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

December 11, 1992

The Hockey News December 11, 1992

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>Ontario League penalty leader Dennis Bonvie was to meet with commissioner Dave Branch Nov. 27 to discuss a racial slur the North Bay Centennials&rsquo; defenseman allegedly directed at Belleville Bulls&rsquo; rookie Corey Isen.Isen, 17, is black and said this is the first time he has been verbally harassed by a player.&ldquo;There are implications of a racial slur,&rdquo; Branch said, saying the referee&rsquo;s report said Bonvie called Isen &ldquo;a nigger.&rdquo;Bonvie, 19, got a 10-minute misconduct Nov. 22 in North Bay from referee Pat Smola. Coach-general manager Bert Templeton would not make Bonvie available for comment.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;re into penalizing verbal comments,&rdquo; Templeton said. &ldquo;Suppose it wasn&rsquo;t said? Suppose it was misunderstood? As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, there&rsquo;s no incident. If (Branch) rules on this, he should be ruling on every verbal comment made.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been called a lot worse. Does it stop at Scotsman, white man, little black man, or Indian? A lot of verbal things go on on the ice. For somebody to make an issue of it, I think they&rsquo;re looking for stuff.&rdquo;Branch investigated an incident involving players on the Windsor Spitfires and Sault Ste. Marie coach Ted Nolan two years ago. Nolan is an Indian. A public apology was made by the players. No suspensions resulted.ABOVE BOARD: The Ottawa 67&rsquo;s filed a suit against the city, disputing the NHL Senators&rsquo; right to sell advertising in the Civic Centre.The expansion Senators rented the arena for 45 games and substitute their advertising during games. The 67&rsquo;s claim the Senators left ads on the boards and clock for days after a game.Documents filed in court ask for damages and an injunction restraining any tenant from obscuring the 67&rsquo;s advertising. The 67&rsquo;s advertising contracts are premised on full exposure 365 days every year.BARGAIN PICKUP: The London Knights got a bargain when they signed overage winger Yvan Corbin Nov. 25. All it cost was a $1,000 waiver fee, which went to the Kitchener Rangers.The Rangers left the 41-goal scorer from last season unprotected when it appeared he would play for Chatham of the Colonial League.Corbin went from $400 a week in Chatham to the standard $40 a week in the OHL, but figures he stands a better chance at being scouted by the NHL playing major junior.LAW AND ORDER: Newmarket winger Ryan VandenBussche was suspended 10 games for shoving referee Jim Houston Nov. 18. VandenBussche was upset no penalty was called after he was clipped by a high stick&hellip;Peterborough Petes&rsquo; high-scoring left winger Dave Roche was suspended eight games for a high-sticking incident Nov. 12 on Wade Simpson of Oshawa. Roche was 15th in league scoring with 19 goals and 42 points in 20 games.The Soo Greyhounds lost center Ralph Intranuovo with a shoulder injury until early December when he was pushed into the boards Nov. 20 by Petes&rsquo; defenseman Jeff Walker. No penalty was called and Greyhounds&rsquo; GM Sherry Bassin sent the videotape to Dave Branch.Branch was to review a game misconduct assessed Greyhounds&rsquo; center Aaron Gavey five minutes later, when he sent the Petes&rsquo; Brent Tully into the boards&hellip;Owen Sound Platers&rsquo; right winger Andrew Brunette had at least a point in all 20 games. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

Cents claim racial slur much ado about nothing

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THE DRAW

Clayton Beddoes may design buildings some day, but right now he&rsquo;s content with constructing an impressive hockey career at Lake Superior State.The Lakers&rsquo; junior center is one of the most dynamic offensive players in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.He has scored 100 points in 91 career games and was second in league scoring through eight games this season with four goals and 14 points.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01326/6049120-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="378" height="510"><figcaption class="caption-body">Clayton Beddoes</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The one thing that sets Clayton apart is his tremendous vision,&rdquo; Lakers&rsquo; coach Jeff Jackson said. &ldquo;It could help him become a big-time player.&rdquo;Beddoes, who is undrafted, also stars in the classroom. The mechanical engineering student was named to the CCHA&rsquo;s allacademic team a year ago with a 3.16 grade-point average (out of 4.0). &#9632;

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Beddoes leads good ship Laker

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div>Love him or hate him. Serge Savard has carved out an enviable record.In his 10th season as the managing director of the NHL&rsquo;s most scrutinized franchise, Savard has one Stanley Cup and four Adams Division championships, including a 341-21581 record overall.One person who definitely loves Savard is Ronald Corey. The Canadiens president signed Savard to a three-year contract extension Nov. 27. The new deal takes effect in June, 1993. Savard&rsquo;s old agreement was to expire in August, 1993.Savard has received his share of criticism over several trades-Chris Chelios for Denis Savard and Claude Lemieux for Sylvain Turgeon in particular. He has also received some heat because the Canadiens have only one championship during his tenure.But Savard has made good trades-unloading Stephane Richer and Tom Chorske for Kirk Muller-and his teams have remained competitive.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t evaluate GMs only by the number of Stanley Cups they&rsquo;ve won,&rdquo; Corey said. &ldquo;If we did, we&rsquo;d be firing 23 of them each year. Savard has done a tremendous number of good things.&rdquo;Without much fanfare, Savard, 46. has become one of the NHL&rsquo;s senior management people. When his new extension expires, he&rsquo;ll have been the Canadiens&rsquo; GM for 13 years. Only Boston&rsquo;s Harry Sinden, Edmonton&rsquo;s Glen Sather and Washington&rsquo;s David Poile have more seniority with one team.BAD LUCK: Misfortune has found its way to the doorstep of hard-luck left winger Benoit Brunet-again.Brunet sprained his left knee Nov. 21 against the Ottawa Senators after losing his balance and sliding into the boards. Brunet was playing well and had seven goals and six assists in 18 games. He was expected to be sidelined until Dec. 15.The chain of events leading to his latest injury was shockingly similar to those which occurred in a December. 1991 game against Vancouver.In that game he also lost his balance and slid into the boards, break ing his ankle. The injury required surgery and Brunet&rsquo;s season was over. The year before that, he sustained a knee injury in training camp and missed 23 games.NOTEBOOK: A pair of Canadiens&rsquo; slumps-one individual and one team-came to an end Nov. 25 in Hartford. Left winger Vincent&rsquo; Damphousse scored three goals and added an assist in the 6-1 win, while the Canadiens power play connected on three of five manpower advantages. Damphousse, a slow starter, had been in an awful slump with five goals and 17 points in 22 games. In the Canadiens next game, a 6-5 loss to Vancouver Nov. 28, Damphousse added three assists. Montreal&rsquo;s power play, meanwhile, had connected only 15 times in 112 opportunities for a dismal 13.4-per-cent success rate prior to playing Hartford. It added three goals in five chances against Vancouver. 4<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 27: Serge Savard, GM, signed three-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Kirk Muller, Stephan Lebeau. Denis Savard, Guy Carbonneau.LW-John LeClair. Vincent Damphousse, Gilbert Dionne, Mario Roberge.RW-Brian Bellows. Mike Keane, Ed Ronan, Todd Ewen.LD-Mathieu Schneider, Kevin Haller, Jean-Jacques Daigneault, Donald Dufresne.RD-Lyle Odelein, Patrice Brisebois, Eric Desjardins.G-Patrick Roy, Andre Racicot.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Benoit Brunet. LW, sprained left knee, indefinite Brian Skrudland, C.tom ligament in right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

Corey rewards Savard with lucrative new deal

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01892/6049467-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"></div>OUR 3-STAR SELECTIONSPetr picks up pace-P. 12 Quinn absolved, released-P.17 Advent of in-ice ads-p.45Steve YzermanTHE NEW KINGPINS Los Angeles changes its identityLuc Robitaille Los Angeles KingsAre today&rsquo;s NHLers too chummy with each other?Leafs get Cullen and his hefty salary from Whalers &#9632;

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SUPER STATS! NHL even-strength, power-play points

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011344/6047438-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Gilmour pays Kings&rsquo; ransom for hacking Tomas Sandstrom. P. 14</figcaption></div><h2>QUOTABLE</h2>&ldquo;He should be seething mad He should be in this room wanting to punch rhe coach in the nose for hiking him out of the lineup.&rdquo;-Edmonton coach Ted Green on Esa Tikkanen&rsquo;s indifferent attitude. Page. 9.&ldquo;For goodness sakes, we&rsquo;re playing hockey. We could be dirt farmers in Afghanistan or rice farmers in Vietnam There are worse things in life than an eiglu-weck roud trip.&rdquo;-Greensboro coach Jeff Brubaker putting a lengthy road trip into perspective, Page 41. &#9632;

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<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021084/6047476-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="354" height="348"></div>San Diego Gulls. Led by the International League&rsquo;s top scorer, Hubie McDonough, the high-flying Gulls went 22-0-2 in their first 24 games. They allowed just 44 goals for a 1.90 goals-against average.Gil Stein. The NHL has always upheld suspensions from other leagues. But Stein gave Boston&rsquo;s Glen Featherstone nine nongame, non-travel days after the American League had given him nine games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03777/6047469-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="355" height="349"></div> &#9632;

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CHEERS & JEERS

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><h2>Buddy system stinks</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011503/6047552-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="298" height="377"></div>What in the world are players doing fraternizing with the enemy?No wonder fighting is down, the players are too chummy to be bothered bopping one another in games. Not to suggest this is a new phenomenon. It has been going on for years now. But at least players were more discreet about it in the past.Open player fraternization is an unhealthy trend. The players united during last season&rsquo;s strike and apparently they are still standing together.Imagine, the league&rsquo;s best player whooping it up the night before a game with a player from a team he&rsquo;s to face the next evening. The mere thought of it is appalling to me.Fans who pay good money to attend NHL games need to be confident that high-salaried players aren&rsquo;t playing a pickup game between friends.The incident involving Dan Quinn of the Minnesota North Stars and several members of the Pittsburgh Penguins brought the NHL&rsquo;s new reality to the forefront.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like the players don&rsquo;t play for a team anymore, they just play for the league,&rdquo; said Minnesota general manager-coach Bob Gainey.One player agent told me he recently walked into a bar and found about 10 players from one team happily chatting with members of another.He thought it was ridiculous and I agree.If players want to work out and play golf together in the off-season, fine.But during the season, it wouldn&rsquo;t hurt to at least give the impression some real animosity actually exists between opponents.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021353/6047545-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="993" height="1632"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031140/6047538-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="997" height="1632"></div><h2>Early bargains and busts</h2>In this NHL era of high finance, players are judged by their play and their pay.Keeping that thought in mind, here are the all-bargain and alloverpaid teams just past the quarter mark of the 1992-93 season.<h3>ALL-BARGAIN TEAM</h3>G-Felix Potvin, Toronto, $145,000. Solid play made it possible for the Leafs to field trade offers for veteran Grant Fuhr.D-Rob Blake, Los Angeles, $165,000. Has emerged as solid two-way blueliner and plays aggressively.D-Adam Foote, Quebec, $145,000. Aggressive but controlled in own zone. Plays it tough home and away.C-Brian Bradley. Tampa Bay, $350,000. Team&rsquo;s most consistent player offensively and among league scoring leaders.LW-Chris Kontos, Tan Bay, $150,000. His 20 goals in 27 games just seven shy of career total in 167 games.RW-Mike Craig, Minnesota, $145,000. Two-way forward scores goals, plays power play and kills penalties.<h3>ALL-OVERPAID TEAM</h3>G-Don Beaupre, Washingt $850,000. Has struggled with 210-1 record with 3.90 goals against average.D-Bruce Driver, New Jersey, $650,000. His game has continued to slip since Scott Stevens arrived on scene.D-Steve Konroyd, Hartford, $700,000. A decent, workman-like player but not good enough for that kind of money.C-John Cullen, Toronto, $900,000. Awful in 19 games with Whalers. Has improved since moving to Leafs.LW-Bob Carpenter, Washington, $525,000. Signed as from agent, had eight points in 24 games with minus-6.RW-Dave Christian, Chicago. $565,000. Hawks say they like Christian but no goals in 22 games? C&rsquo;mon.<h2>Huard still waits for NHL debut</h2>Bill Huard was mere seconds away from making his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins.After four seasons of hard work and persistence in the minors, the 25-year-old was about to see the payoff. Then came the tap on the shoulder. Not the kind of tap that says, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re up next shift.&rsquo; Instead it was a &lsquo;Go-get-un-dressed-you&rsquo;re-not-playing&rsquo; kind of tap.Just before Huard-who had been called up from Providence of the American League Nov. 27-was about to go on the ice against the Hartford Whalers Nov. 28, the Bruins discovered they had failed to put him on waivers. Players signed to minor-league contracts following the Oct. 4 waiver draft are required to clear waivers before playing in the NHL. Huard signed with Providence Oct. 6.Huard was placed on waivers Nov. 29 and was expected to clear them Dec. 1. He was returned to Providence and is awaiting recall.&ldquo;I was disappointed about what happened because I&rsquo;ve waited four years for my shot,&rdquo; Huard said. &ldquo;I really wanted to play for those coaches (Brian Sutter and Tom McVie). They respect tough guys. I&rsquo;d go through walls for them.&rdquo;Huard had six goals and 11 points with 65 penalty minutes in 23 AHL games.<h2>Howe celebrates 65th with tour</h2>For the first time since he was 15 years old, Gordie Howe is not under contract to a hockey team.But he just can&rsquo;t stay away from the game.Mr. Hockey will hit the road for a 65-city tour in celebration of his 65th birthday and his first stop is Hartford on Jan. 28. Howe turns 65 on March 31.The legendary right winger, who spent 26 seasons in the NHL, will travel to 65 cities in 1993-including each NHL city-on the Gordie Howe Birthday Celebration tour. He will be accompanied by his wife Colleen, and their daughter, Kathy Roskam.All proceeds raised through dinners, hockey clinics and breakfasts will go to the charity of the host team&rsquo;s choice.The tour is also an opportunity for the family to announce formation of the Howe Foundation, whose mission is to support charities which improve the quality of life for children.They plan to spend at least two days in each city with the fund raiser held one day and the group attending a game on the other.The entire tour will actually take five years with the family making its way to smaller hockey markets visiting teams in the minor pro and junior leagues.&ldquo;It will be Gordie&rsquo;s way of saying thanks,&rdquo; Colleen said. &#9632;

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BROPHY’S STOPS ’N’ STARTS

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011417/6047597-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"></div>Richie Rich of the NHL has been reborn.The Los Angeles Kings have junked their private airplane to fly commercial and under rookie coach Barry Melrose, were grinding out wins at a pace that would easily eclipse their 1990-91 club record of 46.More importantly, at 16-7-2 after 25 games, they were at the top of the Smythe Division. The Kings hadn&rsquo;t lost more than two straight games and jockeyed for the league lead in goals scored.Melrose and general manager Nick Beverley have had to fashion a winner without Wayne Gretzky, who is out until at least March with a back injury. But the team&rsquo;s lineup is only cosmetically changed from last season when it was a.500 club that fell in the first round of the playoffs in six games to Edmonton.Any franchise with Jari Kurri, Luc Robitaille and Paul Coffey in its employ can&rsquo;t portray itself as bereft of talent. But what is turning heads is the Kings&rsquo; transformation from Team Beverly Hills to Beverley&rsquo;s Hillbillies.&ldquo;What the Kings have become,&rdquo; said Ottawa Senators&rsquo; pro scout Jim Nill, &ldquo;is a lunchpail team with three or four players any team would love to have.&rdquo;When Melrose arrived in Los Angeles fresh off an American League championship with Adirondack, he found the wreckage of what was Edmonton West.Kurri was coming off his all-time low season of 23 goals and 60 points. Whispers had elevated into roars that the 32-year-old was on a permanent downslope. Defenseman Charlie Huddy suffered through an injury-ravaged and disappointing 56-game season. Coffey, a late-season acquisition from Pittsburgh, played well in the playoffs but his 11 goals and 69 points were a disappointment.Even Gretzky was coming off an NHL career low of 121 points and his back, the Kings&rsquo; traditional vehicle of transit, was ticketed for rehabilitation early in training camp.Now that the Kings have shown they can live without Gretzky, some NHL observers are suggesting the unthinkable: the Kings are a better team without No. 99 in the lineup.&ldquo;The idea that we&rsquo;re a better team without Wayne is a complete joke,&rdquo; Coffey said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re 16-7-2 now, maybe with Wayne we&rsquo;d be 25-0. I don&rsquo;t care how well we&rsquo;re playing, with him we&rsquo;ll be playing that much better.&rdquo;High expectations were not a burden imposed on Melrose. After firing Tom Webster, the Kings sought out somebody, anybody who could consistently extract an honest night&rsquo;s work from his players.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021025/6047590-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="562" height="892"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Coffey&rsquo;s defensive play has been a pleasant surprise.</figcaption></div>They found him in Melrose.&ldquo;Barry&rsquo;s teams in Adirondack always worked hard,&rdquo; Beverley said. &ldquo;That was an area we felt we had been lacking in the past.&rdquo;In Melrose, a former journeyman defenseman with three NHL teams, Beverley selected a motivator for a moribund franchise.A devotee of positivethinking guru Anthony Robbins, Melrose once took his Adirondack team to a local penitentiary to see first-hand the squalor of prison life. One of his team meetings was a talk with an AIDS patient about the disease.&ldquo;I like to show people that we get caught up in our world too much,&rdquo; Melrose said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to come back to us and realize we have a gift. Sometimes you forget that and think it will go on forever.&rdquo;<blockquote class="pullQuote">All the Kings&rsquo; men</blockquote>With Melrose&rsquo;s sanction, Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall mothballed the team&rsquo;s private jet.&ldquo;I could probably get it back if we convinced Bruce we desperately needed it,&rdquo; Melrose said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s good for us to suffer a little bit and get up at 5 a.m. together. Mr. McNall has always been good to us, it&rsquo;s time for us to earn it.&rdquo;&ldquo;From Day 1, it was, &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t work hard, don&rsquo;t play,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Robitaille. &ldquo;If Jari Kurri or Luc Robitaille aren&rsquo;t working, we don&rsquo;t play&rdquo;Melrose introduced a high-tempo, heavy-forecheck pressure system. The first checker pursues aggressively with another just a few strides away. It is hockey&rsquo;s version of the full-court press.The Kings have not become Jennings Trophy contenders. In fact, they were barely among the league&rsquo;s top third in goals against. Much of their success on offense and defense has been their ability to create turnovers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03686/6047583-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="561" height="892"><figcaption class="caption-body">Kelly Hrudey is giving the Kings solid goaltending.</figcaption></div>Positive reinforcement is never far away. The Kings have daily video sessions and meet at 6 p.m. on game day to prepare strategy.&ldquo;I hardly ever show negative stuff,&rdquo; Melrose said. &ldquo;We show what we want to do and show the hits, finishing checks, going to the net, speed.&rdquo;The videos and strategy meetings have produced immediate results. Of the team&rsquo;s 25 first periods, the Kings led 14 times at the intermission and entered the break tied in four more.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s really a function of being prepared,&rdquo; Huddy said. &ldquo;The six o&rsquo;clock meeting gets us ready and we&rsquo;re not behind the eight-ball before we even get out there.&rdquo;Huddy was leading the league in plus-minus at plus-27 and Kurri, whom Melrose describes as his team&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux, was a close second. Kurri&rsquo;s performance after being moved to center allowed the Kings to scuttle a deal for Detroit pivot Jimmy Carson and keep Marty McSorley, a hustling player who embodies Melrose&rsquo;s style.Robitaille, who has averaged 46 goals over his six NHL seasons, was on pace for 67. Coffey, his confidence heightened by his use as a penalty killer and in key defensive situations, was contributing a point a game and has been solid defensively.As in any banner season, there have been surprises. Backup goalie Robb Stauber, promoted from the team&rsquo;s International League affiliate in Phoenix, has posted a 7-0-1 record and his performance and share of the workload has heightened the game of incumbent Kelly Hrudey.Along the blueline, the Kings boast an emerging core of talented young defenders. Third-year King Rob Blake, fresh from off-season shoulder surgery, is rapidly becoming a dominant defenseman.Rearguard Alexei Zhitnik is only 5-foot-9 but is mobile and mean. Darryl Sydor, a player with generous offensive gifts, has flashes of big-league maturity and prime-time offensive skills.The Kings won their next two games after Doug Gilmour broke Tomas Sandstrom&rsquo;s arm with a slash. The club finally crashed with a 3-2 loss in Toronto on Nov. 28.When Gretzky does return to the team, some have suggested that he might disrupt the chemistry that the Kings have created. But Melrose makes it clear, his way and Gretzky&rsquo;s way are one in the same.&ldquo;How much he plays depends on Wayne, the guys who play the hardest play the most.&rdquo; Melrose said. &ldquo;If Wayne Gretzky is the Wayne Gretzky of old, he&rsquo;ll get his 30 minutes a night.&ldquo;Wayne loves the way we play, the attacking style and the tempo game fits his style perfectly.&rdquo;Coffey holds his hands up about two inches apart and says, &ldquo;When Wayne gets on the ice and sees the way we play, his eyes will be this big.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Lunchpail gang becomes the star attraction in Hollywood

