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.

April 23, 1993

The Hockey News April 23, 1993

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>When Jamie Allison of the Detroit Jr. Wings isn&rsquo;t singing, he&rsquo;s exhibiting skills that have NHL scouts singing his praises.Allison, 17, is a regular on a Jr. Wings&rsquo; defense corps that yielded the third-fewest goals against in the Ontario League this season and continues to be a defensive force in the playoffs. The native of Whitby, Ont., rated by the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau as a second-round draft choice, is also drawing rave reviews off the ice where he&rsquo;s an up-and-coming country and western performer.Allison won a singing contest two years ago and first prize was a recording session. He recorded I Can&rsquo;t Keep Control of Me, co-written by Larry Mercey, formerly of the Mercey Brothers.&ldquo;He has the best voice I&rsquo;ve heard on a young guy ever,&rdquo; Mercey said. &ldquo;That voice will always be there after hockey.&rdquo;Allison drew his interest in country and western from his uncle Jerry Peterson, a truck driver.&ldquo;I was brought up on country,&rdquo; Allison said. &ldquo;But hockey has always been my first love. I realize I have a shot at playing in the NHL so I&rsquo;ve never taken singing seriously. It has always been just for fun. But I can see myself stepping into it when I&rsquo;m done with hockey. I&rsquo;d like to go to Nashville to work on it.&rdquo;The Allisons are a musical family. His sister Lee Ann sings and has recorded in Nashville. Brother Peter, a defenseman with the Windsor Spitfires, plays the guitar.PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Jr. Wings&rsquo; all-star center Pat Peake was named the OHL&rsquo;s player of the year and is the league&rsquo;s nominee for Canadian Hockey League player of the year, to be announced May 17 at the Memorial Cup festivities in Sault Ste. Marie.Peake finished fourth in scoring (58 goals, 136 points in 46 games) and scored the quickest 50 goals in OHL history, needing only 33 games.With 64 penalty minutes this season, Peake was also named the league&rsquo;s most gentlemanly player.Chris Pronger of the Peterborough Petes was named most outstanding defenseman. Scott Hollis of the Oshawa Generals copped overage-player-of-the-year honors and Jeff O&rsquo;Neill of the Guelph Storm was named the league&rsquo;s top rookie.CHART TOPPERS: The Jr. Wings helped the CHL hit another record on the attendance charts.Detroit led all teams as 218,552 fans passed through the Joe Louis Arena turn stiles in a year the CHL experienced a ninth straight increase with a record 4,259,590 patrons. That broke the previous mark by more than 300,000.The OHL smashed its own attendance mark by drawing 1,561,063. The Jr. Wings had a single-game high 17,773 Feb. 2.<h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-05211/6248074-1-eng-US/f0031-052.jpg" title="f0031-05" width="929" height="402"></div>HIGHLIGHTS (APRIL 5 T011): London goalie llpo Kauhanen made the mistake ot saying the Detroit was &ldquo;nothing&rdquo; without all-star center Pat Peake, out since March 23 with a broken ankle. The Jr. Wings are 7-1 in the playoffs-sans Peake-after eliminating the Knights in five games. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011467/6247062-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"></div>I have been a die-hard Washington Capitals&rsquo; fan for many years, which means 1 have had my heart broken on numerous occasions.It is not a team rich in tradition, but one player who gave it his all and was willing to give more to establish some element of tradition is being pushed aside.The way management has treated Rod Langway has been unfair, insensitive and just plain stupid.Langway is a two-time Norris Trophy winner, a leader and a gentleman. He is one of the only players Capitals&rsquo; fans identified with and was a key reason why the team stayed in D.C., and helped fan interest grow since his arrival in 1982.Attendance in Washington is way down and treating Rod Langway poorly doesn&rsquo;t help. He deserves better.Lance Larochelle, Lennoxville, Que.<h2>Races great</h2>Your Jeers section in the April 9 issue of THN claims that except for the Patrick Division playoff race, there would be little reason to watch the final two weeks of the regular season.Although most of the playoff teams were decided in divisions other than the Patrick, there were still some great positional races shaping up.Shame on you, THN. You should never give up on the final two weeks of the regular season. There&rsquo;s always good hockey to be played and interesting situations to be settled.Barry Schoefernacker,Harwood Heights, III.<h2>Name game</h2>The recent deaths of Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; public address announcer Claude Mouton and broadcaster Danny Gallivan got me thinking about tradition and the NHL&rsquo;s plan to rename the divisions.What upsets me is the decision to name them according to geographic locations for the simplicity of fans. Apparently, the NHL has a very low opinion of our intelligence.It seems to me the current names add a great deal to the appeal of the NHL. These names stand for character and tradition-two intangibles that make the NHL superior to other professional sports leagues.Please, Mr. Bettman feel free to make any changes you want: eliminate fighting; get rid of the red line; light arenas in black fluorescent light and paint the puck neon colors.But renaming the divisions and eliminating some of the tradition that makes our game so great was too much.Craig Lipke.Montreal, Que.<h2>Shark hunt</h2>In response to Steve Dryden&rsquo;s recent trashing of the San Jose Sharks (THN, March 26), I must express surprise and disappointment at the shallow premise and lack of fundamental understanding his column exposed.It is a slow news week indeed when someone with a byline takes the low road by extrapolating the poor won-loss record of a second-year expansion team and depicting them as the Seattle Mariners of the NHL.Those who closely follow the team realize that a substantial amount of young talent is not only being stockpiled, but is also being given an opportunity to learn its trade at the NHL level.Obviously, signing a free agent (what did Brendan Shanahan and Scott Stevens cost the St. Louis Blues?) or participating in the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; going-out-of-busi-ness sale may have yielded a few more wins this year.But by maintaining the courage of their convictions and giving young nucleus players such as Sandis Ozol-insh, Doug Zmolek, Arturs Irbe, Pat Falloon and Rob Gaudreau extensive ice time now, only accelerates the building process.Philip Berins,San Francisco, Calif.<h2>Murphy tops</h2>The Pittsburgh Penguins have clinched first overall, which comes as no surprise.After all, a team with such immense talent should grace the upper echelons of the league.But one member of the Penguins deserves more attention than he has received-defenseman Larry Murphy.Murphy is arguably the best blueliner in hockey, yet only the knowledgeable fan is aware of his accomplishments.He can&rsquo;t skate as well as Winnipeg&rsquo;s Phil Housley and he doesn&rsquo;t hit like Scott Stevens.But his overall game-passing, shooting, and strong defensive play-are unparalleled by other NHL rearguards.In my opinion, Murphy should be the frontrunner for the Norris Trophy as the league&rsquo;s best defenseman.Bernard Vrban,Oakville, Ont.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.<h2>THE DRAW &#9632;</h2>

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LETTERS

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>Somebody will have to tell Keith Acton when it&rsquo;s time to go because he plans to stay until the party is over.Acton, who turned 35 April 15, hasn&rsquo;t thought about retirement. The Philadelphia Flyer center said as long as the game is fun, why go home.Even though the Flyers will finish with a sub-.500 season, Acton sounded as enthusiastic as ever about the future. His strong defensive play helped the Flyers blank the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-0 April 10 for their fifth straight win.Acton, who broke in with the Montreal Canadiens in 1979-80, said the key to his longevity is his positive approach to the game.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s something I enjoy doing, that&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s not a problem for me,&rdquo; Acton said. &ldquo;I enjoy it, I&rsquo;m going to give it an honest effort and I&rsquo;m going to try to keep going as long as I can. And then when it&rsquo;s over, it&rsquo;s over.&rdquo;&lsquo;Woody&rsquo; is also a leader in the locker room. He has been an alternate captain for two years and the Flyers have roomed him with youngsters such as Eric Lindros and Mike Ricci.And he&rsquo;s still one of the fastest skaters on the team, so why quit?&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think about it (retirement). People ask me lots of times, &lsquo;Are you going to play next year?&rsquo; If someone calls and says I&rsquo;m finished, then I&rsquo;m finished,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Until that happens, I&rsquo;m going to go out and play.&ldquo;When you get older, you&rsquo;re going to have to be a role player. I don&rsquo;t have a problem with that. Some guys end their careers prematurely because they can&rsquo;t handle that.&rdquo;Acton credits his leadership qualities to his early days playing with marquee players in Montreal.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s experience,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t learn by yourself. I had great teachers&hellip; the (Bob) Gaineys, the (Guy) Lafleurs, the (Larry) Robinsons. They taught me and I was lucky to be able to learn from them.&rdquo;AWARD WINNERS: Mark Recchi picked up two of the three team awards for outstanding performances.Recchi. who tied Bob Clarke&rsquo;s team record for points in a season (119), won the Bobby Clarke Trophy as team MVP. His previous best season was 113 points. Recchi also won the Class Guy Award for his strong rapport with the media.Garry Galley was voted winner of the Barry Ashbee Trophy as the team&rsquo;s best defenseman. Galley overcame a condition diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome to produce career highs in goals, assists and points.NOTEBOOK: Tommy Soder-strom&rsquo;s 4-0 shutout of Toronto April 10 was his fifth of the season, breaking the Flyers&rsquo; team rookie record. Bernie Parent and Doug Favell held the old mark, set in 1967-68&hellip; Erie Lindros was voted first star four times and second star once in the Flyers&rsquo; five-game winning streak.Former Flyer Gary Dornhoefer signed a new contract to return as a full-time color commentator on Flyers&rsquo; television broadcasts next season. Domhoefer split duties this season with Bill Clement, who will not be back next year.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC-Eric Lindros, Rod BrintfAmour, Viacheslav Butsayev, Keith ActonLW-Pelle Eklund, Josef Beranek, Andrei Lomakin.RW-Mark Recchi, Kevin Dineen, Al Conroy, Dave BrownLD-Tetry Carkner, Garry Galey, Greg Hawgood, Shawn CroninRD-Oimltn Yushkevich. Ryan McGill, Jason BowenG-Tommy Soderstrom, Dominic Roussel INJURIESClaude Boivin, LW, tom ligaments in left knee, indefinite. Doug Evans. LW, broken right foot, indefinite Brent Fedyk, RW, broken toe. indefinite. Rlc Mattress, D, bruised left knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

Ageless leader Acton readv. willina and able

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0003-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011538/6248568-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0002-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011384/6246955-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg"></div>&#9745;Luc Robitaille. The Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; super-sniper broke the NHL record for goals in a season by a left winger. Robitaille&rsquo;s 61st goal of the year in a victory over the San Jose Sharks eclipsed Steve Shutt&rsquo;s record of 60 set in 1976-77.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021127/6246948-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="345" height="334"></div>&#9746;Gil Stein. He made a mockery of his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame by not declining his nomination after it was clear that his changes to the Hall&rsquo;s board created a conflict of interest. His selfishness casts a bad light on a venerable institution. &#9632;

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CHEERS & JEERS

It&rsquo;s tough to be a hero when you&rsquo;re the third-line right wing who doesn&rsquo;t play. I don&rsquo;t get a chance to do anything.&rdquo;&nbsp;-St. Lotus Blues&rsquo; right winger Brett Hull responding to media reports that blame him for losses. Page 17.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nothing major. I just had to cancel my Ford modeling appointment, but that&rsquo;s about it.&rdquo;-New York Islander Dennis Vaske after being cut on the forehead in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks. Page 22.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re afraid if we went to Disneyland they might keep some of our players. I think I have a Mickey Mouse on this team and a couple of Goofys.&rdquo;-Portland Winter Hawks&rsquo; coach Ken Hodge when asked if he&rsquo;d take his team to Disneyland during a playoff break. Page 31.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03818/6246986-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="340" height="339"><figcaption class="caption-body">St. Louis Blues&rsquo; right winger Brett Hull thinks he&rsquo;s being unfairly criticized by his coach and teammates. Page 17.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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QUOTABLE

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>We&rsquo;re going to find the answers to a lot of long-standing questions in the next little while. Like:Who will make the playoffs? Who will have first pick in the entry draft? Who will win the scoring title?All important matters, of course.There are. however, a couple of queries that need addressing:&#9632; If Canada intends to win at the World Championships, why are Shayne Corson and Dave Manson of the Edmonton Oilers being invited to play? Corson had a lousy season and Manson doesn&rsquo;t possess the self-control required for international hockey.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011554/6247031-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="281" height="360"></div>&#9632; Is it just a matter of time until the Toronto Maple Leafs are moved to the Northeast Division to be grouped with natural geographical rivals? Something&rsquo;s fishy about the way they gave up so easily on their bid to move.&#9632; If Gil Stein can be in the Hall of Fame, then why can&rsquo;t Dave Leonardi? He&rsquo;s the guy who waved signs at the Philadelphia Spectrum during the heyday of the Broad Street Bullies. Leonardi&rsquo;s exhibit in the Hall would be more appealing to fans than Stein&rsquo;s.&#9632; Why would commissioner Gary Bettman even consider moving the NHL&rsquo;s communication&rsquo;s group to New York? So Stan Fis-chler can save a few dollars on his phone bill? New York may be the world&rsquo;s media capital but Toronto is hockey&rsquo;s Big Apple.&#9632; When are general managers going to quit dealing with the Leafs&rsquo; Cliff Fletcher? Imagine conning Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; GM Gerry Meehan into throwing a first-round draft choice and Daren Puppa along with Dave Andreychuk in a deal for Grant Fuhr.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021391/6247024-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="965" height="1592"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Gamundo/BBS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031168/6247017-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="957" height="1573"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Leary/BBS</figcaption></div><h2>New rules breed new attitude</h2>Mike Smith insists he&rsquo;s not much of a rules man.He doesn&rsquo;t sit around pondering the good, the bad and the ugly of recent or potential rule changes.However, the general manager of the Winnipeg Jets has been &ldquo;reasonably satisfied&rdquo; with the new rules this season aimed at curbing premeditated fighting and preventing players from taking dives to draw penalties.Smith said players are being more educated about what the league is trying to accomplish.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve noticed a lot less diving,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;Not because it&rsquo;s being called so much, but because the threat of the call was there.&rdquo;The NHL inexplicably doesn&rsquo;t keep track of how many diving penalties are called because the minor falls under the category of unsportsmanlike conduct, which covers a number of offenses.Bryan Lewis, the NHL&rsquo;s director of officiating, said the day will likely come when diving becomes a separate offense.Smith said the same theory applies to fighting. Throwing out the instigator is a deterrent.&ldquo;Guys don&rsquo;t feel they have to fight anymore,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;The fact the rule is on the books is a deterrent. We have eliminated a lot of the premeditated fighting and that&rsquo;s what we hoped to accomplish.&rdquo;Last season&rsquo;s schedule consisted of 880 games and there were 1,544 fighting majors called. This year, in the same number of games, there were 1,067 fighting majors as-sessed-a 31 per cent decrease.The number of instigating penalties has decreased overall but increased as this season progressed. Comparing last season to this season in 252-game increments-the equivalent of last season&rsquo;s quarter game total-the differences were 63-17, 54-29 and 34-29.Through April 6 there were 88 instigators called compared to 203 last season.Lewis said he recently witnessed a game where the instigator came into play three times.&ldquo;There was a fight between two willing combatants with no call; a fight where the instigator was identified and left the game without complaining and a third altercation where a player who fights a lot was shoved by a player who normally doesn&rsquo;t and skated away rather than risk being ejected.&rdquo;Left winger Adam Graves of the New York Rangers said the players have learned the hard way. He said numerous penalties early in the season disrupted play and players knew they had to adjust to the rules.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not that the refs stopped calling things as the season progressed; more a case of the players catching on,&rdquo; Graves said. &ldquo;Old habits die hard. Players were so used to clutching, grabbing and holding.&rdquo;<h2>All bets are on in Ontario</h2>Betting on NHL games is the most popular aspect of the Ontario Lottery Corporation&rsquo;s Pro Line from Sport Select.An average of $108,086 is wagered on each NHL game offered on weekly betting sheets.By comparison, an average of $84,515 was bet on National Football League games; $52,835 on National Basketball Association games and $22,496 on Canadian Football League games.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a natural reflection of how Canadians feel about hockey compared to the other sports,&rdquo; said OLC spokesman Don Pister. &ldquo;By common definition, if not by natural definition, hockey is Canada&rsquo;s national sport.&rdquo;Professional baseball was recently introduced to the lottery but figures on amounts bet have yet to be tabulated.Pro Line began Oct. 29, 1992 in Ontario. A similar lottery has been running successfully in western Canada for two years. There are no similar lotteries in the United States.To win, bettors must select results correctly for between three and six games. The more obvious the potential winner of a game, the lower the odds. Odds are set weekly by a four-member group with mathematical and sports backgrounds.Fans may also bet ties, increasing the odds of their potential payoffs. Ties are not offered in baseball and won&rsquo;t be in NHL playoffs because a winner is always decided. A spread of five points or fewer is considered a tie in basketball.The OLC considers anything over $10,000 to be a major prize win. So far, only four have been won; the biggest payoff being $12,397 in February.As of March, $13.8 million had been wagered. Approximately 58. per cent of sales was paid back in prize money. The average wager is $6 and the average payoff is $44.Profits are put in a government account and used for sports, recreation and hospitals. &#9632;

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BROPHY’S STOPS ’N’ STARTS

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div>Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; coach Scott Bowman not only has the most playoff victories (130), he has the best winning percentage among his peers. Here are the winning percentages of other NHL coaches with post-season experience heading into this season&rsquo;s playoffs<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021062/6247107-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="575" height="378"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03707/6247100-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="539" height="718"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Bowman</figcaption></div>The Great One has great lead Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings will work on increasing his lead in playoff scoring when post-season action begins April 18. Here are the active leaders in playoff scoring and their statistical totals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04440/6247093-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg" title="f0005-04" width="573" height="478"></div> &#9632;

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LISTS

<div class="byline">By David Friedlander</div>Atlanta Knights&rsquo; goaltender Manon Rheaume had prepared more than six months for what happened April 10.For Rheaume, becoming the first female to start a professional hockey game was a chance to quiet all the critics who said Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Phil Esposito signed her to a minor-league contract just to drum up publicity for his team.But the game had a disappointing conclusion for Rheaume, an 8-6 loss by the International League Knights to the Cincinnati Cyclones before a capacity crowd of 15,179 at the Omni in Atlanta.&ldquo;Sure, I&rsquo;m a little disappointed,&rdquo; Rheaume said. &ldquo;1 would like to win this game, not just for me, but for the guys, too. They always come back and they try. And I think we&rsquo;re going to go very far in the playoffs. We&rsquo;ve got a lot of character.&rdquo;The 21-year-old native of Lac Beauport, Que., proved her character, not only by dealing with 31 shots-she saved 25 of them-but also by handling the media circus that heralded her arrival into professional hockey.Knights&rsquo; coach Gene Ubriaco and his staff worked with Rheaume throughout the season, and he said she has the ability to perhaps make a club either in the East Coast or Central Leagues. Tampa Bay has a working agreement with the Louisville IceHawks of the ECHL.&ldquo;She needed this game to go into the next phase of her program,&rdquo; Ubriaco said. &ldquo;She has a three-year program. This year was strictly practise, catching up time, and if we could, we were going to get her a start. I&rsquo;ll be honest, she was an inspiration to us. I wanted to get out in front of the division so we could get her into a game. The players were great. We couldn&rsquo;t have done this without them.&rdquo;Rheaume made her IHL debut Dec. 13, stopping three of four shots in the second period during a 4-1 loss to the Salt Lake Golden Eagles.<h2>No-lose deal for U.S. team</h2>For Team USA at the World Championships, it&rsquo;s a no-lose situation.With the Minnesota North Stars and St. Louis Blues duelling for the final Norris Division playoff spot, USA could land Brett Hull, Craig Janney, Bret Hedican and Guy Hebert if the Blues lose. It could get Mike Modano, Neal Broten, Derian Hatcher and Jon Casey if Minnesota loses.The tournament, won by Sweden each of the last two years, runs from April 18 to May 2 in Germany.No players had committed to Team USA as of April 12, but Team Canada had commitments from Bill Ranford, Dave Manson, Brian Benning. Kelly Buchberger, Shayne Corson and Geoff Smith of the Edmonton Oilers and Norm Maciver of the Ottawa Senators.Canada has a wish list that includes Geoff Sanderson of the Hartford Whalers and Philadelphia Flyers Eric Lindros and Mark Recchi.The Russian team, which defeated the Canadian national team 4-1 to win the New Brunswick Cup April 11, hopes to land New York Ranger Alexei Kovalev and Flyer Dimitri Yushkevich. &#9632;

