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

November 27, 1992

The Hockey News November 27, 1992

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01370/6554289-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>The American League&rsquo;s annual mid-winter meeting took place in Montreal during the NHL&rsquo;s all-star weekend and the surrounding hoopla apparently sparked creative thinking.With NHL festivities as the backdrop, the AHL&rsquo;s board of governors initiated plans for its own All-Star Game beginning next season.For years the AHL resisted offers from the International League for an inter-league All-Star Game. Many AHL owners were also against a game within their own league.&ldquo;There was a group that remembers when the AHL used to do an All-Star Game (in the 1960s) and it wasn&rsquo;t successful financially,&rdquo; said league marketing director Bob Ohrablo.The IHL&rsquo;s success with an all-star contest apparently has changed their thinking, though there has been no official announcement on the matter.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s still in the discussion stages,&rdquo; Ohrablo said. &ldquo;If it can be a successful event, fine, we want to do it.&rdquo;Numerous details must be worked out, including date, site, the format and a television contract.With three divisions, there is no simple way to break up squads. Among the possibilities, players from the six Canadian-based teams would play players from the 10 U.S. teams.No one with the league is discussing possible sites. But Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, Pa., is a logical possibility because of history. Hamilton&rsquo;s Copps Coliseum could be attractive because of its 17,000-seat capacity and proximity to Toronto. Considering Providence&rsquo;s booming success this season (a league-best 8,756 average attendance), the Civic Center could be considered.If the NHL implements plans for a Dream Team concept for the 1994 Winter Olympics, there would be a 17- to 23-day break in the NHL season. The AHL probably would have its All-Star Game in the down time before the Olympics. Not only would it create better exposure, it could allow a recalled player to participate in the game.STREAK ENDS: The Binghamton Rangers&rsquo; 21-game home-ice unbeaten streak (20-0-1) ended with a 4-3 overtime loss to Hamilton Feb. 6, one day after the Rangers tied a 55-year-old league record for consecutive home victories.Binghamton defeated Baltimore 6-1 Feb. 5 for its 17th consecutive home victory, equalling the mark set by the Cleveland Barons in 193738.But Tim Taylor&rsquo;s goal for the Canucks 3:45 into overtime left Binghamton one game short of tying the AHL record for longest home unbeaten streak (22, Boston Braves, 1971-72).LAROUCHE, MR. ASSIST: Steve La-rouche tied a Fredericton Canadiens&rsquo; record by assisting on five goals in a 9-3 victory over Halifax Feb. 5. He also scored his 16th goal.The big night was part of Larouche&rsquo;s 11-point week. Larouche led the Canadiens in scoring with 16 goals and 59 points in 52 games.END OF LINE: Rochester&rsquo;s Peter Ciavaglia had his 25-game point streak stopped in a 4-4 tie with Hershey Feb. 5. His streak is a team record but was six short of the league record set by Baltimore&rsquo;s Mike Richard in 1987-88. &#9632;

League planning all-star festivities for next season

<div class="byline">By Jett Williams</div>You get the feeling Benoit Hogue is just getting going. In his second season with the New York Islanders and sixth in the NHL, Hogue is heading full throttle toward stardom.Hogue had 25 goals and 55 points through 48 games, a pace that will lift him above last year&rsquo;s career highs of 30 goals and 75 points. Pure, raw speed is the essence of Hogue&rsquo;s game.This is what the Islanders expected when they got Hogue in the trade that sent Pat Lafontaine to Buffalo last season. After four seasons with the Sabres, Hogue was an undeveloped and unappreciated talent.&ldquo;Hogie is twice the player now that he was in Buffalo,&rdquo; said Uwe Krupp, who, along with Pierre Turgeon, came to the Islanders in the December, 1991 deal. &ldquo;He has so much more confidence. 1 think he&rsquo;s more appreciated here. In Buffalo he was a young, cocky kid and I don&rsquo;t think the older players had much respect for him. Here, they let him be himself.&rdquo;Hogue is a dashing 26-year-old-bachelor whose speed on the ice may be equaled by his movement on the dance floor. The man can dance. He has shown it on left wing, at center and at Montreal clubs.Not only does he bring speed to the Islanders, he brings a sense of humor, a lightheartedness that keeps the locker room free of chronic moaning.&ldquo;You think about all his skills,&rdquo; Derek King said, &ldquo;but he also has the ability to perk up the locker room. Hogie can always make you laugh. He plays jokes, puts shaving cream in our towels.&rdquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt hockey is a business Hogue takes seriously. &ldquo;For me to play well, it has got to be fun,&rdquo; Hogue said. &ldquo;I think anybody plays better when its fun. If it&rsquo;s just work, you don&rsquo;t have motivation.&rdquo;Hogue doesn&rsquo;t get bogged down in thinking about the game too much. His style of play is to beat you with his one genuine gift, speed.&ldquo;When Bennie&rsquo;s operating at full tilt is when he&rsquo;s most effective,&rdquo; coach Al Arbour said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s his natural instincts that make him dangerous.&rdquo;Hogue excels in the transition game and has been helped by the Islanders&rsquo; aggressive play. A turnover and Hogue blasts away.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question if you can feed Hogie a short pass, he&rsquo;s gone before the other D have a chance,&rdquo; right winger Pat Hatley said.Hogue started out at left wing then was moved to center when Ray Ferraro broke his leg. He has been playing between Brian Mullen and Hatley. But Hogue seldom carries the puck down the center of the ice. His tendency is to move to the left boards.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a different game from there,&rdquo; Hogue said. &ldquo;You know no one is coming up from the left.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The anticipated purchase of the Isles by cable television magnate Charles Dolan was close. John Pickett, who has owned the franchise 15 years, was negotiating to sell to Dolan, whose Sports-Channel broadcasts Islanders&rsquo; games.Vladimir Malakhov, out since a shoulder separation Jan. 16, returned Feb. 12 in a 4-3 loss against the New York Rangers.<h2>N.Y. ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Plene Turgeon. Benoit Hogue, Tom Fitzgerald, Claude Loiselle, Trans Green.LW&ndash;Derek King. Brian Mulen, Marty McInnis, David Votek.RW&ndash;Steve Thomas, Pat Flatley. Brad Daigamo. Mich Vukota, Dantel MaroisLD&ndash;Scott Lachance. Jeff Norton Dennis Vasko, Tom Kurvets.RD&ndash;Darws Kasparaite, Uwe Krupp. Vladimir Malakhov Rich PUon.G&ndash;Mark Ffczpatnck. Glenn Healy.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Ray Ferrara. C, broken right log, indefinite. Gary Nylund, D, strained right knee ligaments, indefinite. &#9632;

Dancing man Hogue struts stuff on and off ice

<div class="byline">By Jason Kay</div>Trying to prove a team is losing on purpose is a little like trying to convict a murderer without a corpse: the circumstantial evidence must be overwhelming.There has been no conclusive proof that either the Ottawa Senators or San Jose Sharks have conspired to go into the tank this season in hopes of securing the top overall pick in the draft. Still, the motive and opportunity are there.Most experts agree the motive is Alexandre Daigle, an 18-year-old center for the Victoriaville Tigres of the Quebec League. The temperamental but talented Daigle has emerged as a franchise player, the top talent in a deep draft.The opportunity lies with the front offices of the Sharks and Senators. Both teams have been hopelessly out of the playoff races since early in the season and there&rsquo;s nothing preventing these teams from maneuvering to improve their draft situations.After 55 games, the Sharks were on pace to tie the Washington Capitals&rsquo; futility record of 21 points set in 1974-75. After 56 games, the Senators were on pace for 26, second worst in history for a team playing at least 70 games.But both of the principals involved claim to have solid alibis.&ldquo;Are we tanking it?&rdquo; said Sharks&rsquo; director of hockey operations Dean Lombardi. &ldquo;No. That&rsquo;s a ridiculous theory and not a very smart way to start a franchise.&ldquo;How would we do that anyway? If maybe we sat out Pat Falloon and Sandis Ozolinsh, I could understand it, but 1 can assure you their injuries are very real.&rdquo;Falloon, the Sharks&rsquo; first-ever draft pick, is probably out for the season with a dislocated shoulder. Ozolinsh sustained a season-ending knee injury in December. Together, they represent the top forward and defenseman on a talent-thin team.The Senators, meanwhile, have been proving their point on the ice. With rumblings of impropriety having started in the capital city-one newspaper dubbed it the Daigle Cup-the Senators went on a four-game unbeaten streak. It gave the team a four-point bulge over the lastplace Sharks, who were winless in 19.Senators&rsquo; general manager Mel Bridgman said the team&rsquo;s fans have been patient, but they won&rsquo;t be duped. &ldquo;This is Canada&rsquo;s capital,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The fans here are extremely knowledgeable and their expectations are high.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-02107/6554829-1-eng-US/f0051-022.jpg" title="f0051-02" width="964" height="1934"><figcaption class="caption-body">Long-term injuries to players such as Pat Falloon have made life difficult for the San Jose Sharks this season.</figcaption></div>If the rumors are true that the Sharks offered the Edmonton Oilers $2 million for the rights to free agent winger Joe Muiphy, it would be hard to believe the Sharks are not trying to improve this season, their second in the NHL.&ldquo;The party is over here,&rdquo; said Lombardi. &ldquo;There is a certain degree of patience, but with the (Oakland) A&rsquo;s and (San Francisco) &lsquo;49ers in the area, the fans don&rsquo;t like losing too much. We&rsquo;ve got to be competitive.&rdquo;Still, the spectre of tanking has been an issue since 1984 when the Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils were involved in a turtle race with the loser getting Mario Lemieux. The Penguins finished last and got Lemieux while the Devils settled for Kirk Muller.That possibility has prompted a National Basketball Associationstyle, draft-lottery movement. Among those GMs in favor of the plan are Lou Lamoriello of the Devils and Phil Esposito of the Tampa Bay Lightning.If both Anaheim and South Florida start playing next season, the expansion Lightning will likely pick no higher than sixth. There is no incentive for them to finish ahead of the Hartford Whalers-who had the league&rsquo;s third-worst record-except for pride.&ldquo;I hope we end up ahead of Philadelphia. I hope we end up ahead of Edmonton,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;1 hope we end up picking eighth or ninth. I&rsquo;ll never forget I heard somebody say, &lsquo;New Jersey should have lost that last game so they could get Lemieux.&rsquo; That&rsquo;s bullsh-. You go out to win every game.&rdquo;Instituting a lottery, would remove any perception of wrongdoing; a team would have less incentive not to ice its best players in order to get the chance to draft a player such as Daigle.Lombardi insists, however, the Sharks haven&rsquo;t decided which direction they&rsquo;d like to take on draft day.&ldquo;Why take the exam without finishing the course?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of hockey left; a lot can change.&rdquo;The Senators, on the other hand, have not attempted to keep their interest in Daigle a secret. &ldquo;Yes. he is No. 1 on our list; we&rsquo;ve gone on record saying that,&rdquo; Bridgman said. &#9632;

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Thanks, but no tanks

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011449/6552871-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Teams looking for goaltending help will undoubtedly consider making a trade for Toronto&rsquo;s Grant Fuhr.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021191/6552864-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="382" height="480"></div>Weaknesses have already emerged on all 24 teams-some considerably more substantial than others.So, here&rsquo;s what each club needs. (And yes, every team could use a tough defenseman, but it&rsquo;s only mentioned for those teams on which it would really make a difference.)Boston: Cam Neely. He&rsquo;s expected back in February. Bruins also need a young goalie to start grooming for long term.Buffalo: Shopping list includes goaltender (Grant Fuhr is about 90 miles away) and experienced defensive defenseman.Calgary: Defense was suspect before Al MacInnis&rsquo; horrible injury. Now there is a real need. Robust right winger would help, too.Chicago: Left winger who can score goals-because Michel Goulet and friends aren&rsquo;t-and veteran defenseman.Detroit: More offense from left wing and physical defenseman to make presence felt in front of net and on forecheck.Edmonton: Can they convert Joe Murphy and Kevin Lowe into playmaking center and experienced defenseman?Hartford: Time for young players to mature, a luxury Whalers may not enjoy, and help at all three forward positions.Los Angeles: Kings have flourished, but could use bigger, tougher wingers and large man at center.Minnesota: Natural left winger (to replace forwards playing out of position), more size on wings and capable backup goaltending.Montreal: Experience on defense (thus the Canadiens&rsquo; bid for Lowe) and, potentially, better second-string netminding.New Jersey: Even with Peter Stastny, Devils need front-line center to compete with Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier and Eric Lindros.Islanders: More size on third and fourth lines, big center and higher-quality goaltending. Could Fuhr end up on Island?Rangers: Desperately need to upgrade defense. Those in know don&rsquo;t think Blueshirts can win Cup with current group.Ottawa: Franchise player. They might have one in Alexei Yashin and are certain to get another in 1993 entry draft.Philadelphia: First-line left winger (potentially injured Pelle Eklund), third-line center and more effort in helping mediocre defense.Pittsburgh: Young defenseman and big checking center so Ron Francis can continue to make contributions on offense.Quebec: Veteran defenseman to take charge (doesn&rsquo;t this sound familiar?) and, maybe, another scoring winger.St. Louis: Good No. 2 center to back up Craig Janney, good health (i.e. Brendan Shanahan) and good luck (i.e. Brett Hull).San Jose: Skill center and intensity. Sharks could dangle Neil Wilkinson to get former; coach George Kingston is seeking latter.Tampa: League&rsquo;s most surprising team could use bigger and stronger wingers&hellip;and 24-hour bodyguard service for Chris Kontos.Vancouver: Have size and skill on wings, but Canucks covet No. 1 center to help them beat some team other than Winnipeg.Washington: Good health, left winger with offensive skills and true No. 1 center to compete in NHL&rsquo;s-Pivot Division.Winnipeg: Toughness on defense and right wing, plus an end to up-and-down cycle that is now into ninth season. &#9632;

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A short list of where clubs come up short

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03876/6552909-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="361" height="354"></div>Chris Kontos. Goalscoring prowess even more surprising than his team&rsquo;s early-season success.Hockey&rsquo;s new lines. Crazy Eights, Bonanza and Intemational-it&rsquo;s nice to see combos with catchy names.Alexandre Daigle. Quebec League scoring star received eight-game suspension for check from behind.Gino Odjick. Set a new Vancouver record with 47 penalty minutes in one period. A dubious feat.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04649/6552902-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="354" height="353"></div> &#9632;

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CHEERS & JEERS

<h2>QUOTABLE</h2>&ldquo;It makes sense for this place to be called the Cow Palace. The way we&rsquo;ve played here it looked like we were stepping in the stuff they left behind.&rdquo;-Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; coach Ted Green on his team&rsquo;s terrible record against the Sharks in San Jose. Page 45. &#9632;

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011620/6553016-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="296" height="372"></div><h2>League answers Red alert</h2>Imagine Robin Hood going back to the scene of a crime to make sure his victims were rebounding sufficiently to be robbed again.That just about sums up the NHL&rsquo;s recent mission to save Russian hockey from possible collapse.The league entourage of president Gil Stein, Boston Bruins&rsquo; president Harry Sinden and Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; general manager Mike Smith met with representatives from the Commonwealth of Independent States in Helsinki, Nov. 12-13, to discuss formulization of standard transfer fees for Russian players joining the NHL.In the past, some teams have paid high fees for players already past their prime. The Russians, likewise, are concerned about young stars leaving without sufficient compensation.Smith said he expects standard fees could be in place within a year.The Russian government isn&rsquo;t supporting hockey as it did in the past, making NHL contributions more important than ever.Smith said the Russian leagues have gone to younger players the past three years in response to the exodus of players.One NHL team that would probably welcome standardized fees is the Vancouver Canucks. They paid a reported $350,000 per season for Russians Igor Larionov (three seasons) and Vladimir Krutov (one season). They also paid a set fee of $250,000 for young star Pavel Bure. The Calgary Flames, meanwhile, paid an annual fee of $350,000 for Sergei Makarov for three seasons. The Flames made a final payment of $125,000 when they signed Makarov to a new contract this season.Kevin Stevens often settles his scores on the road.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021430/6553009-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="992" height="1627"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031191/6553002-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="992" height="1629"></div><h2>Lyndon found no Byers</h2>Have the NHL&rsquo;s kinder and gentler rules been responsible for anybody losing a job this season?Not yet but it has been touch and go for new San Jose Shark tough guy Lyndon Byers.He signed with the Sharks after electing to become a free agent rather than play out his options or a cozy $200,000 with the Boston Bruins.But first there were some anxious moments.Byers, 28, did not accept a demotion to the Bruins&rsquo; American League farm team in Providence, figuring he would never make it back to Boston if he spent a year in the minors.But Byers didn&rsquo;t receive an offer and the veteran of 261 NHL games (all with Boston) ended up with San Jose&rsquo;s International League affiliate in Kansas City.&ldquo;Perhaps he underestimated the effect the new rules would had on guys who play his style,&rdquo; said one NHL general manager.Byers has a sense of humor to go along with his limited skills and nearly 1,000 career penalty minutes.Contacted in October at his Kansas City hotel, Byers yawned and explained why he remained in bed late one morning: &ldquo;The team is having an optional practice today and I&rsquo;m lying here exercising my option.&rdquo;Byers, who once guest hosted at the Comedy Improv in Los Angeles enjoys a good chuckle but he didn&rsquo;t find it funny when agent Mark Perrone informed him there was no demand for his services in the NHL.&ldquo;To be honest, I was a little shaky; a little scared that my decision to leave the Bruins might backfire,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was relieved when San Jose gave me the opportunity.&rdquo;Byers signed a tryout contract with the Sharks Nov. 5 and scored two goals in a Nov. 12 game against Edmonton.&ldquo;Our team had to get bigger, stronger,&rdquo; said Sharks&rsquo; associate coach Bob Murdoch.<h2>Stevens takes show on road</h2>Nobody can accuse Kevin Stevens of being a homer.Prior to suffering a knee injury Nov. 5, the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; big left winger led the NHL in road goals.Ten of his 14 goals were scored away from Civic Arena. That represented 71 per cent of his total.Stevens scored 54 goals last season, including a teamleading 28 on the road.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t have any mysterious explanation for why I score more often on the road,&rdquo; Stevens said.&ldquo;The only thing I can say is I play extra hard on the road. Teams are expected to win their home games and it&rsquo;s a challenge to do well on the road.&rdquo;Fellow road warriors this season (scoring at least 10 goals through Nov. 15) include the Tampa Bay Lightning&rsquo;s Brian Bradley (six of his 11 goals were roadies) and Mario Lemieux of the Penguins (12 of 22). Both were at 55 per cent.Joe Sakic of the Quebec Nordiques was at 53 per cent with eight on the road and seven at home.Meanwhile, Gary Roberts of the Calgary Flames, Pat LaFontaine of the Buffalo Sabres and Geoff Courtnail of the Vancouver Canucks found playing at home more to their liking. Each player had scored eight goals at home and three on the road, 27 per cent.<h2>There&rsquo;s no place like (a new) home</h2>One way for NHL teams to generate additional revenue and combat rising salaries is to build facilities with greater seating capacities, more luxury boxes and improved concession stands.There are 10 NHL teams currently working toward that goal. The league&rsquo;s three newest teams, San Jose, Tampa Bay and Ottawa, are all playing in temporary homes.Apart from the 10 listed below, another three-Toronto, Quebec and Winnipeg-are considering new facilities.Listed alphabetically are the teams, new rink names (or working names), capacity, number of luxury boxes and what season they will be operational.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04967/6552995-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="941" height="466"></div> &#9632;

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BROPHY’S STOPS ’N’ STARTS

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011542/6553047-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"></div>When Darius Kasparaitis stepped on the ice for his first practice as a New York Islander, he skated up to each player, shook hands and introduced himself. His introduction to the rest of the NHL has not been as cordial.&ldquo;Kasparaitis is a little #!*#,&rdquo; said one Patrick Division coach. &ldquo;Our team already hates playing against the guy.&rdquo;The Islanders aren&rsquo;t the most-feared foes in the NHL, but most feel it is a team on the brink of earning contender status. And one reason for their improving fortunes is their KLM trio of rookie defensemen-Kasparaitis, Scott La-chance and Vladimir Malakhov.After years of trying to succeed with strapping, young defensemen from the Western League, the Islanders looked to eastern United States and the East Bloc to find building blocks for the future. All three played in the 1992 Winter Olympics-Kas-paraitis and Malakhov for the gold-medal winning Unified Team and Lachance for Team USA. Now their ambition is to make the Islanders go faster, higher and stronger.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s too early to tell but coming out of the chute it looks like those guys have a really good future,&rdquo; said New Jersey Devils&rsquo; coach Herb Brooks. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re all noticeable in that they&rsquo;re very mobile and they have youthful enthusiasm. Their errors are of commission, not omission. They&rsquo;re a really good nucleus.&rdquo;No other team in the NHL has three first-year defensemen as regulars in its lineup. And perhaps only the Montreal Canadiens, with their fab foursome of Eric Desjardins, Mathieu Schneider, Patrice Brisebois and Kevin Haller, have such a potential-packed group of young blueliners.The three Islanders are part of an extraordinary influx of rookie defensemen in the league this season. Others include Richard Smehlik of the Buffalo Sabres; Alexei Zhitnik and Darryl Sydor of the Los Angeles Kings; Richard Matvichuk of the Minnesota North Stars; Scott Niedermayer of the New Jersey Devils; Dimitri Yushkevich of the Philadelphia Flyers; Sandis Ozolinsh and Doug Zmolek of the San Jose Sharks; Roman Hamrlik of the Tampa Bay Lightning; and Drake Bere-howsky of the Toronto Maple Leafs.All seem destined to be good players, several of them with impact possibilities, witness Kasparaitis, Lachance and Malakhov.&ldquo;Someday we might have the best defense in the league,&rdquo; said Islanders&rsquo; coach Al Arbour, &ldquo;but right now we&rsquo;ve thrown them right into the fire. We just said, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s face it. We have these young guys here and we&rsquo;re going to take our lumps.&rsquo;&rdquo;Those lumps may get big and ugly this season, but they&rsquo;ll be considered minor abrasions if the three continue to develop as impact players. In Kasparaitis, the Islanders have a physical, stay-at-home defenseman who drives opponents batty. Malakhov has great offensive potential and is an exceptional skater with a powerful, accurate shot. Lachance plays a solid two-way game and, paired with veteran Uwe Krupp, faces the league&rsquo;s top lines.By NHL definition, Kasparaitis, Lachance and Malakhov are rookies. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not like these are three 18-year-old guys coming straight out of junior,&rdquo; said New York Rangers&rsquo; coach Roger Nielson. &ldquo;These guys have been around a little.&rdquo;Indeed. Malakhov, a lOth-round choice in 1989, is 24 years old and played six years in the Soviet Elite League with Spartak and Red Army. Kasparaitis, 20, spent the last two seasons with league-champion Moscow Dynamo. Lachance, 20, played one year at Boston University before joining the U.S. Olympic team last season.Lachance could have returned to college after the Olympics, but joined the Islanders for the last 17 games of the season, scoring a goal and five points. The native of Chariottesville, Va., has progressed from college to international to professional hockey over the past three years.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s better this way because I&rsquo;ve had no other choice than to make the adjustment,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I really didn&rsquo;t have time to think about Scott Lachance the pressure. I think I proved that I can play at this level and that was a big boost for my confidence.&rdquo;Malakhov, meanwhile, missed most of this fall&rsquo;s training camp with assorted injuries and Kasparaitis joined the team only three days before the regular season began.Through 12 games, Malakhov led all Islander rookies and defensemen with five goals and 11 points. General manager Don Maloney anticipates Malakhov&rsquo;s skill level will make him the team&rsquo;s No. 1 defenseman in the future.&ldquo;Vlad has great offensive skills,&rdquo; Arbour said, &ldquo;but he has to leant how the game is played over here. He has to learn to play the man more. He&rsquo;s a great skater and because of that, he often lets the guy get that extra step and he gets out of position.&rdquo;The Islanders thought so much of Kasparaitis that they traded a second-round choice in the 1992 draft to Toronto so they could move up three spots to obtain him. He is only 5-foot-11 and 187 pounds, but plays a rough-and-tumble style that has already earned him enemies in the Patrick Division.A sampling of his work. Kasparaitis opened a cut over the eye of New Jersey tough guy Randy McKay. When Mario Lemieux was pressing for a goal to keep his scoring streak alive Nov. 3, the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; superstar took a double minor late in the game in retaliation for a crosscheck from Kasparaitis. The streak came to an end. Earlier in the season, he shoved New York Rangers&rsquo; superstar Mark Messier into the net and pinned him there.After 16 games, Kasparaitis had one goal and was among the league leaders with 62 penalty minutes.&ldquo;I feel nice they don&rsquo;t like me,&rdquo; Kasparaitis said. &ldquo;During game I have no friends, but after game I have many friends. Most players don&rsquo;t hit great players like Lemieux and Messier, but I always hit them. It&rsquo;s my game.&rdquo;Kasparaitis&rsquo; combative nature has endeared him to teammates and management. &ldquo;He brings a tremendous competitiveness and spunk that&rsquo;s really refreshing,&rdquo; Maloney said. &ldquo;This year he has had four or five hits that people in this building haven&rsquo;t seen in years.&rdquo;Lachance, meanwhile, has accepted a heavy responsibility and excelled. His devotion to defense was reflected in a plus-3. &ldquo;He takes a lot of pride in his defensive game,&rdquo; said Krupp. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s really hard on himself when he&rsquo;s on the ice for a goal.&rdquo;Lachance, who had just two assists in 17 games, is confident his offensive game will come in time. Playing against the top players in the toughest division is enough to handle right now.&ldquo;You can put pressure on yourself or just accept the challenge,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I know I have a lot to learn and I have to improve offensively, but the only way you can learn is through experience.&rdquo;They are words to live by for all three players. &#9632;