New Jersey&rsquo;s twin towers of hockey wisdom, owner John McMullen and general manager Lou Lamoriello, are at it again.This year, the marked man is Doug Brown, a hustling defensive forward, who given adequate ice time, could score 20 to 30 goals.Brown&rsquo;s crime?He is seeking salary arbitration after continuing to be one of the lowest paid veterans in the league.Brown&rsquo;s days as a Devil are almost over. He will likely go the way of Paul Ysebaert, who defied Lamoriello and played out his option in the American League, was re-signed by the Devils and despite obvious talent, was traded to Detroit for Lee Norwood.The same thing has happened for years: a player asks for a competitive salary in New Jersey and is traded. Witness what happened to Kirk Muller and Pat Verbeek. It seems the Devils prefer to loosen the purse strings only for European players.Some time ago while reacting to criticism, McMullen proclaimed that Lamoriello is a wonderful guy and New Jersey fans should be grateful to him.Well, as a former Devil rooter, I can only say, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t do us any more favors, Mr. McMullen.&rdquo;Lloyd Eichler, New York, N.Y.<h2>What&rsquo;s the deal?</h2>I don&rsquo;t understand the NHL&rsquo;s new suspension policy.How can Marty McSorley viciously attack Darren Banks with a crosscheck to the face and not miss a game, while Darius Kasparaitis has to sit out two games for game misconducts on accidental high sticks?The NHL must suspend troublemakers for actual games, not nongame and non-travel days. Otherwise, vicious attacks such as the Banks incident will keep happening.John Jamison.&nbsp; Ringwood, N.J.<h2>Roger over and out</h2>Before New York Rangers&rsquo; general manager Neil Smith makes another trade in an attempt to shake his team from its malaise, he should study how appropriate the team&rsquo;s current coaching philosophy is.Is it really wise for a team comprised of offense guns such as Mark Messier, Brian Leetch, Mike Gartner and Tony Amonte to play a defense-first style? 1 think not.Come on, Neil. You&rsquo;ve given coach Roger Neilson a great collection of players to work with. He has failed to maximize their collective talents. Let&rsquo;s face it. Roger must go.Robert Ebert,&nbsp; Nutley, N.J.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011595/6047628-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="570" height="826"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former Blue Harold Snepsts was a master at blocking shots. Blocking blues</figcaption></div>Reader Tom Cook states that &ldquo;it is very irritating to see a player drop at the top of the circle to stop a shot with his body.&rdquo; (Letters, Nov. 13).Obviously, he hasn&rsquo;t followed the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; fall from a Stanley Cup contender to a mediocre club in one year.Two years ago, the Blues had Scott Stevens and Harold Snepsts on the blueline. Both would block 10 shots a game between them.Snepsts has since retired and Stevens was lost to the New Jersey Devils.The Blues allowed the second-most shots in the league a year ago. San Jose allowed the most.And that problem continues this season.Stopping shots is part of a good defense. If the puck doesn&rsquo;t get to the net, obviously it can&rsquo;t go in.Stephen Lane,&nbsp; Ballwin, Mo.<h2>Leafs perfect?</h2>I enjoyed reading Steve Dryden&rsquo;s column &ldquo;A short list of where clubs come up short.&rdquo; (THN, Nov. 27)There was one problem 1 had with it however. What about the Toronto Maple Leafs?Surely Dryden doesn&rsquo;t think the team has no weaknesses. Has Pat Bums, Cliff Fletcher and the rest of the Leafs&rsquo; management done that good a job in its short tenure?Kevin Shearon,&nbsp; Burlington, Ont.Make your feelings known. Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 445-0753&nbsp;or write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2&nbsp;in Canada. In the U.S., write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240-9947.&nbsp;Include home and business phone numbers.&nbsp;THN&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

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Devils’ brain trust missing the boat

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div>Philadelphia&rsquo;s Brent Fedyk was averaging 28 points a season before this year. Now he&rsquo;s on pace for 104 points. Here are other surging players with their career seasonal average compared to projected 1992-93 totals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-04438/6047704-1-eng-US/f0006-042.jpg" title="f0006-04" width="566" height="466"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03697/6047697-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="576" height="748"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brent Fedyk</figcaption></div>Before going down with a knee injury Nov. 23, Hartford&rsquo;s Tim Kerr was off to a dreadful start with just six assists in 18 games. Here are other players who have struggled this year with their career seasonal average compared to projected 1992-93 totals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-05350/6047690-1-eng-US/f0006-052.jpg" title="f0006-05" width="568" height="416"></div> &#9632;

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Starting a career year Falling off their pace

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Phil Esposito and Toronto Star hockey columnist Bob McKenzie have settled their differences.The GM issued a letter of apology to the writer Nov. 24 and McKenzie asked that the Ontario Crown attorney drop assault charges against Esrsito.A decision on whether the charges would be dismissed was expected Dec. 1.&ldquo;What I did was wrong,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;I have never done anything like that before and I will never do it again. It should not have happened. What I did was totally wrong.&rdquo;The highly publicized dispute came to an end in a Toronto law office, but it was announced outside the Maple Leaf Gardens dressing room in which the Oct. 15 confrontation occurred.Esposito demanded McKenzie leave the Tampa Bay dressing room and used physical force to remove him when the former editor-in-chief of The Hockey News pointed out he was entitled to be there.Esposito was charged with common assault Nov. 4. He was scheduled to enter a plea Nov. 25.&ldquo;I would like to take this opportunity to offer my sincere apologies,&rdquo; Esposito said in the letter to McKenzie.&ldquo;I am truly sorry for any embarrassment or inconvenience this incident may have caused your family,&rdquo; he said.The GM acknowledged several things in his two-page apology letter:&#9633; &ldquo;I was under the (mistaken) impression that negative articles written by you about me and the Lightning were with an ulterior motive; that you had a conflict of interest and would somehow personally benefit from seeing me and the Lightning fall.&#9633; &ldquo;There is no evidence to suggest that your articles about me and the Lightning have contained inaccuracies and half-truths, as was suggested in a press release issued by the Lightning.&#9633; &ldquo;You did not trip over an equipment bag in the dressing room, as was publicly suggested.&rdquo;Esposito and his lawyers were set to meet McKenzie and his Toronto representative, John Olah. But first the two principles met privately for 40 minutes and laid the groundwork for the settling the dispute.&ldquo;The reason why I agreed to press for having the charges dropped were threefold,&rdquo; McKenzie said. &ldquo;First, I believe there was a degree of sincerity in Mr. Esposito&rsquo;s apology.&ldquo;Also, he was prepared to provide me with a letter of apology that included a retraction of statements he made about me that I was unhappy with.&ldquo;He had expressed&rsquo; that I might have had ulterior motives in my criticism of the Tampa Bay franchise, suggesting 1 might have gained employment with another group had it been granted the franchise and that was not true.&ldquo;Finally, it was an opportunity for Mr. Esposito and myself to discuss our relationship the past few years which, 1-on-1, has been virtually non-existent.&rdquo;McKenzie said he was concerned that if he followed through with the court case, the underlying problems between he and Esposito would not be resolved. &#9632;

Esposito issues apology for dressing room incident

<div class="byline">Complied by THN Staff</div>NHL players have until Dec. 15 to pay the city of Philadelphia back taxes based on their earnings there for 1991.The 4.3 per-cent non-resident wage tax applies to anyone who does business in Philadelphia. This includes all NHLers who played in Philadelphia, except for those who are retired and for Canadian residents on Canadian-based NHL teams.The tax is based on the number of days players worked in Philadelphia. The city has agreed to a request by the NHL Players&rsquo; Association that Oaxable income be based on days, not games. That means a player who played one game in Philadelphia in 1991 is taxed based on l/276th of his salary (the number of days for which a player is paid), not l/80th.The tax means Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux, the league&rsquo;s highest-paid player, would owe about $615 for each game he plays in Philadelphia this season. A player earning the average salary of $350,000, would owe about $50 a game.&ldquo;Philadelphia has the legal right to tax the players,&rdquo; said NHLPA lawyer Stephen Kidder.The NHLPA did get the filing deadline pushed back from Nov. 15 and has also had the city of Philadelphia extend its tax grab only to 1991 and not as far back as 1986 as the city originally wanted.For 1992, the players have until Feb. 15, 1993 to pay the tax. However, the city of Philadelphia has agreed to allow NHL teams to withhold an amount of money equal to the tax they would have to pay. That means instead of each player having to file a return, the 24 NHL teams will each submit one return.The tax holds particular problems for Philadelphia Flyers who don&rsquo;t hold a principle residence in the city. They must pay tax based on every home game, plus any other team functions that take place in the city.Kidder said they are lucky the team practices in Voorhees, N.J., or else they would have to pay taxes based on those practice days.IRONMAN WINS: Chicago Blackhawk right winger Steve Larmer was named NHL player of the week for the period ending Nov. 29.Larmer, who holds the longest active consecutive games played streak with 825, had six goals and 10 points in three games. He had six points Nov. 27 in an 8-1 win over Edmonton and scored three goals in a 5-2 victory over Calgary Nov. 28. &#9632;

Philly tax man comes calling

A weekly compendium of significant events and developments.Nov. 24: Hartford trades center John Cullen to Toronto for second-round entry draft pick in 1993 or 1994.Minnesota police say Dan Quinn don&rsquo;t be charged in connection with alleged sexual assault of 19-year-old Twin Cities woman. North Stars release Quinn.Nov. 25: Pittsburgh loses first home game of season, 11-3 to New York Rangers.Ottawa ends 21-game winless streak with 3-1 victory over New Jersey.Detroit scores in double-figures in consecutive games for first time ever with 11-6 win over St. Louis.Nov. 27: NHL suspends Toronto center Doug Gilmour eight non-game days without pay and fines him $500. Maple Leafs fined $28,984.Chicago right winger Steve Larmer scores two goals and four assists in 81 win over Edmonton. &#9632;

HOCKEY WEEK: NOV. 23-29

<div class="byline">By Stan Flschler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011525/6047807-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Roman Hamrlik and his buddies with the Tampa Bay Lightning often frequent a local fishing hole. None of them are trade bait.</figcaption></div>Anaheim is being touted as a potential site for an NHL team, but the NHL could lose one California city to gain another. Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall told Bluelines he has considered moving his team 35 miles southeast. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a possibility I might move to Anaheim if it was possible to work a deal out,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;d like to see us stay in L.A.&rdquo; Anaheim will have a 19,000-seat rink ready by June, 1993, but McNall said he is in no rush and would prefer to keep the Kings in L.A. Even if his team stays put, McNall said Anaheim is a strong possibility in the future. Any interests there would have to pay the Kings a $30-million territorial indemnity. &ldquo;Assuming we stay where we are, my decision on a team in Anaheim would depend on whether it&rsquo;s an existing franchise or a new one and whether it would be in everybody&rsquo;s best interest,&rdquo; McNall said.<h2>Another WHA?</h2>Twenty years after the World Hockey Association&rsquo;s inception in 1972, a new WHA-type league is in the works. Dubbed the Major League Hockey Association, the circuit is eyeing franchises in Denver, Miami. Dallas, Saskatoon, San Francisco and Worcester, Mass., with Toronto a longshot. Original New York Islanders&rsquo; owner Roy Boe is the driving force behind the circuit and insiders inform that by Jan. 1, the MLHA will know whether or not it will operate&hellip; A major discussion topic at the upcoming NHL board of governors&rsquo; meetings Dec. 8-12, will be a proposal for tie-breaking penalty-shot shootouts. Endorsed by Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; boss Marcel Aubut, the idea also has the backing of some leaders. Even Aubut&rsquo;s traditional foe, Ron Corey of the Montreal Canadiens, said &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t put up a big fight against it.&rdquo; However, the majority of traditionalists are expected to shoot down the shootout.<h2>Getting smoked</h2>The running press-box gag about the expansion Ottawa Senators goes like this: What&rsquo;s the difference between the Senators and a cigarette machine? The cigarette machine has Players&hellip;An NHL general manager told Bluelines he swears a top agent with whom he was dealing confessed the following: &ldquo;He said he realizes the salary bonanza is only going to last a few more years and then he&rsquo;s getting the hell out of the business. My impression is that some agents do care about the skyrocketing salaries but others don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;&hellip;Eric Lindros reveals that he wears neither an undershirt nor socks during games and claims he got the idea from teammate Dave Brown. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been watching Brownie,&rdquo; Lindros said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s skin to win.&rdquo;<h2>Gone fishing</h2>One of the most unusual hockey players&rsquo; hangouts involves the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tampa Bay players such as Chris Kontos head for a fishing pond near the team&rsquo;s Expo Hall home rink. Even rookie Roman Hamrlik and his father Zdenek go there. Not long ago Zdenek caught a four-pound bass and fed it to Roman for a pre-game meal. &ldquo;And it was good,&rdquo; said the defenseman&hellip;USA Hockey organizer Lou Vairo told Bluelines the first-ever pro-amateur summit in Boston July 8-10 was inspired by legendary Soviet hockey coach Anatoli Tarasov. &ldquo;Anatoli told me that before he dies, he wants to explain to his system of developing superstars,&rdquo; said Vairo, the U.S. Olympic team coach in 1984. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to grant him that wish.&rdquo;<h2>Playing games</h2>If invited, Hall of Famer Gordie Howe said he&rsquo;ll refuse to play in the alumni match at the All-Star Game. &ldquo;I had the same idea for a game like this several years ago,&rdquo; Howe said. &ldquo;When we sent it along to the league, it was turned down. A year or two later, they used the same idea, under corporate sponsorship. It was like you designed a house and they stole the blueprint from you and built the house and then invited you to come by for a visit. If they contributed a portion of the money to the pension fund, I&rsquo;d consider going.&rdquo;<h2>Bad situation</h2>The fact Gil Stein is potentially a lame duck president until a commissioner is selected has created what one NHL staffer called &ldquo;a chaotic situation&rdquo;, according to one official. &ldquo;Nothing is clear about anything,&rdquo; the official said. &ldquo;People are confused and down in the dumps. Those making decisions don&rsquo;t really have a clue.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0008-01

Will NHL be home of Anaheim Kings? You never know

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021198/6047838-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="380" height="481"></div>In some ways, you have to admire the strategy. For the 1992-93 season, the Calgary Flames&rsquo; plan to turn the team around involved&hellip;doing nothing.Nothing, that is, except to hire coach Dave King, which turned out to be a significant something.The Rames essentially stood pat after last season&rsquo;s 74-point season and fifth-place finish, the first time in 17 years they&rsquo;d missed the playoffs. They figured that adding King-a teaching coach-that alone would help turn the team around.The theory was King&rsquo;s presence would: a) help the good players, such as Theo Reury, Joe Nieuwendyk and Al Maclnnis rebound from off-seasons; b) instill some discipline in the Rames; and c) teach them to play defense the way they did in 1989 when they won the Stanley Cup.This, of course, was a best-case scenario that smacked more of cross-your-fingers-and-hope approach than of authoritative decision-making.A little more than a quarter of the way through the season, however, it also looks like the right approach. The Flames are in contention for first place in the Smythe Division and comfortably in a playoff position.Can one man make such a difference? The answer is yes. The mood of the team, extremely bleak for much of last season, has improved dramatically. There isn&rsquo;t the daily grousing about contracts, which put King&rsquo;s predecessor, Doug Rise-brough, into an uncomfortable nowin situation.In the mornings, as coach, Rise-brough tried to coax the most out of his players on a daily basis. In the afternoons, as GM, he kept saying no to the line of players outside his office, looking for renegotiated contracts.There were some players who figured King would not necessarily be a communicative leader either. That turned out to be the wrong assessment. Everything King does, he does for a reason and that reason is explained to his team.For one group of players, the ones who worshipped former coach Bob Johnson, King represents the most Badger-like coach since Johnson.Other players wanted to see ice time tied to performance and that too has happened. King is not afraid to bench even the best players for long stretches during a game if he believes their play that night doesn&rsquo;t warrant more ice time.In short, he plays it straight and he plays it fair. Suddenly, team play is organized and orderly. Instead of all the running around that used to occur they seem to know what they&rsquo;re doing out there. A marked improvement can be seen in how they move the puck out of the zone as efficiently as possible.The fact all this occurred without major line-up revisions; with an injury-a-week on defense; with a crowded playing schedule; with a new coach is nothing short of a small miracle.Not that King is satisfied. He&rsquo;ll take the 13-8-2 record through 23 games, but said he wants more.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re happy with the results we&rsquo;re getting, but the most important thing is always the quality of your play,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;We have to improve in some areas, in terms of team play and personnel.&rdquo;The only question I had about King&rsquo;s approach is: How would he adapt to the rigors of NHL life? In his nine years with Canada&rsquo;s national team, it didn&rsquo;t matter if his team won or lost the majority of its preOlympic games. It played up to eight games every four years that mattered and his program&rsquo;s success or failure would be assessed on the basis of those games.Not so in the NHL. Three times a week, two points are up for grabs. If you don&rsquo;t get the two points enough times and miss the playoffs, then no amount of moral victories is going to satisfy the paying customer.What has he learned so far in his first tour of duty through the NHL? Mainly the demands of the schedule sometimes take their toll on a team.&ldquo;Because 1 haven&rsquo;t been through the NHL before, I can&rsquo;t tell you, frorr a coach&rsquo;s perspective, what is an acceptable performance every night.&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;I guess you don&rsquo;t get everybody going every night. Unfor-tunately, you do get people who take nights off once in a while.&ldquo;The problem is, if you get one or two players not playing well, it really affects your team because it is a col-lective game. You need that guy on your line playing well or you&rsquo;re not going to have a chance to play well yourself. Our biggest challenge as coaches is to get more of the guys to play harder more of the time. If we can do that, we&rsquo;ll be competitive.&rdquo;That they are. No one is predicting a return to the glory days of the mid-to-late eighties, but so far. the team is adjusting to King&rsquo;s style and he is adjusting to life in the NHL.Thus far anyway, it is a marriage made in hockey heaven. &#9632;

f0008-02

Flames’ only move pays big dividends

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>The man who turned the job of shadow into an art form is a shadow of his former self.And the &lsquo;A&rsquo; on Esa Tikkanen&rsquo;s Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; jersey stands for AWOL these days.He doesn&rsquo;t hit, he doesn&rsquo;t score, he doesn&rsquo;t get in anybody&rsquo;s face. He doesn&rsquo;t lead his team in any way.On Nov. 28 against Tampa Bay, he didn&rsquo;t even play. Coach Ted Green has had all he can stand from Tikkanen.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a day-to-day thing but I have more than one game in mind,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;It depends on him, on his wanting to be a part of the team, wanting to be a player.&rdquo;Tikkanen took it all in stride and that made Green even hotter.&ldquo;He should be totally (bleeped) off and upset and he&rsquo;s not,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;He should be seething mad. He should be in this room wanting to punch the coach in the nose for taking him out of the lineup.&rdquo;Tikkanen had one goal in 23 games, lousy output for anybody and worse because he collects $900,000 per season.&ldquo;I shouldn&rsquo;t have to motivate somebody in his salary category,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;He should be motivating the team. The truth of the matter is I&rsquo;m not sure how much he cares.&rdquo;Tikkanen&rsquo;s answer to that wasn&rsquo;t exactly adamant.&ldquo;I think I care,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m bigtime down. I&rsquo;ve never been in a slump like this and I feel terrible. Nobody else can help, only me.&rdquo;WERENKA LOANED: The Oilers sued defenseman Brad Werenka. Then they loaned him to the Canadian national team, which suits him just fine.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to it. I don&rsquo;t want to sit here,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;(General manager Glen Sather) said they have no intentions of trading me. I&rsquo;ve got to prove myself and to do that I&rsquo;ve got to play.&rdquo;Werenka refused an assignment to the Oilers&rsquo; American League affiliate in Cape Breton and had been at home in Two Hills, Alta., since September. There was almost no dialogue between Werenka and the Oilers, who launched a $125,000 lawsuit, bent on recouping bonus money they paid the Northern Michigan grad.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel I owe them any money,&rdquo; Werenka said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;ve fulfilled their part of the contract. They have an obligation as far as getting an opportunity to play.&rdquo;Sather said Werenka was given the same opportunity as every other player who attended training camp.NOTEBOOK: When Marty Mc-Sorley received a misconduct for spearing Martin Gelinas Nov. 25, it was a continuation of their two-year feud. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got the same type of game; physical. We try to get our team going,&rdquo; Gelinas said.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 27: Brad Werenka, D, loaned to Canadian Olympic team.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Bemie Nicholls, Shayne Corson, Vladimir Vujtek, Craig MacTavish.LW-Craig Simpson, Martin Gelinas, Josef Beranek, Louie OeBrusk, Esa Tikkanen, David Maley.RW-Petr Klima, Brent Gilchrist, Scott Mellanby, Kelly Buchberger.LD-Dave Manson, Geoff Smith, Luke Richardson.RD-Craig Muni, Brian Glynn, Greg Hawgood. Chris Joseph.G-Bill Ranford, Ron Tugnutt.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Green supremely ticked off with lackadaisical Tikkanen

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>Just when the San Jose Sharks got one goalie back, they lost another.They&rsquo;re expected to be without Arturs Irbe until mid-December because of a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee sustained during a game against Winnipeg Nov. 27. Irbe was injured just as Jeff Hackett was ready to come back from a groin pull.Before being hurt, Irbe was red hot. In five starts, he allowed eight goals and stopped 182 shots.Irbe was injured when he twisted his knee while making a save on a shot by Winnipeg&rsquo;s Teemu Selanne. Irbe said he knew he was hurt when he heard a clicking sound in his knee.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t move my leg right,&rdquo; Irbe said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never had to leave a game because of getting hurt before.&rdquo;The Sharks were leading 2-1 when Irbe was injured midway in the third period, but the Jets scored twice against Brian Hayward to escape with a 3-2 overtime victory.Irbe was recalled on an emergency basis from Kansas City of the International League after Hackett was hurt, but played so well his recall status was changed so he wouldn&rsquo;t have to be returned when Hackett rejoined the team.Hackett returned against Minnesota Nov. 28, when the Sharks were beaten 10-3.THEY&rsquo;RE KILLERS: The Sharks made a dramatic turnaround in the performance of their special teams.Most impressive has been a reversal in penalty-killing situations. Poor penalty killing stifled the Sharks most of the season, but they suddenly became masters at it.After yielding 38 power-play goals in 18 games, the Sharks killed a team-record 28 consecutive situations. Among the team&rsquo;s kills were two in which they were short two players for more than a minute.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve finally come together,&rdquo; said John Carter, one of the most effective penalty killers. &ldquo;Guys on the power play like to have time to make a play, but we&rsquo;re not giving it to them. We&rsquo;re forcing them to get rid of the puck.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Tom Pederson scored the first two NHL goals of his career in a 4-3 overtime victory over Calgary Nov. 25. Pederson&rsquo;s second goal was the winner and came when he beat goalie Jeff Reese with a shot from beyond the Calgary blueline&hellip;Defenseman Neil Wilkinson, who has been sidelined by a back strain, agreed to terms of a new contract that will earn him a base salary of nearly $1 million over two seasons. Wilkinson was in the option year of his former contract.The Sharks assigned center Dale Craigwell to Kansas City. Craigwell, Pat Falloon and Johan Garpenlov had formed the most productive line at the end of last season and were expected to be the team&rsquo;s top line this season. But they struggled. &ldquo;The magic that was there between them never seemed to come back,&rdquo; coach George Kingston said.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 23: Dale Craigwell, C, assigned to Kansas City (IHL). Nov. 24: Neil Wilkinson, D, agreed to new contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-8rian Lawton, Kelly Kisio, Dean Evason, Mike Sullivan.LW-Larry DePalma, Johan Garpenlov, John Carter, Dave Snuggerud.RW-Pat Falloon, Perry Berezan, Lyndon Byers, Ed Courtenay, Petri Skriko. LD-Sandls Ozolinsh, Rob Zettler, Doug Wilson, Pat MacLeod.RD-Jay More, Tom Pederson, Doug ZmolekG-Jeff Hackett, Brian Hayward.<h3>INJURIES</h3>David Bruce, LW, groin pull, day-to-day. Yvon Corriveau, LW, back strain, day-to-day. Arturs Irbe, G, sprained left knee ligament, Dec. 14. Jeff Odgers, RW, broken right hand, day-to-day. Nell Wilkinson, D, back strain, day-to-day. &#9632;

