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.

February 19, 1993

The Hockey News February 19, 1993

A weekly compendium of significant fifth-round draft pick in 1995 to Buf-events and developments. falo Sabres for left winser DaveFeb. 1: Gary Bettman takes over Andreychuk, goaltender Daren Puppa as NHL&rsquo;s first commissioner. and first-round draft pick in 1993.Feb. 2: Toronto Maple Leafs trade goaltender Grant Fuhr and sixth-round draft pick in 1994 or fifth-round draft pick in 1995 to Buffalo Sabres for left winger Dave Andreychuk, goaltender Daren Puppa and first-round draft pick in 1993.Feb. 3: Buffalo right winger Al-trade goaltender Grant Fuhr and exander Mogiiny becomes first playsixth-round draft pick in 1994 or er to score 50 goals this season in 3-2 win over Hartford Whalers.Feb. 6: Wales Conference defeats Campbell Conference 16-6 in 44th All-Star Game. New York Rangers&rsquo; right winger Mike Gartner scores record-tying four goals and is named MVP. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

HOCKEY WEEK: FEB. 1-7

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>Paul Coffey heard the cheers. They cheered him before the warmup and they cheered him before he stepped on the ice for the opening faceoff.The fans at Joe Louis Arena just wanted to show their appreciation for the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; most recent acquisition when Coffey played his first home game with his new team Feb. 3. But he was as nervous as a rookie before he stepped on the ice.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re just flashing the Pistons&rsquo; score up on the scoreboard,&rdquo; veteran Brad McCrimmon said before Coffey took to the ice.Coffey laughed a nervous laugh and sped off to begin another chapter of an epic career.&ldquo;It was a great feeling,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I was nervous. More nervous than (his first Red Wings&rsquo; game) in Vancouver.&rdquo;Coffey was acquired by the Red Wings on Jan. 29 from the Los Angeles Kings along with winger Jim Hiller and center Sylvain Couturier for center Jimmy Carson, center Gary Shuchuk and right winger Marc Potvin.He played his first game Jan. 30, a 4-4 tie with the Canucks in Vancouver.Coffey gave the hometown faithful something to cheer about in his debut by scoring a goal in a 5-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. The Detroit faithful responded by giving him a standing ovation.&ldquo;When you get that kind of support from the fans it can make a big difference,&rdquo; Coffey said. &ldquo;Even as a visiting player with Edmonton, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, I&rsquo;ve always loved to play in Joe Louis.&rdquo;The 31-year-old defenseman had five points in his first two games with Detroit. It was exactly the kind of production the Red Wings were looking for when they acquired Coffey, the highest-scoring rearguard of all-time.&ldquo;What he brings, the things he says-always upbeat and positive-he brings a ton of leadership here,&rdquo; said goaltender Tim Cheveldae. &ldquo;If he never played another game, he&rsquo;d be worth his weight in gold.&rdquo;TOP OF THE HILL: While Paul Coffey garnered most of the attention against Chicago, rookie Jim Hiller enjoyed his moment in the spotlight.The 23-year-old scored a goal in his first game with his new team.&ldquo;Everybody put a lot of emphasis on Paul and nobody knows Jim,&rdquo; said Shawn Burr, Hiller&rsquo;s linemate. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s kind of the unsung player here. But when it comes to playoff time, he&rsquo;s going to be a big part of this team.&rdquo;Hiller played with left winger Dallas Drake at the University of Northern Michigan before making it to the pro ranks. He had six goals and 12 points in 40 games with the Kings prior to the trade.NOTEBOOK: Rumors persist that the Wings are still interested in Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; defenseman Dave Manson, despite denials by general manager-coach Bryan Murray. The rumor is rookie center Slava Kozlov will be recalled from Adirondack of the American League, where he is playing well. If Kozlov shows he can play in Detroit, the Wings will trade Keith Primeau to Edmonton for Manson.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 1: Chris TancHL LW, and Bobby Delias. D, assigned to Adirondack (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Steve Yzenman, Sergei Fedorov, Keith Primeau, Mike Sillingsr.LW-Gerard Gallant, Bob Probert, Dallas Drake, Shawn Burr. John Ogrodnick.RW-Dino Clccarelli. Paul Ysebaert, Ray Sheppard. Jim Hitler, Sheldon Kennedy, Jim Cummins.LD-Pau! Coffey. Steve Chiasson, Yves Racine, Brad McCrimmon.RD-NIcklas Udstrom, Vladimir Konstantinov, Mark Howe, Brad McCrimmon.G-Tim Cheveldae, Vince Riendeau.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dennis Vial, D. separated right shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

Coffey piping hot in debut much to delight of locals

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NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01718/6128145-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg"></div>CALL TOLL FREE NOW TO SUBSCRIBE The Hockey NewsCALL 1-800-268-7793 &#9632;

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021101/6126953-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="365" height="474"></div>The NHL held its annual all-star orgy with predictable results.Now the league faces the colossal task of convincing an American TV audience NHL does not stand for the No Hitting League.It may also face a lawsuit on the grounds of false advertising. The event was billed as the Coca-Cola allstar weekend, but this was not the real thing. It was too much of a good thing.Goals are meant to be appreciated, not calculated. Not even the legendarily prolific Jack Nicholson could savor this many moments.Did the national U.S. television audience?NBC said overnight ratings placed the All-Star Game third among sports shows on the afternoon of Feb. 6. Boxing and golf finished ahead of the AllStar Game, which outpointed bowling and college basketball.Yet to come in were final ratings.The game had a 3.3 overnight rating, a marginal drop from 3.4 last year and 25 per-cent decline from the first year NBC aired the game in 1990.Overnight ratings represent findings in about 50 per cent of the U.S. A 3.3 rating means about 1.5 million homes tuned into the All-Star Game.Commissioner Gary Bettman said he was pleased with the initial ratings.Less well-received by most was the game itself. All-star records were set for most goals (22) and least effort (minimal).A total absence of malice has transformed the game into a love-in. Players are more likely to hug than hit each other.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have any physical element at all in the game,&rdquo; said New York Rangers&rsquo; general manager Neil Smith.This was metaphysical hockey at its best.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like a passed-on tradition from player to player that you&rsquo;re supposed to go out and sort of bump and smile at each other,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like you&rsquo;re not cool if you&rsquo;re intense out there and you play the body.&rdquo;Some bodychecking is imperative to protect the integrity of the game and interests of the goalies. Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; GM Cliff Fletcher said netminders should be entitled to danger pay.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03793/6126946-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="840" height="1272"><figcaption class="caption-body">New York GM Neil Smith wants more hitting in the All-Star Game</figcaption></div>As it stands, they are the only ones risking injury.&ldquo;In all fairness,&rdquo; Fletcher said, &ldquo;none of the players want to get hurt and none of the owners want the players to get hurt. We&rsquo;re in the home stretch now.&rdquo;That is the rationale for no-contact hockey. Nobody wants a player sidelined with an all-star-induced ailment.&ldquo;If you&rsquo;re going to go into (the game) with that kind of feeling, then you shouldn&rsquo;t have a game,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s not an injury in every (regularseason) game, so why would there be an injuiy in this game?&rdquo;Bettman said the game was &ldquo;fun,&rdquo; but you can be sure there will be a different format next season. The new leader will not want to be associated with another turkey like this one.Not when he can be held accountable.&ldquo;I was sitting on the bench,&rdquo; Gretzky said, &ldquo;and I said to Dougie Gilmour, &lsquo;I wonder what the new commissioner thinks of his first All-Star Game&hellip; or his 11th basketball All-Star Game.&rdquo;There will be no change until players are made to care about the game&rsquo;s outcome. Some suggestions on how to overhaul the game have emerged.Among them are that the Stanley Cup champs meet the allstars; the home team faces off against the all-stars; and an allstar aggregation of players from the host country meets all-stars of all other nationalities in the league.If the NHL weren&rsquo;t so hungry for exposure on American network television, it could be argued this is only an all-star game and not worth any measure of angst.But the league has a responsibility to maximize its few big-time marketing opportunities. The NHL will be on U.S. network television only a handful of times this season. Rare appearances should not be wasted.If advertisers and TV executives were satisfied with the return on their dollar for this game, the NHL should change to a 40-pound test line and reel in the biggest fish in the sea.This game was better suited for Saturday morning than Saturday afternoon. It was a cartoon show. &#9632;

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NHL, players did not put on all-star production

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011519/6126984-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">NHL commissioner Gary Bettman (Bruce Bennett/BBS)</figcaption></div>A new era of hands-on leadership in the NHL began humbly enough. Red duct tape held a television monitor in place on the back of a seat in the stands of the Montreal Forum.In front of it sat Gary Bettman, audio feed in one ear, telephone in the other, watching ESPN&rsquo;s broadcast of the NHL all-star skills competition.Bettman, the league&rsquo;s first commissioner as of Feb. 1, divided his attention between the ice surface, the TV screen and his family-three children and wife Shelli.It was the kick-off of the NHL all-star weekend Feb. 5 and Bettman left nothing to chance. He personally arranged seating in the area. Close by were key advertisers and representatives of ESPN, TSN and NBC.No other NHL leader has been known to take as active a role in the overseeing of a TV event. Bettman said he borrowed the idea from the National Basketball Association, his ex-employer.&ldquo;If there&rsquo;s a problem, I want to know about it,&rdquo; Bettman said.Rest assured there will be many in the months and years to come, but Bettman breezed through this night and the entire weekend, despite a dreadful game and no resolution to a pair of major issues facing the league.It was an unqualified success for Bettman, topped off by a two-hour board of governors meeting Feb. 7 that earned him widespread praise, but settled nothing.Now, that&rsquo;s impressive.Bettman bought time for himself on the 1994 Olympic Dream Teams, bided his time on the expansion decisions and made use of time afforded the realignment issue by giving the governors something to think about.And when it was all over, the assembled NHL executives burst into applause.&ldquo;Absolutely spectacular,&rdquo; said Tampa Bay Lightning governor David LeFevre. &ldquo;He ran the meeting like a tiger. He provides real meaningful information, well-thought-out ideas, not random thoughts.&rdquo;One day later, Bettman announced the hiring of Stephen Solomon to the newly created position of senior vice-president. Solomon joins the NHL after 21 years with the ABC television network and his addition is a crucial step toward what Bettman calls getting the league headquarters into a &ldquo;full-service mode.&rdquo;Still to be decided is how many teams will be in the league next year, 24,25 or 26.Wayne Huizenga&rsquo;s South Florida entry and Disney&rsquo;s Orange County team had yet to indicate when they will join the NHL. Both were haggling over arena deals that would allow them to begin play next season.The NHL has established March 1 as the outside date it must know the teams&rsquo; intentions. Huizenga was at the All-Star Game and met privately with Bettman. Disney CEO Michael Eisner could not attend.As the deadline loomed, those experienced in building expansion teams wondered not so much how South Florida and Orange County could ice teams, but how they would have enough time to adequately sell luxury boxes, advertising and season tickets, plus negotiate a TV contract.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still optimistic,&rdquo; said chairman of the board Bruce McNall. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve spoken to both gentlemen recently. They both want to come in in &rsquo;93 if they can do it.&rdquo;Contingent upon the fates of Miami and Anaheim, Calif., is the realignment issue. If neither or just one comes, nothing of consequence can be done. But if both can be operational in time for the 1993-94 season, realignment is probable.Bettman hired Bortz & Co., of Denver, Colo., to consider this question. It made a presentation to the board, putting at least three ideas on the table for consideration and future discussion. One proposes the NHL divide into three conferences (West, Central and East) and the other two are variations of the current four-division format.Playoff and regular-season scheduling formats are also open for debate. A suggestion for playoffs in the three-conference format is that the top five teams in each qualify and one wildcard team for a total of 16.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to begin a dialogue,&rdquo; Bettman said, &ldquo;where we&rsquo;re not running through a tun-nel-so that we&rsquo;re standing on a mountain looking at the landscape from all directions and deciding which path we want to take.&rdquo;The Dream Teams received their second stay of execution. They were supposed to be voted on at December meetings in Florida, but the matter was tabled.Defeat was almost certain then, but a glimmer of hope emerged from the latest meeting. A new plan has been proposed that would reportedly shorten the league shutdown from most of February to about 20 days.U.S. and Canadian teams would assemble in North America, play the All-Star Game in New York City as their Olympic tune-up and then leave for Norway for the Olympics. The hockey tournament is scheduled to last 16 days (Feb. 12-27).The next move is Bettman&rsquo;s to make. If he and advisors can formulate a proposal that would make participation in next February&rsquo;s event feasible, he will go back to the governors for approval or denial.Many issues remained unresolved after the meeting. Among them:&#9633; Relations with the International Ice Hockey Federation: The NHL needs the IIHF&rsquo;s blessing to compete, something hockey&rsquo;s world governing body is reluctant to do because NHL teams aren&rsquo;t as anxious to be represented in the annual World Championships.&#9633; Television exposure: The current Olympic hockey schedule provides for very few prime-time opportunities on North American network TV.&#9633; No guarantees: The United States and Canada are by no means locks to be in the playoffs, let alone the gold-medal final. The singleelimination medal round can be a treacherous experience.&#9633; NHL playoffs: Although more than 20 regular-season games would remain after the Olympics, players could suffer injuries that would impact on their team&rsquo;s post-season fortunes.Bettman is making every effort to make Olympic participation possible next season, but said there is no urgency to league hopes. He said it would be satisfied with taking part in the 1998 Games.The commissioner&rsquo;s first priority is to establish a strong rapport with the players by way of a new collective bargaining agreement. He dropped by an NHL Players&rsquo; Association meeting Feb. 5.&ldquo;I thought it was very important,&rdquo; said NHLPA president Doug Wilson. &ldquo;He came in and introduced himself and made himself available.&rdquo;Television is going to be another of Bettman&rsquo;s focal points. A five-game playoff package on ABC was expected to be announced soon.The league is also investigating the possibility of moving up the start of the draft one day-from June 26 to 25- and broadcasting the early rounds on a Friday night.Bettman is fond of saying everything about the NHL is &ldquo;under review.&rdquo; Potential changes in the next year or two, for instance, are introduction of a new logo and a draft lottery.&ldquo;People will be shocked and amazed at what he&rsquo;s able to get done in a short period of time,&rdquo; McNall said.Something that has not yet been changed is the league constitution, which is being studied by one of the NHL&rsquo;s nearly 30 committees.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to revise them to the extent that&rsquo;s consistent with (the leaders of) the other major sports leagues,&rdquo; Bettman said. &ldquo;What it says in the constitution isn&rsquo;t going to define my powers as well as I do based on my relationship with the owners.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think most of the owners feel like it&rsquo;s time that we need to be led,&rdquo; McNall said.Meanwhile, a deal between the NHL and Russian Professional League on transfer fee payments was imminent after president Gil Stein and general managers Harry Sinden (Boston Bruins) and Mike Smith (Winnipeg Jets) completed negotiations.The deal was expected to outline standard fees for players by age group. As a disincentive to bringing over teenage players, teams would likely have to pay more for 18- and 19-year-olds than older players. &#9632;

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Bettman era begins

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>Even during an all-star weekend filled with so many complaints about unqualified players participating in a game that many feel needs an overhaul, there were a few golden moments.Such as the wide-eyed looks on the faces of San Jose Sharks&rsquo; representative Kelly Kisio&rsquo;s sons as they entered the dressing room with their dad following practice the day before the game.Or Mike Gartner bringing his son Josh with him to answer questions from the media after being named the game&rsquo;s most valuable player. Josh, who could pass for Macaulay Culkin, brought the house down when he shyly replied, &ldquo;he&rsquo;s a great dad&rdquo; after being asked what he thought of his father&rsquo;s performance.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011523/6127029-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="282" height="354"></div>Still, two events-more than any others-will remain with me forever.The two-minute standing ovation given to Guy Lafleur by the Forum faithful prior to the Heroes of Hockey Game sent shivers down my spine. Despite playing for the New York Rangers after coming out of retirement and concluding his career with the hated Quebec Nordiques, the Hall of Famer is still a big favorite in Montreal.Lafleur repaid them by scoring the opening goal in the game.There was also the introduction of Mario Lemieux during pregame ceremonies.Currently receiving radiation treatment to fight Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease, Lemieux put on his Wales Conference captain&rsquo;s jersey and was given a hug by his coach, Scott Bowman. Then Lemieux received a standing ovation.It was truly a touching moment.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021365/6127022-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="949" height="1592"><figcaption class="caption-body">Al lafrate&rsquo;s 105.2 mph shot blew away the competition. (Jim Leary/BBS)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031148/6127015-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="949" height="1596"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fans got a chance to see Golden Brett&rsquo;s golden locks. (John Glemannar/BBS)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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Flower has power in Montreal

Al Iafrate has a very simple explanation for why his slap shot travels faster than most people&rsquo;s cars.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a genetic thing-my parents love each other. I&rsquo;m a love child,&rdquo; said the Washington Capitals&rsquo; defenseman after winning the hardest shot competition for the second time at the skills competition during the all-star break.Iafrate&rsquo;s blast of 105.2 miles per hour earned him $2,500.Calgary Flames&rsquo; defenseman Al Maclnnis won the event the past two seasons but didn&rsquo;t participate this time because he just returned from a hip injury.The truth is, lafrate credits his booming shot to his over whelming size. He&rsquo;s 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds.He also possesses tremendous speed. The fact players were allowed charge the puck positioned between the faceoff circles from the blueline helped his cause. Iafrate had the two hardest shots in the competition; 105.2 and 102 miles per hour. He set a record in the event with a 101.4 mph blast in the Capitals&rsquo; team competition.Shooting left and using a Koho Revolution 2240 stick with a curve near the heel of the blade, Iafrate won the competition easily.Minnesota North Star Mike Modano placed second in the competition with a 101.6 mph shot. &#9632;

Wild Thing blows ’em away at 105

Nobody will ever accuse Mike Gartner of living life in the fast lane. If he did, though, he would set the pace.Gartner was crowned the NHL&rsquo;s fastest skater at the skills competition Feb. 5 skating once around the ice of the Montreal Forum in 13.51 seconds.The 33-year-old veteran of the New York Rangers, who won $2,500 in the event, joked about his speed.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t do anything special with my skates (CCM Tacks) except put little rockets under them,&rdquo; said Gartner, who recently established an NHL mark by recording his 14th consecutive 30-goal season.Although he won the hardest shot competition, Washington&rsquo;s Al Iafrate was disappointed he didn&rsquo;t beat Gartner in the skating event.&ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;ll beat him when he&rsquo;s 40,&rdquo; said Iafrate. &ldquo;God bless him.&rdquo;Gartner said skating comes as naturally to him as walking. but admitted he chose power skating in the summer as a youngster rather than attending hockey school.Unlike speed demon Paul Coffey of the Detroit Red Wings, who wears skates two sizes too small and barely tightens them, Gartner doesn&rsquo;t pay much attention to his size 8 1/4 blades although he insists they are always sharp. &#9632;

Gartner blazes to head of class

Brett Hull played in the All-Star Game without a vital piece of equipment.No, in spite of the fact The Golden Brett didn&rsquo;t register a single shot on goal in the greatest offensive display in all-star history, it wasn&rsquo;t his stick. Hull didn&rsquo;t wear his helmet.Hull reasoned if there were ever a game where he would feel safe without his headgear, it&rsquo;s the AllStar Game. That speaks volumes about the intensity level of the contest, but that&rsquo;s another matter.It still wasn&rsquo;t smart on Hull&rsquo;s part to risk injury by not wearing his headgear. One tipped shot or fall to the ice could have ended a brilliant career. I wonder if the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; management was aware of his plan.&#9633; Ray Bourque of the Boston Bruins won the most accurate shooter competition for the second straight year and took home $2,500, for his efforts. Jon Casey was the best goaltender and also won $2,500. The Campbells won the Skills Competition by beating the Wales 25-15. The Campbell players each won $2,000, the Wales $ 1,000.&#9633; The best game of the day took place a few hours after the Wales and Campbells cleared out J of the Forum-the annual media&rsquo; match between Canadian and American members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.Canada won 8-3. There was more intensity in the media contest. Although tempers flared a few times, there were no fights. Thus, no suspension on non-game days for the reporters.&#9633; Mike Keenan on coaching an expansion team. &ldquo;Al Arbour built a championship team in seven years. I&rsquo;m probably more patient than most people realize-but not that patient.&rdquo;&#9633; The Montreal Canadiens Old-timers defeated the Heroes of Hockey 4-2 prior to the skills competition. Guy Lafleur, Pierre Mondou, John Ferguson and Pierre Larouche scored for the winners. Pierre Pilotte and Darryl Sittier replied for the NHL. &#9632;

Hull flips his lid for for game

Will a draft lottery help to preserve the integrity of the NHL?Steve Dryden (THN, Jan. 29) claims it will because at present bad teams are tempted to be worse to ensure good draft positions. But there are two reasons why he is mistaken.First, it is seldom that a draft includes a franchise player who is clearly superior to anyone else. For every Mario Lemieux, there are many more Doug Wickenheisers, Brian Lawtons and Gord Kluzaks. In most years, it would be ill-advised for teams to try to finish last in the hope of drafting the best player.Second, if a lottery were instituted, any team on the cusp of the playoffs (or any arbitrary cutoff point) would be tempted to do worse in order to be included in the lottery. The problem of integrity would spread beyond the worst teams to otherwise competitive teams. It would also become an issue every year, not just whenever there happens to be a franchise player available.Jerry Martselos, Bronx, N. Y.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011436/6127132-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="543" height="718"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former Whaler Tim Kerr was a gentleman on and off the ice.</figcaption></div><h2>Gentle Giant</h2>Hartford Whaler forward Tim Ken-retired from hockey the way he played-with class.As a longtime friend and fan of Kerr&rsquo;s, I&rsquo;ve had the opportunity to see how he interacts with the public off the ice. He has always been a true gentleman. Whether it be playing hockey with the neighborhood kids or just hanging out with fans during a summer barbeque, he always makes admirers feel special.Kerr&rsquo;s philosophy of not getting too high after a win or getting too low after a loss served him well. He always deflected praise, even on the ice.Most fans know of Kerr&rsquo;s on-ice accomplishments. I just wanted to shed some light on the gentle giant&rsquo;s style off it.Drew Katz, Cherry Hill, N.J.<h2>Good show, Gino!</h2>In the past, all I&rsquo;ve had to say to the coach of the North Dakota Fighting Sioux is &ldquo;Sit down, Gino Gasparini.&rdquo;But now I want to say &ldquo;Cheers&rdquo; to Gasparini for his gutsy indictment of officials in the Western Collegiate Athletic Association (THN, Feb. 5).League commissioner Otto Breit-enbach ought to give Gasparini a medal instead of reprimand him. Bre-itenbach should also start an investigation to determine why the quality of officiating in the WCHA has slumped to such an all-time low.While Gino&rsquo;s wrists will surely be slapped for his candor, I think he is right on target. It&rsquo;s no wonder the WCHA has a ban on public criticism of officials: post-game interviews with coaches would be singularly focused without it.WCHA officiating needs a review&hellip; and it couldn&rsquo;t happen sooner to suit fans in this league.Kenrick Thompson, Gwinn, Mich.<h2>In the dark</h2>The NHL seems to be coming out of its Ice Age with the influx of European and Soviet talent and new penalty violations. But where is the logic in suspending a player for nonplaying days?Sure, players and franchises must pay a hefty fme, but why not hit them where it hurts? Take players off the ice during games.It&rsquo;s like allowing a driver who has had his licence suspended for a traffic violation to drive only at night.Philip Weaver,Chicago, III.<h2>Fighting words</h2>During ESPN&rsquo;s telecast Jan. 23, the network showed a clip from the Detroit-St. Louis game, where goalies Curtis Joseph and Tim Chev-eldae were battling at center ice.I realize fighting is part of the game, but Bill Clements&rsquo; comments annoyed me. Clements praised Joseph for his athleticism because he landed more punches.Joseph may be a better fighter, but he&rsquo;s not a better goalie. The league doesn&rsquo;t need such Neanderthal commentary from its flagship station.Matt Dopke,Lincoln City, Ore.Make your feelings known. Fax us your comments at (416) 445-2501 or write to Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2 in Canada. In the U.S., write to Letters, The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240-9947. Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

