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.

November 29, 1991

The Hockey News November 29, 1991

<div class="byline">By Gary Olson</div>Even after 405 goals and 900 games, Brian Propp is still looking for the perfect hockey stick.&ldquo;I found a blade I like&mdash;it&rsquo;s Ulf Dahlen&rsquo;s,&rdquo; Propp said, &ldquo;and I think it helps me keep the puck on my stick.&rdquo;.And from there it has been going into the net. Mter a slump which saw him score three goals MheMinnesota North Stars&rsquo; first 15 games, Propp had two goals in a 7-0 win over Toronto Nov. 12 and two more in a 5-3 loss to St. Louis Nov. 16. It gave him a streak of six goals and 16 points in 10 games.The game against St. Louis was Propp&rsquo;s 900th in the NHL. His performance in it went a long way to dispelling speculation that he is washed up in his 13th season.&ldquo;You know if you keep getting chances, you&rsquo;ll eventually get goals,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s nice when it happens because there is always concern you may not be doing things right.&rdquo;GOALIE FOR HIRE: When Jon Casey signed his contract Nov. 12, it forever ended Mike Burkhardt&rsquo;s chance to play for the North Stars.Asa 33-year-old, assistant controller for a discount warehouse, he was a longshot anyway. Burkhardt was an emergency replacement when Casey, in frustration over stalled contract negotiations, decided to stay home for the Nov. 2 game against Chicago.&ldquo;I was helping get the kids ready for bed when my wife told me Bob Gainey was on the telephone,&rdquo; Burkhardt said. &ldquo;I asked, &lsquo;You Aanthe North Stars&rsquo; coach?&rsquo; and she had no idea. I figured it was a friend trying to pull a practical joke.&rdquo;Burkhardt played at the University of Minnesota in the late 1970s, transferred to Augsburg College in Minneapolis and was in goal when it won the 1981 national championship. He won another national title on a senior amateur team in 1986.&ldquo;On the way to Met Center, I thought if Bob Gainey didn&rsquo;t know Casey was going to stay home, that probably meant Darcy Wakaluk didn&rsquo;t know he was going to play,&rdquo; Burkhardt said. &ldquo;That doesn&rsquo;t sit well with goalies. I thought there was a chance I&rsquo;d actually have to play. My adrenalin was pumping.&rdquo;Burkhardt got to the Met Center seconds behind Casey and never got to talk about a contract&mdash;which is what got the Stars into that mess in the first place.NOTEBOOK: Goalie Jon Casey signed a four-year, $3.8-million contract Nov. 12. He&rsquo;ll get salaries of $600,000 and $900,000 in the first two years and $1.1 million each of the final two seasons. The contract includes playoff bonuses tied to his and the team&rsquo;s success. He gets $5,000 per win in the first round, $7,500 in the second round, $10,000 in the conference final and $12,500 in the Stanley Cup final. The team must win each series before Casey can collect. After signing, Casey made 23 saves to shut out Toronto Nov. 12&hellip;Dave Gagner&rsquo;s assist on Mike Craig&rsquo;s goal against Toronto was his 300th career point. He had 141 goals and 159 assists in 375 games.<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 12: Jon Casey, G, signed a four-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dave Gagner, Bobby Smith. Neal Broten, Mike Modano, Marc Bureau. Todd Elik.LW&mdash;Brian Propp, Derrick Smith, Gaetan Duchesne, Basil McRae.RW&mdash;Mike Craig, Brian Bellows, Stewart Gavin, Shane Churla, Ulf Dahlen.LD&mdash;Craig Ludwig, Derian Hatcher, Brian Glynn, Al Pedersen.RD&mdash;Jim Johnson, Rob Ramage, Chris Dahlquist.G&mdash;Jon Casey, Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mark Tinordl. D, foot palsy, indefinite. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

New prop helps out old Propp

<h2>Rival league aims for 1992</h2>The Continental Hockey Association still plans to commence play next fall, but even its liberal-minded president has become conservative.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy putting together a new league,&rdquo; Bill Hunter said. &ldquo;These are tough economic times. There&rsquo;s concern about escalating player salaries and investors have become ultra-cautious.&rdquo;Hunter has high hopes a 12-16-team rival league will commence for the 1992-93 season. His plan includes six to eight teams in both a North American and European division. Each team can sign 23 players and has a $2.5-million salary cap.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021280/6514151-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="540" height="845"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bill Hunter</figcaption></div><h2>Hartje plans Soviet book</h2>Todd Hartje is writing a book, Behind the Red Line, about his experiences in the Soviet Union.&ldquo;It was one of the most exciting times in Soviet history,&rdquo; Hartje said. &ldquo;The fall of communism was coming. It was great to see the way people were viewing (Soviet president Mikhail) Gorbachev and changes.&rdquo;The 23-year-old Harvard graduate is the only non-Soviet exchage player to play in that country&rsquo;s first division. The Winnipeg Jet draft pick had two goals and six points in 32 games for Sokol Kiev and this season had three assists in eight games for the Moncton Hawks of the AHL. &#9632;

f0003-02

UPDATE

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011182/6514822-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="379" height="478"></div>The scene: The Olympic Saddledome press box. The date: Nov. 12, 1991, one day before Doug Gilmour&rsquo;s contract dispute with the Calgary Flames went to salary arbitration.Sitting next to one another on the management side of press row were two men: Al Coates, the Flames&rsquo; assistant general manager, and Gary Schreider, the NHL&rsquo;s independent arbitrator.The question on Gilmour&rsquo;s mind: How does he get a fair shake at the next day&rsquo;s arbitration hearing if, on the previous night, the Flames received an extra three hours to state their case?In actual fact, Coates and Schreider could have been talking about anything&mdash;the weather or the Blue Jays or the effect of Rocket Ismail on the CFL this year.It doesn&rsquo;t matter. The fact they talked at all looks bad. That night, Gilmour&rsquo;s agent, Larry Kelly, said: &ldquo;I would never question Gary Schreider&rsquo;s integrity.&rdquo;Nor would I. I&rsquo;ve never even met him. As for Coates, I&rsquo;ve known him for 12 years and can vouch for his integrity and fairness.But this issue isn&rsquo;t about integrity, it&rsquo;s about perception.It isn&rsquo;t enough for Schreider just to be fair and impartial. He must also give the appearance of being fair and impartial.His presence that night beside a member of the Flames&rsquo; managerial team who drafted the offer to Gilmour muddles that picture of fairness and impartiality. It would be the same as a judge meeting with the prosecuting attorney the night before a trial started. It just isn&rsquo;t done.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re talking about my life here, my contract, my livelihood, my career,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;To say that it wasn&rsquo;t important, that it isn&rsquo;t upsetting, is wrong.&rdquo;Now if Gilmour&rsquo;s salary award comes in low&mdash;a decision isn&rsquo;t expected until the end of November at the earliest&mdash;what is he supposed to think? In the back of his mind, he&rsquo;s going to believe, rightly or wrongly, the Flames unduly influenced the process by getting Schreider&rsquo;s ear in advance of the proceedings.In a court of law, the thing to do would have been for Schreider to disqualify himself from the case once Gilmour&rsquo;s objections became known. That didn&rsquo;t happen.So you&rsquo;re left with a situation that supports a fundamental players&rsquo; association principle: That the arbitration process has the potential to be slanted in favor of NHL teams.In the future, the NHL should spell out exactly what an arbitrator can and cannot do. If Schreider wanted to watch the game, then he should have sat in the seats. It would have been better still for all concerned if he&rsquo;d spent the night dining out.As it happens, the Flames did try to lowball Gilmour during the next day&rsquo;s hearing.&ldquo;They did come in with a low offer and I was upset about that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now, it&rsquo;s a decision for the arbitrator. I hope the other day had nothing to do with his decision. But it is in the back of people&rsquo;s minds.&rdquo;Gilmour&rsquo;s anyway.Ultimately, the NHLPA wants to amend the arbitration process. Right now, the arbitrator can choose the team&rsquo;s proposal, the player&rsquo;s demands or a middle ground. The NHLPA would like to see it become an either/or proposition so teams cannot come in with unrealistically low offers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02890/6514815-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="563" height="690"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Gilmour</figcaption></div>&ldquo;This is an important decision for myself and for the league,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;You look at players who have walked out of camp this year. Most of them have been rewarded with new contracts. So if it works out that I lose big, who&rsquo;s ever going to go to arbitration again? Why not walk out?&ldquo;Some guys walked and got traded, but they were rewarded. So, it&rsquo;s a tough situation. I know we, the players, are trying to get independent arbitrators. Whether that will happen, we don&rsquo;t know. But I think this is an important issue for myself and for the rest of the league.&rdquo;In all, 104 NHL players have filed for arbitration this season and every one of them will be monitoring the results of this hearing.For its own sake, the NHL should do the same. &#9632;

f0017-01

Issue of fairness raised in Flame case

NOTEUnofficial game summaries provided by National Hockey League; (shots on goal/plus-minus rating); SA&mdash;shots against; GA&mdash;goals against; ENG&mdash;empty net goals; DEC&mdash;decision, charged to goal-of record when deciding goal is scored.<h2>Monday, Nov. 11</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-10105/6515952-1-eng-US/f0031-102.jpg" title="f0031-10" width="577" height="678"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1187/6515945-1-eng-US/f0031-112.jpg" title="f0031-11" width="579" height="1193"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1263/6515938-1-eng-US/f0031-122.jpg" title="f0031-12" width="580" height="1206"></div><h2>Tuesday, Nov. 12</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1351/6515931-1-eng-US/f0031-132.jpg" title="f0031-13" width="591" height="1109"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-1446/6515924-1-eng-US/f0031-142.jpg" title="f0031-14" width="584" height="1195"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01842/6515917-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="608" height="3502"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02578/6515910-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="592" height="1063"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03399/6515903-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="1796" height="1586"><figcaption class="caption-body">Getting three assists in Minnesota&rsquo;s 7-0 win over Toronto Nov. 12 inched Bobby Smith closer to the 1,000 point club.</figcaption></div><h2>Wednesday, Nov. 13</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04274/6515896-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="592" height="671"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-05203/6515889-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="604" height="1063"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-06168/6515882-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="591" height="483"></div><h2>Thursday, Nov. 14</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-07141/6515875-1-eng-US/f0032-072.jpg" title="f0032-07" width="585" height="209"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-08125/6515868-1-eng-US/f0032-082.jpg" title="f0032-08" width="592" height="1073"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-09104/6515861-1-eng-US/f0032-092.jpg" title="f0032-09" width="592" height="759"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1094/6515854-1-eng-US/f0032-102.jpg" title="f0032-10" width="587" height="3508"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01761/6515847-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="618" height="3510"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02516/6515840-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="583" height="632"></div><h2>Friday, Nov. 15</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03381/6515833-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="599" height="1176"></div><h2>Saturday, Nov. 16</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04301/6515826-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="596" height="1491"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05250/6515819-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="589" height="807"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06215/6515812-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="1166" height="1695"><figcaption class="caption-body">Montreal&rsquo;s Paul DiPietro scored his first NHL goal in a 3-1 loss to Philadelphia NOV. 16. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/BBS)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07195/6515805-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="577" height="879"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-08162/6515798-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="591" height="824"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-09143/6515791-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="589" height="887"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-10127/6515784-1-eng-US/f0033-102.jpg" title="f0033-10" width="598" height="3511"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01850/6515777-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="600" height="1357"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02599/6515770-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="552" height="1248"><figcaption class="caption-body">Igor Larionov got the only goal in a 1-0 win over San Jose.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03468/6515763-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="597" height="1042"></div><h2>Sunday, Nov. 17</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04360/6515756-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="602" height="227"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05289/6515749-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="590" height="1345"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06255/6515742-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="577" height="1369"></div> &#9632;

f0031-10

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-07226/6513975-1-eng-US/f0002-072.jpg" title="f0002-07" width="396" height="504"></div>The NHL&rsquo;s latest test is how it deals with Tom Webster&rsquo;s latest temper tantrum.He proved last spring that he can throw a punch when he delivered a haymaker in Doug Gilmour&rsquo;s direction.He proved Nov. 16 that he can throw a stick when he launched a javelin toss in referee Kerry Fraser&rsquo;s direction.Now the NHL must prove it can throw the book at Webster.The Los Angeles coach is out of control.The THN cover story curse struck for the fourth time in five weeks when Montreal lost to Washington Nov. 11.We close on Mondays, so our issue was finished but technically we hadn&rsquo;t gone to press before the best defensive team of the modem era allowed four goals against the Capitals.The Canadiens were riding a three-game winless streak after we focused on them.Other victims have been New Jersey (four-game losing streak), Pat LaFontaine (broken jaw) and Pat Verbeek (zero goals in 11 games).Trevor Linden and Vancouver have been the only exceptions.Don&rsquo;t miss Adam Teicher&rsquo;s story on career minor-leaguer Brent Sapergia, a free spirit and recovering alcoholic.It is a compelling account of one man&rsquo;s journey through international hockey and the International League.&ldquo;I never kept my mouth shut,&rdquo; Sapergia says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always said what was on my mind.&rdquo;The story appears on page 22.I didn&rsquo;t say in print that I thought Cliff Fletcher made a bad deal when he gave up Vincent Damphousse, Peter Ing, Luke Richardson and Scott Thornton for Grant Fuhr, Glenn Anderson and Craig Berube.But that&rsquo;s what I thought and nothing has happened in the interim to change my mind.Did you know how much the Leafs would miss Damphousse?I did say in print that I thought Bill Torrey made a bad deal when he gave up Pat LaFontaine, Randy Wood and Randy Hillier for Pierre Turgeon, Uwe Krupp, Benoit Hogue and Dave McLlwain.That&rsquo;s what I thought and much has happened in the interim to change my mind.Did you know Hogue had seven goals in 10 games with the Islanders and LaFontaine six goals in nine games with the Sabres?Rand Simon knows hockey cards but does he know rookies?Simon is managing editor of Collectors World, our price guide for hockey card collectors.We have enormous respect for him around the office. Fact is, what Simon says is usually the final word on player-related matters.At least, that&rsquo;s the way it was until we entrusted him with the task of compiling a list of 10 top first-year players for our Nov. 15 issue.Two prominent rookies were omitted: New Jersey&rsquo;s rookie-of-the-month runner-up Kevin Todd (8-8-16 in 20 games) and Buffalo&rsquo;s Donald Audette (11-3-14 in 15 games).The slump-ridden Simon was sent to the American League newsletter for conditioning purposes. AHL officials pointed out Todd and Audette are both league grads.Simon returned after two weeks and is back in top form. &#9632;

f0002-07

Throw Webster to the wolves

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011440/6514041-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="363" height="354"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021182/6514034-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="54" height="54"></div>Commission for Fair. Play: We hope someone listens to their proposal to ban fighting in major junior.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03868/6514027-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="63" height="60"></div>Andy Brickley: The 30-year-old Bruin had 21 points in 12 games coming off a career-threatening injury.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04641/6514020-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="63" height="57"></div>Tom Webster: Hard to believe such a mild-mannered looking fellow could be so nasty.</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05467/6514013-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="60" height="57"></div>Quebec Nordiques: Did Dave Chambers really deserve to take the fall for a franchise&rsquo;s ineptitude?</div><div style="clear: both;"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06350/6514006-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="360" height="345"></div> &#9632;

f0002-01

CHEERS & JEERS

The NHL seems hell-bent on alienating and driving working-class fans in the United States away from hockey. Every year I read how teams keep raising their ticket prices until the cheap seats aren&rsquo;t cheap and only the well-to-do can afford to go to games.For more money, the NHL dropped ESPN in favor of SportsChannel America and the fans were the big losers. Now it appears as though next season, only the affluent will be able to watch hockey on TV, via satellite or on a pay-per-view basis.What about working stiffs like me who have to live on less than $13,000 a year? Heck, it&rsquo;s all I can do to make ends meet every month. Am I doomed to spend the rest of my life getting second-hand hockey on sports re-caps and in the newspapers?With this kind of elitist attitude, the NHL is going to price itself right out of business, while giving the shaft to the millions of blue-collar fans who made hockey what it is today. When the NHL is in ruins thanks to terminal greed, don&rsquo;t come crying to the fans you forgot about in your rush for the &ldquo;big bucks. You&rsquo;ll get precious little sympathy.Mary A. Harris&nbsp;Columbia, Mo.<h2>Puck paranoia</h2>Marc Yaworski&rsquo;s letter on &ldquo;Canadian pride&rdquo; (THN, Nov. 8) sounded oconspicuously more like Canadian paranoia.If he was an admirer of the game, which he obviously is not, he would gladly welcome the continual, albeit painstakingly slow, progress of the United States&rsquo; hockey program.If playing professional hockey was strictly limited to native-born Canadians and there were only teams north of the border, would there even be an NHL for young Canadians to aspire? Would there be a Canada Cup?I suppose it might be too much of Yaworski to recognize the U.S. remains an untapped source of hockey talent and that a pastime as glorious as hockey deserves an injection of world-class athletes, regardless of birthright.Michael Gnatek&nbsp;Washington, D.C.<h2>Just a game</h2>How sad I feel for reader Rodney Hupalo who implied Bernie Nicholls lacks respect, loyalty and class because he chose to stay with his pregnant wife rather than report to a new hockey team 2,000 miles away (THN, Nov. 1). I have no particular feelings towards Nicholls, but I&rsquo;d say he is displaying a lot of respect, loyalty and class.Rodney, as much as you and I and all other clear-thinking people love hockey, it&rsquo;s important that you repeat after me: it&rsquo;s only a game&hellip;it&rsquo;s only a game.David McCann&nbsp;Chicago, Ill.<h2>Murray worries</h2>Detroit&rsquo;s Bryan Murray is making me a very nervous and perplexed young man these days. My problem lies with his use&mdash;or should I say misuse&mdash;of Steve Yzerman, who was considered the third best player in the NHL two years ago.I think it&rsquo;s time Murray engineered a trade, likely involving one or more of his centers, to get a quality winger to play alongside Yzerman. Boy, it would have looked nice to see Jaromir Jagr (picked fifth overall by Pittsburgh in 1990) flanking Yzerman on the right. Instead, the Wings chose another center (Keith Primeau, third overall) who has yet to make an impact and now is in the minors.Failing a deal, Murray must give Yzerman the ice time he deserves and has become accustomed to. Such a move would have three lasting effects: 1. Yzerman would again be happy; 2. Murray would hold on to his job a little longer; and, 3. At least one rotisserie league owner would stop regretting he had traded for Yzerman.Michael Giordano&nbsp;Rutherford, N.J.<h2>Where&rsquo;s Wendel?</h2>There was one notable omission from &ldquo;THN&rsquo;s Fab 50&rdquo;, an assessment of the top 50 stars in the NHL (THN, Nov. 15).A healthy Wendel Clark would be at least a three-star player, but even with his injuries&mdash;as he has proved with his play this year&mdash;he should rate at least two stars.Ray Sare&nbsp;Richmond Hill, Ont.<h2>No big deal</h2>Your recent feature on Grant Fuhr claims the &ldquo;AWOL&rdquo; goaltender sent the Maple Leafs&rsquo; organization into a &ldquo;frenzy&rdquo; (THN, Nov. 8). In reality, the only people whipped into a frenzy were, as usual, the members of Toronto&rsquo;s media, Damien Cox in particular.While Fuhr may be a marked man because of previous drug-related problems, missing a flight is hardly enough to warrant a half-page of commentary.I concede that sometimes it&rsquo;s difficult to find positive things to write about the Leafs, but I have become tired of the constant Leaf bashing that local writers such as Cox have become famous for.Scott Dobson&nbsp;Toronto, Ont.Make your feelings known. Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 445-0753&nbsp;or write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, 85 ScarsdaleRd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2&nbsp;in Canada. In the U.S., write to 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;

Working stiffs get stiffed by NHL

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011588/6514120-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0003-01

ELSTON

<div class="byline">By Al Morganti Senior Writer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011611/6514196-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fewer Winnipeg residents are seeing goalie Bob Essensa do his thing. The Jets are one of 15 teams which have experienced attendance dips. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/BBS)</figcaption></div>The Hockey News examines early trends in attendance in Part I of a two-part series on attendance and ticket prices in the NHL. We look at ticket prices In Part II, which will appear in next week&rsquo;s issue (No. 12).Go back and mark this day on your calendar: Nov. 16, 1991. It may represent something of a turning point for the NHL this season.That was the night the New York Islanders and Hartford Whalers recorded their first sellouts of the season. Okay, so both teams were playing neighborhood teams. And sure, the fans weren&rsquo;t unanimous in support of the home teams.But after more than a month of disappointing turnouts at the Nassau County Coliseum and Civic Center, nobody cared that the nearby New York Rangers were visiting the Islanders or the Boston Bruins had descended upon the Whalers.More important was that there were full houses to witness the games.It was a good night for the NHL. League president John Ziegler said the league experienced a one per-cent drop in attendance during the first month (October) of the season.By mid-November, there were signs of improvement but there remained cause for concern. That was the major finding of a Hockey News attendance survey that covered 207 games through Nov. 16.Unofficial average attendance as the league closed in on its quarter mark was 15,194 or about 89 per cent of capacity. Average attendance over the same period in 1990-91 was 15,166.Not to be overlooked, however, was that 15 of 21 teams registered drops.THN gathered statistics from unofficial game summaries. Not included were the expansion San Jose Sharks&rsquo; nine home dates&mdash;all of which attracted sellouts of 10,888.The survey found league attendance grew by 5,834 over a comparable period last season. That&rsquo;s unofficial, mind you. That&rsquo;s also something of a surprise&mdash;considering some early embarrassments, most notably on Long Island. Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; general manager Mike Smith was shocked when only 6,529 people showed up Oct. 22 to watch the Islanders and Jets play. At least that was the announced total. Some believe that figure was arrived at by multiplying by two.&ldquo;If anybody isn&rsquo;t worried about a problem, or a possible problem with (shrinking) attendance, they ought to be,&rdquo; Smith said.His Jets play before some of the smallest crowds in the league, both at home and on the road. Unofficially, Winnipeg drew 17,034 fewer fans over its first 11 home games this season than last. That averaged out to 1,155 fewer fans per game. Only the Islanders suffered a larger drop-off. According to the THN survey, they had 22,187 fewer fans over nine games. That averaged out to 2,466. The Islanders&rsquo; largest crowd previous to the Rangers&rsquo; visit was an opening-night gathering of 10,412 to see the Philadelphia Flyers.Drops in attendance range from as little as 279 over 10 games for the Quebec Nordiques to as much as the Islanders.So, how can overall attendance be on the rise? One reason: the Minnesota North Stars. Last year&rsquo;s early-season disgrace is this season&rsquo;s saviour. The Stars attracted 56,954 more fans to its first nine home games this year than last.That represents an average increase of 6,328 fans per game. The Los Angeles Kings, Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues, Washington Capitals and Rangers were also ahead of last season&rsquo;s paces but their combined average increase of 2,629 was less than half of Minnesota&rsquo;s rise.Official league attendance has risen seven times in the nine seasons since 1981-82, reaching overall (12,579,651) and average (14,976) records in 1989-90. It dropped to 12,343,897 (14,695) last season.With 40 games added to the schedule this season&mdash;bringing to 880 the total number of regular-season games&mdash;a record for overall attendance is inevitable. Were the early unofficial pace maintained, the NHL would attract 13,213,200 fans this season.The two most obvious explanations for so many teams struggling at the gate are ticket^ prices and the economy. One is on an upswing and the other is on a downturn. League management says it has increased ticket prices largely in response to increased salary expectations.&ldquo;The biggest story of this game is in the crowd,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;The overall numbers might not be down that much but you have to wonder how much longer this can continue. Teams can&rsquo;t continue to roll up ticket prices and think it will not take its toll on the crowd.&rdquo;Bob Goodenow, deputy executive director of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, said he is not alarmed by league attendance figures. He said ticket price sensitivity is but one reason for individual team&rsquo;s shortfalls. Goodenow said the economic climate is also a critical factor.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031189/6514189-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="724" height="1208"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jari Kurri&rsquo;s presence has only helped increase Kings&rsquo; home attendance.</figcaption></div><h2>THN 1991-92 NHL Attendance Survey</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021425/6514182-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="1512" height="1312"></div> &#9632;