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TREASURED ISLANDERS

Al Morganti&rsquo;s article, &ldquo;First Place in Adams within Ricci&rsquo;&rsquo; THN, Oct. 23, said what many people who have had the pleasure of knowing Mike Ricci have already discovered: he is not only an exceptional hockey player, he is an equally exceptional young man.While many young players stumble or fall because of hardships. Ricci has persevered and I believe, will ultimately lead the Quebec Nordiques to the Stanley Cup.In times of escalating salaries and players&rsquo; egos, it&rsquo;s refreshing to hear about young men who give their heart and soul to the game. Mike is an exceptional role model.Dave Lorentz, Odense, Denmark<h2>Money talk</h2>I just read a letter slagging THN for printing players&rsquo; salaries.But I believe the financial side of the game is extremely interesting. Now I can compare the net worth of Edmonton Oiler Esa Tikkanen at $900,000 and Minnesota&rsquo;s Russ Courtnall at $800,000 to superstars such as Boston&rsquo;s Ray Bourque at just $1 million per season.In the world of NHL superheroes, Bourque is a steal.Darren Fisher, Dartmouth, N.S.<h2>Jan the Man</h2>I quite agree with reader Michael Peterson who responded to THN&rsquo;s omission of Jan Erixon&rsquo;s name from your list of European talent in the NHL (THN, Season Preview). His gritty play is often overlooked.And I guess Mr. Peterson&rsquo;s words didn&rsquo;t sway you. In the Nov. 6 THN, there is a list of names of active players who spent their entire careers with one team. New York Ranger James Patrick, who played 12 games for the Blueshirts in 1983-84, is No. 12 on the list. But Erixon played 75 games for the Rangers in &lsquo;83-84 and has spent his entire career with the team.Erixon was named the first star in three consecutive games this season and is certainly earning his paycheck.Joshua M. Rubinstein,&nbsp; New York, N. Y.(Editor&rsquo;s note: While Erixon played more games than Patrick in their initial seasons, Erixon had played 94 fewer games than the Patrick going into this season. Therefore, Patrick was given the last spot.)<h2>Hail the Whale</h2>As a die-hard Hartford Whaler fan now attending school out of state, I am discouraged with the fan support in the greater Hartford area.Historically, the Whalers have drawn respectably well despite playing in one of the league&rsquo;s smaller markets. But fans have deserted the team after the trades of Ron Francis, Kevin Dineen, Mike Liut and other fan favorites.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011718/6553078-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="577" height="718"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center Andrew Cassels is part of the new breed in Hartford.</figcaption></div>While I objected to those trades, what&rsquo;s done is done. The Whalers are going through a rebuilding season, but the future is bright. Young players Geoff Sanderson and Andrew Cassels are already making names for themselves, while rookies Patrick Poulin, Robert Petrovicky and Michael Nylander have shown great promise.Francis, Dineen and the others are gone. It&rsquo;s time for Whaler fans to start supporting their promising young team, before those prospects reach their NHL potential in another city.Scott Matthews, Ithaca, N. Y.<h2>Class act</h2>I am writing in response to Matt Pilla&rsquo;s comments in the Letters column of the Oct. 30 issue of THN.Mr. Pilla must be suffering from PCB&rsquo;s in his town of Ozone Park. He labeled New York Ranger Kris King a goon, but nothing could be further from the truth.King was chosen the Budweiser Good Guy Award winner for the 1991-92 season and his volunteer work in the New York area has been applauded by everyone in the Ranger organization. He visits young fans in children&rsquo;s hospitals, does work for the prevention of child abuse and raises funds for cancer research.No one has more character or more class than my brother Kris.Tony King,&nbsp; Port Sydney, Ont.Make your feelings known. Eax us your comments at (416) 445-0753 or write to Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2 in Canada. In the U.S., write to Letters, The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240-9947. Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

f0006-01

Nordiques’ Ricci a great role model

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021170/6553109-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0006-02

THE DRAW

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div><h2>Rangers hard to shut out</h2>Here&rsquo;s how many regular-season games each NHL team has gone without being shut out as of Nov. 14.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-04448/6553154-1-eng-US/f0006-042.jpg" title="f0006-04" width="576" height="611"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03728/6553147-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="574" height="754"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Larmer</figcaption></div><h2>Ironmen not missing a beat</h2>Chicago&rsquo;s Steve Larmer is in line to break Doug Jarvis&rsquo; consecutive games record of 964 late next season. Larmer hasn&rsquo;t missed a game since becoming a regular. Here&rsquo;s a list of the active leaders in that category as of Nov. 11.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-05354/6553140-1-eng-US/f0006-052.jpg" title="f0006-05" width="564" height="467"></div> &#9632;

f0006-04

LISTS

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011541/6553185-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="379" height="530"></div>There is much to praise about the NHL&rsquo;s emerging consciousness about the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and AIDS.AIDS moves most effectively when paired with its most common catalysts: silence and the ignorance it engenders.The NHL can&rsquo;t stop AIDS. Finally, it is moving to quell ignorance.At the all-star-weekend in Montreal, the league&rsquo;s physicians committee met to hear a seminar on HIV and AIDS.Guidelines, grafted wholesale from the National Basketball Association, were reviewed and will be forwarded to the NHL&rsquo;s board of governors for study.Those guidelines recommend player education and standardize the use of latex gloves for trainers to minimize what is already believed to be an infinitesimal chance of transmission from bleeding player to broken skin.The NBA model also forces bloodied players off the playing surface until their wounds are dressed.When a NHL player is cut, he isn&rsquo;t required to leave the ice to have the wound dressed. As the liaison between the physicians and the league, Brian O&rsquo;Neill would like to see that change.O&rsquo;Neill favors measures to force cut players to instantly leave the ice to eliminate even the slightest risk of transmission. The picture of a bloodied Rocket Richard shaking hands with Sugar Jim Henry is one of hockey&rsquo;s most enduring images, but the threat of AIDS must change hockey&rsquo;s code of valor.&ldquo;I played the game myself, so I understand the attitudes that go into it,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Neill said. &ldquo;But faced with what we&rsquo;re faced with, we can&rsquo;t allow mystique to interfere with common sense.&rdquo;Players from the Buffalo Sabres are under a standing order from team doctor John Butsch to leave the ice when they are cut.But the most important element of the proposed guidelines is education.The NBA, stung by the Magic Johnson story, saturates players with AIDS information through league newsletters, peer counselling and annual orientation. Major League Baseball convenes an annual two-hour education program for players through the Players&rsquo; Association.Only the National Football League and NHL have no league-wide player education programs.Some players feel their greatest risk of incurring the disease is through fighting when the blood from an HIV-infected player is passed to another through a cut in the hand.They are wrong.No blood-to-blood athletic transmission of HIV has been documented. AIDS is first and foremost a sexually-transmitted disease.Available sex was once one of the perks of the pro athlete. Now it is a hazard, especially to the younger players.Although only two per cent of AIDS patients in Canada are heterosexual men, the leading cause of the disease among women is heterosexual contact with an infected person. Therefore, the risk to heterosexual men is bound to increase in the future.If your job puts you in a situation where making a mistake can kill you, it&rsquo;s up to your employer to do every-thing it can to keep you alive.NHL players aren&rsquo;t safe right now. Some teams convene information seminars, some just settle for a few words from the team doctor during training camp. Each team in the NHL conducts confidential test for players at their request.The NHL Players&rsquo; Association arranged a seminar for player representatives last year but has been deplorably slow to assume a leadership role in player education.Here is what the league, the board of governors and the Players&rsquo; Association should do:&#9633; Allay player fears by instituting a league-wide mandate that trainers wear latex gloves.&#9633; For the same reason, insist bleeding players leave the ice to have their wounds dressed.&#9633; Work with the NHLPA to create annual player seminars that touch on safer sex and responsible sexuality. Consider the use of a central registry of educators and information bodies such as Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, a leading institution in AIDS research.&#9633; Make condoms available through the training staffs.&#9633; Create an AIDS information hotline for players, spouses and girlfriends.&#9633; Standardize player education through the Ontario, Quebec and Western Leagues so young players hear a consistent message.The NHL is the only major professional sport so far untouched by HIV or AIDS. Player education is the best way of keeping that record intact. &#9632;

f0009-01

Player education key in fight with AIDS

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0009-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021095/6553216-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Winnipeg Jet defenseman Teppo Numminen deserves consideration for the Norris, says teammate and countryman Teemu Selanne.</figcaption></div>League insiders insist that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was less than pleased after reading the fine print of the league&rsquo;s five-year, $80 million contract with the ESPN network. The pact, reached before this season, was completed long before he took office Feb. 1. One source said Bettman has requested changes to the deal. Bettman would not comment on the deal, but Diane Lamb of ESPN told Bluelines, &ldquo;There are no anticipated problems in the future.&rdquo; Through early February, ESPN&rsquo;s overall NHL rating per game for 15 televised games was 0.9 (554,000 homes). Industry sources describe that figure as what the network would get for a reasonably attractive college basketball game. The deal also includes five playoff games on ABC, which owns ESPN.<h2>No promos</h2>NBC-TV&rsquo;s treatment of the recent All-Star Game has some people thinking the network will drop its coverage of the game. During its Super Bowl coverage one week before the game, NBC didn&rsquo;t include a single hockey promotion in the 10-hour broadcast period, although it provided the National Basketball Association with plenty of promos in that time period. NBC spokesman Ed Markey didn&rsquo;t comment on the matter, but another network executive told Bluelines, &ldquo;NBC knows where its bread is buttered; with the NBA, not the NHL.&rdquo; Gary Bettman&rsquo;s reply to the lack of attention from NBC: &ldquo;We have to prove that we deserve some attention.&rdquo;&hellip;After John Blue of the Boston Bruins stopped Steve Thomas of the New York Islanders with an unusual overtime save recently, deflecting the puck off his head, a reporter approached Thomas in the dressing room and asked. &ldquo;What were you trying to do, shoot until you got Blue in the face?&rdquo;<h2>Oates speaks out</h2>Adam Oates suggested his close friend and former teammate Brett Hull would be happier out of St. Louis. &ldquo;Brett&rsquo;s a little unhappy there,&rdquo; Oates told Bluelines, &ldquo;and there have been a lot of trade rumors. With Brett, it&rsquo;s not the money; it&rsquo;s not even scoring goals for him. It&rsquo;s the kind of attitude that management has been taking toward him; putting the blame on him. He has been very loyal to the Blues and done nothing but praise them and now they&rsquo;re turning on him.&rdquo; Hull, whose contract expires after next season, is renegotiating with the Blues and said he doesn&rsquo;t want to leave. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going anywhere,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to bail out on the people of St. Louis. It&rsquo;s going to be an absolute disaster if I have to leave here.&rdquo;&hellip;New York Ranger winger Ed Olczyk, who has a stable of race horses, said watching his horses is much more emotional than playing. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m more nervous when one of my horses is running,&rdquo; Olczyk said, &ldquo;because I don&rsquo;t have any control. You never know what&rsquo;s going to happen out on the track. On the ice, I have a lot more control.&rdquo;<h2>Hunter steamed</h2>A recent slash by Ranger rookie Alexei Kovalev on former NHLer Mark Hunter in an American League game has raised the ire of Hunter&rsquo;s older brother Dale of the Washington Capitals. The slash, which occured in a game between Kovalev&rsquo;s Binghamton Rangers and Hunter&rsquo;s Baltimore Skipjacks, shattered Hunter&rsquo;s right hand and has threatened his career. Some have suggested Kovalev had better use a rear-view mirror in future RangerWashington games when Dale is on the ice. &ldquo;If Mark had done the same thing, he would have been suspended and Kovalev should have been suspended,&rdquo; Dale said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no good for me to retaliate now because the race is too tight and I can&rsquo;t get suspended. Besides, Kovalev wears a shield and it&rsquo;s hard to get at a guy with one.&rdquo;<h2>Race not Finnished</h2>Finnish rookie sensation Teemu Selanne of the Winnipeg Jets gets irked when he hears how Chris Chelios of the Chicago Blackhawks is a shoo-in for the Norris Trophy as the league&rsquo;s best defenseman. He thinks teammate and countryman Teppo Numminen deserves as much consideration. &ldquo;Everybody talks about Chelios and a guy like Dave Manson. guys who are big and tough.&rdquo; Selanne said. &ldquo;But Teppo is one of the most solid defensive defensemen in the league and does the little things like give you the perfect short pass to get the puck out of the zone. He&rsquo;s different and one of the best.&rdquo; Numminen broke his right foot in late January and is expected to be out until early March. &#9632;

f0009-02

Bettman not happy about NHL deal with ESPN

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; center Shayne Corson will continue to play the game the only way he knows how, the way his father wanted him to play.Full speed. Hard-nosed. Emotional. On the edge. But it won&rsquo;t be easy.Corson&rsquo;s father Paul died Feb. 12 in Barrie, Ont., at the age of 45, losing a two-year battle with cancer. In the end, he could barely speak as fluid filled his lungs and morphine eased the pain.&ldquo;I talked to him three or four times,&rdquo; Shayne said a day after. &ldquo;They connected a phone up in his room. He couldn&rsquo;t really talk, his lungs were full of (fluid). All I could say is &lsquo;I love you&rsquo; and &lsquo;keep fighting it.&rsquo; He sputtered out he loves me.&ldquo;At that point there was nothing else to say. He knows I love him and I know he loves me. We have that forever. Nobody can take that away.&rdquo;Cancer took away the closest friend Shayne Corson had on that night, not long after father and son spoke for the final time.Two days later Shayne played against Quebec. He played because that&rsquo;s what his father wanted him to do. Corson drew an assist and a roar of applause from the crowd when it was announced.&ldquo;That made me feel good,&rdquo; Corson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been treated well by the people of Edmonton. It&rsquo;s nice to see people care.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t easy for Corson to play but he was effective. He forechecked hard, got involved physically and created some offensive chances.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t bad,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;1 tried to play the best I could. It&rsquo;s going to be in the back of my mind for a long time. We were real close and I miss him. People say it&rsquo;s going to get better. I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s the case. You just learn to deal with it better.&rdquo;Corson has always been willing to talk about his father and his illness. And his father liked nothing better than to talk about his son.&ldquo;He was so proud of Shayne. He got so much joy from watching him play,&rdquo; said Brent Gilchrist, who got to know Paul when Shayne and Gilchrist were with Montreal. Paul was always in Montreal, keeping tabs on his son. Paul made it clear he didn&rsquo;t want his disease to play havoc with Shayne&rsquo;s career.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost silly to say but that&rsquo;s the feeling I got-he didn&rsquo;t want to affect Shayne,&rdquo; Gilchrist said.Now, Corson must get on with life and hockey. That&rsquo;s what his father would have wanted.&ldquo;I talked about that with my mom today,&rdquo; said Shayne. &ldquo;He was most worried about my mom, my two sisters and myself carrying on with our lives. If he knew how upset we are, he&rsquo;d be mad at us. We&rsquo;ve dedicated our lives to him. He&rsquo;ll be with us all the time. He&rsquo;ll live through us.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011598/6553247-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="578" height="672"><figcaption class="caption-body">Shayne Corson has always been up-front about his father&rsquo;s illness.</figcaption></div>TIK IN GEAR: The clock is ticking on the Oilers&rsquo; run for the playoffs, so Tik is clocking a lot of ice time.Esa Tikkanen, known for his ability to find another gear for the postseason, has decided it&rsquo;s already April.&ldquo;I feel like a different guy. Everybody says we have to play playoff hockey,&rdquo; said Tikkanen, whose first-star performance Feb. 14 included his ninth goal of the season.&ldquo;I feel great. I look back at the start of the season-the trade rumors-that&rsquo;s gone. That&rsquo;s behind me. I have to focus on the team.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: San Jose offered Oilers&rsquo; owner Peter Pocklington $2 million for winger Joe Murphy but was turned down. The Oilers seem closer to a Murphy deal with Chicago for defenseman Igor Kravchuk and another player, although Pocklington&rsquo;s demand for cash in that trade has bogged down negotiations.Forward Vladimir Vujtek is set to return to the Czech Republic. He refused to return to Cape Breton of the American League because of a contract dispute and has been suspended by the Oilers. His agent Rich Winter claims Vujtek&rsquo;s contract should be invalid because he didn&rsquo;t understand English when he signed it.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Shayne Corson. Esa Tikkanen, Craig MacTavish, Kevin Todd, Scott Thornton.LW&ndash;Zdeno Giger, Craig Simpson, Martin Gelinas. Brent Gilchrist, Louie DeBrusk.RW&ndash;Shjon Podein, Petr Klima, Kelly Buchberger, Scott Mellanby.LP-Dave Manson, Geoff Smith. Brian Benning, Luke Richardson.RD&ndash;Craig Muni. Brian Glynn, Brad Werenka, Chris JosephG&ndash;Bill Ranford. Ron Tugnutt.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0010-01

Corson plays on in honor of dad

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>Victory never tasted sweeter to the San Jose Sharks.When the lowly Sharks beat the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 Feb. 14, it snapped a 17-game losing streak, matching the longest such mark in NHL history.The win prevented the Sharks from grabbing sole possession of that dubious record, which they share with the 1974-75 Washington Capitals.&ldquo;I looked all over the locker room trying to find the piano that we had been carrying on our backs for so long,&rdquo; Rob Zettler said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to see these guys smiling and having a good time for a change. We didn&rsquo;t want to go into the record book by ourselves. We didn&rsquo;t want to do that to our fans or our team. Our fans deserve better than that.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011448/6553278-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="572" height="712"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jeff Hackett showed his frustration after a loss to Edmonton.</figcaption></div>The Sharks hadn&rsquo;t tasted victory since Dec. 26, when they beat the Los Angeles Kings 7-2 at the Cow Palace. Since then, they went winless in 20 consecutive games (0-19-1).&ldquo;I feel particularly good for the players,&rdquo; said coach George Kingston. &ldquo;A tremendous amount of pressure had been mounted on them. They deserved a reward and it came at last. It was another day at the office, but it was a much more enjoyable day at the office for the players.&rdquo;After the game, the Sharks mobbed goalie Arturs Irbe and celebrated as if they had won the Stanley Cup.&ldquo;We were excited, let&rsquo;s just put it that way,&rdquo; Kelly Kisio said. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t have any champagne, but we had a good celebration. It was the end of a nightmare for us.&rdquo;STICKY SITUATION: The frustrations of losing got the best of goalie Jeff Hackett after a 6-0 loss to the Edmonton Oilers Jan. 12. And George Kingston didn&rsquo;t like it.Hackett shattered his stick on the boards in front of the Sharks&rsquo; bench when that game ended and Kingston said such behavior won&rsquo;t be tolerated.&ldquo;It was an unacceptable response to the way we played the game,&rdquo; Kingston said. &ldquo;He has to mature.&rdquo;Hackett said the incident was an indication of how deeply he cares about what is happening to the team, which had lost 17 consecutive games and was 1-32-1 in its last 34 outings after losing to the Oilers.But Kingston wasn&rsquo;t impressed and wondered if the display might have been aimed at the rest of the team.&ldquo;Sure it was disappointing,&rdquo; Kingston said. &ldquo;But what is he showing? That the other 19 guys didn&rsquo;t do the job for him?&rdquo;Not at all, Hackett said.&ldquo;If he thinks that, he doesn&rsquo;t know me very well,&rdquo; Hackett said. &ldquo;That has nothing to do with it. I&rsquo;m (ticked) off about losing, and that&rsquo;s the bottom line.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know where George gets off saying I&rsquo;m showing up my teammates. That has got nothing to do with it. I love those guys. It bothers me he said that. Nothing could be further from the truth.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Injured defenseman Link Gaetz, who has missed the entire season because of impaired motor skills resulting from head injuries he sustained in an automobile accident last April, has been working out with the Nashville Knights of the East Coast League. Gaetz will be medically evaluated after practising with the Knights. If he receives medical clearance, he will play a few games with them and then join the Kansas City Blades of the International League. Gaetz hopes to return to NHL competition in early March.The Sharks are trying to obtain free agent right winger Joe Murphy from the Edmonton Oilers. The Sharks have reportedly offered the Oilers $2 million for him.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 11: J.F. Quintin, LW. recalled from Kansas City (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Kehy Kisio, Dean Evason, David Maiey, Mike Sullivan.LW&ndash;Johan Garpenlov, John Carter. Hubie McDonough, J.F. Quintin.RW&ndash;Rob Gaudreau, Jeff Odgers. Robin Bawa, Lyndon Byers.LD&ndash;Rob Zettler, Tom Pederson. David Williams,RD&ndash;Jay More, Doug Zrnolek.G&ndash;Jeff Hackett. Arturs Irbe.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Perry Berezan. RW, sprained knee, indefinite. David Bruce. LW, groin pull, indefinite. Pat Fatloon, RW, dislocated right shoulder indefinite Brian Hayward, G. back strain, indefinite Pat MacLeod, D, separated left shoulder, day-to-day. Sandls Ozollnah, D, tom left knee ligament, out for season. Mark Pederson. LW, sprained left knee, March 1. Neil Wilkinson. D. strained back, day-to-day. Doug Wilson, D, sprained right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

f0011-01

Victory over Jets prevents disaster

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>Corey Millen has hardly been responsible for the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; crash from first place in the Smythe Division in mid-December to fourth two months later.But it isn&rsquo;t coincidental the Kings&rsquo; performances began to deteriorate when the shifty 5-foot-8 center went on the shelf with a groin strain.Millen last played Dec. 19, when a loss in Calgary dropped the Kings into a first-place tie with the Flames. The Kings were 4-15-3 sans Millen.A 10-3 loss to Washington Feb. 13 left the Kings with a 24-25-7 record-the first time since Feb. 6, 1992 they had been sub-.500.&ldquo;When I got hurt, things were going well,&rdquo; said Millen, who had 20 goals and 31 points in 30 games. &ldquo;The team was winning and there was a good atmosphere. Now it&rsquo;s seven weeks later and things have gone downhill.&rdquo;Millen has tried just about every possible therapeutic procedure, including acupuncture. He underwent three treatments in late January, but none worked.Kings&rsquo; physician Dr. Ronald Kvitne said Millen&rsquo;s strength and flexibility have improved.&ldquo;But he&rsquo;s still sore and we can&rsquo;t push it,&rdquo; Kvitne said. &ldquo;Groin injuries can be a problem. They can linger from a few days to six months.&rdquo;Millen was beginning to wonder if he&rsquo;d ever play again.&ldquo;Can I skate? No,&rdquo; Millen said. &ldquo;And if there&rsquo;s anybody who needs to skate to survive, it&rsquo;s me.&rdquo;SLUMP DRAGS ON: Wayne Gretzky said he was &ldquo;embarrassed&rdquo; by a 15-game goal-scoring slump. He took 33 shots in those games.Gretzky said his back hasn&rsquo;t been bothering him. &ldquo;I wish I could tell you it was. but it isn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s frustrating because I&rsquo;ve never gone through anything like this. I worked too hard to come back to be playing like this.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: General manager Nick Beverley denied reports the Kings were trying to acquire St. Louis Blues&rsquo; right winger Brett Hull. Asked when a news conference to announce a deal for Hull might be scheduled, Beverley told the Los Angeles Daily News, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know when, but I can guarantee you it won&rsquo;t be in Los Angeles.&rdquo;&hellip;Dave Taylor experienced vertigo and dizzy spells during the all-star break and was told by a neurologist he probably has an inner-ear problem.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 8: Jeff Chychrun, D, assigned to Phoenix (IHL). Rene Chapdelaine. D. and Tim Watters, O, recalled from Phoenix. Feb. 12: David Goverde, G, recalled from Phoenix.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Wayne Gretzky, Jimmy Carson, Jan Kurri, John McIntyre.LW&ndash;Mike Donnelly. Luc Robitaille. Warren Rychel. Pat Conacher.RW&ndash;Tony Granato, Lonnie Loach, Gary Shuchuk, Marc Potvin, Jim Thomson,LD&ndash;Alexel Zhitnik. Darryl Sydor. Tim Watters.RD&ndash;Rob Blake, Charlie Ruddy, Marty McSoriey, Rene Chapdelaine.G&ndash;Kelly Hrudey, Robb Stauber, David Goverde.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Corey Millen, C, groin strain, indefinite Tomas Sandstrom, RW, broken jaw, indefinite Dave Taylor. RW, vertigo, indefinite Brent Thompson, D. abdominal strain, indefinite. &#9632;

Injured opportunist Millen still waiting to get better

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>In his previous start against San Jose Nov. 25, Jeff Reese gave up the winning goal in a 3-2 overtime loss.So why would coach Dave King come back with the Calgary Flames&rsquo; goalie 11 weeks later against the Sharks? Clearly, for his offense.Reese established an NHL record by becoming the first goalie to pick up three assists in a game.Reese pulled ahead of teammates Greg Smyth and Paul Kruse in the scoring race with his outburst in the 13-1 win Feb. 10.&ldquo;It was just one of those flukey things,&rdquo; Reese said. &ldquo;All the bounces went our way. I happened to touch the puck three times. Only once did I fire it up. It bounced off the boards and created a 2-on-1. The other times I stopped the puck beside the net and the defensemen threw up the puck.&rdquo;Reese was the forgotten man in the goaltending rotation for almost two months as Mike Vernon started 27 games in a row. In October, Reese got a chance to play five consecutive games after Vernon sustained a cut to his forehead.In that stretch, Reese earned a shutout over Edmonton and provided the Flames with steady goaltending. In fact, that has been the measure of his play this season-solid whenever he has the chance to play.The only problem was, after that November loss to San Jose, he didn&rsquo;t get the chance again until the second last game in January.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to improve every year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I went through a tough time when I didn&rsquo;t play. It was a little frustrating. Now I&rsquo;m back, so I&rsquo;m happy to do the best I can every night. I know it sounds like a cliche, but my biggest concern when I do play is not to let the guys down.&rdquo;THEO&rsquo;S BACK: Theo Fleury took advantage of a seven-day allstar break to get his second wind.The result: In the 13-1 win over the Sharks, Fleury picked up six points and was plus-9 in the game.The NHL didn&rsquo;t keep plus-minus records before the 1980s. but no one could remember a player finishing a game plus-9.Fleury was at his agitating, predatory best in the week following the break, scoring goals, taking hits, making plays-all the while, trying to stay out of the penalty box.Fleury said the break gave him a chance to rethink his play over the first part of the season&hellip;and he wasn&rsquo;t too happy with himself.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if something snapped in my head,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I wasn&rsquo;t myself, I was being somebody else. I wasn&rsquo;t yapping or hitting. That&rsquo;s the way I&rsquo;ve got to play.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: After benching Sergei Makarov for two games, coach Dave King put him back in the lineup Feb. 13 against Quebec. Makarov took two third-period minor penalties, one of which led to the Nordiques&rsquo; tying goal. Makarov was back in the press box for the Hartford game Feb. 13. Of Makarov, King said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard of retirement-Freedom 55, but not of Free-dom 35. So yes, I&rsquo;m concerned.&rdquo;Gary Roberts, recovered from a bowel infection and went on a sevengame goal-scoring streak through Feb. 13. The streak was one short of Kent Nilsson&rsquo;s team record set in 1983-84.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 8: Greg Smyth. D. recalled from Salt Lake (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Robert Relchel, Joel Otto, Joe Nieuwendyk, Brian Skrudland.LW&ndash;Gary Roberts. Paul Ranheim, Brent Ashton, Chris Lindberg.RW&ndash;Theo Fleury. Ron Stem. Craig Berube, Sergei Makarov.LD&ndash;Gary Suter, Frank Musil, Trent Yawney, Roger Johansson, Alexander Godynyuk.RD&ndash;AI Maclnnis, Chris Dahlquist, Kevin Dahl, Michel Petit, Greg Smyth.G&ndash;Mike Vernon. Jeff Reese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Carey Wilson, C, right knee surgery. Indefinite. &#9632;

