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 22, 1993

The Hockey News October 22, 1993

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div>Ray Bourque will likely remain a Boston Bruin for the next two years, but he won&rsquo;t be a happy one.Bourque learned hours before the Bruins&rsquo; season opener Oct. 5 at Madison Square Garden that he had lost his salary arbitration case. Arbiter Richard Bloch awarded Bourque a salary of $2.25 million (U.S.) per season for the next two seasons-$l million more than he made last year and about $400,000 more than Boston&rsquo;s offer at the Sept. 29 filing deadline, but some $2 million less than he sought. There were reports Bourque turned down a three-year offer of $2.75 million per season days before the Oct. 1 hearing.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01731/6156459-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="582" height="962"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Bourque is now the NHL&rsquo;s highest-paid defenseman.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He mentioned a figure before the game,&rdquo; goalie Jon Casey said, &ldquo;but I didn&rsquo;t think he was serious.&rdquo;&ldquo;I thought it was going to turn out better than it did,&rdquo; Bourque said after a strong effort in a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers on opening night. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a little disappointed, but I knew what I was getting into.&rdquo;Bourque&rsquo;s salary is the highest for an NHL defenseman, but he wanted more than that.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t looking at defensemen,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was looking at being one of the top-paid players in the game. I think over the last 14 years my record speaks for itself. I&rsquo;ve been a franchise player for a good part of my career.&rdquo;General manager Harry Sinden, who claimed Bourque got &ldquo;a heck of a contract,&rdquo; said Bloch was right to separate the market for forwards, defensemen and goalies.&ldquo;He gauged the market on defensemen where it should be gauged,&rdquo; Sinden said. &ldquo;He gave Raymond $500,000, or close to it, more than any other defenseman, which is a very, very fair and a reasonable arbitration by anybody&rsquo;s standards. It&rsquo;s more than we thought he should be paid, but that&rsquo;s how (Bloch) gauged the market.&rdquo;ON THE BLOCK: Left winger Dmitri Kvartalnov and defenseman Mikhail Tatarinov appear available to any half-serious bidder.Kvartalnov, who scored 30 goals last year, but was less effective as the season progressed, didn&rsquo;t play in Boston&rsquo;s first three games, despite an injury to Cam Neely.Tatarinov, a free-agent signee, was apparently waived and unclaimed Oct. 4. He played Oct. 7 against the Buffalo Sabres because of an injury to Don Sweeney, but was unimpressive. Boston traded a third-round draft pick in 1994 to the Pittsburgh Penguins for defenseman Paul Stanton the next day.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Cam Neely continued to fine-tune his workout and playing schedule. He backed off hopes of playing 84 games after a small setback caused by too much on-ice work late in training camp, and had to sit out a 7-3 win over the Quebec Nordiques Oct. 9. That was necessary because his knee was sore from too much work in the season&rsquo;s first week. Neely, who scored goals in each of Boston&rsquo;s first two games, said he hopes to play between 60 and 70 games.The Bruins acquired defenseman Paul Stanton just in time. After losing Don Sweeney for at least three games Oct. 5, Gord Roberts (ribs) and David Shaw (hip) were injured in the win over Quebec.John Carter had surgery Oct. 8 to relieve pressure behind his eye, which was struck accidentally by teammate Steve Leach&rsquo;s stick in a Sept. 18 scrimmage&hellip;The Bruins assigned Fred Knipscheer to the Providence Bruins of the American League Oct. 8, only to recall him the next day.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 8: Paul Stanton. D, acquired from Pittsburgh for third-round draft pick in 1994. Fred Knipscheer, C, assigned to Providence (AHL). Oct. 9: Knipscheer recalled from Providence.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Adam Oates, Jozef Stumpel, Ted Donato, Bryan SmolinskiLW&ndash;Joe Juneau. Daniel Marois, Dave Reid, Cam Stewart, Dmitri Kvartalnov.RW&ndash;Steve Leach. Steve Heinze, Glen Murray, Fred KnipscheerLD&ndash;Glen Wesley, Mikhail Tatarinov. David Shaw.RD&ndash;Ray Bourque. Glen Featherstone, Paul StantonG&ndash;Jon Casey, John Blue.<h3>INJURIES</h3>John Carter, LW, eye surgery, indefinite. Cam Neely, RW, sore left knee, day-to-day. Gord Roberts, D, bruised ribs. day-to-day. Jon Rohloff, D, knee surgery, indefinite. Don Sweeney, D, sprained left knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0021-01

IN THIS ISSUE

Bourque gets Bloch (ed) in arbitration case

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div>One theory about these New York Rangers and their new coach was that we&rsquo;d know an awful lot about them early in the season.Not so. Mark Messier, the team&rsquo;s captain, said during the first week of camp that he thought it would take a while, and during the first week of the regular season the Rangers seemed to back up Messier&rsquo;s belief.The Rangers, under Mike Keenan, went 1-2 to open the season. They blew a third-period lead in their opener and lost to the Boston Bruins 4-3 Oct. 5. They blew a third-period lead two nights later, got it back, and held on to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. And they blew leads of 1-0 and 2-1 in a 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins Oct. 9.So these Rangers, who want to atone for last season, must be patient. They have to crawl before they walk, and walk before they run.&ldquo;Absolutely,&rdquo; Messier said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a long way to go and we know it. But more importantly, we&rsquo;ve got to keep improving, keep playing better. If we continue to keep a good work ethic, good things are going to happen.&rdquo;Even Keenan, who recognizes the impatience of the Big Apple&rsquo;s hockey fans, is betraying his own reputation when he claims this project may take a while.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going through an educational period,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to take maybe until Christmas before we can implement the system.&rdquo;In the opener, Keenan benched Tony Amonte and Darren Turcotte for a long stretch. In the Pittsburgh game, James Patrick found a seat and was roundly criticized by the coach for letting his teammates down.&ldquo;They have to learn to play harder, to play more competitively,&rdquo; Keenan said without mentioning names. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s part of the education process, learning commitment to their teammates and themselves. They have to learn the difference between being an average performer and being a top performer.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01701/6156948-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="580" height="982"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mark Messier knows it will take time for team chemisty to form.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;They have to maintain their professionalism for 60 minutes; not get too, too high or too low. They have to learn that.&rdquo;One player who already knows that is goalie Glenn Healy, whose debut as a Ranger was nearly a disaster. Healy allowed two Tampa Bay goals in a 15-second span, on the first two shots.But Healy, who earned a bounce-back reputation during the playoffs with the New York Islanders, toughened up and got the win. He made three big saves before the Rangers tied it.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the whole point of being a goalie,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t change the past. If you worry about the second one that went in, the third one&rsquo;s behind you before you know it. You move on. You stop the third one, then the fourth, then the fifth, and before you know it, it&rsquo;s 2-2.&rdquo;GRAVE SITUATION: The Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; winning goal in a 3-2 victory Oct. 9 came about under unusual circumstances late in the third period.With defensemen Jay Wells and Doug Lidster in the penalty box and Kevin Lowe nursing an injury, left winger Adam Graves was asked to take a shift as a penalty-killing defenseman. Graves got into trouble quickly when goalie Mike Richter lost his stick behind the net.Graves gave Richter his own stick, then at the first opportunity, Graves retrieved Richter&rsquo;s stick. While the two were making an awkward exchange, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Martin Straka walked in from the sideboards, past the fumbling Graves and beat Richter, who still was not set.NOTEBOOK: Unsigned free-agent defenseman Jeff Beukeboom went home to Ajax, Ont., the day of the opener. Beukeboom and agent Mark Hall want a three-year deal at 700,000, $750,000 and $800,000. The Rangers&rsquo; offer was $550,000, $575,000 and $600,000. Beukeboom went home also because his grandmother is ill&hellip;Mike Keenan named his alternate captains: Mike Gartner and Brian Leetch for home games and Adam Graves and Kevin Lowe on the road. Mark Messier is captain.Ed Olczyk, Phil Bourque and Peter Andersson sat out the first three games. Sergei Zubov and Mattias Norstrom sat out the first two, before being assigned to the Binghamton Rangers of the American League, then recalled two days later after Lowe got hurt and James Patrick was benched.One of Keenan&rsquo;s innovations has been the use of Gartner as a penalty killer, something Gartner hasn&rsquo;t done since his first few seasons in Washington. His speed created two shorthanded chances in the opener.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 7: Daniel Lacroix, C. assigned to Binghamton (AHL). Oct. 8: Sergei Zubov, D, and Mattias Norstrom, D, assigned to Binghamton. Oct. 10: Lacroix. Zubov and Norstrom recalled from Binghamton.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mark Messier. Sergei Nemchinov, Darren Turcotte, Daniel Lacroix.LW&ndash;Adam Graves, Esa Tikkanen. Greg Gilbert. Mike Hartman, Ed Olczyk, Phil Bourque.RW&ndash;Alexei Kovalev, Mike Gartner. Tony Amonte, Joey Kocur.LD&ndash;Brian Leetch, Jay Wells. Mattias Norstrom, Peter Andersson.RD&ndash;Joby Messier, James Patrick, Doug Lidster, Alexander Karpovtsev, Sergei Zubov.G&ndash;Mike Richter. Glenn Healy.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mike Hudson, C, fractured left hand, Nov. 21. Kevin Lowe, D, bruised right foot, day-to-day. &#9632;

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Keenan cure won’t solve woes overnight

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0051-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-0297/6157559-1-eng-US/f0051-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0051-02

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>Veteran junior coach Brian Kilrea is retiring from the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s following this season. You probably knew that.Jeff Friesen of the Regina Pats, Jason Bonsignore of the Newmarket Royals and Jeff O&rsquo;Neill of the Guelph Storm are top prospects for the 1994 NHL entry draft. That&rsquo;s old news too.Now here are 10 Canadian Hockey League people you probably don&rsquo;t know, but should.&#9633; Ryan Appel. Big-league scouts were following Appel all last summer. But they weren&rsquo;t NHL scouts. The London Knights&rsquo; rookie right winger is also a righthander with an 85-mile-an-hour fastball. Playing in a Toronto midget league with North York last summer, Appel had scouts from three major league baseball teams watching him. The Knights also though highly of Appel, taking him in the first round of the OHL entry draft. Appel, 16, is 6-foot-2 and 210-pounds and had two assists in the Knights&rsquo; first four games. His draft year for both hockey and baseball is 1995.&#9633; Mike Awender. The Ontario League&rsquo;s Windsor Spitfires were looking for somebody to put their front office in order and they found Awender. General manager of a local Jr. B team the past two seasons, Awender is also the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s intellectual, analytical and ethical,&rdquo; said Peterborough Petes&rsquo; GM Jeff Twohey. &ldquo;The type of guy who, even when he was in Jr. B. I learned valuable things from.&rdquo; Awender, 50, also serves as a part-time scout with the New York Rangers.&#9633; Jeff Chynoweth. Chynoweth joined the WHL eight years, ago, quitting a job that paid him $1,500 per month to become assistant public relations director for the Spokane Chiefs for $250 per month. Since then he has held jobs with the Medicine Hat Tigers, Brandon What Kings and Lethbridge Hurricanes. Now, at the age of 27, he&rsquo;s director of operations for the Red Deer Rebels and has designs on operating his own team one day. &ldquo;My goal was to be a GM by time I was 28, but I&rsquo;m quite happy where I am for the time being,&rdquo; Chynoweth said. Jeff&rsquo;s father Ed just happens to be president of the WHL and CHL. Jeff&rsquo;s younger brother Dean captained the 1988 Memorial Cup champion Medicine Hat Tigers and is a minor-league defenseman in the New York Islanders&rsquo; organization.&#9633; Jason Doig. The St-Jean Lynx of the Quebec League took a chance by drafting Doig, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound defenseman seventh overall, even though he insisted he wouldn&rsquo;t report and was intent on playing college hockey. He had a change of heart and joined the Lynx this season as a 16-year-old. In St-Jean&rsquo;s first 12 games he had three assists and 27 penalty minutes. &ldquo;He has an NHL crest on his heart,&rdquo; said St-Jean assistant coach Marc Raymond. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s big, strong and determined.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02203/6157106-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="568" height="1053"><figcaption class="caption-body">Daymond Langkow could go first overall in the 1995 draft.</figcaption></div>&#9633; Christian Dube. While most QMJHL rookies spent last season in Quebec&rsquo;s midget league, 16-year-old Dube was an ocean away, playing for his father, Norm. Dube spent last season with Martigny, a Swiss Elite League that has been coached the last five seasons by his father, a former left winger with the Kansas City Scouts in the NHL and Quebec Nordiques of the World Hockey Association. Christian, a 5-foot-11, 160-pound center, was the Sherbrooke Faucons&rsquo; third-round draft choice and is eligible for the 1995 NHL draft. In his first 11 QMJHL games he scored seven goals and 13 points.&#9633; Daymond Langkow. The Tri-City Americans&rsquo; center is a very early candidate for No. 1 overall in the 1995 entry draft. The 5-foot-ll, 180-pounder was second in team scoring with 22 goals and 64 points as a rookie and had a strong showing at the Phoenix Cup under-18 tournament in Japan this summer. In his first two games this season, Langkow, 17, scored two goals and assisted on three others. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s is a Mark Messier-type player,&rdquo; said TriCity assistant coach Keith Gretzky. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s plays both ends of the rink and he can score points too.&rdquo;&#9633; Benoit Larose (Part I and II). Just what QMJHL forwards need-two defensemen named Benoit Larose to watch out for this season. Benoit Larose of the Laval Titan has recovered from a burst blood vessel in his neck sustained last April, but his progress has been slow. The 20-year-old is struggling with his coordination but doctors expect him to make a full recovery. Larose was named the league&rsquo;s best defenseman last season after scoring 16 goals and 78 points and was a fourth round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 1993. The other Benoit Larose is a rookie-the first draft choice of the Victoriaville Tigres. He&rsquo;s 16, 6-foot-4 and weighs 187-pounds and is considered an NHL prospect.&#9633; Matt Johnson. Johnson is the best fighter in junior hockey, period. At 6-foot-5, 232-pounds and just seven per cent body fat, the Peterborough Petes&rsquo; 17-year-old left winger has been a fighting force since he came into the OHL last season. Because of that he&rsquo;s very attractive to NHL scouts. Physical intimidation remains an often-employed tatic at the junior and professional level making Johnson a valuable commodity. He improved his skating in the off-season and is being touted as a potential first round pick in the 1993 NHL entry draft.&#9633; Martin Sychra. &ldquo;He sort of snuck up on us and now he&rsquo;s sneaking up on the rest of the league,&rdquo; is how Kingston Frontenacs&rsquo; coach and GM Dave Allison describes his Czech Republic import Martin Sychra. The slick 6-foot-1, 188-pound right winger was chosen 35th overall in the CHL&rsquo;s 1992 import draft and scored four goals and 13 points in his first five OHL games. Sychra, 19, played in the Czech League the last three seasons and was an eighth-round draft choice of the Montreal Canadiens in 1992.&#9633; Jason Wiemer. Wiemer has been labelled a can&rsquo;t-miss prospect since he was 12 years old. He didn&rsquo;t miss with many of his hits last season, recording 159 penalty minutes in his rookie season with the Portland Winter Hawks. The 6-foot-1, 215-pounder is considered a top-10 pick in the 1994 NHL draft and has been compared to Cam Neely on the left side. The 17-year-old had 18 goals and 52 points last season. He got off to a quick start this season with four goals-two game winners, one short-handed-and three assists in Portland&rsquo;s first three games. &#9632;

f0041-02

Deserving at-ten-tion

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01902/6157879-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexandre DaigleGarry Valk Mighty Ducks of Anaheim</figcaption></div>Mighty Ducks survive while Panthers thrive<h2>NO.99</h2>Gretzky renews record assault<h2>TEEN IDOLS</h2>Alexes the Great: Daigle & YashinThud! Ironman streak stoppedLarmer holdout ends run at 884 &#9632;

Cover-01

DUCK SEASON OPENS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-011366/6155670-1-eng-US/f0002-012.jpg" title="f0002-01" width="514" height="940"><figcaption class="caption-body">It&rsquo;s high noon for Derian Hatcher in Dallas. Pg. 16</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-021108/6155663-1-eng-US/f0002-022.jpg" title="f0002-02" width="728" height="1014"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Matt Schneider created a controversy in Montreal. Page 22.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-03800/6155656-1-eng-US/f0002-032.jpg" title="f0002-03" width="510" height="938"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Vanbiesbrouck&rsquo;s Panthers are on the prowl. Pg. 36</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I worked at ABC when we were fifth among three. People in the industry joked the way to end the Vietnam war was to put it on ABC.&rdquo;&ndash;Mighty Ducks of Anaheim owner Michael Eisner is preparing for a tough year. Page 7.&ldquo;I spent my two years in prison. It&rsquo;s great to be with an organization that you know is working towards winning something.&rdquo;&ndash;Chicago&rsquo;s Neil Wilkinson on his trade from San Jose to the Blackhawks. Page 12. &#9632;

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QUOTABLE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05419/6155708-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="356" height="352"></div>[&#10004;] Florida hockey. The Panthers are off to an impressive start, a super rivalry has taken off and an NHL attendance record was set in Tampa Bay in a game between two teams that likely won&rsquo;t make the playoffs.[X] Alexandre Daigle picture controversy. Aren&rsquo;t we taking ourselves just a little too seriously? Give the kid a break. All Daigle did by posing for an ad in a nurse&rsquo;s uniform was prove he has a sense of humor.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06305/6155701-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="357" height="352"></div> &#9632;

f0002-05

CHEERS AND JEERS

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04577/6155739-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="378" height="477"></div>LOS ANGELES-The U.S. Postal Service not only delivers the mail, it delivers the motivation for Barry Melrose. Should the Los Angeles Kings win the Stanley Cup this season, The Hockey News may earn an assist.It turns out Melrose&rsquo;s subscription to THN provides him with the stuff of Anthony Robbins. He even uses it to awaken the giant within Wayne Gretzky.&ldquo;He has been riding this Hockey News thing-the eighth-best player,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;He reminds me constantly about it.&rdquo; Gretzky is rated No. 8 in a THN Yearbook ranking of the NHL&rsquo;s best players. Listed ahead of him are Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros, Doug Gilmour, Chris Chelios, Pat LaFontaine, Teemu Selanne and Patrick Roy.&ldquo;Wayne is the greatest player who ever played and he&rsquo;s the greatest player in the NHL right today,&rdquo; Melrose begged to differ. &ldquo;All you guys are writing him off. I love it. You guys are going to see.&rdquo;Gretzky provided an eyeful Oct. 9, opening up the Detroit Red Wings to perform six-point surgery. It was a vintage Gretzky performance. The keys to No. 99&rsquo;s game are quick thinking and quick skating. He isn&rsquo;t particularly fast but hockey isn&rsquo;t played 100 yards at a time; it&rsquo;s played in 50- to 100-foot bursts and Gretzky excels in those increments.He scored two goals against the Red Wings to officially re-launch his pursuit of yet one more NHL mark. Gretzky entered the season with a record 59 records; the 60th will be a landmark achievement. Gretzky needed 37 goals this season to eclipse Gordie Howe&rsquo;s all-time, high 801 goals. A decline in goal production has left some doubtful Gretzky can pass Howe in one fell swoop. Gretzky endured a lengthy scoring drought last year, but almost matched 16 regular-season goals during a league-leading 40-point postseason-one in which Los Angeles reached the final. Gretzky said he doesn&rsquo;t take unflattering media assessments of his work to heart, but he was sparked to highs last spring by by some bad newspaper reviews.He looked terrific against the Red Wings, shooting often and effectively and engineering his customary number of scoring opportunities for others. Gretzky has a three-year contract with the Kings and two objectives left-surpassing Howe and winning a Stanley Cup in Los Angeles. &ldquo;I would give anything to win a championship here,&rdquo; Gretzky said.His competitive streak is legendary and The Great One attributes that quality to an admiration for former Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; captain Bobby Clarke. Equally competitive is Melrose, who is intensely demanding of his players. The coach said he has the very best player in the game, but did not demonstrate any of the superstar&rsquo;s finesse in making the point.Melrose was inexplicably offended when asked how Gretzky compares to Lemieux. As a faithful reader of THN, Melrose should be aware of Lemieux&rsquo;s achievements. For example, Lemieux has outscored Gretzky 666 (a curious number) to 659 in 46 fewer games over the past five seasons and is considered tops in the league after a decade-long reign by Gretzky.&ldquo;Well, I&rsquo;m glad I have Barry in my comer,&rdquo; Gretzky said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure if you talked to (Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; coach) Eddie Johnston, he&rsquo;d say the same thing about Mario.&rdquo;Should Lemieux return from back problems in time, the two will meet Nov. 6 in a game at Los Angeles. &#9632;

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Kings’ coach says No. 99 still NHL’s No. 1 player

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>The Hartford Whalers claimed they selected the true No. 1 prospect in the 1993 NHL entry draft.And they paid defenseman Chris Pronger accordingly. Pronger signed a four-year, $7-million contract three hours after the Oct. 5 12:05 a.m., deadline for players to sign and be able to play in the NHL this season.The league ruled Pronger, the No. 2 overall choice in June, is eligible because it was informed of an agreement in principal before midnight.Six 1993 first-rounders signed with their teams and are playing this season. (See accompanying chan for 1993-94 compensation.) A seventh, defenseman Brendan Witt, could not reach agreement with the Washington Capitals.One second-rounder, defenseman Vlastimil Kroupa of the San Jose Sharks, also signed.Swedish center Peter Forsberg signed a four-year, $7-million package with the Quebec Nordiques on the eve of the regular season.Forsberg, the Philadelphia Flyer&rsquo;s first-round choice that was acquired by Quebec in the Eric Lindros deal, will play for his club team MoDo and the Swedish Olympic team before joining Quebec for the playoffs.Quebec will pay Forsberg $6.5 million over the last three years of the deal to compensate Forsberg for his free-agency status and marketing rights.<h2>First-rounders&rsquo; first contracts</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011531/6155808-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="517" height="601"></div><h2>NHL EARNING POWER: THE TOP 25 PLAYERS</h2>Compensation represents base salary and any signing bonus and deferred payments allocated to the 1993-94 NHL season. Earnings are in the national currency of individual teams.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021371/6155801-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="1115" height="1084"></div> &#9632;

f0004-01

Of young and big bucks

<div class="byline">By THN Stall</div>A bitter power struggle is raging in Russian hockey circles and the Lillehammer Winter Olympics could be a casualty.Unless differences are resolved between the warring factions, officials fear the Russians could send their weakest team in decades to the Winter Games, an event they have dominated since the 1950s.The team could be as bad as the Grade D club team which lost 15-1 to the U.S. Olympic team in a September tournament in Alaska.&ldquo;There is a fear, a definite concern,&rdquo; said Murray Costello, president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association.&ldquo;They will have a team in the Olympics, but it is just a question of the quality of the team.&rdquo; said Gord Renwick, vice-president of the International Ice Hockey Federation.On one side is Vladimir Petrov, hero of the 1972 Summit Series and president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation. On the other is Alexander Stebulin, president of Moscow Dynamo and the Russian Professional League and perhaps the most powerful man in Russian hockey. Petrov runs the federation, which is the governing body for the game, but Stebulin controls the players.Each wants sole control of Russian hockey.Costello and Renwick maintain that Stebulin has threatened to forbid players in the Russian Professional League, the top league in the former Soviet Union, to participate in the Olympics unless he gets an increased role in Russian hockey.There have been charges and counter charges of corruption on the parts of both Petrov and Stebulin over the disappearance of millions of dollars sent to Russia from NHL and European clubs through transfer payments for players.Petrov survived a coup attempt in September, but arrived at an HHF meeting earlier this month to find that the league had circulated a letter to other federations stating it passed a vote of non-confidence against Petrov.A meeting to end the power struggle is scheduled late October. Considering the animosity between the former comrades, the outcome could be bloody.The power struggle is not expected to have any affect on the Izvestia Hockey tournament to be held in December in St. Petersburg, Russia.ON THE MARK: The 1993-94 season should be one to remember for Bernie Nicholls.The New Jersey Devils&rsquo; center could reach three NHL milestones this season-400 goals, 600 assists and 1,000 points.Below is a list of milestones that should be attained this season. In parentheses is the number the player needed to reach the mark as of Oct. 11.&#9633; Four-hundred goals: Nicholls (2), Pat LaFontaine (12), Brian Bellows (17), Brett Hull (44).&#9633; Six-hundred assists: Steve Yzerman (3), Michel Goulet (7), Nicholls (18), Phil Housley (23), Dale Hunter (30), Al Maclnnis (42), Doug Gilmour (46).&#9633; One-thousand points: Ron Francis (9), Nicholls (20), Brian Propp (26), Dino Ciccarelli (97).Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; center Wayne Gretzky is poised to reach yet another milestone. He needed 35 goals to eclipse Gordie Howe&rsquo;s career record of 801 goals.REFS AT IMPASSE: No progress was made in talks between the NHL and its officials&rsquo; association when the two sides met in New York Oct. 5.The NHL is offering officials a 10 per-cent raise but they are seeking about a 100 per-cent increase. Officials were scheduled to meet in Toronto Nov. 12 to discuss their situation. They plan to stop working Nov. 15 if a deal has not been reached. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has said games will continue even if the officials stop working.RULE CHANGE: The NHL board of governors approved a rule change designed to prevent encroachment during end-zone faceoffs.In an effort to speed up the game, officials can wave a center out of the faceoff circle if one of his wingers skates into the circle before the puck is dropped.The rule was tested during the preseason.BULKING UP: The Canadian Olympic team bolstered its roster Oct. 4 with the addition of goaltender Corey Hirsch and defenseman David Harlock.Hirsch, 21, was named The Hockey News&rsquo; Minor Pro Prospect of the Year in 1992-93 after an impressive season with the Binghamton Rangers of the American League. He had a 35-4-5 record and 2.79 goals-against average in 46 games, capturing rook-ie-of-the-year honors. Hirsch was assigned by the New York Rangers.Harlock was assigned to the team by the Toronto Maple Leafs. He joins the team after four seasons at the University of Michigan.The U.S. Olympic team improved its goaltending depth with the addition of Mike Dunham. The 21-year-old was assigned from the New Jersey Devils Oct. 5, joining former Maine Black Bear goaltending partner Garth Snow with the Olympic team. Dunham was a backup to Ray LeBlanc in the 1992 Olympics.<h2>Opening game attendance</h2>Here&rsquo;s a look at each team&rsquo;s opening night attendance and capacity percentage through Oct. 10.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031152/6155839-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="511" height="1052"></div> &#9632;

f0004-03

Russian hockey upheaval could jeopardize Olympics

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011443/6155870-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Ridley will make $875,000 with Washington the next two seasons.</figcaption></div>Radek Bonk played to rave reviews on opening night.The 17-year-old Czech center recorded a goal and an assist as his Las Vegas Thunder swept Salt Lake Golden Eagles 6-4 and 4-2 to open the International League season Oct. 8 and 9.Bonk, the youngest player ever to play in the league, is a potential first-overall selection in the 1994 draft.He impressed with both his playmaking ability and physical play. Bonk, a 6-foot-4, 210-pounder, unloaded several hits and took four minor penalties in the first contest and one in the second.&ldquo;The physical side of his game was something we hadn&rsquo;t seen, but it was a pleasure to see,&rdquo; said Thunder general manager Bob Strumm. Bonk also won 12 straight faceoffs.The expansion Thunder is coached by ex-NHLer Butch Goring. He played Bonk with veterans Ken Quinney and Brad Lauer.&ldquo;As we&rsquo;ve said all along,&rdquo; Goring, said &ldquo;the kid has got a lot of talent and he showed that out there.&rdquo;Bonk&rsquo;s first professional goal came against Danny Lorenz when he lifted the puck past the Salt Lake netminder to seal the Thunder&rsquo;s season-opening victory.Bonk, who turns 18 on Jan. 9, is believed to be making $100,000 with bonuses.After scoring 10 points in 30 games in his second season with Zlin in the Czech League last season, Bonk turned down the Ontario League&rsquo;s Owen Sound Platers to play for the Thunder. &#9632;

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Thumbs up for Bonk

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Michael Ulmer</div>Pierre Page was not amused.The Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; coachgeneral manager was seething after his players had to cool their heels for an hour during a pre-game extravaganza at the Ottawa Civic Centre.The Senators opened their second season Oct. 6 with a 45-minute presentation built around 1988 Olympic silver medalist Elizabeth Manley. The show also featured a trick skater who jumped through a ring of fire and a bungee jump from the rafters.The Nordiques played sluggishly and settled for a 5-5 tie. Page provided his own pyrotechnics when asked about the pre-game holdup.&ldquo;We stunk and the show stunk, too,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Somebody has to take the blame for this crazy act.&rdquo;Page was half right. The Nordiques were inconsistent, but other than a fall by Manley and a missed audio cue, the show went off without a hitch. &#9632;

Ottawa’s ice follies irk Nordiques’ Page

<div class="byline">By Brian Costello</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021042/6155925-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg"></div>Washington Capitals&rsquo; center Mike Ridley was looking for a raise to match teammate Kelly Miller&rsquo;s, but arbiter Alan Beattie ruled otherwise.Beattie decided Oct. 6 that Ridley will earn $875,000 each of the next two seasons, less than Ridley&rsquo;s request of $1.05 million. The Capitals were offering $775,000.Washington will pay Miller an average of $912,500 over four seasons, including $1.8. million this season. Ridley&rsquo;s agent Rob Ingraham was seeking at least that much, reasoning both players excel defensively and Ridley is better offensively.The biggest arbitration decision of the season belongs to Ray Bourque. The four-time Norris Trophy winner lost his case, but will earn $2.25 million each of the next two seasons. (Formore on Bourque, see page 21).In another ruling, Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; goaltending prospect Garth Snow, now with the U.S. Olympic team, was awarded $175,000. But because the arbitration rules for players coming out of college are different, the Snow decision isn&rsquo;t binding. Snow had not come to terms with the Nordiques through Oct. 11.<h2>ARBITRATION RESULTS &#9632;</h2>

f0005-02

Caps’ Ridley comes up short

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03694/6155963-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="378" height="527"></div>For almost a year now, the reports from Edmonton have come almost weekly.The Oilers were leaving. No, they were staying. They had a new lease deal. No, the deal fell through. Owner Peter Pocklington was holding a town hall meeting to explain his side of the story. Pocklington was hanged in effigy by people who didn&rsquo;t believe his side of the story. Pocklington threatened the people who run Northlands Coliseum. Pocklington made up with the people who run Northlands Coliseum.On the ice, all you saw were high-priced players leaving town or refusing to play for the Oilers because their salary demands were not met.Then 180 miles to the south, there are the Calgary Flames. They too share Pocklington&rsquo;s concerns about rising costs-salaries, travel. They too worry about hockey&rsquo;s long-term future in Canada. They just keep their views to themselves.Two years ago, the Flames&rsquo; payroll was about $11 million. Since then, they&rsquo;ve signed Mike Vernon and Gary Roberts to multi-year contracts that will pay them $3.2 million (U.S.) and $7.35 million (Cdn.), respectively. Joe Nieuwendyk is renegotiating. Al Maclnnis and Gary Suter are playing out there options. Once the season ends, Theo Fleury will be in line for a big raise.Roberts&rsquo; salary-spread over four years-raised the payroll to close to $15 million. Once they sign Nieuwendyk and others, it should come in somewhere between $ 16 and $17 million this season.In September, 1989, it was just under $7 million.Now, you could say salary escalation is the owners&rsquo; own doing and you&rsquo;d be partly correct. Nobody put a gun to Ron Caron&rsquo;s head when he offered to pay Marty McSorley $9 million. No one forced the Ottawa Senators to pay Alexander Daigle $12.5 million.The problem is, once these salaries are awarded, they set a standard. They&rsquo;re used as guidelines in negotiations between players and management and by arbitrators.Ultimately, teams that build their own buildings and control all the ancillary functions can justify paying those dollars. Teams such as Edmonton and Calgary, locked into longterm lease deals with unflinching landlords, cannot.&ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t so much a small marketbig market question,&rdquo; said Bruce McNall, the NHL&rsquo;s chairman of the board. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lease issue. Skyboxes, concession revenues, parking-these are the things that drive the economics of pro sports today. If you have the proper type of lease, you can make it.&rdquo;The Flames signed their lease in 1983. Since then, the business of hockey has undergone dramatic changes. The Flames, like Edmonton, are unable to keep pace.The major difference between the two situations is that the Flames regularly pack 19,000-plus fans into their building; the Oilers nowadays attract only 14,000. So that gives them a cushion of $5 million or so the Oilers do not enjoy.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04436/6155956-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg" title="f0005-04" width="561" height="782"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bruce McNall</figcaption></div>On the other hand, if you compare payrolls, the Flames can expect to pay out almost $7 million more in salaries than Edmonton will this year. So which team is in more trouble? From a bottom-line perspective, you&rsquo;d have to say Calgary.The Flames&rsquo; goal is to gain control of the building or build one itself. Last spring, on the eve of the playoffs, I asked McNall how a building that was built in 1983 could be obsolete by 1987.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the same thing that happened in the record industry,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Nobody ever plays a record anymore. In 1983, who ever heard of a CD player? But life changes. The economics of the game have changed.&rdquo;The era of the hobby owners is over in pro sports. The era of the multi-national coiporation is upon us. The unfortunate part is that the game could eventually die in the cities where it in indigenous-Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Quebec-and live on in places where it will always remain only a curiosity.Sad, but true. &#9632;

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Flames’ future in Calgary no cinch

<div class="byline">&#x2013;Steve Dryden</div>ANAHEIM-The Disney Ducks, Canada&rsquo;s team. Sounds Goofy, right?Not according to Anaheim coach Ron Wilson, who thinks Canadians fearful of U.S. encroachment on their sport should chill out.&ldquo;Hockey is an international game and it shouldn&rsquo;t be viewed as owned by one country,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not disrespectful of Canada&rsquo;s ties to hockey.&ldquo;People are afraid Disney is going to change the game. Look at our team. We are the ultimate Canadian team. We play Canadian hockey.&ldquo;We bang and we crash the net. We&rsquo;re involved in scuffles and fights. We haven&rsquo;t Mickey Moused the NHL in any of our exhibition games. We haven&rsquo;t shirked our responsibilities to Canadian hockey.&rdquo;Indeed, they haven&rsquo;t.The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim will not beat many teams on the ice this season, but they should hold their own in the alley-guided by what may be the toughest team of designated leaders in NHL history.Captain Troy Loney and assistants Stu (The Grim Reaper) Grimson, Todd (The Animal) Ewen and Randy Ladouceur-all Canadians, by the way-have each averaged more than 100 penalty minutes per season during their NHL careers.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re our leaders,&rdquo; said Wilson, who was bom in Windsor, Ont., but holds dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship. &ldquo;These guys have the hardest job in hockey and sometimes they don&rsquo;t get enough respect.&rdquo;Disney chief executive officer Michael Eisner has told reporters he does not want his team to behave like thugs, but has not voiced any disapproval to general manager Jack Ferreira or Wilson.&ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t heard a thing about the way we should play.&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;People want to make it an issue, but it&rsquo;s not.&rdquo;The Mighty Ducks are among the league&rsquo;s biggest teams and hope to compensate for shortcomings in talent with a surplus of toughness.It&rsquo;s expected Anaheim will be enticed to deal one or two of their macho men at the March trade deadline when teams gear up for the playoffs.The team&rsquo;s game plan is to wear opponents down with a physical, in-your-face style of play.Only two players, center Anatoli Semenov and right winger Terry Yake, have scored as many as 20 goals in a single NHL season and the best player in the organization isn&rsquo;t even with the team.Paul Kariya, the fourth overall pick in the 1993 entry draff will split this season between the University of Maine Black Bears. Canadian Olympic team and. potentially, Anaheim.The 19-year-old left winger said he has not decided whether he will play for the Mighty Ducks after the Olympics or return to help Maine defend its national championship.Kariya could play in as many as 23 NHL games if he joins the team after the tournament in Lillehammer, Norway, concludes Feb. 27.Feixeira would prefer the playmaking forward begin his professional career this season, rather than wait for the start of the 1994-95 season. &ldquo;It would be a great indoctrination for him.&rdquo; Ferreira said.Kariya, who became the first freshman named U.S. college hockey&rsquo;s top player last season, will be nearly three years into a business degree if he returns to Maine and attends school through summer. &#9632;

Is ultimate American team actually Canadian?

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011623/6155994-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; farmhand Patrik Carnback was in the Ducks&rsquo; opening-night lineup. (Bruce Bennett/BBS)</figcaption></div>ANAHEIM-It took the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim six days to accomplish what others in the NHL have not managed in six decades.They held two parades.Most teams wait until they win the Stanley Cup before doing the float thing. Then again, most teams don&rsquo;t have dibs on a theme park.Anaheim captain Troy Loney equalled his parade mark with the two-time, Cup-champion Pittsburgh Penguins before he even played a game with the Mighty Ducks.Presumably, the Ducks held one parade to honor each of the team&rsquo;s pre-season victories.Alexei Kasatonov had to win an Olympic gold medal with the former Soviet Union, before parading down the streets of Moscow.But there was the ex-New Jersey Devils&rsquo; defenseman-decked out in sunglasses, shorts and sandals on the eve of Anaheim&rsquo;s Oct. 8 NHL debut-riding high down Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland.A little different than he was accustomed to in New Jersey? &ldquo;California is like another planet,&rdquo; Kasatonov said.One night later, the Mighty Ducks were sent into orbit by the Detroit Red Wings 7-2, a score that flattered them. Afterward, shell-shocked Anaheim goalie Guy Hebert was asked what advice he had for fellow goalie Ron Tugnutt.&ldquo;Duck,&rdquo; suggested a reporter.Opening night at Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim went well, if you don&rsquo;t count the game-which, curiously, matched a predictably weak expansion team against a Stanley Cup contender.&ldquo;It was the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; night,&rdquo; said Anaheim coach Ron Wilson. &ldquo;They kicked our butts.&rdquo;It was a rare outburst of negativity from Wilson, who is relentlessly upbeat and determined the Mighty Ducks will hit their target of reaching the .500 mark within five years.Wilson is the son of onetime Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; coach Larry Wilson, who died at the age of 48, and nephew of former NHL coach Johnny Wilson.The ex-player and Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; assistant coach said he was destined to coach in the NHL and draws inspiration from the movie Field of Dreams.He may answer to the nickname Gordon Bombay, Emilio Estevez&rsquo;s character in The Mighty Ducks movie, but it&rsquo;s the Kevin Costner vehicle he admires most.Wilson, 38, said he imagined his father&rsquo;s ghost appearing Oct. 8 and the two sharing a conversation.&ldquo;He shows up,&rdquo; Wilson said, &ldquo;and we talk about the Detroit Red Wings, the team he coached for 40 games, and he says, &lsquo;Son, is this heaven?&rsquo; And I go, &lsquo;No, it&rsquo;s the Pond.&rsquo; &ldquo;Had Larry Wilson been there to see his son continue the family tradition, he would have seen the Mighty Ducks in over their collective bills. Detroit toyed with them, exposing the team for what it is-the product of a system that leaves precious few players available to new teams.More than half of the Mighty Ducks played in the minors last season. The absence of talent is most evident among the forwards. Anaheim&rsquo;s arsenal, not including the U.S. military&rsquo;s missile silos located nearby, is barren.The dozen forwards who played against Detroit combined for 70 goals in 580 NHL games last season. Alexander Mogilny of the Buffalo Sabres scored 76 goals in 77 games all by himself.Defenseman Sean Hill scored the Mighty Ducks&rsquo; first-ever goal, a rebound effort in the second period that drew a standing ovation from the capacity crowd of 17,174.General manager Jack Ferreira acknowledged the obvious-that his team has few scorers-but said his objective is to ice a tough team that establishes a fierce work ethic.Neither was in evidence on opening night, although former Chicago Blackhawk Stu Grimson did his part, demonstrating character on and off the ice.Grimson tangled with NHL heavyweight champion Bob Probert of Detroit during the game and before it, expressed concern whether Chicago sports fans could survive the double blow of Nos. 23 Michael Jordan and Grimson leaving the Windy City.A sense of humor will be important this season, but defenseman David Williams did not crack a smile when he offered this prognosis. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;ll be the worst team in the league,&rdquo; he said.That dubious distinction will most assuredly fall to the Mighty Ducks or Florida Panthers.The Panthers, whose payroll (they have an average salary of $375,000 to Anaheim&rsquo;s $320,000) and skill level (they have more scoring power) is higher than the Mighty Ducks&rsquo;, got off to a very good start.Florida was 1-1-1, including a 2-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Panthers opened with an impressive 4-4 road tie against the Chicago Blackhawks.Anaheim was decidedly worse in its debut. Most alarming to management and players alike was the effort. &ldquo;If you play your best game against them and lose, you can accept it,&rdquo; Loney said. &ldquo;But that wasn&rsquo;t our best game.&rdquo;Wilson pointed out the pre-game ceremony, reportedly a minimum $400,000 extravaganza, went off without a hitch, but the game didn&rsquo;t.The show featured figure-skating cheerleaders, Disney-sounding music and a goalie duck-cum-mascot dropped from the rafters. It landed safely, but if the harness ever fails, the mallard mascot will be a dead duck.Already deceased is the Ice Man, a rock-and-roller who roamed the stands for two periods trying to whip up the full house. He was booed into submission during the second intermission.&ldquo;The Ice Man cometh and goeth on the same night,&rdquo; said team president Tony Taveras.With the season underway and the Ducks in flight&mdash;albeit wobbly-attention can turn to on-ice fortunes, not just the fortunes Disney will make from sales of hugely popular team merchandise. It is No. 1 among NHL teams.&ldquo;Now we&rsquo;re just another hockey team,&rdquo; said assistant GM Pierre Gauthier.It promises to be a long and trying season for the Mighty Ducks, but the man who holds ultimate authority insisted it won&rsquo;t be that bad.And if it is? Disney chief executive officer Michael Eisner will be prepared. &ldquo;I worked at ABC when we were fifth among three.&rdquo; Eisner said. &ldquo;People in the industry joked the way to end the Vietnam war was to put it on ABC.&rdquo;The Mighty Ducks appear on their own airwaves, the Disney channel. At least they&rsquo;re guaranteed not to be preempted by Seinfeld-as the Toronto Maple Leafs were in hockey-mad Canada on their 1993-94 opening night.And people worry about Disney respecting NHL traditions.Anaheim played better in its second game, losing 4-3 in overtime to the New York Islanders. But if Eisner had his way, the game would have been decided a different way.Eisner joins a number of NHL gov-emors-including Marcel Aubut of the Quebec Nordiques-who want tie games settled with shootouts.Hockey purists dislike the idea.&ldquo;We have to have a shootout,&rdquo; Eisner said. &ldquo;In my opinion, the game is long enough. We don&rsquo;t need a five-minute overtime. We need a shootout where 17,000 people will go crazy. If you&rsquo;re in the entertainment business that&rsquo;s a no-brainer.&rdquo;And if you&rsquo;re in the hockey business? &ldquo;It&rsquo;s still a no-brainer,&rdquo; he said. &#9632;

f0006-01

Mighty Ducks off and flying

&ldquo;NHL hockey is looked upon by many European hockey fans as brutal, violent and hostile.&rdquo;This statement was made by Anders Hedberg in the Sept. 24 issue of THN. I really don&rsquo;t know where he got that idea, but it&rsquo;s the hard checks and occasional fights combined with the fast and intense game that we in Europe look for in the NHL.Our own Swedish Elite League is filled with talent and very good hockey, but could surely do with a little bit of power checking and a good toe-to-toe once in a while.I remember an exhibition game in Sweden in 1981 between the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals. I can tell you, the biggest cheers from the crowd came from the play of Nick Fotiu, not the fancy moves of Hedberg.Jan Pettersson, Fjarilstigen, Sweden<h2>Torrey top notch</h2>Much has been made of the fact that many Floridians are not familiar with the basic fundamentals and concepts of hockey.Be it true or not, they now have the opportunity to learn and appreciate the ins and outs of the greatest team-oriented sport from one of the most qualified people in the game, Florida Panthers&rsquo; president Bill Torrey.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011544/6156056-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="572" height="640"><figcaption class="caption-body">President Bill Torrey has the ability to build a winner in Florida.</figcaption></div>On Long Island, he took a new franchise and developed it into a team that made the playoffs within three years, became a contender in six, a champion in eight and a dynasty in 10.The combination of his refusal to trade draft picks, his patience with player development, his acknowledgement of the need to surround his stars with role players and his ability to wait until the 11th hour before making a trade puts him among the league&rsquo;s elite administrators.Floridians eager to learn all they can about hockey will receive a clinic from Torrey.Mitchell Katcher, Long Beach, N. Y.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021211/6156049-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="562" height="810"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bernie Nicholls gives New Jersey a top center, one fan says.</figcaption></div><h2>Center saviour</h2>I would like to respond to Daniel Bianco&rsquo;s letter in the Sept. 24 issue of THN.Bianco, a New Jersey Devils&rsquo; fan, complains that &ldquo;New Jersey desperately needs a No. 1 center, a player with marquee value.&rdquo; Well, Daniel where have you been? Last season, the Devils acquired the charismatic Bernie Nicholls, a No. 1 center and a man with proven marquee appeal.Granted, Nicholls&rsquo; professional life did suffer a setback last season as a result of injuries and devastating personal problems, but he&rsquo;s healthy now, happy and ready to return to form.Nicholls&rsquo; presence in the Devils&rsquo; lineup will make a difference.Carole Eastman, Los Angeles, Calif.<h2>Bigger net result?</h2>Many times when I watch a hockey game, I see the goaltenders doing nothing more than making routine saves, while all the players at other positions are going all out.Goalies seem to exert themselves, on average, maybe a dozen times a game on a tough night. I hardly call this an athletic endeavor.Why are goalies so rarely tested? Simply because the net they defend is too small. I think the dimensions of the net should be increased from their current 4-by-6 feet to at least 4.5-by-9 feet.By defending this enlarged space, goalies would be forced to skate, slide and dive more often. To help goalies out, the goal crease could be expanded and no goal would be allowed if an opposing player was in the crease at the time of a goal.Sure, this change would result in more goals scored during a game, but isn&rsquo;t increased offense what most fans want to see?Bill Quandt, Scotia, New York<h2>No golden girl</h2>In response to Stan Fischler&rsquo;s Sept. 17 column: Manon Rheaume gold digging? You obviously don&rsquo;t know what that means.Gold digging is attaching oneself to someone&rsquo;s else&rsquo;s ability to make money. Rheaume successfully makes her own.Signing her was certainly for publicity and it has worked very well for the Tampa Bay Lightning.No one was proclaiming she&rsquo;d be the next Patrick Roy. I do believe she is serious about goaltending and I can&rsquo;t wait to see her play for the Knoxville Cherokees in the East Coast League.And if she&rsquo;s able to secure endorsements in the process, great.Cooper Wise, Knoxville, Tenn.<h2>Wayne&rsquo;s world</h2>In response to M.A. Devendittis&rsquo; letter in the Sept. 17 issue of THN, hockey did not flourish for decades prior to Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s arrival-it only existed.Only after Gretzky arrived on the scene did hockey start to flourish and get the attention it so rightly deserves. It was even more magnified when he moved to the Los Angeles Kings.I moved from Illinois to Nevada three years ago and now get to watch almost all of the Kings&rsquo; games. How anyone can say Gretzky is a bore must know nothing himself.Gretzky has done more for the game in the past 15 years than anybody has ever done. It won&rsquo;t be the same when he retires.Frank Mack. Henderson, Nev.<h2>Chemistry lesson</h2>I am amused by Mike Brophy&rsquo;s choice of the New York Rangers to win the Stanley Cup in The Hockey News Yearbook.The Rangers have great players, but no chemistry.And Mike Keenan may be a great coach, but he is not a chemistry teacher.Joe Fredland, Pittsburgh, Pa.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.&nbsp;Include home and business phone numbers.&nbsp;THN&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

f0008-01

Europeans enjoy NHL’s rugged style

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-03912/6156087-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0008-03

THE DRAW

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011547/6156125-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="296" height="374"></div>While his former teammates began the season in Chicago, the NHL&rsquo;s iron-man was in an industrial league.Steve Larmer did not dress for the Chicago Blackhawks in their season opener Oct. 6 against the expansion Florida Panthers. The move ended his consecutive games-played streak at 884-81 games shy of the NHL record held by Doug Jarvis.The mantle of active NHL ironman now falls on Ken Daneyko of the New Jersey Devils. He had 314 consecutive games to his credit as of Oct. 10.Larmer requested a trade after last season. Chicago had more than five months to accommodate the 32-year-old right winger, but couldn&rsquo;t work out a suitable deal.Larmer claimed the streak meant more to others than it did to him, but when it ended, he admitted to being bitter-so bitter, he&rsquo;s considering retiring.&ldquo;I always thought it would end because I suffered an injury or was ill,&rdquo; Larmer said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s kind of sad it had to end this way. In fact, the whole situation is sad. I came to Chicago (Aug. 25) under the assumption something would happen that weekend. If I had known it would drag out like this I would have stayed at home (in Peterborough, Ont.).&rdquo;The Blackhawks made it clear they would pay him a handsome wage to remain with the team, but Larmer insists a trade is the only solution.If he is traded, Larmer would seek a $4-million deal for three years from his new team. He&rsquo;s in the option year of his four-year contract.Just prior to the start of the season, Blackhawk general manager Bob Pulford had Larmer and his wife Rose to his house for breakfast in an unsuccessful attempt to convince him to stay or at least join the team until a deal could be worked out.Sources said Larmer was unhappy with his role and the direction the team took under first-year head coach Darryl Sutter last season. In order to maintain a friendship with Sutter, a former teammate, Larmer elected to ask for the trade. He was working out with an industrial league team in Chicago while waiting for a deal.Larmer wasn&rsquo;t the only prominent player missing in the first week of regular-season play. Superstar Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins remained sidelined recovering from back surgery.Another cause for concern in Week I was the season opened without new collective bargaining agreements between the league and its players and officials. The officials have threatened to stop work Nov. 15 if a deal is not reached. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said games will continue with or without the officials.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021161/6156118-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="1480" height="2079"><figcaption class="caption-body">Steve Larmer, whose ironman streak has come to an end, says retirement has crossed his mind.</figcaption></div>But there were also some upbeat notes as the league opened its 77th season Oct. 5. Such as:&#9633; An NHL record crowd of 27,277 watched the first-ever Battle of Florida between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning at the ThunderDome in St. Petersburg. The Panthers won 2-0 with John Vanbiesbrouck recording his 17th career shutout.&#9633; The career of Ottawa Senators&rsquo; rookie Alexandre Daigle-the first pick in the 1993 draft-got off to a bright start. Daigle had two goals and five points in his team&rsquo;s first two games.&#9633; Wayne Gretzky, who had two goals and six points in a 10-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings Oct. 9, served notice he&rsquo;s ready to challenge for the scoring title.&#9633; Esa Tikkanen of the New York Rangers scored three goals in his first two games-one more than he scored in 15 games with the Rangers last season after being acquired from the Edmonton Oilers.&#9633; The Calgary Flames won their first three games-outscoring opponents 13-4-and didn&rsquo;t allow a goal on the first 16 power-play chances by the opposition.<h2>Season-opening NHL rosters</h2>To change or not to change, that was the question facing the NHL&rsquo;s 24 returning teams.The Montreal Canadiens were obviously pleased with what they had returning. The Canadiens added just two rookies and one veteran to their Stanley Cup roster from last season.The Ottawa Senators, meanwhile. cleaned house. Lastplace finishers last season, the Senators added eight players from other NHL teams and seven first-year players. Key acquisitions are a pair of rookies, Alexandre Daigle and Alexei Yashin.Rosters for all 26 teams can be found on page 11. &#9632;

f0010-01

…And they’re off

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0011-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011406/6156156-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0011-01

BROPHY’S STOPS ‘N’ STARTS

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>It&rsquo;s safe to say that Do You Know The Way To San Jose? is not a favorite song of Neil Wilkinson or Jeff Hackett.The two new Chicago Blackhawks are just glad they found the way out of San Jose.&ldquo;I spent my two years in prison,&rdquo; said Hackett, who came to the Hawks from the Sharks with Wilkinson in a summer deal for Jimmy Waite. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to be in an organization that you know is working toward winning something.&rdquo;Wilkinson, who was the future considerations in the deal, said he felt a different atmosphere the first day he walked into Chicago Stadium.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really nice to be back in an organization where you&rsquo;re treated like a professional athlete,&rdquo; Wilkinson said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re respected here. In San Jose, you were more of a commodity. I&rsquo;ve gone from the outhouse in the minors, to the penthouse of the Stanley Cup finals in Minnesota, to the septic field of San Jose, back to the penthouse here.&rdquo;Sharks&rsquo; director of hockey operations Dean Lombardi chose not to respond to his former players&rsquo; comments.Both ex-Sharks figure prominently in coach Darryl Sutter&rsquo;s plans. Sutter likes Wilkinson as his fourth defenseman behind Chris Chelios, Steve Smith and Bryan Marchment, while Hackett will probably get more chances to play than Waite did as Ed Belfour&rsquo;s backup.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be an adjustment,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;When you&rsquo;re with an expansion team, in a lot of ways losing becomes all right. You&rsquo;re not expected to win, so your approach is different.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011497/6156187-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="732" height="932"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jeff Hackett won&rsquo;t receive near the workload he faced in San Jose.</figcaption></div>Hackett is looking forward to seeing 15-20 fewer shots a game behind the NHL&rsquo;s best defense. Last season, he played behind the league&rsquo;s worst.&ldquo;In San Jose, if the goalie didn&rsquo;t have a great night you wouldn&rsquo;t be in the game,&rdquo; Hackett said. &ldquo;If he had an average game, you&rsquo;d lose by five or six goals. That&rsquo;s a lot of pressure to put on a goalie and it would begin to wear on you.&rdquo;Sutter refused to divulge how he plans to use his goalies, although with a veteran such as Hackett around it&rsquo;s a safe bet Belfour won&rsquo;t appear in 71 games as he did last year.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even want to think about how-many games I might play,&rdquo; Hackett said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll get my share if I play well.&rdquo;Wilkinson couldn&rsquo;t have picked a better team to join than the Hawks because the style they play is the style he enjoys.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got 20 guys playing all-out hockey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I always liked playing against Chicago because it was a real gut-check.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m nervous about my transition period. But it makes me feel good to be wanted. Having guys like Chelios and Smith will take pressure off me.&rdquo;BOURQUE BACKER: Chris Chelios didn&rsquo;t hide his feelings when asked what he thought about Boston Bruins&rsquo; defenseman Ray Bourque losing his arbitration hearing.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a disgrace,&rdquo; Chelios said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not fair when a guy who has played 14 years and is the best defenseman in the league can&rsquo;t make as much as guys who have never played a game. It&rsquo;s not right when a guy like Ray has to go to arbitration to get what he&rsquo;s worth.&rdquo;Chelios claimed the Bourque decision wouldn&rsquo;t impact his ongoing negotiations with the Hawks on a contract extension. Chelios is reportedly seeking $3 million a season. Bourque was awarded $2.25 million a year.&ldquo;We stressed Bourque is only one of a handful of guys I&rsquo;m being compared to,&rdquo; Chelios said. &ldquo;I know what I want and what I&rsquo;m worth.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Bryan Marchment has filed for arbitration. Marchment, who is seeking $575,000 (U.S.) for this season, has his hearing scheduled for Oct. 24&hellip;In acquiring center Kevin Todd from the Edmonton Oilers Oct. 7, the Hawks had to part with defenseman Adam Bennett, whom they selected sixth overall in 1989. &ldquo;We were very patient with Adam, but hasn&rsquo;t shown the drive,&rdquo; Darryl Sutter said. &ldquo;He definitely has the ability.&rdquo; Todd became the eighth new player on the Hawks&rsquo; roster since the end of last season. Bennett was the third first-round pick to be traded by the Hawks in the last year, joining Dean McAmmond (1991) and Jimmy Waite (1987).<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 5: Sergei Krivokrasov, RW, Karl Dykhuis, D, and Rob Cimetta. LW, assigned to Indianapolis (IHL). Oct. 7: Adam Bennett. D, traded to Edmonton for Kevin Todd, C.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Jeremy Roenick, Kevin Todd, Brent Sutter, Troy Murray, Steve Dubinsky.LW&ndash;Michel Goulet Stephane Matteau. Rich Sutter, Jocelyn Lemieux.RW&ndash;Brian Noonan. Joe Murphy. Dirk Graham, Darin Kimble. Dave Christian.LD&ndash;Steve Smith. Bryan Marchment, Cam Russell.RD&ndash;Chris Chelios. Neil Wilkinson. Craig Muni, Ivan Droppa.G&ndash;Ed Belfour. Jeff Hackett<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tony Horacek, LW, back surgery, indefinite. Frank Kucera, D, abdominal strain, day-to-day. Christian Ruuttu, C, broken right ankle. Dec. 1. Jeff Shantz, C, separated right shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

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Players happy to be out of Shark-infested waters

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>It didn&rsquo;t take Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; coach Scotty Bowman long to muck things up in the dressing room.Just one game into the season, veterans Shawn Burr and Vincent Riendeau were banging on general manager Bryan Murray&rsquo;s door, demanding to be traded if they don&rsquo;t fit into the team&rsquo;s plans.Saying he would do &ldquo;everything to help my team win-except sit and watch,&rdquo; veteran forward Shawn Burr asked to be moved.Burr was scratched from the lineup in the team&rsquo;s 7-2 win over the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Oct. 8.Riendeau was right behind Burr. He was relegated to the backup role behind Peter Ing after starter Tim Cheveldae sustained a right knee injury in the Wings&rsquo; season opening 6-4 loss to the Dallas Stars Oct. 5.Riendeau wasn&rsquo;t talking publicly about his desire to be traded, but Burr was. In an emotional interview, Burr criticized Bowman&rsquo;s roster selection, saying 567 games and 326 points over 10 seasons should have earned him the benefit of the doubt after training-camp injuries prevented him from showing what he had to offer.Burr and right winger Sheldon Kennedy were scratched from the lineup in favor of rookies Slava Kozlov and Micah Aivazoff against the Ducks.Both played in the team&rsquo;s opening game against the Stars.&ldquo;If they want four lines here with the fourth line guys just happy to be there, then they got the right guys in there tonight,&rdquo; Burr said, saying Bowman&rsquo;s unusual coaching techniques make him obsolete.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011417/6156218-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="740" height="938"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scotty Bowman&rsquo;s new system doesn&rsquo;t impress 10-year veteran Shawn Burr.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve heard he&rsquo;s a master of playing with players&rsquo; minds,&rdquo; Burr said. &ldquo;I just want to work hard and play. I don&rsquo;t need anybody to pull my strings.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to be one of those guys you can jerk their chains every other game. I&rsquo;m not going to lose sleep every night wondering if I&rsquo;m going to play. I&rsquo;ll do anything to help this team win-except sit and watch. That&rsquo;s where I have to draw the line. I told Bryan if he&rsquo;s not going to play me, then trade me.&rdquo;But neither Burr nor Riendeau should begin packing immediately, said Murray, who didn&rsquo;t expect a flood of phone calls from other teams inquiring about their availability.&ldquo;Shawn has got some value, but I don&rsquo;t know how much,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not the ultimate player.&rdquo;Riendeau&rsquo;s situation is peculiar because, according to Murray, nobody wants him and no team needs him more than the Wings.A backup to Cheveldae the past two seasons in Detroit, the 27-year-old felt he deserved the start against Anaheim. Instead, Bowman called on Ing, who played a strong game against a weak team for his first NHL victory in 21 months.In two games of relief, Riendeau played 53 minutes, allowing six goals on 25 shots, which won&rsquo;t enhance his value.Murray believes Riendeau has little or no value around the NHL, since he was passed in the expansion draft in June.&ldquo;Nobody wants him and nobody&rsquo;s looking right now,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;m not going to do anything. I can&rsquo;t leave ourselves short.&rdquo;Bowman indicated he intends to rely as little as possible on any player who has asked to be traded.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want players who are happy sitting out,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I don&rsquo;t want players playing for me that want to be playing elsewhere. I understand the mechanics of of hockey. These guys are grown men and they want to do well for themselves.&ldquo;Just because a guy wants to be traded doesn&rsquo;t mean he&rsquo;s going to be traded.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Wings finally acquired the defenseman they&rsquo;ve coveted for three years, getting Terry Carkner from the Philadelphia Flyers Oct. 5 for defenseman Yves Racine and a fourth-round pick in the 1994 entry draft. &ldquo;We got the guy we&rsquo;ve been looking for,&rdquo; said GM Bryan Murray. Carkner, 27, who had become unpopular with Philadelphia fans and management, welcomed the change of scenery as a new lease on his career.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 5: Yves Racine. D. and a fourth-round draft pick in 1994 traded to Philadelphia for Terry Carkner, D. Oct. 6: Jim Hiller, RW. assigned to Adirondack (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Steve Yzerman, Greg Johnson, Mike Sitlinger, Micah Aivazolf. Slava Kozlov.LW&ndash;Koith Primoau, Dallas Drake, Bob Probert, Sheldon Kennedy, Shawn Burr.RW&ndash;Sergei Fedorov, Dino Ciccarelli. Ray Sheppard. Darren McCarty.LD&ndash;Pauf Cottey Steve Chiasson, Terry Carkner, Steve Konroyd.RD&ndash;Nicklas Lidstrom, Vladimir Konstantinov, Aaron Ward.G&ndash;Peter Ing. Vince Riendeau.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tim Cheveldae, G, sprained right knee, indefinite. Mark Howe, D, strained right knee. day-to-day. &#9632;

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Riendeau, Burr furious with Bowman’s system

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>Pat Bums&rsquo; first year in Toronto was a record-setting bonanza for the success-starved Maple Leafs.Doug Gilmour broke team points, assists and playoff scoring records, while Dave Andreychuk broke a team record for goals in the playoffs. The team&rsquo;s 99 points and 44 wins were also franchise highs.So what do the Leafs do for an encore? Break another mark.The Leafs won their first three games, marking the best start for a Toronto team in more than 20 years.The Leafs&rsquo; previous best start was in 1973-74, when they jumped out to a 2-0-1 record.Despite his team&rsquo;s play, Bums wasn&rsquo;t overwhelmed.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not getting excited about it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Everybody wants to start this way. I&rsquo;m happy the guys played well, but I still have my two feet planted on the ground.&rdquo;A good start is key in the rugged Central Division. The Leafs play 14 of 19 games on the road starting Oct. 16, including five road starts against divisional opponents and six against conference foes.GLORY DAYS: The Leafs have come up with a unique way of honoring their past stars.Only two uniform numbers, No. 5 worn by Bill Barilko and No. 6 worn by Ace Bailey, have ever been retired by the club. Both were done so under extenuating or tragic circumstances.After scoring the winning goal in the 1951 Stanley Cup final, Barilko disappeared in a plane crash and his body was not found until 1962. Bailey, meanwhile, was injured in an infamous incident with Eddie Shore and never played again after sustaining a serious head injury.Neither player&rsquo;s number was officially retired-Bailey actually gave his blessing for Ron Ellis to wear No. 6 during the 1970s-until last year.But what to do about other Leaf greats, particularly since several had worn the same number? Frank Mahovlich and Darryl Sittler, for example, both wore No. 27.In an idea spawned by director of communications and business operations Bob Stellick, former Leaf stars Syl Apps and Ted Kennedy were honored Oct. 9 by having their accomplishments recognized by introduction into what can best be described as a ring of honor, similar to what the National Football League&rsquo;s Dallas Cowboys have.The Leafs do not retire numbers unless there are extenuating or tragic circumstances.Apps&rsquo; No. 9 and Kennedy&rsquo;s No. 10 are being worn by Glenn Anderson and Bill Berg, respectively, and those two players will wear shoulder patches this year embroidered with the names of Apps and Kennedy.The Leafs are expected to honor Mahovlich, Sittler, Dave Keon, George Armstrong, Johnny Bower and Red Kelly over the next few years.NOTEBOOK: Pat Burns moved Bill Berg from left wing to right wing alongside Peter Zezel and left winger Ken Baumgartner to form the Leafs&rsquo; No. 1 checking unit&hellip;After taking a bench minor for arguing a call Oct. 9 in 2-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, Bums had to fork over $100 for a team fine.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for The Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Doug Gilmour, Peter Zezel, Mike Krushelnyski. John Cullen, Mike Eastwood, Alexei Kudashov.LW&ndash;Dave Andreychuk. Ken Baumgartner, Wendel Clark. Mark Osborne.RW&ndash;Nikolal Borschevsky. Bill Berg, Glenn Anderson, Rob Pearson, Mike Foligno, Kent MandervilleLD&ndash;Dave Ellett, Sylvain Lefebvre. Jamie Macoun,RD&ndash;Todd Gill, Bob Rouse, Dmitri Mironov,G&ndash;Felix Potvin. Damian Rhodes.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Drake Berehowsky, D, right knee surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Burns not thrilled by sizzling start

<div class="byline">By Terry Egan</div>There was the high of signing a multi-million-dollar contract and the low of wearing street clothes on game night.In the span of a month. Dallas Star Derian Hatcher has been in both places. The 21-year-old defenseman signed a four-year, $3.6-million deal Sept. 14 with expectations this would be his breakthrough season. But just two games later-a 3-3 tie with the Winnipeg Jets Oct. 9-Hatcher was scratched from the lineup.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s time for me to talk with him,&rdquo; said Stars&rsquo; coach-general manager Bob Gainey. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s time for me to get his attention.&rdquo;The benching &ldquo;was not a punishment,&rdquo; Gainey said, but more like a wake-up call.The catalyst for it was a 6-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs Oct. 7. Dave Andreychuk had two goals and 11 shots for Toronto. Gainey said the 6-foot-5 Hatcher failed to make the front of the crease &ldquo;uncomfortable&rdquo; for Andreychuk.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think (Hatcher) has been playing poorly in the broad sense,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s not a presence. Somehow I haven&rsquo;t been able to reach him to let him know what we want. We want somewhat of an attitude from him. If he wants to keep a steady place in the lineup he has to be a presence and make a statement about how he will protect his part of the ice.&rdquo;Gainey said he takes the onus for any shortcomings in Hatcher&rsquo;s game. A failure to communicate the job description to Hatcher has been the problem. That&rsquo;s why Gainey benched him.&ldquo;He said I wasn&rsquo;t playing poorly,&rdquo; Hatcher said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve been playing bad. I agree I should be playing more physically. But I&rsquo;m not the only guy on the team who is supposed to play physically.&rdquo;Hatcher said he was disappointed. He seemed angry.That&rsquo;s what Gainey was shooting for all along-to rile Hatcher to the point that he takes it out on the opposition.EASY COME&hellip;: When the New York Rangers picked Mike Hudson from the Edmonton Oilers in the waiver draft Oct. 3, it changed the day for the Stars.New York exposed winger Paul Broten and the Stars, with the next pick, grabbed him. So, for the first time since they played pickup hockey in Roseau, Minn., the brothers Broten&ndash;Paul and Neal&ndash;are teammates again.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s exciting,&rdquo; Paul Broten said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to leave New York, but this is going to be great.&rdquo;Paul is staying with Neal and his family as he looks for a place to live. In Paul&rsquo;s first game, he was on a line with Neal and Mike McPhee. They checked Teemu Selanne of the Winnipeg Jets Oct. 9 and held him to two shots and no points.NOTEBOOK: The Stars offered defenseman Lee Norwood a contract, but not one that Norwood liked. He wanted more security and left the team to mull over an offer from two other teams&hellip;A bit of Dallas Stars&rsquo; history: First goal by Neal Broten, first assist by Mike McPhee, first penalty by Jarkko Varvio, first power-play goal by Grant Ledyard, first game-winning goal by Varvio.<h2>DALLAS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mike Modano, Dave Gagner. Neal Broten, Dean EvasonLW&ndash;Jarkko Varvio, Ulf Dahlen, James Black. Mike McPhee, Chris Tancill.RW&ndash;Russ Courtnail, Mike Craig. Paul Broten, Shane Churla, Trent Klatt, Brent Gilchrist.LD&ndash;Mark Tinordi, Craig Ludwig, Grant Ledyard, Brad Berry.RD&ndash;Derian Hatcher. Jim Johnson, Paul Cavallini, Tommy Sjodin.G&ndash;Andy Moog. Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Barr, C, right elbow surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Gainey issues struggling Hatcher wake-up call

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>As the St. Louis Blues celebrated their first highlight of the season, they received their first major scare.Captain Brett Hull skated off the ice hunched over in pain while the Blues celebrated their first goal of the season, a highlight film job by Brendan Shanahan in their season-opening 5-3 win over the Florida Panthers.Hull experienced pain below the left ribs after a solid, but legal first-period check by Keith Brown. The pain became unbearable and he needed immediate attention. Doctors initially feared Hull had sustained a ruptured spleen.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011126/6156297-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="572" height="850"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Hull&rsquo;s injury was originally thought to be spleen damage.</figcaption></div>He was sent by ambulance to a local hospital, where doctors ruled out the ruptured spleen. After tests the next morning, Hull was diagnosed as having sustained trauma to the abdominal wall muscle. Hull left the hospital the next day after an overnight stay.Still, he said, the situation, &ldquo;was really scary.&rdquo; Especially after the doctor&rsquo;s reaction in the Blues&rsquo; dressing room.&ldquo;I was in pain and then they started talking and rushing people in and out,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think it was serious, but I got really nervous. It was a scary feeling when they said I was going to have to stay overnight. They thought the CATscan showed something on the spleen that they weren&rsquo;t sure about.&rdquo;If Hull&rsquo;s spleen had been ruptured, he probably would have missed most of the season. Instead, he was only expected to miss a few games.SIX RICH MEN: The signing of center Craig Janney Oct. 9 made it official. The Blues have six million-dollar players.Janney joined the Blues&rsquo; millionaire club by signing a three-year, $5million deal. He&rsquo;ll earn about $1.5 million this season, $500,000 more than he would have been paid in the option year of his previous contract.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re happy,&rdquo; Janney said. &ldquo;Everything was fairly amicable.&rdquo;Blues&rsquo; president Jack Quinn said Janney&rsquo;s signing means that &ldquo;everything&rsquo;s right with the world.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re very happy it&rsquo;s completed,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Our big guys are all in line-Janney, Jeff Brown, Phil Housley, Brendan Shanahan, Brett Hull and Curtis Joseph.&rdquo;Janney is third on the Blues&rsquo; payroll in annual earnings, behind Hull ($2.2 million) and Housley ($2 million.) Brown, Shanahan and Joseph each made about $1 million and are in their option years next season.NOTEBOOK: Even with Brett Hull missing most of the first two games, the Blues displayed an explosive attack in wins of 5-3 over Florida and 7-5 over the Ottawa Senators. Not everyone was happy about it. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like to play shootout hockey,&rdquo; said coach Bob Berry. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t win championships that way.&rdquo;Rookie center Jim Montgomery began his NHL career by serving a four-game suspension for a slash against Detroit&rsquo;s Shawn Burr in the pre-season&hellip;The U.S. Olympic team beat the Blues 4-3 Oct. 10, but the Blues didn&rsquo;t take the game too seriously. Their star players had limited ice time, Jeff Brown played right wing and Hull helped assistant coach Ted Sator run the bench.Hull&rsquo;s injury and Kevin Miehm&rsquo;s lingering groin problem reduced the Blues to 11 healthy forwards&hellip;General manager Ron Caron offered this injury update on Hull after the seasonopener: &ldquo;He will live.&rdquo;Defenseman Doug Crossman returned home and was told he&rsquo;s free to see if his services are required elsewhere. Technically, though, he&rsquo;s still on the payroll.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 4: Geoff Sarjeant. G. and Daniel Laperriere. D, assigned to Peoria (IHL). Oct. 10: Laperriere recalled from Peoria. Oct. 11: Laperriere assigned, to Peoria.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Craig Janney, Tony Hrkac, Bob Bassen, Jim Montgomery,LW&ndash;Brendan Shanahan, Kevin Miller, Philippe Bozon. Basil McRae.RW&ndash;Vitali Karamnov. Igor Korolev. Kelly Chase. Vitali Prokhorov.LD&ndash;Murray Baron, Jeff Brown, Bret Hedican.RD&ndash;Phil Housley, Garth Butcher. Rick Zombo, Tom Tilley.G&ndash;Curtis Joseph, Jim Hrivnak.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Denny Felsner, RW, broken right ankle. Nov. 1. Brett Hull, RW, trauma to abdominal wall, day-to-day. Kevin Miehm, C, groin pull, day-to-day. Ron Sutter, C, abdominal surgery, Nov. 1. &#9632;

f0017-01

Abdominal injury traumatic to Hull

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; fans voiced a strong opinion and got some satisfaction on the matter of a contract for the coach of their team.And while a two-year extension for John Paddock was very much undersold in Winnipeg just two days before the 1993-94 season opened, it was a potential headache put to rest.Paddock was about to enter the final year of the three-year deal he signed when he came aboard as the Jets&rsquo; coach in June, 1991. The Paddock situation was raised in July at the team&rsquo;s annual fan forum town hall meeting.Before general manager Mike Smith got a chance to speak up, the questioner&rsquo;s premise that Paddock deserved a reward received not only a standing ovation, but the longest and loudest cheer of the night.Smith had dismissed the entire matter in June as unimportant, was non-committal in July, but was more decisive in October.&ldquo;No, I won&rsquo;t tell you that (it was a priority),&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;We talked and John was interested in an extension. He has done a good job so he has an extension.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t personally believe in lameduck (scenarios) but obviously in our business players have been known not to pay that much attention to the coach when they thought the coach might not be around next year. I like a coach to be able to say to himself, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll be here next year. I wonder how many of those players will be.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s confidence to be able to say that. You don&rsquo;t want it the other way, with a player saying that.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011169/6156328-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="605" height="815"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Paddock should become the Jets&rsquo; winningest coach this season.</figcaption></div>Paddock&rsquo;s contract now runs until the end of the 1995-96 season.&ldquo;There was no renegotiation,&rdquo; said Paddock, a 39-year-old Oak River, Man., native. &ldquo;I never asked for a renegotiation and nothing changes for this year. I didn&rsquo;t expect it to.&rdquo;Paddock began his third season with the Jets with a record of 73-6922 and needing to work 49 games to become the NHL franchise&rsquo;s longest-serving coach. Nineteen victories would also make him the winningest coach in Jets&rsquo; history. At the moment, Dan Maloney holds the marks of 212 games worked and 91 wins.&ldquo;The extension is obviously great for me and I&rsquo;m happy about it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think Mike has shown a sign of stability to the coaching staff and it goes through the organization. I&rsquo;m pleased with how things have gone here.&rdquo;THE NEW FIT: John Paddock thinks the debate over his team&rsquo;s toughness is a stale matter, especially how it relates to the Jets&rsquo; move to the Central Division.Winnipeg went 1-1-1 through its first three regular-season games, including a 3-3 draw Oct. 9 against the Dallas Stars and a bizarre 4-3 overtime loss Oct. 10 against the Chicago Blackhawks.&ldquo;We answered that toughness question long ago,&rdquo; Paddock said after losing to the Blackhawks. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t even talk about that any more. We&rsquo;re as tough a team as there is in the league and if any team wants to play it that way, we&rsquo;ll be there.&rdquo;The introduction of Chicago, Dallas, the Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues as Central Division rivals has sparked much discussion about toughness in Winnipeg, but Paddock thinks it&rsquo;s more a matter of his players&rsquo; willingness to compete every game.NOTEBOOK: Teemu Selanne, who tied Alexander Mogilny for the NHL&rsquo;s lead in goalscoring last season with 76, got off to a rousing start with his sixth career hat trick against the Washington Capitals Oct. 6. The Jets won 6-4 in a third-period comeback.The Jets set a record for their season-opener when a crowd of 15,363 was at the Arena for the win over the Caps. The previous mark had stood at 15,259.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 4: John Paddock, coach, signed two-year contract extension. Sergei Sorokin, D. assigned to Moncton (AHL). Oct. 5: Kevin McClelland. LW, assigned to Moncton. Oct. 7: Milan Tichy, D. assigned to Moncton J<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Alexei Zhamnov, Nelson Emerson. Luciano Borsato, Stu Barnes. Mike Eagles, Harijs Vitolinsh.LW&ndash;Thomas Steen, Keith Tkachuk, Darrin Shannon, Kris King.RW&ndash;Teemu Selanne. Paul Ysebaert, Yan Kaminsky, Tie Domi. Bryan Erickson.LD&ndash;Teppo Numminen, Sergei Bautin, Igor Ulanov. Arto Blomsten,RD&ndash;Dean Kennedy, Fredrik Olaus-son, Stephane Quintal, Boris Mironov.G&ndash;Bob Essensa, Stephane Beauregard<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0018-01

Smith rewards Paddock for turning team around

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011092/6156366-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="379" height="530"></div>He has been the cornerstone of the Quebec Nordiques since entering the NHL in 1988. Now Joe Sakic may be sacrificed to obtain the final building blocks for the club&rsquo;s Stanley Cup run.The Nordiques need a solidified blueline corps and experience in goal to complement their devastating collection of forwards.Sakic&rsquo;s name has been among those bantered most often in trade rumors. The Nordiques are believed to have offered Sakic as part of a package to land the rights to francophone star Alexandre Daigle from the Ottawa Senators. Sakic was also believed to be the principal in an aborted bid for Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; goalie Felix Potvin.Most recently, Quebec reportedly offered him even-up for Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; forward Trevor Linden. Linden is a physical player and has good offensive skills for a big man, but he isn&rsquo;t in Sakic&rsquo;s class offensively. The Canucks said no and that refusal may be the most pressing evidence to date of Sakic&rsquo;s declining value.On the surface, Sakic&rsquo;s availability should prompt a spirited bidding war. A four-time All-Star Game participant, Sakic collected 105 points last season, 11 more than he had in 199192. It was his third 100-plus points season in the last four years.He is well-regarded in the game and considered an honest, hard-working performer. His on-ice skills are unquestioned and while he isn&rsquo;t one of the Nordiques&rsquo; fastest players, his passing skills, shot and view of the game clearly put him in the league&rsquo;s elite.But in his first playoff last season, Sakic was only marginally effective with three goals in a six-game loss to the Montreal Canadiens. That spurred the usual questions about whether Sakic will ever be a go-to playoff performer. While he is the club&rsquo;s captain, he isn&rsquo;t the Nordiques&rsquo; heart-and-soul player. Many observers believe that title belongs to Mike Ricci.Just as importantly, there&rsquo;s a growing question whether Sakic, who carried a talent-thin Nordiques&rsquo; squad since breaking into the NHL as an 18-year-old, may be a spent as a 24-year-old.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s dead tired,&rdquo; said an NHL executive. &ldquo;That poor kid carried that team and got 100 points when he was the only player the other team bothered checking. He&rsquo;s not a big guy and he has had to endure an awful lot of checking.&rdquo;Sakic said it&rsquo;s not up to him to say whether he&rsquo;s an old or young 24.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t answer that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just know hockey is a lot of fun for me now, just as it has been in the past.&rdquo;The Nordiques insist Sakic&rsquo;s value to the team remains above challenge. Coach-general manager Pierre Page said he doesn&rsquo;t think Sakic will be moved.&ldquo;Everybody seems to want to help us with our forward problem,&rdquo; Page laughed. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s inevitable, when you have a player the calibre of Joe, people will be interested in him and there will be rumors concerning him.&ldquo;I think Joe&rsquo;s value is better than ever because he&rsquo;s a more complete player now. He does all the things a premier player has to do.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02791/6156359-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="568" height="959"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Sakic</figcaption></div>And at a premier player&rsquo;s rate of pay. Sakic&rsquo;s contract pays him $8.8 million over four years and it is heavily tiered with individual incentive bonuses. It ranks him among the top 15 paid players in the league and makes his acquisition an expensive one.The expected spring arrival of center Peter Forsberg, meanwhile, will add one more creative playmaker to a cast that already includes the likes of Sakic, Valeri Kamensky and Mats Sundin.This season, Page will learn whether his superstar can complete the transition from the franchise player on a bad team to a major player on a very good one.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;ll be an adjustment,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s just happy to be surrounded by so many good players.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0019-01

Will Joe be one to go in Quebec?

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0019-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03522/6156397-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(John Giamundo/BBS)</figcaption></div>The NHL Officials&rsquo; Association has set a Nov. 15 strike deadline, but received a blow when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the games will go on without them. If a collective bargaining agreement isn&rsquo;t hammered out by the deadline, the league will most likely get its replacement officials from the college ranks. But don&rsquo;t count on that happening for three reasons: 1. The officials will get a big raise though not the 100 percent pay hike they&rsquo;re demanding; 2. The league can get along just fine without them and; 3. They have no sympathy among owners.<h2>Blowing his cool</h2>Mike Keenan&rsquo;s new super-cool image has only been dented once, but it happened in a behind-the-scenes moment and went unnoticed. The New York Rangers&rsquo; coach was hooked up to a wireless microphone by the MSG network for a pre-season game between the Rangers and New York Islanders. Near the end of the game, Keenan objected to a line change and delivered a four-letter expletive that clearly carried into many homes. Iron Mike exploded privately later over using the wireless mike. Otherwise, Keenan has been the soul of decorum and from all indications the separation from his wife, Rita, and daughter, Gayla, has had a terribly moderating effect on the man. Nevertheless, Keenan has been pushing general manager Neil Smith to add toughness to the team. Smith shoots right back, &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have many soft players. We&rsquo;re team tough; this club can&rsquo;t be physically intimidated.&rdquo; Stay tuned&hellip;Peter Pocklington&rsquo;s charade about moving his Edmonton Oilers to Hamilton is just that. Here&rsquo;s why he&rsquo;ll never move to the Ontario city: 1. The NHL wants no part of Hamilton; 2. Pocklington doesn&rsquo;t want to leave Edmonton and; 3. If he ever did move, it would be for the warmer climes of either Phoenix, Seattle or Houston.<h2>Probie&rsquo;s happy</h2>Bob Probert is smiling this season because of the Detroit Red Wing&rsquo;s coaching change from Bryan Murray to Scotty Bowman and the arrival of two-fisted Darren McCarty, who slugs in the old Joe Kocur style&hellip;The best autumn deal so far has been the St. Louis Blues getting defenseman Phil Housley from the Winnipeg Jets for center Nelson Emerson and defenseman Stephane Quintal. Housley&rsquo;s wheels guarantee five more years of all-star play. Quintal hasn&rsquo;t established himself in five years as a pro, while Emerson is just average&hellip;The new Hockey Hall of Fame has proved so popular in its new quarters, perhaps another move is in order when the Toronto Maple Leafs leave Maple Leaf Gardens in the future. Instead of razing MLG, why not put an even more greatly expanded Hall in the ice cathedral?<h2>Hi, it&rsquo;s Tie</h2>Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; tough guy Tie Domi has rung a few bells around the NHL, including those on the telephone. According to unofficial stats, Domi leads all players in phone calls made in a day. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a phonaholic,&rdquo; said Rangers public relations director Barry Watkins, a frequent recipient of Domi monologues&hellip;All of a sudden the Pittsburgh Penguins look more vincible than invincible and their season will hinge as much on Kevin Stevens regaining mint condition as it will on Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s successful return&hellip;Chris Gratton may become a worldbeater down the line, but the Tampa Bay Lightning&rsquo;s first-round pick in 1993 looked very ordinary in his NHL debut against the New Jersey Devils. It appears that the kid who should be in the Lightning lineup is Brent Gretzky, the club&rsquo;s last cut.<h2>Paying the price</h2>New York Daily News hockey writer Frank Brown did a clever bit of price reducing on his new book about the New York Rangers entitled Broadway Blues. The publishers wanted to sell it for $19.95, their standard price, but Brown had them change it to $19.40. In case you haven&rsquo;t heard, 1940 was the last time the Blueshirts won a Stanley Cup&hellip;Hockey writers are going to be on the edge of their seats at the Anaheim Arena, but for the wrong reason. The second-tier press box was constructed at a poor angle, forcing the occupants to lean all the way forward if they want to catch the action&hellip;A young man on the rise: Hartford Whalers&rsquo; center Mikael Nylander. The 21-year-old Swede is good for at least 80 points this season.<h2>FRESH FACES</h2><h3>Milos Holan</h3>Born: Bitovec, CzechAge: 22Team: Philadelphia FlyersHeight: 5-foot-11Weight: 183 lbsPostition: DefenseHow acquired: Philadelphia&rsquo;s third-round draft pick (77th overall) in 1993. &#9632;

f0019-03

NHL refs won’t get huge raise they’re looking for

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>The Quebec Nordiques are confident they have found a reliable backup to goaltender Stephane Fiset.Jocelyn Thibault, the team&rsquo;s top pick in the 1993 entry draft, had an outstanding training camp to beat out Jacques Cloutier and John Tanner as the main man behind Fiset. Thibault signed a four-year deal worth about $2 million just before the midnight deadline Oct. 4.Thibault will try to become the first 18-year-old goalie to play a full season in the NHL since Tom Barrasso with the Buffalo Sabres in 1983-84.Barrasso captured the Vezina and Calder Trophies that season and was selected to the first All-Star team.Cloutier, now the No. 3 man, will have the job of taking Thibault under his wing and teaching him what it means to be an NHL goaltender.Thibault&rsquo;s agent, former NHL goalie Bob Sauve, said Thibault isn&rsquo;t being rushed into the NHL.&ldquo;We are following Jocelyn very closely,&rdquo; Sauve said. &ldquo;We all agreed we didn&rsquo;t want to take any risks, but it wouldn&rsquo;t be wise to slow his progression. So we&rsquo;re going to give him all the chances to make the big-time.&ldquo;If there is a risk, it&rsquo;s minimal. But the fact remains if he wants to make progress, he has to play a minimum number of games.&rdquo;The Nordiques won&rsquo;t say how many games that will be, but the consensus is he&rsquo;ll play in the range of 2025.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01967/6156428-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="597" height="805"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Nordiques have high hopes for goaltender Jocelyn Thibault.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;I guess I was the only one on this planet to believe I could make it this year,&rdquo; Thibault said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s funny because every morning during training camp, I was reading and hearing I was about to go back down to Sherbrooke (Faucons, his Quebec League junior team).&rdquo;Thibault proved he belongs Oct. 9 against the Boston Bruins-his first NHL game. He relieved Fiset in the second period and made 19 stops on 21 shots in a 7-3 loss.He got the start the next night against the Pittsburgh Penguins and won 7-4.The 5-foot-11, 170-pound Montreal native is already a crowd favorite in Quebec.&ldquo;That really makes me feel good, Thibault said. &ldquo;When you have the fans behind you, it makes it easy. I really don&rsquo;t know why the people of Quebec have adopted me like that. I guess it&rsquo;s because I&rsquo;m a down to earth kid, just like any other young 18-year-old. But I don&rsquo;t feel like I&rsquo;m 18 on the ice. I&rsquo;m one of the boys. Maybe that&rsquo;s why I did so well. Because I&rsquo;m so confident.&rdquo;ODD MAN OUT: The big loser in Jocelyn Thibault&rsquo;s ascension to the NHL was John Tanner.The 22-year-old goaltender was sick during much of training camp and didn&rsquo;t perform well when he was healthy. He was assigned to the Nordiques&rsquo; American League farm team, the Cornwall Aces, Oct. 5.Tanner wasn&rsquo;t happy to be sent to the minors again, but he went to Cornwall with a positive attitude. Tanner had not taken demotions well in the past and is well-known for speaking his mind.&ldquo;I had a good talk with John,&rdquo; said general manager-coach Pierre Page. &ldquo;I want him to adopt a new philosophy. I want him to get better, to become the goaltender I know he can be. And we&rsquo;re going to help him do that.&rdquo;&ldquo;John is very tough mentally,&rdquo; said Tanner&rsquo;s agent Jay Grossman. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to channel this setback into something positive. For now, he&rsquo;ll do everything to get into shape.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Jocelyn Thibault&rsquo;s four-year, $2-million contract prompted several Nordique players to tease Stephane Fiset and Jacques Cloutier. Thibault will make more money this season than Fiset and Cloutier combined. Fiset will make $235, (XX) and Cloutier $250,000.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 4: Jocelyn Thibault, G. signed four-year contract. Oct. 5: John Tanner, G, assigned to Cornwall (AHL) Oct. 8: Reginald Savage, RW, signed two-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Joe Sakic. Mats Sundin, Mike Ricci, lain Fraser.LW&ndash;Chris Simon, Valeri Kamensky. Martin Gelinas. Martin Rucinsky, Chris Lindberg, Tony Twist.RW&ndash;Andrei Kovalenko. Claude Lapointe, Owen Nolan, Paul MacDermid, Reginald Savage.LD&ndash;Steven Finn. Curtis Leschyshyn, Alain Cote, Alexei Gusarov.RD&ndash;Kerry Huffman, Adam Foote, David Karpa. Craig Wolanin.G&ndash;Stephane Flset. Jocelyn Thibault, Jacques Cloutier.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Scott Young, RW, sprained right ankle, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0020-01

Thibault captures role as Fiset’s understudy

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02394/6156497-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg"></div>CCM&rsquo; is the official sponsor of The Hockey News NHL Coach of the Year Awardby&hellip;Rick Comley is one teacher who allows talking in class. In fact, he demands it.A two-time coach of the year in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Comley believes there&rsquo;s a communication gap on most teams.&ldquo;The one skill in hockey that is as deficient as any, or maybe more than most, is communication. Its a part of the game coaches don&rsquo;t put much emphasis on. Maybe they don&rsquo;t understand the importance of it, and the kids have absolutely no grasp of it whatsoever.&ldquo;Walk into any arena and the first thing that strikes you is the noise,&rdquo; says Comley, whose classroom is the Marquette, Wise, based home of the Northern Michigan Wildcats.Comley is not referring to crowd noise, but rather the verbal commands the players make to each other. They&rsquo;re a lot more complex than simply &ldquo;I&rsquo;m here, pass it.&rdquo;&ldquo;With the pros, it&rsquo;s more like &lsquo;I&rsquo;m higher, go deep, go wide, man in the slot&rsquo;&rdquo; Comley said.Its a vast range of communications dictated by the situation and zone of the ice surface involved.At the minor hockey level, Comley recommends a coach list what he thinks are 10 important verbal commands to be introduced at practice over a period of time in a learning professional system.&ldquo;Be as strict as setting up a passing drill where you don&rsquo;t pass the puck unless a verbal command is given,&rdquo; said the coach of the 1991 National Collegiate Athletic Association champs. &ldquo;You can set up a 2-on-1 drill and the trailing player dictates whether he wants a drop pass or wants to break to the net and get a pass. The player with the puck reacts only to the verbal command.&rdquo;Comley&rsquo;s philosophy is the player without the puck is the key man.&ldquo;The puck, especially with the smaller kids, becomes a beehive and they don&rsquo;t go to the good areas on the ice and demand it,&rdquo; he said.Tom Laidlaw, now a player agent after spending a dozen seasons in the NHL with the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings, used to drive freshmen crazy at Northern Michigan.&ldquo;He was our captain and in passing drills, absolutely refused to pass the puck unless the player demanded it verbally,&rdquo; Comley said. &ldquo;Some freshmen would skate for miles without getting a pass until they realized a verbal command keyed a reaction.&rdquo;On-ice communication is something every coach and his players should be talking about as they head into a new season.In the next issue, we&rsquo;ll discuss &ldquo;visual awareness&rdquo; considered by Comley to be the other main component of hockey communication.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-03209/6156490-1-eng-US/f0021-032.jpg" title="f0021-03" width="562" height="746"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Comley</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0021-02

COACHING TIP OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div>Without knowing it, defenseman Mathieu Schneider might &ldquo;have laid the foundation in August for what would become the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; first controversy of the season.Schneider attended a conditioning camp the Canadiens conduct each summer, several weeks before the start of camp. Although attending these informal workouts is strictly volunteer, most players at least make a token appearance to begin working some of the summer kinks out.Schneider, married the month before, made it clear he would have been content had the summer been prolonged. He carried that attitude through camp and into the season.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what his problem is,&rdquo; a confused coach Jacques Demers said.Schneider dressed for the opener against the Hartford Whalers Oct. 6. Although Montreal won 4-3, Schneider was on the ice for two of the Whalers&rsquo; goals, including one that tied the score late in the game.The next night at Pittsburgh, Demers sat Schneider out in favor of Swedish rookie Peter Popovic.&ldquo;He isn&rsquo;t focused,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;He had seven giveaways against the Whalers. I hate doing this because he was the best defenseman we had until he got hurt last year. Sitting out a game will be good for him.&rdquo;Schneider compounded his difficulties by missing the charter flight back to Montreal following the game. He missed a practice Oct. 8 because he couldn&rsquo;t get a flight out of Pittsburgh on time.&ldquo;Mathieu is having personal problems,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had an inkling of it but I want to emphasize they do not involve alcohol or drugs.&rdquo;Not only was Schneider not suspended or fined, he dressed for the Canadiens&rsquo; game against the Buffalo Sabres Oct. 9. He scored the winning goal and added an assist in Montreal&rsquo;s 7-4 victory.Schneider refused to discuss his off-ice problems.&ldquo;If I write a book 10 years after my career is over, maybe I&rsquo;ll devote a chapter to this episode,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But for now it&rsquo;s over. This is a new day and a new start. Even if the sun isn&rsquo;t shining I&rsquo;m ready to start again.&ldquo;I was upset at Pittsburgh to be out of the lineup. But all pro athletes are like that.&rdquo;Schneider credited Demers for standing by him. The two spoke by telephone the evening of Oct. 8 and had a meeting the following morning.NOTEBOOK: Goaltender Frederic Chabot, one of the Canadiens&rsquo; last training camp cuts, demanded a trade at the time of his demotion to the Fredericton Candiens, Montreal&rsquo;s American League affiliate. Playing for Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team was another option that remained for the 25-year-old veteran. Instead, he was assigned to the International League&rsquo;s Las Vegas Thunder, an expansion team without an NHL affiliate. Chabot must now hope he plays well enough to get another team interested.Right winger Ed Ronan had some scary moments in the first period against Hartford Oct. 6. He sustained a concussion against the Whalers following a collision with defenseman Dan Keczmer. Ronan&rsquo;s head struck the boards before he slumped to the ice, where he lay motionless. He lapsed into unconsciousness several times before being removed on a stretcher. He was told to remain off skates for up to 10 days.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 5: Frederic Chabot, G, assigned to Las Vegas (IHL) Oct. 6: Benoit Brunet. LW. signed two-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Kirk Muller.. Stephan Lebeau, Paul DiPietro, Guy Carbonneau.LW&ndash;Vincent Damphousse, Gilbert Dionne. Pierre Sevigny, Ron Wilson. Mario Roberge.RW&ndash;Brian Bellows. Mike Keane. Gary Leeman. Benoit BrunetLD&ndash;Mathieu Schneider. Jean-Jacques Daigneault Kevin Haller, Peter Popovic.RD&ndash;Lyie Odelem. Patrice Brisebois, Eric Desjardins. Rob Ramage.G&ndash;Patrick Roy. Andre Racicot.<h3>INJURIES</h3>John LeClair, LW, sprained right knee, indefinite. Ed Ronan, RW, concussion. Oct. 16. &#9632;

Schneider tries to put rocky start behind him

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>So much for a quick start.The Buffalo Sabres lost two of three games to start this season. The root cause of their troubles? Injuries, compounded by a lack of depth.Alexander Mogilny, Petr Svoboda, Yuri Khymlev and Wayne Presley all missed the season opener in Boston because of injuries. The Sabres were also without rookie defenseman Denis Tsygurov, a projected fifth or sixth defenseman. Along the way, center Bob Sweeney was suspended.The results were inevitable. Buffalo opened with a spirited 5-3 win over the Bruins Oct. 7 at Boston Garden, then fell apart during a wild 7-4 loss to the Canadiens Oct. 9 in Montreal. Buffalo slipped further the next night after a 3-2 loss to the Hartford Whalers in their home opener.Sabres&rsquo; coach-general manager John Muckier gave a passing reference to the injuries, but would not allow them to become a crutch.&ldquo;We shouldn&rsquo;t lose to Hartford,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I liked what I saw from some young players. Some veterans were not as sharp as they could be.&rdquo;The injuries appear to be too much to overcome.Mogilny was still being bothered by the ankle injury he picked up in the playoffs last spring. He missed nearly all of training camp and has yet to participate in a full practice.Khymlev had a neck strain, Presley had a knee ligament problem and Tsygurov had a charley horse. Svoboda, who had reconstructive knee surgery Jan. 21, was expected to be 100 per cent for camp, but he developed fluid and swelling in the knee and is questionable for the future.SWEENEY SIDELINED: Bob Sweeney was tossed out in the closing minutes of the Montreal game Oct. 9 after it was determined he was an extra player on the ice in a full-scale battle that involved the goaltenders.Sweeney was looking at a 10-game suspension (and John Muckier was liable for five) after reports from the officials indicated Sweeney left the bench to join in the altercation. It was later determined Sweeney was already on the ice in a shift change and the penalty was reduced to three games.NOTEBOOK: Rookie defenseman Mark Astley finished training camp with the Sabres, but did not play in the first three games. Buffalo is rumored to be interested in acquiring veteran defensemen Craig Muni or Kevin Lowe, but both are high-priced players&hellip;Criticized for reporting to camp out of shape, Grant Fuhr was the savior in the Boston win Oct. 7. He was also tossed from the game in Montreal Oct. 9 after leaving his crease to join an altercation and later as the third man in a different fight.The Sabres are expected to send a tape of Doug Houda&rsquo;s head butt on Randy Moller to the league office for a disciplinary determination. Houda, a Hartford Whaler defenseman, headbutted Moller during the 3-2 loss to Hartford Oct. 10.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 5: Dean Melanson, D, assigned to Rochester (AHL). Oct. 10: Bob Sweeney, C, suspended three games by NHL. Eligible to return Oct. 16.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Pat LaFontaine, Dale Hawerchuk, Derek Plante, Dave Hannan.LW&ndash;Brad May, Craig Simpson, Rob Ray, Sergei Petrenko.RW&ndash;Randy Wood, Donald Audette, Mathew Barnaby, Scott Thomas.LD&ndash;Doug Bodger, Richard Smehlik, Randy Moller, Mark Astley.RD&ndash;Ken Sutton, Gord Donnelly, Keith Carney.G&ndash;Grant Fuhr, Dominik Hasek.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Yuri Khymlev, LW, neck strain, day-to-day. Alexander Mogilny, RW, inflamed right ankle, indefinite. Wayne Presley, RW, stretched knee ligaments, indefinite. Petr Svoboda, D, right knee surgery, indefinite. Denis Tsygurov, D. Charley horse, day-to-day. &#9632;

Injuries, suspension buffalo team’s blueprint

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>It was not so long ago that television commentator Don Cherry characterized Jaromir Jagr as the worst thing to happen to the NHL.This might be the year opponents-especially goalies-see things the same way.Jagr&rsquo;s play during the pre-season and early in the regular season suggests he is ready to establish himself as a big-time offensive force.And even though he, like teammate Kevin Stevens, struggled to find his goal-scoring touch early in the season, the consensus in Pittsburgh is Jagr is headed for a monster year.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s capable of scoring 50 goals with that talent,&rdquo; coach Ed Johnston said. &ldquo;His speed and strength, he just blows by guys when he has to.&rdquo;Jagr devoted much of the autumn to setting up linemate and fellow Czech Martin Straka, the second-year center who was on better than a goal-per-game pace through four games.Jagr, 21, had a goal and five points in four games. He posted career-highs in goals (34), assists (60) and points (94) last season, and his teammates believe he can put up significantly bigger numbers in 1993-94.&ldquo;It certainly is a big year for him,&rdquo; center Ron Francis said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;ll probably see a lot more ice time this year and hopefully he&rsquo;s able to take advantage of it.&rdquo;Jagr would not predict he is headed for 50 goals or 100 points. &ldquo;Everything is possible,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s possible I won&rsquo;t make the lineup.&rdquo;But other Penguin players believe such totals are attainable. Perhaps even conservative.&ldquo;He has matured a lot,&rdquo; defenseman Peter Taglianetti said. &ldquo;He knows he can still do it himself, but he&rsquo;s getting to the point where he knows the game and can use everybody else. He&rsquo;s going to be more dangerous than ever.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01837/6156576-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="576" height="838"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jaromir Jagr has the moves to make this a 50-goal season.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;He definitely can kick it up to another level and without too much difficulty. I think that now that he&rsquo;s bigger and stronger, he&rsquo;s going to be a well-rounded player.&rdquo;Maybe even the high-impact guy so many expected Jagr to become when he entered the NHL in 1990.STANTON MOVED: The Penguins broke their logjam on defense by trading Paul Stanton to the Boston Bruins for a third-round draft choice in 1994.That deal, coupled with Jim Paek&rsquo;s eye injury and Grant Jenning&rsquo;s position switch to left wing, left the Penguins with just six defensemen. They had opened training camp with nine who played exclusively in the NHL last season.Stanton has the potential to be a productive offensive defensemen, but recognized he was unlikely to dislodge Larry Murphy, Marty McSorley or Kjell Samuelsson from their spots on right defense.&ldquo;They have three real good guys on the right side and that&rsquo;s what they decided they wanted to go with,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: Off-season renovations to the Civic Arena added 1,373 seats to the building and raised the building&rsquo;s seating capacity to 17,537. It merits mention that the Penguins, who had grown accustomed to full houses of 16,164 before adding those seats, did not sell out either of their first two home games this season.Grant Jennings knew numbers were working against him and a change was necessary. It took a position switch, not a trade, as he was made into the fourth-line left winger. &ldquo;We talked about having a lot of defensemen and we were looking for more of a physical presence up front,&rdquo; general manager Craig Patrick said. &ldquo;We decided to see if Grant was interested and he went along.&rdquo;The Penguins signed free-agent goalie Roberto Romano to play for their Cleveland Lumberjacks farm team in the International League, but he was pressed into service as Ken Wregget&rsquo;s backup when Tom Barrasso strained his groin in a 2-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens Oct 7.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 6: Peter Taglianetti. D. signed multi-year contract Oct. 7: Roberto Romano. G. signed contract. Oct. 8: Paul Stanton, D. traded to Boston for, third-round draft choice in 1994.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Ron Francis, Martin Straka, Mike Stapleton,LW&ndash;Kevin Stevens, Markus Naslund, Doug Brown, Grant Jennings. Jeff Daniels.RW&ndash;Rick Tocchet, Jaromir Jagr, Joe Mullen, Mike NeedhamLD&ndash;Mike Ramsey, Peter Tagiianetti, Ulf Samuelsson.RD&ndash;Larry Murphy. Marty McSortey. Kjell Samuelsson.G&ndash;Ken Wregget, Roberto Romano.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tom Barrasso, G, strained groin, day-to-day. Mario Lemieux, C, back pain, indefinite. Jim Pack, D, bruised right eye, day-to-day. Bryan Trottier, C, strained knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0024-01

All indications point to monster season for Jagr

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>The only stockings Alexandre Daigle will be wearing in the future will be the thick red, white and black wool ones he wears as part of his Ottawa Senators&rsquo; uniform.The 18-year-old center created a stir in Ottawa by posing in sheer white stockings and a nurse&rsquo;s uniform as part of an ad for a hockey card company for which he is a spokesman.While the ad, which shows Daigle in the uniforms of a mountie, fireman, mailman and nurse, was approved by the team&rsquo;s communications department, it privately infuriated several members of the club&rsquo;s hierarchy who felt it reflected poorly on Daigle and the organization.&ldquo;That will never happen again,&rdquo; said president-general manager Randy Sexton, who will now personally screen all of Daigle&rsquo;s promotional and endorsement deals. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be keeping a lid on everything he does now that the season has started. I&rsquo;ll be involved in every decision that&rsquo;s related to Alex to keep a closer eye.&rdquo;&ldquo;How could they allow that?&rdquo; said former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; coach-turned radio broadcaster Jean Perron in the Ottawa Sun. The paper ran the picture of Daigle in the nurse&rsquo;s uniform on its front page Oct. 3.&ldquo;If he was my player, I&rsquo;d be peeved. He&rsquo;s only 18, but he should have known better,&rdquo; Perron said. &ldquo;It was a stupid thing to do.&rdquo;Daigle disagreed.He said he is not worried about teammates or opponents teasing him about appearing in a dress.&ldquo;Nobody should take it seriously. It&rsquo;s just funny,&rdquo; said Daigle, the No. 1 pick in the 1993 entry draft. &ldquo;I just smiled and put the costumes on.&rdquo;Daigle&rsquo;s on-ice performance did enough to distract attention from the dress publicity. He had two assists in the club&rsquo;s opening night 5-5 tie with the Quebec Nordiques Oct. 6 and scored his first NHL goal-his first of two on the night-and added an assist Oct. 9 in a 7-5 loss to the St. Louis Blues.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01741/6156607-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="568" height="713"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexandre Daigle got off to a very good start for the Senators.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;It was nice to get that first goal,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been playing all these years to score a goal in the NHL and I finally have one. It&rsquo;s a big thing for me. Too bad we didn&rsquo;t win.&rdquo;BIG DEAL: The Senators bulked up their defense Oct. 6 when they picked up Francois Leroux on waivers from the Edmonton Oilers.The 6-foot-6, 225-pound Leroux joins Dmitri Filimonov (6-foot-4, 207) and Brian Glynn (6-foot-4, 220) on the Senators&rsquo; blueline.&ldquo;If you look at the size of forwards in our division, you need defensemen that size to handle them,&rdquo; Randy Sexton said. &ldquo;Leroux is a prospect. He&rsquo;s just 23, he has good size and he&rsquo;s a good character kid. His skills have come on in the last couple of years At his age, we feel he still has an upside. He&rsquo;s a bright guy who we think we can work with and make better.&rdquo;Leroux, the Oilers&rsquo; first pick in the 1988 draft, played just 11 games in five seasons with Edmonton.NOTEBOOK: The Senators scored five goals in each of their first two games. They scored five goals or more in only six games all of last season.Right winger Pavol Demitra, the second-youngest player on the team after Alexandre Daigle&ndash;he will be 19 Nov. 29-missed the season opener because the Senators couldn&rsquo;t arrange his release from his Czech club team, Dukla Trencin. Demitra did play in the loss to St. Louis Oct. 9 and scored his first NHL goal.Coach Rick Bowness opted to name co-captains this season. Center Mark Lamb and defenseman Brad Shaw will split the duties in 21-game segments. Defenseman Norm Maciver will be the alternate. Left winger Sylvain Turgeon gave up his role as one of the alternate captains.<h2>OTTAWA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 6: Francois Leroux, 0, claimed on waivers from Edmonton. Oct. 8: Pavol Demitra, RW, signed multi-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Alexei Yashin, Alexandre Daigle, Mark Lamb, Dave McLIwain.LW&ndash;Vladimir Ruzicka, Sylvain Turgeon. Darcy Loewen, Troy Mallette, Bill Huard.RW&ndash;Pavol Demitra, Dave Archibald. Bob Kudelski, Robert Burakovsky. Herb Raglan.LD&ndash;Dmitri Filimonov, Norm Maciver, Darren Rumble. Francois Leroux. Hank Lammens.RD&ndash;Brad Shaw, Brian Glynn, Gord Dineen, Dennis Viai.G&ndash;Craig Billington. Darrin Madeley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

f0025-01

‘Nurse’ Daigle staying cool under pressure

<div class="byline">By Jeff Jacobs</div>At first. Chris Pronger&rsquo;s agent, Pat Morris called him the best player in the 1993 NHL entry draft.Then, he called him the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; best defenseman in the pre season. Then, he called him the Whalers&rsquo; best player. But nobody could call Pronger a Whaler until 2 a.m. on Oct. 5.That&rsquo;s when the Whalers signed the 19-year-old to a four-year, $7-million deal.Pronger got a $4-million signing bonus, including $1 million immediately, $1 million by next October and $2 million by October, 1995. His annual salaries are $600,000, $700,000, $800,000 and $900,000. There contract allows for revisions if Pronger earns major awards or attains specified scoring levels.By the time Pronger officially signed for the cameras Oct. 8, coachacting general manager Paul Holmgren was all smiles when he handed the 6-foot-6 defenseman a cheque for $805,000. That&rsquo;s $1 million minus taxes.&ldquo;I tried to dribble it,&rdquo; Holmgren said. &ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t bounce.&rdquo;But seriously? &ldquo;The kid has been terrific,&rdquo; he said.After reaching an impasse as late as 9 p.m. on Oct. 4-only three hours before an NHL deadline to sign topround junior players for this season-matters weren&rsquo;t so jovial. In his last act as Whalers&rsquo; president-GM. Brian Burke made a four-year, $4million proposal earlier in the day. Morris came back with a 4-year, $8.5million demand.&ldquo;I got their proposal and thought it was going backward,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;I thought a new face might help.&rdquo;So Burke stepped away. Holmgren and owner Richard Gordon took over at about 10 p.m.Asked if he believed Morris created the impasse to remove him from the talks, Burke answered: &ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question, that&rsquo;s exactly what the agent wanted to do. But I think the numbers are clearly defensible in light of some of the other contracts.&rdquo;Said Morris: &ldquo;I tried to represent Chris&rsquo; signing bonus as an acquisition cost of a cornerstone player for the next 15 years.&rdquo;With time running out, the Whalers notified Central Registry it had a deal. But the final details took a few more hours. Morris or the NHL Players&rsquo; Association may have challenged the deadline&rsquo;s legality if the contract was negated. There was no such problem, however, and Pronger&rsquo;s final deal ended up less than No. 1 pick Alexandre Daigle&rsquo;s five-year, $12.25 million deal and more than No. 3 pick Chris Gratton&rsquo;s four-year, $3.5 million dealNOTEBOOK: Three other players signed new contracts with the Whalers. Nick Kypreos agreed to a two-year deal for $525,000 a season; Mark Janssens signed for the same length for $400,000 a season; and Brian Propp, who staged a successful training camp tryout, got a one-year deal for $225,000.<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 5: Brian Propp, LW. signed one-year contract. Oct. 6: Chris Pronger. D, signed four-year contract. Nick Kypreos, LW, agreed to terms on contract. Mark Janssens, C, signed contract. Oct. 9: Jay Caufield, RW. released.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Andrew Cassels, Michael Nylander, Robert Petrovicky, Mark Janssens.LW&ndash;Geoff Sanderson. Patrick Poulin. Nick Kypreos, Jim McKenzie, Brian Propp, Randy Cunneyworth, Yvon Corriveau.RW&ndash;Pat Verbeek. Mark Greig, Robert Kron. Jim Sandlak.LD&ndash;Chris Pronger. Zarley Zalapski, Allen PedersenRD&ndash;Brad McCrimmon, Adam Burt, Doug Houda.G&ndash;Frank Pietrangelo, Mario Gosselin.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Sean Burke, G, pulled left hamstring, day-to-day. Eric Weinrich, D, sprained left knee, day-to-day. Dan Keczmer, D, shoulder injury, day-to-day. &#9632;

Tag-team negotiators work overtime to sign Pronger

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>Almost 30 years after their release, the Tall Boys are still the giants of the hockey card industry.An unscientific poll recently conducted by Collectors World of 50 collectors and dealersthroughout North America has determined that the 1964-65 Topps set, known as the Tall Boys, is the favorite set of all time. The 1966-67 set, which features the television motif and contains Bobby Orr&rsquo;s rookie card, finished second.The focus group contained everyone from casual collectors at a Toronto card show to the biggest dealers in North America to Patrick Roy and Brian Bellows. Collectors were asked to supply their five favorite hockey card sets and could base their decisions on whatever criteria they chose: sentimental reasons, aesthetic quality or investment potential.Five points were awarded for a No. 1 choice, four for second, three for third, two for fourth and one for fifth.The Tall Boys were the overwhelming favorite, collecting 12 first-place votes and 116 points overall. The set received top-five support from more than 70 per cent of respondents with 36 votes overall.The reasons for the Tall Boys&rsquo; popularity are varied, but most collectors cited their unique look as the main reason. The 2 l/2-by-4 11/16-inch cards are the only ones of their kind and several cards in the set are short printed. Also, because of their size and the fact that they are difficult to keep well preserved, mint condition Tall Boys are an extreme rarity.The 1966-67 Topps set received four first-place votes and 71 points overall to finish a distant second.Finishing in third place was the 1951-52 Parkhurst set, which received 63 overall points, but curiously didn&rsquo;t receive any first-place votes. The 1951-52 is regarded as one of the most coveted sets because of the fact that it is Parkhurst&rsquo;s first issue and contains rookie cards of every player in hockey&rsquo;s goldenera-including Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard.One collector said the 1951-52 set would be a lot more popular if it were more accessible to collectors. &ldquo;Most of us have stopped dreaming about that set,&rdquo; said Montreal-based dealer Gerry Chartrand. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty well out of everyone&rsquo;s reach.&rdquo;Another popular set was the 1971-72 O-Pee-Chee issue, which received five first-place votes and 60 points to finish fourth overall. The set contains a motherlode of quality cards, including retirement cards of Howe and Jean Beliveau, as well as the rookie cards of Marcel Dionne, Ken Dryden and Guy Lafleur.Rounding out the top five was the 1954-55 Topps set, which finished with five first-place votes and 59 points overall.The trend among collectors to stay away from new cards was confirmed in the poll. The only modern set to receive any support at all was the 1990-91 Upper Deck, which got no first-place votes and just 24 points overall. The 1984-85 O-Pee-Chee set-which contains rookie cards of Steve Yzer-man, Doug Gilmour, Pat LaFontaine, Cam Neely, Chris Chelios, Tom Barrasso and Dave Andreychuk-got one first-place vote and 30 points overall. The 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee issue with Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s rookie card received one first-place vote and 19 points overall.There was little surprise among collectors that the older cards are still the favorites by those who are serious about the hobby.&ldquo;If you&rsquo;re a serious collector, you want to collect something that&rsquo;s collectible,&rdquo; said Torontobased dealer Ted Jinx. &ldquo;People want something that&rsquo;s not massively produced and has a stable value and can&rsquo;t be found everywhere. The worst that can happen with that kind of set is I&rsquo;ll get my money back and the best is that it will escalate.&rdquo;Vancouver-based dealer Mike Chark said the popularity of older cards goes beyond their stability on the market.&ldquo;Nobody has seen dinosaurs before, but everybody&rsquo;s still fascinated by them,&rdquo; Chark said. &ldquo;I think a lot of collectors like the challenge of the hunt rather than something that&rsquo;s readily available. And the guys on those cards were the kind of guys who played when the big money wasn&rsquo;t there. I find it hard to idolize guys such as Patrick Roy and Rickey Henderson-not that they&rsquo;re not good players, but they&rsquo;re not blood and guts like the old guys were.&rdquo;Most of the support was for sets that were produced in the 1950s, &rsquo;60s and &rsquo;70s. None of the pre-war sets received enough support to put them in the top 10.Here are a sampling of the top-five choices from some of the high-profile respondents.&#9633; Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; forward Brian Bellows: 1. 1953-54 Parkhurst; 2. 1971-72 O-Pee-Chee; 3. 1911-12 C-55; 4. 1933-34 Ice Kings; 5. 1934-35 O-Pee-Chee.&#9633; Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; coach Scotty Bowman. 1. 1966-67 Topps; 2. 1974-75 O-Pee-Chee (contains Bowman&rsquo;s only card); 3. 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee; 4. 1988-89 O-Pee-Chee; 5. 1985-86 O-Pee-Chee.&#9633; New York Rangers&rsquo; forward Darren Turcotte: 1. 1966-67 Topps; 2. 1951-52 Parkhurst; 3. 1954-55 Topps; 4. 1964-65 Topps; 4. 198485 O-Pee-Chee.&#9633; Hamilton, Ont.-based collector Angelo Savelli, who has every hockey card ever made: 1. 1933-34 Sport Kings; 2. 1933-34 A and B; 3. 1933-34 Ice Kings; 4. 1936 World Wide Gum; 5. 1951-52 Parkhurst.&#9633; New York-based dealer Allen Rosen (Mr. Mint): 1. 1954-55 Topps; 2. 1953-54 Parkhurst; 3. 1954-55 Parkhurst; 4. 1955-56 Parkhurst. 5. 1966-67 Topps.<h2>MAPLE LEAFS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-01757/6156676-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg" title="f0027-01" width="654" height="1213"><figcaption class="caption-body">FRANK MAHOVUCH forward</figcaption></div><h3>Topps tops poll with four in top 10</h3>The 1964-65 Topps set (above) came out No. 1 in our poll. Five points were awarded for a No. 1 ranking, four for second, three for third, two for fourth and one for fifth.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-02470/6156669-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="681" height="454"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-03297/6156662-1-eng-US/f0027-032.jpg" title="f0027-03" width="1500" height="2242"><figcaption class="caption-body">(Jim Maclssac/BBS)</figcaption></div><h2>PATRICK ROY&rsquo;S TOP FIVE SETS</h2>Avid collector Patrick Roy ranks these as his top five personal favorite sets:1. 1912-13 Sweet Capreol.2. 1952-53 Parkhurst.3. 1953-54 Parkhurst.4. 1963-64 Topps.5. 1986-87 O-Pee-Chee. &#9632;

f0027-01

The Hockey News COLLECTORS WORLD

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>The Canadian Olympic team suffered its worst loss of the season in the wee hours of Oct. 5.That&rsquo;s when it found out that Chris Pronger, Chris Gratton, Rob Nieder-mayer and Jason Arnott had all signed with their NHL teams just before the signing deadline of midnight Oct. 4. In the case of Pronger, he actually passed the deadline, but the NHL was faxed an agreement in principal which allowed Pronger and the Hartford Whalers to continue negotiating until the deal was complete.All four junior-aged stars were considered candidates for Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team at the Lillehammer Games had they not come to terms with their teams.The signings swelled the ranks of the 1993 draft in the NHL this season. In all, 12 players from the 1993 priority selection started the season in the NHL, including six players from the first round.Here&rsquo;s what the other 18 players from the first round are up to this season:Paul Kariya (fourth to Mighty Ducks of Anaheim). Slick center will play at University of Maine until Christmas, then will join Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team. May join Ducks after Olympics.Victor Kozlov (sixth to San Jose Sharks). Left winger couldn&rsquo;t come to terms with Sharks, stayed with Moscow Dynamo.Niklas Sundstrom (eighth to New York Rangers). Play making left winger will play with MoDo in Sweden.Todd Harvey (ninth to Dallas Stars). Gritty center returned to Detroit Jr. Wings of Ontario League.Brendan Witt (11th to Washington Capitals). Bruising rearguard couldn&rsquo;t come to terms, returned to Seattle Thunderbirds of Western League.Kenny Jonsson (12th to Toronto Maple Leafs). Played pre-season game in England. Defenseman will play with Rogle in Sweden.Denis Pederson (13th to New Jersey Devils). Pesky center will play with Prince Albert Raiders of WHL.Adam Deadmarsh (14th to Quebec Nordiques). Solid right winger will play with Portland Winter Hawks of WHL.Mats Lindgren (15th to Winnipeg Jets). Smooth-skating center will play with Skelleftea in Sweden.Nick Stajduhar (16th to Edmonton Oilers). Offensive defenseman returned to London Knights of OHL.Jason Allison (17th to Washington). Scoring center also returned to London.Jesper Mattson (18th to Calgary Flames). Slick center playing for Malmo in Sweden.Landon Wilson (19th to Toronto). Rugged right winger attending University of North Dakota as freshman.Mike Wilson (20th to Vancouver Canucks). Lanky defenseman returned to Sudbury Wolves of OHL.Saku Koivu (21st overall to Montreal Canadiens). Explosive, but diminutive center playing with TPS Turku in Finland.Anders Eriksson (22nd to Detroit Red Wings). Physical blueliner playing with MoDo in Sweden.Todd Bertuzzi (23rd to New York Islanders). Large, powerful right winger returned to Guelph Storm of OHL.Eric Lecompte (24th overall to Chicago Blackhawks). Rugged left winger playing with Hull Olympiques&rsquo; of Quebec League.Kevyn Adams (25th overall to Boston Bruins). Tenacious center sophomore at University of Miami-Ohio.Stefan Bergqvist (26th overall to Pittsburgh Penguins). Mammoth defenseman playing with Leksand in Sweden. &#9632;

Yeah, but what about rest of 1993’s first round?

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>It is a marriage of convenience that will undoubtedly produce a spectacular offspring.Upper Deck and Parkhurst announced Sept. 20 that the companies will join forces to produce super-premium cards under the name Parkhurst by The Upper Deck Company. The contract is for five years and the first Parkhurst cards will be available in mid-December, with a second series due out in the spring.Upper Deck will actually produce and distribute the cards using the Parkhurst name.Parkhurst, which manufactured hockey cards from 1951-52 to 1963-64 (with the exception of 1956-57), produced a set of cards last season under Pro Set&rsquo;s hockey license. Since Pro Set failed to have its license renewed by the NHL Players&rsquo; Association this season, Parkhurst was left looking for an NHL licensee to produce its cards.The final decision reportedly came down to choosing between Leaf and Upper Deck.&ldquo;There were two main reasons I chose to go with Upper Deck,&rdquo; Parkhurst president Brian Price said in a release. &ldquo;First, they have their own production facilities. They do everything in-house. Second, their distribution system proved to be excellent.&rdquo;Upper Deck will continue to include some of the inserts introduced by Parkhurst last season, including the Emerald Ice insert set and the Parkhurst reprint set.Upper Deck&rsquo;s relationship with Gordie Howe will certainly enhance the reprint set. The 18-card set will include nine Howe Parkhurst cards, including Howe&rsquo;s rookie card in the 1951-52 Parkhurst set.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01771/6156731-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="734" height="1012"><figcaption class="caption-body">First-round choice Saku Koivu is part of a new Leaf Finland hockey set this season.</figcaption></div>The set will also include rookies from this season and action shots of players on both the expansion Florida Panthers and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.Upper Deck, which has been on the cutting edge of the industry since it came out with hockey cards in 1990, hopes to mingle some tradition with technology.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t buy tradition,&rdquo; said Upper Deck spokesman Paul Sackman. &ldquo;The intent is to draw upon the strong tradition of Parkhurst. There are things we can do with Parkhurst that you can&rsquo;t do with Upper Deck.&rdquo;FINLAND IN THE CARDS: North America isn&rsquo;t the only place Leaf will be making its hockey debut this season.Leaf Finland, which owns the Illinois-based Leaf-Donruss company, will be producing a 396-card set of the Finnish Elite League this season. Leaf-Donruss debuted with an NHL set this season.Leaf Finland, the No. 1 candy manufacturer in Finland, had previously made cards for the Finnish League, but stopped about 20 years ago. The recent card boom convinced the company to give it another go this season.&ldquo;Hockey is very big here; it is the most popular and most professionally run sport in Finland,&rdquo; said Leaf Finland marketing manager Jukka Nikkanen. &ldquo;Over the last few years we have included a hockey sticker with a chocolate wafer and they have sold very well.&rdquo;The set will include all players and coaches in the 12-team league and will have subsets including league all-stars, award winners and players who have been drafted by NHL teams.It will also give the company an opportunity to produce cards of Finnish players before they get a card in an NHL-licensed set. Nikkanen said that as of now, there are no plans for the company to distribute the cards outside of Finland, but cards from this set are certain to end up in North America.JUNIOR SET IMMINENT: It looks like fans of major junior hockey will be able to collect a Canadian Hockey League set for the first time in three years.The CHL wants to get back into the card business and according to league sources, there are several companies interested in producing a set this season.&ldquo;It is our desire to have a CHL set this season if the mechanics can be worked out and everything resolved,&rdquo; said CHL vice-president and Ontario League commissioner David Branch. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re at a very critical stage of negotiations with some major card companies.&rdquo;For two years, the OHL, Western and Quebec Leagues had sets produced for them by 7th Inning Sketch, a defunct Windsor, Ont.-based company. For the last two seasons, teams have been producing their own sets, although there were rumors last season that Upper Deck would come out with a CHL set.The CHL has an agreement with Classic Cards that allows the company to produce a draft pick and prospects set. Classic&rsquo;s director of hockey projects Steve Charendoff said his company would love to expand its relationship with the CHL.&ldquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t make sense for us to walk away from the CHL given our relationship in the past,&rdquo; Charendoff said. &ldquo;From a corporate standpoint, we value the CHL greatly and want to be involved with them as much as anyone could be.&rdquo; &#9632;

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Parkhurst, Upper Deck team up for new set

<div class="byline">By Kevin Allen</div>As hockey card collectors pick through a smorgasbord of products this fall, it&rsquo;s clear that many hobbyists now believe dessert should be the main course.Insert cards-once considered a non-essential extra-have become the meat and potatoes of card marketing. With consumers craving limited products, insert cards have whetted their appetites.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t say inserts are here to stay because things always change,&rdquo; said Topps spokesman Timm Boyle. &ldquo;But for now, they are important to the whole industry.&rdquo;List prices of insert cards have risen dramatically over the last two seasons. A month after release, a 24-card set of 1993-94 Dream Team inserts found the Score packs are now listed in price guides for $125 to $200.Still to be decided is the long-term value of inserts-also called chase cards. The 1991-92 Pinnacle B inserts, a set of 12 cards, already is listed at $400 to $500. Could this set possibly increase in value?&ldquo;I think the Pinnacle price should be higher because the production was so low,&rdquo; said Len Shapiro, a collector from Concord, Calif.Ray Krause, owner of MVP Cards in Pleasant Hill, Calif., has a different idea. &ldquo;They are holding value,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But are they marketable at that price? Probably not.&rdquo;Some dealers believe when the value of inserts climbs too quickly, collectors lose-rather than gain-interest. Though there was widespread admiration for Parkhurst&rsquo;s reprint cards last season, not many are lining up to pay $25 for a Dickie Moore card.&ldquo;They come out so high it scares people off,&rdquo; Krause said. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want to collect the set if you know it will cost you a. fortune to complete it.&rdquo;Consumers undeniably are enthralled with the idea of opening packs to look for hidden treasure. It&rsquo;s a modem day equivalent of panning for gold. That may explain why a 199192 Team Pinnacle Mario Lemieux card can list for $110-about $30 less than the value of his 1985-86 Topps rookie card.But the concept of chase cards definitely isn&rsquo;t new to the hobby, insists Fleer spokesman Ted Taylor.&ldquo;There has always been a special card mania,&rdquo; Taylor said. &ldquo;You would always get a zillion utility infielders in baseball packs, but very few Don Mattinglys or Hank Aarons or Mickey Mantles.&rdquo;Though companies are more forthright today, they are all aware that collectors desire most what they can&rsquo;t get easily. The need for inserts is more pronounced in hockey because NHL Players&rsquo; Association and NHL rules prohibit companies from using non-NHL prospects to spice up their sets.Though Bowman was a hot product in 1992-93 without chase cards, most companies won&rsquo;t allow the product to leave the factory now without a prize in every box. Upper Deck officials, for example, haven&rsquo;t forgotten that its 1991-92 High series, with plenty of good rookies and no chase cards, was a major disappointment in the marketplace.Inserts are less critical for Classic, whose non-NHL licensed cards aren&rsquo;t restricted by the rules of NHLPA and NHL. They can&rsquo;t use NHL uniforms, but they can acquire the rights to players who don&rsquo;t appear in licensed sets.But this fall&rsquo;s Classic draft pick set has an increased number of inserts. However, Classic&rsquo;s director of hockey projects Steve Charendoff said chase cards are not the main ingredients of his set. He insists standard cards are the cake and inserts the icing.&ldquo;But if the cake turns out to be bland,&rdquo; Charendoff said, &ldquo;you especially need the icing on it.&rdquo; &#9632;

Are chase cards icing or cake in card industry?