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Up and Down

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN staff</div>The Toronto Sun reported Nov. 16 that Eric Lindros turned down a contract offer from the Quebec Nordiques that would have netted the junior hockey star $50 million.The contract was reportedly offered to Lindros during a Sept. 24 meeting in Toronto&mdash;although other reports have the contract offer taking place Nov. 1 in Philadelphia. Shortly after the meeting, it was reported a figure of $3 million per season was offered. The $50-million contract offer involves half the money being deferred over an unspecified number of years.When Lindros returned Nov. 16 from Europe where he was playing for the Canadian Olympic team, he repeated his stand that he will never play for the Nordiques.&ldquo;The only story I&rsquo;m interested in reading is about my rights being traded,&rdquo; he told the Toronto Star. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the only story that&rsquo;s going to mean anything to me.&rdquo;Lindros also said he would rather sit out next season rather than allow the Nordiques to profit from a deal next season. The Nordiques hold Lindros&rsquo; rights until the 1993 entry draft.&ldquo;Yeah, it&rsquo;s vindictive,&rdquo; he told the Star. &ldquo;Sitting out a year is a definite possibility, though. I have to be prepared to think that far ahead.&rdquo;<h2>Penguins sold</h2>The NHL approved the sale of the Pittsburgh Penguins from the DeBartolo family to Howard Baldwin and Morris Belzberg Nov. 18.The ownership transfer involved transactions which saw the sale of the team to Baldwin and Belzberg and the Penguins&rsquo; arena lease to the Spectacor Management Group.While NHL president John Ziegler said the transactions produced a value of $65 million, it was reported the actual cost of the team was $31 million plus some concessions such as a rent-free superbox for the DeBartolos.Baldwin had previously indicated that after purchasing the team he would search for local ownership. It was believed Penguins&rsquo; vice-president Paul Martha would be part of such a group.Baldwin and Belzberg said they won&rsquo;t sell player contracts to help finance their acquisition of the team. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had obtained a letter written by Baldwin to Martha which broached the idea of selling hockey assets for $7 million to&rsquo; help finance the purchase. But Baldwin never said he would be selling players, although that&rsquo;s what was interpreted from the letter.The Penguins have a payroll close to $11 million, with five players&mdash;Mario Lemieux, Kevin Stevens, Paul Coffey, Ron Francis and Mark Recchi&mdash;making at least $800,000 a season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011708/6514227-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="562" height="706"><figcaption class="caption-body">Have the new Pens&rsquo; owners considered selling Mario Lemieux?</figcaption></div><h2>Stop fighting</h2>A suggestion that fighting be penalized with an automatic ejection from Canadian Hockey League games was the most prominent from the Commission for Fair Play Hockey Summit held in Toronto Nov. 14 and 15Representatives from several major hockey bodies including the NHL and its players&rsquo; association, the International Ice Hockey Federation, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association and the CHL discussed ways to improve the image of the game. One of those ways is to eliminate fighting in major junior hockey.While Ontario League president Dave Branch said he favors the abolition of fighting, the league must be careful not to move too quickly to eliminate it from the game.&ldquo;Fighting is distasteful and does not belong in our game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But you have to be careful that through taking an action, you don&rsquo;t cause another worse action. I feel strongly there has to be an evolution, that we won&rsquo;t wake up one day and there won&rsquo;t be anymore fighting.&rdquo;&ldquo;If players fight, they should be out of the game,&rdquo; said former NHL referee and committee member Bruce Hood. &ldquo;To say fighting is a release is a cop-out. Fighting hurts the image of the game.&rdquo;The Commission for Fair Play was created in 1986 and this was the first time a summit was held.<h2>Senators respond</h2>The Ottawa Senators responded angrily to a story published in the Nov. 16 edition of The Globe and Mail which said the franchise is $20 million short of the $22.5 million it needs for the NHL&rsquo;s second installment payment for expansion. The payment is due Dec. 15.In a letter to the paper&rsquo;s publisher A.Roy Megarry dated Nov. 17, Senators&rsquo; chairman said the story &ldquo;grossly misrepresents the true situation of our hockey club.&rdquo;The story came from information in a document the Senators were giving to potential investors in the team. The story said the NHL will revoke the franchise if the installment is not paid, there is a high level of debt, there is no resale value for the market shares and there are no assurances a market will develop. The story was written by Al Strachan and Brian Milner.&ldquo;All private placements concerning contain similar wording regarding the resale market,&rdquo; the letter stated. &ldquo;Any responsible business reporter would know that.&rdquo; The letter also said that $ 14 million of the installment has been raised.Firestone requested the newspaper print his letter on page I where the original article appeared. Globe sports editor David Langford said his paper would either deny Firestone any response or &ldquo;at best&rdquo; allow him to write a letter to the editor.<h3>The NHL&rsquo;s slumping seven</h3>Seven of 1990-91&rsquo;s early-season scoring stars fell on hard times early in 1991-92.Seven players had point decreases of 15 or more as of Nov. 17 as compared to the same time last year. The list does not include players who have missed most or all of this season with an injury. Wayne Gretzky is on the list, although he missed five games tending to his ailing father, Walter.Here&rsquo;s a look at the slumping seven with their games played, goals, assists and points this season. Point decreases are in parenthesis:John Druce, Washington, 10-1-12, (&mdash;18). Is this really the same player who scored 14 times in 15 playoff games in 1990?Sergei Makarov, Calgary, 8-2-02, (&mdash;18). Brief reunion with line-mates Joe Nieuwendyk and Gary Roberts hasn&rsquo;t helped production.John Cullen, Hartford, 16-6-1420, (&mdash;16). Going from Pittsburgh to Hartford isn&rsquo;t the easiest way to increase one&rsquo;s point totals.Wayne Gretzky, Los Angeles, 155-12-17, (&mdash;16). With his father ailing, it&rsquo;s understandable Gretzky&rsquo;s mind would be elsewhere.Darren Turcotte, Rangers, 20-75-12, (&mdash;16). When it comes to offense, he only provides it on the power play.Todd Elik, Minnesota, 6-1-2-3, (&mdash;15). Thrived as the No. 2 center in Los Angeles; a bust as the No. 5 center in Minnesota.Mark Recchi, 19-5-8-13, Pittsburgh (&mdash;15). A bargain while earning $105,000 last season; may be overpaid at $800,000 this season. &#9632;

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Lindros turns down $50-million from Nordiques

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021165/6514258-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="390" height="499"></div>He seems like a nice enough guy. People who have long known Dave Peterson, the 1992 U.S. Olympic coach, insist he is, too. Writers who dealt with him during the 27 years he coached at Southwest Minneapolis High School, always considered him affable and even tempered. They found it hard to believe that when Peterson coached the U.S. team four years ago in the Calgary Olympic Games he turned into the ugliest American since Spiro Agnew.Peterson behaved terribly. He consistently snapped, snarled and embarrassed himself at press conferences. Queried after the game with Austria about how he chose his goalie, Peterson replied: &ldquo;I looked at the moon.&rdquo; At his final press conference, Peterson was asked if his team met his expectations. &ldquo;I think they did a lot better than you&rsquo;ll ever know,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;I have a hard time believing that some of you have ever watched a hockey game.&rdquo;Now Herb Brooks wasn&rsquo;t exactly Norman Vincent Peale at Lake Placid in 1980, but there was one fundamental difference between him and Peterson. Brooks won a gold medal. Peterson finished seventh.That didn&rsquo;t necessarily mean the 1988 team, which lost close, high-scoring games to high-powered Czechoslovakian and Soviet teams and was shutdown by West Germany, underachieved. Despite the quality of players the 1988 squad sent to the NHL&mdash;Craig Janney, Brian Leetch, Kevin Stevens, Mike Richter, Chris Terreri, Tony Granato, Jeff Norton, Dave Snuggerud, Eric Weinrich, Kevin Miller&mdash;it is important to remember these were kids facing far more experienced clubs. Goalies Richter and Terreri didn&rsquo;t play nearly as well in Calgary as they have in the NHL. Peterson was criticized for playing a wide-open game, but he didn&rsquo;t have the plowhorses to play it tight.Nevertheless, the U.S. team did not appear to be well coached. It continually took foolish gambles, turned over the puck at both blue lines and gave up a torrent of 2-on-ls and 3-on-ls. That may have been the fault of an unchallenging pre-tourmament tour against too many college clubs that couldn&rsquo;t force the U.S. team to learn how to play in its own end.Still, while there is only circumstantial evidence Peterson did a bad job, there is no reason to believe he did an especially good one, either. The players&rsquo; silence while their coach was being buried in the media was deafening.So, why is he getting a second chance?Brooks, who was the selection committee&rsquo;s first choice, wanted the job for both 1992 and 1994, and apparently didn&rsquo;t ask for it on properly-bended knee. Maine&rsquo;s Shawn Walsh was perceived as too young and brash, and other proven college winners such as Jeff Sauer, Ron Mason, Rick Comley and Jack Parker didn&rsquo;t measure up for unexplained reasons.Picking a dynamic college coach worked in 1980. Why hasn&rsquo;t USA Hockey tried that since? Also, why hasn&rsquo;t the one-time circumstance of having the Winter Games two years apart been seized as an opportunity to develop a three-year program that might pay off in 1994?Instead, the committee asked Peterson if he would consider going to media consultants who could help him smooth over his rough spots. &ldquo;I went and enjoyed it,&rdquo; Peterson says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a lot more open-minded than most people think. They taped me through a press conference and a talk show, then let me watch it and critiqued me. It was enjoyable.&ldquo;In my analysis, the whole problem started with reporters wanting answers I wasn&rsquo;t willing to give them. They&rsquo;d ask me if the goaltending was breaking down. I&rsquo;d say: &lsquo;No, our goalie is doing a good job.&rsquo; So then they&rsquo;d ask if there was a problem with our defensive scheme and I said there wasn&rsquo;t. So then the question was if everything is so good, why aren&rsquo;t you winning? Pretty soon, I painted myself in a comer. If you&rsquo;re wise, you learn from it.&rdquo;Maybe he has. But Peterson was pleasant through January on the pre-Olympic tour four years ago, then lost it in Calgary. He allowed the lack of hockey background by many members of the media to irritate him, when he should have seen their ignorance as an opportunity to be an ambassador and a teacher of the game. He could not distinguish between a fair question and a baiting one and failed to understand that a smile and a generality would have far better served his purposes than a snap and a stonewall.It does not reflect well on USA Hockey that it would rehire someone whose behavior was an embarrassment. It will say even more about Peterson if he doesn&rsquo;t correct his, and his organization&rsquo;s, mistakes. &#9632;

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Why is Peterson back with Team USA?

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011549/6514296-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="376" height="493"></div>There was a time not very long ago when the San Jose Sharks appeared to be Mad magazine&rsquo;s official version of a hockey team.After 13 straight losses, it seemed only right Alfred E. Newman&rsquo;s mug should be sheepishly grinning on the front of the Pacific Teal jerseys with the caption, &ldquo;What, me worry?&rdquo;But then San Jose-Daly City returned to the beloved, bush-league Cow Palace and irreverently devoured the Oilers and Islanders in succession. From Alameda to Alcatraz, you could hear the chant, &ldquo;Break up the Sharks!&rdquo;Nay. Reality prevailed and the NHL&rsquo;s baby franchise once again began doing what comes naturally, losing. The Sabres came to town and delivered a 7-1 harpooning. So much for designs on a playoff berth.&ldquo;I get people coming up to me on the streets saying, &lsquo;I can get 20-1 in Vegas that you guys won&rsquo;t win 10 games,&rsquo;&rdquo; goalie Brian Hayward says.He kids you not. Bobby Bryde, the Vegas NHL bet empresario, reports the Sharks are one of the town&rsquo;s hottest wagering items. &ldquo;Every time San Jose plays, people bet on the number of goals they&rsquo;re going to lose by,&rdquo; Bryde says.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021041/6514289-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="551" height="995"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Hayward</figcaption></div>Sharks merchandise outsells every other pro team except football&rsquo;s Raiders, baseball&rsquo;s White Sox and the NHL&rsquo;s Kings. For that, they can thank the club&rsquo;s logo, a shark chomping on a hockey stick, which has become a money-maker and a conversation piece. General manager Jack Ferreira chuckles, &ldquo;I told the artist that instead of a stick coming out of the shark&rsquo;s mouth, it, should be a referee.&rdquo;Actually, it should be a wad of dollar bills because the logo is like a mint. Example: I was at a Toronto hockey card show recently and met 28-year-old Ken Morel of Scarborough, Ont., wearing a Sharks&rsquo; cap.&ldquo;I like them for the logo,&rdquo; he explained, &ldquo;and also Pat Falloon.&rdquo;One night in New Jersey, the Sharks managed to severely test goalie Chris Terreri until their defense went south, and the game ended 9-0. One witness to the massacre was Devils&rsquo; vice-president Max McNab who vividly remembers being GM of the subterranean Capitals in 1975-76, and sees a parallel.&ldquo;I can sympathize with the Sharks,&rdquo; McNab says. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re suffering just like any expansion team does. With the exception of Kelly Kisio and Brian Mullen, they&rsquo;ve got guys who are accustomed to playing on the third and fourth lines. They&rsquo;re not used to taking over as the lead guys.&rdquo;Coach George Kingston invariably puts on a happy face. &ldquo;The players come to the rink thinking they&rsquo;re going to win,&rdquo; Kingston says.Usually, they don&rsquo;t and with a little bit of (bad) luck, the Sharks could challenge the 1974-75 Capitals who had an 8-67-5 overall record.Kingston won&rsquo;t admit it, but losing is good for the Sharks. They could become hockey&rsquo;s version of the 1962 New York Mets who were so magnificently godawful that millions embraced them, making The Amazin box office sensations.Could this happen to the Sharks? So far, so good. They sold 8,500 season tickets before the season even started so all they need are about 2,000 walkups to look good. But booing is beginning to be heard in the Palace and there&rsquo;s some question whether interest will hold in the second half.&ldquo;The novelty has worn off already,&rdquo; says Alan Goldfarb, a freelance hockey writer who followed the Mets and now covers the Sharks. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re bidin&rsquo; their time until they move into San Jose.&rdquo;As the races tighten from Christmas on, the NHL&rsquo;s Alfred E. Newmans will get worse before they get better. What to do? &ldquo;My advice,&rdquo; McNab concludes, &ldquo;is they should spend an awful lot on scouting.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Fans just Mad about comical Sharks

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div>Word from the inside the NHL is that Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; owner Norman Green is working to supplant Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; owner Bill Wirtz in the league&rsquo;s most powerful job as board of governors&rsquo; chairman. One league source said Green is part of the unofficial ruling triumverate along with president John Ziegler and Wirtz. It&rsquo;s said Green&rsquo;s strategy is to be a league spokesman wherever possible while simultaneously generating personal publicity. Wirtz recently offered his resignation to the board after a controversy erupted over comments he made when his team acquired Brent Sutter from the New York Islanders. The governors unanimously rejected the resignation&hellip;The Madonna and Mark Messier &ldquo;friendship,&rdquo; which already has produced cross-continent headlines, is now moving into the comic-strip realm. &ldquo;Betty,&rdquo; a new newspaper cartoon character based on Madonna, debuts Dec. 9 in North American newspapers. A caricature of Messier&mdash;in New York Rangers&rsquo; uniform&mdash;is featured in the strip.<h2>Planned attack</h2>Ziegler&rsquo;s unusually harsh criticism of Phil Esposito&rsquo;s fiscal orchestration of the Tampa Bay franchise is said by league officials to have been well thought out. The president rarely delivers such a public put-down of a league member unless he has the majority of the owners behind him&hellip;New Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; assistant GM Bill Watters says he did not mean to suggest criticism of colleagues Neil Smith and Russ Farwell in what appeared to be a putdown of the Rangers&rsquo; and Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; managers. &ldquo;When I said, &lsquo;Nothing against Farwell or Smith but I don&rsquo;t think the only qualification forgetting an NHL GM&rsquo;s job is to have been a scout or junior GM,&rsquo;&rdquo; the former player agent says, &ldquo;it wasn&rsquo;t meant to be a rap against them. I meant that apparently my qualifications weren&rsquo;t what they wanted in New York and Philadelphia.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03675/6514327-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg" title="f0007-03" width="549" height="534"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mathieu Schneider&rsquo;s brother Jean-Alain is drawing praise.</figcaption></div><h2>Off color</h2>Hockey rink-builder Bill Burley claims the NHL erred in selecting a blue ice tint for the new goal crease. The Johnstown, Pa., arena expert says blue is &ldquo;the worst possible background for the black puck. If the league was smart, it would have painted it yellow.&rdquo;&hellip;Having helped their daughter battle life-threatening cancer, Pittsburgh Penguin goalie Tom Barrasso and his wife, Megan have created the Ashley Barrasso Cancer Research Fund in honor of their four-year-old who is recovering strongly. &ldquo;All my years of practising and training for hockey games could not have prepared me for such a painful struggle,&rdquo; Barraso says. The couple helped commission a unique sculpture, &ldquo;Penguins&rsquo; Triumph 1991,&rdquo; the original of which was presented to U.S. president George Bush. A special edition of 500 individually-cast and signed by artists Glen Sica and Jeff Dente will be offered to raise $100,000 for the fund.<h2>Grounding out</h2>Kirk Muller was shocked to discover his brand new Mercedes had been deliberately scratched by a neighbor&rsquo;s son. However, the boy&rsquo;s mother saw the act and offered to pay the Canadien for damages. &ldquo;Besides that,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;my son will be grounded for two months.&rdquo; The ex-Devil thanked her and added, &ldquo;By the way, let me introduce myself. I&rsquo;m Kirk Muller of the Canadiens.&rdquo; To which the woman replied, &ldquo;In that case, my son is grounded for three months!&rdquo;&hellip;Canadiens&rsquo; defenseman Mathieu Schneider has a younger brother, Jean-Alain, starring for the Ontario League&rsquo;s Cornwall Royals. He&rsquo;s described as a Brian Skrudland-Bob Gainey type forward.<h2>Jet is set</h2>Some Winnipeg sports people believe Jets&rsquo; owner Barry Shenkarow has been doing too much whining. &ldquo;Barry complains about losses when everyone in town knows he has no personal major equity investment in the Jets,&rdquo; a reliable source says. &ldquo;He has always had a cash flow. He got $3 million off his NHL expansion-fee price for moving to the Smythe Division in 1982. He&rsquo;s demanding another $5 million now to move again, even though no one is asking him to move divisions. He has said nothing about the $3.3-million cash he received months ago from expansion, which went into the partners&rsquo; pockets. That&rsquo;s $3.3 million, more than a year&rsquo;s payroll with apparently more to come from Tampa and Ottawa.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0007-03

Green keen on top job; looking to oust Wirtz

<div class="byline">By Al Morganti Senior Writer</div>THE DEAL: Nov. 11: Edmonton Oilers send defenseman Jeff Beukeboom, 26, (18 games, 0 goals, 5 assists, 5 points), to New York Rangers for defenseman David Shaw, 27, (10-0-1-1).THE VERDICT: The Rangers get a physical defenseman they desperately need, while the Oilers get a player who was a major playoff disappointment last spring. Theoretically, this is the final piece of the Mark Messier deal.However, the space between the lines in this deal and the Messier deal are large enough to drive a Brinks truck through. Sources say the Oilers got $5 million to complete the deal. Oilers&rsquo; GM Glen Sather denies the trade was part of the Messier deal but Ranger GM Neil Smith told reporters differently.It&rsquo;s difficult to see how the Oilers could be thrilled with the final transaction. They dealt away a big (6-foot-5, 215 pound) defenseman who likes to mix it up, for a less-physical defenseman with a history of injuries.THE DEAL: Nov. 13: Hartford Whalers send right winger Kevin Dineen, 28, (16-4-2-6) to Philadelphia Flyers for center/left winger Murray Craven, 27, (12-3-3-6) and an undisclosed 1992 draft choice.THE VERDICT: The Flyers have the better upside&mdash;if Dineen returns to the form which saw him score 45 goals and 89 points in 1988-89. However, Hartford got a safer bet in Craven, an unhappy camper with contract problems in Philly, who was never fully appreciated for his all-around play.The Flyers get a forward who is more willing to bump than Craven, but if he doesn&rsquo;t score it&rsquo;s hard to see how Dineen could be more valuable than Craven, who played all three forward positions. The Flyers must also worry about Dineen&rsquo;s health. A flare-up of a digestive disorder known as Crohn&rsquo;s Disease could keep him out of the lineup for an extended period. &#9632;

Beukeboom enhances blockbuster for Messier

<div class="byline">By Frank Brown</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011614/6514382-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Aggressiveness in his own zone is one aspect Brian Leetch knows he needs to work on. (Photo by Bruce Bennet/BBS)</figcaption></div>One of the hardest knocks on Brian Leetch is that he isn&rsquo;t 27 yet and won&rsquo;t be for 3&frac12; years. He doesn&rsquo;t yet have the wisdom of a defensive elder statesman, a guy who knows what it takes because he knows what it has taken.For now, then, the Rangers have to settle for a fourth-year defenseman who is one of the most feared rushers in the game, a player who creates, a player who entertains, a player who can provide skating proof that the best defense is a marvelous offense and a player who is making a case for the Norris Trophy.Leetch has strong first-step power, a fine change of direction. He has agility and lateral movement. He anticipates extremely well and is doing an increasingly solid job of keeping the puck in front of him.He knows when to rush, when to join the attack. Leetch has the ability to beat a defender 1-on-l with the puck and can be counted on to use that skill late in the game when the Rangers need a goal.Now that he finally seems rid of a virus that knocked him on his back for a few weeks in July, Leetch has started to display the jump that helped him lead the Rangers in scoring last season while setting team standards for points (88) and assists (72) by a defenseman. He was on pace to better those marks this season with 19 assists and 23 points in 20 games. Projected over 80 games, he would finish with 76 assists and 92 points.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m starting to help make the team, and other players, look as good as the team was making me look for the first 15 games,&rdquo; Leetch says.Points are fine, but defense is what matters to Leetch. He points out entire shifts may pass without an offensive opportunity, but no shift has ever been played without some defensive requirement.So what are his problems? The best guy to explain them is Leetch, who steadfastly refuses to delude himself about his strengths or flaws.&ldquo;If I work hard, and do the things I&rsquo;m good at, I can be successful. If I&rsquo;m not working hard, I will do poorly,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I know I can play defense well when I&rsquo;m aggressive and staying on my man. I&rsquo;m not the best defensive defenseman, but I&rsquo;m a lot better than average when I&rsquo;m working at it.&rdquo;It is those times when Leetch is not mentally as sharp as he should be, those times when he is not 27.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll know where I should be and what I should do,&rdquo; he explains, &ldquo;and then, as I&rsquo;m getting into position, I&rsquo;m going, &lsquo;Okay, I&rsquo;m in the right spot,&rsquo; and then&mdash;boom&mdash;the guy makes his move and goes around me and I&rsquo;m going, &lsquo;Damn, I should have had him.&rsquo;&rdquo;Even on offense, there can be problems, although 21 other coaches would like to have the offensive problems Leetch suffers. Leetch will make remarkable rushes, beat a defenseman, get within an eyelash of the goalie, then out-think himself or make a poor shot or pass to an unprepared teammate.Okay. He may not be a great finisher, but he does hold the NHL record for most goals by a rookie defenseman&mdash;23 in 1988-89. Sometimes he passes too much. Sometimes he watches in the defensive zone and he certainly is no banger.Mark Messier couldn&rsquo;t care less.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t need Brian Leetch pounding guys into the glass. That&rsquo;s not his game,&rdquo; Messier says. &ldquo;Brian is an elegant player&mdash;his skating, his stick, his movements on the ice, his hand and the way he plays the game, he&rsquo;s almost like an artist.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see anything stopping him from being one of the best in the game&mdash;and I don&rsquo;t mean defensive-best. I mean, one of the best, most exciting players in the league.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Lethal Leetch

<div class="byline">By Al Morganti</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021259/6514420-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="389" height="490"></div>Leave it to the New York Rangers to come up with the most creative marketing scheme to sell tickets. The Rangers put together a Mark Messier plan, in which they&rsquo;ve used Messier&rsquo;s No. 11 to sell an 11-game season-ticket plan.You could argue the Rangers missed the boat on this one. After all, wasn&rsquo;t it more natural to market a Stanley Cup season-ticket plan which would be good for one ticket to a game every 52 years? Or how about the Brian Leetch plan, where your seat is changed every period and you&rsquo;re never seated in the Rangers&rsquo; defensive zone.The Rangers have stumbled onto something here, and the concept is too good to be limited to just Broadway. The possibilities are endless, and stretch from Vancouver to Long Island.For example, the Vancouver Canucks would offer the Vladimir Krutov plan, which would include the price of a hot dog with the purchase of a ticket to every home game. Or maybe the Pat Quinn plan which would entice male fans with the prospect of a box of cigars with every paid season-ticket subscription.In San Jose they could offer the forever plan which would be a package of tickets for every game at the Cow Palace until the Cows come home.The Los Angeles Kings could promote the Edmonton Oilers plan; a comprehensive package of tickets to only those games in which an ex-Oiler plays for Los Angeles.St. Louis Blues&rsquo; public relations superstar Susie Mathieu would have no trouble stirring up interest for a seven-game Ron Caron plan for the seven games a year in which Caron will turn into Macho Comacho in the press box.The Boston Bruins could make a fortune selling plans to only those games which Dave Poulin will miss with a pulled groin muscle. Of course, this would replace the Gord Kluzak plan which was finally retired at the end of last season.The Buffalo Sabres could offer a very partial plan to those games in which Alexander Mogilny decides to play with any kind of emotion. You could figure about 10 games a year.The Detroit Red Wings would be able to bank on Bob Probert&rsquo;s problems with an Oh Canada plan, good for games Probert plays against Canadian-based team at the Joe Louis Arena.The Edmonton Oilers could have a four-game Familiar Faces plan devised around the four weeks general manager Glen Sather does not make a personnel move. If you see the same home team in two consecutive games, you get your money back.The Philadelphia Flyers could institute a Brian O&lsquo;Neill plan, good&rsquo; for the 12 games the club is playing with a lineup not missing a star player serving a suspension from O&lsquo;Neill.Way up in Quebec, theNordiques could lure fans to Le Colisee with a Bonnie Lindros plan, good for tickets to the seven games a season when a visiting team arrives in Quebec City without a player on its roster more despised than Mrs. Lindros.Then again, maybe they could offer the Dale Hunter plan, good to those games against the Washington Capitals where the fans can sit and cry as they watch the heart and soul of their franchise still wearing the wrong-colored jersey.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03936/6514413-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="557" height="756"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alex Mogilny</figcaption></div>In Hartford, the Whalers could offer the only plan anybody in Connecticut cares about&mdash;the Boston Bruins&rsquo; plan, which would be a four-game package to the four games the Bruins play in Hartford. As a bonus, the team would discount tickets so patrons have enough gas and toll money to travel up the Mass Pike and watch the four games against the Bruins in Boston.Finally, the NHL could make itself rich by offering the Black Out Plan, which would include tickets to NHL games in the United States which are not on national television.In other words, a ticket to every game, every night.Note: In last week&rsquo;s column about Magic Johnson, the last name Jordan was used in one reference to Magic. This is sort of like writing Wayne Lemieux or Mario Gretzky. Apologies for the error. &#9632;

