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.

December 6, 1991

The Hockey News December 6, 1991

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>The Edmonton Oilers are in desperate need of scoring punch.After back-to-back shutout losses to Montreal and Winnipeg, the Oilers had gone 128 minutes and 26 seconds without a goal.Getting shut out 1-0 in the Montreal Forum Nov. 18 by the suffocating Habs&rsquo; defense is one thing.But being blanked 4-0 by the Winnipeg Jets, on home ice and in front of a friendly crowd, is quite another.Jets&rsquo; goalie Bob Essensa stopped 36 shots Nov. 23 for his third consecutive shutout win at Northlands. He blanked the Oilers 1-0 in overtime and 3-0 last season.&ldquo;We shot the puck lots and Essensa played well in the net,&rdquo; EsaTikkanen said.&ldquo;Two games, no goals, that&rsquo;s not good. We have to get going.&rdquo;Coming off a disastrous 1-4-1, 13day road swing, the Oilers talked about the fact they had played 15 road games against just seven at home and they couldn&rsquo;t be fairly judged on their 7-12-3 overall record.Sure, but you have to win the home games to make that stand up to scrutiny and they responded with a brutal effort against Winnipeg.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s not good enough,&rdquo; said Tikkanen, one of the players the Oilers are looking to for production. &ldquo;We have to put out everything we have.&ldquo;It has gone too far. We don&rsquo;t have excuses anymore. We need 20 guys playing the game.&rdquo;In Montreal, the Habs shut down the middle of the ice and the Oilers got off just 12 shots.That&rsquo;s only one more than the team low set Oct. 20, 1989 in a loss to the Boston Bruins.TOUGH GAME: One bad case of stage fright couldn&rsquo;t keep Steven Rice out of the NHL.Rice, obtained from New York in the Mark Messier deal Oct. 4, played well in the American League in Cape Breton (10 goals and 14 points in 11 games) and got the call to Edmonton Nov. 18.When the Oilers sent scout Harry Howell to check on Rice&rsquo;s progress, the 20-year-old right winger played the worst game of his farm stint.Rice was assigned to the AHL team to get back in shape after rehabilitating from a shoulder separation.&ldquo;I heard all the guys saying the scout&rsquo;s here,&rdquo; Rice said. &ldquo;First period I had two giveaways. I just lost it after that. I panicked.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t have any confidence. The second game was okay.&rdquo;But he did enough to get himself into the NHL, something he wasn&rsquo;t sure would happen so soon.&ldquo;It was pretty tough at first,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was scared of not being brought back. Even though they said, &lsquo;Go get in shape, get your shoulder ready,&rsquo; it was still tough and I was worried.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Craig MacTavish played his 421st consecutive game Nov. 23 against Winnipeg, breaking bKevin Lowe&rsquo;s team record of 420.Coach Ted Green moved Craig Simpson to center from left wing and encouraged him to carry the puck, something Simpson said former coach John Muckier discouraged him from doing.Defenseman Norm Maciver, coveted by Canadian Olympic team coach Dave King, played in just one of the Oilers&rsquo; first 23 games but had no desire to play in the Olympics.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 18: Steven Rice, RW, recalled from Cape Breton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Craig Simpson, Craig MacTavish, Josef Beranek, Mark Lamb, Scott Thornton.LW&mdash;Esa Tikkanen, Martin Gelinas, Vince Damphousse, Kelly Buchberger, Troy Mallette, Louie DeBrusk.RW&mdash;Joe Murphy, Scott Mellanby, Petr Klima, Steven Rice, Anatoli Semenov.LD&mdash;Kevin Lowe, Geoff Smith, Luke Richardson, Norm Maciver.RD&mdash;Craig Muni, Dave Manson, David Shaw.G&mdash;Bill Ranford, Peter Ing.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

Offensive shortcomings nearing crisis point

<div class="byline">By Vance Oliver</div>Talk about a reversal of fortune.Greg Kvisle. general manager of the Western League&rsquo;s Moose Jaw Warriors, stepped behind the bench Nov. 16 to lend support to first-year coach Mike Babcock. Kvisle&rsquo;s next step was out the door.The dual coaching system had lost back-to-back games and Babcock apparently was not comfortable having his coaching authority usurped. When the Warriors announced a media conference Nov. 19, all indications pointed to Kvisle firing Babcock.But surprisingly it was Kvisle who offered his resignation to the Warriors&rsquo; board of governors.A When a team isn&rsquo;t going good. I guess your first option is to fire the coach,&rdquo; Kvisle said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think that was the problem. I felt Mike had a lot of pressure. Rather than put even more pressure on him, I just tried to support him.&rdquo;The Warriors had fallen to seventh place in the East Division with an 8-14-2 record and had only one win and one tie in a 12-game stretch.Babcock assumes control of the Warriors&rsquo; hockey operations until the board of governors decides what to do next.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m relieved I&rsquo;m able to do things the way I wanted instead of the way he wanted,&rdquo; Babcock said. &ldquo;A general manager is pressured into some things and you have to be willing to sit back and believe the guy you hired will do the job. That wasn&rsquo;t the case with Greg.&rdquo;EARLY RETURN: The early verdict on Soviet import Valeri Bure with the Spokane Chiefs?He scored a goal and assist in a 4-4 tie against the Lethbridge Hurricanes Nov. 13 and indicated there are good games ahead. The younger brother of the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; Pavel Bure, had two goals and three assists in three games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s small and shifty,&rdquo; Hurricanes&rsquo; GM Bob Bartlett said. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;ve seen his brother Pavel play, he&rsquo;s a carbon copy.&rdquo;Bartlett, however, supports the Canadian Hockey League&rsquo;s recent policy restricting the import of European players. Teams with larger budgets, he said, would profit from such a situation, since they would be able to send scouts to Europe.So what does he make of his own Czechoslovakian import, Radek Sip?&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a different situation,&rdquo; Bartlett said. &ldquo;He was already in the country (playing Tier II hockey at the time). I know we can&rsquo;t afford too many trips to Czechoslovakia.&rdquo;NUMBERS GAME: Saskatoon Blades&rsquo; goalie Trevor Robins has lowered his numbers this season.Not only has he exchanged his No. 35 jersey for No. 1, but his goals-against average has dropped from 4.69 last season to 2.81 in 24 games this season. He was second in WHL goaltending behind Spokane&rsquo;s Scott Bailey.&ldquo;I had decent seasons with No. 35,&rdquo; the three-year WHL veteran said. &ldquo;But I thought maybe a change would help. Things have worked out great, but I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s the number. The guys are working a lot harder defensively.&rdquo;Numbers aside, Robins has improved his play. He doesn&rsquo;t jack-knife to make a spectacular save anymore. Instead, he covers his angles.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re not seeing that spectacular move all the time because he&rsquo;s playing very well postionwise,&rdquo; Blades&rsquo; coach Lorne Molieken said. &#9632;

Kvisle steps in to assist, then out the door

<div class="image-hero"><img title="C0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01235/6279675-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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<h2>STANDINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01792/6278890-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="990" height="953"></div><h2>OVERALL STANDINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-02545/6278883-1-eng-US/f0032-022.jpg" title="f0032-02" width="517" height="618"></div><h2>OVERTIME RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-03375/6278876-1-eng-US/f0032-032.jpg" title="f0032-03" width="495" height="631"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-04251/6278869-1-eng-US/f0032-042.jpg" title="f0032-04" width="463" height="1107"><figcaption class="caption-body">Michal Pivonka</figcaption></div><h2>RESULTS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-05180/6278862-1-eng-US/f0032-052.jpg" title="f0032-05" width="501" height="1050"></div><h2>DIVISIONAL RECORDS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-06148/6278855-1-eng-US/f0032-062.jpg" title="f0032-06" width="522" height="783"></div><h2>TEAM PENALTIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-07123/6278848-1-eng-US/f0032-072.jpg" title="f0032-07" width="415" height="775"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-08109/6278841-1-eng-US/f0032-082.jpg" title="f0032-08" width="880" height="1023"><figcaption class="caption-body">Getting three points in a 5-5 tie with Philadelphia helped Claude Lemieux crack the top 20 scorers.</figcaption></div><h2>POWER PLAY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-0993/6278834-1-eng-US/f0032-092.jpg" title="f0032-09" width="467" height="761"></div><h2>PENALTY KILLING</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1086/6278827-1-eng-US/f0032-102.jpg" title="f0032-10" width="454" height="768"></div><h2>TOP SCORERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1174/6278820-1-eng-US/f0032-112.jpg" title="f0032-11" width="615" height="548"></div><h2>TOP DEFENSEMEN</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1269/6278813-1-eng-US/f0032-122.jpg" title="f0032-12" width="613" height="297"></div><h2>TOP ROOKIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1364/6278806-1-eng-US/f0032-132.jpg" title="f0032-13" width="608" height="264"></div><h2>LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1459/6278799-1-eng-US/f0032-142.jpg" title="f0032-14" width="615" height="1512"></div><h2>SCHEDULE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1553/6278792-1-eng-US/f0032-152.jpg" title="f0032-15" width="485" height="1130"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1738/6278785-1-eng-US/f0032-172.jpg" title="f0032-17" width="475" height="923"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-1650/6278778-1-eng-US/f0032-162.jpg" title="f0032-16" width="430" height="787"><figcaption class="caption-body">Niklas Lidstrom</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011392/6277372-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="367" height="359"></div><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021135/6277365-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="36" height="35">Bruce McNall and Wayne Gretzky: No Stanley Cup yet, but the Toronto Argo owners won a Grey Cup.<img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03825/6277358-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="36" height="32">Manon Rheaume: The 19-year-old made history by becoming first female to dress for a major junior game.<img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04601/6277351-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="31" height="34">Flames and Canucks: Home-and-home series Nov. 21-22 was black and blue, and ugly, too.<img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05438/6277344-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="36" height="36">AHL&rsquo;s Atlantic Division: Only one team&mdash;the Cape Breton Oilers&mdash;was playing above .500.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06317/6277337-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="363" height="355"></div> &#9632;

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CHEERS & JEERS

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-07203/6277434-1-eng-US/f0002-072.jpg" title="f0002-07" width="379" height="498"></div>The 1992 entry draft is not generating as much excitement as the following year&rsquo;s among scouts.Many are saying 1993 will bring the best draft in years.At least six 16-year-olds have emerged as premier prospects. Tops among them is Chris Gratton of Kingston (Ontario League), a 6-foot-3 center who is wowing scouts with his high-level skills and hard work.He is joined by: Ashley Buckberger, a 6-foot-2 right winger with Swift Current (Western League); Alexandre Daigle, a 6-foot center with Victoriaville (Quebec League); Paul Kariya, a 5-foot-11 center with Penticton (British Columbia Jr. League); Rob Niedermayer, a 6-foot-1 center with Medicine Hat (WHL); and Chris Pronger, a 6-foot-5 defenseman with Peterborough (OHL).Pronger was the only one invited to try out for the team that will represent Canada at the World Jr. Championships. No Americans or Europeans have risen to prominence yet but be assured some will during the next 19 months.Oh, yeah, and about the 1994 entry draft&hellip;Remember these two names&mdash;defenseman Brad Brown of North Bay (OHL) and center Jeff O&rsquo;Neill of Thornhill (Metro Toronto Junior League).Both are 15, right shots and eligible in three summers.As of Nov. 25, Kevin Stevens was on pace to win the scoring title with 124 points. Should that happen, it would be the lowest Art Ross championship total since 1969-70 when Bobby Orr placed first with 120 points during a 76-game schedule.More relevant than Mark Messier&rsquo;s off-ice numbers (including Madonna&rsquo;s and endless salary speculation) are those recorded on the ice. Most surprising is his goal total.He had just 21 in 91 regular-season and playoff games before scoring three times against Vancouver Nov. 19. Among them was his 400th career goal.Messier has been hampered by a long-term wrist injury. He has never been a pure goal-scorer but has had seasons of 50, 48 and 45 goals. With eight goals in 23 games. Messier was on pace for 27 goals this season.The best players (now) aged 21 or under in the NHL are, in alphabetical order, Tony Amonte, Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov, Jaromir Jagr, Niklas Lidstrom, Trevor Linden. Mike Modano, Owen Nolan, Felix Potvin (for three games, anyway), Robert Reichel, Mike Ricci, Jeremy Roenick and Mats Sundin.If I had my choice, I would take Roenick first, Potvin second and Fedorov third.Rookie defenseman Danny Lambert scored his first NHL goal in Quebec&rsquo;s 5-2 victory over Montreal Nov. 21.It wasn&rsquo;t a shot for the ages. It wasn&rsquo;t even one for goalie Roland Melanson until the puck hit a seam in the side boards glass and caromed into an empty Montreal net.Melanson had vacated the net to play the shoot-in.The following day, Lambert spoke with Graham James, his former coach in Swift Current. Lambert customarily went coast to coast when he played in the WHL.&ldquo;Was it an end-to-end rush?&rdquo; James asked of the milestone goal.&ldquo;No, it was more like end over end,&rdquo; Lambert said. &#9632;

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Everybody is waiting for 1993 entry draft

<div class="byline">By Al Morganti Senior Writer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011545/6277465-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Propp&rsquo;s Minnesota North Stars have bucked a league-wide trend and attracted more fans this season than last. (Photo by Tim Parker)</figcaption></div>The biggest success story in the NHL during the past decade has been less the work of its scorers than its supporters. In fact, the Hart Trophy for league MVP should not have gone to the Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier and Brett Hull over the past 10 seasons. It should have been chopped up into millions of little pieces and handed out to the hockey fans packing the buildings.No matter what criticism you could level at the NHL, league officials could always look at attendance figures and point out the buildings were full. More than that, they were full of people paying premium prices for tickets. (See page 6 for survey of ticket prices.)&ldquo;Going back to the &rsquo;70s, we have always been a high-priced ticket,&rdquo; says NHL president John Ziegler, always look at our ticket prices comparable to the theater. We&rsquo;ve always been in that range, sometimes a little ahead, sometimes a little behind.&rdquo;Ziegler is fond of comparing hockey to theater. However, if the prices go much higher, the NHL might find its productions are more like Phantoms in the Stands than Phantom of the Opera. Television revenues are paramount in other sports but in hockey, it&rsquo;s the fans&mdash;the people who actually show up and watch the games&mdash;who pay the way.That dependency on live gates makes the NHL vulnerable when major changes occur inside and outside the game. Two extraordinary pressures have come to bear on the league in recent times: player salaries have increased dramatically and recessionary times have struck North America. As a result, ticket prices have increased, at least in part to offset higher salaries; and the ability of fans to buy tickets has decreased because of hard times.&ldquo;You would think that a family man, who all of a sudden isn&rsquo;t getting regular overtime, or whatever, would start to think twice about spending this kind of money for a game,&rdquo; says Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; GM Mike Smith. &ldquo;The tickets are high, yes. But in this league, that&rsquo;s where we get the income. How high can they go before we feel it at the gate? I think we&rsquo;ve already started to feel it.&rdquo;Ziegler says attendance during the first month of the season was down &ldquo;about one per cent&rdquo; from 1990-91. A Hockey News survey of unofficial game summaries through 207 games (as of Nov. 16) found something different&mdash;average attendance was actually up, from 15,166 last season to 15,194 this season. More revealing, however, is that 15 of 21 teams recorded drops from 1990-91. The greatest losses were suffered by the New York Islanders, Jets and Hartford Whalers&mdash;all of whom were down more than 1,000 fans per game.The league, as a whole, registered an increase strictly because of the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; rise from the dead. Unofficially, the Stars attracted 56,954 more fans to their first nine home games this year than last. Drops in attendance ranged from as little as 279 over 10 games for the Quebec Nordiques to as much as 22,187 over nine games for the Islanders. However small some may be, any fall-off is a concern in a league driven by gate receipts.&ldquo;The way we have to look at seats now is like inventory.&rdquo; says New York Rangers&rsquo; GM Neil Smith. &ldquo;If there are empty seats in the building, it&rsquo;s like spoiled inventory. We just lose that inventory. And the way (player) salaries are going, who can afford that?&rdquo;The eastern North American economy has been hardest hit during the recession because of plunging real estate values. That has caused a downward spiral for companies with large real estate holdings in their portfolios. Exhibit A: Colonial Realty, which owns 37 per cent of the Whalers, has filed for voluntary bankruptcy.Ziegler says the league was on the cusp of 90 per-cent capacity last season and adds it is unreasonable to expect the NHL can maintain an upward spiral that begain in the early 1980s. Maybe so, but there are some people who are worried. And those worries are based on concerns the NHL has hit a triple witching hour: a weakened economy, rapidly escalating salaries and shrinkage of TV money. The league&rsquo;s new contract with SportsChannel America is a one-year, $5.5 million extension of a deal that paid it $17.5 million a year for three seasons.&ldquo;One of the solutions, at least part of the solution (to paying increased salaries) has been to go to the ticketbuyer,&rdquo; says Canucks&rsquo; president Pat Quinn. &ldquo;There has to be some resistance to the kinds of increases we&rsquo;re forced to put on the tickets to meet costs.&rdquo;The war cry that increased salaries have led to lofty ticket prices will be heard often over the next few months while the NHL Players&rsquo; Association and NHL negotiate a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Yet, it&rsquo;s absurd to suggest the NHL is losing money with a one percent shrinkage in attendance. Ticket-price hikes and the advent of specialty seating and super boxes can be counted on to cover a percentage of potential losses. In fact, the latter can contribute to drops in attendance because general admission seats are sometimes sacrificed to make room for super boxes. These luxury accommodations are not necessarily a panacea, however.&ldquo;You can talk super boxes all you want,&rdquo; says one GM, &ldquo;but if the seats aren&rsquo;t full beneath them, what&rsquo;s the big attraction of a super box? People want to be in those boxes to be a special part of a sold-out crowd&mdash;not looking down at a half-empty building.&rdquo;Still, super boxes represent a key source of income for NHL teams. Some members of the Islanders&rsquo; organization have said that if the super boxes are full, the clubs only needs to draw about 7,000 to make money. The Islanders had a league-low average attendance of 10,001 through nine home dates.&ldquo;If our attendance at the gate is down one per cent, our dollars in gate receipts is still going to be up,&rdquo; says Ziegler. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not the problem. Our problem is an accumulation of the last three years, particularly the last two years with the tremendous escalation in salaries. The problem is (that) you cannot take ticket prices up as fast as salaries. The salaries will have gone up 50 per cent in two years, and we have no abilities to take up ticket prices like that. We&rsquo;ve been explaining that to the Players&rsquo; Association until we&rsquo;re blue in the face.&rdquo;Bob Goodenow, deputy executive director of the NHLPA, has watched NHL executives get blue in the face and doesn&rsquo;t believe the players are bankrupting the league. Nor does he believe there is cause for alarm. &ldquo;I think this is just a reflection of the general difficult economic times overall,&rdquo; says Goodenow. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s remarkable that the attendance has held the way it has. I don&rsquo;t see it as being a problem.&rdquo;Generally, three variables enter into a fan&rsquo;s decision to purchase a ticket: price; personal finances (which is linked to the general economy); and team performance What can&rsquo;t be determined is the significance of each variable. Hartford did not raise ticket prices and got off to its best start in franchise history but were off more than 1,000 fans per game. The only increase in fan costs was imposed by the state, a six per-cent tax on parking and concessions.&ldquo;The state of Connecticut has lost more than 110,000 jobs in this recession, and the whole east coast has been hit,&rdquo; says Rick Francis, Whalers&rsquo; vice president of marketing and sales. &ldquo;We are very sensitive to the economic situation, and we felt we could not raise prices. If you look around, despite some (healthy) attendance figures (elsewhere in the NHL), I think you will see a lot of no-shows. We think this is a red flag, and we&rsquo;ve tried to address this in a number of ways. One of the answers for all clubs will be more creative marketing.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t so long ago clubs such as the Rangers, Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers simply had to hang a sign outside that read, &ldquo;Hockey Tonight,&rdquo; and the place would be full.Now clubs must aggressively market their product and promotions have begun in earnest, particularly in the United States, where clubs don&rsquo;t have the help of substantial television exposure to generate interst in visiting teams.The impact of these efforts will have to be closely monitored by the NHL. &#9632;

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That’s the ticket

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011562/6277496-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="554" height="762"></div>New Jersey Devils&rsquo; right winger Claude Lemieux was named the NHL Pro Set Player of the Week for the week ending Nov. 24. Lemieux led the NHL with five goals and two assists in three games, including one game-winner and one gametying goal as New Jersey posted a 2-0-1 record.Lemieux&rsquo;s performance helped improve New Jersey&rsquo;s overall record to 13-9-1. Lemieux had scored 16 goals in 23 games this season&mdash;four of them game-winners&mdash;and was tied for third place in the overall goal-scoring race, two behind league leader Brett Hull of St. Louis.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. Now in its second season as sponsor of these NHL awards, Pro Set is contributing over $56,000 to youth hockey organizations across North America.Lemieux, who was named NHL Player of the Week for the first time in his career, opened the week with a goal and an assist in the Devils&rsquo; 6-5 win over division rival Washington Nov. 20. Two nights later, Lemieux scored two goals&mdash;including the game winner&mdash;and added an assist as New Jersey downed Hartford 8-2. Lemieux also notched two goals and an assist, scoring the tying goal in a 5-5 draw with Philadelphia (Nov. 23), to close out the week.Rookie Buffalo goaltender Tom Draper (2-0-0, 1.89 GAA); Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; center Wayne Gretzky (4-3-7); and Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; goaltender Bob Essensa (20-0, 0.50 GAA)&mdash;the previous week&rsquo;s NHL Pro Set Player of the Week&mdash;were runners-up. &#9632;

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Pass me the smelling salts. Not a single Vancouver Canuck worthy of any star ranking in your not-so-Fab 50 (THN Nov. 15)? Not even half a star for Trevor Linden? Maybe a smidgen of a star for Geoff Courtnall or Cliff Ronning?Aw shucks, guys, we know we&rsquo;ve been the butt end of jokes for our lackluster years, But did you have to rub it in when we&rsquo;re up?Check the standings. Check the scoring leaders. The Canucks are for real. The bubble hasn&rsquo;t burst.Maybe it&rsquo;s just a matter of waiting until Pavel Bure and Petr Nedved qualify under your Fab 50 rules or penetrate the stupor the eastern press seems to be in over the performance of the Vancouver Canucks.Ray Dykes&nbsp;Vancouver, B.C.<h2>You forgot Denis</h2>When I received my issue that contained THN&rsquo;s Fab 50 I was shocked. How in the name of Lord Stanley could you have left out Denis Savard?The guy has one off-year (for him) under very difficult circumstances and you guys write him completely off the top 50.I think you must have spent too much time talking to Mike Keenan during the Canada Cup. I say we do another Fab 50 at season&rsquo;s end after Denis leads the Habs to the Stanley Cup.D. Ryan Lewis&nbsp;Crawfordsville, Ind.<h2>Draw the line</h2>A plea to NHL referees:Please come to a consensus on your definition of being &ldquo;in the crease.&rdquo;I&rsquo;ve seen enough hockey this season to determined that the officials are using different rule books. It&rsquo;s either Kerry (You&rsquo;re in the crease) Fraser, Don (Stay as long as you like) Koharski or Bill (I see you there but you&rsquo;re fighting to win the game) McCreary. Need I say more?Let&rsquo;s set a crease rule and stick with it.Mark Amodeo&nbsp;Timmins, Ont.<h2>Welcome home</h2>Cheers to Jay Greenberg for returning home. Just like Bobby Smith to North Stars&rsquo; fans, we can expect our &ldquo;old first-rounder&rdquo; to produce column after column of the highest calibre.It sure is a shame Sports Illustrated let you get away. Some day they will recall how they got nothing in return. Kind of like the deal Vancouver made when they traded Cam Neely to Boston.You handled your plight with class. It&rsquo;s never nice to discover you&rsquo;re not needed any longer-just ask Sergei Makarov. However, it is nice to know your old pals came through with an offer you couldn&rsquo;t refuse. Jari Kurri certainly couldn&rsquo;t pass his up.Welcome back-we hope your stay is longer than any of Geoff Courtnall&rsquo;s.M. Hammer&nbsp;Plainfield, NJ.<h2>Paint it black</h2>First the Canucks, then the Penguins, then the Kings and now the North Stars.This uniform trend could save hockey fans a lot of money. Soon the NHL will look just as good on a black-and-white TV.Tom DeMarco&nbsp;Cape St. George. Nfid.<h2>Not funny</h2>Dave Elston&rsquo;s cartoon depicting Mark Messier with lip marks on his legs courtesy of Theoren Fleury was truly tasteless and not even remotely amusing (THN Nov. 22).Aside from the fact that I would prefer one Fleury to 10 Messiers, the joke about Fleury&rsquo;s height is overworked and monotonous.The talent, inspiration and heart exhibited by Fleury every time he plays earns him the right to be respected both as a player and as a person..It&rsquo;s a &ldquo;low blow&rdquo; to single out the one thing about him over which he has no control.Rosanne Keen&nbsp;Toronto, Ont.<h2>Heartless Hartford</h2>By trading Kevin Dineen, the Hartford Whalers have given away the very soul of their team.D.A. Brownell&nbsp;Gloucester, Ont.<h2>Gaping holes</h2>The Buffalo Sabres can acquire all of the greatest forwards in the world but they won&rsquo;t be a championship team until they attend to their goaltending and defensive voids.Look for Hartford and Montreal to battle for first in the Adams Division while Boston and Buffalo try to ward off Quebec.Scott J. Esposito&nbsp;West Haven, Conn.Make your feelings known.Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416)445-0753&nbsp;or write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2&nbsp;in Canada. In the U.S., write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240-9947.&nbsp;Include home and business phone numbers.&nbsp;THN&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