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NHL draft lottery would not work

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021037/6127163-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0005-02

THE DRAW

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div><h2>Spinner movie ready for TV</h2>Gross Misconduct, a movie portraying the turbulent life of Brian (Spinner) Spencer, will air in Canada on CBC-TV Feb. 28 at 8 p.m.The script is based on the book of the same name written by Martin O&rsquo;Malley. Canadian-born actor Daniel Kash plays the role of Spencer, who spent 10 years in the NHL.Spencer&rsquo;s father was shot and killed after holding CBC workers at gunpoint when the network didn&rsquo;t televise his son&rsquo;s NHL debut with Toronto in 1970. Spinner was murdered in Riviera Beach, Fla., in 1988.Filming of the movie took place in Toronto, Whitehorse and Florida.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03691/6127194-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="549" height="718"><figcaption class="caption-body">Daniel Kash</figcaption></div><h2>Magic number down to 13</h2>Only black magic can now save the Ottawa Senators and San Jose Sharks from missing the playoffs.According to THN calculations, the magic number for the Senators and Sharks elimination from the playoffs was reduced to 13 and 21, respectively, at the all-star break.Bob Kudelski scored three goals as Ottawa beat Edmonton 3-2 Feb. 3 to keep the Senators within 44 points of a playoff spot. Any combination of Buffalo Sabres wins or Senators losses totalling 13 points and Ottawa misses the playoffs.The Sharks trailed fourth-place Los Angeles by 40 points. &#9632;

f0005-03

UPDATE

<div class="byline">By James Christie</div>Eric Lindros and Marie Lynn Nun-ney should never have brought the Great Canadian Beer Spat into the courtroom, an Ontario Court judge said as he dismissed a charge of common assault against the Philadelphia Flyer star Feb. 8.&ldquo;The dispute could have been resolved that night without criminal charges,&rdquo; Ontario Court Judge J. Rhys Morgan told a packed courtroom. &ldquo;Unfortunately, their positions hardened.&rdquo;So did their clothes, as Nunney and Lindros stood in the chill wee hours of a Nov. 29 morning outside the Koo Koo Bananas bar in Whitby, Ont. They were involved in a beer-spraying fight, but neither was prepared to offer an apology to defuse the situation. Their method of communication was weapons-first it was beers at close range, then lawyers.The trial consumed more than three days of court time.The Crown failed to prove conclusively that Lindros, 19, spat beer in the face of Nunney, a 24-year-old factory worker, and poured beer over her head in the incident.Judge Morgan discouraged any appeal.&ldquo;Should a court be asked to view,&rdquo; he asked rhetorically, &ldquo;through the prism of criminal law, behavior that would best be described as rude and insulting?&rdquo;A relieved Lindros signed autographs and said he felt good to have the case behind him. But dismissal of the charges may not be vindication enough for Lindros, who said he was embarrassed by the charges and by his treatment at the hands of Durham Regional Police.&ldquo;I still have a lot of questions,&rdquo; he said.He was bothered by the fact he had to wear handcuffs when he surrendered to police and that he was paraded before the media circus while in custody.Nunney was not present for the ruling.Lindros, the final witness in the case, testified Feb. 4 he did not provoke the incident. Lindros said he &ldquo;retaliated&rdquo; and sprinkled beer on Nunney after someone poured a beer down his back. He assumed it was Nunney since she was dancing immediately behind him. A general beer fight ensued.Nunney claimed the incident occurred after she refused to make room for Lindros on the packed dance floor. Her testimony was backed up by her sister and a friend.But Lindros&rsquo; account of the incident was corroborated by five witnesses, including three who had never met the hockey player before.Asked if he had learned anything from the experience, Lindros offered no profound change in lifestyle.&ldquo;So, you&rsquo;re telling me to stay inside? I&rsquo;m a kid and I like to do the things that kids do,&rdquo; he said.Lindros steadfastly denied the main elements of Nunney&rsquo;s testimony that he bumped or elbowed her, filled up his cheeks with beer &ldquo;like a chipmunk&rdquo; and spat it in her face, or that he poured a beer over her head.Lindros admitted he raised the issue of his $3.5-million salary when Nunney talked of criminal charges at the end of the night, but he wasn&rsquo;t going to apologize to her.&ldquo;If someone started it and someone does it back, that person has no right to take offense,&rdquo; Lindros said.Lindros said he would consult his lawyer, Earl Levy, about whether he would continue to pursue a countercharge against Nunney. &#9632;

Lindros gets spit decision

<div class="byline">Compiled by THN Staff</div>Mike Modano went from being the NHL&rsquo;s 106th-best paid to its fourthbest paid player when he signed a new contract with the Minnesota North Stars Oct. 21.Latest salary figures obtained by Canadian Press reflect new contracts since every player&rsquo;s salary was published in the Oct. 16 edition of THN (see accompanying chart).Modano is one of two play-ers-Calgary Flames&rsquo; goaltender Mike Vernon is the other-who have become millionaires since the start of the season. Forty-two players will earn at least $1 million this season.Modano&rsquo;s pay jumped from $600,000 to $1.95 million (including a signing bonus), the biggest increase in the league. Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; center Joe Sakic had the next biggest gain, with his pay raise from $1 million to $1.8 million.NO BLACKOUT: Jim Thompson, vice-president and general manager for The Sports Network in Canada said he doubts his network will be shut out from broadcasting NHL games next season.The Toronto Sun reported Feb. 4 that TSN rejected an offer from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which controls broadcast rights to NHL games in Canada. Molstar Communications buys the rights from the NHL and sells them to CBC.TSN will show 35 regular-season games this season plus the first playoff round. Its deal with CBC expires after this season, but Thompson said he thinks a new deal will be reached.If not, Thompson suggested TSN might go after exclusive cable rights.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re Canada&rsquo;s only cable outlet and the NHL is the only league that doesn&rsquo;t sell a separate cable package,&rdquo; Thompson said.<h2>TOP 20 SALARIES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011616/6127249-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="528" height="957"></div>Salaries represented in millions of dollars and include signing bonuses where applicable. &#9632;

f0006-01

NHL has 42 millionaires

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011463/6127304-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="356" height="516"></div>It was no ordinary (night at the) Joe.The fans just kept coming and coming. By the time the Ontario League game between the Detroit Jr. Red Wings and the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds Feb. 2 was underway, there were 17,773 in Joe Louis Arena.Come again? More than 17,000 to see a junior game in a major U.S. city with an NHL franchise?Yup.It was the largest crowd in major junior since a record 18,838 filled the Montreal Forum Feb. 23, 1969 to see Bobby Orr&rsquo;s Oshawa Generals lose 9-2 to the Montreal Jr. Canadiens.&ldquo;What a night,&rdquo; said Jr. Red Wings&rsquo; president and general manager Jim Rutherford. &ldquo;We won big (9-1) and had more than 17,000. You can&rsquo;t beat that.&rdquo;It was, of course, the largest crowd in the Detroit junior franchise&rsquo;s three-season history. But it has also had more than 15,000 and more than 14,000 on two other occasions. Going into the Feb. 2 game, Detroit was leading the Canadian Hockey League in attendance, drawing a per-game average of about 7,000.This isn&rsquo;t supposed to be happening.Conventional hockey wisdom says junior hockey doesn&rsquo;t sell in major markets (see Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City), especially when there&rsquo;s an NHL team in town.But Compuware, the Detroit-based software firm with a storied minor and junior hockey history, is proving it can be done and done well.Under the right circumstances, that is.&ldquo;It can be done but the NHL team can&rsquo;t be the owner,&rdquo; said Rutherford, the former NHL goaltender. &ldquo;If an NHL team owns it-like it was with the Jr. Canadiens and (Toronto) Marlboros-it becomes a secondary concern and it gets neglected. An NHL team has bigger things to worry about.&rdquo;But Rutherford concedes it can&rsquo;t be done without full co-operation and support from the NHL team.&ldquo;If it wasn&rsquo;t for the (NHL) Red Wings, we wouldn&rsquo;t be able to do all this,&rdquo; Rutherford said. &ldquo;The first thing you need is a very favorable lease arrangement.&ldquo;The Red Wings purchase a number of tickets from us and distribute them to their season ticket holders and they give us advertising dollars, too.&rdquo;But perhaps the biggest contribution is the use of the name and the colors. With the exception of &ldquo;Jr. Wings&rdquo; in small black lettering within the winged wheel, the uniforms are identical to the NHL team&rsquo;s.Detroit-area hockey fans have no difficulty in identifying with this club, which in its first two seasons was known as the Ambassadors.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big benefit for us and it works that way for the (NHL) Red Wings, too,&rdquo; Rutherford said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re out there reinforcing their name, logo and colors and that&rsquo;s positive marketing for them. We&rsquo;re creating a whole new potential fan base.&rdquo;It still requires a great deal of behind-the-scenes work, though.Though they lead the league in attendance, the Jr. Red Wings are just hitting the break-even point.Not all of those tickets are sold at full price. Rutherford estimates they require about 2,500 at full price to break even.Many Detroit-area companies are helping the cause by buying blocks of discounted tickets and distributing them as they see fit, often to youth groups.Compuware also works the school system and minor hockey organizations to mine new fans.But even on discounted tickets, Compuware gets a flat rate per-per-son fee from the NHL Red Wings, which is tied to concession revenue.The Jr. Red Wings&rsquo; success-on the ice (the recent expansion club is in a first-place battle) and off of it-will not go unnoticed.At least two and perhaps as many as three groups are looking at the possibility of putting an OHL franchise back in Toronto&rsquo;s Maple Leaf Gardens.One of those groups is headed by Wayne Gretzky.There&rsquo;s no reason junior hockey can&rsquo;t be successful in Toronto as long as the basic tenets of the Jr. Red Wings are followed.The team must be called the Jr. Maple Leafs. It must get a break on an MLG lease from the NHL Leafs. It must be have a well-heeled ownership group with strong marketing skills. And it must be a sound hockey organization that can become competitive quickly.If all those steps are followed with excellent execution, being the small fish in the big pond isn&rsquo;t necessarily a bad thing.Bob McKenzie is a hockey columnist for The Toronto Star. &#9632;

f0007-01

Jr. Wings taking flight in Detroit

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02979/6127335-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Vancouver Canuck enforcer Gino Odjick doesn&rsquo;t share Pavel Bure&rsquo;s skill level, but the two have formed a unique off-ice friendship.</figcaption></div>Is Russia&rsquo;s former hockey dictator headed for the NHL? Viktor Tikhonov, who led the former Soviet Union to three Olympic gold medals and eight World Championships, is said to be disgusted with the decline of hockey in his homeland and is pondering a move to North America. Tikhonov&rsquo;s son, Vasily, now coaching Assat Pori in the Finnish Elite League, is expected to join an NHL team next season as an aide to Russian players, according to his New York-based agent Mark Gandler. Gandler told Bluelines the elder Tikhonov is, &ldquo;ticked off because now he&rsquo;s basically a junior coach who has to fight for salaries, equipment, every little thing. And so many players have left who shouldn&rsquo;t have left.&rdquo; Tikhonov has lost much of his power within the new Russian Ice Hockey Federation. This season, he is coaching the Russian Olympic team-basi-cally a national B team but will coach the Russians in the 1994 Winter Olympics. When one Russian NHL source was told of the speculation surrounding Tikhonov, he said: &ldquo;Tikhonov is definitely coming to North America. For a visit. Then he will return to Russia.&rdquo;<h2>Will Jack be back?</h2>There is speculation that George and Gordon Gund, owners of the San Jose Sharks, would love to give former general manager Jack Ferreira another chance if he isn&rsquo;t hired by one of the two expansion teams&hellip; One of the most curious friendships in the NHL is superskilled Russian Pavel Bure and enforcer Gino Odjick, an Algonquin Indian. &ldquo;Pavel speaks his mind and tells it like it is,&rdquo; Odjick said. &ldquo;Indian people are like that, which is why I like him. I&rsquo;ve liked him from Day I when I started to help him with his English.&rdquo; Bure added, &ldquo;I like Gino&rsquo;s honesty. We&rsquo;re the same age and have the same interests.&rdquo;<h2>Power struggle</h2>Word around the league is that the GMs have been stripped of some of their internal power since the Bruce McNall regime took over at the board of governors level. The situation was only temporarily cooled when league commissioner Gary Bettman addressed the GMs at their recent meetings in La Quinta, Calif. One NHL governor told Bluelines that ownership is determined to keep the GMs in their place. &ldquo;The managers had come to think they were the be-all-and-end-all,&rdquo; said the executive. &ldquo;They were behaving like a character right out of a Robert Lud-lum thriller of international intrigue. What they should do is just concentrate on their respective teams instead of trying to run the NHL, which is what they used to do.&rdquo;&hellip; Former Broad Street Bully Dave Schultz, who led the NHL in penalty minutes three straight seasons when he was with the Philadelphia Flyers, is coaching a peewee team called the Gladiators at the Pennsylvania rink he manages. &ldquo;We lead the league in fewest penalties,&rdquo; he said.<h2>Having a ball</h2>New York Rangers&rsquo; coach Ron Smith has roots in Twin Falls, Idaho dating back almost three decades. He played infield for the San Francisco Giants&rsquo; Class D affiliate there, wearing the No. 24 the same one carried by Giants&rsquo; Hall of Famer Willie Mays. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s as far as the similarity went,&rdquo; chuckled Smith&hellip; When the New York Islanders roomed 6-foot-2 Russian rookie Vladimir Malakhov with 5-foot-10 veteran Ray Ferraro, they produced a truly odd couple. &ldquo;Since he couldn&rsquo;t speak any English at the time,&rdquo; Ferraro recalled, &ldquo;I used to kid him by saying, &lsquo;C&rsquo;mon, big dummy.&rsquo; Vlady would smile. Then one day, he storms in and says, &lsquo;I leam big dummy!&rsquo;&rdquo;<h2>Big-league smarts</h2>Defenseman Randy Velischek is playing in the American League with the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; affiliate, but still harbors hopes of an NHL return with an expansion club next season. If not, the Halifax Citadels&rsquo; options are innumerable. Since the 30-year-old Montreal native speaks Parisian French fluently, he may become a French teacher. The Providence College grad is also brushing up on his German at Halifax&rsquo;s International Language Institute. He may also go into banking. In his spare time, Velischek reads classic French novels&hellip; After being ejected from a recent game, Flyers&rsquo; left winger Brent Fedyk was asked by a reporter why he was tossed out. &ldquo;I told the ref, that he was as horsesh-as I was,&rdquo; Fedyk said. &#9632;

f0007-02

Dictatorial Tikhonov on way to North America?

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>The Winnipeg Jets have a problem and it has nothing to do with language barriers, rookies or contracts.The team that had the third most man-games lost to injuries in the NHL this season-186 at the all-star break-will be without top defenseman Teppo Numminen until at least mid-March.Numminen sustained a broken right foot Jan. 28 in a 6-2 loss to the Boston Bruins.The Jets aren&rsquo;t exactly sure if Numminen will make it back by midMarch, either. There&rsquo;s a possibility the team&rsquo;s most reliable blueliner- and one of the NHL&rsquo;s most underrated players-could be out until the start of the playoffs.The Jets are already missing the services of defenseman Fredrik Olau-sson, who is sidelined until mid-February with sprained ligaments in his left knee.Winnipeg now has only six healthy defensemen and there are some reservations about one or two members of the group.When the Jets had eight healthy rearguards, coach John Paddock usually went with the players that best matched up against a certain opponent.Now, he&rsquo;s forced to go with Phil Housley, Sergei Bautin, Mike Lalor, Igor Ulanov, Dean Kennedy and Randy Carlyle all the time.General manager Mike Smith said he&rsquo;ll likely pursue a trade to acquire a defenseman and acknowledged it will have to be more than a reserve player.When that trade happens, it will be Trader Mike&rsquo;s 54th deal since becoming GM in 1988.COUNT CONTINUES: Rookie Teemu Selanne kept on trucking after hitting the 40-goal mark in late January.He reached 42 goals by the all-star break, setting a Winnipeg record for goals in a season by a right winger. The mark was previously held by Paul MacLean who scored 41 goals in 1984-85.Selanne was also closing in on Dale Hawerchuk&rsquo;s team rookie record of 45 goals (1981-82), as well as Mike Bossy&rsquo;s NHL rookie record of 53 set in 1977-78.Hawerchuk holds the Jets&rsquo; singleseason goal-scoring record of 53 set in 1984-85. Selanne was on pace to score 65 goals this season.NOTEBOOK: The Jets acquired goaltender Stephane Beauregard from the Philadelphia Hyers Feb. 8 for a third-round draft pick in the 1993 entry draft.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 2: Marts Richards, 6. recalled from Toledo (ECHL). Feb. 3: Russ Romaniuk, LW. assigned to Moncton (AHL). Feb. 4: Richards assigned to Toledo. Feb. 7: Stephane Beauregard, G, acquired from Philadelphia for a third-round draft choice in toe 1993 entry draft.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Atexel Zhamnov, Thomas Steen. Stu Barnes, Mike Eagles, Troy Murray.LW-Keith Tkachuk. Oarrin Shannon. John Druce, Kris King.RW-Teemu Selanne. Evgeny Davydov, Luciano Borsato, Tie Domi.LD-Sergei Bautin. Igor Ulanov, Randy Carlyle.RD-PhN Housley, Mike Lalor, Dean Kennedy.G-Bob Essensa. Rick Tabaracci, Stephane Beauregard.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bryan Erickson, RW. hack spasms, to-day Teppo Nummlnen. D. broken I foot, March 4. Fredrik Oteusson. D, sprained left knee ligaments, Feb. 14. I Mike O&rsquo;Neill, G, surgery on dislocated I right shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

Numminen’s injury creates major problem

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>As if being in last place overall wasn&rsquo;t bad enough, the San Jose Sharks had to begin the second half of the season trying to stave off an NHL futility record.The Sharks fell behind the Ottawa Senators and into last place overall Feb. 3, when they were beaten 7-3 by the Minnesota North Stars. The loss was their 15th in a row, leaving them two short of matching the league record of 17, set by Wasliington in 1974-75.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s embarrassing,&rdquo; goalie Jeff Hackett said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a joke. We&rsquo;re better than this. I know we are.&rdquo;Hackett said breaking the record for the longest losing streak would be a supreme embarrassment.&ldquo;It would be like kicking more dirt in your face,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to go home this summer and have the distinction of us being the worst team in pro hockey or having the longest losing streak in pro hockey history.&rdquo;So far, the entire season has been an ugly mark for the Sharks, who were 6-46-2 at the all-star break.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t gotten over the hump,&rdquo; coach George Kingston said.STILL IN RUSSIA: The Sharks made a push to sign Russian winger Alexander Cherbayev in time for him to finish the season with the Kansas City Blades of the International League, but they couldn&rsquo;t strike a deal before the Feb. 5 deadline for Europeans to join the IHL.The Sharks hoped Cherbayev, a third-round pick in last year&rsquo;s draft, w would follow in the footsteps of Latvian defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh. who played half of last season in Kansas City. Ozolinsh was San Jose&rsquo;s best defenseman before a season-ending knee injury in December.Cherbayev, 19, had 12 goals and 18 points in 25 games with Khimik of the Russian Professional League. He was a member of the Russian team that competed in the World Junior Championships in Sweden, but sustained a separated shoulder.NOTEBOOK: Winger John Carter drew a few chuckles for responding philosophically to having two goals disallowed during a Feb. 1 game against the Tampa Bay Light-&rdquo; ning. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the story of my life,&rdquo; said Carter, whose goals would have turned a 5-4 loss into a 6-5 victory if they had counted. &ldquo;My ship finally comes in and I&rsquo;m at the airport.&rdquo;<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 4: Ray Whitney. C, and Jaroslav Otevrel, RW, assigned to Kansas City (IHL). Michel Picard. LW. assigned to Kansas City.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Kelly Kisio, Dean Evason, Mike Sullivan, David Maley.LW-Johan Garpentov, John Carter, Mark Pederson, Hubte McDonough.RW-Rob Gaudreau. Jeff Odgers. Perry Berezan. Robin Bawa.LD-Neil Wilkinson. Doug Wilson, Tom Pederson, David Watams.RD-Jay More. Doug Zmolek Rob.G-Jeff Hackett, Arturs Irtw.<h3>INJURIES</h3>David Bruce. LW, groin pull, indefinite Lyndon Byers. RW, separated right shoulder, day-to-day. Pet Farioon, RW, dislocated right shoulder, indefinite. Brian Hayward. G, back strain, indefinite. Pat MacLeod. D. separated left shoulder. Indefinite. Sancfls Ozoltnsh, D, tom left knee ligament, out for season. &#9632;

Team on pace to finish last, be worst squad of all-time

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>The original strategy was to work Al Maclnnis into the Calgary Flames&rsquo; lineup gradually, perhaps only on the power play for the first several games.So much for the best-laid plans.After nearly three months on the sidelines recovering from a dislocated hip, Maclnnis returned for a Feb. 3 game against Washington.It took him almost seven minutes to get his first shift, but once he got that under his belt, the next ones came on a regular basis.Afterwards, Maclnnis-who missed 34 games-reported he had no difficulty stemming from the injury.As for his ice time, Maclnnis said it was unrealistic to expect he would be slowly integrated into the lineup as expected. Coming off a serious injury, the last thing he wanted to do was sit on the bench for lengthy periods, waiting for the Flames to go on a power play.That could invite groin pulls or knee strains or any type of injury that could materialize from growing cold on the bench.Besides, doctors assured Maclnnis the only way he could have a recurrence of the injury was if exactly the same collision happened again. That possibility was considered extremely remote.&ldquo;After a couple of shifts, I started reacting,&rdquo; said the 29-year-old rearguard. &ldquo;My timing was off and I made a couple of bad passes on the power play, but it&rsquo;ll come. I was away for three months.&rdquo;Maclnnis picked up two points in his first game back and was expected to provide a boost to the team&rsquo;s slumping power play. He had four goals and 18 points in 17 games at the time of the injury.The Flames were 19th in the NHL with the man advantage at the allstar break. For a team accustomed to icing one of the league&rsquo;s top-five power plays, that wasn&rsquo;t good enough.&ldquo;When the power play goes sour, the one thing I firmly believe in is going back to the basics,&rdquo; Maclnnis said. &ldquo;Go back to shooting the puck and get the forwards jamming the net, going for rebounds.&rdquo;Complicating matters was the fact the Flames&rsquo; offense had been missing in action for almost six weeks. The team came out of it only after hitting the road for a four-game, coast-to-coast swing that also produced four wins, continuing their wildly unpredictable season.Until the recent win streak, the Flames had gone 11 games in a row without a win. Just before that, they were 9-0-1.HOCKEY NOMAD: On the day Brent Ashton stepped on the ice for Calgary, he established a record-most travelled player in NHL history.Ashton, acquired Feb. 1 for C.J. Young, was playing for his ninth NHL team. The only other player in NHL history to be property of nine teams is Doug Crossman, but he didn&rsquo;t suit up for the Quebec Nord-iques before being claimed by Tampa Bay Lightning in the expansion draft.In Ashton and Brian Skrudland, the Flames took steps to shore up their size on the forward lines.Ever since 1989, they&rsquo;d gotten progressively smaller up front, a major concern when the best team in the division-Vancouver-boasts one of the biggest lineups in the league.Ashton had been playing with the Boston Bruins&rsquo; affiliate in Providence of the American League and commuting to his home in Boston.Do you ever get used to moving? No, said Ashton, but you do learn to adapt.Ashton bought a house only once in his playing career-in Detroit. Ever since then, he rents wherever he goes.&ldquo;For the player, it&rsquo;s easy,&rdquo; says Ashton. &ldquo;You meet the guys, you make friends right away. The wives are left to pack, get things sorted out. Being traded is toughest on them.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Right winger Sergei Makarov continued to be the odd man out. Since Al Maclnnis&rsquo; return, coach Dave King has used 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Makarov sat out consecutive games against Washington and New Jersey before the all-star break.The Flames were in the curious position of having only 12 healthy forwards and nine defensemen on their roster. Once Greg Smyth returned from a two-week conditioning stint, that number was expected to swell to 10. Thus, another deal-swapping one of the defense for help up front-was a possibility.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 1: C.J. Young, LW, traded to Boston for Brent Ashton, LW. Feb. 3: Pauf Kruse, LW, assigned to Sait Lake (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Joe Nieuwendyk, Robert Reichel Joel Ono, Brien Skmdland.LW-Gary Roberts. Paul Ranhelm, Brent Ashton. Chris Lindberg.RW-Theo Fleury, Ron Stem, Craig Berube. Sergei Makarov.RD-AI Maclnnis, Chris Dahlqulst. Kevin Dahl, Michel Petit, Alexander Godynyuk.G-Mike Vernon. Jeff Reese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Carey Wilson. C, left knee surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Power play back with return of Mac

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>Switzerland may intervene in the battle of wills between Joe Murphy and Glen Sather.Contract negotiations between the free agent right winger and the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; general manager ceased in September with the two sides about $300,000 apart.Now Murphy has entered into contract talks with a Swiss League team. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve talked to someone over there. It&rsquo;s preliminary right now. Anything is possible,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to worry about myself. Glen is going to worry about what he has to do with the club.&rdquo;Murphy knows he may have to sit out the entire season and is ready to take action. He had a chance to play for the San Diego Gulls of the International League, but chose not to sign.&ldquo;I can play wherever I want, other than the NHL because the Oilers own my rights,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I&rsquo;m going over there (to Switzerland), I&rsquo;m not worried about coming back and playing in the NHL this year.&rdquo;Murphy said he isn&rsquo;t worried about anything these days, despite the fact he hasn&rsquo;t cashed a paycheck since last spring.&ldquo;Everything is fine,&rdquo; Murphy said. &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t the end of the world. There are a lot worse things people go through. And if 1 was worried about the money, I would have been back a long time ago. I took that into consideration.&rdquo;Sather said if Murphy signs with a European team, &ldquo;it doesn&rsquo;t change his status over here. The only place he can play (in the NHL) is with us, unless his rights are traded.&rdquo;SNAKE-BITTEN: Scott Mellanby knew the question was coming but didn&rsquo;t have an answer.&ldquo;Time for a goal?&rdquo; he was asked. You bet. It has been time for a long time. At the all-star break, Mellanby hadn&rsquo;t scored since Jan. 2 when he had his 12th of the season and the winner against the Tampa Bay Lightning. That was a span of 15 games, an eternity for the Oilers&rsquo; right winger.&ldquo;You go four, five, six games, it&rsquo;s not that big a deal,&rdquo; Mellanby said when the streak was at 13 games. &ldquo;But it gets up there and even you start counting yourself when it hits double digits. That&rsquo;s the worst that could happen.&rdquo;Mellanby had 12 goals in 40 games, on pace for his usual 20-plus season. He was beginning to fill a void left by slumping scorers such as Bernie Nicholls and Esa Tikkanen.And then he hit the wall. There have been games in which he registered no shots or just one.&ldquo;I felt I had a good first half,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The last 13 games I feel like I can&rsquo;t even play the game anymore. My confidence is really down right now. It&rsquo;s frustrating. It&rsquo;s easy to say &lsquo;think positive&rsquo; but it&rsquo;s hard to do it.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Forward Vladimir Vujtek is again balking at an assignment in the minors. He had seven goals and 12 points in 12 games for Cape Breton of the American League before the team took a five-day break in early February. His agent Rich Winter informed Glen Sather that Vujtek would not return to the Cape. Winter is trying to have Vujtek&rsquo;s contract voided on the grounds he didn&rsquo;t understand what he signed because it was not in a language he could read.A source said Tampa Bay is offering center Adam Creighton for defenseman Brian Glynn but the Oilers aren&rsquo;t interested.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>NC-Shayne Corson, Scott Thornton, Craig Mac-avish. Kevin Todd.LW-Zdeno Ciger, Craig Simpson, Martin Gelinas.RW-Shon Podein, Scott Mellanby, Petr Klima, Kelly Buchberger, Brent Gilchrist.LD-Dave Manson, Geoff Smith, Luke Richardson.RD-Craig Muni, Chris Joseph. Brad Werenka. Brian Glynn.G&mdash;Bill Ranford, Ron Tugnutt.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brian Benning. D. groin strain, day-to-day. Louie DeBnisk. LW. groin strain, day-to-day. Esa Tikkanen. C, infected elbow Jan. 31, day-to-day. &#9632;

Murphy considers Switzerland

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>Wayne Gretzky isn&rsquo;t pleased with his play nor the regularity with which the Los Angeles Kings have been losing games.Nor was he happy when one of his best friends, Paul Coffey, was included in the six-player trade Jan. 29 that brought Jimmy Carson from the Detroit Red Wings.But Gretzky&rsquo;s relationship with team owner Bruce McNall has not deteriorated and, contrary to a fantastic rumor making the rounds in Montreal before the Feb. 6 All-Star Game, he does not want to be traded-to the Toronto Maple Leafs or to any other team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy where I am and I don&rsquo;t want to be traded,&rdquo; Gretzky said.McNall called the rumor &ldquo;a classic example of irresponsible journalism. It&rsquo;s absurd. It&rsquo;s a joke. It&rsquo;s total nonsense. It&rsquo;s absolutely insane.&rdquo;Besides, McNall said he would never trade Gretzky under any circumstances.&ldquo;If Wayne Gretzky ever got unhappy and wanted to be moved, I wouldn&rsquo;t trade him. I would release him and allow him to do whatever he wants,&rdquo; said McNall, who has a personal as well as a business relationship with Gretzky. &ldquo;He has done too much for the game to ever be traded again.&ldquo;Wayne has a home, a family, a wife in L.A. He has expressed no interest in going anywhere else.&rdquo;McNall scoffed at speculation he had not spoken to Gretzky in several weeks. They had dinner in Montreal the night before the rumor started and flew together in the owner&rsquo;s private jet Feb. 2 from Quebec City to Montreal after the team&rsquo;s 3-2 loss to the Nordiques.&ldquo;Our relationship has never changed,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;Wayne and I laughed about (the rumor).&rdquo;Gretzky wasn&rsquo;t laughing about the Kings&rsquo; 49-1 record since his Jan. 6 return from a herniated thoracic disc in his back that threatened to end his career.Nor was he smiling about his two goals and 14 points in those games, including 12 consecutive games without a goal.Gretzky chose not to use it as an excuse, but he did miss all but two days of training camp and 39 games while recovering from his back injury. He probably raised expectations to an unrealistic level by collecting six points in his first six games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got to find myself,&rdquo; said Gretzky, who was skating on a line with rookie Lonnie Loach and the slumping Jari Kurri. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not playing the way I want to play, but it&rsquo;s tough after missing all that time.&ldquo;1 can&rsquo;t expect the five-, six-point nights, but I feel like I can contribute my share. Right now, I&rsquo;m trying to keep my game simple. Hopefully, I&rsquo;ll start to get some breaks around the net.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Team physician Dr. Ron Kvitne said winger Tomas Sandstrom will be sidelined for almost a month-and-a-half after having his broken jaw wired shut Jan. 29. Sandstrom&rsquo;s earliest return date is March 13. He will be available for the final 15 games&hellip; No recovery date has been set for Corey Millen, out since Dec. 19 with a groin strain. He underwent six acupuncture treatments in an attempt to relieve pain, but they didn&rsquo;t work.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Wayne Gretzky, Jimmy Carson, Gary Shu-chuk, Pat Conacher. John McIntyre.LW-Lonnle Loach, Luc Robitaille. Mike Donnelly, Warren Rychel.RW-Jari Kurri, Dave Taylor, Tony Granato. Marc Potvin. Jim Thomson.LD-Atexei Zhitnik, Darryl Sydor, Marty McSorley. RD-Rob Blake, Charlie Huddy. Jeff Chychrun. G-Kelly Hrudey, Robb Stauber.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Corey Millen C, groin strain. Indefinite. Tomas Sandstrom. RW. broken jaw, indefinite. Brent Thompson, D. abdominal strain, indefinite. &#9632;

Gretzky on trading block? That’s absurd, McNall says

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>The Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; Russian Connection, so good for so much of the season, hit the allstar break with a thud.Pavel Bure and Anatoli Semenov were both mired in slumps when the league called it quits for the four-day hiatus in Montreal.Bure, who had never gone more than three games without a goal since joining the Canucks last season, hadn&rsquo;t scored in five and appeared worn out, both physically and mentally. He wasn&rsquo;t finding much open ice and rather than working harder, he began floating.Semenov, meanwhile, collected only three points in seven games before the break. Prior to that, he missed six games with a knee injury.Assistant coach Rick Ley suggested the Russians missed regular left winger Greg Adams, who has been on the shelf with an injury since mid-January.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re just out of sync,&rdquo; Ley said. &ldquo;They miss Gus (Adams); he&rsquo;s a terrific player.&rdquo;Ley dismissed suggestions Bure and Semenov were simply minor burnout cases. Semenov is 30 while Bure, just 21, has had enormous off-ice demands along with his ample ice time.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re all getting paid to do a job,&rdquo; Ley said. &ldquo;Some days you&rsquo;re not feeling as well as other days. They can push themselves through this.&rdquo;Coach Pat Quinn tried to rationalize Bure&rsquo;s floating by claiming the Russian Rocket was &ldquo;going through a learning stage.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not so much that he&rsquo;s not working hard,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;I think he thinks he&rsquo;s going to open up some room by hanging out, that he&rsquo;s going to get the puck in different spots and he&rsquo;s going to get his goals to help our hockey club. We talked to him about coming back and being in position. Those are the little things that will help you get out of it.&rdquo;Semenov admitted he was playing poorly, but couldn&rsquo;t pinpoint a reason.&ldquo;1 feel good, but not play good,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say why. Maybe my knee. 1 don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;Bure, confessing he was beyond the point of frustration, said he planned to grab as much rest as he could over the all-star break.HARD-LUCK CANUCK: Left winger Greg Adams has regained his title as the most snake-bitten player in Vancouver.The oft-injured forward appeared to have lost this dubious honor to defenseman Dave Babych. who sustained a sprained knee just five games after coming off hemia surgery which came on the eve of the season-opener.But back to Adams. After sustaining at least one major injury in four consecutive seasons, Adams was off to a career-best start, with 52 points in 45 games and a plus-33 rating.Then he took a knee in the right thigh from Nick Kypreos of the Hartford Whalers on Jan. 16. His initial injury was a severe charleyhorse but when he began skating again he developed some irritation in his knee joint.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a little depressing,&rdquo; said Adams.NOTEBOOK: The Canucks&rsquo; home-ice mystique has disappeared. After going 18 games without a loss (16-0-2) and setting a club record, they won only one of their next five (1-2-2). The win was a 4-2 victory Feb. 3 over the Tampa Bay Lightning.Right winger Trevor Linden, who is only 22 and in his fifth season, cracked the career 300-point barrier against the Lightning.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Cliff Ronning. Anatoli Semenov, Petr Nedved. Tom Fergus. Ryan Walter.LW-Serglo Momesso, Geoff Courtnail, Dixon Ward, Gino Odjick.RW-Trevor Linden, Pavel Bure, Jim Sandlak, Garry Valk, Robert Kron.LD-Robert Dirk. Dana Murzyn, Adrien Plavsic. RD-Gerald Diduck, Dave Babych. Doug Lidster. G-Kirk McLean. Kay Whitmore.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Greg Adams, LW, sore right knee Feb. 15. Jyrki Lumme D, sprained left knee, Feb. 15. &#9632;

Team’s flashy Russians sputter after red-hot start

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011403/6127510-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="362" height="509"></div>All right, sports and leisure for the pie: What inventor of a famous board game owns a junior hockey team in rural Ontario and has aspirations of joining the NHL some day?Here&rsquo;s a clue. Hockey is not a Trivial Pursuit for him.Every Thursday night, Scott Abbott takes his place in the owner&rsquo;s box at the Albion-Bolton Union Community Centre in Caledon, Ont.,-about 30 miles northwest of Toronto-to watch his Caledon Canadians play. He makes sure the spot is reserved by having a garbage can placed there before the game.Aside from the fact he drives to the rink in a Mercedes-Benz, there is little that sets Abbott apart from the 200 or so other locals who line the boards each week. On this night, his team pummels the Royal York Rangers 11-1. In their first season in the Central Ontario Junior League, the Canadians hold down fourth place in their division with a 25-11-3 record. Three of their losses came because they used an illegal player at the beginning of the season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun for me,&rdquo; said the 43-year-old native of Montreal. &ldquo;They tell me you can&rsquo;t win them all, but I&rsquo;m trying to find out why. The Miami Dolphins won all of their games in 1972.&rdquo;Don&rsquo;t bother to check your National Football League guide to check that one. In 1979, Abbott and three of his friends took the thousands of bits of useless information they knew and used it to create one of the most popular board games in history. Trivial Pursuit recently reached 60 million in sales and is now produced in 30 countries and 27 languages.Abbott will not divulge his financial worth, but the Hom-Abbot company, which sold the rights to the game to Parker Bros., has ownership in everything from golf courses to race horses to tacky gift stores to restaurants. &ldquo;I have a difficult time at Customs when they ask my profession,&rdquo; Abbott said. &ldquo;I just put down businessman.&rdquo;Suffice it to say Abbott could probably scrape up enough money to buy an NHL team. He came very close to doing just that in 1985 and again in 1987. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t say which teams they were but one was an American team and the other was Canadian,&rdquo; Abbott said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure if the teams were actually up for sale at the time. I think the owners were using it as a scare tactic.&rdquo;Abbott has put his dream of a Stanley Cup on hold while he and his team pursue the Sutherland Cup, symbolic of Junior B supremacy in Ontario.Operating budgets for teams in the league run anywhere from $75,000 to $150,000 per season and Abbott claims his falls somewhere in the middle. The only luxuries afforded the team are a refurbished dressing room and the best looking duds in the league. The team wears uniforms identical to those of Abbott&rsquo;s favorite team, the Montreal Canadiens. Still, he hears people call his team the Caledon Country Club.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve heard it all,&rdquo; said general manager Jerry Callaghan. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve heard we have a million-dollar budget, that we pay our players $500 a week, that we have a team bus and our coach makes $100,000 a year.&rdquo;Callaghan claims he and coach Gregg Carrigan work for free beer and chicken wings. &ldquo;Our books are open if anyone wants to see,&rdquo; Callaghan said.If Abbott ever does get involved at the NHL level, it will probably be because he can&rsquo;t get a ticket for a game. A few years back when he and a friend wanted to play golf at their club and couldn&rsquo;t get a tee-off time, their complaints were met by a suggestion they build their own course. Devil&rsquo;s Pulpit-a 38-hole creation in Caledon-was named best new course in Canada in 1991 and Devil&rsquo;s Paintbrush received the same honor in 1992.The same principle applied when Abbott and friends Chris and John Haney and Ed Werner invented Trivial Pursuit.Abbott, then a sportswriter for Canadian Press in Montreal, challenged Chris Haney to a best-of-seven Scrabble match for $100 per game when they realized they had lost their board.&ldquo;Chris plunked the game on the table and said, &lsquo;I just paid 12 bucks for this and it&rsquo;s the fifth one I&rsquo;ve bought. There must be a lot of money in games,&rsquo;&rdquo; Abbott recalled. &ldquo;Within 45 minutes we had the board designed.&rdquo;Abbott&rsquo;s designs on the NHL are not as well planned. Like many other potential investors, he thinks the $50million investment in an expansion franchise is too much. But Hartford and Edmonton may want to take note; Haney is open to discussion.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not forcing the issue and it&rsquo;s not something 1 absolutely have to do,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m always interested in talking to anybody about it if they&rsquo;re interested in talking to me.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0011-01

Owner brings new meaning to sports trivia

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>A shot at hockey history rests on the stick of Sylvain Cote and the shoulders of Washington Capitals&rsquo; management.If Cote, the Capitals&rsquo; 27-year-old defenseman. can score five goals after the all-star break, the Caps will become the first team to boast three20-goal scorers among defensemen.Cote had 15 goals, four more than his career best. His regular partner, Al Iafrate, had 18 in 53 games and is certain to get 20. Iafrate would have 19, but he declined to score into an empty net earlier this season. Kevin Hatcher already hit the 20 mark for the second time in his career.However, Cote may be used as trade bait to attract the scoring forward the Capitals need for the playoffs.The NHL doesn&rsquo;t keep records for scoring by position but the Capitals&rsquo; defense corps is likely to be the highest-scoring of all-time. The 1983-84 Oilers, whose defensemen scored 78 goals in 80 games, are believed to have the previous high. The Capitals&rsquo; defensemen scored 63 goals in 53 games, a 99-goal pace.&ldquo;1 think we&rsquo;ll all get 20 goals,&rdquo; Iafrate said, &ldquo;but I don&rsquo;t think it should ever get to the point where a team expects goals from defensemen. It&rsquo;s great when the team is winning, but as soon as you start losing, they&rsquo;ll say, &lsquo;What are you doing up the ice all the time?&rsquo; If you&rsquo;re losing, having three 20-goal-scoring defensemen is no bi deal.&rdquo;Washington&rsquo;s game plan is buih on necessity. Last season the Capitals were the second-most potent offensive team in the league.But the trade of sniper Dino Cic-carelli, the slower-than-expected development of young forward Reggie Savage and a knee injury to Randy Burridge, left the Capitals short of firepower up front.To compete in the faster NHL, the Capitals&rsquo; defensemen had to be turned loose.&ldquo;You build your team according to the talent you have and the skills people bring,&rdquo; said Capitals&rsquo; coach Terry Murray. &ldquo;In our case, we have three very talented defensemen.&rdquo;Iafrate brings size-he is 6-foot-4, 240 pounds-superb shooting skills and speed.He won the hardest shot competition at the All-Star Game with a blast of 105 miles-per-hour. He also finished fourth in the fastest skater competition.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-021014/6127541-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="924" height="1479"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sylvain Cote</figcaption></div>Hatcher operates in tandem with six-goal scorer Calle Johansson. At 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds, Hatcher provides an overpowering physical presense.Cote, obtained from Hartford in September of 1991 for a second-round draft choice, is neither as gifted offensively as Iafrate or as rugged as Hatcher. At 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, Cote&rsquo;s game reminds observers more of the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; Steve Duchesne than of Iafrate or Hatcher.The Capitals&rsquo; reliance on offensive defenseman has been noted by division rivals.&ldquo;The way those three guys can shoot and skate, they&rsquo;re always a threat,&rdquo; said New York Islanders&rsquo; general manager Don Maloney. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re always looking for a chance, even shorthanded. With the rule changes and the Europeans, that&rsquo;s the way the game is going today.&rdquo;While all three possess the speed to break up a rush and then dash in the other direction, Murray insists the most vital element of the transition is what the defenseman does after corralling the puck in his own end.&ldquo;The most important thing is that first pass, what I call the penetrating pass to the forward,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;Then it&rsquo;s up to the defenseman to jump into the play.&rdquo;Even if a Washington defenseman is trapped on an offensive gambit, all three have the speed necessary to get back into the play.The dashing defenseman style has done little to damage Washington&rsquo;s goals-against total. The Capitals were surrendering an average of 3.60 goals a game.Last year, they finished with a 3.49 GAA.Sometimes Murray&rsquo;s biggest challenge is to hold his horses back.&ldquo;Most players are stat-driven, so it&rsquo;s a question of pulling in the reins,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;What we want every defenseman to realize is that he will have two or maybe three chances a game to join in the rush.&rdquo;That philosophy has created a goal-rush among Capital defensemen.<h2>TANDEMS WITH 20-20 VISION</h2>When Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; defensemen Phil Housley and Fredrik Olaus-son each reached the 20-goal mark last season, it marked only the fourth time in NHL history the trick had been turned.Here is a list of 20-20 tandems.Winnipeg Jets, 1991-92: Phil Housley, 23; Fredrik Olaus-son, 20.Calgary Flames, 1987-88: Al Maclnnis. 25; Gary Suter, 21.Edmonton Oilers, 1982-83: Paul Coffey. 29; Charley Huddy,75: Guy Lapointe, 28; Serge Savard, 20. &#9632;

f0011-02

A Capital offense

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>The fierce pride is still there. So is the competitiveness that will someday lead him to enshrinement in the Hockey Hall of Fame.But halfway through his 13th NHL season, Peter Stastny is making the New Jersey Devils wonder how much he has left in his 36-year-old body. After 438 goals and 1,206 points, is there still some magic left for the stretch drive and playoffs?Stastny stumbled into the all-star break with two goals and four points in 13 games. He missed another four matches with the flu or as a healthy scratch.Perhaps the most insulting thing was the fact the Devils did not hide their desire to acquire a No. 1 center capable of scoring goals.That player turned out to be Bernie Nicholls, but who better fit that description than Stastny in his prime?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a fact. You have to respect the laws of nature,&rdquo; Stastny said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m 36. You&rsquo;re not going to be any faster. You&rsquo;re not going to be any more mobile. But you can fight it. You can maintain what you have and you can keep your heart and desire to stay competitive and still be beneficial to the team. This is where I am.&rdquo;After overcoming his disappointment that the Quebec Nordiques did not make a serious attempt to sign him in the off-season, Stastny ended his holdout and re-signed with New Jersey on Oct. 22.He played his first game on Nov. 5 and had 11 goals and 25 points in 34 games. Stastny&rsquo;s pace projects to 27 goals and 61 points over a full season.&ldquo;So far this year I&rsquo;m not too happy. It&rsquo;s not what I&rsquo;d like to see, but there are reasons,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Not only did I miss training camp, but there is a new strategy and a new plan here. It might take me a little longer to get into the playing condition I was in last year. I should improve from here on.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not happy with getting a point in a game. I&rsquo;m happy with a win. I want the team to be successful and there&rsquo;s that potential here.&rdquo;As he prepared for the final two months of the regular season, Stastny focused on the one thing that has eluded him: a Stanley Cup ring.&ldquo;It definitely makes a difference,&rdquo; Stastny said. &ldquo;By the same token, there have been a lot of players who played on a few Stanley Cup teams and nobody knows them. You judge players by what they&rsquo;ve done and what they give to the sport. The Stanley Cup is like the cherry on top of the cheesecake.&rdquo;TOUGH TIME: Bernie Nicholls scored his first goal as a Devil Feb. 3 and then returned to California, where his two-month-old son, Jake, aDown&rsquo;s Syndrome baby who was stricken with spinal meningitis, was hospitalized in Long Beach.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011495/6127572-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="547" height="954"><figcaption class="caption-body">Peter Stastny still hasn&rsquo;t recovered from missing training camp.</figcaption></div>The infant, removed from life-support, was effectively brain dead.Nicholls was co-operative with the media during his ordeal, but Devils&rsquo; public relations director Dave Freed issued a statement saying Nicholls &ldquo;will not be taking any questions regarding his personal situation&rdquo; after one newspaper sent a reporter to corner the player at the hospital.NOTEBOOK: Veteran right winger John MacLean attended a hearing in New York with Gil Stein Feb. 2 to address his Jan. 22 slash on Montreal Canadien Benoit Brunet. MacLean was cleared without punishment.Defenseman Ken Daneyko needed to play just two games to pass Aaron Broten (581) for second on the Devils&rsquo; all-time list. MacLean was first at 594.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 2: Jason Miller, LW, assigned to Utica (AHL). Feb. 4: Claude VUgraln, LW, assigned to Cincinnati (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Alexander Semak. Peter Stastny, Bernie Nicholls, Janne Ojanen, Jarrod Skalde.LW-Scott Pellerin, Stephane Richer, Troy MaHetle, Tom Chorske.RW-Claude Lemieux, John MacLean, Bill Guerin, Dave Barr.LD-Bruce Driver, Scott Stevens, Vachestav Fetisov. Tommy Albetin.RO-Ken Daneyko. Scott Niedermay-er, Alexei Kasatonov. Mytes O&rsquo;Connor.G-Craig Billington, Chris Terreri.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bobby HoUk, LW, broken left thumb, indefinite. Randy McKay, LW. tom right knee ligament, Indefinite. Valeri Zelepukin, LW. separated left shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

f0012-01

Does Stastny still have his magic?

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>The Washington Capitals stumbled into the all-star break with five straight losses, creating some doubt about the team&rsquo;s forwards.Whether it represented a temporary dip in an otherwise progressive pace-12-6-2 in 20 games prior to the slide-or the foreshadowing of impending doom, is something management is seriously considering.The big question is are the team&rsquo;s forwards good enough to get the job done in the playoffs?&ldquo;Well, I would like to think so,&rdquo; said coach Terry Murray. &ldquo;We need to find out and find out real soon. I was asked if I&rsquo;d like to get a pure goal-scorer, a guy who can get 50-goals a year. Well, that would be fine. But where are you going to get a player like that? Who is going to give that up? The most important thing is to draft well and get a guy to become that type of player.&rdquo;The Capitals haven&rsquo;t drafted a 50-goal scorer in 11 years. Bobby Carpenter, who scored 53 in 1984-85, was selected third overall in the 1981 entry draft.Right winger Peter Bondra led the Capitals in goal-scoring with 23 in 53 games.While it&rsquo;s unlikely the Capitals will obtain a 100-point forward by the March 20 trade deadline, the team will try to pick-up a big, ornery winger with a scoring touch.Washington has several competent defensemen it could use as trade bait. Sylvain Cote, Calle Johansson, Paul Cavallini, Shawn Anderson, Jason Woolley and Brad Schlegel are all available.MOVIN&rsquo; ON UP: Capitals&rsquo; general manager David Poile recalled three players from the Baltimore Skipjacks of the American League Feb. 7 to help his team reverse its losing ways.All three players-right winger Reggie Savage, center Steve Kono-walchuk and defenseman Jason Woolley-have played with the big club this season.NOTEBOOK: Cathy Turner, who won the gold medal in 500-meter short-track speed skating at the 1992 Winter Olympics, raced defenseman Al Iafrate at a Capitals&rsquo; practice Feb. 8. Iafrate won the team&rsquo;s fastest skater competition and was fourth in the skills competition at the All-Star Game. The colorful rearguard kept his sense of humor during the affair, which was wise because Turner won easily. They raced only about 400 meters (four times around a course on the rink) with Turner winning by half a lap. &ldquo;At first I thought I&rsquo;d be mad if I lost because I&rsquo;m a competitor, but once I saw her&hellip; it was awesome,&rdquo; Iafrate said.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 7: Reggie Savage, RW. Jason Woolley, O, and Steve Konowalchuk, C, racakad from Baltimore (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-MIke Ridley Michal Prvonka, Date Hunter, Bobby Carpenter, Steve Kono-walchukLW-KeBy Miter, Dimitri Khristich, Todd Krygier, Alan May.RW-Peter Bondra, Pat Elynulk, Keith Jones, Paul MacDermld, Reggie Savage.LD-AI lafrate, Calle Johansson, Rod Langway. Shawn Anderson, Jason Woolley.RD-Kevin Hatcher, Sylvain Cote, Paul Cavalfini.G-Don Beaupre. Jim Hrivnak.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Randy Burrldge LW. left knee surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Acquiring high-scoring forward would help ease Murray’s mind

<div class="byline">By Jetf Williams</div>Don Maloney was a diligent worker in 12 seasons as an NHL left winger and his work ethic hasn&rsquo;t changed since he became general manager of the New York Islanders last August.The league&rsquo;s youngest GM at 34 spends hours each day trying to improve his team.But despite his hard work, the Islanders are still not &ldquo;Don Maloney&rsquo;s Team.&rdquo; As Maloney entered his sixth month at the helm, the only player on the roster for whom he is entirely responsible is Brian Mullen, a former teammate on the New York Rangers that Maloney picked up for next to nothing from the San Jose Sharks this summer.Everyone else was drafted, traded for or signed by Bill Torrey, the only GM the Islanders had until he was pushed aside this summer in favor of his handpicked assistant, Maloney.Maloney&rsquo;s only other moves included putting a number of players on waivers and losing Bill Berg to the Toronto Maple Leafs.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been looking to improve our team all season,&rdquo; Maloney said. &ldquo;But that doesn&rsquo;t mean we want to do a deal just to do one. This team went through a lot of change last year. I think it&rsquo;s a better team than the record shows. If we think we can improve the team for the long term, we&rsquo;ll make a deal. But I&rsquo;m not looking for quick fixes.&rdquo;Maloney has tried to make some deals. He wanted to trade for a defenseman during the GMs&rsquo; meeting in mid-January after three of his rearguards went down with injuries, but the deals fell through.&ldquo;There is no comparison to the amount of time and the stresses you feel in this job compared to being a player,&rdquo; Maloney said. &ldquo;I put in my time as a player, but my wife and kids still get to see me. But now&hellip;&rdquo;The Islanders&rsquo; GM is encouraged by the team&rsquo;s improved play in the new year. He is still frustrated, however, by its inability to move up in the standings.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t quite seem to get there,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not only important for our ranking, but for the whole organization.&rdquo;KRUPP BOWS OUT: Uwe Krupp pulled out of the hardest shot competition during the all-star weekend in Montreal because of bone chips in his left elbow. Winger Steve Thomas took his spot.&ldquo;Basically, I&rsquo;ve been playing on anti-inflammatories,&rdquo; Krupp said. &ldquo;My doctor thought it was best I rest during the break.&rdquo;Krupp is in the option year of his contract and is looking for a hefty pay increase.&ldquo;I would have had the surgery by now if it wasn&rsquo;t for my contract situation,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: Don Maloney wanted to obtain Toronto goalie Grant Fuhr before the Maple Leafs traded him the Buffalo Sabres but the price was too high.The Islanders are interested in making a new minor-league deal with their primary affiliate in Capital District of the American League which would reduce the total number of players under contract from 50 to 40.<h2>N.Y. ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 3: Daniel Marois. RW, recalledfrom Capital District (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Pterre Turgeon, Tom Fitzgerald,Claude Loiselle. Travis Green.LW-Benolt Hogue. Derek King, DavidVotek, Marty McInnis, Brian Multen.RW-Pat Flatley, Mick Vukota, BradDalgamo, Steve Thomas, Daniel Marois,LD-Scott Lachance, Jeff Norton,Dennis Vaske, Tom Kurvers.RD-Danus Kasparattis, UweKrupp.G-Glenn Healy. Mark Fitzpatrick.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Ray Ferraro. C, broken right teg,indefinite. Vladimir Malakhov D, separated left shoulder, Feb. 17. GaryNylund, D, strained right knee ligaments, Indefinite. Rich Pilon, D, strained back, day-to-day. &#9632;

Maloney adjusting to post

<div class="byline">By Frank Brown</div>It would help the New York Rangers immeasurably if they could get out of each other&rsquo;s way.In the course of a season, you figure the opposition will cause most injuries. In the case of the Rangers, many of their physical woes have been self-inflicted.It started with Brian Leetch missing a check in St. Louis Dec. 17 and crashing head-first into the boards. He sustained compression of a nerve that governs his left shoulder and is not close to returning. At a recent practice, Darren Turcotte and Mike Hurlbut collided, leaving the rookie defenseman limping on a sprained left knee that will sideline him until early March.Against Winnipeg Jan. 27, Jay Wells was defending a rush and minding his own business when Adam Graves crosschecked the Jets&rsquo; Evgeny Davydov. Naturally, the Winnipeg forward toppled into Wells, catching the defenseman&rsquo;s right knee from the side and sending Wells to the sidelines until late March.So the Rangers&rsquo; blueline corps clearly qualified as the black-and-blue line corps. Rarely has there been such a rush on crutches and braces.&ldquo;It has been like the Keystone Kops, so many things have happened,&rdquo; said team president Neil Smith. &ldquo;We ought to put together a lowlight tape instead of a highlight tape.&rdquo;Of course, there were injuries that came via normal business. Mark Messier sprained his wrist in Detroit when a Red Wings&rsquo; defenseman hooked his feet out from under him during a scrap for the puck. Messier toppled quickly, tried to break the fall by extending his arm.Randy Gilhen left Maple Leaf Gardens on crutches after a knee-to-knee collision with Dmitri Mironov. The same game Wells was hurt-the same period, in fact-James Patrick caught knees with Winnipeg&rsquo;s Phil Housley and sustained a sprain.With two defensemen gone against Winnipeg, Phil Bourque shifted to defense and did a credible job. But you knew that wouldn&rsquo;t last and sure enough, Bourque found himself hobbled on a sprained knee of his own after a collision with-you guessed it-a teammate.Bourque banged into Sergei Nemchinov near the blueline just before the all-star break. They both wobbled to the bench. Bourque&rsquo;s next trip was to the dressing room, then the doctor&rsquo;s office. Nemchinov was not injured.NOTEBOOK: John Vanbiesbrouck reached the all-star break three appearances away from a $50,000 bonus for 35 games played this season.All-Star Game MVP Mike Gartner needed one goal to tie Mike Bossy at 573 for sixthplace on the all-time list. Question to Gartner, two-time winner of the NHL fastest skater competition: &ldquo;Are you as fast now as when you were 20?&rdquo; Answer: &ldquo;If I&rsquo;m not, I was really fast when I was 20.&rdquo;Coach Ron Smith, on right winger Alexei Kovalev&rsquo;s reluctance to pass: &ldquo;The puck&rsquo;s got his name on it somewhere. I guess &lsquo;Gil Stein&rsquo; is an alias for Kovalev.&rdquo; President Stein&rsquo;s signature is on all pucks this season.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 2: Per Djoos, D. assigned to Binghamton (AHL). Feb. 4: Peter Andersson, D, Joby Messier, D, and Alexei Kovalev. RW, assigned to Binghamton. Feb. 8: Andersson and Kovalev recalled from Binghamton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Mark Messier, Sergei Nemchinov, Doug Weight. Darren Turcotte.LW-Adam Graves, Jan Erixon, Ed Olczyk, Steven King, Joe Kocur.RW-Mike Gartner, Tony Amonte. Alexei Kovalev, Paul Broten.LD-Kevin Lowe, Sergei Zubov, Peter Andersson, Mark Hardy.RD-James Patrick, Jeff Beukeboom, Joe Cirella.G-John Vanbiesbrouck, Mike Richter.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Phil Bourque, LW, sprained left knee, March 1.Randy Gilhen, C, sprained right knee, March 1.Mike Hurlbut, D, sprained left knee. March 10.Brian Leetch. D. nerve compression in neck/left shoulder, indefinite. Jay Wells, D. sprained right knee, March 20. &#9632;

Teammates own worst enemies

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>Bryan Fogarty lost another battle in his personal war with alcohol abuse last month, but the Pittsburgh Penguins aren&rsquo;t abandoning their efforts to help him salvage his career. And his life.Not yet, anyway.General manager Craig Patrick described Fogarty as &ldquo;a young man with some problems,&rdquo; but said he is &ldquo;not about to close the door on anybody.&rdquo; Team president Howard Baldwin said &ldquo;what happens with him is totally up to Craig.&rdquo;Fogarty, 23, was suspended indefinitely by the Penguins Jan. 22, about two weeks after he had been assigned to the team&rsquo;s International League affiliate in Cleveland for conditioning.Patrick confirmed the suspension was alcohol-related, but said nothing about a run-in Fogarty had with a Kansas City cab driver early on the morning of Jan. 22. That incident resulted in assault charges being filed against Fogarty.News subsequently surfaced of an incident Fogarty allegedly was involved in at a tavern in Dormont, a Pittsburgh suburb, Nov. 29. According to Dormont police reports. Fogarty threw a bar stool that struck another patron in the head, cutting him.Jim Grove, 57, of Dormont, said he was watching a football game on television at the bar. He said Fogarty and a companion were about 15 feet away, at the end of the bar, and there was no indication a problem was imminent.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t even looking,&rdquo; Grove told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. &ldquo;There was no loud conversation, no signs of any trouble. It was just out of the blue.&rdquo;Grove, 57, said five staples were needed to close the gash in his head.Fogarty left the bar before police arrived, but was arrested later and charged with simple assault and reckless endangerment. They are second-degree misdemeanors that each carry a maximum two-year sentence.A hearing in the case has been scheduled for Feb. 24.Fogarty, who reportedly has been enrolled in a rehabilitation program in Montreal, could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Harold Gondelman, declined to discuss the situation.After the Jan. 22 incident in Kansas City, Fogarty was charged with simple assault and destruction of property after an incident with the cab driver.According to Kansas City police reports, a cab driver was assaulted and had one of his car&rsquo;s windows broken during an incident in the early hours of Jan. 22.Fogarty, who last played for the Penguins Nov. 17, had four assists in 12 games with Pittsburgh this season.Cleveland won six of the seven games Fogarty played in after he was assigned to the Lumberjacks in early January.NOTEBOOK: President Howard Baldwin is not a fan of neutral-site games and he hopes they are a one-year phenomenon. The Penguins were to play their first neutral-site game Feb. 8 in Atlanta against the Boston Bruins.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 1: Bruce Racine, G, assigned to Cleveland (ML).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Ron Francis. Dave Tippett, Martin Straka, Mike Stapleton.LW-Kevin Stevens, Shawn McEachern. Bob Errey, Troy Loney, Jeff Daniels.RW-Rick Tocchet, Jaromir Jagr. Joe Mullen, Mike Needham, Jay Caufield.LD-Ulf Samuelsson. Jim Paek, Grant Jennings, Peter Ahote.RD-Larry Murphy. Kjell Samueteson. Paul Stanton.G-Tom Barrasso, Ken Wregget.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Marfo Lemieux, C. Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease, indefinite. &#9632;

Team won’t abandon efforts to help Fogarty

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>Philadelphia hockey fans never thought they would live to see a Russian player in a Flyer uniform, let alone three of them.After all, didn&rsquo;t the Flyers save the NHL&rsquo;s reputation with a 4-1 win over the Red Army in 1976? Weren&rsquo;t the Russians the bad guys? They were according to the Sniders. The family that owned the team had a policy against drafting Russian players.Times change and so did the Flyers&rsquo; attitude once the Soviet Union crumbled. Soon the Flyers were drafting players from Russia as if it were a province of Canada.This year, rookie defenseman Dimitri Yush-kevich established himself as a regular. First-year center Viacheslav Butsayev and second-year left winger Andrei Lomakin are slowly but surely making progress. All three figured prominently in a 2-2 tie against the Rangers at New York Feb. 3.Lomakin, who became the first Russian to play for the Flyers last year, scored one goal and set up Kevin Dineen&rsquo;s tying goal in the third period. Yushkevich bounced back earlier than expected from a strained right wrist to play a strong game. And Butsayev, whose combination of language problems and lack of aggressive play has kept him on the periphery, turned in his second straight steady performance.Yushkevich, one of Russia&rsquo;s top defensemen in its gold-medal effort at Albertville in 1992, has been a surprise. He possesses the team&rsquo;s hardest shot, skates fast enough to recover from mistakes and isn&rsquo;t afraid to rough it up.Butsayev, also a prominent ex-Olympian, has been taking lessons in English off the ice and lessons on how to be more assertive on the ice.SNUGGERUD RETIRES: Dave Snuggerud was assigned to Hershey of the American League Jan. 31 but refused to report. Two days later, he retired.The Flyers acquired the left winger from San Jose for Mark Pederson earlier this season. Snuggerud had two assists in 14 games.According to the Flyers, Snuggerud may return to college to complete his degree. He attended the University of Minnesota before playing for the U.S. Olympic team in 1988.NOTEBOOK: Senior vice-president Bob Clarke confirmed reports he has talked to Miami owner Wayne Huizenga about the general manager&rsquo;s job with the expansion team. According to one report, Clarke is one of three finalists for the job along with deposed Islanders&rsquo; GM Bill Torrey and former San Jose GM Jack Ferreira.Keith Acton&rsquo;s wife, Susan, gave birth to twins-a boy and a girl-Feb. 1. He missed a Feb. 3 game in New York against the Rangers to stay with his wife, who developed a problem but is no longer in danger.X-rays revealed the right thumb injury sustained by Brent Fedyk in a 6-4 loss at Montreal Jan. 31 was a non-displaced fracture. Fedyk hoped to return shortly after the All-Star Game&hellip; Eric Lindros practised with the team Feb. 2, his first full workout since he was sidelined by a sprained knee Jan. 10. Lindros planned to skate all four days while in Oshawa, Ont., to complete his assault trial in connection with a nightclub incident Nov. 29.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 2; Dave Snuggenrd, LW, retired. Feb. 7: Stephane Beauregard. G, traded to Winnipeg for a third-round pick In 1993 entry draft.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Ertc Lindros, Mark Recchi. Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Keith Acton, Viacheslav Butsayev.LW-Joset Beranek, Pelle Eklund, Doug Evans, Andre Faust.RW-Kevin Dineen. Greg Paslawskl, Dave Brown, Andrei Lomakin.LD-Terry Carkner, Garry Galley, Shawn Cronin, Greg Hawgood.RD-Dimitri Yushkevich. Ric Nattress, Gord Hynes, Ryan McGill.G-Tommy Soderstrom, Dominic Roussel.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Claude Boivin, LW. tom left knee ligaments, indefinite Brent Fedyk, LW, fractured right thumb, Feb 15. &#9632;

Former Reds starting to feel at home wearing orange

<div class="byline">By Al Morganti</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011380/6127723-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="365" height="510"></div>Most of the stories from the 1993 All-Star Game concerned the poor quality of the affair, the lack of entertainment, the general mess of the system which matches Wales against Campbells.But there was one bright spot which lit up the television screens and warmed everybody&rsquo;s hearts. It occured in the second period when Charles Bradley Marsh scored the 15th goal for the Wales. What followed was a genuine celebration by his entire team and even a lot of smiles by the guys on the other bench.&ldquo;It felt just great,&rdquo; said the 34-year-old defenseman for the Ottawa Senators, &ldquo;but more than myself, I was happy for my family. Especially my 10-year old son Erik. I always wanted to play hockey long enough for my children to know what I did.&rdquo;Erik, by the way, was named after Pere-Erik (Pelle) Lindbergh, a former teammate of Marsh&rsquo;s who was killed in an auto accident when Marsh played with the Philadelphia Flyers. Marsh decided to honor the memory of Lindbergh by naming his son Erik.It was a special thing to do. But then. Marsh has always been special.Still, there were those people who did not believe Marsh should be at the NHL&rsquo;s All-Star Game. There are people who looked at Marsh&rsquo;s invitation as a cheap gift to a man whose time has come and gone.To those people, many of whom judge a player&rsquo;s worth by statistics and a stop watch, it just didn&rsquo;t figure that a guy who struggled to scored 23 goals in 14-plus seasons should be an all star in any year. Never mind the fact that it sometimes looks as if it takes Marsh 14 seasons to get from end to end of a rink.The truth of the matter is that, indeed, the best days of Brad Marsh have come and gone-but he has managed to use his skills to stay in the NHL far longer than anybody expected, except maybe Marsh. This was a guy whose plodding style was supposed to be doomed in the middle of the 1980s, and here he is headed toward the middle of the next decade.And if anybody really had a problem with Marsh playing in an All-Star Game, they have no sense of the sport&rsquo;s roots, its peculiar code of honor and especially its willingness to honor those who simply work hard.The fact that the NHL chose to include Marsh in the All-Star Game showed a sensitivity to the type of player upon whom the NHL was built. No matter where he has played, Marsh has been one of the most popular players.He was an emotional rookie in Atlanta when he broke in during the 1978-79 season and the southern fans loved the way he played the game with such a frenzy. Maybe they didn&rsquo;t know much about the finer points, but they knew this big, burly bear was simply playing his guts out night after night.When the team left, he became a captain in Calgary. Eventually, he was traded to Philadelphia, where he is still among the most popular players and a very popular average citizen when he returns to the area in the offseason.&ldquo;I think this is a game where you let the fans see who they want to see. And over my career, I&rsquo;ve had a very good relationship with the fans. I don&rsquo;t know why that is.&ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s because, well, just about every fan-at least in Canada-has played the game at some level. And when they see me out there, they see themselves playing on Sunday afternoon for their company team. Maybe they just like the way I have to work at the game, just like they do.&ldquo;I have to work every minute or I&rsquo;m not effective. I think the fans like that. It seems like they do.&rdquo;Marsh is a reminder that a hockey player spends his time on the ice in shifts, just like a factory worker spends his days at the plant in shifts.He is also just an all-around nice guy; an average guy who drives a pick-up truck, raises dogs, and just sort of messes around with the neighbors.Some people have tried to make the argument that Brad Marsh is more popular than other players because he doesn&rsquo;t wear a helmet. Well, maybe it make him more recognizable, but he isn&rsquo;t exactly Kevin Costner.With or without the helmet, he&rsquo;d be the same guy out on the ice throwing a bear hug around an opposing forward, or pretending he&rsquo;s a goalie to try and block a shot.If this is not the last go around for Marsh, it is certainly one of the last. Eventually, he will have to admit that he can&rsquo;t keep up with the rockets red glare of all the kids on the rink, and he&rsquo;ll have to call it a career.When he does, he will be able to say he was an all-star player as well as an all-star human being. And now he even has a goal to prove it. &#9632;

f0015-01

Marsh an all-star player and person

<div class="byline">By Rand Simon</div>MONTREAL-All right, everybody, take a deep breath and repeat after me: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just the All-Star Game, not the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals. It doesn&rsquo;t matter who wins or loses.&rdquo;To hear some people talk after the Wales Conference&rsquo;s 16-6 obliteration of the Campbell Conference Feb. 6, you would think the NHL had sustained irreparable embarrassment.But what&rsquo;s really wrong with seeing the NHL&rsquo;s most skilled players do what they best once a year? No one gets two points for the win, so who cares if the All-Star Game is never a 2-1 contest?Evidently, the NHL does. This will almost certainly be the last time the game is strictly an offensive show. Commissioner Gary Bettman will explore ways of making one of the NHL&rsquo;s few opportunities to gain national television exposure a in the United States a more intense game.One possibility is to have the host team play an all-star team. Another is a game between North American and European allstars.&ldquo;I think right now everybody agrees there needs to be a change,&rdquo; said Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; center Wayne Gretzky. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an All-Star Game, it&rsquo;s supposed to be fun and that was fun. It&rsquo;s hard for (the media) because you see it every year and you&rsquo;ll say this is the worst thing you&rsquo;ve ever seen.&rdquo;About the only players who didn&rsquo;t enjoy the game were the goaltenders. &ldquo;It is getting ridiculous,&rdquo; said Calgary Flames&rsquo; goalie Mike Vernon. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t have a heck of a lot of fun.&rdquo;Minnesota North Star Jon Casey had a 12.00 goals-against average for the game. That led Campbell netmin-ders.Critics who so often point to the National Basketball Association as the NHL&rsquo;s role model, forget the NBA All-Star Game is also strictly an offensive show. What would be far worse than a hockey game with no defense would be a situation where players get injured blocking a shot or taking a hit for a game that doesn&rsquo;t count in the standings.Even though it did not make for the most exciting television, players said the fans on hand got just what they wanted.&ldquo;Nobody would want to see that every night, but everyone enjoys it score late in the third period to give the Wales a 15-2 lead? The sellout crowd of 17,137 at the Montreal Forum certainly thought it was entertaining as Marsh received a standing ovation after his goal.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02966/6127754-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="929" height="1828"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pierre Turgeon was not the MVP, but was arguably the best player for the Wales Conference in the All-Star Game.</figcaption></div>once a year,&rdquo; said New York Islanders&rsquo; center Pierre Turgeon. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a wide-open game with lots of chances, lots of three-on-twos and two-on-ones. You can&rsquo;t compare it to a game in the regular season. The guys enjoy it. It would not be as much fun to go if there was hitting and lots of defense.&rdquo;Sure, the end result was known long before Campbell coach Mike Keenan had a chance to pull Ed Belfour one last time, but what could be more fun than seeing Brad MarshIf the fans wanted goals, they got both quantity and quality.No one scored more of them than New York Rangers&rsquo; right winger Mike Gartner, who tied a record with four, three of them in the first period. He also tied a record with four points in that period.&ldquo;I had a career night,&rdquo; said Gartner, who was named most valuable player one day after being crowned the league&rsquo;s fastest skater. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I have ever had a five-point night in my career. It would have been nice to have gotten a fifth goal.&rdquo;Turgeon had three goals and two assists and Mark Recchi of the Philadelphia Flyers had a goal and four assists for the Wales. Adam Oates set an All-Star Game record for assists in one period with four in the first.Pavel Bure scored two goals for the Campbells. The goals, which were scored 48 seconds apart, were the last two in a furious Campbell comeback that fell just 10 goals short.Despite all the goals, no Campbell defenseman was able to collect on their goal pool, which had a pot of $800.The Wales&rsquo; first three goals came in a span of one minute and nine seconds, which established a record for the fastest three goals.Several other All-Star Game records were set, including: most goals by both teams, most goals by one team and most shots by both teams (90, including a record 49 by the Wales).Brett Hull of the St. Louis Blues, who discarded his helmet for the game, said the current format for the annual game is just fine with him.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re not supposed to have a real game,&rdquo; said St. Louis Blues&rsquo; right winger Brett Hull. &ldquo;A lot of the guys are under pressure, they just want to go out and have fun.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0015-02

The defense rests

<div class="byline">By Stephen Harris</div>Local boy makes good has been a familiar story line for the Boston Bruins this season.Though general manager Harry Sinden insists he has never made any particular effort to draft or acquire Boston-area natives, this year&rsquo;s club is stacked with guys who grew up within a trolley ride of Causeway Street.The latest Bostonian to join the team is C.J. Young, formerly of Harvard, the U.S. Olympic team and the Calgary Flames, who hails from the Boston suburb of Waban-a quick ride on the Green Line from the Garden.Young was acquired from Calgary Feb. 1 for veteran winger Brent Ashton. He joins Steve Leach (Cambridge), Steve Heinze (North Andover), Ted Donato (Dedham) and Tim Sweeney (Weymouth) as players who grew up in the area. There&rsquo;s also former Harvard star defenseman Don Sweeney, a transplanted Canadian.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lifelong dream,&rdquo; said Young, who had an assist in a strong debut against the Quebec Nordiques Feb. 3. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to get back with my family and see everybody.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t immediately clear where the 25-year-old would fit in to the Bruins&rsquo; lineup after Steve Leach returns from a rib injury.Young was used as a third- and fourth-line checker in Calgary. In 28 games, he had three goals and five points.MOOG LEAVES: Goalie Andy Moog received permission from management Feb. 2 to head home to British Columbia, where his father, Don, is seriously ill with cancer.Moog missed the Bruins&rsquo; 4-1 win over Quebec Feb. 3. Rookie John Blue started in goal for Boston while Mike Parson was recalled from Providence of the American League to back up.It wasn&rsquo;t certain when Moog would rejoin the club.NOTEBOOK: Two weeks after defenseman Gord Murphy slipped on the steps at his home and severely sprained his left ankle, veteran blueliner Jim Wiemer broke his left foot slipping off a curb outside his home&hellip; The Bruins led the NHL with 15 shorthanded goals. Dave Reid was second in the league with five&hellip; Andrew McKim was close to returning from a broken jaw.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 1: Brent Ashton. LW. traded to Calgary for C J. Young, RW. Feb. 3: Mike Parson, G, and Stephane Richer, 0. recalled from Providence (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Adam Oates, Vladimir Ruzicka, Dave Poulin, Ted DonatoLW-Joe Juneau. Dave Reid, Grigori Panteleyev, Brent Hughes.RW-Dmitri Kvartalnov, CJ. Young, Steve Heinze, Dann Kimble, Tim Sweeney.LD-Don Sweeney, Gord Roberts.Stephane Richer.RD-Ray Bourque, David Shaw, Glen Featherstone.G-Andy Moog, John Blue. Mike Parson.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Steve Leach RW, tom cartilage in rib cage, indefinite. Andrew McKim, RW, fractured Jaw. indefinite Gord Murphy, D, sprained left ankle. Indefinite. Cam Neely. RW, left knee surgery, indefinite. Glen Wesley, D. strained grab muscle, indefinite. Jim Wtemer, D, broken left foot, indefinite. &#9632;

Collection of native sons grows as C.J. moves over from Calgary

<div class="byline">By Viv Bernstein</div>With a 14-35-4 record at the all-star break, it&rsquo;s no secret the Hartford Whalers are in need of help.But aside from trading John Cullen, re-acquiring Yvon Corriveau and claiming Jamie Leach off waivers from the Pittsburgh Penguins, Hartford general manager Brian Burke has done little to alter the roster since the start of training camp.As the March 20 trade deadline approaches, that could change. Burke expects to be more active in the market.&ldquo;I intend to do several things before the deadline,&rdquo; he said.The Whalers, in the bottom five in the league in scoring and goals allowed, could use help in all quarters.Still, defense is the most pressing need. Zarley Zalapski is the only defenseman coach Paul Holmgren has felt confident in starting every game this season.Burke attended the Feb. 3 game between the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings. Although he said he was not close to a deal, the Blackhawks have shown some interest in rugged winger Jim McKenzie.There are few untouchables on the Whalers&rsquo; roster. Aside from some of the young players such as forwards Geoff Sanderson and Patrick Poulin, along with Zalapski, almost anybody could be moved before the trading deadline.Zalapski had been the subject of trade rumors following a poor start, but had 10 goals and 37 points in the past 32 games and moved into the league&rsquo;s top 10 scorers among defensemen.&ldquo;I do not want to move Zarley,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s trying to take on more leadership on the team.&rdquo;On the other hand, Zalapski might be even more marketable now that he has agreed to terms on a new contract. The agreement was reached during the all-star weekend in Montreal. Zalapski was the Whalers&rsquo; lone all-star representative. (Sanderson competed in the skills competition.)Zalapski will sign a two-year contract (one year plus an option year) for $800,000 plus a signing bonus and incentive bonuses. The deal is retroactive to the start of the season and makes Zalapski the second-highest paid player on the team behind Pat Verbeek ($3.3 million over three years).Zalapski had been playing out his option at $450,000 this season.LEACH REPORTS: Three days after he was assigned to Springfield of the American League, right wingerJamie Leach decided to report.Leach, 23, needed to play one more NHL game to collect a full NHL salary for the rest of the season. Therefore, he was particularly ticked off about the demotion Jan. 29 and asked for the weekend off to consider his options before reporting.Leach, who cleared waivers before he was assigned, had two goals and five points in 19 games after he was claimed off waivers from Pittsburgh Nov. 21.NOTEBOOK: Terry Yake avoided arbitration by agreeing to a two-year contract.<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 4: Dan Keczmer, D, assigned to Springfield (AHL). Feb. 7: Keczmer recalled from Springfield. Zartey Zalapski, D. agreed to new contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Murray Craven, Andrew Cassels, Mark Janssens, Robert Petrovlcky, Paul Gillis.LW-Patrick Poulin. Geoff Sanderson, Nick Kypreos. Jim McKenzie, Randy Cunneyworth.RW-Yvon Corriveau, Pat Verbeek, Joe Day. Terry Yake.LO-Zariey Zalapski, Steve Konroyd. Randy Ladouceur. Dan Keczmer.RD-AI Pedersen. Doug Houda, Eric Welnrich.G-Sean Burke, Frank Pietrangelo.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jim Agnew, D, left knee surgery, out tor season. Adam Burt, D, broken toe, March 1. Michael Nylander. RW, broken jaw, March 1. &#9632;

Burke planning changes

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div>The break in the schedule for the All-Star Game couldn&rsquo;t have been timed better for the Montreal Canadiens, who were watching some of their major players succumb to injuries.Shortly after defenseman Mathieu Schneider sustained a severe ankle injury, captain Guy Carbonneau and newly acquired forward Gary Leeman joined him on the sidelines.For Carbonneau, it&rsquo;s a case of his chronic knee injury acting up, as it has periodically this season.Leeman, who was playing only his third game for Montreal after being acquired from Calgary in a trade for Brian Skrudland Jan. 28. sustained a contusion to his tailbone in a 7-2 win over Los Angeles Feb 3.Carbonneau has tendinitis in his knee, something that first flared up midway through last season and continues to dog him. He underwent minor surgery last summer, missed portions of training camp and nine of the Canadiens&rsquo; first 56 games.He has played with varying degrees of pain throughout the season and has scored only four goals and 16 points in his last 36 games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s getting worse,&rdquo; Carbonneau said. &ldquo;Before I could cope with it. Now I can&rsquo;t. With the all-star break that gives me almost a week (to rest). After that, we&rsquo;ll see.&rdquo;Canadiens&rsquo; doctor Eric Lenczner said the condition is something Carbonneau will have to get used to.&ldquo;He has been up and down with this thing,&rdquo; Lenczner said. &ldquo;The pain is in his tendon and it&rsquo;s chronic. It comes and goes and that wears him down. Maybe he&rsquo;ll feel better with the five or six days off and maybe he won&rsquo;t. It&rsquo;s not something that can be easily remedied. You can&rsquo;t expect it to go away in a few days.&rdquo;BAD NEWS: Although Mathieu Schneider is taking daily treatments on his injured ankle, he could be sidelined longer than expected.There is severe ligament damage to his right ankle and there&rsquo;s no way of ascertaining the extent of the injury until the swelling subsides.But Schneider, who originally suspected he would return to action about March 10, now said he could be sidelined until April 7.NOTEBOOK: Goalie Andre Racicot thinks it&rsquo;s time he shed the nickname &rsquo;Red Light&rsquo; that was given to him earlier in his career when he was struggling. Racicot entered the all-star break with a 12-3-0 record and a 3.59 goals-against average. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t read the papers much,&rdquo; Racicot claimed, &ldquo;but what&rsquo;s this &rsquo;Red Light&rsquo; I keep hearing? It&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;m going to get rid of. I&rsquo;ve got to tell you, it bothers me.&rdquo;<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Kirk Muller, Stephan Lebeau, Denis Savard. Paul DiPietro.LW-John LeClair, Vincent Damphousse, Gilbert Dionne, Mario Roberge.RW-Brian Bellows, Mike Keane. Ed Ronan. Todd Ewen.LD-Eric Desjardins. Kevin Haller, Donald Dufresne.RD-Jean-Jacques Daigneault, Lyle Odelein, Patrice Brisebols, Sean Hill.G-Patnck Roy, Andre Racicot.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Guy Carbonneau, C. tendinitis in left knee, indefinite. Gary Leeman, RW, bruised back, indefinite Mathieu Schneider, D, sprained right ankle, indefinite. &#9632;

Break helps wounded soldiers

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>The Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; search for a bona fide No. I goaltender has finally ended.General manager Gerry Meehan pulled the trigger on a blockbuster deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs Feb. 2, acquiring Grant Fuhr for left winger Dave Andreychuk, goalie Daren Puppa and a first-round choice in the 1993 entry draft. Buffalo also receives Toronto&rsquo;s sixthround pick in the 1994 entry draft or a fifthround pick in the 1995 draft.&ldquo;To put it as plainly as possible, we&rsquo;ve improved our team,&rdquo; Meehan said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think saying that diminishes the accomplishments of the players we gave up and the goaltenders that are still here, but we&rsquo;ve acquired a player who has been a winner in the past. He has been in pressure situations and has succeeded. Grant Fuhr is a tremendous competitor and I think our team will benefit from that.&rdquo;The reasons behind the move were obvious. The Sabres scored 230 goals in 53 games and were tied with the Montreal Canadiens with the fewest goals allowed in the Adams Division (187). But they were still fourth in the division, II points behind first-place Montreal.The calibre of goaltenders in the division was a big reason for the trade. Each playoff-bound team in the Adams has a competent No. 1 goalie-Montreal has Patrick Roy, the Boston Bruins have Andy Moog and the Quebec Nord-iques have Ron Hextail.Buffalo was using a trio of journeyman including Puppa, Dominik Hasek and Tom Draper.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t say before the deal that our goaltending was the equal of the rest of the division,&rdquo; Meehan said. &ldquo;I can say that now.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Alexander Mogilny scored his 50th goal of the season with just 28 seconds remaining in regulation in a 3-2 win over Hartford Feb. 3. Mogilny became only the third Sabre to score 50 goals in a season. Danny Gare with 56 (&rsquo;79-80) and Richard Martin with 52 twice (&rsquo;73-74 and &rsquo;74-75) are the others. Mogilny scored his 50th goal in the Sabres&rsquo; 53rd game, so he didn&rsquo;t reach the coveted 50 goals-in-50-games plateau. But Mogilny missed seven of those games because of injury. Therefore, he actually scored 50 goals in 46 games.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 2: Davs Andreychuk. LW, Daren Puppa, G, and a first-round draft pick in 1993 traded to Toronto for Grant Fuhr, G, and a conditional draft pick. Feb. 4: Greg Brown. D. recalled from Rochester (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Pat LaFontame, Dale Hawerchuk, Bob Sweeney, Bob Corkum, Dave Hannan.LW-Brad May, Randy Wood. Yuri Khymlev, Colin Patterson.RW-Alexander Mogilny. Donald Audette, Wayne Presley, Rob Ray.LD-Doug Bodger, Mike Ramsey. Richard Smeh-8k.RD-Ken Sutton, Gord Donnelly. Grant Ledyard, Philippe Boucher, Greg Brown.G-Grant Fuhr, Dominik Hasek, Tom Draper.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Randy Moller, D. strained back, day-to-day. Peter Svoboda. D. reconstructive right knee surgery, out for season. &#9632;

Meehan solves goalie void by grabbing veteran Fuhr

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; general manager-coach Pierre Page evaluates his players on intensity, consistency, commitment and teamwork.So it should come as no surprise that left winger Gino Cavallini is one of Page&rsquo;s favorite players.It&rsquo;s obvious the 30-year-old Toronto native lacks the polished skills of a Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin or Owen Nolan. But his usefulness is nonetheless immeasurable.Page said Cavallini is one of the hardest workers he has ever seen. And the Quebec coach should know. He worked with Cavallini when the rugged winger was playing in the Calgary Flames&rsquo; organization from 1984 to&rsquo;86.&ldquo;I remember Gino and Joel Otto well,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;Both spent hours trying to improve. You have to have seen them to understand why they&rsquo;ve had such long careers in the pros.&rdquo;Cavallini has played 578 games with Calgary, the St. Louis Blues and Quebec. His scoring totals aren&rsquo;t great-113 goals, 271 points-but his work ethic and leadership skills are invaluable to the Nordiques.&ldquo;I was what you would call a long shot,&rdquo; Cavallini said. &ldquo;1 wasn&rsquo;t drafted so I had to do all that much more to get a shot at the big leagues. Pierre was my coach in Moncton (American League) and he worked with me for hours at a time. I had to improve everything, my skating, my shot, my stickhandling.&ldquo;But I had the desire and I focused on one thing only, to make it in the NHL. And I&rsquo;m still playing today because of my reputation as a hard worker.&rdquo;MIRROR IMAGE: The Quebec media is comparing the Nordiques to the National Football League&rsquo;s Dallas Cowboys, who recently won the Super Bowl.The reason?The Cowboys were one of the worst teams in the NFL when general manager Jerry Jones and coach Jimmy Johnson took over three years ago. They quickly built a winner with key trades and shrewd draft picks.The big deal that sent Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for five players and seven draft picks is similar to the one the Nordiques made with the Philadelphia Flyers for Eric Lindros.NOTEBOOK: Pierre Page was so mad after a 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins Feb. 3 he left the building after the game. Assistant GM Gilles Leger stayed to talk with the media. &ldquo;I started walking and the more I did, the closer I got to my car,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;So I jumped in and went home. It was better that way. I had to be away from people. I could have said things I would have regretted.&rdquo;<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 1: Bill Lindsay. LW, assigned to Halifax (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Joe Sakic. Mats Sundin, Mike Ricci, Claude Lapointe.LW-Mike Hough, Martin Rucinsky, Scott Pearson. Gino CavaHini, Tony Twist.RW-Andrei Kovalenko, Owen Noian. Scott Young, Tim Hunter.LD-Steven Finn, Curtis Leschyshyn, Mikhail Tatarinov, Keny Huffman.RD-Steve Duchesne, Adam Foote, Alexei Gusarov.G-Ron Hextali, Stephane Fleet.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jacques Cloutier G. sprained right ankle, indefinite. Valeri Kamensky. LW. fractured right ankle, day-to-day. Craig Woianin D. strained groin, indefinite. &#9632;

Cavallini’s relentless work ethic lands him in Page’s good books

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>The man who used to be The Lion, the Ottawa Senators&rsquo; flaming-maned mascot, is baring his teeth in court.Dean Schoenewald, who parted company with the Senators Jan. 15, is suing the club for more than $350,000 for wrongful dismissal and breach of contract. The lawsuit was filed in Ottawa court Feb. 4.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very disappointed we&rsquo;re at this point,&rdquo; said Schoenewald who last season worked as the San Jose Sharks&rsquo; mascot.So far, Senators&rsquo; management refuses to discuss the lawsuit except to confirm they have been served with a statement of claim.But the $350,000-plus suit must have them at least a bit concerned.The amount includes $125,000 in lost wages on the deal Schoenewald claims was to run through September. 1994.There is also a claim for $100,000 in damage to his reputation, $25,000 for mental distress and-here&rsquo;s the kicker-$5,000 for the loss of an opportunity to own a Stanley Cup ring.It&rsquo;s assumed Schoenewald&rsquo;s lawyer won&rsquo;t be submitting the NHL standings as Exhibit A to support that claim.There&rsquo;s also a claim for an unspecified amount for loss of potential revenue from the sales of Lion merchandise.&ldquo;They say I was unsuitable? That&rsquo;s a joke,&rdquo; Schoenewald said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a clause in my contract that says we can go to an arbitrator for disagreements, but they won&rsquo;t even do that.&rdquo;ON THE MOVE: The Senators moved out of the NHL basement with a 2-1-1 stretch heading into the all-star break.The five points gave them 16 on the season, moving them two ahead of the San Jose Sharks and two behind in the race for the top pick in this summer&rsquo;s draft-Quebec League sensation Alexandre Daigle if the Senators get their way.&ldquo;I dream at night about Daigle,&rdquo; said Senators&rsquo; director of player personnel John Ferguson. &ldquo;I know San Jose is going to get something together along the line to stop me from worrying.&rdquo;There was no real secret to the Senators&rsquo; improved play-the club started to score some goals.The Senators scored 15 goals in a four-game stretch, just about double their season average of two goals a game.&ldquo;Usually when you&rsquo;re not playing well, it&rsquo;s because you&rsquo;re not scoring,&rdquo; said coach Rick Bowness. &ldquo;When you start scoring it gets you excited again.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Senators&rsquo; captain Laurie Boschman became the first Ottawa player to score on a penalty shot. Boschman, who had just two goals in 41 games, beat Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; rookie goaltender Mike O&rsquo;Neill at 5:31 of the third period in a 4-4 tie with Winnipeg Feb. 1.John Ferguson headed off to Europe to scout some older Russian players who might be able to help the club in the future. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re talking about the 22-to-26-year-old player who can play on this team next season,&rdquo; Ferguson said.<h2>OTTAWA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Jamia Baker. Mark Lamb. Mark Freer, Laurie Boschman. Neil Brady.LW-Sylvain Turgeon, Mike Peluso, Darcy Loewen. Doug Smail.RW-Bob Kudelski. Andrew McBain, Tomas Jelinek.LD-Ken Hammond. Brad Marsh, Norm Machrer, Darren Rumble.RD-8rad Shaw. Mark Osiecki, Chris Luongo, Gord Dineen.G-Peter Sidorkiewicz, Daniel Ber-thiaume, Steve Weeks.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Archibald, C, lower back Injury, indefinite. Jody Hutt, RW, sprained left ankle, day-to-day Jeff Lazaro LW, sprained right ankle, day-to-day. Kent Paynter, D. charteyhorse. day-to-day. &#9632;

Mascot suing team

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01858/6127999-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="989" height="1508"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-02595/6127992-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="552" height="306"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-03424/6127985-1-eng-US/f0022-032.jpg" title="f0022-03" width="990" height="534"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-04287/6127978-1-eng-US/f0022-042.jpg" title="f0022-04" width="895" height="1392"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexander Mogilny was the first player to hit 50 goals this season with the winner Feb. against Hartford.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-05228/6127971-1-eng-US/f0022-052.jpg" title="f0022-05" width="912" height="813"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-06183/6127964-1-eng-US/f0022-062.jpg" title="f0022-06" width="1092" height="2340"></div><h2>KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS</h2>Statistics provided by National Hockey League; NO.-uniform number; GP-games played; G-goals; A-assists; P-points; +/--plus-minus; PM-penalties in minutes; PP-power-play goals; SH-short-hand goals; GW-game-winning goals; GT-game-tying goals; S-shots on goal; PCT-shooting percentage. Players indicated by an asterisk (*) are eligible for the Calder Trophy.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01763/6127957-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="3201" height="3900"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01832/6127950-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="3041" height="3592"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01738/6127943-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="3069" height="1268"></div><h2>NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS</h2>KEY TO ABBREVIATIONSStatistics provided by National Hockey League; GP-games played; MIN-minutes played; GAA-goals-against average; W-wins; L-losses; T-ties; ENG-empty-net goals; SO-shutouts; GA-goals against; SA-shots against; SV%-save percentage Players indicated by an asterisk (*) are eligible for the Calder Trophy.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-02468/6127936-1-eng-US/f0025-022.jpg" title="f0025-02" width="996" height="1191"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-03297/6127929-1-eng-US/f0025-032.jpg" title="f0025-03" width="2029" height="1496"></div> &#9632;

f0022-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01767/6128176-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>For Don Biggs, 1991-92 was a season of complete disarray.The 27-year-old forward put immense pressure on himself after jumping from Rochester to Binghamton as a free agent in July, 1991. And midway through the season, both his father and grandmother died.&ldquo;Last year my wife and I just wanted the year to end,&rdquo; Biggs said. &ldquo;This year we&rsquo;re looking forward to a new addition to our family and we have a lot to look forward to.&rdquo;Such as setting the AHL&rsquo;s single-season scoring record. Biggs, an eight-year veteran, was on pace to break the mark of 134 set by Sherbrooke&rsquo;s Stephan Lebeau in 1988-89.Biggs led the league in scoring with 34 goals and 85 points in 46 games. He was tied for the league lead in goals and was second in assists. Biggs was on pace to score 59 goals and 148 points this season.&ldquo;It has all just fallen into place and when you&rsquo;re on a team that has scored 241 goals in 46 games, you&rsquo;re going to get your share of points,&rdquo; said Biggs, whose career high is 103 points in 1988-89 with Hershey.Being at ease on the ice also helps.&ldquo;Last year, after leaving Rochester, I felt a lot of added pressure with everything being ballyhooed and talked about,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I felt if I didn&rsquo;t score, I wasn&rsquo;t playing well. I put a lot of pressure on myself.&ldquo;For the first 10 games this year, Brian McReynolds, Steven King and Dave Thom-linson carried us and I realized even if I didn&rsquo;t score a lot, we were going to win games.&rdquo;The Rangers, who had a 33-5-6 record, were on pace to set American League records for victories and points.&ldquo;We realistically think we can win 60 games,&rdquo; Biggs said. &ldquo;Myself, 1 have a realistic chance of breaking the scoring record.&ldquo;But if that happens, it happens. I hope guys don&rsquo;t get caught up in helping me win a scoringchampionship and make that lead to us losing some games we shouldn&rsquo;t lose.&rdquo;LEAFS WILL CROSS: While a strike by outside workers in the city of St. John&rsquo;s, Nfld., goes on, the threat of neutral-site games has been eliminated and the Maple Leafs will play home games in Municipal Stadium.There was some initial confusion regarding contract language and picket lines. Maple Leafs&rsquo; players weren&rsquo;t sure if they could cross a picket line, which was set up outside the building for Feb. 5 and 6 games.&ldquo;According to their contracts, they are obligated to play,&rdquo; said Maple Leafs&rsquo; director of operations Glenn Stanford. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been assured in conversations with the unions that there will be no problems at our games.&rdquo;&ldquo;The picket lines are unrelated to the players&rsquo; agreement. They cannot stop you from playing the game,&rdquo; said Bill Watters, assistant general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.The strike by 300 workers (snowplow operators, waterworks employees and refuse removal staff) began Jan. 14. Four games were moved to neutral sites in January.WINGS CLIPPED: The Paul Coffey-Jimmy Carson trade had a major impact on Adirondack, as center Gary Shuchuk was included in the package Detroit sent to the Los Angeles Kings.Shuchuk was second in AHL scoring with 24 goals and 77 points in 47 games. He figured in 41 per cent of the Wings&rsquo; scoring.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a real character guy and I can&rsquo;t say it doesn&rsquo;t hurt us, but I think the opportunity for him overrides anything with our team,&rdquo; said Adirondack coach Newell Brown. &#9632;

Stability Biggs deal for Don

Hockey&rsquo;s ultimate expansion team had less trouble winning than it did playing a home game.The St. Petersburg Renegades joined the Florida-based Sunshine League halfway through the season and recorded three wins and an overtime loss in its four-game road trip.But the team&rsquo;s home opener against the Lakeland Ice Warriors scheduled for Feb. 7 had to be postponed a day because of ice problems al Bayfront Center.The Renegades play 32 games this season, while the rest of the league&rsquo;s four teams play 48. In order to help the Renegades catch up to the rest of the teams, they get three points for a win. St. Petersburg trailed the fourth-place Jacksonville Bullets by 12 points, but had 22 games in hand. All five teams make the playoffs, but the format has not been determined.The league&rsquo;s best team was the West Palm Beach Blaze, which was 23-4-1, having outscored opponents 156 to 91. The Renegades were the only other team above.500.Scott Garrow of the Blaze was leading the league in all offensive departments with 27 goals and 54 points in 28 games. &#9632;

Renegades have fun in sun

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>Wheeling&rsquo;s Darren Schwartz has been playing second fiddle to teammate Devin Edgerton all season. But the Thunderbirds&rsquo; left winger was second to none at the first ever East Coast League All-Star Game Feb. 2 at the Wheeling Civic Center.Schwartz scored two goals and assisted on two others as the East beat the West 7-3 before a crowd of 4,854. The 24-year-old from Run-nymede, Sask., was selected the game&rsquo;s most valuable player.Edgerton, who led the T-Birds with 38 goals and 96 points in 44 games, had four assists. Wheeling&rsquo;s Francis Ouellette was the winning goalie.&ldquo;It was like a Hollywood script the way everything happened,&rdquo; Schwartz said. &ldquo;We had to put on a good show for our fans. They cheered us on right from the beginning and I&rsquo;m glad we didn&rsquo;t disappoint them.&rdquo;Edgerton centered a line with Schwartz and Greensboro&rsquo;s Phil Berger. Berger&rsquo;s second-period goal snapped a 2-2 tie and triggered a six-goal barrage.&ldquo;It was great playing with Edge,&rdquo; Schwartz said. &ldquo;We played together last year and this year. I can&rsquo;t say enough about him.&rdquo;Or Berger, last year&rsquo;s league MVP.&ldquo;We got a lot of help from Phil,&rdquo; Schwartz added. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s such a great player, too.&rdquo;The game marked a first for East coach John Brophy of Hampton Roads.&ldquo;I was supposed to coach the All-Star Game in the World Hockey Association but the league folded,&rdquo; Brophy said. &ldquo;This was very special for me.Brophy said his team paid no special attention to 71-goai scorer Trevor Jobe of Nashville. The ECHL&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer was on pace to shatter Bill MacDougall&rsquo;s singleseason records for goals (80) and points (148). Jobe&rsquo;s unassisted goal completed the scoring with 2:19 left.Referee Brett Parson called only one penalty in the game. The East outshot the West 47-44.&ldquo;We had our chances,&rdquo; said Louisville coach Warren Young, who piloted the West team. &ldquo;The puck just didn&rsquo;t go in for us.&rdquo;The game was televised five by WTOV in nearby Steubenville, Ohio, and was the culmination of four year&rsquo;s work by commissioner Pat Kelly.FOOD FEST: The league held a gala banquet to kick off the two-day all-star festivities.Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; general manager Craig Patrick was the keynote speaker at the meal. He drew a standing ovation when he announced star center Mario Lemieux has been given the go-ahead to resume light skating.The master of ceremonies for the evening was Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; broadcaster Mike Emrick. Among the dignitaries joining commissioner Pat Kelly at the head table were NHL Hall of Famers Jacques Lemaire and Marcel Dionne and Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; scout Dick DuffHEADING SOUTH: The league has awarded the 1994 All-Star Game to Hampton Roads (Norfolk, Va.)&hellip; Roanoke Valley owner Larry Revo is considering moving the Rampage to Syracuse, N.Y., next season. The board of governors will likely block the move because of the travel burden.Huntington, West Va., which has applied for membership next season, is making preparations for a team. The city approved the installation of ice at the Huntington Civic Center. &#9632;

Edge goes to Schwartz at first ever All-Star Game

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>The International League has suspended Cincinnati right winger Kevin Kerr for the rest of the regular season without pay for a Jan. 26 incident during a Cyclones&rsquo; game at San Diego.Kerr injured Gulls&rsquo; winger Dan Vincelette with a two-handed swing of his stick to the San Diego player&rsquo;s upper back. According to some accounts, Vincelette had no feeling in his legs and was taken to hospital.The incident was sparked when Kerr was elbowed in the face by San Diego&rsquo;s Tony McK-egney, but thought it was Vincelette, who took the retaliation while he stood near the center boards on the fringe of a scrum.&ldquo;With this kind of action by Kerr, I don&rsquo;t think 1 was given much alternative but to protect the larger number of people from the lesser one,&rdquo; said league commissioner Tom Berry when he announced the suspension. Berry said he is waiting for a possible appeal from Kerr.Vincelette was expected to return to action Feb. 8. Kerr, who was suspended last season in the East Coast League for a stick-swinging incident, has reportedly sent letters to Vincelette and the Gulls expressing his remorse. The Cyclones had 37 games remaining at the time of the suspension.HIGH ROLLERS: The IHL rolled into another major market when its board of governors unanimously approved Las Vegas for an expansion team next season.Hank Stickney, who owns baseball&rsquo;s TripleA Las Vegas Stars, will be majority owner of an IHL team that will play at Thomas & Mack Center, home of the University of Las Vegas basketball team.Stickney&rsquo;s group will pay a $2-million expansion fee that will be divided among the IHL&rsquo;s 12 existing teams. The decision came Feb. 2.League sources said Thomas & Mack-which has no ice facility-will require about $2 million worth of renovations. Stickney says he expects to have about 12,000 seats for hockey.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re talking to a number of NHL teams about an affiliation,&rdquo; Stickney said. &ldquo;We would like to be affiliated, but we also feel if we can&rsquo;t get one we could be very strong as an independent team, like San Diego and Milwaukee.&rdquo;This latest round of expansion brings the IHL to 13 teams. The league is continuing to look at major-league markets.Tom Berry was cautious during meetings in Phoenix that ran concurrent with the 19th IHL All-Star Game, but sources made it clear there could be more expansion.There was a representative for a group from Sacramento on hand, and expansion to places such as Tucson, Dallas, Denver and Orlando is possible, according to one IHL team owner.&ldquo;I can fill a legal pad with the number of inquiries I&rsquo;ve had for teams in the last six months,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;But no one else has made an application. We&rsquo;re not actively pursuing large markets that already have a team.&rdquo;I-OPENERS: Prime Network put on an impressive show Feb. 3 with its cablecast of the All-Star Game from Phoenix.The Eastern Conference, which won the game 7-5, rallied for five third-period goals and tied an all-star record for the fastest two goals by one team (16 seconds) and set the records for fastest three (1:36) and four goals (2:14). Indianapolis rookie winger Sergei Krivokrasov was named player of the game. &#9632;

Kerr gets stiff sentence for slash on Vincelette

<div class="byline">By Brendan Savage</div>The Brantford Smoke must have a thing for ex-NHL goaltenders.For the second time this season, the Colonial League team signed a former NHL netminder when it acquired Rollie Melanson.Melanson, who played nine games with the Montreal Canadiens last season, signed with Brantford in January after sitting out the first half of the season. In four games, he posted a 2-1-1 record, a 4.90 goals-against average and an.870 save percentage.Melanson, 32, was a member of three Stanley Cup winning teams with the New York Islanders in the early 1980s and has 291 NHL games to his credit over 11 seasons. When the Canadiens didn&rsquo;t offer him a contract this season, he opted for the CHL.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still trying to figure out why,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Don (Robertson, Brantford&rsquo;s general manager) was stuck for a goalie and called me up. I hadn&rsquo;t been on the ice for a year.&rdquo;Melanson made 40 saves in a 5-4 overtime victory against the Flint Bulldogs Jan. 29.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the first game I&rsquo;ve felt half decent,&rdquo; Melanson said. &ldquo;This was a stepping stone.&rdquo;Melanson doesn&rsquo;t plan on staying in the CHL long. He&rsquo;ll finish the season with the Smoke, but is looking for NHL employment next season.The Smoke had Mark LaForest, who played 98 NHL games in five seasons, earlier in the season before he was promoted by the Ottawa Senators to the American League.WOODLEY SUSPENDED: The Flint Bulldogs lost their top center, Dan Woodley, for 10 games when he was suspended by commissioner Bob Myers Feb. 1.Woodley drew the ban after his stick made contact with referee Bob Morley during an 8-3 loss at Brantford Jan. 28.Woodley said he was trying to get Morley&rsquo;s attention after no penalty was called when he was hooked around the neck.The Bulldogs felt the suspension was too severe since Thunder Bay&rsquo;s Vern Ray got seven games and Flint&rsquo;s Stephan Brochu got four after similiar incidents with referees.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s ridiculous,&rdquo; said Woodley, who had 17 goals, 48 points and 88 penalty minutes in 31 games. &ldquo;He set a precedent and then he goes up to the maximum without even talking to me.&rdquo;To fill in for Woodley, Vancouver&rsquo;s first-round draft pick in 1986, Hint signed former Bulldog Tom Sasso, last year&rsquo;s CHL scoring leader who was retired.FOUR MORE: At the CHL&rsquo;s semi-annual meetings, the board of governors voted to expand the schedule from 60 games to 64 next season&hellip; Thunder Bay&rsquo;s Mark Michaud recorded the fourth shutout of the CHL season when he made 26 saves to blank Detroit 3-0 Jan. 26. It was the first shutout against a team other than last-place Chatham&hellip; Chatham was 0-8-2 in 10 games after coach-GM Ron Caron was fired Jan 11. &#9632;

Melanson smokin’ in Brantford

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>The University of New Hampshire&rsquo;s Snively Arena will soon have a new look but it&rsquo;s unclear what kind of look it&rsquo;s going to have.According to Wildcats&rsquo; coach Dick Umile, a $20-million bond issue has been approved by the school to either build a new hockey arena and transform Snively into a recreation center, or build a new recreation center and give Snively a $5-7 million renovation.In either scenario, Snively&rsquo;s seating capacity will escalate to 6,000. The rink currently holds 3,900 fans including standing room. The construction plans include a new lounge and dressing room facilities in addition to concession stands.The price tag for a new arena would be approximately $8 million.Construction of the new complex-or renovation if that plan is chosen-is expected to begin this fall and should take 18 months.Umile said school officials are debating to try to determine which plan will give them more for their money.But the Wildcats&rsquo; coach maintains building a new arena is the better alternative. A new arena could also be used for basketball and other events such as concerts.Umile is excited about the proposals and credited UNH three-year president Dr. Dale Nitzschke with playing a huge role in the bond issue and other positive developments on campus.&ldquo;He has done an outstanding job,&rdquo; Umile said.The coach expects to be able to fill the 6,000 seats as the demand for tickets has escalated in recent years.DEFT TOUCH: Providence Friars&rsquo; junior left winger Brian Ridolfi has found his scoring touch after scoring only 16 goals in 57 games as a freshman and sophomore.The Pawtucket, R.I., native led the Friars in goals (21), points (37), power-play goals (seven) and game winners (four) in 26 games overall.&ldquo;He works very hard. He&rsquo;s one of those guys you can&rsquo;t get off the ice,&rdquo; said coach Mike McShane. &ldquo;He gets his shot off quickly and is not afraid to shoot.&rdquo;McShane said Ridolfi has benefitted from playing on a line with playmakers Bob Cowan (center) and Craig Darby (right wing).PACEMAKER: Maine Black Bear junior right winger Cal Ingraham had his second four-goal game of the season in an 8-3 win over New Hampshire Jan. 3.It was his ninth multiple-goal game of the year, giving him 33 goals and 56 points in 28 games overall.Ingraham was within seven goals of setting the school record for goals in a season. Right winger Jean-Yves Roy scored 39 times in 1989-90. &#9632;

New Hampshire plans to give Snively face-lift

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggie</div>Former Olympian Ted Drury has received most of the attention at Harvard, but senior right winger Matt Mallgrave has emerged as the Crimson&rsquo;s most potent offensive weapon.Mallgrave had 17 goals in 16 games to help the Crimson to a 12-0-1 record in league play and 14-1-1 record overall.By averaging more than a goal-per-game in 16 contests, Mallgrave was in elite company. Only Maine&rsquo;s Cal Ingraham (33 goals in 28 games) and St. Cloud&rsquo;s Fred Knipscheer (25 goals in 24 games) scored at the same pace.&ldquo;All of his goals seem to be big goals,&rdquo; said Harvard coach Ronn Tomassoni. &ldquo;And he hasn&rsquo;t just been scoring goals, he has been scoring important goals.&rdquo;Mallgrave&rsquo;s scoring exploits have developed with age. He had three goals in 26 games as a freshman, five goals in 27 games as a sophomore and 12 in 27 games as a junior.&ldquo;Last year, he was the leading goal-scorer on the team going into January, but he ended up getting really sick during our exam break,&rdquo; Tomassoni said. &ldquo;He ended up losing a lot of weight and spent a few days in the infirmary and it really affected him. When we came out of exams, he was playing catch-up for the next month and he didn&rsquo;t have a lot of strength or endurance.&ldquo;He also sustained a bruise on his foot, so he was struggling with his skating and those things really affected him in the second half of the year.&rdquo;Mallgrave, 22, was selected 132nd overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1988 entry draft. He spent six weeks at a hockey camp in Brainerd. Minn., during the summer perfecting his skills. The extra work has obviously paid off.His emergence as a consistent scorer has taken a lot of pressure off the smooth-skating Drury, but the real reason for Harvard&rsquo;s success has been depth.Eleven players scored game-winning goals in the first 14 victories, including freshman Kirk Nielsen and senior defenseman Lou Body, who combined for just four goals in 16 games.POWER HOUSE: The Vermont Catamounts put some power back into their power play in a sweep of Yale and Princeton Jan. 2930.The Cats scored on six of 14 power-play opportunities, with sophomore Dom Ducharme getting four of the man-advantage goals. He scored three goals on the power play in the 7-1 win over the Tigers.GREAT TIMING: Rookie goaltender Eddy Skazyk showed up at Cornell just at the right time.Skazyk, a native of Lockport, Man., enrolled at Cornell in the second semester and earned his first career start against Colgate Jan. 30.He replaced sophomore Andy Bandurski, who injured his ankle during practise prior to the game.Skazyk made 22 saves in his ECAC debut, but lost 6-3 to the Red Raiders. He became the 13th freshman to play in Cornell&rsquo;s lineup this season.SCORING MACHINE: St. Lawrence Saints&rsquo; freshman left winger Burke Murphy is living up to the lofty pre-season expectations placed on him.After scoring his 12th goal of the season in a 4-1 loss to Clarkson Jan. 30, Murphy moved into a tie for the team&rsquo;s goal-scoring lead with senior Greg Carvel.Murphy scored 62 goals in 58 games last season with the Nepean Raiders of the Central Ontario Junior League. &#9632;

