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.

September 20, 1991

The Hockey News September 20, 1991

<div class="byline">BY DAVE MOLINARI</div>The Penguins knew for months that Bob Johnson wouldn&rsquo;t be around when training camp opened Sept. 6.But nothing prepared them for the grim reality that he would be in a hospital less than a mile from the Civic Arena, in a desperate struggle against the tumors that have attacked his brain.Johnson agreed to coach the U.S. entry in the Canada Cup tournament early this summer, so he, general manager Craig Patrick&mdash;the co-GM of Team USA&mdash;and Scott Bowman, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s director of player recruitment and development, formulated a contingency plan for the early part of camp in late June.It was decided that assistant coaches Barry Smith, Rick Paterson and Rick Kehoe, with help from Muskegon assistant Phil Russell, would handle the team until Johnson returned from the Canada Cup.&ldquo;Training camp is going to run as we had planned last spring, when we decided to do the Canada Cup,&rdquo; Patrick said. &ldquo;Scotty Bowman will be here overseeing things, and I&rsquo;ll be in and out.&rdquo;Johnson, 60. underwent surgery at Mercy Hospital to remove one of two brain tumors Aug. 30. Paul Martha, president of the Civic Arena Corp., said Johnson&rsquo;s prognosis &ldquo;is not good,&rdquo; and there seems little hope he will be able to resume his coaching career.Nonetheless, Patrick said he has no plans to replace Johnson, either on an interim or permanent basis.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve thought about it, but the way I see it now, there&rsquo;s no need to rush into any decisions,&rdquo; Patrick said. &ldquo;We have a fine staff that can handle things for the time being, until we really know the full extent of Bob&rsquo;s-&hellip;situation. Right now, there&rsquo;s no urgency to make a decision.&rdquo;There appear to be four possibilities if Patrick decides to replace Johnson. They are to a) hire a coach from outside the organization, b) have Bowman fill in on an interim basis, c) have Patrick go back behind the bench and let Bowman assume some of his GM duties, and d) give the job to Smith, who has head-coaching experience in college and Europe.Johnson regained limited speech and movement on his left side a few days after the surgery. He was removed from the intensive-care unit five days after the operation and Patrick said no additional treatments were planned in the near future.&ldquo;Right now, it&rsquo;s just recovery,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And he&rsquo;s doing a good job of Johnson was replaced as coach of Team USA by Tim Taylor, but even his cruel affliction did not temper his love of coaching.He suggested a lineup for Team USA&rsquo;s opener against Sweden Aug. 31 and even offered advice on countering the Swedish forechecking.It is impossible to determine the full impact that losing Johnson will have on the Penguins, but no one denied it is a terrible blow. In his only season as coach in Pittsburgh. Johnson wiped out a 23-year legacy of failure and frustration and led the Penguins to an improbable Stanley Cup.Along the way. he gave his players a first-hand look at the power of positive thinking, and made believers of a lot of cynics.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the most positive and energetic man I&rsquo;ve ever met in hockey,&rdquo; left winger Troy Loney said.The attitude adjustment Johnson gave the Penguins was critical, but even more impressive was the way he maximized his players&rsquo; abilities while getting them to work inside a team structure. It took most of the regular season to convince the Penguins of the value of good team defense, but Johnson persisted and, ultimately, succeeded.&ldquo;You knew that if you made a mistake on the ice, he was just going to talk about it and correct it like a human being,&rdquo; defenseman Peter Taglianetti said. &ldquo;He was going to talk to you like a human being, and there are a lot of coaches in the NHL who don&rsquo;t do that.&rdquo; &#9632;

THE NHL

ASSISTANT COACHES WILL SUB FOR JOHNSON

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div>Like one of his feared slap shots, Doug Wilson left with a bang when the Chicago Blackhawks finally completed the trade that sent the 34-year-old defenseman to San Jose.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m probably the happiest hockey player in Chicago,&rdquo; said Wilson, who was dealt to the expansion Sharks for a second-round draft pick in 1992 and junior right winger Kerry Toporowski.Wilson made no attempt to hide the fact he asked to be traded because of his strained relationship with coach Mike Keenan.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played hockey a long time, and to go to the rink every day and not enjoy it was something I couldn&rsquo;t imagine. But that&rsquo;s the situation that was created,&rdquo; said Wilson, the Hawks&rsquo; all-time leader among defensemen in goals (225), assists (554) and points (779). &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t happy and there&rsquo;s no way I&rsquo;d be looking forward to playing hockey this year in the same environment.&rdquo;Wilson never mentioned Keenan by name, but he didn&rsquo;t have to.&ldquo;No team works harder than the Chicago Blackhawks, and no team has less fun,&rdquo; Wilson said.When informed of Wilson&rsquo;s comments, Keenan fired some tough words right back at the 14-year veteran.&ldquo;Do you know who the happiest man in the world is right now?&rdquo; Keenan told the Chicago Sun-Times. &ldquo;(Hawks&rsquo; associate coach) Darryl Sutter, because he played with that guy-&ldquo;(Wilson) never produced when it was all on the line.&rdquo;Wilson admitted he thought about asking for a trade a year ago after good friend Denis Savard was dealt to Montreal after feuding with Keenan.&ldquo;I was more saddened with Savard&rsquo;s situation than mine 10 times over because of the way it was handled,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;No one should have to go through what Denis did. He carried this franchise for a long time. Maybe I should have made this decision after he left. It hasn&rsquo;t been the same without him.&rdquo;Keenan said he got rid of Savard and now Wilson for similar reasons.&ldquo;The bottom line is we didn&rsquo;t win with Denis and Doug,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;Ask the players who they&rsquo;d rather have on the team, Denis Savard or Chris Chelios. Even better, ask the players in Montreal who they&rsquo;d rather have, Savard or Chelios.&ldquo;I thought we had been very loyal with Denis and Doug. Dougie had his opportunity. He was in Chicago 14 years and didn&rsquo;t win anything.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m fed up with this B.S. All I know is we went from last place to first and they got substantial raises. For those guys to walk out there and say they didn&rsquo;t have fun, who are they kidding? The only thing I know is that the people who win, like Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey and others I have coached in the Canada Cup, think winning is fun. If Dougie doesn&rsquo;t like that, there&rsquo;s nothing I can do about it.&rdquo;In agreeing to go to the Sharks, Wilson (who had a no-trade clause in his contract) is headed to a club that is expected to lose big for many years. He has probably also surrendered his final chance to be on a Stanley Cup winner.&ldquo;There comes a time when you have to re-evaluate your goals,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;It would have been a tougher thing to do if I hadn&rsquo;t played in the Canada Cup in &rsquo;84 and won.&ldquo;To me, trying to make the San Jose franchise a success and being there for the first step is exciting. It&rsquo;s so exciting that I know I did the right thing. After playing 14 years in one city, I think it would have lost something to go to another team and win a Stanley Cup in the first year.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d trade one moment or minute of the time I&rsquo;ve spent in Chicago for a Stanley Cup. The memories I have and the friends I&rsquo;ve made are more important.&rdquo;<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Sept. 6: Doug Wilson. D. traded to San Jose for Kerry Toporowski, RW. and a second-round draft pick in 1992. &#9632;

WILSON ELATED TO LEAVE WINDY CITY

Sept. 10, 1990: Calgary Flames&rsquo; defenseman Al Maclnnis signed a four-year, $4-million contract making him the fourth-highest paid defenseman in the league. St. Louis&rsquo; Scott Stevens ($ 1.3 million per year), Boston&rsquo;s Ray Bourque ($1.25 million) and Chicago&rsquo;s Chris Chelios ($1.2 million) made more than Maclnnis.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02456/6007868-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="686" height="416"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al Maclnnis</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

NUMBERS

Who says there is no longer interest in the Canada Cup? This is one fan who vehemently disagrees.Fans now have to put up with increasing coverage of the &ldquo;business of hockey&rdquo;, six months worth of mediocre regular-season games and the Eric Lindros soap opera.What really counts is that the Canada Cup once again is showcasing the best players on the planet competing for their countries. What really counts is that we are once again being treated to hockey at its absolute best.What does it matter that the Evil Empire has crumbled and that we&rsquo;re more familiar with players from Finland than from Flin Flon?Dave HeggieHigh Prairie, Alta.<h2>DOLLAR DAZE</h2>So &ldquo;poor&rdquo; Steve Yzerman can&rsquo;t afford to put gas in his car when he&rsquo;s in Canada. Gee, what does the world expect a man to do on a mere million dollars a year?And one must wonder if Mrs. Lindros is going to move the whole family down to the States to take advantage of the bigger buck and the smaller taxes? Isn&rsquo;t it funny that the crybabies who would sell their country out for a few pieces of silver will have more pieces of silver than they could ever hope to spend in one lifetime.If Yzerman wonders how Canadians can stand the high taxes, he may want to take a drive through Detroit&rsquo;s inner city and find out how many people there have adequate health-care coverage. Maybe we would rather put a little less in our bank accounts so as to help those who don&rsquo;t have a bank account.Jack GoodePenticton, B.C.<h2>HALL OF SHAME</h2>My husband is stationed in the U.S. Army at Fort Drum, N.Y. Waiting for an opportunity, two die-hard fans from Boston planned a weekend trip to Toronto to see the Hockey Hall of Fame.We contacted Toronto tourist information for the operating hours and a place to stay. When we arrived at Exhibition Place there was an Indy race taking place. In order to get on the grounds we had to purchase a ticket for the auto race.After a long walk, we found what we travelled so far for&hellip; it was closed?Apparently, the sponsor of the auto race, a major brewery, had rented the entire grounds for the race and any installation wanting to remain open within the grounds had to pay a fee to the brewery.If the closing of these businesses would have increased sales for the car race, I could understand. If anything we bought tickets for the race to get to the Hall of Fame.What a waste of money and a major disappointment.Annamaria BaileySackets Harbor, N. Y.<h2>A REAL MESS</h2>Thoughts on the Canada Cup:&#9632; Wayne Gretzky sends out a personal 11th-hour S.O.S. to Mark Messier to come and save Team Canada. Despite declining an earlier invitation, Messier comes anyway. Isn&rsquo;t that special? And there&rsquo;s no hard feelings among the players who spent weeks in training camp&mdash;even players who were cut. Yeah, right.&#9632; The inmates seem to be running the institution. A week before the first cuts were made, Gretzky, during one of his numerous throne speeches, named certain players who were definitely going to make the team. Did those players make the final cut? Absolutely.&#9632; In the opening game against Finland, coach Mike Keenan sits out two 50-goal scorers (Steve Yzerman and Theo Fleury) in favor of unproven talent and late entries. But, of course, everyone knows Keenan is a genius.&#9632; One last thing: Steve Dryden, please, as the new editor-in-chief of THN, don&rsquo;t feel obligated to carry on Bob McKenzie&rsquo;s personal Eric Lindros crusade. We&rsquo;ve all heard The Word and it&rsquo;s growing tiresome.Mike JansikLarry LeinPrince George, B.C.<h2>BLUE HAWAII</h2>I&rsquo;m sick of the whining I hear from people who have the opportunity to attend NHL games or get to watch even the &ldquo;trimmed-down&rdquo; schedule on SportsChannel America. Take it from a Hawaiian: You&rsquo;re lucky.I&rsquo;m a devoted fan and have been since I was 5 years old when hockey used to be televised here. It isn&rsquo;t anymore. Now, the only way I can watch hockey is by frequenting the lone bar on my island with a satellite dish.So, the next time you feel angry about your limited coverage, think about those of us even less fortunate.Von NelsonHonolulu, Hawaii<h2>OUR MISTAKE</h2>In the Sept. 6 issue of THN there is a mistake in the &ldquo;Did You Know&hellip;&rdquo; feature. It says Washington Capitals&rsquo; coach Terry Murray holds the record for the fastest goal from the start of a playoff game (seven seconds).I was at the game in 1976&mdash;Los Angeles versus Boston&mdash;when the Kings&rsquo; Don Kozak scored six seconds into the game.Steve KolkerLos Angeles, Calif.(Ed. note: Thanks, Steve, for pointing out our error.) Make your feelings known. Fax us your comments at(416) 445-0753&nbsp;or write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2&nbsp;in Canada. In the U. S., write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo N.Y., 14240-9947. Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

DEPARTMENTS

INTEREST IN CANADA CUP AS HIGH AS EVER

<div class="byline">DAVE MOLINARI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011335/6006753-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="459" height="620"></div>New Jersey general manager Lou Lamoriello made the trade of a lifetime on Oct. 16, 1989, when he dispatched defenseman Tom Kurvers to Toronto for the Maple Leafs&rsquo; first-round draft choice in 1991.Lamoriello was gambling that the Leafs&rsquo; monumental ineptitude might be enough to carry the Leafs to last place in the overall standings, thus making New Jersey the new workplace of a strapping young lad named Eric Lindros. Perhaps you&rsquo;ve heard of him.You might even be familiar with Kurvers, who should rank as one of the leading experts on North American real-estate values. He&rsquo;d almost have to, considering that he has worked in nearly every major market on the continent in the past few years.Lamoriello&rsquo;s gamble didn&rsquo;t quite work out as he had hoped&mdash;the Leafs rocketed to 20th overall and New Jersey had to settle for Scott Niedermayer, a dynamite prospect in his own right&mdash;but it still was the type of deal Lamoriello couldn&rsquo;t dream of repeating.Not until Sept. 3, 1991, anyway. That&rsquo;s when Lamoriello was rewarded for his reluctance to pay the going rate for winger Brendan Shanahan and was rewarded by getting defenseman Scott Stevens from St. Louis as compensation.Who knows? If Lamoriello remains tightfisted long enough, the Devils might have a dynasty pretty soon.Maybe the NHL should honor arbitrator Edward J. Houston as its Executive of the Year. There aren&rsquo;t many guys in the business who could have pulled off that deal.Imagine the reaction in St. Louis if, a few months ago, Lamoriello had called Ron Caron and suggested swapping Shanahan for Stevens. Lamoriello likely would have heard howls of laughter, then the click of the telephone as Caron hung up.And how do you think New York Rangers&rsquo; GM Neil Smith must have reacted when he heard the decision? Yeah, the pro-management side of him had to be thrilled, but the Rangers&rsquo; signing of Adam Graves had been announced shortly before the Stevens decision was made public.Graves, you might recall, torched the league for 25 points during the 1990-91 season. Based on the Shanahan-Stevens precedent, Smith had to be wondering if, say, Brian Leetch would remain in Manhattan long enough to sign the mega-contract we&rsquo;ve heard so much about.None of this is intended to besmirch Shanahan. He is a good young player with the talent and intangibles that would make him a valuable member of any team.But his resume bears almost no resemblance to that of Stevens, a player so gifted the Blues were willing to sacrifice a huge chunk of their future&mdash;five first-round draft choices&mdash;to sign him last summer.So a cynic&mdash;not that you&rsquo;d ever find any of those in this particular rectangle&mdash;might suggest that the arbitrator&rsquo;s ruling served a two-fold purpose:&#9632; It put those wicked, free-spending Blues in their place and made them understand the party line. Which is, of course, that there&rsquo;s nothing wrong with free agency, as long as it doesn&rsquo;t mean any players change teams. Do you think the Blues will be eager to spend five No. 1 picks on another free agent when they know he could be taken away in a compensation ruling?&#9632; It told the NHL Players Association exactly what the current agreement on free agency really means. That kind of information should come in particularly handy now, since the NHLPA is trying to negotiate a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. What better time to prove to the NHLPA that free agency is a myth?It would be neither prudent nor proper to question why the arbitrator awarded Stevens to the Devils. We must assume that he carried out his task to the best of his ability.Assume that, in his view, Stevens represented more equitable compensation for the loss of Shanahan than did the Blues&rsquo; proposal of Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Curtis Joseph and draft choices.So the underlying message of the Stevens decision is clear: Free agency in the NHL is still more fiction than fact.And the bottom line of that is, the players aren&rsquo;t likely to accept a system they view as inherently flawed in the owners&rsquo; favor. And that means you might not have to go to a ballpark to hear a lot of talk about strikes this fall.Dave Molinari covers the Penguins for the Pittsburgh Press &#9632;

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COLUMNS

LEAGUE’S FREE-AGENT FALLACY FINALLY EXPOSED

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011498/6006832-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

&#9632; Steve Yzerman. Super-star Mark Messier was afforded the privilege of joining Team Canada without attending training camp. Superstar Steve Yzerman was cut from the team for having a poor camp. The situation had a lot of observers asking, &ldquo;Why Stevie?&rdquo; But not Yzerman. The class he has displayed during this rough spell further illustrates why he&rsquo;s one of the league&rsquo;s most respected players.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021219/6006870-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="358" height="363"></div>&#9632; Team Finland. Like virtually everyone else, we predicted a last-place Canada Cup finish. Entering their final round-robin match Sept. 9 against the U.S., they&rsquo;d won twice and tied Canada. We don&rsquo;t often like to admit when we&rsquo;re wrong, but this time it&rsquo;s a refreshing change.&#9632; Equalization process. It doesn&rsquo;t take a rocket scientist, or even a St. Louis professor, to figure out something&rsquo;s not right. In the Stevens case, it has enraged the players, upset his ex-teammates, put added pressure on Brendan Shanahan, thrown the Devils&rsquo; pay structure out of whack and brought up the spectre of collusion. Ultimately, its most devastating effect may be a strike, and we all know who the greatest loser would be.&#9632; Brian Mulroney. It can only be assumed that Canada&rsquo;s prime minister was trying to garner votes in Quebec when he dove headlong into the Eric Lindros debate. His comments that Lindros should reconsider his Nordique decision only worsened the situation.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03809/6006863-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="358" height="355"></div> &#9632;

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CHEERS JEERS

<div class="byline">BY THN STAFF</div>The Red Wings continued rebuilding their defense with the long-expected signing of Russian defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov two days before training camp opened.Konstantinov, 24, had been captain of the Central Red Army club the previous two seasons, and a longtime comrade of Wings&rsquo; star center Sergei Fedorov. He signed a multi-year deal and terms were not revealed.Though he joined his new team at camp in Flint, Mich., Konstantinov cannot compete in games until he receives his H-l work visa from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.When he does join the lineup, though, his presence should make a difference.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a world-class player, a solid defensive defenseman,&rdquo; said Wings&rsquo; general manager-coach Bryan Murray, who prefers understatement to grandiose predictions when signing a new player. For instance, last year at this time, Murray was saying he thought Fedorov could one day develop into a solid defensive player in the NHL. In his rookie season, Fedorov played well defensively, but quickly developed into one of the league&rsquo;s most sensational offensive players.Wings&rsquo; officials said when they drafted Konstantinov in the 12th round (221st overall) in 1989&mdash;and again as recently as last season&mdash;that if and when he joined the Wings he would be their best defenseman. That may not be saying much then or now, but if it&rsquo;s true their defense should be more skilled than it has been in many years.If he isn&rsquo;t Detroit&rsquo;s top defenseman, Konstantinov, 6-foot-l, 180 pounds, will join Steve Chiasson as the team&rsquo;s most versatile defenders. Like Chiasson, Konstantinov can skate well and move the puck.Murray would not discuss details of Konstantinov&rsquo;s departure. He said the Wings did not compensate the Soviets in any way. NHL teams pay between $200,000 and $350,000 to secure the services of Russian players.<h2>OBITUARY</h2>Bob Goldham. a star defenseman with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings from 1941-42 to 1955-56, died in Toronto Sept. 6. He was 69.One of the league&rsquo;s most popular players, Goldham was widely recognized for his physical play and his ability to block shots.Goldham began his professional career with Toronto in 1941 after a stellar junior career with the Toronto Marlboros. After one season with the Leafs, Goldham joined the Canadian Navy and left to fight in World War II. He returned three years later and was a member of the 1946-47 Leaf championship team.Goldham was traded to Chicago the next season and after two years as a Blackhawk, joined the Detroit Red Wings. He enjoyed his best success as a Red Wing and helped Detroit capture the Stanley Cup in 1952.Goldham retired after the 1955-56 Stanley Cup final against Montreal. He later was a play-by-play commentator for Hockey Night in Canada.<h2>TV TALK</h2>The NHL&rsquo;s embarrassing lack of a national television contract in the U.S. might quickly come to a resolution.It&rsquo;s hardly an ideal situation, but according to one well-placed source within the television industry, the NHL is again conferring with officials from ESPN. The end result is likely to be a game-a-week package beginning no later than next January, with the possibility of additional coverage through the playoffs.However, according to the source, the money is woefully short of the $ 17 million per year which the NHL collected in each of the previous three seasons with SportsChannel America. If this deal is finally nailed down, the NHL might get as little as $3 million for this season.Still, there is much sentiment among some U.S.based owners that the league simply has to get back on ESPN.&mdash;With files from Keith Gave and Al Morganti &#9632;

SOVIET KONSTANTINOV SIGNS WITH RED WINGS

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>NHL president Alan Eagleson faces public scrutiny next month with the publication of &ldquo;Net Worth&mdash;Exploding the Myth of Pro Hockey.&rdquo; Authored by David Cruise and Alison Griffiths, the book delves deep into The Eagle&rsquo;s hockey affairs. The book hints at an explosive confrontation on several NHL fronts. Under orders from Penguin Books, Griffiths-Cruise have been tightlipped about its contents. But it has been learned the B.C. authors thoroughly investigated the controversial lawsuit launched by Hall of Earners Bobby Hull, Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe against the NHL. Penguin sources say the book &ldquo;opens the first investigation of the NHL that will reveal corruption at all levels of the league, from farm managers to the directors of the NHL.&rdquo; Collisioncourse timing is incredible since Eagleson&rsquo;s own memoirs, &ldquo;Power Play&rdquo;, will be released almost simultaneously by McClelland & Stewart.<h2>TIME BOMB</h2>While the NHL struggled to line up a U.S. cable TV contract, CBS-TV has gone ahead by planning the biggest-ever Olympic hockey coverage. CBS, which plans to broadcast nearly 120 hours of coverage of the 1992 Olympic Winter Games over 18 days in February, will cover every move the U.S. team makes. When the Americans aren&rsquo;t in action, CBS plans to cover the Canadian team-&hellip; Wayne Gretzky is the only NHL player to make Forbes magazine&rsquo;s annual list of the 40 top-paid athletes. The Great One placed 19th&mdash;he was 15th a year ago&mdash;at $3 million in salary and $4 million in endorsements. Gretzky was well behind the overall leader, boxing&rsquo;s Evander Holyfield, who totalled $60.5 million.<h2>WHAT GIVES?</h2>Why has it taken the Winnipeg Jets so long to get a new arena? Winnipeg Enterprises Corporation Chairman Don Mitchelson has the answer: &ldquo;Winnipegersdon&rsquo;t spray for mosquitos in this city until there are 4,000 of them in the traps. And we don&rsquo;t think seriously about building a new arena until it&rsquo;s obvious to us the Jets could be sold to outside interests.&rdquo;&hellip;Manhattan sports equipment maker Mike Cosby gets unusual jersey requests, but one of the most unusual came when a California fan phoned and ordered a Kings&rsquo; jersey with number 66 on the back. When Cosby told the fan Mario Lemieux played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, the fan insisted Le Magnifique had just been traded to L.A. The caller was advised no such trade had been made but he ordered the Kings&rsquo; No. 66 jersey anyway&hellip; Phil Housley&rsquo;s $ 1 million contract demand looms as the most traumatic challenge to the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; frugal budget. If Housley gets his million, expect Thomas Steen, Ed Olczyk, Bob Essensa and Pat Elyniukto get their agents in motion, if they haven&rsquo;t already done so. It&rsquo;s rumored Housley is prepared to hold out if he doesn&rsquo;t get his wish-&hellip;John Tucker says he jumped to Asiago of the Italian League for family reasons. &ldquo;My wife, Lynn, has Italian heritage in her background and she has done modelling over there.&rdquo; Tucker says. &ldquo;She&rsquo;d been trying to convince me for a couple of years to take a vacation in Italy. She&rsquo;s finally getting her way&mdash;although this won&rsquo;t be a vacation.&rdquo;&hellip;One reason for the summer-long delay in hiring a new Rangers&rsquo; president is that recently-appointed Paramount Communications&rsquo; boss Stanley Jaffe, who oversees the Ranger operation, has little hockey knowledge and wanted to confer with his Hollywood guru, Howard Koch, before making a move&hellip;The sale of the Pittsburgh Penguins is expected upon completion of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The perspective owners first want to know what the new salary structure will be like before signing on the dotted line.<h2>TIN MEN</h2>Just what effect expanded free agency will have on Canadian teams remains debatable, but Winnipeg&rsquo;s Ed Olczyk thinks he knows the answer. &ldquo;If the players are offered or gain more free agency, then no player in his right mind would ever sign with a Canadian-based team,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt in my mind that if more free agency exists, there would be only two Canadian teams&mdash;Toronto and Montreal. The rest of the markets are simply too small.&rdquo;&hellip;One of Pierre Turgeon&rsquo;s major challenges this year is winning back the Buffalo media. Sabres&rsquo; writers have nicknamed him &ldquo;Tin Man.&rdquo; Buffalo News columnist Jerry Sullivan says Turgeon&rsquo;s early exit from Team Canada, &ldquo;confirms my suspicion that Eric Lindros is already a better player and a tougher competitor than Turgeon.&rdquo;&hellip;Although he has long since left Winnipeg, John Ferguson still seethes over moves made by his successor Mike Smith, including Smith&rsquo;s decision to bypass new Bruins&rsquo; coach Rick Bowness for Bob Murdoch. &ldquo;It was the biggest mistake they ever made,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Rick knew every player in the Jets&rsquo; organization but they went out and changed everybody. They&rsquo;ve paid a price for it ever since and I don&rsquo;t feel sorry for them.&rdquo; Fergie calls Bowness &ldquo;a great catch for Harry Sinden.&rdquo;&hellip;Red Wing sources say the signing of Ray Sheppard to a $500,(XX) a season contract suggests club owner Mike Hitch went over GM-coach Bryan Murray&rsquo;s head to have the ex-Ranger inked. Previously, Murray had attempted to keep a lid on salaries and the Sheppard move could throw Detroit&rsquo;s financial situation even further out of whack. &#9632;