Offensive outburst for Reese

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>From the day he left Vancouver breathless with his first coast-to-coast rush, Pavel Bure was destined to rewrite the Canuck record book.The Russian Rocket scored 34 times in 1991-92 to erase Trevor Linden&rsquo;s rookie mark. That was record No. 1. Record No. 2 arrived Feb. 9 as Bure eclipsed Tony Tanti&rsquo;s nine-year standard of 45 goals in a season. And next in sight is Patrik Sundstrom&rsquo;s mark of 91 points, set the same year Tanti netted his 45.So just how good is this guy? Even he&rsquo;s not sure.&ldquo;I never thought I could play like this,&rdquo; said Bure, who would get an argument from just about every scout.Bure had gone five games without a goal before tying and then breaking Tanti&rsquo;s mark in a 5-1 victory over Quebec. The drought was his longest of the season.Bure&rsquo;s 45th came when Quebec goalie Ron Hextall misplayed the puck from outside his crease, leaving a gaping net which Bure didn&rsquo;t miss. His 46th was into an empty net after Stephane Fiset, who replaced Hextall, was pulled for a sixth attacker.With so many spectacular goals on his resume, it seemed almost a shame he didn&rsquo;t shatter Tanti&rsquo;s mark with some sort of dazzling move.&ldquo;Every goal counts,&rdquo; Bure said. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t all have to be spectacular goals every night. I said it was my dream to score 50 goals. If you do that, you&rsquo;re a great player.&rdquo;MUSCLE UP: Canuck coachgeneral manager Pat Quinn began stocking his team for the playoffs when he picked up veteran tough guy Tim Hunter on waivers from Quebec Feb. 12.The purpose was twofold: muscle for the post-season and immediate muscle in the absence of Gino Od-jack, the heavyweight who had arthroscopic surgery Feb. 11 for cartilage damage to his right knee. Doctors told Odjick he may be out until early March, but that&rsquo;s a best case scenario.In their first game without Odjick, the Canucks lost 5-2 to Toronto Feb. 11 and were intimidated by Ken Baumgartner, who ran every Canuck in sight. The next night, hours after Hunter&rsquo;s acquisition, Vancouver played a tougher game in beating the Sabres 3-1 in Buffalo, although Hunter wasn&rsquo;t in the lineup.&ldquo;To get picked up by Vancouver is outstanding,&rdquo; said Hunter, a longtime Canuck nemesis when he played for the Smythe Division rival Calgary Flames. &ldquo;I think (Nordiques&rsquo; coach-GM) Pierre Page was doing me a favor.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Backup goalie Kay Whitmore was riding a five-game unbeaten streak (3-0-2) through Feb. 12. No. 1 man Kirk McLean was 13-1 in his last five starts.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 12: Tim Hunter. RW, acquired on waivers from Quebec.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Cliff Ronning, Anatoli Semenov, Petr Nedved, Ryan Walter. Tom Fergus.LW&ndash;Greg Adams, Geoff Courtnail, Sergio Momesso, Dixon Ward. Garry Valk.RW&ndash;Trevor Linden. Pavel Bure, Jim Sandak. Robert Kron, Tim Hunter.LD&ndash;Dave Babych. Adrien Plavsic, Dana Murzyn.RD&ndash;Gerald Diduck, Doug Lidster. JyrkiLumme.G&ndash;Kirk McLean, Kay Whitmore.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Robert Dirk. D. pulled groin, indefinite. Gino Odjick, LW. arthroscopic right knee surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Bure puts moves on goalies, then assaults record books

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>Like any respectable NHL coach, John Paddock has made a few predictions, even if most of them are done privately.It wasn&rsquo;t exactly a proclamation when the Jets were the league&rsquo;s hottest team at one point in January, but Paddock said he was worried about how &ldquo;easy&rdquo; the team&rsquo;s schedule appeared to be after a testy first month of the New Year.Those words rang painfully true Feb. 14, when the Jets allowed the San Jose Sharks to snap an NHL-record-tying losing streak at 17 games with a 3-2 win on Winnipeg ice.&ldquo;I hate to make myself a prophet but this was the part of the schedule I was worried about,&rdquo; Paddock said. &ldquo;Yes, we&rsquo;ve had injuries but our players have been playing very poorly. If we were sharp and hungry, we&rsquo;d be scoring more goals.&rdquo;The loss left the Jets with a four-game losing streak only three weeks after a 10-game (9-0-1) unbeaten string.Winnipeg appeared to get its act together after Christmas and went on its best run of the year through a difficult portion of the schedule, getting to four games above.500.Then it seemed the schedule maker was about to do them a favor. After the all-star break. Winnipeg had the most home games remaining among Smythe Division teams. The Jets also had 10 games in 25 days including three against Ottawa, two against Hartford and two against San Jose.&ldquo;You look at the schedule and you know the success you&rsquo;ve had and you start to think you&rsquo;re a little bit better than you actually are,&rdquo; Paddock said.DEAL NIXED: An injury to Mike O&rsquo;Neill, along with and Rick Tabar-acci&rsquo;s unpredictable back and play forced general manager Mike Smith to look for some goaltending help.Smith figured he had found that in a familiar player and shook on a deal with Philadelphia counterpart Russ Farwell to re-acquire Stephane Beauregard Feb. 8.Smith has traded Beauregard twice in the past eight months, the latest time to Philadelphia just before October&rsquo;s waiver draft.But the NHL nixed the deal later in the day. Teams must wait at least one full season to trade a player back to a team he was traded from if that trade occurred in the three weeks prior to the waiver draft.Ironically, it was the Jets and Flyers that caused the rule to go into the books. Just before the 1989 waiver draft, the Jets acquired Keith Acton and Pete Peeters and then sent them back to Philly days after the draft.&ldquo;Is this the rule they call the Mike Smith rule?&rdquo; Beauregard asked. &ldquo;I knew there was something because of the two teams before. How come Mike didn&rsquo;t know about this?&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Teemu Selanne tied a Winnipeg franchise record with his 45th goal of the season Feb. 14 against San Jose. That equalled Dale Hawerchuk&rsquo;s rookie-season output of 45 in 1981-82.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 8: NHL disallows trade with Philadelphia for Stephane Beauregard, G; Rick Tabaracci, G, recalled from Moncton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Thomas Steen, Stu Barnes, Mike Eagles, Troy Murray.LW&ndash;Keith Tkachuk, Darrin Shannon. John Druce, Kris King.RW&ndash;Teemu Selanne, Evgeny Davydov, Luciano Borsato. Tie Domi, Bryan Erickson.LD&ndash;Sergei Bautin. Igor Ulanov, Randy CarlyleRD&ndash;Phil Housley, Mike Lalor, Dean Kennedy.G&ndash;Bob Essensa, Rick Tabaracci.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Teppo Numminen, D. broken right foot, March 18. Fredrik Oiausson. D, sprained left knee ligaments. Feb. 28. Mike O&rsquo;Neill, G, right shoulder surgery, indefinite. Alexei Zhamnov, C, back spasms. Feb. 22 &#9632;

Paddock predicted letdown

<div class="byline">By Rand Simon</div>Hockey card collectors, especially those who want rookie cards, will discover good things come to those who wait when they buy Score Pinnacle.Unlike many of this season&rsquo;s sets which came out early in the season, Pinnacle appeared on the scene near the mid-way point.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011546/6553412-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="574" height="784"><figcaption class="caption-body">A common Pinnacle sight: A card of a European rookie.</figcaption></div>Score took advantage of its later release date by including 23 true rookie cards. The only set to rival its rookie selection is Parkhurst, but that set doesn&rsquo;t include some players Pinnacle did such as Hartford Whaler Michael Ny-lander and St. Louis Blues Bret Hedican and Denny Felsner.Even Fleer Ultra, which has received much-deserved praise, included only seven rookie cards in its first series.The Score Pinnacle rookie sub-set-that&rsquo;s NHL rookies, not necessarily hockey card rookies-clearly shows this season as being the year of the European. Of the final 30 rookies in the set, 23 are European-born, including Winnipeg Jet Teemu Selanne, New York Ranger Alexei Kovalev and Tampa Bay Lightning Roman Hamrlik.By releasing its set later than most, Pinnacle also includes up-to-date photography with players on the Hartford Whalers, New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins usually shown in their new uniforms. There&rsquo;s also a good selection of players on the Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning.Score Pinnacle continues to be the industry leader in imaginative subsets. The best ones are Sidelines, Idols and Masks, a new addition since last season.The Sidelines subset improved by showing the player actually engaged in his hobby. There&rsquo;s Eric Lindros water skiing near his family&rsquo;s cottage in Honey Harbor, Ont., Luke Richardson displaying a model rocket he built (the rockets can reach an altitude of 1,000 feet) and Uwe Krupp with two of the six Siberian Huskies who are part of his dog sled team.Unfortunately, the subset also contains one of the year&rsquo;s worst cards-Doug Gilmour in some lame cowboy outfit. Doug, what were you thinking?Like last year, the Idols subset shows a small, color action photo of a current NHL player with a large, black-and-white photo of his idol in the background. Some of the pairs are Gary Roberts-Lanny McDonald, Rob Pear-son-Mike Bossy and Petr Nedved-Wayne Gretzky.Masks is simply eight cards showing off some of the league&rsquo;s best goalie masks. The up-close photos of Andy Moog&rsquo;s bruin, Brian Hayward&rsquo;s shark and the other six masks are striking.The regular card designs differ greatly from last season&rsquo;s much-maligned issue which featured a head shot on the front of the card. Card fronts now look more like any other issue, except for the extended black border.On the back is where you&rsquo;ll find the player&rsquo;s head shot, a brief biography and statistics for last season and career totals. Pinnacle&rsquo;s ever-present anti-counterfeit device is there, too, but you&rsquo;ll need a special decoder from Score to see what&rsquo;s there.Team Pinnacle is the only chase subset in regular packs (there&rsquo;s a Team 2000 series in jumbo packs), but it is a valuable one. The six cards feature a Wales Conference star on one side and a Campbell Conference star on the other. The initial value of the subset is about $150, with the Lindros-Gretzky card the most valuable at about $50.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021177/6553405-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="574" height="782"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pinnacle doesn&rsquo;t mask its interest in NHL goaltenders.</figcaption></div>With its attractive design, rookie selection and scarce chase cards, Pinnacle will be a hit with collectors. As long as Score hasn&rsquo;t fallen into it&rsquo;s familiar trap of overproducing, it should be popular with investors, too. &#9632;

f0014-01

Score reaches Pinnacle with latest set

<div class="byline">By Rand Simon</div>Markus Mueller stood in line for more than seven hours on the hard concrete floor and vowed to go see the doctor the next day.But not for his aching back.&ldquo;I think maybe I should go see the doctor tomorrow and have my head examined for staying here all day,&rdquo; he said.Well, Markus, don&rsquo;t be so quick to make that appointment. After all, your decision to spend the day in one spot at the Montreal Convention Centre could prove to be a financially valuable one.Mueller was the first person in line to get an Upper Deck commemorative all-star sheet signed by NHL stars Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull and Jaromir Jagr. The trio showed up at the Upper Deck booth at Hockey Fest &lsquo;93 just after 5 p.m., Feb. 5 and stayed for 15 minutes. Only about 100 people were able to get the valuable collectible, while dozens more were not happy at being turned away.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011434/6553443-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="571" height="804"><figcaption class="caption-body">Getting Jaromir Jagr&rsquo;s signature was a fan&rsquo;s all-star highlight.</figcaption></div>The signed sheet has an estimated value of $300, but Mueller said there was no way his is for sale. Mueller, a native of Switzerland now living in Huntington, Que., had never stood in line to get a hockey player&rsquo;s autograph before, but he couldn&rsquo;t pass up the opportunity to meet his hero, Jagr.While there weren&rsquo;t any autographs as valuable as the Gretzky-Hull-Jagr ones, others were as popular.Hockey fans were especially attracted to Manon Rheaume&rsquo;s line. The Atlanta Knights&rsquo; goaltender was signing a card commemerating her participation at the Quebec City international peewee tournament.Rheaume was so popular, the lineup for her autograph was much longer than the one for Montreal Canadien star Denis Savard.In total, more than two dozen NHL stars, including Philadelphia Flyer Mark Recchi and Minnesota North Star Mike Modano, signed autographs at the O-Pee-Chee-sponsored show.Several Quebec League players were also on hand, including likely first overall 1993 NHL draft pick Alexandre Daigle, who signed at the Score booth.The O-Pee-Chee display, which included unopened wax packs, boxes and uncut sheets from the past 25 years, was worth the price of admission. The London, Ont., company also unveiled its design for this season&rsquo;s version of Premier cards, which are due for release at the end of February.In addition to sponsoring Hockey Fest, O-Pee-Chee produced a special set of cards for the show. The 66-card series honored past and present Montreal Canadiens and was packaged in a puck-shaped box. Each of the 5,000 sets was numbered.Hockey Fest &lsquo;93 was designed along the lines of Major League Baseball&rsquo;s FanFest. In addition to the col-lectibles section, fans could participate in a slap shot contest, attend coaching, referee and power skating seminars and tour a replica of the Canadiens&rsquo; dressing room. &#9632;

f0015-01

Long lineups sign of the times at Hockey Fest

<div class="byline">By Rand Simon</div>You&rsquo;ve got to give Classic credit for doing whatever it can to compete with the major hockey card manufacturers. even though the company does not have an NHL licence.Classic&rsquo;s latest effort is its Pro Hockey Prospects: All-Star Edition, which includes several top NHL rookies, minor-league stars and prospects.Classic has a licence with the American and International Leagues and the Professional Hockey Players&rsquo; Association-which is the bargaining unit for minor pro players.Since any player assigned to the minors for more than just a conditioning stint becomes a member of the PHPA, the Classic set includes NHL rookies such as Toronto Maple Leaf Felix Potvin, New York Ranger Alexei Kovalev and Philadelphia Flyer Tommy Soderstrom.The set also includes Classic exclusives Rob Gaudreau of the San Jose Sharks and Viktor Kozlov, who is expected to be a top-five pick in the 1993 NHL entry draft.Among the top minor-league prospects in the set are Andrei Tre-filov of the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, Corey Hirsch of the Binghamton Rangers and Viacheslav Kozlov of the Adirondack Red Wings.The production ran is 6,500 cases, with 10 boxes per case. Atlanta Knights&rsquo; goaltender Manon Rheaume signed 6,500 cards.Limited print cards of Rheaume, Kovalev, Gaudreau, Kozlov and Dallas Drake are also randomly inserted in foil packs. There are 26,000 points of each card, which means an average of about two limited print cards per box.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011331/6553474-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="566" height="762"></div>Classic plans to ship its latest hockey card series by mid-March.ONE SERIES: Pro Set has announced it won&rsquo;t be producing a second series of its base brand hockey cards for the first time in its three-year existence. The company said it may make an update or traded set for release at the end of the season.But with Parkhurst Series I enjoying immediate selling success, Pro Set will make a second series of that brand, which will ship to consumers in mid-April.Like Series I, the second series is 240 cards and features reprints of original Parkhurst cards from the 1950s and &lsquo;60s. Series II reprints are of forwards following the goalie and defensemen cards in Series I.Pro Set has yet to decide whether it will make a Parkhurst Final Update, which it did last season.ULTRA RETURNS: Heer will make a second series of Ultra following the company&rsquo;s successful hockey card debut.Series II is 200 cards with a 25-card insert subset called Ultra Imports. The subset includes Vancouver Canuck Pavel Bure. Winnipeg Jet Teemu Selanne and 23 others.JUNIOR PRINT: The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association has commissioned Toronto artist Steven Houston to paint &ldquo;Canadian Tradition Canadienne&rdquo; honoring the 1985, 1988 and 1993 gold-medal winning Canadian national junior teams.Wendel Clark (1985), Trevor Linden (1988) and Alexandre Daigle (1993) appear on the 1,500 signed and numbered prints. The cost per print is $199, with proceeds from the prints going to the CAHA&rsquo;s program of excellence.Prints can be ordered by phoning 1800-268-1121 or writing to: One of Images, 35 Redstone Path, Toronto, Ont., M9C 1Y7. &#9632;

f0016-01

More Classic, Fleer, Parkhurst; less Pro Set

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011187/6553512-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="380" height="532"></div>They tell me that when you reach adulthood-and beyond-hero worship should go out the window along with other childhood passions such as playing with electric trains. But, somehow, I never bought that line of thinking.Howie Meeker is still my hero.He was my first favorite hockey player on my first favorite team, the 1946-47 Toronto Maple Leafs. Although I was living in Brooklyn, I passionately followed them on Foster Hewitt&rsquo;s Saturday night broadcasts (CBL-Toronto when atmospheric conditions were right) and read about them in The Globe and Mail, to which I subscribed.Meeker was a truly romantic character. He survived a grenade blast in World War II and went on to play eight seasons in the NHL. Howie had the neatest crew cut I ever saw. He was fast, feisty, and won the Calder Trophy as 1947 rookie-of-the-year.I had wanted to talk to Meeker about those Leafs for 46 years because there were so many questions to be answered. Like how come a team with so many kids (Jim Thomson, Gus Mortson, Bill Barilko, et al.) was able to upset the mighty Montreal Canadiens for the 1947 Stanley Cup? And how good were those Leafs who went on to win four Cups in five years? And how did Meeker set up Barilko&rsquo;s sudden-death Stanley Cup-winning goal against the Canadiens in 1951?Meeker and I finally met at this year&rsquo;s All-Star Game in Montreal. Despite his 68 years and graying mane, Meeker is as ebullient as ever, gracious as 1 had hoped and eager to answer a devoted fan&rsquo;s questions. The first, of course, was how they pulled off one of the NHL&rsquo;s classic upsets, winning the 1947 Cup.&ldquo;We won on discipline, a system, hard work and great pride,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In those days there were three prideful teams-the Leafs, Red Wings and Canadiens.&rdquo;The defending champ Canadiens had The Punch Line (Rocket Richard, Elmer Lach, Toe Blake), Hall-of-Fame goalie Bill Duman and legendary coach Dick Irvin. And still the Leafs beat them in six.&ldquo;We had Turk Broda in goal and he was even better than Duman,&rdquo; Meeker recalled. &ldquo;Turk was an incredible clutch goalie and I consider it the greatest miscarriage of justice in NHL history is that Broda is not in the Hockey Hall of Fame.&rdquo;A latecomer to that club was Barilko, who had been hidden on the Leafs&rsquo; Pacific Coast League farm team, the Hollywood Wolves.Barilko was the most devastating hip-checker in post-World War II history.Meeker had the good fortune of being on the ice for one of hockey&rsquo;s most memorable goals. It was the 1951 finals, Leafs against Canadiens, the five-game series in which every match was settled in sudden-death. It was Meeker who played architect on Barilko&rsquo;s Cup-winning goal, a goal that was made all the more memorable by the fact that Barilko died in a plane crash that summer.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02894/6553505-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="561" height="871"><figcaption class="caption-body">Howie Meeker</figcaption></div>Meeker recalls the play as if it had happened two minutes ago.&ldquo;The puck hit the outside of the net and then went behind. I went in back and got it and just as I was getting to the puck, (Canadiens&rsquo; defenseman) Tom Johnson came in behind me and the big, S.O.B. ran me into the fence. I knew I wasn&rsquo;t going to make any kind of intelligent play, so I threw the puck out to the blueline hoping that it would pay off.&rdquo;Which brings us to one of the enormous Cup ironies. Because Maurice Richard was on the ice, Barilko had been wamed-under penalty of a fine-to stay on the center ice side of Montreal&rsquo;s blueline. Leafs&rsquo; coach Joe Primeau feared that The Rocket might breakaway for the winner as he had in Game 2.&ldquo;Bill was restricted from pinching in but Barilko did what he had to do at the time. He rushed at the puck and threw it high over McNeil&rsquo;s shoulder. The red light went on while Johnson was pushing my face into the fence. I looked at him and said, &lsquo;We win. Good-bye!&rsquo;&rdquo; &#9632;

f0017-01

Once a hero, always a hero

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>Steve Yzerman lay on the trainer&rsquo;s table, his right thigh twitching as a machine administered therapy to a tender groin. Moments after a five-point night in which he narrowly missed the game-winner on a last-minute breakaway that would have given him his hat trick, Yzerman was limping noticeably as he made his way from the dressing room to the treatment room at the Great Western Forum.Bryan Murray, Yzerman&rsquo;s coach and general manager, watched his hobbling star in utter amazement.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s one tough bastard,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;He has got the bad groin. His knee is bothering him. But he just plays.&rdquo;And playing well. Yzerman was named NHL player of the week for the period ending Feb. 14 by leading all scorers with six goals and 15 points in four games.For 10 seasons as a Detroit Red Wing Steve Yzerman has just played. At a routinely remarkable level.Yzerman was on the verge of 1,000 career points. The five he earned in a 5-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks Feb. 14 gave him 91 in 59 games this season and 994 in 732 career games.With his entry pass to the Hall of Fame secured, the 27-year-old native of Nepean, Ont., allowed himself the opportunity to enjoy the journey towards it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve thought about it a little bit lately,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something to get excited about. It&rsquo;s a nice milestone, but I&rsquo;ve learned not to get too excited about that stuff.&ldquo;My thoughts all year have been about the end of the season.&rdquo;By that time, Yzerman could be in the running for the Hart and Art Ross trophies. But again, he isn&rsquo;t overly concerned with individual accolades. His entire focus has been on helping the Wings succeed in the playoffs and the major trade that brought defenseman Paul Coffey and right winger Jim Hiller to Detroit gave him reason to believe this could be the year.Surely that&rsquo;s what Murray had in mind when he made the deal.&ldquo;I want to win now,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Steve Yzerman is 27 years old. He&rsquo;s in the prime of his career. You&rsquo;d like a chance to win it his prime because he&rsquo;s such a star player and he deserves it.&rdquo;A cynic might suggest such a comment might have been a calculated move to throw the puck in Yzerman&rsquo;s comer, challenging him to dig it out and lead his team greatness with an improved supporting cast.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03650/6553543-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="952" height="2388"></div>&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t meant that way at all,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Every franchise tries to win when its star player is at his peak. If we&rsquo;re ever going to have a championship team, the time should be in the next couple of years.&rdquo;Anyone who would suggest Murray&rsquo;s comments put undue pressure on his captain doesn&rsquo;t know Yzerman well.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t change anything at all,&rdquo; Yzerman said. &ldquo;For the last four or five years, people have had pretty high expectations of our club. That hasn&rsquo;t changed. I&rsquo;ve always said 1 put more pressure on myself than anybody else could.&rdquo;The knock on Yzerman is that his playoff numbers come up short: 22 goals and 55 points in 50 games.Yzerman finished last spring with three goals and eight points in 11 games. He understands the measure of prominent players, fair or not.&ldquo;People judge you by your stats,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That wouldn&rsquo;t have been such a big deal if we had won, but it comes out glaring after we lost.&rdquo;With a series of moves, Murray bolstered the Detroit lineup with an eye toward the postseason. He acquired right winger Dino Ciccarelli in an off-season trade with Washington. He signed free agent defenseman Mark Howe. And he traded away Jimmy Carson for Coffey, a fourtime Stanley Cup champion.Yzerman&rsquo;s enthusiasm was regenerated by the trade, which ended speculation he himself would be dealt.&ldquo;Last summer, a couple of teams inquired about him,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;This year, his name hasn&rsquo;t come up. There have been rumors about him and (New Jersey&rsquo;s) Scott Stevens, but there hasn&rsquo;t been any talk about that since training camp. You never say never, but I&rsquo;d say it&rsquo;s not very likely we&rsquo;ll be doing anything with Steve Yzerman.&rdquo;STRENGTH UP THE MIDDLESince 1986-87, Steve Yzerman has been the third most dominant offensive center in the NHL. Here are the top six centers since 198687, with games play, goals, points and points per same. &#9632;

f0017-03

The Wonder’s Year?