Hurting Irbe a net loss

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>The names surrounding his in the scoring race read like a who&rsquo;s who of NHL stars: Messier, Yzerman, Lindros, Savard. Bure, Hull.His 35 points in 24 games put him on a pace for 122, well over his career high of 90 set last season in 76 games.So the question is, exactly how did Gary Roberts get this good?According to Roberts, the answer is simple. As the 26-year-old left winger gets older, he&rsquo;s getting smarter.Roberts is also taking better care of himself. He sees a masseuse regularly. He is a virtual expert on nutrition and conditioning and trains 12 months a year.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt the only reason I&rsquo;m becoming a better player is because I&rsquo;m in such great shape, better &lsquo;shape than I&rsquo;ve ever been in,&rdquo; he said.Roberts has also received significantly more ice time this season.In past seasons, the Flames&rsquo; coaching staff has been reluctant to use him on special teams.But under new coach Dave King, Roberts received power-play time from Day 1. And 10 games into the season, he was moved onto the second penalty-killing unit.&ldquo;I never thought I&rsquo;d play this much with Kinger, but he really has confidence in me,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;He thinks I can do the job defensively as well as offensively. For me to play this much, everyday lifestyle had to change. I can&rsquo;t do this out of shape.&rdquo;NOT HAPPY: Defenseman Al Maclnnis was unhappy with the NHL&rsquo;s decision not to pursue supplementary discipline against Hartford Whalers&rsquo; rookie left winger Patrick Poulin.Poulin jostled Maclnnis with his stick in a Nov. 11 game, causing the Flames&rsquo; defenseman to lose his balance, crash into the boards and dislocate his hip. Maclnnis is expected to be sidelined until mid-February.Maclnnis said he agreed with one part of the ruling-that Poulin did not deliberately set out to injure him. However, he argued the play in question was every bit as dangerous as checking from behind.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m disappointed.&rdquo; Maclnnis said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not so much that they let me down. More importantly, they may have let the next guy down.&ldquo;The only thing I&rsquo;m afraid of is that it&rsquo;s going to happen again-and the next guy might end up in a wheelchair.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Joe Nieuwendyk sounded a little like Marlon Brando doing The Godfather. But it wasn&rsquo;t because of the flu. Nieuwendyk damaged his vocal cords in October when he was elbowed in the throat by Los Angeles rookie Robert Lang. Nieu-wendyk&rsquo;s voice has been almost nonexistent ever since. &ldquo;The doctor looked down my throat with a mirror,&rdquo; Nieuwendyk said. &ldquo;One of the chords is working, but not to its full capacity. The best advice he could give me was not to talk and drink lots of water.&rdquo;Defenseman Gary Suter avoided salary arbitration when he signed a two-year deal worth $1 million (Cdn.) per season Nov. 27. Goalie Mike Vernon was the only Flame still scheduled for arbitration.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 27: Gary Suter, D. signed two-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Joe Nieuwendyk, Joel Otto, Robert Reichel, Carey Wilson.LW-Gary Roberts, Chris Lindberg, Craig Berube. Gary Leeman. C.J. Young.RW-Sergei Makarov, Theo Fleury, Paul Ranheim, Ron Stern.LD-Gary Suter, Frank Musil, Roger Johansson. Trent Yawney.RD-Chris Dahlquist, Kevin Dahl. Alexander Godynyuk, Greg Smyth.G-Mike Vernon, Jeff Reese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Al Maclnnis. D, dislocated left hip, indefinite. Michel Petit, D, dislocated right shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

Roberts fit to be tied among NHL scoring elite

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>Anyone who thought the Los Angeles Kings would fall apart when Tomas Sandstrom went down with a broken arm was badly mistaken.Sandstrom, Jari Kurri and Luc Robitaille formed one of the NHL&rsquo;s most explosive lines until Sandstrom got his left forearm in the way of a Doug Gilmour slash Nov. 21.All the while, the second unit of Mike Donnelly, Corey Millen and Tony Granato was contributing with little fanfare. Coach Barry Melrose called that line &ldquo;the fastest in the league.&rdquo;Its members combined for 24 goals and 49 points in a 13-game stretch, during which the Kings went 9-3-1.Granato had six goals and 19 points during the streak, Donnelly had nine goals and 18 points and Millen had nine goals and 12 points.It isn&rsquo;t a big line, but all members play bigger than their size. Donnelly is 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, Millen is 5-foot-7 and 168 pounds and Granato is 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds.&ldquo;Barry talks about size, but he also uses the word &lsquo;courage,&rsquo;&rdquo; Donnelly said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t see us fight, but we&rsquo;re all willing to stick our noses in there.&rdquo;One look at the cuts and scrapes Millen has absorbed tells you he is willing to play in traffic. He drew four penalties Nov. 27 in a 5-3 win over Detroit and scored on two of the power plays. Included was a major high-sticking penalty to Brad McCrimmon, who cut Millen&rsquo;s lip.&ldquo;You can tick guys off with your speed so that they&rsquo;ve got to put a stick on you,&rdquo; Millen said.MELROSE EXULTS: Barry Melrose said the win in Detroit meant a lot to him. A former Red Wing defenseman, Melrose coached the Adirondack Red Wings for three years, guiding the Detroit affiliate to the AHL championship last season.&ldquo;I laugh when I hear players who get traded say it doesn&rsquo;t mean anything to beat their old teams,&rdquo; Melrose said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to prove you can be a good NHL coach.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Rookie Robb Stauber made 42 saves in the win over Detroit to remain unbeaten at 7-0-1&hellip;Marty McSorley missed the Red Wings game to serve a one-game suspension for accumulating two major stick penalties. His second infraction was a spear of Edmonton&rsquo;s Martin Gelinas Nov. 25.Darryl Sydor bruised his right hip and back against Detroit when he was checked into the open door of the bench. He was listed as day-to-day&hellip; Dave Taylor is sidelined because of the residual effects of a concussion he sustained Nov. 14 when he was leveled by Edmonton&rsquo;s Louie DeBrusk. Doctors say Taylor was experiencing vertigo but suffered no neurological damage.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 24: Guy Leveque, C, and Sean Whyte. RW, recalled from Phoenix (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Jari Kurri, Corey Mitten, John McIntyre, Guy Leveque.LW-Luc Robitaille, Mke Dormefiy, Warren Rychel, Pat Conacher.RW-Lonme Loach. Tony Granato. Marty McSorley, Bob Kudetski. Sean Whyte.LD-Paul Coffey, Brent Thompson. Alexei Zhitnik.RD-Rob Blake. Charfe Huddy, Jeff ChychrunG-KeHy Hrudey, Robb Stauber<h3>INJURIES</h3>Wayne Gretzky. C, herniated disk, indefinite. Jim Hiller back strain, day-to-day. Tomas Sandstrom, RW, broken left arm, indefinite. Darryl Sydor, D. bruised right hip, day-to-day. Dave Taylor. RW. concussion, indefinite. &#9632;

Support cast in gear

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>A surprise piece of evidence surfaced that made NHL president Gil Stein&rsquo;s decision elementary.About one week before signing a three-year, $1.25-million contract with the Winnipeg Jets last summer, center Alexei Zhamnov signed a three-year deal with Moscow Dynamo.That eliminated Zhamnov&rsquo;s possible status as a defected European free agent and knocked out much of the case in Zhamnov&rsquo;s pending law suit against the Jets and former agent Martin Heller for fraud and coercion.It left Stein to rule that Zhamnov&rsquo;s allegations he wasn&rsquo;t informed about his impending free agency status were baseless. And because Zhamnov played with the Jets and accepted his salary, his contract was valid.The Jets had asked Stein to arbitrate the dispute when Zhamnov&rsquo;s Los Angeles-based lawyers and agent Ron Salcer claimed the 22-year-old signed his NHL contract under duress and that his rights to become a free agent were not protected.The Dynamo contract, produced at the Nov. 23 hearing, did not conflict with Zhamnov&rsquo;s NHL contract because the Jets paid a transfer fee to Dynamo, believed to be in excess of $400,000.Jets&rsquo; general manager Mike Smith, Heller and Dynamo president Alexander Steblin gave testimony at the hearing. Zhamnov and his representatives declined to attend.The ruling documented submissions made by both sides prior to the hearing, even though Zhamnov&rsquo;s representatives deny the validity of the process. It also recited the confusing and circus-like tale of six different agents claiming Zhamnov as a client and 11 switches of agents between 1990 and 1992.&ldquo;We just want to get this crap out of the way and get on with life,&rdquo; said Jets&rsquo; president Barry Shenkarow.That will be easier said than done. Calvin Davis, Zhamnov&rsquo;s L.A.-based lawyer, brushed off Stein&rsquo;s decision.&ldquo;The fact the NHL reached this decision doesn&rsquo;t change anything,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Alexei will continue to play for the Jets for the time being and we will continue to litigate the lawsuit.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Ed Olczyk will be sidelined until Jan. 2 after tearing ligaments in his right knee in a 3-3 tie with the New York Islanders Nov. 24. Olczyk was hurt after being checked by Uwe Krupp.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 25: John LeBlanc. RW, recalled from Moncton (AHL). Nov. 28: Igor Ulanov. D, and Bryan Erickson, RW, assigned to Moncton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Thomas Steen. Alexei Zhamnov. Troy Murray, Mike Eagles, Rob MurrayLW-Keith Tkachuk, Evgeny Davydov. Darrin Shannon, Russ Romaniuk. Bob Joyce.RW-Teemu Selanne. Al Kerr. John LeBlanc.LD-Sergei Bautin. Fredrik Olausson, Randy Carlyle.RD-Phil Housley, Teppo Nummmen. Dean Kennedy.G-Bob Esssnsa, Rick Tabaracci.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Luciano Borsato. C, broken left filth linger. Dec. 17. John Druce. RW. broken right wrist, Dec. 5. Mike Lalor D. broken nght index finger, Dec 15. Scott Levins, RW. sprained left shoulder, day-to-day Ed Olczyk, RW, sprained right knee. Jan. 2. &#9632;

Zhamnov ruling creates conflict

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>It has been a long time coming but Petr Nedved may have finally arrived as a bona fide NHL player.Touted by The Hockey News as the best prospect in the 1990 entry draft, the slender center was a bust his first two seasons.He wasn&rsquo;t ready for prime time, either physically or emotionally, and compounded his problems with an ill-advised trade request last January, a month after his 20th birthday. Canuck boss Pat Quinn ignored the request and it&rsquo;s proving to be another shrewd move by the big Irishman.&ldquo;Petr is learning how to compete,&rdquo; Quinn said.Compete? The kid is doing more than that. He was on another planet-you know, the one inhabited by guys named Lemieux-through the last part of November with eight goals and five assists for 13 points in a six-game stretch.He had 12 goals and 20 points during the entire month, including eight multiple-point games and four multi pie-goal games.&ldquo;I have to say it&rsquo;s the best I&rsquo;ve played since junior,&rdquo; said Nedved who turns 21 Dec. 9. &ldquo;The criticisnr I&rsquo;ve had is part of the game. I&rsquo;m happj to stay with the team. It&rsquo;s fun now.&rdquo;Nedved&rsquo;s long-awaited emergence helped the Canucks to a 9-5-1 recorc for the month, the second best November in team history.He capped his month off by scoring the winning goal in a 6-5 victor} at the Montreal Forum Nov. 28.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no doubt Petr has plent} of talent and he&rsquo;s certainly showing ii now,&rdquo; said Canuck defenseman Dave Babych. &ldquo;Once you get your confidence it takes a lot to lose it.&rdquo;CZECH-ING OUT: Three days after earning his first three NHL points, rookie defenseman Jiri Slegr was exposed to the downside of a professional hockey player&rsquo;s life when he was demoted to the minors. To make matters worse for Slegr, he&rsquo;s on a two-way contract.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not happy,&rdquo; said the Czech native as he packed his gear for Hamilton Nov. 24. &ldquo;Who is happy to go to Hamilton? I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m a player for the minors but that&rsquo;s hockey. I&rsquo;m only a defenseman on a twoway contract.&rdquo;Slegr received a $100,000 signing bonus to go along with his $165,000 NHL pay for this season. He earns $50,000 in the minors.Two years ago, Slegr, 21, balked at signing a contract with the Vancouver Canucks because it contained a two-way provision. He returned home but eventually had a change of heart, not to mention a change of agents, and agreed to terms in July.He never thought he would wind up in the minors even though he played sporadically and slipped to eighth on the depth chart with Dave Babych&rsquo;s return from a hernia.NOTEBOOK: Utility winger Robert Kron, who dressed for only one game all season, declined a two-week conditioning stint in Hamilton. Pat Quinn refused to put Kron on waivers, saying he won&rsquo;t give away an asset. The Ottawa Senators have expressed interest in the 25-year-old Kron, who is playing out his option.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 24: Jiri Slegr. D, assigned to Hamilton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Cliff Ronning, Anatoli Semenov, Petr Nedved, Ryan Walter, Tom Fergus.LW-Greg Adams, Sergio Momesso, Geoff Courtnall, Dixon Ward, Garry Valk.RW-Trevor Linden, Pavel Bure, Gino Odjick, Robert Kron.LD-Dave Babych, Robert Dirk, Dana Murzyn, Adrien Plavsic.RD-Gerald Diduck, Jyrki Lumme, Doug Lidster.G-Kirk McLean, Kay Whitmore.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jim Sandlak. RW, strained back, day-to-day. &#9632;

Nedved finally proving he is Petr the Great

<div class="byline">By Al Morganti</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011400/6048013-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="380" height="483"></div>The NHL&rsquo;s board of governors will meet later this month to discuss some of the bigger issues facing the NHL and it will listen to the suggestions of committees for this, and committees for that.You&rsquo;ve heard the joke that a camel is a horse built by a committee and the general consensus is that there are too many concessions by a committee. What the NHL needs is answers from somebody who has no egos to massage. Somebody who can give you an answer, and then when somebody asks &ldquo;how are we going to do that?&rdquo; he can just wipe his hands and shrug his shoulders.In other words, answers from a columnist. With an endorsement of none other than myself, here are the answers to some of the NHL&rsquo;s biggest problems. Committee members are encouraged to bring this column to the meetings for background information and make yourself sound like a genius.Problem: Poor attendance at the neutral-site games.Solution: Revamped schedules.Has there been a bigger sporting disaster since NBC&rsquo;s Olympic Triplecast? The NHL got caught with its marketing plan down on this issue, and now is the time to look ahead toward next season.This is too good an idea to scrap, but it needs some adjustments. In the first place, there are too many cities involved. What the NHL ought to be doing is using these neutral sites as trial balloons for expanding.The suggestion here is to select four or six cities and play a mini schedule of games-and announce the games early enough so that &ldquo;season tickets&rdquo; can be sold.For example, let&rsquo;s assume the NHL chooses San Diego, Milwaukee, Phoenix, and Miami, or perhaps Dallas and Atlanta. The key step would be to sell mini season tickets for a 10-game plan and see the results. Naturally, this would require an aggressive marketing plan and the real return on your dollar would be in long-term interest.The neutral sites plan has been blasted for its slow start and the debacle in Hamilton for the anti-Buffalo Sabres night didn&rsquo;t help. But the idea is too sound and the chance to recruit new fans too important to give up.Problem: Players diving.Solution: Diving judges.The NHL has tried to address the problem of players taking dives to draw penalties by penalizing the divers. However, the NHL officials have enough to do without being asked to decide what is a dive and what is not a dive.Thus, the need for an Olympic-style panel of diving judges exists. A simple system of three ex-divers in a booth-a Canadian, an American and a European, with thumbs up or thumbs down. Thumbs up and the dive was good enough to avoid the penalty, thumbs down and it&rsquo;s two minutes in the penalty box.The director of the diving officials? Who else but Bill Barber?Problem: The collective bargaining agreement.Solution: Common sense.If the people who run the NHL can&rsquo;t look at the National Basketball Association and see the model for a successful league, they are simply blind. And if the NHL Players&rsquo; Association can&rsquo;t see the need for a salary cap, they are simply greedy and probably dumb enough to risk killing the goose that lays the golden eggs of big contracts.The first step is for the NHL&rsquo;s owners to agree to some form of revenue sharing. The &ldquo;my-own-back-yard&rdquo; philosophy is a sure way to get back to the future of what some owners might really want-a return to the days of the old six-team league.A simple start would be splitting the gate 70-30, with each team allowed to keep 80 per cent of its luxury box money until a certain level. All local TV money would be kept by the team.Any salary cap is too complicated to discuss without several million inches of space-there are only about 11 people on Earth who understand the NBA cap-but suffice to say that it would be adjusted for market size and existing salaries.Problem: Fighting in the NHL.Solution: Surrender.The NHL has gone as far as it can go in its attempts to curb fighting. It is obvious the league is not going to suspend fighters along the lines of European leagues or college hockey, so it&rsquo;s time to stop the pretending.The new stance should be: That&rsquo;s the way it is, like it or cover your eyes.Problem: Deciding whether or not to suspend the NHL for the 1994 Winter Olympics.Solution: What&rsquo;s the problem? The NHL will either be on strike for the Games or the players will still be locked out.After this season, the 1994 Games might be your next chance to see NHL hockey. &#9632;

f0013-01

Don’t scrap neutral-site NHL games, revamp them

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021003/6048044-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Cullen hopes to turn the jeers in Hartford into cheers in Toronto. The cheers came early for the former 110-point scorer.</figcaption></div>For a few moments, John Cullen had reason to believe Hartford had suddenly been transformed into his own private Bermuda Triangle.He was, after all, allowed to leave after a mostly miserable year-long stay-and he couldn&rsquo;t get out.&ldquo;It was getting a little spooky,&rdquo; Cullen said.Traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs Nov. 25 for a second-round draft choice, Cullen had a flight scheduled out of Hartford for 8:30 p.m. that night. It was the last flight of the evening to Toronto but it was cancelled because of dense fog.The next morning, Cullen made his second attempt at leaving Hartford and all its bad memories behind, and endured a 3 1/2-hour delay.When he finally arrived at Maple Leaf Gardens, just hours before his first game with his new team, things finally took a turn for the better. In fact, Cullen&rsquo;s first game in a Toronto uniform-wearing the same No. 19 his dad Barry wore for the Leafs from 1955-59-would have been a smashing success had his new team not dropped a 5-4 overtime decision to the Quebec Nordiques.Still, with two goals and one assist in his Toronto debut, Cullen couldn&rsquo;t help but smile. Reflecting on all that had gone wrong during his time in Hartford, he was thankful to be out.No, he didn&rsquo;t ask to be traded from Hartford. Yes, Whalers&rsquo; general manager Brian Burke did assure him he wouldn&rsquo;t be traded.But in the end, continued poor play and a $900,000 contract coupled with the team&rsquo;s woes on the ice and at the gate, did him in. What&rsquo;s worse, hardly anybody wanted the man who scored 110 points two seasons ago. Teams were scared off by his diminishing productivity, big contract and his off-season back surgery.Cullen had a portion of a disc in his back removed to alleviate pressure on his sciatic nerve, which caused pain in his legs. He swears he&rsquo;s 100 per-cent healthy now.The Maple Leafs needed offensive help up front and were willing to take a chance on the Puslinch, Ont., native.&ldquo;Sure there was risk on our part,&rdquo; said Toronto assistant general manager Bill Watters. &ldquo;If he plays in Toronto like he was in Hartford, we&rsquo;re in trouble. We&rsquo;re hoping that was just an abberation.&rdquo;As for being dumped for a second-round draft pick-either in 1993 or &lsquo;94-Cullen was more relieved than insulted.&ldquo;Now 1 can honestly say I&rsquo;ve seen both sides of the coin.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was traded to the Whalers for their roost popular player-an institution in Hartford-and now I gel traded for nobody.&rdquo;Cullen was in a no-win situation in Hartford from the day he joined the organization, traded with Jeff Parker and Zarley Zalapski for Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings. In a breakdown of the trade, it was Cullen for Francis, Mr. Hartford to the Whalers&rsquo; faithful.Former Hartford GM Ed Johnstone gave up defense and leadership in a deal that ultimately cost him his job.Following the trade, the Whalers finished the regular season 3-8-2 and although he scored eight goals and eight assists, didn&rsquo;t win over the fans. He performed better in the playoffs but the following season, held out to earn a four-year, $4-million contract.Cullen scored 77 points in as many games last season and struggled out of the gate this season with just nine points in 19 games. Things got so bad this season, when he was ejected from a home game with a high-sticking major, the fans applauded loudly.&ldquo;My last 19 games in Hartford I played the worst I ever played in my life,&rdquo; Cullen said. &ldquo;I have no explanation why. I tried as hard as I could but things kept getting worse.&rdquo;Cullen faces a new kind of pressure with the Leafs. They don&rsquo;t expect him to be the No. 1 guy, that designation belongs to Doug Gilmour, but they certainly expect him to produce offensively.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not tattooing any numbers on anybody&rsquo;s forehead,&rdquo; said Toronto coach Pat Bums. &ldquo;He has responded in the past as a No. 2 center behind Mario Lemieux and we&rsquo;re confident he can do it here.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0013-02

Turning over new Leaf

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>In the end, only one of the four parties affected had reason to be happy.Doug Gilmour certainly wasn&rsquo;t. The Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; center was suspended for eight non-game days without pay and fined $500 Nov. 27 by NHL president Gil Stein for breaking the left forearm of Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; winger Tomas Sandstrom with a slash during a Nov. 20 game.Gilmour drew a two-minute high-sticking penalty from Andy vanHellemond during the game, but the Kings forwarded videotape of the incident to NHL headquarters. The suspension, which began Dec. 4, will cost Gilmour $28,984.&ldquo;It was an accident,&rdquo; Gilmour said. &ldquo;I get 10 whacks like that a game. But because I injured a guy, I get crucified.&rdquo;The decision didn&rsquo;t satisfy Sandstrom, either. He won&rsquo;t be back in the Kings&rsquo; lineup until late December.Los Angeles management wasn&rsquo;t happy either, particularly after Gilmour was the second star in a 3-2 Leaf win over the Kings seven days after the incident.&ldquo;At least for the game against us, he shouldn&rsquo;t have been allowed to play,&rdquo; said Kings&rsquo; general manager Nick Beverley. &ldquo;It seems to me when one player injures another player to that extreme, that player shouldn&rsquo;t be allowed to help his team beat the injured player&rsquo;s team.&rdquo;The Leaf organization was the only party that wasn&rsquo;t hurt by Stein&rsquo;s decision, since the club won&rsquo;t lose Gilmour&rsquo;s services for a single game. Leaf general manager Cliff Fletcher didn&rsquo;t sound too happy, however.&ldquo;Evidently, the decision was based on the fact the player sustained a broken arm, not on the degree of the assault,&rdquo; said Fletcher, who brought a videotape of 15 similar slashing incidents to the hearing. &ldquo;It was a very severe fine.&rdquo;Gilmour&rsquo;s suspension was the longest and most expensive handed down by Stein this season under his new, non-game policy. Edmonton&rsquo;s Bernie Nicholls received a seven-day penalty earlier this season, while a five-game penalty to Edmonton&rsquo;s Dave Manson cost the defenseman $19,725.BIG LETDOWN: When the Leafs acquired center John Cullen from Hartford Nov. 24 for a second-round draft pick, it was a bit anti-climactic-despite Cullen&rsquo;s status as a former 100-point man.That&rsquo;s because Maple Leaf fans were treated to several days of speculation that goalie Grant Fuhr was headed to Buffalo in a blockbuster deal.However, the night Cullen was acquired, trade talks were called off indefinitely.NOTEBOOK: The Leafs managed only 18 shots on Tampa Bay&rsquo;s Pat Jablonski in a 3-2 loss at home Nov. 24&hellip;Mark Osborne scored his first goal of the season against the Kings after going goal-less in his first 22.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for The Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov, 24: John Cullen. C. acquired from Hartford for a 1993 or 1994 second-round pick.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Doug Gilmour. John Cullen. Peter Zezel. Dave McIlwain, Mike Krushel-nyski.LW-Nikolai Borschevsky. Joe Sacco, Mark Osborne. Ken Baumgartner, Guy Larose.RW-Glenn Anderson, Rob Pearson. Mike Foligno. Kent ManderviBe.LD-Dave Ellett, Jamie Macoun. Sylvain Lefebvre, Darryl Shannon.RD-Bob Rouse. Dmitri Mironov. Drake Berehowsky.G-Felix Potvin, Grant Fuhr. Rick Wamsley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Todd GM, D. deep bone bruise on left foot, Dec. 8. Bob McGW. D, sprained right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

Gilmour’s suspension doesn’t satisfy anyone

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>Kevin Miller&rsquo;s early success might be a sore spot with one of the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; major corporate investors.It&rsquo;s not that it doesn&rsquo;t want to see Miller do well, but it borders on sacrilegious to say &ldquo;It&rsquo;s Miller Time,&rdquo; in the land where Budweiser is king. The company is Anheuser-Busch, brewers of Budweiser.So the Blues miss a chance to tie in Kevin Miller with beer marketing. They at least didn&rsquo;t miss out when they got Miller from Washington for defenseman Paul Cavallini Nov. 1.Miller had five goals and 11 points in 12 games, almost four times what he had in 10 games with the Capitals.He has found a new home on the &ldquo;Green Beret&rdquo; checking line with Bob Bassen and Rich Sutter and put together a four-game scoring streak.&ldquo;They want me to check and that&rsquo;s fine,&rdquo; Miller said. &ldquo;1 played that role three years in New York (with the Rangers).&rdquo;Miller is just happy to be playing after his brief stay in Washington, which acquired him from Detroit in a controversial trade for Dino Ciccarelli that owner Abe Pollin said, &ldquo;hasn&rsquo;t been one of our better trades.&rdquo;&ldquo;From Day 1 in Washington, I was in the doghouse,&rdquo; Miller said. &ldquo;Here they gave me a chance to play, and the game is fun again.&rdquo;INJURY WOES: Trainer Tom Nash joked the phone number to the training room had been changed to 91-1. It seemed there was a constant flow of medical emergencies.The Blues missed 98 man-games to injury through Nov. 29, 30 fewer than all of last season. At this rate the Blues would lose 343 man games to injury, one more than the last two seasons cpmbined.Ron Sutter missed 18 games with a pulled abdominal muscle. Bret Hedi-can didn&rsquo;t make his debut until the 23rd game because of a sprained knee. Brendan Shanahan missed 12 games with a pulled groin. Vitali Karamnov missed all but four games with a pulled groin. Dave Lowry is out until Christmas with a sprained knee.Kelly Chase, Ron Wilson, Vitali Prokhorov, Rick Zombo, Dan Laper-riere and Curt Giles also have been on the injured list.In Peoria, top prospect Denny Felsner might be out three months if he undergoes surgery on a chronic ligament injury to his left thumb.NOTEBOOK: Back-up goalie Guy Hebert started his first game in 23 days Nov. 29 and stopped 36 shots in a 2-2 tie with Detroit&hellip;The Blues&rsquo; 5-foot-11, 190-pound Kelly Chase gave up 98 pounds and 14 inches in three fights over a two-game span with Detroit and Vancouver. His opponents: 6-foot-3, 225-pound Bob Probert; 6-foot-4, 225-pound Keith Primeau; and 6-foot-4,218-pound Robert Dirk.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 25: Bred Hedfcan, D, recalled from Peoria (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Ron Sutter. Craig Janney, Bob Bassen. Ron Wilson.LW-igor Korolev, Brendan Shanahan. Kevin Milter. Vitali Prokhorov. Philippe Bozon.RW-Brett Hu8. Nelson Emerson, Rich Sutter, KeHy Chase.LD-Jefl Brown, Bret Hedican, Murray Baron, Lee Norwood.RD-Garth Butcher. Rick Zombo, Stephane Quintal.G-Curfis Joseph, Guy Hebert.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Curt Giles. 0. sprained left knee, indefinite. Vitali Karamnov, RW, pulled groin, day-to-day. Dave Lowry, LW. sprained right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

Miller finds his timing is right to make home on Beret Line

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div>Terry Crisp has seen a lot of things as an NHL coach, but few compare to what he has been through this season with the Tampa Bay Lightning.The most astonishing thing, Crisp maintains, is the number of one-goal losses his team has suffered.When the Lightning dropped a 4-3 decision in overtime to Edmonton Nov. 28, it marked the second time in as many nights-and the 10th time in 26 games-that Tampa Bay lost by one goal.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never seen anything like it,&rdquo; said Crisp, whose club dropped a 32 decision in overtime to the Calgary Flames Nov. 27. &ldquo;You look back at those 10 games and you can see we&rsquo;ve been in a position to win every one. That is truly amazing, especially for a first-year team like ours.&rdquo;Some expansion teams-and even a few established ones-would no doubt be encouraged by a string of one-goal losses.That&rsquo;s not the case with the Lightning, though.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not accepting one-goal losses,&rdquo; said Crisp, whose team has lost by more than one goal just four times. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve come too far for that. We&rsquo;ve gone beyond the point where we&rsquo;re happy just staying close.&rdquo;The losses in Alberta were difficult to take. The Lightning outplayed the Oilers and Flames and carried a one-goal lead late into the third period of both games.&ldquo;We had two points two nights in a row and came away with nothing,&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;We outplayed them and let them slip through our hands. That really hurts.&rdquo;The loss in Calgary really burned Crisp. He was returning to the Saddledome, where he led the Flames to a Stanley Cup championship three years ago.&ldquo;I really wanted that one,&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;I guess all you can do is keep giving the good effort every night and hope things turn around for you.&rdquo;TAKE A SEAT: Defenseman Roman Hamrlik sat out his third consecutive game Nov. 28.Terry Crisp admitted he sat out the team&rsquo;s top pick in the 1992 entry draft because of his recent poor per-formance.&ldquo;The last game he played he was all over the ice,&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that we&rsquo;re unhappy with him, it&rsquo;s just we thought maybe he could learn a few things from watching for a while.&rdquo;The 18-year-old Hamrlik had three goals and three assists in 21 games.NOTEBOOK. Center Brian Bradley, who had an eight-game goal-scoring streak snapped at Calgary Nov. 27, had two assists in the loss at Edmonton. The assists raised his points total to 32, one more than he recorded in 59 games with Toronto last season&hellip;Left winger Chris Kontos broke a five-game scoring drought against the Oilers when he scored his 20th goal of the season.<h2>TAMPA BAY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov, 20: Steve Maltais RW. tecalted Irani Atlanta (IHL). Nov. 22: Jock Callander, C, recalled tram Atlanta. Nov, 24: Michel Mongeau, C, recalled tram Atlanta. Nov, 28: Martin Simard, RW, Jock Callander, C. assigned to Atlanta.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Brian Bradley, Adam Creighton, Ken Hodge. Michel Mongeau.LW-Chris Kontos, Mikael Andersson, Rob Zamuner, Mike Hartman.RW-Marc Bureau, Danton Cole. Stan Drulia Steve Maltais That joe Reekie.RD-Rob Ramage, Marc Bergevin, Doug Crossman. Bob Beers.G-Pat Jablonski, Wendell Young.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Rob DIMalo C, bruised left wrist, day-to-day. Basil McRae. LW, broken left leg. Indefinite John Tucker. C, bruised right forearm, day-to-day. &#9632;

One-goal defeats irk Crisp

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>A little bit of line juggling by coach Bryan Murray may be just the thing to keep Jimmy Carson from shuffling out of Detroit.Carson was the biggest beneficiary of the move by Murray to put Sergei Fedorov on a line with Steve Yzerman. That made Carson the No. 2 center, giving him Dino Ciccarelli and Dallas Drake as linemates.Carson, the subject of intense trade rumors since the start of the season, was beginning to feel appreciated after Murray promised him a trade only if he started playing better so teams would give something of value in return.The native of suburban Detroit responded with 10 goals and 15 points in an eight-game stretch, giving him 15 goals and 26 points in 25 games for the season. Carson&rsquo;s unit also scored six of seven power-play goals in a 10-5 win over Tampa Bay Nov. 23 and an 11-6 victory over St. Louis Nov. 25.&ldquo;Do I want to go anywhere?&rdquo; he asked, repeating a question. &ldquo;If I continue to be used in this role, no.&rdquo;RECORD BINGE: The 21-goal outburst in the back-to-back games against Tampa Bay and St. Louis was the first time the Red Wings scored at least 10 goals in consecutive games. Prior to those games, Detroit won 7-5 at Washington, giving the club a three-game total of 28, another franchise record.&ldquo;When it rains, it pours,&rdquo; said right winger Paul Ysebaert, who scored two goals against St. Louis, giving him four in three games.The scoring was spread throughout the lineup. Against Tampa Bay, only four skaters failed to record a point. Against St. Louis, only three went pointless.NOTEBOOK: Sergei Fedorov sustained a right shoulder strain in a 5-3 loss to Los Angeles Nov. 27 that was expected to keep him out of the lineup for about four games. He had an eight-game scoring streak-in which he had 16 points-snapped in that game.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Steve Yzerman. Jimmy Carson, Keith Primeau, Mike Sitlinger.LW-Gerard Gallant. John Ogrodnick, Shawn Burr, Bob Probed.RW-Paul Ysebaert. Dino Ciccarelli, Ray Sheppard, Sheldon Kennedy, Martin Lapointe.LD-Steve Chiasson, Nicklas Lidstrom. Mark Howe, Yves Racine.RD-Vtadimir Konstantinov, Brad McCrimmon, GordKruppke.G-Tim Cheveldae, Vince Riendeau<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dallas Drake. LW, left thigh braise, day-to-day Sergei Fedorov. CAW. nght shoulder strain, day-to-day. &#9632;

Carson scores in No. 2 spot

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>The wake-up call, delivered by Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; coach Darryl Sutter, was received loud and clear by Steve Larmer.Sutter informed Larmer prior to a Nov. 21 game against San Jose he wouldn&rsquo;t be in the lineup two nights later at Vancouver if his play didn&rsquo;t improve.That&rsquo;s how close Larmer came to having his consecutive games streak end at 822. Larmer responded with a strong effort in a 2-1 win over the Sharks, then scored his first goal in 14 games Nov. 23 against Vancouver.Four nights later at Edmonton, Larmer exploded for a career-high two goals and four assists in an 8-1 rout. The next day in Calgary, he had a hat trick in a 5-2 Hawks&rsquo; win.Later, Larmer said it wouldn&rsquo;t have bothered him if the consecutive games streak ended.&ldquo;It never has mattered to me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s always something other people talked about.&rdquo; Sutter&rsquo;s threat to sit Larmer came after the coach had benched Michel Goulet, Dave Christian and Igor Kravchuk in previous games.&ldquo;It was something I needed to hear,&rdquo; Larmer said. &ldquo;If I&rsquo;m not playing well, I don&rsquo;t deserve to play. I felt guilty about being in the lineup.&rdquo;Sutter and Larmer agreed the streak might have become a burden to the right winger. The string, which was at 825 following the Calgary game, is the third-longest in NHL history and puts Larmer in line to break Doug Jarvis&rsquo; record of 964 toward the end of next season.NOTEBOOK: Rob Brown, who was scratched for 10 straight games, celebrated his return to the lineup with back-to-back two-assist games at Edmonton and Calgary.With Mike Keenan gone, who&rsquo;s going to coach the Campbell Conference all-star team? Darryl Sutter, an associate coach under Keenan last season, said no one has contacted him. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t need a coach,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;All you do is pass the water bottle. My kids could do it.&rdquo;<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Jeremy Roenick, Brent Sutter, Christian Ruuttu. Mike Hudson.LW-Rob Brown, Stephane Matteau. Greg Gilbert. Stu Crimson. Michel GoutetRW-Steve Larmer, Dave Christen, Dirk Graham, Jocelyn Lemteux, Brian Noonan.LD-Steve Smith, Frantisek Kucera. Cam RusseB. Kart Dykhuis.RD-Chris Chelios, Igor Kravchuk, Bryan March-ment, Adam Bennett.G-Ed Betfour. Jimmy Waite<h3>INJURIES</h3>Keith Brown. D, left shoulder surgery, Jan.t. &#9632;

Larmer comes through with streak on the line

<div class="byline">By Gary Olson</div>For Dan Quinn, Nov. 24 was the best of times and the worst of times.It was on that day the Hennepin County attorney&rsquo;s office in Minnesota announced it would not file charges against him for the alleged rape of a 19-year-old Twin Cities ^yoman two weeks earlier at a Bloomington hotel.It was also that day Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; coach-general manager Bob Gainey released him for violating team rules the same night.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy it is resolved, but I can&rsquo;t help but have some anger for what I&rsquo;ve been through,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;It has been frustrating from the very start, from when I first went in and talked to the police to have the perception nobody believed me. It was two weeks of hell.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011112/6048195-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="574" height="704"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Gainey released Dan Quinn because he broke the team curfew.</figcaption></div>Quinn, 27, steadfastly maintained his innocence, insisting he and the woman had consensual sex. He repeatedly denied sexual assaulting her.Initial reports alleged Quinn and three Pittsburgh Penguin players-reportedly Mario Lemieux, Bob Errey and Rick Tocchet-met three women in a bar at the Mall of America and returned to the Marriott Hotel where the Penguins were staying, One of the women said that during the early hours of Nov. 10, Quinn assaulted her.Quinn turned himself in to Bloomington police the next day and was set free on a $30,000 bond.The day of the arrest, Bloomington police chief Bob Lutz suggested it was an open-and-shut case against Quinn, but by Nov. 24 he had retreated considerably and said he agreed with the county attorney&rsquo;s office to not press charges.After hearing Quinn wouldn&rsquo;t be charged, Gainey announced the center had been released for violating the team&rsquo;s curfew rule.&ldquo;It really wasn&rsquo;t a difficult decision Because I spent a lot of time last summer with Dan and his agent, talking about what was expected,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;We agreed to pay him well, but there were certain conditions attached to the contract that he had to fulfill.&ldquo;One of the conditions was he abide by team rules.&rdquo;The team&rsquo;s curfew rule states players are expected to be home or in their hotel rooms by 11 p.m. the night before a game. Quinn was out well beyond that.Quinn signed with the North Stars as a free agent on Sept. 18 and agreed to a contract the team could terminate at three different times during the season without being liable for a full season&rsquo;s salary.He has played with six NHL teams since being selected by Calgary in the first round of the 1983 draft. He has played with four teams-Vancouver, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Minneso-ta-in the past two seasons.&ldquo;In the past, Dan has been difficult with coaches. That was a concern with Bob Gainey,&rdquo; said Quinn&rsquo;s agent Larry Kelly. &ldquo;If there was any impropriety at all, he could be released.&rdquo;CLOSE CALL: Neal Broten had plenty to be thankful about on Nov. 26, Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.At about 2 a.m., he was awakened by the security system in his Eden Prarie, Minn., home.When he went downstairs to the kitchen, there were flames coming through the door. He rushed back upstairs to wake his wife, Sally, and daughters Brook and Larissa, as well as his parents, who were visiting from Roseau, Minn.Broten&rsquo;s house was extensively damaged by the fire and it will be two to three months before he and his family will be able to move back in. The fire likely started in the garage. Broten had taken ashes from his fireplace to the garage at about 10:30 p.m. the night before.NOTEBOOK: Former North Star Bill Goldsworthy, now a special consultant to Bob Gainey, joined the North Stars&rsquo; International League affiliate in Kalamazoo, Mich., Nov. 23 to help GM Bill Inglis coach. Bob Hoffmeyer was fired as coach Nov. 20.<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 24: Dan Quinn, C, released.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-MIke Modano. Neal Broten, Dave Gagner, Bobby Smith.LW-MIke McPhee, Gaetan Duchesne, Stewart Gavin. Todd Blk.RW-Mika Craig. Russ Courtnail. Ulf Dahlen, Shane Churta.LD-Mark Tinordi, Craig Ludwig. Richard Matvichuk.RD-Derian Hatcher, Jim Johnson, Tommy Sjodin, Brad Beny.G-Jon Casey, Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0017-01

Charges dropped but Quinn let go

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011155/6048226-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Denis Morel is one of three NHL referees who takes home the maximum base salary of $90,000 per season.</figcaption></div>While media interest has centered on the Sept. 15, 1993 expiry of the contract between the NHL and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, the five-year deal between the league and the NHL Officials&rsquo; Association ends Aug. 31.The main issue is money but the league&rsquo;s right to dismiss low-ranked referees and the makeup of the panel that evaluates officials is also expected to be addressed in the negotiations.Under the current deal, NHL referees earn a minimum of $50,000 plus playoff and regular-season performance bonuses. Officials with 12 or more years experience, namely Ron Hoggarth, Denis Morel and Andy van Hellemond. earn $90,000.Linesmen, meanwhile, are paid a minimum of $33,000 to a maximum of $63,000 for those with 18 years or more experience.Travel expenses for all on-ice officials are set at a per diem of $30.&ldquo;They (the officials) certainly feel the existing agreement is out of date in every respect,&rdquo; said Don Meehan, the Toronto-based player agent representing the officials. &ldquo;They do feel underpaid.&rdquo;Under the current contract, rookie minor-league referees are paid $25,000 per season with a $2,500 raise for each year of service. Probationary minor-league linesmen earn $19,000 a year.The contract is structured to keep on-ice officials beholding to their employers. Management has the only voice on the distribution of regularseason performance bonuses.Those bonuses include $120,000 to be divided among the NHL&rsquo;s 28 linesmen. A minimum of 14 linesmen will receive a performance bonus of no less than $4,500.The league&rsquo;s 23 referees divide $135,000 in performance bonuses based on their regular-season work.Referees can earn bonuses of anywhere from $7,500 to $25,000, depending on the level of use in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The playoff bonus structure for linesmen ranges from $6,000-$20,000.While working international games or the Canada Cup carries a financial incentive-$ 1,200 per game for a ref-eree and $600 for a linesman-exhibition games clearly do not. Referees are paid $200 per exhibition game and linesmen receive half that.The existing contract allows the NHL to fire referees and linesmen who fall within the bottom one-third of its ratings.Seventy per cent of an official&rsquo;s rating is determined by management while a peer rating system is used to assess the rest of an official&rsquo;s score.Meehan said that system would be addressed but declined to go into specifics.One area that will not be a priority is the question of free speech. By the terms of the contract, officials are allowed to defend themselves if their competence or integrity are libeled. They are not, however, permitted to make any public statement concerning the NHL without league sanction. Meehan said the membership did not consider that issue important.The owners&rsquo; bargaining committee is expected to include veteran NHL negotiator Larry Bertuzzi, Jim Gregory, the NHL&rsquo;s vice-president of hockey operations and Bryan Lewis, the head of officiating, but that group has not yet been formalized.Gregory said the league would have preferred marshalling its efforts on one negotiation at a time.&ldquo;This has been a very unusual circumstance,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;By a fluke, the strike and the fact the players signed a one-year-deal, meant both contracts were up at the same time.&rdquo;There have been informal discussions with the officials, but no date has been set for future negotiations.Meehan said the negotiations with both the players and the officials should quicken the pace of the talks with the men in black and white.&ldquo;I think it will help,&rdquo; Meehan said. &ldquo;This is the opportunity for early discussions and resolutions that will be beneficial to both sides.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0018-01