Fans revolt over Fab 50 listing

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011475/6277551-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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ELSTON

<div class="byline">By Rand Simon</div><h2>Oilers&rsquo; well running dry</h2>With the trouble Edmonton has had scoring this season, the Oilers could use some of the players they&rsquo;ve dealt away in recent years.Here&rsquo;s a look at some of them, the players for whom they were traded and their point totals as of Nov. 24.Vladimir Ruzicka (21) for Greg Hawgood (0).Mark Messier (29) for Bernie Nicholls (0), Steven Rice (0) and Louie DeBrusk (1).Paul Coffey (26) for Craig Simpson (13) and Chris Joseph (0).The former Oilers had 76 points in 65 games; the current Oilers had 14 in 39 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021067/6277582-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="551" height="738"><figcaption class="caption-body">Donald Audette</figcaption></div><h2>Teens left out in Calder race</h2>Winning the Calder Trophy is no longer a young man&rsquo;s pursuit. Breaking down the past 10 winners in five-year segments shows the aging trend.1982-86: Dale Hawerchuk, 18; Steve Larmer, 21; Tom Barrasso, 18; Mario Lemieux, 18; and Gary Suter, 20. Avg. age: 18.8.1987-91: Luc Robitaille, 20; Joe Nieuwendyk, 21; Brian Leetch, 20; Sergei Makarov, 31; and Ed Belfour, 25. Avg. age: 23,4.And, this season&rsquo;s top candidates:Tony Amonte, 21; Donald Audette, 22; Nelson Emerson, 24; Niklas Lidstrom, 21; and Kevin Todd, 23. Avg. age: 22.2. &#9632;

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LISTS

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN staff</div>Want the most for your money in the NHL? Go to the Capital Centre and watch the league&rsquo;s highest-scoring team in the league&rsquo;s lowest-priced seats.You can see the Washington Capitals play from the best seat in the house for $28. Compare that to $65 at Madison Square Garden or $55 at the Cow Palace, Great Western Forum and Saddledome.Sure, there may be some extras thrown in elsewhere but it&rsquo;s hard to argue with a top ticket below $30. Especially when you&rsquo;re getting a glimpse of a team that averaged a league-high five goals per game through its first 22 games.The New York Rangers recorded a different high in our survey of ticket prices: they had the top-priced standard premium ticket in the league. The Los Angeles Kings charge $205 for a rinkside seat but they are not included in this survey of ticket prices for standard seats. Here&rsquo;s a listing of each team&rsquo;s lows and highs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011651/6277613-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="619" height="1195"></div><h2>Stewart surfaces</h2>Al Stewart, the journeyman forward who quit the NHL in late October after four games with the Boston Bruins, is in Prince Albert, Sask., and thinking about another comeback.&ldquo;This time, I had it made,&rdquo; said Stewart. &ldquo;I mean, any time you can make a lot of money playing a game, you have it made. You live like a king. And then, with one simple decision, you can self-destruct. And now-&hellip;now I&rsquo;m living like a peasant.&rdquo;Stewart, 27, left the Bruins much like he did the New Jersey Devils twice before. He gave friends in Boston the impression he was headed for the Benedictine monks.&ldquo;Yeah, I&rsquo;ve thought about that,&rdquo; said Stewart. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t really talked with the Benedictines. I met one once, though, and he was really a nice guy. We have them here in Saskatchewan, just a couple of hours south of where I am, and it interests me. But I don&rsquo;t have to decide now if I want to live the religious life.&rdquo;<h2>No testing</h2>NHL president John Zeigler says the league has no plans to institute an AIDS policy or AIDS testing for players in spite of the recent announcement by basketball star Magic Johnson he has acquired the virus that leads to the fatal disease.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no need for that,&rdquo; said Zeigler. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a social problem, not an industry problem. It&rsquo;s not a hockey problem. I don&rsquo;t think trying to bring it into any particular sport is relevant, nor do I think that it makes much sense to try to isolate it to any sport.&rdquo;Former New York Ranger Mark Heaslip, who has run a drug and alcohol awareness program for the team, thinks the league should be more aggressive. &ldquo;Maybe it hasn&rsquo;t happened in hockey,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s around the corner and, sadly, it will come up again.&rdquo;<h2>Threepeat attempt</h2>John Slaney is among 24 players invited to try out for the team that will represent Canada at the World Junior Championships in Fussen, Germany.Slaney, a defenseman with the Cornwall Royals, scored the gold medal-winning goal at the 1991 tournament.The only other returnee named was right winger Martin Lapointe of the Detroit Red Wings. Five others are also eligible and, if available, will be part of a supplemental group still to be named.Most prominent among them is center Eric Lindros, who is currently with the Canadian Olympic team. Lindros said he wants to play in his third straight tournament. The 18-year-old phenom scored two goals and one assist in Canada&rsquo;s 5-2 triumph over the Vancouver Canucks Nov. 24.Goalie Trevor Kidd and defenseman Karl Dykhuis are also 1991 veterans with the Olympic team. Two NHL rookies, defenseman Scott Niedermayer of the New Jersey Devils and right winger Pat Falloon of the San Jose Sharks, are likely to be added.Other late additions may include three more NHL rookies: defenseman Darryl Sydor of the Los Angeles Kings, center Geoff Sanderson of the Hartford Whalers and center Kimbi Daniels of the Philadelphia Flyers.Canada is aiming for an unprecedented third straight gold medal. The tournament runs from Dec. 26 through Jan. 3. Canada&rsquo;s six-day selection camp opens Dec. 13 in Kitchener.A final roster of 22 players is scheduled to be named Dec. 19. (Seepage 38 for full tryout roster.)The United States was expected to name its tryout roster Dec. 1.<h2>Television deal</h2>An agreement between SportsChanncel America and Prime Sports-Northwest and Prime Sports Network/Intermountain West will make the NHL available to 1.9 million more households.The deal signed Nov. 20 begins with games Nov. 27 and increases SCA&rsquo;s NHL coverage to 27 million households. &#9632;

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Capitals represent NHL’s best bargain at the rink

A weekly compendium of significant events and developments.Monday, Nov. 18: NHL board of governors approves sale of Pittsburgh Penguins to group headed by Howard Baldwin and Morris Belzberg. Purchase price of $63-64 million includes lease rights to Civic Arena.Quebec Nordiques lose to Penguins 7-3 in general manager Pierre Page&rsquo;s debut as Quebec coach. Dave Chambers was fired the previous day with Quebec 3-14-1. Mark Recchi scores three goals and three assists for Pittsburgh.Tuesday, Nov. 19: Eric Lindros is not among 24 players invited to try out for Canada&rsquo;s national junior team but says he plans on playing for defending gold medalists at World Jr. Championships.Manon Rheaume, 19, becomes first female to appear with major junior team&mdash;acting as backup goalie for Trois-Rivieres Draveurs of Quebec League.Wednesday, Nov. 20: Quebec names Andre Savard assistant coach.Thursday, Nov. 21: Quebec scores three goals on four first-period shots en route to 5-2 win over Montreal Canadiens. It is the Nordiques&rsquo; first win under Page.Friday, Nov. 22: NHL announces fines totalling $64,300 against Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings for Nov. 2 post-game brawl at Boston Garden.Sunday, Nov. 24: Pause for the Grey Cup&mdash;one of eight days there are no games this season. Others: Dec. 24-25 (Christmas break); Jan. 17-20. (all-star break); and March 30. Three afternoon games are scheduled for Super Bowl Sunday, Jan. 26. &#9632;

The week that was in hockey

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021128/6277675-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="388" height="491"></div>Dennis Murphy, who gave us the Minnesota Fighting Saints, Russ Gillow and regular-season overtime, has now re-invented the wheel. The founder of the World Hockey Association has announced the formation of Roller Hockey International, which hopes to establish a professional league by 1992.Murphy and his partners, Larry King and Alex Bellehumeur, hope to interest NHL and NBA owners in a low-budget 12-team, summer league. The players will come from the ice rinks of Canada, the YMCAs of New England and the streets of southern California. Sadly, players will be required to wear shoulder pads, not halter tops. &ldquo;There are over 20.000 roller hockey leagues in the U.S.,&rdquo; says Murphy. &ldquo;There are even a few where John Brophy never coached.&rdquo;You can&rsquo;t blame Murphy for trying, although I fear he has been missing a ball bearing for several years. This guy, now 63, not only started the WHA, but the American Basketball Association, World Team Tennis and another basketball league for guys who are the size of Theoren Fleury. While you might argue these ventures did not further the cause of mankind, be assured the ink producers of the world are very thankful for guys like Dennis Murphy. They&rsquo;ve kept red in demand.Murphy is a visionary, a person who dreams up things, then gets out before the bills arrive. I am a columnist, a person who makes fun of people who have ideas. Okay, so maybe I&rsquo;m a little resistant to innovation. For instance, I still don&rsquo;t like helmets and facemasks. I enjoyed hockey much better when you could see the look of frozen terror in a goalie&rsquo;s eyes as the puck moved towards his forehead. As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, playing styles have also changed for the worse. John Miszuk, not Bobby Orr, was what a defenseman should be about.So I don&rsquo;t know about this roller stuff. In my opinion, the only thing in hockey that should be on wheels is Paul Fenton&rsquo;s house. And I don&rsquo;t know how you can have a hockey game that doesn&rsquo;t need a Zamboni, only a damp mop. Dick Allen once said about artificial turf: &ldquo;If a horse can&rsquo;t eat it, I don&rsquo;t want to play on it.&rdquo; I feel the same way about a surface for hockey. If you can&rsquo;t cube it and pour a scotch over it, what good is it?In the RHI, the floor, not just the Nordiques, will get waxed and maintenance will be costly. An enormous amount of oil will be needed to keep this league rolling smoothly. Consider this scenario: Petri Squeako of the San Jose Spokes sprawls to block a shot by the Boston Ball Bearings&rsquo; Simon Wheeldon, the league&rsquo;s most valuable player. Wheeldon stops suddenly, but still can&rsquo;t produce one of hockey&rsquo;s most exciting spectacles, the spray to a fallen opponent&rsquo;s face.Murphy says never mind all that, I&rsquo;ll love roller hockey. It will be played with only a red line, no blue lines, on a surface made up from the same materials that went into Wayne Van Dorp&rsquo;s head. Both high stickers and high rollers will be punished severely. The goalie won&rsquo;t be on a skateboard, but he should be. Competitors will chase something that is part-puck, part-ball.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03719/6277668-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="555" height="683"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Elyniuk</figcaption></div>Games will consist of only two 30-minute periods, so the fans can get home in plenty of time to see the fights all over again on SportsCenter. Ticket prices will be cheaper than even John McMullen.Murphy thinks senior ice hockey players will look at roller hockey as a way to make a few slimmer bucks. Many ex-NHL players could want to make comebacks. Pat Elyniuk, for instance. Murphy is talking about paying players $400 a week, but we all know you can&rsquo;t trust these owners to keep salaries down. Before we know it, Ron Caron, general manager of the St. Louis Summertime Blues, will sign free-agent right winger Raquel Welch to a $l. l-million-a-year contract. Roller hockey will become big business.If someone really wants to play hockey without skates, I have a better idea. Wheelchair hockey. Randy Carlyle is oiled up and ready to go. &#9632;

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League founder Murphy on a roll

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011498/6277706-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="371" height="488"></div>Will someone be good enough to tap the Vancouver Canucks on the shoulder and tell them they have no business being in first place?In the meantime, the Washington Capitals should get it through their heads that any similarity between themselves and division leaders is purely coincidental.Or has fantasy become reality at Pacific Coliseum and Capital Centre? This is an important question because we have passed the quarter-pole in the season and the fate of the 1991-92 race hinges on the answers.What we see in the standings today will not be what we&rsquo;ll see on April 5. And don&rsquo;t even think about this morning&rsquo;s overall point leader in terms of a champion. The quarterly report:Capitals: Finding a weakness on the Caps is about as easy as ascending the Washington Monument on a unicycle, but can the Caps keep scoring at their current pace? I don&rsquo;t think so.Rangers: Neil Smith believes he has found the missing pieces in Edmonton. Mark Messier is the leader-superstar and Jeff Beukeboom is the intimidating defenseman. Rookies Tony Amonte and Doug Weight plus formidable goaltending and Brian Leetch will make the Blueshirts a force.Devils: Loss of John MacLean means Stephane Richer, Kevin Todd, and company must kick it up a notch. Two Europeans-Zdeno Ciger and Valeri Zelepukin-will be decisive when they crack the lineup. Pat Conacher-Doug Brown-Laurie Boschman comprise the league&rsquo;s best checking unit.Penguins: There&rsquo;s no replacing Badger Bob Johnson. Period. No Cup this year.Flyers: Mark Howe&rsquo;s surprising return plus the addition of Sergei Lomakin and Kevin Dineen have turned the Broad Street Bumblers into a playoff threat. Philly will go as far as Ron Hextall carries them.Islanders: Every newcomer-Benoit Hogue, Uwe Krupp, Steve Thomas, Dave McLlwain, Pierre Turgeon, Adam Creighton-has been an asset. Still, the Isles need a healthy Gary Nylund and Mark Fitzpatrick.Canadiens: Remember the date, Nov. 16. Philly went to the Forum and spanked Montreal 3-1. Pat Bums has done wonders but when your defense features J.J. Daignault as a regular, you&rsquo;re in trouble.Bruins: Cam Neely&rsquo;s absence should win him the Hart Trophy. Without him, the Bruins are on a treadmill to oblivion.Whalers: You have to wonder how far Kay Whitmore can take this interesting but frustrating team. Conclusion: Playoffs, yes. Adams Division title, no.Sabres: Pat LaFontaine has style but the Sabres lack substance. The Gerry Meehan-John Muckler-Rick Dudley triumverate appears more byzantine than Steve Stavros-Cliff Fletcher-Bill Watters-Tom Watt. Result: Same as always.Quebec: Pierre Page is overdue for some good luck He won&rsquo;t get it until he deals Eric Lindros. If he doesn&rsquo;t do it before March, Page should trade himself.Chicago: It may be that Blackhawk owner Bill Wirtz is the only Chicago believer in Keenanism. Result: Another first-round exit in the playoffs is probable.St. Louis: The Blues&rsquo; chances this year will hinge on their ability to keep Brett Hull and Adam Oates happy while others yearn for missing ice time.Detroit: The Steve Yzerman problem must be solved. That done, the Red Wings should run with the Norris Division bunch and hang tough as long as Bob Probert hangs healthy.North Stars: No miracle this year, although Bob Gainey will ice a fascinating team. He&rsquo;ll show his worth as a coach if he turns Mike Modano into the superstar he should be.Maple Leafs: Cliff Fletcher&rsquo;s Act is no better than Harold Ballard&rsquo;s Burlesque.Flames: No personality; no character; no pizzaz. Nowhere.Kings: The defense rates an F. Goaltending is just average and the Wayne Gretzky-Jari Kurri reunion is beginning to look like an Abbott & Costello revival.Oilers: Glen Sather&rsquo;s wheeling-dealing isn&rsquo;t over. Somehow Edmonton will sneak into a playoff berth and then, look out.Canucks: Too many are playing over their heads; expect a nosedive after the new year.Jets: You can go many NHL miles on superior Bob Essensa goaltending and a savvy rookie coach in John Paddock. If you&rsquo;re looking for a sleeper, it&rsquo;s here in Winnipeg.Sharks: Should San Jose win a dozen games. George Kingston rates The Congressional Medal of Honor and the Croix de Guerre. &#9632;

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Reality will catch up with Canucks

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021006/6277737-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Gagner didn&rsquo;t know what he was getting into when he posed with his baby daughter. (Popular Front studios)</figcaption></div>Hockey fans have been talking about Mark Messier&rsquo;s potential liason with Madonna but the Ranger center isn&rsquo;t the only rugged NHL&rsquo;er who has been recently linked to a Hollywood celebrity. Boston Bruin right winger Cam Neely showed up with actress Glenn Close at the Manhattan premiere of the thriller Cape Fear. Broadway gossips say &ldquo;they&rsquo;re just good friends.&rdquo;&hellip;NHL director of officiating Bryan Lewis says the league has no problem that Jack Riley, former Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; GM, is a video replay judge at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena. &ldquo;Everybody is a former something,&rdquo; Lewis says. &ldquo;Jack Riley is a quality person. I&rsquo;d have a concern if it was proven that he didn&rsquo;t do the job.&rdquo; However, the NHL won&rsquo;t allow Riley to answer critics for himself. A gag rule covering video replay judges prevents them from defending themselves and replying to the press. &ldquo;We can give you all the answers,&rdquo; says NHL vice-president Jim Gregory. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re a new group who have not had the advantage of dealing with the media.&rdquo; As a hockey executive for three decades, Riley has dealt with the media more than Gregory.<h2>Wing stings</h2>Reports persist about Steve Yzerman falling out of favor with Detroit Red Wing management. Some maintain that the Red Wing captain doesn&rsquo;t appear on the cover of the team&rsquo;s 1991-92 media guide because of a fallout with owner Mike Illitch. Vancouver Province columnist Tony Gallagher reported Yzerman got &ldquo;tossed out of Hitch&rsquo;s office&rdquo; after going in to renegotiate his contract&hellip; A photo of a Michigan &ldquo;reckless driving citation&rdquo; against Bob Probert was plastered over a picture of the Red Wing recently in the Detroit News. A probe by the paper revealed that since 1985, Probert has received 13 tickets for traffic violations, including three this year. The most recent one&mdash;July 29&mdash;was for reckless driving.<h2>Bare it and grin</h2>When Dave Gagner posed barechested giving a bottle to his diaperclad daughter Jessica for a magazine photo, he had no idea it would cause a stir with his teammates. But the picture was blown up and appeared in full color on the cover of the North Stars&rsquo; magazine with the title, &ldquo;David Gagner&rsquo;s Stanley Cup Offspring.&rdquo; The sharpshooter took quite a ribbing from his teammates &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be glad in a couple of weeks when this blows over,&rdquo; Gagner laughs. &ldquo;I was so surprised. I didn&rsquo;t expect to see a guy with no shirt on the cover of a hockey magazine.&rdquo;<h2>Going, going&hellip;</h2>What loomed as a major headache for the NHL next season&mdash;the proposed Continental Hockey Association&mdash;is rapidly evaporating. Insiders report Bill Hunter&rsquo;s CHA is dying a slow death and one indicator is that the league closed its posh Saskatoon suites and now is operating out of Hunter&rsquo;s magazine office&hellip;A Boston Herald report that the Bruins would consider trading Ray Bourque to Quebec for Eric Lindros so enraged Harry Sinden that the GM hurled white heat at the paper&rsquo;s sports editor, Bob Sales, &ldquo;I know Bob Sales,&rdquo; Sinden said, &ldquo;and he&rsquo;s an animal who is interersted in nothing but stories.&rdquo; In response, Sales said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a compliment. Going after stories is my business. If I were a hockey player, Harry would probably want me on his team.<h2>Body slam</h2>Just when the NHL is trying to get away from its violent image, it is taking another blow from, of all groups, the World Wrestling Federation. The WWF is marketing a table hockey game called &ldquo;Shootout.&rdquo; Instead of NHLers, the players include Hulk Hogan, Randy (Macho Man) Savage and Sgt. Slaughter&hellip;With the Dec. 15 deadline for Tampa and Ottawa to come up with the second $22.5 million expansion fee fast approaching, one influential NHL governor says the Lightning&rsquo;s chances of coming up with the money are only &ldquo;50-50.&rdquo;<h2>Money talks</h2>Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; owner Norm Green, who cashed in on pay-per-view during his team&rsquo;s playoff run last year, prefers to call the concept &ldquo;user pay.&rdquo; He also defends it, saying viewers are getting more hockey for their money. This season, the North Stars have 17 games on pay-per-view at $9.95 per game. The Hartford Whalers and Red Wings have also experimented with the concept this season. &ldquo;When somebody has had something for nothing, it&rsquo;s tough taking it away,&rdquo; Green says. &ldquo;But what we&rsquo;re doing is giving you the option of seeing something that you wouldn&rsquo;t be able to see otherwise. There are 25 games on free TV but the rest of the games you could only listen to on radio. Now for a nominal fee you can see games that you wouldn&rsquo;t have been able to see.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0007-02

Neely gets Close with his ‘good friend’ Glenn

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011565/6277768-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Phil Housley has been more judicious in choosing his spots to go on the offensive. (Photo by Bruce Bennett BBS.)</figcaption></div>In more than nine NHL seasons, Phil Housley has performed many marvellous feats on the ice.This season is no different. But Housley appears to have taken his game to an even higher level.Organizing an effective power play, darting into a rush for a key goal or clearing the puck from a potentially-dangerous situation with bullet-like speed and ice vision are commendable qualities. Making a legitimate I bid for the James Norris Memorial Trophy is quite another thing.But past the first quarter of the 1991-92 season, the 27-year-old Minnesotan seems to be doing just that. It promises to be a chaitenge with many fronts.For starters, Housley belongs to the Winnipeg Jets, playing in I one of the league&rsquo;s loneliest outposts. Has anyone noticed the frequency of his name in scoring summaries, his presence in the league&rsquo;s top-10 scorers and at or near the top of the list for defensemen?And just so there&rsquo;s no mistake about it, this is no tag-along ride to temporary fame. This is the Jets we&rsquo;re talking about, a team that was scoring fewer than three times a game, a team that, if it declared holidays for every time somebody scored a hat trick, would have been enslaved for more than two years without rest.Housley&rsquo;s contributions have not been from the offensive periphery. They have been central to the better-than-expected play from the Jets.That he&rsquo;s perceived as strictly a one-way player looms as an obstacle between Housley and the Norris. Suddenly, being a high-scoring defenseman becomes some kind of negative.Somebody who has been there and won the NHL&rsquo;s best rearguard award is teammate Randy Carlyle. The 1981 winner suggests Norris voters who lump Housley in with one-direction defensemen are making a huge mistake.&ldquo;They might see him in that way because he&rsquo;s used in every offensive situation,&rdquo; Carlyle says. &ldquo;But I know one stat he keeps close track of himself and that he&rsquo;s really committed to and that&rsquo;s plus-minus. If he could end up a plus player (he had been hovering around the even mark most of the season) and still contribute the same way he has offensively, he&rsquo;s going to have a great year.&rdquo;With 28 points through 23 games (a 97-point pace over 80 games), Housley had been on the ice for almost 60 per cent of the Jets&rsquo; 68 goals. Against, he had been on for only 20 of 66 allowed.Housley is flattered by the praise he has been getting, but he&rsquo;s also not ashamed to say it&rsquo;s deserved.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not the type of player that brags, but I think I could at least be in the top five (defensemen),&rdquo; Housley says. &ldquo;It puts another feather in your cap. I haven&rsquo;t achieved (the Norris) yet but I think about it.&rdquo;Beginning a second year in a new home has given stability to Housley&rsquo;s game. There are those convinced that getting a letter (he was named an assistant captain) from coach John Paddock has done Housley&rsquo;s confidence a world of good. Incentive may also be another factor. Housley&rsquo;s in the option year of his contract which calls for him to make $475,000 this season. But he has experienced rocky contract negotiations with the Jets and will likely go to arbitration in December.Jets&rsquo; assistant coach Terry Simpson is sure he knows the reason for Housley&rsquo;s excellence.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not leading the rushes as much as he did last year. He&rsquo;s supporting it from behind,&rdquo; Simpson says. &ldquo;That was one of the problems last year, he&rsquo;d get caught up the ice because he was trying to do so much.&rdquo;Though he has been more judicious in his offensive decisions, Housley&rsquo;s creativity has by no means suffered.The art of finding an open teammate when nobody seems to be paying any attention has been Housley&rsquo;s trademark.Asked about Norris possibilities, Simpson tried to mince his words, but couldn&rsquo;t.&ldquo;Hey, the truth is the truth,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Lots can happen but if he was to continue on this pace, I don&rsquo;t think there would be any question about it.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;d like to achieve before I&rsquo;m done playing,&rdquo; Housley says. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a great honor to win that award.&ldquo;But right now I&rsquo;m not thinking of those things.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0008-01

