atlantic City, where they want you to spend all your time in the casino.Finding SportsChannel America was another matter entirely.I first stopped at something called the Sports Bar, assuming that any place called the Sports Bar would have playoff hockey on. When I walked in, the TV sets were turned off, their satellite dish was broken.If I wanted, they told me, they would turn the Oakland A&rsquo;s game on for me. I wanted Mark Messier. They were offering Mark McGwire.My concern grew. It was nearing 8:30. The sure thing Sports Bar wasn&rsquo;t a sure thing.I had watched the first six games of the Flames-Oilers series and it was the most gripping television I have ever witnessed. The series unfolded the way a great novel unfolds: and the possibility of missing the ending was beginning to irk me.Out of desperation I went to the Yellow Pages.I began to call. And call and call. Bar after bar. Rejection after rejection.The puck had been dropped in St. Louis and I was in a hotel room wanting to be someplace else. Anyplace that would give me Mike Emrick and Bill Clement.I phoned the front desk asking if they knew where I might watch the hockey game. They suggested a place. The place told me they were getting SportsChannel next month. They wished me luck.I went back to the phone book. Thirty-six consecutive establishments said no. They had baseball games. They had NBA games. One was even showing boxing. But there was no playoff hockey.The 38th place said they&rsquo;d normally have hockey on, but their satellite dish was broken. My research tells me that Atlantic City has more broken satellite dishes than anywhere else in America.Knowing that this is the playoffs, and you have to demonstrate desperation viewing, I pursued. I&rsquo;ve become the Sutter brother of playoff watchers. When I want something, I don&rsquo;t stop until I get it.Frustrated by my attempts to get the game on television, I called one of those fancy 800 numbers to hear play-by-play in progress of the Wings-Blues game. I calculated, that at 50 cents a minute, it would cost me about 100 bucks to listen to the Flames-Oilers game on my telephone.Finally, nearing the end of the Yellow Page section on taverns, I found a bar that said they had SportsChannel. The lady on the phone promised me they would put the hockey game on if I showed up. Business was that bad.There was only one problem. I was in Atlantic City. The bar was in someplace called Somer&rsquo;s Point. It was late, it was dark, and all I had was a rather sketchy map and my rent-a-car.Thirty minutes later, I was there. Me and about three-other customers.I got there in time to see Brett Hull&rsquo;s key goal put the Blues up 2-1. (Terrific backhand pass by Adam Oates.) I got to see the early cutins on the Calgary-Edmonton game. I got to see the brilliance of Grant Fuhr and the clock controversy in St. Louis, and the final two periods of the Flames and Oilers. The bar erupted in sound&mdash;all five of us&mdash;when Esa Tikkanen scored in overtime.The entire effort was worth it: The drive, the phone calls, the frustration. But on my ride back to the hotel, I couldn&rsquo;t help but reflect on how great these playoff series were and how difficult it is for Americans to see them.Steve Simmons is a feature writer/columnist for the Toronto Sun. &#9632;

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HOCKEY RAREST GAME IN GLITZY ATLANTIC CITY

To be successful in the playoffs, it&rsquo;s important to win close games. Or so you&rsquo;d think. During the regular season, Minnesota had the worst record in the NHL in one-goal games&mdash;5-15-0. Chicago was third at 15-7-0. But despite their record, Brian Bellows and the North Stars upset the Blackhawks in six games. In each of the other seven series, the team with the better record in regular season one-goal games won.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02528/5919683-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="566" height="432"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Bellows</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0035-02

ODDITIES

With their 3-2 win over Detroit in Game 7 of the Norris Division semifinal, the St. Louis Blues joined an exclusive group. The Blues became the eighth team in NHL history to come back from a 3-1 or worse deficit to win a playoff series. The others: Toronto, 1942 Stanley Cup final against Detroit (down 3-0); New York Islanders, 1975 quarter-final against Pittsburgh (down 3-0); Detroit, 1987 division final against Detroit (down 3-1); New York Islanders, 1987 division semifinal against Washington (down 3-1); Washington, 1988 division semifinal against Philadelphia (down 3-1); Los Angeles, 1989 division semifinal against Edmonton (down 3-1); and Edmonton, 1990 division semifinal against Winnipeg (down 3-1).<h2>CLOSE SHAVE</h2>New Jersey Devils&rsquo; captain Kirk Muller has been victimized by practical jokes so often in his career he unconsciously reacts to them at home. Kirk has been fooled numerous times by the Devils&rsquo; favorite trick, the shaving-cream-in-the-towel routine. Says Kirk&rsquo;s wife Stacey: &ldquo;After a shower, Kirk will peek into his towel before he puts it on his head&mdash;just to be sure there&rsquo;s no shaving cream in it. Then, when he realizes what he has done, he&rsquo;ll shake his head and roll his eyes; like he can&rsquo;t believe he did it.&rdquo;<h2>FINAL PROSPECT LISTING</h2>Oshawa Generals&rsquo; center Eric Lindros, 18, the probable first pick in the 1991 NHL draft, captured first place in the Ontario League top prospect rankings.Lindros, who led the OHL in scoring with 71 goals and 149 points, was also named the Canadian Hockey League player of the month for January.The final CHL draft prospect listings as chosen by the media:ONTARIO LEAGUE: 1. Eric Lindros, C, Oshawa. 2. Pat Peake, C, Detroit. 3. Dennis Purdie, RW, London. 4. Alex Stojanov, RW, Hamilton. 5. Glen Murray, RW, Sudbury. 6. Jason Dawe, LW, Peterborough. 7. Jassen Cullimore, D, Peterborough. 7.(tie) Steve Staios, D, Niagara Falls.QUEBEC LEAGUE: 1. Patrick Poulin, LW, St-Hyacinthe. 2. Philippe Boucher, D, Granby. 3. Yanic Perreault, C, Trois Rivieres. 4. Martin Lapointe, LW, Laval. 5. Rene Corbet, D, Drummondville. 6. Eric Lavigne, D, Hull. 7. Marcel Cousineau, G, Beauport. 8. Francois Groleau, D, Shawinigan.WESTERN LEAGUE: 1. Scott Niedermayer, D, Kamloops. 2. Pat Falloon, C, Spokane. 3. Jeff Nelson, C, Prince Albert. 4. Brent Bilodeau, D, Seattle. 5. Lee J. Leslie, C, Prince Albert. 6. Darcy Werenka, D, Lethbridge. 7. Ray Whitney, C, Spokane. 8. Richard Matvichuk, D, Saskatoon.<h2>KING PINGS</h2>Los Angeles center Wayne Gretzky may be the best King on skates, but goaltenders Daniel Berthiaume and Kelly Hrudey dominate in another sport&mdash;ping pong. Kings&rsquo; management installed a ping-pong table in the Kings&rsquo; dressing room in late February to give the players an outlet from the rigorous schedule. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something the players can enjoy all the time.&rdquo; says Kings&rsquo; assistant equipment manager Mark O&rsquo;Neill.<h2>QUESTION OF THE WEEK:</h2>What was your reaction after beating Calgary in the gruelling Smythe Division semifinal?&ldquo;You&rsquo;d swear to God that John Zeigler was going to come out of the woodwork and hand the Stanley Cup to the winner of the series, said Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; coach John Muckier. &ldquo;But all we were playing for was the right to play L.A.&rdquo; &#9632;

BLUES JOIN NEVER SAY DIE GANG

&#9632; Our NHL playoff coverage continues with a comprehensive report on what happened in each series and why.&#9632; A preview of the NHL Awards. Will Chicago goaltender Ed Belfour capture NHL rookie of the year honors despite his mediocre playoff?&#9632; A preview of the Memorial Cup championship.&#9632; With the elimination of several NHL teams, Team USA and Team Canada rosters have been boosted for the World Championships in Finland. We&rsquo;ll analyze what impact the additions have had.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03427/5919738-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="546" height="631"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ed Belfour</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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May 3, 1991

PHYSICAL BARON SOARS IN FIRST FULL SEASON

ELSTON

INJURY REPORTS VANISH IN PITTSBURGH

POWER-PLAY GOALS COST KINGS’ RANSOM