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Black out plan: Yeah that’s the ticket

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>When Todd Krygier was asked for an impression of his first six weeks in Washington, the answer came as no surprise.&ldquo;It couldn&rsquo;t be better,&rdquo; the former Hartford Whaler said. Indeed, life can turn quickly and Krygier&rsquo;s hockey fortunes have spun on a dime.In just two short months, Krygier has gone from being a low-priced free agent without any takers to being one of the hottest players on one of the (hottest teams in the NHL.&ldquo;During the summer and training camp, it was really frustrating and a depressing time,&rdquo; Krygier said.&ldquo;I questioned where my career was going or if I had a career any more or if I was doing the right thing. When I was finally traded, it was exciting to have another opportunity and play with good players. It has been a total turnaround.&rdquo;Krygier was the latest Whaler to join the Capitals. Goalie Mike Liut, left winger Dave Tippett and defenseman Sylvain Cote have all worn Whaler green. And like the others, Krygier was a player acquired by the regime that preceeded general manager Ed Johnston.Krygier had two 30-point seasons with Hartford, but relations were strained last year when he played out the option on his contract.There weren&rsquo;t many bidders over the summer and Johnston finally traded Krygier Oct. 3 to Washington for a 1993 fourth-round draft pick.So far, it seems like a bargain for the Caps, especially with the three-year contract he signed (average salary of $220,000). In 16 games, Krygier had six goals and 16 points.&ldquo;The thing we talked about even before the trade was the speed,&rdquo; Capitals&rsquo; coach Terry Murray said. &ldquo;I remember a game they came in here last year and he was literally flying around.&rdquo;TRULY OFFENSIVE: The goal-scoring barrage continued for the Capitals. Their 96 goals through 19 games (5.05 per game) put them on a pace to score 404 for the season, which would be the fifth-highest total in NHL history for an 80-game season. Edmonton holds the top five totals, with the 1983-84 squad holding the record at 446. While the Capitals&mdash;who were ranked fifth (3.00) in goals-against-average&mdash;don&rsquo;t assume they&rsquo;ll lead the league, they don&rsquo;t think the offensive improvement is a fluke.&ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t an accident,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;The goals going in are from moving the puck well and being creative. That&rsquo;s not going to go off and fade into the distance. We talked about that from the start of training camp. That&rsquo;s all I heard since the end of the season, was how we couldn&rsquo;t score goals.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Kelly Miller scored his 100th career goal in a 6-2 win over Pittsburgh Nov. 15. It was his first of the season. Miller was trying to hammer out a new contract with GM David Poile.By beating the Penguins, the Capitals pushed their Patrick Division record to 9-0-0. Two days earlier, they came from behind to win for the second time this season against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden (5-3).<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 14: Jeff Greenlaw, RW, assigned to Baltimore (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dale Hunter, Mike Ridley, Michal Pivonka, Tim Bergland, Dave Tippett.LW&mdash;Randy Burridge, Todd Krygier, Dimitri Khristich, Nick Kypreos.RW&mdash;Dino Ciccarelli, Kelly Miller, Peter Bondra, Alan May, John Druce.LD&mdash;Calle Johansson, Rod Langway, Mike Lalor, Ken Sabourin.RD&mdash;Kevin Hatcher. Al lafrate, Sylvain Cote.G&mdash;Don Beaupre, Mike Liut.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Shawn Chambers, D, right knee surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Speedy Krygier now flying in the right direction

<div class="byline">By Mark Herrmann</div>The one constant during the New York Islanders&rsquo; change-filled early season has been the scoring touch of Derek King. That in itself is an achievement for a player who always has found consistency elusive.King, a 24-year-old left winger, had 12 goals and eight assists in 17 games, showing the form that made him a 106-point scorer in junior hockey and a first-round draft pick in 1985.&ldquo;He has always had the knack around the net,&rdquo; coach Al Arbour said. &ldquo;But he has to do it game in and game out.&rdquo;While Arbour was guarded in praising King&rsquo;s good start, he did say the left winger has been more focused in every part of the game.King&rsquo;s goals have not occurred during meaningless stretches of routs. He averaged a goal a game in the Islanders&rsquo; first five wins and notched two game-winners, including one with 2:32 left in a 4-3 victory over New Jersey Nov. 14.King said the trades of Pat LaFontaine and Brent Sutter have influenced him. &ldquo;That kind of bumped me up into being one of the key players,&rdquo; he said.There had been times over the past three seasons when it looked like King&rsquo;s Islander career might be short.Now, however, he is a source of stability, skating on a line with newcomers Pierre Turgeon and Steve Thomas.WEEK-END UPDATE: Given a chance to play after Glenn Healy suffered a broken right index finger, veteran goalie Steve Weeks earned his first NHL win since late in the 1989-90 season by beating New Jersey Nov. 14.Two nights later, Weeks beat the Rangers 4-2, becoming the first goalie to have won a game for each side in the New York rivalry. Neither time did he appear rusty, despite having started only one NHL game last season and getting one previous start for the Islanders this year.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just like any player who doesn&rsquo;t get much ice time or doesn&rsquo;t get in the lineup,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You try to make it fun at practice and you try to stay positive.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The ninth home game of the season brought the Islanders their first sellout of the season when they hosted the New York Rangers Nov. 16. The crowd of 16,297 was nearly twice the previous average of 8,326. The waves of Ranger jerseys and the loud cheers after Ranger goals made it clear many of the spectators showed up to root for the opposition.Goalie Danny Lorenz, also recalled after Healy was injured, arrived a day after he shut out the Utica Devils in AHL play &hellip;The Islanders said they are not about to give up on 20-year-old left winger Dave Chyzowski. But he was scratched four times in a six-game span.<h2>N.Y. ISLES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 12: Brad Dalgarno, RW, recalled from Capital District (AHL). Nov. 14: Danny Lorenz. G, recalled from Capital District.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pierre Turgeon, Adam Creighton, Ray Ferraro, Rob DiMaio.LW&mdash;Derek King, David Volek, Benoit Hogue, Dave Chyzowski.RW&mdash;Steve Thomas. Patrick Flatley. Mick Vukota, Dave McLIwain. Brad Dalgamo.LD&mdash;Jeff Norton, Rich Pilon, Ken Baumgartner. Wayne McBean.RD&mdash;Joe Reekie, Tom Kurvers, Uwe Krupp.G&mdash;Steve Weeks, Danny Lorenz,<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bill Berg, LW, broken left foot, indefinite. Tom Fitzgerald, C, abdominal strain, day-to-day Mark Fitzpatrick, G, eosinophilia myalgia syndrome, indefinite. Glenn Healy, G, broken finger, Nov. 22 Gary Nylund, D, broken left heel, indefinite. &#9632;

He’s King for a day, a week, maybe even for all season

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>Has Patrik Sundstrom come to the end of the line after 10 NHL seasons?That question haunted New Jersey Devils&rsquo; officials in the face of the 29-year-old center&rsquo;s season-long slump.Sundstrom, who spent two stretches on the shelf with a chronic back problem, scored just one goal in the Devils&rsquo; first 20 games and hadn&rsquo;t scored a point since Oct. 26.Although he remained a solid defensive player, Sundstrom&rsquo;s crisp passes and deceptively-dangerous shot had disappeared.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s wrong with Sunny,&rdquo; coach Tom McVie said. &ldquo;I am really concerned.&rdquo;At the start of this season, Sundstrom was penciled in as the Devils&rsquo; No. 1 center ahead of Peter Stastny and rookie Kevin Todd despite a subpar 1990-91 campaign in which he scored just 15 goals and 46 points. After a lackluster pre-season, he did not dress in the first two regularseason games.He missed four games in October with a bad back and when healthy, scored a goal and two assists in 11 games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m definitely not happy with my point total,&rdquo; Sundstrom acknowledged. &ldquo;I feel like my season hasn&rsquo;t started.&rdquo;There was enough concern in the team&rsquo;s front office that general manager Lou Lamoriello may attempt to deal the Swedish forward before his market value drops too low.SEIZING THE MOMENT: Preseason injuries to John MacLean and Zdeno Ciger left the Devils short on both wings, but Claude Vilgrain quietly filled the void after spending the past four seasons in the minors.The NHL&rsquo;s only Haitian-born player. Vilgrain overcame a groin injury and returned to the lineup to score two goals and an assist in a 5-2 victory over Philadelphia Nov. 12. Vilgrain was also [4 us or even in 11 of 13 games.&ldquo;This is my option year,&rdquo; Vilgrain said. &ldquo;I wanted to have a good season no matter where I played. I came to camp really loose, expecting nothing. I tried to do my best.&rdquo;McVie, who coached Vilgrain in Utica of the American League, is a big supporter.&ldquo;Every coach in hockey probably has his guys he had given an opportunity to.&rdquo; McVie said. &ldquo;On the other hand, I wouldn&rsquo;t give any of my sons an opportunity if they didn&rsquo;t earn it. I think Claude is a good player when his intensity is up.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played for Tommy three years,&rdquo; Vilgrain said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve waited seven years for a chance to go up and he understands.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Stephane Richer avoided a fiasco during his return to Montreal when he arrived late for a team meeting Nov. 3. Peter Stastny and Viacheslav Fetisov were both sent home without practising after similar mistakes this season, but Tom McVie let Richer practise that day in Montreal rather than creating a story that would&rsquo;ve made Richer&rsquo;s homecoming a media circus. Richer did not avoid a fine and he played in the Nov. 6 exhibition game against Team USA as punishment&hellip;John MacLean, who was skating lightly, hoped to determine if he can avoid surgery on right knee ligaments by the end of November. &ldquo;If I was a public skater I&rsquo;d be fine,&rdquo; MacLean said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;sa little sore and lacking some stability.&rdquo;<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Kevin Todd, Peter Stastny, Patrik Sundstrom, Laurie Boschman.LW&mdash;Claude Vilgrain, Tom Chorske. Dave Maley, Dave Barr, Pat Conacher, Walt Poddubny.RW&mdash;Stephane Richer, Claude Lemieux. Doug Brown. Randy McKay.LD&mdash;Bruce Driver, Scott Stevens. Viacheslav Fetisov.RD&mdash;Alexei Kasatonov, Eric Weinrich, Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermayer.G&mdash;Chris Terreri, Craig Billington.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Zdeno Ciger, LW, right wrist surgery, indefinite. John MacLean, RW, tom right knee ligaments, indefinite. &#9632;

Sunny days near end?

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>Finding a spot for Kevin Dineen in the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; lineup was as easy as hitting an open net.Dineen proved he fit in the night after he was acquired from the Hartford Whalers in a trade for Murray Craven and an undisclosed 1992 draft pick.The 28-year-old Dineen hustled and hassled the Edmonton Oilers Nov. 14, winning over a full-house Spectrum crowd in the process. His empty net goal with five seconds left provided the insurance in a 3-1 victory.Flyers&rsquo; general manager Russ Farwell wanted Dineen last season and came close to acquiring the eight-year veteran. But a trading deadline deal fell through.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s still capable,&rdquo; Farwell said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what the reason was, but he fell from favor last year. The possibility was there for a trade last year.&rdquo;A chance to get a player of Dineen&rsquo;s stature was one reason Farwell was willing to go against his trend of acquiring younger players. Craven is 27.Dineen was relieved he had the opportunity for a fresh start.&ldquo;I hope to bring a strong work ethic,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all I&rsquo;m going to promise, go out there and work hard every night.&rdquo;Dineen has Crohn&rsquo;s Disease, a chronic inflammation of the large intestine and the condition forced him to miss 12 games for Hartford last season. But the Flyers don&rsquo;t see it as a major concern.WREGGET RESPONDS: When Ron Hextall went down with the flu before the Edmonton game, Ken Wregget answered the call and played well in the 3-1 win.He followed that up with a No. 1 star performance in a 3-1 win at the Montreal Forum two nights later and a solid effort in a 2-1 loss to Winnipeg the following night.Wregget recently signed a one-year contract with the Flyers in the $350,000 per year range.&ldquo;This last stretch, with Kenny playing so well, has been a real positive sign,&rdquo; coach Paul Holmgren said. &ldquo;We have two very strong goaltenders.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Corey Foster scored his first NHL goal in a 2-1 loss to Winnipeg Nov. 17. Foster rushed the length of thS ice and beat Jets&rsquo; goalie Bob Essensa&hellip; With their 3-1win over Montreal, the Flyers remained unbeaten (3-0-2) against the Habs in their last six regular-season starts dating back to 1987&hellip;Steve Duchesne played in his 400th NHL game against Winnipeg.Mark Howe scored a pair of goals in a 5-2 loss to New Jersey Nov. 12, his first two-goal game since November, 1989.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 13: Murray Craven, LW, and an undisclosed 1992 draft pick traded to Hartford for Kevin Dineen, RW. Nov. 14: Dominic Roussel, G, recalled from Hershey (AHL) Nov. 15: Roussel assigned to Hershey.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dan Quinn, Mike Ricci, Kimbi Daniels, Keith Acton.LW&mdash;Pelle Eklund, Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Brad Jones, Mark Pederson, Tony Horacek.RW&mdash;Rick Tocchet, Kevin Dineen, Andrei Lomakin, Dave Brown.LD&mdash;Terry Carkner, Mark Howe, Kerry Huffman, Dan Kordic.RD&mdash;Steve Duchesne, Gord Murphy, Corey Foster.G&mdash;Ron Hextall, Ken Wregget.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Steve Kasper, C, hyperextended right knee, indefinite. Jiri Latal, D, strained back ligaments, Nov 24 Kjell Samuelsson, D, bruised right shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

Farwell gets his man: trades for veteran Dineen

<div class="byline">By Frank Brown</div>The New York Rangers took another step in the right direction when they acquired Jeff Beukeboom from Edmonton in exchange for David Shaw.The Beukeboom-Shaw transaction Nov. 12 completed the blockbuster Oct. 4 deal that saw the Rangers obtain center Mark Messier.The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Beukeboom will give the Rangers some much-needed strength.&ldquo;A big defenseman who has some experience and is able to clear the front of the net certainly is something we&rsquo;ve needed,&rdquo; coach Roger Neilson said.And it doesn&rsquo;t hurt that the 26-year-old Ajax, Ont., native brings three more Stanley Cup rings to the increasingly crowded Rangers&rsquo; jewel box.Beukeboom, a first-round Oiler draft pick in 1983, joins former Oiler mates Mark Messier and Adam Graves in the Rangers&rsquo; dressing room. Beukeboom also played junior with John Vanbiesbrouck in Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario League).Beukeboom made his Ranger debut Nov. 13 against Washington. He did plenty of hitting and shot-blocking in front of Vanbiesbrouck, but the Rangers lost 5-3&mdash;their third loss to Washington in as many games.Three nights later, Beukeboom fought New York Islander Mick Vukota in his official welcome to the Patrick Division. The Rangers lost the game 4-2.CENTER WOES: The Rangers suffered a spate of unsettling injuries to centers after the first 21 games.Mark Messier was wearing a cast under his glove to support the wrist he injured against Edmonton Oct. 20, while a Doug Gilmour check Nov. 4 left Sergei Nemchinov with a sprained right knee.Darren Turcotte was sidelined Nov. 13 after a collision with Washington defenseman Kevin Hatcher. Turcotte suffered a sprained left ankle. Meanwhile, rookie Doug Weight had problems with severe back pain.Messier remained in the lineup despite his injury, playing on his usual line with Adam Graves and Tony Amonte. But Graves took faceoffs to ease the strain on Messier&rsquo;s wrist.Corey Millen and Mark Janssens were recalled from Binghamton (American League) to help out.Messier was upset with his play despite his injury. He had not scored in his past 10 games and was held pointless in a 4-2 loss Nov. 13 against the Islanders on Long Island.NOTEBOOK: By losing to Washington and the Islanders, the Rangers missed chances to square their all-time series against those clubs. They were 43-45-14 against Washington and 56-58-10 against the Islanders.With four goals after 21 games, Paul Broten was within one goal of matching his career high (five) set in 1989-90.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 10: Greg Millen, G, loaned to Maine (AHL). Nov. 11: Corey Millen, C, and Jeff Bloemberg, D, recalled from Binghamton (AHL). Nov. 12: David Shaw, D, sent to Edmonton for Jeff Beukeboom, D, as completion of the Mark Messier trade Oct. 4. Nov. 14: Bloemberg assigned to Bingnamton. Nov. 16: Mark Janssens. C. and Ric Bennett, LW, recalled from Binghamton Nov. 17: Bennett assigned to Binghamton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier, Doug Weight, Corey Millen, Mark Janssens.LW&mdash;John Ogrodnick, Adam Graves, Kris King, Jan Erixon.RW&mdash;Mike Gartner, Tony Amonte, Paul Broten, Joe Kocur, Tie Domi.LD&mdash;Brian Leetch, Mark Hardy, Per Djoos,RD&mdash;James Patrick, Joe Cirella, Jeff Beukeboom, Randy Moller.G&mdash;Mike Richter, John Vanbiesbrouck.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tim Kerr, RW, arthroscopic surgery, right shoulder, indefinite. Sergei Nemchinov, C, sprained right knee, Nov. 24. Normand Rochefort, D, tendinitis, right knee, day-to-day. Darren Turcotte, C, sprained left ankle, day-to-day. &#9632;

Trade completes big deal

Michael Johnston is just nine years old, but he has already been coached by some of the game&rsquo;s greatest minds.The 4-foot-10, 90 pound center/right winger from Oshawa, Ont., is a member of the Little NHL Red Wings of the Oshawa triple AAA major novice league and he leads the team in goals and assists.Last year, Michael attended the Trinity Hockey School and was coached by New York Islanders&rsquo; skipper Al Arbour, former Leaf great George Armstrong and New York Ranger mastermind Roger Neilson.At Trinity, Michael won the scoring championship and has continued his strong play this season as Red Wing team captain and point leader.Like most young hockey players, Michael dreams of a career in the NHL. His hockey heroes are New York Ranger center Mark Messier, Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Rob Pearson and Ranger tough guy Tie Domi.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011442/6514571-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="555" height="1161"><figcaption class="caption-body">Michael Johnston</figcaption></div>You or someone you know can be part of The Hockey News Minor Hockey Showcase. Just send a photograph (non-returnable), along with biographical information (age, height, weight, team, coach&rsquo;s name, school and grade, as well as favorite NHL team and player) to The Hockey News. attn. Player Of The Week, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2. All entries submitted will be eligible for selection as The Hockey News Minor Hockey Player of the Year. &#9632;

f0011-01

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>New York Rangers&rsquo; right winger Joe Kocur won&rsquo;t appear on a list of the game&rsquo;s hardest shooters, but maybe he should.Kocur&rsquo;s game-winning goal in a 31 Penguin loss Nov. 11 was apparently moving too fast for the net to stop it. And it was obviously too hard for the Madison Square Garden goal judge, referee Terry Gregson or anyone else on the ice to see it.Only after replay official Tim Rappleye looked at tapes of the shot&mdash;which came at 15:45 of the third period with the game tied 1-1&mdash;was it decided Kocur&rsquo;s shot had gone in.Long after the game, the Penguins were arguing the replays had been, at best, inconclusive.The Penguins were unhappy with some circumstances surrounding the replay. They said supervisor of officials Dave Newell had no access to the replay booth and Gregson badgered Rappleye into making a quick ruling.&ldquo;He (Gregson) said, &lsquo;Give me an answer,&rsquo; and all of a sudden he (Rappleye) barks out, &lsquo;Yes&rsquo;,&rdquo; left winger Kevin Stevens said. &ldquo;It was a joke.&rdquo;Pittsburgh maintained there was no evidence Kocur&rsquo;s shot had entered the net and believe the puck made contact with the mesh outside the left goal post.&ldquo;If something goes through the net, there&rsquo;s usually a little hole, something, a little rip,&rdquo; Stevens said. &ldquo;But there was nothing.&rdquo;A Ranger spokesman said the net used that game was new and in the warmups for the Rangers&rsquo; next game, two pucks went through the net from behind the net. He said the netting was replaced after that game.During the next stoppage in play, Penguins&rsquo; goalie Tom Barrasso received a 10-minute penalty and game misconduct after confronting Gregson at center ice. And Pittsburgh trainer Skip Thayer was ejected for standing behind the bench and waving his glasses toward Gregson.REPLAY BLUES: The replay wasn&rsquo;t much kinder to Pittsburgh two nights later, when Civic Arena goal judge Jack Riley didn&rsquo;t overturn referee Paul Devorski&rsquo;s ruling that Stevens had illegally knocked the puck into the net with six seconds left in the third period against Edmonton.But there was no disputing the goal Stevens got at 3:25 of overtime, when a Paul Coffey shot glanced off his stick and slipped past Edmonton goalie Bill Ranford for the deciding goal in a 5-4 Pittsburgh victory.NOTEBOOK: General Manager Craig Patrick denied a report defenseman Ulf Samuelsson&mdash;who returned to Sweden when his father died in early November&mdash;will not come back unless he receives a seven-figure contract. Samuelsson, whose current contract is worth $300,000 this season, is in his option year and has said he is seriously considering playing in his homeland next year&hellip;Center Ron Francis, who finished 20th in the NHL scoring race last season but was sidelined until Oct. 25 by a contract dispute, did not get a point until his ninth game of the season, a 6-2 loss in Washington Nov. 15.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis, Ken Priestlay, Bryan Trottier.LW&mdash;Kevin Stevens, Phil Bourque, Bob Errey, Troy Loney.RW&mdash;Mark Recchi, Joe Mullen, Jaromir Jagr, Jamie Leach, Jay Caufield.LD&mdash;Paul Coffey. Ulf Samuelsson, Gordie Roberts. Grant Jennings.RD&mdash;Larry Murphy, Peter Taglianetti, Jim Paek.G&mdash;Tom Barrasso, Wendell Young.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jiri Hrdina, C, torn left knee ligaments, indefinite. Frank Pietrangelo, G, lower back pain, day-to-day. Paul Stanton, D, torn right knee ligaments, indefinite. &#9632;

Goal sparks more replays of replay decision

<div class="byline">By Kevin Dupont</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011457/6514633-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="387" height="488"></div>His Stanley Cup ring arrived about a month ago, hand carried by Ron Francis. Shiny and bright as it may be, it lacks some lustre for Barry Pederson.&ldquo;It really doesn&rsquo;t mean as much to me as it does to some of the guys,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t have the opportunity to play as much as I would have liked. It&rsquo;s nice, but&hellip;&rdquo;Pederson, 30, was a forgotten forward in the Penguins&rsquo; plans by the time they rolled to their first Stanley Cup last spring. He played a little more than half their regular-season games and then moved permanently to the sidelines while Kevin Stevens, Mario Lemieux, Ulf Samuelsson, Francis and others led Pittsburgh to hockey heaven. By the time the rings arrived in Pittsburgh, Pederson was already wearing the green and white of the Hartford Whalers and trying to prove life doesn&rsquo;t run out of ice time at thirty something.In Hartford, the doubting only doubled. The Whalers began the season without their two star forwards, Pat Verbeek and John Cullen, and Pederson was front and center on opening night. But as the days went by. and both Cullen and Verbeek came back, Whaler coach Jimmy Roberts pushed Pederson out of the lineup once more.&ldquo;I was a lot more seasoned than (Roberts) wanted me to be,&rdquo; Pederson said.Enter Boston. Struggling for goals and presence at center, the Bruins were quick to call Pederson when he was released by the Whalers Nov. 7. Within a week, he was signed to a contract and was back in Boston Garden, where he began his career in the 1980-81 season.Once again, his easy smile and smooth hands played their way before a Boston crowd that once saw Pederson work magic with Rick Middleton. Instead of No. 10, his old sweater with the Bruins, Pederson wore No. 12, the sweater Wayne Cashman filled when Pederson was a Boston rookie.&ldquo;Anything he can give us,&rdquo; said coach Rick Bowness, his lineup gutted by injuries this year, &ldquo;will be a plus.&rdquo;In the early &rsquo;80s, Pederson and Middleton were the Craig Janney-Cam Neely of the Bruins. Sure, Pederson would some day wear a Stanley Cup ring, but it most assuredly would be won in Boston. Where Jean Ratelie left off, Pederson picked up, playmaking in the middle with flash and finesse.By 1986, a couple of 100-point seasons behind him, Pederson was on his way to Vancouver. The Canucks offered him double his money, and Pederson forced a trade that eventually brought the Bruins Neely, Glen Wesley and the rights to the Stanley Cup finals in 1988 and 1990.In Vancouver, Pederson&rsquo;s career went flat, which is to say it stayed on even par with the Canucks. He was just coming off serious surgery on his right arm, the removal of a scary tumor, and the best he could ever generate was a couple of 76-points seasons.&ldquo;He was put in a tough situation, especially with me coming to Boston and playing the way I played.&rdquo; Neely recalled. &ldquo;Barry was expected to be somewhat of a savior.&rdquo;Not so this time around. Boston&rsquo;s first-round pick in 1980, Pederson is again wearing the familiar black-and-gold uniform, but with none of the first-round expectations. He can just be part of a lineup rather than the very center of it. There was only a smattering of applause when his name was announced at the Garden on the night of Nov. 14, and maybe a dozen sets of knowing hands could be heard clapping when he came out for his the first shift of his Bruin reunion.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021035/6514626-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="565" height="729"><figcaption class="caption-body">Barry Pederson</figcaption></div>From here, who knows. Pederson could last a week, a month, or right through the season. He&rsquo;s a Bruin again, with a Stanley Cup ring on his finger. So what if he hasn&rsquo;t even seen his name on the Cup.&ldquo;Randy Gilhen, another 1990-91 Penguin castaway, called to tell me he saw my name on there,&rdquo; Pederson said. &ldquo;It feels good, but it&rsquo;s kind of bittersweet. In one sense, you&rsquo;re happy for the guys. At the same time, you&rsquo;re disappointed you weren&rsquo;t more part of it. Especially as you get on in years, and the chances get fewer&hellip;&rdquo; &#9632;

f0013-01

A Cup later Pederson’s back in Bruin black

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-03778/6514664-1-eng-US/f0013-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; goaltender Clint Malarcuk says he plays each game now like it&rsquo;s his last. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/BBS)</figcaption></div>When he first came to Buffalo, he was both needed and wanted, but in a desperate sort of way. Daren Puppa, the No. 1 goalie and the newly-appointed Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; hero in goal, shattered his left arm late in the 1988-89 season and the Sabres were looking for an insurance goaltender.Clint Malarchuk accepted that role. At different times since then, he has been the &ldquo;backup&rdquo; goalie, the &ldquo;life-threatened&rdquo; goalie, the &ldquo;other&rdquo; goalie, the &ldquo;play-hurt&rdquo; goalie and even the &ldquo;great guy&rdquo; goalie.Finally, at age 30 and with a professional lifetime of good and bad fortune behind him, he is the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; goalie. No, make that a damn good goalie playing at the top of his game for a team that both wants and needs his services.Malarchuk had a 3-4-1 record, a 2.46 goals-against average (third in the NHL) and a .921 save percentage (second in the league) through his first eight starts. By comparison, Puppa&rsquo;s numbers (2-5-0, 4.23 and .865) reflected he struggled to come back from an off-season in 1990-91.Considering the inconsistent play in front of him, Malarchuk may well be performing the best of any goalie in the league. The veteran of stops in Quebec and Washington isn&rsquo;t surprised by that&mdash;even if everyone else is.&ldquo;If people are surprised I guess it&rsquo;s because it has been a while since I&rsquo;ve been heard from,&rdquo; Malarchuk says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m almost offended when people ask me what I&rsquo;m doing differently. I tell them I went to hockey school over the summer.&rdquo;Humor. It&rsquo;s something he uses often to break the tension. It&rsquo;s part of a personality that endears him to coaches, teammates, fans and the media alike, but there is much more to Malarchuk than a wise-cracking cutup in the dressing room. He comes to play and in that regard he is a very serious man.Injuries, bad luck and Puppa&rsquo;s one amazing season (1989-90) all figure into Malarchuk being out of the spotlight for a while.When Malarchuk first joined the Sabres in March, 1989, he played second string to Jacques Cloutier. The following season, Puppa posted a league-high 31 wins, played in the All-Star Game and finished as runnerup to Patrick Roy in Vezina Trophy voting. Malarchuk also played exceptionally well that season. He was among the league leaders in save percentage (.903) but suffered a horrific injury late in the season when a skate blade severed his jugular vein during a game against the St. Louis Blues. Had quick action not been taken to stem the flow of blood, Malarchuk could have died.Last season, Malarchuk again played well, often better than Puppa. In deference to Puppa, Malarchuk shunned the No. 1 label and took to calling himself Buffalo&rsquo;s other goalie even though he was the one they often turned to first. That lasted until debilitating back and neck injuries&mdash;he was having his upper spine frozen before games&mdash;limited his effectiveness. Malarchuk continued to play, however, and although he won two playoff games, the Sabres were again at a loss in the playoffs.Almost from the time he arrived it has been like that for Malarchuk: streaks of brilliance ended by streaks of misfortune. Even now he is recovering from a scratched cornea and a severe case of strep throat. But with Puppa out until at least mid-December with a broken left arm, Malarchuk has been pressed into the No. 1 role.Malarchuk can deal with the pressure of being thrust back into the starting job. It has happened so many times before. &#9632;

f0013-03

A Man For All Seasons

<div class="byline">By Stephen Harris</div>The talk show phone lines were buzzing in Boston after newspaper reports suggested the Bruins and Quebec Nordiques discussed an even-up trade of veteran Ray Bourque for unsigned phenom Eric Lindros.Both teams denied the reports, but sources said the Nords were willing to make the deal. However, Bruins&rsquo; general manager Harry Sinden apparently nixed the blockbuster trade.Whether the Bourque-for-Lindros talks happened or not, Bourque was moved to discuss the subject of trades at length with local reporters.And he made it perfectly clear that he wants to stay in Boston.&ldquo;Compared to Boston, no other place in the league is as attractive to me,&rdquo; Bourque said. &ldquo;This is where my family&rsquo;s going to settle.&rdquo;The 30-year-old, four-time Norris Trophy winner was off to one of his best starts offensively this season. Bourque&rsquo;s overtime goal in a 5-4 win over Hartford Nov. 16 gave him eight on the season (22 points) after 18 games.Bourque is a Montreal native and still has a home there. But he doesn&rsquo;t want to play in Quebec, where taxes are high and hockey is, as he put it, &ldquo;more of a fanatic obsession.&rdquo;&ldquo;People want to hear hockey 12 months a year, 24 hours a day,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Especially for someone like myself, you&rsquo;re in demand so much. Here in Boston, there are four sports. There isn&rsquo;t an overkill for one.&rdquo;HOSPITAL WARD: The Bruins were clobbered by various ailments after 18 games, losing 80 manpowergames due to injury.Key performers Cam Neely and Dave Poulin have been out since the beginning of the season, but things got worse when defenseman Glen Featherstone underwent surgery Nov. 15 to repair a herniated disc. He&rsquo;ll be out until mid-February.NOTEBOOK: Center Craig Janney is fed up with trade rumors suggesting he&rsquo;s on his way out of Boston. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been talking about getting rid of me for a long time. It&rsquo;d be a tough move, but maybe not at all a bad move for me,&rdquo; he said&hellip;The Bruins&rsquo; top line of Andy Brickley, Steve Leachand Vladimir Ruzickahad collected 27 of the team&rsquo;s 64 goals after 18 games.Three days after his dramatic two-goal effort Nov. 10 against New Jersey, Chris Nilan learned he&rsquo;d broken two vertebrae crashing into a goal post and will be sidelined until late December&hellip;Barry Pederson, who was drafted by the Bruins and played in Boston until 1986, was signed to a free-agent contract Nov. 12.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 12: Barry Pederson, C, signed tree-agent contract. Nov. 14: Matt Glennon, LW, assigned to Maine (AHL). Ralph Barahona, C. recalled from Maine. Nov. 15: Lyndon Byers, RW, and Peter Douris, RW, assigned to Maine.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Craig Janney, Andy Brickley. Barry Pederson, Ralph Barahona.LW&mdash;Brent Ashton, Vladimir Ruzicka, Nevin Markwart. Shayne Stevenson.RW&mdash;Bob Carpenter, Steve Leach, Bob Sweeney, Chris Winnes.LD&mdash;Glen Wesley, Garry Galley, Don Sweeney.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque. Stephane Quintal, Jim Wiemer, Bob BeersG&mdash;Andy Moog, Matt DelGuidice.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Glen Featherstone, D, back surgery, indefinite Ken Hodge. C, sprained right knee, indefinite. Cam Neely. RW. left thigh contusion, indefinite. Chris Nilan, RW, broken back vertebrae, indefinite. Dave Poulin, C, abdominal strain, indefinite. Jim Vesey, C, bruised right shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

Bourque makes it clear: he doesn’t want to leave

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>The Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; most successful Western road swing in nearly a decade ended in horror, anger and confusion in Calgary.The Sabres lost newly acquired center Pat LaFontaine to a double fractured jaw and a severed facial artery, the result of a controversial slash from defenseman Jamie Macoun Nov. 16 at the Saddledome.LaFontaine underwent immediate surgery in Calgary to stop the bleeding and repair the damage. Doctors had to insert a metal plate to stabilize his jaw and initial estimates indicate he will be lost at least until the new year.The Sabres won the game 5-4, when Donald Audette scored a power-play goal during the five-minute man advantage the Sabres received because of Macoun&rsquo;s high-sticking penalty.Sabres&rsquo; coach Rick Dudley labelled the slash a &ldquo;cheap shot.&rdquo;General manager Gerry Meehan said he planned to send a tape of the incident to NHL executive vicepresident Brian O&rsquo;Neill.Meehan was still collecting tapes and statements regarding the incident and had informed O&rsquo;Neill&rsquo;s office he would seek penalties for Macoun under Rule 34-A&mdash;the rule that allows for supplemental discipline.Though LaFontaine&rsquo;s injury was both obvious and severe, the circumstances surrounding the play were cloudy.The Flames were caught in a line change when LaFontaine took a long lead pass at the Calgary blue line and went down the right side. Macoun, at least two steps behind, came around with his stick just as LaFontaine was striding in toward the goal. LaFontaine went down and eventually slid into the boards. There was no initial signal for a penalty from referee Bill McCreary, but after it was clear LaFontaine was injured, McCreary assessed the major penalty.The Flames argued there was no clear indication LaFontaine was hurt by Macoun&rsquo;s stick. And Macoun did not accept blame for the injury. Instead, the Flames argued LaFontaine was hurt when he fell to the ice.PUPPA OUT: The Sabres earned five of a possible six points on the western swing, but also lost goaltender Daren Puppa to a broken left forearm.Puppa suffered the injury during a morning workout Nov. 12 at San Jose. He will be lost until midDecember. He was hit on the arm in an area with very little padding. It is the same arm Puppa broke near the end of the 1989-90 season, but the break is in a different place.The injury prompted a crosscountry swap of goaltenders. Goaltender Clint Malarchuk, who was left behind when the team went west because of the lingering after effects of strep throat, immediately flew west while Puppa headed east. Rochester Americans&rsquo; (American League) goaltender Tom Draper was already with the team because of Malarchuk&rsquo;s illness.NOTEBOOK: Dale Hawerchuk, Pat LaFontaine and Randy Hillier lost a combined $1,900 after a thief gained access to the Sabres&rsquo; locker room during the game with the Sharks at the Cow Palace. Police said the money was taken sometime between 7:30 p.m. and 10:50 p.m. while the game was in progress. It was assumed the thief entered through an unlocked rear door.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Christian Ruuttu, Dave SnuggerudLW&mdash;Randy Wood, Dave Andreychuk, Brad May, Rob Ray, Colin Patterson.RW&mdash;Donald Audette, Alex Mogilny, Tony Tanti, Rick Valve.LD&mdash;Mike Ramsey, Doug Bodger, Grant Ledyard, Ken Sutton.RD&mdash;Randy Hillier, Kevin Haller. Brad Miller, Jay Wells.G&mdash;Tom Draper, Clint Malarchuk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dale Hawerchuk, C, pulled groin, dayto-day. Pat LaFontaine, C, fractured jaw, indefinite Daren Puppa, G, broken left forearm, indefinite. &#9632;

Bad break puls Pat on shelf

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>The phrase &ldquo;good guys finish last&rdquo; was used often in the hours following Dave Chambers&rsquo; dismissal as coach of the Quebec Nordiques.There is no doubt that the 51-year-old fits the description. But when all was said and done with the Nordiques after his Nov. 17 firing, one thing became abundantly clear: Chambers&rsquo; qualities as a person led to his demise as a coach.Nordiques&rsquo; general manager Pierre Page, who delivered the news the day after the Nordiques dropped a 6-2 decision to the Edmonton Oilers to drop to 3-14-1, replaces Chambers behind the bench. Assistant coaches Jacques Martin and Don Jackson were retained by the team.After hearing about Chambers&rsquo; dismissal, the Nordique players agreed on two points. First, they said Dave Chambers is a great man. Second, they believed he wasn&rsquo;t tough enough with the players and his style didn&rsquo;t mesh with the kind of team he had.&ldquo;On a few occasions, he&rsquo;d come into the dressing room and really give it to a player,&rdquo; veteran Mike Hough said. &ldquo;But a few hours later, he would come back to the player and apologize. I told him that it was his job to criticize us and that he shouldn&rsquo;t feel sorry for us. But I guess it was against his principles to come down on us.&rdquo;Hough wasn&rsquo;t the only one who lamented Chambers&rsquo; inability to strike fear in the hearts of his players. Some even said the players used Chambers&rsquo; good nature to their own advantage.&#9632; &ldquo;Our problems weren&rsquo;t all of Dave&rsquo;s making,&rdquo; Joe Sakic said. &ldquo;You couldn&rsquo;t find a better man. But that was probably his problem. Some of the players knew he couldn&rsquo;t be firm so they kind of took advantage of the situation.&rdquo;&#9632; &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt in my mind the organization had to move in this way,&rdquo; co-captain Steven Finn said. &ldquo;The players simply didn&rsquo;t respect Dave anymore.&rdquo;&#9632;&ldquo;He was a good man, but we need intensity on the ice,&rdquo; Tony Twist said. &ldquo;This is a very young team. The coach is supposed to give the example. But Dave was so quiet, so calm behind the bench. We need someone who is a little more expressive.&rdquo;Page saw Chambers as a friend but said he couldn&rsquo;t avoid the inevitable. Page hired Chambers before last season amid protests that an angolophone could not coach in a francophone environment. In 98 games. Chambers&rsquo; record was 19-64-15.&ldquo;Dave told me he did everything that was humanly possible,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;He tried to change his style, he learned French and he worked very hard at making this team better. I guess it just wouldn&rsquo;t work out.&ldquo;We waited as long as possible. We didn&rsquo;t want things to go that far. We&rsquo;re all a little responsible for what happened. Now it&rsquo;s my job to get a little more out of the players.&rdquo;Chambers was unavailable for comment. He left Quebec immediately after hearing of his dismissal. Page had offered him a job in the organization and Chambers was expected to render a decision before the end of the month.Page said he hasn&rsquo;t made any definite plans how long he&rsquo;ll be behind the bench or whether he will hire a replacement for Chambers. The likely scenario is that Page will coach the team for the remainder of 1991-92 and make a decision after the season. Page becomes the fifth man in the NHL to occupy both coach and GM duties. The others are Vancouver&rsquo;s Pat Quinn, Chicago&rsquo;s Mike Keenan, Calgary&rsquo;s DougRisebrough and Detroit&rsquo;s Bryan Murray.An assistant coach of the Calgary Flames, from 1985 to 1988, Page coached the Minnesota North Stars in 1988-89 and 1989-90 before joining the Nordiques. His record with the North Stars in those two seasons was 63-77-20.NOTEBOOK: The Nordiques were reportedly trying to trade inconsistent defenseman Bryan Fogarty. The price tag? A veteran defenseman with strong leadership qualities. Oilers&rsquo; rearguard Kevin Lowe is the type of player Page was looking for&hellip;The Nords were concerned with the performance of right winger Mats Sundin. The night before he was fired, Chambers said the Nords were searching for a center who could play with Sundin. Joe Sakic was playing with Owen Nolan. Kip Miller centered Sundin, but it wasn&rsquo;t working out well.The Nords picked up left winger Don Barber on waivers from Winnipeg Nov. 12.<h2>QUEBEC</h2>Nov.12: Don Barber, LW, acquired on waivers from Winnipeg. Nov.13: Scott Pearson, LW, assigned to Halifax (AHL). Nov.17: Dave Chambers, coach, fired. Replaced by general manager Pierre Page.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Sakic, Kip Miller, Claude Lapointe, Marc Fortier.LW&mdash;Mike Hough, Stephane Morin, Doug Smail, Don Barber, Wayne Van Dorp, Tony Twist.RW&mdash;Owen Nolan. Mats Sundin, Greg Paslawski, John Kordic.LD&mdash;Greg Smyth, Alexei Gusarov, Craig Wolanin.RD&mdash;Steven Finn, Bryan Fogarty, Adam Foote.G&mdash;Jacques Cloutier, Ron Tugnutt.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Stephane Guerard, D, right knee surgery, indefinite. Valeri Kamensky, LW, fractured loft leg, indefinite. Curtis Leschyshyn, D, left knee surgery, indefinite, Herb Raglan, RW. fractured nose, indefinite Randy Vetlschek, D, fractured left foot, indefinite. Mikhail Tatarinov, D, strained ribs, indefinite. &#9632;

Chambers let go, new Page turned

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>The Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; clinic is filled with thousands of dollars of life-saving equipment, but coach Pat Bums is spending a few bucks for something he thinks might save lives in the future.Bums is making condoms available in the Forum clinic, a move he hopes will prevent his players from suffering a fate similar to basketball star Magic Johnson&rsquo;s.The Los Angeles Laker guard retired after he tested positive for the HIV virus, which is the cause of AIDS. Johnson said he contracted the virus living the bachelor&rsquo;s life of a pro athlete where willing sexual partners are never far away.&ldquo;(The condoms) aren&rsquo;t there to encourage the players to party, but for prevention,&rdquo; Burns said. &ldquo;After all, most of the players on the team are bachelors. There are a lot of opportunities for them to get involved. I know the players are too uncomfortable or too macho to go into a pharmacy to buy a box of condoms.&rdquo;&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got everything else in there, why not condoms?&rdquo; Brent Gilchrist said.The 24-year-old right winger said he&rsquo;d like the NHL Players&rsquo; Association to introduce testing for the HIV virus.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just common sense,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think everybody, not just hockey players, should get a test. Maybe there&rsquo;s some members of the association who will stand against it. I think it would be a good thing to know.&rdquo;OUT FOR SEASON? Montreal right winger Russ Courtnall had his injured right shoulder examined by a California specialist, but the news wasn&rsquo;t good.Courtnall, who was originally told he&rsquo;d be out six weeks after reinjuring the joint three games into the season, will be sidelined until the new year.The shoulder will be re-examined then and if there&rsquo;s no improvement, surgery will be performed and Courtnall will be out for the rest of the year.The examination in L.A. revealed the rotator cuff in Courtnall&rsquo;s right shoulder was pulled off the bone and there was a partial tear of some muscle.Courtnall was the Habs&rsquo; leading scorer last season with 76 points. He will now undergo deep tissue massage with Dr. Joe Horrigan.Courtnall hurt his shoulder in a preseason, pre-game warmup when he was tripped by teammate Alain Cote and tumbled into the boards.NOTEBOOK: Center Kirk Muller agreed to terms on a four-year contract which will pay him about $925,000 a season&hellip;Patrick Roy saw his career mark against Philadelphia fall to 0-5-6 when the Habs lost 3-1 to the Flyers Nov. 16. Excluding the expansion San Jose Sharks (Roy hasn&rsquo;t faced them), the Flyers are the only team he hasn&rsquo;t defeated in the regular season during his seven-year career.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 12: Alain Cote. D, assigned to Fredericton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Guy Carbonneau, Kirk Muller, Stephan Lebeau, Paul DiPietro.LW&mdash;Mike McPhee, Sylvain Turgeon, Benoit Brunet, John LeClair, Mario Roberge.RW&mdash;Brent Gilchrist, Denis Savard, Todd Ewen.LD&mdash;Jean-Jacques Daigneault, Petr Svoboda, Mathieu Schneider, Sylvain Lefebvre.RD&mdash;Eric Desjardins, Lyle Odelein, Donald Dufresne.G&mdash;Patrick Roy, Roland Melanson.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Russ Courtnall. RW, torn rotator cuff in right shoulder, indefinite. Brian Skrudland, C, torn left knee ligament, indefinite. &#9632;

Burns promotes safe sex after Magic’s revelation

<div class="byline">By Jeff Jacobs</div>Ed Johnston will never be mistaken as the Merchant of Venice, but he has established himself as the merchant of Hartford.With the trade of popular right winger Kevin Dineen to the Philadelphia Flyers for center Murray Craven Nov. 13, the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; general manager has completed an absolute makeover of the team in his 2&frac12;-year reign.No players remain from the 1986 team that went to the Adams Division finals, and none of the 10 all-time games played or points leaders in the 13-season NHL club history remain.Such is the master plan of Johnston.But perhaps moving such a biggame, gritty performer like Dineen will haunt the Whalers. Certainly, it was a painful departure for a popular player who had been an integral part of any success the Whalers enjoyed the past seven years.But in the end, Dineen was moved to fit a piece of Johnston&rsquo;s puzzle. With Bobby Holik, Rob Brown, Mark Hunter and Mark Greig, the Whalers were deep on the right side and slim down the middle and left wing.Craven took the full 72-hour period allowed him to report. He had a slight neck injury suffered in Philadelphia&rsquo;s exhibition game against Team USA Nov. 10. But just as importantly, he was eager to end an acrimonious contract dispute. It ended quickly as Johnston signed Craven to a two-year, plus option deal Nov. 16, which pays about $450,000 a year.Craven responded with a goal and assist in a 5-4 overtime loss to Boston in his first game Nov. 16. And then he scored two power-play goals in a 3-1 victory in Toronto Nov. 17.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve watched Craven for a number of years,&rdquo; Whalers&rsquo; coach Jim Roberts said. &ldquo;He has decent, probably equal production of Dineen. He brings us size. Most importantly he fills a number of roles. He can kill penalites, play the power play, left wing and center and help us on faceoffs.&rdquo;Craven heard trade rumors about going to Toronto. And Minnesota. And St. Louis. But when the Flyers sent him to Hartford, he was caught by surprise.&ldquo;I was confident coming here,&rdquo; Craven said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t doubt my abilities.&rdquo;VERBEEK TWEAK: Although he broke an 11-game streak without a goal Nov. 16 against Boston, Pat Verbeek was struggling after a fast start.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m concerned,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s affecting all parts of his game.&rdquo;Verbeek took two bad penalties late in the game against the Bruins, the second leading to Ray Bourque&rsquo;s overtime winner.&ldquo;It was selfish,&rdquo; said Verbeek, who has his contract arbitration set for Dec. 11.NOTEBOOK: Crunched by a John LeClair bodycheck Nov. 14, Michel Picard sustained a separated left shoulder and will be lost a minimum of a month&hellip;With KevinDineen traded to Philadelphia, left winger Pat Verbeek is the new player representative. Mark Hunter, who finished fourth in a player vote for captain, will take over Dineen&rsquo;s alternate captain duties.<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 13: Kevin Dineen, RW, traded to Philadelphia tor Murray Craven, C-LW, and conditional 1992 draft pick. Lee Norwood, D. traded to St. Louis for conditional 1993 draft pick. Paul Cyr, LW, assigned to Springfield (AHL). Nov. 15: James Black, C, recalled from Springfield. Nov. 16: Craven signed three-year contract. John Stevens, D, recalled from Springfield.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;John Cullen, Andrew Cassels, James Black, Joe Day.LW&mdash;Pat Verbeek, Murray Craven, Mikael Andersson, Jim McKenzie, Randy CunneyworthRW&mdash;Rob Brown, Bobby Holik, Mark Greig, Ed Kastelic, Mark Hunter.LD&mdash;Zarley Zalapski, Randy Ladouceur, John Stevens, Doug Houda.RD&mdash;Brad Shaw, Marc Bergevin, Adam Burt.G&mdash;Kay Whitmore, Peter Sidorkiewicz.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Michel Picard, LW, separated left shoulder, indefinite. Geoff Sanderson, C, pulled groin, day-to-day. &#9632;