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecklng</div>Just days after he was nearly traded to the Los Angeles Kings, Brett Hull&rsquo;s future in St. Louis seems secure.Hull and the Blues took major steps to resolving their contract standoff, a situation which nearly led to his departure from a hockey town he helped put on the map.On Feb. 11, Hull and agent Michael Barnett lowered their asking price to $20 million over six years from their previous request of $25-$26 million over six years.The Blues reciprocated by raising their offer to $15 million over six years, from $13.2 million. In addition, their offer includes deferred payments to sweeten the deal. The deferred payments would push the total package to just under $20 million.Both sides have agreed on terms-six years, five years and an option. They also agree Hull can move into a management position after he retires.Hull met privately with Blues&rsquo; president Jack Quinn on Feb. 10 and 11. In the first meeting, Hull had sought out Quinn to express his desire to stay in St. Louis amid rumors he might be heading to the Los Angeles Kings.After Hull&rsquo;s initial contract demands, the Blues began shopping him around the league. If the Kings had parted with young defenseman Rob Blake, Hull probably would be skating on Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s right wing.Trade talks, though, have subsided. Discussions with the Kings died and talks with several other NHL teams have ceased as the Blues and Hull focus on resolving their differences.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011224/6553574-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="728" height="1057"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rumors that winger Brett Hull would be traded to Los Angeles proved to be false.</figcaption></div>The Blues owe Hull a debt for raising the level of hockey interest in St. Louis to the point where it has become feasible to develop a new arena downtown. Without Hull, those plans might not have reached fruition. Site preparation continues on the new Kiel Center.Hull owes the Blues for allowing him to develop into one of the NHL&rsquo;s stars after they acquired him from the Calgary Flames in March, 1988. Without the Blues, Hull might not have reached a level that has allowed him to be a successful product pitchman off the ice.The Blues are paying Hull $1.6 million this season and will pay him $2.2 million next season in the option year of the four-year, $7 million deal he signed in June, 1990.QUICK TRIP: Rookie defenseman Bret Hedican was the team&rsquo;s fastest skater this season, beating Nelson Emerson in the skills competition.But that didn&rsquo;t prevent him from earning a ticket to Peoria of the International League. The Blues demoted Hedican Feb. 13.&ldquo;He has been a good player for us on some nights, but we&rsquo;re looking for him to be a lot better,&rdquo; said coach Bob Berry. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough. He has come a long way, but that&rsquo;s the way it is.&rdquo;Hedican, 23, became a victim of the numbers&rsquo; game when Jeff Brown returned to the lineup after missing a month with a broken left foot.&ldquo;He has to play,&rdquo; Berry said of Hedican. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no sense in him sitting here.&rdquo;The demotion caught Hedican by surprise.&ldquo;When Brownie came back, I knew there was always this chance, but it&rsquo;s kind of a blast,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I feel the last couple of games, I&rsquo;ve made some mistakes, but I&rsquo;ve made some strides.&rdquo;He answered the question himself.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll go down and work on the skills I need to work on,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Maybe it will help me get back on track, relax and play the game I know how to play. I feel I can help this team, but I have to get better.&rdquo;Hedican had four assists in 35 games.NOTEBOOK: It took 59 days, but defenseman Jeff Brown finally signed a three-year, $2.6 million contract Feb. 13. He agreed to the deal on Dec. 16.Brett Hull scored his first game-winning goal of the season Feb. 13, giving the Blues a 4-3 victory over Detroit. The win snapped a two-game losing streak at home in which the Blues were pasted by Boston 6-1 Feb. 9 and Washington 10-6 Feb. 11.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 9: Geoff Sarjeant, G, recalled from Peoria (IHL) Feb. 10: Sarjeant assigned to Peoria. Feb. 13: Bret Hedican, D. assigned to Peoria. Jeff Brown, D. signed three-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Craig Janney, Ron Sutter. Ron Wilson, Nelson Emerson.LW&ndash;Brendan Shanahan, Kevin Miller, Dave Lowry, Basil McRae.RW&ndash;Brett HuU. Igor Korolev, Rich Sutter. Kelly Chase.LD&ndash;Jeff Brown, Murray Baron, Doug Crossman, Bret Hedican, Curt Giles. Murray Baron.RD&ndash;Garth Butcher, Rick Zombo, Stephane Quintal.G&ndash;Curtls Joseph, Guy Hebert.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bob Bassen. C, broken left hand, day-to-day. Philippe Bozon LW, mononucleosis, indefinite Lee Norwood, D, broken left ankle, out for season. Vitali Prokhorov LW, dislocated right shoulder, indefinite &#9632;

f0018-01

Trade talk eases as Hull close to signing deal

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>The Detroit Red Wings got a pleasant surprise after the trade which brought Paul Coffey from the Los Angeles Kings: Keith Primeau showed signs of playing up to his enormous potential.It seemed like a bit of a gamble when the Wings traded Jimmy Carson for Coffey Jan. 29, but it began paying bigger dividends when Primeau assumed Carson&rsquo;s job as the third-line center.&ldquo;We found a new player in Keith Primeau,&rdquo; said coach-general manager Bryan Murray. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s any question about that.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011137/6553605-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="574" height="742"><figcaption class="caption-body">Keith Primeau has benefited greatly from the trade with L.A.</figcaption></div>The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Primeau has been a disappointment after being drafted third overall in the 1990 entry draft. He had just 11 goals and 21 points in 54 games this season and six goals and 16 points in 35 games last year.But in the best game of his young career, Primeau scored two goals and made a handful of big plays in an 8-5 win over the New Jersey Devils Feb. 9.It was his fifth straight strong performance just when it seemed as though the Wings were showcasing him for a trade.Prior to that, Primeau was playing left wing and his ice time had been drastically reduced. He was scratched for four consecutive games in early January. But the Carson trade changed all that.&ldquo;First of all, he&rsquo;s playing the position he wanted to play and second, he sees an opportunity to play an important role on our team,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Until recently, he didn&rsquo;t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know his desire was to play as much as he could at center.&rdquo;The faith the Wings have shown in the 21-year-old-by not trading him and by using him in a more important role at his natural position-makes all the difference in the world, he said.&ldquo;After the trade, they never said anything, but they expressed so much confidence in me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now, I&rsquo;m not afraid to try things. I&rsquo;m not afraid to make mistakes because of the faith they&rsquo;ve shown in me. That&rsquo;s important because before if I made a mistake 1 was always afraid of not getting on the ice again.&rdquo;Ironically, Primeau sustained a bruised shoulder late in the New Jersey game and his absence was felt in a 6-6 tie at Los Angeles Feb. 11.CENTER TROUBLE: The team thought to be the deepest at center-they had eight before trading Jimmy Carson-was very thin down the middle against the Kings.Yzerman and Mike Sillinger handled most of the workload at center.Steve Yzerman, despite playing with a slight groin pull, finished with two goals and five points to start a three-game road trip in which he had six goals and 12 points.Sergei Fedorov, who earlier missed two games with the flu, sustained a charleyhorse above his left leg and was forced to miss the game.Three other centers-Dallas Drake, Paul Ysebaert and Shawn Burr-were in the lineup, but all played primarily on the wing this season.Drake started in Keith Primeau&rsquo;s place, but he had his worst game of the season, finishing with no points. He was also a minus-3 and had nine penalty minutes.Ysebaert, a right winger for most of the past two seasons, started at left wing and played a few ineffective shifts at center. He had two assists, but finished minus-2.NOTEBOOK: Sometimes it&rsquo;s difficult playing against friends. Just ask former King Paul Coffey. Coffey had little impact in the game against Los Angeles, the first time he looked bad since joining Detroit. He was pointless, finished minus-2 and had just one shot on goal.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb, 15: Slava Kozlov, C. recalled from Adirondack (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov. Kelth Primeau, Mike Sillinger. Slava Kozlov.LW&ndash;Gerard Gallant, Bob Probert, Dallas Drake. Shawn Burr. John Ogrodnick.RW&ndash;Dino Ciccarelli. Paul Ysebaert. Ray Sheppard. Sheldon Kennedy, Jim Hiller, Jim Cummins.LD&ndash;Paul Coffey, Steve Chiasson. Mark Howe. Brad McCrimmon.RD&ndash;Nicklas Lidstrom. Vladimir Konstantinov. Yves Racine, Brad McCrimmon.G&ndash;Tim Cheveldae, Vince Riendeau.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dennis Vial, D. separated right shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0019-01

Primeau soars after L.A. deal

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>For Toronto Maple Leaf fans, the coincidence was heartening.Much has been made of Doug Gilmour&rsquo;s potential as a Hart Trophy candidate as the 1992-93 season has progressed. But when he tied a club record by assisting on all six Leaf goals in a 6-1 triumph over Minnesota Feb. 13, it seemed as though history was starting to repeat itself.The record Gilmour tied was set in 1944 by defenseman Walter (Babe) Pratt. That was also the year Pratt became one of only two Leafs ever to win the Hart as the NHL&rsquo;s most valuable player.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like I did anything special. All 1 did was pass the puck,&rdquo; said Gilmour, the club&rsquo;s acting captain in place on the injured Wendel Clark. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to read more about (Pratt). I don&rsquo;t know exactly what this record is all about. But I&rsquo;ll just take it and say, &lsquo;Thank you.&rsquo;&rdquo;As if to underline his consistent excellence this season, Gilmour went out the next night in Minnesota and registered a goal and two assists in a 6-5 comeback win over the North Stars. The win the Maple Leafs a sweep of the Feb. 13-14 home-and-home series.&ldquo;I knew he was good,&rdquo; coach Pat Bums said. &ldquo;But I didn&rsquo;t think he was this good.&ldquo;He works every day, and if you get your star player doing that, it means everything. I just wish some of our young players could see him and realize that&rsquo;s what it takes.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011016/6553636-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="598" height="712"><figcaption class="caption-body">Having fun in the sun got Wendel Clark into hot water.</figcaption></div>As well as the Hart, Gilmour is also shaping up as a top candidate for the Selke Trophy as the league&rsquo;s best defensive forward. Add to that his first All-Star Game appearance this season, and you might think Gilmour would be feeling good about his newfound respect around the NHL.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t think about it that way,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;What would all this mean if we don&rsquo;t make the playoffs? I don&rsquo;t have any bonuses in my contract for All-Star Games or Hart Trophies. It&rsquo;s all playoffs. We&rsquo;re all in this to win.&rdquo;CAPTAIN CRUNCHED: For the first time in his career as a Maple Leaf, captain Wendel Clark has found himself in a coach&rsquo;s bad books.Clark, who injured rib muscles in a Jan. 17 game in Chicago, was still out of action when the all-star break rolled around. But instead of staying in Toronto for rest and therapy, Clark chose to head to the eastern Caribbean for a brief holiday.Team therapist Chris Broadhurst said it&rsquo;s unclear whether Clark would have benefitted from the attention he could have received at the break.But it was enough to earn the wrath of Pat Bums, who was enraged when Clark returned after the break and told Bums he wasn&rsquo;t healthy enough to play Feb. 9 in Tampa.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s my job to say what I dislike, and I didn&rsquo;t like what he did,&rdquo; Bums said.The two met briefly, but even then couldn&rsquo;t seem to agree on the incident.&ldquo;He said, &ldquo;Maybe I shouldn&rsquo;t have done it,&rsquo; and I said, &ldquo;Yeah, you shouldn&rsquo;t have done it,&rdquo; said Bums.Clark didn&rsquo;t remember things that way. &ldquo;As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, I did nothing wrong,&rdquo; he said.As of Feb. 15, Clark had missed 11 consecutive games and was not close to returning.NOTEBOOK: Rookie right winger Rob Pearson missed Toronto&rsquo;s game against the Vancouver Canucks Feb. 11 with a one-game suspension after picking up his third game misconduct of the season three nights earlier. Pearson then watched the next two games from the press box&hellip;Daren Puppa started his first game as a Leaf in a 6-5 win at Minnesota Feb. 14. He faced 25 shots.The Leafs may bring Finnish junior Janne Gronvall to Toronto later this season for practise purposes. Gronvall was the top defenseman at the World Junior Championships this winter. He was Toronto&rsquo;s fifth-round draft choice in 1992.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for The Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Doug Gilmour, John Cullen, Peter Zezel, Mike Krushelnyski.LW&ndash;Dave Andreychuk, Dave McLf-wain, Bill Berg, Ken Baumgartner.RW&ndash;Gtenn Anderson, Nikolai Bors-coevsky, Mark Osborne, Mike Foligno, Rob Pearson.LD&ndash;Dave Ellett, Jamie Macoun, Dmitri Mironov, Darryl Shannon.RD&ndash;Todd GiH, Sylvain Lefebvre, Bob Rouse. Bob McGill.G&ndash;Felix Potvin, Daren Puppa, Rick<h3>INJURIES</h3>Wendel Clark. LW, strained rib cage muscle, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0020-01

Acting captain Gilmour playing with a lot of Hart

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>Darryl Sutter was starting to take offense to the questions about his team&rsquo;s need for more offense.Well, do the Chicago Blackhawks have enough offensive firepower heading into the regular season&rsquo;s stretch run?&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the question everyone has been asking all year,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t answer that because it wouldn&rsquo;t be fair to the players. That&rsquo;s (general manager Bob Pulford&rsquo;s) area.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s no secret Pulford was still hot after Edmonton holdout forward Joe Murphy, and a deal between the Hawks and the Oilers seemed imminent.Sutter was trying to stay out of Pulford&rsquo;s way, saying he could only work with what he has at the present time.&ldquo;I think we need more offense from the guys we&rsquo;ve got here,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;Christian Ruuttu has one goal in the last 30 games and Stephane Matteau has 10 or 11 goals and plays a lot on the power play.&ldquo;We talk about (offense) all the time. But all I can say is we need to look to improve our team.&rdquo;One place the Hawks may look for offensive help is from their International League affiliate at Indianapolis. Veteran Tony Hrkac was leading the IHL in scoring, while 18-year-old rookie Sergei Krivokrasov was averaging a goal every two games.Krivokrasov, the Hawks&rsquo; No. 1 pick in last June&rsquo;s draft, was the most valuable player in the IHL All-Star Game. He scored a pair of goals in the East&rsquo;s 7-5 win.&ldquo;He probably deserves a look,&rdquo; Sutter said of Krivokrasov.Part of the problem offensively is the power play, which was 20th in the league with a 17.2 per-cent success rate.&ldquo;Our power play is a joke right now,&rdquo; Chris Chelios said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s brutal. And I don&rsquo;t know what we&rsquo;re going to do about it.&rdquo;Sutter agreed and seemed to be losing patience with the power-play unit.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re asking the same questions you&rsquo;ve been asking all year,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;Go ask the players.&rdquo;&ldquo;Obviously, the power play needs some work,&rdquo; Jeremy Roenick said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to move it around and get more shots. You&rsquo;re not going to get goals if you don&rsquo;t shoot. We keep waiting for the puck to come to us.&rdquo;LOST WEEKEND: Back-to-back losses to the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings Feb. 13-14 had the Hawks headed back to the drawing board.They were beaten 4-1 at Pittsburgh then dropped a 5-3 decision to the Red Wings at home,&ldquo;It was a big weekend and we came out with a goose egg. That&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;re not very proud of,&rdquo; Brent Sutter said. &ldquo;Obviously, this shows we&rsquo;ve got some work to do. We have to get better as a team. We got away from why we&rsquo;re the best defensive team.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Jeremy Roenick broke his left big toe Feb. 11 against the Boston Bruins when he blocked a Ray Bourque slap shot. It was the same toe he broke early in the season. Roenick played through the injury, just like he did the first time&hellip;Igor Kravchuk returned to the lineup Feb. 11 against the Bruins after missing six weeks with a sprained left ankle.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01788/6553667-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="574" height="750"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Chelios is adamant the team must improve its power play.</figcaption></div>Goalie Ed Belfour faced 21 shots in the 6-3 win over the Bruins. He saw 22 in the first period of the AllStar Game&hellip;Cam Russell missed the game with Boston and Bryan Marchment missed the Feb. 14 game against Detroit while serving suspensions for earning their third non-stick related game misconducts of the seasonDefenseman Steve Smith missed the Detroit game when his back stiffened up&hellip;Assistant coach Paul Baxter&rsquo;s ejection Feb. 13 at Pittsburgh was his second of the season.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 14: Kari Dykhuis, D, recalled from Indianapolis (IHL). Feb. 15: Dykhuis assigned to Indianapolis.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Jeremy Roenick, Brent Sutter, Christian Ruuttu, Dave Christian. Mike Hudson.LW&ndash;Michel Goulet, Stephane Matteau, Greg Gilbert, Stu Grimson. Rob Brown.RW&ndash;Steve Larmer, Brian Noonan. Dirk Graham, Jocelyn Lemieux.LD&ndash;Steve Smith. Frantisek Kucera. Igor Kravchuk, Cam Russell.RD&ndash;Chris Chelios, Keith Brown. Bryan Marchment.G&ndash;Ed Belfour, Jimmy Waite<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0021-01

Stagnant offense needs quick fix

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div>The Tampa Bay Lightning waited more than two years for Tampa Coliseum Inc., officials to make good on their promise of a new 18,500-seat arena. Finally, it appears the wait is coming to an end.After paying another $500,000 into an escrow fund and buying an additional 30 days to secure financing for the project, Tampa Coliseum officials declared Feb. 8 they will meet the March 8 deadline to secure the $114 million needed to build the Lightning&rsquo;s new home.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in the red zone now,&rdquo; said Tampa Coliseum Inc., president Jim Cusack. &ldquo;This deal will be completed successfully. Virtually all of the pieces are in place and when it&rsquo;s all done, Tampa Bay will have, in the words of former NHL president John Ziegler, &lsquo;The finest arena in North America.&rsquo;&rdquo;The $500,000 payment made Feb. 8 brought to $2 million the total TCI has put into escrow in order to retain the right to build the Lightning&rsquo;s arena.The $2 million was built up through a series of payments laid out in the terms of an amended lease agreement between the Lightning and Tampa Coliseum.The lease called for Tampa Coliseum to obtain financing by Oct. 7, 1992 or begin buying extra time by making escrow payments and eventually handing over a portion of that money to the Lightning.So far, $750,000 has been handed over to the Lightning in accordance with the amended lease. Tampa Coliseum executives said the escrow payments and payments to the Lightning are a clear indication they will succeed in obtaining the financing for the project.&ldquo;The deposit of $2 million cash and the additional expenditures of over $2.5 million in development costs is a clear sign of our commitment to the project, as well as our confidence in bringing the Coliseum development to a successful conclusion,&rdquo; said Tampa Coliseum executive vice-president Marc Ganis.Lightning executive vice-president Mel Lowell, the club&rsquo;s chief liason with Tampa Coliseum, said the escrow payments are a good indication the investor group will live up to its promise of providing a new arena for the Lightning.&ldquo;They have deposited $2 million in extensions,&rdquo; Lowell said. &ldquo;Why would an organization expend $2 million in bad faith?&rdquo;SO LONG: Michel Mongeau, once considered a candidate to become the team&rsquo;s top center, was traded to the Quebec Nordiques Feb. 12 along with two minor leaguers for enforcer Herb Raglan.Mongeau spent all but four games playing for Milwaukee of the International League. Right wingers Steve Tuttle and Martin Simard were the other players headed to Quebec.Raglan has spent the 1992-93 season toiling for Quebec&rsquo;s American League affiliate in Halifax. He will start with the Atlanta Knights of the IHL.Esposito liked Mongeau&rsquo;s speed and skills, but felt Mongeau isn&rsquo;t good enough to make the NHL.NOTEBOOK: Goalie Wendell Young re-established himself as the team&rsquo;s top goaltender during a four-game stint in which he compiled a 21-1 record and 2.00 goals-against average.<h2>TAMPA BAY</h2>Feb. 8: Chris LiPuma. D. and Keith Osborne, LW. assigned to Atlanta (IHL). Feb, 14: J.C Bergeron. G, assigned to Atlanta<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Brian Bradley, Tan Bergland, Steve Kasper. Adam Creighton.LW&ndash;John Tucker, Chris Kontos. Mikael Andersson. Mike HartmanRW&ndash;Rob Zamuner, Marc Bureau, Steve Maltals, Danton Cote.LD&ndash;Roman Hamrtik. Peter Tagtanetti. Shawn Chambers.RD&ndash;Rob Ramage. Marc Bergevin, Bob BoorsG&ndash;Pat Jablonski. Wendell Young.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Rob DiMaio. C, sprained left ankle, day-to-day. Joe Reekie. D, broken left teg, out indefinite. &#9632;

Prospects for new home suddenly much brighter

<div class="byline">By Gary Olson</div>Most teams got four days off at the all-star break. Not the Minnesota North Stars. They took 10 days off-and counting.The Stars all went their own way at the break, but apparently lost their way when it was time to show up for work.&ldquo;Let&rsquo;s face it, we&rsquo;ve played four games since the break and the only win was against an expansion team (Tampa Bay) on a fluke goal,&rdquo; Stars&rsquo; coach Bob Gainey said after a pair of losses to Toronto Feb. 13-14. &ldquo;If our players don&rsquo;t play properly, they&rsquo;ll go back to being a (lousy) team.&rdquo;Gainey was supportive of his players when they lost 3-2 to Washington Feb. 9 in the first game after the break even though all-star goalie Jon Casey steered a pass from the comer into his net for the losing goal. He offered no criticism after a dreadful effort against Tampa even though the only goal came on Tommy Sjodin&rsquo;s shot that would have missed the net by four feet if it hadn&rsquo;t hit a player.He bit his tongue after a 6-1 loss in Toronto Feb. 13 because there was a game the next night. His patience ran out when his team blew a 5-2 lead and let Toronto rally to: (a) win a second game in 24 hours; and (b) get back into the Norris Division race. The losses left the North Stars just four points ahead of Toronto for third place in the division.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a stretch where we play all good teams,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Are we capable of competing against them or aren&rsquo;t we?&rdquo;Before the break, when the Stars were tied with Detroit for second place in the Norris Division and only five teams had a better record, the answer was an easy, &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;If the players insist on shortcuts, the next answer will be easy, too.SUPER PEST: Brett Hull may buy season tickets to Theatre Max if he thinks it might keep Stars&rsquo; checker Stewart Gavin off the ice.Gavin, who has made a career of being a pain in the butt to players such as Hull, entered into the Theatre Max project as a co-producer with his wife, Phyllis Ellis. Theatre Max is a company dedicated to the promotion and production of Minnesota playwrights.Ellis, an actress and co-founder of a Minnesota theatre, has enlisted Gavin to tend to the business side of the project.&ldquo;Because artists tend to run a company differently than you would a small business, it&rsquo;ll be helpful to have someone whose strength is in business,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Stew will deal with salaries and negotiations and I&rsquo;ll deal with public relations.&rdquo;Gavin was the Stars&rsquo; player rep during last season&rsquo;s strike.NOTEBOOK: If the check hadn&rsquo;t been in the mail, left winger Brian Propp might have been back with the North Stars by now. Propp, assigned to a team in Lugano, Switzerland, had been told to return to Minnesota because the owner of the team was slow to write a check.However, payment arrived on deadline and Propp will stay through the season and then return as late-season insurance.<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 9: Derian Hatcher. D, assigned to Kalamazoo (1HL). Feb. 13: Hatcher recalled from Kalamazoo.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mike Modano, Neal Broten, Dave Gagner, Bobby Smith.LW&ndash;LHf Dahlen, Gaetan Duchesne. Mike McPhee, Stewart Gavin. James Black. Todd Elik.RW&ndash;Mike Craig. Russ Courtnail. Trent Klatt, Shane Churla.LD&ndash;Mark Tinordi. Craig Ludwig, Enrico Ciccone, Richard Malvichuk.RD&ndash;Jim Johnson, Tommy Sjodln. Derian Hatcher. Brad Berry.G&ndash;Jon Casey, Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Somebody forgot to tell players break is over