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div>Leaf&rsquo;s first attempt at hockey didn&rsquo;t result in a card set as much as it did a work of art.In fact, it&rsquo;s more like a masterpiece.Leaf, which has been making baseball cards since 1981, jumps into the hockey card market with a first effort that is nothing short of spectacular. For that reason, as well as the fact it is Leafs first issue, it will undoubtedly be one of the most popular sets among collectors this season.It&rsquo;s abundantly clear by looking at this set that Leaf has learned a thing or two about quality in all the years it has produced baseball and non-sport cards. Each of the 220 cards in Series I is exquisite, with a look and feel that compares favorably with any premier cards that have been produced in the past. The color photos are clear and non-static and they appear on a thick, glossy stock of paper. The photography in the set is excellent.But the strongest aspect of the set is also its major shortcoming. The card backs are so good they easily outshine the fronts.Instead of running just another action shot on the back, Leaf used its baseball format, closecropping each player and superimposing his figure in front of a skyline of the city in which he plays. In this set, we see Yuri Khymlev taking a shot with Niagara Falls cascading behind him, Craig Janney skating under the arch in St. Louis, Rob Pearson celebrating a goal in downtown Toronto and Michal Pivonka skating around the nose on the Lincoln Monument.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01778/6156793-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="728" height="1000"><figcaption class="caption-body">Leaf got it backward: The backs of their cards are more interesting than the fronts.</figcaption></div>But Leaf blew an opportunity to put itself even more on the cutting edge by not making those the card fronts. Surely collectors are getting tired of seeing the same kinds of action shots on the front of their cards.Hey, even the Beatles put Hey Jude and Revolution on the same single.With the bulk of the set being of such high quality, the chase cards in the set are really nothing special. The sole exception to this is the Gold Leaf rookie set. Instead of creating a rookie set containing borderline prospects for this season, Leaf capitalized on last year&rsquo;s phenomenal group of first-year performers and created the Gold Leaf Rookie set, a 15-card subset featuring last year&rsquo;s best freshmen. The background of these cards is white, with the player close-cropped and the words Gold Leaf Rookie taking up most of the card. The back has a small action shot and an information package on each player.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02556/6156786-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="732" height="1003"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Leaf Gold Rookie set capitalizes on last year&rsquo;s phenomenal first-year crop.</figcaption></div>Leaf signed Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; superstar Mario Lemieux as a spokesman and the first series contains half of the Mario Lemieux Collection, a largely uninspiring 10-card series featuring Le Magnifique at different points in his career.The Signature Studio series features a close-cropped action shot on the front and a gold plated reproduction of the player&rsquo;s autograph.The back of the card is a studio shot of the player. It&rsquo;s anybody&rsquo;s guess why the company decided to use only parts of the players&rsquo; faces to put on the cards. Pat Falloon&rsquo;s image looks especially bizarre, since just the left half of his head is on the card.The level of accuracy in the set is excellent. There are only a few minor errors-such as listing left winger Steve Thomas as a right winger, center Mats Sundin as a right winger and left winger Geoff Sanderson as a center.And if you&rsquo;re trying to collect the set by buying foil packs, good luck. A box of 36 packs (14 cards per pack) barely produced the whole 220-card edition and contained only about a halfdozen chase cards.A spokesman for the company described this year&rsquo;s Leaf set using three words: &ldquo;Limited, limited, limited.&rdquo; If that&rsquo;s the case, collectors will be falling all over each other to get their hands on this set. &#9632;

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Leaf doesn’t fall in its first autumn in hockey

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01738/6156824-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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FRANK LEARDI

<div class="byline">By Craig Dolch</div>It&rsquo;s early. Real early. But the expansion Florida Panthers believe they learned something important about themselves during their season-opening three-game road trip.They&rsquo;re not all that bad.The Panthers went 1-1-1 on their four-day trek to Chicago, St. Louis and Tampa Bay. They had a chance to win all three games before penalties proved costly. That success, while early, should end talk of the expansion Panthers being total pushovers.&ldquo;It looks like we&rsquo;re going to be competitive,&rdquo; Scott Mellanby said.One reason the Panthers are playing well is their experience. Beginning with goalie John Vanbiesbrouck, the Panthers have nine players who have seen action in more than 200 NHL games.&ldquo;We have players who, though they haven&rsquo;t been big scorers, have been productive players,&rdquo; said general manager Bob Clarke. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to blow many leads. Plus we have good goalies in John Vanbiesbrouck and Mark Fitzpatrick. If our goaltending holds up, we can cause all kinds of problems.&rdquo;But the Panthers will have their own problems if they don&rsquo;t stop drawing penalties. Florida gave up 28 power plays in three games, killing 21 of them. The other goals the Panthers allowed came when Fitzpatrick left the net and when both teams had a player in the penalty box.The Panthers did not allow a goal in a five-on-five situation in three games.Clarke knows this trend can&rsquo;t continue. A 75 per-cent penalty killing efficiency in their first three games put them at fifth-worst in the league.&ldquo;If we continue to play shorthanded, we&rsquo;re going to pay,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;Sometimes the goalie can be exceptional and that will bail you out. But you give teams like Pittsburgh 10 or 12 power plays and they&rsquo;ll beat you.&rdquo;Following the three-game road trip, the Panthers played nine of 10 games at home. Some players have even been talking about the P-word.&ldquo;You have to look at the playoffs as your goal,&rdquo; defenseman Joe Cirella said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to say we&rsquo;re trying to be competitive, and if we then lose by a goal, it&rsquo;s okay. I&rsquo;m thinking we can make the playoffs if we continue to be the team that works the hardest and makes the fewest mistakes.&rdquo;One thing that tempers any enthusiasm: The expansion Tampa Bay Lightning was 9-8-2 last season before winning 14 of its final 65 games.HISTORIC MOMENTS: Right winger Scott Mellanby scored 121 goals entering this season, but No. 122 will stand out because it was the first in the Panthers&rsquo; history.Mellanby slapped the puck past a fallen Chicago Blackhawk goalie Ed Belfour in a 4-4 tie Oct. 6 for his piece of history. The puck was given to Panthers&rsquo; owner Wayne Huizenga.Vanbiesbrouck then made 35 saves and recorded the team&rsquo;s first shutout in their first win&ndash;a 2-0 decision over the Tampa Bay Lightning Oct. 9.NOTEBOOK: Sniping between the Panthers and Lightning continued when Tampa Bay governor David LeFevre said the team would be referred to as the &ldquo;Miami Panthers&rdquo; during the Oct. 9 game. The league stopped the nonsense, but the Lightning side-stepped the issue by identifying them simply as the Panthers.Defenseman Greg Smyth had arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow to remove bone chips and won&rsquo;t be back until late October.<h2>FLORIDA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Brian Skrudland. Jesse Belanger. Rob Niedermayer, Randy Gilhen. Scott Levins.LW&ndash;Dave Lowry. Evgeny Davydov. Mike Hough, Bill Lindsay.RW&ndash;Scott Mellanby, Andrei Lomakin, Tom Fitzgerald, Jody HuH.LD&ndash;Keith Brown. Alexander Godynyuk. Brian Benning.RD&ndash;Joe Cirella, Gord Murphy, Paul Laus. Brent Severyn.G&ndash;John Vanbiesbrouck. Mark Fitzpatrick<h3>INJURIES</h3>Greg Smyth, D, right elbow surgery. Oct. 21 &#9632;

Early-season road surge has team feeling great

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>It was early last January before John MacLean knew for sure he had overcome major reconstructive surgery on his right knee and regained his scoring touch for the New Jersey Devils.But it wasn&rsquo;t just the knee-which cost him the entire 1991-92 season to rehabilitation-that made last year painful for MacLean. It was frustrating under former coach Herb Brooks.&ldquo;It was a weird situation,&rdquo; MacLean recalled. &ldquo;I was away for a year and when I came back I couldn&rsquo;t believe it. Everything was so foreign. The whole thing was different as far as his approach. Sometimes I couldn&rsquo;t believe the ideas he had.&rdquo;Brooks felt MacLean, who sustained a tom anterior cruciate ligament in a pre-season game against the New York Islanders Sept. 30, 1991, should begin his comeback in the American League with the Utica Devils.MacLean felt that after three 40-goal seasons, he had earned the right to stay in the Devils&rsquo; lineup. He refused to go to Utica.&ldquo;All you ask is for an opportunity and when I got the opportunity I produced,&rdquo; MacLean said. &ldquo;The season was just as hard mentally as it was physically. I was frustrated. It wasn&rsquo;t as much fun and that had nothing to do with the fact I wasn&rsquo;t producing. The team atmosphere wasn&rsquo;t fun.&rdquo;MacLean did not score until the 10th game, when he scored twice on the power play. In the first 30 games, he scored just three goals.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01620/6156879-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="569" height="762"><figcaption class="caption-body">John MacLean is trying to put a frustrating 1992-93 behind him.</figcaption></div>He slowly gained mobility-despite wearing a heavy knee brace-and his timing around the net improved. In the final 51 games, he scored 21 goals and finished with 24 goals and 48 points in 80 games.&ldquo;Around Christmas or January I started to play better,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;At the start of the season I had doubts, but I never write any season off and I refused to write last season off. It was more of wondering what direction the Devils were going and how John MacLean fit in.&rdquo;Brooks knew he had less than total support from management and had to win every game possible. There was no room for losses while MacLean skated his way back into shape.After the Devils were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, Brooks was about to be fired when he beat general manager Lou Lamoriello to the punch and quit.The appointment of Jacques Lemaire as Brooks&rsquo; successor was a popular move and MacLean responded with a very strong camp.He had one assist and three minor penalties in the first three games.ONE-TWO PUNCH: The Devils have the league&rsquo;s smallest centers, but they likely won&rsquo;t be pushed around with enforcers such as Mike Peluso and Randy McKay around.Peluso, acquired from the Ottawa Senators in the off-season, and McKay are two of the game&rsquo;s top fighters.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t put the burden on one guy,&rdquo; McKay said. &ldquo;Fighting isn&rsquo;t easy. Sometimes you&rsquo;re just not in the mood or maybe have a sore hand from fighting.&rdquo;They have a combined total of 1,747 penalty minutes in 435 games.&ldquo;I played on a team last year (the Otawa Senators) where I was the only guy,&rdquo; Peluso said.NOTEBOOK: NHL senior vicepresident and director of hockey operations Brian Burke said the league will decide how much compensation the Ottawa Senators must give the Devils in the controversial Peter Sid-orkiewicz trade by the length of time the goalie misses because of his ailing right shoulder.Ken Daneyko&rsquo;s streak of 314 consecutive games played is the NHL&rsquo;s longest active streak and seven shy of Kirk Muller&rsquo;s team record&hellip;Claude Lemieux scored his 200th career goal Oct. 9.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 5: Janne Ojanen, C. assigned to Albany (AHL). Mike Dunham, G. assigned to U.S. Olympic team. Oct. 11: Scott Pellerin, LW. Ben Hankinson, RW, and Brian Rolston, C. assigned to Albany. Ojanen released outright<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Alexander Semak. Bernie Nicholls. Corey Millen, Mike Peluso, Bobby Car penter.LW&ndash;Valeri Zelepukin, Stephane Richer, Bobby Holik, Tom Chorske.RW&ndash;Claude Lemieux, John MacLean, BRI Guerin, Randy McKay.LD&ndash;Scott Stevens, Bruce Driver, Viacheslav Fetisov.RD&ndash;Ken Daneyko. Scott Niedermayar, Jason Smith, Jaroslav Modry.G&ndash;Chris Terreri. Martin Brodeur.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tommy Albelin, D. urinary infection, day-to-day. Peter Sidorkiewicz, G, right shoulder surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

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MacLean looks to rebound from uneventful 1992-93

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02441/6156917-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="512" height="365"></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/f0037-03341/6156910-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="272" height="403"><figcaption class="caption-body">Eric Clark, 1992-93 Winner</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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STARTER MINOR HOCKEY SHOWCASE

<div class="byline">By Jeff Williams</div>This could be a big year for Steve Thomas. It needs to be, for both the New York Islanders and Thomas.He was a big reason why the Islanders were so successful last season. As the right winger on Pierre Turgeon&rsquo;s line, Thomas had 37 goals (close to the career high of 40 he set three years previously). He also had nine goals in the playoffs.That&rsquo;s a pace he would like to maintain this year at the athletically ripe age of 30. It would help his team and also put him in line for what might be his last big contract. He enters his option year next season.Because of a wrist injury to Turgeon and the absense of Derek King due to his mother&rsquo;s death, Thomas started the season on a line with with Ray Ferraro and David Volek. The line blended well and Thomas had the only goal in a season-opening 2-1 loss to the Calgary Flames Oct. 5. He also led the team with six pre-season goals.Any line Thomas plays on is likely to work because of the way he works. He combines a grinding, scrappy style with a quick, hard shot. He&rsquo;ll fight if he has to and will do anything to win. That&rsquo;s why he was named alternate captain last season.&ldquo;You know what you&rsquo;re getting every game from Thomas,&rdquo; said general manager Don Maloney. &ldquo;If everybody on our team competed as hard as he does, we&rsquo;d be a difficult team to beat.&rdquo;After losing to Calgary, dropping a 5-1 decision to the Edmonton Oilers Oct. 8 and scraping out a 4-3 win over the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Oct. 10, the Islanders were not impressive at the start of the season.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not finishing our shots and we&rsquo;re not burying the puck,&rdquo; Thomas said. &ldquo;The Calgary game we played O.K., but we didn&rsquo;t show up in Edmonton.&rdquo;Thomas isn&rsquo;t the rah-rah type, but he can be brutally honest. &ldquo;If we forget what it took to get as far as we did last season, we&rsquo;ll be just an average team,&rdquo; he said.His teammates call him Stumpy because he&rsquo;s short in the leg and broad in the shoulders. As long as they call on him to score, he&rsquo;s happy.NOTEBOOK: Left winger Derek King missed the first three games of the season because of the death of his mother Helena, in Hamilton, Ont.Pierre Turgeon, who was held out of the Calgary opener with tendinitis in his left wrist, had two goals, including the overtime winner to beat Anaheim 4-3.Defenseman Wayne McBean, who hadn&rsquo;t played an NHL game since Dec. 23, 1991, because of an injured knee, scored a goal against the Ducks in his first game back.<h2>N.Y. ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 4: Danny Lorenz, G. and Dan Plante. RW, assigned to Salt Lake (IHL). Oct. 9: Joe Day. C. and Brent Grieve, LW. recalled from Salt Lake. Scott Scissons, C, and Steve Junker LW. assigned to Salt Lake<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Pierre Turgeon, Ray Ferraro, Travis Green. Claude Loiselle. Joe Day.LW&ndash;Derek King, David Volek, Benoit Hogue. Marty McInnis, Brent Grieve.RW&ndash;Steve Thomas, Pat Flatley, Brad Dalgarno, Mick Vukota, Bob McGill.LD&ndash;Vladimir Malakhov, Tom Kurvers, Dennis Vaske.RD&ndash;Rich Pilon. Wayne McBean. Darius Kasparaitis.G&ndash;Ron Hextall, Tom Draper.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Uwe Krupp, D, bruised right toe, day-to-day. Scott Lachance, D, right shoulder separation, Oct. 18. &#9632;

No doubting scrappy Thomas key offensive cog on team

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>Finding someone to carry on a tradition started by Bobby Clarke and maintained by Dave Poulin, Ron Sutter and Rick Tocchet takes time.The Philadelphia Flyers needed about a year-and-a-half.But on Oct. 4 they got their man when they named Kevin Dineen the 10th captain in their 27-year history.Dineen was unable to lead his team into the opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins Oct. 5 due to a separated shoulder. But four nights later, he returned to Hartford and scored two goals and an assist in a 5-2 win over the Whalers.Some thought the captaincy might be given to 20-year-old Eric Lindros, but for now, Lindros will wear an &lsquo;A&rsquo; as an alternate, rotating with Garry Galley and Dave Brown.The Flyers believe Lindros has enough demands on his time. Besides. they have a model captain in Dineen, who probably would have been named to the post last year if his father, Bill, hadn&rsquo;t been coaching. Both men declined that arrangement, hinting it might have been awkward.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good captain by the way he plays,&rdquo; said coach Terry Simpson. &ldquo;He leads by example, competes all the time. Plus, he has the experience.&ldquo;That experience lets him stay composed on the ice. In off-ice situations that captains have to deal with, I think he has the experience to look at it from all sides.&rdquo;The Flyers had played without a captain since February, 1992 when Tocchet was traded to Pittsburgh.Some wondered how Dineen would react this season after his father was replaced by Simpson as coach. The elder Dineen remains in the organization as a scout.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s different,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;When my dad first came here, people said it&rsquo;s going to be hard to play for your dad. My feeling is, not really, because I&rsquo;ve always played the game the same way.&rdquo;RIC RETIRES: Ric Nattress called it quits Oct. 8. The 31-year-old defenseman had been plagued by injuries since he signed a four-year, $1.9-million contract in August, 1992.He reported to camp below conditioning standards and played only two pre-season games. Since the two sides were in agreement on the course of action, a buyout of Nattress&rsquo; contract was negotiated.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think they had plans for me,&rdquo; Nattress said. &ldquo;Enough was enough.&rdquo; Injuries limited Nattress to just 44 games last season.NOTEBOOK: The Flyers acquired Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; defenseman Yves Racine and a fourth-round pick draft in 1994 for Terry Carkner Oct. 5. Racine debuted in Hartford Oct. 9 and had an assist&hellip;Team officials reached an agreement with a bank group which they believe will bring them a step closer to beginning construction on Spectrum II. If work begins in January, the building would be ready for 1996-97. It was originally scheduled to open for 1994-95, but was delayed due to financial complications.The Flyers put rearguard Greg Hawgood on waivers Oct. 5, but no teams claimed so he&rsquo;s still active.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 5: Terry Carkner, D, traded to Detroit for Yves Racine, D. and fourthround draft pick in 1994. Oct. 8: Ric Nattress, D. retired.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Eric Lindros, Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour. Viacheslav Butsayev, Dave Tippett.LW&ndash;Mikael Renberg, Josef Beranek, Pelle Eklund, Al Conroy.RW&ndash;Mark Recchi. Kevin Dineen, Brent Fedyk, Dave Brown.LD&ndash;Garry Galley. Yves Racine. Greg Hawgood, Milos Holan, Jason Bowen.RD&ndash;Dimitri Yushkevich, Ryan McGill, Stewart Malgunas. Jeff FinleyG&ndash;Dominic Roussel. Tommy SoderStrom.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Claude Boivin, LW, sprained left knee, indefinite. Jim Cummins, RW, separated nght shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

Captain Dineen at the helm

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>It&rsquo;s possible the Washington Capitals and Brendan Witt were never going to agree on a contract that would have enabled the 1993 first-round pick to play in the NHL this season.But what is clear is the last day of negotiations was short-circuited and altogether strange.The 6-foot-1, 205-pound Witt increased the pace of his play through each day of camp to the point where coach Terry Murray was ready to use him on a regular basis. The 18-year-old spent the last two seasons with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western League.However, a contract had to be completed by midnight Oct. 4 and it was never done. Money could have been the final stumbling block, but we&rsquo;ll never know. Witt and his agent, Mark Hall, never really got down to business with the Capitals.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the most bizarre negotiation I&rsquo;ve ever been in,&rdquo; general manager David Poile said.In the days leading up to Oct. 4, Hall flew to Washington and met the team in Ottawa for an exhibition stop. But Capitals&rsquo; management-Poile and director of player personnel Jack But-ton-were frustrated Hall would not negotiate over the phone. The agent preferred offers to be sent by fax.Hall had notified the team he was staying at a Saskatoon hotel Oct. 4. But when Poile and Button tried to contact him at that hotel that day, the front desk said his reservation had been cancelled.Poile, who wanted to negotiate verbally, didn&rsquo;t want to fax a proposal if Hall wasn&rsquo;t there. Hall said he was in the hotel and the hotel had mistakenly showed him having cancelled the reservation.Poile said he had offered to fly the Witt family to Winnipeg so everyone involved could be in the same place. But after the fact, he wasn&rsquo;t sure if the logistics mattered. He wasn&rsquo;t sure if it was the money or whether Witt and his family didn&rsquo;t think he was ready to play at that level.The last Capital offer was a four-year deal worth $1.45 million. Jocelyn Thibault, who was picked 10th overall, signed with the Quebec Nordiques for four years at a reported $1.7 million. The difference might have been closed with negotiations, but it didn&rsquo;t happen.NOTEBOOK: Terry Murray was pleased with the work of enforcer Craig Berube and double-shifted him in the 6-4 loss to the New Jersey Devils Oct. 9. Berube played on the fourth line with Alan May and Keith Acton, but also with Michal Pivonka and Peter Bondra.When the players were introduced in the Oct. 8 home opener, no player received longer, louder applause than coat-and-tie-clad Dale Hunter, who&rsquo;s serving his 21-game suspension.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 5: Brendan Witt D, returned to Seattle (WHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mike Ridley, Michal Pivonka, Dave Poulin. Keith Acton.LW&ndash;Dimitri Khristich. Todd Krygier, Kelly Miller, Craig Berube.RW&ndash;Pat Elynulk. Peter Bondra. Keith Jones. Alan May.LD&ndash;Caile Johansson, Al lafrate, Enrico Ciccone.RD&ndash;Kevin Hatcher, Sylvain Cote, Jason Woolley, Shawn Anderson.G&ndash;Don Beaupre, Olie Kolzig.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Randy Burridge, LW, groin pull day-to-day. Rick Tabaracci, G, strained right knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

Trying to get the fax straight leaves two sides at Witt’s end

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div>It took three straight losses and 18 cups of coffee, but Tampa Bay Lightning coach Terry Crisp has finally concocted a remedy to cure his ailing team.This is no miracle cure, though. Rather, it is an old-fashioned antidote. The same one, in fact, that Crisp used a year ago to pull his team out of the doldrums.&ldquo;Last year we had a system where we rewarded effort,&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;It was a simple system. If you worked hard and gave an honest effort, you played. If you didn&rsquo;t, you didn&rsquo;t play.&ldquo;We wandered away from that system in the first few games. But I&rsquo;ve let our guys know we&rsquo;re going back to it. I don&rsquo;t care who you are or what your name or reputation is. If you give us the effort we&rsquo;re looking for, you&rsquo;ll get your ice time. If you don&rsquo;t, you won&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Crisp veered away from his old system because he thought the players could break out of their early slide on their own.The Lightning was winless in its first three games and the offense was producing at a rate of just two goals per game.Crisp said he, like others, fell into the trap of believing that newcomers such as Denis Savard, Petr Klima and Bill McDougall would automatically make the Lightning a better team.&ldquo;You can have all the superstars on your team you want, but if they don&rsquo;t work then the results aren&rsquo;t going to be any different,&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;I think we&rsquo;re all guilty of standing around and waiting for these new guys to carry us and that&rsquo;s where we&rsquo;ve made a mistake.&rdquo;FAN-TASTIC RECORD: The Lightning set an NHL attendance record when it drew a crowd of 27,227 for its home opener against the Florida Panthers at the ThunderDome Oct. 9.The crowd wasn&rsquo;t only the biggest in NHL history, it was also most disappointed.On a night when many in the sellout crowd came to see Tampa Bay establish itself as Florida&rsquo;s dominant NHL franchise, the Lightning only managed to skate deeper into its early-season slump as it dropped a 20 game to its cross-state rival.The NHL did not have a previous single-game attendance record, but the unofficial record was set at Detroit&rsquo;s Joe Louis Arena on Nov. 25, 1983, when 21,019 fans saw a game between the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins.NOTEBOOK: Veteran Adam Creighton, who injured his left knee in the Lightning&rsquo;s 5-4 loss to the New York Rangers Oct. 7, will be sidelined until mid-November. Creighton strained the medial collateral ligament in his right knee when he collided with Mike Gartner of the Rangers. An MRI exam revealed no further damage in Creighton&rsquo;s knee.Including an Oct. 1 pre-season game, the Lightning drew an average of more than 24,000 fans to its first two games at the ThunderDome.Rookie center Chris Gratton, the third overall pick in the 1993 draft, had one assist in his first three games with the Lightning.<h2>TAMPA BAY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 9: Brent Gretzky, C, recalled from Atlanta (IHL). Oct. 10: Gretzky assigned to Atlanta.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Denis Savard. Bill McDougall, Chris Gratton.LW&ndash;Rob Zamuner, Marc Bureau. Rob Dimaio, Danton Cole.RW&ndash;John Tucker, Petr Klima; Mikael Andersson, Rudy Poeschek.LD&ndash;Joe Reekie, Roman Hamrlik, Donald Dufresne, Normand Rochefort.RD&ndash;Bob Beers. Shawn Chambers. Marc Bergevin.G&ndash;Daren Puppa, Pat Jablonski.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Adam Creighton, LW, strained right knee, Nov. 14. Brian Bradley, C, bruised left shoulder, day-to-day. Gerard Gallant, LW, right hip pointer, day-to-day. &#9632;

Crisp revises system

<div class="byline">By Bob McKenzie</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01315/6157075-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="380" height="533"></div>The first clue of exactly what the NHL is up against in Texas can be seen before the plane even touches down in the Big D.A first-time visitor looks out the porthole window to see a football complex below, complete with grandstands on each side of the field, artificial turf and a grass practice field alongside.&ldquo;What college is that?&rdquo; the visitor asks a Texan seatmate.&ldquo;Son, that ain&rsquo;t no college,&rdquo; comes the response. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a high school.&rdquo;Welcome to Dallas.In the Big D, there are three sports that matter: pro football, high school football and college football. Friday night is high school football night, when an average of 15,000 Texans pour into those pro-like facilities all across the state.Dallas Stars&rsquo; owner Norm Green is banking at least that many will turn out for Hockey Night in Dallas.And, on the opening night of the 1993-94 regular season, the man who took the North Stars out of Minnesota wasn&rsquo;t disappointed.A few hundred seats remained empty, but it was an announced sellout of 16,914 at refurbished Reunion Arena to see the new Dallas Stars defeat the Detroit Red Wings 6-4.The majority of the crowd was obviously new to the game, but they cheered enthusiastically at all the right times and appeared to thoroughly enjoy themselves. Reunion was rockin&rsquo;. It was an impressive debut.&ldquo;All signs point to this being a tremendous success,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;Whether it happens after Day 1 or Year 1 or Year 2 remains to be seen. But it&rsquo;s going to happen. Hockey is a natural down here.&rdquo;Well, Dallas is certainly a true sports city. When fans aren&rsquo;t worshipping at the altar of pigskin, there are the National Basketball Association Mavericks and American League Texas Rangers to consider. And now the Stars, the NHL&rsquo;s sixth Sun Belt franchise.&ldquo;The perception of hockey as an exclusively northern game has always been wrong,&rdquo; Green said. &ldquo;The game is played inside. What difference does it matter what the temperature is outside? And to be a hockey fan, you don&rsquo;t have to have played the game before.&rdquo;The man has a point Football, baseball and basketball obviously rate ahead of hockey in terms of familiarity and appeal, but how is that any different than a number of U.S.&rsquo;cities in the Northeast?The Philadelphia Flyers, who have won two Stanley Cups, are in their 27th year, but when the Phillies advance to the National League championship, Eagles&rsquo; quarterback Randall Cunningham breaks his leg and the &rsquo;76ers begin camp, you are reminded the Flyers still sit low on the sports totem.Obviously, the Flyers are more engrained in the Philadelphia scene than the Stars are in Dallas, but take a walk through Philly and you can round up a whole raft of hockey ignoramuses real quick.The most important numbers for the success of hockey are not on a thermometer.In the Big D, it&rsquo;s 4 million the population of the greater metro area. Or 16,914, the number of seats at Reunion. Or 8,100, the number of season tickets that have been sold and the corresponding revenue generated.There are no luxury boxes in Reunion, but Green has vowed that will soon change.&ldquo;By selling 8,100 season tickets, we&rsquo;ve already taken in more ticket revenue here in Dallas than the club did in all of last year in Minnesota,&rdquo; Stars&rsquo; public relations director Larry Kelly said.Green is obviously sold on it. He has already invested $10 million, sprucing up the city-owned arena and purchasing (and totally refurbishing) a practice facility (the StarCenter) right beside the Cowboys&rsquo; impressive training compound in nearby Irving.The Stars are already at war with the Mavericks over the shared tenancy arrangement at Reunion. The basketball team&rsquo;s fear and loathing, though, probably has as much to do with its own insecurities as it does with Green, who can be a little, ahem, pushy at times.The Mavericks are the NBA&rsquo;s worst team. They drew only 12,000 to their season opener last year. The Stars, an established NHL club with legitimate playoff aspirations, represent a threat.Hockey will never cut into football&rsquo;s popularity in the Lone Star State, nor will it even try. The Stars look upon it as an ally, not an enemy.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re telling the fans here that if they like football, with all its hitting and contact,&rdquo; Green said, &ldquo;then they are going to love the speed and hitting of hockey.&rdquo;Based on just one night&rsquo;s work, that certainly seems within the realm of possibility. &#9632;

f0041-01

Stars hit paydirt in Dallas opener

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>The 1993 NHL entry draft was a day Jeff Viitanen will never forget, but for all the wrong reasons.Heading into the draft, the 18-year-old defenseman with Verdun&rsquo;s College Francais was ranked 59th overall by the NHL&rsquo;s Central Scouting Bureau. Viitanen arrived at the Le Colisee in Quebec City the morning of the draft, along with his parents and sister, confident his name would be called.It never was.&ldquo;I sat through the whole draft,&rdquo; Viitanen recalled. &ldquo;We were there for something like eight hours. It was very disappointing.&rdquo;Viitanen wasn&rsquo;t the only one surprised.&ldquo;I was very surprised,&rdquo; said Frank Bonello the NHL&rsquo;s director of central scouting. &ldquo;I really don&rsquo;t know why he wasn&rsquo;t drafted&hellip;there wasn&rsquo;t anything obvious. He did everything fairly well.&ldquo;If there was one area I had to pick that he could work on it would be his puckhandling.&rdquo;Viitanen, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound defensive defenseman from Old Greenwich, Conn., had no goals, 11 assists and 27 penalty minutes in 62 games last season. He was invited to the Ottawa Senators&rsquo; rookie camp.&ldquo;I thought I had a good camp,&rdquo; Viitanen said, &ldquo;but they sent all the 18-year-olds back to junior-except for Alexandre (Daigle).&rdquo;Viitanen says he has something to prove this season to scouts who overlooked him.&ldquo;I want to prove that they missed out on me and that they were wrong,&rdquo; he said.One way he plans to do that is to play a more physical game, dishing out as many bodychecks as possible and making sure to finish off his checks.And he won&rsquo;t be afraid to drop his gloves, either. Viitanen&rsquo;s two fights in the pre-season matched his total for all of last year and he has already had one fight in the regular season.&ldquo;My goal is to double all my totals this season,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;including penalty minutes.&rdquo;Viitanen is already well on his way. Nine games into the season he had two goals, three points and 17 penalty minutes.TITAN RETURNS: Benoit Larose, who was named the Quebec League&rsquo;s outstanding defenseman last season, has returned to the Laval Titan as a 20-year-old.The Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; fourth-round pick at June&rsquo;s NHL draft played his first game with Laval Oct. 3.Larose&rsquo;s hockey career almost came to a sudden end last April when he sustained a burst blood vessel in his neck during a playoff game. He was rushed to hospital and was paralyzed for 45 minutes. He remained in hospital for several weeks and missed the remainder of the playoffs and Memorial Cup.The Ottawa native says he&rsquo;s still having some problems with his coordination, especially his right side. His doctors don&rsquo;t know how long it will take for a complete recovery, but they say there is no danger in him playing.And Larose is confident he will play in the NHL one day.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not worried,&rdquo; Larose said, &ldquo;and each day I consider myself lucky to still be able to play hockey.&rdquo;DUBE ON FIRE: Laval right winger Yanick Dube has picked up right where he left off at last year&rsquo;s Memorial Cup.The 5-foot-9, 170-pounder led Laval with four goals in five Memorial Cup games last season. This year the 19-year-old had 15 goals and 29 points in 11 games to lead the league in scoring. He had 45 goals and 83 points in 68 games last season.EUROPEAN FLAVOR: There are nine Europeans playing in the QMJHL this season. They are: Russians Vitali Kozel and Dimitri Goubar (Beauport Harfangs); Vladimir Haylak and Alexei Lozhkim (Chicoutimi Sague-neens), and Sergei Polischouk (Shawinigan Cataractes); Norway&rsquo;s Lars Bruggerman (Hull Olympiques); Jan Melichercik of Slovakia (St-Jean Lynx); England&rsquo;s Lachlan Coombe (Sherbrooke Faucons); and Sweden&rsquo;s Shin Larsson (College Francais). &#9632;

