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 17, 1991

The Hockey News May 17, 1991

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021207/5944512-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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DEPARTMENTS

ELSTON

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01885/5948243-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"></div>SWEDES CAPTURE TITLE AMID CONTROVERSY-PAGES 7,12NEELY, SAMUELSSON REACQUAINTED-PAGES 39, 40STARS&rsquo; OWNER DEVIATES FROM THE NORM AND EMERGES A WINNER-PAGE 6THN AWARDS: READERS GIVE HULL VOTE OF CONFIDENCE PAGE 17EXPANSION PARTNERS TRY TO MAKE PLAYOFF HISTORY PAGE 4 &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

GREEN MACHINE

The biggest success story in the International League this season was the 18-game winning streak of the Peoria Rivermen. The Rivermen rode that to a 58-19-5 record and first place overall.So it&rsquo;s not surprising that the finalists for The Hockey News Minor Pro Coach of the Year and THN Minor Pro Player of the Year include Rivermen. The winners are voted upon by THN editorial staff.Peoria coach Bob Plager is up against stiff competition from Jim Roberts, the coach of the American League&rsquo;s Springfield Indians. Roberts won the Calder Cup last season and led the Indians to first place in the North Division this year.David Bruce set an IHL record with the Rivermen scoring nine hat tricks on his way to 64 goals and 52 assists. His competition is Kevin Todd, who had impressive totals with the AHL&rsquo;s Utica Devils. Todd led the league with 118 points (37 goals and 81 assists).Plager, who is also director of player development with the St. Louis Blues, took over the coaching post with the Rivermen Aug. 23 after last season&rsquo;s coach, Wayne Thomas, was promoted to assistant coach with the parent team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to play the young players and give them a chance to show what they can do,&rdquo; Plager said before the start of the season.After losing the first game, those young players led the way to a professional hockey record win streak. During the streak five Rivermen&mdash;Bruce, Nelson Emerson, Dave Thomlinson, Steve Tuttle and Michel Mongeau&mdash;topped the IHL&rsquo;s scoring chart.Tuttle was the only one not to finish among the league leaders. Bruce led the way for the Rivermen with 116 points (third place overall), Emerson had 115 (fourth), Thomlinson 107 (fifth) and Mongeau 106 (sixth).&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know if I would be a good coach but I thought I could help them learn the game,&rdquo; Plager said.Plager, 48, certainly knows about the game of hockey playing 14 seasons with the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues. The defensman played 644 NHL games scoring 146 points.Roberts, who was the only holdover after the New York islanders switched their affiliation to Capital District, led the Indians to a 43-27-10 record. The Indians&rsquo; record is a surprise because the parent Hartford Whalers&rsquo; affiliate last season, Binghamton, set league futility records with 60 losses.&ldquo;I think when the affiliation was announced people said, &lsquo;Geez, they have Binghamton&rsquo;s team that did so poorly last year,&rsquo; but if you look at some of the players on that team, you see there are skilled players,&rdquo; said Bruce Landon, the Indians&rsquo; general manager.The Indians finished second overall in 1990-91 with 96 points. They led the league in goals (348) while finishing fourth in goals against (281).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01769/5945602-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="570" height="1008"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kevin Todd led the AHL with 118 points&mdash;37 goals, 81 assists.</figcaption></div>Left winger Michel Picard became the first Springfield player to score 50 goals as he led the league with 56. Goalie Kay Whitmore won eight straight games when he was assigned in November and finished among the league leaders with a 3.07 goals-against average.Roberts, 51, was the AHL&rsquo;s coach of the year in 1989-90 and is a stronger contender again this season. He took a team that won only 11 games in Binghamton, led them to a 43-27-10 record and took them back to the Calder Cup finals.Peoria&rsquo;s Bruce set a IHL record with nine hat tricks as he scored 10 game-winning goals.Bruce, a free agent who signed in the off-season, was a first-team all star with the Milwaukee Admirals in 1989-90 when he scored 40 goals and 75 points. After playing five seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, Bruce played in 12 games for the parent St. Louis Blues this season and appeared in two playoff games.Bruce was leading the league in scoring when he was called up by the Blues. He was on pace to break the league&rsquo;s season goal mark of 75 set in 1982-83 by Milwaukee&rsquo;s Daniel Lecours.The left winger earned an all-star spot this season and was the IHL&rsquo;s most valuable player.&ldquo;Every time the phone rang down here and it was St. Louis, we expected them to ask for David Bruce,&rdquo; Plager said. &ldquo;We kind of gave a sigh of relief every time they didn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Todd, the favorite for the AHL&rsquo;s MVP, broke the Utica point record held by last season&rsquo;s MVP Paul Yse-baert. Todd was overshadowed by his teammate Ysebaert in 1989-90, scoring 54 points to his rival&rsquo;s 105. But this season, Todd emerged from the shadows scoring 118 points for the Devils, who finished out of the playoffs.His league-leading 81 assists helped break the Devils&rsquo; career mark. In three seasons, Todd had 162 assists. &#9632;

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PEORIA DOMINATES AWARDS NIGHT

<div class="byline">BY MATT NICHOLLS</div>St. Louis Blues&rsquo; right winger Brett Hull may have supplanted Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; center Wayne Gretzky as the NHL&rsquo;s highest-profile player this season, but the Great One still dominates the collectible industry&rsquo;s highest-profile market&mdash;autographed sticks and jerseys.&ldquo;Wayne definitely sells more overall, but Brett is a streaky seller,&rdquo; says Ken Goldin, executive vice-president of The Scoreboard Inc., in Cherry Hill. N.J. &ldquo;One day he&rsquo;ll appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated and the next day we&rsquo;ll have a big run on Hull merchandise. Gretzky? Well, Gretzky&rsquo;s Gretzky. He&rsquo;s consistent.&rdquo;Scoreboard sells an autographed Gretzky jersey for $449 U.S., while the Golden Brett&rsquo;s jersey sells for $299 U.S. Gretzky&rsquo;s autographed Easton aluminum stick tops Hull&rsquo;s shiny weapon, $195 U.S. to $129 U.S.In general, autographed jerseys run from between about $150 U.S. and up, while sticks retail from $50 U.S. and up. They&rsquo;re the highest profile items in the collectibles market for two reasons: Price and mystique.Unlike mass-produced collectibles like cards or photopucks, sticks and jerseys are difficult to obtain. Only several hundred Gretzky or Hull jerseys are on the market at any one time, meaning collectors pay handsomely for what they find.Moreso than other collectibles, purchasing autographed sticks and jerseys can be risky. As the estimated $1.5 billion sports collectibles&rsquo; industry mushrooms, unscrupulous dealers have popped up offering fraudulent products with forged signatures.And while baseball memorabilia is the main target&mdash;due to higher-profile players and a greater historical mystique&mdash;collectors seeking autographed hockey merchandise should take precautions to avoid being deceived.&ldquo;The key is you&rsquo;ve got to know who you&rsquo;re dealing with, who you can trust,&rdquo; says Tim Nolan, owner of Classic Hobby Nostalgia in Great Neck, N.Y. &ldquo;Mainly it&rsquo;s a mail-order problem. But if you stick to the bigger players, you should be fine.&rdquo;Many dealers have taken steps to ensure collectors don&rsquo;t get fleeced. The Scoreboard Inc., signs players to contracts and asks them to sign a letter of authenticity varifying their product is authentic. Each customer receives a letter.American Card Investors&rsquo; president Nick Grillo says his North Haven, Conn., based company has taken similar measures.&ldquo;If the collector wants to sell the stick down the line, they&rsquo;ll have something to put in front of somebody to show Bobby Hull was at the show,&rdquo; Grillo says. &ldquo;But be careful. Just because you get a letter of authenticity doesn&rsquo;t mean it&rsquo;s authentic. Collectors should always deal with larger companies because if there&rsquo;s a problem, you can deal with them.&rdquo;New York state attorney general Robert Abrams supports the letter idea. He recently proposed legislation that would require sports memorabilia dealers in New York state to provide customers with a written certificate of authenticity for autographed merchandise over $50 U.S.Under the bill, a dealer who knowingly provides false information or fails to present a letter of authenticity would be liable to pay damages. Abrams&rsquo; plan has already won the support of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, former players and leading dealers.&ldquo;The problem is greed,&rdquo; Grillo says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just a hobby anymore, it&rsquo;s a business. So when somebody offers you autographed (Joe) DiMaggio balls for $80 U.S. and you know it&rsquo;s worth $200 do you believe it&rsquo;s authentic? Give me a break, you can&rsquo;t be that ignorant. It&rsquo;s either stolen or it&rsquo;s not authentic. If more people probed a little, there&rsquo;d be less of it going on. It&rsquo;s like putting a light on at night. Burglars see it and they get scared.&rdquo; &#9632;

GRETZKY TOPS HIGH-PROFILE JERSEY, STICK MARKET

<h2>QUOTABLE</h2>&ldquo;I think that job would absolutely kill me. I&rsquo;d be dead of a heart attack in four years.&mdash;Former Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; GM Jimmy Dcvellano, on rumors he&rsquo;s being considered for director of hockey operations for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Page 29.&ldquo;I just practise and practise. Everyday. Practise and practise No play. I play this game. I no like to watch it&mdash;Boston Bruins&rsquo; left winger Valdimir Ruzicka. on being treated as a second-class citizen with his previous team, the Edmonton Oilers. Page 40. &#9632;

THIS WEEK

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011321/5944426-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="517" height="605"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOB McKENZIE</figcaption></div>Herb Pinder, the official supplier of goaltenders to Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team.Well, it hasn&rsquo;t quite come to that for the 44-year-old Saskatoon businessman-player agent. But it may not turn out to be very far off the mark either.Back in the fall of 1987, Pinder steered his client, Andy Moog, away from the Edmonton Oilers and to Dave King&rsquo;s Calgary-based Olympic squad. Moog was dissatisfied with being Grant Fuhr&rsquo;s caddy and when the Oilers failed to meet his trade demands, he took a six-figure endorsement deal with a grocery store chain to represent his country in the Olympics. The 1988 Winter Games ended, the Oilers finally traded Moog to Boston and he has pretty much lived happily ever after as the No. 1 man.Could the same scenario unfold with New Jersey Devil netminder Sean Burke?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a possibility,&rdquo; says Pinder, the agent for the the 24-year-old goalie who this season unequivocally lost the No. 1 position in New Jersey to Chris Terreri.&ldquo;Sean Burke will not play again in New Jersey. We have asked (New Jersey general manager) Lou Lamoriello twice to trade Sean.&ldquo;I almost got down on my hands and knees and begged, in the interest of a young man&rsquo;s future, for a trade. But Lou just sat there and stared across the room. The gloves are off. Sean will not be back with the Devils.&rdquo;Burke was a phenomenal junior with the Ontario League&rsquo;s Toronto Marlboros. The Devils chose him in the second round of the 1985 entry draft. Before turning pro, he teamed with Moog to give the Canadian Olympic team a solid tandem. (He was not, however, represented by Pinder at that time.)When Moog joined the Bruins after the Olympics, Burke turned pro with the Devils. He backstopped them to a late-season rally (10-1-0) to make the playoffs and led the way to the Wales Conference final against Boston.The Cinderella story ended there in more ways than one.Over the course of the next three seasons, Burke intermittently displayed the form that caused many to predict he would be a franchisetype goalie. But something went awry.The Devils seemed to lose confidence in him.Burke seemed to lose confidence in himself. Meanwhile, Terreri emerged as a legitimate and justifiable No. 1 goaltender, overcoming the cries of nepotism because he played for Lamoriello in college.The falling out was exacerbated by Burke playing out his option. Monetary considerations were key, but so, too, was finding a comfort zone. On July 1, he&rsquo;s a Type 11 free agent, which means compensation is determined by the value of the contract offered. Like Scott Stevens, the ultimate price for signing Burke could be up to five first-round picks.The spin on all this is Burke&rsquo;s performance at the World Championships in Finland, playing once again for Team Canada and coach King. He looked like the Burke of old, a tournament all-star.&ldquo;Dave King loves Sean Burke,&rdquo; says Pinder. &ldquo;He has ultimate confidence in him. Sean knows it. Now, that sounds like a slam against the Devils and their handling of Sean. But it isn&rsquo;t.&ldquo;Chris Terreri deserved to be the No. 1 goalie. Give him credit. All we&rsquo;re saying is that there&rsquo;s something wrong for Sean in New Jersey. The chemistry isn&rsquo;t right. It used to be, but not now. If the chemistry isn&rsquo;t right, sometimes you have to mix some new elements.&ldquo;So if we assume no one is going to sign Sean as a free agent and that the Devils won&rsquo;t trade him, then he&rsquo;ll go to the Olympic team.&rdquo;Regardless, Pinder&rsquo;s position as supplier of goalies to the Olympic team is not likely to be jeopardized.He also represents Trevor Kidd, who led the Spokane Chiefs to the Western League title and one of four berths in this year&rsquo;s Memorial Cup. Kidd was the Calgary Flames&rsquo; first-round pick in last summer&rsquo;s entry draft.The Flames have let it be known that they wouldn&rsquo;t mind incubating Kidd with King&rsquo;s Olympic team. The netminder hasn&rsquo;t made any commitments, but will consider it as a likely alternative to playing another year of junior.In any case, one of Pinder&rsquo;s clients seems destined for the Olympics. And who knows? Perhaps he&rsquo;ll deliver the pair to Dave King. Bob McKenzie is editor-in-chief of The Hockey News. &#9632;

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COLUMNS

BURKE MAY BOLT DEVILS FOR KING AND COUNTRY

I am writing to inform Stan Fischler about the rules of curses.He keeps predicting Stanley Cups for the Rangers while he is well aware of&ldquo;the curse&rdquo;. He said that 50 years is enough time for a curse and took it upon himself to lift it.He should know better than that. Only the person that laid the curse can lift it, and since that person (Red Dutton) is dead, the curse goes on and the Rangers will never win the Cup.Just step back and look at what happens whenever the Rangers appear to have a good shot at the Cup:&#9632; Denis Potvin had nothing to do with Ulf Nilsson&rsquo;s broken leg. Outside forces were involved.&#9632; Phil Esposito did not consciously fire Michel Bergeron on the eve of the playoffs, thus plunging the team into disarray.&#9632; What got into Neil Smith when he traded Kevin Miller for Joe Kocur and upset the chemistry of the team?&#9632; Where did the rut in the Maple Leaf Gardens&rsquo; ice come from that caused Brian Leetch&rsquo;s broken ankle?&#9632; And what was behind the injuries to Bernie Nicholls, John Ogrodnick and Ray Sheppard in 1991?This occult business is cute if you believe in it. If not, just admit the Rangers don&rsquo;t have it. Never did and never will.Arnold Raichek Oceanside, N. Y.<h2>JUST A FEW</h2>I&rsquo;d like to respond your jeer of Chicago Blackhawk fans (THN, April 26) in which you refer to their actions during Game 5 of the series against Minnesota as &ldquo;moronic.&rdquo;I agree that it&rsquo;s stupid for fans to throw debris on the ice, no matter how humiliating the defeat. However, in the four years I&rsquo;ve been a seasonticket holder, myself and the group with which I attend the games have never once thrown an object on the ice.It should have been mentioned that the people who throw things on the ice are in the minority. The majority of Hawk fans are good fans and don&rsquo;t reflect the &ldquo;moronic&rdquo; actions of a few.Dave Cherry&nbsp; Chicago, III.<h2>CHEAP SHOTS</h2>It is tragically ironic that the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; success over the Los Angeles Kings can be attributed, in part, to the cheap-shot attrocities of Craig Muni.His vicious and debilitating hits on Tomas Sandstrom and Bob Kudelski were flagrant violations of the written and unwritten codes of hockey: &lsquo;That the knees are a player&rsquo;s lifeline and are not to be subjected to brutal cheap shots.&rsquo;The NHL brass will, of course, do nothing. Until the career of a Brett Hull, Joe Sakic or Wayne Gretzky is terminated by one of Muni&rsquo;s cheap shots, no action will be rendered. By then, it will much too late and the the game will suffer immeasurably for ignoring a serious and dangerous situation.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011483/5944481-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="568" height="1018"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Yzerman&rsquo;s resilient grace is honorable, says a reader.</figcaption></div>John H. Whitlock Brantford, Ont.<h2>THAT&rsquo;S CLASS</h2>Detroit hockey fans be proud. Even in a loss, what a special moment it was to savor.The look of intensity and concern on Steve Yzerman&rsquo;s face when his apparent game-tying goal with 44 seconds remaining in Game 7 against St. Louis was disallowed and his immediate compliance with the referee&rsquo;s decision was beautiful to behold.Lesser men would have ranted and raved themselves into a misconduct penalty. The tying goal? In Game 7? Come on! Steve Yzerman, you are the best.Gil Miller Pittsburgh, Penn.<h2>CAMERA ACTION</h2>An open letter to all TV cameramen covering hockey:Your&rsquo;s is the toughest job in all your profession. Please don&rsquo;t make it more difficult for yourself and the TV viewers.While play is in progress, keep your hands off the zoom. Nothing infuriates a hockey fan more than trying to follow the puck while the camera is zoomed in on the player&rsquo;s face. This beautiful sport moves much too fast for the use of zoom lens.After the play has stopped, zoom all you want. Count the players&rsquo; teeth for all I care, but while the clock is ticking, let us see the action.David Hughes&nbsp; St. Louis, Mo.Make your feelings known. Send your comments to:&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2&nbsp;or fax us at&nbsp;(416) 445-0753.&nbsp;Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

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RANGERS’ CURSE CAN NEVER BE LIFTED

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03797/5944550-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="374" height="358"></div>&#9632; Team Sweden. Led by NHL rookie sensation Mats Sundin, the Swedes knocked off the perennial champion Soviets en route to gold in Turku, Finland. From a sentimental point of view, it was nice to see familiar faces&mdash;such as Mats Naslund, Bengt Gustafsson and Hakan Loob as well as current NHLers&mdash;enjoying success at the international level.&#9632; Sean Burke. Few NHLers fell as hard as Burke did this past season. Still, the talented goalie managed to get his game back together and singlehandedly keep Canada in contention for the gold medal at the world championships. No longer a Devils&rsquo; advocate. Burke earned first-team-all-star honors for his performance overseas.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04443/5944543-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="379" height="360"></div>&#9632; World championships format. Some outstanding medal-round hockey was obscured by the IIHF&rsquo;s absurd system in which a solid math background is a prerequisite. Teams should be worrying about winning, not goal differential, when the hardware is on the line. Using a playoff elimination format, like the one in the Canada Cup, would help the situation.&#9632; Mike Milbury. The Bruins&rsquo; coach was out of control after losing right winger Cam Neely in Game 3 of the Campbell Conference final in Pittsburgh. Whether Ulf Samuelsson&rsquo;s check was legal or not&mdash;and there is a decided difference of opinion on that&mdash;it was no excuse for Milbury to wield a stick like a madman. &#9632;

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CHEERS JEERS

<div class="byline">BY THN STAFF</div>While their counterparts in Canada have already launched legal action, former NHL players aren&rsquo;t yet ready to file suit in U.S. courts over dispersement of a $25-million surplus that built up in the league&rsquo;s pension fund.Suit had been filed April 26 in Ontario Court general division by seven ex-NHLers to try to recover the pension money. Named as defendants in the action were the NHL Pension Society, NHL President John Ziegler, the current 21 NHL teams and Manufacturer&rsquo;s Life Insurance, Co.However, a meeting in Chicago May 3 involving Ed Garvey, a lawyer and former NFL players&rsquo; union chief who now represents the retired NHL players, and several former players, failed to produce a strategy to collect the funds through the U.S. judicial system.&ldquo;Basically, we just held discussions,&rdquo; said Garvey. &ldquo;Nothing was decided. If anything were to be done, it would be coordinated with what has gone on in Toronto. It&rsquo;s the same group.&rdquo;When asked whether legal action in U.S. courts would be necessary for the ex-players to recover the money, Garvey said,&rdquo;I don&rsquo;t want to comment on that.&rdquo;Among those present in the small session were Colleen Howe, wife of former NHL great Gordie Howe and Dave Forbes, who retired in 1979 after six seasons with the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals.&ldquo;This was just a preliminary meeting,&rdquo; Forbes confirmed. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing pending.&rdquo;According to a statement released by Ziegler,&rdquo;every dollar of pension obligations to former players is, and always has been, fully met and funded.&rdquo;Ziegler also said the NHL has directed its lawyers to begin action to counter-sue.The former players claim that the $25-million surplus, which was discovered in 1982 and now may be worth up to $40 million because of accrued interest, belongs to them.However, in 1986, about $4.5 million was allocated to improve retired players&rsquo; pensions. Some $12 million went to fund a $250,000 bonus which will be paid at age 55 to players who have been in the league since 1986 and have appeared in more than 400 games. The remainder, the ex-NHLers claim, was usurped by NHL team owners.<h2>TROPHY TIME</h2>Eddie Belfour&rsquo;s dream season, rudely interrupted by the Minnesota North Stars in the first round of the playoffs, got back on course when he was named a finalist for three of the NHL&rsquo;s top individual awards.The first-year Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; goalie earned enough votes to place in the top three for the Hart, Vezina and Calder trophies.Listed below, in alphabetical order, are the finalists for the league&rsquo;s seven most prestigious awards. Winners will be announced June 5 in Toronto.Hart (Most Valuable Player): Belfour; Wayne Gretzky, Los Angeles; Brett Hull, St. Louis.Norris (Best Defenseman): Ray Bourque, Boston; Chris Chelios, Chicago; Al Maclnnis, Calgary.Calder (Best Rookie): Belfour; Sergei Fedorov, Detroit; Ken Hodge Jr., Boston.Vezina (Best Goalie): Belfour; Mike Richter, NY Rangers; Patrick Roy, Montreal.Lady Byng (Most Gentlemanly): Gretzky; Hull; Joe Sakic, Quebec.Jack Adams (Coach of the Year): Mike Keenan, Chicago; Brian Sutter, St. Louis; Tom Webster, Los Angeles.<h2>LAW AND ORDER</h2>Who said politics and sports don&rsquo;t mix? Certainly not the Ottawa Senators.After hiring Ottawa mayor Jim Durrell as team president earlier this year, the expansion Ottawa Senators have now added former U.S. attorney general Elliot Richardson as an adviser.Richardson, who headed up the Watergate investigation as Washington&rsquo;s top law man in 1973, will sit on the Senators&rsquo; 12-member advisory board, said team chairman Bruce Firestone.<h2>COMELY COACH</h2>Rick Comely, who guided Northern Michigan to its first NCAA Division I national championship this season, was named the winner of the 1991 Spencer Penrose Memorial Trophy as the U.S. college coach of the year. The award is voted on by the American Hockey Coaches Association.Comley, the 13th winningest coach in U.S. college hockey history with an overall record of 389-281-33 over 18 years, also won the award in 1980.He is the only coach in the history of NMU hockey and is one of 19 coaches to have won 300 games at one school. Comely also was named the Western Collegiate Hockey Association coach of the year.The Wildcats won the NCAA championship with an 8-7 triple overtime victory over Boston University March 30 in St. Paul. Comely&rsquo;s club finished the 1990-91 season with a 38-5-4 record.&mdash;with files from Matt Carlson and Gary Olson &#9632;

ALL’S QUIET ON THE U.S. EX-PLAYERS’ PENSION FRONT

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Damien Cox</div>Hmmm. The first Stanley Cup final meeting ever between 1967 expansion clubs. What an intriguing possibility.It&rsquo;s a scenario that acquired some potential in the early games of the Campbell Conference final between Edmonton and Minnesota, and the Wales Conference final between Pittsburgh and Boston.Minny and Pittsburgh, you may remember, entered the NHL in &rsquo;67 along with Philadelphia, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Oakland, but none of those clubs have never met in a Cup final.It could happen this year. The North Stars, who have played the underdog role to perfection with their shocking playoff upsets over Chicago and St. Louis, wandered into the home of the Stanley Cup champs and stole Game 1&mdash;and the home ice advantage&mdash;by a 3-1 count.The Oilers tried not to act surprised. &ldquo;Hey, they beat the No. 1 team (Blackhawks) and the No. 2. team (Blues),&rdquo; pointed out center Adam Graves.The reigning champs did seem to use the embarrassing loss as motivation, however, for Game 2. They pounded Minnesota 7-2, sending the series to the Met Center tied 1-1. Oiler goalie Grant Fuhr, who injured his arm in the final game against L.A., started both games for Edmonton.The Penguins, meanwhile, were stomped 6-3 in their opener with the Bruins, but almost engineered a come-from-behind win in Game 2 before losing in overtime on Vladimir Ruzicka&rsquo;s goal.It was all Pittsburgh in Game 3, and the Pens&rsquo; easy 4-1 win seemed to swing momentum their way.&ldquo;This is just the first step,&rdquo; said Pens&rsquo; right winger Mark Recchi. &ldquo;If we win Game 4, it&rsquo;s all tied up but we still have to win a game in Boston.&rdquo;Their chances of doing so may improve markedly if, as expected, Paul Coffey makes a return from a broken jaw to play in the series.One of the most interesting confrontations of the series has been the constant clashes between Boston right winger Cam Neely and Pens&rsquo; rearguard Ulf Samuelsson.Pittsburgh head coach Bob Johnson called his big Swede a &ldquo;tough hockey player.&rdquo; Asked for his description of Samuelsson. Boston head coach Mike Milbury said. &ldquo;Next question.&rdquo; &#9632;

A MATCH MADE IN EXPANSION HEAVEN

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>Pittsburgh Penguin right winger Mark Recchi&rsquo;s sterling playoff effort has caught the San Jose Sharks&rsquo; interest. Word from San Jose says Recchi&mdash;a desirable Type I free agent&mdash;will be offered a large contract later this season. But whatever compensation Pittsburgh will receive from the Sharks&rsquo; won&rsquo;t be enough&hellip;The NHL will have gross sales of $2 million for having its games televised overseas this season. Joel Nixon, NHL vice-president of broadcasting, says the playoffs will be broadcast in England, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Yugoslavia, West Germany, Spain, Japan and the Soviet Union. &ldquo;In terms of our future and showing the NHL in Europe, we&rsquo;ll go no place but up,&rdquo; Nixon says. As for the NHL&rsquo;s new U.S. TV contract, Nixon expects a deal at the end of this month.<h2>O&rsquo;NEILL BALKS</h2>A move among owners and GMs to alter the NHL penalty system&mdash;particularly as it applies to suspensions&mdash;is not favored by executive vicepresident Brian O&rsquo;Neill. O&rsquo;Neill disagrees with a suggestion that would allow one supervisor from each division to give additional discipline. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if that&rsquo;s the answer,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There would be four different standards of adjudication.&rdquo; O&rsquo;Neill says those who criticize the league for &ldquo;slow justice&rdquo; are overlooking a key point. &ldquo;Unlike any other sport, the NHL believes a player is entitled to a fair hearing,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It may appear slow but I don&rsquo;t see any magic in doing it immediately. The principal concern is to impose discipline on a player who committed a foul-.&rdquo;&hellip;When agent-broadcaster Bill Watters insists Eric Lindros won&rsquo;t sign with Quebec because of money, it suggests he&rsquo;s echoing the sentiments of former partner and Lindros&rsquo; agent, Rick Curran. But Curran is quick to point out Watters&rsquo; sentiments are not his. &ldquo;I want to make sure Willie&rsquo;s opinion is not misconstrued as my own. He and I never discussed it (Lindros&rsquo; signing) and he&rsquo;s just offering an educated opinion.&rdquo;<h2>WAIT AND SEE</h2>Most agents are taking a &ldquo;wait-and-see&rdquo; attitude toward the proposed North American and Continental leagues. At least two agents say they like the financial backing of the CHA better than the NAHL. &ldquo;At this time, I&rsquo;m figuring there&rsquo;s a 30 per cent chance for either league to get to the starting gate,&rdquo; says New York agent Larry Rauch. &ldquo;Any agent wants to see it happen; but it has to be done right.&rdquo;&hellip;Don&rsquo;t expect cordial relations when members of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association meet with Carl Brewer&rsquo;s militant NHL Alumni group next month. Asked whether his unit has received cooperation from NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow, Brewer says: &ldquo;None. He&rsquo;s not with us. He has been mouthing the party line as it exists.&rdquo; The alumni has set a lawsuit in motion challenging the owners&rsquo; handling of the players&rsquo; pension funds. &ldquo;Goodenow does not appreciate our stand,&rdquo; Brewer says. &ldquo;He has made it clear the pension money belongs to the owners.&rdquo;<h2>HE&rsquo;S A STAR</h2>The North Stars&rsquo; unexpected playoff run has placed coach Bob Gainey on the NHL&rsquo;s center stage. But few realize the rookie coach was hanging by a thread in November. There was serious thought to remove him in place of Terry Crisp&hellip;Future Hall of Fame defenseman Denis Potvin will receive the annual Canadian Society of New York award at an awards dinner June6. A record number of Hall of Famers, headed by Gordie Howe and Jean Beliveau, will honor the exIslander&hellip;Minnesota playoff sensation Jon Casey says he&rsquo;d wouldn&rsquo;t be playing this season were it not for Sharks&rsquo; GM Jack Ferreira. Casey says when Ferreira was Minnesota GM three years ago, the goalie was on a termination contract and a free agent. &ldquo;If Jack hadn&rsquo;t signed me, I might not be in hockey today,&rdquo; Casey says. Casey believes no other club would&rsquo;ve picked him up if the North Stars rejected him&hellip;Bobby Smith, who was with the last Montreal Stanley Cup-winner with Patrick Roy in goal, says Casey has played as well as Roy ever played&hellip;One rumored offseason deal has Ron Sutter and the Flyers&rsquo; top draft pick (sixth overall) going to St. Louis for center Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour. Philly also has an eye on Mark Messier if the Oilers&rsquo; captain is made available.<h2>JARI WHO?</h2>Finnish hockey authorities are miffed that Jari Kurri gets little attention in his homeland. &ldquo;He has accomplished something (five Stanley Cups, twice an all-star NHL right winger) no Finn, no European ever did,&rdquo; says Tom Ratchunas, media director at the World Championships. &ldquo;He was never elected Finnish sportsman of the year. It&rsquo;s always a skier or a track athlete. The media is prejudiced. What else does a player have to do?&rdquo; Kurri wasn&rsquo;t happy with his performance with the Milan Devils this season, despite being Europe&rsquo;s highest-paid player. &ldquo;They expected me to take the puck behind my own net, skate through the whole team and score,&rdquo; says Kurri. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not my game. I&rsquo;m used to give-and-take.&rdquo;&hellip;The Blues raised eyebrows during the playoffs for being the only club not to wear Desert Storm flag patches on their helmets. None of the St. Louis&rsquo; regulars are U.S.-bom and the club wore UN decals until April. Blues&rsquo; officials say the decals were removed because &ldquo;the war was over.&rdquo; But the Minnesota North Stars have worn American flags throughout the playoffs. &#9632;

IS RECCHI BOUND FOR SUNNY SAN JOSE?