Official stance

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02857/6048257-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="379" height="479"></div>Diane Hextall cried for one day. Then, she got out the French-English dictionary. You can either lament the last goal or concentrate on the next one and when it&rsquo;s time to move on, you pack the disillusionment in the same carton as the dishes.&ldquo;Diane, a change is going to be good for us,&rdquo; said her pragmatic husband. In truth, he believed that more on some days than others, but a little rejection can be good for the soul, particularly one with the depth of Ron Hextall&rsquo;s,As admirable as was his determination to reach back for what he had lost in Philadelphia, Hextall was finally able to concede that maybe the effort had taken its toll. From all sides, memories assaulted him: Long ones from people in the organization who never forgave him for walking out over his contract in 1989, short ones from fans who came to see him as a guy with a big, hot head and an even bigger contract, still living off one big year.Hextall followed up his extraordinary rookie season (1986-87) with two more largely good ones. But after the Flyers refused to reopen an eightyear, deferred-money, deal he had signed under bad advice, he hired the confrontational Rich Winter, walked out and missed training camp. When he returned, he began to suffer a vicious cycle of groin and hamstring pulls.A stretching program designed by a ballet dancer finally corrected his physical problems, but an awful lot of Hextall&rsquo;s game was lost in all the time he missed. He was largely healthy last season, but not close to being the same goalie.He kicked at pucks he once let hit him, bought fakes he once rejected, lost goals off arms, pads and gloves that seemed to be attached to somebody else&rsquo;s body. His only answer was to bear down harder, but he wound up overchallenging, with too much weight on his heels. He lost his balance and his confidence.The fans who still believed in him were drowned out by the boos on the bad goals, which were going in on the average of once a game. Unlike other key players who took the Flyers deterioration as an excuse to play themselves into trades, Hextall perceived himself as a cause, not just an effect of the Flyers&rsquo; sink to mediocrity. Wanting to lead the Flyers back to glory, he would not accept the impossibility he could still live happily-ever-after in Philadelphia.He was the regular goalie last season, mostly because his trade value had to be re-established. The Flyers didn&rsquo;t know they would get Eric Lindros, but they wanted to lower the age of the team&rsquo;s nucleus players and let them mature together. By that time, the 28-year-old Hextall would be well into his 30s.Logically, if the Lindros deal went down, Hextall was going to be in it. So as arbitrator Larry Bertuzzi mulled his decision, the goalie had time to think about Quebec City.&ldquo;If the Nordiques were going to get as much in the deal as the papers said, then we were going to have a good team,&rdquo; Hextall said. &ldquo;And the thing I want to do most is win.&rdquo;Once Hextall was assured his kids could attend an English school, Quebec was no longer a sentence, but an adventure. He let his agent, Steve Mountain, do all the talking while his contract was being adjusted, then won over a city that had acquired an understandable rejection complex by opening his introductory news conference in French.Since then. Hextall has surprised everyone in Quebec by turning out to be the complete opposite of the maniac who took up so much of former NHL vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill&rsquo;s time. Had they asked, we would have told them Hextall has always been one of the most misunderstood players in the game. Now, he has again become one of its best goalies.He looks terrific. Whether his balance was the chicken or his confidence the egg, both have returned. He is as competitive as ever, yet has cut down on penalties and is more selective and effective in handling the puck. In other words, he is doing a little less and winning a lot more.Because the Nordiques can score, it is easier for Hextall to concentrate on the next shot rather than frustrate himself with the one that just got by him. His presence is mutually beneficial to a young group of Nordiques. players who always believed they wanted to win, but now understand there is a whole, higher level of caring.&ldquo;They look over at him and see what mental preparation is all about.&rdquo; said coach-general manager Pierre Page.This seems to be a marriage made in heaven in a place that was supposed to be hell. As it turns out, the only regret Hextall feels about playing in Quebec City is not being able to understand all the nice things peopie there are saying about him. &#9632;

f0018-02

Nordiques welcome old Ron Hextall

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>One of the fastest draws in the East is no longer shooting blanks.Right winger Owen Nolan, who lost his scoring touch through a good part of November after a torrid start, regained his magic against the Toronto Maple Leafs Nov. 26.The Cowboy, as coach-general manager Pierre Page calls him, scored three goals-including the overtime winner-to lead the Nordiques past the Leafs 6-5.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011077/6048288-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="577" height="846"><figcaption class="caption-body">Owen Nolan regained his scoring touch playing with Mike Ricci.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;The Cowboy never complains,&rdquo; Page said, referring to Nolan&rsquo;s quiet demeanor. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;ll never apologize (about poor play), either.&rdquo;The Nordiques expect Nolan to contribute significantly on offense this season, following his 42 goals and 73 points a year ago. But the puck hasn&rsquo;t always bounced his way this year. He had 15 goals and 27 points in 25 games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had a lot of scoring chances, as many as last season,&rdquo; Nolan said. &ldquo;But the puck isn&rsquo;t going in like it did at the beginning of last year. I&rsquo;ve missed a lot of good scoring opportunities.&rdquo;One of the main reasons for Nolan&rsquo;s scoring exploits against the Leafs was a change of scenery. He played on a line with Joe Sakic early in the year and often let the gifted center engineer scoring opportunities.Page has since put Nolan on a line with rough and tumble Mike Ricci-his old nemesis when the two played junior hockey-and left winger Martin Rucinsky.Ricci has helped Nolan regain his scoring touch.&ldquo;Owen is one of the more dangerous scorers in the NHL, but he needs an intense linemate,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;Mike Ricci is that kind of player.&rdquo;Nolan says he is very pleased with the Nordiques&rsquo; showing so far this season.&ldquo;I knew we would win a lot of games this year,&rdquo; Nolan said, &ldquo;but I sincerely didn&rsquo;t think we would be doing so well so fast. The chemistry has jelled a lot faster than expected. The players we picked up from Philadelphia in the Eric Lindros trade have more than helped get us on track.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Marcel Aubut and Pierre Page have met with Joe Sakic&rsquo;s agent Don Baizley to iron out a new contract. Sakic, who is in his option year, is looking for a healthy raise. Last season, Nordiques&rsquo; management offered Sakic a multi-year deal worth approximately $1.5 million per season. It was rejected. The market has since exploded and Baizley is seeking a deal in the neighborhood of $2-3 million US per year.Nordiques&rsquo; scout Dave Draper returned from Europe with a very positive assessment of Swedish center Peter Forsberg. Forsberg, obtained in the Eric Lindros deal, is arguably the top player in the Swedish Elite League, according to Draper. The first-round pick (Philadelphia, 1991) is expected to be in Quebec next season.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 29: Scott Pearson, LW, assigned to Halifax (AHL). Nov. 30: David Karpa, D, recalled from Halifax.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, Mike Ricci, Claude Lapointe.LW-Scott Young, Gino Cavallini, Martin Rucinsky, Mike Hough, Tony Twist.RW-Andrei Kovalenko, Bill Lindsay, Owen Nolan, Tim Hunter.LD-Steven Finn, Kerry Huffman, Curtis Leschyshyn.RD-Alexei Gusarov, Steve Duchesne, Adam Foote.G-Ron Hextail, Stephane Fiset, Jacques Cloutier.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Valeri Kamensky, LW, fractured right ankle, indefinite. Kerry Huffman, D, sprained left shoulder, Dec. 8. Mikhail Tatarinov, D, sprained right thumb, indefinite. Craig Wolanln, 0, pulled muscle in right thigh, indefinite. &#9632;

f0019-01

Nolan back in saddle

<div class="byline">By Stephen Harris</div>Few teams were happier about this year&rsquo;s rule changes than the Boston Bruins.They are no longer big or bad, but suddenly a fast and skilled club that prospered with the open ice created by the crackdown on interference and holding.But more and more as the season winds on, that crackdown seems to be ending.&ldquo;In training camp, there was one thing,&rdquo; said veteran center Dave Poulin, recalling the huge increase in penalties, especially for high-sticking and holding an opponent&rsquo;s stick.&ldquo;Then, the first four or five weeks of the season were another thing. That&rsquo;s when the best, most entertaining hockey was being played. There was really a big reduction in the clutching and grabbing.&ldquo;Guys were policing themselves. If you were next to your bench, the guys sitting there would be yelling, &lsquo;Let go of his stick.&rsquo; It was being called, so guys stopped doing it.&ldquo;But when&rsquo;s the last time you saw holding-the-stick called? If it&rsquo;s going to be allowed, guys are going to do it. As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, we&rsquo;ve gone right back to the way it was last year.&ldquo;There are different tiers of players in the league. And the guys at one level have to do that (commit infractions) to survive. If it&rsquo;s getting done to you, you&rsquo;re going to do it, too.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02780/6048319-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="574" height="612"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dave Poulin says referees have stopped enforcing the rule changes.</figcaption></div>WAR OF WORDS: Moments after an obvious too-many-men on the ice penalty cost the Ottawa Senators a last-minute game-tying goal against the Bruins Nov. 24, Ottawa owner Bruce Firestone was loudly berating referee Ron Hoggarth.Bruins&rsquo; center Adam Oates walked by, suggested to Firestone that he learn the rules and-not knowing he was talking to a team owner-quickly became involved in a heated and profane exchange.&ldquo;It was stupid. I shouldn&rsquo;t have done it,&rdquo; Oates said. &ldquo;He was screaming at the referee in front of a lot of people. I just made a stupid, wise-ass comment. I&rsquo;ll apologize to him when I have the chance.&rdquo;Firestone has written letters of apology to Oates and Hoggarth.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Glen Featherstone, who was hit with a nine-game suspension for an incident with Providence of the American League, was recalled by the Bruins Nov. 23. The Bruins thought they would have to adhere to the nine-game sentence but NHL president Gil Stein announced Nov. 27 that Featherstone would sit out nine non-game, non-travel days. Featherstone will lose about $16,000&hellip;Glen Wesley sustained a broken foot in practice Nov. 25 and will be out until late December.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 23: Glen Featherstone, D, recalled from Providence (AHL). Nov. 28: Bill Huard, LW, recalled from Providence. Nov. 29: Huard assigned to Providence.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Adam Oates, Dave Poulin, Ted Donato, Jozef Stumpel.LW-Joe Juneau, Brent Ashton, Vladimir Ruzicka, Tim Sweeney, Dave Reid.RW-Dmitri Kvartalnov Steve Heinze, Steve Leach.LD-Gord Roberts, Don Sweeney, Jim Wiemer, Dominic Lavoie.RD-Ray Bourque, David Shaw. Gord Murphy. Glen Featherstone.G-Andy Moog, Reggie Lemelin.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brent Hughes, LW, separated right shoulder, indefinite. Cam Neely, RW, left knee surgery, indefinite. Glen Wesley, D, broken toot, indefinite. &#9632;

f0019-02

Players are wondering where whistle went

<div class="byline">By Viv Bernstein</div>Jamie Leach knew before the season began he wouldn&rsquo;t play a significant role with the Pittsburgh PenguinsWith Jaromir Jagr, Joe Mullen and Rick Tocchet at right wing, Leach probably wouldn&rsquo;t play at all.So he asked Pittsburgh general manager Craig Patrick for a trade. When that didn&rsquo;t come, he asked to be placed on waivers.When the Penguins finally obliged, tee was claimed by the Hartford Whalers Nov. 21.&ldquo;I just think the coach (Scotty Bowman) wasn&rsquo;t interested in me,&rdquo; Leach said. &ldquo;The thing that hurt me was when (former Penguins&rsquo; coach) Bob Johnson passed away. Bob was a big fan of mine. He was going to give me a chance. Scott Bowman had different plans.&rdquo;Leach, 23, had seven goals and 14 points in 55 career games entering the 1992-93 season.He played five games with the Penguins before being placed on waivers and had no points.&ldquo;I think if I get the ice time and my confidence gets up, 1 can start scoring,&rdquo; he said.Leach had no points in his first three games with the Whalers, but coach Paul Holmgren is hoping he can contribute offensively.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good two-way player who has a good shot,&rdquo; Holmgren said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s probably going to score more Coals than a checker would.&rdquo;Leach has two Stanley Cup rings from Pittsburgh, although he didn&rsquo;t play in a playoff game the past two seasons.His father, Reggie Leach, was a member of a Stanley Cup champion with Philadelphia in 1974-75.KERR HOPEFUL: Right winger Tim Kerr had two pieces of floating cartilage removed from his right knee during arthroscopic surgery Nov. 23.The prognosis for recovery was good, although team physician John Fulkerson said there was no guarantee Kerr would return.&ldquo;I guess it&rsquo;s a good news-bad news situation,&rdquo; Fulkerson said. &ldquo;His knee was not worn down to the bone. He still has a lot of good, healthy cartilage left. On the other hand, he does have some definite deterioration of the joint on the inside.&ldquo;The concern is what will happen now with his return to play, whether he will get enough improvement to be able to return to play professional hockey. I gave him odds of 75 per cent he would be able to return, possibly by mid-to late December.&rdquo;&ldquo;If I worried about that, I wouldn&rsquo;t be in the game,&rdquo; said Kerr, who has had 13 operations in his career including three on the right knee. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s going to be fine. I think after about 10 (surgeries) I was saying, &lsquo;No more.&rsquo; I guess I&rsquo;m a liar. I just love this game.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Boston defenseman Ray Bourque became the all-time Whalers&rsquo; killer when he had four points in a 5-4 Bruins&rsquo; win Nov. 27. That gave Bourque 118 points in 90 games against Hartford, passing New Jersey&rsquo;s Peter Stastny, who has 116.<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 24: John Cullen, C, traded to Toronto tor a conditional second-round draft pick in 1993 or 1994.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Murray Craven, Andrew Cassels, Michael Nylander, Mark Janssens, Robert Petrovicky, Paul Gillis.LW-Patrick Poulin, Geoff Sanderson, Jim McKenzie, Randy Cunneyworth.RW-Pat Verbeek, Jamie Leach, Terry Yake, Nick Kypreos.LD-Zartey Zalapski, Adam Burt, Doug Houda.RD-AI Pedersen, Randy Ladouceur, Steve Konroyd, Jim Agnew.G-Sean Burke, Frank Pietrangelo.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tim Kerr, RW, right knee surgery, I indefinite. Eric Welnrlch, D, concussion, day-to-day. &#9632;

Frustrated Leach gets fresh start with Whale

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>It took Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; right winger Donald Audette all of two games to get his scoring touch back.Audette, who had been out of the lineup since March recovering from major knee surgery, peered in his second game, a 4-2 win Nov. 29 at Ottawa. He was a rookie-of-the-year candidate last season until the injury stopped his season at 31 goals in 63 games.&ldquo;I never feared I wouldn&rsquo;t score,&rdquo; Audette said. &ldquo;1 worried about other things, but I felt I would still be able to do that.&rdquo;The operation was the second major surgery for Audette. He underwent the same procedure on his left knee after eight games in 1991-92.&ldquo;The second time was easier than the first,&rdquo; Audette said. &ldquo;The second time I knew how much pain was involved, how far I could go and when to work through the pain.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The win in Ottawa was just the second on the road this season for the Sabres. They won their first Oct. 10 in Hartford, then compiled an 0-8-3 road record before beating the Senators.Right winger Alexander Mogilny had a pair of goals, the 99th and 100th of his career in his 212th game. Mogilny also extended his scoring streak to 10 games, the longest on the team.The Sabres sent goalie Tom Draper to Rochester of the American League for a condi-tioning stint, fueling rumors he&rsquo;s on the trade block. The rumors intensified when the Sabres recalled Clint Malarchuk from San Diego of the International League after Dominik Hasek was injured.Coach John Muckier broke up his top line of Pat LaFontaine, Dave Andreychuk and Alexander Mogilny and criticized Andreychuk&rsquo;s lack of physical play. Muckier was upset about LaFontaine being hit a lot without teammates going to his defense.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 23: Greg Brown, D, assigned to Rochester (AHL). Nov.25: Tom Draper, G, Philippe Boucher, D, and Viktor Gordijuk, LW, assigned to Rochester. Nov. 27: Clint Malarchuk, G, recalled from San Diego (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Pat LaFontaine, Dale Hawerchuk, Bob Sweeney, Dave Hannan.LW-Dave Andreychuk, Brad May, Bob Corkum, Cotin Patterson, Yuri Khmylev.RW-Donald Audette, Alex Mogilny, Wayne Presley, Randy Wood, Rob Ray.LD-Doug Bodger, Petr Svoboda, Richard Smehlik.RD-Ken Sutton, Keith Camey, Gord Donnelly.G-Daren Puppa, Clint Malarchuk<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dominik Hasek, G, strained groin, day-to-day. Grant Ledyard, D, fractured finger on right hand, Dec. 14. Randy Moller, D, tom left knee ligament, indefinite. Mike Ramsey, D, bruised hand, day-to-day. &#9632;

Audette still has the touch

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>In the end, it was the oldest Senator who seemed to enjoy the club&rsquo;s newest win the most.Brad Marsh, the 34-year-old veteran defenseman, raced out onto the ice when he was named the second star in the Senators&rsquo; 3-1 win over the New Jersey Devils at the Civic Centre Nov. 25.The win, Ottawa&rsquo;s second of the year and first since a 5-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens opening night, snapped a 21-game winless streak.Never known for his grace or speed, the plodding Marsh raced to center ice, did a tight turn and then raced off again, stopping to throw some snow at the end boards.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s such a great feeling,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This is probably the biggest win in a lot of young careers. Even mine. It has been so frustrating this season. This is almost like winning a Stanley Cup game.&rdquo;The Senators&rsquo; effort against the Devils wasn&rsquo;t much different than the ones they have showed all season. The players worked hard, but this time were finally rewarded for their perseverance.&ldquo;There wasn&rsquo;t a lot of difference in a lot of those games,&rdquo; left winger Doug Smail said. &ldquo;(Goaltender) Peter Sidorkiewicz made some big saves and we scored more than two goals for a change. We have played a lot better than that and come up with nothing.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Former New York Islanders&rsquo; superstar Mike Bossy is close to taking the newly created position of scoring consultant with the Senators. &ldquo;I must admit the idea intrigues me,&rdquo; said Bossy who had nine straight 50-goal seasons with the Isles and now works as the host on a French-language radio comedy show in Montreal. &ldquo;It has never been done before so you never know. There are certain offensive strategies and certain defensive strategies that you can teach to players that could be helpful.&rdquo;<h2>OTTAWA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 28: Jim Kyte, D. recalled from New Haven (AHL). Mark Osiecki, D, assigned to New Haven.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Dave Archibald, Jamie Baker, Neil Brady, Mark Lamb, Laurie Boschman, Mark Freer.LW-Sylvain Turgeon, Mike Peluso, Jeff Lazaro, Darcy Loewen, Doug Smail.RW-Jody Hull, Andrew McBain. Tomas Jelinek, Jim Thomson.LD-Norm Maciver, Darren Rumble, Brad Marsh, Ken Hammond.RD-Chris Luongo, Brad Shaw, Jim Kyte.G-Peter Sidorkiewicz, Steve Weeks.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Team’s second victory sends Marsh into frenzy

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01786/6048453-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01738/6048446-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="3099" height="1710"></div> &#9632;

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CLASSIFIED

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01768/6048512-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01668/6048505-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="3087" height="3000"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01761/6048498-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="3085" height="3513"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01705/6048491-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="3104" height="3531"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01754/6048484-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="3072" height="3507"></div> &#9632;

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Can’t Beat the Real Thing

<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, NOV. 23</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01670/6048683-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="589" height="3086"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02462/6048676-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="579" height="2888"></div><h2>TUESDAY, NOV. 24</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03338/6048669-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="583" height="514"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04268/6048662-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="588" height="1874"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, NOV. 25</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05220/6048655-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="590" height="1528"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06188/6048648-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="598" height="3500"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07171/6048641-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="588" height="3502"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01756/6048634-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="586" height="2458"></div><h2>THURSDAY, NOV. 26</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02550/6048627-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="583" height="915"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03428/6048620-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="582" height="1776"></div><h2>FRIDAY, NOV. 27</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04323/6048613-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="583" height="1585"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05257/6048606-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="583" height="3459"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06224/6048599-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="586" height="3462"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-07207/6048592-1-eng-US/f0034-072.jpg" title="f0034-07" width="583" height="3261"></div><h2>SATURDAY, NOV. 28</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-08194/6048585-1-eng-US/f0034-082.jpg" title="f0034-08" width="583" height="111"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01717/6048578-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="595" height="3489"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02539/6048571-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="592" height="3488"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03435/6048564-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="587" height="3483"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04349/6048557-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="585" height="2102"></div><h2>SUNDAY, NOV. 29</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05290/6048550-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="583" height="1296"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06263/6048543-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="633" height="3528"></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01680/6048721-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01599/6048714-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="3086" height="3515"></div> &#9632;

f0036-01

SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0038-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01683/6048752-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01647/6048783-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0039-01

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01357/6048835-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"></div>As NHL salaries soar, teams are searching for ways to save money.There is talk of a salary cap in the NHL but don&rsquo;t hold your breath waiting for players to take pay cuts. One tactic is to trim from the bottom, at the minor-league level. Over the next two to five years, there could be significant changes in the NHL&rsquo;s relationship to the minors.The major cutbacks started this season, when many NHL teams hesitated in signing minor-league free agents to large contracts.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t be paying guys $50,000 or $60,000 to play in the minors,&rdquo; says Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; GM Russ Farwell. &ldquo;We just can&rsquo;t afford it.&rdquo;That was a simple cutback. What lies ahead could be more severe. Teams could go to dual affiliations. They were the rage of the 1980s. Teams realized they had only a handful of legitimate prospects on their minor-league club anyway.So rather than pay several has-beens or never-will-bes to fill out the minor-league roster, they became partners with another NHL team and filled an American League roster largely with prospects.While some players developed, there were problems. The GM of one NHL team was upset because his goalie didn&rsquo;t play enough, his forwards didn&rsquo;t get enough power-play time, or his defensemen never killed penalties.&ldquo;Nobody wants a shared affiliation because you&rsquo;re not developing your coach, your players, your trainer, your broadcaster or sales and marketing people,&rdquo; says Pat Hickey, president of the AHL&rsquo;s Hamilton Canucks. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the Punch Imlach philosophy that strength comes from your farm system.&rdquo;But some NHL teams may not be able to afford the luxury of having 25 to 30 minor-leaguers under contract. That&rsquo;s why sharing a farm team is again appealing.&ldquo;Teams may be forced to do it because of fiscal responsibility,&rdquo; says New Jersey GM Lou Lamoriello. &ldquo;Even though you would not want to, positives will outweigh negatives.&rdquo;AHL vice-president Gordie Anziano says his league has been given no word of teams wanting to share affiliations.Even if teams do decide to share, International League commissioner Tom Berry says it will be cyclical.&ldquo;Just like they did before, teams will say, &lsquo;to hell with the cost, I need to get something that will develop my prospects,&rsquo; and go back to their own team,&rdquo; Berry says.Lamoriello says the Devils plan to keep running their AHL team alone in Utica. Their first cutback will be at the NHL level.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll see NHL rosters at a minimum, with 20 or 21 players, and that&rsquo;s it,&rdquo; Lamoriello says.Some NHL and minor-league executives predict the AHL will become the sole primary developmental league, they predict that tne IHL would become a league of independent teams.<h2>DOWN</h2>Every AHL team has an NHL affiliate. Here are the teams and their NHL affiliations:<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02237/6048828-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="533" height="640"></div>This season, all 16 AHL teams are affiliated with an NHL team. Four of the 12 IHL teams are independent.&ldquo;I think our league has shown we are strong enough to go independent,&rdquo; Berry says, &ldquo;though that is not some-thing we want to do, nor do I see that happening.&rdquo;But one IHL team, the Milwaukee Admirals, is happy to no longer have a parent team. The Vancouver Canucks ended their affiliation after last season and went to Hamilton, an AHL expansion franchise.&ldquo;For us, it&rsquo;s better to be an independent,&rdquo; Milwaukee GM Phil Wittliff says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got more wins than we did last year. There are no callups and we&rsquo;ve been able to control our own destiny. Our owner wants to win and entertain the people, he doesn&rsquo;t want to develop players.&rdquo;But to be good as an indepen dent, considerable money must be spent on player salaries.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an expensive proposition to be independent,&rdquo; Wittliff says. &ldquo;Whether we can do it and succeed financially, we&rsquo;ll have to wait and see.&rdquo;The grand plan envisioned by some NHL executives calls for hockey to duplicate baseball&rsquo;s minor-league structure. The AHL could merge with the IHL to be AAA, and other leagues-the ECHL, Central and Colonial-would be AA and class-A leagues.&ldquo;The ideal situation would be to have a 24-team (minor) league, and group it into three, eight-team divisions,&rdquo; says Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; assistant GM Gilles Leger. &ldquo;If evety NHL club owned or was affiliated with one city, what you would have is 48 major markets indentifiable with NHL hockey. Those other leagues, the new leagues that have been spawned, would work as the third tier.<h2>ON THE</h2>Eight of the 12 IHL teams are No. 1 NHL affiliates. Asterisks indicate secondary affiliations:<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03171/6048821-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="519" height="491"></div>&ldquo;If you could get to that step, you could get some control on costs.&rdquo;ECHL commissioner Pat Kelly believes the NHL can create that system within the current structure.&ldquo;In my day (as a player), when you came out of junior or college, you went to the minors and proved yourself,&rdquo; Kelly says. &ldquo;It seems today&rsquo;s kids start at the top and work down. With the money teams are spending (on salaries) they can&rsquo;t afford to gamble and pay $300,000 or $400,000 on some kid just out of juniors.&rdquo;Kelly says his league would be happy to be the class A or AA league. &ldquo;You have 17 kids and pay them from $12,000 to $15,000 a year and our league picks up some of the costs,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If they improve, you put them up to the next level.&rdquo;Minor-league teams also are concerned about costs. Attendance is booming in many IHL and ECHL cities, but nine AHL teams were down from last season. The IHL averages 6,039 fans per game, while the ECHL is at 4,361 and the AHL at 3,582.<h2>FARM</h2>Eleven ECHL teams have working agreements with NHL teams. They are listed below.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04136/6048814-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="539" height="603"></div>Moncton and Springfield in the AHL had the most severe drops, losing 900 fans per game in average attendance. The weak economy in the northeast is a big factor, clubs say.The IHL is showing no signs of the recession.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re up 18 per cent over last year and project over 4 1/2 million people in our buildings this season,&rdquo; Berry says. &ldquo;Our teams average 14 front-office people. Obviously, if you have enough people to get out and reach the public, you&rsquo;ll sell tickets.&rdquo;While AHL teams often are the only winter sporting entertainment in their city, the IHL is going head to head with the National Basketball Association in six cities.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re offering one heck of an entertainment package to people who have alternative entertainment to go to,&rdquo; Berry says.The ECHL, which is well below the AHL and IHL in terms of talent, has grown in leaps and bounds over the past three seasons. It recently announced expansion plans that will bring the league up to 17 teams next season.&ldquo;Our tickets average $6.50 or $7 so you can take a family of four for $30 to $35,&rdquo; Kelly says. &ldquo;I know if our ticket prices are in the $10-$ll-$12 range, I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;d have the attendance we have.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0040-01

MINOR CHANGES

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>The East Coast League&rsquo;s expansion policy has always been simple: the more the merrier.The five-year-old league&rsquo;s membership was pushed to 17 Nov. 24 when commissioner Pat Kelly announced the ECHL&rsquo;s board of governors voted to grant expansion&rsquo; franchises to Charlotte, N.C., and Charleston, S.C., for the 1993-94 season.And Kelly didn&rsquo;t rule out the possibility of another city joining before next season.&ldquo;There are other cities talking to us,&rdquo; Kelly said. &ldquo;I hope we can get the league to 18 for next season.&rdquo;Eighteen is a very realistic number as far as realignment is concerned. If an 18th team is added, the ECHL will likely divide up into three six-team divisions or two conferences-like the NHL-with five-and four-team divisions.Through an unbalanced schedule, rivalries could be re-established without forcing teams to travel long distances by bus.Huntsville, Ala., and Huntington, W.Va., are the leading candidates to be given the third expansion franchise. The new teams have paid the $500,000 entry fee. Nicknames have yet to be determined.Hockey isn&rsquo;t foreign in Charlotte. The Charlotte Coliseum, which closed in 1988, was the home of the Charlotte Checkers of the defunct Eastern League until 1977.The rink is currently undergoing a $4-million renovation. The 10,500-seat arena will re-open Sept. 28, 1993 for an exhibition game featuring the Boston Bruins.The Charlotte ownership is headed by businessman Felix Sabates. The group includes NASCAR legend Richard Petty and his son, Kyle, a successful stock car driver.Carl Scheer, former general manager of the National Basketball Association&rsquo;s Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets, will be the team&rsquo;s GM.Canadians Frank Milne and Joe Scanlon will run the Charleston team. Milne is a former hockey agent from St. Catharines, Ont., and Scanlon a Toronto businessman.HITTING THE SKIDS: Greensboro, which doesn&rsquo;t play a home game until Dec. 12 because of the renovation project at Greensboro Coliseum, lost seven games in a row after opening the season with five consecutive wins.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s no big deal,&rdquo; said Monarchs&rsquo; coach Jeff Brubaker. &ldquo;For goodness sakes, we&rsquo;re playing professional hockey. We could be dirt farmers in Afghanistan or rice farmers in Vietnam. We&rsquo;re tired, but there are worse things in life than an eight-week road trip.&rdquo;Brubaker also said he plans to appeal his $1,000 fine the league imposed on him for not controlling his team against Raleigh Nov. 15. The Monarchs were assessed a $5,000 fine.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen bigger fights between my kids and the neighbors&rsquo; kids,&rdquo; Brubaker said.FERREIRA RETURNS: Brian Ferreira made his Nashville debut at Birmingham Nov. 21 after serving a 15-game suspension.The Falmouth, Mass., native was slapped with a 30-game suspension by Pat Kelly for going into the stands during a playoff game last season while he was playing for Johnstown. He also shot a puck at Kelly and chased him down a corridor. The suspension was later cut in half.&ldquo;I shouldn&rsquo;t have done that, but at the same time, I think a 15-game suspension was far too much,&rdquo; Ferreira said. &ldquo;I was made an example of.&rdquo;It didn&rsquo;t take Ferreira long to get back into trouble. He was slapped with a minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct in a 5-2 loss at Knoxville Nov. 25. &#9632;

League expanding its universe

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>Kalamazoo Wings&rsquo; coach Bob Hoffmeyer made International League history as the first coach of an NHL-affiliated team to be fired.He was canned Nov. 21 by parent club Minnesota and replaced by general manager Bill Inglis.&ldquo;(Minnesota GM) Bob Gainey sent a message to everyone that they will be held accountable,&rdquo; said Inglis, who coached the Wings from 1984-87. &ldquo;In defense of Bob, he wasn&rsquo;t the whole reason, but this has to get better.&ldquo;Bob Gainey did not want to procrastinate on the problem. He asked if I would serve on an interim basis&hellip;because of our relationship with Minnesota, we have always worked well together and this reinforces that we&rsquo;re in it together.&rdquo;Inglis, who led Toledo to consecutive Turner Cups in &lsquo;81-82 and &lsquo;82-83, was 123-130-8 in his previous stint with Kalamazoo.Hoffmeyer ends his reign in Kalamazoo after 100 games with a 43-57 record. Sources said Wings&rsquo; players had grown tired of playing for Hoffmeyer, who apparently was distant and did not communicate or motivate them well.The Wings had lost nine straight games-the second-worst streak in their history-and at 612-1 had the league&rsquo;s worst record.&ldquo;We have no candidates for the job at this time,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;We would like to make this transition as quick and smooth as possible.&rdquo;WINGING IT: Kalamazoo defenseman Enrico Ciccone was suspended three games, fined $1,000 and placed on league probation for the rest of the season for his role in an incident Nov. 7 in San Diego.Ciccone will not be prosecuted by the San Diego attorney&rsquo;s office after he allegedly struck a photographer in the penalty box and injured a spectator by throwing his stick into the stands.San Diego police arrested Ciccone and charged him with a misdemeanor after the incident.&ldquo;Without question, the photographer was damaged, but the extent of the injuries to both parties were overstated,&rdquo; IHL commissioner Tom Berry said. &ldquo;Ciccone will not be prosecuted. Case closed.&rdquo;IT&rsquo;S SHOWTIME: The IHL and national cable carrier Prime Network completed their telecast schedule for the 1992-93 season.Salt Lake, Cleveland, Cincinnati, San Diego, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Phoenix will appear twice each. Milwaukee and Kansas City each appear once. Peoria, Fort Wayne and Kalamazoo were shut out.These games will be available nation-wide on Prime Network&rsquo;s 15 subsidiaries:Dec. 13: Salt Lake at Atlanta. Dec. 18: Cleveland at Cincinnati. Dec. 31: San Diego at Cleveland. Jan. 4: Phoenix at Kansas City. Jan. 10: Salt Lake at Phoenix. Jan. 30: Atlanta at Indianapolis. Feb. 3: IHL All-Star Game, at Phoenix. Feb. 13: San Diego at Indi-anapolis. Feb. 21: Cincinnati at Milwaukee.I-OPENERS: Atlanta right winger Keith Osborne was player of the week for the period ending Nov. 23 after scoring five goals and two assists in four games. Osborne had a league-high 19-game points streak through Nov. 24&hellip;IHL statistics through 100 games show a 25 per-cent decline in fighting, from 265 penalties in 1991-92 to 197 this year. League attendance, meanwhile, is up 18 per cent.Fort Wayne&rsquo;s Colin Chin scored his 500th career goal in a game against Kalamazoo Nov. 22. Making the assist was Scott Gruhl. who moved into fifth on the IHL all-time assists list with 634. &#9632;

Hoffmeyer sets history by becoming history

Steven King has never had the experience of reading one of his famous namesake&rsquo;s horror novels. But his own personal hell is just as scary-his roommate is learning how to play guitar.&ldquo;Shut your door, you&rsquo;re brutal,&rdquo; King yelled to fellow Binghamton Ranger Rob Kenny while he was being interviewed.When King isn&rsquo;t busy avoiding his musical roommate, he&rsquo;s giving American League goaltenders nightmares with his scoring ability.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01298/6048914-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="379" height="507"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steven King</figcaption></div>King, a supplemental draft pick of the New York Rangers in 1991, was leading Binghamton with 17 goals in 21 games. He scored just 27 last season as a first-year pro.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a huge adjustment from college to the AHL,&rdquo; said King, a graduate from Brown. &ldquo;1 didn&rsquo;t realize how big it would be. Just knowing what an opposition building looks like makes a big difference.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0041-01

King gives goalies nightmares

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>When Corey Hirsch graduated from the Western League to the American League, he set some modest goals for himself. Among them was to have a.500 record for the Binghamton Rangers.But it might be time for the rookie to set those goals a little higher.Hirsch still hadn&rsquo;t lost two months into the season. Through Nov. 24, the league&rsquo;s lightest player-5-foot-9, 150 pounds-had some pretty heavy numbers: a 9-0-1 record with a 2.48 goals-against average.The 20-year-old Hirsch, New York&rsquo;s eighthround pick in the 1991 entry draft, was the AHL&rsquo;s leader in victories and GAA and was third in save percentage (.912).&ldquo;Coming into the season, 1 expected to learn a lot,&rdquo; said Hirsch, the major junior goaltender of the year last season. &ldquo;I wanted to come in, work hard and earn as much playing time as I could. But I have high expectations of myself.&rdquo;He should. But besides talent, Hirsch has been blessed with superior teams in front of him. The Rangers were the class of the AHL with a 16-2-3 record through Nov. 25.The Kamloops Blazers, Hirsch&rsquo;s former team, breezed to the WHL&rsquo;s West Division title a year ago with a 51-17-4 record.&ldquo;We had Daryl Sydor and Scott Niedermayer on defense. How many guys are able to play behind a team like that?&rdquo; Hirsch said.Still, Hirsch knows he must play well in order for his teammates to perform well.&ldquo;The way I play has a lot to do with the confidence the team will display,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If a goalie&rsquo;s not stopping anything, the&rsquo;team isn&rsquo;t going to play as well.&rdquo;LOSING IT: The AHL decided the automatic nine-game suspension Providence defenseman Glen Featherstone incurred was proper punishment for his wild fit of rage in overtime of a Nov. 20 game against Springfield.Featherstone was given a three-game suspension for physical abuse of officials and six games for coming back onto the ice after linesmen Bob Paquette and Marty Demers had led him off.Featherstone became enraged after referee Rob Martell whistled him for elbowing during overtime. He slammed his stick against the glass, then started across the ice after Martell.Demers and Paquette intercepted him and his stick inadvertently struck one of them as he struggled to get free. He then threw his stick underhanded in the direction of Martell, though he didn&rsquo;t hit the referee.Demers and Paquette were finally able to lead Featherstone towards the gate to the dressing room, but on his way he punched Springfield defenseman Jukka Suomalainen. Once off the ice, he threw two sticks onto the ice, then came back in one last attempt to get at Martell.&ldquo;He just lost it,&rdquo; AHL vice-president Gordie Anziano said. &ldquo;I felt nine games-9/80ths of his $350,000 contract-was just punishment.&rdquo;MOVING UP: Hershey center Tim Tookey moved into ninth place on the AHL&rsquo;s all-time assist list with 477.Tookey has a realistic chance to catch Bill Sweeney (510) for fifth place before the end of the season. &#9632;

Rookie Hirsch backstops Binghamton to new heights

<div class="byline">By Vance Oliver</div>It was a classic case of the rich getting richer when center Tyler Wright was returned to the Swift Current Broncos by the Edmonton Oilers Nov. 18.The Broncos, favorites to capture the Western League title this season, were in first place in the East Division with a 17-4-1 record when Wright was returned. But it was a rough start for Wright, whose Broncos lost three straight after he arrived. He had two goals and three points.&ldquo;We feel better about our chances,&rdquo; said Broncos&rsquo; coach-general manager Graham James. &ldquo;But I still respect a lot of teams in this league.&rdquo;The Broncos are already talent-rich with Czechoslovakian goalie Milan Hnilicka, all-star defenseman Brent Bilodeau and a solid corps of high-scoring forwards, including Jason Krywulak, Todd Holt, Rick Girard and Ashley Buckberger.Depth up front allowed James to ship promising winger Chris Herperger, 18, to Seattle for 18-year-old defenseman Ryan Brown.Wright may well be the final piece in the puzzle. The first-round pick of the Oilers in 1991 didn&rsquo;t dress for Edmonton&rsquo;s last nine games. He had one goal and two points in seven games.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t played in 25 days,&rdquo; Wright said upon his return. &ldquo;There might be an adjustment coming back, but that&rsquo;s all upstairs.&rdquo;Wright was hoping his stay would be longer and more fruitful, but he&rsquo;s happy to be back where he&rsquo;ll get to play more.&ldquo;You sort of get spoiled up there,&rdquo; Wright said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re flying all over the place and staying in ritzy hotels, but it doesn&rsquo;t matter to me. I&rsquo;ll just jump on the bus and go to sleep.&rdquo;GOALIE RE-MATCH: It wasn&rsquo;t the Saskatoon Blades against the Brandon Wheat Kings Nov. 24; it could have been reduced it to Norm Maracle against Trevor Robins.Robins, who had been the Blades&rsquo; starting goalie the past three seasons, was shipped to Brandon in the off-season after Maracle dislodged him with spectacular play in the 1992 playoffs.Robins returned with a vengeance to post a league-leading 2.58 goals-against average, .917 save percentage and 16-4-1 record. Maracle was second behind Robins with a 3.21 GAA, .909 save percentage and 13-5-0 mark.The showdown proved to be anti-climactic as the Blades won 4-2 in Saskatoon. Both goalies allowed soft goals. Robins, 20, picked up two minor penalties against his former team.PLEADS GUILTY: Swift Current&rsquo;s Graham James pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of common assault in a Moose Jaw Court of Queen&rsquo;s Bench Nov. 24 in connection with an incident with a Moose Jaw fan Nov. 30, 1991.James, who struck Robert Sagal with a hockey stick during a game in Moose Jaw, was given a conditional discharge. Providing he keeps the peace, the 39-year-old James will not have a criminal record.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a feeling of joy or anything like that,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a sense of relief the process is over and that it turned out favorably.&rdquo;James had been charged with assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon. The second charge was dropped April 13. The aspect that bothered James is that he has campaigned against violence in sport.&ldquo;I was concerned this would make me seem hypocritical,&rdquo; James said. &ldquo;I had been a spokesman for (non-violence in hockey) and put myself in that position.&rdquo;Sagal is pursuing a civil suit against James. &#9632;

Broncos have Wright stuff to capture division title

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>The Laval Titan and the Quebec League got some good news Nov. 21 when the Detroit Red Wings returned right winger Martin Lapointe to the junior ranks.Detroit&rsquo;s first-round pick, 10th overall, in the 1991 NHL draft was with the Red Wings for their first 21 games, but only played three times and was held off the scoresheet.Lapointe, 19, had one assist in four games with the Red Wings last year before being returned to Laval after the World Junior Championships. The 5-foot-11, 200-pounder had 25 goals and 55 points in 31 games with the Titan.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s great news for the organization and the league,&rdquo; Titan coach Robert Hartley said. &ldquo;The league can count on players like Martin Lapointe, Alexandre Daigle and Martin Gendron. They&rsquo;re the best salesmen.&rdquo;While Hartley had reason to be happy, Lapointe wasn&rsquo;t thrilled to be back in the junior ranks.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s disappointing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But there&rsquo;s not much I can do. It&rsquo;s something I can&rsquo;t control. I wasn&rsquo;t playing so the Red Wings did what they felt was best for me.&rdquo;Lapointe said he won&rsquo;t have a problem getting motivated for a fourth junior year. In his first game back, Lapointe, wearing the &lsquo;C&rsquo; on his No. 22 sweater, had two goals and two assists as Laval beat St-Hyacinthe 7-3 Nov. 23.&ldquo;Martin doesn&rsquo;t want to finish second at anything,&rdquo; Hartley said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why he was a first-round draft pick. He has a great intensity. Sparks shoot out of his eyes.&rdquo;Laval has struggled to stay above.500 this season and Hartley hopes Lapointe will ignite the team to turn the season around.&ldquo;He has been part of two World Junior Championships and started two seasons in Detroit,&rdquo; Hartley said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t buy that kind of experience.&rdquo;Lapointe was a victim of the numbers game in Detroit. He was fifth on the depth chart for right wingers behind Ray Sheppard. Paul Yse-baert, Dino Ciccarelli and Sheldon Kennedy.Lapointe said he would have rather stayed in Detroit and continue to see limited action rather than play regularly in Laval.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to say. I wasn&rsquo;t playing a lot and it&rsquo;s frustrating,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But if the decision was left up to me I would have stayed there.&rdquo;One reason Lapointe wanted to stay in Detroit is money. He was making $165,000 per season with the Red Wings.Lapointe says he is looking forward to a third appearance at the World Junior Championships. He helped Canada win a gold medal in 1991 and last year had four goals and one assist as Canada finished sixth.TRADING PLACES: The St-Jean Lynx and Chicoutimi Sagueneens made a five-player trade Nov. 22.Going to St-Jean are 17-year-old forwards Martin Lamarche and Rony Valenti, along with a fifth-round pick in the 1994 draft. Heading to Chicoutimi are 18-year-old forward Stephane St-Amour, along with defensemen Raymond Delarosbil, 19, and Jean-Alain Schneider. 20. Schneider is the brother of Montreal defenseman Mathieu Schneider.The teams could make the trade outside the league&rsquo;s trading period because all players involved don&rsquo;t attend school.MISSING ALEX: The Victoriaville Tigres were 3-3-0 and averaging 3.67 goals per game through six games of Alexandre Daigle&rsquo;s eight-game suspension. With Daigle in the lineup, the Tigres were 17-5-0 and averaged 6.36 goals per game. &#9632;