Viitanen out to prove NHL wrong

<div class="byline">By Bill Montague</div>If it&rsquo;s true that hardship builds character, Jamie Matthews should be a real character player this season.First, the Chicago Blackhawks gave up on him after choosing him in the second round just two years ago. Then after being selected in the 11th round by the San Jose Sharks last June, Matthews sustained an injury that will keep him out of hockey for most of the first half of the season.Matthews, a 20-year-old playmaking center with the Sudbury Wolves, was hoping to gain employment with the San Jose Sharks this season and had little intention of returning to Sudbury as an overage player.But at a summer camp in Brainerd, Minn., run by Sharks&rsquo; director of player personnel Chuck Grillo, Matthews was struck in the face by the skate of Ottawa 67&rsquo;s defenseman Fredrik Oduya, another Sharks hopeful, and had to be taken to hospital.He underwent close to five hours of surgery and needed 100 stitches to repair damage to his nose. He cannot play contact hockey until at least Nov. 1 and will have to wear a full face shield for the rest of the season.Doctors put a wire in his nose to secure the shattered bone and inserted 75 stitches on the inside of his nose and 25 on the outside.Because of the amount of playing time he will lose, the Sharks sent him back to junior for a fifth season. Matthews scored 30 goals and 92 points in 65 games last season, In 225 career OHL games, the 20-year-old from Amherst, N.S., has scored 86 goals and 272 points.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an obstacle because I didn&rsquo;t plan on coming back as an overage,&rdquo; said the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Matthews. &ldquo;I still can&rsquo;t play for another month so it definitely set me back. But there&rsquo;s not much I can do about it except work hard and do the best I can.&rdquo;A PETES TREAT: The Peterborough Petes received a big treat in early October when defenseman Brent Tully, one of the league&rsquo;s best, was returned from the Vancouver Canucks training camp.Tully was rumored to be headed to the Canadian Olympic program, but coach Tom Renney said he&rsquo;s not interested in the big defenseman.Tully, and former partner Chris Pronger, helped form one of the best defensive units in the OHL last season. He also played on Canada&rsquo;s gold-medal winning junior team.JUNIOR OLYMPICS: Team Canada coach Tom Renney says he doubts whether his team will have more than three junior-aged players on its roster for the Lillehammer Games.Team Canada has come under scrutiny by some junior operators, who are upset at losing their marquee players. But Renney insists that won&rsquo;t be the case. He said they won&rsquo;t take a second player off one team.&ldquo;Personally, and I&rsquo;m speaking on behalf of our program, we&rsquo;re cognizant of the fact junior teams need their marquee players to attract fans and win,&rdquo; Renney said. &ldquo;One thing we will not do is actively pursue a second player off a team. That goes against our code of ethics.&ldquo;We certainly do have interest in those players (major junior stars) but we&rsquo;re not going to win a gold medal with a major junior all-star team. The fact is, we may have two or three, that&rsquo;s it.&rdquo;At present, Brett Lindros from the Kingston Frontenacs, Todd Warriner from the Kitchener Rangers, Martin Gendron from the Hull Olympiques and overage prospect Manny Legace from the Niagara Falls Thunder, are on the Olympic roster. London Knights&rsquo; defenseman Nick Stajduhar is another candidate.MOVING ON: Jeff Walker has had enough of the hockey and has decided to leave the Peterborough Petes and pursue another career. Walker, a 19-year-old who played both defense and left wing for the Petes last season, was selected in the ninth round by the Detroit Red Wings in 1992. &#9632;

Matthews getting ready for fifth year with Wolves

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>Rick Girard&rsquo;s introductory taste of the NHL was predominantly sweet.The 19-year-old center notched three goals and three assists in three pre-season games with the Vancouver Canucks before being returned to the Western League&rsquo;s Swift Current Broncos.&ldquo;It was a great experience,&rdquo; said Girard, Vancouver&rsquo;s second-round selection (46th overall) in the June 26 entry draft.&ldquo;There are only positive things on my mind. Now that I&rsquo;ve played in games and practices with some of the best players in the NHL, I have an idea of what to expect.&rdquo;Girard sustained two minor injuries at Canucks&rsquo; camp&ndash;a Charley horse and a hyper-extended left shoulder-but was ready for action when he returned to the WHL.&ldquo;The NHL game is harder, but it&rsquo;s also easier,&rdquo; Girard said. &ldquo;The game is faster and the players are better. In that respect, it&rsquo;s harder. But on the other hand, everyone is where they&rsquo;re supposed to be. You don&rsquo;t find three guys chasing the puck who aren&rsquo;t supposed to be.&rdquo;Girard isn&rsquo;t downcast about returning to the WHL.&ldquo;I expected to come back, but I wanted to make a good impression for next year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I did that. I was happy with the camp and I might have surprised them in some ways.&rdquo;The knock on Girard in the past has been his skating. He&rsquo;s always working on that.&ldquo;My skating has been put down a lot,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was skating well and I surprised them. I played with confidence. You wouldn&rsquo;t expect a guy at his first camp to play with confidence, but I did and I had good results.&rdquo;Girard had just 14 goals and 31 points in 45 games in his draft year (1991-92) before erupting last season with 71 goals and 141 points in 72 games. This time around, he wouldn&rsquo;t mind making a run at the scoring title, despite missing Swift Current&rsquo;s first four games.He had three goals in his season debut, a 6-4 Broncos&rsquo; win over the Red Deer Rebels Oct. 6.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just going to play hard and do my best,&rdquo; Girard said-. &ldquo;If a scoring title is part of that, great, but I&rsquo;m not going to worry about it. One of my major goals is to be invited back to the (Canadian) national junior team camp and possibly make that team.&rdquo;EGELAND BACK: Getting drafted wasn&rsquo;t a problem for Tacoma Rockets&rsquo; center Allan Egeland. The Tampa Bay Lightning picked him in the third round (55th overall) June 26.But Tampa Bay returned the 20-year-old Egeland to the WHL, even though he was eligible to play in the minor leagues this season.Was Rockets&rsquo; GM Bruce Hamilton surprised to get Egeland back?&ldquo;Shocked,&rdquo; Hamilton said.Egeland then racked up 13 points-including eight goals-in four regular-season games.&ldquo;I was a little disappointed coming back,&rdquo; said Egeland, who had 56 goals and 113 points in 71 games last season. &ldquo;But if I had to come back, this is a great place to come back to.&rdquo;Egeland has yet to sign with the Lightning.MIXED FEELINGS: Regina Pats&rsquo; center Louis Dumont returned to the WHL with some misgivings.Dumont, 20, had hoped to spend this season with the American League&rsquo;s Springfield Indians&ndash;the Hartford Whalers&rsquo; chief minor-league affiliate.But Hartford wouldn&rsquo;t offer Dumont anything more than a 25-game contract, so he rejoined the Pats. Dumont wanted a one-year deal.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be positive about it,&rdquo; said Dumont, who attended Hartford&rsquo;s camp on a tryout basis. We&rsquo;re going to have a good team in Regina, so that&rsquo;s no problem. I&rsquo;m happy to come back, even though it wasn&rsquo;t my first choice.&rdquo;Dumont is in his fourth WHL season. He had 62 goals and 121 points last winter to place fourth in the WHL&rsquo;s scoring derby.HAPPY RETURNS: Red Deer welcomed back rearguard Darren Van Impe. who attended the New York Islanders&rsquo; camp. Goalie Stan Matwijiw, is back with the Prince Albert Raiders after a stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs. &#9632;

Girard back for seasoning after taste of good life

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>The International League has been gunning to push its franchises into the top markets across the United States.Now the league has signed a deal that will give it a major-league cable television package as well.Prime Network, which has merged with SportsChannel America to create a 38-million subscriber audience, has reached agreement with the league for a telecast package that will expose all 13 teams this season.The deal also includes three Turner Cup playoff games in May.&ldquo;Prime Network is bringing high profile events to its national audience,&rdquo; said Dan Wilhelm, vice-president of programming and network operations for Prime Network. &ldquo;The 1993-94 IHL telecast package represents that strength and quality.&rdquo;The package has nine regular-season games, including the 20th IHL All-Star Game at Fort Wayne Jan. 26.The IHL coverage will be part of a transition in which PrimeNetwork hits the air this fall with SportsChannel to create a 20-affiliate, nationwide network that reaches 48 of the top 50 designated market areas as defined by the A.C. Neilson ratings bureau.The first televised game will be Dec. 4, with the Indianapolis Ice visiting the San Diego Gulls.Here&rsquo;s the rest of the schedule, which will be seen either live or by tape delay on each affiliate: Dec. 11-Peoria Rivermen at Cleveland Lumbeijacks; Dec. 31-Milwaukee Admirals at Las Vegas Thunder; Jan. 7&mdash;Atlanta Knights at Cincinnati Cyclones; Jan. 14&mdash;Kansas City Blades at Milwaukee; Jan. 26&mdash;IHL All-Star Game at Fort Wayne; Feb. 5-Fort Wayne Komets at Kalamazoo K-Wings; Feb. 11-Cincinnati at Kansas City; Feb. 19&mdash;Salt Lake Golden Eagles at Phoenix Roadrunners.INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR: Several IHL teams have Europeans on their rosters this season.Among the notables who showed up and could become impact players:&#9633; Zigmund Palffy, 21, LW, Salt Lake. The New York Islanders&rsquo; second-round pick in 1991 has excellent speed and puckhandling abilities. He scored 38 goals in 41 games for Dukla Jihlava in the Czech League.&#9633; Leonid Toropchenko, 25, C, Cleveland. The Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; 10th-round draft choice in 1993 is imposing (6-foot-4 and 220-pounds). He led the Springfield Indians of the American League last season with 31 goals and 61 points in 71 games.&#9633; Andrei Nazarov, 19, LW, Kansas City. The San Jose Sharks&rsquo; No. 2 pick in 1992 is big and lean at 6-foot-4, 200-pounds. He played for Russian Professional League champion Moscow Dynamo last season, scoring eight goals in 42 games.&#9633; Alexander Cherbayev, 20, LW, Kansas City. Many scouts figured Cherbayev would crack San Jose&rsquo;s lineup this season. He&rsquo;s a 50-goal candidate and rookie-of-the-year challenger if he stays down the full season.I-OPENERS: San Diego received last season&rsquo;s IHL rookie of the year goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov from the Might Ducks of Anaheim&hellip;Peoria was left without a playmaker at center after the parent club St. Louis Blues unexpectedly kept last season&rsquo;s most valuable player, center Tony Hrkac, IHL veteran Kevin Miehm and rookie Jim Montgomery on the big-league roster. The Rivermen had banked on two of the three being assigned to Peoria.Phoenix received eight forwards who saw NHL action last season from the parent Los Angeles Kings. Included in the group is right winger John Druce (50 games with the Winnipeg Jets) and 1989-90 IHL rookie of the year center Rob Murphy (44 games with the Ottawa Senators). &#9632;

Television package pushes league into living room

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>In one year, Boris Rousson went from solid prospect to forgotten backup.But he&rsquo;s out to show the New York Rangers they better not forget about him.&ldquo;One thing I want to show the Rangers and everybody else watching is that I want to be an NHL goalie, I don&rsquo;t want to be a minor-leaguer my whole career,&rdquo; Rousson said.Signed as a free agent out of the Quebec League, Rousson had a fine rookie season in the American League in 1991-92. He had a 16-15-6 record and 3.26 goals-against average for Binghamton, working his way onto an even par with veteran Mark Laforest by mid-season.He was expected to play half of Binghamton&rsquo;s games last season as rookie Corey Hirsch learned the pro ropes and shared time.But by December, Hirsch established himself as the team&rsquo;s top goalie. He was 35-4-5 with a 2.79 GAA, the AHL&rsquo;s only goalie with a sub-3.00 average. Those numbers earned Hirsch a first-team all-star selection, rookie-of-the-year honors and The Hockey News&rsquo; nod as top minor pro prospect. Hirsch will play for Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team this season.Rousson, meanwhile, became a spectator. He played in only 31 games, posting an 18-9-4 record and 3.74 GAA. During one stretch, including a conditioning stint by Mike Richter, Rousson went a month without playing.&ldquo;It was kind of hard to keep the timing,&rdquo; said Rousson, 23. But he wasn&rsquo;t complaining or fighting to get his job back.&ldquo;I let Corey be the main man too easily,&rdquo; Rousson said. &ldquo;I accepted being No. 2 all along. Maybe I didn&rsquo;t try to be No. 1.&rdquo;He vowed over the summer to take a different attitude into this season. A workout routine stripped him of five-pounds.&ldquo;I also worked on my mental approach,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I went into camp determined to be the No. 1 goalie in Binghamton. I told myself not to worry about anyone but myself and to stop looking over my shoulder, worrying about who might be there.&rdquo;With Hirsch elsewhere, the competition this season will come from a pair of rookies, Mike Gilmour and Jon Hillebrandt.&ldquo;Obviously it&rsquo;s a good move to me,&rdquo; Rousson said. &ldquo;If Corey would have been in Binghamton, I probably would have been going somewhere else. It&rsquo;s a good move for Corey and New York. We both will play a lot of games and New York can develop two goalies.&rdquo;YOU DIRTY RATS: The Albany River Rats told the Rochester Americans they wanted to use practice jerseys of the parent New Jersey Devils for their Oct. 8 game at Rochester so they could save their uniforms for their home opener.The River Rats preferred to unveil their snazzy new logo and sweaters in their home opener Oct. 9 at the Knickerbocker Arena against Rochester.But when told of the plan, Americans&rsquo; general manager Joe Baumann complained to the River Rats, then the AHL. He said a team in make-shift uniforms would tarnish the integrity of the league and his opening-night ceremonies.Albany said road jerseys hadn&rsquo;t been shipped by the manufacturer because the team told the company the sweaters wouldn&rsquo;t be needed until an Oct. 15 road game at Hamilton.But after a day of back-and-forth discussions and an appeal from AHL president Jack Butterfield, the River Rats agreed to wear the new uniforms.TOUGH EARLY TRIP: The newest team in the AHL, the Saint John Flames started the season with a six-game, 11-day road trip through the northeastern U.S.The reason: When the AHL schedule was made in May, the New Brunswick-based Flames weren&rsquo;t sure if construction of the Harbour Station rink would be completed. To be on the safe side, the Flames asked to open the season on the road.The finishing touches of the 6,100-seat arena were being put on in early October and the home opener is set for Oct. 19 against the Adirondack Red Wings. &#9632;

Rousson not washed up at 23

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>Richmond Renegades&rsquo; coach Roy Sommer is looking forward to finishing a job he started last season.Sommer is returning to the new-look Renegades to continue his goal of capturing the East Coast League championship.Over the summer, however, he wasn&rsquo;t sure what his status was.&ldquo;Actually, I think I was on my way to another team,&rdquo; Sommer admitted. &ldquo;I had offers.&rdquo;Sommer wasn&rsquo;t more specific, but he was rumored to be going to one of the league&rsquo;s expansion teams.He signed a new deal with the team last year, but there was reason to think he might be bought out because David Elmore purchased the franchise from Allan Harvie. New ownership in the ECHL reserves the right to place someone of its choosing in such a high-profile job.But it took just one phone call from Elmore to put any speculation to rest.&ldquo;The transition was pretty smooth,&rdquo; Sommer said. &ldquo;I called the office and Dave happened to be on the other line. We worked things out with the first phone call. That&rsquo;s all it took.&rdquo;Sommer, who started his ECHL coaching career in Roanoke before moving to Richmond last season, deserved a chance to complete a masterful rebuilding job that began to pay dividends after Jan. 1.The Renegades were 13-17-0 at the time and mired in sixth place in the East Division. Through a series of trades and other personnel moves, Richmond turned its season around. The Renegades went 21-11-2 to finish 34-28-2 and qualified for the playoffs. The Johnstown Chiefs eliminated the Renegades in a wild-card game.Sommer made some shrewd moves to key the turnaround. Forty-five goal scorer Darren Colbourne was acquired from the Dayton Bombers and delivered 26 goals in 29 games. Steve Mirabile, another accomplished scorer, was picked up in a trade with the Hampton Roads Admirals. He scored 11 times in 27 games. Other returnees to this year&rsquo;s team include veterans Brendan Flynn and Mark Hicks.TIES THAT BIND: Raleigh IceCaps&rsquo; coach Kurt Kleinendorst played at Providence College from 1979-1983 for coach Lou Lamoriello and they will continue to stay in close touch.When the IceCaps were looking for a second NHL affiliation to go with the Hartford Whalers, it was logical that Kleinendorst approach the New Jersey Devils, whose president-general manager is Lamoriello.&ldquo;We are very pleased to be affiliated with the Devils,&rdquo; said Kleinendorst, who begins his third season at the helm of the IceCaps. &ldquo;They are a great organization and we expect to see some of their top prospects playing here this season.&rdquo;Said Lamoriello: &ldquo;Through our working agreement with the Raleigh franchise, the New Jersey Devils are pleased to play a part in continuing the spread of pro hockey through the region.&rdquo;&ldquo;Players who might not get much ice time at a higher level will get lots of experience here,&rdquo; Kleinendorst said. &ldquo;It benefits both the NHL club and the East Coast League club.&rdquo;Raleigh was affiliated with the Toronto Maple Leafs last season.FOR THE DEFENSE: The Greensboro Monarchs re-signed a pair of heavy-hitting defensemen and said goodbye to a pair of rearguards.Returning to the Monarchs are Greg Capson and Dean Zayonce. Capson, 24, accumulated 258 penalty minutes in 54 games with the Monarchs last season. He scored one goal and nine points. Zayonce, 23, split parts of the last two years with the Halifax Citadels of the American League. He had one goal and nine points in 26 games with Greensboro a year ago.To make room for the two blueliners, the Monarchs sold defenseman Chris Wolanin to the Dayton Bombers and Trevor Smith to the South Carolina Stingrays. &#9632;

Sunny days in Richmond as Sommer back as coach

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01244/6157295-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Teemu Selanne picked up where he left off last season, scoring a hat-trick against Washington Oct. 6.</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01202/6157288-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="3087" height="3572"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01204/6157281-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="3097" height="1979"></div> &#9632;

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NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0046-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-02142/6157326-1-eng-US/f0046-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS

<h2>NOTE</h2>Unofficial game summaries provided by National Hockey League; (shots on goal/plus-minus); SA-shots against; GA-goals against ENG-empty net goals; DEC-decision, charged to goaltenders of record when deciding goal is scored.<h2>TUESDAY, OCT. 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-01232/6157490-1-eng-US/f0047-012.jpg" title="f0047-01" width="598" height="3067"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-02166/6157483-1-eng-US/f0047-022.jpg" title="f0047-02" width="592" height="1981"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, OCT. 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-03132/6157476-1-eng-US/f0047-032.jpg" title="f0047-03" width="606" height="1404"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0489/6157469-1-eng-US/f0047-042.jpg" title="f0047-04" width="598" height="3487"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0565/6157462-1-eng-US/f0047-052.jpg" title="f0047-05" width="589" height="3489"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0650/6157455-1-eng-US/f0047-062.jpg" title="f0047-06" width="587" height="1114"></div><h2>THURSDAY, OCT. 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0047-0743/6157448-1-eng-US/f0047-072.jpg" title="f0047-07" width="591" height="2276"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01158/6157441-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="592" height="3464"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-02104/6157434-1-eng-US/f0048-022.jpg" title="f0048-02" width="587" height="2040"></div><h2>FRIDAY, OCT. 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0367/6157427-1-eng-US/f0048-032.jpg" title="f0048-03" width="585" height="1329"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0452/6157420-1-eng-US/f0048-042.jpg" title="f0048-04" width="579" height="3114"></div><h2>SATURDAY, OCT. 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0537/6157413-1-eng-US/f0048-052.jpg" title="f0048-05" width="581" height="255"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0626/6157406-1-eng-US/f0048-062.jpg" title="f0048-06" width="585" height="3475"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0720/6157399-1-eng-US/f0048-072.jpg" title="f0048-07" width="599" height="3478"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01140/6157392-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="594" height="3495"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0298/6157385-1-eng-US/f0049-022.jpg" title="f0049-02" width="594" height="3493"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0362/6157378-1-eng-US/f0049-032.jpg" title="f0049-03" width="596" height="1902"></div><h2>SUNDAY, OCT. 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0453/6157371-1-eng-US/f0049-042.jpg" title="f0049-04" width="582" height="1484"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0532/6157364-1-eng-US/f0049-052.jpg" title="f0049-05" width="600" height="3487"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-0620/6157357-1-eng-US/f0049-062.jpg" title="f0049-06" width="600" height="3485"></div> &#9632;

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NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0050-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01141/6157528-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-01132/6157521-1-eng-US/f0051-012.jpg" title="f0051-01" width="1234" height="3531"></div> &#9632;

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SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0052-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-0276/6157597-1-eng-US/f0052-022.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-01129/6157590-1-eng-US/f0052-012.jpg" title="f0052-01" width="3101" height="3018"></div> &#9632;

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0053-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-01130/6157635-1-eng-US/f0053-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-01130/6157628-1-eng-US/f0054-012.jpg" title="f0054-01" width="3103" height="3517"></div> &#9632;

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CLASSIFIED

<div class="byline">By Al Morganti</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-01122/6157666-1-eng-US/f0055-012.jpg" title="f0055-01" width="379" height="535"></div>On the night basketball&rsquo;s greatest player-sitting in a luxury box at a baseball playoff game-made up his mind to tell the world about his retirement, hockey&rsquo;s best performer was sitting in a luxury box at the Spectrum in Philadelphia watching his team lose to the Flyers.The scene explained why Mario Lemieux will never be to the NHL what Michael Jordan has been to the National Basketball Association.Once again, the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; star began the season answering questions about his health. Once again, he was out of the lineup with a bad back. And once again, he answered questions about Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease.According to Lemieux and his doctors, the optimism they expressed when the condition was discovered last season still abounds. There is a five-year period before sufferers of the disease can be relatively sure they&rsquo;ve beaten it, but the signs so far have been encouraging. For his part, Lemieux continues to answer questions about cancer as if he were talking about a pulled muscle.But that&rsquo;s not the case.In fact, one of the reasons Lemieux won&rsquo;t be available to the Penguins during the first three or four weeks of the season is because of the turmoil he went through last season. After all, he could have had the surgery on his back well before late July. In that case&ndash;at least theoretically-Lemieux would have been ready for the start of the season.So why didn&rsquo;t he have the surgery earlier? Doesn&rsquo;t a guy earning an average of $7 million a year owe it to his fans and his employers to be back on the ice as soon as possible?The Penguins don&rsquo;t think so.&ldquo;We have no problems with the way Mario handled things,&rdquo; said general manager Craig Patrick. &ldquo;He had some personal things to take care of. That&rsquo;s all we&rsquo;ll say and I think that&rsquo;s all Mario wants to say.&rdquo;Lemieux may not have wanted to say more, but he did. For all he went through last season and for all the respect he gained from fans, players and media for his battle against cancer, he was still criticized during the off-season for going into hiding.He was nowhere to be found after the Penguins were bounced from the playoffs; he made only one public appearance to discuss the team and his future; and he was also making himself very scarce around the practice rink as he skated for the first few times.For a league which needs stars of Jordan&rsquo;s stature, a quiet Lemieux is not a good sign. It&rsquo;s hard enough to package outgoing personalities such as Wayne Gretzky or Brett Hull, let alone Lemieux.&ldquo;I hope people will understand I needed some time to myself and my family,&rdquo; Lemieux said. There was no bitter edge to his voice, no snarl, no whining. Rather, it was the voice of a relaxed man who is handling the situation the only way he feels comfortable.&ldquo;I went through a lot last season,&rdquo; he said.A lot more than he let on in public. And it doesn&rsquo;t take a demonstrative Lemieux to understand that was the case. Words aren&rsquo;t necessary. His eyes tell the story. Lemieux, who had lost a relative to the same disease a few years earlier, was stunned by the cancer scare. Add to that the recurring back problems, a wedding, a new daughter and his team getting upset in the playoffs&hellip;He just didn&rsquo;t have it in him to find a soap box to climb aboard and speak to the world. Even under the best circumstances he is quiet and reserved. After what happened last season he has become even more careful.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a private person,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy for me to talk about personal things. It&rsquo;s very uncomfortable.&rdquo;A week earlier, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was on national TV answering questions about the NHL&rsquo;s star-marketing problems. He indicated it wasn&rsquo;t the individuals&rsquo; faults their profiles aren&rsquo;t as high as their pro sports counterparts. In particular, he said Lemieux&rsquo;s courageous play should command its own attention.Maybe so, but that only goes so far. The rest is up to the individual, his team, the league and perhaps most of all, corporate sponsors. How impressive would the NBA marketing machine be without giants such as Nike, Reebok, Gatorade, Pepsi and Coke?We live in a world where Bo Jackson can never utter a word to the news media and still be perceived as a great guy, just on the basis of sneaker ads.That&rsquo;s why Michael Jordan will continue to be a megastar even after his retirement, while an in-his-prime Lemieux remains in a relative shadow.The kicker is that from all appearances, Lemieux doesn&rsquo;t want that spotlight and he&rsquo;s very content without it. &#9632;