Mallgrave dangerous weapon

The Acadia Axemen are the top-ranked team in Canadian university hockey so it comes as no surprise one of the team&rsquo;s brightest stars, center George Dupont, is a contender for this year&rsquo;s Joseph A. Sullivan Award. The trophy is awarded annually to the top player in the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union. Here are the top candidates from each league.Wayde Bucsis RW, Saskatchewan. CWUAA. The nation&rsquo;s top goalscorer (28 in 22 games) is a big reason for the Huskies&rsquo; suc-ond in the league with 11 power-play goals.George Dupont, C, Acadia. AUAA. A gifted playmaker, the fifth-year arts student was running away with the scoring race with 13 goals and 54 points in 23 games. Coach Tom Coolen relies heavily on his leadership.John Spoltore C, Laurier, OUAA. The first-year Hawk has taken the league by storm, scoring 17 goals and 57 points in 17 games. He is a former standout with the North Bay Cen-Also: Dennis Sproxton, G, Acadia; Brad McGinnis. RW, Sask.; Mark McCreary. F, Laurier. &#9632;

Setting their sights on Sully

<div class="byline">By Matt Carlson</div>Michigan&rsquo;s Mark Ouimet is arguably the fastest player in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.And the Wolverines&rsquo; senior center has put that speed to good use, helping Michigan&rsquo;s top scoring unit become one of the CCHA&rsquo;s most dangerous lines.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s anyone faster in the CCHA or maybe all of college hockey,&rdquo; said coach Red Berenson. &ldquo;He has always been a hard-working player, but this year at times he has put it in overdrive.&rdquo;Ouimet plays on a line with seniors David Roberts and Dan Stiver. The Poplar Hill, Ont., native had eight goals and 32 points in 21 games, second in the league behind Michigan State&rsquo;s Bryan Smoiinski. Roberts and Stiver had 30 and 21 points, respectively.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m using my speed more this year and I&rsquo;m more of a catalyst on offense,&rdquo; Ouimet said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m taking the puck to the net or carrying it into the offensive zone to create chances. And I&rsquo;m not just saying this as a plug, I wouldn&rsquo;t be anywhere without David Roberts and Dan Stiver.&ldquo;When I was a freshman, I wouldn&rsquo;t have even thought of making a move on a defenseman,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t have the confidence. But now it&rsquo;s to a point where I can beat guys one-on-one.The 21-year-old has good bloodlines. His father, Ted, was a professional goalie and a back-up for the St. Louis Blues when Berenson played with the NHL club. And his older brother, Terry, 22, is a senior right winger at Miami-Ohio.Ouimet was selected 94th overall by the Washington Capitals in the 1990 entry draft.RECORD ROUT: For the second time this season, a CCHA crowd set an NCAA regularseason game attendance record.A crowd of 18,275 showed up at Joe Louis Arena Jan. 30 to watch Michigan beat Michigan State 11-1.The former record was set Nov. 28, when a crowd of 18,147 watched the Wolverines defeat Notre Dame 5-1 in the first game at the Palace of Aubum Hills in suburban Detroit.HELPING OUT: Former Chicago Blackhawk goaltender Darren Pang, who helps net-minders at Illinois-Chicago on a volunteer basis, isn&rsquo;t the only ex-NHLer who donates his time to a CCHA team.Former NHL defenseman Dave Shand works as a volunteer assistant on a part-time basis with the Wolverines.Shand was a full-time assistant the past two years, but stepped down after he was accepted in Michigan&rsquo;s law school.NEW LAKER PORT: Discussions are underway to expand and revamp the Norris Center, the on-campus arena of the Lake Superior State Lakers.According to Lake Superior athletic director Jim Fallis, several plans are being examined to increase the capacity of the facility which current seats 3,733.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking at anywhere from 4,200 to 4,900, all in chair seating,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re probably targeting in at about 4,500.&rdquo;Seating would be extended completely around the rink to create a &ldquo;full bowl&rdquo; effect. The defending NCAA champs would also get a rebuilt dressing room, training facilities and offices.If everything goes according to plan, the remodeling will be completed by 1994-95. &#9632;

Life in the fast lane suits Ouimet just fine

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>Evidence that he had broken National Collegiate Athletic Association rules for the second time in five months prompted Brad Buetow to resign as hockey coach at Colorado College, effective at the end of the 1992-93 season.&ldquo;I certainly wish I was not in this situation,&rdquo; Buetow said after he announced his decision Feb. 3. &ldquo;There was no selfishness or malice intended. I&rsquo;m dealing with it (and) the school is dealing with it in proper fashion and we&rsquo;ll go forward.&rdquo;The announcement by school officials at the Colorado Springs&rsquo; institution came after an internal investigation headed by athletic director Max Taylor.Buetow was found to have violated two NCAA rules during the recruitment of Jason Jiskra, a junior-college goaltender at North Dakota State-Bottineau. Not only was Jiskra allowed to take part in practice prior to his enrollment, but a frequent flyer voucher was used to bring Jiskra to the campus.Buetow, in his 14th season as a Division I coach, contended that Jiskra was deemed admissible by the school and was in the process of transferring from Bottineau, making him eligible to attend practice.But Jiskra had not withdrawn from Bottineau and his family insisted he was on a recruiting trip paid for by the school.Jiskra has since returned to Bottineau and his eligibility has been reinstated by the National Junior College Athletic Association.The investigation also determined that Buetow violated a segment in the CC athletic department handbook that called for him to assist Taylor in establishing Jiskra&rsquo;s eligibility to participate.&ldquo;There are more complications than there might appear,&rdquo; Buetow said, refusing to elaborate.Last September, Taylor suspended Buetow for 60 days without pay after the coach diverted $700 in athletic department funds to pay a volunteer assistant coach. The NCAA did not take further action, but the school did put Buetow on probationary contract status. His five-year tenure will end when the Tigers finish play.In a statement, Taylor said he plans to appoint an interim coach. A national search for a permanent replacement will be announced later.Meanwhile, Buetow, who recorded his 300th career victory Jan. 29 against Northern Michigan, said he will devote the rest of the season to his team, which was in last place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (7-180 overall) heading into a series at Minnesota Feb. 5-6.ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Denver coach Frank Serratore shuddered when he saw his team would be playing eight consecutive road games between Jan. 15 and Feb. 6.But the Pioneers were 4-2-0 on their prolonged journey entering a series at North Dakota Feb. 5-6. Included were overtime victories over the top two teams in the league-Minnesota-Duluth and Wisconsin.&ldquo;We were pressing so hard, the coaches and team, I felt it was time to get the hell out of here,&rdquo; Senatore said. &ldquo;Get out on the road where we&rsquo;re not favored. I felt it was good for us, be together and see what we can do.&rdquo; &#9632;

Second NCAA violation prompts Buetow to resign

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>Victoriaville&rsquo;s Cosmo DuPaul has been living in the shadow of teammate Alexandre Daigle this season. But the rookie has still managed to impress scouts for this year&rsquo;s NHL entry draft.The 6-foot, 186-pound center was taken No. 1 in last year&rsquo;s Quebec League midget draft after leading the Lac St-Louis Lions to the national midget championship. He had 41 goals and 67 points in 37 games with the Lions.After a slow start this season-which DuPaul blames on homesickness-the 17-year-old has rebounded to pick up 16 goals and 44 points in 48 games, to go along with a plus-16 rating.&ldquo;He has really picked things up,&rdquo; said a Quebec scout with the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau. &ldquo;He has great skills offensively and he&rsquo;s good defensively. On their team, he&rsquo;s the best two-way player. He doesn&rsquo;t have the talent of Daigle, but he does more than Daigle as a two-way player.&rdquo;DuPaul&rsquo;s defensive prowess has impressed coach Pierre Aubry.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good kid who works hard,&rdquo; Aubry said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s good in his own end for a rookie. And playing behind Alexandre, he doesn&rsquo;t get as much ice time as he was used to in midget. He&rsquo;s not on the power play much so 40 of his 44 points have been at even strength.&rdquo;DuPaul says the reduced ice time has taken some getting used to.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Last year I was always on the ice so it was easy to keep the momentum. Now sometimes I&rsquo;m on the bench for five or six minutes at a time. But I can&rsquo;t do anything about it. Alexandre needs the ice time&hellip; he&rsquo;s the best.&rdquo;DuPaul gives much of the credit for his twoway play to Lac St-Louis midget coach Blair Mackasey.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the best coach I&rsquo;ve ever had,&rdquo; DuPaul said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good teacher. He taught me the basics of the defensive zone.&rdquo;DuPaul said his goals for the remainder of the season are to maintain a point-per-game pace and score 25 goals. He is currently ranked 43rd by the CSB among North American prospects-for this year&rsquo;s NHL draft.&ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t want to think about (the draft) so I won&rsquo;t be disappointed if I&rsquo;m not drafted,&rdquo; he said.READY FOR DRAFT: Victoriaville center Alexandre Daigle won the fourth segment of the Canadian Hockey League top draft prospect award, which was announced at the beginning of February. Daigle also won the first three segments of the competition, in which media members vote on whom they believe are the top prospects for this year&rsquo;s NHL entry draft.Following Daigle in the QMJHL voting were Sherbrooke Faucons&rsquo; goalie Jocelyn Thibault. Hull Olympiques&rsquo; left winger Eric Lecompte, Victoriaville Tigres&rsquo; goalie Patrick Charbonneau, St-Hyacinthe Laser goalie Frederic Beaubien and center Normand Paquet and St-Jean Lynx center Steve Brule and left winger Patrick Carignan.The winner of the final segment in March will represent the QMJHL at the CHL&rsquo;s awards presentations during Memorial Cup week.NOTEBOOK: Three QMJHL teams made it to the latest CHL top-10 national rankings. Victoriaville was ranked No. 3, followed by Hull (ninth) and Sherbrooke (10th). The Ontario League&rsquo;s Peterborough Petes were the top4 ranked team.The Shawinigan Cataractes (16-32-5) and Beauport Harfangs (14-37-2) were both struggling badly. Each team had lost six games in a row. &#9632;

DuPaul starting to shine in Daigle’s shadow

<div class="byline">By Vance Oliver</div>Portland Winter Hawks&rsquo; majority owner Brian Shaw is selling his Western League club.Shaw, who has been bothered by medical problems the last couple of years, agreed to sell the team to Portland businessman Chris Bentley for a reported $4.2 million (U.S.).&ldquo;I&rsquo;m having too many ups and downs with my health,&rdquo; Shaw told the Portland Oregonian. &ldquo;I felt this was the best time to make a move.&rdquo;Shaw, who owns 62 per cent of the Winter Hawks, convinced his partners to sell their shares as well. Other shareholders include Winter Hawks&rsquo; coach-general manager Ken Hodge, former NHL defenseman Harold Snepsts, Shaw&rsquo;s nephew Brian J. Shaw, Gary Hill of Edmonton, Dale Fisher of Devon, Alta., and Dr. Roy Rusch of Portland.The sale agreement ensures Hodge, director of hockey operations and head coach, as well as co-coach Brent Petersen, will have the four remaining years of their contracts honored.The sale of the team is expected to be finalized April 1. Bentley is an executive with a Portland chemical company.Shaw and six business associates bought the Edmonton Oil Kings in 1975 for $200,000, then moved the franchise to Portland the next year. The Winter Hawks went on to become one of the most successful operations in junior hockey and still hold the single-season attendance record of 250,000-plus fans in 1986-87.Portland won the Memorial Cup in 1983.JAPAN CALLING: Saskatoon Blades&rsquo; overage center Ryan Fujita realizes he has almost no chance of playing in the NHL. So he&rsquo;d love to play in Japan.Though he led the Blades in scoring for the second consecutive season with 73 points in 50 games, it&rsquo;s unlikely the 5-foot-7, 140-pounder will secure a contract from an NHL team.Last summer, Fujita was invited to attend the Seibu Lions&rsquo; training camp in Calgary. The Lions, a professional team based in Tokyo, are striving to become a powerhouse in hockey as they have in baseball.Fujita, 20, spent a week working out with the Lions. Center Scott Fukami of the Victoria Cougars also took part in the workouts.There&rsquo;s a piece of red tape preventing Fujita and Fukami from playing in Japan next season. The Japanese don&rsquo;t allow imports in their professional league. Both players were bom in Alberta.&ldquo;There has to be a lot of change before Scott and 1 can go there and play,&rdquo; Fujita said. &ldquo;If we wanted to play, we&rsquo;d have to get citizenship. That could take three to five years to get.&rdquo;There&rsquo;s still hope for Fujita and Fukami, who grew up together in Taber, Alta. Fujita&rsquo;s grandfather, who was sent to an internment camp in the interior of British Columbia during World War II, was bom in Japan. Fukami&rsquo;s mother is Japanese-bom.Therefore, immigration regulations could possibly be circumvented if the Lions are willing to pay the price for Fujita and Fukami.&ldquo;From what I understand, the owner (of Lions) is the second-richest man in the world,&rdquo; Fujita said. &ldquo;It takes a lot of time, but this guy has a lot of pull or clout with immigration.&rdquo;BACK TO BACK: Swift Current Broncos&rsquo; overage center Jason Krywulak was player of the week for the period ending Jan. 31. It was the second straight week he captured the honor. Krywulak had six goals and 12 points in three games to increase his lead in the league scoring race to 11 points ahead of teammate Rick Girard. Krywulak had 57 goals and 115 points in 50 games. &#9632;

Shaw bids adieu to Hawks

They&rsquo;re not the players NHL scouts focus on, but 20-year-olds can make or break a team&rsquo;s season. The Quebec and Western Leagues allow three overagers per team; the Ontario League two. Here are the best in each league:Jason Krywulak. C, Swift Current (WHL). The league-leader in goals and points is the centerpiece of the Broncos&rsquo; powerful attack. He had 57 and 115 points in 50 games. NHL rights not drafted.Honorable mention: Trevor Robins, G, Brandon; Jamie Black, C, Tacoma.Jean-Francois Labbe. G. Hull (QMJ-HL). The diminutive stopper was the league&rsquo;s top goalie last season and has been die main reason why the Olympiques led the Lebel Division. NHL rights: not drafted.Honorable mention: Eric Veilleux, C, Laval; Yan Arsenault, D, College Francois.Scott McKay, C, London (OHL). McKay&rsquo;s line of Yvan Corbin and Brad Smyth combined for 105 points in 19 games. McKay attended Pittsburgh&rsquo;s camp last fall. NHL rights: not drafted.Honorable mention: Scott Hollis, RW. Oshawa. Fred Brathwaite, G, Detroit. &#9632;

Putting a team over the top

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>Wayne Gretzky is again investigating the possibility of acquiring an Ontario League team for Toronto&rsquo;s Maple Leaf Gardens.But there&rsquo;s competition from a group that includes former Toronto Maple Leaf and junior Toronto Marlboro defenseman Jerome Dupont.Maple Leafs&rsquo; general manager ClifT Fletcher granted Gretzky first dibs on the Gardens and has already extended one deadline. He met with Gretzky and agent Mike Barnett during the allstar weekend in Montreal.Fletcher had already met with the second group of Dupont, Barry Alter and advertising executive Brad Robins. That group is interested in buying the Windsor Spitfires and moving them to Toronto.&ldquo;Wayne is still trying to make up his mind,&rdquo; Fletcher said.Toronto was left without an OHL team in 1989 when former Leafs&rsquo; owner Harold Ballard sold the team to a Hamilton group. It has since been sold and re-located in Guelph.THREE-YEAR PLAN: The Detroit Jr. Red Wings, in only their third season, are a smashing success on and off the ice.Battling for first in the Emms Division, they lead the Canadian Hockey League by averaging 7,010 spectators per game at Joe Louis Arena.The Jr. Wings have had the three largest crowds in the CHL this season-17,773, 15,534 and 14,555. The biggest was Feb. 2 as the Wings beat the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds 81 before a national TV audience in Canada.The CHL, already with 2.9 million fans, is on pace for its first four-million regular season. The OHL can top 1.5 million, which would break last season&rsquo;s record of 1.49 million.100 STRONG: London coach-GM Gary Agnew registered his 100th career win as the Knights beat Sault Ste. Marie 5-2 Jan. 24.Agnew, who replaced Wayne Maxner in May. 1990, reached the milestone in his 178th game. He has a record of 100-67-11.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m taking it 100 wins at a time,&rdquo; Agnew said when asked if he can challenge league leaders Brian Kilrea (632) and Bert Templeton (592).Agnew, 32, has pro aspirations.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no time frame,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Obviously the team has to succeed and there has to be an opening.&rdquo;NHL BOUND?: Greyhounds&rsquo; general manager Sherry Bassin has applied for GM jobs with the NHL&rsquo;s two newest teams, Miami and Anaheim.Bassin, 52, has built five championship teams in 10 years, including back-to-back titles for the Sault. He has been in the OHL 17 years.STORMY WORDS: Sault Ste. Marie coach Ted Nolan and Guelph Storm coach John Lovell staged a war of words after the Sault&rsquo;s 10-1 home win Jan. 31.Both blamed each other for gooning it up late in the game with the outcome decided.&ldquo;Maybe they should let the coaches decide things,&rdquo; Nolan said. &ldquo;They should have a ring in the back and instead of having someone else do your fighting, you do it yourself. 1 always thought it&rsquo;s yellow to have others fight for you.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what his problem is,&rdquo; Lovell said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s talking about goon hockey and there&rsquo;s only one guy (Greyhounds&rsquo; Jodi Murphy) playing it out there. And he&rsquo;s suspended.&rdquo;Murphy got a two-game suspension for head-butting Ryan VandenBussche during a fight. &#9632;

Gretzky has competition for franchise in Toronto

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>Dave Andreychuk stood in front of his stall moments after the Toronto Maple Leafs dropped a 3-2 home-ice decision to the New York Islanders in his debut Feb. 3.A piece of tape bearing his name had been slapped above a space beside former Buffalo teammate Mike Foligno.It took a little less than two hours for Dave Andreychuk to drive from Buffalo to Maple Leaf Gardens so he arrived free of baggage, at least the kind you can see.The trade, Grant Fuhr and a midround draft choice to Buffalo for Andreychuk, goalie Daren Puppa and Buffalo&rsquo;s first-round choice in this year&rsquo;s entry draft, ended a predictable story line.Judging by the number of trees killed to make newsprint bearing his fiame and the latest trade rumor, Dave Andreychuk may well be the most interesting player in the NHL.&ldquo;Three hundred rumors about me, and the 301 st came true,&rdquo; smiled Andreychuk, amidst the media crush. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a relief.&rdquo;In making the deal, the Sabres and Leafs did more than address a need for a starting goalie and goal-scoring forward. They swapped players who had become lightning rods for speculation.&ldquo;This is a new lease on life for me,&rdquo; Andreychuk said. &ldquo;I had overstayed my welcome in Buffalo, and everybody there knew that.&rdquo;Indeed, there was much baggage attached to being Dave Andreychuk. Andreychuk was a rookie the last time the Sabres won a post-season series and one-by-one, the purported culprits in the spring falls&mdash;Phil Housley, Pierre Turgeon and Tom Barras-so are the most notable-have been purged.&ldquo;We always seemed to have bad luck in the playoffs and being there so long, your face becomes the most familiar,&rdquo; Andreychuk said.While his regular-season performance has consistently placed him at a level just below the game&rsquo;s premier scorers, in the eyes of critics among the media and paying customers, Andreychuk has always been defined more by what he doesn&rsquo;t do than by what he does.He doesn&rsquo;t skate well.He doesn&rsquo;t protect smaller franchise players such as Pat LaFontaine, a tendency that prompted Buffalo coach John Muckier to move Andreychuk off LaFontaine&rsquo;s line in November.He doesn&rsquo;t score in the playoffs.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01615/6128543-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="359" height="510"></div>Last year in a seven-game loss to Boston, Andreychuk, a fixture with LaFontaine, scored once and added three assists. LaFontaine had eight goals. In 41 playoff games, Andreychuk has 12 goals.He plays soft. He doesn&rsquo;t lead. &ldquo;If 12 guys go to the wrong gate at an airport,&rdquo; said a longtime observer. &ldquo;Dave will be No. 13.&rdquo;What he does well only seems to underscore how much more he could do. Andreychuk, 29, possesses a surgeon&rsquo;s touch, good instincts and a six-foot-three, 225-pound frame that he can use to wear defenseman like shirts.He had 30 goals this season, 20 on the power play. Playing on a line with Doug Gilmour, he may well better last season&rsquo;s career-best mark of 41.Andreychuk is either a half-hearted malingerer or a dependable 35-goal man who makes the best out of limited speed. Pick your player, everybody else does.&ldquo;Look at his record,&rdquo; said Leafs&rsquo;general manager Cliff Fletcher. &ldquo;This a guy who has averaged 36 goals over the last several seasons. Our power play isn&rsquo;t our strongest suit and he&rsquo;ll help that enormously.&rdquo;Fletcher, as astute a judge of talent and commitment as any general manager in the game, places more value on the scoresheet than impressions.&ldquo;I remember Frank Mahovlich had that particular style of play,&rdquo; Fletcher said. &ldquo;He was criticized and he&rsquo;s in the Hall of Fame.&rdquo;Mike Foligno, a teammate of Andreychuk&rsquo;s for nine seasons, agrees Andreychuk is misunderstood.&ldquo;But he&rsquo;ll be understood here,&rdquo; Foligno said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to understand what he does well, he puts the team first, throughout his career. He takes the punishment. That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;ve always admired him.&rdquo;Andreychuk, who outlasted five coaches in Buffalo, understands the criticism. It rolls off him like a stick check.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not the fastest guy in the world and I know when I&rsquo;m not scoring, I&rsquo;ve got to create more chances,&rdquo; Andreychuk said. &ldquo;I have to go out and keep bumping in front of the net, that&rsquo;s my role and if I&rsquo;m not doing that. I&rsquo;m not doing my job.&rdquo;Now that fiction has finally become fact, will the real Dave Andreychuk stand out?Andreychuk says yes.&ldquo;I just want to improve my game, I have several years left and I plan on doing that.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0037-01

Will real Andreychuk stand out with Leafs?

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02438/6128574-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mark Recchi may not be tall but he has reached great heights. Recchi has won a Stanley Cup and played in two All-Star Games. (R & R Sports Group)</figcaption></div>Mark Recchi heard all his life he was too small to make the NHL. He dreams of a day when little guys will never have to hear those words again.At 5-foot-8 and 185 pounds, Recchi is not the smallest player in the NHL-that honor still belongs to Calgary&rsquo;s 5-foot-6 160 pound dynamo Theo Fleury-but the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; right winger is without a doubt the best small man in the game today. He also considers himself something of a spokesman for the small players of the world.&ldquo;I had a man come up to me recently who told me people were already telling his 11-year-old son he was too small to ever play in the NHL,&rdquo; Recchi said. &ldquo;Imagine saying that to an 11-year-old. He asked me to talk to his son; which I did gladly, and I told the kid if he wants to play in the NHL bad enough, just go for it. And, don&rsquo;t ever listen to anybody who says you can&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Recchi has carved himself a place in the league but he&rsquo;s certainly not the NHL&rsquo;s only mighty mite. Corey Millen of the Los Angeles Kings is 5-foot-7 and 168 pounds. Keith Acton of the Flyers, Donald Audette of the Buffalo Sabres, Rob Dimaio and Steve Kasper of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Curt Giles of the St. Louis Blues and Andrew McKim of the Boston Bruins measure in at 5-foot-8, according to the NHL&rsquo;s Guide and Record Book.Small men are even more represented among goalies. Jacques Cloutier of the Quebec Nordiques, Mike O&rsquo;Neill of the Winnipeg Jets and Arturs Urbe of the San Jose Sharks are all 5-foot-7. Andy Moog of Boston, Chris Terreri of the New Jersey Devils and John Vanbiesbrouck of the New York Rangers are 5-8.Still, it takes a special breed to thrive and survive when a player&rsquo;s height is something and five. With 32 goals and 80 points in 52 games prior to the all-star break. Recchi has done just that.But exactly what sets Recchi apart from the small players who shoot the lights out in places like Peoria and Hershey, but can&rsquo;t make the leap to the NHL?Certainly Recchi&rsquo;s skating and playmaking abilities help. And although he has never recorded as many as 100 penalty minutes in a season, he&rsquo;s very feisty.But a large part of it is just good, old-fashioned desire.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s a case of me being a better skater, or tougher, or smarter.&rdquo; Recchi said. &ldquo;And, I don&rsquo;t think guys come up and all of a sudden think they&rsquo;re too small. Some guys simply aren&rsquo;t prepared to take the next step. All I know is if you&rsquo;re small, you have to be a really hard worker, relentless. You have to make things happen. You can&rsquo;t wait for things to come to you.&rdquo;Anyone who thought Recchi was simply the benefactor of the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; prolific offense when he played there has been proven wrong. Just as those who thought he was riding the tails of rookie phenom Eric Lindros in Philadelphia this season. Recchi continued to flourish after his trade from the Penguins last season and after the injury to Lindros this season.When New Jersey Devils&rsquo; defenseman Scott Stevens looks at Recchi, he sees 5-foot-8, but thinks 6-foot-2.&ldquo;For his size, he plays a very solid game,&rdquo; Stevens said. &ldquo;He competes every night. In our (Patrick) division he gets overshadowed by big guns like Mario (Lemieux) and (Mark) Messier, but the players know what he&rsquo;s capable of. He skates well, can score goals and set goals up. He&rsquo;s not one-dimensional and that&rsquo;s hard to find.&rdquo;&ldquo;There are some advantages to being small,&rdquo; Recchi said. &ldquo;Usually, small guys have a low center of gravity and are hard to knock off the puck. I consider myself that way.&rdquo;Most people simply consider Recchi a star. &#9632;

f0037-02

Big-time player

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>Sam Pollock had many different theories on trades when he ran the Montreal Canadiens.One was that if you get the best player in a trade, you&rsquo;ll win the deal. Another was that if you&rsquo;re trading away a front-line player, always receive in return something to help your team now and something for the future.Since Toronto Maple Leaf general manager Cliff Fletcher is one of Pollock&rsquo;s disciples, it&rsquo;s not surprising Fletcher put into practice Rule No. 2 when he dealt star goalie Grant Fuhr to the Buffalo Sabres Feb. 2.To help shore up his club&rsquo;s anemic attack, Fletcher acquired left winger Dave Andreychuk, who had 29 goals and is a consistent scorer.Andreychuk was immediately paired with the club&rsquo;s top center, Doug Gilmour, and scored his first goal as a Leaf off a Gilmour assist Feb. 2 in a 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been able to score, so hopefully I&rsquo;ll continue to do that here,&rdquo; Andreychuk said.The Leafs had 171 goals in 52 games, the fifth worst total in the NHL. Andreychuk, a Hamilton native, also brings the reputation as an indifferent checker, but the Leafs figure their hardworking defensive squad should be able to accommodate him as long as he scores.Fletcher also acquired goalie Daren Puppa, who will back up rookie Felix Potvin. Coach Pat Bums believes Puppa can recapture the form that made him a 1990 second team all-star.&ldquo;Things had grown a bit stagnant in Buffalo,&rdquo; Puppa said.The Leafs also picked up Buffalo&rsquo;s first-round draft pick this June. The Leafs have traded away their second-, third- and fourth-round picks this spring, but the trade gives them two first rounders for the second time in two years.Now it will be up to chief scout Pierre Dorion and his staff to find the talent.AWARD DROUGHT: It was 1966 and the Maple Leafs were one year away from what would be their last Stanley Cup.A winger named Brit Selby cracked the lineup and managed to win the Calder Trophy as top rookie. That&rsquo;s the last time a Leaf player won one of the NHL&rsquo;s individual regular-season awards, a streak the club hopes will end this season.Three members of the Toronto organization are shaping up as strong contenders for major trophies. Pat Bums has a shot at the Jack Adams Award as top coach, goalie Felix Potvin is in the running for the Calder and Doug Gilmour is being mentioned in Hart (MVP) and Selke (best defensive forward) trophy discussions.So, for the first time since Wendel Clark was runner-up to Calgary&rsquo;s Gary Suter for the 1985-86 Calder, Leaf officials are planning a public relations offensive to help their cause.The Leafs are expected to release promotional videos on Gilmour and Potvin.NOTEBOOK: Glenn Anderson was a late scratch for Toronto&rsquo;s Feb. 2 game with the Islanders with a sore left knee. It&rsquo;s the same knee he has hurt twice before this season&hellip; Goalie Felix Potvin went into the all-star break with the NHL&rsquo;s best goals-against average of 2.55, slightly ahead of Chicago&rsquo;s Ed Bel-four, who was at 2.59.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for The Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 2: Grant Fuhr. G, and a conditional draft choice traded to Buffalo tor Dave Andreychuk, LW. Daren Puppa. G, and a first-round choice in 1993.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Doug Gilmour, John Cullen. Peter Zezel, Mike Krushelnyski.LW-Dave Andreychuk, Dave McLIwain. Bill Berg, Ken Baumgartner.RW-NIkolal Borschevsky, Rob Pearson. Mark Osborne. Mike Foligno.LD-Dave Ellett, Jamie Macoun, Dmitri Mironov, Darryl Shannon.RD-Todd Gill. Sytvain Lefebvre, Bob Rouse, Bob McGill.G-Felix Potvin, Daren Puppa. Rick Wamsley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Glenn Anderson. RW, sore right knee, day-to-day. Wendel Clark, LW, strained rib cage muscle, day-to-day. &#9632;

Fletcher trades it again, Sam

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>You don&rsquo;t hear Mike Keenan&rsquo;s name mentioned much around Chicago Stadium anymore.All those predictions of doom and gloom for the Chicago Blackhawks after Keenan stepped down as coach last June then was fired as general manager Nov. 6 fell by the wayside as the Hawks hit the all-star break with a record of 31-18-8 under coach Darryl Sutter.&ldquo;No doubt Mike did an outstanding job and he&rsquo;s a tough act to follow, but this also shows who Darryl Sutter is,&rdquo; said GM Bob Pulford. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy to follow someone like (Keenan), but Darryl has done a great job.&rdquo;The transition from Keenan to Sutter has gone so smoothly it surprised Pulford, although the Hawks&rsquo; GM was confident in Sutter.&ldquo;Sutter gets all the credit for the transition,&rdquo; Pulford said. &ldquo;Darryl is one tough son of a gun, but he&rsquo;s fair. The players like playing for him. One thing players will not accept is dishonesty.&rdquo;The last thing Sutter wants to hear is himself praised for where the Hawks are, even if he was one of the leading candidates for coach-of-the-year honors at the break.&ldquo;The bottom line with the Blackhawks is our best players are our hardest-working players, which is not always the case,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s no mystery why this team has success. It&rsquo;s because guys like Ed Belfour, Chris Chelios, Steve Smith, Jeremy Roenick, Dirk Graham and Brent Sutter are among the hardest-working players in the league. A coach is just a small aspect of the team. Any coach who says differently is on an ego trip.&rdquo;The 34-year-old Sutter has one goal in mind, and that&rsquo;s to win the Stanley Cup. If it happens quickly in his career, then you might not see him coach very long.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see myself as a career coach at all,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see myself coaching until I&rsquo;m 50. I stayed in the business because I couldn&rsquo;t play anymore and I felt I was young enough to give something back to the game.&ldquo;I honestly can say that I could go back to the farm tomorrow. But I&rsquo;ve had brothers win a Stanley Cup and I want to win one, too.&rdquo;JOB SEARCH: In his own quiet way, Bob Pulford is on the lookout for the person to eventually succeed him as GM.When Mike Keenan was fired Nov. 6 and Pulford took over, he said he didn&rsquo;t care to hold the job long. There are those in the organization who believe Pulford will stay as GM until 1994, when the Hawks move into the United Center.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t talk about it publicly, but part of my job is to bring someone in here,&rdquo; Pulford said. &ldquo;Maybe he&rsquo;s here already, I don&rsquo;t know.&rdquo;The list of candidates isn&rsquo;t long at the moment. Bob Murray, the Hawks&rsquo; director of player personnel, is on it, as is Darryl Sutter, who said the job doesn&rsquo;t interest him.Another candidate might be San Jose vice-president and director of hockey operations Dean Lombardi, who is Pulford&rsquo;s son-in-law.NOTEBOOK: Stu Grimson had to pull out of the hardest shot competition at all-star weekend because of an eye injury. Grimson was poked in the eye by Gerard Gallant&rsquo;s glove Feb. 3 in Detroit&hellip; Mike Hudson returned to the lineup Jan. 30 in Los Angeles after missing 21 games with a viral infection.Ed Belfour started 17 of 18 games since Dec. 29 to the all-star break, going 11-3-2.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Jeremy Roenick, Brent Sutter, Christen Ruut-tu, Mike Hudson, Dave Christian.LW-Michel Goulet. Stephane Matteau, Greg Gfoert. Stu Grimson, Rob Brown.RW-Steve Larmer, Brian Noonan, Dirk Graham. Jocelyn Lemieux. Brad Lauer.LD-Steve Smith, Frantisek Kuoera, Cam Russell. Milan Tichy.RD-Chris Chelios, Keith Brown, Bryan March-ment, Igor Kravchuk.G-Ed Belfour, Jimmy Waite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Sutter makes fans forget about that Keenan fellow

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div>The Tampa Bay Lightning has finally unearthed a valuable commodity it has spent the entire season searching for-an effective second line to provide an offensive alternative to Brian Bradley and Co.The Lightning won twice on a three-game road swing thanks primarily to the play of the Rob DiMaio-Marc Bureau-Chris Kontos line.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve done it all for us,&rdquo; said coach Terry Crisp. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve given us an offensive jolt. And they&rsquo;ve consistently played a sound defensive game. It&rsquo;s a good little unit.&rdquo;And an effective one. In three games together, DiMaio, Bureau and Kontos had a hand in six goals and were a combined plus-9. The three forwards took regular turns on the power-play and penalty-killing units.&ldquo;Terry has given us a lot of responsibility and I think we&rsquo;ve responded,&rdquo; DiMaio said. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t been scored on hardly at all and we&rsquo;re creating a lot of good scoring chances. It&rsquo;s a good little group that is really working well.&rdquo;It is also a very diversified group, one whose makeup allows Crisp to use it as both a checking and scoring line.&ldquo;With Robby and Marc on that unit we know we can throw them out there against somebody&rsquo;s top line and not get burned.&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;And with Kontos, we&rsquo;ve got the scoring ability you need if you want to just put them out there against somebody else&rsquo;s third or fourth unit and try to get some production.&rdquo;Kontos has re-emerged as a goal-scorer with his new linemates. Going into the all-star break, he had two goals and an assist in three games while playing at plus-2.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m comfortable with these guys,&rdquo; Kontos said. &ldquo;I think that comfort and the fact I&rsquo;ve got my confidence back is making the difference.&rdquo;Bureau was making a difference as well. Although considered a checking forward, he has become a consistent playmaker. In Tampa Bay&rsquo;s 4-3 win over the Minnesota North Stars Jan. 30, Bureau had four assists. He had three more in the 5-4 victory over the San Jose Sharks Feb. 1 and through the last three games was plus-5.&ldquo;He has been playing about as well as anyone,&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s really banging out there, giving us a phsyical presence and he&rsquo;s setting up the offense at the same time.&rdquo;DiMaio said the unit&rsquo;s defensive work is setting up most of the offense.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing pretty solidly in our own end and forcing other teams to make mistakes,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Once that happens, all you have to do is take advantage and you usually wind up getting some offensive chances of your own.&rdquo;MOVING AHEAD: The Lightning recorded a milestone victory Feb. 1 when it defeated San Jose 5-4 at the Cow Palace.The win was the 18th of the season for Tampa Bay, which surpassed the number of victories San Jose recorded in its first year in the league.The loss also extended San Jose&rsquo;s franchiserecord losing streak to 14 games.NOTEBOOK: Brian Bradley represented Tampa Bay in the NHL All-Star Game Feb. 6. He said his biggest thrill of the game was playing alongside childhood idol Wayne Gretzky during the final period. &ldquo;Some people can only dream of an opportunity like that,&rdquo; Bradley said.<h2>TAMPA BAY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Feb. 1: Tim Bergland. RW, Chris LiPuma, D, and Keith Osborne. LW. recalled from Atlanta (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Brian Bradley. Rob DiMaio. Adam Creighton.LW-John Tucker. Chris Kontos, Mikael Andersson. Keith Osborne.RW-Rob Zamuner, Marc Bureau. Steve Maltais. Mike Hartman, Tim Bergland.LO-Roman Hamrlik. Peter Taglianetti, Shawn Chambers., Chris LiPuma.RD-Rob Ramage. Marc Bergevin, Bob Beers.G-J.C. Bergeron. Pat Jablonski, Wendell Young.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Danton Cole, RW, right ankle bruise, day-to-day. Steve Kasper, C. left shoulder strain, day-to-day. Joe Reekie, D, broken left leg, Indefinite. &#9632;

Second unit finally arrives

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>If Eric Lindros can get a six-year contract worth $20.5 million from the Philadelphia Flyers before playing a game in the NHL, what is goalscoring machine Brett Hull worth?Certainly more than Lindros, who has never led the NHL in goal-scoring as the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; right winger has done three times, or won the Hart Trophy as Hull did in 1990-91 or won the most valuable player award in an All-Star Game as Hull did in 1992.Hull has been a credit to the game, tirelessly promoting it and staying far removed from any off-ice trouble.A credit to the game? Yes. A marquee player? Yes. Worth at least what Lindros gets? Hull and agent Mike Barnett certainly think so. They are seeking more than Lindros, but less than Mario Lemieux in negotiations for a new contract.Lemieux signed a seven-year contract worth $42 million on Oct. 5, 1992, but at least $7-mil-lion of that is for promotional rights to Lemieux&rsquo;s image.The operative figures for Hull are six years and between $3.5 million and $5 million per year, or between $21 million and $35 million in a total package.&ldquo;His value is certainly based on more than pure statistics,&rdquo; Barnett said.Negotiations have begun in earnest, even though Hull has the rest of this season and all of next remaining on the four-year, $7-million deal he signed in June of 1990.Blues&rsquo; officials, who first made overtures to Barnett to begin talks last summer, are balking at the figures.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a figure and that&rsquo;s the figure. It&rsquo;s not changing. That&rsquo;s all there is to it,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve given all I could to the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; organization for the past five years and if they don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s good enough and don&rsquo;t want to pay me for what I&rsquo;ve done, I can&rsquo;t do anything about it.&rdquo;MAN&rsquo;S BEST FRIEND: A long time ago, when he was just a pup, Ron Wilson&rsquo;s teammates on the Winnipeg Jets dubbed him &ldquo;The Dog,&rdquo; in honor of his abilities as a defensive specialist.They said Wilson hounded his opponents, hence the nickname which remains to this day. At age 36-that&rsquo;s 252 in dog years-The Dog still hounds opponents, nipping at their heels as they try to escape him in the attacking zone.He also remains man&rsquo;s best friend, as his teammates recognize. They often call their oldest teammate &ldquo;the mangy old mutt.&rdquo;&ldquo;He does his job like it&rsquo;s 9 to 5,&rdquo; coach Bob Berry said. &ldquo;He plays with little fanfare.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Garth Butcher enjoyed his first All-Star Game, but left Montreal on a sour note and it had nothing to do with the Campbell Conference&rsquo;s 16-6 loss. Butcher&rsquo;s suit jacket and wallet were stolen from the dressing room after the game. They later were recovered, minus all of Butcher&rsquo;s credit cards and about $2,000 in cash. Butcher was replacing injured rearguard Jeff Brown, who couldn&rsquo;t play in the game because of a broken left foot.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-Craig Janney, Ron Sutter, Ron Wilson. Igor Korolev.LW-Brendan Shanahan. Kevin Miller, Dave Lowry, Basil McRae.RW-Nelson Emerson, Brett HuU. Rich Sutter, Kelly Chase, Vitali Prokhorov.LD-Doug Crossman, Bret Hedican, Curt Giles. Murray Baron.RD-Garth Butcher, Rick Zombo, Stephane Quintal.G-Curtls Joseph. Guy Heber.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bob Bassen, C, broken left hand. Feb. 24 Philippe Bozon, LW, flu, day-to-day. Jeff Brown, D, broken left foot, day-to-day. Lae Norwood, D, broken left ankle, out for season. &#9632;

Jrett seeking Hull of deal in contract negotiations

<div class="byline">By Gary Olson</div>Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; owner Norman Green said the bids from the Target Center and Civic Center aren&rsquo;t good enough to pry his North Stars from their home in Bloomington and that&rsquo;s the reason he has added Dallas to list of sites for consideration.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m disappointed neither bid had a seasonticket concept even though we&rsquo;ve talked about the importance of that,&rdquo; Green told the St. Paul Pioneer Press.The relocation of the Stars was not discussed at Feb. 7 NHL board of governors meetings.&ldquo;No one in Minneapolis or St. Paul has assured me our crowds will be bigger or that ticket prices could be supported at the NHL level,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;No one in the Twin Cities made a proposal that included the support of the city and the business community, something where they said, &lsquo;We&rsquo;ll get behind you and share the risk.&rsquo; They want us to take all the risk.&ldquo;The absence of a guarantee, or even a game plan, gives us a concern whether we will be successful if we take the risk of moving. The doubts are real.&ldquo;The end of February will be a critical time. We need to start planning our lives; we need to plan our season-ticket program for next season no matter where we play.&rdquo;Green said the North Stars lost $10 million last season and will probably lose another $5 million this year even though attendance has increased about 500 fans per game from a year ago and averages about 13,700 per game. The attendance figures, Green said, are misleading because the average price per ticket is low.Even though Green visited Dallas twice in late January and early February, he insists his preference is the same now as it was Nov. 6 when he asked interested parties to get their best offers to him by Jan. 15.&ldquo;My first choice is still to stay at Met Center and find a way to make it work,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My second choice is to move anywhere in Minnesota. My last choice is to go somewhere else.&rdquo;SHOWING UP: Left winger Ulf Dahlen got off to a sluggish start but the pesky Swede is pleased the way things have worked out lately.The 26-year-old was dismal in his first 20 games, scoring just 12 points. But he reached the all-star break with 22 goals and 47 points in 53 games. And the best part, he said, is the team benefited greatly from his rejuvenated play.&ldquo;Everyone feels better when they produce,&rdquo; said Dahlen, who had 11 points in his last eight games. &ldquo;After the slow start, I averaged better than a point per game. When you contribute, you feel more a part of the team.&rdquo;Dahlen&rsquo;s improved play helped the Stars win eight of nine games and move into a second-place tie in the Norris Division with Detroit.&ldquo;Things started to get better for me so maybe I earned a chance to skate on a line with Mike Modano,&rdquo; Dahlen said.NOTEBOOK: Darcy Wakaluk is proving to be an excellent backup to starter Jon Casey. Wakaluk was unbeaten in five games before the all-star break and was 6-1-1 in his last eight starts. He started 11 of the Stars&rsquo; last 18 games.<h2>MINNESOTA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Jan. 25: Doug Barrault, C, assigned to Kalamazoo (IHL) Jan. 30: James Black, LW, recalled from Kalamazoo.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C-MIke Modano, Neal Broten. Dave Gagner, Bobby Smith.LW-Ulf Dahlen, Gaetan Duchesne, Mike McPhee, Stewart Gavin. James Black.RW-Mike Craig, Russ Courtnall, Trent Klatt. Shane Churta.LD-Mark Tinortli, Enrico Ciccone, Richard Matvichuk.RD-Brad Berry, Jim Johnson, Tommy Sjodin.G-Jon Casey, Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Todd Elik. C&rsquo;LW, concussion and facial lacerations. day-to-day. Dorian Hatcher, D, sprained left knee, Indefinite. Craig Ludwig, D, bruised nght foot, day-to-day. &#9632;

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February 19, 1993

HOCKEY WEEK: FEB. 1-7

Coffey piping hot in debut much to delight of locals

NHL SUMMARIES

AMERICAN LEAGUE