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.

November 12, 1993

The Hockey News November 12, 1993

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IN THIS ISSUE

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

<h2>No. 99 up to old tricks</h2>1. Wayne Gretzky. Honest Wayne, we never doubted for a second your ability to dominate.2. Francophone goalies. Patrick Roy, Felix Potvin, Manon Rheaume: Has hockey ever been this hot?3. Brian Curran. Four years long time between NHL goals, even for fighters.4. Top plus players. Sylvain Lefebvre, Mark Recchi tied at plus-II.5. Radek Bonk. Teenage whiz led International League rookies with seven goals. 12 points.<h2>MINUS</h2><h3>Misery in Manhatten</h3>1. James Patrick. Veteran Ranger rearguard falls from grace, lands in Mike Keenan&rsquo;s doghouse.2. Steve Larmer-Darryl Sutter. Will old friends ever be able to patch up relationship?3. Royal York. Ontario Jr. A team lost first 11 games, scoring 29 goals, allowing 88.4. Brad Shaw. Ottawa defenseman had NHL&rsquo;s worst plus-minus at minus-11.5. Pacific Division. Easy target had 10-20-4 record against teams in other divisions.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021380/6203241-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="578" height="813"><figcaption class="caption-body">James Patrick</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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PLUS

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>In a predominantly French-speaking league, Sherbrooke Faucons&rsquo; defenseman Lachlan Coombe definitely stands out.It&rsquo;s the accent.Coombe, 17, is the first player bom and trained in England to play in the Quebec League.&ldquo;This has been a dream of mine for a long time,&rdquo; Coombe said in his thick British accent. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always wanted to play hockey in Canada.&rdquo;Coombe, who hails from Bracknell, England, started playing hockey at age 10 after being introduced to the sport by Gary Stefan, the brother of former NHL goaltender Greg Stefan. Coombe was a highly rated competitive figure skater at the time and Stefan was running an arena and hockey program in the nearby town of Slough.Hockey quickly became Coombe&rsquo;s passion. By age 14 he was playing with full-grown men on an English senior team.Coombe made his first trip to Canada in 1989 with a British team to take part in Quebec City&rsquo;s prestigious international peewee tournament. He returned the following year to attend the Montreal Pro Hockey School and again in 1991 to take part in Montreal&rsquo;s Ecole de Hockey International, where he caught the eye of Quebec midget scouts.He spent the 1991-92 season with the midget AA Lachine Rapides before returning home to play for the Bracknell Bees of the English senior league last season. But during his season with the Rapides. Coombe caught the eye of Faucons&rsquo; scouts and Sherbrooke decided to select him in this year&rsquo;s European draft.&ldquo;When I was playing for Lachine, I used to go watch the College Francais and St-Jean games and I wanted to play at that level,&rdquo; Coombe said.&ldquo;I was a little shocked when I found out I had been drafted, but I was very happy. I always hoped I could play here.&rdquo;The 5-foot-10, 174-pounder had one goal and two assists in his first 11 games with the Faucons.Coombe is living with a French family in Sherbrooke and keeps in touch with his family in England with weekly phone calls.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t really been homesick,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And my parents are coming over for a visit in November.&rdquo;Coombe has had no problems communicating with teammates so far.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m taking French communication classes and it&rsquo;s coming along slowly,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;1 try and speak my little bit of French to them and most of them speak English.&rdquo;Coombe would like to get 10 goals this season, but added his main goal is to improve from game to game.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just trying to do my best every time I&rsquo;m on the ice,&rdquo; he said.TAME TIGRES: It looks like it&rsquo;s going to be a long season for the Victoriaville Tigres, who had the worst record in the league (3-14-1) after 18 games.The Tigres are without their top six scorers from last season, when they finished with a 4326-1 record. The six-pack of Alexandre Daigle, Claude Savoie, Matthew Barnaby, Patrick Bisaillon, Nicolas Lefebvre and Pascal Chiasson combined for 238 goals and 586 points last year.The Tigres had only 66 goals in their first 18 games, while giving up 109.Center Jean-Martin Morin, who turns 19 Nov. 12, has been the Ione bright spot in Victoriaville with 17 goals and 36 points in 18 games.STREAKING TITAN: The Laval Titan defeated the Beauport Harfangs 8-4 Oct. 25 for their 10th straight victory since Michel Therrien took over from Jacques Laporte as coach Oct. 6.The win improved Laval&rsquo;s league-leading record to 16-5-0.Titan center Yanick Dube had one goal and two assists in the game to improve his leagueleading totals to 32 goals and 61 points in 21 games. The 5-foot-9, 170-pounder had at least one point in each of Laval&rsquo;s first 21 regular-season games. &#9632;

Coombe having a jolly time

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>For Craig Muni, it was one fine homecoming. For Alexander Mogilny it was one fine start.Muni, the newest Buffalo Sabre, not only had to meet his new teammates in a hurry, he also had to dress and play with them in Edmonton.It marked the first time the former Oilers&rsquo; defenseman had returned to Northlands Coliseum since Edmonton traded him to the Chicago Blackhawks late last season.In the interim, the 31-year-old Toronto native was traded to the Sabres Oct. 28 for defenseman Keith Carney. The Sabres also received a conditional draft pick.Mogilny had a different type of homecoming. The Russian right winger made his season debut after missing the first nine games while recovering from a serious ankle injury he sustained in last year&rsquo;s playoffs.He looked strong in the Sabres&rsquo; 63 win over the Oilers, scoring once and picking up two assists.Muni was pleased to be joining the Sabres.&ldquo;I just want to play,&rdquo; Muni said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I got the ice time in-Chicago and I&rsquo;m probably going to get it in Buffalo. (The Blackhawks) were using me in limited situations and I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m ready for that kind of a role yet.&rdquo;The Sabres don&rsquo;t either. Coachgeneral manager John Muckier was thrilled to complete the deal.&ldquo;Muni brings a little experience and, I hope, some presence in our own end,&rdquo; he said.Muni&rsquo;s presence is certainly needed. Veteran Petr Svoboda is out with a strained right knee and did not accompany the team on a four-game western road trip.And rookie Denis Tsygurov, injured in training camp, has yet to play a game this season.GREAT TIMING: Alexander Mogilny&rsquo;s return was a timely one for the Sabres.Opponents were taking advantage of their beleaguered defense and the Sabres had trouble countering on offense.&ldquo;A lot of teams are looking to jump on us because we have a young defense,&rdquo; Dale Hawerchuk said. &ldquo;But if we can counter, we&rsquo;re dangerous. We have the creativity in our offense that wasn&rsquo;t there before.&rdquo;Mogilny had four goals and six points in the first three games after his return.NOTEBOOK: Future considerations in the Craig Muni trade were not announced, but it will likely be a 1994 draft pick to be determined by how Keith Carney performs. The Sabres will reportedly get Chicago&rsquo;s fifth-round draft pick and the Hawks&rsquo; the Sabres&rsquo; sixth-rounder.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 28: Keith Carney. D, traded to Chicago tor Craig Mum, 0. and future considerations.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pat LaFontaine. Dale Hawerchuk, Derek Plante. LW-Brad May. Craig Simpson, Yuri Khymlev, Rob Ray. Dave Hannan.RW&mdash;Randy Wood, Donald Audette, Scott Thomas, Sergei Petrenko.LD&mdash;Richard Smehlik. Craig Muni, Randy Moller.RD&mdash;Ken Sutton, Gord Donnelly. Philippe BoucherG&mdash;Grant Fuhr. Dominik Hasek.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Petr Svoboda. D, strained right knee, day-to-day Bob Sweeney. C, bruised ribs, day-to-day Denis Tsygurov, D, severe Charley horse, indefinite. &#9632;

Addition of dependable Muni helps plug hole on blueline

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01909/6205166-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"></div>Lemieux out to catch rejuvenated GretzkyPLUES&#9733; Surprise! Fighting&rsquo;s on the rise-P.5&#9733; Meet No. I prospect for 1995-R31&#9733; Stevens off to Norris-like start-P.48 &#9632;

Cover-01

FACE OF THE RACE

&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve made me sound as bad as Lee Harvey Oswald. You know the magic bullet? This is the magic stick. I swear I never touched (James) Black with my stick or elbow.&rdquo;-Hartford&rsquo;s Nick Kypreos, accused of cutting the Dallas player for 21 stitches. Page 13.&ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;ll wear a blank sweater&hellip;or maybe as a plane ticket, destination unknown. &ldquo;-Unhappy Detroit forward Shawn Burr discussing Halloween costume options. Page 20. &#9632;

QUOTABLE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04587/6203072-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="356" height="355"></div>Erin Whitten. The Toledo Storm goaltender became the first female to win a professional hockey game. The Glens Falls, N.Y., native beat the Dayton Bombers 6-5 in a relief appearance Oct. 30.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05428/6203065-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="354" height="355"></div>Television timeouts. Or more precisely, the new practice that has players loitering at their benches for the 70-second break. Granted, this isn&rsquo;t an issue that&rsquo;s going to sink the NHL; it just looks silly. &#9632;

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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/f0002-06309/6203103-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="382" height="488"></div>There is a businesslike optimism about current collective bargaining agreement talks between the players and owners-a sentiment absent from negotiations between the league and its officials.Player salaries are high and so are hopes a work stoppage will be avoided. That doesn&rsquo;t mean, though, relations between the NHL and NHL Players&rsquo; Association are smooth. The latest dispute is centered on the discipline system administered by vice-president Brian Burke. There are a host of issues to be resolved, among them changing a system that provides consistent punishment standards, but inconsistent application.Here&rsquo;s how it works or-more to the point-doesn&rsquo;t work:Players who commit similar offenses miss the same number of games, but there&rsquo;s no guarantee they miss the same number of dollars. Fines or lost pay are based on the number of days it takes to complete the suspension. (That was a surprise to player agents-many of whom huddled on a conference call with NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow late in October.)As an example, when Bob Sweeney was suspended for three games early this season, the fine was based on the number of days-six-it took for the Buffalo Sabres to play three games. The regular season lasts 192 days, thus, a player&rsquo;s daily wage is l/192nd of his annual base salary. Sweeney&rsquo;s contract calls for $460,000 this season, so the Sabres forwarded a total of $14,374.98 (daily pay of $2,395.83 multiplied by six) to the league office.Problem No. 1: The fine portion of league punishment is at the mercy of the schedule. If a player gets hit with a suspension during a light period in his team&rsquo;s schedule, he is lighter in the wallet than another player with the same suspension whose team has a hectic schedule. Imagine the cost to a player suspended soon before the four-day all-star break.Problem No. 2: Are players obliged to show up for practices when, technically, they are not being paid? Nobody has challenged the system so far. All suspended players have continued to work out with their clubs. Last year, under the ill-conceived Gil Stein discipline policy, players weren&rsquo;t paid during nongame suspensions and they weren&rsquo;t allowed to attend practices.Clearly, the potential exists for conflict between team management and the players. For instance, it may be in a player&rsquo;s best financial interest to appeal a sentence and delay serving his suspension until reaching a busy period in the schedule when fewer days of pay will be lost.&ldquo;The teams always used to be the guardians of a player&rsquo;s interest,&rdquo; Goodenow said. &ldquo;Now, you can have a situation where a team can want (a player&rsquo;s) suspension to start right away. And a player can say, &lsquo;Wait a minute. I&rsquo;m going to play this weekend and start it on Monday and get the games in quickly and I&rsquo;ll lose less pay.&rsquo; &ldquo;One solution is a return to the old system that confiscated players&rsquo; salaries on a per-game basis. If you were suspended three games, you would have lost 3/84ths of your salary. Under that system, Sweeney would have actually lost more money ($16,428.57) because his suspension ended swiftly. An alternative would be for the player to lose 3/192nds of his salary, but that&rsquo;s too lenient.Rest assured, though, whatever fiscal punishment is handed out in the future, it will be preceded by stronger player representation by agents, who are poised to join the fray now that the stakes are so high. &#9632;

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Fine system far from fine and dandy in NHL

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden and Mike Brophy</div>The NHL is trying to treat the disease. Most people missed the point when Dale Hunter cowardly creamed Pierre Turgeon last season. Commissioner Gary Bettman suspended Hunter 21 games for blindsiding Turgeon into the boards while the New York Islanders&rsquo; center celebrated a goal. The Hockey News applauded Bettman, but advised the NHL to treat the disease, not just the symptom, by addressing a league-wide problem. It is common for players whose teams have just been scored upon to cheapshot the player who scored. Hunter did it to Turgeon last spring and Brent Severyn of the Florida Panthers did it to Turgeon Oct. 28 after the star scored in the first period. Islanders&rsquo; winger Derek King immediately picked a fight with Severyn and was tossed out. Severyn received a minor for crosschecking and major for fighting. &ldquo;We sent a directive to officials that hitting after goals is a zero-tolerance (offense),&rdquo; says NHL vice-president Brian Burke. The only mitigating circumstance is if a player delivers a hit simultaneous to a scoring shot being fired&hellip;Just leave home without it. That&rsquo;s what the NHL is telling its trainee officials. With the prospect of a strike by league officials, the league has asked all trainees to turn in their American Express cards and Bell Canada calling cards. The trainees have refused to act as replacement officials&hellip;Best description of the week comes from Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post Dispatch: &ldquo;A typical (Craig) Janney shift is a covert operation. He is arguably the sneakiest 100-point forward in the NHL today.&rdquo;&hellip;Hard-hitting Brett Lindros would seem a natural choice for the Florida Panthers. Everyone he targets on the ice is an endangered species. Plus, Panthers&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke is a great admirer of the Lindros family and served as close confidante to Eric in Philadelphia. But Clarke says his relationship with the Lindros clan is irrelevant. He says Lindros of the Canadian Olympic team is among those challenging for the top pick. Count Jeff O&rsquo;Neill of the Guelph Storm in that group. He would be the best choice from a marketing perspective. If the Panthers were to pick Jeff, the city of Miami could lay claim to the O&rsquo;Neall Bros.-Shaq and Jeff&hellip;&rdquo;I&rsquo;ve never known a better competitor than Wayne Gretzky.&rdquo; says Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; GM Cliff Fletcher. The Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; GM holds the unofficial record (five) for being eliminated by Gretzky-led NHL teams&hellip;Brian Burke has been nicknamed a lot of things so far, but he would like to become known as the &ldquo;Maytag repair man.&rdquo;&hellip;Actor Mike Myers has PR problems these days-everybody thinks success has spoiled him-but he&rsquo;ll always be welcome at THN. He consistently tells interviewers that The Hockey News is one of his favorite publications. Myers plays weekly pickup hockey with player agent Michael Barnett in Los Angeles&hellip;Montreal and Toronto are regarded as the NHL&rsquo;s best arenas for television purposes because they provide the best camera locations and TV lighting&hellip;The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim received this license plate from the state of California after purchasing a new truck: 4U99099. Try reading it like this: &ldquo;For You 99 Oh 99.&rdquo; Team president Tony Taveras offered to swap trucks with Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall-or take Wayne Gretzky off his payroll&hellip;Last season&rsquo;s five-member group, Men Without Hats, has become this season&rsquo;s Man Without Hat-Craig MacTavish of the Edmonton Oilers. Other helmetless players Doug Wilson. Randy Carlyle, Brad Marsh and Rod Langway have all retired. MacTavish will probably be the last helmetless player in league history. Although players have the option of playing sans helmet, nobody but MacTavish has opted into the NHL&rsquo;s misguided policy and it&rsquo;s expected Gary Bettman will eventually rescind the rule&hellip;Mighty Ducks&rsquo; captain Troy Loney says players haven&rsquo;t been told to be party-correct, but it&rsquo;s understood. &ldquo;No one said, &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t go out and and do this,&rsquo; &ldquo;Loney says, &ldquo;but you all know who your employer is.&rdquo; Mighty Ducks&rsquo; management will pick up the cost of taxi fares for players who drink and don&rsquo;t drive&hellip;The NHL no longer permits future considerations in trades to be a &ldquo;warm body.&rdquo; Call it the &lsquo;Sandlak Rule.&rsquo; The Vancouver Canucks traded Robert Kron, a draft pick and a player to be named later (Jim Sandlak) to the Hartford Whalers for Murray Craven and a draft pick last March. The Stanley Cup-contending Canucks kept Sandlak for the rest of the&rsquo; season and then shipped him to Hartford&hellip;Ex-NHL coach Doug Carpenter could not find work behind a bench this season, but did win first prize in the street-view category of the Cornwall (Ont.) Standard-Freeholder Amateur Garden Contest&hellip; Brendan Shanahan was the object of a biddins&rsquo; war for his services as a young hockey player in the Toronto area. He was not yet 10 and a pair of teams desperately wanted him. Shanahan picked the Mississauga Reps because their home base, Dixie Arena, was adjacent to a McDonald&rsquo;s restaurant., Jim Cressman of the London (Ont.) Free Press found Dallas hockey fans unique during an excursion to Texas. Exhibit A: A fan who won a diamond giveaway at the Oct. 12 game between the Dallas Stars and Chicago Blackhawks was adamant when asked what he planned to do with it: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s f&hellip;., mine,&rdquo; he blurted out over the PA system. Exhibit B: Asked when he left a Stars&rsquo; game, ex-NFL player Joe Shearin told a friend at the Dallas County DA&rsquo;s Office he went home at halftime&hellip;Best headline of the week appeared beside a Philadelphia Daily News story on the fate of Spectrum II. It read: &ldquo;II be or not II be.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011531/6203179-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="381" height="381"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021242/6203172-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="385" height="591"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Burke</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03824/6203165-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="1815" height="1774"><figcaption class="caption-body">Craig Janney of the St. Louis Blues is a scorer and a sneak; each of his shifts is a covert operation. (JIM LEARY/BBS)</figcaption></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04455/6203158-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="388" height="597"><figcaption class="caption-body">Craig MacTavish</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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NHL targets post-goal hits

<div class="byline">By THN staff</div>Merger talks between Hockey Canada and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association have hit a snag over a proposed structure to oversee Canada&rsquo;s two major hockey bodies.The CAHA&rsquo;s board of directors rejected a proposal to establish a new structure to oversee the two factions.The decision was made Oct. 30, only days after Hockey Canada&rsquo;s board unanimously approved it.&ldquo;When we get down into the formation and make up of (the new structure), our board had difficulty with the CAHA losing its identity as a national sports governing body in order to make that happen,&rdquo; said CAHA president Murray Costello.Hockey Canada, on the other hand, is definitely interested in a marriage, said its president. Ron Robison.&ldquo;We would like to create a strong organization for the benefit of hockey from coast to coast,&rdquo; Robison said. &ldquo;The concept is to look at the feasibility of creating one organization in Canada for hockey.&rdquo;Canada is the only hockey power in the world which has two voices for hockey.Both Costello and Robison refused to go into details about the proposal, which was put forth by a committee comprised of representatives from both groups. But it&rsquo;s evident the structure of the new board is the point of contention.Hockey Canada does not want to be absorbed by the CAHA and has proposed that the two bodies operate separately and report to one board. The CAHA is responsible for all amateur hockey in Canada and the World Junior program. Hockey Canada administers all other international hockey efforts.&ldquo;All programs would come together under one organization,&rdquo; Robison said. &ldquo;We believe that type of structure would be in the best interests of hockey in Canada.&rdquo;REPORT READY: A draft report of an internal audit of Alan Eagleson&rsquo;s financial dealings with Hockey Canada is complete and a final report should be ready by the end of the November.&ldquo;There are revisions to be made,&rdquo; said Ron Robison, adding the report is &ldquo;an internal document&rdquo; and he doesn&rsquo;t know whether it will be released to the public.Hockey Canada decided to conduct an internal audit after Eagleson, who resigned from the board in March, came under fire for allegations of impropriety.Eagleson is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the U.S. Justice Department for dealings during his tenure as executive director of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association, which he led for 25 years from its inception in 1967.Hockey Canada, which is co-operating with the American investigation, but is not under scrutiny itself, has had its name drawn into the investigations because Eagleson was its chief international negotiator for more than two decades.REFS GET OFFER: The NHL was scheduled to make its second written offer to the NHL Officials&rsquo; Association Nov. 2. The NHLOA&rsquo;s executive committee was scheduled to gather in Toronto to discuss the offer and then meet with the NHL Nov. 3 to continue bargaining talks.The officials have been without a contract since Aug. 31. They have threatened to strike Nov. 15 if a new deal is not in place.The officials were upset with NHL chairman of the board Bruce McNall. who recently said the officials would be jeopardizing their careers if they walked off the job. McNall also said he wouldn&rsquo;t be surprised if NHL commissioner Gary Bettman handles them like former U.S. president Ronald Reagan who fired 12,000 air traffic controllers in August, 1991 three days after they went on strike.Jeff Pash, the NHL&rsquo;s senior vicepresident and general counsel, said McNall was speaking on his own behalf, not for the league.MILESTONE WIN: Erin Whitten became the first female goaltender to record a win in professional hockey.Whitten, 21, led the East Coast League&rsquo;s Toledo Storm to a 6-5 win over the Dayton Bombers Oct. 30.(For more on Whitten, see page 32.)ROY GREAT: Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; goaltender Patrick Roy was NHL player of the week for the period ending Oct. 31.Roy appeared in three games, finishing with a 2-0-1 record and 1.62 goals-against average.-With files from Alan Adams<h2>BEST STARTS IN PRO SPORTS</h2>With their 2-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning Oct. 23, the Toronto Maple Leafs set an NHL record for consecutive wins to start a season (nine). They extended that record to 10 games before losing to the Montreal Canadiens Oct. 30. Here&rsquo;s a look at the best starts in other sports.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011541/6203210-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="511" height="282"></div> &#9632;

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CAHA, Hockey Canada hit snag in merger talks

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0004-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031158/6203272-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Quebec needs more consistent goaltending from Stephane Fiset.</figcaption></div>Whenever the Quebec Nordiques and Philadelphia Flyers meet, the Eric Lindros trade is always a hot topic of conversation.But a more interesting swap is the one that has seen the two teams trade places early in the 1992-93 season.Quebec surged to the greatest improvement in NHL history last season, but hasn&rsquo;t picked up where it left off. The Nordiques were hovering around the 500 mark through late November and were positioned roughly where one might have expected the Flyers to be. Philadelphia, on the other hand, has relocated to the NHL&rsquo;s high-rent district after missing the playoffs the last four years. The teams&rsquo; role reversals were punctuated Oct. 26, when the Flyers went into Le Colisee and beat the Nordiques 4-2.While it&rsquo;s too early to jump to any conclusions, it&rsquo;s clear each team is doing the unexpected. Why?In Quebec, the reasons are varied. Stephane Fiset, who was handed the team&rsquo;s No. I goaltending job, isn&rsquo;t performing to expectations. He had a goals-against average well above 4.00 and a save percentage around 860.Steve Duchesne, who contributed 82 points in 1992-93, is embroiled in a bitter contract holdout and nobody has emerged to take his place. Kerry Huffman, a pleasant surprise last season, didn&rsquo;t have a goal through the team&rsquo;s first 11 games.Still, Nordiques&rsquo; coach and general manager Pierre Page thinks it&rsquo;s too early in the season to start worrying.&ldquo;I understand our fans are disappointed, but I can&rsquo;t understand why they&rsquo;re so discouraged,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;As far as I know, the Stanley Cup is not won in October.&rdquo;In Philadelphia, Lindros is earning his keep. He scored in nine of his first 10 games, collecting 10 goals and 16 points. Josef Beranek and Greg Hawgood, two players acquired in a trade with the Edmonton Oilers, are off to sensational starts, too. Beranek was the NHL&rsquo;s first 10-goal scorer and Hawgood had nine assists in as many games. In goal, Dominic Roussel won his first eight decisions. Philadelphia is also getting consistent production out of Mark Recchi and Garry Galley.General manager Russ Farwell said youth is serving the Flyers well.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going into games beaten, waiting for things to fall apart,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Although we still make youthful mistakes, we also play with youthful enthusiasm.&rdquo;The kicker for Quebec is Swedish prospect Peter Forsberg is off to a mediocre start, too. He stood fourth in team scoring for MoDo with four goals and nine points in 11 games. Critics said Forsberg, expected to join the Nordiques before the playoffs, was spending too much time trying to draw penalties and not enough time concentrating on his game.But Kent Forsberg. Peter&rsquo;s father and coach, believes his son is starting to come around. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s playing well right now,&rdquo; Kent said, &ldquo;but for a few games after he signed with Quebec, he didn&rsquo;t play very well.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0004-03

Role reversal for Flyers, Nordiques

There&rsquo;s bad news for hockey purists: fighting in the NHL is on the rise.But more pugilists are being identified as instigators, an offense that carries with it an automatic game misconduct.Through the first 154 games this season 234 fighting majors were called compared to 140 through the same number of games last season.There were 1,544, fighting majors called in 880 games in 1991-92. That decreased to 1,257 fighting majors in 1,008 games in 1992-93. At the current pace, 1,659 fighting majors will be called this season. That&rsquo;s over 600 more than two seasons ago.The NHL ruled to eject instigators last season-the offense previously called for a minor penalty-and director of officiating Bryan Lewis predicted it would be called in 50 to 75 per cent of fights.He was off by a mile.There were just 97 instigators identified-one for every 13 fighting majors. This season, 21 instigator penalties-one for every 11 fighting majors-were called.Officials are noticing a distinct rise in intensity this season.&ldquo;This is the toughest start to a season I&rsquo;ve ever experienced,&rdquo; said referee Kerry Fraser, a 13-year veteran.None of these numbers will cause alarm for the NHL hierarchy, which continues to give the green light to consentual one-on-one bouts.Brian Burke, the NHL&rsquo;s senior vice-president and director of hockey operations-an advocate of hockey fights-claims the new conference playoff format is coming into play.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like snap shots,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to worry about it until the quarter mark (of the schedule). Then we&rsquo;ll evaluate it. New turf battles are being fought. The player who was king of the hill has new challengers. I think that&rsquo;s going to sort itself out.&rdquo;<h2>FREQUENT FIGHTERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011454/6203317-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="434" height="253"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021050/6203310-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="1021" height="1893"><figcaption class="caption-body">Fighting majors are up this season, but so are instigator calls.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03700/6203303-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="1022" height="1896"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pierre Turgeon had five points in last year&rsquo;s AllStar Game. (JIM MICISAAC/BBS)</figcaption></div>I Can the NHL&rsquo;s annual clunker be turned back into a classic?The NHL hopes offering substantial prize money to each member of the winning team is the first step in that direction.Each member of the winning team will receive $5,000. Last year, members of the Wales Conference, which whipped the Campbell Conference 16-6, received new golf clubs. Whoopee.That&rsquo;s about the only change the league has made for the 1994 game, which will feature players from the Eastern and Western Conferences facing off against each other Jan. 22 at Madison Square Garden in New York.The NHL skills competition and Heroes of Hockey All-Star Game will be held the night before.There is some talk NHL senior vice-president and director of hockey operations Brian Burke will limit teams to using two goalies instead of three.In recent years the NHL has come under intense criticism because the games have been so lame. Last year the Wales was up 6-0 before the end of the first period. It wasn&rsquo;t bad for fans in attendance, but it was television suicide.Following the game NHL commissioner Gary Bettman promised there would be a format change in the game for this season.In the previous four games, the winning team has outscored the losers 49-24&mdash;an average of 12-6.Clearly, the All-Star Game has become an all-encompassing sporting affair. It features a football score and baseball&rsquo;s nohitters.The major complaint is the lack of intensity displayed by the players. Because the game is held in mid-season, players don&rsquo;t want to risk injury by going all out. There is an unwritten rule against hitting, but a little defensive play is not too much to ask.Perhaps including a few defensive defenseman to the teams would be a start.&ldquo;Brian Burke said the AllStar Game is a highlight film,&rdquo; said Arthur Pincus, the NHL&rsquo;s vice-president, public relations. &ldquo;He hopes with the added incentive of prize money it will become a competitive highlight film.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0005-01

League battles on in ’93 All-Stars enticed by money

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04438/6203348-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg" title="f0005-04" width="307" height="377"></div>For my money, junior hockey is the most exciting game in the world to watch.But hockey fans who enjoy the game at that level should also understand what goes on behind the scenes.Having travelled the junior circuit 13 years, covering the Ontario League&rsquo;s Peterborough Petes, I saw the flip side of junior hockey, how the many pressures can affect young men. They can humble even the strongest individual.People such as David Roche, 18, of the Petes who recently suffered a nervous breakdown.The 6-foot-4, 225-pound left winger was arrested Oct. 24 after breaking into and trashing a fast food restaurant in Peterborough. Roche was charged with break and enter with intent to commit mischief. He was taken to a police station holding cell and later transferred to Peterborough Civic Hospital for observation after becoming emotional and irrational.&ldquo;David puts a lot of pressure on himself to help his team perform well and it finally got to him,&rdquo; Roche&rsquo;s agent Anton Thun said.Roche, drafted 62nd overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in June, took a few days off and returned to the team Oct. 27.Petes&rsquo; general manager Jeff Twohey said Roche came back in a positive frame of mind, determined to put the incident behind him.Twohey received a number of trade offers for Roche, but said the player would remain a Pete. Roche is in his third season with the Petes and has one more year of junior eligibility.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t demand loyalty from your players if you don&rsquo;t return it,&rdquo; Twohey said. &ldquo;Our organization will do anything it can to support Dave.&rdquo;Many junior hockey players receive adulation and opportunities other teenagers only dream of, but there is always a price to pay.High expectations from parents, agents, coaches, managers, team owners, fans, media and scouts are always there. There&rsquo;s also the NHL draft-how early a player is selected affects his earning potential.Travel, generally by bus, can be taxing.A typical nongame day might include arriving at the rink in mid-afternoon for a two hour practice, followed by weight training and then perhaps a chalk talk. Players often don&rsquo;t arrive home for dinner until well into the evening.Once a player is drafted by an NHL team, there&rsquo;s a whole new set of owners, coaches and managers and fans to satisfy.Players who fail to produce feel the walls of the universe closing in around them. Those who taste success are driven to maintain that high level of play.Which doesn&rsquo;t necessarily make them different from other teenagers who face pressures in everyday life. Except most don&rsquo;t operate in the spotlight of junior hockey.Former NHL great Darryl Sittler, a star junior in the 1960s with the London Knights, understands the pressure. He knew his son Ryan would have the added burden of carrying the Sittler name so for that reason, he recommended Ryan play college hockey where his every move wouldn&rsquo;t be scrutinized and compared.Ryan, a first-round draft choice of the Philadelphia Flyers in 1992, is a sophomore at the University of Michigan. &#9632;

f0005-04

Juniors face major pressure

I take issue with Mike Brophy&rsquo;s piece on the Toronto Maple Leafs in Brophy&rsquo;s Stops &lsquo;N&rsquo; Starts (Oct. 29, THN).If I hear one more person describe the Leafs as &ldquo;Canada&rsquo;s Team&rdquo;, I am going to scream. This arrogant statement emphasizes much of what is wrong with hockey coverage in this country. The last time I checked, Canada had eight NHL teams.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011633/6203386-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="571" height="826"><figcaption class="caption-body">Is Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; oft-injured winger Wendel Clark overrated?</figcaption></div>I admit Toronto has a very good team with some good players. Doug Gilmour, for one, is excellent. He was great with the Calgary Flames and St. Louis Blues, but he did not reach his god-like status with the media until he came to Toronto.As for Wendel Clark, I have never seen so much hype for a 20-goal scorer with a bad back.This Toronto-centered viewpoint is hurting other Canadian teams. Hockey Night in Canada will only be showing two games from Winnipeg this year (one involving the Leafs), but they travelled all the way to Tampa to broadcast a Leafs&rsquo; game.I resent the fact the Leafs are considered Canada&rsquo;s team by the mostly Toronto-based media. And I do not like the attitude of most Leaf fans, who consider their team to be this country&rsquo;s &ldquo;only&rdquo; team. The Leafs are Toronto&rsquo;s team, not Canada&rsquo;s.Stephen May,&nbsp; Coquitlam, B.C.<h2>Same old story</h2>I am disgusted with the NHL&rsquo;s supposed judicial system. Certain players continue to be the whipping boys, while others do as they please.When compared to Bob Rouse&rsquo;s four-game suspension for a stickswinging incident, Bob Probert&rsquo;s four-game suspension was ridiculous.What Rouse did was deliberately try to injure Probert and he only gets a four-game suspension?The NHL refuses to penalize star players such as Doug Gilmour, who has headbutted two players in recent months.You can be sure if Probert or Marty McSorley attempted the same thing, they would have been slapped with a lengthy suspension.NHL vice-president Brian Burke had better wake up and quit favoring specific players or the league will lose fans very quickly.Craig Ogg,&nbsp; Tilbury, Ont.<h2>System glitch</h2>When the NHL instituted its video review system, I had hopes of a little more fairness being used to determine the outcome of games.But after watching Nelson Emerson of the Winnipeg Jets catch the puck, skate 15 feet and drop the puck in the Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; net Oct. 16, I have concluded perhaps it is too much to expect the NHL to actually have a system that works.Until an unbiased method can be used to make critical decisions, it seems the NHL will follow its timeless tradition of one step forward and see what happens next.Jim Donato,&nbsp; Arlington Heights, III.(Editor&rsquo;s note: NHL rules stipulate that video replay can be used only to determine whether or not the puck crossed the goal line.)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021115/6203379-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="580" height="977"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexandre Daigle&rsquo;s trading card ad was funny, a fan says.</figcaption></div><h2>Card caper</h2>Why is there such a controversy over the ad Alexandre Daigle did for a trading card company?So he wore a female nurse&rsquo;s outfit. I thought it was both cute and funny. What&rsquo;s wrong with a little sense of humor?The real irony is the NHL wants to lighten up and increase the image of its young stars. Doesn&rsquo;t this do that?In an era where duck masks and cheerleaders called Decoys are the rage, why can&rsquo;t these stuffed shirts take this ad for what it is-a cute joke.Unfortunately, the Ottawa Senators couldn&rsquo;t see it that way.Ann Marie Hoppel,&nbsp; Piscataway, N.J.<h2>Boston basher</h2>I was not surprised to see Al Morganti pick the Boston Bruins eighth overall behind the mediocre New York Islanders (THN, Oct. 15).Morganti never seems to have a kind word for the Bruins&rsquo; players or their organization.But now that Ray Bourque&rsquo;s contract dispute is history and Cam Neely is reasonably healthy, the Bruins should once again finish near the top of the league.Carmen Mangiafico. Newington, Conn.<h2>Virtual reality</h2>It was once said that &ldquo;art imitates life&rdquo;, but in the Electronic Arts&rsquo; NHL Hockey &rsquo;94 video game, art may be predicting the future for life in the NHL.The manufacturers of the video game eliminated fighting from the &rsquo;93 version, but added a greater number of high-sticking animations in its place.A player can crosscheck another player in the head, knocking him into the boards.The NHL should re-examine the video game as if it were a crystal ball. Maybe then it will see what will happen if it continues to tinker with an already perfect sport by eliminating fighting.William Jensen. Brighton, Mass.<h2>Gunning for 600</h2>One of the first questions asked about the season was whether Mike Gartner would finally get his due.Apparently it won&rsquo;t happen in this publication.In the Oct. 22 issue of THN, a list of upcoming milestones fails to mention that Gartner needs fewer than 15 goals for 600 in his career.David Baum,&nbsp; Larchmont, N. Y.Make your feelings known. Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 445-2501 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., 142409947.&nbsp;Include home and business phone numbers. THN reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

f0006-01

Toronto Maple Leafs not Canada’s team

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03711/6203417-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0006-03

THE DRAW

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011480/6203448-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Joe Nieuwendyk is on pace for career highs in goals and points.</figcaption></div>It&rsquo;s not unusual for teammates to form friendships. Gary Roberts and Joe Nieuwendyk of the Calgary Flames just started earlier than most.Roberts and Nieuwendyk started as five-year-old teammates in Whitby, Ont. Twenty-two years later they&rsquo;re still not only teammates, but roommates. Nieuwendyk, a bachelor, is sharing a home with Roberts and his family in Calgary.&ldquo;There are teammates and then there are friends,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;Not to downplay the relationship we have with other teammates, but Joe and I are very close for obvious reasons.&rdquo;The dynamic duo went in different directions as teenagers-Nieuwendyk played for Cornell University and Roberts the Ottawa 67&rsquo;s and Guelph Platers of the Ontario League-but caught up with one another in Calgary in 1987. Roberts was the Flames&rsquo; first-round pick in 1984. Nieuwendyk was selected by Calgary in the second round the following year.&ldquo;We were happy as kids when we were on the same team in road hockey,&rdquo; Nieuwendyk said. &ldquo;Having somebody you grew up with on the same NHL team is great.&rdquo;Both were solid contributors when the Flames captured the Stanley Cup in 1989 and remain valuable leaders. But that almost wasn&rsquo;t the case.Nieuwendyk was the subject of trade rumors during the off-season and the Flames fielded offers for their captain.It didn&rsquo;t matter that they improved 23 points in the standings during the regular season. The fans and media were looking for a scapegoat on a team that had missed the post-season once and been knocked out three times in the first round after winning it all in 1989.After the season, Nieuwendyk sold his house and retreated to his summer home in Ithaca, N.Y., telling reporters to write whatever they wanted. They did just that, questioning his leadership and playoff performance.&ldquo;Some of the things that were written and said about me were unwarranted,&rdquo; Nieuwendyk said. &ldquo;Maybe I should have chosen my words more carefully, but considering the good relationship I always had with the media, perhaps they could have given me the benefit of the doubt.&rdquo;As usual, Roberts was there for his linemate. Roberts thought the notion of trading Nieuwendyk was ridiculous. &ldquo;It would be the second biggest mistake this organization has ever made,&rdquo; he said.The club&rsquo;s top gaffe, obviously, was trading Doug Gilmour to the Toronto Maple Leafs.Nieuwendyk worked hard during the off-season and was off to his best start in three years. The two-time 50-goal scorer had eight goals and 14 points in Calgary&rsquo;s first 11 games, putting him on pace for career highs in both categories.Nieuwendyk said moving in with Roberts has made a huge difference.&ldquo;Last season, I lived in a big house on my own,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This season I moved in with Gary and his wife (Tamra) and their daughter, Jordan. Just having people to talk to is nice. It has made me more relaxed on the ice.&rdquo;Roberts, meanwhile, is off to a tough start with a goal and six assists in 11 games. A 50-goal scorer two seasons ago, Roberts is confident he&rsquo;ll turn his season around.&ldquo;The last two seasons I had 10-game slumps without goals,&rdquo; Roberts said. &ldquo;My slump just happens to be at the start this season. If I wasn&rsquo;t getting chances I&rsquo;d be worried, but the chances are coming.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0007-01

The buddy system

<div class="byline">Mike Brophy</div>Joe Nieuwendyk has been a consistent scorer throughout his NHL career, but he has never approached Wayne Gretzky-like numbers.However, the Calgary Flames&rsquo; star center was the Wayne Gretzky of junior box lacrosse. In leading his hometown Whitby Warriors to the 1984 and &rsquo;85 Minto Cups-the Memorial Cup of lacrosse in Canada-Nieuwendyk was by far Canada&rsquo;s premier junior-aged lacrosse player.Among his supporting cast in the 1985 championship run was Flames&rsquo; teammate Gary Roberts.Nieuwendyk scored 209 goals and 379 points in 82 games over four seasons. In 39 playoff games, he fired 104 goals and 221 points.He was the league&rsquo;s top rookie in 1982; a two-time winner of the award for ability and sportsmanship; and Was most valuable player in the Minto Cup tournament in 1984.Known for his speed and stick skills. Nieuwendyk scored one of the most memorable goals in Minto Cup history. While diving for a pass, he caught the ball in mid-air and, in the same motion, fired a behind-the-back shot for a goal.Roberts, a lacrosse grinder, played one full season of Jr. A, scoring six goals and 28 points in 19 games in 198.5. But he did manage to lead the league in penalty minutes with 177. &#9632;

Joe more prolific scorer in lacrosse

<div class="byline">By Eric Duhatschek</div>Theo Fleury decided to do something different in the summer to prepare himself for the season: He hired a personal trainer.The man: Rich Hesketh, one of the top decathletes in Canada. The reason: Purely business.Seeing the direction salaries have taken, Fleury decided it made sense to invest time into his best asset-his 5-foot-6 frame.Fleury came to camp in the best shape since his rookie season. Thirteen games later, that didn&rsquo;t translate into more points, but it made a difference in his on-ice presence.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question, when I get hit, I don&rsquo;t fall down anymore because I&rsquo;m solid,&rdquo; Fleury said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s all a matter of that conditioning.&rdquo;Fleury had five goals in 13 games, but was criticized by general manager Doug Risebrough for indifferent play.Following a 5-3 loss to Buffalo Oct. 27, Risebrough said: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s an average player. He&rsquo;s playing unemotionally. I&rsquo;m seeing it and so are the fans.&rdquo;After making his point publicly, Risebrough took Fleury aside and discussed the issue with him.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to see somebody finally talked to me,&rdquo; Fleury said. &ldquo;You can go through periods of times where you think you&rsquo;re playing well and management thinks you&rsquo;re playing badly. Now the issue is on the table and I have to pick up my game.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a notorious bad starter, so I&rsquo;m not worried. I&rsquo;m not going to blow my brains out because I&rsquo;m not scoring.&rdquo;BACK-TO-BACK: It took rookie Ted Drury nine games and 58 minutes to score his first goal. He liked that so much it took him less than five minutes to score No. 2.The outburst came Oct. 25 against the Washington Capitals. Drury&rsquo;s first goal looked to be the game winner until the Capitals tied the score with 19 seconds remaining. That set the stage for Drury to win it in overtime.&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t pressing (for a goal), but I was starting to wonder when it was going to come,&rdquo; he said.In coach Dave King&rsquo;s 11-man forward rotation, Drury was the swing man. He&rsquo;d center the fourth line; kill penalties and occasionally move to the wing on one of the top three lines.NOTEBOOK: Jeff Reese, the No. 4 man on the goaltending depth chart, finally got a start Oct. 31 against the Winnipeg Jets. Less than 14 minutes into the game, Reese injured his shoulder in a collision with Paul Ysebaert. Mike Vernon came in to finish up and played brilliantly in a 4-3 win. &ldquo;I felt bad for Jeff,&rdquo; Dave King said. &ldquo;He gave us energy. I thought he was going to have a big game.&rdquo;<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Nieuwendyk, Robert Reichel. Joel Otto. Ted Drury.LW&mdash;Gary Roberts. Paul Kruse, Sandy McCarthy. German Titov.RW&mdash;Theo Fleury, Paul Ranheim. Wes Walz, Ron Stern, Greg Paslawski.LD&mdash;Gary Suter. Frank Musil. Chris Dahlquist, Brad Miller.RD&mdash;Al Maclnnis, Kevin Dahl, Michel Petit. Lee Norwood.G&mdash;Mike Vernon, Trevor Kidd. Jason Muzzatti.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Kelly Kisio, C, fractured kneecap, day-to-day Jeff Reese. G, strained shoulder, day-to-day. Brad Schlegel. D. pulled groin muscle, indefinite. Trent Yawney, D, tom right shoulder muscle, indefinite. &#9632;

Fleury’s body ready, willing, but performance not yet able

<div class="byline">By Bobyn Norwood</div>The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim have already had their first encounter with the extremes of expansion.They went from the giddy high of a four-game unbeaten streak that included a victory over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden to the frustrating low of a losing streak that had reached six games by the end of October.Worse yet, among the losses were three games against recent expansion teams-Ottawa and San Jose-that coach Ron Wilson and his players believe they should have won.What changed? The prevailing theory is the Ducks started pressing so hard to score they abandoned the disciplined defensive style that gave them their early success.&ldquo;We have to sit back and take a good look at what&rsquo;s happening, what we&rsquo;re not doing right,&rdquo; said goaltender Ron Tugnutt after a 5-2 Oct. 29 loss to Washington in which the Capitals were allowed too many good scoring chances.Tugnutt didn&rsquo;t question effort, he questioned emphasis-and why opponents were suddenly getting so many odd-man rushes and so much time to shoot.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s just too much talk, too many people worrying about trying to put the puck in the net,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Too many guys are putting too much pressure on themselves to score. I think we were better off when we were trying to win, 2-1, 3-2.&ldquo;We were a 500 team when we were not scoring goals. What&rsquo;s wrong with that?&rdquo;Indeed, during their 2-0-2 unbeaten streak, the Ducks scored an average of less than three goals a game, but gave up an average of two. During the first five games of their losing streak, they gave up at least four goals in each game.TRADE WINDS?: How long can general manager Jack Ferreira hold out before he looks to make a deal for some much-needed offense?&ldquo;Teams are always talking to you, but I&rsquo;m not pushing the panic button yet,&rdquo; he said after the Ducks scored just two goals in three games, all losses. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve played well, we&rsquo;ve played hard. If we didn&rsquo;t have that work ethic, if we didn&rsquo;t have that type of performance in the players, I think I&rsquo;d be more concerned.&rdquo;The one area the Ducks have a surplus of talent is goaltending, but even with Ron Tugnutt and Guy Hebert playing well, assistant GM Pierre Gauthier said the Ducks would be reluctant to part with prospect Mikhail Shtalenkov, now playing with San Diego of the International League.NOTEBOOK: Among the early offensive disappointments are center Shaun Van Alien and wingers Tim Sweeney and Steven King. All are proven minor-league scorers the Ducks were hoping would break through in the NHL. King has been a frequent scratch and had one goal. Sweeney and Van Allen each had one assist&hellip;Center Bob Corkum. who had four goals, and former Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; role player Troy Loney, who had three power-play goals, have been pleasant surprises. A minor knee injury sidelined Loney the first week of November.<h2>ANAHEIM</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 31: Anatoli Fedotov. D, recalled from San Diego (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Anatoli Semenov. Patrik Camback. Bob Corkum. Shaun Van Allen.LW&mdash;Garry Valk, Tim Sweeney, Stu Grimson.RW&mdash;Terry Yake. Joe Sacco, Peter Douris, Todd Ewen, Jim Thomson, Steven King, Robin Bawa.LD&mdash;Bill Houlder, Mark Ferner. Randy Ladouceur.RD&mdash;Sean Hill. Alexei Kasatonov, Bobby Dollas, Anatoli Fedotov.G&mdash;Guy Hebert, Ron Tugnutt.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Troy Loney, LW. bruised right knee, day-to-day. Myles O&rsquo;Connor, D, strained groin, day-to-day. &#9632;

Life a struggle for now

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>Gino Odjick a goalscorer?It may sound amusing, but 10 games into the season, the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; toughest player had three times as many points as punchups.Once called upon solely for his fistic prowess, the popular Algonquin from Maniwaki, Que., has worked his way from fourth-liner to a regular shift. He chalked up three goals and six points in the Canucks&rsquo; first seven games before going pointless in the next three. He had just two fights in the 10-game stretch.&ldquo;I want to keep it going,&rdquo; said Odjick, whose pointless streak coincided with linemate Pavel Bure&rsquo;s groin injury. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want another 45-game (goal) drought like last year. I&rsquo;m not a real big stickhandler so the best thing to do is be standing in front of the net. On my three goals this year, two were deflections and the other was a tap-in. I work on deflections every day.&rdquo;Odjick admits using his hands to score, rather than fight, has made trips to the rink even more enjoyable. Before, it was maybe three shifts a period and the occasional dust-up to straighten somebody out.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s definitely helped me having Tim Hunter and Shawn Antoski out there,&rdquo; Odjick said. &ldquo;When the other team looks at our lineup, it&rsquo;s not just Gino Odjick. If you only have one tough guy playing on the fourth line and getting every sixth or seventh shift, the other team can do whatever it wants the rest of the time.&rdquo;Greg Adams, Odjick&rsquo;s center, has marvelled at the big winger&rsquo;s progress since he arrived with the Canucks as a crude, but willing, 20-year-old in 1990. This is the first season Adams has played with Odjick.&ldquo;Gino puts a lot of pressure on the defense,&rdquo; Adams said. &ldquo;If they know they&rsquo;re going to be hit, they sometimes give the puck away. Gino has improved every year since he came up. He&rsquo;s a better player and he has better skills, but he&rsquo;s also a lot smarter.&rdquo;NEW DEAL: After his much publicized arbitration loss a year ago, Canucks&rsquo; left winger Sergio Momesso quietly reached agreement on a new two-year deal for $500,000 (U.S.) per season.It amounted to a 25 per-cent raise on the $400,000 he was awarded in arbitration last March.&ldquo;The team was pleased with my pre-season (six goals) and my start to the regular season, so that helped,&rdquo; said Momesso, who was the first player to go through arbitration under the poststrike collective bargaining agreement. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a fair thing. There are personal incentives in there as well.&rdquo;Momesso requested $575,000 in last season&rsquo;s arbitration, while the team offered the $400,000 he was awarded. Perhaps the most difficult thing was having to wait until March 2 for the hearing.&ldquo;First they said November, then it was December, then once it got into January it started to become a joke,&rdquo; Momesso said. &ldquo;It was a lingering thing, it was always there.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Several weeks after Petr Nedved&rsquo;s agent declared his client &ldquo;was finished&rdquo; in Vancouver, the unsigned center put it in writing. &ldquo;We received a fax from Petr that basically said he will never play with our club again,&rdquo; said George McPhee. The Canucks&rsquo; assistant general manager added the team is &ldquo;really not being offered anything&rdquo; on the trade market because Nedved has positioned himself &ldquo;so poorly.&rdquo;&hellip;Vancouver&rsquo;s offense went into hibernation the moment Pavel Bure went down with a groin injury on the first shift of an Oct. 24 game against the San Jose Sharks. The Canucks scored only eight goals and went 1-2-0 on a three-game homestand without their top gun.The Canucks had their poorest crowd in two seasons when only 12,479 fans showed for a 4-2 loss against the Washington Capitals Oct. 27. The team did not sellout in six October home dates despite a 7-1-0 start, the best in Vancouver history.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 19: Adrien Plavsic. D. recalled from Hamilton (AHL). Oct. 25: Stephane Morin, C. recalled from Hamilton. Oct. 30: Sergio Momesso, LW, signed two-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Cliff Ronning, Murray Craven. Greg Adams, Stephane Morin.LW&mdash;Geoff Courtnail. Sergio Momesso. Dixon Ward. Gino Odjick. Shawn Antoski.RW&mdash;Trevor Linden. Jose Charbonneau. Tim HunterLD&mdash;Oana Murzyn, Dave Babych, Robert Dirk, Adrien Plavsic.RD&mdash;Gerald Diduck, Jyrki Lumme. Jiri Slegr.G&mdash;Kirk McLean, Kay Whitmore<h3>INJURIES</h3>Pavel Bure. RW, groin strain, day-to-day. John McIntyre. C. concussion, day-to-day. &#9632;

Odjick pulls no punches, shows scoring punch

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall is looking to sell a piece of the club.If McNall had his druthers, he would keep the Kings to himself. But he considers the Forum obsolete-it seats only 16,005 and lacks luxury suites-and he can&rsquo;t afford to shell out $100-plus million to build an arena.So McNall, who became sole owner of the Kings in March 1988, is interested in selling a portion of the team to an individual or corporation that would be willing to put up the capital to construct a building.McNall paid $20 million-plus $4 million to cover debts-for the franchise, which previously was owned by Forum and Lakers&rsquo; owner Jerry Buss. The Kings&rsquo; present value is believed to be about $70 million.McNall is reportedly negotiating with Sony for a deal which would see him sell 30 per cent of the Kings for $30 million.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been talking to a number of people and companies,&rdquo; McNall said. &ldquo;I would not give up control. I&rsquo;m only doing it because we need a new arena to survive.&ldquo;Most people in this day and age realize it&rsquo;s important to have a piece of both a franchise and a building.&rdquo;McNall said he hopes to have a deal in place by the end of 1993. He said it probably would take two years to construct of a new building.Aside from the Forum&rsquo;s small capacity and the absence of luxury suites, other disadvantages include the lack of revenue from concessions and parking. McNall also pays rent.The Kings&rsquo; payroll of about $20 million is one of the NHL&rsquo;s highest, which is why the team expects to lose more than $2 million during the season. The Kings lost money last season, but turned a profit after getting to Stanley Cup final.RIDING THE PINE: Coach Barry Melrose benched defenseman Darryl Sydor for most of the third period in the 8-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings Oct. 27. Sydor was on the ice for four of Detroit&rsquo;s first seven goals.In the second period, Sydor&rsquo;s clearing pass was blocked by Sergei Fedorov, who set up Bob Probert for a goal and a 6-2 Detroit lead.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what to say,&rdquo; Sydor said. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t go against (Melrose&rsquo;s) decisions. Anyway, I was awful.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: A four-game losing streak in which the Kings were outscored 24-8 was their longest since December, 1992. The Kings ended it Oct. 29 with a 4-3 overtime win in Winnipeg&hellip;Jari Kurri, who spent 12 games at center, was moved to right wing on a line with Wayne Gretzky against the Jets and had two goals and an assist. Shawn McEachern, who was being used at left wing, was switched to center.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct 26: Darryl Sydor, D. signed four-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Wayne Gretzky. Shawn McEachern, PatConacher, Rob Murphy. Jimmy Carson.LW&mdash;Warren Rychel, Mike Donnelly, Luc Robitaille, Dave Thomlinson.RW&mdash;Jari Kurri, Tony Granato, Dave Taylor. Marc Potvin, Gary Shuchuk.LD&mdash;Alex Zhitnlk. Darryl Sydor. Brent Thompson.RD&mdash;Rob Blake, Tim Watters. Bob Jay, Mark Hardy.G&mdash;Kelly Hrudey, Robb Stauber.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Charlie Huddy D. groin strain, day-to-day Tomas Sandstrom, RW, pulled hamstring, day-to-day. &#9632;