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>Scratch the veneer off any question regarding the NHL and prepare to find television.The influence of television has touched plans for the entry draft, the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Olympic Dream Team and everything in between.Officials from both the hockey and administrative arms of the league are weighing the merits of convening this year&rsquo;s NHL entry draft, scheduled for June 26 in Quebec City, over two days.The idea came from the league&rsquo;s event marketing department and general managers. Governors are expected to study the proposal this month.By holding the initial two rounds on the night of Friday, June 25, the NHL could deliver the most interesting part of the draft to a prime-time Friday night audience. ESPN, the most likely American broadcaster, is not sched-uled to carry the draft, but a Friday night time slot could change that.&ldquo;There are a number of advertisers who might be interested in being part of the broadcast of the first two rounds in a primetime spot,&rdquo; said Frank Supovitz, the NHL&rsquo;s general manager of event marketing.There&rsquo;s a benefit for the league&rsquo;s general managers, too.&ldquo;The middle rounds, four through eight, are where the bulk of your roster comes from,&rdquo; said Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; GM Gerry Meehan. &ldquo;That chance to re-evaluate overnight could be important.&rdquo;NHL director of broadcasting Skip Prince said an agreement between the NHL, ESPN and ABC to broadcast a minimum of five Sunday post-season games on free television was the first salvo in an attempt to make hockey a television staple.NBC has broadcast the league&rsquo;s All-Star Game for four seasons and CBS showed Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup finals. The ABC exposure marks the league&rsquo;s first meaningful tenure on a non-cable network in 18 years.&ldquo;We would certainly hope to have as least as many games on next year but this doesn&rsquo;t mean we&rsquo;ve won the war,&rdquo; Prince said. &ldquo;It shows we&rsquo;ve entered into a long campaign.&rdquo;ESPN will buy time from ABC and handle the production and the bulk of the advertising sales. Both are owned by media giant Capital Cities. Any increased interest in hockey directly benefits ESPN, the owner of four more years of broadcasting rights for the NHL as well as this year&rsquo;s Stanley Cup finals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01892/6553746-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="958" height="1872"><figcaption class="caption-body">If commissioner Gary Bettman can get better TV times, Joe Sakic and other stars may be in the Olympics.</figcaption></div>ABC has carried Wide World of Sports and the Pro Bowlers&rsquo; Tour for 30 years so a Saturday home for the NHL is out of the question. The demise of the World League of American Football has left a slate of Sunday time slots available.The NHL playoff games will be 1 p.m. contests. That means rescheduling games and all the attendant problems.More daunting is the challenge of accommodating West Coast markets. A 1 p.m., start in New York means a 10 a.m. air time in California. Tape delays mean lower ratings but a 1 p.m. West Coast contest would be broadcast through the supper hour in the east.Tentative plans have ABC broadcasting Game 1 of a Wales conference quarterfinal April 18, Game 4 of a Campbell Conference quarterfinal April 25, Game 1 of a Wales semifinal May 2, Game 4 of a Campbell semifinal May 9 and Game 1 of the Wales final May 16.Television also casts a long shadow in the negotiations between NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the International Olympic Committee.The time difference between North America and Lillehammer, Norway, means the gold medal game begins at 9:15 a.m. (EST) Sunday, Feb. 27. Weekday games are scheduled to start at 9 a.m., 11:30 a.m., or 2 p.m.Bettman&rsquo;s ability to negotiate better time slots for television will be a factor in whether the Dream Team concept is followed through.The critical question is how badly does the IOC want NHL players at the Games? Schedule revisions could be made to change the time of games and the number of days over which hockey is played. The option of moving hockey to the Summer Games in Atlanta in 1996, which Bettman has discussed with IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, has no chance of happening.The results from NBC All-Star Game broadcasts have done little to help the cause of televising hockey. The number of televisions tuned in to this year&rsquo;s game dropped to six per cent from seven last year.The Sports Network, which carried the game in Canada, had an increase of slightly more than 200,000 viewers. &#9632;

f0024-01

Show must go on

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-02597/6553777-1-eng-US/f0024-022.jpg" title="f0024-02" width="379" height="529"></div>As soon as Gary Bettman is finished reading Norm Green&rsquo;s palms, the next thing the new commissioner should study is the NHL rulebook.Unfortunately, this isn&rsquo;t practical, first of all because Bettman&rsquo;s background is in law and marketing, not Egyptian hieroglyphics. Secondly, he&rsquo;s a busy man who doesn&rsquo;t have time to read encyclopedias from cover to cover. By the time Bettman finished, there would be no one to hand the Stanley Cup to the San Jose Sharks for their victory lap.Now, it&rsquo;s understood that a rulebook is not supposed to be light reading. In some places it&rsquo;s bound to be a little too technical for somebody such as Rob Ray. A version with Dale Hunter&rsquo;s picture next to Rule 58 (High Sticks) and Jeff Beukeboom beside Rule 61 (Icing the puck) might not be altogether necessary. Still, a readable form of the rulebook should be available in all penalty boxes, just like criminal law books are in prison libraries.As it stands now, however, a clear understanding of the rules is difficult. There are new ones overlapping old ones, some worded like this:Rule 28c: When coincident major penalties or coincident minor penalties of equal duration, including a major penalty, are imposed against players of both teams, the penalized players shall not all take their places on the penalty benches and such penalized players shall not leave the penalty benches until the first stoppage of play following the expiry of their respective penalties. Immediate substitutions shall be made for an equal amount of major penalties, or coincident penalties of equal duration including a major penalty to each team so penalized, and the penalties of the players for which substitutions have been made shall not be taken into account for the purpose of the delayed penalty rule (Rule 33).Now, assuming that whoever is reading THN has been watching the game for a reasonable length of time, do you understand that one? Or see any reason why the book includes both Rules 50(a) and 50(b)?50 a): A minor penalty shall be imposed on any player or goalkeeper who delays the game by deliberately shooting or batting the puck with his stick outside the playing area.50 b): A minor penalty shall be imposed on any player or goalkeeper who throws or deliberately bats the puck with his hand or stick outside the playing area.There must be an important distinction that makes b) necessary. Perhaps it is in the unwritten portion of the rule that explains why a penalty is automatic when a goalie shoots the puck over the glass, while a referee has discretion when a defenseman does the same thing. There also has to be a good reason why Rule 17-Equa-lizing of Teams has the word &lsquo;deleted&rsquo; under it, but is still in the book.When the description of what constitutes a goal doesn&rsquo;t come until Rule 55, enough convolution has set in to demand a rewrite of the book. The penalties section (Section 4) comes ahead of Playing Rules (Section 6) which may be appropriate when the Chicago Blackhawks play, but logically, is putting the cart before the horse.The law can&rsquo;t be efficiently interpreted by its officers-in this case the referees-unless the letter of it is absolutely clear. And 47c) is anything but clear:A minor or major penalty shall be imposed on a player who charges a goalkeeper while the goalkeeper is in his crease.(Note) A goalkeeper is not &ldquo;fair game&rdquo; just because he is outside the goal crease area. A penalty for interference or charging shall be called in every case where an opposing player makes unnecessary contact with a goalkeeper. &ldquo;I called director of officiating Bryan Lewis and asked him what &ldquo;unnecessary&rdquo; and &ldquo;fair game&rdquo; means. &ldquo;You can give the goalie a light bump,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You cannot hit him as hard as you can a defenseman.&rdquo;The referees, I presume, understand this interpretation. I&rsquo;m not sure the goalies do and am certain the majority of media and fans do not.&ldquo;I cannot argue with you that there are some redundancies and some ambiguity,&rdquo; Lewis said. &ldquo;Through the years, we&rsquo;ve taken out a lot of the &ldquo;wheretofores and whatsoevers&rdquo; out of the book and made it clearer than it was. But some reorganization would be helpful. I wish I had the time to do it.&rdquo;If Lewis doesn&rsquo;t, then the league should appoint somebody who does. For the most part, the officials and players function well with the rulebook the way it is, but the point we&rsquo;re raising here is more than trifling. The definition of an organization is its rules, so that book is where the NHL starts.And that&rsquo;s one of the places a new commissioner should, too. &#9632;

f0024-02

Nice book, but I think I’ll wait for the movie

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>It took four months of constant juggling, but the New Jersey Devils finally found their No. 1 line.When coach Herb Brooks united center Bemie Nicholls with wingers Stephane Richer and John MacLean prior to the all-star break, the trio immediately established the Devils as serious contenders.The key was Nicholls, who returned to the team after the decision was made to remove his gravely-illson, Jake, from life-support in a Long Beach, Calif., hospital. Nicholls resumed playing as the ordeal continued for his family.&ldquo;It was frustrating because when I came here 1 wanted to make a good impression.&rdquo; Nicholls said. &ldquo;That didn&rsquo;t happen for personal reasons. It&rsquo;s good for me to be here and get that off my mind. After that layoff, my hands weren&rsquo;t there.&rdquo;In five games after the formation of the line Feb. 3, it accounted for 13 goals and 28 points. Richer led the way with five goals and 11 points, Nicholls contributed four goals and nine points, while MacLean had four goals and eight points.Nicholls was moved back to the point on the power play with Bruce Driver, while Peter Stastny joined Richer and MacLean up front. The unit sparked a home-and-home sweep (6-4 and 5-2) of the Philadelphia Flyers Feb. 13-14. With six power-play goals in 11 chances in the wins, the Devils were within one point of the New York Rangers for third place in the Patrick Division with three games in hand.Although Nicholls had most of his power-play success via his one-timer from the left circle, the 31-year-old center said he played the point for Los Angeles in 1988-89 when he scored 70 goals (21 on the power play).&ldquo;We seem to be clicking,&rdquo; MacLean said. &ldquo;Bemie is a first-class center. His points have proven that.&rdquo;&ldquo;We&rsquo;re older players and we know how important these games are,&rdquo; Nicholls said. &ldquo;This is the time of year when the older players and leaders have to step up and play.&rdquo;INNER TURMOIL: No one felt the strain of the five-game winless streak (0-4-1) between Jan. 23 and Feb. 3 more than Claude Lemieux, and it showed in his performance.Lemieux scored only five goals in 22 games from Dec. 21 to Feb. 9 and saw his plus-minus drop to minus-10.&ldquo;We all feel pressure, but 1 led the team in scoring last year and I still am this year,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;I have a responsibility. I&rsquo;m not playing the way I can.&rdquo;Herb Brooks noted: &ldquo;When goalscorers aren&rsquo;t scoring, they have a tendency to press. But at least they know they&rsquo;ve done it before.&rdquo;Lemieux responded with a goal and two assists in the sweep of Philadelphia.NOTEBOOK: Randy McKay returned Feb. 13 wearing a knee brace. The Devils were unbeaten in the last nine games (7-0-2) in which McKay was healthy.A battle has developed between Scott Stevens and Eric Lindros. Stevens felt the Philadelphia rookie hit him several times from behind Feb. 14.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 11: Jarrod Skalde, C, assigned to Utica (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Bemte Nicholls. Alexander Semak. Peter Stastny, Dave Barr. Janne Ojanen.LW&ndash;Stephane Richer, Valen Zelepukin. Scott Pellerin. Troy Mallette Tom Chorske.RW&ndash;John MacLean. Claude Lemieux. Bill Guenn, Randy McKay.LD&ndash;Bruce Driver. Scott Stevens, Viacheslav Fetisov. Tommy Albelin.RD&ndash;Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermayer, Alexei Kasatonov, Myles O&rsquo;Connor.G&ndash;Craig Billington. Chris Terreri<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bobby Hotlk. LW, broken left thumb, indefinite. &#9632;

Nicholls feeling at home on top-scoring unit

<div class="byline">Frank Brown</div>When the New York Rangers acquired Ed Olczyk from Winnipeg, it was expected he would provide more offense than the two enforcers going the other way.But it took a goal against the St. Louis Blues Feb. 15 for Olczyk to match the goal total of Kris King (two goals) and Tie Domi (one goal) in Winnipeg.One goal against Ottawa, the New York Islanders and St. Louis was it for Olczyk in 20 games with the Rangers. Those figures did not suit him. Since he had 30 or more goals in five seasons leading to this one, having 13 in 45 games and three with New York were uncharacteristic.&lsquo;I&rsquo;ve been through this before,&rdquo; Olczyk said, &ldquo;but nothing as serious.&rdquo;Olczyk spoke after a 5-2 loss to the Islanders Feb. 13, after he had two glorious chances but ended up without a goal. When you lose 5-2, there are lots of reasons, but Olczyk knew he accounted for two of them. On one chance, a 15-foot one-timer from the slot, was labelled for the comer; goalie Mark Fitzpatrick read the shot through a screen and caught the puck.The other chance was a breakaway early in the third period. Olczyk beat Fitzpatrick with the shot from close range, only to hit the crossbar.Olczyk knows things have to change. There are times when goalscorers get hot and times when their hands get embedded in ice. Olczyk expects a thaw and the Rangers need it to happen sooner rather than later.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy now,&rdquo; said Olczyk, who was obtained Dec. 28. &ldquo;I need a lucky (goal) or a gift one, and the only way you&rsquo;re going to get that is by playing and getting into the open and creating offense. Right now, it&rsquo;s dry, so I&rsquo;ve got to keep plugging away and believe in myself.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: With four assists during a two-game series with the Islanders Feb. 12-13, Mark Messier raised his career total to 762 and passed Bernie Federko who was 15th on the all-time list&hellip;Darren Turcotte, struck on the left foot by a Garry Galley shot before the all-star break in a game against Philadelphia, got hit on the foot again by a Larry Murphy shot Feb. 10 against Pittsburgh and took a few days off.Jeff Beukeboom scored his first goal in 86 games when his shot from the circle glanced into the net off New Jersey&rsquo;s Alexander Semak Feb. 8.Though the Rangers were struggling for goals, Alexei Kovalev was used sparingly on the fourth line.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 13: Craig Duncanson, LW, recalled from Binghamton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mark Messier. Sergei Nemchinov. Doug WeightLW&ndash;Adam Graves, Jan Erixon, Ed Olczyk. Steven King, Craig Duncanson.RW&ndash;Mike Gartner, Tony Amonte. Paul Broten, Alexei Kovalev. Joe Kocur.LD&ndash;Sergei Zubov. Kevin Lowe, Mark Hardy. Peter Andersson.RD&ndash;James Patrick, Jeff Beukeboom. Joe Cirella.G&ndash;Mike Richter, John Vanbiesbrouck.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Phil Bourque, LW, sprained left knee. March 1. Randy Gilhen, C. sprained right knee, March 8 Mike Hurlbut, D, sprained left knee, March 15 Brian Leetch, D. nerve compression in neck/left shoulder. Indefinite Darren Turcotte. C, bruised left foot, day-to-day. Jay Wells, D, sprained right knee, March 29. &#9632;

Olczyk still getting chances but can’t get out of neutral

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>The list of former captains reads like something out of a Who&rsquo;s Who of hockey: Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Dave Poulin, Ron Sutter, Rick Toc-chet.For most of their years, the Philadelphia Flyers have never had their leadership come into question.But since Tocchet was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins a year ago, the Flyers have skated without a captain. Coach Bill Dineen decided to divide the duties up among his son, Kevin, along with center Keith Acton and defenseman Terry Carkner.Many thought coach Dineen would name his son the captain when this season began. Although he stated the family connection was not an issue, the coach decided against making the appointment.Occasionally, lack of discipline on the ice raises questions by the media about the need for a captain. The questions were flying again after the Flyers dropped a pair of games to the New Jersey Devils Feb. 13-14, a damaging set of losses triggered by undisciplined play.Mark Recchi, the team&rsquo;s scoring leader, suggested it&rsquo;s a little late in the season to be making changes now but things might be different by 1993-94.&ldquo;We have to realize why we got swept,&rdquo; Recchi said. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a lack of effort, it was a lack of discipline in all aspects of the game.&ldquo;It would be nice if they were to name somebody as captain but there aren&rsquo;t a lot of games to play. They should have done it a long time ago. But that&rsquo;s the way they felt and obviously next year you&rsquo;re going to have to start with one.&rdquo;The 5-2 loss Feb. 14 pointed out the Flyers&rsquo; occasional tendency to run around and take bad penalties.Eric Lindros, apparently trying to fire up his teammates and the soldout Spectrum, bulled over Devils&rsquo; center Bernie Nicholls just two seconds after the opening faceoff puck was dropped.The subsequent minor penalty, plus two other quick ones, resulted in three Devil goals in four minutes. End of game.A questionable penalty by Kevin Dineen also hurt the Flyers late in the 6-4 setback to the Devils Feb. 13. Dineen had just scored to get the Hyers within two goals when he was called for holding.NOTEBOOK: The Flyers and Montreal Canadiens battled to a rare 0-0 tie at the Spectrum Feb. 11. It was only the sixth scoreless tie in franchise history, the first since December, 1982 (with Pittsburgh) and just the second ever in Philadelphia. The first occurred Oct. 26, 1969 against St. Louis.Eric Lindros returned from a 12-game layoff to score a pair of goals in an 8-1 rout of Ottawa Feb. 9. Lindros was sidelined with a sprained left knee.A Florida newspaper reported Flyers&rsquo; senior vice-president Bob Clarke is one of three finalists for the post of general manager with the Miami expansion team. Clarke spoke with team owner Wayne Huizenga in late January.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 9: NHL nullifies trade of Stephane Beauregard. G. to Winnipeg. Feb. 10: Andre Faust, C. assigned to Hershey (AHL). Feb. 11: Shawn Cronin, D. assigned to Hershey.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Eric Lindros, Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Viacheslav Butsayev, Keith Acton.LW&ndash;Brent Fedyk, Pelle Eklund, Josef Beranek, Doug Evans.RW&ndash;Mark Recchi. Kevin Dineen, Andrei Lomakin, Greg Dave Brown.LD&ndash;Terry Carkner, Garry Galley, Greg Hawgood.RD&ndash;Dimltri Yushkevich. Ric Nattress, Ryan McGill, Gord Hynes.G&ndash;Tommy Soderstrom, Dominic Roussel, Stephane Beauregard<h3>INJURIES</h3>Claude Boivin. LW, tom ligaments in left knee, Indefinite &#9632;

Captain’s presence needed

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>The Pittsburgh Penguins are best known for their high-octane offense but their defensive play also merits headlines.Holding down the goals-against has been, at best, a secondary concern for the Penguins in recent years. But this year, that attitude has changed.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve earned a little bit of praise for the way we&rsquo;ve played defense in the playoffs the past few years,&rdquo; Bob Errey said. &ldquo;Now we&rsquo;re proving we can do it in the regular season.&rdquo;And they were doing it in a most impressive way. The Penguins recorded the first back-to-back shutouts in franchise history by blanking the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers Feb. 8 and Feb. 10. They didn&rsquo;t allow a goal in 187 minutes, 30 seconds.With 184 goals against in 57 games, the Penguins were fourth in the league in that department. They were on pace to allow 271 goals, their best showing since 1973.&ldquo;Defensively, we&rsquo;ve shut down a lot of teams,&rdquo; coach Scott Bowman said.&ldquo;1 was kind of chuckling when I read the other day this was the first time in franchise history we&rsquo;ve had back-to-back shutouts,&rdquo; Ron Francis said. &ldquo;I guess they really didn&rsquo;t care too much about defense back then.&rdquo;Holding down the score became something of a priority when Mario Lemieux was sidelined indefinitely by Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease. Pittsburgh had plenty of offense without Lemieux, but his absence creates a void that cannot be filled.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01754/6553880-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="725" height="1099"><figcaption class="caption-body">The defense got much stronger when goalie Tom Barrasso returned Feb. 10.</figcaption></div>The Penguins got defensive reinforcement Feb. 10 when goalie Tom Barrasso returned after being sidelined nearly a month with chicken pox. His first start was a 3-0 win at Madison Square Garden. He made great stops on Sergei Nemchinov and Tony Amonte, but benefitted from diligent defensive work by the team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not in the condition I was before I was sick,&rdquo; Barrasso said. &ldquo;To have a defensive effort like that in front of me was very encouraging.&rdquo;Nobody argued that point, but there was no need to belabor it, either. It is obvious effective defense requires a team effort and even an off-night like the Penguins&rsquo; 7-4 loss in Buffalo Feb. 14 can not tarnish what they have done defensively of late.&ldquo;A goaltender can do well here and there and keep the goals-against down,&rdquo; Ken Wregget said. &ldquo;But it takes a whole team to accomplish what we&rsquo;ve accomplished in the last little while.&rdquo;SCORING BIG: Martin Straka, the Penguins&rsquo; first-round pick in the 1992 entry draft, got his first NHL goal-a game-winner-in the 30 win over the Rangers.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure he feels relieved and happy about it,&rdquo; said general manager Craig Patrick, who drafted the Czech Republic native in the first round last June.The goal was made possible by winger Shawn McEachern, who swatted the puck away from Rangers&rsquo; defenseman James Patrick and onto Straka&rsquo;s stick. Straka then snapped a shot past New York goalie Mike Richter.But even with that hurdle cleared, it figures to be a while before Straka is a force in Pittsburgh. No one questions his ability or attitude, but playing time has been hard to come by.&ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t have much trouble with the confidence level,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;He needs ice time.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Penguins were waiting for the fallout from a brawl in their 4-1 victory against Chicago Feb. 13. One set of tapes showed Jim Paek and Jay Caufield of the Penguins, both of whom were on the bench, throwing punches at Chicago center Jeremy Roenick. There was a possibility either or both would be suspended. Caufield received a game misconduct from referee Ron Hoggarth, but Paek was not penalized.Defenseman Ulf Samuelsson served an automatic one-game suspension after picking up his third non-stick-related game misconduct during the Chicago game.Mario Lemieux participated in a workout with teammates for nearly an hour Feb. 12. It was the first time he practised with the team since beginning radiation therapy for Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 9: Peter Ahola, D, assigned to Cleveland (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Ron Francis, Dave Tippett, Martin Straka, Mike Stapleton.LW&ndash;Kevin Stevens. Shawn McEachern, Bob Errey, Troy Loney, Jeff Daniels.RW&ndash;Rick Tocchet, Jaromir Jagr, Joe Mullen, Mike Needham. Jay Caufield.LD&ndash;Ulf Samuelsson, Jim Paek, Grant Jennings.RD&ndash;Lany Murphy, Kjell Samuelsson, Paul Stanton.,G&ndash;Tom Barrasso. Ken Wregget<h3>INJURIES</h3>Marta Lemieux. C, Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease, indefinite. &#9632;

f0029-01

Improved defense deserves more credit

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>The longest reigning team captain in the NHL abdicated the honor when the Washington Capitals announced Rod Langway was giving up the &lsquo;C&rsquo; he&rsquo;d worn for 725 games.Langway passed the honor to fellow defenseman Kevin Hatcher.&ldquo;I hope I&rsquo;m not disappointing you that I&rsquo;m not retiring,&rdquo; Langway joked at a news conference. &ldquo;It is a good opportunity for myself and a great opportunity for Kevin Hatcher. I&rsquo;ve worn it 10 years and it is time. And again, it is my decision. There was no pressure from anyone in the organization to take it off.&rdquo;Three months away from his 36th birthday, Langway is still very much a player for the Capitals, though his playing time is likely to be sporadic the rest of this season.And he is still hoping there will be a next season. But if there isn&rsquo;t one, he has expressed a desire to become an assistant coach with the team.Coach Terry Murray isn&rsquo;t waiting until next year for that part of the equation to come true. Murray plans to use Langway as a unofficial assistant this year, which includes going behind the bench in games he does not dress.NHL rules allow for one non-uni-formed player to be behind the bench as an assistant coach.Langway was victorious in his assistant coaching debut. He was behind the bench when the Capitals beat the Los Angeles Kings 10-3 Feb. 13.DOUBLE TROUBLE: The Capitals twice tied the franchise record for goals in a road game by scoring 10 times in two straight road contests.Washington beat the St. Louis Blues 10-6 Feb. 11 and the Los Angeles Kings 10-3 Feb. 13.The Capitals had never scored 10 or more goals in back-to-back games. The previous team record was 17 in back-to-back wins over Colorado (71) and Philadelphia (10-4) in November, 1981.This season, 14 is the most the team had in back-to-back games-a 62 win over New Jersey followed by an 8-6 win over Winnipeg.Twice, early in their existence, teams beat the Capitals with totals of 19 goals in consecutive games.NOTEBOOK: Indications are the Capitals have mentioned to several teams that forward Bobby Carpenter is available. Carpenter did not play the first three games of the team&rsquo;s post-all-star-break road trip&hellip;Goalie Don Beaupre was closing in on Al Jensen&rsquo;s team record for career wins (94). Beaupre had 92 as of Feb. 13.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mike Ridley. Michal Pivonka. Dale Hunte:, Steve Konowalchuk. Bobby Carpenter.LW&ndash;Kelly Miller, Dimitri Khristich, Keith Jones, Todd Krygier.RW&ndash;Reggte Savage, Peter Bondra. Pat Elynuik, Alan May, Paul MacDer-mid.LD&ndash;Ai lafrate, Calle Johansson, Pad Cavaflinl, Rod Langway.RD&ndash;Kevm Hatcher. Sylvain Cote, Jason Woolley, Shawn Anderson.G&ndash;Don Beaupre, Jim Hrivnak.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Randy Burridge, LW. right knee surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Langway turns in captaincy to assist Murray

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01850/6553987-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01768/6553980-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="3059" height="2961"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01857/6553973-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="3074" height="3522"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01816/6553966-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="3075" height="1281"></div><h2>NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS</h2><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02596/6553959-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="3072" height="1530"></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<h2>NOTE</h2>Unofficial game summaries provided by National Hockey League; (shots on goal/plus-minus); SA-shots against; GA-goals against; ENG-empty-net goals; DEC-decision, charged to goaltenders-of-record when deciding goal is scored.<h2>MONDAY, FEB. 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01772/6554158-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="590" height="3078"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02539/6554151-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="590" height="1328"></div><h2>TUESDAY, FEB. 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03441/6554144-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="590" height="2074"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04335/6554137-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="596" height="3486"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05280/6554130-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="586" height="3494"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06246/6554123-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="592" height="748"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, FEB. 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07225/6554116-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="594" height="2652"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01693/6554109-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="590" height="1044"></div><h2>THURSDAY, FEB. 11</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02488/6554102-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="592" height="2344"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03377/6554095-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="589" height="3476"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04311/6554088-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="584" height="1778"></div><h2>FRIDAY, FEB. 12</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05279/6554081-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="587" height="1600"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06244/6554074-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="581" height="3471"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07217/6554067-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="585" height="1220"></div><h2>SATURDAY, FEB. 13</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-08181/6554060-1-eng-US/f0037-082.jpg" title="f0037-08" width="585" height="2156"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01759/6554053-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="598" height="3495"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02557/6554046-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="596" height="3492"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03448/6554039-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="596" height="1252"></div><h2>SUNDAY, FEB. 14</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04349/6554032-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="592" height="2148"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05266/6554025-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="600" height="3494"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06225/6554018-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="600" height="3498"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01724/6554189-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0039-01

SCOREBOARD

David Pooler plays hockey the old-fashioned way-on natural ice with toewarmers, headbands and knit gloves.The 11-year-old Saskatoon resident is a left winger for the atom Royal I Raiders and had 11 goals and 23 points in 24 games this season. He is 4-foot-9 and 73 pounds.David is a Grade 5 student at Silver-wood Heights school in Saskatoon.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02490/6554220-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="416" height="500"><figcaption class="caption-body">David Pooler</figcaption></div>You or someone you know can be a part of The Hockey News Minor Hockey Showcase. Send a photograph (non-returnable), along with biographical information (age, height, weight, team, statistics, coach&rsquo;s name, school and grade, favorite NHL team and player) to The Hockey News, attention: 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;

f0039-02

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01430/6554258-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01360/6554251-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="1862" height="3524"></div> &#9632;

f0040-01

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0043-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01384/6554320-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0043-01