Getting their Phil

<div class="byline">By Mike Beamish</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021225/6277806-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="384" height="487"></div>We&rsquo;ve flipped the NHL calendar over to December and the Vancouver Canucks continued to defy gravity and logic.The Canucks, a franchise which hasn&rsquo;t had a winning season since 1976-when Ryan Walter was playing junior hockey in Seattle-were still leading the Smythe Division and playing leapfrog with Washington and Montreal for first place overall.Now, the first 10 games may have been considered an aberration but after 25 it&rsquo;s time to admit this team is no mirage.Maybe the Canucks aren&rsquo;t a great team, but they&rsquo;ll settle for being called a darned good one, which is more than anyone has said of them for a long, long time.The shock of seeing the Canucks in first place is equalled only by the knowledge that Walter and David Babych were contributing in a big way. When the two veterans went over the mountains to Vancouver last summer, they were thought to have been over the hill.Walter figured to be Shark bait when the Montreal Canadiens cast him adrift last summer. He didn&rsquo;t score a goal in his final season with the Canadiens. He was injured. Ineffective. He still played with heart and determination. But nothing seemed to go right. So the Canadiens released him.When Walter signed a one-year deal with the Canucks on July 28, the news was greeted with skepticism, if not wide-eyed wonderment. Walter was 33, his legs were shot and his memory was deserting him. He couldn&rsquo;t remember the last time he&rsquo;d scored a goal. We looked it up &mdash; Feb. 14, 1990.Likewise, Babych&rsquo;s career started to head south about three years ago in Hartford. And because wrist and thumb injuries restricted him to eight games last season with the Whalers, his acquisition provoked little interest either. Babych was plucked by Minnesota in the expansion draft and acquired by the Canucks a couple of weeks later for Tom Kurvers.So far, the realization has surpassed the expectations for both players. Between them, Walter and Babych bring 24 years of experience, but they carry their years lightly.For 13 seasons, Walter had played hard and often well and still felt he had enough hockey left in him to continue. After a talk with Gaetan Lefebvre, the Canadiens&rsquo; athletic trainer, he was convinced of it even more.&ldquo;He (Lefebvre) said he&rsquo;d seen guys who left too soon, and he told me not to look back when I&rsquo;m 40 and feel there&rsquo;s some unfinished business,&rdquo; Walter said. &ldquo;I saw my buddy Bobby Smith playing at a high level in Minnesota. Maybe I could still do it.&rdquo;The Canucks do not count on Walter for offense. His goals are treated like a sunny Vancouver day in January-rare, welcome, but you don&rsquo;t depend on it. His prolonged dry spell ended when he scored his first goal as a Canuck, Oct. 10 in Chicago.Once upon a time, of course, Walter could score with the best of them. He had 38 goals in 1981-82 with Washington and 29 the following year when he was traded to Montreal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03922/6277799-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="544" height="738"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Babych</figcaption></div>The goals are precious now, yet if he doesn&rsquo;t get more than a handful with the Canucks this season Walter&rsquo;s role on the team is secure. If you don&rsquo;t understand that, you don&rsquo;t understand Ryan Walter.Walter is the dutiful role player, center on the fourth-line checking unit, key faceoff man, his muscle useful now and then. Yet he brings to the rink something more than heart and the capacity for hard work. It&rsquo;s the belief among teammates that they&rsquo;re more of a team with him than without him. That&rsquo;s leadership.This was supposed to be the end of the line for Babych, too, but his 30-year-old savvy has helped to steady the defense.He was skating and producing as he did in mid-career when he was twice named the Whalers&rsquo; top defenseman. How many NHL players get to score their first hat trick at age 30? Babych did-Nov. 22, in a 6-5 win over Calgary.Walter and Babych-two blasts from the past heading back up to the top of the charts. &#9632;

f0008-02

Over-the-hill gang working wonders

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>A few seasons ago, Vancouver Canuck right winger Jim Sandlak was dubbed &lsquo;House&rsquo; by former teammate Jim Benning. The nickname was derived from Sandlak&rsquo;s size (6-foot-3, 212 pounds) and his prodigious appetite.But House had more trouble finding his way on the ice than he did to the dinner table. When Sandlak struggled as a right winger, he was made a left winger. When that failed, coach Pat Quinn parked him in the press box. Sandlak was scratched for the entire Vancouver-Los Angeles playoff series last spring.At 24, Sandlak was facing a bleak future in hockey.&ldquo;It was tough having a season like that and not playing in the playoffs,&rdquo; said Sandlak, the fourth pick overall in the 1985 entry draft. &ldquo;A lot of things run through your mind. But that&rsquo;s water under the bridge now.&rdquo;Sandlak dedicated himself in the off-season and has been a solid contributor to the Canucks&rsquo; surprise showing this year. Playing with Cliff Ronning and Sergio Momesso, the Kitchener, Ont., native already passed last year&rsquo;s point total of 13.So what happened to Sandlak? He says much of it has to do with Stan Smyl, his former teammate, former dressing stall mate and now one of his coaches.&ldquo;Stan has been analyzing my game and lets me know what I&rsquo;m doing right and what I&rsquo;m doing wrong,&rdquo; Sandlak said. &ldquo;He talks to me after each period and he puts together a tape of my play after each five-game segment. I&rsquo;ve never had this type of coaching before. It&rsquo;s a bonus. It gives me an edge.&rdquo;Perhaps because he played a robust, stir-the-pot role in his 13 years as a Canuck, Smyl can better relate to Sandlak&rsquo;s struggles than if Pavel Bure needed a tip on skating.His advice? Go up and down your wing. Dont&rsquo;t start running around, getting caught out of position and missing your defensive assignments.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve just been trying to get Jimmy to play within his talents,&rdquo; Smyl said. &ldquo;He has been here seven years now and they haven&rsquo;t been a great seven years. It has been a real treat to see the way he has responded.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011495/6277837-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="542" height="625"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cliff Ronning was a victim of the battle against Calgary.</figcaption></div>FAMILY FEUD: The Smythe Division developed a new family feud when the Canucks and Calgary Flames engaged in a vicious home-and-home series Nov. 21-22.Among the lowlights: the Canucks&rsquo; Geoff Courtnall knocking out Tim Hunter with a stick in the face, the Flames&rsquo; Joel Otto felling Igor Larionov with a wicked elbow to the head. Hunter high-sticking Cliff Ronning in the face, the Flames&rsquo; Jim Kyte gouging and attempting to bite Jim Agnew during a fight and the Canucks&rsquo; Gino Odjick spearing Al Maclnnis.Odjick received a 10-minute match penalty and was automatically suspended pending a review by league. The Flames promised to send a tape of Courtnall&rsquo;s high stick on Hunter to NHL executive vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill.The Flames won the first game 3-2 while the Canucks prevailed 6-5 in overtime the following evening, appropriately enough the overtime winner was on a power play. The Canucks went 5-for-13 on the power play that night, the Flames 3-for-7.NOTEBOOK: The Canucks rested seven regulars when they met Eric Lindros and the Canadian Olympic team Nov. 24. The Olympians won 5-2 as Lindros scored twice and added an assist. He was the game&rsquo;s first star&hellip;Lindros took heat from former Quebec Nordique Randy Moller when the Rangers, Moller&rsquo;s current team, played in Vancouver. Said Moller of Lindros&rsquo; refusal to play in Quebec: &ldquo;For $50 million, he can bring 200 of his friends from Toronto to Quebec, buy them all houses and cars, set up their own neighborhood and he would never have to read a French paper or talk to a French person.&rdquo;When defenseman Jyrki Lumme missed the Calgary series with a facial cut near his right eye, it marked only the third and fourth man-games lost to injury by a Canuck regular this season.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 22: Gino Odjick, LW, suspended indefinitely by NHL. Nov. 23: Troy Gamble, G, Don Gibson, D, Rob Murphy, C, and Shawn Antoski, RW, recalled from Milwaukee (IHL). Nov. 25: Gibson, Murphy, and Bob Mason, G, assigned to Milwaukee.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Cliff Ronning, Igor Larionov, Petr Nedved, Ryan Walter. Robert Kron.LW&mdash;Greg Adams, Sergio Momesso, Geoff Courtnall.RW&mdash;Trevor Linden, Pavel Bure, Jim Sandlak, Garry Valk, Shawn Antoski.LD&mdash;Robert Dirk, Dave Babych, Dana Murzyn, Jim Agnew.RD&mdash;Doug Lidster, Gerald Diduck, Randy Gregg.G&mdash;Kirk McLean, Troy Gamble.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jyrki Lumme, D, facial cut, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0009-01

Hungry Sandlak starts to feast on opposition

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>When the San Jose Sharks scored four goals in a loss to the Los Angeles Kings Nov. 23, goalie Jeff Hackett could only imagine how nice it would be to have so many goals scored in his behalf.Hackett was backing up Arturs Irbe that night, and watched from the bench as the Sharks scored more goals in one period than they had produced for him in his last three starts combined. Stretched out over seven starts, the Sharks had supported Hackett with a whopping eight goals, making it nearly impossible for him to win. No, make that impossible. He had an 0-10-0 record.Hackett managed to maintain a positive attitude, though.&ldquo;I have to go into each game to give my best and control the things that I can control,&rdquo; Hackett said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t control the number of goals we score. The losing is frustrating, but sometimes goals go in spurts.&rdquo;The lack of support makes Hackett&rsquo;s record quite deceiving. He had yet to win this season, but had allowed an average of only 2.75 goals per game in the last four.&ldquo;He has been unbelievable,&rdquo; Sharks&rsquo; defenseman Neil Wilkinson said. &ldquo;We just haven&rsquo;t been helping him much at the other end of the rink.&rdquo;Sharks&rsquo; coach George Kingston said he knows Hackett&rsquo;s record wasn&rsquo;t indicative of the way he had been playing.&ldquo;A lot of people will only look at the number of games he has lost and ask why I would play him,&rdquo; Kingston said. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;re very happy with him. He has played a lot of excellent goal for us. He&rsquo;s on top of his game right now.&rdquo;Still, Hackett had experienced playing with a lead in only two of his first 10 starts and had never enjoyed more than a one-goal advantage.STRIP TEASE: The Sharks were introduced to a version of strip poker on ice during a recent practice, which ended with an exercise that Kingston called the &ldquo;Strip Showdown.&rdquo;In the drill, players took breakaway practice and were forced to shed a piece of their uniform every time they failed to score. By the end of the drill, some players were down to shorts and T-shirts.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just something different,&rdquo; Kingston said. &ldquo;I like to have something fun on the ice every day.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman and captain Doug Wilson returned to the lineup on Nov. 22 after missing 10 games because of a dislocated right thumb. Wilson scored his first goal as a Shark the following night in the loss to the Kings.The Sharks heard boos at the Cow Palace for the first time when they played lethargically in a 3-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs Nov. 22. The Sharks were outshot 42-21 in the game and were dominated by the Leafs, who were 0-10-1 on the road before visiting the Cow Palace. &ldquo;I told the players that we can&rsquo;t afford to have another performance like this in our own building,&rdquo; George Kingston said. &ldquo;I hope this was the bottom.&rdquo;To make room on their roster for Wilson and defenseman Jayson More, who missed the first quarter of the season because of a broken foot, the Sharks sent Pat MacLeod to Kansas City of the International League.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 20: Pat MacLeod, D, assigned to Kansas City (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dean Evason, Perry Berezan, Brian Lawton, Mike Sullivan.LW&mdash;Paul Fenton, Brian Mullen, Link Gaetz, Perry Anderson.RW&mdash;Jeff Odgers, Pat Falloon, Steve Bozek. David Bruce.LD&mdash;Rob Zettler, Doug Wilson, Ken Hammond, Jayson More.RD&mdash;Neil Wilkinson, Bob McGill, Rick Lessard, David Williams.G&mdash;Jeff Hackett, Arturs Irbe.<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, day-to-day Wayne Presley, RW, sprained ligaments in right knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

Jeff can Hackett if team has trouble scoring

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>At current progress, Bob Essensa&rsquo;s goals-against average could hit zero by Christmas.That&rsquo;s somewhat overstated, of course, but try telling that to opposition shooters. The Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; goalie had been the best in the NHL, ripping off a string of four wins in a row through Nov. 23. During that stretch he allowed two goals and over six games he had given up six goals.On the strength of its goaltending, Winnipeg was in the thick of the Smythe Division race, sitting three games above .500 and seven points behind first-place Vancouver.&ldquo;I can think of three or four times over the last couple of years where I&rsquo;ve gotten into a groove,&rdquo; Essensa said, &ldquo;where the puck just seems to bounce the right way off you and the defense is there at the right time.&rdquo;With his league-leading third shutout of the season, he&rsquo;s now the author of nine career shutouts, a Winnipeg franchise high, in 125 games. His ratio of one shutout every 14 games is the best among active NHL goalies who have played 100 games. Three of those have come in his last three starts at Edmonton&rsquo;s Northlands Coliseum.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a nice situation and you want to stretch it out as long as you can but you realize one day the puck&rsquo;s not going to bounce for you,&rdquo; he said.In the six straight starts, the Jets were outshot five times. It mattered little, though, since the 26-year-old Toronto native had given up a total of six goals on 216 shots (.972 save percentage).STEEN CLOSE: Center Thomas Steen&rsquo;s rehabilitation was progressing ahead of schedule and the team&rsquo;s most effective forward the past two seasons was a lock to beat his slated return of Dec. 15.After a strong Canada Cup, Steen went down in the Jets&rsquo; last pre-season game with what was diagnosed as nerve root irritation in his lower back. Inactive for four weeks, he went for treatment at the Soft Tissue Center in Los Angeles in late October and began skating when he returned to Winnipeg.Though he said there&rsquo;s still some minor discomfort, Steen returned to full practice with the team Nov. 20 and said the only thing standing in the way of his return was his lack of conditioning.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Dean Kennedy was lost for the remainder of the season Nov. 20 (3-1 win over the New York Islanders) when he blew out two ligaments in his left knee. He&rsquo;ll undergo surgery when the swelling subsides. Kennedy suffered the injury when Pierre Turgeon fell on him.After much rhetoric, Winnipeg city council voted 22-7 in favor of approving the agreement with the Jets, the province and local private business that will keep the team in Winnipeg for at least six more years.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 21: Kent Paynter, D, recalled from Moncton (AHL). Nov. 22: Scott Arniel, LW. traded to Boston for future considerations.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Troy Murray, Stu Barnes, Mike Eagles. Luciano Borsato.LW&mdash;Eddie Olczyk, Darrin Shannon, Russ Romaniuk, Mark Osborne, Mike Hartman, Phil Sykes.RW&mdash;Petri Skriko, Danton Cole, Paul MacDermid, Bryan Erickson, Pat Elynuik.LD&mdash;Randy Carlyle, Shawn Cronin, Moe Mantha, Kent Paynter.RD&mdash;Phil Housley, Fredrik Olausson. Teppo Numminen.G&mdash;Bob Essensa, Stephane Beauregard.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dean Kennedy, D, torn knee ligaments, out for season. Thomas Steen, C, back nerve irritation, day-to-day. &#9632;

The story on Bob Essensa? Much ado about nothing

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>Mike Donnelly would like to send thank-you cards to Phil Esposito and Gerry Meehan.&ldquo;If it weren&rsquo;t for them, I wouldn&rsquo;t be in L.A. now,&rdquo; the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; left winger said.Esposito was the New York Rangers&rsquo; general manager who traded Donnelly to the Buffalo Sabres in 1987. Meehan is the Sabres&rsquo; GM who dealt him to the Kings shortly before the 1990-91 season began.&ldquo;Those guys never really gave me much of a chance,&rdquo; said Donnelly, who cost the Kings underachieving winger MikkoMakela. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m happy about the way things have worked out.&rdquo;Donnelly, 28, provided hustle and speed a year ago. Now, skating on a line with center John McIntyre and right winger Dave Taylor, he is providing a great deal of offense.He entered this season having scored only 21 goals in 149 NHL games spanning five seasons. He already had produced 12 goals in 23 games, seven in an eight-game stretch, despite being used primarily as a checker and penalty killer. But there is no question Donnelly can score. The Detroit native had an NCAA record 59 goals with Michigan State in 1985-86.Donnelly scored seven goals in 53 games last year, but six of them came in the final 15 games. He was one of the Kings&rsquo; best players in the postseason with five goals and nine points in 12 games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still expected to do a good job defensively, but when the opportunity is there to score. I&rsquo;m going to take it,&rdquo; he said.STICKY SITUATION: Coach Tom Webster expressed remorse for his actions prior to attending a disciplinary hearing Nov. 26 in L.A. with NHL vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill.Webster was ejected for hurling a stick onto the ice during a Nov. 16 game with Detroit at the Forum. The stick bounced onto referee Kerry Fraser&rsquo;s skates.&ldquo;It has been eating at me since it happened,&rdquo; Webster said. &ldquo;Have you ever said something you wish you could take back? Have you ever done something you deeply regret? That&rsquo;s how I feel about this.&rdquo;Webster said he hadn&rsquo;t seen a videotape of the incident. &ldquo;And I don&rsquo;t want to see it,&rdquo; he said.Webster was ejected three times last season, once for throwing a stick, and received a four-game suspension and $5,000 fine for punching Calgary&rsquo;s Doug Gilmour in a March 23 game.NOTEBOOK: Marty McSorley was hospitalized Nov. 23 with what Webster called &ldquo;a bad virus and swelling in his throat.&rdquo; McSorley didn&rsquo;t feel well when he arrived at the Forum for the Kings&rsquo; morning skate and didn&rsquo;t play in the club&rsquo;s 6-4 win over San Jose that night &hellip;Wayne Gretzky produced his 49th career hat trick and sixth as a King in the win over the Sharks. The win gave the Kings their first three-game winning streak of the year.Gretzky said the progress being made by his father, Walter, who suffered a brain aneurysm Oct. 16, was making it easier for him to concentrate on hockey. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s having some trouble with short-term memory, but we&rsquo;re told that&rsquo;s normal,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;I can talk to him on the phone now. He&rsquo;s coming along.&rdquo;<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Randy Gilhen, John McIntyre.LW&mdash;Tony Granato, Luc Robitaille, Mike Donnelly, Sylvain Couturier.RW&mdash;Tomas Sandstrom, Bob Kudelski, Dave Taylor, Jay Miller.LD&mdash;Brian Benning, Darryl Sydor, Larry Robinson, Peter Ahola.RD&mdash;Rob Blake, Charlie Huddy, Rene Chapdelaine.G&mdash;Kelly Hrudey, Daniel Berthiaume.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jari Kurri, RW, right hip flexor, day-to-day Marty McSorley, D, viral infection, indefinite Jim Thomson, RW, sprained right elbow, indefinite. Tim Watters, D, sprained left ankle, indefinite. &#9632;

Donnelly’s play nice surprise

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>Twenty games into the season, the Calgary Flames produced a very respectable 805 minutes in penalties.Consider that if they keep up that pace over the entire season, they would finish with 3,220 minutes&mdash;or about 600 more than the most penalized team in NHL history&mdash;the 198889 Pittsburgh Penguins.Did somebody say the Flames had a discipline problem? Not even the Broad Street Bullies were this intent on self-destruction.As the Flames staggered into the second quarter, dumb penalties were killing any chance they had to challenge for the Smythe Division lead.Between the 20th and 21 st games of the season, the schedule maker gave the Flames five days off. The coaching staff spent endless hours preaching about the value of staying disciplined. So what happened?In a home-and-home series with Vancouver Nov. 21 and 22, they managed to play shorthanded 20 times.Tim Hunter, one of the worst offenders, picked up a questionable minor the first night that almost cost them Game 1 of the series (3-2 win) and then he received his second major stick foul of the season 1:45 into the second game (6-5 loss).Defenseman Jim Kyte received a match penalty for gouging and right winger Theo Fleury accumulated four minors, the last of which cost them the second game. David Babych scored, the winning goal in overtime with &lsquo;Fleury off for his third slashing penalty of the night.In addition, Canuck defenseman Robert Dirk, clearly angling for Joe Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s wonky left knee, put a leg-dragging hit on the Flames&rsquo; center, leaving him with a charleyhorse. The injury was not expected to keep Nieuwendyk out of any games.FLEURY WORRIES: With 14 goals in 22 games, Theo Fleury was five goals ahead of last season&rsquo;s pace when he scored a career-high 51. Despite his scoring feats, Fleury has been under the gun for the first time in his career in Calgary.Part of the problem centers on badly-timed penalties. The second part is he didn&rsquo;t seem to be playing with the same enthusiasm that you normally associate with the 5-foot-6 dynamo.Fleury put it down to a case of Canada Cup hangover.&ldquo;Me, Joel Otto, Al Maclnnis, Gary Suter, we&rsquo;ve basically been going since the beginning of August with only five days off. Collectively, all of us have to get a rest when we can.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Flames lost Al Maclnnis until at least early December in their 6-5 loss to the Canucks. Vancouver right winger Jim Sandlak caught Maclnnis with a heavy hit as the Flames tried to kill a penalty, causing a first-degree shoulder separation&hellip;Left winger Gary Roberts, who was the team&rsquo;s leading goal-scorer for most of the season, re-injured his neck in a Nov. 16 game against Buffalo Sabres (5-4 loss) and missed the pair of games against the Canucks.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 22: Paul Kruse, LW, Todd Harkins, C, recalled from from Salt Lake (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Doug Gilmour, Joe Nieuwendyk, Joel Otto, Robert Reichel, Todd Harkins.LW&mdash;Paul Ranheim, Tim Hunter, Paul Kruse.RW&mdash;Theo Fleury, Sergei Makarov, Ron Stern, Marc Habscheid.LD&mdash;Gary Suter, Jamie Macoun, Frank Musil.RD&mdash;Mark Osiecki, Jim Kyte, Neil Sheehy.G&mdash;Mike Vernon, Rick Wamsley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tomas Forslund, LW, strained knee, day-to-day Al Maclnnis, D, separated shoulder, day-to-day. Stephane Matteau, LW, thigh bone ossification, indefinite. Ric Nattress, D, left knee surgery, day-to-day Gary Roberts, LW, strained neck, day-to-day. Martin Simard, RW, torn knee ligaments, indefinite. Tim Sweeney. LW, whiplash, day-to-day, Carey Wilson, C, biopsy on left shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