Johnston completes shuffle

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03647/6514853-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Going to movies is one of Luc Robitaille&rsquo;s pleasures, but he doesn&rsquo;t desire to lead a &ldquo;Hollywood lifestyle.&rdquo; (Photo by Brian winkter/BBS)</figcaption></div>They call him &ldquo;Lucky,&rdquo; and Luc Robitaille is the first to admit his life has been blessed in many ways.The Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; left winger has been a first team all-star for four consecutive seasons; he earns a substantial paycheck for playing a game he loves ($7.7 million over the next five years); pockets another $200,000 a year in endorsements (including Reebok training shoes, Bauer roller skates and Sher-Wood hockey sticks); owns a spacious home in fashionable Sherman Oaks, Calif., with a hillside view of the sprawling San Fernando Valley; and will marry next June.A charming personality, along with an engaging smile and Hollywood good looks, have made him one of the most popular athletes ever to appear at the Forum.&ldquo;Luuuuc!&rdquo; the fans howl any time he carries the puck or scores a goal, which is often. He has averaged 48 goals his first five NHL seasons and never collected fewer than 45.Recently, the 25-year-old Robitaille has been playing on a line with Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri, and is among the NHL&rsquo;s scoring leaders.So, yes, life is sweet for Robitaille, but it hasn&rsquo;t always been this way and he realizes it could change in a flash.He remembers his father, Claude, repairing automobile engines until the wee hours of the morning in the backyard of their Montreal home to support a family of five (he has a brother and a sister).&ldquo;My dad started from nothing,&rdquo; Robitaille recalls. &ldquo;To see him working on the side for extra money made a big impression on me. He has a very successful (scrap yard) business now, but he had to put in a lot of sweat to make a go of it.&rdquo;He remembers working alongside his father one steamy summer after another, ripping carburetors from junked cars, for $125 a week.He remembers how his dream of playing in the NHL was nearly dashed because of a perceived skating deficiency that made him a ninth-round draft pick (171st overall) in 1984.He remembers other prospects, many endowed with greater skills, whose promising careers were swept away in the fast lane of life.He remembers being taken under Marcel Dionne&rsquo;s wing, along with then-teammate Jimmy Carson, during his rookie season in 1986-87.&ldquo;I think Marcel saw us as being different,&rdquo; Robitaille says. &ldquo;He knew we weren&rsquo;t in L.A. to party and go crazy.&rdquo;He remembers the work he has put in to get this far and he doesn&rsquo;t intend to become another statistic. While he has dated Hollywood actresses (he Robitaille makes major money, but doesn&rsquo;t flaunt it. He could afford to buy a Porsche, but chooses to drive a Ford Explorer.Robitaille has bought into one of team owner Bruce McNall&rsquo;s horses, a 3-year-old colt named Beau Sultan. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in fora leg,&rdquo; he says. Robitaille has also invested in Iceoplex, a new skating rink in suburban L.A.He could paint the town red, but he chooses to repaint the three bedrooms inside his house.Along with running a couple of hockey schools, his biggest project last summer was remodeling the house and adding a guest room. Robithing is going to the movies. I will say this, he&rsquo;s cheap. I always wind up buying the tickets.&rdquo;Robitaille denies that charge with a laugh. He laughs a lot these days. Can you blame him? He says he has never been so happy and passes the credit to his bride to be.&ldquo;Stacy has taught me to be more patient with people, to relax, not to be so intense,&rdquo; Robitaille says of his fiancee, an aspiring artist and singer.&ldquo;The biggest thing about our relationship is that we talk about everything.&rdquo;These days, Robitaille has plenty of great things in his life to talk about. &#9632;

f0017-03

Cool Head Luc

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>In his eight-year career with the Vancouver Canucks, Doug Lidster has lived through five coaches, played in half-empty buildings and heard almost every catcall.The 31-year-old defenseman is the longest-serving Canuck, and by logical extension, the individual who has suffered the most in a Vancouver uniform. That is why he is especially cautious about letting his emotions gallop out of sight when he thinks about the Canucks and the way they have galloped out of the gate this season. The Canucks&rsquo; 13-4-3 start was the team&rsquo;s best-ever at the quarter pole and their .725 winning percentage was second only to the league-leading Washington Capitals.Indeed, these are heady times for the Canucks and Lidster. Making it so much sweeter for Lidster has been the seven years of ineptitude he has had to endure before this season. In that time, the Canucks finished last in the Smythe Division four times and fourth the other three. They failed to play .500, failed to win a playoff series and failed to make tangible progress.In fact, Lidster has often wondered if the black clouds hovering over his professional life would ever part.&ldquo;To be honest, I didn&rsquo;t know if I would be around here to see this,&rdquo; Lidster said. &ldquo;The other day I was thinking we have as many people watching our warmups as we used to get for the games. It&rsquo;s a nice feeling.&rdquo;QUARTER CORNER: When the Canucks hit the NHL&rsquo;s quarter pole Nov. 16, they had numbers that, if projected over the full season, were truly mind-boggling.The Canucks finished the first 20 games this year at 13-4-3 and were eight points ahead of their closest pursuers in the Smythe&mdash;the favored Calgary Flames and Los Angeles Kings.Projected over 80 games, the Canucks would finish with 52 wins and 116 points.&ldquo;Our goal was to close the gap with L.A. and Calgary and play better in our division,&rdquo; Canucks&rsquo; coach-general manager Pat Quinn said. &ldquo;In terms of points, I don&rsquo;t think anyone expected us to be where we are.&rdquo;Vancouver has finished over the .500 mark twice in 21 seasons. Their team record is 86 points, set in 1974-75.NOTEBOOK: Soviet rookie Pavel Bure scored his first NHL goal in Vancouver&rsquo;s 8-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings Nov. 12. Bure intercepted a pass by L.A. defenseman Brian Benning and beat Daniel Berthiaume with a backhand deke&hellip;The Canucks are renegotiating the contracts of enforcer Gino Odjick and center Cliff Ronning. Both have a year and an option left on their current deals. Odjick is making $l10,000 this season and Ronning $165,000.The worst quote by a Canuck in November came from Ronning when he was asked how much fun it was to be in first place. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the funnest,&rdquo; he said. It must have made his former school teachers cringe&hellip;The Canucks must have set some kind of unofficial health record in the season&rsquo;s first quarter when they lost only two man-games to injury. Left winger Greg Adams (mild concussion) and defenseman Dave Babych (back spasms) were the only regulars to miss a game.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 15: Alek Stojanov, LW, signed multi-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Cliff Ronning, Igor Larionov, Petr Nedved, Ryan Walter, Robert Kron.LW&mdash;Greg Adams, Sergio Momesso, Geoff Courtnall, Gino Odjick.RW&mdash;Trevor Linden, Pavel Bure, Jim Sandlak, Garry Valk.LD&mdash;Robert Dirk, Dave Babych, Dana Murzyn, Jim Agnew.RD&mdash;Doug Lidster, Gerald Diduck, Jyrki Lumme, Randy Gregg.G&mdash;Kirk McLean, Bob Mason.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Veteran Lidster remains cautiously optimistic

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>If it means dollars for the Edmonton Oilers, it must make sense.With that idea in mind, the Oilers sent defenseman Jeff Beukeboom to the New York Rangers for defenseman David Shaw Nov. 12. It didn&rsquo;t send shock waves through the NHL, but it apparently sent as much as $5 million (U.S.) into Oiler owner Peter Pocklington&rsquo;s pocket.&ldquo;Mess told me when I was in New York there was more to the deal and there was. I don&rsquo;t know how to put this, but there was cash involved either to get myself or (Luke) Richardson,&rdquo; Beukeboom said.Oilers&rsquo; general manager Glen Sather not only denied there was cash in the trade, he said it wasn&rsquo;t even related to the Mark Messier deal. Rangers&rsquo; GM Neil Smith told reporters it was the final transaction of the Messier trade.In his first game as an Oiler&mdash;a 5-4 overtime loss Nov. 13 against Pittsburgh&mdash;Shaw scored a strange goal. He whiffed a slapshot from the point but the puck dribbled past goalie Tom Barrasso.&ldquo;Weirdest goal of my career so far,&rdquo; Shaw said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never fanned on a shot and scored.&rdquo;Shaw knew his days were numbered in New York. He was an assistant captain last season and the Rangers laid the blame for their playoff fold on the team leaders.HARD NOSED: Troy Mallette hit everything that moved after returning to the lineup against the Quebec Nordiques. Just ask teammate Kevin Lowe.In his second game back after being confined to the press box for 17 straight games, Mallette hammered Lowe into the side boards in a 6-2 win Nov. 16, giving Lowe a slight concussion. Mallette&rsquo;s intended target was Mats Sundin.&ldquo;He hit him with everything,&rdquo; coach Ted Green said. &ldquo;Actually he should have got a penalty on that one.&rdquo;Mallette was embarrassed.&ldquo;I saw Sundin and I lined him up from quite a ways away. I couldn&rsquo;t stop,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: The Oilers were destroyed Nov. 13 by the Penguins&rsquo; big line of Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Kevin Stevens. They scored all five goals in a 5-4 overtime win, had 20 of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s 34 shots and were combined plus-14. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the best line in hockey,&rdquo; Green said.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 12: Jeff Beukeboom. D, traded to the New York Rangers for David Shaw, D, to complete Mark Messier trade Oct. 4.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Craig Simpson, Craig MacTavish, Mark Lamb, Josef Beranek, Scott Thornton.LW&mdash;Vince Damphousse, Esa Tikkanen. Martin Gelinas, Louie DeBrusk, Troy Mallette.RW&mdash;Joe Murphy, Scott Mellanby, Kelly Buchberger, Anatoli Semenov.LD&mdash;Geoff Smith, Norm Maciver, Luke Richardson.RD&mdash;Craig Muni, Dave Manson, David Shaw.G&mdash;Bill Ranford, Peter Ing.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Petr Klima, RW, bruised right eye socket, day-today. Kevin Lowe, D, concussion, day-to-day. &#9632;

Shaw deal worth big bucks

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>This has not been an enjoyable season for Wayne Gretzky.First, the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; center hurt his back in the Canada Cup tournament and reinjured it in an exhibition game.He failed to produce a goal in the first five regular-season games, then missed the next five after his father, Walter, suffered a brain aneurysm and was hospitalized Oct. 16.Naturally, Wayne Gretzky is concerned about his dad, whom he described as &ldquo;my best friend for 30 years.&rdquo; But the Kings&rsquo; captain was also worried about the state of his team, and that of his own game.With five goals and 17 points in 15 games, Gretzky was on pace to finish with 25 goals and 85 points&mdash;20 goals and 73 points below his three-year average in Los Angeles.&ldquo;The team is looking to me,&rdquo; Gretzky said, &ldquo;and it&rsquo;s obvious I haven&rsquo;t played well.&rdquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to work through it. I feel like I&rsquo;ve been the weak link of the club.&rdquo;WEBSTER EJECTED: Coach Tom Webster was handed a bench minor and ejection&mdash;his fourth in two years&mdash;for hurling a stick onto the ice Nov. 16 in a 5-3 loss to Detroit.The stick grazed referee Kerry Fraser&rsquo;s skates after bouncing on the ice. Webster was responding to a call at 6:21 of the second period and later called his action &ldquo;a very regrettable incident.&rdquo;Webster threw a stick onto the ice in a game against Calgary last Dec. 13; was ejected against Hartford Jan. 8 for cursing at a referee; and was ejected and suspended four games after punching Calgary&rsquo;s Doug Gilmour in a game March 23.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not too concerned,&rdquo; owner Bruce McNall said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just his way of expressing himself.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK:Jari Kurri was expected to be out until late November after taking a hit by Vancouver&rsquo;s Trevor Linden Nov. 12 and spraining his right shoulder. Kurri had six goals in 18 games, with three of the goals coming in his first game. He was minus-10, worst on the team.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 17: Frank Breault, RW, Jeff Chychrun, D, assigned to Phoenix (IHL).<h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Sylvain Couturier, John McIntyre, Randy Gilhen.LW&mdash;Tony Granato, Luc Robitaille, Mike Donnelly, Jay Miller.RW&mdash;Tomas&rsquo; Sandstrom, Dave Taylor, Bob Kudelski, Ilkka Sinisalo.LD&mdash;Brian Benning, Peter Ahola, Larry Robinson, Darryl Sydor.RD&mdash;Rob Blake, Marty McSorley, Rene Chapdelaine.G&mdash;Kelly Hrudey, Daniel Berthiaume.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Charlie Huddy, D, groin pull, day-to-day. Jari Kurri. RW, sprained right shoulder, day-to-day. Jim Thomson, RW, sprained right elbow, indefinite. Tim Watters, D, sprained left ankle, indefinite. &#9632;

Great One ‘weak link’ in struggling Kingdom

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>Gun-related charges filed against San Jose Sharks&rsquo; left winger Link Gaetz in September were dropped Nov. 14, when Gaetz entered a guilty plea to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct in Winona, Minn.Gaetz, who was charged with carrying a pistol without a permit and discharging a firearm within city limits in Winona Sept. 1, settled the case by mail. Court records show Gaetz paid a $229 fine and made an $840 reimbursement to the First Baptist Church in Winona for damage that was done to one of the church&rsquo;s stained-glass windows.&ldquo;Everything worked out this time,&rdquo; Sharks&rsquo; assistant general manager Dean Lombardi said. &ldquo;But he knows that if he gets into trouble again, it&rsquo;s going to be a problem for him. As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, he&rsquo;s on probation with this hockey team and I&rsquo;m his probation officer.&rdquo;The Sharks obtained Gaetz, 22, from Minnesota during the May 30 dispersal draft. He had a history of problems (most of them alcohol related), but has been clean since reporting to the Sharks shortly after the gun charges were filed.Gaetz and friend Brentley Johnson, 29, were arrested Sept. I after police received a call about gunshots near the church. There were no injuries in the incident. Johnson pleaded guilty to a charge of being a convicted felon in possession of a pistol and is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 2.Police found the gun in Gaetz&rsquo;s pants, but Gaetz&rsquo;s attorney, Paul Bresnahan, said Gaetz had taken the gun away from Johnson after Johnson had fired the shots.BRUCE ON LOOSE: Since being recalled from Kansas City of the International League Oct. 28, left winger David Bruce has been one the Sharks&rsquo; most effective players.Bruce had five goals and three assists in his first eight games after being recalled. His greatest contributions were on special teams, where he had a hand in three power-play goals and scored a shorthanded goal.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to think I&rsquo;ve been contributing,&rdquo; Bruce said. &ldquo;The power play is a little bit new for me, but I&rsquo;ve always liked to kill penalties. It&rsquo;s a good challenge.&rdquo;The Sharks still ranked last in the NHL in penalty killing (74.3 per cent), but Bruce had not been on the ice for an opponent&rsquo;s power-play goal since his recall and had helped the Sharks kill 17 consecutive penalties.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good penalty killer because he&rsquo;s always defensively aware,&rdquo; Sharks&rsquo; coach George Kingston said. &ldquo;And on the power play, he shoots the puck and has a nose for getting rebounds and getting himself into position to score.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Link Gaetz enhanced his reputation as an NHL heavyweight by fighting Detroit tough guy Bob Probertto a draw Nov. 14&hellip;GM Jack Ferreira denied a report the Sharks are trying to purchase the Dynamo Riga team goalie Arturs Irbe played for in Latvia.Irbe started all four games on a recent homestand and earned two victories and a tie. Those performances left the Sharks with a respectable 3-5-1 record at home&hellip;The Buffalo Sabres won&rsquo;t have fond memories of the 7-1 win over the Sharks Nov. 12 because a thief slipped into the team&rsquo;s dressing room at the Cow Palace and took nearly $2,000 from players&rsquo; wallets. A Sabres&rsquo; spokesman said Pat LaFontaine, who had three goals in the game, was one of the victims.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 13: Jayson More, D, and Rick Lessard, D, assigned to Kansas City (IHL). Nov. 15: Lessard recalled from Kansas City. Nov. 16: More recalled from Kansas City.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Sullivan, Perry Berezan, Brian Lawton, Dean Evason.LW&mdash;Steve Bozek, David Bruce. Link Gaetz, Paul Fenton, Perry Anderson.RW&mdash;Brian Mullen, Pat Falloon, Wayne Presley, Jeff Odgers.LD&mdash;Rob Zettler, Ken Hammond, Pat MacLeod, Rick Lessard.RD&mdash;Neil Wilkinson, Bob McGill. David Williams, Jayson More.G&mdash;Arturs Irbe, Jeff Hackett.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brian Hayward, G, strained back, indefinite. Tony Hrkac, C, cracked bone in left wrist, indefinite. Kelly Kisio, C, sprained ligaments in left foot, day-to-day. Jarmo Myllys, G, split finger, Nov. 27. Doug Wilson, D, dislocated right thumb, day-to-day. &#9632;

Gaetz charges dropped

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>The numbers just didn&rsquo;t read correctly.Nine games played. One goal. One assist.It&rsquo;d be fine if your name was Tim Hunter, but for Calgary Flames&rsquo; captain Joe Nieuwendyk? A player who has never scored fewer than 45 goals in any NHL season? The results of his comeback from arthroscopic knee surgery were disappointing.Nieuwendyk just hasn&rsquo;t been the same player since returning to the lineup Oct. 30.&ldquo;I know that sooner or later, it&rsquo;s going to come back to me,&rdquo; Nieuwendyk said. &ldquo;But it has taken a little longer than I&rsquo;d hoped.&rdquo;Physically, Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s knee wasn&rsquo;t giving him too much trouble. Psychologically? That&rsquo;s something else again.There was a tentativeness to Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s play that wasn&rsquo;t there before.&ldquo;Carrying the puck is my game and I want to do that,&rdquo; Nieuwendyk said. &ldquo;But up until the last couple of days, the legs haven&rsquo;t been there. I&rsquo;ve been sluggish. I&rsquo;m just starting to come around now. I hate to make excuses, but when I got back into the lineup, I found I was behind everybody.&rdquo;Coach Doug Risebrough, who had knee injuries during a 13-year playing career, knows what Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s going through.&ldquo;I think the biggest issue right now is developing a confidence in a complete level of play,&rdquo; Risebrough said. &ldquo;To play at this level, you have to have confidence.BUSTING LOOSE: After scoring just once in his first 19 games, left winger Paul Ranheim broke out of a prolonged slump with a pair of goals in Game 20, a 5-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres Nov. 16.Early in the season, Ranheim was getting his share of chances. Either the goalies were making big saves or he was just missing the net. As time passed, the chances stopped coming&mdash;and that&rsquo;s when he started to worry.&ldquo;I went through two cycles,&rdquo; Ranheim said. &ldquo;At the start, the chances were there. I felt like it was going to come. Then it dropped off. Then I got it back. Then the past few games were dry. It was frustrating. &ldquo;Despite his tendency to mix-and-match lines, Risebrough kept Ranheim with Doug Gilmour and Theo Fleury on a fairly regular basis.Ranheim ended the slump with a beautiful goal, stripping the puck from the Sabres&rsquo; Dave Andreychuk and sliding it past goalie Tom Draper as he was being pulled to the ice. Typically, once the drought ended, he also scored a cheapie, tapping the puck about two inches into a wide-open goal.&ldquo;I felt I had that one coming,&rdquo; Ranheim said.NOTEBOOK: The Flames lost rookie left winger Tomas Forslund with a strained knee after he was checked into the boards by Buffalo&rsquo;s Randy Hillier Nov. 16. Up until the injury knocked him out, the rookie Swede had impressed Doug Risebrough with his grit, if not his scoring touch. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a pretty good player,&rdquo; said Risebrough. &ldquo;He needs to do more with the puck and that may come. I&rsquo;ve been impressed with how he sticks his nose into things. He plays a physical game. There&rsquo;s a place for that type of player too.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011010/6514980-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="553" height="756"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Ranheim ended his slump with a highlight-film goal.</figcaption></div>Defenseman Ric Nattress, recovering from a knee injury, planned to start skating again Nov. 18 after missing three weeks. Nattress figured to be back in the Flames&rsquo; lineup by the last week of November. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m experiencing a little pain from the scar tissue and there&rsquo;s a little tendonitis there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I figure five, six days of skating and my conditioning will be there. &ldquo;Center Carey Wilson played one game&mdash;Nov. 7 against Boston&mdash;after a biopsy to remove a lump and some muscle from his left shoulder, but then missed the next four games. Wilson realized afterwards that he came back too soon. &ldquo;The doctors chopped the heck out of my arm,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve just got to let it heal.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 14: Jim Kyte, D. recalled from Salt Lake (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Doug Gilmour, Joe Nieuwendyk, Robert Reichel, Joel Otto.LW&mdash;Gary Roberts, Paul Ranheim, Marc Habscheid, Tim Sweeney.RW&mdash;Theo Fleury. Ron Stern, Tim Hunter, Martin Simard, Sergei Makarov.LD&mdash;Gary Suter, Jamie Macoun. Frank Musil.RD&mdash;Al Maclnnis, Mark Osiecki, Jim Kyte, Neil Sheehy.G&mdash;Mike Vernon, Rick Wamsley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tomas Forslund. LW. strained knee, day-to-day Stephane Matteau, LW, charleyhorse, indefinite. Ric Nattress, D, left knee surgery, day-to-day. Carey Wilson, C. biopsy on left shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0020-01

Long road back for Nieuwendyk

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>Making a reasonable deal with reasonable people has been Barry Shenkarow&rsquo;s goal for quite some time. The Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; president finally scored.With each acknowledging keeping the Jets in Winnipeg is the bottom line, Manitoba premier Gary Filmon, Winnipeg mayor Bill Norrie, Winnipeg Enterprises director Alan Maclnnes, Derek Riley, spokesman for a group of private investors and unveiled a agreement Nov. 12 which will do that.The Provincial cabinet and city council had until Nov. 22 to approve their participation in a deal that guarantees the Jets won&rsquo;t leave Winnipeg until at least 1997.The city of Winnipeg (through Winnipeg Enterprises, 36 per cent owners of the team and Winnipeg Arena landlords) and the province agreed to underwrite equally Jets&rsquo; losses for the duration of the six-year agreement.The deal creates an interim steering committee which gets right of approval of the Jets&rsquo; budget and will also undertake a study to determine the yarn&rsquo;s viability in the city and if a new mrena is fundamental to keeping the team.Riley&rsquo;s group will put up a $10-million fund to provide annual management fees for Shenkarow and his partners. Based on a $50-million value for the franchise, Shenkarow and the private owners will be paid from the fund the prime lending rate less three per cent a year. The $1.7 million the four partners will realize this year will be their first return since buying into the franchise in 1978.In return, Riley and his group will be permitted to buy into a new arena on the ground floor.Shenkarow, in consideration for the financial backing, has guaranteed not to move the Jets and if he decides to sell, grants local government first option to purchase.One concession made by Shenkarow was to treat all expansion revenue as operating revenue, meaning the Jets won&rsquo;t likely have any losses to underwrite for at least a year.Shenkarow has also agreed to limit the team&rsquo;s operating budget to that of the highest team in the bottom third of the league&mdash;effectively no higher than 17th among 24 NHL teams next season. He&rsquo;ll be able to spend more at his own risk&mdash;he&rsquo;d be on the hook for what he spends, meaning money out of his own pocket&mdash;-if the steering committee doesn&rsquo;t approve the extra expense.Through all of this, the Jets will abide by their current lease (including no share of parking or concessions) and Shenkarow doesn&rsquo;t expect the Jets to operate any differently.STAND TALL: With his team above .500 (9-8-4), coach John Paddock said credibility with his players is a priority.The comments were made as he sent right winger Pat Elynuik to the press box for three games. Elynuik was the team&rsquo;s leading goal-scorer in the past two seasons (32, 31) but had only three goals in 17 games this season.&ldquo;At some point, you have to take a stand,&rdquo; Paddock said.NOTEBOOK: A dubious streak ended at 185 games when rookie Stu Barnes scored three goals against Los Angeles Nov. 11. The last Jet to collect a hat trick was Thomas Steen in March, 1989 in Toronto. &ldquo;I was in the right place at the right time,&rdquo; Barnes said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still a rookie, but no longer am I fresh out of the cabbage patch. It&rsquo;s time to be responsible for what I do.&rdquo;&hellip;Goalie Bob Essensa was in the nets for wins over Los Angeles (6-2) Nov. 11, New Jersey (1-0) Nov. 16 and Philadelphia (2-1) Nov. 17 and lost in overtime to St. Louis (2-1 Nov. 14. He allowed f ve goals on 139 shots and recorded his eighth career shutout. His goals-against average dropped from 3.70 to 2.86 and his save percentage went from .883 to .912.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 12: Don Barber, RW, claimed by Quebec on waivers. Nov. 13: Rick Tabaracci, G, assigned to Moncton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Troy Murray, Stu Barnes, Mike Eagles.LW&mdash;Ed Olczyk, Darrin Shannon. Russ Romaniuk, Mark Osborne, Mike Hartman, Phil Sykes.RW&mdash;Pat Elynuik. Petri Skriko, Danton Cole, Paul MacDermid, Bryan Erickson.LD&mdash;Dean Kennedy, Randy Carlyle, Shawn Cronin, Moe Mantha.RD&mdash;Phil Housley, Fredrik Olausson, Teppo Numminen.G&mdash;Bob Essensa, Stephane Beauregard.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Luciano Borsato. C, bruised leg, day-to-day. Thomas Steen, C, nerve irritation of the lower back. Dec. 15. &#9632;

Complex deal struck to keep team in Winnipeg

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 $29.95 for adult.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.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01782/6515035-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="519" height="769"></div> &#9632;

f0021-01

Attention Hockey Players

<div class="byline">By Adam Teicher</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01907/6515066-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brent Sapergia of the San Diego Gulls has kicked his drinking habit with the help of Antibuse, which makes users ill when alcohol is consumed. (Photo by Mei Bailey)</figcaption></div>In the beginning, the plan was so simple. Brent Sapergia would spend a year or two in the minors and then make the jump up to the easy life in the NHL.&ldquo;I figured I would pay my dues, keep my mouth shut and away I go,&rdquo; Sapergia says. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t expect to be able to write a book: Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous That Make Less Than $30,000 a Year.&rdquo;Seven years later, Sapergia has not played a single game in the NHL. Nor is he likely to. The San Diego Gulls&rsquo; right winger is undeniably talented but he is also undeniably old by professional hockey standards.He celebrated his 29th birthday Nov. 16 in the International League. It can be assumed the occasion was tamer than in past years when Sapergia&rsquo;s thirst for goals was equalled only by his thirst for alcohol.&ldquo;Drinking always got me into trouble,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It took me a lot of years to realize that every time I was in trouble, I was usually drinking. I missed a lot of curfews and missed some planes&mdash;you know, the stuff that pisses coaches off.&ldquo;I had problems but I wasn&rsquo;t the kind of guy that if I quit, I was shaking. (Drinking) just changed my personality. If I hadn&rsquo;t been drinking, I would have made it to the NHL.&rdquo;That we&rsquo;ll never know. Sapergia was never a lock to play in the world&rsquo;s best league. He was never drafted and although he was signed twice as a free agent&mdash;once by the New York Rangers in 1987 and another time by the New Jersey Devils in 1989&mdash;he has never advanced past the IHL.But if the native of Moose Jaw, Sask., ever had areal shot at the NHL, alcohol problems did not enhance his prospects. Entering this season, Sapergia had scored 192 goals and 368 points in 299 IHL games with Salt Lake, Indianapolis, Phoenix and San Diego. Pretty good numbers but Sapergia earned a reputation for partying as hard as he plays.Three years ago, he was arrested in Indianapolis for disorderly conduct during a post-game party at his apartment. Sapergia told the arresting officers they had no right to interrupt his party because he was the city&rsquo;s &ldquo;Messiah of hockey.&rdquo;When Sapergia stepped onto the ice for the Ice&rsquo;s next home game, he was greeted with strains of Jesus Christ Superstar. He is still known around the league as &ldquo;The Messiah.&rdquo;Later in Phoenix, Sapergia was ejected from a game by referee Russ Johnson. The two met in a bar that night and the scene turned ugly. &ldquo;I humiliated him as much as a guy can be humiliated,&rdquo; Sapergia says. &ldquo;It was pretty degrading but I thought it was appropriate at the time. I spit in his face.&rdquo;More palatable than Sapergia&rsquo;s off-ice behaviour has been his on-ice performance. He has been one of minor professional hockey&rsquo;s more gifted players since joining the IHL in 1984. Sapergia scored 105 goals and 217 points in his first two seasons with the Salt Lake Golden Eagles. One of his teammates was current Salt Lake coach Bob Francis.&ldquo;He reminded everyone at the time of Dino Ciccarelli,&rdquo; Francis says. &ldquo;He moved like-Ciccarelli, had that same knack for finding a lane and, boy, could he finish like Ciccarelli.&rdquo;Ciccarelli scored 44 goals in 1988-89. Sapergia scored 43. Of course, Ciccarelli scored his with Minnesota and Washington and Sapergia his with Indianapolis. The following year, Sapergia signed with Phoenix but personal and alcohol problems contributed to the worst season of his career. His mother committed suicide two days after Christmas Day, 1989, and his drinking reached a crisis point.&ldquo;It got out of hand there, really out of hand,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;That was the tip of the iceberg with the Russ Johnson incident. I wasn&rsquo;t even drunk at that time. When you&rsquo;re drinking that much, anything that happens everybody thinks you were.&rdquo;His mother&rsquo;s death triggered the troubled period.&ldquo;She had a hard life that woman,&rdquo; Sapergia says. &ldquo;I got five brothers and a sister. She worked her fingers to the bone and she always did it so all of her kids could be happy. I think she woke up one day and just realized that, &lsquo;Hey, I&rsquo;ve had enough. It has been a rough life for me and I&rsquo;ve had enough.&rsquo; &ldquo;Curiously, Phoenix general manager Adam Keller says Sapergia&rsquo;s battle with personal demons had minimal impact on the team. Perhaps more disruptive over the years has been Sapergia&rsquo;s habit of leaving teams to play overseas. He has played in Finland, Italy, Switzerland and England. Sapergia scored 15 goals in San Diego&rsquo;s first 26 games last season and then left to play in England.&ldquo;I never ever thought loyalty was a big thing in the minors,&rdquo; he says.San Diego coach-GM Don Waddell welcomed Sapergia back this season. His past may be more checkered than his defensive skills but Sapergia is a Grade A goal-scorer. He had 11 goals and 15 points in 20 games this season.Sapergia started the season on a 25-game tryout contract but Waddell and the player had talked about extending it for the full length of the season. The question is: will one of hockey&rsquo;s most notorious nomads stay with the Gulls?&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been wearing that free-agent hat to the epitome of its boundaries for the last eight nine years,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I think teams are scared of me because they think if something comes up in Europe, I&rsquo;m going to want to jump ship. So, I think it&rsquo;s important that I play 80 games on this side of the water this year.&rdquo;Sapergia has a history of being more loyal to rum and coke than any hockey team and says he was a longtime &ldquo;Good-time Charlie.&rdquo; He says that is a way of life for many minor-league players. Sapergia remembers one veteran&rsquo;s candid response to a team medical questionnaire. When asked if he had a drinking problem, the player wrote, &ldquo;How do you think I&rsquo;ve lasted as long as I have?&rdquo;&ldquo;Nobody knows what a problem alcohol is in this league,&rdquo; Sapergia says. IHL information director Mike Meyers denies that is an accurate portrayal of the league. So does Larry Landon, the deputy executive director of the Professional Hockey Players&rsquo; Association.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it is any different than any other walk of life,&rdquo; Landon says. &ldquo;Brent Sapergia was and is a talented hockey player. He did not know how to handle success. You&rsquo;re dealing with 25 players on a team and it&rsquo;s a fact of life there are going to be one or two who have a problem.&rdquo;Sapergia says he no longer has a problem. He is on the wagon and has been for the most part since meeting girlfriend Susan Elliott in the summer of 1990. Sapergia says it was time for him to stop. Now he takes Antibuse, a drug that makes users ill if alcohol is consumed.&ldquo;Every morning when I walk into the rink at 9:15, our trainer flips me a couple of these and I take &rsquo;em,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard they make you sick to your stomach if you drink. I don&rsquo;t know because I haven&rsquo;t found out.&rdquo;Sapergia may have a new attitude about alcohol but says his attitude towards life hasn&rsquo;t changed.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t regret anything about the way I&rsquo;ve lived my life or the way I have conducted myself on or off the ice,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve enjoyed this game as much as anybody who has ever played this game and even to this day, I still love it. You can&rsquo;t play in the minors without loving it.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0022-01

No NHL, No Regrets

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>They don&rsquo;t wear teal uniforms, but there is no mistaking the Raleigh IceCaps. They are the San Jose Sharks of the East Coast League.The evidence is the expansion teams statistics after 10 games:&#9632; Raleigh&rsquo;s 2-8-0 record was the league&rsquo;s worst after 10 games. &#9632; The IceCaps had the ECHL&rsquo;s least-productive offense, averaging 2.7 goals per game. &#9632; Raleigh&rsquo;s nets had been scorched for a league-high 57 goals.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to keep pace with the Sharks,&rdquo; Raleigh coach Kurt Kleinendorst said.However, the IceCaps&mdash;like the Sharks&mdash;are capable of the occasional upset.Raleigh broke a three-game losing streak by edging the visiting Greensboro Monarchs 5-4 in an overtime shootout Nov. 10. The IceCaps erased a 3-0 first-period deficit to ambush the Western Division leaders.&ldquo;We are much better than our record indicates,&rdquo; Kleinendorst said. &ldquo;There have been a couple of games where we&rsquo;ve been outclassed. But we do not have the same personnel today at we had yesterday and we won&rsquo;t have the same personnel tomorrow we had today.&rdquo;Kleinendorst&rsquo;s temperament seems ideal for the young IceCaps. He continues to teach and remains patient behind the bench.&ldquo;A pat on the back as compared to a yell in the ear will get you just as much,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The players are frustrated Screaming at them isn&rsquo;t going to accomplish anything.&ldquo;I have yelled at them a few times when they really had it coming, but if they&rsquo;re playing hard and are doing the best they can, I&rsquo;m not going to get on them. Only when the effort isn&rsquo;t there.&rdquo;CHANGING IMAGE: Greenboro&rsquo;s reputation as the league&rsquo;s toughest team is being challenged by Columbus. The first-year Chill averaged 49.4 penalty minutes per game (through 10 games) compared to 45.5 PIM (10games) for the Monarchs. Greensboro led the league in penalty minutes last season with 2,148 for a per-game average of 33.5. The Monarchs led the league with 137 major penalties last season. This season, the Monarchs had 31 majors, six more than the Chill.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had big, tough players here, but fighting will never win you anything and we know that,&rdquo; Greensboro coach Jeff Brubaker said.. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been a defense-oriented club the past two seasons and never an offensive powerhouse. Now we&rsquo;re looking for ways to create more offense.&rdquo;But the Monarchs&rsquo; reputation precedes them. &ldquo;Every team we played the first four or five games wanted to fight us and picked 80 per cent of the fights,&rdquo; Brubaker said. &ldquo;Teams knew we were tough in the past and wanted to take us on.&rdquo;SIX PACK: Toledo&rsquo;s Brad McCaughey scored six goals in the Storm&rsquo;s 9-5 win over Columbus Nov. 6 and was selected player of the week for the period ending Nov. 11. He moved into a tie for second place in the scoring race with Brian Martin of Hampton Roads, two points behind Mike Maurice of Toledo (23 points)&hellip;Johnstown&rsquo;s Brian Ferreira collected five assists in a 7-3 victory over Louisville Nov. 10&hellip;.Knoxville goalie Mike Greenlay recorded 30 saves and the league&rsquo;s second shutout when he defeated Greensboro 3-0 Nov. 9.THREE&rsquo;S COMPANY: Olaf Kolzig, who was re-assigned by Baltimore of the American League to Hampton Roads Nov. 5, won his first three starts&mdash;7-3 over Greensboro Nov. 6, 3-2 over Raleigh Nov. 8 and 8-4 over Nashville. Nov. 13. He led the league with a 2.00 goals-against average and a .940 save percentage.<h2>Going from worst to first place</h2>The Kansas City Blades and Capital District Islanders must have been inspired by the worst-to-first Minnesota Twins. Both teams were among the worst minor pro teams last season and are now contenders. The most impressive underdogs in IHL and AHL history are:Springfield(1990-91): Most players on the Calder Cup-winning team were with 11-60-9 Binghamton in &rsquo;89-90. After Hartford changed affiliations, they had a 65 point jump.Indianapolis (1989-90): The Ice improved by 63 points after becoming Chicago&rsquo;s affiliate. Of course, having a goalie such as MVP Jimmy Waite helped on the way to a Turner Cup.Peoria (1990-91):IHL coach of the year Bob Plager had a dramatic impact on the River-men. who improved 50 points in going from second-last to the championship.Providence (1954-55): With Johnny Bower playing 61 of 64 games, the AHL Reds made a 44-point jump from the cellar to first and the Calder Cup.Indianapolis (1941-42): The AHL Capitols made a 30-point climb from the bottom of the Western Division to league&rsquo;s best record and a win over Hershey in the finals. &#9632;

Expansion IceCaps melting

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>When Stan Drulia took his first tour of duty in the American League, he was just hoping for an opportunity to show others he could play at that level. But by the end of 1989-90, he wasn&rsquo;t even sure himself.&ldquo;My confidence level was gone,&rdquo; Drulia said. &ldquo;I was questioning myself on whether I could play at this level.&rdquo;He has been answering his own questions, and those of others, this season with the New Haven Nighthawks. Drulia, 23, was second on the Nighthawks in scoring with 11 goals, five assists and 16 points through Nov. 14.Those are the kinds of numbers to which Drulia is accustomed. He was a 145-point scorer in his final junior season with the Ontario League&rsquo;s Niagara Falls Thunder in 1988-89. He is still the league&rsquo;s all-time career leader in scoring.But when he came to the AHL with the Cape Breton Oilers in 1989-90. he was used in more of a defensive role.The 5-foot-11, 190-pound right winger had only five goals and seven assists in 31 games. Having proven very little, his only job opportunity last year was with the Knoxville Cherokees of the East Coast League.&ldquo;I had great stats through junior,&rdquo; Drulia said. &ldquo;I thought I could play. But my first year as a pro I was used as a defensive player and I lost a lot of confidence.&rdquo;He found it again last season in Knoxville. Drulia was the ECHL&rsquo;s most valuable player last season, leading the league in goals (63) and points (140).But his season didn&rsquo;t attract much attention. It wasn&rsquo;t until August that New Haven coach Doug Carpenter called.While Drulia flourished, the Nighthawks were finding life difficult as an independent. They were in last place in the Northern Division with four wins in 16 games.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had to fight for everything we&rsquo;ve gotten,&rdquo; Drulia said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not like the other teams where everyone has played together. It has taken a while but we&rsquo;re starting to come together.&rdquo;ANCIENT MARINER: Greg Millen, who is second among active goalies in NHL games played at 594, was loaned to the Maine Mariners by the New York Rangers Nov. 12. The 34-year-old veteran had played only three minor-league games in his career before this season, and those were with Kalamazoo of the International League in 1977-78.The Rangers didn&rsquo;t need Millen in Binghamton, where they have Mark Laforest, Sam St. Laurent and Boris Rousson, so they sent him to San Diego of the IHL. He was 2-3-0 with a 4.05 GAA.ALL-STAR SHINE:Rochester goalie Dave Littman looked like anything but an all-star during his first three games. He allowed 13 goals on 77 shots, going 0-2-0 with a 5.63 GAA and .831 save percentage.But a three-week layoff gave him time to make adjustments in his play and in his mind, and he returned to the form that made him a first-team AHL all-star last season.Between Nov. 1 and Nov. 12, Littman went 2-1-2 with a 1.94 GAA and .943 save percentage. He made 26 saves in a 5-0 shutout of New Haven Nov. 8, 42 saves in a 4-2 win over Fredericton Nov. 10 and stopped 52 shots in a 3-3 tie at St. John&rsquo;s Nov. 12.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t just think about having as good of a year as last year,&rdquo; Littman said. &ldquo;I want to be 100 per cent better,&rdquo; Littman said. &#9632;

Stan’s the man for struggling Nighthawks

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>There was no guesswork at the 1991 NHL entry draft. Everyone knew Eric Lindros of Oshawa would be the first player chosen.It will be a different story June 20 in Montreal. Any of five or six players might be the top choice. But if the draft was held today, a number of scouts agree 17-year-old left winger Curt Bowen of the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s would be a prime candidate for first pick overall.The 67&rsquo;s second-round pick from the Kenora midgets in 1990 was off to a great start as a sophomore. Bowen recently had consecutive five-point nights in Peterborough and Sudbury and had 13 goals and 34 points through 20 games. Those are good numbers considering he has bounced between the first and second lines due to injuries, suspensions and trades.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not shy,&rdquo; one scout said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s steady up and down his wing and plays anywhere.&rdquo;While someone such as Todd Warriner in Windsor is a &ldquo;home-run hitter&rdquo; according to the scout, Bowen will go about his business for a full 60 minutes.&ldquo;Hopefully, I can keep up what they like,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and come June I&rsquo;ll be in the right position,&rdquo;The 6-foot-l, 191-pounder plays as robustly on the road as he does at home.&ldquo;I like to bang and slap around,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I especially love to hit in other rinks because (the Ottawa Civic Centre) is so big you don&rsquo;t get a chance to make as many hits.&rdquo;WAIT CONTINUES: The Guelph Storm had its first franchise victory stripped away because center Jeff Bes played against the Niagara Falls Thunder Nov. 3 when he should have been sitting out a suspension.OHL commissioner David Branch awarded Niagara Falls the win, gave Bes another two-game suspension and fined the Storm $2,500. Storm coach Ron Ivany should also have been serving a two-game suspension and was tagged three more games.Bes had three goals and two assists in the 6-2 win, but was given a game misconduct and automatic two-game suspension in a game Oct. 27. He sat out one game and the Storm thought because the OHL didn&rsquo;t send official notification of the suspension, Bes could play against the Thunder.HEAVY SUSPENSIONS: Ten players and Belleville coach-general manager Larry Mavety were suspended two games each after a bench-clearing brawl between Belleville and Kingston.As overtime ended a 2-2 tie Nov. 9, a minor skirmish began at the Kingston bench and players from both teams poured onto the ice. Rick Marshall. Chris Scharf, Peter McGlynn, Mike Dawson, Jason Wadell, Justin Morrison and Mavety were suspended for Belleville. Mavety was also fined $1,000. Aaron Morrison, Daniel Godbout, Doug Doull and Tony Cimellaro were suspended for Kingston.LONGO OUT: Right winger Chris Longo of Peterborough suffered a slight concussion and punctured lung in a car accident Nov. 9, but these injuries weren&rsquo;t expected to sideline him longer than an on-ice shoulder separation would have. He&rsquo;s expected back in the lineup by December&hellip;.London Knights overage defenseman Paul Wolanski faced an automatic 10-game suspension for bumping referee Dave Cassidy in a game Nov. 8. &#9632;

Bowen gets scouts’ early nod as top choice

<div class="byline">By Vance Oliver</div>The Bure Blur II, coming soon to an arena near you.Valeri Bure, the 17-year-old brother of Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; right winger Pavel Bure, made his Western League debut with the Spokane Chiefs Nov. 13, scoring a goal in a 4-4 tie against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.The Chiefs placed the younger Bure on their protected list in September, shortly after the brothers and their father Vladimir fled the Soviet Union.The Canucks obtained Pavel&rsquo;s release Oct. 31, after they negotiated a $250,000 transfer fee with the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation. Valeri&rsquo;s situation was in limbo until the Chiefs received permission Nov. 12. allowing him to play.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got authorization from the WHL,&rdquo; Spokane general manager Tim Speltz said. &ldquo;Any more details, I don&rsquo;t need to know.&rdquo;The Chiefs were in the process of filing an injunction against the International Ice Hockey Federation to allow the younger Bure to play in Spokane. But the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, an IIHF member, informed the WHL it wouldn&rsquo;t contest the injunction.RECORD ASSIST: Tri-City Americans&rsquo; overage center Brian Sakic broke the WHL career assist record of 343 when he set up teammate Terry Degner during a 4-3 loss to Spokane Nov. 9.Hartford Whalers&rsquo; center Rob Brown, who played for the Kamloops Blazers between 1983 and 1987, set the previous record in 242 games. Sakic tied Brown&rsquo;s mark in his 290th game. Sakic had 10 goals and 32 points in 20 games this season.Some observers believe Sakic, a fifth-round pick of the Washington Capitals in 1990, should be honing his skills in the professional ranks. But the younger brother of Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; star Joe Sakicstills needs to refine his game. He was criticized for a lack of hustle and benched during the playoffs last season by former coach Rick Kozuback.&ldquo;His problem has been consistency,&rdquo; Tri-City president Bob McCammon said. &ldquo;He recognizes it now and is trying to do something about it. I wouldn&rsquo;t give up on him just yet.&rdquo;WHERE&rsquo;S RAY?: Spokane was awaiting the arrival of star center Ray Whitney after the NHL rejected his plea to play for the San Jose Sharks this season.Whitney, a second-round pick of San Jose, wanted to be classified a European defector-a loophole to bypass the Oct. 2 deadline for teams to sign underage juniors. His only option now is the WHL.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t talked to him in three weeks,&rdquo; Spokane GM Tim Speltz said in mid-November. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been trying to contact him, but I don&rsquo;t get through and my messages aren&rsquo;t returned. We&rsquo;d like to have him back.&rdquo;Whitney had signed a two-year contract during the off-season with Cologne of the German League, but returned home after the team apparently didn&rsquo;t honor its contractual obligations. Whitney later had an unsuccessful tryout with the Canadian Olympic team.KING COACH: The Brandon Wheat Kings named Kevin Maxwell as their new coach Nov. 13, replacing Kelly McCrimmon who will retain his general manager duties.The Wheat Kings, who have failed to make the playoffs in three years, were last in the East Division after a 2-14-2 start.Maxwell, 31, played for the Canadian national team at the 1980 Olympics at Lake Placid. He also played three seasons in the NHL with Minnesota, Colorado and New Jersey. Maxwell was beginning his fourth year as a western scout for the Philadelphia Flyers.<h2>The junior team without a name</h2>So what is this College Francais team we see in the Quebec League standings each week? Here are things to know about the most intriguing team in the Canadian Hockey League.&#9632;It&rsquo;s the only team without a nickname. They&rsquo;re not the Hornets, Wildcats or Mustangs. Just College Francais.&#9632; Identification is Le College Francais de Verdun, or College Francais Reference to Verdun- or Longueuil last year-is wrong.&#9632; College Francais is a combined hockey education program allowing students to live together in residence, rather than billetting out to families. Education is a priority.&#9632; Home games were moved to the Auditorium de Verdun this season after poor attendance at Colisee Jean Beliveau in nearby Longueuil.&#9632; This season is the team&rsquo;s fourth. It improved each season, from 25-4 1-4 in Year 1, 10 39-29-2 and 41-27-2.&#9632; Coach Gerard Gagnon has produced a remarkable record. Including this season&rsquo;s 18-5-0 start, Gagnon has a record of 123-102-8.&#9632; Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; defenseman Karl Dykhuis is the only notable graduate. He played briefly in the playoffs last season. &#9632;

Bure Blur conies to Spokane

<div class="byline">By Ken Warren</div>That La beer company should start thinking about the natural advertising possibilities with the Trois-Rivieres Draveurs.As in goaltender Jean-Francois Labbe: La Best. After all, if Labbe continues to shine the way he has this season, he could be in line for some endorsements.Labbe, 19, was the defensive key to the Draveurs&rsquo; surprising 13-5-2 start this season.Trois Rivieres was blessed with the Yanic Perreault-Todd Gillingham-Paul Brosseau line last season and was the highest scoring club in the QMJHL.But the loss of Perreault and Gillingham to graduation and Brousseau through a trade has shifted the club&rsquo;s focus from offense to defense. And now the Draveurs&rsquo; last line of defense could be the league&rsquo;s best.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve worked hard through the practices and so far, it has paid off,&rdquo; said Labbe, who shut out the opposition for a QMJHL-record 168 consecutive minutes last season.Labbe had a league-leading 3.06 goals-against average in 15 games and was named defensive player of the month for October.&ldquo;I am a little bit surprised at our start because we no longer have Perreault and Gillingham,&rdquo; Labbe said. &ldquo;But we have tried hard to establish a strong defensive system.To establish a defensive-oriented scheme, the Draveurs traded highly-touted Brousseau to the Hull Olympiques in October for defensive Carl Fleury and left winger Eric Bellerose.Then, on Nov. 11, the Draveurs sent Dominic Maltais to the St-Jean Lynx for fel-low right winger Trevor Duhaime. Duhaime had 29 goals, 60 points and 240 penalty minutes in 70 games last year."We are much bigger,&rdquo; Labbe said. "We had some smaller guys who weren&rsquo;t great in tluj comers. Now we have a lot of diggers.&rdquo;TRADE FRENZY: Six teams got into the act and 14 players changed teams during the QMJHL&rsquo;s second trading period Nov. 8-11.The Shawinigan Cataractes were the busiest team. Defenseman Eric Joyal and center Eric Beauvais were dealt to the Granby Bisons for defensemen Mario Therrien and Joel Brassard. The Cats also sent right winger Yves Meunier to the St-Hyacinthe Laser for right winger Pierre Allard.The Chicoutimi Sagueneens traded 229-pound left winger Eric Duchesne to the Drummondville Voltigeurs for right winger Eric Meloche.Granby picked up defenseman Dominic Grand&rsquo;Maison from the Victoriaville Tigres for center Christian Tardif.Victoriaville also sent center Richartr Aimonetto to the St-Jean Lynx for defenseman Hughes Bouchard.BIG SCORER: St-Hyacinthe right winger Martin Gendron picked up 12 points in three games to earn player-of-the-week honors for the period ending Nov. 10. Gendron was the first QMJHLer to reach 25 goals this season&hellip;Shawinigan rookie goalie Sebastien Plouffe shut out Chicoutimi 4-0 Nov. 10 in his first QMJHL game. He followed it up with a 5-2 win over Hull Nov. 12.All is not well in Granby under the new coaching regime of Luc Boucher and Pierre Cliche. Overage right winger Christian Campeau walked out on the Bisons, opting to play with a first-division club in Rouen, France, and left winger Jose Argentos went home consider his hockey future. &#9632;