McNall looking for partner to help invest in new arena

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>The only thing falling faster than the Edmonton Oilers is the attendance for their games at Northlands Coliseum.After busting out of the gate with home wins over the San Jose Sharks and New York Islanders, the Oilers dug themselves a team record-breaking pit of despair in October, going 11 games without a win.At 2-10-1 for the opening month of the season, they were the league&rsquo;s worst team, sharing 26th place with the Sharks, who had a better winning percentage.They were just one shy of the team-record nine-game losing streak entering a game with the Ottawa Senators Nov. 3.The records being set off the ice were just as miserable. Attendance dipped to a franchise-low 11,515 Oct. 20 against the Calgary Flames and only 11,063 fans showed up for an Oct. 24 date against the Washington Capitals.Both were Oiler losses.&ldquo;Two straight wears on you,&rdquo; Doug Weight said. &ldquo;Eleven straight digs into your heart, your soul, your eyes. It goes home with you at night.&rdquo;Goalie Bill Ranford did an incredible job trying to give the Oilers a chance to win. They were outscored 48-32 in 13 games.JUST TALK: Owner Peter Pocklington&rsquo;s second trip to Minneapolis produced nothing more than talk about a Target Centre lease deal.&ldquo;If the things we&rsquo;ve talked about come about, there&rsquo;s a strong possibility we&rsquo;ll be locating our team here,&rdquo; he told Minnesota media Oct. 26.Then he changed his tune, saying that Hamilton and two U.S. cities were &ldquo;still being considered.&rdquo;A couple of days earlier he said he had narrowed his choice down to Minneapolis only.But any deal will be delayed by the cloud hanging over the ownership of the building. Co-owners Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner would like to sell the building and its $70 million in outstanding debt to the city before they sign a tenant.&ldquo;The building has to be acquired by a public entity and we&rsquo;ll ask that the sports facilities commissioner acquire the arena and Ogden Entertainment would guarantee against any operating losses for 20 years,&rdquo; Wolfenson said.Sources say the Target Centre officials will want a 25-year lease, which Pocklington may be reluctant to sign.NOTEBOOK: Center Todd Elik was claimed on waivers by the San Jose Sharks Oct. 26. Ironically, he was acquired the day of a road game in San Jose. He flew down an Oiler, but took the morning skate as a Shark. General manager Glen Sather told Elik Oct. 22 he had been placed on waivers. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know what they had in mind, but I was very shocked. It was a little embarrassing too,&rdquo; Elik said. It was viewed as another contract dump by the team as Elik signed a two-year deal in training camp that pays him $425,000 (U.S.) each season.<h2>EDMONTON</h2>TRANSACTIONSOct. 28: Adam Bennett, D, and Alexander Kerch, LW. recalled from Cape Breton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Jason Arnott. Doug Weight. Vladimir Vujtek, Craig MacTavish. Dean MeAmmond.LW&mdash;Shayne Corson. Zdeno Ciger, Alexander Kerch. Scott Pearson, Louie DeBrusk.RW&mdash;Roman Oksiuta. Steven Rice, Kirk Maltby. Kelly Buchberger. Shjon Podein.LD&mdash;Luke Richardson, Adam Bennett, Geoff Smith.RD&mdash;lgor Kravchuk. Ian Herders. Chris Joseph, Brad Werenka.G&mdash;Bill Ranford, Fred Brathwaite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Marc Laforge, D, strained groin, day-to-day. Dave Manson. D, separated right shoulder, indefinite. Scott Thornton, LW, sprained left ankle, indefinite. &#9632;

Tailspin affecting turnout

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>Maybe it&rsquo;s no coincidence the San Jose Sharks hit a hot streak when Igor Larionov returned to the lineup after recovering from a separated shoulder.The Sharks won three of four games after Larionov resumed playing Oct. 26. The Russian center had a goal that night to help the Sharks beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-1. Larionov scored again in a 4-3 victory over the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim two nights later, and had an assist in a 2-1 overtime victory when the Sharks visited the Ducks Oct. 31.&ldquo;This feels a lot better than losing,&rdquo; coach Kevin Constantine said after his first NHL win. &ldquo;The team needed something good to come our way.&rdquo;The wins vaulted San Jose to fourth place in the Pacific Division, ahead of the Ducks and Oilers. But the Sharks still were trying to prove they can win against playoff-calibre teams.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll keep it in perspective,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not playing teams at the top of the standings, but the bottom line is these are wins.&rdquo;Larionov and Sergei Makarov are proving they still share some of the magic they had when they were linemates for eight seasons in the former Soviet Union during the 1980s.Makarov had a six-game scoring streak and led the team with two goals and 11 points in 13 games.&ldquo;He has been in a good mood,&rdquo; Larionov said of Makarov. &ldquo;When he feels good, he plays well.&rdquo;INJURY BUG: The Sharks lost defenseman Mike Lalor until the new year when he tore the medial collateral ligament in his right knee Oct. 26.Then winger Ray Whitney was sidelined indefinitely when he strained his right knee Oct. 30. He was third in team scoring with six points.The Sharks recalled defenseman Tom Pederson and center Jeff McLean from the Kansas City Blades of the International League and each player made a strong first impression.Pederson scored two goals in three games and McLean scored in his NHL debut to help the Sharks to a 2-1 overtime victory over Anaheim Oct. 31. McLean was on a line with Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov.NOTEBOOK: The Sharks claimed center Todd Elik on waivers from the Edmonton Oilers Oct. 26. He had an assist against the Oilers that night&hellip;Defenseman Mike Rathje was sent to Kansas City Oct. 28 for a two-week conditioning assignment. The Sharks had to call it a conditioning assignment because Rathje, 19, still has junior eligibility and can be sent to the minors only for conditioning purposes and must return within two weeks. Otherwise, he would have to be returned to the junior ranks.Winger Johan Garpenlov and center Mike Sullivan were not in the lineup Oct. 31 against Anaheim. &ldquo;We haven&rsquo;t been getting the job done,&rdquo; Sullivan said. Garpenlov, who had only one goal and four points in 10 games, also was a spectator Oct. 24 against the Vancouver Canucks.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2>TRANSACTIONSOct 26: Todd Elik. C, claimed on waivers from Edmonton. Oct 27: Tom Pederson. D, recalled from Kansas City (IHL). Oct. 28: Kip Miller, C. and Mike Rathje. D. assigned to Kansas City. Oct 31: Jeff McLean, C, recalled from Kansas City.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;lgor Larionov, Todd Elik. Date Craigwell, Jeff McLean, Mike SullivanLW&mdash;Gaetan Duchesne, Johan Garpenlov. Bob Errey, Dave MaleyRW&mdash;Sergei Makarov, Pat Falloon. Rob Gaudreau. Jeff Odgers.LD&mdash;Jeff Norton, Sandis Ozolinsh. Rob ZettlerRD&mdash;Tom Pederson, Doug Zmolek, Michal Sykora, Shawn Cronin.G&mdash;Arturs Irbe, Jimmy Waite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Jamie Baker, C, groin pull, day-to-day. Gary Emmons, C, hip flexor, day-to-day. Mike Lalor. D, tom right knee ligament, Jan. 3. Jay More, D, broken right wrist, Dec. 13. Ray Whitney, LW. strained right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

Larionov’s return results in much-needed wins

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011507/6203654-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="385" height="539"></div>I had hoped the expansion of the NHL would also expand some minds. Alas, I still see evidence of peabrained activity. Yes, we&rsquo;re talking thoughts here even smaller than Greg Hawgood. Michel Petit kind of stuff.It has become painfully obvious there remain persons in and around this game who have the vision of Shane Churla after getting hit in the eye by Stu Grimson.It takes a big guy to go around picking bones with small persons, but I welcome the task:&#9633; The uproar over Alexander Daigle posing in a nurse&rsquo;s uniform is an even bigger to-do about nothing than The Palladium blueprints. The picture, part of an ad in which he also wore the uniforms of a mountie, fireman and mailman was clearly for fun, yet people became offended. What a drag. I suggest they get counselling for their homophobia.There are penalties in the book for cross-checking, not cross-dressing. Anyone who questions young Daigle&rsquo;s taste leaves me with an even worse taste than I had the last time I ate in the Capital Centre pressroom.&#9633; These persons bother me, in fact, almost as much as those who feel the grand traditions of the game are under siege from a set of Mickey Mouse ears. So there is now an NHL team named after a movie, playing on a Pond. Big deal. A duck is no more comical a figure than a Penguin or even a Vukota.Personally, I&rsquo;ve never thought of Mark Ferner as family entertainment. But when your best player is Troy Loney, you gotta sell the sizzle. As long as Michael Eisner doesn&rsquo;t try to take the bleeding out of the game, I&rsquo;m not going to feel threatened by little furry things running around on the ice between periods. And no, I&rsquo;m not talking about when Tony Hrkac comes to town, either.It&rsquo;s going to take five years until these expansion teams get the comer turned, a little too long to disguise the truth that Gary Valk is not the answer. If laser shows and costumes are the way hockey has to be sold to the heathens, then go for it. And may the other teams, many of whom couldn&rsquo;t sell Grant Fuhr a sandwich, learn from it, too.&#9633; That said, Eisner is looking down a tunnel in one area: He sees every game as requiring a winner and a loser.While there would be nothing wrong with extending overtime to 10 minutes to break more ties, there is no documented evidence a hard-fought sawoff has ever kept a fan from buying another ticket.I am not a purist. The sight of David Maley trying to play hockey has never offended me. I mean, I miss Duane Rupp terribly, but remain open to change. If most teams played to preserve ties, other means of breaking them should be explored. But a game should not be decided under a drastically different set or rules than under which it was played. I believe in free exchange of ideas, but advocates of shootouts should be taken out and shot.Perhaps there is some merit in the concept of awarding each team a point and giving them nothing to lose in a go-for-two overtime. But turning a team contest into an individual sport for no better purpose than to declare a bogus winner trivializes the game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021231/6203647-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="557" height="912"><figcaption class="caption-body">Phil Esposito</figcaption></div>&#9633; Of course, small people tend towards insularity, which brings us to the case of the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning had the chance to call itself the Florida Lightning long before the Florida Panthers chose to represent the state rather than a city.First dibs having expired, Lightning general manager Phil Esposito should respect the right of the newcomers to name themselves however they wish. Admittedly my advice may not be apropos to Florida, but I think Esposito had best chill out.It is awfully illiberal of him to make an issue of this, but this is a man who a year ago chose to shove a sportswriter whom Esposito mistakenly believed had an axe to grind with the Lightning&rsquo;s founder.Thus, one has to consider the source. &#9632;

f0012-01

Nurses, Mickey, ties don’t bug me

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0012-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03808/6203685-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg"></div>If NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is looking for a high-powered ally in his quest for a network television contract, he won&rsquo;t find it in his good friend, Marv Albert. The popular NBC play-by-play man a longtime voice of the New York Rangers, Albert takes quite a few whacks at the NHL in his new book, I&rsquo;d Love to But I Have a Game. Albert writes that hockey &ldquo;is a sport that doesn&rsquo;t play well on television. It&rsquo;s the opposite of football. You need to be there to really enjoy it.&rdquo; Albert also criticizes the number of foreign players in big-league hockey. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t help that there are so many Europeans in the NHL,&rdquo; Albert claims. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like the North American Soccer League on skates. I&rsquo;m not sure kids can relate to Alexei Zhitnik or Igor Ulanov. Alexei Zhitnik sounds like something you could get your mouth washed out with soap for saying.&rdquo;<h2>Worlds apart</h2>A reporter comparing the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings noted the difference in day-game skates when they recently met. &ldquo;Pat Burns put the Leafs through a spirited 60-minute workout, concentrating on passing drills, power plays and penalty killing. The Wings had an optional and only one player went on the ice at 11:30 a.m., Shawn Burr.&rdquo;.,.Ottawa Senators&rsquo; super rookie Alexander Daigle recently told the very trendy Interview magazine, &ldquo;As long as I play in the NHL, I don&rsquo;t care where. I&rsquo;ll play in Ottawa, Winnipeg, I&rsquo;d even play in Los Angeles. Then maybe I could be on Beverly Hills, 90210. I could be in the French class.&rdquo; Despite his considerable off-season media training, the kid still is rough around the vowels. &ldquo;I will improve with time,&rdquo; Daigle told Bluelines.<h2>Hard-luck Rob</h2>Rob DiMaio&rsquo;s latest injury-a broken leg suustained in a fight with Dennis Vial-reveals two things: DiMaio is the hard-luck guy of the NHL and the bromide &ldquo;nobody ever gets hurt in a fight&rdquo; is applesauce&hellip;There are two distinct ways of getting a rise out of Gary Bettman. First, ask him a question about fighting and you&rsquo;ll immediately will get the response, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an overplayed issue.&rdquo; Then twit him about being an American insensitive to Canadian needs. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not trying to take the crown jewels,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying to polish them and make sure everyone enjoys them.&rdquo;<h2>No problem, Al</h2>Al Pacino made an unusual request before watching his first-ever hockey game, a recent Boston Bruins-Quebec Nordiques matchup at the Garden. He said he&rsquo;d show up only if he could bring along his own Weylu&rsquo;s Chinese food to the luxury box. Nobody denied the request&hellip;Sign of the Times: All three hockey writers at the Los Angeles Times-Robyn Norwood, Lisa Dillman and Helene Elliott-are women&hellip;It will be interesting to see whether Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; owner Marcel Aubut&rsquo;s power play for a new Colisee gets Quebec City municipal backing. Would Aubut sell the club if he didn&rsquo;t get his way? Not a chance. But Marcel intimidates well.<h2>&lsquo;I&rsquo; to the future</h2>Those who oppose shootouts as a means for settling NHL tie games are overlooking an important fact. The International League has been successfully using the shootout and the IHL rarely makes mistakes, as itsever-rising attendance figures attest&hellip;An NHL insider told Bluelines that a much-favored, but little-mentioned expansion site is Portland, Ore., because Gary Bettman favors National Basketball Association cities&hellip;Prediction: Pat Peake of the Washington Capitals will be in the 1994 All-Star Game&hellip;If you&rsquo;re in a betting frame of mind, put your money on a settlement between the NHL and on-ice officials before the Nov. 15 deadline.<h2>Russian invasion</h2>The Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; affiliation deal with the Russian Red Army team has other NHL clubs looking into the possibility. The Edmonton Oilers are looking at an affiliation with the Moscow Wings and the Detroit Red Wings with SKA Leningrad&hellip;The Niedermayer brothers, Rob and Scott, nearly knocked each other over in the Brendan Byrne Arena hallway recently when the Florida Panthers played the New Jersey Devils. Rob was running one way to appear on a Devils&rsquo; between-period telecast, while Scott was heading on collision course the other way for an interview with Florida television.<h2>FRESH FACES</h2>Bom: Brantford, Ont.Age: 18Team: Tampa Bay LightningHeight: 6-foot-3Weight: 202 poundsPosition: CenterHow acquired: TampaBay&rsquo;s first-round choice (third overall) in 1993 &#9632;

f0012-03

Albert says NHL makes for boring television

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>Much of the hockey world focused its attention on the Civic Arena Oct. 28, when Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; center Mario Lemieux made the latest in a series of comebacks.But Lemieux&rsquo;s teammate, Ron Francis, seized at least a few watts worth of the spotlight by becoming the 38th NHL player to record 1,000 career points.Francis secured his niche in hockey history when he deflected a Larry Murphy shot between the legs of Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; goalie Jocelyn Thibault at 5:39 of the second period. It was a goal worthy of a prominent place on Pittsburgh&rsquo;s highlight tape.Unfortunately for Francis and his team mates, the Nordiques retaliated by scoring the next five goals en route to a 7-3 victory. Losing that way took away some of Francis&rsquo; satisfaction.&ldquo;When you reach 1,000 points, it&rsquo;s a highlight of your career,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;d like to have it be in a successful effort.&rdquo;Francis reached the 1,000-point plateau in 893 games, 18th fastest in history.But he added: &ldquo;It probably hasn&rsquo;t been the loudest 1.000 points.&rdquo;Lemieux was back, but he wasn&rsquo;t healthy for long. He was scratched two nights after the Quebec game with a sore back, and early indications were he might miss the first games of a western swing.FAN APPEAL: The Penguins set several attendance records during the first weeks of this season, even though they still had not attracted a capacity crowd to the Civic Arena.Off-season renovations raised the arena&rsquo;s capacity from 16,164 to 17,537. The Penguins&rsquo; largest crowd in their first six home dates was 17,372 for a 4-3 win against the Chicago Blackhawks Oct. 30.Their average attendance for those first six games was 17,038, or 874 more than last season&rsquo;s capacity. Which is why Howard Baldwin, the team&rsquo;s chairman of the board, said he isn&rsquo;t worried about attendance.&ldquo;Every single crowd has been 500 or 600 more than a sellout was last year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The crowds are building.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Nordiques&rsquo; 73 win at the Civic Arena ended the Penguins&rsquo; 13-0-2 regular-season run there&hellip;Greg Brown, brother of Penguins&rsquo; left winger Doug, was recalled from San Diego of the International League Oct. 30.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct 24: Greg Andrusak, D, assigned to Cleveland (IHL). Oct. 29: Ladisiav Karabin. LW, recalled from Cleveland. Oct 30: Greg Brown, D, recalled from San Diego (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Ron Francis, Martin Straka, Mike Stapleton.LW&mdash;Kevin Stevens, Markus Naslund, Doug Brown, Jeff Daniels, Grant Jennings, Ladislav Karabin.RW&mdash;Rick Tocchet, Jaromir Jagr.RD&mdash;Larry Murphy. Marty McSorley. Greg Brown.LD&mdash;Mike Ramsey, Peter Taglianetti, Ulf Samuelsson.G&mdash;Tom Barrasso. Ken Wregget<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mario Lemieux. C, sore back, day-to-day. Mike Needham, RW. back spasms, day-to-day. Jim Paek. D, bruised right eye, day-to-day Kjell Samuelsson, D. strained groin, day-to-day. Bryan Trottier, C strained knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

Francis’ 1,000-point milestone overshadowed by Mario’s return

<div class="byline">By VIv Bernstein</div>The Hartford Whalers will not be receiving a major facelift to help them break their terrible slide.At least not in the immediate future.That&rsquo;s the message from coach and acting general manager Paul Holmgren, who said he will hold off making a deal in the wake of the team&rsquo;s 3-8-1 start and 0-6-1 winless streak.So the tinkering continues.Holmgren tried breaking up the No. I scoring line of Andrew Cassels, Pat Verbeek and Geoff Sanderson when the Whalers lost 4-1 to the New York Rangers at the Civic Center Oct. 30, but he had them back together by the end of the game.He has also sat out some of his skilled young forwards, but then put them back into the lineup.Nothing Holmgren has done has worked. The Whalers scored just 13 goals during their winless streak, one each in consecutive losses to the Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues and the Rangers.It marked the second-worst start in team history.In addition, the power play was just 2-for-34 at the Civic Center in October.There still remains a possibility Holmgren will work out a major deal. He has spoken extensively with Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; GM Bob Pulford about a deal involving second-year left winger Patrick Poulin that would bring holdout Steve Larmer and defenseman Bryan Marchment to Hartford.Poulin was taken out of the lineup for four games earlier in the season. He had just two goals and one assist in eight games and has been a major disappointment for the Whalers after contributing 20 goals and 51 points last season.&ldquo;The thing he was not doing consistently was skating,&rdquo; Holmgren said. &ldquo;At times he did, but a lot of times he&rsquo;s standing still and coasting. I think he&rsquo;s not looking to shoot and always looking to pass.&rdquo;KYPREOS SUSPENDED: Left winger Nick Kypreos was suspended indefinitely pending a hearing after a collision with Dallas Stars&rsquo; forward James Black Oct. 27.Black sustained a gash from his forehead to the bridge of his nose that required 21 stitches to close. The Stars claim Kypreos crosschecked Black and the Dallas media vilified the Whalers&rsquo; winger. Kypreos said he used his shoulder and it was a clean check.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve made me sound as bad as Lee Harvey Oswald,&rdquo; Kypreos said. &ldquo;You know the magic bullet? This is the magic stick. I swear I never touched Black with my stick or my elbow.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Goaltender Sean Burke, who missed the first eight games of the season with a hamstring pull in his left leg, re-injured the leg in another part of the hamstring against the Dallas Stars in his second game back. He is listed as indefinite&hellip;Center Andrew Cassels agreed to terms on a new multi-year contract Oct. 28.<h2>WHALERS</h2>TRANSACTIONSOct 28: Nick Kypreos, LW, suspended indefinitely by NHL. Mario Gosselin. G, recalled from Springfield (AHL). Andrew Cassels. C, agreed to terms on new contract. Nov. 1: Igor Chibirev. C, recalled from Springfield.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Andrew Cassels. Michael Nylander, Robert Petrovicky, Mark Janssens, Igor Chibirev.LW&mdash;Geoff Sanderson, Patrick Poulin, Jim McKenzie, Randy Cunneyworth.RW&mdash;Pat Verbeek. Mark Greig, Robert Kron, Brian Propp.LD&mdash;Chris Pronger. Adam Burt. Doug Houda, Al Pedersen.RD&mdash;8rad McCrimmon, Eric Weinrich, Dan Keczmer.G&mdash;Frank Pietrangelo, Mario Gosselin.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Sean Burke, G. left hamstring pull, indefinite Jim Sandlak, RW, bruised right foot, day-to-day. Zariey Zalapski, D, left knee sprain, day-to-day. &#9632;

Retooling project on hold

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>Sylvain Turgeon&rsquo;s story in the NHL is one of bad breaks.The Ottawa Senators&rsquo; left winger added another disappointing chapter Oct. 25 when it was learned he will be sidelined until at least the end of November with a fractured bone in his lower left arm.He sustained the injury Oct. 25 in the third period of a game against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. His arm got caught between Ducks&rsquo; forward Garry Valk and Ottawa defenseman Dennis Vial when the two collided along the boards in front of the Senators&rsquo; bench.&ldquo;No pity. I can&rsquo;t get down,&rdquo; said Turgeon, who has been in this situation too often for his liking.He has missed 181 games over the past eight years with shoulder problems, abdominal surgery and a hernia.He had the same arm broken by goaltender Ron Hextall&rsquo;s stick when both were trying out for Team Canada in 1987, though Turgeon said this break is in a different place.&ldquo;All I can do is focus on keeping in shape, riding the bike and being ready for my next game, even though I don&rsquo;t know exactly when it will be,&rdquo; he said.Turgeon led the Senators with 25 goals last season.MACIVER HURTING: As if losing their leading goalscorer from last season wasn&rsquo;t bad enough, Norm Maciver, last year&rsquo;s leading point scorer, was hampered by the lingering effects of a chest injury he sustained in the pre-season.Maciver had trouble catching his breath in a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers Oct. 27 and had to be given oxygen.He remained in Ottawa to undergo tests while his teammates chartered to Boston.&ldquo;The doctor said my heart could be bruised and there&rsquo;s some irritation to the cartilage between the ribs and the sternum,&rdquo; Maciver said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to take a while for the bruising to heal.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Rookie Alexandre Daigle was on pace to exceed the first-season point totals of three of the game&rsquo;s top superstars: Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Eric Lindros. Daigle had 13 points in his first seven games, which projects to 156 points in 84 games. Gretzky scored 137 points in his first year (1979-80), Lemieux 100 (1984-85) and Lindros 75 (1992-93)&hellip;The Senators didn&rsquo;t take long to surpass last season&rsquo;s two points on the road. Their 5-4 overtime win over the Dallas Stars Oct. 30 gave them three points in six games away from the Ottawa Civic Centre, one more than they had all of last season.<h2>OTTAWA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 26: Chad Penney. LW. assigned to P.E.I. (AHL) Oct. 27: Jarno Kekalainen, LW. recalled from P.E.I. Oct. 28: Gord Dineen, D, recalled from San Diego (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Alexandre Daigle, Alexei Yashin, Mark Lamb, Dave McLIwain.LW&mdash;Vladimir Ruztcka, Troy Mallette. Darcy Loewen, Jarmo Kekalainen.RW&mdash;Dave Archibald, Robert Burakovsky. Bob Kudelski. Bill HuardLD&mdash;Dmitri Filimonov. Norm Maciver, Darren Rumble, Francois Leroux.RD&mdash;Brad Shaw. Brian Glynn. Dennis Vial. Gord Dineen.G&mdash;Craig Billington. Darrin Madeley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Pavol Demitra, RW. broken right ankle, indefinite. Sylvain Turgeon, LW, broken left arm, indefinite. &#9632;

Injury-prone Turgeon out again after freak collision breaks arm

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div>Stephane Fiset was happy to see October end. November has to be better for him because it couldn&rsquo;t be any worse.He&rsquo;s hoping November reinforces the fact he&rsquo;s the No. I goalie for the Quebec Nordiques.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m far from being satisfied,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m not going to take all the blame for our losses.&rdquo;Fiset was left to fend for himself early in the season. He played in eight of the first 12 games and was yanked from three. Fiset&rsquo;s record in the first month was 3-4-1 with a 4.21 goals-against average. Backup Jocelyn Thibault played four games with a 2-2-0 record and 3.05 GAA.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know a single goalie who likes to be pulled,&rdquo; Fiset said. &ldquo;I know the coach wants to shake the team, change the flow, but the goalie is the one that looks bad.&rdquo;Fiset recalled the heavy workload Ron Hextall received last winter and thinks he deserves the same chance. Fiset said bad performances didn&rsquo;t influence coach Pierre Page&rsquo;s treatment of Hextall.&ldquo;I would like to play four or five games in a row like Ron did,&rdquo; Fiset said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s important for a goalie to know he has the confidence of his coach and his team. When you&rsquo;re told in advance you will play five games in a row, you&rsquo;re not as uptight.&rdquo;What especially hurt Fiset during the slump was that whenever a questionable goal was socred on him at home, boo birds at Le Colisee would start shouting for crowd-favorite Thibault.Even Thibault feels awkward when that happens.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s uncomfortable to be sitting on the bench and hearing the fans shout my name every time the opposition scores,&rdquo; Thibault said. &ldquo;And it&rsquo;s not fair for Stephane. He deserves more.&rdquo;NO CONCERN: Mats Sundin is not too concerned the Nordiques were hovering near the 500 mark after a 104-point season last year.&ldquo;Our special units are horrible,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We were tops in the NHL for a good part of the first half of last season. When they get back on track, we should pick up a lot more wins.&rdquo;Quebec ranked 11th in power-play efficiency and 24th in penalty killing.Sundin said later in the season everyone would be laughing at the slow start.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re adjusting,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a question of time. There&rsquo;s too much talent on this team to keep on losing.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Peter Stastny said he has been in touch with Pierre Page about joining the club. The 37-year-old center is an unrestricted free agent. Stastny helped his native Slovakia qualify for the Olympics and is currently at his home in New Jersey&hellip;Page met with Tom Reich. Steve Duchesne&rsquo;s agent, when the Nordiques were in Pittsburgh Oct. 28. Page got annoyed when asked what had happened and he had nothing to report. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to discuss the matter,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s wait until the arbitration hearing.&rdquo; The hearing, which is taking place at the Nordiques&rsquo; request, will take place sometime in November.<h2>QUEBEC</h2>TRANSACTIONSOct 29: Reginald Savage. RW, assigned to Cornwall (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Joe Sakic. Mats Sundin. Mike Ricci, lain Fraser.LW&mdash;Chris Simon, Valeri Kamensky, Martin Gelinas, Martin Rucinsky, Chns Lindberg, Tony Twist.RW&mdash;Andrei Kovalenko, Scott Young, Paul MacDermid.LD&mdash;Steven Finn, Curtis Leschyshyn, Alexei Gusarov, Kerry Huffman.RD&mdash;Alain Cote. Adam Foote, David Karpa.G&mdash;Stephane Fiset, Jocelyn Thibault. Jacques Cloutier.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Claude Lapointe, C, sprained left knee, indefinite Owen Nolan, RW, tom rotator cuff in right shoulder, indefinite. Craig Wolanin, D, pulled left thigh muscle, day-to-day. &#9632;

Fiset wants respect

<div class="byline">By Herb Zurkowsky</div>The Montreal Canadiens continued to be plagued with injuries through the early portion of the regular season.At times during October, the Canadiens were forced to play without star center Kirk Muller, their emotional leader, left winger John LeClair, right wingers Ed Ronan and Mike Keane and backup goaltender Andre Racicot.The Canadiens received more bad news when defenseman Patrice Brisebois sustained sprained right knee ligaments Oct. 30 in a 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.The 22-year-old defenseman is listed as indefinite and could be out until the end of November.,The injury occurred on Brisebois&rsquo; first shift in the game. He was carried into Montreal goaltender Patrick Roy by Maple Leafs&rsquo; center John Cullen and twisted his knee on impact with Roy.&ldquo;Cullen went behind me. I just wanted to block him,&rdquo; Brisebois said. &ldquo;He pulled my jersey and I started to fall. Pat made the save and I fell on his pads. Wendel (Clark), I think, also pushed me and I felt my leg snap.Brisebois, in his second full season in the NHL, got off to a strong start. The 6-foot-2, 175 pounder had eight assists in 12 games.He had 10 goals and 21 assists in 70 games last season.Brisebois, who helps anchor the Canadiens&rsquo; power play, was still seeking his first goal but it wasn&rsquo;t from a lack of shooting.He had 20 shots in 12 games, tied with Eric Desjardins and trailing only Mathieu Schneider among Montreal&rsquo;s rearguards.&ldquo;The team has been playing very well,&rdquo; Brisebois said. &ldquo;If I&rsquo;m having a good season from the start it&rsquo;s because I have confidence and I&rsquo;m trying to play simple. I like playing with J.J. (Daigneault). We make a good pair.&rdquo;MAKING GOOD: If there is a silver lining in Patrice Brisebois&rsquo; injury, coach Jacques Demers can take solace in the fact Swedish rookie Peter Popovic looked to be capable of replacing him.The 6-foot-5, 210-pounder played against the Maple Leafs, dressing for only the third time this season and first time in seven games.It was as though Popovic had never missed a game. He killed penalties and played on the power play, picking up two assists in the game. He was on the ice for four of the Canadiens&rsquo; five goals.Popovic admitted it isn&rsquo;t easy being a part-time player.&ldquo;If you rest, you don&rsquo;t lose your shape, but you lose your feeling,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When you don&rsquo;t play you must skate a lot (to compensate).&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Coach Jacques Demers was happy with the way the defending Stanley Cup champions started the season, going 7-3-2 through October. &ldquo;Teams that usually win the Stanley Cup don&rsquo;t come out of the gate that good in the first month,&rdquo; he said&hellip;Vincent Damphousse scored three goals against the Maple Leafs, giving him 200 for his career. Damphousse is in his eighth season.<h2>MONTREAL</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Stephan Lebeau. Paul DiPietro. Ron Wilson, Guy CartionneauLW&mdash;Vincent Damphousse, John LeClair. Gilbert Dionne, Mario Roberge. Pierre Sevigny.RW&mdash;Brian Bellows, Mike Keane, Gary Leeman, Benoit Brunet, Ed Ronan.LD&mdash;Mathieu Schneider, Jean-Jacques Daigneault. Peter Popovic, Kevin Haller.RD&mdash;Lyte Odelein, Eric Desjardins, Rob RamageG&mdash;Patrick Roy, Frederic Chabot.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Patrice Brisebois, D. sprained right knee ligaments, indefinite, Kirk Muller, C. aggravated separated left shoulder, Nov. 3. Andre Racicot, G, strained left knee ligaments, indefinite. &#9632;

Brisebois lands in sick bay

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div>The Boston Bruins have signed captain Ray Bourque to a contract that will keep him in Boston for the rest of his career.The veteran defenseman signed a five-year, $13-million contract Nov. 1, further confirming his status as the NHL&rsquo;s highest-paid defenseman.The deal ended a long and occasionally testy off-season negotiation process that ultimately led to arbitration.The deal averages just more than $2.5 million per season, but Bourque has security for the next five years.Bourque, 32, went to arbitration Oct. 5 when his contract demands were not met. He was awarded a two-year deal worth $2.25 million (U.S.) per season, but both sides began working on a new pact almost immediately after arbiter Richard Bloch made his judgment.Bourque had sought a reported $4 million per season, while the Bruins reportedly made an 11th-hour offer of $2.75 million per year just before the arbitration hearing.Negotiations began again when Bourque&rsquo;s agent, Stephen Freyer, asked that part of Bourque&rsquo;s arbitration settlement be deferred.Withing weeks, the Bruins made their five-year proposal.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m especially happy in this day and age of athletes changing teams from year to year that Raymond is going to finish his career in a Boston Bruins&rsquo; uniform,&rdquo; said general manager Harry Sinden. &lsquo;That&rsquo;s a rarity and something I miss from days gone by when many, many players spent their entire careers with the same team.&rdquo;Bourque was thrilled he has the chance to stay in Boston.&ldquo;This is a big day for me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Despite everything we&rsquo;ve gone through in the last little while there&rsquo;s nothing more I wanted than to finish my career in Boston. Not very many guys have been able to play in one place for even that long and now I have a chance to play, another five years here.&rdquo;CASEY AT HOME: The Boston Bruins take an extended road trip every October, when the circus invades Boston Garden.The players promote it as a major bonding experience, a chance for the new recruits to get to know the veterans and what life is like in the NHL.Goaltender Jon Casey needed the trip as much as rookies Cam Stewart, Jozef Stumpel and Bryan Smolinski.Casey, obtained in June from the Dallas Stars for long-time Bruin Andy Moog, said it helped him feel more a part of his new team.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d been in the same organization for nine years,&rdquo; Casey said. &ldquo;It helped me feel a part of things.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Daniel Marois&rsquo; right shoulder injury, originally thought to be a slight separation when he returned to Boston from Vancouver Oct. 20, may be more serious. Nobody seems to know for sure, though. Marois, who was to have further tests late in the first week of November.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 25: Jim Wiemer. 0. assigned to Providence (AHL). Oct 29: Jon Morris. C. obtained from San Jose for future considerations, assigned to Providence. Nov. 1: Ray Bourque. D, signed five-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Adam Oates. Bryan Smolmski. Jozef Stumpel, Ted Donato.LW&mdash;Cam Stewart, Joe Juneau, Dave Reid. Brent Hughes.RW&mdash;Steve Leach, Glen Murray, Steve Heinze, Dmitri Kvartalnov.LD&mdash;Don Sweeney, Glen Wesley. Davtd Shaw.RD&mdash;Ray Bourque, Glen Featherstone, Paul StantonG&mdash;Jon Casey, John Blue INJURIESDaniel Marois. LW. dislocated right shoulder, indefinite. Cam Neely, RW, sore left knee, day-to-day. Gord Roberts. D. sore ribs, day-to-day Mikhail Tatarinov. D, back spasms, day-to-day. &#9632;

Bourque’s megadeal lets him finish career in Boston

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>The St. Louis Blues weren&rsquo;t sure what to expect when they acquired goaltender Jim Hrivnak from the Winnipeg Jets, but they got a good taste early in the season.The 25-year-old Montreal native passed his first test with flying colors. He stopped 46 shots in the Blues&rsquo; 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins at Boston Garden Oct. 30, his first start as a Blue.The Blues acquired Hrivnak from Winnipeg July 29 for a seventh-round pick in the 1994 entry draft and future considerations.His primary role was to replace Guy Hebert as Curtis Joseph&rsquo;s backup, but until Oct. 30, he hadn&rsquo;t been tested.Needless to say, he impressed his team.Hrivnak&rsquo;s play enabled the Blues to steal a game they should have lost. The Bruins dominated, but Hrivnak kept the Blues in the game until Kevin Miller scored the winning goal with 7.5 seconds remaining in the third period.In doing so, Hrivnak gained the respect of his coach and teammates.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t really know (how Hrivnak would react) under fire in a league game,&rdquo; said coach Bob Berry. &ldquo;We know what Curtis can do, but he&rsquo;s not going to play every night. It was time to give Curtis a rest and give Jim a chance.&ldquo;He proved to everybody how valuable he is. You&rsquo;re accepted by your teammates by what you do on the ice. He rates 100 per cent.&rdquo;Captain Brett Hull gave Hrivnak high marks, too.&ldquo;To get thrown in at Boston Garden and come up with that effort, you&rsquo;ve got to be really proud of him,&rdquo; Hull said.Hrivnak was proud of his effort. He grew up in Montreal hating the Boston Bruins.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011135/6203884-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="741" height="949"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jim Hrivnak proved to his teammates he can handle the backup goaltending duties.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;To win in the Garden is a great thrill,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Plus, it&rsquo;s my first start with the Blues and I wanted to do well. It worked out wonderfully.&rdquo;Which is remarkable considering the Blues&rsquo; inattention to detail in the defensive zone. They often give up too many shots and have to rely on their goaltenders to bail them out. The Bruins&rsquo; game was typical.&ldquo;They had a lot of in-close chances, but I was in the groove,&rdquo; Hrivnak said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t concentrating. It was just happening. When you&rsquo;re in the groove, everything goes your way.&rdquo;HULL&rsquo;S GOAL: Would the real Brett Hull please stand up?Former goal-per-game man Brett Hull scored only one goal in his first seven games, a pace that would bring him 12 goals for the entire season.No wonder the term &ldquo;grinder&rdquo; was at the top of his vocabulary.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I feel like,&rdquo; he said.And that&rsquo;s the way he&rsquo;s approaching his slow start. In the absence of offense, he is concentrating on other phases of the game with some success.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a plus-plus one-for the first time in four years,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve played more physical than I ever have in my life. I&rsquo;m trying to work hard defensively. I&rsquo;m trying to forecheck.&rdquo;Hull and coach Bob Berry aren&rsquo;t concerned by his lack of production, which appears to be continuing a slide from his career high of 86 in the 1990-91 season. He dropped to 70 goals the next season and 54 last year.&ldquo;Traditionally, he has gotten off to slow starts,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s still getting shots, but I really don&rsquo;t know if he&rsquo;s getting the quality chances I remember him getting.&rdquo;Hull had 24 shots in seven games, an average of 3.4 shots per game. He hasn&rsquo;t averaged fewer than 4.8 shots per game since the 1988-89 season, his first with the Blues.An abdominal injury that sidelined him for three games may be at the source of Hull&rsquo;s problems.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s discouraged,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;He has been a goal scorer, and it&rsquo;s not happening right now.&rdquo;Hull&rsquo;s confident he can rebound.&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll come,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll get goals. I&rsquo;m not that worried. We&rsquo;re working hard and we&rsquo;re (winning). That&rsquo;s the main thing.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Phil Housley is expected to be out of the Blues&rsquo; lineup until Nov. 6 because of back spasms that flared up after a 9-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks Oct. 26. The Blues recalled veteran defenseman Doug Crossman from Peoria of the International League as an emergency replacement for Housley&hellip;Veteran Ron Sutter played his first game since March 30 on Oct. 30, and assisted on Kevin Miller&rsquo;s game-winning goal in the 2-1 win over the Bruins. Sutter missed the end of last season with a shoulder injury and missed the start of this season after undergoing abdominal surgery during the summer.Miller led the Blues with 10 goals and 17 points in 10 games. Included in his total were three game-winning goals. He was named the Blues&rsquo; player of the month for October&hellip;Russian winger Vitali Prokhorov was placed on waivers Oct. 28. He was then assigned to Peoria after no team claimed him. The Blues&rsquo; third pick in the 1992 entry draft played only one game this season. He had just five points in 26 games last season.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct 28: Doug Crossman, D. recalled from Peoria (IHL). Oct. 28: Vitali Prokhorov. RW. assigned to Peoria.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Craig Janney. Ron Sutter. Jim Montgomery, Tony Hrkac.LW&mdash;Brendan Shanahan. Bob Bassen, Basil McRae Philippe Bozon.RW&mdash;Kevin Miller, Brett Hull, Kelly Chase, Vitali Karamnov. Igor Korolev.LD&mdash;Jeff Brown, Murray Baron, Bret Hedican, Doug Crossman.RD&mdash;Garth Butcher, Rick Zombo, Tom Tilley.G&mdash;Curtis Joseph, Jim Hrivnak.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Phil Housley, D. back spasms, day-to-day Kevin Miehm. LW. strained knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0017-01

Successful first start gives Hrivnak boost

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02862/6203922-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="977" height="289"></div>Shawn Walsh says players falling for all the right reasons at practice can signal they&rsquo;re ready to begin getting up and moving as a team.The coach of the National Collegiate Athletic Association champion Maine Black Bears rates skating ability and the ability to use and control your outside edge at a quick tempo as the most deficient skill he sees among youth hockey players.Fortunately, it&rsquo;s also one of the fastest to conquer once identified.&lsquo;They need to be drilled with any movements in a confined space where they&rsquo;ve got to move their feet as quickly as they can in a lateral way,&rdquo; Walsh said.It&rsquo;s also important to get your players working and practising above their &ldquo;comfort level.&rdquo;&ldquo;Our comfort level is the level of speed we can go where we don&rsquo;t fall,&rdquo; Walsh said. &ldquo;What happens is nobody wants to fall and get yelled at. I encourage them to get their feet moving as fast as they can.&rdquo;Crossovers, tight turns, figure eights and S-shaped turning in tight configurations are examples of the type of drill Walsh is talking about to improve mobility. But he stresses quality over quantity.&ldquo;You need six-second bursts of activity where after six seconds you let them rest for 30-40 seconds,&rdquo; Walsh said. &lsquo;Then, they&rsquo;re refreshed and at it again. If they fall down, fine, because after a while, I guarantee you they won&rsquo;t be falling down.&rdquo;Walsh offers this for starters while encouraging coaches to use imagination and creativity in designing their own drills to make players negotiate the lateral skating manoeuvre.&lsquo;Take a player on the boards at the blueline and make him skate towards the redline. Then back of the blueline, back to redline and back to the blueline. He therefore has to touch the redline twice and then the blueline twice in an &ldquo;S&rdquo; configuration and then picks up a puck and goes in and shoots.&rdquo;Walsh reiterates that you&rsquo;ve got to encourage your players to fall.&lsquo;You&rsquo;ve almost got to tell them if they&rsquo;re not falling, they&rsquo;re not negotiating the course at top speed,&rdquo; he said.Walsh, regarded as one of the top teaching coaches in the college game, reminds coaches it&rsquo;s important to employ a progressive system with drills over the course of the season. That means layering one drill on top of another to incorporate a number of skill improvement ideas into a single, multi-faceted drill.Walsh is also a big believer in ensuring there&rsquo;s an element of fun involved in everything done on the ice, which is why players shoot after the skating drills are completed.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03628/6203915-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="562" height="816"><figcaption class="caption-body">Shawn Walsh</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0017-02

COACHING TIP OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>Slowly, the Chicago Blackhawks are becoming a younger hockey club.Defenseman Keith Carney was the latest addition to the youth movement when he was obtained from the Buffalo Sabres Oct. 27 for 31-year-old defenseman Craig Muni.In Carney, 23, the Hawks got a player eight years younger who might be able to add more offensive skill.&ldquo;This adds more skill and we get younger, plus we&rsquo;re not giving up anything in size,&rdquo; said coach Darryl Sutter. &ldquo;I like our defense now. We have Chris Chelios, Steve Smith and five kids.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011175/6203953-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="580" height="849"><figcaption class="caption-body">Craig Muni&rsquo;s career with Chicago lasted just 37 games.</figcaption></div>Not counting Chelios (31) and Smith (30), the average age of defensemen Carney, Neil Wilkinson, Bryan Marchment, Cam Russell and Frank Kucera is 24.Gone since the end of last season are veterans Keith Brown, Muni and Greg Gilbert. They are replaced by younger players such as Carney, Wilkinson Jeff Shantz and Kevin Todd.&ldquo;We want to get younger,&rdquo; said general manager Bob Pulford. &ldquo;But youth is no good unless they can play.&rdquo;In his first two games with the Hawks against the Pittsburgh Penguins Oct. 30 and Philadelphia Flyers Oct. 31, Carney was given shifts at the left point on the power play.&ldquo;You always hate to leave your first team,&rdquo; Carney said. &ldquo;But they&rsquo;ve got experienced defensemen here and maybe I can learn from them.&rdquo;Muni wasn&rsquo;t happy to leave for Buffalo. His career with the Hawks lasted only 37 games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m disappointed I didn&rsquo;t get as much of a chance as I thought I should,&rdquo; Muni said. &ldquo;This year my ice time was limited and I was playing with trade rumors over my head. I never said I wanted to leave, but I guess it was only a matter of time.&rdquo;Muni didn&rsquo;t endear himself to Sutter in camp when he was quoted as saying he&rsquo;d prefer to be traded if he didn&rsquo;t fit into the Hawks&rsquo; plans.&ldquo;He played as well as he could have, but we had players ahead of him,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why he wasn&rsquo;t given more ice time. He&rsquo;s a solid player who can play on every team in the league. I&rsquo;d rather have a kid chomping at the bit instead of a guy worrying about ice time.&ldquo;(Muni) wasn&rsquo;t the only guy. Troy Murray and Dave Christian are going through the same thing.&rdquo;TEMPER, TEMPER: Darryl Sutter told Ed Belfour he must control his temper. Belfour was ejected from a game for spearing Dallas Star Neal Broten and took a four-minute penalty Oct. 28 against the Toronto Maple Leafs for slashing Mark Osborne.&ldquo;No one questions Eddie&rsquo;s intensity, but he has to channel or curb his emotions,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;He can&rsquo;t keep letting other teams take him off his game.&rdquo;Belfour maintains he&rsquo;s only trying to protect himself around the crease since more of the officials are allowing players to crowd goaltenders.&ldquo;Eddie&rsquo;s reaction is to be physical and stir it up,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s different from most goalies because he plays the puck so much, so there&rsquo;s going to be contact. What if every goalie who was touched retaliated?&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: General manager Bob Pulford spoke with Steve Larmer&rsquo;s agent, Larry Kelly, to ask if Larmer would return for the $1.2 to $1.4 million salary he&rsquo;s seeking. &ldquo;Obviously, the response was no,&rdquo; Pulford said&hellip;The Hawks&rsquo; 9-6 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers Oct. 31 was their worst defensive performance since they allowed 10 goals against the Boston Bruins Oct. 16, 1988. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got some selfish players right now,&rdquo; Darryl Sutter said.In club history, only Denis Savard reached 400 points faster than Jeremy Roenick. Savard did it in four seasons and Roenick is in his fifth.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 27: Craig Muni, D, traded to Buffalo for Keith Carney, D.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Jeremy Roenick, Kevin Todd. Brent Sutter. Jeff Shantz, Troy MurrayLW&mdash;Rich Sutter, Stephane Matteau. Jocelyn Lemieux, Dave Christian.RW&mdash;Joe Murphy. Brian Noonan. Dirk Graham, Dann KimbleLD&mdash;Steve Smith, Bryan Marchment. Cam Russell. Keith Carney.RD&mdash;Neil Wilkinson, Chris Chelios. Frank Kucera.G&mdash;Ed Belfour. Jeff Hackett.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Michel Goulet. LW. back spasms, day-to-day. Tony Horacek. LW, back surgery, indefinite Christian Ruuttu, C, broken right ankle, indefinite. &#9632;

f0018-01

Youth movement now in full swing

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>When Phil Housley was finally traded to the St. Louis Blues, most critics said the Winnipeg Jets didn&rsquo;t get enough in return.But a month into the NHL season, Nelson Emerson-acquired along with steady defenseman Stephane Quintal in the Sept. 24 deal-was holding up his end of the bargain.Emerson, 26, was collecting points on a consistent basis, and though the Jets were having their troubles meshing offensively, he had gained more than just passing notice.&ldquo;He has been our most consistent forward,&rdquo; said coach John Paddock. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s using his speed to make it happen. When he&rsquo;s out there, he&rsquo;s going hell-bent for leather every time.&rdquo;Emerson had eight goals and 16 points in 12 games. That included a six-game goal-scoring streak and points in eight of nine games.&ldquo;It has been tough in a new city, but I&rsquo;ve been able to fit in with the guys here,&rdquo; Emerson said. &ldquo;The most important thing I learned under Brian Sutter and Bob Berry (in St. Louis) was they taught me how to play in 21 and 3-2 games. Here, I can use my speed and finesse, but I know the more important things (I do) might be the defensive ones.&rdquo;Emerson is the regular left point man on the power play and was moving between center and right wing during even-strength situations. Paddock&rsquo;s line juggling was something new for the Bowling Green product.&ldquo;In St. Louis, we always played with the same guys,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Here, I&rsquo;ve played with a lot of guys and both center and right wing. The coach likes to mix and match things. I think down the road, that&rsquo;s going to turn out to be a good thing.&rdquo;STRATEGY CHANGE: Goaltender Bob Essensa has changed his approach and is now seeking a four-year contract with the club.Essensa&rsquo;s agent, Mike Barnett, began discussions on a long-term contract for the goalie with general manager Mike Smith Oct. 29. To that point, the two had been talking about a one-year-plus option deal to begin this season.Last March, Essensa won a then-record salary arbitration award of $1,125 million for each of 1992-93 and &rsquo;93-94. Negotiations on the contract were re-opened during the summer.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s Mike Barnett&rsquo;s thinking there&rsquo;s a trend around the league to lock in cornerstone types of players,&rdquo; Essensa said. &ldquo;Everybody&rsquo;s doing it for three and four years. With Teemu (Selanne), Alex (Zhamnov) and Walt (Keith Tkachuk) coming up next summer, it might be best to put my situation to rest.&rdquo;Barnett and Smith were believed to be discussing a deal that would pay the goalie between $1.3 and $1.5 million this season.NOTEBOOK: Despite the fact the Jets equalled their best 10-game start ever at 6-3-1, reviews were mixed on the team&rsquo;s play. Said GM Mike Smith: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve shown above average ability and below average work ethic. I don&rsquo;t think the Jets of the past have ever had the potential this team has. We have a chance to have a good team here. What we need to do is to make more of a commitment.&rdquo;<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 25: Mike O&rsquo;Neill, G. recalled from Ft. Wayne (IHL). Oct. 28: O&rsquo;Neill assigned to Ft. Wayne. Oct 30: Van Kaminsky. RW. recalled from Moncton (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Thomas Steen. Nelson Emerson, Stu Barnes. Mike Eagles.LW&mdash;Keith Tkachuk, Darrin Shannon. Luciano Borsato, Kris King.RW&mdash;Teemu Selanne, Paul Ysebaert, Tie Domi. Bryan Erickson. Yan Kaminsky.LD&mdash;Teppo Numminen, Sergei Bautin, Igor Ulanov. Arto Blomsten, son. Stephane Quintal. Boris Mironov.G&mdash;Bob Essensa. Stephane Beauregard.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Alexei Zhamnov C. Charley horse and left knee bruise, day-to-day. &#9632;

Emerson’s fast start cools critics’ engines

<div class="byline">By Terry Egan</div>The Dallas Stars were thrilled when they lassoed goalie Andy Moog from the Boston Bruins in the off-season.And they showed just how much they appreciated having him in a Stars&rsquo; uniform by extending his contract through the 1995-96 season.Moog will be paid $1,250,000 for the 1993-94 season and $1,350,000 in 1995-96 should that option be exercised.The 33-year-old was in the option year of a contract that paid him a reported $1.1 million for this season.&ldquo;I got the impression right from the day the trade was announced that this is what the Stars wanted to do,&rdquo; Moog said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s definitely what Andy Moog wanted. I&rsquo;m very happy with what has occurred here with the Stars.&rdquo;Moog was traded to the Stars on June 25 for Jon Casey. Management wanted to extend Moog&rsquo;s contract at the time of the deal, but the team&rsquo;s move from Minneapolis to Dallas got in the way of serious negotiations.&ldquo;My feeling now is the same as it was when we got him,&rdquo; said coachgeneral manager Bob Gainey. &ldquo;I feel like it was important for this team to come to an agreement with him, because he obviously is an important element. His track record demanded that we address it in the proper way.&rdquo;Moog is entering his 14th season in the NHL and led all active goaltenders with 283 victories through Nov. 1.He had a 4-3-2 record with a 3.29 goals-against average in nine starts.TRADE IN WORKS?: At least two teams have approached the Stars about the availability of Dave Gagner.The New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks have both expressed interest in trading for the Stars&rsquo; scrappy center.Gagner said he was flattered by the interest and agreed a trade to either team would make sense.The 28-year-old played for Rangers&rsquo; coach Mike Keenan in the World Championships.The Canucks, meanwhile, are very thin down the middle and Gagner would plug a large hole.Bob Gainey dismissed the rumors and said the Stars aren&rsquo;t interested in moving one of their top players. Gagner had five goals and nine points in 11 games.NOTEBOOK: Right winger James Black is sidelined indefinitely after he sustained a serious laceration on his face in a game against the Hartford Whalers Oct. 27. Black needed 21 stitches to close a gash above his right eye after being crosschecked by Hartford&rsquo;s Nick Kypreos with two seconds left in a 5-1 win. He practised by himself after the incident to avoid contact with other teammates. He also didn&rsquo;t wear a helmet because his face was so swollen, it wouldn&rsquo;t fit on his head. He has decided not to wear a helmet with a faceguard when he returns to action&hellip;Defenseman Mark Tinordi, vowed retaliation for the shot Kypreos gave Black. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care if there is a suspension,&rdquo; Tinordi said. &ldquo;This will definitely carry over.&rdquo;The two teams meet again in Hartford March 12.<h2>DALLAS</h2>TRANSACTIONSOct 27: Jarkko Varvio. RW. assigned to Kalamazoo (IHL). Oct 29: Andy Moog, G, signed two-year contract.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Modano, Dave Gagner. Neal Broten, Dean Evason.LW&mdash;Mike McPhee, Chris TanciB, Brent Gilchrist, Shane Churta.RW&mdash;Mike Craig. Russ Courtnail, Ulf Dahlen. Paul Broten.LD&mdash;Mark Tinordi, Derian Hatcher, Craig Ludwig, Brad Berry.RD&mdash;Grant Ledyard, Tommy Sjodin, Paul Cavallini, Jim Johnson.G&mdash;Andy Moog, Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>James Black, RW, lace laceration. Indefinite Dave Barr. C. right elbow surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Moog now rich man deep in heart of Texas

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>It had to happen, but it still was a big disappointment to Toronto hockey fans when it finally did.On Oct. 30 in Montreal, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost their first game of the season. After 10 straight wins to bolt from the NHL pack, a 5-2 loss against the Montreal Canadiens ended an exciting early season streak that caught the league by surprise.&ldquo;You hate to lose, but in a sense it&rsquo;s (a relief),&rdquo; said coach Pat Bums. &ldquo;But if we don&rsquo;t give second effort and play within our limits, we&rsquo;re just an ordinary team.&rdquo;The streak set an NHL record for the most consecutive wins from the beginning of a season, breaking the old mark shared by the 1934-35 Leafs and 1975-76 Buffalo Sabres.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01973/6204032-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="581" height="853"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rob Pearson was scoring at a torrid pace before getting injured.</figcaption></div>It also established a team record for consecutive wins at any time during a season, breaking the record of nine set by the 1925 Maple Leafs.The Leafs set the record with home wins against the Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings, Hartford Whalers and Washington Capitals. They registering road wins against the Philadelphia Flyers, Detroit, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and Chicago. The win over the Blackhawks was the first after 13 losses in Chicago, dating back to Dec. 22, 1989.The combined score in the 10 wins was 45-20, although opponents outshot the Leafs in five games.It was ex-Leaf Vince Damphousse who did the damage with three goals in the loss to Montreal. Patrick Roy outplayed Leaf goalie Felix Potvin in a battle of the NHL&rsquo;s best netminder against it&rsquo;s hottest young stopper.Potvin was brilliant during the 10-game run with a 943 save percentage in nine starts and a 1.89 goal-against average. In the 10th win in Chicago, he blocked 46 shots in a 4-2 win.Specialty teams were also a key. By Nov. 1, the Leafs were leading the NHL in penalty killing, erasing 90 per cent of opposition advantages, while the power play was sixth best.MISSING ROB: Most pre-season forecasts suggested the development of winger Rob Pearson would have a defining effect on the club&rsquo;s season.With 23 goals last season, Pearson had shown glimpses of becoming the strong offensive player the Leafs envisioned when they drafted him in the first round in 1989. Power-skating lessons over the summer were expected to improve his quickness.Pearson was developing substantially, which made a knee injury sustained Oct. 23 against the Tampa Bay Lightning all the more disappointing.The 22-year-old right winger was hit by former Leaf Rudy Poeschek and sustained a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee that will likely keep him out of action until at least late November.Two nights earlier, Pearson scored two goals, including one in overtime in a 4-3 win over the Florida Panthers and had six goals and 10 points in nine games.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a disappointment after I got off to such a good start,&rdquo; said the 22-year-old.Pearson&rsquo;s solid play had given the Leafs a potent second line with left winger Wendel Clark and center John Cullen.NOTEBOOK: Center Doug Gilmour was fined $500 for pummelling Tampa defenseman Roman Hamrlik with his fists Oct. 23 in St. Petersburg. The Leaf center had a hearing with NHL vice-president Brian Burke, but wasn&rsquo;t suspended&hellip;Leaf captain Wendel Clark had nine goals in his first nine games.Center Mike Eastwood was a scratch for the first 11 games, while Alexei Kudashov dressed for only three. Kent Manderville was shifted to center in many of those games.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for The Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Doug Gilmour, John Cullen, Mike Krushelnyski, Kent Manderville, Mike Eastwood, Alexei Kudashov.LW&mdash;Dave Andreychuk, Wendel Clark, Mark Osborne, Ken Baumgartner.RW&mdash;Nikolai Borschevsky. Glenn Anderson, Bill Berg, Mike Foligno.LD&mdash;Dave Ellett, Sylvain Lefebvre. Jamie Macoun.RD&mdash;Todd Gill, Bob Rouse, Dmitri Mironov.G&mdash;Felix Potvin, Damian Rhodes.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Rob Pearson, RW, sprained right knee ligament, day-to-day. Peter Zezel, C, back disc problems, indefinite. &#9632;

f0020-01

Record win start over at 10 games

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>As the first month of the season came to a close, Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; general manager Bryan Murray was busy working the phones, trying to make a trade that would help his struggling team.Until recently, his top priority was finding a goaltender who could fill in at least until Tim Cheveldae returned from a knee injury he sustained on opening night.But the play of rookie goaltender Chris Osgood had Murray rethinking his position.The 20-year-old from Peace River, Alta., recorded back-to-back wins against the Los Angeles Kings (8-3 Oct. 27) and Quebec Nordiques (5-3 Oct. 30).His performances were especially important given the fact backup Vincent Riendeau faltered when given the opportunity denied him since coming to Detroit.&ldquo;Sometimes a little patience pays off. Maybe Chris Osgood is good enough,&rdquo; Murray said. &ldquo;He has played poised and under control. And (against Quebec) he made four or five major-league stops.&rdquo;Nordiques&rsquo; general manager Pierre Page concurred, saying Osgood &ldquo;was the star of the game, no doubt about it.&rdquo;Osgood&rsquo;s win over the Kings was his first win in the NHL. The young goalie said beating the Kings and Wayne Gretzky was a dream come true. His best save came midway through the third period, while the Kings were desperately trying to overcome the prospect of a lopsided deficit.Defenseman Alexei Zhitnik wound up with a slapshot from 25 feet. Osgood dove and snared the puck with his glove and a packed house at Joe Louis Arena stood and cheered.&ldquo;It feels good,&rdquo; Osgood said. &ldquo;It gives you confidence when the fans are behind you. As a goaltender, you have to stand there for 60 minutes all by yourself. But when you have 20,000 people behind you, it makes you feel a lot better.DINO ARRIVES: After failing to score in his first nine games, Dino Ciccarelli scored in three straight matches. It gave the 33-year-old right winger 488 career goals.Coach Scott Bowman had no complaints with Ciccarelli&rsquo;s play during his slump. But he was pleased to see the feisty veteran regain his scoring touch.&ldquo;He has been all over the place,&rdquo; Bowman said.Ciccarelli had three goals and eight points in 12 games.NOTEBOOK: Figuring his days as a Red Wing are coming to a close, Shawn Burr couldn&rsquo;t decide on which costume to wear to the team&rsquo;s Halloween party. &ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;ll wear a blank sweater with just my name on it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Or maybe I should go as a plane ticket, destination unknown.&rdquo; Burr was pessimistic about his future in Detroit after being scratched for the 5-3 win at Quebec. In fact, after playing sparingly against the Kings, Burr reiterated his request for a trade if he doesn&rsquo;t figure into Scott Bowman&rsquo;s plans. Bryan Murray confirmed he had discussions with numerous clubs and &ldquo;there has been a fair amount of interest in Shawn.&rdquo;<h2>DETROIT</h2>TRANSACTIONSOct. 25: Aaron Ward, D. assigned to Adirondack (AHL): Bob Halkidis, D, recalled from Adirondack.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Sergei Fedorov, Greg Johnson, Mike Sillinger, Keith Primeau.LW&mdash;Dallas Drake. Micah Aivazoff, Sheldon Kennedy. Bob Probert, Slava Kozlov, Shawn Burr.RW&mdash;Dino Ciccarelli. Ray Sheppard, Martin Lapointe. Darren McCarty.LD&mdash;Nicklas Lidstrom, Paul Coffey, Terry Carkner, Steve Konroyd.RD&mdash;Steve Chiasson. Steve Konroyd, Mark Howe, Bob Haikidis.G&mdash;Chris Osgood, Vince Riendeau.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tim Cheveldae, G, sprained right knee. Nov. 8. Vladimir Konstantinov, D, strained knee, day-to-day Steve Yzerman C, herniated disc in back, indefinite. &#9632;

Osgood may be solution to goaltending crisis

<div class="byline">By Tom Murray</div>Seven years after Gary Davidson and Dennis Murphy started the World Hockey Association with 12 franchises at a cost of $25,000 each&hellip;seven years after the rise and fall of almost 30 teams (remember the Golden Blades and Fighting Saints)&hellip;seven years and millions of dollars in salaries and legal fees later, The War Between The Leagues is finally over.By a vote of 14-3, the NHL approved a plan for expansion which will take effect at the beginning of the 1979-80 season, when the NHL will absorb the WHA&rsquo;s four strongest franchises, the Quebec Nordiques, New England Whalers, Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers-and become a 21-team league with no major competition.It is very important to note here that expansion, and not merger, is the key word for what has transpired between the two leagues.&ldquo;We are not merging,&rdquo; NHL president John Ziegler emphatically told a large media gathering at New York City&rsquo;s Warwick Hotel. &ldquo;We are not adopting any WHA rules. The NHL is merely moving ahead and expanding.&rdquo;Here are some more details concerning the arrangement between the two leagues.&#9633; For the privilege of joining the NHL, each of the WHA teams has to pay a sum of $6 million.&#9633; The remaining two WHA teams, the Cincinnati Stingers and Birmingham Bulls, will be dissolved. Their owners will receive $3.5 million and $2.85 million, respectively, from the four survivors and their players whose rights do not already belong to NHL clubs will be placed in a talent pool from which all 21 teams will be able to draw.&#9633; Each one of the incoming WHA teams will be allowed to protect only four players-two goalies and two skaters. All the rest of those players who are not protected will be made available to the 17 NHL teams. So will any WHA player who is not on that four man protected list and whose rights are held by NHL teams.Now this may sound like the WHA teams are getting a raw deal, but there is a catch which softens this blow. Here&rsquo;s how it works: Each NHL team will be allowed to protect 15 skaters and two goalies. So if an NHL team decides it wants to draft a WHA player, it is going to have to make room by bumping one of its established players off the roster. Not only that, but in acquiring the WHA player, the NHL team must assume that player&rsquo;s contract and may not trade or send the player to the minors for two years. &#9632;

Looking Back: THN-April 13,1979

Mike Pelyk could be excused for feeling a tinge of bitterness about his NHL career.He missed the Stanley Cup gravy train in Toronto by one year and spent nine of his next 11 pro seasons languishing in an organization in decay. But the steady defenseman harbors no resentment.&ldquo;I have no regrets about my career,&rdquo; said the 46-year-old vicepresident of a Toronto real estate company. &ldquo;If everyone had the career I had, I&rsquo;d be happy for them.&rdquo;That career began in 1967-68, the season after the Leafs had won their fourth Stanley Cup in six years. It was also the year of the league&rsquo;s first expansion, which meant the Leafs were lumped into a division with the other Original Six teams. And though Toronto finished with the second-best goals-against average in the NHL and had six more points than in the previous season, it didn&rsquo;t qualify for the playoffs.It was a harbinger of things to come.&ldquo;There were so many personnel changes and coaching changes,&rdquo; Pelyk recalled. &ldquo;And (former owner) Harold Ballard had his austerity program. It was difficult for the team to maintain any kind of stability.&rdquo;Pelyk was part of that personnel turnover, but by choice. He jumped to the World Hockey Association in 1974, signing with the Vancouver Blazers. The Toronto native played the following season with the Cincinnati Stingers before returning to the Leafs for the 1976-77 season.The faces may have changed in Toronto during the two years he was away, but the situation remained the same.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01739/6204111-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="575" height="1128"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Pelyk says fans should have more patience with players.</figcaption></div>Then, as his career was drawing to a close, Pelyk received some modest payback for time served. Toronto upset the heavily favored New York Islanders in the 1978 playoffs on Lanny McDonald&rsquo;s dramatic overtime goal in Game 7 of the quarterfinals.&ldquo;As I was sitting there on the bench, I was thinking to myself, &lsquo;God, is this thing ever going to end?&rsquo; &ldquo;Pelyk recalled. &ldquo;Then Lanny fooled Chico Resch completely for the game-winner.&rdquo;The series win, which Pelyk describes as his career highlight, came in what would be his last NHL season. He played two more years in Europe before aborting a comeback try with the Buffalo Sabres in 1980.And while he remains positive about his NHL experience, Pelyk-still a Leafs&rsquo; booster-wishes fans were more understanding of professional athletes.&ldquo;Fans should be more patient,&rdquo; said Pelyk, who collected 114 points and 566 penalty minutes in 440 NHL games. &lsquo;There are only so many superstars in the game; the rest are guys who have put tremendous amounts of time and effort into being their best. And they&rsquo;re still among the select few.&ldquo;I know when things weren&rsquo;t going well for me and there was a lot of pressure from the outside, I didn&rsquo;t want to spend a lot of time at the rink.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0021-01

Pelyk a first-hand witness to decline of Leafs’ empire

The advent of the video age has not only changed the way the game is viewed, it has also changed the way it is governed.Video replay has become an integral part in determining whether a goal has been scored during an NHL game.Video also plays a big role in how fans view the game. Today, hockey fans can relive the excitement and intensity of NHL competition with their own videos.Several new videos are on the market this season featuring enough action to satisfy every fan.And if they would rather play than watch, there are also several instructional tapes that can help improve the way players perform on the ice.Here&rsquo;s a brief look at several new videos fans would love to receive as Christmas gifts this holiday season.&#9633; Don Cherry&rsquo;s Rock &lsquo;Em Sock &lsquo;Em Five.Hockey&rsquo;s premier entertainer is at it again. If you loved the first four in hockey&rsquo;s best selling series, you&rsquo;ll love his latest effort. In his fifth edition, Cherry explores his best goals, hits, saves and bloopers, including some of his favorites by Tie Domi and Bob Probert. It&rsquo;s 61 minutes of nonstop action and features the sound of Techno stars BKS and 2 Unlimited.&#9633; The 1993 Stanley Cup Playoff Champs: The Montreal Canadiens.This NHL production relives the 28 thrilling overtimes, heroic performances and glorious victories of the 1993 Stanley Cup playoffs. Last season marked the 100th Stanley Cup championship and was captured a record 24th time by the Montreal Canadiens. Insightful commentary is provided by playoff MVP Patrick Roy and his nemeses from the Los Angeles Kings, Wayne Gretzky.&#9633; The Passion Returns: Toronto Maple Leafs, The 1992-93 Season.This one-hour tribute to the 1992-93 Toronto Maple Leafs captures their magnificent climb to a Norris Division championship and a berth in the Stanley semifinals against the Los Angeles Kings. Relive the glorious moments displayed by the likes of Doug Gilmour, Wendel Clark, Felix Potvin, Todd Gill and Nikolai Borschevsky. Host Joe Bowen calls the shots in Toronto&rsquo;s series victories over the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues. In his first season with the Leafs, Pat Burns showed why he&rsquo;s considered one of the premier coaches in the NHL today.&#9633; The Hockey News How To Great Video Series: Skate Like A Pro, with Paul Coffey.Stanley Cup winner and NHL all-star defenseman Paul Coffey of the Detroit Red Wings has put together a comprehensive video on how to skate like the very best in the game. In Skate Like A Pro, Coffey teams with well-known sportscaster Ron MacLean and professional power skating instructor Marianne Watkins. They demonstrate strength-building exercises and drills that will have you on your way to becoming a complete skater.&#9633; Out of the Woods, with Gary Thorne: The Video History of Maine&rsquo;s Championship season.Led by Hobey Baker Award winner Paul Kariya, the University of Maine Black Bears captured theNational Collegiate Athletic Association championship this past season with thrilling victories over the best collegiate teams in the U.S. Host Gary Thorne offers an in depth look at Maine&rsquo;s memorable season. &#9632;

New videos offer best moments of this past season

The opening of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto this past season satisfied the dreams of many hockey fans and players.Virtually every player who laces on a pair of skates dreams of making it to the big time. But only the select few ever make it to the professional level and few become stars.And even fewer are good enough to become enshrined in hockey&rsquo;s greatest hall.The pursuit of these most fortunate players is the subject of some of the most interesting and sought-after books of the 1993-94 season.Here&rsquo;s a look at a couple of these and some other of hockey&rsquo;s hottest titles this season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0025-01751/6204173-1-eng-US/f0025-012.jpg" title="f0025-01" width="586" height="772"><figcaption class="caption-body">Hockey&rsquo;s greatest legends are showcased in this fascinating book.</figcaption></div>&#9633; Hockey Hall of Fame Legends, Viking Press/Opus Productions Inc.From its humble beginning over 100 years ago, hockey has risen to become a game of near-mythic status. It is a game personified by heroes and legends-the players and plays of a lifetime. This fullcolor book features the photography of Derik Murray and the lyrical text of Michael McKinley. Former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; goaltending great Ken Dryden offers an insightful glimpse into the game in his two-page forward to the main text. The pages of this book are graced by hockey&rsquo;s greatest games-Cyclone Taylor, Howie Morenz, Maurice &lsquo;Rocket&rsquo; Richard, Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull and the legendary Bobby Orr. The book brings to life the exciting and often heart-breaking hockey stories of these great players and offers a unique viewpoint of history in the making.&#9633; Hockey&rsquo;s Golden Era: Stars of the Original Six, Macmillan Canada.This book celebrates two vivid examples of excellence-one athletic, the other photographic. Hockey&rsquo;s Golden Era comes to life in the photographs of renowned Canadian photographer HaroldBarkley. His lens has captured some of the greatest players ever to play in the NHL during the days of the Original Six-Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Detroit, New York and Boston. Examine the fine detail and facial features of some of the greatest faces like Gordie Howe, Terry Sawchuk, Toe Blake, Jean Beliveau and Jacques Plante. Frank Selke Jr. provides an interesting forward and Mike Leonetti carefully chronicles the style of the day during the Golden Era.&#9633; Mario, Lester Publishing Limited, Toronto.Author Lawrence Martin captures the trials and tribulations of one of the most talked about superstars of hockey&rsquo;s modern era. Read how Pittsburgh Penguins center Mario Lemieux battled back from serious back ailments and Hodgkin&rsquo;s Disease. This unauthorized account balances the myth and the &#9633; Manon: Alone in Front of the Net, Harper Collins Publishers, Ltd.The hockey establishment was broken this past season when 20-year-old Manon Rheaume became the first female to play a game in the NHL. The Quebec native played one game in the Quebec League the previous season for the Trois Rivieres Draveurs, but that didn&rsquo;t deter Tampa Bay Lightning general manager/president Phil Esposito from offering her a tryout. Rheaume performed admirably and won a spot in the Lightning organization. She served as a third-string goalie for most of the season with the Atlanta Knights of the International League. Rheaume tells us what it&rsquo;s like to play the sport she loves, how she managed to balance hockey with her personal life and how she was able to make her seemingly impossible dream come true.Chantal Gilbert helped Rheaume tell her truly unique story. Includes several pages of photos.&#9633; Road Games: A Year in the Life of the NHL, MacFarlane, Walter & Ross.Ottawa Citizen columnist Roy MacGregor gives an in-depth look into one of the most tumultuous seasons in NHL history. It was a year that ended with an inquiry into whether or not the Ottawa Senators deliberately threw games to secure first pick in the 1993 NHL entry draft. MacGregor also explores Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s battle with Hodgkin&rsquo;s Disease, the emergence of European stars Teemu Selanne, Pavel Bure, Alexandre Mogilny and the Montreal Canadiens drive to the Stanley Cup championship. Road Games raises important questions such as: Were the league&rsquo;s rules changes abandoned midway through the NHL season, why do team owners cry poor when NHL franchises are immensely profitable and why does the CBC tolerate Don Cherry&rsquo;s espousal of hockey violence and shilling for a sports lottery. Road Games is one of the most talked about hockey books of the season.&#9633; Behind The Bench: Coaches talk about life in the NHL, McClelland and Stewart Inc.Author Dick Irvin gives us a perception of the game from the lonely side of the bench-the coach&rsquo;s view. This book is not about coaching strategies, but rather about the personalities behind the benches. All the famous NHL coaches are here in the book or through personal anecdotes or insiders who remember them. Get an inside into the game from such important coaches as Scotty Bowman, Harry Neale, Glen Sather, Toe Blake, Pat Burns, Mike Keenan, Al Arbour and several others. Irvin interviewed, in researching the book, more than 40 current and former coaches.&#9633; The Defense Never Rests, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.Sports journalist Bruce Dowbiggin spent two years investigating the NHL pension fund and Alan Eagleson. His work is the riveting story of men who dreamed only of playing and winning the Stanley Cup-not being ignored and cheated by NHL management whose coffers they had filled. Dowbiggin captures the days of Conn Smythe and Punch Imlach who ruled the Toronto Maple Leafs with an iron fist. He recreates the excitement of Hockey Night in Canada and the voice of Foster Hewitt. But his story continues to the time when players found themselves without adequate pensions, sometimes penniless.&#9633; The Game, Macmillan Canada.A decade ago, former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Ken Dryden wrote the ideal book on the game of hockey in Canada. Dryden is back to celebrate the 10year anniversary. This special edition includes photographs and an all-new forward by the Hall of Fame goalie. The Game is a philosophical account of Canada&rsquo;s most cherished pastime. It offers a glimpse into the lives of players, families and coaches involved at all levels of the game.&#9633; Elston&rsquo;s Hat Trick, Polestar books.Hockey&rsquo;s foremost humorist, Dave Elston, returns with his third compilation of knee-slapping hockey cartoons. Of specific focus in this year&rsquo;s fine edition are potshots at Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; center Wayne Gretzky, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux and Philadelphia Flyer star Eric Lindros. The Calgary Herald cartoonist is also a regular contributor in The Hockey News.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-01696/6204166-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg" title="f0029-01" width="571" height="735"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ken Dryden&rsquo;s famous book gives us an in-depth look at Canada&rsquo;s game.</figcaption></div>&#9633; Eagleson: The Fall of a Hockey Czar, McGraw Hill-Ryerson.Alan Eagleson was one of the most powerful men in hockey for a quarter of a century, but rumors of unethical legal practises surfaced during his tenure as NHL Players&rsquo; Association president. Eagleson has been investigated by both the FBI and RCMP. Authors David Shoalts and William Houston uncover the dirt on this story. &#9632;

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New books bring Hockey’s Hall of Fame to life

<div class="byline">By Tom McMillan</div>A few hours before his first NHL game in five months, Mario Lemieux had one small fear.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m concerned about going out there and making a fool of myself,&rdquo; the league&rsquo;s defending scoring champion and MVP said with a laugh.No chance.Lemieux, making a comeback from off-season back surgery, skated a regular shift and contributed two assists Oct. 28 in a 7-3 loss to the Quebec Nordiques before a crowd of 17,097 at the Civic Arena.He suffered an immediate setback when soreness in his back forced him to sit out the Penguins&rsquo; game against the Chicago Blackhawks Oct. 30.Lemieux accompanied the team to San Jose on Oct. 31 for the start of a long western road trip and both general manager Craig Patrick and coach Eddie Johnston expected him to return to action within a few days.He was listed as day-to-day.Would it be any other way for the NHL&rsquo;s most star-crossed superstar of all-time?Against the Nordiques, the Penguins&rsquo; captain set up goals by Kevin Stevens and Grant Jennings, ran the show from the left-wing boards on the power play, mystified Quebec&rsquo;s defense on several occasions and served notice the NHL scoring race is up for grabs.Lemieux has made it known he wants to win his fifth Art Ross Trophy, despite the fact he spotted Wayne Gretzky a 26-point lead. The day Lemieux returned, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a story headlined, &ldquo;Lemieux aims to overtake Gretzky.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always a possibility to catch him,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be a tough year, but with the players we have and the power play we have, I feel like my chances are good.&rdquo;Lemieux speaks from experience. When he returned from his ordeal with Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease last March, he was 12 points behind Pat LaFontaine of the Buffalo Sabres and fell as far back as 18 behind with 17 games left. But he still managed to breeze to the scoring title by 12 points.But even a healthy Lemieux could have a monumental challenge ahead of him this season, considering what Gretzky accomplished through the first month of 1993-94.Gretzky&rsquo;s 29 points in 13 games put him on pace for a 187-point total over 84 games, which would be his best season since an NHL-record 215-point performance in 1985-86.But Gretzky hasn&rsquo;t played a full season since then and it&rsquo;s reasonable to expect he&rsquo;ll spend some time on the sidelines this season. Even if Lemieux can avoid long-term injury, he will likely only play 60-65 games. (In the story below. The Hockey News projects Lemieux&rsquo;s scoring totals this season over 67 games-which represents 80 per cent of games, Lemieux&rsquo;s career average.)Lemieux has already proven he doesn&rsquo;t need a full season to win the Art Ross. He missed 125 games in the four seasons prior to this one and didn&rsquo;t play more than 64 games in any of those years, yet managed to win the scoring title in 1992 and &rsquo;93. The closest scoring race between Lemieux and Gretzky occurred two years ago when Lemieux finished 10 points ahead of Gretzky. Stevens was sandwiched between them.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01812/6204218-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="746" height="730"></div>The 1991 race, the last won by Gretzky, was a non-event because Lemieux played only 26 games. Last season was Gretzky&rsquo;s turn for misery as back pain limited him to 45 games.Returning to action in brilliant fashion has become commonplace for Lemieux. In addition to recurring back problems, he spent part of last season recovering from Hodgkin&rsquo;s disease-which required six weeks of energy-sapping radiation treatments. His career has been one long emotional ordeal.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how he does it,&rdquo; Stevens said.&ldquo;Mario is just so strong mentally. He&rsquo;s stronger than the rest of us. A lot of guys wouldn&rsquo;t be able to take all the stuff he has been through. He just kind of accepts it as part of life and moves on.&rdquo;It became a source of small controversy in Pittsburgh that Lemieux did not undergo surgery until late July, although he explained later he wanted to make sure surgery was the proper route.&ldquo;We wanted to make sure it was the right decision at the time&hellip;that surgery was the right thing to do,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;I wanted to see if my back would get better over the summer. But it went the other way. It didn&rsquo;t get better. It got worse.&rdquo;At the time of the surgery, doctors predieted Lemieux would be able to return&hellip;for the start of the regular season Oct. 5. But his rehabilitation program took longer than expected and after a visit to back specialist Dr. Robert Watkins in Los Angeles, it was determined he would return to the lineup sometime in late October.&ldquo;I think the meeting out there gave him a lot of confidence and gave everyone peace of mind,&rdquo; said Penguins&rsquo; owner Howard Baldwin.Lemieux began skating on his own in late September and joined the Penguins for practice Oct. 18- to the surprise of teammates.The comeback process was aided by Johnston, who arranged a scrimmage at one practice session the week before Lemieux&rsquo;s return to simulate game conditions for his star player. And he began to look like the Lemieux of old. dishing breathtaking passes to teammates, snapping pucks into the comers of nets.Despite his physical problems, the 28-year-old Lemieux said he plans to play out his current contract-which runs through the 1998-99 season at an average of $6 million a year.He said there are no plans to follow basketball star Michael Jordan into premature retirement.&ldquo;As long as my back is going to hold up and I can go out there and do the things I can do and that I did in the past, I&rsquo;m going to play the game,&rdquo; Lemieux said.&ldquo;If I feel my back is not strong enough and I&rsquo;m not able to do the things I did in the past, maybe I&rsquo;ll think about retiring. But right now there are no plans to do that. I still have some things to do with the Pittsburgh Penguins. I want to win more championships.&rdquo;Championships are the key.It is virtually impossible for Lemieux to match Gretzky in scoring titles (Gretzky 9, Lemieux 4). MVP awards (Gretzky 9, Lemieux 2) and career points (Gretzky had a 1,154-point bulge going into this season), but he has a chance to do it in the Stanley Cup department.Gretzky&rsquo;s teams have won four championships. Lemieux&rsquo;s have won two.Still, No. 66 chooses to concentrate on the 1993-94 scoring race as his immediate motivation.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s always important for me to be on top and be the best,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s certainly what I&rsquo;m going to try to do&hellip;it&rsquo;s my job.&rdquo;And he got right to it upon his return.After stepping on the ice to a thunderous Arena ovation, he set up Stevens for a power-play goal in the first period and fed Jennings for a one-timer from the edge of the crease in the second.But the Penguins allowed the Nordiques to score five goals and got into a hole out of which not even Lemieux could dig them.Rusty from all the inactivity, Lemieux couldn&rsquo;t pull the Penguins from behind on this night. But history tells us his time will come. Again.&ldquo;It has been my role on this team to score the big goal and come up with the big play,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;Hopefully, I can get back in shape to help the team as soon as possible.&rdquo;And Baldwin, the upbeat owner, thinks there is more greatness in his future.&ldquo;When Mario can put together a full year without any (medical) problems, he&rsquo;ll blow away everybody&rsquo;s records,&rdquo; Baldwin said.<h2>THE CHASE IS ON</h2>Entering this season, Mario Lemieux had played 80 per cent of potential career regular-season games and scored 1,174 points. We&rsquo;ve estimated how many points he will score through the remaining six years of his contract-assuming he plays 67 games each year (80 per cent of 84.)Using Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s career scoring pattern as a guide-he averaged a six percent decline 1986-87 through 1991-92-we project Lemieux&rsquo;s totals through 1998-99.He starts out averaging 2.T1 points per game, an improvement on last year&rsquo;s 2.67.Also shown are when and whom he will pass on the all-time NHL list based on career points entering 1993-94. Even taking into account increased totals among active players, a healthy Lemieux should pass all but Bryan Trottier this season.Gretzky is beyond reach; we figure he&rsquo;ll have about 2,600 points by the end of 1994-95.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02537/6204211-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="2513" height="2673"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux could wage an interesting battle for the scoring title.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03428/6204204-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="5544" height="766"></div>Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s projected season () and career totals: &#9632;

f0026-01

BACK IN THE HUNT

<div class="byline">By Jim Matheson</div>Wayne Gretzky hasn&rsquo;t had a challenge like this since he moved to Los Angeles in 1988 and was thrust into the starring role in Hooray for Hockeywood. It has been big box office for his owner Bruce McNall, but now No. 99 has a larger task.He has to fight hockey&rsquo;s King Kong for the scoring title. And while he&rsquo;s doing that, he&rsquo;s taking on Mr. Hockey.Mario Lemieux returned Oct. 28 after offseason back surgery-26 points behind Gretzky. Lemieux was scratched for his second game, but if he remains healthy, the scoring race should be the most intriguing in years.Lemieux missed the Penguins&rsquo; first 10 games. His back will probably force him out at times during the season, but if he can play 65-70 games, the race should be a dandy. Lemieux averaged a career-high 2.67 points per game last year.And he may not have peaked.Assuming, he still has growth potential, Lemieux would score 186 points by averaging 2.77 points per game over 67 games this season. That mark, 2.77, is the NHL record established by Gretzky in 1983-84. (See story below.)Gretzky has long thrived on battles. This is just one more. In the Kings&rsquo; 13 October games, he figured in more than 50 per cent of the team&rsquo;s 54 goals. He picked up 29 points. If he maintains that pace, he&rsquo;ll finish with 187. That&rsquo;s considerably more than he feels he&rsquo;ll need to win.&ldquo;I figure that I&rsquo;ll need 165 points to win the scoring title,&rdquo; Gretzky said in mid-October. By the time the month was over, he had changed it to, &ldquo;the reality is (Lemieux) will get between 165 and 175 points. That&rsquo;s what it&rsquo;ll take for anyone to win it.&rdquo;The scoring race, then, is likely to be a two-player event.&ldquo;There are only two guys who&rsquo;ve proven they can get that many (over 160) and that&rsquo;s me and Mario,&rdquo; Gretzky said.Of the 11 highest-scoring point totals, Gretzky has eight and Lemieux three. Only three other players-Steve Yzerman (155), Phil Esposito (152) and Bernie Nicholls (150)-have ever hit the 150-point plateau.With Gordie Howe&rsquo;s career scoring record of 801 goals only 28 away, Gretzky has been shooting more. He had 48 shots in the first 13 games, more than any other Kings&rsquo; player.He has only had 47 goals the last two seasons, however.&ldquo;The only way I&rsquo;ll beat (Lemieux) is if I can score 50 goals,&rdquo; said Gretzky, who was on pace for 43 goals. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll get 110 assists.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think anybody feels I can do it, so that part of it would be gratifying,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Mario&rsquo;s tough, but I think I can compete with anyone else out there. If i don&rsquo;t win it, I&rsquo;m not going to lose any sleep over it.&rdquo; &#9632;

Great One has great challenge

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01728/6204280-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="385" height="542"></div>Legend has it Bonnie Lindros woke up trembling in a Buffalo hotel room the moment she realized her son Eric was something special.Randy Langkow&rsquo;s awakening to his son Daymond&rsquo;s potential wasn&rsquo;t as dramatic, but it did have a significant impact.&ldquo;Right from the first time he put on the equipment when he was four, you could see the look of determination in his eyes the other kids didn&rsquo;t have,&rdquo; Randy recalled. &ldquo;His first game he came off the ice upset because the other team scored. Even back then preventing a goal was more important than going out and scoring one.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s still the case and it&rsquo;s that attribute-among many others-that sets Daymond Langkow (pronounced LANG-koe) apart. He is an immensely talented 17-year-old center who is the early favorite to go first overall in the 1995 entry draft.When scouts talk about most talented phenoms, there is usually a &ldquo;but&rdquo; attached to their assessments. As in: &ldquo;Sure he&rsquo;s good, but he has to work on his two-way play.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s not a problem with Langkow. In fact, he devoted much of his last season of midget hockey to improving his offense. He must have done something right since he had 10 goals and 23 points in his first 10 games this season with the Tri-City Americans, a sub-par team in the WHL&rsquo;s West Division.Most scouts maintain that if Langkow were available this year, he&rsquo;d challenge for No. I overall. This is hardly a guarantee of draft success, though. Scouts conceded No. I to Mike Ricci more than a year before his draft year and he ended up going fourth in 1990.The possibility of that happening is almost inconceivable to Sheldon Ferguson, the director of scouting for Canada&rsquo;s national junior team.&ldquo;Players like Daymond Langkow are the reason I&rsquo;m in the scouting business,&rdquo; Ferguson said. &ldquo;I was just scouting out west and I thought he was one of the best players in the WHL; not just the best draft-eligible player, the best player.&rdquo;There are no discernible weaknesses in Langkow&rsquo;s game. Of his 10 goals this season, two of them were shorthanded. He has hockey sense and maturity beyond his years and he&rsquo;s tough. He had 49 penalty minutes and fought five times.Ferguson said he&rsquo;s considering Langkow for the 1994 World Junior team. Few players make that team at 17, even fewer are chosen in the season before their first draft-eligible year.Sometimes it&rsquo;s difficult to believe Langkow isn&rsquo;t eligible now. His skills say he is, but his birth certificate says Sept. 27,1976, which leaves him 12 days short of 1994 eligibility. When WHL media members recently voted on the best prospects for the &rsquo;94 draft, several included Langkow.&ldquo;(Going first overall) is something I&rsquo;d like to see happen,&rdquo; said the 5-foot-11,175-pounder. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s a long way off and I just want to do as much as I can this year.&rdquo;Langkow distinguished himself as an elite junior this summer at the Phoenix Cup under-18 tournament in Japan. He joined the Canadian team for just one workout before the tournament because he attended the funeral of teammate Todd Klassen, who was killed in a car accident.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02480/6204273-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="577" height="805"><figcaption class="caption-body">Daymond Langkow</figcaption></div>Langkow started as a fourth-liner and finished second in scoring with four goals and seven assists in a tournament where second assists were non-existent. Observers said he outplayed linemate Jeff Friesen, as well as Jeff O&rsquo;Neill and Jason Bonsignore. All three are expected to be first-round picks in 1994.&ldquo;He was our most effective allround player,&rdquo; said Canada&rsquo;s coach John Lovell.Langkow&rsquo;s brother Scott, a goaltender for the WHL&rsquo;s Portland Winter Hawks and a second-round choice of the Winnipeg Jets in 1993, isn&rsquo;t as impressed with his younger sibling.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s good, but I don&rsquo;t worry about him like I do guys like (Valeri) Bure,&rdquo; Scott said.&ldquo;I scored on him four times last year and once this year, so he&rsquo;d better worry about me,&rdquo; Daymond responded.His opponents are already doing that. &#9632;

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Langkow looks out for No. I in 1995

<div class="byline">By Kevin Allen</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03344/6204311-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mass.-Lowell center Mike Murray may not be the most talented player in the NCAA, but the power forward knows how to score. (MARK BOGACZ)</figcaption></div>November could be considered audition month in U.S. college hockey. It&rsquo;s a time when several stars are competing for the role as leading man in 1993-94.Maine Black Bears&rsquo; left winger Paul Kariya, last year&rsquo;s Hobey Baker Award winner, has the job until early December, at which point he&rsquo;ll join the Canadian Olympic team.Who will take over after that is unclear. Here&rsquo;s a list of 10 understudies who should challenge for center stage in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Players are listed alphabetically, along with the league in which they play-Central Collegiate Hockey Association, Eastern College Athletic Conference, Hockey East or Western Collegiate Hockey Association.Jim Carey, G, Wisconsin (WCHA). Two years ago the Badger coaching staff couldn&rsquo;t get Carey an invitation to USA Hockey&rsquo;s Select-17 camp. Today, he might be the most talented goaltender in college hockey. As an 18-year-old freshman, he had a 3.07 goals-against average and a 26-15-1 record.Brian Holzinger, C, Bowling Green (CCHA). Many coaches feel U.S. Olympic team coach Tim Taylor erred in cutting Holzinger. Now they&rsquo;ll have to deal with the gifted center, who scored 31 goals in 41 games last season and was named a second-team CCHA all-star in his sophomore year.Kaj Linna, D, Boston University (HE). Enjoy him while you can, because he won&rsquo;t be coming back for his senior season. League rivals can&rsquo;t believe an NHL organization didn&rsquo;t draft the 6-foot-2, 192-pound Finnish blueliner after his sophomore year.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question he&rsquo;ll be among the top defensemen in the country,&rdquo; said Terriers&rsquo; coach Jack Parker.Neil Little, G, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (ECAC). At 6-foot-1, 185 pounds, Little isn&rsquo;t exactly a Redwood. But he&rsquo;s filling a lot more of the net than he did last year, when he went 19-9-3 with a 906 save percentage and 2.93 goals-against average.&ldquo;He was a telephone pole when we got him,&rdquo; said RPI coach Buddy Powers. &ldquo;Now he has definition.&rdquo;Mike Murray, C, Mass.-Lowell (HE). What Murray lacks in speed, he makes up for in tenacity. The power forward goes to the net well and has a decent touch. Murray had 23 goals and 81 points in 39 games last season.&ldquo;Some guys have harder shots, but when he shoots, the puck goes by the goaltender,&rdquo; Parker said.Jamie Ram, G, Michigan Tech (WCHA). Ram was the nation&rsquo;s busiest goalie in 1992-93, playing 36 games. His talent is the main reason why the Huskies have a chance to make their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1981.&ldquo;He gives us confidence,&rdquo; coach Bob Mancini said. &ldquo;When he&rsquo;s playing, our shoulders are higher and our chests begin to expand.&rdquo;Shawn Reed, D, Colorado College (WCHA). Though he had a poor junior season, many believe he&rsquo;ll end up as the WCHA&rsquo;s best defenseman.In the opening weekend of this season, Reed had four assists in leading the Tigers to their first sweep of the Minnesota Golden Gophers since 1980-81.Steve Shields, G, Michigan (CCHA). It&rsquo;s amazing Shields doesn&rsquo;t receive more recognition. He has won 83 games over the past three seasons and his goals-against average has dropped each year. He led the CCHA with a 2.22 GAA last year.Sean Tallaire, RW, Lake Superior State (CCHA). Lakers&rsquo; coach Jeff Jackson is a booster of senior Clayton Beddoes because he is among college hockey&rsquo;s most consistent scorers. But rivals are more fearful of sophomore Tallaire. He had 26 goals and 52 points in 43 games as a freshman.Marko Tuomainen, RW, Clarkson (ECAC). Tuomainen is a Secretariat in a field of pluggers-a frequent flyer with the hands to cash in on the opportunities that his speed creates. &#9632;

f0031-03

Big man on campus Who will replace Maine’s Kariya as college hockey’s best player?

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>No one can call Gary Emmons a career minorleaguer anymore. The goal-scoring ace and captain of the International League&rsquo;s Kansas City Blades has redefined his pro career.The 29-year-old center became a rookie again-this time in the NHL-when the parent San Jose Sharks signed him to a contract and recalled him Oct. 18.Emmons played his first NHL game Oct. 19 against the St. Louis Blues and in his third game against the Vancouver Canucks Oct. 23, he scored his first NHL goal. He may be a stop-gap for the struggling Sharks, but he&rsquo;s enjoying every moment.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going so fast I almost don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s happening,&rdquo; said Emmons, an NCAA all-America with Northern Michigan in 1986-87. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s unbelievable. A dream of a lifetime.&rdquo;Emmons has never had a big-league shot, playing for the Milwaukee Admirals in the IHL and the Nova Scotia Voyageurs of the American League as a rookie in 1987-88, spending 1988-89 with the Canadian national team and then the last four years in the IHL with the Kalamazoo Wings and Kansas City.&ldquo;After all these years in the minors you never expect anything like this to happen,&rdquo; said Emmons, who&rsquo;s on a termination contract and knows his dream tour of the NHL could end at any time. &ldquo;I was sitting at home watching football, when (Kansas City general manager) Doug Soetaert called me and asked if I wanted to play some games in the NHL for San Jose.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t believe him. I don&rsquo;t know how long this will last. And I&rsquo;m not about to ask either. But if it ends tomorrow, I&rsquo;ll go back to Kansas City knowing that I had a chance to play in the best hockey league in the world.&rdquo;AIMING FOR 400: Doug Evans figures his NHL days are numbered, so he&rsquo;s willing to bide his time with the Peoria Rivermen.The Rivermen signed the feisty winger in August, returning him to the team he started his career with in 1984-85 with a Turner Cup title.Evans has had several stints with the Rivermen since, but has also played 355 NHL games with the St. Louis Blues, Winnipeg Jets and Philadelphia Flyers along the way.That leaves the 30-year-old just 45 games short of something he covets.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s how many games I need to become (eligible) for an NHL pension,&rdquo; Evans said. &ldquo;At age 55, you get $250,000. That&rsquo;s for my kids. I&rsquo;m not worried about me anymore, but that could be college for my kids.&rdquo;So Evans is hoping the parent club St. Louis-or some other NHL team-will need him enough times over the length of his three-year deal with Peoria that he&rsquo;ll get that pension.Evans&rsquo; contract with the Rivermen allows him to accept any NHL offer that may come along. But he had it stipulated that any subsequent minor-league assignment be to Peoria. He led Peoria in scoring with five goals and eight points in six games.LIGHTNING FAST: The Fort Wayne Komets stunned the Las Vegas Thunder by scoring twice in the final 10 seconds of the third period to force a tie Oct. 24 in Nevada.Komets&rsquo; defenseman Brian McKee beat goalie Clint Malarchuk with 10 seconds remaining during a six-on-four advantage.Then John Purves scored with two seconds remaining when he lobbed the puck out of a comer and it deflected in off Malarchuk&rsquo;s skates.Fort Wayne went on to win the game 5-4 in a shootout.I-OPENERS: Former U.S Olympic goalie Ray LeBlanc was loaned Oct. 22 from the Indianapolis Ice to the Cincinnati Cyclones. His first start for the Cyclones ended up being the team&rsquo;s first loss of the season, 6-3, and came against his ex-Ice teammates. &#9632;

Emmons gets the call better late than never

<div class="byline">By Kevin Oklobzija</div>A philosophical difference on how to sell the city of Hamilton on American League hockey prompted Hamilton Canucks&rsquo; president and governor Pat Hickey to resign Oct. 22.Hickey, the driving force behind Hamilton&rsquo;s expansion franchise in 1992, didn&rsquo;t agree with the new ownership group on how to make the Canucks successful.&ldquo;It was a clash of styles between the new ownership group and Pat,&rdquo; said Dan Diamond, the club&rsquo;s new governor and one of five persons who bought 80 per cent of the franchise during the off-season.&ldquo;Pat&rsquo;s strength was as an NHL-style general manager. You run an ad a couple days before the game to reinforce the time of the game and you do your corporate sales in the off-season, then you open the doors and people will come.&rdquo;That won&rsquo;t work for minor-league hockey, at least not in Hamilton, Diamond said. A mascot now roams Copps Coliseum and the owners hope fans will take to a chant that&rsquo;s being piped through the public address system.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re competing with all other means of entertainment,&rdquo; Diamond said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re competing with going to the movies, going to the mall, going to a bar. We have to make the games into good, solid hockey at the core, but also be good family entertainment. Pat believed it was the NHL at a smaller scale.&rdquo;Hickey couldn&rsquo;t be reached for comment. He still owns 20 per cent of the team, but Diamond expects the new partners to buy him out.The Canucks ranked fourth in AHL attendance last season, averaging 4,773 fans per game. However, the team was in dire need of money after last season in order to make payments to the league, Diamond said. That&rsquo;s why the new group took over.Hamilton&rsquo;s two-year NHL affiliation with Vancouver ends after this season, but Diamond said discussions for an extension have begun.&ldquo;We believe this is a great hockey town,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We believe the fans in Hamilton will require a lot of courting on our part. We believe the people in Hamilton think theirs is an NHL city with an NHL building and it will be hard for them to accept anything less.&ldquo;But our tickets are not $65, they&rsquo;re $10. If what it takes is for our people to knock on the doors of every autobody shop and little store and pass out schedules, then that&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;ll do.&ldquo;And if, at the end of the year, Hamilton isn&rsquo;t supporting AHL hockey, it&rsquo;s not because it wasn&rsquo;t dished in an entertaining manner.&rdquo;STRIKE STRIPES: The AHL has its contingency plan in order in case NHL officials go on strike Nov. 14.AHL referees are NHL trainees and under contract with the NHL association. Most linesmen are independent contractors, however. They will become referees.&ldquo;We feel pretty comfortable because we have some pretty talented guys who referee at the high college level,&rdquo; said AHL vice-president Gord Anziano.Anziano said he has been in contact with the NHL officials and that group won&rsquo;t frown upon replacement referees at the AHL level.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve given us clearance and won&rsquo;t consider anyone working in the American League a strike breaker,&rdquo; Anziano said. &ldquo;Their problem is with the National League, not the American League or International League.&rdquo;AHL TIDBITS: Hershey Bears&rsquo; defenseman Dan Kordic was given an automatic six-game suspension for coming off the bench during an altercation and fighting Rochester Americans&rsquo; Rob Melanson Oct. 23&hellip;Springfield Indians&rsquo; season-opening streak of 32 consecutive penalty kills finally ended Oct. 24, when the Albany River Rats scored a pair of power-play goals in the third period of a 6-4 victory. &#9632;

Hickey leaves Canucks in marketing dispute

<div class="byline">-Brendan Savage</div>The Colonial League is in its third season and there are plenty of new wrinkles.The CHL has one new city, one new team, one new nickname and five new coaches. Utica. N.Y., joined the league when the Flint Bulldogs moved there in June. Utica became available when the New Jersey Devils pulled their top farm team out. The Bulldogs were replaced in Flint by the expansion Generals.Defending champion Thunder Bay changed its nickname from Thunder Hawks to Senators in honor of its NHL agreement with Ottawa.Joining the coaching ranks are Tom Barrett of the Chatham Wheels. Lou Franceschetti of the Detroit Falcons. Marty Howe of Utica, Steve Ludzik of the Muskegon Fury, and Wayne Maxner of the St. Thomas Wildcats.Franceschetti, who played 459 NHL games, suited up for the Falcons during the first week of the season when six Detroit players-five Russians and a Swede-weren&rsquo;t allowed back into the U.S. after a game in Canada.Maxner, a former coach of the Detroit Red Wings, replaced Peter Horachek in St Thomas when the latter was hired in Flint. &#9632;

Colonial changes in Year 3

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>Nashville Knights&rsquo; Nick Fotiu is among several coaches scratching their heads over the East Coast League&rsquo;s decision to change roster sizes.Last year, the rules were changed in mid-season to increase game rosters from 16 to 17 players. At the league&rsquo;s board of governors meeting over the summer, however, a rule was passed allowing teams to carry 18 players and dress just 16-14 skaters and two goalies.At the urging of the league&rsquo;s coaches, the board met on the eve of the regular-season and tried to get the rule changed back, but the vote was not unanimous. At the regular meetings a simple majority carries the vote, but unanimity is needed on any rule change decided in an emergency meeting.&ldquo;This is supposed to be a developmental league,&rdquo; Fotiu said. &ldquo;How can we develop players if they are sitting in the stands?&rdquo;Added Knoxville Cherokees&rsquo; coach Barry Smith: &ldquo;Now I&rsquo;ve got to have two good players sitting every night.&rdquo;Players placed on the disabled list must also remain there for a minimum of 30 days, meaning teams that run into injuries will be in trouble.&ldquo;Where I&rsquo;m going to have trouble is if a guy gets hurt for about 10 days,&rdquo; said Greensboro Monarchs&rsquo; coach Jeff Brubaker. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to have to decide whether I want to be one man short for 10 days or DL him for a month.&ldquo;If you want to get to the heart of this matter, you&rsquo;ve got governors making rules who don&rsquo;t really understand the game,&rdquo; Brubaker said. &ldquo;They need to turn these decisions over to the hockey people.&rdquo;Board of governors chairman Bud Ginger is sympathetic, but said his hands are tied.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t agree with it,&rdquo; Ginger said, &ldquo;but I have to abide by it.&rdquo;FIRST FEMALE: Knoxville Cherokee Manon Rheaume is hockey&rsquo;s most famous female goalie, but another female beat her to the punch in recording ECHL history.Erin Whitten became the first woman to play an ECHL regular-season game when she replaced Alain Harvey of the Toledo Storm with nine minutes left in a 10-3 loss to the Dayton Bombers.Whitten stopped all six Bomber shots.CHILL FACTOR: The Columbus Chill started the season in turmoil.Mark Cipriano. Jason Christie, Darren Perkins. Rob Sehriner and Mark Woolf all walked out in protest over monetary compensation for special events.The front office partially made good on a promise to trade the disgruntled players.Defenseman Perkins was dealt to Toledo Oct. 21 for rookie defenseman Joe Cook and Christie was traded to the Louisville IceHawks Oct. 21.Sehriner, Woolf and Cipriano were suspended for two days without pay and were then reinstated. &#9632;

Smaller definitely not better for disgruntled coaches

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>Deron Quint didn&rsquo;t hesitate when asked about his career aspirations.&ldquo;I want to make a life out of hockey,&rdquo; said the 17-year-old defenseman of the Seattle Thunderbirds. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m here.&rdquo;Quint opted against spending his senior year at Tabor Academy, a high school in Marian, Mass.&ldquo;Back there, there are only 32 games,&rdquo; Quint said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a winter sport. They don&rsquo;t play in the fall and spring. I want to be a hockey player. I heard this was the place to go. You get to play a lot of games. I&rsquo;ve enjoyed it here.&rdquo;The smooth-skating Quint recorded three goals and 11 points in his first 13 Western League games. He is regarded by many as a strong first-round prospect for the NHL&rsquo;s 1994 entry draft.&ldquo;I talked to 30 or 40 colleges,&rdquo; said Quint, who hails from Durham, N.H. &ldquo;But again, they play 30 to 32 games. It&rsquo;s not a big schedule. It&rsquo;s sort of a slower route to the NHL.&rdquo;Despite an encouraging start to his WHL career, Quint has had to make adjustments.&ldquo;All the guys here are bigger, so it&rsquo;s more physical than I&rsquo;m used to,&rdquo; said the 6-foot-l, 185-pound Quint, who had 15 goals and 41 points in 28 games as a junior at Tabor.&ldquo;The travelling is tough, too, because I&rsquo;m not used to this much of it. It used to be that I&rsquo;d have a game and come right home. The trip might be an hour. You didn&rsquo;t have those long trips or overnight stays. It&rsquo;s all new to me.&rdquo;One of Quint&rsquo;s teammates is an ideal role model. The Washington Capitals selected defenseman Brendan Witt 11th overall in 1993.&ldquo;Playing with a first-round pick really helps,&rdquo; Quint said. &ldquo;I can see what he does. It shows me what I have to do to get to that level.&rdquo;ALTERED STATES: Seattle coach Walt Kyle will not return as coach of the United States&rsquo; team at the 1994 World Junior Championships, slated for Dec. 26-Jan. 4 in the Czech Republic.Kyle held the post with Team USA for the 1992 and 1993 WJC. He was also an assistant to Kevin Constantine at the 1991 tournament.Personal reasons led to Kyle&rsquo;s decision. His mother and father-in-law recently died. As well, Kyle and his wife, Anne, have a young child.Last season was Kyle&rsquo;s first with Seattle. Prior to that, he was assistant coach for nine years at Northern Michigan University.Kyle missed six WHL games last season while with the U.S. team. Thunderbirds&rsquo; general manager Dennis Beyak indicated Kyle would have missed at least eight games this year.&ldquo;The way things went last year, some people on the spur of the moment may have said that they weren&rsquo;t happy with it,&rdquo; Beyak said. &ldquo;Someone may have said something about it being tough not having your coach around.&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s excellent exposure for our program, and I think it helps all the teams in our league.&rdquo;Lou Vairo, USA Hockey&rsquo;s director of special projects, is looking for a successor to Kyle.&ldquo;He is one of our finest people,&rdquo; Vairo said, &ldquo;but this gives other people opportunities. Two years is enough for any one person.&rdquo;HOAD ON THE ROAD: The Brandon Wheat Kings traded their captain, center Jeff Hoad, to the Tri-City Americans Oct. 23.The Wheat Kings were forced to deal the 5-foot-9, 184-pound sparkplug because they had a surplus of 20-year-olds.With Hoad&rsquo;s departure, forwards Mark Kolesar and Mike Maneluk and defenseman Dwayne Gylywoychuk will be Brandon&rsquo;s overage players. WHL teams aren&rsquo;t allowed to have more than three 20-year-olds past Nov. 1.Brandon also relinquished the rights to center Jeff Glowa, 17, who is with the British Columbia Jr. League&rsquo;s Vernon Lakers.In return for Hoad and Glowa, Brandon received forward Mark Dutiaume, 16, who had two goals in three games with Tri-City. &#9632;

Quint says major junior fastest track to big-leagues

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>In a season that was supposed to be full of promise, the Kitchener Rangers have had to compromise. They started off 4-8-0 and sat near the basement in the Emms Division.It&rsquo;s fuelling speculation that coach-general manager Joe McDonnell might be sent walking by the team&rsquo;s board of directors.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t heard that, but maybe I only hear what I want to hear,&rdquo; McDonnell said, breaking into a laugh.&ldquo;Nothing has been said,&rdquo; he added, in a more serious tone of voice.McDonnell, 32, is the fourth-youngest coach in the league, but has the third-most seniority.Kitchener might be the toughest coaching position in the league. The team is owned by the season-ticket holders with a 40-man board of directors, often referred to as the Fabulous 40.McDonnell, in his eighth season with a 195180-38 record, answers to a four-man hockey committee, but pleasing some of the people all of the time is definitely the key to his survival.&ldquo;I had heard the horror stories (regarding the board), when I played here, but since I&rsquo;ve taken over I haven&rsquo;t had problems,&rdquo; McDonnell said.The boo-birds have been active at the Memorial Auditorium, especially during an earlier six-game skid.&ldquo;Every coach has 3,000 people he has to please,&rdquo; McDonnell said. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t think they understand what we have here. We have nine first-year players and seven regulars went down with injuries in a two-week span.&rdquo;The Rangers&rsquo; on-ice woes are reflected at the gate where they averaged only 2,650 spectators through five home games. Last season they averaged 3,720 fans.&ldquo;I can understand (the fans&rsquo; impatience),&rdquo; said captain Tim Spitzig. a Kitchener native. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re paying to see the game and they&rsquo;ve watched us struggle the last two years. But I think they&rsquo;re going to be a happy crowd (before the season is over).&rdquo;Part of the blooming process will come from much-celebrated rookie goaltender Jeff Lillie.Lillie, who can neither near nor speak, was assigned to Jr. B hockey to begin the season and ever since the Rangers have struggled to keep the puck out of the net.The top-rated goalie in the 1993 midget draft just wasn&rsquo;t ready to make the jump from midget to major junior, McDonnell said.Lillie is with the Rangers&rsquo; affiliate in Milton, where he attends a school for the deaf.&ldquo;Jeff knew during camp he wasn&rsquo;t ready,&rdquo; McDonnell said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re hoping he can get back here soon.&rdquo;CENTS ADD GEM: The North Bay Centennials landed prized left winger Bob Thornton after the Manhasset, N.Y., native was ruled academically ineligible at Boston College. He was on a full scholarship.Thornton, 18, was placed on the Centennials&rsquo; top line with center Jeff Shevalier and right winger Bill Lang. Those two had a combined 208 points last season. Thornton&rsquo;s father. Bob Sr., is a former player agent who represented a number of New York Islanders in the 1980s.GOAL HUNGRY: Center Martin Sychra of the Kingston Frontenacs was player of the week for the period ending Oct. 24.The native of Bruno in the Czech Republic had five goals and one assist in two victories.Included was a four-goal effort in an 8-6 win over the Guelph Storm. Sychra also scored the winner in a 2-1 win over defending Memorial Cup champion Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. He has 10 goals and 20 points in 11 games.ROCHE CHARGED: Dave Roche of the Peterborough Petes was charged with break and enter to commit mischief in the early hours of Oct. 24 in Peterborough. Roche was later released after agreeing to abide by a curfew. (See story on page 5.)&hellip;Peterborough will be without Brent Tully until the new year after the defenseman underwent surgery to remove his appendix. That will likely cause him to miss the 1994 World Junior Championships which start Dec. 26 in the Czech Republic. Tully was a first-team all-star for Canada at the 1993 WJC. &#9632;

McDonnell hears jeers as Rangers sink fast

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>The Western Collegiate Hockey Association season had yet to commence, but the Denver Pioneers already led the league in one department: Paranoia created.One of the primary topics of pre-season conversation centered on the five Scandinavian imports that were added to the Pioneers&rsquo; roster this season.Coaches and observers in the WCHA are curious about the skill level and impact the newcomers are going to have on a team expected to contend for the league title.Pioneers&rsquo; coach Frank Serratore is somewhat amused by all the fuss. While he admits there is some talent there, he laughs at the notion he has acquired a handful of Teemu Selannes.&ldquo;We think they can someday be good college players,&rdquo; Serratore said.Four of the five will be able to play this season. The exception is Anders Bjork, a center from Stockholm, Sweden who must sit out a season as per National Collegiate Athletic Association rules. He is ineligible after playing 15 games for AIK of the Swedish Elite League a year ago. A similar ruling kept Erik Anderson, another center from Stockholm, from playing for the Pioneers last year.Anderson showed in the season-opening series against the Wisconsin Badgers he is rugged enough and skilled enough to have a significant impact on Denver&rsquo;s fortunes.Petri Gunher, a speedy winger from Mikkeli, Finland, was also impressive in his collegiate debut.Two Pioneer players were ruled ineligible by the NCAA for the first two games. Finn Antti Laaksoven and goaltender Sinuhe Wallinheimo, were scheduled to debut Oct. 29-30 when DU played North Dakota. Both had brief exposure to Elite League play a year ago.Serratore declined to get specific about the recruiting process that brought the five to Denver. He said more and more schools are looking to recruit in Europe because major junior teams are corralling a large majority of the top talent in Canada.Is communication a challenge?&ldquo;The Swedes speak better English than guys on the (northern Minnesota) Range,&rdquo; said Serratore, a one-time Ranger himself from Coleraine, Minn.ENCOURAGING DEBUT: Don Lucia got an emotional boost during his first series as coach of the Colorado College Tigers.Lucia, who came to CC from Alaska-Fairbanks to replace Brad Buetow, saw his Tigers sweep the powerful Minnesota Golden Gophers Oct. 22-23. The last time the Tigers swept the Gophers was 1980-81.AWARD WINNER: Wisconsin Badgers&rsquo; center Kelly Fairchild earned the season&rsquo;s inaugural player-of-the-week honors for the period ending Oct. 23.The junior forward had three goals and seven points in the Badgers&rsquo; sweep of Denver Oct. 2223. &#9632;

European Pioneers intriguing

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggie</div>In what is becoming a recurring theme. Hockey East&rsquo;s loss has turned out to be St. Lawrence&rsquo;s gain.Brian McCarthy, a transfer from Providence College of Hockey East, will give the Saints a consistent goal-scorer, something the team sorely lacked a year ago.This isn&rsquo;t the first time a defector from Hockey East has arrived in Canton, N.Y., to help the Saints. Brothers Mike and Chris Lappin transferred to St. Lawrence from Boston University prior to the 1989-90 season and helped the Saints win the Eastern College Athletic Conference championship in 1992.&ldquo;Maybe it&rsquo;s just the nature of the beast,&rdquo; said SLU coach Joe Marsh. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re a little school off the beaten path and this is a place where kids can come and focus on the game and on school. The kids don&rsquo;t have a lot of distractions here.&rdquo;McCarthy is a 6-foot-3, 205-pound winger from Salem, Mass., who played at the Pingree School, earning New England Prep School player-of-the-year honors as a senior.After transferring to St. Lawrence, he became eligible last December and made an impact, scoring seven goals and 12 points in 18 games.He scored two goals and assisted on another in an 8-5 win over the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs Oct. 23, giving the Saints a season-opening split.&ldquo;We need Brian and Burke Murphy (last year&rsquo;s ECAC rookie of the year) to put the puck in the net more, no question,&rdquo; Marsh said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s one of the areas we need to improve on. Last year, we didn&rsquo;t seem to have a knack for goal-scoring. We had to work too hard for the goals we got.&rdquo;PROBLEM SOLVED: When goalie Christian Soucy left Vermont to sign a contract with the Chicago Blacknawks this summer, the Catamounts were written off as ECAC contenders.But reports of the Catamounts&rsquo; demise were premature.Coach Mike Gilligan found a capable replacement in freshman Tim Thomas.The 5-foot-l 1, 190-pound native of Davison, Mich., was considering attending junior college this season and then transferring to either Vermont or Michigan Tech next year.But he jumped at the opportunity to play for the Catamounts when Soucy left, and Thomas looked good in practice.THE BIG HURT: The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers have been hit hard by injuries.The most disturbing problem is the wonky left knee of standout junior defenseman Adam Bartell.After having arthroscopic surgery to clean out some loose cartilage last spring, Bartell hasn&rsquo;t been able to get in a full week of practise.&ldquo;Adam is the epitome of day-to-day,&rdquo; said RPI coach Buddy Powers. &#9632;

McCarty chooses Saints

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>The Cal Ingraham saga has taken a turn for the worst for the Maine Black Bears.Ingraham, a senior right winger, was suspended 14 games by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for a transfer violation.And now the NCAA has told Maine officials they must forfeit their first 14 games of the 1991-92 season when the violation occurred.Ingraham, according to the NCAA, should have been declared ineligible for those games.The new penalty could cost Maine its Hockey East regular-season championship from that season because there were five league wins-in six games-during the stretch of time from which the violation occurred.The New Hampshire Wildcats would be the benefactor if Maine is stripped of its title. The Wildcats, who were awarded two forfeit wins over Maine in games they lost 9-0 and 6-2, would finish 15-4-2 and Maine would be 12-72.After transferring to Maine from the Air Force Academy that year, Ingraham spent his first (non-playing) semester at University College in Bangor. He then transferred up to Maine in Orono, 12 miles from Bangor, for the second semester in 1991.Maine coach Shawn Walsh and athletic director Mike Ploszek have maintained Ingraham was not at fault and if the error had been detected early enough, he could have taken summer courses to make himself eligible for the 1991-92 season.Ploszek and the university appealed the injunctions, claiming they are too Severe for the nature of the infraction. That appeal was denied.&ldquo;We reported this error as soon as it was discovered,&rdquo; Ploszek said. &ldquo;Our feeling is by playing by the book and reporting this to the NCAA, we were acting responsibly and setting a positive example. We expected some penalty, but at a level that recognizes our being willing to acknowledge a mistake. This is too excessive.&rdquo;Added Walsh: &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been as sincere and as fair as we can be. It was a computer error where Cal&rsquo;s transfer status was miscoded. No one is to blame and to really put it into perspective. Cal could have easily taken one other course that summer (1991) had we known.&rdquo;MEMORABLE DAY: The Massachusetts-Amherst Minutemen made their debut in Division I play Oct. 23, but it wasn&rsquo;t a success.The Minutemen, who will become Hockey East&rsquo;s ninth team next season, played their first game since 1979 and lost to the Merrimack Warriors 8-2. Freshman Armand Latulippe scored both goals for Amherst.OPENING SUCCESS: Boston University&rsquo;s 6-3 win over the North Dakota Fighting Sioux Oct. 23 gave Terrier coach Jack Parker an impressive 17-4-0 record in season openers&hellip;Maine&rsquo;s season-opening 5-1 and 5-2 wins at Providence extended its winning streak to 14 games dating back to last season. &#9632;

Ingraham suspension could cost Maine title

<div class="byline">By Matt Carlson</div>Anson Carter has yet to earn the nickname &ldquo;Dancin&rsquo; Anson&rdquo; but the Michigan State center has the moves to make him one of the top players in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.&ldquo;He might be the most exciting player in the league,&rdquo; said Spartans&rsquo; coach Ron Mason. &ldquo;He can really motor. Once he gets going with the puck in open ice, he&rsquo;s dangerous.&rdquo;The 6-foot-l, 175-pound center from Scarborough, Ont., developed into a bona fide scoring threat as a freshman. He had 19 goals and 30 points in 36 games and was one of the best players on the ice in the Spartans&rsquo; season-opening sweep of the Illinois-Chicago Flames.&ldquo;He did that (score often) last year too,&rdquo; Mason said. &ldquo;But he had mononucleosis for a while and that slowed him down.&rdquo;Carter came down with the affliction in late December.&ldquo;I had it for two weeks, but after that, it took time to get my weight and strength back,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;This year, I&rsquo;m starting to fill out and getting stronger in the upper and lower body&rdquo;Carter played for the Metro Toronto Jr. League&rsquo;s Wexford Raiders and leaned towards playing major junior. But meetings with Michigan State coaches changed his mind.&ldquo;It opened my eyes and I realized there were two routes to the NHL,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Quite a few schools recruited me and I could have gone anywhere I wanted, but Michigan State was the only school I visited.&rdquo;Carter was a 10th-round pick of the Quebec Nordiques in the 1992 entry draft.NET GAINS: Two freshmen goaltenders had strong performances during the first weekend of league play.Bowling Green Falcons&rsquo; netminder Rob Petrie stopped 45 of 47 shots as the Falcons swept the Ohio State Buckeyes Oct. 22-23.Petrie is trying to fill the void created when Aaron Ellis jumped to the Detroit Jr. Red Wings of the Ontario League.Paul Spencer of Illinois-Chicago also impressed. The Flames were swept by Michigan State, but Spencer made several sensational saves.The Flames are searching for a No. I man to replace Jon Hillebrandt. who signed with the New York Rangers&rsquo; organization.TUBE TIME: Commissioner Bill Beagan is proud of his league&rsquo;s new television package.Starting this year, eight games will be televised as part of Prime Network&rsquo;s 17-game Game of the Week package. The league&rsquo;s three-year agreement with Prime assures each CCHA member will receive at least one TV appearance. The network will also carry the CCHA tournament semifinals and final. Prime Network reaches 38 million homes in the U.S. through its regional affiliates. &#9632;

Spartans’ speedy Carter quickly gaining respect

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01747/6204627-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01706/6204620-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="3116" height="3692"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01627/6204613-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="3067" height="3674"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01707/6204606-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="3091" height="3047"></div> &#9632;

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LOUIS VILLE…THE SCORING LEADER!

<h2>NOTE</h2>Unofficial game summaries provided by National Hockey League; (shots on goal/plus-minus); SA-shots against; GA-goals against, ENG-empty net goals; DEC-decision, charged to goaltenders of record when deciding goal is scored.<h2>MONDAY, OCT. 25</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01671/6204798-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="606" height="3082"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02462/6204791-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="582" height="520"></div><h2>TUESDAY, OCT. 26</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03352/6204784-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="605" height="2870"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04287/6204777-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="605" height="3492"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05235/6204770-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="598" height="1348"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, OCT. 27</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06201/6204763-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="597" height="2058"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07181/6204756-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="607" height="3496"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01381/6204749-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="595" height="2005"></div><h2>THURSDAY, OCT. 28</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-02249/6204742-1-eng-US/f0040-022.jpg" title="f0040-02" width="593" height="1410"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-03179/6204735-1-eng-US/f0040-032.jpg" title="f0040-03" width="616" height="3506"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-04145/6204728-1-eng-US/f0040-042.jpg" title="f0040-04" width="613" height="3511"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-05122/6204721-1-eng-US/f0040-052.jpg" title="f0040-05" width="599" height="380"></div><h2>FRIDAY, OCT. 29</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-06107/6204714-1-eng-US/f0040-062.jpg" title="f0040-06" width="600" height="3037"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0798/6204707-1-eng-US/f0040-072.jpg" title="f0040-07" width="600" height="2166"></div><h2>SATURDAY, OCT. 30</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-0889/6204700-1-eng-US/f0040-082.jpg" title="f0040-08" width="594" height="1256"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-01321/6204693-1-eng-US/f0041-012.jpg" title="f0041-01" width="615" height="3517"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-02207/6204686-1-eng-US/f0041-022.jpg" title="f0041-02" width="621" height="3512"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-03151/6204679-1-eng-US/f0041-032.jpg" title="f0041-03" width="615" height="3510"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-04126/6204672-1-eng-US/f0041-042.jpg" title="f0041-04" width="597" height="1747"></div><h2>SUNDAY, OCT. 31</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-05113/6204665-1-eng-US/f0041-052.jpg" title="f0041-05" width="593" height="1673"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0041-06104/6204658-1-eng-US/f0041-062.jpg" title="f0041-06" width="604" height="3504"></div> &#9632;

f0039-01

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0042-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01331/6204836-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0043-01346/6204829-1-eng-US/f0043-012.jpg" title="f0043-01" width="3111" height="3697"></div> &#9632;

f0042-01

SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01251/6204867-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0044-01

AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01159/6204936-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="387" height="543"></div>The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the New York Rangers. The Powerful Florida Panthers knocked off the New York Islanders.Expansion is working. Sort of.It&rsquo;s not exactly Picasso on ice, but this Disney-Huizenga product isn&rsquo;t bad hockey either. For two periods at the Meadowlands, the Quackers didn&rsquo;t look at all like Goofy.They have a cerebral rookie coach in Ron Wilson who knows what he&rsquo;s doing. Everyone figured they&rsquo;d get blown out but, after two periods, were only down 1-0 and played valiantly in the third before losing 4-0 to the Devils. Their uniforms are handsome and their players prideful.To this viewer&rsquo;s eye, the Panthers-5-2 winners over the Islanders-looked even better. Their first-rate goaltending and tight defensive system should keep them in most of their games this season.In some ways they reminded me of the 1973-74 Islanders who, a year after birth, showed signs of actually being competitive. Denis Potvin, a rookie on that club and now a Panthers&rsquo; TV analyst, was asked if he sees a resemblance.&ldquo;The two clubs are alike in many ways, starting with Bill Torrey,&rdquo; Potvin said of the Panthers&rsquo; president. &ldquo;He was the architect of the Islanders and now he&rsquo;s doing the same thing with the Panthers.,He said then and he says it now, he wants character players.&rdquo;There are none better than goalie John Vanbiesbrouck, who has accepted his new role with enthusiasm. Tom Fitzgerald, Randy Gilhen and Mike Hough are guys you&rsquo;d want alongside you in the trenches.And then we have wonderful warrior Joe Cirella, who has bounced from Denver to East Rutherford to Quebec and Broadway before landing on Collins Avenue in Miami. The veteran continues to play the game with vigor and is helping to make expansion work in Florida.&ldquo;Management brought together a good bunch of guys who work hard every night,&rdquo; Cirella said. &ldquo;What we lack in talent, we make up for with energy.&ldquo;From Torrey and (general manager) Bob Clarke on down, everyone has done his homework.&rdquo;That helps explain why both Anaheim and Florida leapt off the drawing board in a lot better shape than the San Jose Sharks. Owner George and Gordon Gund thought they had executed a grand coup entering the league a year before the Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning.For two years the Sharks have suffered from gum disease called nobite-itis that has rendered them no better-and perhaps worse-than the baby Ducks and Panthers.A couple of elements contrived to work against the Sharks: they gambled too heavily on youth and didn&rsquo;t have have the same quality of players available to them in the expansion draft.What&rsquo;s more, the Panthers have a prize center in Rob Niedermayer who, in my estimation, will be a better total player down the line than Alexandre Daigle.If anyone is in a pressure cooker it would have to be coaches Rick Bowness and Terry Crisp of Ottawa and Tampa Bay. Crisp did wonders last season with a marginal Lightning team that played disciplined hockey within a well-defined system.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-02105/6204929-1-eng-US/f0048-022.jpg" title="f0048-02" width="576" height="896"><figcaption class="caption-body">Sylvain Turgeon</figcaption></div>More is expected this year because GM Phil Esposito, with perfectly laudable intentions, obtained a trio of name players-Petr Klima, Denis Savard and Gerard Gallant. The trouble is Klima and Savard are notorious floaters and Gallant may have left his best hockey in Detroit. Rearranging the chemistry is the challenge of Crisp&rsquo;s career.Bowness cannot deliver another horrendous record like the 1992-93 travesty. He has Daigle, Alexei Yashin, Bob Kudelski, Sylvain Turgeon, Craig Billington and prayers.&ldquo;This year,&rdquo; said Turgeon before he fractured his arm in late November, &ldquo;we have more talent. We&rsquo;re building a great atmosphere and the attitude is very good.&rdquo;Which is how I feel about expansion. &#9632;

f0048-01

Expansion working this time around

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0048-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-0368/6204967-1-eng-US/f0048-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Devil Scott Stevens is attempting fewer highlight-film bodychecks. (JIM LEARY/BBS)</figcaption></div>Since the beginning, hockey has subscribed to the Big Bang theory. A devastating hit means a moral lift that often translates into goals and ultimately, victory.And for the last dozen years, the high priest of the Big Bang theory has been New Jersey Devils&rsquo; defenseman Scott Stevens.Stevens&rsquo; imprint on the game has been established one bruise at a time and he remains one of the NHL&rsquo;s most-feared hitters.That devastating physical presence, combined with a nice package of offensive skills and a strong work ethic makes Stevens one of the league&rsquo;s elite defensemen.He has played in five All-Star Games and averaged 12 goals and 42 points a year since breaking in with the Washington Capitals in 1982. He is plus-46 since being awarded to the Devils from St. Louis Blues as compensation in the Brendan Shanahan case two years ago and is plus-157 for his career.Despite that, Stevens, 29, has never captured a Norris Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s best rearguard, although he finished as a runner-up to Ray Bourque in 1988. That reflects as much on timing as talent-he has played in an era that featured the offensive brilliance of Paul Coffey and the two-way greatness of Bourque and Chris Chelios.That could change this year, because Stevens&rsquo; Big Bang theory has been replaced by a new one: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Every step taken to annihilate a player who may or may not be central to the play, is another step out of position.&ldquo;There has been a major change in the game in the last five years,&rdquo; said Larry Robinson, the former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; great who handles the Devils&rsquo; defense for coach Jacques Lemaire. &ldquo;I saw it in the last years of my career and it&rsquo;s even more so now. The puck movement has become so much faster, you have to be very selective about when you hit.&rdquo;Stevens can still be counted on for one or two good hits a game, but he rarely surrenders position to initiate contact. The result is his finest play in years.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had some good hits,&rdquo; Stevens said, &ldquo;but I think the key for me this year is that I&rsquo;m moving the puck and playing well defensively.&rdquo;He is also putting up some Norris-like numbers. After eight games, Stevens had three goals and 10 points. Projected over an 84-game schedule, that would give him 32 goals and 106 points.Stevens, whose career-high is 72 points, knows he&rsquo;ll have to post big numbers to get Norris consideration.&ldquo;The best way to win the Norris is to get lots of points,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but the only important trophy is the Stanley Cup.&rdquo;Neither is inconceivable this season. The surprising Devils started the season at 7-0-0 and were playing very solid hockey, thanks in large part to a defense-first system installed by Lemaire. Like a handful of teams, including the Canadiens, the Devils use a neutral-zone trap that chokes off high-flying offenses.The system demands co-ordination and positioning from all five skaters, but the rewards are a suffocating team defense that doesn&rsquo;t stress the defenseman any more than the forwards. In that context, Stevens has been devastating.Even with the defensive philosophy, Stevens is getting his points and taking care of business in his ownend. &ldquo;You can get as much offense out of choosing when and where to go,&rdquo; Robinson said. &ldquo;(Stevens) is getting the same number of chances as before, but now when he gets a chance and misses, he isn&rsquo;t giving up a chance.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think you&rsquo;d have to rate him in the top three defenseman in the NHL,&rdquo; said Capitals&rsquo; pro scout Peter Dineen. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the ultimate power defenseman, a guy who can run your power play, clear the net and move the puck.&rdquo;This could be the year Stevens breaks into the Norris Trophy winner&rsquo;s circle. Chelios, last year&rsquo;s winner, has already incurred a four-game suspension and acrimonious contract talks could sour his season. Bourque, 32, is trying to come back from an average season by his standards. Coffey, 32, is also on the down slope of his career.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s early, but he&rsquo;s having a Norris-type year,&rdquo; said Robinson, who won two himself. &ldquo;We certainly haven&rsquo;t seen a better defenseman this season.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0048-03

Hitting his stride

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>The best start in franchise history has significantly raised the New Jersey Devils&rsquo; expectations for this season.According to goaltender Chris Terreri, simply qualifying for the playoffs is no longer acceptable for a team which opened its first season under Jacques Lemaire with an 8-2-0 record.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think anyone would be satisfied with just getting there this year,&rdquo; Terreri, said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s early in the season, but our start has given the players on our team the confidence that we can go out there and play with anybody. The difference I&rsquo;ve noticed is when we get behind, there&rsquo;s not the panic. We have a more professional approach, which allows us to regroup and go out and do what we need to do.&rdquo;Despite the team&rsquo;s early-season success, there was one question which continued to hang over Terreri and his teammates: Do the Devils have the goaltending to make a run at the Cup?Skeptics argue that four of the last eight Conn Smythe Trophy winners have been goalies and the Devils do not have a big-name goalie who can dominate in the playoffs.First, there is Terreri, who has an 85-83-26 career record during the regular season and is 912 with a 3.49 goals-against average in the playoffs.&ldquo;In some regards, you&rsquo;re judged by how far you go in the playoffs,&rdquo; Terreri acknowledged.Terreri had a 5-0-0 record and 2.40 GAA in his first five starts before replacing rookie Martin Brodeur for one period in a 4-1 neutral-site loss to the New York Rangers in Halifax Oct. 31.Brodeur has played well as Terreri&rsquo;s backup, despite being pulled after two periods against the Rangers, but he is yet unproven in pressure-filled late-season games. And veteran Peter Sidorkiewicz was still playing his way back from shoulder surgery during a conditioning stint with the Devils&rsquo; farm team, the Albany River Rats of the American League.CENTER STAR: He isn&rsquo;t Steve Yzerman or Joe Sakic-two of the big-name centers the Devils have inquired about over the past year-but Corey Millen was undeniably a major factor in the team&rsquo;s exceptional start.Because of Millen&rsquo;s play in the middle with left winger Stephane Richer and right winger John MacLean, the talk of a void at center disappeared over the first month of the season.&ldquo;People mentioned the problems at center to me early in camp, but I dismissed it,&rdquo; said Millen, who was traded to the Devils from the Los Angeles Kings for a fifth-round draft pick June 26.&ldquo;I see Bernie (Nicholls), Bobby (Carpenter) and me. We&rsquo;re all capable people. Obviously things have gone well for this team so far, so there hasn&rsquo;t been a lot of room for criticism.&rdquo;Millen scored five goals and seven points in his first 10 games.NOTEBOOK: Peter Stastny said from his home in New Jersey he was deciding between an offer from the Quebec Nordiques for one final season in the NHL or to play for the Slovak Olympic team in the 1994 Winter Olympics&hellip; General manager Lou Lamoriello was ready to listen to offers from the Detroit Red Wings for goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz. The Red Wings were reportedly looking for a veteran goalie.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2>TRANSACTIONSOct. 26: Peter Sidorkiewicz, G, assigned to Albany (AHL) lor conditioning purposes. Oct. 28: Tommy Albelin, D, recalled from Albany.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Alexander Semak. Bernie Nicholls, Corey Millen. Bobby Carpenter.LW&mdash;Vaieri Zelepukin, Stephane Richer, Bobby Holik, Mike Peluso.RW&mdash;Claude Lemieux. John MacLean, Bill Guerin, Randy McKay, Tom Chorske.LD&mdash;Scott Stevens, Bruce Driver, Viacheslav Fetisov.RD&mdash;Ken Daneyko, Scott Niedermayer. Jaroslav Modry, Tommy Albelin.G&mdash;Chris Terreri, Martin Brodeur.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Goaltending remains a concern

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div>James Patrick&rsquo;s 10-year tenure with the New York Rangers apparently is over. At the same time, Sergei Zubov&rsquo;s career has just begun to blossom.Patrick, 30, was not in the lineup for seven of 13 games, including five in a row. He was given a chance to win his job back Oct. 19. then fell out of the lineup, possibly permanently. Coach Mike Keenan said the only way for Patrick to get into the lineup would be through injuries.&ldquo;This is as simply as it can be put,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;He has been beaten out of a job by the three other people at his position.&rdquo;That would be the three right-side defensemen: veteran Doug Lidster, second-year man Zubov and rookie Alexander Karpovtsev. If the other three are healthy, Patrick doesn&rsquo;t play.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not a matter of him not doing the things we want.&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a matter of him losing the opportunity. All aspects of what we expected were explained to him.&rdquo;Patrick and his agent, Herb Pinder, had spoken to Rangers&rsquo; president Neil Smith on several occasions and it is believed Smith was working on several possible trades. One club believed to be interested is the Hartford Whalers, while there was speculation Smith was working on a three-way deal with the Whalers and Chicago Blackhawks, in which holdout Steve Larmer would wind up in New York.Smith, who rarely misses a Rangers&rsquo; game, was in Chicago the night the Rangers played a neutral-site game in Halifax, N.S.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to give it a while to try to get back into the lineup,&rdquo; Patrick said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m aware it&rsquo;s a long season and things can change. I also know if 10 games from now I&rsquo;m in the same boat, things are going to be really hard.&rdquo;Zubov, meanwhile, jumped out of Keenan&rsquo;s doghouse and into the spotlight. During the first five games of Patrick&rsquo;s second benching, Zubov had a goal and eight assists.Zubov was called the &ldquo;least fit athlete on the team&rdquo; by Keenan earlier, but has worked hard on his conditioning since and vows to spend less time in his native Russia and more time in the U.S. next off-season so he can stay in shape.MAIN MAN: Although no one will come out and say so, Mike Richter is now the Rangers&rsquo; No. I goalie.Richter started six games in a row up to the Oct. 31 neutral-site game in Halifax.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an overt gesture,&rdquo; Keenan said.The coach said he sees no need to explain anything to backup Glenn Healy, who hasn&rsquo;t played since Oct. 16, when he sustained his only loss in five decisions.&ldquo;He makes the calls,&rdquo; Healy said. &ldquo;This is the route he choses to go. Believe me, if I had any choice I&rsquo;d be playing. I&rsquo;d start at center, too. He hasn&rsquo;t said anything or explained anything, so I just have to wait my turn.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Neil Smith spoke over the phone for more than half an hour with free agent defenseman Jeff Beukeboom Oct. 27. The next day, Smith upped his offer to Beukeboom&rsquo;s agent Mark Hall, but hadn&rsquo;t heard back from Hall&hellip;Mike Keenan sent videotape to NHL senior vice-president Brian Burke of the two-handed slash by Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; defenseman Kevin Haller which injured Messier&rsquo;s left thumb on Oct. 28.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mark Messier. Sergei Nemchinov. Darren Turcotte. Esa Tikkanen, Ed Olczyk.LW&mdash;Adam Graves, Greg Gilbert, Mike Hartman, Phil Bourque.RW&mdash;Alexei Kovalev. Mike Gartner, Joey Kocur, Tony Amonte, Jim Hiller.LD&mdash;Bnan Leetch. Jay Wells. Kevin Lowe. Peter Andersson.RD&mdash;Alexander Karpovtsev, Doug Lidster, Sergei Zubov. James Patrick.G&mdash;Mike Richter. Glenn Healy.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mike Hudson. C, fractured left hand, indefinite. &#9632;

Patrick out of chances, lands on trading block

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>The emergence of left winger Josef Beranek may be the most surprising development of the Philadelphia&rsquo;s Flyers&rsquo; season.Beranek was considered a throw-in when the Edmonton Oilers traded defenseman Greg Hawgood to Philadelphia for rearguard Brian Benning last season. But he opened a few eyes as the 1992-93 campaign drew to a close.Even so, few were ready for his scoring explosion this October. Beranek scored goals in eight straight games, one short of the team record set by Rick Tocchet in 1989. He also briefly led the league in goals with 10.The 24-year-old finished the month with a three-assist night in the Flyers&rsquo; 9-6 win at Chicago Oct. 31. He had 17 points in 12 games.&ldquo;Josef is getting a lot of playing time and he&rsquo;s taking advantage of it,&rdquo; said linemate Kevin Dineen. &ldquo;When he came here last year, he played gritty. This year, he has had more opportunities and is making the most of it.&rdquo;Dineen figures the key for Beranek&rsquo;s success is he combines skill and finesse with rugged play.&ldquo;People talk about some &lsquo;soft&rsquo; Europeans that don&rsquo;t adapt to the North American game,&rdquo; Dineen said. &ldquo;But Joe has got his nose in there. He&rsquo;s a real pleasure to work with.&rdquo;SODERSTROM TESTED: It looks as though goaltender Tommy Soderstrom has been sidelined once again with an irregular heartbeat problem.Soderstrom was scheduled to travel to Oklahoma City Nov. 3 to undergo tests to determine whether the dizzy spells he sustained Oct. 27 against the Ottawa Senators were related to the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (abnormal heart rhythm condition) he experienced last season.Soderstrom had to leave that game after one period when he complained of dizziness and lightheadedness. The 24-year-old said he had trouble &ldquo;fixing on the puck.&rdquo;He was scheduled to be examined in Oklahoma City by Dr. Warren Jackman, considered to be one of the country&rsquo;s foremost authorities on the condition.Soderstrom missed the first seven weeks of the 1992-93 season with the condition, in which the electrical impulses that determine the heartbeat follow an alternative pathway.Last season, doctors performed four medical procedures involving catheterization to correct the problem, but they were only partially successful. Soderstrom was 0-2-0 with a 6.04 goals-against average in three games so far this season.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Kevin Dineen had the first four-goal game of his career in the Flyers&rsquo; 9-6 win at Chicago. The nine goals were the most ever scored by a Flyer team at Chicago Stadium&hellip;The 3-2 win at Ottawa gave the Flyers an 8-2-0 mark, their best record at the 10-game point since an 8-2-0 opening in 1986-87, the season last advanced to the Stanley Cup final.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2>TRANSACTIONSOct. 24: Claude Boivin. LW, recalled from Hershey (AHL). Oct. 25: Jim Cummins. RW, and Milos Holan, D, assigned to Hershey. Oct. 28: Norm Foster, G, recalled from Hershey.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Eric Lindros. Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Viacheslav Butsayev, Dave Tippett.LW&mdash;Brent Fedyk, Josef Beranek. Mikael Ffenberg.RW&mdash;Mark Recchl. Kevin Dineen, Dave Brown. Al Conroy.LD&mdash;Garry Galley. Jason Bowen, Jeff Finley, Greg Hawgood.RD&mdash;Dimitn Yushkevich, Ryan McGill, Stewart Malgunas.G&mdash;Dominic Roussel. Norm Foster.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Claude Boivin. LW, lacerated left elbow, indefinite. Pelle Eklund, LW, sprained left wrist, indefinite. Yves Racine, D. tom medial collateral ligament in left knee, indefinite. Tommy Soderstrom. G, abnormal heartbeat, indefinite. &#9632;

More playing time equals more goals for Beranek

<div class="byline">By Craig Dolch</div>Dave Lowry isn&rsquo;t among the league&rsquo;s top goalscorers, but even he was mystified by his inability to score at the start of the season.The 28-year-old Sudburv, Ont, native fired 24 shots on goal in the first 11 games, but couldn&rsquo;t score. He even doubted his chances of hitting an empty net.&ldquo;I was afraid I was going to miss,&rdquo; said Lowry, after finally scoring his first goal into an empty net in the Panthers&rsquo; 5-2 win over the New York Islanders Oct. 28.That goal must have inspired him, because he scored both goals to lift Florida to a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning Oct. 30.The win gave the Panthers a 4-5-3 record, their first two-game winning streak and a most unlikely hero.&ldquo;He couldn&rsquo;t buy a goal for a while,&rdquo; said coach Roger Neilson. &ldquo;Then all of a sudden he scores our next three.&rdquo;&ldquo;It has been one of my longer (scoring droughts),&rdquo; Lowry said. &ldquo;But what kept me going was I had been getting some great scoring chances. If the chances hadn&rsquo;t been coming, then maybe I would have gotten frustrated. But I knew it was just a matter of time before I started to find the net again.&rdquo;Neilson never lost confidence in the nine-year veteran and kept him on the power play. Lowry also remained on the No. I line with rookie center Rob Niedermayer and right winger Scott Mellanby.Lowry, 28, has the tools to score in the NHL. He had consecutive 19-goal seasons for the St. Louis Blues from 1989 to 1991, but then had a combined 12 goals the past two seasons when he missed 26 games because of a knee injury.The drop in production explains why the Panthers were able to take him with their seventh forward selection in the June expansion draft. They don&rsquo;t regret it.Panthers&rsquo; general manager Bob Clarke has constantly praised Lowry&rsquo;s solid work ethic and refers to him as one of the expansion team&rsquo;s character players.WHAT RIVALRY?: There has been much talk of the supposed rivalry between the Panthers and the second-year Lightning, but other than Tampa Bay GM Phil Esposito calling the Panthers &ldquo;pussycats,&rdquo; there has been no bad blood between the two state rivals.In their first two meetings, there were only two fights and very little trash-talking. That seemed to change in the third meeting Oct. 30, however, when there were three fights.Referee Don Koharski handed out two game misconducts and there were 65 penalty minutes in the second period.NOTEBOOK: Goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck has been superb in the early going. He made 39 saves against the New York Islanders Oct. 28 and 33 against the Tampa Bay Lightning Oct. 30. Vanbiesbrouck had a 4-3-2 record with a 2.37 goals-against average and a 932 saves percentage in his first nine games.<h2>FLORIDA</h2>TRANSACTIONSOct. 29: Jeff Greenlaw. LW. assigned to Cincinnati (IHL). Patrick Lebeau, LW, recalled from Cincinnati.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Rob Niedermayer. Brian Skrudland. Jesse Belanger, Tom Fitzgerald. Randy Gilhen.LW&mdash;Dave Lowry, Evgeny Davydov, Bill Lindsay. Patrick LebeauRW&mdash;Scott Mellanby. Jody Hull. Andrei LomakinLD&mdash;Alexander Godynyuk, Brian Benning. Brent Severyn.RD&mdash;Joe Cirella, Gord Murphy, Greg Smyth, Paul LausG&mdash;John Vanbiesbrouck, Mark Fitzpat-<h3>INJURIES</h3>Keith Brown, D. hairline fracture of larynx, indefinite Mike Hough, LW. hyperextended left knee, day-to-day. Scott Levins, RW. bruised tailbone, indefinite. &#9632;

Lowry goes back on prowl after shooting blanks

<div class="byline">By Jeff Williams</div>The New York Islanders suffered their biggest loss in their most impressive win of the year.The Islanders routed the Los Angeles Kings 7-0 Oct. 26, but in the process lost defenseman Uwe Krupp until late November with a broken sinus bone. He underwent surgery Oct. 29.The 6-foot-6,235-pound blueliner was playing a strong game-including scoring his third goal of the year-when he sustained the injury.It occurred with a little less than four minutes to play in the second period. Krupp hugged the right boards at the Kings&rsquo; blueline in an attempt to hold in a clearing pass from Mark Hardy, but Hardy&rsquo;s clearing attempt hit Krupp just above the right eye.It took 18 stitches to close the cut and Krupp did not return to the game. In the dressing room more than an hour after he had left the game, he was spitting blood into a paper cup, a sure sign there had been an internal injury.Fate has not been kind to the 28-year-old this season. On Oct. 8 at Edmonton, he was struck by a shot on the big toe of his right foot. It broke the tip of his toe and he missed three games.In the six games he had played before the broken sinus bone he was arguably the team&rsquo;s best blueliner.But before the Kings&rsquo; game, general manager Don Maloney denied a rumor he had been trying to trade Krupp and Krupp doesn&rsquo;t want to be traded.He was brought to Long Island from the Buffalo Sabres in 1991 as part of the blockbuster deal that sent Pat LaFontaine to the Sabres. He has been a consistent defender and is particularly good at penalty killing.Krupp is not the most physical player in the league, but he does use his size to move opponents from in front of the net.KING RALLIES: Despite the difficult circumstances under which Derek King started the season, he has emerged as the Islanders&rsquo; top offensive threat.The 26-year-old scored two goals in a 4-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning Oct. 29, giving him seven in eight games. He missed the first three games because of the sudden death of his mother. Helena, of cancer.He scored a hat trick in a 5-5 tie with the Ottawa Senators Oct. 23 and had two goals against the Kings.&ldquo;I felt rusty and tentative when I first came back, but playing hockey helps ease the pain,&rdquo; King said. &ldquo;I won&rsquo;t ever forget my mom. She gave up so much for me.&rdquo;King did not lead the Islanders in shots, but he puts a high percentage of his shots on net. He is very good at crashing toward the net from the left side.His most effective play is to take a short pass from the left circle and redirect the puck into the upper left-hand comer of the net. He scored one goal against Tampa Bay that way and another against Los Angeles on Oct. 26.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Pat Flatley has been playing with an assortment of odd looking face guards designed to protect his sore jaw. One made him look like he was playing the harmonica in a one-man band&hellip;Four Islanders are on the NHL&rsquo;s fan ballot for the All-Star Game-center Pierre Turgeon, goalie Ron Hextail, winger Steve Thomas and defenseman Darius Kasparaitis.<h2>N.Y. ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Pierre Turgeon. Ray Ferraro, Travis Green. Claude Loiselle, Keith Acton.LW&mdash;Derek King. David Volek, Benoit Hogue. Marty McInnis.RW&mdash;Steve Thomas, Pat Flatley. Brad Dalgamo, Mick Vukota, Bob McGHI.LD&mdash;Vladimir Malakhov, Tom Kurvers, Dennis Vaske.RD&mdash;Scott Lachance, Darius Kasparaitis. Rich Pilon, Wayne McBeanG&mdash;Ron Hextali, Tom Draper.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Uwe Krupp. D. broken sinus bone, indefinite. &#9632;

Hard-luck Krupp out again

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>Given what happened the last 10 days of October, the Washington Capitals would probably vote to move to the Pacific Division if the issue of realignment came up again.The Capitals were on the verge of implosion after losing the first six games before confronting the Pacific Division. But after securing their first win against the Buffalo Sabres, the Capitals went west and came back with a 5-1-0 record.After a home win against the Los Angeles Kings, the Capitals played the rest of the Pacific on the road and lost only in Calgary, where the Flames needed overtime for a 3-2 win Oct. 25.The Pacific may be the weakest division from top to bottom, but then again the Capitals were pretty weak, too. Everything is relative and until that trip, the Capitals were relatively bad.&ldquo;You can analyze to paralysis,&rdquo; said coach Terry Murray. &ldquo;Look at Vancouver. They were 7-1 and everyone said they had a great start. But if you analyze it, they played Edmonton (twice) and San Jose (twice). We play some expansion teams, Florida and Tampa Bay, in our division. Those games are not going to be easy, but they are teams you&rsquo;re supposed to be better than and you&rsquo;ve got to win those games.&rdquo;The resurgence, which put the Capitals into the middle of the Atlantic Division, began with the team&rsquo;s traditional strength: defense. The scoring is still less-than-threatening. Three players were tied for the team scoring lead with 11 points. But the goals against have dropped.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still making mistakes-but a lot less of them and that&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;re playing better,&rdquo; said defenseman Sylvain Cote. &ldquo;Losing is the worst feeling in the world. You feel ashamed. You don&rsquo;t want to go out because you&rsquo;re afraid of what people say.&rdquo;BACK IN CREASE: Goalie Rick Tabaracci returned to the lineup Oct. 25 and lost in overtime to Calgary.Tabaracci tore the medial collateral ligament of his right knee Sept. 16. He was 3-0-0 with a 2.72 goals-against average in a rehabilitation stint with Portland of the American League.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been anxious for six weeks,&rdquo; Tabaracci said. &ldquo;There will be pieces of the game that will come along as I play. I can&rsquo;t just walk in and play like I did at the end of last season (3-2-0, 1.75 GAA). But the knee feels pretty good and I&rsquo;m confident I can do a good job.&rdquo;Tabaracci won his next two games, 4-2 in Vancouver Oct. 27 and 4-2 in San Jose Oct. 30.NOTEBOOK: Center Dave Poulin took home souvenirs from the road trip. He bought Mighty Ducks&rsquo; hats for his three daughters, but he also took home dental work. A check by Calgary&rsquo;s Ronnie Stern &ldquo;blew up&rdquo; two absesses and Poulin had to have root canals done in Vancouver.Rookie right winger Pat Peake was kneed by Mighty Ducks of Anaheim defenseman Randy Ladouceur Oct. 29 and at the same time his previously injured right ankle buckled. He did not play the next night and was later checked by team doctors. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s frustrating,&rdquo; Peake said of the injury and goal posts he has been hitting while trying for his first goal. Peake had four assists in seven games.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 28: Byron Dafoe, G, assigned to Portland (AHL),<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Mike Ridley. Michal Pivonka, Dave Poulin, Steve Konowalchuk, Dale HunterLW&mdash;Dimitri Khristich, Randy Burhdge, Kelly Miller. Craig Berube.RW&mdash;Peter Bondra. Pat Peake, Todd Krygier, Alan May. Keith Jones.LD&mdash;Calle Johansson, Al lafrate. Brian Curran, Enrico Ciccone.RD&mdash;Kevin Hatcher. Sylvain Cote, Shawn Anderson.G&mdash;Rick Tabaracci, Don Beaupre.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Olie Kolzig. G, dislocated knee cap. indefinite. Pat Peake, RW, sore ankle, day-to-day. &#9632;

Dose of Pacific tonic cures defensive woes

<div class="byline">By Boy Cummings</div>Pat Elynuik&rsquo;s fall from grace with the Washington Capitals was a swift one.In a span of just three weeks, he went from playing right wing on the Capitals&rsquo; top line to sitting in the press box waiting for a trade.He got his wish Oct. 24, when he was dealt to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a fifth-round draft choice in the 1995 entry draft.Elynuik&rsquo;s fall with the Capitals was as confounding as it was quick. Granted, there were problems between him and Capitals&rsquo; coach Terry Murray. But the operative word in that sentence is were.Elynuik and his old coach said repeatedly after the trade their problems were in the past.And when Elynuik&rsquo;s new coach, Terry Crisp, called Murray to get a scouting report, he heard nothing but good things.&ldquo;Terry told me we were getting a quality young man and a good hockey player,&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;So I asked him, &lsquo;Why is he expendable from Washington? I mean, this is a potential 30-goal scorer.&rsquo; &ldquo;Murray&rsquo;s response was not unusual. He told Crisp his club got off to a slow start-the Caps lost their first six games-and had to make changes. He felt bringing in younger players, primarily Pat Peake, meant Elynuik and Keith Acton were expendable.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s nothing new,&rdquo; Crisp said. &ldquo;You decide to bring somebody new in and instead of keeping the other guys and not using them, you let them move on to somewhere else.&rdquo;The practice may not be unusual, but in the case of Elynuik, it seemed odd, even to Crisp.&ldquo;Elynuik never has scored fewer than 22 goals in a full NHL season, he just turned 26 and all the Lightning gave up for him was a fifth-round draft pick in 1995. You can&rsquo;t go out and get guys like that for that little,&rdquo; Crisp said.Elynuik should help the Tampa Bay offense, which averaged just 2.3 goals per game through Oct. 31. He had two goals in his first three games with his new team.HORROR TALE: The upscale community North of Tampa called Tampa Palm has become something of a chamber of horrors for Lightning players.Since the team first began play, 12 players have lived in Tampa Palms and all but one, defenseman Bob Beers, has either been traded, released or sustained an injury that has kept him out of play for an extended period.Peter Taglianetti, Bob McGill, Basil McRae, Rob Ramage, Doug Crossman, Anatoli Semenov, Steve Kasper and Chris Kontos all were either traded or released.And Wendell Young, Shawn Chambers and Joe Reekie have all spent long lengths of time on the sidelines nursing serious injuries.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m scared to think what&rsquo;s going to happen to me,&rdquo; Beers said. &ldquo;Maybe I should move.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Brent Gretzky registered his first NHL point when he assisted on a goal by Pat Elynuik in a 4-2 loss to the New York Islanders Oct. 30&hellip;Goalie Daren Puppa set a club record when he started his eighth straight game Oct. 27. The old mark was held by Pat Jablonski, who started seven straight last season.<h2>TAMPA BAY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Oct. 20: Danton Cole, RW, signed contract. Oct. 23: Tim Bergland, RW, recalled from Atlanta (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&mdash;Brian Bradley, Denis Savard, Chris Gratton, Brent Gretzky.LW&mdash;Tim Bergland, Danton Cole, Marc Bureau, Rob Zamuner, Gerard Gallant.RW&mdash;John Tucker. Petr Klima, Pat Elynuik. Bill McDougall.LD&mdash;Joe Reekie, Roman Hamrlik, Donald Dufresne, Normand Rochefort.RD&mdash;Bob Beers, Marc Bergevin, Rudy Poeschek.G&mdash;Daren Puppa, Pat Jablonski.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mikael Andersson, LW, right shoulder strain, day-to-day. Shawn Chambers, D, right knee surgery, Nov. 7, Adam Creighton. C, strained right knee, Nov. 14. Rob DiMaio. C. broken left leg, indefinite. Wendel Young, G. right shoulder surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

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November 12, 1993

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

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Coombe having a jolly time

Addition of dependable Muni helps plug hole on blueline