Record penalty pace killing Smythe chances

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011509/6277988-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="205" height="155"></div>For most Canadians, purchasing new hockey equipment is more of an adventure than an ordeal.Sports stores with the latest shinny gear are readily at hand, and most people can muster the necessary funds to outfit themselves for the season.But things are much different in the Far North, where locating and purchasing equipment can be a major hassle&mdash;and an economic impossibility.Coppermine, Northwest Territories resident Shane Thompson experienced the problem first hand in 1989, after taking over as new athletic coordinator of the tiny Inuit community, 600 kilometres north of Yellowknife.An avid hockey fan, Thompson hoped to create an organized minor hockey program for the 1,500 residents. The idea seemed appropriate considering a new recreation facility had been completed the previous year. Unfortunately, economic reality doused the plan.&ldquo;When I first came here,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;the kids were hanging around the rink and I asked them where their equipment was. They said their parents couldn&rsquo;t afford it.&rdquo;To solve the problem, Thompson wrote to minor hockey organizations across Canada asking for used equipment.His hard work paid off and today, minor hockey in Coppermine is booming.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve received enough equipment to outfit 80 players from five to 17,&rdquo; Thompson said. &ldquo;And last year we had enough equipment left over for maybe 40 or 50 kids. We&rsquo;re now starting to send left over equipment to other communities in the region.&rdquo;Coppermine received used equipment from eight minor hockey programs from as far away as Gander, Nfld. Organizations in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia also contributed.The equipment must be shipped by air or barge because of Coppermine&rsquo;s location on the Beaufort Sea. Several companies&mdash;including Air Canada, Grimshaw Trucking, Distributing Ltd., and NWT Air&mdash;offered discount rates to ship the equipment to the town.There are three teams in the Coppermine Minor Hockey Association: a mite team (five to eight year olds), a bantam team (nine to 11 year olds) and a peewee team (12 to 14 year olds).&ldquo;The older kids (15&mdash;and 16-year-olds) play in our senior league with the men,&rdquo; Thompson said.Geography restricts road trips to nearby communities for overnight games.Coppermine sent a 15-member team to its first tournament last fall in Holman (pop. 400) on Victoria Island, 450 kilometres due north. It marked the first hockey tournament in that region. &#9632;

f0014-01

Northern program thriving

There must have been a sense of deja vu for Darren Pang last season.The Chicago Blackhawks went into training camp with five quality goalies and Ed Belfour, the one not expected to be No. 1, emerged to have a stellar year. It was just like Pang&rsquo;s rookie season.&ldquo;That year, Chicago picked Jimmy Waite in the draft, traded for Bob Mason and signed Ed Belfour,&rdquo; says Pang, 27. &ldquo;The last thing they expected was for Darren Pang to be their top goalie.&rdquo;Pang started 45 games in 1987-88 and compiled a 17-23-1 record for a team that only won 21 games. He ended up on the all-rookie team.Last season it was Belfour&rsquo;s turn to surprise the Blackhawks. And Pang watched the action as the host of the Blackhawks&rsquo; postgame show on WBBM-AM radio. But it was just Pang&rsquo;s luck that the season he was forced to retire from hockey Chicago would put it all together and win the President&rsquo;s Cup.Pang, who retired prior to last season, had battled back from a knee injury suffered in his second year in the NHL. In training camp it was obvious that his left knee couldn&rsquo;t stand up to the pressure of an 80-game schedule.While undergoing rehabilitation on his knee, he did some color commentary work for college hockey and found a new calling.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021154/6278019-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="547" height="680"><figcaption class="caption-body">Darren Pang was reminded of his rookie season last year.</figcaption></div>Pang, who is 5-foot-5, 155 pounds, didn&rsquo;t see his size as a problem on the road to the NHL.&ldquo;I saw it as another challenge,&rdquo; says Pang. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter whether you&rsquo;re big or small. It all boils down to intelligence and quickness.&rdquo;Pang&rsquo;s quickness and intelligence are what got him to the Blackhawks after spending four seasons in the minors. He was on the second all-star team in the International League after posting a 25-16-0 record with Saginaw in 1986-87.&ldquo;One side of me said (the knock against his size) was a fact of life,&rdquo; Pang said. &ldquo;But the other side said if I stay on top of my game there is no reason why I won&rsquo;t get a chance.&rdquo;Injuries were a fact of life during Pang&rsquo;s career-he only played 81 games in parts of three seasons. His second year was marred by a hamstring pull and his knee injury.Pang injured his knee during the Campbell Conference finals against Calgary. Teammate Wayne Van Dorp fell on his leg during a practice and Pang suffered an anterior cruciate ligament tear.&ldquo;I still have problems to this day,&rdquo; Pang says. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t put any pressure on it and anything to do with turning and pivoting is a problem.&rdquo;&ldquo;My career ended so quickly, It&rsquo;s just harsh reality. But I think I handled it well. I was realistic all along because of my size and it took me years to reach the NHL.&rdquo;Pang is involved with helping Blackhawk players plan for the future as well as his broadcast work. He does the Blackhawks&rsquo; telephone hotline as well as works as an analyst for SportsChannel America.Last season was difficult for Pang to analyze because he had just retired. Now, he is another step removed.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t sit down and watch a practice (last year),&rdquo; Pang says. &ldquo;Now, I&rsquo;m 100 per cent better, and I think I&rsquo;m doing a better job.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-02

Darren still has NHL Pangs after injury ended his career

<div class="byline">By Jeff Gordon</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011396/6278050-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="387" height="494"></div>Here is a silly-sounding theory presented for the sake of debate:The New Jersey Devils would have been better off losing the arbitration ruling which landed them defenseman Scott Stevens. Judge Edward J. Houston, you&rsquo;ll recall, sent him packing for the Meadowlands as compensation for free agent Brendan Shanahan&rsquo;s signing with the St. Louis Blues.Only a melonhead would equate a Norris Trophy finalist with a forward who had produced Adam Creighton numbers in his four NHL seasons, but don&rsquo;t get me started on that again.Instead, let&rsquo;s focus on how the Devils have done with Houston&rsquo;s gift&mdash;and speculate how they might have instead prospered with left winger Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, goaltender Curtis Joseph and two second-round picks to play with.After the season&rsquo;s first quarter, the Devils had nothing to show for Houston&rsquo;s ruling but an inflated payroll. This was underscored when the Devils lost to the New York Islanders 4-3 and the Winnipeg Jets 1-0 in consecutive home games. That left them 11-9-0 after the first quarter, a bit below expectations.Is the Stanley Cup destined for Exit 16W on the New Jersey Turnpike? As the Patrick Division race began heating up, that prospect seemed no more likely than usual.This is not to disparage Stevens, who has been his usual forceful self for the Devils.But Houston&rsquo;s ruling-which was largely a photocopy of the Devils&rsquo; wish list-left the team with an unbalanced roster. They have the league&rsquo;s most-skilled defense, yes, but they may have had the most-skilled defense in 1990-91 without him.And the Devils lack the two things the Blues offered them: a versatile, productive, Shanahan-like forward and a strong goaltender to support Chris Terreri. In this light, the Blues&rsquo; arbitration offer doesn&rsquo;t look so &ldquo;unconscionable&rdquo; as Devils&rsquo; GM Lou Lamoriello put it.Blues&rsquo; GM Ron Caron is a great guy. He was trying to help the Devils, not rip them off.They need a Brind&rsquo;Amour-like forward badly. The Flyers got him and put him to work mucking, banging, killing penalties and scoring.Without a guy like Brind&rsquo;Amour, Devils&rsquo; coach Tom Me Vie was forced to move Stevens to left wing on his power play. Isn&rsquo;t it more logical to get a left winger to replace a left winger?Brind&rsquo;Amour would have been the perfect replacement for Shanahan or captain Kirk Muller, who was traded to the Montreal Canadiens for the not-so-gritty Stephane Richer. And Rod the Bod works for a fraction of what Richer makes, a key factor given the thrifty inclinations of owner John McMullen.With Muller and Shanahan gone, the burden of leadership fell to John MacLean&hellip;who immediately blew out his knee. So 900-year-old Peter Stastny was left in charge of the Devils&rsquo; attack.How long will he last?Speaking of durability, McVie started Terreri in 19 of the first 20 Devils&rsquo; games, which helps explain why he lost nine of them. Sean Burke&rsquo;s exodus to the Canadian Olympic team left a gaping hole on their roster.And to think, as Judge Houston ruled, the Devils couldn&rsquo;t use Joseph. In fact, Houston chastised the Blues for trying to stick the Devils with such a slug.&ldquo;The fact that Joseph is an unknown entity on the ice is exacerbated by his inflated salary,&rdquo; Houston observed. &ldquo;Obviously, this was an attempt by the Blues to unload an overpriced, average goalie.&rdquo;Boy, do those words ring true to today. Imagine if the Devils would have been forced to employ a goaltender who compiled a dreadful .910 save percentage and bulky 2.75 goals-against average in his first 17 games behind a rebuilding defense.The Devils must feel they have an ideal back-up in Craig Billington, who has done well spelling Terreri in the pre-game warmups. But I&rsquo;ll argue, with some conviction, that Joseph will have a better season than Billington.Lastly, Houston panned the value of the two No. 2 picks the Blues offered. But those picks can be quite valuable when shopping for offensive help; veteran scorers like Brian Propp and Joe Mullen were moved for No. 2 picks.So there. The Devils are thrilled with Stevens, but their salary scale is forever busted, their fans are still yawning (just 9,293 showed up for a big game with the Washington Capitals Nov. 20), they need a power forward and their goaltender could be frazzled by Valentine&rsquo;s Day.Maybe that Blues offer wasn&rsquo;t so &ldquo;unconscionable&rdquo; after all. &#9632;

f0015-01

Did Devils really win in landing Stevens?

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02974/6278081-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Being Detroit&rsquo;s third-line center hasn&rsquo;t stopped Jimmy Carson from leading the team in scoring. (Photo by Bruce Bennett)</figcaption></div>Jimmy Carson is living proof that sometimes the best trades are the ones that aren&rsquo;t made.If he had a nickel for every time his name has been mentioned in a trade rumor since last season&rsquo;s end, he could add another zero to his $600,000 per-season salary. But try as they did in their off-season search for a goaltender, the Red Wings didn&rsquo;t trade Carson, and for that they are delighted. He was their leading scorer through 22 games and one of their best all-around forwards.&ldquo;The whole thing was a character-building process,&rdquo; said Carson, a native of suburban Detroit. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re a strong person, you realize certain things. You keep the faith, you work hard and you don&rsquo;t worry about what other people say.&rdquo;What other people were saying after the Wings squandered a 3-1 series lead and lost to St. Louis in the playoffs last spring was that Carson had disappointed his hometown, that it was clear that he wasn&rsquo;t fitting into the Wings&rsquo; plans.&ldquo;I wish he did,&rdquo; coach-general manager Bryan Murray said then. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great kid. If he was my son, I&rsquo;d be so dam proud of him.&rdquo;But&hellip;.?&ldquo;But he had a tough year. Right now, he&rsquo;s playing behind Steve (Yzerman) and Sergei (Fedorov).&rdquo;As the season turned the quarterpole mark, Carson still was playing behind Yzerman and Fedorov&mdash;and seeing less ice time. But he was outscoring both. Carson led the team in scoring, Fedorov was second and Yzerman was fifth.In his three-center rotation, Murray rations more ice time to Yzerman, who averages 23-25 minutes a game, while Carson and Fedorov see about 18-20 minutes each. All three centers play the power play and Fedorov and Yzerman kill penalties. Still, there don&rsquo;t seem to be enough minutes to go around.&ldquo;We all want 25,&rdquo; Carson said, insisting all the while he has no complaints.Deserved or not, he acquired a reputation as a trouble maker when he refused to play for the Edmonton Oilers two years ago, demanding a trade. The Oilers submitted and sent him to Detroit in a multi-player deal.After two sub-par seasons for the Wings of 20 and 21 goals and a rash of injuries, the fans and Murray thought they had seen enough. But Carson didn&rsquo;t let rumors bother him.&ldquo;Any athlete is bound to hear things, but my biggest problem was the expectations people had for me,&rdquo; Carson said. &ldquo;People expected 50 goals, no matter what.&rdquo;And why not? He scored 37 as a rookie, then 55 as a 19-year-old with Los Angeles. In his only season with Edmonton after he was traded to the Oilers in the Wayne Gretzky deal, Carson scored 49. But asking for 50 on his arrival in Detroit was unreasonable. Carson had tremendous expectations placed upon him right from the moment he unpacked his bags.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question that the expectations were unfair,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Like anybody else, Jimmy had to find a role on this hockey team.&rdquo;It looks as though he has finally found one&hellip;and what better place than at home. &#9632;

f0015-02

Home at Last

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>The Detroit Red Wings were in the market for a goaltender again after learning Vince Riendeau won&rsquo;t be available for some time.Riendeau underwent arthroscopic surgery Nov. 20 to repair cartilage damage in his right knee, which he injured 28 minutes into his first start with the Wings against Toronto Oct. 25. Indications are it may be February or March before he returns.So what now? Workhorse Tim Cheveldae appeared in each of Detroit&rsquo;s first 24 games, starting 23 and playing all but 58 minutes. And the Wings keep saying rookie Dave Gagnon, the back-up since Riendeau&rsquo;s injury, isn&rsquo;t ready to face NHL shooters, though he has shown improvement in practice.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to have to do something,&rdquo; coach-GM Bryan Murray said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure what. I may have to acquire another (goalie), if there&rsquo;s anybody out there.&rdquo;The best bet: San Jose, which had four goaltenders on its roster, with veteran Brian Hayward said to be available. But Murray also spoke with Philadelphia GM Russ Farwell about Ken Wregget or Ron Hextall; to the New York Rangers&rsquo; Neil Smith about Greg Millen, now in the minors; and he phoned Quebec&rsquo;s Pierre Page about John Tanner or Ron Tugnutt.But in the midst of a nine-game unbeaten streak (7-0-2), Murray was hesitant to make a major change that might disrupt his team&rsquo;s chemistry.BORDER CROSSING: Though his attorneys aren&rsquo;t holding their breath, forward Bob Probed could be free to travel back and forth across the U.S.-Canadian border under proposed new legislation working its way through the U.S. congress.An amendment to immigration law, passed by the House Judiciary Committee Nov. 19, essentially gives non-permanent resident aliens the same rights as permanent resident aliens.&ldquo;It opens the way for Bob Probed to have a hearing before the (U.S.) Attorney General,&rdquo; said Julian Epstien the committee&rsquo;s staff director. &ldquo;He can show that he his not a threat to the community nor is there a risk of him fleeing. It opens the door for him to travel.&rdquo;In 1989, an Immigration and Naturalizaion Service judge cited chronic alcoholism in ruling that Porbert be deported. Probert, who served three months in a federal prison on a felony drug-possession conviction, appealed the ruling and it remains pending.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011293/6278112-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="554" height="834"><figcaption class="caption-body">Johan Garplenov is reportedly on the trading block in Detroit.</figcaption></div>NOTEBOOK: Captain Steve Yzerman missed his second game in four seasons Nov. 23 at Minnesota (2-2 tie) because of a bruised knee. The injury isn&rsquo;t serious and Yzerman&rsquo;s status was listed as day-to-day&hellip;Right winger Troy Crowder skated briefly Nov. 17&mdash;the first time in about five weeks&mdash;but reported some soreness in his back.Bryan Murray was trying to trim his roster, but couldn&rsquo;t get any takers for several players he made available, among them forwards Johan Garpenlov and Brian MacLellan and defenseman Doug Crossman.Brad McCrimmon, Vladimir Konstantinov. Bob Probert, Alan Kerr and Yzerman were fined the maximum $500, and their 15 teammates were fined $300 each for their actions in a post-game brawl in Boston Nov. 2. Both clubs were fined $25,000 and each coach was fined $1,000.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 23: Dave Gagnon, G, assigned to Fort Wayne (IHL). Scott King, G, recalled from Toledo (ECHL). Nov. 24: Gagnon recalled from Fort Wayne. King assigned to Toledo<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Kevin Miller, Jimmy Carson, Sergei Fedorov, Alan Kerr.LW&mdash;Gerard Gallant. Shawn Burr, Brian MacLellan, Johan Garpenlov.RW&mdash;Bob Probert, Ray Sheppard, Paul Ysebaert, Brent Fedyk.LD&mdash;Niklas Lidstrom, Vladimir Konstantinov, Yves Racine.RD&mdash;Brad McCrimmon. Steve Chiasson, Brad Marsh, Dennis Vial. Doug Crossman.G&mdash;Tim Cheveldae. Dave Gagnon<h3>INJURIES</h3>Troy Crowder, RW, bulging disc in back, indefinite. Martin Lapointe, RW, broken wrist, day-to-day. Vincent Riendeau, G, right knee surgery, indefinite. Steve Yzerman, C, bruised knee, day-to-day &#9632;

f0016-01

Murray goes shopping for goaltender—again

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>When their bus pulled up to the Stephen Township Arena in tiny Huron Park, Ont., Nov. 20, the Chicago Blackhawks could hardly believe their eyes.Waiting for them were more than 400 people who had come out to watch a practice. What started out as a two-day getaway in the resort area of Grand Bend, Ont., between games in Detroit and Buffalo, turned into a holiday-like event for the area&rsquo;s people.&ldquo;In the winter this (rink) is like their church, and Jesus and the 12 apostles have just showed up,&rdquo; Hawks&rsquo; associate coach Darryl Sutter said.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011148/6278143-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="552" height="902"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jeremy Roenick says the replay rule is getting out of hand.</figcaption></div>Enjoying the reception as much as anyone was head coach Mike Keenan, who wore a smile from ear to ear as he signed autographs on his way to the ice.&ldquo;This is such a thrill for these farm kids,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;For an NHL team to show up here would be like the Yankees showing up in the (U.S.) midwest. When we got off the bus these kids had eyes as big as saucers. They still can&rsquo;t believe that Eddie Belfour is actually in this building.&rdquo;The Hawks practiced twice in Huron Park, and the crowd the second day was bigger than the first.&ldquo;This is what hockey&rsquo;s all about,&rdquo; Steve Larmer said. &ldquo;Small towns, small buildings and people havang fun.&rdquo;NO OFFENSE: The Hawks lost the first two games of a five-game road trip when the offense sputtered. They went seven periods with just one goal.&ldquo;No, we don&rsquo;t have enough offense as far as I&rsquo;m concerned, but about 90 per cent of the teams in the league don&rsquo;t either,&rdquo; Keenan said when pressed about his club&rsquo;s lack of scoring punch. &ldquo;If you look at our goal scoring, we had a good pace going early. Now we can&rsquo;t buy a goal and people are starting to press.&rdquo;Keenan pointed to the second, third and fourth lines as the people who needed to produce more, even though Jeremy Roenick&rsquo;s line, the club&rsquo;s top unit, was struggling as well.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the people behind J.R. and Larmer that have to produce more,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not getting offensive balance.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Hawks might have been able to take home at least a tie in a 2-0 loss to Buffalo Nov. 22, if a goal by Jeremy Roenick had been allowed to stand. But referee Mark Faucette washed out the goal which would have tied the game 1-1, saying he blew his whistle before Roenick tapped in his own rebound, even though replays clearly indicated he did not. The Sabres won 2-0, getting an empty-netter late. What really steamed the Hawks is Faucette asked for a video replay of the play, not knowing a judgement call like that cannot be reviewed. &ldquo;Somebody better tell the referees the real meaning of this rule,&rdquo; Roenick said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s getting out of hand.&rdquo;<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 18: Karl Dykhuis, D, assigned to College Francais (QMJHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Jeremy Roenick, Brent Sutter, Mike Hudson, Mike Stapleton.LW&mdash;Michel Goulet, Greg Gilbert, John Tonelli, Mike Peluso, Stu Crimson.RW&mdash;Steve Larmer, Dirk Graham, Brian Noonan, Jocelyn Lemieux.LD&mdash;Steve Smith, Steve Konroyd, Frank Kucera.RD&mdash;Chris Chelios, Bryan Marchment, Rod Buskas.G&mdash;Ed Belfour, Jimmy Waite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Keith Brown, D, groin puli, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0017-01

Grand Bend faithful flock to see saviors play at local rink

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>St. Louis coach Brian Sutter wanted Paul Cavallini to sit out at least one more game. But as it turned out, he returned just in the nick of time.The 26-year-old defenseman was back in the Blues&rsquo; lineup Nov. 20 after missing 13 games with a knee injury. He helped the Blues beat Toronto 5-2.The Blues were 4-5-4 in the 13 games Cavallini missed. Their goal production dwindled, their goals against rose and their special teams suffered.Coincidence? Maybe not. St. Louis has had a recent history of missing Cavallini. The Blues were 5-6-2 last season when Cavallini missed 13 games after losing the tip of his left index finger in an on-ice accident.&ldquo;I felt I was ready,&rdquo; said Cavallini, who sprained his left knee when he tried to check Chicago&rsquo;s Steve Smith Oct. 20. &ldquo;One of the coach&rsquo;s concerns was whether I was in good enough shape. When i came off the ice, I felt I could have played three more periods. I felt really great.&rdquo;Cavallini played a solid defensive game and stayed out of trouble to avoid aggravating the injury. Though he didn&rsquo;t figure in the scoring, he scored big with teammates.&ldquo;Awesome,&rdquo; defensive partner Garth Butcher said. &ldquo;I thought he played real well. Any time you get a player of his caliber back, it can do nothing but help the team.&rdquo;Cavallini kept it simple his first game back. He didn&rsquo;t try to do much offensively, even though the Blues missed his contribution as an attacker.&ldquo;Hopefully, my bad luck string is over, and I can play 67 games this season,&rdquo; Cavallini said. &ldquo;I felt good. I was a little nervous at first, but when I skated on the ice before the game, I got chills down my spine.&rdquo;CENTURY CLUB: Left winger Gino Cavallini reached an NHL milestone in the victory over Toronto.Cavallini scored the 100th career goal on a two-on-one break with Brett Hull. Hull passed to Cavallini who kicked the puck forward and shot it over goalie Grant Fuhr for what proved to be the game-winning goal.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good thing I had size 11 skates to kick it up to my stick,&rdquo; Cavallini said. &ldquo;It was a great play by Brett. Most guys can&rsquo;t make that pass.&rdquo;Cavallini is the grinding winger on the line with Hull and Adam Oates. &ldquo;My job isn&rsquo;t scoring.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I create openings for them, and whenever I score, it&rsquo;s a bonus.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Brett Hull broke a season-long slump against Toronto&rsquo;s Grant Fuhr Nov. 20, scoring twice after being held scoreless on 18 shots in the first two games against Fuhr. After solving Fuhr, Hull was stoned by Rangers&rsquo; goalie Mike Richter, who made two glove saves on Hull in the slot en route to a 3-0 shutout Nov. 23.Defenseman Jeff Brown scored two goals against Fuhr, the second time a Blues&rsquo; defenseman had scored two goals in a game this season. Brown led the Blues&rsquo; defensemen with 17 points, but wants to improve. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been happy with the way I&rsquo;ve played offensively since I came from Quebec,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I had a label that I couldn&rsquo;t play defensively, and I&rsquo;ve worked hard to correct that. Now, it&rsquo;s time to mix the two.&rdquo;<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 18: Dominic Lavoie, D, assigned to Peoria (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Adam Oates, Ron Sutter, Bob Bassen, Michel Mongeau. Ron Wilson.LW&mdash;Gino Cavallini. Nelson Emerson, Dave Lowry, Dave Christian.RW&mdash;Brett Hull, Brendan Shanahan, Rich Sutter, Kelly Chase, Darin Kimble.LD&mdash;Lee Norwood, Paul Cavallini, Murray Baron, Rob Robinson.RD&mdash;Jeff Brown. Garth Butcher, Rick Zombo, Mario Marois.G&mdash;Curtis Joseph, Pat Jablonski.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Cavallini return provides much-needed boost

<div class="byline">By Gary Olson</div>The boss didn&rsquo;t like what he saw in the Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; first 20 games this season and there&rsquo;s no reason he should have his vision checked.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very disappointed,&rdquo; owner Norman Green said, looking at the Stars&rsquo; 8-11-1 first-quarter record. &ldquo;We had such great momentum at the end of last season and now we only see the good offense and defense in flashes.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re far too good to be in fourth place in the Norris Division or in the bottom half of the NHL. As disappointed as I am, it&rsquo;s mostly the reactions of a fan. And I&rsquo;m absolutely certain Bob Clarke and Bob Gainey are just as disappointed and will do what needs to be done to correct it.&rdquo;General manager Clarke and coach Gainey seemed bewildered and irritated by the up-and-down effort from some players. That could change the sense of security the players felt when Green purchased the North Stars and a storybook season followed. Who can forget Minnesota&rsquo;s upset playoff victories over Chicago, St. Louis and Edmonton on its way to the Stanley Cup finals?Mediocrity, once the standard because none other was within reach, is no longer acceptable in Minnesota.If the lesson players learned from getting to the finals was simply qualifying for the playoffs is enough, those players may not be around to see if it works again.&ldquo;This has been a rollercoaster ride,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re scratching and clawing to hold our ground instead of seeing whose ground we can capture.&rdquo;PRESSURE MOUNTS: At least one of the North Stars&rsquo; stars will admit to a tightening around the collar.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s good to put pressure on yourself,&rdquo; center Dave Gagner said, &ldquo;but not if it makes you up tight. And we&rsquo;ve been real uptight lately. It hasn&rsquo;t been much fun around here. I&rsquo;d gladly trade my goals for a win.&rdquo;Gagner scored two goals&mdash;his fourth and fifth in four games against the Red Wings&mdash;as the Stars interrupted a three-game losing streak with a 2-2 tie against Detroit Nov. 23.NOTEBOOK: Center Bobby Smith was within two points of 1,000 for his career when he went into the home-and-home series against Toronto Nov. 29 and 30. The 14-year veteran had 345 goals and 998 points in 984 games. Just over half his points&mdash;516&mdash;have come as a member of the North Stars. Smith had 482 points in seven seasons with Montreal. Goalie Jon Casey gave up just two goals against Detroit, on the Red Wings&rsquo; first and last shots.Back-up goalie Darcy Wakaluk received nine stitches in his forehead when he was hit by the puck while sitting on the bench Nov. 19&hellip;The North Stars&rsquo; record in the first of back-to-back games is 2-1-0. In the rematch, they&rsquo;re 0-1-2.Defenseman Brian Glynn was on the ice for all seven Islanders&rsquo; goals in a 7-4 loss Nov. 19. He was minus-5 during the game.<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dave Gagner, Bobby Smith, Neal Broten, Mike Modano, Marc Bureau. Todd ElikLW&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 Tinordi, D, foot palsy, indefinite. &#9632;