<div class="byline">BY ALAN GOLDFARB</div>Some guys just never give up. Some guys, that is, who are among the persistent principals in the fledgling North American Hockey League.The NAHL, which is set to place six teams on the ice beginning Nov. 7, will be competing with the NHL primarily for junior and collegiate players and in two markets, Hamilton and Oakland. It will also be pooling its resources in the battle for Eric Lindros.Lindros, considered the best junior player in the world, was all but assured of becoming property of the Quebec Nordiques who choose first overall in this June&rsquo;s NHL draft. Now that is no longer a certainty.Not if Gerry Patterson, owner of the Hamilton franchise, and the rest of the NAHL interlopers have their way. Patterson, who led Hamilton&rsquo;s failed attempt to land an NHL expansion franchise, not only has the support of his city to get Lindros, but he&rsquo;ll get all the help he needs from the other NAHL founders who granted him the first pick in the league&rsquo;s initial draft, June 3.The Hamilton franchise has reportedly offered Lindros $4 million over three years, with Patterson picking up half the tab and the league the other half.Aside from Hamilton, the NAHL will have teams in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Miami and Cleveland. Northern California which will alternate between Oakland, Sac-remento and Fresno and Dallas/Fort Worth have been granted provisional franchise status and have until Sept. 30 to come up with arena dates. Regardless, the latter two franchises, whose ownership was not disclosed, will not begin play until the 1992-93 season, if at all.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011390/5944653-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="570" height="1232"><figcaption class="caption-body">Will Eric Lindros choose the NAHL over the Nordiques?</figcaption></div>The NAHL will play a 70-game schedule and will probably invoke some rule variations. The red line will likely be eliminated and the nets will possibly be moved out 18 inches; there will be no tie games, achieved by instituting a tiered system beginning with a 10-minute sudden death, then taking goalies off the ice or taking a player from each team out every two minutes.No team names have been assigned but it will probably be the Cleveland Barons and the Cincinnati Rockers. The latter will be headed by Gordon Stenback, the driving force behind the NAHL. Stenback was named chairman of the board of the NAHL.Stenback believes NAHL teams are getting more value for their money&mdash;the entrance fee is $350,000&mdash;than NHL expansion teams.&ldquo;What do you get for $50 million?&rdquo; asked Stenback of the NHL&rsquo;s entry cost. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no big television contract to speak of and you get to select from a roster of benchwarmers which gets you into last place for the next five years.&rdquo;And obtaining an NAHL franchise is nowhere near the production of securing an NHL expansion team, according to league publicity director Lee Meade.&ldquo;People who were interested just had to convince Stenback that their group had the financial wherewithal to enter into the venture and make the commitment,&rdquo; said Meade.Joining Stenback as league owners are Roy Boe (Atlanta), the former owner of the ABA&rsquo;s New York/New Jersey Nets; John Cobum and Steve Arnold (Miami), the latter of whom was a principal in the WHA; Paul Lufkin (Cleveland), who is involved in sports marketing in Massachusetts; Les Patrick (Indianapolis), son of former New York Ranger general manager Lester Patrick; and Patterson.Much hinges, of course, on whether Patterson and his colleagues can corral Lindros. Patterson said he has already spoken to Lindros&rsquo; father, Carl, and has conducted two &ldquo;lengthy&rdquo; meetings with his agent, Rick Curran.Curran, meanwhile, has said his client will listen to all offers.Alan Goldfarb is a freelance writer based in San Jose. &#9632;

f0005-01

NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUE GEARS UP FOR FIRST SEASON

<h2>RICK ZOMBO</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021012/5944684-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="558" height="1186"></div>On being drafted by the Red Wings: &ldquo;It turned out really well. It&rsquo;s a division that&rsquo;s suited to my game, it&rsquo;s close to Chicago and you don&rsquo;t find many Zombos in the phone book.&rdquo;Career highlight: &ldquo;Playing in the semifinals against Edmonton two years in a row. To be so close, to take part in the Stanley Cup playoffs at that level is unbelievable and a great accomplishment.&rdquo;Boyhood heroes: &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t put all my emphasis into hockey, so there were different sports people I looked up to. In hockey it was Stan Mikita. In other sports, I liked Pete Rose. His nickname, Charlie Hustle, suited him more than anybody else in sport. That&rsquo;s the way I approach the game. As long as I work hard. I&rsquo;m happy and successful.&rdquo;On being drafted by the Red Wings: &ldquo;It turned out really well. It&rsquo;s a division that&rsquo;s suited to my game, it&rsquo;s close to Chicago and you don&rsquo;t find many Zombos in the phone book.&rdquo;On growing a playoff beard: &ldquo;I have no idea why I tried it. I think it was a tradition that was handed down. I guess an unshaven face looks rougher and the playoffs are more a game of intimidation than anything else. But when everybody on the ice has one&hellip;&rdquo;On being classified an artist in the Detroit media guide: &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what it says, but they use pretty good words to describe me. in the minors, I didn&rsquo;t play cards, so it gave me something to do. I draw mostly western scenes.&rdquo;How he&rsquo;d like to be remembered: &ldquo;Someone who gave it everything he had for the success of the team.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-02

PRO FILE

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011569/5944715-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Norm Green hopes his Stars will be the top dogs by month&rsquo;s end.</figcaption></div>Of course, Norm Green wants to do what he can to help the city of Edmonton prosper. To a point, anyway.His real estate company, Stewart Green Properties Ltd., is one of the major players in the redevelopment of downtown Edmonton. In addition to the Kingsway Garden Mall, Canada&rsquo;s 10th largest shopping center, the company owns a 50 per cent interest in the historic Hudson&rsquo;s Bay department store. Acquired in early 1987, it has been beautifully restored and is open for business again.So on the real estate side of Green&rsquo;s operation, he has done Edmonton an important service.On the hockey side?Forget it.Now that his Minnesota North Stars are in the semifinals, there&rsquo;s nothing Green would like better than to end the Oilers&rsquo; bid for their sixth Stanley Cup in eight years.In his previous life as part-owner of the Calgary Flames, Green endured years of grief at the hands of the Oilers and his close friend, Glen Sather. So this is payback time. He hopes.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m prepared to take some revenue out of Edmonton, that&rsquo;s it,&rdquo; said Green. &ldquo;People keep asking me about Edmonton. I say: &lsquo;I know Edmonton better than anybody in our organization as far as nostalgia is concerned&hellip;and it&rsquo;s not a happy memory.&rsquo;&ldquo;That rivalry between Calgary and Edmonton, I still feel in my emotions. I wrote Glen Sather a little note because we were supposed to play tennis together when I was up there. I wrote him saying: &lsquo;We&rsquo;ll cancel tennis now until this summer and then we&rsquo;ll play in Banff&mdash;as long as he&rsquo;s not too upset about the outcome of this series.&rsquo;&ldquo;Yes, it&rsquo;s kind of a needle. I guarantee we&rsquo;ll have some fun with it. I also said: &lsquo;I know you have a lot of pressure, dealing with the injuries and turmoil in your organization.&rsquo; So we&rsquo;ll see how it turns out this summer.&rdquo;Green is the outspoken owner of the Cinderella North Stars, the single most improbable success story of the 1991 playoffs. A 68-point team in the regular season, they turned their season around at the all-star break, made dramatic strides in the last two months of the season and then eliminated the NHL&rsquo;s top two teams, Chicago and St. Louis, in the first two playoff rounds.This capped a dizzying season for Green, who bought a controlling interest in the North Stars last June and then bought out his partners, Howard Baldwin and Morris Belzberg, before the regular season began.Green endured some bad publicity early on by cleaning house, dismissing some 900 full-and part-time employees on the money-losing team. Despite a series of innovative promotions, he could not get people into his building for love or the promise of winning big money in the regular season.The North Stars finished with a league-low 7,838 average attendance and that number was partly inflated by their strong finish.Now though, all appears to be forgiven, on both sides. After years of indifference, the fans are swarming back. Not only did they draw 15,274 for the sixth game of the St. Louis series, they also made huge strides in the fledgling pay-per-view market in the States.For the sixth game of the St. Louis series, 31,000 households paid $10 each to watch the game on a pay-per-view basis. For Game 4, they had 24,000. Green&rsquo;s take: 50 per cent after expenses. So he banked over a quarter of a million dollars from TV for those two games alone.Not bad for a guy who only last January was wondering if his bright ideas would be lost amid the collective ennui of Minnesota fans.In all, Green invested over $50 million (U.S.) in the North Stars. There was a time not long ago when he wondered if he&rsquo;d done the right thing.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I overpaid,&rdquo; he said,&rdquo;but last June, there was for sure a doubt in my mind that I overpaid. Now, it&rsquo;s not just a bargain, it may be the biggest steal since the Brink&rsquo;s robbery. One hundred per cent of a team, all the revenue sources out of the building and a shopping center&mdash;the Mall Of America&mdash;next door.&ldquo;Now that they&rsquo;re riding high, Green can pinpoint exactly when things bottomed out for him and his club. It came in a Jan. 15 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, a night when all the headiness of the playoff run was a distant, impossible dream.&ldquo;We had done a bunch of promotional things to get people into the building,&rdquo; said Green. &ldquo;I had walked the concourse every day, shaking hands and asking advice and reducing prices. I&rsquo;d taken all the phone calls from everybody that called and answered all the letters. I thought by doing all that&mdash;plus we had won a few games in a row by then&mdash;that we would be okay. We had 12,000 people for L.A. and 10,000 people for Chicago and then Montreal came in and we got 5,200.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the game that made me really depressed. I talked to Bobby Clarke about it. I said: &lsquo;If after all this, if we&rsquo;re only getting 5,200, I&rsquo;m not sure it&rsquo;s do-able.&rsquo; So he said: &lsquo;Our team will be stronger in two or three years as our younger players improve. So I said: To two years, the Mall Of America will be open, let&rsquo;s wait.&rsquo; If we&rsquo;re getting 5,200 in two years, we may have to do something.&rdquo;Normally, the two highest profile men in any organization are the coach, Bob Gainey, and the general manager, Clarke. In Minnesota, because neither man is especially outgoing or effusive, Green was thrust into the spotlight, drumming up publicity for his team.As a part-owner of the Flames, he could not do that. The Flames operate their business as close to philanthropy as you will ever see in pro sports. For the first 10 years of their existence, they did not take a dollar of profit out of the operation. The money that wasn&rsquo;t used to service their debt, they funnelled into amateur sports organizations.Green, by contrast, is an unabashed capitalist. In Alberta, one of the most conservative places in North America, profit is not a dirty word. His problem: That the Flames were not set up to maximize the bottom line. So unable to take an active role in the team&rsquo;s operation, Green turned his interest to the league level.He is chairman of the league&rsquo;s marketing and public relations committee; chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame Building commitee; vicechairman of the Franchise and Market Analysis (or expansion committee) and a member of the Advisory and International Committees.Green became involved in the NHL in 1980 when he and his former partners in Calgary bought out Nelson Skalbania&rsquo;s interest in the Flames. With his background in real estate development and marketing, Green took an interest in the luxury boxes, the executive club, setting the logo, decorating the offices.&ldquo;The things I knew about,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When I was with Calgary, I probably put in more hours and sat on more committees than anybody else other than John Ziegler and Bill Wirtz. It wasn&rsquo;t paid, but it was fun. In retrospect, it all prepared me to do the Minnesota thing.&rdquo;Apart from winning the Stanley Cup. his primary goal is to turn the North Stars into a money-making franchise. The size of the market especially appeals to him. Geographically and in terms of the overall attitude to hockey, he sees a lot of similarities between Calgary and Minneapolis-St. Paul. The biggest difference? The Twin Cities area is four times the size of Calgary. Ergo, there are four times as many potential fans on which to sell the team.&ldquo;People kept telling us the NHL couldn&rsquo;t survive in Minnesota because they had much too strong a high-school and university program and the NHL is too rough and families didn&rsquo;t want to come and therefore it&rsquo;s not going to survive. What they were really saying was they didn&rsquo;t want to watch bad NHL hockey. They love good NHL hockey. And we have a lovely problem now that the people are coming in droves. We probably could have sold another 6,000 seats for the last game against St. Louis.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0006-01

GREENING OF NORM

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Eric Duhatschek</div>Norm Green would like to clear up a misunderstanding.Just because the Calgary Flames&rsquo; owners chose not to take any profit out of their NHL team during the first 10 years of operation, it doesn&rsquo;t mean there isn&rsquo;t money to be made there.On the contrary.In 1980. the Flames&rsquo; ownership group made a commitment to funnel $5 million into amateur hockey. According to Green, who is still trying to unload his 18 per cent share of the Flames, that commitment has been met.&ldquo;They are now a privately-held, profit-oriented business,&rdquo; said Green.The distinction is important to Green because he has been unable to get his asking price, $13.5 million, for his Flames&rsquo; shares. Green&rsquo;s price would put the total value of the club at $75 million.Under NHL bylaws, Green, who owns 100 per cent of the Minnesota North Stars, must divest himself of his Flames&rsquo; shares. His former partners in Calgary, who retain the right of first refusal, say his price is simply too high.Why is it worth that much?Says Green: &ldquo;In the sports business, you value franchises by precedent what other teams of similar circumstance are sold for and you do it by demand.&rdquo;Green paid more than $50 million U.S. for the North Stars, the most recent franchise to change hands. In addition, three NHL expansion franchises were recently awarded for $50 million U.S. apiece.Green says the Flames, an established NHL franchise with the largest season-ticket base in the league, are worth more than a struggling team or one that&rsquo;s just starting out.That the Flames do not turn the highest profit in the league can be traced to their lease arrangement with the Saddledome. The Flames do not share in parking or concession revenues and receive only 50 per cent of the income from luxury boxes.So why would anybody buy into a team that will not maximize the return on your investment?&ldquo;There would be an involvement with the NHL,&rdquo; said Green. &ldquo;Down the road, I believe your share would be worth more. The expansion fee in 1979 was $6 million. Now it&rsquo;s $50 million. The next go-round, the price may be raised.&ldquo;So you have a chance for an upside, a chance for revenue and a chance for involvement with the team. And if you have a creative owner, there are plenty of sources of revenue to explore.&rdquo; &#9632;

SAYING GOOD-BYE TO AN OLD FLAME

<div class="byline">BY GARY LOEWEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011416/5944770-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Team Canada goaltender Sean Burke proved he has still got it.</figcaption></div>In the end, Team Canada missed the gold by only a goal.A goal against the Swedes, a goal against the Soviets&mdash;even a goal by the Soviets against the Swedes&mdash;and Canada would&rsquo;ve gleaned its first gold medal at the World Championships in 30 years.Instead, Sweden won the precious medal for the second time in four years, edging the Soviet Union 2-1 May 4 at Typhoon Arena in Turku, Finland.Canada took the silver and the Soviets settled for the bronze. The U.S. team, which had advanced to the medal round on the strength of a stirring 2-1 victory over Finland, missed out on the hardware, losing all three of its final-round games.Canada, which hasn&rsquo;t won gold at this tournament since the immortal Trail (B.C.) Smoke Eaters in 1961, was unbeaten during the medal round.And after tying both the Swedes and the Soviets 3-3, the Canadians faced a mathematical glimmer of hope in their quest for gold.They needed to defeat the U.S. by five goals on the final day of play then pray for a tie between the Swedes and the Soviets in the finale.On the surface, it seemed an unlikely scenario. Besides, this was not Canada&rsquo;s A team&mdash;it was only a B at best.But the plucky Canadians, spurred by the Murray Cravens and Jamie Macouns and five Vancouver Canucks, almost pulled it off.They rallied with three late goals, including a last-second tally by Macoun, to defeat the U.S. 9-4, then watched from the stands as the Swedes and the Soviets took their nail-biter into the third period tied 1-1.The final outcome hinged on a play involving a pair of European-born NHLers. With a full head of steam, Sweden&rsquo;s Mats Sundin turned Soviet Viacheslav Fetisov inside out and upside down midway through the third period, barging in to score the tiebreaking goal.The Soviets pressed in the final minutes but even a tie would have moved them no higher than third place. Nonetheless, an outraged TSN color commentator Gary Green berated Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov for not pulling his goalie for a sixth attacker with time running out.&ldquo;Tikhonov is simply stopping Canada from winning the gold,&rdquo; Green charged.Green later acknowledged that it goes against the grain of Tikhonov&rsquo;s philosophy to pull the goalie, but the commentator didn&rsquo;t let up.&ldquo;Do you coach to lose? I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; an exasperated Green said.Green, disclosing apparent feelings of animosity in the broadcast booth, also levelled a shot at the Swedish broadcasters.The Swedes had criticized U.S. coach Tim Taylor&rsquo;s decision to yank goalie John Vanbiesbrouck briefly during a power play in the final minute against Canada, opening the door for the Canadians&rsquo; eighth goal by Steve Larmer at 19:45. Vanbiesbrouck was back in the net for Macoun&rsquo;s goal.The Canadian players seemed more or less satisfied with winning the silver. Their only regret was not scoring a fourth goal against the Soviets.&ldquo;We thought with a little luck we might have beaten the Soviets,&rdquo; Ma-coun said.Russ Courtnall, who arrived for the final two games and provided a spark, said the team went all out to try to defeat the Soviets.&ldquo;We were trying to go for a goal,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We were pressing, we were trying for the win.&rdquo;A tie against the Soviets is nothing to be ashamed of, however. Canada hasn&rsquo;t defeated its old nemesis in a World Championship game since 1985.Furthermore, Canada&rsquo;s lineup wasn&rsquo;t as strong as many had envisioned in the weeks leading up to the tourney as luminaries such as Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, Steve Yzerman, Al Maclnnis and Joe Nieuwendyk bowed out for one reason or another.Eleven of the Canadians were world-tournament neophytes&mdash;indeed, the team played with a short bench for much of the tournament.But if there was any slack, Macoun and captain Doug Lidster, among others, picked it up and played a strong leadership role.Defenseman Macoun scored four goals in the medal round and made the second all-star team, along wih Calgary Flame teammate Theoren Fleury.&ldquo;I give him a lot of credit,&rdquo; coach Dave King said of Macoun. &ldquo;He joined the rush at the right times and scored crucial goals for us.&rdquo;King singled out forwards Joe Sakic and Larmer for praise, saying the team came together very nicely, very quickly.&ldquo;A lot of players who hadn&rsquo;t played here were thrilled to be here,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;The players socialized together and worked very hard at training sessions.&rdquo;King also lauded goalie Sean Burke, who made a couple of outstanding saves late in the Soviet game to preserve the tie.&ldquo;Burkie is a fabulous goalkeeper,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;He played very well for us.&rdquo;It was a positive finish to a demoralizing season for Burke, a former top prospect who wound up as the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; second-string goalie.He was the lone North American to make the tournament&rsquo;s first all-star team.It was also a positive tournament for Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; general manager Pierre Page. Two Nordiques, Sakic and Sundin, and a potential Nordique, Soviet star Valery Kamensky, were among the tournament&rsquo;s top performers.For the U.S. team, the final round was a disappointment. While the Americans scored four goals in each of the three games, they yielded a total of 23. Their lineup wasn&rsquo;t representative, though, of the team which should challenge for the Canada Cup in September. For one thing, the Americans will have Brett Hull on their roster. &#9632;

f0007-01

SUNDIN’S MAGIC LEADS SWEDES TO GOLDEN FINISH

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011499/5944801-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="490" height="625"><figcaption class="caption-body">STAN FISCHLER</figcaption></div>It&rsquo;s important to give credit where credit is due and to be fair, it&rsquo;s only realistic to give discredit where it&rsquo;s do&mdash;even in the NHL. So. without further ado&hellip;Credit: Vancouver coach/general manager Pat Quinn.Quinn pulled off the trading deadline deal-of-deals that, if nothing else, squeezed the Canucks into the post-season fray. Getting Geoff Courtnall was accomplishment enough. Turning Ser-gie Momesso into a player ranks in the miracle category. Watching Vancouver scare L.A.Discredit: Winnipeg GM Mike Smith.Smith blew a playoff berth because he figured benign neglect was a better policy than what Pat Quinn employed. To cover his failure, Smith scapegoated coach Bob Murdoch, who not only was coach-of-the-year in 1990 but is a good coach even today.Credit: Wayne Gretzky.Gretzky is taken for granted too often by me and others. But after nine scoring championships and an incalculable amount of good imagery for the game, how dare anyone suggest I don&rsquo;t appreciate his greatness.Discredit: Philadelphia GM Russ Farwell.The rookie GM didn&rsquo;t have to dump on his players for their homestretch hernia. How many teams could&rsquo;ve survived a playoff run without Mark Howe, Ron Hextall and assorted other wounded&mdash;and with a meagre lineup to boot.Credit: New Jersey&rsquo;s Claude Lemieux.Needleman was painted in ugly colors by his ex-foster parent, Montreal&rsquo;s Pat Burns. New Jersey fans have found Lemieux to be bright, energetic, productive and a good reason why the Devils made the playoffs and the Flyers didn&rsquo;t.Discredit: Don Cherry.Grapes has one of the best TV acts since Milton Berle. But the trouble is, when he accuses a doughty competitor like Steve Kasper of bugging out of a playoff game because his injury&mdash;according to Cherry&mdash;isn&rsquo;t that serious, people take Don seriously. And Kasper looks like an ass instead of the asset he really is.Credit: Minnesota&rsquo;s Mark Tinordi.Tinordi had two left feet when he patrolled the Rangers&rsquo; blue line. But now he&rsquo;s an efficient tribute to the efficacy of Swedish Steam&mdash;otherwise known as hard work in the Bob Clarke tradition.Discredit: Chicago coach/GM Mike Keenan.Keenan still hasn&rsquo;t acknowledged that he&mdash;and not his team&mdash;was the Chicago playoff problem. Mike should&rsquo;ve known the Dead End Kid tactics his players got away with during the regular season would be enforced by referees at playoff time.Credit: New York Islanders&rsquo; goalie Mark Fitzpatrick.The comeback kid last October looked like a player who might never play again. That was when his ailment&mdash;eosinophilia myalgia syndrome&mdash;was diagnosed as incurable. His late March return produced a heartening win over Boston before the curtain dropped. Next year? Who knows&mdash;maybe big things for the talented goaltender.Discredit: Me.Mavenman doesn&rsquo;t know a bad prediction when it walks across his page. For having the audacity to pick the Rangers to win The Stanley Cup for the umpteenth time, I should be forced to read Roger Neilson&rsquo;s autobiography in Cyrillic.Credit: Pittsburgh defenseman Paul Coffey.Coffey was a gallant playoff hero. Some say he was stupid to return to the Penguins&rsquo; lineup despite shaky optics for the seventh game of the Pittsburgh-New Jersey series. If ever a guy gave a club a psychological lift, Sir Caffein did the job.Discredit: Rangers&rsquo; GM Neil Smith.The young GM was a mad, impetuous boy when he smeared his troops with a no-heart playoff post mortem. Did Neil forget James Patrick played with a bum hand, Bernie Nicholls with a bum foot and the absence of Kelly Kisio ruined John Ogrodnick and Brian Mullen? Wasn&rsquo;t Smitty the same GM who deported Kevin Miller and imported Joey Kocur just in time to ruin the club chemistry in the stretch?Credit: Edmonton goalie Grant Fuhr.Fuhr has proven that: 1. You can come home again; 2. There&rsquo;s something to be said for rehabilitation; and 3. Glen Sather is smarter than most shrinks.Discredit: Playoff format knockers.The media mongrels, who live on cliches, enjoy knocking the NHL&rsquo;s 16-out-of-21 playoff-qualifying system. But it works. Ask the Canucks-Jets or Devils-Flyers-Caps, whose positioning wasn&rsquo;t settled until the last hour. The format guarantees excitement down to the very end and that&rsquo;s what the NHL is selling&mdash;thrills.Stan Fischler is a freelance writer based in New York City. &#9632;

f0008-01

GM SMITH SHOULD SHOULDER MORE BLAME

<h2>KINGS</h2>Larry Robinson hasn&rsquo;t decided if he&rsquo;ll return for his 20th NHL season, but it seems likely the Kings will invite him back. Robinson, who turns 40 June 2, has an option year remaining on the three-year, $1.65 million deal he signed in 1989. &ldquo;This is a bad time,&rdquo; he said when asked immediately after the Kings were eliminated in the Smythe Division finals by Edmonton. Robinson had one goal and 23 points in 62 regular-season games and was a plus-22. In 12 playoff games, he had one goal, five points and was a plus-8&hellip;Rookie defenseman Rob Blake joined Team Canada for the medal round at the World Championships, but left winger Luc Robitaille turned down an invitation, saying he had a sore back&hellip;GM Rogie Vachon will be busy with contract negotiations this off-season as 17 Kings are entering their option years. &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m going to have to cut my vacation in Hawaii a little short this summer,&rdquo; he said.<h2>OILERS</h2>Petr Klima&rsquo;s three first-period goals in Game 2 of the Campbell Conference final against Minnesota&mdash;a natural hat trick&mdash;came within 5:13, erasing Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s club record for the fastest three playoff goals. Gretzky scored three against the Flames April 17, 1983 in 10:41&hellip;Kevin Lowe&rsquo;s chronic tendinitis problem in his right ankle acted up prior to the start of the Stanley Cup semifinals and the veteran defenseman missed the first two games against the North Stars. &ldquo;It needs more than rest, it needs rehabilitation,&rdquo; said Lowe. &ldquo;The leg is weak and it needs time. Unfortunately, the doctor says the only thing that could make it right again is two weeks on the beach.&rdquo;&hellip;Mark Lamb also suffered a bruised shoulder during the final game of the Smythe Division final against L.A. The spunky center played Game 1 against the North Stars, but his shoulder acted up again and he sat out Game 2 in favor of veteran Ken Linseman.<h2>CANUCKS</h2>Left winger Robert Kron is on the mend after surgery which required three separate incisions on his body. Ross Davidson, the Canucks&rsquo; orthopedic surgeon, opened up Kron&rsquo;s knee to repair torn ligaments suffered in a season-ending injury March 22. Kron also had repairs done to his wrist which was injured in his native Czechoslovakia before the World Championships last year. A piece of Kron&rsquo;s hip bone was removed and placed into his wrist which caused him discomfort and affected his shooting ability. Last year, doctors in Czechoslovakia told Kron his wrist wasn&rsquo;t broken, but after he was checked out in Canada he discovered it was. Kron, an NHL rookie, played despite the injury because he hadn&rsquo;t established himself in Vancouver and couldn&rsquo;t afford to take the time off for repairs. His great skating ability set up numerous scoring chances last season, but he managed only 12 goals on 124 shots in 76 games&hellip;Versatile forward Steve Bozek returned to Vancouver from the World Championships with a silver medal and is waiting to have his playing status clarified for next season. Bozek, voted the team&rsquo;s Unsung Hero by Canuck fans, played last year on a termination contract. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what the Canucks&rsquo; plans are for me,&rdquo; Bozek said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s still pretty much up in the air. I&rsquo;d like to return. I think they want me back. But so much can change over the next few weeks.&rdquo;<h2>JETS</h2>GM Mike Smith attended the World Championships in Finland and among the players he watched was Finnish right winger Teemu Selanne, the Jets&rsquo; first-round pick in 1988. The two sides are still reportedly far apart in contract talks, though Selanne has said he wants to play for the Jets next season&hellip;Smith said he remains confident he can sign defenseman Bryan Marchment, a Type 1 free agent July 1 after playing out his option this season. There have been reports several teams are interested in the first-round pick of 1987. &ldquo;I am (confident) but obviously if something happens where he signs somewhere else, that&rsquo;s the way the cookies crumble,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;There has been no indication from Bryan or his agent (Rick Curran) that they don&rsquo;t want to stay in Winnipeg. I don&rsquo;t think (him) signing with another team is as easy as it&rsquo;s being made to sound. It&rsquo;s a real risk doing that and if he were to leave, I&rsquo;d say we had a pretty good case for wanting a first-rounder who&rsquo;s in the league or developing in junior.&rdquo;<h2>FLAMES</h2>Does Gary Suter expect to spend next season with the Flames? Like teammate Mike Vernon, Suter said he wants to stay, but added: &ldquo;If the media had any input, I&rsquo;m sure I&rsquo;d be gone. There&rsquo;s always going to be trade speculation when you lose, especially when you lose two years in a row in the first round, but I&rsquo;m happy here. I&rsquo;m a Calgary Flame. I don&rsquo;t know what my future is.&rdquo; GM Cliff Fletcher called Suter one of his two best defensemen in the playoffs, but that could be a double whammy. It may mean the Flames want to keep Suter, but it may also mean they intend to shop him around and want word of his excellent play spread around the NHL&hellip;Suter will spend his summer in Madison, Wisc., now. Apart from remodelling his house, his major off-season activity will be to clear up the last of his legal problems. Suter pleaded no contest to charges of assaulting a police officer that stemmed from a brawl outside a local tavern last summer and paid a fine. However, there&rsquo;s still a civil suit pending in the case. &#9632;

THE NHL

WILL BIG BIRD FLY NEXT SEASON?

