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.

October 15, 1993

The Hockey News October 15, 1993

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IN THIS ISSUE

LOUISVILLE…THE SCORING LEADER!

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>When E.J. McGuire came to Ottawa to take a job as assistant coach of the Senators, he looked forward to the opportunity to become bilingual.&ldquo;But I didn&rsquo;t think it would be English and Russian,&rdquo; he said.Communicating with Russian defenseman Dmitri Filimonov, who speaks no English, has been a big problem for the Senators.In the carefully orchestrated tango between defense partners, you&rsquo;ve got to know the lingo. And though Filimonov is trying to learn English, it has been a tedious process.Rookie Russian Alexei Yashin can speak some English and has volunteered to be &ldquo;interpreterman&rdquo; as he puts it, but in the heat of a game it&rsquo;s difficult to keep up.So, in the interest of speeding things along. McGuire, fellow Senators&rsquo; assistant Alain Vigneault and Filimonov&rsquo;s defense partner Brad Shaw, spent part of an afternoon with Filimonov, Yashin, and Yashin&rsquo;s father, Valery, trying to learn Russian.&ldquo;You should have heard Filly, Yash and his dad when they got going. Now I understand how an English guy who doesn&rsquo;t understand French feels when we&rsquo;re talking. It all registered,&rdquo; Vigneault said.There&rsquo;s a time-honored method of teaching European hockey players English and it&rsquo;s not by listening to Berlitz. It&rsquo;s by watching a Sony, Zenith or a Panasonic. Usually something like reruns of Get Smart or Gilligan&rsquo;s Island.We&rsquo;ll know he&rsquo;s making progress when he starts calling coach Rick Bowness &ldquo;Skipper&rdquo; and Yashin his &ldquo;little buddy.&rdquo;Anyway, it might have been the first time coaches used television to learn Russian. Vigneault broke down 10 on-ice situations on videotape and the group went over them, coming up with Russian catch phrases Vigneault and McGuire can use to let Filimonov know what&rsquo;s expected of him during the game.&ldquo;The first thing I learned was &lsquo;Do you understand?&rsquo;&rdquo; said Vigneault, snapping off the expression in Russian.Eight words were learned, including the Russian equivalent of &ldquo;out&rdquo; &ldquo;over&rdquo; and &ldquo;reverse&rdquo;, simple words that can be used in the appropriate situation.For now, all the expressions will be put on index cards and used by Vigneault and McGuire on the bench when the need arises.The words should help get Filimonov, who has shown his own particular style on the ice, to put it politely, under control.PROSPECT WATCH: Alexandre Daigle. C, 18. The $12-million teen has shown flashes of greatness, but he needs to sustain it. He also needs a lot of work in his own zone.Dmitri Filimonov, D, 22. The 6-foot-4, 207-pound Russian has skill. He comes to the Senators from Russian League powerhouse Moscow Dynamo.Alexei Yashin, C, 20. The Senators&rsquo; top pick in the 1992 entry draft has shown good speed and is expected to challenge for rookie-of-the-year honors.NOTEBOOK: Despite the influx of talented draft picks Alexandre Daigle and Alexei Yashin and free agents such as Vladimir Ruzicka, the Senators&rsquo; power play wasn&rsquo;t good in the pre-season. The Senators, who had the worst power-play unit in the league last season, were just 6-for-50 with the man advantage. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to be too cute,&rdquo; Rick Bowness said. &#9632;

Filimonov a study in many ways

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>Keith Brown said goodbye to the Windy City after 14 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks.The 33-year-old defenseman was traded Sept. 30 to the Florida Panthers for right winger Darin Kimble. Only two current NHLers have played longer for one team than Brown. Dave Taylor is beginning his 17th season with the Los Angeles Kings while Ray Bourque is entering his 15th year with the Boston Bruins.&ldquo;How many guys get to play that long in one place?&rdquo; Brown said. &ldquo;I feel fortunate to have been in Chicago 14 years. It was very special.&rdquo;Kimble gives the Hawks the physical presence they need up front after losing enforcer Stu Grimson to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the expansion draft.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a competitive kid and we need that,&rdquo; said general manager Bob Pulford. &ldquo;He has more skill than Grimson and is a decent (fighter).&rdquo;&ldquo;Personally, it was hard to trade Keith, but we filled a need and gained eight years in age,&rdquo; said coach Darryl Sutter, a teammate of Brown&rsquo;s for his entire seven-year career. &ldquo;It has to do with size and the need to be more physical up front. Kimble can help us. He has character and is respected around the league for toughness.&rdquo;Sutter maintained that the next tough guy the Hawks acquired had to be able to contribute by playing regular shifts. The Hawks think Kimble fits that mold.&ldquo;He had seven goals in 55 games last year,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;We played guys here a lot more who didn&rsquo;t score as much.&rdquo;Brown knew there might not be a place for him this year with so many defensemen.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a shock when you get traded, but they&rsquo;re an older team and they&rsquo;ve got to get younger,&rdquo; Brown said. &ldquo;To tell you the truth, I didn&rsquo;t know a whole lot of teams wanted me. I thought I&rsquo;d be a hard guy to move.&rdquo;Brown came to camp aware the competition for a regular spot on defense was going to be stiff behind the top four of Chris Chelios, Steve Smith, Bryan Marchment and newly acquired Neil Wilkinson. That left Cam Russell. Frank Kucera, Craig Muni, Karl Dykhuis and Ivan Droppa to scramble for the remaining two starting jobs.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t play well in the exhibition games, but I don&rsquo;t think that would have made any difference,&rdquo; Brown said. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;ve got an older team, you&rsquo;ve got to bring in a few young guys and let them make mistakes. I think that&rsquo;s what they&rsquo;re going to do.&ldquo;This organization has been nothing but good to me and I have nothing but good memories. This is kind of a new lease on life for me.&rdquo;Brown will be reunited in Florida with former Hawks&rsquo; coach Roger Neilson.&ldquo;This is probably something that is better for Keith in the long run,&rdquo; Pulford said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going where he will be a big person on the team and maybe it&rsquo;ll lengthen his career.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Jeff Shantz, C. 19. He was impressive until sustaining a mild shoulder separation Sept. 25. He&rsquo;s a heady two-way center in the Brent Sutter mold.Steve Dubinsky. LW, 23. The Clarkson University graduate caught the eye of coaches and veteran teammates at training camp with his work ethic.Sergei Krivokrasov, RW, 19. Although he was scoreless in five preseason games, the Russian&rsquo;s scoring potential is still intriguing for a club that needs goals.Ivan Droppa, D, 21. The Czech&rsquo;s offensive skills could be just what the power play needs. A full year with the Indianapolis Ice of the International League helped his transition.NOTEBOOK: Bob Pulford backed off an earlier statement about defenseman Chris Chelios&rsquo; contract extension being worked out prior to the start of the season. &ldquo;This kind of deal is not done overnight,&rdquo; Pulford said. &ldquo;This is going to be a difficult deal.&rdquo;Jeremy Roenick is the Blackhawks&rsquo; player representative on the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, replacing Steve Larmer. &#9632;

Brown victim of numbers game after 14 seasons

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03910/6141783-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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THE DRAW

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01898/6143524-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"></div>NHL 1993-94Stanley Cup or bust for Jagr & PenguinsINSIDE EDITIONExperts pick Penguins, WingsMeet all the new playersTHN cartoonist comes homeAll schedules, NHL and more &#9632;

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REVENGE OF THE BIRDS

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05415/6141366-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="381" height="478"></div>Damn those management seminars.The message is always the same: Empower your employees. Give them responsibility, autonomy, authority, blah-blah-blah. Sounds positively modem. And risky.We gave senior writer Mike Brophy the responsibility of writing 26 team stories in our 1993-94 Yearbook. No problem. He did a brilliant job. We gave Mike Brophy the autonomy to pick and choose what he thought was important. No problem. He made one good decision after another. We gave Mike Brophy the authority to predict who will win the Stanley Cup this season. Disaster struck. He picked the New York Rangers.Mike Keenan thinks the Rangers are a good choice. Neil Smith does, too. It may be the only thing those two agree on all season. But does anybody else? (Stan Fischler doesn&rsquo;t count.) Don&rsquo;t get me wrong. The Hockey News stands behind its people and sticks with them win or tie. (Shootouts don&rsquo;t count.) I&rsquo;m not saying Brophy made a bad choice; I&rsquo;m saying he made a brutal choice. The Rangers rank seventh in my conference standings and their chances of parlaying a playoff berth into a Stanley Cup berth are roughly the same as the Chicago Blackhawks embracing free television.So, who will win? The Pittsburgh Penguins, of course. They will meet and eat the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup final-outscoring, outplaying and outhitting the Winged Wheelers. History tells us the Rangers have not won the Cup since 1940. It also tells us the Red Wings have not won since 1955. Four of the Original Six teams have won since then. So have four of the Other 18.Detroit has the oldest player in the NHL and still doesn&rsquo;t have a player who was born when the Red Wings last captured the Cup. The Red Wings won April 14, 1955. Mark Howe was born May 28, 1955.Red Wings&rsquo; general manager Bryan Murray is destined to be remembered as a better GM than coach (snicker if you must, but he does have a .573 career winning percentage in the regular season), and he might prove Craig Patrick&rsquo;s equal at making lineup improvements through trades. If the Red Wings ever fire Murray, the Canadian government should hire him. He could teach the Liberals and Regressive Conservatives a thing or two about trade surpluses.Murray is sure to make some moves to improve the Red Wings. One of them may be to acquire a first-rate playoff goalie. Tim Cheveldae is not the root of playoff evil in Detroit, but he has yet to establish himself a Stanley Cupcalibre stopper. Teams don&rsquo;t win playoff championships without first-rate goaltending.Go back over the last 40 years of Cup winners and try to find one without a dominant goalie. Good luck. The Red Wings won in 1955 with Terry Sawchuk, one of the all-time greats. Can Cheveldae be that man? Or will Murray look elsewhere? Has anybody noticed the Edmonton Oilers are paying Bill Ranford more than $1 million to play on a non-playoff team?Just wondering.Steve Dryden&rsquo;s Picks:<h2>Western Conference</h2>1. Detroit2. Los Angeles3. Winnipeg4. Vancouver5. Calgary6. Toronto7. Chicago8. St. Louis9. Dallas10. Edmonton11. San Jose12. Anaheim<h2>Eastern Conference</h2>1. Pittsburgh2. Quebec3. Montreal4. Islanders5. Boston6. Washington7. Rangers8. Buffalo9. Philadelphia10. New Jersey11. Hartford12. Tampa Bay13. Ottawa14. Florida &#9632;

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Penguins will meet and eat Red Wings in Cup final

REVENGE OF BIRDS&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;P. 6ELSTON&rsquo;S BACK&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;P.81993-94 PREDICTIONS.. P.19SCHEDULES&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;P.40PROSPECTS&hellip;&hellip;&hellip;ALL TEAMS<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011362/6141418-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="502" height="840"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stephane Richer is a changed person this season. Pg. 13</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04573/6141411-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="502" height="839"><figcaption class="caption-body">Greg Adams is the center of attention in Vancouver. Pg. 39</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021104/6141404-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="321" height="530"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jason Smith</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03796/6141397-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="319" height="532"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mikael Renberg</figcaption></div>This issue marks the start of a new NHL season and new look for The Hockey News. Most prominent is the logo design. We have changed our colors from a standard yellow and red on black to what will most commonly be white on red or blue. The logo has been increased in size and now spans the entire width of the front page. Also new are several features that will be introduced over the next few issues. This week, we are pleased to welcome back Calgary cartoonist Dave Elston (page 8) to our editorial page and introduce a two-page special named Inside Hockey (page 4). Both will appear weekly. Elston returns after a one-year hiatus. A final word on this issue. Each team report includes an item named Prospect Watch. The players in Prospect Watch are first-year players on the team or strong candidates to make the team. Please note they are first-year players, not necessarily rookies by NHL definition. &#9632;

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ON THE COVER

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06302/6141456-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="353" height="352"></div>Stephane Richer. No, that&rsquo;s not Stephane J.J. Richer espousing common sense in New Jersey. It&rsquo;s the talented, but enigmatic player we&rsquo;ve all come to know. Let&rsquo;s hope the character change is permanent.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-07195/6141449-1-eng-US/f0002-072.jpg" title="f0002-07" width="352" height="353"></div>Doug Gilmour, Bryan Marchment. The two were the perpetrators of butthead moves in the pre-season-literally. Head butting is a tacky tactic that may cut it in the WWF, but it has no place in hockey. &#9632;

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CHEERS AND JEERS

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>The jury is still out on the judges.The NHL is considering implementing a two-referee, two-linesmen system, but a regular-season test will probably be convened in a minor league.&ldquo;If we&rsquo;re going to try the two-ref experiment during the regular season it will not be in the NHL,&rdquo; said league vice-president Brian Burke. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been assured by the East Coast League that they would be willing to try it and the American and International Leagues have indicated some receptivity to it.&rdquo;The system was used in six preseason games this fall and two last season. &ldquo;I thought it was very worthwhile,&rdquo; said Bryan Lewis, the NHL&rsquo;s director of officiating, &ldquo;but six games doesn&rsquo;t make it good or bad.&rdquo;NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has targeted improved officiating as one of his key goals, but the two-referee system is a drastic measure for a league that hasn&rsquo;t changed its format of one referee and two linesmen since 1941.Don Van Massenhoven, who shared refereeing duties with Blaine Angus in a Sept. 17 Toronto Maple Leafs-Montreal Canadiens game, said he&rsquo;d have no problem if the system became the norm.&ldquo;I liked the idea of coming up behind the play and still knowing that if there&rsquo;s a quick pass, someone will be waiting at the net,&rdquo; he said.Under the system, referees assume a floating zone of responsibility. Each has exclusive jurisdiction in his own zone from the faceoff circles in.Either referee can make calls in the neutral zone and from the faceoff circle to the blueline. When the puck leaves a zone, one referee trails the play. Officials rotate zones throughout the game.Referees should rarely be caught out of position under the system. Linesmen would shoulder less responsibility because they would be relieved of penalty-calling responsibilities.Detractors say an extra body clutters the ice and the system would heighten the league&rsquo;s officiating costs and deplete the talent base. Teams also fear an increase in penalties and power struggles between the referees.Still, the climate is right for a move to address complaints about officiating. Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; coach-general manager John Muckier concedes he has little faith in the current system.&ldquo;If it were to be put into place tomorrow, I&rsquo;d say &lsquo;Great, lets give it a chance,&rsquo; &ldquo;he said. &ldquo;Because what we have now isn&rsquo;t proper.&rdquo; &#9632;

Two ref system in limbo

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>A former USAir flight attendant suing the Boston Bruins over an alleged sexual assault has cleared her first major legal hurdle.Connie vonHundertmark, 40, is suing the Bruins and USAir for $5 million each.VonHundertmark alleges a member of the Bruins ripped open her blouse and cupped his hand on her breast while another took a picture during a charter flight, May 1, 1991. As a result of the incident, vonHundertmark said, she lost her job with the airline.U.S. Eastern District Federal Court Judge Judge Charles Sifton denied motions Sept. 19 from attorneys representing the Bruins to throw out her suit.Judge Sifton rejected the club&rsquo;s arguments that because vonHundertmark&rsquo;s claim of wrongful dismissal had already been rejected by a labor arbitrator, she was ineligible to sue.The case could take as long as a year to come to court. The Bruins had no comment on the suit.VonHundertmark, meanwhile, has been a lightning rod for media. The television tabloid Hard Copy is preparing a segment on her and she recently appeared on the Sally Jessy Raphael talk show. &#9632;

Bruins lose in bid to dismiss lawsuit

Chicago is home to the Bears, but there&rsquo;s no shortage of Vikings either.The Chicago Blackhawks added another member of the Sutter clan, the pride of Viking, Alta., in the NHL waiver draft Oct. 3.The addition of 30-year-old right winger Rich Sutter off the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; roster brings the total Sutter contingent on the Hawks to three.Darryl Sutter is entering his second year as the Blackhawks&rsquo; coach and center Brent scored 20 goals and 54 points in 65 games last season, his second season with the club. Duane Sutter coaches the Blackhawks&rsquo; primary affiliate, the Indianapolis Ice of the International League.Rich Sutter scored 13 goals and 27 points in 84 games last season for the Blues, but he is coming off stomach surgery.Only six NHLers changed teams in the draft.Center Dave McLIwain. 26, was the first player chosen. He was drafted by the Ottawa Senators from the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; roster.Center Mike Hudson was then taken by the New York Rangers from the Edmonton Oilers and Paul Broten was selected by the Dallas Stars from the Rangers. The first round included only the non-playoff and expansion teams.Center John McIntyre was taken by the Vancouver Canucks from the Rangers and Sutter went to Chicago from St. Louis in the second round.Left winger Garry Valk was the only player selected in the third round, going from Vancouver to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.PENSION UPDATE: As the NHL players went into the season making more money than ever, their retired counterparts were still waiting for their pay day.The fate of the NHL retirees rests in the hands of three Ontario judges who are deciding whether the NHL wrongly diverted $21.1 in surplus pension funds in 1982 and 1985.The players successfully sued the league for the money-which, with interest, could reach $40 million-in November of 1992. But the NHL appealed the ruling.The appeal was heard in a Toronto courtroom from Sept. 21 to 24, but judges John Morden, Lloyd Houlden and Allan Goodman of the Ontario Court of Appeal have set no timetable for returning a decision.The NHL argued the collective bargaining agreements of 1969 and 1986 permitted the diversion of the funds.MAKI MISHAP: The Itech Hockey Memories story in the Oct. 1 issue of THN wrongly identified Chico Maki as being suspended for spearing Ted Green on Sept. 21, 1969.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011527/6141566-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="570" height="1052"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rich Sutter joins brothers Darryl and Brent in Chicago.</figcaption></div>In fact, Wayne Maki received the 30-game suspension from NHL president Clarence Campbell.NEW COMMISH: Robert DeGregorio has been named acting commissioner of Hockey East.DeGregorio replaces Stuart Haskell, who resigned earlier this year to devote his full-time duties to being the commissioner of the North Atlantic Conference.A resident of Metheun, Mass., DeGregorio has been director of athletics at Merrimack College since 1983.His responsibilities will include overall administration of the U.S. college league&rsquo;s day-to-day business, including financial matters, contract negotiations, public relations and marketing.ROLLING ALONG: The Roadrunner is now the rollrunner.Former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; star Yvan Cournoyer signed as coach-general manager of the newest franchise in the Roller Hockey International league Sept. 28.Coumoyer and former NHLer Bob Sirois will be co-owners of the franchise, the 13th in the roller hockey league which concluded its inaugural season Sept. 7.League president Dennis Murphy plans to add seven teams to the 12-team league for the 1994-95 season by Dec. 1. The first-year teams drew 346,610 fans in the inaugural season.MOVIN&rsquo; ON UP: The NHL has pulled ahead of tractor pulls in the United States, but it still lags behind pairs ice dancing, Little League baseball and airplane stunts.The NHL finished as the 32nd most popular pastime in the U.S., in the National Sports Study II. a survey conducted in 1992 by the Sports Marketing Group of Dallas.The findings were derived from a 64-page questionnaire that was completed by 1,479 respondents. It was the largest lifestyles study ever conducted in the United States.In the first National Sports Study, which was conducted in 1989, the NHL finished 40th. Much was made of the fact that it was less popular than tractor pulls, but tractor pulls were 42nd this time around.But the NHL still trails the other major sports by a wide margin. The National Football League is the most popular. Major League baseball is third and the National Basketball Association ninth.Nye Lavalie, chairman and managing director for the Sports Marketing Group, attributed hockey&rsquo;s increase to an overall increase in popularity for big-time professional sports, and the fact that 12-17-year-olds were included in the study for the first time.International hockey finished 51st of 129 sports in the study. Minor-league hockey was 79th and U.S. college hockey was tied for 90th with log rolling. Youth hockey tied for 106th in popularity with fencing, snow boarding and Pop Warner football. &#9632;

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Chicago becoming a Sutter’s kind of town

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>Did Alan Eagleson abuse his positions as the head of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association and chief negotiator for Hockey Canada to profit from the Canada Cup?That question is at the root of a recent report published by the Eagle-Tribune in Lawrence, Mass.A two-story series written by Eagle-Tribune sports editor Russ Conway said Hockey Canada signed agreements worth more than $1.5 million in fees and expenses with Eagleson and people close to him for their work on international hockey tournaments, including the Canada Cup.Eagleson, who resigned as the NHLPA executive director in 1991, is the subject of investigations by Hockey Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a U.S. Grand Jury and the Law Society of Upper Canada.Neither Eagleson or his associates commented on the story. But in a letter to NHL players written in 1989, Eagleson said he hadn&rsquo;t profited from the tournament.&ldquo;Neither I nor any member of my family, nor any company with which I am associated has ever received any money directly or indirectly from any international hockey event,&rdquo; Eagleson wrote.Among the newspapers&rsquo; findings:&#9633; Hockey Canada, the non-profit organization responsible for overseeing Canadian involvement in international hockey, agreed to rent office space from Eagleson or his law firm for more than $400,000.&#9633; Eagleson rented the same parking spaces to Hockey Canada and the NHLPA.&#9633; Hockey Canada contracted three Eagleson business associates: Chris Lang, Sam Simpson and Marvin Goldblatt, paying them more than $600,000 between 1988 and 1991. Goldblatt, Eagleson&rsquo;s accountant, was hired to provide accounting for the 1991 Canada Cup. Simpson, an NHLPA director, was hired as comptroller for the &rsquo;91 Cup.Lang, an Eagleson associate, was hired as an advisor for the &rsquo;91 Cup.&#9633; Eagleson, Goldblatt and Lang routinely signed the others&rsquo; contracts on behalf of Hockey Canada.&#9633; While the five Canada Cups held since 1976 generated more than $42 million in revenue, 70 per cent was taken in expenses.The newspaper also explored Eagleson&rsquo;s practise of subcontracting employees to Hockey Canada.Bill Watters, then an Eagleson employee and now assistant general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, said money he was paid by Hockey Canada was deducted from his salary at Eagleson&rsquo;s player-agent practice.Rick Curran, now a player agent, told the newspaper Hockey Canada underwrote business he was doing for Eagleson&rsquo;s firm. &ldquo;What was happening is Hockey Canada was paying us a salary&hellip;but during that time period we were also working, doing our own business for Alan,&rdquo; Curran said.The newspaper also detailed a dispute between the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association and Hockey Canada over a $1-million fund. The money was paid to the CAHA by Hockey Canada in return for its support of the bid to run the tournament, but only after six years and an out-of court settlement. &#9632;

Eagleson under scrutiny for Canada Cup finances

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011439/6141621-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"></div>One of the biggest bargains in the NHL last season has been given his due.Calgary Flame Robert Reichel was awarded a two-year contract worth $700, (MX) per season through arbitration Sept. 21. The 22-year-old, who collected 88 points in 1992-93, earned $150,000 last year.Reichel was seeking a deal worth $925,000(MX) and the Flames offered $600.000. Reichel&rsquo;s hearing was the first of the 1993-94 season.But it wasn&rsquo;t the most significant. Boston Bruin Ray Bourque, who went before the arbitrator Oct. 1, was seeking an estimated $4 million. The Bruins countered with $2 million. A decision was expected Oct. 5.Fourteen players went to arbitration last season and while none received what he requested, all were given raise-the average raise being 99.7 per cent.Four of the 13 decisions were closer to what the players requested while nine were skewed towards the owners. Greg Adams and the Vancouver Canucks agreed on a contract before the arbitrator rendered his decision.A player going to arbitration must be in the option year of his contract and must declare before the season whether he intends to play out his option or seek arbitration. A player may sign a deal anytime before the arbitrator makes a decision.<h2>ARBITRATION RESULTS &#9632;</h2>

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Flames’ Reichel big winner in ’93-94 arbitration kickoff

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021039/6141652-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Gary Bettman may allow Dale Hunter (above) to practise with his team.</figcaption></div>Gary Bettman vows the NHL show will go on with or without its officials.The NHL Officials&rsquo; Association-which represents the league&rsquo;s 55 referees and linesmen-has indicated it will stop work Nov. 15 if a new collective bargaining agreement between the NHLOA and the league is not in place. Bettman, who didn&rsquo;t reveal who would call games if the officials decide to walk, promised the season won&rsquo;t be interrupted.&ldquo;The games will be played one way or another,&rdquo; Bettman said during a 90-minute conference call Oct. 1. The commissioner addressed a number of league issues during the conversation, including:&#9633; Fighting. The line on fisticuffs remains status quo for 1993-94. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not making radical changes to the game right now. The goal is to be sure our supplemental discipline and our on-ice officiating is as good as possible. Once we get to that point, I think we can look at the great debate about fighting.&rdquo;&#9633; Salary cap. Bettman hasn&rsquo;t gone on record as being in favor of one, but said its introduction remains a possibility. &ldquo;What we&rsquo;re doing in bargaining is trying to focus on the system that would make sense for this league (to go) forward. Obviously you want to have a system that keeps salaries fair for the players relative to revenues. If you had a situation where revenues are greatly outstripping the salaries that might not be fair to the players. Conversely, it wouldn&rsquo;t be fair if salaries on a consistent basis were outstripping revenues.&rdquo;&#9633; Small-market teams. The commissioner said keeping small-market teams economically viable remains a priority. But he didn&rsquo;t rule out franchise shifts. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t favor franchise relocation except as an absolute last resort.&rdquo;&#9633; Dale Hunter&rsquo;s 21-game suspension. Bettman won&rsquo;t shorten Hunter&rsquo;s sentence, but may allow him to practise with the Washington Capitals. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m comfortable that 21 games into the regular season is the right suspension. The only issue I&rsquo;m even wrestling with is whether or not to let Dale start practising sooner because I don&rsquo;t want to jeopardize his career.&rdquo;&#9633; Making the NHL more television friendly. Bettman said the league has hired an additional off-ice official to enforce the 70-second commerical break and ensure the game runs smoothly. That was a problem last season. &ldquo;We think once we have a couple of weeks to get everybody well-versed in it, it&rsquo;s going to work much better (than the old system).&rdquo; &#9632;

