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 26, 1993

The Hockey News November 26, 1993

<div class="byline">By Nick Gates</div>The magnetism of Manon.There is no other way to explain the record turnout for the Knoxville Cherokees&rsquo; 9-6 win over the Johnstown Chiefs Nov. 6. at sold-out Civic Coliseum.Manon Rheaume, the 21-year-old female goalie from Lac Beauport, Que., became the second woman in a week to win a professional game when she made her East Coast League debut before a franchise record 4,805.Rheaume stopped 32 of 38 shots as Knoxville broke a three-game losing streak.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad it&rsquo;s done,&rdquo; a relieved Rheaume said. &ldquo;It feels great.&rdquo;The Cherokees grabbed a 2-0 lead and it ballooned to 7-2 before Rheaume was blitzed for four goals in the third period.&ldquo;She didn&rsquo;t beat us,&rdquo; Johnstown coach Eddie Johnstone said. &ldquo;We gave up nine goals and seven were gifts. She gave up six goals, so she couldn&rsquo;t have played that well.&rdquo;A week after Erin Whitten of the Toledo Storm made history, Rheaume duplicated the feat.Jamie Adams, who beat her once, didn&rsquo;t approach the game or treat her differently because of her gender.&ldquo;She was just a goalie,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think too much about it.&rdquo;Indeed there were skeptics. There might have been a few on the ice wearing Cherokees&rsquo; uniforms. But Rheaume won the respect of her teammates with the win.&ldquo;Dam right she did,&rdquo; Scott Metcalfe said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re happy to have her on our team.&rdquo;ANGRY ADMIRALS: After receiving 154 minutes in penalties in a 9-4 loss to the South Carolina Stingrays, the Hampton Roads Admirals established themselves as the league&rsquo;s most penalized team with 455 in seven games.The 154 minutes was the third-highest singlegame total in league history.The aftershock arrived two days later when ECHL commissioner Pat Kelly suspended defenseman Shawn Snesar for one game for slashing Chris Bright. Forward Richie Walcott was suspended indefinitely for spearing.The Admirals were averaging 65 minutes per game and were on pace to swamp the ECHL&rsquo;s single-season record-1991-92 Columbus Chill, 2,751-by nearly 1,700 minutes.HELPING HAND: Pat Kelly and Bud Gingher, head of the board of governors, met Nov. 8 in Huntsville with Blast owner Larry Revo to discuss the franchise&rsquo;s woes.Huntsville was last in attendance with a 1,041 average, including a league-low 351 for an October game. The league wants to be assured everything is fine with the franchise, that moved from Roanoke after the 1992-93 season because of attendance problems. It was a closed-door meeting. Kelly and Gingher also met with potential local investors. &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

Knoxville’s Rheaume gains respect with first victory

<div class="image-hero"><img title="Cover-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/cover-01910/6208740-1-eng-US/cover-012.jpg"></div>AN ICE GUY Jets&rsquo; star Selanne is Mr. WonderfulPAIN IN PA. Lemieux, Lindros out with injuries &#9632;

Cover-01

CALL TO ARMS

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-03790/6207259-1-eng-US/f0014-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Alexandre Daigle has lacked consistency, but is a creative player.</figcaption></div>Call it the year of the rookie hangover.Last year&rsquo;s freshman crop, led by Teemu Selanne, Eric Lindros, Felix Potvin and Joe Juneau, was the best ever.In fairness to this season&rsquo;s group, however, 1992-93 was the exception. Judged against most other years, the class of 1993-94 is deep and full of potential.&ldquo;Forget about last year, you won&rsquo;t see that for a lot of years, if at all,&rdquo; said Calgary Flames director of pro scouting Nick Polano. &lsquo;This year&rsquo;s rookies are playing well and down the line, they&rsquo;re going to not only be top players, they&rsquo;re going to be top leaders.&rdquo;&ldquo;Five years from now,&rdquo; said Mighty Ducks of Anaheim player personnel director David McNab, &ldquo;they&rsquo;ll be calling this the captain&rsquo;s draft.&rdquo;The top three players in the draft, Ottawa Senators&rsquo; center Alexandre Daigle, Hartford Whalers&rsquo; defenseman Chris Pronger and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Chris Gratton, have emerged as key performers on their teams. Florida Panthers&rsquo; forward Rob Niedermayer, the fifth pick overall, has also impressed in the early going.Senators&rsquo; center Alexei Yashin, the second choice overall in 1992, has become an instant hit and is the early favorite for the Calder Trophy. Flyers&rsquo; forward Mikael Renberg, the 40th player chosen in 1990, is also off to a good start.Here are the top players at each position so far this season:Goal: Jocelyn Thibault, 18, the Quebec Nordique&rsquo;s 10th choice in last year&rsquo;s draft, is nimble and tough. He was beginning to encroach on the playing time of incumbent Stephane Fiset, even before Fiset went down with a bad back. The fan favorite&rsquo;s numbers (2-5-0, 3.05 goals-against average&hellip;900 save percentage) were respectable, but observers wonder whether Thibault flops too much to be an effective stopper over the long term.Honorable mention: Martin Brodeur, 21, New Jersey Devils. Fellow Quebec League grad Brodeur has played as well as Thibault, but against weaker opposition. Brodeur is two inches taller and 35 pounds heavier than Thibault.Defense: The Whalers acquired James Patrick and Bryan Marchment in large part to spell off the 19-year-old Pronger. His game was buckling under 25-30 minutes of ice time a night, but the 6-foot-6 Dryden, Ont., native remains a prize prospect because of his combination of size and speed. Pronger had a goal and six assists in his first 15 games.Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; Boris Mironov, 21, takes a regular shift and is on the second power-play and penalty-killing units. At 6-feet-3 and 220 pounds, Mironov is a bruising, defensively sound player with lots of offensive potential. He is only an average skater and, like many young players, has had problems with consistency. Mironov had two goals and four assists in 14 games.Honorable mention: Alexander Karpovtsev, 23, New York Rangers. Stolen from the Quebec Nordiques for minor leaguer Mike Hurlbut, Karpovtsev has been Brian Leetch&rsquo;s defensive conscience.Forward: Yashin, 20, has been the year&rsquo;s best rookie, leading all first-year players with nine goals and 19 points in 12 games. His skating skills, once considered suspect, have improved considerably. He is also a premier stickhandler and passer and has excellent perception. At 6-foot-2 and over 200 pounds, he should one day rank among the league&rsquo;s top power forwards.Daigle, 19, has also been among the leading freshmen scorers from the start, but has lacked consistency. A fast, creative, courageous player, Daigle is a step behind his Russian teammate.At 6-foot-2, 218 pounds, 21-year-old Renberg is a determined player with average skating skills and solid offensive talent. Renberg developed a good base early in the season and improved steadily. Playing regularly with Lindros hasn&rsquo;t hurt his play or his scoring totals (8-10-18 in 17 games).Honorable mention: Gratton, 18, Tampa Bay Lightning; Jason Arnott, 19, Edmonton Oilers. Gratton has been the Lightning&rsquo;s best forward and were it not for goalie Daren Puppa, the team&rsquo;s best player. Arnott&rsquo;s good start has been over-shadowed by the Oilers&rsquo; problems. &#9632;

f0014-03

Tomorrow’s leaders

<div class="byline">By Andy Baggot</div>Did someone say title contender? If so. Bob Mancini hopes you are talking about an entity other than his Michigan Tech team.There are those who believe the Huskies are capable of challenging for the Western Collegiate Hockey Association title this season. The foundation for that assessment starts with Jamie Ram, arguably the best goaltender at the college level, and works its way out to a veteran corps of defensemen and an intriguing mix of youth and experience up front.Mancini can understand the logic, but he is reluctant to buy into the notion his team is worthy of mention with other projected WCHA frontrunners such as the University of Wisconsin, Northern Michigan and Minnesota-Duluth.&ldquo;This team isn&rsquo;t ready for that.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;A favorite or contender label is not fair to put on our club.&rdquo;Mancini is referring mainly to the overall skill level of a program still is in the midst of recovering from the rubble of four straight losing seasons-54-102-6 (.352) from 1988-92-and the disruption of having three coaching changes between 1990 and &lsquo;92 (Herb Boxer was fired and Newell Brown resigned to move up to the minor leagues).&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a hard-working team.&rdquo; Mancini said. &ldquo;But take away hard-working and we&rsquo;re not good. We don&rsquo;t have the kind of skill level to get by on the nights we don&rsquo;t work as hard as we should.&rdquo;Mancini is in his second season with the Huskies. He came over from Ferris State of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association last year and guided the Huskies to a 17-15-5 record.LABOR PAINS: Will potential labor problems at the professional level have an affect on the WCHA? Commissioner Otto Breitenbach doesn&rsquo;t think so.The NHL invited 40 college and Jr. A officials to an instructional gathering in Indianapolis Nov 6. It was not a tryout camp, stressed league officiating director Bryan Lewis, but a replacement camp. Those invited essentially have been hired in the event there is a strike by NHL referees and linesmen.Breitenbach said his office was to be informed if any WCHA official had been hired to work NHL games. As of Nov. 8, he had not heard from any of the 15 referees, 17 linesmen or supervisor Ron Foyt. who has experience as an NHL linesman. All are under contract to the WCHA for the season.SCORING MACHINE: Northern Michigan right winger Mike Harding will set a WCHA standard for most goals in a season if he keeps up his current pace.The Hartford Whalers&rsquo; draft pick had seven goals in four games, which works out to 53 in 30 games. The record is 45, established in 197980 by Tim Harrer of Minnesota. &#9632;

Huskies just aren’t worthy of top billing, Mancini says

&ldquo;I&rsquo;d be much happier playing in Russia. Circumstances dictated that I had to come here, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean I have to like it.&rdquo;&ndash;Senators&rsquo; Russian rookie Alexei Yashin on playing in North America. Page 18.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s 1993. Wake up and smell the coffee. The best people should get the jobs.&rdquo;&ndash;NHL senior vice-president Brian Burke on the notion that the NHL is being taken over by Americans. Page 20. &#9632;

QUOTABLE

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-05429/6206639-1-eng-US/f0002-052.jpg" title="f0002-05" width="353" height="357"></div>Peter Stastny. The Slovakian great is not in the NHL, but is spending this season representing his country in the Olympics. It&rsquo;s too bad fans didn&rsquo;t get a chance to say a proper good-bye to one of the all-time greats.Pittsburgh Penguins. The team is doing its fans a disservice by being so vague about Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s status. And Lemieux isn&rsquo;t doing himself any favors with his reclusive approach.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-06310/6206632-1-eng-US/f0002-062.jpg" title="f0002-06" width="354" height="353"></div> &#9632;

f0002-05

CHEERS AND JEERS

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0002-04588/6206670-1-eng-US/f0002-042.jpg" title="f0002-04" width="378" height="484"></div>The NHL&rsquo;s new save percentage is meaningless. Don&rsquo;t be fooled into thinking striking referees and linesmen would save as high a percentage of money as the NHL suggests had they accepted the league&rsquo;s final offer.It is true officials received a proposal that would increase base salaries by more than 25 per cent in the first year, but the numbers are deceiving because other guaranteed money is not included. (See story on page 7 for explanation.)More to the point, though, is that if you accept percentages as a point of comparison between 1992-93 salaries and proposed 1993-94 salaries, you also accept last year&rsquo;s officials&rsquo; wages as a fair starting point.And nobody believes that. Not even the NHL. Otherwise it wouldn&rsquo;t be offering such huge raises.Is it a good offer? Most assuredly. Is it a good enough offer? Most hard to say. The dollars sound good to a university-educated, nine-year fulltime pro with The Hockey News.According to the NHL, I&rsquo;m entitled to $115,000. Or am I?Actually, I&rsquo;m a two-year man by NHL standards. This is my third season as editor-in-chief of THN, so I should be earning $75,000 by NHL standards. Ironically, I assumed the job at the same age-32-many NHL hopefuls become full-time referees.Now, you can be sure referees and linesmen will get substantially higher raises than I will over the next decade, which is about how long the average official lasts.But unless someone wises up (i.e. my superiors start reading this stuff), you can be sure my career, and those of hundreds of thousands like me in the work world, will last longer than most officials whose bodies will wear out long before my fingertips.There is an additional circumstance to consider. In all modesty, I must admit to not being one of the best 58 editors in the world. I&rsquo;m not even among the best 58 hockey editors&hellip;in Don Mills, Ont. But these 33 linesmen and 25 referees are the best 58 officials in the world. Well, they&rsquo;re supposed to be.This is not to say the officials should be able to write their own ticket-just that you (as a fan) must suspend your normal sense of equilibrium on pay equity.Just as we do for athletes.Comparing NHL officials with baseball umpires and basketball referees is weak. Hockey is the most demanding team sport to officiate. But it&rsquo;s a starting point and Gary Bettman is right when he points out the league has put NHL officials in the same financial district as their professional peers.Whether they would remain there in two years time when new collective bargaining agreements come up in baseball and basketball is a matter of conjecture. But there&rsquo;s no denying hockey doesn&rsquo;t have the revenues of the other two sports.The league isn&rsquo;t trying to break the union with its offer, but it is clearly testing the NHL Officials&rsquo; Association&rsquo;s resolve. All signs point to a more stem test than the players faced in the spring of &lsquo;92.There&rsquo;s no reason to believe the strike will be settled as quickly as the NHL Players&rsquo; Association work stoppage that lasted only 10 days. Million-dollar players would have been difficult to keep knitted together had the playoffs been cancelled and they had a summer to stew over lost paychecks.Maintaining morale amongst this million-dollar membership (combined salaries, that is) could be more challenging. Christmas is coming. On Nov. 15, there were only 35 negotiating days left. &#9632;

f0002-04

Only 35 negotiating days until Christmas

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden and Mike Brophy</div>The defending Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens might not be No. 1 in the standings, but they are leading the charge to decrease fighting, if not eliminate it all together. After 16 games, the Canadiens were assessed just three fighting majors-two to Lyle Odelein and one to Mario Roberge. According to unofficial statistics compiled by THN, there were 314 fights through the first 230 games. The Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers were next in line for the (unofficial) fair play award with six fighting majors each. The Bruins were leading with just two in their first 15 games, but earned three in Game 16. Concerns the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim might ice a goon show in their initial season have proved unfound ed. I he Ducks had the seventh-fewest majors with 10 in 16 games. The Los Angeles Kings, on the other hand, appear to have decided fighting is their ticket back to the Stanley Cup finals. The Kings, led by Brent Thompson (six fights), had a league-leading 22 fighting majors in 18 games. If the Kings are fighting for success, the struggling Edmonton Oilers and New York Islanders might be fighting out of frustration. The Islanders had 20 fights in 17 games; the Oilers 20 in 19 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011542/6206760-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="368" height="367"></div>Thompson was tied with five other players for second-most fights behind leader, rookie Darren McCarty of the Detroit Red Wings, who had seven in 16 games&hellip;A notable omission from our Nov. 19 list of sure-fire Hall-of-Famers was Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; right winger Glenn Anderson. Every retired player with at least 450 career goals is in the Hall of Fame. Anderson entered the season with 459 in 976 games and ranks among the top 25 goal scorers in NHL history. He twice scored 50 goals during the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; glory years. Anderson was a key contributor on five Stanley Cup-winning teams in Edmonton and is recognized as one of the best playoff performers ever. He stands third in all-time playoff goals (88) and fourth in points (201). We named 26 active players who should earn berths in the Hall on the first ballot. Anderson makes it 27&hellip;Overheard from an NHL scout: &ldquo;There&rsquo;s only one thing wrong with (Eric) Lindros. He doesn&rsquo;t have a twin.&rdquo;&hellip;After 14 years in senior management, Gilles Leger has seen his role with the Quebec Nordiques reduced from assistant to the general manager to advisor. He works on special projects for them, but is seeking a change in position. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking for a GM&rsquo;s job,&rdquo; Leger says. &ldquo;Meanwhile, if I can help them, I will.&rdquo;&hellip;Player agent Pierre Lacroix says NHL general managers have themselves largely to blame for high salaries. He said there are several reasons why salaries have escalated so rapidly: &ldquo;Bad contracts, large salaries given to mediocre players and renegotiated contracts.&rdquo; Lacroix pointed out the Detroit Red Wings have renegotiated Steve Yzerman&rsquo;s contract twice. Red Wings&rsquo; GM Bryan Murray responds that Yzerman was the one player fans came to watch during the lean years in Detroit and team owner Mike Hitch feels compelled to keep Yzerman among the league&rsquo;s top-paid players. He will earn $2.7 million this season, which places him among the top five&hellip;The NHL and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association have joined forces to promote four neutral-site games in Hamilton, Ont. The games were originally slated to be promoted by Toronto-based Double Hitch Enterprises, but that company went out of business. &ldquo;Obviously we would have been pleased if all four games went off without a hitch,&rdquo; says Skip Prince, NHL vicepresident, television and team services. Now, they will go off without a Double Hitch&hellip;NHL ratings on ESPN continue to be disappointing. Viewership slipped to an average 0.7 rating (433,000 households) through the first eight games of the season. Last year, the network averaged 0.9 over the same period. That represents a 22 percent decline. Professional bowling gets a 1.0 rating. A.C. Neilsen cannot deliver ratings on ESPN2 until the new year. A proliferation of cable stations is responsible for the lag time. Although we started off soft, you&rsquo;ll see a steady increase,&rdquo; said Glenn Adamo, NHL vice-president, broadcasting&hellip;Since Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Daren Puppa was traded from the Buffalo Sabres to the Toronto Maple Leafs last February, he has posted all-star numbers. He had a 2.32 goals-against average and. 918 save percentage in 24 games with the Leafs and Lightning. He was 6-2-0 with the Leafs and is 4-9-2 with the second-year Lightning.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-04951/6206753-1-eng-US/f0004-042.jpg" title="f0004-04" width="383" height="591"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brent Thompson</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-05772/6206746-1-eng-US/f0004-052.jpg" title="f0004-05" width="384" height="592"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bryan Murray</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021381/6206739-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="900" height="1733"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-031159/6206732-1-eng-US/f0004-032.jpg" title="f0004-03" width="898" height="1734"><figcaption class="caption-body">Glenn Anderson won&rsquo;t be forgotten when he retires: He&rsquo;s sure to be elected to the Hall of Fame. Daren Puppa has been a different goaltender since being traded from Buffalo to Toronto last season.</figcaption></div><h2>CLUB FIGHTING</h2>The THN fight ranking lists number of games and fighting majors. The fewer number of fights a team has, the higher it is ranked.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-06453/6206725-1-eng-US/f0004-062.jpg" title="f0004-06" width="526" height="1026"></div> &#9632;

f0004-01

No knockouts for champs

<div class="byline">By THN staff</div>At least the Hartford Whalers are consistent.They&rsquo;re consistently below average on the ice and do consistently poorly at the gate. There&rsquo;s an absolute correlation between the two, according to team governor Richard Gordon.&ldquo;As soon as we start doing better on the ice, we&rsquo;ll start doing better with the fans,&rdquo; Gordon said.The Whalers were off to a 4-11-2 start and struggled at the turnstile. They were averaging 10,000 fans in nine games at the 15,635-seat Civic Centre-64 per cent of capacity. Both attendance figures were the poorest in the NHL.Hartford&rsquo;s average attendance is similar to the past two seasons when the Whalers averaged 10,896 fans per game in 1991-92 and 10,144 last year.&ldquo;Am I concerned? I&rsquo;ve been concerned for years,&rdquo; Gordon said. &ldquo;But I feel we&rsquo;re on the right track. We&rsquo;re going in the right direction. Plus, we&rsquo;re secure with the 20-year agreement we signed with the city.&rdquo;Speculation the Whalers were on the move elsewhere was quelled when Gordon signed the 20-year, $48-million deal Aug. 10 to lease the Civic Center. Then a Nov. 15 deadline to inform the city of intentions to move came without incident. (See story on page 19).The Tampa Bay Lightning led the NHL in attendance with a 20,608 pergame average. The second-year team moved into the 28,000-seat ThunderDome this season. Six teams were filling their rinks to 100 percent capacity: the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks, St. Louis Blues, Pittsburgh Penguins, Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs.OLYMPIAN KONTOS: Chris Kontos claims he&rsquo;s happy.If that&rsquo;s the case, then it&rsquo;s true money doesn&rsquo;t buy happiness where he is concerned. Kontos turned down an offer of $225,000 by the Tampa Bay Lightning this summer. The free agent couldn&rsquo;t land a contract with another NHL team, so he joined Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team Nov. 11.Kontos has a guarantee from Hockey Canada to play in the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. In 1992, he was the last cut when the team added several NHLers.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m excited about this opportunity,&rdquo; said the 29-year-old who was third in Lightning scoring with 27 goals and 51 points last season. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m taking control of my destiny and hope this will be my ticket back.&rdquo;Kontos wanted a $325,000 contract from the Lightning, but the team balked. After a long dispute, he was granted unrestricted free-agency status. His Toronto-based agent Harry Francis said he had inquiries from several teams, but when none offered a contract, he accepted the offer from the Olympic team.BALLOT OUT: The expansion Florida Panthers likely won&rsquo;t have a player voted onto the 1993-94 Eastern Conference all-star team, but they&rsquo;ll play a role in the balloting process.Panthers&rsquo; owner Wayne Huizenga is the chairman and CEO of Blockbuster Video Corp., the company sponsoring the all-star balloting.The balloting program is featured in all 26 NHL arenas and runs through Dec. 15.The 112 players on the ballot consist of 18 wingers, 10 centers, 10 goalies and 18 defensemen from each conference. They were selected by a poll of members of the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association. Each team is represented by at least three players.HONOR ROLL: St. Louis Blues&rsquo; winger Brett Hull was named NHL player of the week for the period ending Nov. 14. He had five goals and nine points in three games to beat out New York Rangers&rsquo; goalie Mike Richter and Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; goalie Ed Belfour.Meanwhile, Ottawa Senators&rsquo; center Alexandre Daigle was named rookie of the month for October. He had six goals and 14 points in 10 games in the first month of his NHL career.<h2>ATTENDANCE UPDATE</h2>Here&rsquo;s a listing of all NHL teams&rsquo; average attendance and percent capacity after Nov. 14 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011455/6206791-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="528" height="1192"></div> &#9632;

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Woeful Whalers falter on ice and at turnstiles