Lapointe lands back in Laval

Moving from Whitehorse. Yukon, to interior B.C., was a mild culture shock for Jarrett Deuiing compared to his next move.&ldquo;New York was unbelievable,&rdquo; the Kamloops Blazers&rsquo; left winger said. &ldquo;It was huge compared to the places I&rsquo;ve been.&rdquo;Deuiing has made enormous strides since attending the Blazers&rsquo; camp as a 14-year-old in 1988. He cracked the lineup at 16, was selected the MVP in Kamloops Memorial Cup championship at 17 last spring and was drafted in the third round by the New York Islanders at 18 in June.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01312/6049041-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="372" height="506"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jarrett Deuiing</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not the greatest skater or puckhandler,&rdquo; Kamloops&rsquo; coach Don Hay said. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s a hardnosed character kid every winning team needs.&rdquo;Deuiing said he progressed in the Yukon by playing two levels ahead of his age group-with the midgets while at peewee age. &#9632;

f0042-01

From the Yukon to Big Apple

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>If there is such a thing as spreading yourself too thin, then Wisconsin forward Chris Tucker&rsquo;s life has taken on a somewhat anorexic profile.Tucker is a typical student-athlete in that he is trying to balance lectures and tests on one hand, with a prominent role on the Badger hockey team in the other.But there is nothing typical about the way he has opened himself up to the plethora of horizon-broadening possibilities on the Madison campus.The most recent example came Nov. 12 when Tucker, a junior center/left winger from Bloomington, Minn., was elected to one of eight seats on the Wisconsin student senate.Representing the student party, he received 137 votes to finish fourth overall. He will now be the voice for his constituents in the second district, which includes all juniors and seniors in the college of letters and science.Meanwhile, in advance of the recent U.S. national election, Tucker worked as a volunteer to register voters.He supported president-elect Bill Clinton by attending his rally in Madison and offered his support for Democratic candidates by phoning the state senate caucus offices from the UW locker room in order to wish them luck on election day.And there&rsquo;s more.Over the summer, Tucker-who hasn&rsquo;t decided on a major yet-joined an environmental interest group. He also worked for the state senate caucus, where his avid interest in politics grew more.So where does he find the time?&ldquo;Maybe I have too many irons in the fire,&rdquo; said Tucker, who had two goals and three points in 10 games. &ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;m trying to do too much. Sometimes I feel very burned out in both school and hockey and my other activities.&ldquo;But I just feel this is such an opportune time in my life to be as active as possible. At the university, there are so many interests around to get involved in. I won&rsquo;t always have this.&rdquo;A prolific goal-scorer at Jefferson High School, Tucker was attracted to Madison in large part because of its reputation as a liberal, politically-attuned city. He has had an interest in government and politics for a long time.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always had these emotions and beliefs, but I&rsquo;ve become more active just because of Madison-the opportunities to deal with these emotions and beliefs are so much more prevalent,&rdquo; he said.CLOSE CALL: Minnesota-Duluth freshman Taras Lendzyk came within 42 seconds of shutting out Michigan Tech Nov. 21 as the Bulldogs won 6-1.Going into a series against Wisconsin Nov. 27-28, UMD had not recorded a shutout in 259 games dating back to Jan. 15, 1986 when Mike Cortes blanked Providence 6-0.It&rsquo;s the longest current streak among Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams. North Dakota is next with a 143-game run, while Colorado College hasn&rsquo;t had a shutout in 124 games.ENCOURAGING SIGNS: After serving a 60-day suspension, Brad Buetow resumed the coaching reigns at Colorado College for a series against Wisconsin Nov. 20-21.The results were definitely not what he wanted. The Badgers scored 1-0 and 3-1 victories as CC fell to 3-6-0 overall.But Buetow came away upbeat about the prospects for his team. The most pleasing development was the showing of freshman goaltender Ryan Bach, who was excellent en route to 21 and 20 saves, respectively. &#9632;

Politics flicker’s passion

<div class="byline">By Matt Caplson</div>NHL teams that aren&rsquo;t afraid to draft small offensive forwards may find just what they&rsquo;re looking for in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.The CCHA has several dynamite freshman forwards and although none is big by pro standards, all measured up offensively in the early going.Notre Dame center Jamie Ling is the best of the crop. The 19-year-old Charlottetown, P.E.I., native led the CCHA in scoring with five goals and 15 points in 10 games.At 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, Ling didn&rsquo;t strike fear into many opposing players. He had only four penalty minutes in the first 10 games.Lake Superior State right winger Sean Tal-laire was also impressive. The 5-foot-10, 185-pounder had seven goals and 12 points in eight games.&ldquo;I expected he would be good,&rdquo; said Laker coach Jeff Jackson, &ldquo;but I didn&rsquo;t expect this much impact so early. He makes good decisions with the puck and has good hands and good feet. He has had a positive effect.&rdquo;Left winger Chris Brooks shone for the Western Michigan Broncos. The 5-foot-9, 175-pounder had five goals and 12 points in eight games.FALCON GROUNDED: Bowling Green senior center Brett Harkins is sidelined until at least the end of December.Harkins, the Falcons&rsquo; top scorer with five goals and 14 points in 10 games, injured his left knee in the opening seconds of the second period of the Falcons&rsquo; 7-5 loss at Ohio State Nov. 20.Harkins finished third in team scoring a year ago with eight goals and 47 points in 34 games.MAKING THE GRADE: Twenty-six former CCHA performers were on NHL rosters through Nov. 25.Three NHL clubs have a trio of ex-CCHAers. The Philadelphia Flyers have Rod Brind&rsquo;-Amour (Michigan State), Shawn Cronin (Illinois-Chicago) and Garry Galley (Bowling Green).The Toronto Maple Leafs have Dave Ellett (Bowling Green), Mike Krushelnyski (St. Louis) and Jamie Macoun (Ohio State).Kelly Miller (Michigan State), Jason Woolley (Michigan State) and Keith Jones (Western Michigan) are on the Washington Capitals&rsquo; roster.WATCHING THE CLOCK: CCHA commissioner Bill Beagan has been monitoring the game times this season.The reason? Hockey is a game that should be played quickly. And the quicker the game, the better for marketing purposes.Even under the new two referee system, CCHA games aren&rsquo;t significantly longer. Through Nov. 25, CCHA games averaged two hours, 24 minutes, up from 2:20 last year.In 1990-91, CCHA games averaged 2:19.LIFE AT THE TOP: Seeing Lake Superior State atop of the CCHA standings certainly isn&rsquo;t odd.Although the defending NCAA champions lost several key players, the Lakers usually find ways-and new talent-to win.&ldquo;So far, so good,&rdquo; said Lakers&rsquo; coach Jeff Jackson of the team&rsquo;s 6-1-1 start. &ldquo;We have room to grow, but I&rsquo;m pleased because we&rsquo;re keeping our goals-against down (22 goals against in eight CCHA games) and our goal-tending (Blaine Lacher and Adam Thompson) is solid.&rdquo; &#9632;

Diminutive freshmen suddenly walking tall

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggle</div>It&rsquo;s a good thing Luigi Villa isn&rsquo;t allergic to rubber.The sophomore goalie stopped a ton of shots for Union College in the first three games of the Eastern College Athletic Conference season and he&rsquo;ll likely see plenty more as the year goes on.Villa, 20, has the somewhat dubious honor of being Union&rsquo;s No. 1 netminder. The Skating Dutchmen joined the ECAC last season and finished with a 2-19-1 record (3-21-1 overall). They allowed a league-high 118 goals.Coach Bruce Delventhal expects his team to be much improved this season and he&rsquo;s looking to Villa to provide stability and leadership.The Mississauga, Ont., native responded to the pressure Nov. 21, leading the Dutchmen to a 3-2 win over the Vermont Catamounts-the team&rsquo;s first ECAC Division I win at home. In typical fashion, the more shots Villa saw (he faced 43), the better he played.&ldquo;When you talk with goalies, they always say if they get more work, they get into the flow of the game,&rdquo; Delventhal said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s certainly what has happened with Luigi. The more work he gets, the more relaxed he becomes.&rdquo;Villa played for the Wexford Raiders of the Metro Toronto Jr. B League before joining Union. He split time with classmate Mike Gallant a year ago, averaging 28 saves per game.He had some very busy nights, however. He made a career-high 46 saves in a loss to Harvard and stopped 45 shots in leading the Dutchmen to a 2-1 overtime win over Dartmouth. He was also in goal when Union beat Yale and engineered a 6-4 upset at Cornell, one of the toughest places to play in the ECAC. Despite Union&rsquo;s terrible record, Villa was named to the ECAC all-rookie team.Villa and Gallant were given an equal opportunity to win the No. 1 position this season, and Villa, who has not been drafted, won out.&ldquo;We always felt Luigi would be a bona fide goalie in this league,&rdquo; Delventhal said. &ldquo;People who watched him during his last year in junior know he was the guy who won the playoffs for Wexford. Jimmy (assistant coach Jim Ward) worked hard to get him here.&rdquo;HE&rsquo;S A SAINT: Senior goalie Brady Giroux has emerged as the top goalie at St. Lawrence.Giroux was the backup to junior Paul Spagnoletti for most of the 1991-92 season. He recorded his first career shutout Nov. 20, stopping 22 shots in a 5-0 win over Cornell. He followed that with a 36-save performance in a 3-2 win over Colgate Nov. 21.The back-to-back wins allowed St. Lawrence to extend its home-ice unbeaten streak to 17 games.POWER SURGE: The Yale Bulldogs were very efficient on the power-play in the early going. The Bulldogs converted 45 per cent of their power play opportunities in four games.LITTLE CONSOLATION: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute junior goalie Neil Little saw his streak of 27 consecutive starts come to an end Nov. 21. Engineers&rsquo; coach Buddy Powers opted to start freshman Mike Tamburro against Dartmouth and the rookie stopped 15 shots in a 3-1 win. &#9632;

State of Union’s goaltending in Villa’s capable hands

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>John Lilley has left the cosy confines of Boston University to play in the wild west.Lilley, a sophomore center who was named to the Hockey East all-rookie team a year ago, left the Terriers to play for Seattle of die Western League.The Wakefield, Mass., native played for Thunderbirds&rsquo; coach Walt Kyle on the U.S. national junior team last season. He got off to a slow start at BU this year, picking up just one assists in four games.Lilley&rsquo;s decision to leave school was not entirely hockey related. He was having difficulty in school.&ldquo;John was struggling academically and decided to leave school because he couldn&rsquo;t handle the burden of hockey and academics,&rdquo; said Terriers&rsquo; coach Jack Parker.Lilley is the second Hockey East player to join the Thunderbirds this season. Maine sophomore defenseman Jim Burcar also bolted for Seattle.JIM&rsquo;S DANDY: Maine senior center Jim Montgomery became the school&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer when he picked up two assists in a 4-3 win over Boston University Nov. 20.Montgomery added a goal and an assist the next night in a 6-3 Black Bear win over the Terriers.The four-point weekend gave Montgomery 76 goals and 226 points in 132 career games.Montgomery called the record &ldquo;a nice accomplishment.&ldquo;There have been so many character players in this program, so it&rsquo;s a great honor,&rdquo; Montgomery said.The 23-year-old Montreal native, who is undrafted, is one of the early candidates for the Hobey Baker Award.SCORING BIG: New Hampshire Wildcats&rsquo; coach Dick Umile told his veteran forwards at the beginning of the season they would have to carry the team.And in the first four games, they came through with flying colors.Sophomore right winger Nick Poole had three goals and nine points after scoring two goals and seven points in 23 games as a freshman.Junior center Rob Donovan had six goals and 10 points-fourth in the Hockey East scoring race.The Boston native had seven goals and 16 points in 32 games overall a year ago.Sophomore left winger Eric Flinton was also off to a good start. He had three goals and six points in four games.WILD THING: New Hampshire freshman goalie Trent Cavicchi was a big surprise in the early going for the Wildcats.The Echo Lake, N.S., native extended his unbeaten streak to four games (3-0-1) with a 9-6 win over Boston College Nov. 20.He followed that up with a strong performance in a 5-5 tie against the Eagles the following night.HATS OFF: Right winger Jon Mahoney became the first Lowell player to score a hat trick since 1986, when he scored three times in a 6-2 win over Providence Nov. 21.Randy LeBrasseur was the last Chief freshman to score three goals in a game. LeBrasseur turned the trick against New Hampshire Oct. 25, 1986.SLUMP BREAKER: Northeastern senior left winger Sebastien Laplante snapped out of his early season slump with three goals and three assists in a sweep of Merrimack Nov. 2021. The Huskies won 7-6 and 9-2. &#9632;

Lilley hopes to bloom in Seattle

Regardless of what Randy McElroy finds under the tree, it&rsquo;s going to be a special Christ-mas for the Brandon Bobcats&rsquo; winger.A frightening incident against the Alberta Golden Bears Nov. 21 left the 22-year-old rookie with a new outlook on life.McElroy crumpled to the ice after a clean, open-ice hit from Alberta&rsquo;s Scott McDonald.&ldquo;I had my head down coming out of the corner and he hit me pretty good,&rdquo; McElroy said. &ldquo;My head snapped back and hit the ice.&rdquo;McElroy didn&rsquo;t get up after he was hit. He had numbness in his legs and tingling between his shoulder blades. For more than 30 minutes he lay still on the cold ice, surrounded by trainers and medical staff.<h2>CWUAA</h2>&ldquo;It was pretty scary,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t sure what they were doing, but they said they were only taking precautions.&rdquo;McElroy was eventually removed from the ice on a backboard and taken to nearby University Hospital in Edmonton. Fortunately, there was no serious damage to his neck or spine. He did, however, suffer a concussion, whiplash and neck strain.He is expected to return to Canada West Universities Athletic Association action after the Christmas break.<h2>OUAA</h2>The Trois-Rivieres Patriotes are a team in transition and they certainly played like it in the first six games.The Patriotes got off to a bad start, stumbling to a 0-2-1 record. But the team rebounded well, beating Ontario Universities Athletic Association rivals Queen&rsquo;s, McGill and Ryerson.A lack of scoring punch contributed to the early-season woes. UQTR had no player in the league&rsquo;s top 10 scorers through Nov. 25. Alain Vogin led the team with 12 points in six games, while Mario Deslisle was the leading goal-scorer with eight in six games.New Patriotes&rsquo; coach Real Paiement also had problems with players adapting to his style. Paiement took over when Dany Dube left to coach the Canadian national team. He has a somewhat stricter attitude than his predecessor.&ldquo;Some players are accustomed to using hockey as an excuse for them not meeting the standards academically and some use academics as an excuse for coming late to practice,&rdquo; Paiement said. &ldquo;If our players can&rsquo;t manage themselves on and off the ice, they shouldn&rsquo;t be playing here.&rdquo;<h2>AUAA</h2>The Acadia Axemen are proving it doesn&rsquo;t matter how the grapes are crushed as long as the wine turns out fine.Even with several players unhappy with their roles, the Axemen led the Atlantic Universities Athletic Association with a 9-1-1 record through Nov. 25. Head coach Tom Coolen was trying diligently to sort out the sour grapes on his team.&ldquo;The big thing with us is getting these guys to understand the roles,&rdquo; Coolen said. &ldquo;Right now, that&rsquo;s a big part of my job.&rdquo;Coolen is obviously doing something right. His team had a 31-3-3 record overall dating back to November, 1991.One year ago, the Axemen closed out the regular season with a 13-0-1 unbeaten streak, won the AUAA title with a 6-1 playoff run and almost upset Alberta in the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union final.-With files from Bruce Hallihan, Matt Nicholls and Rob Tychkowsky. &#9632;

McElroy re-evaluates life after frightening incident

Sean Lanigan has a tough act to follow this season. He has to try and match or improve on his own outstanding performance.The 11-year-old Trenton, N.J. resident was a goalie for the Gladiators squirt team which played out of the Coliseum in Voorhees, N.J last year. His 2.02 goals-against average was the best in the Delaware Valley Youth League and he also led the way with 11 wins.Sean has been playing goal since the age of six and completed his third season with the Gladiators. He has attended the Cap Raeder Goalie Clinic in Willow Grove, Pa., and has long admired one of the instructors, New York Rangers&rsquo; goalie Mike Richter.The 4-foot-9, 75-pounder is a Grade 6 student at Crockett Middle School in Hamilton Township, N.J.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01230/6049223-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="594" height="974"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sean Lanigan</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;

f0044-01

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">By Stan Flschter</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01190/6049261-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="379" height="479"></div>The NHL is perilously close to seeing a rare species disappear from its midst. The truly great goaltender is close to extinction.I&rsquo;m talking about netminders in the legendary class of Hall of Famers Turk Broda, Ken Dryden and Bernie Parent.I am not talking about Patrick Roy, who is the most overrated puckstopper since Grant Fuhr, who is the most overpaid goalie since Jon Casey.Fuhr may have qualified for greatness in 1984 or 1985. He is now more average than Daren Puppa and worse than Curtis Joseph.Roy&rsquo;s 1992 playoff failure underlines his fallibility.Bill Ranford, rated second overall behind Roy in the December issue of Inside HOCKEY magazine, fluctuates between average and just-aboveaverage.He&rsquo;s light years away from Parenttype greatness.IH rates Kirk McLean third-best overall. Hey, the Vancouver Canuck may be a comer but come on, in the playoff crunch he was out to lunch against Edmonton. In a six-game series McLean couldn&rsquo;t even lift Vancouver over a club that finished just an inch past.500.Not that the current rubber-stopping crop qualifies for across-the-board flubbery. I&rsquo;ll be the first to admit that there are several good ones-Kelly Hrudey, John Vanbies-brouck, Andy Moog come to mind-but there is only one great one in the entire bushel, Tom Barrasso.For a time, I figured Mike Richter belonged in the rarefied group.Something about the Philadelphian gave me a special feel. It was like this: if Mike was going to be beaten it would be on a rebound of a rebound of a rebound-with the New York Rangers two men short.But Richter got hurt last winter and when he returned it was as if Mel Brooks was in his body because funny things began happening. Mike was another person; certainly not the China Wall Richter we had known.One of the last exceptional goalies was Parent, who singlehandedly orchestrated Stanley Cup wins for the expansion Philadelphia Flyers in 1974 and 1975. He played 73 games in 1973-74 and had a 1.89 goals against average (47-13-12) and a year later slipped to 68 games, 2.03 (4414-10) with 12 shutouts each year.Parent claims it&rsquo;s more difficult for goaltenders to look good in today&rsquo;s game.&ldquo;Start off with the fact that players overall are a lot younger,&rdquo; Parent said, &ldquo;especially the defensemen. When we won the Cups 1 had veterans like Ed Van Impe, Joe Watson and Moose Dupont in front of me. It&rsquo;s a lot easier playing behind an experienced 28-year-old than an inexperienced 22-year-old.&rdquo;Billy Smith, the best clutch goalie of the post-expansion era, said the only one that compares to himself is Barrasso.&ldquo;Tommy reminds me of me in that he never gets the credit he deserves,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;But look what he has done for Pittsburgh; two Cups in two years-and a lot of that because of his goaltending.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-02122/6049254-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg" title="f0045-02" width="568" height="748"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Barrasso</figcaption></div>Scott Bowman had a pretty good one in Hall of Famer Ken Dryden when his Montreal Canadiens won five Cups in the 1970s. Bowman, who drafted Barrasso for Buffalo in 1983, puts him in Dryden&rsquo;s class.&ldquo;Tommy is great,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;Look at the way he handles the puck; he&rsquo;s so good around the crease, shooting the puck out.&rdquo;Barrasso, who is only now beginning to obtain the recognition he deserves, argues that contemporary goalies have to handle the puck more because of the standard set by Ron Hextail. &ldquo;Otherwise,&rdquo; Barrasso said, &ldquo;goaltending hasn&rsquo;t changed that much in the 10 years I&rsquo;ve been in the league.&rdquo;New Jersey Devils&rsquo; vice-president Max McNab played in the six-team league against goalies such as Broda and claims today&rsquo;s goalies have it much harder.&ldquo;The Brodas didn&rsquo;t have to put up with everybody shooting hard, the five-man offense, goalie-running and the high-speed game we have today,&rdquo; McNab said.Which only magnifies the magnificence of Barrasso. &#9632;

f0045-01

Barrasso throwback to good old days

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>Coming to you, in a hockey game not too far away, the following play-byplay:&ldquo;Here&rsquo;s Chelios, picking up the puck behind his Clairol Final Net.&ldquo;He picks up speed, near the Easy-Off faceoff circle, weaves over the Wrigley&rsquo;s Big Red Line, veers past a checker near the Epcot Center Ice Mark and cruises past the Islanders&rsquo; Selsun Blue Line.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s not as outlandish as it seems. Having now overrun the boards, advertising&rsquo;s tentacles are now reaching into the ice.It is called in-ice advertising and, like the board advertising that preceded it, in-ice is here to stay.While the reaction from advertisers has been tepid-fewer than half the league&rsquo;s ice surfaces are adorned with ads-a more robust economy and more corporate awareness about the use of ads in ice could make similar ventures ir-resistible.Steve Flatow, the league&rsquo;s executive director of marketing, said Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Buffalo, Boston and Quebec, have sold space in their ice and a handful more are considering it.While it is arguable whether teams really need in-ice advertising to keep afloat, no one questions that NHL tickets are not cheap. The ads, Flatow insists, are a hedge against future increases.&ldquo;If revenue is raised through alternate means, it can take some of the pressure off ticket prices,&rdquo; Flatow said. &ldquo;They can&rsquo;t go up forever.&rdquo;In-ice advertising was introduced on a limited basis last season and the league has moved to permit the sale of two corresponding positions, or four ads in total, for this season.The league limits the ads to 10-foot by 10-foot logos in the neutral zones. To avoid a hodgepodge of messages, no more than two separate sponsors may be represented on inice advertising.Alcohol and tobacco ads are not permitted, nor are ads for what the league describes as personal hygiene products.But aside from those guidelines, the league is uninvolved in the sales. The spots are sold and the proceeds pocketed by the individual teams which set their own rates.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-0391/6049292-1-eng-US/f0045-032.jpg" title="f0045-03" width="956" height="1932"><figcaption class="caption-body">The day could be near when Chris Chelios rushes the puck over the Selsun Blue Line.</figcaption></div>The Buffalo Sabres sold one of their two regular season positions to the Grossman&rsquo;s Lumber.By contrast, the Toronto Maple Leafs are selling each of their two regular-season positions for $250,000.Leafs&rsquo; director of marketing Bill Cluff is confident those spots can be sold. In the short term, the team is selling nightly spots for $12,000 plus $1,000 in installation fees.The playoff rate has not been set but the premium could be twice the regular-season rate. Should the Leafs advance to the Stanley Cup finals, play the maximum number of home games and sell all their in-ice positions, the ads could generate more than $800,000 in playoff revenue.Cluff said there has been little or no complaint about the move.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve talked both to players and fans and very seldom did we hear a complaint,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But you have to remember, we&rsquo;ve had (seasonal or charitable) messages in the ice here for many, many years.&rdquo;&ldquo;The same issue was raised 12 years ago when the NHL first started selling dasher-board advertising,&rdquo; Flatow said. &ldquo;There was a hue and cry at that time it was going to be a distraction to the game. Twelve years of experience has shown just the opposite, it is not distracting at all.&rdquo;Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; director of sales John Livsey said he has heard a few complaints about the ads.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a lot of people who have complained but we have had some,&rdquo; Livsey said. &ldquo;A lot of old-time tradition-alists still wish the boards were white.&rdquo;In-ice sponsors around the league have run the gamut from the Speedy and Midas muffler chains to Coca-Cola and Zurich Insurance. The Los Angeles Kings have sold two of their four spots to the Starter line of sports clothing.But in Buffalo and even media-intense Los Angeles, the spots have not sold out. Livsey attributes that to a rough economy and a lack of knowledge among corporate clients that in-ice advertising is available.As salaries and expenses continue to mount, teams continue their search for new sources of revenue.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve talked to an advertiser about buying the space on the goalposts and the crossbar,&rdquo; Cluff said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve also looked at the possibility of stamping a logo into the mesh of the net. The NHL doesn&rsquo;t permit that now, but it&rsquo;s a possibility.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0045-03