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Officials’ strike won’t halt games

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021104/6141714-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg"></div>Pittsburgh&rsquo;s super six forwards would have averaged 120 points per player last season had they all played 84 games. That&rsquo;s a projected total based on their scoring 644 points in 449 games, an average of 1.43 points per game (84 &times; 1.43=120) and is almost 30 points more than the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; projected average total of 92. Points accumulated by the six leading forwards are assigned to current teams. As an example, the Winnipeg Jets have Paul Yse-baert and Nelson Emerson point totals credited to them. &#9632;

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AVERAGE SCORING AMONG TOP FORWARDS

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011619/6141683-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Tocchet is one of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s dirty half-dozen: They have six of the best forwards in history. (R & R Sports Group)</figcaption></div>Those wild and crazy Czechs are talking faster than they can skate.Jaromir Jagr and Martin Straka, two of the NHL&rsquo;s exciting young players, have staked claim to a comer of the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; dressing room at Maple Leaf Gardens.Between them is a third Czech, minor leaguer Ladislav Karabin.&ldquo;How we doing in Czecho-land?&rdquo; a trainer asks.Jagr, the veteran star at age 21 whose wavy black hair is longer than his hockey career, says everything is cool.The trainer shrugs: &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t put those three together anymore. They take too long to get their equipment off. They talk too much.&rdquo;Live from Toronto, it&rsquo;s Thursday night.The NHL regular season is five days away and the exhibition season is all but complete for 25 of 26 teams.For Pittsburgh, however, the season does not begin until April 17, the first day of the playoffs. It&rsquo;s a helluva long pre-season-93 games.Only in the playoffs can the Penguins establish they are hockey&rsquo;s best team, a distinction bestowed upon them the past three years. Last season, it was only an honorary title.Pittsburgh suffered a humbling second-round playoff loss to the New York Islanders and watched as the Montreal Canadiens earned the real title.This after the Penguins&rsquo; 119-point season, the best by an NHL team in five years, a record 17-game winning streak, two better than the previous mark, and an awe-inspiring comeback by Mario Lemieux, who returned from Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease to win the scoring championship in only 60 games.&ldquo;Last year, we had a pretty astounding season and a tremendous winning streak,&rdquo; says all-star goalie Tom Barasso, &ldquo;and, yet, losing in the second round of the playoffs (meant the year) was deemed a miserable failure. In fact, it was one of the finest seasons of hockey I&rsquo;ve ever been part of.&rdquo;To equal their 1992-93 regular-season dominance this season will be challenging, if not impossible.Bear in mind Pittsburgh recorded a .708 winning percentage during what may have been the most competitive season in NHL history.Eighteen of 24 teams finished near the .500 mark. Never before have 75 per cent of clubs achieved that minimum level.Parity is now NHL verite.One message to take from last season&rsquo;s host of playoff upsets-none of the four division leaders made it as far as the third round-is that the regular season is meaningless. The league took steps to change that by reviving an old playoff format that better rewards regular-season excellence.But the fact remains&hellip;&ldquo;The playoffs are seven months away,&rdquo; Jagr says. &ldquo;Now is for fun.&rdquo;Even with the legendarily aloof Scotty Bowman behind the bench, few teams could have had more fun than the Penguins last season.The winning streak alone was one for the ages.It is never wise to make such predictions, but the 17-game victory run that ended with a tie and included wins over the Islanders and Stanley Cup-finalists Montreal and the Los Angeles Kings could stand for a long time in the new ultra-balanced NHL.Still, there are those who believe the streak was counter-productive; that a loss would have diminished pre-playoff pressure and permitted the team to look ahead to the post-season rather than focus on the regular season.Barrasso says there was a downside felt during the playoffs.&ldquo;I think the unfamiliarity with (losing) possibly leads you to more of a panic situation when one loss becomes two,&rdquo; Barrasso says. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not as prepared to deal with it.&rdquo;Pittsburgh lost once to the New Jersey Devils in the first round, the Penguins&rsquo; first loss in 51 days, and then lost four of seven games against the Islanders.New York&rsquo;s team speed, tenaciousness, tactics (pressuring the Penguins&rsquo; big and immobile defense and shutting down their star forwards) and top goaltending (Glenn Healy was something to behold in Game 7) ended Pittsburgh&rsquo;s dreams of a three-peat.As a result, Penguins&rsquo; general manager Craig Patrick had an extended off-season to co-ordinate several moves, among them:&#9633; The return of Eddie Johnston: Bowman could not come to contract terms with the team and was replaced by Johnston, most recently the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; GM.&#9633; The changing of the guard: Marty McSorley, a mean-spirited, million-dollar defenseman, was obtained from the Kings in return for left winger Shawn MacEachem.&#9633; The addition of another potential impact player: Top prospect Markus Naslund, a Swedish left winger, was signed.Critics have questioned the hiring of Johnston, 57, who last coached in 1982-83 when he guided Pittsburgh to an 18-53-9 record.One year later, the Penguins finished last for the second straight season to earn the privilege of picking Lemieux No. 1.Johnston, the GM, chose Lemieux and the two became friends. That relationship is widely considered a crucial factor in Johnston&rsquo;s hiring. But Patrick vehemently denies that.&ldquo;He deserves to be here,&rdquo; Patrick says. &ldquo;He started this team and he deserves to be here to bear some of the fruits of his labor.&rdquo;Patrick, the Penguins&rsquo; GM since 1990, has been responsible for cultivating the seeds left behind by Johnston and his predecessor, Tony Esposito.He has engineered a series of trade deadline-beating deals and drafted astutely. This year, watch for Patrick to pursue a checking center, a shortcoming so severe the Penguins welcomed back the retired Bryan Trottier as a player/assistant coach.Meanwhile, Naslund, 20, and Straka, 21, are expected to make impacts. They are listed seventh and eighth on the Penguins&rsquo; depth chart of forwards.Naslund was tentative during much of the pre-season, but scored his first goal against Toronto. Straka responded superbly to increased ice time in Lemieux&rsquo;s absense.Lemieux has been sidelined again by back problems-this time he&rsquo;s recovering from minor surgery during the summer. He is expected back in the lineup by late October.All projections of the Penguins&rsquo; fortunes hinge on Lemieux&rsquo;s health.If he plays at least three-quarters of the season and all of the playoffs, Pittsburgh should finish first overall and win their third Cup in four years-each with a different coach.The late Bob Johnson won for Pittsburgh in 1991 and Bowman in 1992.Bowman&rsquo;s departure marked the end of a curious era in Pittsburgh, during which time the head coach did not go on the ice during practice. A strained relationship between the players and Bowman is believed to be the reason.Johnston, resplendent in the black and gold he advised Penguins&rsquo; ownership to adopt several years ago, is a regular at practices. He runs high-tempo workouts with emphasis on play without the puck and getting the defense involved with the offense.The coach says it&rsquo;s not fair for people to characterize him as Mario&rsquo;s choice for coach and is confident 10 years away from the bench have not put him at a disadvantage.Players are reserving judgment on Johnston until they see how he reacts during real games.Johnston has something very special at his disposal, the six best scorers ever assembled on one team. Lemieux, Kevin Stevens, Rick Tocchet, Ron Francis, Jagr and Joe Mullen represent the most offensively talented one-through-six group of forwards in NHL history. (See table on page 6.)&ldquo;At full strength, they are a cut above everybody else,&rdquo; says Washington Capitals&rsquo; GM David Poile.Only the Montreal Canadiens, circa 1956-60, had equal players.Montreal&rsquo;s top six forwards-Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Bernie Geoffrion, Dickie Moore, Henri Richard and Bert Olmstead-are all in the Hall of Fame.The addition of Naslund and maturing of Straka leads one to wonder if eight will be enough to ensure another Cup.It&rsquo;s plenty for Johnston.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m basically a three-line guy,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t coach four lines &lsquo;cause your good players sit on the bench half the game.&rdquo;Patrick has a secret set of goals for the Penguins and will only say, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re part way there.&rdquo;An obvious guess would be Patrick expects the Penguins to match the four Cups won by the Edmonton Oilers over a five-year period during the 1980s.It is a goal that is clearly within the Penguins&rsquo; grasp, provided an aging team doesn&rsquo;t suddenly start playing like an old team rather than an experienced one.The average age of Pittsburgh&rsquo;s top six forwards and four defensemen (Larry Murphy, Ulf and Kjell Samuelsson and McSorley) is a league-high 29.Motivation is not expected to be a problem. The Penguins&rsquo; appetite for success has not been satiated by a pair of Cups; it has been whetted.&ldquo;I certainly feel hungrier than ever,&rdquo; says a lean-looking Ulf Samuelsson.There is an air of confidence about the Penguins going into 1993-94, tempered only by Lemieux&rsquo;s health problems.Asked if all the pieces are in place for another championship run, Barrasso says, &lsquo;I see one missing-66. He&rsquo;s not here.&rdquo;<h2>HOW PENGUINS STACK UP AGAINST OILERS</h2>How good were the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; six-shooters? Probably the best group of scorers ever assembled on one team. The top six scorers on the 1983-84 Edmonton Oilers actually had a marginally higher individual points per-game average than the Penguins-1.45 to 1.43- but goals were easier to come by a decade ago. There was an average of 7.9 goals per game in 1983-84 and 7.25 goals per game in 1992-93. Listed are individual games played (GP) and points (Pts.), plus team totals and averages per game. &#9632;

f0006-01

Prepping for the playoffs Penguins an old and bold challenger for Cup

I am an avid hockey fan who, like NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, would like to see hockey improve.I believe Bettman&rsquo;s past success in helping to revive the National Basketball Association should put to rest any doubt he can do the same in the NHL.I&rsquo;m somewhat concerned, however, that he may be reconsidering the fines and suspension imposed on Dale Hunter and the Washington Capitals after the Pierre Turgeon playoff debacle.Such a move would have very negative ramifications.A precedent must be set if unnecessary roughness in the league is to be eliminated. Hockey was designed as a sport of grace and beauty and Bettman should keep Hunter&rsquo;s punishment in tact so other NHL &ldquo;crunchmen&rdquo; think twice before they act.Robert Foley, &nbsp;Creve Coeur, Mo.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011542/6141752-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="570" height="830"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dale Hunter deserved his punishment for gooning Pierre Turgeon.</figcaption></div><h2>Boston needs Ray</h2>I am a Boston native currently studying in Montreal and the trade talk about defenseman Raymond Bourque surprised my Canadian classmates as much as it surprised me.Other than in idle rumors or bar banter, was Larry Bird ever considered serious trade bait? No!Yet Bourque is subjected to this insult despite the fact he is as important to his franchise as Bird was to the Boston Celtics.Consider:&#9633; The Bruins&rsquo; stay near the top of the NHL has coincided with his moving into the prime of his career.&#9633; Their most legitimate Stanley Cup run (1990) was the year in which only the ignorance of two New York writers prevented him from capturing the Hart Trophy.&#9633; Even last season, when the Bruins struggled early in the season, he didn&rsquo;t.&#9633; His leadership will be needed more than ever in the absence of Andy Moog and Dave Poulin.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021209/6141745-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="580" height="760"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Bourque deserves to finish his career with the Boston Bruins.</figcaption></div>The fact is Bourque deserves to spend his entire career in Boston-just like Bird.Shame on general manger Harry Sinden. In replacing Rick Bowness, dumping Moog, allowing Poulin to sign with the Washington Capitals and now possibly trading Bourque, he feeds his own ego to the detriment of the team.Keith Loud, Montreal, Que.<h2>Thank you, Stan</h2>Stan Fischler&rsquo;s column &ldquo;Hockey helped save my son&rsquo;s life&rdquo; (THN, Sept. 3) is a keeper.The hockey people who visited and telephoned Simon Fischler during his life-threatening illness performed acts of extraordinary kindness.They richly deserve the thanks of Mr. Fischler and the admiration of their fans. Mike Keenan&rsquo;s show of support demonstrates that despite the feeling of two adults towards each other, it is easy to see eye-to-eye when a child&rsquo;s life is at stake.Hockey is, after all, a game.I would like to think Mr. Fischler&rsquo;s appreciation of his friends&rsquo; kindness can be extended to people everywhere who have shown similar concern during their friends&rsquo; times of need.Mr. Fischler has said what many of us would like to have said at some point in our lives. Those who give of themselves think they have done nothing special, but there is nothing as special as concern for others.Jim King, Ramea, Nfld.<h2>Roll the video</h2>I was upset to read recently that the NHL has forced Electronic Arts to eliminate fighting from its 1994 video game (THN, Sept. 3). Electronic Arts boasts in its ads that, &ldquo;if it&rsquo;s in the game, it&rsquo;s in the game.&rdquo; They should change it to, &ldquo;If the NHL says so, it&rsquo;s in the game.&rdquo;Isn&rsquo;t the NHL aware that fighting in last year&rsquo;s game was an option and could be taken out by a quick push of a button? It was left to the person playing the game if he wanted to fight or not, just the way it should be.I want fights back in the game, despite what the NHL says.Chris Hurley, Malden, Mass.<h2>Enough, already</h2>I have to congratulate your publication on once again providing a one sided article against fighting in professional hockey.Steve Dryden&rsquo;s article &ldquo;Fighting is a waste of time&rdquo; (THN, Sept. 24) didn&rsquo;t shed any insight into the much debated issue, it merely rehashed the same worn out arguments.Being an avid hockey fan, I must be watching a different game than you.For years, fighting has been one of the reasons why pro hockey wasn&rsquo;t more popular. When fighting in pro hockey is finally eliminated, I wonder what THN will use as its next excuse as to why hockey is not universally popular. Maybe the division names?Oh, they&rsquo;ve already changed those.Kevin Shearon, &nbsp;Burlington, Ont.<h2>Shootout great</h2>After reading the article &ldquo;Will ties be thing of past?&rdquo; (THN, Sept. 24), I agree the NHL should give shootouts a chance.I was born and raised in Chicago and I am a big Blackhawk fan. I moved to San Diego five years ago and over the last couple of years, I have become an avid fan of the International League&rsquo;s San Diego Gulls.Last year, I went to 14 Gulls&rsquo; games and had the privilege of seeing three shootouts. I believe for the players and the fans, the breakaway showdowns between the goalie and the shooter are easily the best part of the game.I would like to see the NHL try shootouts in the same format as the IHL. Since the top NHL people revamped the divisions and their names, I ask they please consider shootouts.Paul Welsh, &nbsp;Oceanside, Calif.Make your feelings known. Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 445-2501&nbsp;or write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont., M3B 2R2&nbsp;in Canada. In the U.S., write to&nbsp;Letters, The Hockey News, P.O. Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y., 14240-9947. Include home and business phone numbers.&nbsp;THN&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

f0008-01

Hunter’s sentence shouldn’t be altered

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011482/6141828-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="295" height="373"></div>A subscriber from Long Island called recently to question my sanity.&ldquo;I really enjoy your work,&rdquo; said the Islanders&rsquo; fan. &ldquo;But are you out of your mind picking the New York Rangers to win the Stanley Cup?&rdquo;Funny, he wasn&rsquo;t the first to inquire about my mental wellbeing since I predicted in THN&rsquo;s Yearbook that the Rangers would win their first Cup in 54 years. What I can&rsquo;t understand is how anybody in their right mind would not pick the Rangers.The most obvious reason for the rebound is the arrival of head coach Mike Keenan. Don&rsquo;t believe all that nonsense about Iron Mike becoming kinder and gentler. Keenan is consumed with winning and he&rsquo;s not about to wimp out in the world&rsquo;s media capital where every move will be scrutinized like never before. He might not be the Rangers&rsquo; general manager (yet), but rest assured, the team is his.Mark Messier, meanwhile, is back and more determined than ever to prove he&rsquo;s not over the hill. He hasn&rsquo;t thrown a decent check in two seasons because of nagging injuries, but the Messier of old will emerge under Keenan.Now that he&rsquo;s healthy again, Brian Leetch can reclaim the title as the NHL&rsquo;s best offensive defenseman. A second Norris Trophy is in the offing.With John Vanbiesbrouck out of the picture, Mike Richter will re-emerge as one of the league&rsquo;s top goalies.The Rangers also have one of the best young leaders in hockey in Adam Graves.Secret weapon? Alexei Kovalev.Case closed.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-021054/6141821-1-eng-US/f0009-022.jpg" title="f0009-02" width="993" height="1618"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexei Kovalev will help the Rangers rebound and go from worst to first. (Marco Campanelli/BBS)</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-03674/6141814-1-eng-US/f0009-032.jpg" title="f0009-03" width="995" height="1619"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Burke suspended Ranger Kevin Lowe for three games. (Jim Mclssac/BBS)</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0009-01

Yes sir, Rangers will win

Just what hockey needs-more labor unrest. But this time, it&rsquo;s at the junior level.For the first time ever, players this season in the Ontario League are required to sign standard player contracts. Western and Quebec League players have been signing them since the 1970s.But some OHLers refuse to sign on the dotted line. Although the standard player contract now exists, individual clauses-such as educational packages-can be negotiated between a player and his team.One player. Dave Roche of the Peterborough Petes, said the contract must be letter-perfect before he&rsquo;ll sign anything.&ldquo;If one player says he won&rsquo;t sign, all the players should do the same,&rdquo; Roche said. &ldquo;We could hold a strike. If NHL players can strike, OHL players can strike.&rdquo;The OHL originally intended for all players to sign the contract before playing in their team&rsquo;s sixth game of the season. But because of the controversy, the deadline has been extended to Oct. 15. Players who don&rsquo;t will not be eligible to play in the league after that date.Toronto-based player agent Anton Thun is leading the movement to have the contract amended. After reviewing a copy of the contract, Thun advised his nearly 40 OHL clients not to sign it. Thun said he has gained the support of other agents.&ldquo;The drafting of the (four-page) document was not as precise as it could have been,&rdquo; Thun said. &ldquo;It left open the possibility of abuse of players.&rdquo;In a discussion paper he prepared for the league, He cited 16 points of concern. Thun is satisfied the league is addressing his concerns and refuses to make them all public.He did, however, say one issue revolves around hockey cards and collectibles. Under the OHL&rsquo;s proposal, the league and its member clubs would have control over players&rsquo; likenesses. That eliminates the opportunity for high-profile players to cut lucrative deals for themselves because card companies would be able to work out deals with the league rather than individual players. Also, the players would not collect on the proceeds from sales of the cards.Another concern is the wording of agreements between the teams and players regarding education packages. A team could, under the first draft of the contract, cut a veteran junior with a handful of games remaining in his final season. Once the team released the player, their obligation to pay for his education would be terminated.OHL commissioner David Branch said he respects Thun&rsquo;s concerns and they are being addressed by the league. But he still likes the idea of standard contracts.&ldquo;They provide a form where all player benefits are identified and registered with the league,&rdquo; Branch said. &#9632;

OHL contract dispute brewing

The NHL&rsquo;s new master of discipline promises to be swift and stem.Players who break the rules and go before Brian Burke, the league&rsquo;s senior vice-president and director of operations, can expect to be suspended for games. Repeat offenders will be hit even harder.Burke said things will be different than last season when former president Gil Stein suspended players for non-game, non-travel days.The NHL has arranged for Burke to be notified immediately when something occurs that will require his attention. If an incident happens in a televised game, a tape of the play in question will be sent to the NHL office in New York and will be on Burke&rsquo;s desk the following morning, along with a report from the referee.If the game is not televised, a tape will be provided to the league by the home team and will arrive in New York within 48 hours. And instead of flying the player to New York for a hearing, Burke will conduct most of his over the phone right away.Whenever possible, the league&rsquo;s goal is for the player to be dealt with before he and his club play their next game.&ldquo;Without sacrificing fairness to the player the hallmark of this system is to be speed,&rdquo; Burke said.St. Louis Blues&rsquo; rookie Jim Montgomery is the first player to be suspended for regular season games. He was handed four games-one pre-season, two regular season plus an exhibition game against the American Olympic team-for a highsticking incident in a pre-season game Sept. 30.Three players-Doug Gilmour of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Bryan Marchment of the Chicago Blackhawks and Kevin Lowe of the New York Rangers-received suspensions in pre-season games.Burke denied the sentences were soft.He achieved his goal of swift punishment and said if the incidents had occurred on the final night of the regular season, the players would have been suspended for playoff games. &#9632;

Burke will sit players out games

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-04524/6141914-1-eng-US/f0009-042.jpg" title="f0009-04" width="514" height="372"></div>The Hockey News is pleased to announce that Starter (manufacturer of licensed active wear and head wear) will be sponsoring the Minor Hockey Showcase this season.Beginning with the Nov. 5 issue and continuing each week through the season, THN and Starter will identify two minor hockey players of the week-one in Canada and one in the United States. Each recipient receives a special prize from THN and Starter.At the end of the hockey season, THN and Starter will select from all entries received a Canadian and an American minor hockey player of the year. The two winners will travel to Toronto for THN&rsquo;s annual awards&rsquo; banquet June 15.Last year&rsquo;s winner was 11-year-old Eric Clark from West Hartford, Conn.If you know of someone who can be featured in the Starter Minor Hockey Showcase, send a photograph (non-returnable), along with biographical information (age, height, weight, team, statistics, coach&rsquo;s name, school, grade, other activities, favorite NHL team and player) to The Hockey News, Attention: Starter Minor Hockey Showcase, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont, M3B 2R2.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-05399/6141907-1-eng-US/f0009-052.jpg" title="f0009-05" width="284" height="401"><figcaption class="caption-body">Eric Clark, 1992-93 Winner</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0009-04

STARTER MINOR HOCKEY SHOWCASE

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0010-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011546/6141945-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">New York Islanders&rsquo; captain Patrick Flatley will be top banana on his television segment after Glenn Healy went to the New York Rangers. (Marco Campanelli/BBS)</figcaption></div>The deadline for the NHL&rsquo;s collective bargaining agreement with the players passed without incident on Sept. 15, but negotiations for a new deal could get nasty. Menacing thoughts are echoing through the owners&rsquo; ranks as salaries continue to skyrocket. One insider told Bluelines the governors&rsquo; biggest mistake after the NHL Players&rsquo; Association went on strike in 1992 was to let the players return. Although NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has maintained a positive, upbeat approach to negotiations, a source close to the commissioner told Bluelines it would be a mistake for NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow or others to mistake his &ldquo;Call me Gary&rdquo; approach for softness. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a harder hitter than many believe,&rdquo; said a league official. &ldquo;And if Goodenow threatens a strike, he&rsquo;ll say, &lsquo;Fine, go walk.&rsquo;&rdquo;<h2>Look out below</h2>Tampa Bay Lightning players are &lsquo;concerned about skating under a 40-ton scoreboard at the ThunderDome, the team&rsquo;s new home this season. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re asking if it&rsquo;s safe to skate under it,&rdquo; said team vice-president &lsquo;Mel Lowell. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t worry, she&rsquo;ll hold.&rdquo; The eight-sided scoreboard cost the Lightning $1.5 million plus $2 million in renovations to the former Suncoast Dome. It will hang 45 feet above the ice and feature four scoreboards and four video walls&hellip;Boston Bruin Cam Neely will appear in Mighty Ducks II. He&rsquo;ll play himself in the Disney hockey movie.<h2>John and Diane</h2>Here&rsquo;s a Hockey Hall of Fame first: New Jersey residents Diane Gentile and John Quine drove to the Toronto shrine where John proposed to Diane in front of the Stanley Cup on John&rsquo;s birthday Sept. 11. Diane accepted after her new fiance presented her a ring in front of the Stanley Cup. &ldquo;Now whenever Diane see the Stanley Cup,&rdquo; Quine said, &ldquo;tears will come to her eyes.&rdquo;&hellip;Because Chicago Blackhawk owner Bill Wirtz has lost much of his clout on the NHL&rsquo;s board of governors, the city of Milwaukee looms as a better possibility for the next NHL expansion. Milwaukee has been seen as a threat to the Blackhawks and were considered a longshot as a long as Wirtz was chairman of the board of governors.<h2>Book&rsquo;em, Todd</h2>Todd Ewen already has an in with his employer on the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The enforcer spent an hour in conference with Ducks&rsquo; president and Disney Corporation chairman Michael Eisner recently and one topic of discussion was the company helping publish the children&rsquo;s book Ewen authored while he was a Montreal Canadien&hellip;That Alexander Mogilny will miss the start of the season does not come as a surprise to his teammates. Several Sabres have privately said Mogilny did not do his required rehabilitation from the broken ankle he sustained during last year&rsquo;s playoffs.<h2>Bye-bye, Ray</h2>Boston Bruins&rsquo; defenseman Ray Bourque recently summed up his future with the Bruins: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be gone from Boston,&rdquo; Bourque told the New England Sports Network&hellip;The Philadelphia Flyers are said to be interested in Vancouver Canucks Petr Nedved and Gerald Diduck. Nedved, a Group I free agent, went back to the Czech Republic and intends to play in Europe this season. Nedved&rsquo;s exit does not disturb some Vancouver players, who consider him a disturber&hellip;New York Rangers&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan wants general manager Neil Smith to deal for tougher players. Ed Olczyk and Jeff Beukeboom are most likely to be traded.<h2>Show goes Flat</h2>Glenn Healy&rsquo;s move to the Rangers ended his television career as co-star with New York Islanders&rsquo; captain Patrick Flatley on Sports-Channel&rsquo;s Heals and Flats comedy segment which regularly appeared on Islanders&rsquo; telecasts. &ldquo;The positive side of Glenn leaving,&rdquo; Flatley said, &ldquo;is that I finally get my own show.&rdquo;&hellip;New Jersey Devils Mike Peluso and Randy McKay felt like strange bedfellows after Peluso moved from the Ottawa Senators to New Jersey. &ldquo;I must have fought Randy 10 times in the last three or four years,&rdquo; Peluso said. &ldquo;Randy&rsquo;s a tough guy and a good fighter who gives and takes a good punch.&rdquo; McKay: &ldquo;When a guy you&rsquo;ve fought in the past ends up on your team, what happened before is forgotten. I&rsquo;ve always respected Mike.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0010-01