<div class="byline">By Kevin Dupont</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03701/6206822-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="382" height="532"></div>It&rsquo;s more than just their helmets that keep us from recognizing these guys. What about the oversized and funky Bermuda shorts they wear? And those sweaters. The average hockey sweater is big enough for Bluto-big enough for Popeye, after he has guzzled another can of spinach.No, this isn&rsquo;t about fashion. It&rsquo;s about getting to know the stars of the NHL, one in particular, when the uniform itself does everything it can to keep us from knowing who they are. In a sense, they&rsquo;re all wearing a mask, from head to toe.But before we get to Pavel Bure of the Vancouver Canucks, let&rsquo;s dismiss this helmet thing once and for all, and shoot a few holes in the wardrobe.Think back to the early 1960s, when everyone in the Original Six went sans chapeau. Better yet, go back and find a picture from that era. Take a look. You&rsquo;ll find everyone in that picture looks alike, with crewcuts, big ears and a fleshy face. They all look to be about 40 years old. Okay, maybe the goalie had a few more facial stitches and an awful twitch. But in fashion terms, they blended. They were bland, anonymous. So please, stop fingering the helmet as today&rsquo;s sole culprit. If anything, it&rsquo;s the whole package that keeps these guys hidden from view, the most unidentifiable multi-millionaires in our society.But then there is a guy such as Bure. He wears the same helmet, same goofy shirt and same funky Bermuda shorts that the rest of the pack wears.What Bure has, though, are those legs, those made-in-Moscow Russian Rockets that make him unique. They are the statements of his singularity.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think people know what a physical specimen he is,&rdquo; said Brian Burke, one of Bure&rsquo;s former bosses in Vancouver and now the NHL&rsquo;s senior vice-president and director of hockey operations. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s all muscle-less than five per cent body fat. He may be the one guy with legs bigger than (former Olympic speed skating champion) Eric Heiden&rsquo;s.&rdquo;Turn on the TV the next time the Canucks are being beamed to your neighborhood (praise the hockey gods for ESPN2). Tell me you can&rsquo;t spot Bure. Forget the No. 10 on his back. Forget you know more about hockey than the average bear. Because of his raw speed, because of his brilliant skills, Bure jumps out of the picture and almost tap dances across your coffee table.The game doesn&rsquo;t need guys without helmets, guys dressed in one-piece leotards, guys with minicams strapped to their noggins to give us better video. It needs better players, more Bures, faster skaters and more skilled stickhandlers who stand out by presence and not their looks.We knew Johnny Bucyk for his hip check and shots to the roof of the net, not his smile. We knew Gordie Howe for his courage-okay, his elbows, too-not the dimple in his chin. We knew Guy Lafleur not so much for his long, wind-swept hair, but for the speed and molten flow of his skating that made his hair go wild in the wind. We knew Jean Beliveau for his grace, composure and Picasso-like touch. Only our mothers cared that he was a hunk, too.Not for the better, but much for the worse, the game began to lose its great individuals with great individual, distinct styles, about the same time the helmets arrived. The NHL got bigger. Today we are left with the Original 26, teams staffed by 500-plus players, most of whom look alike, play alike and truly don&rsquo;t stand out in a crowd. Much of the time, we don&rsquo;t recognize them for their play, but for nothing other than their uniforms.Bure is the exception. He&rsquo;s not alone. There is Wayne Gretzky. There are the bigger-than-big guys, Mario Lemieux and Eric Lindros. There is Mark Messier, a downsized bigger-than-big guy. There is Brett Hull, known more by the sound of his shot than the statement of his play.What the game needs to make it more identifiable, more visible is more guys such as Bure. I realize, of course, that&rsquo;s like saying the National Basketball Association needs more guys such as Michael Jordan, and right now just one MJ would be a great find.It only makes sense that, as the NHL got bigger, the broad base of talent got worse. That&rsquo;s true of all pro sports. Every NHL team today has three or four players, minimum, who never would have advanced beyond Providence or Peoria 10 years ago.But why does there seem to be so little room at the top? Why are there so few special talents? Why do so few excel at what they do? Are the helmets so tight that they&rsquo;ve stopped players from creative thinking?How funny, though, that back when everyone looked alike, when it looked like they all went to the same barber, more of them stood out for how they played rather than how they looked.That&rsquo;s it, then. Settled. Crew cuts for everyone and let the stars come marching in. &#9632;

f0005-03

Bure a throwback to days of crew cut

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021051/6206853-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="576" height="718"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Hull</figcaption></div><h2>Who is this Titov guy?</h2>1. German Titov. Calgary&rsquo;s l()th round draft pick (252nd overall) had six goals, 13 points in 19 games.2. Mike Gallant Union College goalie won first game after 19 consecutive losses over two years.3. Washington Capitals. After lousy start. Caps have turned things around without Dale Hunter.4. Brett Hull. Golden Brett on fire, scored nine goals, 16 points in six-game stretch.5. Ottawa Senators. Won four straight road games. What&rsquo;s next, playoff position?<h2>Straka hits big slump</h2>1. Martin Straka. Penguin&rsquo;s sophomore had eight goals in first seven games, none in next 12.2. NHL-NHL Officials&rsquo; Association. 75 days (since CBA expired) wasn&rsquo;t long enough to do deal?3. Lightning offense. Just 39 goals in 18 games. Perhaps Tampa should have resigned Chris Kontos.4. Enrico Ciccone. Broke team mate Alan May&rsquo;s hand in practice with slash. How to make friends&hellip;5. Norm Green. Dallas owner threatened to move team. That should help sell season tickets. &#9632;

f0005-02

PLUS MINUS

Barring a miracle, the Edmonton Oilers have no chance of returning to the Stanley Cup final with their current management philosophy.The Oilers must either find a new lease agreement, relocate to the U.S., or preferably, find a new owner.General manager Glen Sather, who has been on the wrong end of many deals lately-he traded away Vincent Damphousse, Norm Maciver, Josef Beranek and Martin Rucinsky-has been forced to trade all of his future Hall-of-Fame players because a small market and unfavorable lease agreement provided inadequate cash flow.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011634/6206891-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="578" height="820"><figcaption class="caption-body">Can youngsters such as Doug Weight bring the Cup to Edmonton?</figcaption></div>The Oilers lost their identity as stars were traded for inexpensive players with upside potential.If players such as Jason Arnott, Doug Weight, Vladimir Vujtek, Tyler Wright and Dean McAmmond fulfill their potential, Sather will again be forced to trade them since they will not fit into the budget. Thus, the fire sale will repeat itself before the Oilers can restore pride in the organization.It&rsquo;s time the Oilers got out of the business of developing players for other teams.Jeff Jodzis, St. Paul, Minn.<h2>Money talks</h2>I am writing with regard to a piece in the Oct. 29 issue of The Hockey News which mentioned a video entitled &ldquo;The Media and You&rdquo;, designed to help players deal with the media.Kevin Lowe supposedly offers an excellent reason for players to co-operate: &ldquo;The media exposes the game. The more exposure, more people come and the more people, more money for the players.&rdquo;Isn&rsquo;t it a sad commentary that today&rsquo;s athletes must be motivated by potential financial gain in order to cooperate and be courteous to members of the media?Lois Thomson. Pittsburgh, Pa.<h2>Sound advice</h2>Thank you Mike Ulmer for the fine column in the Nov. 5 issue of THN on female goaltender Manon Rheaume.I am an avid hockey fan who appreciates the sport for what it is. I am thrilled to see a woman breaking into a sport that is male dominated. I am upset, however, that her sexuality and not her athleticism, is highlighted in advertising. Why can&rsquo;t she appear in equipment like everyone else?I think her agent, Steve Bartlett, needs to get in touch with this generation. Women play hockey. Rheaume&rsquo;s ability will sell without the help of sex. The fact she is an attractive woman is not the only appeal she has.Barbara Schnur, Burlington, Calif.<h2>Moronic moves</h2>Having been a Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; fan all my life, it brings me great sadness to write this letter, but I feel something must be said.What are the Hawks&rsquo; doing? Either Darryl Sutter is a moron or he is just a pawn and puppet for super moron Bob Pulford. I fear both are the case.Both men should learn from the successes of Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; coach Barry Melrose. The Hawks need to play some of their young players so they have sufficient experience come playoff time.Dave Christian and Troy Murray should be replaced by youngsters such as Jeff Shantz, Steve Dubinski, Sergei Krivokrasov and Ivan Droppa.Bill Brock, Afton, Wyo.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021116/6206884-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="584" height="690"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chicago must give players such as Jeff Shantz a chance, a fan says.</figcaption></div><h2>Take a stand</h2>In his Nov. 6 edition of Coaches&rsquo; Comer, Don Cherry told all of Canada what fans already know. The NHL is attempting to blacklist Bob Probert out of the game.It&rsquo;s time the NHL Players&rsquo; Association stepped in to stop this and demand he be treated no differently than any other player.Perhaps players from both teams should leave the ice when they realize the officials have acted to carry out the league&rsquo;s idea of justice. If the players don&rsquo;t support Probert now, then who knows who will be next?Robert Eichen, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.<h2>Video void</h2>I was quite disappointed to find your issue with the TV schedules only included The Sports Network and Hockey Night in Canada telecasts.I would like to officially request you bring back the complete team schedules.Dr. Joseph Hickey, Sherwood. P.E.I.(Editors note: Complete team-by-team TV/Radio listings will be included in the Dec. 3 issue of THN).<h2>Shoot lights out</h2>In response to Steve Dryden&rsquo;s article in the Oct. 29 issue of THN concerning the shootout, I would like to disagree with him and argue that shootouts would be a profitable and marketable tool for the NHL.Mr. Dryden&rsquo;s argument is substantiated by a survey conducted among the fans at Maple Leafs Gardens and the response was a thumbs down for the shootout.Of course it would be.If you conduct a survey at Maple Leaf Gardens, the former home of Harold Ballard and a bastion of hockey conservatism, of course the response would be negative.I contend that if he had surveyed every NHL arena, the majority of fans would be in favor of the idea.If all the conservative, progress fearing Canadians think promoting hockey for entertainment is &ldquo;messing with their game,&rdquo; then they have some serious things to reconsider.First, hockey belongs to all fans, not just Canadians. And second, the NHL is the only major league that still has ties.A shootout would not only let fans see who wins and loses, but it would put more fans in the seats.Chris Johnson. San Gabriel, Calif.Make your feelings known. Fax us your comments at&nbsp;(416) 445-2501 or&nbsp;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.&nbsp;THN&nbsp;reserves the right to edit submissions. &#9632;

f0006-01

Oilers’ philosophy has sprung a leak

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-03712/6206922-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0006-03

THE DRAW

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden and Mike Brophy</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011481/6206953-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike McGeough and his colleagues disallowed the NHL&rsquo;s final offer for a contract. (THN FILES)</figcaption></div>Terry Gregson has made the toughest call of his career-he has called a strike.The 58-member NHL Officials&rsquo; Association walked out Nov. 15 after months of failed negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement.&ldquo;It was a tough call because it involves more than just myself,&rdquo; said Gregson, the NHLOA president. &ldquo;This involves a lot of people and the game we love.&rdquo;The NHL and NHLOA are at odds over a compensation package-separated by about $1.5 million in salary, pension, severance, playoff bonuses and travel allowance costs.Estimates on what the NHL proposal would cost the league this season are wide ranging, but the association puts the cost at $5 million ($192,000 per team) and prices its demands at $6.5 million ($250,000 per team).The NHL puts the minimum league cost at about $6.7 million.&ldquo;We are too far apart to make a deal,&rdquo; said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. &ldquo;The officials want more than we are prepared to give them.&rdquo;&ldquo;We are prepared for a long strike,&rdquo; said Andy van Hellemond, the NHL&rsquo;s top-rated referee.How long? A week? Two weeks?&ldquo;No,&rdquo; said the NHLOA treasurer, &ldquo;longer than that.&rdquo;Last-ditch talks to bridge the dollar gap were held Nov. 14 in New York. Bettman led the four-man NHL team while chief negotiator Don Meehan headed up the four-man NHLOA committee.But hopes of averting the first widespread officials&rsquo; strike in NHL history were dashed long before the midnight deadline.Entreaties over the final weekend were made by the officials after they voted unanimously (58-0) to reject the league&rsquo;s last package. Meehan said he arranged the 11th-hour meeting.&ldquo;If I didn&rsquo;t have any hopes that it would be in everybody&rsquo;s best interest to avoid a strike,&rdquo; Meehan said, &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t have called and I guess I&rsquo;ll never know whether they would have called me.&rdquo;The officials are gambling replacement workers will prove incompetent and undermine the NHL&rsquo;s hard line.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to sit back and watch what happens,&rdquo; said NHLOA executive vice-president Kerry Fraser. &ldquo;We feel we are the best officials in the world and now we&rsquo;ll see these people (replacement workers) prove us right. It&rsquo;s not a matter of if, but when.&rdquo;NHLOA members were angered by a Nov. 9 letter co-signed by NHL senior vice-president and general counsel Jeffrey Pash and senior vice-president and director of hockey operations Brian Burke that warned officials, &ldquo;there can be no assurance that you will be re-employed following a strike.&rdquo;Referees and linesmen said it was an intimidation tactic. But the NHL said it was standard procedure under the circumstances. It&rsquo;s worth noting all umpires and referees in four Major League Baseball strikes and one National Basketball Association strike were rehired after work stoppages.The officials were also annoyed with the league for handing out its proposed salary grid.However, salary figures released by the league (and shown in the table at bottom right) are not the basis of a complete comparison between 1992-93 officials&rsquo; earnings and proposed 1993-94 earnings.The NHL grid doesn&rsquo;t include two sets of regular-season bonus earnings available to officials last season-one based on performance and the other on individual negotiations.As an example, Gregson earned a total of $130,500 last season: $80,000 in base salary; $25,500 in regular-season bonuses; and $25,000 in playoff bonuses (because he was one of three referees assigned to the Stanley Cup final).If Gregson were to reach the final this season, under the proposed deal, he would earn $125,000 in base salary, plus $29,000 for the playoffs-a total of $154,000 or 18 percent more than 1992-93.The league said its proposal provided for a 29 percent base-salary increase for referees and 26 percent increase for linesmen in the first year alone. Further, the NHL said officials would more than gain parity with umpires and NBA referees through the deal.But it&rsquo;s not an entirely accurate comparison because not all monies earned by umpires and basketball officials were considered and they will both have new agreements within two years.Still, the dollars, particularly among senior officials, are high. Van Hellemond, though, has a ready answer for anyone who thinks the officials are out of line.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a unique world we&rsquo;re in,&rdquo; said van Hellemond, who would earn as much as $204,000 (including a $29,000 playoff bonus) under the proposal. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t do a job that a lot of people can do. The pie has gotten bigger and we want our slice of the pie and we haven&rsquo;t got it.&rdquo;It has been speculated the league&rsquo;s stand on the officials foreshadows a tough stance being established against players, who are also without a collective bargaining agreement. Bettman firmly denied that allegation.He added suggestions the league is trying to break the NHLOA are ridiculous.&ldquo;I defy anyone in the annals of labor relations to find an attempt by an employer to break the union with the type of offer we&rsquo;ve made,&rdquo; Bettman said.The commissioner said the offer came off the table when the officials went on strike. There are no plans to bring in a mediator.Other NHLOA demands were: improved severance and retirement payments (two years&rsquo; pay over two years on a length-of-service basis instead of one year&rsquo;s pay over two years for minimum 12-year veterans only), travel allowances in the amount of $10,000 and indexed pensions.<h2>REPLACEMENTS SUB IN FOR STRIKERS</h2>About 70 replacement officials are on the hot seat as fillins for striking NHL referees and linesmen. They made their first appearance Nov. 15 in Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary.The first group of replacements included referees Luc Lachapelle of Montreal, (Edmonton at Toronto); Bob Morley of Hamilton Ont., (Montreal at Ottawa); and George McCorry of Edmonton (Winnipeg at Calgary).Lachapelle, 41, has officiated in the Quebec League since 1976 and works at a Montreal-area correctional facility. Morley, 38, officiates in the Colonial League and is a license inspector for the city of Hamilton, Ont. McCorry. 40, is a plant supervisor and officiates in the Alberta Junior Hockey League.The NHL equipped the substitutes with wireless communicators to keep them in contact with league supervisors in attendance at the games. Replacement workers are not expected to work in games other than in their countries of residence. &#9632;

f0007-01

It’s official: Strike is on

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0007-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-02993/6206984-1-eng-US/f0007-022.jpg"></div>This is a glimpse at the NHL basic salary grid turned down by the NHL Officials&rsquo; Association. Here&rsquo;s how it works. Years represent seasons of service entering 1993-94, so a first-year referee is at zero on this grid. A rookie full-time referee, then, would earn $65,000 this season and $75,000, $85,000 and $95,000 in the remaining three years of the proposed contract.Source: NHL. All salaries are based on the country of the official&rsquo;s residence. &#9632;

f0007-02

Here’s the NHL’s final salary offer

<div class="byline">By Steve Dryden</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0008-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011551/6207015-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg"></div>Into the darkness he runs, a hint of yellow in the night air, two faint beams of light accompanied by the sound of a car engine. It is midnight, six miles from home in Helsinki and Teemu Selanne will not surrender to his schedule.The Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; star insists on working out. Sometimes he swims. Sometimes he plays tennis. Sometimes he rollerblades.Always, he runs for cover in Finland.When Selanne jogs during daylight hours, hero-starved Finns stop their cars and ask the national icon for autographs.Tonight, Teemu runs after a full day of charity appearances. Behind him is Sirpa Vuorinen, his girlfriend. She drives the car. But the real driving force is something deep inside Selanne.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t be happy if I can&rsquo;t work out,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I have a feeling in the summer that if I don&rsquo;t train well every day, some guy is going to do better than me and he&rsquo;s going to be better than me.&rdquo;It is early November and Selanne steers his Jeep Eagle down a Winnipeg street. Tie Domi, friend, confidante and bodyguard, is seldom far away. Not even on the road. He is one lane over.Finnish police can rest easily. They stopped Selanne doing 140 kmph in a 100 zone this past summer. It resulted in the most-celebrated speeding ticket in hockey history. But now Selanne is thousands of miles away and, at least, a few of them below the speed limit.Domi races ahead of Selanne, but the experienced rally car driver has more polish behind the wheel and turns neatly into the left lane to draw even with his teammate.Selanne rolls down the passenger side window as if to initiate conversation with Domi and then abruptly closes it.&ldquo;We are like brothers,&rdquo; Selanne says. &ldquo;All the time yapping&rdquo;Teemu and Tie. Beauty and the Beast. The Finnish Flash and The Albanian Assassin. The odd couple, off-off-off-Broadway.Following a pitstop for refueling at Domi&rsquo;s home-they tuck into one-day-old birthday cake; the host just tumed 24&mdash;it&rsquo;s back into the Jeep. A visitor offers to sit in the back.But Selanne, a grin creasing his face, points to the front. He knows Domi will be sour when he sees someone else riding shotgun. Domi takes his job seriously.&ldquo;When some player hits me hard, but it&rsquo;s a fair hit, Tie wants to go after him because he wants to protect me,&rdquo; Selanne says. &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t have to do that. I only want it after dirty hits.&rdquo;Domi emerges from the house and grimaces. Selanne fiddles with the controls to open the back-door lock. Domi is momentarily stuck outside.&ldquo;You foreigner,&rdquo; Domi yells, &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t you know how to use the buttons?&rdquo;&ldquo;You&rsquo;re a foreigner, too,&rdquo; Selanne says. &ldquo;You come from Albania.&rdquo;Selanne and Domi have more in common than a sense of humor. They are both struggling.Oh-for-October Domi says he has a better chance of seeing God than scoring a goal and Selanne is in the grips of a sophomore slump.He has seven goals in 12 games, reasonable by most players&rsquo; standards, but a disappointing output for the NHL&rsquo;s all-time fab freshman.Six goals have come in three of the games, one into an empty net. It&rsquo;s not like he&rsquo;s not getting chances. He has 50 shots this season. Through 12 games last season, Selanne had 45. But he also had 11 goals in 1992-93.A frustrated Selanne has yet to recapture his extraordinary rookie rhythm.&ldquo;I had so much self-confidence,&rdquo; Selanne says. &ldquo;I was so hungry. Last year was the first year I found something new. I was so hungry, it was unbelievable. Last year, I was hungry all the time-at the same level every night.&ldquo;This year, I haven&rsquo;t been at the same level every night.&rdquo;Selanne scored 76 goals last season, 23 more than the previous first-year high established by Mike Bossy. The Finn didn&rsquo;t shatter the record, he Humpty-Dumptied it. Selanne had an age advantage over the legendary New York Islander; he was 22 and Bossy 21.But only Wayne Gretzky has ever rewritten a league record so thoroughly. And only Gretzky scored as many goals at so young an age.&ldquo;Teemu was like a great running back,&rdquo; says Jets&rsquo; general manager Mike Smith. &ldquo;He could dance through the holes or drop his shoulder and knock the linebackers out of the way.&rdquo;That he isn&rsquo;t scoring at the same pace this season is not shocking. Nobody should have expected Selanne to maintain his first-year pace, although it&rsquo;s true none of the game&rsquo;s great scorers maxed out during their first seasons.Still, this season&rsquo;s production will be a more realistic gauge of his talents.Nonetheless, genuinely uninspired play is worrisome.So much so that early in the season. Smith said Selanne was in &ldquo;dreamland.&rdquo; Coach John Paddock has spoken with Selanne often, but studiously avoided public putdowns.Call it a good cop-bad cop routine.&ldquo;Teemu&rsquo;s a pretty sensitive guy,&rdquo; Paddock says. &ldquo;You have to be honest with him, (but) you don&rsquo;t get the most out of him by embarrassing him.&rdquo;Selanne was disturbed by Smith&rsquo;s comments.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the boss,&rdquo; Selanne says. &ldquo;He can say what he wants, but that wasn&rsquo;t necessary.&rdquo;&ldquo;Whoever is going to knock Tee-mu is going to be a bad guy,&rdquo; Smith says.Selanne has arresting speed. (See Finnish police.) Few players can match his acceleration-maybe fellow Europeans Pavel Bure and Alexander Mogilny-and they are also among the select group who have Selanne&rsquo;s talent for finishing what others start.This season&rsquo;s early woes notwithstanding, 76 goals in 84 games last season put him firmly on pace to set an NHL record for the fastest 100 goals in history. Bossy holds that mark; it took him 129 games to hit the century mark.Selanne needs 24 goals in 44 games to erase one more Bossy mark. He had an even two dozen in 29 games last season.&ldquo;Come and see a real car,&rdquo; Selanne says, tugging at his visitor.Behold a handmade Dodge Viper, one of 300 worldwide. It sits in a Winnipeg Jeep Eagle showroom and has 232 kilometres on the odometer, every one of them piled up by Selanne.They represent a tangible measure of the respect and acclaim accorded Selanne in Winnipeg. His celebrity status and driving skills are so firmly established Selanne is a man to be trusted.Cars are Selanne&rsquo;s passion. He has seven of them-including three 1960s convertibles-and competes in rallies back home under an assumed name.Tevkka Salama or Ted Flash (that&rsquo;s the name which appears on his dressing room stall) was in five events over the summer. His best finish was a seventh among 80 competitors.Hockey and car racing are not dissimilar sports. A driver needs courage to go hard all the time. If he lifts his foot from the accelerator, he loses control of the car. A goalscorer needs courage to drive the net hard. If he stops skating, he loses control of a scoring opportunity.&ldquo;(Teemu) needs to be hitting the other team&rsquo;s blueline with speed-with or without the puck,&rdquo; Paddock says.When Selanne is playing well, grit and guts separate him from other skill players. He is the Jets&rsquo; fittest player and punishes players with bodychecks.On this day, Selanne does serious damage to a plate of lemon chicken and spaghetti. He is at the Mona Lisa, surrounded by framed sweaters provided by members of the Jets. Among them is Domi&rsquo;s. Selanne has not given the owners a sweater and modestly declines one woman&rsquo;s suggestion he give the sweater off his back.Selanne is a genuinely nice guy whose sense of humility is as sincere as his commitment to charitable projects, which is enormous in Finland. Selanne is a departure from the norm both on and off the ice. He has the means, but not the inclination to join the Jet-set. He isn&rsquo;t pretentious, but preternatural.Meanwhile, Selanne and Domi are arguing over each other&rsquo;s credibility.&ldquo;Take everything he says, divide by 15 and then cut in half,&rdquo; Domi says. &ldquo;Now you are talking about yourself,&rdquo; Selanne says.Selanne is awarded a decision on the Tie-breaker: Domi might win a shoutout, but Selanne-scoring troubles aside-would win the shootout. &#9632;

f0008-01

Selanne a driving force on and off ice for Jets

<div class="byline">By Dave Sell</div>The Washington Capitals traded for Enrico Ciccone because they wanted a physical defenseman. That&rsquo;s why no one was bothered when Ciccone broke the hand of teammate Alan May in practice Nov. 10.Ciccone appeared angry at himself after stumbling in a drill. During the next drill, he gave May a stiff check. In response, May took out Ciccone&rsquo;s legs. While seated on the ice, Ciccone then slashed May and soon the two had to be broken up by teammates.&ldquo;We agreed to keep playing hard in practice,&rdquo; May said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s trying to work hard and prove himself. I told him not to change.&rdquo;Said Ciccone, &ldquo;I think he might have broken it when he punched me in the face. I didn&rsquo;t mean it to happen. But maybe he didn&rsquo;t mean to take my legs out from under me.&rdquo;Management was no more upset than May.&ldquo;Ciccone wants to play badly and to show he&rsquo;s capable and will get the job done, no matter the cost,&rdquo; said coach Terry Murray. &ldquo;Enrico is intense and gets fired up. He is eager to listen and learn.&rdquo;Ciccone has seemed frustrated the grip on the position he had in training camp has slipped from his grasp. In recent weeks, he had done more watching from the press box than playing. Brian Curran has played every game since his recall.&ldquo;I thought I would play every game, but it wasn&rsquo;t the way it turned out,&rdquo; said Ciccone, who was acquired from the Dallas Stars for defenseman Paul Cavallini in June.The coaches have no problem with his physical play, but need him to make better decisions with the puck and defend better against oncoming opponents. Assistant coaches John Perpich and Keith Allain work with him after practices on footwork drills.INTEREST IN JOE: More Joe Sakic to the Capitals rumors circulated when the Quebec Nordiques visited Nov. 9.&ldquo;I would be crazy if I had a chance to get him and didn&rsquo;t try, but to my knowledge, he is not available,&rdquo; said general manager David Poile.&ldquo;It was always a straight no,&rdquo; said Quebec coach-GM Pierre Page. Asked if he would trade Sakic for defenseman Kevin Hatcher, Page said, &ldquo;No. Straight up? No. Nothing against any player from Washington, but I&rsquo;m not trading Sakic.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: When center Dale Hunter returns from his 21-game suspension Nov. 26, either Steve Konowalchuk will get pushed out at the bottom or Michal Pivonka will get moved to left wing&hellip;Just 10,267 showed up to watch the Capitals play Quebec Nov. 9, which was the smallest Capital Centre crowd since 9,164 watched a rescheduled game immediately after the NHL players&rsquo; strike in 1992.<h2>WASHINGTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mike Ridley, Michal Pivonka. Dave Poulin. Steve Konowalchuk.LW&ndash;Keily Miller. Dimitri Khnstich. Randy Burridge, Craig Berube.RW&ndash;Peter Bondra, Keith Jones, Todd Krygier, Pat Peake.LD&ndash;AI lafrate. Calle Johansson. Shawn Anderson, Enrico Ciccone.RD&ndash;Kevin Hatcher. Sylvain Cote, Brian Curran.G&ndash;Rick Tabaracci, Don Beaupre.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Olie Koizig, G, dislocated right knee cap. day-to-day. Alan May. RW. broken left hand, indefinite. &#9632;