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Dave Emlnlan</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01290/6554372-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fort Wayne&rsquo;s Scott Gruhl, the elder statesman of the IHL, is one of many career minor-leaguers whose future is uncertain.</figcaption></div>It&rsquo;s probably fitting in a year when Bruce Boudreau can&rsquo;t be found in Cincinnati or Springfield or Fort Wayne, the future of the minor-league dinosaur is raised.The thirtysomething collection of travelling nomads-with 17-year pro veteran Boudreau as poster boy-will run into a series of &lsquo;No Vacancy&rsquo; signs on prime minor-league affiliates next autumn if NHL teams continue a trend of roster-cutting measures.Before Boudreau retired last year, he made a living going from one club to the next filling a role of hired gun-a frequent scorer at the minor-league level. But he was a step too slow, an inch too small or a year too old to be a prospect. Boudreau. 38. played games for 12 teams in four leagues.With Mil. teams planning to trim budgets by reducing roster spots, the future of these hired guns on prime farm clubs is in jeopardy. A trend of shared affiliations will begin next season and continue through the decade.This will result in a reduced number of affiliate clubs and an increased number of pendent ones. High-scoring minor-league veterans such as Rochester&rsquo;s Jody Gage, Cleveland&rsquo;s Dave Michayluk or Fort Wayne&rsquo;s Scott Gruhl may still be around, they just won&rsquo;t be teamed with prospects. They&rsquo;ll play on a team with their peers.&ldquo;Salaries have tripled in the NHL the last three years.&rdquo; Hartford Whalers&rsquo; president Emile Francis said. &ldquo;NHL teams are going to split farm teams. Clubs aren&rsquo;t going to sign 18 minor-league guys anymore. The big-name guys will get the money and the guys in the minors are going to get hurt. There will be more independent teams and salaries will be lower.&rdquo;Gruhl recently became the International League&rsquo;s all-time leading goal-scorer and believes the days of 10-year minor-league veterans are over. After scoring his 552nd career goal, Gruhl said only Michayluk, who had 470 goals, has a chance of catching him. The top minor leagues will be void of veterans in favor of a constant change of youth, Gruhl said. But Michayluk doesn&rsquo;t agree.&ldquo;With the NHL cutting down on contract players, (minor-league) teams are going to need free agents,&rdquo; said the 12th-year pro who has played 14 NHL games. &ldquo;Guys will be able to play-maybe not until they are 30-but the better ones will get into their late 20s. They&rsquo;ll get signed by the independents instead of a guy out of junior or college.&rdquo;Gage, a 33-year-old 14-year pro who has played 68 NHL games supplies this view: &ldquo;It looks like the 1HL will be getting the older players because the American League is heading toward being a developmental league. Salaries are up in the NHL and the money has to come from somewhere. Everything trickles down. Players with AHL teams are going to get two or three-year (NHL) contracts, and that&rsquo;s it.&rdquo;A recent trend of veteran movement shows the AHL has become younger, while the IHL has become older.&ldquo;A lot of the AHL&rsquo;s old free agent guys are jumping over to the IHL now,&rdquo; said Bob Plager, director of player personnel for the St. Louis Blues. &ldquo;If the older guys are good, honest players who want to work hard-guys who don&rsquo;t cheat-there will be room for them.&rdquo;The bottom line will likely be a significantly increased pool of quality minor-league free agents available.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the older guys, the career guys, will become extinct,&rdquo; said Jack Ferreira, the former San Jose Sharks&rsquo; general manager who&rsquo;s now a scout for Montreal. &ldquo;I see NHL teams cutting back to about 35 contracts. But I think the older guys will still have a chance to play somewhere-but just not at the same salary.&rdquo;A top-calibre minor-league veteran commands a salary of $45,000 or $50,000 per season. Some get as much as $70,000. Affiliate minorleague clubs pay a pre-arranged affiliation fee to NHL parents, averaging about $500,000. NHL teams then pay the player&rsquo;s minor-league salary. Free agents are paid by the minor-league team.Virtually every NHL team will now have 35 to 40 players under contract at any point in time, down significantly from the 50 to 70 range of the early 1980s. With shared affiliations, one of the AHL or IHL will become the developmental league and the other the independent league and they&rsquo;ll be viewed on different planes.The IHL made significant mandates at its governors meeting in February. The league passed a rule by a 10-2 vote-sources say independents San Diego and Milwaukee voted no-to require teams to have at least six players with three or fewer seasons of pro experience.IHL sources say owners are studying a salary cap system. One such proposal would limit independent teams to a yearly $750,000 salary cap. Another proposal is to allow independent teams a certain number of &lsquo;franchise&rsquo; players who could be signed at any price.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like the new (player experience) rule at all,&rdquo; said San Diego Gulls&rsquo; owner Fred Comrie, whose powerhouse club is stocked with more than 15 ex-NHLers, some in their 30&rsquo;s. &ldquo;I think the NHL was bringing down a lot of heat because of our team and our league reacted to it. I feel the NHL has too much influence on the IHL.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02173/6554365-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="454" height="614"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rochester&rsquo;s Jody Gage</figcaption></div>The IHL, by studying a salary cap, is showing the NHL clubs it can provide a level field where prospects can develop.&ldquo;We have to do it or we will lose the NHL, they&rsquo;ll pull out,&rdquo; Peoria Rivermen owner Bruce Saurs said. &ldquo;San Diego and Milwaukee are opposed, of course, and they want $2 million salary caps. This is not an effort to kill independents. But a team like San Diego may not be able to go out and again stock itself with 18 ex-NHLers.&rdquo;The dominance of the Gulls this season at least underscored the problem of mixing independents-whose goal is to win-with NHL farm teams that are built to develop prospects.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tough situation, although you can develop by putting your kids against experienced players and by winning,&rdquo; Francis said.With NHL affiliations made even more scarce, will there be a battle over affiliations brewing between the IHL and AHL?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s possible,&rdquo; Ferreira said. &ldquo;But there are other things to consider. I liked Kansas City (San Jose&rsquo;s farm team in the IHL) because it was minor-league hockey in a major-league atmosphere. It excited our players, made them want to get to the NHL so they could have more of the same.&rdquo;<h2>CHARTING PLAYERS&rsquo; LONGEVITY</h2>Listed below are the active regular-season games-played leaders in the American and International Leagues.<h3>AHL</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-03120/6554358-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg" title="f0044-03" width="704" height="282"></div><h3>IHL</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-0489/6554351-1-eng-US/f0044-042.jpg" title="f0044-04" width="699" height="283"></div> &#9632;

f0044-01

ENDANGERED SPECIES

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>Tony Hrkac has been on top of his game for the Indianapolis Ice, so it was no surprise he wound up on top of the International League scoring list.The former center for the St. Louis Blues, Quebec Nordiques, San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks has already surpassed his best numbers ever as a pro in his first full season in the minors.Hrkac, 26, ended San Diego center Hubie McDonough&rsquo;s 12-week reign atop the league&rsquo;s scoring list-McDonough has been on NHL recall-and became the IHL&rsquo;s center of attention Jan. 25.The Thunder Bay, Ont., native had 31 goals and 78 points in 47 games. That pace put him in position to challenge franchise records for most goals (55), assists (80) and points (135) in a season, set by Ron Handy in 1986-87. Hrkac was on pace for 53 goals, 81 assists and 134 points.&ldquo;I like playing hockey-this is my job,&rdquo; said Hrkac. &ldquo;Wherever I play, my reputation is on the line. 1 owe it to myself to do my best.&rdquo;The goal Hrkac really wants, though, is to score a recall with the Blackhawks. He hopes his numbers add up to a second chance either with Chicago or an expansion team. He has 297 NHL games to his credit.&ldquo;It gets confusing sometimes as to why I&rsquo;m in the minors, but you have to keep going,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Expansion is coming and I&rsquo;m in my option year.&rdquo;He is adding impressive minor-league credentials to what became quite a resume after St. Louis drafted him in the second round in 1984. The 5-foot-11, 170-pounder won the NCAA&rsquo;s Hobey Baker Trophy in 1987 when he had 46 goals and 125 points in 48 games for the University of North Dakota.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a young team and I&rsquo;m doing what I can to help,&rdquo; Hrkac said. &ldquo;If you subtracted me from the lineup, I think we have something like 11 player games of NHL experience.&rdquo;NHL VISITS: IHL markets hosted two more NHL neutral-site games Feb. 8, with the St. Louis Blues beating the Hartford Whalers 3-1 at Peoria&rsquo;s Carver Arena and the Pittsburgh Penguins shutting out the Boston Bruins 4-0 at the Omni in Atlanta.Attendance in Peoria was 9,013, which was 96.7 per cent capacity. The game was previously scheduled for Dec. 29 in Birmingham. Attendance in Atlanta was 12,572, which was 78.6 per cent capacity.Future games at IHL sites include: Philadelphia Flyers versus Calgary Flames in Cincinnati Feb. 16, Detroit Red Wings versus Philadelphia in Cleveland Feb. 22, Washington Capitals versus Detroit in Milwaukee March 16 and Pittsburgh versus Edmonton Oilers in Cleveland March 21.I-OPENERS: There&rsquo;s growing speculation the Calgary Flames will move their farm club from Salt Lake to Saint John, N.B., when their working agreement with Salt Lake is over after this season&hellip;The Fort Wayne Komets&rsquo; 6-2 win at Peoria over the Rivermen Feb. 6 completed a season sweep by the Komets in Peoria, the first time that has happened in the nine years the teams have played each other.Fort Wayne&rsquo;s Colin Chin was player of week for the period ending Feb. 7 with six goals and eight points in three games. Kansas City goalie Wade Flaherty was player of the month for January with an 8-3-1 record and 2.48 goals-against average.Free-agent goalie Peter Ing. in a contract dispute with the Edmonton Oilers, made his debut with the San Diego Gulls Feb. 6 and won 4-2 over the Phoenix Roadrunners. &#9632;

Hrkac rises to top of class

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>Bruce Coles celebrated Valentine&rsquo;s Day by giving a lucky Johnstown fan the shirt off his back to benefit charity.The Johnstown right winger, in co-operation with the Chiefs&rsquo; Fan Club, raffled off his East Coast League All-Star Game jersey to help raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.Coles&rsquo; mother, Janice, and sisters, Laura and Kim. all suffer from diabetes. Janice Coles has been blinded by the disease.&ldquo;This is a charity that touches close to home for me,&rdquo; said the 24-year-old Montreal native, who was drafted in the second round of the 1990 supplemental draft by the Montreal Canadiens. &ldquo;I was trying to think of ways I could help the community on the way back from Wheeling (the site of the All-Star Game).&ldquo;My mom has been ill for so long (10 years). We&rsquo;re really close. My thoughts are with her a lot. It&rsquo;s a distraction I have to deal with.&rdquo; The raffle netted more than $500. Tickets for the jersey were sold for $1 each and the Johnstown winger picked the winning ticket and made the presentation during the Greensboro-Johnstown game Feb. 14.&ldquo;The sport has given so much to me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Anybody will tell you that you take so much out of the pot. sometimes you have to start putting some back in. This is my little contribution.&rdquo;Coles has played well for the Chiefs since being released by the Canadian national team earlier this season. He had 22 goals and 39 points in 19 games.He led the national team in scoring with seven goals and 24 points in 22 games, but was caught in a numbers game.&ldquo;I was the only guy left on a monthly contract, so I was the first to go when the NHL contract players joined the squad,&rdquo; he said.MIRACLE ON ICE: Nashville&rsquo;s Trevor Jobe broke the ECHL&rsquo;s single-game point-scoring record against Roanoke Valley Feb. 6 at Vinton, Va.Jobe scored four goals and added six assists in a 10-6 victory over the Rampage. His 10-point performance beat the mark set by Tom Bissett of Hampton Roads, who scored six goals and added three assists against Greensboro Nov. 11, 1989.Jobe, who is the the league&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer, had 76 goals and 136 points in 50 games. He was on pace to finish with 94 goals and 168 points.&ldquo;If anyone is playing themselves into the NHL from our league, he&rsquo;d have to be the guy,&rdquo; said Monarchs&rsquo; coach Jeff Brubaker. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know of many guys who could come down from the other leagues (International or American League) and do as well as he has. Some players take a little longer to mature and find themselves.&rdquo;TOUGH TICKET: Raleigh extended its franchise-record home sellout streak to eight games at 5,700-seat Dorton Arena, giving the IceCaps 14 sellouts this season.Tickets for Toledo&rsquo;s game at Dayton Feb. 5 were gone more than 24 hours before the game, the earliest sellout in Bombers&rsquo; history.ON THE MOVE: Goaltender Olie Sundstrom is on the move again.Sundstrom was traded by the Erie Panthers to the Columbus Chill Jan. 31 after veteran Mike Gilmore returned from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee.The 24-year-old Sundstrom began the season with Nashville and also spent time in Toledo. &#9632;

Off-ice charity work strikes home for Coles

Turner Stevenson is spending his first professional hockey season about as far away from home as he can getThe Fredericton Canadien right winger lives about 2,300 miles away in Prince George. B.C. That makes for some costly phone bills, but his calls home have been full of good news.After 54 games he Ohas many goals (20) this season as he had in his final junior season with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western League.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01235/6554451-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="376" height="510"><figcaption class="caption-body">Turner Stevenson</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The key is to work hard every night,&rdquo; Stevenson said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not an easy adjustment but once you get into it, it&rsquo;s the same game.&rdquo;His season highlight was getting called up to Montreal for one game. He started on a line with Denis Savard and Kirk Muller.&ldquo;I got so caught up in the game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Especially getting to play with players like that.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0045-01

Stevenson goes extra mile

<div class="byline">By Vance Oliver</div>Bob Loucks, one of the winningest coaches in Western League history, was fired from his post with the Lethbridge Hurricanes.The Hurricanes had dropped to sixth place in the East Division with a 23-27-3 record when Loucks was dismissed Feb. 11.He&rsquo;s the third coaching casualty of the season. Brad Tippett and Duane Sutter were fired by Regina and Medicine Hat, respectively.&ldquo;It is with sincere regret the club has made this decision,&rdquo; said Hurricanes&rsquo; general manager Bob Bartlett, who takes over as coach. &ldquo;Bob has been an important force in the development and success of this team the past 31/2 seasons. However, with the club&rsquo;s performance and lack of enthusiasm, we felt changes were necessary.&rdquo;Loucks&rsquo; 158-96-15 mark and.615 winning percentage during three-plus seasons in Lethbridge is 10th best in league history among men who have coached two or more seasons.He captured consecutive East Division titles his first two seasons. Last year, the team finished fourth and was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.&ldquo;The Hurricanes have been successful the 31/2 years I&rsquo;ve been here,&rdquo; Loucks said. &ldquo;Unfortunately, we haven&rsquo;t won a Memorial Cup. That&rsquo;s what they&rsquo;re looking for here and rightfully so. That&rsquo;s why you&rsquo;re in the business.&rdquo;HIGH FLYERS: The Tacoma Rockets have flown out of the WHL&rsquo;s stratosphere.The second-year Rockets established a WHL record for consecutive wins at home by whipping the Victoria Cougars 8-4 at the Tacoma Dome Feb. 9. The 23-game home-ice winning streak eclipses the 22-game mark established by the Medicine Hat Tigers in 1984-85.The Canadian Hockey League record belongs to Sault Ste. Marie, which went 33-0-0 at home in 1984-85. If the Rockets win the rest of their games, they will fall one short of that record.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a credit to (coach) Marcel (Comeau) and (assistant coach) Donnie (Clark) to get those guys prepared every night,&rdquo; Rockets&rsquo; GM-president Bruce Hamilton said. &ldquo;We went through a streak in December where we played so many games in a row at home, it would have been easy to get lackadaisical.&rdquo;The Rockets were embroiled in a battle for first place in the West Division with the Portland Winter Hawks. Tacoma had a 36-18-0 mark and led the Winter Hawks by five points.The divisional title will likely be settled in head-to-head competition, since the Rockets and Winter Hawks meet five more times this season, including twice at the Tacoma Dome.VAN IMPE LIMPS: The expansion Red Deer Rebels will have to secure a playoff spot without all-star defenseman Darren Van Impe.Van Impe tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee Feb. 6 against the Medicine Hat Tigers. He led WHL defensemen in scoring with 23 goals and 70 points in 53 games.&ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t as extensive as first thought,&rdquo; Rebels&rsquo; GM Wayne Simpson said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be skating, according to doctors, (in early March).&rdquo;The injury to Van Impe, however, could affect Red Deer&rsquo;s playoff hopes.Although the Rebels surpassed Tacoma&rsquo;s mark for most victories by an expansion team in their first season (24), they were in a tight playoff race.They were fifth in the East Division with a 25-27-2 record, three points ahead of the Lethbridge Hurricanes and seven ahead of the Medicine Hat Tigers. The top seven teams qualify for the playoffs. &#9632;

Loucks takes fall for Hurricanes’ sub-par season

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>Major junior hockey will remm to Toronto&rsquo;s Maple Leaf Gardens for the 1994-95 season following a five-year absence.Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; star Wayne Gretzky will be principal owner of the expansion team, that will likely be called the Jr. Maple Leafs and wear the uniform colors of the NHL Leafs.The Toronto Marlboros were sold by the late Harold Ballard in 1989 and moved to Hamilton. The team relocated to Guelph in 1991.A formal application will be made to the Ontario League. The league&rsquo;s last expansion team, the Detroit Jr. Red Wings, paid a $600,000 entry fee in 1990.OHL commissioner Dave Branch doesn&rsquo;t expect a problem with the application being approved by the board of governors.&ldquo;The league has had several discussions with Mr. Gretzky over a two-year period and the league governors have expressed to him they would welcome an opportunity to have him as a part of our league as an owner,&rdquo; Branch said.Gretzky is a former co-owner of the Belleville Bulls and recently sold the Quebec League&rsquo;s Hull Olympiques.DREVENY OUT: Sudbury Wolves&rsquo; overage goalie Greg Dreveny might miss the remainder of the season after an ultrasound test showed a spot in his testicles.Dreveny, 20, was struck by a shot during a Jan. 29 game against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and spent two days in a Sudbury hospital when inflammation occurred.Wolves&rsquo; general manager Sam McMaster said doctors are hoping it&rsquo;s only a blood clot, but the worse-case scenario-a cancerous tumor-had not been ruled out.McMaster said Dreveny was told to rest and then return for another ultrasound Feb. 18.&ldquo;There has been no diagnosis,&rdquo; McMaster said. &ldquo;If it ends up the worse-case scenario, it&rsquo;s not life threatening. If it is a tumor, it&rsquo;s in a part of the body that&rsquo;s common for that sort of thing. That hasn&rsquo;t been quoted by doctors, but it is a fact of life.&rdquo;Dreveny, traded to Sudbury at the start of this season by the Belleville Bulls, had a 21-11-2 record. He played in 61 games last season, the most by any OHL goalie. He was the Bulls&rsquo; second-round pick in the 1989 draft.&ldquo;Greg is taking it well right now,&rdquo; McMaster said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s very positive that it&rsquo;s not going to affect his future.&rdquo;STREAK OVER: Owen Sound Platers&rsquo; left winger Andrew Brunette saw his 47-game points scoring streak end Feb. 4 in a 5-1 loss to the Niagara Falls Thunder.The OHL scoring leader was eight games short of the league record set by Cornwall&rsquo;s Doug Gilmour in 1982-83. The Canadian Hockey League mark is 62 games, set by Mario Lemieux with the QMJHL&rsquo;s Laval Voisins in 1983-84.Brunette&rsquo;s streak put him in a fifth-place tie on the CHL list with Jock Callander and Wally Schreiber, both with the Western League&rsquo;s Regina Pats in 1981-82.LINDROS INJURED: Kingston Fronte-nacs&rsquo; right winger Brett Lindros, the second player taken in the 1992 OHL midget draft, underwent season-ending knee surgery Feb. 10 after being tripped into a goalpost in late January.&ldquo;It won&rsquo;t affect his future, but it will be six months until he goes full speed,&rdquo; Frontenacs&rsquo; coach-GM Dave Allison said. &ldquo;He had made a heckuva impact.&rdquo;Lindros had 11 goals, 22 points and 162 penalty minutes in 31 games this season. &#9632;

Gretzky heads team in Toronto

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>An incident involving the Laval Titan and Sherbrooke Faucons has prompted the Quebec League to establish a policy calling for heavy penalties for verbal taunting.In a pair of games Jan. 4 and 5, Faucons&rsquo; right winger Stephane Larocque was subjected to verbal taunts from the Laval bench. Larocque is the son of former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; goalie Michel (Bunny) Larocque. who died last summer after a battle with cancer. At the time of his death, Larocque was vice-president of the Quebec League.&ldquo;Apparently the (Laval) coach (Robert Hartley) said something about having someone fight with Stephane and put him in the same place where his dad is,&rdquo; said Sherbrooke coach Guy Chouinard. &ldquo;We were playing back-to-back games and the next night, one of the Laval players said something to Stephane about his dad again. I didn&rsquo;t hear it, but Stephane heard it and some of the players heard it.&rdquo;Near the end of the game, Larocque tried to go over the boards from the Sherbrooke bench to get at a Laval player.Larocque said the incident has upset his mother more than it has him.&ldquo;I felt a great frustration when I heard (the taunts),&rdquo; Larocque said. &ldquo;These are things that don&rsquo;t need to be said. They&rsquo;re stupidities and demonstrate a lack of class.&rdquo;Laval&rsquo;s Hartley doesn&rsquo;t deny something was said to Larocque about his father, but wouldn&rsquo;t say who said it or how it started.&ldquo;Lots of things are said during a game,&rdquo; Hartley said. &ldquo;Unfortunately, something was said to Stephane from our bench about his father. It wasn&rsquo;t premeditated, it was just something said in the heat of the game. If we reported everything that&rsquo;s said on the ice during a game, journalists wouldn&rsquo;t stop writing about it.&ldquo;We apologized publicly, what else do you want us to do? We have to keep playing.&rdquo;The incident isn&rsquo;t the only time Larocque has been taunted with talk about his father this season. In another game against Shawinigan, a player allegedly made similar statements. Referee Jean-Claude Caisse mentioned the incident in the game report he sent to the league. League president Gilles Courteau plans to put a stop to the taunting.&ldquo;I was very surprised,&rdquo; Courteau said. &ldquo;I feel bad for the kid and his mother. I had a chance to talk to him and explain the situation and also talked to his mother.&rdquo;Courteau also held a meeting of the league&rsquo;s board of governors to discuss the situation.&ldquo;We told our referees if they hear anything like that they have the power to throw the player, coach, trainer or whoever it may be out of the game with a gross misconduct,&rdquo; Courteau said. &ldquo;The case will then go to our vice-president (Maurice Filion) for disciplinary action.&rdquo;60-GOAL CLUB: Victoriaville right winger Claude Savoie became the first player to hit the 60-goal plateau during a 6-2 win over Hull Feb. 9. Savoie had 60 goals and 112 points in 52 games&hellip;St-Jean captain Jason Downey turned in his &lsquo;C&rsquo; Feb. 5 and demanded a trade two days later.Sherbrooke recorded its 10th straight home victory Feb. 9 with a 3-2 win over College Francais. The Faucons hadn&rsquo;t been beaten at the Palais des Sports since a 2-1 loss to St-Hyacinthe Dec. 6&hellip;Laval had a 13-6-0 record in. games captain Martin Lapointe has played since being returned from Detroit. &#9632;

League to crack down on tasteless taunting

Concentration has always been one of Laval Titan defenseman Benoit Larose&rsquo;s strong suits.He was the Quebec League&rsquo;s scholastic player of the year in 1990-91, playing 68 games for the Titan and maintaining an 85 per cent average in Grade 11. He improved that to 89 per cent last year but wasn&rsquo;t eligible to win the award in back-to-back seasons.&ldquo;That just takes discipline and focus,&rdquo; the Lafontaine. Que. native said. &ldquo;Hockey has its place and time and when it&rsquo;s time for school you concentrate on that.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01232/6554578-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="377" height="521"><figcaption class="caption-body">Benoit Larose</figcaption></div>Larose, 19, has graduated from high school and is now focusing solely on hockey. The 6-foot-1, 209-pound defenseman was the league&rsquo;s defensive player of the month in September, October and January and played in the Canadian Hockey League All-Star Game.Central Scouting rated Larose 209th in its mid-tenn ranking. &#9632;

f0046-01

Larose focusing on defense

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>The memory is vivid: Northern Michigan coach Rick Comley, standing outside the visitors&rsquo; dressing room at the Dane County Coliseum, staring straight ahead, his eyes filled with disgust, embarrassment and shock.It was the second weekend of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association season and Comley had just seen his team lose 9-2 and 11-0 to the Wisconsin Badgers.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re just not a very good hockey team right now,&rdquo; he said after the worst-ever series loss in school history.Four months later, Comley still has concerns about his team, but they are not offered in shellshocked tones. Northern Michigan is one of the most improved teams in the WCHA.The Wildcats went on an 11-6-1 streak after starting the season 1-7-2. They were tied with three teams-Denver, Michigan Tech and St. Cloud State-for fourth place entering the last four weeks of the regular season.Comley&rsquo;s team has a good opportunity to improve its position. The Wildcats hosted second-place Wisconsin Feb. 12-13, have a home-and-home duel with Tech, travel to Denver, then finish at home with front-running Min-nesota-Duluth.&ldquo;Home ice for the playoffs (which means finishing among the top five teams) is our goal,&rdquo; Comley said. &ldquo;Third would be great. Home ice and making it to (the WCHA Final Five) would be a great accomplishment.&rdquo;The Wildcats were 8-1-2 at their Lake view Arena home, which has been filled to nearcapacity for each game. Over the past six seasons, NMU is 92-17-10 at home.Northern Michigan is a classic example of how patience and persistence can turn things around. The Wildcats are two years removed from winning a national championship, but they lost five 20-goal scorers this year, including winger Jim Hiller, who passed up his senior year to turn professional.Stable goaltending from Corwin Saurdiff and rookie Paul Taylor has helped. And the return of forwards Joe Frederick and Mike Harding has also been a big plus.BATTLE FOR NO. 2: There are those around the WCHA who have suggested that finishing second during the regular season might turn out to be a better deal than winning the MacNaughton Cup as regular-season champs.Why? Because the new playoff format includes Alaska-Anchorage (13-11-4) as the automatic 10th playoff seed.The Seawolves, who will become a full-fledged WCHA member next season, will play the league champions in the first round of the best-of-three playoffs. The runners-up will draw last-place Colorado College (6-18-0).&ldquo;I know the first-place team is going to play a good Anchorage team that will have a decent record and will have the incentive of trying to. make a good impression on a new league,&rdquo; said Wisconsin coach Jeff Sauer. &ldquo;It is not perfect.&rdquo;Minnesota-Duluth was first after 26 games with a 17-8-1 record. The Bulldogs had a four-point lead on Wisconsin but the Badgers had two games in hand.&ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t know many (Knute) Rockne speeches to tell guys to go out there and finish second,&rdquo; said Minnesota-Duluth coach Mike Sertich.ON THE ROAD: By virtue of its 6-2-0 record on a recent stretch of eight straight road games, Denver became one of four WCHA teams to sport a winning mark (8-7-0) away from home this season. The others were Wisconsin (9-4-1), Minnesota-Duluth (8-7-1) and St. Cloud State (7-6-0). &#9632;