NEW BOOK WILL ROAST THE EAGLE

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>In the beginning, professional hockey training camps were as primitive and simple as a mere convening of players, a few touch-your-toe exercises and laps around the track.&ldquo;Today,&rdquo; says New Jersey Devils&rsquo; vice-president Max McNab, &ldquo;the training camp is so sophisticated, I can hardly compare it to the first one I attended in 1946. Then it was six weeks long. Now it&rsquo;s 28 days.&rdquo;The evolution of training camps has traced the NHL&rsquo;s growth. By the mid-1920s, the beginnings of a formalized style was evident. At their first ever camp in Toronto, the New York Rangers not only had a practice rink (Ravina Gardens), but stayed at not one, but two hotels&mdash;the King Edward and the Peacock.Camps were considerably less formal in those days and players were given to more revelry. Rangers&rsquo; Hall of Famers Frank Boucher and Ching Johnson, supplemented by a bottle of booze, hijacked a Toronto streetcar when they were late for curfew and locked out of the Peacock. Armed with their liquor, they &ldquo;persuaded&rdquo; the motorman to take them to the King Edward.One of the strangest early training camps was the 1931 edition held by the Chicago Blackhawks. The base, oddly enough, was in Pittsburgh but that wasn&rsquo;t the weird part of it. The Hawks&rsquo; coach, Dick Irvin, had moved to the Maple Leafs and for some curious reason his replacement was Godfrey Matheson who had no previous pro hockey experience.Matheson&rsquo;s training technique was right out of an Indian caste system.&ldquo;He started right off,&rdquo; said Blackhawk Teddy Graham, &ldquo;by selecting his six players, who were, apparently, to play the full season. He told the rest of the squad, approximately 20 of us, to sit on the benches along the boards and observe the planned play of his six regulars.&ldquo;We did this through the entire first week with only six players getting any regular work. But three days before the end of the second week, business manager Bill Tobin showed up, heard what was going on and fired Matheson.&rdquo;In time, some hockey leaders began exploring unusual off-ice workouts to get their players in mint condition. One of the most innovative was Hall of Famer Eddie Shore, who owned the Springfield Indians in the post-World War II period.&ldquo;Shore once had the players lined up at the hotel taking tap dancing lessons,&rdquo; says former Indian Aldo Guidolin. &ldquo;He figured it was good for their skating.&rdquo;McNab attended the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; camp 45 years ago. He remembers that 1946 camp being considerably longer&mdash;it ran five to six weeks&mdash;than contemporary ones.&ldquo;The big difference between camps then and now is in the conditioning of players,&rdquo; says McNab. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t even take our skates home with us. Nowadays, when the season is over, everybody takes his bag of gear and skates at home two or three times a week.&ldquo;We all suffered from tight groins in the first week of camp and I also recall the agony of sore feet. It was brutal.&rdquo;Early trainers such as the legendary Tim Daly of the Maple Leafs and Honey Walker of the Red Wings, unlike their contemporaries, were unskilled in modem medical practice. A rubdown was their forte.Tommy Ivan, an executive vice-president of the Blackhawks, coached at the same camp McNab attended as a player.&ldquo;One of the differences then and now is that teams have so many more specialists today,&rdquo; Ivan says. &ldquo;In terms of training camp, times have changed for the best. Everything about them has improved.&rdquo;By the start of the 1970s players were put through more rigorous medical tests but there still was plenty of tomfoolery.In his book, Goaltender, Gerry Cheevers tells about the time Don Marcotte filled Cheevers&rsquo; urine sample bottle because, for the second year in a row, Gerry couldn&rsquo;t make it.&ldquo;A funny thing happened at another camp,&rdquo; wrote Cheevers. &ldquo;Donnie took care of three guys&rsquo; bottles because none of us could produce it, and then he was called back for a second specimen. How do you figure that?&rdquo;Sometimes even the most elaborate medical precautions could not prevent training camp tragedies. Shortly after the Rangers opened their base in Kitchener. Ont., prior to the &rsquo;68-69 campaign, coach Boom Boom Geoffrion put his charges through workouts.Geoffrion was whistling stops-and-starts when Wayne Larkin, an American Leaguer trying out for the big club, collapsed and died of a heart attack.Such a tragedy is less likely to occur in the state-of-the-art camp of the 1990s.&ldquo;Nowadays we have specialists on top of specialists,&rdquo; McNab said. &ldquo;There are conditioning coaches, even a massage expert. When I went to my first camp in 1946 there was no specialist at all, just Honey Walker, our trainer.&rdquo;Stan Fischler is a freelance writer based in New York City. &#9632;

CAMP STORY HAS CHANGED AS THE GAME’S EVOLVED

<h2>PETER ZEZEL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011405/6006973-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="557" height="1177"></div>Born: April 22, 1965, Toronto, Ont. Height: 5-foot-9. Weight: 200 pounds. Position: Center. Team: Toronto Maple Leafs. Acquired: Traded from Washington, Jan. 16, 1990.Career highlight: &ldquo;Making it to the Stanley Cup finals (with Philadelphia). Some people work their whole lives and never do. We lost to Gretzky and the boys, but to get that close was unbelievable.&rdquo;Most embarrassing moment: &ldquo;My first year in St. Louis, we lined up for the anthems before a game and I forgot there were two instead of one. After the Canadian anthem, I started skating around the ice. The guys got me pretty good after that one.&rdquo;If he were NHL president: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d give everyone a $500,000 raise. That would solve a few problems.&rdquo;On being the NHL&rsquo;s only two-sport athlete (he played professional soccer this summer for the North York Rockets): &ldquo;The guys keep calling me Bo. It was a lot of fun, but it took up a lot of time. Hockey&rsquo;s such a long season, it&rsquo;s tough to do both.&rdquo;What he likes most about the NHL lifestyle: &ldquo;The camaraderie, the travel&hellip;and the women.&rdquo;On the hazards of being traded: &ldquo;Reporters ask me that all the time (is it hard to be traded), but I&rsquo;m making all this money, who cares where I play. It would be tough if I had a kid. But I&rsquo;m single. In the NHL you can go to different cities, meet different people, it&rsquo;s great.&rdquo;Most memorable fight: &ldquo;My first one against Dale Hunter. We had a pretty good scrap. But it&rsquo;s funny. I played with him in Washington and he&rsquo;s a great guy. He can be on my team any day.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-01

PRO FILE

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div>The history of professional sports in North America has been guided by landmark legal decisions, but the National Hockey League might find that the recent controversial free agency compensation/equalization decision by Judge Edward Houston might serve as more of a land mine decision.Just who will suffer most from the explosion is not yet clear, but the tremors were felt at hockey settings from Vancouver to Long Island; from Los Angeles to Montreal; and most notably the fallout landed from St. Louis to New Jersey when Houston cleared his throat on Sept. 4 and ruled the following:He decreed the signing of free agent Brendan Shanahan would cost the St. Louis Blues defenseman Scott Stevens. In doing so, he elected to side with the New Jersey Devils request for Stevens, and turn aside the Blues offer of forward Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, goalie Curtis Joseph and two draft picks.Thus, the Blues lost Scott Stevens, a defenseman and perennial all star who served as the team&rsquo;s captain, its defensive foundation and a player who could grind out effort upwards of 30 minutes per night.They lost the same Scott Stevens whom they signed the previous summer as a Group II free agent from the Washington Capitals. And, yes, the same Scott Stevens, 27, who had cost the Blues five first-round draft picks&mdash;four of which will still be due over the next four drafts.All of this they lost for Shanahan, a 22-year old forward with loads of promise, but hardly a proven all star.&ldquo;The fix was in,&rdquo; was a synopsis of the rage expressed by Brett Hull, the St. Louis Blues star right winger.The Blues themselves were more cautious in their public statements. Both general manager Ron Caron and team president Jack Quinn (who many people thought pulled most of the strings in this whole situation) said they needed time to pore over the 14-page ruling. However, although the club said it would have a statement within a few days, there was still stunned silence from the St. Louis organization a week later.While the Blues&rsquo; management team bit their lips in St. Louis, the decision quickly drew angry comments from many fronts, and raised the following questions:&#9632; Was it a fair decision, or was St. Louis being punished with &ldquo;punitive damages&rdquo; for again reeling in a high-profile free agent?&#9632; Will Stevens report to New Jersey, or will the NHL be facing a legal battle much like the Dale McCourt incident in 1978?&#9632; Did the St. Louis Blues bring this disaster on themselves by putting forward a relatively mediocre package, including a goalie (Curtis Joseph) who was of little value to the Devils?&#9632; Will this ruin the Blues&rsquo; progress, and wipe out what had been the promise of a run at the Stanley Cup?&#9632; And the most immediate and farthest-reaching question: What affect will this have on the negotiations concerning a new Collective Bargaining Agreement as the existing contract expires Sept. 15.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011584/6007011-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="717" height="1291"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Stevens hasn&rsquo;t decided whether he&rsquo;ll report to New Jersey.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The timing was just unbelievable,&rdquo; said Rick Tocchet, the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; alternate representative on the NHL Players&rsquo; Association (NHLPA.) &ldquo;With things not going very well in the CBA talks to start with, and then throwing this Stevens decision into the mix&hellip;well, it could really cause some major problems.&ldquo;I know it has been the topic for discussions around here.&rdquo;Tocchet was speaking from Quebec City, where he was a member of Team Canada. As if the Stevens decision would not have been a major factor in banding players together to demand a change in the present free agent system, it also occurred while the NHL&rsquo;s top players and some of the most influential voices were already congregated during competition for the Canada Cup.Making the situation even more volatile was the presence of both Stevens and Shanahan as teammates on Team Canada.&ldquo;I think the general opinion here is that this is just a total joke,&rdquo; said Tocchet. &ldquo;As a player, I feel for both guys.&ldquo;Look at the mess. I know Scott (Stevens) is very unhappy, and he has been talking with his lawyer every day. Who knows what he&rsquo;s going to do&mdash;but one thing for sure is that there aren&rsquo;t many players who think this was fair.&ldquo;And then look at Brendan Shanahan. Look at his situation. He&rsquo;s put in a spot where he has to play in St. Louis where the fans are looking at him as the guy who cost the team Scott Stevens and a package of (the remaining four) first-round draft picks.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a tough spot. If you ask me, it sure doesn&rsquo;t seem like this system works.&rdquo;Although sturdy in his belief the Stevens ruling highlighted the flaws in the present free agent system, Tocchet was not as boisterous as other high profile NHL players, most notably Wayne Gretzky and Hull who launched broadside blasts at the system.&ldquo;It was not fair, and they can&rsquo;t possibly say it is fair,&rdquo; said Gretzky, who issued a statement which should serve as a warning that this issue might truly galvanize the NHLPA and push the NHL toward either a strike, a lockout, or actually usher in an era of a more lenient form of free agency.&ldquo;It will make the players dig in that much deeper,&rdquo; said Gretzky. &ldquo;They will hold their ground that much tighter. They have to.&rdquo;What is most alarming about such statements is that they are coming from players who are considered leaders by the NHLPA. The gun which the NHL handed to Judge Houston to execute the decision may well be used against the league.There is no way of overstating the NHLPA&rsquo;s ire over this issue. Remember, the history of the relationship between the NHL and the NHLPA has been the least adversarial in pro sports. The two sides have managed to avoid strikes and animosity because previous star players who served as leaders within the NHLPA always approached negotiations with moderate demands.The banner which was always flown from the players&rsquo; camp always carried the fine print; &ldquo;As long as it&rsquo;s for the Good of the Game.&rdquo;Now, it could be very different. Arguably, the owners have a convincing case when they curse shrinking advertising and TV dollars, but when they try to sell &ldquo;For the Good of the Game&rdquo; to players demanding true free agency, they will find deaf ears.The issue of free agency was going to be a crucible even before the ruling on the equalization for the Blues signing of Brendan Shanahan. But now the NHLPA, under the new leadership of Bob Goodenow has the Blues and Stevens to portray as martyrs to show the players and stiffen their resolve.&ldquo;I think it wakes up a lot of people to the idea that the system does not work even when you try to make it work,&rdquo; said Sam Simpson, a director of the NHLPA. &ldquo;This will bring home that the system has to be changed.&rdquo;Actually, the fallout began one day before the ruling. Perhaps anticipating the situation, Hull went so far as to suggest that if Stevens was awarded to New Jersey as equalization it would serve as proof that the &ldquo;the fix was in.&rdquo;,&ldquo;I would never like to make Brendan look bad,&rdquo; said Hull, &ldquo;but he is not of equal value to Scott. If the Devils get Scott, the fix must be in. I guarantee you that.&rdquo;Once the decision was made, Hull realized that he was climbing out on a thin limb, but he was consistent in his outrage, and even more emphatic when he sang to reporters in Toronto and St. Louis:&ldquo;The Blues got totally (bleeped)&rdquo; said Hull. &ldquo;The decision was totally fixed. I&rsquo;ll probably get sued for saying this, but I believe it. Anyone who can look at it any other way has no clue.&rdquo;It is understandable that players are upset. It is especially understandable that players from St. Louis are upset. But as for Hull&rsquo;s contention that anybody who views the decision without horror doesn&rsquo;t have a clue&mdash;that&rsquo;s another matter. II you step back and take a rational look at what happened in the arbitration and equalizations process, you might not find the decision of Judge Houston so outrageous.In the first place, let&rsquo;s establish that Judge Houston is hardly a puppet dictator set up by the NHL for the singular purpose of penalizing the St. Louis Blues. He has been around a lot longer than that, serving as a sort of exorcist for the NHL in equalization matters since 1968&mdash;one year short of the entire history of the St. Louis Blues in the NHL. The players might also note that it was agreed to as part of the CBA that the 21 member clubs (now 22) appoint an arbitrator to rule on such cases.Indeed, Houston is the same judge who ruled the McCourt mess in 1978 when he decreed that McCourt be sent to Los Angeles as compensation for the Red Wings signing Rogie Vachon as a free agent.That decision was reversed by a district court and later upheld by a circuit court of appeals, with the end result being a trade which returned McCourt&rsquo;s rights to Detroit.Beyond that, Houston&rsquo;s previous rulings on equalization involving free agents Gary Sargent, Greg Millen, Brian Curran and Gary Nylund hardly suggest a series of scurrilous decisions in which the judge was attempting to &ldquo;punish&rdquo; any team.Aside from some bitter feelings still harbored by past members of the Detroit organization over the McCourt case, one could call upon a number of character witnesses to attest to the fact that at 72, Judge Houston still displays a knowledge and interest in the game which goes well beyond his pro bono status as arbitrator. He openly stated the size of the contract awarded a free agent was not the deciding factor for equalization, and he acknowledged that statistics and other intangibles played important roles.He even went so far as to say that Shanahan&rsquo;s presence on Team Canada &ldquo;could not hurt the way he is rated.&rdquo; And if you want to understand just how much deception some people are attempting to read into this whole situation, be advised that there are those who even suggest Team Canada coach Mike Keenan purposely kept Shanahan on the team&mdash;while cutting such stars as Steve Yzerman and Joe Sakic, just so that Shanahan would look better in the eyes of the judge.The thinking behind that theory is that as the coach and general manager of the Chicago Blackhawks, Keenan would much rather face the St. Louis Blues eight times every season without Scott Stevens on their roster.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011432/6007004-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="1440" height="1166"><figcaption class="caption-body">GM Ron Caron and president Jack Quinn are blues after losing Scott Stevens.</figcaption></div>For his part, Judge Houston sounded like a man who has seen and heard all kinds of tricks a thousand times before, and a man quite capable of boiling down a decision to its basic components while allowing others to concentrate on the bubbles dissipating into so much hot air at the surface.&ldquo;An idiot could decide some of these cases,&rdquo; Houston said before the ruling, &ldquo;(but) some of the general managers&hellip;play games. They try to con you.&rdquo;So, what was the &ldquo;con&rdquo; with the St. Louis Blues?According to several GMs, none of whom would be quoted, they agreed with New Jersey general manager Lou Lamoriello&rsquo;s assessment that the Blues actually depreciated their offer when they inserted Joseph, a goalie coming off an injury with a one-way contract. &ldquo;We did not need a goaltender,&rdquo; said Lamoriello, who has been trying to trade a goalie (Sean Burke), and has three highly-touted junior and college goalies (Martin Brodeur, Chad Erickson and Mike Dunham) in its system. &ldquo;Joseph has not played since being injured last season, and he has to be protected next year in the expansion draft.&ldquo;So, there was really no value. He (Joseph) was on a one-way contract, and that to me was unfair compensation to give a player they could not even use on their own roster.&rdquo;The Blues countered when Caron&rsquo;s stated that St. Louis was happy to keep Joseph on their roster. However, at least in the minds of several GMs, there is a suspicion that St. Louis was attempting to use arbitration and equalization as a place to dump a contract.With that as a backdrop, some of the criticism for what is perceived as a grave miscarriage of NHL justice must fall on the shoulders of Caron. Perhaps if he had placed a defenseman (other than Stevens) in the package&mdash;rather than Joseph&mdash;he might have &ldquo;won&rdquo; the equalization process.Beyond that, by placing a defenseman in the equation, the Blues might have been able to avoid the courtroom altogether.Another GM surmised that the arbitrator was trying to match &ldquo;apples for apples,&rdquo; and the combination of a young forward coming off a disappointing season (Brind&rsquo;Amour had 49 points in 78 games) a goalie who is coming off an injury, and draft picks beneath the first-round did not look like proper extraction from the St. Louis roster.From the St. Louis viewpoint, the Blues can not believe the Devils could balk at signing Shanahan for more than $700,000, and then wind up with a million-dollar defenseman.&ldquo;At first glance, it appears to be somewhat punitive,&rdquo; said Caron. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s odd that this decision affected the first two free agents to move in 70 years.&rdquo;Even though the Blues didn&rsquo;t whine about the situation, outsiders, including Gretzky, feel there will be repercussions within the organization. Gretzky, who complimented Caron for &ldquo;going out and trying to build a winner,&rdquo; said penalizing the Blues could serve to blow up in the league&rsquo;s face. &ldquo;Talk about franchises you worry about,&rdquo; said Gretzky, &ldquo;now you had better start worrying about that franchise.&rdquo;As you might expect, the Devils had a different point of view. &ldquo;If you sign a quality player (as a free agent), you&rsquo;re supposed to give a quality player,&rdquo; said Lamoriello. &ldquo;The ruling was strictly a hockey matter. Under no circumstances was it punitive.&rdquo;The man who was really punished was Stevens. Here is a veteran player who had already been the focus of a free agent drama last summer when he left Washington for St. Louis. Now, a year later, he is uprooted and sent packing to New Jersey.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure what 1&rsquo;11 do,&rdquo; said Stevens after the decision. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think my name should have been involved.&rdquo;Almost a week after the decision, Stevens and his lawyer Richard Bennett of Washington were still not sure of what steps they would take. The only option would appear to involve an almost unwinnable court challenge, similar to the one issued by McCourt which eventually forced a trade.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re exploring out options,&rdquo; said Bennett the day after the deal. &ldquo;I think there is the potential for significant liability for the league.&rdquo;Given the emotional trauma of being uprooted from a team he literally hand picked last summer, it is not remarkable that Stevens initial reaction was to consider balking at reporting to New Jersey. However, with the season so close oat hand, his options are minimal.He is at a salary level which he probably would not be able to match in Europe. Perhaps a player with offensive skills such as Jari Kurri might command a huge price tag in Europe, but Stevens smash-mouth style is far better suited for NHL rinks than the Lake Geneva style of Europe.Added to that is the fact that he is already making a hefty salary, and if he does decide to challenge the decision in court he&rsquo;ll be costing himself a big chunk of money for every week he delays.The only reasonable outcome of all of this is that Stevens will grudgingly report to the New Jersey Devils camp at the conclusion of the Canada Cup&mdash;that is if the Stevens case has not served as the rallying point for either a players&rsquo; strike or a lockout by Sept. 15.Thus, the saga of Scott Stevens appears to have come full circle. A year ago he and the Blues were in the catbird seat when he left the Washington Capitals. With that in mind, you can understand Washington GM David Poile sporting a curious smile when he spoke to reporters the day after the deal.&ldquo;Life,&rdquo; said Poile. &ldquo;has a funny way of working itself out.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0006-01

…AND JUSTICE FOR SOME

The New Jersey Devils might have &ldquo;won&rdquo; on the Scott Stevens front, but their effort to load up with heavy artillery from the Norris Division through the arbitration process was halted when their request to obtain Bob Probert from the Detroit Red Wings was turned aside.The Devils had requested Probert as compensation from the Red Wings who hadsigned rugged winger Troy Crowder as a free agent off the New Jersey roster.And the man who made the decision? None other than judge Edward Houston, the same judge who caused so much turmoil with his decision to award Stevens to the Devils from the Blues for signing Brendan Shanahan. In this case, Houston sided with the Red Wings, who offered right wingers Randy McKay and Dave Barr as compensation for Crowder.The decision should take a little of the sting out of the Stevens&rsquo; case, as there were many players who were upset that the judge was levying &ldquo;punitive&rdquo; damages against a team robbing another of a free agent.Then again, it isn&rsquo;t any easy task to compare Troy Crowder to Brendan Shanahan, and if Probert had been the compensation there really might have been a mutiny.New Jersey GM Lou Lamoriello did not discount a suggestion that he had been &ldquo;shooting for the moon,&rdquo; by requesting Probert. &ldquo;In this type of arbitration, where you get one or the other, we made the decision to ask for Probert,&rdquo; said Lamoriello. &ldquo;If we got him, it would be great. And if we didn&rsquo;t get him, everything would be fine, too.&ldquo;I think the fact that McKay was a fourthline winger, and that is basically what Crowder was, had some impact on the decision.&rdquo;Even though it doesn&rsquo;t look like a huge victory, it could be argued the settlement again points out problems in the system.Some are saying McKay would have been enough compensation, but just to be sure they didn&rsquo;t lose Probert, the Wings had to also add Barr to the equation&mdash;and Barr is coming off a career year with 18 goals and 22 assists. &#9632;

NO HOLDS BARRED: PROBERT STILL A WING

With so many questions, major questions still looming around the NHL these days, it&rsquo;s not easy to get a general manager to make a comment on any subject deeper than his team&rsquo;s depth chart.So, when asked whether they would trade Scott Stevens straight up for Brendan Shanahan. the GMs, not surprisingly, refused to be quoted.But, as anonymous sources, they possessed a singularly strong voice, saying, &ldquo;You&rsquo;re asking the wrong question.&rdquo;In other words; &ldquo;No, of course we wouldn&rsquo;t swap Stevens for Shanahan, but..In this case, the GMs agreed that it was only fair to also ask if they would have dealt Shanahan for the package offered by the St. Louis Blues (Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour. Curtis Joseph and two conditional draft choice).&ldquo;If you look at it from both sides, you&rsquo;ll see that there shouldn&rsquo;t be so much outrage,&rdquo; said one GM. &ldquo;Given their druthers, a lot of guys wouldn&rsquo;t have gone for any deal, and that is why there is arbitration.&ldquo;I still think the Blues got the worst of it for one reason&mdash;Scott Stevens is one of those rare guys who fills two places on your roster. He&rsquo;s a damn good player, and he&rsquo;s tough. He&rsquo;s a guy who gives you 30 or so minutes a game, and that is tough to replace.&rdquo;One GM who had a great interest in the Stevens scenario was Neil Smith, the New York Rangers top man who went into the free agent waters the day the Stevens decision was announced. Smith signed Edmonton&rsquo;s Adam Graves, setting up a dealing with Glen Sather, one of the NHL&rsquo;s best horse dealers.It didn&rsquo;t take long for Sather to start piling up the accolades for the player he did not sign, suggesting that Graves was being groomed to be the next Oiler captain, following in the footsteps of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, while making it sound as if the Rangers had stabbed at the heart of the Edmonton machine.Within hours of the announcement. Wayne Gretzky was quoted as sarcastically saying the Rangers might lose Brian Leetch as equalization, and then took a swipe at the Oilers&rsquo; organization by suggesting that Leetch sign a $33 million contract because &ldquo;Edmonton will not take him at $33 million, that&rsquo;s for sure.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t immediately known which players were involved in the two teams&rsquo; compensation proposals. A decision was expected by midnight Sept. 12.&ldquo;We did a calculation before we made the move,&rdquo; said Smith, &ldquo;and we calculated that it was worth the risk. There is risk involved, no doubt about it.&rdquo;Risk?Just ask the St. Louis Blues. &#9632;

BOTH COMPENSATION PACKAGES UNFAIR SAY GMs

<div class="byline">STAN FISCHLER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011515/6007090-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="493" height="620"></div>John A. Ziegler makes a pretty penny as NHL president. And if ever the dapper leader is going to earn it, it will be between now and opening night.Never in recent memory have so many major issues converged on Ziegler&rsquo;s administration as they have now.It&rsquo;s a wonder Ziegler gets any sleep with the league and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association on a collision course, questions constantly being raised about the fate of the Tampa and Ottawa franchises and negotiations for a new American TV contract.Ziegler will be closely watched by his bosses, the NHL owners, as his mettle as power broker is tested, some believe, as never before.If too many things go wrong, some of the governors might start thinking about a shake-up. It happens in war and politics so it certainly could happen in the NHL.Several priority issues are at stake. Their respective resolution will go a long way to determine how Ziegler is evaluated by his superiors.Priority I: Resolving the Collective Bargaining Agreement.For the first time in Ziegler&rsquo;s administration, genuine hardball is being played by the NHLPA. Union pitcher Bob Goodenow is throwing knucklers. How Ziegler ultimately handles them will be pivotal for his and the NHL&rsquo;s future.A prolonged strike during the NHL&rsquo;s 75th anniversary year would be devastating. So would an agreement that would severely curtail most teams&rsquo; money-making ability.Priority II: Expansion.The brave new NHL world of the 1990s, as depicted in expansion plans last year, to some cynical eyes, now looks as impressive as Joe Stalin&rsquo;s old Five-Year Plan.Ziegler & Co. appeared robustly prescient in non-recession times, putting a $50 million retail price on new franchises. Meanwhile, they deftly arranged the North Stars-Sharks entente cordiale.But since the Recession/Depression has taken hold, the $50 million charge has, to some eyes, acquired a FSO (For Suckers Only) sticker. What&rsquo;s worse, the designated new franchises in Tampa and Ottawa have been so frought with ailments, you&rsquo;d have thought the NBA had conjured them up to make Ziegler look bad.Failure of one, or both, franchises would be grounds for a hard look at Ziegler&rsquo;s early enthusiasm over those cities.Priority III: The NHL&rsquo;s Image.Yes, attendance records were set and big money was made in the 1980s, but the portrait of big-league hockey has been besmirched by a number of recent issues. One is the NHL&rsquo;s failure to come anywhere near matching the three-year $51 million SportsChannel America U.S. TV contract. The fact that July and August passed without an American television deal is viewed in some quarters as an embarassment to the league.Then, there&rsquo;s the Eric Lindros situation. After a year&rsquo;s worth of anticipation of Eric The Large making his big-league debut, all Ziegler & Co. obtained from Lindros Inc. is a spate of reasons why he shouldn&rsquo;t play in the NHL for Quebec. When a talent such as Lindros snubs the major league, it can&rsquo;t be interpreted as a feather in the NHL&rsquo;s cap.Confronted with these points, Ziegler sounds reasoned and rational. As for the critical nature of these times, the president tells The Hockey News, &ldquo;This business is bigger than these issues. In the past, we&rsquo;ve had more critical times and bigger issues. On the other hand, I won&rsquo;t take anything away from their significance today.&ldquo;As far as the importance of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, it continues to be true today as it always has been; it&rsquo;s critical each time we have to deal with a new contract.&rdquo;As for Lindros, Ziegler acknowledges that the prodigy &ldquo;can make any decision he likes&rdquo; but the NHL won&rsquo;t miss a beat if he doesn&rsquo;t play this year.&ldquo;The NHL will not shut down if Lindros is not playing,&rdquo; Ziegler asserts. &ldquo;And if he doesn&rsquo;t play (in the league this season), nobody will know what we missed.&rdquo;It is possible that any or all of the above issues have been sensationalized beyond reason. On the other hand, if too many things go wrong there could be a question of confidence about Ziegler&rsquo;s presidency.Forthe moment, at least, the president sounds calm and collected.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still not discouraged,&rdquo; he said.Stan Fischler is a freelance writer based in New York City. &#9632;

f0008-01

TROUBLED TIMES PUT ZIEGLER ON THE HOT SEAT

&hellip;Winnipeg&rsquo;s Kris Draper scored his first NHL and minor goals before he scored in major junior? Last season, Draper scored his first NHL goal Oct. 4 in a 7-1 win over Toronto. Nineteen days later, he scored his first AHL goal for Moncton. He scored twice for Ottawa against Hamilton Nov. 9.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021193/6007121-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="985" height="522"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kris Draper</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0008-02