Boss Green almost seeing red

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>Maybe it was just a case of the seven-year itch.Whatever the case, the decision by Toronto coach Tom Watt to move former 50-goal scorer Gary Leeman from right wing back to defense for a Nov. 22 game against San Jose must have given Leeman a sense of deja vu.An all-star defenseman throughout his junior career with the Regina Pats of the Western League, Leeman had not skated on the Leaf blue line on a regular basis since his rookie season in 1984. So it was a surprise when he was thrown to Sharks at the Cow Palace.After the game, both the player and his coach said they were pleased with the experiment, partly because the Leafs won their first road game of the season after an 0-10-1 start, and partly because Leeman had a strong offensive showing with seven shots.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve had that many shots all year,&rdquo; Leeman said. &ldquo;I loved it.&rdquo;It was not Leeman&rsquo;s skill as a defenseman that initiated the move. Watt was forced to use his best right winger on the blue line due to injuries: Michel Petit had still not fully recovered from a thumb injury and Bob Halkidis had pulled a groin two nights earlier against St. Louis.Whether it will be a permanent move, or even one that will last for a period of weeks, was uncertain.&ldquo;I thought it worked out pretty well,&rdquo; Watt said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying it&rsquo;s out of the realm of possibility to keep him there.&rdquo;After playing defense for 52 games as a rookie in the 1983-84 season under head coach Mike Nykoluk, Leeman began to move back and forth between forward and defense when Dan Maloney assumed the coaching job the next season.By 1985, Leeman was a full-time forward, a decision that made him happy at the time.Leeman said the move to defense came as a bit of a relief since he had only managed four goals in his first 23 games this season as a right winger.TRADE EMBARGO: Sometimes demands to be traded work, and sometimes they don&rsquo;t.In the case of veteran center Tom Fergus, a trade request definitely did not work out the way he would have liked. Several days after his agent Mike Gillis met with Leaf management to request that the 11-year veteran be dealt to another club, the Leafs put Fergus on recallable waivers. He cleared Nov. 20, and was sent to St. John&rsquo;s of the American League the same day.He did not report to St. John&rsquo;s immediately and missed a three-game road trip to Rochester, Springfield and New Haven, although Leaf officials expected he&rsquo;d have little choice but to join the club eventually.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 20: Tom Fergus, C, assigned to St. John&rsquo;s (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Bullard, Mike Krushelnyski, Dave Hannan, Mike Eastwood.RW&mdash;Mike Foligno, Glenn Anderson, Rob Pearson, Lucien Deblois.LW&mdash;Craig Berube, Daniel Marois, Claude Loiselle, Rob Cimetta.LD&mdash;Dave Ellett, Bob Rouse, Todd Gill.RD&mdash;Gary Leeman, Darryl Shannon, Bob Halkidis, Alexander Godynyuk.G&mdash;Grant Fuhr, Jeff Reese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brian Bradley, C, sprained ankle, day-to-day. Wendel Clark, LW, sprained left knee, Dec 8 Bob Halkidis, D, groin pull, day-to-day Michel Petit, D, bruised thumb, day-to-day. Peter Zezel, C, sprained knee, indefinite. &#9632;

Leeman is defensive about roster switch

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01982/6278246-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Philadelphia&rsquo;s Steve Duchesne had three straight 20-goal seasons coming into this year. (Photo by Mike DiGirolamo/BBS)</figcaption></div>Imagine walking out to the parking lot and finding your sub-compact gone. But sitting in the same space is a brand-new Ferrari.The key to your old car fits in the door, so you open it and lower yourself into the seat. The dashboard looks like the cockpit on a .747. You can&rsquo;t even find the ignition, much less work the gear shift.Now what?That&rsquo;s pretty much the scenario the Philadelphia Flyers have found themselves in during the first quarter of the season. They picked up a shiny speedster named Steve Duchesne but they still haven&rsquo;t figured out how to take advantage of his skills. At times, they stop and stare, almost in awe of his skating and puckhandling talent.On the flip side, Duchesne is slightly out of his element, too. He&rsquo;s accustomed to playing with the Maseratis and Lamborghinis of western hockey, otherwise known as the Los Angeles Kings. He&rsquo;s coming from five years of offensive-minded strategy where they shoot first and worry about defense later.And it&rsquo;s not exactly like he&rsquo;s playing alongside a bunch of Edsels now but the Flyers don&rsquo;t exactly boast a high-octane offensive attack. So both Duchesne and his new teammates are a little frustrated at the moment. But both sides express confidence they can get onto the same wavelength before long.Coach Paul Holmgren is the man in the middle of this predicament. He says the key to harmony is communication.&ldquo;Steve&rsquo;s used to playing with Wayne Gretzky and Wayne Gretzky knows where everybody is on the ice,&rdquo; says Holmgren. &ldquo;Maybe you don&rsquo;t have to call for the puck there. But with our guys, and it&rsquo;s not a knock on them, there has to be communication.&rdquo;Particularly galling to the Flyers was their ineptitude on the power play. They had a 9.7 per-cent efficiency rating (10 for 103) through 18 games, worst in the NHL.The Flyers went after Duchesne in the off-season (in a complex three-team deal that sent Jari Kurri and Jeff Chychrun to L.A.) partly because he is considered one of the best power-play triggermen in the game.Duchesne has three straight 20-or-more goal seasons behind him but the prospects don&rsquo;t look as promising in 1991-92. After 20 games he was on pace to score 13 goals and 62 points, which wasn&rsquo;t disappointing, but certainly below expectations.Duchesne&rsquo;s defense partner, Terry Carkner, is one player who has had to make a major adjustment.&ldquo;I can remember playing Buffalo where I had the puck in front of the net and later on the bench he told me he was open,&rdquo; says Carkner. &ldquo;In the five years I&rsquo;ve been in the league, I&rsquo;ve never taken a look to see if my partner was in a scoring position.&rdquo;Duchesne has been patient. At times, he has felt the pressure. This isn&rsquo;t laid-back L.A. where the fans and media take a wait-and-see approach. &ldquo;In L.A., you had guys who knew I was going to go up in the play,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It has been a little frustrating but we&rsquo;re working on that.&rdquo;But the 26-year-old came into this situation with his eyes open.Duchesne knew the Flyers struggled on offense the last two year. But what can one player be expected to do.&ldquo;I was supposed to replace certain guys and help offensively,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You do feel pressure. But everyone knows it&rsquo;s not a one-man game.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-01

The Philly Flash

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02652/6278277-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="444" height="485"></div>Ulf Samuelsson could change his name to Kennedy and still be the most hated man in Massachusetts. Look at Boston&rsquo;s lineup, see the gaping void where No. 8 usually can be found, and it&rsquo;s easy to see why.Samuelsson has singlehandedly shattered the stereotype of the timid Swede, probably with a well-placed elbow when no one was looking. When he became a father for the first time during the off-season, someone wondered if his newborn son would spend his first few days of life blindsiding other infants in the nursery.The Pittsburgh defenseman is admired by many, loathed by more. Some think of him a rugged, unyielding defenseman in the mold of Leo Boivin and Terry Harper. Others will tell you he is a malicious, wicked player who gets courage from his stick and oversized equipment.Penguins&rsquo; general manager Craig Patrick calls him, &ldquo;just a physical, strong player who irritates opponents and. hopefully, gets them off their game.&rdquo;But to many opponents, he is evil incarnate. &ldquo;He has that aura about him that makes you want to run him,&rdquo; Boston&rsquo;s Garry Galley said.A lot of guys have, and a lot more will if Samuelsson and the Penguins can agree on the multi-year year contract they&rsquo;ve been discussing. If they can&rsquo;t settle Samuelsson might return to Sweden forever, prompting the legions of Samuelsson-haters across North America to buy a round. Or a dozen.You&rsquo;ll probably be able to put one on Cam Neely&rsquo;s tab. He&rsquo;s still recovering from a hit by Samuelsson during the playoffs last spring. Same with Montreal&rsquo;s Brian Skrudland, who has been out since Samuelsson nailed him, apparently with an extended leg, in late October.Any place Samuelsson goes it seems outrage is likely to follow.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very rare when you can get everybody on one team hating one guy on the other team, but he can do it,&rdquo; Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Peter Taglianetti said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s pretty good at it.&rdquo;What some people don&rsquo;t realize is that Samuelsson is a product of his environment. He grew up playing youth hockey with Tomas Sandstrom, so it&rsquo;s amazing that either survived long enough to get a driver&rsquo;s license, let alone reach the NHL.And if the way Samuelsson learned to play the game as a youth angers opponents, what truly infuriates them is his refusal to fight more than once or twice a season. Some unwritten code of conduct in North America demands that any player willing to throw a bodycheck must also be agreeable to dropping his gloves at the slightest provocation.Samuelsson ignores that conventional wisdom, which leads opponents to insist he is an outlaw who seeks sanctuary behind his shoulder pads and visor.&ldquo;He won&rsquo;t back it up,&rdquo; Galley said.&ldquo;Hey, he&rsquo;d be fighting every shift if he did.&rdquo;&ldquo;It would be real easy for me to fight every second or third game,&rdquo; Samuelsson said. &ldquo;But I just think I can help the team out more the way I play.&ldquo;It is (difficult to resist the urge to fight), sometimes. But most of the time, I initiate all the stuff that goes on. You try to initiate, not retaliate.&rdquo;He generally does that, but most opponents don&rsquo;t object to retaliating against him, either. The welts and bruises accumulate as the season progresses.&ldquo;He gets slugged in the head, he gets whacked, he gets butt-ended, he gets speared and I haven&rsquo;t heard Ulfie complain to anybody about cheapshotting him,&rdquo; Pittsburgh center Bryan Trottier said.He probably won&rsquo;t, either. Samuelsson never has played the game like a man bent on winning the Lady Byng, and readily admits he will stray beyond the rules. He vehemently rejects the notion he ever would intentionally injure an opponent, although guys like Neely and Skrudland aren&rsquo;t likely to agree.&ldquo;I never try to stick someone in the eye or anything like that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;An occasional elbow here and there and an occasional whack in the back of the legs, stuff like that. I do that, but I think that&rsquo;s just part of intimidation.&rdquo;You can argue his intentions, but there&rsquo;s no denying the impact Samuelsson had on Pittsburgh after he arrived from Hartford March 4. A big, mean defenseman was one of the things Pittsburgh needed to challenge for the Stanley Cup. They got one. Then won one.And if it rankles some to think that Samuelsson&rsquo;s name has been engraved on the Cup, well, it&rsquo;s not going to bother him. Or change him. For better or worse, he&rsquo;s still Ulf.&ldquo;He plays hard every night, and I think a lot of people respect him for that,&rdquo; Taglianetti said. &ldquo;And I think a lot of people hate him for that, too.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-02

Ulfie’s story one of love and hate

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>If Kelly Miller had to do it over again, he wouldn&rsquo;t represent himself. Hockey and haggling just don&rsquo;t mix.The veteran left winger did his own negotiations with the Washington Capitals and came away with mixed feelings. He was relieved the process is over, but not thrilled with the result.Miller, 28. had hoped to sign a three&mdash;or four-year contract, but settled for one year and an option. He will earn a base salary of $440,000 and if he posts the statistics he did last year (career high 50 points and a tie for the team lead with 24 goals) and the team does well, he could cam $500,000 in bonuses&mdash;50 per cent of which would carry over into next year.That&rsquo;s a big raise from last year when Miller made $250,000.Miller&rsquo;s last contract was negotiated by then-agent Bob Goodenow, now deputy executive director of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association. So the Michigan State graduate who has a master&rsquo;s degree in business decided he could handle negotiations himself, with help from his father, Lyle. The time and compromise required bothered him.&ldquo;I wanted it done before the season instead of two months into it,&rdquo; Miller said. &ldquo;Things bothered me about how the negotiations went. I guess I was a little naive. I thought we could sit down and talk about my position and come to an agreement. It was an eyeopener to the difficulties agents and GMs have. It has made me a lot wiser.Miller held out for the first two games of the season, then returned after GM David Poile upped his offer to $400,000 for four years and gave a two-week timetable to complete negotiations. The two weeks came and went without a deal and Poile went only $40,000 higher. Miller was looking for something closer to $600,000.Poile was concerned about Miller&rsquo;s lack of production. The seven-year veteran didn&rsquo;t score his first goal until Nov. 15 and the NHL&rsquo;s top penaltykilling unit last season&mdash;anchored by Miller&mdash;was as low as 20th before climbing to sixth.DIVISIONAL LOSS: The Capitals finally lost a game to a Patrick Division foe, but it took 10 matches to happen.Washington&rsquo;s 6-5 overtime loss to New Jersey Nov. 20 was its first divisional loss and the first overtime game for the Caps, the last NHL squad to be forced to an extra period.The Capitals finished 37-36-7 last season, but qualified for the playoffs because of their impressive 20-12-3 divisional record. In other words, they won the games they were supposed to win and were competitive in the others.The Capitals were 7-0-0 against the New York Islanders and 5-1-1 against Philadelphia&mdash;the two teams that missed the playoffs.NOTEBOOK: Washington&rsquo;s 6-3 win over Boston Nov. 22, was the first over the Bruins at the Capital Centre since Nov. 25, 1987&hellip;Defenseman Rod Langway was struck in the nose by a puck Nov. 13 in New York and sustained a broken nose, an eight-stitch gash and some delayed headaches that were diagnosed as a slight concussion. He missed two games, but returned in a 3-2 win in Hartford Nov. 23.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 17: Kelly Miller, RW, signed two-year contract.<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, left knee surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Miller signs, but discovers he’s not an agent

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>Howard Baldwin and his partners in the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; new ownership group have taken over one of the best teams in the NHL. And one of the best-paid.The question now is, how long will they retain either distinction?The NHL Board of Governors approved the purchase by Baldwin&rsquo;s group at a special meeting Nov. 18. It was announced as a $65-million transaction, although the actual sale price reportedly is $31 million.Less than 24 hours after getting league approval, Baldwin told a news conference the new owners had no plans to dismantle the team, but expressed concerns about Pittsburgh&rsquo;s payroll. It is not firm yet, but is expected to be about $11 million this season, second only to that of the Los Angeles Kings.Baldwin endorsed consideration of a league-wide salary cap similar to that in the National Basketball Association, but stopped short of saying other owners would agree. Nonetheless, it&rsquo;s clear there will be a cap of sorts implemented in Pittsburgh.Baldwin said the new owners will not dictate personnel moves to general manager Craig Patrick, but &ldquo;will establish financial guidelines for Craig under which he will operate.&rdquo;Baldwin said his group has long-range plans for the franchise and that buying the Penguins was not designed to get the inside track on an expansion franchise in a city such as San Diego.TEN-YEAR PLAN: Edward J. DeBartolo&rsquo;s involvement with the Penguins did not end when the Board of Governors approved the sale. He will stay with the team as a &ldquo;special limited partner&rdquo; for 10 years.The Pittsburgh Press, citing two letters it had obtained pertaining to the sale, reported DeBartolo will remain to satisfy league concerns about a lack of local ownership and the amount of money being borrowed to finance the purchase.The newspaper said DeBartolo agreed to contribute his &ldquo;retained interests&rdquo;&mdash;such things as rights to expansion proceeds, season-ticket revenues from this season and broadcast monies with a stated value of $15 million&mdash;and will be paid $15 million when his involvement ends in 2001.The Press reported that a Nov. 12 letter from Baldwin to NHL President John Ziegler said having DeBartolo involved &ldquo;should help to address the league&rsquo;s desire for local ownership, that it enhances the partnership&rsquo;s equity in the team and that it responds to any potential concern about nonowners sharing in team revenue.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Left winger Kevin Stevens had a 10-game scoring streak snapped during a 2-2 tie with the New York Islanders Nov. 23. Stevens had 13 goals and 11 assists during that span.Pittsburgh&rsquo;s power play was perhaps the NHL&rsquo;s most impressive in terms of talent, but hadn&rsquo;t done much on ice. It entered the final week of November in a 2-for-31 slump. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re struggling on the power play, and that doesn&rsquo;t help our whole situation,&rdquo; coach Scott Bowman said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re making it tough.&rdquo;<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 18: NHL approved sale of franchise from Edward J. DeBartolo to Howard Baldwin. Morris Belzberg and Thomas V. Ruta, with DeBartolo as special limited partner Nov. 23: Todd Nelson. D, recalled from Muskegon (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis. Ken Priestlay, Bryan TrottierLW&mdash;Kevin Stevens, Bob Errey. Phil Bourque. Troy Loney.RW&mdash;Mark Recchi. Joe Mullen, Jaromir Jagr. Jamie Leach, Jay Caufield.LD&mdash;Paul Coffey. Ulf Samuelsson. Gordie Roberts. Grant Jennings. Todd Nelson.RD&mdash;Peter Taglianetti, Larry Murphy, Jim Paek.G&mdash;Tom Barrasso, Wendell Young.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jiri Hrdina, C, torn knee ligament, indefinite. Frank Pietrangelo. G, lower back pain, day-to-day Paul Stanton. D, torn knee ligament, indefinite. &#9632;

Questions remain after sale of team approved

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>It only counted as one point in the statistics but the goal Dan Quinn scored against the New Jersey Devils Nov. 23 may prove to be the turning point in his season.Quinn reached the low point of this season in Philadelphia&rsquo;s 5-2 loss to Pittsburgh Nov. 20. He turned the puck over and that led to Jaromir Jagr&rsquo;s breakaway to give the Penguins a 4-2 lead, then took a needless penalty late in the game to nullify a Flyers&rsquo; power play.Afterthegame, Quinn didn&rsquo;t return to the Flyers&rsquo; hotel. Instead, he went to a home he maintains in Pittsburgh. The following day he missed the team&rsquo;s flight back to Philadelphia. The Flyers, who were scheduled to practise the following day, changed their plans en route from Pittsburgh. Still, they had a mandatory conditioning session, which Quinn did not attend.General manager Russ Farwell called Quinn in Pittsburgh. The two reached an understanding. Quinn was simply upset with his play. He returned to Philadelphia that evening and practised the next day. The fact that Quinn did not miss any on-ice I activity helped him avoid any disciplinary action.The next night, Quinn came out and scored a third-period goal, his first in six games, to break a 4-4 tie against the Devils. The Flyers had to settle for a 5-5 tie but Quinn was relieved to get back on track.Quinn had been scratched from six Dof the Flyers&rsquo; first 10 games. But coach Paul Holmgren started him in the next 10 straight and even promoted him to the first line. Quinn had only two goals in his first 13 games.After the Pittsburgh debacle, there were rumors that Quinn was upset with the team but he made it clear that wasn&rsquo;t the case. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no fault or no situation with anybody else here,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m upset more than anything because of my play the last couple games.&rdquo;SEASON ENDED: Steve Kasper, who was developing into a leader on&rsquo; the Flyers, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during a game against Edmonton Nov. 14 and is probably lost for the season.Kasper is scheduled for arthroscopic surgery Dec. 2. The 30-year-old center could be sidelined up to nine months.&ldquo;I had no idea it was that serious at the time, said Kasper, who suffered the injury when he was hit by Josef Beranek. &ldquo;My game was just coming into shape and the team was really coming around, it&rsquo;s a real shame this had to happen to me at this time.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: After avoiding major injuries for most of the first quarter of the season, the Flyers ran into problems. Mark Howe was slashed in the tie with New Jersey Nov. 23. He suffered a broken left thumb and is expected to be out until late December. Mark Pederson was injured in the same game, sustaining a dislocated right shoulder when checked by New Jersey&rsquo;s Alexei Kasatonov. He will likely be out until January.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Dan Quinn, Mike Ricci. Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour. Kimbi Daniels.LW&mdash;Andrei Lomakin, Pelle Eklund, Brad Jones, Keith Acton. Tony Horacek.RW&mdash;Rick Tocchet, Kevin Dineen, Dave Brown.LD&mdash;Terry Carkner, Kerry Huffman, Jiri Latal, Dan Kordic.RD&mdash;Steve Duchesne, Gord Murphy, Corey Foster, Kjell Samuelsson.G&mdash; Ron Hextall, Ken Wregget.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mark Howe, D, broken left thumb, indefinite. Steve Kasper, C, torn anterior cruciate ligament in right knee, indefinite. Mark Pederson, LW, dislocated right shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

Going home alone gets Quinn back on track

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>For seven weeks the New Jersey Devils held out hope John MacLean would be back in the second half of the season. If he couldn&rsquo;t score 40 goals for a fourth straight season, at least he could lead the charge to the playoffs.That hope ended Nov. 23 when MacLean underwent surgery to reconstruct the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.The operation, performed by Devils&rsquo; orthopedist Dr. Barry Fisher in Livingston, N.J., was termed &ldquo;very successful.&rdquo; But MacLean will miss the remainder of the season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s real difficult for us to be without John MacLean the whole year,&rdquo; Stephane Richer said. &ldquo;We always felt he&rsquo;d be back after Christmas. Now some guys will just have to work harder.&rdquo;MacLean knew for two weeks prior to the surgery that his knee had stopped improving with rehabilitation.&ldquo;The knee&rsquo;s not going to be strong enough without surgery,&rdquo; MacLean said. &ldquo;Dr. Fisher has been honest with me and we thought it would be best to get the surgery done now.&rdquo;The injury occurred when Islanders&rsquo; right winger Brad Dalgarno fell on MacLean during a scrum in a Sept. 30 pre-season game.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s no fun, but these things happen,&rdquo; MacLean said. &ldquo;I just have to deal with it. This surgery has been pretty successful on guys in the past.&rdquo;Teammate Walt Poddubny had the same surgery Dec. 12, 1990.ANOTHER COFFEY? Scott Niedermayer was returned to his junior team in Kamloops (Western League) Nov. 22 after playing in just four NHL games, but the rookie made a lasting impression with the Devils&rsquo; veteran defense corps.&ldquo;He showed some tremendous skills. Without the addition of Scott Stevens, he probably stays,&rdquo; Ken Daneyko said of Niedermayer. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not going to hurt him to go back. He definitely showed he can be a superstar in this league. I hate to compare him to people, but he reminded me of a young Paul Coffey.&rdquo;Nidermayer, 18, was the Devils&rsquo; first pick (third overall) in last June&rsquo;s entry draft. He made is NHL debut Oct. 16 against the New York Rangers and collected an assist for his only point.&ldquo;Obviously, this is where I want to be. in the NHL, but there is a lot to take into consideration,&rdquo; Niedermayer said. &ldquo;I was getting anxious for playing time and I wasn&rsquo;t going to get it here.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Devils were close to getting center Alexander Semak (12th-round pick in 1988) out of the Soviet Union. Semak and fellow Soviet Valeri Zelepukin, now at Utica (AHL), could be skating together in New Jersey by the new year&hellip;Team USA forwards Bill Guerin and David Emma will sign contracts after the Olympics and could join the Devils at that time. Guerin, who left Boston College after two years, is closer to going straight to the NHL&hellip;Doug Brown scored on a penalty shot Nov. 23 in Philadelphia. (5-5 tie), his first goal in 11 games.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 22: Scott Niedermayer, D, returned to Kamloops (WHL). Nov. 23: Tommy Albelin, D, Neil Brady, C, recalled from Utica (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Kevin Todd. Peter Stastny, Laurie Boschman, Neil Brady.LW&mdash;Claude Vilgrain, Dave Maley, Dave Barr, Doug Brown, Pat Conacher, Walt Poddubny.RW&mdash;Stephane Richer, Claude Lemieux, Tom Chorske, Randy McKay.LD&mdash;Bruce Driver, Scott Stevens, Viacheslav Fetisov.RD&mdash;Alexei Kasatonov, Eric Weinrich, Ken Daneyko. Tommy Albelin.G&mdash;Chris Terreri, Craig Billington.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Zdeno Ciger. LW. right wrist surgery, indefinite. John MacLean, RW, right knee surgery, out for season Patrik Sundstrom, C. back spasms, day-to-day. &#9632;

Scoring load grows heavier with MacLean out for season

<div class="byline">By Mark Herrmann</div>When coach Al Arbour promised to take the New York Islanders back to square one, there was no ambiguity about where he was heading. For Arbour and his team, everything always has begun with defense.Arbour, once a defensive defenseman. believes even a strong offense has its roots in a team&rsquo;s own end. That explains his concern about the Islanders having allowed at least four goals fet each of their first eight games following their major trades Oct. 25.It also explains why his team was dissatisfied with its run-and-gun 7-4 road win over Minnesota Nov. 19 and more encouraged by a 3-1 loss in Winnipeg Nov. 20 (one goal was an empty-netter) and 2-2 tie in Pittsburgh Nov. 23. The latter two games revealed the type of progress Arbour has sought.&ldquo;Every day, we work on checking, we work on checking in our zone,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The guys are working very hard, all of them, and we&rsquo;re playing much, much better without the puck.&rdquo;The defense supported and benefited from the emergence of veteran goalie Steve Weeks, who went 3-0-1 after Glenn Healy broke a finger.&ldquo;You see how many guys block shots for us, big, key blocks,&rdquo; Weeks said. &ldquo;You take pride in that. It&rsquo;s a heck of a play to get in front of a puck. It&rsquo;s something you know is going to hurt, but guys are still doing it. Other guys say &lsquo;Way to go&rsquo; and give you a pat on the back. And you can build on things like that.&rdquo;FUTURE WATCH: Rookie goalie Danny Lorenz, given a promotion and a chance to start, established a claim on the future. The 21-year-old impressed his teammates and coach despite allowing two goals in the loss in Winnipeg.Al Arbour said Lorenz was far more skilled and confident than he had been last year, when he played two tentative games during an emergency recall from Capital District (American League). Lorenz said goalie coach Bill Smith has been a great teacher.&ldquo;I think my game has improved twofold from last year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m much more sure of myself and what I want to accomplish out there. I think my positioning is better and I&rsquo;m standing up better.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Derek King. who scored 13 goals in the first 20 games, signed a contract for one year and an option season that will increase his pay from $185,000 to $375,000 (including a $50,000 signing bonus)&hellip;Goalie Mark Fitzpatrick, another player in his option year, also saw his salary more than double, from $110,000 to an estimated $250,000. His contract covers two years and an option season. Fitzpatrick was sent to the minors so he could get used to new medication for eosinophilia myalgia syndrome (EMS).<h2>N.Y. ISLES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 18: Dave Chyzowski, LW and Mark Fitzpatrick, G, assigned to Capital District (AHL) Nov. 22: Derek King, LW, Fitzpatrick, Ken Baumgartner, LW-D, and Joe Reekie, D. signed multi-year contracts.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pierre Turgeon, Adam Creighton, Ray Ferraro, Rob DiMaio.LW&mdash;Derek King. Benoit Hogue, Steve Thomas, Ken Baumgartner, Rich Kromm.RW&mdash;Patrick Flatley, Mick Vukota, Dave McLIwain, Brad Dalgarno.LD&mdash;Jeff Norton, Rich Pilon, 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 Glenn Healy, G, broken finger, day-to-day. Gary Nylund. D. broken left heel, day-to-day. David Volek, LW, sore lower back, Nov. 27. &#9632;