La Best Draveur goalie keeps up winning style

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggle</div>St. Lawrence seniors Mike and Chris Lappin have pleaded innocent to second-degree assault charges but will continue to go to class and play hockey until their case is resolved.The brothers, from St. Charles, III., were arrested Nov. 7 in connection with an Oct. 19 incident that left James Donnelly of Rensse-Wcr, N.Y., with a broken nose. No court date has been set.Donnelly said the alleged attack, which took place outside a Canton, N.Y. pizzeria, was unprovoked. The Lappin brothers said they were defending themselves from an attack by four men.&ldquo;There are conflicting stories, that&rsquo;s for sure,&rdquo; St. Lawrence coach Joe Marsh said.Peter W. FitzRandolph, dean of student affairs at St. Lawrence, said the university won&rsquo;t take any action against the brothers until a court decision is reached.Despite the distraction, Mike, a senior center, scored five goals and five assists in a sweep of Lowell and Northeastern Nov. 8 and 9 and was yarned Eastern College Athletic Conference leaver of the week.Following games of Nov. 9, Mike Lappin was leading the Saints with five goals and 12 points in three games.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re being consistent with the university policy,&rdquo; Marsh said of his decision to let the brothers continue to play. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re entitled to all the rights of any of the other kids at all.&rdquo;Mike, 22 and Chris, 24, transferred to St. Lawrence in 1989 after spending the first two years of their collegiate careers at Boston University.Mike was St. Lawrence&rsquo;s leading scorer last season, accumulating the second-highest point total (27-42-69) in school history.Chris was one of the highest-scoring defensemen at the U.S. Olympic tryout camp and was among the last players cut from the team.UNTAPPED SOURCE: The Colgate Red Raiders used scoring from a previously untapped source to get their first win of the sea-son, but it didn&rsquo;t count in league standings.Freshman defenseman Matt Garzone, who didn&rsquo;t have a point in Colgate&rsquo;s first two games, had one goal and assisted on three others as the Red Raiders beat the University of Toronto 9-5 Nov. 9. It was considered an exhibition game because contests against Canadian schools don&rsquo;t count toward a team&rsquo;s official record.Garzone&rsquo;s emergence against Toronto could be a plus for the Red Raiders, who struggled to score in their first two games. Garzone prepped at Deerfield Academy in Vermont, where he had 22 points in his final season.WATCH OUT: The Faust Watch is on at Princeton as senior center Andre Faust chases a couple of career records. The 6-foot-l, 190-pounder from Anjou, Que., entered his final year with 49 goals and 66 assists for 115 points in 79 games, placing him eighth in career goals, third in career assists and fifth in career points. He needed 18 goals to match the record of 67 set by John Cook. John Messuri holds the career records for assists (118) and points (178).Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute opponents are finding out the true meaning of Hammer Time. Freshman center Craig (Hammer)Hamelin had a goal in each of RPI&rsquo;s first three games as the Engineers got off to a 2-1-0 start in league play. Hamelin was the leading scorer for the Kanata Valley Lasers of the Central (Ont.) Junior League last season. He scored 39 goals and 97 points in 54 games&hellip;Union freshman goalie Mike Gallant was named ECAC rookie of the week for the period ending Nov. 10. In his college debut against Vermont Nov. 9, Gallant stopped 42 of 45 shots in a 3-1 loss to the Catamounts. Gallant held the Catamounts&rsquo; power play scoreless in six opportunities.<h2>Truly offensive defensemen</h2>College hockey&rsquo;s top defensemen may not be as fast as Paul Coffey or possess Al Maclnnis&rsquo; booming slap shot, but they are pretty darned good.Here are five of college hockey&rsquo;s best offensive rearguards.1. Pat Neaton, Michigan (CCHA): Has excellent hands and superb skills. Had 43 points last season playing on an adequate offensive team. NHL rights. Pittsburgh.2. Mark Astley, Lake Superior (CCHA): Prospered when Lakers switched to a quick-transitional game. Had 12 assists in first seven games. NHL rights: Buffalo.3. Dan Laperriere. St. Lawrence (ECAC): Son of former Montreal Canadien rearguard Jacques Laperriere had 83 points in 102 career games. NHL rights: St. Louis.4. Greg Andrusak. Minnesota-Duluth (WCHA): Has good scoring touch, but prefers to set up plays from point. Must shoot more. NHL rights: Pittsburgh.5. Mike Brewer, Brown (ECAC): He&rsquo;s another retired NHLer&rsquo;s son (Carl) who has strong offensive skills. An excellent skater with a hard shot. NHL rights: Washington. &#9632;

Brothers face assault charges

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>The Maine Black Bears are a step closer to having one of hockey&rsquo;s best young prospects in their lineup next season.Paul Kariya, the most valuable player in the British Columbia Junior League as a 16-year-old for the Penticton Panthers a year ago, has agreed to attend Maine. The native of North Vancouver, B.C., turned down several scholarship offers and lucrative financial packages from Victoria and Tri-City of the Western League.The flashy forward had 20 goals and 60 points for the Panthers in 20 games this season. Last year, Kariya scored 44 goals and 112 points in 56 games. He was also Canada&rsquo;s top scorer in the Phoenix Cup tournament in Japan last summer, which featured the best under-17 players in the world. Kariya is considered one of the top college recruits and a top prospect for the 1993 NHL draft..&ldquo;Money wasn&rsquo;t the issue,&rdquo; Kariya said. &ldquo;It came down to what was right for Paul Kariya and where I can improve the most. Maine was the best choice. I really liked the people, the coaches and the players and I feel Maine has the best program in the country. I couldn&rsquo;t go wrong going here.&rdquo;Kariya&rsquo;s parents are both teachers and academics were an important aspect of the decision.New York Ranger scout Dave McNab called the move &ldquo;a major get&rdquo; for Maine.&ldquo;He reminds me a lot of Minnesota&rsquo;s Neal Broten,&rdquo; McNab said. &ldquo;He will step in and be a real exciting, dominant player. He&rsquo;s tremendously talented.&rdquo;Kariya isn&rsquo;t big&mdash;5-foot-ll, 165-pounds&mdash;but he possesses exceptional puckhandling and passing skills. To make a smooth transition to college hockey, Kariya said he must improve his strength.&ldquo;I have to pass the puck a little harder and shoot more in certain situations,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The entire defensive aspect of my game must improve and I have to play the body more.&rdquo;An NCAA rule wouldn&rsquo;t allow Maine coach Shawn Walsh to comment on Kariya&rsquo;s decision.HOT DOGS: Boston University flourished early in the season, despite losing eight of its top 10 scorers from last season to graduation, the U.S. Olympic team or the NHL.The Terriers&mdash;who won the Hockey East championship a year ago and eventually lost to Northern Michigan in the NCAA title game (8-7 in triple overtime)&mdash;won their first four games. They haven&rsquo;t done that since 1983-84.BU picked up wins No. 3 and No. 4 with a sweep of the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association&mdash;4-3 Nov. 8 and 6-3 Nov. 9.&ldquo;They aren&rsquo;t dynamic with the puck because of the players they lost, but I was impressed with their work ethic and defense,&rdquo; Bulldogs&rsquo; coach Mike Sertich said.Offensive stars Tony Amonte (New York Rangers), &ldquo;Shawn McEachern (Team USA) and Keith Tkachuk (Team USA) are gone, but BU has compensated with solid defense, strong goaltending and balanced scoring.The defense-minded Terriers allowed only 10 goals in their first four games and no team had scored more than three goals against them in one game.Junior center David Sacco (two goals, eight points) and junior left winger Petteri Koskimaki (two goals, seven points) were the scoring leaders. But 13 players had one goal.STREAK SNAPPED: Lowell sophomore Mike Murray had a four-game goal-scoring streak snapped in a 5-2 loss to Clarkson Nov. 9. Murray had eight goals in his first four games&hellip;New Hampshire got off to a 5-0-0 start for the second consecutive season. &#9632;

Top-notch recruit Kariya becomes a Maine man

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>When Michigan Tech coach Newell Brown threw in the towel against the Wisconsin Badgers, he didn&rsquo;t expect to be reprimanded for it.But that&rsquo;s precisely what happened Nov. 9 at Dane County Memorial Auditorium.In the aftermath of a 3-2 overtime loss Nov. 9, Brown confronted referee Chick Yackel at the scorer&rsquo;s table and was assessed a game disqualification penalty, supposedly preventing him from coaching the second game the next night.Fortunately for Brown, WCHA commissioner Otto Breitenbach rescinded the penalty after fcivatemeetings with Brown and Yackel in which video tapes of the game were reviewed.Brown was incensed Yackel awarded Wisconsin a five-on-three power play in overtime. The advantage came when Brown reacted to an interference call against defenseman Liam Garvey by waving a towel and throwing it behind the team bench.Yackel gave Brown a bench minor for his actions. The Badgers eventually scored during a four-on-three man-advantage.&ldquo;The game was tight, emotions were high,&rdquo; the usually sedate Brown said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t say anything at all and I get a penalty for throwing a towel. If that&rsquo;s degrading an official, somebody better tell me about it.&rdquo;Things got worse for Brown the next night. The Huskies dropped a 4-3 decision in overtime when Wisconsin again scored on a five-on-three power play in the extra session.&ldquo;We must lead a charmed life,&rdquo; UW coach Jeff Sauer said.PENALTY ONSLAUGHT: How has the NCAA&rsquo;s clampdown on holding, hooking and interference penalties affected the WCHA?Just four weeks into the regular season, four teams&mdash;Minnesota, Northern Michigan, Colorado College and North Dakota&mdash;were on pace to break the Wisconsin Badgers&rsquo; penalty minute record (1,034) set in 1988-89.The Golden Gophers, the WCHA&rsquo;s most penalized team, were on pace to finish with 1,368 penalty minutes, 406 more than last season.Northern Michigan was the WCHA&rsquo;s most-penalized team last season with 993 PIM in 36 games&mdash;the second-highest total ever.Incidentally, the Montreal Canadiens finished with 1,423 PIM last season in 80 NHL games.NO SUSPENSION: Minnesota-Duluth senior right winger Kevin Kaiser was not suspended by the WCHA for his checking-from-behind penalty against Wisconsin senior Doug Macdonald Nov. 2. Macdonald suffered a severely-separated shoulder and will be out until mid-February. It was the second time Kaiser has knocked a player out of a game this year. He knocked Minnesota&rsquo;s John Brill unconscious in a game Oct. 18. &#9632;

Costly penalty throws usually sedate Brown for a loop

<div class="byline">By Matt Carlson</div>The time has come for an NCAA investigation at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.Why? Because the 1991-92 Redskins are: 1) doing a lousy job of impersonating past Miami teams; 2) using a new performance-enhancing substance; 3) illiterate; or, 4) don&rsquo;t read preseason predictions.Buoyed by 4-2 and 5-2 wins at Ferris State Nov. 8 and 9, Miami stretched its winning streak to five games, improved its overall record to 5-1-0 and moved into a first-place tie with Lake Superior in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association with a 4-0-0 league mark.Last season, the Redskins were 5-29-3 overall and 3-26-3 in conference play. They finished ninth last season and were projected to land in the CCHA cellar in 1991-92.Third-year coach George Gwozdecky attributed the early-season success to a new attitude in the program.&ldquo;This team has much better leadership,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re willing to work and sacrifice for each other. It also helps when your players are physically stronger and better-conditioned. The character kids are the majority now.&rdquo;Although Gwozdecky said the Redskins&rsquo; surprising start is a team effort, he singled out junior right winger Chris Bergeron (6-4-10) for his leadership.Gwozdecky has also been impressed with senior goaltender Mark Michaud (3-1-0, 5.03 goals-against average) and sophomore netminder Rich Shulmistra (2-0-0. 4.04 GAA).But the Redskins&rsquo; success was more in their new-found ability to score goals rather than prevent them. In league play last season, the Redskins scored just 78 goals in 32 games for an average of 2.44 per game. This season, they had 16 in four games for an average of four.&ldquo;Our offensive game has really been spread around,&rdquo; Gwozdecky said. &ldquo;All our players are contributing. I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;re a big offensive team, but I think we&rsquo;re going to score more goals than we did last year.&rdquo;WOLVES HOWLING: The Michigan Wolverines, touted as early-season contenders for the national title, cleared a major hurdle with successive wins over Minnesota Nov. 8 and 9.The Wolverines defeated the Western Collegiate Hockey Association&rsquo;s Gophers 7-3 in the first game and 7-6 the next night. Senior Denny Felsner led the Michigan attack with three goals and 10 points for the weekend.Felsner&rsquo;s linemates sophomore centerBrian Wiseman and sophomore right winger David Oliver&mdash;had productive weekends as well. Wiseman had two goals and seven points while Oliver had six goals and eight points. Oliver took CCHA player-of-the-week honors for his performance.SUPERIOR EFFORT; Lake Superior State split a home-and-home set with defending NCAA champion Northern Michigan of the WCHA. The Lakers lost their first game of the season, 4-1 at Marquette Nov. 7. They came back with an 8-1 win Nov. 9 at Sault Ste. Marie.The Bowling Green Falcons have been known for slow starts, but this year&rsquo;s 1-5-0 mark must have coach Jerry York especially worried. The reason? BG&rsquo;s goals-against average. In six games, the Falcons had allowed 41 goals, for an average of 6.83 per game&hellip;Notre Dame will join Kent State as new members of the 11-team CCHA next season. Notre Dame&rsquo;s application was approved. Nov. 11. &#9632;

Redskins jump out to lead

The Regina Cougars have given a lot of credence to the theory the best defense is a good offense.The Cougars led the Canada West Universities Athletic Association with a 6-1-1 record and 51 goals in their first eight games. The Cougars&rsquo; latest victims were the Calgary Dinosaurs, who had allowed only 15 goals in five games leading up to their two games against Regina Nov. 9 and 10.Led by Darrin McKechnie, Len Nielsenand Troy Edwards, Regina beat the previously-unbeaten Dinos 7-4 and 8-4.McKechnie led all CWUAA scorers with five goals and 18 points, while Nielsen and Edwards moved into a tie for second with 16 points.ADAM&rsquo;S HOT: Alberta&rsquo;s Adam Morrisonled the league with 11 goals in his first seven games. The fifth-year senior is in 10th place in CWUAA career goal-scoring with 69&hellip;The Manitoba Bisons and Brandon Bobcats had the second game of a home-and-home series suspended Nov. 10 after Bobcat goaltenders Wayne Labrieand Tom Dennis were injured in pre-game warmups.OUAA: The national-champion Trois-Rivieres Patriotes lost their first game since last February when the Waterloo Warriors defeated them 8-3 Nov. 10.Tyler Ertel had three goals for the Warriors, who improved to 5-2-0. The Patriotes dropped to 6-1-0.A day earlier, UQTR had handed Wilfrid Laurier its first loss, 7-5 at Waterloo.Benoit Gosselin led the Patriotes with three goals, pushing his total to 10.YEOMEN EFFORT: It was a rough weekend for Quebec-based teams. The York Yeomen handed the Concordia Stingers their first defeat, 6-3 Nov. 9. Shawn Betz and Todd Dungey each scored twice for the Yoemen, who won for the second time in five games&hellip;RMC had already doubled its win total of last season. The Redmen beat Brock 4-3 Nov. 10 for their second victory. It was RMC&rsquo;s first win at home in more than two years.AUAA: It&rsquo;s not that they were exactly struggling on the road, but the University of New Brunswick Red Devils were happy to finally home.The Devils opened a seven-game homestand by beating Cape Breton 5-1 Nov. 9 and St. Francis Xavier 8-4 the next day.The wins improved the Devils&rsquo; Atlantic Universities Athletic Association record to 6-2-0. The MacAdam Division leaders were five points up on the defending champion UPEI Panthers, who were 3-2-1 with two games in hand.After watching his team play five of its first six games on the road. Devils&rsquo; coach Mike Johnston said his team was eager to get back to the Canada Games Complex.&ldquo;Our objective initially was to get a 4-2 record so once we achieved that we were really looking forward to being at home,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;We know we play well here and it&rsquo;s easy for teams to come here. We&rsquo;re happy, but we&rsquo;re realistic. We know where we have to improve.&rdquo;A pleasant surprise has been the play of rookie right winger Trevor Boland, who had 10 goals in eight games.&mdash;With files from Robin Brownlee, Claude Scilley and Bruce Hallihan &#9632;

Cougars roaring with league’s best offense

<h2>STANDINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01854/6515659-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="976" height="919"></div><h2>OVERALL STANDINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02566/6515652-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="495" height="634"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03401/6515645-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="477" height="1097"></div><h2>OVERTIME RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04284/6515638-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="484" height="636"></div><h2>RESULTS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05223/6515631-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="465" height="1024"></div><h2>DIVISIONAL RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-06192/6515624-1-eng-US/f0028-062.jpg" title="f0028-06" width="524" height="795"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-07172/6515617-1-eng-US/f0028-072.jpg" title="f0028-07" width="914" height="1026"><figcaption class="caption-body">Detroit&rsquo;s Jimmy Carson, with 12 goals and 26 points, has quietly moved among the top ten scorers.</figcaption></div><h2>POWER PLAY</h2>(ADV)&mdash;TOTAL MAN ADVANTAGES; (PPG)- POWER-PLAY GOALS; (PCT)&mdash;POWER-PLAY GOALS DIVIDED BY TOTAL ADVANTAGES.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-08156/6515610-1-eng-US/f0028-082.jpg" title="f0028-08" width="449" height="627"></div><h2>TEAM PENALTIES</h2>(PIM)&mdash;TOTAL PENALTY MINUTES INCLUDING (BMI) BENCH PENALTY MINUTES; (AVG)&mdash;AVERAGE PENALTY MINUTES PER GAME.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-09145/6515603-1-eng-US/f0028-092.jpg" title="f0028-09" width="391" height="669"></div><h2>PENALTY KILLING</h2>(TSH)&mdash;TOTAL TIMES SHORTHANDED; (PPGA)&mdash;POWER-PLAY GOALS ALLOWED; (PCT)&mdash;PENALTY-KILLING PERCENTAGE.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-10139/6515596-1-eng-US/f0028-102.jpg" title="f0028-10" width="460" height="655"></div><h2>TOP SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-11133/6515589-1-eng-US/f0028-112.jpg" title="f0028-11" width="599" height="594"></div><h2>TOP DEFENSEMAN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-12126/6515582-1-eng-US/f0028-122.jpg" title="f0028-12" width="598" height="288"></div><h2>TOP ROOKIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-13116/6515575-1-eng-US/f0028-132.jpg" title="f0028-13" width="595" height="288"></div><h2>LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-14101/6515568-1-eng-US/f0028-142.jpg" title="f0028-14" width="603" height="1379"></div><h2>SCHEDULE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1595/6515561-1-eng-US/f0028-152.jpg" title="f0028-15" width="485" height="1198"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1677/6515554-1-eng-US/f0028-162.jpg" title="f0028-16" width="485" height="757"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-1761/6515547-1-eng-US/f0028-172.jpg" title="f0028-17" width="484" height="859"><figcaption class="caption-body">Theo Fleury</figcaption></div><h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01747/6515540-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="1013" height="1052"></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02479/6515533-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="1000" height="838"></div><h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-03305/6515526-1-eng-US/f0029-032.jpg" title="f0029-03" width="1000" height="715"></div><h2>CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-04217/6515519-1-eng-US/f0029-042.jpg" title="f0029-04" width="1003" height="119"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-05190/6515512-1-eng-US/f0029-052.jpg" title="f0029-05" width="1005" height="813"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-06155/6515505-1-eng-US/f0029-062.jpg" title="f0029-06" width="974" height="1291"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bobby Carpender has rebounded from a Carrer-threatening threatening injury with 13 points in 15 games.</figcaption></div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-07129/6515498-1-eng-US/f0029-072.jpg" title="f0029-07" width="999" height="737"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-08112/6515491-1-eng-US/f0029-082.jpg" title="f0029-08" width="1010" height="716"></div><h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-09104/6515484-1-eng-US/f0029-092.jpg" title="f0029-09" width="998" height="793"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1095/6515477-1-eng-US/f0029-102.jpg" title="f0029-10" width="1001" height="738"></div><h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-1189/6515470-1-eng-US/f0029-112.jpg" title="f0029-11" width="998" height="484"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01846/6515463-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="987" height="211"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02564/6515456-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="1001" height="707"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03386/6515449-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="997" height="659"></div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04273/6515442-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="1000" height="1117"></div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05199/6515435-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="1005" height="463"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-06162/6515428-1-eng-US/f0030-062.jpg" title="f0030-06" width="1009" height="398"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-07137/6515421-1-eng-US/f0030-072.jpg" title="f0030-07" width="973" height="1458"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pittsburgh made the right move by re-signing Kevin Stevens&mdash;who led the team with 12 goals and 30 points.</figcaption></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-08124/6515414-1-eng-US/f0030-082.jpg" title="f0030-08" width="991" height="752"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-09109/6515407-1-eng-US/f0030-092.jpg" title="f0030-09" width="1000" height="606"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1096/6515400-1-eng-US/f0030-102.jpg" title="f0030-10" width="1004" height="124"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1189/6515393-1-eng-US/f0030-112.jpg" title="f0030-11" width="1017" height="875"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1283/6515386-1-eng-US/f0030-122.jpg" title="f0030-12" width="1003" height="838"></div><h2>SAN JOSE SHARKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1378/6515379-1-eng-US/f0030-132.jpg" title="f0030-13" width="1014" height="827"></div><h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1473/6515372-1-eng-US/f0030-142.jpg" title="f0030-14" width="995" height="502"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01784/6515365-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="1005" height="335"></div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02512/6515358-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="997" height="509"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03370/6515351-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="999" height="200"></div><h2>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04279/6515344-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="988" height="661"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05228/6515337-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="995" height="851"></div> &#9632;

f0028-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<h2>TEAM-BY-TEAM</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-06190/6515711-1-eng-US/f0031-062.jpg" title="f0031-06" width="999" height="1058"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-07165/6515704-1-eng-US/f0031-072.jpg" title="f0031-07" width="991" height="1160"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-08142/6515697-1-eng-US/f0031-082.jpg" title="f0031-08" width="1004" height="411"></div><h2>LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-09124/6515690-1-eng-US/f0031-092.jpg" title="f0031-09" width="986" height="678"></div> &#9632;

f0031-06

GOALTENDING STATISTICS

<h2>AHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07235/6516102-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="601" height="1901"></div><h2>IHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08217/6516095-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="610" height="1895"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-09194/6516088-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="1181" height="1907"><figcaption class="caption-body">Guy Hebert is shouldering the load in Peoria this season. He played 13 of their 18 games with a 2.98 GAA. (Photo by Tim Parker)</figcaption></div><h2>ECHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-10189/6516081-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="583" height="1912"></div><h2>QMJHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01808/6516074-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="597" height="1554"></div><h2>WHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02590/6516067-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="604" height="1757"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03478/6516060-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="557" height="933"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Seguin</figcaption></div><h2>OHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04385/6516053-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="608" height="1537"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05324/6516046-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="555" height="833"><figcaption class="caption-body">Todd Holt</figcaption></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06296/6516039-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="587" height="1116"></div><h2>CCHA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07274/6516032-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="579" height="1036"></div><h2>WCHA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08245/6516025-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="589" height="1080"></div><h2>ECAC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09225/6516018-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="591" height="1226"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10198/6516011-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="550" height="874"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ed Sabo</figcaption></div><h2>AUAA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-11173/6516004-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="590" height="1171"></div><h2>OUAA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-12152/6515997-1-eng-US/f0035-122.jpg" title="f0035-12" width="590" height="1456"></div><h2>CWUAA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-13135/6515990-1-eng-US/f0035-132.jpg" title="f0035-13" width="588" height="1120"></div><h2>COLONIAL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-14115/6515983-1-eng-US/f0035-142.jpg" title="f0035-14" width="582" height="673"></div> &#9632;

f0034-07

SCOREBOARD

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01765/6516133-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jeremy Roenick embodies the key qualities Mike Keenan looks for in a player. Roenick is a self-starter and he&rsquo;ll do whatever it takes to get the job done. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/BBS)</figcaption></div>You heard during the Canada Cup when he elected to keep players such as Dirk Graham, Brent Sutter, Shayne Corson and Brendan Shanahan over Steve Yzerman, Adam Oates and Joe Sakic.And you&rsquo;ve heard it again amidst all the changes in Chicago as he has brought to the Blackhawks the likes of Sutter, Steve Smith and John Tonelli.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a Mike Keenan type of player,&rdquo; is the catch phrase.What exactly is a Mike Keenan type of player? The answer is quite simple. He likes winners. Guys who have won in the past and think of nothing else but doing it again.&ldquo;I like players who are committed, who work very hard at their game, who are team players, who sacrifice to win, and players who simply love playing the game of hockey,&rdquo; Keenan says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like players who don&rsquo;t want to work at getting better, that&rsquo;s the bottom line, I guess. I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s unlike any other coach.&rdquo;The recent acquisitions of Sutter from the Islanders and Smith from Edmonton, plus the off-season signing of free agent Tonelli, has added nine Stanley Cups to a Hawks&rsquo; dressing room that already included two players with Stanley Cup rings (Chris Chelios and Greg Gilbert).&ldquo;Go through our lineup now and almost every player has won something, or been in a winning situation,&rdquo; Keenan says. &ldquo;There are very few guys in the room who haven&rsquo;t won the Stanley Cup, Canada Cup, Turner Cup or Memorial Cup.&rdquo;In addition to the Stanley Cup winners, Steve Larmer, Graham, Ed Belfour and Michel Goulet all have been on Canada Cup winners. Four current Hawks were part of Indianapolis&rsquo; International League Turner Cup championship club in 1989-90.&ldquo;I like guys who like to handle pressure situations, who enjoy the playoffs more than any other time of the year,&rdquo; Keenan says. &ldquo;Yes, I think that was lacking here before.&rdquo;This is Keenan&rsquo;s fourth year behind the Chicago bench, but perhaps the first season in which he feels he has a team made up of his kind of players.Not to be overlooked in all of Keenan&rsquo;s wheelings and dealings since he became general manager in June of 1990 is that most of the veteran players he has acquired have a similar trait. Sutter, Smith, Tonelli, Chelios, Goulet, Gilbert and Steve Konroyd, as well as holdovers such as Larmer, Graham and Keith Brown&mdash;not to mention the iron-willed Jeremy Roenick&mdash;don&rsquo;t need to be constantly kicked in the pants to get them going.Associate coach Darryl Sutter has a name for the kind of players the Blackhawks are trying to accumulate. &ldquo;A professional player,&rdquo; Sutter says. &ldquo;We want players with the qualities necessary to win. There&rsquo;s a balance you&rsquo;ve got to find between skill and character. Skill is nothing without determination and character.&rdquo;Since July, the Hawks have traded some highly-skilled players in Doug Wilson, Dave Manson, Adam Creighton, Wayne Presley, Steve Thomas and Troy Murray. However, they were players whom the coaching staff felt couldn&rsquo;t get the club to the ultimate level of winning the Stanley Cup.&ldquo;A lot of what it takes to win and preparing yourself to win has to come from within an individual,&rdquo; Darryl Sutter says. &ldquo;We thought that was one of the things missing in our team. We weren&rsquo;t sure from night to night what we would get. And if you doubt the players you play with night after night, you&rsquo;re not going to win with them in the long run.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0036-01