DID YOU KNOW…

<h2>OILERS</h2>Oilers&rsquo; GM Glen Sather&rsquo;s offer of $3.1 million for four years&mdash;the same deal that saw Guy Carbonneau resign with the Montreal Canadiens&mdash;has been turned down by Esa Tik-kanenand his agent, Rich Winter. &ldquo;Do you think the Canadiens would trade Carbonneau straight across to get Esa? They&rsquo;d do backflips,&rdquo; said Winter. &ldquo;Esa is one of the top players in the world.&rdquo; Winter maintains he proposed a one-year deal to Switzerland&rsquo;s HC Lugano for $450,000 U.S. tax-free, plus the use of an automobile and a fully-furnished house. He said Lugano countered with the car, house and $400,000. Tikkanen, who has been seeking $1 million annually from Edmonton, has termed the Oilers &ldquo;cheap, cheap, cheap.&rdquo;&hellip;After very brief holdouts, defenseman Jeff Beukeboom and right winger Craig Berube signed with the club and reported to camp. Berube missed one day and Beukeboom two before each signed a two-year contract. Left winger Kelly Buchberger, meanwhile, received a one-year contract extention&hellip;Still missing from camp after its first weekend were free agents Tikkanen, Craig Simpson, Craig Muni, Steve Smith and disgruntled Mark Messier. The latter two would have missed the start of camp, anyhow, because of their Canada Cup commitment.<h2>CANUCKS</h2>Ottawa Senators&rsquo; GM Mel Bridgman has been given permission to interview ex-Canuck coach Bob McCammonabout a position in his fledgling organization. McCammon is under contract to be a special assignment scout with the Canucks this season but has an escape clause in his deal&hellip;Canuck goaltender Troy Gamble says he has been told by the team&rsquo;s medical staff that he will not be permitted to wear his custom-made fibreglass mask. Gamble suffered four concussions last season and the moulded mask, which does not distribute the force of a blow well, was fingered as part of the problem. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather wear the fibreglass mask but if I can&rsquo;t, I can&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Gamble. &ldquo;Medical reasons come first. I&rsquo;ll just have to live with the helmet and cage.&rdquo;&hellip;Left winger Geoff Courtnail arrived at the Canucks&rsquo; Victoria training camp in a weakened state following an off-season in which he contracted mononucleosis and then had a partial relapse. He was unable to workout all summer.<h2>KINGS</h2>Luc Robitaille, Tomas Sandstrom, Tony Granato. Dave Taylor and Kelly Hrudey were among a dozen Kings entering their option years who had yet to sign new contracts when training camp opened Sept. 7. &ldquo;Definitely, I have contract problems,&rdquo; GM Rogie Vachon said. &ldquo;Some of these guys think salaries are going to double and triple. Well, there&rsquo;s only so much money in the pot.&rdquo; Robitaille, who made $320,000 last season, and Hrudey, who earned $300,000, were believed to be close to signing new deals. Also without new contracts were Brian Benning, Jeff Chychrun. Mike Donnelly, Bob Kudelski, Randy Gilhen, Rod Buskas and Rene Chapdelaine&hellip;Goalie Daniel Berthiaume, 20-11-4 with a 3.31 GAA a year ago, signed a one-year (plus option) deal worth $300,000. He made $165,000 last season.<h2>FLAMES</h2>Remember that sliding-on-his-knees victory dance Theo Fleury did in last year&rsquo;s playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers? Here&rsquo;s why he was so excited. Fleury lost a cool $100,000 when the Calgary Flames were eliminated in the first round. When Fleury signed his contract last September, a comparatively modest four-year, $1.2 million deal, former GM Cliff Fletcher included a bonus for 50 goals and a divisional playoff title. Had the Flames defeated Edmonton and gone on to win the Smythe, Fleury would have received $50,000 right away and seen his 1991 salary increase from $290,000 to $340,000. But it didn&rsquo;t happen. So Fleury will play for $290,000 this season, making him the lowest-paid 50-goal scorer in the league. He has no plans to renegotiate, not until next year anyway.<h2>SHARKS</h2>Latvian goalie Artur Irbe made his much anticipated arrival in Northern California Sept. 2 and said he&rsquo;s eager to compete for the No. 1 goaltending position with the Sharks. &ldquo;I feel confident about coming to an expansion team,&rdquo; Irbe said through a translator. &ldquo;I feel I can win the job.&rdquo; Irbe, who had been vocal in his political opposition to the Soviet government, also said he is happy to be in the U. S. in the wake of the recent coup attempt. &ldquo;If the coup had been successful, I probably would be on a train to a Gulag encampment somewhere instead of playing hockey in America,&rdquo; he said. During camp, Irbe, 24, will compete with NHL veteran Brian Hayward and prospects Jeff Hackett and Jarmo Myllys for playing time.<h2>JETS</h2>The Jets have moved radio waves this season from CK Y to CJOB. Play-by-play may Curt Keilback has also made the switch, and will be assisted the majority of the time by colorman Don Wittman. When Wittman isn&rsquo;t available, OB&rsquo;s Bob Irving or Les Lasaruk will be filling in&hellip;CKY-TV hadn&rsquo;t yet announced its broadcast crew for 16 locally-televised Jets&rsquo; games this season..Paul Henry, who served as Winnipeg&rsquo;s sport psychologist for the last three years, has left the club to take up a similar position with the St. Louis Blues. &#9632;

TIKKANEN MIFFED BY SATHER’S OFFER

<div class="byline">BY EUIOT PAP</div>The doctor is finally going to make a house call in Vancouver.Defenseman Randy Gregg, the 35-year-old medical school grad, ended his 11-month retirement Sept. 6 when he signed a one-year contract with the Vancouver Canucks.Gregg steadfastly refused to join the Canucks last season when they acquired his rights from the Edmonton Oilers in the October waiver draft.At the time, he cited family and charitable commitments and added that he had always harbored the desire to be a lifelong Oiler, rather than a carpet-bagging athlete.Somewhere along the line, he changed his thinking.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if it was a change of heart so much as it was a reassessment,&rdquo; said Gregg. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still strongly in favor of making a commitment not only to a team but to a city as well. However, as you&rsquo;ve seen in the newspapers lately, there have been a lot of difficulties in Edmonton over the last four or five years with regards to players&rsquo; assessment of Oilers&rsquo; management.&rdquo;Gregg said he watched with dismay as Oiler stalwarts&mdash;the likes of Paul Coffey, Andy Moog, Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri and now, in all likelihood, Mark Messier&mdash;all left for greener pastures.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really sad to see what has happening to the team, especially for the hockey fans in Edmonton,&rdquo; said Gregg.The Canucks, meanwhile, were relentless in their pursuit of the doctor. They wined him, they dined him and they very nearly had him at the trading deadline last March. According to Gregg, the only reason he didn&rsquo;t sign was a roster technicality.&ldquo;The Canucks were very sincerely interested in me over the long haul and I&rsquo;ve really gained a lot of respect for the organization and the way they treat their players,&rdquo; said Gregg. &ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s the philosophy that they want the players to work with management, rather than to spite them.&ldquo;Dealing with people like Pat Quinn (Canuck general managercoach) and Brian Burke (Quinn&rsquo;s lieutenant) has really been a breath of fresh air to me.&rdquo;His charity, he says, is being capably run by an executive assistant while he has opted to leave his wife Kathy and their four young children in Edmonton.But, as part of his deal with the Canucks, Gregg will be given the odd day off to fly home and see his brood. Kathy Gregg intends to visit Vancouver about twice a month.As part of their pitch to Gregg, the Canucks were able to secure him a part-time position at the University of B.C.&rsquo;s sports medicine clinic.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really excited about this opportunity,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great clinic, world renowned. My plan is that if I&rsquo;m not playing, practising or fulfilling a commitment to the team, I&rsquo;ll be at the clinic. And if I&rsquo;m not doing that, I&rsquo;ll be sleeping.&rdquo;His on-ice contributions have yet to be determined, but Gregg is entertaining the thought he will play all 80 games. It likely won&rsquo;t happen, considering his age and the fact he sat out last year, but at least he isn&rsquo;t setting his sights low.&ldquo;I train a lot in the off-season so I am just considering this a long offseason,&rdquo; he chuckled. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m really close to being in top condition. I&rsquo;m not too worried about an erosion of my skills because obviously I am neither a goal scorer or a speedster. My game is based more on strategy and positioning.&ldquo;I think this can be a really exciting year for the Canucks, what with the young players they have and the established veterans they&rsquo;ve added like Ryan Walter and Dave Babych,&rdquo; Gregg added. &ldquo;From a personal standpoint, I hope I can be part of the progress.&rdquo;<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Sept. 6 Randy Gregg, D, signed one-year contract. &#9632;

DEFENSIVE PROGNOSIS GOOD AS GREGG REPORTS

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011529/6007200-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">After a dozen seasons as an Oiler, Mark Messier is ready to leave.</figcaption></div>The consummate Edmonton Oiler figures his days are numbered in his hometown.Judging from the discontent that has been buzzing around the Oilers all summer, the automatic reaction is to believe Mark Messier is indeed on the verge of exiting.Failed contract renegotiation talks between Oilers&rsquo; general manager Glen Sather and Messier&rsquo;s agent/father Doug led to the circulation of trade rumors last season. The speculation was rekindled in July and Messier has come out to admit he requested a trade in late August.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d say I&rsquo;ve probably played my last game as an Oiler,&rdquo; Messier said between engagements at the Canada Cup. &ldquo;Realistically, I&rsquo;d have to think so. I don&rsquo;t think you&rsquo;ll see me in that uniform again.&rdquo;The damage has been done, according to Messier.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s best for everybody that I move on now and not leave a bitter taste in anybody&rsquo;s mouth,&rdquo; said the 30-year-old Oilers&rsquo; captain. &ldquo;It has been a great 12 years.&rdquo;Reaction from teammates has been pro-Messier.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very sad day in Oilers&rsquo; history,&rdquo; said Kevin Lowe, who along with Messier is the last of the original NHL Oilers.&ldquo;Times two,&rdquo; chipped in Craig Simpson, who&rsquo;s up to his chin in problems of his own with Oilers&rsquo; management. &ldquo;Mess is a different story. Losing him is like losing a huge part of the team. It&rsquo;s not just another trade. It&rsquo;s like losing Gretz (Wayne Gretzky)&hellip;but at least when Gretz was gone, we still had Mess.&rdquo;Even though he saw it coming, Lowe was still caught off guard.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s shocking,&rdquo; said the 32-year-old. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s extremely disappointing and gets me wondering what the future has in store. I&rsquo;ve talked to Mess a few times and from one side I saw it coming, but I still can&rsquo;t understand why.&rdquo;He then looked at his interrogator and shrugged his shoulders as if to ask why this contractual renegotiation matter couldn&rsquo;t be amicably settled.&ldquo;Exactly&hellip; there&rsquo;s doubts that have to be raised,&rdquo; said Lowe. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen it all really. I&rsquo;ve seen guys come and go. But, as (wife) Karen (PercyLowe) said when she was reading the paper (Edmonton Sun) that she felt like crying. It wasn&rsquo;t until she said that&hellip;Christ&hellip;&ldquo;The old Oiler flag better be lowered to half mast. They&rsquo;re taking away the blood and guts of the organization.&rdquo;Simpson agreed.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s crazy, but it was avoidable,&rdquo; said the 24-year-old.&rdquo; &lsquo;It&rsquo;s like putting a knife in the history of the team. Another piece of the puzzle gets lost&hellip;and it&rsquo;s sad.&rdquo;Messier said his situation has gone beyond money.&ldquo;If they want to get rid of the old guys&hellip;it&rsquo;s their team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They can do what they want. But there&rsquo;s just no use. What they said, their offers to me were&hellip;well, it was totally untrue.&ldquo;But, it stopped being the money. If I did sign, it just wouldn&rsquo;t be any fun anymore. There&rsquo;s more to it than just money. You can only push so far. You can only negotiate so long.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s about winning. I thought we could win again this year. With a couple of moves before the (trade) deadline, I thought we could have won last year. And we came close. But I see it starting to fall apart now. And, at this stage of my career, the only thing that matters is winning.&ldquo;I asked Glen to trade me before I joined Team Canada.&rdquo;Messier has mentioned the New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Detroit or Toronto as possible places where he could wind up.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really care,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Obviously, there are only four or five teams. I don&rsquo;t think Slats would want me to go to Los Angeles.&rdquo;Sather isn&rsquo;t too crazy about the Rangers either after GM Neil Smith signed free-agent Oiler center Adam Graves to a reported $2.4 million US five-year contract.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s too bad,&rdquo; said Sather. &ldquo;An ideal place for Mark to play would have been New York City.&rdquo;The loss of Graves was also upsetting to Messier.&ldquo;Losing players like Graves is frustrating,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t put your head in the sand and pretend what&rsquo;s happening around the league isn&rsquo;t happening.&rdquo;The only re-signed player entering training camp was Joe Murphy, who inked a one-year deal. Still unsigned were Esa Tikkanen, Craig Simpson, Jeff Beukeboom, Steve Smith, Chris Joseph and newcomer Craig Berube.&ldquo;When they sold Wayne,&rdquo; said Messier, &ldquo;nobody knew what was going to happen, but the players who were still Oilers said: &lsquo;Hey, we&rsquo;re still here, we&rsquo;re still Edmonton Oilers. We respect the organization, ourselves and the fans of Edmonton.&rsquo; We tried to keep this thing going.&ldquo;Was the loyalty returned to those guys? Forget it. There was no reward given back to those players.&ldquo;If that&rsquo;s the way it&rsquo;s going to be in Edmonton, I don&rsquo;t want to be there.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-01

’BLOOD AND GUTS’ MESS WANTS OUT OF EDMONTON

<div class="byline">BY MIKE WEAVER</div>The San Jose Sharks knew they were inheriting a potential problem child when they plucked defenseman Link Gaetz from the Minnesota North Stars in May. But they expected Gaetz to at least make it to training camp without getting into trouble.It didn&rsquo;t happen.Just two days before the Sept. 5 deadline for players to report to camp, Gaetz was arraigned in Winona, Minn., on charges of carrying a hand gun without a permit and discharging a firearm within city limits. Gaetz had been arrested the day before, when police responded to reports of shots being fired.No injuries resulted from the incident, but the escapade added a new chapter to an already storied career for Gaetz, who has a history of problems that generally have been alcohol related (he was in a rehabilitation center as recently as the early part of this year). And although no alcohol-related charges were filed in this latest incident and Gaetz managed to report for camp on time, the affair didn&rsquo;t sit well with the Sharks.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very disappointing,&rdquo; said Dean Lombardi, the team&rsquo;s assistant general manager. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve stuck with him, and we kind of take it personally when something like this happens. It&rsquo;s one of those things where you ask yourself why you keep putting up with it. At some point, you have to stop.&rdquo;Lombardi said the Sharks haven&rsquo;t reached that point with Gaetz yet. but indicated Gaetz doesn&rsquo;t have a lot of room left for error.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t say he&rsquo;s out of strikes yet, but he might be looking at a called strike two,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;Particularly since this happened so early. The timing of it was really surprising. We&rsquo;re talking about two days before the start of camp.&rdquo;Gaetz, 22, was able to report to camp after posting a $ 1,000 bond in District Court in Winona. But he was under strict orders from agent Richard Scimone to not comment about the incident.Sharks&rsquo; coach George Kingston said he was surprised when he learned Gaetz had been arrested.&ldquo;He seemed to be making good progress over the summer,&rdquo; Kingston said. &ldquo;I saw him not long ago and everything seemed to be clicking. Now this dark cloud is here.&rdquo;Kingston also said he was relieved by the fact that alcohol apparently was not involved in the incident.Gaetz has been involved in misadventures before. He was playing in the IHL last season, but lasted only 28 games before being suspended for tossing a television out a hotel window.The Sharks believe Gaetz has the potential to be a star in the NHL if he can harness his energy and concentrate on playing. He was one of 24 players obtained by the Sharks from the North Stars during the May 30 dispersal draft between the two teams. And at the time, he was described by Sharks&rsquo; director of player personnel Chuck Grillo &ldquo;as one of the meanest kids living.&rdquo;Gaetz supported that claim during his 28 games in the IHL last season by piling up 222 penalty minutes. In two previous seasons in the IHL, Gaetz was whistled for 510 penalty minutes in 98 games.&ldquo;His whole situation is kind of amazing because he&rsquo;s not a dumbkid,&rdquo; Lombardi said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s actually quite intelligent. But sometimes, he goes out and does things that seem crazy.&rdquo;The Sharks are gambling that the problem is one Gaetz will be able to outgrow.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 30: Free agent Larry DePalma, LW, signed contract. Sept. 3: Free agents Andy Akervik, C. Mike Colman, 0. Wade Flaherty, G, Troy Frederick C, Mike Hiltner, RW. Jeff Odgers. RW, Claudio Scremin. D, and Kevin Sullivan, RW. signed contracts. &#9632;

MANAGEMENT WARY FOLLOWING LATEST GAETZ INCIDENT

<div class="byline">BY TIM CAMPBELL</div>Are miracles still miracles if they&rsquo;re expected?John Paddock doesn&rsquo;t care about the semantics. It seems the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; new coach has the same high expectations of his players that Jets&rsquo; fans seem to have of him.Part and parcel of being appointed coach in Winnipeg appears to be the title of miracle-worker.Tom Watt, Barry Long, Dan Maloney and Bob Murdoch are among those who will swear to it.So with another new face on the job after a disappointing season, a winning-starved public awaits another remarkable turnaround as if it should be clockwork.And Paddock doesn&rsquo;t seem to mind that kind of expectation one bit, despite the fact that he has very few new pieces to play with.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know the turnover of players from when Bob (Murdoch) took over two years ago,&rdquo; Paddock said on the eve of opening his first NHL training camp as coach. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t had a big turnover but I feel the team automatically will be better this year. I&rsquo;ve been saying this all summer because they (the players) have been saying to me that they have a lot to prove, individually and collectively.&ldquo;That should mean harder work and deeper commitment. All that stuff is part of winning. If what they tell me is true and they do their part, we should automatically be better.&rdquo;Part of Paddock&rsquo;s definition of better should be tougher, a characteristic for which he has been known during both playing and minor-league coaching days.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I can answer that for sure right now, before camp starts,&rdquo; he explained. &ldquo;I would like us to be tougher and I&rsquo;d like to say I know the organization&mdash;general manager Mike Smith&mdash;would like us to be tougher.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the message by his deals and his draft picks.&rdquo;Paddock was quick to point out the styles of the Jets&rsquo; first-round draft picks in the last two years. This June, it was Michigan defenseman Aaron Ward, while in 1990 it was forward Keith Tkachuk.&ldquo;Aaron Ward this year, whom I don&rsquo;t know much about, is said to be a Scott Stevens-type player,&rdquo; Paddock said. &ldquo;And Keith Tkachuk is a potential Cam Neely or Rick Tocchet-type, a 30-goal, 200 penalty-minute player. From those kinds of things, I think the organization would like the team to play tougher.&rdquo;It should also mean more stability and, one would think, more production from forwards.Paddock said Brent Ashton, who is coming off a seriously-fractured cheekboone that ended his season in March, will be given the chance to resume left-wing duties with Thomas Steen and Pat Elynuik on the club&rsquo;s top line.&ldquo;1 understand they&rsquo;ve played well together as a line before,&rdquo; Paddock said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not written in stone and I don&rsquo;t know how much we&rsquo;ll get the chance to experiment. That&rsquo;s going to depend on how well Sweden does (at the Canada Cup) and when Thomas comes back.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d also like for (1988 draft pick Russ) Romaniuk to play some in exhibition with Thomas but we can&rsquo;t say how much for sure right now.&rdquo;The Jets have definitely shifted Ed Olczyk back to the wing, though which side is up in the air.Initially, Paddock wants to try Olczyk with former Chicago teammate Troy Murray, who was acquired over the summer.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug 28: Rick Tabaracci, G, signed multi-year contract. &#9632;

PADDOCK HOPES TOUGHNESS WILL CURE TEAM’S WOES

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div>Eighteen months after playing in his last NHL game, Tom Laidlaw is attempting a comeback from a serious back problem that few people think he can make.&ldquo;I feel good and I think I can make it,&rdquo; the 33-year-old defenseman said after reporting to the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; training camp headquarters in the mountain resort of Lake Arrowhead, Calif. &ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s a longshot. I&rsquo;m not a kid anymore, I haven&rsquo;t played in a year and a half, and I don&rsquo;t know how long my back is going to hold out. But I came up here with the intention of giving it my best shot.&rdquo;Laidlaw is determined to prove his doubters&mdash;one of whom is Kings&rsquo; general manager Rogie Vachon&mdash;wrong.&ldquo;A guy like this, who has been out for over a year, how can you count on him?&rdquo; Vachon said. &ldquo;He could bend down to pick up a coin and hurt his back&hellip;and in the meantime screw up the whole team.&ldquo;He feels strongly that he&rsquo;s going to be able to play. But we have to choose guys based on the whole year, not just, say, a few weeks or a month. Maybe we can move him somewhere else. He understands where he stands with the organization.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011476/6007279-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="556" height="695"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Laidlaw hasn&rsquo;t played an NHL game in a year and a half.</figcaption></div>If it sounds like some friction exists between Vachon and Laidlaw, well, it does.The sticking point is Laidlaw&rsquo;s contract, which has this season and an option year remaining, at $310,000 per.Vachon agrees the Kings are obligated to pay Laidlaw this season&rsquo;s salary whether he is able to play or not, but he insists the option money is out of the question unless the 10-year veteran sticks around long enough to pass his 1992 physical.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s say he plays no games this year because of his back,&rdquo; Vachon said. &ldquo;We will still be responsible (for this year&rsquo;s salary), but not his option year. Every time we try to work something out, that option year thing keeps coming back.&rdquo;Laidlaw figures he has already forced the Kings&rsquo; hand by passing two medical exams and reporting to camp even though he says the organization has made it clear it doesn&rsquo;t want him around.Even Vachon said the situation will have to be resolved soon.&ldquo;(Vachon) told me the possibility of my playing in L. A. this year is very slim,&rdquo; Laidlaw said. &ldquo;He has told me I&rsquo;m not in their plans, that he wants to trade me. Well, I don&rsquo;t think my market value is very high right now, so they can either send me home, send me to the minors or buy (the option year) out.&ldquo;If they come to me and want to work something out, that&rsquo;s fine. Rogie thinks I&rsquo;m disabled and can&rsquo;t play, even though I&rsquo;ve passed all the physicals. Maybe he&rsquo;s right.&ldquo;I mean. I&rsquo;d love to be able to turn back the clock and be a young guy again. If it doesn&rsquo;t work out, I&rsquo;ve had a good career.&ldquo;Look, I understand the team&rsquo;s viewpoint and I hold no grudges. Rogie&rsquo;s trying to build a winner and hold down his budget. We each have our own opinions.&ldquo;But I signed a contract and I intend to live up to my end. All I want them to do is live up to their end.&rdquo;<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Sept. 7: Daniel Berthiaume, G, and John McIntyre. C, signed one-year contracts. &#9632;

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LAIDLAW’S COMEBACK IRKS GM VACHON

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div>Once installed as the second general manager in Calgary Flames&rsquo; history, Doug Riseb-rough had the opportunity to step aside as the team&rsquo;s head coach&hellip;and chose not to.His thinking: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going on the ice because that&rsquo;s as far away from the phone as I can get,&rdquo; said Risebrough, with a laugh. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m committed to coaching. I&rsquo;m not a GM that&rsquo;s just trying to find a way to get on the ice. I&rsquo;m a coach and I&rsquo;m not going to change that much from last year.&rdquo;The Flames opened training camp for their 20th season, with a radically new-look to the front office, but many of the same old faces on the ice.Gone is Cliff Fletcher, the one and only GM in franchise history. Under Fletcher, the Flames were one of the NHL&rsquo;s most successful teams in the mid-to-late 1980s.Accordingly, Risebrough&rsquo;s biggest challenge may be coping with the demands of two time-consuming jobs. When you have so many balls to juggle, can you really keep them all up in the air at the same time?Risebrough himself acknowledged: &ldquo;Only time will tell.&rdquo;His first step to share the work more equitably was to name Jamie Hislop as the team&rsquo;s third assistant coach. Hislop, who retired from the Flames in 1984 after sustaining a serious eye injury, spent last season as an assistant to Bobby Francis in Salt Lake (IHL).&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why I wanted a third guy on the coaching staff to relieve some of the responsibilities before and after practices,&rdquo; said Risebrough. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s when I&rsquo;ll be able to spend some quality time in practice.&rdquo;In the days leading up to camp, however, Risebrough&rsquo;s main priority was negotiating new contracts for nine players.Last year, Fletcher agreed to renegotiate deals for two of the Flames&rsquo; most valuable players, Joe Niewendyk and Jamie Macoun.Risebrough inherited that commitment. Moreover, Gary Roberts, another winger lagging behind on the current salary scale, also wanted his contract reworked.Nieuwendyk was supposed to earn $430,000 this year or only $20,000 more than he did a year ago. For a player who has never scored fewer than 45 goals in any NHL season, that&rsquo;s low in today&rsquo;s market. Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s knee injury may put the renegotiation on hold, but his asking price was in the $1 million per season range.Roberts, who had more modest numbers last year, was seeking a more modest raise from the $270,000 that he&rsquo;ll earn this year to around $500,000. Same for Macoun.Then there were the others. Carey Wilson, a free agent, was close to signing a new deal, but two other players going into their options years Doug Gilmour and Joel Otto were not.Gilmour was seeking Guy Carbonneau-] ike numbers between $700,000 and $800,000 per season. As of the last week of August, Otto hadn&rsquo;t even hired an agent to replace Bob Goodenow.So where did it all stand?According to Risebrough: &ldquo;Gilmour and us are still talking. I&rsquo;m not sure how that&rsquo;s going to go. I&rsquo;ve made offers to other people and have yet to hear responses. I can&rsquo;t say they&rsquo;re going well, but I can&rsquo;t say we&rsquo;re totally at an impasse either.&rdquo;As for the players seeking to have old contracts renegotiated, Risebrough said he put them in a different category than free agents or players entering their option years.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t treat a player going into his option year the same way and you can&rsquo;t treat a player with two years left on his contract who wants to renegotiate the same way.&rdquo;However, the players may argue, why not?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s as confusing to them as it is to us,&rdquo; Risebrough continued. &ldquo;You call an agent and ask, &lsquo;What&rsquo;s he worth?&rsquo; He says, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t know.&rsquo; &ldquo;Certainly there are standards in the league and people who can be compared to one another. But how specifically do they compare to your exact situation?Let&rsquo;s talk about the Canadiens. Obviously, they want to offer money to some players who are not only significant players but who are significant to the French culture.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Sept. 1: Neil Sheehy, D, signed freeagent contract. &#9632;