DIGEST

<div class="byline">By THN staff</div>Parity and familiarity have made the first round of the playoffs a battlefield.The last four Stanley Cup champions have been extended to a seventh game in the first round. No other opponents did that.Since 1986-87. the year the NHL extended its first-round playoff series from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven format, the average length of a division semifinal is six games. That compares with five games for division finals and conference and Stanley Cup finals.There has been only one sevengame Stanley Cup final in the past 21 years. Just two of the last 12 conference finals have gone the distance.Half of the first-round playoff series in the last three years have gone seven games and 16 of the 48 first-round series since 1986-87 have gone seven. Over the same time period, seven of the past 24 division final series have gone seven games.With the exception of last season, at least one division winner has been knocked off by a fourth-place team each season since 1981-82.Only nine of the past 28 regular season division winners also won their divisions in the playoffs.SWEDE SUCCESS: Sweden captured the European Junior Championship in Oswiecim. Poland. April 2-9 with a 5-0-0 record.All players in the tournament were bom in 1975.Russia placed second with a 3-1-1 record, while the Czech Republic finished third at 3-2-0.Tomas Blazek of the Czech Republic and Niklas Sundstrom of Sweden tied for the tournament lead with 13 points. Sundstrom is the top-rated European prospect in recent ratings by the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau.Russia&rsquo;s Viktor Kozlov, once considered the top draft-eligible European prospect, had six points.SAINTS MARCH IN: The Dubuque Fighting Saints (United States Junior League) defeated the Kalamazoo Jr. K-Wings (North American Junior League) 9-7 to win the USA Hockey National Championships April 11 in Indianapolis.Center David Vallieres scored three goals and center Todd Cary and right winger Brian Zierke had two each for Dubuque.Dubuque&rsquo;s win was the eighth straight for a USHL team.<h2>HOCKEY WEEK: APRIL 5-11</h2>A weekly compendium of significant events and developments.April 7: Pittsburgh Penguins win NHL record-tying 15th consecutive game, 4-3 over Montreal Canadiens.April 8: Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; Luc Robitaille breaks single-season record for goals by left winger, scoring twice in 2-1 win over San Jose Sharks, giving him 61 goals.April 9: Pittsburgh wins record 16th consecutive game. 10-4 over New York Rangers. Center Mario Lemieux scores five goals.April 10: Ottawa Senators end 38-game road losing streak with 5-3 win over New York Islanders.Boston Bruins clinch Adams Division regular-season title with 5-1 win over Montreal.Atlanta Knights&rsquo; (International League) goaltender Manon Rheaume becomes first woman to start professional game in 8-6 loss to Cincinnati Cyclones. She allows six goaLs and makes 25 saves.April 11: Vancouver Canucks clinch Smythe Division regular-season title with 6-3 win over Calgary Flames. &#9632;

First-round blues hit division champs

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011492/6247193-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="362" height="517"></div>All aboard the G & S Express Railroad. Next stop, the Hockey Hall of Fame. Don&rsquo;t need a ticket. Just hop on board and engineer Gil will railroad it through.You know, the issue isn&rsquo;t that NHL president Gil Stein has been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Far be it for anyone to take issue with that, given the number of dubious inductees into the builders&rsquo; category of the hallowed Hall over the years.The only issue anybody should be concerned with, for now anyway, is the manner in which he was elected.And try as one might, it is certifi-ably impossible to consider this year&rsquo;s elections were administered with even a speck of propriety.To his critics, the NHL president (officially on the job since only Oct. 1) has likened his situation to that of previous league CEOs such as John Ziegler and Clarence Campbell, who were inducted while still president.Well, Campbell founded the Hall, which is as good as any reason to induct him. And though Ziegler was inducted while still serving-that, too, was a joke, even in his 10th year on the job-he at least had the good sense on several occasions prior to that to respectfully decline nomination.If Stein cared more about the league than his place in hockey history, he would have done the same. The honor would be no less honorable two or three years from now.But he chose instead to become directly involved with Hockey Hall of Fame board of directors at the exact time that body was preparing to elect builders to the Hall of Fame.He personally installed five new directors-unceremoniously dismissing former NHL vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill and former Chicago Blackhawk executive Tommy Ivan-two weeks before the board&rsquo;s annual meeting and elections.And some of these new board members came in with strong ideas of how the &ldquo;new and improved&rdquo; board should function.Secret ballot? Get rid of it for a show of hands. Seventy-five per cent majority? Let&rsquo;s go with 51 per cent. Propriety? Let&rsquo;s make former directors ineligible for election until they&rsquo;ve served a two-year waiting period.Now, where do you suspect the impetus for these changes came?That makes Stein a bold man. Shrewd and calculating, too. Also shameless.It is beyond comprehension that any man would want an honor bestowed upon him in such dubious circumstances. Yet Stein reportedly rejected at least one plea from high within the league head office to respectfully decline at this time. His rationale is he was elected fairly and squarely, unanimously at that.Yes, it was so unanimous that the morning after the vote, Canadian Amateur Hockey Association president Murray Costello couldn&rsquo;t look himself in the mirror. He had the good sense, and conscience, to resign from the board.Which brings us to this: Where has NHL commissioner Gary Bettman been through this whole mess?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-021001/6247186-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg" title="f0007-02" width="548" height="689"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gil Stein</figcaption></div>Apparently, Bettman wasn&rsquo;t aware of any of the Hall machinations until they were completed. His only public comment has been that if the Hall requires more input from the commissioner&rsquo;s office, then that is what it will get. At the very least, Bettman must, and likely will, re-establish sanity on the HHOF board of directors to prevent a re-occurrence of the Stein sham.That means instituting new rules such as:&#9632; Returning to the 75 per cent majority.&#9632; Reverting to the secret ballot.&#9632; Prohibiting any NHL employee from consideration for election to the Hall until at least two or three years after leaving the league&rsquo;s employ.It will be all too late, though, to prevent the Stein farce from reaching its conclusion.It&rsquo;s too bad, really. The new $20 million Hall, a sight to behold, will officially open this summer in downtown Toronto. In September, though, when this year&rsquo;s inductees are formally presented, it will go from being the Hall of Fame to the Hall of Shame.Boh McKenzie is a hockey columnist with the Toronto Star. &#9632;

f0007-01

McKENZIE

<div class="byline">By Stan Flschler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-03655/6247224-1-eng-US/f0007-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Peter Stastny knew that Teemu Selanne broke the bank this season, then he watched the Finnish Flash break his rookie scoring mark.</figcaption></div>Seeing NHL players in the press box is nothing new, but the league is considering placing an official there for games. The league recently experimented with the idea, having director of officiating Bryan Lewis on hand to help officiate an East Coast League game between the Knoxville Cherokees and Toledo Storm March 13. Lewis didn&rsquo;t make any calls, but pointed out potential infractions to referee Bernie DeGrace with the use of a headset. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re experimenting all the time,&rdquo; said NHL vice-president of hockey operations Jim Gregory. &ldquo;There were a lot of positive aspects to this in terms of helping the referee to see what&rsquo;s going on, but there also were communication problems like dead spots between upstairs and the ice. We&rsquo;re hoping to do one more game this year.&rdquo; One prominent referee told Bluelines he&rsquo;s adamantly opposed to the idea and has support from his colleagues. &ldquo;We have enough problems without somebody yelling in our ears, telling us what to do,&rdquo; he said.<h2>Czeching out?</h2>Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins claims that &ldquo;in two years I won&rsquo;t be here.&rdquo; Jagr said he might be traded as early as next season. &ldquo;The expansion is good for me and the other guys who want to play more,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;In two years I&rsquo;ll be scoring 150 points.&rdquo; Jagr has two years remaining after this season on a contract he signed in training camp. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not the first time I&rsquo;ve heard that,&rdquo; said Penguins&rsquo; president Howard Baldwin. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to hold Jaromir prisoner.&rdquo;&hellip; Boston Bruin center Adam Oates on linemate Cam Neely: &ldquo;For a bull in a china shop he has got a quick mind and terrific hands. He&rsquo;s strong and smart.&rdquo;<h2>Thanks, Craig</h2>An unusual scene at the dinner honoring winners of the Lester Patrick Award featured one NHL general manager thanking another for getting fired. New York Rangers&rsquo; GM Neil Smith shook the hand of Penguins&rsquo; GM Craig Patrick the day after he received a vote of confidence from Ranger president Bob Gutkowski. regardless of how the Rangers do this season. &ldquo;Thanks to you, Craig, I&rsquo;ll still be around,&rdquo; Smith said. Patrick led the Penguins to two Stanley Cups after being fired by the Rangers.<h2>No Flash in pan</h2>Nobody is more impressed with Teemu Selanne&rsquo;s performance than New Jersey Devil center Peter Stastny, whose rookie scoring record of 109 points was shattered by the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; Finnish Flash. &ldquo;And to think at the start of the season I had never heard of the guy,&rdquo; Stastny said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know a thing about him except he got a huge contract. Now I think he&rsquo;s underpaid.&rdquo;&hellip; New York City mayoral candidate Rudy Giuliani was tossed out of the New York Islanders&rsquo; dressing room recently when he meandered in after watching an exhibition game between the city&rsquo;s police and firemen prior to an NHL match. Giuliani, who wasn&rsquo;t recognized by a member of the training staff, was escorted out of an off-limits area.<h2>Sealed with Kisio</h2>Kelly Kisio remained with the San Jose Sharks-even though the team let him decide whether or not he wanted to be dealt at the trade dead-line-because he feels a loyalty to the organization. &ldquo;My job is not done in San Jose,&rdquo; Kisio said. &ldquo;I still feel challenged here and I want to stay and help the Sharks develop their young players.&rdquo;&hellip; Marc Pominville of St-Hubert, Que., who had won the world table hockey championship four straight years, was beaten by Steve Bernstein of Milbury, Mass., in the 1993 tourney at Le Cage Au Sports in Hull, Que. The scores were 5-3 and 5-4 in the best-of-three final.<h2>Hockey talk</h2>The Fort Worth Star-Telegram points out the average Texan has different definitions of hockey terms. For example:&#9632; The Ice: What you put in a warm Dr. Pepper.&#9632; The crease: What jeans ain&rsquo;t got.&#9632; Hooking: What Grandma does when she makes a rug.&#9632; Slashing: When they cut the price on a used pick-up truck.&#9632; Changing on the fly: Putting on a clean T-shirt while driving to Dallas on 1-30.&#9632; Boarding: Putting the hounds up before you go on vacation.&#9632; Penalty Boxes: Those little cartons of breakfast cereal they sell at the cafeteria. &#9632;

f0007-03

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">By Stephen Harris</div>Few people in the NHL are smarter, on or off the ice, than veteran Boston Bruins&rsquo; center Dave Poulin.And Poulin has put himself in a good bargaining position this season.Healthy and enjoying a terrific season, the 34-year-old Poulin will become an unrestricted free agent July 1, and could command a multimillion dollar contract.&ldquo;Everyone knows about (Adam) Oates and (Ray) Bourque and (Cam) Neely, but Poulin is having an outstanding season,&rdquo; Montreal Canadi-ens&rsquo; coach Jacques Demers said as a 16-3-0 stretch by the Bruins carried them to the Adams Division title.Boston management faces a tough decision on whether to meet his price or let him walk.&ldquo;My contract position,&rdquo; said Poulin with a broad grin, &ldquo;is not bad. Not bad at all. It has been a good stretch. I&rsquo;m happy. But we&rsquo;ll have to evaluate everything when the time comes.&rdquo;Earning $400,000 this season, Poulin has played every game. With four games to go in the regular season, he had made solid offensive contributions (16 goals, 47 points, plus-28), while playing against the top centers in the league. He is among the top Selke Trophy favorites.A comparison Poulin would surely bring to the bargaining table: Montreal&rsquo;s Guy Carbonneau, also a former Selke winner and just a year younger, who earns $725,000-and hasn&rsquo;t had nearly as good a season as the Bruin.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;ll be a problem signing him,&rdquo; assistant GM Mike Milbury said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll try to do business. I don&rsquo;t think any team will sign him to a four-year deal. One or two is the way we&rsquo;d want to go.&ldquo;He obviously has some leverage at this point. We&rsquo;re very happy with him and we&rsquo;ll do what we can to keep him here. If we can, we can. If he wants to go shopping, that&rsquo;s his right.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: As he continues to strengthen his damaged left leg, Cam Neely has stuck to a schedule of playing every other game. His injured knee has held up well, as he had 10 goals and 17 points in 12 games. Neely planned to play every playoff game.The Bruins&rsquo; Adams Division clinching 5-1 win in Montreal April 10, was Boston&rsquo;s seventh consecutive road win and 12th consecutive victory against a divisional foe&hellip; With 44-95-139 totals after 82 games, Adam Oates had the biggest scoring year by a Bruin since Phil Esposito&rsquo;s 145 points in 1973-74.<h2>BOSTON</h2>TRANSACTIONSApril 7: Glen Murray, RW, assigned to Providence (AHL). April 8: Andrew McKim, C. recalled from Providence.ROSTERC-Adam Oates. Dave Poulin. Bryan SmoBnski. Sergei Zholtok, Andrew McKimLW-Joe Juneau, Ted Donato. Tim Sweeney, Dmitri Kvartalnov, Brent Hughes.RW-Cam Neeiy, Peter Douris. Steve Leach. Darin Kimble.LD-Oon Sweeney, Glen Wesley, Gord Roberts. Jim Wiemer.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque. Dave Shaw. Stephane Richer, Gord Murphy.G-Andy Moog. John Blue.INJURIESGlen Featherstone, D, left knee surgery, indefinrte. Steve Heinze. RW, strained left shoulder, day-to-day. Daniel Marois. RW, lower back pain, indefinite. Dave Reid, LW, sprained nght knee, indefinite Vladimir Ruzlcka, LW, strained groin, indefinite. &#9632;

BRUINS

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div>Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; coach Jacques Demers has banned Montreal newspapers from his team&rsquo;s dressing room and urged his players not to listen to sports phone-in programs on local radio stations.The one exception is USA Today, which is available in Montreal. Demers won&rsquo;t go ballistic if a player is found with a copy of that newspaper.&ldquo;I have nothing against the writers and nothing against the papers,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;Some of the players were being distracted by what they read in the papers. There&rsquo;s pressure with the season coming to an end and the playoffs coming up and I told the guys that if there were things that were going to bother them, they shouldn&rsquo;t read the papers.&rdquo;Demers continued his daily vigil of devouring Montreal&rsquo;s newspapers.&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t worry,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still keeping tabs on all the things you guys write.&rdquo;The press the Canadiens have been receiving lately hasn&rsquo;t been good-and who can blame the scribes? Montreal appeared to be a team in disarray heading into the playoffs.In early March, it appeared the Canadiens had a lock on first place in the Adams Division. They were seven points ahead of Quebec and had a 15-point cushion on Boston.Following a 5-1 loss to Boston April 10, the Canadiens were staring third place in the face. The Habs had lost six of nine, eight of 13 and, since March, their record was 7-10-0.The loss to Boston clinched the Adams Division regular-season title to the Bruins.GUMP&rsquo;S CORNER: Former goaltending great Gump Worsley, who played 21 seasons for the New York Rangers, Canadiens and Minnesota North Stars, had words of advice for Patrick Roy: Stay on your feet.Worsley has been watching Roy struggle all season.&ldquo;He seems to be going down sooner into that butterfly. He wasn&rsquo;t when he first came into the league,&rdquo; Worsley said. &ldquo;When you go down into that butterfly too soon, you become vulnerable. You have goals scored against you and you become particularly vulnerable in the 5-hole.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Beleaguered center Denis Savard, who was scratchedfrom the lineup for the first time in his 13-year career March 27 against the Ottawa Senators, and who missed three of the next four games, returned April 7-at right wing. He was teamed with John LeClair and center Kirk Muller. It was believed to be a possible playoff lineup for the Canadiens, although Savard was going to be closely watched.Defenseman Rob Ramage may start the playoffs on the sidelines. He sustained stretched knee ligaments after being checked by Pittsburgh&rsquo;sTroy Loney. Ramage should return sometime during the opening series.When the Canadiens returned from a two-game road trip April 4, right winger Mike Keane discovered his truck had been stolen from the airport parking lot.<h2>MONTREAL</h2>TRANSACTIONSApril 5: Oleg Petrov, RW. assigned to Fredericton (AHL).ROSTERC-Kirk Muller, Stephan Lebeau, Guy Carbonneau. Paul DiPietro, Jesse Belanger.LW-John LeClair, Vincent Oamp-housse, Benoit Brunet. Gilbert Dionne. Mario Roberge.RW-Denis Savard, Brian Bellows, Mike Keane, Todd Ewen.LD-Mathieu Schneider, Jean-Jacques Dargneault. Kevin Haller, Donald Dufresne.RO-Lyle Odelein, Eric Desjardins. Patrice Brisebois, Sean HillG-Patrick Roy. Andre RacicotINJURIESGary Leeman, RW, sprained left ankJe, indefinite. Rob Ramage, O, stretched right knee ligaments. Indefinite. &#9632;

CANADIENS

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>It&rsquo;s not unusual to see Pat LaFontaine give a great effort in a loss.When you&rsquo;ve scored 145 points and you&rsquo;re team is 38-34-10, some good efforts are going to be wasted.But that doesn&rsquo;t mean LaFontaine hasn&rsquo;t had a great season, even if the scoring title eluded him.The inevitable took place in early April. The Sabres staggered through five straight losses. LaFontaine, who did not miss a game this season, got stuck at 145. Mario Lemieux, meanwhile, ran full throttle and soared to 157 points. The race was over.Always gracious, LaFontaine did not grumble. Lemieux told him at the All-Star Game in February that he would be coming back. It wasn&rsquo;t even a warning. Pretty much just a statement of fact.&ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t the first time it has been like this,&rdquo; LaFontaine said. &ldquo;It was like this in junior too. What can you say? He&rsquo;s great player.&rdquo;LaFontaine played for Verdun and Lemieux with Laval in the Quebec League in the early 1980s.Despite noteworthy accomplishments in his own right, LaFontaine said Lemieux should win the Hart Trophy as the league&rsquo;s MVP. He even said that if he had a vote, he would-vote for Lemieux.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t overlook what he has done,&rdquo; LaFontaine said. &ldquo;If he wins the Hart it will be because of his heart. Look what &ldquo;He has overcome. I feel fortunate to be in the position I&rsquo;m in, but lets face it if he hadn&rsquo;t missed 23 games, he&rsquo;d probably be going for 193 (points).&rdquo;If LaFontaine were playing with the No. 1 team in hockey, he might be able to say the same.He shattered team records for points and assists and was the primary force behind Alexander Mogilny&rsquo;s spectacular 70-plus goal season.He also played every game, assumed the captaincy and took over as leader of the team. In terms of-the strict interpretation of the Hart, the player most valuable to his team, LaFontaine rates just as high as Lemieux.&ldquo;Every shift, every game, every night he never takes a night off,&rdquo; former Sabres&rsquo; captain Mike Ramsey said. &ldquo;He has given the team confidence. the kind you can see in the dressing room and on the ice.&rdquo;DARLING CHOICE: The Sabres have inducted long-time broadcaster Ted Darling into the club&rsquo;s Hal) of Fame.Darling has been suffering from an illness diagnosed as Pick&rsquo;s disease, an ailment that mimics some of the symptoms of Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease.He was used in a limited capacity since late last season and received a standing ovation from the Memorial Auditorium crowd at induction ceremonies April 11.NOTEBOOK: The Sabres incured injuries at the worst possible time. Forward Rob Ray tore ligaments in his right knee in a 3-1 loss to Quebec April 11 and will miss the playoffs. He is slated for reconstructive surgery and faces six months of rehabilitation. Bob Errey tore a ligament in his left ankle and could miss the start of the playoffs. Center Bob Sweeney had a shoulder bruise and was scratched from two games.Forward Viktor Gordijuk is now Viktor Gordiouk. He said his name has been misspelled since his arrival from the Russia in September.<h2>BUFFALO</h2>TRANSACTIONSApril 5: Keith Carney, D. recalled from Rochester (AHL) April 9: Doug Macdonald, C. and Viktor Gordlouk. RW. recalled from Rochester. April 12: Gordiouk assigned to Rochester.ROSTERC-Pat LaFontame, Dale Hawerchuk. Dave Hannan, Doug Macdonald.LW-Yun Khymlev, Brad May. Randy Wood, Colin Patterson.RW-Alexander Mogilny, Donald Au-dette, Wayne Presley, Bob Corkum.LO-Doug Bodger, Richard Smehlik. Randy Moller.RD-Ken Sutton, Gord Donnelly. Grant Ledyard, Bill HoulderG-Grant Fuhr. Dominik Hasek. TomINJURIESBob Errey, LW, tom left ankle bga-I ments. day-to-day. Rob Ray. LW. tom right knee ligaments, out for season. I Petr Svoboda, D, right knee surgery, 1 out for season. Bob Sweeney, C. I shoulder bruise, day-to-day. &#9632;