All’s not exactly well on CBA front these days

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div>The first signs of a rift between New York Rangers&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan and general manager Neil Smith surfaced four games into the pre-season.Following a fight-filled loss to the New York Islanders Sept. 23, in which Phil Bourque sustained a cut on his face and dislocated finger in a fight with Vladimir Malakhov, Keenan lashed out at Smith, demanding his team needs more toughness.A few days later, Keenan said his remarks were misinterpreted, and sounded almost apologetic.&ldquo;I was upset after the last game because I don&rsquo;t like to see our players get beat up, and that&rsquo;s what happened,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was sympathetic for our players. Phil Bourque&rsquo;s hand was a mess and his face was a mess, and that&rsquo;s why I had the emotional reaction.&rdquo;Keenan&rsquo;s point is well taken. The Rangers were pushed around by an Islander team that most believe lacks toughness.More importantly, the entire Atlantic Division has become tougher with the additions of Craig Berube and Enrico Ciccone (Washington Capitals), Mike Peluso (New Jersey Devils), Jim Cummins (Philadelphia Flyers), Greg Smyth and Paul Laus (Florida Panthers) and Rudy Poes-chek (Tampa Bay Lightning).But the Rangers, who were one of the toughest teams in the league two seasons ago when they had the best record in hockey, are the same passive team that crashed and burned last season.The Rangers have not been the same since last December, when Kris King and Tie Domi were dealt to the Winnipeg Jets for Ed Olczyk.That&rsquo;s part of the reason why rugged Bob Babcock and Ed Kastelic were brought into training camp. Neither showed enough promise to stick around for the pre-season games, so the Rangers have now set their sights on Hartford Whaler tough guy Jim McKenzie.Keenan&rsquo;s words were rather jagged to Smith&rsquo;s ears. When asked if he thought the Islanders initiated most of the in-your-face stuff, Keenan bluntly said, &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;When asked if that trend would be allowed to continue, Keenan said, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s up to the manager, not me.&rdquo;Keenan was then asked if they had discussed the matter.&ldquo;I have suggested that we need more physical players&rdquo; the coach said.It was suggested that it isn&rsquo;t easy to get tough players to play, and Keenan again put the heat on Smith.&ldquo;I think a lot is possible,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been in that role (as GM in Chicago). It takes a lot, but if you stick with it you can make the changes you need.&rdquo;Smith smiled uneasily when he heard of Keenan&rsquo;s remarks. No, he said, they hadn&rsquo;t talked about it. Smith did say, however that &ldquo;you can never have enough (toughness) as far as I&rsquo;m concerned.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Daniel Lacroix, C-LW, 24. He made a big impression in the pre-season and was poised to grab the the No. 4 center position away from John McIntyre.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Kevin Lowe had his pre-season shortened when he was suspended for three exhibition games and fined $500 by NHL senior vice-president Brian Burke Sept. 28. Lowe caught Hartford&rsquo;s Robert Petrovicky with a high stick in a pre-season game Sept. 25. Petrovicky lost several teeth and sustained an eight-stitch gash. Lowe said he raised his stick in self-defense. Referee Paul Stewart first told Lowe to go to the penalty box to serve a minor highsticking penalty. Once Stewart saw the extent of the injury, however, he changed the call to a match penalty, which hinges on the intent to injure. &#9632;

Keenan outraged by team’s passive approach

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>When rumors circulated that Jay Snider was about to step down as president of the Philadelphia Flyers almost two years ago, the young executive vowed he wasn&rsquo;t going anywhere.But Snider announced on Sept. 22 he is reducing his role with the team to pursue other business interests. He will retain his title of president.The move comes at a curious time. After taking the brunt of criticism for the Flyers&rsquo; failure to make the playoffs the past four years, Snider finally has a team that is showing signs of returning to contention.But his time with the Flyers&rsquo; hockey operations has already been cut back as the family tries to get the construction of the proposed Spectrum II off the ground.On the night of the announcement, general manager Russ Farwell said he knew of Snider&rsquo;s intentions to explore other ventures as far back as last June&rsquo;s draft. Rumors had been circulating through the Flyers&rsquo; organization that Snider, 35, would be taking time off for business, so he circulated a memo to his staff telling them the rumors are true.The organization contends the return of owner Ed Snider, who is moving back to Philadelphia from California this year to oversee the new Spectrum project, is not directly related to this move.The younger Snider insists the move is simply a decision on his part to &ldquo;start new businesses.&rdquo; He founded a successful security firm, SpectaGuard, in the early 1980s, conceived the idea of an all-sports radio station in Philadelphia and has been active in the operations of Spectacor, the Flyers&rsquo; parent company.&ldquo;In the last couple of years, with some exceptions, notably (Eric) Lindros, and other day-to-day things, I&rsquo;ve really been immersed in Spectrum II,&rdquo; Jay Snider said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a need to get that thing going.&ldquo;As far as the Flyers go, I&rsquo;m going to be a little less involved day-to-day, but by and large, Russ has been running it. (Vice-president) Ron Ryan on the business side is more involved there. I&rsquo;m going to rely on those guys more so I have time to create new businesses.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Mikael Renberg, LW, 21. The Swede exceeded pre-training camp expectations, leading the team in scoring through first seven pre-season games.Milos Holan, D, 22. He could be a force, particularly on the power play with his hard, accurate shot. He scored 35 goals and was the Czech player of the year last season.Jason Bowen, D, 19. The Flyers like his size (6-foot-4, 215 pounds) and his instincts on offense. A first-round choice in 1992, Bowen plays a physical game.Andre Faust, C, 24. His work ethic and determination have impressed management. The Princeton grad played 10 games for the Flyers last season.Jim Cummins, RW, 23. Cummins was acquired in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings for talented prospect Greg Johnson and has 65 penalty minutes in eight NHL games.NOTEBOOK: Goaltender Tommy Soderstrom signed a four-year contract Sept. 23 worth $2.45 million. Soderstrom played just 44 games last season due to an abnormal heartbeat condition, but managed five shutouts, secondbest in the NHL and the most by a Flyer since 1986. He was 20-17-6 with a 3.42 goals-against average&hellip;Josef Beranek signed a three-year contract Sept. 26. The 24-year-old left winger, who came over from the Edmonton Oilers last season, scored 13 goals in 40 games.Claude Boivin, who underwent major reconstructive surgery on his left knee Jan. 18, returned to action in the pre-season, but was injured again in a collision with Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; prospect Grant Block Sept. 21. He sustained a slight sprain and was expected to be out until the regular-season opener Oct. 5 against Pittsburgh&hellip;Czech rookie center Vaclav Prospal has been training with the Flyers&rsquo; affiliate, the Hershey Bears of the American League. Propsal is just 18 years old and 167 pounds. &#9632;

Snider reduces his role

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div>With the presence of Petr Klima, Denis Savard and Gerard Gallant, the competition for spots on the Tampa Bay Lightning roster is a lot healthier this season.And thanks to that, Rob Zamuner is a lot healthier, too.Knowing his game would have to improve dramatically if he was to earn a spot, Zamuner spent the off-season replacing 15 pounds of baby fat with muscle.&ldquo;I was overweight last year and that tended to hold me back, so I did something about it,&rdquo; Zamuner said. &ldquo;I had to. We&rsquo;ve made a lot of positive changes here and I knew I had to come to camp in good shape if I was going to make this team.&rdquo;The 24-year-old plodded through his first full season with a body that was not up to NHL standards. However, he still managed to total 15 goals and 43 points in 84 games last season.The Lightning wasn&rsquo;t unhappy with those numbers, but the team was unhappy with his conditioning.&ldquo;The thing about Rob Zamuner is he doesn&rsquo;t have great speed and players who lack speed usually have to make up for what they lack some other way,&rdquo; said assistant coach Wayne Cashman. &ldquo;Conditioning is one way to do that, and I think Rob found that out last year. I think he found out the little things that don&rsquo;t show up at other levels show up in the NHL. So if you&rsquo;re not fast, you have to keep yourself in good condition so nobody has an edge on you.&rdquo;Nobody had an edge on Zamuner during last year&rsquo;s training camp. He was a virtual lock to make the team and play the role of goal-scorer on the top line.He handled those duties well for the first part of the season, but his conditioning regimen faltered and production dropped. When the slump bottomed out, he had gone 29 games without a goal and lost his job as the team&rsquo;s top left winger.In retrospect, Zamuner may not have been prepared to handle that role so early in his career. The extent of his NHL experience going into last season was nine games with the New York Rangers in 1991-92. He signed with Tampa Bay as a Group I free agent prior to last season.&ldquo;Looking back, we may have put a little too much pressure on Rob,&rdquo; said coach Terry Crisp. &ldquo;He was a good kid with a solid background and our expectations were high. Maybe too high. But that doesn&rsquo;t mean we&rsquo;ve changed our minds about Rob Zamuner. He can play in this league and he can score goals. We fully expect him to score more this year. And we expect him to improve.&rdquo;Zamuner expects to improve as well, but he may have a hard time bumping up the numbers he produced a year ago. With Gallant, Mikael Andersson and Adam Creighton ahead of him on left wing, he could see less ice time this season.PROSPECT WATCH: Chris Gratton, 18, C. The Lightning&rsquo;s first pick in the 1993 entry draft proved during training camp he is ready to step in and play right away.Brantt Myhres, 19, RW. The Lightning lacked toughness last season and the 6-foot-3, 200 pounder should help. He had 277 penalty minutes with Lethbridge of the Western League.NOTEBOOK: The Lightning held its annual training camp golf tournament Sept. 26, but the highlight of the day did not come from someone getting a hole in one or driving a ball 300-yards. Rather, it came from an airplane that flew overhead and carried behind it a sign reading, &ldquo;Bring back Chris Kontos.&rdquo; The ad was purchased for $195 by Lightning season-ticket holder and Kontos&rsquo; fan Gus Pantelidis. &ldquo;I was just trying to show my support for a friend,&rdquo; Pantelidis said. &ldquo;I think Chris is getting a raw deal and I think he should be a part of the team. It was really all in fun.&rdquo; Kontos remained a holdout as training camp wound down. &#9632;

Increased competition good tonic for Zamuner

<div class="byline">By Craig Dolch</div>For more than three months, the Florida Panthers have been looking for a scorer and a veteran defenseman.In a 30-minute span Sept. 30, general manager Bob Clarke found both. He acquired left winger Evgeny Davydov from the Winnipeg Jets for future considerations, then traded right winger Darin Kimble to the Chicago Blackhawks for defenseman Keith Brown.Davydov, 26, scored 28 goals last season, 13 more than any other Panther managed in the NHL. Brown, 33, has played in 812 games, which makes him the Panthers&rsquo; elder statesman.&ldquo;We got a scorer and a defensemen-two things we need the most,&rdquo; coach Roger Neilson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d say it was a pretty good day.&rdquo;Especially considering the Panthers didn&rsquo;t give up much. To get Davydov, they will give the Jets a conditional draft choice, believed to be a middle-round 1994 pick. Kimble, 24, would have been a third-line player.&ldquo;Davydov is a good gamble,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;If he doesn&rsquo;t do well, our risks are low. If he does well, we&rsquo;ll be glad to pay the price. We gave up age (to get Brown), but he gives us speed and experience on the blueline. He&rsquo;ll be one of our top defensemen, for sure.&rdquo;A reason why the Jets were willing to part with Davydov is he didn&rsquo;t fit into the Jets&rsquo; system.It goes against the grain for Clarke and Neilson to take a non-checking forward, but that&rsquo;s how badly the Panthers need scoring. Scott Mellanby was the only player who had scored 20 goals in an NHL season.&ldquo;Anybody who scores 28 goals has to be of use to us,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;We realize he&rsquo;s a defensive liability, but hopefully Roger can teach him to play within our system.&rdquo;Davydov had 49 points in 79 games last season. He joined the Jets in 1992 after helping the Commonwealth of Independent States to the gold medal in the 1992 Winter Olympics.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good scorer with a quick shot,&rdquo; said right winger Andrei Lomakin, who played with Davydov on the Russian national team.Brown is a hard worker who will lead by example. Because of injuries, he has averaged just 58 games per season during his career.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a solid defensive defenseman,&rdquo; said Neilson, who coached Brown in Chicago. &ldquo;He knows the game and is a fearless competitor.&rdquo;&ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;m in a little bit of shock,&rdquo; Brown said. &ldquo;It hits you pretty quick because I&rsquo;ve been fortunate to play for a good team for this long. But they traded Wayne Gretzky, so they can trade anyone.&rdquo;Kimble is well aware of that aspect of the business. This marked the third time he has been dealt in the past year.&ldquo;You&rsquo;d like to get comfortable, but that&rsquo;s the way it is in this business,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got nothing bad to say.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Rob Niedermayer, C, 18. The fifth overall pick has Mike Gartner-type speed. With his Dec. 28 birthday, he&rsquo;ll be one of the youngest players in the league.PENALTY KILLERS: Judging by the preseason, the Panthers should have a decent penalty-killing unit. Through the first seven pre-season games, the Panthers killed off 59 of 63 power plays, a success ratio of 93.7.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a group of guys who are known for the job they do killing penalties,&rdquo; Neilson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve coached (Randy) Gilhen and (Jody) Hull and guys like Mike Hough and Brian Skrudland are well-known for the job they do.&rdquo;The Panthers know they must carry this success into the regular season.&ldquo;Penalty killing will be a huge key to our success, because we can&rsquo;t afford to dig ourselves a hole,&rdquo; Gilhen said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got to come up big every night.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Some Panther players have complained about the quality of ice at Miami Arena after two pre-season games. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re working our tails off to make sure the ice is in excellent condition and we feel we&rsquo;re headed in the right direction,&rdquo; said Preston Williams, the arena&rsquo;s director of operations. &#9632;

Davydov, Brown just what the doctor ordered

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>There was a different kind of person wearing uniform No. 44 in the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; training camp.Although he displayed the same powerful shot and explosive speed as Stephane Richer, that was where the similarities ended.In fact, this player was even earning less money.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a different person. I see things differently,&rdquo; Richer said. &ldquo;Four years ago in Montreal, I talked about business and money all the time. I&rsquo;ve changed my life. I don&rsquo;t carry a Bible around and I wouldn&rsquo;t call myself born again, but I&rsquo;ve changed. I get up in the morning and I ask: &lsquo;What do I have to worry about?&rsquo;&ldquo;I&rsquo;m 27, I have lots of money, I have two businesses in Montreal, I&rsquo;m healthy and I have two great parents. A lot of us in this game don&rsquo;t realize how lucky we are. I honestly never knew it before. But I know it now. Hey, I make almost a million dollars.&rdquo;Some believe Richer&rsquo;s attitude changed when he crashed head-first into the boards during Game 4 of last spring&rsquo;s playoffs against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Instead of ending up in a wheelchair, he walked away and played the next day with a sore neck.Others think another summer of potential contract negotiations forced Richer to do things his own way.Ignoring conventional wisdom, Richer bypassed his agent, Don Meehan, and signed a three-year contract with the Devils in July for less per year than he earned last season.&ldquo;I signed without an agent. I have lots of respect for Donnie Meehan, but he was pretty busy during the summer,&rdquo; Richer said. &ldquo;This is my fifth contract. I know what I want and what I deserve. I can ask Mr. Lamoriello (general manager Lou) myself. Donnie did a good job on my second contract in Montreal. After I scored 50 goals for the second time I went from $325,000 to $750,000.&rdquo;Richer earned $862,500 with the Devils last season. He would&rsquo;ve been guaranteed a 15 per-cent raise to $991,875 by forcing the Devils to renew his contract. But he wanted more than one year and he wanted to make the point that he is committed to the organization.So Richer agreed to a three-year deal for just over $800,000 per year.&ldquo;If you go back to my first year here, I had a bad injury and I didn&rsquo;t have a good relationship with Tommy (former coach McVie) because he didn&rsquo;t believe I was injured,&rdquo; Richer said. &ldquo;I was hurt all year, but he didn&rsquo;t want to help me. It was a tough year.&ldquo;Then last year I came overweight. I didn&rsquo;t care because I didn&rsquo;t want to come back. I thought I&rsquo;d be traded and everybody knew I felt that way.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Jason Smith, D, 19. The Western League&rsquo;s top defenseman last season has displayed tremendous poise.Jaroslav Modry, D, 22. The biggest surprise of training camp, Modry is a finesse player with good mobility and intelligence on the point.David Emma, C, 24. The small center (5-foot-ll, 180 pounds) is turning heads as he enters his second full pro season.Brian Rolston, C, 20. The Devils are certain Rolston will become a 100-point player some day, but not this season. He has shown flashes of brilliance.Mike Dunham, G, 21. He&rsquo;s the Devils&rsquo; goaltending future. The Devils have considered keeping him until late October before letting him play in the Olympics with the Americans.NOTEBOOK: Injured goaltender Peter Sidorkiewicz began skating on his own, but is not yet able to participate in practice&hellip;Defenseman Geordie Kinnear left training camp for personal reasons, but was expected to return. &#9632;

Reborn Richer taking care of his own business

<div class="byline">By Lou Friedman</div>It was only a pre-season game. But when the New York Islanders met the cross-town rival New York Rangers at Nassau Coliseum Sept. 23, emotions ran high both on the ice and in the stands during the Islanders&rsquo; 4-2 win.Glenn Healy started for the Rangers against his former team, stopping 19 of 23 shots. Picturing last season&rsquo;s playoff hero in a Ranger sweater was somewhat surreal.&ldquo;It looked a little funny in warm-up to see him on the other side,&rdquo; left winger Derek King said after his pair of third period power-play goals sparked the Islanders back from a 2-1 deficit.&ldquo;If he was on any other team, it wouldn&rsquo;t have been so strange.&rdquo;In the opposite cage, Ron Hextall made his Islander debut and was not wanting for work, chalking up 42 saves while earning star of the game honors.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d sooner have 44 shots than 15 or 18,&rdquo; Hextall said. &ldquo;It felt pretty good right off the bat.&rdquo;Hextall got a taste of what the Islander-Ranger rivalry is like. The game featured 134 penalty minutes, including eight fights, four on the ice and an equal number in the stands.Two of the on-ice bouts featured normally genteel defenseman Vladimir Malakhov, who handled himself quite well against both Phil Bourque and enforcer Joe Kocur.&ldquo;I think more than we were shocked, the Rangers were shocked,&rdquo; King said of Malakhov&rsquo;s fisticuffs. &ldquo;We knew Vlady was strong and now they know.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Dan Plante, RW, 22. He had 26 goals and 142 penalty minutes in his junior year at the University of Wisconsin. Plante completed a great training camp.Steve Junker, RW, 21. He filled in well for an injured Patrick Flatley in last year&rsquo;s playoffs, netting one assist in three games. Coach Al Arbour will find a place for the grinding winger.Scott Scissons, C, 22. The sixth overall draft pick in 1990 is working hard to prove the Islanders didn&rsquo;t make a mistake by selecting him so high.Danny Lorenz, G, 23. He was given the opportunity to win the job as Ron Hextall&rsquo;s back-up in camp, but did not impress. That&rsquo;s why he&rsquo;s No. 3 instead of No. 2.NOTEBOOK: General manager Don Maloney enacted his contingency plan and acquired experienced back-up goalie Tom Draper from the Buffalo Sabres Sept. 30. Maloney&rsquo;s target was Frank Pietrangelo of the Hartford Whalers, but the GM settled instead on Draper for a conditional pick in the 1994 entry draft. Draper, 27, has played 45 NHL regular-season games for Buffalo and the Winnipeg Jets in the past five seasons.Center Pierre Turgeon sustained a tendinitis flare-up in his left wrist during a team scrimmage Sept. 22. The injury is not considered serious and he was scheduled to start the season opener Oct. 5 in Calgary against the Flames. &#9632;

Battle with rival Rangers gets off to early start

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>Washington Capitals&rsquo; general manager David Poile rarely singles out players for criticism, so when he suggested Michal Pivonka bore a lot of the responsibility for the team&rsquo;s playoff loss, a few eyebrows arched.Pivonka had no goals and two assists the six-game loss to the New York Islanders in the first round last season.&ldquo;If I had chipped in a couple, three goals, it might have been a different series, so you can hardly not agree,&rdquo; Pivonka said. &ldquo;But you&rsquo;re not happy reading about yourself, that you didn&rsquo;t play well.&rdquo;Pivonka disagreed with Poile&rsquo;s suggestion that European players perhaps don&rsquo;t have the same motivation to win a Stanley Cup as North American players.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it is fair,&rdquo; said Pivonka, who has been a Capital since 1986-longer than any player except Kevin Hatcher. &ldquo;I won the World Championships in 1985 at 18, but when I watch the Stanley Cup finals the atmosphere was much more intense, something you would like to go through.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011497/6142120-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="558" height="750"><figcaption class="caption-body">Michal Pivonka</figcaption></div>Now 27, Pivonka had 74 points in 69 games last season, missing 15 with a groin pull.Coach Terry Murray, who thinks Pivonka should get at least 100 points this season, diplomatically steps away from Poile&rsquo;s European position. Murray says Pivonka plays a mean game of tennis, meaning that should be applied to hockey as well.&ldquo;There is no value in saying, &lsquo;Well, we didn&rsquo;t get the scoring from three or four guys and they are Europeans,&rsquo; &ldquo;Murray said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know that because Michal Pivonka was born in Czechoslovakia, he didn&rsquo;t score (in the playoffs). He gave a big effort but he has to be tougher on himself and demand more on a consistent basis.&ldquo;For example, in a (pre-season) game in Ottawa, he had a great first period. That line was dominant. Then we had a lead in the second and third periods and he let himself off a Little instead of going after it with focus and concentration. That&rsquo;s where he needs to improve and that has got to come from within.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Brendan Witt, D, 18. He&rsquo;s a strong, sturdy stay-at-home defenseman, who increased the pace of his game each day to come up to NHL speed.NOTEBOOK: It&rsquo;s unlikely the Capitals will be successful in getting the 21-game suspension to Dale Hunter reduced. In a meeting with reporters and editors of The Washington Post, commissioner Gary Bettman said of Hunter&rsquo;s 21-game, no-practice suspension: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s extremely unlikely I would reduce the number of games. If there were to be a modification, it would probably be related to the practice aspect.&rdquo; No further announcement was imminent&hellip;Keith Acton and Dave Poulin have worn an &lsquo;A&rsquo; on their uniform in some exhibition games and could do the same when the season begins. &#9632;

f0014-01

Pressure back on Pivonka

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischiar</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011382/6142158-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="380" height="528"></div>The coincidence was both horrific and heartening.The 30-year-old big-league forward and the 15-year-old amateur goalie who idolized him shook hands on the second floor of Manhattan&rsquo;s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.Remarkably, each had been restored to life with delicate heart surgery. Brian Mullen of the New York Islanders had a hole in his heart closed. My son Simon&rsquo;s heart couldn&rsquo;t be repaired. Instead, he had a heart transplant. Now the two survivors were congratulating each other on being alive.Last June, both were innocently playing ball, enjoying the young summer but also looking forward to a new season. Never could either have imagined their lives would be dramatically changed in a lightning flash. Simon with heart failure, Brian with a stroke.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like somebody took my life, turned it upside down, shook it on the floor and said, &lsquo;Here are the pieces, sort them out and put them back together again,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Mullen, while his wife, Linda, rubbed his hand with assurance.Simon knows the feeling. His mother, Shirley, was holding his hand in an ear doctor&rsquo;s office last June when he unexpectedly collapsed of acute viral myocarditis. Brian was preparing for his hockey school in Long Beach when he was stricken at home prior to a summer skate.&ldquo;I was getting a pair of socks, keys and stuff like that,&rdquo; Mullen recalled. &ldquo;I kept picking up the keys and dropping them. I couldn&rsquo;t figure out what was going on; why I kept dropping the keys. I picked them up again from under the table, went into the bathroom, stumbled out of the bathroom and then banged my leg walking past the couch. I lost all of my motor skills for a second.&rdquo;A hockey school counselor who was boarding with the Mullens witnessed Brian&rsquo;s episode and ran upstairs to advise Linda Mullen.&ldquo;He told my wife, &lsquo;Something&rsquo;s wrong with Brian.&rsquo; She came right down and called 911.1 said, &lsquo;What did you do that for? I&rsquo;m fine.&rsquo; Then I got up and started walking again, like there was nothing wrong. Luckily, the ambulance came and a couple of hours later they told me that I had had a stroke.&rdquo;Like Simon, Brian was taken to Columbia-Presbyterian, a major New York City cardiac center. Their rooms faced each other across a grassy courtyard overlooking the Hudson River. Each in his own way tried to come to grips with the unanswerable, &lsquo;Why me?&rsquo;&ldquo;I asked myself that question,&rdquo; said a recovering Mullen, now the picture of health. &ldquo;Like so many athletes, I thought I was invincible. I struggled with that in the beginning and then I put it behind me. It happened; I can&rsquo;t change it. I got it fixed and now I&rsquo;ll carry on.&rdquo;On Aug. 25, Simon was released from the hospital after 56 days on his back. He visited Columbia-Presbyterian two to three times a week for post-transplant monitoring and was there on the morning of Sept. 23 when Brian walked out surrounded by his wife and children, Nicole and Christopher.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-02968/6142151-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="569" height="1084"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Mullen</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I could have stayed on blood-thinners for the rest of my life and not be able to play hockey again or go skiing with my family,&rdquo; Mullen said. &ldquo;So getting the hole closed was the only way I could see of living a normal lifestyle. It was open heart surgery and I was scared.&rdquo;In August, Mullen couldn&rsquo;t even think about skating. In July, Simon&rsquo;s heart was laboring at 10 per cent, leaving him so weak, he couldn&rsquo;t even lift himself out of bed. Now they&rsquo;re walking briskly.For both, the light at the end of their tunnel may yet be emanating from an ice rink.&ldquo;I feel great,&rdquo; Mullen said as the two pals parted. &ldquo;If it wasn&rsquo;t for the blood-thinners, I&rsquo;d be skating tomorrow.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0015-01

Crossing hospital paths with Mullen

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-03699/6142189-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Craig Simpson is looking to reverse a trend of declining production that saw his goal total dip from 56 in 1988 to 24 last season. (Tim Parkar)</figcaption></div>If Ken-you know, Barbie&rsquo;s friend-were brought to life as a hockey player, he would probably look like Craig Simpson.That&rsquo;s why it may be easy to forget the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; 26-year-old left winger has forged a career working as garbage man to the stars.Simpson, a short-game specialist, is expected to be installed on a line beside Sabres&rsquo; superstar Pat LaFontaine after being dealt to the Sabres this summer.That&rsquo;s premium company, but he has enjoyed better. Simpson broke into the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins and played alongside Mario Lemieux for part of 1987-88.Simpson was then part of a 1987 trade that saw Paul Coffey go to the Penguins. That took him off Lemieux&rsquo;s flank and placed him beside Wayne Gretzky. When Gretzky was dealt to the Los Angeles Kings that summer, Simpson inherited Mark Messier as his pivot.The result: two Stanley Cup titles with the Oilers, a score of productive seasons, including a 56-goal campaign, and two more with 30 goals or better.Simpson began running into trouble about the time the Oilers began running out of superstar centers. Last year was his second consecutive season of 24 goals and a swollen disc in his lower back limited him to a career-low 60 games. Worse yet, he joined a growing legion of players who couldn&rsquo;t get the type of contracts they wanted from the spendthrift Oilers.After his attempted free-agent signing with the San Jose Sharks was overturned by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Simpson surfaced in Buffalo. The Sept. 1 trade for left winger Jozef Cierny and a 1994 fourth-round draft choice means Simpson is again united with John Muckier. The Sabres&rsquo; coach-general manager guided Simpson when both were in Edmonton.More importantly, the deal means another posting beside a future Hall of Famer in LaFontaine. If Alexander Mogilny recovers completely from his leg injuries, LaFontaine, Simpson and Mogilny will be teamed to create what could be one of the NHL&rsquo;s most devastating lines.&ldquo;Simmer&rsquo;s capable of 50 goals,&rdquo; Muckier said. &ldquo;I want to be realistic and say we expect something in the 30-35 goal range, but there&rsquo;s nothing to say he can&rsquo;t have a better year.&rdquo;Nothing, except for his back. Simpson has only scored 50 goals once, and while he is skating with a minimum of pain, he knows his injury will never completely go away.&ldquo;I know if I work hard at staying healthy, I can produce in the 40-goal range,&rdquo; Simpson said. &ldquo;But I also know (the back problem) is always going to be there.&rdquo;And it&rsquo;s almost certain to be exacerbated by Simpson&rsquo;s style of play. Simpson is blessed with a scorer&rsquo;s hands, but mediocre footspeed. Most of his goals come from rebounds, deflections or close-in chances and those chances are earned by absorbing punishment. The Sabres have been searching for that type of player since they traded Dave Andreychuk and Daren Puppa to the Toronto Maple Leafs for goaltender Grant Fuhr last February.&ldquo;Simmer may be better at moving the puck. Andreychuk&rsquo;s a bit stronger,&rdquo; Muckier said, &ldquo;but they&rsquo;ve both got great hands. We&rsquo;ve corrected the loss of Andreychuk with Simpson and we&rsquo;ve still got Grant Fuhr.&rdquo;Buffalo was one of the teams Simpson spoke with before signing an offer sheet with the Sharks July 6. Bettman voided the deal July 26 and ruled that by designating the three-year offer of more than $3 million largely as bonus money, the Sharks circumvented the league&rsquo;s free agency rules.The NHL Players&rsquo; Association has sued the league over Bettman&rsquo;s decision.Soon after the trade, Simpson signed a three-year deal with Buffalo worth an average of $900,000 a season.&ldquo;The San Jose offer was a good one and we didn&rsquo;t want to let it pass,&rdquo; Simpson said, &ldquo;but in retrospect, this is a better hockey situation.&rdquo;He is right of course. If there&rsquo;s one thing Simpson has learned in eight NHL seasons, it&rsquo;s the value of walking into the right situation. &#9632;

f0015-03

Ready for pick-up

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; goaltender Grant Fuhr wants the hockey world to know one thing: He&rsquo;s not finished yet.&ldquo;I feel I can still be the same player (as I was with Edmonton Oilers),&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I feel I can still do the same things. There may be some things I can&rsquo;t do as well anymore, but you can compensate for those things. I&rsquo;ve been in this league a long time. I&rsquo;ve learned a few things.&rdquo;Fuhr, 33, is adamant his 12 years in the league should count for something and in his mind it does. He also believes his skills-and reflexes-are still there.The Spruce Grove, Alta., native also accepts the criticism he has received for reporting to the Sabres&rsquo; training camp out of shape. He was about 25 pounds overweight in the first part of camp, but worked hard to shed the flab.Fuhr is ready to improve upon the numbers he produced last season for the Sabres after his trade from the Toronto Maple Leafs. He had an 11-15-2 record in 29 starts for Buffalo with a 3.47 goals-against average.He was strong against the Boston Bruins in the Adams Division semifinal, but looked weak in a four-game sweep against the Montreal Canadiens in the Adams final.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m old school in a lot of ways,&rdquo; Fuhr said. &ldquo;I guess that has to change, but I don&rsquo;t think it means I&rsquo;m finished.&ldquo;I still believe I&rsquo;m right up there, top five or whatever. I still enjoy the game and I still love to compete. If it weren&rsquo;t fun for me I&rsquo;d get out, but it is fun. I enjoy every part of it and I still want to win. I noticed a lot of people here seemed content last year because we won a playoff round. I was pretty disappointed. I thought we could have done better.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Sergei Petrenko, LW, 24. The 168th pick in the 1993 draft will grab a spot on the third or fourth line. He is a smooth skater who should contribute offensively.Derek Plante, C, 22. The former Minnesota-Duluth Bulldog was the biggest surprise in camp. He has exceptional quickness, speed and scoring touch.Denis Tsygurov, D, 22. The Sabres&rsquo; top pick in the 1993 entry draft showed enough poise in camp to make the team as the fifth or sixth defenseman.NOTEBOOK: Center Pat LaFontaine and right winger Alexander Mogilny skated together Sept. 29, the first time the two had worked out together since training camp opened. Mogilny, who is recovering from a broken right ankle he sustained against the Montreal Canadiens in the Adams Division final, was still was not taking full contact. LaFontaine was bothered by a groin injury. His status was listed as indefinite as the season began.Team management was confident enough in the goaltending duo of Grant Fuhr and Dominik Hasek to trade No. 3 man Tom Draper to the New York Islanders Sept. 30 for a conditional draft pick in 1994. Draper, 26, has played 45 games the past two seasons for the Winnipeg Jets and Sabres. The Outremont, Que., native has a career 18-20-5 record and 3.63 goals-against average. Draper, who carried the club for most of the 1991-92 season and into a seven-game series with the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs, fell out of favor after that season and was relegated to third-man status for much of 1992-93 and training camp this year.Buffalo declined to make any selection the annual waiver draft, but coach-general manager John Muckier did not rule out the possibility of a deal early in the regular season. The Sabres are interested in several defensemen, particularly veteran Craig Muni of the Chicago Blackhawks.Right winger Jason Dawe was assigned to the Rochester Americans of the American League Oct. 4. The Sabres were hoping the 20-year-old Scarborough, Ont., native would step up this season and crack the lineup, but he needs some experience in the minors after a sterling career with the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario League. He will likely be recalled if the Sabres run into injuries. &#9632;

‘Old school’ Fuhr scoffs at critics

<div class="byline">By Viv Bernstein</div>Left winger Geoff Sanderson had to be one of the best bargains in the NHL last season. He led the Hartford Whalers with 46 goals and 89 points, yet earned just $135,000-a relative pittance by today&rsquo;s salary standards.Payback time has arrived.Sanderson signed a three-year deal for about $2.4 million Sept. 24. He will collect about $700,000 this season and $800,000 in the final two years, with a $50,000 signing bonus and incentives that could drive the price up to as much as $1 million a year.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a relief,&rdquo; Sanderson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy it finished smoothly. I think both sides are happy. Now I can get back to just concentrating on hockey.&rdquo;Now the hard part. Sanderson&rsquo;s performance in his second season surprised just about everybody. As a rookie in 1991-92, he had totalled just 13 goals and 31 points in 64 games.Having exceeded expectations last season, he&rsquo;s going to have to live up to much greater expectations as a result of that effort.&ldquo;Now he&rsquo;s being paid at a higher rate and we certainly are going to expect more from him,&rdquo; coach and acting general manager Paul Holmgren said. &ldquo;I expect him to be very consistent from Game 1 through Game 84 and hopefully, through the playoffs.&ldquo;I would certainly say he could score 40 a year for potentially the next 10 years.&rdquo;As for the pressure created by those expectations, Holmgren said, &ldquo;I think he wants to be a star. He showed last year he&rsquo;s willing to work at it. He&rsquo;s going to have to work twice as hard this year.&rdquo;Sanderson, 21, received more money per year for signing a three-year deal than he would have squeezed out of the Whalers on a two-year contract.By agreeing to the terms, Sanderson gave up a chance to be a Group I free agent in the future. When the three-year deal expires, he will qualify as a Group II free agent. Under the current collective bargaining agreement. Group I free agents have much more freedom of movement than Group IIs.&ldquo;My salary is right where it should be,&rdquo; Sanderson said. &ldquo;I got some bonuses that I hopefully can collect as well.&rdquo;Sanderson&rsquo;s center, Andrew Cassels, had to be pleased that his linemate&rsquo;s contract was complete. Cassels, second on the team in points last season with 86, probably will look for some similar dollar numbers. Cassels earned $350,000 last season and is entering the option year of his contract.PROSPECT WATCH: Chris Pronger. D, 18. He has not only has been one of the best defensemen in camp, but probably one of the best players. He has shown tremendous poise.NOTEBOOK: The Whalers were expected to be without goalie Sean Burke and defenseman Eric Weinrich for their season opener at Montreal Oct. 6. Burke sustained a hamstring pull in an pre-season game at Ottawa Sept. 27 while Weinrich sustained a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee. Both players are expected to be out of action until late October.Left winger Nick Kypreos has filed to play out the option year of his contract. He made $300,000 last season, when he had 17 goals, 27 points and a team-high 325 penalty minutes in 75 games. Kypreos is looking for a three-year, $1.8-million deal. The Whalers so far are balking. Kypreos feels he deserves more than Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; tough guy Warren Rychel, who signed a three-year, $1.6-million deal. Rychel had six goals and 314 penalty minutes in 70 games last season, but added six goals in the playoffs.Russian winger Igor Chibirev, assigned to the Springfield Indians of the American League Sept. 26, didn&rsquo;t show up until two days later. Said Paul Holmgren: &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t speak English. I don&rsquo;t speak Russian. Something got lost in the translation.&rdquo; &#9632;

Sanderson reaps reward for sophomore explosion

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>When the Pittsburgh Penguins acquired defenseman Marty McSorley from the Los Angeles Kings just prior to training camp, there were some who wondered if Ulf Samuelss on would still be around when the regular season began.Their thinking was that with McSorley on the payroll, Samuelsson might have become obsolete. Or at least, unnecessary.It quickly became apparent, however, that management viewed Samuelsson and McSorley as complementary, not competing, players.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t have too many of those guys,&rdquo; said coach Ed Johnston. &ldquo;We need some bashers in there. Some guys who can straighten some guys out in a hurry.&rdquo;McSorley and Samuelsson have no reservations about throwing their bodies around and they&rsquo;re just as willing to hurl flattering words at one another.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ll never take away the fact that Ulfie is a very, very good player,&rdquo; McSorley said.Samuelsson returned the compliment, saying McSorley has attributes he cannot hope to equal.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s on a different level,&rdquo; Samuelsson said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a tough guy. I&rsquo;m just a disturber. He&rsquo;s a legitimate heavyweight in the league.&rdquo;McSorley was called upon to reinforce that point repeatedly during the pre-season-he was on a fight-per-game pace as the regular season approached-and said his effectiveness in Pittsburgh should be enhanced by the presence of teammates such as Samuelsson and Rick Tocchet.&ldquo;I need guys around me who are going to help me keep a physical presence,&rdquo; McSorley said. &ldquo;If one guy is expected to do it, what happens is you put an onus on him with the referee, then it&rsquo;s kind of easy for the other teams to take that one guy out.&ldquo;If you&rsquo;ve got one guy who&rsquo;s giving the odd whack or a little bit of an elbow or finishing guys off. it really stands out if nobody else on the hockey team is doing it. But if you&rsquo;ve got guys like Rick Tocchet and Ulfie who are continuously physical, then what I&rsquo;m doing on the ice isn&rsquo;t focused on as much.&rdquo;That doesn&rsquo;t mean opponents won&rsquo;t notice McSorley this season; he has a way of getting their attention, whether they happen to like it or not.But other teams also cannot risk ignoring Samuelsson, who continues to shrug off criticisms of his style as well as the aches and bruises it produces for him.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen a lot of guys come and go in this league who had a lot more talent than me, but they didn&rsquo;t get everything out of themselves,&rdquo; Samuelsson said. &ldquo;I think I am, right now, getting the most out of me.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I have another level I can fall back on when I get too slow or whatever. I have to play the way I play. I really enjoy the way I play. I&rsquo;ll take the bumps.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Markus Naslund. LW, 20. The 16th pick in the 1991 draft stuggled in pre-season games, but will start on the second line.NOTEBOOK: There are conflicting reports about whether Mario Lemieux or Wayne Gretzky has the NHL&rsquo;s most lucrative contract. Pittsburgh owner Howard Baldwin maintains that Lemieux remains &ldquo;far and away&rdquo; the NHL&rsquo;s highest-paid player, but Lemieux doesn&rsquo;t really seem to care. He said he is &ldquo;happy with my contract&rdquo; and has no interest in renegotiating his deal, believed to be worth about $42 over seven years.Lemieux skated for about 10 minutes Sept. 28, the first time he worked out with the team since undergoing back surgery July 28. He wouldn&rsquo;t tell reporters whether or not he felt pain in his back, but he did tell a team publicist it felt fine.Second-year center Martin Straka took full advantage of the chance he got with Lemieux sidelined and had a superb training camp. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to see Martin emerge the way he has.&rdquo; said general manager Craig Patrick. &ldquo;With Mario not going to be able to start the season, he can pull some of the load for us.&rdquo; &#9632;

Hard-nosed McSorley complements Samuelsson

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div>Figuring there would be no point in tinkering with a winning lineup, the Montreal Canadiens look much like the team that captured the Stanley Cup last June when the 1993-94 regular season began.The Canadiens made their last training camp cuts Sept. 28, more than one week before their season opener against the Hartford Whalers.The Canadiens&rsquo; final cuts were right wingers Turner Stevenson and Oleg Petrov, who were sent to the Fredericton Canadiens of the American League.The Canadiens began defense of their championship with only three new players on their 25-man roster. Veteran center Ron Wilson was signed over the summer and only two rookies cracked the squad: left winger Pierre Sevigny and defenseman Peter Popovic.Gone from last year&rsquo;s team are veteran center Denis Savard and fringe players such as defensemen Donald Dufresne and Sean Hill, center Jesse Belanger and right winger Todd Ewen. None of the losses should affect the team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy. I dreamed all my career of playing for the Montreal Canadiens,&rdquo; the 22-year-old Sevigny said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very happy that I&rsquo;m here at the beginning of the season, but I want to stay. It&rsquo;s also important that I finish the year.&rdquo;&ldquo;These two guys deserve to be here. That&rsquo;s why they&rsquo;re staying,&rdquo; said coach Jacques Demers. &ldquo;Both are ready to play in the NHL although they might not start.&ldquo;I like Sevigny&rsquo;s enthusiasm. He gives us what Turner Stevenson has not given us. And Popovic, although he isn&rsquo;t tough, he protects the puck well and he&rsquo;s a big guy.&rdquo;Although it was suggested-since before training camp started that the Canadiens were high on Popovic, his addition was still considered surprising.After all, the Canadiens have not exactly blazed a trail in acquiring Europeans and they captured the Cup without one on their roster. Plus, defense has long been a Canadiens&rsquo; strength and the team rarely brings in a rearguard who hasn&rsquo;t spent some time in the minors. Montreal&rsquo;s rearguards, for the most part, are mobile and experienced and proved during last season&rsquo;s playoffs that they could overcome their lack of size and aggression by quickly headmanning the puck.PROSPECT WATCH: Peter Popovic, D, 25. Once he becomes more accustomed to the North American game, he could be one of the Canadiens&rsquo; top six defensemen.Pierre Sevigny, LW, 22. The 6-foot, 189 pounder is a rugged player who will also contribute offensively. He will replace departed Todd Ewen as the team&rsquo;s enforcer.NOTEBOOK: Goaltender Frederic Chabot, 25, who was assigned to Fredericton of the AHL for the fourth consecutive season, has demanded a trade. Jacques Demers said Chabot&rsquo;s complaints were justified. &ldquo;I really didn&rsquo;t give him a chance,&rdquo; Demers said. Chabot played 30 minutes of one pre-season game, against the Boston Bruins, allowing three goals. &ldquo;We want to be fair to everyone, but we overlooked Chabot,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;He has the right to want to play in the NHL because he was probably the best goalie in the AHL last season. But we&rsquo;re stuck. We have Patrick Roy and Andre Racicot won some big games for us.&rdquo; &#9632;

Cup champions go into battle with pretty much same army

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>Nagging contract disputes between the Quebec Nordiques and a pair of star players took different turns on the eve of the regular season.While the contractual mess with defenseman Steve Duchesne intensified, another stalemate was settled. The Nordiques signed Swedish center Peter Forsberg, 20, to a four-year, $6.5-million contract Oct. 4, ending months of negotiations.Forsberg, who was widely recognized as the best player outside the NHL last season, will play for his Swedish club MoDo this season. He&rsquo;ll take time out to play for Sweden at the Olympics, then return to MoDo for the rest of the year.If MoDo fails to make the playoffs, he could report to the Nordiques by mid-March. If MoDo wins the Swedish Elite League championship, he will report April 14.Forsberg was ecstatic his contract mess was behind him.&ldquo;I was approached by other teams,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but it&rsquo;s in Quebec I wanted to play. I&rsquo;m going to join the team as soon as my season is over.&rdquo;While Forsberg was happy his problems were solved, Duchesne remained a training camp holdout.Duchesne, who is entering the option year of a two-year deal that will pay him $900,000 (Cdn.) this season, has demanded a trade if the Nordiques refuse to rework the deal.The 28-year-old defenseman wants to be paid on par with other top rearguards in the NHL and is willing to accept Canadian dollars as long as the American equivalent is appropriate.Duchesne showed up in Quebec Sept. 28 to plead his case on the radio airwaves. He contacted two stations-CJMS in Montreal and CHRC in Quebec City.&ldquo;First of all, only one offer was made and that was on Aug. 23,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And it was a ridiculous offer. I simply couldn&rsquo;t believe it. But the main reason why I didn&rsquo;t report was because Nordiques&rsquo; management and especially (team president) Marcel Aubut, didn&rsquo;t respect his word. When I signed last fall, I was promised if things went well for me on the ice, I would be taken care of.&rdquo;Duchesne said he hasn&rsquo;t been taken care of, even though he was one the league&rsquo;s top scoring defensemen with 20 goals and 82 points in 82 games last season.&ldquo;I reported to camp last year in good faith,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But it didn&rsquo;t do me much good, did it?&rdquo;The problem this year, Duchesne maintains, is someone in the Nordiques&rsquo; organization compared him to Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; defenseman Larry Murphy. Therefore, Duchesne said all he wants is to be paid on par with Murphy, who will make about $1.2 million (U.S.) this season.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t accept the fact Marcel Aubut let me down,&rdquo; Duchesne said. &ldquo;And I can&rsquo;t accept the fact he went public with numbers that weren&rsquo;t even true. I was never offered $1.2 million. In fact, I was offered a 3year deal worth $1 million, $1.1 million and $1.2 million. That&rsquo;s it.&rdquo;Coach-general manager Pierre Page said the Nordiques have asked for an arbitrator to sort through the whole mess.&ldquo;They had a chance to go through arbitration, but they rejected it,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;But we now have the option to do so and we went for it. We&rsquo;re taking a risk and we know it. Arbitration is what killed baseball. But we want this to be over as soon as possible.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Jocelyn Thibault, G, 18. The Nordiques&rsquo; top pick in the 1993 draft had a terrific camp and outplayed backup hopefuls Jacques Cloutier and John Tanner.NOTEBOOK: Two late cuts from the Nordiques&rsquo; training camp roster will likely join the Canadian Olympic team this season. Left winger Todd Warriner, Quebec&rsquo;s top pick in the 1992 entry draft, and center Dwayne Norris, the team&rsquo;s fifth choice in the the 1990 draft, were late cuts. &#9632;

Contract success, failure

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div>It was easy to say Cam Neely looked good when he played for the Boston Bruins last season because his numbers looked good.Back in the lineup, albeit semi-regularly after two years on the sidelines with thigh and knee injuries, Neely produced as if nothing happened. The two-time 50-goal scorer had 11 goals in 13 regular-season games and four more in four playoff games.The Neely who played his first pre-season game against the Philadelphia Flyers Sept. 28 at Charlotte, N.C., followed up an impressive training camp with a solid performance.Encouraging as last year&rsquo;s appearance was, Neely had doubts in the off-season. Progress in his weight-training program, designed to build the area around his unstable left knee, was almost impossible to measure.&ldquo;It was extremely long,&rdquo; Neely said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know the right word for it. It was just a long, gradual process.&ldquo;At times it didn&rsquo;t look like I was getting over the hump. There were times I was concerned if I could get the strength up to where I need it, until one day I was able to do more weight with less pain. I finally turned that comer and became more confident about being able to play as much and how I like to.&rdquo;Nobody knows how many games Neely will play this season. All he says is he wants to play as many as possible.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011167/6142364-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="580" height="888"><figcaption class="caption-body">Cam Neely has bulked up his knee and his 6-foot-1 frame.</figcaption></div>His speed, however, is much better than last season, as is his endurance. With those factors in his favor he&rsquo;ll again be able to use his imposing 6-foot-1, 217-pound body-that also has been bulked up over the summer-to its fullest extent.&ldquo;If I&rsquo;m not able to get a good jump and drive to the net, then obviously my game&rsquo;s not as good as it could be,&rdquo; Neely said. &ldquo;The reason it might not have been there last year, was that I wasn&rsquo;t as healthy as I am now. I was favoring (the knee) because I didn&rsquo;t have that jump and I wasn&rsquo;t sure how I was going to feel.&ldquo;I go out there and feel good about the way the knee feels. I don&rsquo;t even think about it when I&rsquo;m out there.&rdquo;Neely has been limited to just 22 regular-season games in the last two seasons because of the injury, but has 20 goals and 30 points in those games.PROSPECT WATCH: Bryan Smolinski, C, 21. He has not been as cautious as he was in nine games last season. He&rsquo;s a good puckhandler and passer with a nice scoring touch.Cam Stewart, LW, 22. He plays a physical, straight-ahead style Boston fans will love. He gave up his senior year at Michigan to sign and had five points in four pre-season games.NOTEBOOK: Adam Oates, whose return from minor knee surgery in August was slowed by a sprain, took eight days off before skating Sept. 27. He went with the team on its four-game trip through the southeastern U.S., but didn&rsquo;t know if he&rsquo;d play a pre-season game before Boston&rsquo;s Oct. 5 season opener against the New York Rangers in New York.Daniel Marois continued a strong bid to make the club on the left side. He scored a team-high five goals in six games.Glen Murray, the right winger on the Cam Stewart-Bryan Smolinski combination, led Boston&rsquo;s most productive line with four goals through six pre-season games. &#9632;

f0018-01

Neely hopes he has finally won The Battle of Wounded Knee

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011091/6142395-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="384" height="534"></div>Hockey eventually came back to Charlestown, N.C., so it was probably just a matter of time until the Hanson brothers began puttin&rsquo; on the foil again.Just when you thought it was safe to come to the rink again, they&rsquo;re back. And as horrible looking as ever, too. Slap Shot, the greatest triumph in cinematic history, may have a sequel.The idea came to Glenn Snively, a Detroit-based television director, while he was writing the script for an eyeware commercial. &ldquo;I was watching the Red Wings and the announcer said Steve Yzerman was winding up for a slapshot,&rdquo; Snively recalls. &ldquo;Suddenly, I saw it. The Hanson brothers in an ad for glasses.&rdquo;Exactly how he saw this, we didn&rsquo;t ask. How does one explain inspiration? Snively began inquiring of the whereabouts of the three guys-brothers Steve and Jeff Carlson and Dave Hanson-who played the Hanson brothers in the 1977 hockey cult classic. The Red Wings pointed in the general direction of Steve, who was coaching the Central League team in Memphis. Soon, Steve, Jeff (now an electrician in Muskegon, Mich.) and Hanson, the recently fired general manager of the American League&rsquo;s Albany River Rats, were headed to Detroit to see just how well they were remembered.How do you forget faces such as those? The bar was packed with people wanting to see the Chiefs, the toughest team in the Federal League. When the Hansons next showed up at a youth hockey tournament, one mother had a Slap Shot cassette cover she wanted the boys to autograph.&ldquo;Where did you get this?&rdquo; Snively asked.&ldquo;We keep it in the van when we go to tournaments,&rdquo; she replied. &ldquo;My son has it memorized.&rdquo;Since the kid was minus-five-years-old when the movie debuted in 1977, the Hansons began to get the idea they might be immortal. In August, they took their bleeping toys with them to Los Angeles for a sold-out celebrity charity game at the Forum, where they played with their cars, duked it out with Manon Rheaume and climbed over the glass to get at some heckling disc jockeys. They were, as Coach Reggie Dunlop of the Chiefs once said, &ldquo;a damned disgrace.&rdquo;The L.A. media, ESPN, CNN and Entertainment Tonight tried to capture the spirit of the thing and now Snively is lining up a national tour of sports bars to further build the case that the Hansons are a phenomenon waiting to be reborn. When evidence is irrefutable, MCA-Universal, the movie&rsquo;s rightsholder, is going to receive a script outline.Turns out, Dunlop&rsquo;s first instincts were correct. He said the Hansons couldn&rsquo;t be as dumb as they looked, although as he reflects back, Steve Carlson thinks they probably were. Slap Shot was such a hit the Hansons had an offer to keep the act alive, but they wanted to play hockey with the Minnesota Fighting Saints.The Saints folded, not one of the three established himself in the NHL, and Steve has wondered what might have been. &ldquo;I kicked myself a few times on some of those bus rides,&rdquo; Steve said.After the Johnstown Jets were reborn as the Chiefs in 1988, he became their coach. It was like old times. Not a game went by at the old War Memorial when the fans didn&rsquo;t tell the organist to &ldquo;Never play Lady of Spain again.&rdquo;Unfortunately, Steve found out who &ldquo;honed&rdquo; the Chiefs when they fired him. Carlson migrated to Memphis and was invited back for this season, but he was away too many months from a family he refuses to uproot from Johnstown. So now he&rsquo;s puttin&rsquo; on the foil and, hopefully, the makeup.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t see myself going a long time with this thing,&rdquo; Carlson said. &ldquo;But there&rsquo;s a real chance for another movie, so we&rsquo;ll take it as far as we can. Dave Hanson met with Paul Newman. He said to give him a script and he&rsquo;ll make a decision.&rdquo;Fact is, they don&rsquo;t really need Newman this time. In 1977, the people who produced Slap Shot thought they should use actors for parts as big as the Hansons, but they couldn&rsquo;t find any who could skate or were anywhere near as ugly as the real things.In a recent interview, Gene Siskel confessed Slap Shot, which he originally panned, was his biggest mistake. It has been a tough 16 years for all of us waiting for the celluloid-heads to come to their senses. The delay has been particularly difficult for Oggie Ogglethrope, considering the litigation, the notoriety, his subsequent deportation to Canada and that country&rsquo;s refusal to accept him. It was more than most 21-year-olds could handle, but now Oggie may get a second chance and so will we.I&rsquo;m sitting in a darkened theatre now, waiting. Of course it&rsquo;s true there&rsquo;s going to be another Slap Shot. Dickie Dunn wrote it in the paper. &#9632;