Impatient enforcer Ciccone battling to get back in lineup

<div class="byline">By Jeff Williams</div>Pierre Turgeon sat on a bench in the Spartan quarters of the visitors&rsquo; dressing room at the Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey. He was by himself, chewing a nail, thinking.So it was on the night of Nov. 10, just after the Islanders lost 5-3 to the Devils. Turgeon had not scored for the second straight game and his line of Steve Thomas and Derek King failed to pick up a point.No one had to tell Turgeon his team was in a precarious position.No one had to tell him a record of 4-12-1 in the first 17 games wasn&rsquo;t what Islanders&rsquo; fans expected.And no one had to tell him five goals and 18 points in 16 games was below expectations management had for him before the season began.&ldquo;The chances are there but they are not going in,&rdquo; Turgeon said. &ldquo;I know it&rsquo;s frustrating, we&rsquo;re losing and everybody is ticked off.&rdquo;For most players, five goals and 18 points would be more than acceptable. Not so for Turgeon, who scored 58 goals and 132 points last season.Turgeon&rsquo;s regular wingers have scored most of the Islander goals this season-Thomas (nine) and King (eight)-but the line&rsquo;s overall performance does not match the statistics.It has not dominated opponents in the offensive zone at even strength. All three players have coughed up the puck too quickly, eliminating scoring chances.Last season, Turgeon was successful when he gained control of the puck behind an opponents&rsquo; net, freeing up his wingers for scoring opportunities.That hasn&rsquo;t happened this season. Turgeon hasn&rsquo;t controlled play from behind the net.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re the line that has got to step up,&rdquo; Turgeon said. &ldquo;We have to keep working hard and getting our chances. When two or three go in, we will find our confidence.&rdquo;MALONEY PATIENT: General manager Don Maloney returned from the GM meetings in California without making a trade.He reiterated his point that he will not make a deal unless there is real value to be had.&ldquo;Everybody wants something for nothing,&rdquo; Maloney said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want to do something now for a quick fix that we&rsquo;d be kicking ourselves in the butt for two months from now.&rdquo;In Maloney&rsquo;s first season as GM, his team came alive in the last two weeks and went all the way to the Stanley Cup semifinals.NOTEBOOK: Right winger Brad Dalgarno went in search of country singer Garth Brooks&rsquo; autograph Nov. 11 at Nassau Coliseum and ended up being in Brooks&rsquo; show that night. Dalgarno brought his guitar in the hopes of getting it autographed. After introducing himself to Brooks and getting the autograph. Brooks asked him to play a song with him. At the urging of defenseman Dennis Vaske, another Brooks fan, Dalgarno took the stage that night, wearing Vaske&rsquo;s cowboy boots. He played the guitar for one song &ldquo;Friends in Low Places.&rdquo;<h2>N.Y. ISLANDERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 11: Wayne McBean, D. recalled from Salt Lake (IHL). Nov. 12: Joe Day. LW, recalled from Salt Lake.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Pierre Turgeon, Ray Ferraro, Travis Green. Claude Loiselle. Keith Acton.LW&ndash;Derek King, David Voiek, Benoit Hogue, Marty McInnis, Joe Day.RW&ndash;Steve Thomas. Mick Vukota. Steve Junker.LD&ndash;Vladimir Malakhov, Tom Kurvers, Dennis Vaske.RD&ndash;Scott Lachance, Darius Kaspar-aitis. Rich Pilon, Dean Chynoweth, Wayne McBean.G&ndash;Ron Hextall, Tom Draper.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Brad Dalgarno, RW, hip flexor, day-to-day Pat Flatley, RW, broken right jaw. indefinite. Uwe Krupp, D. broken sinus bone, indefinite. &#9632;

Slump baffles Turgeon

<div class="byline">By Rich Chere</div>On the surface, everything seemed to be falling into place for Claude Lemieux.Having weathered last season&rsquo;s stormy relationship with Herb Brooks, Lemieux found an ally in the coach&rsquo;s office when the New Jersey Devils hired Jacques Lemaire last summer. And at age 28, the feisty right winger felt he was entering the prime of his career.But 16 games into his eighth NHL season, Lemieux was struggling. His four goals and eight points were a noticeable drop from last season&rsquo;s 16-game total of eight goals and 21 points.He also endured the longest scoreless streak of his Devils&rsquo; career between Oct. 23 and Nov. 7. He failed to collect a goal or an assist in seven straight games.&ldquo;Out of those seven games, there were only two in which I wasn&rsquo;t happy about the way he played,&rdquo; Lemaire said. &ldquo;I know he has something on his mind, but he&rsquo;ll be okay.&rdquo;Lemieux refuses to blame his scoring slump on personal problems, but he is involved in a divorce battle with his wife, Carole, that has proved to be very distracting.&ldquo;Maybe the problems I have would be good enough for someone else to use as an excuse, but I don&rsquo;t want to,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;My problems aren&rsquo;t big enough that they can&rsquo;t be fixed.&rdquo;The Devils started the season 12-40, which relieved some of the pressure. And Lemieux contributed in ways other than scoring.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m doing a lot of things right,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve made a lot of good plays and I&rsquo;ve made a lot of things happen.&rdquo;MAGIC OF DISNEY: Tom Chorske joined the list of players who feel there is something special about The Pond in Anaheim.During the Devils&rsquo; trip to the west coast in early November, Chorske ended a frustrating start to his season with a memorable night against the Mighty Ducks. He scored the gamewinning goal in Anaheim Nov. 5 and went on to score points in four straight games.&ldquo;It all started in Anaheim. It just came back to me, all the emotions and sensations of being in the lineup,&rdquo; said Chorske, who was scratched from five of the team&rsquo;s first 11 gamesNOTEBOOK: Bill Guerin denied he did anything that could be construed as a cheap shot on the shift which resulted in torn knee lig-aments for Philadelphia&rsquo; Eric Lindros Nov. 11. Guerin hit Lindros in the comer, but said it was &ldquo;just a normal play.&rdquo;John MacLean scored the 500th point of his NHL career with two goals against the New York Islanders Nov. 10.<h2>NEW JERSEY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Alexander Semak, Bernie Nicholls, Corey Millen. Bobby Carpenter.LW&ndash;Valeri Zelepukin, Stephane Richer, Bobby Holik, Tom Chorske, Mike Peluso.RW&ndash;Claude Lemieux. Bill Guerin. John MacLean, Randy McKay, Ben Hankinson.LD&ndash;Scott Stevens, Bruce Driver, Viacheslav Fetisov.RD&ndash;Ken Daneyko. Scott Nie-dermayer, Jaroslav Modry, Tommy Albelin.G&ndash;Chris Terreri, Martin Brodeur.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Personal problems not reason for sluggish start, Lemieux says

<div class="byline">By Roy Cummings</div>Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Phil Esposito shook up his team the best way he knew how-he made a trade.Esposito, unhappy with the Lightning&rsquo;s lackluster performance, shipped defenseman Bob Beers to the Edmonton Oilers for rearguard Chris Joseph Nov. 12.Joseph, 24, was a first-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1987. He was traded to the Oilers later that year in a deal that saw Paul Coffey move from Edmonton to Pittsburgh.The Oilers had hoped Joseph would provide an offensive spark from the blueline in Coffey&rsquo;s absence, but he couldn&rsquo;t deliver. He had just 12 goals and 39 assists in parts of seven seasons.Joseph responded well to the change of scenery. He scored one goal and added an assist in a 4-3 win over the Quebec Nordiques Nov. 13. The win halted a 10-game winless streak.&ldquo;I really liked what I saw of him out there,&rdquo; said coach Terry Crisp. &ldquo;He has good wheels, he moves the puck well and moves in well off the point in the offensive end. That&rsquo;s something we need.&rdquo;The Lightning also need a legitimate power-play quarterback, and although Joseph never excelled in that capacity in Edmonton, he&rsquo;ll get a chance with Tampa Bay.&ldquo;He has a good shot from the point, so I think he could become a big part of our power play,&rdquo; Crisp said.Joseph won&rsquo;t have any problems with playing time in Tampa Bay. Not if he continues to produce the way he did in his Lightning debut.&ldquo;That was the way they always wanted me to play in Edmonton,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Hopefully I can keep it up.&rdquo;MORE EVIDENCE: The trade of Bob Beers to the Oilers and a car accident that delayed Shawn Chambers&rsquo; return to the lineup lent further credence to the theory bad luck follows those who live in the upscale community of Tampa Palms.Since the Lightning began play, every player who has resided in Tampa Palms has either been traded, released or sustained a serious injury.Chambers, due to return against the Washington Capitals Nov. 12, sustained a bruised left shoulder when he wrecked his jeep in a one-vehicle accident on a street near his home Nov. 11.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s lucky he was wearing his seat belt,&rdquo; said trainer Larry Ness.NOTEBOOK: By registering a goal and an assist in his first game in a Lightning uniform, Chris Joseph matched the point totals he accumulated in 10 games with the Edmonton Oilers&hellip;The Lightning were expected to announce by Nov. 18 whether they would build their permanent arena in downtown Tampa or on a site next to Tampa Stadium.<h2>TAMPA BAY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 12: Bob Beers, D, traded to Edmonton for Chris Joseph, D. Tim Bergland. RW, recalled from Atlanta (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Brian Bradley. Denis Savard, Chris Gratton. Bill McDougall.LW&ndash;Danton Cole, Mikael Andersson, Rob Zamuner. Marc Bureau, Gerard Gallant,RW&ndash;John Tucker. Petr Klima, Pat Elynuik, Tim Bergland.LD&ndash;Joe Reekie, Marc Bergevin, Chris LiPuma.RD&ndash;Chris Joseph, Rudy Poeschek. Donald Dufresne.G&ndash;Daren Puppa. Pat Jablonski.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Shawn Chambers, D. bruised left shoulder, Nov. 17. Adam Creighton, C, strained right knee, Nov. 21. Rob Dimaio, C, broken left leg, indefinite. Roman Hamrlik. D, bruised right shoulder, day-to-day Wendell Young. G, right shoulder surgery, indefinite. &#9632;

Crisp high on Joseph

<div class="byline">By Wayne Fish</div>Given the physical style Eric Lindros plays, most hockey people figured it would be more a case of when than if another knee injury might occur.Few guessed it would happen again so quickly.Just 11 days short of a year after he sustained a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee, the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; center went down with the same injury to his right knee Nov. 11 against the New Jersey Devils.The diagnosis was a Grade II injury (partial tear), meaning Lindros, 20, will be sidelined three-to-six weeks. Last season, he was out for 23 games and the Flyers went 7-14-2.The injury occurred with seven minutes to play in the first period when Lindros was bumped by the Devils&rsquo; Bill Guerin in the Flyers&rsquo; defensive zone. Unlike last year when Lindros was helped off the ice after a collision with Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; defenseman Petr Svoboda, he kept skating for several seconds before being knocked down at the other end of the ice. He made it off under his own power.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t feel as bad as last year, that&rsquo;s for sure,&rdquo; Lindros said. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t even get up on my own strength (last year).&rdquo;Team orthopedic surgeon Art Bar-tolozzi confirmed the tear was only partial and the outlook was brighter than last season.&ldquo;He was more swollen and tender last year the day after the injury and had a little more trouble walking,&rdquo; Bartolozzi said. &ldquo;Subjectively, I think he personally feels a little more comfortable this time. It may mean it&rsquo;s a less extensive injury.&rdquo;Lindros was second in the NHL in goals with 15 when the injury occurred. He had 26 points.The day after the injury, talk turned to Lindros&rsquo; rehabilitation. Last season, several problems arose during his rehabilitation process which the Flyers hope to avoid this year.First, Lindros went home to Toronto and ran into some trouble in a Nov. 29 nightclub incident. He was charged with common assault by a Whitby, Ont., woman following an altercation at the Koo Koo Bananas night club. Although Lindros was later acquitted, the attention the incident received proved to be a distraction for everyone.Later, Lindros showed up for a Dec. 19 game against the Chicago Blackhawks and pronounced himself ready to play, although then-coach Bill Dineen thought it might have been too early.Ten days later, Lindros reinjured the knee when his skate got caught in a rut in the ice at the pre-game skate in Los Angeles. He missed two more games, made a brief comeback, then missed another month after a collision in a Jan. 9 game against the New York Rangers.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011508/6207142-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="578" height="848"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Flyers will keep a close eye on Eric Lindros&rsquo; rehab process.</figcaption></div>This year, Lindros will do most of his rehabilitative work at the Flyers&rsquo; training complex in Voorhees, N.J. He will accompany the Flyers on most of their road trios.NOTEBOOK: Claude Boivin underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Nov. 10. Loose cartilage was removed in the operation. Boivin, trying to come back from major reconstructive surgery last Jan. 18, is sidelined indefinitely&hellip;Goalie Tommy Soderstrom, sidelined since he underwent a fifth medical procedure Nov. 3 to correct his heart rhythm abnormality, made his first appearance Nov. 13 against the Buffalo Sabres. He relieved Dominic Roussel late in the first period, played well in the second period but gave up four late goals in the Flyers&rsquo; 7-2 defeat.<h2>PHILADELPHIA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 14: Chris Winnes. C. recalled from Hershey (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Rod Brind&rsquo;Amour, Viacheslav But-sayev, Dave Tippett, Chris Wmnes.LW&ndash;Mikael Renberg, Josef Beranek. Pelle Eklund, Brent Fedyk.RW&ndash;Mark Recchi. Kevin Dineen. Dave Brown, Al Conroy.LD&ndash;Garry Galley. Jason Bowen, Jeff Finley. Greg Hawgood.RD&ndash;Dimitri Yushkevich. Ryan McGill. Stewart Malgunas.G&ndash;Dominic Roussel. Tommy Soderstrom.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Claude Boivin, LW. left knee surgery, indefinite Eric Lindros, C, tom ligament in right knee, indefinite. Yves Racine. D, tom ligament in left knee, indefinite. &#9632;

f0012-01

Knee problems haunt Lindros

<div class="byline">By Craig Dolch</div>Craig Ramsay has finally returned to the rink and the ice never looked so beautiful.A few months ago, Ramsay didn&rsquo;t know if he&rsquo;d see another game after being rushed to a Buffalo hospital with a bleeding ulcer. He almost didn&rsquo;t survive the Aug. 20 trip, as the ambulance driver had to divert to a closer hospital because Ramsay was losing too much blood.Ramsay, 42, has undergone three operations to repair the ulcer and remove his stomach. He hopes to return to his job as Florida Panthers&rsquo; associate coach, but for the time being is just thankful to be alive.&ldquo;I went right down to the wire twice in a week,&rdquo; Ramsay said. &ldquo;I had a lot of confidence I was going to be able to pull through, but in the position I was in, I didn&rsquo;t realize how close I was (to dying).&ldquo;I remember one time the doctor asked the nurse if my blood count was at seven (pints), and she said it was three. I knew at that point I was in a little bit of trouble.&rdquo;Ramsay has to be strapped to a machine that constantly feeds him.He dropped more than 30 pounds to 140, 40 fewer than his playing weight when he spent 15 seasons with the Buffalo Sabres. He has gained weight back, but keeping it on will be a constant battle.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t eat enough to survive,&rdquo; Ramsay said. &ldquo;It takes a lot of getting used to not having a stomach.&rdquo;The failing health has been difficult to deal with for Ramsay, who was one of the league&rsquo;s most durable players. From March 1973 to February 1983 he played in 776 consecutive games, the fourth longest streak in league history.&ldquo;It was very depressing to be lying there unable to eat or function without a machine,&rdquo; Ramsay said. &ldquo;I was lying in bed the other night fiddling with something, when the wires started to pull. I looked down and said, &lsquo;This can&rsquo;t be me.&rsquo; &ldquo;NOTEBOOK: Mike Foligno was ejected Nov. 14 in a 5-2 loss to the Quebec Nordiques after head-butting Dave Karpa. Foligno could be subject to disciplinary action by the league. &ldquo;I hope that doesn&rsquo;t happen because I&rsquo;ve always tried to play within the rules,&rdquo; Foligno said. &ldquo;I just slipped and my helmet hit his head.&rdquo;Evgeny Davydov wasn&rsquo;t in the lineup three straight games, fueling speculation about his future. He had 28 goals last season with the Winnipeg Jets, but just one in 15 games this year&hellip;Defenseman Greg Smyth scored the fourth goal of his 152-game career against Quebec Nov. 14. He failed to score a goal in 53 games while with Quebec.<h2>FLORIDA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 12: Patrick Lebeau. LW, assigned to Cincinnati (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Rob Niedermayer. Brian Skrudland. Tom Fitzgerald. Randy Gilhen.LW&ndash;Dave Lowry, Mike Hough, Evgeny Davydov. Bill Lindsay.RW&ndash;Scott Mellanby, Jody Hull, Andrei Lomakin, Scott Levins. Mike Folig-no.LD&ndash;Brian Benning, Brent Severyn. Paul Laus.RD&ndash;Joe Cirella, Gord Murphy, Greg Smyth.G&ndash;John Vanbiesbrouck, Mark Fitzpatrick.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Keith Brown, D, bruised knee, day-to-day. Jesse Belanger. C, bruised shoulder, day-to-day Alexander Godynyuk. D, bruised stomach muscles, day-to-day. &#9632;

Forgotten asst, coach Ramsay now simply happy to be alive

<div class="byline">By Rick Carpiniello</div>The New York Rangers are giving new meaning to the word &ldquo;special&rdquo; in special teams.Coming off a streak in which they shut out the Washington Capitals 2-0 in a spirited game Nov. 13, then tied the San Jose Sharks 3-3 the next night, the Rangers were kings of the special teams.The win and tie ran the Rangers&rsquo; unbeaten streak to 8-0-2 and had them on top of the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference standings.Improved special teams play was the reason for the Rangers&rsquo; climb to the top of the standings. They ranked first in power-play percentage (27 per cent) and first in penalty killing (89 per cent), and that only tells part of the story.The Rangers were on the power play 100 times in 19 games and outscored their opponents 27-1. They were shorthanded 109 times and had been outscored by a 12-9 count during opposition power plays. They led the league with nine shorthanded goals.&ldquo;Just look at the people we have killing penalties,&rdquo; said Mike Gartner, a regular on the penalty-killing unit. &ldquo;Everyone is a goalscorer and we&rsquo;ve all been given the green light to go. Mike (coach Keenan) wants us to go and that&rsquo;s basically all the instruction he has given us. We put a lot of pressure on the puck and that forces players to make plays before they want to.&rdquo;Even goalie Mike Richter, who ran his record to 8-4-2 despite an 0-4-1 start, wanted to talk about penalty killing.&ldquo;The penalty killing is phenomenal,&rdquo; Richter said. &ldquo;The reason our special teams are successful is the same reason we&rsquo;re successful as a team. Hard work. You can&rsquo;t have great penalty killing without outworking the other team and we&rsquo;re doing that.&rdquo;A NEW AMONTE: The Mike Keenan-Tony Amonte relationship is an odd one.Amonte is hardly the prototypical Keenan player. He&rsquo;s not physical and has never been known as a defensive player. James Patrick, Darren Turcotte and Eddie Olczyk were of similar styles and none fit in to the Keenan&rsquo;s plans.But Amonte has matured and for the most part, he has done what Keenan asked. And Keenan has become something of a fan of Amonte&rsquo;s, once the winger&rsquo;s conditioning improved.&ldquo;He has always pushed hard work and playing a solid all-around game.&rdquo; Amonte said. &ldquo;It was an education for me. Mike wants to push us to make us all better.NOTEBOOK: The San Jose tie snapped the Rangers&rsquo; win streak at seven games. It matched the team&rsquo;s longest victory string since an eightgame streak in 1974-75&hellip;Mark Messier passed Guy Lafleur into 13th place on the all-time assists list with 795.Alexei Kovalev sat out an automatic one-game suspension Nov. 10, after incurring stick-related game misconducts in consecutive games against the Quebec Nordiques and Tampa Bay Lightning.<h2>N.Y. RANGERS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 14: Steve Larmer, RW, signed contract<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mark Messier, Sergei Nemchinov, Esa Tikkanen, Eddie Olczyk.LW&ndash;Adam Graves, Greg Gilbert. Tony Amonte, Nick Kypreos, Phil Bourque.RW&ndash;Alexei Kovalev, Mike Gartner. Steve Larmer, Joey Kocur, Jim Hiller.LD&ndash;Brian Leetch, Jay Wells, Kevin Lowe. Peter Andersson.RD&ndash;Jeff Beukeboom. Doug Lidster, Sergei Zubov.G&ndash;Mike Richter. Glenn Healy.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mike Hartman, C. severe Charley horse, day-to-day. Mike Hudson C, fractured left hand, day-to-day. Alexander Karpovtsev D, bruised hip, day-to-day. &#9632;

Special teams superb

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011502/6207228-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="380" height="534"></div>Wendel Clark either has thick skin or he bends the truth.How else do you explain the Toronto Maple Leaf veteran&rsquo;s claim he never dreamed about leaving the city he once held in the palm of his hand, even when it seemed all of Toronto had turned against him?&ldquo;Toronto is a great city; a great hockey town,&rdquo; Clark said. &ldquo;I never wanted to leave.&rdquo;As the captain of a team that has risen from the dead, Clark has proven to be more than just a survivor. He&rsquo;s one of the NHL&rsquo;s best left wingers, a player both feared and respected by the opposition.Although it once looked as though Clark would either be traded or forced to retire early, the victim of a body beaten and battered into submission, the 27-year-old Kelvington, Sask., native once again owns Toronto, even though he shares the deed with Doug Gilmour.In short, he&rsquo;s living up to his No. 1 selection in the 1985 draft. Only Joe Nieuwendyk of the Calgary Flames, who went 27th that year, comes close to challenging Clark as the best player from that draft.Clark broke into the NHL as a rambunctious 18-year-old and enjoyed two terrific seasons. He brought to the league one of the game&rsquo;s deadliest wrist shots and scored 34 goals and 45 points as a freshman. His sophomore numbers were better.He also made his mark as a physical force, earning a reputation as one of the NHL&rsquo;s most-willing and best fighters.But things went into a tailspin for both the team and Clark. The Leafs finished out of the playoffs three of the next five years and lost in the first round the other two. And Clark&rsquo;s 5-foot-11 and 190-pound frame threatened to give out on him.Things got so bad that even a year ago, with the team enjoying its best regular season ever, some fans were demanding Clark be traded.Only Toronto management, Clark&rsquo;s teammates and the Leaf medical staff knew the misery he went through just to play games. A chronic bad back that had caused him to miss the majority of three straight seasons had deteriorated to the point he was willing to try anything for relief. He found it in acupuncture and now takes treatments daily during the season.Clark&rsquo;s regular-season numbers last season-17 goals, 39 points-were average. And some members of the opposition questioned his courage away from the cozy confines of Maple Leaf Gardens.Bob Probert of the Detroit Red Wings said his team referred to Clark as Wendel in Toronto and Wendy on the road.&ldquo;People expect him to go out and hit every night, score every night, fight every night,&rdquo; said Toronto coach Pat Bums. &ldquo;Sometimes they want him to do all of that on the same shift. I told Wendel to pick his spots; and not to skate all over the ice looking for the big hit.&rdquo;Clark&rsquo;s rebirth can be traced back to last season&rsquo;s playoffs; particularly Game 3 in the opening round against Detroit. His goal that night not only provided the margin of victory for Toronto, it was the first of 10 in 21 post-season games. After that Clark scored 25 goals in 35 post- and regular-season games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-021150/6207221-1-eng-US/f0014-022.jpg" title="f0014-02" width="580" height="886"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wendel Clark</figcaption></div>Any doubts about his courage were erased in the semifinals against the Los Angeles Kings when Clark came to the aid of teammate Doug Gilmour, stepped in and humbled big Marty McSorley. The message: You want my teammates, you go through me first.His reward was a three-year contract worth an average $1 million per year. And the thought of trading him is once again folly.This season, playing mostly on the Leafs&rsquo; top line with Gilmour and Dave Andreychuk, Clark has been among the NHL&rsquo;s leading goal scorers. He had 15 goals in 15 games including a seven-game consecutive goalscoring streak when he scored nine times. Although he&rsquo;s still at his customary 2-to-1 ratio for goals and assists, he is making elite-level passes and has emerged as a playmaker.No doubt about it, Wendel is back. &#9632;

f0014-01

Captain Clark makes comeback

<div class="byline">By Dave Molinari</div>No one can agree on just how long it will be before Mario Lemieux plays again. There&rsquo;s not even a consensus on exactly why he isn&rsquo;t playing.But all that really matters is he has returned to the sidelines, and it figures to be weeks or months-not days-before the Penguins get him back.Lemieux formally left active duty Nov. 12, five days after his most recent appearance in a game. He had one goal and seven points in four games after returning to the lineup Oct. 28.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011388/6207290-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="574" height="838"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mario Lemieux will not be back until he is completely healthy.</figcaption></div>The Penguins announced Lemieux will be out &ldquo;indefinitely.&rdquo; Lemieux&rsquo;s teammates said privately they expect him to return sometime around the All-Star Game, while Howard Baldwin, Pittsburgh&rsquo;s chairman of the board, was a bit more optimistic.&ldquo;I think that (time frame) is the outside,&rdquo; he said.As for precisely why Lemieux is out, there were several conflicting explanations-all from the Penguins.General manager Craig Patrick told reporters Lemieux&rsquo;s departure from the lineup was &ldquo;strictly a conditioning thing.&rdquo; A press release put out by the team, however, said Lemieux would be sidelined until he &ldquo;fully recovers from off-season back surgery and completes his rehabilitation and conditioning program.&rdquo;And to hear some of Lemieux&rsquo;s teammates tell it, his frustration over sub-standard performances also played a major part in his decision to take some time off.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not playing at the level he&rsquo;s used to playing at,&rdquo; said Kevin Stevens. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s used to playing at a level where he looks down on everybody. That&rsquo;s him. That&rsquo;s what he likes to do. And right now, I don&rsquo;t think he feels at that level.&rdquo;As has been the case most of the time in recent years, Lemieux was not available for comment. In a statement released through the team, however, he said, &ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;ve made a lot of progress but I&rsquo;m still not nearly 100 per cent and that is where I need to be for myself and in order to help my team.&rdquo;Baldwin said the decision to stop playing was made by Lemieux because, &ldquo;I would never force him on the ice or off the ice.&rdquo;Baldwin added he and Patrick had some input in the decision-making process, although Patrick had disavowed knowledge of Lemieux&rsquo;s impending departure from the lineup hours after the decision had been made.Baldwin insisted Lemieux&rsquo;s rehabilitation for surgery in late July &ldquo;has gone very well,&rdquo; but he was among the many who agreed Lemieux had resumed playing too quickly.Patrick said it was &ldquo;my mistake&rdquo; that Lemieux was allowed to rejoin the Penguins before he was 100 per cent, even though Lemieux clearly has the final say on when he does and does not play.RETURN TO FORM: Losing Mario Lemieux was a major setback for the Penguins, but at least left winger Kevin Stevens seemed to have rediscovered his scoring touch as the season entered its second month.Stevens broke out with four goals in two games during the first weekend in November, and had raised his total to nine after 19 games.That won&rsquo;t be confused with his 55-goal pace of 1992-93, but Stevens appeared to be coming around.NOTEBOOK: Rookie winger Markus Naslund ended what he called an unprecedented slump when he scored his first goal during a 3-3 tie in St. Louis Nov. 9. Naslund, a preseason Calder Trophy candidate, said he thought about his dry spell &ldquo;24 hours a day&rdquo; before finally scoring.<h2>PITTSBURGH</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Ron Francis, Martin Straka, Bryan Trottier, Mike Stapleton.LW&ndash;Kevin Stevens, Markus Naslund. Doug Brown, Jeff Daniels, Ladislav Kar-RW&ndash;Rick Tocchet. Jaromir Jagr, Mike Needham.LD&ndash;Ulf Samuelsson. Jim Paek. Greg Brown.RD&ndash;Larry Murphy, Marty McSorley, Kjell Samuelsson.G&ndash;Tom Barrasso, Ken Wregget.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Grant Jennings, D, strained knee, day-to-day. Mario Lemieux, C. back surgery, indefinite. Mike Needham. RW. back strain, day-to-day. Mike Ramsey, D. broken toe. day-to-day. Peter Taglianetti, D, strained neck, day-to-day. &#9632;