SABRES

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>The Quebec Nordiques want to make one thing perfectly clear: they aren&rsquo;t worried about center Joe Sakic&rsquo;s lack of production.Sakic, 23, was mired in the worst slump of his five-year career heading into the final two games of the season.The Burnaby, B.C., native still had impressive totals-47 goals and 104 points in 77 games-but had just three goals in 15 games.Sakic and coach-general manager Pierre Page tried to take the slump in stride.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s true it&rsquo;s not a very pleasing feeling,&rdquo; Sakic said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s not the end of the world. I&rsquo;m getting chances. The only problem is when it&rsquo;s not the opposing goalie who makes an unbelievable save, I simply miss the target.&rdquo;Sakic&rsquo;s analysis was bang on.The Nordiques were foiled by hot goalies down the stretch on numerous occasions.For example, Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; goalie Tom Barrasso was outstanding in a 5-3 Penguins&rsquo; win April 3.And Boston Bruin goalie Andy Moog stoned Sakic and the Nordiques in a 7-1 Bruins&rsquo; victory April 6.&ldquo;Everyone goes through a slump at least once in a season,&rdquo; Sakic said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s impossible to score every game. If that were the case, you would have an awful lot of 80-goal scorers in the NHL.&rdquo;Page felt Sakic would work things out before the playoffs began.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not pressing panic buttons,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;The only thing I do hold against Joe is he&rsquo;s looking for the perfect goal.&rdquo;HEXTALL TOPS: Pierre Page quelled speculation on who would be his starting goaltender in the playoffs.&ldquo;Ron (Hextali) has been to a seventh game of the Stanley Cup final,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;He knows what it takes to get there.&rdquo;Many fans wondered whether the team would go with the 28-year-old Hextali or youngster Stephane Fiset, who played very well while Hextali was sidelined in February and March.Hextail was shaky at times after returning to the lineup, but Page is confident he can lead the team in the post-season.NOTEBOOK: Contract negotiations between management and winger Todd Warriner are ongoing, but a deal isn&rsquo;t close. Wardner, the fourth choice overall in the 1992 entry draft, is represented by player agent Don Meehan.Defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn was named the team&rsquo;s best defensive player in March and April. He was also named most physically fit player this season by the team&rsquo;s trainers. Steven Finn won the honor the past three seasons.<h2>QUEBEC</h2>TRANSACTIONSApril 10: David Katpa. D, recalledfrom Halifax (AHL).ROSTERC-Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin. MikeRicci, Claude Laporte.LW-Valeri Kamensky, Chris Simon,Martin Ructnsky. Scott Pearson, GinoCavallini, Tony TwistRW-Ancfrei Kovalenko, Owen Nolan,Scott Young, Mike Hough.LO-Steven Finn, Curtis Leschyshyn,Alexei Gusarov, Kerry Huffman.RD-Steve Duchesne, Adam Foote,Craig Wolanin. David Karpa.G-Ron Hextail. Stephane Fiset,Jacques CloutierINJURIESratarinov, D, sprained back, day-to-day &#9632;

NORDIQUES

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>It was a modest streak, as modest as they come, really, but the Ottawa Senators will take it.Gladly.The expansion club put together a winning streak of one game on the road with a 5-3 win over the New York Islanders April 9.The victory snapped the Senators&rsquo; league record-losing streak on the road at 38 games, one more than the 1974-75 Washington Capitals.&ldquo;Better late than never, right?&rdquo; said goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz, who keyed the win with a 42-save performance.He was helped by the fact the Islanders hit the goalpost five times. That marked a reversal of fortunes for what had been a team cursed with nothing but bad luck on the road.The victory, which also snapped a franchise-record losing streak at 14 games, lifted a huge burden from the hearts and minds of the players and coaching staff.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very proud of this team,&rdquo; said coach Rick Bowness, who had blasted some of his players for a lack of effort a couple of nights earlier.While Sidorkiewicz has played the star&rsquo;s role before, captain Laurie Boschman was an unlikely hero on the Senators&rsquo; historic night.Boschman in the twilight of his 14-year career came up with his third career hat trick to supply most of Ottawa&rsquo;s offense.CONTRACT WOES: Senators&rsquo; players said some heavy handed contract re-negotiations by the club have left them feeling disillusioned and disappointed.Andrew McBain and Darcy Loewen were given the options of waiving a one-way clause in their contracts or be sent to the minors.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very disappointed it happened, but it happened,&rdquo; said McBain. Loewen refused comment on the matter.Both players had clauses in their deals that stated if they played a certain number of games in the NHL this season, their contracts would become one-way deals for the rest of this year and all of next. That means they would be paid their NHL salaries even if sent to the minors.But as they closed in on the games they needed to get one-way deals, they were given the choice of moving the clause to next year&rsquo;s contract or be sent to the minors.The moves were made to try to save the club money next year.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t deny we did it,&rdquo; said president and chief operation officer Randy Sexton. &ldquo;The more guys you have on two-way contracts, the more flexibility you have.&rdquo;Players&rsquo; Association executive director Bob Goodenow said he would talk to the parties involved.NOTEBOOK: The Senators sent a videotape to NHL director of officiating Bryan Lewis of a hit from behind by Vancouver Canuck Sergio Momesso on Chris Luongo April 4. Momesso received only a minor from referee Paul Devorski on the play, but after seeing the hit, Lewis agreed it warranted a major. &ldquo;That was a definite attempt to injure,&rdquo; Rick Bowness said. Further discipline could be forthcoming.<h2>OTTAWA</h2>TRANSACTIONSApril 6: Tony Cimellaro. C, assigned to New Haven (AHL). April 7: Martin St-Amour, LW, and Radek Hamr. D, assigned to New Haven April 11: Hamr recalled from New Haven.ROSTERC-Jamie Baker, Mark Lamb, Mark Freer, Laurie Boschman.LW-Sylvain Turgeon, Rob Murphy, Mike Peluso, Darcy Loewen.RW-Bob Kudelskl, Dave Archibald, Andrew McBain, Jody Hull.LD-Norm Maclver, Darren Rumble, Ken Hammond, Brad Marsh. Radek Hamr.RD-Gord Otneen, Brad Shaw. Chris Luongo.G-Peter Sidorkiewcz. Daniel Ber-thiaume.INJURIESTomas Jelinek RW, bruised right knee, indefinite &#9632;

SENATORS

<div class="byline">By Jeff Jacobs</div>The first step in keeping the Whalers in Hartford was taken April 7 when Gov. Lowell P. Weicker announced the state of Connecticut would bid to buy the Hartford Civic Center from the city of Hartford.Weicker believes state ownership of the facility is the best hope to keep the struggling NHL franchise-with all the economic activity it stimu-lates-in Hartford. The state presumably would be in a better position to give the Whalers a better lease arrangement.Weicker made his announcement after meeting with mayor Carrie Saxon Perry and city manager Howard Stanback. No price tag was affixed to the Civic Center, but Weicker wants to get the deal done before the summer drags on.&ldquo;The purpose of this exercise is to help the city of Hartford,&rdquo; Weicker said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a bailout. We want to help each other. We&rsquo;re not in an adversarial position here. It&rsquo;s to preserve this asset in Hartford with all the economic benefit.&rdquo;State legislative approval would not be required, because the financing would be arranged by the Connecticut Development Authority, combined with other state loan guarantees and private financing.The authority has the power to borrow money in the bond market and offer loans and loan guarantees.City council approval would be needed. Weicker hinted the effort could include making the team and arena one entity.&ldquo;It makes it much more difficult to have a successful franchise if the facility and the activity are separate and apart, so clearly it&rsquo;s in the back of my mind to marry the two,&rdquo; Weicker said.Whalers&rsquo; owner Richard Gordon said he would like to get rights to manage the Civic Center, turning over management responsibilities to a private company such as Spectacor.But Gordon repeated his promise he would not try to peddle the team to another city-Houston and Minneapolis are prime targets-while Weicker works out a deal.He also said he doesn&rsquo;t want to sell to another Hartford-based owner.Although he denied it, Peter Cooney, owner of the American League&rsquo;s Springfield Indians reportedly approached Gordon about a potential sale on behalf of an interested group which wants to keep the team in the city.HOT SHOOTER: When center Michael Nylander sustained a broken jaw in January, there were fears he wouldn&rsquo;t return for the season.But the Swedish rookie has returned and on April 7, scored his first career hat trick in a 6-1 rout of the Ottawa Senators.&ldquo;We&rsquo;d like him to shoot more,&rdquo; said coach Paul Holmgren. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s another guy, like Patrick Poulin, we&rsquo;re on to shoot when it&rsquo;s there. The only young guy who has really caught on is Geoff Sanderson.&rdquo;Nylander. selected 59th overall at the 1991 entry draft, had nine goals and 30 points in 56 games.NOTEBOOK: The Whalers surpassed their team record of 2,251 penalty minutes set in 1990-91. The record came when left winger Jim McKenzie picked up an instigating penalty and game misconduct for fighting Ottawa&rsquo;s Mike Peluso April 7. McKenzie was suspended for three games for picking up his fifth game misconduct of the season.<h2>HARTFORD</h2>TRANSACTIONSApril 5: Mike Lenarduzzi, G recalled from Springfield (AHL)ROSTERC-Andrew Cassels. Michael Nyfan-der, Mark Janssens, Terry Yake. Paul Gillis.LW-Geoff Sanderson. Patrick Poulin, Randy Cunneyworth, Jim McKenzie.RW-Pat Verbeek. Mark Greig, Robert Kron, Yvon Corriveau.LD-Zariey Zalapski. Randy Ladouceur. Al Pedersen.RD-Doug Houda. Eric Weinrich, Adam Burt Dan Keczmer.G-Mano Gosseiin. Mike Lenarduzzi.INJURIESJim Agnew, O, left knee surgery, out for season. Sean Burke, G. back spasms, day-to-day. Nick Kypreos, LW, pulled stomach muscle, out tor season Frank Pietrangelo, G. cracked ribs, out for season. &#9632;

WHALERS

<div class="byline">By Kevin Dupont</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011426/6247399-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="361" height="512"></div>Now is the time to make even deeper cuts. No more Campbell Conference? No more Wales Conference? All the king&rsquo;s horses and all the king&rsquo;s men can&rsquo;t put the Adams, Patrick, Smythe and Norris together again?Fine. No argument here.Before Bettman & Bros, (proposed new name for the NHL) sent the old guys packing, the league&rsquo;s conferences and divisions read like the invited list at one more memorabil-ia/autograph show.But let&rsquo;s take the name-change thing a step further and find a new term for plus-minus.What a phrase.&ldquo;Yeah, but how&rsquo;s the guy&rsquo;s plusminus?&rdquo;Coaches ask it all the time, awards are based on it, but without getting into the merits of the statistic itself-it has some plus, but more minus attributes-it sounds too much like a blood-pressure reading.No other sport has its commentators launch into such protracted explanations of a statistic, typically to wrap up the mesmerizing exercise by saying, &ldquo;Well, hey, it&rsquo;s more a player-management statistic&mdash;they each use it at the bargaining table&hellip; and now this word from Jiffy Lube.&rdquo;If the guy is a plus, life is great. If the guy is a minus, life ain&rsquo;t a bowl of cherries. Just like blood pressure.The truth is, plus-minus only comes close to what would be a valuable, tell-all statistic to add to what, admittedly, is often a blur of numbers on your morning sports page.What is hockey? More than anything, it is possession. I have the puck, you want it, and therein lies the battle that keeps the sport&rsquo;s following glued to TVs, radios, newspapers and office pools.The Broad Street Bullies and a few other teams of the past put their own wrinkle to this basic definition. The puck wasn&rsquo;t always a necessary part of the equation. In fact, it was almost incidental. The idea of the game, though, is to drop the puck and have 10 guys decide who wants it most.Football tallies its tackles and pays even stricter attention to quarterback sacks.Basketball pays homage to the rebounder, offensive and defensive, and the backboard becomes the focal point of the fight for possession.The fight in baseball isn&rsquo;t so profound. It divides the pie up into innings and waits for avarice, greed and labor lawyers to sort out the World Series champion.Hockey, meanwhile, has arguably the best sustained struggle of all the sports, but pays no numerical attention to the guy who fights the good fight-the player who gets the puck back for his team.We get loaded up each morning with our daily doses of goals, assists, points, plus-minus (ugh), save percentages and shot totals, but nothing tells us who really goes out there every night and works right to the root of the game.All right, so some guy buries 45 goals a year and ends up plus-3. What does that tell me?For all I know, he hit no one, walked into some sweet passes and fired in 35-footers from the pizza stand from October to April. There&rsquo;s also a good chance he sent his sweater and pants out for only one dry cleaning all season, and only because they got wrinkled during a flight delay.I would much rather know how Mr. Scored 45/plus-3 did at competing for the puck. When his opponent took possession, did he care enough to get it back once, twice, 10 times a game? Did he try at all, or did he poach at the blueline, inflate his pumps and wait for divine intervention to send the puck skittering his way?Today&rsquo;s hockey has far too many players who have forgotten the fight, or never knew it in the first place. The league (Bettman & Bros.) is spending a lot of time and money right now to try and decide whether fighting should be rubbed off the face of the ice.Most everyone will admit it&rsquo;s a marketing nightmare and the game will have a hard time being taken seriously by big-money advertisers as long as Tie Domi, Bob Probert and Robert Ray keep dotting the league&rsquo;s image with black eyes.But what if the good fight goes away? What then? A game with no one really fighting for the puck is, well, baseball on blades. Pack up the nets and call in the lawyers.A statistic can&rsquo;t police or remedy all that, of course. But what would you think of a player who, over the course of a season, made what amounted to 700 steals or takeaways in 84 games? And how would he stack up to a guy with similar ice time who forced, say, only 125 repossessions?It would say a whole lot more than the plus-minus statistic. It would have a much louder voice at contract time. All we have to do now is get the name right. &#9632;

f0013-01

DUPONT

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>In the heart of every Broadway understudy and every big-league benchwarmer lives a burning faith that they are worthy of a spot on the marquee&hellip; if only they could get the chance.Nine times out of 10, they&rsquo;re wrong.Tampa Bay Lightning center Brian Bradley, THN&rsquo;s comeback player of the year for 1992-93, was right.Bradley, who never scored more than 19 goals in an NHL season, scored 42 in 78 games with the Lighting. He had 84 points, 37 more than his previous career high.His goal total this season represented more than the three previous seasons combined.That made Bradley the third-high-est scoring player of all time on an expansion team. Blaine Stoughton scored 56 with the Hartford Whalers in 1980-81, the same season Wayne Gretzky scored 51 with the Edmonton Oilers. Both teams joined the NHL from the World Hockey Association.&ldquo;I knew I could get 70 or 80 points in the NHL,&rdquo; said the 28-year-old Bradley. &ldquo;Now I think I can score 50 goals if I bear down through the season.&rdquo;Bradley has always had talent. He is an above average skater with a good shot and solid passing skills. But he never seemed able to play well with any consistency.He averaged only 53 games per season in six years with the Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs. In 59 games with the Leafs last year, Bradley scored only 10 goals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021015/6247430-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="549" height="1273"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Bradley is entering his option year with the Lightning.</figcaption></div>Late in the 1990-91 season, he failed to score in 26 games after his acquisition by Toronto from the Canucks.&ldquo;That (goalless streak) got to be a joke,&rdquo; Bradley said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to score when you&rsquo;re playing two minutes a game. I could have stayed the rest of my career in Toronto and based on how much 1 was playing, I would have scored five or 10 goals.&rdquo;Bradley was taken off Toronto&rsquo;s roster in the expansion draft at the urging of Lightning director of player personnel Tony Esposito.Installed on special teams and on a regular shift with transplanted centers John Tucker on the right side and Rob Zamuner on the left, Bradley matched his high-water mark for goals in a season with a hat trick against the Detroit Red Wings Dec. 5.Lightning coach Terry Crisp, who also coached Bradley in Calgary and in the American League with Moncton, said Bradley responded well to increased responsibility.&ldquo;Getting the playing time was the big thing for him,&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;Nobody left Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux off their protected lists for us to draft, so we knew when we chose Brian we would be depending on him for a lot of our offense.&rdquo;Entering the option year of a contract that paid him $350,000 this season, Bradley has already begun negotiating with the Lightning for a new long-term pact. The going rate for a 40-goal scorer is easily twice as much as he makes now.&ldquo;We have a new baby girl, our first,&rdquo; Bradley said. &ldquo;I made the all-star team for the first time in my career and the season has been a success. All in all, it has been a pretty good year.&rdquo;<h2>It&rsquo;s really great to be back</h2>There is no NHL award for comeback player of the year, but if there were, there would be enough candidates to form a team.THN&rsquo;s all-comeback team for 1992-93 is led by Tampa Bay Lightning center Brian Bradley, but includes other worthy players.Goalie Kay Whitmore of the Vancouver Canucks, defensemen Gary Suter of the Calgary Flames Garry Galley of the Philadelphia Flyers and forwards Scott Young of the Quebec Nordiques and John MacLean of the New Jersey Devils join Bradley on the team.Recognized for their comebacks behind the bench and in the executive offices are Boston Bruins&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter and Lightning general manager Phil Esposito.Here&rsquo;s a look at the winners:Kay Whitmore: The 26-year-old established himself as a bona fide NHL stopper with a 2.97 goals against average and an.892 save percentage after a so-so career with the Hartford Whalers.Gary Suter: After two seasons of declining returns. Suter had a career-high 23 goals. Pushed into the limelight by an injury to Al Maclnnis, the 28-year-old responded with one of his best seasons.Garry Galley: Galley, 30, suffering from the lingering effects of chronic fatigue syndrome, scored 13 goals and added 47 assists and was Philadelphia&rsquo;s best defenseman.Scott Young: It&rsquo;s a long way to Bolzano, Italy, but for 25-year-old Young, it&rsquo;s an even longer way back. After a year with an Italian team and the U.S. Olympic team. the former Whaler and Pittsburgh Penguin was closing in on 30 goals.John MacLean: MacLean returned from a severe knee injury and after a slow start (he did not score until the team&rsquo;s 11th game), the 28-year-old seems destined to return to die 40-goal club next year.Phil Esposito: Trader Phil was run out of New York in 1989, but he resisted the temptation to deal away the Lightning&rsquo;s future. He also signed several free agents and made the Lightning one of the best expansion teams ever.Brian Sutter: Being the winningest coach in St Louis Blues&rsquo; history could not keep Sutter employed. But he rebounded in Boston, where he earned his second 100-point season and his first-ever meaningfill run at the Stanley Cup. &#9632;

f0013-02

Scoring on rebound Revitalized sniper Brian Bradley earns THN comeback-player-of-year honors

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; coach Darryl Sutter had no trouble identifying his two biggest worries heading into the playoffs.Steve Larmer and Michel Goulet.&ldquo;My biggest concern the last three weeks has been those two guys,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;They haven&rsquo;t played well.&rdquo;Larmer was is in the second prolonged slump of the season with just one goal in 17 games. Goulet had two goals in 15 games and was scratched four times in an eight-game stretch.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve talked enough to both of them,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re great players and have been recognized for individual accomplishments, but they haven&rsquo;t been recognized for what they&rsquo;ve done in May and June.&rdquo;If it seems Sutter is being hard on his veterans, he&rsquo;s only thinking of the playoffs and how much he needs his best players on top of their games.&ldquo;Our role guys work their butts off and you know what you&rsquo;re going to get from them,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;It comes down to what you get from your top five or six guys.&rdquo;Larmer&rsquo;s lack of production was puzzling, since he virtually carried the Hawks from early December through mid-January, scoring 24 goals in 26 games. Now he&rsquo;s not even getting many scoring chances.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to score a couple goals before the playoffs to get confidence,&rdquo; Larmer said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not getting open, not getting chances and not getting involved. I&rsquo;m standing around.&rdquo;Sutter has confidence in Larmer, too, which is why he was keeping his fingers crossed in hopes that Larmer would play through his slump.&lsquo;Tve tried not to be too critical, but the emotion is not there,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;You wouldn&rsquo;t think that to be a problem with a guy who has done what he has done individually, but you&rsquo;ve got to play with emotion.&rdquo;As for Goulet, suddenly in a competition for playing time, there was no guarantee he&rsquo;d be in the lineup every night in the playoffs.CHRISTIAN MAKES IT: Dave Christian finally reached the 1,000-game milestone April 11 against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the third to last game of the season. It looked like Christian might not make it after being scratched 15 times in 19 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011505/6247461-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="553" height="698"><figcaption class="caption-body">After a hot winter, Steve Larmer had one goal in 17 games.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I promised him he&rsquo;d get it,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;Not many guys get to play 1,000 games and you never know what might happen (next season).&rdquo;&ldquo;I was stuck on 998, so it&rsquo;s nice to get if&rdquo; Christian said. &ldquo;It has gone fast. The next 1,000 will go slower because I&rsquo;ll be watching most of them.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Chris Chelios got his 55th assist of the season April 10 at Tampa, breaking Doug Wilson&rsquo;s club record for defensemen&hellip; Darryl Sutter planned to keep Chelios and Steve Smith apart, for the time being. Smith was playing with Craig Muni while Chelios and Bryan March-ment were partners.<h2>CHICAGO</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC-Jeremy Roenick, Christian Ruuttu. Brent Sutter, Troy Murray.LW-Steve Larmer, Greg Gilbert, Stephane Matteau, Stu Crimson, Mtchel Goulet, Dave Christian.RW-Joe Murphy, Dirk Graham, Brian Noonan. Jocelyn Lemieux.LD-8ryan Marchment, Steve Smith. Cam Russell, Frank Kucera.RD-Chris Chelios. Craig Muni, Keith Brown, Adam Bennett.G-Ed Betfour, Jimmy Waite.INJURIESNone. &#9632;

f0014-01

BLACKHAWKS

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>Skate a shift, watch the scoreboard. Skate a shift, check the out-of-town scores again.So it went for the Detroit Red Wings as the final grains of sand slipped through the hour glass of their regular season. A kind of helpless feeling engulfed them as first place in the Norris Division began to slip away.The Wings were destined to finish second behind the Chicago Blackhawks, despite a 13-3-0 run heading into the season finale.A first-round playoff matchup with the Toronto Maple Leafs was probable and the Wings were prepared. Detroit scouts had been following all Norris playoff participants for two weeks, with emphasis on the Leafs, scouted by assistant general manager Doug MacLean.The key to beating the Leafs is no different than it has been all season. However, the Wings had only mixed success, finishing the regular-season series tied 3-3-1.&ldquo;You have to focus on Doug Gilmour,&rdquo; coach-GM Bryan Murray said. &ldquo;When he&rsquo;s going well offensively, they can score. When he&rsquo;s not, they have a little trouble.&ldquo;The speed of our forwards should have an impact on how Toronto plays. We&rsquo;ve got to use our quickness and not turn the puck over in the neutral zone.&rdquo;FLORIDA CAMP: The Wings, with just three games over the final two weeks of the season, concluded a four-day mini-training camp in Florida with a 9-1 rout of the Tampa Bay Lightning April 8.For four days prior, they skated long and hard and concluded their 2 &frac12;-hour workouts with off-ice conditioning circuits. Then they had three days in Florida to golf or fish during free time. The players felt compelled to finish with a win.&ldquo;It was important to let people know we didn&rsquo;t take this for granted,&rdquo; Shawn Burr said. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t come down to screw around. We came down to work hard and get our game going.&rdquo;The Wings didn&rsquo;t set Expo Hall on fire in the game&rsquo;s opening moments. Though leading 1-0, Bryan Murray was so upset eight minutes into the game when the shot clock read 7-1 in Tampa&rsquo;s favor that he used his team&rsquo;s only timeout to tell his players in no uncertain terms to get it in gear.Murray&rsquo;s message?&ldquo;I had asked them to do a couple of things to start the game-put the puck in deep and put some pressure on their defense. I told them the next guy who didn&rsquo;t dump the puck in wasn&rsquo;t going to get back on the ice again. Fortunately, my threat lasted only about a minute and a half.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: With one game remaining, Detroit&rsquo;s 46 victories was a team record, and the 101 points were the most since the Wings had 101 inthe70-game 1950-51 season.Brian Murray coached his 915th career game in a 6-5 win over the Buffalo Sabres April 10, moving ahead of Toe Blake into seventh place on the NHL&rsquo;s all-time list of games coached.Detroit&rsquo;s checking line of Slava Kozlov. Sergei Fedorov and Paul Ysebaert prevented 74-goal scorer Alexander Mogilny from getting a shot on goal and limited 144-point man Pat Lafontaine to two shots, including a goal. The Fedorov line helped produce three goals, including Ysebaert&rsquo;s winner with 2 &frac12; minutes left. The Wings had 44 shots on goal in the game, but none by Steve Yzerman.<h2>DETROIT</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC-Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov. Dallas Drake, Shawn Burr.LW-Gerard Gallant. Slava Kozlov. Bob Probed, Ray Sheppard John OgrodnickRW-Dino CiccareHi. Paul Ysebaert. Sheldon Kennedy, Jim Hiller.LD-Paul Coffey, Steve Chiasson, Steve Konroyd, Brad McCrimmon.RD-Nicklas Udstrom. Vladimir Konstantinov. Yves RacineG-TIm Chaveklae, Vince Riendeau.INJURIESMark Howe. D, sprained neck, day-to-day Keith Primeau, C, sprained right knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