Getting grip on team defense tops on coach Arbour’s list

<div class="byline">By Frank Brown</div>Mike Richter once put his foot in his skate, then removed it to find his sock coated with crumbs from the muffin he had brought for breakfast.There was no doubt Kris King put it there, because that&rsquo;s the kind of guy King is and that&rsquo;s the relationship shared by these two Rangers&mdash;both of whom are just a little crazy.So when King made the off-hand tark that maybe he wouldn&rsquo;t shave until he scores another goal (and doubles his total for the season), Richter declared he wouldn&rsquo;t shave, either.Maybe now King will keep his mouth shut. He hadn&rsquo;t touched a razor since Nov. 10. The left winger&rsquo;s only goal was a winner against the Islanders Oct. 9, and as the world waits for a sequel. King&rsquo;s face is receding behind a wiry wall of hair.&ldquo;Last year, I had a lot more shots by this time,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;I wasplaying with Darren Turcotte and Mike Gartner, they were hot early and I had a lot of chances.&rdquo;He may have had a lot of chances, but by the same time last season. King converted precisely as many goals&mdash;one. And he wasn&rsquo;t quite correct about having a lot more shots, either. King had 29 shots in his first 24 games last year, and 23 in 24 games this season. He had 11 goals last season.The lack of a shave wasn&rsquo;t affecting Richter. The goaltender notched the first regular-season shutout of his career, stopping seven Brett Hull shots and 24 total in a 3-0 win over the St. Louis Blues Nov. 23.LOOSE MOOSE: Something about Vancouver brings out the best in one of the newest Rangers, Mark Messier.The team&rsquo;s new captain helped the Rangers get a western swing off to a winning start with three goals (including the 400th of his career) plus an assist in a 4-3 victory that snapped a seven-game Canucks&rsquo; unbeaten streak Nov. 19.Messier ripped the cast off a balky wrist and played with the wrist taped. He drove a slap shot past Kirk McLean from the left-wing circle, converted a two-on-one pass from Tony Amonte for his second goal, then beat McLean from the right-wing circle to collect the winner&mdash;and the milestone.Messier has more points against the Canucks (43-72-115 in 79 career games) than against any NHL club. Moreover, five of his 11 career regular-season three-goal games have come against the Canucks.NOTEBOOK: The Rangers have won five games (5-9-1) in which they scored three goals or fewer. They won only five such games last season (5-23-7)&hellip;Left winger John Ogrodnick, one point shy of 800 for his career, was scratched for the game in St. Louis. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel I&rsquo;ve played any different from last year or the year before that or the year before that,&rdquo; said Ogrodnick, who had eight goals in the prior 10 matches.The Rangers completed something of a Roger Neilson Alumni Tour on a recent five-game road trip. They played in Vancouver, Los Angeles and Buffalo&mdash;three of the four NHL cities in which Neilson has coached. They don&rsquo;t play in Toronto until the season&rsquo;s final game. After a game in St. Louis Nov. 23, the Rangers spent two days on retreat in Colorado Springs, Colo., then took three planes to reach Winnipeg for a game against the Jets Nov. 27.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 22: Mark Janssens. C, assigned to Binghamton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier. Sergei Nemchinov, Darren Turcotte, Doug Weight, Corey Millen.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, Normand Rochefort. Per Djoos.RD&mdash;James Patrick, Jeff Beukeboom, Joe Cirella, Randy Moller.G&mdash;Mike Richter, John Vanbiesbrouck.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tim Kerr, RW, arthroscopic surgery on right shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

Beard rothers in sync

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01761/6278452-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="549" height="1085"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dwight Schmidt</figcaption></div>Dwight Schmidt can fully appreciate what Maurice Richard did 47 years ago&mdash;score 50 goals in 50 games.Like &lsquo;The Rocket&rsquo;, the 14-year-old center went right down to the wire last season, scoring goal No. 50 in his 50th and final game last season for the Spokane, Wash., Peewee B Wings.Like &lsquo;The Rocket&rsquo;, the 14-year-old center went right down to the wire last season, scoring goal No. 50 in his 50th and final game last season for the Spokane, Wash., Peewee B Wings.Schmidt finished the season with 50 goals and 113 points and led his team to a state division championship.The 5-foot-7,135 pounder made the transition to center from defense, where he played most of his six previous seasons in minor hockey. Schmidt is in his first season as a bantam.Schmidt is in Grade 9 at Lake-land Junior High in Rathdrum, Idaho and likes collecting hockey cards and playing basketball. His favorite NHL team is the Buffalo Sabres and his favorite player is Joe Sakic of the Quebec Nordiques.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;

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PLAYER OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01826/6278483-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Goaltending pioneer Manon Rheaume may not be NHL material but the Quebec League&rsquo;s Trois Rivieries Draveurs didn&rsquo;t call her up as a publicity stunt, either. (photography by Jim Seeley)</figcaption></div>There&rsquo;s not too much unusual about the way Manon Rheaume plays hockey. She positions herself in the crease, she braces herself for a shot, she pounces on rebounds.But the 19-year-old goaltender is a pioneer in the Canadian Hockey League. She is the first female to suit up for a major junior hockey team.Rheaume was the Trois Rivieres Draveurs&rsquo; back-up goalie Nov. 19 when they met the St-Hyacinthe Laser in a Quebec League game.The native of Quebec City didn&rsquo;t see any action but she was on the team&mdash;and the Draveurs insist it wasn&rsquo;t a publicity stunt.&ldquo;She deserves to be here,&rdquo; Draveurs&rsquo; coach Gaston Drapeau said. &ldquo;She had a good training camp and we treat her Iike everybody else. I said she was the No. 3 goalie in our system.&rdquo;Rheaume played briefly in the pre-season for Trois Rivieres&mdash;allowing three goals on 18 shots in 30 minutes&mdash;but was cut and assigned to Tier II Louiseville.When Draveurs&rsquo; star goalie Jean-Francois Labbe injured his collarbone in a practice Nov. 17, Rheaume was summoned and backed up Jocelyn Thibault against St-Hyacinthe and in St-Jean Nov. 22.&ldquo;I suppose I am a pioneer in major junior hockey, but there are other females in hockey,&rdquo; Rheaume said. &ldquo;The challenge for me is to play a major junior game. I would be disappointed if they sent me down without play&hellip;but I&rsquo;m realistic.&rdquo;The Draveurs intend to recall another goalie, Donald Piche from Louiseville, when Thibault plays for Quebec at the world under-17 tournament in December.By that time, Labbe will be healthy and Rheaume likely back in Louiseville. where she had a 5.71 goals-against average in four games. She missed two months with a leg injury.St-Jean coach Norm Flynn watched Rheaume play against his team in an exhibition game and came away with mixed feelings.&ldquo;She wasn&rsquo;t bad but in major junior she couldn&rsquo;t be first or second on a team,&rdquo; Flynn said. &ldquo;She doesn&rsquo;t have the skills. You have to be fast and strong. She didn&rsquo;t do badly, but she was below average as a goalie in this league.&rdquo;Slowly, word of Rheaume&rsquo;s accomplishments are beginning to spread. In October she attended a four-day off-ice training camp in Quebec City for provincial prospects hoping to be invited to the Canadian national women&rsquo;s team&rsquo;s training camp, Jan. 21-26 in Kitchener, Ont. Should she make the team she&rsquo;ll represent Canada at April&rsquo;s world championships in Finland.The 5-foot-6, 140 pounder was the starting goalie for Quebec at the Canadian women&rsquo;s championships last April.Rheaume has two brothers&mdash;including 18-year-old Pascal, who plays left wing for the Draveurs. Her father, Pierre, coached minor league teams. When Rheaume was five, she pleaded for the opportunity to play.She advanced through minor hockey&mdash;playing in the famed Quebec City peewee tournament at Le Colisee&mdash;without difficulty or discrimination.The boys, she remembered, barely noticed her gender. It wasn&rsquo;t until she reached midget that she quit for a year.Rheaume returned to the ice last year and travelled 150&rsquo;miles each weekend from Quebec City to the Montreal suburb of Repentigny to practise and play for a women&rsquo;s team.Drapeau was impressed by her play in the Canadian championships. He invited her to suit up for a practice last winter and she performed well enough to earn a tryout this season.Apart from the fact she dresses, showers sleeps in separate quarters from teammates, Rheaume is one of the guys.&ldquo;I surprised many people,&rdquo; Rheaume said of her first stint with the Draveurs. &ldquo;When the boys shot, even if it was hard, it didn&rsquo;t bother me. It was okay. But I don&rsquo;t know if a girl can make it at this level. It&rsquo;s very difficult to practise so much, sometimes twice in a day.&rdquo;When she&rsquo;s not practising, she&rsquo;s completing her last semester at a junior college in Trois Rivieres. She plans to start university next spring and aspires to become a teacher.Rheaume said it would please her if she serves as a role model for other girls but warns them to ponder what they could be taking up.&ldquo;If a girl is as good as a boy, a coach will choose the boy,&rdquo; Rheaume said. &ldquo;Not every coach thinks like this, but many coaches prejudiced. It&rsquo;s much more difficult for a give make her place on a team than it is for a boy.&rdquo;This pioneer has made her place. &#9632;

f0026-01

Mais oui, Manon! A hockey first

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>Derek Armstrong broke his collarbone when he was three years-old after he fell from a shopping cart.He proved he was a fighter than and has been doing so ever since. For example, a little thing like being selected in the 20th round of the Ontario League&rsquo;s 1990 draft wasn&rsquo;t going to deter him from playing major junior hockey.The 18-year-old Ottawa native was leading all OHL rookies in scoring with 14 goals and 30 points in 23 games for the Sudbury Wolves. He was on a 10-game point-scoring streak in late November with with seven goals and 13 points.&ldquo;We never expected Derek to turn out the way he has,&rdquo; Wolves&rsquo; general manager Sam McMaster said.Armstrong wasn&rsquo;t even at the 1990 draft in North York. The 6-foot, 180-pound right winger got a phone call from McMaster the next day telling him he&rsquo;d been picked. Nobody could blame him for containing his enthusiasm when told it was in the 20th round.&ldquo;I got my confidence from the start of this Byear because the older guys started treating me like a vet,&rdquo; Armstrong said. &ldquo;I was made to feel comfortable from the beginning.&rdquo;HOUND-BITTEN: Call it the Sault flu. London Knights&rsquo; coach Gary Agnew can&rsquo;t get his team to win in Sault Ste. Marie.When the Knights lost 6-2 to the Greyhounds before a sellout crowd of 3,937 at Sault Memorrial Gardens Nov. 17, Agnew&rsquo;s record there fell to 0-6-0 since he took over from Wayne Maxner in May, 1990. The Knights&rsquo; last victory in Sault Ste. Marie was 3-2 Feb. 11, 1990.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve tried everything,&rdquo; Agnew said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve even changed hotels.&rdquo;If it can be any comfort to Agnew, the Greyhounds weren&rsquo;t picking on just London. They were 9-0-1 at home this season and hadn&rsquo;t lost at the Gardens since Feb. 15, 1991-a string of 25 games (23-0-2), including playoffs.It has rekindled memories of 1984-85 when the Greyhounds were the first and only Canadian Hockey League to go undefeated at home in the regular season (33-0-0).STARRY START: Ottawa center Brett Seguin continued to lead the OHL scoring race and his start earned him an invitation to the Canadian national junior team selection camp Dec. 13 to 19 in Kitchener. The 19-year-old center was not among the players at the first evaluation camp in Calgary in August.&ldquo;If he doesn&rsquo;t make the club, then they&rsquo;ve got the best junior team ever assembled.&rdquo; 67&rsquo;s coach Brian Kilrea said. &ldquo;How do you pass up the assists leader the last two years?&rdquo;STORM WARNING: Drastic times call for drastic measures. The winless Guelph Storm (017-4) shook up its roster with three separate deals Nov. 13.The Storm acquired left wingers Wade Whitten and Kevin Reid from Sault Ste. Marie for defenseman Todd Gleason; center Mike Cote and overage defenseman Dave Anderson from Oshawa for right winger Sean Brown and Guelph&rsquo;s 11th-round draft pick in 1993; and, defenseman Kelvin Solari from Sudbury for a sixth-round pick in 1992.TIMELY RETURN: All-star defenseman John Slaney returned to the Cornwall Royals Nov. 17 after missing 13 games with a shoulder injury. And none too soon. The Royals began the season with a 9-1-1 record, but went 2-8-1 in the next 11 games to fall from first place to fifth in the Leyden Division&hellip;OHL linesman Jim Carman, 38, of Mt. Pleasant, Ont., was selected by the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association to work the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.<h2>Shooters with smoking guns</h2>Brian Sakic is on target to make major junior hockey history.The Tri-City Americans&rsquo; center, whose older brother Joe is with the Quebec Nordiques, needed 74 points to break the Canadian Hockey League career points mark this year. The Washington draft pick had 154348-502 totals in 295 games. To break the record of 575. set by ex-Quebec League scoring star Patrick Emond, the 20-year-old must average 1.5 points per game his last 48 games.The following players round out the top five active CHL scoring leaders. Listed are position, age, team and point totals as of Nov. 21:Jeff Nelson, C, 18, Prince Albert (WHL): Two-time scholastic player of the year shows smarts on and off ice. 348Brett Seguin. C, 19, Ottawa (OHL): Smooth skating playmaker just 48 assists short of league career mark of 290. 322Jason Firth. C, 20, North Bay (OHL); Hard-nosed veteran gets by on equal amounts of talent and guile. 300Chris Taylor, C, 19, London (OHL):League&rsquo;s leading goal-scorer this season is most dangerous in slot. 296 &#9632;

Armstrong paying dividends

<div class="byline">By Ken Warren</div>For a team that made it to the Memorial Cup final last season, the Drummondville Voltigeurs were hardly setting the Quebec League on fire in 1991-92.But you might have a tough time convincing the maintenance crew at Drummondville&rsquo;s Centre Marcel Dionne, who had to deal with two separate break-ins. Vandals broke into the Voltigeurs&rsquo; offices, setting the team&rsquo;s dressing room and part of the arena on fire Nov. 17.All the players&rsquo; equipment was lost, carpets were destroyed and a portion of the rink&rsquo;s walls were charred as a result of the blaze. The vandals also destroyed computers and televisions in coach Jean Hamel&rsquo;s office.They also threatened the team&rsquo;s equipment manager, Marcel Arbour, who foiled the burglary attempt. Damage is estimated at $100,000; $30,000 for the equipment.Hamel says insurance will cover damages but the incident still bums him. It took him several days to find equipment, but the club was able to make its Nov. 22 game in Victoriaville. Fire officials deemed the Centre fit to play in for a Nov. 24 game against Beauport.&ldquo;Oh yeah, things are going great,&rdquo; Hamel said sarcastically. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been looking all over (to buy) shin pads and shoulder pads. No, I have absolutely nothing to do this week.&rdquo;The blaze did little to heat up the Voltigeurs&rsquo; spirits. Drummondville had a 9-13-0 record and were in fourth place in the Dilio Division before the incident. The Voltigeurs were second last in the league, ahead of only Victoriaville, in goals scored.&ldquo;We started really slow,&rdquo; Hamel said. &ldquo;We only had 31 players in training camp because we had seven guys in the pro ranks. It&rsquo;s tough to run a proper camp with that number of bodies around. Once they returned, we had to start another training camp.&rdquo;The Voltigeurs were plagued by injuries all season and hadn&rsquo;t iced a regular lineup.Right wingers Rene Corbet (Quebec&rsquo;s second-round pick in 1991), Yanic Dupre (Philadelphia&rsquo;s third-round pick in 1990), and Dave Whittom each have had injuries.FINALLY ARRIVES: The Hull Olympiques finally got their man-six weeks later.Defenseman Jacques Auger, acquired from the Beauport Harfangs for Stefan Simoes Oct. 5, didn&rsquo;t play for the Olympiques until Nov. 15.Rather than lose a semester at a Quebec college, Auger waited until there was a break in his schooling before joining the Olympiques.The sixth-round draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in 1991 played with the Wisconsin Badgers in the NCAA last season, and had two goals and five points in 25 games. He was invited to the Canadian national junior team&rsquo;s August evaluation camp in Calgary, but wasn&rsquo;t invited back for December&rsquo;s camp.COMING OF AGE: After a slow start to their second season, the Beauport Harfangs were beginning to turn things around.The Harfangs extended their winning streak to five games with an 8-3 win over the Shawingan Cataractes Nov. 17, raising their season record to 8-16-0. Included in the string was an 8-2 thrashing of College Francais, the league&rsquo;s top team.Beauport&rsquo;s winning streak ended with a 4-3 loss to Chicoutimi Nov. 19.Overage center Patrick Genest, who led the Harfangs with four goals and two assists in three games, was QMJHL player of the week for the period ending Nov. 18. &#9632;

Voltigeurs burned by foes and vandals

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>The stars will come out in the International League for the first time in seven years.The league has resurrected its All-Star Game with the announcement that the best of the East and West Divisions will face off Feb. 2 at the Omni in Atlanta. The league hasn&rsquo;t held an All-Star Game in any form since 1984.The game is being billed as a showcase event to a major sports exposition booked at the Omni. The league is also hoping it will help stimulate interest in the Atlanta Knights, an IHL expansion team that will begin play next season.&ldquo;This is an outgrowth of our desire to have an All-Star Game with our friendly competitors in the east,&rdquo; said IHL commissioner Tom Berry, referring to failed efforts to put together an IHL-American League All-Star Game this season. &ldquo;I found a willing ear in Atlanta. The Knights will be able to use this as a springboard to show their fans our product. We feel this game has enough appeal to be a worthwhile venture on a yearly basis.&rdquo;Berry said he was close to completing arrangements for a telecast of the game. The telecast would originate from an Atlanta-based station and be available via satellite feeds to network and cable markets in thcother IHL cities.The method of player selection had not been determined, although options range from having the media vote to using a league-appointed panel of coaches or front office executives.Each team will have two coaches and trainers. They will be selected from the teams which are in first and second place in each division as of Jan. 1.The last IHL All-Star Game was Jan. 17, 1984 at Kalamazoo, where the league&rsquo;s squad defeated the U.S. Olympic team 6-4.GOLDEN RULE: Salt Lake, projected to be a serious contender for the Turner Cup this season, stumbled to a false start at 1-9-1.But the Golden Eagles reached the .500 mark with a convincing 7-4, 3-2 sweep over the Peoria Rivermen Nov. 15 and 16 to finish their road trip on a seven-game win streak.A victory over Kansas City Nov. 19 made it eight straight and pushed Salt Lake into third in the West.&ldquo;It seems like every season we have had the same kind of start,&rdquo; said team captain Rich Chernomaz, now in his fifth year with the Golden Eagles. &ldquo;But this was the worst start since I&rsquo;ve been here. It took us awhile to realize what we had to do to win.&rdquo;But going through that losing skid could have its benefits.&ldquo;It was really depressing. I couldn&rsquo;t believe we were 1-9,&rdquo; said Richard Zemlak. &ldquo;Now, I actually think the whole experience has made us a better club.&rdquo;OPEN AND SHUT: Fort Wayne goalie Mike O&rsquo;Neill was named player of the week for the period ending Nov. 18 after going 3-0-0 and posting shutouts against Kalamazoo (a 3-0 win Nov. 13) and Kansas City (5-0 Nov. 16), the latter victory was against the IHL&rsquo;s second-ranked offense.Through Nov. 19, Peoria was 10-1-1 in games it was out-shot by the opponent, and 2-50 when it held the shooting edge. &#9632;

All-Star Game to make return in Deep South

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>John LeBlanc learned the hard way that you don&rsquo;t mess around with Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; general manager Glen Sather.But while he may have lost the war of wills to Sather last year, he didn&rsquo;t lose his goal-scoring ability during his one-year holdout.LeBlanc was the American League&rsquo;s leading goal-scorer through Nov. 20, with 17 goals and six assists in 20 games for his new team, the Moncton Hawks. While those numbers are not unexpected for Leblanc-who led the AHL with 54 goals with Cape Breton two seasons ago-he was concerned how an entire season off would affect his game.LeBlanc, a 27-year-old left winger, didn&rsquo;t play a single game last season. His only hockey came in practice with a senior team, and when he played pick-up games in his hometown of Campbellton, N.B.&ldquo;I was a little bit worried how quick my timing would come back,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I skated three or four nights a week with a senior team. I was surprised my timing came back as quick as it did.&rdquo;But not once during Leblanc&rsquo;s all-star 198990 season was he called up to Edmonton. So, convinced he had no future with the Oilers, LeBlanc refused to report to Cape Breton in 1990-91.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think I fit into their plans anywhere and I figured if I was going to play in the minors, I might as well play in Moncton because it&rsquo;s close to my home (Campbellton is about three hours away),&rdquo; LeBlanc said.A free agent with compensation, he requested&mdash;and expected&mdash;to be traded to Moncton&rsquo;s parent club, the Winnipeg Jets. That was in October of 1990. By January, he got the hint that he wasn&rsquo;t going anywhere.The Oilers and Jets couldn&rsquo;t agree on compensation, and LeBlanc, who steadfastly held firm to his holdout, never played a game. The teams finally worked out a deal last June when the Oilers traded LeBlanc to the Jets for a fifth-round choice in 1991.&ldquo;A few times it looked like a deal was really close,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was hard sitting out after the year I came off of (in 1989-90) but it made me that much more anxious this year.&rdquo;KING-SIZE FIND: When Steven King entered Brown University in 1987-88, he wasn&rsquo;t thinking professional hockey. Of course, pro hockey wasn&rsquo;t thinking about him.He wasn&rsquo;t drafted out of high school nor after his early collegiate years. It wasn&rsquo;t until the supplemental draft in June that the New York Rangers selected him, and only after 20 other players were chosen.The Rangers definitely found themselves a prospect, though. Through Nov. 20, the 6-foot, 190-pound King led the Binghamton Rangers in goals (12), was tied for the team lead in scoring (20 points) and has twice been selected as the AHL&rsquo;s rookie of the week.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure now a lot of other organizations are sorry they passed on him,&rdquo; Binghamton coach Ron Smith said. &ldquo;Right from the start of camp he looked really strong. He&rsquo;s leading our team in scoring chances, and he&rsquo;s not getting the ice time that some guys are. He&rsquo;s very, very aggressive and he leads our team in hits, too.&rdquo;SOVIET SEND-OFF: Cape Breton released former Soviet Red Army goalie Evgeny Belosheiken from his tryout contract on Nov. 9. He was 0-2-1 with a 3.93 goals-against average and .864 save percentage&hellip;St. John&rsquo;s center Yanic Perreault was 7-1-8 in four games between Nov. 11-17&mdash;including four goals in a 9-8 victory over Halifax Nov. 16&mdash;and was named player and rookie-of-the-week.<h2>Follow the bouncing coaches</h2>Have Washington&rsquo;s Terry Murray, Hartford&rsquo;s Jimmy Roberts and Boston&rsquo;s Rick Bowness started a coaching trend? They moved from jobs as NHL assistants to become head coaches in the minors and back to the NHL. Here are four coaches on the same path:Jay Leach, 38, Springfield Indians (AHL). He took his first-head-coaching assignment after nine years as an assistant: two at Merrimack, four til the University of Maine and three with the NHL Hartford Whalers.EJ. McGuire, 37, Maine Mariners (AHL). A member of Mike Keenan&rsquo;s coaching team since 1981 at Rochester, Philadelphia and Chicago, McGuire moves out on his own, succeeding Bowness with the Mariners.Ron Smith. 47, Binghamton Rangers (AHL) A veteran of 10 NHL seasons as assistant coach to Roger Neilson in Vancouver, Buffalo, Toronto and New York; then with Doug Carpenter in New Jersey.Jack Mcllhargy, 39, Milwaukee Admirals (IHL). The former burly defenseman was a constant on the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; staff through four coaching changes in seven years. Mcllhargy is in his first year with Milwaukee. &#9632;

LeBlanc back with a bang

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>Some East Coast League coaches claim the level of play has dropped off this season and are concerned the situation is destined to get worse&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t want to admit it, but the talent level is down,&rdquo; a veteran coach said. &ldquo;It has deteriorated maybe 15 per cent. The new rules and Colonial League have changed our league.&rdquo;Two significant rules changes-limiting each team to two veteran players and eight Canadians-along with expansion from 11 to 15 teams and competition from the rival CHL-has changed the style of the league. The low-scoring defensive battle is a thing of the past.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t find defensemen anymore,&rdquo; Raleigh coach Kurt Kleinendorst said.He isn&rsquo;t the only coach in such straits. Nashville (2-12-0) was allowing an average of 6.2 goals per game. Cincinnati coach Dennis Desrosiers has an explanation for that.&ldquo;There is a shortage of defensemen in every league, not just the ECHL,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They seem to be slower to develop. When they become ready, they move up to the AHL because there is a shortage there.&rdquo;Facts show at least 40 former ECHL players jumped to the five-team CHL. A higher salary cap and playing closer to home were main attractions.Erie&rsquo;s Ron Hansis said players who shunned the ECHL for the CHL made a mistake.&ldquo;This league is better for them because of exposure and credibility we&rsquo;ve established with the NHL,&rdquo; Hansis said, &ldquo;but the lure of an extra $50 or $75 per week overshadowed that.&rdquo;Knoxville was hit hardest. Three former Cherokees-Tom Sasso, Brett Strott and Butch Kaebel-were among the CHL&rsquo;s top scorers. Other ex-Cherokees in the CHL are first-team all-star Jeff Lindsey, Christian Lalonde and Mike Berger.Those six players combined for 97 goals and 280 points. That represents 25 percent of Knoxville&rsquo;s record-setting offense last season.Nashville and Richmond also suffered. Defenseman Brett McDonald was an all-star for Nashville, while Tom Searle earned second-team honors at Richmond. Len Soccio. Greensboro&rsquo;s leading scorer (36-55-91) last season, also went to the CHL.ECHL commissioner Pat Kelly doesn&rsquo;t believe the CHL is a threat, short term or long.&ldquo;We know they&rsquo;re there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But our level of play and attendance is at a high. Any coaches who complain about the rules or CHL are just making excuses for losing.&rdquo;Richmond&rsquo;s Dave Allison, Hampton Roads&rsquo; John Brophy and Desrosiers are coaches who feel the dropoff-if any is negligible.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it (CHL) has hurt anything,&rdquo; Allison said. &ldquo;The World Hockey Association made the NHL better.&rdquo;Said Hansis: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an on-going problem year after year. If you can find some pretty good defensemen. you can be competitive.&rdquo;Brophy said attracting the best athletes, regardless of nationality, would ensure a better product, but claims the strong will survive.FULL HOUSE: Johnstown won four consecutive games including a 4-3 shootout win at Cincinnati before an ECHL record crowd of 10,177 Nov. 15&hellip;Shawn Wheeler&rsquo;s overtime goal gave Greensboro a 4-3 win at Cincinnati before 10,162 fans the next night&hellip;Cincinnati&rsquo;s average attendance swelled to 8,503-No. 1 among 40 minor-league teams&mdash;and 18,716 total ahead of last season&rsquo;s pace. &#9632;

Is league’s talent base watered down?