The cold reality

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>It used to be so much clearer. Don Beaupre was the Washington Capitals&rsquo; No. 1 goalie and the other guy was No. 2.A slump by Beaupre and the continued good play of Jim Hrivnak have conspired to cloud the picture a little. Coach Terry Murray still considers Beaupre the No. 1 man, but concedes that Hrivnak is making the choice difficult.&ldquo;Jimmy is certainly moving forward in his development, there&rsquo;s no question of that,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Donnie is battling real hard. He&rsquo;s definitely in a little bit of a rut, but he&rsquo;ll work out of it. He&rsquo;s on his way and will get things turned around to the all-star level he has given us in the past.&rdquo;Both goalies played Nov. 28 when the Capitals&rsquo; four-game unbeaten streak was stopped with a 5-3 loss to Pittsburgh. Beaupre started the game, but was replaced by Hrivnak in the second period after the Penguins scored three goals.Hrivnak then allowed the winning goal to Shawn McEachern, so he took the loss. Still, Hrivnak&rsquo;s record was 8-3-1 with a 2.78 goals-against average.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know and I don&rsquo;t know if it matters,&rdquo; Hrivnak said of any change in status. What the 24-year-old hopes is the pre-season plan for Beaupre to play about 60 of the 84 games will shift to something more even, especially since Hrivnak will be a free agent next summer and more games with a better record will help his negotiating position.Beaupre, 31, went to the All-Star Game last season, but won&rsquo;t this time since his record was 2-10-1 with a 3.90 GAA. The difference between that and Hrivnak&rsquo;s numbers stands out, no matter what substantial reasons or circumstances lie beneath the surface.&ldquo;At 2-10, obviously it&rsquo;s not going the way I want,&rdquo; Beaupre said. &ldquo;I expected it to be the other way. As disappointing as my season has been, Jimmy&rsquo;s has been better than expected. He&rsquo;s getting points and that is the bottom line.&rdquo;In Beaupre&rsquo;s defense, in his first seven losses, the Capitals scored two goals in six games and one goal in the other.&ldquo;Right now, Jimmy has earned the right to be in there as many games as Donnie,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Until one of them really steps forward, grabs th&rsquo;e ball and keeps going with it, things will be that way for a while.&rdquo;BIG AL&rsquo;S BACK: Al lafrate has overcome his poor start to play well recently at both ends.The big defenseman went 24 games before scoring his first goal, Nov. 18 against Minnesota. Then lafrate had a three-game run in which he registered nine points.After getting two assists in the 5-3 loss to Pittsburgh Nov. 28, lafrate had four goals and a team-high 16 assists for 20 points-third-highest on the team.NOTEBOOK: It was not an easy decision, but right winger Mark Hunter agreed to report to Baltimore of the American League for his first minor-league stint after playing 628 games in the NHL for five teams&hellip;Left winger Bobby Carpenter scored a goal against his former Boston team in a 6-2 win Nov. 25 to record his 600th NHL point in his 780th same.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 24: Jeff Greenlaw, RW, assigned to Baltimore (Art.). Nov. 27: Mark Hunter, RW, assigned to Baltimore Nov. 29: Reggie Savage. RW, and Steve Konowafchuk. C, assigned to Baltimore.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-MHre Rkfley, Dale Hunter. Michal Pivonka, Alan MayLW-Oimitri Khristlch Keith Jones, Bobby Carpenter. Todd Krygier.RW-Peter Bondra. KeBy Miller, Pat Elynuik, Paul MacDermid.LD-CaHe Johansson, Al lafrate, Paul CavafflniRD-Kevin Hatcher. Sylvain Cote. Shawn Anderson.G-Don Beaupre, Jim Hrivnak.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Randy Burrldge LW. right knee surgery, indefinite. Rod Langway, D. cartilage damage In left knee and left shoulder, indefinite. Jason Woottey, O, broken left wrist, Indefinite &#9632;

Hrivnak grabs share of top job

<div class="byline">By Rich Chore</div>After having shed their long-standing reputation as a tight-fisted organization, the New Jersey Devils took a step backward when they passed on high-scoring center John Cullen for monetary reasons.Cullen, who was traded by Hartford to Toronto for only a second-round draft choice, was exactly what the low-scoring Devils needed. However, Cullen&rsquo;s $900,000 contract ($2.8 million over three years) was too much for general manager Lou Lamoriello and owner John McMullen.Hartford coach Paul Holmgren said the Devils offered a minor-league player in a trade, but Lamoriello wanted the Whalers to pick up half of Cullen&rsquo;s salary.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s false,&rdquo; Lamoriello said of Holmgren&rsquo;s claim. &ldquo;If that&rsquo;s coming from Paul Holmgren, he should worry about coaching.&rdquo;Yet Lamoriello added: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it was a case of saying, &lsquo;We can&rsquo;t afford to pay him.&rsquo; You just don&rsquo;t give away X-million dollars with the hope something will work out. The decision was this player, for this money, could not do for our team what we feel has to be done.&rdquo;Several Devils disagreed. Bobby Holik felt Cullen would&rsquo;ve been a wise investment.&ldquo;I played with him in Hartford,&rdquo; Holik said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s an unbelievable passer. He sees the ice well. I think he could help any team. Cullen is a good player if you use him the right way. In Hartford they changed his style and he didn&rsquo;t fit in. He&rsquo;ll do well in Toronto.&rdquo;Captain Scott Stevens added: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think money should be a factor when you&rsquo;re trying to make a winning team. That&rsquo;s my opinion and it should be the team&rsquo;s. If you put money into building a team, you&rsquo;ll get it back when the team wins.&rdquo;The Devils ranked 23rd in even-strength scoring. Only the expansion Ottawa Senators had fewer even-strength goals.&ldquo;Cullen definitely could&rsquo;ve helped us,&rdquo; Peter Stastny said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good player. But there is a price attached to everything and we&rsquo;re not as healthy financially.&rdquo;NEW STRATEGY: Frustrated by his team&rsquo;s inability to score goals and unable to install his freewheeling system, coach Herb Brooks took a new approach.Brooks decided to assemble one scoring line (Stephane Richer-Peter Stastny-Claude Lemieux) and play a defensive game not associated with his past style.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a very typical NHL team,&rdquo; Brooks said. &ldquo;I make no bones about it. We&rsquo;ve had trouble scoring. If we&rsquo;re not going to be a real high-scoring team, we&rsquo;ll adapt our philosophy.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: A frustrated Randy McKay threw his stick after the 3-1 loss in Ottawa Nov. 25, hitting security guard Thomas Lamont in the head. McKay apologized to the shaken guard&hellip;Zdeno Ciger was in an 18-game goalscoring slump.Only three of the Devils&rsquo; first 12 victories came against teams with better than.500 records&hellip;After 22 games under Tom McVie last season, the Devils were 13-9-0 with 87 goals for and 63 against. Under Herb Brooks, they were 12-10-0 with 71 for and 74 against.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 23: Kevin Todd, C. racaited from Utica (AHL). David Emma, C, assigned to Utica. Nov, 24: Janne Ojanen, C. assigned to Cincinnati (IK.).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Peter Stastny, Alexander Semak, Dave Barr, Troy Maltette, Kevin Todd.LW-Slephane Richer. Valeri Zelepukin, Zdeno: Ciger, Tom Chorake.RW-Claude Lemieux, Bobby Holik&hellip;John MacLean, Randy McKay.LD-Soott Stevens, Bruce Driver, Viachestav Fetisov. Myles O&rsquo;ConnorRD-Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermayer, Alexei Kasatonov, Tommy Atodin.G-Craig Billington, Chris Terreri.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Cullen may have fit in if not for the budget

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>Joe Mullen has been back in the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; lineup for more than a month and to the casual observer was looking like a pretty complete hockey player.He has worked a lot on special teams, played both wings, and done pretty much everything asked of him. But Mullen&rsquo;s recovery from the reconstructive surgery done on his left knee in May is far from complete.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not 100 per cent yet, but I&rsquo;m satisfied I can go out there and compete and do most of the stuff I want to do,&rdquo; he said.There haven&rsquo;t been complaints from management because Mullen contributed five goals and seven assists in 14 games. But even if his bosses are impressed, Mullen knows his game can be fine-tuned.&ldquo;If I want to try to beat somebody or get behind a defenseman for a pass, that burst of speed is missing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think that with time, I&rsquo;ll get it. It&rsquo;s just a matter of continuing to build up the muscles.&rdquo;Mullen rejoined the Penguins at an opportune time, when left winger Kevin Stevens went down with tom knee cartilage. Mullen moved into his spot with Mario Lemieux and Rick Toc-chet on the No. 1 line and was effective.&ldquo;The first few games, it was an adjustment,&rdquo; Mullen said. &ldquo;But I started to get used to it. I started to not even think about the right side.&rdquo;Mullen moved back to right wing when Stevens returned. He said he&rsquo;ll be happy to play anywhere Bowman chooses to use him.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve still got a lot to prove to myself, strength-wise,&rdquo; Mullen said. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been playing the body as much as I usually do. I just don&rsquo;t want to take a chance yet.&rdquo;HOME ALONE: The Penguins don&rsquo;t lose at home very often, but when it happens, they do it up big. Their 11-3 loss to the New York Rangers Nov. 25-Pittsburgh&rsquo;s first regular-season defeat at the Civic Arena since an 8-4 loss to Hartford Feb. 27-matched the most lopsided home-ice beating in team history.Those 11 goals were the most the Penguins allowed at the Civic Arena since they entered the league. Pittsburgh tied another team record by giving up six goals during the third period.The Rangers added a twist to their caustic rivalry with Pittsburgh by refusing to speak with members of the western Pennsylvania media.Members of the New York media were given normal access to and cooperation from Rangers&rsquo; coach Roger Neilson and his players. Pittsburgh reporters did not receive similar treatment and planned to protest to league officials.The Rangers apparently were expressing their displeasure with criticism of Neilson and Adam Graves after Graves broke Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s hand with a slash during the playoffs.NOTEBOOK: Left winger Kevin Stevens returned to the lineup for their 11-3 loss to the Rangers Nov. 25, just 19 days after undergoing arthroscopic surgery. He was scoreless in that game, but got two goals in a 6-4 loss in Washington Nov. 27 and added another in a 5-3 win over the Capitals the next night&hellip;Pittsburgh got the first goal in 22 of 26 games, while running up a 15-4-3 record. They were 2-2-0 when the other team scored first.The Penguins made their pay-per-view TV debut Nov. 28 against the Capitals. Former Pittsburgh center Pierre Larouche was added to the announcing team for the event.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Mario Lemieux. Ron Francis, Martin Strata, Mike Stapleton.LW-Kevfn Stevens. Shawn McEachern. Bob Erray, Troy Loney-Jeff DanielsRW&mdash;Rick Tocchet, Jaromir Jagr, Joe Mullen. Mike Needham, Jay CaufteldLD-UK Samuelsson. Jim Paek. Grant Jennings, Bryan Fogarty, Pater Ahoia.RD-Larry Murphy. Paul StantonG-Tom Barrasso. Ken Wregget.<h3>INJURIES</h3>KJett Samuelsson D. bruised left knee, dey-to-day Dave Tippett. C, broken right thumb, indefinite &#9632;

Versatile Mullen just starting to find his game

<div class="byline">By Frank Brown</div>Just when it seemed the New York Rangers&rsquo; rivalry with the Pittsburgh Penguins couldn&rsquo;t get much hotter, a home-and-home series farmed the fires considerably.Before the Nov. 23 opener, Penguins&rsquo; right winger Rick Tocchet told anyone who would listen just how &ldquo;stupid&rdquo; the Rangers played in their second-round playoff meeting last spring.Tocchet said the Rangers&rsquo; attempted intimidation was misguided-that the Penguins simply kept their discipline, skated away from challenges and scored on power plays-and generally did what he could to wave his new Stanley Cup ring under the Rangers players&rsquo; noses.The first game of the series was not underway long before Kris King fought Tocchet, possibly to register his disagreement with the remarks. The scrap set the stage for an intriguing little sideshow when the series went back to Pittsburgh.In that contest, the Rangers had a number of intangible disadvantages. They dropped the opener 5-2. They had won just once in seven games. And they were travelling to the city where left winger Adam Graves and coach Roger Neilson are, basically, on the Most Wanted list.Graves broke Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s wrist with a slash in the playoffs a year ago and Neilson was accused in last spring&rsquo;s playoffs of having sent Graves out to do it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve said this before: When it happened, I felt bad, because you never want to see anyone get hurt,&rdquo; Graves said of the incident. &ldquo;And I admit, 1 hit the guy too hard. But for me to sit and say, &lsquo;Well gee, Adam. You can&rsquo;t play hockey ever again the way you want and have fun,&rsquo; well that&rsquo;s crazy. I can&rsquo;t live in the past, I must move on.&rdquo;Graves moved on by scoring a hat trick and adding two assists for a career-best five-point night in an 11-3 Ranger blowout Nov. 25.Late in the game. Tocchet tried to goad King into another fight. King skated away. The Rangers got two power plays out of it and scored on both.KOVALEV SENT DOWN: The Rangers assigned right winger Alexei Kovalev to Binghamton of the American League Nov. 23.The move was made to give the 19-year-old rookie more ice time. The Rangers also wanted him to get more acquainted with the North American style.Kovalev, the Rangers&rsquo; top pick in the 1991 entry draft, was one of the only players the team could assign without risking losing him. As a first-year pro, he did not have to be placed on waivers before being assigned. With the elimination of non-recallable waivers, the press box has been brimming with veterans.NOTEBOOK: A sore right foot cost defenseman Brian Leetch a budding ironman streak when he missed the first game against Pittsburgh. Leetch, who had played in 180 straight games, was struck on the foot by a Thomas Steen shot at Winnipeg Nov. 21. He returned for the rematch against the Penguins&hellip; Mark Messier moved past Bobby Hull into 16th place on the NHL&rsquo;s all-time points list in the blowout at Pittsburgh. Messier had six points, the second six-point game of his career. The other came in 1984 when he played for the Edmonton Oilers.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 23: Alexei Kovalev. RW. assigned to Binghamton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Mark Messier. Darren Turcotte. Sergei Nemchinov, Doug Weight. Randy GHhen.LW-Adam Graves, Kris King. Phil Bourque, Joe KocurRW-Tony Amonta. Mike Gartner, Paul Brown, Tie Domi.LD-Brian Leetch, Mike Hurtbut, Mark Hardy.RD-Jefi Beuketxjom. Joe Cireta Jay Wells.G-John Vanbiesbrouck. Mike Richter.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jan Erixon, LW, stiffness in hip and back, indefinite. James Patrick. D, cruised right shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

Penguin rivalry heats up

<div class="byline">By Jeff Williams</div>Tom Kurvers thinks he&rsquo;s being punished for taking the New York Islanders to salary arbitration, which makes him difficult to trade.He calls his punishment being sent to the minors for the first time in his eight-year career. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like getting your pride shoved down your throat,&rdquo; he said.Ludicrous is the word general manager Don Maloney uses to describe the punishment label. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not going to be playing up here and we&rsquo;d rather have him playing in Capital District than sitting up here,&rdquo; Maloney said.Kurvers, 30, played out his option last season. Last spring, he said former Islander GM Bill Torrey offered a two-year plus option deal for $ 1.4 million, or a one-plus-one for $450,000 and $500,000. Kurvers rejected both deals.Then this summer, when Torrey was pushed aside for Maloney, the situation changed drastically. The Islanders were able to get Vladimir Malakhov and Darius Kasparaitis out of the former Soviet Union, creating a log-jam on defense.Kurvers could have been a free agent this season, but the Islanders made him a qualifying offer to retain his rights of $350,000 for what is called a double eagle, a contract for one year with no option. He thinks that was a hedge against the possibility neither Malakhov nor Kasparaitis would be available.Maloney would like to sign Kurvers if only to move him. The Islanders and Kurvers have both agreed to an arbitrator but there is no indication of just when that arbitration will take place.In fact, there is a dispute over which contract is being arbitrated. Kurvers thinks it should be the one-plus-one deal; the Islanders think it should be the double-eagle deal.Kurvers wants to be paid about $750,000 a season. He has played just nine games this season and had one goal and seven assists.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a complainer or a drag on the team,&rdquo; Kurvers said. &ldquo;I want to play for someone who wants me and I want to get paid what I think I&rsquo;m worth. I played for less than I should have last year ($285,000). I took my lumps.&rdquo;LOOSE FLOODGATES: The Islanders are a poor second-and third-period team. They don&rsquo;t have a comeback victory in the third period all season. They&rsquo;ve given up up three or more consecutive goals to a team in the second or third period eight times in 23 games.&ldquo;I have no explanation for it, it&rsquo;s very hard to pinpoint why that should be,&rdquo; said coach Al Arbour. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a very good statistic, is it?&rdquo;&ldquo;Sometimes when we mess up we try to play cautiously instead of moving forward,&rdquo; Derek King said. &ldquo;We sit back and mess up again.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Empty nets missed in four straight games: Steve Thomas at Calgary Nov. 21, David Volek at Edmonton Nov. 22. Daniel Marois and Pierre Turgeon at Winnipeg Nov. 24, Darius Kasparaitis at Philadelphia Nov. 27.Ray Ferraro was a casualty of the morning skate in Winnipeg, taking a puck on the chin 30 seconds in and having to go for stitches. It didn&rsquo;t keep him out of the game, in which he scored his first goal since Nov. 14.<h2>N.Y. ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 23: Tom Kurvers, O, recalled from Capital District (AHL). Nov. 28: Brad Dalgamo, RW, recalled from Capital District. Nov. 29: Travis Green, C. assigned to Capital District.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Plerre Turgeon, Ray Ferraro, Tom Fitzgerald, Claude LoiselleLW&mdash;Benoit Hogue. Derek King. Bill Berg, David Volek.RW-Patrick Flatley, Steve Thomas, Daniel Marois, Brian Mullen. Mick Vukota, Brad DalgamoLD-Danus Kasparaitis, Scott Lachance. Jeff Norton.RD-Uwe Krupp. Vladimir Malakhov. Tom Kurvers.G-Mark Fitzpatrick, Glenn Healy.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Gary Nytund, D, strained groin, day-to-day. Rich Plton. D, bruised right hand, day-to-day. &#9632;

Kurvers says money to blame for ill-will

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour&rsquo;s idea of a day off is something you try in the middle of July.The Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; center had never missed a game due to injury in his four-year NHL career, until he sustained a lacerated left elbow Nov. 19 against the New York Rangers. He was sidelined for two games.Watching a game from the press box was a new experience for Blind&rsquo;Amour, who had played in 99 straight games for Philadelphia since coming over in a trade from St. Louis in September, 1991.Brind&rsquo;Amour maintains his rare weekend off had more pros than cons.While he was unable to help the Flyers in a loss to Boston and a tie with Buffalo, he was able to get a different perspective on the game.And he used some of that knowledge when he returned to score two goals and add an assist in a 6-3 win over the New York Islanders Nov. 27.Brind&rsquo;Amour, who led the Flyers in goals (33) and points (77) last season, was off to a sluggish start this year, scoring just six times in his first 20 games.But the view from above, plus a few days off from his notorious, grueling daily workouts, proved beneficial.&ldquo;It gives you another perspective on the game,&rdquo; Brind&rsquo;Amour said of sitting in the press box. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re struggling, sometimes it&rsquo;s good to sit and watch.&ldquo;Up above, it&rsquo;s an easier game, or maybe it makes you think that it&rsquo;s easier.&rdquo;Brind&rsquo;Amour missed one game his first season in St. Louis and two in his second. In both cases, ex-coach Brian Sutter simply gave him time off.EKLUND RETURNS: Left winger Pelle Eklund made his season debut in a Nov. 28 game against the New York Islanders. Eklund had been sidelined with a broken right foot he sustained in the pre-season.The eight-year veteran is the team&rsquo;s dean in terms of service. Coach Bill Dineen started Eklund on a line with Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour and Kevin Dineen.&ldquo;It shouldn&rsquo;t take too long to get back into shape,&rdquo; Eklund said. &ldquo;I felt pretty good out there right away.&rdquo;Eklund said he was still experiencing some soreness in his foot when he stops quickly or cuts hard.Eklund had seven goals and 23 points in 51 games last season.NOTEBOOK: Eric Lindros was scheduled to have his sprained left knee examined by team orthopedic surgeon Dr. Art Bartolozzi Nov. 30. Athletic therapist Gary Smith said it was doubtful Lindros would be ready for the Dec. 3 game against Quebec, although Lindros expressed a desire to play if given clearance.Defenseman Garry Galley was forced to sit out the third period of a 9-3 loss to the Islanders Nov. 28 due to cramps brought on by his current medical condition, which is believed to be chronic fatigue syndrome. He wasn&rsquo;t expected to miss any games.The nine goals allowed by the Flyers against the Islanders were the most since a 9-3 loss to Pittsburgh Nov. 29,1991.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Keith Acton. Steve Kasper, Len Barrie, Viachesiav Butsayev,LW-Brent Fedyk. PeBe Eklund. Mark Pederson, Claude Boivin. Doug Evans.RW-Mark Recchi. Kevin Dineen, Greg Pas-lawski. Dave BrownLD-Brian Benning, Terry Carkner. Garry GaBey, Shawn Cronin.RD-Dimitri Yushkevich, Gord Hynes. Ryan McGill.G-Dominlc Roussel, Stephane Beauregard.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Eric Lindros. C, sprained left knee, indefinite. Andrei Lomakin, LW, bruised felt toot, day-to-day Rlc Mattress D, lower back strain, day-to-day. &#9632;

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December 11, 1992

Cents claim racial slur much ado about nothing

THE DRAW

Beddoes leads good ship Laker

Corey rewards Savard with lucrative new deal