RED WINGS

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>The problem with success is it breeds expectations.That&rsquo;s certainly what the Toronto Maple Leafs found this year. Entering the season, the club hoped to play.500 hockey and make the playoffs in Pat Bums&rsquo; first year as coach.Instead, Toronto ended up bettering the previous franchise best of 42 regular-season wins and 95 points, while making the playoffs for the first time in three years.Despite the breakthrough season, however, the Leafs found themselves under intense scrutiny as they limped down the home stretch.With three weeks left in the season, the Leafs were in good position to finish first or second in the Norris Division. But a three-game losing streak left them in third place with no chance to move higher.Bums seemed perturbed the club&rsquo;s achievements were being made secondary to a slump during the final days of the season.&ldquo;If we were to listen to everybody and believe everything we read, we might as well fold our tents,&rdquo; Bums said.The Leafs were assured of third following a 4-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers April 10.Bums rested Doug Gilmour, Todd Gill, Jamie Macoun and Nikolai Borschevsky the next night against the Hartford Whalers. The Leafs won 4-2, a victory that broke the club&rsquo;s points and wins marks.The other good news is the team is healthy entering the post-season. Dave Ellett, John Cullen. Peter Zezel and Dmitri Mironov returned for the Hartford game, while winger Mark Osborne was expected back before the playoffs.PLAYOFF PRIMER: It wasn&rsquo;t exactly a tug-of-war, but Pat Bums won a difference of opinion with genera] manager Cliff Fletcher.Bums, who used to take his Montreal Canadiens to a Laurentien mountain getaway before the playoffs, wanted to do something similar with this year&rsquo;s Leaf club after their April 15 season finale in Chicago.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011286/6247516-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="552" height="694"><figcaption class="caption-body">Center John Cullen is healthy again and primed for the playoffs.</figcaption></div>Fletcher was cool to the idea, but a commitment to rent Maple Leaf Gardens April 16 and 17 likely swayed him to let his coach have his way.The Leafs spent part of this year&rsquo;s training camp in Collingwood, a ski resort north of Toronto. They were to head there for three days before their first-round playoff series.NOTEBOOK: John Cullen was initially expected to miss the rest of the regular season with a herniated neck disc, but he rejoined the team April 8 against the Winnipeg Jets and had an assist in a 5-3 loss.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for The Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2>TRANSACTIONSApril 10: Brandon Convery, C, and Matt Martin. D, signed multi-year contracts and were assigned to St. John&rsquo;s (AHL).ROSTERC-Doug Gilmour, John Cullen. Peter Zezel, Mike Eastwood, Dave McUwain. Mike Krushelnyskl.LW-Dave Andreychuk. Wendei Clark, Bill Berg, Ken BaumgartnerRW-NIkolai Borschevsky, Rob Pearson, Mike Foligno, Glenn Anderson.LD-Davo Ellett. Sylvain Lefebvre, Jamie Macoun. Darryl Shannon.RD-Todd G8I. Bob Rouse. Drake Berehowsky, Dmitri Mironov.G-FeHx Potvin, Daren Puppa, Rick Wamsley.INJURIESBob McGill. D. broken jaw, Indefinite. Mark Osborne. RW. sprained left knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0016-01

MAPLE LEAFS

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>Stung by criticism directed at him by management and players in a newspaper article, St. Louis Blues&rsquo; captain Brett Hull responded with two inspired efforts.Hull scored two goals in each of the Blues&rsquo; back-to-back games against the Minnesota North Stars April 10 and 11. The Blues lost the first game 4-3, then won 5-1.Hull defended himself, saying he gets blamed for everything, especially a loss, that his playing time was down and that it wasn&rsquo;t his fault he had no quality linemates. He was on a line with Ron Wilson and Philippe Bozon.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to be the hero when you&rsquo;re the third-line right wing who doesn&rsquo;t play,&rdquo; Hull said. &ldquo;I sit on the bench most of the game. I don&rsquo;t get a chance to do anything.&ldquo;I was second in the league in short-handed goals last year and I don&rsquo;t kill penalties anymore. It&rsquo;s not my fault there&rsquo;s no one here to play with. I&rsquo;ve given my heart and soul and 1 always get (in trouble).&rdquo;Coach Bob Berry was asked if Hull needed a wake-up call after a 2-2 tie with the Tampa Bay Lightning April 6.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll probably deny that vehemently, that he plays super every night,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;We all needed a wake-up call. If it came in a newspaper article, so be it.&rdquo;Hull denied the possibility psychology had been used to inspire a greater effort from him.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s anyone smart enough to use psychology on me,&rdquo; Hull said, smirking. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m too smart for that.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The win over Minnesota snapped a six-game winless streak. It was the Blues&rsquo; longest since an 0-4-2 stretch after the infamous four-for-two deal with the Vancouver Canucks two years ago&hellip; The Blues were so impressed with Denny Felsner&rsquo;s debut against the Chicago Blackhawks April 5 they upgraded him from an emergency to regular recall.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC-Craig Janney, Nelson Emerson, Bob Basson, Ron Wilson, Igor Korolev.LW-Basil McRae. Brendan Shanahan. Kevin Miller. Dave Lowry.RW-Brett Hud, Denny Fefsner, Rich Sutter, Philippe BozonRD-Garth Butcher, Rick Zombo, Stephane Quintal.LD-Jeft Brown. Bret Hedlcan. Doug Crossman G-Curtis Joseph, Guy Hebert.INJURIESMurray Baron. D, broken left foot, April 26 Kelly Chase, RW. bruised left knee, day-to-day. Curt Giles. D. left shoulder strain, day-to-day. Lee Norwood, D, broken right ankle, April 26. Vitali Prokhorov, LW. right shoulder surgery, out for season. Ron Sutter. C. separated right shoulder, out for season &#9632;

BLUES

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011142/6247571-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"></div>Adam Creighton has heard the boos pouring down from the stands at Expo Hall. He has ignored them, though, mostly because that&rsquo;s his nature.&ldquo;When a big guy like me coasts, it looks bad,&rdquo; the 6-foot-5, 210 pounder said. &ldquo;But nobody should think I&rsquo;m not trying. The effort is there, even if it doesn&rsquo;t look like it sometimes.&rdquo;It didn&rsquo;t look like it when Creighton first joined the team. Preoccupied with the health of his pregnant wife, he wasn&rsquo;t focused when the season opened. It wasn&rsquo;t until his wife finally gave birth-six games into the season-that he scored his first goal.But he had just nine more over the next 18 weeks, enduring 17-and eight-game scoring slumps.Creighton points to one key reason for his slump. The company that makes his sticks couldn&rsquo;t make a shaft stiff enough for him to produce a solid, accurate shot.&ldquo;That was really frustrating, but when I did get one I liked, things got rolling,&rdquo; he said.After finding an appropriate stick, Creighton was on a mini roll, scoring seven goals and 10 points in 15 games.He needed three goals in his final two games to reach the 20-goal mark for the fourth consecutive year.NOTEBOOK: Brian Bradley scored his 42nd goal of the season in a 3-3 tie with the Chicago Blackhawks April 11. That matched the total Real Cloutier scored for the Quebec Nordiques during their first season in the NHL. Of all first-year NHL clubs, only two (Edmonton Oilers and Hartford Whalers) had players who scored more goals than Bradley-Hartford&rsquo;s Blaine Stoughton (56) and Edmonton&rsquo;s Wayne Gretzky (51).<h2>TAMPA BAY</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC-Brian Bradley. Adam Creighton. Randy GShen. Steve KasperLW-MIkael Andersson. John Tucker. Steve Mal-tais, Jason LaFrenlereRW-Rob Zamuner, Danton Cote. Tim Bergland. LD-Roman Hamrtik. Mare Bergevin, Mat! Hervey. RD-Shawn Chambers, Bob Beers, Chris LiPuma. G-Pat Jablonski, J.C. Bergeron.INJURIESMarc Bureau. C/RW, bruised right thigh, our for season. Rob DiMaio. C, sprained right ankle, out for season. Chris Kontos, LW, sprained right knee, out lor season. Joe Reekie. D. broken left tog, out for season Wendell Young, G, dislocated right shoulder, out for season &#9632;

f0017-01

LIGHTNING

<div class="byline">By Gary Olson</div>Brian Propp came all the way from Switzerland to help the Minnesota North Stars in their quest to make the playoffs.Propp scored two goals to lead the Stars past the Buffalo Sabres April 6 and keep their playoff hopes alive.Making it to post-season would be the 34-year-old&rsquo;s way of letting the NHL know he is available for a 15th NHL season.&ldquo;I never missed the playoffs in my first 13 years in the NHL; this has been weighing heavily on my mind,&rdquo; he said.Propp&rsquo;s goals against Buffalo were his first since October. To be fair, he would have needed a mighty long stick to score many in between since the Stars assigned him to play this season in Lugano, Switzerland, on Nov. 14. He didn&rsquo;t return to the NHL until March 19.The left winger played 24 games with Lugano and scored 22 goals. The sometimes twice-a-day practices so common for European teams and the relatively few games, allowed him to return to the Stars fit and feisty.&ldquo;Weren&rsquo;t you the guy who wrote I&rsquo;d never play in the NHL again?&rdquo; Propp asked in response to a &ldquo;Welcome back&rdquo; greeting, his memory not nearly as fit as he is.After clearing waivers several times last fall, the Stars assigned him to Lugano and, in a-departure story, it was suggested he may have reached the end of a career that spanned 14 NHL seasons.&ldquo;I knew I could still play (in the NHL),&rdquo; he said, massaging an ego that accompanied him in five All-Star Games and five Stanley Cup finals. &ldquo;At the time of the season when I cleared waivers, no one was picking up players. But I had fun playing in Switzerland and things worked out okay.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011181/6247602-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="549" height="736"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Stars got a boost down the stretch from veteran Brian Propp.</figcaption></div>When Propp left Minnesota, North Stars&rsquo; general manager-coach Bob Gainey had a chance to trade him but chose to keep him as insurance.&ldquo;Brian has been one of our assets all season,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;We could have sent him to another NHL team and split his salary but I didn&rsquo;t think it was the right thing to do. I didn&rsquo;t want him to play against us and be paying him to do it.&ldquo;I think he got more ice time and more skating in Switzerland than he would have with us for most of the schedule. At this time of the year, you expect a player with (Propp&rsquo;s) kind of experience and character to be a help.&rdquo;Propp had scored 413 goals and 972 points in 948 NHL games heading into the final two games of the season.ON THE MOVE: As the North Stars moved into what could be their final week in Minnesota, owner Norm Green sent the moving trucks to Met Center and then announced ticket prices for next season in Dallas.When the Stars arrived for practice the day before a crucial, home-and-home series against the St. Louis Blues April 10-11, they had to walk past moving trucks loading office furniture. The lower concourses were littered with furniture waited to be moved.&ldquo;What&rsquo;s he trying to tell us?,&rdquo; one player said angrily on his way to practice. &ldquo;That our season is almost over?&rdquo;Green was only moving the better furniture. One long-time employee said he had a huge desk at the end of one work day and it had been replaced by a conference table during the night.In Dallas, Green announced tickets at Reunion Arena will be scaled in five steps, from $9.50 to $40, with luxury seating in the lower bowl more costly.Green had initially set his lowest priced ticket at $15 but, at the urging of NHL chairman of the board Bruce McNall, he dropped it under $10. Green said there would be at least 5,000 tickets at $15 or less.NOTEBOOK: Each member of the Stars was to collect $10,000 if the team finished the regular season with at least 85 points and qualified for the playoffs.Security guards began removing memorabilia from the walls at Met Center as a precaution against fans looking for a souvenir as time runs out on the Stars&rsquo; run in Minnesota. The pictures of former players on the wall outside the team&rsquo;s dressing room were put in a secure location and will be presented to those players.<h2>MINNESOTA</h2>TRANSACTIONSApril 6: Derrick Smith, LW, recalled from Kalamazoo (IHL). April 7: Smith assigned to Kalamazoo. April 9: Travis Richards, D. assigned to U.S. team for Wortd Championships April 11: Cal McGowan. C, recalled from Kalamzoo.ROSTERC-Mike Modano, Neal Broten, Dave Gagner. Bobby Smith, Cal McGowan.LW-Mike Craig, Mike McPhee, Brian Propp, Gaetan Duchesne.RW-Russ Courtnail, Trent Klatt, Shane Churia, Ulf Dahlen.LD-Brad Berry, Craig Ludwig, Richard Matvlchuk. Mark Osiecki. Enrico Ciccone.RD-Derian Hatcher, Tommy Sjodin. G-Jon Casey, Darcy Wakaluk.INJURIESStewart Gavin. LW, tom right knee ligament, indefinite. Brent Gilchrist. LW, separated collarbone, indefinite. Jim Johnson, D, sprained right knee, indefinite. Mark Tlnordi, D, broken collarbone, indefinite. &#9632;

f0018-01

NORTH STARS

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011100/6247633-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="357" height="512"></div>In the giddiest early spring the Toronto Maple Leafs have enjoyed in at least 15 seasons, Doug Gilmour wanted to to go for the Norris Division title. &ldquo;1 think we should try to win everything we can,&rdquo; he said.Now, it should be pointed out this was the same Doug Gilmour who would have tried to tear Eric Lindros limb from limb two nights earlier had not the linesman intervened. Gilmour&rsquo;s energy is one of the two best answers to this year&rsquo;s primary hockey stumper: How the heck are the Leafs doing it?The Leafs came down the stretch with the approximate depth of Tiger Williams&rsquo; nose between themselves, the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks. Toronto hasn&rsquo;t been this amazed since Paul Harrison&rsquo;s last shutout, nor as excited since the acquisition of Dave Burrows. Imagine, the Leafs can actually win something.However, Pat Bums, the coach who is &lsquo;1A&rsquo; to Gilmour in the not-very-multiple reply to the above question, didn&rsquo;t want his team to go for it at all. Ironic, but true: Bums, who spent the first 75 games of the season prodding his boys with a sharp, hot stick, appeared to bury it in the mud in the last month of the season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;d like to finish first, but it&rsquo;s going to be tough to get,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think we have to be realistic about it. The objective of making the playoffs has changed from the start of the year and it shouldn&rsquo;t. I&rsquo;m stressing playing well to them, not winning.&rdquo;See, here&rsquo;s the way it has to be in the NHL. You set a goal at the beginning of the season to try to finish as high as you can, then spend the final days before the playoffs telling yourself that&rsquo;s not really important at all. Only the teams not assured of a playoff spot are sprinting. Those already in strive only for a smooth, confident stride while making sure they have energy left in the tank for the gun lap. &ldquo;I know, I know,&rdquo; said Gilmour, shaking his head, but the coach knows best. This is just the way the regular-season stretch has to be in a league where 16 of 24 teams make the playoffs.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen it happen a lot where teams bum themselves out going for regular-season titles,&rdquo; Bums said.Sad to say, it&rsquo;s hard to remember what exactly it was that they won, too. Oh, for sure, the 1988 Calgary Flames, who were smoked four straight by the Edmonton Oilers in the Smythe Division final, all recall nailing down the President&rsquo;s Trophy on the final day of the regular season, but much in the same sense you recall a school project that got stuck four rows back in the display on parent&rsquo;s night. You wondered why you put so much time and effort into something the teacher felt missed the point. Smarter kids, who you know did less work, wound up with better grades.To be fair, division winners usually remember the accomplishment, whether it turned into playoff success or not. But as most veteran NHLers are asked to recall a specific season, they&rsquo;ll say something like: &ldquo;Was that the year we beat out so-and-so in the playoffs, or the year so-and-so beat us out?&rdquo;Of course, there have been seasons when one clearly dominating team won both the regular season and Stanley Cup in the same, swift, breeze. But in years that good, not great, clubs win the President&rsquo;s Trophy on hard work, the figurine on top of the award should be a statue of Pyrrhus. He was the king of Epirus who, like Flames&rsquo; coach Terry Crisp in 1988, sustained too-heavy losses defeating the Romans.&ldquo;It was certainly at the top of the list of excuses when we didn&rsquo;t win,&rdquo; said Maple Leaf defenseman Jamie Macoun, then a member of the Flames. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to judge whether we were more tired than Edmonton, but we certainly felt like pushing hard in the regular season hadn&rsquo;t been worth it.&rdquo;For the record, the Flames won the President&rsquo;s Trophy-and the Cup-the following season, but by then they had acquired Gilmour and clearly had the best team.The 1992-93 Leafs have Gilmour and an army of tortoises who have steadily outworked and outperformed many of the NHL hares. Toronto has a time-proven, playoff-successful style, but nevertheless is probably short of playoff players-the kind who can lift their play to a fifth gear when the games count the most. As impressively as the Leafs have played, their chances still depend on their ability to frustrate clubs with superior talent and depth. That won&rsquo;t succeed if they are tired or self-satisfied or disappointed at having fallen short of a benchmark that was foolishly set.This is an indictment of a system that is as forgiving to underachievers as it is treacherous to overachievers. But as long as the fans buy the regular-season tickets so they can get the same seats for the playoffs, that&rsquo;s the way it will be. &#9632;

f0019-01

GREENBERG

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02794/6247664-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Winning the draw is no problem for Ron Francis, but the Penguins&rsquo; faceoff prowess drops off dramatically after him.</figcaption></div>As the playoffs dawn, the hockey world looks up to see a giant looming over the horizon: Goliath, decked out in Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; black and gold.Coming off back-to-back Stanley Cups and their best-ever regular season, the Penguins seem unbeatable. Then again, so did Goliath, whose size obscured a glass jaw.The Penguins mask their limited flaws-a shortage of puckhandling defensemen is their primary short-fall-superbly.This season they have struggled, by Pittsburgh standards at least, against patient, physical teams. The Toronto Maple Leafs own a 1-0-1 record against them. The Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks have outscored the Penguins en route to 1-1-0 records.The power play, while second in the league, gave up an NHL-high 19 shorthanded goals.If Pittsburgh is beaten this postseason, it will happen because its opponents tenaciously clung to these tactics:&#9632; Forecheck the defense aggressively. Aside from Larry Mur-phy-who is enjoying a banner season in what has been an astonishingly anonymous career-none of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s other defensemen, are particularly mobile.Murphy is too big and nimble to wear down by dumping the puck continuously in his comer. Instead, the better tactic is to keep the puck away from him and refuse him the four or five shots a game he usually gets.&#9632; Mind the middle. The Penguins move the puck through the middle of their zone more than any team in the NHL.Clogging the middle with forechecking carries a danger-a quick pass off the boards could spring any one of half a dozen mercurial for-wards-but it will at least disrupt the Penguins&rsquo; offensive flow.&#9632; Forget the dump-in on the power play. Coach Scott Bowman will use Mario Lemieux as his first-string penalty killer. His speed is lethal and goalie Tom Barrasso is expert at flicking shoot-ins out of the zone.&#9632; Don&rsquo;t line up at the blueline to force the Penguins to use shoot-ins. It seems like a good idea but Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr can stickhandle through the wires of a shopping cart and Kevin Stevens runs over defensemen.&#9632; Take a page out of Ulf Samuelsson&rsquo;s book and try to drive the forwards crazy.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to get their skill guys off their game,&rdquo; said Buffalo forward Bob Errey, who spent 10 years in Pittsburgh. &ldquo;Talk to them, hold their sticks here and there. You can get Jagr off his game by hitting him. You can definitely frustrate Kevin Stevens.&rdquo;The Penguins lost some abrasiveness at forward by trading Errey. The Chicago Blackhawks have the personnel to take on power forwards such as Rick Tocchet and Stevens. With the evil Darius Kas-paraitis and the towering Uwe Krupp, the New York Islanders also match up well.Mike Dickmoness/BBS&#9632; Be aggressive on the penalty kill. &ldquo;The Penguins generally use a diamond with Murphy or Ron Francis back and Lemieux down low,&rdquo; said Islanders&rsquo; assistant coach Lome Henning. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good system, but it leaves them vulnerable to a counterattack if you can control the puck in your zone.&rdquo;That threat has derailed the Pittsburgh power play in games against the Islanders. Thanks in large part to speedy penalty killer Benoit Hogue, the Islanders have more shorthanded goals (four) than Pittsburgh has power-play markers (three).&#9632; Whenever possible, get a whistle. Francis wins about 80 per cent of his draws, but beyond him the Penguins don&rsquo;t have a gifted faceoff artist.Teams such as the Montreal Cana-diens (Kirk Muller and Guy Carbon-neau), Toronto (Peter Zezel and Doug Gilmour) Calgary Flames (Joel Otto and Brian Skrudland), Chicago (Brent Sutter and Troy Murray) and Boston Bruins (Adam Oates and Dave Poulin) can gain scores of possessions in the faceoff circle. &#9632;

f0019-02

To kill walking bird Calling all Davids: Can anybody slay NHL’s Goliaths this season?

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>The Washington Capitals were stumbling to the wire, trying to hold on to second in the Patrick Division. The last thing they needed was an injury.In the 5-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils April 10, defenseman Al lafrate pulled his left hamstring while twisting and falling to avoid a puck that was flying toward his face.&ldquo;I knew when I got up I couldn&rsquo;t skate. Well, I could skate, but not (well),&rdquo; lafrate said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how long it will be. I guess that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;ll find out.&rdquo;Iafrate was to see a team physician April 12.Jason Woolley, who started the season with the Capitals, was recalled from the Baltimore Skipjacks of the American League for the fourth time this season.Paul Cavallini will probably see the greatest increase in playing time with lafrate out of the lineup. Coach Terry Murray said he would use Cav-allini with Sylvain Cote, who is normally paired with lafrate.The doubts over the Capitals&rsquo; playoff status were partially resolved April 9, but it was a case of the Capitals backing into a spot. In between Games 3 and 4 of a losing streak, the New York Rangers lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, guaranteeing the Capitals an ll th consecutive trip to the playoffs. That is the longest current run in the Patrick Division.POILE INTEREST: Until NHL commissioner Gary Bettman hires an assistant. Capitals&rsquo; general manager David Poile will continue to be rumored as a front-runner for the job.Poile&rsquo;s name has circulated since Bettman took office. Poile said while he is interested in league affairs, he would like to keep the job he has held since 1982.&ldquo;I think the job is interesting, but I&rsquo;m very happy with the job here,&rdquo; Poile said. &ldquo;I hope (owners) Mr. (Abe) Pollin and Mr. (Dick) Patrick are happy and would like to keep me.&rdquo;Bettman was asked about Poile at the Capitals&rsquo; April 10 game against New Jersey.&ldquo;I have not had specific discussions with any individual,&rdquo; Bettman said. &ldquo;But I want to be in a position to talk to people who are affiliated with teams. I don&rsquo;t want to do anything while the season is going on.&ldquo;David is probably one of the most respected hockey people in the league. Whether or not he would be suited to coming to New York is something I haven&rsquo;t begun to think about. Based on what I read in the paper, his reaction might be negative.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Randy Burridge played against New Jersey April 10. It was his first NHL game since April 21, 1992. Since then he had major surgery on both knees&hellip; Center Mike Ridley spent $5,000 for 500 tickets that were donated to sick children.Sylvain Cote scored his 20th goal of the season April 8 against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Capitals are the first NHL team to have three defensemen with at least 20 goals in the same season. Kevin Hatcher had 32 goals and Al lafrate had 25.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2>TRANSACTIONSApril 11: Jason Woolley. D, recalled from Baltimore (AHL).ROSTERC-Michal Pivonka. Mike Rkfiey. Date Hunter, Steve Konowalchuk.LW-Dimitri Khristich, Todd Krygier. Kerth Jones, Alan May, Randy Burndge. Bob CarpenterRW-Peter Bondra. Kelly Miller, Pat Elynulk, Paul MacDermid. Reggie Savage.LD-Calte Johansson. Paul Cavahlni, Jason Woolley.RD-Kevin Hatcher, Sylvain Cote, Shawn Anderson.G-Don Beaupre. Rick Tabaracd.INJURIESAl lafrate. D, pulled left hamstring, day-to-day. &#9632;

Playoff berth overshadowed by hamstring injury to lafrate

<div class="byline">By Frank Brown</div>In the closing minutes of a 10-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins April 9, New York Ranger fans at Madison Square Garden started a chorus of the hated, derisive chant that haunts teams in a growing number of foreign rinks.They sang the &ldquo;Na na, hey hey, goodbye&rdquo; song usually reserved for routed visitors.But this time, it was meant for the home squad. It was time for fans to express their outrage after the Rangers suffered their eighth defeat in the past nine home games.Soon, it will be time for team president Neil Smith to express his outrage.&ldquo;The minute this season ends.&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;the scaffold is going up.&rdquo;Scaffolds surround buildings under construction or renovation and Smith knows a lot of work needs to be done to get his team back to a respectable level.While defenseman Brian Leetch&rsquo;s injury woes ripped a massive hole in the team&rsquo;s foundation, it also gave other players a chance to rise to the forefront in his absence.But almost no one stepped forward.Scaffolds were also popular for executions in the old days and it seemed clear from Smith&rsquo;s demeanor, there might be a few of those, as well.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s no secret what this organization expects and obviously, we didn&rsquo;t perform up to our expecta-tions-let alone anyone else&rsquo;s,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;Therefore, there will be the appropriate adjustments and changes made so we can live up to those expectations.&rdquo;Leetch appeared in only 36 games due to a bad foot, a nerve injury and a broken right ankle. When healthy, he scored two power-play goals and set up 22 others. But Mark Messier was the only other player with more power play points-seven goals and 30 points in 72 games.That stat sums up the grotesque form the season has taken. But Smith long ago lost any sense of rage over the ineptitude of the team he assembled. The anger has been replaced by a dispassionate resolve to do what needs to be done to avoid this ever happening again.&lsquo;Tve already been angry this season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was very angry, very angry-furious-when I had to let Roger Neilson go. I&rsquo;m past anger now. I have to correct this.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Esa Tikkanen was minus-5 in the rout against Pittsburgh and minus-11 in 12 games with the Rangers since his March trade from the Edmonton Oilers. &ldquo;He has been a disappointment. He hasn&rsquo;t played nearly as well as we thought he would,&rdquo; coach Ron Smith said.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2>TRANSACTIONSApril 6: Corey Hirsch, G. recalled from Binghamton (AHL).ROSTERC-Mark Messier, Sergei Nemchinov, Darren Turcotte, John McIntyreLW-Adam Graves, Ed Olczyk. Esa Tikkanen. Jan Ertxon, Ph# Bourque, Mike Hartman.RW-Mike Gartner. Tony Amonte, Alexei Kovalev. JoeKocur, Paul Broten.LD-Sergei Zubov. Jay Wells. Kevin Lowe, Peter Andersson.RD-Joby Messier. Joe Cirella, Jeff Beukeboom.G-MIke Richter, Corey Hirsch, John Vanbiesbrouck.INJURIESBrian Leetch D, broken right ankle, out for season, James Patrick. D, herniated disc in back, indefinite. &#9632;

RANGERS

<div class="byline">By Jeff Williams</div>As the New York Islanders struggled to hold on to fourth place in the Patrick Division, two elements of their play sparkled. One did not, and it doesn&rsquo;t bode well for the future.The goaltending, with Glenn Healy carrying the load, was better than it was at the beginning of the season. The defense, with everybody more or less healthy, was strong. It&rsquo;s the offense that&rsquo;s weak, and general manager Don Maloney has to find a way to shore it up in the off-season.You only have to look at one stretch to see the Islanders are having problems putting the puck in the net. They scored just 12 goals in a five-game period. They won three, lost two. Healy was magnificent in goal, the defense was tight. The scorers were out to lunch.Night after night the Islanders have shown themselves to be a one-line offense. Pierre Turgeon, centering Derek King and Steve Thomas is the No. 1 line and they have lived up to that designation.Turgeon had a career high 55 goals, King 37 and Thomas 34. Nearly important as the scoring, this line is the only one that keeps constant pressure in the offensive zone by controlling the puck. Other lines check, but they do not create an abundance of opportunities.The second line was usually centered by Benoit Hogue, who had a career-high 31 goals, yet was hampered by injuries. But, left winger David Volek, had only eight, heading toward his worst season. Right winger Pat Flatley had 13 and while his work ethic is never questioned, his ability to score is.Ray Ferraro missed three months with a broken leg after scoring a career-high 40 goals the previous season. He had only two goals since he came back March 10.But even factoring Ferraro&rsquo;s broken leg, the offensive thrust isn&rsquo;t there, and when Marty McInnis went down with a broken kneecap March 27, the Kid Line lost much of its scoring ability. Travis Green centered that line, with McInnis on the left and Brad Dalgamo on the right, Dalgamo has had a career season with 15 goals, but Green had only seven.&ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t a good time not be generating any offense,&rdquo; Arbour said. &ldquo;We have to get it together. Having Ray Ferraro and Benny Hogue at less than 100 per cent doesn&rsquo;t help.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Islanders gained the dubious distinction of allowing the Ottawa Senators their first-ever road win. The Senators won at Nassau Coliseum 5-3 April 10. Senators&rsquo; goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz was brilliant, stopping 42 shots&hellip; Dennis Vaske sustained a 20-stitch cut on his forehead after he was checked face-first to the ice during a 3-2 loss against the Chicago Blackhawks April 8. It was an ugly cut. &ldquo;Nothing major,&rdquo; Vaske said. &ldquo;I had to cancel my Ford modeling appointment but that&rsquo;s about it.&rdquo;Washington Capitals won the season series from the Islanders 4-3. The Capitals won all four games at Nassau Coliseum. Islanders won all three games at the Cap Centre. Only the Capitals, in 1990-91, had ever won four games from the Islanders at the Coliseum.<h2>N.Y. ISLANDERS</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC-Pierre Turgeon, Ray Ferraro, Travis Green, Tom Fitzgerald. Greg Parks, Claude Loteefe.LW-Derek King, Benoit Hogue, Brian Mullen, Davkl Volek.RW-Steve Thomas. Pat Flatley. Brad Dalgamo, Mick Vukota.LO-Scott Lachance, Jeff Norton. Dennis Vaske, Tom Kutvers.RD-Oarius Kasparaitis. Uwe Krupp, Vladimir Malakhov. Rich Pilon.G-Glenn Healy, Mark Fitzpatrick.INJURIESMarty McInnis, LW, broke left kneecap, out tor season. Gary Nylund. D, strained right knee ligaments, indefinite. &#9632;

Offense grinding gears

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>Winning 17 games in a row was the easy part. At least the Pittsburgh Penguins made it look that way.Infinitely tougher was putting their winning streak, the longest in the history of the NHL, into some kind of perspective.&ldquo;It will probably mean more 20 years from now, when somebody&rsquo;s challenging the record,&rdquo; left winger Dave Tippett said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ll look back and say, &lsquo;We really did have a good run there.&rsquo;&rdquo;Statistically, it&rsquo;s the best streak in NHL history. Before the Penguins&rsquo; 17-game run-which they took into their regular-season finale in New Jersey April 14-no team had ever won more than 15 games in a row. The New York Islanders did that in 1982.Purists might argue Pittsburgh&rsquo;s streak is tainted because it included two overtime wins-games were over after 60 minutes in 1982-but that didn&rsquo;t detract from the team&rsquo;s pride in its achievement.&ldquo;The streak is terrific,&rdquo; goalie Tom Barrasso said. &ldquo;It speaks well for the consistency of our team and the effort we&rsquo;ve put in, despite being well ahead in our division.&rdquo;The Penguins tied the Islanders&rsquo; record by beating the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in overtime April 7. They made history by ringing up win No. 16 with a 10-4 romp over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden April 9.The streak began with a 3-2 win against the Boston Bruins March 9 and reached 17 when the Penguins beat the Rangers 4-2 at the Civic Arena April 10. In the interim, the Penguins won seven consecutive games on the road, a franchise record.Not surprisingly, there were no obvious flaws in Pittsburgh&rsquo;s game as it prepared for its playoff opener April 18. This is the finest team in franchise history and it clearly was building momentum as the post-sea-son approached.Still, there is no question the Penguins would rather win 16 games in the playoffs than go 84-0 during the regular season, which explains why they did not get carried away even after breaking the Islanders&rsquo; record.SCORING CHAMPION: Barring a couple of eight-or nine-point games by Pat LaFontaine in the waning days of the season, Mario Lemieux is a lock for his fourth scoring title.He had 67 goals and 157 points entering the Penguins&rsquo; last regularseason game.In a career rife with breathtaking feats, this might be Lemieux&rsquo;s most impressive. He is the league&rsquo;s most prolific scorer despite sitting out 24 games, most while he was receiving radiation treatments for Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease.NOTEBOOK: The Penguins finished with the best home record in franchise history (31-6-4) and won their final 10 games at the Civic Arena.Mario Lemieux had a 16-game point-scoring streak snapped in the Penguins&rsquo; 4-2 win against the Rangers. The Rangers were the only team to keep Lemieux off the scoresheet in his first 19 games after returning to the lineup-and they did it twice.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC-Mano Lemieux, Ron Francis, Mike Stapleton. Martin Straka.LW-Kevin Stevens, Shawn McEachern. Troy Loney. Dave Tippett, Jefl Daniels.RW-RIck Tocchet. Joe Mullen, Jaromir Jagr, Mike Needham, Jay Cau-LD-Ulf Samueisson, Miks Ramsey. Jim Paek. Grant Jennings.RD-Larry Murphy, Peter Taglianetti. Paul Stanton.G-Tom Barrasso, Ken Wrsgget.INJURIESKjell Samueisson. D, back spasms, day-to-day. &#9632;

Team in 17th heaven with record winning streak

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>When the New Jersey Devils were looking for a scoring center, Alexander Semak wasn&rsquo;t exactly who they had in mind. But the Russian is quietly having a spectacular season.Semak, the 27-year-old Russian who was once captain of Moscow Dynamo, virtually held the Devils together during a sometimes tumultuous season. His 35 goals and steady two-way play steered the team to its fourth straight playoff berth and the fifth in the club&rsquo;s 11year history.Voted the team&rsquo;s MVP by the New Jersey media, Semak centered a line with Valeri Zelepukin and Claude Lemieux.&ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t a surprise to me,&rdquo; Semak said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just doing what 1 did in Russia. Maybe if last year I played like this, it wouldn&rsquo;t be such a surprise to everybody.&rdquo;Semak averaged 20 goals per season in five seasons with Dynamo between 1986-87 and 1990-91. In an 84-game NHL schedule, that average would be 38 goals per campaign.SPOUTING OFF: Bernie Nicholls apologized for comments he made about referee Denis Morel after a crucial loss that Morel officiated.Six days after calling Morel &ldquo;the biggest homer I&rsquo;ve ever seen&rdquo; and &ldquo;an embarrassment to the whole referee&rsquo;s association,&rdquo; Nicholls apologized for his comments.&ldquo;It honestly hit me after (referee) Kerry Fraser talked to me,&rdquo; Nicholls said. &ldquo;After you say things, the next day you think: &lsquo;That was stupid.&rsquo; Kerry said to me: &rsquo;That&rsquo;s not like you. It was unprofessional.&rsquo; And he&rsquo;s right.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to apologize. Hopefully, they understand it was nothing personal. I have no beef with the job any of them do. What 1 said about Denis was in the heat of the battle. We lost the game. It was unfair and unprofessional for me to say what I did.&rdquo;POWERLESS: Coach Herb Brooks predicted an early exit from the playoffs unless there was marked improvement on the power play.With a prolonged slump that dropped the power-play unit from near the top of the league to the middle of the pack, Brooks said: &ldquo;It has gone south on us. I have more questions than answers.&ldquo;The key is not necessarily Xs and Os or personnel. It&rsquo;s getting position at the offensive blueline and in the offensive zone. We&rsquo;re thinking one shot and that it&rsquo;s going to be a goal. It&rsquo;s killing us.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Seldom useddefenseman Myles O&rsquo;Connor rejoined the Devils after returning home to attend to family matters.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC-Alexander Semak. Bernie Nicholls. Bobby Holik, Peter Stastny. Janne Oja-LW-Vateri Zelepukin. Stephane Richer, Scott Pellerin, Tom Choreke. Troy Maitette.RW-Claude Lemieux, John MacLean, Bill Guerin, Dave Barr. Doug Brown.LD-Bruce Driver. Scott Stevens. Vi-acheslav Fetisov, Tommy Albelin.RD-Ken Daneyko. Scott Niedermay-er, Alexei Kasatonov, Myles O&rsquo;Connor.G-Chrte Terreri, Craig Billington.INJURIESRandy McKay, LW, bruised forehead, day-to-day. &#9632;

Semak soars as top center

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div>Familiarize yourself with these individual playoff records:Most goals, one season (19); most assists (31); most points (47); most Conn Smythe Trophies (two); most spectacular performer, (Wayne Gretzky).All will be threatened by Mario Lemieux during the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; march to a third straight Stanley Cup this spring.He has raised his level of play to legendary status since returning from Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease; so much so, only one question remains unanswered.Is he the best player ever produced on the planet Earth?<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01822/6247867-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="369" height="472"></div>Gretzky and Bobby Orr, the other candidates for the honor, have each won two playoff MVP awards-as has Lemieux. Barring a total eclipse of reality over the next eight weeks, No. 66 will eclipse them with a third.The Penguins are overwhelming favorites to win the Cup.Only one team, the Boston Bruins, stands a chance of upsetting Pittsburgh in the Wales Conference. Like the Penguins, the Bruins have a lineup blessed with a triple-threat-dominant players at forward (center Adam Oates), defense (Raymond Bourque) and goal (Andy Moog).Pittsburgh has Lemieux, defenseman Larry Murphy and goalie Tom Barrasso. Just one other team, the Chicago Blackhawks, has similar power in center Jeremy Roenick, defenseman Chris Chelios and goalie Ed Belfour.But it&rsquo;s not the Blackhawks who will represent the Campbell Conference in the Cup showdown. The talentladen Detroit Red Wings will face off with the Penguins.They won&rsquo;t win, though. Not even if they follow our chet. Tocchet was two goals shy of giving Pittsburgh an NHL first-teammates with 50 goals and 150-plus penalty minutes.Moreover, the Penguins have become one of the NHL&rsquo;s better defensive teams. The Penguins went from No. 20 in goals-against average last season to No. 3 this season. Goalie Tom Barrasso was, arguably, Lemieux&rsquo;s equal in playoff importance last spring.With one game left, the Penguins were on a record-setting 17-game winning streak and one victory away from becoming the first team since the 1988-89 Calgary Flames to score 100 more goals than they allowed.&ldquo;If everyone&rsquo;s healthy,&rdquo; said Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; GM Russ Farwell, &ldquo;something strange would have to happen for anyone to beat them.&rdquo; What follows is an assessment of the 18 teams still in the playoff hunt as of April 12. Yet to be decided were the playoff qualifiers in the Patrick and Norris Divisions.Teams are categorized as Top Contenders, Legitimate Contenders, Outside Contenders and Longshot Contenders. Teams from the Wales Conference are generally ranked lower because they will meet Pittsburgh before the final. All are listed alphabetically.TOP CONTENDERS Boston Bruins In the past, Boston has lacked an extra gear-the ability to take its game to a higher level at playoff time. The Bruins have added that element with a diversified attack. Their leaders (Oates, Cam Neely Bourque and Moog) are playoff-proven performers, as is defensive specialist Dave Poulin, the team&rsquo;s unsung hero. You need to know: Evidence of the Bruins&rsquo; work ethic-they were expected to accomplish a unique double, leading the NHL in shots for (most) and shots against (fewest).Chicago Blackhawks Roenick and Che-f lios leads Chicago&rsquo;s relentless, in-your-face brand of offense and defense. No team has such a collection of intimidating and hard-playing o skaters. Center Brent Sutter, Chelios, defenseman Steve Smith and Belfour form the backbone of the league&rsquo;s best defense. You need to know: Every Blackhawk regular who played the full season with Chicago is a plus player; it is the only team that can make that claim.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03432/6247860-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="2478" height="3136"></div>Detroit Red Wings The timing is right. Center Steve Yzerman is playing the best hockey of his career and this is likely Bryan Murray&rsquo;s final year of coaching. Fair or not, both have endured criticism for their playoff performances. They can respond with exceptional playoffs. Sergei Fedorov is runner-up to Doug Gilmour as the game&rsquo;s top two-way center. You need to know: Detroit&rsquo;s power play ranked last during the 1992 playoffs. This sesason, it has become the top-ranked extra-man unit in the league.<h2>STRETCH RECORDS</h2>Pittsburgh has the NHL&rsquo;s best record since March 1, thanks to a record-setting 17-game winningstreak. Records are as of April 12.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02542/6247853-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="525" height="646"></div>LEGITIMATE CONTENDERSCalgary Flames Playoff hopes rest largely on Gary Roberts&rsquo; comeback from a leg jinjury and inspired performances from Joe Nieuwendyk and Theoren Fleury. Gary Suter has been among the NHL&rsquo;s best defenseman this season. You need to know: Eight members of the Flames, including goalie Mike Vernon and former Conn Smythe-winner Al Macln-nis, have Cup rings.Los Angeles Kings The return to good health of Tomas Sandstrom, Corey Millen and Gretzky bodes well for the offense, but what about defense? Los Angeles was set to enter the post-season with the worst goals-against average of all playoff teams. You need to know: Los Angeles had been shorthanded more than any other team-510 times.Quebec Nordiques They have the goal-scoring and individual talent (Mats Sundin and Joe Sakic), but do the Nordiques have championshipcalibre goaltending and defense? Will their fast wheels fall off when crunch time arrives for the NHL&rsquo;s youngest team? You need to know: Quebec is the only team in the league with a better road record than home record.Vancouver Canucks Pavel Bure hit the wall with a thud, but rebounded late in the season. Some of Vancouver&rsquo;s forwards have gone soft in the spring, but there is no denying their talent level. Kirk MacLean is another of the bigname goalies who needs a strong post-season. You need to know: Vancouver was 11-0-1 versus San Jose, Tampa Bay and Ottawa.Winnipeg Jets Like the New York Islanders, Winnipeg is a young team that could achieve in the playoffs. Unlike the Islanders, Winnipeg doesn&rsquo;t share a division with Pittsburgh. Bob Essensa is an elite netminder and the Jets have a dynamic attack. You need to know: With 75 goals, Teemu Selanne was on pace to lead his team in goals by the largest margin (47) ever.OUTSIDE CONTENDERSMontreal Canadiens Goalie Patrick Roy has been disappointing the past two springs and inconsistent play in 1992-93 suggests it will be no different this spring. The absence of a gamebreaker is a killer for Montreal. You need to know: Vincent Damphousse and Kirk Muller have combined for 16 goals in 83 career playoff games. Brian Bellows has 34 in 81 games.New York Islanders Many believe the Islanders will be this year&rsquo;s surprise playoff team, if their goaltending holds up. They have quietly become one of the NHL&rsquo;s more competitive teams, thanks largely to Pierre Turgeon. You need to know: Turgeon scored more than half of his team&rsquo;s goals (six of 11) during a critical five-game stretch late in the season.Toronto Maple Leafs Teamwork more than talent has enabled the Maple Leafs to fashion a strong record. Talent always wins out in the playoffs. Doug Gilmour must perform playoff heroics and all eyes will be on goalie Felix Potvin. You need to know: Dave Andreychuk has 12 goals in 41 career playoff games.LONGSHOT CONTENDERSBuffalo Sabres Grant Fuhr is a playoff legend, but not even he can cover up for the Sabres&rsquo; defense. Buffalo is schizophrenic-a winner at home and loser on the road. You need to know: Pat LaFontaine and Alexander Mogilny had accounted for 39 per cent of the Sabres&rsquo; goals, the highest percentage of any duo in the league.Minnesota North Stars Distracted by talk of relocation to Dallas and weak at defense and left wing, the North Stars went south before the official announcement. You need to know: Mike Modano scored in just one of 12 games down the stretch and the team went 3-8-1. (Conversely, Sakic scored in just one of 12 games and Quebec went 6-5-0.)New York Rangers Season-ending injuries to Brian Leetch and James Patrick and shortfalls in goal will help bring to 53 the number of years since New York last won the Cup. You need to know: The Rangers played.525 hockey under Roger Neilson (who had Leetch most of the time) and.451 hockey under Ron Smith.New Jersey Devils No star has blossomed at forward and like several other teams, New Jersey doesn&rsquo;t have a game-winning player. Claude Lemieux&rsquo;s 77 points was the lowest team-leading total among playoff teams. You need to know: Devils&rsquo; centers earned 107 assists, the fewest of any playoff team.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02481/6247846-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="1458" height="2495"></div>St. Louis Blues Curtis Joseph, and not the moody Brett Hull, is the player most crucial to St. Louis&rsquo; fortunes. Brendan Shanahan supports Hull with goals, but St. Louis&rsquo; defense surrenders many scoring opportunities. You need to know: Joseph has faced more shots the past two seasons than any goalie in the league.Washington Capitals The Capitals&rsquo; intradivision record is so bad (.343 winning percentage), it boggles the mind to think they can advance in the playoffs-even though they have the most 20-goal scorers in the league. You need to know: Washington led the NHL in goals by defensemen-92, 33 more than runner-up Boston. Kevin Hatcher had 32 himself.<h2>RED-LIGHT ZONE: DIVERSITY IS KEY</h2>Shut down Buffalo&rsquo;s Pat LaFontaine and Alexander Mogilny and you have shut down the Sabres. They have two 5O-plus goal-scorers and one 20-goal scorer. No other playoff team (or playoff-hopeful club) has so little diversity in its attack. Goal totals are as of April 12. They don&rsquo;t reflect the potential goal totals of injured players. Listed is breakdown of every playoff team&rsquo;s 20-, 30-, 40-and 50-plus goal-scorers, and the total number (No.) ofplayers with at least 20 goals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01772/6247839-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="703" height="716"></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

THE FORECIST

<div class="byline">By Rand Simon</div>The least likely candidate for card set of the year has become the one collectors are coveting most.Bowman, which made minimal impact on the hobby its first two years, has become the most sought-after set of the hockey card season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01804/6247912-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="543" height="747"><figcaption class="caption-body">All-star foil cards are worth their weight in gold.</figcaption></div>The 1992-93 issue went upscale with better quality cards, packaging and photography. There&rsquo;s also a gold foil subset featuring players from the 1992 All-Star Game. Each Bowman pack contains one of 43 gold foil cards.The secret of Bowman&rsquo;s success certainly doesn&rsquo;t lie in its rookie card selection. Cards of Guy Hebert, John LeBlanc, David Williams and Bill Lindsay are the only rookie issues. There isn&rsquo;t even a card of the hobby&rsquo;s hottest performer-rookie-of-the-year favorite Teemu Selanne.So why has Bowman suddenly captured the imagination of collectors to the point where a complete set can go for as much as $200?Simply because 1992-93 Bowman is the lowest produced hockey product in years. Industry sources estimate Topps produced fewer than 2,500 cases of Bowman. Parkhurst, believed to be the next most limited series of the season, was a 10,000-case product.&ldquo;The number I keep hearing is 2,000 cases, which sounds ridiculously low, but I keep hearing that from several different places,&rdquo; said Ted Jinks, the owner of Collectors Edge in Toronto.The Hockey News<h2>COLLECTORS WORLD</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02540/6247905-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="557" height="768"><figcaption class="caption-body">Slava Kozlov&rsquo;s Bowman card is worth more than his rookie issue.</figcaption></div>The result is wax boxes of Bowman sell for at least $100, while key cards such as the Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky foil issues go for more than $10.Sets are so expensive because it is impossible to complete the 442-card series by opening iust one box of 540cards. Collectors can expect to be at least 100 cards short of a full set.Although there are no decent rookies in the set, second-year cards of Joe Juneau, Shawn McEachern and Viacheslav Kozlov are selling for more than their first-year cards. The set&rsquo;s most expensive card is the last one-Eric Lindros&rsquo; at $12.Bowman&rsquo;s quirky card backs are similar to last season&rsquo;s issue, except for the addition of each player&rsquo;s head shot. This set is still the only one where you can find out how Dan Lambert did against the Edmonton Oilers last season (one goal and no assists in one game) or get the phonetic spelling of Berthiaume (bair-TYOHM).The front design is clean and simple with the Bowman logo in the top left-hand comer and the player&rsquo;s name across the bottom. You&rsquo;ll have to check the card back to find out the player&rsquo;s position and team.The set, despite its dearth of rookies and chase cards, is a good investment for the future. If the speculated production numbers are cor rect-Topps doesn&rsquo;t make such figure: public-then there&rsquo;s fewer than one tenth the number of Bowman as then is of Fleer Ultra, Pinnacle or Uppe Deck.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03383/6247898-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="565" height="772"><figcaption class="caption-body">Altogether now: Can you say &ldquo;bair-TYOHM?&rdquo;</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0028-01

COLLECTORS WORLD

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div>Gary Sheffield&rsquo;s expanded offensive numbers last season had a domino effect on his rookie card numbers.His 1989 Upper Deck rookie card was valued at $1.50 last season before the San Diego Padres&rsquo; third baseman went berserk at the plate.Sheffield clubbed 33 home runs, drove in 100 runs and hit.330 after coming over in the off-season from the Milwaukee Brewers. And the k value of his rookie card rose to $12.Here are nine players (listed in alphabetical order) expected to have breakthrough seasons this year. Also included is the value of each player&rsquo;s most expensive (usually rookie) card.Eric Anthony. Houston Astros: Now that people have stopped inducting him into the Hall of Fame, he can continue his progression into a feared clean-up hitter.Best card: 1990 Leaf, $2.50.Rob Dibble. Cincinnati Reds: He has already established himself as a premier closer with a 100 mile-per-hour fastball and a giant chip on his shoulder. On an excellent team and the job to himself this season, 50 to I 60 saves isn&rsquo;t out of the question.Best card: 1988 Score Rookie, $3.Cal Eldred, Milwaukee Brewers: He&rsquo;s not likely to repeat last year&rsquo;s second half pitching stats of 11-2, 1.79 earned run average, but he should emerge as the staff ace and win 20 games. Not terribly overpow-. ering, but does have a sharp curve.Best card: 1992 Fleer Ultra, $2.Reggie Jefferson, Cleveland Indians: A chance to play everyday was the only thing holding him back from being an impact player. He has long been touted as a multi-dimensional first baseman destined for greatness. Now he has the opportunity.Best card: 1991 Leaf, $1.Jeff King, Pittsburgh Pirates: After four seasons of relative anonymity and back trouble, King gets his big chance as the Pirates&rsquo; clean-up hitter. He had a good spring and he&rsquo;s just 28 years old.Best card: 1988 Fleer, 50 cents.John Olerud Toronto Blue Jays: The sweet-swinging first baseman has progressed each of the past three seasons to the point where there are projections of a,300-plus average, 25 home runs and 90 RBIs.Best card: 1990 Leaf, $8.Dean Palmer, Texas Rangers: He&rsquo;ll probably never hit much more than.250, but he could lead the league in home runs. Hitting behind Jose Canseco. Juan Gonzalez and Julio Franco, he&rsquo;ll drive in a ton of runs.Best card: 1990 Upper Deck, $2.Geronimo Pena. St. Louis Cardinals: A rarity: a power-hitting second baseman with speed. Pena will attract a lot of attention for the Cards and could get 20 homers, 30 stolen bases and a.300 batting average.Best card: 1990 Fleer, 25 cents.Phil Plantier, San Diego Padres: Perhaps with a new setting and less pressure, he can find the swing that clubbed 11 homers in 148 at-bats with Boston in 1991. Scouts still see him as having 30 home-run potential.Best card: 1991 Stadium Club, $6.<h2>HOCKEY&rsquo;S HIGH FLYERS</h2>We&rsquo;ve told you which baseball cards to keep an eye on. Here are 10 hockey players whose rookie cards had big increases this season. Information includes the card&rsquo;s price in October, now and the percentage increase.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01700/6247943-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="523" height="382"></div> &#9632;

f0029-01

<div class="byline">By Rand Simon</div>More than a month after its selfimposed deadline, the NHL Players&rsquo; Association still hadn&rsquo;t made a decision on which companies will have licences to produce cards for the 1993-94 season.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s fair to say we&rsquo;re halfway done,&rdquo; said Chris Malone, the NHL-PA&rsquo;s associate director of licensing and business development. &ldquo;We want to ensure everyone is on the same terms, gets the same rates and that no one gets a sweetheart deal. The contracts are 20-30 pages long and everyone has little things they want to change.&rdquo;Current trading card agreements for Fleer, O-Pee-Chee, Pro Set, Score, Topps and Upper Deck expire June 30. Most of those contracts were negotiated between the companies and Time Warner, the league&rsquo;s former licensing agency, before the start of the 1990-91 season.Several other companies, including Action Packed and Leaf/Donruss, have expressed interest in an NHL licence. It is expected between six and eight companies will be licensed next season, with each one permitted to produce a maximum of two brands.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re frying to get everyone on the same contract and at the same time, tighten up the market,&rdquo; Malone said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re all going to have to bite the bullet in the short term to get collector confidence back.&rdquo;Industry analysts say the overproduction of cards and the large number of sets since 1990-91 are to blame for declining hockey card sales.FINAL SET?: Pro Set, in danger of losing its NHL licence next season because of its precarious financial situation, is making plans for what could be the company&rsquo;s last hockey card product.Parkhurst Final Update is due for release shortly after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup final.Little has been decided in terms of the set&rsquo;s content, but it will contain 25 cards and include some players who were in neither of the two regular Parkhurst series this season.Likely inclusions are players who made their NHL debuts late in the season, such as Boston Bruins&rsquo; center Bryan Smolinski, Bruins&rsquo; winger Sergei Zholtok and Ottawa Senators&rsquo; defenseman Radek Hamr.As with other 1992-93 Parkhurst products, Pro Set is making an eme aid ice version of its Final Update.&rdquo;The set will be available through a direct mail-in offer through Pro Set or from hobby dealers who orders cases from the company.STOP PRESSES: Revolutionary Comics of San Diego agreed to destroy all copies of a Mario Lemieux comic book in settling a trademark infringement lawsuit April 7.The Pittsburgh Penguins charged Revolutionary Comics had no legal right to make the comics, which depicted Lemieux and a variation of the Penguins&rsquo; logo. The team sued in February over the Sport Stars Mario Lemieux comic book. &#9632;

<div class="byline">By Vance Oliver</div>The Swift Current Broncos visited the West Edmonton Mall during their layoff in the first round of the playoffs.So, what are the Portland Winter Hawks going to do to match Swift Current in the second round? Disneyland?The Winter Hawks, who swept the Tri-City Americans 4-0 in the first round of the playoffs, receive a bye into the West Division final.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re afraid if we went to Disneyland they might keep some of (the players),&rdquo; joked Winter Hawks&rsquo; coach-general manager Ken Hodge. &ldquo;I think I have a Mickey Mouse or two on this team and a couple of Goofys.&rdquo;On a more serious note, Hodge isn&rsquo;t pleased with the West Division playoff format, which gives the highest ranked team a two-week layoff in the second round.Hodge cited the loss of playoff revenue and the increase in marketing expenditure it will cost his club to attract fans back to the rink following a two-week hiatus.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a difficult problem to deal with and I&rsquo;m not sure if it&rsquo;s the first-place team that should pay the price of being two weeks off,&rdquo; Hodge said. &ldquo;We should address giving that team the option of playing.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01738/6248005-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="567" height="658"><figcaption class="caption-body">Regina&rsquo;s fortunes rest on the shoulders of goalie Mike Risdale</figcaption></div>RISING STAR: Regina goalie Mike Risdale has never received much attention during his four years with the Pats, except when he got married last summer. But he has been brilliant in the playoffs, posting a 3.42 goals-against average and 4-2 record.The Pats blew past Lethbridge 3-1 in a quarterfinal and were tied 1-1 with the Saskatoon Blades in a best-of-seven semifinal.&ldquo;When I talk to NHL scouts, they say he has the best technique of anybody,&rdquo; said Pats&rsquo; co-coach-GM Bill Hicke said. &ldquo;I think that covers quite a few goalkeepers that are excellent like (Trevor) Robins, (Norm) Maracle&hellip;&rdquo;Risdale was equal to the Blades&rsquo; Maracle in the first two games of the playoff series between Regina and Saskatoon.&ldquo;The rap against (Risdale) is he has never been consistent,&rdquo; Hicke said. &ldquo;(But) what he has done for us this year in the playoffs is given us 60 minutes of concentration.&rdquo;TIGERS ROARING: The Medicine Hat Tigers are showing their teeth and claws in the playoffs.The pre-season favorites to win the WHL title barely made the playoffs with a seventh-place fmish in the East Division. But they upset the second-place Brandon Wheat Kings 3-1 in a best-of-five quarter-final series and were knotted 1-1 with first-place Swift Current in a best-of-seven semifinal.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re beginning to fulfill our potential,&rdquo; coach-GM Dennis Polonich said. &ldquo;But more importantly, I&rsquo;m impressed to see the kids work so hard. These kids are committed, right now.&rdquo;What&rsquo;s even more surprising is that Medicine Hat won without star player Rob Niedermayer, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in San Jose March 14 and began skating April 6.<h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03347/6247998-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="930" height="199"></div>HIGHLIGHTS (APRIL 5 T011): Spokane needed an overtime goal by Jeremy Stasiuk to edge Tacoma 5-4 in Game 7 of their West Division quarterfinal. Spokane trailed Kamloops 2-0 in their semifinal series. Regina wrapped up their series in five games with a 4-3 victory over Saskatoon. The Blades were without injured 100-point man Ryan Fujita. Swift Current beat Medicine Hat 4-2 in the other series. &#9632;

f0031-01

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>NHL scouts have had their last chance to watch Victoriaville Tigres&rsquo; Alexandre Daigle in action prior to this June&rsquo;s entry draft.Chants of &ldquo;Alexandre Daigle is on vacation&rdquo; filled the Drum-mondville Voltigeurs&rsquo; dressing room after they eliminated Victoriaville with a 4-0 victory in Game 6 of the best-of-seven Quebec League quarterfinal series April 6. Drummondville&rsquo;s Marcel Cousineau, a Boston Bruins&rsquo; draft pick, made 30 saves for his first post-season shutout.Daigle, the top-rated prospect by the Central Scouting Bureau, had a hand in 11 of Victoriaville&rsquo;s 24 playoff goals, picking up five goals and six assists.&ldquo;I had some pretty good and some pretty bad games-like the team,&rdquo; Daigle said. &ldquo;I could have done better. You do your best but sometimes your best isn&rsquo;t enough.&rdquo;The loss marked the end to what started off as a banner season for Victoriaville. The Tigres, after finishing with the worst record in the league for two years, were in first place overall most of this season. But coach Pierre Aubry was fired Feb. 22 after a five-game losing streak dropped the Tigres behind the Sherbrooke Faucons.The team never seemed to respond under new coach Alain Chainey. who had a 8-9-0 record, including the playoffs.Daigle might have played his last game in the junior ranks.&ldquo;It depends on which team drafts him,&rdquo; Chainey said. &ldquo;He is loaded with talent, but he&rsquo;s still young and needs to mature.&rdquo;TOP PROSPECTS: Alexandre Daigle is the QMJHL&rsquo;s winner of the Canadian Hockey League Valvoline Top Draft Prospect Award and is in the running for the CHL award, which will be handed out during the Memorial Cup festivities in Sault Ste. Marie. Chris Gratton of the Ontario League&rsquo;s Kingston Frontenacs and Rob Niedermayer of the Western League&rsquo;s Medicine Hat Tigers are the other nominees.Sherbrooke goalie Jocelyn Thibault finished second in the QMJHL voting, followed by Hull Olympiques&rsquo; left winger Eric Lecompte, St-Jean Lynx center Steve Brule, St-Hyacinthe Laser&rsquo;s goalie Frederic Beaubien, St-Jean left winger Patrick Carignan, Chicoutimi Sagueneens&rsquo; defenseman Steve Gosselin, St-Hyacinthe center Hugo Proulx and Victoriaville goalie Patrick Charbonneau.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02483/6248043-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="566" height="655"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hull&rsquo;s Eric Lecompte finished third top prospectballoting.</figcaption></div>ATTENDANCE INCREASES: A total of 661,627 fans passed through QMJHL turnstiles during the regular season, the highest total since the 1983-84 campaign.<h2>PLAYOFFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04261/6248036-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="909" height="166"></div>HIGHLIGHTS (APRIL 5 T011): The Sherbrooke Faucons and Laval Titan extended their playoff unbeaten streaks to five games with victories in Game 1 of their best-of-seven semifinal series. Sherbrooke beat Hull 4-2 and was unbeaten in 14 games (13-0-1). Laval beat Drum-mondville 5-3 for its 10th straight victory. Laval captain Martin Lapointe continues to lead the Titan with nine goals and five assists in five playoff games. Sherbrooke goaltender Jocelyn Thibault has held the opposition to three or less goals in four of five playoff games. &#9632;