f0019-01

Hanson brothers planning comeback

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div>In the end, the teams with the biggest guns will win.That&rsquo;s the conclusion of a panel of four THN writers who handicapped the races in the Western and Eastern Conference of the NHL.With this year&rsquo;s playoff format determined along conference lines, how teams compare with conference rivals is of paramount importance.The top eight teams in each conference advance to the playoffs-regular-season division winners are seeded one-two-with the Eastern and Western Conference champions, meeting in the Stanley Cup final.With that in mind our panel-Calgary Herald hockey writer Eric Duhatschek, THN senior writer Mike Brophy, Buffalo News hockey writer Jim Kelley and THN columnist and ESPN broadcaster Al Morganti-predicted the order in both the Eastern and Western Conferences.All four agree the offensive powerhouse Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings will put aside poor playoffs to emerge as the best teams in their conferences.The Red Wings led the league in goals last season with 369 and the Penguins were just two behind with 367.&ldquo;Talent,&rdquo; Brophy said, &ldquo;will rise to the top. &ldquo;Interestingly, the same pundits who see Detroit&rsquo;s stock improving with the arrival of Scotty Bowman as coach don&rsquo;t feel the Penguins will suffer in his absence.&ldquo;The defense is certainly adequate and I think Eddie Johnston may even use it better than Scotty,&rdquo; Kelley said.&ldquo;Pittsburgh has the best team and the best player,&rdquo; Duhatschek said. &ldquo;Plus they have potential break-through players in Martin Straka and Markus Naslund.&rdquo;For a team that finished out of the playoffs last season and made no meaningful roster changes, the New York Rangers garnered strong support.Brophy and Kelley picked the Rangers to finish second in the Eastern Conference in large part because of the hiring of new coach Mike Keenan.&ldquo;Keenan will capitalize on his presence,&rdquo; Kelley said. Brophy said the entire team, not just Keenan, is approaching the season with a sense of mission.&ldquo;The Rangers have more players with a personal agenda to succeed than any other team in hockey.&rdquo;Duhatschek and Morganti feel the Quebec Nordiques will provide Pittsburgh&rsquo;s greatest challenge.&ldquo;The Nordiques have so much firepower,&rdquo; Morganti said, &ldquo;Questions about (goalie) Stephane Fiset aren&rsquo;t really that important.&rdquo;Last year&rsquo;s Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens were picked by all four experts to finish behind Quebec.&ldquo;The Canadiens didn&rsquo;t do anything to make themselves better in the off-season,&rdquo; Morganti said, &ldquo;and Vince Damphousse and Brian Bellows have a history of complacency after good seasons.&rdquo;The Los Angeles Kings, last year&rsquo;s Cup finalists, are not expected to repeat. Brophy, who picked them to finish second behind Detroit, was the only panelist to rank the Kings higher than sixth in the Western Conference.&ldquo;I really like their young kids on defense, (Daryl) Sydor, (Alexei) Zhitnik and (Rob) Blake,&rdquo; Duhatschek said. &ldquo;But after that you&rsquo;re looking at three 33-year-olds: Charlie Huddy, Mark Hardy and Tim Watters.The panelists also took a wait-and-see attitude toward another 1993 playoff achiever, the New York Islanders. Concerns over the Islanders&rsquo; lack of muscle on the blueline mean last year&rsquo;s conference finalists are picked no higher than fifth in the EastWhile the Islanders are expected to improve modestly, the Boston Bruins, a playoff team for the last 26 years are expected to backslide.The Bruins, who finished with the second-highest point total in the NHL last year, are seen as a team that took a step backwards in goal with the trade of Andy Moog for Jon Casey.Brian Sutter&rsquo;s combustible personality-his disappointment with Moog is believed to have triggered the trade-as well as Ray Bourque&rsquo;s ongoing contract squabble also augers poorly for the Bruins.&ldquo;How are the Bruins going to get along with or without Ray Bourque?&rdquo; Brophy said. &ldquo;The eight teams ahead of them are better teams.&rdquo;The St. Louis Blues are expected to profit from the acquisition of offensive defenseman Phil Housley from the Winnipeg Jets. The Blues, who had the third-best power play in the league last year, are expected to be even better with Housley teamed with Jeff Brown on the points.<h2>Don&rsquo;t forget new format</h2>Here are live things to keep in mind about the 1993-94 NHL season.1. Conference standings key under new playoff format.2. Crossbar-not shoulder-determining point for high-stick goals.3. Twenty-four points-expansion teams hope to beat benchmark.4. Nov. 30-Dale Hunter&rsquo;s first visit to Long Island.5. Paul Kariya and Peter Forsberg should arrive after Olympics. &#9632;

Pens, Wings will fly

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02790/6142450-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0019-02

Conference call: writers handicap NHL

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>The Winnipeg Jets knew what they weren&rsquo;t getting-Phil Housley.So in the interests of eliminating the distraction of the free-agent defenseman&rsquo;s refusal to re-sign, general manager Mike Smith got what he could before the season began. He sent Housley to the St. Louis Blues Sept. 24 for center-right winger Nelson Emerson, 26, and defenseman Stephane Quintal, 24.The Jets had pretty much written Housley off as they began camp. As expected, the 29-year-old who led NHL defensemen in scoring with 97 points last season, didn&rsquo;t report. He stayed home in St. Paul, Minn., awaiting a trade and made it clear he wanted to be U.S.-bound.The reasons were mainly a frustration with a complicated contract struggle which involved deferred money and tax-department rulings on both sides of the border. He exercised an option in his contract to play out his option last season when those rulings weren&rsquo;t in place by Nov. 30.But dealing an offensive spark and powerplay quarterback wasn&rsquo;t easy and there was criticism the Jets didn&rsquo;t get enough in return.&ldquo;Emerson is a recognizable player,&rdquo; claimed Jets&rsquo; coach John Paddock. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not too difficult to notice him. He has outstanding speed. Stephane offers us one ingredient we&rsquo;re looking for (toughness on defense). I don&rsquo;t care what people might think. I just care how they play and how they fit in.&rdquo;The Jets didn&rsquo;t figure they could address their need for more toughness on the blueline and the Housley matter with one deal. But the acquistion of the 6-foot-3,200-pound Quintal is a start.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if our defense is sitting where we want it yet or whether Mike is or isn&rsquo;t through dealing,&rdquo; Paddock said. &ldquo;Stephane is a big defenseman and he can be very tough.&rdquo;The Jets went for Emerson not only for his skills, but also because he was a right point man on the Blues&rsquo; third-ranked power play last season. They don&rsquo;t expect him to replace Housley at that spot, but they know he&rsquo;s at least comfortable there.&ldquo;I enjoyed it back there,&rdquo; said Emerson, who scored a game-tying goal against the Edmonton Oilers with six seconds to play in his first exhibition game. &ldquo;I played there in college, too. I&rsquo;m actually very comfortable back there.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Boris Mironov, D, 21. The second-round pick in 1992 surprised at camp, despite his weight/fitness problems. He&rsquo;s a hard-shooter with good hockey sense.Yan Kaminsky, RW. 22. He was one of Moscow Dynamo&rsquo;s and the Russian national team&rsquo;s top players last season, but was only average at camp.Arto Blomsten, D. 28. Seven years after being drafted, the 6-foot-3 rearguard gets his chance. His size could be a huge advantage on a smaller ice surface than in Sweden.NOTEBOOK: The Jets began addressing their overpopulation problem at forward on Sept. 30 by dealing right winger Evgeny Davydov to the Florida Panthers for future considerations.Davydov, 26, scored 28 goals for the Jets in his NHL rookie season in 1992-93. He joined the Jets after the 1992 Winter Olympics, when he won a gold medal with the Unified Team and was one of five rookies on the club last season.Davydov had only six goals after last season&rsquo;s all-star break and seemed to have fallen out of favor with the Winnipeg coaching staff despite his high skill level.&ldquo;Gene is a real good person and he&rsquo;s not the first player that can sometimes not understand things and play his own way,&rdquo; John Paddock said. &ldquo;But every coach on every team has that.&rdquo; &#9632;

Paddock scoffs at deal critics

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>It was generally accepted in St. Louis the Blues couldn&rsquo;t afford to trade one of their top five players-Brett Hull, Brendan Shanahan, Jeff Brown, Curtis Joseph or Craig Janney.And hardly anyone wanted to trade Nelson Emerson either, but to get one must give, so the Blues had no choice. When they got a chance to acquire defenseman Phil Housley from the Winnipeg Jets, they pulled the trigger.The Blues traded Emerson and defenseman Stephane Quintal to the Jets for Housley Sept. 24. The deal instantly transforms the Blues from pretenders to contenders in the Central Division.&ldquo;When you make a deal, you have to listen to someone&rsquo;s request,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;They requested (Emerson and Quintal) and we felt with the mix we&rsquo;re going to have, we could say yes.&rdquo;Besides, the Blues didn&rsquo;t want to say no to one of the NHL&rsquo;s elite defensemen.Four days after the trade, the Blues made Housley the highest-paid defenseman-albeit temporarily-in the game. He signed a three-year contract worth $2 million per season, surpassing New York Ranger Brian Leetch ($1.805 million). Ray Bourque of the Boston Bruins is sure to pass Housley when an arbitrator announces his decision by the second week of October.Housley, 29, led all defensemen in scoring last season with 97 points on 18 goals.&ldquo;Everyone knows that if we had one area we had to improve, it was mobility and puckhandling on defense.&rdquo; coach Bob Berry said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think you can get a better guy.&rdquo;Housley will help the transition game and boost the defense&rsquo;s production. Jeff Brown led the defense last season with 25 goals and 78 points, but there was a big dropoff after him.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have two tremendous point-getters in Brown and Housley,&rdquo; Caron said. &ldquo;We had a lack of scoring from the defensemen. As teams are getting better, it was imperative that the Blues attempt to make ourselves better.&ldquo;The presence of Phil Housley will make our team more explosive and will certainly complement the great ability of Brett Hull. Paul Coffey did that for Wayne Gretzky.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll improve our puck flow and improve our scoring chances. This should provide better entertainment and more victories.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Jim Montgomery. C, 24. The star of Maine&rsquo;s National Collegiate Athletic Association title team has been compared to former Blue Adam Oates and might fill Oates&rsquo; old spot as Brett Hull&rsquo;s center.NOTEBOOK: Left winger Vitali Karamnov was considered the worst of the three Russians drafted by the Blues in 1992, but he might now be the best. Karamnov scored goals in three consecutive games and had five points in seven pre-season games through Sept. 29. He has a good chance of making the team. &ldquo;Big V has been impressive,&rdquo; defenseman Garth Butcher said.Center Tony Hrkac, signed as an unrestricted free agent in the off-season, led the Blues in pre-season scoring through Sept. 29 with nine points on five goals and four assists in seven games&hellip;Defenseman Jason Marshall, the Blues&rsquo; No. 1 pick in 1989, was a disappointment in camp and was assigned to the Peoria Rivermen of the International League Sept. 27. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s back to the drawing board with him,&rdquo; Blues&rsquo; coach Bob Berry said.Goalie Curtis Joseph allowed only one goal in his first 140 minutes of play in the pre-season&hellip;Veteran defenseman Doug Crossman surrendered his No. 6 spot for newcomer Phil Housley. &#9632;

Housley signs contract, adds to fearsome attack

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>The Detroit Red Wings are so deep at center, they plan to put their two best middlemen on the same line to make room for young players.Coach Scotty Bowman moved No. 2 center Sergei Fedorov to Steve Yzerman&rsquo;s right flank during pre-season to give rookie center Greg Johnson a chance to showcase his skills on a second scoring line.Johnson, 22, did just that, scoring seven points in his first six pre-season games.Only Mike Sillinger, another young center commanding a greater role in Bowman&rsquo;s new scheme, had more points. He led the team with three goals and nine points in six games.Johnson, who starred for the North Dakota Fighting Sioux from 1989-92, was acquired in an off-season trade with the Philadelphia Flyers for enforcer Jim Cummins. He is the second collegian in as many season to impress Red Wings&rsquo; braintrust during training camp.Center Dallas Drake, who played for the Northern Michigan Wildcats from 1989-92, cracked the lineup last season.Drake will likely start the season at left wing on the No. 1 line with Yzerman and Fedorov.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a great, great player,&rdquo; Drake said of Johnson.Johnson is equally complimentary of Drake.So who got the best of the other in college?&ldquo;Well, he won a national championship and I didn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Johnson said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all that matters.&rdquo;Johnson, the son of a lawyer from Thunder Bay, Ont., brought to camp the credentials of an offensive center, with exceptional skating and puckhandling skills and strong hockey sense.But what impressed Bowman most is his knack for sound defensive and two-way play.Johnson&rsquo;s goal is to become a regular as soon as possible, but he won&rsquo;t reveal how many points he hopes to get.&ldquo;I have high expectations of myself. I have some goals,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but I keep those to myself. They&rsquo;re private.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got a lot of skilled players here, especially at center. When I heard I had been traded to Detroit, I thought, &lsquo;Why?&rsquo; But I can&rsquo;t worry about that. It has been 15 years of hockey waiting for an opportunity like this.&rdquo;Johnson isn&rsquo;t big-he&rsquo;s just 5-foot-10, 190 pounds-but that hasn&rsquo;t been a factor.&ldquo;His size is not a detractor,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s strong on his skates and he&rsquo;s a competitor. He&rsquo;s not going to get shoved around. (Bryan) Trottier was a lot like that. They play big, or at least bigger than some guys.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Greg Johnson, C, 22. The Philadelphia Flyer draft pick has impressed Red Wing brass in camp with his strong two-way play.Darren McCarty, RW, 21. The second-round pick in the 1992 entry draft has decent offensive skills and will share the enforcer duties with Bob Probert.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Dino Ciccarelli, involved in the most acrimonious contract negotiations since Mike Ditch bought the club in 1982, didn&rsquo;t appreciate his age (33) being made an issue by management. General manager Bryan Murray voiced his concern that Ciccarelli, like most players his age, will reach a point in his career where production declines, which is why he&rsquo;s adamant about paying Ciccarelli substantially less than the $2 million a season he is seeking. The Wings&rsquo; offer was closer to $1.3 million. &ldquo;Judge me not by my birth certificate, but by my performance,&rdquo; Ciccarelli said. &ldquo;If they think I&rsquo;m too old, they should sign me to a one-year deal. Then I&rsquo;ll be a free agent next year.&rdquo; Ciccarelli had 41 goals and 97 points in 82 games last year, including a team record-tying 21 power-play goals. &#9632;

Johnson’s play impresses brass

<div class="byline">By Terry Egan</div>Dallas Stars&rsquo; coach Bob Gainey spent most of the off-season retooling his defense corps and it looks like his tinkering will pay dividends.Gainey&rsquo;s new blueline corps has looked very strong in pre-season action and he is very encouraged with the results.&ldquo;We have moved the puck very well out of our zone,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;We have completed a lot of first passes and moved out of our zone with control. From the defensemen to the wingers we have hit our passes well and we didn&rsquo;t have to use the boards much. That gives us possession in open ice. If you can move the puck out with one pass, going through the neutral zone you have a lot to build off of.&rdquo;That was especially the case in a 61 win against the expansion Florida Panthers Sept. 28, when the Stars, minus three of their top scorers from last season in Mike Modano, Russ Courtnail and Ulf Dahlen, had no trouble creating scoring opportunities.That&rsquo;s the kind of improved transitional game Gainey envisioned when he added veterans Paul Cavallini and Grant Ledyard to a defense that already featured Mark Tinordi, Derian Hatcher, Jim Johnson, Craig Ludwig, Bob Berry and Tommy Sjodin.He knew his defense corps would be big and physical-only Sjodin is under 6-feet-but he had hoped it would be more mobile and it is.Cavallini and Ledyard contributed offensively in pre-season action, with Cavallini taking turns anchoring the point on the power play and Ledyard consistently jumping into the attack.Cavallini had a goal and four points in the first four pre-season games, while Ledyard had a goal and three points.More input from Ledyard and Cavallini will take some of the pressure off Tinordi, who shouldered most of the offensive load from the blueline last season.The 27-year-old finished with 15 goals and 42 points in 69 games, while Sjodin, a power-play specialist, was the other scoring threat with seven goals and 36 points in 77 games.With less pressure to contribute offensively, Tinordi can now concentrate on playing a more defensive and physical style-the type of game he prefers.Hatcher is much more confident this season knowing he can ease into his position and develop into the star the Stars believe he can be. The Stars signed their top choice in the 1990 entry draft to a four-year deal worth $3.6 million in the off-season.The addition of Cavallini and Ledyard also allowed the Stars to send 20-year-old Richard Matvichuk to the Kalamazoo Wings of the International League, where he belonged last season before being pressed into service in Minnesota because of injuries.PROSPECT WATCH: Jarkko Varvio, RW, 21. The team&rsquo;s top pick in the 1992 entry draft is small-5-foot-9, 175 pounds-but he can score. That&rsquo;s the type of player the Stars need.NOTEBOOK: Goaltender Darcy Wakaluk, who will back up No. 1 man Andy Moog, volunteered to give up his uniform No. 35 to the former Boston Bruin. Wakaluk has worn No. 35 the past two seasons.Moog has become a favorite with team trainers and equipment personnel. Why? Because he brings them doughnuts every time the Stars have a morning practice.Defenseman Lee Norwood and center Neil Brady, both invited to training camp on a tryout basis, had excellent shots at making the team. Norwood has been consistent on defense and may be the team&rsquo;s best shotblocker behind Craig Ludwig. Brady didn&rsquo;t score in pre-season games, but he did add a physical presence. &#9632;

Gainey’s new-look defense getting high marks

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>It was, in the end, a compromise with which both sides could live.Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; coach Pat Bums was a bit antsy after sliding from second to sixth on the NHL coaching salary list over the summer and was looking for a raise on his $350,000 salary.Toronto general manager Cliff Fletcher, on the other hand, was mired in a slew of other contractual negotiations and cognizant of the fact Bums had only completed one year of a four-year agreement signed when he quit the Montreal Canadiens and headed for Toronto in June, 1992.The compromise finally came Sept. 25 when Fletcher gave Bums a $100,000 pay hike and agreed to essentially rip up Bums&rsquo; contract at the end of this season.&ldquo;I want to be in this organization for a long time,&rdquo; Bums said. &ldquo;The team has had a lot of (contract) surprises this year, so I gave them a break.&rdquo;Burns is still receiving deferred money from the Canadiens and also made some money in playoff bonuses.But even at $450,000, he lags far behind what the highest-paid NHL coaches are making.&ldquo;Pat&rsquo;s not going to be at that level,&rdquo; said Bums&rsquo; agent, Don Meehan. &ldquo;But Mike Keenan was contractually free and Scotty Bowman was contractually free and Jacques Demers was contractually free.&ldquo;Pat is very happy in Toronto and wants to stay here and he&rsquo;s under contract, which he respects and recognizes. Cliff respects that Pat was coach of the year last season and has a great record. So I think it&rsquo;s a great compromise.&rdquo;Fletcher now has several other option-year players to deal with, including Dave Ellett, Bob Rouse, Dave McLlwain, Rob Pearson and Mike Eastwood.Ellett and McLlwain have already elected to play out their options, while the Rouse situation may be the stickiest.Rouse, 29 and earning an annual salary of $425,000, will be an unrestricted free agent next summer because he has 10 years NHL service and earns less than the league average.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still talking,&rdquo; Rouse said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nothing to be proud of-playing 10 years in the league and not even earning the average salary-so this could be a great opportunity for me.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Alexei Kudashov, 22, C. The speedy Russian is strong defensively and has good offensive potential. His progress was slowed somewhat by a rib injury.Matt Martin, 22, D. The solid 6-foot-3, 190 pounder showed excellent mobility in camp. His play reminds Leaf management of a young Jamie Macoun.Patrik Augusta, 23, RW. He had 77 points in 75 games in the American League last year. He&rsquo;s not especially skilled or fast, but his industriousness has impressed management.Eric Lacroix, 22, LW. The son of player agent Pierre Lacroix has been described by management as the most improved prospect over the past two seasons.NOTEBOOK: Center Doug Gilmour got off lightly with league authorities after head-butting Washington Capitals&rsquo; defenseman Enrico Ciccone in a 5-3 Leaf pre-season win Sept. 23. Gilmour was suspended for one pre-season game and fined $500. Ciccone was not injured or cut.Center Yanic Perreault failed to earn a roster spot for the third straight year and is likely headed out of the organization. Perreault, the Leafs&rsquo; top pick in the 1991 entry draft, has posted good minor-league scoring numbers, but has never impressed in limited NHL exposure.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for The Toronto Star. &#9632;

Burns compromises on his contract demands

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggie</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0026-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01804/6142625-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Senior goalie Neil Little, a second-team all-America last season, will give the Rensselaer Engineers the stability they need to capture the ECAC championship. (Rudy Winston)</figcaption></div>If the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers thought they were under pressure during the 1992-93 post-season, wait until they hit the ice this year.The Engineers are everyone&rsquo;s pick to win their first Eastern College Athletic Conference title since 1985. They finished second in the division, but were upset by Clarkson Golden Knights in the ECAC semifinal.&ldquo;I told the players, we can&rsquo;t hide from (the pressure) this year,&rdquo; said RPI coach Buddy Powers, who received a three-year contract extension in early September. &ldquo;We finished second last year and everyone is returning, so everyone expects us to be better this year.&rdquo;But the Engineers can&rsquo;t simply push in the clutch and coast to the title. Defending champion Clarkson is still very talented and the Harvard Crimson may have one of the best defensive teams in the nation.The following is our prediction of how the teams will finish this season. Last year&rsquo;s records, league finishes and playoff fortunes are in parentheses. Ten of the 12 teams qualify for the playoffs.1. RPI Engineers (15-6-1, second, lost semifinal). The Engineers have talent at every position, beginning in goal, where senior Neil Little (19-9-3, 2.93 goals-against average) was a second team all-America last season.Senior Xavier Majic (16-26-42) was the team&rsquo;s leading scorer a year ago, but RPI will also benefit from the return of senior Jeff Gabriel, who missed the stretch run and playoffs with a separated shoulder.2. Harvard Crimson (16-3-3, first, lost semifinal, lost NCAA East regional). Without Ted Drury to run the offense, the Crimson will rely on defense as it tries to defend its regular-season title. Sophomore goalies Tripp Tracy and Aaron Israel will again share the goaltending while seniors Lou Body, Derek Maguire and Sean McCann will anchor the blueline.Junior forward Steve Martins, who saw action in just 18 games last year because of injury, is one of the league&rsquo;s most dangerous scorers.3. Clarkson Golden Knights (12-6-4, tied for third, won ECAC championship, lost NCAA East regional). The Knights lost some quality talent, including center Todd Marchant, who is with the U.S. Olympic team, but they have enough depth to be back in the hunt.Senior Jason Currie will take over as the No. 1 goaltender while senior winger Marko Toumainen (25-30-55) of Finland will be contending for player-of-the-year honors. Junior standout Brian Mueller anchors a young, but talented defensive corps.4. St. Lawrence Saints (12-8-2, sixth, lost quarterfinal). The Saints will again be looking for someone to lead the offense. The top candidate is sophomore Burke Murphy (19-10-29), who was the ECAC rookie of the year last season.Senior goalie Paul Spagnoletti will try to rebound from a tough junior season while senior Mike McCourt is the most experienced defenseman. But Saints&rsquo; fans shouldn&rsquo;t despair-head coach Joe Marsh had an outstanding recruiting season.5. Colgate Red Raiders (9-13-0, tied for eighth, lost quarterfinal). Now that the Red Raiders are used to second-year coach Don Vaughan, they should be ready to climb in the standings. Senior Bruce Gardiner and Sam Raffoul lead a veteran offense. The defense is also experienced.6. Dartmouth Big Green (9-13-0, tied for eighth, lost in preliminary round). The Big Green will have to replace goalie Vern Geutens, who helped Dartmouth win nine one-goal games last season. Mike Bracco will take over the No. 1 position.Senior Scott Fraser (21-23-44) proved last year he&rsquo;s one of the best forwards in the league and senior Mike Loga heads one of the best groups of defensemen in Big Green history.7. Brown Bears (13-7-2, fourth, lost final, lost NCAA West regional). Coach Bob Gaudet had better have a background in chemistry. The graduation of 100-point scorer Derek Chauvette, Scott Hanley and Mike Ross leave the Bears looking for leadership and scoring.The return of forward Kelly Jones, who was awarded an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA, will help. The goaltending, shared by sophomore Mike Parsons and seniors Brett Haywood and Geoff Finch, must play with more consistency.8. Yale Bulldogs (12-7-3, fifth, lost quarterfinal). The Bulldogs lost a ton of firepower and face a rebuilding season. Senior Martin Leroux is one of the best forwards in the league, but will need some support.James Mackey, a 6-foot-4, 230-pounder will anchor the defense while junior Todd Sullivan returns in goal.9. Vermont Catamounts (10-11-1, seventh, lost in preliminary round). When second team all-ECAC goalie Christian Soucy opted for the professional ranks after his sophomore year, the emphasis at Vermont shifted from defense to offense.The Cats have two of the league&rsquo;s top forwards in senior Nick Perrault and junior Dom Ducharme. Freshman Eric Perrin is expected to make an impact.10. Union Skating Dutchmen (3-19-0, 12th, missed playoffs). This should be the year the Dutchmen make their first playoff appearance. Junior Chris Albert was the leading scorer a year ago and junior goalie Luigi Villa will benefit from an improved defense.But the team must overcome the loss of sophomore Ryan Alaspa, the Dutchmen&rsquo;s No. 2 scorer last year, who left school for personal reasons.11. Princeton Tigers (6-13-3, 10th, lost quarterfinal). If the Tigers are going to make the playoffs, they&rsquo;ve got to become more consistent in goal. Sophomore James Konte may emerge as the starter. Senior Sean O&rsquo;Brien has established himself as one of the league&rsquo;s top blueliners but the offense, led by sophomore J.P. O&rsquo;Connor, must improve.12. Cornell Big Red (5-16-1, 11th, missed playoffs). The good news at Cornell is that most of the young players received a baptism of fire last year. The bad news is there&rsquo;s no sign that the scoring drought will end.Senior Geoff Bumstead (5-14-19) and sophomore Brad Chartrand (10-6-16) are the top returning scorers and the return of sophomore Mike Sancimino will be a plus.Schedules for the AHL, IHL, ECHL, major junior and NCAA start on page 40.<h2>Coaches&rsquo; Comer</h2>Here&rsquo;s a seniority list of ECAC coaches, their ages and backgroundsMike Gilligan 45, 10th season with Vermont is 22 wins shy of 300th career coaching victory.Joe Marsh. 42, ninth season with St. Lawrence. Second on Saints&rsquo; all-ttme win listBrian McCutcheon, 44, seventh season with Cornell. Closing in on 200th career victoryBruce Delventhal, 44, sixth season with Union. On board of American Coaches&rsquo; Assoc.Mark Morris, 35, sixth season with Clarkson Has taken Knights to NCAAs four straight years.Bob Gaudet. 34, sixth season with Brown. Went from 1-25 to title contender in five years.Buddy Powers, 40, fifth season with RPI. First win this year will be 100th career victory.Bonn Tomassoni, 34, fourth season with Harvard. Led team to first NCAA berth since 1989.Roger Demment, 42, third season with Dartmouth. ECAC coach of year last season.Dem Cahoon, 44, third season with Princeton. Part of legion of B.U. grads in coaching ranks.Don Vaughan, 32 second season with Colgate. St Lawrence grad was assistant for Saints.Dan Poliziani, 34, first season with Yale. Interim while Tim Taylor runs U.S. Olympic team.<h2>Fabulous Frosh</h2>Here&rsquo;s an early line on the Eastern College Athletic Conference&rsquo;s top rookies:J.F. Houle, LW, Clarkson. Son of former Montreal Canadien standout Rejean Houle.Kris Laamamen, C. St. Lawrence. Could be the sleeper of a great recruiting class.Eric Perrin, C, Vermont. One of top scorers in the Quebec Jr. A league last year.Ethan Philpott, RW, Harvard. Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; draft pick has excellent speed.Troy Stevens, RW, Union. Skilled special teams player who will solidify power play. &#9632;

f0026-01

Engineers on track

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0027-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01754/6142656-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Wisconsin Badgers have an excellent blend of youth and veteran talent led by senior right winger Andrew Shier. He was the team&rsquo;s leading scorer a year ago. (Ross Dettman)</figcaption></div>If experience is the measuring stick of a title contender in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, than hitch your expectations to Wisconsin.The Badgers return seven of their top nine scorers, a deep veteran defense corps and goalie Jim Carey, who was rookie of the year and statistical leader in the WCHA last season.But while long on talent, UW was short on unity and maturity in 1992-93. If this problem is addressed, the Badgers have the necessary ingredients to qualify for the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament for the seventh straight year and win their sixth national title.If not, there are a host of teams in the WCHA eager and capable of creating problems. The Denver Pioneers are loaded with explosive skill at every position but goaltender. The Michigan Tech Huskies have a proven set of defensemen in front of all-America goalie Jamie Ram. The Minnesota Golden Gophers, though pained by losses to the U.S. Olympic team, are a perennial powerhouse. The Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs return the top one-two goaltending punch in the league. The Northern Michigan Wildcats have a solid nucleus.The following is our prediction of how the teams will finish this season. Last season&rsquo;s records, league finishes and playoff fortunes are in parenthesis. All teams qualify for the playoffs.1. Wisconsin Badgers (18-11-3, second, lost semifinal, lost NCAA quarterfinal). In Jason Zent. Kelly Fairchild and Andrew Shier, the Badgers are one of only three teams in the country to return three or more players who scored 20 or more goals last season.Carey, an athletic stand-up goaltender, had a 2.97 goals-against average and .903 save percentage as a rookie. He will get help from a solid blueline rotation that includes Maco Balkovec, Mickey Elick, Ulvis Katlaps, Brian Rafalski. Mark Strobel and Chris Tok.2. Michigan Tech Huskies (15-12-5, fourth, lost preliminary playoff). Ram, an all-WCHA first-teamer last season, is one of the top goalies in the league. He benefits from a tight-checking game plan and from the presence of veteran blueliners Liam Garvey, Jason Hanchuk, Jeff Hill, Kirby Perrault and Jason Wright.Up front, Tech needs to replace John Young and leading scorer Jim Storm, who is with the U.S. Olympic team. Brent Peterson, who led MTU with 24 goals, and Pat Mikesch, an all-rookie selection last year, are the offensive catalysts.3. Northern Michigan Wildcats (15-13-4, fifth, lost championship, lost NCAA quarterfinal). The Wildcats parlayed an underdog existence into a late-season surge last season that landed them in the NCAA tournament. They will be pressed to repeat the trick this year. Joe Frederick is gone, but Greg Hadden and Kory Karlander headline a balanced offense that should become bolstered if newcomer Dean Seymour is academically eligible.The blueline corps is not deep, but Steve Carpenter, Garett MacDonald, Chad Dameworth and Steve Hamilton provide a solid nucleus. In goal, Corwin Saurdiff bypassed his senior season to turn pro, but Paul Taylor was the starter down the stretch last season.4. Minnesota Golden Gophers (16-9-7, third, won league championship, lost NCAA quarterfinal). Some significant changes are ahead for the Gophers, not the least of which is a new home. The new Mariucci Arena features 9,000 seats and an Olympic-size rink.It&rsquo;s also expected Minnesota will re-adopt an offensive style after playing a grinding game last season. Craig Johnson and Darby Hendrickson are with the U.S. Olympic team, so the Gophers will have to count on some new players up front to help veterans Jeff Nielsen, Brian Bonin, Joe Dziedzic and Justin McHugh.5. Denver Pioneers (15-15-2, sixth, lost quarterfinal). If eligibility questions are answered, the Pioneers will contend. Angelo Ricci, Jason Elders, Brian Konowalchuk and Mike Naylor headline an offense that figures to become more robust if Swedish import Erik Andersson, a former AIK Elite League team member, is given the go-ahead to play by the WCHA.A veteran-laden defense will get a boost from Kelly Hollingshead, a former Jr. A standout who sat out all of last season.6. Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs (21-9-2, first, lost semifinal, lost NCAA quarterfinal). The Bulldogs were hit hard by graduation, including center Derek Plante, the WCHA&rsquo;s leading scorer, and standout defensemen Brett Hauer, Jon Roloff and Jeff Parrott. Chris Marinucci, Rusty Fitzgerald, Corey Osmak and Brian Caruso are the top returnees at forward.Rod Miller, Brett Larson and Ron Aldoff lead a blueline corps that will work in front of Jerome Butler and Taras Lendzyk.7. North Dakota Fighting Sioux (11-201, eighth, lost quarterfinal). The Fighting Sioux will try to rebound from back-to-back losing seasons by relying on a balanced offense, a potentially-excellent group of defensemen and a three-headed goaltending machine.Greg Johnson, a three-time Hobey Baker Award finalist, is gone, leaving Kevin McKinnon, Darcy Mitani and Chris Gotziaman to provide some spark. They should get help from highly regarded recruit Landon Wilson. On defense, Nick Naumenko, Brad Bombardir and Darren Bear return to maintain order in front of veteran goaltenders Todd Jones, Jeff Lembke and Kevin Powell.8. Colorado College Tigers (6-26, ninth, lost quarterfinal). The Tigers were a mess last season due in large part to two run-ins between the NCAA and coach Brad Buetow, who was fired. His replacement, former Alaska-Fairbanks&rsquo; coach Don Lucia, inherits a team that could make noise if healthy. Jay McNeill, Jody Jaraczewski, R.J. Enga and Chad Remackel were the top scorers a year ago.Kent Feams, Shawn Reid and David Paxton provide a decent nucleus on defense.9. St. Cloud State Huskies (14-16-2, seventh, lost quarterfinal). The Huskies averaged fewer than four goals a game last year. They since have lost much of that output with the departures of Fred Knipscheer, Greg Hagen and Dan O&rsquo;Shea. There are some upsides, though.In Tony Gruba, the top returning scorer, former all-rookie team selection Sandy Gasseau, Marc Gagnon and Brett Lievers, the Huskies have the makings of a competent offense. The defense should be fine with Kelly Hultgren, Gino Santerre, P.J. Lepler, Taj Melson and Dan Reimann.10. Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves (18-13-5, lost quarterfinal). The Seawolves auditioned for the WCHA last year by playing 12 games against suspect competition. That, coupled with only six road games, could be a problem. In Mitch Kean and Jack Kowal, the Seawolves return its top two scorers. More help should come from Keith Morris, who had 100 points in three seasons prior to playing last year with the Canadian national team, transfer Todd Skoglund and Finnish rookie Mika Rauttakallio. Petri Tuomisto, Brad Stewart and Jason White will guide a young defense.<h2>Coaches&rsquo; Comer</h2>Here&rsquo;s a seniority list of WCHA coaches, their ages and backgrounds.Rick Comley, 46. 18th season with Northern Michigan. Has 435 career victories.Gino Gasparini, 48, 16th season with North Dakota. Has three NCAA titles to his credit.Brush Christiansen, 47, 15th season with Alaska-Arch Has 252-162-23 career record.Jeff Sauer, 50, 12th season with Wisconsin. Could claim 500th career victory this season.Mike Sertich, 46,12th season with Minnesota-Duluth. Four-time WCHA coach of the year.Doug Woog, 49, 10th season with Minnesota. Has one of best winning percentages in country.Craig Dahl, 40, seventh season with St. Cloud State. Looking for first winning season in WCHAFrank Serratore, 36, fourth season with Denver. Has built title contender in three years.Bob Mancini, 35, second season with Michigan Tech. Has turned program around.Don Lucia, 35, first season at Colorado College. Replaces Brad Buetow behind bench.<h2>Fabulous Frosh</h2>Here&rsquo;s an early line on the Western Collegiate Hockey Association&rsquo;s top rookies:Brad Federenko, RW-C, Minnesota-Duluth. Big things expected after injury redshirt.Dan Hendrickson, LW. Minnesota. Smooth winger will be given chance to contribute.Dean Seymour, C, N. Michigan. Scoring forward in mold of ex-Wildcat Scott Beattie.Dan Tompkins, LW, Wisconsin Expected to fill ruggedness void left by Dan Plante.Landon Wilson, C-LW, North Dakota. Toronto pick son of former NHLer Rick Wilson. &#9632;

f0027-01

Badger blitzkrieg

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01788/6142687-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Junior Mike Prendergast and the Boston University Terriers have 19 lettermen returning this season making them the favorite to upset the Black Bears from Maine. (Scott D’Errico)</figcaption></div>The Boston University Terriers are poised to crush the mighty Bear.The Terriers, who have qualified for the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament the past three years, are the favorites to dethrone the defending league and national champion Maine Black Bears.The Terriers return 19 lettermen from last season&rsquo;s NCAA tournament semifinal team and a talented recruiting class will complement the veterans. The Bears, on the other hand, will challenge the improved University of Massachusetts-Lowell Chiefs for second place.Maine was hit hard by graduation and players leaving to play in the Olympics. Last year&rsquo;s Hobey Baker Award winner, Paul Kariya, returns to Maine to start the season, but will leave to play for Canada in the Olympics. It&rsquo;s not certain whether the top pick of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim will join the NHL franchise after the Olympics or return to Maine.The Bears also lost defenseman Chris Imes and twin forwards Peter and Chris Ferraro to the U.S. Olympic team. They should be back for the post-season. Veteran goalie Mike Dunham and slick center Jim Montgomery moved on to the professional ranks.The following is our prediction of how teams will finish this season. Last year&rsquo;s records, division finishes and playoff fortunes are in parentheses. All eight teams make the playoffs.1. Boston University Terriers (18-5-1. second, lost final, lost NCAA semifinal). The Terriers have one of the strongest defenses in the league, led by the dependable goaltending tandem of Derek Herlofsky (12-5-1, 2.83 goals-against average) and J.P. McKersie. The defense corps is led by flashy Finnish native Kaj Linna, a second team all-America a year ago, and junior Rich Brennan.On offense, the Terriers must find a way to replace all-America David Sacco-the school&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer-and twin towers Mark and Mike Bavis. Sacco was the team&rsquo;s top scorer a year ago with 17 goals and 37 points in 24 games, while the Bavises were excellent twoway players. Captain Doug Friedman, sophomore Jay Pandolfo and junior Mike Prendergast will carry the offense. Freshmen Billy Pierce, a third-round draft choice of the Boston Bruins in 1993, and Shawn Bates, a fourth-round pick of the Quebec Nordiques, could join the rookie-of-the-year race.2. Maine Black Bears (22-1-1, first, won league title, won NCAA championship). The good news is the Bears return the best player in college hockey, Kariya. The bad news is he&rsquo;ll only play 10 league games before departing to the Canadian Olympic team. Senior Cal Ingraham, junior Mike Latendresse and senior Patrice Tardif must pick up the slack in Kariya&rsquo;s absence. Newcomer Reg Cardinal will challenge for rookie-of-the-year honors.Coach Shawn Walsh&rsquo;s big task is finding a way to shore up the defense. The Bears have just four veteran defensemen back in Dave Maclsaac, Andy Silverman, Lee Saunders and Jason Weinrich. In goal, the huge skates of Garth Snow and Mike Dunham will be filled by Blair Marsh, Blair Allison and Peter Nordell.3. UMass-Lowell Chiefs (10-13-1, fourth, lost semifinal). Chiefs&rsquo; coach Bruce Crowder continues to elevate a program that features one of the league&rsquo;s premier goalies in Dwayne Roloson and an impressive corps of forwards. All-Hockey East second-team forwards Shane Henry (38 points) and Mike Murray (38 points) established themselves as two of the top scorers in the country a year ago and Jeff Daw, Christian Sbrocca and Jon Mahoney had impressive freshman seasons.The concern is on defense with the departure of veterans Scott Meehan, Tim Smallwood and Keith Carney. Seniors Travis Tucker and Kerry Angus and junior Aaron Kriss must pick up the slack.4. New Hampshire Wildcats (11-11-2, third, lost semifinal). The Wildcats return 20 players, including 76 per cent of last year&rsquo;s goal-scoring output. The top four scorers-junior Nick Poole, senior Rob Donovan, senior Jason Dexter and junior Eric Flinton-are back, along with rookie-of-the-year candidate Tom Nolan, Eric Boguniecki and Joe Moran.The Wildcats&rsquo; biggest problem is on defense. Juniors Kent Schmidtke, Scott Malone and Ted Russell return to the blueline, but while they are steady, they produced just 37 points among them a year ago.Goaltending is another concern. Former Providence goalie Mike Heinke succeeds the always able Brett Abel in goal. Heinke has been inconsistent in the past.5. Northeastern Huskies (6-17-1, eighth, lost quarterfinal). The Huskies finished last a year ago, but coach Ben Smith&rsquo;s team won&rsquo;t wallow in the cellar this time around. The team lost its top three scorers in Jay Schiavo, Dino Grossi and Sebastien Laplante, but still has some good snipers, an impressive group of three defensemen and two established goalies.Senior Mike Taylor, sophomore Jordon Shields and junior J.F. Aube are the offensive catalysts, while sophomore Danny McGillis, junior Francois Bouchard and junior Jason Kelly anchor the blueline. Sophomore Mike Veisor and junior Todd Reynolds are the goalies.6. Providence Friars (9-12-3. fifth, lost quarterfinal). Inexperience will keep the Friars from making headway this season. Scoring won&rsquo;t be a problem, with junior center Chad Quenneville, senior right winger Brian Ridolfi. and junior left winger Brady Kramer. Unfortunately, senior captain Ian Paskowski is the only returning upperclass defenseman, which means sophomore goalie Bob Bell and freshmen Dan Dennis and Vin Martino will see plenty of rubber.7. Boston College Eagles (6-15-3, seventh, lost quarterfinal). The rebuilding Eagles will be grounded once again. Seniors John Joyce and Jack Callahan, the leading and third-leading scorers a year ago, will be relied upon to have big seasons up front. Speedy Michael Spalla, the other senior on the roster, saw duty both up front and on defense last year. He will be counted on to stabilize the defense corps.The goaltending picture is unclear with veterans Josh Singewald and Mike Sparrow battling talented newcomers Greg Taylor and Greg Hampton for the starting job.8. Merrimack Warriors (8-16-0. sixth, lost quarterfinal). The Warriors lost 12 players off last year&rsquo;s team, including three of their top four scorers and workhorse goaltender Mike Doneghey.The defense will be the team&rsquo;s strength with co-captain Mark Comforth, junior Dan Hodge and sophomore Tom Costa.Goaltending is the biggest concern with senior Matt Poska, who played only six minutes a year ago, and freshmen Martin Legault and Kevin Candito fighting it out for the top spot.<h2>Coaches&rsquo; Comer</h2>Here&rsquo;s a seniority list of Hockey East coaches, their ages and backgrounds.Jack Parker, 48, 21st season with Boston U. Enters season with 428 career wins.Ron Anderson, 44, 11th season with Merrimack Coming off best finish ever (sixth).Shawn Walsh, 38, 10th season with Maine. Has won at least 31 games past six seasons.Mike McShane, 45, ninth season with Providence. Is 20 wins shy of 250-win plateau.Dick Umile, 45, fourth season with UNH. One of three HE coaches leading alma maters.Bruce Crowder, 36, third season with UMass. Former NHLer has turned program around.Ben Smith, 49, third season with Northeastern. Former assistant with Boston U.Steve Cedorchuk, 45, second season with Boston College. One of league&rsquo;s top recruiters.<h2>Fabulous Frosh</h2>Here&rsquo;s an early line on Hockey East&rsquo;s top rookies:Shawn Bates, C, Boston U Boston Bruins&rsquo; draft pick in 1993 draft is creative playmaker.Reg Cardinal, C. Maine. Redshirted last year due to injury. May be team&rsquo;s top center.Jon Coleman, D, Boston U Outstanding skater who likes to rush puck.Neal Donovan, C-LW. UMass-Lowell. Best forward in USJHL last season.Tom Nolan, C. UNH. Hard-working center was Mass., high school player of year. &#9632;

f0028-01

Dog days of winter

<div class="byline">By Matt Carlson</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01686/6142718-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Miami Redskins will need another big year out of goaltender Richard Shulmistra if they hope to finish first in the CCHA again. (Ross Dettman)</figcaption></div>The Lake Superior State Lakers lost their best player, but they&rsquo;ll still be unsinkable in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.Brian Rolston, who led the Lakers to a berth in the National Collegiate Athletic Association final a year ago, signed with the New Jersey Devils. The 19-year-old will perform in the NHL or play with the U.S. Olympic team.But the Lakers have enough talent to compensate. They have the most depth and fewest holes of any team in the league.The following is our prediction of how CCHA teams will finish this season. Alaska-Fairbanks, a CCHA affiliate member whose record doesn&rsquo;t count in the standings, is listed 12th. Last year&rsquo;s overall records, league finishes and post-season fortunes are in parentheses. All 12 teams make the playoffs.1. Lake Superior State Lakers (20-5-5, third, won championship, lost NCAA final). The Lakers took a major step in their quest to repeat as CCHA champions by retaining fourth-year coach Jeff Jackson. Jackson, 38, accepted an offer to become a Hartford Whalers&rsquo; assistant coach last May, but changed his mind.Rolston is gone, but the Lakers have more proven firepower than any other team. They are led by senior center Clayton Beddoes, sophomore right winger Sean Tallaire and senior left winger Kurt Miller. Senior rearguard Steve Barnes and junior goalie Blaine Lacher anchor the defense.2. Michigan State Spartans (18-10-2, fourth, lost quarterfinal). The Spartans&rsquo; super sniper Bryan Smolinski signed with the Boston Bruins, but sophomore center Anson Carter fills the void on offense. Forwards Rem Murray, Steve Guolla, Steve Suk, Kelly Harper and Brian Clifford will also help out.The defense is steady if unspectacular with seniors Nicolas Perreault and Bart Turner and improved junior goaltender Mike Buzak.3. Michigan Wolverines (23-52, second, lost semifinal, lost NCAA semifinal). The Wolverines are rebuilding after graduating their top line of David Roberts, Mark Ouimet and Dan Stiver and their top three defensemen in David Harlock, Patrick Neaton and Chris Tamer.Seniors Brian Wiseman and David Oliver, junior Mike Knuble and sophomore Ryan Sittler are the offensive catalysts. Senior Steve Shields is one of the league&rsquo;s best in goal.4. Miami Redskins (22-3-5, first, lost final, lost NCAA west regional). After finishing first in the CCHA and making the NCAA tournament for the first time, the Redskins gained respect. But their two best forwards, Brian Savage and Chris Bergeron, are gone, leaving them thin up front.Five of the defensemen return, including Bobby Marshall, who could emerge as the CCHA&rsquo;s top blueliner. Senior goaltender Richard Shulmistra is arguably the league&rsquo;s best goalie.5. Western Michigan Broncos (17-11-2, fifth, lost first-round playoff). Coach Bill Wilkinson expects the duo of right winger Colin Ward and left winger Chris Brooks to lead the team&rsquo;s attack. Pro signings claimed two key defensemen-Chris Belanger (Edmonton Oilers) and Scott Chartier (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim)-leaving senior Brent Brekke to stabilize the blueline. Senior Craig Brown and junior Brian Renfrew handle the goaltending chores.6. Bowling Green Falcons (1217-1, seventh, lost quarterfinal). Coach Jerry York is making headway in getting the Falcons&rsquo; program back on track. York is looking to junior center Brian Holzinger, senior winger Sean Pronger and senior defenseman Jeff Wells for leadership.Starting goaltender Aaron Ellis, who appeared in 25 games last season as a freshman, defected to the Detroit Jr. Wings of the Ontario League, leaving the goaltending chores to junior Will Clarke and freshman Bob Petrie.7. Ferris State Bulldogs (1313-4, sixth, lost semifinal). The Bulldogs rode a tight defense to the CCHA semifinal a year ago, but there are chinks in the armor this year.Defensemen Daniel Chaput and Daryl Filipek graduated, while dependable goaltender Pat Mazzoli is playing in Italy. Craig Lisko takes over in goal and senior John Gruden and junior Colin Dodunski anchor a young defense corps.8. Kent State Golden Flashes (10-19-1, eighth, lost first-round playoff). The Golden Flashes showed they could compete in their first year in the CCHA. Junior center Claude Morin and junior right winger Dean Sylvester, the team&rsquo;s top two scorers, are back. Coach Bill Switaj is hoping some of the other young forwards, particularly David Dartsch and Sam Thornbury, can add balance.9. Illinois-Chicago Flames (820-2, ninth, lost first-round playoff). The Flames flopped last season and coach Larry Pedrie is banking on a return to form of several key players. Junior center Chris MacDonald and junior right winger Mark Zdan must improve and senior defenseman Mike Dennis and junior rearguard Shannon Finn must provide leadership.The Flames need to find a goal-tender because Jon Hillebrandt, their mainstay the past two seasons, signed with the New York Rangers.10. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (5-23-2, 10th, lost first-round playoff). At times, coach Ric Shafer&rsquo;s squad was more like the &ldquo;Frightening Irish&rdquo; last season. Fortunately, skilled sophomore center Jamie Ling returns to lead a youthful offense.On defense, senior Matt Osiecki isn&rsquo;t fast or flashy, but he is steady. Rangy sophomore David DalGrande (6-foot-7, 195 pounds), will help out the defense in front of No. 1 goaltender Greg Louder.11. Ohio State Buckeyes (325-2, 11th, lost first-round playoff). Coach Jerry Welsh was very disappointed with his team&rsquo;s performance in &rsquo;92-93 and probably won&rsquo;t like what he sees this year either.The Buckeyes are weak everywhere, starting on offense where senior Ron White must carry the load. The defense is led by senior Tim Green, the team captain. Sophomore Tom Askey, drafted by Anaheim in last June&rsquo;s entry draft, is the top candidate for the No. 1 job in goal.12. Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks (7-6-0 against CCHA teams, lost first-round playoff). The Nanooks were so-so against CCHA competition during the regular season and lost two straight games to Ferris State in the CCHA tournament.UAF iced a quick, offense-oriented team under coach Don Lucia, who has since departed to Colorado College of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. New coach Dave Laurion maintains he will deploy a similar system this year, but the Nanooks won&rsquo;t likely duplicate the 5.5 goals-per game average they managed a year ago.<h2>Coaches&rsquo; Corner</h2>Here&rsquo;s a seniority list of CCHA coaches, their ages and backgrounds.Jerry Welsh, 43. 19th season with Ohio State. Team has struggled in recent years.Ron Mason, 52, 15th season with Michigan State. Broke Len Ceglarski&rsquo;s NCAA record for wins (675).Jerry York, 48, 15th season with Bowling Green. Has a career record of 448-318-32.Bill Wilkinson, 46. 12th season with Western Michigan. Always ices competitive team.Red Berenson, 53, 10th season with Michigan. Has made Wolverines perennial power.Ric Shafer, 41, seventh season with Notre Dame. Helped put hockey back on school&rsquo;s sports agenda.George Gwozdecky, 39, fifth season with Miami. Directed team to first first-placefinish last year.Bill Switaj, 33, fifth season with Kent State. Orchestrated respectable eighth-place finish last year.Jeff Jackson, 38. fourth season with Lake Superior State. Teams are 98-22-13 past three seasons.Larry Pedrie, 34, fourth season with Illinois-Chicago. Had disappointing 10-25-2 record last year.Bob Daniels 34, second season with Ferris State. Did credible job taking over for Bob Mancini.Dave Laurion, 33, first season with Alaska-Fairbanks. Former assistant takes over for Don Lucia.<h2>Fab Frosh</h2>Here&rsquo;s an early line on the CCHA&rsquo;s top rookies.Matt Alvey. RW, Lake Superior State. Second-round pick of Boston Bruins in 1993 draft.Curtis Fry, C, Bowling Green. Small center one of top scorers in B.C. Junior League last year.Brendan Morrison, C, Michigan. New Jersey pick had 116 points in B.C. Junior League last year.Chris Slater, D, Michigan State. Former standout on defense with the Kalamazoo Jr. K-Wings.Blake Sloan, D, Michigan. Had 10 goals and 41 points with Boston Jr. Bruins last season.Prices Include Shipping/Handling.Check or money order made payable to:International Hockey League3850 Priority Way, Suite 100, Indianapolis, IN 46240(317) 573-3888Remit payment in U.S. Funds &#9632;