Wildcats reverse fortunes

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggle</div>Sometimes it pays to get a jump on the opposition.When Mark Kaufmann was a 17-year-old rookie in the B.C. Junior League, many U.S. college coaches wanted him to play another year of junior to mature and hone his skills.But not Yale coach Tim Taylor. He knew Kaufmann had the makings of a great college player and convinced him to come to Yale after one year in the BCJHL.&ldquo;Mark scored over 100 points as a 17-year-old in a league with a lot of older players and those are the kinds of players we like to get at Yale,&rdquo; Taylor said. &ldquo;We knew Mark was very talented and we knew he had to have determination to play as a rookie in an older league.&rdquo;Kaufmann, a native of West Vancouver, is now one of the top centers in college hockey. He moved into first place in the Eastern College Athletic Conference scoring race with eight points in a sweep of Cornell and Colgate Feb. 56. He had 13 goals and 31 points in 14 games.He also had 44 points overall and was on pace to break Yale&rsquo;s single-season scoring record of 55 points, set by Randy Wood in the 1985-86 season.&ldquo;Mark is obviously one of the premier offensive players in the country right now, but I also feel he&rsquo;s a tremendous all-around player,&rdquo; Taylor said. &ldquo;He has made himself better in all areas of the game.&ldquo;In his first year of junior, he played on a line with two guys who were good goal-scorers and his strength was dishing off the puck,&rdquo; Taylor said. &ldquo;Here at Yale, he has made himself into a great goal-scorer and he hasn&rsquo;t lost his knack of making good passes.&rdquo;Kaufmann has not been drafted by an NHL team. His size-5-foot-9, 165 pounds-is likely the main reason.&ldquo;The smaller guys don&rsquo;t get the opportunities as readily as the guy who&rsquo;s 6-foot-4 and weighs 220 pounds,&rdquo; Taylor said. &ldquo;If Mark gets the opportunity, he&rsquo;ll open some eyes and I&rsquo;m sure he&rsquo;ll succeed. He can play at the professional level if he&rsquo;s given the opportunity.&rdquo;POLITICALLY CORRECT: Politics and Harvard seem to go hand-in-hand.When the Crimson defeated Boston University 4-2 in the championship of the annual Beanpot Tournament Feb. 8, it marked the fourth straight time Harvard has won the title in the same year a new president was inaugurated.Harvard has commemorated the inaugurations of Jimmy Carter (1977), Ronald Reagan (1981), George Bush (1989) and Bill Clinton with Beanpot championships.IN THE DOG HOUSE: Vermont senior Joe McCarthy will probably find someone else to exercise his dog from now on. McCarthy tripped while running with his dog, broke a bone in his foot and is out for the season.The Catamounts have been hit hard by injuries. Junior forward Nick Perreault is out for the rest of the year with a separated shoulder; freshman forward Dale Patterson is side-lined with a cracked rib and rookie forward Phil Eboli sustained a contusion on his shoulder and is out until mid-February.BACK IN ACTION: The league-leading Harvard Crimson got even better when sophomore Steve Martins returned to the lineup.Martins missed 14 of 17 games overall with various minor injuries. He made a triumphant return by scoring three goals in his first two games back-a 6-3 loss to Rensselaer Feb. 5 and a 4-2 win over BU Feb. 8. &#9632;

Taylor’s chance pays off as Kaufmann blossoms

Filling the skates of one the best goaltenders in Lake Superior State hictrwv hasn&rsquo;t been a problem for sophomore Blaine Lacher.The 22-year-old Medicine Hat, Alta., native was given the task of replacing two-time all-America Darrin Madeley, who led the Lakers to the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship a year ago.The Lakers&rsquo; coaching staff, understandably, had some reservations about Lacher&rsquo;s ability entering the season but the criminal justice student has been a pleasant surprise.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01261/6554657-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="376" height="504"><figcaption class="caption-body">Blaine Lacher</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I think he learned a lot from Darrin,&rdquo; said assistant coach Paul Pooley. &ldquo;He has a different personality than Madeley. Darrin was composed. Blaine is fiery. But he has learned to control it and gets fired up when he has to.&rdquo;Lacher had a 2.84 GAA and.887 save percentage in 18 games. &#9632;

f0047-01

Lacher’s ship finally comes in

<div class="byline">By Matt Carlson</div>Even when the Miami Redskins were the laughingstock of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, they routinely came close to selling out the 2,200-seat Goggin Ice Arena.But now, Hockey Night in Oxford, Ohio has become a standing-room-only hit.When Miami hosted the Michigan Wolverines Feb. 6 in a battle for first place, more fans were turned away than actually witnessed the Redskins&rsquo; 4-3 overtime win.While 3,050 spectators crammed into the rink, university officials estimate that between 5,000 and 7,000 people couldn&rsquo;t get in.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen or experienced anything like the hype,&rdquo; said Miami coach George Gwozdecky. &ldquo;The line I saw was seven or eight people wide and about a quarter-mile long.&rdquo;The Redskins&rsquo; surge to the top of the CCHA standings has created a new problem for Gwozdecky. He has worked hard to ensure his players don&rsquo;t get swelled heads from all the attention.&ldquo;Our guys have become instant celebrities,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re being asked to go on radio shows. They&rsquo;re being recognized. That never happened here before. But they&rsquo;ve got to remember the roots of their success and what got them here. They&rsquo;ve got to understand the team comes first.&rdquo;Gwozdecky has cracked down on players who have strayed from that policy, which he claims &ldquo;is not negotiable.&rdquo; One example was sitting out senior defenseman Joe Cook against the Wolverines. Cook also missed the team&rsquo;s 71 win over Kent State the night before.Cook was second in the nation among defensemen with seven goals and 29 points in 26 games overall.&ldquo;It had nothing to do with his play,&rdquo; Gwozdecky said. &ldquo;We have team rules that were stretched a little. But it was nothing serious.&rdquo;The Miami coach also sat out leading scorer Brian Savage and junior defenseman Ty Eigner Jan. 22 against Michigan State because their off-ice activities weren&rsquo;t acceptable.MILLER TIME: The Lake Superior State Lakers have been banged up all season, but the defending National Collegiate Athletic Association champions hope to receive a stretch-drive boost from junior left winger Kurt Miller.Miller was drafted in the sixth round of the 1990 entry draft by the St. Louis Blues. He was expected to be one of the CCHA&rsquo;s top power forwards this season, but he sustained a broken right fibula Nov. 4 and missed 21 games. He returned Jan. 29 against Notre Dame.Miller missed the second half of the 1991-92 season after undergoing knee surgery.SEEDS OF ENVY: Several of the CCHA&rsquo;s top teams are closely monitoring the progress of the league&rsquo;s new affiliate member, the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks.All 11 CCHA teams qualify for post-season play. Their spots are determined by where they finish in the standings. But the Nanooks&rsquo; playoff position will be determined by commissioner Bill Beagan. According to the league&rsquo;s original agreement, the Nanooks will be seeded as a &ldquo;wildcard&rdquo; between the seventh and 12th spots.The Nanooks were 7-4-0 against CCHA opponents and 19-9-1 overall. &#9632;

Hockey Night in Oxford hottest ticket in town

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>For the fifth time in the nine-year history of Hockey East, the league has altered its format to determine quarter-final winners in the playoffs.Under the new system, the first team to earn at least three points in a series (two points for a win, one for a tie) will advance to the semifinals.All eight teams make the playoffs, so the pairings for the quarter-finals will pit the No. 1 team against the No. 8 team. No. 2 against No. 7, No. 3 against No. 6 and No. 4 against No. 5.Previous formats to determine quarter-final winners included a best-of-three series, a single elimination game, a two-game, total goals series and two games plus a mini game. The league&rsquo;s semifinals and championship final remain single-elimination games.Under the new format, if teams split the two games or tie both of them, there will be a sudden death period after the second game. The first team to score a goal will advance to the semifinals and finals at Boston Garden.The fact this will be the fifth format in nine years is reflective of the differences of opinion among the coaches and athletic directors, said Hockey East assistant commissioner Nonni Daly.&ldquo;There are a lot of people to take into consideration and they seem to have different preferences,&rdquo; Daly said.&ldquo;This format is crazy,&rdquo; said Maine coach Shawn Walsh. &ldquo;This rewards the lower teams even more than the single-elimination format because they have two chances to win one game and force the sudden-death overtime.&rdquo;Boston College coach Steve Cedorchuk however, said he likes the new system.&ldquo;It will be great for the fans because they might get to see a sudden-death overtime game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And it gives the underdog a chance because they have to win only one game to force the overtime.&rdquo;HURTS SO BAD: Northeastern has been hit hard by injuries.The seventh-place Huskies will be without sophomore goalie Todd Reynolds for an indefinite period with a herniated disc in his back. Senior captain Chris Foy is also sidelined indefinitely with a shoulder separation and sophomore defenseman Francois Bouchard is out with a thigh contusion.Huskies&rsquo; coach Ben Smith has been forced to start freshman Mike Veisor in net for 18 consecutive games. And while Veisor has performed well, Smith is still not happy with his team.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re very inconsistent,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;Sometimes we don&rsquo;t produce any offense, other times we don&rsquo;t produce on defense and sometimes we don&rsquo;t have either.&rdquo;RECORD BREAKER: Maine freshman left winger Paul Kariya set a school record for points by a freshman (67) and consecutive games with at least one point (24) after a sweep of Lowell Feb. 5 and 6. &#9632;

Playoff structure altered

The Dalhousie Tigers have clawed their way back into contention in the Atlantic Universities Athletic Association.The Tigers had a mediocre 8-8-0 record before going on a 6-0-1 tear entering the final three games of the season. The peak of the streak came Feb. 5 when the Tigers battled the No. 1 nationally ranked Acadia Axemen to a 44 tie. The Axemen had won 17 straight conference games.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing with so much confidence we believe we can beat them (Acadia),&rdquo; said Dalhousie coach Darrell Young. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re finding ways to win.&rdquo;Young credits the turnaround to several factors:&#9633; The Tigers played six of seven games on home ice after opening the season with 12 of 16 games on the road.&#9633; Backup goaltender Scott MacDonald, who hadn&rsquo;t played in 18 months, played very well in place of the injured Pat McGarry.&#9633; The team is healthy. The Tigers had 12 players miss three or more games in the first half, but all have returned.OUAA: The Trois-Rivieres Patriotes have one of the Ontario Universities Athletic Association&rsquo;s best records at home this season. But get them out of the friendly confines of Colisee de Trois-Rivieres and they fall apart.The defending OUAA champions didn&rsquo;t win a game on the road this season until they beat lowly Ryerson and Queen&rsquo;s in late January.&ldquo;It has been a struggle for us on the road.&rdquo; said Trois-Rivieres&rsquo; coach Real Paiement. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that we&rsquo;re scared on the road, we seem to have trouble getting up.&ldquo;At home, we played Acadia, ranked No. 1 in the country, and we beat them twice. We also beat Waterloo and Laurier, who were ranked and it wasn&rsquo;t even close.&rdquo;CWUAA: It may be tough at the top, but it&rsquo;s a whole lot tougher at the bottom.Nobody knows that better than the Brandon Bobcats, the Canada West University Athletic Association&rsquo;s worst team since joining the league in 1985-86.Brandon&rsquo;s record over that eight-year span is atrocious. The Bobcats have never hit the.500 mark, they&rsquo;ve never made it to the playoffs and their accumulative record is 60-147-7.New Brandon coach Tom Skinner is trying to change the team&rsquo;s losing ways. He cut 11 veterans in training camp and decided to implement a youth movement. The team has 13 rookies and three sophomores on its roster.&ldquo;We wanted to put a character base in place for the future,&rdquo; Skinner said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to take time, but we&rsquo;re going to get back on a competitive level.&rdquo;The Bobcats were 3-18-3 in 24 games, last in the CWUAA.-With files from Bruce Hallihan, Claude Scilley and Rob Tychkowski. &#9632;

Tigers rediscover bite in time for playoff run

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0049-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01158/6554767-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01157/6554760-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="1243" height="3645"></div> &#9632;

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CLASSIFIED

<div class="byline">By Kevin Dupont</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-01147/6554798-1-eng-US/f0051-012.jpg" title="f0051-01" width="380" height="533"></div>Gary Bettman, the NHL&rsquo;s first commissioner, said he would like to underpromise and overdeliver. It&rsquo;s his style, he said, and it should serve to define the approach he&rsquo;ll take over his five-year-perhaps longer, if he delivers-administration.Well, here&rsquo;s what I want: promise me anything, but leave the game alone.Deliver me from where I&rsquo;m afraid we&rsquo;re headed.Success today in all the sports world, not just hockey, is measured in marketing and profit. Long gone is the North American sports industry that dealt first and foremost in fond memories, history and tradition. The hockey world wants to share in the glitz, instant celebrity and megabucks that now, sadly, are the very fabric of professional football, baseball and Jiasketball.&ldquo;The game is no longer the thing. The game has moved far to the background. lost in a wash of money issues: free agency, salary caps, licensing fees, trips to Disneyland, endorsement deals, strikes, revenue sharing, deferred compensation, collective bargaining agreements, the best luxury boxes ever to ring a 1,000-seat arena.The child of the &lsquo;50s and &lsquo;60s grew up memorizing a slugger&rsquo;s home runs and runs batted in (if you knew Maris&rsquo; numbers, your best friend knew Mantle&rsquo;s), a right winger&rsquo;s goals, assists and points. The kid of the &lsquo;70s, &lsquo;80s and &lsquo;90s has been handed an accountant&rsquo;s spread sheet and pocket calculator before being told who&rsquo;s on first or what it means to be an honest two-way player.Son: &ldquo;Two-way player, Dad? Lemme think. Is that the guy who drives himself to the bank for night deposits and then finds his own way back to the hockey rink the next morning?&rdquo;Father: &ldquo;Not exactly. They&rsquo;ve got agents for all of that.&rdquo;The NHL&rsquo;s board of governors, the good new boys who are trying to show the bad ol boys how to reinvent the puck, left the state of Florida in a state of euphoria after their December meetings.It wasn&rsquo;t a faster, better, more competitive game that had them all a dither. No, sir. Instead, they were high-fiving every blubber-bellied beach bum in sight because of the new franchises to be run by the wizards of Disney and Blockbuster.All the talk was about expansion, Marketing genius, well-heeled owners and the marriage of hockey to high rollers.Now, who&rsquo;s going to play for these teams? How will the dilution of talent&mdash;the technical term is Senatorizing-impact the game? How will the hockey-starved citizenry of Miami respond to a team that most likely will see more losses than it will Cuban boat people over the first five years?Please, let&rsquo;s not muddy the mania with details, details, details. It&rsquo;ll fly, said the board of governors, who happen to be the same guys who can&rsquo;t figure out how to stage an All-Star Game that doesn&rsquo;t have TV-watching North America leaping for cover behind its couches. Bunker mentality. Catch it.After what happened in Montreal (Final score: Wales Conference 16, Campbell Conference 6), Bettman&rsquo;s No. 1 mandate now might be to do everything he can to keep the game national television in the United States.Without question, the NHL can be better televised and better marketed. There is ample room for improved labor relations, less fighting, harmony with older retirees, true Olympic involvement and two referees who can work one game with a singular mind; fairness and consistency of calls for both sides.But progress solely in the name of marketing, profit and new-age sizzle will not be the salvation of the game, the spread of its gospel. More likely, it could be its ruination. Hockey is here today because the game has sold itself, from its infancy as the Original Six to its soon-to-be-26 adulthood. No sport has suffered fools, many of them its owners, better than hockey.The NHL doesn&rsquo;t need made-for-TV flaming pucks, the equivalent of the three-point shot, overtime shoot-outs, a DS (designated shooter) or ice surfaces that glow like giant lava lamps in the dark. Charlie Finley skated through the scene once, white skates and all, and that was plenty.If the game needs anything now, it&rsquo;s neither a facelift nor a booster shot of big-time marketing. Perhaps that is what the business people of hockey believe, including leagueoffice administration, ownership and the players.What the fan needs, though, is simple preservation of a good product-a game that has sold itself, with success, for decades. Turn off the fan, perhaps by delivering too much, and you might as well turn off the lights. &#9632;

f0051-01

Promise me game won’t change

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>There&rsquo;s no stick breaking, towel tearing or tantrum throwing in the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; dressing room this season. At least not before any games.That&rsquo;s because Nordiques&rsquo; coachgeneral manager Pierre Page has changed his fiery ways. No longer does he blow his top and scream at players for mistakes on the ice.The 44-year-old has worked diligently to control his emotions and reduce the pressure on his young players.&ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;ve mellowed,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve consulted a lot of people, most notably sports psychologists, and I&rsquo;ve come to the conclusion, after studying all the facts, that to act in a fiery manner might be good in the short run, but very negative in the long run.&rdquo;Page used to be the kind of coach who would try to motivate his players by yelling at them. Unfortunately, his bravado often backfired and some players either lost respect for him or turned against him.Most of the time, Page found his speeches got him riled up, but not the players.&ldquo;Now I want the players to learn to motivate themselves,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;If the coach is the one who does all the motivating, then they&rsquo;ll never get anything done. Players have to mature, become leaders in their own minds. They have to know what it takes to get up and do the job game after game.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-01140/6554860-1-eng-US/f0052-012.jpg" title="f0052-01" width="575" height="716"><figcaption class="caption-body">Quebec coach-GM Pierre Page is more laid-back this season.</figcaption></div>Page has another argument to help justify his change of attitude.&ldquo;Look at three of the top Stanley Cup winning coaches, Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour and Glen Sather,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They got their message across without getting hysterical. That&rsquo;s enough guidance for me. Let the players do the talking. Simply show them the road.&rdquo;Page&rsquo;s new philosophy is obviously paying dividends. The Nordiques already had 17 points more than last season through 57 games (69 points) and were challenging the Montreal Canadiens for first in the Adams Division.Page has done everything he can to keep his players loose by giving them more off days.&ldquo;We want the guys to get the message,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;They can do it all by themselves if they work hard enough. And if they do, well, life gets a lot more fun. For everyone. As long as the effort is there-and the commitment.&rdquo;HUNTER GONE: Pierre Page made some adjustments to the roster prior to the team&rsquo;s west coast road swing after the all-star break.One of his moves was to place veteran Tim Hunter on waivers. The rugged winger was claimed by the Vancouver Canucks Feb. 12.A contract impasse was one reason the 32-year-old was dropped. Hunter was playing out his option and was destined to go to arbitration. Both he and Page said contract talks had precipitated his departure from Quebec.The Nordiques offered Hunter a two-year deal worth $260,000 per season. But Page wanted to make it a two-way contract. Hunter maintained both parties were &ldquo;miles apart.&rdquo;Page, however, said there was only a $25,000 difference between the offer and the demand. The two-way clause, he said, could have been worked on. Hunter had five goals and eight points in 48 games.NOTEBOOK: The Nordiques beat Edmonton 3-2 in overtime Feb. 14. It was the team&rsquo;s first win at Northlands Coliseum since Nov. 21 1982&hellip;Mike Ricci and Adam Foote were named the Nordiques&rsquo; offensive and defensive players of the month for January. Ricci had 11 points in nine games.Pierre Page would like to add an experienced defenseman and rugged forward before the March 20 trade deadline. Page would like to acquire New York Ranger Jeff Beukeboom or San Jose Shark Neil Wilkinson.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 11: Len Esau, D, recalled from Halifax (AHL). Feb. 12: Tim Hunter, RW, claimed on waivers by Vancouver.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Joe Sate. Mats Sundin, Mike Ricci, Claude Lapointe.LW&ndash;Martin Rudnsky, Mike Hough, Valeri Kamensky, Scott Pearson, Tony Twist.RW&ndash;Andrei Kovalenko, Owen Nolan, Scott Young.LD&ndash;Stevan Finn, Curtis Leschyshyn, Kerry Huffman, Alexei Gusarov.RD&ndash;Steve Duchesne. Adam Foote, Mikhail Tatarinov, Len Esau.G&ndash;Ron Hextail, Stephane Flset.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Gino Cavalllnf, LW, sprained left knee, indefinite. Craig Wolanln, D, groin pull, Indefinite. &#9632;

f0052-01

Page’s new philosophy helps team mellow out

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0053-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-01143/6554891-1-eng-US/f0053-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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<div class="byline">By Rand Simon</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0054-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-01143/6554922-1-eng-US/f0054-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Lightning is getting solid goaltending from Pat Jablonski.</figcaption></div>It isn&rsquo;t entirely Greek to us how the Tampa Bay Lightning have enjoyed so much success as an expansion team. But it doesn&rsquo;t hurt that Chris Kontos, whose father comes from Athens, was scoring a goal per game through mid-November.Just as remarkable as Kontos&rsquo; sudden offensive explosion is that the defensemen have also averaged about a goal per game. In fact through games of Nov. 14, no team had more goals from their defense than the 19 scored by Lightning rearguards. (See accompanying table.)It was obvious right from the June expansion draft the Lightning would be strong on the blueline. But no one could have expected the defense to be so offensive.&ldquo;When we get the puck back to the defensemen the second time on the power play, we shoot the puck,&rdquo; said defenseman Joe Reekie. &ldquo;The forwards know the puck is going on net.If the puck comes to the point the most important thing is to get the puck on net.&rdquo;They&rsquo;ve been pretty sharp defensively, too. The team goals-against average (3.16) was third-best in the league despite the fact No. 1 goaltender Wendell Young sustained a dislocated right shoulder Nov. 1.The defense is a solid combination of defensive bruisers such as Reekie and Peter Taglianetti and offensive threats Doug Crossman and Bob Beers. Crossman had six points in a game and runs the NHL&rsquo;s fifth-best power play.Opponents are quick to credit the Lightning&rsquo;s forwards for much of the success enjoyed by Tampa Bay&rsquo;s defense. San Jose coach George Kingston, who knows all about the trials and tribulations of an expansion team, said the Lightning scores an unusually high total of goals on screen shots from the point after faceoffs.&ldquo;Their players came to camp with a point to prove and they&rsquo;ve had good goaltending, an experienced defense and forwards buying into the game plan to put pressure on the opponents,&rdquo; Kingston said. &ldquo;They built their team from the defense out and their planning has been rewarded.&rdquo;Forwards Mikael Andersson, Marc Bureau, Danton Cole and Rob DiMaio have all killed penalties throughout their careers, so the team is strong defensively up front. But so far the team has had trouble killing penalties, ranking 17th in the league.The foundation for the team was laid at the expansion draft but the later additions are what has turned this team into a.500 club. For that, general manager Phil Esposito deserves much of the credit. Eight of the 21 regulars were chosen in the expansion draft, six were signed as free agents (including Kontos, John Tucker and Rob Zamuner, three of the team&rsquo;s five top scorers), four came in trades, two were waiver acquisitions and one, Roman Hamrlik, was chosen in the entry draft.What&rsquo;s more important than how the team was built are the players&rsquo; ages. For some reason a misconception developed that the Lightning is an old team, but 17 of the 21 players are between the ages of 24 and 29, when most players reach their peak.&ldquo;I chuckle when I hear people say we&rsquo;re old,&rdquo; said coach Terry Crisp. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re younger than Ottawa. If people don&rsquo;t do their homework, that&rsquo;s their problem.&rdquo;Since most of the players are close in age, the players say the team has especially strong chemistry. And, unlike most teams, the Lightning doesn&rsquo;t have several healthy bodies watching games from the press box.&ldquo;Everyone who practises is playing,&rdquo; Zamuner said. &ldquo;It creates dissension when guys are sitting out and we haven&rsquo;t had that problem.&rdquo;If you think Tampa Bay&rsquo;s 9-9-2 start was a fluke, consider this: six of the nine losses were by one goal and 13 of their 20 games were against teams with winning records.&ldquo;If you had said in training camp we&rsquo;d play this well, I would have told you to go get a saliva test,&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re enjoying the sunny days, but we know we&rsquo;ll have rainy days. Let&rsquo;s enjoy it and have fun.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0054-01

Lightning strikes Tampa Bay confounds the experts by making strong case for defense

<div class="byline">By Rand Simon</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-0277/6554953-1-eng-US/f0054-022.jpg" title="f0054-02" width="378" height="481"></div>It should be the NHL marketing department&rsquo;s dream.The league isn&rsquo;t spending a dime while the game is being promoted in Canada like never before.People who don&rsquo;t know the difference between Mark Recchi, Mike Ricci and Joe Reekie can follow hockey with more than a passing interest now. And it&rsquo;s all because people are allowed to bet on the outcome of NHL games.Ontario joined in Oct. 29 when the Ontario Lottery Corp, introduced the Pro Line game to southern Ontario. The rest of the province should have the game by early in the new year.The NHL&rsquo;s immediate knee-jerk response was the same as it has been to any venture such as Pro Line. It denounced the game with league president Gil Stein vowing the league would do whatever it could to stop Pro Line. The NHL has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the OLC.Why is the NHL so opposed to the game? Is it because Don Cherry is the celebrity spokesman for Pro Line? Well, not exactly. The league is upset the OLC is using its copyright schedule without permission of the NHL.In fact, the NHL schedule that appears in the league&rsquo;s Official Guide and Record Book includes the following: &ldquo;Any publication or other use of any portion of this schedule, including for the purpose of lottery or other form of gambling, whether such gambling is legal or illegal is strictly prohibited.&rdquo;Somebody forgot to tell that to the folks in Las Vegas who have been betting on hockey for years without NHL approval.The OLC claims that by just listing city names and not team nicknames, Pro Line doesn&rsquo;t infringe on any copyright laws. &ldquo;We had the OLC legal counsel look at the game and we are well within our right to offer it,&rdquo; said OLC spokesman Don Pister.The reality is the league benefits every time someone watches a game who otherwise wouldn&rsquo;t Not only can the league gain new fans, its existing fans become more hard core. That could lead to greater attendance-those neutral site games in Hamilton sure could use that-and higher television ratings and greater merchandise sales.However, NHL executive director of communications Gary Meagher doesn&rsquo;t buy that argument. &ldquo;Think about who plays the game-the hockey fan,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d be surprised if someone with absolutely no interest in hockey goes down to the comer store to bet. If we have to develop out long-term marketing strategy around betting we&rsquo;re off the mark.&rdquo;This is not the first time the NHL has tried to stop a sports lottery game The NHL filed lawsuits against the British Columbia Lottery Corp., Loto-Quebec and the Western Canada Lottery Corp., versions of Pro Line. The lawsuits are in progress, but have gone past the preliminary stages.Larry McLennan, the group manager of communications for the western Canadian version of Pro Line, said the NHL is the only league that has ever taken legal action against the game which also allows fans to bet on Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and Canadian and National Football League games.CFL spokesman Mike Murray said his league is disappointed the OLC didn&rsquo;t bring Pro Line to the league&rsquo;s attention before it started. But, unlike Meagher, he does feel the game has some beneficial side affects.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to put a monetary value on it, but absolutely, any exposure we get is beneficial to the league,&rdquo; Murray said.Although Meagher disagrees, the same is true for the NHL. I know people who think the sports season starts in late February when the Toronto Blue Jays head for spring training who are now talking about hockey because they can place a wager on a few games. There is also no denying some of the NFL&rsquo;s popularity is based on the number of people who participate in office pools-which are technically illegal.Sales after two weeks were just under $6 million, with a large percentage of that coming from bets on the NHL. With 700 more retailers getting the game by January, the OLC expects to reach its goal of $ 150 million in sales in one year. About $40 million will be returned to the province to fund non-profit projects.Meagher has a valid concern about protecting the integrity of the game and no one is asking the NHL to endorse a gambling lottery. But with the average Pro Line wager of $6 a ticket, the big money just isn&rsquo;t there to start a gambling scandal. Any fixing of games will involve illegal wagering of thousands of dollars, not the smalltime bets generated by Pro Line.Pro Line does no harm to the NHL. The league should accept it and get on with things. &#9632;

f0054-02

Is NHL wrong on this one? You bet!