f0015-01

Lemieux’s status remains sketchy

<div class="byline">By Mike Loftus</div>David Shaw thought he had put this sort of thing behind him.As an Edmonton Oiler in 1991-92, Shaw was sat out for six games before being traded to the Minnesota North Stars. It was the first time he had watched from the press box during an NHL career that began fulltime with the Quebec Nordiques in 1985-86.Shaw found himself in the same spot again on Nov. 4 and 6 when Boston Bruins&rsquo; coach Brian Sutter chose not to use him in games against the Calgary Flames and Tampa Bay Lightning.Though he was unhappy, the 29-year-old Shaw didn&rsquo;t complain. In fact, he thought his coach might be right.&ldquo;They told me there was room for improvement and I had to pick my game up,&rdquo; Shaw said. &ldquo;I agree with them. I was too content with the situation. I wasn&rsquo;t pushing it.&rdquo;Shaw, who became a Bruin in a minor trade in September, 1992, has become one of Boston&rsquo;s most pleasant surprises. He scored a career-high 10 goals and added 14 assists while finishing at plus-10 last season.He wasn&rsquo;t playing terribly when Sutter benched him-Shaw was plus-1 on a team scoring close to half of its goals on the power play-but he wasn&rsquo;t what he was last year, either.&ldquo;He has to take the bull by the horns, whether by taking the body or moving the puck,&rdquo; Sutter said. &ldquo;David is the type of player who has to be fundamentally sound. He&rsquo;s special in that when he does the little things, he&rsquo;s a very effective player. When he doesn&rsquo;t, he can stick out like a sore thumb.&rdquo;A rejuvenated Shaw returned for a 4-3 victory Nov. 7 at Buffalo. He played another solid game Nov. 11 in a win over the Edmonton Oiler and scored his first goal of the season two nights later in Boston&rsquo;s 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders.FICKLE FINGER: Rookie Cam Stewart had his first NHL fight Nov. 11 against Edmonton&rsquo;s Ian Herbers and it put him in the hospital. Stewart, however, wasn&rsquo;t sure how he fractured his left ring finger in the bout.&ldquo;That wasn&rsquo;t the hand I was punching with,&rdquo; Stewart said. &ldquo;I must have hit it on his helmet or something.&rdquo;Stewart had to have surgery the next morning, during which two screws were inserted to stabilize the fracture. He is until Nov. 27.NOTEBOOK: Though they&rsquo;d naturally love to have him back, the Bruins did surprisingly well without No. 2 scorer Joe Juneau in the lineup. Boston averaged three goals per game in the 14 games Juneau played, but scored 14 times in the first three he missed (for an average of about 4.7). Juneau is out with a broken jaw&hellip;Mikhail Tatarinov&rsquo;s brief stint with the Bruins appears to be over. After being assigned to the Providence Bruins of the American League, the 27-year-old defenseman missed three days of practice because of an illness, but wouldn&rsquo;t report to the team physician for a checkup. Boston suspended him and is trying to buv out his contract.<h2>BOSTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 13: Daren Banks. LW. and Sergei Zhottok. C, recalled from Providence (AHL). Nov. 14: Banks and Zholtok assigned to Providence.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Adam Oates, Bryan Smolinski, Jozef Stumpel.LW&ndash;Ted Donato, Steve Heinze, DaveRW&ndash;Cam Neely. Steve Leach, Dmitn Kvartalnov, Glen Murray. Brent HughesLD&ndash;Don Sweeney, Glen Wesley, PaulRD&ndash;Ray Bourque, Glen Featherstone,G&ndash;Jon Casey, John Blue.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Joe Juneau, LW, fractured jaw. indefinite. Daniel Marois. LW. left shoulder surgery, indefinite Cam Stewart. LW, left ring finger surgery. Nov. 27. &#9632;

Shaw gets another taste of life in press box

<div class="byline">By Kevin Johnston</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011136/6207345-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Owen Nolan&rsquo;s right shoulder has been a pain for the Nordiques.</figcaption></div>The struggling Quebec Nordiques received more bad news when it was learned Owen Nolan will be sidelined indefinitely with a shoulder problem.The right winger played just six of the first 15 games and hopes were high he would be ready to join the team for a pair of games against the Tampa Bay Lightning Nov. 13 and Florida Panthers Nov. 14.Nolan watched his teammates lose to the Washington Capitals 2-1 Nov. 9 in Landover, Md., and planned to practise the next day before leaving for Florida.&ldquo;This will help me determine if I do or do not need surgery,&rdquo; Nolan said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still sore and can still feel pain. The time has come to really try it out.&rdquo;Nolan practised at a small rink in Piney Orchard, Md., but it was obvious he was favoring his sore right shoulder.&ldquo;It was sore,&rdquo; Nolan said. &ldquo;But the pain dissipated afterwards. I feel I can go on.&rdquo;Nolan couldn&rsquo;t go on. The next morning, he admitted he was in significant pain the day before.&ldquo;I tried to stickhandle past Curtis Leschyshyn and then kind of supported myself on the goal post to try and avoid a collision,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I caught the crossbar and my shoulder just locked. I didn&rsquo;t feel very good.&rdquo;Nolan didn&rsquo;t accompany the team to the Sunshine state. Instead, he headed back to Quebec for more tests. It&rsquo;s likely he will soon undergo surgery to try to find out exactly what is wrong.Nolan maintains the problem is not serious. He believes it is a bout with tendinitis. Management isn&rsquo;t so certain and there is some talk it could be a rotator cuff injury. Nolan disagrees.&ldquo;People have been talking about a rotator cuff injury, but that&rsquo;s not the case,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s something jammed or twisted in there that doesn&rsquo;t show in the tests. So we&rsquo;ll have the shoulder scoped and then I&rsquo;ll know if major surgery is needed or not. I&rsquo;d like to be back in the lineup around Christmas.&rdquo;YOUNG SEARCHING: Right winger Scott Young has dropped off considerably from last season&rsquo;s pace.The 26-year-old surprised the Nordiques by picking up 30 goals and 60 points in 82 games last season.But he had just three goals and six points in 11 games. Injuries are a key reason for his slow start. He missed the first three weeks of the schedule because of badly sprained right ankle he sustained in the latter part of camp.&ldquo;I feel in great shape, but things aren&rsquo;t working out,&rdquo; Young said. &ldquo;I want to help the team like I did last winter, but nothing is working.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Rookie goaltender Jocelyn Thibault had an expensive trip down to Florida. As part of their initiation to the team, the rookies were forced to take the veteran players out to dinner. So Thibault, along with Iain Fraser and Mike McKee were forced to pay $2,400 (U.S.) for the meal as well as an extra $850 for the Dom Perignon champagne.Swedish center Mats Sundin was affected by the injury sustained by 23-year-old defenseman Roger Andersson of his country&rsquo;s Second Division team Rimbo Oct. 23. Andersson was left paralyzed from the neck down after he was checked from behind and fell headfirst into the boards. Sundin plays in an exhibition game with Rimbo every summer and knows Andersson well. Sundin intends to bring his friend to Quebec for a visit and plans to help organize an exhibition game in the summer between NHL and Swedish stars to help pay for medical costs. Andersson regained feeling in his arm, but doctors aren&rsquo;t sure if he&rsquo;ll regain mobility.<h2>QUEBEC</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Joe Sakic. Mats Sundin, Mike Ricci, lain Fraser.LW&ndash;Chns Simon. Valeri Kamensky, Martin Rucinsky, Martin Gelinas. Chns Lindberg, Tony Twist.RW&ndash;Andrei Kovalenko. Scott Young, Paul MacDermid.LD&ndash;Steven Finn. Curtis Leschyshyn, Craig Wolanin, Alexei Gusarov.RD&ndash;Oavid Karpa, Adam Foote, Mike McKee. Kerry Huffman.G&ndash;Jacques Cloutier, Jocelyn Thibault.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Stephane Fiset. G, strained lower back, indefinite. Claude Lapointe, C. sprained left knee, Indefinite, Owen Nolan, RW, right shoulder injury, indefinite. &#9632;

f0017-01

Shoulder surgery possible for aching Nolan

Joshua Armitage is a big proponent of cross-border stopping.The nine-year-old resident of Shawville, Que., lives close to the Ontario border and usually stops over for league and tournament games.Joshua is beginning his final year of novice all-star hockey and this season is an assistant captain for the Pontiacs in the Upper Ottawa Valley League. He had three goals and 11 assists last season.In the summer, Joshua likes to play soccer and rollcrbladc to sharpen his skating skills. He&rsquo;s a big fan of Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings and even cried with Wayne upon his 1988 trade from Edmonton.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02863/6207390-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="492" height="916"></div>IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW IS DESERVING OF THE STARTER MINOR HOCKEY PLAYER OF THE WEEK AWARD SEND A PHOTOGRAPH {NOT RETURNABLE) ALONG WITH BIOGRAPHICAL INFO (AGE, HEIGHT, WEIGHT, TEAM, STATS, COACH&rsquo;S NAME, SCHOOL AND GRADE, FAVOURITE NHL TEAM AND PLAYER) TO: THE HOCKEY NEWS &ldquo;STARTER MINOR HOCKEY SHOWCASE&rdquo;, 85 SCARSDALE RD., SUITE 100, DON MILLS, ONTARIO, CANADA M3B 2R2. THE WEEKLY PLAYERS CHOSEN WILL RECEIVE A SPECIAL PRIZE FROM STARTER AND T.H.N. ALL ENTRIES SUBMITTED WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR SELECTION AS THE STARTER MINOR HOCKEY PLAYER OFAHE YEAR. BOTH A CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PLAYER WILL BE CHOSEN.When you start with a dream, where you end up IsUpToYou!<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03629/6207383-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg" title="f0017-03" width="474" height="916"></div>It didn&rsquo;t take six-year-old Michael Ens-minger long to become a Dallas Stars&rsquo; fan. The instant the team transferred from Minnesota, Michael was riding the bandwagon.The Richardson, Tex., resident is a big fan of Dallas goalie Andy Moog. On the ice, Michael is an exceptional skater and an offensive whiz-kid. He&rsquo;s involved in Richardson&rsquo;s initiation program with the junior Rangers and plays against older boys. He had one goal and one assist in two games.Michael is a kindergarten student at St. Paul the Apostle school. His favorite subject is reading and another pastime of his is swimming at the Canyon Creek Club.<div class="container"><div class="figure-block image-float"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-04463/6207376-1-eng-US/f0017-042.jpg" title="f0017-04" width="118" height="85"></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div><h2>STARTER STATS</h2>NAME JOSHUA ARMITAGEHOMETOWN SHAWVILLE, QUE.AGE 9 HEIGHT 4&rsquo;5&rdquo; WEIGHT 57 LBSTEAM PONTIACS, NOVICE ALL-STARSSCHOOL SHAWVILLE ELEMENTARYGRADE 4FAVORITE PLAYER WAYNE GRETZKYFAVORITE TEAM LOS ANGELES KINGS<h2>STARTER STATS</h2>NAME MICHAEL ENSMINGER HOMETOWN RICHARDSON. TEX.AGE 6 HEIGHT 3&rsquo;9&rdquo; WEIGHT 42 LBSTEAM RANGERS JUNIOR PROGRAMSCHOOL ST. PAUL THE APOSTLEGRADE KINDERGARTENFAVORITE PLAYER ANDY MOOGFAVORITE TEAM DALLAS STARS &#9632;

f0017-02

Starter Minor Hockey Showcase

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>The Montreal Canadiens are having trouble handling the NHL&rsquo;s new kids on the block.The expansion Florida Panthers visited the Forum Nov. 10 and shocked the Canadiens and their fans with a 3-1 victory.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what it is, but every time we play against one of these teams we&rsquo;re too tentative,&rdquo; Brian Bellows said.The Canadiens also struggled in a 1-0 victory over the second-year Tampa Bay Lightning at the Forum Nov. 3.Coach Jacques Demers held two one-hour practices the day after the Florida game, claiming his team&rsquo;s conditioning needed work after playing only four games in 12 days.The second-year Ottawa Senators were visitors to the Forum Nov. 13 and Demers was preaching to his players before the game the Senators couldn&rsquo;t be taken lightly.&ldquo;We have to realize these teams aren&rsquo;t that bad,&rdquo; he said.It seems his players weren&rsquo;t listening. The Senators got a goal from Dave McLlwain at 3:22 of overtime for a 3-2 victory.Demers was not amused.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m upset and I&rsquo;m mad,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t believe in delivering a message through the media&hellip;I&rsquo;11 talk to the players face to face.&rdquo;Two of the players Demers would be meeting with were defensemen Mathieu Schneider and Lyle Odelein, who were both caught behind their own net on McLlwain&rsquo;s game-winner. Odelein was on the ice for all three Ottawa goals, while Schneider was on the ice for two.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no way we should have had two defensemen behind the net on that winning goal,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a no-no. The mistakes we made were midget mistakes.&rdquo;KEVIN&rsquo;S BACK: Defenseman Kevin Haller was slated to return from a four-game suspension when the Canadiens travelled to Ottawa Nov. 15.Haller was suspended and fined $500 for slashing New York Ranger Mark Messier on the wrist during a game Oct. 28.Due to the Canadiens&rsquo; light stretch in the schedule, Haller&rsquo;s four-game suspension ended up lasting more than two weeks.&ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;ve been sitting out forever,&rdquo; he said.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Patrice Brisebois was back on skates-without equipment-Nov. 8, only nine days after sustaining a severely sprained right knee ligament which was expected to keep him out until mid-December. Canadiens&rsquo; medical personnel insist they won&rsquo;t rush Brisebois back to game action&hellip;After getting off to a slow start-three points in 12 games-Gary Leeman found himself spending time on a checking line along with center Guy Carbonneau and rookie left winger Pierre Sevigny.<h2>MONTREAL</h2>TRANSACTS NONE<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Kirk Muller, Stephan Lebeau. Paul DiPietro. Guy Carbonneau.LW&ndash;John LeClair, Vincent Damphousse, Gilbert Dionne. Pierre Sevigny. Mario Roberge.RW&ndash;Brian Bellows. Mike Keane, Benoit Brunet. Gary Leeman, Ron Wilson. Ed Ronan.LD&ndash;Mathieu Schneider, Peter Popovic. J.J. Daigneauit.RD&ndash;Lyle Odelein. Eric Desjardins, Rob Ramage.G&ndash;Patrick Roy, Frederic Chabot.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Patrice Brisebois. D. sprained right knee ligament indefinite. Andre Raclcot. G, strained left knee ligament, indefinite. &#9632;

Expansion franchises annoying

<div class="byline">By Chris Stevenson</div>Last February, Ottawa Senators&rsquo; director of player personnel John Ferguson boldly predicted center Alexei Yashin would be this year&rsquo;s rookie of the year in the NHL.Ferguson&rsquo;s crystal ball is looking pretty clear so far as Yashin, who turned 20 Nov. 5, has made a quick and impressive impact on the Senators and the league.Yashin was named the NHL&rsquo;s player of the week for the period ending Nov. 7, the first Senator to ever win the honor, after racking up nine points in two games. He followed that up with a four-assist effort in the Senators&rsquo; 7-6 overtime win over the Winnipeg Jets two nights later. His 24 points in 15 games led rookie scorers and put him among the top 15 scorers.Despite his early success, everything isn&rsquo;t completely rosy for Yashin, who, like many of his countrymen before him, has found the transition to North America a difficult one.&ldquo;Happy? No, 1 wouldn&rsquo;t say I&rsquo;m happy,&rdquo; he told the English-language Moscow Times. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d be much happier playing in Russia. Circumstances dictated that I had to come here, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean I have to enjoy it.&rdquo;PALLADIUM UPDATE: The new federal Liberal government will follow through on a $6-million grant for the building of the Palladium, the proposed state-of-the-art home for the Senators.The Progressive Conservative government, swept out of office in the Oct. 25 election, had originally approved the funding for the $189million project, but the grant&rsquo;s future was up in the air after the Tories were defeated.Terrace Corp., the Senators&rsquo; parent company, must arrange all other financing before it can receive the federal money. Private financing for the project must still be completed.The other key component is a $28-million loan from the Ontario provincial government for the project&rsquo;s infrastructure and the building of an interchange off the city&rsquo;s major freeway to service the site.The provincial government won&rsquo;t make a decision on the loan until all other financing is in place.NOTEBOOK: The Senators scored a monumental win when they defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 at the Forum Nov. 13. The game was the Senators&rsquo; seventh overtime contest in their first 15 games and the win left Ottawa with a 3-2-2 record in the extra period. The Senators had not won an overtime game entering this season.<h2>OTTAWA</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 8: Graeme Townshend, RW. recalled from P.E.I. (AHL). Nov. 9: Robert Burakovsky, RW, assigned to P.E.I. Nov. 12: Francois Leroux, D. assigned to P.E.I.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Alexandre Daigle. Alexei Yashin, Mark Lamb.LW&ndash;Vladimir Ruzicka, Dave McLIwain, Troy Mallette, Darcy Loewen.RW&ndash;Bob Kudelski, Bill Huard, Jarmo Kekalainen. Graeme Townshend.LD&ndash;Dmitri Filimonov, Norm Maciver, Darren Rumble.RD&ndash;Brad Shaw, Brian Glynn. Gord Dineen.G&ndash;Craig Billington, Darrin Madeley.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Archibald. RW. strained left shoulder, day-to-day Pavol Demitra. RW. broken right ankle, indefinite. Sylvain Turgeon. LW, broken left arm, indefinite. Dennis Vial. D, bruised left foot, day-to-day. &#9632;

Yashin makes huge impact but he’s not exactly happy

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011176/6207476-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"></div>Ted Sator takes the concept that &ldquo;the best defense is a good offense&rdquo; one step further.The assistant coach of the St. Louis Blues believes the best offenses in hockey today employ an immediate counterattack philosophy that coaches at every level can incorporate into the game plan.&ldquo;At the World Championships this year in Germany it was apparent teams are discarding the defenseman to defenseman regrouping systems through lateral puck control in the neutral zone,&rdquo; said Sator, 44, a former head coach of the New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres.&ldquo;The trend now when the puck is turned over is for a quick offensive counterstrike with your players moving towards the opposing team&rsquo;s zone.&rdquo;The progressively thinking Sator recognizes the NHL must provide good entertainment value and hockey teams of the 1990s have to be more concerned about playing &ldquo;good offense&rdquo;.Support from your own defensemen and recognizing the constraints placed on opposing rearguards are crucial elements to this new offensive order, Sator said.&ldquo;Firstly, you must drive into your defensemen about moving up to support the play,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Any time we gain control of the puck we re looking to go on the attack as quickly as possible. Don&rsquo;t stand around and admire the puck because the opposition&rsquo;s defenseman will have a chance to come up into the play and shut down the passing lanes.&ldquo;The immediate counterattack philosophy is designed to trap those opposing defensemen in no-man&rsquo;s land. If you prevent those opposing defensemen from jumping into the neutral zone, it&rsquo;s really going to help your offensive chances.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s also important for forwards to maintain constant motion in the neutral zone.&ldquo;Laterally, the concept is you want your players moving with speed through the middle of the ice,&rdquo; Sator said. &ldquo;When your team moves this way, it&rsquo;s critical that the puck is dished off to a man entering an open space with speed.&rdquo;The offensive counterstrike game plan will increase your offensive chances and therefore, you can expect to see Blues&rsquo; right winger Brett Hull get the puck even more this season.&ldquo;Absolutely,&rdquo; Sator said. &ldquo;We want to give our offensive players the space and time to make a play and the biggest factor is we have to get the puck up to them as quickly as possible so they have more time to make quick decisions on their way into or actually in the offensive zone.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02868/6207469-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="553" height="775"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ted Sator</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0018-01

COACHING TIP OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">By Jim Kelley</div>The Buffalo Sabres are adding a new wrinkle to the old adage, &ldquo;you can never go home again.&rdquo; In their case it&rsquo;s more like, &ldquo;you don&rsquo;t ever want to go home again.&rdquo;The Sabres&rsquo; Memorial Auditorium record stood at 0-6-0 through Nov. 14, making them the only winless team at home in the NHL. The six straight losses at home are a team record.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re just digging ourselves a deep hole,&rdquo; said goaltender Grant Fuhr. &ldquo;Everyone&rsquo;s a little uptight about it right now.&rdquo;Actually, the Sabres had seven straight home losses to their credit. The seventh home defeat came in Sacramento, Calif., in a neutral-site game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.If it wasn&rsquo;t for their decent play on the road-they were 5-3-1 in their first nine games-the Sabres would be in a serious early-season bind. As it was, they stood sixth in the Northeast Division and 11th in the Eastern Conference, one point behind the Ottawa Senators.Coach-general manager John Muckier has tried everything to disrupt the home trend. He has juggled lines, switched goalies, retooled the power play and rearranged the defensive pairings. Nothing seems to work.&ldquo;Right now they feel the pressure,&rdquo; Muckier said. &ldquo;I know we&rsquo;re all professionals and we&rsquo;re not supposed to, but we do and we&rsquo;re just going to have to see our way through this.&rdquo;The previous club record for consecutive losses at home was five. Most of the players are concerned with the losses, but not because of the record.&ldquo;Anytime you get yourself in a hole you have to be concerned,&rdquo; said winger Craig Simpson. &ldquo;We have to start digging ourselves out.&rdquo;PLANTE BLOSSOMING: After sitting out a 4-3 loss to the Boston Bruins Nov. 7, rookie Derek Plante scored three goals in two games against the Philadelphia Flyers. It gave him five goals and seven points in 11 games this season.Plante, playing between wingers Donald Audette and Brad May while Bob Sweeney is hurt, is seeing some time on the power play.The University of Minnesota-Duluth grad said the adjustment from college straight to the pros has been gradual.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting a little more comfortable as we go along,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m playing with a little more poise.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Bob Sweeney&rsquo;s status was listed as day-to-day after the center injured his ribs in a game against the Boston Bruins Nov. 7&hellip;Dominik Hasek got the 7-2 road win against Philadelphia Nov. 13. It was his first start since Oct. 22.<h2>BUFFALO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 5: Scott Thomas, RW. assigned to Rochester (AHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Pat LaFontaine, Dale Hawerchuk, Derek Plante. Dave Hannan.LW&ndash;Brad May, Craig Simpson, Yurt Khymlev, Rob Ray.RW&ndash;Alex Mogilny, Randy Wood, Donald Audette, Sergei PetrenkoLD&ndash;Doug Bodger, Richard Smehlik. Craig Muni, Randy Moller.RD&ndash;Petr Svoboda, Ken Sutton, Gord Donnelly, Philippe Boucher.G&ndash;Grant Fuhr, Dominik Hasek.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Bob Sweeney, C. sore ribs, day-to-day Denis Tsygurov, D, severe Charley horse, indefinite. &#9632;

Team establishes Aud record with ugly home losing streak

<div class="byline">By Viv Bernstein</div>Jim Storm played for the visiting team at the Hartford Civic Center Nov. 9 when the Whalers hosted Team USA.A day later, the Civic Center was the left winger&rsquo;s home.After some late-night negotiations, Storm left the U.S. Olympic team following a 5-1 exhibition victory and joined the Whalers in time for a 4-3 overtime victory against the Ottawa Senators Nov. 10.&ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s a prototypical winger,&rdquo; said coach-acting general manager Paul Holmgren.The Whalers hope Storm, 22, a fourth-round pick in 1991, can replace Patrick Poulin as a physical winger capable of scoring some goals. Poulin, the first-round pick in 1991, was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in a three-team, eightplayer deal Nov. 2.Immediately after that trade, the Whalers sought to sign Storm, who is listed at 6-foot-2,200 pounds.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always dreamed of playing in the NHL,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think it would ever happen.&rdquo;The Whalers weren&rsquo;t sure when it would happen, either. Storm also would like to play in the Olympics and there was some fear Team USA coach Tim Taylor would not take him back if the Whalers chose to reassign him after an evaluation period in the NHL.In the end, following negotiations with Storm&rsquo;s father, Jim Storm Sr., and Whalers&rsquo; director of player personnel Kevin Maxwell, Storm Jr. chose the Whalers instead of a trip to Europe with Team USA Nov. 10. He signed a three-year deal (two years plus an option year) for more than $900,000, including a $225, 000 signing bonus.NO INTENT: Owner Richard Gordon met the Nov. 15 deadline to inform the NHL of intentions to move the franchise. But Gordon said he has every intention of keeping the team in Hartford.A 20-year lease agreement between the state and the Whalers gives the state the first option to buy the team should Gordon decide to sell.&ldquo;My entire focus is on keeping the team in Connecticut,&rdquo; Gordon said. &ldquo;But we wanted to be covered in case, say, somebody from Malaysia came along and offered a ton of money and the state, for whatever reason, suddenly didn&rsquo;t want to keep the team.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Whalers gave up on defenseman Martin Hamrlik, their second-round pick in 1991. They traded him to the St. Louis Blues for future considerations Nov. 13. Hamrlik, the older brother of Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Roman Hamrlik, was afflicted with Lyme Disease in 1991 and never recovered the skills that made him a highly touted prospect. Hamrlik was planning to play for Raleigh of the East Coast League when the trade was made.<h2>HARTFORD</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 9: Kevin Smyth. LW. Scott Morrow, LW, Mike Lenarduzzi, G, recalled from Springfield (AHL). Nov. 10: Jim Storm. LW. signed multi-year contract. Smyth, Morrow assigned to Springfield. Nov. 11: Lenarduzzi assigned to Springfield. Nov. 13: Martin Hamriik, D, traded to SL Louis for future considerations.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Andrew Cassels, Darren Turcotte. Michael Nylander, Mark Janssens, Robert Petrovicky.LW&ndash;Geotf Sanderson, Brian Propp. Jim McKenzie, Jim Storm.RW&ndash;Pat Verbeek, Robert Kron. Mark Greig. Randy Cunneyworth.LD&ndash;Adam Burt, Bryan Marchment, Chris Pronger, Al Pedersen.RD&ndash;Zartey Zalapski, James Patrick, Brad McCrimmon, Bob McGill.G&ndash;Frank Pietrangelo. Mario Gosselin.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Sean Burke, G, left hamstring pull, Nov. 29. Jim Sandlak. RW, broken right foot, Nov. 29. &#9632;