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Mario’s no Jordan and that’s fine with him

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0055-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-0286/6157697-1-eng-US/f0055-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Senators believe Alexei Yashin, above, is better prepared to excel in the NHL this season than No. 1 pick Alexandre Daigle. (Dan Hamilton)</figcaption></div>OTTAWA-The curtain had just fallen in the first regular-season installment of the Ottawa Senators&rsquo; new major attraction; Yash and the Flash.Alexei Yashin, the No. 2 choice overall in the 1992 entry draft and Alexandre Daigle, last year&rsquo;s first overall selection, had played well as the Senators posted a 5-5 tie with the Quebec Nordiques in the seasonopener Oct. 6.In rapidly improving English, a solemn Yashin said his debut &ldquo;went not bad. We must play more games and get better, but I&rsquo;m happy.&rdquo;On the other side of the room, Daigle was eliciting yet another belly laugh from the media scrum. Daigle said he missed on his best scoring chance because he had turned himself around so much, &ldquo;my head was in my jockstrap.&rdquo;On the ice, in the dressing room, or anywhere in between, the Senators&rsquo; rookie pivots have virtually nothing in common except the English lessons they&rsquo;re taking and vast potential. They&rsquo;re a perfect match, just like fire and ice.Hockey for Daigle is a blessed passion, for Yashin, it&rsquo;s a beloved profession.&ldquo;Alexei is very businesslike, very deliberate,&rdquo; said Senators&rsquo; coach Rick Bowness. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not caught up in what&rsquo;s going on around him.&rdquo;The difference between the two extends to how they think on the ice.&ldquo;Alexei studies,&rdquo; said Senators&rsquo; director of player personnel John Ferguson. &ldquo;Alexandre operates more on instinct.&rdquo;When Daigle signed his $12.25 million dollar, five-year contract, he paid off the mortgage on his parents&rsquo; home just outside Laval, Que. Daigle, a native of Montreal, has been billeted with an Ottawa family.Yashin, who signed for a quarter of that amount, bought his parents and brother a new Ottawa home. The family, which has moved to Canada&rsquo;s capital from Russia, has begun the process of gaining status as landed immigrants.Daigle can make an icing interesting. He has good quickness, but fabulous straight-ahead speed. He is a gifted, if impromptu passer.Yashin, meanwhile, commands attention only when he has the puck. At 6-foot-3, 216-pounds, Yashin is the strongest Senator on the puck. He too has excellent passing skills, but where Daigle&rsquo;s speed allows him to roam the periphery, Yashin, an average skater, works the comers and the slot.While it was Daigle who collected two points to Yashin&rsquo;s one in the opener, Yashin is viewed as being more ready for the NHL game this season.Yashin is 15 months older, four inches taller and 42-pounds heavier than Daigle. He&rsquo;s a veteran of two seasons with Moscow Dynamo in the Russian Professional League, two World Junior Championships and one World Championship. Daigle was a minor figure in last year&rsquo;s Canadian WJC title.&ldquo;What you have to remember about Alexandre,&rdquo; said Senators&rsquo; assistant coach E.J. McGuire, &ldquo;is he&rsquo;s a guy who would otherwise be a university freshman playing professional hockey.&rdquo;Daigle did little in training camp, but still ended up with two goals and four points in seven games. His contract and promise guaranteed his presence in Ottawa, but his performance was not great. Yashin impressed, but only had two points to show for it.&ldquo;We think Yash is probably a little further along right now than Alexandre,&rdquo; McGuire said. &ldquo;But as a coaching staff, we know we&rsquo;re sitting on a gold mine. There&rsquo;s a lot of hard work to be done in adding polish, but the raw material is there.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0055-02

Pair of smart Alex

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>They began the season trying to revolutionize hockey. Or so it seemed.Instead of keeping two goalies-or even three, as some teams do-the Calgary Flames began the season with a four-goalie system.That&rsquo;s right, four. There was Mike Vernon, the clear No. 1. Then there were a pair of first-round draft choices, Trevor Kidd and Jason Muzzatti, competing for No. 2.In the background, waiting for something to give, is the forgotten man, Jeff Reese, last year&rsquo;s backup who posted a credible 14-4-1 record. Surely, someone could use an insurance policy with his record.Two things were working against Reese. The first was the decision to work one-or even both-of their young goalies into their lineup. As coach Dave King said during the preseason, the only way to know whether either Kidd or Muzzatti is NHL ready is to give them playing time.Kidd received the first opportunity to play Oct. 9 in Vancouver and recorded his first NHL win.Until such time as one or the other grabs the backup job, the Flames will rely on Vernon. He barely saw the net in the pre-season as the Flames tried to sort out the pecking order behind him.Ideally, the Flames would like to play Vernon in 50-54 games, about 10 fewer than each of the past two seasons. Last year, his best month came in December, when the team reeled off a 10-1-1 mark and moved as high as second overall.PLAYING HURT: On the day the Flames signed Kelly Kisio as a free agent in August, one of the first things they talked about was his grit.Kisio demonstrated that grit in the season-opener against the New York Islanders, playing with what was later diagnosed as a fractured kneecap.The injury occurred in the final pre-season game against the Edmonton Oilers, but Kisio shrugged it off and received permission to play. The soreness persisted after a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders Oct. 5, so he went for X-rays. The diagnosis: Not a bruise, but a break.Kisio won&rsquo;t be back until November.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Gary Suter twisted his right knee in an 5-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks Oct. 9, but the injury is not considered serious.The Flames acquired defenseman Peter Ahola from the Tampa Bay Lightning as a depth player, according to general manager Doug Rise-brough. That means his first look will come when there&rsquo;s an injury to a regular.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 4: Peter Ahola. D. acquired from Tampa Bay for future considerations, assigned to Saint John (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Joe Nieuwendyk. Robert Reichel. Joel Otto. Ted Drury.LW&ndash;Gary Roberts. Paul Ranheim, Vesa Viitakoski, Sandy McCarthy.RW&ndash;Theo Fleury, Greg Paslawski, German Titov, Ron Stern, Wes Walz,LD&ndash;Frank Musil, Chris Dahlquist, Brad Miller.RD&ndash;AI Maclnnis, Kevin Dahl, Kevin Wortman, Michel Petit.G&ndash;Mike Vernon, Jason Muzzatti, Trevor Kidd, Jeff Reese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Kelly Kisio, C, fractured kneecap, indefinite. Paul Kruse, LW, broken right toe, Nov. 1. Brad Schlegel, D, groin pull, day-to-day. Gary Suter, D, twisted right knee, day-to-day. Trent Yawney, D, tom right shoulder muscle, indefinite. &#9632;

Four-goalie system in use to establish pecking order

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>Some athletes love to say they gave 100 per cent in a game.Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; center Doug Weight has the amazing numbers to back it up; four goals on four shots in two wins to start the season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to get 168 goals, let&rsquo;s face it,&rdquo; Weight said. &ldquo;I want to put the team first, but obviously it&rsquo;s big for myself. I like to think of myself as an important cog.&rdquo;Weight struggled with groin, stomach and ankle injuries through the last two weeks of camp after starting with a bang. The injuries neutralized his skating speed.But he was on fire against the San Jose Sharks and New York Islanders, leading the Oilers to 3-2 and 5-1 wins Oct. 6 and Oct. 8. He thinks the official shot-counters may have missed a shot or two, but he knows a good story when he sees one.&ldquo;If it&rsquo;s four goals in four shots, so be it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But that&rsquo;s all it is. It&rsquo;s not going to get my head too big.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s a relief for Weight, who wants to be a go-to guy on this team. He&rsquo;s battling for the No. 1 center role which went to 18-year-old rookie Jason Arnott.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy for Dougie,&rdquo; said coach Ted Green. &ldquo;He struggled a bit in camp.&rdquo;But Weight said the state of his camp performance was overblown. He said it went from fair to brutal in media coverage over a week&rsquo;s time.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I was the worst player,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It just wasn&rsquo;t going in for me.&rdquo;BELIEVE IT ARNOTT: Jason Arnott scored the winner in his first NHL game, a 3-2 win over San Jose.&ldquo;Watching the puck dribble into the net for the win,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Everything went silent. Unbelievable feeling.&rdquo;In the process, he atoned for a bonehead unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. He lipped off at linesman Swede Knox, who had banished him twice from the faceoff circle. The Sharks scored the tying goal on the resulting power play.Arnott said he was nervous before the game. He signed a three-year, $2.1-million deal two days earlier.&ldquo;I had the shakes during &lsquo;O Canada,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I had a chance to play and scored the winning goal. It&rsquo;s a dream come true.&rdquo;So is his contract, which includes a $500,000 signing bonus. He can also make another $150,000 if he reaches 50 goals or 100 points in one season.NOTEBOOK: Both sides in the Oilers/Northlands Coliseum lease hassle are mum on negotiations. Oilers&rsquo; owner Peter Pocklington extended his deadline for a new deal from Oct. 6 to Oct. 13. If a deal isn&rsquo;t reached, he said he&rsquo;ll begin talking to cities interested in having the Oilers relocate&hellip;General manager Glen Sather tried to trade defenseman Francois Leroux, who was claimed off the waiver wire by the Ottawa Senators. Sather said Leroux was going to be a negative influence with a bad attitude on the Oilers&rsquo; American League affiliate in Cape Breton. &ldquo;He was going to be nothing but trouble,&rdquo; Sather said.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 4: Jason Arnott, C. signed three-year contract. Wayne Cowley. G. assigned to Cape Breton (AHL). Oct. 7: Kevin Todd. C, traded to Chicago for Adam Bennett, D.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Doug Weight, Jason Arnott. Vladimir Vujtek. Craig MacTavish, Todd Elik.LW&ndash;Zdeno Ciger, Shayne Corson. Scott Pearson. Kelly Buchberger, Louie DeBrusk.RW&ndash;Steve Rice, Roman Oksiuta, Dean McAmmond, Kirk Maltby, Shjon Podein.LD&ndash;Dave Manson, Luke Richardson, Geoff Smith, Adam Bennett.RD&ndash;lan Herbers. Chris Joseph, Igor Kravchuk. Brad Werenka.G&ndash;Bill Ranford. Fred Brathwaite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Scott Thornton, LW, sprained left ankle, day-to-day. &#9632;

Weight perfect 4-for-4

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>No San Jose Shark has the seniority of defenseman Rob Zettler. But Zettler has the feeling of being an outsider.Zettler appeared in a career-high 80 games last season and has played 154 for the Sharks in two seasons. Suddenly, though, he was a spectator for the first three games. He also was a lineup scratch for two pre-season games played at the San Jose Arena and he&rsquo;s concerned about his future.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what my situation is,&rdquo; Zettler said. &ldquo;Anytime you&rsquo;re not playing, you&rsquo;re disappointed and frustrated. I feel like I&rsquo;m on the outside.&rdquo;The 25-year-old has fallen victim to a management decision to test rookies Vlastimil Kroupa and Michal Sykora in regular-season games. Kroupa and Sykora played in the first three games and drew mixed reviews. Rookie Mike Rathje also is expected to get a taste of competition and if any of the rookies play well enough to stick, Zettler could be squeezed out.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m unhappy and I&rsquo;ve talked to them about it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They told me to be patient so I&rsquo;m being patient.&rdquo;Coach Kevin Constantine said he wants to analyze the play of the rookies for a &ldquo;couple of weeks&rdquo; before deciding whether they are ready to step up to the NHL.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to watch them closely,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;ve all shown glimpses of being able to get the job done, but we need to see that on a consistent basis.&rdquo;Although the Tampa Bay Lightning is known to have expressed some interest in Zettler during the off-season, Sharks&rsquo; director of hockey operations Dean Lombardi said no deal is in the works. Zettler said he hopes the Sharks keep him.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to go anywhere,&rdquo; Zettler said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve put my heart and soul into this team and I don&rsquo;t want to be anywhere but here.&rdquo;SUIT SEARCH: Before Russian winger Andrei Nazarov was assigned to the Kansas City Blades of the Inter national League, he caused a stir by showing up for a flight to a pre-sea-son game in Los Angeles wearing only a T-shirt and shorts.When asked where his suit was, Nazarov, the 10th overall pick in the 1992 draft, said he didn&rsquo;t own one. So when the plane landed, Nazarov and Sharks&rsquo; public relations man Ken Arnold began a wild shopping spree.But finding a suit to be worn off the rack by the 6-foot-4, 225-pound Nazarov wasn&rsquo;t easy. His measurements: a 39-inch sleeve, 17-inch neck, size 13 shoe and 48-long jacket.By the time the shoppers managed to get Nazarov outfitted, they had run up a bill of more than $900.NOTEBOOK: Winger Bob Er- rey, who was a part of two Stanley Cup winning teams with the Pittsburgh Penguins, opened the season as the captain, replacing the retired Doug Wilson. Winger Pat Falloon and defenseman Mike Lalor started the season as alternate captains&hellip;Kevin Constantine was still looking for his first NHL point as a head coach after the Sharks started the season by losing road games against the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and Los Angeles Kings.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 8: Dale Craigwell, C, assigned to Kansas City (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Kip Miller, Dave Capuano. Jamie Baker. Mike Sullivan.LW&ndash;Johan Garpenlov. David Bruce. Bob Errey, Gaetan Duchesne, Dave Matey.RW&ndash;Pat Falloon, Sergei Makarov. Rob Gaudreau, Jeff Odgers.LD&ndash;Jeff Norton. Sandis Ozolinsh, Michal Sykora. Mike Rathje, Rob Zettler.RD&ndash;Vlastimil Kroupa, Doug Zmolek, Mike Lalor, Jay More. Shawn Cronin.G&ndash;Arturs Irbe, Jimmy Waite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Igor Larionov, C, separated left shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

Zettler on sidelines while team tests rookies

<div class="byline">By Robyn Norwood</div>Terry Yake has been referred to as &lsquo;teriyaki&rsquo; on national television, but his clear identity with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim is goalscorer.He&rsquo;s the only Duck to have scored 20 goals in the NHL last season and is the closest thing the team has to an offensive star. That&rsquo;s good news for a 24-year-old who was left unprotected for the expansion draft by the Hartford Whalers.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got the opportunity to play a lot and show what I can do,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I went through six coaches and three GMs in Hartford. All they had was second-hand information on me. I wasn&rsquo;t the player they wanted to build their future on.&rdquo;The Ducks have prospect Paul Kariya they&rsquo;re building their future on, but in the meantime. Yake is showing a flair that gives Duck fans a little something to tide them over. He had a goal and two assists in Anaheim&rsquo;s first two games.Yake is a player the Ducks would like to have around for a while. They offered him a three-year contract while renegotiating with him in his option year. But instead of taking three years at the going rate now, Yake took the advice of his agent and took two years.That means if he proves his value is high this season, he can negotiate a raise as he enters his option year.&ldquo;Two-plus-one gives security,&rdquo; Yake said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m confident I&rsquo;ll be playing for a lot of years.&rdquo;COSTLY VENTURE: The Ducks&rsquo; opening-night extravaganza-produced by Disney-cost between $450,000 and $500,000, sources said.That&rsquo;s more expensive than the halftime shows at many New Year&rsquo;s Day bowl games and almost half as much as the $1 million spent on recent Super Bowl halftimes.Disney&rsquo;s 15-minute choreographed ice show and indoor pyrotechnics display cost more than 4 1/2 times what the San Jose Sharks claim they spent on their 1991 laser show.The total price tag isn&rsquo;t too many dollars away from the average annual NHL salary last season-$463,000. Maybe after a few weeks, the Ducks will wish they had the extra player.NOTEBOOK: Winger Lonnie Loach was pushed out of a job by the acquisition of Garry Valk from the Vancouver Canucks in the waiver draft. The Ducks had big plans for Loach, who has a decent touch around the net. He struggled in camp and was assigned to the San Diego Gulls of the International League.Left winger Troy Loney, who played on two Stanley Cup winners with the Pittsburgh Penguins, was named the first captain of the Mighty Ducks. Defenseman Randy Ladouceur, left winger Stu Grimson and right winger Todd Ewen were named alternates.<h2>ANAHEIM</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Anatoli Semenov, Patrik Camback. Shaun Van Allen, Bob Corkum.LW&ndash;Troy Loney, Tim Sweeney. Stu Grimson, Garry Valk.RW&ndash;Terry Yake, Joe Sacco, Steven King, Todd Ewen. Jim Thomson. Robin Bawa.LD&ndash;Alexei Kasatonov. Bill Houlder. Randy Ladouceur.RD&ndash;Sean Hill, Mark Ferner, David Williams, Myles O&rsquo;Connor.G&ndash;Guy Hebert. Ron Tugnutt.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bobby Dollas, D, sprained left thumb, day-to-day. Peter Douris, RW, sprained ligament in left knee, Oct. 20. &#9632;

Yake gets golden opportunity to be team’s offensive kingpin

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>Career minor leaguers Warren Rychel and Rick Knickle found homes with the Los Angeles Kings last season and now it could be Dominic Lavoie&rsquo;s turn.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a guy who needs a chance,&rdquo; coach Barry Melrose said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s lots of guys in the minors like that, hundreds of them.&rdquo;Well, maybe. But Lavoie became only the third defenseman in Los Angeles history to register a hat trick when he produced three goals Oct. 9 in a 10-3 wipeout of the Detroit Red Wings. And the 25-year-old didn&rsquo;t even begin the season with the Kings.Lavoie was signed as an unrestricted free agent in July. He played well in training camp, but was assigned to the Phoenix Roadrunners of the International League, his fourth minor-league city in a pro career that began in 1987.Lavoie had a goal and two assists in Phoenix&rsquo;s first game, a 6-2 win Oct. 6 against Salt Lake. He was recalled the next day because Charlie Huddy couldn&rsquo;t shoot after he was slashed on the hand in the Kings&rsquo; season-opening 5-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.Playing almost exclusively on power plays, Lavoie took seven shots and scored during two two-man advantages. He completed the hat trick at even strength in the third period when the Kings scored a clubrecord-tying seven goals.In 30 previous NHL games with the St. Louis Blues, Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins, he scored only two goals.&ldquo;You&rsquo;re always looking for a break. I hope this is it,&rdquo; Lavoie said.The only previous hat tricks registered by Kings&rsquo; defensemen came from Ian Turnbull, who had four goals Dec. 12, 1981 against Vancouver, and Steve Duchesne, who had three March 2, 1989 against St. Louis.&ldquo;This was a dream game. I don&rsquo;t expect to be scoring three goals every night,&rdquo; he said.HOWE ABOUT THAT: Wayne Gretzky scored two goals against Detroit&ndash;he had six points-to close to within 34 goals of Gordie Howe&rsquo;s career NHL record of 801.Gretzky is confident the record will fall this year.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to get it done as quickly as possible,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Things like this are always great for hockey, but they do tend to become a distraction for the club.&rdquo;Gretzky broke Howe&rsquo;s record for assists on March 1, 1988 against the Kings and Howe&rsquo;s record for points Oct. 15, 1989 against the Edmonton Oilers. He began the season with 765 goals, 1,563 assists and 2,328 points.NOTEBOOK: Mike Donnelly&rsquo;s consecutive games played streak was snapped at 183&mdash;the 11th longest active streak in the NHL-when he was benched Oct. 9-10 against Detroit and the San Jose Sharks&hellip;Tomas Sandstrom&rsquo;s six assists against Detroit tied Bernie Nicholls&rsquo; five-year-old club record. Sandstrom picked up his 600th career point with a goal in the Kings&rsquo; 5-2 win over the Sharks.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 6: Jimmy Carson, C, signed three-year contract. Mike Donnelly. LW. signed two-year contract. Oct. 7: Robb Stauber, G. signed three-year contract. Brent Thompson, D. assigned to Phoenix (IHL). Dominic Lavoie, D, recalled from Phoenix,<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Jimmy Carson, Pat Conacher.LW&ndash;Warren Rychel. Mike Donnelly. Luc Robitaille. Shawn McEachern.RW&ndash;Tomas Sandstrom, Tony Granato. Gary Shuchuk, Dave Taylor, Marc Potvin.LD&ndash;Alex Zhitnik, Darryl Sydor. Tim Watters. Dominic Lavoie.RD&ndash;Rob Blake, Chartie Huddy, Mark Hardy.G&ndash;Kelly Hrudey, Robb Stauber. Rick Knickle.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Lavoie’s debut superb

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>It&rsquo;s the kind of story that is so rare in professional sports: a walk-on who makes the team and earns a contract.Right winger Jose Charbonneau wasn&rsquo;t a complete mystery at the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; training camp this fall, but he certainly was a longshot to make the team.A first-round pick (12th overall) of the Montreal Canadiens in the 1985 entry draft, Charbonneau disappeared into hockey&rsquo;s Bermuda Triangle four years ago, playing in the minor leagues, for Canada&rsquo;s national program and all over Europe.This past summer he resurfaced on the west coast as the star of the Vancouver VooDoo roller hockey team. His coach was none other than NHL career penalty minute leader Dave (Tiger) Williams, who recommended his leading scorer to Canuck coach-general manager-president Pat Quinn.Charbonneau last played in the NHL for Quinn in 1988-89. He had one assist in 13 games that season. In 38 games over two seasons with Montreal and Vancouver, Charbonneau had one goal and seven points. The Ferme-Neuve, Que., native scored 109 goals and 253 points in three junior seasons with the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec League.&ldquo;You never really give up,&rdquo; Charbonneau, said. &ldquo;You just go back to being a kid where you dream again. This is my dream come true. I&rsquo;m happy to be here now, but there&rsquo;s a long way to go.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-0195/6157848-1-eng-US/f0059-012.jpg" title="f0059-01" width="738" height="942"><figcaption class="caption-body">One way to stop Pavel Bure: Give him a penalty shot He&rsquo;s 1-for-3 on those.</figcaption></div>Charbonneau, whose first name is often mis-pronounced-it&rsquo;s Joe-zay, not Ho-say-began the season as the Canucks&rsquo; 13th forward.&ldquo;He has physical skills, we know that,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;His problem in the past was consistency. The old Charbonneau was a player Tiger Williams would have never liked.&ldquo;You know Tiger wouldn&rsquo;t brook for a moment a guy with skill who wouldn&rsquo;t put out. The old Charbonneau had a lot of tools, but no toolbag.&rdquo;Charbonneau admitted that an attitude problem may have caused his swift fall from grace in 1989.&ldquo;A lot of times you take things for granted,&rdquo; Charbonneau said. &ldquo;You come back and realize maybe this is your last kick at the cat. You realize you&rsquo;ll do whatever they ask you to do to stay with the hockey team.&rdquo;And for now, he&rsquo;s staying.KAY&rsquo;S OKAY: Backup goalie Kay Whitmore was the only Canuck to file for salary arbitration, but that proved unnecessary when he signed with the club Oct. 8.Whitmore received a two-year contract for $550,000 per season. He was angling to be slotted in with fellow backups Frank Pietrangelo, Ron Tugnutt and Robb Stauber.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad it&rsquo;s done,&rdquo; said Whitmore, who was 18-8-4 last season with a 3.10 goals-against average. &ldquo;I was starting to get a little frustrated because we got so close and we just couldn&rsquo;t get it together. I feel very happy about it now because the numbers are where we wanted to be.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Pavel Bure began the season in dramatic fashion when he was awarded a penalty shot on his very first shift in his very first game. Bure failed to score on Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; netminder Kelly Hrudey. Bure is 1-for-3 lifetime in penalty shots.The Canucks opened without free agent center Petr Nedved, who remained unsigned and untraded through the first week of the season. Unsubstantiated reports had Nedved being traded to the Chicago Blackhawks for a package including disgruntled right winger Steve Larmer, center Brent Sutter and defenseman Steve SmithVancouver attracted only 14,021 paying customers to its home opener Oct. 9 against division-rival Calgary Flames. Capacity at Pacific Coliseum is 16,150. The Flames were easy 5-1 winners and are 6-1-1 against the Canucks with coach Dave King at the helm&hellip;The Canucks&rsquo; power play, a sore spot all of last season, opened the new season at a 1-for-11 clip. Ron Smith has succeeded Ron Wilson as the assistant coach in charge of trying to make the power play work.Pat Quinn began the season with a bare-bones 22-man roster, including injured defenseman Adrien Plavsic. Most NHL teams carry between 24 and 26 players.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 4: Mike Peca, C, returned to Ottawa (OHL). Oct. 6: Jose Charbonneau. RW, signed two-year contract. Oct. 8: Kay Whitmore, G, signed two-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Cliff Ronning, Murray Craven, Greg Adams. John McIntyre.LW&ndash;Geoff Courtnall, Dixon Ward, Sergio Momesso, Gino Odjick. Shawn Antoski.RW&ndash;Pavel Bure, Trevor Linden. Jose Charbonneau, Tim Hunter.LD&ndash;Dana Murzyn, Dave Babych, Robert Dirk.RD&ndash;Gerald Diduck, Jyrki Lumme. Jiri Slegr.G&ndash;Kirk McLean. Kay Whitmore.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Adrien Plavsic, D, sprained right knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

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October 22, 1993

Bourque gets Bloch (ed) in arbitration case

Keenan cure won’t solve woes overnight

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

Deserving at-ten-tion