f0029-01

Superiority complex

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>Minor league hockey suddenly has major appeal.And it doesn&rsquo;t matter that a clear division among the ranks when it comes to supplying NHL talent still exists. The American and International Leagues are on one plateau while the Colonial, East Coast, Central and Sunshine Leagues occupy another.What does matter is that minor league hockey is now a hot proposition.Attendance at minor league games has skyrocketed. And it&rsquo;s not just the two top minor leagues wearing out the turnstiles.While the IHL was the minor-league leader last season with average crowds of 6,597 per game, the CHL was second at 5,465 and ECHL third at 4,501.The AHL, which generally fills smaller markets than the IHL, ranked fourth at 4,030. It was once the unchallenged king among minor leagues, but the IHL has gained ground and offers some attractions unavailable in the AHL.It&rsquo;s kind of easy to see why. If you have to play in the minors, where would you rather be: freezing in Moncton or golfing in Phoenix?&ldquo;In most of the AHL cities there&rsquo;s nothing else for players to do than play hockey,&rdquo; said an NHL pro scout. &ldquo;Players look forward to going to the rink and don&rsquo;t mind staying a little later to work on their games. In some of the IHL cities they head to the golf course as soon as practice ends.&rdquo;The IHL has become a haven for career minor-leaguers who can earn substantially more money than in the AHL. Don Biggs, who led the AHL in scoring with the Binghamton Rangers last season, recently signed a lucrative deal with the expansion Las Vegas Thunder of the IHL.All 13 IHL teams are American based and independently owned with 10 serving as top affiliates for NHL clubs. IHL teams are more aggressive in pursuing free agents. For example, the Thunder signed 17-year-old Czech Radek Bonk, expected to be a top pick in the 1994 entry draft.Richard Adler, owner of the IHL&rsquo;s Atlanta Knights said he doesn&rsquo;t like being dubbed &ldquo;minor league.&rdquo;&ldquo;We believe we&rsquo;re major league, except we have an &lsquo;I&rsquo; in our name where they (NHL) have an &lsquo;N&rsquo; in theirs,&rdquo; Adler said.Eight of the 16 AHL teams are independently owned; all serve as No. 1 affiliates for NHL teams. Half of the league&rsquo;s teams are based in Canada with one of the league&rsquo;s three divisions featuring six Maritime-based teams.And therein lies a contradiction. The International League is based solely in the U.S., while the American League has teams on both sides of the border.In spite of the IHL&rsquo;s rise to prominence, there are still those who consider it a notch below the AHL in terms of player development.Kevin Maxwell, director of player personnel for the Hartford Whalers, said the AHL is more NHL-oriented.&ldquo;The IHL signs a bunch of floaters who can contribute on offense, but don&rsquo;t ever come back to their own zone,&rdquo; Maxwell said. &ldquo;You put your best young prospects with them and you have to worry they&rsquo;ll think that&rsquo;s how they should be playing. It&rsquo;s dangerous to send that sort of message to your best prospects.&rdquo;Most NHL teams don&rsquo;t bother staffing games in the lower minor leagues. But some organizations view them more charitably. Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; assistant general manager Doug MacLean said his organization will use players from the Toledo Storm of the ECHL and Detroit Falcons of the Colonial League to fill some open spots with their AHL affiliate in Adirondack this season.Most ECHL and Colonial League teams have secondary agreements with NHL teams that allow them to get players on loan from the big-league organizations, but the bulk of the team is made up of free agents.The East Coast League, as the name suggests, has its teams based along the east coast of the United States. The Colonial League&rsquo;s teams mainly surround the Great Lakes, while the Central League&rsquo;s teams are in the southern mid-west U.S. The Sunshine League, which is lowest on the totem pole in terms of player quality, is Florida-based.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01784/6142749-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="967" height="2599"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexandre Andrijevski Indianapolis Ice</figcaption></div><h2>FANDOM IN MINORS</h2>Attendance at minor-league games skyrocketed last season. The International League drew the largest average crowds, but it was an American League team, the Providence Bruins, that had the highest attendance of any team at 9,279 fans per game. Here&rsquo;s how each league fared at the turnstile in 1992-93. &#9632;

f0030-01

Minor explosion

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02530/6142787-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="381" height="532"></div>Everyone in hockey seems to have a favorite Chris McSorley story.Lord knows, there are plenty to go around.Ever since McSorley left the steel plant in Hamilton, Ont., in 1984 to play hockey, he has generated enough material to write a movie script. So McSquirrely, here is your life:&#9633; At the age of 22 and hardly having played a game in five years, McSorley showed up at the NHL draft in Montreal and begged every general manager in the league for a tryout. Then Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; GM Bob Clarke gave him one and started McSorley on a career as one of the most notorious goons in the history of the International League. &ldquo;It was pretty embarrassing,&rdquo; McSorley recalled. &ldquo;These GMs would ask me who I last played for and I&rsquo;d tell them Stelco.&rdquo;&#9633; In 1984, as a member of the Toledo Goaldiggers of the IHL, he bit part of the nose off of fellow goon Marc Magnan of the Indianapolis Checkers during a brawl. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not proud of that one,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But you can&rsquo;t get in as may fights as I did without doing a few things you regret.&rdquo;&#9633; He was so bitter at the Richmond Renegades of the East Coast League for letting him go as coach late in the 1990-91 season, he came out of retirement and joined the Nashville Knights as a player just to try knock the Renegades out of the first round of the playoffs.&#9633; In the ECHL playoffs two years ago, McSorley sent one of his Toledo Storm players after Louisville&rsquo;s mascot after the mascot hit one of his players over the head with a pair of inflatable lips.&#9633; Commenting on ECHL commissioner Pat Kelly&rsquo;s refusal to allow a trade involving his Toledo team two years ago, McSorley remarked, &ldquo;God is alive and well and living in Charlotte.&rdquo; The North Carolina town is home to the ECHL&rsquo;s head office.&#9633; Last season during the playoffs, McSorley, a trained kickboxer, hoofed an opposing player in the face when the player dove into his team&rsquo;s bench and started flailing at his players.This may come as a shocker, but the 31-year-old McSorley has made a few enemies along the way. His verbal punches can be as stinging as the ones he threw as a player. Most of the other coaches around the ECHL refer to him as McSquirrely.&ldquo;Even though I have the best winning percentage in our league, I&rsquo;ll never win coach of the year because it&rsquo;s a popularity contest, McSorley said. &ldquo;But when I look at myself as a coach, I see myself as nothing more than a soldier paid to do battle. I honestly believe I can win every game and when I don&rsquo;t do it I have a tough time understanding.&rdquo;Comprehension has come easy for McSorley lately. Last season the Storm won the ECHL championship and this past summer he led something called the Anaheim Bullfrogs to the championship of something called Roller Hockey International.The 31-year-old brother of Pittsburgh Penguin millionaire Marty McSorley was every bit as tough as his younger sibling, but didn&rsquo;t share his brother&rsquo;s talent level. He also was involved in a serious car accident at the age of 17 that wrecked his back and kept him out of hockey for five years. When he told his buddies at the steel plant that he was going to play pro hockey, they all laughed at him.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03359/6142780-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="572" height="707"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris McSorley</figcaption></div>Players on the other end of his punches weren&rsquo;t rolling in the aisles, though. McSorley played five minor pro seasons and averaged more than 500 penalty minutes a year. He signed a contract with the Los Angeles Kings in 1986, but never appeared in an NHL game.He was, however, on the cusp of history when he fell seven minutes short of the all-time professional hockey single-season record with 546 minutes in 1985-86.McSorley is most proud of the fact that he purposely did not take a single penalty in the last four games. &ldquo;That was one record I wanted no part of,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Both Marty and I would rather raise our hands after a goal than in a fight, but we both knew why were were getting paid. I just felt lucky to have a job.&rdquo;And he still feels that way. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think a day goes by when I don&rsquo;t realize how unbelievably lucky I am.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0030-02

The other McSorley makes his mark

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>The International League has put St. Paul, Minn., Houston and San Francisco on a short list for expansion.With the 1993-94 season days away, the league&rsquo;s focus shifted in late September to which cities will be added to the roll call with Denver for the 1994-95 season.The league formally ushered in Denver over the summer as its 14th franchise.Groups from Houston and San Francisco are apparently close to completing requirements to gain entry as the league&rsquo;s 15th team. St. Paul, meanwhile, thought it had Atlanta Knights&rsquo; owner Richard Adler or Fort Wayne Komets co-owner Stephen Franke interested in operating a second team in Minnesota.The IHL blocked that latter attempt in Minnesota, citing a league by-law that prohibits a group or individual from owning more than one team in the league.&ldquo;The city of St. Paul would be a welcome member of our league,&rdquo; said IHL commissioner Tom Berry. &ldquo;However, an independent ownership group would be necessary to manage the team.&rdquo;St. Paul is expected to form an ownership group, but may not be able to get its house in order before next season.But San Francisco, according to Berry, is close to coming in for 1994-95-league sources say negotiations over the franchise fee is the key issue remaining.That fee was $2 million when the San Francisco applicants supposedly began the expansion process. Berry said the fee was raised to $4 million at the league meetings in June, with a proviso that a 16th team entering would have to pay $5 million.That 16th team is apparently going to be in Houston, where Berry said a two-person ownership group has nearly completed all the league&rsquo;s requirements for entry.The team would play at The Summit, a 17,000-seat major-league facility that is ice-plant ready and once housed the Houston Aeros, a World Hockey Association franchise that featured Gordie Howe in the 1970s.A few weeks ago, Berry said expansion in the IHL would depend upon whether NHL parent clubs are available for each incoming IHL team. The league is trying to solidify its reputation as an established NHL developer.Does that mean there&rsquo;s a power struggle for NHL parents on the horizon?&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to say at this juncture whether the new teams will have NHL parents,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;All I will say is we&rsquo;ve been contacted by a number of (NHL) teams (operating) in the other league (the American League).&ldquo;What markets are there back east (in the AHL) that can emulate NHL building size, experienced front offices and all the big-league facets that we can in the IHL? It makes good sense for the NHL to do business with us.&rdquo;R.I.P., O/T: The traditional five-minute sudden-death overtime is a dead issue in IHL games for 1993-94.League owners voted in a Sept. 23 meeting to break ties by going directly from the end of regulation play into the penalty-shot format shootout that has been used since 1985-86.Last season, 61 of the 96 games that went past regulation ended up being settled in the shootout-64 per cent. It was acknowledged that teams were mostly just skating off the five-minute sudden-death overtime period to get to the penalty shots.No changes in the point structure will result. The winning team earns two points while the losing team gains one. The IHL is the only pro hockey league to go directly from regulation play to a shootout to settle its ties.I-OPENERS: Longtime IHL linesmen Andy McElman, 32, will have his name in big-league summaries this season. The NHL has signed him to a contract to work the lines in the big-time.The IHL is still working on a cable television schedule for the 1993-94 season, but the Prime Network deal will apparently showcase all 12 of the league&rsquo;s teams. &#9632;

Three cities posturing for No. 15

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>The pigeons roosting at Cambria County War Memorial Arena in Johnstown had to share their roost for a week with two featherless intruders.Chiefs&rsquo; co-owner Ned Nakles Jr., ordered Dave Mishkin, the team&rsquo;s director of media relations and radio broadcaster, and Jim Brazill, the director of sales, on the roof of the building Sept. 13 until 2,000 season tickets were sold.&ldquo;Early in the summer, I gave them a new office and asked in return that they sell 2,000 season tickets,&rdquo; Nakles said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve fallen short of their goal, so they&rsquo;re out on the roof.&rdquo;The venture was never meant in a serious vein and seven days later, Nakles relented, although the goal wasn&rsquo;t met.&ldquo;He couldn&rsquo;t afford to keep paying us to sit up there and wave at cars,&rdquo; Mishkin said.The Chiefs, who sold 1,650 season tickets last season, were expected to match the total before their pre-season drive was completed.A sporting goods store donated a tent. Pizza, burgers, subs, pasta and desserts were provided by sympathetic fast-food restaurants to keep Mishkin and Brazill fed. Visits to the restroom and showers were allowed.&ldquo;Because of the construction, the locker rooms were closed,&rdquo; Mishkin said. &ldquo;There was a shower on the other side, but it had no hot water. The cold showers were brutal.&ldquo;The worst fear was low temperatures, but it never got down below the 50s.&rdquo;The only thing that took a beating was Mishkin&rsquo;s waistline. He put on 10 pounds. Hecklers were more numerous after nightfall.&ldquo;We had our share of cat-calls,&rdquo; Mishkin said. &ldquo;Some people yelled &lsquo;Get a life,&rsquo; or &lsquo;Get a real job.&rsquo; &ldquo;Such is life in the minor leagues, where a strong season-ticket base is essential. Economic hard times in Johnstown, one of the league&rsquo;s smallest markets, has made life difficult for the Chiefs, one of the ECHL&rsquo;s charter members.About 50 season tickets were sold during the venture. However, the Chiefs benefited most from the free publicity generated by the stunt.&ldquo;We did a morning radio show,&rdquo; Mishkin said. &ldquo;The newspaper did a story and we got good TV coverage. But we wished more people would have sent in their cheques.&rdquo;PRIME-TIME PLAYERS: WJAC-TV, an NBC affiliate in Johnstown, will televise four of the Chiefs&rsquo; home games live.The team&rsquo;s 34 road games will be shown on a tape-delayed basis by Ad Cable, Inc., in Johnstown and nearby Altoona and Indiana.Also in the works is Powerplays, a weekly highlights show on the Chiefs produced by Video Memories, Inc., of Indiana, Pa.REID RETURNS: Former Nashville Knights&rsquo; goalie John Reid, 26, joined the team as a goaltending consultant.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to welcome back an old friend,&rdquo; said Scott Greer, chief operating officer for the Knights. &ldquo;John was well liked and it&rsquo;s great to have him working with our coaching staff.&rdquo;Reid, who holds Nashville single-season records for wins (24) and career marks for most games, lives in nearby Old Hickory.Dan Smith, a free agent from the University of Southern Maine, will be one of the goalies Reid will be tutoring. Smith was signed after participating in training camp with the Portland Pirates of the American League.&ldquo;He is a competitor,&rdquo; Nashville assistant coach and director of player personnel George Kozak said. &ldquo;He was in great shape and he&rsquo;s sturdy. He should easily be able to play 40 games.&rdquo;HOLD THAT PUNCH: Dayton Bombers&rsquo; coach Jim Playfair believes that fighting, on the decline at the NHL level, will have a trickledown effect in the ECHL.&ldquo;If the NHL takes fighting out of hockey, it will filter down through the system,&rdquo; the former big-league defenseman said. &ldquo;Developmental leagues have to develop players capable of playing at the next level. They can&rsquo;t have a bunch of thugs running around.&rdquo; &#9632;

Roof-sitters net attention, but not much attendance

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>Move over, Manon Rheaume. Another woman has entered professional hockey as a goaltender and an opponent says she&rsquo;s better than the first.Erin Whitten became the second woman to play in a pro game when she stopped 10 of 12 shots in one period for the Adirondack Red Wings in an American League pre-season game against the Cornwall Aces Sept. 25. Cornwall won 6-4.&ldquo;All I ever really wanted to do was play hockey,&rdquo; said Whitten, a 21-year-old resident of Glens Falls, N.Y. &ldquo;I think if anyone was watching, they saw I can play.&rdquo;The first shot on Whitten went in-a wrist shot by Paul Brosseau from the left faceoff circle. But she settled down and stopped 10 of the next 11 shots, with only a deflected point shot beating her.&ldquo;The pace was definitely a little faster than I was used to,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I was a little shaky at first and the first shot on goal was a goal, so that was a little tough to take. But I put it out of my mind and I thought I played a strong period.&rdquo;So did Brousseau.&ldquo;I played with Manon Rheaume before (in the Quebec League) and I&rsquo;m sorry to say that this girl impressed me more,&rdquo; Brousseau said.Whitten earned her chance to practise with Adirondack through participation as an instructor in a Red Wings&rsquo; summer camp.Her first two days, Sept. 21 and 22, came after the team&rsquo;s normal practice, and consisted of just stopping shots. She then took part in full practices the next two days, and coach Newell Brown announced she would play a period.That may be why 2,100 fans showed up at the Glens Falls Civic Center.&ldquo;We found out there&rsquo;s some substance to her and she&rsquo;s not just a marketing scheme,&rdquo; Brown said. &ldquo;She was aggressive and she showed some quickness and good lateral movement.&rdquo;Whitten grew up in Glens Falls, playing youth and high school hockey with boys. She then played fours years of women&rsquo;s collegiate hockey at the University of New Hampshire. She had a 51-14-4 career record and 2.40 goals-against average for the Wildcats.She hopes to play in the East Coast League with the Toledo Storm, who will have the first chance to sign her. Huntington Blizzard coach Bob Kelly, however, was interested after watching the pre-season game.&ldquo;I came here looking for a goaltender and she&rsquo;s a goaltender,&rdquo; Kelly said. &ldquo;If they (Toledo) don&rsquo;t have a spot for her, I do.&rdquo;Whitten is looking forward to the chance.&ldquo;I think I need to adjust a little more,&rdquo; Whitten said. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t seen the East Coast League, but I think I can play at that level.&rdquo;RAT PACK CHANGE: Dave Hanson was fired after two years as general manager of the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; affiliate. The team, formerly located in Utica, moved to Albany to become the River Rats. To replace him, Douglas Burch was named president and John Weisbrod vice-president, operations.The River Rats had sold only 700 season tickets for this season at Knickerbocker Arena. The team was last in the league in attendance the past two seasons in Utica.&ldquo;With all due respect to David, he just didn&rsquo;t have the touch to get the seats sold,&rdquo; owner Albert W. Lawrence said.Hanson, who had a feature role in the movie Slap Shot, was upset with the firing.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel it was deserved,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I felt I gave everything I had to the job and I was doing a very good job. Other than not having many people in the stands, all other aspects of the operation were run professionally and adequately.&rdquo;Burch joins the River Rats from the New York Olympic Authority, where he has worked the past 11 years. He was director of public relations and marketing for the Adirondack Red Wings from 1978 to 1982.Weisbrod, a former standout at Harvard University, was in the San Jose Sharks&rsquo; organization last season. A third-round draft pick of the Minnesota North Stars in 1987, he was forced to retire because of a shoulder injury. &#9632;

Goalie Whitten second woman to face pro shots

<div class="byline">By Bill Montague</div>A Toronto group&rsquo;s bid for an Ontario League expansion team hit a roadblock Sept. 27 when the league&rsquo;s expansion committee put its application on hold and demanded more information.The group, headed by Robert Blakely of Likrilyn Investments, indicated it would play 15-to-20 games out of Maple Leaf Gardens and the others out of Varsity Arena, a 4,500-seat facility on the University of Toronto campus.But the OHL has yet to see a commitment in writing from Maple Leaf Gardens and until they do, the expansion plans aren&rsquo;t going anywhere.&ldquo;The key element is the arena availability,&rdquo; OHL commissioner Dave Branch said. &ldquo;Under their proposal, they&rsquo;d play out of Varsity Arena and Maple Leaf Gardens, but they don&rsquo;t have a firm commitment from Maple Leaf Gardens. If this is their plan, let&rsquo;s see a commitment.&rdquo;The governors will meet Nov. 22 and will probably decide on the Toronto bid.Jerome Dupont, who would serve as general manager, said the decision was devastating. He said the team was hoping to begin marketing its team merchandise for the Christmas rush.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re extremely disappointed, but what are you going to do?&rdquo; said Dupont, a former Toronto Marlboro and NHL defenseman. &ldquo;They want more information and if we&rsquo;re still interested in pursuing it, we&rsquo;ll give it to them.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not happy right now and I&rsquo;m not thinking rationally. I&rsquo;m just disappointed.&rdquo;WHERE&rsquo;S THE GAME?: The site for the Canadian Hockey League East-West All-Star Challenge hasn&rsquo;t been decided but Moncton, N.B., has become the leading candidate.Kitchener, Sault Ste. Marie and Newmarket initially put in bids, but sources say all three pulled out because of the cost, estimated at $50,000. This year&rsquo;s game is supposed to be hosted by the OHL, but there&rsquo;s a good chance it will be played at the 6,802-seat Moncton Coliseum.The game features all-stars from the OHL against those from the Western and Quebec Leagues.A LOT OF BULL: The Belleville Bulls added another weapon to their arsenal, acquiring overage winger Kevin Brown from the Niagara Falls Thunder for a fifth-round draft pick.Brown led the Thunder in scoring last season with 42 goals and 100 points in 63 games. The Bulls now have three overage players and can play just two.The others are also productive scorers. Mark Donahue and Chris Skoryna were first and second in team scoring last season with 99 and 89 points, repsectively.DATE SET: London Knights&rsquo; right winger John Guirestante is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 25 for a preliminary hearing into aggravated assault and weapons charges laid against him and three other teens.The charges stem from a fight that occurred Aug. 8 in Mississauga, Ont., in which a 31-year-old man was sent to hospital with a one-inch hammer wound to his chest.Police say the victim was struck in the chest with the pointed end of a masonry hammer. Guirestante was a first-round pick of the Knights in 1992 and was selected in the fifth round by the New Jersey Devils in the June NHL draft. His first court date was Sept 23.BONSIGNORE RETURNS: Newmarket Royals&rsquo; center Jason Bonsignore returned to the team following a pre-training camp tournament in Alaska with the U.S. Olympic squad.There was talk Bonsignore stood a good chance of making the roster for the Lillehammer Games. He returned to the Royals in time to suit up for a 6-5 loss against the Peterborough Petes Sept. 23.His travel plans that day included flying from Alaska to Denver, then to Chicago, then to Toronto and then driving 90 minutes to Peterborough. He had three assists in the game. He may periodically return to the U.S. team and he may still play in the Olympics. &#9632;

League looking for commitment from Toronto group

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>The most successful coach in major junior hockey history has left the bench.Ken Hodge handed the Portland Winter Hawks&rsquo; coaching reigns to Brent Peterson Sept. 21-ending an illustrious 20-year career as the team&rsquo;s head coach.The 47-year-old Hodge stepped down to concentrate on his duties as general manager and governor. He owns 13 per cent of the team.&ldquo;It was tough to make the decision,&rdquo; said Hodge, whose 741 victories are the most among Canadian Hockey League coaches. &ldquo;It got tougher as the time to make the announcement got close. It&rsquo;s a bit of a sad time.&rdquo;Hodge is also the Western League&rsquo;s all-time leader in playoff victories with 97. He guided Portland to six West Division titles, one league crown and the 1983 Memorial Cup title.The Winter Hawks won the West Division, title last season before losing to the Swift Current Broncos in a seven-game league final.&ldquo;I feel comfortable that I&rsquo;ve passed over a decent team to Brent,&rdquo; Hodge said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m comfortable with the transition.&rdquo;Hodge was the only coach the franchise had known since it relocated from Edmonton for the 1976-77 season. He first coached in the WHL with the 1973-74 Edmonton Oil Kings.Hodge had worked closely with former Hawks&rsquo; governor-GM Brian Shaw, who died of cancer July 27. Shaw had been ill for two years and Hodge&rsquo;s responsibilities increased.Peterson, a former Winter Hawks&rsquo; player who spent 11 seasons in the NHL, was hired to help Hodge when Shaw&rsquo;s health began to fail.&ldquo;Ken will still be there with support and as an advisor,&rdquo; Peterson said. &ldquo;The only thing that will change is he won&rsquo;t be behind the bench.&ldquo;I know he enjoys being behind the bench and he wants to, but he couldn&rsquo;t be there all the time and he wants some continuity.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01769/6142914-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="723" height="821"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken Hodge guided the Portland Winter Hawks to the Memorial Cup in 1983.</figcaption></div>HOLT HURT: Todd Holt, one of the WHL&rsquo;s most exciting players while with Swift Current, is expected to miss the entire season.The 20-year-old right winger failed his medical at the San Jose Sharks&rsquo; training camp and will likely require a spinal fusion operation.The problem stems from an Oct. 21, 1992 game against the Red Deer Rebels, during which Holt sustained a bruised spinal cord. He missed only three games with the injury.&ldquo;It was a blow to hear and not just because we wanted to get him back,&rdquo; Swift Current coach-GM Graham James said. &ldquo;The primary concern is that his season is likely over.&rdquo;San Jose picked Holt in the eighth round of the NHL&rsquo;s 1993 entry draft. He had 56 goals and 113 points in 67 games last season.TRADE WINDS: WHL general managers have been busy judging by some notable trades.The Regina Pats obtained center Cory Dosdall, 20, from the Lethbridge Hurricanes for a second-round pick in the 1994 bantam draft. Dosdall, an 87-point man last season, had intended to play at the University of Regina.The Brandon Wheat Kings dealt defenseman Craig Geekie, 20, to the Spokane Chiefs for center Dean Kletzel, 17.The Saskatoon Blades shipped defenseman Chad Knippel, 18, to the Tacoma Rockets for an undisclosed bantam draft pick. &#9632;

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Coaching guru Hodge steps down

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>The Hull Olympiques were dealt a severe blow in September when right winger Martin Gendron decided to join the Canadian Olympic team rather than return to the junior ranks.Hull acquired Gendron, 19, from the St-Hyacinthe Laser in an August trade for left winger Richard Lacasse and defenseman Christian Gosselin, two promising 17-year-olds.Gendron, the Washington Capitals&rsquo; third-round draft pick in 1992, had 73 goals and 134 points in 63 games last season and was being counted on to lead Hull&rsquo;s offense. He was a member of Canada&rsquo;s gold-medal team at the 1993 World Junior Championships.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve already played three seasons in junior and I want to try something different,&rdquo; Gendron said. &ldquo;The Capitals&rsquo; management believes that for my improvement, it is preferable to live an experience which resembles the NHL. But I had the final say.&rdquo;Gendron&rsquo;s decision caught the Olympiques off guard.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m surprised,&rdquo; said Hull coach Alain Sanscartier. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t expect him to make that decision, but we&rsquo;re going to live with it. When we made the trade we knew the Olympic team was a possibility, but his agent, Pat Brisson, said no way-he was going to play for us.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very disappointed. We have big goals this year. But I respect Martin&rsquo;s decision. It&rsquo;s a new challenge for him.&rdquo;Olympiques&rsquo; general manager Charlie Henry also wishes Gendron well, but he isn&rsquo;t happy with Hockey Canada.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m all happy for the young fellow but I&rsquo;m certainly not pleased with Hockey Canada,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t say much when they have to dig into junior hockey for talent.&ldquo;A 19-year-old kid isn&rsquo;t going to win a gold medal for us at the Olympics. If it was an Alexandre Daigle it would be different, but you can&rsquo;t tell me a 22- or 23-year-old in the American League or somewhere wouldn&rsquo;t contribute more. Hockey Canada should be looking at the AHL-I&rsquo;m sure an NHL team wouldn&rsquo;t mind sending a player to the Olympics rather than a 19-year-old.&rdquo;Henry said the Olympic team is supposed to be a development program, but instead has players constantly coming and going. That puts top-notch junior players at risk because they&rsquo;re eager to move on.&ldquo;They all want to go,&rdquo; Henry said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re easy picking for them. I can&rsquo;t blame (Gendron) for wanting to do what he&rsquo;s doing, I just don&rsquo;t think Hockey Canada&rsquo;s operating on the up and up. Even Washington told us they were more than happy to send (Gendron) back to us, but they left the decision up to him.&rdquo;The Olympiques expect Gendron to be back in Hull later this season. If he makes the Olympic team he&rsquo;ll be back Feb. 28. If not, he&rsquo;ll be back in Hull after the WJC in mid-January.The Olympiques, with Gendron, were the preseason pick to win the Quebec League. While they still have a good offense with Eric Lecompte, Pierre-Francois Lalonde and Sebastien Bordeleau, the loss of Gendron hurts.&ldquo;I still have enough (talent) to be successful, but we&rsquo;re not in the same situation as before the season,&rdquo; Sanscartier said. &ldquo;Before everyone knew we had Gendron. Now they&rsquo;re saying we don&rsquo;t have Gendron and we&rsquo;re beatable.&rdquo;WELCOME HOME: The expansion Val d&rsquo;or Foreurs attracted 2,616 fans for their home opener Sept. 17 against the Sherbrooke Faucons. However, the Faucons spoiled the party with a 6-5 victory.The Val d&rsquo;Or Palais des Sports seats 1,820 but has a capacity of 3,200 with standing room. The Foreurs sold 500 season tickets.There is a strong possibility the QMJHL will expand again next season with a team in Rimouski. The city is interested and must submit an official request, along with a $30,000 cheque, by Nov. 1. The cost of an expansion franchise is $500,000.The QMJHL is also exploring the idea of expanding to Rouyn-Noranda, the Maritimes and Vermont in the near future. &#9632;

Gendron eyes Olympics, puts Olympiques on hold

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<div class="byline">By Robyn Norwood</div>Todd Ewen and Stu Grimson took turns squaring off against Pittsburgh Penguin Marty McSorley during the first pre-season game for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.In the stands, eyes turned to Walt Disney Co., chairman Michael Eisner, looking for his reaction.&ldquo;My children just looked at me and said, &lsquo;Daa-ad&hellip;&rsquo; Eisner said. &ldquo;I said, &lsquo;What am I going to do? Am I going to go out there and tell Marty McSorley to go back to his dressing room?&rsquo; &ldquo;Eisner is no fan of fighting, but understands that physical confrontations have their place in the game. He should get used to it, because the Anaheim team is big and willing to fight.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t be a wimp, you can&rsquo;t be run over,&rdquo; Eisner said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t say I don&rsquo;t like fighting. I said I don&rsquo;t like it if it turns into professional wrestling, because that stops the game, it slows it down, it&rsquo;s gratuitous, it&rsquo;s silly, it&rsquo;s sophomoric, it&rsquo;s immature and it&rsquo;s ridiculous.&ldquo;But a fight that evolves out of a normal conflict as would happen in a basketball game or even in a football game or a baseball game-if the rules are sufficient to make it hurt your team if you engage in it-then I think it&rsquo;s appropriate.&rdquo;Eisner is not a complete hockey neophyte. He grew up as a New York Rangers&rsquo; fan and has been a regular at Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; games, often as a guest of owner Bruce McNall.But it is through his sons&rsquo; participation in youth hockey that he has become a major individual supporter of USA Hockey and now is overseeing what he says will be a major promotion of youth hockey in Southern California, sponsored largely by Disney.Though he has a certain appreciation of contact sports, Eisner does not understand the sentiments of fight fans, including those who clamor after such items as two-hour videotapes of nothing but hockey fights.&ldquo;Well, they sell two-hour tapes of pornography too,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I mean, that&rsquo;s ridiculous.&rdquo;In his role on the board of governors, Eisner said he will seek to make hockey a better game and suggested that the fighting issue centers more on consistent officiating than the rules themselves.As for his own team, Eisner said he is leaving the hockey operations to the hockey people and they say they have not been given any missives about fighting.&ldquo;They hired me to put the best team I can on the ice and get the players we need to win,&rdquo; said general manager Jack Ferreira.&ldquo;He hasn&rsquo;t mentioned anything about it,&rdquo; said coach Ron Wilson. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a proponent of fighting myself and at times I think it&rsquo;s the silliest thing in the world to see two grown mean beating each other up.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Steven King, RW, 24. The first forward selected in the expansion draft, King had seven goals and 12 points in 24 games with the New York Rangers last season.Shaun Van Allen, C, 26. The free-agent signee has been a big scorer in the minors, but has had trouble keeping up in the NHL. He&rsquo;ll get a chance this season.MAN IN THE MIDDLE: Anatoli Semenov will be the center on the Ducks&rsquo; first line, but one of the expansion team&rsquo;s most demanding assignments has gone to center Bob Corkum.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll be our Joel Otto-type,&rdquo; Ron Wilson said. Corkum will be checking the stars of the NHL, starting with Steve Yzerman of the Detroit Red Wings in the Oct. 8 season-opener at Anaheim Arena.&ldquo;I welcome the challenge,&rdquo; Corkum said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the object is to hold a player like that without points-just bring them down to the level of the rest of us so we have a better chance of winning.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: A dispute between the City of Anaheim, arena management and the Mighty Ducks over the official name of the arena-The Pond of Anaheim or Anaheim Arena-was settled with the signing of Arrowhead Spring Water as sponsor of the arena. The official name is now Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. Some newspapers continue to call it Anaheim Arena. &#9632;

Eisner not a fan of fisticuffs

<div class="byline">Bv Eric Duhatschek</div>In the end, the decision came down to money or lifestyle.Had Gary Roberts wanted to test his value on the open market, there was a chance he could have received more money than what the Calgary Flames gave him.But Roberts decided to stay in Calgary, signing a four-year contract Sept. 22 worth $7.35 million. The numbers break down to $1.6 million the first year, $1.75 for year two and $2 million for each of the final two seasons.Included in the deal are bonuses for end-of-season all-star team voting and playoff success that could add more than $1 million to the value of the package.&ldquo;I signed it because I wanted to stay here,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;In a different market, it might have been a different story. My lifestyle is pretty good here. My family is happy. I live two minutes from the Saddledome. The biggest thing is I&rsquo;m happy and so are the Flames.&rdquo;The quality that sets Roberts apart from many other NHL players is his combination of skill and toughness. Two years ago, he became only the second player in league history to score 50 goals and record 200 penalty minutes in the same season.The 27-year-old was well on his way to those totals again last season when he sustained a quadricep hematoma in a neutral-site game against the Philadelphia Flyers. The night that it happened, doctors told him there was a possibility he might never play another NHL game.That didn&rsquo;t happen, but it took Roberts more than two months to get back into the Flames&rsquo; lineup. Roberts played the regular-season finale against the San Jose Sharks, but was not 100 per cent for the Flames&rsquo; playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings.The summer off enabled Roberts to make a full recovery.Sometimes, when a player strikes it rich in contract negotiations, it takes the edge off his game. Will this happen to Roberts?&ldquo;If I turn soft,&rdquo; he replied, &ldquo;you&rsquo;ll notice it with me before you notice it with anybody else. I get success from working hard and creating opportunities. I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ll ever be able to change my game. I can&rsquo;t say now I&rsquo;m going to play a finesse game or I won&rsquo;t be doing my job. Let&rsquo;s face it. I don&rsquo;t consider myself a natural goalscorer and I don&rsquo;t think management does either.&rdquo;What Flames&rsquo; management does see is a player with natural leadership ability. The new contract makes Roberts the highest-paid player in team history and means nine players on the roster will earn in excess of $700,000 this season.Discussing his ballooning payroll, general manager Doug Risebrough said: &ldquo;The situation is, we have to say yes to some players and no to others. The problem has been that we&rsquo;ve said yes to everybody.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Ted Drury, C/RW, 22. The Harvard graduate impressed the coaching staff with his all-around ability and a competitive streak.Vesa Viitakoski, LW, 22. He will not be confused with fellow Finn Teemu Selanne, but Viitakoski showed good touch in close around the net.Trevor Kidd, G, 21. He is the least experienced of the Flames&rsquo; rookie prospects this season, but arguably the one with the most upside potential.NOTEBOOK: Center Robert Reichel became the first player to complete his arbitration hearing. Arbitrator Michel Picher awarded him $700,000 for this season. Reichel had asked for a salary of $925,000. The Flames offered $600,000.Almost one month after surgery to repair a tendon in his right shoulder, defenseman Trent Yawney still had his shoulder in a sling. But he was able to maintain his conditioning by riding the exercise bicycle. &#9632;

Megadeal makes Roberts best-paid in team history

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>Jason Arnott was not just the talk of the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; training camp. He staked a claim on the first-line center spot.Edmonton&rsquo;s first pick, seventh overall, in the June entry draft had Oiler fans talking real hockey and not off-ice franchise woes for the first time in a long while.Whether Arnott signed or not by the midnight Oct. 4 deadline for junior-aged players, the consensus was he belonged. Arnott was looking for a three-year deal in the $2.3-million range while the Oilers were offering significantly less on a four-year contract.Just about everyone was amazed at how the 18-year-old was able to adjust to the NHL level so quickly. Coach Ted Green said Arnott belongs in an Oilers&rsquo; uniform, no ifs, ands or buts.&ldquo;The kid can&rsquo;t go back to junior,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t be good for him. He can play at a level that will push him to the next level. The competition is here. He knows it, I know it. He has outgrown junior hockey.&rdquo;Green double-shifted Arnott through the third period of the Oilers&rsquo; 6-1 win over the Canadian Olympic team Oct. 3.Arnott&rsquo;s game is a blend of speed, toughness and skill that is uncommon for an 18-year-old. He has made believers out of everyone.&ldquo;He has the whole package,&rdquo; said Arnott&rsquo;s left winger Shayne Corson. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun to play with someone who is that skilled.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Jason Arnott, C, 18. The 6-foot-3, 193 pounder has won a spot as the No. 1 center between left winger Shayne Corson and right winger Roman Oksiuta.Dean McAmmond, LW, 20. He brings great speed and a feisty attitude. A proven scorer in junior, he couldn&rsquo;t pull the trigger in the exhibition season.Roman Oksiuta, RW, 23. He&rsquo;s the only real goal-scoring threat the Oilers have on the right side. He has a long reach and great touch around the net.Steven Rice, RW, 22. He&rsquo;s a banger who must play a physical game on the second or third line. He&rsquo;s not fancy but will get his share of goals by hanging around the crease.Vladimir Vujtek, C, 21. Will start as second or third-line center. He&rsquo;s a fine skater with scoring ability but doesn&rsquo;t use his wingers enough.Ian Herbers, D, 26. A steady, stay-at-home type who was paired with Dave Manson for much of camp. He rarely makes mistakes with the puck and is adept at clearing front of the net.Kirk Maltby, RW, 20. He&rsquo;ll be slotted in as third-line center and will be counted on to kill penalties, grind in the comers and score the odd goal. Great speed and loves to hit.Fred Brathwaite, G, 20. He surprised everyone by taking the backup job away from Wayne Cowley, the most likely pre-camp candidate. He&rsquo;ll play about 20 games.NOTEBOOK: Both sides in the ongoing Oilers/Northlands lease dispute imposed a news blackout until Oct. 6, Peter Pocklington&rsquo;s deadline for a new lease agreement. Prior to the blackout, Northlands had refused Mayor Jan Reimer&rsquo;s request for a new, smaller negotiating team but said they would bargain in good faith, based on their proposal to sell Pocklington a 40year lease for at least $51 million. He countered by saying he would make an offer to buy the Coliseum, but wouldn&rsquo;t name his price&hellip;Left winger Scott Thornton&rsquo;s most impressive training camp as an Oiler took a dangerous twist Sept. 28. He fell into the boards and sustained a severely sprained left ankle and is sidelined until late October.Left winger Dean McAmmond is a practising Christian, but he didn&rsquo;t find religion after a personal crisis. It has always been there for him. &ldquo;A lot of people tend to categorize born-again Christians as people who were ruffians and just turned themselves around. I&rsquo;ve always been a Christian. My whole family is. I get concerned with a lot of things I shouldn&rsquo;t. It&rsquo;s a lot easier to put your faith in God and let Him take care of those things.&rdquo; &#9632;

Arnott completes training camp to remember

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>While Wayne Gretzky acknowledges the astronomical salaries being paid professional athletes are &ldquo;crazy,&rdquo; he isn&rsquo;t about to give Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall a rebate on his new three-year, $25.5 million contract.As skewed as the figures seem to be, Gretzky believes they are more than reasonable when compared to the sums doled out to rookies such as Eric Lindros and Alexandre Daigle.&ldquo;When you see guys come into the league who have never played making $3 million, that&rsquo;s mind-boggling, that&rsquo;s what sets the tone for everything else,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;ve&rdquo; got kids coming into the game who are going to get these kinds of numbers, then players who have been around are going to command or demand numbers that are higher.&rdquo;Gretzky&rsquo;s contract averages out to $8.5 million per season-second in all of pro team sports to the $9.4 million New York Knicks&rsquo; center Patrick Ewing rakes in-leapfrogging him past Mario Lemieux in the NHL.In each of the three seasons, Gretzky will receive $4 million, with the rest deferred over &ldquo;15 to 20 years,&rdquo; he said. His old deal, which ran through 1997-98, would have paid him $2 million this season, with $1 million deferred.Gretzky, 32, begins his 15th NHL season needing 37 goals to break Gordie Howe&rsquo;s all-time record of 801. He already has produced more assists (1,563) and points (2,328) than any player in league history.It has taken him five years in Los Angeles to move into a fifth-place tie with Butch Goring on the club&rsquo;s all-time scoring list with 659 points in 348 games. His 477 assists are third behind Marcel Dionne (757) and Dave Taylor (635).But McNall has often said Gretzky&rsquo;s value to the franchise and to hockey transcends anything he has accomplished on the ice.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important that everybody contribute to selling the game,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been a big believer in that. Mario sells the game by what he does on the ice. Now that Brett Hull sells on the ice and is a little more open off the ice&hellip;everybody sells it in their own way.&ldquo;When I came here five years ago, it was a dream to fill the rink, make hockey popular and get a championship. We&rsquo;ve come close to all of that, and I feel proud to have been a part of it.&ldquo;Mr. McNall, for putting out the money to get me, deserves most of the credit. The team at that time was doing OK, drawing between 9,000 and 11,000, and had a couple good, young players. But it had been in disarray for a long time and there was talk of moving the franchise.&rdquo;Other than providing more security for his family, Gretzky said the new contract will not have much effect on his life.&ldquo;If I was going to change, I would have changed 10 years ago,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My dad had two jobs when I was growing up. We were a middle-income family and I still respect what my parents taught me. My values are the same. My parents taught me to respect people and that&rsquo;s what I live by.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Bob Jay, D, 27. Spot duty is about all this free-agent signee can expect. A veteran of the Fort Wayne Komets, Jay is a good skater and has a decent shot.Rick Knickle, G, 33. Re-signed as an insurance policy, Knickle will battle Robb Stauber for playing time as Kelly Hrudey&rsquo;s backup. He&rsquo;s starting his 15th pro season.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Brent Thompson resumed skating after missing training camp while recovering from off-season abdominal surgery. Thompson isn&rsquo;t expected to play until mid-October&hellip;Left winger Luc Robitaille, who sustained a strained lower back early in camp, sat out the first six pre-season games, but figured to play in the Oct. 6 season opener against the Vancouver Canucks.Center Jimmy Carson, a Group II free agent, was close to agreeing to a contract as the season started. &#9632;

Gretzky admits it’s crazy, but he’ll take the cash

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>The San Jose Sharks scored what might have been their biggest goal of training camp Sept. 26, when they announced that Russian winger Andrei Nazarov had arrived in the Bay Area after agreeing to contract terms.The 10th overall pick in the 1992 entry draft agreed to a four-year deal. Nazarov accepted a two-way contract and will earn about $300,000 if he sticks with the Sharks or about $35,000 if he plays for the Kansas City Blades of the International League.Nazarov, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound left winger, practised with the Sharks for the first time Sept. 29 and played a pre-season game against the Los Angeles Kings the next night. His size is a much-needed commodity up front for the Sharks and Nazarov said he knows how to use it to his advantage.&ldquo;I like to hit,&rdquo; said Nazarov, who has a reputation for having a mean streak. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s part of my game.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s not the only part of his game, however.Nazarov, 19, had an assist in his debut against the Kings and the Sharks are counting on him to provide scoring punch.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a complete package,&rdquo; director of player personnel Chuck Grillo said. &ldquo;He has good feet, quick hands and he can shoot. And he&rsquo;s still a baby. When he matures, he might be 6-foot-6 and 230 or 240 pounds.&rdquo;Sharks&rsquo; director of hockey operations Dean Lombardi said the teenager might be required to start the season in Kansas City, but Nazarov says he didn&rsquo;t come over just to be a minorleaguer.&ldquo;If I didn&rsquo;t think I was ready, I wouldn&rsquo;t have come,&rdquo; Nazarov said. &ldquo;I think I can play here.&rdquo;If Nazarov does stick with the Sharks, he&rsquo;ll have Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov for role models. Those two are legends in Russia, where they starred with Vladimir Krutov on the most dominating line in international hockey during the 1980s.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be happy to be in the same room with them,&rdquo; Nazarov said. &ldquo;They are great players.&rdquo;The Sharks hope they can say that about Nazarov one day.PROSPECT WATCH: Andrei Nazarov, LW, 19. The big Russian has made a big impact early in camp. He combines raw talent with a mean streak.Mike Rathje, D, 19. The third overall pick in 1992 draft is big (6-foot-5, 205 pounds), strong and got a taste of the pro game with Kansas City of the Interantioanl League last season.Michal Sykora, D, 20. The offense-minded defenseman with good size (6-foot-4, 210 pounds) has progressed faster than any of the team&rsquo;s entry draft selections.Alexander Cherbayev, LW, 20. The slick-skating Russian with good hands may get a chance early to bolster a left side that doesn&rsquo;t have much scoring depth.Jaroslav Otevrel, C, 25. The sure-handed Czech played in seven games with the Sharks last season while apprenticing in the IHL with Kansas City.NOTEBOOK: Former Sharks&rsquo; coach George Kingston, who was fired by the team in April, attended a Sept. 25 pre-season game against the Buffalo Sabres to scout players for the Canadian Olympic team. Kingston, now the director of hockey operations for the Canadian national program, didn&rsquo;t want to say much about his firing by the Sharks. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not here to criticize,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Decisions were made by people who have to make decisions for their survival.&rdquo;The Sharks and San Francisco-based radio station KFRC have agreed to a deal making KF-RC the flagship station of the team&rsquo;s radio network. The Sharks had been without a flagship station since August, when San Francisco-based station KNEW announced it would not renew its contract with the team. KNEW broadcast Sharks&rsquo; games during the team&rsquo;s first two seasons in the NHL.The Sharks moved into their permanent home when they met the New York Islanders in a preseason game at the new San Jose Arena Sept. 30. San Jose won the game 4-2. The Sharks played home games at the Cow Palace in Daly City the last two seasons. &#9632;

Nazarov rough and ready

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>With the Petr Nedved contract dispute dragging into early October, Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; general manager-coach Pat Quinn played one of his remaining cards-he moved left winger Greg Adams to center.The gambit surprised no one, least of all Adams.&ldquo;I was expecting them to throw me in there sometime,&rdquo; said Adams, a center earlier in his career. &ldquo;As long as they don&rsquo;t put me on defense I don&rsquo;t care.&rdquo;The Canucks entered training camp minus four of the six centers who finished last season in Vancouver.Ryan Walter retired after not being offered a contract while Tom Fergus headed for Switzerland after he didn&rsquo;t hear from the Canucks. Anatoli Semenov was lost to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the expansion draft and Nedved, of course, refused to sign with the team after playing out his option.Nedved turned down a two-year offer for $650,000 (U.S.) plus a bonus package that topped out at $220,000 (Cdn.). The 21-year-old center countered with a one-year double-eagle at $750,000 (Cdn.) plus a comprehensive bonus package that could take him into the $1.2 million range.Nedved&rsquo;s Calgary-based agent, Tony Kondel, expressed his belief that Nedved is &ldquo;finished in Vancouver.&ldquo;It is my opinion and the opinion of Petr, that a trade would be the best solution to both parties,&rdquo; Kondel said. &ldquo;In order to play (well), you have to play your heart out and personally I don&rsquo;t think Petr can do that if they are not prepared to pay market value.&rdquo;The Canucks felt their offer was fair and pointed to the arbitrated contract of Calgary Flames&rsquo; center Robert Reichel, a player similar to Nedved but with better numbers. Reichel received a two-year deal for $700,000 per season.As for a trade, Quinn said: &ldquo;If the market was that great for this guy, someone would be pounding down our doors.&rdquo;Quinn added that after spending three seasons developing Nedved, he wouldn&rsquo;t want to see him walk away to another team either.&ldquo;Petr has reached a point where he is starting to become a decent player,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not a great player yet, he might be someday, but he&rsquo;s not right now.&rdquo;PROSPECT WATCH: Dan Ratushny, D, 22. He loves to rush the puck, but often gets caught out of position. He entered camp seventh on the depth chart and appears to have remained there.Mike Peca, C, 19. The 175-pounder is small by NHL standards, but probably has enough jam to overcome that defiency. He is a very good puckhandler and skater.Shawn Antoski, LW, 23. He has been slow to develop and his skill level still isn&rsquo;t high. But he&rsquo;s an excellent skater and is learning to use his 230-pound frame to punish the opposition.NOTEBOOK: Backup goalie Kay Whitmore, the only Canuck to file for salary arbitration, was close to signing a new deal with the club. Whitmore, 26, was seeking something &ldquo;in the range&rdquo; of the $500,000 deal recently signed by the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; No. 2 man Robb Stauber. Whitmore was 18-8-4 with a 3.10 goals-against average last season and earned in the $375,000 range.Swift Current Broncos&rsquo; junior center Rick Girard, Vancouver&rsquo;s second-round pick last June, made a spectacular pre-season debut when he had three points-and could have had six-in a 6-5 overtime win against the Buffalo Sabres Sept. 22. He followed that with another three-point game against the Canadian Olympic team in Kamloops Sept. 24 before injuring his shoulder in his third appearance Sept. 27. The 19-year-old is expected to return to the Western League.Defenseman Mike Wilson, the team&rsquo;s first pick in 1993, also left a favorable impression with management before heading back to his Sudbury Wolves&rsquo; junior team in the Ontario League. &#9632;

Adams will plug middle with Nedved ‘finished’

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WHL SCHEDULE

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OHL SCHEDULE

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QMJHL SCHEDULE

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October 15, 1993

LOUISVILLE…THE SCORING LEADER!

Filimonov a study in many ways

Brown victim of numbers game after 14 seasons

THE DRAW