Brian Bellows and the Minnesota North Stars may be the ninth fourth-place team to reach the NHL&rsquo;s final four, but they&rsquo;ll be hard pressed to advance to the final. Of the nine fourth-place teams to make the final four, none have made it to the championship series. The other teams to make it: New York Rangers (1981); Chicago (&rsquo;82); Quebec (&rsquo;82): Montreal (&rsquo;84); Rangers (&rsquo;86); New Jersey (&rsquo;88); Philadelphia (&rsquo;89); Chicago (&rsquo;89).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021187/5944856-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="676" height="411"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Bellows</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0008-02

ODDITIES

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div>Craig MacTavish is having the time of his life. Back during the first Stanley Cup playoff round against the Calgary Flames, the veteran Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; center was seen frolicking on the ice during an optional practice in the company of the extra players, plus youngsters Adam Graves and Martin Gelinas.Assistant trainer Sparky Kulchisky took one look at the situation and quipped: &ldquo;Those old dogs, they love to run with the young pups.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s MacTavish, the Oilers&rsquo; elder citizen at age 32. He has also been the epitome of hard work during the Stanley Cup tournament.The lunch bucket crowd identifies with him. They see that, yes, one of their own can indeed get ahead in this old cruel world.&ldquo;He has been nothing but a 120 per cent player since he has been here,&rdquo; said Oilers&rsquo; general manager Glen Sather, who plucked MacTavish as a free agent in 1985 after he spent a year in jail in Boston for vehicular homicide.Considering the Oilers&rsquo; expenditure involving MacTavish&mdash;while other teams shied away&mdash;was nothing more than a few phone calls, there hasn&rsquo;t been a better return in the lineup on their meagre investment.&ldquo;I never thought of it that way, but no doubt he has turned out to be a great addition,&rdquo; said Sather. &ldquo;I think a lot of people (other teams) overlooked his character.&rdquo;Since joining the Oilers, the London-native has straightened himself out, becoming a model citizen.After a seemingly legitimate goal was waved off during overtime against the Los Angeles Kings in the final game of the Smythe Division final, a more popular sniper couldn&rsquo;t have emerged than MacTavish. And a scant 11 seconds later at that.&ldquo;You couldn&rsquo;t be more happier than to have this guy get a goal like that,&rdquo; said Oilers&rsquo; captain Mark Messier. &ldquo;MacT has as much respect as anybody in this dressing room. Everybody leads a certain way and he may not say a whole lot, but he&rsquo;s a leader. He&rsquo;s just a great team player.&rdquo;Speaking of overtime, haven&rsquo;t six sudden-death games&mdash;including two double OTs&mdash;been a touch difficult on the elder statesman?&ldquo;It has been a pretty good ride for us, we&rsquo;ve been through a lot&mdash;a lot of overtime&mdash;but anytime you win in overtime, there is no better feeling,&rdquo; said MacTavish. &ldquo;There has been a lot of pressure and it has been a hard road, but there are so many good teams that are evenly matched. Realistically, any of three teams&mdash;Calgary, L.A. or ourselves&mdash;could have come out of the Smythe Division. That&rsquo;s what has made these divisional playoffs so rewarding.&ldquo;Hey, the harder you work for something, the sweeter the rewar-d&hellip;and our team has worked really hard.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s precisely this outlook that the Oilers enjoy about MacTavish.&ldquo;One of the things that really helps is his attitude towards life,&rdquo; said Messier. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s as happy and positive as anybody in this dressing room. He has personality. He came here a diamond in the rough and has shown tremendous character to win. He&rsquo;s a true Oiler.&rdquo;<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier. Craig MacTavish, Adam Graves, Ken Linseman.LW&mdash;Craig Simpson, Martin Gelinas, Esa Tikkanen, Joe Murphy. Kelly Buchberger.RW&mdash;Glenn Anderson, Petr Klima, Anatoli Semenov, Dave Brown.LD&mdash;Steve Smith, Norm Maciver, Geoff Smith.RD&mdash;Jeff Beukeboom, Charlie Huddy, Craig Muni, Chris Joseph.G&mdash;Bill Ranford, Grant Fuhr.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mark Lamb. C, bruised shoulder, day-to-day. Kevin Lowe, D, chronic tendinitis in right ankle, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Tikkanen, 11. A&mdash;Simpson, 10. P&mdash;Tikkanen, 19. PIM&mdash;Smith, 41. &#9632;

OLD DOG MacTAVISH HELPS SALVAGE TOUGH SEASON

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>The one-and-only game of Colin Patterson&rsquo;s 1990-91 season didn&rsquo;t turn out exactly the way he&rsquo;d planned.It took place April 16, the night his Calgary Flames lost Game 7 of the Smythe Division semifinal to the Edmonton Oilers and were eliminated from further playoff contention.If there was a silver lining in that defeat, however, it was that Patterson played at all and&mdash;after a year on the sidelines&mdash;showed he was ready to resume his NHL career.Patterson tore the ligaments in his knee in a September exhibition game, had major reconstructive surgery in November and spent the whole second half recovering from his operation.So even if the Flames&rsquo; season ended the night his started, he proved something to himself by playing in that single game.&ldquo;If you look at the positive things that came out of it, at least I played and I didn&rsquo;t think I played that badly,&rdquo; said Patterson. &ldquo;Especially for my first game in about 14 months.&ldquo;That game was so fast-paced. It was probably the toughest game you could find yourself in. So to jump back into the lineup and play that game and survive is a good sign to me.&rdquo;Physically, Patterson&rsquo;s knee passed its first major test with flying colors. Even after a couple of days off, when stiffness should set in, he had no problems whatsoever.&ldquo;There was no swelling in my knee, even after the game, and that was great news,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was a little stiff body-wise, but you would expect that after so long a layoff. The same things happen in exhibition games.&rdquo;Ultimately, Patterson&rsquo;s future may not be in Calgary. Not only did he turn 31 May 11, in his absence, the Flames developed one predominantly checking left winger, Stephane Matteau, and traded for another, Paul Fenton.However, coach Doug Risebrough also possesses a long memory. In his first season in Calgary, Risebrough played alongside Patterson and therefore knows about his work habits.Risebrough was also an assistant coach in 1989, the year Patterson finished as the runnerup to Montreal&rsquo;s Guy Carbonneau as the Selke Trophy winner.Someone with Patterson&rsquo;s experience and defensive abilities doesn&rsquo;t come along every day.One possibility could be the expansion San Jose Sharks. Sharks&rsquo; general manager Jack Ferreira was the Flames&rsquo; chief U.S. scout in 1982 when they signed Patterson as a free agent out of Clarkson (ECAC).In his years with Calgary, Ferreira was always a supporter of Patterson.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure where my future lies,&rdquo; said Patterson. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to meet with Cliff (general manager Fletcher) and Risebrough to see what&rsquo;s going to happen.&rdquo;But he does believe his future is in the NHL.&ldquo;To me, I&rsquo;m in better shape now than I was when I first started playing,&rdquo; Patterson says.&ldquo;You get a little worried after a serious injury like this, especially at this age. So I can&rsquo;t say I have two years, three years, one year, because you don&rsquo;t know. It&rsquo;s a year-to-year thing but right now, I feel good. I feel as a good as I&rsquo;ve ever felt.&rdquo;Because he played U.S. college hockey before moving up to the NHL, Patterson sees himself as a young 31-year-old.&ldquo;To me, playing college hockey helps save years off your body all the games and all the grind of the NHL,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Although you play a toppaced game in college, you only play 30 games. I think they&rsquo;re finding that more and more in the NHL, guys whose careers started later are surviving longer. Maybe they play the same 10 years, but instead of playing from 19 to 29, they do it from 23 to 33.&rdquo; &#9632;

WINGER’S FUTURE FAR FROM CERTAIN

<div class="byline">BY TIM CAMPBELL</div>General manager Mike Smith insists he has not yet engaged in any list-making.And he may not have to do much if he waits a little longer, since a short list of headcoaching candidates for the Winnipeg Jets seems to be forming itself.Smith said he wants Bob Murdoch&rsquo;s replacement hired well before draft week. But he added that he wouldn&rsquo;t get down to serious coach hunting until after he returned from the World Championships in Finland.In the meantime, several potential candidates have come forward to say they&rsquo;re interested in the vacant Winnipeg job.Among them is Chicago Blackhawk associate coach Darryl Sutter.&ldquo;Somebody asked me if I&rsquo;d really like to go to Winnipeg,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;And I said, &lsquo;Sure, I&rsquo;m from the West.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s also a blue-collar hockey town and I thrive on that.&ldquo;And I think the reason you coach is to be a head coach.&rdquo;Also expressing interest in the job is 1985-86 The Hockey News&rsquo; minor league coach of the year John Paddock.Paddock, after a season as head coach of the Binghamton Rangers (American League), said he feels ready to make the step to an NHL job. The Winnipeg job would also move him closer to his home in Oak River, Man.Other names that have surfaced are Edmonton co-coach Ted Green, who&rsquo;s from Winnipeg, and former Jets&rsquo; coach Rick Bowness.Bowness guided the Jets late in the 1988-89 season before taking the head coaching position with the Maine Mariners (AHL).While those candidates may not be on Smith&rsquo;s short list, all fit prerequisites outlined by the GM since he fired Murdoch April 1.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011519/5944935-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="716" height="749"><figcaption class="caption-body">GM Mike Smith says Darryl Sutter would be a great head coach.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m more interested in having a head coach who has not been a head coach in the NHL,&rdquo; Smith said, which is a roundabout way of saying he&rsquo;d prefer not to have a recycled coach, one who has been fired somewhere else.That would seem to preclude current Jets&rsquo; assistant Terry Simpson, however, and Smith said he&rsquo;s still considering Simpson for the position.When asked if he was more interested in having a coach, forming a coach and moulding a coach to his organization and to his players than in having a coach with plenty of experience, Smith replied,&rdquo;Yes, that would be accurate.&rdquo;Smith also wouldn&rsquo;t deny an interest in Sutter, since Sutter expressed an interest of his own.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s basically what (I&rsquo;m looking for) when I get down to putting a list together,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be looking at people who have shown they&rsquo;re ready to be NHL head coaches. If that&rsquo;s a criteria, then he (Sutter) would certainly fall into that group.&rdquo;Smith, however, cautioned that Sutter won&rsquo;t likely be available.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t put a short list together but my suspicion is Chicago won&rsquo;t let him go,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;No, I haven&rsquo;t called on him. My guess right now is that they&rsquo;ll keep him.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-01

COACHING RETREADS NEED NOT APPLY

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>Tony Granato&rsquo;s second post-season with the Los Angeles Kings was as forgettable as his first was memorable.He had five goals, including two gamewinners and a hat trick, along with four assists in 10 playoff games in the spring of 1990.His playoff statistics this post-season: 12 games, 30 shots, one goal and four assists.Granato was the only member of the Kings&rsquo; top line who managed to stay healthy in the Smythe Division championship series with Edmonton.And yet, while Wayne Gretzky (lacerated ear) had five assists and Tomas Sandstrom (fractured femur bone) had two goals and an assist in four games, Granato was last on the list in terms of offensive production with just two assists on 18 shots in six games.His only playoff goal came in the third period of Game 4 against Vancouver in the division semifinals.He didn&rsquo;t connect again, despite taking 23 more shots.&ldquo;I played as hard as I could,&rdquo; the 26-year-old left winger said. &ldquo;The puck wasn&rsquo;t going in for me, but it wasn&rsquo;t because of a lack of effort. I played the same way I did all year.&rdquo;A 30-goal man in the regular season, Granato did help the Kings kill 30 of 33 penalties against the Oilers, but a timely goal or two could have been the difference in the series.The Kings went out in six games, losing three times in overtime, twice in double overtime.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s different in the playoffs,&rdquo; Granato said. &ldquo;The checking is tighter and the goaltending is better. I wasn&rsquo;t telling myself, &lsquo;Boy, I&rsquo;m really struggling.&rsquo; I just tried to go out and work hard every night. That&rsquo;s all I can ask of myself.&ldquo;I mean. I wasn&rsquo;t worried about the personal stuff. I wasn&rsquo;t telling myself I needed to go out and score a goal. Whatever needed to be done, whether it was killing a penalty or playing the body, that&rsquo;s what I tried to do.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021147/5944966-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="715" height="803"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tony Granato scored one playoff goal after netting 30 in the regular season.</figcaption></div>The injuries to Gretzky and Sandstrom obviously affected Granato&rsquo;s play, but he wouldn&rsquo;t use them as an excuse.&ldquo;Injuries happen in the playoffs,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You have to fight through it.&rdquo;Added coach Tom Webster: &ldquo;That line worked so close together all year. Those guys play off each other instinctively. Take one away and it affects the whole line.&rdquo;The Kings didn&rsquo;t lose their seventh consecutive second-round series because of one player or one line.Except for Luc Robitaille, who scored eight goals against the Oilers, no King had more than two.Dave Taylor didn&rsquo;t collect a single point. Neither did a pair of defensemen&mdash;Rob Blake and Marty McSorley&mdash;who combined for 19 regular-season goals and 85 points.&ldquo;We had a hell of an effort on everybody&rsquo;s part,&rdquo; Webster said. &ldquo;Certainly we didn&rsquo;t lose because of a lack of effort.&rdquo;But how about a lack of production? &#9632;

f0010-02

GRANATO’S SLUMP HELPED OILERS SLIDE BY

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BEAMISH</div>There was a silver lining for five Vancouver Canucks following their elimination by the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the playoffs.Before they had a chance to dust off their golf clubs, Doug Lidster, Trevor Linden, Geoff Courtnall, Cliff Ronning and Steve Bozek were asked to join Team Canada for the world championships in Finland.It had been 30 years since Canada had won the world title, but the guys from the Great White North came as close as ever since 1961 to winning the gold this time.After the Canadians tied the Swedes and Soviets 3-3, a victory by more than four goals over the Americans, coupled with a tie between the Soviets and Swedes, would have given Canada the gold. Canada defeated the U.S. 9-4. But Team Canada lost the gold medal when Sweden nipped the Soviet Union 2-1, dropping Canada to the silver medal position for the sixth time and second time in the last three years.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very exciting time for us right now,&rdquo; said Lidster, Team Canada&rsquo;s captain and cocaptain of the Canucks. &ldquo;This team, I think, recognized more than any other team I&rsquo;ve been on what we had to do to win.&ldquo;We knew, if we lost, we&rsquo;d go home with nothing, and if we wanted a chance at gold, we had to win by five goals (against the U.S.).&rdquo;Lidster was on the Canadian team that won a silver medal at the 1985 world championships in Prague and played in last year&rsquo;s tournament in Bern, Switzerland. The 1990 team was comprised of superstars such as Steve Yzerman, Rick Tocchet and Paul Coffey and went through the preliminary round with a near-perfect 6-0-1 record, but lost all three medal-round games to finish fourth.Lidster said Hockey Canada took a smarter approach this time. The team arrived in Finland almost on the eve of the championships and was fresher in body and spirit.&ldquo;We played some games in Czechoslovakia before the championships began last year, and by the time it ended we had been there almost a month,&rdquo; Lidster explained. &ldquo;We shortened our bench early on, tired out our key players, and cheesed off some of the guys who had been there from the start but didn&rsquo;t get a chance to play.&ldquo;The Soviets and Swedes spread out their workload in the preliminary round. When it came to the medal round, they could step it up a notch. We weren&rsquo;t able to step up the pace.&rdquo;On paper, this year&rsquo;s Canadian team wasn&rsquo;t as talented as last year&rsquo;s but was more well-rounded. The team included scoring wizards such as Joe Sakic and Steve Larmer and defensive players such as the Canucks&rsquo; Bozek. National team members Brad Schlegel, Dave Archibald, Randy Smith and Craig Billington were also added to the team.&ldquo;They (Team Canada) had a lot of (NHL) guys turn them down, but I looked on this as a great opportunity for me,&rdquo; said Bozek, 30, who was one of 17 Canadians playing in the world championships for the first time.&ldquo;This was the least talented of the three teams I&rsquo;ve played on,&rdquo; added Lidster,&rdquo;but it&rsquo;s not necessarily the 20 most talented players that make a team successful.&rdquo;With the exception of one game, the Ronning-Linden-Courtnall triumvirate, dubbed the Life Line in Vancouver, was kept intact by Canadian coach Dave King. Ronning feels that their 2&frac12; week stint together will make the Life Line even more successful next season. The combination came into being at the NHL&rsquo;s March 5 trading deadline, when Courtnall and Ronning arrived from St. Louis, and helped propel the Canucks into the playoffs.&ldquo;This tournament has been good for us because we were playing at the top level, against some of the best hockey players in the world,&rdquo; Ronning said.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s good to know that, in some sense, we can match up with the best the world has to offer. Geoff&rsquo;s fast and has a good shot. Trevor&rsquo;s got the heart of a lion. In some games, he had a tough time, but in games that meant something, when we had to win, he was one of our best. His attitude carried over to everybody.&rdquo;Ronning and Linden assisted on Jaime Macoun&rsquo;s goal that gave Canada a 2-1 lead over the Soviets in their medal-round game, then Ronning just missed scoring on a wraparound shot that would have put Canada up 3-1. The resulting 3-3 tie meant that their gold-medal destiny was no longer in Canadian hands.&ldquo;We had enough chances to win,&rdquo; sighed Ronning.But as far as consolation prizes go, silver was not bad at all. &#9632;

NOTHING CRAZY ABOUT PLAY OF THESE CANUCKS

When Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; public relations director Steve Tambellini is asked to recall the highlight of his 10-year NHL career, it doesn&rsquo;t take him long to come up with an answer.&ldquo;It was a great experience for me as a player to come into the NHL and play for such a great team,&rdquo; the 32-year-old Trail B.C. native says of his first NHL team, the 1979-80 Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders. &ldquo;There were so many great players there, the depth was incredible. It was difficult to crack the lineup, but it was a fantastic learning environment for me.&rdquo;Tambellini was the Islanders&rsquo; first choice, 15th overall, in the 1978 amateur draft.The 6-foot, 184-pound left winger played junior for the Lethbridge Broncos of the Western League from 1975-76 to &rsquo;77-78, developing a deft scoring touch and excellent playmaking skills.He was named the WHL rookie of the year in 75-76, after scoring 38 goals and 97 points in 72 games. He followed with two strong offensive seasons, finishing his junior career with 155 goals and 336 points in 193 games.After spending one season with Fort Worth (Central League) in 7879 (25-27-52 totals in 73 games), Tambellini made the jump to the NHL for the 79-80 season.The adjustment was a difficult one. He scored just five times in 45 games and finished with 13 points.Tambellini didn&rsquo;t dress for the playoffs as his team drove towards its first of four straight Stanley Cup championships.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t really upset about it,&rdquo; Tambellini said. &ldquo;The philosophy in New York was you had to pay your dues. So it didn&rsquo;t really bother me. Just being able to play for the very best team in the world at the time was incredible. Every practice, every game, was enjoyable.&rdquo;Tambellini&rsquo;s offensive production picked up in his second NHL season. He scored 19 goals and 36 points in 61 games with the Islanders, before being dealt to the woefull Colorado Rockies with goaltender Glenn &lsquo;Chico&rsquo; Resch for defenseman Mike McEwen and goaltender Jari Karrela.Needless to say, going from a perennial Stanley Cup contender to an struggling franchise about to move was a difficult adjustment.&ldquo;That year was probably the hardest thing for me to deal with,&rdquo; Tambellini said. &ldquo;Chico and I had a tough time dealing with it considering we just won the Stanley Cup. But at the time, the Islanders were a tight knit group and it was difficult to crack the lineup.&rdquo;Tambellini&rsquo;s stay in Colorado was a short one. After just 79 games in &rsquo;81-82&mdash;and a career high 29 goals and 59 points&mdash;he packed his bags with the rest of the team and headed for New Jersey&mdash;the club&rsquo;s new home.A season later, he was on the road again, this time to Calgary with Joel Quenneville for Mel Bridgman and Phil Russell.&ldquo;I was so excited I was going back to a real contender,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The atmosphere in Colorado was always so unstable. It was great to be returning to Canada.&rdquo;The opportunity with the Flames also enabled Tambellini to realize another dream&mdash;a chance to play in the playoffs. He appeared in two games with the Flames during the &rsquo;83-84 playoffs, picking up one assist.After two seasons in Calgary, Tambellini signed as a free agent with the Canucks. And following three seasons with Vancouver and two in Europe, he retired from hockey with 160 goals and 310 points in 553 games.He returned to Vancouver to fill Darcy Rota&rsquo;s shoes as the Canucks&rsquo; public relations director.Rota left earlier this season to take a job with the NHL.Tambellini, 33, began his new job in October and it has given him a whole new perspective of the game.&ldquo;When it came up, I thought it would be a great opportunity to get involved with the management side of hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And it really has. There&rsquo;s a whole different aspect to the game that as a player, you don&rsquo;t recognize. Here, you realize just how much is going on.&rdquo;Tambellini says his European experience also helped him understand the transition European players like Canuck rookie Petr Nedved go through when they play in North America.When Tambellini first arrived in Austria, he knew little German. But he learned the language so he could better communicate with teammates and coaches.&ldquo;It was difficult at first, but you have to be willing to jump into their environment,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

TAMBELLINI REALIZED DREAM WITH POWERFUL ISLANDERS

Parting is such sweet sorrow.It was extremely difficult for Huron Hockey School to say goodbye to the Stephen Township arena and Centralia College campus, just north of London, Ont., a location it called home for 20 years.But the relocation of Huron&rsquo;s Canadian resident camp to the Cornwall Civic Complex, home of the Ontario League&rsquo;s Royals, means a beautiful, contemporary setting for the next generation of memories.Huron was founded in 1970 by Michigan State coach Ron Mason, future Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; coach Bill Mahoney and Brian Gilmour, a former all-American at Boston University. Their philosophy of &ldquo;hockey by professional educators&rdquo; has stood the test of time and 253 Huron graduates have gone on to play in the NHL.Left wingers Steve Shutt and Al Secord were two of Huron&rsquo;s greatest success stories. Mason recalls spending time teaching Shutt to glide and how to get more out of his stride.&ldquo;(Shutt) would have to change a lot quicker in Montreal than his linemates (Jacques Lemaire and Guy Lafleur), because everything he did on the ice was work,&rdquo; says Mason.Huron instructors also taught Shutt to shorten his backswing on his shot. Shutt struggled with 15 goals the season before attending Huron&rsquo;s pro camp and never scored fewer than 30 the next nine seasons. He scored a career-high 60 in 1976-77.Secord went from a 15-goal grinder to 40-goal sniper once he learned to convert the so-called &ldquo;garbage goals&rdquo; from the crease area. Playing with Denis Savard in Chicago provided plenty of opportunities, but learning how to finish placed Secord in the upper echelon of players at his position in the NHL.The most beneficial learning environment is often a two-way street. While helping Canadiens&rsquo; center Pierre Mondou improve his stamina and smoothen his skating stride, for example, Huron&rsquo;s staff noticed he possessed a unique move which quickened his change of direction. That move soon became part of the Huron curriculum.It&rsquo;s not surprising that another center who enjoyed his glory years with the Canadiens is now a head coach in the NHL.&ldquo;Doug Risebrough was always a student of the game,&rdquo; says Gilmour. &ldquo;During the evening he would study the video on a split screen and compare his skating stride and shot to those of other players.&rdquo;Risebrough, now coach of the Calgary Flames, was so impressed by the Huron experience that, after a five-year absence to pursue other off-season interests, he returned for a refresher course.Huron helped pioneer the use of videotape analysis to improve technique and continually refined and improved the process. Craig Simpson of the Edmonton Oilers was a regular on the Huron Hockey School cameras long before he was a regular on the Hockey Night in Canada cameras. &#9632;

SAME SCHOOL, NEW LOCATION

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011471/5945069-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="513" height="619"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEVE DRYDEN</figcaption></div>Criticize Tim Taylor&rsquo;s coaching but do not impugn his character.I think the U.S. coach was wrong to pull his goalie against Canada on the final day of the World Championships, but I do not think it was because he was in cahoots with Canadian coach Dave King.That&rsquo;s what some Swedes and Soviets believed after Taylor pulled goalie John Vanbies-brouck in the final minute of play May 4 with the U.S. trailing Canada 7-4.The Canadians needed to win by at least five goals to remain in the hunt for gold.It was an unlikely prospect with less than a minute to play and Canada&rsquo;s Murray Craven in the penalty box. A window of opportunity materialized when Taylor pulled Vanbies-brouck.&ldquo;We were playing for respectability.&rdquo; Taylor said.King agreed and said that if you expect your players to go to the wall for you, then you must do the same for them. And in those circumstances, Taylor decided that meant pulling the goalie.The Americans needed four goals in less than a minute to steal a bronze medal. The laws of probability say Taylor wasn&rsquo;t playing for that; they say he was playing for the next goal. Just as King would have.&ldquo;I would do exactly what most North American coaches would do,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;I would be pulling my goalie and trying to get one more goal to show my players that I&rsquo;m supporting the efforts that they&rsquo;ve put out through the whole tournament.&rdquo;The Canadians needed two goals to secure a five-goal triumph and stay in the hunt for a gold medal. It seemed out of the question. Yet in a shocking turn of events, Canada scored twice in the final 15 seconds as Steve Larmer fired a shot almost the length of the ice into an empty American goal and Jamie Macoun beat Vanbies-brouck at 59:59.Astonishingly, Canada had a five-goal win and the Swedes and Soviets were livid the Yale University coach&rsquo;s team surrendered an empty-net goal at such a critical juncture.Three days later, Taylor made no apologies for his strategy. The coach said he would lift his goalie again in those circumstances. He said his players would have been angry with him had he not tried every means at his disposal to tie or win the game. Taylor said anybody who believes he would deliberately give Canada a helping hand does not know the unfriendly nature of the rivalry between the two countries.There is no disputing a coach&rsquo;s first responsibility is to his team. And in this case, it didn&rsquo;t matter to the Americans whether they lost by three, four or five goals. It did matter, however, to the Swedes and Soviets.Taylor said the possibility of Canada winning by five goals did not enter into his decision to pull Vanbiesbrouck. Should he have been more mindful of potential consequences? I think so. King doesn&rsquo;t. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you think about those things,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think it is a tremendous insult to the integrity of Tim Taylor that anybody is questioning his decision. He is a very honest, hard-working coach.&rdquo;Does Taylor deserve to be cast as a villain? I don&rsquo;t think so. The goalie, after all, was pulled for the fourth-goal margin, not the fifth-goal margin. &ldquo;One idiot from Sweden said, &lsquo;Well, why did you put your goalie back in on the ensuing faceoff?&rsquo;&rdquo; Taylor said. &ldquo;Of course, I (only) pulled the goalie when we had complete possession of the puck going deep into the Canadian end.&rdquo;Nobody could anticipate such a spectacular Canadian close to the game. But Taylor&rsquo;s move did give Canada the chance to perform a miracle. And that is something the U.S. knows a thing or two about&mdash;miracles on ice.Mind you, so does Canada which has been the recipient of much good fortune in recent years.It has won the past two World Junior Championships in large part because the Soviets have given up goals in the dying seconds of crucial games with Sweden (1990) and Finland (1991).It appeared Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov decided the Soviets were not going to play a part in another Canadian victory. It&rsquo;s not often he pulls his goalie and he didn&rsquo;t in the final seconds of the final game of the tournament with Sweden nursing a 2-1 lead.The Soviets and Swedes had nothing to gain from a tie. Only Canada did. A loss or tie consigned the Soviets to third place. Tikhonov didn&rsquo;t opt for a sixth attacker.&ldquo;I was amazed when he didn&rsquo;t pull his goalie when he had nothing to lose,&rdquo; Taylor said. Steve Dryden in managing editor of Inside HOCKEY. &#9632;

f0012-01

U.S. COACH’S STRATEGY TAYLOR MADE FOR CRITICISM

<h2>FLYERS</h2>Pelle Eklund ended speculation about his future with the Flyers by signing a new multi-year contract May 2. Eklund, 28, was entering the third year of a four-year contract that was paying him approximately $230,000 per year (U.S.). Financial terms and length of the new contract were not announced but Eklund and his agent, Mark Perrone, were believed to be asking for a salary of about $700,000 per year, which would put him in the same range with Rick Tocchet and Ron Hextail. &ldquo;That would be close,&rdquo; said Perrone. &ldquo;You can say the contract makes him one of the two or three highest-paid players on the team.&rdquo; Eklund, who was voted the team&rsquo;s most valuable player and led the Flyers in assists (50) this past season, had an escape clause in his old contract that would have let him return to Sweden after the 1991-92 season. But Perrone said the new contract extends past the 1992-93 season. Eklund had said during the season he was considering returning to his native country to be with his young son, Daniel, when his old contract expired&hellip;Defenseman Terry Carkner and Steve Morrow, a defenseman from the University of New Hampshire (10th round pick in the &rsquo;87 draft) also signed new contracts. They both signed April 29.<h2>PENGUINS</h2>Game 2 of the Penguins&rsquo; semifinal series against Boston went to overtime, just as the second games of their series against New Jersey and Washington had. And it was settled between the eighth and ninth minutes of overtime, just like the previous two. The only difference&mdash;and the only one that mattered&mdash;is that Pittsburgh lost the game when Bruins&rsquo; left winger Vladimir Ruzicka punched in a rebound for a 5-4 Boston victory. Pittsburgh had won its previous two overtime games. &ldquo;It was like deja vu,&rdquo; center Ron Francis said. &ldquo;Until the end.&rdquo;&hellip;Mark Recchi led the Penguins in scoring after Game 3 against Boston with 25 points; that&rsquo;s four more than the total that had made Rick Kehoe the team&rsquo;s all-time playoff leader before this spring.<h2>RANGERS</h2>Though unable to play the final game due to back spasms, right winger Steven Rice attained a strange sort of hat trick before Rochester eliminated the Rangers&rsquo; AHL Binghamton farm team from the Calder Cup semifinals. Rice spent most of the season in the Ontario League with the Kitchener Rangers, then graduated to the New York Rangers. With his subsequent assignment to Binghamton, Rice played on three Ranger teams, at three skill levels&hellip;Defenseman Miloslav Horava said he hoped to sign soon with the MoDo club in Europe&hellip;Shoulder surgeries performed on center Mark Janssens and defenseman Randy Moller will require significant healing time. The Rangers said both players are expected ready for the start of regular season, but training camp appears in doubt.<h2>DEVILS</h2>While goaltender Chris Terreri and defenseman Bruce Driver may have shortchanged themselves by signing new contracts during the season, center Patrik Sundstrom didn&rsquo;t regret not going the free agent route. &ldquo;Not really,&rdquo; Sundstrom said. &ldquo;I wanted to stay here so I have no regrets about signing. In my case, I&rsquo;m still under the old collective bargaining agreement, so it&rsquo;s really hard to leave. Between 24 and 30, you&rsquo;re actually tied to a team. Brendan (Shanahan) and Burkie (Sean Burke) have the best chance at being signed as free agents.&rdquo;&hellip;Free agent right winger Troy Crowder scored seven of his nine points (6-3-9 for the season) in the team&rsquo;s first 24 games.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>Peter Bondra, who showed glimpses of greatness in his first NHL season, had surgery on his left shoulder April 30. The 23-year-old right winger was the rookie of the month for November, but had a sporadic second half. Part of the problem was the shoulder, which had a painful habit of popping out. &ldquo;Bondra will need a couple months of rehabilitation, but it won&rsquo;t be a problem for training camp,&rdquo; GM David Poile said. Bondra planned to return home to Czechoslovakia with his family for most of the summer. He will return to Washington at some point for rehabilitation&hellip;For the first time in three years, the Capitals will hold training camp close to home. In 1989, the Capitals and Calgary Flames held much of their training camp in Scandinavia and the Soviet Union. In 1990, the Capitals spent much of September in Lake Placid, N.Y. But by this fall, a new facility in Odenton, Md. will be complete.<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>The Islanders, who once went four years without losing a playoff series, have now gone four years without winning one. Their last triumph occurred in the 1987 first round, when Pat LaFontaine scored in the fourth overtime of Game 7 against Washington. Their drought matches those of Quebec, Toronto and Winnipeg. Only Hartford (which last won a series in 1986), Buffalo (1983) and Vancouver (1982) have gone longer without winning a series. The Islanders have qualified for the playoffs twice in the past four years, and have been eliminated in the first round both times. They have not won a playoff series against someone other than Washington since 1984, when they beat Montreal four games to two, clinching their 19th consecutive series and advancing to the Stanley Cup final for the fifth straight year. &#9632;

EKLUND WILL RETURN TO FLYERS

&hellip;The Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; 3-1 victory over Edmonton at Northlands Coliseum in Game 1 of the Campbell Conference final was only their second victory in Edmonton? The North Stars last won in Edmonton Oct. 24, 1980. Bob Gainey&rsquo;s North Stars upset Chicago and St. Louis to win the Norris Division crown.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021210/5945124-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="974" height="523"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Gainey</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0012-02

DID YOU KNOW…

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>Tom McVie has long fancied himself as an old-fashioned gunslinger who swaggers into town, takes care of the bad guys and then moves on to the next troubled spot. It is a reputation McVie has savored in the past.But will the gunslinger be back as head coach of the New Jersey Devils next season or will he be asked to return to his outpost in Utica as general manager and coach of the American League Devils?Nearly a month after they were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Devils were believed to be looking for a new head coach.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to even say it that way because that&rsquo;s not the point,&rdquo; team president and general manager Lou Lamoriello said of the possibility McVie will return to Utica. &ldquo;Until we come out with anything that we&rsquo;re doing, I&rsquo;d rather just wait. Right now Tom McVie is the coach. I don&rsquo;t know why there is a question.&rdquo;There is a question because if McVie was definitely coming back next season there would be no reason for the Devils to hide that fact. They are apparently fearful McVie&rsquo;s tough coaching style will not go over well with veteran NHL players in October and November.Reports surfaced that former NHL coaches Terry Crisp and Jacques Demers were among the candidates to replace McVie, but they were simply rumors.McVie, who replaced John Cunniff on March 4 and guided the Devils to a 4-5-4 record down the stretch before losing the seventh game of the Patrick semi-finals to the Pittsburgh Penguins, was neither in nor out of the picture for certain.&ldquo;What we&rsquo;re doing right now is sort of taking a step back and evaluating the whole season A to Z,&rdquo; Lamoriello said. &ldquo;Before we make any statements or any decisions we want to make sure we&rsquo;ve done all of that.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think Tommy did a great job, a wonderful job,&rdquo; Devils&rsquo; owner John J. McMullen said after his team was eliminated from the playoffs. &ldquo;You have to understand that Tommy has been in the organization since 1983. So he&rsquo;s an old friend.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011383/5945155-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="719" height="689"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom McVie will be happy as long as he&rsquo;s coaching hockey somewhere.</figcaption></div>Therein lies the Devils&rsquo; escape clause. They don&rsquo;t have to fire McVie, who did a solid job during his interim term. They can simply send him back to Utica and claim he did the job they called upon him to do.The situation is somewhat reminiscent of the 1983-84 season, when McVie replaced Billy MacMillan following a 2-18-0 start and coached the team to a 15-38-7 record that was good enough to finish ahead of the Penguins and lose out on the No. 1 overall draft pick (Mario Lemieux).McMullen offered McVie a one-year contract to return the following season (1984-85), but when McVie asked for a two-year deal he was turned down. The Devils hired Doug Carpenter and McVie agreed to coach the Devils&rsquo; AHL affiliate in Maine.Before McVie left for Maine, McMullen gave him an envelope containing a cheque for $20,000. A thank-you bonus.It would shock no one in the Devils&rsquo; organization if McVie received another bonus cheque from McMullen and returned to Utica while the club went in a different direction.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter what happens to me,&rdquo; McVie said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be coaching somewhere and I&rsquo;ll be happy. Hockey is hockey.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0013-01

IS GUN FOR HIRE GOING BACK TO MINORS?

<div class="byline">BY MARK HERRMANN</div>A season can fail to provide answers and it can even make everyone forget the original questions, especially when losses and turmoil get in the way.In that spirit, it&rsquo;s worth taking a look back at the New York Islanders&rsquo; season in light of the key issues that faced the team before it went 25-45-10.The following are questions that appeared in a Long Island-based newspaper Sept. 7, 1990&mdash;the day the Islanders reported to training camp.While each question is accompanied by an update, it&rsquo;s clear many of them still haven&rsquo;t been resolved.&#9632; Will Derek King, Brad Lauer and others finally establish themselves?This may be considered a breakthrough season for King, who flourished after he was put on a line with Brent Sutter and Patrick Flatley. He totaled 19 goals and 26 assists in 66 games.But Lauer&mdash;and teammates like Mick Vuko-ta, Rich Kromm and Alan Kerr&mdash;did not progress. The four forwards had an aggregate seven goals and 12 assists in 112 games.&#9632; Can younger players such as Wayne McBean and Jeff Finley stick in the NHL?Again, the answer is mixed. McBean showed occasional brilliance, collected just 19 points and had a minus-21 rating. But, by midseason, he ended his cycle of shuttling between the Islanders and the minors.Fellow defensemen Finley and Dean Chy-noweth did not, although the latter finished strongly with the Islanders and might be ready to stick now.&#9632; Are junior standouts Travis Green, Iain Fraser and Phil Huber ready to jump to the NHL as Dave Chyzowski did (in 1989)?The answer was a resounding no. Despite wide-open job competition, none of the junior graduates made it to the final cut during camp, nor were they ever recalled during the season. And Chyzowski never showed he&rsquo;s truly ready.&#9632; Of Mark Fitzpatrick, Glenn Healy and Jeff Hackett, who&rsquo;s the No. 1 goalie? Who&rsquo;s No. 2?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02995/5945186-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="722" height="832"><figcaption class="caption-body">Goaltender Mark Fitzpatrick is back, but will he be No. 1?</figcaption></div>Fitzpatrick&rsquo;s life-threatening illness&mdash;eosinophilia myalgia syndrome&mdash;prevented threeway competition, but Healy was often spectacular as the first-stringer.Now that Fitzpatrick seems to be recovering well from his disease, the question must be rephrased. Each team can only protect two goalies in the expansion draft, so which one will be left exposed?&#9632; Which seven of the 12 major-league caliber defensemen will earn roster berths?After the November trade involving Doug Crossman and not counting various injuries, that group most often was composed of Joe Reekie, Craig Ludwig, Gary Nylund, Rich Pilon, Ken Baumgartner, Jeff Norton and McBean. Chy-noweth, Finley and Dennis Vaske all had their turns, too.&#9632; Aside from Pat LaFontaine, who can score?This still is a good question, judging by the Islanders&rsquo; league-low 223 goals. Unless the team makes a significant trade or signs a capable free agent, the same hot topic is likely to dominate again this September. &#9632;

f0013-02

TEAM SEEKS ANSWERS TO UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE FISH</div>Two players. Maybe three. That&rsquo;s all coach Paul Holmgren believes the Philadelphia Flyers need to challenge again.Holmgren doesn&rsquo;t buy the idea it takes several years to rebuild a team once it has fallen out of the playoff picture. Two seasons out of postseason competition is at least one too many for him.&ldquo;You look at Pittsburgh, they missed the playoffs last year and finished first (in the Patrick Division) this year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They did have (Mario) Lemieux but they didn&rsquo;t have him for much of the season. In my opinion, we&rsquo;re two players away from being at the top of our division.&rdquo;A good portion of the discussion between Holmgren and general manager Russ Farwell has centered on what the Flyers need to get back in the race.&ldquo;We agree on players,&rdquo; said Holmgren. &ldquo;As a coach, my feeling is, let&rsquo;s get to the playoffs. He&rsquo;s more long-term because he&rsquo;s thinking that he wants to be competitive for a long time. I want to be competitive tomorrow.&rdquo;A veteran of three seasons behind the bench, Holmgren has a pretty good idea what the Flyers must have to avoid another collapse in 1991-92.&ldquo;We know we need more scoring, we feel we need more speed. But I think there are some good building blocks here. (Mike) Ricci obviously made some good strides this year and so did Murray Baron. Pelle Eklund jumped to a new level and so did (Rick) Tocchet. But it sort of tailed off after that.&rdquo;In assessing the team&rsquo;s talent, Holmgren indicated management is neither judging the personnel based on its record at the end of February (31-27-8) nor its 2-10-2 mark in March.&ldquo;To look at the team the way it was in the middle of February would probably be a big mistake and March would be overstating (our problems). I think we are better than the way we played in March. But that month showed us that there are areas that we have to improve in.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s no secret the Flyers are fairly well stocked at goaltender and defense. Ron Hextall&rsquo;s groin injuries aside, No. 2 goaltender Ken Wregget is considered prime trading material. If the Flyers choose to go that route, Holmgren said he wouldn&rsquo;t be foreign to bringing up a prospect.The rising star at the moment appears to be Dominic Roussel, who enjoyed a strong year for Hershey of the American League.&ldquo;From what I&rsquo;ve seen of Roussel, he&rsquo;s not that far away from being competitive on our team,&rdquo; said Holmgren. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s only going to be 21. He looks like he&rsquo;s going to be a good one. (Goaltending coach) Bernie (Parent) thinks he will be ready for the NHL by December.&ldquo;If he came in and had a great camp, I wouldn&rsquo;t be opposed to having him as a backup and play 30 games or so.&rdquo;Holmgren said this past season was even more disappointing in some respects than the 1989-90 campaign.&ldquo;I have a tough time comparing them because I would just as soon forget both of them. To me, this year kind of snuck up on us. Last year, you could kind of see it coming with all the injuries we had. This year, even though we had injuries and I try never to use injuries as an excuse, on March 1 we were sitting pretty good. If we win some games, we&rsquo;re in the playoffs and then we see what happens.&ldquo;I never thought the wheels would fall off as fast and as badly as they did.&rdquo;As for the defense, Holmgren believes the Flyers are in pretty good shape. Full seasons from Jeff Chychrun and Jiri Latal would help. Terry Carkner, in the coach&rsquo;s opinion, continues to improve. Gord Murphy is effective as long as his ice time is monitored.Another scorer or two might change the Flyers&rsquo; fortunes.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a real close league right now,&rdquo; said Holmgren. &ldquo;If we make a few changes, we could be right back. It&rsquo;s not like we&rsquo;re so far down that it&rsquo;s going to take that long. I have a tough time buying that.&rdquo;<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>April 29: Terry Carkner, D, and Steve Morrow, D, signed contracts May 2: Pelle Eklund, LW, signed contract. &#9632;

CLUB SO CLOSE, BUT YET SO FAR: HOLMGREN

<div class="byline">BY FRANK BROWN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011470/5945241-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Richter is a finalist for the Vezina, but not the Calder Trophy.</figcaption></div>Mike Richter had a great time at the White House.The New York Ranger goalie met President Bush; met America&rsquo;s First Lady, Barbara Bush, and the First Dog, Millie. He saw America&rsquo;s First General, Colin Powell, and America&rsquo;s fitness ambassador, Arnold Schwarzenegger, at a publicity push for the Great American Workout.&ldquo;The key of the day was to increase awareness of the facts,&rdquo; Richter said,&rdquo;and the facts are, as Arnold put it, &lsquo;Our youth is fat.&rsquo;&rdquo;American kids are spending too little time on skates or spikes or sneakers, too much time eating french fries and doughnuts, too much time at their video games. It is time to get them back on the playing fields or the jogging tracks.Richter, still an NHL kid at 24, will have to do some serious conditioning work of his own this summer. The banquet circuit already has begun, and he has enough invitations that he is considering buying a tuxedo. And one particular banquet, in Toronto June 5, will command his appearance: the Celebration of Excellence, which Richter will attend as one of the three finalists for the Vezina Trophy.Richter, Blackhawks&rsquo; rookie ironman Ed Belfour and Montreal&rsquo;s Patrick Roy are the three finalists, according to voting done by the 21 NHL general managers&rsquo;. Richter has played out the option year of his contract, so it is somewhat ironic the league GMs have driven up the price of a player for whom they all may be competing to sign.&ldquo;I sent them all cards at the end of the season, telling them how much I liked them all,&rdquo; Richter joked. &ldquo;But honestly, &lsquo;flattering&rsquo; is the word.&ldquo;Both those guys, Belfour and Roy, showed their worth to their teams and I would love to win the award, no question about it. To be recognized as the best in their field is what everybody wants to do.&rdquo; Richter had a 21-13-7 record and the league&rsquo;s third-best save percentage, .903.&ldquo;But I understand those two are fantastic players,&rdquo; Richter added,&rdquo;and if one of them wins the award, which I anticipate, I have no problem with that. They&rsquo;re both tremendous players.&rdquo;Ironically, Richter and Belfour both went out in the first round of the playoffs and Roy only got his team to the division final. More ironically, Richter is a finalist for the goaltending prize, but did not make it as a Calder Trophy finalist for Rookie of the Year honors.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s kind of hilarious,&rdquo; Richter said,&rdquo;but I don&rsquo;t know quite how that transpires.&rdquo;That transpires because while the league GMs vote on the Vezina, a three-times-larger panel of the Professional Hockey Writers Association conducts the Calder election. Further, the rookie prize is open to all NHL freshmen, the Vezina limited to goalies.&ldquo;I was talking to my mom the other night and we were talking about that (the Calder),&rdquo; Richter said. &ldquo;And I said, &lsquo;You look at Belfour, and he&rsquo;s winning in every category&mdash;goals-against average, save percentage, wins&hellip;you&rsquo;d have to point to him, for sure (as Calder winner).&rsquo;&ldquo;And she said, &lsquo;Oh, of course.&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;Hey, thanks for the support.&rsquo;&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-01

RICHTER READY TO HIT SUMMER BANQUET CIRCUIT

<div class="byline">BY DAVE SELL</div>With the season complete, veteran defenseman Rod Langway was planning to get out of town for awhile.But the Washington Capitals&rsquo; plan is clearly for him to return to the team for at least two more seasons and then help in an off-ice capacity.Langway, who turned 34 May 3, played out his option this season. As a Type III free agent, he can sign with another team and would have the choice of letting the Capitals match the offer or having the new team compensate the Capitals.In all likelihood, it would be the former, but both sides are optimistic it wouldn&rsquo;t get that far anyway.During the season, Langway and general manager David Poile reached what Langway described as a &ldquo;verbal agreement&rsquo; &lsquo;&mdash;that he would play for a couple more seasons and take an unspecified role in the organization, possibly as an assistant coach.&ldquo;I would say two or three years,&rdquo; Langway said when asked how many more years he wanted to play. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in good enough condition and a good enough player that I haven&rsquo;t lost it.&rdquo;While Langway may not be able to do all of the things he did when he was winning two Norris Trophys (1983, &rsquo;84), he was a big reason why the Capitals made the playoffs this season.The Capitals were 8-14-2 without Langway in the lineup. And while the defense became younger, more mobile and more offensively inclined, Langway was the anchor.For most of the final month, the 6-foot-4, 224-pound veteran was paired with rushing defenseman Al lafrate.The Capitals are hoping some of Langway&rsquo;s experience will rub off on lafrate, who brought a troubled reputation with him from Toronto.&ldquo;Defensively, we&rsquo;re really solid,&rdquo; goaltender Don Beaupre said. &ldquo;Age is on our side and we have some experience. &ldquo;We have a lot of talent. We&rsquo;ve got the pieces and Rod is the glue that keeps it together. When he was out, we were a lot looser in our own end. Rod stablizes everything. He allowed Calle Johansson to play offensively, allowed Kevin Hatcher to do what he can do and made room for Al lafrate to move up.&rdquo;Langway played 56 games this season, the lowest total in his 12 full seasons in the NHL.The main problem was a mysterious bout with back spasms that kept him out of 17 straight games, 19 in all.But a chiropractor helped straighten everything out and Langway returned to the lineup in late February, when the Capitals were still in the playoff hunt.Langway has negotiated his last few contracts. This season, he made $342,000 and $75,000 in deferred compensation. He is looking for something guaranteed, but also something that would roll into a nonplaying role.Though there was some speculation in the hockey fraternity that Langway might be left unprotected for the expansion draft, it seems unlikely at this stage.The Capitals lack the history. It would be very awkward to retire Langway&rsquo;s No. 5 jersey if San Jose or Minnesota took him.&ldquo;I would like three years and then we&rsquo;ll see what happens,&rdquo; Langway said. &ldquo;If it happens that I&rsquo;m not up to standards of what I think I should be or they think I should be for a third year, then we can roll it over.&rdquo;Though they haven&rsquo;t seriously discussed the length of Langway&rsquo;s next contract, Poile isn&rsquo;t worried about Langway&rsquo;s two-or three-year proposal.&ldquo;It sounds good to me,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;As much as anything, our discussion will be philosophical.&rdquo; &#9632;

LANGWAY PLANS TO HANG AROUND

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011356/5945296-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ulf Samuelsson&rsquo;s hit on Cam Neely in Game 3 irked Mike Milbury.</figcaption></div>NHL records say Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; defenseman Ulf Samuelsson was born in Fagersta, Sweden.Samuelsson&rsquo;s teammates don&rsquo;t have any firm evidence to contradict that information, but they don&rsquo;t entirely believe it, either.The prevailing attitude in the Pittsburgh dressing room is that Samuelsson was raised by wolves.Samuelsson has been with Pittsburgh little more than two months&mdash;he came to the Penguins as part of a six-player deal with Hartford March 4&mdash;but already has made an indelible impression on his teammates and the Penguins&rsquo; season.The Penguins admire his toughness and courage; Samuelsson is playing with a broken right hand, but never has considered abandoning the hardhitting style that has added a badly needed dimension to the Pittsburgh defense.Samuelsson, meanwhile, just appreciates the chance to renew his battle with the Boston Bruins, a favorite adversary from his days in the Adams Division.And if the Bruins had forgotten how much they loathe Samuelsson&mdash;which seems highly unlikely&mdash;he reminded them during Game 3 of the Stanley Cup semifinals. Boston right winger Cam Neely came away from a Samuelsson hit at center ice with a charley horse that ultimately forced him to leave the game.Referee Kerry Fraser did not penalize Samuelsson for the hit, prompting an animated outburst by Bruins&rsquo; coach Mike Milbury. Milbury refused to answer questions about Samuelsson after the game, a 4-1 Pittsburgh victory that sliced Boston&rsquo;s lead in the series to 2-1.Neely wasn&rsquo;t talking, either, but the Bruins&rsquo; assessment of the play was both predictable and vehement.&ldquo;A real cheap shot,&rdquo; defenseman Garry Galley said.Just as predictably, the Penguins defended the hit as legitimate, the injury to Neely an unfortunate byproduct of a physical game.This hardly was the first time Samuelsson has been accused of stepping outside the rules, and far from his first run-in with Neely. Their collision in the neutral zone during Game 3 was just the latest chapter in an often-violent story.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been going at it for years,&rdquo; Boston right winger Chris Nilan said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a pretty nasty thing with the two of them.&rdquo;Samuelsson singled out Neely for attention from the start of the series, which was neither surprising nor inappropriate because Neely has been the most prolific goal-scorer in the playoffs.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s one of the best players in the league, and certainly creates a lot of room for himself if you&rsquo;re not on top of him,&rdquo; Samuelsson said.The injury forced Neely to leave Game 3 early in the third period; it was not immediately clear whether he would be able to return for the games that followed.But the Bruins knew that Samuelsson would be back, banging and barking and doing all the things that have made him an integral part of the Penguins&rsquo; run at their first-ever berth in the Stanley Cup final.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re used to seeing Samuelsson,&rdquo; Boston defenseman Raymond Bourque said. &ldquo;We weren&rsquo;t disappointed to see him leave the division.&rdquo;And they weren&rsquo;t really crazy about the idea of spending the first half of May with him either.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis, Bryan Trottier, Jiri Hrdina, Randy Gilhen, Barry Pederson, Ken Priestlay.LW&mdash;Kevin Stevens, Phil Bourque, Bob Errey, Troy Loney.RW&mdash;Mark Recchi, Jaromir Jagr, Joe Mullen, Scott Young, Jay Caufield. Jamie Leach.LD&mdash;Ulf Samuelsson, Gordie Roberts, Grant Jennings, Jim Paek.RD&mdash;Larry Murphy, Peter Taglianetti, Paul Stanton, Randy Hillier.G&mdash;Tom Barrasso, Frank Pietrangelo, Wendell Young, Bruce Racine.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Paul Coffey, D, jaw surgery, indefinite. Gilbert Delorme. D, leg stress fracture, indefinite.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Stevens, 10. A&mdash;Recchi. 18. P&mdash;Recchi, 25. PIM&mdash;Taglianetti, 37. &#9632;

f0015-01

SAMUELSSON RETURNS TO HAUNT BRUINS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011094/5945327-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">There was no looking back for Brett Hull as he scored 86 goals.</figcaption></div>They finished one-two in the race for the Art Ross Trophy. They&rsquo;re the NHL&rsquo;s two most marketable commodities. And they&rsquo;ll likely finish one-two in voting for the Hart Trophy.So it&rsquo;s only fitting that Hockey News readers voted Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull as the two finalists for the THN-Black Velvet NHL Player of the Year Award.The Player of the Year Award winner, along with all of this year&rsquo;s other award winners, will be honored at the eighth annual Hockey News Awards Luncheon June 6 in Toronto.The luncheon honors winners from all levels from the NHL to minor hockey. THN, in its 44th year of publication, has been honoring hockey excellence since 1950. This marks the second year all NHL-related awards were voted upon by THN readers.For Gretzky, a player many preseason prognosticators said was in decline, it marks a return as finalist after a one-year hiatus.The Great One owned the award from 1979 to 1987, (sharing it in 1981 with goaltender Mike Liut), but has been shut out since. Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux broke Gretzky&rsquo;s streak at eight in 1988, Detroit&rsquo;s Steve Yzerman was the choice in 1989 and Edmonton&rsquo;s Mark Messier won fans&rsquo; hearts (as well as the Hart) in 1990.But Gretzky didn&rsquo;t have to contend with his traditional rivals this season as Lemieux was forced to back out for much of the campaign with a bad back; Messier (sore knee) wasn&rsquo;t always available for the Oilers when needed; and Yzerman, who enjoyed a decent season, nevertheless had to wing it alone much of the time in Detroit.And at 30, Gretzky proved he still had it. It may be a stretch to say he turned the hockey world on its collective ear, but it is fair to say the Great One&rsquo;s sustained level of excellence in 1990-91 was surprising.He started the season&mdash;as he did the one before when he surpassed Gordie Howe as the NHL&rsquo;s all-time scoring leader&mdash;by achieving an historic-milestone. On Oct. 26 in Winnipeg, Gretzky fed linemate Tony Granato with a clearing pass, who in turn sent winger Tomas Sandstrom in on a breakaway. Sandstrom fired the puck between goaltender Bob Essensa&rsquo;s pads, and Gretzky had his 2,000th point.The memorable assist (the 1,318th of his career) set the tone for the rest of season and immediately sparked talk of whether 3,000 points was within his grasp.&ldquo;Three thousand is tough,&rdquo; said Gretzky after No. 2,000. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know. Barring injury and staying healthy, I can probably average 150 points a year, which means seven more years. I don&rsquo;t know if I&rsquo;ll play seven more years. I really don&rsquo;t know.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take it 100 points at a time.&rdquo;He took 163 points this time, on 41 goals and a league-leading 122 assists. Gretzky outdistanced Hull by 32 points to win his ninth Art Ross Trophy in 11 years.Hull, meanwhile, didn&rsquo;t exactly get left in Gretzky&rsquo;s wake. The league&rsquo;s deadliest shooter with 86 goals, scored more times in a campaign than any player other than Gretzky (92 and 87). His accomplishment is magnified by the fact he didn&rsquo;t get a single empty-net score and didn&rsquo;t see any time on the Blues&rsquo; penalty-killing units.However, he did see plenty of power-play time as he led the league with 29 man-advantage goals. Hull also led the NHL in game-winning goals (11), shots on goal (389) and had a lofty shooting percentage of 22.1.His remarkably consistent season came on the heels his signing a megacontract in the off-season. Incoming NHL Players&rsquo; Association executive director Bob Goodenow negotiated a four-year $7-million pact for Hull in one of Goodenow&rsquo;s last acts as an agent.Some claimed Hull wasn&rsquo;t worthy of the raise; that he&rsquo;d had just one good season. Suffice it to say, the detractors were proved wrong.Not only did Hull&rsquo;s scoring brilliance fill opposition nets, it also helped fill buildings&mdash;in St. Louis and around the league. A franchise which was close to moving from the city just a few years earlier, St. Louis is now one of the healthiest in the league thanks to the popularity of Hull. &#9632;

f0017-01

HULL OF A YEAR FOR GRETZKY AND BRETT

Although the 1990-91 season failed to produce the storybook ending the Chicago Blackhawks desired, there&rsquo;s no doubt the team was thrilled with one of its key subplots&mdash;the performance of goaltender Ed Belfour.The 26-year-old Carmen, Man., native burst onto the NHL scene, leading the league in goals-against average (2.47), wins (43) and save percentage (.910).He captured the Jennings Trophy for the goaltender playing on the league&rsquo;s top defensive team and will likely win the Vezina Trophy as the league&rsquo;s top goalie.Belfour also appeared in a leagueleading 74 games, just one shy of the NHL single-season record for a goaltender. Edmonton Oiler netminder Grant Fuhr played 75 games in 198788.And although the Blackhawks were ousted in the Norris Divison semifinal by the miracle Minnesota North Stars, Belfour&rsquo;s performance was far from inadequate.He faced nine Minnesota power plays and was peppered often as Chicago suffered its worst defensive lapse of the season.&ldquo;Sure, we&rsquo;d have liked to see Eddie stone &lsquo;em in the playoffs,&rdquo; Blackhawks&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan said. &ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t play as well as he did during the season but our team didn&rsquo;t play as well and he wasn&rsquo;t getting the protection he needed.&rdquo;Eddie the Eagle wasn&rsquo;t the only rookie to emerge as a dominant NHL player this year.The Blackhawks&rsquo; Norris Divison rival, the Detroit Red Wings, had their own wunderkind.Sergei Fedorov, the Red Wings&rsquo; fourth choice, 74th overall, in the 1989 entry draft, joined the team for the &rsquo;90-91 season after leaving the Soviet national team at last summer&rsquo;s Goodwill Games in Seattle.The6-foot-1, 190-pound center exceded expectations in his first NHL season by scoring 31 goals and 79 points&mdash;second on the team to Steve Yzerman (51-57-108).<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011140/5945358-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="565" height="887"><figcaption class="caption-body">Detroit&rsquo;s Sergei Fedorov led all NHL rookies with 79 points.</figcaption></div>In two previous seasons playing for CSKA in the Soviet Union, Fedorov had 23 goals and 41 points in 92 games.He led NHL rookies in points (79), goals (31), assists (48) and gamewinning goals (5). He was second to Boston&rsquo;s Ken Hodge in power-play goals with 11 (Hodge finished with 12) and finished fourth in plus-minus rating.Fedorov also excelled in the playoffs, leading the Red Wings to a near upset of the St. Louis Blues in the Norris Divison semifinal.He scored one goal and added five assists in seven playoff games.For their efforts, Belfour and Fedorov have been named the two nominees for THN-Pepsi Rookie of the Year Award.If Belfour captures the award, he&rsquo;ll become the sixth Canadian-born player to win the award in the last seven years.Minnesota center Mike Modano, a Detroit native, broke a five-year string of Canadian award winners when he won last season.Should Fedorov win, it would mark the first time a Soviet-bom player has captured the award.Before the season began neither Fedorov nor Belfour were pegged as rookie of the year candidates. &#9632;

f0018-01

BELFOUR, FEDOROV SURPRISING ROOKIE PERFORMERS

Mike Keenan and Brian Sutter have a lot in common.Both had their teams battling all season for first place in the Norris Division. Chicago and St. Louis also fought for first place overall with the Blackhawks nudging out the second-place Blues by a point (106-105).The Blackhawks and Blues met the same fate in the playoffs&mdash;losing to the surprising Minnesota North Stars in six games.Keenan and Sutter continue their rivalry into the post season as they are the final ists for the The Hockey News Coach of the Year Award.Keenan, who combined the general manager&rsquo;s role with his coaching position in the off-season, went into training camp with an interesting problem. He had five goalies vying for the No. 1 spot while other teams were struggling to find one solid candidate.Keenan started the season with Ed Belfour, Greg Millen and Jacques Cloutier in Chicago and Jimmy Waite and Dominik Hasek with the farm team in Indianapolis (International League). Waite, 22, was last season&rsquo;s top goalie in the IHL while Hasek, 26, was the goalie of the year in Czechoslovakia five times.Belfour, 26, took the opportunity given to him and reeled off a clubrecord 43 wins helping the Hawks to a 49-23-8 record. He is a strong candidate for the Calder and Vezina Tro-phys.Keenan, known as Captain Hook for his penchant for switching goalies, showed confidence in his rookie goalie as Belfour appeared in 74 games during the regular season and played in all six playoff games.Keenan, 41, has had success relying on one ironman goalie to carry the load. In 1984-85, Keenan took the Philadelphia Flyers to the Stanley Cup final with goalie Pelle Lindbergh&mdash;who played 65 regular-season games that season. Two years later, Ron Hextall was Keenan&rsquo;s No. 1 man as the Flyers returned to the finals. Hex-tall played 66 regular-season games.The Blackhawks also were helped this season by the improved play of second-year player Jeremy Roenick. Roenick and right winger Steve Larmer were expected to help carry the load after Keenan traded center Denis Savard to the Montreal Canadiens for defenseman Chris Chelios.Larmer, who extended his consecutive games played streak to 727 games, chipped in 101 points while Roenick contributed 94 points. Chelios started the season as a contender for the Norris Trophy but his play tailed off in the second half.The Blackhawks won the Jennings Trophy with a 2.61 goals-against average while allowing 211 goals. The Hawks had the league&rsquo;s second best penalty killing rate (84 per cent) and were fourth in power play (22.1).Keenan started his coaching career with the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario League in 1979-80 and went to Rochester of the American League from 1980-81 to 1982-83. After one season with the University of Toronto, Keenan spent four seasons with the Flyers and joined the Blackhawks in 1988-89. &lsquo;Sutter, 34, joined the Blues the same season Keenan joined Chicago. He led the Blues to two second-place finishes in the Norris Division before capturing second in the Norris again this season.Sutter ended his 12-season playing career in 1987-88 with 636 points in 779 games with the Blues. From 1979-80 until his retirement he was the Blues&rsquo; captain appearing in three All-Star Games.The Blues made the biggest financial moves in the off-season&mdash;signing free agent defenseman Scott Stevens from Washington and rewarding right winger Brett Hull with a $7-million contract. Those moves paid off as Hull scored 86 goals and Stevens helped anchor the league&rsquo;s third-best defensive team (250 goals against).Hull finished second in the league in scoring with 131 points while his center, Adam Oates, finished third, Oates, who missed 19 games due to injury, had 115 points.Sutter, the first of six brothers to play in the NHL, took the Blues to second overall with an emphasis on defense and all-around strong play&mdash;the highest point getter after Hull and Oates was Geoff Courtnall, who had 57 points before being traded to Vancouver. &#9632;

KEENAN, SUTTER CONTINUE BATTLE INTO POST-SEASON

Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; goaltender Ed Belfour, a leading candidate to win several major NHL awards, is also in the running for a spot on the THN-Jofa-Titan allstar team.Belfour put together impressive regular-season numbers, leading the Blackhawks to first place overall in the NHL standings.Readers of THN selected the allstar team, and winners will be announced at a banquet in Toronto June 6.<h2>CENTER</h2>Wayne Gretzky, Los Angeles: Gretzky was the NHL&rsquo;s leading scorer with 41-122-163 totals in 78 games.Adam Oates, St. Louis: Despite missing almost 20 games due to injury, Oates finished third in the scoring race with 25-90-115 totals.<h2>LEFT WING</h2>Luc Robitaille, Los Angeles: He led left wingers in points with 45-4691 totals in 76 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01939/5945413-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="562" height="580"><figcaption class="caption-body">Los Angeles&rsquo; Luc Robitaille led left wingers with 91 points.</figcaption></div>Kevin Stevens, Pittsburgh: Stevens rang up 40 goals leading the Penguins to their first division title in franchise history. The blazing, openice skater also had 46 assists for 86 points.<h2>RIGHT WING</h2>Brett Hull, St. Louis: Hull scored 86 goals and had 45 assists for 131 points in a remarkable season in which he finished second in the NHL scoring race.Theo Fleury, Calgary: The Flames&rsquo; leading scorer, Fleury had 51-53-104 totals in 79 games.<h2>DEFENSE</h2>Raymond Bourque, Boston: The Norris Trophy candidate was 21-7394 in 76 games.Al Maclnnis, Calgary: He was the top scorer among rearguards with 2875-103 totals in 78 games.Chris Chelios, Chicago: He received the nod as THINs comeback defenseman of the year because of an excellent, two-way 64-point season, his first as a Blackhawk.Paul Coffey, Pittsburgh: He was third among rearguards in scoring with 24-69-93 totals in 76 games.<h2>GOAL</h2>Ed Belfour, Chicago: The headlines in netminding belonged to Belfour, who was 43-19-7 with a 2.47 GAA in a dream-like season. The Blackhawk goalie is a candidate for the Hart, Calder and Vezina Trophies. No one can argue with his recordsetting numbers.Patrick Roy, Montreal: Hampered by injuries, Roy still managed a 2515-6 record with a 2.71 GAA. The Canadiens&rsquo; netminder, a two-time Vezina winner, played in 48 games.Andy Moog, Boston: He became the Bruins&rsquo; No. 1 goalie this season, posting an impressive 25-13-9 record with a 2.86 GAA in 51 games.<h2>KIDS HONORED</h2>Jofa-Titan also sponsors the THN-Jofa-Titan Minor Hockey Player of the Year.Every year, the stick and equipment company honors youth hockey by selecting an individual to represent all of minor hockey.Last year&rsquo;s winner was Nicole Kirnan of Syracuse, N.Y. This year&rsquo;s winner will be announced on June 6 at a banquet in Toronto. &#9632;

f0020-01

HAWKS’ BELFOUR HEADS STAR-STUDDED CAST

St. Louis Blues&rsquo; general manager Ron Caron likes to tell a story about a golf game during a meeting of NHL GMs this past winter.He was in a foursome with Mike Keenan, who runs the Chicago Blackhawks; Boston Bruins&rsquo; GM Harry Sinden and Bryan Lewis, head of NHL officials.Caron keeps a photograph from that day in his office, proudly adorned on a wall, of the four of them huddled together and smiling. Sinden was sort of smiling.&ldquo;They are my buddies,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;I had Keenan laughing. It is very tough to believe he can laugh. He is very relaxed with the professor.&rdquo;Caron, the former educator, known around the NHL as &ldquo;the Professor&rdquo; and Keenan are nominees for the THN-The Sports Network NHL executive of the year award. THN readers select the winner.The Blackhawks and Blues finished first and second overall this season, compiling 106 and 105 points respectively.Caron&rsquo;s Stanley Cup contender was bom on the Fourth of July last year when he signed Washington Capitals&rsquo; defenseman Scott Stevens for $5.1 million.Easily the most frantic year of his life, cutting short a fishing vacation last summer, Caron engineered a supplementary trade with Washington, trading Make Lalor and Peter Zezel for Geoff Courtnall.Unwanted players were purged, coveted elements acquired. Under the direction of coach Brian Sutter (another THN award nominee, see page 19), the gears meshed smoothly and the Blues climbed near the top of the National Hockey League standings.After 34 years in hockey, 26 years in the highly successful Montreal Canadiens organization and eight often frustrating years in St. Louis, he was suddenly on top of the world.Caron began scouting part-time for the Canadiens. Sam Pollock ran the team then and Caron became one of his loyal foot soldiers.In 1968 he joined the Canadiens full-time and climbed the ladder to chief scout.For one stretch, Caron was interim coach of the Nova Scotia farm team. One of his players was Blues&rsquo; assistant coach Bob Berry. &ldquo;At the time in the Montreal organization, they were totally focused on winning,&rdquo; said Berry. &ldquo;He instilled a competitiveness and a burning desire to win. It was tough to handle if we lost.&rdquo;Similarly, Caron&rsquo;s tirades in the Forum while watching Canadiens&rsquo; games are legendary. &ldquo;Sam Pollock would never be seen in public watching his team perform,&rdquo; said Caron. &ldquo;I myself have been seen. I can&rsquo;t watch my team play with other people unless they understand me.&rdquo;True to form, Caron was banished from the press box during the playoffs after an altercation with Detroit goalie Glen Hanlon.Underneath his raging competitiveness, Caron insists he is quite analytical.&ldquo;As much emotion and aggression as I&rsquo;ve shown watching my team perform, I&rsquo;m a totally different human being when it comes down to business,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I analyze, weigh, and make decisions. It&rsquo;s natural for me to be rational when the time comes to make decisions.&rdquo;With the Canadiens, Caron used his trained eye to make draft decisions. In St. Louis he utilized those skills to make trades. Lots of them. Players have come and gone at a dizzying pace.Caron doesn&rsquo;t mind making a few mistakes. &ldquo;To be right, you must be wrong,&rdquo; he said in an interview with THN in March. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know anybody who&rsquo;s right all the time.&rdquo;Caron doesn&rsquo;t mind taking a chance on players scorned by others, such as Dan Quinn, one of two players Caron obtained last March in a controversial deal from Vancouver for four Blues.Keenan, of course, is also no stranger to controversy. The first-year GM continued to push his players to limit, some say beyond. Harshly demanding, he led the Hawks to the top of the NHL standings for the first time since 1966-67.Keenan sees himself as a man of vision. When he couldn&rsquo;t see the Hawks winning the Stanley Cup last summer he traded center Denis Savard to Montreal for defenseman Chris Chelios.He spent four years as coach of the Philadelphia Flyers before being hired by Chicago in 1988. With the Flyers, he led the team to the Stanley Cup final twice and distinguished himself as the first coach in league history to register 40 or more wins in each of his three seasons. He was also head coach of Team Canada in the 1987 Canada Cup and led his team to the tournament chamionship and will return as coach of the team this summer.The regular season accomplishments of both men, however, won&rsquo;t ease the pain of stunning upsets by Minnesota in the playoffs.The Stars&rsquo; first-round win over Chicago was the biggest upset to take place in the Stanley Cup playoffs since 1982, when Los Angeles knocked off Edmonton in the Smythe Division semifinals afer finishing 48 points behind the Oilers.In addition, the Hawks became the first overall points champion in 20 years to be bounced out of the playoffs in the first round.The winner of the award will be announced June 6 at a banquet in Toronto. &#9632;

GOLFING BUDDIES ARE RIGHT ON COURSE

Mats Sundin was full of surprises in 1990-91. And most of them were good.The first European ever to be selected first overall in the entry draft (by Quebec in 1989), Sundin paid an impromptu visit to his future NHL home at the beginning of September, signing with the Nordiques just weeks later.He adapted to the NHL style with relative ease and shed any notion he couldn&rsquo;t handle the rough going as easliy as he shed his European-made helmet in favor of a North American model.The 20-year-old right winger capped a successful initial campaign by helping lead Team Sweden to the gold medal at the world championships in Finland. For his accomplishments, Sundin has been named a finalist for the THN International Personality of the Year Award. Canadian national team coach Dave King is the other finalist.Sundin caused a stir, especially in Quebec and his native Sweden, when he showed up in Quebec unexpectedly. Though he wouldn&rsquo;t discuss the matter with the media, he made it clear through his agent Mark Perrone that he felt his Swedish Elite League team, Djurgarden, was treating him unfairly.A deal between the two sides was soon struck, giving Sundin the opportunitq to compete for the Calder Trophy. And while he won&rsquo;t win the coveted rookie of the year award, he didn&rsquo;t disappoint in his initial season.Playing alongside center Joe Sakic, Sundin finished the season with a respectable 59 points (23 goals, 36 assists) in 80 games, third among freshman scorers.His season highlight, however, came when he scored the gold-medal goal at the world championships in a 2-1 win over the Soviet Union. Sundin finished the tournament as its leading scorer and was named a second-team all-star.King, meanwhile, continued to forge a place for Canada in international hockey. His on-going dedication to the sport on a national level&mdash;turning down numerous and more lucrative offers from the NHL over the years&mdash;has served to earn him a place among international hockey&rsquo;s elite.This past season, King&rsquo;s national team program was granted the right by the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association to play in future world championships, beginning in 1992.In April, coaching a make-shift team comprised mostly of NHLers eliminated from the playoffs, King managed to lead his club to a silver medal, falling one goal short of the gold.Next year in Albertville, France, King will coach his third consecutive Olympic team. &#9632;

SUNDIN, KING VIE FOR AWARD

When the NHL season began, the Chicago Blackhawks had a cast of five goaltenders in camp.Greg Millen and Jacques Cloutier were the veterans. Millen was acquired at the trading deadline the season before in the hope he would provide solid goaltending not found since the days of Tony Esposito. Cloutier was the seasoned backup, a guy who could play 10-25 games a season, stop a good share of pucks and not complain about sitting on the bench.Jimmy Waite and Dominik Hasek were pushing for NHL jobs. Waite was a former first-round draft pick, player of the year with Indianapolis of the International League the season before. Hasek was the Czechoslovakian star playing his first season in North America. He didn&rsquo;t come here intending to play in the minors.Then there was Ed Belfour, the forgotten man.A free-agent signee from the University of North Dakota in 1987, Belfour was a stopgap in 1988-89. He played 23 games when the Blackhawks discovered neither Bob Mason or Darren Pang had the durability or efficiency to be a starting goalie in the NHL.The next season, Chicago picked up Alain Chevrier from Winnipeg and Cloutier from Buffalo in trades. Belfour was dispatched to Dave King&rsquo;s Canadian national team program. The Blackhawks hadn&rsquo;t given up on him, they just figured they could find someone better.Belfour was recalled from Team Canada late last season and shone for the Blackhawks in the playoffs when Millen and Cloutier faltered. Still, expectations were modest.But Eddie &lsquo;The Eagle&rsquo; had different plans.He was the wire-to-wire No. 1 goalie not only for the Blackhawks, but in the entire league.The 26-year-old Carmen, Man., had his second debut, so to speak, and led the league in goals-against average (2.47), wins (43) and save percentage (.910).The 6-foot, 175-pound goalie also appeared in a league-leading 74 games, just one shy of the NHL record for appearances by a goaltender. Edmonton Oiler goaltender Grant Fuhr appeared in 75 games in 198788.And although the Blackhawks were ousted in the Norris Divison semifinal by the&rsquo;Minnesota North Stars, Belfour&rsquo;s performance was not to be blamed for the Blackhawks&rsquo; defeat&mdash;it was a team collapse.Belfour is a candidate for the THN-Pro Set Goalie of the Year Award with Patrick Roy of the Montreal Canadiens.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01827/5945492-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="572" height="712"><figcaption class="caption-body">Patrick Roy was saddled with ankle injuries this season.</figcaption></div>Roy is regarded as the top goalie of the past few seasons. The third-round draft pick in 1984 went on to win the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff most valuable player. Roy also went on to win the Vezina and Jennings Trophy and has been a league all-star three times.When Roy went down with ankle injuries twice this season, the Canadiens struggled. When he did play, Roy didn&rsquo;t do anything to take away from his status as one of the top stoppers in the game.Roy&rsquo;s 2.71 GAA in 48 games was third best in the NHL behind Belfour and Don Beaupre of the Washington Capitals; his.906 save percentage was second to Belfour; and his 25 wins was ninth best.In comparison, the other goalies on the Habs had the following GAAs and save percentages: Andre Racicot (3.20,.891), Frederic Chabot (3.33,.867) and J.C. Bergeron (3.76,.862).This could be the year for Roy. After all, he&rsquo;s one of the most superstitious goalies in the NHL.The Eagle might have something different to say. No longer is he the man. &#9632;

f0022-01

BLACKHAWKS’ EAGLE HOPES TO SOAR TO AWARD

A few years ago, word was just getting out that a big 15-year-old kid from Toronto by the name of Eric Lindros was going to be hockey&rsquo;s next superstar.At the same time, on the other side of the country, a scrawny boy from Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., was filling water bottles and handing out sticks for a few bucks a game with the Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers.Ray Whitney has come a long way in such a short time. He and Lindros are candidates for The Hockey NewsCooper Junior Player of the Year Award. The award is voted upon by members of the editorial staff at THN.Whitney, 19, stands just 5-foot-9 and weighs 160 pounds, so for the most part was ignored by NHL scouts his first two seasons with the Spokane Chiefs of the Western League. But it soon became obvious his talent couldn&rsquo;t be overlooked.As a 16-year-old rookie in 198889, Whitney produced just 17 goals and 50 points in 71 games for Spokane. Last year, he more than doubled his output with 57-56-113 totals in 71 games. Whitney led the WHL in scoring this season with 67 goals and 185 points in 72 games.In the playoffs, Whitney led the Chiefs to an upset series victory over the Kamloops Blazers in the West Division final and Spokane was battling the Lethbridge Hurricanes for the WHL title.&ldquo;When I came to the Western League, I was only 5-foot-7, 130 pounds,&rdquo; Whitney said. &ldquo;Nobody expected me to make it that year and I went out and had a great camp. It didn&rsquo;t look like size would matter and I ended up making the club. Since then, I&rsquo;ve had no problems in this league at all.&rdquo;Foremost on Whitney&rsquo;s mind is taking the Chiefs to the Memorial Cup, but he&rsquo;s also concerned with June&rsquo;s NHL draft. All teams passed him over in the first three rounds last season and this year he&rsquo;s eligible in all 12 rounds.Scouts have indicated that he&rsquo;ll likely be selected in the third or fourth round. Whitney&rsquo;s greatest asset is his scoring ability. He&rsquo;s a good skaterand a good playmaker.While the recognition of Whitney has been only recently, Lindros has been ballyhooed across the hockey world for more than two years.Lindros helped Canada to a second straight gold medal at the World Junior Championships in Saskatoon earlier this year and has his sights set on a second consecutive Memorial Cup title with the Ontario League&rsquo;s Oshawa Generals.In his first full season in the OHL, Lindros dominated in all aspects of the game. He led the league with 71 goals and 149 points in 57 games and was a unanimous selection as the league most valuable player.Most coaches even consider Lindros the toughest player in the OHL and the hardest to move off the puck.Off the ice, Lindros has caused attendance figures at all OHL rinks to rise substantially. The Generals&rsquo; home attendance increased 59 percent since he arrived in Oshawa, including 21 home sell-out crowds this season.Fourteen of the Generals 29 road games with Lindros in the lineup were sellouts, with 91.5 per cent capacity on average.Lindros has even caused a giant wave in the memorabilia field. He signed an exclusive $30,000 deal with the Score card company, which produced seven different hockey cards of him.When it comes right down to playing hockey though, few will argue there&rsquo;s a better junior player in the Canadian Hockey League. Even before he started playing in the OHL, then-Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke said he was good enough to play in the NHL back then.Even though Lindros is eligible to play up to three more seasons of junior hockey, he is sure to be the No. 1 choice of the Quebec Nordiques in June&rsquo;s draft.&ldquo;There is Lindros and there is everybody else,&rdquo; a scout said. &ldquo;He came into this season as the No. 1 guy and at no time was that ranking ever threatened. He is an outstanding prospect, the best since Mario Lemieux.&rdquo; &#9632;

LINDROS A JUNIOR IN A CLASS BY HIMSELF

The long and the short of the battle for the THN-Bauer U.S. College Player of the Year Award is just that: 6-foot-2, 205-pound Northern Michigan Wildcat defenseman Brad Werenka versus 5-foot-9, 175-pound Boston College Eagle center David Emma.The two graduating seniors are the finalists for the award to be presented June 6 in Toronto.Emma, the Hobey Baker Award winner, inherited the Eagles&rsquo; captaincy this season from the Buffalo-bound Greg Brown and the Cranston, R.I. nati, ve didn&rsquo;t disappoint.The highly-skilled center led all Hockey East scorers with 81 points in 39 games to capture his second league scoring title; he is BC&rsquo;s all-time leading point-getter and goal-scorer; and he was named Hockey East player of the year.His only disappointment during the campaign was a stunning upset defeat to Alaska-Anchorage in the first round of the NCAA tournament.&ldquo;David has been so consistent for us,&rdquo; said Eagle coach Len Ceglarski. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve said all year long that he&rsquo;s the best player in the country and he has shown it time and again.&rdquo;Ceglarski may get an argument from supporters of Werenka. The poised, heady rearguard bounced back from a 1989-90 season which saw him play just eight games to emerge as the nation&rsquo;s best defenseman.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01805/5945547-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="573" height="604"><figcaption class="caption-body">David Emma won the Hobey Baker Award this season.</figcaption></div>Werenka&rsquo;s play steadily improved during the year and peaked during the NCAA final four in St. Paul. A gamesaving block of a Maine player&rsquo;s shot in the semifinals, and his dominant two-way play in the championship game against Boston University caught the attention of a national audience.&ldquo;I believe Brad Werenka is unquestionably the best defenseman I&rsquo;ve seen this season,&rdquo; said Minnesota-Duluth coach Mike Sertich. &ldquo;When a big play was needed against us, he made it. That, to me, is the sign of a dominant player.&rdquo;Werenka, a Hobey finalist, led the nation&rsquo;s defenseman in scoring with 63 points in 47 games.<h2>CIAU</h2>Calgary Dinosaur center Wayne Hynes is affectionately nicknamed Sugar Bear by his teammates.And the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Edmonton native certainly had a sweet season for the &lsquo;Dinos, picking up the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union&rsquo;s Senator Joseph A. Sullivan award for the country&rsquo;s best university player.Hynes, the CIAU rookie-of-the-year in 1989-90, led the Canada West Universities Athletic Association with 30 goals and 66 points in 28 games.He was tied for the league lead in hat tricks (three) and was third in game-winning goals (three).After such an impressive season, it&rsquo;s no surprise Hynes is also finalist for the THN-Bauer Canadian University Player of the Year Award, along with Concordia Stingers&rsquo; net-minder Robert Desjardins.Before joining Calgary, Hynes played in the Western League with Medicine Hat from &rsquo;85-86 to &rsquo;88-89. He scored 143 goals and 324 points in 282 games.&ldquo;He was definitely a leader on our club this season,&rdquo; said Hynes&rsquo; teammate, defenseman Doug Quinn.Desjardins was equally strong for his team this season.The 23-year-old Montreal native posted a 2.79 goals-against average for the inexperienced Stingers, guiding the team to a second-place finish in the Ontario Universities Athletic Association.Desjardins finished the season with a 15-10-1 record and a.914 save percentage. He played 1,427 minutes. &#9632;

f0024-01

’CAT, EAGLE, ’DINO AND STINGER UP FOR AWARDS

Even now, 11 years after his 26-season Hall-of-Fame career ended, Gordie Howe is still an ambassador of the game.Mr. Hockey retired after the 197980 season as the NHL&rsquo;s career leader in goals (801), assists (1,049), points (1,850) and games (1,767). Howe also owns many records in the All Star Game&mdash;which he appeared in 23 times.Howe won six Hart Trophies with the Detroit Red Wings and led the league in scoring six times winning the Art Ross Trophy. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1972 after retiring in 1971.He returned to hockey in 1973-74 with to play alongside his sons, Mark and Marty; with the Houston Aeros of the WHA. Howe played one more season in the NHL with the Hartford Whalers in 1979.Howe was last season&rsquo;s winner of The Hockey News&mdash;Itech King Clancy Memorial Award. The award recognizes individuals who have made substantial contributions to hockey and continue to be involved in the game.The award was first called the THN-Itech Hall of Fame Award when it was presented to Francis Michael (King) Clancy, the inaugural winner in 1986. Five months later, after Clancy&rsquo;s death at the age of 83, the award was renamed in his honor.Clancy epitomized the spirit of the award, serving in the NHL as a player, official, coach and executive.He started his career in 1921-22 with Ottawa, where he was a fixture on the blueline for the Senators.Before the 1930-31 season, he was sold to Conn Smythe, the founder of the Toronto Maple Leafs, for the sum of $35,000. He then was a part of the Leaf organization until he died.After his playing career ended in 1937, Clancy contributed to the game as a referee, coach (Leafs and Montreal Maroons) and as an executive with the Leafs. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1958.The 1989 winner of the THN-Itech King Clancy Memorial Award also contributed to the game long after his playing career ended.Howie Meeker was the Calder Trophy winner in 1947 with the Leafs. He played eight seasons in Toronto, playing on three Stanley Cup champions.In 346 regular-season games, the right winger scored 83 goals and 102 assists.After Meeker&rsquo;s playing days ended, he coached the Leafs for one season (1956-57), started his own hockey school, and was a color analyst for Hockey Night in Canada&mdash;moving on to The Sports Network after a long career at HNIC.In 1988, the award wasn&rsquo;t given to one individual but to a trio who shared in the success of the Montreal Canadiens.Hector (Toe) Blake, Elmer Lach and Maurice (Rocket) Richard formed one of the most-feared lines of the 1940&rsquo;s. The &ldquo;Punch Line&rdquo; helped make the Canadiens as one of the winningest professional sports teams.Richard, who scored 50 goals in 50 games in 1944-45, was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1961. The right winger played on eight Stanley Cup winners with the Canadiens scoring 544 goals and 421 assists in 978 games.Richard&rsquo;s linemates joined him in the Hall of Fame in 1966.Blake, who was the line&rsquo;s left winger, had 235 goals and 292 assists in 578 games. He won the Hart and Art Ross Trophies in 1939 and the Lady Byng Trophy in 1946.But Blake had even more success off the ice&mdash;as the Canadiens&rsquo; coach. He was the Habs&rsquo; coach for 13 seasons and won eight Stanley Cups.Lach finished his career in 1954 with 623 points in 664 games&mdash;all with the Canadiens. He won the Hart Trophy in 1945 and won the Art Ross Trophy in 1944-45 and 1947-48.Red Storey, the 1987 winner of the THN-Itech King Clancy Memorial Award, had a long and varied career.Storey never played hockey professionally but was a major contributor. He refereed more than 2,000 NHL games.He was also a great athlete who excelled at other sports.Storey was a halfback with the Toronto Argos of the Canadian Football League&mdash;setting a Grey Cup record with three touchdowns in 1938. He received offers from the National Football League&rsquo;s New York Giants and Chicago Bears.Storey was also skilled at lacrosse and baseball&mdash;playing the latter with the minor-league Montreal Maroons. &#9632;

CLANCY AWARD HONORS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01715/5945633-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="475" height="630"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE MOLINARI</figcaption></div>Every year, that marvelous entity that was the World Hockey Association recedes deeper into history as its list of active alumni shrinks.Players who began their pro careers in the WHA aren&rsquo;t exactly an endangered species yet, but it&rsquo;s becoming a pretty exclusive club. Still a pretty impressive one, though, when you remember that guys such as Mark Howe, Rod Langway, Ken Linseman, Mike Gartner, Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky and Mike Liut are on the list.So is a fellow named Gordie Roberts, although it wouldn&rsquo;t be surprising if all but the most passionate WHA devotees overlooked him.Being ignored is an occupational hazard for a defenseman whose game doesn&rsquo;t generate highlights or headlines very often.A few months ago, Roberts seemed destined to take out his final professional shifts in Peoria, where the St. Louis Blues shipped him when he didn&rsquo;t fit into their plans. But the Pittsburgh Penguins, desperate for a steady presence on an unstable blue line, rescued him in October, and Roberts rewarded them with steady, unspectacular work that helped to put them into the Stanley Cup semifinals for the first time since 1970.That&rsquo;s one of the last places anyone would have thought to look for Roberts a year or so ago when, at age 32, he seemed trapped in the twilight of a career that began with the New England Whalers in 1975.&ldquo;I had a bad year last year&mdash;I was at a stage where I was trying to prepare myself too much for life after hockey,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;A lot of things got in the way, and I learned a lesson.&rdquo;Not that it&rsquo;s wrong to prepare for life after hockey. Failing to do so is a terrible mistake all too many players make, and don&rsquo;t recognize until their playing days are over.That won&rsquo;t be the case for Roberts, who already owns a franchised business in Minneapolis that consumes much of his time during the off-season, when so many players do little more than relax and rest up for the next winter.&ldquo;The tag on Gordie Roberts is that he&rsquo;s a little different,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;I kind of go at my own pace. I&rsquo;ve never been a follower. I&rsquo;ve always walked to my own tune a little bit.&ldquo;I love hockey and everything else, but I&rsquo;ve got other interests. I&rsquo;m not totally consumed by it.&rdquo;Roberts credits his wife, Marlo, for helping to sustain his career for this long, but beginning it in the WHA got it off to a pretty promising start.&ldquo;There were a lot of opportunities for players at that time,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;It was a lot more fun to play in that league than to play in the minors for a couple of years.&ldquo;I gained a lot of experience playing with guys like (Gordie) Howe, (Bobby) Hull, (Dave) Keon and (John) McKenzie. And I think that has helped me as I&rsquo;ve gotten older. You appreciate what they did to keep themselves in shape and play as long as they did.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s not to suggest all relationships forged in those early days of the WHA radiated warmth and affection.Roberts remembers that resentment was a major ingredient in some teams&rsquo; chemistry, too.&ldquo;You had a lot of older guys who had paid their dues, and the money was just starting to get good,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;All of a sudden, we&rsquo;re coming in making big dollars at that time.&ldquo;I came in right before training camp, and it wasn&rsquo;t the easiest situation for a young guy to come into&hellip;they didn&rsquo;t exactly welcome you with open arms the first training camp.&rdquo;Roberts&rsquo; contract is up after this season, and it&rsquo;s not clear whether he will be part of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s plans for 1991-92. But he is adamant about wanting to &ldquo;play one more year,&rdquo; before getting on with the post-hockey life he has been planning for.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to be aware of what&rsquo;s going on after hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always tried to put myself in a position where my lifestyle doesn&rsquo;t have to change after hockey.&rdquo;He has made major adjustments before, probably the biggest being his style of play. Roberts was a productive offensive defenseman early is his career, but scaled back his game as he got older.He said he took his cue on that from Brad Selwood, a teammate in New England.&ldquo;When I first came up, I was all offense,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;I was supposed to be&mdash;and all offensive defensemen have heard this for years&mdash;the next Bobby Orr.&ldquo;To stay in the game, I&rsquo;ve become more of a defensive defenseman. There&rsquo;s an old saying: I came in as a rusher, turned into a crusher and I&rsquo;ll end up an usher.&rdquo;Dave Molinari covers the Penguins for the Pittsburgh Press. &#9632;

f0027-01

EX-RUSHER NOT YET READY TO BE USHER

<h2>RED WINGS</h2>Bob Probert&rsquo;s immigration problem remains unresolved, though his attorneys are hopeful it will be settled by the time training camp opens. Citing his chronic alcoholism, the Immigration and Naturalization Service deported Probert to Canada. He is a native of Windsor, Ont., across the Detroit River from Michigan. Probert appealed and the case has been pending for more than a year. Though he remains on probation from a drug conviction, Probert has not used drugs or alcohol in more than two years and continues his exemplary behavior, probation officials say&hellip;Probert, for the first time in his career, will run a hockey camp in the Detroit area this summer. Shawn Burr, a native of nearby Sarnia, Ont., will run one as well. Assistant coach Doug MacLean is running a power skating and conditioning clinic. And assistant coach Dave Lewis is organizing a fantasy camp involving several former Red Wing greats&hellip;Murray and Red Wings&rsquo; scouts were impressed with left winger Bengt Gustafsson&rsquo;s performance for Team Sweden in the World Championships, and are expected to make him an offer to play in Detroit next season. The Wings claimed Gustafsson from Washington in last October&rsquo;s waiver draft. He and Murray were close when the two were in Washington&hellip;Veteran goaltender Glen Hanlon is telling friends he expects to join the Canadian Olympic team next season.<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>Each home playoff game brings North Stars&rsquo; owner Norman Green about $500,000 closer to breaking even in his first season in Minnesota. The success in the first two rounds reduced the red ink around Met Center by nearly $2.5 million. The Stars&rsquo; share from the pay-per-view telecast of Game 6 of the Norris Division championship was $150,000. The North Stars would need to go to the Stanley Cup finals for Green to come close to breaking even, however&hellip;The telecast of the first game of the Campbell Conference series was made available to fans on the Met Center video scoreboard. Thanks to a few rowdy fans, beer sales were cut off in the first period and at least one usher was bitten. The $1 admission was a benefit for the International Special Olympics&hellip;The North Stars&rsquo; victory in Game 1 of the Campbell Conference series was their first in Edmonton since Oct. 24, 1980. Their record was 0-14-4 between victories&hellip;Green, chairman of Stewart Green Properties Ltd., has hired Peters & Co., in Calgary to represent him in the public sale of 18 per cent of Flames&rsquo; stock.<h2>BLUES</h2>Veteran defenseman Harold Snepsts told the St. Louis PostDispatch April 30 he had played the last game of his 17-year NHL career.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m done,&rdquo; he said. Two days later he recanted after the club had scolded him, and said there&rsquo;s still &ldquo;a possibility&rdquo; he might play next season. The Blues plan to expose Snepsts in the expansion draft next month to stock the new team in San Jose, so they can protect their returning defensemen&hellip;Veteran center Rick Meagher also said he was through after 12 NHL seasons. &ldquo;This is it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m ready for it. I had a good career. I had fun. I can reflect back and come up with a lot of good memories.&rdquo;&hellip;After being knocked out by Minnesota in the Norris finals, coach Brian Sutter has an obvious favorite in the Campbell Conference final. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to see Minnesota keep going, but Edmonton is the defending Stanley Cup champions, so obviously, they&rsquo;ll have a big task ahead of them,&rdquo; said Sutter, who warned against overlooking the North Stars. &ldquo;They beat the best team overall and the second-best team. They&rsquo;re someone to be reckoned with. They&rsquo;d better be respected.&rdquo;<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>The Blackhawks may let goaltender Ed Belfour test the market when he becomes a free agent July 1. &ldquo;Maybe they want to go out and see what the market is,&rdquo; said senior vice president Bob Pulford, who handles contract negotiations. &ldquo;But if other teams become involved, they might set a market value that&rsquo;s beneficial to us. What makes it difficult is that he has had one good year.&rdquo; Belfour and his agent, Ron Salcer, recently rejected a Hawks&rsquo; offer that averaged out to about $500,000 a year&hellip;In addition to Belfour, Michel Goulet and Troy Murray become free agents July 1. The Hawks are also negotiating with Jeremy Roenick and Dave Manson, who will enter option years next season&hellip;Pulford is angry with reports out of Toronto saying he was to be named director of hockey operations for the Maple Leafs. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no truth to it and I&rsquo;m starting to get mad about it,&rdquo; he said&hellip;Mike Keenan attended the World Championships in Finland.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2>To the growing list of rumored candidates for the post of director of hockey operations with the Leafs can be added the name of Barry Fraser, the highly-respected and long-time chief scout of the Edmonton Oilers. Fraser, like those before him, including Bob Pulford and Glen Sather, have denied having any contact with Leaf president Don Giffin for the job. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been in Edmonton a long time and am very happy here,&rdquo; said Fraser. Giffin was reported to be on the verge of appointing his top hockey man in April, but no announcement has been forthcoming&hellip;The Leafs have decided to move their floundering American League affiliate to St. John&rsquo;s, Nfld., from nearby Newmarket. Ont. &#9632;