Keenan’s master plan finally taking shape

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02533/6516171-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="399" height="509"></div>Is it proper for the chairman of the board of the NHL to knowingly enter into an agreement that violates the league by-laws?Is it okay for an NHL club to delude a player and his agent into thinking they have a no-trade clause?Is it prudent for the NHL executive office to veto no-trade clauses when it permits its member clubs to negotiate them?Is there anything to stop an NHL club from honoring the spirit of a no-trade agreement even though the league has struck it down?Is it possible a court of law, if asked, would rule a no-trade agreement between the club and player is legal even though the NHL has ruled otherwise?Is the NHL&rsquo;s no-trade policy a cheap facade?These are all valid questions, in light of the Toronto Star&rsquo;s disclosure Chicago Blackhawk owner William Wirtz, also NHL chairman of the board, signed a no-trade letter of agreement with his star player, center Jeremy Roenick in September.The agreement said Roenick could not be traded to the Quebec Nordiques until after July 1, 1993.Roenick, who signed a five-year, $5.05-million contract Sept. 27, was concerned he was going to be part of a package sent to Quebec for Nordique holdout draft pick Eric Lindros. Lindros&rsquo; future with Quebec will be clarified, at the latest, by June of 1993.&ldquo;The rumors were very hot at the time (September),&rdquo; said Neil Abbott, Roenick&rsquo;s Boston-based agent. &ldquo;Jeremy has no problem playing in Quebec. He just didn&rsquo;t want to sign a new contract that was predicated on his staying with Chicago and then find out the next day he&rsquo;d been traded.&rdquo;So now we know why Roenick and Abbott wanted a no-trade deal. Why did the Blackhawks agree to a clause that NHL vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill said: &ldquo;It is not allowed. It is a violation of the NHL by-laws and the Collective Bargaining Agreement.&rdquo;Hawk senior vice-president Bob Pulford, who negotiated the contract, knows NHL rules as well as anybody.&ldquo;We were pretty sure it wouldn&rsquo;t (get NHL approval),&rdquo; Pulford said of the no-trade clause. &ldquo;But we didn&rsquo;t tell them (Roenick and Abbott) that.&rdquo;No, they didn&rsquo;t. Not then. Not until Abbott, aroused by the impending story in The Star, called Pulford Nov. 14. Only then, almost seven weeks after signing the contract and more than a month after the league rejected it, did Pulford tell Abbott Roenick no longer had a no-trade clause in his contract.Abbott wasn&rsquo;t thrilled. But, publicly anyway, he adopted the party line. He&rsquo;d never admit it, but you can be sure he never expected the Hawks to file that aspect of the contract with the league. He, too, knows the league rules. From Roenick&rsquo;s end, this was undoubtedly supposed to be a discreet, under-the-table deal.The Hawks, then, acted correctly when they filed the illegal clause, right?Yes, according to O&rsquo;Neill, who said it is fine for a club to agree on an illegal clause and let the league play the heavy and reject it.But would a court of law agree? Wirtz and Roenick, supposedly in&mdash;good faith, signed a letter of agreement. It exists. Abbott has it in his files. If Roenick gets traded to Quebec tomorrow and Abbott shows up in court with that document, can you imagine the chaos?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03434/6516164-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="556" height="687"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian O&rsquo;Neill</figcaption></div>Unless, of course, the Blackhawks are perfectly willing to honor the spirit of the no-trade agreement. They have done their duty as good NHL citizens and sent the contentious clause to a higher authority for rejection. Absolved of any responsibility or wrongdoing, they can now honor it if they so choose and no one would ever be the wiser.The only way anyone will ever know if that isn&rsquo;t the case is if Chicago trades Roenick to Quebec before July 1, 1993.One final question.Wouldn&rsquo;t the NHL&rsquo;s no-trade policy be better served if it didn&rsquo;t permit its clubs to agree to them in any way, shape or form?The answer to that one, anyway, is rather obvious.Bob McKenzie is a hockey column for the Toronto Star. &#9632;

f0036-02

Tricks of no-trade cause for concern

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>The St. Louis Blues&rsquo; Green Beret line of Bob Bassen, Rich Sutter and Dave Lowry was one of the best checking lines in the NHL last season.Their fearless forechecking energized the Blues and played a large role in the team&rsquo;s success. But this season, coach Brian Sutter broke the line up and the team suffered as a result. The team&rsquo;s resurgence in mid-November wasn&rsquo;t solely due to the fact that Sutter reunited the trio, but the Green rets were a large reason for the Blues&rsquo; improved play.The Blues snapped a four-game losing streak by winning back-to-back games, 2-1 over Winnipeg Nov. 14 and 5-3 over Minnesota Nov. 16, before falling 5-1 to Chicago Nov. 17.The Green Berets had a lot to do with the two victories, with Dave Lowry and Rich Sutter breaking season-long goal-scoring slumps. Bassen assisted on both goals.&ldquo;Brian put us back together, and that&rsquo;s something all three of us were hoping for,&rdquo; Rich Sutter said. &ldquo;It was a matter of us getting our confidence back.&rdquo;NORWOOD RETURNS: Defenseman Lee Norwood celebrated his return to the Blues by scoring the game-winning goal in overtime in the Blues&rsquo; 2-1 victory over Winnipeg Nov. 14.&ldquo;Some guys sneak into to wn, some come in with a bang,&rdquo; Blues&rsquo; chairman Mike Shanahan said. &ldquo;Norwood At here just in time.&rdquo;Norwood arrived from Hartford in a trade for future considerations&mdash;a 1993 draft choice ranging from fourth to the eighth round depending on how many games Norwood plays. The Blues got him to add stability and experience at defense, but no one expected his immediate offensive contribution.Norwood, 31, was pleased to return to the Blues, who traded him to Detroit for Larry Trader in August, 1986. Norwood felt unwanted in New Jersey and Hartford.&ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t have the first inkling of what Lee Norwood was all about,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a nice situation to play somewhere where they&rsquo;ve seen what I Bthan do.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Winnipeg goalie Bob Essensa may have developed the formula for shutting out Brett Hull.Essensa stopped 11 Hull shots Nov. 14, giving him 24 saves and no goals against in two games versus the Golden Brett. &ldquo;Unbelieveable,&rdquo; Hull gushed. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll have nightmares about this guy. I&rsquo;d like to think he was at his best. If he wasn&rsquo;t, I&rsquo;m in trouble.&rdquo;&hellip;Left winger Brendan Shanahan scored his third disallowed goal of the season in the Blues&rsquo; 5-3 victory over Minnesota Nov. 16 because of the NHL&rsquo;s new goalcrease rule. Garth Butcher was penalized for being in the crease, although he wasn&rsquo;t interfering with goalie Jon Casey. &ldquo;This rule (stinks) for me,&rdquo; Shanahan said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m usually right around the net when I score. I don&rsquo;t score from the outside. They&rsquo;re legitimate goals. The new rule makes it tough for me.&rdquo;The Blues lost Round 1 of the Great Sutter Shootout, falling 5-1 to Chicago Nov. 17 in the first game between the teams with a full accompanyment of Sutters on both sides. The loss was hard for the Blues&rsquo; Sutters. &ldquo;It upsets you even more,&rdquo; Rich Sutter said.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 13: Lee Norwood, D, acquired from Hartford for future considerations.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Adam Oates, Ron Sutter, Bob Bassen, Ron Wilson, Michel Mongeau.LW&mdash;Gino Cavallini, Brendan Shanahan, Dave Lowry, Dave Christian.RW&mdash;Brett Hull, Nelson Emerson, Rich Sutter, Darin Kimble, Kelly Chase.LD&mdash;Lee Norwood. Murray Baron, Mario Marois, Rob Robinson.RD&mdash;Jeff Brown, Rick Zombo, Garth Butcher. Dominic Lavoie.G&mdash;Curtis Joseph, Pat Jablonski.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Paul Cavallini, D, sprained left knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

Reunited Green Berets march to the rescue

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>Many players would be thrilled with a point-per-game pace after a quarter of a season. But for Steve Larmer it was considered a sluggish start.Larmer&rsquo;s numbers weren&rsquo;t bad (12 goals and 22 points in 22 games), but at his pace the right winger would end up with 80 points, his lowest output since he had 76 points in 1984-85. Larmer finished with a career-high 101 points on 44 goals and 57 assists last season.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t played a good game all year,&rdquo; Larmer said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been terrible. I&rsquo;m making too many mental mistakes. I&rsquo;m trying to force plays and hit home runs instead of singles.&rdquo;Larmer was almost believing people who said he was suffering a let down following the high of playing for Team Canada in the Canada Cup.-Larmer was one of Canada&rsquo;s heroes, finishing second to Wayne Gretzky in scoring and getting the game-wining goal in the Cup-clinching win over the U.S.&ldquo;I tried to forget about the Canada Cup as soon as&rsquo;it was over, but everybody keeps bringing it up as a reason why we&rsquo;re not playing well,&rdquo; Larmer said. &ldquo;If there has been a letdown, it&rsquo;s not an excuse. If anything, the Canada Cup should help us.&rdquo;The No. 1 line of Larmer, Jeremy Roenick and Michel Goulet has struggled, drawing criticism from the coaching staff for playing without enough emotion.YAWNEY RETURNS: Tired of sitting around waiting to be trade defenseman Trent Yawney ended his six-week holdout Nov. 16 by reporting to the Hawks&rsquo; farm team in Indianapolis of the International League.Yawney walked out Oct. 8 in a dispute with Mike Keenan over playing time. Yawney vowed he would never again play for the Hawks, but hoped his reporting to Indy will hasten a trade. &ldquo;If they call me up I&rsquo;ll go,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just want to play again.&rdquo;Keenan didn&rsquo;t think Yawney would be back with the Hawks.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve learned to never say never, but it&rsquo;s unlikely he will,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t really want to play for the Blackhawks.&rdquo;The Hawks were reportedly a deals for wingers Rob Brown of Hartford and Daniel Marois of Toronto.NOTEBOOK: Back-to-back shutouts by Ed Belfour Nov. 10 against Hartford (3-0) and Nov. 14 against Toronto (3-0) were the first by a Hawks&rsquo; goalie since Tony Esposito edid it in 1974. In his first six staroafter ending his holdout, Belfour was 3-2-1 with a 1.84 goals-against average. &ldquo;The relationship between the goalie and the team is so much different with Eddie in there,&rdquo; Mike Keenan said. &ldquo;Nothing against Jimmy Waite, but the team just plays back on its heels more when he&rsquo;s in. They sometimes over-emphasize defense, but with Eddie, they&rsquo;re more confident he&rsquo;ll make that big save&hellip;Steve Smith was awaiting the result of his his Nov. 11 salary arbitration hearing. Smith was believed to be asking roughly $800,000 a season. The Hawks were offering approximately $550,000.Steve Larmer got his 800th care point Nov. 16 at Toronto&hellip;Michel Goulet&rsquo;s goal Nov. 14 against Toronto snapped a nine-game drought.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 11: Brad Lauer. LW, assigned to Indianapolis (IHL). Nov. 16: Trent Yawney, D, reported to Indianapolis.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Jeremy Roenick, Brent Sutter, Mike Hudson, Mike Stapleton.LW&mdash;Michel Goulet, Greg Gilbert, John Tonelli, Mike Peluso, Stu Grimson.RW&mdash;Steve Larmer, Dirk Graham, Brian Noonan, Jocelyn Lemieux.LD&mdash;Steve Smith, Steve Konroyd, Frank Kucera, Karl Dykhuis.RD&mdash;Chris Chelios. Bryan Marchment Keith Brown, Rod Buskas.G&mdash;Ed Belfour, Jimmy Waite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Mr. Consistency has been consistently bad

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>With the present not looking very good, the Toronto Maple Leafs decided to take a look at the future.And it looks bright, at least in goal, thanks to young goalie Felix Potvin. The 20-year-old was summoned from St. John&rsquo;s of the American League Nov. 13 after Grant Fuhr suffered a groin injury in a 7-0 loss to Minnesota the night before.Potvin made his NHL debut Nov. 14 in Chicago Stadium after backup Jeff Reese went down with the flu. Potvin&mdash;nicknamed The Cat&mdash;was spectacular in his debut, stopping 37 shots in a 3-0 loss. Two nights later he blocked 29 shots as the Leafs tied Chicago 2-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens. He put on another solid display the next night, stopping 40-shots in a 3-1 loss to Hartford.In three starts, Potvin stopped 96 of 103 shots for a .932 save percentage and a 2.28 goals-against average. The only thing he didn&rsquo;t do was pick up a win.Despite his efforts, Potvin was returned to St. John&rsquo;s Nov. 18 after Fuhr was declared healthy.Potvin was Toronto&rsquo;s second choice, 31st overall, in the 1990 draft. He displayed quick feet and an excellent glove hand an his three starts.&ldquo;Usually when a young goalie gets his first chance, he&rsquo;s all excited and tries to do too much&mdash;and be too spectacular,&rdquo; defenseman Dave Ellett said. &ldquo;What I really like about Felix is how calm and cool he is out there.&rdquo;INJURY WOES: Over the course of eight days, the Maple Leafs were hammered by a monsoon-like storm of injuries.Not only did the club fail to record a win&mdash;the Leafs went 0-4-1 during that span&mdash;but it lost five top players in the process.First, defenseman Michel Petit suffered a badly-bruised right thumb in a 6-1 loss to Calgary Nov. 9. The next day, center Brian Bradley went down in an optional practice with a badly-sprained right ankle.Goalie Grant Fuhr was next, suffering a strained groin in a 7-0 loss Nov. 12 in Minnesota. Two nights later in Chicago, Peter Zezel, was felled with a sprained right knee. Defenseman Dave Ellett rounded out the list after suffering a bruised right foot in a 2-2 tie at home Nov. 16 against Chicago.Wendel Clark, meanwhile, tried skating Nov. 11 but found his left knee had not sufficiently healed. He was expected to be out until the end of November.NOTEBOOK: The Leafs recalled forwards Todd Hawkins and Mike Eastwood, and defenseman Len Esau from St. John&rsquo;s to help deal with the injury crisis. Hawkins, Esau and Felix Potvin were sent back Nov. 18.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for the Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 13: Felix Potvin, G, recalled from St. John&rsquo;s (AHL). Nov. 15: Todd Hawkins, RW, and Mike Eastwood, C. recalled from St. John s. Nov. 17: Len Esau. D, recalled from St. John&rsquo;s Nov. 18: Esau, Hawkins and Potvin assigned to St. John&rsquo;s.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Bullard, Tom Fergus. Mike Krushelnyski, Dave Hannan, Mike EastwoodLW&mdash;Craig Berube. Daniel Marois, Claude Loiselle, Rob Cimetta.RW&mdash;Gary Leeman, Mike Foligno, Glenn Anderson, Rob Pearson, Lucien Deblois, Todd Hawkins.LD&mdash;Darryl Shannon, Bob Halkidis. Len Esau.RD&mdash;Bob Rouse, Todd Gill, Alexander Godynyuk.G&mdash;Jeff Reese. Felix Potvin.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brian Bradley, C. sprained right ankle, indefinite. Wendel Clark. LW, sprained left knee. Nov. 30. Dave Ellett, D, bruised right foot, day-to-day Grant Fuhr, G, pulled groin, day-to-day. Michel Petit. D, bruised right thumb, day-to-day. Peter Zezel, C, sprained right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

Potvin the cat’s meow during brief Leaf call-up

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>Off the ice they&rsquo;re like Oscar Madison and Felix Unger. But on the ice, the Red Wings&rsquo; defensive tandem of Brad McCrimmon and NiklasLidstrom is a marriage made in heaven.McCrimmon is the veteran known as &ldquo;Sarge&rdquo; by his teammates for his barking enthusiasm. Lidstrom is the quiet youngster who Wderstandsrookies are best seen and not heard.After the first quarter of the season, they were arguably the best blue-line tandem in the NHL. They were tied for first in the league with a plus-minus rating of plus-16 and Lidstrom led all rookies in scoring with three goals and 19 points.McCrimmon is no stranger to success. He has been the straight man in this act before as the defensive specialist paired with the gifted offensive star. In Philadelphia six years ago, McCrimmon finished at plus-83 while his partner, Mark Howe, keyed the offense and finished with plus-85. In Calgary three seasons ago, McCrimmon was plus-43 while paired with young gunner Gary Suter to help the Flames win the Stanley Cup.Now McCrimmon tutors Lidstrom, and he Wsbeen impressed. Privately, he said the 21-year-old Swede reminds him a lot of Mark Howe. Publicly, McCrimmon downplayed such a comparison, though he didn&rsquo;t deny Lidstrom&rsquo;s instincts and offensive abilities are similar to Howe&rsquo;s in his prime.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01718/6516298-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="709" height="643"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brad McCrimmon is used to playing the straight man on defense.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good player.&rdquo; McCrimmon said. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t want to compare him to Mark Howe or anybody. I hate that stuff and it&rsquo;s not fair to any young player. To me, he&rsquo;s the next NiklasLidstrom.&rdquo;YZERMAN BEWILDERED: Steve Yzerman was searching for answers in the midst ofone of the most prolonged slumps of his career. But he may have found some after a trip to sunny Los Angeles.For weeks, Wings&rsquo; coach-general manager. Bryan Murray had been downplaying Yzerman&rsquo;s scoring lull, telling the 26-year-old captain to relax and try to get enjoyment out of the game.&ldquo;I told him, &lsquo;Steve, you&rsquo;re not having any fun, and it shows,&rsquo;&rdquo; Murray said.Said Yzerman: &ldquo;I have fun when I&rsquo;m playing well. This is a bit embarrassing.&rdquo;But Yzerman had fun against the Kings Nov. 16. He scored two goals&mdash;including the game-winner shorthanded&mdash;and assisted on another in a 5-3 win.The victory concluded a three-game western road trip in which the Wings went 2-0-1 and extended their unbeaten streak to five games (4-0-1).Until the L.A. game, Yzerman had made a significant contribution to the offense just once in his previous 13 games. He had a goal and an assist to lead the Wings to a come-from-behind win at Washington Nov. 8.NOTEBOOK: Goaltender Vince Riendeau will be out of the lineup until early December. Riendeau&rsquo;s right knee&mdash;which he injured in his first start as a Wing Oct. 25&mdash;was healing slower than expected&hellip;Tim Cheveldae was the&rsquo; NHL&rsquo;s busiest goaltender after 21 games. He played all but 58 of the 1,273 minutes the Wings played.Right winger Troy Crowder made significant progress after six weeks of therapy on his aching back. Crowder was expected to begin practising in early December.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 11: Sheldon Kennedy, RW. assigned to Adirondack (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Steve Yzerman, Jimmy Carson, Sergei Fedorov, Alan Kerr.LW&mdash;Gerard Gallant, Kevin Miller, Shawn Burr, Brian MacLellan, Johan Garpenlov.RW&mdash;Bob Probert, Ray Sheppard, Paul Ysebaert, Brent Fedyk.LD&mdash;NiklasLidstrom, Vladimir Konstantinov, Yves Racine.RD&mdash;Brad McCrimmon, Brad Marsh, Dennis Vial. Doug Crossman.G&mdash;Tim Cheveldae, Dave Gagnon.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Steve Chiasson. D, sprained right ankle, day-to-day. Troy Crowder. RW. bulging disc in back, indefinite Bobby Dollas, D. strained abdominal muscle, Nov. 25. Martin Lapointe, RW. fractured left hand, indefinite. Vincent Riendeau, sprained right knee. Dec. 5. &#9632;

f0039-01

Odd couple of defensemen play

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01238/6516329-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg" title="C0004-01" width="566" height="785"></div>Goaltender Bob Essensa of the Winnipeg Jets, who compiled a 3-1-0 record, 1.23 goals-against-average and 964 save percentage, was named Pro Set Player of the Week for the period ending November 17. Essensa, who made 40- or-more saves in two of four games, edged right winger Ray Sheppard of the Detroit Red Wings and a pair of goaltenders&mdash;Ed Belfour of the Chicago Black-hawks and the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; Kirk McLean&mdash;to capture the award.Throughout the 1991-92 NHL season, Pro Set, Inc. will donate $600 to the youth hockey organization designated by the Player of the Week. Pro Set will also contribute $1,200 on behalf of the Player of the Month and $8,500 for the Player of the Year Award. Entering its second season as sponsor of these NHL awards, Pro Set is contributing over $56,000 to youth hockey organizations across North America.Essensa opened the week by handling 22 of 24 shots as the Jets defeated Los Angeles 6-2 Nov. 11. On November 14 the Jets opened a three-game road trip in St. Louis, where Essensa blocked 41 of 43 shots in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Blues. The 26-year-old native of Toronto then led the Jets to a pair of road wins over Patrick Division opponents, stopping all 40 shots in 1-0 shutout win at New Jersey Nov. 16 and turning aside 31 of 32 shots the next night in Winnipeg&rsquo;s 2-1 win at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.Sheppard led all NHL scorers with eight points (4-4-8) in three games. Belfour posted a 2-0-1 record, including one shutout, and a 0.97 goals-against average, while McLean also registered a 2-0-1 mark and one shutout, recording a 1.30 goals-against average. &#9632;

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November 29, 1991

New prop helps out old Propp

UPDATE

Issue of fairness raised in Flame case

NHL SUMMARIES