TWO-JOB DOUG DIGS IN FOR HECTIC CAMPAIGN

For 1991, Brown&rsquo;s commitment to excellence is again demonstrated by a variety of new product introductions and innovative refinements.Foremost among these innovations is Brown&rsquo;s new &ldquo;Quick-Flex&rdquo; feature recently incorporated into the Excel series of catching gloves. The &ldquo;Quick-Flex&rdquo; system assures easy break-in and consistent T-trap closure.A significant refinement to both the Excel and traditional series of goal pads includes a new 20 per cent wider profile across the ankle break seam for improved &ldquo;five-hole&rdquo; coverage.As well, for 1991, the popular European-fitted look is now available in the new JB905 Pro and JB855 junior goal pant.With the introduction of our new corporate logo, it&rsquo;s distinctive design and colors will make Brown products even more visible in today&rsquo;s hockey world.Brand new for 1991-92 is John Brown&rsquo;s complete line for Ball Hockey. The same quality of workmanship will go into this series of equipment as is available in our established Ice Hockey Line.Goal pads, catching gloves, blockers and chest/arm protectors will all be available through our Brown dealers just in time for Christmas. &#9632;

BROWN MOVES INTO BALL HOCKEY

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011479/6007407-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021138/6007400-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="1456" height="1704"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011254/6007393-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="1503" height="1679"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-02984/6007386-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="1485" height="1635"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01811/6007379-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="1473" height="1636"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02550/6007372-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="1462" height="1561"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01744/6007365-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="1444" height="2189"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02520/6007358-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="1420" height="2189"></div> &#9632;

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HOCKEY PRODUCT ANALYSIS

New quick and easy way of putting your socks, garter belt, jock strap and underwear on &hellip; HOCKEY HOSE&reg; the revolutionary convenient one piece hockey garment.HOCKEY HOSE is being used by thousands of satisfied amateurs and professionals of all ages.Recently we got a letter from a player who writes &ldquo;Hockey Hose is so convenient, durable, comfortable, machine washable and all in one piece.Now, I don&rsquo;t worry about looking for missing or broken garter belts and jock straps or socks. I save time and money&rdquo;.Parents tell us &ldquo;our kids now get ready by themselves without our help with garter belts and jock straps or falling socks during a game&rdquo;.HOCKEY HOSE is available in NHL colours. Sizes are youth and adult small, medium and large. Suggested retail is $24.95 for youth and $.95 for adult.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011365/6007438-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="513" height="770"></div>Call toll free 1-800-663-0663 for the name of the nearest retailer or write Hockey Hose Canada Inc.,#4 2828 18th N.E. Calgary, Alberta, T2E 7B1. &#9632;

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Attention Hockey Players

Finally a product has been developed that will significantly reduce spinal injuries in contact sports.Few people realize that the spine has less natural protection than the head,&rdquo; says Dr. Howard Fisher, the Canadian chiropractor who invented the Back Strip. &ldquo;If you wouldn&rsquo;t play a contact sport without a helmet, you shouldn&rsquo;t be playing it without spinal protection.The Back Strip is especially effective for children involved in contact sports, where the potential for spinal injury is high.Dr. Fisher says he designed the Back Strip to absorb the sharp initial impact of a blow and spread the focus of the traumatic force over a wider area of the back.&ldquo;It s the diffusion of the force of the blow that greatly reduced the chance of injury to the vulnerable spinal region,&rdquo; Dr. Fisher says.The ideal piece of protective equipment for an athlete must meet very important criterion: the athlete must be confident that he is fully protected but must never be conscious of the equipment. In short, the device must be light, flexible and non-cumbersome. The Back Strip fits this criterion extremely well. &#9632;

SPINAL PAD REDUCES INJURIES

In 1991, CCM delivers yet another leading edge line-up of protective equipment designed to suit the needs of players at every level of the game. From the recreational player to the professional, CCM has got you covered from head to toe.New for &rsquo;91 is the totally redesigned line of CCM hockey pants. The entire line has been remodelled, featuring all new patterns for improved fit, anatomically designed moulded plastic components to provide maximum protection and state of the art foams that make the new CCM hockey pants the lightest ever. It&rsquo;s not surprising that CCM&rsquo;s Supra brand of hockey pants is the most popular pant worn by NHL players.Leading the way is the new SUPRA HP630. It&rsquo;s a professional quality pant featuring all of CCM&rsquo;s design improvements and more. Designed to be the ultimate protective pant, the new HP630 features anatomically shaped eight-inch kidney protectors as well as triple layers of foam and plastic in the critical hip, tailbone and thigh areas. These protective features combined with a cut resistant 400 denier nylon shell, removable for easier cleaning, a two belt closure system and breathable mesh liner make the new HP630 the ideal pant for the serious hockey player.The new Supra HP610 was designed specifically to suit the needs of the serious player looking for top quality protection in a more streamlined hockey pant. To achieve this, CCM designers reduced the height of the kidney protection and tailbone by one-inch, allowing for a significant weight reduction and an increased range of motion for the player. The HP630 also features a cut resistant 400 denier nylon shell, removable for easier cleaning, a two-belt closure system and a comfortable brushed nylon lining.For the recreational player the new Supra HP410 offers tremendous fit and protection in a pant weighing barely three pounds. The HP410 combines many of the features of CCM&rsquo;s top end pants with lightweight foams and plastic to provide a lightweight pant ideal for the recreational player.Developed specifically for noncontact and recreational hockey, the new Supra HP210 delivers a package that is unbeatable. A durable 200 denier nylon shell, comfortable brushed nylon lining, anatomically designed plastic and foam components and a single belt closure system all add up to the ideal recreational hockey pant weighing only 2.8 pounds.For the up and coming players of tomorrow and those who play just for fun, CCM introduces its all new Powerline HP90 hockey pants. The HP90 combines lightweight foams and plastic with a 200 denier nylon shell to provide the best protection in its category and it only weighs two pounds.For goaltenders, CCM offers the pro quality Supra HP630G, a modified version of their regular HP630 featuring reinforced thigh and crotch protection as well as improved protection in the tailbone area.The recreational goaltender&rsquo;s needs are addressed by the all new Supra HP300G, a modified version of the HP410 that utilizes thicker foams and heavier gauge plastic in all of the critical areas to provide excellent protection from impact.But that&rsquo;s not all. CCM also offers a full range of protective equipment including the HT3 helmet, worn by over 90 per cent of NHL players, their lightweight Supra glove, worn by 70 per cent of NHL players, and a full range of shoulder, elbow and shin pads worn by pros and juniors alike. &#9632;

CCM HOCKEY PANTS OFFER COMPLETE PROTECTION

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011102/6007517-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">It didn&rsquo;t take Wayne Gretzky tong to switch to an Easton aluminum stick.</figcaption></div>Until Easton came along a few years ago, hockey sticks hadn&rsquo;t changed in more than a decade. Except for a couple of failed attempts at introducing composites and graphites, the wood and fiberglass stick had been king. Well, now there&rsquo;s a new king on the block and like Wayne Gretzky, he lives in Los Angeles.Jim Easton is the man behind the stick that has literally changed the hockey industry. Jim&rsquo;s father, Doug Easton, founded the company in 1922 when he discovered that aluminum was a better material with which to make arrows if you wanted them to fly straight.From that beginning has come an innovative sports company which makes top quality products for archery, golf, windsurfing, biking, outdoor gear, baseball and hockey.When Wayne Gretzky made the switch last year, Jim Easton was more than pleased.&ldquo;We knew Wayne was responding positively to the testing, but we had no idea he would be prepared to make a long-term commitment to us so quickly,&rdquo; Easton said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a decision which we are very happy about and it&rsquo;s a tribute to our engineers and marketing people. To satisfy the game&rsquo;s greatest player and one who has not seen fit to make a change in nearly 10 years, is the ultimate statement Easton Sports can make.&rdquo;Now, over 80 NHL players will take to the ice this season with Easton aluminum sticks and thousands more are following suit all across North America and Europe.Gary Whittaker, president of Easton Sports Canada, estimates Easton&rsquo;s market share has more than doubled in the past year.Says Whittaker: &ldquo;With the explosion in stick and blade sales at Easton, I believe we now sell close to 20 per cent of all sticks in North America. With an expanded line this year, that share of the market is stiffer and stronger.&rdquo;The latest additions to Easton&rsquo;s line include the HXC6000, a superstiff, convex shaft designed to give the player a fuller feel in his hands. This stick comes with a new blade, sporting fibreglass reinforcement to make it stiffer and stronger.With its stick business booming, Easton has turned its attention to another area of business which has not seen innovations for years&mdash;hockey gloves.This season, Easton introduces a revolutionary duo of hockey gloves featuring no less than four unique features developed by Easton&mdash;the GX9500 AIR and the GX7500 AIR. These gloves are designed to fit the shape of the hand as it grips the hockey stick. It boasts a floating cuff which provides complete mobility of the wrist and hand while still protecting the forearm area.A three-layer air pad covering the back of the hand provides additional protection from stick slashes and the new exclusive tack palm gives players a firmer grip of the stick.&ldquo;These gloves are light years ahead of the competition and are game ready the instant they come out of the bag,&rdquo; Whittaker said. &ldquo;We may not have enough stock to keep up with the demand. People are definitely looking for something better and are willing to try it when it comes along.&rdquo;Easton has also taken some of these features to its intermediate style GX1450 and GX145, in addition to its junior GX2, GX1 and GX99 gloves.On the equipment front, Easton again showed innovation with the introduction of the Donzis management air system a couple of years ago.This year, Easton has retainec Donzis air management protectior while streamlining their equipment in making pads which conform more to the body.Finally, Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s influ ence on the Easton line is mos apparent with the Kid Easton line This is an upscale, super protec tive line of equipment designed ex clusively for kids 7-12 years old. I features a glove (GX99) in two col ors, shoulder pads (SP99), shir pads (SG99) and elbow pad: (EP99). The cosmetics are distinc tively Los Angeles Kings with black, silver and white theme.The last word goes to Whittaker &ldquo;Kid Easton is just another natu ral step in our evolution to becom a full line hockey supplier, offerin&rsquo; innovative product to today&rsquo;s hock ey player no matter what his age.Wayne Gretzky and his co leagues are shining examples c this philosophy. &#9632;

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EASTON REVOLUTION NOW FOCUSING ON GLOVES

The beat goes on for Dr. Tom Pashby.The 76-year-old Toronto rthalmolgist&mdash;the man most re-ponsible for the widespread acceptance of facemasks, cages id visors in amateur hockey&mdash;is stting his sights on a new goal: locating senior players on the importance of wearing face protection.&ldquo;What I&rsquo;d really like to see, what I&rsquo;ve been striving for some time, is to get adults wearing some form of protection,&rdquo; Pashby said. &ldquo;If we did that, then we could really save eyes.&rdquo;Full facial protection&mdash;either in the form of clear facemasks or wire cages&mdash;has been mandatory in the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association since 1979. And the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States (now Hockey USA) has required all of its players to wear full facial protection since 1978.But adult recreational leagues&mdash;one of the most popular levels of hockey in Canada&mdash;have no standards regulating the mandatory use of a visor.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d really like to see the Canadian Oldtimers Association make it a mandatory practise,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s like the helmet story with a lot of the older guys. To put something on their head while they&rsquo;re playing doesn&rsquo;t feel right, so they don&rsquo;t use it. It&rsquo;s a mistake.&rdquo;&ldquo;The things we have to eliminate are the catastrophic injuries&mdash;the injuries that have lasting physical and mental effects. Senior players are very susceptible to those types of injuries.&ldquo;I remember one fellow in Cambridge, Ont., who owned a trucking business and he lost an eye playing hockey. Now he can&rsquo;t drive a truck.&rdquo;The chairman of the Canadian Standards Association committee for Protective Equipment for Ice Hockey since the 1978-79 season, Pashby has helped formulate helmet and facemask standards in Canada. Specifications laid down by the committee are used as guidelines by virtually all hockey playing nations around the world.As a direct result of Pashby&rsquo;s efforts, not a single eye has been lost in CAHA games by players wearing full facemasks. At least 160 others have been legally blinded in Canadian hockey since 1979.In addition to his campaign to make visors mandatory at the senior level, Pashby recently helped develop new CSA approved helmet/masks for amateur goaltenders.&ldquo;There was a demand to create a standard for a mask/facemask combination from the CAHA and OHA last year,&rdquo; Pashby said. &ldquo;A young goaltender from Smith Falls was forced to take off his custommade mask (the type worn by NHL players) because it wasn&rsquo;t CAHA approved. Shortly thereafter, he was injured. So we&rsquo;ve tried to develop a standard for amateur goalies.&rdquo;Pashby has a four-point plan to minimize catastrophic injuries in hockey. First, rules must be enforced more diligently than they currently are.Says Pashby: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s a question of writing new rules. The rules we have now are sufficient. I think it&rsquo;s more a case of enforcing them and teaching players to change their thinking.&rdquo;Second, equipment must be certified. Third, the size of the rink should be increased from 85 X 200 feet to 100 X 200 feet and the goal line moved 13 feet from the end boards. It&rsquo;s 10 now. And fourth, players should be good sports.To help prevent catastrophic eye, head and spinal cord injuries in sports and recreational activities, The Dr. Tom Pasby Sports Safety Fund was established in 1990. To date, more than $40,000 has been raised.For his work in the field, Dr. Pashby was named Inside Hockey&rsquo;s Man of the Year in 1990. The magazine donated $10,000 to the fund. &#9632;

PASHBY SETS SIGHTS ON EDUCATING SENIORS

Before you introduce your son or daughter to the wonderful world of hockey this season, better check the credit limit on your charge card.Hockey is not only one of the fastest games around, it&rsquo;s also pretty quick on the pocketbook.Unlike the soccer, baseball or basketball player, the hockey athlete has to cover himself with protective equipment from head to toe.During the wonder years a touque, pair of mittens and a few catalogues stuffed in strategic places was good enough. That just won&rsquo;t cut it anymore.When it&rsquo;s decided your son or daughter is old enough to start playing organized hockey, be careful about how you go about satisfying your equipment needs. Remember, most experts suggest a child learn to skate recreationally at least two seasons before enrolling in hockey at the competitive level.The following is a price guide index for a six-to-eight-year-old child just getting started. Several sporting goods stores in Toronto were called at random Sept. 4, 1991.Helmet: Probably the most important piece of equipment, the helmet was a relatively late addition to the overall protection package. It has also undergone the most stringent safety standard tests. Price&hellip;$40-60.Mask: Another vital component of the package that didn&rsquo;t become popular until the 1970s. The flimsy mouthguard has been replaced by a cage mask or a see-through visor. Price&hellip;$24-44. Some retailers sell a complete helmet/mask for $70-75.Throat protector: The latest in protective equipment is now mandatory in most minor hockey associations. Price&hellip;$16-48.Shoulder pads: Make sure your child tries them on and is fully flexible. A pair too small or too large can restrict movement. A good set should last several years. Price&hellip;$25-189.Elbow pads: If you don&rsquo;t have them, you&rsquo;ll be given an elbowing penalty. Seriously, they&rsquo;re just as important when falling down as they are along the boards. Price&hellip;$15-45.Athletic support: Don&rsquo;t leave home without it. Price&hellip;$7-15.Garter belt: Without them, you&rsquo;ll get your socks knocked off. Price&hellip;$9-13.Shinpads: You&rsquo;ll be surprised how fast your child grows out of them. Proper length is very important. Price&hellip;$15-80.Socks: Just in case the team doesn&rsquo;t throw them in with the sweater. Price&hellip;$8-19.Pants: Offers protection both front and back&mdash;everywhere but the keester. Price&hellip;$25-125.Gloves: A well-made pair of gloves can last a young player several seasons. Price&hellip;$20-60.Skates: Kids seem to go through them like a bag of candy. Price&hellip;$73-200.Stick: Don&rsquo;t keep a stick too long or too variant in lie, even if it has Mario Lemieux&rsquo; name scribed down the side. Price&hellip;$11-25.Throw in the little things like tape, skate guards, duffle bag, water bottle, maybe even some loose change for cocoa and a snack after each game and you&rsquo;re looking at over $300. For the equipment alone, expect to pay somewhere between $325 and $923.But, it&rsquo;s not all doom and gloom for the expectant parent. A child can be equiped well at a reasonable cost.Many minor hockey leagues run equipment exchange programs at the start of the season. Or a parent can protect their child through used equipment stores.The important thing to remember is that top-of-the-line equipment isn&rsquo;t always the only alternative to the parent worried over their child&rsquo;s protection. &#9632;

BUYING EQUIPMENT FOR YOUR YOUNG ROOKIE

There&rsquo;s one reason why Cooper Goalie equipment has enjoyed more N HL support over the years than any other brand: Because of experience.Cooper has enjoyed a heritage that has spanned seven decades maneuverability.Other brands have come and gone, but Cooper remains the world leader in goal equipment.Why? Because Cooper has been around the game longer. And therefore, it has developed a unique understanding of where the game of hockey has been&mdash;and where it&rsquo;s going.And now Cooper is proud to present Cooper Legends, an equipment line that consists of the Legend goal pad, catch glove, blocker and upper body protector, all created using the latest technology with the craftsmanship of the past.The GP LGD Super Pro goal pad is especially impressive. This model is constructed using lightweight foam, combined with conventional styling for maximum performance.The use of foam construction makes the pad 40 per cent lighter and at least 35 per cent more protective than conventional pads.And the deep leg channel, internal knee-lock and padded dome pocket on the boot, actually locks the player&rsquo;s leg into the pad for an unprecedented fit.The GP LGD also features a special internal foam &ldquo;Saw Cut&rdquo; knee, allowing the player to achieve exceptional bend and flexibility at the knee.In catch gloves, Cooper Legend features a unique GMLGDC Super Pro model which utilizes a special side trap, allowing for a dramatic expansion of usable catching surface in the glove.This feature actually eliminates errant rebounds off the cuff and allows the goalie to freeze the puck.The unique bar and web system at the base of the cuff allows the goalie to more effectively cover the space between the body and the arm.This high performance catch glove also incorporates an extended &ldquo;Comfort Flex&rdquo; thumb for improved stick control and protection. It features a large T-trap with an extended scoop and is poly-backed from top to bottom.Like the GMLGDC CATCH, the Legends GMLGDS Super Pro Blocker incorporates new, precedent-setting features, placing it in a class all its own.For example, GMLGDS features &ldquo;The Wedge&rdquo;&mdash;a unique concave blocking surface with a curved top to provide exceptional multidirectional rebound control.It also sports a new cuff design that allows comfortable interaction with the arm pads and makes puck handling much easier.Another superior feature is the large, one-piece thumb that provides exceptional protection and maneuverability.The Legends SALGD Super Pro upper body protector was specifically created to meet the demands of today&rsquo;s goalies who require exceptional flexibility to stop exceptionally fast shots.With this in mind, the SALGD was created with ultra-slim design in the elbow, shoulder and chest area for maximum freedom of movement.Further, the chest pad is tapered in the middle to allow greater mobility. A new two piece overlapping side and belly wing system also ensures protection to the midbody area.And the design features a unique lace-in neck collar that&rsquo;s adjustable to two positions. This allows for a custom fit, again, enhancing the goalie&rsquo;s flexibility and overall performance.There are myths. And then there are Legends.Cooper separates fact from fiction through experience. &#9632;

COOPER GOALIE EQUIPMENT THE REAL McCOY

The 1991 Sherwood collection presents a line of protective ice hockey equipment which offers protection, comfort, performance and style.From the design stage to the choice of materials and state-of-the-art manufacturing methods, Sherwood&rsquo;s foremost priority is to produce exceptional-quality protective equipment for playing ice hockey.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01713/6007634-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="542" height="1144"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Chelios is one of Sherwood&rsquo;s happy customers.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02384/6007627-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="533" height="590"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03203/6007620-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="531" height="1134"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pittsburgh speedster Paul Coffey likes his sure wood.</figcaption></div>Combining protection and light weight, Sherwood protective equipment has been designed to perfectly fit the different parts of the body protected.By utilizing&mdash;in their product design&mdash;the most advanced technology and materials available for dispersing energy, the manufacturers of Sherwood protective equipment have been successful in minimizing the critical impact of shock waves to articulations.All protective components&mdash;such as the shell and parts covering the shins, collarbones and humeri&mdash;are made of high-quality polyethylene, assuring the best resistance to impact available.The liner is unquestionably the determining factor that assures comfort in a piece of protective equipment. All Sherwood protective equipment is lined with hypoallergenic polyethylene foam featuring Volara intertwined cells covered on both sides with a superior quality polyester knit providing unbeatable comfort.Nylon straps and top-quality elastic bands afford perfect stability and fit to all users of protective equipment.Designed and manufactured in Canada, Sherwood protective equipment is synonymous with quality products reflecting the high standards of a world-class company. &#9632;

f0021-01

SHERWOOD STICKS IT TO THE COMPETITION

Louisville Hockey has expanded into the protective equipment category with a wide offering of products.The Air Cushion system introduced last year will remain the same with the Defender model, except this year it will feature prominent Louisville TPS (Tournament Players Series) markings. New this year will be the TPX Lite Shoulder pad (S-XL), a pro style dual flexknee pad and a lycra-elastic elbow pad; all with the dual air system.Along with the high-tech air cushioned TPS protective equipment, Louisville will also be offer a Competitive Series with XLT markings. This series will also contain a lightweight elbow pad (three sizes) plus a high-impact foampadded knee pad in five sizes.Along with the NHL quality pro leather TPS gloves offered, 1991 will also bring a nylon version TPS glove (five colors), complete with a clarino palm in both 14- and 12-inch sizes. Rounding out the glove line will be a Steve Yzerman Autograph Series in a fastback style. The fastback model will be available in four colors and three sizes.Louisville will be showing a top-end European-style hockey pant complete with embroidered Louisville and TPS markings. This two-system, high-density polyethylene protected pant comes in five styles along with a custom program to suit any team. In addition to the TPS line, there will be mid-range Competition Series pants in four colors.For the goaltender, Louisville is introducing a professional quality chest and arm protector. In addition, a deluxe chest-arm protector with a back protector will be offered in white. A TPS goal pant with high-density foam and polyethylene components provide maximum protection, with a lightweight effect.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01836/6007679-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="558" height="720"><figcaption class="caption-body">The new TPS European-styled pants.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02580/6007672-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="559" height="451"><figcaption class="caption-body">New Louisville Pro Goaler chest and arm protector.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03415/6007665-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="555" height="568"><figcaption class="caption-body">TPS pro leather gloves are worn by several NHLers, including Steve Yzerman and Pat LaFontaine.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

LOUISVILLE IS A SLUGGER IN EQUIPMENT

Not long after Denis Savard was traded from Chicago to Montreal in the summer of 1990, he paid a visit to Karhu&rsquo;s offices in Lachine, Que.He went with the idea of simply picking up a few new sticks. He left with an understanding (and some equipment) which may have saved his career.&ldquo;Denis asked me to put some sticks in his car,&rdquo; explained Karhu opro representative Jacques Chias-rson. &ldquo;When I opened the trunk and saw the equipment he was using, I couldn&rsquo;t believe it. I said, &lsquo;Denis, you&rsquo;re playing with almost children&rsquo;s equipment.&rdquo;When Chiasson pressed Savard about his reasons for utilizing the ancient gear, Savard said it was comfortable, that he couldn&rsquo;t get the same lightweight feel from new equipment.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01748/6007710-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="551" height="656"><figcaption class="caption-body">Denis Savard had gotten used to wearing &ldquo;child-like&rdquo; gear.</figcaption></div>Chiasson figured that because of the superstar status Savard had attained in Chicago, he had never been pressured by the Blackhawk training staff to upgrade his equipment. So, being the good friend he is, Chiasson took it upon himself.&ldquo;I took the stuff and threw it on the ground,&rdquo; said Chiasson. &ldquo;I told him he was lucky he had never been seriously hurt. I gave him shin front of all our employees.&rdquo;Chiasson then proceeded to outfit Savard with, among other things, new shin pads and convinced the swift skating center to try them over the off-season.Two weeks later Chiasson got a call from Savard. The new Hab had been playing recreational hockey when he went leg first into the boards at full speed. Savard escaped the collision unharmed.&ldquo;He called and thanked me for saving his season,&rdquo; said Chiasson.Chiasson, and his counterparts at companies such as Canstar, Easton, CCM and Louisville, pride themselves on preventing injuries. But reps from all the manufacturers will tell you it&rsquo;s not always an easy task.&ldquo;Ninety-five per cent of the guys wear stock equipment,&rdquo; said CCM&rsquo;s Jon Hodgins. &ldquo;But there are a few who request custom fits, especially for pants.&rdquo;For the most part, it&rsquo;s the veteran players such as Savard who resist change, said Chiasson. Many have gotten used to a particular style and are afraid a switch at an advanced stage of their careers would be counterproductive. Even if their existing equipment is downright dangerous.&ldquo;(Montreal&rsquo;s) Guy Carbonneau took a slap shot off his knee cap,&rdquo; said Chiasson. &ldquo;The shin guard didn&rsquo;t break, but it was in such bad shape that it had to be thrown away. But (Carbonneau) didn&rsquo;t want to change.&rdquo;While older players find it hardest to part with their equipment, it&rsquo;s the goaltenders who are the fussiest.&ldquo;They know their equipment much better than the players,&rdquo; said Jim Geary, pro representative for Canstar. &ldquo;Guys like Allan Bester, Pete Peeters and Ron Hextall are really fussy; but they know what they want.&ldquo;Of course, we don&rsquo;t complain about the goalies being choosy. They&rsquo;re the customers; we&rsquo;re here to please.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0023-01