PROBLEMS CONTINUE TO PLAGUE PROBERT

May 19,1984: New York Islanders&rsquo; center Pat LaFontaine set an NHL playoff record for the fastest two goals from the start of a period-&mdash;35 seconds. LaFontaine scored at 13 and 35 seconds of the third period in a 5-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers. Andy Moog was in net for the Oilers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02449/5945688-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="643" height="422"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat LaFontaine</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0027-02

FLASHBACK

<div class="byline">BY GARY OLSON</div>It&rsquo;s easy to miss Ulf Dahlen when you watch the Minnesota North Stars all season, but he&rsquo;s hard to forget if you spend time around the team.Looking for a card game? See Ulf. Need someone to tease? Where&rsquo;s Ulfie? Feelin&rsquo; down? Sit next to Ulf.&ldquo;Ulf isn&rsquo;t nearly the player Mike Gartner is, but we&rsquo;re a better team with him,&rdquo; Pierre Page,&rsquo;then coach of the North Stars, said last spring after the unpopular Dahlen-for-Gartner deal with the New York Rangers.&ldquo;Two Swedes in the world who can&rsquo;t skate and the North Stars have to get one,&rdquo; a local columnist moans with near religious conviction each time Dahlen steps on the ice. &ldquo;Geez. He played a good game. You don&rsquo;t think (the North Stars) will try to keep him now?&rdquo;Maybe.Almost as fast as you can say, &ldquo;George and Gordon Gund sold the North Stars to Howard Baldwin and Morris Belzberg and they, in turn, sold it to Norman Green,&rdquo; Ulf Dahlen became an under-the-table part of the deal between NHL franchises in Minnesota and San Jose.The 24-year-old Swede had one foot out the door before his equipment was dry after last season.First, he was part of a handshake deal&mdash;Dahlen for Neil Wilkinson&mdash;between Baldwin and the Gunds. Now, the 6-foot-2, 195-pound winger is reportedly part of the reworked agreement&mdash;Ulfie and another NHL player for Wilkinson and Rob Zet-tler&mdash;between Green and the Gunds.It would have been easy for Dahlen to put his game on automatic pilot and coast through this season. Maybe even understandable. But it wouldn&rsquo;t have been fun and he couldn&rsquo;t have been Ulfie.Dahlen never played more than three games in a row during the first six weeks of the North Stars&rsquo; season and only played eight of the Stars&rsquo; first 19 games. He finished the regular season with 21 goals and 39 points in 66 games.He started the playoffs much like he started the season. He played in the first three games against Chicago but was benched until the deciding game of the series against St. Louis.&ldquo;The coach told me I was playing good but he wanted to make a change because Chicago had won two games in a row,&rdquo; Dahlen said. &ldquo;The change was good; the team started winning.Then, in the first game of the Campbell Conference championship series, Dahlen set up two of the Stars&rsquo; three goals as Minnesota started a third straight series with the lead. They beat the Oilers 3-1.&ldquo;Ulf was asked not to be involved with the game on the ice for several games, yet he kept himself prepared,&rdquo; coach Bob Gainey said. &ldquo;When he came back, he was determined to show why he shouldn&rsquo;t have been out of the lineup. It&rsquo;s the same kind of thing that happened early in our season. My early evaluation of (the players) wasn&rsquo;t always right.&ldquo;When you sit out some players, they can do more damage to your team than when they&rsquo;re playing. Ulfie is just the opposite.&ldquo;Even when he&rsquo;s not playing, he makes the guy sitting next to him feel good and that guy makes the guy next to him feel good. He has the kind of attitude that rubs off. That&rsquo;s called leadership.&rdquo;<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>April 30: Dan Keczmer, D, assigned to Kalamazoo (IHL). May 5: Keczmer, Jarmo Myllys, G, Larry DePalma, LW, recalled from Kalamazoo. Cal McGowan, C, assigned to Kamloops (WHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Neal Broten, Dave Gagner, Bobby Smith, Marc Bureau, Perry Berezan.LW&mdash;Gaetan Duchesne. Brian Propp, Brian Bellows, Basil McRae, Larry DePalma.RW&mdash;Stewart Gavin, Mike Modano, Ulf Dahlen, Shane Churla, Mike Craig, Doug Smail.LD&mdash;Mark Tinordi, Neil Wilkinson, Brian Glynn, Rob Zettler, Dan Keczmer.RD&mdash;Chris Dahlquist. Shawn Chambers, Curt Giles.G&mdash;Jon Casey. Brian Hayward, Jarmo Myllys.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jim Johnson, D, bruised hip, day-to-day.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Bellows, 8. A&mdash;Bellows, 12. P&mdash;Bellows, 20 PIM&mdash;Churla, 80. &#9632;

DAHLEN’S LEADERSHIP HELPS YOUNGSTERS STAY FOCUSED

<div class="byline">BY MARK HARDING</div>With the fourth-worst offense in the league last season, it hardly rates as a revelation to say Leaf forwards had a dismal campaign.But while wingers Vincent Dam-phousse, Gary Leeman and Daniel Marois each slumped horribly last season, the real weakness for the Leafs was down the middle&mdash;at the pivotal center position.No less than 12 players&mdash;Mike Krushelnyski, Brian Bradley, Peter Zezel, Dave Hannan, Lucien DeBlois, Aaron Broten, Claude Loiselle, Tom Fergus, Gilles Thibaudeau, Scott Thornton, Ed Olczyk and John McIntyre&mdash;played center for the Leafs last season and none had more than 45 points.In fact, the four regular Leaf pivots for most of the season&mdash;Krushelnyski, Zezel, Bradley and Hannan&mdash;ranked dead last in the Norris Division in goals (61) and assists (100).Detroit&rsquo;s foursome of Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Jimmy Carson and Marc Habscheid led the division&rsquo;s centers with 112 goals, followed by Chicago (Jeremy Roenick, Adam Creighton, Troy Murray and Mike Hudson) with 84, Minnesota (Dave Gagner, Neal Broten, Bobby Smith and Perry Berezan) with 79, and St. Louis (Adam Oates, Rod Brind&rsquo;A-mour, Ron Wilson and Bob Bassen) with 68.Not surprisingly, Oates&rsquo; 90 assists put the Blues&rsquo; centermen on top in the assist department with 167, followed by Detroit at 138, Minnesota at 135, Chicago with 114 and finally the Leafs.Olczyk, of course, was the top center on the Leafs until he was dealt to Winnipeg in November along with Mark Osborne.General manager Floyd Smith received an offensive-minded defenseman (Dave Ellett) and a defensive forward (Paul Fenton) in return, but never filled the gaping hole he&rsquo;d created at center.Zezel, coming off a career-high 72-point season thanks in no small part to having played alongside Brett Hull, was acquired from Washington but is the first to admit he is not a 90-point centerman.Bradley was another mid-season addition whom the Leafs hoped would help fill Olczyk&rsquo;s void, but instead went 26 games without a goal and then complained after the season ended that he might as well be traded if he wasn&rsquo;t going to be given more ice time.When one stops to consider the incredible number of high draft choices the Leafs have enjoyed over recent years, it&rsquo;s remarkable that they have failed to land the No. 1 center the club so desperately needs.While division rivals have found ways of landing Yzerman, Roenick, Gagner, Fedorov and Oates, the Leafs have stocked their ranks with mediocre offensive centers at best and one or two defensive specialists.With their No. 1 pick two seasons ago, the Leafs chose center Scott Thornton, a solid prospect but a third-line pivot at best because of a shortage of natural scoring ability.Three years ago, they chose left winger Scott Pearson (who has since been dealt to Quebec) while Roenick was still available.If there is one pressing need for the Leafs over this off-season, it should be obvious to everyone. But, without a first-or second-round draft choice this summer, the only alternative will be free agency. &#9632;

SMITH LOOKS FOR HELP AT CENTER

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div>When the St. Louis Blues dropped out of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the fourth consecutive season in the Norris finals, fingers were pointed at the blockbuster trade they made at the March 5 deadline.Blues&rsquo; general manager Ron Caron wasn&rsquo;t surprised.&ldquo;The game of sports is a game of second-guessing,&rdquo; Caron said.So, within days of Minnesota&rsquo;s 3-2 victory in the sixth and deciding game of the Norris final, Caron was defending the Blues&rsquo; acquisition of defenseman Garth Butcher and center Dan Quinn for left wingers Geoff Courtnall and Sergio Momesso, center Cliff Ronning and defenseman Robert Dirk.He did so by addressing each of the departed players.&#9632; Ronning: Ice time was the big thing here. Ronning (5-foot-8, 175 pounds) went from a fourth-line center/power-play specialist with the Blues to the top line in Vancouver.&ldquo;He would not be happy with half a shift,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;And how many little guys can you keep with a team? We have Nelson Emerson coming up, too.&rdquo;&#9632; Courtnall: Vancouver demanded a big scorer, and Courtnall, who finished with 33 goals, didn&rsquo;t fit the Blues&rsquo; defensive style.&ldquo;He played a lot of good hockey for the Blues,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;He provided a different dimension in the offensive zone, but coming out of our zone, he was not that good. He wanted to break out for the bomb.&ldquo;In (the Minnesota) series, that would have been disastrous.&rdquo;&#9632; Momesso: He dropped from the Blues&rsquo; top line with Brett Hull at the start of the season to the fourth line by the time was traded.&ldquo;Dependability was the big thing with him,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;He could be a good player, when he wanted to be, but you never knew. Montreal would have kept him if he was reliable. He suffered the same thing here.&rdquo;&#9632; Dirk: With a talent such as Butcher coming aboard, the Blues had no room for Dirk, a promising, young defenseman.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good young man, but we were looking to upgrade our game at defense,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;Butcher did that. We may not have won the Detroit series without Butcher.&ldquo;Of the four players, I don&rsquo;t know how many would have contributed. In my opinion, we would not have done better. We would not have done as well as we did, if you call what we did &lsquo;well,&rsquo; without this trade.&ldquo;Minnesota didn&rsquo;t allow the individual game. There was no open ice there, and the players we let go need open ice.&rdquo;Caron, though, admitted the Blues might have been better off with Ronning on the power play, which was four of 60 other than a six for 20 splurge in Games 4 and 5 against Minnesota.&ldquo;If we had kept Ronning for power-play purposes, he could have provided stimulation and improvement,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;But Quinn did not play bad for the amount of ice time he got.&rdquo;Quinn, sometimes limited to fourth-line and second power-play duty, had four goals and seven assists for 11 points in 13 playoff games. All but two of his points came in pressure situations, and his one-goal, three-assist performance kept the Minnesota series alive in Game 5.Coach Brian Sutter also admitted the Blues came up short offensively in the Minnesota series, but he had an answer for anyone who mentioned the offense the Blues gave up in the trade.&ldquo;We need someone to pick up the slack, but they just can&rsquo;t be scorers, especially in our division,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can give you the names of a dozen goal-scorers, forwards and defensemen, who are out of the NHL right now. You have to play away from the puck.&ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t the Smythe Division. There is a lot of skill and a lot of ability in our division, and it&rsquo;s fast, but it&rsquo;s tough, two-way, intense hockey. We need people who are willing to play two ways.&rdquo; &#9632;

DEADLINE DEAL NOT TO BLAME FOR LOSS

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>About those rumors that have Jimmy Devellano on some sort of &ldquo;short list&rdquo; of candidates to be the chief of hockey operations for the Toronto Maple Leafs.Forget &lsquo;em, Jimmy Devellano says.Sounding much like the politician who once warned that if nominated he wouldn&rsquo;t run and if elected he wouldn&rsquo;t serve, the former Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; general manager insists he has no intention of running a hockey club again.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard the rumors,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d be lying if I told you I hadn&rsquo;t. I think my name has probably come up for three reasons: No. 1, I own 30,000 shares of Maple Leaf Gardens stock, so to some degree, I&rsquo;m a part owner of the team, albeit a very small part; No. 2, I&rsquo;m a Torontonian; and No. 3, they&rsquo;re obviously looking for somebody and I&rsquo;ve done the job before.&ldquo;But I have never been contacted and I&rsquo;ve never discussed the job with anybody.&rdquo;And Devellano isn&rsquo;t interested either. The Leafs finished 20th overall last season, and the task of rebuilding them is a bigger one than Devellano is willing to tackle&mdash;especially knowing how an eight-year reign as the Wings&rsquo; GM left him physically and emotionally drained. He retired last season.&ldquo;The Leafs don&rsquo;t have their No. 1 or No. 2 picks in the draft this year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t have their second pick next year. They have 10 guys 30 or over. I think that job would absolutely kill me. I&rsquo;d be dead of a heart attack in four years.&rdquo;Citing health reasons, Devellano voluntarily stepped down as the Red Wings&rsquo; GM and since then he has twice made lengthy visits to the Pritikan Longevity Center in Florida in an effort to regain his health and control his diabetes problem.He was succeeded last July by Bryan Murray, who doubles as Red Wings&rsquo; coach.&ldquo;I had a good run at it. I did my best,&rdquo; Devellano said of his tenure as GM. &ldquo;I cared very deeply. I still care. But I&rsquo;m really enjoying my role with the Red Wings. For the first time in a long time, I&rsquo;ve been able to enjoy myself a little bit.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01648/5945791-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="709" height="813"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jimmy Devellano stepped down as Red Wings&rsquo; GM last season.</figcaption></div>Devellano remains with the Wings as the club&rsquo;s senior vice president. He also serves as an amateur scout and an alternate governor, representing owner Mike Hitch on league matters.Devellano has also been working with organizers of this summer&rsquo;s Canada Cup Tournament to bring two games to Joe Louis Arena.So he believes, at age 47, his menu is full enough for now.&ldquo;Eight years as a GM took an awful lot out of me both physically and mentally,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The job was with me 24 hours a day. It was always on my mind. Now, people see me and tell me I look so much better, rested and happy. And I am. I&rsquo;m looking and feeling much, much, much better.&rdquo;Murray said he considers Devellano a valued and respected member of the Wings&rsquo; management team whose counsel is sought in important matters. &#9632;

f0029-01

DEVELLANO WANTS NO PART OF FALLEN LEAFS

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div>As a result of their playoff disaster this season, most of the Blackhawks will spend the summer wondering if they&rsquo;ll be back in Chicago for another season.General manager-coach Mike Keenan has hinted changes may be in store for a club that showed by losing in the first round to Minnesota it&rsquo;s still not quite good enough to win the Stanley Cup.Many Hawks won&rsquo;t be surprised if a shakeup comes this summer.&ldquo;From a personal standpoint, this is a very difficult time because I&rsquo;m not sure where I&rsquo;ll be playing next year,&rdquo; said captain Dirk Graham. &ldquo;Everyone has to think like that. After what we went through, no one&rsquo;s job is safe. Everyone has to accept responsibility for what happened.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to speculate on what changes might be made. That&rsquo;s up to management.&rdquo;The Hawks have made very few major changes in their core players since Keenan arrived in 1988.&ldquo;Maybe some fresh faces might help,&rdquo; Steve Thomas said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been pretty loyal to us for a few years, but if you don&rsquo;t win you&rsquo;ve got to expect changes. They can&rsquo;t accept what happened. It&rsquo;s too bad because Chicago is a great place to play.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02433/5945822-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="702" height="806"><figcaption class="caption-body">Veteran Doug Wilson may be the odd man out on defense next season.</figcaption></div>Thomas is one Hawk who&rsquo;ll spend the summer sitting on pins and needles waiting to see if he&rsquo;s part of the changes. He scored only 19 goals in 69 regular-season games this season after netting 40 in &rsquo;89-90. He had one goal in the playoffs.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to think too far ahead,&rdquo; Thomas said. &ldquo;If something happens, it happens. I&rsquo;ve heard rumors all year.&rdquo;Other Hawks thought to be on Keenan&rsquo;s moving list are centers Adam Creighton and Troy Murray, right winger Wayne Presley and defensemen Doug Wilson, Keith Brown, Steve Konroyd and Bob McGill.Creighton was a big disappointment, fading from 70 points a year ago to 51 this season. Murray also dropped off from 55 to 37.Wilson, Brown, Konroyd and McGill had good seasons on the Hawks&rsquo; blue line, but their age is a concern to Keenan. Wilson will be 34 in July, while Brown is 31, Konroyd 30 and McGill 30.&ldquo;We have five guys on defense 29 or older,&rdquo; Keenan said, including 29-year-old Chris Chelios, who isn&rsquo;t going anywhere. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have to start looking to bring in some younger players.&rdquo;Wilson has been with the Hawks for 14 seasons and Brown for 12. What bothers Keenan about his two veteran defensemen is their increasing chance of injury as they get older. Brown missed 35 games this season with a shoulder injury while Wilson sat out 25 games with an ankle problem.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to say what we&rsquo;re going to do as far as our defense is concerned,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see what the value is for each player. We&rsquo;re looking at a greater number of defensemen in our organization and we should probably get some forwards for some of those defensemen.&rdquo;The nucleus of the Hawks&rsquo; defense next season could consist of Chelios, Dave Manson, Trent Yawney, Frantisek Kucera and Cam Russell.The organization is very high on young defensemen Karl Dykhuis, Adam Bennett and Mike Speer, and it&rsquo;s possible one or more of them could make the jump to the NHL. Dykhuis and Bennett are the Hawks&rsquo; last two No. 1 draft picks.In addition, Czech defensemen Milan Tichy and Ivan Droppa are likely to be in training camp battling for job. Tichy, the Hawks&rsquo; eighth-round pick in 1989, has been called the best prospect in the organization by one scout. Droppa was Chicago&rsquo;s No. 2 pick in 1990. &#9632;

f0029-02

SWEEPING CHANGES LIKELY AFTER ABRUPT EXIT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01741/5945853-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Fort Wayne Komets won Game 5 4-3 when Dan Lambert scored in overtime.</figcaption></div>Beating the odds has become a habit for the Fort Wayne Komets.The Komets, one of four independent teams to start the International League season, finished third in the East Division in the regular season&mdash;the only independent with a record above.500&mdash;and then knocked off the second-place Indianapolis Ice and first-place Kalamazoo Wings in the playoffs.But the biggest challenge facing the Komets is in the Turner Cup finals.The Komets&rsquo; challengers would go the limit to get to the finals&mdash;the Peoria Rivermen and the Phoenix Roadrunners needed a seventh game May 6 to decide their semifinal series.But Komets&rsquo; coach Al Sims doesn&rsquo;t care who Fort Wayne&rsquo;s opponent will be.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter,&rdquo; Sims said after his team sidelined the Wings in six games with a 3-2 victory May 3. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there will be any stiffer competition for us than Indy (the Indianapolis Ice) and Kalamazoo have been.&ldquo;If we continue with the intensity and heart and desire we&rsquo;ve shown so far, I feel we can beat anyone.&rdquo;The numbers show something else though. The Komets haven&rsquo;t beaten Peoria in seven tries this season.&ldquo;It started out identical to the Indy series,&rdquo; Sims said of the semifinal. &ldquo;We each won a couple at home. But we won convincingly (6-2) at home April 30 and carried that momentum to Kalamazoo (for Game 5) to win that one 4-3 in overtime on Dan Lambert&rsquo;s goal.&rdquo;Then it was back to Fort Wayne for the clinching win.&ldquo;It was probably the strongest game Kalamazoo played here all year,&rdquo; Sims said.<h2>IHL</h2>The regular-season champion Rivermen spotted Phoenix two wins to start their semifinal series. Peoria awoke with some help from reinforcements from the parent St. Louis Blues winning games 3 and 4.The Roadrunners responded with a 6-3 win in Game 5 May 2. The Rivermen bounced back to tie the series on an overtime goal by Kevin Miehm May 4 for the 4-3 win in Phoenix.Sylvain Couturier scored twice in Game 6 as Phoenix grabbed a 3-1 lead in the first period.But Kelly Chase and Dave Thomlinson, returned from St. Louis when the Blues were eliminated from Stanley Cup action, scored in the second period to tie the game and, when neither team scored in the third the game went to overtime.<h2>AHL</h2>The way Jody Gage sees it, the American League&rsquo;s Calder Cup finals will be atonement time for the Rochester Americans.Gage says the Americans &lsquo;choked&rsquo; when they lost the finals in six games to the Springfield Indians last season.They have a chance for revenge, as the finals will be a rematch. Rochester advanced by sweeping the Binghamton Rangers in four games in the semifinals, while Springfield needed five games to get by the Moncton Hawks.Rochester won the Southern Division with the AHL&rsquo;s best regular-season record (45-26-9, 99 points), giving the Americans home-ice advantage in the finals. Games 1 and 2 were May 9 and 11, with a week break before Game 3 May 18 in Springfield. (The delay is due to both arenas booking a circus.)Springfield won the Northern Division with a 43-27-10 record and 96 points. Rochester went 3-1-0 against the Indians in the regular season.&ldquo;A lot of guys in the dressing room will get a chance to redeem themselves from last year against Springfield,&rdquo; said Gage, the Americans&rsquo; high-scoring right winger. &ldquo;But Springfield has a really talented hockey club, probably more talented than they had last year.&rdquo;If offense means anything, that&rsquo;s certainly true. The Indians tied a club record for goals with 348, led by left winger Michel Picard who scored a team-record 56.There are few similarities for Springfield, however. With the affiliation switch from the New York Islanders to Hartford, only coach Jim Roberts and two players&mdash;defenseman Marc Bergevin and left winger Dale Henry&mdash;own 1989-90 Calder Cup rings.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to get ahead of myself but I have a lot of confidence in this team,&rdquo; Bergevin said. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t think it will be a cakewalk for either club.&rdquo;Rochester knocked out Binghamton with a 6-4 win May 1, rallying from 3-1 and 4-2 deficits. Defenseman Don McSween scored the winning goal on a rebound of Scott Metcalfe&rsquo;s shot at 12:39 of the third period. Darrin Shannon iced it with an empty-net goal with seven seconds remaining.Don Biggs had two assists in the deciding game, giving him points in all nine playoff games and the league scoring lead with seven goals and 17 points.The Indians ousted Moncton after losing the first game. The teams went to Moncton tied 1-1 and Springfield won 9-2 April 30 and 5-3 two nights later. The Indians returned home for the clinching 2-1 win May 4.Picard had the hat trick to lead Springfield in Game 4. Yvon Corriveau broke a 1-1 tie in Game 5 with his sixth playoff goal with only 4:34 remaining in the third period.&mdash;With files from Bill Pickett and Kevin Oklobzija &#9632;

f0030-01

HOLDING THE FORT

<div class="byline">BY NICK GATES</div>The only thing holding up the East Coast League franchise for Charlotte was a piece of paper.A written commitment for funds to make Independence Arena in Charlotte suitable for hockey is the obstacle preventing the city&rsquo;s expansion team from opening its doors next season.The ECHL set May 1 as a deadline for a decision on the franchise but it passed and owner Bill Allen wasn&rsquo;t able to guarantee money to renovate the 9,600-seat facility. He had only a verbal commitment. The deadline was extended to May 6, but it too passed.&ldquo;I thought they&rsquo;d be in,&rdquo; said ECHL commissioner Pat Kelly. &ldquo;But they had the problem with their arena.&rdquo;The ECHL will now draw up a schedule based on Charlotte not starting play in 1991-92. The franchise in Columbus received the go-ahead May 3 and will be included in the scheduling.&ldquo;We were supposed to take a position,&rdquo; Allen said. &ldquo;We are ready, but we don&rsquo;t have any ice and I can&rsquo;t guarantee we&rsquo;ll be ready in October.&rdquo;Private investors could come to the rescue with the necessary funding before the ECHL&rsquo;s four-day board of governors meeting begins May 30 in Winston-Salem.Allen signed a 35-year agreement with the city to lease the building, formerly called the Charlotte Coliseum. But the antiquated icemaking system must be replaced.&ldquo;We couldn&rsquo;t commit,&rdquo; Allen said. &ldquo;I think there&rsquo;s a 50-50 chance we&rsquo;ll be ready (for 199192).&rdquo;Charlotte has been without hockey since 1975-76 when the Southern League folded, forcing the Checkers to shut down after 10 years.&ldquo;We have the arena, the franchise and the management group in place,&rdquo; Allen said. &ldquo;There is plenty of money out there in the private sector and we&rsquo;re going to get it.&rdquo;Charlotte has sold more than 3,000 season tickets with the money placed in escrow. In a worst-case scenario, the yet-to-be-named team would pay its dues and begin operation in 199293.<h2>COACH PICKED</h2>Claude Noel, who resigned as Roanoke Valley coach after a losing season (26-31-7), was hired as coach and director of hockey operations by the expansion Dayton Bombers. &ldquo;We want to be a class operation and we think Claude enhances that image,&rdquo; said owner E.A. &lsquo;Bud&rsquo; Gingher. &ldquo;Claude is a teacher. We want to make sure that when an affiliate sends us a player, they get an improved product&mdash;on and off the ice&mdash;in return.&rdquo; Noel had an extensive minor-league career. He was a member of Hershey&rsquo;s Calder Cup champions in 1979-80 and was named IHL most valuable player for Toledo, the 1982-83 Turner Cup champions. &ldquo;I felt I really wanted to be part of this,&rdquo; Noel said-&hellip;Bill Coffey sold the Greensboro Monarchs May 2 to a group of businessmen headed by William Black III, a local auto dealer. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m being retained as a consultant,&rdquo; Coffey said. Coffey, one of the league&rsquo;s charter owners&mdash;he established the Knoxville franchise in 1988-89&mdash;also will serve as a consultant for the team in Charlotte&hellip;The ECHL offices have moved from Vinton, Va., to Charlotte, where Kelly maintained an off-season residence. The address: ECHL, Mart Office Building, 800 Briar Creek Road, Charlotte. N.C., 28205. &#9632;

CHARLOTTE’S WEB OF TROUBLE CAUSES DELAY

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div>After five years in Newmarket, the Toronto Maple Leafs have moved their Saints back to a sainted city&mdash;although the American League franchise in St. John&rsquo;s, Nfld., will likely be called the Maple Leafs.The Saints, who lost an estimated $5 million since moving from St. Catharines, Ont., finished this season with a 26-45-9 record and last place in the South Division.The Toronto Maple Leafs reached agreement May 2 on a five-year lease with the city of St. John&rsquo;s. The AHL board of governors, who have their spring meeting May 30 in Hershey, have to approve the move.When the Minnesota North Stars tried to go to St. John&rsquo;s last summer, the AHL put together a list of terms and conditions. They still apply with the exception of the $750,000 franchise fee. Toronto owns the franchise and is just transferring it. If the move is approved, the league will likely split into three divisions.&ldquo;St. John&rsquo;s and Toronto were in agreement and in encouragment (last summer) that these (the terms) were the right things to do,&rdquo; said Springfield Indians&rsquo; owner Peter Cooney, head of the AHL&rsquo;s expansion committee. &ldquo;There are no surprises. They know what&rsquo;s on the table.&rdquo;Cooney would not detail the terms, but one is believed to be a travel subsidy for teams from Halifax to St. John&rsquo;s (a 45-minute flight).Weekday playing dates and a proposal to build a new arena were also mentioned last summer. The St. John&rsquo;s Memorial Stadium is 36 years old, but has been refurbished. Seating capacity is 3,500, but another 500 can be added with standing room.&ldquo;If they meet the terms and conditions,&rdquo; Cooney said,&rdquo;then it&rsquo;ll be unanimous.&rdquo;Guy Bradbury, the director of tourism, recreation and parks for the city of St. John&rsquo;s, doesn&rsquo;t anticipate any problems.&ldquo;There are still a couple of things that have to be ironed out,&rdquo; Bradbury said. &ldquo;The big thing has been the travel subsidy and we think the proposal we&rsquo;ll present the league will be sufficient.&ldquo;We still feel the AHL will say the travel subsidy will still be an issue. By then we hope to have a plan (a discounted deal with an airline company) that will not make it an issue. I think we have something that the AHL will consider suitable to their needs.&rdquo;<h2>TOUGH TIMES</h2>The tough economy can be blamed for Jim and his wife Stacey Riggs being fired by the Baltimore Skipjacks.Jim was the team&rsquo;s assistant general manager and vice president of communications. Stacey was vice president of operations.Both of their contracts were not renewed by owner Tom Ebright.&ldquo;He basically did it from an economic standpoint,&rdquo; Jim Riggs said. &ldquo;The team lost a lot of money last year and we were two of the biggest salaried employees.&rdquo;The two positions are being filled from within the Skipjack office. Sources say the team lost more money this year than the season (1987-88) Baltimore operated as an independent team. &#9632;

TORONTO TAKES ITS SAINTS ELSEWHERE

<div class="byline">BY ADAM TEICHER</div>An overlooked early-season transaction&mdash;Calgary&rsquo;s signing of free agent center C. J. Young for its Salt Lake affiliate&mdash;turned into one of the International League&rsquo;s best personnel moves.Young was one of the Golden Eagles&rsquo; steadiest players, finishing third on the team in goals (31) and points (67). He also gave Salt Lake its third straight Ken McKenzie Trophywinner, given to the league&rsquo;s best U.S.-born rookie. Paul Ranheim (1988-89) and Tim Sweeney (&rsquo;89-90) were the previous winners.&ldquo;I was a little bit surprised by the whole thing,&rdquo; said Young, who was bom in Waban, Mass., and starred for four years at Harvard. &ldquo;The nicest thing about that award is that it&rsquo;s voted on by the coaches. So it&rsquo;s a real honor to be recognized.&rdquo;It was a real honor for Young just to play professionally in North America this season. After his junior season in college, Young was chosen in the first round of the 1989 supplemental draft by the New Jersey Devils.But New Jersey wanted him to go to training camp last fall without a contract. Young balked and just a few days before the start of the regular season he was released and became a free agent.&ldquo;That was the worst part,&rdquo; Young said. &ldquo;It was the tail end of the summer and I didn&rsquo;t know if I would have a place to play.&rdquo;Young and his Boston-based agent Bob Murray searched the NHL for a spot and briefly thought Young would have to play this season in Europe. /Finally, they got together on a contract with Calgary Flames&rsquo; general manager Cliff Fletcher, who has had good luck in recent years with free agents, including Marc Bureau and Martin Simard.Young did the rest, making the Devils&rsquo; loss into the Flames&rsquo; gain.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve come a long way since September,&rdquo; Young said. &ldquo;I got off to a little bit of a slow start. The other guys had training camp and I didn&rsquo;t. But I was pretty happy with the way things turned out.&rdquo;<h2>WARM RECEPTION</h2>An estimated 300 fans met the Phoenix Roadrunners at the airport April 27 upon their return from Peoria, where they won the first two games of the West Division final.If GM Adam Keller needed any more proof that the Roadrunners, in their second year in the IHL, were becoming hot stuff in the desert, that was it.&ldquo;It was a wonderful thing to see,&rdquo; Keller said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m at a loss for words to tell you how gratifying to see the excitement over this franchise. I never doubted the fans would take to our hockey club, but perhaps we&rsquo;re seeing it sooner than we thought we would.&rdquo;The Roadrunners drew an IHL-playoff record crowd of 11,491 for a first-round playoff game against Salt Lake April 13. A crowd of 10,257 for Game 3 against Peoria, a 5-4 Rivermen victory, helped the Roadrunners to a three-game playoff attendance average of 9,154.That led the league, far ahead of second-place Fort Wayne (7,390 for four games) and third-place Salt Lake (5,148 for two games). &#9632;

YOUNG AMERICAN A PRIZE CATCH FOR GOLDEN EAGLES

<div class="byline">BY VANCE OLIVER</div>Double sweep.The Spokane Chiefs dumped the Lethbridge Hurricanes 7-2 May 1 to sweep a second consecutive playoff series and capture their first-ever Western League title.The Chiefs, who blanked the Kamloops Blazers 5-0 in the West Division final, silenced Lethbridge 4-0 in the WHL final.&ldquo;We are so happy we won this league,&rdquo; Spokane coach Bryan Maxwell said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a great accomplishment.&rdquo;Center Ray Whitney led the Chiefs&rsquo; attack with a goal and five assists and teammate Steve Junker added two goals in the clinching game. Goalie Trevor Kidd, who backstopped Canada to a gold-medal victory at the World Junior Championships, turned aside 23 shots.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an unbelievable year for myself,&rdquo; said Kidd, a first round pick of the Calgary Flames in 1990. &ldquo;Winning the league and winning the world junior gold was great. Hopefully, we can win the Memorial Cup.&rdquo;Whitney converted a pass from Pat Falloon at 4:34 of overtime to give Spokane a 6-5 win in Game 3 April 30.<h2>CLARK GOES SOUTH</h2>The Saskatoon Blades lost one coaching candidate to a rival Western League team while waiting for Bob Hoffmeyer to decide whether or not he&rsquo;s staying.Donn Clark, coach of the Saskatchewan Junior League&rsquo;s Melfort Mustangs, accepted an assistant coaching position with the expansion Tacoma Rockets.Clark, the older brother of Toronto Maple Leaf Wendel Clark, agreed to a one-year deal (plus one year option) April 29 with Tacoma, after the Blades told him they were still awaiting Hoffmeyer&rsquo;s response.Hoffmeyer replaced Terry Ruskowski as coach of the Blades on an interim basis in February and was later offered the permanent job.&ldquo;I had preliminary talks with them,&rdquo; Clark said. &ldquo;I inquired about what their situation was as far as Bob Hoffmeyer is concerned. As far as I know, they&rsquo;re still committed to him.&rdquo;Blades* general manager Daryl Lubiniecki said Clark would have been a serious candidate if Hoffmeyer declined to return. But he couldn&rsquo;t make any promises to Clark.&ldquo;Donn has done an excellent job,&rdquo; Lubiniecki said. &ldquo;He has paid his dues and is probably ready for a turn. But in all fairness to Donn, we couldn&rsquo;t give him an answer.&rdquo;Clark&rsquo;s Mustangs had a 31-34-3 record this season and made the playoffs for the first time ever. He also served five years with the Humboldt Broncos&mdash;one as head coach, four as an assistant&mdash;and captured five provincial titles.But Clark, 29, doesn&rsquo;t expect to encounter problems moving up from Tier 11 to Tier I junior hockey, since he previously played under Rockets&rsquo; GM Bruce Hamilton and chief scout Lorne Frey in Saskatoon. Clark&rsquo;s brothers, Wendel and Kerry, also played for Rockets&rsquo; coach Marcel Comeau when the latter coached the Blades.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m familiar with everybody,&rdquo; Clark said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a new situation, but it&rsquo;s an opportunity I couldn&rsquo;t pass up.&rdquo; &#9632;

CHIEFS COMPLETE SECOND CLEAN SWEEP

<div class="byline">BY RANDY RUSSON</div>What started out as a Sault Ste. Marie Greyhound welcoming party for their long lost star turned into a going away party, as in we hope you and your team are never back.Greyhound fans revelled at the opportunity to chide Eric Lindros upon the superstar&rsquo;s first visit to Sault Ste. Marie. Lindros refused to play for the team that drafted him in 1989 and later was traded to the Oshawa Generals.The fans had their fun with Lindros&mdash;holding up placards and berating his every stride&mdash;and the Greyhounds had the last laugh winning Game 3 6-5 (overtime) May 2 and Game 4 8-5 May 3 in Sault Ste. Marie to take a 3-1 lead in their Ontario League best-of-seven championship series.But the Generals stormed back with a 4-2 win in Game 5 May 5.Fearful of an anti-Lindros riot, extra security and police were on hand at Sault Memorial Gardens for Games 3 and 4. But while a tremendous chorus of boos and dozens of derogatory signs greeted Lindros, there were no major incidents.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to remember Eric Lindros is only 18 and he hasn&rsquo;t experienced this sort of thing,&rdquo; Oshawa coach Rick Cornacchia said. &ldquo;The fans behaved themselves extremely well, but we had to be careful. There&rsquo;s a lot of crazy people out there.&rdquo;Lindros had three goals and three assists in the two games, but it was Jason Denomme&rsquo;s goal 2:29 into overtime in Game 3 and two goals each by Colin Miller, Tony lob, Mike DeCoff and Brad Tiley in Game 4.Lindros, who vomited prior to Game 3 and played despite the flu, said he was glad to get the first game out of the way.&ldquo;I expected the fans would give me a rough time and they did,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Sure, I was nervous. But once the game got going, the focus was on an important playoff game.&rdquo;Lindros&rsquo; father Carl was at Games 3 and 4 and said he was impressed at how the fans conducted themselves.&ldquo;There was no violence and nothing dangerous,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The signs? I expected them. But the fans of Sault Ste. Marie showed class.&rdquo;Sault Ste. Marie mayor Joe Fratesi said it&rsquo;s &ldquo;too bad&rdquo; Lindros didn&rsquo;t botherto visit the city before saying he wouldn&rsquo;t play there.&ldquo;Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey didn&rsquo;t want to come here at first but they saw the city, met the owners and loved it,&rdquo; said Fratesi.<h2>SWEET SHERRY</h2>Second-year Sault Ste. Marie general manager Sherry Bassin has been named OHL execu-tive-of-the-year.Bassin, 49, helped the Greyhounds improve from 18 wins and a 13th-place finish last season to second overall, first in the Emms Division, and an OHL championship finalist.Bassin spent 12 years with the Generals, directing them to Memorial Cup berths in 1983 and 1987. Now he&rsquo;d like a crack in the NHL.&ldquo;The situation would have to be one where I have complete control,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to take a job so I can say I&rsquo;m in the NHL. I&rsquo;ve got a good thing going in the Soo.&rdquo; &#9632;

GREYHOUNDS STUN LINDROS, GENERALS

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN COSTELLO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01730/5946004-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Felix Potvin and the Chicoutimi Sagueneens are fighting a 10-year QMJHL jinx.</figcaption></div>Naturally, Joe Canale and Jean Hamel are at loggerheads in this year&rsquo;s Memorial Cup tournament. But both coaches agree on one thing&mdash;10 years is too long for Quebec to go without the coveted junior title.Canale and the Chicoutimi Sagueneens would like to be the ones to end the drought. Hamel and the Drummondville Voltigeurs are scheming the same thing. And isn&rsquo;t Quebec City&rsquo;s Le Colisee the perfect setting?&ldquo;The fans will be behind us, not putting pressure on us,&rdquo; Canale said. &ldquo;In fact, there&rsquo;s less pressure on our team. We reached our objective. We&rsquo;re here. Now we&rsquo;re just dealing with normal everyday pressure.&rdquo;The Quebec League has not won the Memorial Cup since 1981, when Dale Hawerchuk was still with the Cornwall Royals and the Royals were still part of the QMJHL. Ever since, Quebec teams have been bullied in the comers and on the scoreboard by Western and Ontario League counterparts.&ldquo;This is a big test for both (Quebec) teams,&rdquo; Hamel said. &ldquo;This is our showcase, in our arena and our fans. We don&rsquo;t have to adjust. We&rsquo;ll play our own style.&rdquo;The May 11-19 tournament is new for both Canale and Hamel. The Sagueneens qualified for the first time in their 18-year existence. And the only memory Hamel has of making it that far was when he was a Voltigeur defenseman and they lost to Guy Lafleur and the Quebec Rem-parts 20 years ago.Listed below are profiles of the two QMJHL teams, the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL and the Oshawa Generals and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (yet to be decided) of the OHL.<h2>CHICOUTIMI</h2>Coach: Joe Canale. General manager: Doug Archibald. Regular-season record: 43-21-6 (First in Dilio Division).Key players: Center Steve Larouche (35-41-76 in 45 games), right winger Stephane Charbonneau (41-33-74 in 61 games), defenseman Eric Brule (12-43-55 in 67 games) and goalie Felix Potvin (33-15-4, 2.71 GAA).Strengths: Felix was the top goalie in the Canadian Hockey League this season and the Sagueneens allowed the fewest goals (223) of 42 CHL teams.Weaknesses: At times this season, Chicoutimi had trouble scoring in clutch situations. Steve Larouche, their game breaker, missed 25 games. Team could be tougher.Outlook: Showdown between Potvin and Kidd will be interesting. If Potvin isn&rsquo;t spectacular, Chicoutimi may not have the guns. If he is, the 3-2 and 2-l wins will be fine.<h2>DRUMMONDVILLE</h2>Coach-GM: Jean Hamel Regular-season record: 42-25-3 (Third in Dilio Division).Key players: Center Roger Larche (28-43-71 in 53 games), right winger Denis Chasse (47-54-101 in 62 games), left winger Rene Corbet (25-40-65 in 45 games) and defenseman Patrice Brisebois (17-44-61 in 54 games).Strengths: Led by Brisebois, the Voltigeurs have a well-balanced defense corps. Offense was second to Trois Rivieres in the QMJHL. Goalie Pierre Gagnon is underrated.Weaknesses: Drummondville is the youngest team at the tourney and Hamel is concerned about playing under the pressure of large crowds in their home province.Outlook: Drummondville was manhandled in four games by Chicoutimi in the QMJHL final, but that&rsquo;s not a true indication. All thing considered though, they&rsquo;re longshots.<h2>SPOKANE</h2>Coach: Bryan Maxwell. General manager: Tim Speltz. Regular-season record: 48-23-1 (Second in West Division).Key players: Center Ray Whitney (67-118-185 in 72 games), right winger Pat Falloon (64-74-138 in 61 games), goalie Trevor Kidd (18-22-1,3.90 GAA) and Kerry Toporowski (11-16-27 and 505 penalty minutes in 65 games).Strengths: With one loss in 15 playoff games, the Chiefs hate losing. Separating Whitney and Falloon allows for diversity. Kidd has proven himself against the world&rsquo;s best.Weaknesses: You wouldn&rsquo;t know it by looking at 33 goals against in 15 games, but the Chiefs&rsquo; defense can be forced into making poor clearing passes when forechecked.Outlook: The addition of Kidd and the experienced guidance of Maxwell makes the Chiefs the favorites. No team has been able to shut down both Falloon and Whitnev.<h2>OSHAWA</h2>Coach: Rick Comacchia. Director of operations: Wayne Daniels. Regular-season record: 47-13-6 (First in Leyden Division).Key players: Center Eric Lindros (71-78-149 in 57 games), right winger Rob Pearson (63-55-118 in 51 games), Dale Craigwell (27-68-95 in 56 games) and goalie Fred Brathwaite (25-6-3, 3.38 goals-against average).Strengths: Besides everything provided by Lindros, the Generals have 13 players from last year&rsquo;s Cup win. Lindros and Pearson are the best one-two combination in junior.Weaknesses: The lack of a killer instinct. There seems to be a tendancy to coast with a lead. Maybe they&rsquo;re pacing themselves for the Cup. After all, they&rsquo;re the champs.Outlook: As the favorites, Oshawa has everything to lose. Finishing second would be a disappointment. Lindros is a natural winner, but team isn&rsquo;t as good as last season.<h2>SAULT STE. MARIE</h2>Coach: Ted Nolan. General manager: Sherry Bassin. Regular-season record: 42-21-3 (First in Emms Division).Key players: Balance, but watch center Colin Miller (26-60-86 in 62 games), left winger Tony lob (38-35-73 in 57 games), center Ralph Intranuovo (2542-67 in 63 games) and defenseman Adam Foote (18-51-69 in 59 games).Strengths: Three hard-working lines checking relentlessly, three outstanding defensemen and two solid goalies. The Greyhounds come at you in waves.Weaknesses: There isn&rsquo;t a lot of size, but there&rsquo;s plenty of speed. Even though balance is an asset, a big consistent gun with the game on the line is missed.Outlook: Few people expected an Emms Division title. Then they swept Niagara Falls and pushed the defending champion Generals to the brink. Maybe the team of destiny. &#9632;

f0032-01

QUEBEC IN QUESTION

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN COSTELLO</div>The Chicoutimi Sagueneens were already assured of a berth in the 1991 Memorial Cup, but they weren&rsquo;t about to go through the motions in the Quebec League final.The Sagueneens captured their first President&rsquo;s Cup in the 18-year history of the franchise by sweeping the Drummondville Voltigeurs in four games May 1.Both teams will represent the QMJHL in the Memorial Cup May 11-19 in Quebec City.Center Sebastien Parent and defenseman Eric Brule each scored three goals pacing Chicoutimi to a 10-6 triumph in the clinching game. Center Steve Larouche added a pair for the Sagueneens, who were outshot 43-27 but scored on four of seven power-play situations.Larouche scoring the deciding goal eight minutes into overtime giving the Sagueneens a 3-2 win in Game 3 April 30. Chicoutimi won the first two games 3-1 and 3-2.<h2>LASER UPHEAVAL</h2>Norman Flynn&rsquo;s reign as general manager of the St-Hyacinthe Laser didn&rsquo;t last long. Less than a week after accepting the dual title of coach-GM, he was fired.&ldquo;I feel like a piece of my heart has been ripped away,&rdquo; Flynn said. &ldquo;I felt like Norm Flynn and the St-Hyacinthe Laser were meant to be together from the start. I&rsquo;ve given them all my energy. Now there&rsquo;s nothing.&rdquo;Flynn took over both jobs when GM Michel Rousseau was fired April 23. The decision to let Flynn go April 29 was made because the Laser were expected to do better than their fourthplace finish in the Lebel Division.&ldquo;Norman&rsquo;s a very good guy,&rdquo; St-Hyacinthe governor Claude Lemieux said. &ldquo;There was something missing, though. He works OK with the younger players, but he seemed to have a difficult time working with the veterans. The team wasn&rsquo;t playing together as a whole.&rdquo;St-Hyacinthe had a 36-30-4 record during the regular season, but was eliminated in four straight playoff games by College Francais. The Laser had a great start to the season&mdash;winning 12 of their first 16 games&mdash;but floundered in the second half following a rash of injuries.All-star center Pierre Sevigny and left winger Patrick Poulin had long-term injuries and the team played just 12 games with a healthy lineup.&ldquo;Last season we weren&rsquo;t supposed to make the playoffs and we made it to the semifinals,&rdquo; Flynn said. &ldquo;This season everyone expected us to be great, and even though it was a tough season, we were well over.500.&ldquo;I was ready to take over both jobs next season and I think (the owners) were afraid I&rsquo;d take over the whole thing. Now they don&rsquo;t have anybody who can make decisions. I don&rsquo;t agree with their decision.&rdquo;Flynn guided the team since its first season in 1989-90 and had a 71-59-10 career mark with the club. After St-Hyacinthe was eliminated Rousseau said it would be a mistake if the club let both himself and Flynn go.Also leaving the club is assistant-GM Simon Archambault and trainer Luc St. Jacques. Among the candidates to take over the GM position are Gaetan Pion and Guy Descoteaux.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not in a hurry to find someone right away,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll take our time making a decision.&rdquo;<h2>COACH AVAILABLE</h2>Deposed St-Hyacinthe coach Norman Flynn may not be out of a job long. He&rsquo;s a candidate for the vacant post in St-Jean.Flynn worked with new St-Jean Lynx GM Georges Marien in midget hockey for two seasons and had an interview for the coaching position May 5.Marien was hired April 15 to fill the position left vacant since Pierre Bessette was fired in mid-season.Other candidates for the coaching job in St-Jean are Daniel Noonan and the tandem of Luc Boucher and Pierre Cliche. &#9632;

SAGUENEENS SWEEP WAY TO LEAGUE TITLE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01649/5946066-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01735/5946059-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="3102" height="3618"></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

NHL PLAYOFF STATISTICS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01700/5946097-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0035-01

SCOREBOARD

<h2>Mon., Apr. 29</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01664/5946212-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="590" height="1120"></div><h2>Wed., May 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02484/5946205-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="590" height="1142"></div><h2>Thur., May 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03391/5946198-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="594" height="940"></div><h2>Fri., May 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04297/5946191-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="584" height="122"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05244/5946184-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="1180" height="876"><figcaption class="caption-body">Edmonton&rsquo;s Petr Klima has turned it on in the playoffs.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06212/5946177-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="588" height="1162"></div><h2>Sat., May 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07194/5946170-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="590" height="1342"></div><h2>Sun., May 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08179/5946163-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="590" height="1154"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL</h2>WORLD HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIPROUND-ROBIN TOURNAMENT IN FINLAND<h2>Tues., Apr. 30</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09171/5946156-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="590" height="1160"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10166/5946149-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="586" height="186"></div><h2>Thur., May 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11161/5946142-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="588" height="1068"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-12152/5946135-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="580" height="442"></div><h2>Sat., May 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-13147/5946128-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="582" height="794"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

PLAYOFF SUMMARIES

If the power play gods have their way, the Pittsburgh Penguins will soon be out of the NHL playoffs.For the fifth consecutive playoff week, the Penguins rank last in the penalty-killing department. Pittsburgh&rsquo;s penalty-killing unit was allowing the Boston Bruins to score a power-play goal every five minutes, 14 seconds on average.Through the playoffs, the Penguins have allowed a goal every 5:45, well below the NHL average of 8:30.TEAMS POWER PLAY I PENALTY KILLING TIME FRAMEGAMES PLAYED THROUGH 5/05/91<h2>POWER PLAY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-14139/5946264-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="542" height="535"></div><h2>EGA LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-15137/5946257-1-eng-US/f0036-152.jpg" title="f0036-15" width="547" height="446"></div>In addition to what our statistics below reveal, the Bruins are the only remaining playoff team not to have been assessed overlapping minor penalties, creating a two-man disadvantage.The Minnesota North Stars have accrued 4:59 in two-man advantage time, but have scored just twice. Five of six two-man advantages (4:39) have occurred away from the Met Centre.The Hartford Whalers are the only playoff team that did not enjoy a two-man advantage period during the playoffs.<h2>PENALTY KILLING</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-16134/5946250-1-eng-US/f0036-162.jpg" title="f0036-16" width="538" height="619"></div><h2>HOT SEAT</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-17127/5946243-1-eng-US/f0036-172.jpg" title="f0036-17" width="542" height="468"></div> &#9632;

f0036-14

PENGUINS RIDING POWER-PLAY BUBBLE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01580/5946295-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="554" height="616"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEVIN DUPONT</figcaption></div>The &ldquo;For Sale&rdquo; sign was hung out in February, not even eight years since proud men like Mike Bossy, Denis Potvin and Bryan Trottier skated around Nassau Coliseum with their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup.That was 1983, what was the threshold of the Islanders&rsquo; soon-to-fail &ldquo;Drive for Five&rdquo;. Today, Bossy is working in commerical real estate around Montreal. Potvin spends his days in Manhattan, a man in a tailored suit, also working in commerical real estate. And by the start of May, Trottier was still banging bodies and working the puck for the Pittsburgh Penguins.The Islanders never drove to a fifth Stanley Cup. Instead, they careened into a ditch, a poignant and lasting reminder for all franchises that remain too loyal to veteran players and to all fans who hurry to call their cherished team a dynasty.Anyone interested, at least anyone with enough cash, can call Wall Street this morning and find out everything there is to know about buying an NHL team. Prospective purchasers willing to shell out $70-$80 million can thumb through a boilerplate prospectus and dream the Stanley Cup dream. Cash flow, attendance figures and TV ratings are essential to know when it comes time to plunk down the big money and take on a piece of the NHL&rsquo;s soon-to-be Original 24.But what does a brochure know of Clark Gillies meeting up with Terry O&rsquo;Reilly in the playoffs and sending him off to Tattoo U.? What can fine print say of the Trio Grande Line, the dogged tenacity of Butch Goring, Bill Torrey&rsquo;s bow tie, Potvin&rsquo;s hip checks and Bossy&rsquo;s blistering shot off right wing? Nothing, of course. They are now relegated only to memory, and won&rsquo;t show up on some accountant&rsquo;s solar-powered pocket calculator.In days not too far ahead, John O. Pickett undoubtedly will sell his Islanders for a little more than Manhattan&rsquo;s original selling price. Potvin and Bossy are virtually assured Hall-of-Fame induction. And if the good people of Pittsburgh get their way, Trottier will wear another Stanley Cup ring. His Drive for Five finally would be complete, even if interrupted by some humble days on Long Island and a change of venue to the shores of the Allegheny, Ohio and Monanghela Rivers.Whoever hoists the Stanley Cup, be it the Penguins, Bruins, Oilers or North Stars, should keep in mind the sale in Uniondale. And they they should keep in mind what winning the Cup really means.Of the four wannabe winners, only the Oilers can truly say they have been part of a dynasty. The Bruins, without a Cup since 1972, know how fast everything can unravel. When they won in &rsquo;70 with Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr, they talked about being the best team ever assembled. Then they met Ken Dryden in &rsquo;71, recovered for a moment in &rsquo;72, and haven&rsquo;t seen Stanley&rsquo;s silver since in Boston. Pittsburgh and Minnesota, meanwhile, think Dynasty is nothing more than a prime-time soap opera now making the rerun circuit next to Hogan&rsquo;s Heroes and Gilligan&rsquo;s Island.Among the many beauties of the Stanley Cup is that it remains its own kingdom. It is a player&rsquo;s dynasty, far more than a monument to a league of six clubs or 24 franchises. To some, the Cup looks like a beautiful wedding cake, layers upon layers of names etched into its silvery, cascading, eternal frosting. To others, it looks like it was borrowed from a gas station, a funky piece of scrap metal meant to serve beneath a crank case for a faster-than-Rocket-Richard $29 oil change.However it meets the eye, the Cup is the only trophy among the major professional sports that most honors the people who won it because it carries their names to eternity. The winning team is more a point of reference. A faithful follower of the Islanders, circa 1980-83, will find the right year enscribed in the Cup, and then look immediately to make sure Wayne Merrick, Ken Morrow, Bossy or Potvin got their due inscription. A fan of the Maple Leafs looks for, say, Terry Sawchuk in 1967. Or perhaps a friend of the Broad Street Bullies checks to see that Don Saleski made it in &rsquo;75.They can sell the teams, but they can&rsquo;t sell the names. They can move a team from Kansas City to Denver to East Rutherford, but there will always be fans of the Scouts, Rockies and Devils. The Islanders of the &rsquo;90s will be very distant cousins of the four Cup winners, but a new owner or a new town won&rsquo;t change the memories of the fans who loved those winning teams of the early &rsquo;80s.So, yes, the Stanley Cup is about winning. But it is more about remembering. Remember that if your players walk away the winners this time.Kevin Dupont is a hockey writer for the Boston Globe. &#9632;

f0037-01

STANLEY CUP IS ABOUT MEMORIES

<h2>BRUINS</h2>Cam Neely scored his 15th goal of the playoffs in Game 2 of the Wales Conference final, breaking Barry Pedersen&rsquo;s club record. The NHL record is 19, shared by Newsy Lalonde, Reg Leach and Jari Kurri&hellip;The afternoon of the series opener, Bruins&rsquo; goaltender Andy Moog&mdash;dehydrated by the flu&mdash;spent three hours at Massachusetts General Hospital receiving intravenuous fluids&hellip;When the Bruins and Boston Celtics went head-to-head for TV ratings May 1, it was a rout: Neilson ratings had 332,000 Boston-area households tuned in to the Bruins, to 131,000 Celtics&rsquo; viewers&hellip;Oft-injured center Dave Poulin was lost with a groin pull early in Game 3, while Neely limped off with a charley horse after an Ulf Samuelsson check the Bruins termed a cheap shot.<h2>WHALERS</h2>Former Whalers&rsquo; owner Howard Baldwin confirmed he is part of group that is close to buying the San Diego franchise in the International League. Andre Lacroix, former Whaler and the WHA&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer, is also involved. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re close and we&rsquo;d like to see if the city is viable some day for an NHL franchise,&rdquo; Baldwin said&hellip;The Whalers, in an attempt to bolster attendance, have initiated a handful of weekend afternoon games for next season. One matter that has made Whalers&rsquo; owner Richard Gordon happy is that his minor-league affiliate, which set an AHL record as the all-time worst club last year in Binghamton, advanced to the Calder Cup finals in Springfield. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got some real prospects down there,&rdquo; Gordon said.<h2>SABRES</h2>One of owner Seymour Knox&rsquo;s revelations during his news conference May 3 at Memorial Auditorium was that he entered the team dressing room between the second and third periods of the last playoff game at the Aud and talked to the team. &ldquo;Actually, I gave them hell,&rdquo; Knox said. &ldquo;It was the first time in 21 years that I ever went into the room (during a game) and I gave them hell. I didn&rsquo;t say much and obviously it didn&rsquo;t do any good and that&rsquo;s part of the reason we&rsquo;re making changes, but I don&rsquo;t regret it. I think one thing we all learned from last season is we want to be more aggressive.&rdquo;&hellip;Knox also used his news conference to acknowledge his group has had discussions with the Major Indoor Soccer League regarding ownership of a franchise in Buffalo. But he said no decision had been made and no time frame established&hellip;Both coach Rick Dudley and GM Gerry Meehan said the two men came to a better understanding after about a dozen post-season meetings and are much more comfortable about the prospect of working together next sea son. Dudley also said he was not un comfortable about not having a long term contract.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03326/5946326-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="565" height="886"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Sakic is working to have his contract renegotiated.</figcaption></div><h2>NORDIQUES</h2>Joe Sakic&rsquo;s agent Don Baizley and the Nordiques have had preliminary talks about renegotiating Sakic&rsquo;s contract. There is a provision in Sakic&rsquo;s contract that calls for a salary ajust-ment every year&hellip;Team president Marcel Aubut went to Moscow as soon as the World Championships ended and spent four days there. He didn&rsquo;t expect anything to be finalized in the Valeri Kamensky affair, one way or the other. &ldquo;They should make up their minds in a couple of weeks,&rdquo; said Aubut. &ldquo;If not, I&rsquo;m going to lose patience.&rdquo;&hellip;Alan Eagleson said he would recommend Nords&rsquo; physiotherapist Jacques Lavergne to Mike Keenan for the Canada Cup. Lavergne has worked the last two World Championships with Team Canada.<h2>CANADIENS</h2>The Habs&rsquo; loss to the Bruins in the Adams Division final left their alltime playoff series mark at 21-5 against Boston&hellip;In the wake of the Habs&rsquo; elimination by the Bruins, former Hab-turned-broadcaster/col-umnist Mario Tremblay said GM Serge Savard must make signing free-agent captain Guy Carbonneau a priority, saying he&rsquo;s a key man in the dressing room&hellip;While his teammates cleaned out their lockers, right winger Russ Courtnall was packing his suitcase for a trip to Finland where he joined Team Canada at the World Championships. Courtnall, who wound up on a line with his brother Geoff of the Vancouver Canucks, was the last player added to the roster and picked up a silver medal&hellip;Habs&rsquo; sniper Stephane Richer found himself benched for a good part of the second period in Game 7 against the Bruins. Richer, who rebounded from a subpar regular season with a pretty strong showing in the playoffs, refused to renew the war of words he has had at times with coach Pat Burns over his ice time. &#9632;

f0037-03

NEELY SETS PLAYOFF RECORD

It probably wouldn&rsquo;t surprise Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Mark Recchi that he was the leading playoff scorer heading into the conference finals. He&rsquo;s used to it. In each of his previous two playoffs, he has been the scoring leader. Two years ago, Recchi&rsquo;s 21 points in 14 games for Muskegon led the International League. Three years ago, he scored 31 points in 17 games for Kamloops of the Western League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02420/5946357-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="713" height="435"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mark Recchi</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0037-02

NUMBERS

<div class="byline">BY CHRIS STEVENSON</div>It&rsquo;s one of those things peculiar to Montreal.The shorter the spring, the hotter the summer.Especially if your name is Serge Savard and the bloom came off your team&rsquo;s rise before the golf courses opened.When you aren&rsquo;t playing hockey in May, September is a very long way off.&ldquo;Un ete long pour Savard!&rdquo; (A long summer for Savard) trumpeted La Presse newspaper in type three inches high the morning after the Habs were eliminated by the Boston Bruins for the second straight season in the Adams Division final.But despite seeing his club knocked off by the Bruins for the third time in the last four years, the Habs&rsquo; general manager told reporters he likes the direction his team is taking.As far as Savard is concerned, this club can only get better.&ldquo;I think the team is improving and will continue to do so,&rdquo; he said.He said he envisioned only minor changes in his team&rsquo;s roster for next season, a turnover of perhaps two or three faces.Veteran winger Ryan Walter might have played his last game as a Hab when he dressed against the Bruins in Game 7. It was just his fifth game of the playoffs after seeing action in 25 regular-season games, the fewest in his 13-year career.Captain Guy Carbonneau becomes a free agent July 1 as do defenseman Mathieu Schneider and forward Andrew Cassels.Savard said the future looks good with the likes of youngsters like defenseman Sean Hill, who was signed out of the University of Wisconsin late in the season, and forwards John LeClair and Gilbert Dionne on their way up.When Savard sits down to evaluate the season, he&rsquo;ll see a team that battled through injuries to finish second behind the Bruins in the Adams Division in the regular season and second in team defense in the league despite a young defensive corps.In the end they battled the Bruins right down to the last few seconds of the series, storming the Boston net with the score 2-1 and coming close to sending the seventh game to overtime.They pushed the Bruins to the very edge despite a young defense that was missing its leader (Petr Svoboda) and a goaltender who struggled unsuccessfully to equal performances of his glorious past.Patrick Roy was very ordinary in the postseason. He refused to make excuses, though one of his teammates said Roy was still suffering from the effects of an ankle injury that caused him to miss 14 games during the regular season.One of the things that will make GM Savard smile, however, was the play of winger Shayne Corson.The spring of 1991 might be remembered as the time when the big forward finally began to play the dominating role many had said he would when he was drafted in 1984.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<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, J.J. Daigneault.RD&mdash;Lyle Odelein, Eric Desjardins, Alain Cote, Sean Hill.G&mdash;Patrick Roy, Andre Racicot, Jean-Claude Bergeron.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Todd Ewen, RW, broken right hand. Petr Svoboda, D. sore knee<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Corson, Richer, 9. A&mdash;Savard, 11. P&mdash;Corson, 15. PIM&mdash;Odelein, 54. &#9632;

FEW OFF-SEASON CHANGES PLANNED

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>The Quebec Nordiques may have been on vacation since the end of March, but some of the organization&rsquo;s key players kept playing&mdash;and they played very well.No fewer than six players were invited to represent their respective countries at the World Championships in Turku, Finland. Joe Sakic (Canada), Mats Sundin (Sweden), Craig Wolanin, Mike McNeil and Scott Gordon (U.S.) and Alexei Gusarov (USSR) all participated.Sundin, who led the tournament in scoring (7-5-12) and notched the winning goal in the deciding game (a 2-1 win over the Soviets), was named to the second all-star team at left wing. He was the main factor behind Sweden&rsquo;s gold-medal performance.Sakic also led his team in scoring, capping off the tourney in second place in the overall scoring race with six goals and five assists.Gusarov, a defenseman, proved to everyone the team did the right thing in signing him this past season. The 6-foot-2, 170-pound rearguard played a steady game for the Soviets and should be a strong asset to the Nordiques&rsquo; blue line next season.Wolanin may have been the biggest surprise at the tournament from the Nordiques&rsquo; point of view. Many felt the 6-foot-3, 205-pound defenseman didn&rsquo;t belong at the World Championships because he lacked mobility. But the Detroit-native was superb on the bigger ice surfaces and was used in every tight situation. He even scored a couple of key goals for Team USA.But of all the Nordiques in Finland, Sundin was the shining star. His game-winning, gold-medal clinching goal in the third period of the final game against the Soviets was a classic.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the most important goal of my career,&rdquo; said the 20-year-old Sundin. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t describe what it feels like. To play for your country really gets you up. What a feeling.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01666/5946412-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="722" height="836"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mats Sundin scored the biggest goal of his life at the World Championships.</figcaption></div>Sakic joked about his teammate&rsquo;s goal that kept him from winning a gold medal himself.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s Mats for you,&rdquo; said Sakic. &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;ll have to get him during training camp for this.&rdquo;All the Nordiques who participated in the tournament were happy with the way things turned out.&ldquo;This was fun,&rdquo; said Wolanin. &ldquo;I had been to the World Championships before, but I was young and didn&rsquo;t do much. This time around, I feel like I&rsquo;ve accomplished something. For starters, I showed all my critics that I could play here.&rdquo;Gusarov, on the other hand, wasn&rsquo;t happy with the bronze medal, but was nevertheless in good spirits after the final game.&ldquo;No good, no good,&rdquo; he said about winning the bronze. He then shifted the subject to next season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m anxious to get back there in the fall,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I simply love it in Quebec. And I&rsquo;ve talked a lot about it to Valeri Kamensky. I&rsquo;ve told him life is great over there.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0038-01

YOUNG GUNS SHINE ABROAD

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>The Buffalo Sabres didn&rsquo;t clean house after they went out in the first round of the playoffs again.But they did rearrange some of the furniture.Sabres&rsquo; president and chairman of the board Seymour H. Knox III ended three weeks of speculation regarding the future of his hockey department by announcing a restructuring that will retain both general manager Gerry Meehan and coach Rick Dudley and create a new position that will allow for the hiring of a hockey person from outside the organization.In addition, Meehan has been given the title of vice-president to go with his GM post.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve assessed what went wrong and determined there will be no single scapegoat, no culprit and on one who should be singularly blamed in any way,&rdquo; Knox said in a press conference detailing his decisions. &ldquo;Still, we are missing some key ingredients and we will focus on acquiring those ingredients so this will not happen again.&rdquo;The new person has yet to be hired and the criteria for the position was not immediately clear. It is known that the new man will likely be an experienced hockey person who can assist Meehan at the executive level.The decision to retain both men came as a surprise to many. Almost from the moment the Sabres were eliminated from the playoffs April 13, there was both speculation and debate as to the merits and contributions of the two.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02510/5946443-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="718" height="830"><figcaption class="caption-body">Coach Rick Dudley was retained, but wasn&rsquo;t offered a contract extension.</figcaption></div>Knox&rsquo;s decision was viewed as a statement that he believes the players and not the coach or the GM are to bear the brunt of this latest playoff failure. However, the club only picked up Dudley&rsquo;s option and did not give him a contract extension.Meehan&rsquo;s position in the organization seems to have been strengthened by the latest move. Given Meehan&rsquo;s past performance record (moving from last to within the NHL&rsquo;s top 10 in four years) and that he has two years remaining on a contract said to be worth $400,000 per season, his retaining the GM&rsquo;s job was not totally unexpected. Adding the title of vice-president would seem to indicate he is on a career track that, if successful, could someday take him beyond the GM&rsquo;s role to the highest levels of club management.Wherever Meehan is heading, adding a person from outside the organization should be a plus. Meehan said the new person would likely be of some prominence and ability and will likely try to fill in in the areas where the Sabres have traditionally been weak (assessing character, developing talent, advancing in the playoffs).Creating room for new contributions and a new point of view is considered by many as a wise move, though there is some speculation whoever is hired could eventually be Meehan&rsquo;s replacement should the team not move forward.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not worried about that,&rdquo; Meehan said. &ldquo;If that&rsquo;s what it takes to get someone here, then I&rsquo;m not afraid of that.&rdquo;The decision on Dudley would also seem to indicate a new direction regarding the relationship between the coach and the GM. The two battled both publicly and privately last season, but in the end both said they had a much closer relationship.In keeping Dudley, Meehan too appears to be indicting the players for the most recent failure. The coach is entering the option year of his contract and could have easily been singled out as the sole reason for losing.Instead, keeping Dudley implies it was the players who were primarily responsible for losing. Despite the disappointments of the 1990-91 season, Dudley has a 76-57-27 record in his two years with the Sabres and was a coach-of-the-year candidate off his accomplishments in the 1989-90 campaign.Meehan said he expected more from the players and that as of now there is an &ldquo;open for business&rdquo; sign at Memorial Auditorium. &#9632;

f0038-02

FORT KNOX REMAINS INTACT; EVERYBODY’S SAFE

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>Rick Ley will stay in Hartford.But it turns out defenseman Ulf Samuelsson wasn&rsquo;t wild about staying anyway.The Hartford Whalers&rsquo; season ended more than a month ago. But thanks to the six-player trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins March 4, the soap opera continues to evolve.Winning only three of the final 19 regular-season games. Ley had expressed fear in late March that he would be fired as coach.The trade that brought John Cullen, Zarley Zalapski and Jeff Parker to Hartford for Samuelsson, Ron Francis and Grant Jennings stood as an emotional rallying point for Ley&rsquo;s detractors too. Ley, hired in June 1989, kept saying how much he loved the trade.&ldquo;The general manager (Ed Johnston) is behind me, but the owner (Richard Gordon) has said some things publicly and privately that would lead me to believe otherwise,&rdquo; he said.Gordon, however, backed off after a respectable showing in the six-game opening-round playoff loss to Boston. And April 29, Johnston finally confirmed Ley would return next year to oversee the changes he helped initiate.For more than two weeks, Johnston kept growing bolder in his statements that Ley would return. But each time he stopped short of a concrete statement.It started as,&rdquo;I have no comment yet.&rdquo;It moved on to,&rdquo;I&rsquo;m optimistic Ricky will be back.&rdquo;And it evolved to,&rdquo;1 foresee no change.&rdquo;Finally, April 29, EJ said: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a dead issue. Rick is our coach. He stays.&rdquo;Interestingly enough, Samuelsson, who was driving Boston&rsquo;s Cam Neely bonkers in the Wales Conference finals at the same time, evidently had lost much of his desire to stay in Hartford before he was traded.Few people ever have enjoyed playing hockey more than Samuelsson. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Swedish defenseman will long be remembered for antics like trashing a Zamboni in Maple Leaf Gardens last season and throwing his stick and gloves as he chased vainly after Anton Stastny on an empty-net breakaway at Le Colisee in 1987.And, of course, his main mission in life has been to zap Neely whenever possible.But the fun was gone in Hartford for Samuelsson. And as he sat in the Pittsburgh dressing room recently, he confirmed he had thought about quitting the Whalers and returning to Sweden.Having a ball in Pittsburgh, Samuelsson said he now wants to play in the NHL for five more years.&ldquo;This is the best thing that ever happened to me,&rdquo; Samuelsson said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want to cut down your oid organization. But I kind of had enough. Everything is so positive here.&ldquo;I was getting some nice offers from Swedish teams and I&rsquo;m really interested in going back to school. My wife and I were going to sit down after the season and decide. Now we don&rsquo;t have to have that discussion. If Hartford got drift of that rumor, I&rsquo;m sure they wanted to dish me off pretty quickly.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01628/5946474-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="563" height="814"><figcaption class="caption-body">Coach Rick Ley will return to</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0039-01

LEY GLADLY RETURNS, SAMUELSSON HAPPY TO GO

<div class="byline">BY STEPHEN HARRIS</div>Mike Milbury was halfway through his post-game news conference May 3 at Boston Garden, where the Boston Bruins had just claimed a 2-0 Wales Conference final series lead over Pittsburgh with a 5-4 overtime win.The Bruins&rsquo; coach spied his wife, Debbie, and their kids at the back of the media mob. He called young daughter Caitlin up to the podium.Milbury lifted his daughter to the microphone. Did Caitlin wish to say anything to the reporters?No. She turned shyly away.&ldquo;Say, &lsquo;Rosie,&rsquo;&rdquo; Milbury told Caitlin. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all you&rsquo;ve got to say tonight, sweetie.&rdquo;Rosie is the most gentle of nicknames. But to the Penguins, it was a dirty word, after Vladimir &ldquo;Rosie&rdquo; Ruzicka lit them up for a goal and two assists in the series-opening 6-3 victory, then had four assists and the sudden-death winner in Game 2.&ldquo;This is my first overtime goal,&rdquo; said the 27-year-old Czechoslovakian left winger. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy. Is good for team. I sat on bench before that shift and felt I would score the goal. It is my biggest goal.&rdquo;Eight points in two big games and folks around Boston were touting the Bruins&rsquo; acquisition of Ruzicka for under-sized defenseman Greg Hawgood Oct. 22 as general manager Harry Sinden&rsquo;s latest steal of a deal.&ldquo;Everybody knew this guy was one of the most talented players in the.world in international hockey,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;But nobody, including us, knew whether he could do it in this league.&rdquo;It took Ruzicka a few weeks to begin contributing to the Bruins, although his talents began to peak as he had 6-2-8 totals in his final six regular-season games before suffering an ankle injury Dec. 29 which sidelined him until the playoffs.Ruzicka&rsquo;s brief tenure the last two seasons as a rarely-used Oiler was highly frustrating for a player regarded as one of the most talented Europeans ever.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a real hero in his own country,&rdquo; said Milbury.But in Edmonton, Ruzicka was perceived as lazy and in the defensive zone, he was excess baggage.&ldquo;(Oilers&rsquo; coach John) Muckier, he tell me, &lsquo;You must watch game here (in the NHL), see how it&rsquo;s played,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Ruzicka, good-naturedly trying hard with his limited English.&ldquo;Me? I am 27-years-old. I need to watch and learn?&ldquo;Klima? Muckier play Petr Klima. Me? I just practise and practise. Every day. Practise and practise. No play. I play this game. I no like to watch it.&rdquo;Ruzicka, who had 2-11-13 totals after 14 playoff games, was bemused by all the attention focused on skillful Penguins&rsquo; Czech rookie Jaromir Jagr.&ldquo;Jagr is just a boy,&rdquo; said Ruzicka. &ldquo;I play in the top league 10 years. Jagr only play one year or two years.&rdquo;Ruzicka is watching the Edmonton-Minnesota Campbell final with extra interest. And rooting hard for the Oilers.&ldquo;I want Edmonton over Minnesota,&rdquo; Ruzicka said. &ldquo;I want us to win. I like to play finals in Edmonton. I want to show them about me.&rdquo;<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Craig Janney, Bob Sweeney, Dave Poulin, Ron Hoover, Wes Walz.LW&mdash;Vladimir Ruzicka, Petri Skriko, Randy Burridge, Nevin Markwart.RW&mdash;Cam Neely. Dave Christian, Jeff Lazaro, Chris Winnes, Chris Nilan, Peter Douris.LD&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 Ken Hodge. C. separated shoulder, day-to-day. Dave Poulin, C, pulled groin muscle, indefinite. Stephane Quintal, D. torn ankle ligaments, out for season.<h3>LEADERS</h3>G&mdash;Neely, 15. A&mdash;Janney, 18. P&mdash;Bourque, 22. PIM&mdash;Nilan, 47. &#9632;

RUZICKA FEELING ROSIE OVER POSSIBLE SHOWDOWN

With the regular season completed and the NHL playoffs nearing an end, this edition of the THN Collectors World Power Play Penalty Box listing would suggest certain collector trends that will probably last all summer.While hockey cards remained hot in the off-season last year&mdash;and probably will this year&mdash;there is usually very little dramatic fluctuation in popular hockey card prices. Between the begining of June to the middle of September, card collectors tend to have a &lsquo;What have you done for me lately?&rsquo; attitude and barring off-ice controversy, most players remain out of the spotlight. With that in mind, most player cards should for the most part remain on the Power Play or in the Box until training camp next year.While Hull didn&rsquo;t exactly do a disappearing act in the St. Louis-Minnesota match up, he did prove one thing to collectors&mdash;he&rsquo;s human. Brett&rsquo;s popularity should continue to grow all summer long but don&rsquo;t be surprised to see him overshadowed by his personable and incredibly talented linemate and friend Adam Oates. Oates&rsquo; rookie card has appreciated more than 500 per cent this year and will continue to increase this summer.Wayne Gretzky and Eric Lindros are arguably the two most talented players on the planet, but the smart money is on Lindros right now. Lindros will get more press this summer than anyone else, and barring disaster, will be the big mover. A trade to a contender could put Lindros&rsquo; Score rookie card in the $50 range.Theoren Fleury was one of the most pleasant surprises this season. Smart card collectors who picked up his rookie card in the 50-cent range earlier this season, are in for a big windfall when he starts next season with an $8-10 rookie card.Numbers seven and eight are two Calder Trophy candidates whose cards are going in different directions. Belfour&rsquo;s mediocre playoff showed novice card collectors why it&rsquo;s dicey to invest in 25-year-old rookie goaltenders who play for Captain Hook, Mike Keenan. Belfour will go into camp next fall having to fight for his job. Fedorov on the other hand, did no better than Belfour in the playoffs, but is younger and knows he&rsquo;s the Wings&rsquo; second-line center next season.Upper Deck&rsquo;s High Number edition will fly all summer despite poor distribution. Jeremy Roenick slipped in the polls, but don&rsquo;t count him out. He and Pittsburgh&rsquo;s unranked rookie, Jaromir Jagr, are still the hobby&rsquo;s best deals right now. Perennial Power Players Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe will have their cards perform much like they always did&mdash;consistently and dependably.Much like the Power Play, the Penalty Box will have few surprises this summer. The two significant changes this month were of little surprise to collectors who had their ears to the ground. The departure of Grant Fuhr and &rsquo;89-90 O-Pee-Chee from the Penalty Box was quite predictable. Fuhr is once again one of the top goalies in the league and &rsquo;89-90 O-Pee-Chee has started to recover from a bad case of second and third printitis.One off-season event which would affect the Power Play would be the return of Jari Kurri to the NHL. Will Bruce &lsquo;&lsquo;The $16 Million Rocket Man&rdquo; McNall shell out the money to land him?Actually, Jimmy Carson, Ron Hex-tall and Gary Leeman could also escape the Box by finding new employers. If they don&rsquo;t, they may as well macrame seat cushions.Denis Savard and Larry Robinson may want to seek out new employment rather than new employers. It&rsquo;s painful to watch these former greats playing ordinary hockey.Pierre Turgeon will be the No. 1 center next season&mdash;probably in Buffalo. He should rebound. Collectors feel being in Hartford has doomed John Cullen even though he&rsquo;s the No. 1 center there.Mario Lemieux has made an incredible comeback from a careerthreatening injury but he hasn&rsquo;t recaptured his past form. He and Mark Messier will undoubtedly spend a long summer wondering if they can return to past form.When Bernie Nicholls went from L.A. to New York, the Rangers traded a large part of their future. Now that the Rangers have done their annual post-season fade, card collectors fear a major shakeup involving Nicholls may happen.Last, but certainly least, is Pro Set I. Although Pro Set has an exciting design and had an early release date, it really never captured the hearts of collectors.<h2>POWER PLAY</h2>1. O-PEE-CHEE PREMIER (2)2. BRETT HULL(1)3. ADAM OATES (6)4. WAYNE GRETZKY (4)5. ERIC LINDROS (5)6. THEO FLEURY (10)7. ED BELFOUR (3)8. SERGEI FEDOROV (8)9. UPPER DECK HIGH (NR)10. JEREMY ROENICK (7)11. BOBBY ORR (11)12. GORDIE HOWE (12)Number in parenthesis is last month&rsquo;s ranking.Here are some items to ponder over and some bold&mdash;and not so bold&mdash;summer predictions.This month&rsquo;s Power Play has a new leader. O-Pee-Chee&rsquo;s Premier Edition combined O-Pee-Chee&rsquo;s finest production and lowest print run in decades to eclipse St. Louis Power Play specialist Brett Hull.<h2>PENALTY BOX</h2>1. JARI KURRI (1)2. JIMMY CARSON (2)3. RON HEXTALL (3)4. GARY LEEMAN (5)5. DENIS SAVARD (6)6. LARRY ROBINSON (7)7. PIERRE TURGEON (8)8. JOHN CULLEN (12)9. MARIO LEMIEUX (11)10. BERNIE NICHOLLS (NR)11. MARK MESSIER (10)12. PRO SET I (NR)Number in parenthesis is last month&rsquo;s ranking. &#9632;

O-PEE-CHEE PREMIER IS FIRST ON POWER PLAY

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN COSTELLO</div>When Darren Van Impe and the Prince Albert Raiders get down to playing hockey. please don&rsquo;t bother the Van Impe clan.If Dennis, Diane, Rich or the rest of them aren&rsquo;t on the road visiting one of five Western League cities in Saskatchewan where Darren is playing that night, the only person they want to listen to is Kevin Winters, the play-by-play voice of the Raiders.&ldquo;Now&rsquo;s not a great time to call,&rdquo; said Denpis, the father of Darren, from his Saskatoon home early in the WHL playoffs. &ldquo;This is it for the Raiders. If they don&rsquo;t win tonight the season is over. Darren has to get something going.&rdquo;On the other side of the continent, Ed Van Impe goes about his business as an insurance broker in Philadelphia, not really following the development of his younger cousin.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cw0011-013/5946584-1-eng-US/cw0011-012.jpg" title="cw0011-01" width="561" height="787"></div>Darren and Ed are alike in some ways&mdash;bloodlines and hockey to be sure&mdash;but are opposites in so many other respects that it&rsquo;s hard to believe they&rsquo;re actually second cousins. In fact, if their family name was Smith instead of Van Impe, nobody would bother asking Darren if he&rsquo;s related to the former Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; defenseman.&ldquo;I get asked about it a lot, but most people think he&rsquo;s an uncle, not a cousin,&rdquo; Darren said. &ldquo;I really couldn&rsquo;t tell you anything about him. I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;ve ever met and from what the rest of my family says, I play differently than he did.&rdquo;Darren doesn&rsquo;t turn 18 until May 18. Ed will be 51 a week later. When Ed retired from hockey in 1976, the only game Darren was playing was pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey.Even though he&rsquo;s only 5-foot-10 and weighed 205 pounds in his playing days, Ed Van Impe was a classic defensive defenseman. He scored 27 goals and 153 points in 700 NHL games for Chicago, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but he was regarded as one of the better defensemen of his era.Most fans remember Van Impe as the Flyer who levelled Soviet forward Valeri Kharlamov with a check that almost erupted into World War III in a 1974 exhibition game. The Soviets protested the hit by leaving the ice only to return later and go on to lose to Philadelphia.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cw0011-023/5946577-1-eng-US/cw0011-022.jpg" title="cw0011-02" width="564" height="786"></div>Ed is aware that young Darren is a prospect for June&rsquo;s NHL entry draft, but hasn&rsquo;t made contact with him.&ldquo;Really, there&rsquo;s not too much I could say to him,&rdquo; Ed said. &ldquo;All I could tell him is do the best you can and play to the best of your ability.&rdquo;While Ed is too far removed to have an impact on Darren&rsquo;s budding career&mdash;whether it be a few words of advice or just his presence&mdash;Van Im-pe&rsquo;s immediate family is very supportive.&ldquo;With all due respect to Ed,&rdquo; said Rich Van Impe, another cousin,&rdquo;Darren is better able to move the puck and make more plays than Ed did. He&rsquo;s an offensive defenseman. He&rsquo;s a guy who likes to take control on the ice.&ldquo;I shouldn&rsquo;t say Ed didn&rsquo;t have a lot of ability. He did compared to a lot of us. But he was well known for playing with all his heart. Darren may be more finesse, but Ed always seemed to get the job done. Always. He played on two Stanley Cup winners, didn&rsquo;t he?&rdquo;Ed was born in Saskatoon and played for the Sasktoon Jr. Quakers and the Calgary Buffaloes of the Western Canadian League. The modem NHL draft wasn&rsquo;t in place back then, but Van Impe was signed to a C-form contract by the Chicago Blackhawks in 1961. After five seasons with Buffalo of the American League, Ed played one season with Chicago and was the No. 1 pick of the Flyers in the expansion draft the next season. Philadelphia won the Stanley Cup in 1974 and 1975.Darren was rated by the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau to go in the first three rounds of June&rsquo;s entry draft. Even though his stock fell in the last two months of the season, the chances are good one day he&rsquo;ll become a professional player, like both his relatives.Rich played in the AHL with Rochester and Cleveland and in the old semi-professional WHL with Portland for 17 seasons. At 5-foot-9, 160 pounds, Rich learned to play a big man&rsquo;s game.Despite all the cheering and listening done by the Van Impe family, Darren and the Raiders were upset in the first round by the Regina Pats.With the draft in Buffalo and Ed retaining his ties to the community, there may be a chance meeting between the cousins on draft day June 22.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s up to me to take the initiative and contact him,&rdquo; Ed said. &ldquo;Nobody called me everyday and told me what to do. He&rsquo;ll do well. He knows where I am if he wants to talk to me.&rdquo;The Ed Van Impe Checklist: O-Pee-Chee: 1968-69 (No. 91), 196970 (No. 92), 1970-71 (No. 80), 197172 (No. 126), 1972-73 (No. 33), 1973-74 (No. 206), 1974-75 (No. 85), 1975-76 (No. 38), 1976-77 (No. 157); Topps: 1968-69 (No. 91), 1969-70 (No. 92), 1970-71 (No. 80), 1971-72 (No. 126), 1972-73 (No. 9), 1974-75 (No. 85), 1975-76 (No. 38), 1976-77 (No. 157).The Darren Van Impe Checklist: 7th Inning Sketch: No. 268. &#9632;

cw0011-01

HOCKEY FAILS TO BIND DISTANT COUSINS

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE HEPBURN</div>For a number of years, reports have circulated that a card No. 37 in a recognized set of 36 exists. Recently, a collector has come forward with such an item. An investigation of the card seems to suggest this could be the first hockey error card.The card in question is of Newsy Lalonde. Cards No. 36 and No. 37 show Lalonde in indentical poses wearing the uniform of the Renfrew Millionaires in the C56 hockey set. The first set of hockey cards, C56, was produced by the Imperial Tobacco Co., of Canada for the 1910-11 hockey season. Yolande Mukherjee, archivist for Imperial Tobacco in Montreal, said the cards were issued in packages of Black Cat, Corvette, Derby and Sweet Caporal cigarettes. The concept proved successful and was repeated in 1911-12 (C55) and 1912-13 (C57).Phil Smedley of Lancaster Cards in Hamilton had both C55 and C56 reprinted (the cards are clearly marked as such on the back) in 1987. He said the original C56 was printed by the Haines Printing Co., of Burlington, Ont., but the company records from that period have been lost.The only overt difference between card No. 36 and No. 37 is the number. On closer inspection, No. 37 is slightly larger with a definite turquoisecolored background while No. 36 is closer to blue. The back of No. 37 is printed on a light, white stock while the front is a darker shade. No. 36 is the reverse.Gord Marshall of Durham, Ont., is acting as an agent for the owner of the card. He is the collector who brought the card&rsquo;s attention to The Hockey News Collectors World.&ldquo;A Kitchener, Ont., woman, who was settling the estate of her uncle, brought a mixture of cigarette cards to an antique dealer for appraisal and sale and I was asked to appraise the cards,&rdquo; said Marshall. &ldquo;I noted the oddity of the No. 36 and No. 37 and agreed to act as an agent on a sale.&rdquo;A few years back, Marshall sent information regarding the item to the now defunct Hockey Collectors&rsquo; Forum, which published a short report on the card&rsquo;s existence. Andrew Pywowarczuk, publisher of the Hockey Collectors Forum, leans toward a theory that the card was a salesman&rsquo;s sample. Other theories say the card is part of the set or that the card was a printing error that was corrected.Rumors of the existence of such a card have made the rounds before. Carleton McDiarmid, a goal judge at the Montreal Forum and a well-known collector, recalled reports that an American collector owned the card.We believe the card is an error caught at the proofing of the first sheet or two. The cards were meant to be numbered 1-36, but No. 37 was on the Lalonde card instead of No. 36. Upon discovery of the numbering error, the original was corrected and one or two of the No. 37s somehow came into circulation.The different colors were probably caused because the card along with the rest of the proof sheet was inserted into the printing machine upside down. The different colored surface resulted in a different hue of turquoise. The slightly larger size is probably due to irregular cuts.It appears unlikely No. 37 is part of the set. If it were, why would it be identical to the card before it? Besides, 37 is an odd number for a sheet of cards. Some collectors believe this means an as yet undiscovered No. 38 exists. This is unlikely since none have ever surfaced.Pywowarczuk may be correct about the card being a salesman&rsquo;s sample. Perhaps a few sheets of the No. 37 card were printed for the use of the Imperial Tobacco sales staff. If this were so, we assume more than one would have been verified by now.The best guess is that Imperial Tobacco beat Pro Set to the punch by about 80 years in making the first hockey error card. &#9632;

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May 17, 1991

ELSTON

GREEN MACHINE

PEORIA DOMINATES AWARDS NIGHT

GRETZKY TOPS HIGH-PROFILE JERSEY, STICK MARKET