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>Given the event&rsquo;s huge success, the only question in the aftermath was, &ldquo;What took you so long?&rdquo;Following up on an offer from the Minnesota North Stars, the University of Minnesota agreed to stage a Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season game with Wisconsin at the Met Center in Bloomington Nov. 16.One night after drawing a standing-room-only crowd of 7,658 at Mariucci Arena, the rivals attracted 15,712 at the North Stars&rsquo; home building.According to WCHA officials, it&rsquo;s the largest audience to ever see a regular-season college hockey game. It eclipsed the 15,684 that saw Michigan State play Michigan in a Central Collegiate Hockey Association game at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on Feb. 16, 1991.The Gophers won both games 5-4 and 4-1.The game proved profitable. According to reports from the Twin Cities, the Minnesota athletic department received an extra $200,000 from the Met Center game. A sellout crowd at &lsquo;Mariucci Arena brings in about $92,000.Coincidentally, the series was played the same weekend that UW and Minnesota played a Big Ten Conference football game at the Metrodome.The WCHA one-game attendance record was set Dec. 29, 1990, when 17,671 watched Wisconsin play North Dakota in the championship game of the Badger Showdown tournament at Milwaukee&rsquo;s Bradley Center.The national record came during the 1985 Great Lakes Invitational at the Joe Louis Arena when 20,067 saw Michigan State play RPI.WOOG HITS 200: Minnesota Golden Gophers&rsquo; coach Doug Woog recorded his 200th career win Nov. 15 against Wisconsin, making him the all-time winningest coach in Minnesota history. Woog (200-77-11) is in his seventh season with the Gohpers. He passed John Mariucci, who compiled a 199-137-18 record from 1952-66&hellip;With 28 penalties for 56 minutes in 10 games. Golden Gopher defenseman Chris McAlpine was on pace to break the league and school record for penalty minutes in a season. At this rate, McAlpine would finish with 212 P1M. The WCHA record is 197, set in 1984-85 by North Dakota&rsquo;s Jim Archibald. The UM record is 154, set by Pat Micheletti in 1984-85.KEEP QUIET: Are WCHA coaches subject to penalties for criticizing WCHA officials? According to Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany the answer is yes. Delany said a coach can be suspended for one game or have his school forfeit $10,000 of its share of the league&rsquo;s television revenue for publicly criticizing officials. The same holds true for other National Collegiate Athletic Association sports. Indiana football coach Bill Mallory was suspended by the NCAA in mid-October for arguing with officials. He was not permitted on the sidelines for tn Oct. 26 game at Wisconsin.MAN TO BEATTIE: Northern Michigan senior center Scott Beattie got off to a strong start. Beattie had 10 goals and 28 points, three more than Northern Michigan junior right winger Jim Hiller (nine goals, 25 points)&hellip;One reason behind NMU&rsquo;s early-season success was the play of goalie Corwin SaurdifT. The Wildcats&rsquo; freshman led all first-year goalies with a 2.46 goals-against average and .a 914 save percentage in six games&hellip;The Michigan Tech Huskies certainly know how to keep their fans on the edge of their seats. From Nov. 1 to 16, the Huskies played in six consecutive games that were decided by a goal or fewer. Their record in those six games was 3-2-1.<h2>Making the grade in the NHL</h2>The NHL is indebted to the college ranks for many of its elite players. And while most college grads show more flash and dash than hit and grit, some of the best pluggers apprenticed in U.S. and Canadian colleges. Here are some of their lesser-known success stories:Mike Ridley, C, Washington. Former Manitoba Bison is the most successful player ever to come out of Canadian university hockey. Signed as free agent by Rangers in 1985.Bob Kudelski. C, Los Angeles. Former Yale man averaging almost a point a game on Los Angeles&rsquo; second line. Taken by Kings in 1986 supplemental draft.Todd Krygfer, LW, Washington. Played four years at Division III Connecticut on outdoor rink. Chosen by Whalers in 1988 supplemental draft.Shawn Cronin, D, Winnipeg. Former Illinois-Chicago Flame had marginal skills but made it to NHL after stint in minors. Signed as free agent by Hartford in 1986.Mike Peluso, LW. Chicago. Awkward skater had northern exposure in Alaska-Anchorage before moving to big leagues. Signed as free agent by Blackhawks in 1989 &#9632;

Record crowd sees Met match

<div class="byline">By Matt Carlgon</div>They&rsquo;re not very exciting, but the Western Michigan Broncos are riding high thanks to a swarming defense.After eight games, the Broncos were 5-2-1 overall and on top in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.WMU scored just 33 goals during that span, but allowed only 27. Winning close contests was the team&rsquo;s forte, as illustrated in a 4-2 and 4-3 sweep of Ferris State Nov 14-15.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing like we said we would before the start of the season,&rdquo; coach Bill Wilkinson said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re basically using the same system as last year.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a hard-checking team that&rsquo;s not going to run around. We just want to get the puck out of our zone and play defense.&rdquo;Having three hot goaltenders also helped. Sophomore Craig Brown was the No. 1 man (3-2-1, 3.13 goals-against average, .881 save percentage) followed by senior Rob Laurie (10-0, 2.00, .935) and promising freshman, Brian Renfrew (1-0-0,6.00, .824).The Broncos have a solid corps of defensemen including seniors Andy Suhy, Brian Tulik and sophomores Brent Brekke and Derek Schooley.If WMU had a weakness, it was generating offense. Senior right winger Keith Jones (five goals, 14 points) and sophomore left winger Colin Ward (eight goals, 12 points) led the team in scoring after eight games.BIG BUMBLES: The Bowling Green Falcons have started slowly before, but BG&rsquo;s 2-6-0 start had coach Jerry York more than a little concerned.The Falcons surrendered a league-high 55 goals through those eight contests. A true indication of their problems came Nov. 16 in a 10-1 loss to Illinois-Chicago. Heading into that contest, the Flames had 12 goals in five games.Junior goaltender Angelo Libertucci (6.25 GAA, .819 save percentage) and freshman netminder Nathan Cressman (7.42 GAA, .807) were in the nets for.BULLDOGS LACK BITE: Ferris State coach Bob Mancini knew it would be tough to replace 1990-91 top scorers Rod Taylor (41 goals, 56 points) and John dePoureq (15 goals, 63 points) But he didn&rsquo;t think it would be so bad that his leading scorers would be at a pace lower than a point-per-game.Through eight contests, the 1-6-1 Bulldogs scored just 21 times. The team&rsquo;s leading pointgetters were freshman center Gary Kitching (24-6) and sophomore right winger Doug Smith (2-4-6).&ldquo;We won&rsquo;t replace them (Taylor and dePourcq), but I think we can have a team with balanced scoring,&rdquo; Mancini said.The Bulldogs had played solid defensive hockey, allowing just 32 goals.FELSNER FLYING: Michigan&rsquo;s Denny Felsner continued to roll offensively. With three goals and two assists in the Wolverine&rsquo;s 91 and 7-4 wins at Miami Nov. 15-16, Felsner boosted his league-leading scoring totals to nine goals and 22 points&hellip;Former Michigan State defenseman Jason Woolley isn&rsquo;t the only former CCHA on the Canadian Olympic team. Kevin Dahl (Bowling Green) and Todd Brost (Michigan) are also on the squad.WMU freshman forward Mike Whitton scored a natural hat trick against Ferris State Nov. 14&mdash;his first three collegiate goals. WMU won the game 4-3. &#9632;

Broncos corral foes with tight defense

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggie</div>Yale&rsquo;s Mark Kaufmann isn&rsquo;t well-known in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, but he is doing his best to change that this season.The junior center&mdash;who coach Tim laylor calls one of the league&rsquo;s best-kept secrets&mdash;scored four goals and assisted on two others Nov. 15 as the Bulldogs beat Colgate 10-5.Kaufmann had five goals after two games, half of his entire 1990-91 total.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t expect him to have seven-point weekends every weekend,&rdquo; Taylor said, &ldquo;but we look to him to be one of the key people in our offense.&rdquo;Kaufmann came to the Bulldogs as a young ^menom from the Britisih Columbia Junior League in 1989-90. In his final junior season he made a name for himself by scoring 88 points as a 17-year-old.He made the jump to college hockey look easy. As a freshman two seasons ago, he scored 25 points in 29 games and earned a spot on the ECAC all-rookie team. Last season he had 10 goals and 27 points to lead the Bulldogs in scoring. This season the Bulldogs will be relying on Kaufmann, one of their few players with natural scoring ability.The Bulldogs&rsquo; 10-goal outburst against Colgate was their highest output since the 1985-86 season when they defeated RPI 10-3.&ldquo;Scoring was one of my concerns, but it was also an area I was quietly optimistic about,&rdquo; Taylor said. &ldquo;We returned our top five scorers and eight of the top 10 from last year. We didn&rsquo;t have anyone who lit it up in terms of ECAC statistics, but I thought we could score.&rdquo;CHARGES DROPPED: Assault charges against St. Lawrence senior defenseman Chris Lappin have been dropped, but his brother, Mike, still faces a day in court, Saints&rsquo; sports information director Wally Johnson said.The Lappins were arrested Nov. 7 and charged with second-degree assault stemming from an Oct. 19 fight outside a Canton, N.Y. pizzeria. The incident left James Donnelly of Rensselaer, N.Y., with a broken nose.Upon further investigation, the charges against Chris, 24, were dropped. But Canton police decided that Mike, 22, must stand trial for the alleged attack. A court date had not been set.The St. Charles, Ill., natives continued to attend class and play hockey following the incident.SLATER MILESTONE: Colgate coach Terry Slater notched his 250th victory when the Red Raiders beat Princeton 4-3 Nov. 16&hellip;Harvard senior defenseman Kevin Sneddon scored his first collegiate goal Nov. 15 in a 7-5 win over Union. Sneddon had played 76 career games without a goal.Harvard senior goalie Allain Roy ran his personal record against RPI to 5-0-0 with a 6-0 shutout win over the Engineers Nov. 16.St. Lawrence senior defenseman Dan LaPerriere notched five assists in a 9-1 win over Dartmouth Nov. 15 and in the process, became the Saints&rsquo; all-time career assists leader. LaPerriere broke the record of 71, set by Brian McColgan between 1985 and 1988&hellip;Nobody will likely ever question the stamina of Harvard senior defenseman Brian McCormack. An avid runner, McCormack completed the Boston Marathon on Nov. 3 in a time ot three hours and 45 minutes. &#9632;

Bulldoa out to prove he’s a top dog in league

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>They have been playing hockey at the University of New Hampshire for the last 68 years. But they&rsquo;ve never been doing it this well.The Wildcats got off to a 7-0-0 start, the best in school history. The Wildcats did go 6-0-0 one year, but that was back in 1926-27.Experience had a lot to do with the Wildcats&rsquo; success. Seniors Dom Amodeo (center), Savo Mitrovic (right wing), Joe Flanagan (left wing), Scott Morrow (left wing) and Frank Messina (defense) had good starts.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve been through it before and they&rsquo;re the ones who have slowly brought the program back,&rdquo; coach Dick Umile said.Amodeo led the team with nine goals and 18 points after seven games.Strong goaltending from sophomore Jeff Levy was another reason for the Wildcats&rsquo; success. Levy had a 6-0-0 record, a 2.22 goals-against average and a .926 save percentageThe Wildcats scored 42 goals in their seven wins while allowing just 18.The Wildcats had an excellent season in 1990-91 and are hoping to improve on it this season. Last year UNH went 22-11-2, the first time the team finished over .500 since the 1983-84 season (20-17-1).STREAK STOPPED: Boston University had its five-game unbeaten streak snapped by the Maine Black Bears Nov. 16.Maine embarrassed the Terriers 8-1, BU&rsquo;s worst home loss since a 10-1 drubbing to Boston College on Jan. 8, 1985.The Bears&rsquo; explosive line of junior center Jim Montgomery, senior right winger Jean-Yves Roy and junior left winger Brian Downey combined for four goals.BU stunned the Black Bears 5-4 the night before, despite being outshot 44-23&mdash;including 17-6 in the third period.Freshman right winger Mike Prendergast&rsquo;s short-handed goal with 21 seconds left in the third period turned out to be the winner.Montgomery had three assists in the two games to become the sixth player in Black Bear history to eclipse the 100-assist mark for his career.Montgomery was also named Hockey East player of the week for the period ending Nov. 17.The 22-year-old&rsquo;s six-point weekend raised his career totals to 53 goals and 102 assists in 93 games. He was 20 assists shy of Dave Capuano&rsquo;s school record of 122. Capuano, now with the Vancouver Canucks, set the record between 1986 and 1989.ROCKY RETURN: Providence junior goalie Brad Mullahy made his first start for the Friars Nov. 16 after missing the first seven games with a sprained right knee. The 21-year-old was touched for seven goals (one empty-netter) on 36 shots in an 8-6 loss to the surprising Lowell Chiefs. &#9632;

Cats make history with start

CIAUThe light the Brandon Bobcats could see at the end of their tunnel has burned out.Last-place finishers in Canada West a year ago, the Bobcats managed to score 130 goals (average of 4.64 per game). That gave them reason for optimism this season.That hope has quickly disappeared as the Bobcats lost their first 10 regular-season games, scoring just 30 times in the process. Triggermen Gary Gaudet and Richard Oswald, both top-10 scorers in 1990-91, struggled.Goals against remained a problem-62 in 10 games-but unlike last season when the team won seven of 28 starts, the offense hadn&rsquo;t been able to help.If there&rsquo;s any break in sight, it&rsquo;s that the Bobcats played just three of their first 10 games at home, so they will see more friendly faces in the stands during the second half.The on-ice faces, however, won&rsquo;t be any friendlier. The Bobcats were scheduled to play play Alberta four times and Lethbridge twice in the next six games.Both Alberta and Lethbridge were battling Regina for first place.AUAA: Darrell Young is not an easy man to please.Five weeks into the Atlantic Universities Athletic Association season, his Dalhousie Tigers held down top spot in the Kelly Division with a 5-2-3 record, but the demanding coach was far from satisfied.&ldquo;I felt, and our other coaches felt, at this point we should be 8-2 or 8-1-1,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but we&rsquo;ve given a lot of points away.&ldquo;We have a lot of new faces and we haven&rsquo;t played as consistently as we should. It doesn&rsquo;t matter where we are right now. It&rsquo;s where we are in March.&rdquo;Young would like to see his team put some distance between itself and both St. Mary&rsquo;s and Acadia.Young expects the biggest challenge to come from the Axemen. &ldquo;Acadia, I think, has the most talent in the league,&rdquo; he said.OUAA: In previous years there was little doubt which team was best in Quebec. Trois-Rivieres had a lock on that status. But this may just be the year that another power emerges in La Belle Province.Concordia got off to a 5-1-0 start in the Ontario Universities Athletic Association&rsquo;s East Division and was right behind the Patriotes with four games in hand.The Patriotes were 8-2-0 after 10 games, but were crushed 8-3 by Waterloo Nov. 10. They also lost to arch rival McGill 3-2 Nov. 13. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t seem to have that powerhouse at Trois Rivieres anymore,&rdquo; Concordia coach Yves Beaucage said.&mdash;With files from Robin Brownlee, Bruce Hallihan and Claude Scilley. &#9632;

Major power outage puts Bobcats in hole

<h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01715/6279096-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="990" height="1109"></div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02489/6279089-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="982" height="862"></div><h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03359/6279082-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="991" height="745"></div><h2>CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04284/6279075-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="1009" height="849"></div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05234/6279068-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="989" height="750"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06201/6279061-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="994" height="729"></div><h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07183/6279054-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="1002" height="319"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-08151/6279047-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="999" height="479"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-09133/6279040-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="987" height="713"></div><h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-10118/6279033-1-eng-US/f0033-102.jpg" title="f0033-10" width="995" height="670"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-11112/6279026-1-eng-US/f0033-112.jpg" title="f0033-11" width="1002" height="712"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-12107/6279019-1-eng-US/f0033-122.jpg" title="f0033-12" width="995" height="102"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01803/6279012-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="1006" height="583"></div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02571/6279005-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="1012" height="1076"></div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03444/6278998-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="1014" height="830"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04339/6278991-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="1002" height="725"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05269/6278984-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="1028" height="94"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06236/6278977-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="1024" height="733"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07217/6278970-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="1003" height="824"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08202/6278963-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="1013" height="660"></div><h2>SAN JOSE SHARKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-09182/6278956-1-eng-US/f0034-092.jpg" title="f0034-09" width="1013" height="660"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-10178/6278949-1-eng-US/f0034-102.jpg" title="f0034-10" width="1007" height="193"></div><h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-11167/6278942-1-eng-US/f0034-112.jpg" title="f0034-11" width="994" height="808"></div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-12162/6278935-1-eng-US/f0034-122.jpg" title="f0034-12" width="1001" height="629"></div><h2>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-13145/6278928-1-eng-US/f0034-132.jpg" title="f0034-13" width="1017" height="651"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-14138/6278921-1-eng-US/f0034-142.jpg" title="f0034-14" width="1011" height="825"></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01764/6279148-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div><h2>TEAM-BY-TEAM</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02565/6279141-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="1035" height="1227"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03458/6279134-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="1047" height="303"></div><h2>LEADERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04366/6279127-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="1036" height="818"></div> &#9632;

f0035-01

NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS

<h2>NOTE</h2>Unofficial game summaries provided by National rtockey League; (shots on goal/plus-minus rating); SA-shots against; GA-goals against; ENG-empty net goals; DEC-decision, charged to goaltenders of record when deciding goal is scored.<h2>Monday, Nov. 18</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05306/6279333-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="630" height="1764"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06278/6279326-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="648" height="987"></div><h2>Tuesday, Nov. 19</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07256/6279319-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="647" height="1066"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08230/6279312-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="646" height="2131"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09212/6279305-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="648" height="2142"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10185/6279298-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="616" height="450"></div><h2>Wednesday, Nov. 20</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-11163/6279291-1-eng-US/f0035-112.jpg" title="f0035-11" width="604" height="1599"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01720/6279284-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="641" height="3545"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02507/6279277-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="670" height="1974"></div><h2>Thursday, Nov. 21</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03411/6279270-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="650" height="1459"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04314/6279263-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="650" height="3082"></div><h2>Friday, Nov. 22</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05259/6279256-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="666" height="363"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06227/6279249-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="648" height="3527"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07208/6279242-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="640" height="3524"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01642/6279235-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="626" height="401"></div><h2>Saturday, Nov. 23</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02454/6279228-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="616" height="3080"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03351/6279221-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="620" height="3556"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04290/6279214-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="596" height="517"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05258/6279207-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="630" height="1009"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06225/6279200-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="629" height="531"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07200/6279193-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="640" height="1021"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08166/6279186-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="634" height="3554"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-09142/6279179-1-eng-US/f0037-092.jpg" title="f0037-09" width="1127" height="1900"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Carpenter helped Boston to an early 3-0 lead in the Bruins&rsquo; 7-4 win over Buffalo Nov. 23. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/BBS)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0035-05