Storm blows in to town

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01974/6207562-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="380" height="532"></div>Canadians are angry and I, for one. can&rsquo;t blame them. Their beloved game isn&rsquo;t the same and never will be.In plain English, it has been Americanized beyond recognition. The franchise score is 18-8 for Uncle Sam. The rout is on.On the administrative front, where the movers and shakers live, the tilt is even more precipitous. Americans are running Canada&rsquo;s national sport from top to bottom.The Big Three among power brokers-board chairman Bruce McNall, commissioner Gary Bettman, NHL Players&rsquo; Association boss Bob Good-enow-are all U.S.-born.Nowhere is the absence of Canadians more evident than at 650 Fifth Ave., in New York, where Bettman has filled every available league command post with non-Canadians.Brian Burke, the new senior vicepresident, was born in Providence, R.I. and grew up in Minnesota. Bettman offered the job to George McPhee, a Canadian, but McPhee turned it down.All the vice-presidents, from Steve Solomon to Glenn Adamo to Arthur Pincus to Bernadette Mansur, are New Yorkers.This is a far cry from an earlier era when Toronto&rsquo;s Conn Smythe and Montreal&rsquo;s Frank Selke, Sr., ran the league. The president, Clarence Campbell and his aide, Brian O&rsquo;Neill, both were Canadians.The Americanization of the NHL has not gone unnoticed in Canada where two major complaints are heard: 1. The league is orchestrated by U.S. attorneys; 2. They are insensitive to the needs of Canadian markets and would just as soon unload Winnipeg, Edmonton and Quebec in favor of larger American cities.&ldquo;I can sympathize with Canadians whose noses are out of joint,&rdquo; said Toronto Star columnist Bob McKenzie. &ldquo;How would Americans feel if the baseball commissioner was Japanese?&rdquo;But McKenzie allows that quality of performance as well as the new administration&rsquo;s sensitivity toward small Canadian markets remain key bases for judgment. Burke said not to worry.&ldquo;We feel the Canadian component is critical,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;The bulk of players and media interests are north of the 49th parallel. It&rsquo;s important that we promote professional hockey in Canada.&rdquo;Burke, like others in the league&rsquo;s U.S. base, is sensitive to criticism from Canadian media. And make no mistake, the criticism is there. Sometimes it is well twisted.When Montreal newsmen, covering a game in New Jersey, failed to receive personal invitations to an AllStar press conference at Madison Square Garden, the Montreal Gazette&rsquo;s Red Fisher unleashed a nasty salvo at the league for the oversight.When The Sporting News mistakenly inscribed a crystal carving for Teemu Selanne &ldquo;of the Calgary Flames&rdquo; and USA Today erroneously wrote that Keith Tkachuk is the son of ex-Ranger Walt Tkaczuk, Winnipeg Free Press writer Tim Campbell wrote an open letter to Bettman. Campbell pointedly carped, &ldquo;Remember your commitment to making the NHL a real, big-league sport, especially in the U.S.A. You&rsquo;re losing.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02648/6207555-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="571" height="791"><figcaption class="caption-body">Keith Tkachuk</figcaption></div>Few are more sensitive to the media-generated anti-American feeling than Burke, who laments Canadian journalists overlook the fact he is a dual citizen.&ldquo;It seems to me that a naturalized Canadian, who also happens to be an American, counts for less (to those writers) than a native-born Canadian,&rdquo; Burke said. &ldquo;I find that offensive.&ldquo;And I resent this American (attorneys) notion. I would be just as offended if someone said, &lsquo;Oh, this guy shouldn&rsquo;t be hired because he&rsquo;s black or this guy shouldn&rsquo;t be hired because he&rsquo;s Jewish or Chinese.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s 1993. Wake up and smell the coffee. The best people should get the jobs.&rdquo;Canadians are wondering whether these &ldquo;best people,&rdquo; American attorneys or not, are capable of doing the best for hockey. It says here that they are, but then again, I&rsquo;m an American. &#9632;

f0020-01

American takeover concerns Canadians

<div class="byline">By Stan Fischler</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0020-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03437/6207593-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">(SCOTT LEVY/BBS)</figcaption></div>Incredible as it seems, New York Ranger defenseman Brian Leetch&rsquo;s name is being mentioned more and more in trade talks. Despite his offensive prowess, Leetch is not coach Mike Keenan&rsquo;s type of player and the two have reportedly been at odds all season. Keenan would love to get Chris Chelios. who is embroiled in a salary dispute, from the Chicago Blackhawks. Keenan has said his favorite player to coach over the years is Chelios, the 1993 Norris Trophy winner&hellip;Although the league doesn&rsquo;t keep stats on this, veteran linesman Kevin Collins is acknowledged as the fastest at breaking up fights and he has the bruises to prove the point&hellip;Among the dumbest NHL moves of the season was scheduling a New Jersey Devils-New York Rangers neutral-site game in Halifax which would have sold out either Byrne Arena or Madison Square Garden. It drew 8,200.<h2>Howe can it be?</h2>The Gordie Howe family is at war with Newsweek after the magazine&rsquo;s Jack Kroll authored a piece called &ldquo;The All-Immortal Team,&rdquo; and excluded Howe. In a fiery letter to Newsweek president Richard Smith. Howe&rsquo;s wife Colleen said she couldn&rsquo;t believe that her husband was omitted. &ldquo;With all due respect to Mr. (Wayne) Gretzky.&rdquo; wrote Colleen, &ldquo;the highest-paid player of today, and the marvelous contribution he and many others have made to the sport of hockey and the sporting world, it is shocking that your magazine should completely ignore the unprecedented career and achievements of the man who is an unparalleled icon of ice hockey.&rdquo; P.S. She is right&hellip;If Bob Clarke of the Florida Panthers isn&rsquo;t GM of the year, then who else can be?<h2>No talks talk</h2>The lid on collective bargaining agreement talks with the players extends down to NHL Players&rsquo; Association president Mike Gartner, who fends off all questions about the pace of negotiations with a &ldquo;no comment.&rdquo; Obviously, the Bob Goodenow-Gary Bettman deal to keep their discussions sealed has worked so far and will continue to be effective&hellip;Chris Gratton of the Tampa Bay Lightning may not win the Calder Trophy, but he&rsquo;s winning plenty of points in the Nice Guy Department&hellip;What ever happened to the diving penalties that were so much in vogue at this time last year?&hellip;New York Islander Brian Mullen is skating again after an offseason stroke, but because of the anti-coagulant medicine he takes (Cuhmaden), he&rsquo;s not allowed to work out with anyone else on the ice until he is off the medication.<h2>FRESH FACES</h2>Mikael RenbergBorn: Pitea, Swe.Age: 21Team: Philadelphia FlyersHeight: 6-foot-1Weight: 205 poundsPosition: Left wingHow acquired: Philadelphia&rsquo;s second-round choice (40th overall) in 1990.<h2>Vitali statistics</h2>One of the most baffling cases of stilted development is Vitali Prok-horov, the Russian winger who can&rsquo;t cut it with the St. Louis Blues. There&rsquo;s a feeling among some scouts that the 26-year-old still has an NHL future with the right team&hellip;Once the NHL&rsquo;s main bastion, the league&rsquo;s Montreal office has gradually been whittled down to a point where it may soon have a skeleton staff, if any staff at all. Most duties could be moved to the expanded league head-quarters in Manhattan&hellip;Isn&rsquo;t it time Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; general managercoach Pierre Page turned the coaching reins over to Michel Bergeron? Bergeron, a Montreal radio personality, is destined to return to the Nordiques eventually.<h2>Optimistic Duck</h2>Mighty Ducks of Anaheim president Michael Eisner&rsquo;s idol is Dr. Pangloss, the eternally optimistic literary creation of Voltaire and star of his Candide. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m pretty Panglos-sian,&rdquo; Eisner said. &ldquo;We can be losing 8-0 and there&rsquo;s 30 seconds left and I still think we&rsquo;re going to win.&rdquo;&hellip;Author Stephen King has a competitor on the Mighty Ducks. The NHL version of Steven King is writing a diary of the club&rsquo;s first campaign and excerpts regularly appear in the Orange County Register.<h2>Murphy&rsquo;s law</h2>Larry Murphy of the Pittsburgh Penguins is thinking Norris Trophy. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting more exposure now,&rdquo; Murphy told Bluelines. &ldquo;People are mentioning my name more and the media is talking to me. I didn&rsquo;t win it last year and obviously it would be nice to win it this year. But I&rsquo;m not going to get hung up on that.&rdquo;&hellip;Reports out of Detroit have Keith Primeau and Shawn Burr on the move as soon as Red Wings&rsquo; GM Bryan Murray can find a solid defenseman in return. &#9632;

f0020-03

Could Leetch be on way out of Big Apple?

<div class="byline">By Rick Sadowski</div>Scoring goals at a dizzying pace in the 1990 Stanley Cup playoffs probably hampered more than helped John Druce&rsquo;s career.The 6-foot-2, 195-pound right winger scored 14 goals in 15 playoff games for the Washington Capitals that year, but failed to match those numbers since, &ldquo;I had never scored like that before and suddenly expectations were high,&rdquo; said Druce, signed as an unrestricted free agent this past summer.The 27-year-old had only 16 goals in 93 previous NHL games before he set or tied 10 Washington post-season records.The playoff accomplishments, Druce said, enabled him to &ldquo;get my foot in the (NHL) door and I&rsquo;m thankful for that.&rdquo; But he has yet to kick down that door.He scored 22 goals for the Capitals in 1990-91 and 19 more in 1991-92, but was traded to the Winnipeg Jets before the start of last season. He played just 50 games because of hand and wrist injuries, and produced just six goals.Until recently, he spent most of his time waiting for his right wrist to get better. Not only did he break his hand last year, he also tore a wrist ligament that required surgery in May.The Kings assigned Druce to the Phoenix Roadrunners of the International League, but he didn&rsquo;t play in his first game until Oct. 27. He had five goals and 11 points in 11 games and was recalled Nov. 13. He picked up an assist the next night in the Kings&rsquo; 6-3 win over the St. Louis Blues playing on a line with Jimmy Carson and Luc Robitaille.Druce would have begun the season with the Kings if his wrist had been healthy.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a hard-nosed player who can score,&rdquo; said coach Barry Melrose. &ldquo;Everyone thought he would score 40-50 goals after he went on that playoff tear, but realistically he&rsquo;s more like a Dave Taylor-type.&rdquo;FREE AT LAST: Mike Donnelly broke free of Barry Melrose&rsquo;s doghouse in style.The 30-year-old left winger had a hat trick in the St. Louis game. He was in Melrose&rsquo;s doghouse early this season, getting benched for three consecutive games after the Kings&rsquo; 5-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks in the Oct. 6 season opener.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s on top of the (dog) house now and ready to get his own room in the real house,&rdquo; Melrose said.Donnelly, a 29-goal scorer in each of the previous two seasons, had six goals and nine points in 15 games.NOTEBOOK: The Kings kept insisting they could handle physical opponents without Marty McSorley, but they signed 6-foot-2, 215-pound enforcer Phil Crowe from Fort Wayne (IHL). The 23-year-old left winger was assigned to Phoenix for two games and recalled Nov. 12. He had eight goals and 490 penalty minutes in 97 career minor-league games. The plan is to try and hone his skills in practices and play him against physical teams.<h2>LOS ANGELES</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 12: Phil Crowe, LW, and John Druce, RW. recalled from Phoenix (IHL). Rob Murphy, C. and Dave Thomtinson. LW, assigned to Phoenix.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Wayne Gretzky. Shawn McEachern, Jimmy Carson, Pat Conacher.LW&ndash;Warren Rychel, Mike Donnelly, Luc Robitaille, Phil Crowe.RW&ndash;Jan Kurri, Tony Granato, John Druce, Tomas Sandstrom, Gary Shuchuk.LD&ndash;Alex Zhltnik, Darryl Sydor, Brent Thompson.RD&ndash;Rob Blake, Charlie Huddy, Doug Houda, Tim Watters, Mark Hardy.G&ndash;Kelly Hrudey, David Goverde.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Taylor. RW. bruised ribs, day-to-day. Robb Stauber, G, strained left shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

Druce on loose again following injury rehab

<div class="byline">By Dan Barnes</div>Call it Educating Jason.Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; center Jason Arnott learned a valuable lesson from an uncomfortable spot on the end of the bench in Detroit Nov. 9: Go hard or go home.It was Arnott&rsquo;s first NHL benching and it served its purpose. He returned two nights later and scored two third-period goals to rally the Oilers to a 44 tie with the Hartford Whalers.&ldquo;I think we&rsquo;ve expected too much out of Arnie,&rdquo; said coach Ted Green. &ldquo;But you try to get young players to become mentally tough. You can&rsquo;t give in to that little voice in your head saying &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t want to work tonight because I&rsquo;m tired.&rsquo;&ldquo;They learned that when they saw MacT go out there and do what he did.&rdquo;Craig MacTavish taught the young pup something about personal discipline by scoring the tying goal and shutting down the Wings&rsquo; offense in a 4-2 win that broke the Oilers&rsquo; 11-game losing streak.The message was definitely received by Arnott.&ldquo;It had a little bit to do with who we were playing,&rdquo; Arnott said. &ldquo;I was in awe, a little timid. I know why I was benched.&rdquo;BEER BASH: Dave Manson is a thoughtful guy.The injured Oilers&rsquo; defenseman had a six-pack of cool ones delivered to the hotel rooms of every team member after the Oilers&rsquo; broke off their losing streak against Detroit.The beverages arrived with a note: &ldquo;Congratulations on ending the terrible streak. Way to go. Charlie.&rdquo;It arrived nine years to the day that Mark Messier and Kevin Lowe sent champagne to every team member for setting an NHL record by going undefeated in their first 15 games of the 1984-85 season.NOTEBOOK: Edmonton Northlands, the agricultural society that controls the lease on Northlands Coliseum, obtained a court injunction from Queen&rsquo;s Bench in Calgary to prevent the Oilers from playing home games anywhere but the Coliseum for the life of that lease. The pact is scheduled to run out during the 1998-99 season. Oilers&rsquo; owner Peter Pocklington, who is negotiating a lease deal with the Target Centre in Minneapolis, was preparing to mount a court challenge to Northlands&rsquo; injunction. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the injunction would not be a roadblock to any plans the league has for the Oilers&rsquo; franchise.<h2>EDMONTON</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 9: Brad Werenka, D, assigned to Cape Breton (AHL). Nov. 11: Alexander Kerch. LW. and Louie DeBrusk. LW. assigned to Cape Breton. Scott Thornton. C, recalled from Cape Breton Nov. 12: Chris Joseph. D, traded to Tampa Bay for Bob Beers. D.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Jason Arnott, Doug Weight. Scott Thomton, Craig MacTavish.LW&ndash;Shayne Corson, Zdeno Ciger, Scott Pearson, Dean McAmmond.RW&ndash;Vladimir Vujtek. Steven Rice, Kelly Buchberger. Kirk Maltby, Shjon Podein.LD&ndash;lgor Kravchuk. Luke Richardson. Ian Herbers. Geoff Smith.RD&ndash;Adam Bennett, Bob Beers. Marc Laforge.G&ndash;Bill Ranford. Fred Brathwaite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Ilya Byakin, D, twisted left knee, day-to-day. Dave Manson, D. separated right shoulder, indefinite. &#9632;

Veteran bloodhound MacTavish teaches young pup Arnott tricks

<div class="byline">By Mike Weaver</div>The message being sent by San Jose Sharks&rsquo; coach Kevin Constantine wasn&rsquo;t lost on winger Johan Garpenlov.When Garpenlov was scratched Nov. 11 against the Dallas Stars, the message was he needed to either start producing offensively or start playing a more physical game.And Garpenlov responded with four points in the next two games.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve told him if he puts numbers on the scoreboard we&rsquo;ll like his game no matter what he does,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;But when he&rsquo;s not scoring, he has to give us another reason to like his game.&rdquo;Garpenlov, who had 22 goals last season, scored in a 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils Nov. 13. The goal was Garpenlov&rsquo;s first since he scored in the Oct. 6 season opener.He added a goal and two assists in a 3-3 tie against the New York Rangers the next night.Garpenlov got hot when he was put on a line with Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov. Those three players combined for nine points in the games against the Devils and Rangers.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s nice to finally start scoring again,&rdquo; Garpenlov said. &ldquo;I was getting some chances before, but I wasn&rsquo;t putting them in.&rdquo;RATHJE BACK: Rookie defenseman Mike Rathje rejoined the Sharks Nov. 10 after completing a two-week conditioning assignment with the Kansas City Blades of the International League.Rathje, the third overall pick in the 1992 entry draft, was scratched when the Sharks visited Dallas Nov. 11, but had a regular role when fellow rookie Michal Sykora sustained a strained right knee.And Rathje made a positive impression.&ldquo;He did a good job,&rdquo; Constantine said. &ldquo;He made intelligent moves and he played basically mistake-free.&rdquo;The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Rathje also delivered big hits, including a punishing one on Rangers&rsquo; winger Tony Amonte Nov. 14.&ldquo;If he keeps hitting, he&rsquo;ll get the respect and space that other big guys in this league get,&rdquo; Constantine said.Rathje, who started the season with the Sharks before being sent to Kansas City, said he is more comfortable about playing in the NHL now.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been working on being more relaxed and focused,&rdquo; Rathje said. &ldquo;I was over-preparing before and I was playing tense.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: The Sharks raised some eyebrows by earning three points in the consecutive road starts against New Jersey and the Rangers Nov. 13 and 14. After opening a seven-game road trip with a 4-0 loss to Dallas, the Sharks beat the Devils 4-2 and tied the Rangers 3-3. The games marked the first time the Sharks had earned points in either building. &ldquo;We wanted to prove we could play back-to-back good games on the road.&rdquo; Kevin Constantine said.Center Jeff McLean was assigned to Kansas City Nov. 10 after scoring one goal in five games. Jamie Baker&rsquo;s return from a groin pull prompted the move.<h2>SAN JOSE</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 10: Mike Rathje, D, recalled from Kansas City (IHL). Jeff McLean, C. assigned to Kansas City.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;lgor Larionov. Todd Elik, Dale Craigwell, Jamie Baker.LW&ndash;Johan Garpenlov, Dave Maley, Bob Errey, Gaetan Duchesne.RW&ndash;Sergei Makarov. Pat Falloon, Rob Gaudreau, Jeff Odgers.LD&ndash;Doug Zmofek, Jeff Norton. Rob Zettler. Shawn Cronin,RD&ndash;Mike Rathje, Sandis Ozolinsh, Tom Pederson.G&ndash;Arturs Irbe, Jimmy Waite.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Mike Lalor. D. torn right knee ligament. indefinite. Jay More, D, broken right wrist, indefinite. Michal Sykora. D, strained right knee, indefinite. Ray Whit-Whitney, LW, strained right knee, indefinite. &#9632;

Garpenlov responds to hint

<div class="byline">By Elliott Pap</div>After a year of gross ineptitude, the Vancouver Canucks&rsquo; special teams are finally coming around.The Canucks entered mid-November with both their power-play and penalty-killing units rated in the top five, a far cry from 1992-93 when the penalty killing finished 17th and the power play was a hopeless 21st.The personnel, for the most part, is the same with late-season addition Murray Craven the lone new player seeing regular special-teams duty. The only other wrinkle is Ron Smith replacing Ron Wilson as the powerplay guru.&ldquo;To put it simply, the goals have been going in every which way,&rdquo; Smith said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know that they&rsquo;ve been classic by any means. But probably half of them have been enough like the plan we want to use that it&rsquo;s instilling some faith among the players.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going to ask too many questions about it. We&rsquo;re just going with it.&rdquo;A surprising aspect of the power play&rsquo;s success has been the Canucks&rsquo; ability to convert, despite missing injured sniper Pavel Bure for eight games. Ironically, the Canucks scored at least one power-play goal in every game he missed, but went 0-for-4 when he returned to action Nov. 14 in a 3-2 victory over the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.Bure did score a shorthanded goal that that turned around the game.The Canuck penalty killers were a perfect 6-for-6 against the Mighty Ducks and continued a run that saw them kill 29-of-32 shorthanded situations.&ldquo;Our forwards have been doing a better job up ice,&rdquo; said coach Pat Quinn. &ldquo;In the past, a lot of our up-ice play was undisciplined and then our defense ended up yielding territory and our goaltenders ended up sitting back in their nets.&ldquo;Our faceoffs have been key, too. We&rsquo;re a much better faceoff team than we were a year ago, not just on the draws, but on getting to the loose pucks.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01771/6207696-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="568" height="1006"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Canucks&rsquo; power play clicked without star Pavel Bure.</figcaption></div>DREAM COME TRUE: As a youngster growing up in Osoyoos, B.C., Neil Eisenhut had a recurring fantasy: He wanted to play for his home province Vancouver Canucks.But after four years of U.S. college hockey at North Dakota and two years in the minors, things began to look at bleak. At 26, he was running out of time.&ldquo;Twenty-six isn&rsquo;t old in everyday life, but in hockey life it is,&rdquo; Eisenhut said after being recalled from the Hamilton Canucks of the American League Nov. 6. &ldquo;There were times I thought maybe I&rsquo;d never play for Vancouver. But I never wanted to play for anybody else.&rdquo;Eisenhut, the team&rsquo;s 12th-round pick in the 1987 entry draft, paid immediate dividends when he assisted on Gino Odjick&rsquo;s winner in his first game Nov. 7 against the Philadelphia Flyers. He picked up another assist in his fourth game and looked good killing penalties while subbing for regular killers Tim Hunter and John McIntyre, both of whom were sidelined by injuries.NOTEBOOK: Left winger Geoff Courtnall missed the Canucks&rsquo; 3-2 win over Anaheim Nov. 14 and was awaiting word on supplementary discipline after slashing Joel Otto of the Calgary Flames Nov. 13. No penalty was called on the play&hellip;The Canucks were 3-5-0 in the eight games right winger Pavel Bure missed with a groin injury. With him in the lineup, they were 8-1-0.Gino Odjick scored his third game-winning goal of the season against Anaheim Nov. 14. He led the Canucks in that department after 17 games&hellip;The Canucks had only one sellout in their first eight home games. That came against the Los Angeles Kings.<h2>VANCOUVER</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Cliff Ronning, Greg Adams, Murray Craven, Stephane Morin, Neil Eisenhut.LW&ndash;Geoff Courtnall, Sergio Momes-so, Dixon Ward. Shawn Antoski.RW&ndash;Pavel Bure. Trevor Linden, Jose Charbonneau. Gino Odjick.LD&ndash;Dana Murzyn, Dave Babych, Robert Dirk, Adrien Plavsic.RD&ndash;Gerald Diduck. Jyrki Lumme, Jiri Slegr.G&ndash;Kirk McLean. Kay Whitmore.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Tim Hunter. RW, sprained right knee, indefinite. John McIntyre, C. fractured left foot, indefinite. &#9632;

f0023-01

Revitalized special teams now among league’s best

<div class="byline">By Eric Ouhatschek</div>The Calgary Flames cleared out all the players on their periphery last summer in the hopes that one or two of the replacement skaters would make an impact.Curiously, the one player added as an afterthought-28-year-old Russian German Titov-has made the greatest difference.The Flames chose Titov in the 10th round of the 1993 entry draft after he&rsquo;d spent a season playing in Finland. Coach Dave King was acquainted with Titov&rsquo;s abilities from his days with Canada&rsquo;s national team. Titov starred for all the touring Soviet B teams that regularly played exhibitions against Team Canada.The Flames signed Titov to a multi-year contract just prior to training camp and it was a wise move.Titov began the year on the checking line with Joel Otto and Paul Ran-heim but has moved up to the top unit with Robert Reichel and Theo Fleury. For whatever reason, Titov was the missing ingredient on a unit that was having trouble scoring.With Titov as his left winger, Reichel scored four goals in two games. He&rsquo;d had only three in the previous 17.Titov, who had six goals and 13 points in 19 games, has made the adjustment look easy, although that&rsquo;s not how he sees it.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a tough adjustment,&rdquo; said Titov, using assistant coach Slava Lener as an interpreter. &ldquo;The toughest part is I&rsquo;m going to play 84 games, at least. Almost every other day, there&rsquo;s a game. It&rsquo;s different than in Russia. I need time to adjust to that.&rdquo;The most obvious quality that sets Titov apart from other players is his hockey sense. He rarely makes a mistake and is almost always in the right place at the right time.As Lener says, many Europeans have great hockey sense when it comes to offense. Titov has it at both ends of the rink.TOUGH LOSS: Considering the way the season has gone, it probably wasn&rsquo;t a huge surprise the Flames would eventually lose their leading scorer, Joe Nieuwendyk, to injury.Nieuwendyk sustained a charley horse in a 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks Nov. 13 after colliding with Canucks&rsquo; defenseman Jiri Slegr.Slegr&rsquo;s knee hit Nieuwendyk&rsquo;s thigh, forcing the Flames&rsquo; center to leave the game. He is listed as indefinite. Through 19 games, the Flames lost 87 man-games to injury.NOTEBOOK: After scoring one goal in first 13 games, Gary Roberts snapped out of his slump by scoring four goals in the next six. &ldquo;Was it a slump?&rdquo; asked Roberts. &ldquo;Thirteen games. Only one goal. Yeah, I&rsquo;d call that a slump.&rdquo; Roberts was pressing around the net and said renewed confidence in his play has made the difference&hellip;Trent Yawney, out since the day before training camp opened recovering from shoulder surgery, resumed practising with the team.<h2>CALGARY</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 8: Kevin Wortman, D, recalled from Saint John (AHL). Nov. 9: Brad Schlegel, D, assigned to Saint John.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Robert Reichel. Joel Otto, Kelly Kisio, Ted Drury.LW&ndash;German Titov, Gary Roberts, Sandy McCarthy Paul Kruse.RW&ndash;Theo Fleury. Paul Ranheim. Ron Stern. Wes Walz.LD&ndash;Frank Musil. Chris Dahlquist. Lee Norwood. Brad Miller.RD&ndash;Al Maclnnis, Michel Petit, Kevin Wortman.G&ndash;Mike Vernon, Trevor Kidd, Jeff Reese.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Kevin Dahl, D, separated right shoulder, day-to-day Joe Nieuwendyk. C, charley horse, indefinite. Greg Paslawski. RW, strained left knee ligaments, indefinite, Gary Suter, D, tom left knee ligaments, indefinite. Trent Yawney, D, tom muscle in right shoulder, day-to-day. &#9632;

Titov’s terrific start completely unexpected

<div class="byline">By Robyn Norwood</div>There comes a time in the life of an expansion team when there&rsquo;s a realization: One-goal losses aren&rsquo;t necessarily anything to be proud of. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim had six in their first 18 games.Is that something to take solace in, the proverbial &ldquo;competitiveness&rdquo; at which first-year teams aim?Not when the Florida Panthers are winning. Not when some of the games are ones the Ducks should have won. Not when the team is wasting good overall performances by making errors at crucial moments.&ldquo;We relaxed when we shouldn&rsquo;t have and it cost us,&rdquo; said coach Ron Wilson after his team gave up shorthanded goals in one-goal losses against the Calgary Flames Nov. 11 and Vancouver Canucks Nov. 14. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s frustrating as all hell to watch people make boneheaded mistakes when it&rsquo;s crunch time&hellip;We can&rsquo;t relax. We&rsquo;re not good enough to relax for two seconds.&rdquo;Wilson was exasperated because the Ducks play well enough to keep the shots close, but don&rsquo;t score enough. They&rsquo;re often unable to take advantage of opportunities they have created.&ldquo;I wish our group would believe in themselves more,&rdquo; Wilson said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got individuals who&rsquo;ve got to get up there and take a swing, not get up there and bunt. We have to start taking the manly way.&rdquo;Worst of all. though, are the defensive breakdowns that lead to easy goals, spoiling generally good defensive performances.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no excuse,&rdquo; said defenseman Sean Hill. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re all professional athletes. It&rsquo;s just a joke, that&rsquo;s what it is. We&rsquo;ll learn. We have to.&rdquo;SEMENOV ADJUSTS: Center Anatoli Semenov is playing for his fourth NHL team in four full seasons after leaving Dynamo Moscow.&ldquo;I play in Russia for 11 years, same team,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now, four years in NHL, three teams. That&rsquo;s hard for me.&rdquo;Three teams? &ldquo;I forget about Tampa Bay, I stay just 13 games.&rdquo;The playmaking center has settled in with a new line, combining with wingers Garry Valk and Peter Douris to score 14 points during a sevengame stretch. Semenov leads the Ducks in scoring with five goals and 17 points in 18 games.One reason the line is working: Valk and Semenov both played for the Vancouver Canucks last season.&ldquo;We know what to do together. He has played great,&rdquo; Semenov said.NOTEBOOK: Enforcer Stu Grimson recorded his first point as a Duck with an assist against the Calgary Flames Nov. 11. It was his first assist since the first game of last season with the Chicago Blackhawks. He also had one goal last season&hellip;The Mighty Ducks and Los Angeles Kings scheduled a celebrity exhibition game Dec. 9 at Anaheim Arena to benefit victims of the Southern California fires. A number of entertainment and sports stars are being invited to join the teams in an effort to raise about $300,000 for American Red Cross fire relief efforts.<h2>ANAHEIM</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 19: Mikhail Shtalenkov, G. recalled from San Diego (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Anatoll Semenov, Bob Corkum, Patrik Carnback, Shaun Van Allen.LW&ndash;Garry Valk, Troy Loney. Tim Sweeney. Stu Grimson.RW&ndash;Terry Yake, Peter Douris, Joe Sacco, Jim Thomson, Steven King, Robin Bawa.LD&ndash;Bill Houlder, Randy Ladouceur.RD&ndash;Sean Hill, Alexei Kasatonov, Bobby Dolias.G&ndash;Guy Hebert, Ron Tugnutt. Mikhail Shtalenkov.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Todd Ewen, RW, sore left knee, day-to-day. Mark Ferner, D, sore ribs, groin strain, day-to-day. Myles O&rsquo;Connor, D, groin pull, day-to-day. &#9632;

One-goal setbacks just don’t buy satisfaction

<div class="byline">By Ken Campbell</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01813/6207782-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="379" height="536"></div>Don&rsquo;t be alarmed that you missed the Peter Stastny farewell tour last season.There&rsquo;s a perfectly good reason. There wasn&rsquo;t one.In case you haven&rsquo;t checked your summaries lately, Stastny is not playing in the NHL this season and probably never will again. The man who entered the league under cloak and dagger from a communist country went quietly into the night.Stastny didn&rsquo;t plan it this way. The greatest player in the history of the Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; franchise had hoped to return to where it all began in 1980. They seemed a natural match. The Nordiques were in desperate need of veteran leadership and a power-play specialist and Stastny was looking for a place to extend his Hall-of-Fame career one more season.Had the free-agent center signed with the Nordiques this season, he would have played his 1,000th career game and been given one last shot on a Stanley Cup contender. He would have had the chance to add to his 444 career goals and 777 assists.But Nordiques&rsquo; general manager Pierre Page isn&rsquo;t one for sentiment, especially for a 38-year-old center with diminished skills who had difficulty accepting a limited role with the New Jersey Devils last season. After preliminary talks with Stastny, Page came to the conclusion signing Stastny would be his &ldquo;very, very last option.&rdquo;It doesn&rsquo;t get much more final than that.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a big one for living in the past,&rdquo; Page said. &ldquo;We felt it would have created tension between the players, and the fans would have wanted to see the old Peter Stastny. He&rsquo;s just not the same player.&rdquo;But the disappointment of reaching the end of the NHL line has been tempered for Stastny. One of the biggest thrills of his hockey career still awaits him. On Feb. 13, Stastny will line up against Sweden at the Olympic Cavern Hall in Norway as captain of the Slovakian Olympic team.It will be a proud moment, one that Stastny and his fellow Slovaks have been dreaming of for many years.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had many highlights in my NHL career,&rdquo; Stastny said, &ldquo;but this one is right up at the top. To represent my home country in the Olympics is the thrill of a lifetime. It&rsquo;s a great opportunity for us to tell the whole world that we are Slovaks. Nobody will call us Czechs anymore.&rdquo;Stastny represented Czechoslovakia in the 1980 Olympics and Canada in the 1984 Canada Cup, but has never been able to carry the colors of his true homeland. That became possible when the iron curtain fell and the Czech and Slovak republics split on Jan. 1.The bloodless separation a tenuous association between the two cultures that had been in place since 1918, but was suspended in World War II. The two nationalities shared a country, but the Slovaks have always felt oppressed by the Czechs. Stastny was called a Czech many times during his NHL career and he bristled at every reference.&ldquo;Even though most people didn&rsquo;t understand, I always took it as an insult,&rdquo; Stastny said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like somebody calling a Canadian a Mexican.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-02538/6207775-1-eng-US/f0026-022.jpg" title="f0026-02" width="571" height="755"><figcaption class="caption-body">Peter Stastny</figcaption></div>Stastny joined the Slovak team this summer for an Olympic qualifying tournament in Sheffield, England and rejoined the team in early November to prepare for Lillehammer.The Slovaks will be in Group B with Canada, United States, Sweden, Italy and France. The Slovaks are not expected to be medal contenders; in fact they won&rsquo;t even be as good a team as the one that easily won the Olympic qualifying tournament. That team had Peter Bondra, Jozef Stumpel, Robert Petrovicky and Zigmund Palffy, all of whom will likely be with their pro teams come February. This team will have Stastny and his brother Anton, along with other Slovaks playing in European leagues.&ldquo;I think taking us lightly would be a big mistake,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We are confident that we can play with anyone. Our players are good technically, and we have a high level of talent-good vision and good hands.&ldquo;Plus, we like being the underdogs. Slovaks have always been the underdogs.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0026-01

Stastny’s big-league career Peters out

<div class="byline">By Mike Brophy</div>Team Canada will have enough difficulty defending its gold medal at the World Junior Championships this year and it hasn&rsquo;t made things any easier for itself.A very strong entry from Sweden has emerged as the pre-tournament favorite and if Canada hopes to beat Sweden et al., for its fourth title in five years, it will have to do it without last-minute help from the NHL or Canadian Olympic team.The program&rsquo;s policy committee decided last year that only players who attend the team&rsquo;s training camp-which will be held from Dec. 13 to 18 in Kitchener Ont.-are eligible to play.&ldquo;The team is made up of 98 percent Canadian Hockey League players,&rdquo; said CHL president Ed Chynoweth, a member of the five-man committee. &ldquo;We make a very large commitment to those players. Why should our kids be used as fodder and then dropped from the team at the last minute?&rdquo;The result is junioraged players in pro organizations or the Canadian Olympic team likely won&rsquo;t be participating at the WJC in the Czech Republic Dec. 26-Jan. 4.Alexandre Daigle, Chris Pronger, Rob Niedermayer, Chris Gratton, Jason Arnott and Jocelyn Thibault are all are key components of their NHL teams and wouldn&rsquo;t be loaned to the junior team anyway.But players such as Paul Kariya, Martin Gendron, Todd Warriner and Brett Lindros of the Olympic team won&rsquo;t be included unless they play in the junior camp. Mike Rathje of the San Jose Sharks, who is on a conditioning stint with the Kansas City Blades of the International League, could be returned to junior in time to take part.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-03429/6207813-1-eng-US/f0026-032.jpg" title="f0026-03" width="959" height="1698"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Canadian team will miss players such as Chris Gratton.</figcaption></div>So in other words, if Kariya makes himself available on Dec. 20, no exception will be made to allow him to participate? &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the way it stands,&rdquo; Chynoweth said.The junior nats, who will be coached by Joe Canale of the Quebec League&rsquo;s Beauport Harfangs, will announce their training camp roster Dec. 1.&ldquo;Even with those players, there&rsquo;s no guarantee we&rsquo;d win a gold medal,&rdquo; said Sheldon Ferguson, Team Canada&rsquo;s director of player personnel.Ferguson is convinced, however, Canada will enter a solid team.Among the returning players from the 1993 gold-medal team are goalie Philippe DeRou-ville and defenseman Joel Bouchard of College Francais as well as defenseman Brent Tully of the Peterborough Petes.Players eligible for the 1994 NHL entry draft expected to challenge for spots include center Jeff O&rsquo;Neill of the Guelph Storm, left winger Jeff Friesen of the Regina Pats, goalie Jamie Storr of the Owen Sound Platers and defenseman Ed Jovanovski of the Windsor Spitfires.Daymond Langkow, a center with the Tri-City Americans who is eligible for the 1995 NHL draft, also has a shot at making the team.The other countries in the tournament are United States, Czech Republic, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Germany and Switzerland.Sweden, with six first-round picks in the 1993 entry draft, is expected to field the strongest entry in the tournament. &#9632;

f0026-03

No last-minute club

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Mike Brophy</div>How well the United States does at the World junior Championships will depend largely on the performance of its returning players.&ldquo;We have some good young prospects, but you don&rsquo;t win this tournament with 17 and 18-year-olds,&rdquo; said Art Bergland, international program director for USA Hockey. &ldquo;Other countries send their top 19-year-olds.&rdquo;Returning from last year&rsquo;s fourthplace team are a host of NHL prospects, including goalie Jim Carey of Wisconsin; centers Ryan Sittler of Michigan, John Emmons of Yale and Adam Deadmarsh of the Portland Winter Hawks; and, defenseman David Wilkie of the Kamloops Blazers.Newcomers who could have an impact include left winger John Varga of the Tacoma Rockets, center Jamie Langenbrunner of the Peterborough Petes and left winger Jay Pandolfo of Boston University.The Americans, who won their only medal (a bronze) in 1992 and finished fourth last year in Sweden, will announce their full roster Dec. 1.&ldquo;We expect to have a competitive team and we&rsquo;re hoping we can finish in the medals,&rdquo; Bergland said.The team is coached by Dean Blais, coach at International Falls (Minn.) High School. Blais was an assistant with the 1992 U.S. Olympic team. &#9632;

Americans banking on experience

<div class="byline">By Rob Vanstone</div>Medicine Hat Tigers&rsquo; sniper Stacy Roest is suddenly a center of attention.He led the Western League team with 106 points last season, but toiled in relative obscurity.Defensemen David Cooper and Mike Rathje, plus center Rob Niedermayer, received most of the publicity. Now it is Roest&rsquo;s turn to devour newsprint.&ldquo;I sort of enjoyed it last year,&rdquo; said Roest, a 19-year-old center who had 17 goals and 33 points in 17 games. &ldquo;They got the attention, so the pressure was on them. That was fine by me. I basically went out and tried to prove myself.&rdquo;Niedermayer, Rathje and Cooper-all of whom were first-round NHL draft picks-have graduated to the pro ranks.&ldquo;Since they&rsquo;ve gone, I&rsquo;m the guy the team looks to every night,&rdquo; Roest said. &ldquo;This season, I&rsquo;ve gotten most of the attention.&rdquo;For a change.&ldquo;I thought it was kind of weird last season,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The leading scorer on every other team was getting attention, but I wasn&rsquo;t.&rdquo;Despite Roest and all the first-rounders, the Tigers posted a disappointing 29-38-5 record last season. The new and improved Tigers enjoyed a 9-7-1 start, thanks largely to a better attitude-and the play of Roest.&ldquo;If we&rsquo;d had this year&rsquo;s work ethic last season, nobody would have touched us,&rdquo; said Roest, who attended the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; training camp on a tryout basis. &ldquo;We had a lot of talent, but we never gelled as a team.&ldquo;One night, five guys would be great. The next night, it would be five different guys. I&rsquo;ve never seen anything like it. We had so many good players, but never got the results.&rdquo;HODGE RESTLESS: Portland Winter Hawks&rsquo; governor and general manager Ken Hodge also happens to be the winningest coach in WHL history.Hodge, who compiled a 739-592-74 record over 20 seasons with the franchise, handed the coaching reins to Brent Peterson this season.Peterson had been Portland&rsquo;s assistant coach for the previous two seasons, but became the head man when Hodge, 47, opted to concentrate on administrative duties.How does the full-time administrator enjoy life away from the bench?&ldquo;Not very much,&rdquo; Hodge said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been busy with a lot of things. I&rsquo;m fortunate to have a close relationship with my coach. He keeps me involved to a degree, but I don&rsquo;t have the same juices flowing with the game tied or when we&rsquo;re down by one goal. I enjoyed that excitement.&ldquo;The only good thing is that perhaps the officiating gets better the further away I get from ice level. I don&rsquo;t know whether that&rsquo;s a credit to (WHL referee-in-chief) Richard Doerksen, or a comment on me.&rdquo;Hodge doesn&rsquo;t plan to return to coaching.&ldquo;The chances are very remote,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s so much to do in a large center like this. The only way I&rsquo;d go back is in the event of illness or if Brent got a call from one of the big teams.&rdquo;POINTS FOR PITTIS: Lethbridge Hurricanes&rsquo; center Domenic Pittis recorded at least one point in 38 straight regular-season games-until Nov. 7.Pittis was blanked in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Swift Current Broncos. He began the season with an 18-game streak. The 19-year-old Pittis also had at least one point in his last 20 regularseason games of 1992-93.Pittis&rsquo; production was not record-threatening. Jeff Nelson of the Prince Albert Raiders had points in a record 56 straight games during the 1990-91 season.HOME SWEET HOME: Portland set a club record by winning its first nine regular-season home games. The Winter Hawks set the old mark of seven to open the 1985-86 season.By winning nine in a row, Portland stretched its home-ice winning streak to 14 games, dating back to last season.The WHL&rsquo;s record winning streak, including overlapping seasons, is 26 games. The Flin Flon Bombers established that standard in 1967-68. &#9632;

Hot Roest cookin’ for Tigers

<div class="byline">By Jim Cressman</div>Jason Bonsignore is excited about a &ldquo;fresh start&rdquo; with the Niagara Falls Thunder following his trade from the Newmarket Royals.Bosignore, a projected first-round pick in the 1994 NHL entry draft, was the main character in a 10-player swap between the Royals and the Thunder Nov. 11.The Royals also gave up winger Derek Grant, goalie Darryl Foster and defensemen Gerry Skrypec and Corey Bricknell to Niagara Falls for center Dale Greenwood, wingers Dustin McArthur and Dennis Maxwell and defensemen Paul Mclnnes and Ryan Tocher. The Thunder also gave up a third-round 1994 OHL draft pick.Bonsignore, a native of Rochester, N.Y., struggled early with the last-place Royals, but picked up his level of play and had seven goals and 24 points in 17 games on a team with a 210-5 record. He said times were tough and there was a lot of pressure on him, but he never asked coach-GM Don Boyd for a trade, as was rumored.&ldquo;Any time you&rsquo;re a high-profile player on a struggling team, it&rsquo;s tough. It was a difficult situation for me,&rdquo; said Bonsignore, 17.&ldquo;Jason was never a problem, but we had to change our club,&rdquo; Boyd said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve changed our chemistry and our dressing room.&rdquo;Tocher, who had six goals and 12 points in 12 games, was the key player going to Newmarket. He was a fifth-round choice of the Quebec Nordiques in 1993.THANKS, TOM: Most goalies say goalposts are their best friends, but Jordan Willis and Tim Bacik of the London Knights say goalie coach Tom Hedican is theirs.Second-year Willis has the second-best goals-against average in the Ontario League this season. And Bacik is playing with more confidence than ever in his third year. Both say it&rsquo;s a combination of on-ice skills Hedican teaches and the mind mechanics he stresses.&ldquo;Anybody can teach a skate save,&rdquo; said Willis, a 10th-round choice of the Dallas Stars in 1993.&ldquo;It has to do with confidence,&rdquo; Bacik said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never had a coach do the mental things with me. They say 90 per cent of the game is mental, but how many people teach it?&rdquo;Hedican, 35, just didn&rsquo;t drop out of the sky. The former accomplished netminder is a copy editor with The London Free Press by day.He played Jr. A in North Bay, Ont., and had 12 U.S. colleges courting him until he tore a knee at age 18. He played four years at the University of Guelph, winning two Ontario University Athletic Association titles. After a year in the Atlantic League, he moved to London and was an assistant with the University of Western Ontario Mustangs for five years before going with the Knights in 1990.&ldquo;He has made average goalies good goalies and made good goalies excellent goalies,&rdquo; said Knights&rsquo; coach Gary Agnew.&ldquo;The important thing with goalies is their image of themselves,&rdquo; Hedican said. &ldquo;If they see themselves as a backup, they set limits and boundaries for themselves.&rdquo;TORONTO WAITS: Now that a prospective Toronto franchise has worked out an arrangement to play some games at Maple Leaf Gardens next season, OHL governors will meet Nov. 22 to decide whether to approve the expansion application.The group (Robert Blakely, Barry Alter and Brad Robins) has 12 dates scured at the Gardens and 21 remaining home games at Varsity Arena on the campus of the University of Toronto.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how the governors will react to that,&rdquo; said OHL commissioner Dave Branch. &ldquo;The bigger issue is the split and will it work. I&rsquo;m not opposed to it. Seattle (of the Western League) splits its games between two arenas and they&rsquo;ve been very effective with it.&rdquo;The long-range picture is also a concern. With a National Basketball Association franchise coming to Toronto in 1995 and playing in a new arena, the fate of Maple Leaf Gardens is unclear. &#9632;

Bonsignore’s Royal reign comes to end with trade

<div class="byline">By Stuart Cowan</div>When Blair Mackasey made the jump from the Quebec midget ranks to become coach and general manager of the Granby Bisons, he knew he had a monumental task ahead of him.After all, the 37-year-old was taking over a team which hadn&rsquo;t made the playoffs in four years. The Bisons are coming off a dismal 2346-1 season in which they gave up an average of almost six goals per game. Granby&rsquo;s 414 goals against were 57 more than any other team.&ldquo;It isn&rsquo;t going to be easy,&rdquo; Mackasey said on the eve of the season opener. &ldquo;This team is so used to losing. If they fall behind 2-0 after the first period they&rsquo;re all sitting in the dressing room with their heads down.&rdquo;But nobody&rsquo;s heads were down after the Bisons got off to a 13-11-0 start. The Bisons didn&rsquo;t get their 13th victory last season until the 49th game of the season.A big reason for Granby&rsquo;s start is a much-improved 4.13 goals-against average.&ldquo;Our aim was to change the attitude of a team that hadn&rsquo;t made the playoffs in four years,&rdquo; Mackasey said. &ldquo;We wanted to instill a positive attitude. In order to do that it was important to get off to as good a start as possible.&rdquo;Mackasey is surprised by how well his team has started and has noticed a change.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re very positive now,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They don&rsquo;t like to lose. We&rsquo;ve still lost some games due to inexperience that a team used to winning probably would have won. We&rsquo;ve lost 11 games, but with the exception of a 9-5 loss to Chicoutimi, we&rsquo;ve been in every game.&rdquo;Mackasey proved he was a strong developer of talent while with the Lac St-Louis Lions midget team and also proved he could win with an Air Canada Cup title in 1992. He said the jump to junior hasn&rsquo;t been too difficult.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re using a system similar to the one I used in midget,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;As far as coaching goes, it has been a smooth transition. The GM role has been more demanding because it&rsquo;s new to me. It has taken me a while to adapt, especially not knowing the league. But a lot of people are supporting me.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s hard to believe Mackasey finds time for two hockey hats. He is also president of Tren-more Printing, a family-owned business based in Montreal. On a game day, he is in his printing office from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m., before leaving for the rink. He doesn&rsquo;t return home until after midnight.STREAK ENDS: The Hull Olympiques put an end to Laval&rsquo;s 14-game unbeaten streak (130-1) with a 5-2 win over the Titan Nov. 7.It was Laval&rsquo;s first loss since Oct. 1 and the first defeat for coach Michel Therrien since taking over from Jacques Laporte Oct. 6. The Titan outscored opposing teams 79-33 during the streak.The win was much-needed for the Olympiques, who were off to a mediocre 11-11-0 start after losing right winger Martin Gendron to the Canadian Olympic team and goalie Marcel Cousineau to the American League&rsquo;s St. John&rsquo;s Maple Leafs.The Olympiques were the pre-season pick to win the league title with Gendron and Cousineau leading the way.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s too early to say (the win) gave us a big boost, but mentally that win helped the players,&rdquo; said Olympiques&rsquo; coach Alain Sanscartier. &ldquo;Everyone knows how hard it is to beat Laval at home, plus they hadn&rsquo;t lost in a month.&rdquo;Sanscartier believes his team misses Cousineau more than Gendron.&ldquo;Goaltending is 50 per cent of the game,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;With (Manny) Fernandez and (Philippe) De Rouville you know Laval and College Francais aren&rsquo;t going to lose five games in a row.&rdquo;KEEPS ROLLING: Like the Energizer bunny, Laval&rsquo;s Yanick Dube just keeps on going and going.Twenty-six games into the season, the 5-foot-9, 170-pounder opened a 24-point lead atop the league scoring race with 37 goals and 72 points. College Francais&rsquo; Jocelyn Langlois was second with 48 points in 24 games. At Dube&rsquo;s pace, he&rsquo;ll win the scoring race by 66 points. &#9632;

Workhorse Mackasey puts Bisons on right track

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>The International League decided to set the record straight in early November after the Cincinnati Cyclones generated national news out of a bogus claim.Pokey Reddick pushed his seasonal record to 8-0-0 for Cincinnati through Nov. 8, but became involved in an embarrassing situation. The Cyclones&rsquo; front office tried to manipulate his statistics into hockey&rsquo;s record books.The Cyclones claimed Reddick&rsquo;s 31-0-1 record in his previous 32 starts tied him with former Boston Bruins&rsquo; goalie Gerry Cheevers for professional hockey&rsquo;s longest unbeaten streak (24-0-8), set in 1971-72.Cincinnati media and the Associated Press bit on that incorrect claim. Reddick was even quoted nationally on a record he didn&rsquo;t really have.The discrepancy is this: The numeral &ldquo;1&rdquo; in Reddick&rsquo;s third column is a shootout loss-that column has represented post-regulation time losses ever since the IHL eliminated tie games in 1986. The Cyclones tried to count it as a tie.Additionally, the team was making an apples-to-oranges comparison when it offered Reddick&rsquo;s effort against Cheevers&rsquo;. That&rsquo;s because Reddick&rsquo;s 31-0-1 string includes regular-season games from 1992-93, 12 playoff contests and more regular-season wins this year.Streak records in the NHL are only for a single, regular-season.That contention was supported by Milwaukee Admirals&rsquo; fact-finder Don Tanner, who was the IHL&rsquo;s consultant and key researcher for its own current record book.&ldquo;The numbers (on Reddick) did not come from this league office,&rdquo; said IHL commissioner Tom Berry. &ldquo;If Pokey Reddick is 31-0-1 and he has that (one) in his third column, then I guess in my book he has a loss.&rdquo;A Cyclones&rsquo; front office spokesman said the team didn&rsquo;t consider Reddick&rsquo;s shootout loss to be a defeat because the team he played for when he got it last season-the Fort Wayne Komets-got a point in the standings.In other words, the Cyclones were saying Reddick didn&rsquo;t lose even though he was the goaltender of record in a game his team lost.The league included this retraction in its weekly news release Nov. 8:&ldquo;Reddick&hellip;has a 31-0-1 (W-L-shootout loss) record dating back to March 7, 1993&hellip;Reddick&rsquo;s record is not the same as former Bruin Gerry Cheevers&rsquo;. Cheevers was unbeaten in 32 games with a 24-0-8 (W-L-T) record in 197172. The IHL does not recognize unbeaten streaks because there are no ties in IHL play.&rdquo;RADEK-CAL PROSPECT: Las Vegas Thunder center Radek Bonk led IHL rookies in scoring with seven goals and 13 points in 13 games.The 17-year-old phenom drew a heavy NHL presence for games the weekend of Nov. 5-7. Among the NHL general managers on hand to see him play were Bob Clarke (Florida Panthers), Jack Ferreira (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim), Bob Gainey (Dallas Stars), Bryan Murray (Detroit Red Wings) and Neil Smith (New York Rangers).I-OPENERS: There was plenty of action at center ice of Wings Arena Nov. 5 in a game between Kalamazoo and the Atlanta Knights. IHL off-ice officials&rsquo; captain John Andresen wed Donna Eisenberg during the first-period intermission. The Zamboni was decorated as a wedding cake and the bride and groom rode on top of it. They were saluted with a crossed-stick arch by the players&hellip;Cincinnati was 9-1-0 through Nov. 8. As an expansion team last season after moving from the East Coast League, the Cyclones didn&rsquo;t get their ninth win until Jan. 13.Phoenix Roadrunners&rsquo; center Mike Vukonich was player of the week for the period ending Nov. 7. He had two goals and six points in six games. &#9632;

Shootout defeat scuttled Reddick’s run for record

<div class="byline">By Dave Eminian</div>Adirondack Red Wings&rsquo; goalie Kevin Hodson had quite a scare when his heart started racing, but tests at a Glens Falls, N.Y., hospital revealed no problems.Hodson was at home Nov. 6 watching television when he experienced a rapid heart beat. He then noticed his fingers and toes were turning blue and was soon on his way to the hospital.&ldquo;My heart started beating fast and I started sweating; I was pretty scared,&rdquo; the 21-year-old rookie said.When he arrived at the hospital, his heart rate was 250 beats per minute. He was given oxygen, which helped his heart rate return to normal. Tests also were run during his four-hour stay.&ldquo;The doctors didn&rsquo;t tell me much, except that something was wrong,&rdquo; Hodson said. Tests two days later showed no abnormalities.&ldquo;It seems to be an isolated incident,&rdquo; said Adirondack trainer Piet Van Zant. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a slight chance this might occur again.&rdquo;Hodson was 3-1-0 with a 2.75 goals-against average and. 929 save percentage.IN LIMBO: The new owners of the Hamilton Canucks are negotiating with Copps Coliseum and the NHL parent Vancouver Canucks to keep the club afloat.The owners are trying to overcome huge debts inherited when they purchased the team from Double Hitch Enterprises Ltd. They closed the club offices Nov. 1, but made sure expenses were paid for a six-game road trip Nov. 3-14.The team wants a new lease and is also trying to work out affiliation fees with Vancouver.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to work out a deal that has the team operating in business conditions that give it a fighting chance of breaking even,&rdquo; said Dan Diamond, one of six owners.Diamond said there has been a trickling of community support, &ldquo;but it isn&rsquo;t exactly a ground swell. That&rsquo;s part of the problem. The team isn&rsquo;t that established in the community.&rdquo;Copps management said it has assurances from Vancouver the team will finish the season in Hamilton.NO RESPECT: Maybe it was the alignment of the stars, but Nov. 7 was a bad day in the AHL.Just four games were played, but referees assessed match penalties in three of them. In the other game, three stick majors were called on one team in the second period.Springfield Indians&rsquo; right winger Trevor Stienburg received a match for attempting to kick Providence Bruins&rsquo; left winger Mark Bavis. Stienburg was suspended one game.Cape Breton Oilers&rsquo; center Scott Thornton received his match and a one-game suspension for punching Prince Edward Island Senators&rsquo; left winger Martin St-Amour in the face with a gloved fist and with his stick still in hand.Adirondack defenseman Dmitri Motkov was given a one-game suspension for head-butting Binghamton Rangers&rsquo; center Ken Hodge.Meanwhile, the Albany River Rats accomplished an AHL first by taking three straight major penalties for stick fouls in 12:50 of the second period against the Rochester Americans.Defenseman Dean Malkoc slashed Matt Barnaby at the 34-second mark, Matt Ruchty high-sticked Jason Dawe in the face at 7:20 and Bill Armstrong slashed Barnaby in the arm at 12:50.The penalties accounted for 13 power-play minutes and Rochester scored three times with the man advantage and won 3-2.AHL TIDBITS: Rookie goalie Martin Brochu stopped 20 shots as the Fredericton Canadiens defeated Hamilton 5-0 to end a franchise-record nine-game winless streak (0-7-2)&hellip;Providence left winger Mark Bavis, picked up in late October after being released by the Binghamton Rangers, scored his first pro goal while playing against twin brother Mike, a right winger for Rochester Nov. 5. &#9632;

Tests come out negative on Hodson’s racing heart

The Hint Generals are the Colonial League&rsquo;s only expansion team, but they aren&rsquo;t playing like a first-year club.The Generals charged out to a 8-1-2 record and had a seven-game winning streak. They also led the CHL in attendance with 3,396 fans per game. Flint&rsquo;s No. 1 line of Brett Strot, Kevin Kerr and Brian Sakic held three of the four top spots in the scoring race.GOALIE SCORES: Flint rookie Carl Picconatto is the first CHL goalie to be credited with a goal. He was the last Flint player to touch the puck Oct 29 before a Detroit Falcons&rsquo; player put it into his own net on a delayed penalty&hellip;Utica&rsquo;s Darren Miciak. the CHL&rsquo;s alltime leader in penalty minutes, was suspended seven games after swinging his stick at the head of Flint&rsquo;s Keith Whitmore then crosschecking Whitmore as he lay on the ice.Forwards Jason Firth and Mei Angelstad of the Thunder Bay Thunder Hawks were recalled to the Prince Edward Island Senators of the American League&hellip;Brant ford Smoke forward Greg Walters and defenseman Jim Sprott were recalled to the St. John&rsquo;s Maple Leafs of the AHL. -Brendan Savage &#9632;

Generals at head of class

<div class="byline">By Matt Carlson</div>The Bowling Green Falcons are soaring once again after having their wings clipped the past few seasons.The Falcons gained top spot in the Central Collegiate Athletic Association for the first time since Nov. 30, 1989 with a pair of victories Nov. 5-6 against the Ferris State Bulldogs and Lake Superior State Lakers. The wins improved their conference record to 6-0-1.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve played well in a lot of different areas,&rdquo; said coach Jerry York. &ldquo;After three soso years, we&rsquo;re back where we want to be.&rdquo;The Falcons have been one of the CCHA&rsquo;s perennial powers since the circuit was founded in 1971-72. They have finished first seven times, captured five league titles and claimed a National Collegiate Athletic Association crown in 1984.The team&rsquo;s winning percentage in league play (.607) is second only to the Michigan State Spartans (.709) among current CCHA clubs. But York&rsquo;s team faltered the past three seasons, finishing seventh, ninth and sixth. The Falcons&rsquo; overall winning percentage during that span was only. 400. The keys to the resurgence:&#9633; Solid goaltending from freshman goaltender Rob Petrie, who led CCHA netminders with a 1.97 overall goals-against average.&#9633; A capable defense corps led by seniors Jeff Wells, Todd Reirden and junior Brandon Carper.&#9633; Balanced scoring paced by senior Sean Pronger and junior Brian Holzinger.&ldquo;We have an excellent mix of players,&rdquo; York said. &ldquo;Also, it&rsquo;s important when your captains (Pronger, Holzinger and Wells), not only are your best players, but also your hardest workers.&rdquo;HOT STUFF: The Illinois-Chicago Flames got off to a frigid start, but freshman Mike Per-on sizzled.The feisty 5-foot-8, 190-pound center led the Flames in scoring after six games overall with five goals and nine points. And despite his height, the 20-year-old showed he is willing to plow into anyone on the ice.&ldquo;I think it helps me open up a lot of space,&rdquo; Peron said of his bulldozing style. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure how people react because I&rsquo;m only 5-foot-8. Maybe it&rsquo;s to my advantage because they&rsquo;re not ready for me.&rdquo;Peron is solidly built and a strong skater. As a result, he is able to carry the puck into traffic, absorb a hit and keep going.He developed that style with the Barrie Colts of the Central Ontario Jr. League where he had 105 points in 41 games last season, leading the Colts to a championship.COIN AND ABEL: The Sault Tribe of the Chippewa Indians will provide $1.5 million in funding toward the expansion and refurbishment of Lake Superior&rsquo;s Norris Center. While the complex&rsquo;s name won&rsquo;t change, the rink portion of the building will be renamed the Clarence (Taffy) Abel Arena. Abel, a native American, was the first Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., product to play in the NHL (1926-34). &#9632;

Falcons recapture top form

<div class="byline">By Tom Boggie</div>The drought is finally over for Union College goaltender Mike Gallant.It took more than two years, but Gallant finally won a game in the Eastern College Athletic Conference.Gallant, a junior, broke a personal 0-for-19 streak Nov. 6, stopping 20 shots in a 7-3 win over Division I independent Army.The game was a reversal of Gallant&rsquo;s performance against the Cadets last year, when he gave up four first-period goals and was yanked from the game.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve lost so many close games, I just wanted to get over the hump,&rdquo; he said.Gallant and classmate Luigi Villa were brought in three years ago to be the backbone of Union&rsquo;s move from Division III to Division I. Both came in with sound credentials.The 5-foot-9, 160-pound Gallant had been a standout for Glendale High School in Stoney Creek, Ont., and for the Glendale Jr. B team, while Villa had an outstanding career for the Wexford (Ont.) Raiders Jr. A team.They split the duties in 1991-92, but Villa was in net for Union&rsquo;s three victories. That trend continued last season. The Dutchmen won just three games (3-19-0) and Villa was in goal for all of the wins. Gallant finished with an 0-80 record, but both goalies had identical save percentages (.869) and nearly identical goals-against averages (Villa 4.77, Gallant 4.80).Because of his disastrous winless string, Gallant&rsquo;s confidence waned in the second half of the season.&ldquo;Last year, we felt there were a couple of times when he wasn&rsquo;t in the whole game (mentally),&rdquo; said Union coach Bruce Delventhal. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure he&rsquo;d admit there were times last year when he could have been better prepared mentally. But he grew up a lot.&rdquo;The fact Delventhal recruited some proven scorers this season will take some of the pressure off his goaltenders as Union attempts to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in three years.&ldquo;It makes you relax a little more, knowing you have a team that&rsquo;s going to do something for you up front.&rdquo; Gallant said.ONE-GOAL WONDER: Dartmouth is up to its old tricks.The Big Green won nine one-goal games last season as Dartmouth qualified for the ECAC playoffs for the first time since 1980.Dartmouth opened its 1993-94 season in the same fashion Nov. 6, beating the previously-undefeated Merrimack Warriors 5-4.HEAD-TO-HEAD: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute coach Buddy Powers, a graduate of Boston University, beat his former coach Nov. 6 when the Engineers defeated Jack Parker&rsquo;s Terriers 4-2.The game between the two nationally-ranked Eastern teams drew a record, standing-room-only crowd of 3,806 to Walter Brown Arena in Boston. &#9632;

Mike Gallant in victory after 19 straight losses

<div class="byline">By Larry Mahoney</div>The 1992-93 Hockey East season is in its infancy, but the New Hampshire Wildcats are already fearing next year.The Wildcats&rsquo; new arena and recreation center, with a price tag in the $17-20 million range, will begin construction shortly.The complex is expected to be ready for the 1995-96 season, meaning the Wildcats will be forced to play all of their games on the road.The team&rsquo;s current facility, Snively Arena, will be transformed into the recreation center.The Wildcats will play at least two of their games in Manchester, N.H., approximately one hour from their Durham campus.They will practise either in nearby Dover or at a public rink in Durham, which is currently an outdoor facility, but may be transformed into an indoor arena.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll just have to suck it up and, who knows, maybe we&rsquo;ll have a great year,&rdquo; said coach Dick Umile. &ldquo;I feel sorry for our fans and for next year&rsquo;s seniors. But it is going to be worthwhile. The arena will be 200-by-100, it&rsquo;ll hold 6,000 people and there will be sky boxes. It&rsquo;s going to great for us, for Hockey East and for college hockey.&rdquo;Boston College went through the same situation several years ago while the Conte Forum was being constructed.The Eagles, however, were able to use other nearby college rinks for games, such as Boston University&rsquo;s Walter Brown Arena and Harvard&rsquo;s Bright Center.FRESH FACES: The Merrimack Warriors have 10 freshmen in the lineup, but still got off to a great start.The Warriors began the year 4-1-0 overall, including a 4-2 win over the nationally ranked Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers of the Eastern College Athletic Conference.Goalie Martin Legault was a key contributor to the team&rsquo;s fast start. The freshman had a 3-1-0 record, 2.73 goals-against average and a. 911 save percentage.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s a little guy (5-foot-9, 170 pounds) but is very courageous and a real competitor,&rdquo; said coach Ron Anderson. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s something you can&rsquo;t teach. He has things to learn, but don&rsquo;t we all?&rdquo;MAINE DISTRACTION: The Providence Friars won&rsquo;t be travelling to Orono, Me., anymore this season and that&rsquo;s fine with them.The Friars lost 4-2 to the Maine Black Bears Nov. 6, leaving them with an 0-9-1 record in their past 10 trips to Orono.The Bears killed off all 14 Friar power plays in Maine&rsquo;s three-game sweep this season.HAGGERTY SHINES: Boston College Eagles&rsquo; junior forward Ryan Haggerty earned player-of-the-week honors for the period ending Nov. 8.The Rye, N.Y., native had two goals and four points in leading the Eagles to a come-from-behind 6-5 win over the ECAC&rsquo;s Vermont Catamounts Nov. 5. &#9632;

Future ominous for ‘Cats

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01795/6208153-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01729/6208146-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="3051" height="3503"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-01777/6208139-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="3089" height="3535"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01696/6208132-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="3068" height="1293"></div> &#9632;

f0030-01

NHL STATISTICAL REPORT

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0033-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02476/6208184-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0033-02

NHL GOALTENDING STATISTICS

<h2>NOTE</h2>Unofficial game summaries provided by National Hockey League; (shots on goal/plus-minus); SA-shots against; GA-goals against; ENG-empty net goals; DEC-decision, charged to goaltenders of record when deciding goal is scored.<h2>MONDAY, NOV. 8</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01787/6208341-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="596" height="1366"></div><h2>TUESDAY, NOV. 9</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-02563/6208334-1-eng-US/f0034-022.jpg" title="f0034-02" width="602" height="1606"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-03438/6208327-1-eng-US/f0034-032.jpg" title="f0034-03" width="606" height="3497"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-04333/6208320-1-eng-US/f0034-042.jpg" title="f0034-04" width="612" height="3493"></div><h2>WEDNESDAY, NOV. 10</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-05264/6208313-1-eng-US/f0034-052.jpg" title="f0034-05" width="598" height="3399"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-06231/6208306-1-eng-US/f0034-062.jpg" title="f0034-06" width="604" height="3501"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01748/6208299-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="593" height="609"></div><h2>THURSDAY, NOV. 11</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02555/6208292-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="591" height="2781"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03449/6208285-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="584" height="3479"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04359/6208278-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="586" height="3479"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05300/6208271-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="593" height="103"></div><h2>SATURDAY, NOV. 13</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06272/6208264-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg" title="f0035-06" width="582" height="3284"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07250/6208257-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="598" height="3481"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01707/6208250-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="591" height="3493"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02499/6208243-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="590" height="3496"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03403/6208236-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="598" height="1597"></div><h2>SUNDAY, NOV. 14</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04308/6208229-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="594" height="1786"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05254/6208222-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="609" height="3504"></div><h2>NHL SCHEDULE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06222/6208215-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="568" height="3532"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

NHL SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01628/6208379-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01708/6208372-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="3106" height="3549"></div> &#9632;

f0037-01

SCOREBOARD

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02463/6208417-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01672/6208410-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="3085" height="3019"></div> &#9632;

f0039-02

AMERICAN LEAGUE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0040-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-01382/6208448-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0040-01

INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE

<div class="byline">By Pat Calabria</div>Stunning. Bizarre. Incredible.That described either the goal scored by Islander Bill Smith-the first by a goaltender in NHL history&mdash;or the fact that it came in a game in which the Islanders were crushed by the Colorado Rockies 7-4.Smith has been a member of the club&rsquo;s defense since its very first game in 1972, but he joined the offense on the night of Nov. 28 in Denver on an extraordinary play which helped only to highlight the team&rsquo;s topsy-turvy season.First of all, Smith did not even start the game. He replaced Glenn Resch in the second period. Second, the goal was scored into an empty net during a delayed penalty to the Islanders-the first of three empty-net goals in the third period, the other two being scored by the Colorado Rockies,&ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;ll ask for a bonus clause in my contract for goalscoring,&rdquo; Smith joked.Not in the previous 62 years of the NHL had a goalie scored, although many have tried. Smith was not trying.He was only hoping to survive a game that swirled around the Islanders.The play began, in fact when Smith made a save off his chest and the puck bounced past teammate Dave Lewis and into the right corner behind the net.It was there that Colorado&rsquo;s Rob Ramage backhanded a pass toward the point, where he expected his team&rsquo;s sixth skater to be after goalie Bill McKenzie raced off the ice on the delayed penalty.Had an Islander touched the puck-intercepted Ramage&rsquo;s pass for example-the sequence could have been whistled dead.But no one touched the puck. It skidded back towards the blueline and then down the ice and carried 195 feet into an open net.It not only gave Smith a historic first goal, but perhaps gave him the longest goal in NHL history as well.Originally, the goal was credited to Lewis, because he was the Islander closest to Ramage.After the game, however, Smith was credited with the goal because it was ruled he was the last Islander to have possession of it when he made the save that started the bizarre play.And because the matter was not decided until after the game, Smith never got to retrieve the puck for his trophy case.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just as well,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d have to lock it in my basement anyway because my sons would play with it.&rdquo; &#9632;

Looking Back: THN-Nov. 28,1979

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0044-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01252/6208503-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Yvan Cournoyer won 10 Stanley Cups in 16 seasons in Montreal.</figcaption></div>He has never wheeled around on roller blades, but The Roadrunner is poised to become the rollrunner.Former Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; captain Yvan Cournoyer is the coach-general manager of one of the newest entries in the Roller Hockey International league.Montreal was awarded a franchise Sept. 28 by league commissioner Dennis Murphy.Cournoyer, 49, is confident roller hockey will be a big hit with Montreal fans and will give talented players whose NHL dreams have stalled an opportunity to salvage their careers.&ldquo;Just look at a guy like Jose Charbonneau,&rdquo; Cournoyer said. &ldquo;He played for the Vancouver Voodoo last season and is now playing very well for the Canucks. This league will give players a chance who didn&rsquo;t make an impact at a younger age to develop into better players.&rdquo;Cournoyer hopes to instill the same winning attitude in his players that he learned in 16 seasons with the Canadiens from 1963-64 to 1978-79.The native of Drummondville, Que., is one of many great players to wear a Canadiens&rsquo; jersey. He played for 10 Stanley Cup champions, scored at least 25 goals in 11 straight seasons and amassed 863 points in 968 games.He also had the opportunity to play in perhaps the single most important sporting event in Canadian history-the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviets.Cournoyer was the first person to embrace Paul Henderson after the Toronto left winger slipped the puck past Soviet goalie Vladislav Tretiak in the final game of the series to give Canada the victory.Ironically, he almost missed the entire play.&ldquo;I was heading off the ice, but changed my mind,&rdquo; Cournoyer said. &ldquo;I saw Paul coming and I passed to Phil (Esposito), but missed. Fortunately, Paul got in there and scored.&ldquo;Beating the Russians wasn&rsquo;t just about hockey. It was our system against their system. Everybody expected us to win so it was satisfying when we did.&rdquo;The victory in the Summit Series was the start of what Cournoyer calls his most memorable season. Later that year, he helped lead the Canadiens to a Stanley Cup championship and was named the Conn Smythe winner as playoff MVP. &#9632;

f0044-01

Cournoyer hopes to get on roll in Roller Hockey International

<div class="byline">By Jay Greenberg</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-01209/6208534-1-eng-US/f0045-012.jpg" title="f0045-01" width="378" height="532"></div>Just when you thought it was safe to go to the rink again, they&rsquo;re back.The Philadelphia Flyers, who once plunged the NHL into medieval darkness-and standing-room-only attendance-pretended to have gone straight to their eternal resting place in hell. As it turns out, however, Mark Pederson was just a ruse while the evil geniuses behind the franchise spent four non-playoff seasons working on the ultimate weapon.It cost $15 million to develop, $17.5 million to charge and throws Scott Stevens around like he&rsquo;s Cliff Ronning. As we write, Admiral Phil Esposito is mobilizing the Japanese army to stop this menace, but it is probably already too late.The only thing that has been able to halt Eric Lindros has been injuries. The latest one, a partial tear of a knee ligament, figures to keep Lindros out of the lineup for several weeks, but it won&rsquo;t keep him down.That&rsquo;s good news for Flyers&rsquo; coach Terry Simpson, who maintains you shouldn&rsquo;t believe everything you read about the young star.&ldquo;Eric challenged the system on a couple of occasions and Canadians, being traditionalists, felt maybe he was a spoiled brat,&rdquo; Simpson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure most people who get to know him change their mind. I think he&rsquo;s very intuitive, willing to listen.&ldquo;He plays for the team first, not himself.&rdquo;Most NHL coaching openings are with teams with big enough problems to have gotten the last coach fired. Either that or they are with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Last May, Simpson was standing, Mickey Mouse ears in hand, waiting for a call he was told would be coming from Ducks&rsquo; general manager Jack Ferreira. Suddenly, the gates of coaching Eden swung open.Flyer GM Russ Farwell was on the phone, asking Simpson if he was interested in taking over a team that had the game&rsquo;s No. 1 star-in-waiting, plus a corps of other good young players who had keyed the team to eight consecutive victories to finish the previous season. Uh, sure, said Simpson, but how much a year would I have to pay you?No, no, Farwell said, we&rsquo;ll pay you. Simpson didn&rsquo;t spend too much time asking how much. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t exactly one of the boys being offered $750,000,&rdquo; he said.He figured he might be getting something better: A chance for longterm success. The Flyers still need a couple of defensemen before they can ultimately fulfdl their destiny, but immediately they had to have a coach who ran a tighter ship. Owner Ed Snider badly wanted the top-of-the-line Bligh, Mike Keenan, but when the New York Rangers got him instead, Farwell told the owner he knew of another cat with nine tails.Thus Simpson hit the jackpot. Of course, the Flyers may have, too. Simpson may have been perceived as cold and intractable when he coached the New York Islanders, but there was never a suggestion he was in over his head. His team got within one game of the semifinals in 1987 and won a Patrick Division regular-season title the next season before nature, and a declining level of talent took their course. Simpson was fired the following December.&ldquo;I thought I was in a strong position with the players when I got fired,&rdquo; Simpson said. &ldquo;We had a lot of injuries and there were a lot of guys who were having trouble. Some of them, like Derek King, have turned out to be good players, but they were very young then.&ldquo;Usually when a club goes through a reorganization, it goes through two or three coaches. If Al (Arbour) hadn&rsquo;t been available to take over, they might have been more patient. Bringing him back was an easy move, a very positive transition in the the eyes of the team, fans and media.&rdquo;The Islanders suffered three more losing seasons under Arbour until last year&rsquo;s turnaround, a fair indication coaching was not their problem. This revelation came too late for Simpson, who was already packed up and back in Prince Albert, Sask., when the Rangers offered him their coaching job the following summer. He put his family above his career and reluctantly declined.A year later, Simpson took an assistant&rsquo;s job with the Winnipeg Jets. &ldquo;I had to see if (an NHL chance) was going to come around again,&rdquo; said Simpson, who also owns the Red Deer Rebels of the Western League. &ldquo;If it didn&rsquo;t, I would eventually go back to junior hockey.&rdquo;He and the Flyers have higher ambitions now. Everyone who has ever played on a Simpson team has known where he stood and what the coach won&rsquo;t stand for.When Mark Recchi took a second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in two recent games, Simpson benched the star for the third period. The coach was careful to praise the competitiveness that had roused Recchi, but he nevertheless made his point. &#9632;

f0045-01

Simpson, Flyers both hit jackpot

<div class="byline">By Michael Ulmer</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0045-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0045-02129/6208565-1-eng-US/f0045-022.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Buffalo is a different team with Alexander Mogilny in the lineup. (JIM LEARY/BBS)</figcaption></div>When last we saw Alexander Mogilny, he lay convulsed in pain on the ice of the Memorial Auditorium late in the third game of the Adams Division final.His right leg and ankle had just buckled in a pileup in the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; crease and the instant replay bore graphic evidence of Mogilny&rsquo;s injury.Doctors diagnosed a fractured fibula just below the knee and extensive cartilage damage in the ankle. That night in Buffalo, fans feared the worst.The 24-year-old right winger had two screws inserted into the ankle and his leg was in a cast for 12 weeks. When the Buffalo News carried stories about a lax rehabilitation schedule, Sabres&rsquo; fans could again be excused for bracing for more bad news.The stories of his rehabilitation caused some controversy, but Mogilny calmed any fears when he returned.As usual, Mogilny has delivered the unexpected. After missing the first nine games, he scored 10 minutes into his first game back in Calgary.&ldquo;It felt great to score that goal,&rdquo; Mogilny said. &ldquo;Sometimes you wonder if you&rsquo;ll ever score again.&rdquo;If Pat LaFontaine gives the Sabres&rsquo; grit, then Mogilny gives it gunpowder. Last season&rsquo;s 76-goal season was the fifth-highest total ever recorded in the NHL.&ldquo;You could feel every guy on the team had about 20 pounds lifted off his back,&rdquo; said teammate Gord Donnelly of Mogilny&rsquo;s return.Mogilny scored in each of his first five games and if a repeat of last season&rsquo;s 76 goals seems impossible, consider this: Mogilny, who missed seven games in 1992-93, had eight goals after the Sabres&rsquo; 13th game last season. This year, he had seven after 14.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a surprise,&rdquo; said Sabres&rsquo; coach John Muckier, &ldquo;especially when you consider he&rsquo;s not in top physical condition. Right now, he tires faster and his legs are not as strong.&rdquo;The Sabres won three straight upon Mogilny&rsquo;s arrival and the offense was averaging about one more goal per game. Unfortunately, Mogilny couldn&rsquo;t do much about the team&rsquo;s problems at home. Buffalo hadn&rsquo;t won a game at the Aud through midNovember.Still, the Sabres know how much of a difference Mogilny can make.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the same as Pittsburgh with (Mario) Lemieux,&rdquo; Muckier said. &ldquo;When you know he&rsquo;s going to play, you devote so much energy trying to stop him that you can completely get away from your game plan.&rdquo;The opposition&rsquo;s comfort zone, which soared in Mogilny&rsquo;s absence, dissipated about the time the puck crossed the line in Calgary.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to score a lot of goals,&rdquo; said Boston Bruins&rsquo; goalie Jon Casey. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t worry about him passing, you&rsquo;ve got to key on him. But he has a great shot and he can still put it where he wants to.&rdquo;To charge Mogilny, especially with the dangerous LaFontaine and left winger Craig Simpson lurking nearby, is to court disaster.&ldquo;The other team&rsquo;s defensemen have to back off more and you get the extra space out there,&rdquo; Simpson said.The maturation process continues for Mogilny. He assumed the alternate captain&rsquo;s role for two games last year, when Dale Hawerchuk was injured. Now in his fifth season, Mogilny at 271 games played with the Sabres entering 1993-94 is second in that category to Doug Bodger at 643 games.Mogilny said his leg still hurts a little, but his pocketbook clearly does not. The Sabres signed him to a four-year, $12-million deal about the time he came back.The controversy over Mogilny&rsquo;s return is now long since past, but while the public counts down to 76, Mogilny said winning is all that matters.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care about the individual things,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I know I can play, but as long as I&rsquo;m helping the team, that&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s important.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0045-02