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>The story goes that Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; general manager Glen Sather said he&rsquo;d give Kelly Buchberger his best snowmobile if the Oilers&rsquo; plugger ever scored 20 goals.The rugged right winger never got the snowmobile, but he did get a big raise Nov. 6. His salary jumped from $200,000 to $310,000 in 1992-93 to $340,000 next season and $400,000 in 1994-95.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll take this raise instead,&rdquo; Buchberger said. &ldquo;Slats came up to me and said after the year I had a year ago, he was willing to give me a raise. I didn&rsquo;t expect it at all. It just came out of the blue.&rdquo;Buchberger scored 20 goals and 44 points last season, the best output the sixth-year pro has ever had. His previous best was five goals and 14 points in 66 games (1988-89).After a slow start this season-three goals and four points in 18 games-many outsiders have questioned his goal-scoring ability.And while Oiler coaches feel Buchberger is a 20-goal man, they aren&rsquo;t pressuring him.&ldquo;I have no intentions of putting pressure on Bucky to score goals,&rdquo; said coach Ted Green. &ldquo;Every goal he scores for this team is a bonus.&ldquo;Bucky&rsquo;s forte is being aggressive and killing penalties. He&rsquo;s one of the best in the league at that. He&rsquo;s also good at taking away the talents and skills of some opposition players and he&rsquo;s a very tough customer. I also think he has a shot to score 20 goals a year.&rdquo;Buchberger appreciated the fact Green wasn&rsquo;t pressuring him.&ldquo;Teddy&rsquo;s really good to me,&rdquo; said the Langenburg, Sask., native. &ldquo;He sticks up for me, but I want to contribute to the team. It&rsquo;s nice for him to say every goal I get is a bonus but as a person, you always want to do better.&rdquo;Buchberger&rsquo;s role over the years has evolved from enforcer to checker to a combination of those two elements. He&rsquo;s now looked upon to score as well and he likes the change.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather be scoring goals than throwing my fists, that&rsquo;s for sure,&rdquo; he said.However, Buchberger did lead the team with 46 penalty minutes.SLAUGHTER HOUSE: Like lambs to the slaughter, the Oilers were herded into the Cow Palace last season.When Edmonton played in San Jose, the Sharks didn&rsquo;t play like a weak expansion team. In fact, the Oilers lost all three games.&ldquo;When you lose in this building, you complain and consider it an unfair advantage,&rdquo; Ted Green said. &ldquo;San Jose has done a great job adjusting to this building.&rdquo;The Oilers finally won a game at the Cow Palace Nov. 12, skating to a 4-3 victory.&ldquo;It makes sense for this place to be called the Cow Palace,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;The way we&rsquo;ve played here it looked like we were stepping in the stuff they (cows) leave behind.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goalie Andrew Verner was recalled from Cape Breton of the American League Nov. 14 after Bill Ranford sustained a pulled right quadricep muscle against the Sharks. Vemer made a 10-hour trek to Los Angeles while his minor-league mates went to Halifax to continue a stretch of three games in three nights. Ranford was expected to just miss a couple of games.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 6: Kelly Buchberger, RW, signed three-year contract. Nov. 14: Andrew Vemer, G, recalled from Cape Breton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Bemie Nicholls, Shayne Corson. Esa Tikkanen, Craig MacTavish. Tyler WrightLW&ndash;Craig Simpson. Josef Beranek, Martin Gelinas, Louie DeBrusk, David Maley.RW&ndash;Petr Klima, Brent Gilchrist, Scott Melianby, Kelly Buchberger.LD&ndash;Dave Manson, Geoff Smith, Luke Richardson.RD&ndash;Craig Muni, Brian Glynn, Greg Hawgood. Chris Joseph.G&ndash;Ron Tugnun, Andrew Vemer.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bill Ranford, G, pulled right quadricep muscle, day-to-day. &#9632;

Big raise for versatile Buchberger

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>When the Vancouver Canucks beat the San Jose Sharks 5-2 at the Cow Palace Nov. 14, it was no surprise four of Vancouver&rsquo;s goals were scored during special-teams situations.Poor penalty killing and power plays have crippled the Sharks this season. In their first 18 games, the Sharks allowed opponents to score three or more power-play goals in a game nine times and had scored only 15 extra-man goals in 93 opportunities (16.1 per cent). That was a big reason behind the team&rsquo;s 3-14-1 record.The Sharks skated shorthanded 126 times and yielded 38 power-play goals. That worked out to a league-worst 69.8 per cent success rate. No team played shorthanded as often as the Sharks.Penalty killer Dave Snuggerud said a lack of aggression was at the root of the problem.&ldquo;We have to be desperate on the penalty kill,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We aren&rsquo;t always applying enough pressure. We have to be all over the ice when we&rsquo;re killing a penalty.&rdquo;The Sharks weren&rsquo;t much better on the power play either. Before scoring two power-play goals in seven chances against Vancouver, the Sharks ranked ahead of only Hartford and Ottawa in power-play efficiency.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m disappointed, but not distraught,&rdquo; said center Brian Lawton, who shared the team lead with 19 power-play points last season. &ldquo;The line between success and failure is very minute. It&rsquo;s just a matter of getting everybody in sync.&rdquo;The Sharks had special-teams problems early last season, but improved as the season went along. In their final 20 games, they scored on 24.7 per cent of their power plays and killed 80.4 per cent of their short-handed situations.&ldquo;Our movement and execution has been good,&rdquo; said coach George Kingston. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re doing a lot of the right things, but we aren&rsquo;t getting any reward.&rdquo;COUNTDOWN TO 1,000: If everything falls right for Sharks&rsquo; defenseman Doug Wilson, his 1,000th NHL game will be against the team for whom he played his first 938.Wilson appeared in game No. 997 Nov. 14 against Vancouver. He had missed two games because of a shoulder strain, but by playing against the Canucks, Wilson opened the door to play in No. 1,000 when the Chicago Blackhawks visit the Cow Palace Nov. 21. Wilson spent his first 14 NHL seasons with the Hawks before the Sharks acquired him in a trade Sept. 6, 1991.NOTEBOOK: The Sharks lost defenseman Neil Wilkinson for several games when he suffered a back strain Nov. 10 against the Canucks. To fill Wilkinson&rsquo;s spot, the Sharks recalled Tom Pederson from Kansas City of the International League.Russian winger Alexander Cherbayev, a third-round pick in the June entry draft, had three goals and two assists in two games at the recent Deutschland Cup tournament in Germany and was named the tournament&rsquo;s most valuable player.Center Dean Evason, who was playing out his option, has agreed to a new contract. Evason&rsquo;s new contract is for one season plus an option year.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 11: Tom Pederson. D, recalled from Kansas City (ML). Nov. 14: Dean Evason, C, signed contract<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;8rian Lawton, Ke8y Klsio, Dean Evason, Mike Sullivan.LW&ndash;Larry DePalma. Johan Garpenlov. John Carter. Dave Snuggerud.RW&ndash;Pat Fafloon, Petri Skriko, Lyndon Byers, Perry Berezan, Ed Courtenay.LD&ndash;Sandis Ozolinsh, Rob Zettler, Doug Wilson, Pat MacLeod.RD&ndash;Jay More, Tom Pederson, Doug Zmolek.G&ndash;Brian Hayward, Arturs litre.<h3>INJURIES</h3>David Bruce, LW, strained groin, day-to-day. Yvon Corriveau. LW, back spasms, day-to-day. Date Craigwell, C, back strain, day-to-day. Jeff Hackett, G, strained groin, day-to-day. Jeff Odgers. RW, broken right hand, Dec. 1. Nell Wilkinson, D, back strain, day-to-day. &#9632;

No bite on special teams root of team’s problem

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>Mike Smith prides himself on being a general manager who doesn&rsquo;t meddle in the daily affairs of his hockey team.But with the Winnipeg Jets off to a miserable start to the season, Smith made a dramatic departure from his style and went to the dressing room Nov. 9, the day after the club had lost its fifth straight game to fall to 4-11-0.It was the first time in his four-year tenure as Jets&rsquo; GM that he called for such a crisis conference and it was not held to raise the roof. Rather, Smith gave an emotional 10minute address to his players and coach John Paddock to make it clear he&rsquo;s interested only in seeing them succeed and that they can count on his support as they try to pull out of the slide.The assessment of blame for the first month was varied and Smith said he went to his players to be certain they knew there weren&rsquo;t any subversive or underlying plots afoot to change more players or coaches.&ldquo;It was time for me to say something,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re all in this together. I had thought about it for a couple of days. There&rsquo;s a tendency, when things go badly, to blame the coach or blame the manager or blame the players. We&rsquo;re realistic, we recognize it and we&rsquo;ll work to get out of it.&ldquo;I Wanted them to know we&rsquo;re not making massive personnel changes, which is always the traditional response, and that 1 am responsible for the players being here. I feel good about our players. They have proven they&rsquo;re good and the answer is not to make wholesale changes.&rdquo;Smith also reportedly told his players the slate for their bad start was being wiped clean.&ldquo;It appears the expectations of this team were premature,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The people that work here knew we would struggle at times because we&rsquo;ve made so many changes since the latter part of last season. But we&rsquo;ve started so poorly it almost seems the pressure of the world was collapsing on our team.&rdquo;The Jets showed an immediate result in the wake of the meeting, rallying with two third-period goals including one by Eddie Olczyk at 19:53 of the third period for a 4-4 tie with Los Angeles Nov. 10.ROAD WOES: The Jets&rsquo; first road win of the season also followed the dressing-room session. After losing their first eight away from home, they romped 7-2 against the Minnesota North Stars Nov. 12.The team went on to St. Louis, where it had enough chances to win but didn&rsquo;t, losing 4-2 to the Blues and extending the road mark to 1-90.&ldquo;I think some in some ways there has been some improvement,&rdquo; said coach John Paddock. &ldquo;But this isn&rsquo;t going to be something we&rsquo;ll get out of instantly.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Mike Lalor will be lost until mid-December. He broke the index finger on his right hand on an unpenalized slash from Minnesota&rsquo;s Shane Churla Nov. 12&hellip;Rookie center Alexei Zhamnov returned from a concurrent two-game stay in sick bay (hip flexor) and in John Paddock&rsquo;s doghouse by scoring his first goal Nov. 10 against Los Angeles.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 13: Andy Brickley, LW, signed contract and assigned to Moncton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Thomas Steen, Alexei Zhamnov, Troy Murray, Luciano Borsato, Mike Eagles, Rob Murray.LW&ndash;Keith Tkachuk, Evgeny Davydov, Darrin Shannon, Russ Romanluk.RW&ndash;Teemu Selanne, Eddie Olczyk. Scott Levins, Al Kerr.LD&ndash;Sergel Bautin. Igor Ulanov, Randy Carlyle.RD&ndash;Phil Housley, Teppo Numminen. Fredrik Olausson, Dean Kennedy.G&ndash;Bob Essensa, Rick Tabaracci.<h3>INJURIES</h3>John Druce. RW, broken right wrist, Dec. 1. Bryan Erickson, RW, hernia and abdominal surgery, Indefinite. Mike Lalor, D, broken right index finger, Dec. 15. &#9632;

Mr. Smith goes to dressing room to reassure team

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>The Calgary Flames have asked the NHL to review circumstances of a serious hip injury that will keep defenseman Al Maclnnis out of the lineup indefinitely.General manager Doug Risebrough sent a tape of the incident to NHL vice-president Jim Gregory for possible supplementary discipline against Hartford Whalers&rsquo; winger Patrick Poulin.After watching the tape. Risebrough called the injury, &ldquo;a gruesome-looking thing&hellip;I don&rsquo;t ever want him to see that replay.&rdquo;As bad as Joe Theismann&rsquo;s infamous broken leg several years ago?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s close,&rdquo; Risebrough said. &ldquo;At one point, his knee is up close to his ear.&rdquo;The play in question developed as Maclnnis went to retrieve a loose puck in the Flames&rsquo; zone during a 4-3 win over Hartford Nov. 11.Maclnnis, skating hard, was trying to chase down a clearing pass in the Calgary zone. As he glanced over his shoulder to check for the nearest Hartford player. Maclnnis lost an edge and slammed, spread-eagled, into the boards.Replays showed Poulin tapped him on the pants with the blade of his stick. According to Risebrough the contact caused Maclnnis to lose his footing.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the kid (Poulin) thought this was going to happen,&rdquo; Risebrough said, &ldquo;but the bottom line is it did. Maclnnis was in a tough situation going back for the puck. The kid could have skated up and hit him and nothing would have happened. I&rsquo;m disappointed. The result of this act is a major blow to our team.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-01123/6555056-1-eng-US/f0056-012.jpg" title="f0056-01" width="728" height="977"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Flames are deeply angered over the cause of Al Maclnnis&rsquo; hip injury.</figcaption></div>Risebrough would not speculate on the length of Maclnnis&rsquo; absence from the lineup, but did say: &ldquo;This is not a two-week injury. This is like a knee injury.&rdquo;Maclnnis underwent a CATscan at University of Connecticut Medical Centre. He was hospitalized three days before returning to Calgary. Risebrough said the results of the CATscan were positive.&ldquo;They were concerned about damage to the structure (of his hip),&rdquo; Risebrough said. &ldquo;It was displaced two centimeters. So they put him out under anaesthesia. That relaxed the body and allowed them to slide the joint back in place.&rdquo;The next day, Maclnnis&rsquo; mood was considerably more upbeat than it was the previous night.&ldquo;He was relieved we&rsquo;re dealing with this one injury and not a lot of complications,&rdquo; Risebrough said. &ldquo;The night before, there were a lot of uncertainties.&rdquo;Maclnnis became the fourth defenseman to sustain a serious injury. Trent Yawney (broken clavicle) and Michel Petit (dislocated shoulder) are out for extended periods. Chris Dahlquist tore the cartilage in his rib cage during a 5-2 loss to Montreal Nov. 9 and will miss up to a month.The injuries will force the Flames to use an extremely young defense corps the next month.Three of six regulars-Roger Johansson, Alex Godynyuk and Kevin Dahl-had played fewer than 80 NHL games prior to the start of the season. A fourth, Greg Smyth, had 109 games on his resume.Maclnnis had four goals and 13 assists in 18 games before sustaining the injury.PAIR HIT PINES: The Flames sat out two regulars, center Robert Reichel and left winger Gary Leeman, for their 5-3 win over Tampa Bay Nov. 14.As a matter of policy, coach Dave King will not criticize players by name, but he was clearly miffed with the pair for their indifferent play two nights before in a 5-3 loss to Boston. Leeman was benched for all of the third period and Reichel received only a handful of shifts.Shawn Heaphy made his NHL debut in Reichel&rsquo;s spot while Patrick Lebeau stepped into Leeman&rsquo;s position. Neither Heaphy nor Lebeau had a point.NOTEBOOK: Doug Risebrough was spotted twice in one week scouting the Buffalo Sabres, leading to speculation the Flames may be trying to trade goalie Mike Vernon.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 13: Shawn Heaphy, C, and Patrick Lebeau, LW, recalled from Salt Lake (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Joe Nieuwendyk, Joel Otto, Carey Wilson, Robert Reichel, Shawn Heaphy.LW&ndash;Gary Roberts, Chris Lindberg, Craig Berube, Gary Leeman, Patrick Lebeau.RW&ndash;Sergei Makarov, Theo Fleury, Paul Ranheim, Ron Stem.LD&ndash;Gary Suter, Roger Johansson, Frank Musil, RD-Kevin Dahl, Alex Godynyuk, Greg Smyth.G&ndash;Mike Vernon, Jeff Reese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Chris Dahlquist. D, tom rib cartilage, indefinite. Al Maclnnis. D, dislocated hip, indefinite. Michel Petit, D, dislocated right shoulder, indefinite. Trent Yawney, D, broken right clavicle, indefinite. &#9632;

f0056-01

Maclnnis injury could have been avoided, GM says

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>Like a famous wristwatch, Vancouver Canuck forward Greg Adams can take a licking and keep on ticking.Adams was on pace for his finest NHL season through the schedule&rsquo;s first six weeks, averaging better than a point a game. His production was remarkable considering the catastrophic string of injuries that have felled him over the years.The man is an accident on skates, all of it due to his uncompromising, straight-ahead style of play.Four years ago, he broke his ankle crashing into the boards. Three years ago, he sustained a broken cheekbone when slammed into the glass by Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Bob Errey. Two years ago, he strained knee ligaments and dislocated his elbow, both injuries occurring on hard charges to the net. Last year he survived until the playoffs when he broke his wrist against Winnipeg.And those are just the major injuries. Adams also suffered a mild concussion last season after Jyrki Lumme, his own teammate, drilled a puck into his head while trying to clear the zone killing a penalty.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m known more for my injuries than anything else,&rdquo; said Adams, who also broke his nose twice in junior. His only mishap this season (touch wood) was a puck-in-the-face, five-stitch cut suffered against Ottawa Nov. 6.Through it all, Adams has persevered like the consummate professional. He has never moaned about his plight, never complained about his ice time, never abandoned the gung-ho style that led to each and every one of his injuries.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-01115/6555087-1-eng-US/f0057-012.jpg" title="f0057-01" width="742" height="1138"><figcaption class="caption-body">Oft-injured Greg Adams has stayed healthy and that&rsquo;s good news for the Canucks.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It has always been the way I&rsquo;ve played,&rdquo; said Adams, a 29-year-old native of Nelson, B.C. &ldquo;Some guys might change their style, maybe become more of a perimeter player, but I think it would be too difficult to change at this stage of my career.&rdquo;Canuck boss Pat Quinn is thankful for that.&ldquo;No, Greg hasn&rsquo;t backed off when it comes to going to the net,&rdquo; said Quinn. &ldquo;He plays the game as hard as he can. He is a good soldier and you always get his best effort.&rdquo;Adams had six goals and 20 points in 17 games.SUDDEN IMPACT: He&rsquo;s five inches taller than Igor Larionov and packs about 25 more pounds on his frame, but Anatoli Semenov has looked every bit like a Larionov clone playing center for Pavel Bure.In his five games since coming over from Tampa Bay Nov. 3, the former Moscow Dynamo captain had 10 points and was plus-7. His linemates were obviously cashing in as well.Right winger Bure scored six goals and assisted twice during the same five-game span while Greg Adams had two goals and six assists.The combined total was nine goals, 17 assists and 26 points.Lightning general manager Phil Esposito, who acquired minor-leaguer Dave Capuano and a 1994 fourth-round pick for Semenov, had this comment: &ldquo;This may be weird to say, but maybe he was too good for our team. He would make a pass and nobody would be there.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Gino Odjick broke two dubious team records in a Nov. 12 game against Los Angeles. Odjick collected 47 penalty minutes, all in one second-period incident, to better (?) his own team mark of 36 minutes in one game and Wayne Maki&rsquo;s mark of 30 minutes in one period. Odjick received a roughing minor, crosschecking major, 10-minute misconduct and triple game misconduct after claiming he was sucker-punched by Kings&rsquo; forwards Warren Rychel and Dave Taylor.Right winger Trevor Linden got off to a poor start through the first 17 games. He had only 12 points and was tied with center Petr Nedved (4-8-12) for eighth in team scoring. Linden had 75 points in 80 games last season.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 9: Shawn Antoski, LW. assigned to Hamilton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Cliff Ronning, Anatoli Semenov, Petr Nedved, Ryan Walter, Tom Fergus.LW&ndash;Greg Adams, Sergio Momesso, Geoff Courtnail, Dixon Ward, Garry Valk.RW&ndash;Trevor Linden, Pavel Bure. Jim Sandlak, Gino Odjick, Robert Kron.LD&ndash;Robert Dirk, Dana Murzyn, Adrien Plavsic.RD&ndash;Gerald Diduck, Jyrki Lumme, Doug Lidster, Jiri Slegr.G&ndash;Kirk McLean, Kay Whitmore.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Babych, D, hernia surgery, Dec. 1. &#9632;

f0057-01

Healthy Adams on pace for record-breaking year

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>When right winger Jari Kurri became a Los Angeles King last season, it was anticipated his reunion with Wayne Gretzky would result in the formation of a powerhouse No. 1 line.But it didn&rsquo;t happen, mostly because Kurri experienced the worst season of his career.It is happening now. however, with an ironic twist. Kurri, not Gretzky, is centering the hottest line in hockey.While Gretzky remains sidelined with a serious back injury, Kurri is anchoring a line with Luc Robitaille and Tomas Sandstrom. It combined for 25 goals and 63 points in its first seven games.Call it the International Line. Robitaille, the left winger, is from Canada. Kurri from Finland and Sandstrom, the right winger, grew up in Sweden.Kings&rsquo; coach Barry Melrose called it &ldquo;the best line in the NHL right now.&rdquo; Melrose put the trio together Oct. 31 in Hartford, replacing slumping rookie Jim Hiller with Sandstrom.Kurri was making critics who called him washed up and overpaid last season look silly. In his first season as a King, he had 23 goals and 60 points in 73 games. He had 14 goals and 41 points in 18 games this season despite playing out of position. He also led the NHL with a plus-26 mark.&ldquo;Last year was the toughest year I have ever had. but I don&rsquo;t think I have to prove anything to anybody,&rdquo; Kurri said. &ldquo;I just want to have a good year for myself and for the team.&rdquo;Robitaille is coming off a 44-goal, 107-point season, but he wasn&rsquo;t a first-team all-star for the first time in six years, losing out to Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Kevin Stevens. The new captain had 16 goals and 33 points in 18 games.&ldquo;When you put three guys who have talent together and they work hard, things happen,&rdquo; Robitaille said.Sandstrom had 11 goals and 28 points in 16 games after spending all of training camp and most of the exhi-bition season recovering from off-season shoulder surgery. He also missed two games with a concussion.The shoulder problem-coupled with a five-game suspension, the result of a high-sticking incident-cost him 31 games a year ago and his goal production plummeted from 45 to 17.ON THE RISE: After getting only two goals in his first 11 games, left winger Mike Donnelly rediscovered his scoring touch and produced six in his next seven games.He also got his first career hat trick in an 11-4 rout of San Jose Nov. 8.&ldquo;I thought I was playing fairly well early on. but for whatever reasons I wasn&rsquo;t finishing off plays,&rdquo; said Don-nelly, who also scored on a penalty shot against Vancouver&rsquo;s Kirk McLean in a 7-4 win Nov. 12.NOTEBOOK: Rookie center Robert Lang was assigned to the Phoenix Roadrunners of the International League Nov. 14 after he was benched in six consecutive games. Lang began the season on the second line but had no goals and five assists in 10 games.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 14: Robert Lang, C, assigned to Phoenix (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Jari Kurri, Corey Millen. John McIntyre, Pat Conacher, Bob Kudelski.LW&ndash;Luc Robitaille, Mike Donnelly, Warren Rychel, Lonnie Loach.RW&ndash;Tomas Sandstrom, Tony Granato, Marty McSoriey, Dave Taylor, Jim Hiller.LD&ndash;Paul Coffey, Alexei Zhitnik, Darryl Sydor.RD&ndash;Brent Thompson, Jeff Chychrun, Charlie Huddy.G&ndash;Kelly Hrudey, Robb Stauber.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Rob Blake, D, bruised right wrist, day-to-day Wayne Gretzky, C, herniated disc in back. Indefinite. &#9632;

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November 27, 1992

AMERICAN LEAGUE

League planning all-star festivities for next season

Dancing man Hogue struts stuff on and off ice

Thanks, but no tanks