f0031-02

QMJHL

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>The Kalamazoo Wings aren&rsquo;t going to the International League playoffs this season.The question is, will they be coming back for the IHL regular-season in 1993-94?The Wings ran out of room April 7 with a 5-1 loss to the Indianapolis Ice, which put the Ice in the post-season and kept Kalamazoo from it for the first time since its inaugural IHL season of 1974-75.Fresh off one of its most disappointing sea-sons-the Wings&rsquo; point total will be their third-lowest ever-it is Kalamazoo&rsquo;s future, not its past, that is cause for concern.In an off-season that promises to hold more significant changes in the league, the Wings may get lost in the shuffle.Already happening around the IHL: Las Vegas is in the league next season; expansion looms in Minneapolis-St. Paul; the Salt Lake Golden Eagles will operate as an independent or gain a new NHL parent after severing ties with the Calgary Flames; the Cincinnati Cyclones hope to align with the New Jersey Devils and the league is eyeing franchises in San Francisco, Orlando, Sacramento and Denver.The parent Minnesota North Stars are moving to Dallas, but the Wings hope that won&rsquo;t mean its minor-league affiliation will be moved, too.IHL commissioner Tom Berry expressed concern about the longevity of the Wings if they have to operate as an independent, but he&rsquo;s optimistic that won&rsquo;t happen because the relationship with the North Stars (now Stars) has been a good one.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve talked with (the Stars) about (an affiliation) for next year,&rdquo; Kalamazoo coachgeneral manager Bill Inglis said. &ldquo;This (1992-93) was the final year of our contract with them.&rdquo;STREAKING ADMIRALS: Something about a streak causes the Milwaukee Admirals to snap to attention.The Admirals stopped Cleveland Lumberjacks&rsquo; winger Dave Michayluk&rsquo;s IHL seasonbest point-scoring streak at 22 games April 2.Michayluk-who scored 16 goals and 45 points during his streak and was named March&rsquo;s player of the month-is just one of many Admirals&rsquo; victims.Milwaukee stopped the Fort Wayne Komets&rsquo; 10-game win streak the next night. Earlier this season, the Admirals stopped the San Diego Gulls&rsquo; 12-game win streak, and in &rsquo;90-91 it was Milwaukee that snapped the Peoria Rivermen&rsquo;s record 18-game win streak.Speaking of streaks, the Phoenix Roadrunners ran their losing streak to 15 games before beating the Atlanta Knights 5-4 in a shootout April Fools&rsquo; Day. The mark was one short of the league record, set by Milwaukee in 1987-88.I-OPENERS: The San Diego Gulls launched 63 shots on goal in a 6-4 victory April 2 at Kalamazoo to win an IHL single-season record 59th game. The next night, the Gulls won 6-5 in an overtime shootout at Cleveland to set the league&rsquo;s all-time single-season point record at 128&hellip; Milwaukee has Michel Mon-geau and Steve Tuttle-both traded by the Tampa Bay Lightning to Quebec Nordiques and assigned to the Halifax Citadels of the American League in February-on its final roster. That means they can play for the Admirals in the playoffs if they are loaned back when Halifax is finished.IHL sources say Fort Wayne&rsquo;s deal to gain the Winnipeg Jets as a parent club has fallen through, and the Jets will stay with the Moncton Hawks of the AHL.Peoria managed just 12 shots in a 3-1 loss April 2 at Fort Wayne. That&rsquo;s the second-lowest effort anywhere in minor-league hockey this season. The season-low was also in the IHL-11 shots-produced by Salt Lake in a loss to Milwaukee Dec. 26.The Golden Eagles have missed the playoffs for the first time since joining the IHL in 1984&hellip; The IHL surpassed the 3,000,000-mark in attendance for the first time in its history. More significantly, the league&rsquo;s 6,556 per game average is the best in minor-league hockey. &#9632;

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>The Toledo Storm finally found a crack in the Great Wall, thanks to jackhammers Iain Duncan and Greg Puhalski.Duncan&rsquo;s hat trick ignited the Storm to an 8-2 win April 4 over the Nashville Knights in the fifth game of the best-of-seven East Coast League&rsquo;s West Division final.Puhalski scored three goals two nights later, as the Storm beat the Knights 9-5 to advance to the Riley Cup final against the Wheeling Thunderbirds.The Thunderbirds eliminated the Raleigh Ice-Caps in the best-of-seven East Division final 4-2.&ldquo;I think fatigue was a big factor in bringing down the Great Wall of China,&rdquo; said Toledo coach Chris McSorley, referring to Nashville goalie Scott Gordon, who was brilliant in the series. &ldquo;We were able to find the holes and capitalize.&rdquo;Gordon played in all nine playoff games for the Knights. He was particularly brilliant in Games 3 and 4, when he stopped 95 of 100 shots.But the former Quebec Nordique wilted under a 57-shot attack in Game 5. He faced 37 shots in two periods in Game 6.&ldquo;Even Superman is not invincible,&rdquo; said Duncan, who led the league with seven goals and 19 points in 10 playoff games.Toledo has used a two-goalie system throughout the playoffs and it has worked to perfection. Backup Alain Harvey (1-1, 2.52 goals-against average) gave starter Scott King a breather, particularly when the teams played on three consecutive nights.The Storm was battered and bruised against the Knights. Defensemen Rick Corriveau (sprained wrist) and Alex Roberts (broken right hand) and right winger Dave Flanagan (sprained wrist) all missed the series. However, all could return for the finals.&ldquo;Basically, we&rsquo;ve brought the mirrors out of the closet,&rdquo; McSorley said. &ldquo;We were ready to end it. I&rsquo;ve had enough suspense for one series.&rdquo;Toledo&rsquo;s size and strength wore down Nashville.&ldquo;The reason for our success was simple.&rdquo; McSorley said. &ldquo;Big bodies were running into smaller bodies consistently and something had to give.&rdquo;CARDIAC KIDS: Raleigh set an ECHL playoff record by playing in six overtime games.The IceCaps won four consecutive times nP overtime, three against the defending champion Hampton Roads Admirals in the East Division semifinal. They won the best-of-five series 3-1.Raleigh got the jump on Wheeling in the East Division finals by edging the Thunderbirds 3-2 March 27 on Rick Barkovich&rsquo;s extra-period goal.Wheeling turned the tables in Game 4 April 2, winning 5-4.ABOUT FACE: Seventy-two hours after denying the Johnstown Chiefs were to be sold, team general manager John Daley announced a sale.Three Latrobe, Pa., attomeys-Ned J. Nakles Jr., his father Ned J. Sr., and Leonard Reeves-agreed to buy the Chiefs from owner Henry Brabham and keep the franchise is Johnstown.The purchase price wasn&rsquo;t announced, although Brabham said it was between $250,000 and $500,000.The ECHL board of governors is expected to approve the sale at its next meeting scheduled for May 5.EXTENSION REQUESTED: The Knoxville Cherokees requested an indefinite? extension from the league with respect to their plans for next season. The consulting management group did not complete its feasibility study by the April 1 deadline. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;re moving,&rdquo; said Cherokees&rsquo; coach Barry Smith after a lengthy meeting with principal owner Dr. John Staley. &#9632;

ECHL

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>Not long ago, Don Biggs was ready to give up his quest for the American League single-season scoring record.The points weren&rsquo;t coming as quickly anymore. Opponents were playing tighter defense. Referees weren&rsquo;t calling as many penalties, which in turn meant the Binghamton Rangers&rsquo; potent power play wasn&rsquo;t on the ice as often.So Biggs thought it was time to look ahead to the playoffs, to make sure he and his teammates were well rested for the run at the Calder Cup.&ldquo;I had pretty much given up any thought of getting it,&rdquo; Biggs said. &ldquo;I talked to Colie (coach Colin Campbell) and we talked about maybe sitting out a few games, depending upon how things were going.&rdquo;Then came one big week and Stephan Lebeau&rsquo;s mark of 134 points was in jeopardy.&ldquo;I had 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in five games and all of a sudden it was within reach again,&rdquo; Biggs said.As it turned out, Biggs did get his chance to rest because he broke the record with five games left in the regular season.The eight-year veteran scored a goal and an assist in a 3-1 victory over the Cape Breton Oilers April 3, giving him 52 goals, 83 assists and 135 points.The record was a monumental achievement, but Biggs was just as proud of scoring 50 goals for the first time in his career. His previous high was 38 for the Hershey Bears in 1987-88.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t been consumed with this record like I was 50 goals,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was really excited when I scored 50.&rdquo;END OF AN ERA?: Dan Currie set the AHL record for the most goals in three consecutive seasons in March, surpassing Dick Gamble&rsquo;s mark of 144, set in the 1960s.But after his second consecutive 50-goal season, Currie has no intention of setting the four-year mark.A loyal Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; farmhand with the Cape Breton Oilers for five seasons, Currie becomes an unrestricted free agent after this season ends.He will shop around with the other 25 NHL teams. If the right offer doesn&rsquo;t materialize, he probably will play in Europe, where a team in the German League is very interested.Entering the final weekend of the season, Currie was tied with Adirondack&rsquo;s Chris Tan-cill for the AHL goals lead with 57.Only three players have ever scored more than 57 goals in an AHL season: Stephan Lebeau had 70 in 1988-89, Paul Gardner had 61 in 1985-86 and Jody Gage had 60 in 1987-88.&ldquo;At the beginning of the year, I wanted to get 50 goals again,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Playing with Shaun Van Allen helps. He&rsquo;s such a great passer. I get open and he gets me the puck.&rdquo;Currie has had few chances to play with Edmonton, however. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound left winger was a fourth-round draft pick and has played only 17 NHL games in his career.Five came this season, but he scored no goals. &ldquo;I was up for a bit and I didn&rsquo;t produce,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They were hurting for goals and I didn&rsquo;t score any.&rdquo;Currie was returned to Cape Breton, where he scored 219 goals in 364 games, increasing his| total every year.&ldquo;I just go on playing as hard as I can game in and game out,&rdquo; he said.RANGERS&rsquo; JINX: The Providence Bruins have to be wondering why everyone is making such a fuss about the Binghamton Rangers.While the Rangers have set league records for most victories, points, road victories and fewest games lost, they have struggled against Providence. The Bruins went 4-2-0 against Binghamton, winning four of the last five meetings after losing 11-3 in Binghamton in December.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve just seemed to gear it up against them and we&rsquo;ve gotten some breaks,&rdquo; said coach Mike O&rsquo;Connell after the Bruins&rsquo; 8-3 home victory April 7. &ldquo;Our guys accepted the challenge. We read about them all the time, we heari about them all the time. We respected them but we didn&rsquo;t sit back, we went at them.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0033-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>Luc Robitaille is the best left winger of his era. This is not a platitude. It is a fact, backed up by heavy-duty numbers.Since joining the NHL in 1986, Robitaille has outscored every other portside player.The Montreal native had amassed 344 goals and 707 points in 553 career games. This season, he broke the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; records for goals and points in a season. He also set a new league mark for goals by a left winger. Robitaille&rsquo;s 61 goals beat the old mark of 60 set by Steve Shutt of the Montreal Canadiens in 1976-77.But where does he rank among the all-time greats at left wing?He has a long way to go before he&rsquo;s in the class of Bobby Hull, Frank Mahovlich and Johnny Bucyk, but the 27-year-old has a lot of years left in the NHL.In his first six seasons, Robitaille averaged 48 goals per season and.60 goals per game. Hull averaged 30 goals a season and.44 per game and Mahovlich 30 per season and.37 per game. Bucyk, the league&rsquo;s all-time leading top scoring left winger with 1,369 points, averaged just 16 per season and.25 per game.Robitaille&rsquo;s strength is in his consistency. Only one other player-Wayne Gretzky-has scored at least 40 goals in each of his first seven seasons.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to compare players of today to players from the past,&rdquo; said Boston Bruins&rsquo; president-general manager Harry Sinden. &ldquo;A great season in the past was 50 goals. Today average players score 50; you have to score 70 for it to be considered a great season.&rdquo;&ldquo;When his career is over, (Robitaille) will be rated higher than most left wingers simply because of his stats,&rdquo; said hockey broadcaster Harry Neale. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you can put him up there with Hull or Mahovlich, but he&rsquo;s certainly one of the best today.&ldquo;People see his great stats, but don&rsquo;t have any idea of how he plays the game.&rdquo;Unlike Hull, whose booming shot overpowered goalies, or Mahovlich, who powered his way past defenders, Robitaille gets success from his ability to get free in traffic. Most of his goals are scored from in tight.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01257/6248341-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="921" height="1444"></div>Considered a poor skater early in his career. Robitaille has improved immensely. You won&rsquo;t see him in the fastest skater competition at the All-Star Game, but when he arrives on the scene, few can match his determination and touch around the goal.He goes to the net without fear. Not particularly big at 6-foot-l and 190 pounds, Robitaille still manages to win one-on-one battles.Even though Robitaille has been an all-star every season of his career and finished among the top 10 scorers three times, he is just beginning to receive respect he deserves. The trade talk has finally died down. too.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s absurd, we&rsquo;d never trade him,&rdquo; said Kings&rsquo; coach Barry Melrose. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s an untouchable.&rdquo;The Kings have had their chances, but they have stuck by their man.&ldquo;There were some damn good offers on the table for him,&rdquo; said former Kings&rsquo; general manager Roga-tien Vachon. &ldquo;But how do you replace him? Where do you find a left winger who can score like Luc can?&rdquo;The soft-spoken Robitaille never lets the rumors bother him.&ldquo;This is the first season I&rsquo;ve played on the top line,&rdquo; Robitaille said. &ldquo;In the past, other teams looked at the fact I was on the second or third line and assumed I would be available for trade.&rdquo;Robitaille&rsquo;s consistency will eventually earn him a place among the game&rsquo;s greatest left wingers. If he averaged 99 points as season, as he did in his first six, he would break Bucyk&rsquo;s all-time points record of 1,369 in 14 seasons. It took Bucyk 23 seasons.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got a long time to go before I retire,&rdquo; Robitaille said. &ldquo;I never even think about how I compare to other players. I take pride in what I do and I work hard every day. That&rsquo;s all I can ask of myself.&rdquo;For Robitaille to be considered the best left winger ever, he&rsquo;d have to surpass the achievements of these players:&#9632; Bobby Hull: As solid as granite, blazing speed and the hardest shot in hockey. Achievements: 610-560-1,170 totals in 1,063 games. Three scoring titles, two Hart Trophies, one Lady Byng.&#9632; Frank Mahovlich: Long, smooth stride and nearly impossible to get off the puck. Achievements: 533-570-1,103 in 1,181 games. Calder Trophy winner in 1958, six Stanley Cups.&#9632; Dickie Moore: Most determined player in the league. The tougher the game, the better he played. Achievements: 261-347-608 in 719 games. Two scoring titles, six Stanley Cups.&#9632; Johnny Bucyk: The prototype winger; good in the comers and consistent around the net. Achievements: Top scoring left winger of all time, two Lady Byng Trophies, two Stanley Cups.<h2>LEFT WINGS ALL RIGHT</h2>Luc Robitaille has been nearly 100 goals better than any other left winger since joining the NHL in 1986-87. Here are the top 10 as of April 11.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-02159/6248334-1-eng-US/f0044-022.jpg" title="f0044-02" width="517" height="366"></div> &#9632;

f0044-01

Cool (left) hand Luc

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-03110/6248372-1-eng-US/f0044-032.jpg" title="f0044-03" width="362" height="507"></div>There is a story about two hikers who come into a bluff and find themselves face-to-face with a mountain lion.Instantly, the first hiker takes off his backpack. The second hiker is stunned.&ldquo;What are you doing?&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t outrun a mountain lion.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have to outrun a mountain lion,&rdquo; replies the first hiker. &ldquo;I have to outrun you.&rdquo;In hockey, as in hikers, there are people sacrificed through no real fault of their own. They are scapegoats and fall guys and the one thing they have in common is they are on the firing line for a situation that is not entirely their making.When you see these people, on television, on the street, in the supermarket or in the tabloids, remember that poor sucker with the backpack. Stand up and shout: &ldquo;Cut this man some slack, Jack.&rdquo;I guarantee, it&rsquo;s a step toward a better world.Jack Ferreira: Ferreira, Anaheim&rsquo;s first-ever general manager, is the first GM who must work under Marquess of Queensberry Rules. Working for image-conscious Disney in hockey is like wearing a tuxedo to a mud wrestle. It should make for an interesting expansion draft: forget Mark Osborne, is Donny Osmond available?Stephane Richer: Richer has tender knees, something he says is the result of growth spurts in his teenage years. Richer&rsquo;s biggest millstone may be the fact he is clearly no longer a potential 50-goal scorer, but as a two-time 50-goal man, he must face ludicrously high expectations. It&rsquo;s time to face up to the fact that he&rsquo;s a 35-goal scorer at best.Herb Brooks: Brooks finally got his hand on a bona fide center and Bernie Nicholls broke a foot. He squeezed an excellent season out of a makeshift goaltending tandem of Craig Billington and Chris Terreri, and one of them is likely to be snagged in the expansion draft. New Jersey Devils&rsquo; general manager Lou Lamoriello is not noted for excessive bursts of patience, but when Alexander Semak is your leading goalscorer and you&rsquo;re still in the playoff race in the league&rsquo;s toughest division, the coach has to be doing something right.Bob Gainey: Gainey has the toughest job in hockey. The Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; coach-general manager has inherited a team of orphans. Like the rest of the North Stars, he will be evicted from the Met at midnight the night the team losses its final playoff game.Gainey&rsquo;s job clearly isn&rsquo;t on the line, but he is nonetheless responsibly for a freefall in the standings that saw the Stars go from a solid third to a playoff hopeful.Rick Bowness: Unlike Tampa Bay, where a palatable product kept player morale high, the Ottawa Senators have shown little commitment to winning and backroom knifefights are commonplace. The eventual loser in this scenario will be Bowness, who has done the most with the meagre portions allotted him by the front office.Scott Bowman: After coaching the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup last fall, Bowman had to barter like a utility forward to g squeeze a meaningful raise out of the&rdquo; team. What observers forget is that while he clearly has eight of the best players in hockey, he is masterful in juggling the supporting cast.Steve Yzerman: There is little in the hockey world more ludicrous than blaming the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; playoff misfortunes on Yzerman. To g begin with, Yzerman is the main reason the Wings are in the playoffs at all. Despite relentless checking, he has averaged better than a point per game in the post-season. But if the Wings don&rsquo;t advance this season, Yzerman will again bear the burden of losing.Glen Sather: It&rsquo;s hard to make a matter of money seem a matter of principle. But by acquiescing to Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; owner Peter Pocklington&rsquo;s demands to draw the line on player salaries, Sather has made himself ground zero for agents, players and writers and he has done it without complaint.Andre Racicot: This guy is my (all-time scapegoat winner. Racicot isn&rsquo;t among the league&rsquo;s best goalies, in fact he&rsquo;s not even in the upper 50 per cent. But he&rsquo;s 23 years old and learning his trade behind a defense that is encouraged to play offensively. Don&rsquo;t forget, Red Light means stop, too.Officials: Just recently. New Jersey Devils&rsquo; center Bemie Nicholls called veteran referee Denis Morel an embarrassment to all NHL officials. To his credit, Nicholls, who was frustrated by a key New Jersey loss, apologized for his remarks. But with the stakes heightened in the dying days of the regular season and the play-offs, referees will be blamed by the losers and ignored by the winners. &#9632;

f0044-03

ULMER

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0045-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01211/6248403-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg"></div>Luc Robitaille had just set an NHL record for goals by a left winger and his coach, Barry Melrose, was punching buttons on the remote control unit on a television set in his office.&ldquo;Basketball,&rdquo; the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; coach huffed. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking (at highlights) and all they&rsquo;re showing is the Lakers losing. &lsquo;Lucky&rsquo; doesn&rsquo;t get his just due here in L.A. If he played in New York or Toronto or Montreal, this would be a phenomenal story.&rdquo; 1 Robitaille didn&rsquo;t seem to mind.&ldquo;Ten years ago 1 didn&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d be playing in the NHL and now I have a record,&rdquo; Robitaille said after he scored goals Nos. 60 and 61 April 8 to give the Kings a 2-1 win over the San Jose Sharks and break Steve Shutt&rsquo;s record for goals by a left winger.Shutt set the record in 80 games in 1976-77. Robitaille, whose 119 points are the third-highest total for a left winger in a season, needed 81 games and benefitted by playing 12 (and scoring 11 goals) against San Jose, the Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning.While growing up in Montreal, Robitaille admired Yvan Coumoyer. But he also grew to appreciate Shutt&rsquo;s knack for scoring big goals.Robitaille laughs about it now, but his respect for Shutt triggered run-ins with his father, Claude, during Hockey Night in Canada telecasts.&ldquo;My dad didn&rsquo;t like him as a player,&rdquo; Robitaille said. &ldquo;I was always there to defend him. The guy was a pure sniper. He had such a quick release. But every time his name came up, we&rsquo;d have big arguments.&rdquo;On the record-breaking goal, Tomas Sandstrom threw a pass to Wayne Gretzky, whose shot from the faceoff circle was stopped by Arturs Irbe before Robitaille lifted the rebound under the crossbar.&ldquo;Since peewee I was taught to &lsquo;roof it,&rdquo; Robitaille said.Melrose has gotten used to Robitaille scoring from close range.&ldquo;When Lucky is on, there is no one better around the net,&rdquo; Melrose said. &ldquo;I bet you 30 of his goals have come a font from the crease.&rdquo;WHO&rsquo;S IN GOAL?: The battle for the No. I goaltending position has been whittled to two contenders, Robb Stauber and Kelly Hrudey.Since March 15, Hrudey started four times. He was 3-0-1 with a 2.32 goals-against average. Stauber started seven times and was 4-1-2 with a 2.49 GAA. Rick Knickle, who hadn&rsquo;t played since March 29, was 2-1-0 with a 5.26 GAA in three starts. He was pulled twice, once because of stomach cramps and the other time because he was ineffective.Melrose wouldn&rsquo;t say who his playoff starter is going to be.NOTEBOOK: Rob Blake missed three games with a bruised lower back, but was expected to play in the April 15 regular-season finale against Vancouver. &ldquo;My back is stiff, but it&rsquo;s nothing to be concerned about,&rdquo; said Blake, who underwent an MRI that was negative&hellip; When the Kings overcame a 1-0 deficit to beat San Jose 2-1, it was the second time in 32 games they won when trailing after two periods. They were 2-28-2 in those situations.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC-Wayne Gretzky, Jimmy Carson, Corey Millen, Pat Conacher.LW-Luc Robitaille. Gary Shuchuk, Mike DonneBy. Warren Rychel. Lonnie Loach.RW-Tomas Sandstrom, Jari Kurri. Tony Granato, Dave Taylor, Marc Potvin.LD-Darryt Sydor, Alexei Zhltnik, Mark Hardy.RD-Charlie Huddy, Marty McSorley. Tim WattersG-Robb Stauber, KeBy Hrudey, Rick Knickle.INJURIESRob Blake. D, bruised lower back, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0045-01

Shutt’s record gives way to Lucky’s charm

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>The days of playing home games 45 miles away from home are over for the San Jose Sharks.The Sharks played their final regular-season game at the Cow Palace in Daly City April 10, when they were 3-2 overtime losers to Los Angeles.The Sharks begin playing theii home games in San Jose&rsquo;s nev downtown arena next season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll always remember thest seasons,&rdquo; defenseman Neil Wilkinson said. &ldquo;These were character-building times. It really shows what you&rsquo;re made of when you go through times like these.&rdquo;The Sharks also said they will miss the coziness of the 11,089-seat Cow Palace, where they had a two-season record of 22-55-4.&ldquo;I liked playing in this building,&rdquo; center Dean Evason said. &ldquo;The atmosphere was great here and the fans were super. I hope that carries over into the new building.&rdquo;To commemorate the team&rsquo;s final game at the Cow Palace, T-shirts were sold depicting cows bidding a tearful farewell to the Sharks. On the back of the shirts was a list of the top 10 reasons for fans to remember the Cow Palace. Among them was the team&rsquo;s first win, which came against the Calgary Flames Oct. 8, 1991.&ldquo;That will always be a special memory,&rdquo; captain Doug Wilson said. &ldquo;It was history-our first victory.&rdquo;KISIO WINS: Veteran center Kelly Kisio was unanimously selected as the team&rsquo;s MVPfor the Sharks in a poll of Bay Area media.The award caps one of the best seasons of Kisio&rsquo;s 11-year NHL career.Despite playing for one of the lowest-scoring teams, Kisio entered the final game of the season needing two points to match his career high of 78, which he established while playing for the New York Rangers in 1987-88. He also was at the top of the Sharks&rsquo; all-time scoring list with 113 points over two seasons.Kisio, 33, reached the 200-goal, 400-assist and 600-point plateaus this season and played in the NHL All-Star Game for the first time in his career. He also was given a thunderous ovation by the crowd at the Sharks&rsquo; final game at the Cow Palace.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ll cherish for a long time,&rdquo; Kisio said.Left winger Johan Garpenlov, who was second on the team with 65 points, was runner-up in MVP voting. Honorable mention went to centers Dean Evason and Mike Sullivan, right winger Rob Gaudreau and Jeff Odgers, defensemen Jay More and Doug Zmolek and goalie Arturs Irbe.NOTEBOOK: Rookie Mark Beaufait. recalled from Kansas City of the International League April 4, scored his first goal in a 2-1 loss to Los Angeles April 8. He was the 46th player the Sharks used this season.Western League defensemen Mike Rathje. the first player chosen by the Sharks in last year&rsquo;s entry draft, and Michal Sykora. a sixth-rounder last year, were placed on the Blades&rsquo; roster for the playoffs. Both players were eliminated from the WHL playoffs; Rathje with the Medicine Hat Tigers Sykora with the Tacoma Rockets.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2>TRANSACTIONSApril 5: Tom Pederson. D. recalled from Kansas City (IHL).ROSTERC-Kelty Kisio. Dean Evason. Jon Morris, Mark BeaufaitLW-Johan Garpenlov. Mark Pederson, Dody Wood, Dave Maley.RW-Rob Gaudreau, Jeff Odgers, Ed Courtenay, Robin Bawa.LD-Rob Zettler. Doug Zmolek, Peter Ahola.RD-Jay More. Nell Wilkinson. David Williams, Tom Petterson.G-Arturs Irbe, Jeff HackettINJURIESPerry Berezan, RW, strained left knee, out for season. David Bruce. LW. 1 grom strain, out for season. Pat Falloon RW. dislocated right shoulder, out for season. Brian Hayward G, back strain, out for season. Sandls Ozotlnsh, D, tom ligament m left knee, out for season. Mike Sullivan, C, sprained left knee, out for season. Doug Wilson. D, strained right knee, out for season &#9632;

Cow Palace days over; team on way to San Jose

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>When the Vancouver Canucks clinched their second consecutive Smythe Division pennant April 11, the celebration was notable by its muteness.There was no Gatorade dousing of coach Pat Quinn or champagne shampoos for the players.The message was clear: this team |has loftier goals than just a first-place finish.&ldquo;There is nothing to be satisfied about,&rdquo; said left winger Geoff Courtnall. who scored the winning goal in the pennant-clinching 6-3 victory over the Calgary Flames. &ldquo;We were scary in the past 20 games. The way we played against Calgary is the way it has to be if we want to do well in the playoffs.&rdquo;The Canucks had been humiliated 8-1 two days earlier in the Saddledome. They looked completely inept, a team incapable of winning a playoff game never mind a playoff round. But the form they exhibited April 11 was the confidence booster they sore-&ldquo;ly needed.&ldquo;We seem to play our best when our backs are to the wall,&rdquo; said center Cliff Ronning, referring to the fact Vancouver always managed to create some daylight between themselves and the Flames whenever Calgary crept close.&ldquo;We aren&rsquo;t celebrating because we did this last year and we have plans to do something different this year in the playoffs,&rdquo; Ronning saidOne spring ago, the Canucks needed seven games to oust the fourthplace Winnipeg Jets and then lost in six games to the third-place Edmonton Oilers.&ldquo;I think it was good we were pushed by Calgary because last year we basically waltzed to first place and we didn&rsquo;t play well in the playoffs,&rdquo; said alternate captain Doug Lidster.ADAMS BACK: Left winger Greg Adams returned to the lineup April 7 against the Edmonton Oilers after missing 22 games with a severe charley horse.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01241/6248458-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="549" height="1156"><figcaption class="caption-body">Winger Greg Adams is healthy again after missing 22 games.</figcaption></div>Adams sustained the injury Jan. 16 against the Hartford Whalers, missed nine games and then re-injured the thigh Feb. 15 against the Los Angeles Kings.His injury was similar to the one incurred by Calgary&rsquo;s Gary Roberts, only Adams didn&rsquo;t need surgery.The lanky winger scored two goals in his first two games back and played with the same go-the-net style that has caused so many of his injuries.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just react out there, you don&rsquo;t have time to think,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The leg feels good. I feel strong and confident on it. I&rsquo;m still not quite in game condition but I&rsquo;m happy with my progress.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Canucks established a team record for points in a season when they hit 97 against Calgary April 11&hellip; When Geoff Courtnail cracked the 30-goal plateau April 11, it marked the first time in franchise history the Canucks had four 30-goal scorers in the same season. Pavel Bure. Petr Nedved and Trevor Linden have also hit the 30-goal mark. Courtnall had 30 goals and 72 points in 81 games.Former Hartford Whaler Murray Craven was held without a goal in his first nine games as a Canuck but had nine assists and was a plus-4. Craven played left wing his first five games before moving back to center, the position he played all season in Hartford. He also saw considerable action at the left point on the power play, picking up five assists&hellip; The Canucks finished their season series with Calgary at 1-5-1 after going 4-1-2 a year ago. Vancouver was 0-4-0 at the Saddledome.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC&mdash;Cliff Ronning. Murray Craven. Anatoli Semenov. Petr Nedved. Tom Fergus. Ryan WalterLW-Greg Adams. Geoff Courtnall. Sergio Momesso, Dixon Ward. Gino Odjick.RW-Trevor Linden, Pavel Bure. Garry Valk. Tim Hunter.LD-Dana Murzyn, Adrien Plavsic, Robert Dirk. Doug Lidster.RD-Gerald Diduck, Jyrkl Lumme, Jiri Slegr, Dan Ratushny.G-Kirk McLean, Kay Whitmore.INJURIESDave Babych. D. facial laceration, day-to-day. Jim Sandlak. RW, bruised riaht hand, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0047-01

Clinching Smythe title doesn’t satisfy hunger

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>If, as they say, timing is everything, then Joe Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s recent resurgence couldn&rsquo;t be better for Calgary Flames.After a mostly up-and-down season, the Flames&rsquo; captain was hitting his stride just before the playoffs.Nieuwendyk returned from a knee injury April 4 against the San Jose Sharks and didn&rsquo;t look as if he&rsquo;d missed a day. He scored goals in each of his first three games back and generally played the style of aggressive hockey coach Dave King has wanted from him all season.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s giving us some good leadership here in the stretch run,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;In the absence of Gary Roberts, Joe has stepped up his game.&rdquo;Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s history suggests he will be a key playoff performer. The Flames missed post-season play last year, but the season before, in a seven-game opening-round loss to the Edmonton Oilers, Nieuwendyk produced some of his best all-around hockey ever.With the season winding down, he looked as if he was getting his playoff face ready.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what we all strive for, to have your game going good come playoff time,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The fact I had 10 days off-getting a little rest in there-gave the knee a chance to heal. I&rsquo;m feeling pretty good out there.&rdquo;Even after a slow start, Nieuwendyk still had a shot at the 40-goal plateau for the fifth time in his six NHL seasons. He had 37 with two games remaining.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01162/6248489-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="545" height="804"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s resurgence helped the Flames&rsquo; power play.</figcaption></div>Not surprisingly, the surge in Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s play also coincided with improvements on the Flames&rsquo; power play. Traditionally, the Flames finish in the top five with the man advantage.This year, however, they finished in the bottom third. However, after March 30, they scored at about a 36 per-cent clip, which was more than double their season-long rate of about 17 per cent.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t had our regular powerplay out there very often,&rdquo; Nieuwendyk said. &ldquo;Robert (Reichel) was out for a while and when he came back, I got injured. And (Al) Maclnnis missed a lot of games early in the season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been practising our power play a lot lately. We have a good power play. Maybe it&rsquo;s a blessing in disguise to be stale so long and now turn the comer on the power play.&rdquo;EARLY RETURN: Left winger Gary Roberts, out since February because of a quadricep hematoma in his left leg, received medical clearance to play in the Flames&rsquo; final regular-season game against San Jose.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s good news because we weren&rsquo;t expecting him back until the second round of the playoffs at least,&rdquo; King said.King wanted to work Roberts in slowly, but in practical terms, that wasn&rsquo;t going to happen. There may be a greater risk in seeing only spot duty-because of the chance of his thigh stiffening up-than if he gets right in there.&ldquo;If I&rsquo;m going to play, I&rsquo;d like to play a regular shift,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t be one of those guys that goes to the bench and only plays on the power play.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Kevin Dahl sustained a hairline fracture in his left foot after stopping a Pavel Bure slapshot in an 8-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks April 9. He was expected to be out of the lineup until at least mid-April.The Flames brought in left winger Niklas Sundblad, their No. 1 choice in the 1991 entry draft, to practise with the team for the final week of the season. Sundblad was ineligible to play because he played all season for Stockholm AIK of the Swedish Elite League. The Hames would like to sign him for next season and have him join the team if he earns a job in training camp. If not, the Hames will place him with their top minor-league affiliate, which will be in St. John, N.B., next season.<h2>CALGARY</h2>TRANSACTIONSNorte.ROSTERC-Joe Nieuwendyk, Joel Otto. Robert Reichel. Brian Skrudland.LW-Paul Ranheim. Brent Ashton, Roger Johansson. Paul Kruse. Chris Lindberg.RW-Theo Fleury. Greg Paslawsld, Ron Stem. Craig Berube. Sergei Makarov.LD-Gary Suter. Frank Musi, Trent Yawney, Alexander Godynyuk.RD-Al Maclnnte, Chris Oahlqulst. Michel Petit Greg Smyth.G-Mtke Vernon. Jeff Reese.INJURIESKevin Dahl, D, left toot fracture, day-to-day. Gary Roberts, LW, guadricep hematoma, day-to-day. Carey Wilson, C, surgery to repair left knee tendon, indefinite. &#9632;

f0048-01

Captain Nieuwendyk hits stride at riaht time

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0049-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01146/6248599-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0049-01

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>Team Canada&rsquo;s makeup at the World Championships in Germany will have a decidedly Edmonton Oiler look as defen teammates Bill Ranford, Shayne Corson, Kelly Buchberger and Dave Manson. All six agreed to suit up for the 22-man team. They join Norm Maciver of the Ottawa Senators as the only confirmed members.Team Canada assistant general manager Roger Neilson was looking for playmaking defensemen, not big, physical heavy hitters, when he made these latest additions.&ldquo;A team like Sweden that is favored to win the tournament, they don&rsquo;t forecheck at all,&rdquo; Neilson said.&ldquo;You need defensemen who can move the puck up, make plays.&rdquo;Benning and Smith both are good skaters with international experience.&ldquo;I was asked last year and had to decline because 1 needed a shoulder operation,&rdquo; Benning said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great experience and I&rsquo;ve played that kind of hockey before.&rdquo;Manson is looking to put his awful year behind him in the world tournament.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a totally different style of hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;d be nice to win. They haven&rsquo;t won one for a while.&rdquo;The only time Manson auditioned for a national team he was cut at the World Junior Championships team camp by coach Terry Simpson, who was also Manson&rsquo;s Prince Albert Raiders&rsquo; coach at the time.&ldquo;Broke my damn heart,&rdquo; Manso^ said.WORDS OF WISDOM: It&rsquo;s believed Ted Green was trying to defend Kelly Buchberger&rsquo;s offensive numbers. But it&rsquo;s hard to say.&ldquo;If you average things out, his point production is in line with the proportion of points scored this year as opposed to last year overall,&rdquo; the Oilers&rsquo; coach said.Huh?Buchberger scored 20 of the Oilers&rsquo; 295 goals last season, or 6.77 per cent. He had 12 of their 240 this season, or five per cent. Exactly what that means is anybody&rsquo;s guess.&ldquo;Kelly has had an excellent year, Green said. &ldquo;He has been one of our leaders. When everything is going well for this club, Kelly is a 20-25 goal man or can be.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: A difficult season for goalie Norm Foster will at least have a happy ending-in an NHL uniform. Foster didn&rsquo;t play for three months while with the Cape Bretoru Oilers of the American League. The minor-league affiliate went with Wayne Cowley and Andrew Verner instead. Foster was loaned to the Kansas City Blades of the International League in late February and by early April was back in Edmonton when Bill Ranford was injured with a pulled hamstring. The best thing that happened to Foster this season was the birth of daughter Catherine Margaret Feb. 6.<h2>EDMONTON</h2>TRANSACTIONSApril 5: Brad Werenka, D. assigned to Cape Breton (AHL). April 8: Norm Foster, G, recalled from Kansas City (IHL).ROSTERC-Vladlmir Vujtek. Craig MacTavish. Doug Weight. Mike Hudson.LW-Zdeno Ciger. Shayne Corson, Louie DeBrosk. Martin Gelinas.RW-Steve Rice. Petr KSma. Scott Mellanby, Shjon Podein.LD-Oave Manson, Geoff Smith. Luke Richardson.RD-Brian Benning. Brian Gfynn. Chris Joseph.G-Ron Tugnutt, Norm Foster.INJURIESKelly Buchberger, RW, separated right shoulder, day-to-day Todd Elik C, left shoulder surgery, out for season. Igor Kravchuk. D. sprained left knee, out for season Bill Ranford. G, pulled hamstring, day-to-day. Craig Simpson. LW. protruding disc In back, out for season. Kevin Todd, C. separated left shoulder, out tor season, &#9632;

Team Canada comes calling for playoff rejects

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>The Winnipeg Jets got a pretty good grade on a late-season chemistry exam.Many questions surrounded the retooled Jets as they prepared for the post-season with a new look and a new talent base.Perhaps the biggest question was whether or not the team was prepared to deal with the harder-nosed hockey that punctuates the spring.In Game 82 April 11 in Edmonton, Oilers&rsquo; defenseman Brian Benning put a nasty cross-check to the left side of rookie scoring star Teemu Selanne&rsquo;s head. It brought a two-minute penalty and when Benning returned from his time, it also brought on tough guys Kris King and Tie Domi in foul moods.King&rsquo;s challenge was intercepted by Edmonton&rsquo;s Dave Manson, but Domi eventually succeeded in instigating a fight with Benning after Benning speared him in self-defense.All four players were ejected following the skirmish and neither of the Jets, nor coach John Paddock, were apologetic for what happened.And not only did the Jets answer the abuse on Selanne, they went on to erase a 4-0 deficit and win the game 7-5.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think their stars ever got abused like that,&rdquo; Paddock said. &ldquo;If anybody thinks they&rsquo;re going to cross-check Selanne across the ear or head like that and not have something happen, they&rsquo;re crazy.&rdquo;King said the message was just as important as the team&rsquo;s rally for seven straight goals to win the game.&ldquo;We thought it was a cheap shot,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Teemu is our best player and I don&rsquo;t think Benning had anything to gain by it. Teemu is our bread and butter and if we&rsquo;re going to be at our best in the playoffs, we can&rsquo;t be letting anybody take cheap shots at him. We just tried to get the point across.&rdquo;NO THANKS: It appears veteran Randy Carlyle has played his last NHL game.Carlyle, who got into only 22 games this season, decided not to take the coaching staff up on their offer to put him in the lineup for one more game.His retirement announcement is expected at the end of the season.The 36-year-old defenseman will continue to practise with the team, which has been carrying nine defensemen for the last month. He will be available if the team gets into injury trouble.Nagging injuries limited Carlyle&rsquo;s availability earlier this season and eventually pushed him down the depth chart.His last game was March 6 against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toron-to-where he began his career in 1976. He scored his only goal of the season in a 4-2 loss.The 1981 Norris Trophy winner played 1,055 regular-season games in his career. He scored 148 goals and 647 points.Carlyle is expected to remain with the organization in some capacity next season.NOTEBOOK: Assistant coach Alpo Suhonen will leave the Jets at the end of the season and return to Finland to coach Jokerit Helsinki. He said he wants to be with his wife, Marita, as she enters her final year of psychiatric internship.Phil Housley had one assist April 11 in Edmonton to break Dale Haw-erchuk&rsquo;s franchise record of 77. Housley, the NHL&rsquo;s leading scorer among defensemen, had 78 assists with two games left in the regular season.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2>TRANSACTIONSNone.ROSTERC-Alexei Zhamnov. Thomas Steen, Stu Barnes, Luciano Borsato, Mike Ea-LW-Keith Tkachuk. Darrin Shannon. John Druce, Kris King.RW-Teemu Setanne, Evgeny Davydov, Tie Domi, Bryan Erickson.LD-Teppo Numminen, Sergei Bautin. Mike Lalor, Igor Ulanov. Randy Cartyle.RD-Phil Housley, Fredrik Olausson. Dean Kennedy, Dallas Eakins.G-Bob Essensa. Jim Hrivnak.INJURIESMike O&rsquo;Neill. G, surgery on dislocated right shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

Paddock won’t tolerate rambunctious oooonents

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f00C4-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f00c4-01260/6248630-1-eng-US/f00c4-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

April 23, 1993

OHL

LETTERS

Ageless leader Acton readv. willina and able