Scoring on rebound

<div class="byline">By Dave Luecking</div>The St. Louis Blues tried to downplay their first meeting of the season against the rival Toronto Maple Leafs.It wasn&rsquo;t too difficult to see through the smoke screen.The Blues are still feeling the pain of last season&rsquo;s 6-0 lambasting in Game 7 of the Norris Norris Division final.Captain Brett Hull passed off the Nov. 11 meeting between the two teams at The Arena in St. Louis as &ldquo;just a game.&rdquo; Center Craig Janney said the Game 7 loss was &ldquo;too long ago.&rdquo; And coach Bob Berry said, &ldquo;last year doesn&rsquo;t concern me at all.&rdquo;It was only after the Blues beat the Leafs 3-2 that they admitted revenge was a significant motivating factor.&ldquo;We all talked about last year not mattering, but in the back of our minds, we wanted a little redemption,&rdquo; winger Basil McRae said.In essence, the game was a continuation of last May&rsquo;s playoff series, a game of playoff-like intensity between two of the NHL&rsquo;s best teams.Toronto entered the game with a 2-0-3 unbeaten streak and a league-best 12-1-3 record. The Blues had a 5-0-1 unbeaten streak and a 102-2 mark. Toronto coach Pat Bums called the match &ldquo;Game 8.&rdquo;&ldquo;Our rivalry with Toronto is starting to be like our games against Chicago. We hate each other,&rdquo; Philippe Bozon said. &ldquo;Last year against Toronto, we were a little too nice. Now, we don&rsquo;t like those guys. That&rsquo;s good. We&rsquo;re going to have some good physical games against them, like Chicago.&rdquo;The Blues won the match behind the gritty leadership of captain Brett Hull and the brilliant goaltending of Curtis Joseph. Hull scored a goal and assisted on two others. Joseph made 39 saves, Murray Baron scored his first goal of the season and Ron Sutter scored the game-winning goal, deflecting Baron&rsquo;s shot from the left point past Felix Potvin at 8:06 of the third period.&ldquo;This is a good indication of how good we really are,&rdquo; Hull said.THE LETTERMAN: Veteran Ron Sutter resumed his old post as an alternate captain for the Toronto game, wearing the &ldquo;A&rdquo; for the first time since his return from off-season abdominal surgery.Sutter had played his first five games without the letter and assumed coach Bob Berry had awarded it to defenseman Jeff Brown on a permanent basis.Not so, said Berry.&ldquo;Ron Sutter was a captain when he left the team and he&rsquo;s one now,&rdquo; Berry said. &ldquo;The captains are Brett (Hull), Ron Sutter and Garth Butcher. Anything that happened in the meantime was interim.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: After a slow start, right winger Brett Hull regained his scoring touch. He had just one goal and eight points in his first seven games, but improved to 10 goals and 24 points after 13 games&hellip;The Blues&rsquo; training staff got a break when all of the injured players recovered at once. Defensemen Phil Housley and Jeff Brown returned for a 3-3 tie against the Pittsburgh Penguins Nov. 9. Housley missed five games with back spasms and Brown missed three with a bruised foot and a broken finger. Winger Kevin Miller returned for the Toronto game, and rookie Kevin Miehm returned for the Blues&rsquo; 6-3 loss in Los Angeles Nov. 13.<h2>ST. LOUIS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 12: Jim Montgomery. C, and Doug Cross-man, D. assigned to Peoria (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Fton Sutter. Craig Janney, Bob Bassen, Kevin Miehm.LW&ndash;Philippe Bozon. Brendan Shanahan, Tony Hrkac, Basil McRae, Vitali Karamnov.RW&ndash;Brett Hull, Kevin Miller, Kelly Chase. Igor Korolev.RD&ndash;Rick Zombo, Garth Butcher. Phil Housley, Tom Tilley.LD&ndash;Murray Baron, Jeff Brown, Bret Hedican.G&ndash;Curtis Joseph. Jim Hrivnak.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Toronto rivalry intensifies

<div class="byline">By Damien Cox</div>It has been a long, hard road for Yanic Perreault.When he was a top-scorer in the Quebec League, no one wanted him.And through two years as one of the most prolific scorers in the American League-he had 98 goals in 166 regular-season and playoff matches-his offensive totals were ignored while his skating and defensive deficiencies were presented as reasons why he&rsquo;d never be an NHL player.The 22-year-old native of Sherbrooke, Que., was Toronto&rsquo;s third-round pick in the 1991 entry draft. He was an early cut by the Maple Leafs in training camp this fall, and was ignored by 25 other teams when he was left unprotected in the October waiver draft.So how did he respond? He scored 12 goals and 25 points in 13 games with St. John&rsquo;s, forcing the Leafs to give him a chance when several regulars went down with injuries.Perreault was recalled Nov. 5 and after three games in which he had several scoring chances, he hit the jackpot. He scored two goals in a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks Nov. 13.&ldquo;Everyone is expecting me to score goals up here the way I did in the American League, so every time I&rsquo;m on the ice I&rsquo;m trying to show I belong in the NHL,&rdquo; he said.After being cut by the Leafs this fall, it seemed certain his future lay elsewhere. But Leafs&rsquo; management has been pleasantly surprised by his play, and suddenly, he&rsquo;s back in the club&rsquo;s plans.UNDER THE GUN: It&rsquo;s time for Drake Berehowsky to prove the Leafs&rsquo; were right in making him the 10th pick of the 1990 entry draft.Almost four years after being drafted, the 21-year-old has played only 50 NHL games and is still looking to establish himself as a regular member of the blueline corps.The closest he has come was a string of games in the second half of last year in which he showed promise.But that ended with a knee injury in the last game of the regular season and he underwent major reconstructive surgery.He started this season in the minors and the reports on his progress were average to poor. Still, the Leafs elected to recall him Nov. 11, and he became one of only six defensemen on the roster when rookie Matt Martin was assigned to the U.S. Olympic team.NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Sylvain Lefebvre signed a contract extension Nov. 9 that will pay him approximately $600,000 per season&hellip;The 3-2 loss to the Blackhawks Nov. 13 was Toronto&rsquo;s first this season at home after seven straight wins. It was only the Leafs&rsquo; second home loss in 22 home starts over the past two seasons.Nikolai Borschevsky was released from hospital Nov. 7 after undergoing surgery four days earlier. He had his spleen removed and is sidelined indefinitely.Damien Cox is a hockey writer for The Toronto Star.<h2>TORONTO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 7: Alexei Kudashov, C, assigned to St. John&rsquo;s (AHL). Nov. 11: Drake Berehowsky, D, recalled from St. John&rsquo;s. Nov. 14: Matt Martin, D, assigned to U.S. Olympic team.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Doug Gilmour. John Cullen, Mike Krushelnyski, Yanic Perreault. Mike Eastwood.LW&ndash;Wendel Clark, Mark Osborne, Ken Baumgartner, Chris Govedaris.RW&ndash;Dave Andreychuk, Glenn Anderson, Kent Manderville Bill Berg.LD&ndash;Dave Ellett, Sylvain Lefebvre, Jamie Macoun.RD&ndash;Drake Berehowsky, Bob Rouse, Dmitri MironovG&ndash;Felix Potvin, Damian Rhodes.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Nikolai Borschevsky. RW. ruptured spleen, indefinite Todd Gill. D. groin strain, indefinite Rob Pearson. RW, sprained right knee, day-to-day. Peter Zezel. C. back disk problems, indefinite. &#9632;

Perreault forcing brass to finally take notice

<div class="byline">By Tim Campbell</div>It&rsquo;s no secret to whom the Winnipeg Jets are turning for stability while they try to get untracked.Goalie Bob Essensa doesn&rsquo;t have to wait to hear about when he will next start. He&rsquo;ll be in the Winnipeg Jets&rsquo; net until further notice. The team&rsquo;s highest-paid player started 15 of the Jets&rsquo; first 18 games. Last season, he was third among NHL goalies in minutes played.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t dislike the work,&rdquo; Essensa said. &ldquo;So long as we&rsquo;re on top of our game and we&rsquo;re not giving up 45 shots a night, I don&rsquo;t mind taking the bulk of the load.&rdquo;After a horrible four-game homestand that ended with Stephane Beauregard&rsquo;s shaky outing in a 7-6 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators Nov. 5, the Jets and Essensa turned their attention to buckling down defensively.In his four subsequent starts, Essensa put up a save percentage of. 939 and lowered his overall goals-against average to 2.97.That Essensa has apparently rounded into form in the first quarter of the season is saving the Jets some embarrassment. Several of its offensive guns had gone dormant at the same time.&ldquo;I think naturally it takes you a few games to get back in the groove,&rdquo; Essensa said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not going to get that in two or three exhibition games.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not saying I was brutal in the early going, but I had some decent games and some poor games. That&rsquo;s to be expected. You&rsquo;re going to have peaks and valleys throughout the whole season.&rdquo;GRIT FACTOR: The Jets have discovered life in the Central Division to be no picnic. Their first seven divisional games produced a record of 1-4-2. The only victory came on a controversial overtime goal in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks.Some question whether the Jets have enough grit.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s debatable,&rdquo; coach John Paddock said after losing a one-goal game to the Dallas Stars Nov. 13. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to say that some guys didn&rsquo;t, but some guys certainly did. At times we didn&rsquo;t go after the puck hard enough deep in their zone or shoot the puck. When you don&rsquo;t win at home, you don&rsquo;t have enough of something.&rdquo;But even in the frustration of the team&rsquo;s fifth straight home loss, forward Nelson Emerson said the Jets were still undergoing an adjustment period.&ldquo;When I came here, we didn&rsquo;t really talk about it, but you&rsquo;re seeing how hard it is to win in the Central Division,&rdquo; Emerson said. &ldquo;Look at the teams in our division-they all play the same way. We have to learn to play that way. That&rsquo;s winning 3-2, 2-1. That&rsquo;s winning when you&rsquo;re outshot 40-20.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot different than the old Smythe Division and I think the fans are starting to realize that.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Defenseman Fredrik Olausson was sent to the press box for five straight games through Nov. 13. After a three-game stretch in which he had 19 shots on goal played well, Olausson had three shots in the next five games prior to the scratches. Some trade rumors surfaced that included Olausson, but the Jets said they weren&rsquo;t pursuing a deal&hellip;Center Alexei Zhamnov scored his first NHL hat trick Nov. 9 in a 5-2 win over the New York Islanders.<h2>WINNIPEG</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>None.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Alexei Zhamnov, Thomas Steen. Nelson Emerson, Stu Barnes, Mike Eagles.LW&ndash;Keith Tkachuk, Darrin Shannon, Luciano Borsato. Kris King.RW&ndash;Teemu Selanne. Paul Ysebaert, Tie Domi. Bryan Erickson.LD&ndash;Teppo Numminen, Sergei Bautin. Igor Ulanov. Arto Blomsten.RD&ndash;Stephane Quintal, Boris Mironov. Dean Kennedy. Fredrik Olausson.G&ndash;Bob Essensa, Stephane Beauregard.<h3>INJURIES</h3>None. &#9632;

Essensa bailing out inconsistent teammates

<div class="byline">By Tim Sassone</div>Jeremy Roenick claims he&rsquo;s dead serious about playing out his option in 1995-96.While it might be easy for Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; officials to shrug off the threat since it&rsquo;s three years down the line, there should be some cause for concern because of the warning signs Roenick is putting out about not being completely happy as a Blackhawk.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m keeping my options open because you never know what can happen,&rdquo; Roenick said. &ldquo;I hope they enjoy the way I play, but in this business you could be their best friend one day and their worst enemy the next. No matter how good you are, you&rsquo;re never secure.&ldquo;Maybe they won&rsquo;t want to pay a big salary and would prefer to bring in two or three kids for the same money. I have to look out for myself. All I know is Chris Chelios is renegotiating and he&rsquo;s having a heck of a time.&rdquo;Chelios is trying to get the Hawks to agree to a contract extension for an average yearly salary of $3 million. Roenick is sure to demand more than that in 1995 when he can seek a new contract entering his option year, perhaps in the neighborhood of $4 to $5 million a season.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s three years away,&rdquo; said coach Darryl Sutter. &ldquo;We could all be free agents by then. Jeremy&rsquo;s thinking too much about it.&rdquo;But money may not be the only reason Roenick would consider leaving Chicago. It&rsquo;s no secret he doesn&rsquo;t delight in playing the Hawks&rsquo; pounding, defensive style and may prefer to be part of a system more wide open.&ldquo;That will be a big factor,&rdquo; Roenick said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m an offensive guy. That&rsquo;s what I get paid for. And when you&rsquo;re in a restricted offense, it&rsquo;s tough to produce.&rdquo;STEADIER EDDIE: After allowing a career-high nine goals in a 9-6 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers Oct. 31, Ed Belfour spent time with Vladislav Tretiak, Chicago&rsquo;s goaltending consultant who visits once a month from Moscow.Belfour responded with five straight wins, allowing just six goals, only one at even strength over 15 periods.&ldquo;I try to take advantage of it because he&rsquo;s probably the best goalie ever to play,&rdquo; Belfour said. &ldquo;I learn something from him every time. This time we worked on movement drills.&rdquo;&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve seen Eddie play any better than he is now,&rdquo; said Steve Smith. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve seen him play as well, but not any better and that certainly builds confidence in all of us to play a strong, aggressive game.&rdquo;NOTEBOOK: Owner Bill Wirtz said he spoke with commissioner Gary Bettman about the Hawks&rsquo; schedule that saw them play nine of 10 games at home before an eight-game road trip. &ldquo;Ours is the worst schedule I have ever seen with all those home games,&rdquo; Wirtz said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s too much hockey for anyone. The fans can&rsquo;t come that often. I&rsquo;ve had a hard time going myself. I&rsquo;ve had a long discussion with Mr. Bettman and told him these schedules are not satisfactory. Computerization is fine, but it has to be fine tuned. We aren&rsquo;t the only club that has a lousy schedule.&rdquo;&hellip;Since returning from a four-game suspension, Chris Chelios had only two penalty minutes in seven games.<h2>CHICAGO</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 12: Keith Carney, D. assigned to Indianapolis (IHL). Nov. 14: Carney recalled from Indianapolis.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Jeremy Roenick, Kevin Todd, Brent Sutter. Jeff Shantz, Troy Murray.LW&ndash;Stephane Matteau. Patrick Poulin, Michel Goulet, Jocelyn Lemieux, Dave Christian.RW&ndash;Joe Murphy, Rich Sutter, Dirk Graham, Darin Kimble. Brian Noonan.LD&ndash;Steve Smith. Eric Weinrich. Frank Kucera, Keith CarneyRD&ndash;Neil Wilkinson, Chris Chelios, Cam Russell.G&ndash;Ed Belfour. Jeff Hackett.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Christian Ruuttu, C, broken right ankle, indefinite. &#9632;

Roenick’s plans for future may be elsewhere

<div class="byline">By Terry Egan</div>Bob Gainey thinks there&rsquo;s only one thing worse than getting beaten by expansion teams: getting physically beaten by a division rival.The Dallas Stars&rsquo; coach-general manager was the recipient of both humbling experiences. His team lost four games to the NHL&rsquo;s five most recent expansion teams. And his Stars were physically bruised in a 4-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks Nov. 14.Gainey is polite, reserved and calm most of the time. But not after the loss in Chicago that evened Dallas&rsquo; record at 8-8-4.He stood outside the dressing room where his team was dressing after being undressed and manhandled by the Blackhawks. Gainey questioned the heart and character of his team that spent a good part of the game being banged, crunched and intimidated.&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to look at the players who weren&rsquo;t able to compete,&rdquo; Gainey said. &ldquo;If they&rsquo;re not able to battle with Brent Sutter, then they won&rsquo;t be able to battle with Doug Gilmour in Toronto or go to Detroit and battle with whoever it is there.&ldquo;It comes down to the guys on the ice. We had our players on the ice who were capable of playing in our zone. They weren&rsquo;t ready to get in it at the level Chicago was.&rdquo;After an impressive 6-3-2 start to the season, the Stars got caught in a 0-4-2 rut that included the four losses to expansion teams. But even during that dryspell against the thinnest lineups in the league, they had not been so physically beaten until the Chicago game.The Stars could do nothing to stop the strong forechecking of Jocelyn Lemieux, Jeff Shantz or Brent Sutter. After falling behind 3-0 in the first period, the Stars looked like they couldn&rsquo;t wait for their shifts to end so they could get off the ice.&ldquo;There is no secret to their style,&rdquo; said right winger Shane Churla. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re not ready for them, they&rsquo;ll chase you out of the rink. You&rsquo;ve got to play their game, put the hard hat and work boots on and may the best man win.&rdquo;Gainey declined to discuss whether a trade was needed to change the complexion of the team. But how long can a roster remain unchanged when the coach-GM questions the makeup of his players?SCORING SLUMP: Shoulder injuries to forwards Dave Gagner and Brent Gilchrist couldn&rsquo;t have come at a worse time for the Stars, who went into a simultaneous scoring slump.The only thing that saved the Stars from total collapse was that Mike Modano was scoring at a torrid pace and moved to the top of the goalcoring race with 16.Trouble was, the Stars went through a period of 172 minutes and 21 seconds when Modano was the only player to score a goal.NOTEBOOK: Russ Courtnall recorded his 300th career assist on the winning goal in a 3-2 decision over the Winnipeg Jets Nov. 13&hellip;Jim Johnson played in his 600th career game in Winnipeg.Mike Modano had a five-game goal scoring streak snapped Nov. 11 against the San Jose Sharks. He did, however, have three assists in that game.<h2>DALLAS</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 11: Chris Tancill. LW, assigned to Kalamazoo (IHL).<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Mike Modano, Neal Broten, Dean Evason.RW&ndash;Russ Courtnall, Shane Churla, Paul Broten, Dave Barr.LW&ndash;Ulf Dahlen, Mike McPhee, Mike Craig, Brent Gilchrist, James Black.LD&ndash;Derian Hatcher. Mark Tinordi. Craig Ludwig, Brad Berry.RD&ndash;Jim Johnson, Grant Ledyard, Paul Cavallini, Tommy Sjodin.G&ndash;Andy Moog. Darcy Wakaluk.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Dave Gagner, C. separated shoulder, indefinite. Trent Klatt. RW, sprained knee, day-to-day. &#9632;

Gainey feeling humbled after fleecing in Chicago

<div class="byline">By Keith Gave</div>One thing the Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; players had to be thankful about early in the season was Red Bird One, the team&rsquo;s private jet.Having the aircraft at their service meant the players would be able to spend some time in Detroit during the U.S. Thanksgiving. The holiday came in the middle of the franchise&rsquo;s most difficult road trip in recent memory-one that covered 8,158 miles and six cities in 12 days. Worse, they headed out on the trip in last place in the Central Division, two games below. 500.&ldquo;When we were putting this schedule together last summer, I worried about this trip a lot,&rdquo; said assistant general manager Doug MacLean. &ldquo;But I figured we&rsquo;d be so far in front of everybody we wouldn&rsquo;t have to worry about it.&rdquo;Instead, the Wings tried to reverse their fortunes on enemy rinks and got off to a good start with a 7-3 win at Pittsburgh Nov. 13.The Wings returned home after that game and would be able to come back once more during the long trip.&ldquo;Without our plane, it would be murder,&rdquo; said right winger Dino Ciccarelli. &ldquo;It helps so much it&rsquo;s unbelievable.&rdquo;NOT SO SPECIAL: The Wings lost three out of four points in recent games they were ahead by two-goal margins. Special teams let them down in both cases, particularly penalty killing, which gave up five goals on seven chances in a 3-3 tie with the Toronto Maple Leafs Nov. 4 and a 4-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers Nov. 9.Shawn Burr, the team&rsquo;s most experienced penalty-killing forward who has seen his shorthanded time reduced, said the Wings simply must work harder.&ldquo;All penalty killing is, is four guys outworking five guys and making them pass the puck to where you want it to go,&rdquo; Burr said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s winning the battles around the boards. It&rsquo;s all the little things in the game magnified 10-fold.&rdquo;Detroit had killed off 78.3 per cent of its penalties, which ranked 20th in the league.NOTEBOOK: Captain Steve Yzerman was cleared by doctors to begin light workouts Nov. 10, three weeks to the day after he sustained a herniated disc in his neck. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s definite improvement,&rdquo; said athletic therapist John Wharton. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s pretty much pain free. The challenging part now is keeping him occupied while he&rsquo;s feeling good and not letting him do too much. He&rsquo;s a unique athlete. He doesn&rsquo;t know the word stop.&rdquo;&hellip;Goalie Tim Cheveldae, who sprained his right knee on opening night, survived a tune-up with the Adirondack Red Wings of the American League, making 31 saves in a 4-4 tie with the Providence Bruins. Rookie Chris Osgood made 36 saves in a 7-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins the same night. The win lifted Osgood&rsquo;s record to 4-2-1.Dallas Drake had two assists against the Penguins, giving him 10 points in a six-game span. He was playing mostly on the top line with Sergei Fedorov and Dino Ciccarelli.<h2>DETROIT</h2><h3>TRANSACTIONS</h3>Nov. 5: Slava Kozlov. C, Martin Lapointe. RW, Vince Riendeau, G, assigned to Adirondack (AHL). Nov. 8: Kozlov and Riendeau recalled from Adirondack. Nov. 12: Tim Cheveldae. G, assigned to Adirondack for conditioning purposes. Nov. 14: Cheveldae recalled from Adirondack.<h3>ROSTER</h3>C&ndash;Sergei Fedorov, Mike Sillinger. Greg Johnson.LW&ndash;Dallas Drake. Keith Primeau, Shawn Burr, Micah Aivazoff.RW&ndash;Dino Ciccarelli, Slava Kozlov, Sheldon Kennedy, Bob Probert.LD&ndash;Nicklas Lidstrom, Paul Coffey. Terry Carkner, Steve Konroyd.RD&ndash;Sleve Chiasson, Steve Konroyd. Mark Howe. Bob Halkidis.G&ndash;Tim Cheveldae. Chris Osgood.<h3>INJURIES</h3>Darren McCarty, RW, bruised left foot, day-to-day. Ray Sheppard, RW, pulled hamstring, day-to-day. Steve Yzerman, C, herniated disc in neck, Dec. 5. &#9632;

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November 26, 1993

Knoxville’s Rheaume gains respect with first victory

CALL TO ARMS

Tomorrow’s leaders

Huskies just aren’t worthy of top billing, Mancini says