SAVARDIAN SPIN-A-RAMA SAVED BY HARD SELL

Every oldtimer&rsquo;s league has them. A guy walks into the dressing room with NHL-calibre equipment and then it turns out he only has pick up-calibre talent.But to equipment manufacturers the more adult players who think they can play like Wayne Gretzky if they dress like him the better. And adult hockey is one of the fastest growing recreational activities in canada&mdash;which is a bonus to the &ldquo;manufacturers of top-of-the-line equipment.But the main reason adult hockey players buy top-of-the-line equipment is because of the increased protection. The increased cost isn&rsquo;t as much of a factor because as the player gets older he has more disposable income.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a big believer that you get what you pay for,&rdquo; says COM&rsquo;s director of marketing Jon Hodgins. &ldquo;The more you pay the better protection you get. A guy will go into a store and he knows what he wants and he is going to buy it. You see it in critical areas&mdash;shinpads, pants, A helmets. He&rsquo;ll buy the best available.&rdquo;COM is a solid No. 2 (behind Canstar) in the equipment market, says Hodgins, but they are the strongest brand in the NHL. Most players in the NHL use stock equipment so there is an appeal to having the same equipment your favorite players use. But the NHL exposure is important to generate interest in the adult market.&ldquo;We concentrate a lot of effort on it,&rdquo; says Hodgins. &ldquo;With us the NHL exposure is very important.&rdquo; M The equipment manufacturers use that NHL exposure to not only attract adult players to their products but to get minor hockey players using them. The theory is that once a 10-year-old uses a brand, then if he likes it he&rsquo;ll use it throughout his playing days.&ldquo;The players move into the top-of-the-line equipment as they get older because they have more money to spend on it but also because they can&rsquo;t afford to get injured,&rdquo; says Hodgins, who uses top-of-the-line equipment. &ldquo;He can&rsquo;t afford to miss time at work just because he didn&rsquo;t have the right equipment.&rdquo;The right equipment can be expensive but to some players money is no object. In some cases the top-of-the-line equipment can be $100-$150 more.So instead of paying $130 for a pair of gloves or $150 for a pair of pants, the adult player might opt for the $200 gloves and $225 pants. And those players are on the increase as is the adult hockey market.&ldquo;A retailers&rsquo; association did a study of the fastest growing sports and oldtimers&rsquo; hockey came out fourth,&rdquo; says Larry Regan, the president of the Canadian Oldtimers&rsquo; Hockey Association. &ldquo;A couple of years ago it was seventh.&rdquo;Oldtimers hockey includes play-&ldquo;ers 35 years and older who enter a lot of tournaments while players 20-30 years old are more likely to play in adult non-contact leagues.&ldquo;No ifs, ands or buts, the adult players spend more on their equipment,&rdquo; says Regan, who played five seasons in the NHL with Boston and Toronto. &ldquo;They have more money and they are more concerned with injury. No one playing recreational hockey can afford an injury.&rdquo;There are about 300,000 members in the COHA either through leagues or tournaments, says Regan, and the average age is 44.&ldquo;The older guys can afford the more expensive equipment while the guys 20-25 are still struggling to raise a family. And the companies are starting to aim towards older players.&ldquo;Oldtimers&rsquo; hockey has been a good little business,&rdquo; says Regan.&ldquo;In the 70s and 80s it was the salvation of municipal arenas and now the number of private arenas being built shows how it has grown.&rdquo;And as grows the boom in adult hockey so grows the market in top-of-the-line equipment. &#9632;

ADULT BOOM A BONANZA FOR TOP-END EQUIPMENT

Now it&rsquo;s time to face reality with the Pearce Custom Mask (P.C.M. Pro I Deflector), an affordable means of protection.Made of fiberglass and kevlar lamination and designed to deflect, the Deflector offers comfort and excellent air flow ventilation. The skullcap is designed to conform to the shape of the mask, therefore enclosing the back of the head.This mask comes in two sizes&mdash;small and large&mdash;making it easy to adjust comfortably and also eliminates the lengthy wait for your mask (allow two to three weeks for delivery).The deflector is padded completely with half-inch and one-eighth-inch foam on top and bottom and respectively. It has a removable sweat band and adjustable chin cup and with extended throat area there is no need for awkward throat protectors. &#9632;

AIM IS TO DEFLECT

Since 1978, Mitchell Enterprises Custom Design Equipment Inc., has been manufacturing custom goalie equipment from novice to pro.Over the years, Mitchell Enterprises has sought out the highest quality in materials. Durability and the best in craftsmanship, combined with some of the highest standards in the industry, makes for an winning combination.Introduced for this season is a revolutionary new line of goal equipment called: &ldquo;The Premier.&rdquo; First conceived in the fall 1989, we are now ready for a new era to begin.The Premier goal pad utilizes new, light-weight materials built with a conventional design. The comfortable fit and precise &ldquo;balance&rdquo; places this pad above others. &#9632;

PREMIER IS FIRST

Blue Armadillo Inc. of Niagara Falls began promoting its new Armordillo impact protection hockey shirt last year. And already, orders are coming in from the most discriminating customers of all&mdash;NHL players.Worn under the jersey, the Armordillo shirt is specially designed to help reduce back injuries caused by hits from behind by absorbing the impact of checks, sticks, boarding, goal post collisions, high speed slap shots and skates.The secret is a permanently built-in protective padding which conforms to the shape of the back and is made of EVAZOT-50&mdash;a flexible, shock-absorbing material. Although only a quarter-inch thick, the vinyl nitrile can take a terrific beating and leave the wearer of the shirt unscathed.The Armordillo shirt is of a comfortable polyester mesh material. Porous and vented, it breathes to allow natural dispersion of body heat and moisture. Flexible (allowing complete unrestricted movement) and light weight (under six ounces for adults, four for children), the shirt is machine washable.According to Niagara Falls Review sports writer John Williams, Armordillo inventor James Croteau will go down in history as &ldquo;the pioneer who redefined the parameters of protective hockey equipment.&rdquo; Enthusiastic response to the shirt&mdash;from players, trainers and retailers&mdash;supports Williams&rsquo; prediction.At both the 1990 Professional Hockey Athletic Trainers&rsquo; Society trade show in Indianapolis and the 1991 Canadian Sporting Goods Show in Montreal, the Armordillo was extremely well received. And the Canadian Industrial Innovation Centre in Waterloo, Ont. recently showcased the shirt as a promising new product and gave it a perfect rating.Comments from professional and amateur sources are equally favorable. Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; trainer Mark O&rsquo;Neill calls it &ldquo;a good device because it protects the offensive player in front of the opposition&rsquo;s net from cross checking and slashing.&rdquo;Dennis Scott of the Niagara Falls Thunder of the Ontario League says, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy with it and I feel everyone (of our players) will be wearing it next year.&rdquo; &#9632;

SHIRT AS TOUGH AS ARMADILLO

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN DUPONT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01729/6007837-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="545" height="582"></div>School is back. Fall is upon us. Throughout much of North America, especially hockey playing North America (and, really, what else counts?), the foliage has started to fall.Question: Can the gloves be far behind?In the interest of new students and upperclassmen alike, we here at The Hockey News have compiled a faithful-fan&rsquo;s glossary for the upcoming 1991-92 hockademic year.Throw away your rule book, banana blade stick, bell-bottom trousers and nehru jacket. Forget what your first coach told you about shooting, passing, Dit Clapper or the Flying Frenchmen. No doubt you&rsquo;ve heard some of these words, names, places, definitions and rule interpretations over the years. But, like the game itself, meanings change.Time marches on, part of the reason Harold Snepsts doesn&rsquo;t, and the most informed, knowledgable fan needs some remedial work now and again. So, here we go. Remember, pay attention and take notes. Steve Dryden, our new boss here at THN, has hinted that there could be a pop quiz.Note: Not listed in order of importance, alphabetical order or by any measure of common sense or potential later use (i.e., just like school):Glasnost: For the world at large, it has meant economic and social reform&mdash;with a few toppled monuments mixed in&mdash;throughout the USSR. In hockey, where we used to say, &ldquo;The only good Russian is a dead Russian,&rdquo; it now means saying, &ldquo;The only good Russian is under contract, on the next plane out of Moscow, and dreams of drinking Molson&rsquo;s from Lord Stanislava&rsquo;s Cup.&rdquo;Cross-checking: The state of mind 22 NHL general managers enter en masse when they issue their escalating weekly payroll.Free agency: Long thought to be the players&rsquo; way to megabucks and choice of playing site. As of Sept. 3,1991, when New Jersey was awarded Scott Stevens from St. Louis for losing &ldquo;free agent&rdquo; Brendan Shanahan, the term represents every players right to stay put, play hockey where he&rsquo;s told or open a Motel 6 in the city of his choice. Judge Edward Houston will surely keep a light on for you.Goon: Okay, so not everything changes. See pictures of Chris Nilan, Marty McSorley, Jay Miller and Troy Crowder in upcoming issues of THN. And don&rsquo;t count against Dave Schultz crashing an autograph show near you. He signs with a two-hander.John Ziegler: Still the NHL president, with seniority over all the presidents and poobahs of baseball, football and basketball. We&rsquo;re not sure what that means, other than that a yellow tie and coiffed hair might be the way to proving that you can fool all of the people all of the time.Spearing: Until recently, the attempt of a player to skewer an opponent with his stick, as outlined in Section 6, Rule 78 of the NHL rule book. Rarely called, however. It now applies solely to the reported $3-million salary request Eric Lindros made to the Quebec Nordiques.Video replay: Over the summer, the Board of Governors finally approved the use of cameras to bring hockey into the 20th century. Who knows what change they&rsquo;ve got cooked up for the year 2091 to bring the game into the 21st century.Wink: A four-letter word for collusion. Shake hands with an NHL owner and you&rsquo;ll swear he has a nervous tick, a bad contact lens or a night on the town planned with Ted Kennedy.Bury the biscuit: A charming, but outdated expression for shooting the puck in the net. Now a promotion to be picked up soon as a between-periods gimmick, not unlike Score-O, in which a participant will shuttle some oversized Oreo or Loma Doone down ice for cash or other prizes. A creation of league exec Steve Ryan, The promo could be enough to bring the chubby Vladimir Krutov running back to Vancouver.99: The number made famous by Wayne Gretzky.66: The number made famous by Mario Lemieux.0: The amount of public sympathy a player walkout would receive if a new Collective Bargaining Agreement couldn&rsquo;t be reached. Part of hockey&rsquo;s charm is that it remains very much a working man&rsquo;s sport&mdash;excluding a smattering of yuppies and glitzseekers in L.A. Most working mencan&rsquo;t understand thumbing one&rsquo;s nose at a chance to work in the $200,000-$3,000,000 salary bracket.Tampa Bay: A Florida hockey town discovered by the Italians (brothers Phil and Tony Esposito), his Japanese investors, the Duke of Manchester, England (temporarily) and currently trying to be put on the map by George Steinbrenner (a man from another world altogether).Oh, there&rsquo;s the bell, gotta go. Remember, study up, and spelling counts. And, please, no slapshots in the cafeteria.Kevin Dupont is a hockey writer for the Boston Globe. &#9632;

f0027-01

SCHOOL’S IN AS HOCKEY SEASON GETS UNDERWAY

<h2>BLUES</h2>Blues&rsquo; players reacted angrily to an arbitrator&rsquo;s decision to award defenseman Scott Stevens to New Jersey as compensation for Brendan Shanahan. They lashed out at the league and called for massive changes in the free agency system in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. &ldquo;There are no rights for players,&rdquo; Jeff Brown said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost like the owners are running the show. If a player goes up against the league, he&rsquo;ll lose. And if one of the owners goes up against the league, he&rsquo;ll lose. It just kills free agency.&rdquo;&hellip;Vincent Riendeaudidn&rsquo;t use the word &ldquo;collusion&rdquo; but he wondered aloud about whether it has been a factor in the lack of free agent movement. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s something going on,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Eddie Belfourhasn&rsquo;t had one offer, and Guy Carbonneaudidn&rsquo;t get one phone call. We&rsquo;re not that stupid. No offers from anybody? Give me a break.&rdquo;&hellip;Brian Smith, the attorney who successfully prevented Dale McCourt&rsquo;s transfer from Detroit to Los Angeles as compensation for Rogie Vachon, said Stevens might have a good case against the NHL on antitrust violations. &ldquo;We convinced the court that there&rsquo;s nothing that inhibits competition in a free market more than uncertainty,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s suppose that someone wants to buy a movie theatre or a business, and the seller says, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll sell. Sign a contract, and after you sign, I&rsquo;ll let you know what the cost is. &lsquo;No one in his right mind would make that buy, and that&rsquo;s exactly what we have in the NHL. Who is going to sign a player and not know what the cost is?&rdquo;<h2>NORTH STARS</h2>The Stars still haven&rsquo;t settled on an announcing crew for game telecasts this season. KSTP-AM refused to release play-by-play broadcaster Al Shaver to do TV games&hellip;Four players will miss the start of training camp because of obligations in the Canada Cup: Mark Tinordi (Canada), Ulf Dahlen (Sweden) and Mike Modano and Jim Johnson (U.S)&hellip;All of the seats at the Met Center have been reupholstered in red fabric.<h2>BLACKHAWKS</h2>The Blackhawks invited 74 players to training camp, including a record seven Europeans. They are: goalie Dominik Hasek and defensemen Frantisek Kucera. Ivan Droppa and Milan Tichy from Czechoslovakia; Finnish center Tommi Pullola; Swedish winger Stefan Elvenas; and Soviet defenseman Igor Kravchuk. Only Kravchuk is not expected to report since he&rsquo;s playing for the Soviet Union in the Canada Cup and is committed to playing for Russia in the Olympics in February. Kravchuk was a fourth-round pick last June&hellip;Also invited to camp was defenseman Steve Chelios, Chris&rsquo; 23-year-old brother. The younger Chelios played last season for Roanoke in the East Coast League&hellip;The Hawks had an interest in signing Edmonton free-agent center Adam Graves, but backed off when they found out Graves was asking for $500,000 a season.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03287/6007899-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="532" height="572"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gerard Gallant had off-season surgery to correct a back problem,</figcaption></div><h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2>Left winger Wendel Clark, who suffered a deep bruise to his right knee during Team Canada&rsquo;s first Canada Cup exhibition game, was on the ice for the first day of practice Sept. 7 at the Newmarket Recreational Complex, former home of the club&rsquo; s AHL affiliate. Through two days of camp, the Leafs&rsquo; new captain experienced no problems with the knee&hellip;One player expected to draw close attention early in camp was center Peter Zezel. who was reportedly 10-15 pounds overweight. Zezel was signed by a Canadian Soccer League team in the offseason to play the last month of the season but only appeared in one game. Team officials apparently felt he was too heavy to play regularly&hellip;GM Cliff Fletcher has vowed to put a lock on the revolving door that swung so furiously in Toronto last season. &ldquo;Once camp has ended and the roster finalized,&rdquo; said Fletcher, &ldquo;those players will be given every opportunity to jel.&rdquo;<h2>RED WINGS</h2>The Wings invited 82 players to camp, which opened Sept. 6. Among them is Gerard Gallantwho&rsquo;s healthy again after off-season surgery to correct a back problem. &ldquo;I hope,&rdquo; Gallant said. &ldquo;I feel real good. I&rsquo;mprobably in the best shape I&rsquo;ve ever been in this time of year. I&rsquo;m excited about the season.&rdquo;&hellip;The day before players were to report, forwards Dave Barr and Alan Kerr and defenseman Yves Racine agreed to new deals. Barr signed on for two more seasons, then joined right winger Randy McKay going to New Jersey as the compensation package for Troy Crowder. Kerr signed on for one year and Racine, who was entering his option year, for three&hellip;As camp opened, the Wings still were looking for another goaltender. They seemed resigned to going a month into the season with the tandem of Tim Cheveldae and Allan Bester. However, goaltending coach Phil Myre said he expected second-year pro Dave Gagnon to challenge Bester for the No. 2 job. &#9632;

f0027-03

BLUES APPALLED BY JUDGE’S RULING

<div class="byline">BY MARK HARDING</div>The old adage &ldquo;easier said than done&rdquo; has recently become Cliff Fletcher&rsquo;s motto.The Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; general manager desperately wants to execute a blockbuster trade. He has even pinpointed the area of primary concern, goaltending, and named the proposed solution, Grant Fuhr.He&rsquo;s fully aware that while Mike Bullard, Kevin McClelland, Bob Halkidis and Joel Quenneville&mdash;his main signings since taking over July 1&mdash;will play varying roles of importance in the organization this winter, they are just that: Role players.Though he made no outright promises to land Fuhr or a top-flight free agent when he succeeded Floyd Smith, Fletcher realizes Leaf fans are expecting at least one deal that will register on the Richter scale before the season starts.To that end, Fletcher rang up some serious long distance phone bills in recent weeks as he tried to land one of either Fuhr, Sean Burke or Mike Vernon.The rumor mill spun non-stop for days until finally, on the eve of training camp opening Sept. 7, serious talks were held with Edmonton GM Glen Sather concerning Fuhr.Although media reports speculated a multi-player swap involving Fuhr and Mark Messier was on the table, Fletcher said that if a deal was consummated only one player, Fuhr, would be heading to Toronto.The reported swap had wingers Vincent Damphousse and Daniel Marois, junior netminding sensation Felix Potvin and defenseman Luke Richardson bound for Alberta with Messier and Fuhr headed east.A host of other names, including Kelly Buchberger, Glenn Anderson, Jeff Beukeboom and Kevin Lowe of the Oilers and Rob Pearson of the Leafs were also included in the speculation.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to give the impression that something is going down for sure,&rdquo; said Fletcher.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still discussing a few things,&rdquo; offered Sather.There can be little doubt Fletcher will make some kind of major transaction. Given his expectations for the Leafs this season and their roster entering training camp, something will need to be altered if those goals are to be met.While stating on the one hand that there are no miracle cures for what ails Toronto, Fletcher has set some rather lofty goals that will only be reached if the current lineup overachieves.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have to be at least a .500 team and get as many points as this club did two years ago,&rdquo; said Fletcher, alluding to Toronto&rsquo;s 80-point campaign in head coach Doug Carpenter&rsquo;s first season in Toronto. &ldquo;Anything less than that is unacceptft able to me and has to be unacceptable to the players, too.&rdquo;Coming off a 57-point season last year, a 23-point improvement looms as a monumental hill for virtually the same lineup to climb. And an 80-point season in a steadily-improving Norris Division does not guarantee a playoff spot, another Fletcher priority.&ldquo;We must improve in every department,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We must be more competitive in every game and we must make the playoffs.&rdquo;There are any number of keys involved in Toronto reaching or surpassing its potential, most notably goaltending, but production from Gary Leeman, Damphousse and Marois is also crucial.<h2>TORONRO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Sept. 3: Kevin McClelland, RW, signed two-year contract. &#9632;

MAKING MAJOR TRADE A BIG DEAL TO FLETCHER

<div class="byline">BY DAVE LUECKING</div>Once considered the cornerstone of the Blues&rsquo; future, winger Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour and Curtis Joseph were the cornerstone of the Blues&rsquo; proposal to compensate New Jersey for the loss of free agent Brendan Shanahan.The Blues offered Brind&rsquo;Amour, Joseph and two draft picks&mdash;a No. 3 and a conditional pick (No. 2 to No. 4) as compensation&mdash;but Judge Edward J. Houston, the NHL&rsquo;s arbitrator, chose New Jersey&rsquo;s proposal of Scott Stevens.The controversial decision left Brind&rsquo;Amour and Joseph in a precarious position, caught in the middle of the controversy.&ldquo;It kind of looked like we&rsquo;d lose either way,&rdquo; Brind&rsquo;Amour said. &ldquo;If New Jersey loses, they get us. If the Blues lose, they get us. It puts us in a really tough spot.&ldquo;What can you say? We knew the situation. It |was us or him. The Blues wanted to keep him, but now, it&rsquo;s like &lsquo;Wow, we&rsquo;re here.&rsquo; It depends on how you look at it, but you could say they&rsquo;re stuck with us.&rdquo;Joseph said: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a no-win situation for us.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01660/6007978-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="715" height="627"><figcaption class="caption-body">A mature attitude helped Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour deal with the compensation situation.</figcaption></div>When we lose Scottie, everyone goes, &lsquo;Oh, geez. &lsquo;Obviously, everyone here wanted to keep Scottie, and New Jersey cut us down.&rdquo;In addition to his written proposal for Stevens, New Jersey general manager Lou Lamoriello submitted to Houston a second document picking apart the Blues&rsquo; offer.On Brind&rsquo;Amour, he wrote: &ldquo;We can only wonder whether Brind&rsquo;Amour will develop into the player he was in 1989-90 or remain the average player he was in 1990-91.&rdquo;On Joseph, Lamoriello wrote that &ldquo;he is of no value to the Devils and diminishes, rather than enhances the value of the package.&rdquo; He also pointed to injuries and Joseph&rsquo;s $200,000 contract this season and $250,000 next season.&ldquo;The fact that Joseph is an unknown entity on the ice is exacerbated by his inflated salary,&rdquo; he wrote. &ldquo;Obviously, this is an attempt by the Blues to unload an overpriced, average goalie.&rdquo;Joseph laughed when he read that.&ldquo;I like his adjectives,&rdquo; he said, although he didn&rsquo;t like Lamoriello&rsquo;s point. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t feel good when people say bad things about you. But that&rsquo;s part of the business. They really wanted Scottie, so they had to put together a negative proposal.&rdquo;Surprisingly, neither Brind&rsquo;Amour, 21, nor Joseph, 24, expressed negative feelings toward the Blues for making them part of the package.&ldquo;Through the whole process, I tried to keep myself right down the middle so I wouldn&rsquo;t be devastated if I went,&rdquo; Brind&rsquo;Amour said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to go, but you can&rsquo;t take it personally. That&rsquo;s the game.&rdquo;And unless Stevens seeks, and receives, an injunction to remain with the Blues pending litigation challenging the NHL on anti-trust grounds, the Blues will have to make another move to upgrade the team. Brind&rsquo;Amour and Joseph remain prime trade bait.&ldquo;It was like that all last year, but I&rsquo;m kind of used to it,&rdquo; Brind&rsquo;Amour said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve grown up a little. If this would have happened my first year or last year, I&rsquo;d be a shambles. There&rsquo;s really nothing I can do about it.&rdquo;<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Sept. 3: Scott Stevens, D, awarded to New Jersey as compensation for signing freeagent Brendan Shanahan. &#9632;

f0029-01

BRIND’AMOUR, JOSEPH, DON’T HOLD GRUDGES

<div class="byline">BY GARY OLSON</div>Shane Churla didn&rsquo;t know what to think when he got a telephone call in late May telling him he had been claimed by the San Jose Sharks.&ldquo;To be honest, it was the day after our team party and I wasn&rsquo;t thinking too clearly about much of anything that day,&rdquo; Churla said, finding fun from a day that threatened to put his hockey career on the move.The Sharks claimed Churla from the North Stars&rsquo; roster in the dispersal draft just five days after Pittsburgh ended Minnesota&rsquo;s Stanley Cup dreams. It was part of the deal when Sharks&rsquo; owners George and Gordon Gund sold the North Stars&rsquo; to Norman Green.There had been speculation that Churla was part of the &ldquo;new deal&rdquo; but Stars&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke denied it, later admitting a fib to avoid any off-ice turmoil during the playoffs.&ldquo;First (Sharks&rsquo; GM) Jack Ferreira called to tell me they had claimed me, then Bob Clarke called to tell me they were trying to make a deal to get me back,&rdquo; Churla said.&ldquo;I was surprised because I hadn&rsquo;t heard my name mentioned in the talk (about the player swap). After the year we had and what we had accomplished, I was disappointed.&ldquo;Clarke had said he would do anything he could within reason to get me back and would try to get it done as quickly as possible. I didn&rsquo;t think he was just &lsquo;blowing-smoke&rsquo; to make me feel better but I also couldn&rsquo;t see any reason Jack would claim me one day and then give me back.&rdquo;The North Stars got Churla back four days later by sending Kelly Kisio, the former New York Rangers&rsquo; captain, to the Sharks. They had gotten Kisio later on the same day they lost Churla by sharing the expansion draft with San Jose.Injuries limited Churla to 40 games before the playoffs last season. He scored just two goals and four points but had 284 penalty minutes, the most per game (7.1 minutes) in the NHL.Why was Clarke so determined to get Churla back on his roster? &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t tell you,&rdquo; Clarke said, his smile growing. &ldquo;It looks like we&rsquo;ll have to go to arbitration (on his contract) and I don&rsquo;t want to make his case for him.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02439/6008009-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="710" height="705"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Clarke is all smiles over the play of enforcer Shane Churla.</figcaption></div>If Clarke would talk, he&rsquo;d probably say Churla&rsquo;s crash-and-bash style is rare among his Minnesota teammates, that Churla&rsquo;s heart outweighs his talent and that he&rsquo;s a player who makes a team better just by being there.During the playoffs, Churla and co-enforcer Basil McRae mostly turned the other cheek.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t believe the guys who are taking runs at me,&rdquo; Churla said one day during the playoffs. &ldquo;They know I can&rsquo;t do anything now, but I won&rsquo;t forget.&rdquo;With a new season about to begin, is it time for Churla to get even?&ldquo;I got my satisfaction just knowing those guys had to sit at home and watch us on television,&rdquo; he said.&ldquo;I got even by playing all the way to the Stanley Cup finals. I don&rsquo;t have a list to get even but I haven&rsquo;t forgotten who took advantage of the situation either.&rdquo;<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Sept. 5: Brian Propp, LW, and Craig Ludwig, D, signed two-year contracts. &#9632;

f0029-02

GM CLARKE RELIEVED CHURLA’S BACK IN TOWN

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div>In a move that stunned Detroit hockey fans and most Canadians, too, Red Wings&rsquo; star Steve Yzerman, one of Canada&rsquo;s favorite hockey sons, was found wanting at the nation&rsquo;s call to arms to defend its Canada Cup title.Generally regarded as one of a handful of the world&rsquo;s best players, Yzerman was cut by Team Canada, managed and coached by Mike Keenan, who decided the Canadians needed to balance a scoring attack with a grinding defense.But Yzerman left with his head up, walking away with an even greater respect among hockey fans. Before leaving, Yzerman sat next to Keenan at a news conference and tried to shed some much-needed perspective on the situation. In doing so, he revealed that his heart, though broken, is tatooed with the maple leaf.&ldquo;The story here shouldn &lsquo;t be that a player was released or that a player was upset or that the coaches don&rsquo;t like this player or that,&rdquo; Yzerman said. &ldquo;The story should be that Canada is preparing to win the Canada Cup again. I don&rsquo;t think the story should pertain to one player&rsquo;shappiness or unhappiness.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a situation that all adults and professional athletes have to deal with. You enjoy the good times, but unfortunately there are down times and you&rsquo;ve got to accept that. I&rsquo;m prepared to do that.&rdquo;Yzerman&rsquo;s release came after several days of rampant second-guessing of Keenan&rsquo;s roster selections. Those days included a disappointing 2-2 tie with Finland to open the tournament followed by a 6-3 win over the Americans that Yzerman accurately described as &ldquo;impressive.&rdquo;But saying the right thing, which Yzerman, 26, has done with deftness through his eightyear NHL career, wasn&rsquo;t always easy.Asked whether he was angry after being scratched against the Finns, Yzerman said, &ldquo;I better choose my words carefully. I don&rsquo;t know what I am right now. I&rsquo;m disappointed. I think I&rsquo;ve proven myself. I feel I should be playing. But I&rsquo;m not playing and that&rsquo;s their decision.&rdquo;A day later, in a report in the Toronto Sun, Yzerman hinted he may have been doublecrossed. Sensitive about being cut from the 1987team, Yzerman sought some assurances when officials extended him an invitation. Asked if he was given a guarantee he would make it this time, he said, &ldquo;I got one this year. What did it mean?&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always respected people&rsquo;s words. I take it as if it&rsquo;s the truth. I&rsquo;ve since come to believe it&rsquo;s not always true&hellip;I expected to play. I came here expecting to play.&rdquo;Speculation is that Canada Cup czar Alan Eagleson made the promise that Keenan and his staff didn&rsquo;t deliver. Which left Yzerman wondering what he was doing hanging around.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what the right thing to do is,&rdquo; he said after missing the U.S. game. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know whether to pack up or stay. Right now, I&rsquo;m swallowing quite a bit. Everybody has their opinion of what&rsquo;s right and what&rsquo;s wrong. I know what people are thinking. I know what they&rsquo;re saying. I don&rsquo;t disagree. But they (coaches) have the final word.&rdquo;Soon, after a second meeting with Keenan, the announcement was made that Yzerman had been released. He was made redundant by the last-minute arrival in camp by Edmonton&rsquo;sMark Messier and the 18-year-old Eric Lindros, who played as though he belonged.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a joke,&rdquo; said Gerard Gallant, Yzer-man&rsquo;s linemate the last five seasons. Gallant took issue with Keenan&rsquo;s explanation that Yzerman didn&rsquo;t make the team because of &ldquo;underachieving&rdquo; in Team Canada&rsquo;s training camp.&ldquo;What does camp mean?&rdquo; Gallant asked. &ldquo;He has proved the last four years he&rsquo;s one of the best players in the world.&rdquo;Detroit coach-GM Bryan Murray agreed.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to believe, and I&rsquo;m fairly close to the situation, that there are not 20 players that can play and fit a role on a team like he can,&rdquo; Murray said of the Wings&rsquo; captain. &ldquo;I know when you pick a team you want a combination of types of players. But behind (Wayne) Gretzky, Steve Yzerman fits fairly nicely at center ice.&rdquo;<h3>DETROIT</h3><h2>TRANSACTIONS</h2>Sept. 4: Vladimir Konstantinov, D, signed multi year contract. Sept. 5: Yves Racine. D, signed threeyear contract. Dave Barr, RW. signed two-year contract. Alan Kerr. RW. signed one-year contract. &#9632;

LAST CANADA CUT HAS STEVE’S FANS ASKING WHY

<div class="byline">BOB McKENZIE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01754/6008064-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="514" height="606"></div>In a year when Mario Lemieux and Michael Jordan exorcised their personal demons, the haunting has begun for Steve Yzerman.It isn&rsquo;t fair, of course. It never is. But Yzerman, a gifted and introspective athlete, understands something about the cosmic wheel of Life.He&rsquo;s not sure why he&rsquo;s at the bottom of it, but recognizes he is.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just trying to ride it out,&rdquo; he says with a weak smile.Foremost is coping with his humiliating exit from the 1991 Canada Cup without having played a tournament game.Yzerman, a surprise 19-year-old member of the 1984 squad (under Glen&rsquo;Sather), was one of head coach Mike Keenan&rsquo;s last cuts in 1987.That was then; this is now. No doubt driven by that rejection, he has in the last four years established himself as a pre-eminent player.He has had seasons of 50,65, 62 and 51 goals and 102, 155,127 and 108 points. He has played in the last four NHL All-Star Games. In 1989, he was voted by NHL players as the best in the league.In fairness to Keenan, back at the helm of Team Canada &lsquo;91, Yzerman had a poor camp. The entire coaching staff reportedly gave him low marks in each daily evaluation.In fairness to Yzerman, a player of his stature perhaps should have gotten the benefit of the doubt and a guaranteed spot.Mark Messier, injured and unable to attend training camp, was afforded that opportunity.Yzerman wasn&rsquo;t. He was relegated to a fourman taxi squad for which only two roster spots remained. Theoren Fleury got one; the other was reserved for a defenseman.Yzerman was given the choice&mdash;stay and watch or go home. He went home.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a humbling experience,&rdquo; he says. Anda thorny crown on a weird, almost inexplicable fall from grace.Yzerman&rsquo;s name was mentioned prominently all summer in trade rumors for Quebec draftee Eric Lindros. He killed them by saying he would no more play in Quebec than would Lindros.Nevertheless, with the emergence of the Wings&rsquo; glitzy Soviet, Sergei Fedorov, there is a theory to suggest Yzerman has become expendable; that Detroit has never won anything with him, so why not move him for a different element of chemistry.&ldquo;You guys in the media keep trading him, not me,&rdquo; says Detroit GM and coach Bryan Murray. &ldquo;All of this has been very hard on him.&rdquo;No more or less than it was on Lemieux and Jordan. Until Mario won a Cup, he was never going to be as great as Gretzky. And until Michael won the NBA title, he would never be as magical as Earvin Johnson.When the Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Bulls prevailed, their stars were granted championship immunity. Someone has to take their place and it looks as though it&rsquo;s Yzerman.He bristles at the thought.&ldquo;Mario didn&rsquo;t win the Cup by himself,&rdquo; Yzerman says. &ldquo;He had help&mdash;Recchi, Stevens, Samuelsson, Francis, Barrasso, Coffey. He was surrounded by all the right people.&ldquo;When the Edmonton Oilers won the Cup they were led by Wayne Gretzky, but he had six of the greatest players ever bom playing with him.&ldquo;Michael Jordan won a world championship, his first, but he didn&rsquo;t do it alone. He had to have Pippen, Paxson and Cartwright.&rdquo;Yzerman hopes it will one day happen in Detroit. Before it does, though, he needs a healthy Gerard Gallant, a fulltime role for Bob Probert and more talented imports like Fedorov, Niklas Lidstrom and Vladimir Konstantinov.In the meantime, Yzerman is a changed man. Not necessarily a better man, but a tougher one.&ldquo;Cynical may be too strong a word,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not as trusting as I was. I don&rsquo;t believe everything people tell me. I know now everybody has their best interests at heart. I&rsquo;m looking out more for myself.&ldquo;Hey, I&rsquo;m fortunate. I don&rsquo;t want anyone to feel sorry for me. I&rsquo;ve been treated well by my team, the fans and the media and I&rsquo;m grateful for that.&ldquo;But all the people who say they&rsquo;re going to be there for you just aren&rsquo;t when it counts.&rdquo;He is a little bloodied, but unbowed.&ldquo;I am still confident in my knowledge of the game,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;and how it should be played. No one will ever take that away from me.&rdquo;Bob McKenzie is a hockey columnist for the Toronto Star. &#9632;

f0030-01

IT’S STEVE’S TURN TO EXORCISE DEMONS

<h2>ISLANDERS</h2>Less than a year after he was edged out as the Islanders&rsquo; fourth-line left winger, Don Maloney received a far more prestigious position with the organization. He was named assistant GM Sept. 3. The appointment came out of a tryout at various jobs, including that of assistant coach, the second half of last season. Over the summer, he worked exclusively in the front office, scheduling training camp, evaluating talent, issuing invitations to non-roster players and handling various other duties. GM Bill Torrey was sufficiently impressed with Maloney&rsquo;s attitude and insight&mdash;tools he had shown in many years with the Rangers before playing briefly with Hartford and the Islanders&mdash;that he named Maloney to replace Gerry (Tex) Ehman. The latter will stay on as director of scouting and player personnel. &ldquo;A chance to work with someone as successful and respected as Bill Torrey doesn&rsquo;t come along every day,&rdquo; Maloney said&hellip;Graeme Townshend, a former standout for Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, is likely to play for the Islanders minor-league affiliate, which plays its home games at RPI&rsquo;s rink.<h2>FLYERS</h2>Mark Howe, who missed the second half of last season due to back surgery, skated at the beginning of training camp but did not participate in scrimmages&hellip;Forward Pelle Eklund was sidelined for the first few days of camp with a heavy chest cold&hellip;Coach Paul Holmgren said he was impressed with the speed of winger Brad Jones, a former Los Angeles King who signed as a free agent&hellip;GM Russ Farwell said the Flyers would be &ldquo;interested&rdquo; in a trade for Edmonton&rsquo;s Mark Messier, as long as it did not involve Rick Tocchet or Mike Ricci. Messier, who has asked the Oilers to trade him, has included Philadelphia in his list of preferred destinations.<h2>CAPITALS</h2>Strangely, left winger Dimitri Khristich was cut from the Soviet Union team, just one day before the opening of the Canada Cup tournament. It didn&rsquo;t look like such a great move when the team lost its first two games. Khristich said coach Viktor Tikhonov never spoke to him about why he was let go. In his everimproving English, Khristich said he was &ldquo;not mad&rdquo; but a bit bewildered why he was dropped after playing in all the exhibition games. He said one of the managers told him, &ldquo;&lsquo;We don&rsquo;t think you want to play for the national team. You are using this for training camp.&rsquo; But I wanted to play.&rdquo; Defenseman Shawn Chambers and left winger Randy Burridge, both of whom played out their options last season, filed for arbitration. Though no date has been set to determine salaries, they will play this season on one-year, no option contracts&hellip; Right winger Jeff Greenlaw, defenseman Mark Ferner and left winger Craig Duncanson (formerly of Winnipeg) signed contracts after playing out their options last season&hellip;Though they weren&rsquo;t necessarily pleased with the thought of having to play against Scott Stevens four more times that they would have if he had stayed in St&rdquo; Louis, Capitals&rsquo; officials were privately smiling about St. Louis&rsquo; loss in Brendan Shanahan arbitration decision.<h2>RANGERS</h2>Stephane Guerard, whom the Rangers had obtained in an off-season trade for Miloslav Horava, failed his physical. Doctors determined Guerard&rsquo;s battered knee would need further surgery, so the &ldquo;trade&rdquo; was reworked, with the Nordiques purchasing Guerard&rsquo;s contract&hellip;Moscow Dynamo gave forward Alexei Kovalev, the Rangers&rsquo; No. I pick in the 1991 draft, permission to join the Rangers for at least 10 days of training camp, starting on or about Sept. 15. There is no known precedent for a Soviet prospect even being permitted to visit his NHL team in his draft year, much less work out with it&hellip;Two other Soviets also were expected at the Rangers&rsquo; camp: Spartak defenseman Vladislav Uvayev, a ninthround choice in June, was to participate. His coach, Alexander Yakushev, was to observe.<h2>DEVILS</h2>Sean Burke&rsquo;s request to be traded and the strong possibility he will join the Canadian Olympic team rather than report to the Devils, prompted the team to invite goalie Alain Chevrier to training camp on a tryout basis. Chevrier played three seasons for the Devils (1985-88)&hellip;Soviet defenseman Sergei Starikov, who arrived in 1989 with Viacheslav Fetisov, returned home this summer when his two-year contract expired&hellip;Coach Tom Me Vie said he is counting on 31-year-old Walt Poddubny to make a big comeback from knee surgery. He scored 40 goals a year for three years. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking all over for a goal-scorer. Maybe we have one right here,&rdquo; said Me Vie.<h2>PENGUINS</h2>Defenseman Ulf Samuelsson, who suffered a shoulder separation after being checked into the boards by Eric Lindros in a Canada Cup tournament game, will likely miss the start of the regular season. The injury occurred late in the Sept. 5 game in which Canada beat Sweden 4-1 when the two players collided behind the Swedish net. It was considered a clean hit and no penalty was called on the play-&hellip;Several players who got their names on the Stanley Cup last spring weren&rsquo;t able to get them on a new contract as the start of training camp approached. They included Mark Recchi, Kevin Stevens. Ron Francis, Gordie Roberts, Jim Paek and Scott Young &#9632;

PROMOTION SUITS MALONEY JUST FINE

Edmonton&rsquo;s Esa Tikkanen has a proven ability to get under the skin of opposing players. His Oiler teammates have seen it first-hand on many occasion. But when Canada played Finland in the first game of the Canada Cup. they saw it from a different angle. Tikkanen scuffled and had words with two Team Canada players&mdash;Mark Messier and Steve Smith&mdash;both Oiler teammates during the regular season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02517/6008119-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="595" height="420"><figcaption class="caption-body">Esa Tikkanen</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0030-02

ODDITIES

<div class="byline">BY FRANK BROWN</div>Messages continue to be sent to the Ranger players who contributed to the powerdive that took the team out of first place and out of the playoffs in the first round last spring. Another message was sent through the signing of free-agent center-left wing Adam Graves.The message, simply, was that it almost did not matter which Ranger or Rangers ended up in Edmonton as compensation for the signing of the 23-year-old forward to a five-year, $2.4 million contract.Even if arbitrator Ed Houston stood the hockey world on its ear by awarding Scott Stevens to the New Jersey Devils as compensation for the Blues&rsquo; signing of Brendan Shanahan, Rangers&rsquo; general manager Neil Smith had to feel confident he would not lose goalie Mike Richter or defenseman Brian Leetch, arguably the two most important players on the team. Graves was very important to the Oilers, but he was not pivotal.Smith also had to be confident he would not lose consistent 40-goal scorer Mike Gartner for someone who scored seven times last season, had to believe he wouldn&rsquo;t lose a 30-year-old Bernie Nicholls.No matter who the Rangers lost, that player/those players, would not have the items that Graves was bringing to New York: A Stanley Cup ring, the knowledge of what it takes to earn one and how it feels when you&rsquo;ve done it.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s only one feeling in the world better than winning one,&rdquo; Graves said, &ldquo;and that&rsquo;s winning two.&rdquo;When your team hasn&rsquo;t won any in 51 years, when your team died like a bunch of dogs in the critical months of March and April, you don&rsquo;t sit on your hands and you don&rsquo;t make empty threats. Smith blasted the team the night they went out against the Capitals and spent the summer seeking improvements.One area that needed to be addressed was the lack of winners and the lack of leadership in the dressing room. You can add a winner near the end of his career, as the Chicago Blackhawks did by signing John Tonelli, as the Los Angeles Kings did by adding Charlie Huddy to their cast of former Oilers. You&rsquo;ll get maybe a couple of seasons out them, then have to go find some others.Or you can do what Smith did, which is find a 23-year-old with a ring and Tonelli&rsquo;s work ethic&mdash;someone who, barring injury, has a good six or seven or eight seasons to offer. Two seasons ago, when Graves centered the Kid Line with Martin Gelinas and Joe Murphy, when that line&rsquo;s youthful enthusiasm helped the Oilers win the Cup, John Ziegler handed it to captain Mark Messier and Messier handed it directly to Graves. There may have been a symbol in that.&ldquo;We were grooming Adam.&rdquo; said Oilers&rsquo; GM Glen Sather, &ldquo;to be captain of the Oilers.&rdquo;Now Graves is a potential captain of the Rangers a few years down the road. And if the price is high in tangible goods, the reward of Graves&rsquo; intangibles still seems to make this an important, positive addition for a team that always has more excuses than results.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>Transactions</h3>Sept. 3: Adam Graves. C. signed five-year contract. Stephane Guerard. D, returned to Quebec for future considerations. &#9632;

GRAVES’ SIGNING FILLS VOID

<div class="byline">BY DAVE SELL</div>A week before the opening of training camp, a contract dispute between right winger Dino Ciccarelli and the Washington Capitals bubbled to the surface.&ldquo;Dino&rsquo;s contract has not been settled and if it remains unsettled, his not appearing at training camp is a possibility,&rdquo; Ciccarelli&rsquo;s agent Ron Salcersaid. &ldquo;But we want to have it resolved.&rdquo;The squabble boils down to re-negotiation of an existing contract. But Salcer isn&rsquo;t thrilled with its existance.Both sides agree on the circumstances. Ciccarelli is entering the option year of a contract he brought with him from Minnesota. But that contract included an option for the club to add more years on the end of it, which is exactly what the Capitals did. Thus, Ciccarelli will now be working on a one-plus-one, worth about $440,000 this season.&ldquo;Now they are asking if we could change the contract,&rdquo; Capitals&rsquo; general manager David Poile said.Salcer said he was not challenging the legality of the current contract, just its fairness. He acknowledges Ciccarelli was one of the better paid players in the league at the time he signed. But he said the &ldquo;spirit&rdquo; of the extension clause was to allow the club to keep Ciccarelli a bit longer if he did certain things, not to have him be underpaid as Salcer argues he is now.Ciccarelli, 31, had five straight seasons of at least 40 goals until last season. He missed 26 games&mdash;mostly because of a fractured thumb&mdash;and finished with 21 goals and 39 points.In 747 regular season games over 11 seasons, Ciccarelli has 406 goals and 378 assists. While not on the poverty line, Ciccarelli&rsquo;s salary has since been eclipsed by players with less production. Case in point: Ray Sheppard, who had 24 goals for the Rangers last year, recently signed with Detroit for a reported $500,000. And former Capital Geoff Courtnail, now with his fifth team (Vancouver) recently signed for a reported average of $625,000.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01695/6008174-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="709" height="625"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dino Ciccarelli says his $440,000-a-year contract is outdated.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;What I proposed was very reasonable,&rdquo; Salcer said. &ldquo;I could have been unreasonable.&rdquo;&ldquo;They are talking and I&rsquo;m optimistic that everything will work out,&rdquo; Ciccarelli said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even want to think about sitting out. I just want them to get it done. I know it was unsettling with Kevin (Hatcher) sitting out last year and we don&rsquo;t need that. I&rsquo;m just hoping they settle it.&rdquo;<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTION</h3>Sept. 3: Jeff Greenlaw. RW, Craig Duncanson, LW. and Mark Ferner. D, signed contracts. &#9632;

f0031-01

CICCARELLI ON HOLD OVER ‘NEW’ CONTRACT

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div>Veteran defenseman Ken Daneyko fired the first salvo in what could be a season filled with contract disputes when he became the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; first official training camp holdout.Just two days after the Devils were awarded all-star Scott Stevens as compensation from the St. Louis Blues for the July 24 signing of free agent Brendan Shanahan, Daneyko turned down an offer for a $10,000 raise and refused to report with New Jersey&rsquo;s veterans on Sept. 5.The acquisition of Stevens, whose base salary for 1991-92 will be $875,000 and escalates to $1.12 million for 1993-94, may be the incentive for longtime Devils like Daneyko, John MacLean, Kirk Muller and Bruce Driver to demand that their contracts be renegotiated.Owner John J. McMullen and general manager Lou Lamoriello have long claimed the Devils cannot afford to pay salaries comparable to many other NHL clubs, but they did not hesitate to ask for the high-priced Stevens as compensation for Shanahan.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re going to have to address the salary structure here. Management is going to have to deal with it,&rdquo; said MacLean, who began renegotiations on his contract which would pay him $315,000 this season. &ldquo;They knew before if they got Stevens they&rsquo;d have to pay his salary.&rdquo;MacLean decided to report to camp. Daneyko felt otherwise.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m so frustrated and so bitter it&rsquo;s a nightmare. I didn&rsquo;t want to do this. I really didn&rsquo;t, but they&rsquo;ve forced me to,&rdquo; said Daneyko, who is entering the option year of a contract that pays him $190,000 per season. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve worked my butt off for seven years here. I feel like I&rsquo;ve given everything I&rsquo;ve had for seven years here. I&rsquo;ve fought on the ice like crazy and now it&rsquo;s about time I fight for Ken Daneyko. To be in the league eight years and still making under $200,000 is just ludicrous.&rdquo;Among the other players who want to renegotiate are goalie Chris Terreri and forward Claude Lemieux ($325,000).Might the arrival of Stevens cause friction in the Devils&rsquo; dressing room?&ldquo;There is no friction between the players. Absolutely none,&rdquo; player rep Driver said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a real difficult situation. We have so many guys through the years trying to get some financial stability and now it&rsquo;s something that has to be addressed. Speaking as a player rep, I don&rsquo;t know if we&rsquo;ll be told there&rsquo;s not enough money because Scott has got to be paid.&rdquo;Lamoriello admitted he was faced with a problem when the team was awarded Stevens by NHL arbitrator Judge Edward J. Houston. Stevens came with a contract that shattered the Devils&rsquo; modest salary structure.There has long been an unwritten rule that no Devil would earn more than Muller, the club&rsquo;s captain who made $350,000 last season. That policy was bound to end this season since the Devils are resigned to give MacLean a raise that would elevate him above Muller.Did the Stevens contract open a can of worms?&ldquo;That&rsquo;s something we certainly have to look at, but I do not feel in this case there was any choice for the good of our team and our fans,&rdquo; Lamoriello said. &ldquo;What we are doing is inheriting a contract. To what extent, I&rsquo;d rather not get into, but I think we have done what is right for our organization and our players.&rdquo;Head coach Tom McVie isn&rsquo;t concerned that money will tear his team apart.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t stop them talking about money,&rdquo; McVie said. &ldquo;No one talks to me about it, I&rsquo;ll tell you that. I don&rsquo;t even know what people make. I&rsquo;ve never been in it for the money. If I was, I&rsquo;d be gone long ago.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played about 500 NHL games and I look around the league and it&rsquo;s almost ludicrous what other guys are making,&rdquo; Daneyko said. &ldquo;A Glen Featherstone or a Brian Marchment are making almost double what I&rsquo;m making. That&rsquo;s ludicrous.&rdquo; &#9632;

DISGRUNTLED PLAYER LINE STARTS WITH DANEYKO

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE FISH</div>The holdout was short but he made his point.Ron Sutter decided not to show up for the first day of the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; training camp at Voorhees, N.J. Sept. 6.Sutter, the team captain who is entering his option year, said he staged his one-day walk-out because he was unhappy with the lack of progress in negotiations towards a new contract.And he wasn&rsquo;t the only one. Left winger Murray Craven, a seven-year veteran, was also holding out for a renegotiated contract though he was expected to be in camp Sept. 10.While headlines said money was the key issue for both unhappy campers, the discontent might go a little deeper than that. At the moment, it doesn&rsquo;t seem like either player figures prominently in the team&rsquo;s plans.A third Flyer, free agent defenseman Murray Baron, was also missing from training camp while contract talks continued.Baron reportedly earned $125,000 last year and is said to be asking for a contract in the $200,000 range.The Flyers paid Craven $200,000 last season and Craven&rsquo;s agent, Steve Mountain, said the left winger is looking to double that amount on the new contract. Sutter earned $250,000 last year and, while he isn&rsquo;t disclosing what his demands are, he is probably looking for a similar increase.Sutter&rsquo;s name has been mentioned in trade rumors, which hasn&rsquo;t made the contract atmosphere exactly friendly.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying I want to stay and I&rsquo;m not saying I want to leave either,&rdquo; said Sutter. &ldquo;My agent instructed me to return because the Flyers said they wouldn&rsquo;t negotiate with me if I wasn&rsquo;t on the ice.&ldquo;Sometimes a player has to stand up for himself,&rdquo; Sutter added. &ldquo;I want just to get paid what I think I deserve.&rdquo;Flyers&rsquo; general manager Russ Farwell said he and Sutter&rsquo;s agent, George Lyon, were &ldquo;not miles apart&rdquo; toward a new deal for Sutter but still had a lot of work to do.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01662/6008253-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="707" height="834"><figcaption class="caption-body">Captain Ron Sutter may not figure into the Flyers&rsquo; plans this season.</figcaption></div>He added that Sutter has not demanded a trade.The season ended last year in Pittsburgh with Sutter second-guessing Farwell for criticizing the team&rsquo;s work ethic late in the season.Craven, a Flyer since the first day of the 1984-85 season, also feels he is underpaid.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been here for seven years and done everything they ever asked of me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And all I want is what that should have earned me.&rdquo;Craven began to wonder about his salary after teammate Pelle Eklund signed a new deal last spring that will pay him approximately $500,000 per year. While Craven did score 66 points last year, the Flyers don&rsquo;t feel he is in the same class with Eklund (who scored 69).&ldquo;I guess by what they&rsquo;re telling me, they don&rsquo;t feel I&rsquo;m as significant a player,&rdquo; said Craven. &ldquo;At least not as an important part of the team as I feel I am.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0033-01

SUTTER TAKES HIS STAND BUT IS ANYONE LISTENING?

<div class="byline">BY MARK HERRMANN</div>A season that seemed to offer Mark Fitzpatrick a fresh start has instead presented a troubling and frustrating beginning for the New York Islanders&rsquo; goalie. One day before the team reported to camp, he suffered a flareup of the illness that kept him out nearly all last season.Swelling in his lower leg and a blood test that revealed a high white cell count were symptomatic of a flareup that seemed unlikely during his stunning comeback from eosinophilia myalgia syndrome (EMS) last season.He had looked forward to a chance to approach an entire season in good health, from the beginning of training camp. But he faced at least a temporary delay as the Islanders left him behind for tests as they left for their training site in the northern New York community of Lansingburg (near Troy).&ldquo;It&rsquo;s only the first few days of camp,&rdquo; he said, trying to make the best of his latest set-back.As he left his routine team physical, the 22-year-old said: &ldquo;All the parts are there, but we have to see if they all work.&rdquo; General manager Bill Torrey said the goalie&rsquo;s overall condition appeared to be good, but echoed the sentiment of team internist Dr. Gerald Cordani, who said: &ldquo;Obviously, we&rsquo;re concerned.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02457/6008284-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="710" height="778"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mark Fitzpatrick vows to keep fighting his potentially fatal illness.</figcaption></div>It was in training camp last year that Fitzpat rick&rsquo;s hand was so badly swollen that he couldn&rsquo;t even close it on a puck&mdash;when he was fortunate enough to stop a puck. That was the first sign he was suffering from an illness that killed 29 Americans in 1989.In a $180-million lawsuit that still is pending against a Japanese manufacturer and its American subsidiary, Fitzpatrick linked the illness to a dietary supplement containing toxic Ltryptophan&mdash;a substance traced to most EMS cases.Fitzpatrick was coming off a healthy, relaxing summer in his native Kitimat, B.C. that featured exercising, recreational hockey, salmon fishing and other leisure pursuits.&ldquo;My fishing game was better than my golf game,&rdquo; he said.Fitzpatrick was reassured when he sustained no immediate flareups after having discontinued medication in late April.After arriving on Long Island in mid-August to get a head start on training camp, however, he experienced fatigue and soreness.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to realize this thing might not go away overnight. It might not go away at all,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just taking it step by step.&rdquo;A prolonged absence for Fitzpatrick would be a difficult matter for the last-place team, which lost Jeff Hackett to San Jose in the expansion draft. Despite having invited veteran Steve Weeks to camp on a free-agent tryout, the Isles have no goalie, besides Glenn Healy, who played more than four NHL games last season.But their primary concern is Fitzpatrick&rsquo;s health.Because the illness is a recent phenomenon, doctors are still not sure about its lasting effects. Dr. Lee Kaufman, a Long Island-based specialist in rheumatology, who is treating Fitzpatrick, said: &ldquo;Most of the people we&rsquo;ve followed continue to have a number of difficulties.&rdquo;Vancouver-based rheumatologist Dr. Andres Chalmers, another of Fitzpatrick&rsquo;s physicians, predicted a brighter outcome.&ldquo;Basically, it should leave him, bit by bit by bit, with no residual (effects),&rdquo; Chalmers said.For his part, Fitzpatrick said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to keep fighting this thing, I can tell you that.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. ISLES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Sept. 3: Don Maloney named assistant general manager; Graeme Townshend. RW. signed treeagent contract. &#9632;

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FITZPATRICK SUFFERS ANOTHER SETBACK

<div class="byline">ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01749/6008315-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="524" height="606"></div>Over the years, the death of the Edmonton Oilers had been greatly exaggerated, mainly by people wishing it to be true.Something about that perpetual smirk on Glen Sather&rsquo;s face and his sense that he was just so much smarter than the rest of the NHL made you wait patiently for his reckoning day.Now, it has finally happened. Let the record show that an organization which survived the departures of Paul Coffey, Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri&mdash;and didn&rsquo;t learn a thing from the experience&mdash;nickel-and-dimed itself to death.Sather gets some of the blame, of course, but the major villain in this silly comic opera is Oilers&rsquo; owner Peter Pocklington. For years, Pocklington took from the Oilers without ever giving anything back.If the Oilers were up three games in a series and then happened to drop a game, did Pocklington worry? On the contrary. He celebrated the extra gate.This is the kind of me me me ownership that had to catch up with him. The fact is, when a team wins five championships in a seven-year period, they expect to see some tangible, monetary rewards for their trouble.In their championship years, the Oilers listened to Sather prattle on about team goals, about the necessity of putting the organization ahead of individual goals.The players bought the argument too. For a time, it became a big deal to wear the Oilers&rsquo; sweater. And when a player failed to live up to the selfless ideal&mdash;most notably, Jimmy Carson&mdash;he was run out of town.Even last year, when the Oilers struggled through a miserable 80-point regular season, they put their personal grievances aside and knocked off two of the Stanley Cup favorites, the Calgary Flames and Los Angeles Kings, before running out of gas in the semifinals.For one month anyway, they sent a signal to Pocklington and Sather that yes, they were prepared to play for pride once again.And their reward? Nothing. Clearly, the Oilers&rsquo; brass misread that playoff run. Instead of saying: &lsquo;Hmmm, maybe this team is worth saving,&rsquo; they said, &lsquo;Hah, sucked &lsquo;em in again.&rsquo;So Pocklington lined his pockets again. The players? Apart from Joe Murphy, not a single Oilers&rsquo; veteran signed a new contract.Esa Tikkanen doesn&rsquo;t speak the language very well, but maybe he said it best in that crazy-quilt English of his. The Oilers, said Tik kanen, are cheap cheap cheap.Now when you hear Mark Messier say he&rsquo;s finished as an Oiler, you believe him when he says the dispute isn&rsquo;t about money any more. It&rsquo;s about respect. Or a lack thereof.The overriding sense is one of betrayal. So when Oilers&rsquo; camp opened in the first week of September, new coach Teddy Green had to be wondering what he&rsquo;d let himself in for.Craig Simpson had already decided not to report to camp a week before. The Oilers offered him a 15 per cent raise to $452,000. He wants $600,000 and doesn&rsquo;t think the Oilers are bargaining in good faith.Tikkanen turned down the Oilers latest offer ($700,000) and was making noises about Switzlerand.For three years, Glenn Anderson had asked that the eight-year deal he signed back in &rsquo;84 be renegotiated. This time, he promised not to back down.Some people figured the main reason Messier showed up for the Canada Cup was to save himself the trouble of holding out.Petr Klima asked to be traded. Sather pretended not to hear. Free-agent center Adam Graves signed with the Rangers. Two of the starting defensemen&mdash;Steve Smith and Chris Joseph&mdash;were so far apart in salary negotiations that they&rsquo;ve already asked for arbitration.So that left Sather scrambling to unload the shell of his championship team and try to salvage something from this cast of players whose best years are behind it.It&rsquo;ll be interesting to see how it all falls out. The last genius before Sather was the Islanders&rsquo; Bill Torrey and Torrey&rsquo;s fall from grace is a lesson Sather will have no trouble profiting from.Grant Fuhr, Messier, Anderson, Kevin Lowe, he&rsquo;ll dump them all now while they still have market value instead of hanging in with them, loyally and fatally, the way Torrey did.Who knows? Maybe Sather will have the last laugh after all but I don&rsquo;t think so.The one thing he&rsquo;ll never recapture is that Oiler chemistry, that Oiler mystique, that elusive, mercurial commodity that separated their good team from all the other good teams that didn&rsquo;t win a championship.No, that quality is gone for good.Eric Duhatschek is a hockey writer for the Calgary Herald. &#9632;

f0034-01

NO MYSTERY BEHIND THIS MURDER: THE CHEAPSKATES DID IT

<h2>NORDIQUES</h2>It was probably one of the toughest days of Eric Lindros&rsquo; young career. The Nords&rsquo; No. 1 pick in this year&rsquo;s NHL draft&mdash;who said he&rsquo;ll never play in Quebec for financial, cultural and political reasons&mdash;played his first game in the province Sept. 7 as a member of Team Canada. Lindros was impressive in dishing out abuse on the ice, but he took just as much abuse off it. While leaving the Forum after Team Canada&rsquo;s 6-2 win over Czechoslovakia, Lindros was struck in the face by an unidentified fan. The 18-year-old was not hurt. &ldquo;Nothing serious,&rdquo; was all he had to say. Earlier in the day, Lindros asked roommate Mark Messier to screen his phone calls. But perhaps the worst assault on Lindros came the previous day at an afternoon press conference where he was grilled on his decision not to come to Quebec. &ldquo;It has gotten a little nuts,&rdquo; a tense Lindros said. &ldquo;This has gone too far. I didn&rsquo;t start this, (Nords&rsquo; owner) Marcel Aubut started this. He came out with the figures (a reported $3 million). It gets on you. It wears on you.&rdquo; Nords&rsquo; GM Pierre Page, meanwhile, repeated that Lindros belongs to the Nordiques and they would never trade away his rights&hellip;The Nordiques came to terms with their second-round selection in the 1991 draft, left winger Rene Corbet of the QMJHL&rsquo;s Drummondville Voltigeurs&hellip;The Nords signed veteran free agent Doug Smail to a contract in the last week of August. &ldquo;Doug has always been known as a tireless worker, a team player,&rdquo; said Page. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a competitor and will add depth and speed to our team.&rdquo; Smail said he was &ldquo;anxious to join such a talented young hockey club, a team with a very bright future.&rdquo;<h2>BRUINS</h2>Everyone knows goaltenders are fearless and Bruin Andy Moog proved it this summer, when he bungy-jumped from a 160-foot crane in his hometown of Penticton, B.C. His 10-year-old daughter, Alyssa, also made the leap. Although Bruins&rsquo; GM Harry Sinden wasn&rsquo;t overly thrilled to hear his top goalie had bungy-jumped, he said he&rsquo;d love to try it himself&hellip;Cam Neely remained off skates and missed the start of camp, trying to come back from a playoff thigh injury. He hopes to be playing by November&hellip;Among the late additions to the Boston camp roster was ex-Canadiens&rsquo; winger Steve Rooney.<h2>SABRES</h2>With training camp underway, Sabres&rsquo; coach Rick Dudley says he&rsquo;s optimistic about the new season. And he moved quickly to put down suggestions the Sabres have John Muckier in the wings as a replacement should things go poorly. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s great for me,&rdquo; Dudley said. &ldquo;It can&rsquo;t do anything but help me become a better coach-,&rdquo;&hellip;The Sabres have expressed some concern regarding the condition of rookie defenseman Kevin Haller. A playoff contributor last season, Haller suffered a groin pull after he was returned to the Rochester Americans (AHL). He still had soreness in that area&hellip;Groin pulls are the bane of Sabres&rsquo; defenseman Mike Ramsey He has chronic groin problems an&rdquo; had to pass on an invitation to play for Team USA in the Canada Cup because of groin and shoulder problems.<h2>CANADIENS</h2>Defenseman Mathieu Schneider signed a four-year, $1.7 million deal Sept. 7 that will make him the second-highest paid defenseman on the team. Last season, he was the Habs&rsquo; lowest-paid defenseman. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t have to worry about money for a while,&rdquo; Schneider said. &ldquo;But money wasn&rsquo;t my main worry. I always wanted to remain in Montreal; it&rsquo;s the hockey mecca.&rdquo; Although terms were not disclosed, it&rsquo;s believed Schneider will, make $400,000 this season. He received a $100,000 signing bonus-&hellip;Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; GM Serge Savard said he figures the Habs&rsquo; payroll could top $10 million this season, up from just under $9 million last year. He signed captain Guy Carbonneau to a new deal worth more than $3 million over the next four years and still faces tough negotiations with forwards Shayne Corson and Russ Courtnail, who are both entering their option years. It&rsquo;s expected Corson, who made $270,000 last season, and Courtnall who made $320.000. will ask for more than double that for the first year of their new deals.<h2>WHALERS</h2>Amid speculation he would hold out, left winger Pat Verbeek&mdash;who was offered a four-year, $2.4 million deal&mdash;decided to report to the Whalers&rsquo; camp. Verbeek, entering his option year, did not rule out the possiblity of walking out if negotiations broke down&hellip;Patrick Poulin, Hartford&rsquo;s first-round draft pick in June, signed a multi-year contract Sept. 9. Terms were not disclosed. The 18-year-old left winger was the first player selected from the Quebec League (StHyacinthe) and ninth player overall. &ldquo;So far he has played very well at camp,&rdquo; Whalers&rsquo; GM Ed Johnston said&hellip;The Whalers signed free-agent goalie Mario Gosselin as insurance in case of injury. Gosselin played last season with Phoenix (IHL). To make room for Gosselin, former Springfield backup Ross McKay, a free agent, was released&hellip;Bobby Holik, upset with the way the Czechoslovakian staff kept changing training dates and wouldn&rsquo;t allow him to meet the club in Canada, on his decision not to play in the Canada Cup: &ldquo;You could graduate from Harvard, Yale and Notre Dame and not understand Eastern Europe.&rdquo;&hellip;Defenseman Sylvain Cote, who refused to report to camp after agreeing to go to arbitration, was traded to Washington Sept. 8 for a second-round draft choice. &#9632;

FANS, MEDIA GRILL LINDROS

Calgary&rsquo;s Mike Vernon will be looking for his first NHL shutout this season. He has played 292 NHL games, the most by any active goalie without one. Only two other NHL netminders, both with Detroit last season&mdash;Allan Bester (208) and Alain Chevrier (234)&mdash;have played as many as 200 games without earning a whitewash.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02546/6008370-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="623" height="413"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Vernon</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0034-02

<div class="byline">BY CHRIS STEVENSON</div>Defenseman Eric Desjardins was one of the best kept secrets on the Montreal Canadiens last season.The Canada Cup has changed that.Desjardins, 22, in his fourth pro season, has been a revelation for Team Canada coach Mike Keenan and hockey fans who didn&rsquo;t see the young defenseman often enough to appreciate his play.&ldquo;At every training camp, there are a few players who surprise you,&rdquo; said Keenan. &ldquo;This year, Desjardins has been one of those nice surprises.&rdquo;Montreal coach Pat Burns, who is an associate coach with Team Canada, said he can understand people not appreciating Desjardins&rsquo; play.Like a good referee, you don&rsquo;t notice him unless he makes a mistake.&ldquo;If you watch a game and you don&rsquo;t look for Eric Desjardins, you will not see him,&rdquo; said Bums. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t notice him until you watch him. Only then can you appreciate what he can do for a team.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01711/6008401-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="709" height="716"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Eric Desjardins has been a big hit with Team Canada.</figcaption></div>Desjardins&rsquo; play, which can be characterized as solid though unspectacular, has certainly been appreciated by Burns.There were many occasions last season when Burns named Desjardins his most reliable defenseman.He might not be the toughest or the fastest or the strongest or the best offensively.But Bums said Desjardins combines a little of all those qualities into an impressive package. Desjardins&rsquo; strength is his well-rounded game.&ldquo;He has got a little bit of everybody in there and that&rsquo;s what makes him solid,&rdquo; said Burns.Desjardins, a last minute addition to Team Canada&rsquo;s training camp roster, said earning a sweater with a maple leaf on it without a doubt is one of nicest moments of his career.&ldquo;I think this proves you can win a spot if you play well in training camp,&rdquo; said Desjardins. &ldquo;I did my work and that paid off.&rdquo;This isn&rsquo;t the first time Desjardins has represented his country in international play. He was part of Team Canada at the World Junior Championships in Alaska in 1989.That was a heady year for Desjardins, which saw him make the Habs as an 18-year-old rookie.He played 36 regular season games that season and another 14 in the playoffs, many of them alongside veteran Larry Robinson, as the Canadiens went to the Stanley Cup final.Things looked bright for Desjardins, who was the Habs&rsquo; third choice, 36th overall, in the 1987 draft.But he struggled horribly in his second season with the Habs as the sophomore jinx grabbed hold and wouldn&rsquo;t let go. His confidence evaporated and he wound up being scratched from the lineup.Last season, though just 21, Desjardins decided to establish himself as one of the leaders on the Habs&rsquo; young defense, stepping into the vacuum created by the departure of co-captain Chris Chelios.He evolved into a steady performer, taking care of his own end and showing a knack for making quick, accurate passes out of the Habs&rsquo; zone.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 9: Jim Nesich. C. traded to Minnesota for future considerations. Sept. 7: Mathieu Schneider. D, signed four-year contract. &#9632;

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RELIABLE DESJARDINS IMPRESSES COACH

<div class="byline">BY JEFF JACOBS</div>The Hartford Whalers traded Ron Francis, their captain and all-time NHL leading scorer last March, to get John Cullen.Behind Cullen, who scored 39 times, the next highest-scoring Whaler center had eight goals.And while Mario Lemieux was out with severe back problems, Cullen, who finished fifth in the NHL with 110 points, helped carry the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; load.Cullen, a Group II free agent, didn&rsquo;t get his Stanley Cup ring last spring. But one of the game&rsquo;s biggest bargains the past two seasons is insisting on a financial bonanza this September.Turning down a three-year plus option deal worth about $800,000 a year, Cullen remained in Boston and did not report to the Farmington Mariott Sept. 5 with the rest of the club.&ldquo;John Cullen should be paid among the top five centermen in the NHL,&rdquo; said Ron Salcer, Cullen&rsquo;s agent. &ldquo;That is where he belongs. And a key is I&rsquo;m basing it where the top five was a year ago.&rdquo;Although Salcer and Cullen didn&rsquo;t name a specific price, it&rsquo;s clear he wants at least $1 million a year.Edmonton&rsquo;s Mark Messier and Montreal&rsquo;s Denis Savard were the fourth and fifth top-paid centers in the NHL in 1990-91. Both were in the $1.1 million range.&ldquo;I feel my best years are coming up,&rdquo; Cullen said. &ldquo;I really want to play in Hartford. But I also want to be paid what I feel is fair, especially with what guys are making today. I have to think about my future. I&rsquo;m 27, not 21. We&rsquo;re not real close. If the other free agents like Mark Recchi and Kevin Stevens sign for what I think is lower than they should to stay with their team (Penguins), I&rsquo;m not going to let that affect my thinking.&rdquo;Said Salcer: &ldquo;John made $ 120,000 two years ago (finishing 20th in the NHL with 92 points) and $130,000 last year. He has been a bargain for a long time. He has paid his dues.&ldquo;A year ago, the top five centers in the NHL were making $1 million to $3 million. And there is going to be dramatic salary changes upward. How can I commit John to four years without putting him in the proper place now?&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02534/6008432-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="709" height="784"><figcaption class="caption-body">Johu Cullen turned down a three-year deal worth $800,000 per season.</figcaption></div>Salcer said he has not had offers from other NHL teams, but said teams in Switzerland and Italy want to sign Cullen.Whalers&rsquo; general manager Ed Johnston found himself in a rather ticklish position. Giving Cullen what both sides agree was a strong starting offer, Johnston is faced with both economic and emotional issues.Johnston staked his reputation with a daring six-player swap of Francis, Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings to Pittsburgh for Cullen, Zarley Zalapski and Jeff Parker. A problem with Cullen&mdash;especially in light of their center problems&mdash;would not be welcome.&ldquo;Cullen is a heck of a player and I&rsquo;m trying to get some new bonuses in there that can satisfy everybody,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;But with those top five? I don&rsquo;t think John&rsquo;s there yet. Those five are Stanley Cup champs, MVPs, first and second all-stars, MVP runnersup.&rdquo;<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Sept. 4: Paul Fenton. LW, signed multi-year contract; Free-agent Mario Gosselin, G, signed multiyear contract. Sept. 5: Free-agent Barry Pederson, C, signed one-year contract. &#9632;

f0035-02

CULLEN SHUNS OFFER; REFUSES TO REPORT

<div class="byline">BY STEPHEN HARRIS</div>After a morning of contract talks with free agent Glen Wesley Sept. 5, Boston Bruins&rsquo; general manager Harry Sinden was hoping to have the talented young defenseman back in fold in time for the opening of training camp.That afternoon, Sinden got his answer&mdash;but it wasn&rsquo;t the one he wanted.&ldquo;He turned down our offer and informed us he intends to play for the Canadian Olympic Team,&rdquo; said Sinden.Wesley, who earned $155,000 while playing out his option last year, was seeking a pact worth roughly $700,000 per year. The Bruins&rsquo; offer was considerably less, likely averaging out in the $400,000-$500,000 range.&ldquo;I did want to stay here but I&rsquo;ve been thinking about this for a long time,&rdquo; said Wesley. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a once in a lifetime opportunity to play in the Olympics.&ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t seem we&rsquo;d be able to reach agreement, so the timing is good. I didn&rsquo;t want to accept something where I&rsquo;d be frustrated. I do understand Harry&rsquo;s decision. His priority is to hold salaries down. I just didn&rsquo;t feel it was fair to myself.&rdquo;Wesley&rsquo;s agent, Rick Curran, pointed to the salaries of comparable blueliners such as Petr Svoboda of Montreal ($625,000 last year) and Kevin Hatcher of Washington ($600,000); Sinden countered with the $300,000 earned by Los Angeles&rsquo; Steve Duchesne.&ldquo;They&rsquo;d give us a name, we&rsquo;d give them a name,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;You might as well drop those conversations; what matters is how much are the Bruins willing to pay Glen Wesley.&ldquo;He (Curran) must have thought he&rsquo;d gotten off a plane in St. Louis or Detroit (where several lucrative deals have been signed). Actually, it was Boston.&rdquo;And Wesley may well be climbing on a flight out of Boston in the near future, to report to Team Canada&rsquo;s camp.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he&rsquo;s going to budge, and I&rsquo;m very excited about going to the Olympic team,&rdquo; said Wesley. &ldquo;This definitely is not a negotiating ploy. I&rsquo;ve thought about this for a lot time.&rdquo;As a Group I free agent, Wesley hoped to garner offers from other NHL teams. But clubs were apparently wary of the compensation they might have to give up&mdash;especially after the St. Louis Blues lost Scott Stevens to New Jersey as compensation for signing Brendan Shanahan.&ldquo;That killed it for everybody,&rdquo; said Wesley. &ldquo;Nobody&rsquo;s going to do anything now.&rdquo;If Wesley does play for his national team, his status vis-a-vis NHL free agency may not change after the Olympics: Any other club signing him would still have to compensate the Bruins if the terms of free agency remain the same after the new Collective Bargaining Agreement is signed.And it&rsquo;s doubtful Sinden, rarely one to forgive and forget when a player chooses to walk away, would welcome Wesley back with open arms.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it would sit too well with me,&rdquo; said Sinden. &ldquo;It would be one thing if he was walking from a ridiculous offer. But it&rsquo;s an excellent offer. I don&rsquo;t think he has been made aware what good offer we&rsquo;ve made.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a very unreasonable position for them to take. He doesn&rsquo;t have the credentials to get the sort of money he wants. He has never had a single vote for an all-star team or the Norris Trophy. I think if there&rsquo;s four levels of players, he&rsquo;s probably somewhere between a two and a three.&ldquo;Our offer would probably make him the highest-paid defenseman in the league with his experience. It would probably place him in the top 10 or 12 of all defensemen, and it would make him the highest-paid player on our team except for (Ray) Bourque and (Cam) Neely.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m actually glad he turned us down, because I was offering too much. Now we can start over.&rdquo; &#9632;

WESLEY REJECTS OFFER, JOINS OLYMPIANS

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN JOHNSTON</div>When Pierre Page extended a free-agent tryout to John Kordic in late August, the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; general manager had more in mind than trying to salvage a troubled career. He was hoping to salvage two.Kordic, one of the most-feared NHL enforcers over the past five years, has been struggling with a well-publicized alcohol problem. He was traded from the Toronto Maple Leafs to the Washington Capitals last season and was given ample opportunity to prove he was clean and sober. He failed, twice, saw action in just 10 games and was not re-signed by the Caps.He entered the Hazelton substance abuse clinic in Minnesota during the summer where he met and befriended talented Nordique defenseman Bryan Fogarty. Fogarty is also trying to overcome an alcohol addiction.The two shared an appartment in Minneapolis, during which time Fogarty talked about the caring and understanding of the Nordique organization.Kordic was a very receptive audience and returned to Quebec with Fogarty, set up house in the Nordique defenseman&rsquo;s condominium and began training with him. Then he arranged a meeting with Page.Now, Kordic and Fogarty are hoping to feed off and support one another in their struggle to make it back.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot more positive (about taking on another troubled player) than negative,&rdquo; said Fogarty. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve grown pretty close and know each other very well. If one of us were to have a moment of weakness, the other would know how to react.&ldquo;And we are both very conscious that our careers as pro athletes are at stake. We are more than ready to make sacrifices. And to have John around would make my job all that easier.&rdquo;Easy isn&rsquo;t the word Page would use to describe his decision to give Kordic a tryout&mdash;and he insists that&rsquo;s all it is, a tryout.&ldquo;Sure we&rsquo;re nervous,&rdquo; said Page. &ldquo;Everyone is. But our agreement is so clear that we think we&rsquo;re well covered and prepared for any eventuality.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt in our mind that a top shape John Kordic can help any team in the NHL. All we have to find out now is whether he can surmount his problems or not. He&rsquo;s going to try and submit to our conditions. Then we&rsquo;ll see what happens.&rdquo;Page said both Kordic and Fogarty are conscious that this is their last chance. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m an optimist,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And there is always hope. All we have to do is look at Montreal Expos&rsquo; Dennis Martinez (a recovering alcoholic). He came out of it. So we&rsquo;re going to work very hard with those guys.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re very happy to be able to help John. And in return, he&rsquo;ll help us. He wants help and we&rsquo;ll be there for him. We want people to notice that the Quebec Nordiques care. The word will get around.&rdquo;Kordic, of course, is very grateful. Most people believed he&rsquo;d blown his last chance when he couldn&rsquo;t come through for patient Caps&rsquo; GM David Poile.&ldquo;I have too much to lose if I start drinking and being crazy again,&rdquo; said Kordic. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m more than aware that this is my last chance in hockey so I don&rsquo;t want to mess up.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had very good discussions with Pierre Page. Our talks were about life in general and didn&rsquo;t only concern hockey. I&rsquo;ve never met a hockey man so honest and forthcoming as Pierre Page. He&rsquo;s quite an person, very human and understanding.&rdquo;<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Aug. 30: Doug Smail, LW, signed tree-agent contract. Sept. 5: Rene Corbet, LW. signed contract. &#9632;

TWOSOME TACKLES TROUBLES TOGETHER

<div class="byline">BY JIM KELLEY</div>The new director of hockey operations for the Buffalo Sabres would like to see two immediate changes. A little more speed and a little more muscle.&ldquo;Every team that wins the Stanley Cup has to have muscle for one simple reason: &ldquo;You&rsquo;re going to have to play that type of hockey somewhere along the line.&rdquo; John Muckier said. &ldquo;Somewhere in the playoffs you&rsquo;re going to be asked to be aggressive and there will be body contact.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to see the team become a little faster too. If you&rsquo;re building a championship team, first of all, you look for skills and talent. Speed comes into that. But you still need muscle, no question.Muckier, hired off the multi-championship Edmonton Oilers to try and impart some winning ways to a perennial loser, hasn&rsquo;t had a first-hand look at what the Sabres have and don&rsquo;t have. But he has made some preliminary reviews and maintains his role will be to provide coach Rick Dudley with the elements that will move the Sabres from reasonable regular season success to consistent playoff success.&ldquo;You have to give the coach all the material he needs to play any type of game, if that&rsquo;s possible, because you usually need it before it&rsquo;s all over,&rdquo; Muckier said.According to several sources, Muckier&rsquo;s first recommendation was to try and sign Edmonton winger Adam Graves. Graves ended up with the Rangers, but it points out a problem the Sabres have had recently.Traditionally they are good in goal, solid at defense and strong up the middle. But they usually lack toughness, speed and sometimes scoring off the wings.&ldquo;Center looks pretty healthy,&rdquo; Muckier said.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s healthier than Edmonton. But the wings are a little concern.&rdquo;Buffalo has Pierre Turgeon, Dale Hawerchuck and Christian Ruuttu as its top three centermen and can play checker Dave Snuggerud or playmaker Benoit Hogue in the fourth center slot. Muckier will use training camp to evaluate what&rsquo;s available at the wings&mdash;both in-house and around the league.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m kind of impressed with the personnel, but you don&rsquo;t really know them until you see them in training camp,&rdquo; Muckier said. &ldquo;I know a lot of them from playing against them, but there&rsquo;ll be some rookies coming in who I haven&rsquo;t seen.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t seen, of course, any of the draft choices from this year or anybody who has not played on a National League team. I believe we have good personnel. We have some young players coming up that everybody feels can contribute.&rdquo;That would include Kevin Haller and Ken Sutton at defense and left winger Brad May, the team&rsquo;s No. I draft pick in 1990, as well as another prospect on defense, 6-foot-l, 200-pound Keith Carney, a member of the U.S. national team. Carney, from the University of Maine, was Buffalo&rsquo;s third choice, 76th overall, in the 1988 draft. The Sabres might also have room for Greg Brown, the young defenseman who didn&rsquo;t make the team last year, but has caught on with Team USA in the Canada Cup.Muckier looks for improvement with another year&rsquo;s maturity and experience by some of Buffalo&rsquo;s more prominent young players, such as Alexander Mogilny, Hogue and Turgeon.If he doesn&rsquo;t see it, he&rsquo;s likely to suggest trades.&ldquo;I can be very candid in that regard,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I expect to be able to work with Gerry (general manager Meehan) and I don&rsquo;t see any problems there.&rdquo; &#9632;

MUCKLER’S RECIPE FOCUSING ON SPEED, MUSCLE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01592/6008535-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Having an MVP-season should equal a shot at an NHL spot says Kevin Todd.</figcaption></div>Selecting a coach for its International League affiliate in Muskegon wasn&rsquo;t much of a priority for the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.That chore moved further down the list when Penguins&rsquo; coach Bob Johnson was hospitalized for surgery to remove a brain tumor.So the Penguins&mdash;and Lumberjacks&mdash;began Training camp without a coach.The obvious choice for the Lumberjacks would be Phil Russell, an assistant to B.J. MacDonald last season. Russell still may wind up with the job.Had the Penguins really wanted Russell for the Lumberjacks, they would have given him the job long ago. But the Penguins talked with Yale coach Tim Taylor, who was assisting Johnson with the U.S. Canada Cup team, and Colorado College coach Brad Buetow, but neither was particularly interested.<h2>IHL</h2>San Jose&rsquo;s haul in the summer&rsquo;s expansion and dispersal drafts will leave Kansas City looking more like Kalamazoo than the Wings themselves. The Sharks took to training camp 14 players who played for Kalamazoo last season.Several of them, including wingers Ed Courtenay, Mike McHugh and J.F. Quintin, defenseman Dean Kolstad and goaltender Jarmo Myllys, are good bets to be sent to Kansas City.Meanwhile, the North Stars were originally left with only Enrico Ciccone, Jackson Penney and Mario Thyer from Kalamazoo. A rash of recent free-agent signings brought them five others, including forwards Steve Gotaas and Mitch Messier and goaltender Larry Dyck. The Wings are also changing their uniforms to match the new ones wom by the North Stars.With only a couple of weeks left before the start of training camp, the IHL&rsquo;s only independents, Fort Wayne and San Diego, were slow in signing players. The Komets had only seven players under contract, but announced partial affiliations with Detroit, Winnipeg and Buffalo. The Gulls had four players, plus Charlie Simmer, who was unsure whether he would return as a player. He will be back as an assistant coach to Don Waddell.<h2>AHL</h2>When Kevin Todd&rsquo;s MVP season of 1990-91 came to an end, he vowed he would never be back with the American League&rsquo;s Utica Devils.After a 118-point season, the eighth-highest point total in AHL history, Todd believed he had proven himself worthy of an NHL promotion.He played out his option last season and said there was &ldquo;no chance, none, zero,&rdquo; that he would play a fourth season in Utica.Free agency produced no contract offers, as teams were afraid of paying compensation to New Jersey, so Todd re-signed with the Devils. But that hasn&rsquo;t changed his thoughts about playing in Utica.Todd and his agent, Steve Bartlett, negotiated a minor-league salary they hope will force the Devils to trade him if he doesn&rsquo;t earn a job in the NHL.Todd&rsquo;s minor-league salary will be $75,000, which is nearly three times what he earned last season ($27,500). New Jersey is notorious for its low salary structure, and Bartlett is following the path taken by former Devil Paul Ysebaert.Ysebaert played out his option in 1989-90 and re-signed with New Jersey before last season. His minor-league salary was $75,000, and when the Devils didn&rsquo;t have a job for him in the NHL, they traded him to Detroit.&ldquo;We tried to get a financial indication that they weren&rsquo;t looking at Kevin strictly as a minor-league player,&rdquo; Bartlett said.&ldquo;We were convinced both in conversation and in numbers that he will be given an opportunity to play in the NHL, and if not, they won&rsquo;t want to pay that kind of money for him to play in Utica.&rdquo;Maine Mariners&rsquo; owner Ed Anderson found the investor he was looking for when Utica businessman Frank DuRoss purchased 50 per cent of the team Aug. 30.DuRoss bought out the club&rsquo;s 18 limited partners for around $400,000.Anderson said he didn&rsquo;t see the sale as the solution to the Mariners&rsquo; financial problems. He said the team lost $200,000 last season, when they averaged about 4,260 fans.&ldquo;Frank is not looking for a tax shelter,&rdquo; Anderson said. &ldquo;He is a businessman making an investment and like any businessman he wants to see a return on his investment. We need to sell more tickets, we need to get more people in the building.&rdquo;DuRoss has owned a hockey team before&mdash;the Mohawk Valley Comets in Utica, which played in the old Atlantic Coast Hockey League.<h2>ECHL</h2>Knoxville lost a coach with a pair of Stanley Cup rings when Don Jackson resigned Aug. 21 to become an assistant with the Quebec Nordiques.The Cherokees&rsquo; owners went one better in finding his replacement.Bill Nyrop, who played on three NHL championship teams with Montreal in the 1970s, was hired as coach and director of hockey operations Sept. 4.Nyrop, a practicing attorney who lives on a 250-acre ranch in Idaho, has been out of hockey nearly 10 years. He was eager to make a career change.&ldquo;Basically, I spent my 20s trying to be the best hockey player I could be and I spent my 30s trying to be the best attorney possible,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There is nothing wrong with combining the professions. No other job gives you the best of both.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an interesting challenge. I&rsquo;m not sure I want to be back in the sports world forever, but my partners were willing to allow me a sabbatical, step back and see what&rsquo;s there.&rdquo;Nyrop has a tough act to follow. Jackson, who won his Stanley Cup rings with Edmonton, led the Cherokees to a 46-13-5 record and the regular-season championship in his first full season. He also was selected East Coast League coach of the year.Nyrop, 39, has no professional coaching experience. He has been removed from the sport since his retirement from the Minnesota North Stars after the 1981-82 season.That did not deter Knoxville co-owner Bob Thomas, who considered Nyrop&rsquo;s decision a blessing.&ldquo;He really impressed us,&rdquo; Thomas said. &ldquo;He has always been a winner in everything he has done. He&rsquo;s a first-class person.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re very fortunate he decided he wanted to make this move at a time we needed a coach. If the chips were down, this is the kind of guy who&rsquo;ll work 24 hours a day to correct the situation.&rdquo;Five NHL preseason games were scheduled for ECHL cities.Washington and Buffalo play Sept. 14 at Richmond and Sept. 15 at Greensboro; Hartford and Washington battle Sept. 20 at the Scope in Norfolk, Va.; the Whalers meet New Jersey in Louisville the next night and Los Angeles faces the New York Rangers at Charlotte Sept. 29.NHL exhibition games in ECHL cities serve an important function, said Hampton Roads&rsquo; coach John Brophy.&ldquo;NHL exposure in our market means two things,&rdquo; said the former NHL coach. &ldquo;One, we can showcase four Admiral players (Harry Mews, Brian Martin, Victor Gervais and Olaf Kolzig) who are in training camp with Washington.&ldquo;Second, we can give our fans a look at big-league action and start some momentum for the ECHL season in our community.&rdquo;ECHL commissionor Pat Kelly named Doug Price director of information Sept. 3. Price, 24, transferred from Bowling Green University to Defiance (Ohio) College and graduated in 1990 with a degree in sports management&hellip;Three Cincinnati Cyclone players&mdash;center Steve Cadieux, right winger Kevin Kerr and left winger Ted Nezoil&mdash;were invited to New Jersey&rsquo;s training camp&hellip;OtherCylcones invited to NHL camps: Chris Marshall (Buffalo), Rob Krauss (Detroit), Brett Barnett (Minnesota) and Steve Shaunessy (Boston).&mdash;With files from Adam Teicher, Kevin Oklobzija and Nick Gates &#9632;

f0037-01

COACHES’ CORNER

You&rsquo;ve been picked first overall in the NHL draft, offered millions of dollars, played with and against the best players in the world&hellip;Eric Lindros what are you going to do now?&ldquo;Go back to junior.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s that plain and simple. Lindros doesn&rsquo;t want any part of the Quebec Nordiques and he&rsquo;s willing to return to his old stomping grounds to prove it. The Oshawa Generals of the Ontario League are the big winners in Lindros&rsquo; staunch stance against playing for the Nordiques.&ldquo;People didn&rsquo;t believe me when I told them two months ago that I&rsquo;d be willing to go back to junior,&rdquo; Lindros said. &ldquo;Well they better start believing because it&rsquo;s going to happen.&rdquo;Lindros has done everything at the junior level, including winning a Memorial Cup, two World Junior Championships and Canadian Hockey League player of the year. However, he is unwilling to play for the team that drafted him first overall this year. He is eligible to play two more junior years&mdash;plus an overage season&mdash;and could re-enter the NHL draft in 1993.Rick Cornacchia, coach of the Generals and the Canadian national junior team, would welcome Lindros back.&ldquo;I think we could find a place for him somewhere,&rdquo; Cornacchia joked. &ldquo;The decision is his. He&rsquo;s certainly more than welcome.&rdquo;<h2>OHL</h2>George Burnett may have to do without Brad May. Jason Winch, Greg Allen, Todd Coopman. Don McConnell, John Johnson. Andy Bezeau. Paul Wolanski, Steve Staois, Derek Booth and Roch Belley on his Niagara Falls Thunder hockey club.Some day soon, the Thunder will have to without Burnett. The bright, young coachgeneral manager will likely be in the professional ranks before too long.Burnett reportedly had discussions this summer with the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; franchise about a coaching position in the organization.&ldquo;It would be wrong not to listen (to offers),&rdquo; Burnett said. &ldquo;It has always been my intention to proceed to the next level of coaching, but right now my No. 1 priority is with the Niagara Falls Thunder.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01678/6008566-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="698" height="717"><figcaption class="caption-body">Eric Lindros says he&rsquo;d rather return to Oshawa than report to Quebec.</figcaption></div>Burnett, 29, is in the second season of a three-year contract with Niagara Falls. He guided the Thunder to an impressive 39-18-9 record&mdash;second place in the Emms Division last season&mdash;and won the Matt Leyden Trophy for OHL coach of the year, as selected by his peers.The Thunder added to their coaching staff, hiring Randy Hall as assistant coach-GM. Hall, coach-GM of the Kingston Frontenacs last season, previously worked in Niagara Falls with Burnett for the last half of the 1989-90 season.The Thunder have lost up to 11 players from last season, although first-round draft picks May (Buffalo) and Staois (St. Louis) are eligible to return as underage juniors.<h2>WHL</h2>Tri-City Americans&rsquo; owner Ron Toiga said he wanted a veteran hockey man who could direct traffic. The perfect cop turned out to be former Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; coach Bob McCammon.Because of contractual obligations to the Canucks&mdash;he&rsquo;s serving as special assignment scout&mdash;McCammon was named to the Americans&rsquo; board of directors and his position comes without a Western League contract.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s helping us evaluate our talent,&rdquo; said Toiga, who purchased the Americans from Ron Dixon in July. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s there for (co-coaches) Chico Resch and Gary Busniak to rely on for advice. He&rsquo;s on the board to offer direction. It&rsquo;s going to be a long-term relationship, no doubt.Regina Pats&rsquo; coach Brad Tippett would make television commentator Don Cherry proud with his philosophy on Canadian hockey players.Tippett believes scouting should start at home. His Pats have an American, a Finn, a Swede and a South African at camp. But it has been by fluke rather than design.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been finding us,&rdquo; Tippett said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a very strong advocate in not scouting in Europe. We never have and never will scout in Europe. I think that&rsquo;s wrong. There are enough Canadian players who can play (in the WHL).&rdquo;Tippett said the foreign players are paying their own way through camp. Of the group, only forward Niklas Barklund (Sweden) has a chance to make the team.Coach Tim Bothwell of the Medicine Hat Tigers has a goaltending dilemma on his hands and at least five other WHL teams are willing to help him out.The Tigers received calls from Seattle, Victoria, Prince Albert, Portland and Swift Current, regarding the availability of Sonny Mignacca and Chris Osgood.Mignacca, 17, said he&rsquo;d like to start 40 to 45 games in this, his draft season. However, to do so, he&rsquo;d have to split netminding chores with incumbent Chris Osgood, who is also requesting a heavy workload&mdash;50 to 55 games.&ldquo;I think it would be better for one of us to move,&rdquo; Mignacca said. &ldquo;Oz has been drafted already, so a trade would give me a chance to get exposed if I was in say, Seattle or P. A. Hopefully one of us will be out of Medicine Hat and playing someplace else.&rdquo;Osgood was an East Division all-star last season, posting a 3.95 goals-against average and a 23-18-3 record. He was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in the third round of the 1991 NHL entry draft.The Brandon Wheat Kings took a stride to bolster its defense, signing 17-year-old defenseman Ryan Smith.The 6-foot-2, 200-pound native of Tabor, Alta., played midget last season with the Lethbridge Y&rsquo;s Men. In 34 games, he scored eight goals and 27 points. Smith opted for Brandon after turning down college scholarship offers from the Maine, Michigan and North Dakota.<h2>QMJHL</h2>Following a summer of discontent, the Quebec League and the Quebec sports safety council (RSSQ) finally came to a compromise over the issue of face masks.Players will be allowed to use either the three-quarter or full face masks for the 1991-92 season.But the series of often bitter summer meetings between QMJHL president Gilles Courteau, board of governors&rsquo; chairman Andre Gabias and RSSQ president Jean-Claude Riendeau led to a number of other major safety rulings.The issue came to a head when the RSSQ argued the QMJHL should be subject to the same regulations as all hockey players in the province, meaning all players must wear full face masks.However, the QMJHL&mdash;management, coaches, players&mdash;countered that with full face masks, players are more likely to hook their sticks high around an opponents&rsquo;s neck to slow down his progress.In June, the RSSQ threatened to break away from the QMJHL, which might have forced the league into becoming a semi-professional organization.&ldquo;Everyone finally came to an understanding,&rdquo; said RSSQ communications director Andree Dupont &ldquo;Not only did we reach a compromise, but we also managed to enlarge our role in the safety procedures of the league.&rdquo;In the past, players have been known to pay little heed to regulations such as buckling up and wearing their helmets properly. Now, referees are empowered to suspend players found wearing their equipment improperly.Neck guards will also be mandatory once the season opens.&ldquo;We want players to be taught in this way,&rdquo; Dupont said. &ldquo;Often, safety has been seen as an obstacle to performance. We don&rsquo;t want the best players to be those who use violence or carry their sticks high&rsquo;&rdquo;In keeping with such a philosophy, the RSSQ and QMJHL also adopted a pair of radical regulations, aimed at preventing the infamous QMJHL brawl-fest.Instigators of fights can now be suspended immediately and players throwing fists in the final five minutes of games are subject to a suspension for the following game.Further, players will be tossed if they receive three stick penalties&mdash;slashing, high sticking, cross checking&mdash;in a game.League trainers will be trained about the new rulings at semi-annual meetings and RSSQ officials will keep a close eye on the games to ensure the new rules are being enforced.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s good that negotiations took so long,&rdquo; Dupont said. &ldquo;Both parties finally got together in a spirit of cooperation and confidence. There&rsquo;s a strong relationship between the parties&mdash;they are both aiming for the same goal and that goal is safety for youths in general.&rdquo;&mdash;With files from Brian Costello, Lance Goshko and Ken Warren &#9632;

f0038-01

GUESS WHO’S COMING BACK?

<div class="byline">BY TIM CAMPBELL</div>The show has gone on with barely a thought given to high-profile absentees and their reasons.Wayne Gretzky has seen to it.A motivated and enthused Great One was the focus on the ice during the Canada Cup round robin, scoring three goals and arranging seven others in Team Canada&rsquo;s consecutive victories over the U.S., Sweden and Czechoslovakia.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited,&rdquo; Gretzky said during the week, which was a perfect 10. &ldquo;Look at the players in this room. The level of this competition pushes you to be better.&rdquo;With the three victories&mdash;explosive first periods accounted for each&mdash;Team Canada sat atop the tournament round-robin standings at 3-0-1. They had tied Finland 2-2 in a sluggish opener.In Hamilton against the U.S., Team Canada built a 5-0 lead by the midway point of the game and Gretz-Mky finished with a goal and three assists in the 6-3 romp.The U.S., trying to find performance stability in the wake of the devastating health problems of coach Bob Johnson, snapped to it in the second period and closed the gap to 5-3 at one stage. It was too little and way too late.In Saskatoon, the surprising Finns recorded their first win of the tournament with a fluke goal in the game&rsquo;s final minute to beat Czechoslovakia 1-0. Meanwhile in Montreal, the Swedes outfoxed the calculating Soviets 3-2, halting a late Soviet comeback with a goal by Tomas Sandstrom.Thursday Sept. 5 marked the only win of the tournament for the disappointing Soviets. They trounced Finland 6-1 in Hamilton. Over in Detroit, the U.S. got back on track by beating Czechoslovakia 4-2 in a very dull affair, seen by a half-empty house at Joe Louis Arena.Team Canada was back in Toronto that night, and Gretzky pounced on the Swedes in setting up three first-period goals. Two of them came during the same shorthanded situation, though the post-game focus of the 4-1 win turned to a second straight night of serious mid-game sleepiness.Goalie Bill Ranford was left to weather the storm, making 34 saves in the game.Two nights later in Montreal, Ranford received more complete support as Team Canada again opened a big lead, 4-0 before 11 minutes had passed. Gretzky wound up with two goals and one assist and was chosen Team Canada&rsquo;s player of the game for the third straight time.The 6-2 victory assured the host country a spot in the semifinal round.The U.S. also gained a berth by edging the Soviets 2-1 in Chicago. It was largely thanks to strong goaltending by Mike Richter.The Cinderella Finns again had strong netminding from Markus Ketterer and upset Sweden 3-1 in Toronto, gaining their place in the round of four. The first four dates of the tournament left the Soviets, Swedes and Czechs to fight it out for the final semifinal place Sept. 9.The Canada Cup sideshows had gained as much, if not more ink than the games.Each day, a new controversy seemed to be swirling around Team Canada. It began with Keenan&rsquo;s roster choices for opening games against Finland and the U.S. and by Sept. 4, Detroit captain Steve Yzerman decided he had become too much of a distraction to hang around.That day, Mark Messier&rsquo;s request for a trade out of Edmonton had become public knowledge and the arbitration ruling by judge Ed Houston&mdash;awarding defenceman Scott Stevens to New Jersey as compensation for the St. Louis Blues signing free agent Brendan Shanahan&mdash;was the talk of every town.Attention increased daily on Team Canada forward Eric Lindros. &#9632;

TEAM CANADA EXCELS IN FACE OF CONTROVERSY

<div class="byline">BY DAMIEN COX</div>A stunned and concerned world has watched in recent months as the once mighty Soviet empire has broken into pieces.The hockey world meanwhile, has watched nearly the same thing happen to the Soviet hockey dynasty, but likely with more satisfaction than worry.&ldquo;The Big Red Machine is over,&rdquo; said a jubilant Mats Naslund of Sweden, after the Swedes beat the Soviets 3-2 in the second game of the Canada Cup round robin. &ldquo;They are capitalist individuals like we are now.&rdquo;After finishing third at this year&rsquo;s World Championships, the Soviets have stumbled badly at this year&rsquo;s Canada Cup tournament with only one win in their first four round-robin games. The Soviets were faced with missing the tournament playoffs for the first time ever as they went into a showdown with Canada on the final night of the round robin. Only a win over the Canucks combined with a tie between Sweden and Czechoslovakia could save the Soviets from early elimination.Everybody seems to have a theory on what has happened to the mighty Soviets, but the sudden and severe downturn in their hockey fortunes has still come as a shocking and unexpected development. Their inability to find much success at this year&rsquo;s Canada Cup after entering the tourney as one of the favorites has been particularly surprising, and the degree of their fall stunning.For example, over their first four games, the once vaunted Soviet offense managed only 11 goals, a clear demonstration that the squad lacked the skills and cohesiveness of previous teams.Some, like Los Angeles King superstar Wayne Gretzky, for one, think the entire notion of Soviet hockey dominance was more myth and circumstance than fact in the first place. Gretzky points out that when matched against the strongest Canada can offer, the Soviets have generally been second best.&ldquo;The Soviet players are obviously going through a traumatic experience,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But we should take a good look at the whole Soviet mystique of the past. We beat them in 1972 and in 1976. They won the Canada Cup in 1981, but we came back and won again in 1984 and 1987.&rdquo;Still, never before had the Soviets lost more than two games in the round-robin portion of the tournament until this fall. Losses to Czechoslovakia (5-2), Sweden (3-2) and Team USA (2-1) came as a humbling experience to the Soviets, who managed to beat only Finland (6-1) in their first four outings.It is without doubt that the historic developments in their homeland have disturbed the Soviets and place upon them a heavy psychological burden.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01305/6008621-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="548" height="718"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexei Kasatonov is the last of the famed Green Unit.</figcaption></div>When the ultimately unsuccessful coup in Moscow rocked the world, the Soviet squad was in Sweden at a tournament. While tournament organizers wondered aloud if the Soviets would be able to come, and whether Canada would have to enter two teams, the Soviets headed back to Moscow. The coup was basically over, but several still saw tanks and armed soldiers in the streets.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very difficult to estimate the influence,&rdquo; said assistant coach Igor Dmitriev after the loss to Team USA. &lsquo;&ldquo;I can say it detracts from the game.&rdquo;Canadian coach Mike Keenan noticed a difference.&ldquo;They don&rsquo;t have a sense of mission, maybe because their country is in disarray,&rdquo; he said.Of course, Soviet teams have previously competed during times of political upheaval, and prospered. The key difference this time is that the talent and experience is no longer in sufficient supply to easily overcome such distractions.The Soviets entered the tournament for the first time without virtually any of the stars that had so often carried the team over the past two decades. Four-fifths of the famed Green Unit is gone, with only defenseman Alexei Kasatonov present from the group that included Viacheslav Fetisov and the KLM line of Sergei Makarov, Vladimir Krutov and Igor Larionov. Those four missing players accounted for 81 games of Canada Cup experience and 87 tournament points, more than one-quarter of the points ever scored by the Soviets in the Canada Cup.A new generation of Soviet stars, meanwhile, was also missing for a variety of reasons. Forward Pavel Bure refused to sign a contract with a Soviet club team that would have prevented his departure to the NHL&rsquo;s Vancouver Canucks in the near future. Team captain Vladimir Konstantinov refused to play, then popped up in Detroit to sign a contract with the Red Wings. Goalie Artur Irbe, a Latvian, refused to play for political reasons, then he also showed up in an NHL city to sign a contract, this time in San Jose. Valery Kamensky, perhaps the team&rsquo;s best player, broke his leg in a pre-toumament game.Other than NHLers Alexei Gusard and Sergei Fedorov, and heralds youngsters Viacheslav Kozlov and Igor Kravchuk, the Soviets were therefore basically left with a bunch of no names. The fact that they were willing to allow Fedorov to play after he defected last year was both a sign of desperation and a sign the Soviet hockey authorities were beginning to understand they can no longer control the lives of their best athletes.Buffalo&rsquo;s Alexander Mogilny, meanwhile, was not invited to play.&ldquo;This is the first tournament the Soviet Union has played without its stars,&rdquo; said Dmitriev. &ldquo;It has made us change tactics. This is a young team with no experience.&rdquo;Canadian forward Dale Hawerchuk pinpointed the youth of the Soviet team as a major factor for their inability to win at this year&rsquo;s tourney.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re all learning at the same time,&rdquo; said the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; star. &ldquo;But they also look like a team that could be unbelievable if they stay together.&rdquo; &#9632;

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DISAPPOINTING TIMES FOR DECIMATED BIG RED MACHINE

<h2>CANADA CUP</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01318/6008820-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="582" height="964"></div><h2>Sat., Aug. 31</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-02236/6008813-1-eng-US/f0043-022.jpg" title="f0043-02" width="586" height="544"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-03200/6008806-1-eng-US/f0043-032.jpg" title="f0043-03" width="587" height="620"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-04135/6008799-1-eng-US/f0043-042.jpg" title="f0043-04" width="573" height="223"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-05119/6008792-1-eng-US/f0043-052.jpg" title="f0043-05" width="1814" height="1321"><figcaption class="caption-body">Luc Robitalle and Team Canada jumped out to a 4-0 lead in a 6-2 win over Czechoslovakia</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0696/6008785-1-eng-US/f0043-062.jpg" title="f0043-06" width="584" height="662"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0786/6008778-1-eng-US/f0043-072.jpg" title="f0043-07" width="581" height="217"></div><h2>Mon.. Sept. 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0874/6008771-1-eng-US/f0043-082.jpg" title="f0043-08" width="588" height="888"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-0967/6008764-1-eng-US/f0043-092.jpg" title="f0043-09" width="582" height="645"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1060/6008757-1-eng-US/f0043-102.jpg" title="f0043-10" width="578" height="309"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1154/6008750-1-eng-US/f0043-112.jpg" title="f0043-11" width="573" height="344"></div><h2>Thurs.,Sept.5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1250/6008743-1-eng-US/f0043-122.jpg" title="f0043-12" width="577" height="739"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1347/6008736-1-eng-US/f0043-132.jpg" title="f0043-13" width="591" height="614"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1447/6008729-1-eng-US/f0043-142.jpg" title="f0043-14" width="579" height="335"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1543/6008722-1-eng-US/f0043-152.jpg" title="f0043-15" width="574" height="447"></div><h2>Sat.,Sept.7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1640/6008715-1-eng-US/f0043-162.jpg" title="f0043-16" width="568" height="740"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1736/6008708-1-eng-US/f0043-172.jpg" title="f0043-17" width="571" height="555"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1831/6008701-1-eng-US/f0043-182.jpg" title="f0043-18" width="575" height="665"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-1929/6008694-1-eng-US/f0043-192.jpg" title="f0043-19" width="562" height="874"><figcaption class="caption-body">The play of Theo Fleury sparked canada to a win over Swedan.</figcaption></div><h2>CANADA CUP HISTORY</h2><h3>WIN FALL</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-2022/6008687-1-eng-US/f0043-202.jpg" title="f0043-20" width="250" height="118"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-2115/6008680-1-eng-US/f0043-212.jpg" title="f0043-21" width="252" height="119"></div><h3>1976</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-2214/6008673-1-eng-US/f0043-222.jpg" title="f0043-22" width="540" height="279"></div><h3>1981</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-2313/6008666-1-eng-US/f0043-232.jpg" title="f0043-23" width="532" height="362"></div><h3>1984</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-2412/6008659-1-eng-US/f0043-242.jpg" title="f0043-24" width="536" height="395"></div><h3>1987</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-2511/6008652-1-eng-US/f0043-252.jpg" title="f0043-25" width="545" height="407"></div> &#9632;

f0043-01

CANADA CUP ’91

<div class="image-hero"><img title="C0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01233/6008851-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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September 20, 1991

ASSISTANT COACHES WILL SUB FOR JOHNSON

WILSON ELATED TO LEAVE WINDY CITY

NUMBERS

INTEREST IN CANADA CUP AS HIGH AS EVER