NHL SUMMARIES

<h2>AHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01716/6279448-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="610" height="1806"></div><h2>IHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02533/6279441-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="622" height="1535"></div><h2>ECHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03431/6279434-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="626" height="1900"></div><h2>OHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04335/6279427-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="630" height="1429"></div><h2>WHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05252/6279420-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="620" height="1305"></div><h2>QMJHL</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06212/6279413-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="611" height="1406"></div><h2>NATIONAL JR.</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07196/6279406-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="592" height="531"></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-08168/6279399-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="610" height="1061"></div><h2>ECAC</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-09152/6279392-1-eng-US/f0038-092.jpg" title="f0038-09" width="632" height="1178"></div><h2>CCHA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-10135/6279385-1-eng-US/f0038-102.jpg" title="f0038-10" width="638" height="1007"></div><h2>WCHA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-11127/6279378-1-eng-US/f0038-112.jpg" title="f0038-11" width="599" height="1089"></div><h2>OUAA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-12118/6279371-1-eng-US/f0038-122.jpg" title="f0038-12" width="617" height="1348"></div><h2>CWUAA</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-13108/6279364-1-eng-US/f0038-132.jpg" title="f0038-13" width="599" height="809"></div> &#9632;

f0038-01

SCOREBOARD

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01682/6279486-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="408" height="485"></div>Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; coach Rick Dudley was wrong when he said Calgary Flame defenseman Jamie Macoun&rsquo;s hit on Pat LaFontaine was a &ldquo;cheap shot&rdquo;.It might have been stupid.Bill-conceived and irresponsible but it wasn&rsquo;t anything outside of what passes for &ldquo;unfortunate&rdquo; in the NHL. In case you missed it, it was the blade of Macoun&rsquo;s stick, making contact with the tip of LaFontaine&rsquo;s jaw Nov. 16, that caused this fuss.Shockingly, the NHL decided a hearing wasn&rsquo;t warranted and no punishment was expected.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02468/6279479-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="507" height="666"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jamie Macoun</figcaption></div>The video shows LaFontaine, with a clear scoring opportunity, sweeping down on the Flames&rsquo; net with Macoun, a good two steps behind, giving chase. It then shows Macoun, with both hands on his stick, reaching in for what appears to be a heavy hook or slash. It&rsquo;s standard practice in the NHL. A player is beaten so he does whatever possible to stop the player who has beaten him.Only this time it also meant trouble. Macoun&rsquo;s stick, propelled by all the strength the 6-foot-2, 197-pound defenseman can muster, lught LaFontaine flush on the jaw.The result was something akin to Jose Canseco&rsquo;s bat making contact with a Roger Clemens fast ball. Given the laws of physics, it&rsquo;s no surprise LaFontaine suffered a double fractured jaw, a severed facial artery, immense pain, suffering and the loss of a great deal of blood.And it didn&rsquo;t stop there.The Sabres lost their best scorer, star gate attraction, team leader and the emotional catalyst that represented the best chance of transforming them from mediocrity into perhaps a true playoff-caliber team. LaFontaine lost his chance to superlative hockey, a shot at akeable bonuses and post-season honors. His fans lost the opportunity to see a great player.But what really happened that night is that Jamie Macoun did exactly what he was supposed to do, what he was taught to do and what most everyone in hockey expected he would do. Macoun stopped his man from scoring. He used the tactic of last resort and let the consequences be damned.Even if the NHL had suspended Macoun. it wouldn&rsquo;t have changed anything. It won&rsquo;t put more people in Memorial Auditorium seats. It won&rsquo;t put LaFontaine back on the ice.In order to make a real impact, the NHL needed to take a bold step. Suspend Macoun, first, fine the Flames, second, and award compensatory damages to the Sabres, third.Think of it! Under the terms of his newly-signed contract. LaFontaine figures to make about $20,000 per game this season and now is expected to miss roughly 28 games. Put the numbers together and it adds up to $560,000 U.S.Calgary pays that. It also pays for the doctor and hospital bills and the expenses incurred in transporting LaFontaine home. An actuary could determine the percentage of lost revenue reasonably expected to be created by LaFontaine&rsquo;s absence and the Flames would be charged that. Should the Sabres be forced to call up a minor league player to replace LaFontaine in the lineup, the Flames would have to both pay that player&rsquo;s NHL salary and supply a replacement player at the minor league level.Ridiculous you say? It&rsquo;s not without legal foundation. Owners, general managers and coaches should be responsible for what they&rsquo;ve told their employees to do. What coach would tell a player to use any means possible if he knew it would cost the team owner thousands of dollars? What league would suffer an owner who would drive up costs to the point of no return?As in most cases when things are wrong in the NHL. it&rsquo;s the players who get the blame. I&rsquo;ve never met one yet&mdash;and that includes Macoun&mdash;who deliberately set out to smash another player&rsquo;s face with his stick, but I&rsquo;ve met hundreds who would do whatever they&rsquo;re told to do to stay in the game. With compensation fines in place, they wouldn&rsquo;t have to. Sticks would go down and they would stay down.Jamie Macoun didn&rsquo;t invent this problem. The NHL did. This time, it should invent a real solution. &#9632;

f0039-01

Flames should be liable for Macoun hit

<div class="byline">By Kevin Dupont</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03356/6279517-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andy Brickley was having a career year until a seemingly harmless hit put him out for the season. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/BBS)</figcaption></div>Voodooism. That&rsquo;s one theory. And right now, Andy Brickley is buying it.&ldquo;Somebody must be doing something to dolls, or something,&rdquo; the Bruins&rsquo; veteran winger said.If that&rsquo;s true, Brickley is only the latest victim of the evil spell cast against the Bruins, arguably hockey&rsquo;s most hurting team.Hit by what appeared to be an innocent check by John Cullen Nov. 16, Brickley suffered a tom right rotator cuff and underwent surgery nine days later. There&rsquo;s a chance he&rsquo;ll be back for the playoffs, but a better chance his season has come to a disappointing end.&ldquo;The doctor has guarded me against optimism,&rdquo; said Brickley, who. up until his injury, was Boston&rsquo;s hottest scorer (21 points in 12 games). &ldquo;It&rsquo;s different for everybody but from everything I know it&rsquo;s a long rehabilitation, up to nine months. So. see you in September.&rdquo;The 1991-92 season is fast becoming Boston&rsquo;s bottomless pit of medical mishaps. Cam Neely, drilled in the left thigh by a menacing Ulf Samuclsson check in last season&rsquo;s Stanley Cup semifinals, has yet to play a game. Shortly before Brickley&rsquo;s surgery. Neely was talking about getting back on skates during the last week of November and perhaps playing by Jan. I. The chance remains, though, that he won&rsquo;t return this season and may need surgery to remove a chunk of muscle in his leg that has turned into bone.Dave Poulin, who missed all but 31 games last season due to a variety of injuries, is scheduled to have hernia surgery Dec. 6. He also hasn&rsquo;t played a game this year and likely won&rsquo;t get a chance to play until mid-March. Defenseman Glen Featherstone, who signed as a free agent from St. Louis over the summer, underwent back surgery in mid-November for a herniated disc and won&rsquo;t be seen around Boston until mid-February.By the morning of Nov. 24, the Bruins had already cracked 100 mangames lost to injury. That&rsquo;s a pace slightly behind last season&rsquo;s 412-game total, which for the fourth consecutive year led the NHL.&ldquo;What is it? What&rsquo;s the reason?&rdquo; asked Harry Sinden, the club&rsquo;s longtime general manager and now president. &ldquo;There have been a lot of theories over the years. Our style of play. The fact that we play on a small, confined rink. Some people think we&rsquo;re cursed. I think it&rsquo;s just bad luck. I mean, that&rsquo;s what I want to believe it is.&rdquo;Bad luck by the barrel full. The Bruins believe they are a lesser team now because of the loss of two key first-round draft picks who likely would help comprise the core of their talent base today. Nine games into the 1982-83 season. 19-year-old Normand Leveille was felled by a cerebral hemorrhage during a game in Vancouver. He never played again, and today, at age 28, lives in Montreal, his speech impaired and partly paralyzed on one side of his body.Slightly less than two years later, promising defenseman Gord Kluzak, the No. I pick overall in the 1982 draft, blew out his left knee in a preseason game. He missed two of the next three seasons and finally surrendered to his pain for good last November.Leveille and Kluzak are two of the better examples of Boston&rsquo;s Bad News Bruins, but no one should forget that Bobby Orr left town as a free agent in 1976 with one of his knees already ruined. He played in only 26 games for the Chicago Blackhawks and. like Kluzak, had to give in to his pain.Five years ago, right winger Louis Sleigher was forced out of the game by a painful abdominal injury. While attempting to jump off the Boston bench, Sleigher caught a skate in Nevin Markwart&rsquo;s sweater, felt a tug in his stomach, and his career was virtually over at age 28. He&rsquo;s now in the restaurant business in northern Quebec. Late last season, defenseman Michael Thelven&rsquo;s chronic knee problems finally forced him into retirement at age 30. He&rsquo;s now selling insurance back in his native Sweden.&ldquo;Really, I don&rsquo;t know how you explain it other than bad luck.&rdquo; said Sinden. who perennially has to wheel and deal to patch up his lineup.&ldquo;For us, we lose guys for a month&hellip;a season&hellip;a career.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0039-03

Bad News Bruins

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>The last time Andre Savard coached the Quebec Nordiques, the team was on its way down. Now that he&rsquo;s back as an assistant, there&rsquo;s nowhere to go but up.Four years after being fired as head coach of the Nordiques, Savard joined Pierre Page&rsquo;s coaching team Nov. 20. Savard had been working as a pro scout for the team since his dismissal as coach in the fall of 1987.&ldquo;I had discussed different matters on a regular basis with Andre,&rdquo;Page said. &ldquo;He has good judgment and I love the way he works. He&rsquo;s a very intense person and has touched many sectors of hockey. And he has always done a good job.&rdquo;Savard lasted 24 games as the Nordiques&rsquo; head coach in 1987, compiling a record of 1013-1. A coaching neophyte, Savard took over the team just when it was beginning to go downhill. To make matters worse, he had to fill the shoes of former coach Michel Bergeron, the most popular and successful coach in Nordique history.Savard looks back upon his tenure as a learning experience but is still smarting from it. He was accused by many players of being too tough on them.&ldquo;Now I know I was right,&rdquo; Savard said. &ldquo;When I look back at the way things deteriorated over the past four years, it&rsquo;s very clear in my mind that the work ethic wasn&rsquo;t there. This time around, with the general manager behind the bench, the players won&rsquo;t have any choice. They&rsquo;ll have to go all out.TUGNUTT SIGNED: After months of squabbling, Ron Tugnutt and his agent Don Meehan came to terms with the Nordiques on a contract. The 24-year-old goalie agreed to a three-year deal with an average annual salary of $430,000.Just two seasons ago, Tugnutt was making a league-low $85,000.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m more than pleased with what the Nordiques have given me,&rdquo; Tugnutt said. &ldquo;The only regret I have is that the negotiations were so long. We agreed to the length of the contract, but the money was a problem. My only job now is to prove to my bosses that they made the right decision in granting me a good contract.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: On the second day he was on the ice for practice after replacing Dave Chambers as coach, Pierre Page had a few choice words with Owen Nolan. The young right winger and Page even left the ice for a few of minutes to sort things out. Nolan was upset because he was practising with Claude Lapointe and Doug Smail as linemates instead of Joe Sakic and Mike Hough.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 20: Andre Savard hired as assistant coach. Nov. 22: Dan Lambert, D, and Jamie Baker, C, recalled from Halifax (AHL) Nov. 23: Don Barber. LW. assigned to Halifax.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Sakic. Kip Miller. Claude Lapointe, Marc Fortier, Jamie Baker.LW&mdash;Mike Hough, Stephane Morin, Doug Smail, Tony Twist, Wayne Van Dorp.RW&mdash;Owen Nolan, Mats Sundin, Greg Paslawski, John Kordic, Herb Ragian.LD&mdash;Greg Smyth, Mikhail Tatarinov, Alexei Gusarov. Craig Wolanin.RD&mdash;Randy Velischek, Steven Finn, Bryan Fogarty, Adam Foote, Dan LambertG&mdash;Ron Tugnutt, Jacques Cloutier.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Curtis Leschyshyn, D, reconstructive surgery on left knee, indefinite. Valeri Kamensky. LW, broken left leg. indefinite. Stephane Guerard. D, reconstructive surgery on right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

Savard back in the fold

<div class="byline">By Jeff Jacobs</div>When he heard that he had been traded to the Hartford Whalers, Murray Craven drew some laughs around the NHL by announcing he was leaving Philly to play in a shopping mall.But since the recession has bitten Hartford the past couple of years, the busiest shop around the Civic Center mall undoubtedly has been general manager Ed Johnston&rsquo;s office.Johnston hasn&rsquo;t eclipsed Phil Esposito&rsquo;s trade-a-day pace with the New York Rangers, but he has made 27 trades since taking over the club on May 11, 1989. And he said he&rsquo;s not done yet.&ldquo;I knew when I came here from Pittsburgh that there had to be a wholesale change of this franchise,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t like the attitude where it didn&rsquo;t seem to matter if they won or lost.&rdquo;Although they got off to 5-1-1 start thanks in no small part to the goalkeeping of Kay Whitmore, a 4-8-2 slide left the Whalers at .500 after 21 games and averaging only 10,900 fans. One theory is the fans simply don&rsquo;t know many players yet.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t buy that fan identification stuff,&rdquo; Johnston said. &ldquo;Winning is a cure-all. And I think some people have the misconception that we were mad or didn&rsquo;t like some players. We made trades to improve the team. The personality stuff has to stay out of it.FIGHTING BACK: Dealt to Washington Oct. 2 for a conditional third&mdash;or fourth-round pick, Todd Krygier isn&rsquo;t buying Johnston&rsquo;s act. Johnston said after the trade, &ldquo;If we can&rsquo;t replace Krygier, we&rsquo;re in trouble,&rdquo; and &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to worry about a 12-goal scorer.&rdquo; Thus far, Krygier has outscored every Whaler except John Cullen, while Sylvain Cote (who went to the Caps for a second-rounder) has outscored the Whalers&rsquo; defense.&ldquo;When they traded Ron Francis, I said, &lsquo;Listen, if I was a season ticketholder, I&rsquo;d drop my season tickets, too,&rsquo;&rdquo; Krygier said. &ldquo;He was treated with no respect. It was a disgrace. I look at Ron Francis a lot like I look at Rod Langway. Here, Rod will probably move into management. There, they just treated Ronnie like dirt.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Mark Greig, the 1990 first-round pick, has a reputation for being a swift, skilled winger who can play a little reckless. But I when he was demoted to Springfield Nov. 22, Greig was without a goal and led the team with a plus-minus rating of plus-7. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s ironic,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I never thought my offense would hurt me. I&rsquo;m hesitant. But at least I put an end to the defensive rap. I was tired of hearing that.&rdquo;<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 19: Shawn Evans, D. and Chris Tancill. RW, recalled from Springfield (AHL). Nov. 20: James Black. C, and Evans assigned to Springfield. Nov. 21: Mark Greig, RW. assigned to Springfield. Rights to Jukka Suomalainen, D. acquired from Minnesota to complete June, 1991 trade for fifth-round draft pick.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Geoff Sanderson, John Cullen. Andrew Cassels. Joe Day.LW&mdash;Murray Craven, Pal Verbeek, Jim McKenzie. Randy Cunneyworth. Mikael Andersson.RW&mdash;Ed Kastelic, Bobby Holik. Mark Hunter, Rob Brown, Chris Tancill.LD&mdash;Randy Ladoceur. Marc Bergevin. Zarley Zalapski.RD&mdash;Adam Burt. Brad Shaw. John Stevens. Doug Houda.G&mdash;Peter Sidorkiewicz, Kay Whitmore.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Michel Picard, LW. separated shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

Trader Ed not done wheeling and dealing

<div class="byline">By Stephen Harris</div>For aging and unwanted players across the league, the Boston Bruins represent an all-important opportunity.The Bruins have grown accustomed to an annual avalanche of injuries, but they&rsquo;ve never been hit harder than this season&mdash;evidenced by the fact that after 21 games, 34 players had been used.Among them: veteran forwards Brent Ashton. Barry Pederson and Scott Arniel. Playing little or not at all for their former clubs, each became a regular in the patchwork Bruins&rsquo; lineup.For the latest pickup, Arniel, acquired from Winnipeg Nov. 22 for future considerations, it was a homecoming of sorts. He played in the Adams Division for Buffalo from 1986 to 1990.&ldquo;I had five good years in Winnipeg,&rdquo; Arniel said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s really wide open out there. Offense is stressed. and not much defense is played. Here it&rsquo;s a little tighter. I like the Adams Division bump and grind.&rdquo;The 29-year-old Arniel often had the tough assignment of checking new teammate Cam Neely, St. Louis&rsquo; Brett Hull and other top right wingers.&ldquo;I used to see a lot of this guy here,&rdquo; Arniel gestured at Neely. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve worked against a lot of the top guns in the league. But I don&rsquo;t like to think of myself as just a defensive Borward&mdash;I&rsquo;d use the term two-way forward. I&rsquo;ve always scored 17, 18, 20 goals in my career. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m strictly one-dimensional.&rdquo;Getting no playing time with the Jets, Arniel had arranged to play with New Haven of the American League, then requested a trade.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what happened in Winnipeg,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think they&rsquo;re trying to make some changes to younger players. They&rsquo;ve moved out myself, Brent Ashton and some other guys who are getting up in years. I wasn&rsquo;t real happy with how it was going there.&rdquo;But plenty of playing time is available in Boston.GAME READY: It&rsquo;s something of a medical miracle Bobby Carpenter, whose left knee was surgically reconstructed last season, can play at all. He almost never practises because of the injury, yet he has played well, with 16 points in 17 games.&ldquo;I wish I could get out there in some practices and just handle the puck and shoot more. I mean, I might get 12 to 15 shots in warmups before a game, but that&rsquo;s about it,&rdquo; Carpenter said. He said he senses no resentment from teammates over the fact he rarely practices.&ldquo;Resentment, no. Envy, maybe,&rdquo; laughed Carpenter.NOTEBOOK: Captain Ray Bourque became the fourth defenseman in NHL history to register 700 assists Nov. 23 (7-4 win over Buffalo), earning a point on a Vladimir Ruzicka goal. Bourque joins Paul Coffey, Denis Potvin and Larry Robinson in the 700 club&hellip;Andy Brickley was slated to have a torn rotator cuff surgically repaired Nov. 25 and was expected to miss the remainder of the season.Dave Poulin will have abdominal surgery in Vancouver Dec. 6&hellip;Rookie goalie Matt DelGuidice earned his first NHL victory with a 34-save effort in a 7-4 win over Buffalo Nov. 23.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 19: Lyndon Byers. RW, Dave Thomlinson, LW, recalled from Maine (AHL). Shayne Stevenson, LW, assigned to Maine. Nov. 22: Pgter Douris, RW. recalled from Maine. Scott Arniel, LW. obtained from Winnipeg for future considerations.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Craig Janney, Bobby Carpenter, Vladimir Ruzicka, Barry Pederson, Ralph Barahona.LW&mdash;Brent Ashton. Nevin Markwart. Dave Thomlinson, Scott Arniel. Bob Sweeney.RW&mdash;Steve Leach. Peter Douris, Chris Nilan, Chris Winnes, Lyndon Byers.LD&mdash;Glen Wesley, Garry Galley, Don Sweeney.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque, Stephane Quintal, Jim Wiemer. Bob Beers.G&mdash;Andy Moog. Matt DelGuidice. Reggie Lemelin.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Andy Brickley. LW. right shoulder surgery, out for season. Glen Featherstone. D, back surgery, indefinite. Ken Hodge. C, sprained right knee, day-to-day. Cam Neely, RW, left thigh contusion, indefinite. Dave Poulin, C. abdominal strain, indefinite. Jim Vesey, C, bruised right shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

Unwanted veterans feeling right at home in Boston

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>Russ Courtnall believes his season is over.The speedy Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; right winger will almost certainly be forced to undergo shoulder surgery by mid-December, ending his season. He had two goals and an assist in three games.Courtnall&rsquo;s injury has been a source of mystery, confusion, anxiety and even some ill feelings on the team. For weeks, no one knew exactly what Courtnall had done to his right shoulder when he aggravated a previous injury in the third game of the season against Hartford. It was orginally diagonsed as a muscle strain by Canadiens&rsquo; doctors.Six weeks of rest was prescribed, meaning Courtnall, the Habs&rsquo; leading scorer last season, should have been back in the lineup by late November.Frustrated by recurring pain and little sign of improvement, Courtnall headed for California to get a second opinion. He visited Dr. Joe Horrigan, who has worked on Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky.A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MR1) scan revealed a torn rotator cuff and some tom muscle. Horrigan started Courtnall on a procedure called deep tissue massage.After Courtnall spent 10 days on the west coast, Habs&rsquo; GM Serge Savard, perhaps irked about Courtnall being in sunny California while his teammates worked in Montreal, asked Courtnall to return home to continue his physiotherapy. He hadn&rsquo;t improved since and season-ending surgery may be the only option.Courtnall&rsquo;s California trip was not a popular decision among Canadiens&rsquo; management and medical staff, but he stood by his decision to get outside help.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s my career and it&rsquo;s my shoulder,&rdquo; Courtnal I said. &ldquo;It comes to the point where you have to be selfish and see the best people. It&rsquo;s not that the guys here (in Montreal) are not quality guys. I just felt I wasn&rsquo;t getting anywhere with them.&rdquo;SAVARD SCORES: Center Denis Savard, who had one goal and one assist in nine games following an eye injury, had a goal and an assist in a 5-3 win over Quebec Nov. 23 to break ouL of his slump.He credited talks with coach Pat Burns and Journal de Montreal reporter Pierre Durocher for his minisuccess.&ldquo;I had a good talk with Burns,&rdquo; said Savard. &ldquo;Right or wrong, there&rsquo;s some things I had to say. I had to get more involved with the body, mom involved offensively. Pat was great Wlisten.&rdquo;According to Bums, however, he did more than listen.&ldquo;I love Denis Savard,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But sometimes you have to be honest. I went right for the jugular. I said, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re brutal right now.&rsquo; The thing you do best is skate, and you&rsquo;re not skating right now.&rdquo;Savard asked Durocher for his opinion and was told he had become too predictable on offense, always taking an outside route when attacking the opponents&rsquo; zone.So, Savard took the puck and cut up the middle, splitting the defense for his eighth goal of the season.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 20: Brent Gilchrist, RW, signed two-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Guy Carbonneau, Kirk Muller, Stephan Lebeau, Paul DiPietro.LW&mdash;Mike McPhee, John LeClair, Benoit Brunet, Sylvain Turgeon, Mario Roberge.RW&mdash;Brent Gilchrist, Denis Savard, Mike Keane, Todd Ewen.LD&mdash;Jean-Jacques Daigneault. Petr Svoboda. Mathieu Schneider.RD&mdash;Eric Desjardins, Lyle Odelein. Sylvain Lefebvre. Donald Dufresne.G&mdash;Patrick Roy, Roland Melanson.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Russ Courtnall. RW, torn rotator cuff and muscle in right shoulder, indefinite. Brian Skrudland, C, torn left knee ments, indefinite. &#9632;

Courtnall takes some heat over injury therapy

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>Not very long ago. Tom Draper figured he had just about enough of hockey.But that was before the 25-year-old goaltender returned from Rochester (American League) and guided the Sabres through a six-game unbeaten streak (5-0-1).&ldquo;I certainly pondered the idea of giving up.&rdquo; Draper said before his rmost recent call-up.Draper came within one shot of shutting out the San Jose Sharks Nov. 12 (7-1 win) after being inserted into the game when Clint Malarchuk went down with the flu.The San Jose game was the first of a three-game western swing for the Sabres. And with Daren Puppa out with a broken left arm and Malarchuk down with the flu. Draper got a second start in Los Angeles Nov. 14. He held the line there for a 2-2 tie and then held the team together through a slew of injuries to record wins against Calgary (5-4 Nov. 16) and Boston (3-1 Nov. 20). He capped the run with 2-0 win over Chicago Nov. 22 at Memorial Auditorium. Draper posted a 1.95 goals-against average during the road trip.The streak ended Nov. 24 in Boston. when Draper was chased in the first period of a 7-4 loss. But the whole team was flat, and by then, retirement was the farthest thing from Draper&rsquo;s mind.&ldquo;I feel I don&rsquo;t have anything to prove to myself,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just wanted management to notice me.&rdquo;Getting noticed had been a major problem for Draper. He was the Sabres&rsquo; best goaltender in training camp, but management remained committed to veterans Puppa and Malarchuk.Draper was acquired from the Winnipeg Jets for future considerations at the June 22 entry draft and was sent to Rochester. He impressed (five games, 2.37 GAA) and was recalled after Puppa went down.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01354/6279644-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="524" height="1073"><figcaption class="caption-body">Clint Malarchuk had a practice as part of his honeymoon.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;We knew what he could do, he just didn&rsquo;t have the opportunity right away,&rdquo; coach Rick Dudley said. &ldquo;He just had to wait for his chance to come.&rdquo;STREAK SNAPPED: The loss to Boston Nov. 24 ended the Sabres&rsquo; longest unbeaten streak of the season (six games).Buffalo entered the game without veterans Dale Hawerchuk and Mike Ramsey, both out with groin injuries.Hawerchuk injured his groin in L.A., but played against Calgary. Boston and Chicago.Ramsey, who had been bothered by chronic groin problems since 1985, missed his first game of the season. He had been consulting a soft tissue specalist in L.A. to help correct the problem.NOTEBOOK: Goaltender Clint Malarchuk surprised teammates in Calgary when he showed up for practice Nov. 15 with his new bride. Sandra. Malarchuk went to Calgary from Los Angeles ahead of the team and was married while the rest of the club was enroute. Dressed in a cowboy tuxedo. Malarchuk brought Sandra to the Saddledome in a limo. She sat in the stands while he practised&hellip;Christian Ruuttu scored his first goal of the season in the Sabres&rsquo; 2-0 win over Chicago Nov. 22. Ruuttu had gone 20 games without a goal, but had been bothered by wrist and ankle injuries. Ruuttu&rsquo;s goal was shorthanded. Buffalo&rsquo;s first shorthanded goal of the season.Rookie Brad May suffered an ugly gash on his right hand and missed the game against Chicago. He returned to play the following night in the 7-4 loss to Boston.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Colin Patterson, Christian Ruuttu, Dave Snuggerud.LW&mdash;Randy Wood. Dave Andreychuk, Brad May. Rob Ray.RW&mdash;Donald Audette, Alex Mogilny, Tony Tanti. Rick Vaive.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. INJURIESDale Hawerchuk, C, pulled groin, day-to-day. Pat LaFontaine. C, fractured jaw. indefinite Daren Puppa, G, broken left forearm, indefinite. Mike Ramsey. D, pulled groin, day-to-day. &#9632;

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December 6, 1991

Offensive shortcomings nearing crisis point

Kvisle steps in to assist, then out the door

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT